"Celcom, Spring, Doraemon!"

Festive season is upon us, driving to work is a breeze, time for some much needed R&R!

1. Celcom Broadband
Modo was giving subsidy for broadband usage of RM90/month but the account must be under employee's name. Darn, asked TM to change the Streamyx from my bro's name to mine. Cannot pula ask me to cut the line and re-register a line, but need 1 month! If that didn't sound ridiculous to them when they say it, I dunno what will! So went to scout for other broadband services, ended up with Celcom Broadband, heard of this nice offer from WM, RM98/month, Modem RM399, Trial period 1 week.



Well, on the 6th day, I cut the line and got a full refund for the modem! Gosh it was too slow, even with HSDPA. Nice try though, certainly has it's advantages, but it's considerably slower than Streamyx and watching YouTube was a nightmare. Heh, the shop and Celcom didn't even ask why I terminate.. must be used to it alrdy!

2. The Spring
Remember this place I was considering last time? Well, last Sat they released the bumi lots. It was selling red hot last time, with people queueing up at 3AM. So how bout this time?



Nah, still many units available. I went at 4.30PM *almost* bought one unit. But RM323K for 925 sq ft, leasehold, 23rd floor with no swimming pool doesn't really make sense. You can get a double storey terrace at Butterworth for that price! I'd pay RM280K for it, mostly coz I like the design and concept of waking up to face the sea, but not RM323K. Mr.Salesman persistently ask me to reconsider. Screw..:D With the economy being predictably gloomy next year, might be wise to play wait and see!

3. Doraemon
Haha.. you'd be wondering what Doraemon has to do with Christmas @ Queensbay. Probably the new movie out, but hey, don't we all love this cute friend!



Ok, that's it. The fact that I'm blogging from office shows something :P Will be going back to Melaka tomorrow morning. Back to Penang on 30/12. Then, we will be flying (yes, Fireflyz!) to Langkawi for a 3D2N vacation. Hurray~~!

Ok, signing off, take care and have a great holiday!

"Oversized shipment in!"

It's the holiday/year-end season again, and time for Hasbro to triple their income with things like these!


Jabba's Rancor with Luke Skywalker, from which we can do this:

And the Ultimate Battlepacks:

Battle of Christophsis

Battle at the Sarlacc Pit

Ultimate battlepacks cost RM249.90 last year but now they cost RM349.90 each. The high US Dollar exchange is sure hurting us! Even the Rancor costs RM249.90... :-S

"Vintage Bulgaria"

On our first visit to the German bar & restaurant, we noticed the neighbouring shop was pretty attractive with its classical European home design. So, why not just give it a try! We reached early, so managed to get one of the better positioned tables (alot under reservations). Turns out this place serves Bulgarian food.


Top: The pretty deco. Below: Gf ordered the set of the day, which comes with this ultra-tasty, thick with spices mushroom soup! Yummy!!


Top: My Chicken Spindle. They gave chicken breast, which isn't really my type becoz its usually hard and dry... *usually*. But man, this one is wrapped with a whole bunch of fragrant herbs and spices and grilled just to perfect tenderness! Truly respect the skill of the chef; amazing!
Below: The set of the day comes with Salmon with lemon herbs and cheese. Umm, maybe should have left the cheese out, but otherwise, it is superb. The salmon is very fresh and juicy. Phew~~


Top: It also comes with dessert like some kind of choco cream on top of fried sugar. It's a bit weird initially gets better as you eat along. Below: The shop (on the left), just beside the German bar (right).

The bill came up to about RM80+, so it's on the higher end, but my gosh, the food is really awesome! Unfortunately, I still dunno what's the difference between Bulgarian food and German food: to me it's all Western food :P

"Raymond Farewell Part 2"

Raymond had a 2nd farewell lunch, this time with the whole department, at Paddington House of Pancake, Queensbay! For alot of us, this was the first time there. Hmm.. pancakes, eh...

Top: Early birds, Raymond, Fren2, Doris, Leopard. Total number was about 25 person. Bottom: This is what I ordered, recommended by Doris. Doesn't look like much, buuuut it's pretty filling! 2 huge sausages (with cheese inside), 2 beef thing, 1 hash brown, and 2 pancakes.

Top: Raymond's lunch/desert. Nice presentation I have to say. And Ninja generously ordered 2 Flaming Volcano desert (RM65 each!) for all of us to share! Ice-cream's nice, and the banana slices, but no one touched the pancakes :P

Although Sauron mentioned earlier that we split the bill among ourselves, eventually big big boss offered to give us a treat and foot the bill which came to about RM700! Hehe, nice! Overall, the food was pretty decent, just that you can't really eat too much of these things-- will easily geli :P

"Scammed!"

Today was the results announcement of the department Patent Competition. The team with the highest number of submissions by the end of Nov wins. The prize: RM3000. We won the previous round, which offered RM2000. This round, my team was engaged in a tightly contested fight with Ninja's team. Fight until lunch also skip :P In the end, we submitted 12 patents while they had 11. Hurray!

Or so we thought. Today, out of the blue came a dispute. The committee suddenly came up with another rule that in order to be counted, the submissions must have their Docket Number generated (which happens when the patent has been acknowledged by all parties). And based on that Docket count yesterday night, we 'lost' to Ninja's team 8-10! We went to check our Docket Numbers this morning. Turns out, we had all 12 generated vs Ninja's 10. So, there should not be any dispute, because either way, we win.

Not really. The committee put another rule that the Docket must have been generated by the 30th of Nov. What?! And to defuse this situation, they suggested that my team and Ninja's share the RM3000. And why? "Aiya, last time you guys won it already..." By this time, we were absolutely furious. My issue:

1. Why are more and more rules added to this competition? It's like they are trying to find ways NOT to let us win!

2. If you don't want us the previous winners to win, then just tell them upfront. All winners cannot compete in the next round. Then we wouldn't have to waste time writing those patents.

3. For me, it isn't really a problem of the money. It's the feeling of being scammed.

The final result is still not known, but clearly this totally unnecessary episode has left us feeling quite upset! :-S

"More food~~!"

Here comes more food!

Last Friday, had Raymond's farewell at Chilli's Gurney Plaza. Yeah, during office hour: went out at 11am, reach back office at 3pm :P

Attendees.... Raymond, SA, Fren2, Leopard, DOB, Doris. Yasz was taking the pic.




For starters we had Nachos and Buffalo Wings. Nothing too special, but nice. And I ordered: Swiss Mushroom Burger. Gigantic portion. *gulp*

It's been like 4 months since I came back from US, swearing not to eat burgers anymore. Well, I probably shouldn't have ordered this because the first bite I took, the phobia of burgers came haunting me again... ugh.. wonder if I'll ever recover from burger-phobia! But the fries tasted nice though. Fyi, I could hardly finish the meal.....!

But the thing about Chilli's is that it's pretty costly. This burger costs RM23 with choco milkshake RM10, plus tax comes up to about RM38. I'd be fine if it tastes special, but honestly, it's not bad, just pretty standard fare.

Next, last Sat nite, went to Ingolf's Kneipe German bar and restaurant @ Tanjung Bungah. We had some trouble finding the place, made a few rounds, got caught in a jam... man, the place better be worth all this trouble! When we reached there, it was packed, but luckily got a table for us. Hmm, place was not well designed IMHO, coz the echo from people chatting/laughing makes it abit noisy.... :-S



Wasn't long before food arrived. Gf ordered grilled dori fish, mine was grilled pork. Mmm.... nice :D The meal cost about RM60+, and I ordered beer some more. Should be worth a second go next time!

"ASIMO @ Queensbay Mall!"

Heard from gf that ASIMO was in QB, and today was the last day! Went there at 2.30PM but QB was super-crowded with massive crawl to the carpark. Sorry la.. we try again later ;) Then 6.30PM went there, ah.. clear! The next show was at 8PM, so we went makan first. Then 7.30PM start gathering around the stage area. Man, freaking crowded, especially with little kids running around :-S



Pretty interesting show (though ASIMO's 'voice' was kinda fake). His movement was pretty fluid, and he can run and dance too!

Got video also, later upload it here ;)

"Happy Birthday to me Part 2!"

And here they are, my gift to myself.. Haha.. 2 carton of Star Wars!




Vehicles! Homing Spider Droid, V-19 Torrent Starfighter (woo-hoo!!), Anakin's Modified Starfighter and Griveous' Starfighter (which I already have :-S)



Clone Wars basic figures! Yeah, after I rewatch the Clone Wars movie, find it really nice. And best of all, now they continue the adventures on a half-hour show every week!

Wave 2. Got this from Parkson Gurney Plaza on the 1st day of the reopening of the Gurney New Wing! That day was damn packed with people. Not much to the new wing though; most of the shops are already seen in Queesbay Mall. But I got a shock when I saw Parkson's new toy dept filled with these new basic figures! That's why have to go to any new mall openings on the first day ;) In fact, by the time I arrived (12+), some of the nicer figures already gone :-S



And Wave 3, with Count Dooku and Asajj Ventress! When I get the rest of the figures (notice I dun have Wave 1) then can start posing them for dioramas :P

Also, Toys R Us is having the sale period, and some things start to go for clearance. Found these 2 Evolution packs, with RM15 discount each! Amazing. Some more these are new stocks :P Also, I used the RM30 gift voucher from TRU, so got these 2 came for a pretty sweet deal :D

Ok, that's it for this month. Next month will be a blast with the Christmas/year end shipments coming ;)

"Happy Birthday to me!"

Thanks for all the wishes! And the trend this year seems to be writing on the Facebook wall.. interesting!

What else to do for birthdays except to EAT. Yes, eating again so soon after the Rasa Sayang buffet :P This time I wanted to give Dragon-i another try. The first time went there ordered the 'la-mien' and 'siew long pau'. This time wanna try their other trademark dishes ;)



Went there early to avoid the weekend crowd. Nice peanuts. While waiting for the food.



Which didn't take long. Tofu. And gf ordered la-mien again, but this one comes with the side dish.



And the main dish: Their trademark Braised pork. And comes with these mini buns to stuff them in.

The tofu is really good. The la-mien too. But best of all has to be the braised pork. When you sink your teeth into the fat layers mix with the tender meat, mix with the sauce... phew~~~ straight away in heaven dy! It's really THAT good!! But we seriously underestimated the portion: this could easily be a serving good for 3 person :-S

In all, really enjoyed eating here. The price came to about RM70++ yeah, not cheap! But CIMB credit card (gf paid) got 10% off, so it came to about RM60++. Not too bad.

Dinner time. What to eat. Seriously, after the consecutive sessions of good food, I was feeling reluctant to eat anymore. Too much of a good thing ain't good! But gf say "it's your birthday" so end up at Ichyo....



More food... Gf likes to order the noodle set as it comes with the superb garlic rice.



My Bento set. Got chicken (nice), fish (nice) and salmon (not so fresh). Ichyo has it's high points, but still feel overall Sakae Sushi is better, especially the wasabi :P The bill came up to about RM50+ I think.

Ok, that's it for food! Ugh, really eat too much dy... Next, let me show you MY gift to myself! ;)

"Team building 2008 @ Rasa Sayang"

This year's ATS team building was Makan-makan @ Shangri-la Rasa Sayang Resort, Batu Ferringi! Woo-hoo~~! Although there were some disagreements from the managers (what does makan have to do with team building-- more like body building!), they eventually relented. Hey, what other activity can you guarentee maximum attendance??


Admiring the beautiful surrounding...



... but really hungry dy, so lets go straight to the food! And we are having the buffet at Spice Market cafe. On display are some of the spices famous in our Asian cooking! The smell is really strong at the cafe's entrance... Mmm............. :D



And here are the two most drool-inducing food I found: Top show a variety of Indian curry and rice and below is our local fav satay, grilled to perfection! The meat chunks are tender and topped off with the outstanding peanut sauce! Also on table is Tandoori chicken: Insanely good!!

The various food counters. The theme that day was International Cuisine. We basically took a little portion of each, just to sample the taste. You can bet by the end of it, we were stuffed! In fact, I didn't even managed to try the Japanese food :-S Not all the food tasted nice, in fact most of them are pretty standard fare. The Chinese food was mixed; some outstanding but some flat, the Western food you HAVE to try the heavenly Seafood Lasagna, stuffed with huge prawns! The fresh seafood was also mixed: mussels were good, but several of the prawn/mini-lobster variants were not really fresh (and had the 'raw' smell, eww...).



Desert were cakes (so-so), fruits (by that time, nearly wanna muntah dy) and my other fav: The chocolate fountain! Somehow managed to find space for a few sticks of strawberry dipped in the melting chocolate ~~~~ phew



Top: the guys paying, and bottom: the group photo. Guess how much it cost per person? RM110++!!!! So, lets thank Modo again... coz I definitely won't spend this much on food! :P

"Modo Technical Symposium '08"

By great 'fortune', my paper was selected to be PRESENTED in this year's Modo Symposium at Equatorial Hotel. And we were also put up for POSTER session. Oops. No dropping by just for lunch this year!



Early morning already had to meet up with the guys and prepare for the Poster session. There are four of us in the paper, so we split the task among ourselves: Fren2 and Raymond manned the poster booth for the morning session, Yasz and I go on stage for oral presentation in the afternoon.


Breakfast time...

With the boss

Inside the main hall. Yawn. Now see a lot of people. After lunch more than half disappears!

The poster hall

Main2 before the crowd comes. Too bad our poster when printed out seemed so different than the PowerPoint version.

So we stand there for 2 hours++ entertaining people and explaining our paper. Mostly entertaining friends la :P WM and LK's booth were just beside and there were so many other friends that day... Hahaha...

Lunch. Gosh, lets forget about lunch. The food, especially the fried rice redefines BAD. Furthermore, feeling the butterflies in the stomach, nervous for the presentation after this. Erk.



Mine was the 3rd presentation after lunch. Man, just before my turn, the butterflies in the stomach spinning like mad. Damn, now I know how Cow, Shawn, LK and the rest felt when they had to present! When I walked up the podium, took the mic, face the audience, I froze. Blank. Shit. :-S But thankfully as I started talking, slowly, the hours of rehearsal began to calm the mind and on we go with the show!


Heheh...

Blablabla

Duno they understand or not...:-S

Amazingly it actually became fun after awhile! And then I handed over to Yasz for the 2nd part...

She was also enjoying the moment!


The Q&A session. Can afford to smile dy :D

When it was finished, felt sooooo lega~~! And for that effort, we got RM30 Sunshine voucher each and a laminated cert.

"Star Wars: Force Unleashed"

Thanks to fellow Jedi Knight Shawn for pointing out the link for ALL THE CUTSCENE and CINEMATICS from the FORCE UNLEASHED game that is available on every other platform except PC. The good thing is, that means we get to know what the story's about without having to go through the game! :D

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:


Part 4:


Part 5:


Part 6: Light Side Ending


Part 6: Dark Side Ending

"The Return!"

This morning was still thinking whether should go to work. The fever seems to have died out, but my whole body felt like just been electrocuted by Palpatine... bzzzttt!! Every step is painful, turning my eyes to the corners also painful. On Friday I was looking through the Dinner & Dance photos with this flu-like symptom. Suddenly I was struggling to open my eyes. Brain processing seems to stop. Thoom. Lie on the bed. Cover with blanket. Shit, it didn't look good.

Next morning see the doctor. High fever. You know how when you have fever, your body starts to feel extremely uncomfortable. Feel cold, yet not cold. Joints aching. Head like gonna explode. Gosh, I was so glad to see the medicine for fever! The only thing is, it takes awhile to kick in! And then you can sleep well. Until the effect goes off, then struggle again! Sleeeeep.... Medicine...... Sleeeep.... Medicine......

2 Days later. Monday. Although sad that weekend gone just like tat, but hey, at least fever's gone..... or did it? No... Fever returned. Knock out again. Sleeeeeep.... Medicine.... Finally eat medicine until finished dy. Antibiotic also finished. Seems like recover dy. Ahh.. Except the part where the body aches like hell! Bzztt!! Ouch.

Btw, this Sunday is Penang Bridge Run. I put myself in for Fun Run category, 10km, no prize one. If the body can still take it, I'm gonna go for it! Starts at 6.30AM, hopefully can get some nice view from atop the bridge! Or maybe in the end just sleep through the whole thing and forget about it. Haha... such interesting times!

One yet another side note, although I was half-dead on Saturday, I still manage to catch Arsenal v Man U. Already a contender for Game of the Season, the quality of football on display was majestic. Of course, Arsenal winning 2-1 made it all the sweeter! Still, full credit to Man U as clearly either side could've won that day. Go Gunners!

"Fever and Flu"

The author is now down with high fever, flu and bacterial rashes on his body. He wishes for speedy recovery so that he can go out and whack some nice kari sembilang and killer pari. Have a nice day.

"Motorola AURA"

Always wanted a Modo phone? Here's one you will like!

It's called Motorola AURA:





and a preview video



Hurry, hurry, you can buy it here. Only USD1999!

Support Modo! Hidup Modo!