boon's log 0806.07: Slow and steady...

That's how my Sunday went. The weather changed drastically, today. Before I left for church, it was a nice sunny Sunday morning; heavy clouds came in later on and it started to drizzle soon after church service. By the time I reached home, it started to rain. So, spent almost the entire rained-in-afternoon "rekindling the flame" with my good ol' PS2. Played and completed Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne [Detective]... with a little bit of work and gym in between. As with most games, you kinda get stuck to it more when you dwell deeper and deeper into the storyline - pretty nice game. I might just re-play again... later. Time to hit the sack.

boon out...

boon's log 0806.06: Mystery Spot, CA

Of all the photos that I took at the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz, this one amazes me the most. Our tour guide, (who, by the way looks very much like my dear Mr. KungfuTofu) the guy in green pants, released a billiard ball from Point A and the ball actually rolled towards Point B (Points A & B are marked on the picture on the left). He also had a "leveling ruler" and the bubble raised towards the A direction. This means Point A is higher then Point B - where the direction from Point A to Point B is down hill.

However, compare pictures X and Y. The guy seems to be taller than the lady when he stands on Point B (which is actually lower than Point A).

"Believe it... or not." :)

Before I arrived at the Mystery Spot, what I had in mind was that it's just another one of those tilted houses that makes you dizzy, making you believe that the earth's gravity has been altered in some mysterious way - like a optical illusion or something like that. But having seen thins, it IS TRULY mind boggling, and trust me - it's no optical illusion.

A few tried to explain this interesting phenomenon, but non has been confirmed or proven. Read more here... www.mysteryspot.com.

boon out...

boon's log 0806.04: More photos from Monterey Bay

Here are more photos from the Monterey Bay road trip...











boon out...

boon's log 0806.02: President's Day '06

Initially, the group planned to drive down to Sin City for the long holiday weekend. But as fast as the plan went to the drawing board and sent out through email by our trusty self-unwilling-secretary, YY, the plan went to the dumps with people pulling back from the trip. I did not want to waste the nice weather-ed holiday weekend (though Saturday was a little cloudy/rainy), decided to go somewhere. Anyway, on Saturday, we went on and did something that we can do be it rain or shine (nope, not sleeping...) - shopping.

Sunday was Church, grocery and then a little work... Oh by the way, the message last Sunday was rather interesting - talking about not using the Lord's name in vain. So many times we get into the habit having phrases like "God Dammit" and "Oh, my God!" slip out of our mouths - among others, where the local Americans uses God's name together with other swearing words. It's like a little reminder to many of us when we've been Christians for so long and have really forgotten about these basic stuffs. His bottome line was when invoking His name not in the context of praising Him - don't.

Anyway...

On President's Day itself, I pulled DM along (since the rest either did not feel well or had their own plans) we did a road trip down to Mystery Point and then on to Monterey Bay. It was quite a trip, and nice scenic drive too. Loads of pictures no time to go through all of them yet. Just managed to do up a picture postcard with my car, though... Will post-process and upload more pictures later (when time permits).



We did not manage to do the Monterey-Bay-famous 17-Mile Drive, but we did manage to do the ~10-Mile drive before the 17-Mile drive which was very good and scenic! Just this pre-17-mile drive alone kept us busy already. We stopped almost every few minutes just getting down of the car to snap photos. This pre-17-Mile is free while you will have to pay $8.75 to do the 17-Mile drive - We'll be back, I guess. DM said that he's gonna upgrade his camera and then we'll need to go back to Monterey Bay again... we'll see... :)

We completed the day with a nice (but price-y) authentic Malaysian Meal of Roti Canai, Chicken Rendang and Belacan KangKung and washed them down with typical kopitiam coffee... at the Banana Leaf Restaurant at Milpitas. After a long day running around taking pictures and all that, trust me - it was like we died and went to heaven!



It was a tiring but fulfilling day and when i reached home, it was almost 11:30PM and i had to jump into a conference meeting and then worked until 4AM this morning... urgh... yawn.

more pictures coming up...

boon out...

boon's log 0706.07 (supplementary a): Back at Lakeside

Was back at Lakeside Church today. It was truly a refreshing experience. It was nice to be back worshipping with the Lakesiders. The worship team was spectactular. IL's favourite worship leader (we nick'ed him "de moustache guy") was singing today.

Makes me miss worshipping back in FGAC, PG. We managed to meet up with our cell group members on the Friday for the CG meeting and on Sunday for service before I left. It was nice to meet up with them again and do some catch up. Looking forward to meeting up with them again.

boon out...

boon's log 0706.07: Dopey Diaries February '06

I managed to capture a few images of Dopey while I was back for the CNY holidays about a week ago. It's been almost six months since I last saw him and he still remembers me. That's something good to know. And he's still as cheeky and naughty as I remembered him. He suffered a ruptured eyeball (left) a while back - which may have been caused by severe eye irritation. We brought him to the vets a couple of times when we noticed he had a red eye, but the vet that we first visited did not see this coming. Eventually, we came to know that that particular pet clinic has a few veterinarians - family business. And one of them happens to be quite irresponsible and has less passion in his work and for animals... But by the time we found out, it was too late. we immediately switched to another vet and tried our best to save the eyeball. In a lot of cases, the ruptured eye needs to be removed, but the new vet that we went to did a very good job in saving the eye... and according to him, Dopey's as good in getting around the house with one eye as with both of them. Dogs depend a lot on their hearing too, besides their sight. So, he'll survive pretty well.

And right the vet is. During his recovery period, Dopey lived like a king. Because of the pain that the poor fella was going through, he resisted to eat and sleep. So, the entire family let him have his way - as long as he eats and sleeps properly, just so that he recovers soon. He's recovered pretty much by the end of last year and he thought that he could remain "king" of the house. We had to re-train him on a lot of stuffs (we still are) to make sure that he does not get (too) spoilt - succeeding in some areas, and failing in some... well, so far, the only person that he is really afraid of is IL and I (but more of me). So hopefully while IL is back in Penang right now, she'll be able to continue to re-train him. He's a very bright little dog, but also mischevious... many times, he can make you wanna hug him into bits, while at times, he can make your blood boil. Sigh...


Dopey Diaries February '06: Dopey doing his regular "immigration" bag search.


Dopey Diaries February '06


Dopey Diaries February '06


boon out...

boon's log 0706.02: Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day too everyone - married, un-married, unattached. Celebrate the day with your loved one. Don't think we have to have to over-exaggerate the already-over-exaggerated occasion - know what I mean? After all, the main idea is to spend it with the one you love. Year after year, people never stop complaining how more and more commercialized Valentine's Day is. Here's what I mean...

Last Saturday, IL and I went to a flower-warehouse where we normally get our flowers from. It was just the normal visit - not intending to get flowers for Valentine's. The normal price for 2 dozens of red roses was RM13-RM14. I got the shock when the store keeper told me that because of the Valentine's Day season, the price has shot up to RM48. A whopping 269% price increase! And it's from the warehouse, not even with baby-breath or any wrappings! Just the flowers wrapped with Nanyang Siang Pau (one of the nations Chinese Daily). According to her, the price went up a week before V-day. Talk about daylight robbery... No, of course I did not buy them. Call me stingy or what - but RM2 for an untrimmed rose with thorns wrapped in newspaper is definitely not sensible and worth it - but wait, when has Valentine's Day ever been sensible or worth it? :)

IL and I celebrated V-Day early this year due to my travel schedules - we are one of the few of those who believe that we should not limit ourselves to celebrating our love on Valentine's Day alone - it should be celebrated all year round - but we just went ahead with it anyways, just to join in the crowd :P, but of course within sensible limits.

Anyways, here are some photo shoots of SF 3 weekends ago, before my return to Penang for the CNY holidays...


Golden Gate Bridge, from the Golden Gate national Recreation Area


The Fog


Painted Ladies, Alamo Square

boon out...

boon's log 0606.06: Happy Chinese New Year 06

Chap Goh Meh awaits... Time flies with the blink of an eye. 15 days of CNY just zoomed past like a bullet train. And it's finally back to real work again - well actually, I've started work on the 4th day of CNY... but not in my actual office. Will be heading back this weekend... In fact have been pretty busy this CNY - most of the time working from home...

Nothing much really happened this CNY. CNY these recent years has been getting more and more quiet, because more and more of my cousins get married and they need to be at their husband's family on the first day of CNY and we only meet up for a quick dinner on the second of CNY - and we literally had a quick dinner this year.

We ate at a restaurant in Menglembu. And the restaurant actually had a three dinner schedules ~6PM, ~7:30PM, ~9PM (or something like that...) we we literally had to rush through our dinner. What was supposed to be a 7 course dinner was gushed down our throats within half an hour to 45 minutes... they kept pushing the dishes out. Gosh... it was horrible, we vowed that we will not return for CNY dinners.

And then we adjourned back to my parent's for some drinks and then a short session of card games - typical CNY activities...

Then IL and I headed back to my in-law's place - where the "card games" continued and continued... and continued... I heard that there will be another final call tonight at one of my relative-in-laws' place. Uh-oh...

It was pretty much what I expected it to be; but I guess, as always, I missed those times when all of us were younger and when all the cousins were still around (and unmarried) for the entire duration of the CNY celebrations and just have a heck of a time together. There were also the times when my school friends used to hangout late at night and lighting up the skies with fireworks and the late nights at the hawker stalls...

Hmm... somehow, that me being a little nostalgic, reminiscing the past...

Well, hope that you've all had a wonderful CNY celebration wherever you are (were). And many happy returns for the rest of the year 2006...

boon out...

P/S: KungfuTofu, WH and CW: If you're reading this - my apologies for not being able to meet up with you all during my short trip home - promise to catch-up when I get back later this year... Happy Chinese New Year...