You know the cliches – the inflation, balik kampung traffic jams have taken the meaning out of CNY celebrations, CNY is only enjoyed by the very young and very old, etc. But Chinese New Year is still Chinese New Year. Everyone still goes through the motion of travelling across the country (or city, depending on where you’re from), buy the requisite cookies and meats, swap token red packets, endure the family dinners without cringing too much, and the loud gambling (this one is rather enjoyable to most), etc. I guess we Chinese are creatures of habits. We call it tradition, but above anything else, we go through the motions, and…

Opening shot of the vid Ever since Bad Romance was released in October I’ve been continually listening to it. I think the song a fantastic piece of pop music. The music video? Its sheer genius. If you’ve only seen it on MTV, its edited shoddily due to heavy censorship. Yep, that’s the trademark razor shades. with Lady Gaga, there’s no such thing as TOO MUCH make-up You can watch the official vid here on Youtube (sorry, embedding isn’t allowed). I’m a big fan of videos that tell something, either a storyline, a message, or some contextual meaning. So what ON EARTH is Lady Gaga trying to convey in the lengthy…

One of the things i decided to do a few months ago was to take steps to be a better creative writer, in the hopes of being published one day. So, recently I attended Ardashir Vakil’s beginner’s workshop organized by British Council and MPH. I didn’t really know what to expect in the workshop, but it turned out to be very informative. There were 15 of us, the group was a diversified bunch – from young college students to retirees, from those with no inkling of what creative writing was to published writers. The workshop was led by Ardashir Vakil, an author who is now lecturing in the UK. He…

Last Sunday morning we were at FGT and after service we had to rush back to CBC for something. We were thinking of where we could grab a quick lunch, and the only one that came to mind was the KFC at the Petronas station in USJ21. I can’t remember the last time i stepped into a KFC. With my family being health conscious and fitness crazy these days, we rarely eat at fast food places (except Popeye’s heheh) ESPECIALLY KFC. I know what people usually say – so oily and unhealthy, chicken is so small!, so expensive. Actually all three counts are true. When i was a little kid,…

Its only 18 days into the new year, and already I’m lethargic. I had some leave to clear last year, i was off for 10 days from Christmas eve right until New Year’s Day. The two weekends were taken up by Christmas and New Year’s respectively. But what did i go during the entire week off? I went shopping! Day 1 of Shopping: 1 Utama Well, you know, 1 Utama obviously the first stop. We missed most of the performances and carols, but the decor was great. Not as great as last year’s drummer boy theme tho. My kid obviously had a good time, she hardly gets a chance to…

Did I tell you guys just before Christmas I got a doctor shrimp (or cleaner shrimp) for my saltwater tank? My wife always wanted one, but I was worried it wouldn’t survive in my new tank. But anyway finally got it from Oceanic and so far its doing well. Can’t really get a good close up of it, but here’s the best one i got. When i first introduced it to the tank, it was a little disoriented, moving round the entire tank and climbing the walls. After a few minutes it settled under this live rock and now mainly stays there whenever the light is on. But when the…

I did a list for last year 2008, so I thought it’d be a good to review the year in the same way. As usual, I’ll just let the pics do the talking. 1. A (H1N1) First there was mad cow disease. Then there was avian flu. And then there was swine flu. Pretty soon the only meat we can safely eat is frog’s legs. Undoubtedly the biggest event of 2009, changing the way we look at personal and public health. 2. The King and the Joker: Celebrity Deaths While Michael Jackson’s death got all the publicity, Heath Ledger will be greatly missed. 3.Three Letters: B. S. G. That’s Battlestar…

Most of my older friends know that was (and still am) a huge, huge heavy metal fan. Ever since I heard Enter the Sandman by Metallica on that Singapore radio on my cheap RM150 walkman i bought on the first weekend in college, I never looked back. Which is why its 1am in the morning, I’ve just watched this brilliant movie and I simply have to blog about it. Its a documentary about a long forgotten Canadian band called Anvil and the movie is called Anvil! The Story of Anvil (yes I know its quite a mouthful). The movie starts with footage from an old Japanese rock concert and the…

About this time last year, i decided to make a 3 resolutions for 2009, one of them was to read 24 books in a year (let’s not mention anything about the other two resolutions). Apparently i had a lot more time on my hands this year that I thought I would have, i read almost 50 books in total since January. And if I were to pick one book that stood out above the rest, the choice was easy. No, it wasn’t Twilight. The Graveyard Book is my Book of the Year, because it’s simplicity and beauty blew my mind away. It didn’t really matter that Gaiman is my favourite…

If you’re the type who frequently wonder about stuff like ‘who wrote Genesis Chapter 1?’ or ‘What does my religion say about evolution?’, then here’s something you might be interested in. Rev. Dr. Ron Choong an apologist based in New York will be giving a seminar on the following three topics: SCIENCE & CHRISTIANITY Do the advances in modern sciences like neurophysiology disprove the teachings of religion? What then about evolution and Darwinism? In this seminar, we consider how we may reconcile our ancient faith with modern science. WHAT DO CHRISTIANS REALLY BELIEVE? Can you articulate what you believe concisely and clearly? Most people gloss over what we don’t know…