Swordie Bloggie

I guess everyone is in high gear for the coming election… yeap, the coming Malaysia’s 13th General Election. But that’s not what I’m going to talk about… I rather talk about something I like… such as photography or travelling.

Actually I’m still tired… fatigue with all the travelling. Last month, 20th to 24th March, about 18 of us went to Vietnam. Then on, 2nd to 4th April, I went to KL for a meeting. I like travelling very much, but there is one thing I hate after coming back from travelling or outstation… the office will wait with load of works to complete… :p

The trip to Vietnam was cool… rowed a boat,  fired 5 rounds of M16, crawled into Viet Cong tunnel, foods, streets, bikes and many more…

So travelling was cool… so does snapping photos along the journey… and this time I only brought a non-DSLR camera, the Canon G1X. Last year I brought my Canon 7D together with borrowed 18-200mm lens to Korea. So how was Canon G1X compared with 7D as travelling camera?… Well, 7D is sure heavy and bulky with great speed and quality… G1X is easier and lighter to carry around, but unfortunately it’s a bit slow when there is not enough lighting and you need some patience with it… but still a good camera to take along for trips. And now I’m thinking about the new Canon 100D for my next trip… it’s not here yet, not even in the market yet but soon… and hopefully it is small and light enough with great features.

So came back with few hundreds of photos… now how to pick and sort them out?… well, I haven’t… even the Korea trip photos I still haven’t sort out… 😛 Yea, I’m that lazy… 😀 I actually wonder how other photographer manages their photos… For me the most difficult part is to look at the computer screen looking through all the photos and editing them… it makes my eyes blurry… My eyes are getting tired… so I better stop a while and write something else after that….

OK, there seems to be a trend… well not really new… seen it a few years back… during an event like annual dinner, there are photo booth at the corner… just like this dallas photo booth service… they have a small booth with small stage and with the event theme as it background. It’s actually very cool, the guests like to take photos with their friends… it’s an annual event, so good to have something to remember it later. The photographer or his/her assistant will print the photo and charge the guests a few bucks like $15… which is reasonable enough.

You can also see this service during wedding event… but the photographer usually do not charge or print the photos on the spot… this is part of the wedding photographer service the newlywed… It’s getting late… I better stop… anyways, I you like to know more about wedding photo booth rentals, you can visit this site to read more… www.thephotobank.com… It’s quite informative.

Old habit hard to change… emmm… ok, that’s not the correct idiom… I changed it a bit coz I don’t like the bad words in the original sentence.

OK, it’s less than 14 hours before I hop into the plane for KL… yet I still haven’t started packing!… If I minus 6 hours for my sleeping, that makes it less than 8 hours… 😛 Well, I don’t really like packing early… coz I’m scared I forget what I’ve packed… so by packing late, I will know and remember what I put into my luggage or bag… but it’s not fun actually, coz I have to do it in a rush… and I will feel very hot and sweating before I start my journey…

I’ve done this many times, and every time do it, I promise will not do it at the very last minute… well, I’m doing it again… 😛 But to be on the safe side, I will list out what I need to bring and at least put them aside where I can see them clearly so that I won’t miss them when packing tomorrow morning…

After writing this piece I’m gonna sort them out… shirts… t-shirts… trousers… pants… underwear… socks… shoes… estee lauder cosmetics… errr ok, not cosmetics… but cologne or perfume maybe… hair gels… chargers… YES, chargers… must not leave these behind… charger for hand phone, tablet, notebook, camera… and of course multi adapter… yes, I carry multi adapter coz most of hotels only provide one or two free power outlet or wall sockets…

OK, enough for now… need to do some sorting and sleep if I can sleep early, else will be back in front of this screen again… 😛

I’m crossing my fingers right now… I really hope my Nike Utility Duffel Bag will reach me before 14 October 2011… I need it for my cloths and stuffs for photomarathon… and for my gym after that… 😛

About Nike Utility Duffel Bag (Black)

Cool bag designed to be carried with the handles/shoulder strap as duffle, with the straps as a backpack or single strap as a cross-body bag.

Large main compartment with zippered hang pocket.

This duffle has a large end pocket that’s ideal for wet/dry storage.

Also has a small end pocket and zippered front pocket.

Water-resistant Tarpaulin bottom. Tough 600 denier polyester.

Size: 25″ x 13″ x 11″

After the exciting 6 hours journey on 24th August at Kalabakan road, we decided not to return with that road to Kota Kinabalu… furthermore the weather was cloudy and raining. We returned on 26th August through the common old road which is much longer… I think about 600KM or so and more hilly paths where it will pass Mount Kinabalu.

We reach Tawau around 4pm on 24th, and booked into Heritage Hotel. And this is the first time I have to change room. Before we went out around 6pm for dinner and ‘work’, I checked the windows to make sure it is locked, and it was not… and I can’t lock it. The latch is locked but not hooked… 😛 I decided to report it later when I come back coz need to rush for dinner… ‘buka puasa’ actually since my two colleagues are fasting for the Ramadan. But we were only back to the hotel around 10pm something… coz after dinner we actually went to install and configure the server and troubleshoot the network that night at our branch office so that we will not be rushing the next day… after all we are still excited with the journey I guess… and it is ‘puasa’ month, easier to work at night.

I called the room service and reported the window problem, and they sent two maintenance guys. They tried and said, they can’t unlock it coz they don’t have the key and the person in charge of the key has gone home for the day. The other guy assure me nothing will happen… it’s safe he said. I scolded him… I asked him what happen if someone kill me tonight?… the other guy was more professional and said, they will find a solution, they need to talk to the manager or something and they left. A few minutes later, the reception called and inform they can’t unlock the window, and the only way is for me to change room… 😛 So change room from 312 to 212 😛 . . . Continue Reading »

On 24th August 2011, I went to Tawau for official duties… for the second time this year. The last one was on 10th May. As usual, we travelled by land… with our office four wheel drive the Toyota Fortuner 2.5D.

Although I can use airplane to Tawau, I prefer to travel by land coz I can enjoy the scenery along the 400km journey. Furthermore time is on our side if we use our own vehicle… we don’t have to rush… we can drive slow or fast… We can stop anywhere we like to relieve ourselves.

Not like travelling by air, have to be on time to catch the flight… I really hate it when the schedule is tight… that’s why I usually take flight in the afternoon if I have to fly… coz I hate getting ready early in the morning. Travelling for official duty and non official like travelling for Las Vegas holidays are two completely different loads… yes loads… for official, the loads like the garments must be neat and well taken care… but for holiday, I can simply chunk my cloths into the luggage without worrying if they get crumple or not… 😛 . . . Continue Reading »

This month and next month are busy months…

So many office works need to be completed… backlogs are so much… meetings here and there… to get specifications… to prepare reports… to do technical drawings… going outstations… attending courses… 😛

So many activities coming up… paintball training… paintball competitions… photography outings… donno want to go or not… 😛

So many favors need to give away… lucky no one asked for wedding favors… helping others to prepare reports… digging for information… specifications…

I don’t think I like to do all these anymore… work so hard… at the end nobody appreciate you… well, not all… but some… 😛

I need a break… I need to go for vacation… how nice if I strike the Jack Pot… nothing to worry about… just spend… do charity… travel… 😛

On Sunday, 25 October 2009, Guinness World Record was set in Beirut’s Saifi Market. For two days since Saturday, the Saifi Market was filled with the sound of chopping, cheering and the sweet, grassy smell of tons of freshly cut parsley.

Lebanon famous chef Ramzi Choueiry and the gang preparing the giant tabbouleh salad for a new Guinness World Record at Saifi Market in Beirut, Lebanon.

Thousands of visitors showed up to cheer the 250 sous chefs and 50 of their instructor from the Kafaat School of Catering. Their target is to prepare the world’s biggest tabbouleh salad.

Tabbouleh is salad made of chopped parsley and tomatoes… sound like a very tasty salad and healthy too… which I believe is much better than the best diet pills available today. I like to eat salad very much… the only good place for me to eat salad here is at McDonald Pizza Hut 😛

Lebanese chefs busy chopping tomatoes to be mixed with parsley for their giant tabbouleh.

For the record… the Lebanese chefs manage to prepare more than 3 tons of tabbouleh salad… to be exact, it was 3,557 kilograms or 7,841 pounds of tabbouleh salad. According to the organizer, the previous record was held by Israel.

Lebanese chefs successfully prepared a massive plate of tabbouleh weighing 3,557 kilograms or 7,841 pounds in Beirut, Lebanon, on Sunday, 25 October 2009.

The day before, Saturday, they also manage to set a new record for the biggest hummus plate weighing 2,056 kilograms or 4,532 pounds, more than quadruple the previous record.

The giant plate or bowl holding the tabbouleh also set a new reword for being the biggest and largest rotating terracotta-colored hummus bowl.

In other word, Lebanese set 3 new Guinness World Records during the festival.

But these also means war of words between Lebanon and Israel will not stop here… both countries claimed tabbouleh and hummus are belongs to them… I hope they don’t go for war because of food… let’s just enjoy the tasty food ok…

Many things occur since my last post. The most recent is streamyx was down for almost 2 days, late Friday to early Sunday, and it seems that certain part of Sabah was affected by some strange disturbances which spoil the streamyx.

Then there are piles of work waiting back in the office. There was training last week for the system we developed with more than 20 participants for 2 days. I have to make sure the training server is working fine… luckily it was working fine for the 2 days training. But the worse part is, it seems that our network DNS has been poisoned. I was trying to fix it since last week. My next solution is to rebuild the whole ‘perimeter’… that will eat up plenty of my time… again!

Then accounting work also waiting to be done… few things on systems need to be modified and to build… imagine accountants not sure the flow of their accounting works! And we supposed to tell them how to do their work, their work flow… crap, how to do system like that?…

Two weeks ago I was in Singapore attending forum for 3 days. I went there on Tuesday, 3rd March, and back on Saturday, 7th March 2009.

But lucky I was happily touring Singapore during the night and the day before I fly home. It was tiring attending the ‘boring’ forum and touring the city at night. My back and legs were save by my Crocs shoes which make the walking enjoyable… if not, I will be complaining of back and legs pain 😛

OK that’s all for now… no photos this time, lazy to upload 😛

Eh… wait… politic really sucks!!! Really feels like ‘dungu’ when you are outside the country and hearing the stupid politic happening back home!!! Gosh… so ‘malu’…

Travel, travel, travel… journey, journey, journey… outstation, outstation, outstation… these are the words which keep on playing on my head… and it is all about work. Of course I really wish I can travel for real… to the north pole maybe 😀

I have been talking about my journey around Sabah for the past few weeks. Next week we are going to continue with it again, after three weeks of break including the Hari Raya break.

This time we are heading to Sandakan region… Although in our ‘journey around Sabah’, this is the first time we are travelling by road and none of us have driven to all our destinations before, so far we have not lost any of our way. Well, you can say that the road signs along our journey are very helpful, as good as the las vegas strip map 😆

Very true that we have not lost any of our way… and we manage to reach to our destination on time. But I hope by saying this, we are not going to get lost on our next journey… I cross my finger… and I hope our next journey will be just like our previous ‘two weeks’ journey to Tawau region and Keningau region.

If you ever or plan to go on vacation, I’m sure you will agree with me that online travel guides are very useful tools to plan a vacation. For example, if your kids are begging for you to take them to the Kennedy Space Center, without the online travel guides, you will never know there is admission fees to the center for adult and child. And you will not know that online travel guide like Trusted Tours and Attractions has Travel Kennedy space center discount. For over 25 years, Trusted Tours & Attractions has been the leader in the family and heritage tourism industry which translate into a great online travel guides. They have many fantastic travel destinations, offers discounted tickets to the best sightseeing tours in 23 cities across America, and I really like the Las Vegas tours.

It’s really worth reading and guided through the online travel guides. There are loads of important and great information you will gain from here which are beneficial during your travel. If you want them to update you from time to time, you can signup for their free eNewsletter. Every month they will publish interesting stories, travel tips and travel blogs. Not only the eNewsletter is informative and useful, it also guides travelers on travel money saving deals. Signing up for the eNewsletter now also has its advantage because you might be one of the winners for the Magellans Gift Certificate special promotion.