Ikeafied, Amateur Acting, Big *bleeping* Robots and Funny Penguins

Last week was an incredibly exciting week. Drama, romance, comedy and action - onto my life!
*Caution - Long Post Ahead*

The Room

Just finished repainting my room and refurnishing it last weekend. Will be posting up pictures when I get it all together properly. There's still a lot of stuff lying around and not packed. But its been 1 week sleeping on a normal bed after 5 years of sleeping on a bunker (bed on top, table underneath) and so far I'm getting used to it nicely.

Visual Comm Assignment Finished... 1 Week Early

Accidently finished an assignment 1 week early. I forgot and got confused along the way, and finished my Visual Comm assignment this week where I'm suppose to just give my drafts. Classmates must be thinking what an idiotic show-off I am...

Film Studies Presentation on The Hours

Me, Petrina, Chin Yee and Suet Yen were in the same group for our Film Studies' first assignment and boy did we decided to put our heads on the line this early in the game. It was suppose to be a normal presentation, but I had this superb idea - instead of just going up in front of the class and present our analysis of the characters, why not lets give the class the characters themselves? So we dressed up to the characters and did the presentation completely in first-person. I dressed up as Richard, which is a homosexual HIV patient who killed himself in the end. Yeah, I'm still thinking how ballsey we all were in coming in front of the class like that.

Kit Kat Competition
This came as a total surprise for me. I entered completely for fun, cause I know I have zero chance to win anything and now I'm in the final eight. Jangan jeles Prakash. I'm grateful that I have so many friends who would take the trouble. Not everyone voted, but no problem, thanks for dropping by anyways.

Transformers
I was so convinced that I would leave the cinema disappointed. There's just too many flops this season. Spiderman 3, Pirates 3, Shrek 3. All big budget, all big names, all disappointing. After 2+ hours, I left totally blown away.

I grew up with the cartoons, the toys action figures - hell, I even had more than one Optimus Prime. I was bred on Transformers dammit! My expectations was high, I really really hoped that Michael Bay wouldn't screw this up for us, the fans... It didn't help when he said earlier that he was never a fan and was actually not interested in directing it, but taking it for some reason in the end. The early art shots of the "redesigned" autobots and decepticons was utterly shocking for me. They were made to look like aliens and Megatron has a stupid looking face like he just ate assam, all puckered up...

But now that I've watched the show, I am relieved and happy. I loved everything about the movie, the special effects, animations, humor (thanks to Shea LeBouf) despite the shaky storyline and lame ending (hoping for a final showdown between Prime and Megatron).

Superb! Mr Bay, you will be getting another RM10 from this fan.

The Penguin
Finally got to spending some quality time with my other half. We're spending lesser and lesser time together recently, I'm busy with my college/freelancing/church while she's been busy with work. We never have a perfect time slot, so when we do spend time, its always something special and memorable. Will miss her terribly when she leaves to Australia in a week's time.

I Need You To Give Me RM10,000 [UPDATEx3]

Ok, the short - Me and Prakash was on our way back from our lunch at UCSI when there was the Kit Kat Bus out at the fountain. They were promoting some competition they were having and it sounded interesting at the time. It's called Break For Better and its about saying into a camera what you need a break from. I didn't have anything better to do, so I went up to the camera in the bus, they said ready, I started screaming like a dog and ended up saying I need a break from myself... how stupidly cheesy right? I couldn't think of anything else, sue me. Then proceeded to take my Kit Kat and left for class.

Fast forward to today. I got a call telling me that I have been selected into the final 8 and told me that if I want to win, get people to vote for me... -_-" yeah I know, I hate it, you hate it... but when I went to check what the prizes were, I flippin flipped and here I am literally begging you, my dear friends, to vote for me. The best thing about this? You don't need to be in Malaysia, or be a Malaysian - just sign up in the Kit Kat site and vote for me.

If you really want to help me out, the voting ends July 3rd, 6 days away, so yeah, there's not much time.

Click here to go the kit kat site and vote for me

So, heres to hoping that I win, hey, at least I would've got something out of looking like a goof... hahahah... Thanks in advance to everyone who would support me. God bless!

[UPDATE 1] There seems to be a problem with their page now, can't seem to click on anything. If anyone uses Internet Explorer and there's no problems, let me know.

[UPDATE 2] Thanks you guys and gals for playing along and taking time out to vote for me. Ultimately, its all in the name of fun.

[UPDATE 3] Voting has ended, now the long wait till July 11th.

I've Got The Flu and The Friends

Yeah, there's something definitely flying around. Me and Joyce have the flu, and we haven't even seen each other for the past week. I think Some of my other college mates have it too, or gonna... Now is the time to stock up on those vits. All these and I still have to finish painting and moving in all the new furniture and prepare sharing for glo on the same day and still cope with a full essay by 26th and another assignment later next week. Ke-ray-ci~

To end with an uplifting closure - I've been hanging out with a couple of people recently at college, and to put it simply, it wouldn't be the same (or as fun) without them. Put your toes together for, in no particular order - Petrina, Chin Yee, Jerrica, Y-Ee, Lydia, Esther, Lai Thing, Ray, Yen, Evelyn, Eva, and of course, Brian!

You're Still Here June?

June 2007 is nearly over and there's so much that's happened

UCSI
This new course in this new college has been just great. Love the new environment. Even changed my sleeping habits. Nowadays am sleeping much earlier. But the best thing would be the people. Not everyone is exactly like me, but thats ok. Have been getting to know lots of people in college and I have only good things to say about each of them so far.

Mid-Term Exams
These next 2 weeks would prove to be the first weeks of real hard work this semester. My midterms are here - Expo Writing is on Thursday, Intro to Mass Comm next week and Visual Comm's Project 2 has just been briefed today.

Glo
When Ian left for UK in May, he left behind Glo and there it plonked into my hands with 0 weeks to prepare O_0 It has been a rough 2 weeks so far in trying to keep the boat afloat - leading the committee, preparing for the sharing, services to run smoothly and all this while trying to keep the people from dying down. Exhausted, but still running and will continue to run no matter what.

Happy-ness
June has proved to be simply amazing when it came to stuff... I finally got my Macbook Pro and got some nice little surprises along with it.

Contrary to what I make it seem, stuff is not the only thing. Well other than not being a thing, she has been just simply amazing.

Joyce is just the best thing that has ever happened to my life, and I'm just grateful to have her. A big fat shout out to you if you're reading this! Love you!

The Renovation
Will be redecorating/refurnishing my room very soon. All my brand new furniture from Ikea has just arrived today. Can't wait to start work on my room this weekend. That would mean one whole post filled with pictures a week from now

14 more days before June is over. More good stuff to come!

Down Petaling Street: a Photog on KL

Back in late May, me and Prakash went down to KL for a little photography session with our dslrs. We headed down on a Sunday afternoon, me with my Canon 400D and him with his 350D. Dataran Merdeka became our starting point.

I decided to wash out the colors and enhance only certain ones to get the look. I think this would capture my feelings walking down those streets that day.

So I present to you - Down Petaling Street


roadside stall offering very cheap lunch, saw a lot of foreigners tho'


a little bit of culture


mango seller (left) and bak kut teh (right)


... and finally my coup de grâce

This is from Prakash's point of view + all his shots here.

My Macbook Pro Has Arrived!!! First Impressions

My brand spanking new Macbook Pro arrived this week and it is *gasp* one beautiful machine. I claim first! First of the new Macbook Pros to arrive in KL!

My Custom Built Macbook Pro Specs
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM
200GB Serial ATA Drive
SuperDrive 8x
nVidia GeForce 8600M GT 256MB
15-inch LED Widescreen Display (Matte)

The Outside
When holding this machine for the first time, I definitely felt the difference in weight and thickness from my Powerbook G4 (look left for the specs). I have played with many Macbook Pros before this, but it just isn't the same when its yours =) Its so light and thin, a dream to hold.

Love the built-in iSight, the new screen is leaps above the previous Macbook Pros (no grain, no uneven back-lighting, no bleed, nada), the magnetic magsafe power cable is great and the built of this thing is just A+, feels super solid in your hands, no lose parts like my Powerbook.

The Inside
Setting it up was a breeze and I got into installing my applications and transferring my documents in no time.

Honestly speaking, the difference in speed is not that huge when you're just doing the usual things like internet browsing, listening to music or typing documents, but when I start using Aperture/iPhoto for my photos or doing my designs in Illustrator, the difference is big. I haven't even started to push my mac to use all 4GB of ram yet... haha...

By the way, Aperture comes pre-installed as a trial with all new Macbook Pros.

Tried bootcamp with both XP and Vista, but I'll leave that for another post. Long story that one.

Dude, that Wasn't Really a Good Review...
I know. But this isn't a review in the first place. I'll share more when I've spent more time with it. For the time being, I am impressed and happy that I waited for this revision and most importantly, this is the first in KL for now. No mac store has stock, let alone custom units. People back in the States and UK are also still waiting for their custom units =D

Keep Moving Forward Hits The 1,000 Mark

*loud bangs and the whole works* My blog reached the 1,000 hits mark on Thursday and so I would like to give a big shout out to all my friends and family who visited my blog and cared to read up about my life. Its been a great few months blogging on blogger and I intend to grow and expand my writing as much as possible. Now, on to the next 1,000!

Safari Available On Windows Today!

Ok, so some of you guys have gotten sick and tired of Internet Explorer on Windows and have moved to Firefox for your internet browsing needs. On the Mac, we always had Safari - beautiful, minimalists look, and easy to use. I loved it until Firefox 2.0 came out. Safari was starting to show its age. It was incompatible (and slow) with a lot of flash sites as well as missing tiny little "new" features that were available on the rest.

But today, Safari 3 beta is out and I am back to using it. Apple fixed everything that I hated about it and made it better. The only thing is that since its beta on Tiger, the gui is still the same, no fancy Leopard GUI.

Major Changes:
1. Tabs are movable
2. Speed is just incredible - launching, page rendering
3. Compatible with all the sites that I visit (almost all, blogger is still a little wacky)
4. Flash is performing well - finally
5. Will have a new look in Leopard

I'm loving this new version despite the beta tag and I have no problems. I've been reading that a lot of people are having installing it, uninstalling it and so forth, but my experience was just flawless.

The coolest thing would be that Apple decided to release it for Windows too. Apparently its 2x faster than Internet Explorer and marginally faster than Firefox.

Windows-using friends, try it out and share your experience with me. Get it here

iPod Nano (PRODUCT) RED Unboxing Pictures!

Fracking cool! Love the color. The pictures may not do it justice, but you really have to see it live. The red is just perfect. I never thought I could like a red thing, but here it is.

iPod Nano (PRODUCT) RED
Capacity - 4GB
Battery Life - 24 hours

Best thing about this? Not available in Malaysia...

Meet The Chiangs

Yesterday night, the Chiangs got together for a little dinner at Royal China, Jalan Ampang in conjuction with a very late Mother's Day and very early Father's Day for my grandes* since they're in KL. Wonderful 7-8 course dinner coupled with complimentary cheap wine is always good in my books. All of us turned up, so it was a pretty good dinner.


* For those who are interested, these are my grandes - grandma on the left and gramps on the right. I was raised by them and its only fitting that in the end I would posses some of their qualities in addition to my parent's. Purely Klanged sinced I was 4, they taught me lots of things. Sometimes not always using the best methods (good for another story), but I think I turned out ok.

Macbook Pro Ordered

Brand New 15" Macbook Pro
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM
200GB Serial ATA Drive
SuperDrive 8x
nVidia GeForce 8600M GT 256MB
15-inch LED Widescreen Display (Matte)

~ with

iPod Nano 4GB (PRODUCT) RED
I'm getting this free with my purchase because of the back to school promo

AppleCare for Macbook Pro
Extends my warranty to 3 years vs the standard 1 year

Ships 13 - 15 June, Delivers 18 - 20 June woOt!

Ian's Flight Out

Last week, Ian, Susie, Winnie and Chee Yong said their goodbyes and left for the UK. It was hard to see close friends leave and even harder if you serve in the same ministry for the longest time together. An hour before take off, we said our goodbyes, slipped in those last minute mini-speeches and gave our last hugs as we saw them pass the gate and into the waiting room.

With Ian's leaving, it would mean me taking over Glo (Canaan's young adults ministry for the uninitiated) and having one less friend around for the next 6 months or so. It might seem nothing - 6 months - but it simply isn't. In a little while, I would taste the bitter and the sweet.

Its going to be hard not hearing Susie's voice, seeing Winnie's smile, having Ian's company.

The Long Long Wait Is Over For Me

Apple ended the wait for me today... But I still want to keep it low on my blog for today in respect of my friend's passing.

New Santa Rosa LED Macbook Pros

A Moment of Silence For Valerie

I have just received news about Valerie an hour ago. She committed suicide last Sunday at her apartment. I will never know for sure why, I will never be able to give a good explanation either, so I'll just leave it as that out of respect.

Rest in peace Valerie

48 More Hours To Something Great

This is it

We'll only know for sure in 48 more hours if it comes true, but no worries. I have lots of college work to keep me occupied.

Parents Teachers Money Death

I find it hard to accept that life is all about getting a job. No one's really happy anyway. I've heard my fair share of the high and mighty still complaining about their lives at the end of it.

So why are we still encouraged by our high school teachers to pursue this empty goal? Why do our parents still emphasize the material rather than the spiritual? Yeah, even Christian parents.

No wonder my generation is the way we are today.

But what can we do? What can I do?