Men & Machines ..... & Models

Heloo......

Miss Yamaha

Miss Suzuki

Miss Honda

And since I am at it, some more sweeties from another motorshow.

Utusan's take on Malaysians.

Incredibly, Utusan Malaysia did it again. An article titled 'Cuit: Alkisah India di India dan India di Malaysia, Oleh Zaini Hassan", dated 9December2009.

http://www.utusan.com.my/utusan/info.asp?y=2009&dt=1209&pub=Utusan_Malaysia&sec=Rencana&pg=re_10.htm

Below an except from the above articel.

"Namun, kita di Malaysia pun ada orang India. Kecohnya pun lebih kurang sama. Mereka ini rata-ratanya terdiri daripada ahli-ahli profesional, peguam dan kini menjadi ahli politik. Di Malaysia hanya orang India yang pandai-pandai sahaja yang sering buat bising. Mereka menguasai Majlis Peguam dan kini mereka sudah ramai di Parlimen, bukan mewakili MIC, tapi mewakili DAP dan PKR.

Kerana mereka lantang dan suka buat haru-biru, suara mereka sering kedengaran. Salah seorangnya ialah N. Kulasegaran yang kini memegang jawatan Naib Pengerusi DAP Perak.
Beliau lantang mempersoalkan hak-hak orang Melayu.

Katanya, beliau tidak faham mengapa setelah bertahun lamanya masih ada kelompok manusia percaya kepada warna kulit atau penampilan yang lebih tinggi daripada satu kaum lain."

Such a general swipe at part of the Malaysian community. On a major UMNO/BN mouth piece too. As usual mainstream media blackout on people's reaction to the it.

Lets see what the 1Malaysia goverment's nexts action. I am holding my breath, but am afraid I will not have a chance to breath.

Pantai Kerachut Nov2009

Last sunday, 08112009, a friend ask me to join him, going hiking to Pantai Kerachut. Dont know what kind of friend lai. People wanna sleep and laze off my weekend and he ask me to go torture myself exercising and hiking.

Have not being there since secondary school when a bunch of us went camping there. Lots of changes. The Pantai is now part of Penang National Park. The entrance park's entrance at Teluk Bahang has now been upgraded and looks grand. There's even an interpretation center.

Now you need to purchase a permit to go inside the park. Now the Park even have a security guard on duty just to stamp your permit.


The fishermen and the fisherbird.

After a short stroll on some nicely paved flat road, will come to a hanging bridge. The trail splits into left or right. Turning right would be going to Monkey Beach. We go left heading towards Pantai Kerachut. From there the going gets difficult (for my pathethic fitness level). The jungle trails would accends and decends and accends and decends and......

The jungle trail will pass this 'Batu Belah'. Seems that this part of the trail was made by some ancient loggers 'belah-ing' the hill with their bare hands and cangkul.

After an hour or so going up some hills, then going back down, then up again, and down again, finally reached the Pantai Kerachut (also known as Turtle Beach). Was greeted by another hanging bridge.

There ia a turtle conservation center here at Pantai Kerachut. A bunch of little turtles relaxing in a swimming pool before they are release to face the real world. Sad to state the reality that most of them would not survive.

Reminded me of Niah National Park. Only these walkway are shorter and are made of concrete.

A survivor. Rising up from nothing. But my understanding is, brightly coloured fungi are actually lethal.

So seeing this sign, wonder how long I need to wait. Should I switch off my car's engine?

I Do Blame it on Rafa

I am sad to say that my predictions earlier in this EPL season is becoming nearer to reality. I was telling people that the Liverpool would have a bigger chance of being 'kicked' out of the Big Four.

The pre season went badly. I remember we only wons when facing super super minows, like Singapore. Againts almost everybody else, we barely perform. Lost to teams like Rapid Vienna, Espanyol, Athletico Madrid. Drew with Thailand. And thats using the core of the team from last season, minus Alonso of course.

I just dont understand Rafa's insistence on zonal marking. Statistics this year has shown that most of Liverpools' goals conceded are via set pieces. With Cara and the whole lots of the defenders being shaky up to now, and with goals being leaked in, why are we still continuing the system? Why are we expecting different results when we are doing the same things over and over again. At least if we do not leak goals, we wont LOSE!!!!

And now, Stevie G and Cara went on record saying Liverpools season will improve. Pardon me, but I do have the feeling that everytime those two are quoted with such, Liverpool never improves in the next game.

Furthermore, failure to qualify for ECL 2010/2011 will be catastrophic to Liverpool. With the amount of debts the Americans have. People might say MU also have bigger debts. But we have to admit, Anfield is much smaller. Differences in gate collections are enourmous between these two grounds. My deepest fear, Liverpool going the Leeds road. God forbid.

But, Red for life. YNWA.

Super LAGgera Rokr E8

This is a Superleggera.















The Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera. Its sleek, superlight and and thus super fast.


This is my Super LAGgera. My Motorola Rokr E8. And its super SLOW.












Ya, it looks cool. Super cool. The Modeshift, the cool black mirrorlike surface.

The music playback is nice and powerful.












Okay, I can tolerate that the phone cannot simultaneous vibrate when ringing. I can tolerate the silly camera. I can even tolerate that I cant lay it flat because the speaker is on the hind of the phone - if I lay it flat, I would not be able to hear it ringing.

But now a flaw is making this phone no longer viable. The Super LAG. Everything is slow with this phone. I dont know whether its the Moto program or lack of memory (but I am only using around 15% of the phone's 2GB internal memory.

Man, I have tried and tried and tried. If you call me, it will takes more than 15 seconds later before my E8 rings. And it seems that, outgoing calls only rings for 20 seconds, and then the call will automatically ends.



Meaning I have around 5 seconds from when I heard the ringing, take it out of my pocket, and press the answer button. Most of the time, I only knew of an incoming call when the missed calls are on the screen. Meaning I will have to call back. Meaning my phone credit to answer your call.



Will be in the market for a new phone.

13 Sept 09 : Seems that the lag is due to the slow Phone internal memory. If I move the ringtone to the add-on memory, no such problem.

Revenge of The Conned

Its only in August and I have already concluded whats the worst movie in 2009.

Transformer, Revenge of the Fallen.


I already felt the first movie is bad. Although some transforming sences are cool. (This is a movie call Transformer after all). The robot designs are so 'insecty'. Except for Prime, the rest of the metallic casts looks like bugs from hell. What the hell with Megatrons's bad teeth anyway? Then the Sam whines and whines and whines. Megan Fox should gives bitch slap him again and again. Maybe no, he does not even qualify to stand near Megan.


Whats wrong with ROTF?...Besides the obvious stupid storyline, lousy script, the followings..

1. Removing the transformer from the title, this is just a movie about some alien invasion. Nano tech and bio metallics? I dont wanna see that. I wanna see transforming... in slow motion. Super super slow mo. The constructicons combining to Devastator is a real con act. That is not combining, thats merging. I will not be so 'tulan' if they rename the movie 'Alien Robot Invasion : Revenge of The Fallen'.

2. The robot designs are again a real disappointment. If they dont look like insects, they looks like trolls. The twins, Mudflap and Skids could easily fits into the cast of Harry Potter or LOTR if they are smaller. The only head design that I like is Optimus's.

3. Its not enough that the humans are whinny. Now even the transformers are too. The twins talks like they are high on caffein. Jetfire sounds like he is a speed talker instead of the legendary oldtimer. Megatron talks non stop. So is that tiny Decepticons that wanna operates Sam's head. And Soundwave never talk (his voice is the coolest in the G1 cartoon).

4. The Transformers dying and being revive. No wonder the transformer wars last millineums. How come nobody wanna revive Jazz from the first movie. Cause he sounds 'black' :)

5. Jetfire. How can they ever come up with the design for his robot form. He transform into a SR71 Blackbird leh.... the coolest plane ever. Then at robot form...with the funny facial hair....err steel, and a walking stick. If you wanna talk old, the Fallen should be older by miles, how come he is still so 'sharp'. Better maintenance hor.

6. Those mini Decepticons which came alive at the Witwicky's residence. Reminded me of Gremlins and the robot helpers from Aces Go Places II.

7. A GM (Sideswipe) destroying an Audi R8 (in the beginning of the movie in China). That one borders on the ultimate fantasy already. Really really cannot accept lo.


Maybe I was wrong to have such high expectaion. But thank god there is Megan Fox.



Btw, I highly recommend 'Departure', the japanese movie. Made me cried.. in agood way, more than once. Damn good movie.

Vietnamese Food in Viet Kong Country

In Southern Vietnam 12-19July2009.

Colourful sticky rice sold by street hawkers. Tastes are quite dour. Worse it was topped with a mixture of sugar and salt. The Vietnamese really like their sugars.

The colour purple.

Mekong Specialties

They call the fish the Elephant Ear Fish. From the Mekong river. Put a piece of the fish on a rice paper, add some vermicelli, those veges and wrap it like a poh piah. Some fried spring rolls in the picture too. Those are yummy though a tad oily.

The fish alive, in the local market... well, I think they are the same type of fish.

River fish cooked in tamarin and herbs soup with veges. I think its their local version of asam laksa but definitely more watery. Theres lady'd finger, pineapple, some other vegetables. Not really to my liking. Its tasted sweet and slightly sourish at the same time although the sweetness is overpowering. I dont even like the way it smells. Phoung Nam Restaurant in Can Tho City.

Lemongrass Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City.

Platter of local appetisers. Clockwise from the top. Fresh springrolls, fried springrolls, shredded chicken with cabbage and fish 'balls'. Love em.

Bun Cha Gio & Thit Nouong (Rice vermicelli with fried prawn springrolls and grilled pork). Soupless.
Heo Noung Me (Charboiled pork with sesame served with vegetables and rice vermicelli) lower corner. Nice... but I have expected better.

Do Bien Xao Mien (Baked seafood with glass noodle in claypot). Yummy..

Grilling Mongolian BBQ

First time I came across Mongolian BBQ was in Taipei, Taiwan back in 2002. Copthorne Orchid Hotel, Penang this time around.

Mongolian BBQ does not actually involve barbequing or at least my understanding of what is barbequing. It is more kind of like grilling. Using different ingredients but only one cooking methods. Paying almost RM40 for it seems 'stupid' it to me, but since my friends wanted to try, so 'cincai’ la.

Basically Mongolian BBQ’s concept is simple. Pick what you want from an array of small cuts of meats. Here they have beef, chicken, lamb, fish, prawn and squid.

Add in whatever greens and mushroom that you want, then pick whatever sauces, seasoning or combinaton of seasonings that you want or think suites the mix.

The quantities are up to you. People who tend to be heavy handed like me will usually regret the outcome.

When you are satisfied, bring the mix to the cooks. Over a big flat ‘roti canai’ style grill pan, using two spatula, the cook will grill it for you. I still remember the cooks in Taipeh uses a pair of gigantic chopsticks too.

The cooks will add nothing to your mix except maybe water. So you got nobody else to blame if you don’t like what was served up. Hey, you are the one who did the selection. You picked what you wanted.

There are the salads and starters, and deserts and fruits too.

About 5 or 6 other dishes. The fried rice and fried shanghai-style noodles are too salty. But first time I am happy having white steam rice at a buffet. As I said earlier, I overdid it - adding too much seasoning and sauces to the grilling, making them too salty that I really needed the white rice to helps.

Only manage to have two plates and another plate of grilled vegetable before I gave up. Need two cups of strong coffee to get rid of the charred/burned aftertaste. Not going again.

Power