MayDay

My radio alarm went off around 9 A.M. this morning.

I was just lying in bed, staring at the ceiling when I realized dam... half the year has just gone by.

I still remembered time went by really really slow when I was young.
Tuition and face-the-wall punishments from my parents were utter torture to me.
Time seem to have stood still during those days. Minutes were like hours.

But now, somehow things are like in FF(Fast Forward) Mode. The crappy part about life is that there isn't any Rewind, Pause button. It's just record, play and/or (for some) FF.
=/

Anyway, today was the first time my suburb (Mount Waverley aka the best place in Melbourne [in your face Inner City dwellers]) =D had loads of mist. Signs of winter are all around now. =O
But lucky me, I'll be heading back to K.K. where power failures and moist heat will be affecting me instead of the cold.


Stephenson Road

My Den
Hustler Court

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I dragged myself up to Uni to attend some tuts and lectures. Guess what greeted me?


Classes and lectures of Melbourne's top six Unis were called off. Why?


Apparently there is a 24 Hours strike in front of the state library where Uni staff demand higher pay for their job. I can imagine old Profs and Uni janitors holding their banners and marching around this cold, cold weather we have today.

More info @ http://www.theage.com.au/national/strike-threat-as-uni-staff-fight-for-pay-rise-20090506-avc9.html

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I was struggling with Electrical Analysis unit the past week. I wondered why did I want to take it up. Yesterday we had our last electrical project which we have to design, compute and make a electrical thermometer.

After completing the nifty gadget, I realized why I fell in love with electrical and electronics. The satisfaction I get from making a device that worked and was made from scratch was overwhelming and it gives me a sense of accomplishment.
=)

I made two. The blue PCB(Printed Circuit Board) therm is to monitor the temperature outside my house while the green PCB therm is to monitor my room's temp.

Temp ranges from -4 to 44 Celsius
The temp is in an interval of 4C. Temperature that are in between are rounded up to the nearest digit.


Blue and green PCB

Outside Temp - 16C
Room Temp - 20C

The blue PCB which has wires going outside of my room to measure the temp.

I love what I do.

Hope you guys are feeling the same with your course.
=D

Cheers and have a great week you all!

Metal Gear Solid Codec Ringtones!

Due to low availability of the MGS ringtones, I've downloaded some .wav files for the Metal Gear Solid Codec tones and edited them to enable you guys to use it as ringtones for your mobile. Sample rate is at 44.1kHz so this should allow most .mp3 playable phones to play it. Hope you guys love it!

Enjoy. =)

MGS Codec Ringtone - MP3 Stereo
http://www.mediafire.com/file/42ztqeiwdwm/MGS%20Codec.mp3

MGS Codec with Alert Ringtone - MP3 Stereo
http://www.mediafire.com/file/z4zzmam1nom/MGS%20Codec%20with%20alert.mp3

Shutting down for sem exam

Hey guys, I won't be going online for that often this month. I'm trying to cut down on distractions cuz my exam are in 5 weeks time. I'm having a pre-anxiety attack now. =/

The thought of revising electrical analysis and engineering dynamics is killing me. I don't think I'll be sleeping comfortably in my bed the next few weeks. I'd be worried about these things, oh I just pray that all the information I need manages to enter my lil cramp brain.

I'm so stressed out right now. It's 1.20 in the morning and I'm done with Thevenin's theorem. Hope you guys could pray for me as I really need it. Hope you guys do well in your finals. I'll keep you in my prayers if you need any.

Thank you all,

Goodnight world, goodnight to you my dear readers.
Sweet dreams.

Ming

6 More Weeks

Well, finals would be in 6 weeks. =/ I can't wait after the exam though cuz I'll be flyin' back to KK!

Everything is pretty awesome right now. I've meet Pastor Phillip at ACF Church where he did a seminar on Faith and Work which was pretty interesting. It was good to see another follow KK in Melb. This just made me miss home a lil bit more, missing all of you, friends, family and my pet prey mantis George which I presume would be dead by now in my bro's hands.

Those who are going back to KK, contact me yah? Can't wait to see you all!

Stolen from Adele on Easter Break

For my Easter update which is a few weeks ago, I stole a post from one of my LifeGroups housemate Adele. Hope she doesn't mind. =P

Is Back to Have Fun + Food

Posted by Adele Khor @ http://en-girl.blogspot.com/

Finally fully recovered and I'm back for more updates!
*wooohoo!*


This is suppose to be an after Easter post, well it's not too late I guess. =)


After church on Good Friday, we had lunch at a Chinese Restaurant. And after lunch, Matthew (the guy in black shirt n specs - centre) was hired on the spot and required to work within that minute! Woah so easy for him to get a part time job, the auntie must have liked him a lot!

Oh well, where is my luck? Anyone wanna hire me? hahaha


Okay, after that we headed home to get ready for dinner preparation.

All of them bumming over at my house.
It's been long since I had such a youthful life. HAHA!

While waiting for the main chef to prepare the food, we played Apples & Apples.

Need lots of effort to explain and convince. And I can never bother to do that. haha

After dinner, we played a game called "Wolf"! It's similar to "Mafia", if you know this game.

Its an advanced version of Mafia and has more interesting characters.

I tell you I heart this game a lot. I'm SO addicted to it. Too bad we didn't have more people or else the game would be MORE fun! And too bad some have to leave for the last train, or else we'll be playing throughout the whole night!

Who wanna sleep over and have a game night?!

Lets have a look what the chef has prepared.....

Steak!! Very strong wine flavour. That made me quite tipsy. haha

Joan prepared baked potatoes.

And I made mashed potatoes and tokpoki, a Korean delicacy. *best best*

Stomach was already above the max limit, but we still have little space for dessert of course.

Jelly + Sago + Coconut + Gula Melaka = satisfying dessert.


























Look how professional is this chef! He cooked the steak and he's even capable of making good dessert. *salute* And this little boy is VERY young but so talented with his hands.




















Tadaaa!! Aren't you impressed ;)
A satisfying meal ... I had!

Time for cupcakes!

I've wanted to bake a proper cutey prettie cupcakes, but I never had the chance yet. (excuses all the time)

Have a look at the pweetieee cupcakes that Kathy made for me. Awwww... *loved*

I will perform my skills too...one day....


Though I've no time to bake, but here's my piece of art....

~Mango Pudding~

Tempted?? uh? uh?

I am telling you this is good stuff. haha

Though I didn't do it from scratch, but I made it! ~oh yeah~ (don't ask how I made this :D )

I'm a serious mango pudding addict! Just feed me this and I'll stay alive :)

Thanks again Adele. =D

Cooking things with an oven

Yesterday, Aunt Wong and I made some desserts to treat ourselves. Apparently both the desserts required the use of ovens which is not my thing. I can cook on stoves and barbe grills with ease but not with oven. In fact, I've only used an oven once or twice under my mum's supervision. For me, I prefer the stove cause things get cooked really fast and I'm not restricted by a oven door blocking my way.

Anyway, the desserts we made were pavlova and bread and butter pudding. It was my first time making them so 80% of it was cooked my Aunt Wong. I just watched and learn from Aunt Wong, oh I also cracked some eggs(20% of the total work! I can safely say 'Aunt Wong and I made the desserts' =D).

These desserts are really simple to do!

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Pavlova
6 eggs (egg whites)
15 oz of caster sugar
3-5 tablespoon of corn flour
2-3 teaspoon of vanilla essence
2 teaspoon of vinegar
1 pinch of bicarbonate soda

Steps:

1. Crack and separate the egg white and yolk into 2 different bowls.
2. Preheat the oven to 120-130 Celsius
   
3. Whip up the egg white with a machine mixer at MAX speed (make sure no traces of oil in the mix).
4. Slowly add the caster sugar into the thick fluffy mix, 1 tablespoon at a time.
5. After that, just add the remaining ingredients into the mix.
6. When the mixture is thick, smooth and glossy stop the machine.
7. Pour the mix on a baking sheet(sprinkle the sheet with some corn starch to prevent it from sticking!)
8. Level the mix to about an inch thick.
9. Pop the thing in the oven. If you like it to be fluffy on the inside cook it for about 45 minutes. The other alternative would be cooking for 2 hours to make a cookie texture.
10. Prepare some whip cream and some fruits and pour them on top of the pavlova

Pictorial!
Preperation

Egg whites

The mixture

Before popping it into the oven

Bread and butter pudding
6 eggs (egg yolk[from the previous recipe] or eggs)
8-10 slices of bread
150 ml of thickened cream
300-400 ml of fresh milk
1 tablespoon of caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence
butter
raisins (any type of non citrus fruit)
a few pinches of cinnamon powder and nutmeg powder

Steps:

1. Pour the egg yolk, thickened cream, milk, caster sugar and vanilla essence into a bowl and blend everything until the mixture becomes smooth.
2. Preheat the oven to 150 Celsius
3. Take the bread and spread both sides with butter.
4. Line the bottom of a large ceramic pot with the bread. Add some raisins on top. Make approximately 3 layers of bread with some raisins or fruits between them.
5. Pour the mixture into the ceramic bowl and use a fork to gently press the bread slices (to make sure the all layers soak up the mixture goodness).
6. Pop the thing into the oven and take it out when the top is all brown and crusty.
7. Serve it with some vanilla ice cream

Pictorial!
1st layer of bread and raisins

The mixture poured onto the layers of bread

Baking the Pavlova with the pudding

The final product! :)

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Hope you guys will make some and enjoy!

Bobo the DOG wanting some treats.

Oh yeah, I'll be going back to K.K. around 21st of June! =DDD I'll be in K.K. for around 18 days though, but I'll try my best to meet up with you guys IF some of you are still around.

P/S: I still dislike Bobo. Boo on you Beagle!

Labret

Well, I had a labret a few weeks ago. SHOCKING? Yes, to my parents. -.- They thought I joined some My Chemical Romance cult.

The Experience

Basically I signed up for a free piercing at 'OYT'. As new piercers needed a model to do their piercing on, I was chosen for the labret. If I paid for it, it will cost me around AUS 70 bucks. O.o Shocking, considering you could get it done in K.K. for I dunno 20 to 30 ringgit?

Before I signed up, I did loads of research on labret. What did I search for?

1. Sakit kah? I can't tolerate pain [you can confirm it with my sis or mum]
Well, the truth is. There is pain. But the pain is more like a hard pinch on the lower lip area. But the adrenaline would most likely cover up the pain. =)

2. Any bad effects towards my gums and teeth
Surprisingly, some people do experience gum and teeth damage after having a labret. Most of the related cases, the gauge [length of the stud] wasn't long enough so a layer of skin will grow over the base of the stud. When this happens you have to tear through the skin which will definitely hurt. The best way to avoid any damage is to use ceramic plated studs which would just slide around the teeth and gum area rather than scratching it.

3. Any conflict with my religion [being a Christian etc..]
Apparently there is a greyline here. Tattoos and piercing during the Old Testament days were done in pagan tradition and to mark slaves. Under the law in the Old Testament people were instructed in Leviticus 19:28, "You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you: I am the LORD." (See Deuteronomy 14:1 as well). Though we no longer live under the law of the Old Testament, many question if this now justifies various piercing in the flesh if not done out of pagan tradition.

In Exodus 21:6 the Bible tells us if a servant wanted to remain servant to his master he would have his ear pierced as recognition that he will be so forever. In Genesis chapter 35 Jacob was told to "put away the foreign gods" among the people and to cleanse themselves. In verse 4 this included taking out their earrings from their ears.

The choice to permanently pierce or mark my body is my own. The Bible states in 1 Corinthians 10:31, "Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." I've known Christians friends who've gotten tattoos representing their Christian faith. I don't have a solid opinion on this matter-not that I'm any authority anyway.

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Back to the experience. I went into this little white room with medical supplies on the left and a bed on the right. The piercer called Grace asked me a few questions regarding my health just to make sure no further complications would happen after it is done.

She gave me an alcohol swab and later on marked my lower lips where the labret would be. I was certainly nervous cause I DON'T LIKE NEEDLES. I was lying on the bed looking up at the ceiling. She used a tong to hold my lower lip and told me to take a deep breath. After a few seconds...

JAB

It wasn't THAT painful like the 'useful' videos you get on youtube, more like a pinch on the chin. From what I could recall, my lips just felt warm. By the time I realised I was pierced, everything was over. Quick and easy. It was hard to talk, eat and to drink the 1st week. But after that I got used to it, my mum went $^&T@&!^. My dad went &^(&^^$*%. My sis went 'Oh, did you tell mum and dad?' My grandparents went 'Eh, mat yeh hai Labret? LOL



P/S: I know my boundaries. I have my own limits. If anything comes in conflict with the Bible, I WILL NOT DO IT. In this I promise God.

Q&A

Why did I get one?
Well, to be honest I was just curious and wanted a piercing.

Why not on the ear?
I find ear piercing gay.

Are you gonna get another one?
Yeah. Probably the next 30 years of my life I would have tons of it done on my arms. (Blood test) XD Haha, got ya! Of course not. This is my one and only one. I'll be taking it off when it fully heals though which is another 2-3 months.

Overcoming the obstacle

Well, I'm really sorry for not updating my blog! Sigh, my course is damn challenging. For those who still don't know what I'm taking, I'm curretly pursuing Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering in Monash. This is my 2nd sem and the first few weeks of the course was alright. But now things are just... hard. Loads of maths involved. =/

Don't worry guys, I'll pull through. =D

Oh! I've also started a small business on eBay. I'm doing some little import and export of electronics and gadgets worldwide. So far everything is going smooth. I've sold a few items and gained a total of around AUS 300 from the sales (this does not include the items intial cost). =)
If some of you are planning to do a lil business on eBay, do some research on the market and play around with items that costs less than 50 bucks.

I'll be updating my blog every week now. Don't expect much pictures though, I'll try my best to get some to make my blog more lively. =)

Have a great weekend!

Cheers!