Archive | June, 2011

Random Post #16 – Wordconf, Webcamp, Wheels & WTF?

Posted June 30, 2011 at 5:31 pm in General Nonsense

Woah it’s been a while since I did a Random Post! Back in April in fact, missed out May and now it’s the last day of June! (I try to do one a month…). Anyway – here we are! Been super busy lately, hence the lack of any meaningful updates (not that this post is going to be meaningful…).

So let’s try and catch up on what I’ve been doing in May and June…as if anyone cares, but hell it’s my blog so I’m going to write about it anyway.

We went for the opening of a new restaurant in Puchong serving authentic Terengganu food, opened by the family of the gorgeous Cindy Tey and the food there is FANTASTIC. The place is called Mek T and you should go and check it out (I LOVE the Nasi Sedap Sokmo)! You can see Kim’s proper review here.

Mek-T Puchong

Around that time was Wordconf too, where I gave a talk about High Performance WordPress.

Wordconf 2011

Or course there was also the Deadmau5 Outdoor LED Concert Live At Sunway Lagoon, Malaysia – May 2011, which was banging.

Food wise we have a new obsession, this amazing Hakka Pork Chop in Klang – wow it’s GOOD.

Hakka Pork Chop

Gotta love Klang food, just had the bubur goreng there with steamed flower crab last weekend – OMG HEAVENLY!

I also said goodbye to my beloved Nokia N900 and managed to sell it off very quickly (it’s still quite a hot item).

Nokia N900

We also had a weekend away in Cherating at a dog friendly resort with #emocharlie called Ruby’s Resort – great place for those with furkids.

Ruby's Resort

I also took a few turns cooking, here’s one of my dishes Spicy Tuna Tagliatelle pasta!

Spicy Tuna Tagliatelle Pasta

I also managed to score a place at the Absolut Academy with Matt Pomeory – which was a fantastic learning experience. I’ll write more about that later.

Absolut Academy

I also attended my first WebCampKL (on the last Wednesday of every month) and I gave a talk entitled – The History of the Future. Here’s my homeboy Colin Charles talking about the future of databases and storage engines.

Colin Charles

I just went to another one last night and it was awesome, I think I shall be appearing regularly.

I also finally got the new rims for my car and got that sorted out properly (resprayed/repaired, new tyres etc) will write more about that later. Do remember if you want to buy some 17″ wheels, I do have some for sale!

Enkei TME 6.5 Rims

And last but not least I had a great trip to Malacca for the Shutter Asia 4th anniversary gathering and celebration – it was a great trip!

Shutter Asia 4th Anniversary

That’s all for now!

Will write about Malacca soon – ate far too much and it was WONDERFUL!

On this day (or near enough) in…

2010 – Random Post #6 — World Cup Fever, Tiles & FOOD
2009 – What a Weekend
2008 – Movie Review — Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull — Whipsnapping!
2007 – Gwen Stefani — Aren’t Asians Great! from MADtv
2006 – It’s Friday
2005 – Malaysian Petrol Price NOT Increasing

You can find all Random Blog Posts here:

https://www.shaolintiger.com/tag/random-post/

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WTS 17″ Enkei Bortex RPM2 7J Offset 45 5xPCD114.3 – Ori From Japan

Posted June 27, 2011 at 4:42 pm in Cars/Motorsport

You may remember when I changed my tyres back in October 2009 – Project Airtrek — Choose Tyres For Your Car — Mitsubishi Airtrek Turbo , well those tyres officially wore out a couple of weeks ago. So bad in fact that I stopped driving the car for a while.

I decided to change rims to accommodate some stupidly massive brake calipers later on 😀 And also so I could fit wider tyres (my new tyres are 235/45/R17), I’ll blog more about those later, and my new rims. Anyway I want to see these off, so if you know anyone who is interested do share the link 🙂

These are high quality, light weight original Japanese sports rims. The weight of each rim is very light at 16.9lb or 7.7KG.

Model: Enkei Bortex RPM2
Size: 17″
Width: 7JJ
Offset: 45
Mount: 5×114.3
Comes with: Original Enkei Bortex center caps + correct nuts to fix the rims to your car.

Good condition (all around 9/10) just one rim has minor curb rash (as shown in picture below) and is rated a 7/10.

The rims with my old tyres (215/55/R17) still attached on my Airtrek Turbo:

The rim without tyre, excellent condition:

All 4 rims are in my car boot ready to roll:

The one damaged rim with some slight curb rash, can be easily repaired:

Price:

RM1800 AS IS
RM2500 FULLY REPAIRED (Also will be resprayed in a colour of your choice using high quality 2K paint at a famous rim repair shop)

For the 2nd option full payment must be made up front and the respray will take approximately 2 weeks.

Can fit Airtrek/Evo etc.

Dealing method: COD around PJ in the day or night time around Desa Park City

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Dubstep – The New Big Thing – Dirty Filthy Wobble – Stop Brostep!

Posted June 24, 2011 at 4:03 pm in Music

It’s been a while since I wrote about music, back in 2008 actually – Squarepusher (Tom Jenkinson) — Crazy Man, Crazy Music – so it’s about time I wrote about my new fascination – Dubstep.

Dubstep isn’t a new genre of music, it’s actually been around a really long time. It’s just started hitting mainstream success in the past couple of years though and in the past 6 months ago it’s just blown up with big artists like deadmau5 pushing new Dubstep acts like Skrillex.

Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in south London, England. Its overall sound has been described as “tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals

From Wiki.

I did used to listen to it way back when it was still eskibeat, it came from a mix of grime, 2-step (AKA garage) and the darker elements from my favourite genre – drum and bass.

I actually liked it in the early days, but didn’t like it when I tried it out again not that long ago – but then after the deadmau5 concert I gave Skrillex a try and it was pretty banging. This is probably the most common Dubstep track you’ll hear:

This is what you can consider ‘beginners’ dubstep, along with stuff like this:

Anyway those are pretty decent tracks, but get massively overplayed. If you want more stuff like that (we call Brostep – cos it’s kinda soft and upbeat) you can look for Flux Pavilion, Skrillex, Nero, Rusko Bassnectar and similar artists. High pitch vocals, some wobble and there you go – brostep.

Unlike Dubstep where sub bass is key, Brostep places more emphasis on ratty high frequency samples and oscillators that arent even low frequency. Toss in a few hip hop vocal samples and you are well on your way to being the worlds next big Brostep producer.

One thing I really love about dubstep (much like DnB) is the MASSIVE amount of awesome remixes of old songs, stuff like this:

REALLY love this one:

My favourite genre though is the REALLY filthy dubstep, nasty, face melting stuff that will make you poop in your pants. It makes your nuts vibrate because the subwoofer is having a spazm.

These are the kind of tracks that float my boat:

Be prepared to have your face blow off:

This is a classic:

That’s just a few anyway to get you started 😀

I find most of the tracks from google, hype machine and from Turntable.fm of course – MASSIVE dubstep following on there.

The biggest most commercial room is the dubstep main room:

Dubstep (They mostly play all the ‘chart’ stuff and it can get very repetitive).

The slightly dirtier room is:

Filthy Dubstep Wobble Nation (Not a bad room, depends who’s playing).

And the filthiest of all is:

Dirty Dubstep (This is usually where I am dropping absolute nasty pant filling filth).

But there’s not always people in there, but when there are – it’s a face melting room! Anyway that’s all for now, I’ll drop some more filthy tunes on here later if anyone likes it 🙂

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Glen Grant Single Malt Whisky Tasting With Godiva

Posted June 14, 2011 at 6:03 pm in Single Malt Whisky

So this is the inaugural, first post in my new Single Malt Whisky category! Trust me when I say there’s going to be many more posts here!

I love Single Malt Whisky, seriously, I’m not such a big fan of blended Whisky – but I don’t mind the American stuff like Sourmash and Bourbon. I don’t know a whole lot about them though, so I’ll mostly be sticking to what I know and love – which is scotch.

Not too long ago I got invited to a Glen Grant Whisky tasting in KL, they are starting to sell it in Malaysia now under Albert Wines.

Glen Grant

The official blurb on Glen Grant is:

Glen Grant is a Speyside distillery, that produces single malt Scotch whisky. The distillery was owned by Chivas Brothers Ltd, best known for their Chivas Regal blended scotch whisky. It is the world’s second-biggest single malt whisky brand. Single malt that’s clear in colour with a distinctively crisp, fresh taste that has made it one of the world’s favorite.

As a side note, Glen Grant was purchased by the Italian company Gruppo Campari in December 2005 and due to that it’s currently the biggest selling single malt Scotch whisky in Italy

We got to test out the whole range, starting with the Major’s Reserve – this is a no-age-statement entry-level Glen Grant. Although from what I understood, it’s about 6 years old – but they don’t advertise that.

Glen Grant Major's Reserve

This is a very accessible, approachable malt ideal for beginners. I found it rather pleasant actually, especially for the age, the price range and the fact it was the very bottom tier – it was better than the 10yr offerings from many other commercial brands. Of course it can’t match up to the higher grade whiskies, especially in terms of body – but it’s a decent starter drink. Some may prefer to stick to something familiar though in this price range like a Teacher’s or Jameson’s.

Next up was my second favourite of the night and the most popular seller in the Glent Grant range – the classic 10 year old. I have to say – I really want to get myself a bottle of this! A very enjoyable, smooth single malt, which breaks well with a little bit of ice.

Glen Grant 10 Year Old

It’s quite intense and fruity (features that I enjoy) and has a long and slightly nutty finish.

After that 10 year old, we followed on with the 16 year old. I found this one a little bit harsher and actually preferred the 10 year old to this. It has the same type of characteristics of the 10 year old, but intensified.

Glen Grant 16 Year Old

For me, the next was the best of the night – and to date one of the drams that really sticks in my memory. It’s the Glen Grant 1992 Cellar Reserve – wow, what a drink. Even the Whisky Bible 2010 agrees and awarded it Best Single Malt (16-21 Years). Sadly there was only one bottle of that, Vijen and I surely did enjoy it. It’s aged in Olorosso sherry casks which give it a beautiful deep flavour, it’s fruity and sweet with a sherry overtone basically. Wonderful!

Glen Grant 1992 Cellar Reserve

The last of the night was the Glen Grant 170th Anniversary – which was a higher strength drink at 46% – but I can’t say I really enjoyed it. It was super light in the mouth, almost feeling like it evaporated as it hit your tongue. Taste wise, it is similar to the others with a hint of smokey peat. Something for the collector perhaps.

Glen Grant 170th Anniversary

The whisky was paired with some wonderful cuban cigars and chocolate from Godiva.

Godiva Chocolates

As for getting hold of some Glen Grant – the only place I know of selling it right now is Bakita at Changkat. If I remember correctly the 10 year old is RM390 per bottle and the 16 year old is RM400 per bottle.

It was a great evening (Thanks Winnie!).

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Movie Review – X-Men: First Class – SUPERB!

Posted June 8, 2011 at 4:36 pm in Movies

X-Men: First Class (2011)

Before mutants had revealed themselves to the world, and before Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Not archenemies, they were instead at first the closest of friends, working together with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to prevent nuclear Armageddon. In the process, a grave rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men.

The last movie in the X-Men franchise was some time back, I reviewed it in 2009 here – Movie Review — X-Men Origins: Wolverine — ACTION! . It was actually a pretty decent movie for action fans, nothing special or Oscar worthy but certainly not terrible. Before that it was X-Men III way back in 2006 – Movie Review — X-Men III: The Last Stand.

I’ve always been a big fan of the X-Men franchise and I honestly don’t feel they’ve had a bad film so far. So naturally I was quite excited about this franchise reboot, as so far all of the reboots have been wonderful – especially Batman Begins/The Dark Knight and Star Trek.

Well onto the film itself, it’s a bit of back story – mostly with characters you’ll recognize but probably didn’t know much about. This is where this movie comes in, it really starts out when they are youngsters and it explains a lot of recognizable features in the previous X-Men movies.

James McAvoy is just excellent as the young Charles Xavier – he really carries the part fantastically. He was pretty decent in Wanted — Better Than Expected! – but hasn’t really had any mainstream success.

I know him from the absurd but extremely amusing UK TV series Shameless. The rest of the casting in the movie is excellent too, really bang on. If you watch Mad Men, you’ll recognize January Jones (Emma Frost) – and damn she’s hot in this. Yah baby, that’s what I’m talking about!

January Jones as Emma Frost in X-Men: First Class (2011)

Lenny Kravitz daughter is pretty cute too (Zoe Kravitz as Angel) and of course the young Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) is very cute in her non-blue form. That’s enough about the chicks..

Apparently all the girls are going lala over the young Magneto, all I’ve been hearing about this movie is swoons and comments on how hot he is. He’s not a particularly well known actor but you might recognize him from Inglourious Basterds or Band of Brothers.

He is very good as Erik Lehnsher however and really nails the feel of the character, you can see the stance of Magneto develop through the movie and how the relationships are forged and broken amongst the X-Men.

Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr (The Young Magneto) in X-Men: First Class (2011)

The pacing of the movie is excellent, it’s very gripping and you really start to feel something for the characters. The action sequences are fantastic and I love how they use a bit of real history to set the scene with the Cuban Missile Crisis.

I for one can’t wait for the next movie in the new, refreshed X-Men franchise!

It’s doing fantastically well on IMDB with a score of 8.2 – I suspect it might creep into the Top 250. I personally think it deserves to be there.

I think this is probably the best movie for me so far in 2011 and I give it a super sonic 9/10.

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Chatime & Gongcha – The Latest Craze In Malaysia – Pearl Tea

Posted June 6, 2011 at 9:30 am in Food/Eating

If you’ve been to any of the major shopping malls (1U, Mid Valley etc.) or even some of the minor ones (SSTwo Mall) in the last month or so you may have noticed some small stalls with obscenely long queues.

I have to admit it piqued my interest, I thought WTF is that all about – must be some new craze! Remember the whole donuts thing and the crazy queues. Anyway I had a look, and it was a pearl tea stall called Chatime. I also noticed almost everyone on Twitter raving about it – with all kinds of people addicted to it, craving it every day.

Being the curious soul that I am, I couldn’t proclaim it a fad or scold them for being sheep without actually trying it myself. So that I did, I was out on a mission one night collecting a bottle of Glenfiddich 15 year old that a friend had got me duty free when I decided to try Chatime on the way home.

We popped into SSTwo Mall as we suspected it would have a lot less queue than other places we’d seen (Mid Valley was INSANE).

Chatime Perpetual Queue

There was a small queue, but nothing too bad. I went for number 1, one of the recommended choices – Roasted Tea and I added pearls. It was RM5.90 for the large side, with an extra RM1 for the pearls. So almost RM7 for a tea……ok I thought to myself. Give it a chance!

Bear in mind I can get myself a small bottle of beer for RM7!

Honestly I was expected something amazing the way people have been raving about it, I expected to hear angels trumpets when I took my first sip.

Did I get that? No I did not.

Chatime Roasted Pearl Tea

Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad – it is nice. But is it that nice? No. Would I go out of my way to get a taste of it? No. Does it cost too much? Yes.

KL people have fairly advanced palates, so honestly I expected more from the ranting and raving. But then again, it’s just a difference of taste. Different people like different things.

It’s like when you go to see a movie that everyone has been raving about, or it won an Oscar or something…and then it’s like a 4/10. It’s that kind of disaappointed feeling (There Will Be Blood comes to mind).

It is decent tea, it has no ice in it (which is good), it doesn’t have the powdery pasar malam pearl tea taste (but then some people like that) and they are generous with the pearls.

But the best pearl tea I’ve ever had is from the Taiwanese restaurant at One-stop, Pulau Tikus – Penang.

There are plenty of other options around too, there a shop in Tropicana City Mall on LG floor that has no queue, tastes just as good and is about half the price of Chatime. I also like the tea from Little Taiwan (this one was from Tesco Kepong) for RM3.50. They have a promo at the moment, their tea without pearls is only RM1.80!

Little Taiwan Pearl Tea

Anyway that’s my 2 cents on the whole Chatime thing, if you’ve tried it and you love it. Tell me why and which flavour you love, I’ll probably give it another chance one day – so I’m open to suggestions.

If you’ve tried it and feel the same as me, let me know too.

That’s all for now!

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Turntable.fm – Awesome HTML5 Application – Social DJing

Posted June 1, 2011 at 6:51 pm in Internet & Tech, Music

You might have seen me spamming what I’m spinning on Turntable.fm if you follow me on Twitter (which you should…obviously).

Turntable.fm is basically a really cool HTML5 application using Canvas – it’s very simply but very addictive too.

Turntable.fm

There’s 5 DJ spots and you can play anything you want, it’s not limited by what they have in their library (which is epic) – because you can upload stuff yourself. People can vote your track Lame or Awesome – if you click awesome your avatar will start bobbing it’s head.

If enough people click Lame the song will be skipped and it’ll move on to the next DJ.

It’s extremely tightly integrated with Facebook and uses Facebook auth for access, so you need to have a Facebook friend already using the service to get in as it’s still in BETA. I’d imagine it will be a chargeable subscription service when it launches properly as they must be using HUGE amounts of bandwidth.

There are some cool features like a list of songs that have been played, including ratings and artwork. The cool part is too, it’s integrated with iTunes and Spotify so you can directly buy the songs you like.

Turntable.fm Room Info

It has a chat box kinda thing too and you can share what is being played on Twitter, E-mail or Facebook.

There’s a cool extension for Chrome here too, which adds a bunch of neat features:

https://globalplaylist.com/turntable.fm.html

You can join our room for WebCamp KL here –

https://turntable.fm/wckl

It’s most active during work hours when everyone is hacking away in the office and needs some funky tunes, you can just hang out in the audience if you want to enjoy what we are playing or jump and DJ if there’s a free spot (there’s a limit of 5 DJ’s though and it’s quite often full during peak hours).

Be careful though, it’s addictive!

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