Kuan Cheen

Monday, June 19, 2006

The Misery's Over!

Did I mentioned in my last post that I moved in to a new hotel yesterday, and was to check out the live telecast at the restaurant?

Well, I called the reception to confirmed about the screening.

me: hi, i just want to confirm about the world cup telecast at the ...
receptionist: yea, sure it's on channel 6

Man, I should have called earlier! Hehe.

So excuse me as i go and catch my first match in Singapore!

kuancheen|singapore|20060619.0053
... i better not regret this

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Stuck in Singapore with no Free live World Cup!!!!

Misery! Misery! Misery!

Have been here for like 2 months.

So far Singapore stood well in cleanliness, efficiency, free shuttle buses to mall and main stations, but to my dismay, while back home we ahve the choice for free tv and paid tv for world cup, but here we are subjected to PPV (pay per view).

Taken from the FIFA official broadcast partner list.

CONTINENT	COUNTRY	BROADCAST PARTNER	PAY TV
Asia	Malaysia
		Astro	1
		NTV7
		RTM
	Singapore
		StarHub Cable Vision	1

* The free channels, RTM and NTV7 combined to show about 85% live matches. correct me if i am wrong here. Been away too long liao.

Well, if i really want, i can actually walk down to the pubs and watch, no mamaks like malaysia though.

Man, speaking of that really miss mamak ler.

Anyway , i just moved to another hotel today and i heard they are showing all the matched live till like 5am at the restaurant. But it is closed today for some private function. So let's see how tomorrow la.

kuancheen|singapore|20060617.2224
... (brokenly) Ich möchte FIFA Fussball-Weltmeisterschaft aufpassen

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

My Ruined Shtick

On February 2, 2006, Bono (U2) made this speech at the American National Prayer Breakfast, in attendance of the American President, and First Lady, King Abdullah of Jordan and other distinguished guests and religious leaders.

He was speaking on the issue on world poverty and was giving a background on his spiritual upbringing; coming from a mix parentage of Protestant and Catholic faith in a religiously divided Ireland at that time, he was cynical God be politicized. He then continued to tell, that he later met a couple of British Christian who in his words "ruining his steak".

At this point I was not really sure I heard the right thing, I replayed the video several times and still could not figure it out. "Ruining my steak" just doesn't make much sense. So, left it at the assumption that it must have been some western slang to describe some one losing his or her values; as valuable as losing one's steak, regardless how corny it sounded.

I left it at that until I was thinking about the speech again while penning for this blog entry on poverty.

This is when I revisited the video again. This time I also happened to bump into the transcript of the speech and together with it, the opportunity to search for the "steak". And search I did.

I searched for the word "ruin" and it got me right to the exact phrase in question. But it was not "steak" as I thought it would be. It turned out to be "shtick".

"Ruining my shtick"

Hmmm, now that looks suspiciously a typo? Immediately I browsed to my trusted encarta and it turned out that it was the perfect word in the speech's context.

So here is the word.

shtick

shtick [ shtik ] (plural shticks) or schtick [ shtik ] (plural schticks) or shtik [ shtik ] (plural shtiks)

noun

Definition:

1. special attribute of somebody: something that especially characterizes somebody, e.g. an interest, talent, trait, job, or hobby ( slang )

2. entertainer's routine: a comedian's or entertainer's act or gimmick ( informal )

3. exaggeration: an exaggerated complaint or extreme position ( humorous )

[Mid-20th century. Via Yiddish, "piece, routine" < Old High German stucki]
encarta.com

kuancheen|singapore|20060512.0240
... there I've posted it, can I please have my steak back?

BlogMap FAQ #1 - ERROR: undeclared namespace prefix

One of the more common errors encountered when registering or updating your BlogMap is the XML "undeclared namespace prefix" error.

Example 1Unable to store blog. Please try again later. [ERROR: 'st1' is an undeclared namespace. Line 67, position 69.]

Example 2Unable to store blog. Please try again later. [ERROR: 'o' is an undeclared namespace. Line 197, position 420.]

To troubleshoot the error, I always find checking on the XML RSS feed to be helpful.

To do this, open your blog's XML feed link on you browser "http://[yourblogname].blogspot.com/atom.xml", e.g. the feed for this site is at http://kuancheen.blogspot.com/atom.xml.

In the case of Example 1, it threw this error:-

The XML page cannot be displayed

Cannot view XML input using CSS style sheet. Please correct the error and then click the Refresh button, or try again later.

Reference to undeclared namespace prefix: 'st1'. Error processing resource 'http://[yourblogname].blogspot.com/atom.xml'. Line 67...

<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">[Written on Sunday 10/16/<st1:time hour="17" minute="0">05 3PM</st...

Basically, XML does not recognised the <st1:time> tag that is used to display the time entry.

To rectify this, just edit the entry manually and replace it with plain text, that is , instead of
[Written on Sunday 10/16/7<st1:time minute="0" hour="17">05 3PM</st1:time> (Bud time)]

change it to simply
[Written on Sunday 10/16/05 3PM (Bud time)]

For Example 2, one suggestion is to edit the entry with a text editor and replace the occurance of <o> and </o> tags.

Hope this helps!

kuancheen|singapore|20060516.0210
... XML: fickle fickle fickle

Monday, April 10, 2006

Eels for Soup

(delayed post)

>>comment

These are the small eels (8-12cm) that are used to prepare the minced eel soup.

And here there are, all minced up ... and cooked.

eelo de soupo

kuancheen|kualalumpur|20050811.1830
... eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....el

Nostalgic Monday

Don't you have one of those days that you suddenly feel nostalgic? Sigh... I'm currently away to Singapore for a business trip, and like any business trip I have I will have the chance to connect to the web almost 24/7, not like back home when certain company still refuse to pull telephone lines to my residence

I had the chance to recollect the memories I had with my group of friends when I was going through my list of friends in frenster, and boy am I feeling nostalgic. I mean seriously really. Have not been having this feelings for a while.

Man .. think for the pass few days there have been a lot on my mind, meeting with folks and friends that I have not met for a long time and seeing where they are now and what they are doing (and not doing), got me reflect on myself again.

And a series of events that got me tihnking and thinking about where I am now and where I will be. Actually I have been having some thought for a while and I was looking forward to the trip to Singapore or anywhere for that matter, seeking for some answers and a change of surrounding, but seems like I having more questions than answers.

Though I know He is there to look after me, and I just hope I make the right choice.

kuancheen|singapore|20060410.2120
... (lead me and i will follow)

Thursday, March 30, 2006

WWW, A Mouthful?

Ah, "W", the most mouthful letter of the English alphabets.

After the term World Wide Web came to public acceptance, the acronymn WWW was then introduced. I wouldn't really blame anyone hesitating in pronouncing the acronym itself. Isn't it mouthful? It have more syllabus that the original than the phrase it stands for, six syllabuses (or syllabi) more to be precise. That's thrice more!

With some odd twist of fate, the WWWs are now embedded in all our webpage URLs. If my memory serves me correctly, which I constantly doubt, we used to read aloud web addresses as "The World Wide Web dot [Bla Bla] dot com".

Then, we actually started to call it "Triple Double-Yoo", which cut down from nine to five syllabi. (Hooray!)

When I was in Sydney, I overheard over fm103.2 (a great radio station in Sydney by the way. I still stream them live!), which their announcers address it as "The Double-Yoos" which personally I think it's kinda cute. Well done lads. Now we are down to four.

The breakthrough for me finally came during my last trip to Germany. When I heard over the airwaves, that went something like, "Vee Vee Vee Punkt [Bla Bla] Punkt Dee Ee". Okay, I can't really remember how they pronounced "dot", which I think is "punkt", again don't trust a guy that needs his head examined. But that's immaterial. What matters to this discussion is that at least for the Germans, the "Ws" are pronounced as "Vee" as in VIVA. Finally we are down to THREE!

Now, I’m sure that there are other languages out there that have mono-syllabic letter "W", this is just an example that it can get better. Just in case you are wondering, in German, "V" is pronounced as "fee" as in FIFA.

So, it came with no surprises that we now completely ignore them in web addresses.

kuancheen|kuala.lumpur|20060308
... ~~www.~~kuancheen.blogspot.com

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Does My Credit Card Goes To Heaven?

I couldn't resist myself from posting this. This came into my mailbox today, from, could you believe it a friend that worked for the financial institution before. Though this was not information was not verified, but sure make a fun read imagining that this could really happen.

Note: Name of the financial institution have been altered to protect the parties involved

It's all about money for CitieBank Credit Cards when you die......

This is too funny! It takes all kinds to make the world go round. Be sure and cancel your credit cards before you die. This is easy to see happening, customer service being what it is....

My Aunt died this past January. CitieBank billed her for February and March for their monthly service charge on her credit card, and then added late fees and interest on the monthly charge... the balance had been $0.00... Now it was somewhere around $60.00. I placed the following phone call to CitieBank:

Me: "I am calling to tell you that she died in January."

CitieBank: "The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply."

Me: "Maybe, you should ! turn it over to collections"

CitieBank: "Since it is 2 months past due, it already has been."

Me: "So, what will they do when they find out she is dead?"

CitieBank: "Either report her account to the frauds division, or report her to the credit bureau maybe both!"

Me: "Do you think God will be mad at her?"

CitieBank: "...excuse me...?"

Me: "Did you just get what I was telling you... the part about her being dead?"

CitieBank: "Sir, you'll have to speak to my supervisor!"

(Supervisor gets on the phone)

Me: "I'm calling to tell you, she died in January."

CitieBank: "The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply."

Me: "You mean you want to collect from her estate?"

CitieBank: ".....(stammer)" ".... Are you her lawyer?"

Me: "No, I'm her great nephew." (Lawyer info given... )

CitieBank: "Could you fax us a certificate of death?"

Me: "Sure."

(Fax number is given)
....................
(After they get the fax.)

CitieBank: "Our system just isn't setup for death"

Me: "Oh..."

CitieBank: "I don't know what more I can do to help.."

Me: "Well...if you figure it out,great! If not, you could just keep billing her...I suppose... Don't really think she will care...."

CitieBank: "Well...the late fees and charges do still apply."

Me: "Would you like her new billing address?"

CitieBank: "That might help."

Me: "Nilai Memorial Park Cemetery" (North South Highway and plot number given.)

CitieBank: "Sir, that's a cemetery!"

Me: "What do you do with dead people on your planet?"

kuancheen|kuala.lumpur|20060329.2340
... ALLO, Nilai Memorial Park ah? There's a delivery for ...

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Live Octopus, Yummy, Eat, Eat

Live octopus is a delicacy in Korea. Though not every Korean digs it, it's quite a popular dish (or maybe not). At least it's popular among the tourist who wants some thrill. Just like 'balut' from the Philippines.

The octopus, I was told are being chopped alive and still moving and will even 'climb' out of the plate they are placed in. You then attempt to pick them up with chopsticks, which is an easy feat since their live tentacles will stick on your chopsticks. Depending on your preferences, dip some sauce and swallow them. The thrill of it is when those tiny suckers stick tight to your tongue, mouth and throat! Wanna try to eat balut instead? Here's how.

These two are taken when I happened to pass by a road side van in Seoul, Korea. Always wanted to try out the live octopus but didn't get the chance. My friends that supposed to bring me didn't have the ~~stomach~~ time for it. Maybe next time la. These are the octopus that will be minced and eaten fresh!

Live Octopus Part 1

>>comment

Live Octopus Part 2

>>comment

And this is how you eat it!!!

kuancheen|kuala.lumpur|20060318.1515
... if stucked in the tummy how?

Thursday, March 16, 2006

New Word: Angkated, Angkating

Happen to bumped into this on ENCARTA!!!

ang·kat [ áng kàt ] (past and past participle ang·kat·ted, present participle ang·kat·ting, 3rd person present singular ang·kats)

intransitive verb

Definitions:

Malaysia curry favor: to try to gain favor with somebody by means of flattery or excessive deference ( informal )

[< Malay angkat bodek "lift testicles"]
encarta.com

kuancheen|kuala.lumpur|20060316
... ter'angkat-bola'ed

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

My First Video Blog!!

I finally uploaded my first video(s) onto YouTube. You will definitely notice the 'rawness' as some of these are purely experimental shots.

These are the videos I took during my last trip to Seoul in December 2005.

The Three Trees
Captured this on the first snow in Seoul 2005 right outside my service apartment and the three potted CHRISTmas trees are happened to be right outside 'basking' the snow.

>>comment

My First Snow Fight!!!
This was the second time I experienced winter in Seoul (man, how I love winter!) and this is my FIRST REAL snow fight! ^^

>>comment

Took this after the snow fight. +_="

>>comment

The Day After
This scene is taken right outside SeJong Hotel (Myu-dong) while I was waiting for my airport bus to fly back home.

>>comment

This is another shot.

>>comment

kuancheen|kuala.lumpur|20060314
... me tubed

Friday, March 03, 2006

I REALLY need my head examined ...

This was a conversation between my ex-uni mate ([ft]) and i ([me]) that took place last few days ago after i have met up with her and another friend ([dt]) in a local church with "their" baby ...

[me]: hey [ft]

[ft]: yes..
[ft]: how are you? okay liao

[me]: yea ...
[me]: no more crutches ..
[me]: eh .. was surprise to see you ler ...
[me]: very cute baby ^^

[ft]: when?
[ft]: why surprised? you know i attend (a local church) right?
[ft]: hey by the way, not my baby ar..

[me]: huh?
[me]: wait .. confused now ..

[ft]: waht confused?
[ft]: you thot i got married and with baby?

[me]: think i confuse liao with which [ft] ler ..
[me]: i tot you from (the local church) ...
[me]: heheh
[me]: which you are

[ft]: got so many [ft] meh?

[me]: but apparently not the mom

[ft]: (from a local uni) one

[me]: man .. i'm so pai sei la
[me]: very bad with names

[ft]: now i am confused

[me]: yes ...
[me]: from (the local uni)
[me]: in acts
[me]: you know [dt] from (the local uni) ah?

[ft]: aiyohhh..
[ft]: so am i the one you thought you were talking to?
[ft]: he is my brother lah..
[ft]: aiyoh,., you real blur

[me]: k ...
[me]: lagi blur now
[me]: [dt] married or not ah?
[me]: heheheh
[me]: this is getting worse and worse by the minute
[me]: hahahah

[ft]: aiyohhh..
[ft]: okay, so you thot the baby was mine?

[me]: wait .. you mean your are [dt]'s brother ... who got married with a daughter .. and i saw you holding the baby?
[me]: wait .. which [ft] are you ah .. you are the one .. in business .. one .. last time was in spb for a while one right
[me]: man ... i gonna have to kill my self
[me]: hehehe

[ft]: i mean.. my brother is = [dt], i am SISTER...
[ft]: yes..
[ft]: i am gonna kill you

[me]: you elder sister?

[ft]: you saw me the other day with [dt]'s baby..
[ft]: yes.. i am elder

[me]: how come din see his wife one
[me]: man ...
[me]: die die
[me]: hahahha
[me]: wa liao eh ...
[me]: this is soo sooo embrassing ...
[me]: haha .. k ..
[me]: at least i got the right [ft]
[me]: just got the relationship with [dt], the baby and you wrong only

[ft]: you very bad lah

[me]: sry sry .. told you mah .. my memory really bad one
[me]: so how come din see your sis in law?

[ft]: she is (name withheld) lah.. the one beside [dt]
[ft]: from (the local uni) also

[me]: errr ....
[me]: k
[me]: before i make more a fool of myself ...

[ft]: you din notice meh?

[me]: how many ppl travelling with you .. when i met you twice in acts

[ft]: the pregnant lady with us

[me]: think i might have notice . .but was playing with the baby more then noticing another lady ...
[me]: there were 4 of you guys right
[me]: eh . .your bro was in cf was he?

[ft]: yes.. including baby is 4
[ft]: yes he was

[me]: wait ... wait .. k .. i dun mean to be rude or something ... eventhough i think i have sounded quite bad lioa ...
[me]: i actually tot the fourth person was .. err .. your helper

[ft]: ohhh.. you mean [dt]'s mother in law?
[ft]: i cannot remember if she was with us the day you met us

[me]: actually dunno
[me]: looks quite tanned

DUH!

Okay, let's stop here. You got the point.
I've a problem with my short term memory.
Need any more prove? :P

So if I ever forgotten your name. Sorry Sorry Sorry. You are not the first one. :P

kuancheen|kuala.lumpur|20060303
... neuro surgeons apply here

Guilt of Neglecting and Feeling of Neglected

Hi People,

Before I start my rant, I just want you all to know how sorry I felt about neglecting you all.

I do have my reason for it, primary for the past few months I have been side line in footballing term since the World Cup is right round the corner and recuperating from the operation to have my right anterior cruciate ligament reconstructed, the same injury suffered by Gabriel Heinze (not that I am comparing myself to him). More on that experience in my next post.

Some of you all may have known that I have moved in to my new place some time in September, in between my trips to Munich. And being a new residential area, there was a certain lack of service because the area was deemed under populated the time we moved. The internet service provider refused to have the service extended to my area, although their infrastructure was ready up to like the previous block.

No Internet = No Blog

So, my apologies for the long silence. Now still without connection at home, though loaded down with work at the office, I feel obliged to drop a few words.

There you have it, hope that you all been fine. Those of you that had drop a message or two during my AWOL, I'll try my best to get back to you ASAP.

kuancheen|kualalumpur|20060303.1330
... now back to work

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

i just wanna blog

i wanna blog i wanna blog
but things been hectic been hectic lately
work work and work and work
by hey looks who's complaining?

i always wanted to blog more but me being the 'perfectionist' and 'want-my-blog-to-look-good' me always spend a lot of time to make sure my post is a perfect post which explain my lack of post cause i can't get 'em perfect, not that those i've posted are.

see, that's the dilemma i have, have to spellcheck la, make sure all the html tags are correct and complete la it does take time.

sometimes i feel i should let my blog be a blog, which is a raw unedited thoughts, hmmm.. maybe i should start another one just for that.

different people have different style but i just love mine the way it is. it's your blog, just like your bedroom, your locker (which i don't have one) it reflects your personality, i tells about what kind of a person you are. whether you are diligent to check your spelling, your grammar or just being reader sensitive (not like the obvious lack of caps in this post), or you are a self obsessed, attention seeking or just plain some one who wants to get things of your chest. hey ppl can tell a lot from reading your blog and the same way you can 'tell' others what kinda a person you are they way you want others to perceive you.

am now in the capital of south korea, got here last week. wanted to that the opportunity being online in the hotel to blog but being occupied with cartoon network showing x-men evolution. i know it's lame.

weather is cold, but enjoy the cold breeze that freshen me up every time i love the fact i can't feel sleepy in freezing cold, but too much of a good thing is bad too. temp drops to one or two degree below zero not the coldest time yet, but hoping to see snow again. missing snow. i seen them the first time two years back and i miss them. snow snow snow ... weeee ... i am imagining seeing soft flakes dropping from the sky.

great food miss the food here, anyone that say that is nothing to eat in korean should bring me with them for the trip and i will bring them around. snapped lots of pic of the food will share with ya all once i got the time to upload.

as for now need to catch some sleep, no internet access in the new office that we just moved in this monday, so gonna be a disconnected day again.

see ya all! take care

kuancheen|seoul|20051130.0130
... dreaming of white CHRISTmas

Monday, November 14, 2005

surrender

sur·ren·der [ sə réndər ]

verb (past and past participle sur·ren·dered, present participle sur·ren·der·ing, 3rd person present singular sur·ren·ders)

Definitions:

1. intransitive verb declare yourself defeated: to declare to an opponent that he or she has won so that fighting or conflict can cease

2. transitive verb give up possession of something: to relinquish possession or control of something because of coercion or force

surrender territory

surrender your passport

3. transitive verb give something out of courtesy: to give a seat, position, or office to somebody as a courtesy or as a gesture of goodwill

4. sur·ren·der your·self vr give self up to something: to yield to a strong emotion, influence, or temptation

5. transitive verb law abandon rights to something: to give up or abandon rights to something, especially to give up a lease before it has expired

noun

Definitions:

1. giving up fight: an act of declaring defeat at the hands of an opponent

The French demanded an unconditional surrender.

2. giving up control: an act of relinquishing control or possession to somebody or something

3. delivery into legal custody: the delivery of a prisoner or fugitive into legal custody

4. law abandonment of legal rights: the abandonment of legal rights, especially the giving up of a lease or an insurance policy before it has expired

5. giving self up to authorities: an act of willing submission to authorities

[15th century. < Anglo-Norman, "give over" < render "give (back)," variant of Old French rendre (see render)]

encarta.com

kuancheen|kualalumpur|20051114.2100
... the words of the day was brought to you by encarta.com, now back to our regular programming...

suffocate

suf·fo·cate [ súffə kàyt ] (past and past participle suf·fo·cat·ed, present participle suf·fo·cat·ing, 3rd person present singular suf·fo·cates)

transitive and intransitive verb

Definitions:

1. die from lack of air: to die from lack of air, or kill somebody by stopping him or her from breathing

2. stop breathing: to deprive somebody of air or prevent somebody from breathing, or be unable to breathe

3. feel, or make somebody, too warm: to feel uncomfortable through excessive heat and lack of fresh air, or make somebody feel uncomfortable in this way

4. prevent somebody or something from developing: to confine and restrict somebody or something with adverse effects, or be or feel confined and restricted in development or self-expression

[15th century. < Latin suffocat-, past participle of suffocare "narrow up" < fauc- "throat, narrow entrance"]

suf·fo·cat·ing adj

suf·fo·cat·ing·ly adv

suf·fo·ca·tion [ sùffə káysh'n ] n

encarta.com

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Taipei: The Land of Typhoons and EarthQuakes

I'm a bit bored now. Another one of those days that you have tonnes of stuffs to do that you just feel like .. sigh .. i need a break.
So for the benefit of my visitors, i am taking my break to sprinkle a little delight on your eyes.

These are my pics form my last trip to the capital of Taiwan, Taipei, from 25 Sept till 11 Oct.

It was a trip that was filled with mixed experience, from my first Typhoon (Hurricane) encounter to my second earthquake and having to privilege to stay in one of the most luxurious hotel in Taipei. Enjoy.

Taiwan (Taipei) 20051011
( 66 images )

Taiwan (Taipei) 20051001
( 18 images )

kuancheen|kualalumpur|20051025.2010
... Lord, I need Thee, I long to hear from Thee, lead me to Thy righteous path, reveal to us Thy plans.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

More Pics from Germany ... Finally

As a continuation from my previous post on my trip to Germany, here are the rest of the pics.

I have managed to updated my pic links and now it is grabbing the images from my flickr account rather than from my imagestation account as it seems they have some BW hogging prevention system on.

This kinda a slight delayed post as i was having a torrid time uploading my pics. (maybe there are too many of them). Okay, enuff said, it's picture time.

Europe (Munich) 20050831
( 8 images )

Europe (Munich) 20050828
( 196 images )

Europe (Munich) 20050827
( 18 images )

Europe (Munich) 20050821
( 12 images )

Europe (Munich) 20050815
( 10 images )

Europe (Munich) 20050813
( 13 images )

kuancheen|kualalumpur|20051018.2000
... ah ... finally an entry from back home

Thursday, October 06, 2005

5.2 on the Richter Scale

At about 0015 today my Taiwanese friend pinged me on MSN.

Just as I saw her message popping up, i felt a tremor.

Immediately i pinged her back, "earthquake ah?"

It was the second time i felt an earthquake tremor. The first was also in Taipei about 3 months ago. That time it was stronger, i in the hotel room that time and suddenly i thought i saw the lamp stand was shaking and then i felt dizzy for a while and then i switched on the TV and saw the news.

This time however, it last less then 2 seconds and was just a slight movement.

The Taiwan Central Weather Bureau reported that this earthquake was 5.2 on the Richter Scale. The epicenter of the quake is to the south-east of Taipei City as depicted in the diagram below.

Taiwan Earthquake 20051006 @ 0016.35
click or mouseover for larger pic

kuancheen|taipei|20051006.0145
... wind, earth and ...?

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Hurricane LongWang Hit Taiwan

[k ... this is not really a breaking news, but could be a late, way late, breaking news, hence the past tense]

LongWang hit the Central East Coast of Taiwan as what the Americans will classified as a Category 4 Hurricane (Katrina land fell at Category 4). The typhoon made its land fall with a maximum sustained wind of 225 kmh (140mph) which was also classified as a Super Typhoon.

The classification of the storm in numeric categories is of the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.

Category One:
Winds 74-95 mph (64-82 kt or 119-153 km/hr).
Category Two:
Winds 96-110 mph (83-95 kt or 154-177 km/hr).
Category Three:
Winds 111-130 mph (96-113 kt or 178-209 km/hr).
Category Four:
Winds 131-155 mph (114-135 kt or 210-249 km/hr).
Category Five:
Winds greater than 155 mph (135 kt or 249 km/hr).

Hurricanes and typhoons? What's the difference? Well the difference is purely geographical. A short answer will be that hurricanes are from the oceans around US, typhoons are typically from Western Pacific (East Asia). And all both are called Tropical Cyclones in meteorology.

This was my first account of a tropical cyclone and apparently for some others that was captured by a of Taiwan news channel. A reporter was approaching a group of people watching the waves, braving the pouring rain and strong gust. When approached and questioned, a person from the group said in Mandarin,

我们从马来西亚来的
wo me si chong ma lai si ya la de
We are from Malaysia

When asked why there are here (in the middle of the typhoon storm), they answered,

马来西亚没有台风吗
ma lai si ya mei you tai fong ma
There are no typhoons in Malaysia

Who said Malaysians are not adventurous!

Longwang (龙王/龍王), or "Dragon King" in Chinese, though the name sounds scary, the typhoon was not named right after it was spotted but rather from a list of names contributed by a group of Asian countries.

And our own Malaysia contributed to one of this year's super typhoon: Super Typhoon Mawar.

Did you know that from around 1953-1977, hurricanes are having only female names? They were initially names of girl friends and wives of the people that found them. Hmmm...

Here is an article that explain why hurricanes are named in the first place.

kuancheen|taipei|20051002.0145
... braving for more storms