.

2nd post for 2008 ??

2008-01-02T00:14:00.000-08:00

This picture was taken at Danga Beach. It was taken yesterday

Hey, I've got a big photo collage for you. 12 squared-sized pictures ! Edited at my dearest photoshop.
Tell me which one of these are your favorite by leaving a response to this post okay ?
I love the Ferris Wheel and the Aerodynamic. Some of these pictures are not mine.

Now, let's start reading

Happy New Year everyone !

2008-01-01T06:29:00.000-08:00

.....................................................................................................
Filed under :: Me, Myself & I, Fun, Photos
....................................................................................................

Yes, this is my first post for 2008. I am so happy today that I acted like a monkey the whole day ! Here’s the story –

Early In The Morning
Once I had my eyes open from my sleep, happily I jumped from the bed and shouted yay!! I had myself cleaned by taking a fresh bath. My mom prepared kaya bread as my breakfast. After eating, happily I ride my bike around the neighbourhood and meet some friends. Tiredly I went back home and watched some interesting television programmes.

Afternoon Time !
I called Ashlee to celebrate the eventful day at my house. I’ve decided to watch a new movie at the cinema which is called I Am Legend and The Golden Compass. I bring along my family and of course, some friends. Thank god I’ve collected hundreds of dollars. It’s a whole bunch of them !! I paid for 54 ringgit!
Oh my god. They really make money !
Here’s some posters of the movie that we watched.

It’s Evening Babe !
We went back home. We are so tired after watching those brilliant movies. The popcorn was expensive. Can you imagine a box of popcorn cost 15 ringgit ?? I think my piggybank is empty. Hahaha. Then I downloaded some new songs from Ares. Timbaland’s Apologize was fantastic. Hahahaaha. I am so bored.

It’s Night Time !
The first picture was taken at home. That’s me and Uder. The second picture was taken at Jusco Tebraucity, Johor Bahru. Oh yes, we went there and had a nice dinner burps hahaaha. I ate BBQ rice chicken. It is damn good. Hahahaaha. Yeah, we went to The Bodyshop and bought some perfumes. Not for me, duh!

Midnight !
It’s 12 am. It’s no longer the first day of 2008 ! Oh man. I am so bored. But that’s okay. 2009 is just 12 months away (that’s quite long actually). I watched some television programmes. It’s New Year’s special, Tomb Raider and Dr Seuss’ how to grinch stole Christmas. It was so disgusting.
That’s enough of typin’ ! I’m tired already.

Aliens vs Predator 2 movie

2007-12-28T04:47:00.001-08:00

For the upcoming film, see Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem.

Aliens versus Predator 2 is a video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Sierra Entertainment, which was released through Fox Interactive in 2001. The game is a sequel to Aliens versus Predator, which is based loosely on the movies of the Alien and Predator series.

Similarly to the previous game, it is a first person shooter (FPS) that uniquely gives the player a choice of three characters/species, each with their own distinct set of weapons and abilities. These factions include the The Alien, The Predator, or Colonial Marines. The storyline features a fourth non-playable side called the Iron Bears or "Corporates", human mercenaries with Marine weaponry who provide security for the Weyland Yutani Corporation; the Corporates are the playable fourth choice in multiplayer.

Sierra released an expansion to the game titled Aliens versus Predator 2: Primal Hunt in 2002.

MacPlay ported Alien versus Predator 2 to Macintosh OS X on June 30, 2003. Initially it did not support online multiplayer for Macs running Mac OS 10.3 or newer, however an unofficial patch was released which fixes the problem.[1] Since the release of OS X 10.5 Leopard "Alien versus Predator 2" no longer functions with the operating system. There is no fix at present.

Setting
Almost half a century after the events of Aliens and Alien³, the Weyland Yutani Corporation followed the flight telemetry of the derelict spacecraft found on LV-426 and discovered a world full of life and dotted with the ruins of an extraterrestrial civilization—and infested with Xenomorphs. This planet would become known as LV-1201.

The Company establishes a long-term research facility under Dr. Eisenberg to study the planet, the ruins, and the aliens. The facility consists of a Primary Operations Complex and a network of five massive Forward Observation Pods suspended over a canyon.

Predator plot

A backstory is shown where a predator is hunting a lone soldier. The predator severly wounds the solider but he is found alive by his team and is rescued.

Many years later, Predators arrive on LV-1201 for a 'hunt'. After they kill a few humans, the majority are captured by the scientists of the Weyland-Yutani facility. A lone remaining predator follows them back into their complex to free the others but is also captured. While in the scientists custody, the Predators are subjected to torturous experiments. Thanks to the help of a marine (Harrison), the main predator escapes and kills all of the humans around him. He discoveres that one of the people, General Rykov, was once a target of his (from the backstory), so he sets off to find Rykov and kill him.

He finds Rykov encased in a battlesuit. The Predator is able to defeat him, and takes his spine as a trophy.

Alien plot

An Alien egg finds its way into the Weyland-Yutani facility. When it hatches, the facehugger finds an isolated guard asleep and attaches itself to him, impregnating him. When the Alien bursts from the guard's chest, it finds a cat to feed on and grows into a powerful alien drone. It begins to wreak havok in the faciliy, killing anyone and anything it sees, and causing the situation that drew the marines to the facility in the human story.

Part way through the game, the scientists attempt to steal an Alien queen, in an attempt to control the aliens. The Alien rescues the queen and kills all who tried to steal her.

Happiest day of my life

2007-12-28T02:41:00.000-08:00

.......................................................................................
Filed under :: Me, Myself and I, Fun, Photos, Adventures
......................................................................................

Early In The Morning
I had a great time with my friend, Ashlee.
Together we visit a nice place of his.
His parents served me my favorite dish, chicken curry.
Then we had a great time by visiting the nearby Linear Park. He happily played the swings and I jog for miles. Tiredly we went back home and watched the movie called Spawn.

Afternoon Time !
I am so hungry. I ate chicken chop and served Ashlee roti bakar. He then ride my bike around the neighbourhood. Here's a great news, he fell for 6 times ! Hahaha. We then sang Nicole Scherzinger's Whatever U Like. We love that song so we record it on our phone. Hahahaha. I am bored

It's Evening Babe !
Ashlee bring Anis along to play with us. We played our favorite game, Tumbuk x2. Anis watched us played the game and she laughed all the time. Then I came up with an idea that we should watch the movie Charlie and the chocolate factory.

In The Night Time
After watching the movie, we downloaded Radar wallpaper from my computer. Damn it's 4 ringgit. They really make money ! Thank god that my mother is home, we are so hungry. So I asked my mother if we can eat at Burger King and the answer is YES ! I ate French Chicken and Apple Pie while Ashlee eats Beef Mushroom Burger which is so disgusting.

Midnight
Again, we watched an interesting movie to clean away the boaring feelings. Armed with a watery mouth we watched the movie. The movie is damn god good. I'm gonna watch it again. The movie is called Resident Evil :: Extinction

Hurricane hits Katrina, Florida

2007-12-27T04:00:00.000-08:00

Storm history
Main article: Meteorological history of Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina formed as Tropical Depression Twelve over the southeastern Bahamas on August 23, 2005 as the result of an interaction of a tropical wave and the remains of Tropical Depression Ten. The system was upgraded to tropical storm status on the morning of August 24 and at this point, the storm was given the name Katrina. The tropical storm continued to move towards Florida, and became a hurricane only two hours before it made landfall between Hallandale Beach and Aventura, Florida on the morning of August 25. The storm weakened over land, but it regained hurricane status about one hour after entering the Gulf of Mexico.[1]

The storm rapidly intensified after entering the Gulf, partly because of the storm's movement over the warm waters of the Loop Current.[4] On August 27, the storm reached Category 3 intensity on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, becoming the third major hurricane of the season. An eyewall replacement cycle disrupted the intensification, but caused the storm to nearly double in size. Katrina again rapidly intensified, attaining Category 5 status on the morning of August 28 and reached its peak strength at 1:00 p.m. CDT that day, with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph (280 km/h) and a minimum central pressure of 902 mbar. The pressure measurement made Katrina the fourth most intense Atlantic hurricane on record at the time, only to be surpassed by Hurricanes Rita and Wilma later in the season; it was also the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico at the time (a record also later broken by Rita).[1]

Katrina made its second landfall at 6:10 a.m. CDT[1] on August 29 as a Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 125 mph (205 km/h) near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana. At landfall, hurricane-force winds extended outward 120 miles (190 km) from the center and the storm's central pressure was 920 mbar. After moving over southeastern Louisiana and Breton Sound, it made its third landfall near the Louisiana/Mississippi border with 120 mph (195 km/h) sustained winds, still at Category 3 intensity.[1]

Katrina maintained strength well into Mississippi, finally losing hurricane strength more than 150 miles (240 km) inland near Meridian, Mississippi. It was downgraded to a tropical depression near Clarksville, Tennessee, but its remnants were last distinguishable in the eastern Great Lakes region on August 31, when it was absorbed by a frontal boundary. The resulting extratropical storm moved rapidly to the northeast and affected Ontario and Quebec.[1]

Preparations
Main article: Preparations for Hurricane Katrina

Federal government
Flanked by Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security, left, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, President George W. Bush meets with members of the White House Task Force on Hurricane Katrina Recovery on August 31, 2005, in the Cabinet Room of the White House.

On the morning of August 26, at 10 a.m. CDT (1500 UTC), Katrina had strengthened to a Category 3 storm in the Gulf of Mexico. Later that afternoon, the NHC realized that Katrina had yet to make the turn toward the Florida Panhandle and ended up revising the predicted track of the storm from the panhandle to the Mississippi coast.[5][6] The NHC issued a hurricane watch for southeastern Louisiana, including the New Orleans area at 10 a.m. CDT August 27. That afternoon the NHC extended the watch to cover the Mississippi and Alabama coastlines as well as the Louisiana coast to Intracoastal City.

The United States Coast Guard began pre-positioning resources beyond the expected impact zone starting on August 26, and activated more than 400 reservists.[7] Aircrews from the Aviation Training Center, in Mobile, staged rescue aircraft from Texas to Florida.[8] All aircraft were returning back towards the Gulf of Mexico by the afternoon of August 29. Air crews, many of whom lost their homes during the hurricane, began a round-the-clock rescue effort in New Orleans, and along the Mississippi and Alabama coastlines.[9]

President George W. Bush declared a state of emergency in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi two days before the hurricane made landfall.[10] (These declarations later proved to be a point of controversy; see below.) That same evening, the NHC upgraded the section of the hurricane watch from Morgan City, Louisiana to the Alabama-Florida border to a hurricane warning, 12 hours after it was issued, and also issued a tropical storm warning for the westernmost Florida Panhandle.[1]

During video conferences involving the President on August 28 and 29, the director of the National Hurricane Center at the time, Max Mayfield, expressed concern that Katrina might push its storm surge over the city's levees and flood walls. In one conference, he stated, "I do not think anyone can tell you with confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not, but that's obviously a very, very great concern."[11]

On August 28, as the sheer size of Katrina became clear, the NHC extended the tropical storm warning zone to cover most of the Louisiana coastline and a larger portion of the Florida Panhandle. The National Weather Service's New Orleans/Baton Rouge office issued a vividly-worded bulletin predicting that the area would be "uninhabitable for weeks" after "devastating damage" caused by Katrina, which at that time rivaled the intensity of Hurricane Camille.[12]

Voluntary and mandatory evacuations were issued for large areas of southeast Louisiana as well as coastal Mississippi and Alabama. About 1.2 million residents of the Gulf Coast were covered under a voluntary or mandatory evacuation order.[1]

Emergency declarations

In a September 26, 2005 hearing, Michael Brown was questioned by Republican members of Congress about FEMA's response. During that hearing, Representative Stephen Buyer (R-IN) inquired as to why Bush's declaration did not include Orleans, Jefferson, or Plaquemines parishes.[13] (In fact, the declaration did not include any of Louisiana's coastal parishes, whereas the coastal counties were included in the declarations for Mississippi[14] and Alabama.[15]) Brown testified that this was because Governor Blanco had not included those parishes in her initial request for aid, a decision that he found "shocking." After the hearing, though, Blanco released a copy of her letter, which requested assistance for "all the southeastern parishes including the New Orleans Metropolitan area and the mid state Interstate I-49

Gulf Coast

On August 26, the state of Mississippi activated its National Guard in preparation of the storm's landfall. Additionally, the state government activated its Emergency Operations Center the next day, and local governments began issuing evacuation orders. By 7:00 p.m. EDT on August 28, 11 counties and eleven cities issued evacuation orders, a number which increased to 41 counties and 61 cities by the following morning. Moreover, 57 emergency shelters were established on coastal communities, with 31 additional shelters available to open if needed.[3] Louisiana's hurricane evacuation plan calls for local governments in areas along and near the coast to evacuate in three phases, starting with the immediate coast 50 hours before the start of tropical storm force winds. Persons in areas designated Phase II begin evacuating 40 hours before the onset of tropical storm winds and those in Phase III areas (including New Orleans) evacuate 30 hours before the start of such winds.[17]

Many private care-taking facilities that relied on bus companies and ambulance services for evacuation were unable to evacuate their charges. Fuel and rental cars were in short supply and many forms of public transportation had been shut down well before the storm arrived.[18] Some estimates claimed that 80% of the 1.3 million residents of the greater New Orleans metropolitan area evacuated, leaving behind substantially fewer people than remained in the city during the Hurricane Ivan evacuation.[19]

By Sunday, August 28, most infrastructure along the Gulf Coast had been shut down, including all Canadian National Railway and Amtrak rail traffic into the evacuation areas as well as the Waterford Nuclear Generating Station.[20] The NHC maintained the coastal warnings until late on August 29, by which time Hurricane Katrina was over central Mississippi.[1]

Greater New Orleans area
See also: Hurricane preparedness for New Orleans
Vertical cross-section of New Orleans, showing maximum levee height of 23 feet (7 m)

By August 26, the possibility of unprecedented cataclysm was already being considered. Many of the computer models had shifted the potential path of Katrina 150 miles (240 km) westward from the Florida Panhandle, putting the city of New Orleans right in the center of their track probabilities; the chances of a direct hit were forecast at 17%, with strike probability rising to 29% by August 28.[21] This scenario was considered a potential catastrophe because some parts of New Orleans and the metro area are below sea level. Since the storm surge produced by the hurricane's right-front quadrant (containing the strongest winds) was forecast to be 28 feet (8.5 m), emergency management officials in New Orleans feared that the storm surge could go over the tops of levees protecting the city, causing major flooding.[22]

At a news conference at 10:00 a.m. on August 28, shortly after Katrina was upgraded to a Category 5 storm, New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin ordered the first ever mandatory evacuation of the city, calling Katrina "a storm that most of us have long feared."[23] The city government also established several "refuges of last resort" for citizens who could not leave the city, including the massive Louisiana Superdome, which sheltered approximately 26,000 people and provided them with food and water for several days as the storm came ashore.[24]

Florida

Many people living in the area were unaware when Katrina strengthened from a tropical storm to a hurricane in one day and struck southern Florida near the Miami-Dade – Broward county line. The hurricane struck between the cities of Aventura, in Miami-Dade County, and Hallandale, in Broward County, on August 25, 2005. However, National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecasts had correctly predicted that Katrina would intensify to hurricane strength before landfall, and hurricane watches and warnings were issued 31.5 hours and 19.5 hours before landfall, respectively — only slightly less than the target thresholds of 36 and 24 hours.[1]

Florida Governor Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency on August 24 in advance of Hurricane Katrina's landfall in Florida. Shelters were opened and schools closed in several counties in the southern part of the state. A number of evacuation orders were also issued, mostly voluntary, although a mandatory evacuation was ordered for at-risk housing in Martin County.[25]

To read the rest of the entery click here

Christmas welcomes Suria KLCC

2007-12-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

blog under the categry of 'Me, Myself and I'

To those guys who celebrate, I wish you guys a big Merry Christmas. I hope you guys happily celebrate Christmas. Anyone who drops by here and happens to read this line, that is 2007 is coming to an end in a week’s time, and I’m completely unprepared for it! I'm not ready for the new year !
Totally bored !

Possible Asteriod Collision On 1st Feb, 2019

2007-12-24T03:20:00.000-08:00

End Of The World on the 1st of February, 2019?

For the past few weeks I have continually received lots of chain mails warning that an asteroid labelled 2002 NT7 will put the Earth to an end on the 1st of February, 2019. That’s about 14 years later from now on.

Yes, I have heard about this news before, broadcasted all around the world when this asteroid that measures 1.24 miles across was discovered. The worse thing is that the asteroid was on the collision path with Earth, and both planetary objects will collide on the 1st of February, 2019.

However, recent onlie articles claim that the possibility of the asteroid smashing right into Earth has drastically declined. Experts from NASA predicted that there will be a 75,000km miss from the Earth’s outer most atmohsperic layer on the day labelled as “the end of Earth and mankind”.

Below is an example, taken from Planetary.org:

_____________________________________________________________

“We are still monitoring 2002 NT7, but it appears that the impact probability might have already started the typical, inexorable decline that we normally see in these cases,” says senior engineer, Steve Chesley, of NASA’s NEO program office at JPL. “We picked up more observations yesterday and ran them through the impact probability and risk scales and all have declined.”

Asteroid 2002 NT7 still tops the list of NASA/JPL NEO Impact Risks because of the low-probability Earth impact prediction for 2019. But Chesley and other asteroid experts assure that the sky is not falling, and the rock will, in all probability, at this stage, orbit safely on by come 2019. “While this prediction is of scientific interest, the probability of impact is just not large enough to warrant public concern,” reassures Chesley. “It is unusual, but it’s not anything that would deserve as much attention as it’s gotten.”

_____________________________________________________________

On the other hand, NASA experts rated the asteroid 2002 NT7 0.06 on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale. The image below is the scale.

The Torino Impact Scale

However, some astronomers think that although the asteroid 2002 NT&7 will miss Earth on the fateful 1st of Februaru 2019, it is still on the collision orbit with Earth. It will either near-miss or hit the Earth in 2035 or in 2051. But they do believe that the possibility of the asteroid hitting Earth is very minimal.

I really hope that the asteroid will miss Earth. By 2019 I am still 30 years old, and I might not have get married yet *oh dear*. Yup. That’s why I hope it doesn’t come right into our face.

Adobe Photoshop tutorial for Glossy Logo

2007-12-23T08:02:00.000-08:00

This tutorial is adapted from PhotoshopCandy’s A Glossy Starburst Tutorial, so all credits of this tutorial go to its creator. What I did was just to create my own screenshots, alter some of the steps for personal adaptation and that’s all.

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to create a web 2.0 badge by using photoshop. I am aware that there are many other automated badge makers out there, but most of them come with a price or a demo which expires after a certain amount of usage. By grasping the important steps in this DIY badge you’ll be able to create glossy badges yourself isn’t that great?

------------------------------------------------------------

Step 1 - Create New Canvas

Create a new canvas by punching the keys Ctrl + N, and to make sure that your badge has a high resolution for future uses (maybe you’ll want to print it next time or display it at a very high resolution on your blog or etc.), I recommend you to make the canvas to be at least 500px X 500px. Set Background > White.

Step 2 - Select Starburst Shape

This can be done by selecting the Shape Tool on your toolbar, and then select Custom Shape Tool either by clicking on the icon to display a list of possible shapes or by accessing the toolbar near the top of your photoshop workspace.

To access the Starburst shape, select it. If it doesn’t appear on your preset, click on the small black arrow on the top right corner of the preset menu and select Banners. This will bring up all the shapes under the Banners preset, which of course, includes the Starburst shape, which is named “Seal”:

Step 3 - Create Starburst Shape

You can create the shape by just holding Shift and dragging your cursor across the canvas to preserve the original proportions. Make sure that the shape covers most of the canvas area, and is at the centre of the canvas (this can be done by dragging the shape around, and it’ll snap to the center of the canvas).

After drawing the shape, name the layer Logo, or whatever name you desire. You can select any colour (preferably slightly darker ones) for your shape, and for this time I’ll be using the colour #2c2a70. It’s all up to your personal preferences.

Step 4 - Create Selection Marquee

You can create a selection marquee which assumes the starburst shape by right clicking the thumbnail of the “Logo” layer. After that, we’ll want to create 1 px solid colour border around the resultant badge, so after creating the marquee, go to Select > Modify > Contract. This will bring up a dialogue box prompting you to enter by how many pixels you want to contract your selection. Enter 1px.

Step 5 - Customise Gradient Tool

With the selection marquee still displaying (do not deselect it!), create a new layer by pressing Shift + Ctrl + N, and name it Glow. Access the Gradient Tool on your toolbar, and the customising options of the tool will appear on the top of the workspace. Click on the gradient displayed to make the following adjustments:

The choice of the colour of the gradient depends on what colour the logo shape is taking. It should be a lighter colour of the original logo colour. In this case, since we’re using dark blue as the logo colour, a nice light blue (#0099ff) will be great.

Step 6 - Create Glow

To create a nice glow on your logo, with the selection marquee still active (by right it should be still there), select Radial Gradient and drag the gradient line from the lower right corner of your canvas to the center of the shape. Now you’ll see a lovely glow on your logo by now!

Step 7 - Modify Selection Marquee

And now we’re into creating the glossy / reflective look of your to-be badge. To do so, you’ll have to select the Marquee Tool from your toolbar, and then select Elliptical Marquee Tool. Make sure that your original marquee selection is still active. After that, press Shift + Alt and then drag the marquee cursor such that it overlaps with the top part of your logo. Some practising is definitely required, and I took about 15 minutes figuring out how to drag the marquee cursor to get this. Be patient though!

Step 8 - Customise Gradient Tool, Again

With the new selection active (created in the previous step), create another new layer by pressing Shift + Ctrl + N and name it Gloss. Select the Gradient Tool again. Click on the gradient that appears on the top of your workspace to customise it as shown:

Note that you’re now using white (#ffffff), and make sure that the right hand side of the gradient fades to only 50% opacity instead of the default 0%.

Step 9 - Create Glossy Effect

To create a glossy effect, with the new selection marquee (done in step 7) still active, select Radial Gradient. Drag the gradient cursor from the center of the shape to the top left corner of the canvas. You’ll get something that looks like this:

Step 10 - Change the Opacity

Change the opacity of the Glossy layer to about 25%. Again it depends on your personal preference, so as long as it looks okay to you.

Step 11 - Add Text

Use the Type Tool from the toolbar to draw a textbox, and then type in the words you want. Adjust the font size, line spacing and character spacing if you wish so that your text will fit into the badge - all these can be done by access the Toggle for Character and Paragraph palettes:

After you’ve created the text layer, remember to change the font colour to a slight grey (so that the glossy layer can show through and create a glossy effect on the text as well), and position the text layer such that it is below the Gloss layer and above the Glow layer:

Step 12 - Final Touchup

To make your nifty little badge to appear more realistic, you can opt to create a drop shadow for the Logo layer:

And here is the final product that you’ll have:

Isn’t it lovely? To create your own variations (in terms of the colour of the badge), you do not need to redo the entire process - just modify the base colour of the Logo layer, repeat step 6 with a different gradient settings (use a lighter colour) and you’re done! The Gloss layer basically stays the same for all badges, so you don’t need to modify it anymore. You can download the .psd file of the logo above here: