Here's My Story

In this game, you are a chef running a Italian restaurant. The winner is the one with the most points and the way you get points are as follows: Cook food with high rating Have the best set of recipe, especially with matching theme Have the best/2nd best dish 'Encourage' VIP critics to go to your restaurant (i.e., as Ban said, bribe them lol) Have the most money at the end of the game Buy wine, especially those that match your food recipe Buy dining tables (yah, your restaurant has no such tables to start with) Buy bonus cards that give additional points To do that, you will need to manage well your resources: money. Money is used to buy ingredients, wine, dining tables and bonus cards. Money is generated from recipe that has been revealed (and therefore the food is on your menu), wine and dining table. Some bonus cards also, effectively, give you ad hoc money. There is a variety of bonus cards besides those that give additional points and money. One type is those ...

I think the last time I took a ferry to Penang was nearly 2 decades ago @_@ I'm so old already lol. It is still quite enjoyable taking the ferry. Although it takes sometime to cross the sea to the island, time passes by quickly when one is out of the car taking a view of the surrounding or merely just enjoying the wind. For the money-conscious people, it's also cheaper to take the ferry than the bridge. Too bad the dolphins were spotted a few weeks later. I hope to spot some when I'm next on the ferry.

This is the minimum standard I set for good salmon sushi: This salmon sushi was served by Kinpachi at Subang Jaya. Yes, some may say that "Oh, it's at a proper Japanese restaurant. Of course you should get good sushi." Let me say that, posh or not, it's hard to get good salmon sushi in KL. It's mind-boggling. To put into perspective, salmon sushi served by Sakae Sushi, sushi restaurant that targets the masses with relatively cheap sushi, is among the top 5 best in KL in my opinion. I can't find 5 proper Japanese restaurants, fine-dining included, that serve better sushi than Sakae.

One morning, I followed my sister's family to drop by a few places in Georgetown to see the famous Penang street art done by a famous artiste: There were quite a lot of people taking photos with these art. Interactive art in action and being good at it too. We were pretty sure this wasn't done by the same artiste but nevertheless I think it's interesting...and disturbing at the same time. Incredibly lifelike, isn't it? Can you imagine drawing such lifelike impression? No? Hehehe. No-lah, this isn't a drawing. This is a cafe near one of those interactive art. Looks like it doesn't open in the morning.

On my trip to Penang last month, I managed to read this book: It jolted vague memories of me reading books from the series many decades ago and yet I don't recall Alfred Hitchcock's "guest-starring" character in any of them. Is he in every single Three Investigators book?

This type of song is not my usual cup of tea but I absolutely love this particular song.

Hello, yeah, it's been a while Not much, how about you? I'm not sure why I called I guess I really just wanted to talk to you And I was thinking maybe later on We could get together for a while It's been such a long time And I really do miss your smile I'm not talking about moving in And I don't want to change your life But there's a warm wind blowing the stars around And I'd really love to see you tonight We could go walking through a windy park Or take a drive along the beach Or stay at home and watch TV You see it really doesn't matter much to me I'm not talking about moving in And I don't want to change your life But there's a warm wind blowing,the stars are out And I'd really love to see you tonight I won't ask for promises So you don't have to lie We've both played that game before Say I love you and say goodbye I'm not talking about moving in And I don't want to change your li...

Writer Peter Boyer (1999) describes how similar misperceptions of risk are fostered by the gun lobby in the United States, which tries to keep the public focused on vivid cases of "intruders" coming through the doors of households. The not-so-subtle subtext here is that you lower your risk by having a gun to protect yourself. Boyer (1999) points to the irony that the gun industry tries to focus attention on "guns in the hands of bad people" when the actual statistics show that the real problem is "guns in the hands of good people". Criminals do not account for most gun deaths in this country. There are actually more suicides with guns than there are homicides with guns. Most gun deaths are unintentional shooting and suicides - which is why research indicates that bringing a gun into a home actually increases family risk (Miller, Azrael, & Hemenway, 2002). - How To Think Straight About Psychology by Keith E. Stanovich

It had been years since I ate in Penang. In fact, if I discount that one plate of char kuay teow ("CKT") I had few years back when I was in transit, then the last time I had proper multiple food dishes in Penang was nearly a decade ago! Unfortunately, I do not know the name of the coffeeshop that served this delicious plate of chee cheong fan and aromatic thick coffee. It was a corner shop along Kimberly Street. The chee cheong fan, unlike the ones I had so far in my life, had prawn paste (used in rojak) as well as the normal sweet sauce. Food and drink were great but what really made my morning was the people working at the shop. They were polite, humble and very helpful. I definitely want to be its regular customer :) This is the famous CKT that my family, especially my sister, rave about. We were asked whether we could wait for an hour for it @_@. It came after 45 mins. It is expensive, costing RM7.50 for the small plate. The plate above was RM9, I think, and ...

Instead, what is important is to understand the fact that Piaget's case studies did not prove anything but, rather, suggested incredibly fruitful areas for developmental psychologists to investigate. ...... The goal of experimental design is to structure events so that support of one particular explanation simultoneously disconfims other explanations. ...... Case studies and testimonials stand as isolated phenomena. They lack the comparative information necessary to prove that a particular theory or therapy is superior. It is, thus, wrong to cite a testimonial or a case study as support for a particular theory or therapy. Those who do so mislead the public if they do not point out that such evidence is open to a wide range of alternative explanations (emphasis mine) . In short, the isolated demonstration of a phenomenon may be higly misleading. This point can be illustrated more specifically by the example of placebo effects. - 'How To Think Straight About Psychology...