Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Public Transport

A poor student who only goes around the campus with her scooter, Jeremy and take public transports outside the campus.

RapidKL buses, LRTs, Monorail, Metrobus... name it... I'm taking them all...

The story is after I went to Nilai with my brother and his girlfriend on yesterday, I stayed with my cousin in her parents apartment in Bandar Sri Permaisuri, Cheras, KL and around 4 this evening, I took her with me and fetched her mom from her workplace - Swiss Garden Hotel, and headed to downtown nearby Pudu Station, to buy some fabrics for the bridesmaids. We bought like 22 metres of plain fabrics, just for the upper dress and decided to find different fabrics for the lower parts.

Around 7, we went to Mid Valley and my brother called me to meet up there and I bought midnight movie tickets for them... While waiting for my brother, we all went to MPH and get some books and novels. I checked out some latest releases by Francis D.K. Ching at the Architecture sections. I also found a very simple and small book on vocabulary for Urban and Regional Planning, published by bunch of KAED students of the Urban and Regional Planning Department under IIUM. Simple yet very meaningful.

After that, we had some snacks at Secret Recipe and around 8.45, my Aunt and cousin took their leave. As my brother arrived a little before that, we decided to go around the mall, trying to get some ideas what we want to buy for the engagement presents.

I accompanied them both to the Food Junction and had some western foods. I took my leave around 10 as i don't want to miss my curfew. I was at the station exactly at 10.05 and I looked at electronic board. The next train to KL Sentral was scheduled at 10.30. I pulled out my iPod Classic, the only option I got as both my iPhone and iPad already went off batteries since this morning. Tuned to a K-Pop playlist - K-Party!

Of course, I waited till 10.30 but there was no sign of the train. The board went on blinking for few seconds. the time changed to 10.40 p.m. Fine. I waited some more. After 10 minutes, there was still no sign of the train.

Again, the board went on blinking and the time changed again to 10.50 p.m. What!?@!

Thank God, the train arrived and it took only 5 minutes to reach KL Sentral. I quickly hopped off the train and rushed to next station, bought the LRT ticket to Gombak. As I arrived in Gombak station at exact 11. 35 p.m., I went outside the station and it was raining heavily. The only option to go back to campus was via the cab. I arrived in the campus at 11.55 p.m. Phew!

Moral of the story, get a car.


Signing out!
V
Saturday, September 24, 2011

MISI Majestic Night

I just came back from one of the early events run by MISI Club which is MISI Majestic Night.

Since we're all still in the mood of Hari Raya, most of the attendees came with their Baju Raya... Including moi!

I arrived at Human Science Lecture Theatre 1 around 8.30 p.m. and these are some pics I managed to snap while waiting for others to come...





Tikah... Sarawak girl


the night started with welcoming remarks by the MCs - Bro. Fadzil and Sr. Jasmine. (Nice dress, Jinjin!)


Speech by Za'a as the Vice President... =)


A CENSERVE (short for Centre For University Social Responsibility) representative came and give out some informations about the Unit and the club itself as some of the attendees are among those who're signing up for the club.

Then, we had this amazing multimedia presentation... About MISI's issues before being recognized by the university's board...

Then, Bro. Fadzil added some commentaries few minutes before the presentation ended. The president of MISI Club, Bro. Usman Suardi a.k.a. Cecep Arjuna Seman too came up to the stage and gave out awesome speech... The final remarks was funny though.

After the lucky draw sessions, we went to other side of the building, towards two classes where there were some food provided and as we lined up, I got to meet some other friends that I haven't seen since matric... Most of them are graduating students though... (yeah, yeah.. I don't feel bad about anything..)

Ow! This is the pic of me with some of the girls...



Za'a, Sofie, Jinjin, Tikah, Me, (a girl who I haven't introduce myself to), and Nisa.


I took my leave around 11 and tagged Nisa along with me as I gave her a ride around the campus before I sent her back to her mahallah... Night ride is awesome! (Now I miss Kuantan...)

Overall, the mass gathering was fine.. It's really nice to hang out with those from the same land as mine.... It's really refreshing and no need to mention, simple and homey...

Alright, as I've got some reading to do, that's all for tonight... I'll be going to Nilai, Negeri Sembilan tomorrow with my big bro and his pre-fiancée to get some trays for the engagement day...


xoxo,
V
Sunday, September 18, 2011

Hello, KL!

Back in the campus on last Sunday! I miss the campus and everything but the KL traffic? Hell, no!

For this semester,... wait up.. wait up... say hello to my new roomie, Q! A first year Law student but she was here one semester before me and K entered this university.

...~ to my ex-roomie, I... Good luck in Kuantan! We do miss ya!

Anyways, it's been one week since the semester had started and I haven't been to either of my Graphic Communication class and Introduction to Built Environment.

Last Friday was a holiday, or I should say, "Happy 48th Birthday, Malaysia!". Yep! It's been 48 years since Sabah and Sarawak joined the Malaya (i.e. Peninsular Malaysia today).

Other than reading some books I borrowed from the library, manga on the Internet, continuing the works of cleaning up my external hard disks, and updating my music and video collections, I really got nothing else to do. (yeah, yeah, the Calculus homework!)

Q went back home and K spent the rest of the weekend either with her sis who came from Dubai or with her new friend who shared the same faculty with her.


I guess that's all for now! Today's entry is quite boring, right... ugh! hopefully more interesting happenings next week...


Signing out!

V
Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Sandakan, Again.

My Mom is from Sandakan, Sabah and my big bro was born there in Hospital Duchess of Kent, where my grandma used to work. They used to live in the quarters nearby the TB ward and according to my Mom the placed wasn't as much as crowded during her younger days. But then, 4 or 5 years ago I think, the entire neighborhood was abolished together with the a village next to it and now, there's a highway cutting short through the place that used to be my Mom's neighborhood. Though there is only small area left but it'll eventually going to be cleaned out by the government and I have to say, it's a better place now.

Thanks to Musa Aman, I guess. Even though he's from there, the development of his own district is quite slow. Well, Sandakan has a long story of illegal immigrants and if you look at the city, boy. I'm thankful to be born and raised in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. But of course the city has the potential to be the next most busy place, I hope.

Anyway, the trip to Sandakan with my family recently was the shortest we made so far. Dad drove me and Mom from Papar, around 7 in the morning while my brothers were driving with our Toyota Veego at the back.

We stopped at Ranau for a quick lunch and I grabbed some fruits and though I know it's lame but that was the first time I bought fresh cherries! Awesome!





We arrived in Sandakan around 2 p.m. and first thing first, we stopped at Jambatan 88 nearby Sim Sim Road to have late lunch. As usual, the food's nice. Fresh prawns, y'all!





We checked in at the usual Tyng Garden Hotel and had a good rest for a bit. Around 5, Dad drove all of us  to my grandma's house at Batu Putih Village, at Mile 7. The place is nearby Musa Aman's multi-purpose hall, Dewan Libaran.

In the house, my uncle Ali and his wife with their 3 children, Dila, Diba, and Airul are staying with my grandma together with my eldest uncle Alias, while my uncle Tom and his wife with their 5 children are staying at Taman Mesra, Mile 4. My youngest uncle, Amin and his wife who came back from Seremban, Negeri Sembilan were there too.

The thing about my mom's sibling is, they are 10 of them and only half is still in Sabah. The eldest daughter, my mom's sister, Mak Long is currently staying in Bukit Mertajam, Penang, the sixth daughter, Aunt Bibah, is staying in Perlis with her husband and only daughter, the seventh daughter, Ibu is currently staying in Cheras, KL with her husband and only daughter, and the eighth daughter is staying with my Uncle Amin in Seremban. The fourth son, is staying in Tuaran, Sabah with his wife and his 4 children. Mom is the third daughter in the family.

We had a long conversation among each other. Exchanged stories and updating about each other's lives well, since I've been Gombak campus only for 3 months, I didn't really get the chance to visit any of them who're staying in Peninsular Malaysia.

We all except my big bro who decided to stay some more, (he and my uncle Amin are quite close) went back to hotel around 9 and stopped by at Champ's Bowl to have dinner. I ordered my favourite dish, Watan Kuey Teow or in KL we call it as Kuey Teow Kung Fu but the Kuey Teow isn't fried with egg and boiled instead.

The next day, we all went to my grandpa's graves, the first grandpa was my Dad's uncle who was also the father of mom's half brothers and sisters (the fifth child onwards). Then, we went down (yep, the area is filled with hills) to go to the second grandpa, my Mom's dad. After reading Yasin for both of them, pray for them, we all went back to the city. Well, it was around 1 p.m. so it's time to have lunch! Dad took me to my favourite place, Ikan Bakar stall at Sim Sim Road. The sambal was awesome!

We headed down to my grandma's place and stayed there until 5 p.m. Went back to hotel after that and around 7, Dad took us all to Ocean King's Seafood and had awesome dinner there. Another round of fresh prawns and steamed Kerapu fish with other dishes.

After the dinner, Dad drove me and Mom back to hotel while my bros went with Uncle Amin and his wife to Champ's Bowl to play bowling until midnight. Me? Nah... I'm done with bowling, lol.

The next day, Sunday! Dad went to the wet market with mom and my big bro early in the morning and I stayed in the hotel and packed things up! We checked out from hotel around 10 in the morning and headed down to Kota Kinabalu and arrived in Papar around 5 p.m.

We stopped at Kundasanf Penataran Cafe and had a Raya buffet and I went around for a bit and snapped few pictures.




Even though I was so damn exhausted with the trip and everything, I still managed to prepare the awesome and fresh steamed Bawal Putih with black pepper! Haha Fresh seafoods really gets me going!



Alright, I think that's all for now...

Signing out!

V
Sunday, September 04, 2011

Finally home!

Whoa! I just got back from a very short trip to Sandakan, as I visited my grandma on my mom's side of family.

As I'm freaking exhausted right now, I'll update about the whole trip on next entry!


Signing out!

V
Friday, September 02, 2011

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

I've been searching and reading about this gadget and I think this review from TechRadar is one of the easiest to digest article out there...

You guys can check it out here...

Welcome to the top spot, Samsung.




The outstanding Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Honeycomb tablet is lighter and a hair thinner than the Apple iPad 2, and has a smaller footprint than either the Motorola Xoom or the Acer Iconia Tab A500, which are heavier and bulkier than most tablets.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a major contender.

We reviewed the short-lived Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1V already, but that thicker and heavier device has since been discontinued (It looked as if Vodafone might pick up the 10.1V tab but it is now waiting to release the newer 10.1 model).

And if you want to take a closer look at the slate, you can check out our Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 video review.

The only other important players in the tablet market, are the brilliant 10.1-inch Asus Eee Pad Transformer as well as the BlackBerry PlayBook and the HTC Flyer, which are both so-so 7-inch models.

Oh, and keep your eye on the HP TouchPad which goes on sale in the UK next month. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is currently slated to go on sale in the UK at the end of July/beginning of August.

So what sets the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 apart? For starters, this is one light and thin tablet. At just 8.6mm, it is 0.2mm thinner than the iPad 2. And you know what? At 565g it's also 36g lighter.

It's as though someone at Samsung sat down and demanded that the 10.1 have world-beating raw system specs.



The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a marvel of engineering, given its size. Holding one in your hand, you might mistake it for a truncated version of a Samsung LED HDTV, which are also market leaders. There's a slight edge around the screen that is not touch enabled, a silver edge, and an all-white back.



The device just feels right. Unlike the Acer Iconia A500 and the Motorola Xoom, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 finds that ideal balance between a pick-up-and go e-book reader such as the Amazon Kindle 3 and a 10-inch tablet that's perfect for watching movies on a long car trip.

By including Android Honeycomb (version 3.1 to be exact) Samsung has also one-upped the competition (though 3.1 has also already landed on the Transformer). The point release includes a few new additions. You can resize widgets and scroll through open apps in the pop-up thumbnails for the "recent apps" list.



The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 doesn't have a USB port, so it doesn't take advantage of the new Android 3.1 feature to support USB-connected peripherals which is a shame, but that's not the direction Samsung is going with this tablet. This is all about pick-up-and-go functionality and portability.

Samsung actually downgraded the built-in camera on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 compared to the Galaxy Tab 10.1V, which had an 8MP rear camera. Still, the new model has a 3MP rear camera, which is three times higher than the Apple iPad 2's camera. There's also a front-facing 2MP camera.

There are quite a few interesting perks and additions on this tablet. Some may seem underwhelming at first, but as a whole they give Apple a good run for the prize.



One subtle change is that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a 7000mAh battery for all-day tablet use. In our tests, it lasted about nine hours for everyday tasks. The Apple iPad 2 battery is 6600mAh.

The 10.1 also has a four-way accelerometer and gyro (the Apple iPad 2 uses a three-way accelerometer and gyro - starting to see a pattern here?). That may seem like a minor upgrade, but most of the games we tested on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 responded faster to quick turns and screen rotations, and generally worked better for controlling games. It also has great side speakers for playing music and movie audio, and plays smooth 1080p video.

And of course, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 matches the features of other Android tabs: built-in GPS, support for Adobe Flash in the browser (you still have to download it on your own), 1290 x 800 screen resolution, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, the Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor and Android tablet app.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a smart buy for anyone who wants a light and portable Android tablet. Google still has a ways to go on apps for Android – there are only a few dozen that are seriously worth downloading, compared to thousands of worthy iOS apps.

The ecosystem for media is a bit underdeveloped on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 as well. Sure, you can watch movies stream on the web, but for downloads you're mostly on your own.

Update:
August 5 2011: Samsung has now released a software update for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (the kernel says 2.6.36.3 but the Android OS version is still 3.1).

The 10.1 now comes with Samsung's TouchWiz software overlay which is designed to add some more features to Android by building on the foundations that Google laid down.



There is now a small arrow in the middle of the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. You press that, and can open the new Task Manager (to close and open apps), a Calendar (which uses Google Cal), a World Clock, a Pen Memo widget (for adding notes and drawing), a Calculator, and a Music Player. Each of these works reliably and adds to the value of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 beyond the usual Android 3.1 release on other tabs. Widgets stay up on the screen at all times, even when you open other apps.



Samsung also (finally) released the Music Hub, Media Hub, and Social Hub apps. There is also a new app called eBook which lets you read books you have downloaded from other book stores like Kobo, or that you have obtained by other means – such as download a free ePub file. As you might guess, the eBook app is not tied into the Kindle store, and so that means a separate app. You can add stores which are just links that take you to those Web sites to buy more books.

In the box Samsung includes a charger, USB cable and earbuds, but no case or docking stand.

Price:

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been price-matched with the Apple iPad 2, which means that devices with the same amount of memory costs the same. So the starting price will be about £399.


**********************************************************************************

I guess the only way iPad triumphed over this tablet is through the enormous collections of apps in Apps Store... SOme of my friends who're on Androids said that there're not a lot of really useful apps in the Android Apps Store - Android Market... But I believe that if we just give some more time for Android apps developer to work on that part, I'm sure it's gonna be as fun as Apps Store...



Signing Out!

V

Latest Samsung Galaxy Tab

I just got the update... Will post them later! But, here is the specifications...

Operating System: Android 3.1 (Honeycomb)
Processor/RAM: Dualcore 1GHz processor/1GB
Screen: 10.1", 1280x800 WXGA
Storage: 16GB
Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 + EDR, with USB 2.0 HSPA+21Mbps
Camera: 3MP with autofocus and LED Flash with 2 MP front camera
Battery Life: 9 hours video
Size and weight: 256.7mm x 175.3mm x 8.6mm/ 565 (3G)

Price? Will update later!


Signing out!
V
Thursday, September 01, 2011

Third Day of Eid

Yep! It's the third day of Eid and finally my big bro is off duty and already here in the house after we fetched him from the airport around 7 this evening. I haven't seen him since last May so yeah, I kinda miss him.

First day of Eid, I just spent the whole day with my family at home, cooking the whole morning and served our guests the whole evening. Mom cooked meat soup with mee hoon together with chicken Rendang (chicken with herbs and spices), and I prepared the Batik cake, chicken curry, while Dad bought us some lemang and traditional kuih 'lamban' (steamed glutinous rice wrapped in leaves - these are eaten with spicy nut sambal). Not really tiring as we were done by 5 p.m. and went to my relatives' houses after that. But I turned in to bed around 8 I guess.

Second day of Eid which is yesterday was even crazier than the first day as we had more guests. Most of them are my Dad's friends from his old workplace and their families. I didn't get a chance to even step out of the kitchen. Our special for the day was the stuffed squid. This was the second time I prepared them. This year, I added extra ingredient which is black pepper to the stuffings. Bit aromatic but still inviting. Well, for me at least. We were done by 9 I think so after cleaning up the kitchen, we wrapped for the day.

Anyway, after two days of cooking, today me and Mom decided to prepare simple dishes for our guests today as we're very much exhausted. I even slept with my Baju Kurung yesterday.

Lots of things happened, and I got to meet with my cousins from other parts of Sabah. But I still think that Eid this year has not yet meet to my expectation to be as grand, as busy, and as crazy as 2008 Eid. Eid that year was a total blast. With fireworks! lol

Though it's just third day... Let's hope for more interesting things to happen...

Right now, I'm trying to pack my essentials as we're going to Sandakan tomorrow at dawn. Dad's driving so I got nothing to worry.


That's all for now so I'm signing out!

xoxo,
V


xoxo,
V