Civet Cat Poop Coffee!

Coffee lovers, feast your eyes on one of the most expensive types of coffee on the planet. A gift from a family friend that visited Indonesia.

Kopi Luwak.

Kopi Luwak, or Civet Coffee, is mainly produced in Sumatra (and other parts of Indonesia). 

Now you might be wondering what the civet cat has to do with a bag of coffee powder.

More civet rat than cat I guess. Credits: Wikipedia.

The relationship can be understood by reading the title of this post once again. This time, let it sink into your head.

The civet rats... cats eats coffee berries because well, it stops them from feeling hungry. However, they do not have the skill, time nor patience to spit out the seeds, which are your coffee beans. The poor beans are entitled to the luxury of travelling through the civet cat's digestive system. Fortunately, the cat's digestive system plays nice with the beans, and the beans are pooped out still retaining their shape. 

Fascinated by the fact that the beans are capable of surviving such a terrifying roller coaster ride, farmers collect the poop, pick out the beans, and dry them.

After some cozy roasting, the beans are ready to fulfill their ultimate destiny!

So, ENJOY your mysteriously BROWN, addictive, aromatic cup of POOPY goodness!!!

Balik Pulau

It's finals season again! Wonderful! But I still squeezed a day out from my revision to visit Balik Pulau. Don't have much time to blog, so I guess some photos will do.

Pasembur at the Balik Pulau market.

Bought a large bag of prawn crackers cuz my bro drinks them like water.

What's Balik Pulau without the laksa?

Mind soaking your feet?

Kiam Hu! (Salted Fish) Near Pulau Betong.

Again near Pulau Betong.

Pulau Betong fishing village.

The stretch of beach at Pulau Betong. Caution. The waves are VERY strong.

This is cool. Self service laksa. RM1 per bowl, and the soup's awesome (and refillable)!

This Pak Cik's laksa is somewhere near a place Shingun identified as Genting. She knows that area well but I don't. She was basically my tour guide for the entire trip. If you get the chance, do try the laksa there. I assure you it's going to be worth every RM1 you spend there.

You even get to decide how much veggies you want.

Padi fields near 新路头.

 Now, back to work. Laksa next time.

Last Lecture

I attended this final 1 hour lecture although the lecturer had nothing to teach. My last official lecture in Inti, after 3.5 years there. Time flies.

The classroom was very empty.

The reason I was there was to hear my lecturer say "class dismiss" at the end of the session. It was his way of chasing all of us out (although normally he runs out faster than us). 

With this final "class dismiss", I close another chapter of my story.

The action continues in Perth!

Snake Awash

I chanced upon this guy when strolling along the stretch of beach in Tanjung Bungah. At first I thought it was an eel, but taking a closer look, I realised it was a sea snake. 

Meet Slimy, the slithery little monster from the deep blue sea.

I think the snake was dead, because it showed no reaction when I tried to get closer. The person beside me had the good sense to pull me away when I was a meter from the snake. I used my camera zoom to take the next photo.

A closer look at Slimy, the dead sea snake.

So when you're at the beach having fun, be careful where you place your feet. Heh heh heh...

Activated Charcoal/Carbon

After visiting the toilet 4 times, I decided to do some research on the black stuff I was consuming to help my tummy overcome whatever nonsense was (and is) going on in it.

Activated charcoal is basically carbon that has been treated with controlled oxidation. After treatment, the charcoal will possess a high degree of microporosity (gives the charcoal lots of tiny, tiny holes). Due to this, 1 gram of activated charcoal can have a surface area exceeding 500 square meters (says Wikipedia).

Activated charcoal has 14x the adsorption power of ordinary charcoal. *Cool scientific term* Adsorption (not absorption) refers to the adhesion of particles (atoms, molecules etc) from a gas, liquid or dissolved solid to a surface. This means when the carbon flows through your gastrointestinal tract, all those icky yucky ewwy toxins and impurities are attracted to the surface of the carbon. The activated charcoal works like a magnet, using its wide active site (read: surface) to bind with toxins that give your tummy the ouchies. When you finally unceremoniously dispose of the contents of your gut, the charcoal goes out with the impurities, leaving your intestines squeaky clean!

Besides diarrhea treatment, activated carbon is also used for treating drug overdoses and poisonings. It all works the same way. So if you accidentally ingest a can of herbicide, ask your local pharmacy for activated carbon. Taking carbon before having an alcoholic drink also decreases your body's ability to absorb ethanol from the drink, hence reducing your expected blood alcohol content.

Pretty cool, huh? Thank you black ugly tablet for helping me through my indigestion!

Dear Consolidation Accountants

After working through my consolidation assignment, I would like to say THANK YOU on behalf of the entire planet to all accountants out there working on drafting consolidated financial statements. I never realised you guys had such a sh*tty job. It must have been so hard on you guys.

We, the stakeholders and end users of the consolidated statements, would like to express our appreciation for those sleepless nights and emotional breakdowns and spells of violence and insanity and eating disorders etc etc etc you had to endure to present before us the Consolidated Financial Statements of ABCXYZ Ltd for the financial period ending 30 June 201X.

I believe I speak for everyone when I say you all are geniuses for being able to balance the unbalanceable, tie the untieable and tally the untallyable. I'm sure this makes sense to you guys.

Also, please note that I probably won't be joining you all in this profession. So with one guy short, please do keep up the good work :P

The Avengers

I'm not a fan of superhero movies ( I find the idea of a huge green guy smashing through my bean plants slightly intimidating). Nevertheless, I gave this movie a go, and I'm giving it the thumbs up.

I've nothing much to say about the special effects and the actions sequences. All superhero movies involve large things destroying larger things, resulting in noise, explosions and debris. Lots and lots of debris. The Avengers is no different. You get to see skyscrapers torn down to pieces the size of cornflakes. Cars being thrown across the street. Aliens scaling walls. You get the picture.

However, one good thing is that for The Avengers, the script itself is worth the ticket price. I was delighted to see superheroes with a way with words. No more "Never fear, Captain America is HERE!" and other corny lines that remind me of cartoon heroes.