Category Archives: Travelling

Paragraphs Went

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Went to catch Twilight Action Girl again on a Friday night, this time featuring the deejay I knew. Too bad I didn’t bring my bag and thus lost my chance at making them rockers hear the seminal rock band, Spinal Tap. Made like a moshpit with Justin Guber. I preferred this week’s more American selections, what with them ending with Rage Against The Machine – Sleep Now In The Fire! (Or rather we left after that.)

Went home to find this:

Went in and jakuned. Joy! The days of adjusting the indoor RF cable’s connection to the surge protector are gone. Yay to clear NTV7 and 8tv! And yay to free ASTRO!

Went online, and found this gem. If you’ve got Winamp5, you will appreciate this plugin. Yes, it updates MSN Messenger 7.0 as well! (It’s not a beta version anymore!) Click on my MSN to see what’s playing on Winamp. Before this, only Windows Media Player could update MSN Messenger; I prefer Winamp though, for its Global Hotkeys (which means pressing Ctrl-Shift-Home pauses the song among other shortcuts.) Yep, I don’t need to Alt-Tab to Winamp anymore!

Went to change my links in my About Me! page to add Reta (who uh, has linked me as the Xfresh dude.)

You All Like Pictures

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A cat takes a nap near a dinky drain. Its very carpetness was hard not to picture. I mean, hard not to put in a picture.


A window of inspiration. What do you see behind your window?


Frus and I were walking to KLCC, when we saw this.


Look I’m a Force Of Nature too! (I didn’t go to many on-off complications; why do people buy tickets in odd numbers?)


We headed to The Loft in Zouk, to catch Twilight Action Girl in action. Turns out only three of the four rock deejays were there, and the one guy who was missing was the guy I could greet and thus look cool. Being attached to a record label, he would have been at the Force Of Nature concert at the exact time we were there.

They played much more British, New Age and much more alternative rock, such that I felt a bit alienated since my taste is mostly American-style rock. Still, their selection was pretty lounge-chillout and very dance-able.

We went our separate ways, and I walked along the Jalan Ampang district, when I saw two very horse-faced hookers soliciting a white guy. “Sir we give you orgy!” I saw more horse-faced hookers along the road. Scary. I wonder which was worse – horse-faced hookers or trannies. But then you know Caucasians, their women have stronger facial features.


Jerry was right – the Perodua Kenari can look nice when modified.


A&W’s Double Deluxe Burger. Check out the cheese; I had to scrape it off the cardboard box. Dudes at Amburgers & Wootbeer, the cheese goes between the buns somewhere.

I also bumped into Az‘s parents; I seem to have bumped into them as often as I bumped into their son when he was still in this country. It was like he inherited the flow from them.

On Saturday I went to Paul’s New Place to catch the final instalment of the Rock Dawg Music Fest.


Seven was their usual funky self.


The Blumps stood out as the only punk rock band in today’s lineup.


Polaris, now that was interesting; heavy progressive rock. Add organ for that Floyd-ian coolness.


I finally got to see ex-colleague Azmir in action, from his grunge days in Shoot Goat to this mathematical fretboard dance in Polaris.


Ground Xero, the all-girl band from ICOM that rocked.


SDC, hard rock all the way. Sadly I felt their set was a bit too long as it lacked dynamics – it was a hard fast song one after the other.


Outfigured; picture features an excellent screamer. (Not like death metal continuous growling, but one-off rage.) Figured out who? It’s not the dreadlocked headbanger. Sadly her vocals were drowned out.


I expected something with Seemphony, with their expensive-looking guitars. They merely did two big-hit-single covers from Incubus, but redeemed themselves with some interesting covers. The drummer was cool though; my friend said he looked stiff but I thought his hard hits looked cool. Plus the guitarist can do a House Of Pain.


It is quite scary to see Jack of Naked Breed shred with all his hair falling into the guitar. He had to keep flipping it back. Alex, the drummer tied his long hair back. Meanwhile, Justin and the bassist were bald.


Soft Touch, to me, seemed harder than their usual reggae/folk rock.

I am going to rudely end this entry… like so.

Far Knee

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An addition to Saturday 5th March’s blog:

I was bumming around alone most of Saturday, walking aimlessly in Bintang Walk. Fate it was that I didn’t hop on the bus that would take me home; instead, I bought guitar strings and stared at my shredding shredder friend/Bentley guitar salesman. I then went to Lot 10 where I saw a new OSIM massage chair complete with lower arm massage, like it was a blood pressure machine or something!

One 15-minute round of freeloading wasn’t enough, so I hit the button for another. Thank goodness I took such a leisurely pace, that my German-Indian drinking machine friend called me up, offering a free ticket for The Actorlympics!

(Her name has been withheld lest you know her and think you deserve the ticket more than I do.)

I didn’t get to have dinner with my friend as intended, so I gobbled a McValue Meal quick, and as I walked towards The Actor’s Studio I bumped into DJCS… who had two free tickets.

It was good. Like Whose Line Is It Anyway?, but by the Instant Cafe Theatre. Afdlin Shauki was bad at accents though, and his George Bush impersonation didn’t sound Texan nor stupid, but he had classic Ah-Ha moments. Gavin, I felt, wasn’t as quick with his wit, but when he was, it shone and reminded me why I’d watch Sketches regularly. The best bits had to be the ambiguously homosexual tendencies of the troupe and their sense of humor about it. Yes some gay dudes can be darned quick-witted.

Make Dunno

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Many years ago, 2002 to be exact, a group of friends and I were in KLCC. We felt like eating McDonalds, so we took the LRT to Masjid Jamek.

A blur girl later scolded me. “Why didn’t we just stay in KLCC? There’s a McDonalds there what.”

I later SMSed her. “Huh, there’s one in KLCC? I don’t know where it is, but my friend says it’s between the Pizza Hut and Starbucks.”

Now the joke was that then, Pizza Hut, Starbucks and McDonalds did not exist in KLCC.

Starbucks opened on December 19th, 2002.


Spot the McDonalds in the center food court.

After almost 7 years (Suria KLCC soft-launched on May 8th, 1998), KLCC is blessed with a fast food chain which is value for money and cheap. Alas, it came too late, as KLCC regulars like Shaz and myself fell in love with Burger King, their greasy triple whoppers and refillable coke. And then there’s the flexibility of mixing your drinks ala Shannon‘s 25% Sprite, 75% Coke.

Sorry Ronald, you came 4 years too late. My allegiance is now with Cosmo Restaurants, not Golden Arches.

Are You The One?

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Friday

After the hitz.tv Blast Off semifinals, my friends and I had dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. They played Jamiroquai – Travelling Without Moving and the cool camp cover Scissor Sisters – Comfortably Numb. On the ride home, the driver popped Jamiroquai’s Travelling Without Moving CD. How ironic.

Saturday

I headed to somebody’s farewell and her boyfriend’s birthday party. In the background, the same Jamiroquai album was spinning!

* She, for most of the blog entry, will refer to the host unless otherwise stated.

The first thing she said when she met me was:

“Wah I never knew a Chinaman could grow a beard!”

She was, of course, referring to the beard that weirdly curled to my right. Refer to my Friendster picture as it’s not there anymore.

Her (female) collegemates gave her a farewell butt grab as well.

Me: What’s so great about your butt that everybody’s grabbing it?
She: You ask my boyfriend first.
Me: I bet he’d say, “oh you try lah, then you’ll know why everybody wants to do it.” (Uh dude if you’re reading this, it’s our kinda humor, I think…)

We had two guitars and a blues jam.

As I sat explaining how to read tablature, she said, “Albert! Come come you must get drunk! Sleep over ah.”

She got me a glass. Optimists say the glass is half bacardi. Pessimists say the glass is half zappel.

I rolled like a dog wanting a scratch. “I’ll get you some more

Blog Gatherings

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Saturday Morning

1200 hours, MPH Sunway Pyramid
No Xfresh bloggers around.

1220 hours, Osim Sunway Pyramid
The salesman amazes me with his knowledge. “You know women with high heels, their calves are more developed.” I actually consider buying one of their products as I sit, testing out the iSqueez.

1238 hours, MPH Sunway Pyramid
I meet Hannna. I drank her Coke. Will, Ed and Kristine soon came along, and we adjourned to Pizza Hut, where Suet Li and Ashraf appeared out of nowhere. Shaz deserves a plug too, for bringing his crowd to Pizza Hut anyway.

We walked about a bit, and I bumped into Hanna’s friend. “Remember me? You drank my coke at the Taylor’s Battle Of The Bands!” (Flashback! Ironically, I drank Hanna’s coke earlier that day.)

The guitar store had two shop assistants doing a very, very cool improvised rendition of Gary Moore – Still Got The Blues. I stood around, waiting for the chorus or solo bit, but no! Somebody who obviously didn’t pay them to jam all day came in. 🙁

Ed and I then headed to Elena‘s barbecue party.

2000 hours, Elena’s House

Good food, though the festivities were marred by some dumb ideas. Well at least I learnt what a body shot was and got CPR. 🙂 Two, I repeat, two, Rubik’s Cubes were totalled that night.

Sunday Morning

0900 hours, Elena’s House

For some reason I seem to like taking pictures of cats basking in the sun. A brand new day. A new tomorrow?

1100 hours, Starbucks New Wing, One Utama
Ed and I spread our unbathed malodor to Peter Tan‘s blog gathering. I shall not provide commentary, links (I’ll steal the full list later) and much less obligatory shots, but the more interesting Photoshop-enhanced ones were:


Ed made a good laptop advertisement model.



Chet brought this baby. Well maybe it wasn’t a baby. It was a kicking teenage rebel. Okay that’s not right either. The Dana Wireless could possibly be the last foray by Palm Computing – cheap notebooks are getting cheaper. Even the HP Ipaq 5450 is considered big, and PDAs have keyboard attachments! Add the proliferation of phones with color screens (when was the last time you heard a monophonic SMS ringtone on the LRT?) and you have something only a die-hard Palm user will buy. At least it has expansion slots, including two SD card slots! That would make a nice transferring device for your digital camera.


That is an awesome afro.

Fazri dropped Lionel and I off at the LRT station, and we headed to Taman Jaya.

1700 hours, some cybercafe in Amcorp Mall

Lionel lives up to his paedophile reputation. Shaky picture was intentionally picked. Itchy girl gives good scratch massage.

Links shall be updated soon, I hope.

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).

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.”

BISI-DiGi-KLCC

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Friday


Jenifer and I went to the Young KL Singers’ Beat It Sing It, and Tracy got us the best seats. Yes she did. Right behind her, so close we could see her sheet music and read who the composer was. 🙂

Saturday

I went for the DiGi Youth Forum in the morning; Jason invited me. There, we spotted Instant Cafe Theatre celebrities. Funny thing is, one of the people I couldn’t recognize was my facilitator.

They gave us free DiGi SIM packs! Thanks to them, my sister can live a normal urbanite teenage life with her newly acquired number. (I already have a number, remember?)


Then there was this posh, free lunch at Senja. Sweet.

Still, I only had half as much fun as I should have; I left halfway through to head to KLCC for an unofficial Xfresh gathering. I am but too lazy to annotate details, and so, I leave your attention spans to gorge on these pictures:


They say a boy with gadgets will attract attention. I say this picture is cute.


She has a secret identity: Elastigirl.


For once, I managed to take a picture, without flash, but using the flash of some other camera! Such tricks require the best of skill… or luck. Notice that the other cameraman’s hand is dark, so it couldn’t be my flash.

Dated Updates

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I’ve been putting off a picture gallery blog posting for ages because of my lousy 9.6kbps-like Streamyx connection. The days will have dates:

Wednesday, 17th November 2004

I headed to Block E, HELP College again, for the Motley Fest. While having a teh tarik at a mamak in Bangsar, I called Jamie to ask if she was going. “Oh it’s in Block E? (Opens door.) Whoa! What is this?”

I was there for the rock gig, as well as the HELP chicks. Yeah.

I wasn’t holding a digicam as professional as Joy‘s so I had to shoot from the top of my head. Literally. We sat too close to get a wide view, and by then, the auditorium was filled. Kevin of John’s Mistress said it was funny playing to a seated audience.


From above: John’s Mistress, Naked Breed and Prana. Prana sounded weird without the vocalist and deejay. 🙁


Check it out, the didgeridoo is miked (and plugged into an amp!)


As far as HELP celebrities go, there is the obligatory crazy off-center shot with Ayunami, the Linda Onn lookalike.

Saturday, 20th November 2004

Fazri and I took our time getting lost getting from Bandar Tun Razak STAR LRT to Aznin’s open house to One Utama and back to the LRT. I then headed to Le Bernardin for Shelley Leong‘s Songwriters Avenue.


From left: Kevin, Zal and Khai (Justin Guber?) Here, Kevin was Broken Scar. I had never seen Zal alone on guitar; her voice was, well, excellent and was one of the reasons Cosmic Funk Express was deserving of that spot in Rock The World 5. Khai sang his Ballad Of Justin Guber, and it explained just who Justin was. Zal finished with an invitation to jam in the key of E. Khai’s rock solo on an acoustic was cool.

The songwriters played in round-robin fashion, meaning they took turns to play one song each.


From left, going downwards: Max and some dude, some dude, some dude, some dude, some dude, Ahmad the dude, Jerral the Shelley guitarist dude, the dude who I bump into often and the organizer herself, and Shelley with the beautiful guitar one could win from buying her CD. Imagine! The fretboard could extend till the bridge since there was no soundhole below the strings!

Meanwhile, in the office, some of us broke the 4-year-old chairs:

Once you’ve sat down, you wouldn’t want to get up.

Due to the lack of chairs, we had to pack off some stuff staff.

Saturday, 27th November 2004

YK, Tech and I went to Bintang Walk in search of Transformers. He ended up getting the Dead End Alternator (the Japanese Binaltech equivalent wasn’t worth it, even though it was die-cast, as the car didn’t have a shiny finish.)

We then headed to Great Eastern Mall. So much for greatness; I hadn’t seen such a small shopping mall in a long time. It was even smaller than say Ampang Park, supposedly one of the first shopping malls to have been built in Malaysia. At Alexis Bar, Tracy was already sitting in her reserved table, and most tables were reserved so YK and I went up to Chicken Rice Shop to have dinner. We knew 9pm was late, as the lights were off already!

“Are you guys still open?”
“Oh sorry lah blackout.”

As we walked away from the counter, the electricity came back on.

By the time we got back to Alexis for Pete Teo‘s songwriter’s round, Alda and Debbie had to sit on bar stools! For most of us rockers, it was awkward to be in such a classy place.

How unlikely it was that Warmpaw would come as well, so I could follow her back. 🙂


From left: Az, Melina (of Tempered Mental), Eugene Ng (a Chinese singer), Roslan “jaga pitching” Aziz and Mukhlis (the songwriter for Zainal Abidin’s Hijau – no wonder he sounded like him!)

Again, it was in round-robin fashion. Az added comic effort in songs like “Lagu Royalti Belum Datang“, ending his song with “oh there’s the postman!” I bought his Acoustic Gestures album that night. Look for me in the credits!

Melina was excellent, and her voice projected clearly and strongly that night. She played Tempered Mental compositions on solo guitar, complete with all the progressive fills! Sure, the bass and guitar solos weren’t there, but it was cool to hear the song in your head, expect the riff, and see her play it! (Khoo, the guitarist, was for my first time ever seen with an acoustic guitar, but he didn’t play.)

Eugene Ng reminded me of John Mayer somewhat as the girls fell for him. Mukhlis crooned and played lead fills on guitar, with Roslan as merely a rhythm guitarist.

That’s all, folks. May your connection be fast and consistent.