Saturday, September 26, 2009

OTHERS!!!!

There are many things in life that happened suddenly, even when you think everything is going on smoothly. You have a great stable job, earning big money, good family support, good friends for ups and downs, car, house, financially competent, and etc. You might think with everything you have now, they are good enough to give you a happy joyful life! Everything is perfect, you might say this. But, do you know that our life is just like a doughnut? The surroundings are round and perfect, and you have been living in the circle well, but why there's still a hole in the doughnut? Even when things are so right before you, are you sure in the middle of those so called perfectness, there won't be any flaws happening? Are you so sure that you will be so healthy physically, emotionally and nothing will go wrong? All these uncertainties are the hole in the little doughnut!

Everything surround me are so perfect and wonderful; I have good job, monthly income, good family, good food, good house, good life.. everything is just so good and good and good and good. And due to this, I forgot that indeed God is much more precious than all the goods that I have! Last week, I went for a small operation, thank God it was just a small operation and then I started to think, all the goods that I have are not everlasting. And all the goods that I have can't even assure me that the next day of my life will be good indeed! This sounds scary because you do not know what is going ahead of you and what will be happening to you next! This thought left such a great remark in my life because I do not have the ability to live in this world alone without having God in my life. In everything that I do, I admit if I do it with my own ability, I will not know what the outcome will be, but if I do it with the ability of God, the outcome will be so certain and perfect! That's when the hole in the doughnut need to be filled with God's presence in your life!

It's really heartbreaking when you want something so much but the time hasn't arrived! But, thank God that He is all knowing God that knows when is the right time to fulfill our needs! Pray and get connected and that's how we gonna get the answer of the right timing!

Thanks to the great man of God, Pastor Joakim Lundqvist for the amazing word & testimonies on Friday, 26 Sept at City Harvest Church. Indeed all the testimonies that he shared had planted a deep root in my heart to be a Christian that will think about others and not myself.

He shared the history of Titanic, whereby the big ship hit an iceberg and sank. There were thousands of lives in the ship, celebrating and partying eventho warning has been given by the capten that the ship was going to sink. Warning has been given, but most of the people continued with their party with such an ignorance. Twenty-five minutes after the crash, the ships officers ordered the lifeboats uncovered and began preparing the passengers and crew for evacuation. The first lifeboat was launched twenty minutes after the orders were given. Despite having a carrying capacity of 68, the first lifeboat launched with only 28 passengers. When the last boat launched, there were more than 1,500 passengers left on board. How ignorance the people were!

In this disaster, there was a great man of God, John Harper. At the time of the Titanic disaster, Harper was 39, a widower with a six-year-old daughter, Annie Jessie, and pastor of Walworth Road Baptist Church in London. He was traveling with his daughter and niece to Chicago to preach for several weeks at the Moody Church. During the disaster, he put his daughter and niece on the lifeboat and they survived, but Harper stayed behind and start knocking on every cabins to inform the remaining people that the boat was sinking and to evacuate as soon as possible. He started to preach to all the panicked people and said "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved".

Even in the midst of life fighting, he didn't just jumped into the lifeboat together with his daughter but he first saved his daughter and went back to the going to sink ship and started preaching to the lost! He was a great pastor that thought about OTHERS and not just himself! He had a chance to live, but he chose to save as many lives as he could so that all the remaining lives without the lifeboat will have eternal life. Because he knew he has a place in heaven, and not the people.

So, be a Christian of others and not yourself!

Introducing the HP business class netbook - HP Mini 5101 in Malaysia

Claps to Mr Hubby for posting a much more detailed review after my small review at HP MINI 5101 rocks HP Employees. Or make a search for this post on the right of my blog ! Check out more of the HP Mini 5101 and yeah, enjoy the effort that Mr Hubby put in yeah........ this lappie seems to be his 2nd beloved cause, he spent so much time on taking photos and writing review and experimenting what are the features and admiring it, wiping all the fingerprints away.... LOL. Let's see how long the wiping of fingerprints will last.... hahaha.


Figure1 – HP Mini 5101
For Malaysians, I believe most of you have not heard or seen this in the retail stores out there. This is because HP has yet to release this product in retail stores and we HP employees were used as “white mice” I think It should be available out there any time soon :)
Oh BTW, this is my first time owning a netbook so I'm very excited to give you my personal review. But before I proceed with the review of this cool gadget, here are some of my expectations of a netbook:

1. It has to be very light.. Years ago I dreamed about owning a laptop so that I can bring it wherever I go. Today I'm reluctant to bring it along although it's “only” 3kg – It was cool back then.
2. Battery power must be good enough for me to be “on the move”. At least a solid 4 hours for me to finish my Starbucks Green Tea Fruppucino :)
3. Due to a netbook's cramped up design, the keyboard must be comfortable enough to type.
4. It must be powerful enough to run several applications simultaneously. (At least an Internet Browser, Media player and Instant Messaging running together)

Since HP labels the HP Mini 5101 as a “Business class” netbook, it has to stand up to its claim as trend-savvy mobile professional requires functionally, durability and style. The netbook has to be reliable enough to withstand day to day heavy usage and at the same time provide data protection. From the top view, you'll find that HP Mini 5101 has a sturdy and shiny black brushed finish. It's scratch-resistant BTW.


Figure 2: The HP Mini 5101 features a sturdy, lightweight anodized aluminum display enclosure with a black, brushed finish.
The netbook also comes with a lightweight anodized aluminum display enclosure which is glossy (Bling 1). The lower case frame of the Mini is built of magnesium alloy (Bling 2) and the soft-touch paint on the base and palm rest gives the Mini a rubbery feel and that enhances its look and feel. Very eye-catching design and improves durability. The Mini 5101 has a accelerometer - called HP 3D DriveGuard which protects your notebook’s hard drive against impact, bumps, or drops. So you can be assure that your critical information is protected while you are on the move. I have not tested this tho. And I'm not planning to =P


Figure 3: The glossy anodized aluminum display enclosure (up) and magnesium alloy chassis frame (down)
The spill-resistant keyboard which is 95 percent of a full-size QWERTY keyboard is also newly designed. The keys are all raised from the surface and there are some spacing in between each keys. Not too sure what is the reason of such design but it took me 1 day to get used to it. The keyboard also have some kind of coating called “ HP DuraKeys” which HP claims this makes the keyboard 50 times more resistant to letters wearing out. Comparing to a keyboard without it. Another plus point specially for FPS players. (I don't think a gamer would game on a netbook though).

Another thing that I'm very satisfied with is the touch pad. It's small but very touch sensitive. I think HP has also learned their lesson but moving back the mouse buttons to the usual place. (In older versions of HP mini, the mouse buttons were on the left and right of the touch pad. Which totally sucks practicality and ergonomically)

Beside the touch pad, you can see the logo of Intel Atom and Energy Star. A device or machine with a Energy Star logo symbolize that the product is engineered for reduced impact on the environment by eliminating or reducing substances of concern, and also using fewer resources and reducing energy consumption. So far the only notebook brands with Intel Atom processor that is Energy Star compliant are: Asus, Samsung, HP, Sony, Dell, Panasonic and Fujitsu. (source: http://www.energystar.gov/)

Figure 4: The spill-resistant keyboard with two quick launch button on top left(up) and ENERGY STAR logo (down)
This Mini also comes with built in 2 megapixel web cam. Perfect for on the move cam whores. As you can see the photo of my HP Ipaq 612c below which was taken by the 2mp web cam, the imaging quality is nothing to shout about. For me It's just another “nice to have” feature on the netbook. I won't be using this very often anyway. Probably once a year? lol


Figure 5 The built in 2 megapixel web cam (up) and a photo sample taken with the camera.(down)
A quick test run on how long it takes for the Mini 5101 to boot up, I got the result of 29 seconds (an average of 3 testings). For a system with many applications installed already, it booted up quite fast I think. Maybe because my expectation is lower and I expected it to be slower due to its Intel Atom processor and low power consumption features.


Figure 6: Booting up the system took about 30 seconds. Not bad for a netbook.
For a device to be truly portable and usable, it has to have all common I/O ports and slots readily to be used. The Mini 5101 has

- 3 USB 2.0 ports
- 1 external VGA monitor output (A must for presentation and secondary display)
- 1 headphone/line-out
- 1 microphone in
- 1 RJ-45 (LAN/network port)
- 1 SD/MMC card reader slot


Figure 7: I/O ports on the left and right side of the netbook.
Due to Mini 5101's miniature design, I find it slightly difficult to remove any plugged-in USB thumbdrives connected on the left USB ports. Especially when you use both of the ports. The distance between the port and the table surface is very small and the ports are basically just right beside with literally no spacing in between.

Figure 8: Cramped spacing if both ports are used.
The Mini 5101 netbook in Malaysia comes with a standard 4-cell battery which is claimed on HP Website that I can last for 4 hours and 30 minutes. However when I tried to cycle the battery a few times, I can only get an average of 3 hours and 30 minutes. When performing this test, I use my netbook with Bluetooth turned off, Screen brightness at 80%, Wifi turned on and I didn't connect any other USB powered device besides my mouse. I guess we can only achieve the extra hour if I turn the screen brightness down to the minimum where even someone perfect eye sight with have problems reading the screen at this setting. I can't really blame HP because this is a marketing strategy used by all companies when they justify “minimum requirement” :( However, you can replace and upgrade the battery to a 6-cell which HP claims the battery can last up to 9 hours. Well, I'll assume and take that as 7-8 hours :)

One very cool feature with the HP mini 5101 is you can know how much battery juice is left without turning on the netbook. There's this battery level indicator bar on the physical battery itself and all you need to do is pressing it and it'll show you the current battery level status. With this, you can quickly check if your netbook requires charging before you bring it outside.


Figure 9: Battery level indicator bar with Cyan colour showing the level of the remaining battery power.


Figure 10: Battery level indicator can also work when the battery is removed from the netbook.
Upgrading the memory on the HP Mini 5101 is a snap. What you need to do is unlock and remove the battery via the latch, then press the latch again and the memory cover will be opened. No screw and screwdriver involved! How cool is that!

Figure 11: Top cover of the memory slot can be easily removed.
Last and not the least, the cooling system in the Mini 5101. Honestly I'm extremely impressed with how well heat ventilation is managed on this netbook. Even after a continuous operation of 8-9 hours, the netbook does not feel hot at all. Not even when I'm charging the battery. Besides Intel Atom, perhaps the credit should also go to the netbook's case frame which is built from materials like aluminum and magnesium alloy.


Figure 12: Ventilation holes of the HP mini on left and bottom.
In a nutshell, I would say the HP mini 5101 is worth considering for professionals or even students who is always on the move and do a lot of presentations. This netbook is rugged and its built quality is second to none. (Alright that's a joke but at least superior to most of the netbooks available in Malaysia today) The battery power should be more than enough for the preparation together with the presentation. Bloggers and Starbucks go-ers would also love this thing.

Pros: Superior built quality. HP 3D DriveGuard. Splash resistant keyboard. Good heat management. Power indicator bar on battery.
Cons: No Mobile broadband feature (Apparently this is available in the US) Speaker is not loud enough for a movie presentation (But good enough for personal entertainment)

More pictures on the HP mini 5101

Figure 13: Viewing http://loveraholic.blogspot.com from the mini 5101 (left)

Figure 14: HP mini's screen resolution. (1024x600-pixels) the standard resolution for netbooks. Apparently an optional upgrade to a higher resolution display (1366x768 pixels) is available in the US.

Figure 15: HP mini with the original box.
Monday, September 21, 2009

The many Congrates!!!

I haven't blog bout this guestbook of ours that we had for our marriage. Even all the photos for bride grabbing Session II and III and wedding ceremony & wedding dinner I still yet to blog.. Lol. Such a busy home maker? I was just kinda lazy to sort out the pictures and also think of what to write. Or do you think pics are enough.. dun have to write so much. Then, it will make my life easier. But, there are still some excitement moments that need to be expressed and let everyone know!

This guestbook comes in the package that we signed off at the bridal studio, together with our wedding photoshooting, 3gown sets + 1 suit, 40 pcs of free ji mui photos, 2 photo frames for family, 1 big photo frame for couple, and 1 small frame for house deco and car deco! So many things in one package... worth it? Ask me if you wanna know more info and I'm more than willing to help!
Look at the many congrates and some even took time to write a long message for us! So blessed with all these congrates and messages.... I actually felt like reading again all those wonderful messages and I took out the guestbook and flip from pages to pages! Awesome friends we have.... that were there with us during our tough and happy times! Thanks so much friends and thank God that we have all of you in our midst!
Thursday, September 10, 2009

HP MINI 5101 rocks HP employees......

HP just conducted a promotion for HP Mini with 51 reasons why you need to own one and time to buy is at 5:10pm on 10 Sept 09. The big 51 promotion is to be the first 51 employees to purchase a HP Mini 5101 and enjoy a 51% discount off the List Price!! Can you imagine that... 51%, it's half!!! How can I not grab one rite. So, the price to pay is only RM1051. Wow, really a worth deal! Good to be a HP employee! If you missed the first 51 employees, then the next deal is RM1299. Still worth it compared to Lowyat.
Will you join such a long queue? And Mr Hubby did. I was having concall from 4-6pm and I was so anxious about this! Can't wait to hear either a good or bad news from him. Do you think he managed to be the first 51 employees?? Let's see...
The Display set at HP.
Reasons to own a HP Mini :
- Durable, Scratch Resistance All-Metal Case
- 95% Full-sized qwerty, spill-resistant keyboard
- HP 3D drive guard - 360 hard drive protection
- HP Fast Charge
- 47 more reasons which I won't type here!! ;p

Ho ho ho ho...... read this! 1st owner of HP Mini 5101. Which means Mr Hubby got the deal!!! Lucky Hubby, he got 48th and he actually started to queue at 3.30pm, eventho the queue officially starts at 4pm! Yahoooooooo........ Thank God this lanyard is PINK, because guys won't use pink so this pinky will be mine! Forever faithful to me! Haha... I love it! Such a sweet combination of color!

La la la la la ............... It's really mini, box is even a mini!

Nicely packed from China and shipped to Msia........

Oh, so mini & cute! I claimed this ownership! I wonder if I can play Age of Empire III here? Let's try...

The comparison of all the laptops at home. Which is the smallest? Let your kids to answer this. Haha....
Such a wonderful Thursday!
Sunday, September 6, 2009

Prawning in Action!

In my entire life, I've not been to fishing/prawning and I would love to try if I have the chance. On Friday, my hubby told me that his colleagues planned for a prawning session. I was like kinda excited and asked if he's joining, but he said No. Huh? NO? Such a fun activity but you didn't want to join. So, I asked him to quickly call his colleague and said we wanna join. Haha.. Last Sat, we headed to the prawning place. I thought the place would be at a nice lake, sit next to the lake and start prawning. But I was wrong. The place for prawning is in a shop! It's just opposite the Jusco and if you know where Fortune Steamboat is, the shop is just few doors away. Before we headed for prawning, we had our lunch at Restoran Bich Tien, Kepong.

Rice paper spring roll (Bi Chuan) RM3.60 for 6 pcs. This is definitely not for Mr Justin because he's not herbivor! He tasted one and that was it... the first and the last!
Pork Chop Noodle (Thit nguong Hu Tieu) - RM6.90. I only managed to eat 1/4 of the bowl because I was kinda full and the rest of the pork chop I gave to mr hub. Ok okla the taste... I still think the dry curry mee at All About Mee (PBD) tastes better.. =)

Pork & Egg stew with coconut juice Noodle (Thit Kho Hu Tieu) - Rm6.90. Hubby said this was not bad... so should trust his taste!
Sugarcane Prawns ( Thit Tom Cuon Mia) RM5 for 4 pcs. The meat is wrapped with sugarcane stick in the middle and it's so tasty to be chewed. This is worth trying... =)
Crispy Spring Roll (Chien Cha Gio) RM3.90 for 6 pcs.
This is how the back looks like.......

And all the drinks of the day!

After lunch, it was prawning time at Kolam Memancing Udang S.P.H and we paid RM30 for 2 hours for 1 person. In time is 1:03pm and out time is 3:03pm. 2 hours is the max and 1 hour for RM15. So, make sure you are skillful enough for prawning so that you make your money worth.

The bait...........

Brilly & Grace ...... waiting patiently for the strike!

Still.. no movement. And we were always being cheated with the false alarms! We thought there were prawns, but when we lifted up the rod, empty! Sigh........ this whole process lasted for 1 hour and we didn't manage to catch anything..
Look at Mr Hubby with the sad face. =( 2.30pm and yeah, we got half an hour more and our basket is still empty. The uncle that sat opposite of us almost every minute got a prawn! I wonder what kung fu he used and I think most of the prawns caught by him and we were left with nothing. Another uncle looked at us, so kesian and he *donated* one of his prawns to us. So good of him, but when Justin got over the prawn and wanted to put in the basket, the prawn accidentally jumped out and escaped again... Sigh. Now, zero prawn again!

After all the sighing... finally Brilly's bait got one fat prawn! And this was his first prawn, up to 2pm if I'm not wrong... haha.

And yeah... at 2.30pm, Justin got one more prawn. And at 2:45pm, another prawn! Great achievement thus far, at least we didn't go home empty handed. Haha....

3:03pm and that was all we had....... the catch for the day!
2 hours catch!!
Justin : 2 prawns by rod, 1 by hand, 2 donated by the uncle.
Brilly : 1 prawn by rod, 2 by hand and 1 by owner.
At least, we didn't go home empty handed. And if I have nothign to do in the weekend, I will definitely go again. These prawns were so precious and expensive, RM6 for 1 pc... But, there was still fun in it. Perhaps the 2nd time we will get more prawns?? Hehe...

We brought the prawns home and la la la .... it's time to cook!!!
This was how I cooked the prawns..... steamboat soup! The prawns were so fresh and tasty and juicy and sweety! I love it............. but they were expensive tho. I think fresh prawns should be cooked this way so that it remained the sweetness of it. If cooked with sweet sour or whatever, afraid that the tomato sos will cover the taste of the prawn. I'm not too sure, so I will not take risk because this is RM6 per pc! Damn expensive......

Fried fish & drummet to accompany with the prawn soup. That was what we had for dinner yesterday!! I wil go for fishing next time............... who wants to go with me? Hehehe...