NHG Event – Eragon Movie Screening

Recently, J. had the good fortune to score a couple of free tickets from S to watch Eragon. Initially, he obtained one ticket but at the behest of a friend, changed that number to two, only to find that said friend had changed said friend’s mine, so he passed the extra ticket to another friend.

Apparently, NHG had booked the Eng Wah cinema at Suntec City for this movie screening. J. was happy to obtain not just the free movie tickets, but also a voucher that entitled him to one free popcorn set. Awesome.

The movie itself was passable, with majestic landscapes and beautiful flight sequences. The battles were fast-paced, exciting and filled with lots of fire. Fire is good for fight sequences. Burn! Burn!

Otherwise, it’s no Lord of the Rings. The namesake character was more irritating than charismatic. The plot, thanks to senseless mangling of the original story by the movie’s scriptwriters, had more holes than swiss cheese, which the dialogue was cheesier than too.

Quote: “Into the sky! To win or die!”

Who comes up with this stuff? And unfortunately, everything was very predictable. Very classic old-fashioned fantasy story.

Otherwise, J had fun. Had fun chatting with friend who got the free ticket. Met S’s parent and sibling, ran into a junior at the bus stop.

And more importantly, watched the first cinema film in months. Thank you, NHG!

Nutrition – A Neglected but Important Course

Doctors in Singapore still have a lot of clout where patients are concerned, in that their opinions are respected more so than say… nurses. In this aspect, doctors are better positioned to bring about and reinforce lifestyle changes in patients suffering from “diseases of maladaptation” such as diabetes mellitus and hypertension.

Except that they aren’t equipped properly.

Madame Kwan’s (in KL)

luncheonmeat was in Kuala Lumpur (KL) recently and passed by this restaurant twice:

Two of their three outlets are in Mid Valley Mall and in KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre). On the second time, he went in with his parents to try their famed nasi lemak.

UFC Junkie MMA Junkie

Addendum (Nov 2007): UFC Junkie has expanded their coverage to all mixed martial arts events and is now called MMAJunkie. The links have been adjusted accordingly.

UFC Junkie MMA Junkie

It’s one of the more popular blogs online that comment on the UFC. WordPress members and visitors will realise that, given the way it’s been consistently ranked in the Top 10 WordPress blogs.

Despite not betting on the UFC, one of the things that J. particularly enjoys reading on UFC Junkie is Performify’s Picks. It offers a well thought out analysis of the various upcoming fights (from a betting perspective).

It’s also a great site to catch UFC news. A UFC news website is nothing new, however, so what makes UFC Junkie special is the way the author adds value by adding his [very well-written] thoughts.

Now, Singaporeans might ask: “What is the UFC?” Read on.

Angry Doctor

Angry Doctor

Makes great comments on Singapore’s medical related issues.

Cute Overload

Cute Overload! ;)

Because we get tired of looking at grotesque, diseased body parts.

Birthday Celebration

J.’s birthday recently passed. It would have been a memorable one, if J.’s brain hadn’t been addled by copious quantities of alcohol. There is some vague impression of exclamations of “I love you, man!’, though he denies ever saying such a thing. Well, it is the Christmas season, so it’s all about spreading the love, eh?

J. received a few gifts, all of which were greatly appreciated and previously sought after. There was a funky Topman shirt, a pair of sarong pants from Thailand and a Starbucks stainless steel drinkware. Now luncheonmeat can have his morning coffee without worrying about grabbing a styrofoam cup. J. would like to thank, in particular, Ly for the clothes and Ca for the mug.

Ah Mei Kaya Toast

After a morning workout, there is no better way to start the day proper than with a traditional breakfast, with its potent combination of protein and caffeine.

So it was that I trudged down from the Bishan gym to Junction 8 with the intent of visiting the Ya Kun Kaya Toast located at Basement 1. The place had a number of customers already seated, which is surely a good sign. That is, until I saw the listed price.

Ya Kun Kaya Toast Set A: 2 soft-boiled eggs, kaya toast and coffee/tea – $3.70

“What the?!” Refusing to pay an exorbitant prices, I left Junction 8 and headed to a nearby competitor:

Ah Mei Kaya Toast Set A: 2 soft-boiled eggs, kaya toast and coffee/tea – $2.80

“Now that’s more like it!”

Ubuntu 6.10 (Part 3) – Setting Up

Note: This is nowhere near a guide. This is now me ranting at my pathetic ungeekiness that has rendered me unable to create a lean mean Ubuntu machine out of an 3-year-old slothful Windows XP laptop.

The installation went well… except that I’m pulling my hair out at being unable to install the USB wireless driver that I mentioned below. In the meantime, I’ve taken a break and decided to do spring-cleaning.

Ubuntu loads damn bloody fast. I am impressed. The interface is beautiful (despite it loading damn bloody fast) and easy to use. I like using Terminal (Linux is a line based operating system, like DOS), as much as I liked DOS last time (I do!).

I just can’t believe I decided to do spring-cleaning instead of tinkering on a [slow, instead of crawling,] computer. Going to take a break and see what I can do. Hmmm… sudo make uninstall… er…

Ubuntu 6.10 (Part 2) – Installation

Note: Instead of a technical guide, welcome to a post detailing my process of deciding to install instead of the actual installation.

I couldn’t do it to my main computer.

My current system running on Windows XP SP2 has three partitions: System, Documents and Files, Applications and Games. I could, of course, collapse the partitions but that’d be akin to reformatting my computer.

So I briefly toyed with the idea of reformatting my idea. After all, I had already backed up all my important data from my Western Digital 160GB hard drive to the afore-mentioned Seagate external hard drive.

There is the issue of the syncing of my PDA with the computer. Unfortunately for Ubuntu, Windows Mobile 5.0, being Windows, is designed to sync with Windows (those MS bastards!). So I don’t see myself deleting Windows completely.

Now I’m installing Ubuntu on the old laptop, the one that hasn’t been used for 6 months. If it crashes, it’s no great loss. So let’s see how it goes.

Instructions come from Ubuntu: Ubuntu Documentation

Update: The installation went well. Despite the old hp pavilion ze1110 being terribly slow, it managed to install without a hitch. Currently, I’m trying to get my Linksys USB Wireless Adaptor to work on it, following instructions from: How to install WUSB54G for Dapper Drake. Yes, I’m not using Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake) but it should be close enough, I hope.