Kim's Blog

*Disclaimer* – This blog is meant to be serious.

So, I was showering today, and I wasn’t finish with my shower thoughts the last time. When I stepped into the shower room, I brought back those thoughts again. This time, I was pondering about the Flat Earth Society and how they came around, and whether they may be right in the smallest possibility. Although it would be easy to dismiss this conspiracy theory, some of their arguments seem really convincing.

Despite the thousands of years of researches, and satellite images that have proved that the Earth is round, many people including celebrities chose to believe that the Earth is flat. They chose not to believe all these facts and that NASA is lying to us, claiming that astronauts are actors and the moon landing was all acted out. There have even been conventions held for the Flat Earth Society from all ‘around the globe’ to gather and share their views.

And, as I was proceeding with my shower, I was thinking to myself whether some of their arguments and theories might be true. Basically, the Flat Earthers believe that the Earth is disk-shaped, and the Antartica has ice walls surrounding the edge, preventing the water from flowing out, with a dorm covering the top. An experiment called the Bedford Level Experiment was conducted in the Old Bedford River, which is 6 miles long, to prove the flat earth theory. The experiment is carried out with a boat travelling through the river, and based on the curvature of the Earth the boat should not be visible after the first few miles. However, they could still see the boat after the full six miles, and claims to have proved that the Earth is flat. Another flat earth believer even launched himself in his self-made rocket towards the stratosphere to prove the earth was flat.

Among the arguments put out by flat earthers include space is fake, there is no curve visible, photos of Earth is fake and photoshopped and this fact was strengthened with NASA confirming it, Earth is stationary as we cannot feel any movements, and the horizon will always rise to our eye level which indicates a flat plane instead of a globe. So, if you have the free time, you can look into this controversial theory and judge for yourself. Some of their argument may seem really convincing to you and some may just seem absolutely crazy. That’s all for my shower thoughts now as I am done with my shower.

Love of my life is a song written by Freddie Mercury from the rock band Queen for his ex-fiancé and best friend, Mary Austin. This song details the plight of a man who’s been abandoned by his lover. He feels that the love that has been taken from him affects him far more than it does his lover, and pleads, “Bring it back home to me because you don’t know what it means to me.”

It seems to reflect the period when Freddie broke up with her after telling her he was bisexual, but was still very emotional about not wanting to lose her love. He didn’t. Despite both of them moving on to other romantic relationships, they remained friends and constant companions for the rest of his life. He left her nearly all of his fortune and his home, and called her “my common-law wife and one true friend.”

Freddie Mercury wrote the song on the piano and guitar first and Brian May later rearranged the song for acoustic 12-string guitar so they can perform it live. They first performed this song at the News of The World Tour in 1977 and it became an instant hit. “Love of my life” was such a concert favourite that Freddie  Mercury frequently stopped singing and allowed the audience to take over. It was especially well received during concerts in South America, and as a result, the band released the Live Killer version of the song as a single there.

Besides the diverse cultures and various attractions in Kuching, there are also delicious and tasty foods. I will be recommending a few places to go for in Kuching if you are hunting for foods. These places have been the preference of locals as well as tourists, and they have been in business for many years.

1. Oriental Park Kolo Mee

Kolo Mee is one of the all time favourite food of the locals. Oriental Park is located near the Padang Merdeka area. The stall is famous for their Char Siew, or barbequed pork. You can order the noodles with char siew sauce or without, and with curly or straight cut noodles. Some may say that Oriental Park has the best Kolo Mee around but some would tend to disagree, some even dislikes Kolo Mee. Anyways, everyone has their own preferences but feel free to try it out when you have the chance. One bowl costs only RM 4.

2. Choon Hui Laksa

Another of the must have food when you visit Kuching is the Sarawak laksa. And, one of the best laksa in Kuching can be found at the Choon Hui Cafe. The cafe opens at 7.30 am and usually runs out by 10am. The place will be packed with locals and tourists every morning for breakfast. The laksa is served in a shrimp-based broth with rice vermicelli. And it is topped with shredded chicken, prawns, and slivers of egg omelet. There are also Kolo Mee stalls and Popiah stalls as well as its toasts.

3. Bukit Mata Seafood(Top Spot Food Court)

Here, you can find a wide variety of seafood, such as fish, jellyfish, prawns, crabs, lobster, shellfish and many more. The dishes can be served in many different styles, such as with salted egg, chilli sauce, butter, garlic, and so on. It is located in the center of Kuching city, on the roof of a multi-storey carpark, which makes it convenient to travel there. Top Spot is one of the tourist attractions around Kuching and it will be packed with people at night when it opens as locals as well as tour buses would flood the place during dinner for a good meal.

4. Lao San Kueh Chap

This stall can be found at Woon Lam Cafe at Jalan Song Thian Cheok, somewhere relatively close to Padungan. The ‘kueh’ translates to flat rice noodles, and the ‘chap’ translate to mix in Hokkien. It is a dish served in pork stew with different parts of the pork including the intestines.

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The movie tells us about a man named Viktor Navorski from a fictional Eastern European state, called Krakozhia. He arrives at John F. Kennedy International Airport, but shortly after he departed from his country, a revolutionary war broke out. Viktor Navorski soon became a man without a country with his passport invalidated.

After that, he was denied entrance to the U.S. However, he couldn’t be deported so he was told by the Security Manager that he has to remain in the international transit area of the airport until further notice. No one could communicate with him efficiently, which caused some sort of isolation for him. However, he somehow managed to control and adapt to the surroundings which was unique to him. Amelia, a flight attendant whom Viktor fell in love with asks him about the story behind his can of peanut. He explained that his purpose in New York was to fulfill his promise to his father, which was to get the signature from the Jazz legend named Beny Golson. The war in Krakozhia eventually comes to an end and Amelia helped Viktor get an emergency visa to go to New York.

The Terminal is a movie about friendship, love, trust, patience, and promises with an interesting plot, conflicts, and also some unique characters. Also, we can obtain values from the movie, especially from Viktor. He kept his hopes up and never gave up even though he was basically powerless and stuck in a place unknown to him. That sort of attitude gives the kind motivation, that even when we face difficulties, we should never give up.  We need to learn that the world is unforgiving and we just need to toughen up to get through it. Overall, it is a good movie and I would recommend you to watch it.

I happened to have brought some Sarawak laksa paste or sambal back here after the semester break. I decided to cook the Sarawak laksa for my friends from the West Malaysia to try. So, last week, I went over to my friends’ house which is just a few minutes drive from the campus and cooked there as our university forbids us from cooking in the dormitory.

I reached their house around noon, and brought all the ingredients along, which is the laksa paste, a couple packets of rice vermicelli, salt, coconut milk, chicken stock, and some chicken thighs as well as eggs. Although it is missing some ingredients which would make the dish better, these would suffice for it to taste great. This would be the first time that I have ever cooked the Sarawak laksa although I’ve had it countless of times.

As soon as I reached the house, I started to cook right away with the help of my friends too of course. I started by boiling the water with the chickens in it, and adding salt, the chicken stock, and the laksa paste when the chicken was cooked. While waiting for the soup to boil for a short time, we then simmered the rice vermicelli in hot water for it to soften. And to touch things up, we added the coconut milk into the soup just as it was about to be served. The chicken thighs were taken out and shredded into small pieces for it to be the toppings along with scrambled eggs.

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Even though it was my first time cooking it, the laksa turned out to be great. My friends said that it was delicious and would definitely love to have it again. Initially, we had planned to shoot our video after the meal but it turned out that I took too long to cook and the others had stuff to do after that. However, it was quality time spent with friends.

Never on the day you leave is a song written and sung by John Mayer from the album “The Search for Everything”. It is one of the many songs which I like to listen to. And, John Mayer is also one of my favourite artists.

John Mayer in an interview said that he wrote this song when he was really sad, as quoted “And where this song comes in is that I was really, really sad, like the kind of sad everyone’s there once in their lifes. The song begins after the end of a relationship which was once beautiful, when he ran into his ex not long ago. Although John Mayer claimed that he wrote the songs in 20minutes, it must have been the longest 20minutes that he may have experienced.

Mayer never mentioned any names during the interview but he spoke about how hard it was writing and singing the song. He mentioned that “There’s a line in there that is so brutal because it’s so true and I can’t play the song live because I don’t think I’d make it through”. The line was “She’ll fight for you like hell, then force herself to like some other man”. He also added that the line was so painful to him that he would cry in the middle of singing the line, and it took him days in the studio the be able to sing the line for the record without crying.

He explained the meaning of behind the line. Mayer explained how the girl tried to give their 100percent in the relationship but did not get the same in return, and it reaches a point where she gave up and looked for another man.

“That’s what women do. They show up 100 percent,” he said. “There’s a time they are there 100 percent with everything. And then, at some point for whatever reason, not making a judgment, you or someone else says, ‘Nah.’ And what they force themselves to do to get over you is so transformative for good and bad that you will never see that whole person again.”

He also added that the song was about a moment where you’re investigating why you’re so lonely and why you don’t have this thing. But, he also said that song aren’t supposed to be philosophically correct, they just have to be true to your feelings. Anyways, it is one of the songs which I enjoy listening to because it is quite calming.

I had a random thought recently when I was taking my shower. You know the deep and random thoughts you have when you’re sort of disconnected from the world because your phone isn’t waterproof so you had to rely on your own thoughts to entertain yourself. Well, this thought that occurred to me made me think why do I always procrastinate.

This thought happened when I started thinking about ways to improve my studies and I found the root cause of all my problems, procrastination. Well, you see, if I do not procrastinate I could’ve done my assignment as soon as my lecturer handed it to me. By doing so, I would have had more time to complete my revision on relevant topics. See what i mean?

Everything happened because I procrastinated. Technically, it is hard to blame myself, especially with the thought of playing one more round of computer games or going out with my friends seems more fulfilling than completing my assignment immediately. So, why do I procrastinate? It must be that completing my assignment the fastest and quickest does not bring me the instant gratification or satisfaction from doing something fun.

Truth be told, doing assignments is never fun for anyone. Some of you may ask me why don’t I think about the consequences of procrastinating my revision or assignments. In all honesty, I do think about it sometimes and it scares me but I can say it doesn’t scare me enough. Because if it did then I’m sure I wouldn’t be procrastinating.

That brings me to my second point, I procrastinate because I do not receive any added benefit from not procrastinating. My exam results aren’t that bad to start with and if I do not procrastinate my exam results would not skyrocket and have me immortalized as the smartest human being in history. On the other hand, if I do procrastinate I get tons of fun and enjoyment while being able to bond and enjoy my time here in university being with my friends and enjoying the high speed internet the university provides. You can see my thoughts developed into more and more complex thoughts as I progressed with my shower. It came to the point that i almost figured out the key to solving my problem of procrastination but that had to wait because I was done with my shower. As they said shower thoughts are meant to be left in the shower and not to be brought out.

Recently I was feeling abit bored in my room and had the craving for some barbeque so I decided to try a korean bbq place quite a distant from the campus with my friends. Hoping to satisfy my craving completely I opted for a Korean bbq buffet in the heart of Cheras. It is located in Cheras Leisure Mall in Taman Segar called Stone bbq.

The price for the buffet was fairly reasonable at only rm 38.5 nett for adults. Their Korean style bbq is unique in the sense that they use a stone plate for the grilling of meat. It is a better way for grilling compared to the conventional pans used which will usually cause the meat to stick, giving an unpleasant charred taste to the meat. The food served there was like all Korean bbq with 3 layer pork called the samgyeopsal and a few other marinated meats like marinated pork shoulder.

The taste of the food was decent with the grilling from the stone plate allowing for an even grill. The mixture of meat with the sauce provided and the kimchi was mouthwatering as the kimchi was well prepared. Though the choices were limited but we had our fill of the meat provided. To add on to the meat they also had some hot food prepared like kimchi soup which was lacking in taste and also Korean pancake and Korean rice cake which were both decent at best. There was also a station for you to cook ramyun which they provided One thing I like with this Korean bbq compared to other Korean bbq was that the soft drinks were included in the already reasonable price which was an added bonus.

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The crew serving in the restaurant provided adequate service. They weren’t the friendliest crew with cheerful faces but I don’t blame them as the place was quite packed and they all seem busy doing something. Overall the service there was good as they helped us clean the stone plates when we requested and also helped us refill any dishes that were already finished. So all in all the food in the Korean bbq was only decent with limited choices but it is value for money and worth a try

Red Dead Redemption 2, a prequel to Red Dead Redemption, is a western-themed adventure video game developed by Rockstar Games and released in October 2018. Red Dead Redemption 2 is a console game that can be played on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. And, some even claims that it was the best console game of 2018.

The game revolves around the life of the main character, Arthur Morgan, and his notorious gang , the Van Der Linde gang. The story continues with Arthur and fall of his gang, fleeing from the law and agents hunting for them after the gang’s failed robbery attempt. The game is set in an open-world consisting of a few regions which is inspired by America, which you can explore freely either in first-person view or third-person view.

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What I like about the game is the attention to details in its realistic gameplay mechanics, such as maintaining Arthur’s health and well-being. Not eating anything for a few hours will result in Arthur being hungry and becomes sluggish. Arthur’s hair and beard will also grow longer over time and you can choose what you want to do with it, whether to trim it or shave it off completely. Also, Arthur needs to get enough rest, otherwise he would feel tired and drained of energy. There are a lot more details to maintaining Arthur which you can find out by playing the game.

Red Dead Redemption 2 focuses on the choices of the players in the story and missions. You can choose how you prefer to interact with the NPC, either friendly or violent, and it will affect the outcome, such as a potential shootout with the NPC. There are also other features to the game, such as fishing and hunting and many more. The game would definitely be worth the buy for its interesting story, and its gameplays.

As mentioned in my first post about myself, I was born and raised in Kuching. Kuching is a city and also the capital of Sarawak. Kuching means ‘cat’ in Bahasa Malaysia, which earns itself a name as the ‘City of Cats’. However, the origin the name is still unknown and continues to baffle many people to this day.

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Kuching is a beautiful place which you may visit and explore its attractions on a few days trip. I will be listing some of the many attractions that are available in Kuching.

Sarawak Cultural Village

Sarawak Cultural Village is a living museum and claims that you are able to ‘See Sarawak in Half a Day’, as you will be able to experience the cultures and lifestyles of various ethnic groups in Sarawak. There are replicas of buildings representing each major ethnic groups in Sarawak, namely the Bidayuh longhouse, Iban longhouse, Orang Ulu longhouse, Chinese farmhouse and pavilion, Malay house, Melanau tall house, and Penan hut. After the tour around the village, visitors can enjoy a multi-cultural dance performance in the village’s theater. During the festive seasons, Sarawak Cultural Village also host events depending on the festivals.

Bako National Park

Bako National Park covers the northern tip of Muara Tebas peninsula. It is a relatively small park, an area of 27 square kilometre. However, the park contains a wide range of vegetation. Bako also contains a variety of wildlife and a coastline. There are several well-marked trails in the park which offers walks ranging from a short strolls to a full-day hike.

The Waterfront

The Waterfront is roughly 1 km long and lines the south bank of the Sarawak river. The Waterfront offers various attractions, which includes food and drink stalls, entertainment, history, water fountain, souvenirs, and art. And across the river, you will be able to see The Astana, Fort Margherita, and the Dewan Undangan Negeri. You can get across to the other side by using a sampan or by walking across the newly built Darul Hana Bridge. The Waterfront often times comes alive during the night and many people will hang around with their friends and family.

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Semenggoh Wildlife Centre

If you are interested to see orang utans, Semenggoh will be the place to go to. The wardens of the Semenggoh Nature Reserve have been training young orang utans, who have been orphaned or rescued from captivity, to live in the wild again. The success of the programme left the surroundings of the nature reserve with many healthy orangutans. Feeding of the orangutans are between 9.00am-10.00am and between 3.00pm-4.00pm.

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Of course, there are many more attractions that can be found in Kuching that I have not listed out.