Glimpse of Thought!

I found out that the morning can be beautiful, but it also wakes the troubles of the mind. It opens your eyes to the reality of your situation, the problems in your relationships and the demons in your head. A tattle of wills rages from within. And, come nightfall under the cover of darkness, you run into the arms of your vices. It is the inner-turmoil and the struggle to remain sane that stimulates me.

Does the photo match the thought?? An old photo which seems not to age.

H. Shahirasul Idrewoods
29th October 2008
7.51 pm

Laksa Beras Kg Petani

Yesterday, I went to an "open-house" and tried their laksa and a man told me that there is another variety: laksa beras campur cucur udang dan sotong (literally, rice wheat mee poured along with fried prawn-floured cake and sambal of dried baby-squid).

I took all the trouble to look for the place. But not so difficult, because my officemate lives nearby and it also seems that my boss knows the place. :-) Luckily, sighed!

The original one, since it has gain popularity, many other stalls are selling their own version of laksa.

My boss enjoying his delightfully mouthful mee...

This is what I'm talking about...

The most beautiful maiden, Hayu Rafiza...

Even better, a family of six - everyone having their laksa except for the 8-month-old baby.

(These 3 kids just got back from school and went straight with family for the laksa)

And it tastes very good, I have two for myself (Ssshhhh....)  Should there be anyone wanted to try out, let me know and I'll fix time... I know Din would certainly want to have a sip at the soup!

Muzem's Open House

Muzem, sorry for the late post.

It was October 19th and only 10 days later, I can squeeze a little time (a lot actually) to post this on my blog. So, here it is... Not many photo, since it wasn't me who snapped all these photos. I was busy, helping myself eating everything that was served that day. Sorry guys, it said "open house" and I certainly translate it very brightly.

Sorry, since I did not stay for long - my cousin rang and she was on her way to Penang, that I'd certainly cannot ignore and have to take way.... Anyway, I still have these to share...

Err... We still have Malay kuih, very special... (I mean it!)

It is free-lunch. Take it as much as you want...

Naughty pose, not for the camera... Wait a little while, you'll know who I meant.

Yeah, I know, it's delicious...

Pardon me for wearing short, I was from another social party the night before and caught for coming without proper bathe :-)

The pretty one...

The hostess.

Trying luck with the pan.

Khirwan's special inspiration, and turns him naughty...

Anyway, Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri... Thanks Muzem, Nini and Wanne for the delightful foods.

Stepping into Dave's Deli for Branch

k, it is another fine Saturday that I found my way back to Penang and asked fellas to have a little window shopping at Queensbay Mall before stepping into Dave's Deli for branch.

Yuk's with his chicken.

Khirwan's another movings art.

Yummy...

Khirwan's special pose for Dave's.

Goodness, a very nice place, vibrant colour, relatively cheap but poor service!

Full Moon

(Click to enlarge)

A bright full moon, view from my apartment.

HTC :: 2000 SMS

A personal record breakthrough! I have never deleted SMS/MMS that I received, and there you go... on 20th October, it hits to the record of 2000 received SMSes/MMSes and still counting. Want to check, it can hold up to what capacity.

How Adorable but He would too End-up in the Metamorphosis

How adorable that he needs not to worry about what is happening around him. But he stills questioning alot; what is that, what are those, how can he, why was she..... So many reasons given, but he would just laugh at the end, like those answers never bothered him.

He has no worry for what he is going to wear, nor worrying what he is going to have for his lunch. Everything would be ready, because it is time or he'd want to very badly. He smiles because he has fun, he laughs because he thought things funny, he cries because he didn't get what he wants and he run because he wants somebody to chase him.

Contrary to an adult, who smiles because he needs to and it is a fake. He laughs because of evil thougts and he ran because somebody is looking for him wanted him to pay for something.

I always wish I can turn back and go to the time when everything around me was so different; that my day fills with joy and went to bed as night falls because I want to wake up early to having more as nothings concern me!

H. Shahirasul Idrewoods

The good, the bad and the ugly

The good, the bad and the ugly
BUT THEN AGAIN...
By MARY SCHNEIDER

Handsome men may be good for your ego but he can also wreck your life.

I was surprised to read a quote by English model/actress Kelly Brook about her ideal man: “I want someone who is down to earth, funny, good in bed, handsome. Actually, just handsome will do.”

Had I been asked to choose only one of the attributes listed by Ms Brook as must-haves for an ideal partner, I would never have chosen handsome. And my choice would have had little to do with the fact that looks usually fade with time.

My experience with handsome men (and I’m not saying all handsome men are the same, and I’m also not saying that I’ve had all that many relationships with handsome men) makes me think that not-so-good-looking guys usually make better partners.

The first really handsome man I dated had the dark brooding looks of a young Sean Connery. But that’s where the resemblance to 007 stopped. I mean to say, James Bond would never adjust the review mirror of his Aston Martin DB5 to make sure his hair is in place before speeding after the bad guys.

Nor would he sweep the newly-rescued hot babe into his arms, kiss her passionately on the lips and then remove a mini comb from his back pocket before proceeding to groom his immaculately trimmed moustache. Nor would he spend 20 minutes in front of the bedroom mirror every morning examining his perfectly sculpted tush from every angle.

James Bond doesn’t have a mirror in his bedroom, or a comb in his back pocket, or a range of cleansers and moisturisers in his bathroom. Unless, of course, these items happen to be cunning disguises for the tools of his trade: a mini rocket launcher in his back pocket, a mirror that doubles as communications screen, and a moisturiser that has muscle paralysing properties.

But I digress…

Other than the frustration of having to compete with someone every morning for the bathroom mirror, there is another side to dating handsome men that can make them less than attractive.

Many good-looking men (and the same applies to some beautiful women) are accustomed, from a young age, to having the opposite sex swooning over them.

This often leads them to using their looks as a currency to get what they want, to the extent that they don’t work on their personality and general affability. Indeed, it’s quite common to see such physically advantaged people lording it over the not-so-good-looking members of society who are taken in by their beauty alone. As such, handsome men are usually presented with more opportunities to stray. A good friend of mine refuses to date beautiful men for that very reason.

“Ugly men are a joy to have around,” she once said, “because they are so damn grateful, and you don’t have to always be keeping an eye on the competition.”

I’m not sure I want to be with a man who is damn grateful that I chose him. Such a lack of confidence is not all that attractive.

I don’t want someone fawning over me at the breakfast table, watching me as I sleep (like how creepy is that) and wanting to hold my hand to the extent that I can’t even go grocery shopping without our fingers being constantly intertwined. Do you know how difficult it is to select a water melon when you have only one hand available?

Such a situation would be almost as embarrassing as being seen in public with your partner while wearing “His and Hers” matching sweaters.

Besides, I once dated a rather ugly man for a while and he cheated on me, almost from day one. He was balding, had crooked, badly stained teeth and a blotchy complexion. But he had two things going for him: he was tall and he could charm the birds out of the trees. Or perhaps I should rephrase that: he was tall and he could charm the birds, regardless of whether they lived in trees, condominiums or bungalows.

These days, I refuse to be taken in by silver-tongued men, whether they are handsome or otherwise. Just give me a regular Joe with a sense of humour and I won’t ask for anything else. Well, perhaps it wouldn’t hurt if he were kind, generous and comforting, too.

Oh yes, and if he could throw in an Aston Martin DB5 for my regular trips to the local mall, I would really appreciate it.

That and a few choice pieces of bling once in a while. In fact, I would be really damn grateful.

Development :: Go-Notes 0.1b

What motivates me to design this system? Let first study my usual problem. I like to write note of new words I came across. I like to jot down famous quotes. I have so many business card, I dumped it in a box only later to forgot them and have to search it and need to flash back should I remember anything in particular. I have so many account numbers - savings, current, checkings (two accounts in USA), home loan, auto loan, credit cards and trading account numbers (Bursa Malaysia).

Can I remember all these? Should I jot down onto papers, will I remember where I put it? Another common problem is: I won't find them, when I need them. Hate that.

Let analyse these situations.

a. Someone gave you a card. You come back home and write it into a system. Name, company, designation, telephone numbers and address as those thing appear in the card. Then, with additional flexibility and total independent, you are allowed to write more! You can write, where you meet that person, what purpose of your meeting, and in what way can he help you. You can add more, you can put his birthday, his spouse name, children, like, dislike, etc - and you can tossed away that business card or keep it in your box. One day, you are looking for that man - or one day, you got a missed call, but don't know who'd the person. You open a program, type that person name or the number and voila, you got instant answer. Don't you like this?

b. With so many account numbers to remember, you can help relax and ease your mind should there be a program that can keep and allow you to search for that matter. You can keep account number, when you do open, cut-off date, broker name, address used, previous address and you can always add more note as you pleased. Don't you wish to have your life simpler without having a fixed fields program?

c. You have found interesting article. You read them from online newspaper. You want to save it, and you know you can just save them. But, how can you organise them when there are so many of them? Don't you wish a program that allow you to keep those article in handy way, and search by any text?

I like reading and seriously, I like learning - and on top of that, I like meeting new people. But God has never been kind enough, to let me have good memory. So, I need to help myself. I found many program - the PhoneBook, iDiary - but nothing has come to a generic and faster option for me to use. I want simple. I want it for free.

So, I design this simple system. Combining the features I want, to leave it out from complexity and I don't want to be alone using the system - so I will share amongs my office mate. What the heck of keeping business card database, if I seldom use it. My mates may perhaps want to find someone that I never want to contact.

Designed on PHP and database run MySQL - if someone would want to use, he would need to have a server. But this day, we don't need a special purpose server. I ran a server mimic on my laptop using XAMPP, give me the independent for mobility and I can choose to Internet Explorer or switching to CHROME (Google's new browser). So, this is what the world of freedom all about. Anyone can use it... Since I meant for use in group, PHP and MySQL will allow a particular group to be independent of their operating system.

I still cannot release any version here, until I reached at version 1.0 (currently 0.1b) - but anyone interested into giving it a try or have good idea to improve it, drop me email, I shall send you the code.

Updated to 0.1b on 15/OCT/2008

- Added javascript function to confirm delete note

- Furnished note deletion script.

- Password changed to MD5 format.

- login.html renamed to login.php to support future php commands.

- Search result: table extended.

- some more minor changes.

Movie Review: Eagle Eye (2008)

My birthday and I went for (not so) new movie, EAGLE EYE. At first, yes I like the movie, very stunning effects and have lot of questions to what are going to happen next. Only later when Jerry (Shia LaBeouf) finds out who was talking to them, the full plot really revealed. It is not hard to pickup what is going to happen next with Rachel (Michelle Monaghan). Every future element is predictable. Not to dictate that this is copy-cat movie, but looking back on the core of the movie, pretty much to match (or maybe less) to I-Robot (Will Smith, 2004). I have no rights to make comparison, but still I cannot stop myself – while watching the movie, I can only sense up and summarised that EAGLE EYE probably came to very same idea of I-ROBOT, that computer wanted to take over decision making and in order to protect human from doing hard to another human, the computer took necessary step be eliminating threats (by killing the suspect). It has becoming less suspense and to some plot where the FBI Agent Morgan (Billy Bob Thornton) gave his badge and protocol for Jerry to go to Capitol and save the president pretty much showed how the characters in the movie were not well developed.

But on the other side, I still like to movie. I like the idea of super computer which can do a lot of hyper processing and how our lives were and are pretty much linked to databases and someone can come up to analyse our habit, spending patterns, personal history and to some level come to threat and put danger to someone’s life.

I would give 4 out of 10 stars.

The one who treats for my birthday...

Raya kat Rumah Kak Shikin

Ni, apa tak tau?

Beraya kat Opis...

Still like to eat alot (and I mean a lot)

Kak Shida

The twin

Hums... (cough)

Angry About Economy, Let's Try Sarah's Smash Shack Ways

Thursday October 9, 2008
The Star

Angry About Economy? Smash Some Plates and Move On
By Sarah Tippit

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - All over sunny San Diego, tough economic times have forced people to cut back on their $4 lattes and sushi dinners.

But one new business is booming -- and ka-booming -- precisely because of frustration from the worst financial crisis to hit the United States in decades.

Welcome to Sarah's Smash Shack, where pent-up patrons can relieve stress by hurling dinnerware and bric-a-brac against a wall, as hard as they can, day and night, seven days a week.

San Diego entrepreneur Sarah Lavely charges her clients $10 and up to pulverize plates and glasses during 15-minute intervals. Music blares, clients dress in protective gear and a neon sign urges them to "Break More Stuff."

Lavely refuses to discuss her clients' problems in detail, but says that maybe they're "under financial strain, maybe they're stuck in a job they can't leave."

Insurance broker Adam DeWitt came with his wife for his birthday and took out their anger about not being able to buy a first home because the banks have frozen lending.

"It was the best $50 we've spent in the last two years, better than filling up your tank with gas, better than paying interest on your credit card," said DeWitt, 29.

San Diego may boast surf and sunshine year round, but it also has its share of black economic clouds. Its real estate market has been hit hard by the high rate of foreclosures in California, the second highest in the nation, and its unemployment rate has risen to 6.4 percent from 4.8 percent in a year.



'NO REMORSE'

The Shack won't let patrons drown in their sorrows -- neither drinks nor food are served. On the "menu" there are delectable glass and ceramic breakables, neatly arranged on shelves, ready to be obliterated in one of several "break rooms" outfitted with checkerboard tiles and slabs of dented steel bolted to a far wall.

One of the most popular items, "The Smash Shack House Special," mimics a rowdy Greek supper club, where diners smash plates when they enjoy the entertainment. The Smash Shack version features 15 plates for 15 minutes for $45.

The advantage to the plates, Lavely said, is that clients can write nasty little epithets on each one in a thick black marker before hurling. Guests also favor highly breakable frames (3 for $10) into which they slip photos of enemies.

The DeWitts plugged in some music by Guns n Roses, scribbled the names of banks and politicians they don't like on plates and smashed away.

"Oh boy, we smashed some plates, a couple of TV trays, some cups and mugs. My wife smashed some glass flowers," said DeWitt.

"You get mad and do something to your own stuff at home and you think to yourself, 'God, that was stupid.' But there you get a pure rush of picking up something and watching it smash and you have no remorse afterward."

Copyright © 2008 Reuters

To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary.
To one without faith, no explanation is possible.

PLU ?? Putra Impian ??

People Like Us, or People Liken Us ??

And giving away the Putra Impian's number...

Amik jangan tak amik...

Contributed by Mimi Zars

PLUS Highway Got Clogged!

View from my rear mirror. PLUS Highway clogged with so many cars back from raya, and the most speed I can sped was 90 - 100 km/h but mostly can only stay around 70 - 80 km/h.

I Write No Comment ? Wondering Why...

Don't need to explain. Another whites among the brownish Malay.