Relieved!

Finally, I passed my differentiation examination on 30th July 2008. Now I am officially a PhD candidate. For your information, every student that enrolled for PhD have to go through this differentiation examination to make sure they are capable of continuing their PhD for another 2 years. If you failed the exam, you can appeal for another exam. If you still failed then you will have to stop and they will may possibly offer a MPhil (Master of Philisophy).
Luckily, I have passed this exam (what a relieve). This means that I will continue my works for another 2 more years before graduating, and hopefully is within 2 years. I didn't plan much how to celebrate. The only celebration I had is only going to watch Dark Night with couple of my friends..haha. I guess I have to put more effort in my works in the future.

It's brownies time!

This is my second home made bakery. Two days ago I posted muffins and today is brownies. I mentioned before that I used to make brownies in the past but I never posted or show in my blog or friendster. Today's brownies is made from Cadbury's brownies mix. I bought this several days ago from Sainsbury together with the muffins mix. As easy as always, this brownies mix only required eggs and water. The mixture is stirred into a smooth batter and poured into a paper container. The container is then loaded into the oven and baked for 25 minutes at 180 degree celcius. Here are the pictures before and after the baking:

The brownies mix before the baking.

The brownies mix after the baking.

You will notice there are several holes in the brownies. I used a chopstick to poke it to check whether the inside is properly baked. Well, as usual I like to decorate the brownies like the muffins I showed before. I served it with some berries again (my favourite) and whipped cream. Here is the finishing product..haha:

Brownies served with berries, creams and a dash of chocolate powder.

Now I start to think what should I make next time..hehe. Until then...cya.

Could water really contains memory?

This is an interesting article I read from bbc today and I found out it is quite interesting. Proposed by French scientist Jacques Benveniste in 1988, pure water could somehow contains some memories of its previous state. This is a controversial topic and no definite answer is found. You can read the article from here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7505286.stm

Yummy! Blueberry Muffins.

As usual, I stay at home on Sunday take some rest and prepare myself for Monday. Since I'm quite bored I planned to make some blueberry muffins from the mix packet I bought from Sainsbury two days ago. It is very easy, just add some milk, vegetable oil and eggs. Then, bake at 200 degree celcius for about 20 minutes. I used to made brownies quite often in the past but this is the first time I make muffins. Although the process is easy but you will have to make sure the inside is perfectly baked. Also, if the temperature is too high it will leave your outer part burned while the inside still sticky. I guess you still need some skills to diagnose the muffins...haha.

I was able to make six big muffins from the packet. Here are the muffins after baked.

Straight out from the oven

You will notice there is one defect at the left hand corner. Probably the mix just went to one side after I load into the oven. The others were perfect...hehe. Since it is tea-time, I serve these muffins with a cup of green tea and some berries (strawberry and blueberry).

It's berries time.

Does the decoration nice? I think this can be served in high class restaurant...hahaha. Well, the muffins really mixed well with the berries with the sweet and sour taste...yummy. Hm..I guess I should try to learn to make more desserts and cakes. I gave two muffins to my housemates to try and they said it is very nice and is perfectly baked..hehe. Who knows, maybe I will open a coffee shop next time...haha.

Such a coincidence

If you guys remember I have posted the Perfect Disaster series couple days ago. In the blog, I have mentioned about some informations about solar storm. Surprisingly when I received my August issue of Scientific American magazine, they also have a main topic on solar storm. I guess this phenomena has drawn quite a lot of attention from the science magazine publishers...haha. The magazine has precise details on how solar storm damaging the power grids across the world and also on our electronics equipment.

For your information, the next solar cycle maximum will be at year 2011. These solar cycle maximum occurs every 11 years. During these solar cycle maximum, there will be a high possiblity that a corona mass ejection that may produced a super solarstorm. So I guess we have to brace ourself to face the worst possibility of super solarstorm that might occur.

Lonely?

Today I was going to city centre by myself again. I guess I am starting to make a routine trip of going to city centre every Thursday evening. Well, every time when I am going there I just feel a little bit lonely by walking alone in the city centre without any friend to talk to but I already get used to this. I guess this will only happen to those who have been away from their family for quite sometime. Sometimes I even went to watch movie by myself. Does this really weird? Most of my friend told me that watching movie in the cinema without friends is an odd behaviour. Really? but I have been doing this for couple of years and I think it is okay. Well, just maybe I am really weird to start with...haha.

Life is indeed a bit tough at here especially if you are single. Even you have a lot of friends but you still need someone to talk, to care and to discuss to. Everyday when I went back to my house I feel that I was missing something. My surrounding is very quiet except the music from my computer. After most of my friends leaving Belfast for good and some of them found their's half, I found out that I received less and less phone call. There is sometime I will look at the contacts for a while keep looking for someone to talk to. Even this blog is started because I would like to share my thoughts with my friends.

Family is a good place for you to talk about your happenings at here but still it has a certain limit. Everyone has their own things to do. For instance, last time my sister always call me when she is free and she always asked me what I am doing. I feel this very annoying and I always told her that don't you have other things to do? Well, after she found herself a bf she hardly call me now and even less chatting in the messenger. Even you will think this is very good at first because no one is bugging you but you will think the opposite way when time goes by. You will hope someone to nag you. Well, I guess this is human nature that do not appreciate something that come to you easily. Now, I am the one who will make the call back to my family instead of them calling me. Everytime I will complain that I am very boring at here and my mum will always ask me to go home...haha.

Well, there are pros and cons of being single but I prefer to have someone for me to care and to talk to. I was very jealous with my friends who have a good relationship with their bf/gf. I guess when the time is right I will find one as well. Although I seems to be desperate but this is a reality that many people will face or faced before. I have missed one before so I will not repeat this mistake in the future. One of my friends told me relationship is just like an investment. You do not know what will happen in the future. If you didn't invest you will never know but if you invest you will have some results. I think this is quite true..haha.

Origins of Kamikaze

Two days ago when my friend and I was having our lunch, we mentioned the word Kamikaze. I can't really remember the topic we are talking about but something about history. Well, I guess this word is well recognised by a lot of people. This word has been referred to suicidal pilots that use their plane to sink loads of Alliance ships during world war 2. As we talk, I realised this Kamikaze word actually have nothing related to suicide. If this word is seperated into two you will read as "kami" and "kaze". Since I watched loads of anime I straight away recognised the word "kami" is referred as "god" or "divinity" and "kaze" is referred as "wind". For those who watch Naruto will know the recognised "Kazekage" which referred to the leader from the land of wind.

After I did some research I found out that Kamikaze originally means divine wind and have nothing to do with suicide at all. According to wikipedia, the origins from this word is come from the major typhoons that hit Japan in 1274 and 1281. As I read along, I only found out that the meaning for Kamikaze was erroneously translated by US. Instead of Kamikaze, the Japanese themselves used "tokubetsu kōgeki tai" means Special Attack Units. Here is a quote I took from wikipedia website.

"The Japanese themselves did not use the word Kamikaze to refer to these World War II attacks. The official Japanese term was tokubetsu kōgeki tai (特別攻撃隊 "Special Attack Units"). The word Shinpū (also meaning "divine wind"; just another reading of the same kanji for kamikaze) was also used informally for suicide units. U.S. translators erroneously used the Japanese word Kamikaze, which has a similar original meaning of "divine wind""

Well, I guess what we learned was not that correct...haha. Anyway, this is a general information. For those who interested you can visit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamikaze

for more details.

Pefect Disaster Series

Lately, I have been quite interested in natural disaster such as tornado, ice strom, volcano and etc. Don't get me wrong to have some odd interest on destructions but I am interested on how this things happen. The thing I'm interested is how does this calamity happens? what have drive the ignition and caused this to happen and etc. For instance, how does a tornado form and can we predict it? These are interesting questions is it? Well, at least for me.

The DVD cover page

Okay, my interest has lead me to buy this DVD series of perfect disasters. This series contains six natural disasters that might be happen in the future. They are super tornado, solar storm, mega flood, fire storm, super typoon and ice storm. guess not many people are interested in this series but I found out it is very knowledgable. Too bad I'm not doing meteorology study..haha.

The famous quote from this series is "the question is not if it's gonna happen but when it will happen". I guess this is quite a good quote that I might be using it in the future..haha. One very nice thing about this series is they used graphical simulations to show the audience how these disasters will form and what is driving them. Frankly speaking, I did learn a lot of things from this series.

I found out that the two most interesting series are the solar storm and ice storm. I know not many people know about solar storm because I have asked my friends before and they don't have any idea. Even for me I only know that it is from the Sun and could caused distruptions to electronic equipments when it hit the earth..that's all. However, after watching the Solar Storm series I have a big picture of what will happen when this storm hit earth. Solar storm or sometimes call geomagnetic storm will caused temporary disturbance to earth magnetic field or megnetosphere. It is caused by the sun that constantly ejecting high energy particles to the space during activity such as solar flare or the worst, corona mass ejection (CME). Big CME can caused major disturbance such as mass destruction of power transformers which will caused major blackout in the city. For those who are interested about aurora or northern lights, these are caused by solar wind (solar storm is stronger) when the high enery particles from the sun collided with the earth oxygen and nitrogen atoms, creating a series a light shows across the sky.

You can refer to wikipedia for more informations about solar storm.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_storm

For other series, feel free to look in the wikipedia for more info if you are interested. Still I will recommend for those who are interested in meteorology. This DVD is worth to buy. I'm not sure whether can be found in Malaysia but I bought about £13 from Zavvi which is quite cheap for all region DVD.

Did the Aliens build the pyramids?

Well, I found this out in youtube and it have very interesting facts showing Aliens are the one who taught the ancient Egyptians how to build the pyramid. You can watch the video clip from here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrYiiqGBWe0

Enjoy! You might start to think again who really build these magnificent ancient monuments.

New NIKE shoes!

Yay...finally I have bought myself a NIKE shoes after spending days in city centre. I saw this one in JD sports in Victoria Square. Well it is quite expensive since there is no discount but I think it is quite nice and stylish so I decided to buy it for £55. Here is the picture of my new shoes.

Although is quite expensive but I totally think it's worth it. Well, I guess I have to go out now to show off my new shoes to my friends...haha.

Puzzled by Puzzles?

I came across with a interesting book during my trip to Dublin. I saw this book in Eason and it cost about 10 euro but I get it for £8 in Belfast. The title for this book is Giant Book of Mensa Puzzles. I have took a picture of it in case someone might get interested in this book.

I'm actually don't have much interest in puzzles but after i'm studying phd, I always filled myself with the question WHY? Why this and why that? I also keep asking myself HOW? I guess i got this influence from my supervisors...haha. However, good thing is I always looking for answer and this book can make my mind twisted in searching for answer. Well, i quite enjoyed this book as long as I don't become a Physco..haha. This is a book I would recommend for those who like to think twisted questions. I did four or five questions a day and i think it wil took me couple of months to complete because it has about 500++ questions.

Okay that's all for this time..i'll better get my mind ready for these mind twisting questions.

A trip to Dublin.

Yesterday (14/7/08), I went for a day trip to Dublin with two of my friends (Swee Boon and Cindy). I was too bored and also want to clear my head from keep thinking how to write my first year report..haha. Since it is a day trip, we start off at 9.30am at Jury's Inn where we took an express bus (air coach). We paid £20 for a return ticket to Dublin city centre. Well, the ticket is not that expensive, considering the sit was spacious with a lot of rooms to stretch my legs. I dun think I could find any bus in Malaysia with this kind of design...haha.

For the route, this bus took off from Belfast to Dublin airport then to city centre. We have to change to another bus at Dublin airport in order to go to the city centre and it was okay. It is quite a while since I went to Dublin. The previous trip should be two years ago on summer as well with a bunch of TAR students. It is a bit different from last time because we drove and go there by car. This is the first time I took a bus to Dublin.

Bell tower in Trinity college quarter

Well, when we reached there we first went to Burger King to fill our stomach with some fries before going around the city centre. We went to Trinity college to took some pics and then wandering around the. We visited some of Cindy's favourite place such as Hermes, LV and etc. Well, that the places where you could spend few thousand pound for a bag (i really mean it) .

Swee Boon and me beside Liffey River

After spending 2 hours walking around the city we finally dropped off a korean restaurant called Bonga for lunch. This restaurant served lunch buffet for only 10 euro. It is a very cheap and the interior design looks okay as well. They even have rooms for karaoke for 25euro per hour. We aren't going for that because it is expensive. The food is okay only. I can give about 6/10 ratings. The staffs said they have less variety because they are having sort of small renovation inside the kitchen but they are good enough to give us a free drink...fair enough.

Swee Boon, Cindy and me.

After packed our stomach with few thousand kilo of calories. We decide to walk around the city again. From the O'Connell to a park and then to custom house beside River Liffey. We were walking without any real purpose because there are really nothing much to see in Dublin city centre. After walking for 3 hours, we finally plan to take the bus to go back to Belfast. we spent another 3 hours to get back to Belfast. Well, this trip is very tiring but it is really good for me cause I can clear my head from my first year report. I feel refresh the next day to comtinue with my writing. It does make a different!

Dublin Custom House

Best friend's graduation.

I know this is a bit late to post this topic. On 2nd July 2008, one of my best friend Huai finally graduated with his master degree in Pharmacy after four years of study at Queens. Huai is one of my friends who came to Belfast in the same year as me four years ago. Well, he is a good guy and I really glad that he finally graduated after all the hardwork he put in his study.

Of course this mean that he will be leaving Belfast soon and he did left already. Haiz..one more friend left Belfast. I still have to stay here for at least another two years.

Anyway, I have took a picture with him on his graduation which is shown below. Well, i will wish him all the best in his future!

That's Huai and me in front of Lanyon building

Beware! Scumbag doctor on the loose.

It is a litle bit awkward for me to use the word scumbag in my blog but I am really outrages about the action of one person and this title suited her the best.
Okay here is the story. Today I chat with my brother on the msn and found out that a lady just hit his newly purchased honda city at 1 utama. The incident happen when the car at the front was reversing and hit my bro's car. My bro's car front bumper was shifted a little bit from the original position. My sis who is driving at that time confronted the driver who is a lady aka scumbag. Well, this is clearly her fault because she is reversing her car. She also admit that this incident is her fault and she promise to pay for the damage on my bro's car. So, no police report was filed because she said she will pay and settle it personally. However, this turns around when my sis call her the later to seek for compensation.
Surprisingly, when she talk to my sis she said my sis is the one who is caused this accident. She also said she already filed a police report accusing my sis for damaging her car (what the hell!). My sis was outrages (so do I) and the scumbag said she will not paying for any damage on my bro's car. I was also stunned by the attitude of this, well scumbag.
Later my bro told me that she is actually a veterinay doctor who is bearing a title doctor. I really cannot believe that a highly educated people will do such thing. Really, what is happening in Malaysia? I start to believe some highly educated people are start to behave like one of a kind. Well, my sis has all her details and I would like to share it with all of you. Her car number is WPG1980 (Honda City - Gold Colour) with stupid extended spoiler. Her name is Dr. Sophia Tang, well I think should rename her as Dr. Scumbag Tang. Well, I pity the company that hired her for having such "dedicated" employee. Well, good luck for her colleagues.
My sis called her 8 times today but she didn't bother to pick up her phone. The reason I post this is to ask you to beware of this kind of incident especially this scumbag. Try to avoid her if you see her car. If any accident happen to you and the he/she agreed to pay for your damage, remember to take some pictures or ask her to sign an agreement (prepare it beforehand).
So, that's all I would like to say. Really cannot believe this worst kind of attitudes have affected high status people such as this "doctor".