Shopping in penang

I recently was looking to buy a new pair of sandals. A few weeks back my sandals lost their soles. I guess I could try and have their soles replaced, but I figured that I've had my previous sandals for about 5 years and it was time for a change. Where do sandals that lost their soles go? For me, I think they will most likely go into the garbage dump.

Sandals

But before I let them go, I need to find a replacement. I went to three shopping malls: Gurney, Queensbay, and Island Plaza. I first went to Gurney and Island. I found a lot of selection at these places, but none that suited my tastes. Also when I found some choices, they didn't have my sizes. Ah well, I thought to myself surely I will find some at Queensbay, after all with its sheer size, it will surely have more items.

Gurney Plaza

Island Plaza

Queensbay had different stores, but seemed to carry the same items as Gurney and Island Plaza. I think that carrying the same items defeats the purpose of having different stores. Why would I want to go all the way to Queensbay to buy shoes when they have the exact same selection than gurney? In fact, I think Gurney and Island together carry a better selection.

Queensbay Mall

As much potential that Queensbay mall has of being a really uber shopping center, I still don't see any reason I should go there over Gurney and Island. Gurney and Island don't really carry a lot of great items either, but their stuff is much better than Queensbay. Whats the point of an uber shopping center that has so many items, but much of it is junk? They don't use their mass to attract much better retailers. Ah ....the sad state of shopping in Penang.

I'm still looking for sandals :(

Moving and Down to business

Well a lot has been happening so far. I've moved into the family's "vacation apartment" while the normal apartment is just about to embark on a facelift...aka renovation. So, this is home for the next few months.

Although it is quiet and smaller, the apartment does have its charms. For one, the view is quite amazing.

View from the balcony part 1

View from the balcony part 2

Second, the internet is fast. Yes, for some reason the streamyx here is oodles faster than at my previous apartment. I can go see youtube videos with no pause for the video to load. How amazing is that! The internet streams the video faster than the player plays. I think the fast speed has to do with not many users out here. Sweet! ahahah.

Third, my new bed. Even though the bed at my original apartment is quite soft, for some reason, this slightly hard bed at the "vacation apartment" really gives me a good night's rest. Maybe I'm too comfortable at my own bed that any little thing wakes me up. Well whatever, results so far indicate I get a really good night's rest at this new bed that i'm sleeping at. Even after exercising, I never could get a good nights rest, but for some reason I can here. Awesome! I might have to get a harder bed when I move back to the original apartment. Though I do think the other bed is more fun to be active on due to its more springy action. Whatever the particular activity that benefits from the upward reactive force may be...heheh.

my new bedroom

Other than that, I've been trying to study for the CFA level 1 exam in December. This course is for financial analyst or financial analyst wannabes, me being the latter. It really is no joke. They sent me six textbooks roughly 2000 pages of text to read. These pages are huge as well. If I took 24 weeks to finish the texts, I figure that 75 pages a week should put me in a good position for the exam. So it's been about 3 weeks and I am nowhere near the 200 or so pages studied. The lack of progress needs to be addressed by my super speed reading powers..... which will come to me hopefully very soon.... Still waiting xD

My course books

My books arranged prettily...

Ooohh... I bought this really nice tee shirt from NIKE at Island Plaza. It's like the NIKE boutique store not the normal sports store. The shirt had some felt glued on to the front. NEVER buy a shirt with stuff glued on. Once in the dryer, some of that glued felt came off. What the fFFF! Now my very nice tee shirt is kinda messed up. I know I was a bit dumb just to chuck all my stuff in the dryer and not pay attention to this shirt, but for goodness sakes, this is a tee shirt. It's not like a tuxedo. Pissed!

Life's like that Girl of the undisclosed time period*

*I say undisclosed time period because, I don't know when the next girl post will be heh.

As we all know, a lot of asians seem to be infatuated with the opposite gender of the Caucasian type. Check Mr. Gin's post. Well, I think Caucasians do have a very strong look to them. They are bigger, built more, usually they have big eyes which is a desirable trait in the asian culture. Furthermore, its a different color. Blue is a nicer color to look at than black usually. Asians tend to look quite similar, whether they are Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc. So people are usually attracted to the exotic looking, in this case for asians, Caucasians.

On the other hand, I believe asians have their appeal as well. For any one who has ever heard of the fountain of youth story, where this European guy travels half way around the world to South America to find the fountain of youth; they will know that youth is a very desirable trait across the world. Why do guys like Hugh Hefner prefer to shag girls that are one-fifth his age? Oh don't think that women don't do the same thing. Affluent, older women certainly do their share of dating younger men. Youth is more or less equated with beauty universally around the world. Asians generally have a youthful look to them. Ever compare a 30 year old asian to a 30 year old caucasian? Chances are, the asian looks younger.

Hugh Hefner with his girls

So all this begs the question: "Is it better to have youth or desirable features? I say........ Is it too much to ask for both?" (I stole this line from Iron man....hehe)

I present to you, Misa Campo, Life's like that Girl of the "undisclosed time period".



Misa Campo is of both Filipino and Dutch decent, born in Montreal, Canada. A very stunning girl.... she has that mixed look with youth and nice features which well, sounds great in theory, but very few mixed children are able to pull it off. To put it bluntly, mixing usually produces nothing out of the ordinary, neither here nor there.






Ah well, I know her boobs have been implanted with stuff.

Pictures don't tell the full story, here she is on youtube. I think shes cute as well. Caution: the first video has quite a bit of skin.





Here she is getting hyphy =)

Iron Man at GSC, Gurney

I've been wanting to watch this since I saw the preview a couple of months back. I just had a feeling this movie was going to be good. With GSC showing 18 screenings a day, I definitely thought the theaters were going to be packed.

Packed like sardines

Two days before, I went online hoping to make some bookings. Guess what, ZERO tickets for Thursday till the 10pm show. What the hell? Furthermore, I wanted to buy online, and the servers were down. I really don't understand why for paying people, the servers are down?

Anyhow, I went a little early and was able to secure tickets in decent seats. Well the best I could get that day. Pretty decent except at the beginning with people still walking in and periodically blocking the view.

I must admit, I really liked a lot of the movie and wasn't at all disappointed. I just had this feeling it was going to be good. The danger is going in thinking that the movie is good, and leaving the person feeling shortchanged. By far the best scenes involved iron man whooping some Afghanistan insurgents, dogfighting with planes, and in the final stages of completing his armor. Iron Man, seems the weakest of superheros, but he can still lay the smackdown.

Flying Scenes!

I think Robert Downey Jr. did a fantastic job. I've never been impressed by Tony Starks the comic book character. He looked like an uptight royal out of one of the many countries with monarchies. By contrast, Bruce Wayne of Batman is a much more interesting comic book character. Robert did a fantastic job making the character likable, especially given the mundane Tony Starks. I'd compare this to something that Johnny Depp had done with Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Carribean.

Arrrr...matey!

I must mention, though that the Iron man body armor wasn't exactly an original concept. Blizzard's Starcraft 2 introduction movie has a similar set up where a marine's armor is put on a person with machines and bolted into place. Credit to the movie production company for making the graphics work with a human. The Starcraft 2 introduction is all CG.