Pong/Poof

This needs no introduction. By the form of stickers, we were ponging and poofing each other throughout. Under normal circumstances, a poof would be a negative indicator. However during the party, it was the exact opposite. I got poofed by Uray. Maybe she should have given more poof stickers for good measure since I forgot to declare that I was excited in getting to meet her too though I did mention that I was just as ecstatic in getting to know every other pingster.

2.0 preview & “Live” Results

It is not ready as of yet but I saw a more cleaner and focused redesign, though that was not what got me excited. 2.0 would refine the way of interaction between bloggers. Keeping up to date with the blogs which I like would be a very much simplified process. Not forgetting a neat looking valid XHTML widget to embed in our blogs.

When Uzyn said he would release the results of the most popular blog and blog post live, I didn’t really think much of it. That was until he opened up PHPMyAdmin and started creating the SQL code and executing it to tabulate the votes live. I was expecting perhaps a breakdown in the percentages of the nominees like with all the regular polls. A really unique and geeky way of breaking the results. Now that is “live”.

The biggest winners

Kris deservingly won the blog of the year and also a HP Mini. I cannot deny, I voted for his blog. The winning blog post was “How to do a lipdub” by Rinaz. It was entertaining yet enriching. Keep up the good work guys!

Pictures

Be sure to check out Claudia’s exclusive coverage of the event:

• Ping 2nd Anniversary Part 1 - Behind The Scene
• Ping 2nd Anniversary Part 2 - The Beginning
• Ping 2nd Anniversary Part 3 - Award Ceremony
• Ping 2nd Anniversary Part 4 - Food and Pingsters
• Ping 2nd Anniversary Part 5 - The Finale
• Ping 2nd Anniversary Part 6 - Photos of Pingsters

Being a newcomer, I was expecting a somewhat awkward moment since I was thrown into a pool of so many new faces. But the minute I began interacting with the other pingsters, the awkwardness just disappeared. There was a sense of familiarity. They were like a huge closely bonded family, it was amazing.

I am sure I did not have the opportunity to introduce myself to all the pingsters, there was a handful I missed out on. No worries, we shall continue where we left off next time. Thanks once again to the ping.sg committee for this absolutely fun party.

Convenience

Every time I have an outing with a group of friends, it is almost impossible to take a group shot without bothering a passerby for his/her assistance. And sometimes, the shot isn’t as wonderfully taken as we would have liked with the odd pinkie being part of the picture. This is especially so in the case of the T100 because the lens is located at the upper left corner of the digicam.

When I was descending from Mount Kinabalu in the rapids, my fingers were numb from the coldness and that explained the shoddy picture of mother nature’s power. At that point of time, a tripod would have been extremely useful to me.

With that in mind, I got myself a DigiPod J1-808 for SGD $40.

When retracted, this makes it extremely suitable convenient to bring along on my travels.

Do not be deceived by its looks like I was when I first saw it. Its legs may look thin and flimsy, but after exerting some force on its base, I found out to be quite sturdy and stable. There would be no problems holding my light weight T100 in position.

For comparison purposes, I used the J1-808 to shoot a picture of my hardly used PC.

Due to the poor lighting in my room, it is always a challenge shooting pictures within it. However, with the use of a tripod, this was by far the most precise picture of my PC I have shot.

Though my blog or post were not nominated in any of the awards, I would like to extend my support to those whose blogs/posts made it. Of course, who could resist the temptations of a buffet? It has been quite a while now since I actually ate something more than mediocre hawker food.

I am excited, really looking forward to meeting other pingsters, in particular Kris and Wendy. Of course I would be ecstatic all the same getting to know the rest as well. Apart from the challenge of coming into contact with so many foreign faces in a few hours, version 2.0 will be released too.

2.0 is described as a platform with new features to enhance the blogger-to-blogger connections and the whole site experience. I am eagerly anticipating it.

Registration costs SGD $10 (SGD $0.90 more if you are using PayPal).

What are you waiting for? I will be there, will you?

Post revisions

I am very picky in my choice of words while writing a new post. Sometimes I would end up reverting back after spending a full 30 minutes on a post. What if I did a save, and could no longer undo any previously made changes? This is where post revisions come in, with it I can track any edits made to my post.

Press This

This could come in handy especially if you are using a site for reference. You could extract the different media available (text, pictures, video or quote) and get it ready for a post. Embedding a video from Youtube and linking to a picture from Flickr is that easy now all thanks to Press This.

It would have been my favorite feature as well if it wasn’t for the fact that I stay away from putting images which I do not have any rights over in my posts.

Gears

I always hated how I have had to tax the load on my host while navigating around the admin. With Gears, caching of frequently used JavaScript and CSS files could be done. It helps lessen the server load, not by a huge bulk but if it gets my pages loading faster and eats less bandwidth, why not?

As of now, it is only supported in IE and FireFox but works to support Safari along with Opera are underway. There is no way I am switching browsers just to get Gears working. For the time being, I am contented with not giving my admin a turbo boost. After all, it is just an enhancement, not a core requirement.

Theme preview

This feature is long overdue. Gone would be the days where you would activate a theme only to find out that you aren’t satisfied with it and then deactivating it. It would bring a very indifferent experience to your visitors who are browsing your site at that very moment.

Manage plugins in a bulk

The need to deactivate all our plugins at one go never comes up unless a problem occurs or during a version upgrade. Still, I am glad this feature was thrown in. It must have been a pain for blogs with tons of plugins which needed deactivating.

Of course, these aren’t the only features and improvements WordPress 2.6 has to offer.

Image Uploader bug

2.6 is not without an ugly side. While attempting to upload a picture, the link URL generated was using the default folder directory ‘wp-content/uploads’ instead of the one I specified:

‘wp-content/uploads’ should have been replaced by ‘media’ but that was not the case.

Funnily, the picture is not physically located in the link URL provided. Rather, it is stored in the folder directory which I had specified.

If you had defined a folder to store your uploads, you have to fill in the full path textbox with the full URL of your folder directory as well. In my case, it would be ‘http://limetouch.com/media’. If you had left it empty like I did before, the link generated would be using the default folder directory instead.

Introduction

To a certain extent, it could be considered yet another Lightbox clone. But then again, it has it’s own identity. In comparison with the other clones, Milkbox is unobtrusive. Its transitions are concise and trimmed to the minimum.

The navigational buttons are all placed in a common location, convenience is a strong point. I never click on them because I have the habit of using the arrow keys to get me going. I like the concept of Milkbox being “international”, elegant arrows and a cross to depict their respective functions.

Did I mention that Milkbox runs on Mootools 1.2? Lightbox alternatives built to run on Mootools are far and few, and this so happens to be the one which I like the most.

Give it a try

If you need some convincing, here are some random pictures with which you can give a test run.

The following day, I got a call from the guys at the service center informing me that my notebook is ready for collection. How coincidental is this?

The ] and the menu keys were the ones in question. It was not possible to replace them with new ones. Apart from Sony Vaio notebooks being extremely fragile, their keyboard keys are also not as readily available like the other notebook brands. As a result, a new keyboard had to be ordered and then put into place.

I would be relying heavily on it when I begin my classes at NAAEC, not that I am not depending on it at the moment. I am just glad my Vaio is back.

After yesterday’s freezing climb up to Pendant Hut, this was what I was geared in to attack the summit. 3 polo tees, a long sleeve shirt coupled with 2 wind breakers (One of them belonged to Pendant Hut and I rented it for RM10). Of course we could not set off without our handy headlights and crucial hand gloves.

It was a drag having to come down from Pendant Hut, this time I had the ropes for support. Just like yesterday night, it was pitch dark, the headlights is an absolute must. It is extremely important to know what you are stepping on, you for sure do not want to slip and fall.

The rain saw fit to continue from where it left off yesterday and blasted us with another downpour. It made it even colder than it already was. Up till now, we were just climbing upwards until we were presented with our first challenge.

A semi-vertical terrain was ahead, we were advised to hold onto the ropes and make our way up. The rain decided not to give us any mercy, it got heavier by the minute. That made climbing up even more dangerous than it usually was. Constantly worried about our friends’ safety, we would often make checks on them.

After a grueling climb, we finally made it to Sayat Sayat checkpoint. It was there when we realized other climbers were heading down. The weather was deemed too dangerous to climb. However, we decided to wait there, in hope of a smaller downpour. At that time I was already shivering from the freezing weather. Nicholas like a big brother to me, helped kept me warm by staying close to me, I really appreciate it.

Due to the weather, we were definitely not going to do Via Ferrata.

Downi was not going to take us to the summit as it was too dangerous. He could not guarantee our safety, there wasn’t any insurance. Moreever, the rain didn’t get smaller even for a second and with time, it was getting heavier. I did the next best possible thing, I prayed. I prayed for the rain to get smaller and for us to go home safely. At that moment, it felt as though God had warmed me himself.

Then, the girl from KL (I didn’t get her name) came over and gave me a tap.

Her: Hey, are you praying for the rain to stop?
Me: Yeah, you pray too?
Her: Yep.
Her: The rain is so heavy.
Me: Yeah, too dangerous to go up or down.
Her: I think we are going to go down.
*A pause of silence
There and then, I felt like holding her hand, I don’t know why. I guess I needed someone’s touch.
Her: You are not going down?
Me: No, I guess I would wait for the rain to stop.
That was the last I saw of her.

Before too long after her group had started descending, we were told that it was getting too dangerous to stay at Sayat Sayat checkpoint. It was going to be flooded and from the looks of things, the rain had no intention of stopping anytime soon. As reluctant as we were, being the only ones left at the checkpoint, we had no choice but to descend.

Perry and Zhen Bang made their way at the front while Darrell, Nicholas and I were a long shot behind them. It was very dangerous, no one dared to talk. The only time we would actually speak is to watch out for each other.

I was losing my hands to the cold, they were getting numb. I knew I could not stay up here for long, I had to get down. Afraid that I would let go of the ropes but I pressed on, squeezing my gloves to get the water out every few seconds to keep my hands alive.

I did slipped and fall but fortunately I held onto the rope with both my hands. But I landed badly on my back against the rocks. Thank God that I am still alive. Had the unfortunate happened, I would not be relating this incident to my readers.

I decided to push on ahead of Darrell and Nick for fear that I would totally lose any feeling in my hands; putting my life in huge jeopardy, not that it wasn’t already.

After managing to get onto some lower ground, I decided to take a picture of the devastation of Mother Nature. This was what I went through to get down from Sayat Sayat checkpoint. The rapids were very strong.

Here is another for good measure.

I finally made my way to Pendant Hut, took off my windbreakers and shirts, tucked into the sleeping bag and slept. We had a rest before getting up to grab some food before descending. I am sure Downi was pissed, we delayed so much of his time and he waited for us for at least a good 2 hours.

This was how we got down from Pendant Hut.

I was never in favor of hiring a porter to carry my backpack. Due to the back injury I suffered from the fall while descending from Sayat Sayat checkpoint, I did what many would not expect of me. I got Downi to carry my 8kg backpack at a price of RM20. I definitely did not want to aggravate my injury.

We were descending via the Timpohon route, to get a taste of it. What a breeze it turned out to be.

I wasn’t in the most enthusiastic of moods. While many would have conquered Mount Kinabalu and going down with an achievement on their hands, I went down, disappointed and without any drive.

If you were to keep up with Darrell during this trip, it would be not much of a hassle. But to keep my walking speed in check and slow down the entire time is extremely tiring. With slightly over 3km to go, I decided to move ahead first, it was more of a pain than comfort to be walking so slowly, at least for me.

I was nearing Timpohon Gate and it wasn’t far, less than 1km to go.

What was the first picture to be taken for many climbers turned out to be my last.

I regrouped with Darrell at Timpohon Gate and shortly after we saw our caretaker; Timmy. For some reason Downi had disappeared. After a relatively long wait, we came to know that he had met Zhen Bang, Perry and Nicholas along the way and walked with them. At least all of us are safe and sound, that is what is most important.

I shudder to think what would happen if any of them were lost.

Some souvenirs brought home.

This monochrome RM1 certificate sums it all. It was not meant to be. Mother Nature stood in our way. We were more than capable of reaching the summit given our fitness levels, and none of us had suffered from any signs of altitude sickness. We simply did not have the luck.

The only thing I could take back along with me was that I was able to descend along the rapids in the most dangerous of situations.

Let this be a challenge to myself in the near future: I will conquer Mount Kinabalu, I am looking at the second quarter of next year. Anyone out there game for it?

I was skipping a bath. After I was done washing up, I seem to have caught a chill, all thanks to the icy tap water. At 0715 hrs, there was no sign of the driver, and I started to get bored.

Don’t ask me why I took a picture of an ordinary tree log, I am still till today trying to get an answer myself. After a brief talk with our caretaker and as it turned out, the driver had asked another to pick us up. Apparently, we failed to notice his presence as his car was parked slightly less than a 100 metres away from Grace Hostel. Time needlessly wasted.

Though it was my first time eating pan cakes which are thick, the buffet style breakfast was arguably the best meal since landing in Kota Kinabalu. And after getting done with some administrative works, I came to know of my Sabah name ‘Panan’, turns out to be a typo and when I got my registration pass, it was still spelt wrongly. This time as ‘Darren’.

And I was going to be climbing all the way up there?

There are 2 routes to be taken to ascend Mount Kinabalu, Timpohon and Mesilau. The former is liken to an upwards climb of 6km, no different from climbing countless flights of huge steps, very direct. The latter on the other hand covers 8km in total and for most of it, you would be ascending upwards, then downwards and up again. And it isn’t exactly climbing friendly. It is not difficult to see why most stay away from Mesilau.

Our original plan was to ascend via Timpohon but upon a recommendation from our caretaker, we decided on Mesilau; taking it as a physical challenge to ourselves.

Notice that we are the only ones there and were late by almost 2 hours. We were supposed to get going at 0800 hrs but due to the needless delays, only did so at 0945 hrs. Just some last minute reliefs and off we go! Our ascend of Mount Kinabalu has finally begun.

If you are wondering, that is our mountain guide at the far end. The name is Downi.

There has to be a time where we would have our first rest break and that time was not now. We were simply having a short pit stop to do some adjustments. The weather was not as chilly as we would have thought and apparently, 3 layers of clothes were a little too much.

The backdrop of the picture was supposed to be of the many waterfalls, but apparently it was not captured. So let me change it to a group picture with the mountains as our backdrop.

We failed to capture a shot at 1km, it slipped off our heads and we were definitely not going to go back just to get a picture taken. We settled for the 2km mark instead.

Though there were toilets available, for most of us, we did not use them, instead we would just relieve ourselves along the more denser bushes, this reminds me as though we were going through a survival test. And I quite like the feeling.

Previously we only managed to get a glimpse of the waterfalls from afar, this time we were up close. Though it isn’t anything majestic, it was a beautiful sight and had the makings of the perfect picture.

At that point, we were running low on our water supply, we were pondering on drinking the water from the falls. But Downi pointed us to a tap further ahead.

When filled with the untreated water from the tap, it looked yellowish. But due to our thirst, almost all of us would gladly take it as an alternative. Wished I had taken a picture of it. The fatigue had to come at some point. It did now, we were no different from a dejected group after losing a football match. Our heads down.

This picture does not do any justice to the level of difficulty we had to go through to climb up the flight of stairs. My facial expression says it all. It was pretty challenging.

For the most part, we were the only ones ascending via Mesilau. Till now, we have not seen any fellow climbers. It was lonely on our part.

It was just another stop for us to replenish our energy with some snacks we had packed. When we tore open the box of Jacob’s crackers, this was the result. Look at it’s shape, not that it has suddenly become inedible. Just evidence to indicate how high up the mountain we were. It started to drizzle, but we didn’t make anything of it as it was only a very light one.

The view from here was majestic at the very least. You could basically see the mist being blown across right in front of you. That was how strong the wind was. It was only visible to the naked eye, and not to the camera’s lens. That explains why no video was taken to showcase it. Now that would be a sight I would love to share. Like the steepness of one’s standing ground, pictures or videos are not able to draw out the full beauty of nature, this was no exception.

We had reached the long awaited 6km. The next notable checkpoint would be known when climbers ascending via Mesilau and Timpohon meet each other for the remaining 2km to Laban Rata; our final stop. It is more tougher than what we have been going through since the start of our ascend. At least we will not be the only group going up now. By now the rain was getting heavier and soon it was a downpour.

We had to reach Laban Rata by 1900 hrs because that is the restaurant’s closing time and our dinner would go with it. We separated into 2 teams, Zhen Bang, Perry and I would attempt to get to our destination as soon as possible while Nicholas and Darrell would catch up. At the very least, we would have something to fill our stomaches with.

It was not too far now. But we were feeling the strain as a result of taking the Mesilau route but just as we were going to take another break, suddenly Perry would roar with a motivational shout:

C’mon! C’mon!

And it seemed to have worked, that shout rubbed off us and it gave us the extra push to get to Laban Rata. It would have taken 8 to 10 hours to get to Laban Rata through Mesilau but we did it in less than 8.5 hours. What an achievement! Surely we deserve a pat on our backs.

It was comfort to be able to get into the restaurant and it helps that it has a heater, it was freezing cold out there. Having drenched my clothes in the rain certainly didn’t help things.

Our X-Trekkers coordinator had mentioned beforehand that the food at Laban Rata was “edible” and that we should not have high expectations. Well she did tell us that. I wouldn’t say she did not. On the contrary, I thought that the food was pretty good. After dinner, it is time to get ourselves registered at our lodging for the night; Pendant Hut.

There was a device indicating the temperature at the entrance of Laban Rata. It was a stinging 8 degrees celcius when we went out in the open. The only way to get to Pendant Hut was to climb a slope up. I did not get it wrong, you are not going to walk, but climb up. It was pitch dark, extremely difficult to know where we were going. I was basically following the person in front of me; Zhen Bang. I didn’t know there was a rope we could hang onto, instead I literally “climbed” my way up.

Nearing the top, it seems that whatever warmth my clothes had provided me up till then went away, I was freezing right to my gut; an extremely terrible feeling, the wind was audaciously strong, I could barely see a thing except Pendant Hut and I couldn’t even hear any response from my friends.

The moment I reached Pendant Hut, I was clearly suffering from the coldness. Worried about my friends behind me, I alerted Perry and Zhen Bang about the situation and they went out searching. I was unable to lend a hand, as I would be murdered if I had went out there with a simple windbreaker.

Thankfully, they were alright and we quickly got into Pendant Hut. A cup of hot water was exactly what we needed. Even then, I was still shivering.

We were to share our room with some fellow climbers again, this time it was 3 Spanish guys based in Singapore, Euro 2008 immediately comes to mind, how convenient. After somehow managing to settle down and getting changed into a fresh pair of clothes, we were to attend a briefing on Via Ferrata.

Not much time for interaction with the other climbers, we were physically and mentally drained from our 8km climb. Again, I was skipping a bath, I am definitely not going to risk getting a chill prior to the last stretch. Lights out was at 2030 hrs, that sounded as though I was still in BMT (Basic Military Training). We need as much a rest as we can get for we attack the summit at 0230 hrs.

After much deliberation over the menu, I made my choice. I wanted a Fried Chicken combo, I pointed it on the menu. Just to be sure, I even asked how many pieces were given in the set. And I got a Double Chicken Delight combo instead. The manager blatantly insisted it was my fault when he got the order wrong, and he didn’t have the guts to admit his mistake.

Refusing to waste my time with such an irresponsible person, I just told him sharply and swiftly, “Whatever, forget it!”

So much for a service-oriented business. If you ever go to Senai Airport, you know what to avoid.

Upon touch down in Kota Kinabalu, we were quickly greeted by our caretaker, Timmy. We were put up at the lobby of City Park Lodge Hotel for the time being as we will only be heading to Kinabalu Park at 1430 hrs. The rest of the time till then was spent freely around the vicinity.

When lunchtime was beckoning, we were at a loss. Malay food was just not our preferred choice, we would have liked a Chinese one instead. We walked relentlessly in search of a good chicken rice meal. Frustrated, hungry and tired, we gave up and opted for Nasi Ayam, not too much difference though.

We were lost in translation, none of us could speak Malay fluently, so we ended up deciding on a plate of Nasi Ayam. We went “Nasi Ayam lima”. The portion was extremely tiny and barely filled my stomach. Still hungry, I ordered a packet of fried rice. It was only after a short conversation with one of the locals that we knew that a chinese chicken rice stall was located a few doors next to where we ate. What luck!

Feeling tired after all that walking, we decided to head back to the lobby of our hotel for a good rest.

I was feeling a little bored with some spare time on my hands and started snapping.

Off to a long drive to Kinabalu Park. On the way up, there was a beautiful scenic view of the surrounding mountains. But as luck would have it, I left my camera in the mini van. Good thing I was not the only one with a camera. I will add in the pictures once I receive them.

The weather was a fresh change from the humidity I am used to back in Singapore. After getting done with our registrations at the headquarters, we were shown to our room for the night at Grace hostel, but not without taking a group photo first.

Our room was somewhat similar to a dormitory. There were 3 double decker beds in it and a wide cupboard to store our belongings and that was all to it. Due to space constraint, we were given an additional mattress to accommodate the five of us.

You would be wondering why 5 man group could not be squeezed into a a room with 3 double decker beds. That was because we were sharing it with an Australian couple who had just finished their climb to the summit, while at least one of them. It was useful to have received some first hand experience on what to expect and what nots during the climb. And of course, he delves in Computer Science, a field I will soon be in.

What you are looking ahead is a multi purpose room where we could actually relax in a cosy environment. Not that there was much time for it anyway. We got to be be ready by 0700 hrs the next day as we would be ascending Mount Kinabalu by foot the next morning. We did not have too much time to get too comfy as in less than an hour, we were supposed to attend the climbers briefing.

We were completely lost as to where was the exact venue for the briefing and ended up being the last one to arrive. By then, it was already over and thankfully the guide was nice enough to repeat it just for us. After that, it was to the souvenir shop for some last minute necessities shopping. We retreated to our room.

Washing up was somewhat of a drag. Though they had a heater installed in the bathing cubicles at Grace Hostel, it had its temperamental moments, at times the water would be icy cold, at times it would be scalding hot. It was quite a challenge washing up.

The tap water was freezing to the extent that I had to wash my face in the bathing cubicles using the heater instead of at the basin. It was all too easy to catch a chill. I went to snooze shortly after to prepare for an exciting day ahead!

A 30 litre backpack is not large enough to bring along all I would have liked. I should have considered a 50 litre one instead.

As a result, concessions had to be made. Due to the cost and the lack of space, I would be missing out on the head dress and trekking poles. The latter, in particular is extremely important when descending from the mountain.

If I am not careful, I could severely injure my knee. I am not going to take any chances and got myself a pair of knee guards. Hopefully as much as possible, it could reduce the risk of an injury.

Trekking poles are extremely hot buys in Kota Kinabalu and are very often sold out. Should luck shine on me and stock is available, I would get myself a pair. Make that a couple of pairs for fear that it breaks.

I have recovered from my stye and I am ready to go. The excitement is rushing endlessly to the back of my head. Right now, I am no different from a 9 year old kid waiting to open his Christmas presents.