Monday, December 31, 2012

Farewell 2012




It's 31st Dec 2012, what would you do? for me, it's pretty simple again this year. Went out with my best buddy, catch a simple meal. walked around some malls, looked for some stuff, played 1 nice arcade game and finished it off with delicious Mille Crepe from The Twelve Cups.

Snapped some pictures in the restaurant while waiting for our food with his new ultra wide angle lens. It's pretty wide and remained one of my wanted lens list.

Recapped back 2012, nothing too major, but I've completed some life changing items that might take form in 2013.

2013 is going to be a life changing year for me. What about you?
I don't have any new year resolution this time around, but 1 thing remained the same, the motto "Life without regrets".

Happy new year to you and your family, may the new year bless you with tremendous health. Cheers!


Saturday, December 29, 2012

5D cinema experience

the ticket. generic one
When I think of the jargon associated with cinema experience, first there's 3D (wearing 3D glasses, made by popular revival from our beloved Hollywood since 2010 or 2011). It was fun but I had to wear double glasses (on top of my own prescription). Still acceptable.

Then there's 2D, digital 2D projection for much cleaner experience compared to traditional film projection. I've gotten excited and pretty much switched to 2D only for my movie days. Only skipping once or twice every now and then because of show times.

Then, there's 5D experience from this little "cinema" at 1st Avenue Mall. Well, it's intriguing in a way that I could not think of anything that go passed 4D. I know for 4D, there's motion chair you can strap yourself on, there's 3D glasses involved, and wind + weather effect. 5D, I joked to my friend, what? they add in some smell there as well? e.g. dead animals and blow the stinks to your face? I'm not too sure.

Well, turns out that the ticket for Adult was RM20 a pop! gosh, well for the sake of testing I don't really mind. The setup was that at 1 go, only a maximum of 5 people can enter the small room. They only rented 1 place for this. Not a very huge setup by any stretch of the imagination.

Then there's around 7 categories you can choose from to watch these HD movies. We chose Horror, I see there's roller coasters, military, children stuff, etc. Then for each category, there were like 2 - 4 different movies each lasting from 7 - 12 mins long.

We were told to memorize the title of the show we've watched so that during the next visit, we could tell them and if we're choosing the same category, they can pick another show for us. We watched horror house or something like that.

We went in, only me and my friend, 2 people, climb up a small staircase and sat on the motion chair and strapped ourselves in. in front was a projector and we were given our 3D glasses to put on.

Upon starting, the room went dark, and the show was on the way. It shows us navigating through a house, obviously half drunk and the whole chair just sway here and there non stop. I find this hard to pull us into the experience as there's no back story, and why am I walking and swaying left and right. Am I on some crack?

Then we were constantly "attacked" by some 3D creatures that were suppose to scare us, but it looked kinda lame, the 3D model was not very convincing and the chair was swinging left right front back without any reason. It made me more dizzy than scared to be frank.

Then there were some constant gush of cold wind whenever a monster would pop up but that's just about it. There's 1 scene near the end where we went outside the court yard and without any reason/justification, we started floating around, avoiding some giant snake like creatures. I was half dizzy and wanna puke from the constant shake.

Then, the show ended, lights up and the assistant came in and spoke to us. We gave him the frank response, it wasn't pretty scary or convincing. Well, we told ourselves, maybe we would experience the 2nd and last try if we go for Rollercoaster type of show? Otherwise, it's the 1st and last time we'll try this.

I find the 4D arcade shooter beside this (RM8 per game, RM6 for continue) to be far far more convincing and genuinely scarier than this.

If you absolutely must try, go now, I'm not sure how long they can keep this up. I sincerely hope they upgrade their shows. The one we watched, it was made around 2007 and boy, has the technology aged in 5 years. :)

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Wrap up 2012

Well, good news first, we survived the end of the world, yay... (sarcastically), haha.
But, jokes aside, aren't we thankful we're alive just by a little longer?

2012 has come and almost gone in a blink of an eye, this year was far less exciting than say, 2011 mainly cos I had no business travel (well, I would have had 1 but I had to skip it cos of some personal matters).

It's month of Dec and in conjunction with Christmas, I bought a bunch of gifts, big and small for family and friends and some kids as well. Nothing said it more than to be able to put a smile on someone's face. Especially someone that meant a lot to me, that person, I gave gifts that money couldn't even buy. My effort and time.

Hopefully it turned out the way I hope for. Have a Merry Christmas and a jolly new year ahead everybody.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Lego Ferrari - by Shell

Suddenly saw this the other day on the morning paper and immediately jumped up with joy.

Went around the cube to check with people who could help me to acquire them as I could not possibly buy all at once. You need to spend at least RM40 on fuel and have Bonus Link card in order to buy one of these set for RM12.90.

Total of 6 sets to be collected...

they package the cheaper Legos in one of these plastic wrappers

what's out of the package for the F1 set

fully assembled trios!

naturally the F1 takes center stage here, notice the stickers galore. No 5 is actually tied to the blue studs, they gave another yellow ones and accompanying #6 stickers for the front. Maybe some die hard fans will collect 2 sets and put them up side by side? not me :) 

side view, check out some of the side stickers, generally they are of similar length

surprise visit from stars of Cars! Lightning McQueen and Mater

Towing

the happy cast with 1st wave, more to come later on


Thank you very much to those who has helped me to collect this 1st wave. I couldn't have finish the 1st collection without you guys.. =) 

Cheers!

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Mid autumn festival 2012

laying it all out near cafe area where they put up sofas, notice each of us put up our Chinese name on the wrapper
I think we missed the celebration last year, either that or the celebration was small. Wanted to make this an annual affair, I've kicked started the invitation, blasted out the email and got the gang buying moon cakes literally 3 days before the actual event. :)

I'm glad I did.

mine! it tastes nice as well, from Tai Tong

Moon cakes, the gathering! this is what I have in mind, colorful moon cakes, the herbal eggs supplied by another colleague to add variety

finally, posing before sinking our teeth into the moon cakes

Thanks guys for the support! it was fun event as we get everyone together and the theme for dress code is red, at least red for most of us. =)


Sunday, July 29, 2012

My Art - Dark Knight Rises

painted with Sketchbook Pro on my iPad - Bane, the man who broke the Bat

painted with Sketchbook Pro on my Bamboo Fun tablet - "girl's gotta eat" - Selina Kyle
One of my highly anticipated movie hit the screen last week - Dark Knight Rises. Went online, grabbed a few reference pics and started painting away... the only thing missing? Batman... that could come.


Saturday, June 30, 2012

Mirrors Georgetown - Mural paintings 2012

one of many, from Armenian street. Almost missed this one as I was searching for the famous painting below, this is a bit more subtle but nice nevertheless
Mirrors Georgetown 2012 - a collection of mural arts around Georgetown Penang in conjunction with Georgetown Festival 2012 by international artist Ernest Zacharevic.

They are slowly painting this throughout the city in June - July 2012.

More info could be found here…
http://georgetownfestival.com/node/99

this is the most famous piece of them all at the moment and I can see why

another angle, noticed that the bicycle is actually embedded into the wall.. :)
 more to come as I collect more of them.. :)

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Belkin stride 360 slim backpack

The picture showed the front compartment used to store some sort of eReader. I wouldn't bet my money on it to store my iPad. Not that it would fit but, nah, a slight accidental press on it and there goes the screen
Okay, been wanting a nice and simple backpack to replace my current Sony one which I got from free. Not that it's bad or anything but I just want something much padded with sponge for extra comfort and simple design.

Requirements:-
1) simple design
2) smallest design for a backpack (to fit a laptop, I found this 14")
3) enough space for me to fit my Macbook Air, charger, cables, perhaps mouse even, water bottle
4) cheap/affordable enough

Today I simply went in to one of the local IT hardware store and browsed around. Found this backpack from Belkin (the brand I like for accessories and backpack/pouches). Took out the stuffed papers inside and check out all the compartments, was happy with it and the price is not too bad (RM170).

The size is just right, 14", although my Macbook Air is 13" but it'll do.


nice and simple frontal design, chose gray color instead of black for that added special touch
this is actually interesting, I found out when I look at the little paper thing attached to the backpack. It's actually magnetic earbud holder which can technically latch your earbuds like so. I have a small problem with one of the magnets though as the position is the same as my earphone's so they reflect each other but the right side one seems fine. I don't really mind as I have yet to see the practical use of it. Perhaps when I travel a lot eventually. We'll see but it's a nice touch

there, the main attraction itself. Nice and tight, warm and fuzzy inside, there is however missing piece which I tend to look forward to to latch on and secure the notebook but lately when I compare most of the laptop bags, they do not feature this anymore so I would have thought it's the current trend. 
Overall, currently satisfied. I'll put it through it's paces and see how it does in the coming weeks/months.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Street Art @ Gurney Plaza - 2012

I've always been facinated by street art, typically the ones that people painted on the floor and resembled something 3D. 
I had the chance to witness this first hand today. 
The painting is now on displayed at the entrace of Gurney Plaza (the one facing sea side). 
To get the best viewing angle to simulate the 3D picture, stand in front of the painting facing into the entrance. There's 1 X marked on the floor, just stand there, position yourself in such a way that the "wall" with the window that the boy is looking out, is horizontally straight to you. 
If you see it correctly, it will simulate that the entrance floor leading to the plaza is actually an apartment and Spiderman is crawling out from it on the left. 
Very very nifty!
Bravo to the painter(s)!


This is the best view that I can capture so far. Notice the wall of the apartment window is facing you straight? this is needed for the illusion to work. =) I loved the nice touch that Spiderman's fingers are reaching out to grab the ledge of the floor, I mean roof.

The view from right

Another view from left, see Spidey is all but distorted...

A view at the back of the piece... looks like pyramid to me
If something, these interesting 3D street art showed us 1 thing. Things can appeared differently if you look at them from a different perspective.

Cheers and have a nice day ahead. =)

P/S: Credits go to the 30 fine students from The One Academy who put up this absolutely amazing piece for our eyes... hopefully more to come in the famous landmarks across Penang. :)
Good job guys!!!

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Lego 6867 - Cosmic Cube Escape set simple review


Actually saw this Lego set on their website which I would frequent once a while to see what's new. The moment I saw Ironman's minifig, I knew I must collect at least 1 and I glad I did.

Read on to find out... 
The complete casts with the truck
The truck itself is not my main highlight. I only want the minifig, but heck, paying full price for just Ironman fig is a bit far fetch and overkill even for me. hahahhaa... so I just had to assemble the whole thing. 

The truck itself actually has a nice deep blue color scheme and as you can see from the couple of pics below, they come with some small stickers for you to put on which has the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo and some graphic textures on the bonnet.

It's a sturdy looking truck with big rubbery tires which feels nice and adds a bit of bulk to it. the top of the roof doesn't open by some hatch piece but you have to take the whole thing off which is a small bummer.

You can position Hawkeye inside as the driver according to the set but I think 2 other characters should be ok as well.

There's a small mechanism at the back of the truck which  the back of the set tells you to press the red piece at the end which can lift the piece up at a small angle and throws whoever that's standing (minifig's leg connected to 1 circle piece protruding out) but I tried it and he won't fly off) Guess that's a good thing, it only fancies kids
 

These I presume is some sort of missile thingy which has a small warning sign on the instruction booklet to be careful when playing with it. I don't see the harm, the missile just connects and held by the grey piece which is quite tight and I tested, it can't really fly off at all. It would come off slowly... 


Again, not a bad looking truck at all

ahh.... the main highlight. Ironman - simulates flying/hovering with 2 blue transparent piece. 2 small circular blue piece to be put on top of his hands (note, you have to put it on the flushed portion which is normally facing up and hence have to twist them downwards) to simulate flight stabilizers. Loki in the middle with his big horns helmet and nice textured cape which is quite stiff I must say and the boring cosmic cube (it's named Tesseract in the movie, they should have made something nicer to enhance the collective values) and last but not least, Hawkeye with cool shades on him and nice hairdo, sporting a bow. 
1 interesting note, aside from Loki's head, Tony Stark and Hawkeye both sports 2 faces printed on them, you can twist and turn to reveal them, usually 1 with normal/cool looks and 1 more aggressive/combat mode. nice touch...


Tada! The neat thing, Ironman's mask actually opens up to reveal his face. What a very nice implementation, I would have been happy if they just give me a simple Ironman helmet but this is a very very nice touch.

Well, that's it. Hope you find this brief review interesting and would go out and grab your own set. I would be aiming at Captain America's motorcycle set.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Happy 4th birthday to this blog!

The alarm beeps as the phone screen flashes a familiar line. "Kitkeatbar anniversary

Looking back all these years, from the humble beginning at 2008 until today, 2012... it has been great. The blog still serves as a place for me to document my updates in life thus far. Just that recently, nothing interesting has really happened.

When I logged in to post an entry here to mark the anniversary, I noticed that blogger has changed again, to a newer cleaner look in April, what a nice coincidence! 

So, "happy birthday" dear blog. May this continue on for many many years to come... and as an icing on the cake, today happened to be my bestest friends' R.O.M. as well! 

Sunday, March 25, 2012

My art - Ironman Mark V

Finally, after long last. My setup was completed a while ago and this piece was done all with Sketchbook Pro on my Macbook Air. :)

It's in conjunction with the upcoming movie release of Avengers.. 4ssemble!


Wednesday, February 22, 2012

My art - A tribute to Whitney Houston

Sad news broke out the other day of the passing of Whitney Houston. I'm not a big fan but I think most of us know her by "I will always love you"...

We would and will.. always love you Whitney... R.I.P....

Painted this one based on photo reference on my iPad as a tribute to her.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

My art - series of pencil art styles


It has been awhile again, due to laziness and tiredness and busyness... anyway, posting up these paintings I've made not long ago... with my iPad and Sketchbook Pro.

Sunday, January 01, 2012

Swatch - Body and Soul

Waited for 2 years... finally caved in and bought it today. 1st Jan 2012.
Swatch - Body and Soul... fell in love with it instantly the moment I saw it from the shop 2 years ago... didn't pick it up as it looked a bit small. It's an automatic, skeleton watch (can see the internal gears from the front face).

In an advance age such as today, one really doesn't need a watch to get by as most of us is carrying a smart phone. It has grown from a time telling piece to a decorative item.

I remember where I used to look at my watch every moment I need to know the time. If I forgot to wear watch out one day, I would still feel weird if I hold up my wrist to look.

I stopped wearing my old watch cos I did not remove the strap to adjust the size as it can't fit my arm anymore and felt a bit loose, previously it was too tight that it gripped my wrist till it's all red and sweaty.

After 2 years from then... when I looked at it, I still liked it.. a lot. So, after much hesitation, I bought it. Hopefully it will last me another 10 years. I'm still having the Guess watch my mum bought for me 10 years ago.
10 years, the price is justifiable. :) more pics to come if I can get a good macro lens and snap nicely at home... for now, this is a post to mark the date of purchase.

Happy New Year everyone...

kindly click the tiny ad to support me~ thanx~