Looking >>>> Forward >>

Equation of a Great Record

There are just so many things that I'm desperately waiting or hoping to happen over the course of a month. At the top of my list of course is none other than the release of Mariah Carey's E=MC². It will be out on April 15, and boy I'm totally hyped out about it! Just reading the exclusive reviews gets me even more excited:

"Overall, it’s an accomplished effort and we reckon it will follow in the footsteps of her last album by becoming a massive worldwide hit,"
-- E=MC² Review | Mariah Buzz

"Though E=MC² feels extremely safe, there’s enough variation to signify some artistic growth... It’s only now that Mariah has worked up the courage to really spread her wings,"
-- Exclusive! Mariah Carey E=MC² Preview | VH1.com

Bangkok: Here I am, Once again

I'm going to Bangkok again. That's second on my list. If you think I'll be getting wet and ugly, partying with water there, you're absolutely wrong. I'm going to give Songkran a miss for the time being. Had it twice, and I feel the second time wasn't really that exciting anymore - plus, I lost one of the most expensive phones in the market there. Can't see how much fun I could brought back from the last trip.

Anyways, this time around, my journey will include watching Siam Niramit, one of the most grandiose plays taking the audience to a tour through Thai culture and history. Reading through the website reminds me of "The King & I" play I watched at Istana Budaya last year. Apart from that, of course, I'll be taking my retail therapy and shopping crazily for CDs, movies (Seasons Change, Ghost Station, Love of Siam), handcrafts, my camphor's running out of stock, and... facial and perhaps a daily dose of massage would be fantastic. Not so hadap for the club-scene really, but fancy to explore new bars.

Clown for the Managers
Next week, all managing consultants across offices from Asia Pacific will be here in Malaysia. I was tasked to provide them with some entertainment, putting together a sketch which involves everyone in the office. While we've got the idea to spoof one of the most popular talk shows on earth, but haven't really shared it with the rest of the team. The biggest challenge is to get that particular person to carry the most important role, but I'm not exactly sure if he would say yes to it. Asking a straight man to drag? And it feels like a lot of pressure doing this kind of thing because it involves other people's time and we don't know what would the managing consultants feel after watching it. Would they be insulted? Surprised? Would they enjoy it? Well, we'll see...

Tell me what you want, what you really really want!

Finally, the long traumatic wait came to an end. I finally got my official Spice Girls merchandise! It's a Spice Boy T-shirt! Uh-huh, slam yer body down and zig-a-zig uh.

Bought it from the online store at the girls' (or mothers) The Return of the Spice Girls tour like 2 months ago. I waited for 2 weeks, it didn't arrive, I started to get a bit worried. So I sent an email to the online shop operator, but there was no reply until 3 days later saying, "Your order has been posted last week and you should be receiving it soon." No greeting, no tracking number, no expected date of arrival, nothing. Another month passed, not a word from them. So I decided to throw BF and slapped them with this:

"It has been nearly a month now and I still haven't received the product I've ordered. Can somebody tell me what exactly happened to my package? How long does it need to take to arrive an unpopular country like Malaysia? How difficult for the package to be shipped? Is there any shipment tracking number I can refer to? Or was it being returned from the custom coz a Spice Girls t-shirt is not allowed in my country? And lastly, all I care about is the exact date when I can expect the order to arrive. I trust that the company is using a reliable courier service that can provide you with all these details. I'm beginning to wonder if this is all scam from the start... Pls explain."

No news until I send another short but not quite sweet note, "What's happening to my order???????????" Then I got a respond giving me (ohh, finally) the tracking number and indication of the date they had it posted. When I checked with Pos Malaysia, the shipment was already being returned back to Germany, where it all started, due to incomplete address. I was like, oh my fugod do I have to go through all of that again? Der dumme Deutsche actually put the house number, at the back of the Street. For example, instead of "No: 3, Jalan Jerman Bodoh", it became "Jalan Jerman Bodoh 3".

Another email weagain giving them my address, follow it and not mess with any of the alphabets or numbers. With all that, I finally got it. It looks cheap. Like one of those 'She's A Bitch' with an arrow pointing left 100 Thai Baht T-shirt from Chatuchak market, but I Absolutely love it!

I wouldn't have bought it if it's not just for the nostalgia, coz I love Spice Girls that I swear I will fly to the nearest most affordable country to watch the reunion concert (given that Beyonce was warned to cover-up in Malaysia hence her concert was canceled, I think Mel B and Geri would never ever going to be here unless they have their breasts removed). Too bad, they've made enough money to cover their milk powder and gotten tonnes of luxury bras and panties for life.

I am truly disappointed with the fact that the whole tour sounded like a half-past job, no commitment to their fans kind of thing. Whatever it is, we can't change anything, but in my humblest opinion, their solo careers flop to disaster. No matter how much I love them as a group, I'm not necessarily crazy over their solos. Come on, Victoria never had a 'career' in singing and yet looks like someone's wife people call a disease patient, Mel B lost her recording contract, and the No: 1 spot on Dancing with the Stars despite doing quite well, Geri was alright only with her one-gay-hit-wonders, Emma's Downtown probably gives Petula Clark heart-attack and more wrinkles, and last but not least... Mel C... she and her endless "focusing on my solo career" is all fantasy.

They should just get back together, stay the same, do more fun stuff, earn more money, and... hire Paula Abdul to choreograph their videos...???!!

Time to Evolve

Out of loneliness and boredom, today' I've decided to change the layout of my blog. Big deal, it's an evolution.

Face it. Things are changing. People have changed. Judging by the results of the election, we are about to see more changes, which I believe something that people of the country is hoping to achieve. I'm not gonna dwell on that. To me, I don't really care. Even if the opposition wins, it's not like they're going to recognize our Angkasawan Negara marrying the man of his life tomorrow.

Anyways, while working on the new layout, it just got me thinking about how much life has changed . Of course, there are a list of things I'm proud of. However, recently I see a difference in the dynamic of my friendship. It's one thing that I feel tough to make myself comfortable with because it is one of the things I treasure most in my life. And it's affecting me.

Back then, we used to hang out together almost every night. There were so many things to talk about, or even if nobody's talking, it felt like the communication still exists. It's all different now, just because of a silly drama happened just before CNY. Everyone are so rigid in the way they say things, for fear of offending others. Everyone have to take into consideration other's feelings so much. Just a wrong choice of word would end up stepping on the sensitive side and someone's temper. It's becoming like work - if I say this, what would the client think? How would the client respond, and what would be my best answer?

Well, yes... even friends need to be careful with words, respect each other and be a little more understanding. As how we've been through. But as I keep doing it, for about barely 3 weeks now, I just feel things are not real anymore. It's fake that I couldn't tell you that I don't like hanging out with you seeing the father-just-died kind of look in your face! It's so fake that I have to apologize for what happened and take the responsibility of making you feel better. It's absolutely fake when I have to call you and pretend that everything is OK and we are moving on . It fucking fake when I have to accept it that you need more time to regain the cheer in you?!!?

Obviously, things have changed. I don't know if it's just me, but all I'm hoping to know is that if you are going to continue to behave like this. I can't take it, I don't care about the rest of them, but honestly, why should I call you a "best friend" anymore when you don't even care how difficult it is for me to put up with this nonsense?

Our relationship have certainly evolved - net friend -> friend -> clubbing kaki -> just friend -> buddy -> best friend -> BFF -> more than just BFF -> a pissed off BFF -> ??? Whether it will come back as a cycle, or progress into another form altogether... frankly, I am giving up hope. Unfortunately, not everything will come back to how it used to be. Exactly like my blog. The moment I save the new template, the old one is completely wiped out.

Perhaps, I've underestimated the fact that the reaction of one person - attitude, behavior, everything - could change the unity of a friendship. Which brings to the conclusion that I am not that person.

Worst Top 12 in AI History

Top 12 Emerged.

To say that the results were surprising, I don't think so. And I really feel the quality of the contestants have gone down so much. They are inconsistent, giving America and fans around the world mediocre, if not ridiculously terrible performances. Carly Smithson (who was named "Lying Heifer" by VoteForTheWorst), Michael Johns, Kristy Lee Cook, Chikezie, David Cook, Syesha Mercado... oh dear, these people are bad from the very beginning. These are crap. Just feel that their only role in AI is to be eliminated. Man, how I wish the show would just pull a Donald Trump's stunt firing these jokers all at one go in the boardroom. Now that is what I call surprise.

The most disappointing contestant to me is Ramiele Malubay - I expected so much from her, but her performances so far were like my asshole trying to make the last dump. It feels good, but halfway through the last bit just get stuck, you just have to wash it off. Pity! And boy, she was fake I can't believe it - when Danny Noriega was eliminated, she took away the entire show and cried until the end. Come on, did somebody just died? Really fighting hard for airtime.

I think I can never accept the rocking nurse for what she is. When I imagine trying to sing the way she does, I feel like constipated. And her hairdo, especially the one she had 2 weeks ago, that is what I'm going to wear if my office ever throws a Halloween party.

One thing I find surprising this year is that the good ones are actually quite boring. David Archuleta is excellent, but too much of her mellow side would seriously put me to bed. Once a week, is a lot, can get overdose. Brooke White was exceptionally great in her last 2 performances, she surprised me. However, if she does the same acoustic thing again next week, she will be in the same list as the losers for not showing how much a versatile singer she is. And I'm still disgusted by Jason Castro's hair.

Now, the star of the week - David Hernandez - gay stripper, big deal??? She has this gorgeous body and look that every gay men wouldn't mind having on bed just for one night. But honestly, she was inconsistent as well, and I really think "It's All Coming Back to Me" wasn't an ideal song for her. Too much screaming. Now that the sissy sassy Noriega is gone, the gay votes should turn to Hernandez. Who knows, when she's famous we'll get to see a lot more skin than what's available on the Internet today.

American Idol Top 24 Kicks Off

Gents: Second Half of the Show Tells It All

The men get to show off first this time around. Sometimes, I feel all competition needs a winner so they don’t pick 12 best singers for the same show. If he’s good, that one’s good and all 12 of them are good, then the show won’t be exciting anymore. All good comments from Simon Cowell will definitely make AI a lame show, which explains his blunt criticisms and insults to the losers are my favorite source of entertainment.

I didn’t manage to catch the first half of the show, but there were indeed some good (and I mean averagely good) ones. Though, I find the male finalists this year were rather gayish. A few of them, should go with the ladies.


The Mardi Gras of American Idol
Championing the Queen of AI07 title from last year’s AJ Tablado was Danny Noriega, singing Jail House Rock with her "swagger" and "attitude". What'-ever! Simon was right – she screwed up the song, Elvis would probably wake up from his grave hearing that. She annoyed me so much when she tried speaking like one of the Dreamgirls, and came out attempting to “bring the house down” with that kinda song. Come on, there are a bunch of gay singers out there – Elton John, George Michael, Steven Gately – she could easily do one of their songs, do it better, be honest to America and nail it.

Garrett Haley appeared as another confused gay who probably lost her identity in front of the camera. Honestly, she really looked scary with that kind of 1980s hairdo. She’s exactly like the same species of Steve Tyler that speaks like Michael Jackson, sings like N’Sync, attempting a Britney’s hit. The whole package is soooo wrong. No idea where she gets the inspiration, but I’m convinced that she wanted to perform Renee Olstead’s Breaking Up is Hard to Do cover, instead of Neil Sekada’s. Don’t lie, girlfriend.

As for 17 y/o David Archuleta, she was better than the rest of the male (and gay) contestants, but I thought she was only average. There were some glitches here and there, and one part of the song was obviously inaudible. She’s young and cute, appears very confident on-stage, shy, but the way she nudged Ryan Seacrest with her elbow was soooo gay! I bet gay viewers are spending more time on the Internet Googling for her profile and photos, or checking out her Myspace by now.

Best of Both Worlds Never Exist
That said, I find Jason Castro’s performance was quite original and different. However, his hair was the most disgusting thing I saw on tele that day. There could be bugs hiding in there, and other contestants who stand beside him would probably get a taste of the smell – of unwashed hair. Michael Johns on the other hand has a manly look, but I thought he was overdoing the song. The screaming was unbearable to me. 29 y/o Luke Menard too (what a lucky bitch his wife), but unfortunately he delivered the worst performance. Yet, he claimed that he would be remembered. Well, he was right in a way, I remembered him for the wrong reason.

The rest of them, though there was a cute one, I couldn’t really bother keeping track considering that Archuleta’s performance which was nothing near Elliot Yamin’s first performance, was termed by far the best of the night by Simon. And the spastic contestant whatever his name is... forget it.

Ladies: Too Much of Underwood
Thanks to www.rickey.org, I managed to catch up on the ladies' round. Well, I must say that I am very disappointed with the quality of the female finalists this year. The white chicks out-sang the black divas... What happen? And there were just too many of them got carried away thinking that they're Carrie Underwood or something.


Nevermind the singing, Kristy Lee Cook appeared as a boring version of Carrie Underwood in need of help. Alaina Whitaker on the other hand has a pleasant voice, but she was pulling cheap votes just because it was her birthday, making her look like Carrie Underwood without brains and breath. Kady Malloy though sounded powerful, but unfortunately she forgot to switch off Carrie Underwood impersonation that night.

Carly Smithson - nope, not Underwood, but she looked like Cher screaming in front of her mirror when her powder cracks. I must say she has the best voice among the rest, but doesn't really know how to put it to full use.

Original My Foot!
Apparently, nurse Amanda Overmyer was appreciated as the one with the most originality. If she comes to my ward giving medicine, I would probably scream, or press the button and request for another nurse. The term 'originality' seemed to get more and more subjective as I continued watching. When Paula said to Brooke White "originally", I went like, "where?" Come on, if I keep hearing the song she sang that night and it still reminds me of a chicken nugget commercial, that's no originality.

Where Have All the Black Divas Gone?
Somehow, I have extremely high expectations on black female contestants. Fantasia Barrino, Melinda Doolittle, Jennifer Hudson, La Toya London, Mandisa, Paris Bennett. These people had truly set the perception that black equals soul, powerhouse, solid, quality! Unfortunately, that was not the case.

Asia'h Epperson was described best of the night. I don't know, she sounded like she over-cried the night before, causing stuffy nose. Oh my, why am I not surprised. I totally forgot about her father. I believe Syesha Mercado can do better, but she just need to control, control, control! And that afro hairdo gotta go coz they don't stay very long in AI history - Jennifer Hudson, Nadia Turner, Suzy Vulaca. On a contrary, Alexandrea Lushington was... a little bit unique, in the sense that it wasn't powerful when she pulls a high-note, which was not a black-singer standard. Just, weird. The best so far was Ramiele Malubay, but I expected more from her not forgetting that she's tagged with a 'race' too. Solid, stable, consistent performance. Not bad for a petite size. Just hope that she didn't end-up like Jasmine Trias.

Some Sense Out of America
As I was checking out the results, finally saw some sense out of America. I think Joanne Borgella deserved to be voted out because the screen is always a limited space for viewers. Needless to say Colton Berry and Garrett Haley were just two weird things that came into AI by accident. Amy Davis, who cares about her singing? Everyone was paying attention to chick's hot family member! Wonder who he is, so cute!

Let's hope for the best for next week.

How I Spend Christmas 2007...

Tuesday, Dec 18

It all started in the office - everyone was so excited with the dinner and all the gifts underneath the Christmas tree. By 4:00pm, don't think any of us was in the mood for anything. We all got dressed up and headed to Lemon Garden @Shangri-La Hotel.

DRAMA #1 - They fucked up our reservation and decided to setup a table for us, outside the restaurant. Come on, it was a bloody buffet... I'm not walking in and out of the restaurant just to get my chicken!
Fortunately, they managed to arrange a table for us inside. Everything was cool thereafter... Secret Santa was uncovered. I love all the gifts I had - crystal bracelet from Meiling; "I need a jawbreaker" T-shirt from Corina; pink Polo-T from Vicky, love it love it; and a "How to Waste Time in the Office" toolkit from Beatrice. Love them all.. And I was crowned the Diva Textie, and the prize for the award was a pair of Umbro shorts for my gym session. Awesome! :)

Look at the presents underneath the tree...

All dressed-up

Fridge Magnets - I'm so broke this year I have to hand-made their gifts.
Each represents a word/ phrase that they used frequently
The pink Polo-T from Vicky

Thursday, Dec 20

I got another gift from my best friend, Mun Yee... a unique Buddha sculpture. It's the upper-body of a Buddha in a dark wooden frame. One more item to add to my quest for Buddha sculptures.

A glimpse of her house

Friday-Saturday, Dec 21-22
Trip to Bagan Lalang, Sepang.

Saturday Night, Dec 22
Hang out at karaoke lounge, BJBS in Cheras. Had their usual funny Thai cross-dressing performance. Later that night, there were two half-naked Thai boys hired to dance on the bar top. Nothing unusual...

Sunday, Dec 23
Went to Pavillion for dinner at Tony Romas. Food was not too bad, service was great. A young part-time waiter served us that evening. That poor thing is under-18, and he's got no idea what kind of alcohol we were ordering. Being me as usual, I don't like to be confined to a certain menu, so I asked for customized order. Was being a bit too difficult for someone who's too young.

4 types of different BBQ sauces

Dessert - Chocolate avalanche

Thereafter, we headed to Redbox Low Yat for karaoke until 5:00am.
DRAMA #2 - Sam got drunk and wanted to leave, but we didn't allow him to do so. He left though, but came back with much anger, a little bit of depression and...
It was great though.

Sam forgot to take his jacket, and I think it looked better on me

Monday, Dec 24 - Christmas Eve

Had to attend Wai See's wedding dinner. At SAUJANA!
DRAMA #3 - It was really bad to drive to Saujana, massive traffic jam. And being me, I didn't even know where to begin my journey in the first place. So, I had to crawl all the way to LDP, turn in to Federal Highway and ooopss... I missed the exit. As a result, I headed to the next exit, hoping to find a u-turn and I ended up driving in Glenmarie. Still couldn't find the place until I reached the toll that took me to NKVE and back to SS2. My journey to Saujana started all over again.
It was quite a quiet wedding, non-traditional Chinese kind of wedding dinner except towards the end. The special thing about the wedding was that every guest was given a bottle of soap bubble. As the newlyweds walked into the room, guests were supposed to blow bubbles to welcome the couple, unfortunately, Malaysians weren't too keen on the idea of "blowing" so no bubbles! I can imagine it being quite romantic, but damn these people.

After the dinner, I went to La Queen with Daniel, Herma, Herma's friend from SG Claire, Bryan and Adeline. Honestly, it was my virginal experience there and I thought the bar was completely dodgy. Smelly, wet, packed, people are fugly, rude and stupid. Music was not even gay enough to be a called one.

A lovely sight of Herma

Herma & Claire with their sexy dance

DRAMA #4 - These drunk gay bastards beside us were inching towards our table while doing one of their lame dances. The table was not stable and so did their weak sissy legs that couldn't even stand for fuck sake. They bang our table and the next thing I knew was drinks all over my shirt, and glasses shattered on the floor. Bloody bitches!

DRAMA #5 - Enough of the puss, then came Bryan who was absolutely drunk. He was too, knocking left right center and I had to stand guard at the table to make sure the incident earlier is not going to happen again. Being drunk as usual, Bryan had a lot to talk and a lot of mothers to fuck. And we had that the entire night until he left.

Bleaaarrrk... Yours sincerely, Bryan

Tuesday, Dec 25 - Christmas
Nothing really. Went to the gym at Pavillion with Daniel. It was the only night we did not touch alcohol. Very peaceful... rather quiet, nothing interesting.

An Unusual Vacation, but Pleasant After All

21 December & 22 December 2007 at Bagan Lalang, Sepang

We first planned to coincide with each other's holiday as we were expecting some sort of vacation. A trip, and our initial plan was to go up to Cameron Highlands. After all the research and headaches deciding for a place to stay, it was rather unfortunate that the trip remained as a plan due to the rainy season - roads up may be blocked, it could be a bit risky as land collisions may happen... and we thought it's not worth dying together, so we moved on to somewhere safer.

I spent a couple of hours on the Internet and found this place called Bagan Lalang in Sepang. Pretty awesome - it's near, away from flood and new. There are some good and bad comments about this place on the Internet - some said it's dirty and "kampung", some said one of the best places to watch sunset. What'ever. Bottom line, we got free accommodation - Cyrus managed to get hold of his relative, who owns a house there.

The trip was rather unusual, in a sense that the decision (including accommodation, which always takes up a huge amount of everyone's reserved budget, considering it's nearing Christmas and year-end) was made in less than 48-hours. Now let me describe the typical situation - once everyone agrees with the location, there will be a few options for accommodation. Then we will take like a few weeks to discuss, argue, rest, realign budget, before it's confirmed. Thereafter, traveling mode - behold the divas on and on and on...

Anyways, back to the trip. Yes, everything was impromptu! Our journey got delayed because we decided to cook our dinner, so we headed to Tesco Puchong to do some marketing. Ideas of the dishes came in like snap, "Tonight, we're cooking this..." and the shopping cart moves.
We reached the house at about 5pm. I was like, wah lao eh, it was a single-unit, almost bungalow house, in a gated community! Such a perfect place to stay. At this point, there was no sight of the beach throughout our journey or near where we were. Some of us had not even rest our feet, and straight away started preparing for dinner. Obviously, it was quite an incident back there, but to cut the story short, the result of the Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver wannabes was not that bad, except for:
1. My experimental Tom Yam that tasted like some sort of cleaning detergent
2. Herma's Salt-baked Crab, quite delicious actually but she forgot to remove those stomach sacs and the gills. Those are not edible
3. Adeline's Sambal Prawn cooked with instant Brahmin chilli mixture... very salty and guys, please don't buy any of Brahmin's products. They're terrible.

Other than that, we had some good stuff too:
1. Of course, my Curry Chicken that I learned from another friend of mine
2. Daniel's Stir-fried Long Beans with Sun-dried Shrimps
3. Herma's Sauteed Mushrooms that is just nice
3. Adeline's Luncheon Meat with Fried Eggs
4. My Fried Eggs with Shrimps - too salty, but they walloped it :D
5. Dessert - Glutinous Rice Ball in Spicy Ginger Syrup

Altogether, NINE dishes. Not kidding. Nevertheless, I enjoyed playing Chef Wan and everyone enjoyed the dinner - they'd better be!

We spent most of our time in the house actually. Well, we drove out to the beach after dinner and hoped to find a 7-11. Unfortunately, we figured the nearest one should be in KLIA, so let's not go there. The place is really, really "kampung". The beach was wet and muddy when we were there at night, just about time as the tide is getting higher. Mat Rempits were also speeding around the area, how I'm not surprised.

After the beach, we headed back to the house and started drinking Tequila in a small hut built at the backyard of the house. Quite cool! No one was extremely drunk, everything was fine, the TV remained where it was.

The slut before we leave the house

The next afternoon was simply annoying - garbage flies were all over the house, buzzing around us like we're some dead corpses. We woke up, cleaned the house, had breakfast (Herma's fried rice with tap-water-washed-yesterday's- sambal-prawn). We left the house and went to a small Chinese shop-house for lunch, where apparently they sell very delicious curry noodle. Nothing exciting, except flies again. According to the shop owner, wherever there's a huge durian farm nearby, there will be flies buzzing around.

Final stop - at last, the beach. It was an entirely different experience as compared to the previous night. To be honest, the beach is clean and *beautiful*. The view is excellent, some huge pine trees are planted along the side of the beach. The sand is soft. Don't expect blue sea water like you can get in Langkawi, but the water is definitely cleaner than Port Dickson the way I see it. We had a great moment there, took some photos, filmed a Christmas video, briefly watched the sunset, smoked and threw the butts at the shores... fantastic!

Overall a unique vacation, awesome, one of the most peaceful, less painful holidays for me. No drama, nothing went wrong, just getting everyone together and spend some special moments for the nostalgia. As for Bagan Lalang, I wouldn't mind going back. It's away from town, panoramic, absolutely perfect for family trip or even a short get away. Don't expect a lot of water activities and adventures, those masculine activities though. And finding alcohol at night is quite a challenge - so go there with a whole barrel of beer!!!

More Pics...

One of the activities at the beach - go fly kite!

Dark circles most probably caused by serious food poisoning the night beforeSunset
Bagan Lalang - isn't it better than PD?Of course, can't miss our scandalous photo