tentang What We Think of Cartoons

ima ask you guys to do me a little favour. a quick poll this weekend. and i do hope i get a lot of feedbacks :D

i would like to know what people think about cartoons. everyone have different views and opinions. so just a quick one off question, what do you think about cartoons?

Cartoons are..

thank you so very much. leave a comment and i'll go visit u guys (if you have a blog.. and that i can visit the blog that is :P)

i used the add poll to blog post guide by SOSwitcher to make this post

tentang The Flintstones, Nintendo 3DS

no they have nothing to do with each other

today is the 50th anniversary of the classic cartoon the flintstones. thanks to google doodle for this neat info.

i used to love this show. when i was little, i used to think of all the cartoon shows on tv, hanna-barbera makes the best cartoons and the flintstones are the best. well i didn't know flintstones episodes that i was watching then were reruns but hey what do kids care right?

i cant believe the flintstones was a cartoon series from the 60s. wow.

***

and yesterday, nintendo finally announced the release date for their new portable, the 3DS. the portable console that was first introduced during this year's E3 last march. the release date is on 26/02/2011 in Japan, and some time in March for US and Europe. no idea when it will hit australia tho. the 3DS still have lots of similarities to the DS but the major difference is that it has a 3D display (like the stereoscopic 3D TV) but you don't need any kind of weird 3D glasses to view it. that is awesome.

nintendo also gave out the specs of the console and the final design which is impressive.. kinda. it has 2 cameras which can take 3D photos and 3D videos. and the graphics processor is said to be extremely powerful, though from the 1UP video below, a lot of the games looks great but not too huge of an improvement (see them here). maybe later games will use the full capabilities of the GPU. processing power however, is said to be more powerful than the Wii (source wikipedia). whoa







cool? i think it is. but dont think i'd buy it. anyhow.. really cant wait to try out the display units. hope JB hifi will have those when the 3DS comes out. who knows maybe then i'd have loads of extra cash and easily be persuaded into buying it. heh

***

meanwhile, rumours are spreading that some game developers have tried a new portable console by sony which is the PSP2.. and that development kits have been released to studios. no official announcements about the existence of the thing have been made so far.. so it is still just a massive rumour. (source here via 1UP.com)

tentang Say No To Click Fraud

this is not a new issue but lately, this issue have been discussed a bit more by blogs that i visit. and today i noticed at nuffnang's blog there is a post about this as well. maybe they decided that click fraud is getting more rampant

We understand that some of you may just be anxious about earning some side income from displaying the banner ads, but do note that this is in fact a violation of our Terms & Conditions under Section 6

- Nuffnang blog

ok blogging is not just writing. there's ethics and responsibilities involved. some of it just makes you a rude person or unethical when you go against it. but some of it, like cheating on your advertisers about the amount of clicks the banner gets from your site; will effect the advertising company which will effect everyone else. what i'm trying to say is, cyber crimes like click fraud is a big deal. sorry.. a huge deal

say no to click fraud

if you are new to blogging or new to putting ad banners on your established blog, please know what click fraud is. wait.. even if you're not new to these things, please know that click fraud is hurting everyone, at your expense.

so,
say no to click fraud

every blogger who has ad banners on thier blog should know how bad click fraud is to everyone. when the ads isn't reaching the masses (but most of it always goes to these fraudsters instead) the advertisers will lose money (yes.. advertising costs money). and when they don't like it, they will advertise less. which will effect nuffnang.com (or advertlets, or adsense, etc) and they will earn less. which means less money for blogs with ad banners. if too much click fraud happening, it could actually cripple the whole thing and everyone will end up earning nothing.

again, if you see groups that to go around clicking ads, tell them that it is a cyber crime. say no to click fraud. warnings have been published by NN and a lot of people have been caught. they have a way to find these frauds.

read full nuffnang announcement here
or the translation here (via poet dusun bayu)

^^

tentang A Late Monday Video

hey i dont know if i have already posted this vid here (im just too lazy to check ATM :P). but i just love the melody of this song.




a very simple, cool and sweet lyric, one of those songs that i wish i have the ability to write for my wife. hehe


oh i just realize that it is now tuesday :P

Europe Trip 2010 Part 4 - Edinburgh

Edinburgh is Scotland's capital city. not a massive city, but they have huge and beautiful old buildings that makes me feel like walking back in time. the buildings are built in a way that to me they look like a massive wall with rooms that people can live in, it has windows and doors and tunnel like alley ways. this 'walls' are separated with each other by main roads, and winds along with the road along Edinburgh's hilly terrain. with almost always gloomy weather, things look almost creepy but beautiful, like nothing, no city, i've even seen before.

so carrying on where i left off..

arriving in Edinburgh
from Newcastle, we took the 6.08pm train to Edinburgh. we arrived at Edinburgh Waverley Station and my wife's friends who live there came pick us up and we went to their house just outside the city. we stayed home, chatted and i went to bed while my wife stayed up catching up with her friend till late. the next day we started out early to Edinburgh Conference Center in Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh, the place where the conference will be.

the Conference Centre
the uni was pretty big.. and has 2 kinda nice place to go have a walk on a nice day called 'the lawn' and 'the loch'. the loch is an area with a pond where birds and ducks swim happily. the loch is like a garden on a hilly area. our friend told us that during winter, when snow covers the whole area, they'd go there to play in the snow. wow that would be fun, especially to us who grow up in a country that has summer all year.

during the stay, food was not really an issue. halal restaurants are everywhere (as compared to Adelaide), and if i dont feel like travelling to the city (which i always dont), the student shop at the convention center sells microwaveable halal food at their halal food fridge thingy.. and to keep costs lower, we brought some canned food and instant noodles all the way from Adelaide. hehe

on the 3rd day of the conference, we went to dinner in the city with a big group from the conference. there were around 20 of us.. of different nationalities - malaysia, australia, USA, poland, kenya, canada, brazil, and others i couldn't remember where they're from.

the next night, the conference dinner was held at this place called 'Our Dynamic Earth'. it is sort of like a science centre but tells the story of our earth. it has a massive lobby with glass walls around it where you can see Arthur's Seat behind you and Edinburgh's skyline around you.

the last day, the water heating did not work. knowing we have a long day ahead of us (we had to check out in the morning, and i have to wait till the conference to end at 2pm) we showered anyway. it was, although summer, a very cold day. it's always cold in Edinburgh i think. later that day i came down with a cold.

that really sucked because we planned to stay in Edinburgh city the next two days and spend time sightseeing. in the end we did all the sightseeing that i can endure. we went to Princes Street and Royal Mile for shopping, for souvenirs mainly. the Princes Street Garden is a very pretty garden with an awesome view of the castle from there.

on the next day, final day in Edinburgh, we went to Edinburgh Castle (theres a very long queue for tickets, but the line moves rather quickly. spent 45 mins in line). there are lots of museums in the castle, and at no extra cost at all. later we hiked up Carlton Hill and had a mini picnic with a very beautiful view of Edinburgh city.

then we went to shop for more souvenirs and head back to the place we stayed, our friend's house. at 7pm we went to the train station and took the train to Glasgow^^

tentang Cat Week on Ellen

im a little busy today so i decided to share this video today. yeah sorry

but this is a fun cute video to watch. and u'll enjoy it even more if u love cats. i'm such a sucker for cats ^^

it is a clip from ellen degeneres show. it's cat week on ellen so this is the first day of that week. there's 3 cute web videos of, obviously, cats! yeah what else is more amusing than watching cute cats doing silly things? if you're bummed like i am, maybe this can cheer you up a little.

go on.. press play

tentang Plan for My Weekly 100penulis Posts

right now i am trying to think of what to post tomorrow on 100penulis.com. it will be my turn tomorrow (between 6am-12pm) to make a post. i used to have a lot of ideas when i first decided to join 100penulis. now the idea have become too much that i actually have not made a decision.

i hate that about myself.. not the indecision, but knowing that my best decisions are the ones made at the very last moment. making me a last minute person.

i was thinking of some review type thing but maybe not. it's better to post reviews (that i plan to write) in this blog so not to cause any confusions.

so i have decided to write stuff about photography. i know i am not a professional photographer, and not a hard core hobbyist either. but i believe i do know enough to share with others.. especially basic things that people didn't know they can do with their compact point and shoot (PS) camera. i know my experience in animation and design would be a lot of help.

so yeah it will be about having fun with cameras, and most importantly, not focusing on having DSLR. so that most people will be able to have fun with photography, and at a much lower entry cost!

***

while making the simple banner for the post, i got to thinking - to focus just on photography would be a little limited. and i do plan to stay at 100penulis.com as long as i can. so i made a decision to make it a session where i share things that i know of, that i think would benefit bloggers.. most bloggers that is.

i will name the session 'kongsi knowledge'. kongsi is malay for 'share'. so it means 'share knowledge'.

i'll post simple things like how to make photos look cooler with macro function and tricks like light trail and stuff.. using compact camera! and if anyone would wanna ask a question or request a tip, (design related) maybe i'll make a post about it on my next turn

^^

yeah i made my desicion

tentang My Raya Report (2010)

today is the 6th of raya.
Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri! eid mubarak! happy eid!
to everyone and maaf zahir batin :D

the preparation
our raya this year is to me the best raya in adelaide so far. we made some kuih raya (well.. my wife did. i provided the moral support). got some kuih last month when we transit at KLIA too. we got 3 kad raya (proper ones, not digital/text) and stuck it to our board. bought a raya furniture and some other stuff for the house for raya.

1st of shawwal
we did not cook anything special today as we plan to spend the day in the city visiting friends. so early morning we went to al-khalil mosque for the eid prayers. unfortunately, we couldn't make it in time so we went to the city mosque instead. the prayer in the city was 30 mins later. after the prayer, we stayed at the mosque and had biryani rice, some roti and various dessert. there was nobody that we know there but we made some new friends.

we then head to bonython park where a group of malaysian post grads are meeting up to celebrate raya. it was not a huge group but there was plenty food for everyone. we have never taken part in their activities before (although we've been in SA for almost 3 years now) so i had to make a formal introduction.. which was embarrassing and unexpected. but it was not too bad. there we met Kak Gina (blog sweet like candy). my wife loves to read her posts

after bonython park we went back to the mosque for friday prayer and then went to an aunt's place. the aunt and her family were going to a malaysian student's open house so we tagged along. turns out, the hostess, a student, is attached to UM. the place where my wife went to for her degree.

the earlier beautiful day is starting to get cold again and rain is on the way. at about 4 we decided to go home. we were full and kinda tired anyway. so we went home, cleaned up the house and started cooking for the next day. we're having our closest friends over to celebrate raya with us

the open house
because it's raya, we invited our dearest friends over on the 2nd day of raya. my wife made ketupat, lemang, rendang, chicken korma, peanut sauce, the kuih raya, and fruit cocktail for desert/drinks. Since that is sort of aussie culture to bring a plate, the guests brought vegetable curry, steamed rainbow trout, a carrot cake, a chocolate cake, ice cream, and juices. that is a lot of food!

the firsts to arrive were the group of malaysian-chinese undergrads who live in roseworthy (where we lived before). the had other plans later that day so they had to come early. then an aussie friend (who is really like our foster mum) arrived with her steamed fish. our chinese friends, the newlyweds, arrived later followed by another chinese couple (also from china); and another aussie friend. the last to arrive was our taiwanese friend who used to be our neighbour in roseworthy college.

so no malay friends? no, our closest malay friends have gone back to malaysia for raya, and some for good. the indonesian family have gone back to indonesia a couple of months ago. we kinda miss them, they were like family to us.. we used to have tarawikh together at their house, we celebrated raya together and because they are a lot older then us, they would look after us and helped us whenever we had any trouble.. and when we're being naughty

the day went really well. we ate and chatted. we showed pictures of our recent trip to the UK and France. and when everyone was done eating, we played wii games - wii play, wii sports, and finally guitar hero. it is really fun playing simple games with a fun group. especially boxing! XD

3rd hari raya
the malaysian carnival 2010 was held that day in victoria park, which is right in the center of adelaide city. we only heard about it the week before, and because of the location, i expected there to be a lot of people. but the sight that greeted us that day was way beyond what i thought it would be like.

we arrived there at around 12pm. the carnival was set up in a simple way - the food stalls on the left, the stage in the middle, and other stalls and booths on the right.

there was not too many people at the 'other stalls' area except for the cooking demonstration tent. the runner-up of 2009 australian masterchef, Poh, was there to do some malaysian cooking demo. a lot of people went to see her and later ask for her autograph.

at the stage area, there were many people, just not too packed but the large opening behind the seats for the stage, people with their food sat down on the grass making the whole carnival look like a massive picnic!

finally the food stalls. there were people everywhere. the lines were super long and the food wasn't prepared quick enough.

after saying hello to friends that was there, we decided to line up for food. we planned to buy a nasi lemak and karipap from one stall and a ramly burger (ala burger special tepi jalan), muar chee and some kuih talam from another. so we each stood in a line and waited. after over 1 hour my wife finally got her turn and then she found out only the nasi lemak is available, and there was another 20mins wait for that. since she waited in line for so long, might as well buy it. just a little later, my turn came and almost the same thing happened. only the burgers were available. so i bought one and waited for the burger.

we walked around to other stalls to see what else is there (and with the shortest line) and got samosas, chee cheong fun, tau fu fah; came back to the earlier stalls to claim our nasi lemak and burger. then we head to the picnic area and sat down to have our lunch in the midst of the mostly malaysian crowd :D. we went home stuffed and happy

4th hari raya
it is a monday so my wife will have to go to school today. i started blogging again and check the many updates on facebook. uploaded a few raya pics for our family to see. but 4th day is still raya right? i was still in raya mood because of all the raya vibes online blogs and such. it was great. for dinner, my wife made an awesomely hot lontong with even spicier sambal ikan bilis! it felt like raya all over again.

tentang Celebrating Raya

when we were kids, raya is so much fun. before raya, while parents go to perform tarawikh, we kids would run around playing tag or any kind of modified tag game we could make up. or some days, when raya is closer, we'd buy fireworks and light them up in any daring and creative way we could. and when raya came we'd visit every house we can to get more duit raya (money) we can. i'd get around RM50 each year.. but some of my friends get like RM200, maybe even more!

then we grew up.. which means less people will give us duit raya (but those who do, give a larger amount then we used to get when we were kids). raya seems to be less fun.

becoming young adults, between starting work and having to be independent and to pay for your own needs; some of us kind of dread duit raya because this is when we usually stop receiving and start giving duit raya to the kids. it costs a lot especially when we have a large family and visit a lot of houses during raya. but it is fun.. to give duit raya. just that financially, it kind of hurts our wallets.

now, i'm married. and the meaning of raya suddenly changes in a lot of ways.together we plan what to buy, how the house would look like. we plan where to go, who to meet and which kampung to go back to (though my wife and i still have not the chance to celebrate raya in malaysia yet). we learn the differences of how our families celebrate raya. raya warps from this boring time we had to spend with families into this time we cant wait to go back to our families.

cant wait to go back home, resume my life with a proper job. and i cant wait to celebrate raya next year because we'd be back in malaysia and we'll be able to celebrate raya with people dearest to us :)

***

next post will be My Raya 2010 Report (with photos). don't forget to visit this blog next wednesday XD

tentang Eid Mubarak 1431H

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri 1431H!

today is the 1st of Shawwal, the month that comes after Ramadhan. taday the muslims celebrate the Eid and this is when we ask for forgiveness from each other for whatever we did wrong.. for just about everything really, and because it's raya, everything will be forgiven. well, at least it really should be. in malaysia, everyone, in their own way, celebrates raya (at the very least, they enjoy the raya sale right?)

so to everyone, weather i know you or not, i wish you Eid Mubarak, Selamat Hari Raya
forgive me for every mistake that i made, Maaf Zahir Batin :D

have a great hari raya, enjoy the meals, and all the kuih raya!

^^

tentang Fly Me To The Moon, Xfactor Australia

ever heard a song so brilliantly sung (sang?) that you feel you heart is skipping and dancing to it?




just love the way he sings it! a must watch.. definitely. unless you're not in the mood on anything gay (i mean it in the proper way)