Why am I so crazily fascinated over container homes?

Container homes is the "IN" thing if you are looking for something reusable, recycled, durable, sustainable, quite possible a green home as well and talking about low in cost to have a home. The construction period to build a container homes usually take way less time than a conventional home.

As for the design layouts for container homes, there are a lot of designs out there for you to customized your container homes. You can easily scour around the internet for layouts and designs. Best part of all about having a container home is that you can have the liberty to design everything on your own. Designing and constructing  your very own container home is definitely something do able too and many have been seen to bring up a whole container home all by their own.

Check this video out below to view a complete container home constructed from recycle materials that is all inclusive of  the used container of course.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCZHbZokicA&NR=1

The other reasons why I am crazily fascinated over these container homes are because of its mobility and flexibility to expand. If you gotta move it, you can break it down again and stack the containers onto the truck and away you go. As for flexibility, this comes when you are thinking to expand your home. Simply add on more containers  and what do you know, you home is expanded! Although it is obviously vital to note that this is easily said than done, deep planning is highly critical here.

There are a lot of container homes that are commonly featured in Inhabitat.com and it is going to blow your mind away because you really can't quite tell and believe that the homes are actually made from a used container. Simply amazing! One example of a beautifully designed prefab container home is this one (click here) by Leger Wanaselja.

So now, you tell me why shouldn't I be overly fascinated over container homes because aren't you loving it already? :)

How to make your own paneer (home made cheese) at home?

A couple of years back, I was introduced into a really lovely, delicious North Indian cuisine which is the palak paneer. Palak paneer is a totally vegetarian dish consisting of spinach and paneer ( home made cheese) cooked into a curry. The one I used to have was really good especially for a first timer palak paneer eater. Haha.

Come to think of it, you can never actually imagine having to eat cheese with curry but trust me, the combination of the home made paneer works absolutely great with a rich in spice Indian curry. The paneer in the curry taste something like a combination of a chewy tofu but of course it tastes more rich because it is cheese and it comes from milk.

So I am going to share with you on how you can make your own paneer (home made cheese) all by yourself at home. Just so you know, paneer is a home made cheese and I don't think you can actually go out and buy one in the store.

Anyway here goes the paneer ( home made cheese) recipe:

Ingredients:

- Optionally you can flavour your paneer with bay leaves or rosemary ( or any type of herbs of your choice)

- 8 full cup of full cream milk, 1/4 cup of lemon juice

Methods:

- Simmer the milk

- Then add the lemon juice

- Stir the milk until it starts to curdle

-With a muslin cloth, pour the curdled milk over the muslin to separate the remaining water (whey) from the curdle.

- Tie a knot at the end of the muslin with the curdle wrapped inside and hang to dry

- The remaining water left after the separation is called as whey. You can still make use of the whey for some other dishes which I am not particularly sure what dish that will be. Haha.

- Leave the wrapped up curdle of milk to dry and then press with a plate overnight and store in the fridge.

- The paneer will be reading for cooking the next day.

Enjoy making your own paneer at home and hope you'll make a good, delicious palak paneer with it. Also, if you would like to find out on my favourite list of  North Indian cuisines, check it out here in my Spice of India post!

Photo Essay : The Dutch and their bikes!

[caption id="attachment_1759" align="alignnone" width="408" caption="The different range of Dutch bikes in The Netherlands"][/caption]

"Bicycle is popular in the Netherlands (everyone knows this) and they are expensive (everyone knows this too). But did know you that you need to have the correct Rule of the Road knowledge to ride one? I bet not many know this. Just like driving any motor-driven vehicle that is. The little scooter (<50cc) type is gaining popular here and they are using the bicycle lane.

Some may carry this motto "Have bicycle will travel".  There is a bicycle in the garage for anyone here. Go and help yourself." - Ride A Bike Traveler.

To find out more on Riding a bike for your travel or RTWs(Round The World trip), do check out Ride A Bike Traveler's blog link here.

I have a wish : To at least do one good deed once a week

I feel a huge need to specifically share this. So here goes ...

As part of sitting down for a couple of minutes and setting out my plans for the year, I have carefully written and included to do at least one good deed or thing in any form be it volunteering, donating, providing support and services to people who are in need, sharing thoughts and becoming a better listener - pretty much anything listed as a 'good thing' for at least once a week.

The reason I have put this in my bucket list of must do things this year is because I need to feel a sense of satisfaction and worthiness in my life. It may also be about searching my purpose in this life too. I also understand and truly believe that in the principle of living in a society these three simple things helps us to function and bind better as one which  are the act of sharing, giving  and accepting. Therefore, I feel the urge and need for me to share, give and accept and the least thing I can do about it is to remember to provide one good deed at least for once a week.

I am not trying to push things too hard by putting a high benchmark of becoming a super goody person for everyday because we all know this fact too well - we are all born to stray. Nevertheless, I hope once a week of doing something good should be a good start of making a change for something big that a lot of people can benefit from. Get this, you don't need to be a 'somebody' to start making a change on the way things are working in this life. You just need to be sincere and put service above yourself because the reward is going to be something extravagant that no money can buy.

If you are looking for a true happiness, self-worth and a huge sense of appreciation from people around you, the best thing for you to accomplish that is to start giving the things that you wanted to have in return receive the things you have been missing in this life. Just in case, you still don't know where to start, leave me a comment and I will share with you on ways you can start giving and begin receiving in your life and that is still accounted under doing one good deed for at least once a week. :)

So yeah, I have a wish and I plan to keep up with it which is to do at least one good deed for at least once a week. So what are you wishing for today?

Animals Anecdotes 20 : Lil doggy Brownie is a first time mum!

This is an extremely exciting and happy news. Just a couple of days back, I had written about Brownie, the little female dog is suspected to be pregnant and I am supposing just about the same time as the post was written she had given birth to some puppies. At the moment she is placing her little kids in a safe place, hopefully safe enough from 'outsiders' and even away from all of us. She got smart, so she decided to dig an underground whole beneath the cabin home that fits herself and her little puppies.

We are unsure of the number of puppies that were born. From the faint sound of their tiny yelp for milk, heard only as you come closer to the opening of the 'underground home' , it sounds like there might be two of them puppies. Whatever the number is, nothing is for sure now not until we can have a good visual look of them little ones.

We are just happy for Brownie, proud of her for taking a good care of her kids, being a first time mum and all. Oh goodness, her motherly instinct simply kicks in right on full gear. Brownie is as happy and cheerful as ever. Looking extremely delighted when she saw us coming - almost as though she was trying to say, " Hey everybody! I just delivered some really beautiful babies. Come look and boy, I'm hungry after all those hard labour". Haha! She surely was famished and chowed down her meal in minutes.

Hopefully all will turn well for Brownie and her puppies. To Brownie, " Congratulation girl!".

[caption id="attachment_1741" align="aligncenter" width="163" caption="Brownie - picture is taken a couple of weeks ago"][/caption]

My kind of Running Playlist : Dance & Electronic - Paul Oakenfold

I have written about my favorite running playlist before which is the Funktion Won from Paul Oakenfold's Perfecto Vegas album. By far, I would really think that Dance-Electronic or Club music is probably one of the best running music that you can have playing in your MP3/iPod playlist. Personally I just love any genre that has  Dance, Electronic and Club tunes. The effect of having great vibrating music pumping next to your ears is liberating, energetic and powerful. It gives away just about the right amount of energy boost to motivate you to stride and run.

Besides Funktion Won, here are a couple of songs that you may want to add on to your running playlist mix :

Left Alone - really good morning run music. The beat intensify gradually as the song goes.

Awaken (Torin Schmitt Remix) - it has fast beat starting from the start of the song and have lots of lyrics to 'wake you up'.

Ultimately, anything from the Perfecto Vegas Album by Paul Oakenfold is worth to have in your running playlist. I can guarantee  you a great running experience when you have a real spectacular running music playlist to accompany you with. If you have never checked out on any of Oakenfold's awesome, energetic music, you must have a go at it. Try out listening here and have a feel on their great tunes. Oakenfold simply kicks ass!

Animals Anecdotes 19 : Brownie is pregnant! I think so ...

It's been sometime now since I last updated on the latest juice about the doggies. The last time, I mentioned about  the number of dogs from five dogs came trickling down to two. As for right now, the big news now is, we are suspecting that Brownie - the only female dog ( she's about roughly 1 year plus) in the pack is now pregnant! There were a lot of 'mating' activities going about sometime in December last year and at that time, I was kiddingly counting on when Brownie will delivery her baby.

So if our prediction is correct and the 2 months pregnancy of a typical dog is up, the rough estimation of Brownie to become a first time mother will be somewhere around early or mid February. As for now, when can see visible changes on her appetite and her body. She has been quite fierce with her partner in crime - Joe like barking out to him as though chasing him away during meal time.  Since she is dominating all the food, Joe has lost quite a bit of weight and instead of a muscular, tough guy he is, he is now officially slim. Or probably he is just loosing appetite and giving away all food to Brownie because she is pregnant.

Oh well, I don't quite understand how all these dog interaction really works, but it is safe to report that both Brownie and Joe are in the pink of health. They are still sticking around the place and we shall see next month then if Brownie is going to deliver any new puppies. Let's hope for the best shall we!

http://www.yaszamzah.com/2010/11/animals-anecdotes-16-down-to-one-doggie.html

RideABike Traveler is now roaming in South East Asia

I'm just doing a little bit of blog promoting here because I think it is worth promoting because RideABike Travel is my dad! Hahaha.

A little preview of what a Ride a Bike Traveler is all about:

- He is addicted to his motorbikes and for years now, his preferred mode of transportation is the motorbike.

- He has a dream to go RTW (round the world) traveling solely on his motorbike. So far he has traveled solo into Europe for about 2 months on a rented dual purpose motorbike.

- For the past 2 weeks (almost) he has been roaming around Thailand-Laos-Cambodia, all on his own again and the family is expecting him to be back home entering Malaysia from the north by this coming Monday... and we he sure had 'a lot' of crazy adventure, hopefully he will start sharing on his rideabiketravel blog once he gets home.

If you are thinking about places you can visit for your very own RTW trip and most importantly, if you love bikes, you have to check out rideabiketravel.blogspot.com . RTW is an adventure of a lifetime and obviously it is not for the fain-hearted if you are planning to travel solo. Do check his blog out and leave a comment or two while you are at it, okay!

Extreme Sea Kayaking by The Tsunami Rangers

I saw these guys the Tsunami Rangers on ESPN a couple of days ago. Man, they are a true Dare Devil! The Tsunami Rangers are a bunch of extreme sea kayakers and the team have some compilations in DVDs of their high on adrenaline adventures maneuvering through rough waves, dark narrow caves, the vast ocean and pretty much anything extreme any sea kayaker should experience.

You can check out their YouTube vidoe here on Extreme Sea Kayaking - a compilation of the Greatest Hits of The Tsunami Rangers adventures. Do note that it is pretty extreme and will get your adrenaline pumping, that's for sure!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fftJUKvcBA

To find out more on the Tsunami Rangers, you can check out their link here.

Finding my FOCUS

Wow, time really flies. We are already on week 3 out of the 52 weeks we will have to endure (with God willing) this whole year. So many things have been going on and so far I am pretty happy with it. Although there are still one major thing I have been holding back, procrastinating about and the one thing that I really needed the most now to help me going  is some FOCUS. Guess what, I found my FOCUS thanks to Leo Babauta.

I hear this all the time that if you focus and believe on things hard enough, you can achieve on what you wanted to achieve and I know that is true because I've done that before and the result was remarkably successful. It was even beyond my expectation that I never knew I was able to accomplish it with just a little bit of FOCUS. I know myself and I know I'm this kind of person who like to multi-task  and I lack focus on things. When I'm doing one thing, my mind started to wander and thinking about the next thing I should be handling and doing and I always have to tell myself to get the current thing done first and then you can move on to the next. It was a crazy mind game - imagine screaming to yourself in your head to get yourself to focus on one thing at a time. So that is me and no, it is not a good thing when it comes to producing quality in the work that I do.

So because I was asking for FOCUS, one fine day, I was reading another new post from Zen Habits and I found out about the new book by Leo Babauta which is "Focus - A Simplicity Manifesto In The Age of Distraction" . The book has two version - the free and the paid version and on my case, I downloaded the free one to check out on how good the book really is.

I must say, after reading only the first couple of chapters, I have found my focus by spending the time to work on the things needed to be done and spending less time on the distractions (Twitter, FB, blog hopping, etc). However if you really want to find out on how to focus on things fast, you can skip the first few pages and go on straight to Section IV: Focus; page 86. That will hopefully teach you on how to get started with focusing ASAP. I know I am not on this alone because we are all prone to distractions in our work and that is why we are stuck with that daunting timesheet we have to fill in everyday at work.

I still have a couple of pages left to finish up with the book because I deliberately don't want to finish up the book in one go. I want to be able to read it slowly so that whenever my focus is lacking, I can always go back to the book and continue on the reading further on it and learn more on keeping my focus right. If you are looking to have some focus in your life, I feel that this book by Leo can really help you to get on the right track. Please go and download it, take time to read it and let's just Focus already can we!

Missed a weekend Kuching trip but I am glad I missed it!

Yeah I have sum up what I am going to say in this post all in the title. Haha. So the story is, my dear FF (you can check out her blog on the link, although not much is going on there for now) won a pair of free air ticket to Kuching by a fairly new airline operator to Sabah and Sarawak. For some unknown reason our reply for the tickets redemption was not entertained not until it was 2 days before the day we were so suppose to fly which at that time I have already decided to not go because of the weather (raining and some parts of Kuching were flooded earlier last week and a plane skidded at the Kuching airport runaway) - all happening last week, so it wasn't exactly a good idea to rush and make it there all because of some free tickets.

And...to add on to things, I was feeling a bit under the weather on the weekend and I would have one of the worst days throughout the trip if we would actually have made it to Kuching on the weekend. So all in all, things happened for a reason and I'm just glad I hadn't gone on the trip.

However, I'm feeling a bit bad for FF because she was really anticipating to make her first trip of the year to somewhere in Borneo. Sorry partner, but I think we'll have a much better trip soon when the weather is perfect and with no rush ( for tickets and taking leave from work). Whatever it is, I'm still looking forward for some trip to Kuching and let's see if it's going to work out soon. As for now, I'm not going to plan on anything but I'm just going to go with the flow and focus on today and now.

Where Would You Prefer to Travel In Malaysia?

If you are a Malaysian traveler or more like a Malaysian who likes to travel, one of the most common goal for us is to travel to all 14 states in Malaysia. Personally, I have 2  more states ( Terengganu and Sarawak) to complete my personal  'cuti-cuti' Malaysia travel. I spent most of my growing up and adult years roaming mostly in the Peninsular Malaysia. It didn't occur to me to check out on East Malaysia or Borneo or simply put it as Sarawak and Sabah not until two years ago that I made my first trip to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. So the question now is, after having traveled to almost all states in Malaysia, where would I prefer to travel in Malaysia?

The answer to that will be Sabah and Sarawak! Yes, if given a choice to travel and discover more things in Malaysia, I would prefer to explore more of  Sabah and Sarawak or the Malaysian part of Borneo. I am going to list down the reasons why you and I should travel more to Sabah and Sarawak:

- When I was about 12, I had this teacher by the name of Dr.Mayala of an African descent who asked me where I was from and I told him I am from Malaysia. Dr. Mayala replied," Oh, that's Borneo right!" and I was like, "No, I don't live in Borneo".  At 12 years old my Geography was not that good, not that it is any better now and if only back then I could explain to him that a part of Borneo which is Sabah and Sarawak is a part of Malaysia which is the East Malaysia and I am from West Malaysia. Just in case you are a bit confused myself included, Borneo consists of three different countries which are Sabah-Sarawak of Malaysia, Brunei and Kalimantan of Indonesia and it is the third  largest island in the world.

So, the I'm trying to get here is non-Malaysian usually associate Malaysia to Borneo and unfortunately, the bigger part of Malaysians (people from the Peninsular Malaysia) have little knowledge of the other part of us Malaysians - the Sabahan and the Sarawakians. Imagine yourself going abroad and meeting fellow travelers who are non-Malaysians and most of them should have traveled down to Sabah/Sarawak and you will be utterly clueless of what they are trying to share with you because you are a Malaysian that have never been to Sabah and Sarawak. Ouch, that will be absolutely pathetic, really. Haha.

- I have to admit that my knowledge about Sabahan and Sarawakian are really limited even after having traveled to Sabah twice by now. There are something about people from Borneo that are uniquely different from us Peninsular Malaysians and the only way for you to discover more about them is to visit them in their home ground of course.

I have to say that people in Borneo are more welcoming, very friendly, helpful, down to earth and polite. Yes, I have to highlight polite! Haha! I think they sound polite because of their close to "Bahasa Baku' accent. If you are looking for something of a change from the typical Malay, Chinese and Indian people that we have in the Peninsular, you really should make sometime to discover the other larger part of Malaysians - the ethnic people of Sabah and Sarawak on their way of life and believe me, you will love them. :)

- Sabah and Sarawak are really huge. Sarawak is the largest state in Malaysia followed by Sabah the second largest state in Malaysia. You don't ever dream to discover Sabah or Sarawak from just a week's travel over there. I believe you will need months to discover both Sabah and Sarawak in one shot. So there is more than enough reason to travel more to the East of Malaysia.

- Both Sabah and Sarawak is a haven for an outdoor adventurer. I love the outdoors and with these two states you get to explore the beautiful sea, the ancient old rain forests, the unique animals only found in Borneo like the Orang Utans, Proboscis Monkeys, Borneo Pygmy Elephants to name a few, the majestic mountains and caves and jungles waiting for you to discover and explore.

From the people to the places - this part of Borneo is something worth traveling to in Malaysia and it will always be the preferred travel place of my choice in Malaysia. If you are a Malaysian, do make a point to travel there will you. We have cheap airfare now thanks to AirAsia so there is just no excuse to not get out, travel and explore more of our lovely country, Malaysia. So where do you prefer to travel in Malaysia? By any chance, will it be Sabah and Sarawak?

Today I learn about creating goals the proper and SMART way

It is the starting of the year and many bloggers started publishing articles on their goals for 2011. Well most of them had the 'goal post' up right before new year to share their goals with their readers. Today, I came across the same  kind of "My Goals For 2011" article by one of my favourite blogger, Pat Flynn. He's more than just a blogger really. Check him out if  here you are interested to learn more about what he does for living.

Anyway, today I learn about creating goals the proper and SMART way. Thanks to Pat for sharing with me the SMART ways for goal creation. The SMART goals are broken down to these:

S -  Specific

M - Measurable

A - Attainable

R - Relevant

T - Timely

The S.M.A.R.T should be your general guideline in creating any kind of goals that you may have in this life (career, financial, life, etc). If you ever wonder, myself included on why goals I've set out last year were never met, it was because I realized that there were hard to attain, not specific and not measurable. I'm certainly going to draft up a proper goal creation for this year and with lots of focus and determination, let's work for my goals and may all of them be achievable this year.

In case you are wondering and still thinking of some goals to pursuit this year, remember SMART and make that as your base guideline for your goals.

In my dream home, I want to have a living/green wall

I love anything dealing with eco-homes, green home, sustainable products, recycle goods, scraps turned to cool art decor and the latest addition to that will be to have a living wall or a green, living wall in my future home. As for now, I can pretty much settle for just a big, growing palm tree ( not too sure about the exact type) sitting on a pot outside my room. That is as close as I can get for an eco-friendly, 100% natural humidifier for my room. :)

Anyway back to the living wall or also known as a vertical garden and a green wall. The idea for a living wall has been around for a very long time now. A living wall is basically live plants literally living vertically on the wall. The whole idea of having a living wall in your home other than for the decor purposes are  to provide more oxygen, thus increasing the good negative ion in your home and also to help improve the air quality in the surrounding area as well.

When we are talking about negative ions, it is worth knowing that our body reacts tremendously well to these ions because they work by helping to relieve stress, increasing our energy level and you will be in better mood.  Negative ions are the good molecules or fresh air that are available in the air that we breathe. Places like mountains, waterfalls and some others have a high concentration of this good negative ions. Since we don't usually get to climb mountains or visit waterfalls that often in our daily life now, having a living wall seems like a good idea to have for the good of our health as well as living up with the green theme in our homes.

There are various types of plants that you can consider having in your living wall as long as the plants get enough sunlight and water. You can also DIY your own living wall and there are also the self-watering green wall available as well. I really love the idea of a self-water green living wall by Greenworks and you can check the article about it from this link by Inhabitat.com

Hello and Welcome 2011!

Today is the first day of the year and so far celebrating the new year 2011 with my family has been great. Let's see what happened?

We all ate a little bit too much than we can handle last night and the same goes for almost the whole day today which in return turns out to be bad for my body. On the flip side, I managed to run a good 1 km to kick off the new year. On any standard at all, the 1km run was pathetic, slow and left me feeling a wee bit dizzy after the 'intense' running. Hahaha. It was certainly a vain attempt to kick out some needed calories burn or more like trying to kick out 'gas'. LOL.

Nevertheless, I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year . Let us hope and pray for a better year than the last, filled with heaps of new, great and life changing experiences to add on for yet another great year in this life. With that, Hello and Welcome 2011!