I’m not one for happy stories, but it’s Malaysia’s National Day, so just humour me. For the uninitiated, there are 3 major races in Malaysia – the Tour Le Langkawi, the Malay Mail Big Walk and… okay, okay. The three races are Malays, Chinese and Indians. If you’re a Malaysian and not of those 3 races (‘none of the above‘), there’s an term for you – ‘others‘ (in Malay, it’s ‘lain-lain‘), This will include Eurasians, Caucasians, illegal migrant workers who refuse to go home and Amway salespeople. Okay, happy story. Happy story. Not resorting to Sang Kancil fairytales or humourous anecdotes about former Prime Ministers, it’s happy stories that make…

Okay, okay, last Siti post, I promise. For this week. No seriously, I was watching the wedding event of the year (after failing to gatecrash the wedding at KLCC in the evening)… aside from the fact this was the longest I’ve watched local TV, and appalled at how drab the colour on TV3’s transmission was, it was quite a grand event, looked like the who’s who of Malaysian royalty and entertainment industry was there, and a few Indonesian stars thrown in… “Pakcik, ini majlis kenduri salah lah, pakcik. Kenduri kahwin ‘Joe & Iza‘ depan lagi, dekat Kampung Ampang Dalam, ikut sana jalan terus. Ini KLCC, kenduri kahwin Datuk K dan…

A few days ago, while flipping through the sports pages in our local newspapers, in between the big articles (with huge headlines) of the ‘in‘ sports like English football, Formula One and pro tennis, I saw a minuscule write-up about the Merdeka Football Tournament currently held somewhere in KL. Wow, I didn’t even know they brought this tournament after so many years. I remember the last few years they held the tournament (late 80’s? Early 90’s?) the attendance was so poor the organizers made a loss. The report mentioned that the match attracted a respectable crowd of 20,000, which is quite good considering anyone with Astro can watch world class…

I’ve been watcing lots of anime recently. I’m somewhat a late bloomer, plus the fact I prefer to watch them slowly, like two or three episodes per week (mainly to make sure they last longer), unlike some people who can finish a DVD season in two day marathon… I’ve always wanted to blog about the anime I watch, just like Silencers or Dustyhawk, but never got round to doing it, i suppose this’ll be a good way to start. Top Ten Cliches in Japanese Anime The eyes. The big, shimmering eyes. That has got to be the top anime cliche. The coloured hair. Pink, purple, blue, green, white (popular for…

Ladies and gentlemen, the biggest story in Malaysia for the week (and month and year), is not the haze, not any political spat, not petrol prices, but this: (pic swiped from utusan.com.my. Apologies.) Congratulations to Cik [tag]Siti Nurhaliza[/tag], or should we call her Datin K, or is it Datin Siti? Back home, my Malay neighbours always say the school holidays are the best time to have kenduri kahwin. That when we put up the zinc roof (dulu where got canvas canopy one), block off the road, use the house compound to make huge pots of nasi minyak, rendang and the kids will run riot the whole weekend. And my favourite…

National Day is in, like 10 days or so. Everybody is like getting excited over it. Me, I’m more excited in getting a public holiday. I’m as patriotic as the next guy, but I’m too overworked and tired over the past few weeks to think of anything else. Blame my lack of enthusiasm on my employers for overworking me. How to tell National Day is coming: Look at your table calendar. One of the days says ‘National Day’. Taxis with 165 state and national flags stuck on the roof. Wira-lutions on the road with flags draped on the front bonnet. Not advisable for cars with tendencies to overheating. Like mine.…

Payday is not for another 2 weeks, and I’m already broke. Blame it on PC Fair. Some more school holidays coming. What to do, what to do? Ever thought of some stopgap measures to make a few bucks…? Top Ten Ways To Make Extra Money When There Are Two More Weeks To Payday Collect the old newspapers from your office and sell them when the old newspaper van comes to your house. Hey, every dollar goes a long way. You know how you never watch again all those hundreds of old DVDs and CDs you have around the house? Sell them. Open a wooden table outside the mamak at night…

I don’t usually buy stuff at the huge PC fairs – whether its Microfest or the PIKOM one, I only browse through on the first day (when the crowd is not so gila yet) to check out the latest gadgets and models available on offer. Actually, for some reasons, I’m more partial to Microfest than PC Fair, probably I’ve been used to go to Microfest in the early years, when they used to have it at the PJ Civic Centre (and they had those free movie screenings and game competitions). But anyway, I bought something at the PC Fair last weekend. I didn’t actually GO to the fair at the…

This is a continuation of my previous post, check out the first part here. Beat It (Michael Jackson) – When it comes to 80’s pop, Michael Jackson is undoubtedly the king of the hill. This was when we first came out on his own to make his second record with Quincy Jones. For the benefit of the those born later, this was when Michael was still black and about 6 nose-jobs ago. The album, consists of 9 tracks, and sometimes cited as one of the most perfect pop record ever made. With the second single, Beat It (looking back, MJ as a gangster mediator seemed a laughable idea), Michael literally…

Ah, the 80’s – the decade best remembered for its TV shows, movies and politics – and music. The pop music from that decade throughly defined the times – and grealty influence the generation of kids and teens that grew up in that generation. It was the generation of the then new MTV, of Michael Jackson, of Madonna and bands with weird hairdo and make-up. There are literally thousands of good songs from that era, for me to list down only 20 was extremely difficult. This is my personal list of songs that perfectly captured the mood and exuberance of the 80’s, in the backdrop of my growing up years.…