I have talked about my recent buying on a Channel X prepaid SIM pack and now I am teaching you how to sign up for the new Facebook SMS service. Actually, I don’t really need to teach you because the steps are just too easy!

On your phone, just text “F” and send to 32665 (without the open and close inverted comma of course). Wait for a text message which will contain the secret code for you to key into your Facebook.

When you got the secret code, you can login to your Facebook and look for the Mobile linky on the bottom right page. Then at there, follow the on screen instruction, key in the secret code and you are ready to Facebook SMS!

Very easy right? Yes, I am receiving updates on my phone now, and at the same time, replying people’s wall post and updating my status from phone. It’s all only for RM1 per week. I got RM5 pre-credit in my SIM pack, so I still can use for another 5 weeks without reloading. Sweet!

Not available on other provider but only on CHANNEL X! Yeah.

Organized by I don’t know who, but it’s all my classmate and skipped school together on a Wednesday and went for the temples trip around Penang. Since I was free and it’s something must-do to me, so I went to join them. There’s like, 11 of us.

First stop was Mahindarama Temple or more likely to known as Guleng Hood. It’s a famous place and everyone loves going there before exam for blessing. I had actually went there the week before this and so this was my second visit for this year. There’s no restriction on how many time you can pray.

They actually had a blessing ceremony for SPM students last Sunday but I find no reason why want to join the crowds and wake up early. I prefer going on some other time where there’s little people.

Go to Guleng Hood must bring a couple of milk and your exam time table. That’s the standard procedure, then look for the sifu monk in the house for blessing.

Spent like an hour at Guleng Hood and we were off to another place and that is the Penang Buddhist Association. This place is quite happenings during Wesak Day. It became so quiet on normal days.

Don’t want to talk so much about what happened there. Basically, it’s just prayers for good health, good result and good everything.

Next was the Siamese temple, Wat Buppharam on Perak Road. Tried the 50cents electronic fortune teller, but it didn’t work for me. Too bad. We actually visited another one, Malaysia Buddhist Association on Burma Rd, it’s just a very short visit.

Then off to Burma Lane (Lorong Burma) to visit the two temple. A Siamese temple (Wat Chaiyamangkalaram) and a Dhammikarama Burmese temple. Living in Penang for 17 years, this was my first time and we were just like tourist at there. Everyday past by the place, thinking that it’s just another temple and small, but everything I thought weren’t true.

The compound, the garden, the statue are big. Inside is very pretty and clean. It just doesn’t feel “Penang” to me, it’s more like being in Thailand.

There’s a rotating thing inside the Burmese temple where you can aim and throw coins into it. Each different bowl representing different thing which you pray/wish for, etc. Health, Prosperity, Education, Marriage, Good Lucks.

The Siamese Temple lies the reclining Buddha.

Last week was the Loy Krathong, a Thai festival where people release boat with candles and written wishes into the sea. We bought a boat and wrote our wishes on it and they were release into the sea at Gurney Drive.

After so many temples, finally we had came to our last stop. The Penang’s Kuan Yin Temple at Pitt Street. It’s not first or 15th of the Lunar calendar, so it’s not that crowded. Usually it’s full of devotees during those days.

Parents bring their children who are sitting for exam here too. Mom did bring me here 2 years ago when I was sitting for PMR and now, it’s friend who brought me there instead of my mom. To pray for good studies and education, we looked for the Confucious and Wen Chang Gong. =)

So, after that many prayers and temple visit, doesn’t mean that we need not to study already, it’s just a kind of believing. Good luck everyone!

Sharing is caring. For the students who are sitting for SPM next week, here is some spot important topic to emphasized more on.

This is not leaked topics or question, just some important topics for you to refer which are spotted by group of exam question analyst.

Freshen up. Put on a t-shirt and a pair of shorts, got my camera and off I was. The bloggers tour were divided into groups and I was in Group A with bloggers from Malaysia, Philippines, Australia and Singapore too.

First stop of the one-day tour was Mint Museum of Toys which is also a cafe, restaurant and wine bar. Pretty cool right? A toy museum which is quite different with the one in my hometown here in Penang.

Located on Seah Street, very near to Raffles Hotel.

A 5 stories building with a basement, it doesn’t look like a museum from it’s outer contemporary view. It’s a sponsored tour, so I need not to pay the S$15 entrance fee, which I would say a little bit expensive but worth it if you are a museum hopper and a toy fans. There’s so much to see in this little cozy space.

We had already been divided into group, but at here, we were divided into a smaller groups to tour different floor because of limited space and guide. Randolph Chew was so kind to guide us around and told us almost everything about the toys and the stories behind.

The top floor is a bar which house a lot of old school coffee shops advertisement plates. It’s like travel back in time to the olden days.

It’s a very modern-ish, contemporary gallery of toys. Everything are well-displayed with very sweet lighting on the acrylic illuminated shelf, which makes photographing easy and nice.

It’s all about toys from around the world, America’s, Europe’s and Asia’s. You see the above King Kong’s poster? What’s so special about it is that it’s one of few which features King Kong itself on the World Trade Centre instead of the Empire State Building.

The owner of the musuem is a serious hardcore toy collectors. I would say he turned hobby into investment, and he must be eff-ingly rich! Just look at the price tag and imagine how much he had spent on the toys. Oh my god, pro.

I know only a few of them, eg. Popeye, Disney’s characters, Tin Tin, Star Wars, Star Trek, Astroboy and a few more. I realised that there’s no Japanese cute anime figurine, where are they?!

I am not really a fan of cartoons now. Do you know that Astroboy was actually Astro(girl)? The Japanese felt weird and later changed her sex into a boy, and the girl character had became Astroboy’s sister.

See the above’s mouse. They are evil Mickey Mouse created by the English to defame the real Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse. Interesting stories back then when there’s no patent about toys and cartoon character, everyone copys.

Ugly bear.

Another cool piece is the the wagon. The wagon is not cool, but the box is because it came in from Penang’s port and travelled to Ipoh and lastly, lies in this museum. Penang yeah!

Free door gift too! Nice tour.

Next stop: Chinatown Heritage Centre and more!

To me, the Hungry Ghost Month is scarier and more happenings because at least there’s the Chinese getai, concert-by-the-street. What I was expecting for Halloween was actually some horror movie like Saw 6 and Phobia 2. Saw series are always not available in our local cinema because of the gory scene, so I am waiting for the DVD anxiously. Phobia 2 was freaking good, I watched it 2 days ago and shockingly love it all.

So my Halloween weekend was at Queensbay Mall in the afternoon and went out for a steamboat gathering at night. I went to watched Michael Jackson’s This Is It at noon time with Alvin and Chien Chern. You will like it if you are MJ’s fan, I like it.

After the movie, I went walking around the mall. It had been a while that I didn’t go to Queensbay Mall but till then, shops at Queensbay Mall are still not so interesting. I felt that malls in Penang are not-cool after visiting to KL’s Pavilion or Singapore’s ION @ Orchard which is the best to me at the moment.

Then I saw those Halloween’s Costume Competition’s contestant roaming around the mall, for fashion show and tricks and treats.

Pretty interesting with their look. They looked cute to me. Thai’s horror has still got the best make up. =D Phobia 2!

Some of them were dancing zombies. They had their little in-mall street dance battle with no music. Though, I saw no MJ’s Thriller, it would be very cool if there is.

After spending a little time walking the mall, found out that it’s boring, I went to Borders to join Chien Chern and tall guy Fangs for a little bit of reading. I brought Biology book along with me.

Starbucks in Borders were so full of people on that day. Mostly college students, it gets noisy sometimes and afterall, I still prefer reading out at Jing Si’s Books and Cafe on Beach Street. It’s quieter and extremely low price beverage.

Zuanfu, Shaun and Foong.

Shaun, Foong and Zuanfu came to join us later in the afternoon. They weren’t here for books but to hop on into my car to go to town together because we had a class gathering on that night.

Alvin Yang.

Tall guy Fangs and Chien Chern.

Trying to be cool. Haha.

This year’s was different because I was alone. As for last year, I went there with my parents and met Ah Kok, but for this year, I met no one. I was alone all the time with my camera.

I went early this year, at around 9pm. People of locals and tourists were already standby for the thing to take place.

The crowds were really big, mostly photographer and I had to squeeze myself in to take shots too.

Something cool was that I got to see how they insert or poke through these steel into one’s mouth. It wasn’t really disgusting because there’s actually no blood coming out, or I couldn’t see it. But it’s very fast, I am sure it’s pain but for a while I guess.

It was just like Thaipusam but this is in the Taoist way. A kind of belief and a kind of tradition. Hoping to get bless.

I went on walking along the street for photos and there’s all these very cool “god-possessed” waiting for the “parade” to start. I am superstitious a little bit, I believe there’s god and ghost hanging around us. What do you think? Do you believe?

Don’t really know how it works but they “it” does works.

When the procession started, the street was filled with all the devotees. I was walking along with them too.

The price of a DSLR is getting lower and lower, competition among brands made it that like a lot of people are their hands on a DSLR, which made more and more amateur photographers appear at event like this. Good thing or bad thing? Very hard to comment on that.

I had fun with the photos, I had fun walking at there. I guess will be changing a new location next year. There’s one at Butterworth which is very happenings and there’s one at Hatyai, Thailand which is more happenings than here. Wow!

Yo guys! Look what I’ve got? A new Xpax Prepaid SIM Pack. Because I just knew that Facebook SMS service is available in Malaysia and only available for CHANNEL X of Xpax, so I went to grab a new number to try out the service.

I love Facebook and I love SMS, the combination of two things together rocks.

Just swapped in the SIM card into my phone and gonna try out the Facebook SMS service soon.

According to CHANNEL X, I just have to pay as low as RM1 per week for unlimited Facebook SMS usage eg. Status Update, News Feed, Live Feed, Add Friends, Profile, Wall Post and more.

Check it out now if you are CHANNEL X user. I’ll gonna show you in the another post next time on how to set up the Facebook SMS service. Yeah!

I didn’t really know people around because I didn’t see his/her blog before. I only know a few which I’ve seen their blog before. Names were not what I addressing because I have a bad memory for names, but instead, I called them with their blog address, eg. Mr Nick Chan Dot Net. =D

Start up with something local, something close. Mr Alvin Yang Dot Net, Nick Chan Dot Net, Ji Xiang (not-blogger) and Alvin On Nine Dot Com. Ok, they are from my school, from the fourth form but not very close. We are the only peoples that’s representing Chung Ling High School, my high school. Haha.

Mr KY Speaks Dot Com. So surprise to know that he was from Penang and from the same high school! An alumni and a senior for me. Unexpected.

Ms Four Feet Nine Dot Com a.k.a. Audrey, pretty girlfriend to the boss of Nuffnang.

Famous full-time blogger, Ms Cheeserland Dot Com a.k.a. Ringo! OMG, so nice.

Another famous one, full-time travel blogger, Nicole Kiss.

Xiaxue! Singapore’s most famous blogger and awarded Region’s Best Blog. OMG! Ignore my eyes, my expression was epic. Haha.

Here comes Malaysia’s most famous blogger, Kennysia. My second photo with him, my first photo was taken 2 years back.

My favourite local ang-mo (foreigner/caucasian) blogger, Shaolin Tiger.

Sorry, I didn’t watch Project Alpha, but I know she’s one of the blogger in Project Alpha. Red Mummy who had a hot eyelashes.

With A Shopaholics Den dot Com and her friend, =X, I have forgotten her name.

V Vens dot Com, who was on the same table in the hall. =)

Sam, from KL.

Rei, from KL, same table in the hall, and same tour group too.

Singaporean bloggers, Stephen and Cedric.

Another Singaporean blogger and pro filmmaker! Jayden, who won the Pringles video contest. Damn cool, ok.

Jimmy America who made an awesome stop-motion video for the Pringles contest and his girlfriend, Violet Lebeaux.

Timonthy Tiah, the boss, the co-founder of Nuffnang.

Boss Ming, the boss, the co-founder of Nuffnang, too!

Another photo with non-blogger, Ji Xiang.

Another photo of me with Alvin taken at around 1230am. It’s so late and we still couldn’t get back to the hotel due to some technical error. Haha. Afterall, the night was fun, good experience, nice meeting people around, nice saying Hi to famous bloggers and good food.

I did not straight go to bed after we reached the hotel, I turned on the laptop and started to do my usual stuff, Facebook, news, Twitter, Plurk, email and etc. =D

Next stop: Uniquely Singapore tour. Mint Toy Museum was the first stop of the tour.

photos credit to alvinyang.net.

I was expecting something grand, something like Oscar, with red carpets, camera, tuxedo, suits, gown and etc.

Because of my tiny body and short height, I can hardly get a pre-made blazer out there for me. I think I should go tailor-made one for me already, in case I need to attend such event again in the future (hope not very far future). I went for simplicity, all black and with my favourite polka dots tie.

I am always late, everyone was asked to gather at the lobby at 6.30pm, but I only got out from the room at that time. Took my camera with me, my phone and it’s all set. The lobby of the hotel is very small and I was so surprised to see everyone looking so gorgeous.

It seems like everyone had already been waiting for a while at the lobby already and the Nuffies had started calling names. Bloggers were just busy taking photos. I was so stranger at there because I found no familiar faces and not a face that says he or she is from Penang. So, I waited for me to arrive at Pan Pacific Hotel, only then I starts my “Hi, I am Nicholas, I blog at Nick Chan Dot Net, bla bla bla”.

There’s 4 bus parked at the back of the hotel. Ferrying around 150 bloggers from the hotel to the location. One thing I forgot to say is that, DSLRs were so common among them, almost every of the blogger has one, it’s so freaking cool.

We arrived at the ballroom side of the hotel instead of the lobby. It seems like everyone was already there and camera flashes were everywhere as we stepped into the cocktail area. It’s Western style, with people moving around with glasses of water and there’s chips on the table too as Pringles was one of the sponsors.

Boss Timonthy Tiah.

We have to sign ourselves up at the registration booth to get a Nuffnang booklet which works at an entry ticket. Then I spent quite some times at the cocktail area wandering around, looking at peoples, said hi to some I-didn’t-know blogger.

They even have this cool area set up for photography. Just like any awards show where the celebrities will stand there, pose for photograph or speak.

I’ll skipped my photos taken with fellow blogger first and go into the Nuffnang Blog Awards banquet hall.

There’s a red carpet out there, it’s real red and as I walked into the hall. Camera flashes on me again. I felt like I am a celebrity but in fact, everyone felt the same too. My table number was 36 and it’s quite far from the stage.

Though, that’s not the problem because there’s a big screen showing what’s happening on the stage at our place. The music in the hall was rather loud which made communicating a little bit difficult. We had Western styled, four course fine dining, which was also my first time and I liked it a lot.

Entertainment of the night was the very interesting illusion magic by hot Magic Babe Ning and JC Sum, very loud rock band, Electrico and the night was hosted by Amazing Race Asia’s host, Allan Wu.

It’s so interesting to see those nominated blog, now only I know that there’s so many good blogs out there. For the list of Winner, you can check it out here. I’ll still share you 2 names that everyone knows and it’s Xiaxue and Kennysia. Xiaxue was the biggest winner of the night as she got away with 3 awards. Cool.

My submitted video for Pringles competition didn’t get nominated and I believe I didn’t add in the tagline and it’s not in English. Somehow, I salute the winner, Jayden who is really pro in video making.

The whole thing ran quite well and ended at around 11.30pm. Pity the MC/Host Allan Wu because he’s always on stage announcing the winner and don’t get to eat with us. The only thing that made the event not-so-perfect was the lack of alcohol, I bet everyone will be high if there’s alcohol in the hall. But then, I am underage. Haha.

We did not really go home right after it ended, but it’s photography session with fellow bloggers outside the ballroom until near midnight. The last bus was really late because of some technical error. We almost need to call for cab to take us back to hotel but in the end, the bus was there.

Rocks!

Next stop: Same place but lots of photos with bloggers.

The song that made everyone in class sings was Tong Hua (the song by Guang Liang). There’s no teacher in class, only then we can do things like this.

Singing is fun!