Woopz Productionz.

Can't help but feel that i've passed through a phase of my life. I'm now aged more than a quarter of a century, and boy, do i feel old!

The year 2010 marked really tremendous changes for me in every way. Wanted to jot down some of the things that were significant to me in the past year.

1. Left my parent's company to venture out on my own. Joining a pharmaceutical company doing sales. This is a entirely refreshing experience for me, as I no longer am under the scrutiny (and ridicule) of my parents. Finally understand the taste of (semi)freedom.

2. I have a fixed and regular salary, with a good comission as well as allowance. Being able to save (well, i spend more than i save actually), finally truly have to deal with management of my own money. I know i have a lot more to implement in terms of money management, and will work towards implementing them in 2011.

3. Visited soooo many countries (whee)! I <3 travelling and airasia :) First was in April, to Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam. This working trip was fully sponsored by my company. And our job was to escort and accompany some doctors to attend a conference there. Had a hard time adjusting to my role as it was barely a month in the company, and had yet to warm up to the drs nor mastered the skill of acting friendly to them. But well, survived it in one piece and had forge good ties with the Drs that went on the trip.

4. Fantastic trip to Cambodia with my dearest baby and close friends. It was a truly wonderful trip, and what other way to describe a place that has RM1.50/mug DRAFT beer. Mad <3. The trip was an eye opener, because Cambodia is a really poor country, and we could see the conditions that people lived in here. It is sad that a whole nation should suffer the consequences of a devastating war even though it has been years after it is over. The trip to Tonle Sap really left an impression on me as the living conditions of the 'lake' people really saddened me. But the trip was fun, because of the company that we had. Funny antics abound as we visited the Angkors around Siem Reap, and when we frolicked in the pool at the hotel. Wouldn't mind going anywhere with this bunch!

5. Cooked my first ever proper meal for my dearest on his birthday. It was pan-fried Salmon with Thai Sweet Sauce. I L-O-V-E-D it. Not sure i could say the same for him, but at least i think he liked it :). I even topped it off with a Mango Sorbet with i made myself. Thinking back, it was an amazing feat. Sadly the present i got him (a GPS Navigator) was stolen few days after his birthday along with his wallet and a host of other things. It was a really bad time for him as his house just got robbed couple of days before the incident, and he already lost his laptop, camera, hard disk and cash. Ouch. But looking back, I'm happy i cooked the meal for him, as it is an experience to remember while physical gifts could always be lost.

6. Celebrated my birthday with a dinner in Rakuzen and my birthday gift this year was a promise. A promise of an IPAD :) that would be delivered at a later date :(. LOL. Due to the shortage in US, UK and basically everywhere else in the world. Finally got it 30th July. 2 month overdue but still LOVED it anyway. Feel a little bit sorry for making a fuss of not having a birthday present, but honestly speaking, i was more touched by his gesture to give me an ipad as a gift. It was nice knowing that he was willing to go through quite a lot of trouble getting it for me through his sister's business contact in US. And it is a very expensive gift! A tad too expensive, if you ask me. But! Absolutely loved it. And also very touched by the fact that he brought me to have our potraits done ( he said since no gift to give me so at least got something special for me). However the stupid artist didn't know how to draw nicely. But appreciated bee's nice thought anyways.

7. Visited Guangzhou with dearest, Phangy and Ban in August. It was my first trip ever out of ASEAN. And of course, the lengthiest airplane ride ever (four hours). It felt great to finally make a trip to China, as I have heard so much about it, and after all it is the place where my ancestors were from. Since i'm a cantonese from a place called Zhongshan, the trip was even more special for me. We recognised some difference in culture in China, especially when it comes to social etiquette. No one queues up there, they still spit on the floor, the cantonese curse like theres no tomorrow, and their toilets are scary dirty. It feels like a place where the economic development is way faster than the community development. Nevertheless, it was a very enlightening trip. I got to know that THINGS CAN BE VERY CHEAP ACTUALLY! We visited a gift wholesale place there, and everything was mad cheap. Like earphones for RM1.35. WTF! Really liked the place even though the food was not really to my liking (lots of pork and beef, not enough fish and chicken). Would definitely return for another trip.

8. Baby G was born! Ct's sister gave birth to a very adorable little one at DSH! Baby Noel was also born this year :)

9. Lined up 8 hours to purchase an iPhone 4 with Cyn, Wayz, Sheena and Pau Pau. Was there during the launching and it was madness. Took the queue number at about 12pm. Waited till 8+pm before we got our units. Haha. But the retina screen makes it all worth it!

10. Free hotel stays!!! Bunked in with woopz gang at KL Hilton courtesy of one very generous company (not mine ahah). And the second time was also courtesy of the same generous company but this time in One World. KL Hilton is really fantastic - Crabtree and Evelyn toiletries eheh! One World was a wee bit disappointing. Chinaman-style rooms, but the stay was enjoyable even though it was quite last minute. Not forgetting Sepang Gold Coast, which was a nice getaway for us and a thoroughly enjoyable experience, including the roadside durian session :)

11. Went for two Night Marathons and ran the 10km. The first one was the Putrajaya Night Marathon, second one was the more enjoyable Energizer Night Race. Enjoyed both entirely, however need to improve on my timing. Ran 10km in about 1hr 20mins for both of the races. Would definitely like to be sub-60mins in the future. WORK ON THIS IN 2011!

12. Daddy gave Ah Yan, Mom and I flowers during CNY 1st day. Which coincided with Valentines Day. It was a really sweet and surprising gesture. There is a rift in father-daughter and husband-wife, i know he sometimes regrets it and thus the gesture. I will work hard to mend it.

13. 2010 was also the year of the gluttony affair (as Sheena like to call it). I dined in Xenri courtesy of Aunty Carol. Very nice Jap restaurant with really costly prices. Had THREE lunches in Sage. LOVE that place. LOVED the foie gras. Once was for the Pantai Hospital docs and i got to tag along for it. The next was with Pikz and Sheena, for which i owe them for all their help in getting me a job and being there for me through the good times and bad. Love them both. Third time was with Mom for her birthday. Wonderful wonderful place. Not to forget Levain as well, for it was there i had the first taste of macarons. But i won't dare venture to say that this is in the same league as Sage and Xenri. It is WAYYYYYYY out of league.

14. Our dearest MeiXian finally graduated and now she's all grown up and a big girl with great responsibilities in her company! Proud *sniff sniff*. She's travelling everywhere for training and stuff. Very glad that it all panned out for her.

15. Made good friends in my company. Sad to see them leave, and will be sad to leave (shhhhh).

17. Went for slimming at Bizzy Body. It is very effective in slimming toning my body. Coupled with the special diet they gave me I really did have vast improvement in terms of my silhouette even though my weight did not go down a lot. Very satisfied with the results but i have since gotten slightly fatter. Will be on a 'hellish' diet starting tomorrow (no, seriously).

18. Got my very first branded sunnies, a Gucci pair, courtesy of a very dear friend for my birthday :) And she will be back with my very first branded handbag soon :) <3

19. Travelled down to Singapore twice. The first with Ct's two sisters, and the second with Pikyi and SingYew after attending Kenneth's wedding in JB. Fell in love with the restaurant Food For Thought. Will be back again for it. Paid some tuition fee to Marina Bay Sands. Takda ong la the place!

20. Attended MAD parties!!! PikYi's birthday bash at Zouk, Wayz & Cyn's joint bday also at Zouk, our very fabulous iPyjamas party @MArc Residence and Edwin Soh's Back To School party at A Famosa M'cca! Yayys >3

21. My very first Halloween party where i dressed up! As a freakin' Joker Nurse! Nailed the part :)

22. A girls only trip to Xmas Shopping Trip to Bangkok. 8 girls. 3 days. Tops. Dresses. Bottoms. Bags. One word to describe it - FUN! Except for the fact that we were trapped on a delayed plane on the way back from BKK and had to celebrate Xmas on the plane, with a packet of Nasi Briyani. Luckily the Nasi Briyani was yummy.

23. Finally realised the logic behind the phrase My Better Half. For he truly is my better half. Always there to support, advise and guide me along my drama and crisis. <3 I know i sometimes am a little indecisive, petty and emo, but i know that i can always look to you to point me to the right path.

24. Faced with something Yuchen and I call the Quarter Life Crisis. I was finally faced with the fact that I have yet to achieved what i thought i would at the age of 25. Plenty of things that i SHOULD HAVE or WOULD HAVE done. It made me realise that in life, we really have to 'carpe diem'. Seize the day. Plenty to work on in 2011.

25. Finally, i am proud to be able to start my very own business. An online one. It will be a very exciting journey, and would be the first among many that will be set up in the future. I need lots of passion, ideas, patience and some luck as well. Wish me luck!

I have just recovered from the shock of finally being able to find my ‘lost’ file from Windows Mail.

See, what happened was I spent the whole day working on a file which I opened in Windows Mail but not through the SAVE AS option.

When I was working on the file, I just kept clicking the Save button without realising it was being saved in some secret location that the people in Microsoft ‘devised’ simply to make their clients lives extremly difficult… (haha i’m just being super angsty here)

anyway, i browsed through these site which gave me an inkling of where i could find my file:

http://www.pcmesh.com/windows-vista-index.dat-1.htm
http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1505405&SiteID=17
http://vistahelp.wordpress.com/
http://phaktor7.wordpress.com/2008/04/11/recover-outlook-attachments-saved-to-the-olk-folder/

Which really helped me realise that THE FILE IS SOMEWHERE HIDDEN I JUST COULDN’T FIND IT!

I followed all these steps diligently except for the fact that i couldn’t find the ContentIE.5 folder although i was IN the Temporary Internet Files folder!?!?

Ok I’m rambling here but in short these are my steps of HOW TO RETRIEVE A LOST FILE FROM WINDOWS MAILS:

1) Go to Control Panel > Folder Options > Click the VIEW tab > Click the SHOW HIDDEN FILES button > Uncheck Hide Extensions for Known File Types > Uncheck Hide protected operating system files

2) Go to My Computer > C: > Users > [Your Username] > AppData > Local > Microsoft >Windows>Temporary Internet Files

or

Click just cut and paste C:/Users/[Your Username]/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/Temporary Internet Files/ into your Windows Explorer toolbar (although this didn’t work for me)

or’

Reopen your attachment (mine was in Microsoft Word 2007), click on the Microsoft logo thingie, go to Prepare, and click on Properties (gosh, how i hate the new Microsoft Office now) and you will then see something like “C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\JX13B7TU\Diet_Planner_Business_Proposal.docx”

So just remove the back portion and paste into windows explorer (e.g. C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5)

For most people, they should now see a Content IE.5 folder. The file is located in there, so just sort by Date Modified and go through it.

But for me, I couldn’t see ANY folder whatsoever. Meaning No CONTENT IE.5. WTS is this? Other people could see it! Angsty.

So i spent TWO HOURS FIGURING WAT WAS WRONG WITH MY COMPUTER!?!?! !@#$#%

when i was nearly in tears… i suddenly thought about pasting it into my Internet Browsers!!!

IE *cut and paste*  --> Windows cannot find blablabla DAMN YOU!

Mozilla Firefox *cuts and paste* –> The directory name came up! I was estatic! But weirdly enough, there was no listing of the files/folders in this Content IE.5 directory! WHAT’S UP WITH IT, man?!!?

One last try…

Google Chrome *cuts and paste* –> IT CAME UP! Never was i so happy to see weird alphanumeric characters like SEW26GPM or JX13B7TU or ODKFU80I!! Did some clicking around (using the CTRL F function searching for docx) and found my file in no time.

Seriously. If this blog entry could even help one other person, all my wasted years spent dabbling with computers would be WORTH IT!

Let me know if this helps anyone. *Peace* LOVES GOOGLE TO DEATH!

Make a count of the electronic equipment you have in the house. Your handphone, laptops, desktops, cordless phones, tv, psp, wii, ps3... the list goes on.

Ever wonder how much energy these electronics consume?

Greenpeace has recently updated their Guide to Greener Electronics. So here's a list that ranks the top 18 manufacturers in terms of its GREENness (on the scale of 10):

5.1 Sony Ericsson - Leading with almost top marks on toxic chemical phase out but poor on recycling.
5.1 Sony - High score for products free of the worst toxic chemicals and committed to cuts in it's greenhouse gas emissions.
4.8 Nokia - Docked one penalty point for poor take-back practice in India. High renewable energy use.
4.5 Samsung- Scores well on chemicals and waste criteria. But very poor on energy issues.
4.5 - Dell - Good on toxic chemicals and e-waste, but low score on energy issues.
4.3 Toshiba - Scores well on toxic chemicals but badly on e-waste and energy.
4.3 Acer - Good commitment to phase out toxic chemicals, but poor overall on e-waste and energy.
4.3 Panasonic - Several products free of toxic chemicals and good energy efficiency, but poor on e-waste.
4.3 Motorola - Average scores for toxic chemicals, e-waste and energy issues.
4.3 HP - Good on amounts recycled and committed to reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
4.1 Apple - Increasing number of products free of the worst toxic chemicals. Low scores on energy except for good energy efficiency in products.
3.9 Sharp - Good on toxic chemicals and energy efficiency but very poor on recycling.
3.9 Lenovo - Some points for toxic chemical commitment and good on product energy efficiency.
3.7 Philips - Top score on energy issues but zero on e-waste policy and practice.
3.7 Fujitsu Siemens - Some products free of the worst toxic chemicals but poor on e-waste and energy issues.
3.3 LG - Some points on toxic chemicals and e-waste but zero on energy.
2.15 Microsoft - Some commitments on toxic chemical phase out but poor on e-waste and energy issues.
0.8 Nintendo - Some improvement on toxic chemicals and commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Another point to highlight is that laptops are still very much more energy efficient than desktops (source here).

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Notebooks are the most obvious way to save energy in home computing and client-side office computers. Energy consumption is a critical factor in notebook design. It determines how long the batteries will last, which should at least be a couple of hours even with the most power-hungry processor. As a consequence laptops use the most energy efficient displays (LCD), adapters, hard disks and CPUs that are available. All CPU manufacturers have special mobile versions of their CPUs sporting PowerNow! (AMD), SpeedStep (Intel) and LongRun (Transmeta) power-management features.
--

So on your next electronics shopping spree, remember to pick the ones that will help green the world!

We live in a world where we work fast, live fast and therefore eat fast. Almost everything under the sun (and edible) is available frozen, canned and highly processed.

Jean Michel Fraisse, author of cookbook Taste (as featured in theStar today), observed that:

--
“In France, we worship fresh produce but this practice doesn’t exist here – not any more, anyway,” he says. “In Asia, 90% of the food explanation and information is outdated and obsolete. The food and beverage industry here is caught in a time warp.

“Having lived in Malaysia for the past 12 years, I have seen the cooking competency level decline over the years. Malaysia is not short of talent but it’s sad when good chefs are forced to go abroad for better pay because it’s cheaper to hire foreign labour to cook with poor quality produce.”
--

One does not have to look far to see this. Just switch on the AFC channel on Astro. Most of the cooking shows produced in the Europea and Canada features chefs cooking food using only fresh ingredients. Compared this to Malaysian cooking shows, which (mostly) shows chefs cooking with ingredients from Maggi or Ayamas. While i am well aware that these shows are sponsored by these companies, it is disheartening to see that Malaysian Chefs are actually promoting these products in a cooking show.

Mr Fraisse also adds that:

--
It’s no use resorting to organic food only when your health or those of your family members are affected. By then, it may be too late. Why not start now?

“Although the price you pay for good quality and organically grown food may be higher now, it’s actually more cost-effective in the long run. Nourish your family with all the nutrients from good, wholesome food and think of how much you’d save on health care costs in the long run.”
--

Organic food is often label the 'food for the sick'. This is furthest from the truth, as everyone needs the best nutrients and nourishments in life.

Hello! This is a test blog direct from my newest browser - Flock!

Flock is built on Mozilla Firefox.

The reason i downloaded it was because i'm currently following Ed Dale's Thirty Day Challenge. The 30DC is a program that aims to show us how to make money online. Hopefully i'll be able to make my first dollar online at the end of the program.

Please do join this program if you are interested in online business. What's a better way to learn than to follow those who have already made it happen.

Best of all, it's freaking free!!!!!

So go now, join today and learn something!