In just 2 days after installing the MT-Blacklist Plugin, 99 spams has been blocked and additional 10 has been moderated. Imagine, those days, without this, I will have to delete the spams on a daily basis. Great plugin and I have to say, this is one of the most necessary plugin that you will need with MT.
Six Apart Guide on Spam Protection (read this first) — and no.. rubber wont do you any good here…
Social Movement
Kevin Wen, on his own way has found a way to use the Technorati tags to start a social movement and so he calls it. 10 Places of My City was conceptualize one fine day over a Starbucks Coffee. The idea was to use the Technorati as a listing agent, and anyone who blogs about the 10 Places of their City will subscribe to these tags. In turn, Technorati will list all the blogs about this topic.
Technorati Tags: 10placesofmycity
In over a couple of months, there are already 100 blogs posting about this. Mainly Chinese blogs, but there are a few English sites that pick this up. Mine Included. I thought I would be the first to post about the 10 places of my city : Penang. For those who are in Penang or any other parts of Malaysia, come and join, post your 10 places in your city and help promote our “Enchanting Malaysia”.
Maybe we could also create a ProjectPetalingStreet Tag, and break it down to States. This way, we could have Technorati list bloggers of Project Petaling Street by states. We could have this to be Who’s Where for Project Petaling Street. Now, remember, you heard this idea from here first..
10 Places of My City : Penang
10. Khoo Kongsi
The Khoo Kongsi is a Chinese Clan Temple located in the winding streets of Georgetown. What makes the temple special is the lively architecture and peacefulness of the surroundings. Entrance to the Temple used to be free, but since the resent restorations, a small fee are now being been charged. To bypass that, you can visit the World Heritage site for a free 3D view of the complex ground. What intrigued me most is the complex surrounding. The place consist of a Temple, in the middle with a large courtyard, and surrounded by family clan houses. When you enter the area, you will walk through some family houses before arriving at the courtyard and the Temple. It feels like a large family once lived here and the courtyard is where they commune and mingle, a warm fealing?
9. War Museum @ Batu Maung
An Army bunker at the Batu Maung area was recently turned into a WWII museum. This first of it’s kind museum is accessible by an hourly bus that runs from the Jetty to Batu Maung. The museum house mainly WWII relics, bad reminder of war and how time was during the 40′s. Visitors could roam freely at the bunker exploring tunnels, pill boxes, and endless rooms used for storage, infirmary, etc.. The museum entrance is not free and visitors are charged RM10 for adults and RM5 for children.
8. Komtar
Short for Komplex Tengku Abdul Razak, is the tallest and most distinctive building in Penang. The building is located at the heart of Georgetown and is in the shopping hotspots. The building is currently housing local government offices, Shangri-La Hotel and a shopping mall. A newer shopping complex called Prangin Mall is located next to Komtar and a sky bridge connects both building.
7. Penang National Park
Pantai Acheh reserve forest was crowned to be a National Park on April 2003. It is one of the smallest National Park in Malaysia. The Park has a few challenging trails that leads to either Monkey Beach / USM research center or Kerachut Beach (turtle sanctuary). The trails take about 2-3 hours of medium hike and at the end, a long beautiful beach awaits the traveler. Here are some photos from my hike last year.
6. Fort Cornvallis
This old fort left by the colonial British is located at the north east of the island. Being in Georgetown, the Fort is located close to some of the trourist spots, such as Khoo Kongsi, Little India and the Ferry Terminal. The location of the fort is also where Francis Light landed in 1786 and proclaim the island Prince of Wales Island as the day he landed was the birthday of Prince Charles. Close to the fort, in fact just in front of the fort lies the Statue of Francis Light. The fort was restored in recent years and now is one of the prime tourist location. Admission is RM1 per person and the fort is open from 8.30am to 7pm daily.
5. World Fish Center
Penang is proud to be the home(headquarters) of the World Fish Center. The Center’s Mission is to reduce poverty and hunger by improving fisheries and aquaculture. The Outreach Center is located at the South East of the Penang Island, right at the Batu Maung Area. The center is not really a tourist spot, rather more of a research facility. However, the center do allocate for visitors, but I am not sure if it is open to the general public. Here is a map how to get to the center from Equatorial / Vistana Hotel and Here is a general map of the Center’s location.
4. Snake Temple
A Chinese Temple full of Snakes, was built in 1805, and after it’s completion, snakes from the then dense jungle starts to appear on their own in the Temple. Hence the name Snake Temple name was associated to the temple ever since. The temple is located in the Bayan Lepas district, southeast of the Island. During it’s peak days, the snake counts were in the hundreds, now, there are only a few on display. Fearless visitors could hold the snakes and have their photos taken for a small price.
3. Penang Bridge
The Bridge was officially open on 1985, with the length of 13.4KM linking the island to the main land. During the opening, the bridge boasted to be the longest in Asia and Third longest in the world. It is now illegal to stop in the middle of the bridge to take photos. There is a photo spot just before entering into the bridge on the coastal highway on the Penang island. There is an annual Penang Bridge Run organized by the New Straits Times Press in the summer and this is the only opportunity to Run/Walk the entire length of the bridge. The bridge will be closed for half a day for this event and motorist will be diverted to the Ferry for the crossing.
2. Kek Lok Si
Situated at the foot of Penang Hill or rather next to the Penang Hill cable car station, it is a Two-in-One package for tourist. It is a Buddhist-Taoist Temple, with the tallest Pagoda and statue of the Goddess of Mercy in the state of Penang. The temple is accessible from the Air Hitam town, and one could hike up a small hill to the temple. The hike will pass through various tourist stalls and once arrived at the temple, there is an option to take a cable car or rather a tram to the peak of the temple. Close by, at the Air Hitam Market, is where the famous Air Hitam Penang Laksa (Noodle in Spicy Sour Sardine Soup) is located. Scoring “-10″ for hygiene, the stall is packed all the time and it is a must try for the locals or for those who could stomach the hygiene. This by the way is not the best stall in Penang, but among the top 5.
1. Penang Hill
Being the tallest peak of the Penang Island, Penang Hill offers visitor a serene environment with a splendor of botanic life. Accessible mainly by cable car, visitors could spend hours at the suspension bridge walk and later retire to an hotel that has a birds eye view of GeorgeTown city. The cable car operates till xxpm, and visitors still have the chance to catch a glimpse of Penang night skyline without having to spend a night. Enthusiast locals will scale the jungle pathway or a set of tar road to the peak. Both terrain has it’s challenges and their respective fans. Penang Hill is a great place to get away from the city, for locals as well as tourist.
There are many more places in Penang that I have not mention here, I will leave to other bloggers to give them airtime.
I have grown bored of Blogger and have created a new blog under my photoblog domain. My latest postings can be found at http://sweetsour.uni.cc/blog/
Another sleek application for Ipod. No doubt, this will make Ipod Photo to be more of a camera man’s companion, providing music (inspiration) during the shoot and storage after that. This is also great for vacationers who do not want to carry the laptop around, a little music players can provide endless photo storage, and best of all, the capability to view them on demand. Obviously the Ipod Generation is expending it’s wings…
Source: AppleInsider
Being a typical Malaysian, I get glued to the TV every evening for a serial drama. I was introduced to the Jewel of the Palace by my wife and ever since then, 8.30pm every weekday has been blocked out for the serial.
The serial is about a dedicated female individual, despite all the odds and hardship, strive to become the leading physicians of her time. The story was based on a true historical figure in Korea during the Chosun Dynasty. What caught my interest most, was the character’s perseverance in overcoming somewhat seams to be an endless trail of odds. After overcoming her life long enemy and uncovering a trail of conspiracy, she has to overcome the social stigma of her gender.
Her endurance and perseverance is truly inspiring, reminding that in our daily lives, a little hardship is nothing compared to what some others go through. If we can’t even overcome these small hardship, how can we overcome far worst in the future. Her character reminds me of Tolkien’s Frodo and Xuan Zang (a Chinese Buddhist Monk from 623 BC who traveled to India to obtain Buddhist scriptures, an inspiration to the popular Chinese story “The Monkey God”), they all overcome hardship, against odds that have little to no chance of success, but through endurance and perseverance, prevail and became a legend at their own time.
Today is the last of the 70 episodes that will be aired by 8TV and for sure, I will be glued to the TV from 8.30pm to 9.30pm to catch the epic ending.
For Those who could not get enough of the series or have questions or would like more resources, you can visit a forum at the link below, created for fans a like?.
