"Us against Em"
Thursday, November 24, 2005

The mentality of "us" against/versus against "em" is one of the most core cognition in humans that brought us together and formed into groups/factions/communities/clan/tribe/gang/etc. We human arent isolated beings, that's a reason why thousands of scientists labeled us as social beings, not just because we socialize, but we tends to, desires to, have to socialize and acquire the feeling of "not alone", being as part of the group, in order to obtain something from it.

Most ppl felt comfortable when they are with friends (selectively tho), mates, or family members as compared to when they are not, as during the process of interaction or in lay-man's term 'get to know' each other's period, we somehow managed to create a bond (could be one sided) with each other. It would take longer time to form this kind of relationship or affiliation depending on the criteria you have in making friends. As far as i know, some ppl are very particular with their friends, they must have certain qualities or attributes in em already, if not, he/she will just labeled you as "hi-bye accquaintances" (e.g must have model looking outlook, must have at least a car, or must share at least 2-3 similar hobbies/interests with me, etc)

The definition of friendship is very subjective, it's hard to define in a proper or accurate manner, as it varies between gender (even), across culture, and even age group in my oppinion. It is true that, ppl often flock on to each other, based on the few core elements: a) similarities in interest, cognition, or behaviors (ah beng find ah lian, geek find nerds, bimbo find macho, low key find low profile, that kinda of grouping), b) diversities or differences in interest, cognition, or behaviors (normally happened in cross-gender friendships), c) environmental condition (meaning, the pool of friends you gather depends on the area you mingle around, it's fairly logical, as it's hard for you to make a papua new guinean friend if you havent even leave malaysia n all). Nonetheless, the way we choose our friends very much depending on the intention, or any other cognition behind the reason of it, as some ppl make friends just simply because they love to, some people make friends just because of convenience, some ppl have some ulterior motives, some people couldnt care less and flock around, some people couldnt care less and stay home and make his computer his best and only friend, etc.

So, why am i making such a big thing or spending so much effort on trying to ellaborate bout friendships or human interaction? Because i m bored? Because I m lacking it? Because i have too many friends? Because I am confused? ar nga

The reason is pretty simple, what I am trying to say here is, people differ from each other in such a huge degree (hence, unique) and that's the reason why we kept making friends (because you cant grew boredom of meeting new faces unless you are fixated with the goddess faces morphing in your computer monitor), at the same time, that's also the reason why we shouldn't judge people based on anything, as we do not have the capability, rights, accuracy of judgment and anything to make such comment and labeled them as something, therefore heck racism, f8ck the 'us against em' system (unless you are playing some competitive team game, e.g. soccer, if that's the case.. DIE CHELSEA DIE!!!), dice and shred down all the stereotypes you have. Some people might have their own intention or ulterior motive to get near to you, and yes it might induce certain sources of harm to you, but by slamming shut your door and forbidding the rest of the nice nice people outside from getting to know you, geez, you gotta learn how to grow up and stop that "i don't friend you" kindergarten mentality. And yes, rivalry relationship is considered as healthy depending on context and conditions, even sibling rivalry could be beneficial (but not to extent where involving guns n knives n so on).

Oh yea, havent i revealed the reason for me to write down all these rantings? hehe, let's keep it subtle and not to be too probing... hehe, as curiosity often leads cat to death.




leaving skool f-r3d at 11:09 AM 1 pokies

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A little too soon
Friday, November 18, 2005

A little too soon, yes.. I m not implying on the fact that it's abit too soon for genius like me to graduate at the end of this year.. no, nope.. but about me being tied on and attached to someone of my liking.. hmm..

It's weird to post up something like this at such period, as yea, i know i m suppose to prepare for my exams until blood-coughing, brain-squeezing and due to exam pressures i should be at the stage of burnout and slimmed down to half of my intial weight, but not announcing here that yea i m commited..

So, i guess, now the biggest question here would be, "who's she?" "do i know her?" "could it be a he? (only ppl like joel might ask) "Is she pretty?" and so on..

As you know.. i m not that kind of guy who trophy their gfs or wives like wearing a rolex out running like that, no.. i m not, i m more conservative and modest.. furthermore she's bit shy.. hehe

So, to my friends around here in Adelaide, nope, she's not someone you know, she's not in adelaide currently

To my other friends, she's an old accquaintance of mine, so you might not know her

To my old school friends, you might know/you might not, as she's very low-profile

To my cousins/siblings/parents, yes, she's pretty, both outlook and personality, and she's not australian, so dun worry, i wont marry an ang moh.

hmm.. yea.. so i guess i wont be able to run as freely and as impulsive as i used to.. aighz..
this might be my last post, posting as a bachelor..

And yea. i dun wanna hold your curiosity for long.. so.. here's my gf.

leaving skool f-r3d at 2:23 PM 6 pokies

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My name is...
Wednesday, November 09, 2005

If you know me well.. or happen to involve in conversation with me on the topic of Names and how sometimes mixture of first name and sur name could results in some funny/silly/embarassing or rather "unique" combination, you would know that this topic can easily be ranked as the top 5 fav topics that I would like to talk or crap about. Though you might argue that having a good or proper name doesnt really matters as long as you have a good and proper personality.. but hello.. your highschool moral teacher might buy that kinda crap, but not me. Imagine, you inherit godly personality like gandhi the great and purity of mother Theresa, but when being asked by your kindergarten teacher on, "what's your name boy?" and you had to reply, "err.. my name is.. Holland Tiu" (Hou Lan Tiu = Big time M*ther F*cking Cock-up) hmm.. the world isnt going to be bright for you everytime you have to reveal your full name man..

Romanized Chinese names in particular are prone to having errors or miscalculation like that.. and end up having funny names.. Due to improper registry or weak linguistic ability, or some screwed up reasons (e.g. mistakes made by nurses that accidentally register your surname "Sek" to "Sak"), some traditional chinese surnames when being romanized or encoded into English produces funky result, like "Yew Ken Fatt" (You can Fatt/F8ck *depends on how you interpret it) and "Soh Can Ai".

Also, due to the reason that there are many dialects even among the chinese, romanized chinese names can be turned into laughing stocks in 'dialectual' context, For example: Chan Yeung Shui 陳阳水 brings no obstructive meaning in Mandarin, as it simply means water of the sun, but phonologically it means very ugly in cantonese, samething goes for all the Tiew/Tius (in cantonese, Tiu/tiew means f*ck or any equivalent swear words)

You don't normally find this kind of thing common in western names.. as their names are made up words by words but not consonant-like characters, the only error they could made out of that is adapting ambiguous or obviously sensitive wordings as part of their name, like Dickson, WindAss, Suckling, and so on. Usually it happens only in the case of surnames but not first or given names (due to lack of consideration from the ancestor.. just becoz they desires their child to have long penises they called themselves Dicklong). Even so, it isnt as bad as the effect carried over in the chinese context with funky-ass romanized chinese names that could results in a life-time tragedy (imagine being called as Sak Yow Lin or Mr. Sak for 80 yrs).

Recently, the situation has changes and opt to be getting worse, as along with the advances in technology, people tends to unify with each other.. and therefore results in fusion of christian names/western names and romanized Chinese names.. woah.. trust me, without proper consideration and double check in at least 20-30 types of languages and dialects.. please do not simply name your child, or else he or she might blame it on you when he/she got to bare on the ever-lasting curse, unless you pay a small sum of money to change your name in related govt sector (don't ask me where.. i dunno). When combining random Christan names with any 'prone-to-errors' Chinese surname, woah.. you can either end up with really cool yet disturbing names like Ian Kok (Iron Cock) and Monica Cheng (Touching your ass - fusions of both mandarin and hokkien) or merely disturbing names like Lambert Chee (Lam Par Chee - testicles in Hokkien) and Harry Teik (Hairy Tit). Though it might be kinda amusing to have a name like Iron Cock (or at least it sounds like it) but having it as the official indentification for others to address you.. it is just pretty much sad ler..

Generally, when related to romanized Chinese names (espeacilly surnames) in terms of context, fusion with Christian Names and other factors you often find weird/improper and obtrusive combination of names. Therefore, since i am taking a break from studying, and as a source of releasing stress, i decided to divide those unthinkable names into few categories, so in future, you will have a rough idea on how not to name your child improperly.

Category I - Problematic Chinese Surnames
*All the surnames listed are considered sensitive one way or another, and could results in even more vulgar combination when being assorted wrongly or without caution.

1. All the Koks (as associated with male genitals)
2. Tiew, Tiu or Tew - the Tiu family
3. Teik (Tit)
4. Sak (Suck)
5. Kum or Kam (as associated with Come, Cum, Cunt, etc)
6. Quek (minor severity, it just sounds rather funny when you put it together with Donald)
7. Lok or Luk (as it means stick or ellongated object in Cantonese.. figures..)
8. Wang (as associated with Wank or Wand which known as male genitals in some Brittish slangs)
9. Lan (again.. male genitals in cantonese.. )
10. Hai (female genitals in cantonese, finally.. something other than male's precious organ)

Advises: 1) with surnames like these, as a parent you must be extremely cautious and watchful in terms of naming your children especially if you planned to give them christian names as well.
2) Start with brainstorming, then break it down and eliminate dodgy sounding names, and shortlist only a handful
3) Double check the possibility of inappropriate sounding names by looking through dictionaries of different languages and dialects
4) Try adapting common Christian names like Alan, Michael, May, Cindy, etc. There's a reason why they are so common, as it is error-free and safe for work.
5) If, after proceeding from 1-4, still couldnt get a satisfying result.. consult me (lol), or consider changing your surname to save the younger generation from everlasting agony

Category II- Dodgy Christian names when paired with suspicious or potentially harmful Chinese Surnames

1. Harry, as it sounded like Hairy.. and could results in Hairy Teik, Hairy Kok, etc
2. Holland, when paired with the Tius family, other less severe cases like Cham, Sheng, Peh.
3. Dick, Dicky, Dickson, Dickinson - the Dick family
4. Virginia, i bet no daughter wanted to be called Virgina Sor/Soh (Soar)
5. Lambert (as illustrated earlier)
6. Monica (see above)
7. Minnie (same reason as 1.)


Category III - Names based on objects, places, countries, buildings or brand names.

1. I know that it's rather memorial to name your child after his/her birthplace.. but please be considerate abit, and think of it carefully before simply naming them.. I've heard of Paris, Florida, London (the not so bad ones) and the really disturbing ones like Bangkok (i m serious).
2. Giving yourself a name like Sydney isnt bad.. but it's just wrong when you are in fact a guy.. please do some research and then you would know that Sydney isnt an unisex name but a more female oriented contonation.
3. Names like Fish, Cloud, Chair, Sable, are just wrong.. (hey, i aint crapping here.. those are of real life examples.. in fact Fish Leong and Cloud Chan or Cheng are actually some celebrities in HongKong)
4. It's ok to have names like Ferrari, Mercedes, even Prada.. but to name your kids as Nike Tan, or Versace Chan.. hmmmmm....... *headache..
5. Naming your kids after tropical fruits - Banana, Melon, Papaya, Apple (not so bad), and worst case scenario - Durian Lim!!!

Category IV- names similar (or completely identical) to celebrities, prime ministers, or of famous people
1. Telly me how many Jacky Chans do you need in 1 country??? (Personally i know 4-5 of them)
2. It's weird when you name your kid as Einsteins, Plato, Socrates, or Hitler..
3. Try to avoid having too many Bruce Lee as well
4. If you wanna be patriotic.. try to beat this guy who named his son after Mahatir.. the thing is.. he's Chinese, therefore - Ma Har Tir (covered by Malaymail bout 3-4 yrs ago). Try Bah Dar Wee or something

Alright here's a list of people you DONT want to get advises from for naming your kids.

1. Hong Kees and Chinese from Certain parts of Mainland China (it's too big to be overgeneralized), if you insisted.. you will end up getting names like.. Fish leong, Emotional Lee (Serious!!), Kiki, Fifi, Gigi, Muscle, Handsome.. ...... Holland!
2. Bengs and Lians.. you will get similar results as 1.
3. Hardcore sci-fi fans, in their head, all their sons must be named Yoda or Klingon, and daughter MUST MUST MUST be Leia
4. Delusional Fantasy novel addicts... If you see a kid with a nametag of Faragorn, or elvish sounding names like Tordrassil Lee the Silverwing.. you know who to blame
5. Spanish.. they will make all your son sounds like some sorta footballer and all your daughter like some famous popstars - Fernando, Miguel, Pablo, Christina, Lopez.. lol
6. English educated Chinese with no sense of creativity.. then you will get names like Sharon Tan Sha Ron, Alan Lee Eh Lan, Joshua Chin Jo Shua, and so on, worst case scenario Lily Lee Li Lee (sorry lily.. :P), wait till you discover another Kiki Kee Ki Kie then you wont be alone

Alright.. so.. in the future.. please please please.. put in a lil bit more effort to research abit.. for your children's sake.. and never never trust nurses' idea and be sure they key in what you instructed them to. Remember, your children are part of you, they are your products.. naming them badly means reflecting your carelessness and weaknesses as well.. therefore.. if you are really that lazy.. just gimme a call with a small ang pow.. i can do the job for you, with terms and conditions applied of course.. hehe no blaming

P.S- no offense to anyone, if you happen to own names like that.. i feel your pain..

Additional msg:
1) to Juei & Kc.. remember.. Holland is a taboo for your family
2) to Roy a.k.a Wz, i know chinese they all like to Gong Xi Fatt Cai.. but please don't name your son Fatt Cai... (See Fatt Cai = Si Fatt Chai = Ass Kid or it could mean sissy in cantonese)

leaving skool f-r3d at 10:48 PM 10 pokies

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Remote Control for Humans
Tuesday, November 08, 2005

"We wield remote controls to turn things on and off, make them advance, make them halt. Ground-bound pilots use remotes to fly drone airplanes, soldiers to maneuver battlefield robots; But manipulating humans? Prepared to be remote controlled." - Yuri Kageyama CNN 25 Oct 2005.

When i read that, the first impression came to my mind was, "yea, right.." i bet it's another scam or gimmick kinda unreliable news.. However.. after i actually read through the article carefully.. words by words.. and further did a lil bit of research on this human remote control thinggy..
And yea, i concluded that this finding is really exist now in japan.. tho it would be a highly classified and restricted technical gadget.. as you wont see em selling it in toy'r'us or some bandai model shop..

Anyway, the fact that this headphone-look alike gadget could actually affect your sensorimotor functions and to the point where "I didn't notice that I was actually walking by myself", that's just simply eerie and pretty much scary. Imagine, one day while walking in the town, a stranger asked you to put on a headphone and listen to some demo music.. then suddenly u just couldnt control yourself and started stripping in front of public.. oh gosh.. it might sounds abit ridiculous if somebody told me this kinda thing could happened say a month ago.. but not after i've finished reading that article.. (so, don't ever use any strangers' headphone)

Though it's still pretty much immature (as in the consistency and capability of the human remote controller) and vague in its development, nonetheless, it's showing prospectful growth still.. See, if they could remote control your sensorimotor coordination now.. that means they might be able to do something even go beyond just that 10 yrs from now. Who knows what they could do? (they as in crazy japanese scientist.. when you add scientist + middle age japanese uncle + geek = ???, i dun wanna think bout it)

However.. according to the press.. the invention itself has friendlier uses in mind.. it might solves the problem of growing numbers in traffic accident.. yet, who knows what they might inject into you... or what.. hmm.. i dunno.. maybe i m just being abit too skeptical..

leaving skool f-r3d at 3:18 PM 4 pokies

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Homecook unhealthy food - pt 1
Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Woah.. after so long.. finally got the chance to write up something again.. Just finished my final lab report in UniSA.. left only one more online quiz before i am absolutely assignment-less until next year..

Anyway, as the title name suggested, this entry is all about unhealthy food (at least to nutritionists and vegetarians), namely some famous malaysian style unhealthy food such as "the fatter the better" - Bak Kut Teh and "The oilier the better" - Malaysian Satay. In actual fact, I attempted on both of those dishes about about a week plus ago, bak kut teh simply for our normal get-together, and Satay as part of Sher Mayne's Birthday celebration (as we prepared some sorta suprise mini mamak night for her with Justin and Lenny as the mastermind)

Alright, now.. back to the dishes, first up I am gonna talk a lil bit bout bak kut teh (肉骨茶), it is a kind of soup originated in Malaysia, though if you directly translated it it would be "Pork Bone Tea". Generally it is cooked in a claypot with various parts of the pig, varieties of mushroom, lettuce (optional), and dried tofu sheets/pieces (taufu pok). The soup itself is a broth that consists of several herbs and spices (including star anise, cinnamon, chinese cloves and garlic) which have been boiled together with soup bones for many hours. Light and dark soy sauce are also added to the soup during cooking, with varying amounts depending on the variant.

It is commonly eaten with rice, and often served with strips of fried called you char kueh (which i will later illustrate on how to make it). Dark soy sauce is used as a condiment, sometimes accompanied with chopped chilli padi (Syok ah! too bad i cant get good chilli padi at that time).
There are many many types of bak kut teh, depending on the combination and amount of the ingredients and some additions to the usual recipe. A variation of bak kut teh made with chicken instead of pork is called chik kut teh (how come no one ever tried something like Fish kut teh, Beef kut teh or Duck kut teh? Hmm maybe i should try to make it someday.. someday..)

Alright then, enough of the brief introduction on this lovely dish.. now it's time for a dummy lesson on how to make Freddy's style bak kut teh (with assorted herbal spices *i m not that pro to pick my own herbs yet :P).

Bak Kut Teh 101

Ingredients:-
3 whole garlics
4-5 thin slices of Ginger
A kilo worth of Pork rib bones w/ meat
A full strip of pork belly w/meat
salt and ground pepper to taste
Light soya sauce to taste
1 packet of "Wonderful" bak kut teh pre-assorted spices
Lots and lots of Chinese mushrooms
2 cans of "kum chum koo" mushrooms

Servings for 5-6 hungry ghosts w/ appropriate amount of rice

Procedure:

1) First up, begin by slicing the strip of pork belly into small rectangular cubes, roughly around an inch witdh and 2 and a half inches long.

2) Then, proceed to ginger by cutting it into thin slices (the older the ginger the better *drool)



Look at the fats.. just look at it.. hmm.. it's smiling at me :D

3. After that, heat up the pot (if you have a claypot, use it) and pour in about 2.5-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Throw in both your pork belly w/ meat and gingers when the oil is hot.



Cook it with low volume of gas, do not cook it entirely.. make it 30% cook..

4. Briefly cook the ingredients for like 20 secs on medium fire, then it's time to chunk in the 1 kilo worth of pork rib bones w/ meat (wooo.. it's better if you chopped it into smaller pieces)



1 kilo worth of ribs cost me only for 2.6O aud, which is about RM7.8O

5. Together with the pork rib bones, cook it while keep on stirring the ingredients for like 2-3 minutes until you could smell a brief fagrance of ginger.



stir the ingredients accordingly to spread the fragrance, i do it this way in order to add flavours to the meat

6. Next, pour in 1.5-2 litre of water (it's ok if it isnt boil) into the pot together with the pre-assorted spices and handful of groud peppers. Place the pot cover on top and let it boil for 2 hours at least (fire's volume should be around medium low, and besure that the contents of the pot are not too filled so that it won't overflow later)



"Wonderful" bak kut teh, with name like this, there is no reason why your bak kut teh would taste bad

In the meantime, you can wash your mushrooms and open the 2 cans of "kum chum koo", and also prepairing the dough for "yau cha kuai"

Since it was the first time for me to experiment on how to make a "yau cha kuai" or what they called it Sticky dough in Australia, for safety wise i bought a packet of pre-packed "yau cha kuai"'s flour instead of mixing it myself.



It says, made in Thailand.. hmm.. are u sure it's not the flour for goreng pisang?

Quite a simple packaging you have here.. for this "Tippy" Patongco Mix (what?).. Behind the packaging, on the instruction it says, dispatch the packet pour the flour bowl or container, add water and vegetable oil while beating it with a mixer until it shaped up. Or you can choose to follow the manual instruction, which is to mix water and oil with the flour simply mix it till it stick together and then transfer it to a "flart" surface. Further the procedure by applying 300 "vigorous" fold on the dough (wow.. canggih nya). Basically, just knead the dough like how normally you normally prepare your pastry dish, by kneading the dough using your palm, strech the dough on the surface, then flip it and fold it over on where you begin and repeat the process for 300 times (I did try to count.. tho i lost count half way)



Too bad i do not have a more illustrative pic to show you how to knead it.. this is the best i can do

After the dough is shaped up (it will still be sticky a little), let it be for 10-15 minutes before you heat up the frying pan with lots of oil to deep fry it. Now, just before you fry it, here's the tricky part.. you need to know how to shape the dough in order to make it looks the one you buy from some hawker uncle in pasar pagi. First, flatten the dough with the usage of a rolling pin or a big ketchup bottle (that's what i used at least), spread it until it's about .7-1cm thin. Then cut it into smaller pieces (rectangular shape) bout 1cm witdh and 4cm long. Next, just before you deep fry it sprinkle a little bit of water on one side of the sliced rectangular dough and stick another dough on top of it (it might looks abit flat or like placing 2 pieces of white chocolate on top of one another), then slowly place it into the frying pan and deep fry it until the skin turns brown (tip: test the heat of the oil by throwing some smaller pieces of dough or cacat looking dough into the pan first, after the skin turns brown scoop it up and taste it, test it whether the middle of the dough is already cooked or not.. if it isnt, lower the fire, adjust the heat and try again)

Now, here's the final result of the chinese delicacy believed to be past to Malaysia from the Cantonese culture.. *point below



Trust me, it looks 100% like the real one, and taste 80% like it

OK.. by now, it should be about time for you to check on your bak kut teh.. So, back to the procedure

7. Now, open the pot cover, pour in all your mushrooms (except for kum chum koo), together with 2 teaspoons of salts and about 3-4 tablespoons of light soya sauce (you could add more later). Close the pot cover again and boil it for another one an a half to 2 hours



Woah, now it is the mushrooms' turn to smile at me.. *drool...

9. By now, all the meat should be cooked already, but in order to make sure that the taste of the soup is at its best, check on the garlics whether it's already melted or kinda like fully absorbed into the soup. Take a spoon and test out the taste of the soup, if it isnt salty enough, add a lil bit of salts and/or light soya sauce to taste (besure to stir the bottom of the pot before you taste it)

10. After making sure of the taste, just pour in the kum chum koo, leave it there for say 2 minutes, then it's all ready to serve. (Tip: do not throw away the leftovers of the soup.. keep it in the refrigerator or something, reheat it the next day, it will taste 20-30% nicer, trust me)

Now, bring out rice, yau cha kuai, and lettuce, along with the main course- the unhealthy but delicious Bak Kut Teh, and enjoy your meal!



With the addition of ginger, this bak kut teh possessed a slight spicy touch.. lovely!

As mentioned before, i cooked satay at bout a week ago as well.. yeap, it was nice, and of course i m willing to share the recipe as well.. but not today, i am bit too tired and getting lazy to continue, so here's a picture of the satays i made (as a spoiler or something like that)



about 20-30 sticks of satays, along with Curry made by Aaron & Lenny and some chinese pancakes by lenny

In 2-3 days time, i will post up the recipe, till then, happy deepavali to those who celebrate it and Selamat Hari Raya to all my malay friends..!!!

leaving skool f-r3d at 9:02 AM 5 pokies

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