† Customizing A New Year Scrapbook Planner †

It is pretty simple to make your own scrapbook planner and it can be a meaningful gift to someone you care about. Collecting the sources to customize your own planner can be difficult but imagining how your planner going to be like is even harder. Its gonna be pretty simple to make your own planner by referring to the steps shown below.

How To Make A New Year Scrapbook Planner:

STEP 1: Collect some unwanted box. These are good to be used as the hard cover of your planner.

STEP 2: Measure and cut the box to make the front and back cover of the planner, make sure it fits the size of A4 papers.

STEP 3: Wrap the box pieces with any nice color papers.

STEP 4: Design your planner hard cover with your imagination.

STEP 5: Get a stack of A4 papers and design their contents. The contents may include monthly calendar, notes or some interesting cards.

STEP 6: Punch some holes across the hard cover and the A4 papers.

STEP 7: Circled rings can be used to bind the hard covers and A4 papers together.

STEP 8: Design and decorate the pages using your creativity and imagination.

STEP 9: Decorate the side of your planner can make your planner look lovely.

STEP 10: Completion. Taa daa... Here we have a planner.

Add-on For Your Planner:

If you're making a planner for someone as a Christmas gift, perhaps a handmade pop up Christmas card may be lovely. (Source: Robert Sabuda's Christmas Card)

This is my version of pop up Christmas card. With the additional white color paper on the Christmas tree, it gives the tree a snowy appearance.

† The Rise Of Padini †

Padini may sound Italian but it is actually not. It is a homegrown company brand operating under the Padini Holdings, which has a mission to be the best fashion company (in Malaysia? in the whole world?). Padini sells ladies shoes, accessories, children’s garments, maternity wear and other fashion products and clothing and the co-brands including Vincci, Padini Authentic, P&Co, PDI, Seed and etc.


The stock market of Padini has been doing very well for year 2009 and as you can see from OSK's chart, the stock values keep rising at the very beginning of year 2009.


1 year of indicator may not be sufficient although it is showing a bull trend.


As for a 5-year view of Padini's growth in volume, we can see its doing pretty well.


I'm not pretty good in analyzing all the values but the 2008 reported annual earnings was 0.32 per share for a total of 384.6M which sound quite promising.


Will Padini continue growing in the coming year? We're not pretty sure because some experts claimed that every rise will definitely have a fall. However, I'm pretty sure that Padini will be able to do well in future.

† A New Beginning †

At the very end of each year, people often look back at what they've done. At the beginning of a new year many wonder whether they have the time and energy to accomplish their goals in the coming months. We're reaching the very end of 2009 where 2010 is just right in front of us and its going to be a new beginning soon.

† A Magical Christmas Movie: A Christmas Carol †

Disney's "A Christmas Carol" is an animated retelling of Charles Dickens' classic novel. This is a great film to watch during Christmas season. Its a simple but very meaningful film. What impresses me the most is its Christmas soundtracks and thank God I've owned all the songs now.


The story goes like this: Ebenezer Scrooge, a bitter old man who is selfish and keeping himself nasty to everyone around him for years.


During one of the Christmas eve, he is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley, who is now forced to spend his afterlife carrying heavy chains forged from his own greedy ways.


Marley warns Scrooge that he will suffer an even worse fate if he doesn't repent, and foretells that he will be haunted by three spirits that will help guide him.


The first spirit who visits him is the Ghost of Christmas Past, a small ghost made of fire, shows Scrooge visions of his own past that take place on or around the Christmas season, reminding him of how he ended up the greedy man he is now.


The second ghost is the Ghost of Christmas Present who laughs most of time, shows Scrooge the happiness of his fellow men on Christmas day.


The third and final spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, shows Scrooge the final consequences of his greed.


Because of the three Christmas ghosts, Scrooge begins to realize how most of his life has been wasted because of wealth. Ever since that day, Scrooge has changed to become a nice and loving old man.

† Merry Christmas Dear All! †

MAY LOVE be the angel that watches over you.
MAY JOY be your very best friend.
MAY WONDER always find it's way to your door step.
MAY THE BLESSINGS of the season touch your heart and fill your soul.
MERRY CHRISTMAS dear all my friends, colleagues and family members.

Sincerely from Keat.
25th December 2009

† Jesus & Terminator: The Best Story Ever Told †

"For unto us a child is born..." Year 0000 Bethlehem, Jesus, the son of God was sent to earth to cleanse the sins of human, and to die for mankind.

This is a creative and funny short video clip (movie trailer by MadTV) about the Terminator trying to save Jesus from being crucified.


In the video clip, you can see how the Terminator talk to the three wise men and Jesus, killing the soldiers and Judas like nobody's business. One of my favourite part is when Jesus trying to convince the terminator not to kill people.

Jesus: You cannot go around killing people!
Terminator: Why?
Jesus: Because its one of God's commandment, thou shalt not kill.
Terminator: Why?
Jesus: Because its a sin.
Terminator: Why?
Jesus: Because its not nice.
Terminator: Why?
Jesus: .... Forgive him Father, he's a robot from the future.
Terminator: ??? *Looking at the sky, trying to figure out who Jesus talking to*

† Congratulation My Dear Cousin Sister †

Congratulation to my dear cousin sister. She's the first in our Su family who gets married.

Location: Hotel Nikko Kuala Lumpur 2nd floor. Presenting the hero and heroin of the day.

Here we go, the three musketeer brothers starting from the left: Su Peen (my youngest brother), Su Yuen (a year younger than me) and me of course.

† Christmas Memories With Mr. Bean †

Christmas is coming soon and I'm sure those who are born around the 70's and 80's will never forget Mr. Bean's Christmas episodes.

UNFORGETTABLE SCENES

Mr. Bean preparing Christmas gift for his teddy.

Mr. Bean doing shopping in the mall and playing around with the toys, directing his very own version of 'Baby Jesus Evolution'.

Mr. Bean cheating in order to get his 14.145kg turkey.

Mr. Bean's got his head stucked in the turkey's ass.

And finally my all time favourite episode where Mr. Bean conducts the Christmas orchestra by the roadside. Click to play the video.

† Animusic: Computer Animated Music †

Animusic is an American company specializing in the 3D visualization of MIDI-based music. The initial name of the company was Visual Music, and it was changed to Animusic in 1995.

The company is known for its Animusic compilations of computer-generated animations, based on MIDI events processed to simultaneously drive the music and on-screen action, leading to and corresponding to every sound.

Unlike many other music visualizations, the music drives the animation. While other productions might animate figures or characters to the music, the animated models in Animusic are created first, and are then programmed to follow what the music "tells them" to. 'Solo cams' in the

Many of the instruments appear to be robotic or play themselves using curious methods to produce and visualize the original compositions. The animations typically feature dramatically-lit rooms or landscapes.

There are many good music produced by Animusic and one of the best that I liked the most is 'Pipe Dream' and 'Pipe Dream 2'. Other good music are 'Future Retro' and 'Drum Machine'.

† Super Bike For Life †

Riding super bikes isn't popular yet in Malaysia but such culture is building up each days when I see more and more bikers traveling on the highways, wearing their thick leather jacket along with backpacks. This has inspired me to pay more attention in appreciating super bike.

I'm not very good in recognizing all these super bikes but thanks to Bobby whose dealing with super bike business in KL, keeping me updated with current available models of bikes he's dealing with: Kawasaki, Yamaha, Honda and Suzuki.

KAWASAKI

Kawasaki's Z750.

HONDA

Honda's Fury

YAMAHA

Yamaha's Vmax

Yamaha's YZF-R1

Yamaha's R6

SUZUKI

Suzuki's GSX-R1000

Just in case you're interested in purchasing one, I'm not the best to ask about the price. Perhaps you should contact Bobby in person.

Contact Number: +60163384486

E-Mail: takashiloong@yahoo.com

† Food Hunting In Kuantan: Tom Yam Fried Rice †

Its been a tiring weekend after 2 days of methadone on-call and I've fully utilized the very last of all my energy in today's 2-hours-non-stop badminton game. Of course it is necessary to reward my with some good food. So me along with Jason, Quek and his girlfriend Kheng Ying went to this Thai food restaurant for our dinner.

This little restaurant with the name 'Aanine', located next to Medan Selera food court in Taman Sri Kuantan (Kuantan Garden). Surprisingly many Kuantan people do not notice the existance of this small little restaurant.

Both the owner and the chef of this premise are Thai and no wonder the food here are full of Thai-sensation. I've been to this shop a few times but the food that I order most frequently is the simple looking Thai Tom Yam fried rice shown above.

Personally I love the Tom Yam fried rice the most and I guess this has influenced Jason a little bit, making him craved for the fried rice for the past few weeks.

† Love Olive By Belfast's Sort Design †

Olive is the fruit of the tree called olea europaea. Olives are generally a healthy food especially the oil extracted from its body. According to WHFoods, olives contain high amount of vitamin E, monosaturated fats, iron and dietary fibers.

Love Olive is a brand for Ireland's biggest olive wholesaler, supplying olives through their retail outlets. The lovely branding logo of Love Olive is designed SORT, a Belfast based graphic and branding studio founded in 2006.

Even the herbal packaging looks attractive with its earthly colors and textures.

Love Olive shops can be found in many regions of Ireland including Belfast and Dublin.

† 25th Anniversary Studio Ghibli Concert †

What a joyful moment. I've managed to buy Studio Ghibli's 25th Anniversary Concert DVD at the price of RM29.90! On top of that, it comes with a free soundtrack CD.

The whole event consist of Joe Hisaishi, the composer as well as the arranger for the music of that night’s concert. Other that conducting the orchestra, Joe also performed the piano solos.

There are many lovely songs found in the DVD including my favourite soundtracks from 'Naustica of the Valley of the Wind', 'Howl's Moving Castle', 'Spirited Away' and 'Princes Mononoke'.

DVD Screen Captures

Joe Hisaishi really did a great job in the concert. He managed to put all the well known pieces into a finely tuned medley.

Ayaka Hirahara was there performing 'Summer Day' taken from the recent popular 'Spirited Away'.

The concert was brilliant and the music performed were almost 99% similar to that of studio version. Even if I don't listen to it everyday, I still think it'll be a great album to keep and collect.

† Futurama's Zap Brannigan †

There are many crazy and funny characters exist in Futurama series produced by Matt Groening. I find Zap Branningan is one of the funniest characters that makes me laugh a lot whenever I watch Futurama.

Zap is the captain of the military of Democratic Order Of Planet, also known as D.O.O.P. The funny thing about this crazy captain is his forever thick-skinned cocky attitude. The one standing beside Zap is his military assistant, a gentle and polite alien known as Kiff.

Zap envisions himself as the lady-man and always think that all girls are attracted to him. One of his biggest failure was his attempt to get Leela but ended up got beaten up badly by Leela.

Many approaches and attempts had been made by Zap in order to win Leela's heart. This is one of Zap's funniest moment, singing his self-composed song with the title 'LEELA' in order to show off his talent.

The lyrics are funny and if you read it properly, it doesn't make any sense at all. The lyric goes like this:

I met her in a club down in Soho,

Where you drink champagne and it tastes just like Coca-cola,

C-O-L-A... Cola...

She walked up to me and she asked me to dance,

I ask her her name and in a dark brown voice she said,

Leela!! L-E-E-L-A... Leela!! Ba da ba ba ba... Ba da ba ba ba...

LEEEEEEEEEEELAAAAAA... Ba da ba ba bum!

† Chameleon Guitar: Acoustic & Electrical Fusion †

An electric guitar is often a preference for the youngsters and of course I understand how excited it'd be to own your personal electric guitar. However it sucks when you realize that electrical guitar is useless without an amp. Its specifically non-applicable for camp fires or beach camping.


The concept of 'all-in-one' guitar has become an aim for many guitar-producing company. Semi-acoustic is one of the inventions. So is it possible to have such 'all-in-one' electric guitar as well?


I believe the Chameleon Guitar, developed at the MIT Media Lab, can provide us the answer. Chameleon Guitar embodies a unique combination of traditional acoustic and modern electrical design. If I were to summarize the whole thing, I would say it looks like an electric guitar, but acts like both electric and acoustic guitar.


According to the official website, the reason behind such design is that the sound generated by the instrument and the physical soundboard plug-in is installed with a digital effects processor inside the guitar body, producing an original sound amplified by digital devices.


In other words, even without an amp, it still can produce a very clear and loud voice, just like an acoustic guitar. The good thing about this guitar is that, there are a variety of sound boards available, making customization possible. On top of that, each different quality or design of the wooden piece can result in different sound effects that many guitar players may feel excited about it.

Further information can be obtained in the video posted here. Source: LabCast

† Great Sleeping Bear By Eiko Ishizawa †

This is something similar to the Bloody Pillow in my previous post, known as the Great Sleeping Bear.

Eiko Ishizawa design this sleeping bag based on the true story of a bear in Alps who was powerful that after a long period of hunting, it was finally hunted down the hunters.

If you think you can keep other people away from you by using this scary sleeping bag, I think you're wrong because you might ended up becoming the center of attraction at the camping site.

† Google Calender: Colors & Events †

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, Google Calendar has become my essential daily online planner. It is indeed my important secretary reminding all the things that I need to remember.


The picture above shows my previous version of calender. The daily events are all green in color and personally I think it looks extremely unattractive.


Here's something I've tried out to make your personal calender looks more lively. Simply categorize your events into different group according to colors may be very useful. So how do we go about it?


First of all, you need to create a category simply by clicking on the 'create' word at the '1' shown above. What you need to do next is of course name your desired category and finally click on 'create' calender.


When a category is generated, it will appear at the very left side of your screen. Colors can be selected from a list of colors as shown above.


Finally, you can create your event and choose which group the event should be categorized. As an example of my calender, green color is for the use of my pharmacy courier such as on-call, extended services, reports and etc. Blue color indicates my personal daily events. Purple is my expenditure while pink color is used as the birthday reminder.

† Cytotoxic Drug Reconstitution: Exposure, Spillage †

Cytotoxic drugs are therapeutic agents that inhibit or prevent the function of cells. Such drugs are commonly used in chemotherapy to inhibit the proliferation of cancerous cells. Chemotherapy Drug Reconstitution (CDR) is one of the highly specialized pharmaceutical services performed by the pharmacists only in hospitals that have aseptic rooms, involving preparation and compounding of cytotoxic drugs.

Reasons for concern:
There has been an increase in concern over the potential of cytotoxic drugs to harm personnel who are exposed to them including workers who prepare, administer, or handle cytotoxic drugs. Due to poor selectivity between cancerous cells and normal cells, cytotoxic drugs tend to give several undesirable side effects. It is rather shocking to find out that a measurable levels of cytotoxic drugs have been detected in the hospital compound when cytotoxic drugs were compounded without proper equipments and techniques. Detectable amounts of various cytotoxic drugs in the urine of health care workers were also presented. The hazardous exposure of cytotoxic drugs may cause workers to experience acute symptoms such as mucous membrane irritation, allergic reactions, subjective symptoms including fatigue and dizziness. A long term exposure (occupational) may cause chromosomal damage, which leads to higher risk of delivering malformed babies. Therefore precaution must be followed to minimize such exposures.

Source of exposure:
Workers especially the oncology pharmacists and assistants who compound the drugs, doctors and nurses who administer cytotoxic drugs are most likely to get themselves being exposed via inhalation of drug aerosol, absorption through the skin and very low possibility but undeniably ingestion through contaminated sources. Incidences of needle prick injury may occur if the personnel is not properly trained.

Drug Preparation:
Exposure of cytotoxic drug to the personnel can be minimized during the process of drug preparation through a proper education and training in syringing techniques, as well as the use of appropriate protective equipment and apparatus. It is essential to ensure safe work practices are fully understood and practiced in the premises. Personnel also need to understand the function of each of the equipment (safety cabinet, syringes, gowns, goggles, mask...) and apparatus (syringes, needles, filters, butterfly clip...) used. Practical technique is important in this field as it determines how well a personnel is able to provide a spillage-free drug transferal and delivery while performing closed-system drug syringing.


Drug Administration:
Nurses and medical officers may be involved in administering cytotoxic drug to the patients. Special precautions should be taken while performing cytotoxic drug administration because poor delivery technique may cause leakage or spillage. Therefore it is important to make sure that personnel who perform drug administration are well trained. Uncooperative patients can be a problem during administration, for example, an agitated or mentally unprepared patient who refused to undergo cytotoxic drug treatment and this increases like-hood of spillage. Thus it is very important for the pharmacists to ensure each of the patients are ready for treatment.


Spill Management:
Spillage of cytotoxic drugs should be handled with utmost care. It is important to have a proper procedure getting ready all time and whenever spillage occurs, the cleaning process can be taken place within shortest period of time. Every oncology ward should have at least a box of chemo spill kit standby for use. Whenever spillage occurs, all patients and medical workers should be evacuated from the area and warning sign boards should be placed at all entrance. The medical personnel should immediately put on the chemo protective gowns and equipments provided prior to cleaning of the spillage area.


Disposal of Wastes:
Residuals, syringes, vials, swab, gloves or IV drip bottles that have contacted with cytotoxic drug should be disposed and properly identified. Bags and containers, or even sharp wastes that are used to transport cytotoxic drugs should be designed purple in color. Before discarding the wastes, it is also important to mark the container with a "CYTOTOXIC WASTE" label.

Many reports have shown the relationship between cytotoxic exposure and risk to the personnel's health. Therefore a country's Ministry of Health should always think about health professions who work or having themselves exposed in this field.

My point of view:
A recent debate about cutting the health profession's allowance in Malaysia is rather disappointing. From my point of view as a health professional working in the government sector, I hope that the ministry would seriously think twice before making their decision.

† Futurama: Bender's Game †

I bet everyone knows Futurama. I've always been a Futurama fan and I enjoy watching every single episodes of Futurama in the past. A few of the worth watching classic episodes were 'Roswell That Ends Well', 'Iron Chef', 'Big Piece of Garbage' and etc.

Recently I've finished watching 'Futurama - Bender's Game', one of the new long episodes produced in late year 2008. The author of this episode is of course, always the full time Simpsons and Futurama author Matt Groening.

This animated movie features Bender the robot, who has always been a friend to the human race, even if he won't admit it as many people who follow previous episodes of Futurama. However, he still takes great pride in believing that he's better than everyone on the planet.

In this particular episode, Bender's pride was in danger when he feared that he can't have the imaginative ability like human. As Bender joined the kids playing Dungeons & Dragons, his ability of imagination expanded and eventually his brain waves were amplified...

... by some 'chrono-quantum physic' kind of wave emission emitted from a crystal that it eventually affected Fry and the others, pulling them into Bender's world of imaginary. In the other world of imaginary, Bender was a noble knight named Titanus. And interestingly, Fry was named Frydo (Frodo?) while Leila was named Leigola (Legolas?).

In fact, plenty of the imaginary world storyline mimics Lord of the Rings Trilogy, but of course, Matt Groening has twisted it in a funny manner. As an example of one of the typical Matt's jokes found in this movie: "Fear not Titanus for we still have one hope! The Cave of Hopelessness!"

Well, I wouldn't say this is a great show but I'm sure many Futurama fans enjoy how Matt Groening create ridiculous in the episodes of Futurama, but I would recommend this show to those who love to watch silly show just for the sake of some inside jokes.

† 2012 Doom's Day †

This is the first day screening of the movie '2012' and I'm lucky enough to get the ticket in time. This view of the poster truly attracts my attention to watch this movie.

The storyline of this movie is rather simple: ancient Mayan's prophecy has come true and doom's day is happening in year 2012.

Where else can everyone escape to? Earth quakes, landslides, uncontrolled volcanic explosions, tsunami are happening everywhere.

The whole show was about how the main character Jackson Curtis escapes from the catastrophic events with his family members. Simple storyline, but exciting! Don't forget about the ending theme 'Time For Miracles' sang by Adam Lambert. This piece of song has a pretty good melody.

† Bon Voyage Mr Leong Weng Choy †

This is a special dinner organized by Cheau Huey in order to celebrate Mr. Leong Weng Choy, our very senior pharmacist in Hospital Kuantan (HTAA) whose going over to Sabah in response to his U52 promotion.

Mr. Leong has always been a very hardworking pharmacist in our hospital. Gentle, stoic, serious and discipline are words best to describe his personality.

A number of us attended Mr. Leong's farewell dinner. Those who attended Mr. Leong and his family members, HTAA pharmacists including Mr. Zakhi, Pn. Mahani, Pn. Rohaya, Chee Meng, Khien Yung, Wei Siang, Pek Leng, Jia Yi, Boon Peow, Kit Yeng, Shal Ling, Laj, Michelle, Huey San and Ain.

As it is shown in the photos above, everyone is paying their full attention to Mr. Leong not only because they respect Mr. Leong, most importantly also because Mr. Leong speaks extremely soft all the time. Any exogenous input of voice will have the tendency of making Mr. Leong's voice becoming unheard.

This is a limited edition of Mr. Leong with his 'V' sign. On the right is his son laughing at his father. Its sad to know that Mr. Leong is going to leave us but we do feel happy for his U52 promotion. Therefore, we would like to wish Mr. Leong all the best working in Sabah and take care always!

† Suemitsu & The Suemith: Sagittarius †

Piano has been a classical, yet one of the very prime instruments in the modern musical world. No matter how drastic the musical era has changed from ballad to jazz, from jazz to rock, from rock to metal, piano is always there.

This is a post that I'm going to talk about an interesting pianist whose name is Suemitsu Atushi from Hiroshima Prefecture, graduated from Nagoya Music University.

SUEMITSU & THE SUEMITH is the solo project of his. Suemitsu began experimenting with rock and music theory while in college. Apart from playing rock music, he also traveled to Paris for a year to polish his skills as a classically trained pianist.

He became well-known when he participated in Disney's 2004 project. This collaborative album was a collection of Disney song covers from various artists and Suemitsu was one of them. On that album he simply went by the name, The Suemith, and performed a cover of “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid.

Recently, one of his song with the title "Sagittarius" really attracted me so much. Simply by listening to its piano intro blending along with the strings and bass guitar in B♭, and then followed by the drums really made the whole song's intro sound so perfect. I have to admit that I've never heard such perfect and wonderful music intro in my whole life before. However I think the chorus and the ending of this song can't match the perfectness of the intro.

Suemitsu's has shown his great potential via piano and I think he'll be the next eye-catching pianist vocal in future. Although his style of playing the piano is so much different from my all time favourite Joe Hisaishi, his unique way of expressing his feeling through piano really has made him a pianist who differs from the others.

Related post:

Joe Hisaishi

† Buffered & Metered Earning In Nuffnang? †

Everyone has always been talking about making money online via Nuffnang and out of curiosity, I've finally tried it out last month. The concept is pretty simple: update your blog, and Nuffnang will try to get different companies to place their advertisements (ads) in your blog. Thats where your income comes in.


I'm using Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome but strangely I couldn't view my own ads for both Nuffnang and Google Adsense even until now. I thought I've pasted the wrong html code but apparently I was firmly reassured by the Nuffnang help-desk crew that there's no problem about it. So what I would do is to wait patiently.


Few weeks later when I take a glance at my Nuffnang page under the section 'Earnings', I've got a shock to see these ads shown on my page and surprisingly, 60% of my blog's readers per week are Americans. The question is, whats 'buffered' and 'metered' earnings? From my point of view, 'buffered' earning might be a trial kind of ads-placement in your blog before the companies officially launch their ads on your blog which is later to be measured in the 'metered' earning. Its pretty important to monitor the blog that they are going to place their ads into and I guess that is why they are doing such double-layered monitoring.


No doubt it would be quite impossible for a 'blog-for-fun' kind of blogger like me to earn huge money via Nuffnang, but still, it is always better than none. Thanks to Nuffnang and most importantly, all the readers (yes I mean you) who support my blog.

† Joy of Halloween Party In Glasgow †

31st October... Its Halloween again where supernatural and spooky stuffs are in fashion. I'm sure many youngsters in the western countries are celebrating Halloween by attending costume parties.

I still remember years ago, I've attended a Halloween party when I was studying in Glasgow and it was totally awesome.

Searching for costumes, masks and make-ups really tested one's creativity. Here we have Royiez and Zin showing off their masks.

MONSTERS INTRODUCTION
There were too many monsters disguised by my university friends and I only publish a few interesting ones here.

On the left, we have Zin who disguised as the "Dark Orgre Magi" while on the right, Ash disguised himself as the "3-Eyed Bahamoth Witch", holding his sphere of fate and a turbo broom that provides a maximum traveling speed of 15km/hour.

The left photo shows Tong, the "Desperado Gay Devil". His cute little wing has made him filled up with adequate amount of gayness. As on the right, thats "Count Christo Lucipher" by Christopher. I wonder how Christopher could stand inserting such big vampire teeth in his mouth the whole night.

"Casper and Friends Duo" by IzaacRio and Royiez were really funny. Because of their last minute decision on selecting which monster character to disguise as, they ended up choosing this casper mask plus a lab coat in a rush.

And thats me, disguised as an "Asian Vampire". I still remember I've used up so much of the Gatsby wax to set my hair up and I ended up had a hard time washing off the wax from my hair.

Halloween party was totally awesome where we get to express our creativity. Of course the most important thing about it was that we get to party together in a big group because we rarely find the chance to do so.

† All About Halloween: 31st October †

Halloween is a popular festival in the western countries celebrated on the night of 31st October, usually by the children and youngster dressing in spooky costumes, going from door to door collecting candies. Halloween’s theme is often related to scary and spooky stuffs such as zombies, ghosts, werewolves, vampires, witches etc...


Black and orange are the traditional colors of Halloween. There are also elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins and scarecrows, reflected in symbols of Halloween.


In the ancient time, Halloween was celebrated as a traditional festival by the Irish and Scottish. Interestingly, the celebration was somehow containing some elements of death. It was believed that the border between our human world and the spiritual realm of death become thin on the day of Halloween, allowing spirits to pass through (Its very similar to Chinese’s Ghost Month where the door of underworld will be unleashed and spirits will go to the human world).


It was believed that both harmful and non-harmful spirits will visit the human world and thus in order to avoid those harmful spirits from disturbing them, the people must disguise themselves as harmful spirits such as wearing costumes and masks.


Halloween is sometimes believed to be associated with the occult. Many European cultural traditions hold that Halloween is one of the "liminal" times of the year when magic is most potent for example, Catalan mythology about witches and black magic.


Halloween has nowadays becoming a popular festival among the youngster and during the night of festival, most youngsters will make up and disguise themselves as all kind of ghosts and monsters.

† Naked Wood: Natural Trend of iPod Gadget? †

It seems that an organic new trend has becoming more and more popular among the electronic gadgets nowadays. Earlier you've seen the Bamboo Asus Laptop, and now here we have a few interesting designs of wooden iPod and iPhone gadgets I've found from Etsy.



Of course when we think of gadget, we'll often think of high-tech shiny metal, aluminum, and definitely not wood. Maybe this is one of the reasons that wooden gadgets start to pop-up everywhere.



Its similar to the concept of 'soft-toys ain't cute' by Mori Chack. Since everyone think that gadgets are made of metal, so here we have a wooden gadget for everyone.



These wood logs may look simple and decent but they are in fact quite expensive. These docks may cost range from $60 to $100.



Such design is truly eye-soothing and I think this trend goes well with the green movement. Most importantly, such wooden gadget design has provided an expression of the beauty of the nature.

† A Pet-Friendly Home †

Many pet owners would love to keep their pets in the house but are those pets happy to be kept in the house? Or rather these pets would prefer to stay outside and have their own freedom and living spaces? Better Homes & Gardens and Asahi Kasei have provided some creative and innovative ideas of designing comfortable living spaces for indoor pets.


The resting area is designed in such way that it greatly reduces the traffic flow in the house. The pets will automatically move to the corner of the house enjoying their personal sleeping cushion.


Food store, is designed in the form of drawer so that the drawer can store a bulk whole of pet food.


This feeding drawer is an interesting design where the pet food can be placed inside the drawer and prevent the messy pet food to be exposed outside.


Another feeding drawer for the pets. Can be easy to manage and when the pets are done, just slide the drawer back.

† The Best Of Classical Collection †

I'm just so happy to find this CD collection known as "The Best of Classical Collections" when I was doing some random shopping in Popular bookstore.

Its a 6 music CDs classical collection of the famous classical music composers Beethoven, Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Chopin.

Too bad my favourite Brahms is not in the list and I really wonder why is that so. Most songs are really good especially Beethoven's Violin Sonata No. 5 in F Major, Op. 24 "Spring". However its sad to have found out that Mozart's Oboe Concerto in C Major, K. 314 has been missed out from this album.

I think this is really a worth-buying album to collect if you're a classical music fan and it only costs me RM59.90 (roughly RM10.00 for each CD).

† Slow Internet Speed Affects Malaysia Economy †

Foreign investors think twice before making their moves in Malaysia. Why? The internet speed is too slow!! Here's 2 articles that mentioned the same issue:

1. New Straits Times - Aussie Firms Deterred By Malaysia's Slow Internet Speed"
   
2. BERNAMA - Aussie Firms Concerned Over Internet Speed In Malaysia"

And after a few days, Malaysian government admits about the slow internet service in The Star. I really hope the day will soon come when Malaysia's internet speed can be fixed and improved.

† Musically Impressive: Nodame Cantabile Anime †

Nodame Cantabile is truly a worth watching anime associated with classical music. I've watched this anime for at least twice and I never get bored of it. The drawing is not as good as many other animes, but the storyline is in fact heart-touching and most importantly, the author really knows a lot about classical music which I really much appreciated.


This is a hilarious animated comedy love story between a handsome-good looking guy who came from a musically talented family and has been selected to be the conductor of the orchestra named Shinichi Chiaki and a kiddie-looking lady with no habits, who can't cook at all, live in a forever messy room and doesn't shower for days named Megumi Noda, a.k.a Nodame.


This is one of the scenes showing how messy Nodame's room can be. Chiaki was one of the the first to see such 'God-like' dirtiness with his own eyes when he first met Nodame.


Even under such messy and dirty environment, Nodame still enjoys every moment of her piano playing.


The romance between Chiaki and Nodame is really funny. There are a few parts where Nodame trying hard to impress Chiaki by making many attempts such as baking cake or preparing bento for Chiaki but ended up got scolded by Chiaki.


For example, Nodame trying to attract Chiaki through making up but her make up skill was so bad that she ended up looked like a Japanese ghost.


The most important element presence is the classical music. There are so many classical music pieces being performed by the music orchestra in this anime and some of these pieces are really popular. Other than orchestra pieces, piano pieces are also frequently played in the anime.


My dad has always been a classical music fan since young and he often listen to many classical music when he's resting at home. A rock music person like me would never take the initiative to learn about classical music but the tune of those music has been crafted into my memory. That is why every time when I watch this anime, I tend to give "Ohhhh!! So this is the song!!!" or "I see!! So Mozart was the composer!!!" kind of shout outs.


Many funny scenes can be seen in the anime. What is shown in the picture above is my favourite: the violinists trying to be stylish by doing such move but they ended up got scolded by Chiaki.


This anime is truly worth watching as it teaches many people to appreciate classical music. But most important of all, it provides knowledge about classical music as well as remembrance of many talented musicians from the past.

† Those Days In Cambodia †

Its been quite some time since I last visited Cambodia in year 2003. Looking back at the old photos somehow has made me miss my Cambodia trip very much.

We were very young back then where me (right), Yong (left), Willy (middle) and Christine (the photographer) paid a two weeks visitation to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.

THE STATUE

Upon entering the city of Phnom Penh, I still remember clearly that we can see this roundabout with this huge statue.

The nine-headed snake statue somehow looked so demonic and it kinda freaked me out. I wonder what does it symbolizes?

IN THE CITY

This is an interesting photo I've captured when I was in the car. I guess overtaking other cars on a double-lined road was legal back then.

Phnom Penh may look acceptable but many outskirts had no tar road and they were mostly muddy road. Its fine when its sunny but the whole road can be a little bit messy when the sky rains.

WATER CRISIS

We were well informed about the presence of high percentage of arsenic in the water supply of Cambodia and thus buying mineral water as our daily water supply had become our routine.

SITES AROUND PNHOM PENH

One of the places that I've visited was the Royal Palace, built in the 19th Century and it is located on the riverfront where the three rivers meet.

And again, the nine-headed snake statues in one of the parks we visited. Scary as always.

Everyone knows the popular Killing Field. This is the place where the Khmer Rouge tortured and killed thousand of people here.

This photo was taken in one of the torture chamber. During the dark time, the Khmer Rouge hung a person upside down and the head of the victim will be drowned into the pot of water. Isn't that cruel?

The Central Market was one of the hot spot in Phnom Penh back then where the tourists can do a lot of bargains to obtain many interesting items.

INTERESTING STUFF

The interesting thing was that the traditional Cambodian clothes fitted well on Willy and he looked extremely charming in the photo.

We paid a visit to the orphanage house set up by the Christian society and these Cambodian children were so happy to see us. These children had taught me so many Khmer phrases and I only remember two until even until now: "kjom mo pei pro tei Malaysia" and it means "I'm from Malaysia"; "som yam tek" and it means "please drink some water".

However its sad to hear that many of their parents had passed away due to explosion of the left over bombs in certain rural area. I wonder how are they doing now.

And lastly, spiders and grasshopper, are they edible? The answer is yes if you've gone to the Central Market of Phnom Penh.

Other related posts:

My Traveling Experiences

† Olympic 2016 In Rio de Janeiro †

Rio de Janeiro was picked as the host city for Olympic 2016, beating Madrid, Tokyo and Chicago at the International Olympic Committee voting in Copenhagen on 2nd October 2009.


Its truly a joyful moment to be selected as the host of the legendary Olympic event and no wonder the Brazalians were shouting and dancing in triumph.


So where is Rio de Janeiro? It is the second largest metropolis located in Brazil, famous for its nature settings such as the beach and forest, wonderful arts and monuments especially Christ Reedemer that you can see in the picture above, as well as interesting culture, music and carnivals.


I think Brazil is truly a great destination just like China Olympic 2008. I think countries with their unique cultures are always the best destination to host Olympic.

† Intimacy Candy: Firma's 18+ Lollipop †

This is a concept by Firma, a Moscowbased creative firm operated under the conceptual influence of China. There alot of creative products being designed under the firm and one of the product that catches my attention is the Intimacy 18+ candy.


The 18+ Lollipop is specially made with the intimacy concept for adult boys and girls. With the new funky, audacious and intimate design, the three newly design 18+ lollipops are given sensual names such as BDSM, Fetish and Toys. These designs truly represent the shape of each corresponding lollipop.


So this lollipop is given the name "BDSM". In case you don't know, BDSM means Bondage & Discipline, Dominance & Submission, Sadism & Masochism.


This lollipop is known "Toys" and it represents sex toys of the adult world.


And finally, "Fetish", which mean an object worshipped for its supposed magical power but it also means a form of sexual desire in which saticfaction is focused adnormally on an object, or part of the body.

† Ooi Pheng Pheng's Last Supper †

My house mate Ooi Pheng Pheng (specky girl in pink) gonna transfer out of Kuantan very soon as she has completed her Pre-Registered Pharmacist contract and thus we had a dinner together to celebrate her transfer. So I would like to wish her all the best and be a good pharmacist always!

† Jme's Simple Yet Attractive Packaging †

I find simple and pleasant packaging design often attracts people's attention. Here's something interesting I've come across from Jme, a brand inspired by Jamie Oliver.

The Jme products' packaging are interesting in the sense that everything just look so relaxing and natural. 'Organic' might be a good word to describe its look but definitely not its ingredient because I don't know whether they're selling organic products or not.

As you can see, each product of Jme has its own feel and look, enabling the users to differentiate each of the product's function. I guess such packaging design may help the users in their cooking performance?