Fish Avenue

When the sitcom Friends was still a hit on the TV....... When I just stepped into the ever-so-strange college...... When I first explored the everything-is-possible world of internet...... When the Yahoo! Chat was such an IN thing to do...... When Yahoo! Messenger was nothing but the hippest to have...... When others were crazy about ICQ, Hotmail and mIRC, I was hooked on Yahoo! Chat.

Yahoo! used to have plenty of chat-rooms that ran on Java. I was addicted to it, especially with this particular group of people in Friends chat-room! They are all from different countries, different ethnic groups, backgrounds and ages. But we all had one common interest - Friends - the hottest TV sitcom back then.

How long was I hooked on it? I would say during my 4 years of college, I spent pretty much of my free time chatting with them. Everyone knew everyone back then. We never ran out of things to talk. Anything under the sun could be our topic of the day. The time difference was never an issue to us. The group grew and grew, to a point that we became the old regulars of that particular chat-room.

We never met each other in real life. Some of them yes, but not me. I remember there was a girl from Penang, but seeing that I was restricted by the "resources" I had back then, 2 of us didn't have the chance to meet too. What's more where most of them are overseas.

Thanks to those virtual friends, I had the chance to polish my English. I learned their slangs, the way they wrote and typed. Now, I guess I have forgotten most of them. LOL!

When I finished college, the chat-room was kind of dying. It was empty most of the time, the old regs weren't there anymore. Everyone had just moved on with their life. A new group of people took over. We hardly get in touch after that, only a handful of them that I still spoke to. And the next moment before I knew it, Yahoo! Chat is gone.

Now, now...... Some old reg has made some effort, created a group in Facebook, inviting all the old regs!!! Good grief, most of them are back! I was so excited to see all of them! All those familiar humorous user ID...... Geez...... They bring back so much memories. We are now all on Facebook! Time really flies. Some I haven't even talked to for more than a decade! Gosh......

I guess you must be wondering why on earth I go all gaga over a bunch of virtual people who I have never met. Hmm...... I have no idea. Perhaps, they are proof that I was once silly and young and I did have a great time at some point of my life. Most importantly, they are part of my SWEET memories that I would definitely like to keep.

It's a blessing to be able to keep in touch with them once again. You can never say you have too many friends. Be it virtual or real. :)

I love you, Perkapalooza! (Okay, don't ask me what that means, I don't know either! LOL! Someone came up with it few years back and now it became the name of the group in Facebook. :P )

Last week, 7th Of May 2010, Government May Legalise Sports Betting, was in the local newspaper and people is talking about it ever since.

If you have not already know, sports betting or gaming or the so-called bookies activities are illegal in Malaysia. I still remember when I was small, mom brought me to a salon for haircut and I heard someone came running into the salon shouting "mata coming" ('mata' as in police in local dialect). It was only later I heard mom said that there was an underground bookie operating in that salon. Even right up to this day, the police is constantly raiding bookies for illegal sports betting.

After so many years, the government is now considering to legalise it. What a dramatic move. There are a lot of reasons behind. Perhaps the government could make some revenue out of it. Maybe by legalising it, the government will be able to lessen the illegal bookie activities and thus giving the government more control. Also, the risk of bookies run away with the money would be lower then.

However, from the people point of view, I, see it as encouraging the people to gamble. No doubt, perhaps we can then curb the problem of illegal bookies running away with the money, and it helps to stabilise the betting system. But by legalising it, they are indirectly sending the wrong message that "everyone can bet freely" (of course there will be some age limit I believe).

Why is the prostitution not legalised then? Perhaps by legalising it we can curb the problems of underground/underage prostitution, and government could then have a better control over it. Something to think about.

[polldaddy poll=3177951]
Do you agree to legalise the sports betting?

(polls)

It was a little hilarious that they thought I was going to COOK something for Andrew. Yes, I was cooking, but not food. :) I was anxiously cooking a surprise for him since 2 months ago. Oh, the surprise did involve food though. Haha. Just that I wasn't the one to cook it.

Been searching for bakery that could actually do a Ferrari F1 car design. It is either too expensive or they just simply could not do it. There was a baker quoted me RM1000 for a cake like that! Gosh!

Seeing that all hopes were gone, decided to just order some cupcakes with cute animated arts on top of them from BunsInTheOven. I hesitated for a while because I had to collect the cupcakes on my own, they do not do delivery. It was in the middle of March, when I saw they had made a series of F1 Ferrari theme cupcakes, I knew that I was so going to get it or else I'd be sour! Hahaha! I was so disappointed when they told me they couldn't make it on 3rd of May, which was Andrew's birthday. :( I was so determined to give him a surprise. So, I accommodated to the baker's date and postponed the surprise to a week later.

No regrets! Andrew loves them! He couldn't bring himself to eat them, they are so cute! What is more contented than seeing the man you love loves the surprises you gave? :)

The cupcake was of chocolate flavor. It is very moist and soft and fluffy, not too sweet, very yummy indeed. The sugary arts on top of the cupcake was too sweet though. I guess that's why the baker didn't make the cupcakes too sweet, the sugar on top is just enough to compensate that.

Guess I will be ordering more themed cupcakes from them in the future. :)

Last Friday morning, 30th April 2010, approximately 8am, after a heavy downpour, there it was, clear blue sky. Andrew was driving, on our way to work. 5 minutes away from the condominium that we are staying, I saw it. A beautiful rainbow at its bloom in the sky. I wanted to take a photo of it with my iPhone, Andrew reminded me that we have brought our camera along, why not use that. Took my sweet 450D out, happily snapping away, smiling to myself that I finally got the rainbow on camera. Showing and telling Andrew how beautiful the rainbow was. I love rainbow, for it always brings a smile to my face, without any reason. Whether it is the colors, I am not too sure. Rainbow makes me feel happy. :) Never would I have imagined from this day on, rainbow would add another layer of mystery to me.

Few days ago, only did I have the time to upload the photos to my laptop. Browsing through the photos, my finger stopped clicking for next photo, my eyes went all wide and my jaw almost dropped when I saw it. I gasped, enlarged it, zoomed in, zoomed out, wiped the screen clean, blinked my eyes numerous times, then I shouted for Andrew to come quick. It wasn't the fear that had me shouting for him, I just wanted to make sure he saw what I saw too.

There he was, looking at the photo.

Me: Are you seeing it?
Andrew: Yes, why?
Me: Do you see what that is?
Andrew: Yeah, a pair of eyes. So? There's another EYE on the top left corner too.
Me: What "so"? A pair of eyes ON the sky! Where did it come from? What is that? Why is it there?
Andrew: It's nothing ok, maybe just some reflections.
Me: ...... ...... ......

And there he was, leaving me alone in the room went all wide-eyed at the photo trying to find an explanation for it.

Okay, he saw it, that proved my eyes are seeing it alright. But how? How did that pair of eyes get there? The photo was taken from inside the car, reflection of something on the windscreen? No, windscreen was clear as the rain had stopped for quite a while when we got out. Reflection of something on the dashboard? No, nothing on the dashboard, not our habit to put things there. The lens? No, if it were to be the lens, the following photo would have the same thing too, but no. Something in the car reflected on the windscreen?

I have checked the car for 2 days in a row. Nothing in the car could have made such an eye-like reflections. Not a pair of round thing in the car that resembles anything like that. So, what was that? Are they seriously a pair of eyes appeared in the sky over the rainbow? Why did they appear then? To watch over us? To scare us?

I so wanted to believe that it was some reflections of something. I so wanted to convince myself they are not the eyes.

I look at the photo everyday, trying very hard to figure out what they are. The darker rings on the outside, the white area on the inside, the black on the center and the rings got thicker on the upper part. They all make it a pair of eyes.

No one could offer me a solid and good explanation. Most of my friends told me they are of reflections of something.

I am not afraid, nor am I disturbed by it. I merely wish to find an explanation to it. If it were some signs from above, I would like to believe that it is a good sign. If it were some phenomenon that can be explained scientifically, please, someone out there, do tell me.

Guess what, just a few moments ago, I was looking at the photo again. Zoomed in and out for so many times. Andrew was beside me and I asked again, "do you think it's reflections? I don't see how a reflection can do that." "No, it's not reflections", he said. Geez, Andrew is one that would not tell me things in such a serious face and tone if he doesn't believe it himself. Now, now, it just adds more mystery to it.

If you could offer me some explanation, do drop me a line here. I could email the photo to you if you would like to study it.

Here's the photo. By the way, the rainbow was amazing. Too bad that it wasn't an over-the-sky rainbow.

No, if you think that I may have edited or Photoshop-ed the photo to add in the eyes. I do not have to do that to draw attention. I do not need that kind of attention. :)

As far as I could remember, I have never said "I love you" to my mother. Nor did I say it to my father. I just wasn't brought up in a family that expresses love in that way. It's all in the actions.

My mother, used to be a full-time housewife and part-time tailor, to help out on the family's expenses. She used to make us a lot of lovely dresses and hats too. In fact, she is still sewing at home, but her customers are mostly relatives. No rush, no haste, she is now taking her time. Sometimes she uses 6 months to finish a blouse. She is also helping father in his office. It is now so often that she complains that my father doesn't do most of the things, they are all delegated to her and she is so busy in the office. :)

Mother used to be a teacher too. Grandma was a teacher, when she had a stroke and couldn't teach, my mother replaced her to teach in the school for a few months until grandma recovered. Mother has constantly been a very strict teacher to all of us when we were small. The long ruler she used for her sewing works, was our biggest "enemy" of all time. :) She has had no problem buying replacements after they broke on our "thick skin". I had a small scar on my left eyelid, the ruler broke and one of the tiny pieces decided my eyelid was its best target. I remember, that was because I failed my Bahasa Malaysia in Standard 3.

She is the best cook, ever, to me. The food from a famous chef of a famous restaurant could taste heavenly. However, nothing can beat my mother's home-cook dishes that taste like HOME. I could have a week of nice and luxury food in 7 different restaurants, but I would always look forward to a hearty meal from mother at home. She knows every of our favorites, and there is never for once we felt the food was not enough. No matter how tough the time was, she has never failed to cook a warm and nutritious meal for us.

Mother is our superwoman too. Whenever we fell sick in the school, she would be the one, riding on her precious bicycle, to pick us up from school. We are all too familiar with the scene of sitting at the back of the bicycle, wrapping our arms so tightly around her waist, and smelling in her soothing scent in the wind. It was so often that we left our homework at home, we rang her up from school and she would always have her way of finding where we left our homework, bringing them to us in the school on her super-ride.

How in the world a woman could manage 4 daughters of different age at the same time? How did she manage to fulfill our different needs? What has she endured to bring up 4 of us? Who is taking care of her needs then? Where did she go when she needed a break from everything? I have never seen her absence in my life, she has never taken any break. How did she do that? I have no idea.

She is a mother, a tailor, a teacher, a cook, a healer...... She is almost everything and anything that we need. We can never repay her enough.

I have before complained that my mother isn't considerate enough and is money-minded. But who could blame her for being protective towards her daughter and wanting only the best for her daughter? Having said that, never have I disliked her or loved her less for one moment.

I am not a perfect person but, she has taught me well.

Thank you, Ma. I love you, dearly. Happy Mother's Day. To all the mothers too.

P. S.: My mom would probably never read this. This post is for myself. :) I want to remind myself how much she has sacrificed for us and I shall never forget that. Shall ring her up tomorrow, of course not about I left my homework at home. :P

Gosh...... WordPress has only 80++ themes to select, and it took me more than a week to finally choose one that suits my taste (as if I have fantastic taste), my style, my blog content and my preference.

I wonder why WordPress requires us to upgrade (to pay) in order to edit the CSS. Plus, to use a third party theme which is not featured in WordPress ready-to-use themes, we have to have a web host! Argh, saw so many nice themes and yet can't even use them. Big bummer!

This theme you see here allows me to change the header photo and edit the text. But I couldn't realign the text or change its font and size. Geez...... They let you customize but they do not give you full customization, that is just so frustrating.

How long can I stick to this theme? I don't know. Hahaha. In fact I love the other theme, guess I'll keep that for later. :)

Do you like this theme? Please let me know if you think otherwise.

Lately, I have noticed there are a few bloggers around me switching from Blogger to WordPress. I wonder why. Has WordPress improved so much that it attracts more bloggers? Or has Blogger stopped improving that leaves frustrated bloggers switch channel? Or it simply is the trend now?

Few years ago, when I used to have a Friendster account, I had a blog in Friendster too. Then, I blogged in Multiply.com. Later, someone introduced Blogger into my life. I was with Blogger for a year.

Blogger is more user-friendly. You can do a lot of customizations if you know where to look in those eye-blinding HTML codes. They're lengthy, but they're not difficult once you grasp the basics. All in all, I loved Blogger. I've even encouraged others to blog and recommended Blogger to them. I am still recommending Blogger whenever people asked me.

The reason why I switched to WordPress? For security.

If I want total security, I could have easily limited my Blogger blog to only authorized friends, but I would still want others to read my blog too. Plus, I didn't want people to keep emailing me to add/authorize them so that they could read my blog. Besides, it is only a handful of blog posts which I would like to keep them protected and I enjoy the freedom either to disclose the password to others. I am not sure about other free blog hosts, but I know WordPress could give me that kind of luxury. Haha.

On WordPress, I can't do customizations unless I want to get myself "dirty" with those CSS style sheet. That is something no fun to mess with. People told me CSS is just like HTML if you know the basics. Whoa, to me that is a total whole new world. I have yet to find time to get familiar with the CSS. Plus, you have to pay for the upgrade in order to edit the style sheet.

You can't have third-party Java script on WordPress too. You can't tag a "page" in WordPress too.

So, I gave up Blogger because of one single feature it doesn't have despite of many others that it has? I sound weird, don't I? :) Well, I've paid my price for being careless. Gave up Blogger is just a small price that I could afford compare to the one that I have paid with my own privacy.

Now, I enjoy the freedom of blogging and yet have the protection whenever I feel need to. Still, I am very careful in the choice of words, not wanting to infringe on the rights of others. How did I land myself in the blogosphere? Well, I was afraid one day I could be so sick that I wouldn't be able to remember what has happened in my life. So, here I am. :)

Blogging can help one to get famous, it can also bring one down. It's a double-edged sword.

Are you a Pressed blogger or a Blogged blogger?

It was strange that both Andrew and I were more looking forward to Iron Man 2 than Ip Man 2. Of course both movies are must-watch for me, but I have more interest in Iron Man. Andrew said because he likes robotic things and technologies. I, on the other hand, do not have the answer as to why. Robert Downey Jr.'s charming face? The pretty Gwyneth Paltrow? The super iron suit? Hmm...... I think, and I feel it's because I want to see how Tony Stark turns his ill-fated life into an adventurous one.

He was a playboy and he once lived a messy life. It wasn't his wish to become the iron man, a hero. The electromagnet energy he has on his chest is to prevent him from dying. He created the iron suit to save himself. It was only then he decided to further improve his suit. Hero by chance? Yep, I'd like to assume it that way.

The Iron Man, isn't about fights, actions or massive explosions. It is about how the technology evolves and how mankind uses it. Andrew and I walked into the cinema, expecting to see the Iron Man. There are people who walked into the cinema, expecting to see the Iron Man fights. Can you see the difference?

Oh no, I'm not saying we are so intellectual and great to know how to interpret a movie better. We're no expert in movies. It's just we have a different mindset than the rest when we watched Iron Man. We have all seen how Iron Man can fight in the first sequel, and you can expect to see all that in the 2nd too. About actions and fights, I would say not much in the 2nd sequel. It was more about how Tony Stark struggled and desperately wanted to save himself from dying. It was also about how the technology evolves to create better and worse things in life.

There are a lot of lengthy conversations, which I think are necessary. Iron Man wouldn't be as great if he could only fight and kill without a brain and a soul to drive it. If it is an action-packed movie that they wanted to produce, they might as well just rewrite the script and ask Tony Stark to give Iron Man a chip to make it a drone rather than he wears the suit himself. Right? If that was the case, I think Iron Man by then would be even more boring.

It is the characters in the movie that make it a great movie. When Andrew and I saw how the suit works, we went ooh-ooh-ah-ah. When we saw how the suit got damaged, we went ouch-ow-oh-no. Boring conversations? Were there any? I can't recall. LOL! I guess we were so engrossed in the story and totally blend ourselves in and we forgot about which part was boring. :) All I could tell you is, Iron Man 2 is never boring to me.

Again, if you are looking for Iron Man flying all over the globe (like those other caped heroes) rescuing people from danger and harm, you can forget about watching Iron Man 2.

If you're expecting to see Iron Man fending off enemies with all his oozes and strength and whatever weapons that could mount on him, you can drop the idea of going to cinema for it. Iron Man only uses energy field as his weapon.

If you want to look for a full 2 hours of actions, fights and explosions scenes, save yourself the time and watch Transformers II at home would be a wiser choice.

Iron Man is purely for the Iron Man fans who look for metal suit and highly advanced technology that keeps that thing running. Iron Man is not a killer machine, I would rather say that it is much like a protector or as what they called it in the film, a SHIELD. So, don't ever dream or imagine that Iron Man would go around killing and destroying enemies and bad people. LOL! :p

After the movie, I still love Iron Man 2 despite the not-so-good comments I heard from the crowds in the cinema.  Love the way the suit wraps around Robert Downey Jr., love the way it runs, walks, flies and stand. Does that make me an Iron Man fan? Hmm...... Just a small one I must say. Hahaha.

Lastly, good movie or not? It is the individual preferences that prevail. :)

I didn't put a video of Ip Man 2, but I wanted to put a Iron Man 2 trailer here. LOL! I just love it, so much. :D Especially how the suit transforms from a suitcase!!! Ooohhhhh......

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/FNQowwwwYa0&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

Movie time! :D Whenever it comes to movie, I'll be the happy me. LOL! It is very rare for 2 great movies to be in the cinema on exactly the same day. What's more that this 2 movies are both the 2nd sequels, having the same initials too!

Went back to hometown last weekend, thought I would just watch the movies when I came back. But the Iron Man 2 temptation was so strong that Andrew and I just couldn't wait. Saturday noon we decided to make a trip to the cinema in BP to try our luck, sister had warned me of the crowd and the possibility of getting a ticket was very SLIM. Anyway, we still went ahead. Gosh, so crowded! I didn't know that now the people in hometown are movie-goers too! Luckily I didn't have to Q for long. But Iron Man 2 for that particular time we wanted was all full, we only got the Ip Man 2, left 4 tickets for the double seats. And then, after we left the cinema, Andrew said "why not we watch Iron Man 2 after this, 2 movies straight?" Whoa, that is something we haven't tried before. LOL! Fine, got back to the cinema, got in line and bought Iron Man 2 at 2 hours later! Hahaha. We were so lucky we could still get the tickets. :D My sister joked "don't you have cinema in KL?" Hahahaha.

Ip Man was so GREAT! I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. Donnie Yen is incredible. I am not going to describe the movie here. If you like kung fu and actions movies, this is something you do not want to miss.

Do not just watch the movie, you have to watch it with an open mind and heart. There are a lot of life lessons you can get from the movie.