EK's Surprise B-Day & Stanley Cup Night Out...

On the 18^th of March a bunch of us crashed EK's house to throw him a bash :) Unfortunately it wasn't as much of a "SURPRISE!!!" as we had hoped, because he was playing online poker... and winning O.o

Uncle James and Ang tried to get him to "go outside and get the cats" but he was too involved with his game. We ended up just barging in single file... but his reaction was still priceless :D

The rest of the night was as every other party at EK's :p Music, Games & Drinking! That day was special... EK was out by 11:45pm :P Hmm... we got there @ 7:30pm... that would mean that he survived just over 4 hours of them funnelling Alcohol down his throat ;)

Random Pics:






Stanley Cup Night to come...

How Un-Malaysian Are You..

Congratulations Sam, you are 6% not Malaysian.

That means you're as Malaysian as...


Abdullah Badawi !

How Un-Malaysian Are You?

Here's Jacq's

Congratulations Jacq, you are 33% not Malaysian.

That means you're as Malaysian as...


Michelle Yeoh!

How Un-Malaysian Are You?

Ummm... howcome I'm more Malaysian than Jacq :P

McDonald's Memories :D...

The other day Jacq and I were talking about McDonald's and the different menus that they have all around the world... It reminded me of that REALLY old commercial from when I was in elementary school :p I did a search on YouTube and someone actually posted it :D

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that the Canadian version had some minor differences, but hehe, it doesn't matter :p it's such a great song :D

Big Mac,
Mc DLT,
a Quarter-Pounder with some cheese,
Filet-O-Fish,
a hamburger,
a cheeseburger,
a Happy Meal.
McNuggets,
tasty golden french fries,
regular or larger size,
and salads: chef salad or garden,
or a chicken salad oriental.
Big Big Breakfast,
Egg McMuffin,
hot hot cakes,
and sausage.
Maybe biscuits,
bacon, egg and cheese,
a sausage,
danish,
hash browns too.
And for dessert
hot apple pies,
and sundaes
three varieties,
a soft-serve cone,
three kinds of shakes,
and chocolatey chip cookies.
And to drink a Coca-Cola,
Diet Coke, and orange drink,
A Sprite and coffee, decaf too,
A lowfat milk, also an orange juice.
I love McDonald's, good time great taste,
and I get this all at one place...

Overhaul...

Weeeeeeeeee... Blogger has opened beta to us and it's full of new features :)... I'll slowly be overhauling to make everything all purdy 'n' stuff :P

oo.. I'll have the pics from EK's surprise berfday party soon ;)

*update*

It seems that I can't edit the HTML in the template yet, so I'll be going back and forth while I'm playing around with the settings. :P

Mum's B-Day @ Aqua Riva...

Today is mum's birthday :) Happy Birthday Mum!!! Ask for her age and she'll tell you she's 29 and holding :P hehe.

I'm not sure why, but Mum and Dad decided that they wanted to go out for dinner last night instead of tonight but it happened that way, and the pick was Aqua Riva, down by Vancouver's Waterfront, right next to our World Trade Center.

Aqua Riva is located right on the waters edge and offers a beautiful view of North Vancouver as well as the 5 Sails of Canada Place. For all of us it was the first time here so we weren't sure what to expect... I hung back outside to take a picture of the entrance, so I didn't get to see what their hostess is like. I'm sure they're nice.

After seating, in typical Chinese fashion my Mum pulled out a newspaper clipping :) It was an add that was advertising the Aqua Riva Best of B.C. Menu (which was included with the regular menu given to us when we were seated). For some reason I was feeling particularly lazy that night so I just stuck with the $29 set dinner which included your choice of (1 from each section):

Appetizer:

Chilliwack Corn & Seafood Chowder
Vancouver Island Sidestripe Salt Prawns
Local Baby Field Greens

Main Course:

Roasted Wild Skeena River Coho Salmon
Roasted Fraser Valley Free Range Chicken Breast
Wood Grilled Salt Spring Island Lamb Sirloin

Dessert:

Pitt Meadow Blueberry Cheese Cake
Okanagan Apple and Cherry Bread Pudding

You can click on the picture below to see the dish details.

Below are the pages from the regular menu:


The prices are on par with most other 'up-scale' restaurants in Vancouver (~$10 for an appy and ~$25-$30 per entree.

I have to say that the service was impeccable. The waiters are all First Class, we didn't really get to test their knowledge as we all ordered from the set dinner (and no one ordered wine) but from what I've heard, they're also all very knowledgeable. The waitress also let me know that the Guinness that I ordered was coming in a can... I know, they're always supposed to tell you that, but I've come across places where they don't tell you...

Dad ordered:
Chilliwack Corn & Seafood Chowder
Wood Grilled Salt Spring Island Lamb Sirloin
Okanagan Apple and Cherry Bread Pudding


Lamb Sirloin & Bread Pudding
Mum & I ordered:
Local Baby Field Greens
Roasted Fraser valley Free Range Chicken Breast
Pitt Meadow Blueberry Cheese Cake


Grilled Free Range Chicken Breast

Baby Greens & Cheese Cake
Dad said he liked the chowder (which I didn't get a snap of) but it was filling him so he pushed it over to me :P. I haven't ordered chowder in a dog's age but this one wasn't too bad :) It wasn't too creamy and it wasn't too runny either, just right. For some strange reason I don't recall there being big chunks of seafood. Everything seemed kinda mashed together o.O Maybe dad ate all the good stuff before passing to me.. hehe.

The baby greens were nice, all the leaves were fresh & very tasty :) It came with preserved peaches too... and what looked like melba toast with some sort of Garlic butter... sorry :p I suck when it comes to picking out ingredients :$.

On to the Free Range Chicken. I am pleased to say that it was some of the best chicken that I have had. The Chicken was served on a bed of Mashed Potatoes and mixed vegetables topped in a gravy. Mmm.. I love mashed potatoes... AND I LOVE VEGGIES :D Can't go wrong :p. What made it even better is that the chicken was stuffed with Dungenous crab & sweet corn, resulting in a very subtle, unique flavor...

Mmmmm... Cheesecake! I was expecting the cheesecake to be REALLY rich, but instead it was nice and light. Not too much Blueberry, not too rich and cheesy... superb.

I didn't get a chance to try my dad's Bread Pudding but dad says that the texture was nice, it tasted sweet, and it was better than the Cheesecake :p

All-in-all, Aqua Riva was a very pleasant experience. I'm definitely going back, next time to try something off the regular menu!

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Some random shots outside of Aqua Riva:


Dad, Mum & 5 Sails of Canada Place

Vancouver's World Trade Center & another one of those bears, this one's a Canuck Bear :)

The Sears Tower and the Gate to Historic Gas Town

For the dorks: EA's downtown campus & the old trainstation

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Btw.. my blog is now worth:

My blog is worth $5,080.86.
How much is your blog worth?

Movie: Pulse...

A couple of nights ago I went to see Pulse with AK...

Synopsis:

Imagine our wireless technologies made a connection to a world beyond our own. Imagine that world used that technology as a doorway into ours. Now, imagine the connection we made can't be shut down. When you turn on your cell phone or log on to your e-mail, they'll get in, you'll be infected and they'll be able to take from you what they don't have anymore - life. Kristen Bell ("Veronica Mars"), Christina Milian ("Love Don't Cost A Thing") and Ian Somerhalder ("Lost") star in "Pulse," a bone-chilling thriller hitting theatres on July 14th.

I just recently found out that this movie is based on a Japanese original (Kairo) made in 2001. I haven't had the chance to watch the whole thing through yet, but I'm thinking that it's going to be the same deal as The Grudge (Ju On) and The Ring (Ringu). Anyway, back to my story.

This particular night was interesting because I had to get up and tell someone off. Now, it's been awhile since I last had to do that and I don't enjoy getting up and disrupting other people... but. From the beginning of the movie until about 20 minutes in, everything was alright... then out of the corner comes a sound... crinkle... crinkle... Everyone ignored it, we all thought it was going to be a one-time thing... nope. *crinkle crinkle CRINKLE CRINKLE* !!! Wtf?! So I tried to ignore it... but after 30 minutes, that's right... 30 frickin minutes he was still at it. By that time, our neighbors knew that I was extremely agitated because I had spent sometime leaning forward to get a good look at fatty sitting in the corner there. Finally I couldn't take it anymore :@ I got up and walked over to the corner, funny thing is, as soon as I got up my neighbors knew where I was going and had their legs outta my way :p.

I had to stand there for a few seconds before he noticed me staring at him, but he eventually turned his head towards me.

"Are you enjoying your food?"
"Wha..?"
"Are you enjoying your food?"
"Yea... why?"
"Cuz... I can hear you eating it FROM OVER THERE!!! :@ It's been a half-hour now!"

I wasn't planning on raising my voice quite that high, but uh... oops :p

"Why don't you just pour that shit out into your lap and quit playing with the bag?!"

The guy then proceeds to throw his food into the next seat at the same time screaming,

"Fine I've thrown it away now! Next time I'll throw it in your fucking face!"

At this time I have to stop myself from laughing because out from the other side I hear AK cracking up... I guess he heard everything I said :p I let him know that it wasn't just me that was annoyed as hell and I went back to my seat.

Just so you know I was sitting in the middle of the row and this guy was in the corner against the wall... That's how loud it was... frickin tool. I'm surprised no one else said anything to him earlier.

As you can imagine.. that didn't help make the movie a good experience for me. It was already slow going and the plot seemed pretty thin... honestly, I don't even feel like going into detail about it. Being from the IT industry... none of these things seem plausable... Ok, fine, it's just a horror movie... and if they kept it as just a horror movie then it would have been alright, I guess. Blah... I'd say wait until it comes out as a rental.

Movie: The Descent...

Tonight I watched a movie with AK... I'm pretty happy because it looks as though there is a string of horror movies coming out :D and I'm a horror movie buff :)

On with the story. Our movie was scheduled for 10:10 pm so we left my house at around 9:40pm (the theater is fairly close by). We arrived at roughly 9:50 and to our horror, the theatre was busy as hell. I was thinking that we'd have to refund our tickets and come see it another night. Then I thought... what movies have just been released? Pulse and World Trade center are the two that immediately came to mind. We were praying that everyone was going to see those ones. On the way up to the theatres there was a lineup that started going down the flight of stairs.

Usually when we purchse our tickets we just go to the machines and debit, there's almost never a line-up... tonight there was, and AK was lucky enough to have two chimps ahead of him :D We got our tickets and made our way over towards our theatre. Crap, there was a line-up there too, fortunately it looked longer than it actually was. We managed to get seats at the back of the room, right in the middle :)

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I'm not sure what I was expecting out of this movie... but, I'm still also not sure what I got out of it either :P. Here's the synopsis:

One year after a tragic accident, six girlfriends meet in a remote part of the Appalachians for their annual caving trip. Deep below the surface of the earth, disaster strikes when a rock falls and blocks their route back to the surface. The girls soon learn that Juno, the thrill-seeking leader of the expedition, has brought them to an unexplored cave and that as a result no one knows where they are to come rescue them. The group splinters and each push on, praying for another exit. But there is something else lurking under the earth - a race of monstrous humanoid creatures that are adapted perfectly to life in the dark. As the friends realize they are now prey, they are forced to unleash their most primal instincts in an all-out war against an unspeakable horror - one that attacks without warning, again and again and again.

The way the movie started out mislead me a little. I was pretty stoked because something major happens within the first 10 minutes. Then for the next 20-30 minutes, the pace slows drastically... essentially just showing the party of girls spelunking/caving. The cast is essentially a bunch of actors that no one in N. America have heard of... well... I haven't heard of any of them. There was only one that was really worth looking at (IMO) and I couldn't figure out if she was Hispanic, Asian, or a mix of some sort.

In the movie they claim that the predators (and that's what they actually sound like :P) have 'adpated perfectly to life in the dark'. I think not. They can hear people moving from far away.. but they can't feel/hear someone breathing inches away from their face? They can't feel heat, or tell the difference between stone and hair? I don't want to give anything away... but I'm sure you get the idea. Furthermore, they offer no explanation as to where they come from, what their purpose is (aside from hunting, consuming & surviving)... really, they make absolutely noooo attempt to fill in that gap. We're just supposed to accept it. t('.'t) C'mon... you've got to give us something with a little more substance. Yes, even if it's fiction... I was chuckling to myself when I first caught a glimpse of one... I was waiting for it to start whispering, "My Precious..." :p

Even the special effects were sub-par. There was a scene that had bats flying out of a tunnel in the cave... it looked like they took those bats from another movie and tried to super-impose them in... One thing that I (as well as my neighbors) enjoyed were some of the gory parts :p not so realistic, but still entertaining non-the-less :D Would I recommend this movie? That's a tough one... I've definitely seen worse, but I've also seen much better... if you're looking for something with more substance and purpose then this is not for you. If you're looking for a random, REALLY RANDOM horror movie that's just there and doesn't give you any explanation for what's going on :p this is it! :D

Celebration of Light 2006 - Grand Finale

Heh.. I almost forgot about this clip :p Here's the grand finale for the Celebration of Light 2006, Vancouver:

Celebration of Light 2006 - Mexico

Yes, yes, it's a little late, but I'm posting the celebration of light video for Mexico and the Finale :) I've already encoded and uploaded to Google, now it's just a matter of waiting until they verify and make it live ;)

ok... so it says that it's live now.. but when I click on the link it says that the vid is not available :@... grrr.

Ok.. the video is available now. Actually, it was probably available the whole time, but for some reason it's listing the wrong link. I clicked around, went to reports and found the right link. Here it is. You can hear the Chinese lady next to me (as well as others) screaming at a couple that came just before the start of the show, and stood in front of all of us. You can also hear someone else yelling at his gf to turn of 'that idiot hat' :p

The Vid is a little crooked... I didn't bother to look at my level before proceeding to film hehe.

Celebration of Light 2006 Czech Republic - Full Video

WOW... this one didn't take 4 days for google to verify and make live...

Here you go :)

Celebration of Light 2006 - Czech Republic

Today is Wednesday and therefore Celebration of lights day :). X and I had planned to go together again, but due to last-minutes changes to his job schedule, and people not responding to their MSN, I ended up attending this event on my own. Meh... it wasn't all that bad.

I didn't have to worry about losing someone in the crowd and I didn't have to wait around for people to catch up. The down-side? Well, if I wanted a REALLY nice spot, then I'd have had to go early and sit alone like a loser O.o I opted to go just before the start of the show and shove my way to the front of the standing crowd :p

On the way down to the beach I stumbled upon one of the Capoeira Schools doing a street exhibition :) These guys are great... I'd attend Capoeira lessons, but it's pretty steep, who knows, maybe in the future :p

I pushed my way down to the section in front of the speakers, same place as last time. This time I made sure that I was at the front of the standers :p well, almost in front anyway. It was a nice change to be able to setup the tripod and shoot instead of standing there holding my arms out for 25 minutes :) The resulting video is much better than the previous shaky cam ones although since it was a windless night, the smoke ended up lingering and obstructing some of the fireworks. You'll see... I'm encoding / uploading the videos, so you'll have to bear with me ;)

The aftermath:

On the way back to the car (I took Davie St) I noticed that there was a group of people causing a rukus. Naturally, I followed hoping that I would get some good footage that I could post on the net curious to see if anything would happen. Lo-and-behold...


The guy that's facing me was screaming something to his buddy, "hey *friend's name*! Make sure you get this shit and send it to me!"... then there was his friend, "This is illegal! It's against our rights!" Rights? What rights? :P The only right that was violated was your right-to-not-be-a-moron-in-a-place-crawling-with-5-0, & you gave that one up the moment you stepped out your house, dumbass.

Celebration of Lights 2006 China (Full Video)

Google Video finally decided to allow my video to go live, and here it is :)