The 2 things Meme TAG!! n Chrismas Meme

1. Two names I go by: Deric & Bam
2. Two things I am wearing now : Ring and Chain
3. Two things I want (or have) in a relationship : Children and Happiness
4. Two things I like to do : Playing online games and sleeping
5. Two things I want very badly in these moments : Money and a new Job
6. Two things I did last night : Slept and Ate
7. Two things I ate today : Fried Fish & Fried Chicken
8. Two persons I last spoke to : My Colleague and My Colleague
9. Two things I am doing tomorrow : Go to Work then Go Home Zzzzz
10. Two favorite days of the week : Saturday and Sunday
11. Two favorite holidays : Christmas and Chinese New Year
12. Two favorite beverages : Ice Lemon Tea and Green Tea
13. Two things about me that you may not have known : I married latest amongst my 3 siblings, I am the last kid of my generation "Father's side"
14. Two jobs that I have had in my life : A chief cashier, a salesman
15. Two movies I would watch over and over : Braveheart, Patriot
16. Two places that I have lived : Kuala Lumpur and Kasai, Japan
17. Two of my favorite food : Satay, Fried Chicken
18. Two places I would rather be right now : On Honeymoon wherever nice, at home sleeping.

Christmas Meme:
What are the 5 gifts you would buy for yourself this Christmas, if you had unlimited income?

1. A new car
2. A new double storey house
3. A honeymoon for my wife and I to Europe
4. A flourishing food & beverages business.
5. A club membership so that i can go use the facilities anytime


dono who to tag so not taggin :P

Guo Dai Lai

As promised, hahaha here comes the updates, one at a time as i recall them.

There was just too many things to do the last few days, and late nights and all. So we start from 2 weeks ago when i had my Guo Dai Lai.

First of all all the things for exchange had been planned in advance, a big huge roasted Pork, those wedding cakes, liquor, dowry and more has been arranged and Guo Dai Lai basically is the dowry sending day. Hmm, dowry include, The main dowry, angpow for mother in law for bringing up, and also one to grandma, and ang pows for the unmarried siblings of my wife. I think that was all...hmmm...something like that :P

Most of the time nowadays people use ang pow to represent most of the stuff. But if you have elderly in your family, they most probably will still want the presence of a big big roast pig in the house for the event.

It definately was a nice addition to the event to see everyone trying to butcher the pig Hahahaha, not easy for first timers.

At first, we asked our local butcher in KL how to get the pig and all. We were recommended to ask the In Law's family to buy it in Melaka and then we'll give the ang pow for it. This will definately save you alot of time to have to carry it over and all.

So on the day itself 18th November, My 3rd Uncle + Wife, my 2nd Aunt and my Bro + Family followed my wife and I down to Malacca as my entourage for this event. We were greeted by a big big Roasted Pig, Wedding Cakes, Fruits etc etc at the entrance of my Wife's house and an altar for offerings to the dieties.

First thing we did was to pass the dowry over to my In Laws, then we did some prayers. Then my In Laws were to chop up the two sides of the Roasted Pig, leaving the Head/Shoulder, Backbone, Hip/Rear part Intact for me to take back to KL.

What a chore it turned out to be as no one has chopped up a Roasted Pig before, my brother in law had a real good workout and was sweating non stop while trying his best to severe the two sides of the pig's ribcage. His uncle and aunt was also helping out and it took a good half an hour to 45 minutes to at last manage to carve the two big pieces of rib/meat out.

Then came lunch at my in laws, they prepared some food for us and for all the relatives who attended the function, there was a few plates of the Roasted Pig earlier for us to eat, which i was then informed that My wife and I are not supposed to consume any of the food used for today's event, meaning i can't touch the Cakes, Roasted Pig Fruits n more.....ARGHHHH!!!!! and the pig smelled nice too :P So i just made do with the fish, some fishballs, and some vege...sob sob, no roasted pig and it was just in front of me.

Ah well, after lunch, we didn't want to go back to KL first since i wanted to bring my Bro and Uncle to town for a short walk, so we didn't load the pig into the car, and went downtown to Jongker's street to enjoy some sightseeing and some traditional food.

Firstly we parked at Jalan Tokong, then we went into a temple there, first time i entered the temple, It was serene and beautifully maintained, the wooden beams, the golden paint on the carvings in the ceiling wooden beams, the clay tiles of the roof were all very beautifully maintained. I forgot what was the name of the temple though...hehehehe, dropped some donation into the donation box and walked around the courtyard and the compound of the temple. Wifey told me she's been to this temple alot of times when younger and they used to have a turtle pond on the right side of the entrance. That place is now turned into a washroom and no more turtles liao. Oh well. But the temple's still a very nice view.

After visiting the temple we walked down the road to the corner, walking past a gula melaka shop, my uncle stopped sniffed and bought 2 whole bags of gula melaka, hahaha he says the gula melaka here is definately nicer than KL as they are genuine without being diluted first then hardened. The smell was definately great. Walked somemore to the corner of the road and we stopped at No 1, Jalan Tokong, those who know this place will know the wonderful wonderful smell of pineapple tarts. This place is famous, hahaha one of the smallest shops in this area and also the most customers. Luckily we managed to grab some boxes before they were all gone.

Then we walked over an alleyway to Jongker Street, in the alleyway, my Uncle n Aunt went to buy some Aik Cheong coffee too, well known coffee in this part of the country. It was a hot day, so as we were walking back up Jongker Street, i took them to the 88 Restaurant, hehehe, this place serves really good ABC and Chendol. The main thing which makes it good was the Thick Thick Gula Melaka & coconut milk lacing over shaven ice balls. Bwahahah, first time my uncle had it and he was hooked, my brother and sister in law agreed too that it was very nice. The shop was packed when we went in, managed to secure a place though. LUCKILY.

Well after that was about time to go home, my uncle, aunt, wife and i went back to my in law's house to pick up the roasted pig and other stuff while my bro took his wife and my other aunt to A-Famosa resort, he already booked to stay there 1 day in advance.

On the way home, the roasted pig smell was really quite overwhelming in the car hahahah 1 and a half hour journey later, we reached home, and my uncle helped my mom butcher up the final parts of the pig to be given away/frozen/kept to make the spicy 'choy kiok' dish. All which i still cannot eat SOB SOB, really rugi bersih here. Hahahaha.

Oh well, it was a tiring day indeed and luckily i took a day off the next day to rest since i drove all the way there, then to the town and back to KL. :) 2 weeks after that would be my wedding. Which just passed. Next few posts will be on my final 2 weeks of wedding preparations and also the wedding day. WHEW

Slight Hiatus

I truly apologize for this slight hiatus from posting. Alot of things are on my mind now on the preparations for my wedding this coming weekend. Last minute thoughts and such. No time to even watch football.

SideNote : Yay Man Utd Lost :P Yay!! JW don't be heartbroken.

'Steady stream' of young game addicts seek help

Experts are worried that parents and teenagers cannot cope with issue well.
By Oo Gin Lee and Alfred Siew
Help for gaming addicts is mainly focused on changing their habits, through 'cyberwellness' instead of getting them to go cold turkey. -- REUTERS
THE thrill of killing powerful monsters and seeking glory online has turned a small but growing number of youths here into cyber addicts, who need help to maintain sanity in ther real lives.

Some 150 of them have approached a new centre set up in August last year to help computer gaming addicts manage their obsession.

Mr Poh Yeang Cherng, manager of the Planet Crush cyber wellness centre, said he has seen a 'steady stream' of cybergamers asking for help. About 60 of the 150 cases have to go for counselling sessions.

'There are many reasons why gamers play games. Some to escape from real life, some to achieve what they can't get in real life and others to simply meet their social needs,' said Mr Poh.

Almost all of them who approached the centre were students and youths, with just a handful of adults.

'There was also one girl who called to seek help for her father,' said Mr Poh.

The centre is part of non-profit Touch Community Services' youth outreach programme. Since 2001, Touch Community has reached out to more than 200 schools and 250,000 students, parents and teachers with its cyberwellness programmes.

The problem with gaming addiction was highlighted in Parliament on Monday by Ms Ellen Lee, MP of Sembawang GRC, who said her nephew was a cyber addict. She asked three ministries what was being done to help such youths.

Experts say most gamers can manage their lives and do not end up as addicts. Help is mainly focused on changing their habits, through 'cyberwellness' instead of getting them to go cold turkey.

Mr Thomas Chong, director of education initiatives at Infocomm Asia Holdings, a leading game publisher here, said: 'Gaming is like fire. It can be a good master or a bad slave. You just need to manage it properly.'

He allows his eldest child, 12-year-old Daniel, play computer games. Initially, he worked out a schedule with him but over time he drilled the values of balance and prioritisation into his child.

'Now, he paces himself without our help and automatically stops completely when the PSLE was near. But we still monitor him in the background to make sure he does not step out of line,' added the father of three, who also lectures educational psychology part-time to National Institute of Education trainee teachers.

But some cyber addicts can play non-stop for more than 12 hours a day. Mostly male youths, they may also skip school, or rush to a cyber cafe while on holiday overseas, to log on to a game they cannot live without.

Dr Munidasa Winslow, director of the Community Addictions Management Program at the Institute of Mental Health, said he has seen patients who even fought with their parents when told to quit playing.

Though he has only handled a handful of gaming addiction cases this year, he noted that more parents are starting to get worried about the issue. They are concerned that what started as a hobby may turn into an obsession.

Student Bryan Toh, 16, for example, failed several subjects in Secondary 3 last year because he spent all his time playing the MapleStory online game.

He would play for 12 hours straight, even pretending to be ill so he could stay at home to log on.

He recounted: 'When I started playing, I thought I could stop when the holidays ended.' He did not - until the the O levels beckoned this year and he was forced to kick his habit to prepare for the exams.

Academic and avid gamer Angeline Khoo, 54, suggested that parents should try to understand why games matter so much to the young ones - by playing the games themselves.

'There's a lack of understanding as well, and what we need is a bit of balance,' she said.

Read Confessions of a not-quite-reformed gaming addict.

Taken from http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest+News/Tech+%2526+Science/STIStory_176448.html?vgnmr=1

Hahaha i think i'm one of them addicts, but i'm not young anymore.

Song hunting for Wedding

Heheh, any of you torrent? I'm hunting for songs which both me and my wife like for our wedding.

I have got the cards liao, this weekend gonna write them all up and next week's passing them out time. Yay, 2 weeks and 2 days to go. Suddenly, i'm feeling a bit more excited than the past few weeks.

Registered for more than a year, and now only doing the chinese tradition stuff. Somehow the anxiety to get everything right is there, very anxious to see how everything turn out on that day. Hopefully all will be fine.

Any suggestions of songs?