Archive | 2009

Puncturised

Posted July 7, 2009 at 6:43 pm in General Nonsense

Been catching up on a lot of things lately, so apologies for the lack of updates.

Had quite a weekend again, after last weekend in Penang this weekend was going fairly smoothly..

Until Sunday night when I was heading out to delivery some pictures to a client and I heard a weird noise coming from front driver side tyre..

I pulled over and to my dismay I had a mega flat, thankfully it failed gracefully near home and didn’t blow up when I was bombing back down the highway from Penang.

Flat Tyre

It was really really flat, so flat in fact it was coming off the rim! Ok so get the tools out, locking nut adapters and loosen the nuts before I jack it up.

Then time to jack it…man that was hard work.

Jacked Up

Then whip the tyre off and get the big black bobby tyre on there…which limits me to 80km/h. Thankfully my spare had air in this time because I’d just filled it last weekend as part of the challenges in Penang.

Spare Tyre

The last time I used it…it was flat too! So always remember to pump air in your spare.

And well it’s always smart to change your tyres before they get too bald…I’d say mine was a little TOO worn, that’s why all the air came out.

Bald Tyre

Oh well. No damage done this time! The outsides looked fine, I think my camber was really messed up because all the tyres were worn differently.

Headed to the tyre shop on Monday afternoon to get a new set of shoes and get the camber electronically corrected.

Tyre Shop

Went for cheaper tyres this time as the old Pirelli Dragons don’t seem to be so good any more (I’ve been using them since 2005).

I got myself a set of Goodyear Eagle NCT 5 with alignment and balancing + camber adjustment for all 4 wheels. Total damage RM1075.

Click my ads please.

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What a Weekend

Posted June 29, 2009 at 2:37 pm in General Nonsense

Ok for once I’m just gonna write something here without any pictures, like blogging used to be…a stream of consciousness I believe it’s called.

I had quite a weekend, on Friday I drove down to Penang – arrived around 8pm and had dinner with the contestants and crew for Discover Smile, Zoom, Malaysia TV show (it’ll start showing on 8TV on 29th July).

I think were were the 4th episode, so we should be airing around the end of August.

Anyway it was a fairly smooth drive down, not too much traffic, no accidents and no major roadworks.

Found out the Aishah Sinclair was to be the host for the show!

After dinner headed to the room to catch up some reading and catch a nap before the briefing, Ted arrived pretty late (my partner for the race).

So we were briefed on the race mechanics and how it was going to go down, to our dismay we found out wake up time was 5.30am!

Quickly grabbed a shower and went to sleep…got up about 5.45am the next day, let the camera man fix the interior camera in my car – had some quick breakfast and got ready for race flag off at 7am sharp.

Then it was race race race all day long, I didn’t take many pictures but I have a few. Will update more about the race later.

Finished up about 6pm, then headed to final destination. Was wrapped with final interview and everything by about 8pm.

Then our accumulated Smile Points through-out the race (totaled about RM500) we spent in the Esso station to buy some provisions for the Penang Children’s Protection Society.

The kids were so happy! It was great to see them smiling.

After that it was off to G Hotel for some late dinner (it was about 9.30pm by then) with free flow beer at the buffet 😀

I was stuffed to the max after that..

Then back to the hotel by about 11pm.

Shower, watched some of the MJ tribute concert showing on 8TV and slept before midnite for once.

Woke up the next day marginally before midday feeling really really stoned, aching shoulders and suspected a bit of heatstroke (had a minging headache all day).

I needed to get back to KL for a wedding dinner on that very Sunday night, so no time to hang around.

Checked out and hit the road, stopped at a petrol station to fuel up my body with essentials (caffeine, sugar and salt).

The correct order is like this:

1 can of strong iced coffee – one chocolate bar – one pack of salted cashew nuts – one gatorade.

That woke me up for sure. Then it was onwards and homewards, reached back to KL around 4pm.

Had to take the laundry, pump petrol, drop the dog at the dog sitter (of course grabbed a couple of goes on Guitar hero first) and then time to get ready.

Left home about 7 to reach Westin KL at about 7.30pm for the glorious wedding of Kim Ong and Josiah Ng in the grand ballroom.

You can catch her on Twitter too @kimongsk.

What a glorious wedding it was, it was beautiful and classy and very enjoyable for once. It melded Eastern and Western traditions together well and Josiah’s father was very entertaining.

I have to say it was probably the most fun wedding dinner I’ve been to so far, plus I guess it makes a difference how close you are to the person getting married.

The better you know them the more meaningful it is.

Got home about midnite, watched the first episode of True Blood Season 2, then time for sleep.

Man….I’m really having a sleep deficit now.

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Movie Review – Coraline – Dark

Posted June 23, 2009 at 2:40 pm in Movies

Coraline

Coraline Jones is a girl of 11 who is feisty, curious, and adventurous beyond her years. She and her parents have just relocated from Michigan to Oregon. Missing her friends and finding her parents to be distracted by their work, Coraline tries to find some excitement in her new environment. She is befriended–or, as she sees it, is annoyed–by a local boy close to her age, Wybie Lovat and visits her older neighbors, eccentric British actresses Miss Spink and Forcible as well as the arguably even more eccentric Russian Mr. Bobinsky. After these encounters, Coraline seriously doubts that her new home can provide anything truly intriguing to her, but it does; she uncovers a secret door in the house. Walking through the door and then venturing through an eerie passageway, she discovers an alternate version of her life and existence.

I recently got around to watching Coraline, as a fan of Neil Gaiman it was something I was looking forward too.

And I have to say I wasn’t disappointed, Mr. Gaiman released the novella to quite some acclaim netting himself some awards in the process.

The book was faithfully reproduced in stop-motion animation and released as a film (novellas always convert better to movies due to the their non-epic nature). If you’re read American Gods or Anansi Boys, imagine trying to make them into movies?

Anyway Coraline is doing very on IMDB with a score of 8.1 and I’d imagine given some time it will enter the top 250.

It’s definitely one of the better animations made in our era, along with Wallace and Gromit of course!

The settings for the film are very atmospheric and it’s generally quite dark, it could be consider in the horror genre (not slasher or jumping out of your skin horror though).

It’s very subtle and menacing but spectacular too.

Remember be careful what you wish for!

Definitely 100% worth a watch if you haven’t seen it yet, do it now!

I give it a button-eyed 9/10.

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WordPress Back To Default Install State – wp_options Table Corrupted

Posted June 18, 2009 at 12:40 pm in Internet & Tech

If you read my blog every day or so you may have noticed a couple of times in the past week or so it just showed the default WordPress installation screen.

Wordpress Install

Some people seem to think they’ve been hacked when they see this screen as it indicates the database is totally gone. The most common cause for this however is that the WordPress table wp_options has crashed or become corrupted and needs repairing.

If you have logging and access to the server you should see something like this:

./loginname_blog/wp_options' is marked as crashed and should be repaired

I have a simple control panel for my blog (DirectAdmin), most hosting will offer you something like this or something more complex like CPanel. You can find out what is corrupted by pressing the ‘Check’ button, if you just wish to go ahead and fix the problem use the ‘Repair’ option.

Repair Database

After the database is successfully repaired you should see something like this:

Repaired Database

A similar operation can be done with MySQL via command line or via PHPMyAdmin quite easily.

Now this is all well and good, but it doesn’t fix the source of the problem. You can’t keep repairing every time your database crashes, it started happening to me almost daily.

From my research, it seems that having too many records in the wp_options table can cause things to get funky and make it likely to become corrupted. Mine had a staggering 6234 records, a ‘normal’ wp_options table should have about 500 maximum.

Now what I didn’t realise that was every time I installed or tested a new plugin, it left a bunch of records in the wp_options table and when I removed it…it didn’t remove the records.

So I had all kinds of junk in there from the past 4 years of upgrades and experiments plus a whole lot of RSS hashes (which you can get rid of too).

My recommended solution is to use Clean Options, which is a plugin for WordPress that allows you to clean up your wp_options file.

Wordpress Clean Options Plugin

Just PLEASE PLEASE do some research and use it very carefully because it can destroy your install, I recommend that you backup your database before you start fiddling even if you’re very sure what you’re doing.

Before you delete anything do use the Google option and check out what created it, remember if you’re using WordPress 2.8 there are transient entries that are not orphaned they are part of the new WordPress DB structure.

If you find anything from a plugin you no longer use you can safely delete it, you can ditch all the RSS hash entries. You have a far cleaner wp_options table after that!

I managed to take mine down to 234 rows, it’s back up now due to the rss_hash entries but other than that it’s pretty clean and slick and hasn’t crashed since I’ve done the tidy up.

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Subaru S-GT 2.0 Turbo – Test Drive In Malaysia

Posted June 12, 2009 at 2:31 am in Cars/Motorsport

So, lucky me! I got to test drive a 2008 Subaru S-GT for 2 days a couple of weeks back and boy it was fun (and makes me want to urgently change my car to something with slightly less rigid suspension).

The S-GT is what is known as the Subaru Impreza WRX with an automatic gearbox basically, so all the power but less of the effort.

As for the looks as always with Subaru, some hate it and some love it. This time it’s reversed though, regular people love it and Subaru fans hate it. It’s much more ‘normal’ than the previous sedan models with a smoother hatchback look.

Subaru S-GT 2.0 Turbo

It has one problem though, which is it looks rather small in pictures. It’s certainly not in real life though It’s a formidable looking vehicle with the biggest bonnet scoop put out by Subaru so far! The whole package gives it a refined but still muscular appeal, where as the previous versions were considered by most as performance cars (hey it’s not supposed to look good too right?).

Subaru S-GT 2.0 Turbo

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Stand Out with Nuffnang & Tiger at HQNine TTDI – Official Pictures

Posted June 9, 2009 at 2:10 pm in Parties & Gatherings, Photography

Nuffnang really knows how to throw a party! Their latest event was Stand Out with Nuffnang & Tiger at HQNine in TTDI Plaza.

Registration was quite happening early on with people showing up on time (mostly).

Stand Out with Nuffnang & Tiger at HQNine TTDI

And of course the Nuffnang team was there in force.

Stand Out with Nuffnang & Tiger at HQNine TTDI

There were all kinds of cool costumes like Cleopatra.

Stand Out with Nuffnang & Tiger at HQNine TTDI

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Movie Review – Angels & Demons – Fairly Thrilling

Posted June 4, 2009 at 1:37 pm in Movies

Angels & Demons

When Robert Langdon discovers evidence of the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati — the most powerful underground organization in history — he also faces a deadly threat to the existence of the secret organization’s most despised enemy: the Catholic Church. When Langdon learns that the clock is ticking on an unstoppable Illuminati time bomb, he jets to Rome, where he joins forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and enigmatic Italian scientist.

Whatever people may say about Dan Brown, he can write. I’m not saying he’s masterful or poetic, but he knows how to churn out compelling, easy to read mainstream crap.

He hooks people with the religion and the history (most of which aren’t familiar enough with it to know some is bogus). But then that’s the mark of good fiction (outside the realms of Fantasy and Sci-Fi of course) isn’t it? To blend the real with the faux seamlessly.

And after Davinci Code, now we get to watch Angels & Demons. It has a fairly high rating on IMDB, but I think that will go down over time as more people will brains rate the movie.

All in all it’s a decent film, it’s quite long but the pacing is reasonable. It feels like a thriller more than anything else and it tries to be as gripping as possible (dashing from beautiful location to beautiful location).

As Eyeris mentioned, Tom Hanks definitely has much better hair this time around.

And the anti-matter genius just happens to be a hot chick (not as hot as Audrey Tatou though). Ewan McGregor is great as the Camerlengo, I really think he’s growing as an actor and I hope to see him take up more serious work (No more Dan Brown pls).

After Star Trek though everything is tending to seem a little underwhelming, I haven’t seen Wolverine or Terminator yet (and haven’t heard good things about them either).

There’s not much plot to speak of in Angels & Demons but then that’s what you expect from the franchise, don’t expect a masterpiece and be forgiving.

It’s the kind of movie a 5-year old will be awestruck by, so let that inner child enjoy the film and don’t be a mean old whingebag.

Worthy of a watch anyhow, I give it a 6.5/10.

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Nuffnang vs Advertlets on Google

Posted June 2, 2009 at 12:43 am in Internet & Tech

No comments, just what I see.

Advertlets Auto-complete search queries on Google.

Advertlets on Google

Nuffnang Auto-complete search queries on Google.

Nuffnang on Google

Make your own judgments.

Recently there was an interesting post about Advertlets from the advertisers perspective by Larry Lim, he’s edited out most of the details though:

Advertising With Advertlets Was Just As Bad

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Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary – Sabah, Malaysia

Posted May 26, 2009 at 12:36 pm in Malaysia, Photography, Trips & Travel

It’s been a while since my last Sabah post (Sepilok Jungle Resort – Checking in And Relaxing & Review), but seen as though I went recently it’s spurned me to continue.

Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary is somewhere everyone should visit at some point in their life, people come from all over the World to see it and alongside probably Sipadan, it’s one of the places that puts Malaysia on the map globally.

Now if you live in peninsular Malaysia and you haven’t been there it’s a bit of a shame right?

The Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre was set up in 1964 to rehabilitate orphaned baby Orang Utan and at the time we visited there was about 80 in total living in the Sanctuary. Some in the wilder part and some still under rehabilitation.

The Orang Utans are fed twice a day at 10am and 3pm and you can go for either or both, if you’re a photographer I’d recommend the morning viewing as the light is slightly better. The light isn’t ideal at either time as it’s rather harsh and the feeding area is in shadow, so a fast telephoto would help (300mm f/2.8 please!).

You can expect it to be pretty busy at either feeding time. You can go in a little earlier (which the guide will recommend) to watch the introductory video. Entrance fee is RM5 for MyKad holders (locals) and RM30 for johnny foreigner (me). Cameras are charged at RM10 per camera.

Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary - Sabah, Malaysia

You can expect them apes to come flying out quit promptly about 5 minutes before the scheduled feeding time.

Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary - Sabah, Malaysia

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We Ate This Updated – The Apartment – The Curve

Posted May 21, 2009 at 2:21 am in Food/Eating

Fast becoming of my favourite places for the mussels and the delicious chicken liver pate.

Kannichikan Yakiniku with Jacob’s Creek

Do check out the duck and mango salad and the sinful pavlova for dessert.

More here:

The Apartment – Urban Fusion Food – The Curve

BTW please leave your comments over at We Ate This and not here – Thanks!

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