Where am I?!

Dear readers! Look here!

Our Lovely Tiger

Tiger boy, you have been and still is a joy and blessing to our family. I really enjoy playing with you in the house. Everything about you especially your facial expressions and movements, creates joy in my heart. Everyone loves you and I love you too! Just "STOP LICKING!" me! :) Sweeeeeet boy!

Theory

"It doesn't mean that you say the person won't change means you don't tell him the problem and solution."

School and Its Challenges

School started three weeks ago on the 10th of August. Another phase of tertiary education has begun. I was eager to experience what university life will show me. I thought it would be similar to polytechnic education, but I was wrong. Never knew that university would be so difficult to manage.

In the polytechnic, as long as you revise your work, complete your tutorials and finish your assignments on time, it would not be difficult to score a decent grade. I had friends who only studied a month before their exams and still managed to do well. However, it is not the case in university. If you plan to just learn how to tackle questions, you probably be only able to pass. The concepts of the study is the most important which is why questions in exams and tests always change to test students' understanding. And unless you are a genius, you are bound to spend a lot of time revising and going through lecture notes.

Time is another challenge. Juggling time to study, time to rest, time to do outside activities like meeting friends and etc became difficult. Initially, I wanted to join activities in school but I was worried about the work load that slowly piled up over the days. I also started feeling sleepy in class which meant I needed more time for sleep. I would be hit with this thought on some nights, "Should I sleep? But I think I should revise a bit more."

These challenges are just the tips of many icebergs. It is an eye opener, it constantly reminds me of my priorities and the balance. I must also seek the strength of the All Mighty One. I must remind myself not to be swamped with work. How exciting! Thank God for such a wonderful experience.

//Is there a way to upload photos that are as sharp as how you see it in you computer?

O_O

If I see this, I will not buy their products. How will I know that it is a brand new set? Okay, maybe they are displays and if you order the furniture, a new set from the warehouse will be sent to your house.

I was shocked at the sight. Clearly not a very professional scene. The man then proceeded to use the small coffee table to read his newspaper after the meal.

When I walked past the display for the last time, I saw the bigger lady sitting comfortably on the white sofa with her back rested and one leg crossed over the other, checking her phone. 

I even saw a signboard on another sofa that said, "NO RESTING". Enough said.

Sate! (pronounced "Satay")

During my trip in Bali, we ate pretty normal things most of the time for our meals. There were reviews on the internet talking about two "must-try"s in Bali. They are Suckling Pig and Crispy Duck. Crispy duck was on the pricey side at 68,000 rupiah. Suckling pig was much cheaper at just 25,000 rupiah. Both had interesting flavours and was definitely worth the try.

On the fifth day of our trip, the group decided to break up and go do whatever we want or need. So it was the boys and the girls. While walking down from Seminyak back to Kuta, we walked past a stall along the street! With a stunning green signboard that spelt out SATEGULE. All I recognised was the word SATE. Satay!

Authentic street style! Bali style!

It is advised to eat from street stalls that cook your food on the spot. That way, you have more assurance that the food is safer for consumption as compared to ready-cooked food waiting to be served. We ordered ten sticks for chicken satay each, and a bowl of kambing (mutton) soup.

Preparation before the fire,

Into the fire!

The charcoal he used were small and easy to burn. Looked like charcoal chips! If you notice the uncle's fingers, I guess he got burned quite a bit. :(

The satay was served differently over here. We are used to seeing the satay and sauce separated from each other. But here, they will pour the sauce on the plate and use the ten sticks of to swirl and coat the meat.

The sauce tastes and looks different too. It is smooth instead of chunky peanuts in it. It has a nutty taste and a slight "burnt" taste too. Very nice! :)

And because it was so good, I bought another ten sticks to takeaway! Look at how they wrapped my satay sticks!

Newspaper wrapped satay with the sauce inside, like newspaper wrapped fish and chips! Oh boy!

I was blown away by this awesome dish! Delicious! Definitely unforgettable! I will highly recommend those going Bali to add this into their 'to-do-list'! The kambing soup was really good too! But the satay was just unbelievable. Lastly, a bowl of kambing soup and ten sticks of satay just cost 10,000 rupiah each! That is S$1.50 for AWESOMENESS!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! :D

The Power of Words

When conversations fail, write a book.

Oh yes, my blog is best viewed using Google Chrome.

Wind Portal

I was in Popular at Thomson 2 days ago, reading the Stuff Magazine on gadgets where I came across this awesome looking product! The interesting design made me want to read about it.

And guess what? It's a fan! Wooooooooooooooooooeeeeeeee!

It's a product from Dyson. A company that I first heard of it from Chris. Their first main product was a vacuum cleaner which did not rely on filter bags. Instead, it generates a mini cyclone inside the machine to suck up dirt. Because of that, the vacuum does not lose suction caused by dirty filter bags.

And this is their newest gadget! It's called the Dyson Air Multiplier. Probably inspired by jet engines. The vents at the base sucks in air, it then accelerates the air inside and forces it out! Resembles a Portal where things go through it get sucked into lightspeed! I showed it to Mum and she said cleaning would be easy!

I believe the price will be considerably more as well. If I remembered correctly, the small, handheld vacuum costs about $150+, which was about the same as the typical household sized vacuum.

The design is nice! The idea is fresh! Inspiring! :D

Should I be Mr Pringles?

Hmmmffff!! :)

If I how does the Pringles logo look like, I believe many will say it's the face with the mustache! Well, I thought of growing a mustache after I saw an advertisement by Louis Vuitton which is shown below. (It took me a long time to find this on the net!)

Look at him. So calm and collected. It gives me the "Shakespeare, classy, arty, high end" vibe. Hehe. Hope B is fine with it! :D Looking forward to no shaving for an indefinite period! Wee! Soon there will be 2 people in the family with mustaches.

My dear readers! What do you think of this?

Hairspray!

Since when did my hair look like this!

Two drawings by different people believe I have a flat top. Hahaha!! That's very cute. :)

Someone's Coming Back!

In 3 more days! :D

Is 11th June at 2am? Or 12th June at 2am? *crosses fingers*

x b

I think this can match your photos! Ha! :D
Oh, it's my 100th post!! *Fireworks!*

An Apple a day keeps my work away!

Ever since I got my iPhone 2 weeks ago, I have been using it regularly at work! Not to play constantly but to achieve work-play balance. "Yaaa right..". :P So far, it has not disappointed me. I used to be very negative towards Apple products solely for the reason that I think people buy Apple for the cool factor. If you compare just technical specifications alone, a laptop of any other brand would beat it! So the extra money probably goes into design, interface, branding, the Mac OS, aluminium body and etc?


But I think it was really childish of me not to buy Apple for the above mentioned reason. Anyway, I would like to write a short review about this product.



Noticed how handphone sizes changed over time? From the big, heavy, "use it as a weapon" size to the very slim and compact, when Samsung came up with very nice looking phones for the business market, and now into the era of smart phones where the size is getting back to big. Sounds like fashion. Hah!


Size
I am not complaining about the size. Fits my hand well. After all, I would feel uncomfortable carrying a small phone where the feeling is like carrying 2 coins in a clenched fist.


Interface
The interface is awesome. It does not lag when you slide from page to page as you view the apps. A satisfying feeling that I get everytime. Similar to when things transit smoothly during concerts, performances and etc. Getting around the default apps is easy.


Apps
This is another power-to-the-ma feature. HTC and BB have apps but not as many as the iPhone's. And because many are free, you just want to grab them all! If for instance, an app is just released and it's available free just for that day and you downloaded it, it sticks into your account forever. So even if the app cost goes all the way to $99.99, you won't have to pay it! So got to go app shopping frequently to get good deals. Hehe!


To me, I think the iPhone is a good buy. Keeps you updated, people will constantly create apps because many many people are using it.


With a data plan now, everything is so much more convenient and accessible. I read my mail more frequently now! Hahaha! 
If any of you wish to ask for more feedback regarding it, feel free to ask me. I will not give a biased view. Honest! :)

Haiku 2

I made a mistake
I typed it incorrectly
I've learnt my lesson.

A Loaf of Meat!

It can also mean the musician. (He looks pretty round doesn't he? Might be all the loaves he ate and gave him inspiration to sing! :D)

I think this dish is very common in the United States. It was there that I tried it for the very first time at Mel's Diner. I have seen in comics, and hear about them mentioned in movies. Like when the kid comes home and the mom shouts, "Son? There's meatloaf in the fridge." or the mom says, "We're gonna have meatloaf tonight!" and the children reply, "Not agaaaainn?".

Aunt May left Peter Parker a note in the kitchen that wrote, "There's meatloaf in the oven." when he came back in the night.

Meatloaf is really easy to make. The ingredients used are easily found in the kitchen. This recipe had good reviews so I decided to make it for dinner at Kat's place after cell group. The baking time is an hour so you have plenty of time to prepare other things or for my case, wash the dishes.

The two ladies who helped in the making.

as you can see the uncooked meatloaf above. We placed it in the oven and...

It came out like this!

The crust-like layer is actually the sauce that I poured over. Made of only tomato sauce, mustard and brown sugar. I like the combination a lot! And it comes out thick and viscous like caramel. Sweeeet... :D

We cut it into 9 slices and but it was actually meant for 6. The portion would feed 6 nicely. I made it again (except I forgot about putting in the onions) the next day at Alicia's place. Same size but to feed 4. It was a huge portion! Mark was happy because he was starving after the soccer match. I think the amount of food taken in should be just nice. So people won't get the "very nii!" feeling from it. For example, KFC.

I'm very satisfied with this recipe. Will go and try out other variations in time to come. Just need to tell mum that I want to cook dinner and the opportunity opens up. Heh. Go try it! :)

Haiku

Time management's important,

Discipline I need.

And that I have to improve.

-Aaron Sim, 2010

Ssssss~.... Squeak!

Awesome! I got a new gadget! Thanks Mark! :)

This is my new snake mouse! Exactly the same one! Blue! Green was out of stock.

I was planning to get a gaming mouse before the start of school for quite some time already. Since I will have a new laptop to replace my trusty, still going strong, 5 year old Acer, I will be able to play more resource demanding games and it would be nice to have a good mouse to match up to it. So the search begins. I looked into 2 brands of mice, Razer and Logitech.

Kenny uses a Logitech G9x and I felt it was really good! The specifications of that mouse is wonderful! The wheel scroll can swap between stepped or smooth scrolling, it has a resolution of 5700 dpi, it has large feet that spans the whole breadth, and you can add up to 28 grams of weights to achieve the perfect feel! All that for... $159! :(

It was too expensive.

So I opted for Razer. And was reminded that Eugene works at Razer! Matthew helped me out by lending me his mice. I tried the Copperhead first. The green glow from the mouse was nice to look at. It is an ambidextrous mouse so the shape will not follow your palm. Then I tried the Deathadder. Feel wise, comfortable and I was more reluctant to move quickly due to its ergonomic right-handed design.

In the end, I chose the Diamondback 3G which is an ambidextrous mouse like the Copperhead. In Eugene's opinion, it is the best mouse. I felt it was not necessary to get such an expensive one because after all...... (wears sunglasses and looks away into the distance) it is the skill that gets the frag. YEAAAAAAAA!!!!

So I was supposed to collect it from Eugene once he got hold of it. After dinner with mums and Mark, I went back home and Mark returned like 15 minutes after that. Out of no where he took out the Diamondback!! Then I realised why he left us earlier after dinner. I was so happy!! I wanted to pay him back but he refused. He gave it as a gift to me. I had no choice but to accept it. Thank you very much Mark! "SNAKEEE!!!!" -Colonel Campbell

"If I am a girl.." Episode 1

I have decided to launch a new series on my blog. It's called "If I am a girl...". What it means is that I will express my thoughts and ideas as if I am a female. For instance, "I really like this shoe! But, it's for girls. If I am a girl..." or "Wah, that make-up of hers is very kua zhang! If I am a girl...".

I happened to come across this dress. If I am a girl... I would buy this dress!

I like flare skirts. They give me the sweet, smiley, happy girl impression. Haha! It's also very plain which means adding a bit of accessories will suffice. On sale $59 from _______. :) What do you readers think about flare skirts?

And by the way, I have added the picture of the New Balance shoe. It's called New Balance 769. It is an older model so I would have to go to it's factory outlet at IMM to check it out.

Weak

Dang. I felt lousy during and after running today. My legs felt heavy, my heart couldn't pump easily and overall, I felt weak. And I think the reason is because, I have been drinking too much milo in the office. Not forgetting cappuccinos as well. Mans.. And henceforth, I have decided to drink only water during work!

From time to time I have to remind myself about fitness and keeping healthy. I really want to make it a habit. So readers, once in a while pleas help me by reminding me about running! :)

I thought of buying new running shoes too! Many say Asics is like the best. But, I think I would want to try another brand like New Balance perhaps. Mother said it's good and I think so too. It's cheaper as well. I went looking around and happened to see this shoe at J8's New Balance!

Paddle-pop yea!

I thought, "Wow! Awesome! I wouldn't mind running in that. Funky and colourful! It would definitely inspire me to run.". Then I saw another set of colours beside it. It was black, hot pink and blue! So nice!!

Just need to ensure it's good for supporting the feet. I may consider it as one of my choices. Must not be impulsive. Hehe. :)

And you know, I accidentally crushed a snail with my right foot and a cockroach with my left foot that night. I'm sorry. Sigh..

Update

The post man is coming soon!

"Generalisation... Civilisation... Caramelisation..." -Morven

Whenever Morven cooked dinner during our time in Adelaide, he would start pretending to be a host of a US cooking show. He's dialog goes something like this, "Ooh boy... Look at the beautiful colour... Mmm.. Caramelisation... Generalisation... Education... Automation... Civilisation... Globalisation... (Long pause as he thinks of another -tion word)."

I'll never forget that. Not only because it was funny but because he set off the smoke alarm like 3 to 4 times? Argh.

I wanted to make caramelised onions some time back. I bought the onions and kept them close to 3 weeks. When I wanted to use them, I saw maggots crawling around in it! It was uber disgusting! I felt bad the onions were wasted because of my procrastination.

Just 2 days ago my mum bought onions.

I cried painfully! :'(

Morven! This is the reeaal deal!

I'll make sure he reads this. Haha! You have to cook it for a very long time before you see results. I used red onions. I'll try white ones another time and see if I can achieve a stronger brown colour.

The rice was mixed with the egg+parmesan cheese sauce used in the carbonara. Overall very happy! :D

Puzzle Time!

I went to the Ripley's Believe It or Not! museum at San Francisco and saw this puzzle. Thought it might occupy my time if I'm bored. I have yet to come up with a solution. Many Sundays have passed.

Try it! :D

The End Is Near.

Non, it's not the end of the world. Instead, it's

9 more official days!

And it seems like it refers to many other things too.

Congratulations Kenny + Audrey!

One for the history books in the Sim and Shen family. I was waiting for the professional photos to come so this post will look good. Haha.

To Kenny and Audrey: May you two have love abundant for each other and that love carries on forever. Everything else will follow behind it. :]

To Jia Mei yan: I wish you all the best and your new family! Thanks for listening to my stories and then falling asleep after that. And somehow, I always remember this one particular time during Junior Soldier class, the older ones were teasing me and then you stepped in and said, "Hey, don't bully my brother k!". It has been 10 years since you said that? Hahaha. Though you spoke little compared to Mark and myself who were always shouting in the house, your presence in the house was always felt. The family and I will definitely miss you but remember we'll always be there for you. :) Take care and I love you Aud. Now you're the odd one out! You're married! Hahaha.

Burdgert King

Disclaimer: All prices mentioned below are in US dollars.

The last day at Lake Tahoe, we took our lunch at Burger King. Fast food ain't cheap and one meal cost about $6.95. But on the whole menu, there was a section that wrote "BK Value Menu" and everything under there was super duper cheap! I got really excited when I saw the Whopper Jr. going for just $1! Many items were also going at $1 like Double Cheeseburger, Spicy CHICK'N CRISP Sandwich, small onion rings, small fries, small soft drink and Chicken Tenders (4 pieces).

What awesome deals! We wanted to fill our stomachs, so budget we did! Many many of this and that burgers, many many fries, rings and tenders, and was it 1 small soft drink? Hahaha. Every fast food outlet has free flow drinks.

I ordered a double cheese burger and the chick n crisp burger and stacked them up!

So it's equivalent to a Mega Mac? No la. Burger King's burger volume is smaller than Macs. That's how I managed to eat the 7 patty one last time. But it felt good having so much to chew. Satisfying you know. I went Ikea once and had Grilled Dory with cream sauce. With fish being soft and easy to swallow, it felt like the food portion was very little. :(

We spent about $24~ for 6 of us? Nice. Super budget. Wish they have these $1 deals in Singapore too! :)

From Holland?

At last, it has been made! For weeks I have been looking for the day when I can make this. I first saw it in the movie Julie and Julia. The main character Julie Powell made hollandaise sauce and used it as an artichoke dip. She briefly read out the recipe and I thought, "Wow, so little ingredients, not complex, and looks really good! Must try!"

I used this recipe. There were others that said to use a double boiler but I did not want to do it that way. It felt too troublesome. I'm sure it can be done if you have good heat control. It was because of this recipe that I bought my mixing bowl! That will be covered in another post. :)

The main ingredient is butter. Loads of butter! We melted 1 and 3/4 sticks of it! We're clarifying the butter here.

Oohh! Fattening natural butter!!

Joel and I were holding up the pots during the mixing of butter to the sabayon. So our forearms kinda ached a bit after that. Hahaha, we need more training.

The colour of hollandaise sauce is very nice. Light yellow cream. However, I felt it should be less yellow but Dora and Joel said it's okay! Maybe I try another time with less yolk. We added 4 yolks instead of 3 because apparently my eggs were not "large" enough. I'm going for 3 the next round. I'm also going to try more pepper and less lemon.

Well, that was dinner. Eggs Benedict without the bacon and English muffin. Substitute by Wagyu beef patty, wholemeal and white bread. Hehe. :D

After dinner, we still had leftover sauce to do this! Port wine courtesy of Joel and a Big Bag of Calbee Hot and Spicy Potato Chips!

What's this?

Pedxing!

At first, I couldn't understand it. Stared at it longer and I saw the light.

I'm sure you can too. Interesting sign.

Mini Frosty

On the last day at Lake Tahoe, we decided to go and visit the lake. The shore's sand was covered with snow. White Sands? Hur hur.

It was HUUUUGE!

The mountains in view were magnificent. So vast and big! The snow makes the mountains look more exciting. Imagine just green slopes. Will the snow melt at such altitudes?

We strolled around, attracted attention from others by "zhi lian"ing. We also saw some snowboarders making a low ramp for themselves. Afterwhich they filmed themselves tackling it. As we left the beach, we saw snowmen (2 only) standing in the open patch, and then we decided to make a snowman for ourselves too.

I could pretend I'm making a snowman but secretly preparing ammo for a fight.

Packing ice is simple. Just collect shavings and plaster it over. I tried combining 2 balls together but it doesn't grow.

Frosty needs to look good.

Frosty: "Voila! In view a humble vaudevillian veteren, cast vicariously as both victim and..."

If you focus your attention to the top left, you'll see big daddy snowman there. He is a whole lot bigger than what we made. And it took us 20-25 minutes making this puny fella. It would probably take an hour or more to fatten him up to big daddy's size. We couldn't spare the time.

After we made good use of him, we killed him off. Run before David Caruso shows up! (~You won't get fooled again!~ music plays)

Sliding on Ice Kachang

Let's kick start the US Tales with Lake Tahoe! It was chosen because it was where we could experience snow! There is North and South Lake Tahoe but South was taken because it's nearer. The lake is very big. Singapore's total area is 710 square kilometers while Lake Tahoe's area is already 496.21 square kilometers! That's more than half of our island!

We were there from 29-31 December 09. It was really cold. In San Fran and LA, I could walk around with just a t-shirt, a long sleeve piece and jeans on. The nights will get colder but it was still manageable. I got down from the bus at Lake Tahoe with exactly what I mentioned above. And then I started to shiver just standing there so I decided to put on the gloves and beanie. I just had to test the temperature! :P

That evening we took a walk around the shops. We entered this shop named 'Heavenly' to enroll ourselves for a day's lesson on snowboarding. The mountain was called Heavenly too so I conclude the shop is the official school for that mountain. It cost us each USD $160 + GST. Not to mention the rental of waterproof pants and my jacket. But it was all worth it!! I was totally excited and happy!

The next morning, we actually wanted to go earlier so that we can stop at the first stop of the ride up the mountain to look at scenery, but grabbing our boards and putting on the boots took some time so that didn't happen. The ride up on the gondola takes 25 minutes which means plenty of photo time! :)

The picture above shows very little bit of the mountain. I initially thought that was all the mountain that snowboarders and skiers had but I was wrong! There is a lot more mountain behind it! It snowed lightly and temperatures reached -7 degrees Celsius. Because of the low temperature, it was tough to take out your camera to snap pictures. The cold would start biting your hands. If you put your gloves on, you won't be able to use it properly with the fat fingers.

Up there, we met our instructor, Michael Gutman. He gave me a cool impression of himself. He wore a helmet, sunglasses and mitts! Always smiling as he explained how it works. He would remind us about going back to our proper stance by showing off an action. And everytime he did that, it made me smile. The action was just very funny!

Down the mountain we surfed. It certainly was tiring climbing up the mountain to go for another try. But why not use the ski lift? There was a long queue and i think I can climb faster. Just pant more! The ski lift ride was nice. The seat and structure was so simple, steel tubes around you like a roll cage and a cushioned seat. :)

Snowboarding is easy to learn. Just have to get used to it and keep reminding yourself on the good practices. I will definitely go for a second round if given the chance. If you get the chance, go for it! May he be an inspiration for you! :D

A Brand New 2010 Folks!

Coming back from overseas into 2010 is exciting. To wrap USA in word, it would have to be "Super"! Will definitely blog about the trip bit by bit once I get my pictures from Tourist Tan and David.

What was disappointing about the trip is that my 600+ photos were deleted. Do not know how it happened but it did. I certainly did not press 'OK' to 'ERASE ALL?'. Sigh. Must just remember the experience of what happened.

Just a quick update, started work again and it felt awesome! My army friends are a nice bunch. There is always something to laugh and joke about in our conversations. I feel really blessed to have formed this bond with them. :)

And guess what! The Army has given me my 2nd Kit Kat bar today! My rank looks like this now! Wheeee!!! Super.

Happy New Year Everyone!