Secret’s Safe, really?

I happened to stumble upon a site call Secret’s Safe. It’s kind of interesting because it’s about secrets. Well, kind of. What you do at Secret’s Safe is that you enter your secret and in return you’ll see someone else secret. Sounds interesting? This is actually a simple game that plays around with the desire to know other’s secret. Everybody has secrets. Sometimes it might be good to just let it out. It’s like the story of a man shouting at the tree hole in the woods, remember the story?

P/S: Try not to reveal too much when you try this game. Keep it anonymous and don’t put in any personal identification. Who knows your secret might be reveal to the one person that you don’t want to share.

The world of caffeine

I think most of us started to consume caffeine right when we were young. When we were young, we drink coke or other soft drinks. Those already give us the kick to keep on consuming it. When we get older and started to work, coffee comes into our life. Some of us even get to know coffee earlier when being a book worm in order to get a better job, better life. No matter what, caffeine has becomes part of our life anywhere, any time. At some point caffeine helps get through life. Coffee helps to complete our work and soft drinks help to keep kids happy and sit still.

    Still caffeine is considered as a stimulant drug. Over consuming is not a good idea. Here’s a chart that I stumble upon that might help you to control coffee or soft drink consumption.

P/S: I never knew that September 29th is National Coffee day. I suppose we could celebrate that day by having 1 extra cup of coffee. It should be fine doing it once a year.

Old Wooden House in the middle of a City

When you walk down the streets of a city, any city… Did you ever encounter an old wooden house that situated right between the buildings? Something like the picture above? Perhaps that is what we call a historical property. Sounds cool? Maybe so for tourists or people that walks by. It’s more like a discovery of an ancient treasure in the modern area.

    Still a house is still a house. The only thing that matters is the people who used to stay in it, especially an old house. Don’t be surprise that some of the old house used to be a place where famous people are born. Each house has a story to tell. A story related to people, the surrounding or should I say a witness or evidence of things that happen before. We used to hear people mention “I used to play around that house when I was young…” and some might even say “I built that house 30 years ago…”

    If you’re staying in an old house like that, there comes a time that you need to fix it or even abandon it because of safety purposes. The decision normally depends on how life turns out. If you have kids and they have grown up having their own job, they might not be staying in the same old house. They might have their own new house. The question is do the old parents continue to stay in the old house or do they move to stay with their children in the new house. In most cases, the old folks will move to stay with their children and sell the old house. No doubt new house is nice to stay and more comfortable with air conditioner and other new living features. Still I think most old folks are more comfortable staying in the old house where they spend half of their life there. Perhaps this is what we call the sense of belonging.

Watch Internet TV and Live Online Television at Embed TV Web 360 player

Here’s an online television that you can take a look. There are more than thousand of channels from all over the world available for you to have a watch at Embed TV Web 360 player. No installation required. You can just watch is direct from your browser. You can choose your channel by country, language or even by category listed. Depending in which country that you stay, some of the channels might not be available. Still that’s more than enough channels for you to take a watch. Just remember that you might need a high speed internet line to watch a smooth display.

Turn off your lights at 830pm Saturday 27 March 2010 for Earth Hour 2010

Earth hour started back in 2007 Sydney, Australia and this is the 4th time that we turn off the lights for the sake of earth. Is this a difficult thing to do? I don’t think so. Is this worth doing it? Yes, definitely. All we have to do is just stand up from the comfort of our sofa and walk to the switch and turn off the lights.

    The purpose of Earth Hour is to raise the awareness of climate change among people. Lately I’m sure everybody knows about the snow and the earth quake that strikes several countries around the world. You might say that these natural disasters won’t get to you as you’re staying in a country that free from snow and earth quake, but still there are certain things that you might notice. The changes are small but still we are able to notice the difference. For those that are staying in hot tropical area. Do you sense that it’s getting hotter every year? For those that are staying in cold winter area. Do you sense that it’s getting colder every year?

    For me I’m very sure that the weather is getting hotter. I used to be able walk under the sun without feeling much heat, but lately the sun is just burning my skin. The hot air that blows towards my body is just unbearable. For those particular hot days, all I can do is just stay in my house. Honestly I really do not enjoy it.

    I don’t know much about how to stop this climate change, but I can definitely spread the words about this. Hopefully those that knows what to do, that is if they really know what they are doing, can take action. I suppose this goes to everybody that lives in this planet.

Translate the words into nightingale or R2D2

Here’s a couple of site that we can have some fun. The first site is Nightingale Songs and the second site is R2D2 Translator. Both sites can translate words into the so call nightingale or R2D2 language and play it out. You can try type some words into it and see if you can recognize what is being play out. If you like it, you can even download it and make it as ringtone for your hand phone. You may even try it out using different language and listen to how it sounds.

    Don’t ask me if this is for real or not as I honestly have no idea. The only thing that I know is that this seems fun. You can send it to your friends or your loves one. There are some other sites that you can try out for example compose Kako birds MIDI tunes or Send a singing telegram with a duck.

    You can try type in your name and see what it sounds like. You may even type “I love you” and send the translated nightingale song or R2D2 voice to your loves one and see if they understand. You may even try having a conversation with your friends using the translate songs or voice. That is if either of you can figure out what is said. I think the site should consider having a reverse translation tool so that people who receive it can translate back to normal words. That can surely make it more fun.

Earn Money and Rewards by Taking Survey at Planet Pulse (Especially for Malaysian)

There are lots of Sites that provide survey taking services and let users earn some money online. If you work hard on taking surveys, you might be able to earn at least $500 per month. There is only one condition that you have to fulfill which is you have to stay in US and a resident of US. That's right. The reason is simple because most of the surveys are from US and are targeted for US customers. So if you're staying in countries other than US, chances are you won't get much surveys.

Planet Pulse is one of the largest online community of survey respondents representing 20 countries. The surveys provided won't be just focusing on US only as it includes countries from Asia Pacific and Middle East. Which means you'll be getting more survey chances even if you're not from US.

So the big question is what will you get by taking surveys at Planet Pulse? Simple, you'll get pay by taking surveys at Planet Pulse. Planet Pulse pays up to $50 per completed survey. Well, actually you'll get pulses by taking the surveys. These pulses can later convert into US dollars. 100 pulses = 1US Dollar. You can also exchange your pulses for latest downloads, music and games. By the way, you need to have a PayPal account to redeem your money.

You can earn more pulse by inviting your friends, family and others.You can earn up to 2 tier down. That means the more people you refer, the more you'll earn.

P/S: If you're a Malaysian, you definitely have to join Planet Pulse. They have operations hub situated in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.

Get paid for your opinions! Click on the banner above to join Planet Pulse. Its totally free to sign up, and you can earn UNLIMITED. Find out more by visiting PLANET PULSE.

Play Dungeons & Treasures and Earn money

Lately I happen to stumble upon a site that says the adventure game that pays you to play. Sounds interesting, right? Well, I’m a big fan of Dungeons & Dragons. I still remember the first role playing game that I played is Advanced Dungeons & Dragons – Eye of the Beholder. I think that’s about 20 years ago. I was able to finish the game including all the sequels. As for this Dungeons & Treasures, the game is more a less similar. Just that the game play is much simple and easier. You just have 1 character to control instead of a whole party. There are only few places that you can check out. You may visit the shop as that’s the place where you buy your weapon, armor and magic. There is a market where you can sell and buy your stuff to other players. There is also a tavern, chest room and the jousts.

    So the question is how you earn money playing the game. The rules are simple. You just have to earn as much gold as possible. At the end of each month, all the gold will be converted to US dollar. That means you have to sell off all your stuff before the end of the month so that you can get maximum earning. The minimum payout is $10 and you can choose to use PayPal or AlertPay.

    How do you earn gold in this game? Basically you just have to play the game. Just go to the tavern and search for a dungeon to explore. You’re allowed to explore 1 dungeon per day. You just have to explore the dungeon, kill all the monster, level up, get the gold, weapons, armor, potions and keys. The keys are use to unlock the chest for more gold. Once you level your character well, you can start capturing low level monsters and sell them off. That way you can earn more gold.

    If you think that this is not enough and wish to go for more gold, you can try the bonus section. There are treasure hunts, golden pyramid jackpot for you to try your luck. For these sections you have to place a bet using your gold in order to get a chance to win big. It’s more like a lucky draw.

P/S: This is my first month trying out the game. Let’s see how much I can earn by just doing the basic things. It will be great if I can make at least $10 per month, but I doubt that. Let’s just try it out and see.

The portable espresso machine mypressi TWIST

Honestly I think most espresso machines are expensive. Especially if you’re staying in Asia, these espresso machines can cost you a lot more than you can imagine. So the only way that we can get a nice cup of espresso is from a coffee shop. I suppose not many people will try to get themselves an espresso machine unless they really love espresso very much or are fairly rich. Here’s an interesting product that I found that might interest coffee lovers. This is a portable espresso maker call mypressi TWIST. It’s just like a spoon where you just need to put in coffee and add hot water on it. Just check out the site and there is a video clip that you can see it clearly how mypressi TWIST works. One thing I’m disappointed with the video is they didn’t show how the complete process from the beginning until the end. I actually want to see how mypressi TWIST is used. It’s meaningless to see how the espresso flows out. The portable idea might be good but practically it might not be so good. I think most of us can make such a portable espresso tools after watching this. There are 2 things that we need to think of when making an espresso. First is to find a tool to press the coffee. Second is to let small amount of hot water flows through. Think you can solve this and make yourself a cup of espresso?

Second Trip to Kuala Terengganu

    After couple of months I’m taking another trip back to Kuala Terengganu again. This time my mission is to deliver a small transportation call “Kancil” from Penang to Kuala Terengganu. The delivery date was 1st Jan 2010 and I have two companions along the trip. The mission estimated will takes about 7 hours of driving. I have to say, driving such a small car on such a long journey is not a good idea. As this is the only option that we have, we just have to do it carefully.

    We start the journey at about 7am in the morning. Everything looks ok. The “Kancil” car has been check and service couple of days right before the journey. It should be fine and free from all the possible damage that can cause the car to break down. You definitely don’t want to have a break down in the middle of the trip from Penang to Kuala Terengganu. The first half of the trip is going up the hills and forest. The only thing that you can see is the road, a few transportation and lots of trees. One thing for sure, cell phone signals are not available at certain areas. So if you really do have a car problem, you’ll just have to ask those who pass by for. Imagine the helpless and danger that you might face if you were to drive at night. Plus animals like elephant or other wild animals might appear along the road during night time. For all that reasons, try not to drive at night if you’re heading to Kuala Terengganu from Penang.

    Driving a small car going up and down hills is not easy, or shall I say it’s far more dangerous than I think. That’s because there are lots of turns and the road condition is not good. Sometimes we have to keep a distance from trucks that carry tree trunks. A simple kiss from these giant trucks is enough to knock us down the hill.

    When we left the hills and enter the second half of the road trip, it began to rain. This part of the road is much safer because we can see houses, mosque and schools along the road. At least there are people living close by the road. For the second part of the trip, the rain is the problem. It never did stop raining once it started. A small car with small tires can easily slip when there is water on the road. Thus we have to drive slower than usual.

    We finally reached Kuala Terengganu but it took us about 7 hours of driving. Lucky this is the second time that we do this but with a smaller car, we have no problem in reaching our destination. As a reward for mission accomplish, we were treated will “Big Tea Rice” at Kuala Terengganu China Town. Check out the photo of the entrance that I took at night.

    We didn’t stay long in Kuala Terengganu. We left the next day taking the bus. The bus departed at about 9:30am in the morning and reached Penang at about 5:30pm. That’s about 8 hours of journey. Don’t think I’m going to take another long bus trip any sooner. It’s really painful having to sit in the bus for such long hours. When we reached the up hills and down hills area, haze form around the road. That’s about 4pm in the afternoon and it’s raining. Driving up and down the hills when it’s raining and the haze around, it’s just dangerous.

P/S: The trip is a bit dangerous but there are lots of great places that you can stop by for sightseeing. There are couples of small waterfalls close by the road that you can have a picnic too.

Having a cup of coffee while writing my weekly report

I still remember the days that I was required to submit a so call weekly report on Friday. The so call weekly report needs to mention the things that I did this week and the things that I plan to do next week.  Well, it’s not just me but everybody in the company need to write the so call weekly report, except the MD as he’s the one started out this activity. This is how I spend my Friday writing the so call weekly report.

1. First thing in the morning, open a new document using Microsoft Excels.
2. Start staring at the monitor thinking back what I did throughout the whole week. As it’s just the beginning of Friday morning, the brain activities are running low in batteries.
3. Having difficulty to start the brain engine. So decided to get a cup of coffee.
4. Back with the cup of coffee. Continue staring at the monitor while having coffee.
5. Starting to remember all the work done throughout the whole week.
6. Start writing the list from No.1 and watching the list increases.
7. Feels productive, busy, efficient, reliable and responsible
8. Complete the list for things done this week. Lunch break.
9. Back. Continue writing the list of things plan to do next week.
10. Can’t concentrate as it’s Friday. Having another cup of coffee.
11. Start planning and remember things that need to be done next week.
12. Start writing the to-do list without stopping. The list increases in a rapid speed.
13. Get overwhelmed, panic, having anxiety.
14. Work on the list. Read and revise.
15. Reduce the to-do list but increase the font size to make it looks “full”.
16. Starts to feel shame, waste of time, non value added, tired, freak out.
17. Give up writing and revising.
18. Submit the weekly report because instructed but did not know why the report is needed.
19. Time’s up. Prepare to go home.
20. Spend so much time on the weekly report and run out of time to actually do anything.

Malaysia is World’s No.5 Friendliest Country

I have to say I’m a bit surprise to see that Malaysia turns out to be No.5 in World’s Friendliest Country. According to an article from Yahoo Travel – World’s Friendliest Countries, Bahrain rank first, second is Canada, third is Australia, forth is Thailand and Malaysia landed fifth. For more details of the information you may go to Forbes.com. Information that I found interesting is that Malaysia turn out to be No.1 for organizing school for children.

    Before you jump into conclusion about anything, the survey is conducted by HSBC Bank on 3100 expatriates. That means it’s the point of view from people that comes to stay in Malaysia. So if you stay in Malaysia and never did stay in foreign country before, you might not be able to understand the difference. The truth is we normally see the good side of staying at foreign county but not the difficult side. I suppose we get those misunderstanding mostly from TV and movies. Those are just Cinderella stories and the magic disappear after midnight.

What can we do to help global warming or safe earth?

Global warming seems to be a hot issue lately. Lots of movies with natural disaster and global warming issue are being released. The latest natural disaster movie will be 2012 and lots of people are enjoying it in the theater. It’s ironic because it’s suppose to be a movie that scares people but many coming out form theater laughing, exciting and amazed about the special effects. Perhaps many are still thinking that this super size natural disaster won’t happen, or even if it does happen they won’t be so lucky to be involved. Well, the thing is there might not be any super size natural disaster as what we seen in the movie but the rate of natural disaster happens really does increases. Just run a natural disaster check for the past 10~20 years and you’ll be surprise. Pick a natural disaster like for example typhoon and do some study about it and you’ll notice how serious it is. I suppose the world leaders began to notice the problems and start worried. That is why we can see so many discussion and conference have been carried out. The lasted conference is COP15 Copenhagen – United Nations Climate Change Conference Dec7~Dec18 2009. Although it seems that the conference did not have any clear and effect actions on the climate change solution but at least they know that they have to do something about it. The world leaders are having conference indoor and the people around the world are having peaceful gathering outdoor. I suppose some pressure from the public might push the world leaders to take action faster and seriously. Actions need to be taken but it won’t be an easy task. It’s easy to pollute the world then to clean it up.

Instead of waiting for the world leaders to take action on global warming issue, what can we do to help? Besides, it’s our world or home that we are living. We are suppose to clean out our own house or the one and only place to live. In other words, it’s every human being responsibility to take care of the earth. Ok then, what can we do to help solve global warming issue? Well, for start let’s try to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. Stop producing carbon dioxide or CO2 by stop open burning unnecessary. Reduce the use of vehicles that emits CO or CO2. Instead of driving your car, you might want to consider riding bicycle or walking. Besides it’s good for your health. Second, save energy or do not waste energy. Simple habits like switch off the lights when you’re not in the room, reduce the use of heater during winter and changing the light bulbs with low power consumption fluorescent can be very helpful. Third, recycle and support ecological products. Keeping the place that we live clean is a must but we can do better by recycle the things that we used. We also need to support by purchasing products that are made from recycled materials. By doing so we basically reduce the amount of rubbish produced. Fourth, try planting trees. Just one tree beside your house is good enough. You might be surprise that you’ll feel much cooler during the summer when the tree is about 12 feet high. Fifth, try using solar energy or wind power energy. Many countries already started to use this method. In fact some houses already start using solar energy, but just in small scale. The best example will be the solar power water heater. Some people even purchase the Do IT Yourself magnetic power generator and make themselves some free energy.

Global warming is a problem that we all are facing. Instead of hoping or waiting for others to do something, it is better to do what you can to reduce global warming. We start by practicing the above ourselves and educate others to do so one by one. When we have more than 50% of world population practicing the same thing, we just need to plant a tree per person and we’ll get 3 billion trees around the world. This is not about who should do more or who should responsible but what each and every one of us can do.

A walk around Penang Kek Lok Si and the New Temple building

Lately I have a chance to visit Penang Kek Lok Si temple, or shall I say revisit as this is not my first trip. It’s has been a long time since I step foot in Kek Lok Si Temple. I think it’s more than 15 years and I can hardly remember a thing about it. This time I get to drive to Kek Lok Si and park my car in front of the temple. As I went there early in the morning on weekday, there aren’t many visitors. The way to Kek Lok Si temple is simple. All you have to do is search for Kek Lok Si temple using Google Map and you’ll find your way. If you’re coming from Penang Bridge, the best way that you should follow is through Lebuhraya Jelutong -> Jalan Tunku Kudin ->Jalan Masjid Negeri ->Jalan Air Hitam.
Just like any other temple, Kek Lok si temple is a quiet place. A place that people come to pray, wish or searching for a peaceful mind. Kek Lok Si temple is more than 100 years old. You can find lots of old painting, statues and work of art around the temple. Don’t forget to check out the ceilings as that’s the best part of the temple. At the top side of the temple a newly built 16 pillars shelter for the Kuan Yin statue along with some buildings were built. The opening ceremony was carried out just couple of days before I visited the temple. Honestly I have no idea about the ceremony but I did catch up with the evens after the ceremony. There seems to have some presentation and lectures given by the elder monk. I didn’t stay for the lectures. I’m more interested in scouting around the temple. It took me just an hour to check out the whole temple. As Kek Lok Si temple is situated along Penang Hill, you need to walk up hill to reach the newly built temple. Alternately you can try out the mini cable car that connects the old temple and the new temple. It’s a short distance but definitely better for the seniors to ride it. The walk to the upper hill temple is difficult for seniors. It will be better just to take the mini cable car. Plus you can enjoy the scenery from the mini cable car.
There is couple of things that I saw that I don’t like. The first thing is beggars. Don’t be surprise that the money they get might be more than your salary. Another type of beggars or shall I say people that going around asking for donation. These people will play their games offensively rather than defensively like the prior group. Neither one of them is good for the image of tourism. The second thing is the admission fee needed for some area of the temple. I still remember that I was free to go any place in the temple. The admission fee is just preventing people from visiting the area.
If you haven’t been to Kek Lok Si temple for a long time, perhaps this might be a good time to check it out as the new temple has completed. Make sure that you choose the visiting date carefully to avoid the crowd. If not you might spending more time in traffic jam than touring. It’s just a 2 hour tour if you’re able to beat the crowd.

P/S: Make sure your car can go up hill before you try to get to the top new temple. It will be a good idea to just stop at the old temple and take the mini cable car to the new temple.

Create your own coffee art at home

Remember the coffee art that we saw on videos? Drawing on your cup of coffee really brings out the early smile in a busy rushing morning. Sadly we can only see the actual coffee art at certain coffee house. Will it be nice if we can do it at home? Well, check out Coffeestencil. You can now have the chance to make your own coffee art. Coffee stencil is just a piece of transparent plastic that crafted with pictures. All you need to do is place the coffee stencil on top of a cup of cappuccino and sprinkle chocolate powder on it. The chocolate powder will drop on the foam through the hole that shapes the picture crafted. Remove the coffee stencil gently and you have yourself a nice cup of cappuccino with coffee art on it.

I think this is really a good idea. Instead of getting a picture coffee stencil, it will be better to get coffee stencil with words. Coffee stencil with words like “I love u, I’m sorry, marry me, I’m pregnant, you will be father, good luck, I do” can be very useful, especially for ladies. You can just make your loves one a cup of cappuccino with a message on it to give him a surprise. Just be prepared as he might drop the cup because some of the words really have big impact.

Reasons I play YoVille but not FarmVille, FishVille, Café World, Roller Coaster Kingdom or Mafia Wars

I have to say, I never did like the game YoVille, FarmVille, FishVille, Café World, Roller Coaster Kingdom or Mafia Wars. I’m a hard core video game player myself ever since I’m a little kid. I still remember that I’ll do anything just to play the famous Mario Brothers on the Nintendo game console. I bought my first generation Playstation during my university study and even modified the game console just to play the famous Final Fantasy 7. After graduated I got myself Playstation 2 and that was the time for Final Fantasy 10 and Metal Gear Solid. Throughout those years I try out almost thousand of games and spend most of my time pressing those buttons.

Let’s go back to the reasons I play YoVille but not FarmVille, FishVille, Café World, Roller Coaster Kingdom or Mafia Wars. Initially I never intended on trying out any of the games above. I saw some of my friends playing it but it just doesn’t bring out my interest to try it out. YoVille, FarmVille, FishVille, Café World, Roller Coaster Kingdom or Mafia Wars can be considered as MMORPG – Massively multiplayer online role playing game. One of the attractions is that players are able to interact with each other. The second attraction is the leveling system that players are able to customize and raise a character. The combination of these 2 attractions can create a very addictive game. Those of you that have been or are still playing Word of Warcraft Online surely will understand. YoVille, FarmVille, FishVille, Café World, Roller Coaster Kingdom or Mafia Wars are nothing compare to Word of Warcraft Online.

Since YoVille, FarmVille, FishVille, Café World, Roller Coaster Kingdom or Mafia Wars has nothing interest me, why do I choose to play YoVille only? The first reason is that it’s on facebook. As you know many people around the world sign up with facebook. It’s a social community site with lots of members. I want to experiment if I’m able to promote my blog through YoVille. My homework at YoVille is to make as many buddies as I can. Let’s just see if having a lot of buddies at YoVille can bring traffic to this blog.

My second reason, perhaps most of you has this same reason is to built or decorate a house at YoVille that might just be our future real house. In other words is to use YoVille as a tool to simulate our future real house. It’s not easy when it comes to decorate our own house. We might take a lot time to try out which decoration really suits us. YoVille gives us the chance to practice and simulate our own house before we actually do it on a real house. We are able to change the decoration easily until we feel satisfied with it. After that we can implement the same decoration to the place that we plan to stay and live in. That will save us a lot of time, energy and money.

That ‘s my reason for choosing YoVille but not FarmVille, FishVille, Café World, Roller Coaster Kingdom or Mafia Wars. What game do you play and why? Care to share?

Now that's the way to enjoy a nice cup of coffee

How to do enjoy you coffee? Perhaps you wanna try Ally's way of having coffee. I'm not sure if man can have their coffee that way.

The rise of FarmVille creates Cyber farmers in Office

If you have a Facebook account, I’m sure you know FarmVille. Yes, that’s right. It’s a popular game that let you experience the joy of being a farmer. You get to customize your character and farm any way you like. The goal of this game is to grow your farm and earn money. In the beginning of the game you need to plow fields, plant crops, harvest crops and work the livestock. Once you earned some money and experience, you get to level up and purchase more seeds, equipments, land, buildings and other stuff to expand your farm. You can even invite your friends or so call “Neighbors” to join the game. You may help each other in farming and send gifts to increase your experience to level.

That’s basically how the popular FarmVille is all about. Perhaps you might want to try it out to experience how attractive the game really is. I’m not sure in other countries but FarmVille seems to be very popular in Taiwan. FarmVille even hits the daily news on TV in Taiwan because many people are playing it. Whenever there is free time and a PC that can online, the first site to check out will definitely be FarmVille. Some people even farm during working hours when they are free. It might be a good way to release work stress but it is just not appropriate from the company point of view.

So just how crazy are you with FarmVille? Let’s see now. Will you login to FarmVille every day? Do you check your farm first thing in the morning after getting out of bed? Will you catch some bugs in your farm when you’re taking a break in the middle of working hour? Do you start working on your field right after you get off your work? Will you prepare your farm nicely right before going to bed? If most of your answers are yes, perhaps you might want to slow down a bit.

A game is still a game if your interest is just to have fun with it. Don’t you wish that the coins that you earn in FarmVille can be converted into real money? That will be really nice. If that can be done I think most of us will quit our jobs and farm at home. That is just my little silly dream. In fact some people manage to turn this game playing experience into a gold mine. How do they do it? Just check out the link below.

Coffee at Starbucks or Coffee at MacDonald

There are basically 2 choices that I’ll consider when it comes to having a cup of coffee. It’s either Starbucks or MacDonald. One is an expensive but comfortable to enjoy, the other is reasonable price but taste absolutely good. Here’s my evaluation of having coffee at both coffee shop and coffee restaurant. My evaluation refers to the lowest price black regular coffee.

Let’s start with having coffee at Starbucks. My first impression of having coffee at Starbucks is expensive, comfortable and lots of choices. I think Starbucks considered as one of the most expensive coffee around the world. Starbucks branches in any countries mostly selling coffee at a price of at least double or triple of the local coffee price. Probably half of the money we paid is not just for the coffee but also the environment and the music. I’ll say Starbucks really does have a unique way of creating comfortable environment. I personally like the comfortable sofa very much. With the help of the coffee smells and relaxing music, it just makes it a nice place to take a nap. Well, just make sure that somebody looks after your stuff if you really do want to take a nap. If you’re the person that always brings along laptop to coffee shop, perhaps Starbucks might just be the right place for you. As far as I know Starbucks install at least a power socket at every table for the convenience of laptop users. I did experience at one of the Starbucks branches where the power sockets are not enough for their customers. Guess what, the stuff took out extra power socket extension and make sure all their customers have all their laptops power up. Now that’s what I call service.

Now let’s take a look at MacDonald coffee. The first impression of having MacDonald coffee is cheap but taste much better then Starbucks coffee. In addition you get free refills. There’s nothing better than able to have a nice cup of coffee as much as you want with the price of one. The only time that I’ll go for MacDonald coffee is breakfast time. They did serve coffee all the time, just that breakfast meals goes well with the coffee. In my opinion burgers and fries matches soda better than coffee. I really do enjoy having breakfast at MacDonald with a nice cup of coffee. There are also free morning papers and WIFI available. The problem with laptop users is that there aren’t many power sockets available at MacDonald. Most MacDonald branches I found only have one or two power sockets and everybody are fighting for it. As some MacDonald branches open 24 hours, you can bring your laptop and spend the night. Just order a cup of coffee and you can refill it all night long.

P/S: Just how much difference a cup of regular black coffee between Starbucks and MacDonald? In my country it’s about 3:10. How is it in your country?

Let you Firefox browser run smooth and fast by blocking flash

I was playing around with Facebook and discovered that at certain point my PC runs slow. This happens whenever an application runs flash player. I open up windows task manager and finds that Mozilla Firefox used up 100% of the CPU capacity. This is cause by the flash player that uses up all the CPU capacity.

How do we fix that? Sadly there isn’t anything that we can do about it. We just have to wait for the flash player developer to solve this problem. The only thing that we can do but are not so recommended is to upgrade our PC hardware performance. This method is not encouraging because the problem lies within the flash player itself.

If you want your Firefox browsers to run smooth and fast, the only option that you have is not to use the flash player. We can do that by blocking the flash player using Firefox add-ons. The name of the Firefox add-ons is Flashblock 1.5.11.2. All you have to do is follow the link and click “Add to Firefox”. The application will then add on to your Firefox browsers. You will have to restart Firefox browser in order to activate the add-ons. Basically Flashblock 1.5.11.2 blocks contents from Macromedia Flash, Macromedia Shockwave and Macromedia Authorware. Once you install the add-ons you’ll find that pages will be loading much faster than before. Monitor the changes using windows task manager and you’ll see the CPU usage is very much lower than before.

If you decided to view the flash content or use the flash player, just click on the placeholder. It’s a symbol that looks like below. Once you click on the flash content will run as usual. I suppose if you’re playing YoVille, Roller Coaster Kingdom, FarmVille, Café World or Pet Society at Facebook, you have no choice but to run the flash player. Your CPU capacity will definitely max 100%. The least you can do is try not to run any other application. That might help in reducing the lagging condition when playing the games. Seriously I doubt that will be much of a help.

Reading from a book or reading from Scribd

I like to read. It doesn’t matter what kind of material it is, newspapers, magazine, books, blogs, website or pdf file as long as it’s interesting to me. Reading is a good hobby. The most basic and simple reading that we can get is from newspapers, magazines or books. Particularly from books the title or topic can be more precise. As for me most of my readings are online. I love to read from a book but sadly books are kind of expensive in my country. A fairly good book cost almost the same as 10 Mac D value meals. That is why I turn to the cheapest source of reading online.

Scribd is one of the sites that I found that have millions of document and readers. You can find books, presentations, documents and many other form of reading material. This is the site that I found most of my reading pleasure. Scribd is not just a place to read but also a community that you get to know people with the same interest. That will be reading of cause but most important thing is that you get to share your feelings and opinion with other readers, authors or even the publishers. You may even get to know with author of the book by checking out their bio and send them a message.

Although you can find many books to read at Scribd, but not all books are free. Still there are more than enough free to read material that can keep you busy for some time. You may choose to download the books for later viewing pleasure but there is a limit to the number of documents that you may download each day. You’ll have to wait for another 24 hours to continue download if you exceeded the limit. Download format can be in pdf file or in plain text file. Oh yes, you need to sign up before you’re allowed to download. Sign up is free so just go ahead.

If you think that you can write and have something to share with the world, Scribd provides the platform for you to do so. You can basically share anything as Scribd can transforms pdf, Word, PowerPoint and many other file formats into an elegant web display. If you’re really good, I mean good in producing a book or a journal, you can even consider selling your work as Scribd.

Scribd also has an interesting feature that allows others to embed documents into blog or web page. If you find something good that you like to share with your readers, you can do so by click on the Share & Embed tab above the document. You can share your findings at Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress or Blogspot.

For me, I just enjoy reading the books from Scribd, having something to read while enjoying the cup of coffee is just great for me.

A Trip From Penang to Kuala Terengganu

Lately I happened to have a chance to travel to East coast Malaysia – Kuala Terengganu. Consider it as a mission to escort 3 lovely princesses for relocation. We have 5 knights with 3 iron wagons fully loaded with supplies. We also have a little fairy call GPS that guide us all the way to our destination. We began our journey at about 6:30am in the morning. We started off from the petrol station at Permatang Pauh and below are the details of our journey.

Permatang Pauh (Road 67) – Kulim (Road 67) – Kuala Ketil (Road 67) – Kupang (Road 67 to K171) – Baling (Road K173 to A173) – Gerik (Road A173 to 4) – Jeli (Road 4) – Ayer Lanas (Road 4) – Machang (Road 4) – Jerteh (Road 3) – Permaisuri (Road 3) – Kuala Terengganu (Road T4)

Basically it’s a simple straight forward road as there is only one way to get from West to East side of Malaysia. We just drive straight ahead until we reached Machang. Turn right as we reached a junction that switch from Road 4 to Road 3. After that just drive straight ahead until we reached a road about. Choose the 2nd exit or 12 o’clock straight ahead road which switch from Road 3 to Road T4. Drive straight ahead for another 10 minutes and we’ve reached the famous Sultan Mahmud Bridge. After crossing the bride we arrived at the city of Kuala Terengganu.
I have to say this can be a dangerous journey if you’re not careful. We saw lots of dead animal lying around the road side including monkey, cow, dog and bird. These animals probably hit by cars or trucks. If you’re not careful these animals might cause serious accident. Along the road side we witness signs indicating appearance of deer and elephant. I was hoping to see these animals but instead I saw something that took me by surprise. We saw a wild tiger crossing the road while driving, but that was on my return trip. There are about 500 wild tigers left in Malaysia and it’s very rare for tigers to come out broad day light. Chances of having to see a wild tiger is very slim. I suppose we must be very lucky that day. By the way, the passenger next to me saw the wild tiger too. So I got a witness to prove that I’m not lying. We saw the tiger at about 11:00am in the morning. We couldn’t help to imagine what will happen if motorcyclist saw the wild tiger instead of us. Half of the journey is going up and down between the hills and forest. We are actually very close to where these wild animal lives. At some part of the roads, we did kind of worried about the foggy condition but it was just a short distance only. It was about 9:00am but the foggy condition still there, must be due to the high altitude and the forest around.We were lucky that the weather is fine all the way we drived. The road condition can be very bad if rain. Not to mention if trying to drive at night in these roads, just imagine how dangerous it is. Most of the roads don’t even have lights or reflectors. I can imagine it’s like driving into pitch black with no ends. So what’s the worst condition that you can get if trying to drive at night? Here’s what you might experience, driving through pitch black with no lights, raining, foggy and bumping into wild animals. For safety, it would be best to take this journey day time when the sun is shining above.

This journey is a bit dangerous and time consuming but the views along the road is great. That is if you love site seeing. Some rest area along the road side on top of the hills has great views. We’re able to enjoy the cool wind standing high above the hills scouting around the land below. Perhaps the best views throughout the whole journey are around Tasik Temengor, where we need to cross couple of long bridges. As for the buildings along the road side, I can only remember lots of schools and mosques.

We reached Kuala Terengganu at about 1:00pm. That’s about 7 hours of driving including stopping for fuel and rest. We could reach Kuala Terengganu earlier but for first timer it’s better to take more time and be safe. Crossing the famous Sultan Mahmud Bridge was the most exciting moment as that is the sign we reached Kuala Terengganu. The first thing that caught our eyes the moment that we drove on the bridge is number of mosque buildings on our right hand side. I suppose there are at least 5~6 mosques.This is surely an exciting trip and we were able to reach our destination safely and found the castle which our princesses stay. The castle is situated high above the ground and situated in the middle of the city. The view from the castle is gorgeous as we can almost see half of the city. That includes the famous Sultan Mahmud Bridge and the mosques. After staying for couple of days and safely relocated our princesses, we return to where we came from. Some of the knights took flights but couple of us drove back hitting on the same road where we came from. Mission accomplished!!

Dabbleboard online whiteboard for drawing and team collaboration

Dabbleboard is one of those online collaboration applications that I found useful and helpful. Best of all, it’s free. That is if you’re just using it for simple drawing and discussion. The biggest problem with teleconference is that you only get to talk. You can’t actually use other things like white board, slides or pictures to clearly discuss projects, problems or schedules. It’s actually not so convenient and not efficient. A picture equals a thousand words. If we’re able to show a picture, point to the location and highlight the problem, everything can be explained easily.

Dabbleboard is not just for businesses or people like designers, contractors, lawyers, developers, consultants or salesman. As we get to use this online application for free, teachers, students, parents or kids are able to use it as well. The best thing about using these type of online collaboration application is that we get to save money, energy and most important of all time. Just imagine the time that you’ll save by reducing the travel time. Take for example of 5 students that trying to get together and meet up with their teacher for a short 10 minutes discussion. If each of them needs to spend 30 minutes to meet up and go to their teacher, that’s 5 x 30 minutes = 2 hours 30 minutes of time loss. With the help of Dabbleboard, they can definitely cut the time lost for travelling. All they need to do is get online with a computer.

Another good example of using online collaboration application Dabbleboard is solving problems within factory. When factory faces problems on their new design production, the time requires for coming out with the solution can sometimes determine the gain or loss of a new product. Especially when designers and the factory are separated thousands of miles between several countries, time and money are lost just to send these designers to the problems. All these can be solve just by giving instructions in front of a PC using the online collaboration application Dabbleboard. As instructions and be delivers fast and understand clearly, wasting time on traveling is not necessary.

Dabbleboard is definitely a good online collaboration application that we can benefits from. I think it won’t be long as we can see other application starts to include drawing as one of their features. MSN, Skype and Yahoo Messenger should be among those popular applications to add this feature in. Let’s just wait and see.