I was reading “Rip Web Trends of the 90s” over at NCZ Online and was disappointed to realize 80%+ myanmar sites still make use of those 90s styles he mentioned.

These are the things we all included on our web sites by default, and now have gone the way of the dinosaur:
# Guestbook
# Counter
# Image Maps
# Best Viewed With
# Splash Pages

I would definitely love to see myanmar sites get rid of those especially “Splash Pages”, “Counters” and also try to make the site compatible with FireFox as 90% of myanmar sites are totally crap once you view with browser other than IE.
Also need to reduce their great love for flash, well flash is nice if you can make it faster load but seem to me they just never finish loading.

Another thing about myanmar sites is that they use heaps of animations and messy background images. Each page changes different background images and you just don’t know which page you come from or might have a great doubt about whether you’re in the same site still.
Consistency is the main thing myanmar sites lack.

Now now, don’t start…I know my site is crappy too but it’s good to consider some constructive critism right?

Link: “Rip Web Trends of the 90s”

Some of you might remember, sometime back I’ve written about “Indian Engagement Party”, and guess what, now it’s their wedding.

It’s all started with Sarnil fall in love with Krishma (or the other way round/vise versa, I really don’t know) and left us muddling with projects back in office. Inspite of some of us desperate attempt to hold him back in the office, he got it through and finally tied a knot with Krishma. I was honored to attend to their wedding. It was quite a memorable event and I would definitely remember for sometimes.

It was a beautiful, sunny gloomy, rainy, cold, wet, cloudy morning. I really hate going out in the rainy, wet weather and I almost decided not to go to the wedding. But the rain was in my favor and stopped for an hour, so I rush there around 11:30am. The wedding was supposed to be at 11am but as usual everyone’s on Fiji Time and when I got there, not much guests have arrive yet.

I had a bit of problem finding where/who to give the wedding gift to as the gift table was quite hidden by a group of ladies doing “puja” (I think that’s what they call it).

Note 1: Nobody bother receiving the gifts or welcome the guests in.

Well, I had to blame my four eyes for not looking properly but those eyes did quite well in finding the gang from work. Thanks to Jason and Alesi’s matching outfits.

Note 2: Those outfits, WOW! Very flowery, very distinguishing.

I started taking photo of Sarnil receiving “Puja” with some $$$ in his lap. Then I went out to take a quick snap of the temple and the car. This is the first time I been to Hindu Temple (rather the compound).

Note 3: I see…quite a few $2 notes, I waited for a while hoping to find $5/other notes drop to his lap. Nope. I see only $2s.

The guests started arriving and the wedding was about to start so I went back to my seat and had a bit of nose around about the new face. No doubt, the new guy was Jason’s brother and Mr Sheehy having a bit of problem introducing him, I had to ask first.

Note 4: Oh so that’s #2 out of 6 bros. Look alike but different.

The priest started praying for the groom in the “Mandut” and after a while the bride showed up. There were about 100 or so “Ohn … BaGaWar, etc” prayers, pour some water here and there, spraying rice or some yellow flower petals over the couple heads and the family gave some kisses to the couple.
I couldn’t see all those processes from the back so I went in front to sit with some Indian ladies and had a few chat about :

• What’s the priest doing?,
• What’s the significant of the leaves in front?,
• Why they always use the elephant god image in wedding cards and ceremonies/why other gods not present here?,
• Are you the relative of bride or groom?,
• Where/who are their parents?,
• Why the groom’s mother not present?,
• Why they always do 3 days ceremony?,
• Why are they burning woods?,
• What is that stuffs they mixing to put in the fire?
• And many other stupid questions.

Poor lady couldn’t concentrate on the wedding and had to answer my questions.
I’m not sure she got annoy with some of my questions or she just doesn’t know how to explain so sometime she just give me very unresolved answers like “That’s the way it is”, “We always do like that”, a short “Yes” with no other explanation, etc.
Thank god, the lady didn’t sheeww me away. I can be very annoying sometime. LOL

I just found out that Indian weddings can be very Smokey. You know they had lots of stuffs to burn. I think some scent wood (smell like mixture of sandal wood, KaRa’Mat, NaThaPhyu…I think) were burn up first and when the fire growing, they mixed rice, pop corn? A few things I don’t know and burn them all. The smoke and the smells are incredibly eye tearing.

After those burnings, the couple started going round about. I’m not sure how they do that in Fiji but I’m pretty sure I thought I seen they tie the groom’s shawl with the brides, then the groom walk in front and the bride follow, in most of the Indian movies I’ve seen. But then I might be wrong, I don’t know.
Check out this picture, not quite right … I think.

Note 5: I just think the man usually walks in front and the lady follows. May be “Lady’s First” here.

Now the most memorable thing about this wedding was that we had a bit of tragedy. No, nothing happened to us but the unfortunate bird got its wing and feathers ripped off by the ceiling fan. That little bird has been woozing about in the hall and finally there go a loud puff. I think he might have been drunk or blind I don’t know but the bird just collided with the fan and the feathers flew off everywhere. Everyone attention was now on the bleeding bird, which was just right in front of the Mandut where the couple were started to do their 7 round of walk. If I was not mistaken, it happened on their 2nd round of the walk.

Sarnil gave a big frown to the bird and carry on with the walk. You bet, we all got a bit of shock. It happened just above where I was sitting and I really wanted to take a picture of that bird but everyone was watching and feeling bad about the event, it would be very unwise and rude to go take picture of it. First I stood up, just to go take that photo but I stopped myself and went to sit with our group at the back. According to the witnesses, the poor bird didn’t get killed but couldn’t fly and walked out for the hall itself. Unfortunately I didn’t see the bird, the only thing I saw was lots of feathers and some blood under the front seats.

Note 6: 2 loud bangs(somewhat like car wheel busting), 1 big busted balloon, 1 injured bird. Hmm…something to think about.

Before the ceremony was over, we got hungry and decided to take an early lunch. We were the very first group to eat and some of the meals were still preparing.
Ok now…how should I say…if I say I enjoyed the lunch then I would be lying. Let just say, lunch was alright, others seem to enjoy it quite a lot and even taking another serves. I think my taste bud is different, I didn’t like any of the food there. May be I’m not use to Indian curries. There were about 5/6 different varieties.

• Tomato Chutney
• Beans Sprout curry
• Palau (“Dan Pout” kind of Spicy Rice but totally different from Burmese “Dan Pout”)
  It’s vegetarian Palau, but no vegetable or what so ever in there except for some green peas. Brown cook rice with lots of “Masalas”.
• Tomato and yellow bean curry
• Some sweet round things(which should be more like dessert than proper meal)
• and Puris (but that’s optional – it u take palau then no puri)

It was really hot, I do eat hot stuffs but that was just too hot for me. I can’t eat at all and I took only 2 – 3 bite on potato then me done there.
Man the worst thing is nobody to see to the guests…may be I don’t know anyone there and if you’re relative or indian friends then I don’t know. People were coming to eat and you take your own plate to the back and wash it. I always have a problem with eating hands and I seriously wanted to wash my hands so I took my plate to the back, wash the plate and wash my hands as well.
This was the first wedding where I have to wash my own plate hehe

After the meal, we took some photos with the couple and also as a group. Oh yah the bride cannot come out from the room after the wedding, I don’t know why. So we can only take with one of them each time. There were alot of smiles that day and hehe I just can’t help noticing some of the smiles.

Just another Colgate Ads. Can you guess which is which?

When I got home, I was so hungry and had proper lunch with my fav fish curry, sour leave soup and mixed veges. My mom was shocked to see me so hungry

Final Note:I like Ian’s Shirt, Selena’s Shoe, Alesi’s Dimples and Daniel’s Smile.

There, that was my experiences on last saturday wedding.
I just pray that Sarnil doesn’t get mad at me for talking a bit of cow $hit here.
More photos: Check out the Gallery

Last weekend our family and a friend of us gather to eat “Hta Min Thote”, Burmese Rice Salad. Our friend(uncle KMCho) is very good at cooking and almost every weekend, he would make something special and my mom makes a few more and we eat together. This time, while my mom was preparing for morning (break-lunch) “Hta Min Thote”, uncle called and said he’s preparing to make “Mandalay Mont Tee”. So he brought some stuffs, we added some more and finally quite a lot of ingredients to make “A Thote Sone” (mixed salad).

I had 2 serves of “Hta Min Thote” with lots of chili, seaweeds and green pawpaw. I don’t’ like “Mandalay Mont Tee” because it’s too oily and make you go sleepy. My bro ate 3 types of “Mont Tee” (salad) with different varieties. My mom was the only one who mix stuffs for all of us so she was very busy mixing then.

One thing I love about Burmese Foods is cos’ we have lots of varieties in a single dish. But that’s the very same thing I hate about Burmese Food. It takes a lot of time to prepare and too many stuffs to add.

I’m not good with cooking/chopping/peeling/preparing or anything to do with food matters, except eating. If I’ll have to prepare this kind of meal for myself, I would never ever be able to do that. I take about 7-10 mins just to slice up one onion and think of all those stuffs to slice, chop, boil, mix …. Arrggggghhhhhh … just too much for me.

Just for 15 – 20 min of delicious meal, you’ll need the whole morning to prepare. That’s just not right. But for those who love cooking then they might enjoy doing all those. So here are some of the ingredients you need to make one good “Burmese Hta Min Thote”.

Main Ingredients:

• Cooked Rice, (Hta Min)
• Boiled Vermicelli, (Kyar San)
• Boiled Noodle, (Khout Swal)
• Chicken Curry, (Kyat Thar See Chat)
• Boiled Eggs (Kyat Ou Pyout)
• Dry Prawns (Pa Zon Chout)

Seasonings:

• Chili Powder (Nga Yote Thee Mhont)
• Roasted Pea Powder (Pall Mhont)
• Fish Source (Ngan Pyar Yae)
• Tamarind Juice (Ma Gyee Phyaw Yae)
• Fried Onion (Kyat Thon Nee See Chat)
• Fried Garlic (Kyat Thon Phyu See Chat)
• Seasoning Powder (A Cho Mhont)
• Salt (Sarr)

Veges:

• Beans Sprout (Pal Pin Pout)
• Cabbage (White – slice roughly, Green – slice finely) (Gaw Fee)
• Seaweed (Kyout Kyaw, Yae Nheyit)
• Boiled Potato (Ar luu)
• Green Paw Paw (Thin Paw Thee Chit)
• Spring Onion
• Lime

Side Dish:

• Onion Salad with lime juice (Kyat Thon Nee Thote)
• Chicken Stock Soup (Kyat Thar Sout Pyout)
• Fried Crispy Noodle (Khout Swal Mont Kyout)

Well that’s all we add in our “Hta Min Thote”. If you want, you can add some more like “Tohuu”, “Hta Min Nee”, “Hta Min Sane” etc. The more ingredients you add, the better your “Hta Min Thote” will be, ofcos you also need to know how to mix the right potions of all those stuffs.
Tough job to prepare one good meal huh? Oh mind you though, “Hta Min Thote” is not a main meal for Burmese. It’s just a breakfast kind of thing.

So how’s your weekend meals like?

Over at Arloo blog, Wai Pyo has compiled a neat note on short chat/interview of mayvelous blog and well yah abit of me.

Last week I interviewed “Mayvelous” about her blog and her opinions on blogging. Actually I had been trying to interviewed her since the 1st week of November but didn’t have a chance since I was quite busy playing poker(just kidding!). At last, I finally met her on Yahoo last week.

Check it at Arloo.

Interesting enough, someone with very amusing mind must have pulled the wire this morning.
No internet in our island for 2 hours.

I got this from a friend forwarded email and thought would be quite a nice note to keep about what/why they celebrate Diwali. :p

Diwali

A young second generation Indian in the US, is explaining the significance of Diwali to his younger brother. This is how he would go about it…

So, like this dude had, like, a big cool kingdom and people liked him. But, like, his step-mom, or something, was kind of a bitch, and she forced her husband to, like, send this cool-dude, he was Ram, to some national forest or something… since he was going, for like, something like more than 10 years or so, he decided to get his wife and his bro along… you know…so that they could all chill out together.

But DUDE, the forest was reeeeal scaryshit… really man…they had monkeys and devils and shit like that. But this dude, Ram, kicked ass with darts and bows and arrows…so it was fine. But then some bad gangsta boys, some jerk called Ravan, picks up his babe (Sita) and lures her away to his hood. And boy, was our man, and also his bro, Lakshman, pissed… And you DONt piss this son-of-a-gun cuz, he just kicks ass and like, all the gods were with him. So anyways, you dont mess with gods. SO, Ram, and his bro get an army of monkeys.

Dude, dont ask me how they trained the damn monkeys… just go along with me, ok… so, Ram, Laksh. and their monkeys whip this gangstas ass in his own hood. Anyways, by this time, their times up in the forest and anyways .. it gets kinda boring, you know… no TV or malls or shit like that. So, they decided to hitch a ride back home…and when the people realize that our dude, his bro and the wife are back home…they thought, well, you know, at least they deserve something nice… and they didnt have any bars or clubs in those days…so they couldnt take them out for a drink, so they, like, decided to smoke and shit…and since they also had some lamps, they lit the lamps also … so it was pretty cooool … you know with all those fireworks, really, they even had some local band play along with the fireworks.. and you know, what, dude, that was the very first, no kidding.., that was the very first music-synchronized fireworks…you know,! like the 4th of July stuff, but just, more cooler and stuff, you know.

And, so dude, THAT was how, like, this festival started. Cool! Diwali rocks,

It’s so hot in here! Last week it was too much raining. This week hella HOT.
You can never tell Fiji weather. It changes a lot, even in a day time. One minute it’s raining and the next it’s sunny like not a single drop of rain before.

It’s a tiny island and the capital city, Suva, is even tinier. My place to my work is only 10 min drive and within that short distance, there are different weathers. Sometime it’s raining back home and so hot at my office. Can you believe that!

Today it’s so hot at my office and at home too. Too humid last night and I can’t sleep well. No wind at all and the sky becomes a big slice of orange. When I get home this evening, it’s drizzling in the hot orange sky. Then, there form a gloomy rainbow due to the mixture of water particles and the ugly sunray. Rainbows are supposed to be beautiful but this one looks awful. My sis took a picture of it and you can see how gloomy the rainbow looks in that ugly reddish-orange sky. I hate the hot, humid, gloomy weather.

How’s the weather like in your part of the world?