Confession of a Shopaholic – sepet edition

Dear Mama,

Today I have confirmed my strong belief (and your constant accusations) that your dear son is indeed a shopaholic. The hint not being the countless amount of CDs purchased after downloading them first. Not the accumulating BluRays that will never be unwrapped. Not the monthly credit card bills that *almost* hit the roof.

My dear Mama,

Today is a particularly bad day for me, which almost never happens. But by which a bad day for my definition would be a bonus for your daughter. It’s a combination of scorching hot sun, talking to smart people, idiot drivers and cumulating documents on my in tray. But when I look at my super worn out work shuz I just can’t stand it but rush out to buy a new pair (if my boss is somehow a freak who reads blogs of their subordinates, no by rush out I mean after work hours).

Mama,

When you see me still sleeping when my beloved sister has left home for work you would have figured going to work is not my passion. So why oh why am I feeling perky all of a sudden after providing cash to the guy on the other side of the counter? Am I not paying for accessories that reminds me of days of torture? But still its almost feeling like I just purchased yet another pair of RAM to add onto my best pal in the world – my PC that never sleeps (bless that poor soul).

Oh dear mama, since when is a pair of working shuz = a pair of performance RAM?

* ok, for those not in my social cycle, note that I’m neither a geek, nor an introvert although this article may suggest so. nor am I a mama’s boy. Most facts here are made up to mock a dear ‘non-imaginary’ friend of mine. But fact be told, yes this urban youth shall now and forever be a certified shopaholic!

The Fray – nice tunes

Here I was, listening to the newly downloaded album (read pirate) of The Fray’s self-titled second album, and I got really interesting. So I thought, hey, I’m bored at home, lets go buy this at the mall..

So why did I buy this album 4 months after its release? As I was watching Revenge of the Fallen for the second time in cinemas yesterday, I started noticing this song playing in the background when Mikaela was in the workshop. As I found on the soundtrack listing the song is ‘Never Say Never’. Well you must admit, seeing Megan Fox and having the lyrics ‘..don’t let me go, don’t let me go..’ in the background really makes one.. well, have imaginary hopes ;)

ya and what business I have watching the movie again? Four words – Megan, Fox, and slo-mo running. (or was that 5?).

No jewel case for the CD, just cardbox cover like my Minutes to Midnight album. But surely this album deserves to be sync-ed into my iPod. And it sounded way better than downloaded copy after I imported it from the CD at 128VBR AAC.

I would say this album is cool, because I noticed this band since their first album, comparing both in my judgement this album is an improvement over the first. The songs help to set a nice evening atmosphere in my room. Noticable tracks are ‘Syndicate’, ‘Absolute’, ‘You Found Me’, ‘Never Say Never’, and ‘Where The Story Ends’. Love the instrument arrangements first, will study the lyrics booklet later. From what I’ve heard the lyrics should be good..

Oh, go download the free HD copy of ‘You Found Me’ MV at apple.com/quicktime, you can find it in the HD gallery. Nice one.

Energ!z!ng: Herbal Duck Drumstick Soup Noodles, Bidor

I fondly remember this place since I was a kid. Almost every year my parents would drop by whenever we are driving to Penang on our annual visit ‘balik kampung’. Been meaning to blog about this since then, but there are always some form of inconvenience; I'm either lazy, and oh ya, there was no blogging in 1985 =D.

So this time around I had to travel to Penang (again) for work. On the way home I was feeling sleepy, in fact I was feeling sleepy since passing Taiping. Then decided to drop by Bidor to rest a bit. And eat some noodles.

Name of place is Restoran Pun Chun, located on one of the busiest streets of Bidor. It is a corner shop, taking up two shop-lot space. It is not pretentious, still retaining the authentic feel of kopi-tiam from ages back. The restaurant serves a variety of dishes (which I could not explore yet) and tasty biscuits and bakeries. Note: This place serves non-halal food. Yum

The dish of concern? Here it is! Hot, tasty, ENERGIZING! For only RM6.60 per bowl, you get fragrant herbal soup with one whole drumstick. And my feeling of fatigue are completely gone after the tasty treat!

It’s only 1km away from the toll entry. Opens daily, 5am till 10pm. Ah, there are lots of petai being sold along the street too. The Chinese community speaks Cantonese in this town.

Here’s an artist’s sketch of its location.

 

A roadsign near the restaurant; the shop’s distance is only 1km from the toll entry.

Penang Free WiFi

Long Live Penang (which I am proud to say my state of manufacture) for free internet!

Here I am standed alone working outstation, and this time I did not bring the DiGi access. I am already logged into the StarBucks station in Queensbay when I suddenly remembered the state has pushed for island wide coverage, so I feel curious to try it out.

To note I could not get detect this on Penang Rd at the hotel I am staying at so I assume it is still on hotspot basis.

The free station can be easily found by the laptop:

Upon connection and opening the browser I am presented with a 20 second flash presentation

Afterwhich I am prompted to login or register

After a brief registration I am presented to a list of charity so they will contribute something to them on our behalf or so the screen said. And hey presto, I am able to post this entry! :D

Me+iPod Nano+My Sony MDR-EX85

Note: I think this product is already discontinued but you can also try out Sony’s newer EX Monitor series headphones.

I was hunting for replacement headphones for my iPod Nano mid last year. Not because I lost the original white ones but because the white earbuds does not match the color of my black iPod. You see, having the black tune player hooked up to white earbuds with white colored wires simply look.. funny.The MDR-EX85 better match my black iPod Nano

 

The Sony’s EX Monitor series claims to offer studio monitor sound quality and true to life sound. So, how true is this?

MDR-EX85 is an in-ear canalphone which means you plug it into your ear canal. However, unlike most canalphones there appears to be two grid area for the driver, one inside the removable rubber plug and one on the outer ring. Fact is there is only one physical driver unit (13.5mm) each side. During playback both these grids emit the sound. Supposedly the area in the rubber plug makes the bass sounds stronger, and the outer grid complements by making the mid and high notes sound better. The existence of this outer grid, however also means you will ‘share’ your tunes with people in your immediate surrounding.

Compared to the white buds that comes with the iPod Nano unit, I would say this canalphone is way far superior in audio quality. The bass is much stronger and higher notes sounded very crispy clear. Turn the volume all the way up and you won’t hear any distortion (given your audio track is properly encoded, of course).  The plugs also act as ambient noise isolators so unless you are in a cinema or clubbing the MDR-EX85 is highly capable of isolating (passively) surrounding sound giving you only your tunes.

The MDR-EX85 is light and comfortable for prolonged listening too.

 

If you are hunting for a new pair of headphones to please your ears, I’m sure you can’t go wrong with  Sony’s EX Monitor series, especially given the price range is more comfortable for most as compared to the likes of Shure, Bose and Klipsch.

What’s fun about.. Basquash

Soul Eater has ended. So what do we do in between waiting for our weekly feed of Naruto and Bleach? Of course we search for other anime to satisfy out hunger.

So I have been following Basquash for a few weeks now. At the time of writing I’m about to watch episode 7. Since this is anime is about basketball with players handling Bigfoots (mechs) I was not hoping too much initially – I’m not really a big fan of mech (or sports) anime.

Surprisingly the anime is very fun to watch. Very interesting characters, excellent animation, great urban feel to the setting, funny punch lines and lots of ‘lunar boobs’ jokes. This is one of those anime where you won’t get lost with too many characters being thrown to you at the same time. There are many characters (note one Iceman Hottie) but they will be introduced in the show at a comfortable pace.

..and oh, Nike is ‘sponsoring’ shoes for the Bigfoots.

more at http://basquash.com/

Birth of a new blog

This blog tries to make people understand the biggest urban mysteries. Like why man wear pink. And why we don't drink herbal tea during football live telecasts. Or why bakuteh is so darn tasty.

Keep tuned in.