Engineered Musings

Behold ....sneak preview of what will be coming in the next few months...

2009-06-02T23:07:00.005+08:00

So this will keep me pretty much occupied...will reveal more once everything is ready...

Bouno Bread, The Most Expensive Loaf I have ever Tasted!!!

2009-05-17T09:34:00.008+08:00

If you are a plain bread lover or even so if you are not, you will love this new bread they are selling at Jusco near to their La Bohemian bread counter.

I first tasted the bread when I was at Jusco Midvalley. The toasted samples they offered was enough to convince me to get a loaf but I gave it for my parents then so I didn't really get to savour it. I next saw it was sold at Jusco Queensbay so without hesitating I got another one, this time the "ordinary one without the wheat".

So why is it so special? Apparently the bread was flown everyday from Kyoto, Japan as claimed by the bread aunty salesperson at Midvalley and so it should be very fresh although I doubt the former. There is no artificial preservative used in making the bread and if it's kept in proper storage it can actually last for a week.

It is made with finest ingredients with 81 layers and special margerine using special hand techniques and the slice can be eaten without applying anything. It's true you don't need any spread to go with the slice as the aroma of the bread will put the Gardenia butterscotch range to shame!!

One thing to note too, the whole bread is damn heavy, well relative to any other bread that you can imagine and it's very addictive. I practically consumed 2 third of the bread a day after I bought it and trust me that's a lot. Yeah I am a pig whatever...but I still think it taste better eating it on its own then toasting it.

Anyway I read from some other blogs that the Bouno bread is actually an imitation to Gion bread by Bo-Logne which is supposed to be the original breadmaker from Japan. I heard it is sold in Carrefour Midvalley too but I am not sure how true is that.

Let me know if you know anything and if you are feeling rich, give it a try, imitation or not, you wont regret it unless maybe for the extra waistline after that...

How to install Garmin XT mobile to your Nokia E71

2009-04-27T21:17:00.009+08:00

Okay, I am going to write a not so step by step guide on how to install the Garmin software specifically to E71.

Took me some time to figure it out but nontheless it eventually worked. So as a reward I will become a saint and don't want some lazy idiots that are ignorant of www.google.com to get cheated by some greedy phone shops who charge a premium to get it done .

There are some similar guides out there but non specifically on E71 and I don't deny I might have plagiarized some of the articles on the internet but hey I ain't getting credit for this shit so...back off yeah.

This might not be a how to install Garmin to E71 for dummy so I would expect some level of understanding on some of the terms I introduce but I guess you will figure it out in the end.

If you still don't get it then you DON'T deserve this piece of brilliant software nuff said.

Anyway:

1. Install the Garmin xt software (help files, base map, the program) using your computer (Choosing mass storage instead of pc suite, just double click, DO NOT UNZIP, it will prompt to ask which drive to install to, just choose the drive assign to you SD card).

2. Next step, pay to get the Garmin code or use google to get the alternative method (Email me and I will show you how...Only close friends will be entertained =))

3. Open Gamin program from the phone go to Settings> System> Set to Remote GPS (very important). Download free maps from Malsing maps for Malaysia and Singapore and wah la you can now use your internal GPS to navigate.

There you go. Simple as ABC. I guess most of the time, people will tend to stuck at step number 2 and I can't put the "how to" on the blog for obvious reasons.

So if you are still stuck and banging your head on the wall don't help much then save yourself the trouble and send me a mail. I will see what I can do.

The credit does not go to me. I am just merely rephrasing some other guides that I found on the internet and combine the guide with my own experience to E71 users.

Happy Navigating and yeah E71 is a freaking cool phone.....

They call me banana, I call them "Wa Shi Wah"

2009-04-23T23:19:00.003+08:00

Why the hell every chinese in this freaking island thinks that all the other chinese people that step foot here and breathe Penang air speak their so called native language? I know it's their native or mother language but when you work for a International or even statewide company, for fuck's sake PLS practice the universal language.

Yes you can speak hokkien when you go to other unofficial place like pasar or yum cha session but don't deal with your customers and pls don;t assume them to speak in the language or you will actually pissed them off badly by your own ignorance.

This was literally what happened this morning when I sent my car to the service workshop. I was on my way to the office after sending in the car when I received a call from the car service adviser.

SA (Service Adviser): Hi Mr. Shim. Wa Si bla bla XXXXX Service Centre bla bla.

Me: Ahuh?!! Yes?

SA: lu yeh bla bla bla light bulb bla bla bla technician bla bla shi wah.....

Me: (slightly suprised) The car's light bulb blew? Which one? When I drove yesterday it was still ok?

SA: lu yeh bla bla ng si low light bla bla si indicator light bulb bla bla, technician checked bla bla.

Me: (mildly irritated) But yesterday was still ok? How much does a bulb cost?

SA: lu yeh bulb bla bla bla bla.....bla bla bla bla bla bla x 200

Me: (pissed) CAN YOU TALK IN ENGLISH!!!!!!?????????????????????

SA: uh yes.....etc

Ok, I admit my rude response was assisted by lack of sleep syndrome however the above scenario did not happen to me once but lotsa times already ranging from banks, loan advisers, lawyers, restaurants etc .

What the service advisor wanted to tell me was that the indicator light bulbs blew and asked me if I want to replace it.

Ok Chinese people that go to Malay/English school will often stereotyped as banana due to their failure to communicate in Mandarin or Hokkien in Penang case. However after keeping it myself for so long, I wil finally unveil a new word to counter this.

Mark this space. I have created a new word " Wa Shi Wah"

" Wa Shi Wah" pronounced as wa sih wahhhh with the long h
Definition: a person that only communicates in the mandarin/hokkien language almost 99 percent of the time with no knowledge to to othher standard language such as English etc.

Why Wa Shi Wah or not Wah shi wo?
Answer: Because it sounds cool and it actually rhymes. The tone actually representing the both mandarin and hokkien language.

I can't wait the day that this word make it to the urban dictionary.....Go figure and pls give some of your thoughts. This is not a debate and no offence meant for the Wa Shi Wah people, it's just a random post to counter one of my frusfration staying in the island.

Sometimes, it would be cool to have the "Dharma Corp" or even "the Others" to spice up any island.

Secondhand Serenade - Your Call

2009-03-01T01:11:00.003+08:00

Waiting for your call, I’m sick, call I’m angry
Call I’m desperate for your voice
Listening to the song we used to sing
In the car, do you remember
Butterfly, Early Summer
It’s playing on repeat, Just like when we would meet
(Like when we would meet)

Cause I was born to tell you I love you
And I am torn to do what I have to, to make you mine
Stay with me tonight

Stripped and polished, I am new, I am fresh
I am feeling so ambitious, you and me, flesh to flesh
Cause every breath that you will take.
While you are sitting next to me
Will bring life into my deepest hopes, What’s your fantasy?
(What’s yours? What’s yours, What is yours)

Cause I was born to tell you I love you
And I am torn to do what I have to, to make you mine
Stay with me tonight

And I’m tired of being all alone, and this solitary moment makes me want to come back home
X4
( I know everything you wanted isn’t anything you have)

Cause I was born to tell you I love you
And I am torn to do what I have to, to make you mine
Stay with me tonight

Cause
I was born to tell you I love you
And I am torn to do what I have to, to make you mine
Stay with me tonight
( I know everything you wanted isn’t anything you have)

Believe and Will

2009-02-23T11:41:00.003+08:00

Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies and angels at the bottom of it too? - Douglas Adams

Albums of the Moment

2009-02-17T00:04:00.003+08:00

I am currently listening to a few albums running on my playlist. They are all good and you should check it out:

The All American Rejects - When the World Comes Down
The Fray - The Fray
Secondhand Serenade - A Twist in my Story
Silverchair - Young Modern
The Killers - Day & Age
Snow Patrol -A Hundred Million Suns
Keane - Perfect Symmetry
Fall Out Boy- Foli A Deux
Simple Plan - Simple Plan

Few songs are worth listening even if you are not a fan though.

The All American Rejects feat The Pierces - Another Heart Calls (Best song of the album duet with the 2 hot chicks. Some might find it immature though due to punk voice of Tyson)

The Killers - Human
The Killers - Spaceman (They have made themselves proud again with this new album full of quality songs, this is their best album so far if not the best after Hot Fuss)

The Fray - All songs are good here. Check out the commercialized single "You found me" if you are dead lost. *My first unintended pun* of the year*

Keane - Spiral

Secondhand Serenade - Listen to all the songs if you are in love, emo ..whatever. It is a solo project by John Veseley. Secondhand Serenade is named as all the songs are listened first hand by 's wife hence the solo name. I particularly like "Pretend" and "Why" for no reasons.

There are a few songs not in these album that gives me a kind of energy that moves me everyday. Check them out if you have good taste in music...like me..

The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die

Paramore - Decode (from lame ass Twilight)

Gym Class Heroes feat the Dream- Cookie Jar (Damn catchy, Cant wait to dance to this song in a club somewhere ....someday.......sometime)

Signing off with the video

*I want to be faithful but I cant keep my hands off the cookie jar*

Happy New Year !!!!

2009-01-11T21:34:00.003+08:00

Howdy!!! I have managed to keep it at least one post per month which is really great. Well wanna wish a happy new year and hopefully 2009 will be a wonderful year irregardless of the economy turmoil which seem to be hitting everyone up in the ass right now.

At least for me I have made a plan which will be executed to prepare for the worst and improvise some soft skills.

My 2009 resolution will be:

1. Start reading more books - This should start now as living in Penang for the past 3 years has made me a English vocab retard .!! .

2. Learn web design and create a site template from scratch- Which means learning html, css, java, .ASP and competent in handling mainstream site builder software such as dreamweaver is a priority. I will see how much time per week I can spend on this and will revise the plan later.

3. Graphic design basics - to complement web design..but it's not a top priority as of now.

4. Become CFA ready- which means I will be ready to take the level 1 exams by mid year or at least the year end exams. A tough one as I was considering to take Masters intially either in Engineering or Business Administration but in the end I guess CFA chartership is more valuable and can equip myself to some finance knowledge at the very least.

5. Stop abandoning my guitar- I started learning guitar with my friends since high school and from then until now there was numerous times that I stopped playing for a long time. If I have been playing all this while, I will be like Jimi Hendrix by now. Sigh!! need to start improvising and it will start from a old song I have been wanting to learn a long time ago but didn't due to time issue. It's Collide by Howie Day and the song is awesome, should check it out!!

6. Rigorous gym routine - Made an impulsive decision to sign up year long membership prior to Christmans at a hefty sum. I guess it will be worth it if I become more buff in return in the future. A little vanity is no harm if it can encourage you to go the extra miles to lead a healthy lifestyle right?

7. Saving for tomorrow - 2009 will be a year where I will be spending a lot =). So savings is a must for this year.

That's it for now for the resolution part. Notice that non of the items I listed above is related to my job. I guess it has become mundane and non appealing anymore.

I can predict that it will be another slow year and there won't be any progress in the career advancement portion. With the relocation canceled and Israel war now I guess I have to stuck with routine work for another year.

When these things happen, you would think that maybe it is time to move on.............?
Satu sen for your thought?

Next post: 2009 Wishlist, Korea trip, Project Vault 14....stay tune..

Holiday at last!!!

2008-12-12T13:19:00.005+08:00

Whew, in the next few hours I will be flying off to the 'Land of the Morning Calm'. Going to check out the Winter Sonata venue and all the 'princess in the palace' s palaces- if there is such a word.

Haha ...will only be working for total 8 days in December with the 8 days holidaying in Korea and another 1 week plus off after coming back due to factory warm down--- such a long holiday and I hope I will still be in employment when I am back haihz. Lotsa unsettled work I left behind ^^.

Past few months have been very hectic for me and this holiday is the perfect escape to get a life. Not to mention CRAZY shopping in the past few weeks that involved depleting my year end salary and bonuses. Well, further elaboration of all that will only be done when I am back.

As for now I will focus on this trip, 'Project Vault 14' is still ongoing in spite of budget constraint and rigorous gym routine will be part of 2009 resolution. Damn!! Beginning to blog like a gal now, should stop doing all this and blog professionally- jot that down in my 2009 resolution list.

Anyway more bout the trip when I am back and till then check out this pic of the gang from last Xmas after beer and poker session. Yeah yeah I know it's been a year but better late than never right?

From left: me, kar wai, Yippie, Wai Kian.

Signing off....

I am still alive!!!!

2008-11-25T21:57:00.004+08:00

Just so you know, I am not dead yet...Anyway anyone wanna get me this for Xmas??? For god's sake it's not even an automatic...come on...

More to come.....stay tune..

-Sometimes the most irrational decision is rather the best satisfying shortcut for comfort ahead of unpredictable long winding road-

quoted by shim kc 11/25/2008

Wet Tuesday

2008-09-30T11:25:00.001+08:00

Weee it is Raya week. I just came back from 3 days weekend in Ipoh to find that it has been raining tremendously over in Penang. In fact it has been raining non stop for the past 5 hours this morning that it has managed to cause flash flooding at my workplace. I should have just stayed and work from home.

I can't work in the office anyway since the most of the machines are shut down and only paperwork can be done at the moment. Bad decision to wake my ass up early today hehe.

In a non related event, look how much the company stock has plunged since I was away. Hmhmhm ....

Southpark me!!

2008-09-19T00:15:00.007+08:00

Ok, the past 2 weeks were shit. Work has been a disappointment. No new progress on the visa permit approval means mundane execution work has to be carried out till infinite time. Working till midnight for 3 days for the past week didn't help much on the cause as it has made me a very tired man and I was deprived of quality sleep time. When I am lack of sleep, I would be very cranky and hostile.

So in order for me to de-stress, I edited and photoshopped this. It kept me entertained =).................................................................................................................for a mere 15mins.

Btw...I am currently listening to Jason Mraz - Lucky. Check it out it's a nice song...Going to learn the song on my guitar soon if I can survive the hectic and routine work.

The End of The Hungry Ghost Month

2008-08-31T11:58:00.009+08:00

Yesterday was the end of the hungry ghost month which ironically was also the eve of Merdeka. Since I didn't have any plans, I stayed back at home watching horror shows to commemorate the last day of hungry ghost month and further enhanced the Merdeka mood.

Among the movies I watched yesterday were:

1. Diary of the Dead.
2. Long Khong 2 aka The Art of the Devil 3 (Thai)
3. 1408 ( a Stephen King adaptation)

All in all, I wouldn't suggest these shows to others unless they are really bored.

The Diary of the Dead was another zombie crap made by ' Blair Witch Project' wannabes with a super lousy ending, Long Khong 2 was too gory and not suitable for sick hearts but at least it has a decent storyline.

Finally 1408 being what Stephen King does best for movies, by making them more complicated than it should be. He should just stick with writing books than to making movies.

Approximately another 5 hours and I will be on my way attending my boss wedding in Sungai Petani. What am I going to do before that? Should I get a nice book to read instead of watching lousy movies or should I just get a life?

The Strangers

2008-08-27T18:47:00.003+08:00

'Why are you doing this to us?'

'Because you were at home'

Warning *spoiler* ahead!! if you haven't watched it yet DO NOT READ FUTHER!!!...

The strangers were 3 young adults, a main guy with 2 girls accomplice who invaded the holiday home of Kirsten Mckay (Liv tyler) and James Hoyt (Scott Speedman) at 1801 Clarke Road, psychologically terrorising them through an orchestrated horror stalking before brutally stabbing them one by one in the stomach leaving them bleeding to death. I basically describe the whole movie liao haha.

The story started off with 2 stereotype mormon boys at a vandalized house. There was supposed to be a passerby calling the cops and telling them that she saw blood everywhere or something like that. Didn't know too much about the details as I missed almost the entire beginning scene buying food and pop corn.

Came back to find the second scene which turned out to be the beginning of the whole story. It was 4am and the couple appeared to be in distraught with mellow tension flowing around the house that was surprisingly decorated with rose petals .

From what I understand from the flashback that Kirsten had, James proposed to her earlier before and Kirsten rejected stating that she wasn't ready yet. James was sad bla bla and called his best pal, Mike to pick him up early in the morning with self esteem hitting rock bottom.

Moments later there was a loud bang on the door. An unfamiliar girl wanted to know if her friend was at home which was strange as the house was pretty isolated from anywhere and there was low chances that anyone would have got lost around that area. From then Kirsten and James psychological terror began :).

I don't want to describe too much about the details as it is basically about how Kirsten and James endure the terror and attacks that was dwelled upon them and their desperate and futile attempt to escape.

Throughout the whole time, they did not know who attacked them which is quite obvious from the quote I put above. This basically tells us that the murderers were pure sadist that picked innocent people randomly at isolated places which was not easily accessible by public.

One of the assailants would ring the door bell of their victim houses checking if anyone was at home. 'Is Tamara home?' was one of the memorable and chilly line used by the blonde girl accomplice to check on them.

I was quite disappointed with the movie at first but after reading some explanations on the web I was satisfied. But one cannot deny that there was a lot of holes in the storyline that noone can explain (like blood flowing to the bath tub when Kirsten was about to bathe etc) . IMHO Liv Tyler could have done better by acting in a more 'glamour' movie than this.

Overall this is not a show for everyone. I did some googling and found out that the story was inspired by Manson Killings (Notice 'inspired' and compare it with 'based', both words have total different meanings aka a movie inspired by true story can be fictional) which used girl accomplice to do job. For those who can wait, I suggest better get the DVD or download the ripped avi aka Pirates than watching it in a cinema.

Hat Yai Trip 07/12/2008

2008-08-03T21:57:00.005+08:00

I was in Hat Yai a few weeks ago to escape mundane weekend routine for a change. It was a last min plan organized by Miss J and colleagues and overall the trip was great, enjoyable and pretty eye opening. Susprisingly, most things sold there were not as cheap as initially thought mainly because it was a long weekend in Penang and many people including the Penangites were flooding the small town and unofficially made it a peak season that time.

This is my first time visiting Hat Yai, having missed out a few chances to go there with my family last time. I have been to Bangkok and Chiang Mai before when I was in High school and I was quite curious on a particular 'tiger' show that everyone was talking about whenever they were in Thailand. I didn't manage to experience it last time for obvious reasons so the show was listed as one of my main agenda for this trip.

We started off by boarding a van at the Sg Nibong bus station. On our way, we saw this bus on the side of the road which look like it had hit the sign post before ramming to the school wall. Some cool stunt there I must say, considering the road is actually quite straight with no particular sharp bend, the driver must be pissed drunk when the accident happened. Well I couldn't care much, snapped a few pictures, was thinking of sending to 'The Star 'for the RM 50 picture of day contest but didn't bother in the end.

Perhaps a shortcut to Milan?

We reached Hat Yai at about 12pm local time after some 5 hrs of ass bumping ride. Basically Hat Yai is a small town congested with arrays of markets/shoplots/restaurants with few hotels/shopping complexes centered it .There is also a lot of massage parlors located in every streets in the city. Apparently Hat Yai is famous for shark's fin soup and bird's nest with a lot of restaurants in the city serving this delicacy. The favourite form of transport there is Tut Tut which is basically a modified pickup truck with roof installed at the back to accomodate passengers.

Tut Tut is the sound of the vehicle horn?

We checked in to the Regency Hotel and had lunch at a random restaurant. At that point, we were desperately looking for tiger show tix. Apparently the whole tiger show thingnie was quite subtle as we couldn't find anyone until we had to ask the restaurant owner for the contact. After lunch we went for shopping at Diana shopping mall and ancient massage at King's hotel.

Did I mention alcohol is freaking cheap over there? Beers, hard liquors, and coolers were damn freaking cheap in Thailand. A can of local Singha beer cost less than RM 3. A pack of 6 cans of Heineken was sold at RM18 at supermarkets. Hard liquors such as Smirnoff etc could be found easily at 7-elevens and supermarkets. Damn it's like Langkawi everyday to them but there is this weird Thai law that governs the selling of alcohol there:

No alcohol is sold during breakfast and tea time but anytime other than that it's fine. Weird.

Some Hat Yai pictures below:

A pissed off nut seller after knowing we weren't going to buy anything from her hence the stickout tongue gesture.

Fried river prawn, chicken drumstick ...don't be fooled, the food was re-fried for about zillion times before being sold to customers.

Local girl selling sotong bakar pasar malam style.

My stomach digesting them 5 mins later

Cutie piglet pose (All the pun intended):P

After dinner, we took a tut tut to the tiger show venue at an outskirt pub .

Mission accomplished!!

Atmosphere just before the show. Taking pictures during the show is strictly prohibited. Trust me you wouldn't want to do it even if you had 8 balls.

A little description of the Thai Girl show:

It was quite cheap. 250 Baht for a ticket (Original price was 450 Baht) with a glass of diluted beer. Started off with a traditional dance by 4 fully clothed girls for good ol 10 mins. We were like WTF?!! Bring on the action already. It was followed by pole dancing by 2 girls. There was a coke bottle stunt as well that showed us new way to open a bottle when there is no cap opener around. Pretty gross I would say. Ok cigarette smoking pussy was next on the agenda followed by non sexual snake show with a king cobra, sadist pouring candle wax all over the body to attract the aunties and other pole dance events with different girls filling up the slot in between these show. The night was concluded with a sex show but ended halfway before the climax: It was a quite routine for them I could see both the guy and girl expression that said 'come on just get on with it already, we have done this for the 1000th times'. Overall I would say the Thai girl show wasn't too disappointing as I found it quite entertaining and funny most of time.

After that, we headed back to hotel. Bought some supper and had a drinking session before calling the night off. The next day we went to the market, bought some cashewnuts and dried food before boarding the van home. Took us a whopping 6 hours to reach penang thx to many detours. Nice.

Welcome to Engineered Musings Rev 0.1!!!

2008-07-20T14:28:00.005+08:00

Hello!

Here I am, after endless time of procrastinating, I finally found the time and effort in spite of my 'busy load' at work and other commitments to create 'Engineered Musings'. I will mainly use this site to blog about personal life, hobby, work and of course many fun stuffs so stay tune yeah.

The hardest part of starting a blog for me is to create the bloody damn banner using photoshop. It took me few days from installing the software, googling sites for tutorials and finally creating the master piece from scratch. Next step was to choose a nice standard template to suit the banner. Lastly I must say, the one that gave me the biggest headache was to choose the theme.

Why 'Engineered Musings' you asked. Well I know this sounds corny but I am an engineer by profession and I tend to have lotsa thoughts inside my head all the time that I wish to have penned it down somewhere for memories so hence the title.

Before signing off my first post I would like to stress that this blog is meant to have fun so people pls do not be offended by stuffs that will be written here.
Last thing that I want is to have internet drama.

P/S: I am proud to announce that one of my 2008 resolutions has finally been accomplished =)