but you gotta give malaysian girls a pat in the back…someone criticizes them and they still can smile & behave like nothing has happened!

There was quite some noise in the darker pictures but all kinda solved using Noiseware!

Forte: Wide-angle lenses, amazing macro mode, lotsa settings to tinker around, optical image stabilization, small, wide range of ISO settings: 100 –> 3200!

Achilles' heel: "Watercolor effect" when blown up to 7 Megapixels (esp. on higher ISO settings) - overcompensation by image processor I guess, but not so visible if you print it out. Night pics w/o tripod impossible with ISO > 200!

Anyway, some sample pics for those interested:

wahlau…money's in my stomach now…was good while it lasted….but sighz…could have gone for something much cheaper…wonder if I could make out the difference.

spendthrift mode officially OFF now.

Basically in Pandora, you get to choose what you wanna listen to and Pandora intelligently seeks out the "genes" of the music you like and picks a random song which you may like. You can further finetune your music selection list by giving a thumbs up or down for the music it plays, and boy, I've been discovering like new songs and artists almost everyday!

If only we can do this in Malaysia, that would be so great!

Was introduced to Beer Pong by a friend and apparently it's what everyone likes to play during college and high school.

And I have to say…Woah…this game is too fun man…I wonder why I never came across it while I was in the UK/Malaysia.

Rules are simple:

1. Get a ping pong table or any rectangular table.
2. Arrange 6 or 10 beer cups in a triangular fashion.
3. 2 person on each side of the table, no clothes or body touching the cups or table at any time.
4. Try to throw ping pong balls into the cups.
5. And here's the penalty:

Ball into 1 cup = 1 drink (finish the cup)
Ball by 2nd player into the same cup = 3 drinks
1xBounce into cup = 2 drinks
1xBounce into same cup = 4 drinks
2xBounce into same cup = 6 drinks

6. Continue until all beer cups are eliminated. Winning champions wait for challengers and round starts again.

*Note: You're allowed to distract your opponents while they are throwing, and you can hit the ball away once it has started to bounce once on the table. Also, if ball lands on tip of cup, you can blow it away….lol

P.S. Here's a virtual version which probably can give you a better understanding of the game than what I can in words.

Well, the US and A has been great so far for me, been getting used to all the "BIG"-ness around but the beers here surprised me! Thinking Americans all just drink Bud Lite and Miller, and perhaps the occasional Mexican Corona & Dos Equis, I didn't expect so many varieties here by "small time" breweries. Anyway, the ones I mention come highly recommended, and also in the order of sweetness to bitterness & they are all really full of flavour!

But it has to be the packaging of Arrogant Bastards that amused me the most…lol:

My 1st ever crawfish broil, and it was pretty fun! Bottomless beer fountain, the fried turkey, the high school band still playing after like 10 years down the road & a lucky draw to boot! It kinda feels like I'm in one of those fraternity parties they show in American Pie…except we get less titties…lol

The part of US and A where I'm currently in seems to be more cosmopolitan than I expected, but I didn't expect ppl here to think that I'm more like a Spanish-speaking South American than a Chinese…lol. But the American stereotype is still strongly embedded in the lifestyle of the ppl here, alot of greasy food, huge SUVs the size of minibuses, fat men & women and huge shopping malls! Basically everything's BIG!!!

1. People give out cards titled "Health Centre" with Japanese words on it to you at midnight in Bukit Bintang. A Japanese friend translated it as "Cute girls from 17-24 years old".
2. All the aunties on the streets will start showing you pictures of girls in a folder and ask "Massage?"
3. Ladyboys hang out around Starhill in pairs and you won't think they are guys till they speak.

Anyway, initially everyone was ok with the food but this is what I got from their response after a week of Malaysian food:

(from a Saudi guy) too spicy, I would like some American food please.
(from a Peruvian) only their fried rice and satay is ok.
(from a French guy) Bak Kwa tastes like…rotten candy
(from a Syrian) I can't understand how you guys can mix all flavours together: sweet & salty?
(from a Taiwanese) The more I drink the soup, the more thirsty I get, do you know why?

and the list goes on…