You know what a pawn shop is, right? Whenever you’re short on cash, you bring something valuable to the shop, the old man at the counter assesses its street value, lends you some money, keeps the item as collateral. If within a period of time you don’t come back to redeem the item, he keeps the item. At least that’s how they used to work here. In some other countries, pawn shops, instead of dying out like a sunset industry, have mushroomed by becoming second hand item traders and antique restorers. I’ve been watching a series called Pawn Stars (cool name, eh?) about a family run business in Las Vegas,…

As a serious movie buff, I’ve watched plenty of them. And if there’s one that come close to the perfect movie in my mind, it would probably be the 1985 teenage scifi comedy, Back to the Future. I watched it in the cinema as a kid, and a couple of time on video and reruns on TV2, and just last night thanks to axxo. After 25 years, its still funny, exciting, and the dialogue still fresh. For those who don’t know about this 80’s classic, Michael J. Fox plays Marty McFly, 17 year old teenager who goes back 30 years in a time machine Doc Brown builds out of a…

I love yau ja guai (油條). But since it isn’t healthy, if I were to eat it, it has to be REALLY good. The only place I buy it from around here is from that guy Leslie, his stall is in front of Lim Mee Yoke (formerly Chow Yang) in the mornings. The other stall is the pasar malam near my house (which isn’t as good as Leslie’s, but what the heck its convenient). So today, first time in Empire Shopping Gallery (meh. I’ll be going back to Subang Parade) we passed by this stall called I Love Yoo! (really, the name should have tipped me off) at the lower…

Been looking at some smartphones these few weeks. Initially it was at Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy S and HTC Desire. But the iPhone-using friends have also been mounting a credible persuasion… My main purpose is the free apps (besides the usual call and camera functions, etc) – i need to use them frequently, I’m a I-need-to-know-that-NOW kind of guy. And some cool free games to keep my kids when we’re waiting for our food. So… any suggestions?

When I tell people I read a lot, they often ask me “What’s your favourite book?”. Rather than tackle that question, I’d always answer, “Well, the LAST good book I read was…” And the last good book I read was Hemingway’s ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’ (why, yes, there IS also a Metallica song with the same name). The book is about the events in a 3-day period during the Spanish Civil War in 1937. Robert Jordan is an American volunteer who joins the republican guerilla army as an explosives expert tasked to blow up a bridge. Jordan journeys behind enemy lines with a small band of guerilla fighters. Over…