Monday, November 19, 2007

Putting up the tree

Getting a head start on the Christmas decorations this year. 

Putting up the Christmas tree has always been something I look forward to every year. This year however, is the first time I'm putting up the Christmas tree together with my wife. We decided to keep things simple, and I think it looks pretty good.

Now that the tree is up, what's left is to fill up the empty space under the tree!


Sunday, November 18, 2007

Let it Snjor

Christmas is just around the corner, and what better way to bring some festive cheer to your desktop than having it snow!

Snjor, that's Icelandic for snow, lets you do just that. Once it's running, little white blobs will slowly, almost hynotically, fall across your desktop. You set the snow to lazily drift about on your screen or wreck havoc by bringing down a blizzard.


Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Leopard's Stacks - here's how to make it better

One of Leopard’s new features is Stacks. Stacks let you place any folder into the Dock and clicking on it will spring the contents of the folder in a Grid or a Fan. It’s quite visually pleasing, but it’s gotten some flack because you can’t assign an icon to a Stack. Instead, the icon would be of the latest file in the folder. And that makes it rather difficult to distinguish between different Stacks.


So... how do I tell which Stack is my Downloads folder?

Thanks to Optica Optima, my Stacks now look like this.



Visually distinct Stacks, and the translucency is very attractive.


Here's how we do it. Before we proceed, we should define the Sort behaviour of the Stacks. So right click (or command click) on the Stack, and sort by date modified.



Get the icons from this link. The page is in Japanese, but you shouldn’t have any problem finding the link to download the icons.

Choose the icon we want, and place it into the Downloads directory. In the example below I’ve renamed the icon to download_icon. Since we want the latest item to be displayed first in a Stack, we’re going to use the Unix touch command to set the modification date to somewhere in the future. So fire up Terminal, and enter the following commands.

cd Downloads

touch –mt 202001010101.01 download_icon

This will change the modified date of the download_icon to the year 2020, January 1st, 1:01:01 am.

You can do this for other Stacks in the same manner.

I found out about this from Daring Fireball.

Update:

There's a second set of icons for Stacks. And this time, the icon's modified dates have already been set to the year 2010. So all you need to do is to sort the Stacks by modified date, and forget about the Terminal.

All the icons can be downloaded from optima-optica.

Friday, November 02, 2007

WriteRoom for distraction free writing

The month of NaNoWriMo is upon us, and budding writers around the world are prepping themselves to complete a novel within a month. The pace is fast, the enthusiasm is furious, and the writer has to be ready not to drift from the goal.

To do all that, all forms of distractions must be eliminated, and that's where WriteRoom shines. WriteRoom's tag is "Distraction free writing" and that's what you get. At first launch WriteRoom goes into fullscreen mode and all you get is a blinking green cursor and a black, empty background. No desktop, no browser, no email clients in sight. Just you and your text. It can't get any simpler than that.

WriteRoom in fullscreen mode.

WriteRoom in window mode.

There is a free version of WriteRoom and that was the version that I used all the while. I thought it served my needs - that's until I tried the shareware version. In my opinion, a great application is an application that caters to needs that I didn't even know I needed. The shareware version provides many more customisation and tweaks that really helps to improve the transition of your thoughts onto the screen.

Just take a look at the customisations you can make to WriteRoom. I really like the "typewriter scrolling" option so your focus is always on the middle of the screen while the rest of the text scrolls upwards. You could also change the text and background colours but I like the retro green text on black background theme. It brings be back to the days when I first set my eyes on my first PC.


You can also use WriteRoom from other applications. There's an "Edit in WriteRoom" which is an Input Manager plugin. I'm not sure if this still works in Leopard since I've read Leopard doesn't support Input Managers any more. But if you're on Tiger, installing this Input Manager will add an "Edit in WriteRoom" menu item into the Edit menu of other applications. So if you're blogging in Safari, you can click the "Edit in WriteRoom" menu item, the text in the current web form will be transfered into WriteRoom for "distraction free writing". And when you're done, just save and close WriteRoom and the text you edited will be copied back to Safari. Pretty neat! Since this feature is not officially supported in Leopard, I can still use the Services menu. WriteRoom lets me copy text and use the Services menu to send the text to WriteRoom for editing. And when I'm done, it's just a copy and paste action. Quick and easy.

I did notice one inconsistency. Whenever I change the font in the Preference, the existing text in the document does not reflect the new font. I had to restart WriteRoom before the new font is properly displayed. Other than that, WriteRoom works great for me.


I've written this review in hopes of getting a free WriteRoom license. Hopefully I'll get it, but even if I don't get it, I had a great time reviewing the application.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Serenity shows her spots

Installed Leopard into my 1.33 GHz iBook, Serenity. Against my better judgement I chose the Erase & Install option, and it's a lot of work getting everything back to the way I like them. 

So far no show stoppers... 


Monday, October 15, 2007

Temeraire


Temeraire, a historical fantasy set in the Napoleonic period, by Naomi Novik - my current favourite book. What is it about? Think of Lassie, toss in Russell Crowe from Master and Commander, and blend together the historical fantasy of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, and you get a rough idea of what Temeraire is about.

Temeraire is a story of Captain William Laurence, an up and coming Naval officer engaged with a beautiful fiancee, rising up society's ranks and highly praised officer in His Majesty's Navy. And how he gave everything up to be an aviator, an outcast of society, all for the friendship of a fighting dragon he named Temeraire, after the ship HMS Temeraire.

It doesn't take long before the story of the friendship between Captain Laurence and Temeraire seized my attention. Stories of dragons and people fighting together is not new, but Naomi Novik takes this premise and puts a new spin to it. Dragons and and their captains in her novel have such a bond that either would give their life for the other. And the story is set in the Napoleonic period, although I know nothing about the war, the sense of urgency and loyalty to King and country comes clearly through the prose. The story is quite easy to follow, so don't worry too much about not knowing anything about English history.

I was also pleasantly surprised by how dragons were used in the war. I assumed the dragon would have a rider and that was that. It was typical in most of the books I've read. But in Temeraire's world, dragons were like living flying ships. There would be the captain, his first officer, handlers, and crew. The crew would do their combat maneuvers on the dragon while in flight, secured to the dragon's harness by carabiners and leather straps. Delightfully unique!

Temeraire is the first in a series of books. The US edition has a change in title, Temeraire: His Majesty's Dragon. I rather prefer the simple title of Temeraire in the UK edition. I got my UK edition from Borders for a pricey RM40, but SP found books 2 and 3 of the Temeraire series from BookXcess in Amcorp Mall for only RM20 each! And the books SP bought for me were the larger versions, so I'd expect they would cost more than RM40 in normal bookstores.

Temeraire is a fun read. Pick it up if you find it. I'm already starting on the second book - Temeraire: Throne of Jade.

And something I recently discovered. Peter Jackson has gotten the rights to the Temeraire series, so a movie may be in the works. I can't wait.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Manly men wear kilts

I was listening to Buzz Out Loud at work when I heard something that caught my attention - Utilikilt. What's that? A kilt? For geeks? A quick Google search and I found Utilikilt's website.

Give the site a visit and get a mighty dose of testosterone. I can't blame the site for pumping up the macho macho manliness of wearing the Utilikilt because lets face it, not many of us would wear a kilt in public. Especially in Malaysia. We'd probably be stopped by the police for public indecency.

Still, I am intrigued.

At the back of my mind, the Utilikilt seemed familiar and no wonder! I've seen Patrick Norton from the old TechTV Screensavers wearing such a kilt. Much digging later my suspicion was justified. Here's a picture of the Screensavers team wearing kilts, taken from Dvorak Uncensored. image taken without permission... much apologies.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Montblanc? No, Tesco!

I remember like it was yesterday. My dad brought me to our local supermarket to get my first fountain pen - a red Sheaffer. It must have cost quite a bit, but I was too young then, and today, I've no idea where's the fountain pen my dad bought for me. Too bad.

But my dad's actions so many years ago led to my fascination of fountain pens of late. After lying dormant for years, a spark of interest was struck on that fateful day in Amcorp Mall, 2 years ago. SP and I were browsing the stalls at the weekend flea market, and we were about to leave when something caught my eye. It was a tray of fountain pens, and a silver Montblanc stood out among the rest. Sure it must be a fake, but for RM10 I couldn't resist.

The Montblanc served me well these past 2 years, but I had trouble with the ink flow. It flowed too freely, forcing me to write much faster and larger than I like. But it was smooth and didn't give me any leaks.

But what's that got to do with the title?

A colleague of mine discovered that Tesco sells fountain pens, and they cost RM2.90. And each pack comes with 4 blue ink cartridges. What an amazing value! So today I rushed to Tesco and got one for myself. And I'm pretty happy with it.


The pen is made of smoked translucent plastic, with a rubber grip. I'd compare the quality of the plastic to be similar to what you'd get from a normal ballpoint pen. There's not much weight to it, but it's comfortable enough to write with.


The pack comes with 4 blue ink cartridges, but I'm thinking of swapping it with a piston filler. I think it will fit. The bundled ink is blue with a hint of purple - it's a nice "perky" blue.


The pen has an iridium tipped stainless steel nib. It's a little scratchy, but I think that will improve in time, when the ink reservoir is completely filled. Currently, the ink flow is less compared to my Montblanc, and that makes this pen suitable for my Moleskine. The ink doesn't spread onto the next page, and I can write at my own pace and write in my usual handwriting size.


Maybe fountain pens should make a comeback. Now that everyone is conscious about the environment, fountain pens make a good alternative to disposable pens. A bottle of ink should last much longer, and probably cheaper, compared to ballpoint pens.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

iTunes throttled by Streamyx - The fix

I’m hooked on podcasts. They are like radio stations that I could download into my iBook and listen to them whenever I had time. Since there are so many podcasts to sort through and download, iTunes is a great tool to consolidate all my favourites.

All was fine and dandy until the day TM decided to start throttling P2P activities using methods only known to them. Somehow, through some freak of administrative and executive knee jerk reaction, downloading podcasts using iTunes got throttled as well.

A common sight for me – unable to even load the iTunes Store.

I’ve made numerous calls to TM’s customer support, explaining to them what are podcasts and how I couldn’t download them using iTunes. I’ve received many suggestions and repeated requests for details about my PC and my modem, and I patiently answered all their questions. There was even a time when my report “I cannot download podcasts using iTunes” got scrambled in ways only TM customer support can manage, to “I cannot load iTunes website”. And the technician resolved my issue by trying to load http://www.itunes.com. Of COURSE it will load. After all that, I still didn’t have a solution to my problem.

A guy’s patience has its limits and for almost a year, I had to put aside my favourite podcasts, and left to wander aimlessly on the Internet, occasionally manually downloading individual MP3s of podcasts that I happen to stumble upon. But NO MORE!

Thanks to helpful Mac users from http://www.lowyat.net and http://www.mymug.org, I was shown a way to overcome the throttling. And with this method, it’s clear as day that Streamyx is throttling iTunes based on its user-agent string.

The Fix

First, you’ll need to download PAW (Pro Active Webfilter). It’s a Java application, so you’ll have to make sure you have Java installed on your Mac, or PC. My instructions below are for the Mac.

It comes as a zipped file. Unzip the file and copy the extracted folder into your Applications directory. I renamed the folder to paw. There are 2 important files in that folder:

Just double click on paw-server.jar and that launches the PAW server. This server acts as a proxy server that strips away the user-agent ID of any applications that wants to make a connection to the Internet. But you’ll have to enable this setting. To do that, proceed to the next step.

Now you double click paw-gui.jar to launch the GUI.


Click to headers-request in the Files directory, as shown below. You’ll want to delete the hash “#” on the user-agent you want. What this does is PAW will strip away the user-agent of the software that wants to access the Internet and replace it with the user-agent for Internet Explorer 6.0, in the case below.


Don’t forget to click the green floppy button to apply your edits. Then click Sync to update the PAW server to your latest setting.


Now that the PAW server is running and you’ve configured the server using the PAW GUI, it’s time to make some changes on your Mac.

Launch System Preference, and double click Network. You maintain all your existing settings, but change the Proxies tab, as shown below. The Web Proxy Server you see is actually the PAW server. The DNS 127.0.0.1:8080 is what’s suggested by PAW in their documentation.


Normally I’d only run PAW when I want to update my podcasts. So I create a new Location on my Mac just for PAW.


When I'm done, I go to the PAW GUI, click Stop PAW Server, and click Shutdown PAW Server to free any resources taken up by the PAW Server.

And the result?


Just like old times...

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Hazy Dazy Days

Penang has been shrouded with haze for several days. And the buses and lorries that spew thick black clouds of soot aren't helping any. So I'm thankful that I get to stay indoors for most of the day. But then again, one can't be too careful.


On an encouraging note, a quick check on my weather forecast widget shows thunderstorm for the upcoming week. Here's hoping for rain.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Tuesday - Fried Chicken

Chicken has become so prevalent in our society that it has become generic. I don't think where chicken come from. I just know where to get them. And it's probably without a doubt that KFC, or Kentucky Fried Chicken for you older folks, makes the best tasting fried chicken.

However, going to KFC is not a simple affair. Nor is it cheap. That leads me to the point of this post. Every Tuesday, a van rolls up beside the road at the Sungai Nibong residential area and 2 men gets out and start preparing their chicken. One would do the frying, and the other would tend to the customers. And what customers. People would stand in line, sometimes up to the middle of the road, obstructing traffic and endangering themselves, all for the sake of fried chicken.

I've joined in the experience, and came away reasonably happy. The chicken is not as tasty as KFC's, but they're not too bad. They're not too greasy, pretty crispy on the outside, and juicy on the inside. But perhaps they could do better on the marinade because the chicken tastes like chicken - a little bland.

Don't go away thinking I dislike the chicken. No. For the price, I'm pretty happy with it. And every other Tuesday, I'd be among the crowd, risking my neck, for my piece of the chicken.




Friday, July 20, 2007

Harry Potter - So The Drama

Yes, the next and final installment of the Harry Potter series is about to be unveiled tomorrow. And already, the drama has started.

According to The Star, several bookstores - MPH, Popular, Harris (never heard of them...) and Times - will NOT be selling Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows tomorrow. Wow.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

MPH, Popular, Harris and Times at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur at 4pm announced that they would not sell Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in protest against Carrefour and Tesco selling the book at a hefty discount.

The recommended retail price of RM109.90 is being violated by hypermarkets advertising and selling it at RM69.90, the bookstores said.

Since Amazon is already selling the book at 50% discount, I'm going about to see if I can get a colleague who's over in US to get me a copy, and bring it back for me when he returns.

I've got the earlier 6 books the same way. Although books 1-5 were gotten in a not so ethical manner. It was like this. I ordered the set from Barnes & Nobles online. I was told it would take 2 weeks to deliver. 2 weeks came and passed, and naturally I was concerned. I emailed their customer support person and told them my predicament. To my relief, I was told they'd refund my money and that I could make another order. Guess what happened the next day? I received the package, and I got the refund!

In my defense, I did inform the customer support person that I've received the package and told them to take back my refund. Instead, I got a nice "Thank You" email from them, with hopes that I'd continue to purchase books from them.

There's no rush for me to get the 7th book. I've still got to refresh my memory, so I've started reading the 6th book since a few days ago.



Monday, July 09, 2007

Transformers, fun. Bakerzin, wanting.

Two and a half hours later, I was dusting popcorn crumbs off my shirt, SP was chatting with her colleague, and we were walking out of the cinema, after having watched Transformers. The caramel popcorn at GSC Queensbay is quite the treat. Sugary, crunchy and not a single unpopped corn to be found.

The movie was fun. And like the popcorn, the movie was meant to be enjoyed without being too critical. Big explosions, check. Big guns, check. Cheesy lines, check. Comedic relief, check. Eye candy, check. Good triumph over evil, check.

After the movie, the three of us decided to have dinner at Bakerzin. The place is sadly ostracized by Penangites. I wanted to try the Linguine Vongole that SP had during our first visit to Bakerzin. SP and her friend decided to try Bakerzin's new set menu. 2 side orders, 1 main dish, a dessert, a soup and a drink for $20. We thought it was quite a good deal, until we saw the portions. But wait. Before we go on a tirade about Bakerzin, think about it. You get to try so many flavours for only $20. It's not the best deal, but at least Bakerzin is trying.

I had the Linguine Vongole, so my portion was the largest. As much as I'd like to rave about Bakerzin, I'm afraid they let me down that night. Some of the clams had sand in them and the sauce was a little too plain for me. The Linguine Vongole was only average that night. The chef is not too consistent because the dish was very good on our first visit.

I wanted to order the Iced Chocolate Mint but was surprisingly persuaded NOT to order it. Very strange. So I ended up with the Iced Lychee Mint. It was refreshing, but seemed out of place with my Linguine Vongole.

Although it seemed we didn't enjoy our experience at Bakerzin that night, we did enjoy each other's company. In fact, we stayed and chatted until it was closing time. However the way we were asked to leave was a little crude. The waiter simply handed us the bill and mumbled something about closing time. Bakerzin could have handled it in a much more pleasant manner. Perhaps ask us if we wanted to order anything else since they were going to close the kitchen soon. That would be hint enough for us to know that they're going to close the restaurant.


However I had another opportunity to visit Bakerzin again, and this time I accompanied my sister. She's never tried Bakerzin so I suggested she try the Linguine Vongole. Wary of my last experience at Bakerzin, I asked the waitress to inform the chef about my preference for the sauce and I'm glad to say that I got the quality I had expected from Bakerzin. And my sister enjoyed the dish.

I also managed to order the Iced Chocolate Mint, and I did enjoy it. Chocolatey and minty, with some ice cubes to temper the sweetness of the chocolate.

I'm not sure if we'll ever visit Bakerzin again. Perhaps for their dessert and cakes. I'm just discouraged by the inconsistencies of their dishes.

Monday, July 02, 2007

The wine for our wedding

A few months before our wedding, I chanced upon a Rose wine from Chile - Miguel Torres San Medin Cabernet Sauvignon Rose. We discovered that we enjoyed this particular wine and naturally we decided it would be the wine we'd serve at our wedding dinner reception.

SP made some calls to find out the distributor for the Torres wine, and discovered it was in KL. We left several messages, found ourselves being pushed from one person to another, and finally we found out we could easily get the wine from Penang. No need for transporting boxes from wine from KL, all the way to Penang.

And where in Penang did we get these wines? Sunshine Square. And we even got some discount and a free wine glass for every bottle we bought. It was quite an experience for us, carting the boxes of wine in our shopping trolley.

As soon as we got home, we were so concerned about the proper way to store the wine. The sommelier suggested a dark, cool place would be the best conditions for the wine. And so the wine went into our second room. The place is normally cool, and it's quite dark once the curtains are drawn.




We brought the wine to Lone Pine the day before our wedding so that the people at Lone Pine could keep the wine chilled until they were served. The wine was quite popular at our wedding dinner reception. All the bottles were finished, and everyone had their fill.

So right now we more wine glasses than we need at home, and they're still in their boxes. Maybe they'll come in handy when we have company... and then there's that bottle of Sparkling Rose in the fridge...

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Some Mac Geekery

2 years. That's how long I've been a Mac user. Serenity, my trusty iBook, has been serving me well considering that she's hardly ever been turned off since the first day I pressed the power button.

Only recently I've started getting the urge to indulge the inner geek in me, and here's what I've got to show - my desktop, running GeekTool.

GeekTool is probably mainly used to monitor your system because it allows you to display unix commands output onto your desktop. It also lets you display contents of text files and images. Pretty geeky looking, but it's really useful for me.

Let me guide you through my desktop. On the top right corner, I display the date and time. Previously I displayed the date and time on the menu bar like everyone else, but on a 12-inch notebook, screen area is precious. Removing the date and time from the menu bar and putting them on the desktop freed up more space on my menu bar, making it less cluttered.

Shell Command to display the date:
date "+%a %b %d, %I:%M %p"


Then on the top center portion of the screen displays the currently playing song on iTunes. Normally I have iTunes minimised when I'm listening to music. So it's pretty useful for me to check what song's playing, and to check if I've paused iTunes before I remove my headphone jack in the office. Achieving this on GeekTool is a little more complicated, but if I can do it, so can you.

Save the script below into a directory of your choice, eg ~boysbytes/Documents/GeekTool_iTunes.scpt

Enter this script into Script Editor.
tell application "System Events"
set powerCheck to ((application processes whose (name is equal to "iTunes")) count)
if powerCheck = 0 then
return "iTunes not running"
end if
end tell
tell application "iTunes"
try
set playerstate to (get player state)
end try
if playerstate = paused then
set trackPaused to " (paused)"
else
set trackPaused to ""
end if
if playerstate = stopped then
return "Stopped"
end if
set trackID to the current track
set trackName to the name of trackID
set artistName to the artist of trackID
set albumName to the album of trackID
set totalData to artistName & " - '" & trackName & "' on " & albumName & trackPaused
return totalData
end tell
And in GeekTool, enter this Shell Command:
osascript /Users/boysbytes/Documents/GeekTool_iTunes.scpt
Still with me? Next up is my TO DO list. This is simply a text file todo.txt that I put into my Documents folder. Then I tell GeekTool to poll this file every few minutes.

The Shell Command to display my todo.txt.
cat ~boysbytes/Documents/todo.txt
The same for the list of TV shows that I follow.

And the last part at the bottom of the screen shows the 10 running processes on Serenity. It's not really useful for me, but sometimes I like to see what application is chewing up my CPU cycles.

Shell Command to display top 10 processes, their CPU and memory utilisation.
top -FR -o cpu -n 10 -l 2 | tail -11
Remember! Don't set your polling interval too frequently, or it will tax your system. Give a reasonable frequency. In my case, I update my Date and Time every minute, my todo.txt every 5 minutes, iTunes every 30 seconds, and refresh my top 10 processes every 30 seconds.

I got all the Shell Commands and scripts from Lifehacker and other internet resources that I forget. But do a Google and explore for yourself.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Wedding scrap book

Since we agreed not to have a professionally photographed wedding album, we decided to make a scrapbook of our lives - as individuals, as a couple, as well as of our families and friends.

So a couple of weeks before the Big Day, we brushed aside the cobwebs in our cupboard, blew away the layers of dust off the container that kept all our old photographs. It was quite a trip down memory lane.

We bought a nice wedding album from MPH with pages already pre-cut for us to put our photos. But we felt the layout was too restrictive for our mad, mad imaginations, so SP had a fabulous idea of making decorative backing for each page with nice wrapping papers. Now we could paste our photos any way we want.

Both of us put our thoughts and our version of the memories we had together - the vacation we took to Langkawi, Redang, Bukit Tinggi (now Berjaya Hills), our trips back home to our families, fun times with friends, and our Registration of Marriage.

I don't know if any of our guests actually browsed through the book, but both of us had fun preparing the scrapbook.


Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Wedding biscuit

These has to be the best tasting wedding biscuit I've ever had. SP's mom ordered these for all her relatives who attended our wedding reception in KL.

The wedding biscuits come in pairs, and are presented in a handy box with handles. There were some extras, so we took a few back for ourselves. The skin was thick and just flaky enough that it doesn't crumble in your hands. And the lotus and black bean filling wasn't too sweet.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Our wedding speeches

We decided to prepare a speech for our wedding reception, and what better way to get our creative juices flowing than lounging at Starbucks, sharing a cup of coffee, writing our thoughts into our little Moleskines.

And wouldn't you know it, that on the day of our wedding reception, the speech we gave was totally different from the speech we originally wrote at Starbucks.



Saturday, May 26, 2007

Just Married

We're a married couple for three weeks now. How time flies. We were busy bees during the weeks prior to the wedding day - rushing to the cake shop, dashing to the hotel, making sure the preparations in KL and Penang are ready, ordering flowers, converting the other bedroom into a makeshift wine cellar...

So I think you'd understand why the long silence in the blog. More details to come in the following weeks, months, years, but until then, here's a short slideshow of our Chinese wedding reception at Overseas Restaurant in KL, our wedding at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Penang, and our dinner wedding reception at Lone Pine, Penang.


Friday, April 20, 2007

The world today

I wonder about the world we live in today. Only recently I read newspaper articles about the elderly conning people at ATMs, about children involved in syndicated home robberies, and other news where people are taken advantaged. So what am I to think of the world today?

A couple of days ago, we got home a little later than usual, and while SP was unbolting the door, a stranger met us along the stairway. He claimed he was our upstairs neighbour, and that he lost his wallet, and since his parents weren't around, he asked if we could borrow him some money so he could get his IC replaced the next day.

In an ideal world, we would have given him the money, and rest easy, knowing very well that we helped a fellow man.

Instead, in the world today, we gave him the money and wondered if we were conned?

In our defense, he did look familiar, having seen him around the neighbourhood. And he even offered to show us that he could enter the unit upstairs. He even looked a little teary-eyed, as if he was afraid of what he was going to do since his parents wasn't around.

Perhaps it doesn't matter if we did get conned. Sometimes we just have to put a little trust to others. Otherwise, what kind of world we'd live in?

Friday, April 13, 2007

Bakerzin, Queensbay - an unappreciated gastronomic delight

There's this email about Bakerzin that made its way among my colleagues. The writer spoke of their unsatisfactory experience at Bakerzin, Queensbay. Too few clams, too simple desserts they said. How utterly wrong they were...

We had our first dining experience at Bakerzin, Queensbay, and we're delighted to say - people don't know what they're missing!

The staff was attentive and we were given Spritzer mineral water. Mineral water! Right out of the Spritzer bottle, not some funky tasting water that's laced with lemon. Their menu was quite extensive, and we took about 10 minutes looking through the pretty photos and reading the interesting descriptions of the dishes.

Bakerzin, originally called Baker's Inn, boasts some impressive desserts, and I think if you're going to try Bakerzin, leave room for their desserts. Bearing that in mind, their pasta dishes are reportedly pretty good. So SP had the Linguini Vongole while I had the Ham and Bacon with Penne in Pink Sauce.

The Ham and Bacon with Penne in Pink Sauce was pretty nice, with large chunks of ham and bacon in thick creamy sauce. Although delicious and very very filling, I think SP had the best dish of the night. Her Linguini Vongole was tangy, refreshing and was overflowing with clams. The sauce was permeated with the juices from the clams, flavoured with some white wine and herbs. Simply delightful. It's a little spicy, but that bite really stimulates your appetite. And the clams. I mentioned "overflowing"? SP was provided with a "flower pot" to put the clam shells, and at the end of the meal, it was filled to the brim!

For dessert, we ordered the Profiteroles - homemade vanilla ice cream, sandwiched between 2 layers of puff cakes. Then almond slices were liberally sprinkled all over, with chocolate sauce drizzled over everything. The vanilla ice cream was the real deal. No artificial flavours. We could see the tiny black vanilla seeds in the ice cream. The vanilla ice cream was refreshing without being overly creamy, and that suited well with the creamy chocolate sauce and combined with the crunchy texture of the almond slices, made for a enjoyable dessert.

However, not everything is perfect at Bakerzin. Our Americano coffee was a little disappointing. I had an extra shot of Hazelnut flavour that made the coffee too sweet. SP had the normal variety, but it lacked the espresso "kick".

I'm amazed that Bakerzin has not gained much popularity in Penang. It's pretty good value for money, especially SP's Linguini Vongole. The prices are almost what you'd expect at Dome's, or Chef & Brew. Bakerzin - Good food, good dessert, good service. So unappreciated.

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Gourmet meals with Max


I was introduced to Max Gourmet by SP. It's right opposite Queensbay, and it's getting popular. If you arrive late for lunch, expect to wait for seats.

The food and theme of the place is a little similar to Kim Gary's, ie Hong Kong styled restaurant where everything is quick quick quick.

The food is reasonably priced. So far we've tried their Roasted Duck with Crispy noodles and Curry Hor Fun. Both were yummy.

Give Max a try. And arrive early.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

I dream with subtitles

Do you dream in colour? I do. My dreams even have subtitles. No, the subtitles don't appear all the time. They only appear when I dream in Chinese, and I don't even speak it well. The problem is, I can't recall if the subtitles are in English or Malay. I'll just assume the subtitles in my dream are in English because I'm pretty sure I think in English.

Then there was the time when I had cognitive dreams. That's when I'm aware that I'm dreaming and that I could do anything I wanted without worrying about the outcome. Now that's the kind of dream I'd love to have every night. Too bad I could only remember having cognitive dreams twice in my lifetime. Once I could fly, and another... well, that's personal. After all, that's the great things about cognitive dreams. I could do anything.

Some of my dreams don't even feature myself. I'd be observing people, places, situations, just like watching a movie. Perhaps that could be a sign that I'm watching too much television.

And the most irritating kind of dreams are the kind where I find myself with something I really really want. And at the moment when I'm about to wake up, I realise it's a dream and I try so hard to hold that item in my hands, fervently hoping that I could bring it from my dream world into the real world. I'd wake up with my fists clenched, for a split second hoping that it worked, only to find I woke up empty handed.

I don't dream much nowadays. Either I forget having them, or I never had them. Perhaps it's because I love, am loved, is in love. How could anyone ask for more?

Monday, March 12, 2007

Crocs invade the Island

My parents paid us a visit during the weekend. I promised my mom a pair of Crocs, and so we saw ourselves at Queensbay last Sunday. Queensbay is getting popular judging from the weekend crowd. When we reached the Crocs shop, I was surprise to see a small crowd already there! Parents had their kids try on Crocs, aunties were picking Crocs off the wall and asking for discounts, and the salespersons were busy helping the kids choose their favourite colours. Quite a rowdy crowd too.

The Mickey Mouse Crocs had arrived and its bright red colour with black straps was certainly very attractive. Although there were other colour combinations, I'm glad my mom chose this pair.

I'm tempted to get a red strap to customise my Crocs... but they're pricey at $29 a pair.

Yes, Crocs have invaded the Island. I spotted at least 5 people wearing Crocs that day, although no one had the bright colours that my mom and I had.

Friday, March 09, 2007

Miguel Torres San Medin Cabernet Sauvignon Rose

There was a company farewell event yesterday and we were served champagne for the farewell toast. That led to the decision to pop open the Miguel Torres San Medin Cabernet Sauvignon Rose wine that I'd been keeping in my fridge.

The champagne we had yesterday was very similar to the Misty Moorings Late Harvest wine, without the fizz, of course. It was my first taste of champagne and I had high expectations. I don't know the label, but it was sweet, simple and uncomplicated. Very much like the Misty Moorings.

But I want to tell you about my latest wine purchase. My first foray into Rose Wine was the JP Chenet Cinsault Grenache. Its unique twisted neck bottle aside, it was a very pale pink, very dry, very unsatisfactory.

Unwilling to give up on Rose wines, I thought I'd try a little more upmarket selection, and that brings us to the Miguel Torres San Medin Cabernet Sauvignon Rose.

Rose wines are best when they're young, so this 2006 wine fits the bill.

It uses a screw cap. Very new world, very modern, very rebellious - just like the people who like Rose wines.

The swirl. A quick swirl to let the wine breathe, but not too much, advised my sommelier.

Then the smell. A fresh aroma with a hint of cherry and a touch of strawberry sweetness.

The colour. Wow... clear deep red, almost crimson. It's certainly young based on the colour at the edge that's hardly turned yellow. With colours like this, it's no surprise why people like Rose wines.

The taste. Blew my mind. Right away my tongue registered an explosion of pert, sweet cherry-like, a bit of pear, strawberry, fresh fruity flavours. Almost syrupy. All that for a split second. The finish is short, with a lingering mild sweetness, but the flavour is complex enough that you want to keep sipping just to experience that explosion of flavours again. Not too dry, good balance of white wine crispness and the wholesomeness of red wine.

I got the Miguel Torres San Medin Cabernet Sauvignon Rose wine from Sunshine Square for RM45, and I got a free wine glass with my purchase.


Thursday, March 08, 2007

Serenity's Desktop

There was a post on TUAW about some impressive Quartz Composer Art by a Japanese designer. You could use them as screensavers, but since I don't use screensavers, I wondered if I could have them displayed as my wallpaper. And it turns out I could!

I use a freeware called Quartz Desktop. It appears on the menu bar and is really easy to use. My favourite is the Quartz Composer Art called Rimpa. You can see it running on my desktop from the video below. Quartz Desktop running Rimpa takes an average 40% of Serenity's 1.33 GHz G4 Power PC CPU cycles. Quartz is supposed to offload some of the task to the graphics card, but maybe Serenity's Radeon 9550 graphics card is not quite up to the challenge.

Anyways, I can still do my normal web browsing, watch videos and listen to music. Maybe when I'm doing something more processor intensive, I'll turn of Quartz Desktop. The rest of the time, I'll enjoy being mesmerised by Serenity's desktop.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Hammerbay Panorama



Click for a larger view.


She beckons -
seeking an audience
before Night's lullaby

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Crocs in the family



Crocs have arrived at Queensbay! And I was their first customer. The first pair was for SP, a pink, or Fushia in Crocs-speak, Beach Croc and to make it special, I added a couple of Jibbitz.

The store in Queensbay is wall-to-wall Crocs of every colour. There are many types of Crocs, from the tough and manly Off Road to the cute and dainty Prima. But there's only one Croc in my sights, and that's the odd looking, clog-like Beach.

SP was really happy with her Crocs and a couple of days later, I revisited the Crocs shop at Queensbay and got myself an orange, or Coral in Croc-speak, pair of Beach Crocs.

So if you see a couple walking around wearing brightly coloured Crocs, it could be us.

Monday, February 12, 2007

How I fsck'ed Serenity

Serenity, my trusty Apple iBook, is never turned off. I close the lid and it goes to sleep. When I need to use it, just open the lid and in about 2 seconds, it's ready for me. So every month or so, I'd do some system maintenance on Serenity because prevention is better than cure. I usually use Onyx to automate the task, but the latest version of Onyx does a disk verification at startup. So during this disk verification, it found some errors on my harddisk!

To be extra sure, I ran Disk Utility's Verify Disk and sure enough, errors were detected on my harddisk and to repair, I had to boot Serenity with the Tiger DVD. Since I didn't have my Tiger DVD handy, I did the next best thing. I decided to fsck (file system check) Serenity.

I don't know the technical details behind fsck, but I knew I had to run it to fix the errors. fsck has to be run at the Console at startup. So I rebooted Serenity and pressed Command+S until some Linux-y text appeared on the screen.

There were instructions on the screen on how to run fsck, and since my harddisk is Journaled, I had to "force" fsck, so I entered at the prompt: fsck -fy

I had to keep typing fsck -fy until the message states that the harddisk does not appear to have any errors. Fortunately for me, I only had to do it twice.

Then type exit and press Enter to resume booting into the OS. Everything looked OK until I found out my trackpad wasn't working, my Bluetooth and WiFi was non-existent! Resisting the urge to scream like a wussy, I decided to try restarting Serenity. Luckily the keyboard was still working and managed to reboot Serenity.

A reboot later, and everything was back to normal. Phew...

And folks, that's how I fsck'ed Serenity.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

The fuss over a pen

I remember that moment, so many years ago, when I finally reached the age when I could use a pen in school. All the while in primary school we only used pencils, so when I could use a pen, I felt so grown up. Pencils were for kids. Adults used pens!

We were given a list of things to buy before the school term starts, so my Mom and I went shopping together. On the list was the Reynolds FINE blue pen. This was an all blue pen design, and since it was stated on the list, I had to have that pen. We looked and looked but could only find the Reynolds MEDIUM pen. This pen had a beige body, and I made quite a fuss. I wanted FINE and not MEDIUM. It's stated right here on the paper. FINE, not MEDIUM.

My Mom and I must have reached a compromise because we got me the MEDIUM pen first, and later, weeks later, I had my FINE pen. Turned out, the FINE pen wasn't that fine afterall. I think it was too sharp and wasn't comfortable to write with, so I went back to the MEDIUM pen.

Fast forward to the present, and I still like to browse the pen aisle. So many colours, so many brands, types, varieties and sizes. But so far, I like gel pens the best.

Today I claim an accomplishment! I actually used a pen to the last drop. The very last drop. Usually, my pens would either dry up due to neglect, or had a faulty nib and had to be thrown away, or I'd lose it carelessly. But since I started my journal, I've been using the Pilot G1 Grip 0.5mm - yes, I actually know the brand and model number of my pen - almost daily, and it served me well up to today. Good thing I have a refill handy. These gel pens are expensive, and buying a refill is slightly cheaper than buying a whole new pen.

Friday, February 02, 2007

Starbucks, Borders, WiFi... Wow



Here I am, on my day off, lazing the day away at the Starbucks in Borders. Not many people in Borders, but quite a techie crowd in Starbucks. The free WiFi is really attractive. I wonder if I can get reception at Coffee Bean downstairs.

I don't usually do the "WiFi at coffee shops" thing, so I'm pretty impressed that quite a number of people bring their notebooks to surf. Looking around, I can't help but feel that I have the coolest looking notebook around. Decals and all. Yeah... techie vanity.

One guy brought his whole office - laptop, mouse, french press (!), mobile phone, important looking papers. He's on the phone all the time!

Another guy looks like he's listening to podcasts, is staring at his notebook with headphones on. A girl has her notebook on her lap, a big no no for guys, surfing the internet.

Looks like there are power plugs at strategic places for people to plug in their notebooks. The staff doesn't seem to mind that I pay for a cup of coffee and spend hours hanging around in the store. The logic fails me, but it must work.

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Stepping back, and remembering



Sometimes I need to take a step back, to remind myself about what's important and what's trivial. Sometimes it takes someone to remind me to take that step back. Sometimes it takes a book. A book written a long long time ago by a girl, about her family, and their life in the prairie. Care to take a guess to the title of the book? Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

1999 and I had just started my work life, in a new place, far far from my family and friends. It was also the year I bought my own copy of Little House on the Prairie. Back then, Penang didn't have a proper bookshop, so I had to buy the book from Amazon. I read the book during my secondary school days and enjoyed reading Laura's accounts of her life in the Prairie. They had a simple life, but how they cherished all the little things they had. I enjoyed reading how Pa asked Ma to put her handprint on the bread she baked and about the little cakes filled with white flour, sprinkled with precious white sugar that Laura and her sister got for Christmas.

8 years later, my copy of Little House on the Prairie is now falling apart at the seams. So when I spotted a similar version of the book a few weeks ago, but this time printed on high quality paper, and with coloured illustrations, I couldn't resist getting another copy. A new copy, for a new chapter in my life.

Friday, January 26, 2007

Of Moleskines and alternatives



I'm just giddy with delight now that Borders is in Penang. Not only are the books more interesting, but they have an exciting selection of journals. There are journals from Moleskines, Paperblanks, Paperchase and other brands that I can't recognise.

Now that my Moleskine is almost due for a replacement, I'm undecided as to which journal to get. The only journals that are close to the dimensions and aesthetics of the pocket Moleskine are from Paperblanks. These journals have a faux leather cover, same pouch like the Moleskine, same elastic band, albeit a few pages less than a Moleskine. But best of all, Paperblank journals are cheaper!

We've read about cars from China looking uncomfortably similar to their competitors. So now that the raw materials that make up the Moleskine journals are sourced from China, why aren't there imitation Moleskines? It's hard to justify spending $50 on a Moleskine...

Monday, January 22, 2007

Timmy and Junior



I never understood people's attraction to dogs... until I met Timmy and Junior. They stay with sp and her family back home, so I only meet them a few times a year. But whenever we meet, a few sniffs and licks is all it takes, and it's like we were never apart.

Timmy is the quieter of the pair, with the patience brought on with experience but isn't afraid to show who's boss when the younger Junior goes too far.

Junior is a flurry of excitement and energy, always eager to play and partake in his favourite pastime - eating.

They're really well taken care of, and in return they take very good care of the family. One can hardly stay glum with Junior prodding you to take his favourite bone and play with him, or Timmy calmly staring at you with those gentle eyes, not asking for anything except companionship.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

French Toast weekend



This weekend I had an attack of the French Toast munchies. I ransacked the kitchen and found a loaf of baguette, or also known as the French Loaf that I bought from Jusco on Friday. In the fridge was an egg, some butter and an opened bottle of milk. Pepper... check. Sugar... check. All the ingredients I needed to make French Toast!

I mixed the egg with a generous squirt of milk, several shakes of pepper and a teaspoon of sugar together. Then I cut the baguette into inch thick slices, then soaked them into the mixture. The baguette has such dense texture that I let the slices soak much longer than usual. Gotta let all the eggy goodness soak deep into the bread.

I buttered the pan and fried the slices in low heat. I had to make sure everything is cooked properly, yet not too dry. I wanted my French Toast to be mildly crispy and sweet on the outside, slightly moist, almost custard-like on the insides, and with a thin layer baguette left untouched in the center.

My French Toast turned out pretty good! sp hasn't sample them yet. I'll make a new batch when she comes back.