BLOG HOPPING..

(Blogger.com)

Yesterday I was on leave. Today, not much urgent matter in the office.. so, I try a blog hopping.. hop from one blog to another starting from my lovely wife's blog first, of course. One after another and another and another..

I found it strange and bemused by the 'openness' of the entry of some of the blogs that I had gone thru. Most of them had registered a high followers and they had started blogging since a couple of years back. Every entry, normally, will carry with them at least about 10 to 20 comment from their followers. Even though, mostly the comment was from the same circle of people which I believed very close to the blog owner.

I believed those 'stories' are of their daily life or at the very least of their observation and of their thought. But, the way those 'thought' being written made me wonder are they for real ? or, did the story(ies) had already being added with some sugar and spices just to make it super-sweet and super-hot to pull others to read and come all over again. Even so, I found it interesting enough and it sound 'natural' to them.

After all, that is their blog and their stories and they may write whatever they feel fit and right for the sake of their self satisfaction. Everyone had their own interpretation and opinion..

Knowledge is Power!

FATHER'S DAY II - WHAT IT MEANT..

What it meant to be a F.A.T.H.E.R for me..

1) I got my daughter to carry my name on hers

2) I got to be in the labour room and see it all as it happened

3) I got to 'basuh uri'

4) I got elevated title from 'a husband' to 'a husband + a father'

5) I can make use of my paternity leave

6) I got my family and friends to congratulate me of being a father

7) I can perform a 'majlis cukur jambul'

8) I got one extra birthday to celebrate each year

9) I got another mouth to feed

10) I can buy a baby car seat

11) I can buy a 'gelonsor'

12) I can go to the children section in the shopping complex/supermarket

13) I can buy a 'susu formula'

14) I can buy baby diapers

15) I can say "This is my daughter" to others

16) I got to watch every cartoon series that she wanted to watch.. together

17) I can teach her to learn A.. B.. C..

18) I can teach her to learn 'alif.. ba.. ta..'

19) I can teach her to sing 'nenek.. nenek.. si bongkok tiga'

20) I can teach her to learn how to ride a bike..

And, many many many many (x1000) more things that I can only imagine before she came into our life..

Thanks to ALLAH, I am grateful with HIS precious gift ! Alhamdulillah..


Note : Finally, my lovely wife got it right .. thanks for the wish..

THE TWILIGHT SAGA

(Google)

First time I heard of it is from a close friend of mine who working at an MPH Bookstore. He told me, it is the hottest selling book(s) in town. None of it interest me though as I consider myself 'allergic' to books. Book(s) never interest me in any way. If I had to read a book, it is not because I love doing it.. it is purely reading sebab terpaksa or to kill some spare time or the worst of it, I read for the sake of reading only - a non-stick to me.

Out of a sudden, a Twilight fever struck my wife. I don't know where does it came from but obviously she got addicted to it. She finished the first book within a week or so! and, there were 498 pages written in English! Apparently, she got the fever when she stumbled upon a Twilight movie on Astro 413. It is well documented that my wife will be 'magnetised' to any kind of Vampire-related story, not the brutal kind.. but the love-story-related-kind-of-story. From then, off we go to the MPH Bookstore and she grabbed all that is possible from the series. Unfortunately, the Eclipse was not available. One day, I went to KLCC to watch the "Rempit V3" alone and immediately she asked me to buy the Eclipse. I when to Kinokuniya and grabbed her one.

How on earth the fever creep into me ? Well, I went to work by a public transport and along the way, obviously, there will be many spare time that I need to kill off. At that time, my wife was already 3/4 way of the book 2, the New Moon. I grabbed the Twilight and started reading it exclusively during my public-transport-travelling-time. As I counted it, I will be able to read about 10 pages per trip. And, that will count into 20 pages per day on working day. By those calculation, I should finished the book by.. ermmm.. 498pages divided by 20 pages per day = 24.9 working days! WOW, that should killed a lot of time!

I can't remember when is exactly did I finished the Twilight book, then I jumped to the New Moon book, then the Eclipse book.. by this time, my wife had stopped her reading out of a sudden. What happened was, we watched a New Moon movie and she had found that the movie lacked details as in the books. Many part on the book was not on show. And, expecting the new coming Eclipse movie she had put the reading on hold (yet to re-start.. enjin belum panas kot?). After I finished the Eclipse, which at my standard was pretty quick, I continued with the Breaking Dawn book. And, here I am.. already completed the whole saga - Twilight (498 pages), New Moon (563 pages), Eclipse (629 pages) and Breaking Dawn (756 pages) - a total of 2446 pages in approx. 3 months. As I am no-book-reading-lover, that should be a new record for me!

When I first started reading the Saga, I thought the story would be violent, full of blood and action pack where the Vampire when on to terrorising the human race into extinction. To my amusement, it is, indeed, a soul searching love story to the mould of Romeo and Juliet! All stories are evolved around a girl named Bella whom had a separated parent. She finally decided to stay with her father in Forks, some remote country-like-small-town. No that she knew, at first, there are Vampires living, unnoticed, amongst the human - The Cullens - whom feed themselves with 'vampire's vegetarian diet' which is the animal blood. Edwards Cullen attracted her curiosity and the story really kicked off from there..

The difference between the Vampire in Twilight Saga and the Vampire that we live to 'believed' is that they will not burned into ashes when exposed to the sun. Instead, their skin will glitter-like-a-diamond-expose-to-the-light. That's a new one. Good move by the author on creating a 'new-kind' of Vampire persona. The rest of it is just like the Vampire that we would expected, the white skin, cold blooded, extremely gorgeous, very strong, quick movement etc. In addition, some of the Vampires do have special ability like - Edwards (mind reader), Alice (future teller), Jasper (mood controller) etc.

(Google)

The twist in myth in the book also includes the Werewolf. Not the kind of Werewolf did we know, this is the good kind. Their main job is to protect the human. Vampire(s) are their enemy and their existence is purely provoked by the existence of the Vampire around their 'guarded place' - La Push. They are not 'made' by get bitten by other Werewolf, instead it is in their blood. The Werewolf pack, at first, was lead by Sam Uley - the descendant of the Alpha - as he is the first one of the pack to 'phase', albeit it is of lower hierarchy of Jacob Black. Jacob Black is the main character in the Werewolf pack as he is the descendant of the true Alpha of the Werewolf - Ephraim Black.

The villains in this story are some loose controlled Vampires, namely James, Victoria & Lauren. Also, the 'newborn'. The Volturi is the 'King' of the Vampires, some sort of royal-like status, in which they are the one whom doing the judgment and prosecuting the Vampires that had put the Vampire's existence in danger. There are rules being set by them. One of it is, the Vampire existence must be kept secret from the human no matter what. Those disobedient will be prosecuted with 'death' penalty.

Argghh.. this entry is too long already. If interested to know more, why don't you read it by yourself.

(Google)

Overall, I would give a thumbs up and eagerly anticipated for the Eclipse movie this month or next month (summer blockbuster).

Personally, I think Eclipse is the best book of the 4..

Note : Now that I had completed the Saga, wonder what next in the agenda to kill-off my public-transport-traveling-time..

JOM MAKAN MAKAN - BIHUN SOTO

Makanan kalau sedap mana2 pun orang tetap akan cari, betul tak ? Ok, this time around I would like to write about Husin Soto.

Lokasi : Menara Telekom Malaysia
Kedai : Husin Soto
Specialty : Segala jenis soto (Bihun, Mee, Nasi Impit)

There are only two type of everything dijual di sini. "Biasa" & "Special". For this entry, the focus will be the Bihun Soto.

Bihun Special

Bihun Special come with chicken drumstick or chicken wing, telur (yang belum keluar daripada ayam lagi - if you got what I meant - refer picture), pedal ayam, taugeh, daun sup.. of course. Served with kicap and cili padi tumbuk for those yang suka pedas. Beza antara "Special" dan "Biasa" cuma pada bahan2 yang disediakan bersama2 bihun tersebut. Kalau "Biasa", Bihun come with shreaded chicken and taugeh only.

Based on my observation, ayam tu direbus didalam sup tersebut.. berapa lama, tak sure. Resepi rahsia (tak tanya pun). The taste is just nice, terasa sup nya tapi tidak terlalu berminyak. Chicken nya easy to peel off from the bone possibly due to telah direbus lama-lama. Sup bukan jenis masam (macam Thai style) dan most people suka tambah kicap banyak2.. itu, kena ikut citarasa masing2 lah.

Oh ye, the "Special" is limited dependent on how many drumstick(s) and wing(s) they got at that time. Husin Soto hanya buka pada sebelah pagi dan ditutup pada sekitar jam 12 tengahari, before lunch time. So, if you happened to be around Menara Telekom why don't you give it a try.

My Rating (I am not an expert. This is just based on my opinion) :






Note :
1) Taste & Service - More stars the better
2) Price - Less star the cheaper

MY HANDPHONE EVOLUTION

H.A.N.D.P.H.O.N.E

Most working adult has, at least, one handphone for communication purposes. The era of fixed home telephone line is declining and rapidly being replaced with handphone. I believed handphone nowadays is a necessity rather than a luxury.

My handphone evolution :

Year : 1998
Brand : Nokia
Model : tak ingat la (refer picture)

My first handphone was a Nokia (tak ingat model). The phone doesn't use the sim card as at that time I am using the Mobikom 018 service in which the line was activated centrally by the mobile operator. At that time, most of my friend had some difficulty to accept that the phone does not use the sim card as the way theirs is. Mobikom 018 was not a popular choice at that time. I end up showing them the proof by switching off the handphone and let them have a closer look on the phone. There is an advantage by having this feature. One of it, the phone can be deactivated remotely by the mobile operator in the event it lost or got stolen and cannot be activated back.

The phone end of life occurs in tragedy! In one fine morning, while rushing for work I had unintentionally.. repeat.. unintentionally left the handphone on top of my car. And, you could imagine what had happened next. The handphone goes flying and never recovered.

Year : 2001
Brand : Motorola
Model : tak ingat la (refer picture)

In desperate need of new lease of life, I grab whatever handphone available at home. This handphone was not mine, of course, but I quickly proclaim the ownership once I got my hand onto it. As it is considered as a 'second hand' phone.. the condition also is bad. First, it is bulky. Second, the battery lock had broken and it need to be tied with a rubber band in order to put it in place!

As desperate people does desperate thing, I took the 'challenge' and use the handphone. I choose a DiGi 016 as the service operator. They are offering the prepaid services. The worse part of having DiGi 016 is, the signal is hardly at 2 bars (2 out of 5) at my workplace, a factory in Sg Choh, Rawang. The area was best served by Maxis 012.

Whenever I am in and around the factory building, the signal is as good as non-existence! If, I really need to make a phone call, I need to get outside of the factory building and searching for the signal manually! (go around the area until the phone register 3 bars signal). Just imagine the hassle

Year : 2001
Brand : Nokia
Model : 3310

Due to the hassle I am facing with the Motorola + DiGi 016, I had decided it is a good time to change to new handphone and subscribing to the Maxis 012 service. No hassle, no rubber band and most importantly.. no more manual signal searching! (go around the area until the phone register 3 bars signal)

Nokia 3310 was equipped with the latest technology at that time, the best newest feature in town.. the vibration! It vibrate when a call being made. They also said that 'it dance'! Place your Nokia 3310 upward and call. The vibration ringing will cause the handphone to twisting right and left as it is performing a dance.

Year : 2002
Brand : Panasonic
Model : tak ingat la (refer picture)

I found this handphone at home lying around 'without tuan'. It quickly put me into interest as the brand is a non-traditional handphone manufacturer unlike Nokia or Motorola. What ? Panasonic ? Are you sure you spell it right ? Well, that's what people may think of it. The handphone is light, robust (drop it so many time, but still 'performed') and it only cause me RM100, made payable to my brother.

Unfortunately, this handphone do have hiccup. It often display a 'No signal' and I had to reboot it when it does. Even with the hassle of rebooting, I still stick to it long enough due to its brand uniqueness.

Year : 2005
Brand : Samsung
Model : tak ingat la (one of the SGHxx model - flip type)

I had set my eyes firmly on Nokia N76 in which at that time price at approx. RM1,400. My wife had decided to trade-in her Samsung in favour of Nokia 6680. Unfortunately, the trade-in price was not satisfactorily enough to persuade her to trade-in. The shop offers RM200 for the Samsung which was purchased less than 1 year before! The market price at that time was somewhere around RM800 - RM900. After a lengthy persuasive discussion, I had decided to buy over the Samsung from my wife at RM450 on 0% interest RM50 per month installment.. haha. She got her new Nokia 6680, and in return I got the Samsung SGH instead of Nokia N76 that I had aimed for.

Honestly, I am never a fan of a 'two-pieces' handphone let alone a flip one. I view it as a hassle and not convenient to have to slide or flip a handphone just to answer a call.

The handphone is equipped with camera and a media playback feature which I like and find it useful. Unfortunately, the handphone don't support external storage card such as the MicroSD. Therefore, it limits the handphone storage capacity.

Year : 2007
Brand : HP (Hewlett Packard)
Model : IPAQ Voice Messenger

A smartphone from HP, again a non-traditional handphone manufacturer. I first heard of the handphone being a gift away for one of the courses conducted by my company.. for FREE! As soon as I heard that, I enrolled myself to the course straight away. It's a 4 days course. To be honest, I don't believed that anybody attending the course for the sake of gaining new knowledge, instead everybody is anxious and eager for the FREE Smartphone only. On the third day of the course, what had we been waiting for finally in our hand.. a FREE HP IPAQ Voice Messenger operating on Windows Mobile OS.

The smartphone got almost everything that suit any gadget hunters requirement out there, except for 3G capability.. That is the smartphone achilles heel! However, I love this smartphone for its uniqueness as not many people are actually think of HP when they considering buying a handphone.

Unfortunately, all good things do come to end. The smartphone accidentally CRASHED into a toilet bowl!! Although it was recovered but its performance was badly degraded in the form of faulty microfon. When I speak, the other person will hear me as if I was 'far, far, far' away. It has became more and more hassle to continue using the smartphone as it cause a frustration to those on the recieving end.

Year : 2010
Brand : Nokia
Model : E72

My new 'baby'. I think it suit my needs the most within my tied budget. Purchased at RM1245 about 2 weeks ago. It had almost every function that I would ever required, not that like I will use them all. It is 'one piece', 3G, Camera equipped, Media playback function etc

With the purchase, I did upgrade my Celcom 013 line to 3G all access which will enable me to sync with office outlook and able to read my office email on the go. What a pleasant convenient!

I am planning to stick to this one for considerable long period of time. Hopefully, no tragedy awaits..

In the end, I realised that My Handphone Evolution is based on the evolution of my personal and working environment needs. Some people may change their handphone out of convenient while some others are just for the sake of keeping up with the technology.

I, personally, think that the ultimate use of a handphone is for communication. What better way to communicate other than talking to each other as we grow old. All those fancy features are only meant to justify for price increment only!

P.L.E.A.S.E. K.E.E.P. I.N. T.O.U.C.H

PATIN MASAK GULAI TEMPOYAK

Gambar hiasan

Perghhh... terliur !

Last thursday, pihak AJK surau An-Nur dengan kerjasama AJK KRT telah mengadakan majlis Tahlil dan Bacaan Yasin serta sambutan mengalu2kan kedatangan SUB, BPH serta anggota rombongannya.

Aturcara majlis bermula dengan Solat Maghrib kemudian Bacaan Yasin, Ucapan SUB, Ucapan Pengerusi Surau, Solat Isya' dan aturcara yang paling ditunggu2.. Jamuan Makan. Istimewanya jamuan makan pada kali ini ialah ikan patin sungai temerloh masak gulai tempoyak.. perghh.. terliur!

Semua hadirin menjamu selera malam tu, rata2 bersetuju menu yang disediakan tu just nice dan 98% menepati citarasa hadirin semua. Bahagian kepala mendapat sambutan yang hangat dimana hampir 80% yang mengambil menu ikan patin akan minta bahagian tersebut. Dan, dalam pinggan hampir semua orang menu utamanya adalah patin walaupun ada lauk ayam rendang disediakan sebagai side-kick kalau2 ada yang tidak makan patin. Al-maklum la, bukan nya semua orang boleh melantak ikan sungai ni. Makanan yang disediakan sangat banyak kalau nak dibandingkan dengan hadirin yang ada. So, masing2 mengambil kesempatan untuk tapaw seketul-dua lauk ikan patin tersebut, including me.. of course.

Majlis tu boleh dikatakan as a success walaupun kehadirannya tidaklah seperti yang dijangkakan, anyway penuh juga la surau tu sampai kebelakang.

Sedikit fakta berkenaan ikan patin :

1) Ikan Patin atau nama saintifiknya Pangasius Sutchi adalah spesis ikan air tawar jenis meserba yang mendiami kawasan-kawasan sungai dan lombong-lombong.

2) Bentuk fizikal utamanya adalah mempunyai dua sengat di kiri kanan dan satu di belakang badan, tidak bersisik dan lembut

3) Ada beberapa jenis ikan patin yang biasa dikenali antaranya :
i) Patin Sungai
ii) Patin Kolam

1. Patin Buah
2. Patin Mucung
3. Patin Juara

3) Harga ikan patin sungai boleh mencecah sehingga RM180 sekilo

4) Ada pelbagai cara/resepi memasak ikan patin, dan yang paling popular ialah ikan patin masak gulai tempoyak

5) Di Malaysia, Temerloh dikenali sebagai 'Bandar Ikan Patin'


Note : It's nice sometime to try some 'exotic' dishes

FATHER'S DAY

Salam..

I received a Happy Father's Day wish from my lovely wife today. Thank you dear! It's very thoughtful of you. Well, there is an old saying "It's the thought that count".

Based on my search by Google :


Sorry dear, maybe you got it too early. Thanks anyway, appreciate that very much

I can still clearly remembered the day I became a F.A.T.H.E.R. --> Monday, 09th of April 2007 @ approx. 5pm. It had been one of the best day in my life. The feeling is unbelievable. I think, I put the widest smile the whole time and can't stop talking about the experience in labour room myself.. though I am not the one whom struggling with the pain! But, I am proud to say that I was there for each and every single seconds..

Eventually, we name the little princess and Allah's precious gift, Nurin Farhanah which translate to Cahaya Kegembiraan (translation from Arabic to Bahasa Melayu) which exactly what she does bring to our marriage and life.

Note : Today, Nurin Farhanah is already 3 years, 2 months and 4 days old

THE BEAUTIFUL GAME

World Cup 2010 is on the horizon. For the next a month or so, people (I meant mostly guys) will be talking about the beautiful game, FOOTBALL. This year tournament is in South Africa and the kick-off was about 10pm (Malaysian time) with the opening game between host nation South Africa against Mexico (already finished with final score 1-1).

Personally, this is the time where I need to sacrifice on my sweet dream time in exchange of watching a live telecast of a football match. My pick will always be the Brazilian. No surprise there. Their play is simply awesome! Viva Brasil! Viva Brasil!

Some fact about World Cup :

1) Brazil won the most - 5 times. Interestingly, they won it in 4 different continents! 1958 in Sweden (Europe), 1962 in Chile (South America), 1970 in Mexico (North America), 1994 in USA (North America), 2002 in Korea/Japan (Asia). What an amazing achievement!

2) Italy is the the current champion (holders) as they won the World Cup 2006 held in Germany by defeating France 5-3 on penalty after 1-1 draw (a.e.t). That is their 4th times

3) The most popular team and everyone favorite this year is Spain. However, Spain are yet to win the world cup. They are the current European Champion

4) No representative from the Middle East (Asian Qualifying) as all nation had failed to qualify.

5) Sadly, Malaysia are yet to qualify for the World Cup Final. Hopefully, in near future though. However, as Malaysian, I am proud to see a Malaysian referee had been given the honour to be the 4th official on the opening game of World Cup 2010. He is En Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh.

Some facts about him :

SUBKHIDDIN MOHD SALLEH
Role : Referee
Country : Malaysia (MAS)
Date of Birth : 17.11.1966
Height : 174 cm
Occupation: Teacher (Sekolah Menengah Vokasional Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang)
Mother tongue : Malay
Other languages : English
International since : 2000
First international : Iraq-Nepal (23.04.2001)
Hobbies : Bowling & Snooker
Fondest memory : FIFA World Youth Championship Peru 2005


Note : Macamana jadi referee bola tapi hobi nya boling & snooker ? Surprising !

THE BEGINNING !

Salam..

Surprise, surprise... finally, I had decided to give this 'blogging thing' a try. Not that I had too many things to write about, just to share my opinion, my thought and everything that had happened around me in between the earth and the sky. Hopefully, this entry would be the first of many, many more to come..

Although I had never been close to start any blog earlier, I do came across some very interesting blogs somewhere in the net that kept my thought of starting my own. They are, I believed, an ordinary people who are doing it just for fun and sharing their 'life' and 'story' with friends and the whole world; hoping that someone may get something useful out of things that they had written about. Long gone the day when we kept our 'life' and 'story' in a diary and hiding it under the pillow, so that nobody would be able to read and make fun of what we had been written. The world had changed and blogger now see the blogging world as a good place to express their feeling as well as a place they can share something meaningful. What a surprise!


Note : As I am writing this, the World Cup 2010 is on the way.. Viva Brasil !