Johnny's Shelter

A Thought about my College life

2007-08-08T08:33:00.000-07:00

The place where i stayed in here in South Australia is called a college. It is mainly a hostel in where students are provided with a single room.

When I first entered college, it was pretty fun, the people around was fun to hang out with and the activities we do are totally awesome. We eat out sometimes due to sucky food provided by the college (trust me about the suckiness, you don't have to taste it to know). Going to clubs and pubs occasionally. Going to the beach for some sun, nice breeze, catching crabs and bikini girls sighting. Having some crazy trips once in awhile, for example had a one day trip to Melbourne, and that was once of the greatest trips I ever had even though everyone thinks it is crazy.

We do cook in college sometimes if we can get the kitchen key. I don't understand why the kitchen must be lock anyway. Sadly there is only one fully-utilized kitchen to be used by students in the college. We had great fun cooking around, food tasting and eating together with lots of chatting. It is a really a good way to get together after the long week of uni. Now, we can't get the key that often anymore, due to the stupid rule of no cooking unless you have an event. You know can't have an event every week, it is just a normal "get together after the long week time" and we can't even get that.

After my first year in college, people start to leave every year. And in my opinion the "fun to hang around with" people left as well. In come some freshers who are not as good as the oldies who left. There are some "fun to hang around with" freshers, but they are countable with one hand. Let me see, most of the freshers that came in are either nerds (I agree to studying, we are uni students after all, but hey, all work and no play makes John a dull boy and they have to study like all the time) or geeks (the people who plays computer games excessively, like theres nothing else besides games apart from their studies).

About going to the pub and clubs. I won't blame those (good boys and girls) who will never go to one due to their own discipline in seeing those places as a bad place to go to. But I seen a person who goes to the pub, gets a drink for the sake of just trying be involve in pub nights, drinks as fast as possible, and rush back as soon as possible (arrives and leaves the pub in less than 15 minutes) . The main purpose of pub night is to drink and talk with people, yes, you can have one beer or even no drinks at all, but stay for the fun and talk with your fellow college mates.

My main point is, college life is not as fun as it used to be. To compare, the life in Malaysia is way better than college life apart from uni life. They are people who will do stuff with you and not chicken out last minute and being unsporting. Like my Malacca and Seremban trip, it was spontaneous and rewarding. Most of the people in college won't even dare think of doing something like that even like once a semester. They will probably say they need to study (the main excuse to use) while they sleep, watch dramas in their own room, chat on msn, surf the net a lots of anti-social or in-door stuff. The main thing they don't have is to be sporting, like maybe even once awhile will be good enough.

I think I will soon become a dull boy myself, if the "fun to hang around with" people extinct from college the next year or so. Lets hope that will not happen, and "fun to hang around with" freshers will come in next year not all geeks and nerds. Just moderate people who will study, play and hang around equally not people who are boring, nerdy, kiasu and geeky.

Note: What I wrote entirely is just what I think. And I do not discriminate nerds and geeks, it is just that the ones in college are the extremist type in being nerdy and geeky at the same time. I do have nerdy and geeky friends around elsewhere as well and they are still good to hang out with once in awhile as they do come out like sometimes.

-Johnny signing out- *click*

Chicken Rice Ball at Malacca

2007-07-31T10:31:00.000-07:00

Chicken rice, most commonly define as rice with chicken. The Malacca people do have their own creative way of preparing chicken rice which is the chicken rice ball.

It is basically the rice (not sure if it is ordinary rice) which is rolled into a ball shape. I don't really know what they use to keep the ball intact. It is served with the normal chicken but the only difference is the rice are in ball shapes having the size of moderate fish balls.

My experience in consuming them rice balls:

Taste: as typical as your ordinary chicken oiled rice

Texture: a little chewier and stickier than the ordinary rice

Appearance: Shown in pics below

Smell: as good as any chicken rice

After-taste: a sticky feeling in the mouth after swallowing the rice down.

The variation between the steam and roast chicken as shown in the pics. To me, it doesn't really matter if you don't eat the skin. The chicken don't look really appetizing though.

A good view of the rice balls too, now you get the picture of how the chicken rice balls look like. Next time you visit Malacca, remember to try them, they are not that fantastic but it is an experience to eat chicken rice in a creative serving.

-Johnny signing out- *click*

Bee Museum/Exhibition at Malacca

2007-07-31T09:57:00.000-07:00

Reached Malacca, the historical town after Seremban. Most of the tourist attractions charge entrance fees, so we looked around for free entrance places and thus we found the World's Bee Museum.

The place was pretty small. We got to taste different types of honey. Including ginseng, vinegar and venom honey. The ones mentioned taste unpleasant actually. The rest were okay. In fact, the honey for tasting actually attracted lots of bees around it. Imagine sharing saliva with the bees if you taste the honey.

There were display glasses showing the types of different bees from around the world. I am lazy to explain the types and which country or part are they from, so I shall let the pictures do the talking. Ant looking bees Close-up take

Bees at work

The wasp-looking ones

Predator of the bees aka Big Ugly Lizard

Look how I capture the predator in action, I am pro after all.

Smaller bees

Okay....I have not been totally honest, the ones on display, shown above aren't exactly live bees including that big ugly lizard. They are just replica models capture of the bees in their natural moments. But they are pretty good in re-creating the exact moment of the bees in the wild.

Now, the real bees ( below) are the typical small bees which you find around your house areas and in the city areas.

The surface the bees are on is those man-made beehives. So thats pretty much about my visit to the bee museum. I do not really know much about bees myself, all I know is they sting, it hurts and you're poisoned. But they produce good sweetness which is honey. Thats all I and most of you people reading this know.

-Johnny signing out- *click*

A Short Trip to Seremban

2007-07-12T09:32:00.000-07:00

As planned on one of the earlier nights, me, my girl, Chee Hong (Hong), Wee Kee (Weeks) and Sue Lin (Linnie) took a roadtrip down to Seremban.

The journey started mid-morning as we reached Seremban at around an hour plus later. We didn't really know what to do but since everyone haven't had breakfast, we headed off to a Pasar Besar to eat. Pasar Besar is kind of a morning market I think. Very strong stench of market products there.

Seremban flag banner, yeah we have reached our destination

Proof of being in Seremban, a Seremban landmark, don't know what it does though

The hawker stalls are situated upstairs. We headed up and started ordering from the famous Seremban Beef Noodles stall. The dry version (kon low) has a beefy kinda tasting sauce along with beef stomach, beef meat, and some beef jerky or brisket I think. The soup version is the same except it doesn't have the beef brisket. The soup served for the noodles are beefalicious. We ordered some beef balls as well and jokes are made up on whether those balls are actually beef testicles. The banner of the beef noodle shop

The beef testicles, I mean beef balls

Koon Low version of the beef noodles being consumed (see spoon)

After that, we had some Hakka Noodles, recommended by my girl and yes, it was really good. We only shared a large serving for five people since everyone was kinda full by then.

We continued our journey by car to locate the Istana Besar Seri Menanti. The road signs were terrible thus failed our journey to the Istana. Well, after a few more turnings and we are already back on the highway heading down to Malacca the historical town (next entry).

-Johnny signing out- *click*

Song - Want You To Know

2007-07-09T11:37:00.000-07:00

There is an ad in Malaysia on the newest sony ericsson phone, the W880i. Anyway this entry is not about the phone. There is a song on the ad which has a catchy tune. The title of the song is "Want You To Know" by Freelance Hellraiser. The lyrics was pretty matching for their candle light dinner in that ad as well.

You gotta at least watch the ad to know what I am talking about. If you want to watch it, I guess you could catch it if you pop by GSC cinemas during this period, not sure if it is in TGV though.

The lyrics goes like this......

I want you to know you make me happy

I want you to know you make me sad

I want you to know you make me happy

You were the best thing that i ever had...

The lyrics are more of a dedication to someone as you can read here. I think the genre is quite an Indie. The tune is pretty catchy for me especially the starting intro on the guitar, not sure if it goes for you as well.

Get the song and listen if you want to.

-Johnny signing off- *click*

Blue and White's Abortion (A.B.)

2007-07-08T09:52:00.000-07:00

Introducing one of the many delicious meal I found in one of the snack cafe in Adelaide, South Australia.

The cafe that makes is call Blue and White on O' Connell Street, North Adelaide.

It is called Abortion with the abbreviation A.B. It is called that as it looks something like the product of an abortion. Disgusting eh?

Well, don't think of it as it is, just take it as the food it is. It is made with chips (fat ones), lamb sliced-kebab meat, and finish touch of barbeque, garlic sauce and tomato sauce. You can get a variation of sweet chili sauce as well if you like.

I know it doesn't sound convincing to eat it with the all the mixture of sauce, but once you try it you will want to eat it again and again, trust me. The mixture of juicy lamb meat grilled to perfection and the softness of chips plus a great deal of sauce, it is a total great taste!

A great meal for two in that portion above. Meat and chips meal in one.

Well try it for yourself if you get the chance. Till then. Chiowz.

-Johnny signing off- *click*

Crystal-like Object

2007-07-08T09:37:00.000-07:00

I was taking photos around my room one boring day and then I zoom into these "objects" and it all appeared as below.

The first shot, do you know what are they?

The second shot, don't mind the dust (the smaller white dots) around them.

Have you figured out what are those objects? small crystalites? ice particles? or diamonds? (I would be rich if I have them in my room)

Which is it?

They are actually SALT that I accidentally spilled on my table earlier and did not bother to clean up. Well, it is a discovery of taking zoom up pictures.

Till next time.

-Johnny signing out- *click*

Gathering at K Vin's House

2007-07-08T00:12:00.000-07:00

Went to a party last night at my friend's from high school, K Vin.

Before that I bought a bottle of Dewar's White Label by John Dewar and Sons. It is a cheaper version of Scotch Whiskey. It only cost me RM75 for whiskey, I consider that affordable and worth it, I mean compared to Chivas Regal (RM 169). They sound also almost the same anyway. Bought a bottle of Absolut Vodka, Citron flavour (my girl's preference).

The party started slow when I arrived with my girl and a few other schoolmates. Finger food ranging from fries, cocktail sausages, fishballs, super rings (junkfood like Cheezels), KFC and few other random stuff. One of the specials was the Cheese Onion Dip a.k.a Cause of Death to go with crackers. It is mixed with cheese, onion and mayonese and baked to perfection.

We started opening the liquors at 10PM because everyone said it was too early before that. So we started with the Dewar's mixing with Coke. Later on my friend opened his dad's cupboard filled with lots of other liquors. Took out an aged Chivas and Tequila. I took 3 shots of whiskey both Dewar's and Chivas and just a couple of mixed coke and whiskey. Well I was forced to take the shots by the host. L to R : Chivas Regal, Absolut Citron, Dewar's White Label

On to the drinking games which are "Cai Mui", Big fish small fish and texas hold em poker. The penalty was just a a small glass of whiskey mixed with coke (how unexciting) and only a sip each time. Well the penalty was that pathetic because people don't want to get drunk and have to drive, and sadly some of them at the party did not even drink a single drop of alcohol. The drinking was quite short though due to the same reasons.

We ended it with a sit down and chat session while finishing up the remaining food. The kind host served us chinese tea, which doesn't keep you from sleeping. Left the house at 3 AM plus. Too bad, the Absolut Citron is a full bottle and un-open, well next time then. Anyways, thanx to K Vin for the great party.

-Johnny signing out- *click*

Boardgames Spree

2007-07-06T12:26:00.000-07:00

Boardgames..... the first thing that comes to your mind is Monopoly the properties game and Scrabbles, Mr/Ms Spelling Bee's game.

To widen your spectrum to boardgames, I have played and seen more than those mentioned above.

Been playing games such as Acquire a stockholder concept game design by Sid Sackson, Ra which mixes both biding and points obtaining and the ever popular Settlers of Catan by Mayfair games which requires both luck and brains. Settlers of Catan as mentioned above.

That is what i am doing recently. Sounds geeky eh? Wait till you play one of them and see if you do get hook on by it.

i will do a more detail entry on some of my favourite boardgames soon. Till then chiowz.

-Johnny signing out- *click*

Construction Completed

2007-07-05T11:26:00.000-07:00

Hey you there, yes you reading this very sentence, welcome once again.

Finally, I have completed constructing a place (blog) where I can call my own . The aim of my shelter is basically to put up entries to share, enlighten you (I hope), and pictures when i am good at it.

I haven't got much to say about this place yet since it is new. So stay around to find out more from time to time.

About myself...

My name is Johnny as you can see from the title, just plain Johnny. Sometimes I dislike people calling me John instead. You can't cut my name that way, cuz John is just a different name.

I like music, ranging from r n' b to punk rock. Trying or hoping to be a part time rock star someday although I am just an amateur guitarist now.

I don't really have a certain interest, my interest just changes sometimes. Well, it is just life, when you just want to venture into most of the things.

Do come by more often. Till then chiowz.

-Johnny signing out- *click*