Malaysia International Fireworks Competition (Italy)

Plans were made to arrive there earlier but somehow yet again we were late but this time around we chose a different spot which put us much closer to the fireworks display. The crowd was just amazing especially all those that chose to park by the road. I have no qualms with them parking by the road after all the view from the place they stopped at was good but don't go double or triple park la from a 3 lane highway it was reduced to a 1 lane crawl !!! Typical I tell you typical. Is it so hard to find a park further down and walk a bit ?!?!?!

I was very happy with the spot I pick this time and me and my boo had a lovely time watching the fireworks. The spot was awesome with just the right amount of people and a slight gentle breeze cooling the night and the fireworks lighting up the sky with countless colors. I very much enjoyed the display by the team Italy and their fireworks was just awesome. At time I was so mesmerised that I forgot to take pictures :) hahaha

They even had star shape and heart shape patterns for the fireworks. Once the show was done it was time to face the jam and I can tell you it was just madness. It took me almost 2 hours to reach home. Not only that the most irritating thing is there are people who somehow parked in the middle of the road and are taking their own sweet time to remove their car. Some of them are not even at the car yet leaving their car stranded right in the middle of the lane.

Now I'm thinking twice if I should go for the Japan one, boo said to forget about it hahahahah maybe I should :)

Technorati Tags : malaysia international fireworks competition, mifc, putrajaya, changeiam, change.i.am, 2007

Add a little twist

It's been ages since I ate potato chips and even if I do it's usually Pringles or something similiar. Did you know that now Twisties are out to compete in the potato chip market as well with their new product called Chipster. I have no idea how new is the product or how long it's been in the market but it's definitely new to me and I love trying new stuff plus I'm a sucker for attractive packaging and Twisties definitely got it right with this one.

As I was eating my chips I was thinking how corporations like Twisties have to keep innovating their products to come up with something new and exiting to an already overcrowded market of snack food and apart from that they have to figure out ways on how to attract and keep their customer to their existing line of snacks. My god my brain is working on overtime nowadays that I can't even sit down and enjoy some potato chips hahahah

It comes in a few flavours but I have only tried the Hot & Spicy and Sour Cream and Onions both of which I absolutely enjoyed to the last bite. It's thin and crispy and not too oily. The only thing I was rather disappointed with was how big the packaging was and how little chips we get. Are we paying for the air inside the bag also ah ?!?!

At least now I have an alternative to my Pringles which I don't seem to enjoy anymore ever since they only sell the "Asean version" and yah Chipsters claim to be using imported potatoes which might explain why it tastes so good ?!?!? Wonder what flavour should I try next hahahah

Technorati Tags : twisties, twisties chipster, chipster, changeiam, change.i.am, 2007

Mix.fm RHB promo

I'm sure you've heard about the Mix.fm living with Ika, Serena C and Pietro by RHB Bank. Well if you haven't then go to Mix.fm website and see the details.

Basically 300 people will be roaming around town with a poster cutout of our breakfast show trio and the one that gets spotted the most will win RM 50,000. If you think you got what it takes to win it then too bad because entries are closed and there are 300 cutouts currently roaming the streets of KL.

Not to worry even if you can't win RM 50k you still can win something. If you spot any one of them and take a picture and get their details you win RM 100 yup that's all you have to do. Take a picture with them and upload to Mix.fm website and if you're a RHB My1 account holder you get an extra RM 100 so you get RM 200 for a 5mins work. Who want to give free money like that !?!?!

So yesterday while I was in Curve I did spot one of them and did take picture with them and this morning when I want to upload the picture I was dissapointed ... grrrrrrrrrrr

The cutout poster of the trio

The website .. yes yes I'm a spotter .. now gimme my RM 100


Ahhhh here is where I upload the photo


Ahhhh what is this ?!?!?!?


I feel cheated !!!! I want my RM 100 NOW !!!!!
Make that RM 200 for wasting time trying to upload pictures !!!!

Update - Tried again after lunch thinking that the server might be overloaded or something and I got this instead

Is this thing even working in the first place ?


Ohhhh the page is evolving .....

Technorati Tags : mix.fm, pietro, serena c, ika, rhb my1, promo, living with, changeiam, change.i.am, 2007

µTorrent Webgui and Firefox

Being the lazy person I am having the ability to check my torrents from the web is not good enough as it requires me to open the browser and then key in the URL and the my login details and that's definitely one too many steps taken just to see if my files are being downloaded.

Thank god there's a solution to all of that in the form of a Firefox add-on. Now if you don't already know Firefox allows add-ons that perform multiple tasks right from your browser. You can even post on Blogger right from your Firefox browser. I manage to find a Firefox add-on that allows the status of my torrent downloads right from the browser status bar without me needing to login at all !!! Now that's just awesome isn't it !! hahaha

First of all you need to download and install the add-on from here once that is done you need to restart your browser and you'll see the µTorrent at the status bar. Just right click it and key in your details such as IP adress, port, login name and password and you're set to go.

Once you've keyed in the details you should see that status bar connected to your µTorrent machine at home and you can monitor your downloads right from your browser.

Click to see a bigger picture

Now if monitoring your torrent is not good enough don't fret the firefox add-on allows you to bring up the same webgui by just pressing Alt-U.

Here is how it all looks like on my firefox.

Click for a bigger picture

Before any of this can work you need to setup µTorrent webgui and make sure that is working.

Technorati Tags : utorrent, µTorrent, webgui, firefox, add on, firefox plugin, firefox µTorrent, changeiam, change.i.am, 2007

Photohunt - Happy

This weeks photohunt theme is HAPPY and this is my contribution for this week.

A smile definitely makes us happy be it from a person or from a thing :)


What about a happy camel ?


For me watching a sunset by the seaside definitely leaves me happy :)

PhotoHunt

Technorati Tags : photohunt, changeiam, change.i.am, 2007

µTorrent now web enabled

It's been ages since I've bothered about torrents since Streamyx has capped torrent bandwidths but since I've been doing some research as to how we can get around it I came across a new feature of µTorrent which is it's webgui feature. What this essentially means is that you now can monitor, add,delete torrent files when you are away from you pc making sure your files download in time so when you go home you can enjoy your download files ;)

First of all you need to get the latest version of µTorrent which at this moment is 1.72. Once you've installed the torrent you need to get the webgui interface from here. The link to the file is in the first post. You can try downloading directly from here. Once you've downloaded the .rar file you need to copy the webui.zip file to the µTorrent application directory. Go to start, run and type in %AppData%\uTorrent and a window for the µTorrent application directory should appear. Copy the webui.zip into this directory.

Click for a bigger picture

Once that is done open up µTorrent and go to Options -> Preferences and expand the Advanced tab and click on the Web UI. Tick the label Enable Web Interface and enter any username and password that you want. This will be the login and password when accessing µTorrent from the web.

Before exiting the preferences screen click on the connection and take note of the listening port that µTorrent is using as this would be needed when accessing µTorrent from the web later.

Now that everything has been setup it's time to load the WebUI. Currently IE6 is not supported so I'm using Firefox to access. Type in the link http://localhost:port/gui/ and replace the port with your µTorrent port. If everything has been setup properly you'll be prompted to key in your username and password and voila you will be presented with the familiar µTorrent GUI.

Click for a bigger pic

Now all you have to do is access your computer via your public IP from the web and you'll be able to control and manage your torrent files even when you're away from the PC. Technology is just so amazing !!! hahahaha

Technorati Tags : utorrent, webui, setup, changeiam, change.i.am, 2007

The N73ME

Got myself this phone some time back and since I'm a little bored today decided to blog about it :D I've been using a pda phone for some time now namely the Tre0 650 and wanted something smaller and lighter compared to the Treo 650 and since I've already gone through quite a few PDA devices like the Palm and PocketPC it was time to see what all the fuss about the Symbian OS. Few phones came to mind like the E61i which is basically almost the same size with the Treo and also the SE P990i but finally ended up with the Nokia N73ME because of price and size factor plus it boasts a 3.2MP camera. The N95 did come to mind but it costs more than I can afford.


Being new the symbian world left me a little frustrated when I first started using this phone. Finding a contact or sending message would take forever. Furthermore this was my first Nokia phone and being a long time SE user I was so frustrated sending sms with this phone. The key placement for space and clear was at different locations and took some getting used to.

This phone is part of the N series range of phone and being the music edition in came in a cool all black casing but after holding the K800i in my hands which has a nice rubbery feel to it and has bigger keys I feel the N73 ME to be too plasticky but it makes up for it with it's gorgeous 2.4" QVGA screen with a resolution of 240x320 showing up to 262k colors. The N73 ME runs on the Symbian s60v3 which is already matured and has lots of software which is important to me as I customise the phone to suite my needs.

The keypads area little smaller compared to my K750i which made smsing a little harder as well plus it was even more difficult as sending sms with 1 hand especially when you have made a mistake and need to press the C button which is located at the rightmost bottom of the key pad. Doing so required some acrobatic skills as you try to balance the phone in one hand and press the C key with your thumb at the same time hahaha

The phone came with a 2GB mini-sd memory card and soon it was filled with images captured with the 3.2MP Carl Zeiss equipped lens and not forgetting mp3 files. Images captured during the day on this phone is impressive and it does a good job as a decent entry level digicam but if night shots is important than this phone definitely does not fit the bill. The K800i with it's xenon flash does a much better job at low light photography.

Another thing I don't really like about this phone is it's joystick. It's placed quite recessed into the phone and navigating is quite difficult and down right painful and I mean it literally. The joystick leaves the thumb a little sore after vigorous usage and I wonder how people can use it to actually play games as I gave up after a while.

The one thing unique about this phone is it's stereo speakers allowing 3D sounds as ringing tones. The sound is extremely loud at the loudest setting and there's no more excuse to not hearing the phone while it's ringing.

Initially when I first got the phone I noticed the phone quite slow and laggy especially when opening the menus but after using it a while it feels zippier or the new updates from Nokia might have something to do with it as well.

So far I'm loving the phone and the OS and the screen size. If only the phone has the same casing feel like the K800i I would definitely love this phone a whole lot more.

Technorati Tags : nokia n73 me, n73me, n73, symbian, s60v3, changeiam, change.i.am, 2007

Mid week ramblings

When you are involved in Project Management I'm sure you've come across risk management and how it entails listing out the possibilities that could disrupt the success of project. Then there's the risk register and lesson learned as well so that the risk is identified and contingency plans are put in place and also previous mistakes are not repeated again. After all failure to plan is planning to fail right ??

How nice if life was a simple and manageable as a project. You can prepare yourself for the worst news ever and tell yourself that you will handle it this manner or that manner but when the time actually comes when your worst nightmares materialise more often than not you are left dumbfounded as to how it happened in the first place even after all the precautions taken to ensure it doesn't happen.

Sometimes god loves to play tricks on us to make us grow stronger as a person. Maybe I have not learned the lesson I'm suppose to learn the last time it happened so now the man decided to make me go through it again ? Hmmmm so kind of him to make sure I learn my lesson hahahahaa

Do you push the disappointment and hurt aside and strive to learn and grow from the experience ? After all if I don't learn my lesson now the man will decide to throw another curve ball my way and this time instead of just hitting me and leaving a bruise it might knock me out cold for good hahahahah. If life gives you lemon make lemonade lor .. right or not ? yeahhhhhhhhhhhh rite hahahahah

Food Foundry

Was thinking of where to take boo for dinner the other night and was doing some reading on the internet and came across this place called Food Foundry and read some fantastic reviews about the food there so I decided to go there for dinner.

The plan initially was to be there around 7ish pm but I only got there around 8pm and the place was packed. It was fortunate we came when we did because I think we practically got the last table in the place. People who came after us had to stand and wait for an empty table.

Not knowing what to order we just ordered whatever that looked good in the menu hahahah . We ended up ordering Gratin Mussels (Baked cheese mussels), Chili Garlic Aglio Olio Prawn and Chicken Cordon Bleu. The service was quite fast considering the amount of people there which is good but the weird thing is we got our main course before our mussels hahahaha

When I first got my cordon bleu I was like OMG so much mushroom sauce but halfway through I was like OMG not enough mushroom sauce !!! hahaha it was heaven and the mashed potato was good too even boo who don't like mashed potato enjoyed it. The aglio olio is nothing really to shout about and boo said the prawn was not that fresh as well but luckily the mussels made up for it. The cheese not too much and the mussels just cooked perfectly leaving it not too rubbery and chewy.

Saw a newspaper clipping on the wall about their famous Mille Crepe (20 thin layers of French crepe layered smoothly with fresh custards) and we decided to give it a go. There's a few flavours to choose from some of them being chocolate, vanilla and strawberry I think. So we decided to go for the vanilla one and we it arrived it look like those layered cakes you find in pasar malam hahahaha

After taking the first bite I can assure you that it tastes just FANTABULOUS !!! It was so soft and the layers of crepe and custard in between is just heavenly. The dessert totally made up for the waiting period and the big crowd !!! Just loved it !!! A must try if you go there hahahaha it was so good that we wanted to tapao but seeing how stuffed we already were we decided not to and yah the iced latte also rocks !!!!

Aglio oglio


Gratin mussels


Vanilla crepe

All pictures shamelessly copied from Food Foundry site because I was just too hungry to bother about snapping pictures of the food as they arrived !!! hahahaha

Directions on how to get there -

Technorati Tags : food foundry, petaling jaya, food, mille crepe, crepe, changeiam, change.i.am, 2007

Gwen in danger ?

I'm a little late in getting my news but then again sometimes it's better late then never right ?? hahaha this one that was in Friday's star really got my attention and I sometimes do wonder what certain people are thinking when they come up with such outrages claims such as youngsters to enjoy themselves, mix around too freely, get drunk and commit sins. My god this is happening almost every weekend at hotspots around the Klang Valley don't need a Gwen Stefani concert for such things to happen !!!!

Isn't there security checks to ensure that no booze is brought into concerts such as this ? So youngsters nowadays are not suppose to enjoy themselves and mix around too freely and what kind of sins exactly can one commit in a concert with thousands of people around them pushing and shoving each other ?

Sometimes it's music lovers like us who suffer because of misconceptions from authority figures. It's just amazing what some people can come up with.

KUALA LUMPUR: Federal Territory PAS Youth Exco members have handed a memorandum to Kuala Lumpur Mayor Datuk Hakim Borhan calling for the cancellation of Gwen Stefani’s The Sweet Escape 2007 concert next Tuesday.

A five-man team, headed by Kamaruzaman Mohamad, handed the memorandum Friday to KL City Hall Enforcement Inspector Adnan Baba at the City Hall lobby. Adnan passed it on to the Special Officer to the Mayor, Mohd Nazam Harun.

“This concert does not bring any good to Malaysians except invite youngsters to enjoy themselves, mix around too freely, get drunk and commit sins,” he said.

“We want City Hall to be more responsible when giving out licences,” he said.

Asked why they still protested despite Stefani’s promise that she would abide by local guidelines, Kamaruzaman said it was not just about her dressing but her image, which was obscene and would bring down the moral of youths.

Asked if he had seen any of her concerts, he said he had not but had seen her pictures on the Internet and advertisements on television and they were indecent.

Earlier, the team also handed over a memorandum to Maxis Communications Bhd, the parent company of Hotlink, the concert’s presenter.

The National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students also recently protested against Stefani’s concert because of her past record of indecent dressing and obscenity.

Maxis has give an assurance that the show would go on with a promise from Stefani that she would abide by local guidelines, which include “no revealing costumes”.

Stefani, 38, a singer, songwriter and fashion designer, will be performing at Putra Indoor Stadium, Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur at 8.30pm.

Source - The Star

Technorati Tags : gwen stefani, concert, bukit jalil, changeiam, change.i.am, 2007

Malaysia International Fireworks Competition

There's currently a fireworks competition in Putrajaya and since the opening day was on the 18th of August I decided to surprise my boo and brought her to watch the show which promised to be an amazing sight.

We had dinner and the firework show was suppose to start at 10pm and I decided to have a slow drive as I already picked up a spot to view the fireworks display across a lake without having to fight with other people though it was a bit further away from the main place but it should be alright :)

What caught me by surprise is the amount of cars at the Kajang toll exit !!! Totally unexpected spent almost 1/2 hour at the toll plaza and I forgot to top up my touch n go card before leaving. What a time to run out of credit ... hahahahah

Made it to my "chosen" spot to watch the fireworks and it was packed !!! but at least it was not overly crowded and you didn't have to push and shove to watch the show. Thinking that following the typical Malaysian timing the show would be late but then exactly at 10pm the show started and lasted for a good 1/2 hour. Wonder how much of my pocket money contributed to the success of the show !! hahaha

Overall it was good while it lasted but yet somehow it didn't leave a big impression as it seems to be the same type of pattern of fireworks. Hopefully the next one from other countries would be better. If you're heading down to watch the fireworks please don't come and curi my spot ok !! ahhahahahah

Last but not least here are some shots from the show :) Gotta improve more on my fireworks taking skills hahahaha

Tags: malaysia international fireworks competition, mifc, putrajaya, changeiam, change.i.am, 2007

Photohunt - Two

Back again with the photohunt and this weeks theme is two so here's my contribution

Old style fan switches from my recent trip to Myanmar. I love this pic the switch looks as though it's smiling back :D


Mother and child


272 steps to the entrance of Batu Caves

PhotoHunt

Technorati Tags : photohunt, changeiam, change.i.am, 2007

Gwen's in town

Here's something else. Gwen Stefani is in town !!!! The last time I went to her concert was when she was in KL PWTC and at that time she was still in No Doubt. Hmmm I wonder how much the tickets are. Anyone planning to go for this one ??

Technorati Tags : gwen stefani, concert, bukit jalil, changeiam, change.i.am, 2007

Akon concert

Imagine my surprise when I saw a poster hanging around the streets of Cyberjaya saying that there will be an Akon concert right here in Cyberjaya. The place itself is usually dead and to bring a concert here I wonder how the response will be and the best part was I didn't even know Akon will be in town. Well okay I seldom read the papers but then shouldn't something like this be advertised on the radio and tv ? Hmm okay I don't see that much tv as well and I listen to radio once in a while ... oh well for those of you whose world revolves around your work AKON IS COMING !!! hahahaha

Oh yah I remember last time there was an issue of artists with a record coming into the country or is it just my memory going from bad to worst ? Let's just hope this time around Mr Akon doesn't do anything "interesting" on stage or else it might be his last trip here !!! hahahaha

Technorati Tags : akon, cyberjaya, concert, changeiam, change.i.am, 2007

Photohunt - Rows

Came across this site that has a weekly theme and users post pictures on their blogs according to the theme. Since I have loads of pictures available, I thought I might join as well and I hope I can find the time to join weekly :D

This weeks theme is rows and immediately these pictures from my recent trip to Myanmar came to mind .. heehhe

Pearls


Cakes


Windows

PhotoHunt

Technorati Tags : photohunt, changeiam, change.i.am, 2007

Big Apple donuts

Was in Curve yesterday walking around the flea market when the smell of donuts suddenly just hit me and had a craving for donuts. Just follow the smell and you'll end up here.

Since we wanted to have lunch later we only decided to try a donut each and after looking at a variety of their donuts which is a lot !!! we ended up with the Witnut (peanut butter) and the other one had chocolate coating with cappuccino filling. For RM2 it was quite a bargain though it was smaller compared to Dunkin Donuts.

We ordered drinks as well and ended up with Jasmine tea and Ice Lemon tea and to our surprise we got an extra 2 donuts and when asked apparently when you order drinks you get a free semi glazed donut. Now isn't that a bargain !!!!

After all the talk about Kripy Kreme I wondered how Big Apple donuts would taste though not like I've ever tasted Krispy Kreme hahahaha. I wanted to take pictures of the donuts but after the first bite I totally forgot about it. The donut was so soft and the filling was not to sweet and every bite was just heavenly. It was not until I was halfway through only did I try to take a picture so forgive me for the half eaten donut !! hhaahahhaha

It's cheaper if you buy them by the dozen so obviously people were doing exactly that. There's durian flavour as well and another one that caught my eye was the oreo one and there's one with cheese that's imported from New Zealand and there's the chocolate coco pops one and mango filling and belgian dark chocolate !! There's just so many flavours to choose from ... must visit them soon to try more !!! awesome !!

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Listening to: Robbie Williams - She's The One
via FoxyTunes

Tags: donut, big apple, curve, damansara, big apple donuts