I'm not getting the Edifice

I thought of dropping off a comment at the casio edifice post. but then making a new post on it seems much appropriate when i've decided NOT to get that particular watch.

The watch looks really good, no argues about it. But when it's strapped on my wrist, it grows bigger! yes, the watch is a giant for asian wrist. plus not to mention the full stainless steel construction of the watch and metal strap. wearing the watch is like strapping a brick to the wrist. it is in fact heavier then the cheap rolex knockoff that i owned many years ago. and having a lightweight watch strapped to my wrist for the past two years, i've gotten sensitive to how a watch should weight.

time to look for a full aluminum constructed watch.

SWATCH?

Doom Revisited

I've already uninstalled Diablo 2 and installed this instead XD



The good ol doom. Enhanced with full 3D engine. no more 2d sprites causing headache and nausea. and it has mouse look too!

Yeah, i'm getting nostalgic, replaying old games that i grew up with.

Gundam OO Anime series

After what I heard some friends say about the latest Gundam anime series - Gundam OO, I went ahead and watched the full first season of it. And I have only one thing to say - It is GOOD!

The storyline is much tighter than Gundam Seed Destiny (the only other Gundam series I watched. Haha). And the graphics and animation is just amazingly done as compared to the older series'. I even like the fact that all the mechas are unique in some way (but some Gundam hardcore fans might disagree as some say Gundam OO is a bit too 'altered' from the original series').

Gundam OO season 2 is currently airing in Japan, and I'll try to watch it one by one once I find time.



And because of this series, it has sparked my love for Gundams! Of course, I was always interested in their model kits for quite a long time, but this gave it the push that was needed.

Recently, went to Famitoys @ Kota Damansara. Prices are competitive and the boss there is very nice. This is the keychain that I bought recently. It's supposed to be an original. Costs RM10. Cute, huh?



This is the rest of the Gundams:
- 1/100 OverFlag (one of the modified Flag mecha units in Gundam 00)
- SD BB Gundam Exia (Gundam Exia is the star mecha in the series. He's melee-focused which is why I love him!)
- Black Action Base (to be used with the OverFlag once I've completed it)



For now, I'll just start very slowly I guess. The BAKUC 2009 will be coming in June 2009 so I guess I have about 6 months more to prepare for it!

I've found a cure for LYN addiction

It's called facebook LOL


seriously, it's much more addictive then LYN kopitiam. Been almost a week since i last log in to post. anyways, I was at SIC for HPC last sunday. Previous track days was just play-play without proper time keeping. Now i know how slow i really am on the tracks.

Left 4 Dead - Awesome game!

OMG. This game has got to be one of the best games I've played lately.
Great plots, characters and gameplay. And best of all, a revolutionary team-based multiplayer system for a mass-zombie game!
My bro just got it recently from a pre-order and I just played it once and loved it. I guess Valve (creators of Half-Life 2) have done it again.

Pic of the flat-packed original box (malaysian version):

Makan with Alex n WK

Last Sunday we met at Times Square for some makan. Forgot the name of this restaurant in Times Square. The food there is presented pretty well. Here are some of the highlights. :D

Fish fillet with aloevera sauce:



Lamb Chops:


I guess have to wait for Alex or WK to give a review as I didn't eat any of them. haha

Casio Edifice

This is the watch I was talking about. Almost 1K (before discount) About RM600 plus for the silver bracelet.

I like the red markings and CF face, like racing gauges. plus the pattern of the strap is like caring tires.

I think i'm going for full black.

DIY iPod speaker

Found this in LYN hardware section. Going to try this later, LOL.

Hmm... the picture too big for this blog.

right click the picture and click "view image" for firefox users. for ie users...



please switch to firefox, XD

paintball auto-turret

AWESOME!

my new phone, finally

More to come XD

Watch-collecting? Haha.

Just bought this Seiko Sportura Honda F1 Racing at retail price of RM2,000 last night. The main features that caught my attention:
- The looks
- The thin-and-wide foot print
- Sapphire Glass (just love this glass since with my Tissot watch which even under heavy use, does not have any scratches even until now)
- Alarm function (previously not available on my Tissot chronograph watch)


*picture taken from: http://www.testseek.com/home_electronics/watches/clocks/seiko_sportura_honda_f1_racing-p-47942b88-a67e-f986-809f-4ab76d8d0aab.html

This would be my second Seiko watch following the first one 3 years back.

Now thinking back, for the price of this watch, I could buy a full-blown air-brush set with paints and also a Gundam Perfect Grade kit. LOL.

Room Rebuild

Just thought of converting my study room into a full home-office.

So far now I'm planning to just repaint the walls. Haven't decided on the colour yet. Any suggestions? xD

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1

I saw an advertisement for Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 in the papers this morning. No review on mobile review yet.
Get?

btw, Marcus got a new phone! the E71

The Awesomeness of China Phone

While waiting for my car to ready, we went phone shopping at Mines shopping center. I was looking for a phone to replace the bulky Nokia 9330, and also a dual sim phone capable for my dearest. Coincidentally Marc and WK were there at Serdang to COD some gundam kits.

Three things that I liked about Mines shopping center mobile phone outlets. Firstly its situated in a large, open air environment, brightly lit, with a high celling, a very comfortable experience compared to the cluster phobic feel of sungi wang and some corners in lowyat plaza.
The other thing I liked is the sellers there are willing to let the user try the phones, unlike snobbish snobs in sungai wang and lowyat where the customer have to look interested in a purchase to convince the phone shop/counter owner or the ah beng who runs the shop/counter to let the you try the phone.
Lastly, the variety of phones available there is astonishing. Other then major brands, there are also least famous brands like the year old malaysian AP distributor CSL which also sells phone in their own branding. (refer picture above)

My first experience with China phones was by brother's D600 knockoff. It looked like the real deal, except for the primitive user interface, lousy camera sensor, lack of upgradeable software and exceptionally loud speakers. The phone was still good when he upgraded to a W810i the following year.

The phones sold under the CSL branding can only be described as a mobile phone Frankenstein. Bits and pieces of sell able features were included in the phone feature. Most mid range CSL phones comes with 262k color 2"-3" touch screen TFT screen. Almost all of them comes with dual sim support, either single sim standby or for both sims to activate simultaneously. And they even package a TV tuner modulator with it and it also comes with a retractable foot long antenna. Camera, radio, MP3 and video playback is a standard feature for the entire CSL line. All these for less then RM700 (midrange). In fact, some of the low end phones also have most of these features, it's hard to differentiate high end phone from the mid to the low end, unlike big players who have clearly drawn the lines between models, except for K750i the first phone to blur the lines in the SE series.

My only gripe about the CSL phones is the limitations of the software and poor camera sensor. Funny why I complain about software when I hardly install new application in my 9300. probably because "having and not needing" is better then "needing and not have it". The sellers claimed that there are many downloadable software for the phones in the official website, but after checking, I only found one. The camera sensors used varies from 1.3mp (low end phones) to 8mp autofocus + 3X optical zoom (high end phone). Even with the high end 8mp autofocus + 3X optical zoom, it failed to capture bright, sharp images. CSL K800 even comes with xenon flash, and yet images captured 6 feet away is dark. Using the zoom will only make darker images with allot of noise. That's one feature China phones did not get right, dubious quality control.

New Hobby Coming Up

http://www.bharian.com.my/Current_News/BH/...055547/Article/

oh boy, oh boy, i'm so excited now.
hope that it will be legalized, so i can bring in cheap contraband airsoft springers from China. Any maybe one or two full metal built TokyoMauri rifles.

Thanks Guys!!!

Look what WK and Marc got me for birthday.

You guys are the best. will take shots of the completed shelf.

Alex Bday Prez

Got this present for Alex's birthday just now. Try to guess where it's from by the label on the box. Have to wait for him to set up it then for the real thing to be shown! hehe

Yummy Lamb!

Had this amazingly delicious roast lamb few weeks back. Bought it 'to-go' at the night market in Section 14, PJ which they had right before 'break fast' time for Muslims. It's roasted then chopped, and mixed with some sauce and onions. Cost RM10 for the whole thing.

Nokia E71

Don't think I'll be interested with an RC tank anymore when I saw THIS at the Nokia showroom at 1U. retails for RM1.7k XD

Anyways, after much consideration, I don't think I'll be starting a new hobby, in fact, I think I have way too many hobbies, 1/6 military action figure, Car related (modding, track racing, touge), movies, blogging. I hardly have time to stare at four blank walls.

Terrarium?

After reading about it here (http://allmalaysia.info/news/story.asp?file=/2005/10/15/pastimes/11957436&sec=mi_pastimes), I wonder if this is the hobby that I want. It's pretty interesting since I do like these cool-looking things. But then, it is kind of a passive hobby. Mmmm. Furthermore, the price for a landscaped terrarium is RM300-1000. Worth it?

The place is at Bangsar Village if we want to check it out. xD

Marc's Hobby (Just a suggestion)

Being a 1/6 military freak, I'd and probably should influence Marcus into my income depriving hobby. Till date I think I've spent way over 7k in my 1/6 hobby alone, with the latest being a RM345 purchase of SS CIA SAD ops figure. That's nothing compared to 1.75k lump sum spent acquiring a retired 1/6 collector. And I'm itching over another retiring collector's collection of 6 boxed figure for 1.1k which I'm trying hard to resist. After all, I'm broke >.<

Getting into any collecting hobby, the first thing that one need is a good display case. Yes, get the case first before getting the figure. The cheapest case is always self assembled bookshelf form Tesco/Carefour/Giant hypermarkets. Without a proper display case, your collection are exposed to the hazardous, value depriving substance called dust.

After getting that, only proceed in buying whatever collectibles.

Other then 1/6, I've collected die cast metal scaled cars, 6" Street Fighter II action figures (from SOTA toys) and gashapons. One thing about those PVC gashapons is how dust seems to like them. And it tend to get sticky after years in the shelf, probably due to reaction to the Malaysian heat. Which is also why I sold off my gashapon collection before it deteriorate any further.

Here are some less wallet damaging collectibles. Articulated figurines!



Pics from XL-Shop

Should I start a hobby in model kits? Mmmm.

Just suddenly felt the urge to start this. Maybe model kits of WWII/military stuff, or perhaps collecting some anime stuff like nendoroids such as in the pic below (image from xl-shop.com).



I'd be interested to start purchasing like a variety of R/C stuffs but Alex and WK seems not to like them (although it'll most likely be temporary... like until I get bored =p). Haha. At least now, Alex is a kaki of 1/6th figures already; so maybe starting a hobby in model kits is not too far off. lol.

Or what other hobbies can one get into besides all these? Please don't mention tech gadgets or phones, as I'm almost sick of all of them already!! @.@

Shout Mix Chat/Shout Box

Added Shout Mix chat widget.

Bukit Tinggi Sunday Drive Ver 2.0

As Alex has did the well-documented itinerary of what we did, it's now picture spamming time!

Let's start with our breakfast at a McDonald's drive-thru along the highway to Bukit Tinggi.
Nothing beats having hashbrowns in the morning. It is so fulfilling~



McD Big Breakfast set



Welcome to Berjaya Hills (inside Bukit Tinggi).
Makes you feel like you're somewhere in Europe in this picture!



More western feel here. The drawbridge entrance to the place.



It feels different there. Sorta like you are in Venice (without the water).



The castle-like convention centre in the vicinity.



The tower where we can walk up to have a great view of the entire place.



We tooked some pictures there of ourselves too!

WK doing his modelling pose. xD



Alex and Lian Chee here.


Marc & Cherry here.



When we went down, there was a moat-area which had some nice swans. Two blacks and two whites.

One of the white ones looks the way he is. Very angry!
It wanted wanted a piece of our hands as we tried to touch it. =.=''



One of the black swans. Somewhat more elegant looking, and polite too! Alex fed it some groundnuts and it seemed to like it. Haha.



The buggy that goes to two places: The Japanese Tea House & The Rabbit Farm.



Check out this sign. World's first Japanese Tea House in the Tropical Forest.
Now, who'd want to build a Japanese Tea House in a Tropical Forest in the first place? Hahaha. Anyway, it's pretty interesting.



One of the tea houses in the place. Nice ambience.



As part of the Japanese theme, we have Japanese koi fishes as well.



Waterfalls here and there and some nicely-made Japanese-style terrace, steps and bridges.



Next, the rabbit farm. It's a petting zoo where we can actually play with the rabbits as we like. However, these baby rabbits (which was off limits to visitors) caught my eye. Cute~



For some reason, there were some donkeys there too. lol.



After the whole ordeal, we were pretty tired and haven't even had lunch! See WK here feeling really bored and gone a bit nuts. Haha.



We went back to Kepong, KL for some local food. Here's the prawn mee that we had. Slurpp~



Should we go again? It's a pretty good way to spend time on a Sunday (including the winding uphill/downhill slopes!) :D

Now, where are WK's pictures from his high-tech phone??? ^_^

Bukit Tinggi Sunday Drive

It was more then just a drive up Bukit Tinggi. In the end, we ended up sight seeing (which cost each of us RM16 entrance fee).

The drive was set back an hour later for Marc to get some extra snooze. But everything else went according to plan, we had breakfast at McD Gombak Stop, then shoot for Bukit Tinggi via Karak highway. Traffic was minimal. There were vehicles here and there, but traffic was smooth flowing and surprisingly, no road hogs and I was cruising 120 all the way till 1km from the Bukit Tinggi exit where I slowed down with indicators on to beacon Marc.

On the way up (past the first guard house), we passed a group of yellow and white skylines and RX7 who were calmly exiting the hill. My initial guess was Eugine and his group of friends, and true enough it was them, since he blogged about it. When the super cars passed, and no one in sight I floored it and charged up hill. It's been a really long time since I last touge. And with the seasoned 1 year old PP2 tires on my Neo, I wasn't loosing much traction. Although I did lost traction mid corner a couple of times, but I didn't loose control at all. Traction was easily gained the moment I corrected my slip (weather over or under steer). But I do need to have my front suspensions looked into since I heard a dull thump from the front suspension pillars twice mid corner and once on the camouflaged speed bump.

After that short but fun rempit session, we bought entry tickets to access Berjaya Hill Resort attractions, The French Village, Japanese Village, Botanical Garden and Rabbit Park. It was Marc and WK first time there, so sweetheart and I became tour guides and camera man for them. We took allot of shots at the French Village and enjoyed the cool breeze at the look out tower, opposite the clock tower. The Japanese Village is next via tourist truck/buggy ride. Its actually a lorry fitted with seats at the rear to ferry passengers (like those in zoo negara). It was inadvisable to touge up this smaller, narrower, steeper road with much more blind spots and heavier traffic since it will be accessed by the tourist transport vehicle every 30 minutes. Furthermore the visitors carpark is quite a walk away from the entrance. Many more shots were taken at the Japanese garden as lighting conditions were pleasant to the sensitive skin, but enough to take clear and sharp images. Sweetheart and I fed some fishes while at it. We did not enter the Botanical Garden though since none of us are interested in plants.

After that we drove back down to the Rabbit Park cum petting zoo to molest some rabbits before heading back home. It rained on the way back, forcing me to reduce speed dramatically. and be gentler in the corners. But that didn't stop me from overtaking slower moving vehicles.

Only Marc and WK brought cameras and camera phones. My phone doesn't come with a camera :(

so, please post some pics guys.

So simple, yet so delicious!

There's just something about fried rice that is nice. I don't know why I just love it. I could eat it everyday. :D

Here's the fried rice that my maid cooked recently. She's pretty good at frying rice. With a little bit of eggs, onions, chilli padi, salted fish; we have a perfect combo!

Bukit Tinggi Drive

Marc confessed his rempit obsession. Since I'm a spirited driver as well, lets play at a nice beginer's touge route, this sunday (21 Sept). This month will be the best time since the road will be clear during fasting month, and it has been sunny the past week except for one or two showers. Unlike the previous month, when it rains, it pours.

Agenda
RV point: LDP (damansara) toll
Leave RV point: 8.00am
ETA (bkt Tinggi): 9.00am (inclusive of breakfast stop)
What to expect: Speed bump midway through the course, look out for sign. the bumps are unpainted.

Can you be as cool as this?

Oh yea. This guy is like ultimately cool. Some kind of guy who wants to be a statue. Just sat there in a fixed position without any movement whatsoever. Fantastic (as this is the first time I've seen it here in KL). Alex and WK was there too.

Gave him RM1 for the effort. :D

Diablo 2, anyone?

So, I've installed this 10 year old game last night. There's not much computing power in my laptop for crysis, and Alien Shooter doesn't have co-op multiplayer.

Yes, i'm thinking of playing this old classic again, multiplayer style. XD

[Discussion] Theme Change

I think I'll implement a few new stuff. Like a discussion blog post. The rules are simple. Just post your reply here in the comment box below.
Lets start our first discussion, samadpalz theme need to be changed. so, what are your suggestions???

I've started with the dots theme for my 1/6 blog (yes, i'm blog whoring) and then modify it extensively to include custom images and such.

Secondly, i really like tags and tag cloud format for a label widget. My friendster WP blog has it, but i wouldn't want to re tag every single 200 over post in that blog. Since this blog is "new" with very little post, how about changing it into tag cloud format? I've scanned through the widgets but couldn't find it just yet. have yet to use the search function.

It's about time! (quoted from SC2 trailer!)

Yeah.. It's about time. Haha.
OMG... 2 years?? Good thing you said something about this the other day, Alex. Hahaha.
Ok. Time to start posting again now... errr..wait.... in the next post =p haha.
Will update .... tomorrow! xD

Now, on another note, how do we 'nudge' WK to start posting here regularly. LOL!

Yes, I'm Rusty

This blog has been sleeping for way too long. 2 years man. WTF?
It's like the dark lord has unleashed his reign of terror upon us.

So, why dig up an old grave?

I got all hyped up when friendster finally upgrade their blogging engine to Wordpress 2.6 about a week ago. So, yesterday, on an outing with Existenz and Shockk, I brought up this matter to them. Shockk is more then willing to contribute again, and Existenz is as usual, need a nudge before he agrees.

Before this, I wasn't much of a blogger until the Samsung giveaway contest.

So, it can be said that blogging is going to dominate much of my time. There is one more blog that i'm planning to revive. My 1/6 blog. I'll be working on the theme first, then will need to borrow Shockk's tripod for some photo shoot of my army man and woman.

Till then, signing out.

Alex a.k.a. Rusty