Blog updates

Hey folks who are still following me here ... A few updates to the blog:

1. It is now back on Blogger.
2. It is now known as My Consumer Nation ("my" for Malaysia or myself ... depends on how you look at it.)

Everything else is pretty much the same. I had left a last post in the Wordpress version of this blog to direct whoever's still accessing it over there. Do update your bookmarks, aight!

Opportunistic food vending

How would you feel, when your favorite hawker food for all-time, decides to up its price - just for the hols?

Not by 10 sen or twenty, mind you .... that being the very common rate of increase in virtually all food these days ... but a whole 50 sen! Yes: half a Ringgit ...

That's what happened recently, when I had the best Char Koay Teow this part of Ipoh: from RM3.00 (which is already a 30-sen increase from pre-Hari Raya prices) in October ... to RM3.50, for a plate of with egg and cockles (no shrimp.) From what I see on the rest of the stalls' price lists - price hikes are across the board for every dish in the shop. The only thing that did not get a price rise are the drinks.

Sorry to say - this will be the last time I'm gonna step foot into this shop until the prices revert back to sanity (if ever) come 2011 ...

Consumer Nation Under New Owner

Hellooo, everyone!

Yep: this is Uncle Burger - the fella that had his stuff stolen waaaaay back ... and sponsor of Consumer Nation.

First of all, I'd just like to give a big shout-out to y'all that had bumped into CN while blog-surfing ... yeah, I know it has been accidental all these while ;-) But nevertheless, y'all contributed towards the comments of really old postings - that's cool. Thanks!

As you can see by now, I'm renovating the looks of the blog. Put in a new exterior with some crisp lines, simple colors, and a layout to highlight the magazine-styled postings that we've been doing all this while.

At this moment, CN is a one-man show ... me :-p That shouldn't be a problem, and I hope to stick in more posts as soon as I can. I'm also working on some really cool ways to help you - the reader - to locate the stuff that is written here in CN ... Think satellites ;-)

Alright, better keep this short ... Y'all got any questions about Consumer Nation - please feel free to drop me a comment or two. Thanks again!

Uncle Burger hit by thieves

In a very sad development, our sponsor, Uncle Burger, reported that his stove, table and parasol was stolen from his residence yesterday morning at around 10:30am.

CN is back ... almost

Harroo! I'm back from the trip to Singapore!

Plenty of stuff to write about, but we are pooped :P Give me some time, ya ... would likely have something up by the end of this week; which is like, 24 hours away ...

CN's trip, south of the border ...

We are going to Singapore!

Choice of transport? Luxury coach from Ipoh: A 20-seating, LCD-screening, DVD-playing fully-reclining chair, First-Class-lounge-on-wheels transport :D Not much of a choice anyway, given the spat between the Perak state government and AirAsia on the suspension of the budget airline's Ipoh-Senai route ...

But, hey: we are going on a roadtrip!

I'll be documenting the ride, and all else products and services (mostly food!) that one should come in contact with as a consumer traveling two-thirds the length of Peninsular Malaysia. I'll also be reviewing the products and services while in Singapore, thus making the following articles a first for CN as product/service reviews exiting Malaysian borders.

So wish me luck in getting some decent Internet connections on the way there, including Singapore - see you there!

Consumer Nation officially on WordPress.com - welcome!

That's right, folks - CN is now fully powered by WordPress.com, the greatest blogging system in the universe. Well, ok ... not the universe, but it's darn good and as idiot-proof as a blogging interface can get. Sign up for one yourself!

Please read on for important information for existing CN Premier and Standard members!

Pretty good!

It looks like we are almost on "all-systems-go" for Wordpress.com to host and manage Consumer Nation (or CN for short since our inception.)

A test site for Consumer Nation

Hi everyone that has happened to stumble upon this site!

I'm just testing out the WordPress.com functionality to see if we can work here the way a lazy fella like me would love to. That means NO more script security fixes, updates, upgrades, and stuff like that ... I'm currently hosting my stable of blogsites using WordPress, see.

Everything seems to be dumbed-down nicely from a long-time WP user's point of view ... but I dunno. There's still a whole bunch of "functionality" I believe I seriously do not need, nor do I wanna see as I'm of the type that loves to click at whatever crap I see ("Ooo ... what's this do ..?") and end up screwing myself :-(

Let's give this a couple of weeks and see what happens. Meanwhile, you can check with our sponsors Ipoh Blog & Podcast and KL Blog & Podcast.

Thanks for visiting!

Schlotzsky's, Ipoh Parade

Alrighty - this is not gonna be a nice, long review. In fact, it's gonna be short and rather bitter :mad: cos I really did not expect what I had coming when I plonked down in this Schlotzsky's outlet which I had held in high regard - in the US, that is. Here? Sorry lah. Here's what happened ...

I was like, thirsty and slightly nibblish after window-shopping around Ipoh Parade with friends lah, right ... So we decided to sit down at this "Funny Name, Serious Sandwich" shop smack midways up/down the ground floor of the mall lah, right ... Order lah: 3 drinks, 2 plates of nibbles (something hot dog one, I forgot lah). Service cantik. Waiting time wasn't so cantik ... makan ok ... until I saw the bill.