Archive for the 'Loose Change' Category
Monday, May 12th, 2008
Friday drinkies with colleagues
Pseudo-farewell drinkies @ La Bodega. Sadly La Bodega’s white Sangria tasted very much like a mixture of cheap vodka (they said it was rum) in fruity-flavoured water. Maybe it was their off-day. Leaving my division for another after this week. I will miss all these crazy people at my current division who have made my life at work so much more bearable and crazy-fun. It’s because of them I am able to wake up in the mornings to go to work. I will miss all of them terribly.
Saturday breakfast with friend
Been awhile since I met up with old friends just to makan and have a chat. It was pleasant. Something I look forward to do more frequently in the future.
Saturday night rave party
Got company, got beer, music so-so. No more raves for me ever. Not just because I’m getting too old for this, but if you’ve been for 4 you’ve been to all. This rave didn’t quite to it for me. Didn’t feel really excited or pumped up. If anything I had to pump myself up by chanting “I paid good money for this, so keep dancing” in my head to really enjoy the music. When he played the old stuff it was good, when he played the new stuff, it was uninspiring. Daresay I was a little disappointed. Looks like the first Tiesto rave party 2 years back really ruined all raves for me, including this one. No more raves! Just plain booze and clubbin for me from now onwards…. until I get bored of that. Hahahhah.. hahahhaAhaa.
(picture stolen from Tock who is a MAJOR CAMWHORE)
Sunday mother’s day.
It was awesome. Had lunch at Sunway Resort Hotel’s Avanti with the family and it was very well worth every single stinking RM66++. Very decent buffet spread with the usual spreads of starters, cold meats, cooked meats, salads, yummy deserts, seafood (sushi! oyster! mussels! cold prawns!), pasta, soups, finger foods, a full ala-carte main meal (choice of steak, lamb, fish of chicken - steak was DIVINE), coffee/tea and FREE FLOW OF BEER. But seriously, one can’t stomach too much beer at a buffet because that’ll leave LESS room for AWESOME FOOD. My mum was given a goody bag with loads of goodies! Everybody was happy and too full! This is my second time and Avanti and I totally LOVE IT. AND because great news are meant to be shared, if you are a HSBC cardholder, you eat for 50% CHEAPER from next weekend onwards until June! Call them up now or a puppy DIES! Contact Avanti @ 7492 8000 Ext. 3176
After makan, brought mum around Sunway Pyramid to shop for my mum’s mother day present. She mentioned she wanted a pair of Crocs, so we checked it out. Mum decided NOT to buy a pair because she thought RM210 for a pair of ugly, plastic looking slippers were freakin’ ridiculous, haha. Ended spending more $$$$ buying a couple of items from British India (on sale!) and Xixili (you can never have enough undergarments). My goodness this place has changed SO MUCH I couldn’t even recognise it anymore. Passed by Wendy’s but wasn’t too tempted to try their burger. Apart from the fact that my stomach was overflowing with food, the place itself didn’t look appealing. Neither were the ads. I thought Carl Junior’s ads were more eye-catching and yumilicious. Yum. I want an overpriced oversized Carl Junior’s burger NOW.
It’s Monday.
Fucking tired wei!
Am getting too old for happening weekends.
A good lazing around and potato couching would be a nice change after a long workweek. The spirit is so willing for happening stuff all the time, but the body is broken.
Loose Change |
Thursday, May 1st, 2008
Let’s face it. The only thing you want to know after finding this shitty result on google is weather you should watchIron Man.
With absolutely no authority at all - I declare that you must or your will never be complete.
Ask yourself the following question:
1. Have you liked most of Stan Lee’s work on the big screen (with the exception of Fantastic 4 which is a huge disappointment in my humble opinion)
2. Big fan of Robert Downey Jr.?
If you answered yes to both of the above, chances are you WILL enjoy Iron Man.
Flawless CGI effects.
Robert nailing the role.
The movie being true to the comic.
Gweneth Paltrow being likeable and moderately hot.
Pretty clever lines.
Background music which makes you WANT TO KICK SOME ASS.
Do you really need more reasons why you should go watch the movie?
Honestly, I rate Spiderman 1 and Batman Begins higher than this. Spiderman 1 because it was more like a first mover advantage shock-awe feeling. Batman Begins because it was just damn awesome
Well, it might just be a tad slow for some. A tad. Especially after a long, hard day’s work, when the screening is at night on a weekday, with you knowing full well that you need to wake up damn fucking early to continue working hardly the next day. With that feeling - it would kind of spoil your movie experience. Just a tad bit.
Otherwise, fucking awesome balls.
So stop wasting your time reading this mindless shit and go watch it already for fucks sakes.
… or somebody’s gonna get a hurt real bad
Thanks Eyeris. 
By the way, single malt whiskey events are really mind-blowingly awesome. _hic_
Loose Change |
Monday, April 28th, 2008
I really tried to stay away from this but got trapped after accidentally watching one episode. So I’ve been following AI7 since a few weeks back and it’s so damn obvious what’s going to happen. Unless America decides to fuck around with the votes and take for granted to not vote for their favourites, this is what I think will happen:
That wavy-blonde haired chick who annoys the shit out of me is going to get booted out. Then the black girl who sings like La Toya and unfortunately has as much stage presence as La Toya as well (ie, like cardboard) will go. Well it doesn’t matter who gets booted out first, but what remains is that ALL the girls will go before the men start leaving. Next will undoubtedly be the drummer with dreadlocks. I mean the dude has only ONE singing style and honestly he’s not that great a singer. The only reason why he’s sticking around is because the chicks are worse than he is and the fact that he looks moderately cute. His looks doesn’t do it for me at all in the first place because he reminds me of that annoying Elaine from Seinfeld and that’s just so wrong. So after all the girls are gone, he HAS to go.
I can’t even remember their names because they are pretty much forgettable. But it was clear that the men were way better than the women in this season. And much clearer who the REAL talents were in this episode.
This means that we will see the 2 Davids battle it out in the finals. I think this is going to be THE most exciting finals American Idol will ever have. There’s no clear cut winner because they are both just so damn good at their own thing. Every time I watch both of these guys perform my eyes glaze over like I’ve fallen in love.
Let’s break it down:
David A:
1. Major cute factor
2. Voice of an angel and able to hit all the right notes at all the right times.
3. Strength in ballads and girly songs (is he gay?)
4. So much emotion in his face when he sings he sends shivers down your spine and makes grown men cry.
5. My favourite performance - Imagine
David C:
1. Major cool factor
2. Voice of a husky rockstar who never fails to surprise me by reaching and holding his high notes and even though the rock character is not original he is still a billion times more talented than Chris Daughtry
3. Strength in acoustic rock songs and surprisingly quite flexible with other genres too
4. He doesn’t just sing, he gives you a freaking rock concert
5. My favourite performance – Billie Jean
I like them both so much. Every time I hear David A sing I’d be like “man there is NO way he’s not going to win this. Then I head David C sing and I’d be like “SHIT this guy is freaking AWESOME”. But if you break my arm and force me to choose a winner… I think David Archuleta will win. David Cook is an amazing performer with outstanding vocal skills, but David A is more mainstream and that puppy-eyed face would appeal to a wider crowd (not to mention MOST girls).
David Cook doesn’t even need to win because he’s so going to come up with his own album anyway lah! Chill!! Chill!!
Loose Change |
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
Do you remember back in school, those essays which makes you write about your “cita-cita” or those important looking school documents which forces you to jot down your top 3 favourite ambitions of all time as if at the tender age of 7 we KNEW exactly what those jobs entailed?
Polis. Askar. Doktor. Peguam. Guru. Bomba. Jururawat. Juruterbang. Arkitek.
Every year until you’re done with school we fill in the blanks with anything that sounds professional and “normal” so that your teachers won’t look at your parents weird at PTAs and your parents wouldn’t in turn, have to counsel you about the importance of having a professional 9-5 job and a steady stream of income.
Like many sensible, filial Asian children with no real direction of their (my) own I resorted to studying the safest subjects. And after more than 7 years of running in circles and not winning anything in the rat race – I still don’t have an inkling of what I REALLY want to do. But I DID learn that there are SOME things which I DON’T want to do and I wished that I was more informed about them when I going through the phase of having to actually DECIDE what I wanted to do with my life.
But lo and behold! After 7 years of real-life research, I can now finally unveil to you my Un-ambitions: Jobs I would never want to do again.
1. Financial Accountant
Yes I am an accountant my profession but I’m not ashamed to admit that I hate it. Month in month out I’m staring at pages and pages of Microsoft Excel worksheets and hundreds of linkages - churning out Income statements, Balance Sheets, Cash Flow statements, Statements of changes in Equity, Notes to financial statement, Company taxes, yearly budgets, audits and annual reports. I have a different level of hate kept especially for annual reports. Let’s face it, the only thing investors ever want to know about the company is how much damn money are they going to get back in return. But instead we churn out this freaking 300 paged full of self-indulgent testaments and technical garbage nobody gives a shit about. Financial instruments disclosure. Intangible assets. Off-Balance Sheet items. Deferred taxes. Subordinated notes. Gain on sale of securities held for trading and derivative financial instruments. Redeemable convertible unsecured loans. Non-Cumulative guaranteed preference shares. Nobody gives a shit about those things except fellow anal retentive regulators, accountants and auditors.
Financial accounting is tedious. Monotonous. Robotic. Repetitious. Boring. And most of all, after doing it for so many years, it starts feeling pointless and empty. Very unfulfilling. You are a number crunching lifeless drone with no mind of your own. If people asks me whether accounting is the way to go for them I will always say this, unless you have the character of a piece of chalk – NO. If they like numbers so much they are better off doing something in the finance industry. All that said, taking up at least a couple of basic accounting units is very important because ALL companies DEPEND on numbers to function. So, yes take some accounts in school but NO, don’t do it for a living. Wasting five young years on this was my biggest regret in life. As you can see I am still very bitter about it. Whether it MADE me the bitter bitch I am now or I have always BEEN a bitter bitch remains to be proven, though.
2. PR
I met this really eye-catching decked-out girl at a club who was a friend’s friend. Very lady-like and poised. Seems pleasant enough when I’m talking to her… but her phone would ring every hour and when she is on the phone I could see that she transforms into this whole different person. She suddenly develops a weird unrecognisable foreign accent, laughs a little too loudly and shrilly, sounded a few tones higher than normal. I learned from her that she does PR for a very prominent group and the first thing she told me after I wowed was “there is nothing glamorous about this job”. Yeah right, I thought. I could do this. How hard is it to be nice to clients all the time and look fabulous? I really wanted to give this job a try which is why my current job entails some elements of PR. I thought hey, I’m an extroverted kind of person. I think I understand people more than numbers. I love eating and drinking for free. I can multitask. It’s not too hard, right?
Wrong.
To enter into the world of PR one WILL need to have a certain flair and chameleon-like ability to be anything or anyone when the situation calls for it. Which means you have to constantly put on different masks all time and I don’t mean like China’s secret face-changing technique. To potential clients and people who are useful to you, you are their best friend ever, you constantly kiss ass, you promise the moon and stars, you whisper sweet nothings into their ear and recite the most beautiful poetry ever on demand. To please the selected few special people, nothing is impossible. Yet in the same breathe you turn into this nasty pushy unreasonable dragon bitch, demanding your underlings to get the shit done by yesterday or else. It’s like being a two-faced fake. Fortunately not everybody is like this. Unfortunately a lot of people are. It’s just the way the industry works.
I’m aware that there are many ways a person can PR… but unfortunately the ones I have to deal with are mostly the types who are enveloped in their “I’m better than you” air of pretentiousness which I rather not associate myself with or model myself after. Plus having to go all out to kiss everybody’s ass and revolve my life around work (because in PR, you are working 24-7) is just not for me. I have a fear that if I am in the industry long enough, the pressure, lifestyle and pace would suck me in so deep it mutates me into this superficial monster. My hats off to you guys who do this for a living, I’m just not made for this.
3. Educator
I’ve never formally taught. But I can tell from my limited experience that I cannot do this. I’m VERY impatient. When somebody comes and asks me to explain to them something that seems damn simple to me (like the double entry rule), I would try to explain it to them as best as I can, but I do it at warp speed. Words jump up from my mouth like a bullet train at rush hour in Japan and I just expect the person asking to be able to follow. In my (irrational) mind I’ll be like, this is too easy! Then the person would ask questions to clarify. Questions, questions and more questions. I get fidgety and frustrated. And while I am trying as hard as I can to slowly explain something I am mentally screaming “WTF. WHY IS IT SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND. ARE YOU A STUPID RETARD DID YOUR MOTHER DROP YOU WHEN YOU WERE A BABY WHY ARE YOU ASKING ME THIS OVER AND OVER AGAIN HOW MANY FUCKING TIMES DO YOU NEED ME TO EXPLAIN THIS STUPID THING TO YOU I WANT TO KILL YOU AND SHIP YOUR REMAINS TO INDIA AND FEED YOU TO THE GODDAMN RATS OMG LEAVE ME ALONE MOTHERFUCKER!”.
I can’t even begin to imagine teaching children. Do you have any idea how spoilt and warped kids are these days? And the parents? Even worse. Before the day is through, the only thing I’ll probably manage to get into their thick skulls is my hand. Crushing it.
I don’t quite enjoy the prospects of losing friends or living in a contained 8×8 space metal bars for a door for a prolonged period of time. So teaching is out for me.
Thus conclude my Un-Ambitions. I’ve shown you mine. Now show me yours!
Loose Change |
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
I’m really excited that big names are welcoming bloggers to participate in their promotions and events. It does go to show that Malaysian brand managers are beginning to appreciate the growing significance of the internet and alternative channels in marketing strategies. As for me, I’m a firm believer of accepting free stuff with an open heart and a big smile of gratitude.
Last week, I was invited by Maxis for “The Maxis Venus Affair” - a campaign to promote their USB modems catering only to ladies - the campaign I mean, not the modems.
Ladies only? How so? Well, if “Venus” didn’t already give it a way – then THIS should.
Here comes the bride….tum tum tee tum
Pink and white balloons draped in sheer, flowy fabric suspended over the entrance of the event which resembles more or less an entrance to a wedding banquet hall. Can it be even more girly?
Oh, yes it can.
mine mine mine mine
All over the ceiling - pink and white HELIUM-FILLED BALLOONS.
I don’t know about you, butOhmygod I absolutely go nuts over those stuff. Who says they are just for kids? Yeah you can say that to my face when I am holding a fistful of the pretty helium-filled rubber of JOY while you stand there helplessly envying my loot with tears in your eyes calling me silly names in defiance because I DON’T CARE I HAVE THE BALLOONS YOU DON’T NYEH NYEH.
I have to admit that there was a bit of a pink overload but I know a certain somebody who wouldn’t mind it at all…. and well, I do so like my share of pink. I suppose there has to be some truth to the stereotype of pink=girls otherwise how would the stereotype exist in the first place, right?
And to make it even MORE female-oriented there were booths offering makeup, makeovers, hand massages, and photo print-outs (to help unleash the inner camwhore in you!).
I really wanted to get my hands on one of them nifty Canon photo printers!!!
If I’m not mistaken – any girl who strays into the event hall was given an African Daisy, which by coincidence, is my favouriteST flower in the whole universe because they are such happy flowers wheee!
Getting a hand massage… and looking rather unfit… bleh
Users who sign up for their RM138/month package during the event would also receive (among other girly stuff like makeup vouchers, magazines..) this:
The USB modem is tiny!!
A trinket box and a modem pouch for the (duh) USB modem. (Translated as “free, pretty, semi-functional stuff which compel girls to want to OWN it”). If cosmetic companies pull this sort of packages off so well – why not telco providers eh?
Personally, I think this sort of marketing campaigns are great. IT-related promotion packages have traditionally been very boring. There’s not a single person I know who can get by without 1) a computer of some sort or 2) internet and let’s face it – every provider sells basically the same thing. Which is why marketing campaigns that focus on the “feel-good factor” is an excellent differentiation strategy to set its brand apart from its competitors. Just my 2 sen.
Thanks Noora for patiently showing me around! And thank you Maxis for the free stuff!
Loose Change |
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