Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Nuffnang Gift Ideas

Just found out this Nuffnang Gift Ideas Contest from the ad shown in my blog.

Well, after an intensive search and browsing through hundreds of items available at the RealMart website, I have decided to give to my fellow buddy nuffnanger Motormouth an electrical toothbrush which is the Braun D12 Vitality Precision Clean-Oral Care D12


Since motormouth is a food blogger who likes to discover and devour any food that he come across, this would be an ultimate gift for him. He can enjoy his food without worrying about his oral hygiene. This would be his best defensive weapon against myriads of plaque or dental decay that are bound to attack him anytime!

Motormouth is also a very busy person during work (well, some may disagree) and the electrical toothbrush can save his time and energy during tooth brushing. I hope Motormouth will like this gift. Do tell me ok?

Monday, July 28, 2008

A glance through Beruas

Ever imagine how does this small town Beruas looks like? Lets start with the journey from Ipoh to this small town by the road..

Long narrow road, pray that you are not behind a lorry!

Famous clock tower at Parit town

Junction at Parit

Sungai Perak

Typical kampung house along the way

Now, the Beruas town itself, quiet and peaceful..

The main traffic junction at Beruas

The shophouses at the main road

Some shops nearby

A wantan mee stall

The bus stop and petrol station

Some entertainment for the locals

A football field


Kampung houses

Quiet road

Trees and trees

I was fascinated by this unique coconut tree

Dark clouds looming

Its a good place for retirement, far far away from the hustle and bustle of city life!

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Fruit season at Beruas

Its the fruit season again! This time I went back to my friend's hometown in Beruas. Beruas is a small town in Perak (about 45 km, or about 1 hour drive from Ipoh). It is situated near to Ayer Tawar and Sitiawan town.

The place is her grandma's little orchard at the back of her house.

The orchard entrance

Rambutan trees

Some papaya trees

There are a few rambutan, mangosteen and durian trees there which provide us plenty of fruits to enjoy at our heart's content.

Red devils

Close shot

Juicy rambutan

Can u smell it?

See those yummy flesh!

See these little red ants killing the poor fly

And the mangosteens

Bananas too

Wait, papayas oso?

Dun forget me too! Grrr...

And most important it doesn't cost anything except for a buldging waistline prehaps..:P

Finally, a hard day's work!

Monday, July 21, 2008

TimeShift (PC)


Finally, my 1st full review of a pc game. This game has took me almost 1 full month to finish. It consists of 24 levels ( a bonus nowadays ) with more than 12 hours of single player campaign. I will only review the single player part only btw..

First, the whole storyline is an incoherent junk. There is an evil professor called Krone who develops a time-traveling suit. Due to his evil nature, he uses this technology to create an alternate reality where he rules this world. Its time for u to stop him before its too late. Hmm..sounds familiar..yawn...

The story is not the main attraction of the game but the main point is the ability of the player to manipulate time to his advantage. In theory, u can slow, pause and reverse time in this game. Well, only if it existed in real world. Back to the game..

Time slowing ability

Its pretty fun to use time to slow down the action and then take down ur opponents one by one. How about stopping time completely then run towards ur enemy and give him a full blast of a shotgun to his head. And, interestingly u can use time reverse to go back a few moments earlier when u found yourself being thrown a grenade. Sometimes, it feels dirt easy as this is considered a cheat by itself. Nonetheless, this ideal situations has its limitations as this ability needs to recharge itself after every usage. U cant make it alive out of some fight scenes without this time shifting ability as swarms of enemy is after u most of the time.

Special rain effects

The graphics of this game is not amazing but with very nice visual effects if u do not compare with Crysis side by side of course. The 1st level is particularly great as the rain effect is top notch whereby u can feel the droplets of rain slowly moving down ur screen. The animations are great but sometimes u feel the ragdoll physics are overly done. The audio is quite good with decent sound acting and various ambient music to suit particular levels

Blood, gore and limbs flying everywhere! ( a pc shooter must have )

Boring doors upon doors

The weapons are interesting especially the crossbow and the surge gun. U will definitely get a satisfying shot with each weapon. The enemies are varied with some donning the same suit as u. So, u have to use ur time ability to catch up with them. Most enemies AI is not that sophisticated and they will just shoot at u without hiding in cover.

Some vehicular action

Well, as u may imagine, where this game can go wrong as it is full of potential albeit poor storyline ( most games are anyway ). This is a pure linear shooter. To summarize it, u just go from point A to point B and shooting bad guys in between. There is no point C or D where u can take alternate routes to achieve the same outcome. An old classic pc shooter! There are no real puzzles to stimulate ur mind to think differently with ur powers. U just need to either use slow, stop or reverse to pull some switches in order to open a blockade to continue ur missions. Think Half Life and it is a shame!

Finale
Screenshots courtesy of gamepressure

Bottom line: A great game if all its full potentials are unleashed

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Oil prices tumble

The price of oil recorded its biggest weekly drop ever, and finally pulled back from its record high. So is it time to declare the energy bubble popped? Only time will tell..btw. Just hope for the best.




To those who miss the Anwar vs Shabery debate, can view here..

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

4th Psychopharmacology Seminar at Persada Johor International Convention Centre

Our final day was the 4th Psychopharmacology Seminar at Persada Johor International Convention Centre. It was only about 15mins drive from Hyatt Regency.

It is situated beside The Puteri Pacific Hotel

The main entrance

The Convention Centre complex sits on a 2.43 ha (6 acres) site with a built-up area of 1.69 ha (4.2 acres) and 29 function rooms totalling 8,296 sq. metres (89,292 sq.ft.) There is also provision for a total of 9 retail shops and food & beverage outlets. The remaining land area features a multi-level parking complex accommodating 1,600 car-park spaces and 80 bus bays.

The architectural concept for the Persada Johor International Convention Centre draws its inspiration from historical elements of Johor and incorporates modern features so as to exude a sense of strength and integrity without compromising on functionality. It is designed to fill the critical need for an international standard Exhibition and Convention Centre in Johor and to advance Johor's progress into the 21st century.

Seminar room. Bear with the photo as the camera's zoom was terrible

The seminar was quite similar to the convention earlier but this is only for the pharmacists and most of the speakers are specialists from Hospital Permai. I just could not wait for it to end!

After the seminar, we had a quick buffet lunch at the nearby Puteri Pacific Hotel (connected to the Persada by a short skybridge) before we finally went back.

Monday, July 14, 2008

10th Mental Health Convention at Hyatt Regency ( Part 2)

Well, it was quite an agonizing trip going to Johor as I had to travel there by express bus. There are 3 of us ie me, my female colleague and KSN (not ketua setiausaha negara btw) and it totally took us more than 7 hours of journey. When we reached the Larkin bus station, we boarded a taxi to Hyatt Regency. It was just a short trip about 10minutes that costs us RM 12.

At the reception there, it was quite a mess as people of different sexes are put into the same room. And i was among the unlucky ones, but since the other person (female) not yet arrived, I went into my room and put my things down. Then I went to find the organizer and we sorted out the room issue. Finally, I was alone in 1 room and I welcome my former coursemate HKH to join me. Its nice to meet some of my former coursemates that I havent met since convo.

My room mate, HKH..funny guy! 728, a lucky room number!

Swimming pool - Night view

Mini garden with small fountain

Rainy day view from my room

Our convention was held in a big ballroom. The atmosphere was very spacious with 3 projectors beaming onto 3 white boards to enable those who sits in the left and right corner to have a better view. But the chairs makes it hard to those who would like to take notes as it was quite uncomfortable.
This is an exception as sitting too front is not my usual self ha..

The attendance becomes fewer and fewer as time goes by..

We have Malam Mesra on the 1st night of convention that was held in the same ballroom. The food was quite fair as it was halal type of chinese dinner btw..Then there was the performance from the staff from Hospital Permai and karaoke singing from the audience. Thumbs down!

There is a reward to those who can guess correctly the person in front of the photo

Menu - to those who are interested

In the next post, I'll briefly blog about the final day which is the 4th Pychopharmacology Seminar at Persada International Convention Centre.