Dance The Night Away...: December 2006

My new Canon IXUS 60!

There was a Canon warehouse sale near Saujana Resort today, and I had planned to get a new digital camera there. Initially I wanted the Sony T10, but after testing it at the camera shop I wasn't really very impressed with the lagging of the viewer. Also, I didn't really think the anti-blur works that well. But maybe I was just using it wrongly. Hehe...

Last night I did a little last minute research online about all the Canon cameras available, and finally decided on the IXUS 60. It seemed like a good slim digital camera with adequate specs. So on we headed to the warehouse sale late this afternoon. We found that it did not appear to be a proper Canon warehouse sale! It was just a chance for the the retailers to clear their old stock!! The price was pretty much similar to retail, except that they added some accessories which would probably not be offered if it had been purchased at the branch stores (I think!).

The price I paid for it was RM1,180 and this includes accessories such as 2 x 1GB memory cards, a mini-tripod and a camera pouch. I guess these are normal accessories that are provided? Hmm... Anyway, not sure if it's a good price la. Maybe at Sungei Wang or Low Yat is cheaper. But anyway... too late now! Just have to make full use of the camera lor. Hope it's a good buy. :) Reviews seem to be good, so I guess I should be able to trust those... (?)

Anyone else has any opinions on these 2 cameras? Or maybe another camera that is better for the same price range??

Definition of 'Idiot Savant'

What is an idiot-savant?

"Idiot savants are a group of humans that are incapable of learning, writing or reading, yet they have unlimited access to specific, accurate knowledge in the fields of mathematics, music, and other precise areas. Now the irony of an idiot-savant is that this group of individuals does not acquire knowledge by learning as the average human does. They mysteriously 'know' explicit, exact, correct information." - Dr. Lee E. Warren

Frankly, I didn't know the term 'Idiot Savant' has such a cool meaning! Hehe... (Quite obvious that I didn't come up with the name, right? :P )

BCSDM & MENSA Hunt 2006

It's been a pretty slow year in terms of treasure hunting. There were months where there were no hunts to go to. But we sure made up for it towards the end of the year. :P In December alone, I have signed up for 3 hunts over 3 weekends. Crazy eh? Hehe....

Last week we went to the BCSDM hunt (2 Dec). We had won this hunt last year, and was looking forward to defending it, but somehow it was not meant to be. The points system made it such that should we miss even one treasure, you'd fall far far behind. Unfortunately, we were caught by the trickiness of the treasure question and we did fall way behind the leading teams. Sigh...

Over the previous weekend, we went to the MENSA hunt with a totally different team (10 Dec). We did pretty well and managed an 8th position. Again, we missed out on one of the treasures (what's up with us and treasures this year?!) . The results can be seen at Michael Pang's website. (The surprising thing is, he found me on my blogspot and linked it to my blog posts! Still in shock! Do check it out! :P).

One of the treasures was really interesting. Instead of cracking the clue and going out to purchase the treasure, we were GIVEN the treasure and asked to write down what this treasure is and what it is used for! Well, the moment we got the envelope containing the 'diversion treasure', we opened it but could not figure out what it was!! Until the end of the hunt, with an hour left to go, we went to Tesco and came up with the idea that we should just go and ask the information counter to see if we can 'buy' the item at the supermarket. Unfortunately, they couldn't help coz they had no idea what it was too!! Furthermore, we couldn't find the Milo 125 mlpack in Tesco, so we were close to losing 3 out of 5 treasures (that would REALLY be a tragedy!!). So off I went running towards Ikano, went to Cold Storage to get the Milo, and then to Ace Hardware to try my luck with the 'diversion treasure'. To my absolute surprise, the guy actually knew what it was! And proceeded to show me the area where I can purchase the item!!! Haha.... I couldn't believe my luck!!

(I will be posting a picture of this interesting treasure soon... and then you all can proceed to tell me if you know what it is!! :P )

Sushi Session!

Have always wanted to learn to make sushi, and 2 years back we had a little gathering in my house with colleagues to have sushi party. Well, it's now 2 years later and I could barely remember how to do it! So last week my colleagues and I (different colleagues now, since most have already left the company/country!! :( ) planned another sushi session and boy did we have fun!! :) There were about 9 of us and we made SO many rolls!! We had smoked salmon (nigiri sushi and rolls), fresh salmon/sashimi, tuna mayo, salmon mayo, california maki... yum yum!! Anyone hungry? :P

Ok, some photos for you...