Finally, all settled in…

One word of advice, moving house can reduce your weight significantly.

I found this out the hard way when we recently moved into our new place in Lake Fields. Apart from the anticipated physical work of the move, there is also the mental anguish when contractors do not complete their tasks on time and vendors break their promises to deliver on time. Of course, all those are a walk in the park when one compares it to the ultimate definition of frustration: dealing with the civil service.

(A disclaimer: I was really happy with the water and power service and I think that they were professional, courteous and prompt. Dealing with a quasi-civil service private entity like Telekom Malaysia on the other hand…)

Two weeks on, we are beginning to really love our new home. The boxes are all unpacked, the CDs, DVDs and books have all returned to their shelf (in order), the clothes are all hanged and organized neatly in our relatively gianormeous closet. Really love the orderliness of the whole place.

I also love my trimmer tummy and I really do hope that it lasts.

Tomorrow is moving day!

After 7 years in Bandar Sri Permaisuri (and 4 for Cheryl), we are moving to our new house tomorrow! Emotionally, it is a mix bag of sadness and happiness.

Firstly, we are really going to miss our current home. It is, after all, the home where I carried Cheryl into when we got married. We are definitely going to miss this small cosy nest.

Secondly, we are happy because we are moving to a new bigger place that is really us. All the aesthetic choices, fittings, extensions reflected our tastes. We hope that this new place will give us more happy memories.

Okay, gotta keep on packing before the movers come a knockin’ tomorrow at 9.30am!

David Archuleta Fans, Thank You!

I was really surprised by the overwhelming response to my photographs of David Archuleta who performed here in Kuala Lumpur last week. It all started when I uploaded 4 of them to Flickr yesterday. I managed to capture one where David stood right in front of a spotlight, creating a nice effect.

David Archuleta

Less than 36 hours after posting, I got a comment from archuletafansgermany in Flickr who thought that it was the best photo of David in concert that he/she? had ever seen. Archuletafansgermany proceeded to write a review about the photo in www.archuletafansgermany.com and on www.snarkyarchies.com.

What happened in the next 6 hours was surreal. The story was picked up by www.fansofdavid.com and www.thedavidchronicles.com with links to the above photo. Subsequently, my average Flickr daily views picked up from an average of 180+ per day to an all time record high of 1292 yesterday in a matter of hours!

My Flickr Stats Page

Stats of Photos Viewed

It goes to show the popularity of David Archuleta and the global appeal that he possessed that endeared him to his legion of loyal and highly passionate fans. Seeing him perform first hand, I was really impressed with his voice and his ability to work the audience. He has a natural shy boy charisma that would continue to capture the hearts and minds of swooning young girls (and boys) all over the world.

Thank you David Archuleta for the pose and thank you David Archuleta fans for your kind comments!

Hainan Island, China

   

Chairman Mao, originally uploaded by CeeKay’s Pix.

Due to the ridiculously low prices of AirAsia tickets during one of their infamous sales, we ended up in Hainan, an island located at the southernmost part of China.

Renown as a local tourist hot spot, I was extremely disappointed at the lack of attractions that people have come to associate China with: high quality pirated goods, mouth-watering delicacies and spectacular sights.

More pictures on my Flickr page

New iPhone by June 2009

I know that I may sound biased but this is really not the right time to get a Maxis iPhone.

This is not because there are a lot of complaints coming from the blogs that the cost of ownership for a “legit” iPhone 3G in Malaysia is extremely prohibitive (which it is).

It is also not because the iPhone can’t do a lot of the things that we had taken for granted that even a low end phone can do like forwarding SMS, sending and receiveing MMS, doing video calls, copy and pasting.

Nope.

The reason why people should wait is because a newer, 3rd generation (not 3G which is the 2nd), iPhone is going to be launched by June this year.

First off, AT&T spilled the beans like a drolling cowboy in a campfire.

Secondly, geeks without a life painstakingly went through every line in the new Firmware 3.0 like ants on heat to reveal hidden references in the source codes to new phone models.

Thirdly, Paul (not-the-Steve-Jobs) Schiller, the senior VP of Product Marketing of The Apple over at the holy land of Cupertino illuminated the masses (via his chosen vessel, David Pogue of the New York Times) by explaining that June is the traditional cycle of iPhone product launches.

And finally, Apple has a WWDC on June 8-12, 2009. All of the pent up cool things that they are planning to announce could be climatically ejaculated during this time to the mass elation of Apple fan boys (and the gadget-lusting Christmas shoppers).

One can almost join all of the dots to savely conclude that the new iPhone is slated for June 2009 and it is going to be hot, hot, hot!

Official Star Trek Posters

The following (final) Star Trek posters had been leaked via the Internet! There are 5 variants, though there is no clear indication yet on which is going to be the official official poster.

Star Trek (UK- Alternate)

Star Trek (Spanish)

Star Trek (German)

Star Trek

(click for full size)

It is quite perplexing why they had released so many different posters apart from the possibility that they are monitoring the response from die-hard fans and general population before deciding on one.

In all 4 versions, McCoy is noticeably absent, replaced by a young and sexy Uhura. Of course, this is a fan boy’s reaction but overall the posters are not bad but not terribly exciting.

This, however, hasn’t done anything to taper any of my excitement for the movie. After watching the latest cinematic and TV trailers, my expectations are already running so high that I’m afraid to be disappointed if the movie turns out to be less than spectacular.