Merry Early Christmas!

Today, my office had our Christmas celebration. We had a little gift exchange session. It involves us drawing names of our colleagues two weeks ago and buying a gift for them with a budget of around SGD$25. None of us will know who actually got the present for us nor what the present really is.

Our presents were all placed under this tree

During the actual gift exchange session, each of us were suppose to hand-write a Christmas greeting addressed to the person we bought the gift for. With the present and greeting in hand, each of us will guess who our 'Santa' was. I guessed mine right away though the lady I bought the present for also guessed correctly on her first try.

I got her a bag from SCHU
Have to thank my Dear for helping me choose

As for my gift, I got a pretty cool one. I was really glad with the present my colleague chose for me. She mentioned that she liked the present herself very much as well.

A Sony 4Gb mini thumbdrive

If even comes with an extra storage container


Its Cool, Black and Glossy like my PSP

My supervisor give each of us a Zebra pen.


I got one that is black in color.


The pen can be used while in extended mode.

Later on that day, after working hours, we all head over to Tiffany Cafe & Restaurant at Furuma City Centre for a buffet dinner. I reached home tired, but extremely satisfied. Merry Christmas everyone!

Chocolate Truffles Making

Its the time of the year. Christmas is around the corner. In view of this, I took up a Chocolate Truffle making workshop to learn how to make these yummy little things for my special someone. Its just a basic course so nothing really godly. There were a few different flavors being taught but I am just going to show the orange flavored ones here. So lets get down with it.

Get some chocolate buttons

Boil a pot of water


Place buttons into a dry metal bowl


Place bowl over the pot of boiling water


Stir chocolate till melt


Try not to introduce bubbles


Melted chocolate should shine with a gloss


Place melted chocolate into pipping bag


Coat the outer layer of mould with even and thin layer of chocolate


Place some macadamia nuts and crushed almonds
Refrigerate to harden outer layer


Grate an orange


Squeeze the juice


Place thick cream into pan


Pour in orange juice


Add in orange skin


Add in corn syrup


Prepare another metal bowl with chocolate buttons


Pour boiled mixture into buttons


Stir to melt buttons


Add in butter


A few drops of orange flavoring


Place truffle fillings into hardened outer layer


Cover up the fillings with the same melted chocolate you used for the outer layer initially
Smooth out the covering
Refrigerate to harden whole truffle

And its done. Enjoy your lovely Chocolate Truffle. This is a simplified version of the whole workshop. Do drop a comment if you have more in depth questions. Merry Christmas!

Japanese Phone

My colleague just got herself a SoftBank phone from Japan. It cost her around SGD$800. As Japanese phones can only be used with Japan's mobile network, her cell needs to be modified and sim card needs to be punched and cut.

Dun mind the bunny


AQUOS LCD screen


Swivel reminds me of Konata's keitai in Lucky Stars


Like the little wordings


Its quite slim actually


5.1 megapixel camera

Personally I think its cool and very unique. But I am not willing to part with that kind of money when I cannot use its MMS, 3G, etc features as well as only receiving intermittent signals. Its not the phone's lack of features nor poor built quality. Its just because its in a foreign country.

Download Accelerators

Due to my work commitments, and mainly because of our ISPs throttling BT speeds; I am currently now back to using more direct methods. Having only a few hours at home each day, I cannot afford to waste my time on waiting for downloads to complete.

Thus my search for the best download manager aka download accelerator began. After researching around and trying various programs, I had narrowed down to the few below.

First: Orbit Downloader
Pros:
1. Free
2. Able to grab .flv video/audio files from any site
3. Lightweight and simple
Cons:
1. Not as fast as Internet Download Manager and Downthemall (average 200-300 kbps)

Second: Downthemall
Pros:
1. Free
2. Very fast, almost on par with Internet Download Manager (average 400-800 kbps)
3. Integrated seamlessly into Firefox
Cons:
1. Exists as a Firefox extension
2. Cannot download .flv files

Third: Internet Download Manager
Pros:
1. Super fast, sometimes faster than Downthemall (average 600-800 kbps)
2. Able to grab .flv video files from any site
3. Stable with no errors even when downloading part .rar files at high speeds
Cons:
1. Have to pay once a year to get regular updates
2. Does not have alot of features offered by free counterparts

Fourth: Free Download Manager
Pros:
1. Free
2. Has the most number of features (such as remote access)
3. A little faster than Orbit Downloader (average 250-350 kbps)
Cons:
1. Beefy
2. Cannot grab .flv files from any sites

My choice will go to Downthemall, since it becomes part of Firefox and I seldom have the need to leech off streaming sites. But I did install Orbit though just in case. Do note that the latest build of Orbit as of now features the Grab Pro. It is a very nice feature with huge potential. It works well too. However, it causes IE to crash on exit. This feature is not Firefox compatible. Nonetheless, with the very frequent updates available for Orbit, I am sure they will patch up this bug soon.

Back To MapleSEA?

I used to play MapleStory alot. Had a Level 53 Bandit in Global Windia and a Level 51 Bandit in SEA Delphinus. During Uni days, I will sometimes play well into the wee hours. However, sometime during my last semester, I stopped playing Maple and went for Trickster (had a Pure Evasion Cat... rocks!). I didn't thought that I would revisit the Maple world again untill recently when my girlfriend, brother and I finished playing Diablo II on LAN. The quest of finding another get together game begun.

And of course, MapleStory was naturally one of the candidate since we all had a character somewhere. What caught me by surprise though, was the sheer number of changes that MapleStory had gone through thus far. There are now many more places to explore and newer features. And best of all, there is even a new job to play with.

Introducing the Pirate Job


A short teaser

As a pirate, you get to choose between being a Brawler or a Gunslinger. A Brawler, as the name suggests, would be a pure melee combat fighter using knuckers as their weapons. Gunslingers, as you would expect, uses... errr... guns. After looking through, my brother decided to be a Brawler. I guess my girlfriend would just continue playing her Cleric.

Aidios see you in Maple!

The first lunch of the GT-R

From LegendKiller:

I was driving at my usual leisurely pace toward my lunchtime destination, when I was being confronted.. well confronted seems to be the right word here, given the lack of words dedicated to describe "disturbance from the rear of the vehicle" by a yellow Suzuki Swift Sport from behind. Going at the non-threatening pace of 70kmh in the middle lane, my GT-R rumbled a little along, not ready for any battles yet but hinting me of its prowess beneath its bonnet. The Swift may be gunning for the "tailgating a GT-R: bumper to bumper width" category Guinness record, but all I wanted was my lunch.

This Swift had enough of fun apparently, after coming to the sound decision that I was not going to engage him today. With a haughty little blow of his titanium tipped exhaust, he overtook me from the left while giving me a smirk.

Now, I would have let him go at that. But being overtaken and smirked at by a pimply teen with black rimmed glasses and crooked teeth was definitely not one of the reasons I bought this car. Heck the running in. Some gurus advocate the hard running in method anyway. Today I shall see if they are right.

Downshifted and revved. Did not really floor just in case the guys at Nissan were right (Don't rev it above 4k ah!).
The revs climbed with urgency as if the GT-R was telling me to set it free.
100kmh came and went in a blink. The Swift was looming closer and closer, and at some stage it tried to escape I think. The exhaust sound of the Swift grew in pathetic intensity, but like black death, the GT-R was relentless, closing upon and tearing pass the Swift with finality. I had a glimpse of the swift driver's countenance for that 0.5 seconds I passed him. It was as though he was frothing like a rabid dog whose bone snack was forcefully taken away from him by a bigger dog. A much bigger dog. 200kmh came and went too, to the same place the 100kmh went I guess. The GT-R was only gaining stride then, pulling me along like a composed thoroughbred stallion.

The Swift became just an infinitesimal speck in my rear view mirror. All was peaceful again. I calmed the beast down and put it back to prowl at a much more sedate pace. It seemed to urge me to take it back to the realm of speed and terror again but I guess its a case of living to kill another day. Looks like my GT-R had lunch before I did today.

Midnight Purple Godzilla

My new temp Desktop

Finally, my 'dear' younger brother had managed to end my laptop's life. Yesterday morning, it gave up on me despite all my rescue efforts. That placed me in a difficult position. My laptop is suppose to last me till the day Starcraft II is out. By then, I will buy a top end spec Desktop to replace it. I am not willing to spend 4k to buy a top end computer now when the game is not even out yet. But I can't live a day without a computer either. Solution? Get a cheap and temporary one. So off I went to Sim Lim Square to hunt for one.

After making my rounds, I chanced upon the following advert.

Not bad I guess. After speaking to a very friendly sales person, I got the price to $930. Now that is more than the advert you might say. Look at the following list of specs before you say anything. To me, this is a cheapo and good temporary Desktop for one year.

Lenovo
(yeah I know, China brand. Well God made man, everything else is made in China)


Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 2.53GHz, 1066Mhz, 3Mb L2
3Gb DDR 2 RAM
250Gb SATA HDD
16X DVD Writer Dual Layer
15 in 1 card reader
6 USB Ports
LAN
Windows Vista Home Premium with original CD
Samsung 933BW 19 inch monitor
512Mb nVidia Geforce 9400 GT
WebCam for Face recognition logon
Wireless Keyboard and Mouse


No complains with regards to the Monitor


First time using wireless peripherals. I would have preferred wired ones though.


The CPU is slightly bigger than what I originally wanted to get (mini desktop)


15 in 1 card reader which I most probably not going to use

Well, all in all, I am really glad to be back online again. And for less than 1k, I think its a good deal for a computer which I am going to use for just a year.

I didn't know I have so much in common with Hitler

I can totally feel his pain. His agony. His ANGUISH! Finally someone with power had spoken up for commoners like us. BANZAI!

Jokes aside. I am not even going to begin talking about the behavior of the people taking the trains, Singaporeans & Gaijins alike. Just the thought of public transport alone makes me puke blood. Every time I walk pass the two "Better by Bus", "Better by Train" posters; I could not help but feel like either tearing them right off the wall and ripping them into half, or using black paint and spray "MY ARSE" on it. Ever since the fuel price, taxi fare, ERP gantries, ERP fees hike, more and more people are beginning to take the public transport. And despite them boasting about being award winning, their infrastructure is just not good enough to cope with this much people. In their last ditch effort to try to reduce the crowd, they are now trying to give people 10 cents discount to commute to work 3 hours earlier than usual. 10 MISERABLE cents. Beggars don't even take 10 cents anymore. And going to work 3 hours earlier would also automatic means longer no-pay working hours. Hooray! I shall eagerly wait for something to happen. Some accident of some sort. Never before had the public transport system been tested to this limit. Till then, I shall just get a little crazier by the day. MUAHAHAHAHAaaaaaaa......

Sometimes it makes me wonder instead of taking money away from us when we use congested roads, why not give money to use for using non-congested roads? Hmmm...

A new interest

With my life getting quite boring and monotonous nowadays, I decided to start a new interest before Starcraft II & Diablo III hits the shelves. I will now start to channel all my free mental energies into researching and studying this new field. Did I mention that it will go inconjuction with my life objective? Yup! To make more money than I spend.

Without much hesitation, I started with a little bit of read up and adopted a trial and error way of learning. I should say that although I had learn a fair bit since then, trial and error probably is not the best way to go about it :P

So far I had started this venture for 3 days. Now I am starting to recuperate my initial losses. lol.

Here is my current portfolio.

The Legend is "R"-eal

Need I say more?

Gluttony: 1 of 7 Sins

"Derived from the Latin gluttire, meaning to gulp down or swallow, gluttony is the over-indulgence and over-consumption of food, drink, or intoxicants to the point of waste. In some Christian denominations, it is considered one of the seven deadly sins—a misplaced desire of food or its withholding from the needy."

Sometimes work makes one just want to go out and have a big feast. One whereby you order food which fills up the whole table before realizing you had probably ordered too much. Nonetheless, you stuff them all down, ask for tea or coffee and still have room for dessert. Cajoled by the demon Beelzebub, my colleagues and I did exactly that before heading down to the Arcade to vent our stress out.

Yesterday's target in sight was MOF @ My Izakaya at Bugis Junction. For those who have no clue, MOF stands for Ministry of Food. Nowadays, everyone wants to be a ministry of something (MOS comes to mind). Anyway, we went in, had our scrumptious meal, talk the talk and left as 4 happy and satisfied customer. The food is nice and reasonable. Its a good thing we arrived early without prior reservations as the place seems to be packed after 1900 hrs.

MOF Menu


A gluttonous meal


Appetising Seafood Salad with very nice dip


California rolls and Softshell Crab Makis for starters
Softshell Crab Makis not shown here


Lets start the main course with some refreshing Soba


My Seafood Bento set


My colleagues' choices




After talking, chatting and laughing for some time, we grew hungry for dessert.

Nice Green Tea flavour


Strawberry flavour is very refreshing as well

After leaving the restaurant, we headed to the Arcade and played our hearts out till late midnight. And just when I thought it was all over for the day, my neighbour called me out for supper. We headed to Geylang in his Swift Sport for a Pig Organ's Soup Place.

If gluttony was a sin, I would have made Peter Binsfeld turn in his grave. This was indeed one of my most gluttonous days so far. Haruhi bless me.