Can you tie it?

Guys, this post is specifically for you. Of course, ladies are welcomed to try them out too. It's be awesome to rock a dress shirt, a vest and a tie with dress pants in parties n stuffs.

At that all important meeting, a job interview, a client pitch, dinner parties and all kind of occasions requiring you to wear ties, do you stick to just one way of tying your tie, or do you dare to go above and beyond? Why not, right? Afterall, dressing to impress isn't just limited to the ladies. 

If you happen to only have plain dress shirt and feel nothing you wear could accentuate your personality, why not let your tie shine you through. Need an icebreaker? Not a single word is required. People are bound to ask, hey how'd you tie your tie like that?

Lemme start by being vain and show you a small part of my tie collection. 


As a friend noted to me once, the art of tying a tie has to be a personal discovery. I'll show you some of my favourite tie styles (which I have only just learnt) and let you explore and try it out yourself. 

This one's the most common - safest and one of the easiest tie style there is. The half-Windsor.



These are Eldredge Knot. 

And this one's a Trinity

Just some of the more prominent ones. Interesting, aren't they? So next time you need that extraa boost of confidence for a presentation, trying to impress your future employer with how well you can dress, or just attending some dinner, try one of the above knots on your tie. It'll sure draw some attention and make a lasting impression. 

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Most scariest thing evaaa!!!

I had the scare of my life yesterday. D'you wanna know what happened? I came home, turned on the TV, had dinner while watching Spiderman and WhatsApp-ing (LOL thats a word?) a couple of friends, then noticed my battery wasn't charging. The charging LED was on, and the charging animation seemed ok. That is, until I took a closer look. The animation was jagged and skipping. A clear indication that something is wrong - that the phone isn't charging. And then, as I went through the applications that could cause the problem . . . . .


I totally went WTF! I tried plugging it into my laptop - same popup. Tried my sister's charger (she has the same phone and same model) same popup! I almost died! So I turned off the WiFi, turned off the data, still not charging. I turned off the phone and tried charging it in that state for 15 minutes, but when I turned it back on, 8% left! OMG!!!

Flabbergasted, I almost resigned to turning it off and going phoneless for what could be a few days. The phone used nano sim and my other phones used the common simcard. I thought, thats fine. I might miss a few messages, maybe some important ones. but I was prepared. It was cool..

Then I noticed my brother's charger lying around. I don't think that was his phone's charger tho, even if it has the same port. I am usually against using a different charger other than ones specifically for my phone's model. They don't make them different solely for looks, you know. Power ratings could be different. I decided to risk it - and I was right. Imagine charging 25% in 15 minutes? But I had it turned off, cuz when I attempt to charge my phone while it's on using my brother's charger, the charging LED blinks from charging to not charging almost wildly. 

When I got to almost 30%, I can't risk any longer and decided to try using my own charger again. Voila! Somehow that fixed it. I guess something messed up somewhere. I'm keeping a watchful eye while charging now. 

As an afterthought :
  1. Unless it is an emergency, do not use a charger that was not built for your phone model. Same goes to Laptop or anything else that needs charging. Even if they are from the same brand, the same maker, same port, only different model, do not risk it. Power rating may be different and may damage your battery. If you have to use it, use it sparingly and knowing the consequences. 
  2. Dude, it's just a phone. Nothing to panic about. Yeah sure you might miss important calls or texts, Facebook and Twitter posts and stuffs, but chill out. Take it as a blessing that you get to spend time without distraction with the people immediately around you. 
Note : This post is meant as an over exaggeration of a real event. No phone, charger or person was harmed in any way. ^_^

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A post from HootSuite!

Being a geek that I am, as long as I have the internet, I prefer to use my own tools and interfaces, regardless of PC or laptop or even phone that I am using. Thanks to gmail and Google Chrome, I am able to do this. Sure there may be other mail accounts and browser are able to do this, but I got used to gmail and chrome and all of it's extensions. 


For those unfamiliar with what I am talking about, in a nutshell, I have my gmail and Chrome synced together. So as long as the machine (Desktop, laptop, phone etc) that I use has Chrome installed, I can sign in and voilà! I have all my Chrome extensions (similar to you phone's apps, which includes calendars, notes, YouTube  mail, and even games) ready to be used. Pic on the left are some of my extensions. 



Tweetdeck is one of my most used extension. I got news weeks ago saying that Tweetdeck will be retired. Its connection to Facebook and FourSquare has been removed recently, adding to the validity of the news. So I went out to find myself a new Twitter aggregator, and lookie lookie, I found HootSuite!

At first I was sceptical - it's difficult to find extensions that does just what you want it to do. More is welcomed, but then again some of them just go overboard. I also would not like to have to pay for them (typical Malaysian - sue me {that was a joke, please don't sue me} ) yet if they're free, I would not like to be bombarded with adverts. So yeah, finding extensions that fits the requirement can be tough. However, I digress. 

HootSuite has a paid version and a free personal version. The paid version (naturally) offers more features like extensive traffic reports and analytics (bloggers tend to want to keep an eye on this) and what not, but I settled down comfortably with the free personal version. It offers me to connect up to 4 social accounts - I have Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and Google+ (still no idea how to utilize this to the max) so far. If you use Wordpress as your blogging client, you can link that as well. As for me, since I use Blogspot, HootSuite allows me to install a Blogspot extention into it so I can have another tab for Blogspot. 

Fuuuhhh... this is probably another long post, but I am certain that you can benefit from using HootSuite like I did. First of all, it is very clean and well designed. No clutter, single place to post to all your connected social network, or just to some that you can select to your liking! You can attach pictures as well, and it will generate a short url should you want to post it to Twitter to save up some of those characters. XD 

Why HootSuite? Why would you want to have Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, and all your social network in one browser tab? Simple. Window Asset. I used to have one tab open for each of my social network, and add that with various Googling I normally do on a daily basis for both work and play, I may end up with 10s and 20s tabs open. How about new window? Well that doesn't solve much, does it? More clicking, more alt-tabbing. (yeap, a geek always find the shortest means possible to access anything and everything). 


With HootSuite, I get one tab, and within that one tab, I have another level of tabs for each of my social networks. All streams are in their own respective tabs. I used to have Facebook + FourSquare + Twitter on the same stream. I had to scroll down a lot and end up missing some interesting posts. Having them separated but still in the same place is convenient. I can even have specific columns for specific items - as you can see my Facebook tab has columns for RWMF so I get posts in it at a glace without having to go into the group's page. All the settings and profilings and preferences are placed vertically and minimally on the left side. All in all, a compact, versatile and easy to use extension. 

So if you're like me, a social junkie, lots of social accounts, always on the go, do try HootSuite as a Chrome Extension. If you need clarification, post a comment, I'll help you out - no charge, just satisfaction (please don't take that in the wrong way. seriously. just, don't. >.<) 

HootSuite also has wicked sense of humour. LOL!

PS: One of the shortcoming is that on Blogspot, I don't get all the functions like resizing my images with a single click, justified text allignment, uploading my own image etc. Well, least all the basics are there.

PSS : HootSuite is available on Chrome Extension Store. Also avaliable in Google Play for Android devices. 

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He who laughs in company weeps alone

Have a read of a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox below. I would like to dissect it line by line, find the figurative meaning of each stanza, but I do not want to imply my interpretation of the poem to yours should you try to interpret it too.


Laugh, and the world laughs with you;

Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air;
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.



Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go;
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all,—
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life’s gall.



Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a large and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain. 

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Do you want s'more food?

What do you get when you combine heat, marshmallow and cracker? S'more!!! Traditionally, marshmallows are roasted on an open fire (usually during camping trips) and then sandwiched between two graham crackers together with chocolate. Since I don't have any graham crakers - nor do I know how it looks like exactly having never found it anywhere in Kuching - which I'm almost certain some supermarkets do have them - I used Tiger crackers for substitute. As for chocolate, I got creative and sprinked Milo! >.<

Like I said, traditionally, the marshmallow would be roasted on fire - I took the high-tech approach of microwaving it (turns out after looking at Wikipedia, microwaving s'mores is pretty common...) And the result?


Looks good eh? I only dared to try one because at that time I had a suspicion that the marshmallow would explode in the microwave. For this particular s'more, I used medium power, 30 seconds - rest for 5 seconds, and another medium power for 20 seconds. The second time I tried it I used medium power for 50 40 seconds continuously - that did not turn out as well as the first. 

Anyways this is purely preference, but generally you don't want to heat it too much too long cuz then you'd have to wait for it to cool down or risk burning your tongue. Honestly, who has the patience when it comes to food?!

 

Trust me, this is an awesome snack to enjoy with family and friends over some football / basketball / tennis / badminton whatever, or just movies / series at home in the living room. If you do go out camping, I'm almost certain that roasted marshmallow beats microwave any day. 


Another guide - if you decide to use Milo or any powder form (milk / chocolate powder) -  sprinkle, don't spoon. As you can see in the picture above, it tend to melt and then stick together forming a candy hard sweet center filling. Not chewy, just hard. Unless if you're into biting hard candy, I don't recommend it..



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Labour Day Part 2 : Late Lunch

Kuchinglites will know this place - and most probably have been here too. A fairly new addition to Damai's cluster of resorts and hotels, Damai Central is very much welcomed especially to the temporary and permanent tenants of the resorts and hotels in the area, especially the 24 hours convenience store 7 Eleven. 

After spending a couple of hours wandering various shopping malls in town, me and my friends was feeling a little hungry. At first, we planned to have lunch at CityOne, but upon arrival, parking was a b*tch (basement was closed for some reason. On a Labour Day! During lunch hour!) 

Now I was happy with Secret Recipe, Ayamku, Sugarbun, KFC, McDonalds or even Pizza Hut whatever that is in town. My mates, however, had a different idea. All the way to Damai. I was planning to jog that evening. That went out of the window. 

We ended up at Bayridge Fine Seafood. Yeah I've had my dose of Benadryl earlier, but by noon the effect would've worn off. We had plenty to eat tho. Too much for three person - that we all agreed on. 


These are the dishes - Midin Belacan and Sweet n Sour Chicken. Quite nice actually. We also had Fish Lips and Oyster Soup (which I silently regret eating having to control myself from excessive nose and ear scratching). It is delicious, I just wish I still have some Benadryl around to save me.


And the main dish : a HUGE Talapia Curry. 

I would recommend the place, but it isn't for everyone. If you're up for something different, dining on the seaside, do drop by for a visit. 

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Labour's Day Part 1 : Breakfast

It has been years (may or may not be exaggerating) since I've been here : Madam Tang's Cafe, serving one of (if not THE) BEST! Laksa Sarawak ever!! Couple that with either a Teh C Peng Special or Wheatgrass C Peng or your favourite drinks  - preferably cold because it is deliciously spicy depending on your tolerance,  and with milk to help wash it down. 

Located on Jalan Petanak, near Riverine Apartment, the easiest way to not miss it is to drive to the Padungan / Travillion roundabout (the one with the Maneko Neki Cat Statue, take the exit going towards MBKS or Hock Lee Center, you'll see Shell on your left, take the left junction immediately after it. Drive along the road a little and you'll see it. It's open from 7am to 12pm daily (I think - do correct me in the comments if I am wrong). 

A little warning tho - if you're allergic to seafood (like me) take your meds before or after (depending on your prescription) you enjoy the laksa. And if you're not a frequent visitor or a first timer (here or having Laksa Sarawak ever) do order the special bowl. Totally worth it. 

Will you just look at them prawns!! Yumzzz!! Yeap as I said, I am allergic to seafood but I kid you not, this is totally worth getting elephant ears, Angelina Jolie lips (on a dude, not cool) and not to mention itchiness as a side-effect after eating it! The gravy (or soup whatever u wanna call it) is made from boiling prawns before chicken that were later used to top the dish - is thick and creamy and just owh so delish!

My friends decided to go for something else - plain wantan, wantan in soup and beef noodle. They all look good - they all were hungry - they all dug in before I could remember to take pictures! Anyways, if you do find the time or have friends from outside Kuching coming for a visit, this is a must place to stop for breakfast! 

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