Had some free time today so i did something i’ve been wanting to do for sometime - upgrade my blog to Wordpress 2.5.1.
There had been some problems ever since i upgraded from 1.5.2 to 2.3 (in December i think) so i decided to do it.
As usual the installation went pretty smoothly, and so did the housekeeping after that. But apparently the ‘Related Post‘ plugin isn’t working in WP2.5.1. There’s a new version of it, but after installing it i still haven’t got time to get it working properly yet. Maybe tonight.
While i was running FileZilla (which i also need to upgrade) and on a roll, i decided to tackle my plugins which are woefully outdated. First i updated some of the ones i had like Sociable, Akismet (one of the most useful ones you’ll ever find) Sitemaps and WP-PageNavi. Then i also installed some new ones when were pretty long overdue like All in One SEO Pack. Tonight I’ll have time to dig for more useful plugins.
Next on the agenda - change my theme! It’s been to long with this one, and i need a widget friendly one. So i’ll be busy browsing thousands of templates these days. I like the clean, minimalist look. If you have any good website listing new templates, please let me know k?
Club president: Have you been noticing something weird about our club recently?
Club Secretary: Yeah, we keep getting these weird looks from people…
Club president: Maybe its our club logo, people keep pointing at my the club sticker on my car and laughing?
Club Secretary: What’s wrong with a Scuba diving club?
Club president: Precisely! The other day, i was parking my car at the shopping mall, this weird guy took a pic with his (awesome) camera phone! What is WRONG with this people?!
Club Secretary: Tell me about it… it’ll probably end up in a blog or some forum, but i don’t have a clue why our club logo would be so interesting. Its a scuba tank, for goodness sake.
Club president: Yeah you’d think these people would have SEEN a scuba tank…
Passerby: Hey, Diver Dudes! Your logo looks like a …
Nevermind, then. I saw this on a car at the shopping mall. I’m sure if the diver club folks actually saw the similiarities, or what.
Last trip back home to my parents home was a event-filled weekend, good food, and running about a lot.
On the last night, i decided to fire up the old turntable, or record player as we called it back home. It’s been awhile since i last played it, prolly something like 5 years ago. Growing up, the record player was a fixture in our household, my parents would once in awhile play their old records from the 60’s and 70’s, and their tastes was a huge part of my musical education as kid.
Actually this isn’t the turntable we had all along, ours was a large impressive one with tape and 8-track player, but it finally bit the dust and is now sitting outside my dad’s house in some old boxes. This particular one was actually salvaged by my mom from her friend who wanted to trash it. It’s a simple set, all we needed to do was change the needle.
If you’ve ever owned a turntable set, you’d know that the needles are very expensive. We’ve changed quite a few before, this one cost RM150. The sound was excellent, it was hooked up to my brother’s marantz amplifier and Cambridge Audio speakers. We finally threw out the two huge box speakers, it was about 4′ high. My cat used to scratch the foam covers…
My mom and dad (and bro) collectively have over 100 records, i couldn’t get it all on one shot, so these are a few that my mom and dad likes. From the top left going right, that’s Barbra Streisand, a German Christmas album, Teresa Carpio, The Sound of Music, Hot Chocolate, another Christmas album (by a rural English church choir), some 70’s dance compilation album, John Denver, Slim Whitman, 2 of my mom’s Teresa Teng albums and Skeeter Davis.
I kinda like these two from Abba. I remember vividly that we went to watch the ABBA: The Movie at Rex Theater some time in the early 80’s, and my dad immediately brought to buy the two albums after the show. It was probably the last vinyl albums he bought. The one on the right is the soundtrack to the movie, and the one on the right was their then latest album with ‘Fernando’ on it.
I bought the Abba greatest hits on CD some years back.
These two are my mom’s favourite english albums. Tracy Huang and Frances Yip. Both are albums where they sing cover versions of popular English hits. I love these 2 records, evergreen hits from 2 great singers.
Here’s a short movie of Tracy singing Karen Carpenter’s ‘There’s a Kind of Hush’. I believe this was her first ever English album, released from Singapore.
my uncle bought this from England for my mom.
John Denver. I remember he used to host the American Music Awards…
This is obviously my mom’s. Very talented singer, taken before her time. My wife can sing along to all her hits…
These are 45rpms, or singles as they’re usually called. Mostly are my mom’s chinese records.
This particular 5 were brought back by my bro from Australia when we was studying there in the late 80’s. They’re Lionel Ritchie’s ‘Say You, Say Me’ (Soundtrack from the movie White Knights), Elton John’s Nikita/The Man Who Never Died, Pat Benatar’s ‘We Belong’ and Bryan Adams’ Summer of ‘69 and Heaven. Singles came with a throwaway track on the B-sides.
This one came with a tin of Dumex milk back in the 70’s. I bet they’ll have hoot if I sent it back to them today…
Here’s another movie of the late great Teresa Teng, on the scratchy vinyl…
I don’t know how long this record player will last, and how long my mom will keep the records. But vinyls will always hold its place in music history. The scratchy, crackling sound and the clarity is unsurpassable even in the age of hi-tech DVDs… Next trip i’ll record more movies… hopefully.
One fine day two weeks ago we were bored sitting at home during the school holidays (actually I was the one bored, my kids were having the time of their lives) so we decided to go shopping.
Not wanting to join in the mad crowds at 1 Utama or Mid-Valley, we decided to join the mad crowds at Sunway Pyramid instead.
We made it just in time for the ‘Justice League Meet & Greet’ session. Look how cool and slim the three of them look!
Anyway there was some time to kill before the event started, so we checked out the stalls and displays. This is specifically to tell you that ‘I Am BATMAN’, just in case you mistake him for ‘crazed psychopath vigilante dressed in tights and pointy mask’. That’s my daughter in the middle, not Batgirl.
That’s Batman again, obviously desperately needing to go to toilet very soon…
And so its gonna start soon… can you feel the excitement?! the energy?! (Actually no, i was too busy checking out Studio R’s sale)
And here they come! First it was Wonder Woman! Then The Flash! And then Batman!
Frankly, Wonder Woman looked REALLY bored. Batman seemed to have put on some weight since KFC opened a branch in Gotham City. And Flash, well, his ‘muscles’ and ‘abs’ look suspiciously like foam padding…
They didn’t do much except come out, pose a bit, and take photos with the kids. No singing and acting or dancing. Damn. No wonder its called ‘Meet & Greet’.
Check out Wonder Woman’s muka syok sendiri below. Hey, wait, didn’t they say Justice League? What happened to the other 4?! Where’s Superman?! And the other 3 keh-leh-feh (Green Lantern, Hawkgirl and the Martian weirdo)?! No budget to pay extra royalty izzit?
And Flash, mmm i dunno, every time i see him kinda reminds me of Barry Allen’s death in Crisis on Infinite Earths…
Anyway these are pics of random kids posing with the superheroes. Checked the incredulously stunned look on the faces of the two kids above… I guess they just realized that their idols are just 2 guys and a girl in rubber suits and padding. FatmanBatman loves kids and all, but he’s got a tight schedule to save the world from baddies and pig out at KFC Gotham City…
i’d had my old PVC sofa set since i got married and moved into my home some 9 years ago, and let me tell you this - PVC sofa sets don’t last long and they don’t look good after a few years of heavy usage. But it did serve us well over the years, considering we got it super el cheapo from some export surplus place, together with my dining set.
Sooo-ooo… after shopping around for a few months, and checking out almost every decent store that sold fully leather sofas, like Lorenzo (so expensive! even during sale!!), Harvey Norman (also expensive! But i liked the La-Z-Boy) and many others…
So we finally decided to get it from this place called Sofa & Recliners in Sunway Damansara, they have a wide range of leather ones. We got this set at 30% off, fully imported leather (dead cows from Brazil). It looks like this:
It comes in a three-seater,
And a two-seater (btw there’s a pocong behind there).
The three-seater has two recliners. That’s my seat on the left:
And the two seater has one, custom made to your preference:
Here we have two happy customers to demonstrate how to recline the chairs:
If you push it down to the max, it gets nearly horizontal. And here they are demonstrating how to carry out proper resting on the chair:
So that’s the sofa set. Now for my flat screen TV next
I started blogging back in 2005, back then, there were quite a few Malaysian bloggers already, and then there was PPS. It was (and still is) THE place for bloggers to ping their latest post, and come to find the latest in the burgeoning blogosphere. Most of the bloggers that I’ve come to know in the past 3 and a half years where through PPS.
Back then PPS had this black and white look (i really loved it) where they had this window at the sidebar displaying the RSS feeds of pioneer bloggers like Jeff,TV Smith and LiewCF.
Then there was this shortlived blue version of PPS (I actually thought it was nice) to coincide with National Day of 2005.
PPS still holds its place in the Malaysian blogosphere, and me and my blogs are indebted to its existence.
Was in Ipoh last weekend, as usual it was food, food, coffee, and more glorious food. The important stuff, you know…
But aside from the (glorious food) on the last day i was there, we decided to buy a rattan chair for my FIL. He likes rattan furniture, and he needs one to read his morning paper everyday, rather than on the cold mosaic floor.
So we drove to this rattan furniture shop in Gunong Rapat in Ipoh, same row as the big market where my MIL buys siew yoke for us to eat in the morning. i must have passed this shop many times in my many trips to Ipoh, and have always admired the rattan furniture hanging outside.
i grew up with rattan furniture back home, and had this awesome rattan rocking chair too but actually I’m not so much into rattan furniture these days (i’m a sofa and recliner guy now…)
Its a small corner shop, run by this guy (ken, i presume) and a helper.
inside the shop its crammed with rattan stuff - chairs, baskets, vases, decor, walking sticks…
hula hoops… i remember those from my PE classes.
and this to scare your little sons and daughters when they don’t finish their meals…
this is the chair my wife liked, but waaaa-aaay out of our budget.
So we settled for this one. Paid the money after some bargaining (saved a paltry RM5), then loaded it up into my car. I’m surprised it fit in.
And this is my kid demonstrating how to properly use the rattan chair… (its my MIL’s dining room)
She didn’t let anyone sit on it for more than half an hour… so she didn’t get off…
Next up… I bought some new furniture for my OWN living room…
I usually only wear white Tees. If its a polo Tee, then maybe in some pastel colour. But last week i bought a heavy coloured T, first in a long long time.
White tees go well with my faded blue jeans. Speaking of which i was in the Levi’s store on Saturday and asked the guy “you have this kind of cutting and this color?” (pointing to the jeans i was wearing)
“Nope. Levi’s don’t come in that colour anymore”, came the immediate reply.
It’s been a loooong time since I bought a pair of jeans.
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Whenever i log onto the Net, this is the order of importance: Gmail, Facebook, digg, GoogleReader and if time permitting, Yahoo! Mail. Most days i don’t have so much time so its the first two only. Then sometimes on weekends, I’ll be on mininova or youtube.com looking for stuff…
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The wallpaper on my SonyEricsson is the Simpsons.
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The last good movie I watched was “10 Items Or Less” starring Morgan Freeman and Paz Vega. Absolutely loved it. Unfortunately I think only 16 other people watched that movie around the world.
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My poison - sweet white coffee. Preferably from Ipoh.
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My ex-colleague thinks I look like the HK TVB actor Michael Tao Dai-Yu. I think she needs to get her eyes checked.
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The rules:
1. Link to the person that tagged you - PonyTales
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag someone (nah, i don’t think i’ll tag anyone)
Ever had that feeling that you cherish something from your childhood, but nobody else you know remembers (or even knows) about it?
This is one of them.
I used to love watching the cartoon series ‘Wait Til Your Father Gets Home’ when i was a small kid (very small). It was made in the early seventies LOO-ONG before i was born, but i remember RTM2 showed it in the early 80’s on one the weekday afternoons.
It’s a cartoon series that’s a bit like the Simpsons, centering on the 5 members of the Boyle family and their eccentric neighbour, Ralph. The father, is voiced by Tom Bosley from The Happy Days. Off and on, celebrities would come on the show (in cartoon form, of course) much like the way The Simpsons does.
I remember the catchy opening song (full lyrics thanks to wikipedia). Each line is sung by a different member of the family:
I love my mom and my dad and my brothers too, and the groovy way we get along.
Every time the slightest thing goes wrong, Mom starts to sing this familiar song.
Wait till your father gets, until your father gets, wait till your father gets home.
Dad’s not so bad and he seldom gets mad.
And we’re not about to desert him.
Kids today like to have things their way, and what Daddy doesn’t know won’t hurt him.
I think Mom is swell.
But she starts to yell.
Every time we have a fuss.
Just wait till your father gets, until your father gets, wait till your father gets home.
See what I mean?
Wait till your father gets home.
We know.
Anyway, wikipedia tells me there is a DVD of the first season released, but I couldn’t find any torrent of it… I’d buy the original DVD, but you know how it is around here.
Youtube has a few clips of the opening theme (like here), and snippets of episodes but that’s about it.
Looking around the Internet lead me to a fascinating search about Hanna-Barbera, the company behind the show, and how all the rights to their cartoons now belong to Cartoon Network. Although i have Cartoon Network on my Astro subscription, i haven’t watched it for years, probably between my wife’s Wah Lai Toi and my kids’ Disney Channel, I NEVER get to watch anything else. But i do know that Cartoon Network does show some of their classic Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros cartoons at certain time slots.
Last week, when i was going through insomniac period, i came downstairs to watch TV at about 3 in the morning. They didn’t show any classics, they were showing those annoying cartoons from the 90’s like Courage the Cowardly Dog.
Maybe one day they’d rerun ‘Wait Til Your Father Gets Home‘…
Went to PD for the long weekend, 14 of us plus 5 babies, for our annual Living Fountain SG retreat.
Stayed at the new Avillion Admiral Cove, loved the hotel.
The weekend was pretty much food, swimming pool, food, beach, relaxing, and more food. I actually also watched some good movies (Red Sonja!) and spend most of the daytime trying to stay awake (i was having problems sleeping at night for the entire weekend).
Anyway, pictures = 1000 words.
Took the coastal road there - we’re stuck behind a trailer going at 40km/h.
Lunch at the popular Kedai Kopi Fong Hai. Coffee, roti bakar and pork chop… mmm…
The hotel. Very unassuming, but the rooms were awesome!
View from my room.
First night dinner at El Cactus Mexican Restaurant. Ribs, grilled lamb, spaghetti, and 2ann’s birthday celeb.
2nd day lunch at Lukut. Not as good as Kampar’s version.
Teluk Kemang was packed. At least the weather was good..
Good holiday. And I’m going to Ipoh next week… Woo-hoo!
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