Oi, respect lah!

Hell, here I am again, writing from this frigid library of my beloved university. Well, today I only have class in the morning which is the Lembaga Akreditasi Nasional (LAN)'s Malaysian Studies class. Malaysian Studies.. that sounds familliar, what is it about again? Oh, yeah.. Sejarah Tingkatan 4. Oh bugger.

Well folks, that's reality. I had to resit the whole F4 sylabus all over again in English and 3 month instead of the whole year not to mention in 5 weeks we need to do a role play (read: act) on one of Malaysia's festivals with our group. I choose Hari Raya Puasa. Well, I did question why the hell do I need to do this class since I did get an A for Sejarah in SPM. Do they want us to be an unpaid tutor to the foreign students or what? Damn stupid la this government. Waste my time also.. What to do, people'll still vote them again anyway.

Nevertheless, I can see the attitude this foreigners have towards the class. Yes, it might be a nuisance for you as it is a nuisance to me but hey, since you came to my country you might as well learn something about it, not make fun about it. I don't make fun of your country, and if I did it's somewhere private but never in front of the people of that country so why can't you? We all know that Bali is a beautiful island, but you have to accept that there's also beautiful islands here in Malaysia.

Well, no wonder the whole world is at war right now. People seems to not care about each other anymore. Respect is everything folks..

Labels: thoughts

Permanent ink.. Permanent prejudice..

Do you watch Miami Ink? I do.. well, not all the timelah but I do enjoy the show. The show is basically about this tattoo parlour in Miami and showcases the tattoo's they do as well as other reality TV stuff.. the fights, the drama and all that. It kind of remind me of American Chopper. Yup, that's it Miami Ink is American Chopper but instead of building bad ass bikes, they etch your skin with permanent ink goodness.

So, what's so great about a story about people and tattoos? Well, tattoos have a bad reputation in most part of the world as well as Malaysia due to its link with the criminal underworld, triad gangs as well as the fact it is haram in Islam. I even saw a police poster telling people to be aware of people with certain criteria and of course tattoo was listed as on of it while in the movie business, the bad guy look is often acheived by putting a scar and a tattoo on the antagonist. So why would Miami Ink be aired, especially on Discovery Travel & Adventure of all channels?

Well, for one I believe the show aims to dispel all this prejudice people have on tattoos and instil a new mindset of the good side of tattoos (there is..). Some might argue what this people are thinking when they get tattoos since it'll last forever. Well, newsflash folks.. these people intent to keep the tatoos forever. Why? Well, as I saw on the show most people who came to the show to make tatoos in rememberance of a dead family member or friend. One girl even did a tattoo made in memory of her dead chinhuahua which all pet owners will know how hard it is to lose a pet. Last night a guy went to get a tattoo of a dragon and a phoenix to symbolize his transformation from being a druggie and homeless into a business person.. Though some might argue, I believe that's a pretty good reason to tattoo yourself.. It's a big acheivement and it's a turning point in his life and he have a right to remember it. It'll also be a reminder to him whenever he had an urge to go back to his old ways.. I was like.. Wow!

We often see tattoo and its artists like Ami and Yoji evil.. but I don't think any man can be all evil as opposed to be all good. There's good and bad in everything and that includes tattoos.

Labels: thoughts, tv

Mysterious and mesmerizing..

I really love to read girls' blog, I really do. I love all those pastel colours they use to highlight important words, the cheery layout, pictures of cuddly animals.. it's all warm and cuddly. If surfing the Internet is like driving to Ipoh on a rainy day, then reading a girl's blog is like stopping at Tapah for a hot cup of teh tarik.

Nevertheless, there's always one thing I notice in most girls' blog is that once in a while they'll post something that at a seems so general yet so full of emotions and yes, most of the time I don't really understood what it's all about. Well, before you get mad all over and call me a sexist let me justify that I'm not writing to belittle women and no, I don't think I'm the best blogger there is. It's nothing like that. It's just that I find it common enough to get me thinking about it while I was watching American Idol just now.

Well, as an average male I think (that's it I think.. it's just an opinion) that maybe girls utilize their blogs as a channel to voice their displease over something personal or about someone close to them but just don't feel right voicing it directly to the subject.Maybe the said culprit would one day stumble upon the post and realize it is them the writer wrote about and apologize.. or maybe it's nothing at all. Maybe it's just me.

Whatever it is, girls can be mysterious as much as they are mesmerizing.. Keep on writing girls!

Labels: opinion, thoughts

Around KL

I just got back, again from our beloved capital city to meet my friend who is in search of a laptop. It would’ve been easy since my dear friend told me that he’s going for a Mac but put mama and papa in the equation, it went complicated. Instantly I understood why the reason I was needed there; to convince them parents to buy a Mac for their kid. I must admit, its hard to convince people especially when they already have a candidate in mind. After looking at a pristine new MacBook at the Apple Store, they took me to look at some Toshibas which I admit to be a well built notebook but hey, the kid want a Mac so get one and make my life easy! So after the Toshiba, we also browse the excessively-expensive-yet-underpowered Sony Viaos (sorry to all those who use Viao, but hey.. its a fact), them expensive and powerful Fujitsus and even some BenQs with me explaining the benefits of Macs over all the competitors at every turn. It’s a hard thing to explain these stuffs actually especially when explaining that anti-virus software are not necessary but I don’t blame them though since we live in a world where the word computer and virus usually coexist in a sentence. So after long last, the family agreed to get a Mac... but not today! It turned out all this was just a window shopping with the real purchase to be done on Tuesday.. Ho hum...

Later I went pusing-pusing in KL. You’ve got to see the cars parked along Jalan Tun Razak, it was crazy! People seems to park their car heedlessly as they scramble to hop a ride on the ferris wheel and the concert later that night. Now, its a known fact that the attraction is going to be there throughout the year so why are this people, most of them with kids still hurdle themselves against the sea of people just to watch KL 60 feet higher? Well.. I guess its the kids kot. Well, I admit I too am intrigued at the wheels. I was at Tasek Titiwangsa on the 5th and took some photos of the wheels but put a sea of people in front of me, with kids and lots of kids, not to mention RM15 for the ride plus the hours in line.. maybe next time, waktu budak-budak kat sekolah and mama and papa are at work.

Since Neet’s college on Jalan Semarak was near the Titiwangsa, I managed to get a glimpse of the light show and the fireworks while I was there. It must’ve been hell for those rich people who live there while the park’s speakers are pumping My Heart’s songs all night long. Nightmare! (sorry but I still think that Ada Apa Dengan Cinta kick My Heart’s balls a few times). If the college a Kilometer away can hear the song, imagine what the folks along the park are enduring. It’s nice though, with all the search lights and lasers but I have some problems with the fireworks. To me, fireworks are climax stuffs which is only launched during a climax. But the folks at the park are firing hundreds of taxpayers money every 5 minutes for god sake! It spoils the kick-ass-ness of the fireworks not to mention membazir. But then again, that might just be me... the folks at the concert sounded like they are enjoying every moment of it. Oh well..

Labels: nerdery, thoughts, travel

I What?

I guess by the this things goes online, most of us Malaysians would've seen this ad, be it on TV, at the movies or on print. So what's the big deal about this ad?

Well, I've been thinking about it since the first time I saw the ad (or so I think..) but it wasn't until Kimal pointed it out last week that urged me to write something about it. When you look at the ad, what do you see? How do you read the text? Well, most people I ask answered this, "I love Music". You did the same too didn't you? But did you asked yourself, why did you interpret the Sony Ericsson (SE) logo as to mean love? Why not other things... why not hate, why not eat why not stop? Why love?

Well, I guess it had something to do with human perception.. red is for danger, green is Islamic, a cross is always Cristian, a red lightsaber is Sith. On the advertising side, SE is definately going for a campaign to boost its brand presence and awareness because as I see it, the whole campaign is not just to promote one product, but the whole range. Now, this may sounds trivial but the truth is, this campaign could really have a strong sentiment on our psyche. By having the impression that the wording read as "I love music", it creates an imprint on our mind and with enough repetation of the ad it trained the mind to associate the SE logo as to mean love.

To create emotion ties with a product is always a good move and it also work for things other than products. Conflicts for example, some people just don't give a damn about a conflict in faraway Africa so to gain public awareness, they put in a human drama in it say, a mother who lost her baby, a picture of people crying on top of their demolished houses and bingo, you got people's attention. The same goes to products and this is probably the way SE is taking its brand.

And oh, SonyEricsson is a little bit late don't you think? Nokia beat them years ago when they came out with their Connecting People and The Human Technology tagline .

Labels: media, thoughts