The Three Time Wrong Furikake

After dinner, since I had some time left, I decided to cook more of those Furikake for my oats. But this time, I decided to take some short cuts to save time. And boy, none of my theories worked.

Fast, fast chop

This time round, I decided to add more onions and
garlic since my theory would be to get them chopped
by an automatic chopper. Not sure where my Mom
got the garlic (on the left) but they are actually one
single bulb compared to a normal clove of garlic.

And so, here we go.

OK, found some walnuts and I
decided to add them in too.

Failed. The chopper actually made it more like
they were minced. And most of the onions did
not get chopped.

So I had to cut them and some of the garlic by
hand again. But at least, now I know how to
make some kind of paste. Maybe I will do
some reading on how to make a dip.

Thought I could save some cooking oil so I used
the soyabean oil from the tuna. Failed. The can
gave me oil and water which almost started a
fire on the stove. Why? I have no idea.

I added an egg, some usual flavouring that was
within arm's reach and voila! A slightly burnt
furikake. (The was because the minced garlic
and onions cooked faster than the hand chopped
ones). Failed. Because I had to separate the burnt
bits from the cooked bits.

Added some more sesame seeds and mixed in
the sushi leaves. But I am not adding the chili
powder this time.

Testing with the rice. Hmm... tasted good.
More or less...

The sambal petai & prawn Nasi Lemak

Since wife was still sick, I quickly drove Vee-Chai over
to one of my SIL's house to get some Nasi Lemak that
another SIL made. I can tell you, with the petai in there,
(and prawn, even though I cannot eat) it was delicious!
I wonder if she dares to open a stall...

Trip to ICW 09042011

I had to return to Infinite Creation workshop today (Saturdays: 11Am to 6PM) since Bruce's stuff was not ready last night. And I also brought Kaelynn as well. When I asked both girls if they wanted to follow me, only Kaelynn said yes. Anyway, the place was quite busy when I arrived....

Raymond bidding farewell to members of
another Forum as today was their Group
Build. Since they only spoke Chinese, it
was hard for me to talk to them and so, I
stayed far far away... Tomorrow will be
another session for members from down
South and Singapore, Raymond said.

Compared to my last visit, ICW has more stocks now
and it they keep getting stuff often from their company
business trips, ICW will become a specialty shop, a far
difference from any local hobby Shops. So, do visit
ICW as often as you can. Its also a Workshop where
you can do your modeling in peace. When it comes
to airbrushing, you only have to bring your own
air spray as the compressors are provided for.

Some of the members (Zero-G perhaps?) with their
projects. Here, you can ask a lot of advice and they
will gladly help you through with any problems that
you may have.

I am not sure which Gundam ship this is but
it is beautifully rendered and with the metal
exhaust at the rear, it looked very real.

OK, lets examine some of the 'new' stuff there. New as
in since my last visit and yesterday's restock.

Metal 1/24 exhausts for cars

Photo-etched models. Yes, these are excellent
metal models which, when completed, will be
a marvel to look at. Because no one would ever
believe it is so detailed at such scale.

This is something completely different.

Now, lets have a look at the middle shelf.

Eggplanes which comes in a set.
Unfortunately, the cute girls are
not in the box. The manufacturer
did not make them.

Some 1/35 kits mostly from Tamiya and one 1/20
Ma.K SAFS kit. Yep. A Ma.K kit.

Something I have never seen before:
A Bubblegum Crisis Moto-Slave

At the rear of the shelf were some modeling books.
The new ones are from Tamiya, which is printed in
English.

So, after collecting Bruce's things, I bought a tank
crew set and some texture paint.

Well, OK, so the price was irresistible. It was as if
I was back in the 1980's again. Heh.

There are some figures in there which will do nicely
for my project.

Not much accessories but then, I don't really
need them. All I need would be a file and some
really good sanding material.

Trip to ICW 08042011

Today is Friday. And my plan for the evening was to have a nice farewell dinner for a nice colleague who will be resigning next week. And after that, I will drop by Infinite Creation Workshop to pick up some stuff for Bruce.

So, come evening time, I was stuck in the office doing a comparison chart and also, at the same time, replying some very urgent Life-and-Death e-mails. Then my Wife SMSed me that she was sick. And then the Atmospheric Subwoofer chimed in, followed by lots of H2O molecules.

By the time it was over, and feeling disheartened, I only had two choice; salvage what was left with my plans or go straight home. Its a very difficult decision because by now:

1. The Dinner would be halfway through and my appearance there would mean that they would have to order more and stay on in the restaurant. And if I run to Vee-Chai now, I would be soaking wet too.

2. The road to ICW is well, pretty jammed up at this time and the rain would not have improved things either.

3. Wife would be sleeping and this means no excitement tonight.

Then, somewhere in my mind, a thought came to me. Its a very devilish thought, something I would not have thought of before.

ICW is, (technically) on the way back to the house.

OK, so its a long way back to the house but what the heck. Because once that thought came and disappeared, the rain drizzled out. So, my mind was made. Besides, i was curious to see what else they have brought things back from Hong Kong. Heh.

By the time I arrive, I had the wonderful opportunity
to witness the unboxing of a Hot Toys Iron Man 2.
No, I am NOT buying that. After that, I observed
and listened to members advising and doing their stuff.

Kirin and his 1.35 Gundam Hyaku-shiki head.

And I got this too. What I really wanted were the
cooks. And there were two of them as well. Given
the selling price, it was a bargain I could not miss.

And so, you get two sets of sprues; the field kitchen
and the figures. You also have accessories like sacks
of potatoes, drinking cans and well, bread too.

Just look at them. Very beautiful and exact match
to my dream project.

He's smiling as well. Maybe I might have to change
their heads since a smiling cook in a kitchen means
a lot of things...

How to feed a tree

First, you feed the rat with extremely nutrient rich pellets. Once its full, you need to tenderize it. In this process, each crushed pellet would release a tenderising agent which helps accelerate the process. Once done, you plant the rat into the soil....

Warning: Due to some irregularity, certain batches of pellets have been irradiated with Strontium-90. Please contact 1-800-OMG to arrange for a product recall. You will be reimbursed with another two pack of rat pellets. However, if you notice the tree has changed positions every morning or some of your night-shift staff could not be found, even during pay day, please call 1-800-CARNIVOROUSTREES immediately and vacate the building in an orderly manner.

Stupid jerk in a Kelisa WLB 2110

I was waiting patiently for the car to move o ut of his parking spot, with my indicator on. This means, I am going to park in that soon to be vacant space. But before I could move, this Kenari came in and took my spot. because it was a small car, all it did was just slide into it. I moved forward so we can see eye to eye, or car window to car window, if you prefer, and indicated that it was my spot. And this blur fellow, in his white HONG LEONG collar T-Shirt, indicated back, "No, I am not moving out, I just parked here. No, no, no."

Rather than pick a fight or do something to his car, I just moved on and parked in my office instead. Later on, as I walked back to this place to do the errand, the car was still there and so, I took this photo.

Later on, I tore up the card given by a Hong Leong Agent because if this is how they behave, I am not interested in doing business with them. If they called me, I will give them a piece of my mind.

Yeah, I am getting old.

Academy M997 Maxi-Ambulance

I was at HobbyHQ today, and yes, the modeling bug is hitting me again, after more than 8 years. This was because the long and abandoned project came back to me and it refused to leave my brains alone. And so, after thinking much about it, its time to put it into action before I cannot do it anymore. The plan is to build some pub/cafe but in a post-war era. So, i would need a 1/32 scale car. Any car since it would be very difficult or rather, extremely expensive to create a single 1/32 Proton Satria or a Toyota Hilux. My choice was either a Hummer of some kind or a Bristish MK.IV Humber. At the end, my wallet decided for me.

After much discount, this actually cost less than 30 packs
of roadside Nasi Lemak and that is thanks to Mr. Low.

The parts are very straightforward, just your basic
Humvee with the added parts to build up to an the
ambulance. This also means that I have a lot of spare
parts once I finished my version. Behind the counter,
there were two Academy Humvees that has been
packed with the wrong parts. If they had wheels, I
would have taken them too.

So now, all I have to do is to save up for some glue, paints and I am done. Can't airbrush on this as i do not have one yet. Maybe I will invest in some of those 'dirt' or 'grime' paints instead where you paint it on, and it would look as if the model gone through a mud bath. Watercolour and cornflour just won't cut it.

The Otterbox Commuter for Nokia n8

It finally came, after two weeks of anxious waiting. I planned to get this a very long time ago but because my goal of getting the n8 at that time was not realised, it was a bit too risky to just order it and then not being able to use it at all. But finally, at long last, it came. And one good thing was that the price has dropped. Tremendously. Really.

The Otterbox comes in basically four series but in thise case, for the Nokia n8, there are two; The Commuter which used hard plastic (abs?) and the Impact which is a honeycomb silicon casing.

I love seeing this favourite Kastam stamp: Dilepaskan
(translation: Released w/o having to drive all the way
to the #@%& KLIA to collect and pay tax on it.)

Even the packaging is wonderful.

All you have to do is to slide the black part of the
packaging out and you're ready for the next step.

This is the contents of the Nokia n8 Otterbox. The
casing is in two parts, which is the silicon and the
hard plastic. The you have the screen protector
which comes in its own packaging. And yes, the
yellow 'Otter' piece is a squeegee.

And so, out with the old and in with the new. The
first thing you must do, is to wrap the n8 with the
silicon protector. That is, AFTER you have taken
out the old casing, and cleaned the phone. Anti-
septics are optional.

Before you attempt to start with the casing like
me here, now is the best time to actually put
on the LCD screen protector. Please use the
squeegee to squeeze any trapped air bubbles.

There. The n8 is now in its silicon skin. Its soft,
its sticky and also, its... well, black.

After that, slowly squeeze the n8 into the hard
casing. Its like wearing one of those Stormtrooper
costumes where you first don the black bodysuit
before encasing your whole body with hard white
pieces of armour. So, make sure you know which
way is the right way and do align before putting it
in because I think, its very hard to remove.

Voila! Done! And compared to my 'old' free silicon
casing, this is much better. However, unlike the old
silicon casing, the Otterbox feels very slippery in my
hands. It feels tough and heavy and all but slippery.

Looking at the bottom of the casing, Otterbox did take
into consideration about the n8's bulging camera piece
and so, when the case is on, the buldge leveled out. Yep,
makes the phone feel 'flat'. Slippery but flat.

Where there are ports or buttons, the silicon protects
them. Here, the flap covers the USB and the charger
port. But I am thinking about wanting to cut off the
charger port because sometimes it obstructs the
charger jack. There is one disadvantage here in the
sense that I will not be able to see the white LED
located on the MENU button which is completely
covered by the silicon.

The volume and camera buttons are protected and
when I take pictures, it feels very comfortable and
yes, it does remove the camera-shake problem that
I had when I was using the old silicon casing.

And so, with this Otterbox Commuter casing, the n8 feels so 'right' in my hands. It does cover most of the casing and so, if you wanted to show off your n8's colour, you're out of luck. But still, it does its job and I am very very happy with it. Oh, if you go to their Website, they do cater for iPhones, iPads and some other smartphones too.

At first I though it was the n8's factory screen protector which made the screen not so responsive as I thought. But during the Otterbox installation, I removed it and well, the response it much better, which I prefer it that way. I hesitated putting on Otterbox's screen protector fearing that I would end up with a not so responsive screen. So I bit the bullet and well, I must say, the screen protector does it jobs well. Not only does the n8's display look crisp and bright, the responsiveness is still there. Only problem is when the n8 goes into auto screensaver more, do you see all the smudges from your dirty little fingers. And getting a conductive pen is not my cup of tea.

There problem now, is the raised edges from the casing which makes some area on the screen hard to register. This is very different from the 5800's resistive screen where you can get by with a poke from a toothpick or a pen's cover (I seldom use its stylus).

Saved by the Heavens

While I was in a discussion with the Boss and his Boss, who is the actual Boss, I noticed that there was some slight rain and an occasional thunder with an average 0.0056inch of rain per hour. OK, so I was numb. I did not notice anything outside the room since it was a very important discussion.

But once I came out, it was already past working hours and I saw this:

Alamak! (Translation: A tree collapsed in front of your car.)

And so, I went out as fast as I can, without falling on
the stairs and killing my knees in the process. I want
to rush out but part of me wants me to brace myself
for the scene that will be revealed. And so, yes, a tree
branch has fallen in front of my car. From this angle,
it looked as if nothing serious has happened.

But from this angle, I would be heartbroken.

And so, I pulled the branches away with my hands and
phew! Vee-Chai was safe. All thanks to the 'Guardian'
who is placed near my car. (Not the fire hydrant, la)

I think I will start to light up the joss sticks but need to asks the person who is doing it first.

bread

I think I might be taking things a little bit too far when it comes to eating lunch. By now, most of you would have know that I spent very little for lunch or not at all, unless its really necessary. What? You mean you don't know? Ok, OK. I spent very little for lunch or not at all, unless its really necessary.

So, while I was visiting a customer, I happened to spot some about-to-expire bread at Giant. What attracted me was that it was about 50% off. And so, I bought two; one was the potato bun and the other, was the cheese version. Whoa, this means for the next few days, I would be saving a lot of money!


Or so I thought....

Day 1
Ate 3/9 potato buns. They felt a bit 'soggy' and no bounce. i.e. when you squeezed it, it would not come back up. And it tasted funny.

Day 2
Ate another 3/9 buns. The smell is slightly stronger and its not those fresh out of the oven or almost alcohol smell. And the taste is a bit weird. But hey, I'm saving money here.

Day 3
With some Coca Cola, the last 3 buns went down well. But hey, the lable says its good until 31st, which is.... today. Oh-oh...

Day -1
Ate 3/9 cheese buns. OK, its a little hard. but the taste is there.

Day -3
I forgot about it because I had a lot of work to do. But hey, it still taste great.

Day -4
Nothing to scavenge for breakfast this morning and so, its time to eat the last 3/9 delicious cheese buns!

Or maybe not.

Its been left over the weekend, hanging from Vee-chai's
seat and under the hot sun....