We have got our Rubik’s Cube collection during our KL trip weeks ago. They are the 5X5, 4X4, 3X3 and 2X2. I had been looking for them quite some time and finally we found them.

Their prices are not cheap, but their quality is very good. I can turn them in all direction quickly and smoothly.

I can arrange them in any way, Which tower do they look like? I took their photo before I shuffle them, as you can see their colours are still in solved order.  I feel relunctant to shuffle them actually, but I want to try to solve them, I need to shuffle them as random as possible.

They came with their own stands.

First, we thought that the 2X2 must be easier than the 3X3, and we had underexpected its solution, finally we still need formulars to solve the 2X2.  I haven’t memorise the 2X2 formula, therefore I think the 3X3 is easier for me.

I can solved the 3X3 Rubik’s cube now with the some formulas. Previously I have solved it with computer software. :p

The 3X3 Rubik’s Cube can be solved layer by layer, I can solve the first 2 layer without having the formula, but for the third layer, I used the following formulars.

3A1. F U R U’ R’ F’
3A2. F R U R’ U’ F’

3B1. L U’ R’ U L’ U’ R U2

3C1. R’ U’ R U’ R’ U2 R U2
3C2. R U R’ U R U2 R’ U2

3D1. (Down) R2 U F B’ R2 F’ B U R2
3D2. (Up) R2 U’ F B’ R2 F’ B U’ R2

I learned the fomulars from here and it works.  I wonder when can my 4X4 and 5X5 can transform to their original state.  May be it won’t for the next hundred years.  :p

I found this special number on the belt of my flash memory - 37145.  Do you know what does it mean?

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Let me tell you some facts about the flash memory first.

Nowadays a flash memory can be very cheap (in terms of cost per megabytes), and its capacity can be more than a piece of DVD disc.  It has different names which actually refer to the same thing, for example flash disk, pendrive, memory stick, thumb drive, handidrive, flash bar etc.  As what I have learned, only flash disk or flash memory generally refer to any brand of these flash memory, the rest actually refer to a specific brand.

Do you call all the instance noodle Maggie (no matter what brand it is)?  This is very common in our culture here. 

SiewPeng and I have 3 flash memories (2 pieces of 512MB, and a piece of 8GB), the price we pay for a piece of 512MB is 3 times more than the 8GB flash memory.  The reason is because we bought the 512MB in the year 2004 whereas we just bought the 8GB flash memory recently.  The cost per megabytes has been going down.  When I first saw this flash memory in the year 2002, I have a friend who bought a 64MB with the price higher than my 512MB.

We recently met a friend who has about 10 pieces of flash memories.  I suggested him to get the biggest capacity and put all his files in one flash memory.  The advantage of doing this is save time to search for files.  However, if you lose one flash memory, it means you lose everything.  Anyway, backup is important.

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Here comes the answer, 37145 means SMILE.

Keep smiling and wish you have a wonderful Sunday.

I think these two black birds are a couple.

It was a lovely morning and a lot of birds were chirping happily outside. There were many different types of chirps thus creating some wonderful songs as if they were singing.

Actually, birdwatching was not our intention at the first place. Birdwatchers usually use binoculars to observe and study birds but we use the camera instead. We were attracted by their chirping and suddenly, we had the idea of taking photographs of these birds.

They got together at the end. They have strong claws that gives them a good grip on the branch.

These pigeons on the roof looks like pageants taking part in a beauty contest. All of them are trying to show their best.

This is a closer look of the “pageants”.

I have just realized that the pronunciation for pigeon and pageant is quite similar.

This pigeon has spots on its body like cats and dogs.

The “pageants” started talking to each other to exchange some of their “around the world” experience.

This is the whole picture of where the birds were.

Aha! Caught in the act!

Ah Wong, as in Mr Yellow lives at the balcony of the house. He has quite a lot of room to roam there. However, he likes to jump up to the platform of the building and takes a stroll when it is not so hot. One evening, when I was walking pass the window, I caught him in the act.

I tried not to bother him when I was trying to take a picture of him standing on the platform and looking down as if he was observing something or somebody. But he turned and looked at me. He was quite surprise. His expression looked funny to me. He didn’t move. He sat just like that and looked at me.

I don’t know if cats really have nine lives. Do you?

But Mr Yellow here is indeed a brave cat to me. I wonder if he knows that he is actually in quite a dangerous position. Anyway, he has done it numerous times so I guess he is confident that he would not get hurt or what so ever. Cats are often known for their quick responses.

I can feel that he is not as ordinary as other cats that I have seen. Sometimes, he can understand what we are trying to tell him. He has been with us for some time now and he has become part of the family. I hope he is happy.

Last Sunday was the Dong1Zhi4 Festival or the Winter Solstice Festival. Traditionally in Chinese communities, this festival is actually a time for the family to get together. An important activity that occurs during this important day is the making and eating of Tang1Yuan2, also called the glutinous rice balls as they are made from glutinous rice flour. TangYuan symbolizes reunion. We decided to make some TangYuan.

We started by adding water to the glutinous rice flour in order to make the dough. After water is added, we stirred the mixing.

Ooops…too much water and therefore more glutinous rice flour is needed. And continued stirring.

TangYuan are sometimes brightly coloured instead of white. White is the mixture of glutinous rice flour and water only. And to make coloured TangYuan, we added a little bit of edible colouring that has been bought earlier. Then keep stirring to form the dough.

This is the green dough.

This is the red dough.

TangYuan can be plain or stuffed. We made the plain ones with the white, red and green dough. We took a sufficient amount of the dough and roll it into balls using both our palms.

To make the stuffed ones, we usually put sesame peanuts or red bean paste. The stuffed ones are not easy to cook as the TangYuan might split during the boiling process and the soup will either become sesame peanut or red bean soup at the end. Anyone has any idea to prevent the splitting?

The TangYuan are cooked in a sweet soup. The pandan leaves can be cooked together to add flavour to the soup as well as the TangYuan.  Actually, we have made a little bit more than just the plain ones.  You will get what I mean when you scroll down and read on.

Siew Peng’s sister has made the “dog” TangYuan using the white and red dough.

She has also made an “alien” TangYuan.

There are also TangYuan with other mixture of colours and sizes.

This one has some sort of pattern on it.

These are marbles TangYuan.

Alien TangYuan again.

I guess this must be the side effect of watching The Day The Earth Stood Still. Will you eat them? They still taste the same anyway. Don’t let your mind play tricks on you. Happy Belated DongZhi (Winter Solstice) to everybody!