The king of fruits, durian is thorny, smelly and bright in color. It’s very popular in the Southeast Asia and in Malaysia, it’s no different; passerby will even stop their cars immediately if they see durian stall along the road. The thorny fruit seems hard to resist. Me? I enjoy eating it, but not really a big fan of it. Your body will feel hot after eating few of it.

Some Interesting Notes on Durian:

• Emit a distinctive odor (some considered it offensive)
• Durian is banned from certain hotels and public transportation in Southeast Asia
• To reduce the smell of durian in your car or house, people usually put a few slices of pandanus (pandan) leaves in their car
• Usually after eating durian, it’s good to drink plain water in the empty durian cases to reduce your body heat
• If you want to know whether the durian is ripe enough to eat, we easily smell at the bottom of the stem. If it emits a strong smell, than it is good enough to be consumed
• There is a typhoon called Typhoon Durian
• Singapore Esplanade is nicknamed ‘The Durian’

Durian Dishes:

There are few Malaysian dishes can be made from durian fruit such as:

• Sweet edibles candy such as dodol
• Flavored durian food such as ice cream, milkshakes and even moon cakes
• Pulut durian – glutinous rice steamed with coconut milk
• Fermented durian can also be eaten as a side dish and is called tempoyak

Oh and check this beautiful pictures of durian in Faisal Admar site!

You have to use your body weight to put enough pressure to open it

There you go. Have you tested durian before? Do you enjoy it?

P/S: I am going to attend a couple of interviews next month. Please bear with me while I am updating my sites and visiting yours! Hugs!

First THREE Commenters:

(Whoever won the most First Commenter contests will be featured at the end of the month!)

+ Monica from Turn-U-Off +
+ Bidarlah from For People Like Me +
+ Blabberina from CacaMarbaMe +

Bluecrystaldude

If you find this blog is interesting enough, do subscribe to Hot Shit Form Here by Email! I would be very happy!

Continue Reading

2009 definitely has brought lots of good things for me. These were the few worth mentioning things that had happen. I hope it’s not too late to wish you guys a Happy 2010! Yippee! Good things that happen to me in chronological order:

1. SECAV

I had participated in Engineering Exchange Initiative, Singapore Education and Career Visit (SECAV) in January. We went to Jurong Shipyard, Nanyang Technology University and National University of Singapore.

2. Industrial Training

During in between 3 months of semester break, I had the opportunity to do my industrial training at Sime Darby Technology Centre, Petaling Jaya. That was and thank God, only lasted there for a week. I moved to my brother’s house for the rest of my weeks there.

3. NACES

This time my friends and I went to University Malaysia Sabah to participate in National Chemical Engineering Symposium 2009 and you guys already knew, our team won the first place in the presentation competition. This year, the theme was Global Water Crisis: What can We Do? The exposure with others future chemical engineers from all over Malaysia was such an eye opening experience.

4. Bro’s wedding

My big brother was married at the age of 26 years old! Congratulation!

5. Sime Darby Engineering Sdn. Bhd.

I was lucky enough to be short listed for an interview with Sime Darby Engineering Sdn. Bhd. which located in Pasir Gudang, Johore. This company is the biggest company under Sime Darby Energy & Utilities and they are designing, producing and commissioning oil rig platform for oil and gas companies. There were only 6 of Sime Darby scholars were called with 3 of us are still studying, 2 already got other jobs and 1 just graduated. The interview session was, how I should put this, was super INTENSE. Try imagining you’re surrounded by 28 assessors from Sime Darby Engineering and another 2 from Sime Darby Head Quarters, Human Resource department. OUCH! The good great news is I got the job! But the not so good news is I am not sure I am mentally and physically prepared enough to work there. Oh and I am afraid of height. Hehe.

6. Finished design part 1

Even though I only scoring average grade for this subject, the experience of building a chemical plant from a grass root basis (from scratch) was priceless. All those sleepless nights and heated arguments are stressful but worthy.

7. On the way of completing FYP

Not only the project is almost complete, a master student and I (we did the same topic) are were forced by our kind supervisor planning to submit a collaborative paper on our research project to the International Conference on Process Engineering and Advanced Materials 2010 that will be held on June in Kuala Lumpur. If everything went well, the paper will be submitted at the end of this month.

8. Read more books than ever

While doing my final year project, I had the ample time on my hand in between waiting to collect samples. I read more than 10 books this year. An amazing number for the average 2 or 3 books per year :) My current favorite books are by James Patterson, Mitch Albom and David Sedaris. AMAZING!

9. Reached 22 years old

What is the great thing of being older? I just wish I am a little bit wiser this year.

10. The best New Year celebration ever!

This year around, I celebrated New Year with my friends and one of my very much sportive lecturers at Bukit Merah Laketown Resort. It’s a waterpark resort in Taiping Malaysia. Thank you Dr. Hekarl Uzir!

First THREE Commenters:
+ d2z from d2z's blog~ +
+ Dark Light from Darklight Design +
+ Faisal Admar from Tentang Saya

(Whoever won the most First Commenter contests will be featured for a month!)

Bluecrystaldude

If you find this blog is interesting enough, do subscribe to Hot Shit Form Here by Email! I would be very happy!

Continue Reading

(Do click to enlarge - I took this picture at Chinatown during my Singapore trip)

When there are problems, I try to escape by going to somewhere else. No, it’s not into some kind of world fantasy. I rather am at a place that is real as possible. One of my favorite places is to be surrounded by people. Just standing there with all the noises of chattering and stomping, I feel I am alone only with my mind. Don’t get me wrong. I love being alone sometimes. I could have a chance to clear up my minds and sorting jumble of pieces that if not, are floating my inner self.

My other escape place:

Imagine everything moves in a slow motion when certain incident is occurring. I just want to capture the beauty of what God has created; especially when the raining is coming, how the breeze shake up the trees, leaves falling down and how people running to bring in their wet clothes – people in Malaysia loves to hang up their laundry under the sun. It is amazing!

Watching people in motion; everyone seems to know where their destination is.

There you go. I hate to leave this post this short. But I still have another two papers to kill; this Monday and the last one on Wednesday. I will be back to my hometown in Johor on Thursday night, start packing and went straight to Kuala Lumpur for my industrial training (practical training, internship, whatever you call it) on the next day. Oh, and I also must finish my journal for a writing competition before the end of April. God, I am sure had my hand full.

Anyway, where are your favorite places to escape? I am sure you must have your favorite place to go :)

P/S: I need to start taking pictures again. I missed my camera!

First Commenter:

(Whoever won the most First Commenter contests will be shown under my Entercard box for a month!)

Bluecrystaldude

If you find this blog is interesting enough, do subscribe to Hot Shit Form Here by Email! I would be very happy!

Continue Reading

The Introduction

For those who somehow missed my last post, I went to Singapore last week. It was under Engineering Exchange Initiative – Singapore Education Career and Visit 2009. The trip consists of 30 engineering students from different engineering schools and 2 escorting officers. We spent 6 days in a backpacker’s hotel in Orchard road called Fernloft hotel and were sponsored by Intel Corporation and under USM Students Affairs and Development Division and Academic and International Affairs Division.

For the formal visits, we went to National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and for industrial visit; we chose to go to Jurong Shipyard. Under personal programs, we separated into smaller groups, the members were solely depends on us; my group consists of 2 Malay, 2 Indian and 1 Chinese – the only multiracial group made (LOL) and we went to Singapore Zoo, Sentosa Island, Underwater World, Chinatown, Little India (and the famous 24 hours Mustafa Centre) and spent awfully lots of time in Clarke Quay. (The less formal visits will be posted in another post. I tried my best to keep this post short)

CAUTION: LOTS OF PICTURES AFTER THE JUMP

Nanyang Technological University (NTU):


The Formal Visits - Fun Observations:

1. There are heat sensors in the lecture halls to minimize the electric usage
2. NTU’s student union was given SGD2 million each year to run their activities - and they don’t even touch the money, they invested it and run their respective programs by using the money’s interest - and Malaysia's only received not more than RM1000 *Yeah!*
   
3. Lots of their female students wearing lab coat longer than their underneath clothes – wonder what will happen if there is any chemical spill out
4. Lots of Malaysian whether studying in both universities or even working in Jurong Shipyard
5. While the Jurong Shipyard trip wasn’t much related to chemical engineering, but I enjoyed it anyway. When the last time (or the first time) you saw a ship larger than a shopping complex parking next to your bus? Jurong Shipyard is running a construction and repairing for large ships business

NTU'S Chinese Heritage Centre:

The Chinese Heritage Centre is a gallery in the NTU itself. I did not upload any pictures from NUS because we did not spend lots of time touring the area. Most of the times were spent socializing with other engineering students there. On the other matter, the pictures below were taken around the Jurong Shipyard area. There weren't lots of eye catching pictures (apart from super large ships in the making) and since I was relentlessly waiting in my seat for any accident to happen; any accident that will cause some bleeding due to external injuries; which unfortunately did not happen at all. They even had Safety Inspectors – a kind of police that gives summons to those who did not obey or act against their safety conduct.

Jurong Shipyard:

The Chinese Heritage Centre is a gallery in the NTU itself. I did not upload any pictures from NUS because we did not spend lots of time touring the area. Most of the time were spent socializing with other engineering students there. On the other hand, the pictures below are from Jurong Shipyard. There were not really eye catching pictures for me since I am waiting eagerly in my seat waiting for accident to happen, any accident that cause some bleeding due to external injuries; which unfortunately did not happen at all. They even had Safety Inspector – a kind of police that gives summon to those workers who did not obey or act against their safety conduct.

I hope you like my pictures. I will tell more about my informal visit in another post - the most interesting part of my 6 days trip. Can’t wait to see you again!

First Commenter:

(Whoever won the most First Commenter contests will be shown under my Entercard box for a month!)

Bluecrystaldude

If you find this blog is interesting enough, do subscribe to Hot Shit Form Here by Email! I would be very happy!

Continue Reading

From Paris, France

Hi to all. I will be off to Singapore under my university educational and career visit program tonight (Friday, January 16, 2009). Truth is I am not that excited since I already been to Singapore few times already, mainly for shopping spare, but this is the first time I will go there with my friends and for an educational purposes. I am sure the feeling will be entirely different. To be said at least, it’s not an official vacation. You need to be prepared and do some paper works before getting there.

It’s a sixth day’s trip and I will straight home for Chinese New Year’s and mid semester holiday after that. This means that I will back online on 22nd or 23rd of January. I know I have been neglecting Hot Shit Form Here and my readers these last few weeks (sorry about that), but I assure you that I will active again as soon as I am stepping into my holiday shoes. Till then, please feel free to watch this slideshow about my last vacation in Paris, France.

Thanks for being so understanding. See you again in a week!

First Commenter:

(Whoever won the most First Commenter contests will be shown under my Entercard box for a month!)

Bluecrystaldude

If you find this blog is interesting enough, do subscribe to Hot Shit Form Here by Email! I would be very happy!

Continue Reading