Facebook Mania

Actually I was reluctant to join Facebook in the beginning... but after getting so many invites, there I was.. in Facebook. These social networking websites have lured the crowd from one site to the other.

Rough chronology of social networking websites I joined (might have missed out some in between):
1. Six degrees (allows you to see how you are connected to people until six degrees)
2. E-circle with group forums? (Forgot!)
3. Hi5
4. Multiply
5. Friendster
6. Facebook
7. Twitter (micro-blogging)

Check out this top 10 social network sites review for 2010.

Anyway, why Facebook is such a hit?

I suspect it's the apps with all the different kind of mindless yet addictive games. There's also the ability to find old schoolmates and friends. And not forgetting, able to be nosey to read and see pictures of your friends!!

Take a look how South Park has made fun of Facebook. In fact, this morning, the deejay on the radio was exclaiming in horror if Farmville (an application in Facebook) becomes a movie! lol

Pppttoooooiiii!! Spitting day.

It's such a spitting day.

I was driving to work this cooling quiet morning when I followed behind a motorcyclist. I was thinking of how a nice weather it is and if the traffic later would ruin the beauty of the morning when..

Ppppttttoooiiii!!

The motorcyclist casually turn his head and spit to his right... right onto my car. He didn't even turn behind... or showed he was sorry..

Arrrgghhhh!!! EEeeewwwww!! I need to decontaminate my car!! Argghhh!!

Then after the toll, I was stuck at a traffic congestion because of a bottle-neck - no thanks to the road planners in this country.

A lorry was on the right of my car.. The passenger's window was down. Pttoooii!! He happily spit out (no.. luckily not at my car). Then he happily dropped a presumed-used lighter out of the same window.

Arghhh.. litter bug!! 

You're not an art like this!

What a spitting day! The world is just a large spittoon and garbage can to everyone. No wonder Mother Nature is retaliating now...

To use or NOT to use?

I'm tickled with this statement from my friend: You have it - so use it!

And why am I tickled? It's because the "it" he is referring to is the woman's womb!

They were having a conversation about a friend who finished her professional exam and had nothing to do. So she decided to have a baby. Hence, my dear friend suggested to the rest of us to use our womb just because we have it.

Does it mean we have something, we need to use it? Take for instant the so-called-useless appendix when inflamed will give you pain and the need of a surgery to remove it. It's not necessary every body part have to be used. In fact, it's known fact that we don't use our brain entirely.. haahah...

Hence, you have a womb - do you choose to use it just because it's there? Or it's just time to create another life here on earth?

My conclusion - my dear friend, I challenge you, why don't you go use all the wombs out there instead? Blehhh.....  end up you'll have too many of these little mini-of-you. The horror! lol.

Tax on Credit Card

Oh my... my credit card is renewed this month and the RM50 tax "happily" appeared on my statement. *frowns*

Why oh why? Tell me, do you pay the RM50 or use up the meager points you have collected from using credit card (never reaches enough to get a nice gift and expires so fast)?

(RM1 = 1 point)

Most banks are offering 10,000 points for RM50 cash voucher/ rebate from the tax. It means, you need to spend RM10,000 a year to obtain the points you need to get a meager RM50 voucher. Sigh...

For a middle-income employee like me who tries not to live on credit, getting such points is a boon itself. Now I have to used it up to pay tax.

Hence, point rewards programme like Bonuslink, Realrewards, World Card and many others, are taking the opportunity to track out the public's expenditure and also encourage more spending to obtain more points in hopes of redeeming an item you want. So far, my expenditure is not enough to redeem anything nice. No goodies either through here.

What to do? The old fashion way of earning a dollar and spending a dollar. :(

And of course, maximise any savings or points you can get!!

Freebie: Crazy juices working

Just decided to take a look at Nuffnang website and saw a creative comment competition to win premier tickets. I couldn't attend the last one I got.. so sad... so decided to let my crazy juices work again.

Nuffnang Premiere Screening – Killers

Courtesy of Nusantara Films, Nuffnangers will be among the first people to watch Killers on the big screen before it is released in Malaysia! Details of the screening is as below;

Date : June 3 (Thursday)
Time : 9.00PM
Venue : GSC One Utama

To win yourself invitations to watch Killers on June 3, just leave a comment on this blog post telling us what is the secret you’re afraid your other half is hiding from you. 80 most creative comments will win a pair of invitations to the Premiere Screening of Killers.

Invites will be sent out by 28 May and will require confirmation of attendance by invited bloggers. Should an invited blogger not confirm their attendance, the invite will be passed to other bloggers in line.

My entry:

What is the secret you’re afraid your other half is hiding from you?

That he is secretly fattening me up with his delicious cooking to feed me to the Cannibal Tribe, which he joined in his last self-discovery trip in Papua New Guinea. :p

(inspired by Hansel and Gretel)

Hope I'll win and it's not true!!! My other half doesn't cook at all.  Lol

Food Review: Loh Mai Pau

Have any of you tried eating loh mai fan (savoury glutinous rice) wrapped with bun? This is the first time I've seen such a dish and I'm in love!

Why?
First - unlike the normal loh mai fan, this one is not so oily. I assumed that the oil might have been absorbed by the bun. But no, the bun it's not oily like the normal meat bun (bak pau). It feels soft and moist like it's just wrapped under the loh mai fan.

Typical Loh Mai Fun

 Second, there's an extra ingredients: salted duck egg yolk which reminds me of our rice dumplings (zong zi). Yummmy!!

Bak chang / zong zi

Where is it sold? Well, my bf's dad actually packed it for us and we had it while it's still steaming hot. It's from Hong Kee. Ironically, I've dined in Hong Kee, Damansara before and I have not seen this dish (or can't seem to google it). The dim sum in Hong Kee was so-so (I still haven't review it for months... Will do it soon) but this dish is yummilicious! :)

Try it! I give it a thumbs up for a non-oily loh mai pau! (I forgot to ask what is the real name of the dish)

Movie Review: Ip Man 2 (spoiler alert)

I managed to watch the preview last night. Thanks again to Mix.fm! :)

Ip Man2 is the sequel to Ip Man (pronounced as "yip" "mun" and not "I.P. man") No, it's not internet protocol man. Lol. Anyway, this will be more of a brief teaser than the overall review. ;)

Ip Man is based on a grandmaster of the martial art Wing Chun, Yip Man, and the first person to teach Wing Chun openly. He is famous as being the master to Bruce Lee.

Continuing from the first movie, Ip Man (played by Donnie Yen) was brought out of China into Hong Kong after he was shot by the Japanese. In Hong Kong, the movie shows how he had to start again, being poor and avoiding the landlord lady when they don't have enough rent to pay. I wonder where they get the money. Does his pregnant wife work?

Anyway, he tries to open a martial arts centre on a roof top. In the movie, he is seen waiting till 9 days before anyone comes up to enquire. Before that, a lady happily dries her laundry in the vast space he has not used yet. The potential student comes and challenges him. He proudly announced to Ip Man that if he beats him, he will become his student. Later on, you should guess the outcome and he brings more friends with him to fight and eventually become students.

The early half of the movie also focuses on the proud, naivity of his one particular student who brought problem to his master, Ip Man and the centre. He fought to prove that Wing Chun martial arts is better than others and got bullied by the bigger centre who was in charge of the area. Lesson to learn for this student was shown in a friendly chat with Ip Man in his house. Ip man says something like this: You are only learning the techniques of Chinese Martial Arts. But that is not what Chinese Martial Arts is about - you should learn the Chinese spirit. (Sorry if I translated or rephrase it wrongly - but off-hand, I remember it as this)

 Ip Man goes to save his student

A little comedy was introduced in the part where Ip Man is asked to fight other existing martial arts master on the round chinese dining table.  They showed the older other martial arts masters' reluctance to fight him and get injured after one of them loses to Ip Man. I wonder if the different style of martial arts portrayed here are based on real kinds? Anyway, the highlight of this scene is when Sammo Hung "jumps" up to fight with Ip Man. The character of Hung emits a loud strong presence.

The table fight

Sidetrack, I find Sammo Hung's career matures as he grows older. Remember his earlier movies where he acts young and silly while being bullied? Now he can be a "strong master" with a dominant presence on screen. Kudos to you for maturing in your acting career!

The introduction of Sammo Hung as the master martial arts in Hong Kong is shown as a big "tai kor" who has to bow down to the greedy British "kwai loh" policeman to ensure protection and continued work for his students and followers. At first, he is portrayed as a man who reluctantly bows down to the western occupation in Hong Kong (specifically one individual). But the main event of the show is the boxing match between the east and the west which becomes the climax of the movie.

Hung fought to the very end with the British boxer, Twister in honour of the Chinese martial arts. Twister is shown as this buffed-up, muscular boxer who is way larger than the chinese men with very high stamina and seemed like an unbeatable giant. Twister and his other British counterparts are shown to look down upon the Chinese.

Ip Man preparing for the showdown. 
(What a nice scene and picture of this!! Look at the lighting and shadow casted)

The final showdown is between Ip Man and Twister when Twister threw out the challenge rather rudely and proudly proclaimed by the time he is through, there will no longer be any Chinese martial arts. Watch the movie to see how it ends. I find that the end of this scene seems timely to be the end of the movie.

 The final showdown

The part of Bruce Lee was hardly a minute at the end of the movie which showed a 10-year old boy visiting Ip Man and proudly proclaiming he will be the next master because he is "Li Xiao Long".  Obviously, he brushed his nose with his thumb - the Bruce Lee trademark! Teaser for the next up-coming movie!

Fighting scenes will enraptured you throughout the movie and little intimate or light comedy will make you smile. Go for it if you're a big fan of martial arts. Or perhaps like me, who grew up watching movies like Wong Fei Hong (Jet Li).  :)

P.S. Other reviews to check out in case I don't give you the right perspective.

Natural Phenomenon: Crown Shyness in FRIM

 View upwards to the crown of the trees... the foliage.

When I first saw this picture, I was in awe. It looked so beautiful. Then my colleague told me that the tree would not grow and overlap each other. It will stop-short and you can see the openings like cracks on the ground. This only happens with the same kind of species i.e. lodgepole pine trees. It is called "Crown shyness".

What is crown shyness?
Crown shyness is the empty space between crowns in fully stocked stands that is not related to tree-fall gaps. The tree crowns have a tendency to "shy away" from each other, leaving gaps of a few inches to a few feet. These gaps are an important feature of some canopy's structure - particularly in monospecific and even-height stands. They act as a source of sunflecks for understory species, as a barrier to animal movement, and as a vent for heat and gas exchange between canopy and atmosphere. (description googled from here)

In fact, we can see the same phenomenon right here in Malaysia in our very own FRIM (Forest Research Institute of Malaysia) in Kepong, Selangor.

Image from FRIM website

Exerpt from their website:
Of particular interest is the "puzzle-like" pattern of the individual tree crowns separated by gaps and outlined against the sky. This phenomenon is called "Crown Shyness". The reason for its name is because the leaf tips of the Dryobalanops aromatica appear to be shy towards their own kind, hence forming the gap. This tree is also known as kapur tree and has a nice-smelling exudate known as camphor, one of the main component of making ointment. The ointment is used for stomach massages after child delivery.

Why was my colleague interested in this? Well, she was researching patterns for the facade of the building she is designing. If the client can afford/ willing to spend the money on this pattern, I can't wait to see it!

In the meantime, perhaps I shall take the time to go to FRIM again to catch a glimpse of this with my very own eyes! (And hope I can finally experience the canopy walk which I missed the last time) Why must you try it? It's 30m above sea level and imagine the greenery you will see. It's the natural version of walking along the skybridge in KLCC Petronas Twin Towers!

Forest Research Institute Malaysia
Kepong,
52109 Selangor Darul Ehsan,
Tel : +603 6279 7000

Operating Hours and Fees

The operating hours of the park is from 8:00am to 6:00pm daily.
However, take note that the canopy walkway operating hours is from 9:30am to 2:30pm.
(If not you will be like me who went after 2.30pm hoping to experience the canopy walk!! Sob.. after that long ride, what a pity)

If you are driving, the entrance fee to the park is RM5/car else the fee charged is RM1/person.

Kelly Clarkson's Concert in KL - fans!

Lol... can you spot me in this? Hot Magazine went around taking pictures of "fans"! Will blog about my experience the next time!

My first Concert: Kelly Clarkson

I have to admit. I was very reluctant to go to this concert: Kelly Clarkson - All I Ever Wanted Tour. It's not that I don't like her. Afterall, she is the first winner for the first season of American Idol. I'm okay with her songs.

Why then?

First, I'm kind of lazy... ahhaahah Hence, I've never even been to any before.

Second, Puduraya Bus terminal is currently under going renovations and is temporarily relocated to Bukit Jalil - where the venue of the concert is.

Third, stinginess. Lol

Hence, after my friend who loves live-concert, asked me again for the umpteenth time, I said, "Oh well, why not? I shall try it for once!" How she persuaded me?

First - She said she'll drive so I don't have to worry about traffic.

Second - Look at the reason above.

Third - I looked for tickets sold in lowyat.net at a discount! ;)

Now, the skies are dark and the thunder is threatening to rain. It's in National Stadium (outdoor) in Bukit Jalil! I wonder how it'll turn out tonight.

Pray that I'll have a memorable experience and see if my friend can convert me to a live-concert fan or the lazy type who prefers to sit comfortly in front of the telly.. ;)