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Showing posts from August, 2021

Trying new mouse

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Many years ago, probably close to a decade, after trying out a few mouses, I finally found a cheap mouse that's comfortable for me: Logitech M100r. This model became my go-to replacement and the last one lasted for about 4 years before its left click became erratic: it either double clicked (although I pressed it only once) or it didn't respond at all. As usual, I right away searching for Logitech M100r on Shopee. This happened shortly after I researched and purchased the RK 71 keyboard and that got me thinking maybe I should buy a better quality mouse, one that can also help improve my gaming experience. To my shock, a good mouse cost almost as much as a good keyboard. As with the keyboard, the research on mouse also took many hours but fortunately not as long. In the end I settled on Razer Viper Mini. It so happened that there was incoming 8.8 sale on Shopee and I got about RM 5 discount hahaha. But the good thing was that it was from Razer official store itself and had 2-we

Paladins: Some of semi-recent best #2

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Dredge 169k damage, single digit death, 2nd highest KDA   138k damage (highest), single digit death (lowest), (K + 0.5*A)/D ratio Highest (K + 0.5*A)/D ratio, lowest death, second highest damage and longest elimination streak.   Fernando   Longest streak, lowest death, highest KDA   Seris Highest (K + 0.5*A)/D ratio, fewest death, 2nd highest dmg in team, 3rd highest dmg overall   Highest (K + 0.5*A)/D ratio, lowest death, longest elimination streak.   Longest elimination streak. Second highest (K + 0.5*D)/A ratio.

Crusader Kings 2: Bohemia campaign - Problematic Bohemian duke

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Time to start posting about my Ironman #3 run .  I started out as Duke of Bohemia and Moravia, which coincidentally constituted the entirety of Kingdom of Bohemia, with 2 extra counties in the de jure of Hungary. I just lacked gold and piety to form the kingdom but boy this ruler came with a set of problems: (1) Kinslayer! (2) Many tribal vassals - wrong type of government and so negative opinion (3) Many vassal chiefs desiring the Duchy of Moravia - more negative opinion (4) Exceeded demense limit (1) was unexpectedly solved this way: when I had enough piety, I bought indulgence from the Pope. Soon after, he offered to get rid of the Kinslayer trait for gold. Nice! The rest was solved by granting the Duchy of Moravia to my heir when he came of age (wanted to make sure he married a lady of my choice first).

Prawn tempura saga

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Ban's attempt at cooking prawn tempura sort of failed twice. The main problem was that almost no flour stuck to the prawns. He researched and the only difference he could have done was to make sure the prawns were not wet, Upon speaking with my sister, I learned two other things we could do differently: make sure there are bubbles in the oil before frying the prawns (it's an indicator that it's hot enough for deep frying) and mix the flour and (cold) water to make it into a paste for better coating. Here's the result: Much better than previously, with flour wholly coating the prawns but still not like those served in Japanese restaurants. Curiously, the ones in restaurants are straightened. Maybe that will make the difference? Although delicious, with tempura sauce, I cautioned Ban that we shouldn't do this often because there was too much cleaning to do due to oil splat on stove and some on the floor, quite difficult to scrub the pot that was used for deep frying,

Slay the Spire: Ascension 4 - 6

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Despite Slay the Spire being explicitly listed in the 'Games' section of GeForce Experience, the app couldn't work when I wanted to record gameplay, with error message stating that the game is unsupported. Wth. Every now and then I tried recording with that app but to no avail. So I resorted to taking screenshot of the victory page and the run history. I did that only if I managed to beat the heart.  On any one Ascension level, I would play each character until they opened up the next level, by beating Act 3 boss. Each time I failed, I would just move on to the next character who had yet to finish that Ascension level. The order of which I chose characters followed the default order in game i.e. Ironclad, Silent, Defect and Watcher. So here are the screenshots: I am surprised that the first character to beat the Heart at Ascension 4 level is Defect, a character that I'm least comfortable playing. Silent's feat is much less of a surprise to me. Only Watcher managed t

O & S Restaurant: Penang Char Kuay Teow

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"Very, very close to the real deal in Penang." "Best ckt in Klang Valley." A couple of friends said that (they are a couple). So after finding out that the coffeeshop isn't far, Ban and I made a trip there. We didn't know it was a public holiday and so there was a long queue outside it. Eeek. Fortunately, it was just the queue for Assam Laksa. There was ample space inside the shop to practice social distancing. The only other queue was inside but on one side of the shop, for the yong taufu. I got the char kuay teow with duck egg and asked for less noodle, whereas I got Ban duck rice (RM 7.50). Ban said the amount of duck meat was little. Oh well. As for the char kuay teow (RM 8): The portion was huge despite the seller repeated my request for less noodle, when I collected it. The taste was quite delicious but it was too oily for me. I highly doubt I would have it again. Currently, the best char kuay teow for me (duck egg is optional) is the one at Kedai Kopi

Increasing carbon footprint?

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I was monitoring the logistic of my newly ordered keyboard because because I want to make sure my phone wasn't on DND mode when arrived, as I needed to pay the deliveryman (cash-on-delivery). I noticed something strange: Why couldn't they directly send the parcel to the logistic facility at Petaling Jaya, instead of meandering around in Puchong?

Keyboard saga

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(expanding on this ) The keyboard I bought was Fantech Fighter II K613: Actually, before this, I bought a cheaper smaller keyboard, just to see whether I can make do with such a cheap keyboard. Problem with it was that the spacebar slowly became stiff i.e. it got harder to press it. So I bought the above keyboard at a computer shop, upon the staff's recommendation after my complaint about the previous keyboard. This keyboard has warranty of a year. Sadly, not even close to a year (think it was like 4 months), its USB connection became unstable: it could suddenly stopped working. Switching USB ports didn't solve the problem. The shop gave me a new one as replacement. The new one worked for almost 6 months before the same problem occured. This time, not only did I tried a different port on my laptop but I also used ports on a USB hub and ports on Ban's laptop. Well, at least we managed to confirm that it was the keyboard's problem. I started researching on the internet fo

MCO food: Part 12

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I am disappointed that now my stomach cannot accept curry chicken for dinner . I was thinking what I could I do with the opened packet of curry. One day I remembered a DIY dry instant noodle recipe that my sister and I used to cook when we were young. Its sauce was made of soy sauce, oyster sauce, curry powder and sesame oil. So I thought why not try this recipe wth chicken? This had an egg mixed in it too because the portion of chicken was a little less than usual. The good news was that it was delicious to me and that Ban seems to like it :) I should cook this again.

Lucky pursuant

One of the projects I assist the actuary each year is valuation of general insurance business of a client. Up until last year, oftentimes there was problem reconciling their claims data with their accounts. However, starting last year, they took time to perform this reconciliation before passing the claims data to me, of which I am grateful for. This year was no different but I noted that one particular account's figure that they used in the reconciliation didn't match that with the accounts that they had given me earlier. The difference was about 9%. Generally we treat 10+% as significant and below 5% as insignificant. Judgement is needed for anything in between, bearing in mind the likely impact of that difference on important valuation results. In the end, I decided to pursue it because we had time, it was the only figure that couldn't reconcile and this irked me haha, and  9% is close to 10% Turned out that there were changes to the accounts. Aiyo (a word that is now in

Cow Brother, leftover soup

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It's confirmed that the operators of Cow Brother stall at Megah Good Luck Restaurant used to operate the now closed Damansara Upton shop. Alas, even this stall closed couple of months back. Sad. However, on my second last visit, they informed me that they would be taking online order at www.cowbrother2011.com. I was reluctant to order because it was so expensive: 50% increase in price! That hadn't included possible delivery charges (free within 6km). The problem was that I needed a little more soup to go with my store-bought beef balls (more on this later) and so recently I ordered for both Ban and I. Unfortunate for them, we had a horrible experience: 1. They said it would take 30 - 45 mins to deliver, depending on the distance. I called when time was up to enquire about our order but no one picked up the phone. Earlier, I tried their online chat on their website but no one responded. 2. I tried calling again nearly an hour after I put in my order (and paid!). They apologised