Satisfying 60,000 Fans

Last Tuesday's match between Arsenal and Slavia Prague will definitely go down in my book as a 'very special' match. Though Arsenal demolished the travelling opponent by 7 goal margin, all 60,000 fans, both Arsenal and Prague, in the stadium, went back home in a special magical disbelief and emotional state of mind - they all know that they've just witnessed the best football match of the year, or for many more years to come.

Well, don't just take my word for it, read on...
http://blogs.reuters.com/soccer/2007/10/24/awesome-arsenal-restore-faith-in-beautiful-game/

Space, Gravity, Mars & Malaysian Astronouts

As we are enjoying our self-greed to pollute Earth and bring it to its death, a simple solution for life’s continuity is simply to pack-up and head for Earth 2.0. And with Mars being the perfect match to earth’s geology, a hijra’ must be planned. But it’s a long journey, about 200 years of travel, hyperspace or not. And naturally, the list of ‘things to do’ needs to be prepared.

First of, can we live for 200yrs without Gravity?

Gravity is THE most important thing on earth. Water, fire, earth and wind mean nothing without gravity. Our muscles, brain development and 5 senses are all developed in existence with gravity.

Astronauts lost huge masses of muscle when in G zero. By the 4th year in G0, the bones get so brittle; it’ll break into pieces as soon it hit gravity. So, list of ‘things to do’ #1 – emulate gravity in the mother ship.

Now, can we give birth without gravity? They tried with quail eggs. It didn’t hatch in space. So, for a journey where we’d expect our children’s children to make it to Mars, this is not looking good. Then they tried with mice too. Took the pregnant ones into space for few weeks, bring it back to earth for delivery – and guess what – the little newbie mice’s brain could not recognize orientation. So, even if we could find a way to deliver babies in G0, we gotta fix this, mainly to avoid our offsprings from failing the Martian’s sobriety test. So, that’s “things to do” #2.

Hmm, the list goes on and on; like the space suits, cosmic radiation, psychological effects, human conflicts and etc… but just the 2 items above already causing the brainiacs in MIT headaches.

Anyway, hip-hip hurrah for our Malaysian astronaut, Sheikh Muszaphar. Note to your grandchildren: Next stop; Mars.

http://www.angkasawan.com.my/blog/

Darth Federer

The Roddick-Federer game was just mind-boggling. There was Roddick; obviously on juiced-up steroids, serving at Mach 5 and putting his best performance ever. And there was ice-cold Federer; dressed all black aka Darth Federer, soaking the pressure with ease and simple changed gear to close the game. I remember telling myself at that moment; “this is just unreal”. And finally, I found an article (URL below) that unfolds the flabbergastation: Federer is not human.

Read it here (http://tennisworld.typepad.com/tennisworld)

Four current top 10 players -- Fernando Gonzalez, James Blake, Tommy Robredo and Nikolay Davydenko (Federer's semifinal opponent) -- are a combined 0-34 against Federer.

Wednesday, Roddick tried landing 71% of his first serves for the match and a remarkable 81% in the second set. He tried committing zero double faults and just 24 unforced errors over three sets. He tried holding serve and avoiding even a single break point through the first two sets. He tried taking good, calculated chances at the net and hitting as crisp and authoritative a backhand as we've seen from him. He even tried wearing black.

Hail, maybe this "Federer" started out as an idea in the mind of some Sega Genesis game designer, but the algorythms just got out of hand and he leaped across the Great Divide like some character out of a Philip K. Dick novel.

Beyond that, do you ever notice that this so-called "Roger Federer" has perfect hair that never seems to get mussed or out-of-place - the dude looks like one of those pictures your local barber has tacked up all around his mirror, hoping you'll be hoodwinked into dropping an extra Jackson on the full "I want to look like I'm in a boy band!" look.

Switch!

It's final. I've switched over. Streamyx is history. And 3G-broadband is here to stay. When I signed up for Maxis Broadband, I was a bit skeptic - is it fast enough? is it reliable? But after 2 weeks, I'm sold. The fact that I could still be connected no matter where I go (with 3G coverage) - now that's priceless. It has been a month now. And I'm loving it. Adios Streamyx.

Kuching, Sarawak

Kucing is Malay for ‘cat’. Asked a Sarawakian on why their capital city was named after an animal, and you’d get the simplest of reply: “coz there’re many cats here”. But fear not, for I can pledge that, in my 3-nights of vacation in Kuching, I did not detect a single cat-poo anywhere. Not even a whiff of it. In fact, Kuching is unbelievably clean that it was even voted as one of cleanest town in M’sia; so the brochure says.

Enjoying the Air Asia 'cheap' ride

Food
Ah, the most important agenda in traveling, or life. For breakfast, Rojak Kucai is the fav of the town. Not nasi lemak, nor roti canai. Kinda looks like Pasembor. But served with fried chicken. And it goes with something that we’re all familiar with – the all-Malaysian teh tarik. Other than this, I can’t find anything more unique about its food in comparison to West Malaysia. Except that, Sarawakians don’t really dig on spicy and hot-chilli food. Seafood - is a must. Try the butter prawns or anything 'sea'. Anyway they do it, it’s gonna be good. We went to a place called Top Spot, located on the 6th floor overlooking the gorgeous view of the town. But, the service was super-slow. I’ll surely return, but I’ll make reservation first.

Waterfront
This internationally acclaimed piece of river-bank is beautiful for night strolling. There are handicraft and food stalls and even sampan-ride to cross the river. Word of caution though, the food is a little expensive. The infamous giant ‘teh tarik’ is RM18. Regular fruit-juice that’s packed with ice instead of fruit-juice is RM6. The food is just so-so. And the service, again, was painfully slow. There’s a River Cruise restaurant-ferry with loud music that operates there. But, as soon as I heard it was playing NKOTB song, I decided to pass the ride.

Trying to 'blend-in'

Marsha really enjoys watching this. Really-really enjoying it...
... that she even found herself a dancing partner!

Cultural Village, Santubong
Located near Gunung Santubong, this mocked-up village is a crash-course on learning about the people of Sarawak. We gawked and gaped and froze half-dead at the RM60 per person entry fee, but once we’re in, it was worth it. But if you’re bringing along the whole family, aunties, uncles and long lost cousins, better check the wallet first. The whole ordeal will be ~4-6hours, so, bring that stroller. Love it.

Flying crocs. Why do we have to piss them off?

Crocodiles and Wild Animals
Yes, wiki-up Sarawak, and Orang-Utan will pop up on the screen. We managed to go to Jong’s Crocodile Farm. And Marsha loved it. Be sure to go there during the feeding time at 11:30am.

Handcrafts and Souvenirs
Stuffs made from wood and beads are a big thing there. Blow-pipes are cool too. Uniquely Sarawak. So are sago, pepper and kek-lapis. So, don’t worry about not being able to buy enough souvenirs.

A sweet pair of ... cats.

People, Roads & Transportation
Unlike West Malaysia, Sarawak consists of multi-ethnic communities, all 28 of it. But the general commonality is that, most of them are fair-skinned. There are many museums around. We hit the ‘Cat Museum’ that was surprisingly fun – for kids. Contrary to the ‘Borneo’ tag-line, Kuching town is surprisingly up-market and beautifully done. A drive at night paints a different picture. The whole town is strategically lit-up to display a wide array of colors and effects. It’s really breathtaking. And best part; the roads around town are amazing. It could even possibly stump KL. But the public busses are still re-living the 60’s. Avoid that. And tourists are aplenty. So, you’re never alone.

Did I mention that Marsha really lovesss the dancing show?

In short, Sarawak was a blast! And that’s just coming from us who were just gyrating Kuching, that’s only a tiny dot in Sarawak’s map. In future, I’d probably not go to Kuching anymore, but really looking forward to check out other parts of Sarawak. Special thanks to Vi for putting us up and driving us around. We’ll never forget it. Great experience!

Cellphone & Multimedia Shouldn’t Mix Too Much

The biggest limitation to making a cell-phone an equivalent to a micro multimedia computer is always the same; the battery life. Use the phone as a phone; you’ll have 3-5 days of stand-by. Use it as an MP3 player; you’ll have 12-20hours of usage. And use it as a video-player, 2hours – max.

I face this issue on one of my travel. Loaded with an MP3 and video-capable phone, complete with ‘offline/flight-mode’ to accompany me during those lonely hours of commuting, I ended-up NOT using it at all, for fear of battery drain-up – which is the LAST thing I need upon reaching the destination. And if I did, I would’ve gone to the phone booth to make calls and look really dumb – mainly coz the numbers that I want to dial is IN the dead phone. I guess, phone manufacturers should state clearly: “The multimedia functions are your license for bragging rights and not to be used like a real multimedia tool.”

So travelers, go get yourself an iPod, a portable DivX player and an internet-browsing-picture-viewing-gaming PDA, and save the phone for making calls. And if you think you need a hand-bag for this, if it makes you happy, by all means ;-)

iPhone

Reality bites. Just as I was reaching over to my iPhone to answer a call, I realized that - I don’t have one. Sigh. The reason to this psychopathic delusional behavior is that, for the past 21hours, I’ve been reading nothing else on the Internet but iPhone’s reviews. I’m such an iPhone expert now, that I’ve even studied the ‘inside’ of it (more info here, at anandtech.com).

It’ll probably be early next year until it docks Malaysia. And I sure do hope that Mr. Jobs comes up with iPhone version 1.1 by then. Coz the one released on 29th June is just a tiny short of some features that I want. So, here’s my list for Stevie.

3G HSDPA (or better) Support
Bluetooth Support for File x'fer, synch. & A2DP
MMS, definitely
Video Recorder
Auto-focus Camera, capable of macro shots
Web-browser with Flash support

Feature wise, Nokia N95 probably is a better “multimedia-phone” than iPhone. But, iPhone’s amazing UI and tasteful package are peerless. Making it luxuriously priceless. Just like an iPod. But, being a hardworking Malaysian, it’s a big spending for a phone. And until it meets my small list of ‘must-haves’, I’m sticking to my N95.

Eh, wait a minute… I don’t have N95.