HCFoo's Blogyard

After much criticism by some friends about Rafael Nadal's t-shirt design in my blog yesterday, I've come up with a 'better' results. It turns out that the previous design is rather 'childish'.

Hence, I've designed Nadal and Federer t-shirts with the Che-Guevara effect, which I hope you guys would like. So this is final. Nadal's t-shirt is black while Fedex's is white.

Price and other order details will be up soon.

Some latest update from my campaign!

The day for Nadal to touch down Malaysia is getting near. I assume many tennis fans already got their tickets. Although Federer vs. Sampras match is selling like hot cakes, the same is not happening to Nadal vs. Gasquet. And so this is the best time to approach the organizers of this event.


Today I've finally made a call to Ticketpro. However, the girl who picked up the phone, Nicky, refused to put me to the Marketing Manager and said her agency is not able to help.

Hence, I've decided to search for the website of Entertainment Group Limited (which does not linked correctly through Ticketpro Malaysia website) and called up the Hong Kong based organizer instead. The lady who picked up the phone, Maggie, is very professional in her approach and advice me to send my proposal in an email directed to her and see what she can do for me.

I've told Maggie that I need to know Rafael Nadal's flight schedule, training schedule, etc so that I can provide first hand information for my blogger friends and Nadal fans whom many of them searched into my blog to welcome him as soon as Nadal touch down Malaysia.

Hopefully I'll hear some good news soon. Keep tuning in!

I have made my decision to go on and print a small number of Nadal white t-shirts for the cost of about RM20 per piece.

After seeking some comments from close friends, I've chosen this design and will go for printing latest by next week. I will definitely wear the t-shirt to watch Nadal's exhibition match in Shah Alam.

And Federer's white t-shirt will be on the way too. Will only sell these t-shirts based on demand as I've no intention to make money out of it (unless you are buying through my shop in Cafepress).

Finally there's a slight change to my page rank (PR). After changing to my custom domain, my PR dropped to zero (0) and has been stagnant for months.

At least now it has increased to PR1 and hopefully will increase more by early next year. In the meanwhile, I'll just continue writing, less paid posts and more good posts.

I've just created a store to sell t-shirts on Cafepress and I'm selling Nadal's t-shirts. The design is plain and simple. Hopefully, I'll add more design soon over the weekend and see how the sales go.

In the meantime, I'll have to concentrate on my meet-Nadal-campaign.

I used to have a dog when I was in secondary school. Personally I'm not a big fan of dogs. Well, not because I don't love them but I'm kinda afraid of them especially when they start to lick you.

But in these few years I've developed a huge interest on dogs particularly of Schnauzer breed. Or probably a miniature Schnauzer would be more appropriate and cute.

My friend, Tracy, is looking for someone to adopt her Schnauzer named Hobbes. Hmm... should I just go and take a look if Hobbes is the right dog for me?

In the Form 1 syllabus of the Sejarah (History) subject, the first chapter introduces the definition of history by explaining what is artifacts, archeology as well as reminding us the importance of learning the subject. Then, in the following chapter, students learn about the prehistoric era from Paleolithic to Mesolithic and Neolithic before they start learning the prosperity of Malacca and its downfall.

So what happened before Malacca?

Although there is a brief topic discussing about Gangga Nagara in the syllabus, which is considered the earliest kingdom in our country back in 2-11 A.D., the Hindu Malay kingdom is simply forgettable. Gangga Nagara is the present day of Beruas, Dinding and Manjung which is situated in the state of Perak.

Personally, I think it would be interesting to pay a visit to the Beruas Museum, whereby they have over 300 artifacts from the lost kingdom.

In the following 3-5 A.D., there was a small kingdom in Kelantan/Terengganu known as Pan Pan. However, not many information were known about this kingdom.

I am pretty sure many of us know that Kedah Tua (1136-?? A.D.) is one of the earliest kingdom before Malacca. According to I-Ching, Kedah Tua is also known as Cheh-Cha (not Che-Cheh, mind you). However, again, very little facts were discuss during this era as the main focus of the history text is based on the empires after conversion to Islam.

Since last month, I've been so-called actively writing paid posts again. I must admit that paid posts are not easy to earn as you need to be discipline and 'full of writing ideas' all the time.

Last month, I targeted RM500 from paid posts and I surpassed that amount.

These are the break down of my humble paid posts earning (too little to mention in US$):

• PayPerPost (RM320.40)
• Smorty (RM113.40)
• Sponsored Review (RM177.84)

This morning, after had my curry mee breakfast, I dropped by McDonalds to get a cup of hot Milo while waiting for my office to open at 8.30 a.m. While finding a parking space, a car tailed from behind and the young man quickly parked into the space provided for the disabled people.

There were so many parking spaces that he can park and yet he chose to park the most convenient space, in front of the side door entrance to McD. How ignorant is that?!

Initially I want to stay at McD to blog for awhile after getting my Milo. Instead I took out my pen and paper and wrote him and his girlfriend a note:

Kepada Pemilik Kereta,
Anda telah meletak kereta di tempat yang dikhaskan untuk orang kurang upaya. Sila bertimbang rasa sedikit. Terima kasih!

Dear Car Owner,
You have parked at this space specially for disabled people. Please be considerate. Thank you!

FL Sam and Che-Cheh tagged me with a SEO meme. At first, I don't exactly know what it means but according to Che-Cheh, it means more links and more exposure.

This is based on the SEO theory that links to posts inside your blog are more important than links to your homepage. I have selected three posts I want to promote along with my site’s name. You will do the same thing.

Keep it simple and spread our good work around to both share and build some ratings! Pick three posts that you feel are your best or those you simply want to promote. Your site name is listed with your 3 selected posts beneath.

Once you have your post up: Add the sites and post links of the folks you tagged onto your post. Try to add the site and post links to anyone involved to maximize the effectiveness.

Tag a minimum of 5 people! Try your best not to double tag people so it will spread better! Please actually read the posts from everyone so you can see some really good work from our beloved blogging friends! Make your title a little different from mine to avoid repetitive titles. Please try maintain some friendly updates to your post too.

Revellian dot com
SEO Keywords For Beginners
Content: The Kings Illegitimate Stepchild
Tales of Blogger-X | Illusion

Mariuca - Wishing On A Falling Star
Love In Disarray
In Love With A Dream
The Good Client

Mariuca’s Perfume Gallery
Perfume Shopping Spree
Defining Beauty
In Full Splendour

First Time Dad
Homer Kidnapped
Something Ends
Good Night Sweetheart! Hello Basil!

Speedcat Hollydale Page
Rocket Boy in Hawaii - DC9
Speedcat’s Death Ride into Terror!
The Boy Inside All Men

R Playground
Friends101
Shy Blogger
Soul Music

LadyJava’s Lounge
Are you a Genius??
The secret to a happy marriage
I’ve got a twitch in my eye

Rooms of My Heart
Let’s Celebrate with Us
Join Tribute to Dads Project
8 things that make who I am now

Being Woman - The Joy of Being One
A Handbag Lunatic
A Real Deal
What makes you fat?

Make Money Online
Share Uploaded Files and Earn
Fight Back against computer-security threats
Earn Money 3 Ways with Shareapic Program

Cat Tales
Sunday was Bathday
Someone got locked in
When she’s sleeping….

Life with the Two Crazy Dogs
35W Bridge Collapsed Survivor
10 Questions
Traffic Violation - Bite Me!

Attitude, the Ultimate Power
Happiness is a Decision
Choose to be Happy
Happiness Vs. Human Nature

Terri Terri Quite Contrary
Just How Immature Are We?
Finding a Voice
So Much More to See than the Game

Amel’s Realm
In Memoriam
On Trust and Relationship
Marriage Review

Dutchcorner
The Key
Cellphones
It’s all in the ears

Che-Cheh
The Making Of Kuih Kapit aka Love Letter
6 Days & 6 Nights Backpacking at Kota Kinabalu, Sabah
Bangkok Day 4 - River Cruise, Temple, Tanks, Shopping & Drama!

Hcfoo's blog
The Amazingly 'Beautiful Asian' Race is back
If You Haven't Know I Love Mint Chocolate
5 Questionable Assumptions about Schooling in Malaysia

ADD YOURSELF HERE WHEN DONE BY LEAVING A COMMENT

Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong, founder and honorary life president of Genting Group, passed away at 11.20am Tuesday at the Subang Jaya Medical Centre.

The tycoon, who turned 90 in April this year, was renowned for his vision in transforming Genting Highlands from an unexplored hilltop to one of the world's most successful casino resorts.

Yay, The Amazing Race Asia (TARA) is back for season 2!

I must admit that I love the Asian edition although I can't help myself from comparing them to the US edition. Anyway I'm very positive that season 2 will be better improved compare to the first one.
Here are some of the things I'm looking forward to in this season:

1. Allan Wu will be more relaxed and not as stiff as he was in the first season.

2. Consistent when implementing time penalties. Do not imply time penalty at the beginning of the leg like what happened to Andy and Laura for speeding in one of the episode. Time penalty should always be given at the pit stop. In Andy and Laura's case, if this rule has been followed, they would have been eliminated from the race. Obviously, the producers wanted to keep them in the race but not through such a bias and obvious ruling.

3. There we go again... models, tv personalities, beautiful Asian people with great body on TARA. Honestly I would prefer to watch fat soccer moms, ordinary son and dad team, geeks, etc.

4. What? No Indian contestants?

5. Hope to see more dramatic scenes when boarding flights e.g. competing to get seats, using alternative airlines/routes to get to the same destination, etc.

6. More self-driving, please. It's always more challenging to see the contestants drive in foreign countries rather than just taking the cabs.

7. Do eliminate a team during the first leg. During the first season, again it is very obvious that the producers wanted to keep Sandy and Francesca in the show after they were spared the elimination after came up last during the first episode.

8. Would like to see the contestants travelling farther and more countries rather than just focusing in Southeast Asia. And the contestants in season 2 will be travelling outside of Asia which is a good news.

9. I'm hoping for more drama between the team members. It seems that there are more all-female teams this time around and my instinct tells me there will be cat fights going on. Meow!

10. I'm rooting for one of the dating couples to win in this season.

*Beware! Long post ahead*

Okay, nothing is being done to my revive90s website and I don't think I have the time to update it anytime soon. So, in the meanwhile, I'll just show some of my favourite cassettes from the dusty collection in this blog instead.

I was a big, big fan of Wilson Phillips back in the 90s. Their songs were so infectious and everyone love their harmony singing. The girls (Chynna, Wendy and Carnie) were like the most popular all-girl band back then. They had 3 number 1 singles from this debut album: Hold On, Release Me and my favourite is You're In Love (this song accompany me when I was heartbroken).

As a teenager back in the 90s, New Kids On The Block (NKOTB) is definitely one of the biggest boy band everyone love. Although the album Hangin' Tough is the album that made them famous, I love Step By Step more than any of their albums.

Well, no era beat the love songs from 90s. From Tommy Page's Paintings In My Mind album to Jose Mari Chan and from Babyface's For The Cool In You to Hi-5, these are some of the albums with great love songs that I can't missed back then. And if you still remember groups like the Guys Next Door and All-4-One, you definitely remember their love songs that made all the girls go wild too.

By the way, I love soundtracks too. Some of the soundtracks that I have are Beverly Hills 90210, Boomerang, Pocahontas, The Bodyguard and Space Jam.

Last but not least, I'm a rock 'n' roll fan. I listened to groups like Guns 'n' Roses, Firehouse, Skid Row and Def Leppard.
And didn't I tell you I fancy MC Hammer and I used to be able to rap to most of his hit songs?

Finally I'm writing this post tagged by Keeyit. I'm taking too long to think whether I should unclothed myself in the blogosphere, didn't I? Taddaaaa... here you go...

Well, I don't wear anything more than ordinary and casual to work. Yeps, everyday is casual for me and I'm kinda blessed working in this publishing line not worrying what to wear every day.

That's a Baleno Special Edition Coke T-shirt bought from Hong Kong/China and a blue jeans from Mark and Spencer.

I don't really wear much accessories. Just a pair of stinky sneakers (and socks), a camouflage Animal Planet watch and my nametag.

*** How to do the meme ***
Post pics and write a short description of what you were wearing and accessories you had with you at 1200 noon or 12 midnight today or yesterday.

Time for tagged post. I have yet to complete a few meme and I'll try to do some simple ones first.

Anthraxxxx casts a cursed Number 4 on me. Although I'm not really superstitious, it's always best to follow or at least take precaution of what the older generation of Chinese people believes. So, I decided not to pass this curse to anyone and let me end this here with the 4 things about me.

4 Jobs I have had in my life:

• Promoter
• Shampoo girl
• Tutor
• Temporary teacher
  

4 Places I have lived:

• Kuantan
• Kajang
• Petaling Jaya
• Kepong
  

4 Countries I have been to on vacation:

• Malaysia
  
• Singapore
• Thailand
• Dreamland
  

4 of my Favorite food:

• Pan Mee
• Nasi Lemak
• Penang Curry Mee
• Egg Tart
  

4 Places I would rather be right now:

• In bed
• Kuantan
• Kathmandu
• Tibet
  

When I changed my blog title from 'hcfoo's blog' to 'Rambling thoughts of a 30 something' recently, my intention was simple. I don't want to sound too narcissistic by mentioning my name all the time. A lot of bloggers like to use the word 'ramblings', 'rants', 'thoughts', 'diary', etc as their titles.

So I'm pretty curious of what are the popular words used as blog titles. So, this blogger, Elliot C. Back actually did a research and came up with top 100 words most widely used as blog titles.

1. blog
2. life
3. weblog
4. world
5. from
6. journal
7. news
8. thoughts
9. with
10. daily
11. girl
12. mind
13. what
14. this
15. diary
16. musings
17. online
18. about
19. just
20. ramblings
21. random
22. your
23. adult
24. love
25. content
26. little
27. that
28. home
29. blue
30. time
31. marketing
32. blogs
33. right
34. digital
35. things
36. city
37. rants
38. internet
39. like
40. free
41. journey
42. words
43. business
44. more
45. notes
46. place
47. real
48. house
49. american
50. view
51. stuff
52. music
53. black
54. chronicles
55. tales
56. times
57. diario
58. dreams
59. another
60. adventures
61. inside
62. corner
63. other
64. photoblog
65. confessions
66. book
67. living
68. soul
69. head
70. heart
71. search
72. truth
73. live
74. reality
75. good
76. brain
77. here
78. vida
79. geek
80. through
81. eyes
82. thought
83. blogging
84. politics
85. personal
86. page
87. site
88. days
89. dream
90. john
91. thinking
92. have
93. left
94. road
95. something
96. lost
97. project
98. into
99. media
100. where
101. design
102. conservative
103. star
104. mundo

So, is your blog title using some of the words listed here?

No time to update my blog recently but I did find some time to make some jelly over the weekend.

The ingredients are cheap and simple:
1 packet of agar-agar
1 can of longans
1/2 packet of rock sugar
Food colouring (rose flavour)
Ribena
Pandan leaves

How to make:
1. Wash and soak the agar-agar / jelly for 20 minutes.


2. Put the agar-agar, pandan leaves, rock sugar into hot water and boil it together.
3. Continue to stir the mixture until all the rock sugar and agar-agar melts.
4. Separate the mixture into two bowls; add the first bowl with rose flavour and another one with Ribena flavour.

5. Pour the flavoured mixture into plastic cups.
6. Add longans.
7. Let the agar-agar cool off first before you close the plastic cups and put them into the fridge to chill.

Coincidence happens all the time. However in the recent Kalachakra Puja by His Holiness Sakya Trizin at the OCM Indoor Sports Centre, Kuala Lumpur, I believe it is more than pure coincidence.


The Sun is set exactly above the head of His Holiness during the climax of the puja. The shrine and stage where His Holiness seated was glowing although I have no idea how it actually happened (perhaps science can, I'm not sure). And right after that a flock of bird actually flew by outside and too bad I did not managed to capture it. But there's a guy in front of me who captured everything on his video camera.

Many people did witnessed that magical moment that evening.

Thursday 4 October was proclaimed International Bloggers' Day for Burma. As the Free Burma website explains, the organisers of this campaign 'want to set a sign for freedom and show our sympathy for these people who are fighting their cruel regime without weapons.'

Very rare that I received a good forwarded email. Today, I've got a good one and would really love to share it with you guys.

Little girl and her father were crossing a bridge. The father was kind of scared so he asked his little daughter, "Sweetheart, please hold my hand so that you don't fall into the river." The little girl said, "No, Dad. You hold my hand." "What's the difference?" Asked the puzzled father. "There's a big difference," replied the little girl. "If I hold your hand and something happens to me, chances are that I may let your hand go. But if you hold my hand, I know for sure that no matter what happens, you will never let my hand go."

In any relationship, the essence of trust is not in its bind, but in its bond. So hold the hand of the person who loves you rather than expecting them to hold yours... This message is too short......but carries a lot of feelings.

If you have been to T.G.I Friday's and happened to celebrate your birthday or someone else's, you'll definitely see their staff singing/rapping (and clapping away) a birthday song for the birthday girl or boy. And the song/rap is actually based on the tune 'We Will Rock You'.

So, based on that, I'm writing my own version of 'We Will Rock You' in this special post and hopefully will grant me a chance to win free dinner at T.G.I. Friday's and that RM1k.

It’s Monday blue, let’s hit Friday’s soon
During Ramadhan, better get there on time and dine
‘Nuff cash in my pocket
I’m no cheapskate
Order our food and wait for our plates

Let me, let me win this
Let me, let me win this

Weiss, friendly waiter, attends us
Pickin’ from the menu, that ain’t easy thing to do
We have huge appetite
And in delight
Gotta snap pix for blogging site

Let me, let me win this
Let me, let me win this

So, do you think I deserve this
Pleadin’ with my eyes gonna come back one of these days

I’ve got mud pie in my head
And bill to pay
Somebody please ask me to diet today

Let me, let me win this
Let me, let me win this

Just like Maria Sharapova, Roger Federer (Grand Slam Man), Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt, Rafael Nadal have his own song too. You can listen to some samples and purchase the songs at Tennis Tunes.

I've purchased Vamos Rafa's song for USD1.30. Anyone interested to listen to it, drop me an email. But, there's a simple request from me, drop me a comment "Vamos VMY2007" at this campaign post of mine. If you have already done that, I'll send you that mp3 file for free.

Thanks to Joyce for tagging me with this post. Here's the humble screenshot of my desktop. I actually got the simple Apple wallpaper from Hongkiat's blog.

Now I'm curious what the following blogger friends have on their desktop.
FL Sam
Che-Cheh
Aziya
Princess Shin
Tracy



Interesting Hot!
The travel medical insurance is gaining popularity day by day in the domestic and international tourists. Tourists are spending lots of money to get this insurance policy. Rome is one of the most beautiful and attractive city for the tourists. The hotels in rome are also rich of its traditional culture which also attracts international tourists. These hotels are providing discounted one way car rental services for visiting historical places. These travelers prefer Rome on other historical places regardless of their travel distances. After Rome, Hawaii is a great vacation destination which has beautiful sceneries and pretty beaches. Many tourists every year visits here for their maui vacation.

It was a tiring weekend but an empowering one.

My parents come all the way from Kuantan and we all went to the Kalachakra Puja at OCM Indoor Sports Centre, Kuala Lumpur.

Hopefully I'll be able to write a post about this weekend as all the pictures are in her camera as well as some books which I bought yesterday which I want to share the content with Buddhists who come into my blog to search posts about Sakya.

On the 5th October 2007, His Holiness Sakya Trizin will be conducting Vajra Kilaya Initiation in Aman Puri at 7.30 p.m. For those who are interested to attend dinner with HH earlier at 5 p.m. can contact Ms Choon Lan @ 012-638 5051. The Sakya Centre in Aman Puri, Kepong, is under the guidance of Guru Phurla Rinpoche.

And I'll be posting the updates on my campaign "HCFoo-Meet-Nadal" as soon as possible.

If you are a tennis fan, 'Vamos Rafa' is definitely a familiar phrase for you.


In Spanish, the word 'vamos' means 'let's go'. Rafael Nadal has 'Vamos' on his left shoe and 'Rafa' on his right shoe. It simply translated to 'Go Rafa'! Other Spanish or Latin players shout 'vamos' whenever they win a point too.