Still working together ten years later

Ten years ago, I posted about a presentation that we did in INSA. I had posted the photo collage on Facebook as well, and Facebook reminded me of it on the ten-year anniversary.

Then the guessing game began... because we couldn't remember what was happening at the time. The folder on my computer was called "présentation finale PRDCE" (PRDCE final presentation). However I couldn't recall what PRDCE stood for!

Here Romain came to the rescue: It is Projet de Recherche Documentaire et de Création d'Entreprise. Translated to "Project of Document Research and Enterprise Creation". Not that I remember much about what we actually did for that. But after the group effort (okay, slightly exaggerated) taken to figure that out, I think I'd better keep the precious information here so that we won't have to play the guessing game again in another ten years!

Improved and less-safe koay chiap

Towards the end of last year, I posted about a "safe" koay chiap in Pisa Corner.

Later on, the stall disappeared and another one (probably the same one) popped up a few stalls down (still in Pisa Corner).

I have tried it before with my parents, and it was not bad. The soup was good, however they also lack internal organs. However, it's a lot better than the one before.

I think this is the same seller who moved her stall, because a number of things are the same. Today I ordered a pack for take-away, and when I asked her for cut chillies instead of the chilli sauce, she cut the chillies on the spot for me and added soy sauce. I remember the other stall doing that too (just can't remember the person's face).

This might be the improved version... it costs RM6 (versus RM5 from last time), and the portion is double (double the "koay", and almost double the "liaw" as well). Since there is more "koay", you can see the "liaw" better as well because they're not drowned in the soup! (oh, and actually I didn't pour all the soup, there was a lot!)

The egg, pig skin, roast pork, and beancurd look exactly the same as my photo from last time. There was quite a large number of pork slices (the meat, not the roast pork), meatballs, and a number of pieces of tongue! This last one makes me the happiest. Like I said in that post, when I eat koay chiap I want internal organs. Not sure whether tongue qualifies as an internal organ, but it's definitely better than nothing. And tongue is usually harder to find than intestines or stomach.

Although this is one ringgit costlier than the previous version, the extra "liaw" makes it worth it, together with the normal portion of "koay". The "koay" is still soft though...but I don't mind so much as long as the soup is good.

Introducing Coderchu

While searching for something, I found Coderchu!

Now why didn't I think of this name... lol

(I found this while searching for the definition of dead code)

Tommyrot!

In the wake of the election, some of my friends are sharing posts against racism. There is this euphoria that the change in government means that racism is over. However, I do not believe that.

When I see my friends sharing anti-racism posts, and these same friends are the ones who would use their mother tongue in the company of someone who does not understand that tongue... I think, tommyrot! You are against racism only when it is convenient for you.

We still have a long way to go.

A very strong contender for "best drama series"

I just finished watching Love Me If You Dare, a Chinese drama series. It is about a criminal psychologist who has escaped a serial killer once but somehow the serial killer (or someone else) is still hunting him. There is also an element of romance (of course, what d'ya expect?) with the female lead.

I found that the overall story is really good, and the interaction between the characters and comedic scenes were all very enjoyable to watch (except the utter silliness when they did the love confession, which I found to be too out-of-character).

Now on to some spoilers...

The main characters are Bo Jin Yan, eccentric genius criminal psychologist and Jian Yao, the lady who's going to be his assistant and later win his heart. Jian Yao has a childhood friend Li Xun Ran who's in love with her (one-sided love, poor guy) but supports her the whole way, even in her relationship with Prof. Bo. Then there is Fu Zi Yu, the only friend (and more importantly very good friend) of the asocial Bo Jin Yan. This guy is probably my favourite character here (apart from his creation Andy; I'll get to that later) because he is actually a genius too (in computers, programming and hacking), but he is socially normal (unlike the weird Bo Jin Yan), and most importantly, he is really funny. Then there is the car he programmed for Bo Jin Yan: Andy! Andy is the car's name, and basically it is the fantastical smart car that listens to you and speaks to you too. What's great about the car is that it can have conversations with you, giving some of the comedic scenes in the story. There was even this scene where the two genius friends are in the car and Andy agrees with Bo Jin Yan, and Fu Zi Yu complains, "Hey, I created you!" Haha... I want that car!

The small things that I like:
- Li Xun Ran is the perfect gentleman to the end: no jealous tantrums (unlike in Kill Me, Heal Me, where there was a jealous tantrum even though the guy accepted that he wouldn't get the girl)
- Fu Zi Yu is the perfect friend (I was so afraid he was going to be made into a surprise criminal/traitor)
- When Bo Jin Yan discovered that he was in love with Jian Yao...his actions and how he told his friend... those scenes were really good, I feel that his actions totally fit with his character, and there was just the right kind of comedy. Until the part where he actually confessed. As I said above, that felt out of place, and I expected better.

The small things I didn't like:
- Jian Yao had to go "undercover" a bit and when the man she was with jumped on her and tried to force her to kiss him, she said the safe word and the two geniuses (you know who I mean) rushed in to save her. They knocked the bad guy out and then realized that he wasn't trying to kill her; he was trying to celebrate her birthday. So they tasered him and left Jian Yao there to explain that to him when he woke up. She apologized to him for tasering him and even accepted to cut the birthday cake, then told him she would treat him lunch the next day. What?! When someone makes you feel threatened enough that you decide to use a taser, do you stick around to explain? She could just have let herself out. And even if you realize that their intention was only harassment, and not killing, do you need to apologize if you tasered someone who was trying to harass you? I feel something is wrong there...
- When Li Xun Ran was rescued from his abductor, he was in Hong Kong, then they went to the US for treatment. Why didn't his father come and see him at all? This is a recurring gripe I have with a lot of dramas, actually... they focus on the main characters too much and forget the family members. Xun Ran's father was actually already shown in some of the earlier episodes. It wouldn't be too much to let the father come to Hong Kong for a while, even if it's just to entrust his son to his childhood friend to be brought to the US.
- After Bo Jin Yan started his relationship with Jian Yao, he seemed to improve his social skills too quickly...especially when interacting with other people. I would have expected that change to be slower. But hey, he's a genius, so maybe he learns this quickly too (or maybe they didn't have enough time for that social development, otherwise the series would be too long). I can live with that...
- At the beginning, we see that Bo Jin Yan prepares fish (his favourite food) very well (like a chef!), and when he tasted Jian Yao's fish dish, he criticized it badly and made one to show her how it's made. (not teaching her the steps, mind you, just preparing a show-off dish) But later she is the one preparing all the meals, even before they got together. It doesn't seem right at all... when they showed us his cooking skills at the beginning, and then his criticism of bad food, I was expecting him to be this picky eater who only eats good food, like what he prepares himself.

Some plot points were not so much a surprise to me because I have seen too many crime shows before. There was even an element of split personality here (like in Kill Me, Heal Me), and I definitely saw it coming. However for people who haven't seen split personality stories before, it should be a nice development. (and note that I said "some" plot points... there were still plenty of interesting twists and turns that I didn't manage to guess)

Small note: Even though the three main characters (the two geniuses and the girl) are all supposed to be scholars who have very good command of English, they hardly speak any English in the drama (only a few short sentences sometimes). They will still use Mandarin when they are speaking to Americans. I expect it's because their accent would probably spoil the show :P (that's not a complaint... it's pretty understandable because their main market is China)

Now to the verdict: How does this compare to Nine? They are both really good, however Nine has a fantastical element to it which is the time travel. So I would actually have to say Love Me If You Dare is better (surprise! You didn't expect that, did you... but then neither did I) because everything that happens is possible in this world (even though highly improbable). Still, keeping a disclaimer: both are very interesting and enjoyable to watch, so it is practically a tie.

A sandy "beach"

Last Friday's theme was beach. However, even though Penang is an island and surrounded by the sea, there is no beach nearby... not where I usually go, anyway. So I will make do with this sandy "beach" by a river.

I recently heard of this park in Sungai Ara from a friend. When I was there, I saw the river with a few sandy areas on the bank. I tried to get some shots of only the sand and the water (so that it would look more like a normal beach), but they didn't look so nice. So this is a better choice for the Photo Friday pic!

Tesco policy

I bought an item that cost RM19.99 at Tesco. I wanted to pay with two RM10 vouchers. (for some time now, the smallest cash denomination in Malaysia is 5 sen) The first one passed, but the second voucher triggered an error becase the remaining price was less than RM10. Fine, I decided to use plastic. And then they charged RM10 to my card.

Oh, the irony...

Japanese discipline?

I just saw yet another (Japanese) murder mystery which is highly dependent on the left-handedness of someone. The murderer placed poison on one side of every teacup, so that only a left-handed person would be killed when drinking from their cup. Every time I come across this kind of murder case, I am struck with disbelief: What if someone uses a different hand to pick up their cup?

I can't remember every single mystery that has hinged on that particular point. But handedness seems to be a feature of Aoyama Gosho's Detective Conan series. (I have seen so many of those that it is possible every mystery like this has been his.) So that leads me to wonder about another thing: Is it a Japanese habit to always use your dominant hand to do something? Is that why, in Japan they can count on everyone (murderers and murder victims included) to never switch to their non-dominant hand to do something?

(If you would like to know, the mystery that I just saw is one of the episodes of Detective Conan - Live Action Series.)

High end begedil

On TV I'm seeing them make begedil jantung pisang (banana blossom begedil), which contains cubes of sautéed duck and jantung pisang, then after it is fried, they plate it (one begedil per plate lol), sprinkle some green pea powder on it, add some ulam raja leaves (I don't really know ulam raja), and top it off with grated liquid-nitrogen-frozen foie gras.

As you might have guessed, it is a fancy restaurant.

The show is called Supper Heroes, and it looks like there are two hosts, one in KL and one in Singapore, going around all night (the timestamp shows the time at around 1am) to see that the city has to offer.

Calming green

So this week's theme is calming.

So it turned out just nice that I spotted a bunch of bananas in my neighbour's backyard last weekend. Because green is calming, right?