That was so last year, man.

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Last year, for New Year’s Eve, my original plans were to go to Shelley‘s gig at One Utama, but that was cancelled because it was decided everybody should be in mourning. So we have another gig-less season (most recently, Ramadhan). Hey, life must go on for those who are still (cursed?) with mortality. I can’t go around with a frown all day.

And so, I went with Shaz to a barbecue party (everyone was celebrating at home). I had my fair dosage of carbon, with this:

With Shaz portions (10 pieces or so) I thought that with a full stomach, I wouldn’t be overwhelmed by my first whiff of:

Needless to say, the first 3 breaths of coke shisha were dizzying in a welcome way. I soon got used to it, timing a 37 second slow intake.

Not everyone was used to it. After refilling however, it was too strong for me, and the icky flavor stayed inside me. Maybe that’s where all the missing smoke went. Maybe it’s the carbon dioxide in coke. I felt regretfully bloated, but that feeling quickly cleared when I touched and played a beautiful acoustic guitar. Maybe that’s what Jimi Hendrix felt. He must’ve been going “dang, that is nasty“. And then he picked up his Stratocaster and made magic.

Fortunately, the new year morning had no jams this side of the road.

Oh and the above trippy pictures were taken with this new baby:


I bought her from William.

I won’t be taking high-resolution shots just yet, since it’s only got 16 Megabytes on an SD card. I am however looking forward to getting a 512 Megabyte Reduced Size Multi Media Card (512MB RS-MMC) card for it. Why? So I can swap it with such lovelies like this:


The Nokia 7710.

I could transfer pictures to its internal memory, and then transfer it to its own RS-MMC card. Yes, RS-MMC cards are smaller, and the Nokia 7710 (as well as my Canon Powershot A400 digital camera) still use regular full-sized MMC cards, but I’d get RS-MMC because it can fit in an MMC slot with a clip-on extension. Do you not see the potential? Transferring from a digicam straight to phone without going through a computer would be awesome.

Edit: The 7710 is not mine; my friend works with Nokia.

Hor Hor Hor

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I read on MusicCanteen about a Christmas Eve gig in Plaza Mont Kiara at the office. Too bad then, that I had to meet up with family for church.

They picked me up at an LRT station, and we headed to the crowded roads near the church to park. My sister was sick, so the following conversation ensued:

Mom: Are you sure you’re up to going to church?
Sis: Yeah, I can still go…
Mom: (Looking at normally empty roads full of parked cars) Are you sure? You can’t be sick for Christmas!
Sis: Yeah, still can go…

We didn’t go in the end. Deep down, I knew my sister wanted to go for some innate reason. I didn’t say anything to influence the decision, so I was glad when my mom so happened to take the Hartamas route back home. I asked to be dropped off, and I strolled into McDonalds.

I bumped into the marketing dude of a big, big company. DJCS knows him. He asked what I was there for; I told him about MusicCanteen, gesturing to the soundcheck. He typed out an email on his laptop to various people, asking them to check out the site.

What a flukeful stroke of luck, if I should next see their logo there among the list of sponsors for an event. It would be somewhat thanks to me!

So there was Frequency Cannon, Edge Of Fire, Nitrus, TragicComedy (with cool Hendrix licks), One Buck Short (featuring Zack of Cosmic Funk Express), Flatline, Naked Breed, and…

Estranged.

Featuring Alda (the original bassist) on bass and Mooky (of One Buck Short) on vocals.

As if that wasn’t enough, Adam (of Dragon Red) took to vocals after that, for a furious Velocity.

Another surprise was Dragon Red; during Fade Away, Adam guided Amil down the stairs of the stage, where he did his solo in the moshpit.

It was then that Debbie and I realized he was a bit too far from his amplifier!

Righto. Wireless. The way it was revealed (with Amil walking far out) was major coolness.

As for those who worried about the rock quotient, well most bands didn’t even play Christmas songs, unless they were featured in MusicCanteen’s Christmas compilation.

And now, for something outside depressing chronological order.

I finally have something new for my Quotes page:
“If you’re the only one left, you’re always right!”

I went to The Curve in Mutiara Damansara. Scenic indeed it was, as this was a scene out of a mafia crimelord’s mansion:

Oh and Merry (belated) Christmas! Note the merged cube (an article describing how to do it yourself will come).

Rock The World

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Clickety click for my article.
Rock The World 5

To Lionel, well Nice Stupid Playground was disappointing. Disagree is fine for a closing act to keep people. The closest to cult would be Tempered Mental, really, though from the crowd’s reaction, they’d have stayed if Dragon Red, One Buck Short, Love Me Butch or Cromok ended the show.

In other unrelated developments, I woke up at 9am last Sunday, went back to sleep, and woke up again at 9:30am. I missed the quake. 🙁

Seasons Greetings

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in advance. In response to people who say “I didn’t know you celebrate Christmas“, I say yes, I do sleep in church as any born Catholic would. At least I won’t be stealing tires.

Today’s format will be pictures and text. There might be a hint of chronological order.


What could be more limited edition than SyefriTM in a box?


I was in Ampang Park LRT when I saw this; a most fun way of donating. Coins would slowly spiral down the cone. What size coin will roll down the fastest?


How does a bus get towed? With an bigger tow truck, of course!

Saturday, December 18th, 2004


Shaz came, bearing gifts one week before Christmas. It was Bobby‘s Xfresh bloggers gathering.


Retro! I greatly prefer this to a scan radio (those where you have to press to scan upwards, and it has no indication what frequency you’re on…)


From left: Kirk, Jamie, Will and Suet Li.

Caught In The Flash


Once again, I managed to catch the flash off another camera, hence the weird lighting. From left: Shair Ein, Vi-Vien and Suet Li again.

Frus, Jamie and I took the bus from Midvalley to Central Market, then to Hang Tuah via the STAR LRT, and to Maharajalela via the monorail.


Drinks were not allowed in at Rock The World 5 at Stadium Merdeka, but thanks to my new bag (again, thanks to Shaz Claus), my 1 liter bottle hid calmly inside. I bumped into Karen. Her hair was a victim of smuggled alcohol.


The set list. Surprisingly, not too many changes.


During Rock The World 3 and 4, Mandarin Oriental hotel could be seen; this round, it was Mandarin Court hotel.


That Bentley blues meister shreds metal with The Hidden!

I didn’t take much pictures in the media area since my camera wasn’t up to it. Better pictures were taken with Nora‘s camera. Jenifer’s picture gallery also has some pretty ones.

It’s a bit sad, though, how Rock The World 5 ended with Disagree. Not that I disagree with them being there, but they just don’t have the cult status that Butterfingers (staple Rock The World show-enders) have.

But hey, Jason Lo said there were 20 thousand people, twice the amount of previous Rock The World concerts. Definitely better off than the Too Phat and Friends concert (or rather, One Phat!) which supposedly had a meagre turnout. For once, the rockers seem to have engulfed ebonic music (probably ten-fold).

In other unrelated developments, Ed and Bobby are now official proteges of mine… in solving the Rubik’s Cube. Ed even silicon-sprayed one of my rough un-original cubes (they lack springy feel.) When I first tried it, it was like changing from an SUV to a Mazda RX-8. (In Need For Speed: Underground 2, that is.) So smooth, with a tendency to oversteer.

I like Mozilla Firefox when coupled with the Mouse Gestures plugin. If only it didn’t crash so often.

I also like these Philips SBC HP200 headphones Will got me for my birthday/Christmas present. When maxed out in the Sound Blaster control panel, its bass distortion (if any) is actually pleasant! Yes, nobody in the office will be spared from its volume.

What would be a cool Christmas gift? A drumset.

Turn My Head

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A proper picture blog of events since last Saturday shall come soon. In short, an unofficial Xfresh gathering and Rock The World 5. However, I shall distract you with something else.

A friend was misconstrued as arrogant (or lansi as we call it in Malaysia) because she turned her head too slow during a formal introduction.

What do you do when you have such a problem? Having a slow neck?

That’s where Albert Ng, professional head-turner, will come to your service.

All I ask for is a meal in return for how I will drastically change your life. I shall train your neck. I will begin with an excruciating neck massage that invigorates the blood flow. We will then walk about in a shopping mall and I will point out false alarms.

“Hey! Was that Utt we just passed?”

“5 O’clock! Some guy who looks like Adam Sandler!”

I guarantee you that after my certified neck-training, your neck will be up to speed with that girl in The Exorcist.

Mommy At Work

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The office pantry now has a sealed partition with a folding door and a chair inside. For weeks, its purpose was a mystery… until an email was sent to the entire office.

It was a breastfeeding room.

In the past four years (in 3 days it will be exactly 4 years) I’ve worked at ASTRO, the number of births have increased, and the number of pregnant ladies seen around have increased. This, we know, from the public emails.

It’s funny in a way, as it reminded me of back in my last year of secondary school, the year 2000. More and more teachers were getting pregnant! It didn’t help that I didn’t go for tuition.

Oh and last Thursday I went to support Jin‘s HELP play… by showing up. It was Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. I didn’t understand much of it, perhaps muddled by their Old English and missed lines. Thank goodness I escaped mandatory Literature for SPM by being born 13 days early, so I didn’t have to read all that flowery language (and perhaps know the story before its end.)

Free Pricing

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Just like Shaz, I can claim that my dad works for the government. Well, he used to. He is now a pensioner.

Imagine the shock I got when I got home, and my mom told me I wouldn’t get free medical treatment anymore. (Not like we got to use it on my funky excema…) Firstly they spelled my name wrong (nobody has ever misspelt my name in official documents before!) and secondly, even if they did fix it, I’d have until the 18th to get it free.

On a side note, Friday’s outings gave me a lot of things to think about. One friend was ready to bust out her dad’s pension money! Eep.

After that, another friend tried sunglasses at Petaling Street. The saleswoman quoted RM25. “Errr…” “How much you want?” “RM20 can ar?”

I said, “I was gonna say RM15 but nevermind.”

The lady left it at RM20.

She looking in the mirror, repeating, “Does this look nice ah?” I didn’t know what to say! I got the hint that she wanted me to somehow lower the price, but I didn’t know how to, unlike Sara. If I said it wasn’t nice, she wouldn’t have bought it; if I said it was nice, how would we lower the price?

And so, she awkwardly handed RM20 to the saleswoman. My now-more-fashionable-friend and I walked awkwardly away.

“Aiyah, can get for RM15 lah.”
“Dunno lah, shy lah… kesian the lady.”
“Yeah, I think it was her English. Did you hear her English? It was excellent!”
“Oh yealah maybe that’s why… her English was excellent lah.”

As we passed by shops selling sunglasses for RM15 and RM10, she went, “Aiyoh, so wasted lah…” “What, you only paid twice the price what.”

Simple, Man

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I woke up with an emo punk song in my head but ended up writing this pop punk crap.

Don’t say hi or hello
Our talk will have its toll
Once you’ve sparked the flow
Of words beyond my control

Don’t send me home
I don’t want to go
To places that we may roam
Where we’d be rolling out dough

Don’t touch me or say that you care
Don’t fancy or ruffle my hair
Don’t party and say that you’d share
For presence should at least be paired

Don’t wake me up
I’m in slumber so deep
It was last night’s tea cup
That wouldn’t let me sleep

Don’t forgive me
I’ll never remember
The things you said to me
Were in a previous lecture

Don’t compliment
I’ll miss it the next day
Don’t stop the argument
For we had a lot to say

What’s With My Shoes?

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(cue Seinfeld bassline)

So I was entering the office when I saw this hot chick. I looked at her, she looked at me, and her eyes diverted down at my shoes. Now, had noone told me that “a girl who looks at you and then diverts her eyes down to your shoes is checking you out“, I would’ve thought, “what’s up with my shoes?”

The next time a chick checks out my shoes, I’ll look down at my shoes with the expression, “did I step on something?” It would be fun, nevermind her “what a cute idiot” expression.