My Makan Blog Being Featured ^^

I received an email informing me of a reply on one of my makan blog [HERE] and didn't give it much thought since I do received some spam posting sometimes. So when I decided to look at the posting saw the reply:


Hi BaBy OcTopUs,
Kindly be informed that this post has been reprinted on JoinMe.com.my & JoinMe.com.my, Thanks 


So I clicked the link and saw it's actually a page where they select some of the food bloggers post and re-post it in theirs to promote it.

Two of my posts which got posted up to their website. How happy. Well at least I know some one reading my blog all this while and appreciate it. Not all the work for nothing : )

Which TV To Buy?

Finally I am moving nearer to my home entertainment system. I am getting a TV soon and had been discussing with my neighbors and friends bout it. I had been scouting around for months deciding what to buy. LCD, Plasma or LED. Some friends are recommending LCD but some of my more experience AV fans had recommended Plasma instead. But I too considered LED for a while since I can get a smaller size LED for the same price of a larger Plasma. But all of that is behind me as I had decided to go with Plasma now after long consideration. I had been eyeing for LG's 50" Full HD Plasma since early this year. Price is within my budget but since I haven't moved in my house (at that time) I had put the idea on hold. 

Now I had moved in and it's time to get myself a decent TV. So my quest continues where it left off last time for a home entertainment. I was again faced with a decision either to go with a 3D Plasma since the color is more darker and reflection issue is lower on it's panel. But definitely the price of a 3D Plasma would be higher comparing with the standard one. At the end decided to go with the normal one. Now is the brand issue. As mentioned earlier, I had been eyeing for LG for so long but lately my friends had recommended me Panny and   well, the thing that hinder me of it was the pricing. But now my friend was able to give me a really price for the Panny Plasma that is similar to LG. How can I say no. 

Can't wait to go test out the Panny new 50" Plasma this week. Gonna mostly test on it's USB connectivity and the files that it support. Since we download a lot of movies, so the model should be able to support the common files nowadays. Hopefully I can bring the baby home early next month so I can enjoy my shows through my Unifi in HD quality. And moving one step closer to buy my PS3 too. lolx!! It's such a good time to dream in the morning when my head is still half awake. After getting my Plasma, the next would be getting a good soundbar to support it. But that is another story la~ 

Les Mills Release 3rd Quarter

It's been a while since I wrote any reviews on Les Mill's releases. Well, since I am in the mood right now and I the tracks are still fresh in my head. I thought to give it a go. This review is based solely on my own opinion and not biased to anyone. Not going into real details for some part of the release. So you get the idea how much I like/don't like that program. LOLX!! So here goes. As usual, I am will only write on the four GX programs which I joined namely RPM, Body Combat, Body Pump and Body Step.

Body Pump 78

Like the Warm Up track from Basshunter. Little squats movement in this warm up though. Sing a long track in Squats with Beautiful Monster. Not that tough, can add on weights. Bottom halves of 4 not that much. So you can load up. Chest is quite difficult cause you the track is so darn long. Well for me that is. Gun & Roses are back. The last part of bottom halves before the break and singles all the way seemed a bit crazy but I like it. Back track is a no brainer 3 sets of similar combos. We have four in a row for two sets and down for singles. 

Triceps is simple in this release. You can go crazy in this release. We have the usual extension and body blast before going to the board with the plates towards the end. Again, you can load up on biceps in this release. Great song from Pink, Raise Your Glass which I personally really love. Combo of 4 bottom halves and quick up and slow down. You have dead lift pull over for you to rest in this track. Lunges should be the toughest track but heck, I go crazy with my weights on this track. This is a HUGE track with squats then lunges and squats then back to lunges and squats then lunges on both side towards the end. Gotta be one of the toughest lunge track without the knee lift movement to date. Shoulder track is good with powerful music of Welcome to Africa. Started off with push up then plates and up with plates and McRaises and finish off with the overhead. Abs is quite similar to the previous release which I think they are going more on the side crunch. Overall, I like this release, and I can do it for 3 weeks. 

RPM 51

Had the chance to do the launch with Lilian and Fong last week during the launch. The focus or objectives is the 15 second speed work on track 2, 4 & 6 and load up on track 3, 5 and 7. Warm up with a nice song from Ke$ha again. Pace track is good with Half Way Gone (although we're only on the second track). First Hill Climb with Raise Your Glass although it's not the original mix from Pink. Now your muscle should start to feel a bit of pain. Mixed Terrain track from Flo-Rida's Turn Around really blend well with the chorey. Totally love it but felt like it's too short. Interval training is good with Are You Gonna Be My Girl. Don't really like the Speed Work from Tiesto since I can't really 'feel' the music with the chorey. LOLX! LP is finally in RPM with the last Mountain Climb. Well, not them but their remix of Numb which I really like. Not my favorite remix of the original but still alright. In my opinion if the last standing attack is longer by 10-15seconds, now that is a Killer. Felt like I can still push a bit more towards the end. Overall, the release is alright not as crazy as the previous one but I am live with this. 

Body Combat 48

This release is definitely better than the previous one from my opinion. Class was packed and didn't know what to expect. We have a nice upper body warm up with In My Head and Airplanes which both I really like (the music that is). Don't think there's any new moves in this warm up. Smooth Criminal is back for this release. It's a recycle from Body Pump 44. Like the music and also chorey. We have a new 'step-evade' move on track 3. It's a 4 step move to evade and back. Not bad. I can live with that. We have eskiva and front kick combo during Track 4. Track 5 was nice with a familiar track of If I Were You (from Body Combat 22 Warm Up). Really nice track. Track 6 was treacherous with  plenty of side kicks and also front and back kick combos. 

Muay Tai is a long one but with simple combos. You started off with 4 descending elbows and double knee of each side. 7 punch and crosses with one descending elbow and a whole lot of knees. The last power track is bringing everything home. We have masterblaster in the house again. Like the music and chorey too. Plenty of punches in this track and the whole release. The Black Eyes Peas is in the house with The Time for the abs track. Plenty of abs working on this track. Definitely a tough baby with 2-2 push up and triple bottom halves shoulder push up. Then you go to legs extension and a new tougher extension with crunches. Nice cool down and that's it. I can do 3 weeks of this release. So that say's a lot. 

Body Step 84

I gotta say that I am really looking forward for Body Step 84 but I was really disappointed. Let's see why. Warm up was still bearable with some new moves but I totally lost it (in terms of my mood) during Track 2. Damn, I can't even heard what the music is playing, just heavy bass. Track 3 don't really help much too with some new chorey. Movement is the same but the way they combined it seemed odd. The burpy is back during the Mixed Strength. I totally hate doing burpy. Power Peak tried to pick up the paced, well a bit for me at least. Step Recovery was alright. Party Step was alright too and I was looking forward to the last Peak track to save me from this release. But damn, it's so irritating. There's this new movement in the Peak track. Well actually it's not a new movement but rather combo where we need to carry a weight (5-10kgs) and during the last part of the track and switching back to single and back to plates. Damn it's so anti-climax for me. Some of the members already told me bout this before the class and I thought how bad could it be. Well, it's really not my favorite of track definitely. Came out and told Brian that he won't be seeing me for 3 weeks in Body Step class. LOLX!!! 

iOS 5 Coming Soon

I had read about Apple's iOS 5 not too long ago and now it's already been released. Well don't go running to your iTunes and updating your phone that fast. Cause Apple had released the iOS 5 Beta (build 9A5220P) to developers of iOS Developer programmers. So unless you are one of those apps programmers, you won't be having it anytime soon. But let just run through the new features of the upcoming iOS 5. It seemed that they are 200+ new features bundled in the new update. Apple revealed the new iOS 5 features recently during their WWDC 2011 keynote. The main features would be the Notification Center, iMessage, Newstand, Reminders and Twitters integration to your iDevice. The new iOS 5 also enhanced the existing apps like the Camera, Photo Album, Safari, Mail and Calendar. And you know what's the coolest thing? You don't need a computer for the new iOS 5. 

Here are some of the features found by BGR on their test run of the new iOS 5.

• Preference to open pages in Safari in a new page or in background (amazing!).
• More alert choices for emails, calendar, and the ability to buy more.
• Ability to create keyboard shortcuts (autotext) to replace custom phrases. The default entry is “omw” which is replaced with, “On my way!”
• Software update option in settings to check for the latest OS.
• Sync now button to wireless sync to iTunes
• Ability to customize how notifications in Notification Center look — you can customize how many recent ones to show, 1, 5 or 10, if it’s showed in the lock screen, if it’s in Notification Center, and also the alert style, banner or alert style.
• Twitter installs directly from the settings page if it’s not installed directly, you aren’t even taken to the App Store.
• FaceTime button in iMessage messages at the top now
• Tweeting photos is, so so slick. It displays on Twitter as powered by Photobucket, and it’s from iOS.
• There’s a new option to print out from the Maps app… hilarious.
• You can make new albums right from the device itself in Photos.
• You can move and add photos to albums.
• Doesn’t look iMessage is fully baked in here yet.
• You can customize the default alert times. This is so needed — so now when you enter a calendar entry, you don’t have to set the default alert time you like — I’m a 15 minute calendar alert type of guy.
• You have to go into the message and tap “mark” for Email flagging.
• It seems that Reminders sync with Exchange (Tasks basically), but you can’t set location-based reminders if you’re on Exchange, just with iCloud. You can selectively choose where to sync the reminder though, it’s just not streamlined if you use Exchange.
• You can set the caller ID for FaceTime calls, so if you call someone, you can choose it to display your cellular number or email address.
• In the weather app, there is a new pane for a current location which will show you weather for wherever you are.

Some other features courtesy of FeedGoodChicken are:

• The iPod app on iPhone is split up into music and video like on iPod touch. 
• There are a few new accessibility options, some audio controls, such as fading left or right, and something about gestures in menus I'm not quite clear what it does yet. 
• You can actually see the amount of local storage taken up by specific apps, organized by size. 
• Also it may be worth mentioning that the Newsstand cannot be placed in a folder.

I am particularly interested in their Camera apps and here's some of the features about it.Lock Screen 

• Shortcut - When you double click the Home button, you will get a new Camera icon next to Slide to Unlock button, you can tap on it to launch the Camera app from the Lock screen. 
• You can access the Lock Screen shortcut to take new photos even if you have a passcode set, but you won’t be able to access the camera roll without entering the passcode. 
• Grid lines has been added as an option to help you align your photo. 
• Gets pinch-to-zoom gestures, which will make the zoom feature a lot more intuitive. 
• Single-tap focus and exposure locks to compose a picture on the fly. 
• You can use the volume-up button to take photos rather than the on-screen button.

Some other new features would be the ability to create an album in your phone picture album which is so needed and waited for so long. Yes, I do have a 3rd party software to do that but I believe an in-build feature from Apple would be more preferable. You are now able to do cropping and rotate your pictures which is really good. You can also remove red-eye effect finally from your phone. I know some of these features comes standard with some other smartphone, but we are glad that finally Apple do the same with theirs. Here are some of the pictures for the new features. 

And you can even Sync with other iOS devices through iCloud if your Photo Stream are Enabled. These updates isn't super cool but does give us some real neat update to play with. There are other enhancement like the Safari, Mail and Calendar but I am not so into that section for now since it's more towards iPad users. But you can check it out yourself online if you want to know more. Hopefully we will have it soon. I will say it will mostly be out within 2 months or so. Can't wait to test it out. 

On the side note, iOS 5 had been successfully Jailbroken by the Dev Team. haha! Although it's a tethered JB but it shows that it's possible to exploit the new iOS. You are also able to Sync to your PC WIRELESS. Yup, no more cables. iTunes 10.3 is out but you can't update it directly from your iTunes. You can download it from their website link or HERE. 

Si Beh Sui~!

This is a post long over due since it happened exactly one week ago. Well thinking back right now does make me felt a bit happy right since all the bad luck had passed. So my story started last Monday when I realized that my road tax expired on the day itself. Dang~! Luckily I got my lunch buddy with me who has contact to renew my insurance through the phone for me. But I still can't renew my road tax since the car registration card is not with me and the post office gonna close soon. Why can't I renew it the next day, well cause I have a last minute appointment down South after lunch hour which requires me to drive down early in the morning before the post office opens. Dang~! 

So I 'slowly' drove and hopes that there's no road block on my way down. When I just started to felt a bit relieved since I am just a couple of hundred kilometers form JB, I heard a loud noise. I thought it was a stone hitting onto my car but I got suspicious and decided to stop the car and have a look. Damn~! I got a flat tire and I am rushing for my lunch appointment. So I quickly get all the tools out and changed to my spare tire. Well at least my spare tire is still able to make the journey down. 

Renewed my road tax and just realized that my driving license had expired more than 3 weeks. WTH?!! This month had been too hectic for me till I forgot all bout anything else. Remembered the meeting I was supposed to have for the trip? Well after a long discussion and a few drinking session, the client decided to put the whole thing on hold. WTF? After all the work and time me and my company had put in, he decided to put it on hold. Sigh~! Speechless~!!! But at least my I managed to secured another deal while I am down there. 

Reached the usual hotel I am staying and while I am checking in, the front desk told me that the room I was supposed to be in had a blardy beam right in the middle of the room. So I decided to upgrade my room to Deluxe and he told me it's the last room on the floor next to the Exit with a number 24. And when I wanna changed back to my original room he told me that he found out that the room haven't been clean yet. WTH? So I got no choice and upgrade and stayed on the last room of the floor. Well since I am not that superstitious, I guess this is alright. haha! Ya, after all this complaint and I am not superstitious. 

Other than all the above, my trip had actually been quite nice and fruitful. Since I managed to closed another deal and traveling down Singapore to meet up with my friends. And I think I meet with Stephanie S while I am sipping my coffee too. Now, that is the highlight of the trip. haha! All Wells Ends Well I guess. 

Free Weight + Machines Workout

Started my machine + free weight regime yesterday on my lower body with an instructor. He invited me to joined him with his own training every week. Well, since I have time to spare and he is so kind to offer so I obliged. He was telling me that we were supposed to do some biceps and chest and maybe core workout since we be having a lot of lower body workout (BS, BP and BC) on that day. But when I arrived, he started to briefed me on the work out plan and it was mostly on lower body. OK, I am still comfortable with that since I do not know what to expect at that time. I started off slow with 25kgs (maybe more I forgot) on each side and do a 12 full range Squats. I am still able to do that without any challenge and we quickly moved on to the next machine, the Leg Extensions machine. It's main objective is to train our quadriceps. Now here's the hard part of the training starts. 

Started off easy with 25kgs with 12 reps and add additional 5-10kgs after each set which at the end the weight goes up to 45kgs. Damn, my thigh still hurts now as I am writing this. This is the first time I am working my thigh so much. I did RPM, BS and BP and never did my thigh felt so tight (oh that rhymes). Walked back and did the Squats again with increase weight since he said I can managed more. Dang~! I was dying after the 3rd set. Moved on to the Leg Press machine which again works on the quadriceps. Did a 12 reps again with 60kgs of weight. Then walked over and did the Squats again and changed to the Seated Leg Curl machine. This machines trains our hamstrings as opposed to the Leg Extension machine. Just to balance the front back back muscles of the leg. Did the last set of Let Press and ended my first machine workout. 

He told me that I should be feeling pretty hungry than usual that night since lower body workout let us work more on our body compared to upper since it's the biggest muscle in our body. The classes after that was definitely more challenging than usual since my body isn't used of the new exercise yet, which is good. BS was still alright with me taking some options rather than go all out like I normally did. BP was killing me during the Squats tracks. I can't even do a full range without feeling pain on my quads. Dang~! Didn't shuffle that much during BC too since my legs felt like they are giving way during the 5th track. Anyway, this is something new and I really hope that I can continue with this since I am a bit tired of the classes nowadays. Need to find something else to excite my body. And NO, I don't do outdoor sport especially MARATHON!

Tablet Ownership & Brand

I was reading through some articles when I saw an interesting chart. The figures above was done by media research firm, Nielsen and I just make it looked nicer with Excel. ^^ Anyway, it clearly shows that iPad had claimed more than 80% of the whole market segment for tablets. This is based on their Mobile Connected Survey done on the first quarter of 2011. FYI, this survey is done in the US only. Sadly the nearest competitor is from Samsung's Galaxy Tab with 4% of the market segment. Another proves that Apple dominating the tablet market and also slowly climbing the smartphone market at the same time.