flysheep's show

Happy new year!

2011-12-31T23:45:00.002+08:00

I only managed 7 posts (including this!) this year. All time lowest until today.
Haha, too much distraction!
Anyway, this year is an eventful year with lots of good memories, and I hope for the best for 2012!
Happy new year and all the best!
Here's Danbo celebrates with us this year.

Danbo and pizza

Taiwan - Food Part 2

2011-12-30T17:30:00.000+08:00

The best 锅贴 (Guo Tie)

This can be found at Miao Kou (庙口) night market. I say this is definitely worth a try. No doubt, I will have a second try if I have opportunity to visit again.

White bitter gout

The white colour fruits are surprisingly bitter gout. It is consumed as blended fruit juice. Its bitter taste is mild with some sweetness in the middle.

Cheese and a lot more cheese

In Taipei station undergound shopping arcade, I walk like dead meat until the very end of the shopping tunnel into food court section. The cheese is flooded the whole plate. It really replenishes the tired body.

Barbeque wild boar

it's hard to sink my teeth in. I have this exotic meal at Torako park in Hua Lian, Taiwan.

Wild boar sausage

It tastes so good. the flavour is rich. It's very different with the soft sausages I had.

So, this is the end of the Taiwan food highlight!

Taiwan - Food Part 1

2011-11-12T21:42:00.000+08:00

All the photos dump of Taiwan food during my Taipei-Hualian trip.

Super big chicken chop only in Taipei

Fried oyster

I was quite excited for this dish as this is a popular dish in Taipei. However, there is too much potato starch which makes it tasteless. It's not worth to try. Penang version taste better.

Matryoshka biscuits

It is a spring roll like skin wrapped over these smashed round biscuits which you can see here on the tray.

Nuts delicacy

Pumpkin seeds with various nuts with all the sweet stuff.

Sausage in a sausage

Oil rice and meat ball soup

Jiufen food

The famous minced-pork stew, fish ball and the others... (not important, LOL)

Stay tune for another food photos dump. *grin*

English tea

2011-11-11T21:39:00.001+08:00

I tried out the new tea house, "Winter Warmers". The interior is full with decorations. I like the environment especially the lighting, which has the white balance roughly 3000K

Food p0rn

2011-08-05T21:55:00.002+08:00

i have tonnes of photos on food, so here are the recent that I indulge in.

Pan grilled salmon with green beans!
Strobist info: F42AM @ 1/32 @ 24mm through 43" white brolly, 2ft away, subject top right front. Triggered by Sony wireless.

My role; I take phototograph and eat.

Home made curry noodle!
Strobist info: F42AM @ 1/16 @ 24mm reflect from 43" white brolly, 3ft away, subject top right front.

I take photograph and eat, again.

Home made carbonara full of cheese and cheese!
Strobist info: F42AM @ 1/4 @ 18mm reflect from 43" white brolly, 3ft away, subject top front.

Again, I take photograph and eat.

Fluffy pancake attack!

No, you're wrong. I mix and fold the batter, take phototograph and eat.

Lemon sponge cake!

I'm mix, beat, fold and bake it, take photograph and eat.
That's the end of current food p0rn.
More to come.

Domo-kun and brother.

2011-07-29T23:54:00.000+08:00

Both are presents from my darling. I'm very fond of this Japanese NHK character, especially its big mouth and sharp teeth.

First post of the year starts in July

2011-07-17T19:35:00.002+08:00

Yeah, I'm that busy.

Taiwan - Seven Eleven

2010-10-17T00:14:00.000+08:00

Here's another spin off of the tales from zen's Taiwan trip series. I would round them up shorter in different perspective.

Taipei is a clean city. I was convinced when we took the public buses from airport to a train terminal. The significant shop is 7-11. The shops are all over Taipei. Yes, every, corner. You can find several 7-11s in one train central building. awesome. just like the packaging of japanese goods, they are colourful. For a milk lover myself, I was fascinated with the range of flavors available for milk, even produced by 7-11 itself.

Honey dew milk

Another 7-11 goodness.

Sweet potato milk

They sell hot, steamy Oden right at the front of their shop; very different. They sell almost everything, food, newspaper, "health" magazine, brewed coffee, prepaid card for MRT, mobile phone, internet, icash, free coins exchange and free advice for directions. :) They even provide delivery service, photo printing, photocopy, fax services.

Oden! Magazine! Coffee!

City Cafe

Taiwan is full of these 24 hours convenience store. Ma Ji is another variant of these stores, an alternatives to 7-11.

Maji 24 hours

These are some interesting food can be bought from 7-11. It is another flavoured milk.

Apple Milk

This bagel series appear a lot in the advertisement in Taiwan and I bought them to try. It is too hard and too dry for my taste. The packaging is eye catching.

Blueberry Bagel

Our hostel owner recommended some flavours of instant-noodle-in-a-bowl. They are popular, i think.

Taiwan instant noodle

There are real meat in the instant noodle in a bowl. MEAT!!! Could you see that???

Meat in instant-noodle-in-a-bowl!

The end of memorization and pencil biting

2010-09-22T21:01:00.000+08:00

3 more days. Another 3 more days and I would be free.

Penang Floral Fest: The Orchid

2010-07-09T11:08:00.001+08:00

This is the last part of long overdue floral festival. all the orchids... great news from Flickr team, they finally upgrade their photo pages. Now we have larger 640px picture on the front end. Larger pictures look nicer.

Penang Floral Fest: The bonsai
Penang Floral Fest: The flowers

Escape

2010-05-13T22:59:00.001+08:00

11-18mm in the early morning

2010-05-12T18:59:00.001+08:00

Sunrise at Penang east coast

Out of the bed early, illegal parking and both feet sink into quick mud, it's all worth it to appreciate our mother nature. 7 exposures on manual mode and tone mapped into HDR using Photomatix Pro. It is super user-friendly. You just need to load all your different exposed images, and it will handle the rest. For the final touch, you just need to tweak the colour to your liking just like a raw converter.

You must view it LARGE!

Early morning

Another 9 exposure attempt to test my first ever HDR. This is the first time I take the 11-18mm out for a spin. I like the distorted wide angle very much.

LARGE!

Another new day for an abandoned boat

By the beach, there's a dilapidated fishermen's jetty and restaurant, and I saw this lonely abandoned boat next to the restaurant facing the sunrise.

strobist info: F42AM @ 24mm, 1/1 power, camera right, 1 meter from boat

View large

Chinese new year, strobist and cookies

2010-04-15T18:00:00.000+08:00

Home made

These are home made cookies from my mum. Every Chinese new year, my mum will baked many kinds of cookie. My siblings and I are more than happy to finish them all!

I want them all!

Spicy dried shrimps

In Malay, this spicy dried shrimp is called "Sambal". They are wrapped in a pastry. An awesome snacks from my mum.

All the above are shot with the same settings.

Strobist info: Sony HVL-F42AM @ 1/32 @ 24mm through tracing paper, 0.3m away, camera left, white paper reflector camera right. Triggered by built-in flash wirelessly

Ghost aircraft

2010-03-15T20:30:00.006+08:00

Dog fight

The real aircraft and ghost aircraft at Gurney, Penang was captured by Google Maps. From the trajectory, they were chasing each other, dog fighting. ;)

Here's the link, if they don't have it already, I have the screen shot above.

Apple chips

2010-02-03T08:00:00.007+08:00

Around 2 years ago, Apple was reported bidding for an embedded processor company, PA Semi Inc and analyst speculated that Apple will have its own chip in one of the product line. It was true with the Apple Ipad launched. 1GHz "Apple A4" is in the processor socket. Too bad for Intel, else they have another possible Intel Atom win. Although iPad name was made fun of by the Twitter community, I think that the name is suitable with their idea of mobile computer tablet + a real note pad. Guess what, the iPad name was created years ago before Steve Jobs thought of it.

9.7" Screen Protector for Apple iPad

Balinese gate - Part 5

2010-02-02T08:00:00.000+08:00

Continue from last year and this will be the last part :P.

Balinese gate #21/25

Another blocked gate/doors at Royal Palace, Ubud. The palace has many different sections which explained why we are still at the Palace.

Balinese gate #22/25

This gate is located at Ulun Danu. The road uphill towards Ulun Danun is winding and scenic with fogs hanging around. It was raining so I had to hide under an umbrella for the gate shoot. The beautiful temple is surrounded by mountain and lake with extra fogs for the mystical scene. View On Black

Balinese gate #23/25

This is another gate to a temple at Ulun Danu. As you can see the rain clearly, I was shooting under an umbrella :). Thanks to SteadyShot in camera, I was amble to pull off with left hand holding an umbrella while the other hand holding a camera. Somehow, it was fun shooting in the rain.

Balinese gate #24/25

From Ulun Danu to Mengwi, sky was still crying. This was the last temple we visited in Bali. The temple has a very long path way from the entrance and I had to hide my camera in the bag due to the heavy rain. There are a few tall pagodas in gated compound deep in the temple.

Balinese gate #25/25

This is the last gate I have in this Balinese gate series. This gate is located at Mengwi. After a brief walk around to catch a glimpse of the tall pagodas, we had to hide in shade with wet shoes. I was lucky enough to have a gate near me for the last shot. ^^

The end.

The stats of my utorrent

2010-02-01T08:00:00.002+08:00

OK, I did my part with 73.3GB upload and 111GB download. I've been uploading a lot to improve my upload/download ratio. Public free media content for the win!

Guide to Create Windows 7 System Restore Image Using Windows Backup

2010-01-31T21:42:00.003+08:00

It's a new post in the new year with new Operating System (OS) and new notes to my own guide. Now, after installing Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit edition to zen's laptop, as usual, I want to create a system image on C drive for restore point so that I will not need to repeat the tedious formatting and installing process all over again. At first, I want to use my PING image creation flow again but I found out that Windows 7 has its own Backup which can create system image. With curious heart, I try the new way to create the image and here is the guide.

1. Go to Control Panel > System and Security > Backup and Restore
2. Look for a clickable link on the left side of the window, "Create a system image"
3. A new window "Create a system image" will pop out. It asked, "Where do you want to save your backup". Click "On a hard disc" and choose other partition of your hard drive (not C: drive) which has at least 15GB if you want to create a system image consist of Windows 7, drivers and nothing else installed.
4. Next screen will ask you to "Confirm the backup settings". In a box of "The following drives will be backed up:" should show "(C:) (System)". Click "Start backup" to start the imaging and wait until finish.
5. After the image is created, Windows will ask you if you want to create a system repair disc. If you have the Windows 7 installation disc with you all the time, just ignore the question.

So you created an image of your Windows 7 system, how to restore to your system image? We have 3 ways to restore the system image from Microsoft but I am going to reword them again to be easier for me to remember.

1. Using the Recovery Control Panel (recommended by Microsoft)

1. Go to Control Panel > System and Security > Backup and Restore.
2. Click Advanced recovery methods > Use a system image you created earlier to recover your computer

2. Using pre-installed recovery options

1. Restart your computer.
2. If your computer has only Windows 7 installed, hold down the F8 key as your computer restarts and goes into BIOS. You need to press F8 before the Windows logo appears. If the Windows logo appears, try restart again.
If your computer has operating system other than Windows 7 installed, choose Windows 7, and then press F8.
3. On the Advanced Boot Options screen, choose Repair your computer, and then press Enter.
4. Select a keyboard layout, and then click Next.
5. Select a user name, type the password, and then click OK.
6. On the System Recovery Options menu, click System Image Recovery, and then follow the instructions.

3. Using a Windows installation disc or a system repair disc

1. Insert the installation disc or system repair disc. Anyway, you really no need to create the system repair disc if you always have your installation disc.
2. Restart your computer.
3. If prompted, press any key to start the computer from the installation disc or system repair disc.
4. Choose your language settings, and then click Next.
5. Click Repair your computer. This step only applies if you are using a Windows installation disc.
6. Select a recovery option, and then click Next.
7. Choose where your image file is stored. Windows will choose the latest version from your image. Just let the restoration begin.

Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit OEM 1pk

Greetings in 2010

2010-01-11T21:21:00.001+08:00

This is just a random post because there are too much photograph in portrait and being a landscape orientation lover, I need a filler to break the continuous chain of portrait mode. In this new year, there are so many things to do and accomplish. First thing first, I want to complete my Master course work with results enable me to claim some money from my company :). I need to upgrade my super old Pentium 4 PC and retire it to become a NAS, another project if I have time. On my free time, I want to improve my skill of camera operator and shoot nicer picture of zen, LOL. On food, I want to learn to cook more dishes of my liking. The next level will be learning to bake cakes and I foresee this will be not coming soon, hahaha. That's it, hope this will be a great year. This is a mouth watering pan grilled salmon that I was capable of. Note that it is in landscape orientation.

Hello 2010

2009-12-31T11:55:00.000+08:00

On geeky side, tomorrow will be the binary day cause the date is 010110 in DDMMYY format. Ok, I know it's not funny, but happy new year anyway. 2009 comes to an end finally. This is a busy year, almost all the juices are squeezed out of me with all the projects running parallel. I'm still survive luckily. If you had noticed already, there are massive postings on this month. I manage to turn the tide for post count this year! For the first time, the count is not slipping down! Let's see how I cope next year. Happy new year and hope it's a great year!

This is one of my project with "Safe" as the theme. Hello 2010

Balinese gate - Part 4

2009-12-31T11:20:00.000+08:00

Balinese gate #16/25

Walking further towards the main road from Rumah Roda, there is another local Homestay. The similarity of at these Homestay's gates is a blocking brick wall right after the gate. Usually they have their Homestay name hang on the entrance wall and another usage I guess is to avoid people peeping into the house.

Balinese gate #17/25

This is one of the gate inside the Royal Palace of Bali. From the look of outside, the palace seems ancient and old. However, the sculpture and design of the architecture is grand and expensive.

Balinese gate #18/25

This gate is also located at Royal Palace in Ubud. There are a number of gates around to different section of the palace which is expected. :) However, visitors are limited to access main compound, others gates and doors are closed for public.

Balinese gate #19/25

Although the gate at the Royal Palace stated cannot enter, I still can take a peep. ^^ I even took a photograph with the door half open. kekeke.

Balinese gate #20/25

Another blocked gate/doors at Royal Palace, Ubud. Near the palace, there is a famous restaurant selling grilled pork, or Babi Guling in local name. The restaurant was not open for business yet, so I spent more time in each corner of the palace that I can access.

Self accessed achievement

2009-12-30T13:09:00.017+08:00

Heart

One of my achievement this year is winning a game in Heart, a Microsoft Windows game, for the first time. This is a historical event of my life and I would like to thank PSDC (for the computer), Zhen (for teaching me what is Pokers), my parents (for bringing me to this world during the 80's to enjoy the computer technologies) and all my friends (for supporting me, I knew you would). Thank you.

Ramly

2009-12-30T09:18:00.000+08:00

Ramly Burger

Home made Ramly burger. The best Malaysia burger patty has to be Ramly, no alternatives, no replacement. The patty must be cut into half and pan grilled inside out.

Don't drool in front of your monitor

Balinese gate - Part 3

2009-12-29T09:01:00.019+08:00

Balinese gate #11/25

This is the entrance to the main praying square. Only prayers are allowed to walk the stairs into the praying area. My guide told us to peek inside to see how the local pray. We kept our tone down as if we did something bad.

Balinese gate #12/25

This gate is located at Klungklung, an old city of Bali, and the same place as the first gate. This is the place where Royal people take a rest.

Balinese gate #13/25

This is the gate of Rumah Roda, a nice Homestay at Jalan Kajeng, Ubud. The people at Rumah Roda is friendly and you will feel like home. They have a restaurant on the second floor and yes, they serve really good food. I have breakfast that surprise me everyday while I was there. Two thumbs up to Rumah Roda.

Balinese gate #14/25

Along Jalan Kajeng at Ubud, there are many Homestay gathered around. Like Rumah Roda, they provide rooms to stay with the family. The neighbourhood is quiet and peaceful in the morning. To my excitement when I took a stroll along Jalan Kajeng, all the gates are unique for each household.

Balinese gate #15/25

This is another gate of local Homestay at Jalan Kajeng, Ubud. A few years ago, the locals ran a donation drive to repair the Kajeng road. Whoever donated is eligible to write whatever they want on a cement tile (which constructs the pavement).

Jingle bell

2009-12-27T16:55:00.001+08:00

Merry Christmas!

Large On Black