Life and Times of Calvin

Protecting Your Information on Facebook

2009-10-19T20:41:00.034-04:00

I don't know if you have ever made changes to your privacy settings. But I think you should take a look at it. It is important to protect your personal information and your privacy. In this digital era numerous unethical things can be done via the internet and especially through social networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace, Friendster...

One social networking website that many of us visit daily is Facebook. Facebook is definitely one of the most versatile social networking websites around. But at one point of time, Facebook made an amendment to their terms of service that allows Facebook use any information in your account in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later. You can read about the controversy surrounding this issue with Facebook here. However this issue was resolved when Facebook withdrew its changes to the terms of service after it was under pressure from users and legal groups.

In the first part of the guide, I will focus on Profile privacy settings. The next part of the guide will be on Applications privacy settings followed by News Feed and Wall settings.

Part 1: Profile Privacy Settings

To check your settings, click on Settings (next to "Logout")>Privacy Settings. In the screenshot below, it is enclosed in the red box.

Once you click on Privacy Settings you will be redirected to another page that looks like the screenshot below.

The two essential settings that you should check are in the Profile and Applications links circled in blue in the above screenshot.

Let us first look at the settings in Profile. You will be redirected to the page shown here.

I set mine to Only Friends. What this means is only the friends I added on Facebook will be able to view the content/information on my Facebook page. I highly recommend you to stay away from setting it to Everyone.

In addition to that, you can also choose Customize
If you select Customize, you will get the following options.

In this example, I selected Customize under Photos Tagged By You. As you can see from above, there a several options that you can choose from. The options pretty much explain themselves. Two options I want to highlight are Some Friends and Except These People.

Either one of these option will allow you to choose lists that you use to organize your friends (this can be done in Friends in the top toolbar on Facebook). I don't think a lot of people use this, but I find it useful to organize my contacts with lists.

Lastly always make sure you SAVE any changes you have made.

Part 2: Applications Privacy Settings

Click on Settings (next to "Logout")>Privacy Settings. In the screenshot below, it is enclosed in the red box.

Next, click on Applications. You will redirected to the page below.

Click on Settings next to Overview. And it should be toggled to the page shown below.

There are 2 things that you should be aware of. They are circled in blue above.

The first part are your information applications your friend added have access to. At the same time, it can also see your information that is already accessible by your friend. You should remove all the checkmarks.

The second part is another method for websites to publish stories onto your wall. To disable that, put a checkmark next to "Don't allow Beacon websites to post stories to my profile."

Lastly always make sure you SAVE any changes you have made.

Part 3: News Feed and Wall Privacy Settings

The next thing that may concern you is being featured on Facebook Ads. What this option does is show that you are a fan of a brand/person/group/food/etc. on Facebook. You may or may not want to disable this. Of course, to fully protect your privacy you should disable it.

Where to find this setting?

Click on Settings (next to "Logout")>Privacy Settings. In the screenshot below, it is enclosed in the red box.

Now click on News Feed and Wall next to Actions within Facebook and you will be redirected here

You should click on Facebook Ads to toggle the page below

Change "Allow ads on platform pages to show my information to.." No one.

Then SAVE any changes you have made.

There you have it, 3 essential parts to a more secure Facebook experience. Do share this with your friends. Feel free to drop me a comment if anything is unclear.

Disclaimer: Information in this post is provided only as a guide and is subject to changes. It's your own responsibility to protect your privacy.

Michigan Tech's Winter Carnival 2009

2009-02-06T14:40:00.005-05:00

Cravings for.... Fish Head Noodles!

2008-11-26T12:41:00.016-05:00

My favourite fish head noodles stall is from Woo Pin Fish Head Noodles in Taman Danau Desa. It has the most flavorful soup ever. I usually order mine with fried fish, sometimes with un-fried ones. I always finish mine and I would wait for my mom to say "Chung, I can't finish mine. Do you want to finish it?" Be careful when you order a large bowl at this shop as it can really turn a good meal into a bad one if you force yourself to finish it... I remember once I had the large and... I was greedy... finished it.... and finally I was way too full. My whole day I felt bloated... and up to dinner I didn't feel like eating anything. From that day onwards, it's a small + mom's leftovers :-p

With all that in mind... I thought of the ingredients needed for this dish. It's pretty simple, all you need are:

(for one serving)
1. Fish fillets (I used tilapia fillets)
2. Half a tomato
3. Pickled Mustard Green (Ham Choy)
4. Spring Onion 5. Ginger (i forgotten to put this when I was preparing mine)
6. Shao Xing Chinese Cooking Wine
7. Sesame oil
8. Evaporated Milk (Recommended: NESTLÉ CARNATION Evaporated Milk)
9. Vermicelli (meehoon/"mai fun") (Note: For Fish Head/Fillet noodles, thick vermicelli is recommended)
10. Soy Sauce/Salt to taste

For the soup, I'd recommend using some kind of fish stock. I made my own stock using "ikan bilis". To prepare the stock, just stir fry the ikan bilis untill fragrant/brown and add 2 medium sized bowl of water. Boil it for 15mins. When done turn the heat down and remove the "ikan bilis".

An alternative to making this "ikan bilis" stock is to just use fish sauce. Just bring water to boil and add adequate amount of fish sauce for flavor. Fish sauce itself is salty.

Now, to cook the soup base for the fish fillet noodles.

1. With half of the tomato cut it into 4 pieces. The green mustard green into thin slices. Ginger shredded. Spring onions into 1 inch stocks and the fish fillets into 1 inch cubes.

2. Turn the heat to high and bring the stock to boil. Add all the ingredients in the first step except for the fish cubes. Boil for 2 minutes then put in the fish. You wouldn't want to overcook the fish.

3. Next is to add the evaporated milk, shao xing chinese cooking wine and sesame oil. This is all adjust to taste. Some likes less milk, some likes more, some don't even want them in their soup. Some likes stronger wine taste and some likes lighter. For sesame oil, add about 1 tablespoon. That should be just right. I like mine with just the right amount of milk and shao xing wine. Once it's right, turn the heat down to low.

I realize in cooking, milk absorbs the taste of alcohol pretty easily. I remember when I was cooking my shrimp scampi in cream sauce, I needed to put quite a bit of white wine to make sure the full cream doesn't overpower the taste of wine.

4. To speed up the process for preparing the meehoon. I just boiled water and put in the meehoon. Usually meehoon is soaked in water till it's soften, but I have no time for that. Cook the meehoon until the softness of your liking, drain the water and run the meehoon under cold water. This is an essential process! This makes the noodles have better consistency.

5. Add the meehoon to the soup and bring to boil. Once ready, serve it in a bowl and top off with some chopped spring onions and a dash of white pepper.

My First Bowl

My Second Bowl

My version of this dish doesn't exactly use fish head. It's easier to eat with fillets anyways! Yeah I don't know how to enjoy eating fish head. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this post!

Sushi Weekend!

2008-11-15T22:26:00.011-05:00

I had sushi cravings this week... So... It's time for a sushi weekend! The last time I made sushi was 2 months back maybe.

The method for cooking sushi rice is widely available on google... So I am gonna skip the ingredients part. Just wanna showcase what sushi we had for this weekend...

Maki-Zushi

Ebi (Prawn) Nigiri-zushi

Crabstick Nigiri-zushi

Tofu Nigiri-zushi
This was specially prepared for my vegetarian friend, Edward. I grilled the tofu and topped it off with teriyaki sauce.

Baked Chicken Teriyaki Nigiri-zushi
This is truly homemade! The teriyaki sauce was homemade, NOT bottled. My housemate, Shu Ting's brother is a Japanese cuisine chef, so Shu Ting has the secret recipe for the perfect teriyaki sauce. It tasted absolutely perfect baked with chicken.

World's Largest Temaki by - Nicholas!

Not bad huh? I try and make more fulfilling dishes during weekends.

Laksa Johor

2008-11-08T23:05:00.001-05:00

Laksa Johor served with thin spaghetti

"Choi Sam", Prawns, Shredded Chicken and Homemade "Tau Pok"

Nothing really special here. I just used the ready made Laksa Johor paste which I brought from Malaysia. Added my own ingredients.

I can't get "tau pok" here. So, I made my own. The method is quite simple. Buy "soft" white tofu. Freeze it in the freezer overnight. Put it back in the normal refrigerator. This process creates the porous texture in the "tau pok". When ready to use, cut into desired size and deep fry it till it's golden brown. There is a lot of moisture in white tofu, so it takes quite a bit of time to get the desired result.

My New Crib!

2008-11-06T17:49:00.009-05:00

I think I haven't blogged for almost 7 months... Hehe... Not much of a blogger as you all know.

Anyway, a quick update is that I am out of the dorms for this semester. No more dorm food! yay! I get to eat home cooked meals! Own toilet! Bigger bed! MY OWN ROOM! Muahaha!

Below are 360 degree views of my apartment. Enjoy! (Place mouse in the video and click and drag to rotate)

My Room

Kitchen

Housemate's Room/Dining Area

21st Birthday!

2008-04-15T18:46:00.002-04:00

Thursday, 10 April

Wasn't expecting much on my 21st birthday this year cause on my birthday eve, I was busy studying for 2 quizzes which was on my birthday. Anyhow, around 11.50pm, my beloved Yiling was online, and she quickly asked me to setup my webcam and that she'd call me on skype. Close to 12am, she called me and we were connected. I could see her on the webcam but suddenly she went missing. Then I realize that she was actually lighting up. To my surprise, she made a mini ice cream cup cake with a candle on it. It was my b'day surprise from her! Hehe, the candle was light up and she asked me to make a wish before blowing it. Well, I pretended to blow off the candle obviously. I didn't even get to eat that cake Anyhow, I was really happy and THANK YOU MY DEAREST YILING! Love you loads!

After that, we chat for some time until my roommate suddenly got my attention and said that my Resident Assistant (RA) was looking for me in the kitchen. I thought I did something wrong or got into trouble. And...

I got a SURPRISE from my MTU Malaysian friends... There it was, a cake lit up with candles and my bunch of friends. So, again I made a wish before blowing off the candles. My 2nd birthday cake! But this time it's real My friends made me pull out the candles from the cake with my mouth after I cut the cake, of course you know what was the plan. I got away a few times but finally, someone managed to smash my face onto the cake. Yeah, it was all over my face... Thanks to: Nicholas, Nick Win, Shu Wei, Pete, Esther, Ee Lim, Pou Chong, Kenny and Sissi! After clearing the top part of the cake which my face got smashed onto, I divided the cake to all. Amazingly they still ate the cake even though my face had been on it. We chit chat a while and thanked them again before they left.

Friday, 11 April

BLIZZARD!!! Surrounding schools and universities were closed except for OURS!!! Well... cause we're used to it? It was really windy and heavy snow but it wasn't super cold. They will only close down the school if it goes below like -20 Celsius.

Despite the weather, I still went for both my 9am and 10am classes and took the quizzes. I only had 2 classes that day. So it was a pretty relaxed day. BUT.... few days back it was like this....

The weather here in Upper Michigan is really unpredictable... Such bad weather, some more on my birthday. Was it a sign? I donno...

Anyhow, as usual, on Friday evening I will head to the sports complex for my weekly dose of badminton. Was at the sports complex until 9 pm or so. After that, me and my friends left and headed back to Shu Wei's place for dinner. Since it was pretty late and we were hungry we decided to head out to eat. Called a couple more friends and we left the house. We headed to another friend's house.

And... ANOTHER SURPRISE!!!

I couldn't believe it, I didn't know... but I got another birthday cake! My 3rd one!

Hehe, it's weird to see your own face on the cake... Hehe... This kinda cake is common for birthdays here. Can be ordered from Walmart. The picture of me was taken in Las Vegas when I tasted my first Krispy Kreme doughnut. Anyway, this time they didn't smash my face onto the cake. We were gonna eat this one this time. But we only ate it the next day after dinner because we wanted to head out for dinner. So, I treated my friends to dinner at Applebees restaurant similar to Chilli's/TGIF in Malaysia. After dinner, went to Walmart to buy a few bottles of drinks since I am legally allowed to consume and purchase alcohol now. Watched V for Vendetta while we drank. Went home after that...

Some photos taken at Ee Lim's house...

Me, Pou Chong, Kate

Nicholas, Kate (my MAMA), Nick Win, Kenny, Edward, Pei Jia, Me, Pou Chong, Shu Wei (my PAPA)

Ee Lim (huskies hoodie)

Thanks guys! I was really surprised and happy! You guys are just such great friends! My life here is made extra memorable by you all!

Saturday, 12 April

5.00a.m. my phone rang... I picked up the phone... I was still blur cause I was in deep sleep already... Amazingly... It was my high school friend, Lik Wen. I wondered why he called me in the middle of the night from Malaysia. That guy actually called me because he and a bunch of my friends from Malaysia, namely Jin Yu, Weng Meng and Eugene Too was at at the KL PC Fair and wanted to ask me which hard disk was better for external hard drive. I was like.....sweat....^_^" wake me up in the middle of the night just to ask that.... and call from Malaysia some more. But after that, they still remembered to wish me Happy Birthday... LOL Because of them, I stayed up for 30mins... before I could sleep back again. I called my dearie in between.

5.30p.m.

To thank my Malaysian friends for their wonderful surprises I prepared dinner for them...

Spicy Black Bean Pork Ribs

Spicy Assam Catfish

Emperor's Chicken (prepared by my papa, Shu Wei)

We went to a newly opened entertainment center after dinner. Over there, there are bowling alleys, video arcades, a restaurant and also a bar. We tried almost all the arcade games there...

That night my friends were really lucky. They got like jackpot for a couple of games and they got loads of tickets (can be used to exchange prizes). Look!

My papa and mama! I love the both of you!

Got back like 2am that night... So that was it... How I spent my birthday weekend. On Sunday, it was back to work. Had to study for my upcoming exam and complete my homework.

Also, my roommate got me a watch for my birthday. It was pretty cool of him.

And today, I got mail from my Sister. She sent me a card together with a soft toy, a bunny! So sweet of my Jie Jie. I love you so much too!

Lastly, wanna say thanks to all who wished me on my birthday! All of you made me feel very special! Love you all too!

The Smile on Her Face... Priceless...

2008-04-09T21:27:00.000-04:00

My one year anniversary with my beloved Yiling is coming really soon...

Since it's my first year anniversary and we're a thousand miles apart. I'd to think of something to celebrate this occasion. So, I thought of getting something special and meaningful for my dearest. I have always known that Yiling loves snow globes/water globes ever since I was friends with her. So, I'd been searching for some since a couple of months ago. Finally I managed to come across a website which has exactly what i needed. Snow globes with custom engraving. The result...

It's a pretty big snow globe which also includes a musical box in it. It plays the tune "Love me tender" and the heart and key rotates when the dial for the music is twisted. At the bottom of the heart and key has a platform surrounded by "I love you always," "je t'aime", "Forever" and "Together". And of course, at the front I customized it accordingly. I really like the design of this water globe. I think it suits this occasion very much.

So, I got this prepared since a couple of months ago and finally posted it on April 1st and it arrived in the arms of Yiling yesterday, April 9th. Pretty efficient shipping I would say.

As the title of this entry goes...

The Smile on Her Face... Priceless!

I yiling.L

p.s. I have to start planning for next year... oh wait... I have to start planning for Yiling's birthday first. It's sad not to be able to celebrate such occasions when you're so many miles apart from your partner. It only makes the heart grow fonder...

The wonders of a really fast camera... Hilarious!

2008-04-06T19:06:00.000-04:00

End of Spring Break...

2008-03-16T18:08:00.001-04:00

This break has passed by so fast... It was pretty much just eat, play, sleep and badminton everyday. But the most enjoyable part was eating and cooking this break, badminton too... It's sure good to exercise.

This has been pretty much my hang out place for this break...

Notice the 2 photos at the side of the room? My seniors really like my photos, so I developed 8x10's for them to put up.

Here's what the guys here enjoy a lot...

A 32" LCD TV hooked up with a PS3 via HDMI video connection. Blue-Ray movies played on this pair is really awesome. When watching Spiderman 3, the details that you could see were absolutely unbelievable. Tobey Maguire isn't that best looking guy around, but after watching him in Blue-Ray, that statement holds beyond true. We also got a copy of Blue-Ray Pirates of The Caribbean 3, which didn't disappoint us either. Missing in this photo is another console. Just this morning, my senior bought a Nintendo Wii. Walmart didn't have stock for weeks until today. We only had the sports games that came with the set and it was sure fun. It's really cool how interactive the games are on the Wii. My fav are bowling and tennis. On Thursday night, I prepared bak kut teh. It was simple, just follow the instructions on the spice packet. The brand used was A1 from Malaysia.

Here's what we had...

Black mushrooms and golden mushrooms

On Friday afternoon...

It has been awhile since i cooked pasta so, on Friday I made pasta. It's my famous basil seafood pasta.

Till now I have never shared this recipe with anyone as the recipe had been handed down from my mom.

So, all I can do is show you how it looks like...

I also made garlic bread and baked cod fish with garlic butter and herbs.

I did use some of the juice that came from the baked fish into my pasta. That help make the pasta more flavorful. Another important ingredient was white wine. My senior had a bottle of white wine at home and he let me use it for the pasta. My friends loved the pasta very much. They believe it's one of the best pasta that they had ever tasted cause it was very different from the ones which is common in restaurants like alfredo, carbonara, bolognese and aglio olio. It feels good to cook a good meal for people who enjoys food just like me.

For dinner, we went over to another senior's house for homemade pan mee. It was good too. For dessert, my senior and I prepared this...

It was inspired by our most favorite dessert at Applebee's diner, the Triple Meltdown. It's just a moist chocolate cake drizzled with chocolate syrup served hot with vanilla ice cream. It's superb I tell you. Hot and cold at the same time... Mmmmm.... YUMMY!

We successfully recreated this dessert using Pillsbury's Moist Supreme cake mix.

and cheap Vanilla Ice cream. We also used Nestle Nesquik Chocolate Syrup to drizzle over it. Did I mention the mix we used was Dark Chocolate? It's my favorite chocolate. This cake mix was really moist and the instructions were simple. All we needed were the mix, eggs, water and oil.

To be continued...

Chinese Styled Pop Corn Chicken?

2008-03-12T19:20:00.001-04:00

So, just a couple of hours ago me and my friends was thinking of what to eat for dinner. I really wanted to cook, so I tried to think of something I haven't tried cooking before. So, this dish inspired by one of my fav dish from my mom, Chinese Styled Chicken Chop. Here's a old photo of it when I had it back in Malaysia.

And here's my dish... Chinese Styled Pop Corn Chicken (well, they're actually just slices bite size chicken thigh)

A very simple dish to make...

Ingredients:

1. Chicken Thigh fillets
2. Soy sauce
3. Pepper
4. Egg
5. Flour

THAT'S IT!!

Preparation:

1. Slice chicken thigh fillet into bite size pieces.
2. Put them in a bowl marinate it with soy sauce and pepper. There are no proportion to it, but the pepper taste does have to be a lil strong cause it gives the meat a really good flavor.

As again, most of you all know I always cook without fixed amount ingredients. I
put in whatever amount I think is just right to achieve the taste that I want.

Tip: For this dish, you need to try and fry a piece of two to taste whether the meat is well marinated.

3. You do not need to marinate the meat for a few hours. It's ready to cook as long it has been well mixed.

4. Next, scramble the egg to make the coating for the chicken. I used multipurpose flour for the coat.

5. Take pieces of the meat, coat it with a thin layer of egg followed by a good coating of flour.

Tip: The reason I never mix the egg and flour into a batter because this method produces a crispier coating for the meat.

6. Fry the coated meat with medium high heat. And wait till it turns golden brown.

7. Put it on a plate with kitchen towels to absorb the excess oil from the meat.

Tip: Make sure the oil is well heated before frying, otherwise you will either get an overcooked meat which is not golden brown for a very long time or a uncooked meat which is close to being burnt very fast.

8. SERVE!

Extra: Serve it with Thai styled sweet chilli sauce.

It'll be good if you can serve it with slices of cucumber or salad greens like fresh lettuce/cabbage.

ENJOY!

"Taste as I taste"

Northern Lights aka Aurora Borealis in Houghton, MI!

2008-03-11T07:55:00.001-04:00

On the same night we were celebrating Malaysia's new beginning... we were also lucky to have witnessed a very phenomenal event the Northern Lights. It's a really rare sighting in Houghton, MI. Noone has seen it in years. Maybe Malaysia having a better government (hopefully) made an impact to this phenomenon. (yeah, I know that's bull crap )

Here are the shots I got... Do click on them for LARGER size.

It was a very wonderful phenomenon, the pattern of the aurora changes every moment. And sometimes when it has an intense glow to it, i got goosebumps. It was a great feeling to witness such an occasion.

Most of the shots were taken from 2-3am and it was freezing cold that night. -20 Celsius. But i'd do anything for photography.

Hope all of you would be able to enjoy these shots and...

"see as I see"

Curry Noodles for Lunch! and Druncken Salted Chicken for Dinner! ~faints~

2008-03-11T07:36:00.001-04:00

Once again, my senior Ee Lim didn't disappoint us. He made Curry Noodles for lunch on Sunday. He served it with pasta noodles. Everything was fine but the soup was a lil diluted.

Look at those big succulent prawns!

For dinner, I prepared drunken chicken. It had actually been prepared since Saturday night. The chicken has to be marinated overnight.

For this dish, I used chicken wings and drumsticks.

This is a very simple dish to prepare. First, massage the chicken with salt and let it sit in the fridge for 4 hours.

Next, just steam the chicken for about 15mins until the chicken is cooked just right.

To prepare the marination. All you need is the stock from the steam chicken and about 2 cups of chinese cooking wine, Shao Xing wine. The wine I used wasn't the sweet type, so I put about 2 teaspoons of sugar as well in addition to another 2 tbsp of salt (yeah I know, a lot of salt, but this dish is meant to be salty). Make sure most of the chicken is soaked in the marination and leave it soaked overnight in the fridge.

To serve the dish, heat up the chicken over the stove. Remove the chicken once it starts boiling. Serve the sauce separately. The sauce goes well over the chicken and on rice.

Being the first time making this dish, I'd say it was not bad. The only thing most of my friends agreed was if it had a lil more wine taste it'd been better. I think so too, it would have been even tastier if I had some XO/brandy. Also missing were slices of ginger for the marination and also spring onion/cilantro (chinese celery) when serving. We were out of all those.

Drunken Salted Chicken by Me

Other dishes of the night...

Mongolian Stir Fried Beef by Pou Chong and Me

and stir fried vegetable with sausages by Shu Wei

And again we finish off the night with movies and PS3.
(I am loving that 32" LCD with PS3!)

Enjoy!~

Updates... Break has just begun...

2008-03-11T07:14:00.001-04:00

Spring break started on Friday. My friends and I were looking out for the election results. Thanks to Malaysiakini, we were well informed with short news updates. Almost all of us were in support of a new government which will make a change. And thankfully, the election results has spoken for itself, it was the beginning of something new... "time to change".

Which is why... we feasted on Saturday night.(we were also celebrating the beginning of the break )

LOOK!

First up... Smelt Fish deep fried with batter by Pete Vang

It was served with... A special sauce mainly made from chili, cilantro and fish sauce.

Next dish... Pork cooked in beer sauce by Shu Wei

The main dish... Korean Bimbimbab by Ee Lim

The simple ingredients used to make this tasty meal were...

Rice

Shredded cucumber

Bean Sprouts (big)

Minced Beef

and finally, Korean bimbimbab sauce.

To serve this meal, just grab some rice, shredded cucumber, bean sprouts, minced beef, bimbimbap sauce and a lil sesame oil. Mix them all together, you have a great tasting Korean meal. The bimbimbap sauce is a kind of sweet sauce that tastes like something similar to a dish known as "achar" It's a lil spicy too.

To top it all off...
We had Peanut and lotus soup by ME

We stayed up all night playing PS3 and watching movies.

Cheers!

My first winning photograph!

2008-03-04T12:49:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, there hasn't been much happenings with me besides exams last week and hanging out with my usual friends on weekends. Exams went well, and routinely, on Fridays, I will go for badminton in the evening, then go over to a senior's place to cook dinner and then watch a movie during dinner followed by PS3 + 32" LCD TV.

On other news...

Finally, one of my photographs had been chosen as first prize at my uni's Memorial Union Tech Arts Festival 2008. It was chosen out of over 75 photos. The judge was the university's photographer. I submited two photographs for the color photography category.

This one - Yellow Cab in Chicago

and this... City of Chicago at Night...(cont.)

....was the winning shot...

I am getting US$80 for this shot. I am pretty proud and happy as this is my first "paid" photography. Hope I'll be able to enter and win more contests with my photos.

Anyone looking for a photographer for portraits? I'd like to venture into that field of photography. As most of you have seen, most of my photos are landscapes and abstract objects.

Do check out my selected photos @ flickr
Cheers!

Wishing All a Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year!

2008-02-05T12:35:00.000-05:00

Chinese New Year Glitter Graphics

Proton BLM - SAGA Replacement

2008-01-30T17:19:00.000-05:00

Read more about Proton's new car here. Some local ads for the new car here.

And for tons of photos here.

Watch their official advertisement here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXoCuTBh4RI&feature=related

And a TV3 reporting on this new car launch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82f8O2u-lRo&feature=related

MTU Closed - 30 January 2008

2008-01-30T02:56:00.000-05:00

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE...CORRECTED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MARQUETTE MI
508 AM EST WED JAN 30 2008

...WINTER STORM AND ARCTIC AIR TO IMPACT UPPER MICHIGAN INTO
TONIGHT...

.STRONG NORTHWEST WINDS GUSTING AS HIGH AS 60 MPH THIS MORNING IN
THE WAKE OF RAPIDLY DEEPENING LOW PRESSURE MOVING INTO SOUTHEAST
CANADA WILL CONTINUE TO DRIVE DANGEROUSLY COLD ARCTIC AIR INTO THE
UPPER GREAT LAKES TODAY. ALTHOUGH ANY LINGERING SNOW ASSOCIATED
WITH THE LOW WILL DIMINISH EARLY THIS MORNING...EXPECT LAKE EFFECT
SNOW SHOWERS TO PERSIST IN THE SNOW BELTS FAVORED BY WEST TO
NORTHWEST WINDS WELL INTO TONIGHT. THE COMBINATION OF THE FALLING
SNOW AND THE BLOWING SNOW WHIPPED UP BY THE STRONG WINDS WILL
CAUSE LIFE THREATENING BLIZZARD CONDITIONS OVER THE KEWEENAW
PENINSULA AND NEAR LAKE SUPERIOR EAST OF MARQUETTE INTO THE
AFTERNOON. EVEN AWAY FROM THESE AREAS...EXPECT BLOWING SNOW INTO
THE AFTERNOON TO CAUSE REDUCED VISIBILITY IN OPEN AREAS. PLAN ON
WIND CHILLS AS LOW AS 35 TO 45 BELOW ZERO THIS MORNING AWAY FROM
THE MODERATING INFLUENCE OF LAKE SUPERIOR. THE HARSH WINTER
WEATHER CONDITIONS WILL BEGIN TO EASE THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT
AS THE LOW MOVES FARTHER NORTHEAST AND HIGH PRESSURE APPROACHES
FROM THE PLAINS.

http://www.accuweather.com/watches-warnings.asp?partner=forecastfox&zipcode=49931&county=MIc061&zone=MIz003&metric=1

This is the first time I am experiencing this in MTU. The school closes when there is very bad weather like winter storm or blizzard. Donno to be happy or not. Cause will be held back in class. But everyone is facing the same problem.

First Broomball Match I.H.O.P. vs. "No Balance"

2008-01-22T17:36:00.000-05:00

This spring semester I am playing as goalie for one my International House broomball teams. There are 2 teams in I-House. My team's name is I.H.O.P, in full "International House Of People".

For those who haven't heard of broomball ever, let me make it simple to you.

It's just like a Ice Hockey game EXCEPT, you make your own broomball stick out of a broom and lotsa duct tape, you use a plastic ball, 5 on 5 and played on a slippery ice hockey rink OUTDOORS in the case of MTU. Broomball in MTU is only played during winter.

More info can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broomball

The rink

The broomball stick (mine)

The ball (made from rubber)

Here are some shots as goalie...

Saved a goal shot between my legs.

The final score was 1-3. So, we lost. But I was "man of the match" cause I saved the most goals in the match (>10).

And now my thigh hurts cause one save of mine, I had to dive, and I somehow dived on the ball and on impact my thigh slammed onto the ball against the ground. On another save, I dived forward and I slammed onto the ball against my stomach. During that moment, my stomach kinda hurt. But it's alright now.

There was another situation where I was trying to grabbed the ball, another player slammed his stick onto my fingers. Luckily my glove give me some form of protection.

I really have to get more protection despite all these....

Shin guards, knee guards, elbow guards

I probably need something like this for my thighs...

On other news, do look out for more posts from me as Winter Carnival is approaching. MTU has lotsa activities to keep us company during the cold, grey and lazy winter.

One thing that I am looking forward to are the Snow Statues. There are 2 categories, all nighter and month long.
Here is the result of one month long of building with snow.

This was done last year by one of the Fraternities. Their theme was "Hanging Garden of Babylon". The main carnival theme was "Ancient Worlds Come to Play in Snowy Drifts of Modern Day"

Check out more photos from last year's Winter Carnival photos here
http://www.mtu.edu/carnival/2007/2007/statue/completedOne/
http://www.mtu.edu/carnival/2007/2007/statue/completedTwo/

This year's theme is Frightful Creatures with Chilling Features. I wonder what "creatures" am I gonna meet.

Stay tuned...

FIDANI - Finest Chocolate Creations - Hell yeah!!

2008-01-14T18:23:00.000-05:00

Click on the above photos to go to my
FIDANI - Finest Chocolate Creations Showcase

Something from a loved one...

2008-01-13T12:10:00.000-05:00

I just got back from staying off campus, went to grab my mail today... And I received my first parcel from Malaysia!

From my one and only sweetheart... Yiling!

Not cheap to send something from Malaysia to US... (vice versa)

A big big surprise from my beloved Yiling!!! She sent me my favourite chocolates! I can't believe it. She told me last time that it's impossible to send chocolates to US. But but but.... she did not only send one box, but two boxes of chocolate! Gosh, she's full of surprises!

But of all the things, this is my most favourite gift!
She made a scrapbook page about us! The messages on it are so beautiful!

I love you so much Yiling!

THANKS DEAR!

A simple Pasta Meal - Grilled Sausages with Sun Dried Tomato and Celery Cream Sauce

2008-01-08T10:53:00.000-05:00

Felt like having pasta again for lunch today.... So.... I made Grilled Sausages with Sun Dried Tomato and Celery Cream Sauce. Might sound fancy, but it's just a simple meal made from Campbell's 98% Fat Free Cream of Celery, Sun dried tomatoes and sausages of your choice.

So, as usual, cook the pasta till it's just right. Then I grilled 2 sausages over a pan in low-medium heat till it cooks. Once done, slice the sausages into thick slices. At the same time, with another pot, stir in a can of the campbells and 3/4 can of water. Cook it over low heat. Next, cut the sun dried tomatoes into small strips and soak it in hot water. To make things faster, I put the tomatoes and water into a bowl and microwave it for 3 minutes. The tomatoes will be soft, drain the water and add them to the sauce. I added some italian herbs and black pepper to the sauce. Next, add the sliced sausages and bring the sauce to boil. Finally, toss in the spaghetti and mix it with sauce. It's now ready to be served.

Voila... Another tasty pasta meal!

Here are some of the ingredients I used.

Cut the sun dried tomatoes into small strips.

I used pork sausages with cheddar cheese inside.

ENJOY!

Roti Telur Bawang with Fish Curry and Sambal

2008-01-06T08:50:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I had leftover curry. So for brunch today, I had roti telur bawang!

I bought frozen roti bawang from Jim's Foodmart. You can get some asian products from this grocery shop. I think I have seen this brand being sold in Malaysian supermarkets as well.

It's made in Malaysia, but don't know why they call it Paratha instead of Roti Canai but I think Paratha is the original Indian name. Singaporeans call theirs "roti prata".

Wiki on Paratha, Roti Canai, and Roti Prata

For once I am happy/proud to see that sign on something.

So, all you need to do is take out the dough straight from the freezer and place it over a medium heat pan. No oil is needed. Pan fry it until it's golden brown and when dough is puffy.

Once one side is ready, flip it over, cook it for some time and right before it starts browning, remove the roti canai, pour one scrambled egg onto the pan, let the egg cook partially and then put the roti canai back onto the pan. This will allow the egg to stick with the roti canai. The result...

I know, the original one has egg in the inside of the roti canai. But I don't know how to make roti canai dough, so this is the closest I can get to Roti Telur Bawang.

I served it with the left over fish curry and sambal from last night. I always eat my roti canai with fish curry, seldom chicken curry or dahl.

I

also made a cup of hot chocolate to substitute with milo for this mouth watering meal!

The frozen roti canai really does taste authentic like the fresh one from Malaysia. The egg made the roti canai so much more fragrant. Although it is frozen "roti bawang", you can't taste much of the onion in my opinion. When it is in it's uncooked form you can see some tiny bits of spring onions.

Another satisfying Malaysian meal!

My first NASI LEMAK in Houghton!

2008-01-05T18:25:00.000-05:00

I miss my nasi lemak very much, so I was determined to make Nasi Lemak during this holidays! I even bought "ikan bilis" when I was in Chicago's Chinatown. Can't find it here. Invited a few friends over for dinner.

I started cooking at 4.30pm and ended at 8.05pm.

Tonight, I prepared Nasi Lemak (Kenny washed and prepared the rice, I only added coconut milk and salt to it), Chicken Curry with Potatoes (senior prepared the chicken and potatoes, I cooked), Fish Curry (all by myself), Ikan Bilis (by me), Hard boiled egg (Kenny) and Sambal.

For the rice, it was pretty simple, just rice, water, coconut milk and salt. The one major ingredient we missed out for the rice was pandan leaves. Can't find it here.

Next, I washed some ikan bilis and then dried it up with a kitchen towel. I let it air in the room to let it dry even more. Next, I deep fried the ikan bilis in heated oil and waited till it became golden brown. I am proud that it was just right, crispy the way I like it without burning! No photo here, but later you will see some ikan bilis in the overall photo of tonight's meal.

Now for the curry...

I used some kinda curry paste which I got from another senior of mine. There was chicken curry and fish curry paste. The stuff I put in for the Chicken Curry was of course, chicken, onions, potatoes, more curry powder, garam masala, salt, sugar, star anise, cinnamon sticks, fresh lemon grass sticks and last but not least, coconut milk.

Yeap... There was a lot of Curry. You can barely see the potatoes or chicken.

Next up, Fish Curry

For the fish curry, I used one Tilapia Fish, 2 slices of "ma yao" fish, onions, egg plant, tomatoes, garam masala, cinnamon sticks, star anise, lemon grass sticks, salt, sugar, water, coconut milk. The fish curry paste was extra spicy, so I didn't add curry powder. The fish was bought frozen from a international grocery shop knows as 'World Foods' here.

I first pan fried the fish to reduce the "fishy" smell and also to speed up the cooking process for the curry. Before frying the fish, I dried them and coated them with a thin layer of flour.

The final product...

The hardest part for cooking the fish curry was cutting up the fish. I bought it frozen and it hasn't been cut. I thawed the fish but it was hard to cut through the bones even with a meat knife. Maybe the knife wasn't sharp enough.

Next for the sambal

I blended dry chilli (first soaked till soft in hot water), one tomato, garlic, onions, salt and sugar. Missing here is belacan and tamarind juice. Once they were well mixed and fine, I fried it over some oil. Fry for some time untill the sambal starts drying up.

As you can see from the above photo, I was a lil too generous with the dry chilli and ended up with a really super duper spicy sambal.

The one scary part when cooking the sambal is that when it boils it starts splattering everywhere. I had to wear an apron to protect my t-shirt.

Another friend of ours stir fried some vegetables to neutralize this meal.

Voila... One Spicy Malaysian Dinner...

See the ikan bilis on the small plate(left). Hidden behind was the sliced hard boiled eggs.

This is me when I was cooking the Chicken Curry

The Chicken and Fish Curry.

Overall, it was a satisfying meal. Would have been better if I had all the necessary ingredients but it was definitely better thann nothing. Got thumbs up from my guests, so I feel happy too!

P.S. I bought fresh curry leaves to cook the curry, but guess what? I forgotten to put them in!

New PASTA recipe!

2008-01-03T16:02:00.000-05:00

I had to prepare my own dinner tonight as Kenny was out for a party. I felt like eating pasta today so, I went out to a grocery shop to pick up some ingredients for my dinner. I don't think I told you guys that the house that I am living now is right next to "Jim's Foodmart" which is a medium sized grocery shop. So, shopping for ingredients was just a 1 minute walk away.

When I was in Malaysia I really loved pasta but over here I was sick of it cause they serve it daily in the dining halls. But right now it's break, so I haven't been eating pasta for some time.
Today, I made up a new dish. It was inspired by Seed Cafe's Anchovy Pasta(forgotten it's real name". I never knew what they actually put in their pasta but for sure I know there are sun dried tomatoes, dry chilli, oyster mushroom and anchovies.

Their sauce is the dry type, not really tomato based I think. Lotsa olive oil and it was pretty spicy.

So, here goes... My newly created pasta dish.
Shrimp and Mushroom with Anchovy Sauce Spaghetti (serving size: 2)

Ingredients:

- 1 small (7oz) pack of pasta - This sauce is best eaten with Spaghetti
- 1 small can of tomato sauce (not ketchup!)
- 1 small (1.6oz) tube of anchovy paste
- 1 cup of water used for cooking pasta (after the pasta had been cooked)
- 2 Cups of Sliced fresh white button mushrooms
- 2 Cups of small sized shrimps (i used a small pack of frozen cooked shrimp - commonly found in USA)
- 4-5 pieces of roasted bell peppers
- 1 tablespoon of sun dried tomatoes cut into strips
- 1 tablespoon of minced garlic
- 2 tablespoon of White wine - I didn't have this so, I used chinese cooking wine
- Italian herbs (basil, parsely, chives, etc)_ - I bought a small bottle of dried italian seasoning which had all in it)
- Salt to taste

A few of the ingredients I used.

Steps:

1. Cook the pasta until it cooks. Try and take it out just before it starts become soft completely. This is because while you cook the pasta with the sauce later on, thew pasta will soften more. Drain the pasta and run it under cold water, this will wash away the starch and also make the pasta more "bouncy/springy".

2. Now for the sauce. First, sauté the minced garlic in some heated oil. Once it is fragrant, throw in the mushrooms and stir fry it. Sprinkle some salt and sugar to it. Control the amount of salt as the anchovy paste used later will be salty too.

3. Next throw in the tomato sauce, sliced sun dried tomatoes, roasted bell peppers and the "pasta water". Try to simmer for about 10-15mins at low-medium heat to ensure that all the flavors from the sun dried tomatoes get into the sauce.

4. Next, squeeze in the whole tube of anchovy paste into the sauce. You can control the amount of anchovy paste to use as it may be to "fishy" for some people. Once the sauce starts thickening, throw in the shrimps. make sure you constantly stir the sauce to ensure the sauce wont burn and also to make sure the ingredients are well blended together.

5. Finally put in the pasta into the sauce and stir fry them together. To finish it off, put in the wine. Once the sauce has covered every strand of the spaghetti, it is now ready to serve.

Voilà!

Serve it with a glass of cold beverage or wine if you can! I had mine with lemonade.

YUMMY!

and for dessert... I had Dairy Queen's Oreo Ice Cream Cake

ahhhh.... What a satisfying dinner!

Hope you enjoy my new recipe!

P.S. If you like spicy, add some dry chilli at the beginning when sautéing the garlic. I didn't feel like eating spicy today, so I skipped it.

New Years Eve 2007

2008-01-02T16:34:00.000-05:00

I went to Chicago for my 2nd time to celebrate New Years. It was a 3D2N trip.

I went there with Kenny,Gloria, Tang Wei and her BF.

My senior drove 8 hours from Houghton, MI > Iron Mountain, MI > Milwaukee, WI > Chicago, IL. The journey wasn't too bad. But weather was not the best when we were at Wisconsin. On our way back, weather was quite bad at the last 2 hours.

We stayed in Hilton Garden Inn near the Midway international airport. The room was reasonably price because Gloria bid the hotel on priceline.com. It's like a ebay for travelling in US. We had a room with double beds. It was a pretty spacious room. Sorry, this time I forgotten to take photo of the room.

We reached about 3pm in the afternoon. We rested and headed to Chinatown for dinner. We went to a restaurant called PENANG and yeah, it's a Malaysian restaurant. I went there cause a bunch of my Malaysian friends were there. Kai Jie, Chin Cheun, Jonathan Lam, Yu Tzer, Michelle, Caroline, Lynda and Rachel were in Chicago too. They were there for 8 days.

The photo looks a lil weird cause my camera lens had some distortions. In layman's term "fish eye" effect.

Kai Jie and Me. To those who don't know, Kai Jie's my neighbor. He lives on the same street as me in Malaysia.

Now, time for the food that I had in PENANG.

Fish Curry ~$12.00

Chicken Rendang $10.00

Stir Fried Petai with Belacan $8.00

Cendol $3.00

All the food had its Malaysian taste, but of course, it's nothing compared to my Mom's cooking. The cendol deserves some praise though, cause the green cendol, I think it's homemade, it's not super smooth like the one you find in Malaysia, but the pandan taste in it was pretty strong. The most fragrant cendol I ever had was in Malacca.

After dinner, I parted from my friends and went to Museum Campus drive to take some photos of Chicago at night.

Check out the larger photo here http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2416/2158712989_15e3372341_b.jpg

The next morning we went to Millennium Park to snap photos at the Cloud Gate or "The Big Bean"

After that, me, Kenny and Gloria went to the Adler Planetarium. To be honest, it wasn't my cup of tea. :-p

Next, we wanted to go to Shedd Aquairum, but the line was way too long.

Just look at the line!

Then we wanted to go to the Field Museum. And guess what... It closes at 2pm but we were there at 1pm! Not worth it for 1 hour. In the end, we went to Michigan Avenue to walk around.

For dinner I met up with Kai Jie and Chin Cheun for dinner at a "fancy" restaurant. The Grand Luz Cafe

Kai Jie and Chin Cheun

That's me with my Prime Top Sirloin, Sautéed Wild Mushrooms and a glass of Berry Fizz.

Prime Top Sirloin

Sautéed Wild Mushrooms

My meal was excellent, my steak was really flavorful and cooked just right. I savoured every bite of that steak. The mushrooms were just right to go along with the steak. Nothing special about the fries. Didn't finish the fries. The drink was refreshing and you can taste all the berries.

Kai Jie had to book the place in advance and we had to wait for awhile before we were seated.

You guys must be wondering now, how much did that meal cost? Well, the steak was $29, mushrooms was $5 and the drink was $6. It was pretty reasonable for a great meal and a nice setting and in Chicago!

After dinner, the three of us went around to take some photos. It was snowing pretty bad, so we head to Navy Pier to meet up with my other Malaysian friends again. The city new years eve celebration is at Navy Pier. We were done with dinner at around 9pm. Took a "Trolley" to the navy pier. Looks something like this

We lingered around the pier till the countdown.

After the countdown we had to get in line at the front of the pier to get a ride from the buses to the subway station. The line was really long, we waited almost 30mins for ours. It was pretty cold at that time of the day. When we reached the subway, it was already 1.40am. The subway line to the Midway Airport Station closes at 1.30am. I had to take a bus from another subway station to get to the Midway Airport. Waited almost an hour in the freezing cold weather at the bus station for my bus. I thought I wouldn't be able to go back cause a few buses stopped but it wasn't the one I am supposed to take. When I reached the airport it was already 3.45am. Then I had to call the free shuttle service to pick me up from the airport to bring me back to my hotel. It was almost 4am when I got back. But I am sure glad I managed to get home. Otherwise I'd to take a cab or call Kenny to pick me up. What an experience...first New Years in USA.

The next morning, went to Premium Outlets in Aurora, IL about 45mins away from Chicago to do some "branded" shopping. Bought 2 jeans from CK (it was going for 2 for $55), 2 jackets from Nautica and a pair of Oakley sunglasses. My first Oakleys.

I got the Gascan with Polarized lens

Happy New Year!

Black Bean Pork Ribs, Grilled Teriyaki Baby Octopus and Stir Fried Vege

2007-12-27T18:31:00.000-05:00

Calvin's Black Bean Pork Ribs - My Specialty

I developed this recipe in Houghton, MI. I first cooked it for Shu Wei and Kate, later on to many other Malaysians.

This dish takes about 1h30m to prepare. Basic ingredients include:
1. Pork Ribs
2. Minced Garlic
3. "Shao Xing" chinese cooking wine
4.Mushroom soy sauce
5. Soy sauce
6. Oyster Sauce
7. Sesame oil
8. Diced onions and Sliced green peppers
9. Star Anise and dry chilli
10. Sugar, Salt, pepper
11. Water

Instructions:
1. First heat the oil until it is hot enough, then throw in a few cloves of star anise and a few pieces of dried chilli.
2. Fragrant them at low-medium fire to ensure it doesn't burn.
3. Next, throw in some garlic, wait till you can smell the garlic aroma and then throw in the ribs.
4. When the meat is half cooked, you can start putting in the ingredients for the sauce
No fixed amount for each ingredient for the sauce. You will need some water for the sauce too.
I just adjust the ingredients until it tastes right to me, which makes it my special dish.
5. After about 45mins, throw in the onions and green peppers.
6. Simmer it for another 45mins constantly stirring and adjusting the heat from low-medium to medium and the last 10minutes, High. Cooking this long is to dry up the sauce and ensure that the sauce is absorbed thoroughly into the meat. It will also make the meat tender too. The longer you cook the ribs, the easier the meat comes off when you eat it.

It takes long to cook and you will have to keep on stirring, else it will burn. You need to keep on stirring at low-medium heat.

Once ready, serve it and top it off with some spring onions.

Grilled Teriyaki Baby Octopus

All you need to do to prepare this dish is marinate the Squid/baby octopus with
1. Teriyaki Sauce
2. Sesame oil
3. Sugar
4. Oil
for 4 hours and pan grill it till it cooks.
Baby octopus does not take too long to cook.

Stir Fried Broccoli and Cauliflower with minced pork

This one is simple.
Broccoli, Cauliflower, minced pork, sugar, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sale and pepper to taste.

P.S. I have never cooked rice in the USA and the reason, I don't know. I never cook in my dorm, and usually my senior will cook the rice. But my senior Kenny has taught me.

Enjoy...

360 Project - Check it out

2007-12-27T12:09:00.000-05:00

Something new that I learnt.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-26T01:15:00.000-05:00

~MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!~

Press play!

Last night we had chinese hot pot dinner for Christmas Eve. Funny huh?

It was spicy!!! and Yummy!! too! It's prepared by Kenny's other two housemates, Tang Wei and Gloria(picture Below).

Other Chinese guests

Here's my senior, Kenny. He is currently a graduate student in ME department specializing in Manufacturing.

After dinner, around 10.30pm, we opened out presents cause one of the girl had to leave earlier cause she had a flight at 7am the next morning.

Look at what I got...

Yeap.... huge TIGER sandals. You put your feet into the mouth. It's pretty warm. It's from one of my senior's friends. I got my senior a Motorola Bluetooth headset.

It was a pretty good first Christmas in Houghton, MI. Gonna go to Chicago for new years.

I am currently staying at my senior's place for the winter break. This is because if you are going to stay in the dorms, you will be charged more. So, right now, I am staying in my senior's room. I am sleeping on a sofa bed. But, I am too lazy to open it up into a bed cause as you can see, there is lack of space in the room.

For a 360 view of the room go to http://calvinsc.googlepages.com/KennysRoom.mov
You will need a quicktime plugin in your browser to work. Should work for most cases.

For more Christmas Eve photos, go to http://calvinsc.multiply.com/photos/album/58/Christmas_Eve_2007

Happy Holidays from ME!!

First Time Skiing at Mt. Ripley - AWESOME!

2007-12-20T22:01:00.000-05:00

Today I went Skiing up Mt. Ripley with a bunch of friends from MTU (chinese + malaysians). Mt. Ripley is operated in conjunction with MTU. So MTU students get better rates for their season pass. Ok, it costs $35(only if you have 8 or more) to ski from 3pm till 9pm. Equipment included. Usually it costs $30 just for entry + $17 for rentals.We went there around 5.30pm and we skied all the way till 8.45p.m. I chose skiing rather than snowboard cause it was the easier ski sport to learn. And I must agree. After a few lessons from my friend, Peter, I learned how to stop and control my movement. But before I could learn to stop, I definitely had to fall many times. But it took me about like almost an hour to finally get it right. Next, I learnt how to get up the hill using the easier method, which is the T-Bar. It was hard hold on to the T-Bar at the beginning, as I have never done it. Then another senior, Aik How, taught me the right way to ride the T-Bar. As you can see, it's a wooden T-Bar where you can sit or lean against it and when it moves it drags you along. I fell off the T-Bar a few times. There was once when the T-Bar struck my arm. So, I got a lil bruise on my right arm. Every time someone falls off the T-Bar, they will stop it and resume it when you're back up. There are 3 control stations along the way, Bottom - Midway(beginner trail)-Top(intermediate trail)

T-Bar

So, after learning all the basics, I was pretty much on my own already. I started off at the beginner trail which is the green line. I was going down hill, taking the T-Bar up and going downhill again. Was going through that routine for some time until I felt I really had a hang of skiing. Crazily enough, I thought of going up to the intermediate trail (orange line on map). And I did! I was like 50-50 whether I should do it, since it was my first time skiing and the way to go up is super steep. Finally, I decided I will give it a try cause Peter was going to follow me. Peter was really experienced. He's like no fear at all. So, I held on to the T-Bar from the bottom of the ski hill, all the way up,pass the beginner trail (green line on map) and finally up the steep hill, it was fine at the beginning... I held it up 1/2 way the Intermediate steep hill, and I really lost control, and I fell off the T-Bar and I held it with my arms, I was dragged on the snow by the T-Bar until the point which I let go cause my arms were aching. Then they stop the T-Bar. I was trying to get onto the T-Bar again, but it was really hard, cause the hill was really steep and when I stand up, I'd probably ski backwards into god-knows-where. So, I was on the snow, trying to get back on my skis to grab the next T-Bar. Ok, this time I got it, but I couldn't sit on it right, and i was once again, I fell and held the bar with my hand until my arms gave up again. This time one of my ski came off and it slide away from me. I wanted to retrieve it, but I was wearing the ski boots, and it was really difficult to walk. Did I tell you the boots are really uncomfortable? It's really stiff and it is 90 degrees all the time, so you can hardly get any flexibility out of it. I was supposed to reach the top soon, but suddenly the T-Bar stalled for a long time. Maybe because of me... So, now I had to walk all the way up with those freaking tight boots. It was a really tiring hike up that hill. Again, I stress, it was really steep. Finally when I reached, I told the T-Bar operator that one of my ski came off a distance away from the station. He immediately went down the hill with no fear (well,maybe it's easier cause he was wearing shoes) and went to retrieve my ski and hike all the way up again. I thanked him and he was cool about it.

The story doesn't end there, in fact it was just about to start. When I was up at the top, I was telling myself, WHY ON EARTH DID I WANT TO COME UP HERE? OMG it was really scary, the trail was really steep. My heart started pumping faster and faster. Lucky for me, my friend Peter was really supportive, he kept on saying "dude, this is it man, YOU CAN DO IT!, there's no turning back" I was like... "OMG OMG, can't believe I am doing this!" So, I took a deep breath and said, "let's do it".

We started off a small and slightly steep hill, I went down that one, and took a stop at the level area (refer to map, a green dot that says " That first part made some adrenaline running in me. I didn't dare to go all the way down in one go. Then, again... I was like really scared... This time the hill is really steep and it's a long way down.

Now I tell myself, you got to do this, there is no turning back. So, I positioned myself, got ready... and (prayed to God to not let me die) and right after that...

OMG! IT WAS SO FAST and SCARY. I had an adrenaline rush!!

In my mind, I was concentrating really hard to stay steady and not fall, cause it you roll down that hill, it wont be pretty. I was like going about 30-40km/h And I am proud to say, I stayed in control all the way down the hill but I couldn't stop in time, it was too fast and I "crash landed". But it was one hell of an experience. I wanted to go up a second time, but I was too tired or perhaps, too scared/freaked out/excited/ to go up there and almost kill myself again. So, I went back to the beginner trail and skied till 8.45p.m.

We went for dinner right after that. We were pretty hungry.

One for the album!

Group Photo

It was a really great first experience on skiing. I am really glad it was easy to ski and I really enjoy it. Gonna try and learn more skiing technique the next time I go to Mt. Ripley again.

For more photos, check out http://calvinsc.multiply.com/photos/album/57/Mt_Ripley_Ski_Trip

And below is the Mt Ripley map, you can look at the places I mentioned above in the map.

My first Krispy Kreme Experience

2007-12-06T22:00:00.000-05:00

Finally I have taste my first Krispy Kreme Doughnut.... in LAS VEGAS!

They had an outlet in Luxor Hotel in las Vegas

Luxor, Las Vegas

I am sorry I don't have photos of the doughnuts itself cause I was too eager to taste them. I had original glazed, glazed raspberry filled, glazed chocolate cake and glazed cinnamon cause it just came out straight from the oven!

Here are photos I got off the Krispy Kreme website.

And to those who have tasted Big Apple doughnuts or even J Co doughnuts back in Malaysia, once you have tasted Krispy Kreme doughnuts... you'll lust for it forever....

To officiate my Krispy Kreme experience, of course I had the original glazed first. Here's what I thought...

When you take your first bite, you will bite through the sugar glaze coating, that first bite triggers your taste bud to expect more sweetness from the doughnut. As you continue biting through it, you will be able to savor the fluffiness and lightness of the doughnut. Soon after your first bite... in a matter of seconds your doughnut will be in your tummy without even realizing. However, because it was my first, I savored every bite of it. It didn't have any trace of oiliness in the doughnut.

The other flavors were good too. I like how the raspberry jam complement the doughnut. Back in Malaysia, I always had strawberry filled at Dunkin Doughnuts. The Glazed Chocolate Cake was something new for me. It was really like a moist chocolate cake shaped into a doughnut and glazed. The texture is of course more towards a cake than a doughnut. The choc in it was pretty rich. I also tried the cinammon one since it was fresh from the oven. And it definitely did not disappoint me either, even though I am no big fan of cinnamon.

Below you will see me savouring every bite of my first Krispy Kreme.

Knowing that I wont be able to get Krispy Kreme near my place. The closest is in Marquette, MI which is about 2 hours away from me.

I visited another Krispy Kreme outlet at the Fermont Street Experience.

Pictured here, again Original Glazed, Glazed Raspberry Filled and Chocolate Iced Glazed.

Here's one I missed at the top

Krispy Kreme doughnuts is a must try in USA!

CHEERS to all Doughnut lovers!

To read about Krispy Kreme's secret recipe, go to http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/recipedetail.asp?sessionid=&login=yes&id=429&agree=yes

Current weather in MTU - Horrible

2007-12-01T18:56:00.000-05:00

The weather is really taking it's toll on me. The winter here is really bad.

Everyday I wake up, I look out the window and all I could see is snow, snow and snow!

It keeps on snowing day and night and the worse thing is when it's paired with WIND!

That's the horrible part about it. It gets as cold as -15 Celsius

I have to look like this to get to class.

Sometimes it's so hard to get to class when the wind and snow is going against you.

Here are some photos of how campus looks like

And here a picture to let you see the amount of snow we get

Btw, it's not COOL to be in such a COLD town!

Check out the videos for actual conditions

http://calvinsc.multiply.com/video/item/10

http://calvinsc.multiply.com/video/item/11

Las Vegas Trip

2007-12-01T18:45:00.000-05:00

It's been a week since my trip. I didn't have time to post up an entry because it has been busy week.

Anyway, the Vegas Trip was GREAT, with stops at Lansing, MI and Chicago, IL. A memorable first trip out of town.

The atmosphere in Vegas wasmagnificent! The buildings were majestic and the scnearies were breathtaking.

I took about 5.6GB worth of photos.

The hotels both inside and outside were really beautiful. The night scene was stunning too. Neon lights were everywhere beautifying a city which was already astonishing even in the morning.

I would love to describe every place that I went to, but there is just way too much to write. I don't really like writing a lot. So let the photos do the talking.

Look for the latest albums with Vegas labeled to it http://calvinsc.multiply.com/photos

Do check out the other photos that i took in Lansing and Chicago!

That's all for now!

The end of the RM0.01 problem!

2007-11-13T17:01:00.000-05:00

Have you ever been caught in a situation where you have to pay a sum of like maybe RM9.31, RM9.32, RM9.33, RM9.34? RM9.98 or even RM9.99? Fret no more, as of April 1, 2008, the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs has implemented a new system of rounding for over the counter transactions.

This would help prevent both merchants and consumers to have a steady supply of 1 cents for transactions. Apparently the government spends RM18billion yearly to mint 1 cent coins.

There maybe changes in the petrol pricing system as consumers may be charged at a increment of 5cents/10cents instead of the old 1 cent when pumping petrol.

I feel that this move is a good one for me as I have been stuck in situations where I was given a whole lot of 1cent coins as change at a McD joint or sometimes certain merchants who're short on 1/2 cents, they just wont bother to give me back my exact change or sometimes when I'm short of a few cents the merchant would charge me 10 cents instead. Damn too much right?

Anyhow, this is one small little effort from the government that will help make the every day life of a Malaysian living in Malaysia better (By having a slightly lighter wallet/purse).

Would this make the Malaysians happy enough to forget about the PM's response to the BERSIH protest and Malaysia's Information Minister's interview with Al Jazeera News on the BERSIH Protest?

For more reading: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/11/14/nation/19460993&sec=nation

Images credits to thestar.com.my

Cleaning time in Malaysia? BERSIH

2007-11-10T17:33:00.000-05:00

For those abroad who are not aware of what happened on the 10th November 2007. Here's what KL looked like.

Photo by jiunpic
More here http://picasaweb.google.com/pemudawp/BersihRally

The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (BERSIH) organized a mass rally to demand for electoral reforms in the country as elections are expected for the country in early 2008. They managed to successfully hand over a memorandum to HM Yang diPertuan Agong at the Royal Palace.

The rally didn't get a green light from the government as fears of riots may breakout.
Here's a scene at Masjid Jamek reported by Al-Jazeera news in English

I am no political analysts and do not have a big interest in politics but reading and watching these news about what's going on Malaysia worries me. Can't believe just leaving Malaysia about 2 months now, something this big is going on.

From one of the news reports that i read, New York-based Human Rights Watch commented that, "If Malaysia wants to count itself a democracy, it can begin by upholding constitutional guarantees of free speech and assembly. The way the system works now, only the ruling coalition can get its messages out,".

I agree on the comment above. Malaysia has long been under the ruling of one major political party. And what goes behind the government is all biased towards certain parties, groups and even individuals.

Maybe it's time to change?
Kudos to the folks at BERSIH who's trying so hard to make a change for the better of the country and its people.

For more updates of this rally, go to BERSIH's temporary website @ http://tragedibatuburok.blogspot.com/ due to congestion in internet traffic of their original site @ http://bersih.org/

More news @ Malaysia Today

Warzone

2007-11-10T16:53:00.000-05:00

Behind enemy lines

Cross at your own risk

Are you looking at me? (A lil out of focus) Sorry :(

Excuse me... :furious:

Is there something in my nose?

Ready to rumble!

Some features

Tank lid

Tank logo

Tank wheels

It was built by a bunch of Americans last night during midnight. I saw them building it on the way home from my senior's house.

I took these photos after brunch this morning.

What do you think?

Diwali Nite 2007 - Performance

2007-11-10T15:50:00.000-05:00

As I promised you, here are the photos from the performance at Rozsa Center. Unfotunately despote taking over 300 photos, most of which are unusable cause no flash photography is allowed in the auditorium. But throughout the event many people broke the rule but not ME! Which is why all my photos suck. Sorry.

By the way, Diwali is the festival of lights, which explains why many candles are lit during this celebration.

Opening performance with dancers with candles.

The dancers with the candles.

2/3 of the guy hosts. The guy in orange looks like one my friend Param. Those who know him, don't you think so?

Kids Fashion Show. The boy is so cute.

Look at what happened next
He was stepping on the girl's dress. He was quickly brought away.

Kids fashion show ending

Another dance performance. The girl in the middle is my senior's gf. Kate. She's Malaysian and a biochemical graduate student. Their dance was too fast, all my shots from this performance was all horrible. So, i'd try to post a video later. My senior, Kate's bf took videos at the show.

Band performance. The girl singer was really good. She was singing a english song in tamil, but I donno what's the title of the song. Sorry. The violinist, my friend Rei Tangko a Filipino was really good.

There was a lucky draw right before the whole event ended. The grand prize was a 3 days stay in of the local hotel's(Best Western if not mistaken) suite with jacuzzi. Sounds pretty fancy huh. Hehe.

The people who made Diwali Nite 2007 a success.

Missing pictures are the Bollywood style scene where a group of guys and a group of girls have a dance battle, a classical Indian dance by 2 Indian girls and a skit titled "Bean". "Bean" was pretty funny.

Overall the show was really good. Worth the $5 ticket. Get to see all the various Indian dances.

Diwali Nite - Food

2007-11-09T14:33:00.000-05:00

The Indian Students Association of MTU organized a Divali Nite event which includes a Indian cuisine dinner at the Wadsworth Dining Hall and a performance at the Rozsa Center. It costs $12 (RM39.79) for a ticket for the meal and performance. But students with their meal card which we use to swipe for our usual meals at the dining hall can use the meal card to enter. However we need to pay $5 (RM16.58) for the performance.

Upon entering the dining hall, the fume of Indian Spices in the air reminds me of the Malaysian mamak stall atmosphere. I was so excited and my stomach started making noises...

And here's what I've got to pamper my hungry stomach...

Here's the menu for today.

1. Mixed Vege Pakoda - Fried flour fritters with onions, potato, chickpeas, bittergourd
2. Jeera Rice - Basmati rice, thinly sliced onion, cumin seeds, cumin powder
3. Gobi Mutter - Cauliflower & Peas Masala
4. Shahi Paneer - Fresh unaged cheese with indian herb and spices
5. Mango Sambhar - Mango pickles
6. Chutney - 3 types: mint, spicy, coconut
7. Dahl - Indian Chickpea stew
8. Naan - Oven baked indian bread
10. Papadum - Indian spiced cracker

Mixed Vege Pakoda

It's cripsy and you can taste the sweetness of the vegetables surrounded with a thick coating of spiced flour.
Tasted really good with the spicy chuntey,

Gobi Mutter and Spicy Chutney

Shahi Paneer

I thought it was tofu initially then it crossed my mind, Northern indians like cheese. I am not a big fan of cheese and thus, this is not one of my fav dish.

Papadum

I had a few bowls of this stuff! I love them!! Even in Malaysia I used to buy the dry papadum and fry them myself. It's a lil on the salty side, but the spices seem to balance it out.

The sauce in all the dishes tasted great eaten with the Jeera rice. It's impossible to describe the taste in the sauces because Indian dishes uses a lot of spices. One thing's for sure... The taste is one of a kind... rich in flavors.

And here's me and my roommate. Yeap, first time meeting him in my blog huh? Surprised? He's from Herpei province in China.

I will try and post photos from the performance when I am actually there at the Rozsa Center. I am writing this right after dinner. And the performance starts at 8pm only.

Stay tuned!

Apple iPhone review

2007-11-08T10:54:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I went to my senior's place to cook dinner and also to check out my senior's new iPhone. He bought 2 from Chicago Apple Store at $422.94 ($399 +tax) each. He also knows how to unlock the iPhone. It can be used with any Sim card, even in Malaysia.

First Looks

Main interface with access to all applications.
The touchscreen is not like a pda with a soft lcd screen. The screen is one solid face just like an iPod with touch sensitive feature. The touchscreen was very responsive. A slight tap on the screen will bring up the application you select. Which is why there is a button on top of the screen to lock the iPhone when not in used. The screen will be inactive until unlocked via a virtual slider on the screen.

Safari (Apple's web browser) The screen auto rotates when you use it horizontally.

Webpage viewed vertically.

Browsing the internet was fairly easy, the interface was easy to use, just use you fingers to drag the screen around, zoom in and zoom out pages using a pinching motion on the screen. Having wifi integrated into the phone is a great feature since browsing the web through gprs/3g/edge will cost much more. Nowadays you can easily find many free public wifi access.

The only problem I had was typing using it's on screen keyboard. With it limited screen size, typing on the keyboard was a little hard for my large fingers. I kept on typing the wrong letters. But, I guess it's just a matter of getting used to the keyboard.

iPod interface

iPod interface
The iPod interface was nothing like an actual iPod. Nothing like any generations of the iPod. Which was surprising to me. The interface was pretty boring.
Look below for more iPod interface photos.

The Coverflow interface is cool though. I didn't try it on my senior's iPhone cause... i didn't know how to access it :-p

The speaker on the iPhone was really small and was very soft even at max volume. Disappointing for a music phone, but of course... it's meant to be used with earphones. The speaker was meant for ringing tones only.
Speaker on the left side and mic on the right side.

Youtube interface

Youtube integration. You can search youtube within it's integrated interface without the need to open youtube from a browser.
You can view youtube videos widescreen. Very clear and bright screen for videos.

The google map interface. It's a good feature if you wanna get around town but it's definitely not meant for driving directions. A dedicated GPS would be more appropriate.

The Camera
It has a small pin sized 2MP camera. No Autofocus and flash light. It takes acceptable photos in bright conditions. But very noisy photos in low light. The camera quality is pretty much the same as other gsm phones with a 2MP camera with no AF/flash

Check out photos taken with iPhone's camera here http://www.flickr.com/groups/takenwithiphone/pool/

The downside...

1. No 3G (for video calls)

2. No secondary camera in front for video call

3. No GPS

4. No camera flash light

5. Built-in battery

6. Does not officially support 3rd party applications

7. Supports only Apple's mp4 and h.264 video formats

8. Like any other apple product like the ipod, you have to be very careful with the iPhone as it is a scratch magnet.

So, this is the first gen iPhone. I would love to buy it, but I am pretty sure that the folks at Apple will fix some of the above mentioned cons in their upcoming 2nd gen iPhone. So, I'd probably wait for a 2nd gen one. Folks here http://svenontech.com/2007/05/30/iphone-2g-to-ship-in-december-with-3g-guts/ rumoured that a 2nd gen iphone may ship with 3G and increase in storage size in December 2007.

So, STAY TUNED! ;-)

This is just my personal review on the iPhone. you may oppose some of my thoughts about this phone.

Blogger users, you can now.....

2007-11-07T19:58:00.000-05:00

Check out my blog @ http://calvingsc.blogspot.com/