I was holed up at this convention centre for the last week attending this international seminar. I can’t remember much about the seminar, it was something to do with my work I think. I only went for the awesome complimentary bag for the participants. And the food. This wasn’t a small seminar of 50 people, no siree, bob. There were like 600 people in attendance, mostly wearing their spiffy navy blue suits (except me, I was wearing my short sleeve company shirt. Don’t expect to see my pic appearing in the trade newsletters). I later found out that most of the attendees were actually from the nationwide branches of a…

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Music Television, or better known by its three-letter-acronym, MTV. There was an article featured on digg.com last week highlighting the 10 ways the upstart channel changed the world. Here in Malaysia, we get the sort of a lite version of it called MTV Asia, which is pretty much the same content as the American counterpart, minus some programs and videos deemed not appropriate for ‘Asian values’. In it’s place there are locally or regionally produced shows like MTV Jus and request programs. One of the biggest gripe that the younger generation have with MTV these past few years is that they have actually…

Was watching a [tag]Hong Kong[/tag] [tag]Cantonese[/tag] [tag]TV series[/tag] the other night. Actually, i wasn’t watching it, my wife was, i was just lounging around. I’ve blogged about Hong Kong Cantonese serials before, comes with living with people who religiously watch them on videotape, TV and Astro for more than 20 years. The thing is with tight-budgeted family / police / relationship drama-comedy serials is that they tend to re-use location sets. Watch any one show for a few episodes and you’ll see what i mean. Top Ten Overused Clichéd Scene Locations in Hong Kong Cantonese [tag]TV Serials[/tag] At night, on a park bench – Usually for the main character when…

Oooh, who can forget him? The white boy with the solidly gelled-up hairdo and the raised eyebrow, making strange signs with his fingers (doesn’t it look strangely like the Vulcan welcome gesture?) and making everyone suddenly start thinking rap is cool and clean fun? (Sidenote: This is the second in the start-stop series of Anyone Remember… series, where I reminiscent about some forgotten star of the 80’s and 70’s. The first one was Milli Vanilli. Boy, was that a good one…! End of sidenote.) In 1990-91, ‘Ice Ice Baby’ was everywhere, man. My neighbour was so into it, he went out and bought the tape, and played it at full…

The other day my wife went to MV Doulos and came back with a couple of cassettes of children’s songs. “Three bucks only!!! So CHEAP!” (I’m assuming ‘three bucks’ here infers to RM3, not USD$3…) Since it was SO CHEAP she even bought a few extra copies to be given to our friends who were expecting mothers. When PN got one, she said she didn’t have a cassette tape player. Except in her car, but as you all know, the 32nd law of Malaysian weather states clearly that: “Don’t ever leave your cassettes in the car under the Malaysian sun or the tape inside will become like Maggi Mee and…

The other a friend asked me if I wanted to help her freelance to write and edit some reference books to be used in schools. Sure, I said, I’m always looking to add to my measly income. What subject, I asked? I’m not very well-versed in brain surgery and rocket science, I joked. No lah, she said. Form Five Physics, she said. I say man. Form Five Physics, ah? Standard 2 English can or not? That one I very good lah. “See Jane Run.” “See Dick Run.” “Run Jane, Run!” See? That one I very good-lah, Form Five Physics I very difficult to kelentong*. By the way, what was Dick’s…

I’m watching the prime time delayed telecast of the Miss Universe 2006 on Astro. I haven’t seen one of these pageants for like a million years, my mom used to watch them when I was a kid. She used to go ‘Wah, Miss US Virgin Islands also not bad ah?’ and ‘Eeyer, Miss China not pretty one…’) Anyways, I have a few questions. I can understand ‘Miss World’ or ‘Miss Earth’ or ‘Miss Carlsberg Seedy Pub 2006’, but ‘Miss Universe’? Where’s Miss Jupiter? Miss Uranus? (I said ‘Uranus’, not ‘Your…’ never mind…). If you’re gonna say your competition is representative of the universe, at least the eight-legged translucent green bug…

Dear Leading English Newspaper, I am OUTRAGED. As a long time esteemed reader of your respectable newspaper, I want, no I DEMAND to know why there has NOT been any coverage on the FRONT PAGE of your hallowed newspaper for the past two days. Yesterday, there was a fantastic write-up about that Datuk K’s ex-wife making claims to some of the Datuk’s house and property. Although i was over the moon the see you manage to dig out this fabulous piece investigative journalism, i am slightly disappointed that it only made the 4th page, not the FRONT PAGE. Plus, you did not give the exact details of the condo and…

I just took the LRT to work the other day. Usually, I drive, but I dropped off my car at the workshop to get the radiator fixed. Cost me RM900 (the repair, not the LRT ride), and I don’t want to talk about it. There goes my lunches for the next two months. Anyway, I haven’t taken the train for almost a year now. I was mildly shocked to see how drab and poorly maintained was the station in PJ and the train itself, too. My friend PN says the air-conditioning breaks down frequently, resulting in near-sauna conditions. But I’m not going to diss the LRT. Not in this post…

In case you didn’t notice, half a year has already passed us by. June 30 was the end of the first half of 2006, it’s now the third week of the July. People always say that time flies when you’re having fun. That’s true. But it flies even faster when your chest deep in working every freaking day. Looking back to the first half of 2006, Chinese New Year seemed so long ago. I went on a couple of trips early in the year – Penang and Ipoh with my friends and Singapore with my family. Regular readers (yes, all three of them) will remember them. June was predominantly preoccupied…