Cynix’s World

Few sights in the solar system are more strikingly beautiful than softly hued Saturn embraced by the shadows of its stately rings.
The gas planet’s subtle northward gradation from gold to azure is a striking visual effect that scientists don’t fully understand. Current thinking says that it may be related to seasonal influences, tied to the cold temperatures in the northern (winter) hemisphere. Despite Cassini’s revelations, Saturn remains a world of mystery.

Currently, the rings’ shadows shield the mid-northern latitudes from the harshest of the sun’s rays. As Saturn travels around the sun in its 29-year orbit, the shadows will narrow and head southward, eventually blanketing the opposite hemisphere. For more, please read here.

Have been reading Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince, pretty interesting. Popular Bookstore is selling the Bloomsbury Adult Version for RM59.90, the usual market price would be RM99.90. Spells and magic have always facinate me, so it’s no surprise I’ve taken a liking to it.

I’ve also enjoyed Dan Brown’s books very much. In fact, I’ve finished The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, as well as Deception Point. Still half way through Digital Fortress, but I suspect I’ll continue & finish it some day. Once I’ve read one book, I can pretty much guess the villian for the others, the most unexpected one would be the answer. The Da Vinci Code movie is going to be shown in cinemas as well, starring Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, Audrey Tautou as Sophie Neveu and Ian McKellen as Sir Leigh Teabing. I love Audrey Tautou’s acting skills very much personally, famous in french movies such as Amelie. Robert Langdon is suppose to be smartly handsome, duno if Tom Hanks can pass this but we’ll see. As for Ian Mckellen aka Gandalf, I’m pretty sure I would not be disappointed.

Ever guess How Much is Your Blog Worth? Well I’ve found this:
Inspired by Tristan Louis’s research into the value of each link to Weblogs Inc, this little applet has been created using Technorati’s API which computes and displays your blog’s worth using the same link to dollar ratio as the AOL-Weblogs Inc deal.

Well not bad, isn’t it, that’s like RM8K, haha However, as you try to check how much is your blog worth, you’ll soon find out that this figure is easily reachable. Since it’s calculated by amount of posts and I’ve only just started not long ago, those of you out there who’s been blogging for quite some time should be getting a lot more

Tag: the da vinci code

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First of all Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 2006 to all my fellow friends! Hope all of you will have great parties to go to & enjoy yourself all the way through to next year.

Have been getting quite a lot of forwards regarding Santa vs Jesus. The article mentioned that: In the battle between Jesus, the Christ child who gave Christmas its name, and Santa, a 70-year-old figure that is largely the creation of a soft drink company, it would seem that the humble carpenter from Bethlehem has met his match. And the safe bet would be that Santa is more popular than Jesus during X’mas.

You can’t really blame the kids if they thought X’mas is a birthday celebration for Santa Claus rather than Jesus when they keep seeing all this marketing campaign involving Santa & (more importantly) presents! And it might pain you to know that Santa Claus could very well be created by a large soft drink company which is non other than Coca-Cola Company. He wears the corporate colors — the famous red and white — for a reason: he is working out of Atlanta, not out of the North Pole. Although many people might argue about this, but I guess it’s safe to say that Coke did not invent Santa but they certainly make him one of the most popular men in America.

And then there’s indication that Christ (if you believe he existed) is borned in late spring. And quite a number of people think the celebration of his birth is shifted to coincide with pagan’s Winter-solstice celebrations so that early christians were not prosecuted.

There are also other views such as this:
Dec 25 is also the date of a celebration by the Romans to their primary god, the Sun, and to Mithras, a popular Persian sun god supposedly born on the same day. The Roman Catholic writer Mario Righetti candidly admits that, “to facilitate the acceptance of the faith by the pagan masses, the Church of Rome found it convenient to institute the 25th of December as the feast of the birth of Christ to divert them from the pagan feast, celebrated on the same day in honor of the ‘Invincible Sun’ Mithras, the conqueror of darkness”

However, To all the christians out there:
The essential fact is that God did enflesh Himself in time and space (1 John 4:2). He was born from a woman on a specific day in a specific year, walked among us, died for our sins, was raised from the dead, and ascended into heaven. This is what we celebrate at Christmas: God was (and is) with us!

And To all the non christians out there (or those that are christians by name - in honor of their parents, like me):
It doesn’t really matter when Jesus is born or whether he ever existed. Everyone Loves Christmas, coz it’s a time for caring, sharing & exchanging presents. And we can celebrate Christmas just as much as we wanted to!

P/S: Happy Dong Zhi as well! Hope all of you get to have Tang Yuan with your family.

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TIME Magazine has announced their Persons of the Year 2005 and they are Bono, Melinda & Bill Gates. three people on a global mission to end poverty, disease—and indifference. Bono is the lead singer of U2 & is an activist. As quoted from Oprah.com: He “transforms passionate intensity into action that just might change the world”. Melinda & Bill Gates is the dynamic duo whose charitable foundation rocks the world. As quoted in their organisation’s website: They are Working for a More Equitable World. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is committed to promoting greater equity in global health, education, public libraries, and support for at-risk families in Washington state and Oregon. Well these 3 people are quite a good choice, but if you want to know why: Bono - who spends several thousand dollars at a restaurant for a nice Pinot Noir, and Bill Gates - the great predator of the Internet age, has a trampoline room in his $100 million house are TIME’s Persons of the Year 2005 then you would have to buy the current issue of TIME Magazine.

It’s a genuine webcam shot, for full details go here

Although I’m not selected as Person of the Year 2005 but my photo still get to be displayed on the Billboard of Times Square New York City. More info on how my picture got up there is available here.

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As you can see from the previous entry, I went to Disneyland on November, that can be considered as my Birthday celebration as well. Had fun! I came back towards the end of November & attended 2 interviews at a company in KLCC Petronas Twin Towers. Got the programmer job for a normal pay, starting 3rd January. So I still have December to enjoy life somemore.

I haven been watching quite a lot of american tv shows such as desperate housewives, lost, grey’s anatomy & all 3 CSI’s. One of tv shows that I’ve started to watch is Bones from fox tv, new show, pretty neat so do check it out. I also noticed a famous game show in Australia started airing in USA, it’s called Deal or No Deal. The aus version started quite some time ago, but the american version just premiered this week. I’m guessing the rules are pretty much the same but one thing is different for sure, the women holding the number boxes in the 2 countries had distinctive styles. Australians enjoy it very much, watch em everyday, duno about americans tho.

Then they are some movies as well, we’ll start with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I enjoyed it just fine, though I find the part where the bush “attacked” Fleur and the part where Harry & Cedric fought over the cup, kinda ridiculous. And as expected, that was not how it was potrayed in the book. Among the more popular complaints from people who actually read the book (I didn’t) include: Dumbledore is too mean in the movie, Kristin Kreuk should have been Cho Chang & too much hormones going on. Next up is Chronicles of Narnia, considering that the book was actually written about kids & for kids, the movie is fine. Can’t expect much from a kids & animals conversation now can we? It started out kinda slow, but the war part which is max 2 pages in the book took up a lot of time in the movie. It’s to make the movie more interesting I suppose or to prevent a riot by the angry adults in the cinema.

My working shirts, full picture here

My Guess wallet & bag, full picture here

Well since I’ll be working next month, it’s time to shop for working clothes. Bought quite a few Shirts from Seed Work, one from Padini, one skirt from Elle & one pants from G2000. I guess that pretty much covered buying clothes during celebrative season for x’mas, new year & chinese new year. They’re on sale anyway Bought a nice blouse from Blook as well, not a bad shop if you’re looking for something fancy. I’ve forgotten to upload a picture of the Guess bag & wallet I bought from Guess Outlet in Katy Mills so here they are, they are quite cheap in USA.

Going beyond expectations? More like not within expectations

On a side note, just read the news about MAS “expenditure”. I remember not long ago that MAS was suffering from a loss & is increasing their air fare and the PM asked people to inform MAS’s CEO of their overspending. Putting all this aside, I still don’t see how those art pieces can improve their corporate image or maintain the stature of the place. If there’s one thing in Malaysia that needs a better image (by spending huge amounts of the hard earned tax payers money), it should be the country, not it’s airline. Let’s start with making sure that the spots that had signs that says “You’ll be fined RM500 for littering” are not the dirtiest spot you’ve ever seen. Or making sure that the stores under the sign “Selling of pirated products is prohibited” are not actually selling pirated products. That’ll do good to whatever image we’re trying to set.

Squat Incident

I also remember just when I came back to Malaysia, I heard about the ear squat incident. Lotsa hoohaa over the “fact” that she’s a Chinese National, ended up she’s a malay after all. Funny I never read any news about the woman suing the (pants off or) bejesus out of the police or the person who took the picture or anyone involved in it, for the emotional damage & traumatic experience. Never mind the tourist turn-off, defamation & humiliation, everyone in the world who has a slight interest in Malaysia, Chinese or (most probably) non clothed woman, had saw her in her b’day suit. I mean we do live in the world where privacy is important & those that intrude it will have to pay an unimaginable huge sum of money for compensation right?

Wait, what am I talking about. This is Malaysia.

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Back Log Entry 4 - Since we’re going back to KL via LAX in Los Angeles, we decided to stay one two nights in Anaheim California which is where Disneyland is at! We arrived there at evening, had a quick dinner and went to Downtown Disney District. There are many shops there including World of Disney, it sells everything Disney from keychains to dolls to t-shirts. I bought most of the souveneirs here. Took a few photos there & decided to rest.

The next morning we went to Disneyland Park, the first adventure that we took on was Indiana Jones Adventure as it was recommended by the shuttle bus from LAX airport. The memorable scene of the huge stone ball rolling to our carts does refresh my memory of the movie. We went to Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters as well. It’s where you can collect points by shooting at the targets, quite fun. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was great as well. There’s also a 3D-show by Kodak & Haunted Mansion. Pirates of the Carribean was a relatively new ride, we tried it out and it was interesting. Space Mountain is by far the most unexpected thrill ride ever as you can’t see where you’re going, the whole room is black with twinkling stars. Since it’s winter time, they have a christmas parade as well, nice songs with all the familiar characters. We went to It’s A Small World too. Overall, it’s been a great time. We went back tired & satisfied after taking on so many rides.

On the next day, we went to Disney’s California Adventure Park. First, I went to Turtle Talk with Crush, it uses real-time animation for interactive & live conversations. Crush could address an audience by name & respond to any kid’s question. Then we went to 3D show called It’s Tough to Be a Bug, really interesting We also went to California Screamin’ which is the most thrilling ride in Disneyland, had lots of fun. Soarin’ Over California was great too, not a thrill ride but it does take you through orange county & other parts of CA. Ended the day with The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, it was a long wait but definetely worth it. It’s bring us to a lift which goes up a few floors in the Hollywood Tower, opens up the door, then drop for like 3 floors & up & down again, quite crazy. We’re all seated with seat belts of course

For photos & more, please visit my Disneyland photoset.



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Back Log Entry 3 - Went to San Jacinto Battleground to see Battleship Texas and San Jacinto Musuem. We’re lucky enough to get a free guide to show us around the battleship. In there, we’ve seen how the people lived, we see sections in the ship such as kitchen, clinic, officer’s room & dining room. The living space for the officers & the people working under are certainly very different. We get to see the weapons that were on the ship as well.

After that, we went to Aquarium Piramid in Moody Gardens. There was this large tank that has seals & sea lions in it, really huge creatures that enjoys attention. Then there’s the penguins, just hanging out or flapping their flippers to cool down temselves. There are a few attention seeking penguins that swim to our direction when they saw us. There are many other sea creatures such as star fish & crabs as well. Quite a nice place to visit.

Went to Farrago’s for one last time before leaving Houston, gotta eat White Chocolate Bread Pudding w/ Golden Raisins and Jack Daniels Creme Anglaise, possibly the best desert in the world. The white chocolate doesn’t taste too sweet & the Jack Daniels adds a perfect touch. Yummy

William’s friends decided to have dinner with all of us at Texas Land & Cattle Steak House as farewell dinner. We had yummy back ribs for dinner & pecan chocolate ice cream for dessert. We had a great time there. And there’s this interesting place called Tony Mandola’s Gulf Coast Kitchen which we had a great seafood dinner at. They have a waiter that only serves black pepper, so when your dish is served, he’ll walk to your table & asks you whether you want black pepper and that’s all he does. They have another guy for cheese as well. Talk about good service.

Please visit my album for photos of this entry, here is the preview.




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