joshuachay

here's the full stop folks

2008-11-08T01:19:00.004+08:00

I am moving full time to joshuachay.com starting this month. There will be no more updates here.

I loved this place, but I decided that it was time for me to move on with proper host and domain name. This blog will still be kept alive as a monument to my life from 2007 - 2008. A huge thanks to everyone that supported this place, wouldn't have been meaningful without all of you. Love and peace.

last two weeks here

2008-10-19T01:20:00.005+08:00

I talk about the latest Macbooks and Macbook Pros "5 Things You'll Lose With The New Macs" and had a graduation photoshoot recently for a close friend, read "Graduations".

I am still in the process of transitioning over to my new blog at joshuachay.com, so please bear with any extreme changes you've been seeing over there. I am highly skilled in the art of being fickle, so please just hang in there as I sort things out. Expect another 2 weeks before I completely move on the new site. Meanwhile, you can always follow me on Twitter, contact me on facebook, or just visit joshuachay.com. Don't forget to change those bookmarks / blog rolls!

winner of guessing game announced

2008-10-07T15:54:00.002+08:00

Remember this?

The winner is announced at joshuachay.com and there's also a tiny thing about a gift. Check it out.

from Phuket [update]

2008-10-02T22:28:00.005+08:00

Hey everyone, my trip is almost over and it's been great so far. Can't write much right now, but just that it's been refreshing and that I've done a whole lot of stuff that I think many of you will not be able to imagine me doing. But enough talk, see the pictures for yourself. I'll be back with a more detailed post later, I've got lots to say about Thailand. Kap Kun Kap!

moving out message

2008-09-27T10:00:00.003+08:00

Will be trying out something new during my Poo-Cat trip and no, it's not their women or wo-man.

I'll be Live Blogging throughout my Thailand trip at joshuachay.com starting Monday!

Honestly, it's only about 60% ready, but I decided to just go ahead and push it out the door.

Blogspot ----> Hosted
I won't be transferring over my blogspot posts. 2 reasons: I want to start with a clean slate and I want to keep blogspot around, kinda like an online archive of 2007/2008.

For my new blog, I promise you never before seen and unreleased posts, pictures and stories! And of course some new ideas that I have been putting off until joshuachay.com was ready.

Appreciation
14,000 hits later, I would like to thank everyone who bothered. I don't think it would've even been half as fun if I didn't have you guys around. See you at joshuachay.com soon!

poo-cat

2008-09-26T14:22:00.004+08:00

I'll be at Phuket for 5 days next week for holidays. Leaving on early Monday morning. And yes, in the middle of my short semester. What that means is that I'll be working on assignments internationally, on some beach in Phuket, with girls in bikinis walking by and white guys (which a friend loves) effortlessly making me feel like a dwarf.

I am looking forward to a couple of things over there:
1. Unlimited food, massages and other holiday-ish things at Club Med
2. REAL Thai ladyboys
3. Beautiful beaches and islands (which I think I would be visiting a few)
4. REAL Thai food, not like the pirated versions we have here in KL
5. Buying those cheap, nicely designed Thai printed T-Shirts that are so overpriced here (Curve comes to mind)

Anything else I should look out for at Phuket (food, places, beaches, activities)?

making friends in college

2008-09-24T00:03:00.005+08:00

Girl L : Hey, you're from PJ right?
Me : Huh? Why you say that?
Girl L : 'cause you look spoilt
Me : ...

Girl R : You look like Peter Pan la...
Me : *Phew* (how the hell I went from Harry Potter to Peter Pan I will never know)

Girl R : Hey what is Joshuachay.com about ahh?? What is that? Porn site ah?
Girl G : Ha?! He blogs ah? (laughs)
Me : ...

Girl C : You look terrible in that hair style.
Me : I'm just trying to go for a more natural look that's all
Girl C : Yeah, but it's still terrible.

It's tough I know, but Sherve's Galdiator boots are tougher. And it's only been 3 weeks?

dinner with teresa kok

2008-09-22T23:00:00.003+08:00

I had the privilege to attend Assemblies of God's "EduCare & WidowCare" Charity Event tonight thanks to my church. I applaud the effort made by AG to want to raise funds to provide for the children of full time workers and widows of pastors. The goal is to raise 1 million by year end. I wish them the best and will be supporting. The event had a nice "dum dum dum" twist to it.

There was a very special guest at the dinner - YB Teresa Kok!

Apparetly she had already been booked for this event months ago, so her release from ISA was quite 'perfect'. She spoke on her arrest, shedding light on the reasons (or rather the lack of reason) why, her experiences during the 8 days and her future plans post-ISA.

A couple of points from her speech:

She reiterated that her arrest was made on false allegations (I don't think I need to explain here, it's reported everywhere)

When the police got to her, they didn't even allow her to inform her family, saying "Mereka akan tahu bila buka suratkhabar esok" (they'll know when they read the papers tomorrow)

She was in solitary confinement.

She was peaceful and able to sleep "better than at home" during the whole duration, crediting God and the people who kept her in prayer.

She believes that her detention served a bigger, higher purpose and thanks God for it - to bring worldwide attention to the gross misuse of power and violation of human rights this government is so well known for.

After her experience, she is convicted to pursue the abolishment of the ISA and the release of the 60+ detainees.

She called for an end to racial and religious extremism.

She personally wants to take this opportunity to show to the Malays that she is and has always been a friend and not an enemy, encouraging us to do the same.

Personally, I'm inspired looking at this woman speak about her experiences and beliefs in such a manner. This Christian politican speaking about her experience in such a positive way is just so encouraging.

I can feel the injustice done to her. It was clearly and obnoxiously wrong. It's times like this that make you want to do something, anything, to right the wrong, to fight for your country's future.

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Alright people, this ends my very political week of posts. I had an epiphany and it was politics. So please excuse me. Thanks for drudging through =)

real story of may thirteen

2008-09-20T00:57:00.003+08:00

Please, do this for yourself if not for the country.

Read what REALLY happened on the infamous May 13 and see for yourself what kind of government is in power today. Even if you're not into politics, you need to equip yourself with the knowledge. We need to stop the spread of misinformation and ignorance. See that it's not any race that you should be hating, but it's a party. They are keeping us from being a true multiracial nation.

The REAL Story of May 13 (Part 1)
The REAL Story of May 13 (Part 2)

p.s. Today, Theresa Kok is finally released from ISA after a meaningless detention. Read her statement here.

adidas women fall/winter collection pt2

2008-09-18T00:22:00.006+08:00

Continuing from my previous post on the Adidas event, I would like to show you some women...

Ninie, celebrity yoga instructor. Why celebrity? Because she's really celebrity like la. What else. Met her a couple times, but I don't think she remembers me, haha...

She mentioned that she was nervous before the event in her blog, but I think she handled the large crowd just fine. Even I felt like doing yoga looking at them. "Hold the imaginary ball... move your hands slowly up and down..."

Cynthia, the girl I never really met. But did later on Facebook. Found out that we have a lot of mutual friends. Long Bean Thong was one of them.

Lavin dancing, and that's Jien (with his face all covered up by Deborah). He has an accent now.

Sazzy Fallak

Daphne Iking. Grrr

And finally... I think the REAL women at the event should have their 15 mins of fame too! There were women in their 20's all the way to their 40's working out together that night. Confirm they're more healthier than most of us men out there. Argh.

Ok, that's it for the Adidas event. I think there'll be a mens collection event coming up.

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Just a quick update on my side. I'm currently writing 2 short films and planning to shoot another music video soon (in the next few weeks). On top of that I'm also freelancing with ChristienLavin, so can't divulge any projects here, sorry. And yeah, I still have my degree to finish.

banana leaf with photographic beetle boy

2008-09-15T19:37:00.007+08:00

Went out for drinks with Matt the other day. Of course he had to bring his new wife out, and by wife I mean his black, big, shiny, Nikon D300. His dream camera that he slugged to save for. Finally he got it after 2 years. It's not easy bein' a photographer baby.

By the way, if you're in my area (or can travel to my area), this is the mamak that I'll choose. It's not 100% great. But comparing to the flying roaches of Spicy Kitchen to the dirty-utensils-but-amazing-teh-o-ais-limau Barkath or even the suicidal waiters of Old Kanna, I think this place is the best.

Playing with the Nikon D300, it felt very nice in the hands compare to my 400D. Bigger = Better grip. But the most noticeable thing about it has got to be the live view screen. With this feature in almost all DSLRs in that range, blindshots will be a thing of a past! Something which I do quite often especially during events. The only thing that keeps me away from Nikons are the controls. Canons somehow just feel more natural to me. But that's strictly subjective.

adidas women fall/winter collection

2008-09-12T23:34:00.008+08:00

It was quite the star studded event that I wasn't really prepared for (Christien called me last minute). And it was quite a big deal among the female blogging community. But Adidas really pulled one hell of an event out of that 3 striped hat.

Speaking about bloggers, that girl Cynthia was there, which happens to be friends with a lot of people I know and is VERY happening (I wanted to say hi, but had to leave early, so if you're reading this...) and Janet, a talented, bilingual, opera jazz singer which had a very interesting back and forth with Christien when they met

Sadly, I was having a really frustrating time taking pictures, which is what I was there for. I tried and tried, but just couldn't get the right settings for my paltry rig (400D + 580EXII + kit and 50mm). So most of my shots came out like total noobishness. On to the craptures!

Event was at Gardens Hotel Ballroom, grand looking place. Missed the buffett line. Christien and I had Kim Gary instead

The invited bloggers got to do yoga with the celebs. During the yoga, the organizers actually had to tell the photographers from the Malay media to move to another section of the room because they kept gatal wanting to shoot the celebs clevage. You know they need to meet a quota of censorable boob valleys every week right?

Celebs at the event. Daphne Iking just keep getting more and more in shape (read: beautiful) everytime I see her (since her pregnancy last year). There's women, and then there's Daphne Iking.

Smashpop found me. He was having dinner at MidValley. Recently, we keep bumping into each other around KL because we Tweet. Just follow my tweets and we too will be doing the same in no time.

Deborah Priya Henry, Miss Malaysia 2007. The only good shot during the catwalk. Sigh.

flag hill bitch [update]

2008-09-11T23:58:00.005+08:00

Ok, apparently I'm not done venting yet.

How is "just re-stating the historical background (of the Chinese)" NOT RACIST? Maybe he should go to the US and state the "historical background" of the Blacks there and see if he doesn't get his shite beaten up.

"Whaatt?? Isn't that what you were called back then? N*****S? Historical wat!"

Just because it's the past doesn't mean it's fine for anyone to bring it into any context they want. It was generations ago, and anyway, aren't we suppose to be working towards being Bangsa Malaysia? Oh, I forgot, the whole idea was just a bunch of lies mean to shut the rest of us up.

And has anyone realized that he's not ISA-ed yet? They have been dishing those out like Giant flyers recently, why not him? Why preferential treatment? All of a sudden, outright racial statements that would (and has) cause national tension not in the ISA list anymore? How convenient. Like paying for everyone to go study study.

I have as many Malay, Indian and Lain-Lain friends as much as the next Malaysian, and it royally pisses me off that we still need to deal with ignorant people. The same people that are suppose to be fighting FOR the country, not WITHIN it! Fighting AGAINST racism, not advocating it.

Lim Kit Siang sums it up nicely over here.

We don't need his apology now, it's too late. We just need his ass put back to where it belongs - up a flag.

[update] Ahmad gets 3 year ban from party

the poof

2008-09-09T23:28:00.005+08:00

Can someone tell me why is Avril Lavigne coming to Malaysia to have a concert "not appropriate for our Merdeka celebrations and the spirit of Merdeka" but Ahmad insulting the Chinese and then saying that "he was merely stating history" ok?

Shouldn't Merdeka be about everyone just forgetting the color of our skin and just accepting and loving one another? I mean COME ON! It's people like this that keep the flames of racism alight.

And for anyone who would be even influenced by this shite is equally dumb. If you're Chinese and you hate Malays now (or vice versa) because of one man's words, then please stop. If you must, hate the man not the race.

Yes, I know the party has apologized, but come on, not firing means you're condoning.

Seeing that his actions were perfectly fine, he held a press conference to throw a bucket of salt to our wounds. With poster tearing and racially insensitive chants, you got to give this guy some credit for being - as one newspaper puts it - "bordering on insolence".

WOOHOO! The "I" word. A little bit more and it would've been spot on.

How dare this one guy destroy all that Barisan Nasional is trying to stand for? The multi-racialness, the bangsa Malaysia, the peace, the harmony, the Vision 2020? Am I right BN? Am I?

I never brag about having any political inteligience, but you have to be pretty ignorant to not feel anything.

summer showers

2008-09-08T21:41:00.007+08:00

I had a wonderful experience recently. Washing the car in the rain.

You know those light drizzles? Holding your umbrella in one hand and the scrub in the other? That's my alien looking scrubber I bought for my car by the way. And if you're wondering, yes, it does make me feel cool while cleaning the Uncleanable.

(I really wanted to name it something attractive like Denzel or Mr T or Chubby Mc Chubby... but looks like it really is the Uncleanable)

I don't really remember what's my point. But I'm happy to report that I am now officially obsessed with cleaning even the slightest bit of dirt from it. It's almost like I'm reading from the car bible - love thy car as thyself. Which if you haven't heard, I just made it up.

duffeh

2008-09-05T20:30:00.002+08:00

Some of you may remember that I absolutely hated Duffy when she first came out. Well you're wrong. I didn't hate her. That's too harsh a word.

Well, to be fair to me, I only disliked that she got popular after Amy Winehouse. I don't know am I right historically or factually, but it sure looked like it from here. But I have been listening to her. And except for Mercy, I love the rest of the album.

Her music makes me feel like I'm rocking on an old, white rocking chair on the porch of my southern summer home, sipping wine and enjoying the breeze from the old metal fan. The sun is setting, making everything orange on its way down. Ahhh... that's some good wine...

Ok, my music reviews might not be the best or most informative, but I'm trying here!

My favorite track has got to be "Serious" and "Hanging On Too Long", but I know my dear friend over here loves "Stepping Stone" to death. But really, the whole album is good and worth the cash. If you're like me, you would just end up skipping only one song, Mercy. Still, it's better than me skipping the entire E=MC2 to just play "Touch My Body". Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about.

If you love old school, soul jazz-ish stuff and you're down in the dumps, Duffy - or more presicely, Duffeh - is for you.

intership is over, back to college

2008-09-04T20:30:00.001+08:00

You're back again! Thanks for caring so much about my life.

My internship stint with Christienlavin is officially over and I'm going back to college this semester. I know I have been exceptionally quiet the past 4 months about my life there. So, to rectify that, I will be posting the highlights in the next few posts.

Working so closely with them has definitely changed my perspective on a lot of things. Especially the industry. I got to experience first hand a lot of stuff that you wouldn't usually get to see or hear from the outside. But first, some faces that I would like to show you.

Christien New!

Attended New Man's launch party for something. Here you see Lavin, Nadia and of course at the far right - Joey G. No, he wasn't suppose to be in the picture.

Lavin, Me and Wayne from Her Many Faces press conference.

Got to meet Azura! Was at the finals of The Firm 2 with Lavin. The Firm 2 is Malaysia's answer to The Apperentice for those of you wondering. So I guess you'll be able to see my face in the last 2 episodes (I hope)

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While being their "media guy", which really means "one-leg-kicking guy", I followed them almost everywhere to photograph their ins and outs. Photos that I think I'm allowed to show in the next post.

joshuachay.com is coming soon - any suggestions? email to joshuachay [at] gmail.com

influence 2008: after the show

2008-09-03T16:27:00.003+08:00

About 2 months ago, a Youth Alive annual event returned bigger and better. Influence 2008 was a success and I had the chance to be one of the photographers on the first night. There was a good crowd there, even if it was one week after Hillsong United's concert (remember that?)

After the show, I took lots of pictures with the "celebrities" of the Christian youth scene (lol). I came across them recently in my iPhoto while looking for something else. Brought back memories and what's the best way to reminisce then to make it into a post?

Boys of Canaan - our Pastor Daniel in the middle

Botswana represent! The girls are studying in KDU. A place I am very familiar with...

Celebrity musicians Steve, Marcus and Prakash making sure their presence was felt

Marcus, Joyce, Slump and Kimberly - miss her very much since she has left us all...

Jon gar~rang~

Amanda, Liang and Prakash dropping it like its hot

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That's it. See more of the event here

I have tons of pictures that I haven't shown you guys. Will be doing most of that in the new site. For those who don't know, I finally caved in and bought a domain and hosting a week ago. More info on that soon. Stay classy Kuala Lumpur

fake panties, fake bread, fake flower - a weekend of fakenessity

2008-09-01T23:46:00.004+08:00

I had a weekend like no other.

Apart from photographing (and surviving) my church's effort at organizing an Amazing Race type event on Sunday and a 12 hour wedding photoshoot with Christienlavin on Thursday, there were a couple of very interesting-things that I saw over the weekend. Somewhere in here is the answer to the guessing game.

So, my top 5 interesthing-things!

5. The cutest set of Doraemon figures I have ever seen. Nobita is the cutest. I do have a soft spot for him.

4. Tora datang lagi! Nampak macam seluar dalam tapi tunggu! Ia jugak sebiji uncang! Bukak di atas! Sekarang, dengan lebih bola coklat! Tunggu apa lagi?!

3. The Nokia E71 - seen here modeled by Christien - is a pretty looking phone but with a beefy set of features to boot. When is Smashpop going to review it? I don't know. But I would recommend it to anyone wanting a proper business phone that looks and feels classy.

2. Bread shaped wrist-rests?? Genius! Trust me, it looks, feels and smells just like the real thing. Typcial, I ended up buying one. Check it out at an Action City near you.

1. It's kinda like a flower. But it's also kinda like a drink. The thing is actually a type of green tea where the "tea leaves" are actually tied up in such a way that when it is put into hot water, it'll spread out into a beautiful flower as shown in the picture. Damn cool! About RM22 for 3. Once you've seen it for yourself, normal tea would not cut it anymore. Check it out at Hojo, Gardens.
June wins!

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So there you go, the top 5 interesting-things from my weekend. What's yours?

the guessing game pt1

2008-08-30T23:46:00.005+08:00

So I've got a little guessing game for you guys. I discovered this while out on Saturday shopping with Joyce. A prize for the first correct answer in the comments! You can click on the picture for a bigger shot. No hints sorry.

trip down (iPod) memory lane

2008-08-28T15:00:00.000+08:00

Believe it or not, I used to hate iPods.

My uncle would try to convince me to get one of those snazzy lil miracles that Apple called iPods. I kept reminding him that I had a mini compo in my room and that I drove. So why the heck would I need a portable music player? Well I was really wrong. Kinda like '96 over again.

It was the year 1996 and as we were starting to get used to the idea of paying RM45 for a CD of our favourite music - never needing to wade past the first 4 crappy songs on Side A to get to that lovely, lovely 5th song on that junk called cassette - CD ROM took MY world by storm! I remember my first reaction to it.

My uncle asked, "Do you know you can play games on CD now?"

"Huh?" (imagining the Super Nintendo / Sega Genesis but with a CD) "Sure not??"

Sure enough, the CD-I was freaking amazing. Most Malaysians wouldn't have seen this. But it was really hot in Singapore for awhile. Then Playstation came and the rest was history.

Ok. So after I finally got the iPod Mini and I realized, "How could anyone live without an MP3 player? But not just any MP3 player. How could anyone live without an iPod?"

And once again, the rest was history.

I'm not trying to sell you an iPod. I do not like the current lineup at all. The Classic is fat and slow. The 3rd gen Nano looks like a clown puked all over a biscuit. And the current iPod Shuffle lacks the coolness and all-in-one ease of its predeccesor. That is why I'm quite happy when I hear that Apple will be redesigning most if not the entire lineup of iPods and Macs this September. Here's to Apple NOT screwing up their iPod line.

From left to right, chronologically:
iPod Mini 4GB, very first MP3 player I had
iPod Photo 60GB, hand-me-down from Uncle
iPod Nano Product RED 4GB, free with Macbook Pro
iPod Video 30GB, won it from Kit Kat Break Free
iPod Touch 8GB with 2.0.1
iPhone 8GB with 2.0.1 and Unlocked

run forest, runnn!!!

2008-08-26T23:48:00.000+08:00

car number two, kelisa

2008-08-11T15:24:00.005+08:00

It was a bright sunny morning when I woke up to see, sitting on my front porch, a purple Perodua Kelisa. That was 4 years before I got it from my mom as a replacement for the Kancil.

It was a really good car, but with age catching up, it was better for me to replace it this year. I think it looked so much more better when I was driving it (hah!)

So to end my week of automotive posts, I dolled up the Kelisa and took it for one last ride around town. And of course, one last photoshoot to remember it by.

Goodbye Barney on wheels, its like I hardly got to know you.

Perodua Kelisa, 2006 - 2008

memories, first car

2008-08-08T23:59:00.002+08:00

From the very revy manual gear to the aircond that only has 2 levels, soft and really loud.... I loved this car. It was my first and it's what people call a "practice car". The kinda car that has to take all the crap from his punk ass owner. But apart from a major accident which happened in the first 7 days, I think I did a pretty good job being a P driver.

The blue paint was repainted just weeks before selling off the car, the manual stick always made a loud "krraaakkk" and the center panel was way ahead of it's time.

This car saw me through my first relationship, brought me on my numerous outstation trips and had fetched tons of people for YouthAflame. It was an awesome time.

Perodua Kancil, 2003 - 2006

malaysian drivers

2008-08-06T23:59:00.000+08:00

A couple of idiotic-ness that I abslutely need to highlight. Not that I really want people to know what I've been going through this whole week, but rather I want a select group of people in this world to realize that they really, should, just go to hell.

The Touch & Go Retard
You know why they have long lines at the Touch & Go lanes. It totally defeats the purpose of having a Touch & Go lane if I have to wait while 20 cars pass me by smoothly in the cash lane before I can even reach the bloody booth.

It's because of the idiot that doesn't check his card's blance!

He keeps waving his card in front of the detector while the "baki kad anda tidak mencukupi" sign keeps flashing on the board in front of him. He presses the intercom but then we have to wait for the attendent to walk from the other side of the world to come and settle this retard's problem.

Why?? Why can't you just reload your card? If you keep forgetting, just use cash!

Don't get me started on old ladies who wait to reach the booth, wind down the window, search for their card all over the car, find it, tut tut, puts it back into their purse, look at the mirror, apply a new layer of lipstick, thennnn leave! My God, why don't you just go into labour while you're at it? Or how about do some online banking and investments?

The Never-See-Before-Reversing Champion
You know you're in trouble when you see a big, black, expensive car in front of you... and the driver inside is some chick who is wearing sunglasses in the middle of the night, or a middle age Chinese "tai lo" wannabe that has the stupidest hair from God knows which era.

Am I generalizing too much here? No.

Seriously, these kind of drivers are the ones who just reverse without looking - not slowly and carefully - more like "When reversing, we should jam on the accelerator. It's the only thing to do riiigghhttt??"

2 incidences this week. One BMW with a girl trying to put her parking ticket into the machine but it wasn't working. So the only logical thing for her (I'm guessing) was just to slam on the reverse like all the 10 cars behind you is going to fantagically make way for your huge ass. I honked like hell! No bump, I was lucky.

2nd one, not so lucky. I was trying to do a U-Turn and I landed behind this black Vios. He wasn't parked properly, but with his butt coming out into the road if you can imagine. So I was going to reverse to complete the U-Turn and get out of there when SUDDENLY his reverse lights came on and his car flew backwards hitting into mine! He basically went from N to R and stepped on the pedal without even looking. And if you can't see a purple Kelisa, you must be really blind. It's like fracking Barney on wheels.

It wasn't serious. But it was a bump. I quickly reversed and moved my car to the side. He looked at me and showed me the finger and shit from inside, with his whole family. Which brings me to....

The Ones You Would Love To See Dead In An Accident
Why do older men always think they're right? Is it because they need to compensate for their shrinking manhood? Or that they really have no brains? Was it because they're Dad whacked them to bits when they were younger, fracturing the part of their brain required to function like a proper human being? I don't know. But I do know that there are loads of people like this.

You are the bane of human existence. Please realize that you are not the law and you are not always right. No, having a bigger car than me doesn't make you more righter. Neither does your stinking old age make any difference. If you're wrong, you're wrong.

close to being the evening news

2008-08-03T00:29:00.005+08:00

I reached office 30 minutes late on Friday. Had to meet my boss in PJ earlier in the morning. But this was the best day to be late to Cheras.

If you read The Star today, you would've read about a horrific accident about a lorry smashing into 7 cars after jumping lanes which killed 2. I was there 30 minutes later to watch the aftermath. And to think, if I didn't car pool with Nadia, went to PJ to meet my boss and did some banking TTDI, I would've been in that accident.

That's not the thing that got me all freaked out. The road that the lorry was coming out from (just before it went out of control), is the same road that I take to work everyday! I would've been a few seconds ahead or behind the lorry if it was any other day - either one, I don't think I could've escaped from being dragged into it.

I just cannot imagine that 7 people that day were just treating that morning like any other morning, and then this happened. With only 2 people dying (the lorry driver and a motorcyclist), it is incredible to imagine that the rest survived. If you were to see the van smashed onto the side of the wall, you wouldn't believe it too.

Interested to know what you guys think.

If you were in that situation where the lorry from the opposite direction was breaking through the divider and coming towards you, would the best course of action be:

a. Slam the brakes
b. Accelerate like hell to cut through to another lane
c. Open the door and jump out of the car

lovely and loved

2008-07-31T22:58:00.003+08:00

Sometimes plans don't go as they're supposed to. But we can always still have fun.
This post goes out to the girl of my dreams. Lots of love.

gradution, booon flies

2008-07-28T10:40:00.000+08:00

We drove all the to Putrajaya to see my old friend, Marcus "Baby Bear" Boon receive his paper. But we did get bored waiting halfway. That's where the jumping pictures came in...

leavings and going aways

2008-07-26T23:57:00.003+08:00

I'm sorry that I couldn't make you happier. Now that you're leaving, it really does feel like I'm looking at the end of a reality show - people get ejected one by one - only this time, I don't want to be the last one. Sorry for all the plans that didn't come true and promises unfulfilled. It's not going to be easy from here on out, but we'll get by I guess. Embrace your new world tightly.

something work related, finally

2008-07-18T01:21:00.003+08:00

Today I attended a press conference with Lavin at Royale Bintang, The Curve, for her latest TV series "Her Many Faces". It was fun, apart from all the photography I had to do, I got to meet plenty of Singaporean stars which was really an eye opener more than anything else.

I found them not living up to their arrogant, bossy stereotype, but rather, they were very friendly people. Loved the picture taking and the small talk (not forgetting the free buffet). Which makes me:
1. want to learn Mandarin more
2. really want to work in Singapore

"Her Many Faces" will be airing next week on NTV7, every Monday to Thursday 9:30pm.

song summoner for ipod

2008-07-16T00:11:00.005+08:00

I was so surprised when I found out that Square Enix was going to release an RPG for the iPod Video and even more surprised when I finally got my hands on it.

The short: It's Final Fantasy Tactics, but watered down by a lot. Like coffee at UCSI's North Wing where I work (consider this as a food review too if you must). The important difference is that it's the FIRST RPG for the iPod FROM Square Enix and it doesn't suck.

My thoughts on the game so far:
1. Playing a tactical RPG (tRPG) with a click-wheel is not impossible or horrible. It feels right.

2. The idea of using your songs to create Tune Troopers - your army to battle evil- is damn cool... My Goldfrapp tune made me a pretty strong archer!

3. I absolutely loved Final Fantasy Tactics, so the whole idea of playing a tRPG on my iPod is heaven for me.

4. The game art is beautiful, English dialog typical.

If you have access to the iTunes Store, have an iPod Video and love Square games as much as me, go buy this game! It's only $4.99 (RM16).

It's still freaking unbelievable they ACTUALY did this. Kudos to Square Enix!

smokey drunk naked sand throwers

2008-07-12T04:44:00.001+08:00

in the middle of the night

2008-07-10T13:11:00.001+08:00

Total opposite of how we are 9-6 everyday. I can't imagine how bankers take the whole office scene. Give me a camera and 2 actors and I'll gladly come up with a short right now.
*FYI, I am sitting in the office for most of the week.

Which reminds me. I have been toying with 2 ideas recently:
One about love, and the other about a love for women. I can't decide which is more interesting. No, actually I do know. Maybe when I have the chance, I'll get started on "Bird Watching with Ah Wong"

A public poll while I still have your attention!

Are you so desensitized that you are looking for the next shocking, provocative, challenging-all-that-you-believe-in thing to give yourself a little excitement? Yes, I could mean anything right now.

meet the bitch

2008-07-08T14:29:00.006+08:00

The Tan's bitch - Pretty the Poodle - is very, very cute.

So I had to take some pictures of Joyce's new do. First thing on my mind was "oh my god, under my umbrella betoi"... But it's a nice change considering that I have to put her through torture each time I have my random hair style changes at the whim of the chick that cuts my hair.

On to more important things.

Before I forget, if you're sick and tired of the shit on radio, please do yourself a favor and go listen to the The Raveonettes.

Ok, on to the important thing.

I think my self imposed "interestingness meter" is really kicking my blog in the nuts. Nothing seems to get published nowadays. It's getting worst that I was at Urbanscapes last week with my camera and did not take a single picture. I met tons of people there though. Yes, I'm looking at you and you and you and you (and he saw me there).

I think I'm bored. Maybe a change of pace would help. Disappearing off, starting all over, new people, new surroundings, new things to wake up excited for in the morning. There's just too much politics going on and I'm not even talking about anwar or mahathir here.

So I'm working on something new, a pet project. It might work, might not. We'll see if that does anything to stir this cesspool of a creativity.

work work work

2008-06-26T02:37:00.003+08:00

I think I've moved forward as much as I can (and done enough infringing on Disney's rights).

As of late, I've been working on some changes which should reflect a more current me.

More soon...

blondie

2008-06-12T13:00:00.000+08:00

Have you ever heard of the one where a Malay girl tells a Chinese boy that his boss had influenced him so much to even the way he speaks? But he replies "when you're in rome..."? Then there was a pause, and she replied "well, finish your sentence"?
(note: read with upward inflections)

Well anyway, that's not the story.

Some of you who live in Menjalara / Kepong / Selayang / Damansara would know of this place called Neiji Sushi in Menjalara near Barkath or DePastry Chef. Well, the following conversation happened there.

"So what would you like to drink?"
"Hot green tea for me"
"Ok"
"and cold green tea for me"
"So you want ice with that?"
"huh?"
"Yeeaaah, with ice..."
"So let me repeat your order, two hot green tea, one with ice, one without?"
"..."

Damn lame right my life? Jokes also not funny

what's new in the room

2008-06-11T20:00:00.001+08:00

I have finally gotten 2 things for my room - a mirror and spotlights. We both definitely are meant to be bros, our timing is immaculate.

It took me more than 6 months to get a mirror in my room after my little revamping last year. I have been mirrorless, so that justifies why I look liike shit some times.

The spotlights are just a perfect addition to the room's lighting, providing a studio-ish feel which I would've needed to renovate my ceiling for if I wanted to be 'proper' about it. But for RM159, I got the same effect with minimal effort. This picture is obviously not doing it justice, but you get the idea.

iPod Shuffle that I got for RM99 at Subang Parade. A coupon led me to it, but the real shocking thing was not even that I needed to line up for it (first 50), but that the store is owned by one of our country's badminton stars. Which for the life of me I cannot remember his name at all. People are diversifying now. So air stewardesses: why don't you actually charge for the sex?

a fish's full tank

2008-06-11T00:15:00.000+08:00

I've learned to shut up.

2008-06-10T00:58:00.005+08:00

...but first, let's rewind to a few hours before shall we?

Have you ever been in a situation where you give some advice to a friend, but it (I rather not specify she or he, anyway it's easier than typing he/she) replies by saying stuff like:

"Yeah, you think I don't know is it?"

"It's not as easy as you think..."

"I can't do it..."

And the next day it comes back to you and starts to sound optimistic saying that it has changed it's mind about things after talking to older, more about it's problems. In this case, age is the only thing that is defining maturity to be specific.

Fast forward to the present - I decided to just be happy for it and shut up. Really, I am.

like souls, heaven bound

2008-05-10T11:55:00.003+08:00

Torpedoing out of control.

I like the whole idea of slowly, being lifted up to heaven. It brings a nice end to one's life doesn't it? After all the tossing and turning here, it's peace at the end.

The coupe de grâce of falling action

I've been enamored with the sky recently. You feel like you're almost able to see God. Like a fish looking up from the river to see those eyes falling back at it. The tiniest connection between 2 separate beings for a moment and then broken by nature.

I like eating fish tho'. I heard they're good for you.

uninteresting, interesting, singapore

2008-05-09T15:00:00.002+08:00

I realize that I have quite an unhealthy affection for Topman now, it's the only place I really want to go for clothes

*aahhh* yellow journalism in action. At least they have catchier headers.
"Why bother with any of the news in the front?
Why not just use the biggest font size to cover up everything?" - right?

Futurama is back with a straight to DVD feature. I'm not sure if they're really coming back to TV, but I'm just too lazy to wiki it

Marks and Spencer is awesome

I can ride while taking pictures if anyone's interested

The Aeroline bus was so worth it when I found out that they had a "lounge" area. More pictures of that later. You just have to know it's like sitting in a really big limo. But better, because of the toilet

meet my new bosses, christien and lavin

2008-05-09T00:19:00.007+08:00

If you've heard, yes it's true.

I will not be continuing my current semester due to me taking up their offer, which after careful thought, is really a good offer. I will be working with them mainly on their upcoming film but the full job description is still up in the air. It's definitely not making coffee and taking in the papers.

So for the next four months, I'll be sharing my working experiences, behind the scenes of making the movie and a drip or two about life with the celebrity couple. For now, I'll just be waiting for 12th to come.

p.s. I'll miss you guys at college. Don't worry, you'll still see me around. My office is at the new wing and I still need to have lunch.

expanded

2008-04-20T00:12:00.007+08:00

That's how I feel now if you're interested.

But at the same time, I have some questions slash observations of my own.

I think the guys in today's relationships are the emotional and volatile bitches while the girls are getting stronger and more, dare I say, in charge? (This is in no way related to my own)

What is up with towels that don't absorb? Thank You Joni!

I'm listening to a lot of music that reminds me a lot of the dark blotches of my life. Don't know why, but it keeps coming up on shuffle. And the worst thing is that I just can't click next.

I'm very very tired from a non stop semester (without taking into account glo and other things), so please forgive me if I have not been able to keep in touch with everyone.

die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly

2008-04-11T00:30:00.003+08:00

Death has always been an interesting subject for me.

The more prevalent kind of death for me is in relationships. Nothing in the past few years have convinced me that it is not the worst. If you ask me, I think it's part of growing up, but I would love to deny it as much as possible. At least when loving someone till physical death, you have the lingering after taste of that love.

I'm not trying to be deep, I'm just being honest to myself more than anything. I've been struggling with growing up I guess (yeah, I know, insert short jokes here)

I guess there's no point in lying to yourself that things will get better - relationships are like any living thing. They live and they die.

I'm pretty sure this is not a confusion with the terrible final weeks of my semester.

three more weeks, hang on

2008-03-23T00:35:00.002+08:00

* fizzzzz * crackle * POP! *

is it possible for your brain to just go POP and then it just drips out your nose and ears?

2008-03-07T03:33:00.004+08:00

I don't know, but I'll let you know after March when I'm done with this incredibly long semester (or rather it just feels like it). I have finally experienced that non-stop-working-till-you-don't-know-if-you're-still-working thing again after so long.

Do I know who will I vote for this Saturday? Nope. Selayang is only between BN and PAS and of course I can't just give them right? But I don't feel like making the PAS guy one vote happier either (cheh, like my vote damn big deal right?).

I'm looking forward to long naps, afternoons at cafes just chatting with friends, driving around aimlessly in the middle of the nights and spending the whole day doing nothing with Joyce.

If only my brain doesn't go *POP* and it drips out of my nose and ears then.

international women's week at ucsi [updatex2]

2008-03-05T21:49:00.003+08:00

I've been up to my eyes wading through the last 2 weeks. It's crazy and it'll be crazy till the end of the month. But, I managed to chill with a couple of celebs yesterday after shooting the opening ceremony for International Women's Week at my college. Props to Nick and team for a great week ahead. Recognize anyone?

[update] photos of the catwalk session from the opening ceremony featuring our very own students

[updatex2] this photo came out in RAGE last week (11/4) I think for an article by Jessie (the girl behind me)

iPhone on 1.1.4 NOW!

2008-03-03T01:45:00.004+08:00

Hey guys, I've been really swamped with work the past week. Was so busy that I couldn't even make it for glo last Saturday.

What better way to let you guys know that I'm still alive than through a hearty dose of iPhone news?

iPhone is running the latest 1.1.4 now!
Props go out to Zibri for creating Ziphone which made the whole process really easy and quick. Just use it to activate, jailbreak and unlock your iPhone after restoring it to 1.1.4. It took me about 10 minutes and it was really really painless.

So we have sitting here, an 8GB iPhone with the 1.1.4 firmware, jailbroken and unlocked in Malaysia on Digi. Go ahead fellow Malaysian iPhone users, upgrade without fear!

p.s. Make sure you apply the appsupport 1.1.4 hack from Installer right after BSD subsystem

What I've noticed so far
The SMS problem (SMSes getting jumbled up within a conversation) is gone

Just feels snappier overall... I think...

People complaining about Youtube not working despite applying i.unlock.no hack, I have no such problem. Worked straight away

Not all apps from Installer will work 100%

video production class is filled with

2008-02-24T00:44:00.007+08:00

Me, Kenneth, Stephan, Ganesh, Nick and of course our, the ever illuminating, Prem Anand.

By the way, having a real (read: really really really real) director as your lecturer is a very good thing.

Which one's your favorite?

p.s. this is a sketch I did on the class's white board while he was eating a bag of chips. Great times.

p.s.2 for a very nice sketch of someone else in my class, please click here. I promise you it is worth it.

the seventh tree will sprout 26th february

2008-02-18T17:08:00.006+08:00

Goldfrapp's latest is a week away from release and I just pre-ordered the album from iTunes!
I really like the clown inspired artwork. It adds a nice dimension to the imaginary of what the album would be like.

She makes a very lovely clowntress don't you think?

*admiration sigh*

Beautiful voice, beautiful face... kinda make me wish I was in my thirties and British as well. I leave you with the first single from Seventh Tree, A&E.

Digi bringing in the iPhone, not Maxis or Celcom

2008-02-18T16:16:00.006+08:00

Everyone in Malaysia is speculating which telco will get the coveted right to sell Apple's iPhone here. What I've heard is that Apple is in talks with Maxis or Celcom already. No better time than now to throw in my own predictions. So with a little sleuthing (read: random luck), I came upon this juicy little info you're seeing right here.

What you're seeing is a page taken from Digi's online customer service page. This is where you enter in your mobile phone model and you can get Digi's WAP and MMS settings sent straight to your phone.

So you can imagine my surprise when I saw that Apple was among one of the 'phone manufacturers'. I selected them and got this under 'phone model' - iPhoneA1203!

The 'ok' button doesn't work and you can't actually get any settings for it. But the iPhone is actually in there!

This is not inside information and I'm definitely not saying that this is the gospel truth, but come on, it's something! Only time will tell whether this was a big giveaway and I could make money in the mac rumors scene or this was just the work of an overexcited employee...

p.s. first month using Digi's One plan on my iPhone and racked up this bill. It was suppose to save me money, not empty my man purse of it... Lesson? Do not use EDGE with your iPhone if you don't have an unlimited plan.

You know how some people's faces can just make you feel happy?

2008-02-15T11:19:00.005+08:00

I'm glad I get to see that face everyday

colors in black and white

2008-02-12T01:02:00.003+08:00

In conjunction with Chinese New Year, I present to you a set on a very famous temple here in KL - The Tian Hou Temple.

The temple itself is a spectacle, with bright colors layered on top of one another, all screaming for attention, and yet, all harmoniously put together.

I loved the colors, but most pictures of the temple so far have been focused exactly on that. This is my effort to present Tian Hou Temple to you, in all of its grandeur and beauty.

gong xi fa chai

2008-02-12T00:05:00.000+08:00

Happy Chinese New Year! I don't believe in rats, and I don't believe in not sweeping the floor, but I do believe in ang pows =) These are the precious years where everyone around you is getting married, but you haven't - so mountain dew - I will enjoy it.

But in keeping with the true spirit of the Spring Festival, I wish all of you, my dear friends and readers, a prosperous new year. May it be in health, finance, women (and men), education and women, have a good year ahead. Stay positive, stay strong.

graduation day, but not for me

2008-02-11T19:31:00.001+08:00

with Victoria

with Bobby

Alpheus!

with Winz

My KDU mates graduated a few Saturdays ago in style at Hotel Nikko, KL. It was a grand affair with all of Northumbria's students from around Malaysia attending. I figured that since this was what I would have had this year if I didn't move to UCSI, I had to be there. I had to have the closure.

Really regret couldn't take pictures with the rest (Dikota, Aadrian). After spending 3 years together, it seems like it was only a while. Will definitely miss the days where all of us would go for lunch, bowl at 1U, catch movies, hang out at home... Those were good times.

To all, congratulations on breaking free from the cocoon of education and blooming into who you are today. I wish the best for your future and remember, my number is still the same.

presenting, the oral stage in thirty minutes

2008-02-11T17:54:00.000+08:00

On 27th January, I had the privilege to see Prakash and the The Oral Stage present at the KLPac Open Day. The group had to pose according to scenes that were written by the public. Each scene would last for a few minutes and the public was allowed to take photos with them. Think of it as "Scenes from a hat" from Whose Line? but with a twist.

If you want to see what kind of funny poses they came up with, not to mention some sexy ones from Prakash, click on the picture above for the full set on Flickr.

noobs have birthdays too

2008-01-31T18:21:00.000+08:00

After a super, out of the ordinary glo service last Saturday, we took Jonathan out for some German cuisine for his birthday. It's just so unbelievable that they served leong sui in large pints over there. Anyway, it was a fairly intimate night with most being away. We had pork knuckle (which is a definite must when you visit a German place) and later Ian had a very unique piece of chicken chop. I know what you're thinking, yes, we did give it a name, and yes, its exactly what you're thinking - "OMG, it's a lolichick!... as in lolipop! We are sooo lame!"

potong stream ah

2008-01-29T23:45:00.000+08:00

I'm back online after one whole week of Streamyx's "upgrading" services. They call it upgrading, but it felt more like a "bob, where does this go? "situation. My connection to international sites was soooo slow...

You know, a broken Streamyx is kinda like an angry girlfriend.

It's not going to be ok despite what she says.
You try to do your best to solve the problem but you have to just accept the fact that it's all really up to her.
No matter how nice you sound or how much you yell, it's not going to get your point across.
It could take hours, days or months to finally see the problem resolved. You just have to remember, it isn't up to you at all, not even if you are paying the bills.

Let the flames begin!

twenty o eight here goes nothing

2008-01-17T15:48:00.000+08:00

I realize that I'll never be able to be a good blogger. I constantly wait for the perfect time, the perfect surroundings, the perfect mood, and the perfect words - for the planets to align perfectly around me - to post a post. It's ridiculous sometimes if you think about it. And that could be the answer to the question "why can't I get things done on time?"

So with 2008 online, and 2007 archived, I would definitely have to look into this idioticity* of mine. Oh and if you noticed, I took out quite a lot of stuff from the blog. Let's call it spring cleaning in winter.

I was never the kind of person to be on time, or be timely (Cheneille would've called that redundancy) I always end up getting into the mood for any season when it is over and done with. So without anymore time wasting, I'll start my year with a list of highlights from 2007:

Turned 21

Quit KDU and moved to UCSI, entered into an entirely new course and lovin' it, but will never forget my friends over there

Was left in charge of Glo when Ian left for UK

Met so many great people! You know who you are =)

My relationships with family has never been better

Shot my first 2 weddings both back to back in 2 months, superb experience. Gonna pursue that even more this year

Got my DSLR this year! Canon 400D

Got my Macbook Pro , Leopard was released worldwide!

Got my iPhone, iPod Touch, iPod Nano Product RED

Won an iPod video 30GB on Kit Kat's Break for Better competition

Hosted UCSI's web tv

Shot a TV commercial and Music Video that I am very proud of. Couldn't have done it without every single one of my team mates from VP1

Last but not least, had someone to accompany me through all the rough and nice of these 12 months, someone that I have been very grateful for, the limau to my teh o ais limau, the one and only - she

Finally, a shout out to all the wonderful people in my life, I would not be who I am and have this blessed life without all of you. In short, you made 2007 for me.

Dad & Mom, Josie, Grampa Chay (bless his soul), all the Chays, David C, Peter C, June C, Gramps & Grands, Zabadee!, Joyce, The Tans, Pastor Daniel & Evon, Ian, Prakash, LamFT, Marcus, Jonathan, Hong Liang, Kok Leong, Jackie, Leni, Carol, Kimberly, Susie, Angela, Manda, Melissa, Sze May, Chai Hsia, David Y, 2 Tims, Nicole, Jeremy, Chee Yong, Chris A, Eric, David L, Charlie Y, everyone from Canaan Church, Pastor David P, Pastor Leroy, Hsien Loong, Victoria & Win, Dikota, Bob and Alpheus, Ms Mak, Petrina, Jody, Sarah, Joni, Sam, Jerrica, Lydia, Wy Yee, Esther, Niky, Evelyn, Ray, Brian, Isaac and gang, Kenneth, Suet Yen, Peggy, Fitriah, Kenny, Veronica, Sophia, Phoenix, Gin, Kalvin, NickS, Fenson, Sebastian, Jason L, Emmanuel J, Matthew, Amanda K, Christopher L, Rebecca L, Karen M and family. I think that's everyone. But I have a feeling I missed out some fabulous people. Please forgive me if I did.

Twenty 0 eight,
I'm ready now

air, not air

2008-01-16T02:54:00.001+08:00

The just announced, Macbook Air from Apple. My Macbook Pro is going to feel fat tonight.

Wider trackpad which makes way for iPhone-esque touching on the Macbook Air

Back-lit, full sized keyboard

Ports are bare minimum, there is no optical drive as well. From left to right: headphones, usb and micro-dvi. It flips back up to be hidden away when not in use. Reminds you of those front panels from the old fat televisions, in a good way of course.

A slightly different looking magsafe port. Fits the entire design very nicely.

Well, words are not enough. So head on over to Apple's Macbook Air page now for the complete specifications and more pictures (website)

Watch it in action here (video)

all pictures from apple.com

a frame, and some faith

2008-01-10T00:00:00.000+08:00

The bad times in our lives is really a wonderful frame to the the good times.

I admit that I make mistakes all the time. And 2007 was one of those years. But as a person, I wish that I could have a second chance. When you taste bitter only will you be able to understand sweet I guess. Trust me I tried my best.

In somewhat of an unrelated topic, I'm in a Gideon-esque situation now. I know what must be done, but yet I'm just too caught up with my own humanity. But tonight, something caught my attention. It was during a conversation that I had no part in.

"Sometimes, you have to do God's will even if it means that his will is for you to fail"
Sounds ridiculous, but it's about Jeremiah. And when you think about it, it's true. It's not about the end result, it's about the reason why we're doing what we're doing.

And that really really caught my attention tonight.

can't believe it

2008-01-09T16:15:00.000+08:00

1 but I think I miss my camera
It's been about a week at Canon's service center and that's why I'm left with old pictures from the holidays. But I think it's a good thing. I would've never got around to arranging and uploading them.

2 but I miss glo
That's why breaks are good. It puts things into perspective.

apple gives us a late christmas

2008-01-09T01:06:00.000+08:00

New Mac Pro's are out today! What a surprise and right before Macworld (happening on 15th onwards). Lets see what's under the hood:

two 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors with dual-independent 1600 MHz front side buses; (this alone seals the deal)

2GB of 800 MHz DDR2 ECC fully-buffered DIMM memory, expandable up to 32GB;

ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT with 256MB of GDDR3 memory;

320GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm;

16x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);

Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (finally!); and ships with Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse

All of this for about RM9,000++ is not bad. The sweetest thing about this is that you'll be getting 8 cores for the such a price, compared to my friend who spent more than RM16,000 to buy the previous slower 8core, built to order Mac Pro.

So if you've been waiting for this update, congrats, the wait is over and the wait for Apple Malaysia to bring it here begins.

More information on Apple's Mac Pro page
Read about first impressions from buyers in the US here (give it a few days)

portalicious

2008-01-08T19:39:00.000+08:00

We ate our way through that town. Stopping every 2 hours for some kind of Malacca specialty that would just push me closer to a chaos in the tummy. Sadly not much pictures of the food we had (which is quite a bit ironic) but lots of us disturbing the peace at Jonker Street and up the Stadhyus.

Malacca was what we needed after working non stop for the past 6 months on Glo. I didn't get everyone to come along, but for the ones who did make it, I would like to think that it summed up 2007 for us. That after all this time, we are still friends. And we will always be.

The complete "Glo's Malacca trip" photoset on my flickr

this bus didn't crash

2007-12-28T17:36:00.000+08:00

MYC's Battle of the Bands Asia 2007 was a huge success not only for the organizers, with the event being one the biggest battle of the bands in Malaysia, but also for my friends, the winning band, Bus Company!!! It was a life changing night for these guys. Congratulations Sam and Shaun, be strong with God and keep moving forward!

Liang hosted the event (as usual, this guy is one hell of an emcee)
Go listen to HITZ or buy his CD.

Best performance of the night. It's not easy to be the first, but these guys pulled it off. The Fridays rocked, and thank goodness their sarongs didn't come off.

It was a celebrity fest. Hannah Tan, Christien & Lavin, Kenny Sia (to some he is the Malaysian blogger, so that's a celebrity right there). Just before the winning band was announced, we were treated with a rendition of We Are The World. This was the 100th song that night I think. It was crazy, the amount of bands and artists that performed.

Don't get me started on when Denise took center stage to give away 3rd prize. She is drop dead gorgeous. Seeing her prancing around on MTV is nothing when you finally get to see her live. She was as charismatic and bubbly as I imagined her to be. My favourite VJ of all time.

Rock on guys! Keep living the dream, and don't let your fans down! Sam call me for the photos! Good night people!

The complete "MYC Battle of the Bands Asia 2007" photoset on my flickr

flowers & formality

2007-12-28T11:50:00.000+08:00

Seriously delicious set
Click it even if you hate flowers

sebastian

2007-12-28T00:39:00.000+08:00

I recently met back an ol' friend at 1U during my last minute Christmas shopping with Joyce. He was accompanying his kids to watch the Barney show (Steven, someone that felt your pain too) and to my surprise, he has samurai hair now! And since he's working extensively in event photography now, I think he looks pretty darn cool for the job.

I didn't leave empty handed in the end. He borrowed me his Canon EF 75-300 lens. Doesn't need it anymore he says, you know why? Just look at the picture, and see what lens he has. See the white on black? Good for him, good for me =)

Awesome fun and very useful so far. Went through one Christmas service and one Malacca trip with it and really, it came in handy at moments.

Next year's resolution - get more photographer friends

To The World, Merry Christmas

2007-12-26T01:29:00.000+08:00

Merry Christmas World! I hope you will be strong.
We can be a little ignorant, we can be a little harsh
So please forgive us.

I think that sums up my abilities to write poetry in 30 seconds. Not very good.

Merry Christmas to all my family and friends and to the people I know and love at KDU, UCSI and MacAsia (and to those who have moved on to greener pastures)

God bless and stay strong for the next year.

I'll be going back to writing some emails now, and see you guys in a few days. Proper holiday post with lots of pictures then. Cheers

Random Mondays Forever! (17/12/07)

2007-12-17T22:56:00.000+08:00

Don't you just hate this guy?

Carol found the joys of camwhoring today while out shopping with us. Which brings me to, any ideas for affordable yet nice Christmas presents?

Ok, I don't know what the Chinese characters mean, but judging from the response in English, I'm guessing it's something racist? But come on, this is why Malaysia won't get anywhere, even by 2020. Let's stop being haters and start loving each other despite our skin! There's so much good if we do. And please don't vandalize toilets. I just want to pee in peace.

Guess who! hahaha....

To my friends over the seas and which I don't see often enough: Happy Pre-Christmas!

Random Mondays Strike Again! (10/12/07)

2007-12-10T17:28:00.000+08:00

Lets start with the biggest most random thing I did this week. I finally caved in and signed up for a Flickr Pro account yesterday. And so far, it's just great after playing around with the pro features.

1 Utama have their Christmas decorations up, and they're shooting for grand this year. Impressive nut cracker in the middle isn't it? I think they just got tired of the whole "trying to beat each other with the biggest and tallest tree" that they just went ahead and had the tallest, biggest nut cracker.

I came back from Johor Baru on Monday last week, and it was a non stop hectic week of editing the video for Saturday. The short is that I was suppose to shoot the wedding at JB last weekend, and put together a video to be shown at the KL dinner. If anyone's keeping count, this is the 2nd wedding job for me and Prakash.

Jaya Jusco Tebrau City made us feel just at home. Just don't go into Flintstone Cafe. Nice waiters won't distract you from the horrible food and zero value for money food.

This is what the best ABC in Johor Baru looks like.

Been a little bit obsessed with Charlie Brown and friends lately.

And the coupe de grâce! Trying out Sketch on my iPhone. Jonathan is not the devil!

Malaysia Love Unlocked iPhones Long Time

2007-11-30T00:25:00.000+08:00

Unlocked iPhone 8GB (1.1.1) with Digi, just perfick

Okay, the guesses are in, and yes, it's for me.
So I have been recently blessed with an iPhone. The short?

If you've been following my life, you would know that I gave her an iPhone for her birthday last month. How did I get it? Well my uncle was on a business trip to New York and it was really a no brainer to ask him to get one on the way back.

I've been planning this for months. Really wanted to give something special to Joyce for her 21st, but I didn't know whether it was possible to get an iPhone this year. I even started thinking of getting an iPod Touch, but it never came close to the specialness. So when I found out that he was there *boom* sms flies out! But he only found out it was actually a gift later.

When he found out about my 'self sacrificial' act (cheh), he ordered another one for me secretly, which I found out much later. Probably the second most romantic thing someone did for me this year. Maybe he thought that I was dying inside not being able to have an iPhone or sumfing, but whatever it was, it just goes to show that I give off that Applish vibe a little too much. People might be thinking that I'm addicted - not to crack or weed or meth or whatever - but to mac, which is kinda sad cause then I would just end up being a geek to some people.

So that's the story if anyone's wondering, and no, me having an iPhone doesn't change a single thing. I'm still your friend =D

My Sad Little Christmas

2007-11-29T02:43:00.000+08:00

This isn't the original if you hadn't notice by the first minute. Yeah, even though its by the cast of Scrubs, but I can relate to Charlie "JD" Brown

iPhone enohPi

2007-11-28T17:57:00.000+08:00

So some of you might remember that I gave this girl a very exclusive invitation into a very exclusive club in Malaysia - The iPhone Owners Club

She has been very happy with the invention of the year and I'm glad to report that she found it so easy to use that she was typing fairly well in a week, and using almost all the features with ease in the same amount of time. The best present to get your girlfriend this year.

Yes, I'm talking to all you Malaysian men who have a girl and dare to say that you love them, pfftt, it ain't love if you don't get her the iPhone this year while its still special. By the time it reaches our shores, it'l be so common like the kopitiams here, it'll be sickening! (but I'll still have one no matter what, I'm an Apple fan boy)
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By the way, guess who's iPhone just came in?

p.s. all of you girls out there are more than welcome to forward this post to your hubby, boy, dear, bastard if you like to help convince him to get you one for Christmas. It's the least I could do to help you out.

Christien, Lavin and Me In The Same Room

2007-11-28T17:32:00.000+08:00

This is really really late, but I'm on TV! Not really teevee, but my college's web tv if that's anything. Cash got me in to this a few months back and I've done 3 segments so far. It's great experience to have, but if you're like me - not forming sentences correctly all the time and have short term memory - then being a tv host can be quite daunting.

I know, I know, "Just let us know the url already dammit!" Fly on over to www.ucsi.edu.my and click on the tiny WebTV icon on the top left of the page. And in a moment of so you would be able to see my babbling on screen.

I think the coolest thing about this is that some people recognized me from the web tv. Not a big deal I know, but it's nice.

Oh ya, and of course the fact that I interviewed Christien and Lavin, and they are just the nicest people you'll meet from celebrity land. I was all kayu and kekok around them (which I regret) but I did manage to take some shots with them. This was during their press conference at UCSI.

With a very happy and pregnent Daphne Iking

I first saw Lavin, actually her face on her shop at 1U just underneath my old workplace, Macasia and I went, "Oh my God, is she Malaysian??" Well, it just goes to show that we do have amazingly beautiful people here in this country.

I was so reluctant to take this picture. Come on, no normal looking guy can stand with Christien and still look decent. And yes, I admit that he is very good looking.

Don't any of you dare make fun of him or his immensely attractive wife. He and Lavin are so nice, they have made me believe once again that celebrities are perfect, wonderful, beautiful people.

The 25th

2007-11-24T01:37:00.000+08:00

Christmas Trees by Mable Dwight

Christmas is such a wonderful time, filled with joy and laughter and love, but as the years go by, I find myself getting all the wrong emotions during this time. It started out with a less laughter, then sad, then depression. No this is not an emo post.

I can't help but feel depressed during the season. It's something inside of me that just goes off and then I find my emotions going down as Christmas time passes me by. Do we all just naturally cynical towards all holiday seasons? I think I'm something like that.

I've wondered, what's thereal reason I feel this way? Some words do come to mind.

Loneliness, dissatisfaction, fatigued, sympathy, exasperation...

Big words, equally big emotions.

Dance, Dance featuring Pet & Friends

2007-11-19T00:08:00.000+08:00

It was the day where we would celebrate Petrina's birthday in the most unsubtle of ways. It was a long day with a lot of activities. As much as Pet thought it didn't work out, I still enjoyed hanging out.

The day started with an event at LIFE College. Superb dancing from all of them, Pet, Sam, Sarah and the rest. I was late and missed the dance actually, but I sure made up for it in lots of pictures from the encore.

I only have pictures from the dance because my batteries died during lunch. Totally forgot to charge after the Saturday shoot.

The dance

After the dance

After the dance, it was picture taking. I just had to make sure that I came out nice and tall in at least in one picture.

For full pictures, visit the album

Habitudes Dance at LIFE

World Premier

2007-11-13T12:03:00.000+08:00

This is the premier of both my team's work for Video Production 1 class last semester. I directed, co-wrote, edited and co-shoot both the videos (more details on the videos youtube pages). I rather not over analyze and explain, just that the music video was long in production in my head even before the semester started =) Hope you enjoy them and please share with me what you think in the comments.

iPhone Television Commercial

The Killers Music Video

The Making Of: iPhone TVC and The Killers Music Video

2007-11-12T16:29:00.000+08:00

As promised, I want to share with all of you some behind the scenes photos of the making of the iPhone TV commercial and The Killers music video me and my team did for Video Production 1.

It was a hectic 3 weeks from conception to production to post production, but it was all worth it at the end of the day. We are very proud of our work. I would like to thank God for his immense help in this as well. From the weather to getting the talents, it all fell in place.

Please click on the album link below to see all of the photos.

Making Of: Smile Like You Mean It Music Video

Joyce's 21st Birthday [LONG POST]

2007-11-07T01:36:00.000+08:00

6 Hours Before Party

We spent the better half of the day together, having lunch, shopping and doing various body enhancements (read: hair cut). She still didn't know what we were planning and what she would be getting for her birthday. At one point I said, "All I can give to you for your birthday this year is my love. How? You don't mind right??"

Had zza for lunch, Italliannies 1U

Hair at Plaza Damaz, our usual spot

Amanda's boyfriend had a cute pup at the salon and I had my camera with me

One last shot before leaving, experimental always

The Party

We managed to find this place, Bora Asmara, for our dinner (thanks Prakash). It was a beautiful place. Service was also top notch.

All the beautiful people that came

Joyce got her first gift almost immediately when we arrived.

Jackie and Joyce

From back: Susie, Angela, Melissa, Kimberly and Sze May

Joyce and Susie

Joyce and Angela

Joyce and Melissa

Kimberly and Joyce

Joyce sandwiched between Sze May and Jonathan a.k.a crazee causa

Joyce and Ian (too bad for the absent locks)

Joyce and Kok Leong

Prakash and Joyce (purposely close eyes somemore la)

Joyce and Lam

Joyce and Joshua

The Surprise

The night was not yet over. In the middle of all the chaos that was happening (thanks to another birthday happening right beside us), I gave her the surprise I have been keeping a secret for so long, an iPhone.

I slipped away with her phone with the excuse of making a call and swapped her sim card out. In 5 minutes, after making sure it was 'callable', I went back out and put both into her bag. Thank god Prakash remembered to distract her for me as I did it.

The thing was, she immediately felt the difference in weight (I think it's a girl thing) and opened her bag before I could make the call to surprise her. My call managed to go through just a moment after she took it out. Surprise surprise!

Everyone was speechless (I still don't know if it's the good one or the bad one), and she was quite blur until the reality kicked in - an iPod Touch doesn't ring...

The After Party

It was off to The Apartment for the after party, and we ended the night with more drinks and food.

Thanks everyone for coming and giving her a wonderful birthday to remember

This is the full album with all the pictures from that day. Check it out.

Joyce's 21st Birthday

My Big Fat Hard Disk and Leopard

2007-11-07T00:03:00.000+08:00

Last week, after getting Leopard with the rest, I felt the strong need to buy another external hard disk. Not just because to use Time Machine with, but also because space on my other externals was getting tighter. Oh, and dealing with video work demands lots of space as well.

It was so tempting... what started out as a harmless rombongan to Low Yat with Jonathan to help him get a new hard disk for his Macbook, turned into me splurging on this baby down here. The Western Digital My Book Pro 500GB with Triple Interface.

Yes, TRIPLE INTERFACE! I finally have a Firewire 800 external hard disk and it is just superb!

The front and side shots: the round circles lights up when it's turned on

From the top: 1 Firewire 400, 2 Firewire 800 and 1 USB port.

The desk from left to right: Macbook Pro, 400GB 3.5" external, 60GB 2.5" external and the My Book Pro 500GB

Mac OS X Leopard packaging, with a very 'ohhhh' front

Mac OS X Leopard packaging from the back

This picture signifies that I have moved to Leopard successfully! Installed it over the weekend

Why a picture of my old but still in good condition n70? Sentimental reasons. To be continued in my next post

Random Monday (29/10/07)

2007-10-29T21:43:00.000+08:00

Yes folks, it's another installment of Joshua's Random Monday! Enjoy

Kylie and Leon (she didn't bother including him in the pic I guess) hanging out the set of my music video shoot. I won't spoil it for you what character she plays yet, just know that it's scan~da~lous

Zabadee! Proud of his new Razr2 at Suntec City

Prakash showing me how much more bigger his 24 incher is compared to my paltry 15 inch machine

Strangelove bringing joy to the world

Notice that I actually managed to get Ray falling down in this picture, that's Sheela and Sophia

My favourite from the bunch. How cool is this? Kenneth my man!

Leopard Launch at Cineleisure

2007-10-29T10:56:00.000+08:00

Went down to PJ for the launch of Leopard last Friday to pick up a (our) copy. It was not as cool as the US stores, with the long lines and games and prizes, but it didn't matter, the main thing was to get Leopard on launch day. And so we did. RM509.

Only installed in on the Powerbook so far, my 'non mission critical' mac with the Macbook Pro being used for editing right now. Can't wait though.

I'll be presenting my television ad and music video this Wednesday. This is the thing that has kept me busy the whole 2 last weeks, and for now, I can say that I'm quite happy with the outcome. So come back later in the week and you'll get to see the making as well as the world premier of both projects.

iPod Touch Unboxed Somewhere in Malaysia

2007-10-26T00:28:00.000+08:00

Yeah, somewhere in Selayang that is... It's always nice to have unboxing shots (even if they do look like crap here), the new Apple product smell is a great air freshener for any room. The pictures are not that great, but it does get the message across.

14 days ago, I was lucky enough to be blessed with one of these and let me tell you this, it has made me want an iPhone even more. But honestly, Apple has succeeded in making October feel like Christmas. We have the iPod Touch in Malaysia since early of the month, Leopard is coming out in 24 more hours and iPhones are available for unlocking if you can get one from US. We're already planning to chip in for a copy of Leopard when it arrives. But come to think of it, the number of friends I have using Macs now have doubled since earlier this year.

Oh, about the iPod Touch...

It's the 8GB one and I nicknamed it Strangelove (my recent love for Kubrick films). Been packing it with a mix of movies, tv shows and lots of Goldfrapp. The touch screen is just amazing. The first time you slide your finger across the screen to unlock will send shivers down your neck. It's so smooth and responsive that you'll kick yourself for doubting all those ads and online guides. I just want to add that it is responsive. From Safari to music and videos to photos... it is very fast. Oh, and if you want maximum battery life, remember to turn off wifi.

If you're planning to use this to watch movies and tv shows like me, you'll be slightly disappointed with the capacities offered, I mean, just my Family Guy seasons alone is almost 15GB. But its something that I can live with. And the screen issue that everyone is complaining about, perfect for me.

So there you go, the new iPod Touch, unboxed and being thoroughly enjoyed by me.

The iPod Touch is selling in Malaysia for RM1,339 and RM1,799 for 8GB and 16GB respectively

Friends Around College

2007-10-24T00:14:00.000+08:00

Marci

Suet Yen

Jody "Odie"

There's something about meeting people. I never could've guessed that I would be able to kick it off so well with them, but I did. And I can't be more grateful for the friendship.

I mean, the first time I met Jody, I was just sitting with Petrick, having lunch or something, and she just came and made herself comfortable. Started talking (don't angry Odie!) non stop, and she suddenly asked if I was "the Chay". Honestly? I was very happy of course. Thanks to the endless advertising from Petrick. Now she's a good friend.

Marci on the other hand, she always had this icy look about her (I can say that now because we're friends) but I had this really good impression on her. She had this super cool hair, something like locks, but also looked like tree roots, damn cool. Oh why did you straighten your hair? Anyway, would you believe me that she's only 18?

Suet Yen... I think the first time I really had a conversation with her was with Chingy and we were talking about some really messed up topics... oh man, I can't imagine it now...

Shots taken by Prakash the moment I showed him my new lens.

The Honda Accord at Marine Bay, Singapore

2007-10-22T22:06:00.000+08:00

I spent the whole weekend down here. Got to see my grandfather turn 82, despite not looking his age at all. He looks 60+ at best. I have lots more pictures to share, but for now, a picture I took before the dinner on Saturday.

50mm Lens Bought!

2007-10-12T00:32:00.000+08:00

Big Bird and Spongebob taken with a EF 50mm f/1.8 II, click picture for the full album

Hey everyone! I just want to share some shots from my new lens, the EF 50mm f/1.8 II! I've been keeping my eye on getting one of these babies for some time now. I think my timing couldn't be more perfect with my trip to Singapore this weekend. It's my first second lens for my 400D, and so far - it's just perfick.

Every once a month, Joyce gets to take off on a weekday, and so we spend the entire day together - always hanging out, always enjoying nice food, sometimes catching a movie, sometimes shopping - it doesn't matter what we do actually, it ends great every time. And today, it ended with a wonderful time at cell and a 50mm lens... There's a reason to be grateful when you have such a supportive girl by your side. Photography is one of the things I have her unconditional support in.

For the curious, Big Bird is not actually mine. I got it today as a gift for my uncle's very belated birthday. In my head, I'm just going to give it to him this weekend when I see him and hopefully it'll look so stupid, that it'll at least make him laugh... Of course the whole reason why I chose Big Bird is because he has almost the same qualities. You know like how he's always the 'older brother' of the whole Sesame Street bunch, and how he's so wise and friendly. The only thing that they don't share is Big Bird's faggyness.

I'll be leaving for Singapore on Saturday morning and will be back on Monday. Happy Raya!

I use to watch Sesame Street all the time, Ernie and Bert look so gay now don't you think?

Beauty of the 50mm lens, really sharp if you see it at 100%

I just love the comic when I was younger

RM 320 for the lens, RM40 for the Hoya filter - not the best price, but acceptable

In & Around Canaan

2007-10-10T01:20:00.000+08:00

I would like to share with you guys something that's close to my heart. I have spent all my life in church, and half of that serving in multiple ministries - music, cell, events, design, counseling, photography - sometimes all of that at the same time, it was and still is crazy times.

But being in church is not only about the 'spiritual' things (which by the way, I have never claim that I am super spiritual, I am just a regular guy enjoying his relationship with God, that's all) but if you stop and take a look around, anyone will be able to enjoy the little nuances of my surroundings. That's the point of this shoot. Enjoy.

Macs Getting New Homes

2007-10-09T18:54:00.002+08:00

Just last week, I saw 2 friends getting their first Macs, and it almost brought me to tears *sniff* It's something amazing, like being beside your wife giving birth to your first born son.

Pet's iMac sitting pretty in her room

Anyway, so I was helping Peppermint Patty to set up her brand new 20" iMac, installing apps and transferring her data from the old PC when I realized... that she fell asleep -_-" How is that for proof of my geekiness? Pet, stop making me feel so geeky!

But judging from her post, I think she really is happy with her new toy - No worries Pet, anytime... and I love what you did with the posters...

Jackie on the other hand, her excitement was all over her face at the store. For those interested, she bought a Macbook instead. It's in my home now actually, setting it up for her, installing the essentials... You know, stuff like that... Until today, I still have a soft spot for the Macbooks. Just love the way it looks.

Oh, any Malaysians got the new iPod Touch yet? Don't let me be the first again...

What's a Sabatical?

2007-10-08T17:49:00.000+08:00

I have had zero posts for the past 2 weeks and it is something good, trust me. Have you ever came to a point where, hey, I have so much to do and happening around me that I have no time to blog? The last 2 weeks was something like that for me. I guess I'm a lousy blogger because I only blog when I have nothing to do and nowhere to go. But no, that's not the case now.

I have to let everyone know that I am still alive (to the dismay of some) and I have had a very nice 2 weeks. So nice that I was just too tired to blog about it.

3 more weeks left to finish my 2nd semester at UCSI and I am kind of in the middle of feeling really lazy, uninspired and eating too much and needing to perform well.

I have 2 exams and a presentation lined up all in 10 days for my Sociology class - Mid Term (9/10) and Quiz 2 (16/10), Presentation (16/10). I also will be shooting a TVC (television commercial) and a music video. TVC - iPhone ad and Music Video - "Smile Like You Mean It" from The Killers. Will post them up when I'm done for all you critiques out there.

On a side note, I'm also working 2 new collaborative blogs (which has nothing to do with my life) which, if all goes well, should debut before we see the sexy legs of 2008. Pretty excited about it... but sorry, no details for the public yet.

I am also up for 2 projects in November and December, both weddings! I'll be photographing Charlie Yap's wedding in November and videographing David Lim's wedding in December. Looking forward to this. If you never knew, yes, I am available for photography and videography. What, you want me to record your bachelor party too? No problem...

Oh, by the way, anyone liking the Jaiku on the side?

Brian and Stewie Live from the 2007 Emmys

2007-09-24T23:04:00.000+08:00

The Black Dress Part 1

2007-09-19T08:44:00.000+08:00

Photoshoot at Taman Sejahtera, KL with Joyce on Sunday (16/9), presenting:

The
black
dress
photoshoot

Genting Here I Come

2007-09-18T23:57:00.001+08:00

* This post has been edited to reflect a very different opinion from the original because I changed my mind about it. Easy as that =) If you didn't get a chance to read the original, don't worry, you didn't miss anything

Some of you may not know, but my church camp is this weekend. It's great 'cause this is one of the most free-er camps for me. Every year I would be rushing to plan the camp or design the booklet or plan worship... but this year is special - I'm not involved heavily at all, except for just leading worship in one session. No complains there.

There are 2 things that really stuck to my mind from last year's camp which I would like to share.

1 I took a gamble and designed a very different looking booklet last year. Usually booklets would be an A4 folded in half and the cover would be colored paper while the insides would be normal white A4 paper right? I took that idea and threw it out the window. What came out of that was entirely self printed and self made, 'mini booklets'! It was the size of a quarter of an A4 folded in half. The cover was printed in color on glossy paper.

The final product looked great! And I was quite proud of it. The whole idea was to give you just enough information in a mini sized booklet so that you can stuff it inside your pocket during the camp. All of the usual camp information was inside except one omission that would bring the most complaints in the end - empty pages to write camp notes on.

My rational was that if you are one of the very little minority that wrote notes down during camps, you would already have your own note book specially for such a task, like a dear friend who use to attend my church had (she had this note book where she would whip out every Sunday to write down notes from the sermon, it was pretty cool, it had pictures and stuff...). And for the ones who don't usually write notes, would appreciate the portable size of the 'mini booklet'. Apparently not a good enough rationale -_-"

2 It was the second night, and to be honest, I wasn't on my best form. Somehow, these are the moments that God really shines through for me. Anyway, I was doing the worship and as we proceed deeper into worship, things started to get really heavy, and I mean that in a good way.

You know when you're in a worship session and there's just this amazing sweep of the Holy Spirit as the session continues on? and it just keeps getting more and more powerful, that everyone eventually gets so drawn into worshiping God, that you'll begin to see the craziest things happen?

like people who don't usually jump, jumping? people who are quiet, end up praising God at the top of their voices? people who are usually totally in control of themselves, start crying? Yeah, it became something like that =)

So as all these things begin to happen, you know me, I didn't end up just standing there... I was jumping! And as I jumped, I started to move about, from the left to the right (it was quite a big area)! I mean it was awesome and I was so excited at that moment...

In my head, it was great. I've never been in a session like that, where I was the worship leader, and got to see things like that happen. I mean, pastors were crying as well!

I believe that the church really came together that night, giving God all the worship and praise that He deserves. And it was really obvious that the God was moving in our midst. That experience is permanently stuck in my brain, no doubt about that.

* the second picture is just a random picture of me and my dad during the outdoor games, didn't have any picture of the worship session that night.

The whole camp was amazing, and knowing that this year we'll finally have everyone attending is making me feel really excited! I think we're going to have a super time together.

Shaking The Hips of Relationships [UPDATE]

2007-09-13T17:07:00.000+08:00

I am having such a terrible headache now as I type this. I'm sitting in my room, with the windows open, hearing the rain perfectly outside, realizing that this sentence has too many commas and I have really no life. What am I doing sitting at home with my one off day in the whole week, not doing anything, not going anywhere, I know I'm sick (I got a slight fever yesterday), but at the same time it's just so depressingly depressing.

Listening to Wreck of the day will get you in the right mood. So what's on your mind Joshua?

I was browsing through my address book one night this week, and realized how lonely I have become.

You know where in every class there's always a bunch of cliques, there's the cina gang, where they're so cina-fied that they much prefer to talk Chinese all the time, rather than speak English with someone like me. Then there's the English speaking girls where they think of themselves very highly and their so close to one another where you know that there's no way that a guy can be in that group. Then there's the ones who comes to class alone, leaves alone, eats alone.

There isn't a single guy in my intake that's like me. An English speaking banana that happen to grew up on western culture.

It's just not my fault that I didn't sucked on the teat of Hong Kong drama serials when I was younger, learning how to be 'Chinese' just because I'm yellow.

Don't get my wrong, I don't hate Chinese culture, it's just not my culture, it's not me.

And that is just my college. It has well translated into other areas of my life. Trust me, college is not the worst thing right now.

My social life has taken such a down turn that it looks like bloody sinking sand. The more you try to escape, throwing the sand in all directions, squirming trying to get out, you just get sucked in faster. Maybe there is some truth to what she said, "you're trying too hard". Maybe.

But then what's there to do if you don't try? People, friends or no friends, aren't just going to love you just like that. You have to entertain, you have to keep their interest, you have to find reasons for them to love you and give it to them, if not create new ones damnit. Frustration is not a stranger in this sense.

I think I am quite lost right now without someone you could talk to unconditionally (Friends comes to mind, wishful thinking I know) or maybe it's the emptiness having no one to look up to, left me constantly meeting other's needs but neglecting my own. So I end up writing all of this in a blog and risk offending everyone I know that reads this.

Truth be told, I have not felt peace or just simple joy for a very long time now. The kind of thing you adore while looking at groups of friends who are the epitome of what real friendships are. Wonderful company, put on display with no price tag, destroying all hopes for the ones who don't have them.

Of course, at the end of the day, there's no way to put it all in black and white, people are people. What's real is the gut feeling you have.
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My Response, 17 Sept
To begin, I would like to say that I did not expect to get this amount of response when I typed this post. Really took me by surprise.

For those who managed to wade through my post that was made out of broken sentences (my expo writing lecturer calls it fragments) and understood what I was writing... for those of you who did read between the lines and understood my predicament even more... for those of you stayed beside me and listened... for those of you who sent me smses... thank you.

Each one of your messages have been just inspirational for me, and I am also pleasantly surprised (and touched of course) by some who dared to go out of character just to show their love and care for me. The amount of love in just those 19 comments did soften this hardened heart.

Closure
There's just so many feelings and thoughts going through my mind at one time, I don't think many can relate to that. The things talked about in this post is just the tip of the iceberg of what's on my mind, and hardly the more depressing of the lot. It gets a lot more messy. Life as a student, life as a church leader and the people that surrounds these two lives - it gets crazy, very easily.

But there has been one up in my whole week of downs, all the things that have been written - your responses, your messages, your acceptance, your encouragement, your love - has relinquished some of the lingering doubts and depression.

I will never be able to accept the imperfection that is life, but your love gives me hope, and with hope, I know I can survive another day.

Love you all

The Man Of A Thousand Name Combinations

2007-09-12T01:32:00.000+08:00

Happy 22nd Birthday Marcus, let us always remember that no matter how old we get, we'll always be able to geek our hearts out with one another, hopefully that'll keep us young. Life is constantly changing, sometimes for the worst, sometimes for the better, but always push, always pull, always never letting people be close no matter what. But it doesn't matter. To a timeless, never ending friendship. Cheers!

p.s. Actually only 26
Aarcus, Barcus, Carcus, Darcus, Earcus, Farcus, Garcus, Harcus, Iarcus, Jarcus, Karcus, Larcus, Marcus, Narcus, Oarcus, Parcus, Qarcus, Rarcus, Sarcus, Tarcus, Uarcus, Varcus, Warcus, Xarcus, Yarcus, Zarcus - Happy Birthday to all of you

Quite The Feeling

2007-09-10T21:52:00.000+08:00

Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple and Founder of Pixar

Vanessa Hudgens Goes Naked, Disney Looks To Be Competing With Hugh Hefner

2007-09-10T18:59:00.000+08:00

Come on, we all knew this was coming sooner or later... The High School Musical(HSM) star decided to shed her clothes for her boy, Zac, but you know how all these stories end right? Full story here.

Dear Zac Efron,
The whole world is seeing your girlfriend now and your mom is going to find out you're screwing your co-star. Don't freak out, it's going to be ok. It's a great time to learn how to share. And for your parents, I hope they weren't hoping for you to be abstinent. But at least we all know now that you're not gay. Could you also please send a message to Vanessa - Great job on being a role model for children!

p.s. If you were hoping for me to post the pictures, sorry to disappoint, but I'm not interested.

Apple Helps By Not Helping, Free Ringtones For Your iPhone [UPDATEx3]

2007-09-07T19:59:00.001+08:00

Just recently, Marcus and I had a long debate about the custom ringtone feature in the iPhone, or rather the lack of it. When released in June, many people were disappointed to find out that there was no way you could use your own favorite MP3s as your ringtone. You were pretty much stuck with the couple of generic ringtones Apple provided with the iPhone.

But recently, there were a couple of unofficial solutions that surfaced. Namely iToner and iFuntastic on the mac and iPhoneRingToneMaker for the PC (notice how apps on Windows usually come with these less than inspiring names...sheesh). But with the whole 'pay another $0.99 for your very own custom ringtone' announcement Apple made last Thursday, it was clear Apple wasn't going to let us use our own MP3s as ringtones, but we had to pay for the privilege to use them as ringtones.

I can see that it's meant to protect the recording companies and Apple does mention that it's much cheaper than paying for ringtones outside, but come on, it's just too much to expect people to pay double for the rights to own a song to listen to and to use it as a ringtone.

Let me just state that those apps that I mentioned earlier to enable custom ringtones, they don't work anymore with iTunes 7.4. So hence the whole debate with Marcus.

But... I found out today that someone has defeated the system, proving to us that it's not as hard as we thought it would be. Superb news for everyone who has a iPhone.

The complete and ridiculously easy guide to putting custom ringtones on your iPhone

Ok, for those of us who have no use for the guide, let me explain to you why this method is so freaking awesome.

First, it's simply just choosing the song (aac format) you want and changing the extension to .M4R. Once you sync it with your iPhone, it'll be treated just like a 'official' purchased ringtone.

Second, this is just to simple to be a complete mistake. Many believe that this is a deliberate decision by Apple to make the recording companies happy, while leaving the back door completely open for the user. Only time will tell whether this is true.

Some might argue why Apple can't make it officially free, but you have to remember that the entire existence of the iTunes music store is based on all those companies contract with Apple. Companies not happy = iTunes music store die. I sure hope that one day, we'll have a super easy way to do this, 'cause even now, its still not completely fool proof, as more and more readers report problems and complications over at Macrumors.

[UPDATE]
So far there are a couple of new developments:

only works with unprotected, aac files
must be edited to be a certain length
problems deleting files out of iTunes

Once again, why this is cooler than the rest of the earlier apps that was released - this method is basically preparing the songs to trick iTunes into treating it as a purchased ringtone. That alone makes this method so much more better than the rest.

[UPDATE 2]
Well, it was fun while it lasted. Apple seem to have broken this method too with their latest iTunes update, version 7.4.1. Read Here

[UPDATE 3]
It's baaaccckk... Check it out here It's basically renaming the file from M4R to M4A and adding it back to iTunes. Looks like 7.4.2 will soon be out

Looking up the skirt of the iPod Touch

2007-09-06T16:33:00.000+08:00

I have never been so excited about an iPod before, not even when the video iPod was released, but this, this rawks my socks. This is really really good news for us in Malaysia because we don't need to wait any longer to have Apple's MultiTouch interface at our finger tips. More great news for you guys today. According to my sources, the iPod Touch should reach our shores by end of this month. This is despite the online US Apple store stating "shipping by Sept 28". As noted earlier it should cost RM 1,299 and RM 1,499 respectively.

The iPod Touch's specs:

8GB or 16GB
Revolutionary multi-touch interface
3.5-inch widescreen color display
Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
Safari, YouTube, iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store
8mm thin

Now, the thing that is on everyone's minds: How different is it from the iPhone?

There is no email client on the iPod Touch
There is no Maps application on the iPod Touch
There are no Stocks or Weather widgets on the iPod Touch
There is no built-in camera for the iPod Touch
The iPod Touch has a differently styled “Dock,” with a reflective surface — akin to the Dock that will debut with Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
While the iPod Touch isleeping, the user can tap the home button twice to bring up touch controls on the screen — a feature the iPhone currently lacks
The iPod Touch has a separate Contacts app — it’s built into the Phone application on the iPhone
The iPod Touch has separate Video and Music apps, whereas the iPhone has a single “iPod” app that contains these functions
There is apparently (and obviously) no microphone on the iPod Touch, though it will be interesting to see if such audio-in capabilities could be enabled via a third-party device.
The iPod touch’s headphone jack is on the bottom of the device
The iPod touch lacks a built-in external speaker
The iPod touch’s screen appears to be of a slightly higher quality than the iPhone, with 163 pixels per inch to the iPhone’s 160 pixels per inch.

[via iPhoneatlas.com]

So if you're about to buy a PSP or Creative Zen or any other media player, seriously check this one out. But why PSP? Because if you're buying a PSP more for the multimedia(music, videos, photos,, web browsing) side of it, the iPod Touch is a much better choice...

Get more information, watch the demo videos and see the high res pictures here

The Results Are In

2007-09-06T16:18:00.000+08:00

and not happy...

Ok, for the ones I got A, I'm damn happy. Finally can see A's in my subjects again. My time in KDU was something like "pass also very happy aredi". But the tak puas part is the ones I got B.

Intro to Mass Comm I got 70. It's actually more like 70/90. I didn't take one quiz which was 10% of my overall grade, and it was because I was sick when my lecturer announced the date of the quiz. Not one of my classmates told me about it, and so in the end, I couldn't take the quiz (!!)

For Visual Comm, it's also something like 77/90. My missing 10% is because of my design journal which I couldn't pass up on the day of submission, so since I had an exam the following week, I decided to concentrate on the papers. My lecturer calls me up after my papers and ask me where is it, I was like "I didn't know I can still pass it up 2 weeks late??" So I guess now I know what she meant by her last words on the phone - "wasted"

Sad sad... 4 A's technically, 2 A's 2 B's in reality

New iPods Released Today [UPDATED]

2007-09-06T02:54:00.000+08:00

[UPDATE: changed the pictures and cleaned up the post's earlier messy formatting]
Apple's "Beat Goes On" event has ended just a few minutes ago and the shocker giler part of it - they refreshed the entire line and added one new iPod model. It's Sofa King Amazing!!

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iPod Shuffle
Colors have changed to more lighter tones, less garish in my opinion. Finally... a nice green color model. Apple also has added a Product(RED) version of the Shuffle. Yay!

still 1GB
still $79 (RM349)

What it means to us Malaysians: Nothing much. Just that we have new colors to choose from and that cheap parents will still have an excuse to buy these lower end iPods for their kids. But I'm not a cheapo parent I hear you say? What models would be great? Read on.

iPod Nano
Changed the colors to match the new Shuffles. I guess the sad part is that all the mockups weren't 'fake'. Now it stands shorter and wider, like a Creative Zen. But honestly, it still looks infinitely better.

comes in 4GB or 8GB, $149 and $199 respectively
same materials as the current gen, aluminum
super thin... it's thinner than the previous model
finally, plays video as well, big 2" screen
brand new UI
silver only for the 4GB model, 8GB has all the colors

What it means to us Malaysians: I can hear Creative's CEO go *shit* It plays videos now, much larger screen, new UI and price went down somemore... This is going to be selling hotter than hot cakes, and I know InTech is just going to find some fault with this, because they simply have now taste. We're looking at RM560 for the 4Gb and RM699 for the 8GB. Just for comparison sake, the old 8GB black model was RM1,399.

iPod Classic
iPod classic is basically the video iPod but with the old white and black 'plastic' material swapped for aluminum.

comes in 80GB ($249) or 160GB ($349), uses harddisk
better battery life: 40 hours music, 7 hours video
80GB is thinner than the previous 30GB, 160GB is thinner than the 80GB
brand new UI

What it means to us Malaysians: It is cheaper than the previous video iPods but with so much more space, is thinner and lighter, and its made of aluminum (not so many scratches). Should be around RM899 for the 80GB and RM1,299 for the 160GB here.

iPod Touch
What is it? It's the iPhone without the phone!

8GB($299) or 16GB ($399), uses built-in flash memory
completely multi touch interface
same gorgeous screen as the iPhone
thinner and lighter
view photos, listen to music, lookup contacts and calender just like the iPhone, all touch
comes with the same Safari browser thats found on the iPhone. It means we can surf the 'real' net on this thing! Totally unexpected...

What it means to us Malaysians: Do you know what this means to us?? It means that we can finally have the freakin multi touch interface, just like the iPhone, here in Malaysia. No need to unlock. No more waiting for the iPhone to have the *touch touch* fun... It'll be out in the US in a month or so, so we should be getting it around then. Singapore is also a viable option for us. The best part? RM1,199 for the 8Gb and RM1,399 for the 16GB. Its the same price as the previous video iPods without multi touch. Superb...

p.s. all Malaysian prices quoted are just educated guesses. The final price might vary a little.

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So there ya go, the new iPods, all coming to Malaysia very very soon. Want more?