Weld Quay Tree Shade Seafood Restaurant

There's a good and rather cheap (but rather dank and wet) seafood restaurant, opposite the Penang Ferry terminal. Four persons, with fish (tau teh - big brother to the white pomfret) and chicken dishes plus two vege less than RM50. And all the free papadum and curry dip that you can eat. Opens for Lunch and Dinner, closed Tuesdays (I think). Very wide selection of fresh seafood.

Parking by the roadside or along the side roads, but expect the occasional "saman" from the friendly JPJ/PDRM/MPPP folks.

Only complaint - a little on the oily side.

The Wikimapia tag is here.

Some more photos:

Mummy look what I saw last week

Was enjoying some precious family time with the kids and wife over at Botanical Garden. At the lily pond area, saw this:

Looks like a turtle, doesn't it? Blame that on my handphone camera, which, even at 2MP, sucks.

'twas a monitor lizard, about a meter long, sticking its tongue out in the air, smelling for tasty kids to snack on... (smack). Ouch. Which is what happened when my daughter started yelling at me. ;)

NVM, back to your previously scheduled programme.

That thick layer...

I've been wondering why the thick layer of yogurt that sticks to the top of the foil covering Nestle yogurt cups can't be removed without using my tongue or the spoon that comes with the cup. No amount of shaking in any direction can soften the gooey deliciousness...

Caught some pics of a fire happening behind this apartment block in Relau on May 31st. Didn't have time to post them until today, as I've been busy half the time since then looking after my daughter who was admitted to hospital for high fever, and the other half catching up with my work after taking 3 days leave.




A few minutes after I took these shots, my son saw a fire truck heading towards the fire, and it was gone about half an hour later, so no worries.

Sucks to be the residents of that apartment block though, looked like a tire fire, and burning rubber is worse than a stink bomb.

Anti obesity programme - enhanced model

I was reading in The Star that Singapore has stopped an anti-obesity programme, as the kids were getting teased. Then I got to wondering whether the Malaysian government would like to improve their anti-obesity programmes by doing the following:

1. Set up massive centers of Wii consoles in each major city
2. Allow only people with obesity problems to use these machines, and make sure that they play more physically active games
   
3. As an incentive, allow the participants to take a Wii home if they are able to hit their correct BMI, so that they can maintain their weight
   

All that money we saved with last year's petrol price hike can now be used for the benefit of the people, rather than non-existent road maintanence or kickbacks for useless street "enhancement" projects.

I'd also like to see an end to all these trendy "Fitness centers" - replace them with Wii centers and charge per hour. I think this would get more people exercising.

A prayer before meals

"Good food, good meat, good God, let's eat!"

Beats the heck out of "Dear Lord,...."

Putting on weight

I just realized something, after the recent binging over Chinese New Year, I cannot get my wedding ring off without a decent struggle. It used to slide off pretty easily over the knuckle, now it gets jammed and I have to spend half a minute yanking on it, swearing.

The funny thing is that I weighed myself before and after the break, and my weight stayed consistent at 70kg, plus/minus 1kg. Wonder what caused the flab on my fingers, the santan or the extra servings of rice.

Sigh.

I want one of these...

or even this:



or this:

Is it me or does the radio stations synchronize their ad times?

Was listening to Red, Hitz, Fly, Mix and LiteRadio over the weekend, and found in many cases that their advertisement times are pretty much synchronized. Is there some "super" programme manager that synchronizes all the radio stations (at least the English Radio Stations) to get them to go "ad-air" all at the same time? It's damn hard to find a radio station playing music when the others are running ads. To me that's pathetic, having to listen to the same stale ads over and over again while driving and gnashing my teeth...

$3 for Bubur Cha Cha - all you can eat

GO HERE! 4th March 10am - 6pm.

Staple-free Stapler

Saw this at ThinkGeek - I think it's a great idea, don't need staples for < 5 sheets of paper. Wonder if it's available locally - it's rather pricey at US websites tho - USD7.95 for each unit

I shall go to Big Bookshop and Popular to investigate this weekend...

Happy Chinese New Year!

It's the year of the pig!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Google and Valentine's Day

This is hilarious :

From Urban Dictionary :

Googe is a sexual act originating in the Amazon rainforest. It is where the man wraps his legs around a womans face and googe's like a bad badger. It is now used as an exclamation of hornyness or used as a term instead of fuck, or also can be used as an expression deep hatred. Eg, I fucking want to googe ya mam

I want to googe you long time *russian Accent*

There is a second meaning, but I don't think I want to publish it (go to UD and check it out)

Read this on FA's blog

Why do we have government incentives?

In yesterday's NST, there was an article about scrapping the "lucky draw" for remaining folks who haven't converted to MyKAD (here) . I fully support the government's efforts to do this, but question why they had to do this in the first place. Isn't a fine and threat for a jail term enough to "encourage" these stragglers to convert? I work 40+ hours a week, and spend a lot of time with my family of three after that, yet I am able to go to the registration department and get both mine and my wife's myKAD done (yes, we got it done before the deadline). C'mon lah, it's not as if it takes 6+ months like five years ago to get a replacement card.

It's like the JPJ and PDRM giving 50% discounts to people who haven't paid their summonses. What next - 50% discount on jail term for murders and rapes if the suspect who is in hiding, or 70% discount on your mandatory death sentence by hanging for repeat drug users/sellers?

Little Penang Street Market at Lake Plaza, Bukit Jambul

This is the second Little Penang Street Market held at the Lake Plaza, Bukit Jambul. It's on every first Sunday of the month and it features craft sellers, some F&B as well as charity groups.

For photos please visit here.

The Stagea Mini Electone

My son's moving to Yamaha Electone Grade 8, and he needed an electone. After asking around for both second-hand and new Electones, I decided to buy a StageaMini (ELB-01). It's costing me about 2 months pay (8 big smackaroos!), so my son had better buck up and practise....



More photos here.

Is Hell Exothermic or Endothermic (Chemistry Majors only)

The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington Chemistry mid-term.
The answer by one student was so "profound" that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well:

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?
Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.

One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.


This gives two possibilities:
1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?
If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, "It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you," and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct......leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting "Oh My God."
THIS STUDENT RECEIVED THE ONLY "A"

Hanoi

My daddy and mummy went to Hanoi and all I got was a picture of a hog...

Useless Tourism Award (Kenny Sia)

Bwahahahahahahaha!

Especially this one:

Fujitsu FACOM

From Digital World Tokyo

A PC with the power of a small desktop calculator!

Here's the article text (so you don't have to click on the above URL):

Just as great oaks come from little acorns, so too do room-sized computers come from humble calculators. In the case of Fujitsu's FACOM series of adding machines, that calculator grew into a computer that is the world's oldest still in use.

The FACOM — or Fujitsu Automatic COMputer — is in the news because the second of its kind, the 128B, is currently receiving a tune-up to give it a few more years' useful life. The company's goal is to push it to 2016, when it will complete 60 years of operation. To that end, retired FACOM experts are returning to Fujitsu to teach the firm's tyros how to make it tick.

The FACOM 128B, which covers 65 square meters of Fujitsu's factory floor, was developed in 1958, growing out of a bona fide calculator in the 128A. Unsurprisingly, the 128B's calculating speed is about as fast as a modern desktop calculator, a fact that underlines the talent of the engineers who used it to design Japan's first passenger plane, the YS-11. Let's see your Casio do that.

Quick Cut

RM12 for 10 min haircut anyone?

Surprisingly a lot of people lining up and waiting for a free slot. Whoever has tried this shop, either in Penang or elsewhere, do comment on the quality, styling and your opinions, thanks.

It's been a while

Was at Queensbay Mall (who wasn't ^_^) last weekend, and came across an interesting thing.

Penang people recycle!

Well, at least that's what I think they try to do...

Was here with the family







Having part of this (Maple Stack - RM7.50, ordered by my son but he couldn't finish)








And this (a portion of the "Treasure Box" - RM16.50)

(note to Paddington's - buy sweeter strawberries wont'cha?)








When I saw a waitress take the jug of "maple" syrup from our table as we were leaving and pass it to another table as the people at that table were starting to eat. Now luckily my kids don't play with their food (good training, thanks to the missus), but I wouldn't be surprised if that jug of syrup had been making the rounds the whole day.

Is there a problem with just getting a new jug of syrup to each customer? I know maple (if it really is the real Canadian stuff, which I doubt) is rather pricy, but hey, you're charging us an arm and a leg for the food, so can't you even practice some basic sanitary skills?

Anyway, that's my rant for today.

Toodles!

Early Morning Wake-Up call

Mine colleague called me this morning - overslept and/or alarm didn't trigger. Ironically, I'd just been googling for paintball grenades and came across something called a sonic grenade.



You basically hack a 110db personal alarm, with a simple timer circuit, put it into a suitable container, and voila! Instant piss-off'er. There are websites that do sell these, look nice, but rather pricey.

I'm now seeing whether I hack together a birthday present for my colleague comprising an alarm clock with said 110db personal alarm circuit, be an interesting side project.