Car Drifting Live Action @ Bukit Jalil

Can't think of any good topic to blog about recently. Suddenly I have the feeling that I may out of topic to write soon. Anyway, I just try to share some car drifting competition photos I took at Bukit Jalil car park area about 2 months ago when I was having my working attachment in KL.

Just happened that I used LRT back to Bukit Jalil Station and prepared to walk back to Savanna Condo where I stayed. Then very sharp tyres friction noise flew into my ears. Therefore I walked to the crowd and took a look on what happened.

It was a drifting competition! Before this I just saw car drifting in movies like Initial-D and Fast & Furious. Never see it live! It was very exciting when you see the cars were driving fast then suddenly made a turn and drift. It was just like the cars going to throw off! Not all the participants could perfectly drift. Those lousier skills would turn around half way they did the drifting.

Hardly saw nice cars in this competition. Mostly saw those old cars like E70 series Toyota Corolla with modified engine. The drifting caused a lot of noise yet it was a good experience seeing the live action!

Personal Opinion on Transformer 2 Movie

Last night I went to watch Transformer 2 Revenge of The Fallen in cinema. Honestly I never felt so excited waiting to watch a movie before but I had been waiting for this movie for some ages already. There was an indescribable excitement and expectation inside my heart towards this movie probably because I like the characters too much!

No doubt, the movie was awesome and absolutely stunning with a lot of newly added Autobots and Decepticons! This is one of the attraction point of this movie.

I won't go into details about the story of this movie, I think you better get the excitement yourself. Basically it is just about Starscream was planning for rescue and revenge after Megatron being destroyed in the last episode. They finally managed to resurrect Megatron under the sea then started a series of attack and invasion onto the earth. At the same time, the Fallen, master of Megatron also seeking for revenge on the Matrix of Leadership that he lost in the old days. The matrix will be used to activate sun harvesters which is a machine using suns to power the AllSpark. If the machine is activated, suns will be destroyed then life on earth will be ended. Therefore, Autobots were working with human to protect the earth from being destroyed.

Just now I mentioned about newly added Autobots and Decepticons? Actually I was looking for their information few weeks before the movie was shown on big screen, that's why I have a very high expectation to see their real appearance in the film. Honestly, you hardly see how they actually look like on the net! Not trusting me? Ok, how about you try to google it.

It was the appearance issue that disappointed me the most in this film. No problem with the main robots. Optimus Prime is still as great. Bumblebee is even cutter and more emotional than the first episode. Remember he peed on a sector 7 agent in 1st episode? This time he cried and yes with tears! Ironhide and Ratchet still playing supporting role. Mudflap and Skids, the twin Autobots newly added to the movie were always naughty and hyperactive throughout the film, but how about Arcee? She suppose is the first appearance of female Autobots in Transformers movie which I really looking forward. Yet sad to say that she didn't have much chance to stay on screen and that's why even after the movie, I still not sure how she actually looks like. Same situation goes to Jolt, who is actually a blue Chevrolet Volt.

Jetfire was shown in details. He was a robot with "old man look" carrying a crutch on his right arm. He was Decepticon, yet chose to side with Autobots. Same goes to Wheelie, who is a remote-control monster truck who made the choice to stand with Autobots. He was a very cute little robot which brought a lot of fun to the story flow and definitely you won't forget him.

For Decepticons, Megatron and Starscream look pretty the same with the first episode. However if not mistaken Megatron had 2 alternate modes in this one - jet and tank. Why so? I really not sure as he could only transform to jet previously. Megatron was rusty because being thrown into the ocean after being killed in the last episode.

Constructicons rather disappointed me. Couldn't even see how Mixmaster, Long Haul, Rampage and Scrapper actually look like in robot mode. Demolisher and Devastator, two giant Decepticons were really huge and being shown clearer in the film. Ravage, the one eyed jaguar gave poeple a fresh look of Decepticions.

Despite the personal criticism above, the movie is really worth to watch as a whole. I will give 8 out of 10 for this movie.


P/s: One more thing... for those "buaya", Megan Fox was irresistibly sexy and pretty inside the film!!! Don't like robots? Nevermind... go to see Megan Fox!

Michael Jackson Passed Away Today

I guess most of you had know this shocking news already...

The Lord of Pop, Michael Jackson had passed away today, 26th June 2009 at the age of 50 at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. He is believed to die of cardiac arrest.

Recently Michael is actually planning for a series of comeback concert in London from July 13 until March 2010 and the shows for the 50 London concerts sold out within minutes of going on sale in March. However, his dream cannot come true anymore.

Michael Jackson is one of the most influential person in entertainment industry. The death of this legend definitely is a big lost to the industry.

The Biggest iPhone

This post not seems to be too interesting, but this was the biggest iPhone I ever met so far.

This giant iPhone was displayed at the lobby area of Pavillion shopping complex by Maxis when the telco was promoting the new iPhone 3G service provided by them towards the end of April this year.

I was in KL for my working attachment that time. That's why I bumped with it. It was not actually a real functional iPhone, but a monitor to display advertisement for iPhone instead.

According to my rough approximation, it was about 1:40 of the real iPhone.

Luxury Cars Series - Mercedes Benz C63 AMG

Well... not in the mood to write long today, so basically just share these photos with you all on the luxury Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG which I met in Suria KLCC when I was having my attachment in KL.

Not so sure about its pricing and specification, but I found out some information from Mercedes-Benz Malaysia website.

• Engine: 6.3-litre naturally-aspirated V8 engine (6208cc)
  
• Power: 336 kW (457 hp)
• Torque: 600 Nm@5000rpm
  
• 0 to 100 km/h: 4.5 seconds
• Top speed: 250 km/h
• Fuel consumption: 13.4 litre/100 km
• Fuel Capacity: 66 litres
• Wheels: Front - 8Jx18-inch, rear - 9Jx18
• Tyres: Front - 235/40 ZR 18, rear - 255/35 ZR 18
  

Sorry... I am not a car fanatic. So basically I am not so sure what those data means. But V8 engine sounds powerful. It only needs 4 and a half seconds to go from 0 - 100 km/h. That is great and the top speed can reach up to 250 km/h (Country highway's maximum speed is only 110km/h). The fuel consumption you can judge yourself.

The Story of The Three Amigos Went Fishing

After experiencing fishing for the first time at Three Pillars farm last month, the 3 amigos seem fall in love with fishing already. Today, once again, three of them - Sparkish, PSToh and FoxKing went for fishing. Destination of their choice this time is not lake anymore. Maybe after the first time fishing on lake, they felt it was not challenging anymore. So, this time they tried near the riverside, somewhere at Sibu Town Square 2nd phase park.

Actually I didn't follow them. Heard they went there early in the morning, 7am something. I rather spend my time sleep more as it is weekend! I just hate to wake up early. However, I gave them some surprise by pay them a popup visit around 10am something. Well, just to inspect if they got any harvest after spending whole morning there because I "CARE" them.... yeah! Care with action and not with mouth only like "some people"! (If you confused what I mean for the last sentence especially about the issue of "care", you can just skip it. It only means for "some people") ;)

The 3 amigos not look to be too surprised with my sudden apperance. Maybe they were still praying hard to get some prey home. I shouted, "Get anything?". "Yes!", one of them replied to me and quickly show me the prey in a pail.

Guess who caught the fish? Yes! It was FoxKing!! If not the drain-fishing king a.k.a longkang king, who else! But the size of the fish? Well.... it's almost the same size as the one he got at Three Pillars Farm! No wonder he still remain his nick as longkang king! Hey! FoxKing! I think next time we better call you LongkangKing rather than FoxKing, agree?!?!

So, the fishing competition between the 3 amigos still leading by FoxKing with 2 fish, Sparkish 0 fish and PSToh 0 fish. Sparkish and PSToh still working hard, but I am sure with their passion and hard work, one day they will success and beat the longkang king!

I left the place after about 20 minutes while the 3 amigos continue waiting and waiting for a bigger prey. Are they gonna make it? We will see....

6th Payment

You can ignore this. It is just to record my 6th payment of my study loan on 19th June 2009 (Friday).

The Making of Umai

Heard of the term "Umai" before? I guess most Sarawakian would know what does it mean. It is actually a cuisine which is synonym to Melanau people in Sarawak.

I am sure lots of people are quite familiar with Japanese sashimi? Ya! If you know what Japanese sashimi is, then Umai is "Melanau's sashimi"! It is thinly sliced fish either eaten raw by dipped into a specially prepared sauce or marinated with calamondin lime, onions, chillies and some gingers.

Few types of fish can be used to prepare Umai, but the most common one is this Empirang fish with gold body color. It is not too hard to recognize this fish in the market. Why this fish? Well, honestly I am not sure. Maybe is because its flesh textures suitable to make Umai?

Basically preparing Umai is not too hard because at the end of the day, you just need to soak everything together for a short while before you can eat it. However, the hardest part is to prepare the fish! Yes, it certainly needs a very good skills to do so.

To prepare the fish, first of all of course you need to clear and clean the fish. Then the toughest part is here - fillet the fish! If you not use to carry the knife, well I guess it is difficult to do this. If I am doing this, I think I will end up cutting my own fingers!

After filleting, it is time to slice the fish into tiny pieces. Make sure you slice the Empirang fish in the correct direction or else you will end up eating sashimi with a lot of fish bones!

These are the finish-sliced fish meat ready to make Umai...

...but before that, here are some other ingredients you need to prepare...

.. and don't forget the calamondin lime juice! It is not easy to prepare as you can imagine how much juice you can get from a tiny calamondin.

Is there any easier way beside using this traditional and out dated technology to squeeze the lime juice? How much juice needed? Well, as long as it is enough to marinate everything in.

After the hard work... jeng jeng jeng... here is the final product! Just soak for a short while...

... and the delicious and unbeatable Umai is ready to be eaten!

Some people like to eat Umai as a dish for lunch or dinner but some prefer to eat it with Sago seeds/pearl.

Pandaw Cruise in Sibu

RV Orient Pandaw cruise is now in Sibu. Actually the cruise already berthed at the dock near Jalan Khoo Peng Loong Sibu in May for renovation works. It will start its official crusing on 1st July 2009.

For those who may not know, Pandaw is the largest luxury river cruise company in Asia. The company has actually 6 ships operating in 5 countries - Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam, India and Malaysia where Rejang River is the newest route that is going to be explored by Pandaw.

The cruise consists of 4 decks which include lounge, spa area, laundry room, staterooms or guest cabin, dining room and promenade decks.

For the Rejang River cruising, it will be a 9-day tour and among the destination are as follow:

• Day 1 - Sibu
• Day 2 - Kanowit
• Day 3 - Kapit
• Day 4 - The Baleh River
• Day 5 - Pelagus Rapids
• Day 6 - Pelaggus and beyond
• Day 7 - Song
• Day 8 - Sarikei and Tanjung Manis
• Day 9 - Sibu
  

The price? Well, it isn't cheap. According to the price list from Pandaw official website, it is from USD $3255 onwards! Meaning, if you convert it to Malaysian Ringgit, the cheapest you have to pay per trip is about RM11,440! Are you willing to pay that price for a 9-day trip on Rejang River?

At the time I snapped these photos which was around end of May, the cruise was hiring the locals to run the ship. River master, pilot, engineer, chef/cook, helper, waiters, steward, sailors, spa and house keeping. Are you interested working on Rejang River? You may try, but I am not sure if at this moment of writing are they still hiring.

Opps! So sorry, couldn't get the inner view of the cruise as the place is not opened for public yet. But why the white board written "Tidak Boleh Memancing" (Cannot fishing)? Do you mean we cannot fishing at Rejang River? Confusing...

According to trusted source, the first sailing on 1st of July already been fully booked mainly by American, European and Aussie. Due to the limited cabins, the cruise can only accommodate up to maximum 60 people at one time sailing.

[Management were doing discussion on the cruise]

[Door view at stateroom No.207]

[A staircase to upper deck]

[The cruise is registered at Phnom Penh, Cambodia]

[Opps! Caught somebody taking bath just beside the cruise!]

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Related information:

1. Pandaw official website
2. Pandaw cruise price list
3. RV Orient Pandaw
4. About Pandaw
   

Basketball Court Drawing DIY Project

This evening I was invited by a buddy of mine to a Basketball Court Drawing DIY Project at his place. It was a private initiated project with the goal to draw a half court basketball court line at the end of the day.

This was my first experience doing this kind of task. Before this I just knew how to play basketball on a basketball court but not how to draw a court with my own hands. Certainly it was not an easy task.

First, you need to prepare the measurement of the court. Not sure about the measurement? Just googling it! The one we used is the FIBA standard measurement. Some other necessary tools for the job are measuring tape, white chalk, rope, masking tape, hammer, nail and also the paint.

To start the task, we first measured the area with measuring tape. Then we marked each important point with the white chalk. For rounded area, we used rope tied to a nail acted like a compass.

After marking the necessary paths with white chalk, we then used masking tape to mark the boundaries of the straight lines to ease our paint job later.

Ok! It was painting time! My friend bought a Road Marking Paint for this purpose. This was the "smallest" tin he could get as usually marking road will use quite a big volume of paint so no small tin is available.

Painting the straight line seemed not to be too hard as we had masking tape guided along the boundaries but not the curve. That's why for the curving area, we needed to show a bit of our "artistic" skill and talent to make the curve look rounded.

After painting the free throw line semicircle, we then continued with the other part of semicircle to form a circle, but this time it was a broken line. This was a bit challenging as we need proper measurement to make the broken line look balance on both side.

After refering to the drawing plan, we did some marking first with white chalk before applied the paint onto it. This was the result, it looks good!

Last but not least, we measured and painted the lane places and neutral zones along the both side of free throw lanes.

This was the end result! The basketball court was in shape!! Both of us were very satisfy and proud with our 2-hour hard work! Doesn't it look awesome? Gosh! I just love it! If not because of some technical problem, we would have drawn the 3-point line as well and the work would be perfect!

Anyway, it was considered as mission accomplished!! The project was a success and I really enjoyed it! It was a great experience!