Goodbye.. again?!

Woah... Jason's leaving next month.
And next month's like - 2 days from now...
Sobz... from the last chipmunk...

p/s: guys, make sure u continue to post here.. now, where's Al?
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Now playing: 王力宏 - 落葉歸根
via FoxyTunes

Buying a notebook

After getting confirmation of my trip down to Sydney next month, I had to draw up a list of things to do. One of the things was - get a notebook to keep self entertained over there :p ... ok, no life but I don't care. Everything is just so expensive there, even to play badminton costs 3-4 times as much as it would here , and that is the cheaper club. I've evaluated a few options and shortlisted my choices. Greedy as I always am, looking for everything in a notebook - performance, reasonable price, portability and some style. Trying to look for something that will replace my old desktop and will last me a couple of years to come.

Evaluation:

Green: Pass with flying colours

Blue: Acceptable Pass

Red: Not Pass

1) Dell XPS M1330

Performance: - Coming with the Dual Core 1.8 GHz processor and a Geforce 8400M GS. Definitely enough power for me. Sound is ok but I don't really expect superb surround sound from a notebook.
Price: Ouch, checking in at just over RM5k for the basic set definitely will put a huge dent in my pocket.

Portability: Weighing just under 1.8 kg with power features, fantastic portability. I can effortlessly carry it every time i go to Starbucks for a drink of coffee.

Style: Surprisingly, looking at the XPS it is sleek, and exudes style and class. Though not as stylish as the macbook designs, definitely an improvement over previous dell units.

2) Dell Inspiron 1420

Performance: Coming with similar specifications to the Dell XPS M1330, same verdict. Sufficient performance for me.

Price: Priced at more then RM1k cheaper than the XPS, definitely more reasonably priced and at the price range that I am looking for.
Portability: Weighing at 2.6 kilos, definitely a bit on the heavy side. With accessories and charger, definitely not something I want to be carrying while on the move.
Style: Bleh ... nothing exceptional about this unit, typical Dell - not very well known for styling of notebooks

3) Acer Aspire 4920G

Performance: Sports similar processor speed to the dell units and an ATI X2500 card instead of a Geforce card. Although graphics performance will be a little worse compared to the Dell units, still acceptable for me. I don't expect to be doing any F.E.A.R gaming at highest detail settings. Sound shines with this unit, would be good when watching dvd's, etc. but not very high on my list of requirements. A good earphone or set of speakers would solve the sound woes.

Price: Priced slightly higher then the Dell Inspiron 1420, still more than RM1k cheaper than the Dell XPS unit.

Portability: Weighing a bit more than the Dell Inspiron 1420 at 2.7 kg, too heavy for my liking.

Style: Curvy "Gemstone" design by BMW, some people like it, some people don't. For me personally, definitely better than the Dell Inspiron design.

4) BenQ Joybook S41

Before I get into the mini review, I hear some people saying "What! BeeennnnQ??!! You sure about considering getting a BenQ brand notebook?" I am not really taken in by branding as such, proven reliability is more of a concern to me. I've surfed around for opinions from owners of the S41, besides the common problems of optical drives with notebooks, all seems fine.

Performance: Similar processor to the rest, but coming with the Geoforce 8600M GS (DirectX 10 compatible, with DDR3 and HDMI output! - and with turbocache expandability up to 1GB) Graphics wise, this notebook blows the rest away. Sound is reported to be soft and without umphh, but as mentioned not a very big dent for me on the performance of the notebook.

Price: Priced similar to the Acer Aspire unit, reasonable pricing but for the performance, definitely good value for money.

Portability: When I first looked for the weight specifications, I was expecting something similar to the Dell Inspiron and Acer notebooks due to the high end performance components of the notebook. I was blown away when I saw - 2.05 kg with battery. Hmm, light weight and with performance.
Style: Unique design, some say looks good on the inside but yucky on the outside, but hey looking at the pictures, I like it. Not as yummy as the Macbook design but acceptable for me.

Conclusion: After going through various other factors besides those mentioned (I am going to be spending a fair bit of money, so I look through all the other specifications and expandability options, but just too lazy to write them all down), I am leaning towards getting the BenQ Joybook. Just found out there is a BenQ service center down at Wollongong, Sydney - so there is a rescue center nearby, just in case.

Jazz Festival with Sheila Majid

Day 3 of the Jazz Festival.
Went there with Alvin, just a night before he flies off to Sydney.
That night, Sheila Majid was the highlight of the night!
And here she is!

#1: Close up of Sheila Majid


#2: Performing arts!


#3: Guitarist #1


#4: Guitarist #2


#5: Backup Singer

Last minute arrangements

Yesterday night I received a phone call from Alvin. The phone call went something like this:

Me: Yo, bro wassup.

Alv: Hi. I have to ask you something.

Me: Yup, shoot. Hey aren't you suppose to be on your way to Sydney by now?

Alv: Ya. I'm at KL Sentral now, on the way to KLIA. My flight is at 10 pm. Hmmm, aren't you supposed to be at the fireworks thing at Putrajaya?

Me: (-_-)" .. something came up so had to ffk.

Alv: When you went to Sydney you had to have a Visa right?

Me: (0_O!) Of course. I travelled on a business visa. But I checked for you when Mike called from Australia and you have got a ETA business visa already, so you should be A-OK.

Alv: Erm .. ok. Thats all, right ? I don't need anything else?

Me: You should be fine. Don't worry about it.

Alv: Ok, thanks. See ya you in Sydney 3 weeks time! I've brought all my sports stuff and ready for action.

Me: Ya, have a safe trip :)

Half an hour later ... *ring *ring

Me : Hey! aren't you suppose to be getting on the flight already?

Alv : Err, soon. I have one last thing to ask you. When you arrive at Sydney, do you need to show them anything? I don't think, I have printed or prepared any documents at all!

Me: (0_O!) It should be alright i think .. It is all electronically in the system (though I did bring a whole bunch of printed Visa forms and letters just in case - you never know with all these computers - but I don't think that information would have done anything to help settle Alvin's realisation he didn't really know what was required to enter good old Aussie moments before he was boarding!). They probably wouldn't need anything more from you unless you are caught stashing some dodgy items in your luggage.

Alv: Hmmm (silent for a short time - I also went hmmm - I could visualise him going over the things in his luggage: dodgy item 1 - check, dodgy item 2 - check!) Things like drugs or explosives. Yaya all those terrorists nowadays. Ok, see you in Aussie. Bye!

Me: Yup, take care dude. Bye!

Sigh, one word - "UNCERTAINTIES". People who know will understand what that means but I won't elaborate more on that. Hopefully I don't see Alvin back in the office on Monday :p. Anyway I've got some news that I "will" be on the way to Sydney soon, so will see how it goes. Safe trip and all the best, Alvin!

TMNUT downtime...

I wanted to update yesterday but unfortunately I couldn't even sign in. I was wondering what was happening when i went to tmnut's website and ... - lo and behold,

"TM will be performing system maintenance to upgrade our network from 22nd August 2007 to 24th August 2007, from 12:00 midnight till 6:00 a.m in the Klang Valley area."

sigh ... hail monopolisation, all hail Tmnut!!

Penang food pictures!

It is about time that i posted some pictures of the penang food that I have been raving about. Not many, but enought to get my mouth watering :)
The first few dishes out of the seven we ordered at the seafood restaurant; Steam fish, kerabu prawns and the chili sotong.

This is "THE" Hor Fun, absolutely sumptious, and healthy to boot! The shop is supposed to be famous for the fish head noodles (which was cooked with green chili, super spicy!) The following two shots are of food that I didn't personally eat so I can't stamp the ho jiak stamp on them but just looking at the pictures just makes me go yum yum! Presenting the salmon fillet and the roast chicken special, true home cooking at its best (We were eating this at this family's house that was converted into a restaurant - some people were eating in the living room -_-")

Bookmarks of Life...

Some songs are just that - songs.

Some songs represent certain stages of life.
It becomes a bookmark of life.
Reminding you where you'd left life.
Reminding you where to continue life.
Do you have that song in your life?

- Origor

那就这样吧

不要哭了吗 该哭的人是我吧
你都坦白爱上了他 我有什么办法
我也同意啦 记然你提出了想法
我们不要拖拖拉拉 就从明天开始吧
那就这样吧 再爱都曲终人散啦
那就分手吧 再爱都无需争扎
不要再问我 怎舍得拱手让她
你走吧 到了记得要给我通电话
那就这样吧 再爱都要Sayonara
再给抱一下 闻闻你的长发
不要再哭啦 快把眼泪擦一擦
这样吧 在再爱我有缘的话
快把东西收拾一下再耗下去都天亮啦
这里的钥匙妳先留着吧
假如妳有东西 假如你有东西忘了拿

Dota Heroes

Well after all the dilly dallying, I have managed to come up with a wholesome "ONE" picture. I am quite pleased with the results considering that I have almost ziltch experience with photoshop CS2. It is taking me some to come to grasp with the functions and tools. I must say that it is one really powerful package, hmm maybe it is worth doing a review on photoshop later when i have used it a bit more, for the benefit of wannabe amateur photo-editors who like me are starting from zero. So without further ado, behold the result of my efforts!

I've got the captioned version, which might have been more entertaining for some of you, but looks a bit more cluttered then this one. PM me if you would like to have a look at that picture.

Bye, Al!

Went to Poppy with Ben, Su Ann & Alvin for his 'farewell' before he leaves for Sydney for a short 6 months' stint. Too bad Jason was down with - whatever problem it is.. (sorry, Jason - I just can't remember!) Then again, I guess I may just have a bit too much to drink - I only took 3 shots and only one was with Alvin in it! Paishe, Al! :D

KL Sunrise Digi Jazz Festival 2007 @ Mont Kiara

Guys, it's quite fun - but a wee bit noisy and drunk... too much beer.
Nevertheless, we should all go for a night out. What do ya think?







More photos at: Origor's Blog

T-MAC Basketball shoe

I was on the way to meet up Debbie at the Curve on sunday. A picture of Deb is posted a shown (Sorry Origor....she has a boyfriend already......too bad...................)
I was also pretty lucky to find an empty lot at cineleisure damansara as the whole area around the Curve and Cineleisure will be jam packed with cars and living organism. As i walked up the escalator i stumbled upon a sports fair. Since there was still plenty of time, i had decided to make a pit stop at the fair. All these while i was looking for a pair of basketball shoes to replace my old one.

When i was browsing around at the shoe section, my eyes lit up when i saw a few basketball shoes selling at hot cakes' prices. What caught my attention is the T-MAC shoe that i currently own (sorry guys......will post the photos later on. Lazy to upload pictures). Elegant yet simple in design resembles some similarity to my adidas basketball shoe that i had own previously. The best part is the price. RM129.90 only..........Without thinking further i tried it on, went to the counter and checked out. The only thing remaining is to try the new show on the court and see how the shoe fare. I will definitely post a separate posting with regards to the shoe's performance. Beware ADIDAS............your fate is in my hand.............Muhahahahaa...................


P/S: I regretted to have removed the playa from my previous blog about Origor..........

Penang Photo Preview

From left to right,
Top row: YY, Chen, Techo, Weite and Suko
Bottom row (Look like parents @ a wedding!) : Me, Pillowcat

Got the first batch of photos from the Penang trip. Editing photos is more effort than I imagined it would be (need to get the software installed properly in the first place!). As a teaser, I've posted one of the pictures taken at the seafood restaurant - the photo editing work that I so shamelessly plagarised off my "certified" source. That's me in the picture trying not grimace due to an overly full stomache! Hopefully I can get my photo editing software installed properly and collect the rest of the photos from my "certified" source. So please bear with me while I process the photographs of the Penang trip. I will try to post them up ASAP. Meanwhile I am counting on the other "chipmunks" to keep things interesting around here ... lazy pair of rodents!

HO JIAK

Ok, just came up with the 3 chipmunks "seal of approval"

<---------- The official "Ho Jiak" seal (may be subject to changes)

Back from Penang

Back from a food filled trip from Penang. Everything seems a blur and all the food just clouds out everything else. Must have put on a couple of kgs! Time to go a sensible diet once more. The food frenzied glutony was almost more that my body could take (You'll see what I mean later). On a more serious note, it was great to see the guys and gals from Singapore, Finally can get to put 2 more faces to who you pawn or are pawned by haha - nice to meet Techo aka Hairylegs, Chen (when he smiles, everyone records it as an event on their diary .. hmm) and YY. Yup good to meet up with Suko and Weite as well, the crazy gal from Pineapple town and the quiet, handsome guy from SG (no BB remarks here har!) Kudos to Pillowcat for running around being a tour guide, chauffeur and letting me be a cheapo by staying at his place! I was with him most of the time so I know he must have really been zapped of his energy these last few days, but instead of recuperating after we left, he just went out to watch rush hour 3! Cats have 9 lives; I guess that applies to Pillowcats as well.

Well sorethroat's a little better, so hopefully by tomorrow I'll be at 100% and fully recharged for work. Before I forget, I better update the captain's food log.

Captain's Food Log : Penang,
Stardate 9th August 2007
Lunch: Assam Laksa, Pasembor
Dinner: Seafood Restaurant- Steam fish, Sweet and Sour Crabs, Cili Sotong, Mantis Prawns, 4 Heavenly Kings Vege, Minced Meat Taufu, Kerabu Prawns, Yummy drink of Empala Assam
Supper: Sup Kambing (no one dared to take up the challenge of the infamous Sup Torpedo)

Stardate 10th August 2007
Lunch: Assam Laksa (Famous one), Penang Chee Cheong Fun, Soya Bean, Apom Banana and Jagung
Dinner: Ikan Bakar (the only yuck food I had in Penang), Big Prawn Char Koay Teow, Lobak, Fried Lobak Kou, Hokkien Char, Chendol, Popiah, O'chien. - If you don't call this overkill, I dunno what is....
Supper: Famous Prawn Mee and Half-boiled cockerels

Stardate 11th August 2007
Brunch: Chili Fish Suah Mee, Steam Fish Hor Fun (this is one of the most unique and yummy dishes I tried in Penang), Hokkien Char Maggee, Honey Chicken
Tea: Roast pork rice, Char Cheong Mee
Dinner: Chicken Chop Oriental and Mushroom soup with Garlic Bread

Stardate 12th August 2007
Breakfast: Nasi Lemak, Roti Telor, Tapau 3 persons' worth of Roast Duck and Roast Pork.

Short update from Penang

Food in Penang is just sumptiously delicious!! I think i might have an overdose of Penang food .. too much of anything is bad :( Just developed a sorethroat and keeping my fingers crossed that it will miracalously go away. And the plan is to go for pork ribs prawn mee for supper tonite, arrrggghhh!!!!

Off to Penang!

Morning chaps! Off to Penang it is. Have a good weekend! :)

Life and screensavers

Bill Gates dies in a car accident. He finds himself being sized up by God.... "Well, Bill, I'm really confused on this call. I'm not sure whether to send you to Heaven or Hell. After all, you helped society enormously by putting a computer in almost every home in America, yet you also stole DOS from IBM. I'm going to do something I've never done before. In your case, I'm going to let you decide where you want to go." "Well, what's the difference between the two?"Bill asks. God says, "I'm willing to let you visit both places briefly, if it will help your decision." "Fine, but where should I go first?" "I'll leave that up to you." "Okay, then," says Bill. "Let me try Hell first." So Bill goes to Hell. It's a beautiful, clean, sandy beach with clear waters and lots of beautiful women running around, playing in the water, laughing and frolicking about. The sun is shining, the temperature is perfect. He is very pleased. "This is great!" he tells God. "If this is Hell, I REALLY want to see Heaven!" "Fine," says God, and off they go. Heaven is a place high in the clouds, with angels drifting about, playing harps and singing. It's nice, but not as enticing as Hell. Bill thinks for a quick minute and decides. "Hmm. I think I'd prefer Hell," he tells God. "Fine," replies God. "As you desire." So Bill Gates goes to Hell. Two weeks later, God decides to check on the late billionaire to see how he is doing in Hell. When he gets there, he finds Bill shackled to a wall, screaming amidst hot flames in a dark cave, being burned and tortured by demons. "How's everything going?" he asks Bill. Bill responds, his voice filled with anguish and disappointment, "This is awful! This is nothing like the Hell I visited two weeks ago! I can't believe this is happening! What happened to that other place, with the beaches and the beautiful women playing in the water?" "Oh ... that was the SCREENSAVER."


Well that was an old joke that has been around for sometime. But thinking about it, how many things in life are actually screensavers, some put up by others, some put up by ourselves and some are just there. The longer we stay stagnant (i.e not move the mouse), we will just get caught up in the screensaver. Some of the screensavers are so mesmerizing, we don't really want to move the mouse... sigh.


Ok enough of that stuff. Alv is leaving soon to good old down under so all the best to him and I am pretty sure he is pretty excited to go ---> in more ways than one :p As for me, PENANG! here I come. Haven't done any packing at all, need to bring lots of stuff there, things for friends, things for me! Still looking around for a digital camera so I won't miss out the candid camera moments in Penang. Looking forward to my first official holiday since starting my new job. Hope that dumb Pillowcat doesn't leave me stranded at the Penang bus station.

We & The Simpsons Family!

Come and Go

Time come and go. Money come and go. People come and go. Almost everything in our lives come and go. Just got the news from BOSS that i might be heading to Sydney for secondment. I do not know how to say this. Partially i am happy that i am going over soon as my baby is over there but on the other hand i am sad to leave. Reason??? My colleagues. I know it is only going to be 6 months but things might change while i am not around. I am afraid that most of my colleagues will resign from the department as they feel demoralized from lack of things to do in the office. Furthermore i would not be able to attend two of my closest friends' wedding dinner. Sorry Ah Chan and Brian. Can we have the bachelor party before i depart to Sydney? Pretty please. I do not request much. Just a pretty stripper and free flow of booze. Not much wat..............kekekek.........

3 chipmunks

hi.....this is alvin (real name) from the 3 chipmunks blog. I think it is fair for us to introduce ourselves before you. An idea came into light last friday when 3 of us decided to start up our blog as a mean to make ourselves famous (can or not???). The 3 chipmunks consist of the following members:

Alvin - The crazy sarawakian who loves kolo mee
Jason - The badminton loving KL-lite that knows all the best food in town
Origor - Code name CHEEKY and multi-talented photographer from Kluang.

These three chipmunks will be one of the forces to be remembered and recond with in the blogger world provided that they each contribute to the posting. Those who wish to meet us in person can do so as well. Just log on to our blogs or send us an e-mail. We will get back to you in a matter of seconds.

Today the faithful day..

An icon of significance to us, in more ways then one. I'll just leave that one at that. You may like it (or not) but it's here to stay!


Today we just had a session of ping pong with the the rest of the chaps (4 of us to be exact). It would have been more fun and less tiring with more people but at least we got enough people together to play! It is a welcome break from the day in day out things and the invigorating sweat it brings is kind of blissful (ok, that is exaggerating - invigorating and blissful aren't the exact words that i would use but ...) Even though we've just sort of played twice since a long while, we are kind of getting the hang of things, except when Alv gets carried away and we end up picking balls that drop to the ground floor. Still haven't had any incidents of the ping pong balls hitting people in the badminton court below. I wonder whether the day will come when that happens ..

Reminder to self: Get a small digital camera and publish a video/pictures of the world class ping pong battles between Alv & Peter ASAP.

Penang Trip Countdown

Looking forward to a break in life's monotony, going on a trip to Penang next week! Going to meet up with some friends from Singapore and Penang. I'm going be 'kiamsap' and just bunk in my friend's room but that just means I'm going to have to bear with the dreaded attacks of the infamous "Pillowcat". Hope it is worth the money I save -_-", and it doesn't rain too much when I'm there.









Penang has it all ... hmm, we'll see how true it is. Picture courtesy of Penang tourism Malaysia. Hope I don't get sued for pinching their picture.

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