Back To Normal

Before I went to bed last night, dad suddenly declares my return to normality. “Wah! Meng ah, pen normal toh tui liao…cha cha kun cha cha che eh…” which translates to “Wah! Meng has become normal again, sleep early, wake up early…” OK, I have to admit ever since I started work with Megan Ads, my sleep pattern has return to normal, no more 5-6am bedtime and I certainly don’t miss breakfast anymore these days…heck, I can’t even stay up till 11pm before my eyes automatically shuts…oh my god! I’m growing up!!

But returning to normality came with a price, which means my social life during the weekdays has gone out the window. The only outing I ever had this week thus far was a really late night (or early morning) outing with good-old Ian to catch the Champions’ League semi-final between Chelsea and Liverpool. At least I got reminded that there’s life outside work. With his departure to Batu Ferringhi, one of Tanjung Bungah’s most notorious individual has faded away…I guess we could get used to having a Batu Ferringhi import to terrorize the good old Tanjung Bungah, or maybe our hangout range would expand up north. More gym and swimming!

Thru A Lens

Time comes to a perpetual standstill when I work, maybe not…only when I attempt to slack off. The second day is half-way thru (I hope) and things are going smoothly. With a bit of luck, I hope I can get off by 5.

Elaine has been buying loads of sweets of us, that’s very nice of her…but you can’t help but think that she’s trying to fatten us so that she can turn into the wicked witch of the east and eat us! Hehehe…Elaine, if you’re reading this…this is only a joke! DON’T WHACK ME, please? Hehehe…

While searching for some pictures over at Image Bank, I decided to key-in and search for “Malaysia” just to see what could possibly come up, I was surprise to see how beautiful this ugly country is, captured thru a lens. I was left in awe and started feeling nostalgic…Malaysia is such a beautiful place…apart from the streets in Penang where motorists reign supreme and rules do not apply.

First But Not The Last

First day of work…time went by almost instantly despite keeping quiet most of the time which was quite unlike me. But at the end of the day, I’ve got to know my colleagues well enough. Liz kept me entertained throughout the morning; without speakers on my desk, I’m glad I bought along Liz and the earphones. And in all, I enjoyed my work, it has its stress, tight deadlines and other negative elements, but at the end of the day, this is what I’ve set out for myself to accomplish in life. If I just kept bitching about how miserable my life is and complains about the heavy workload, I’ll only drive myself to a dead-end. Nothing is ever truly easy…so get over it :)

Employed

The search has finally ended. Instead of taking the job on my previous post; The Office, I’ve opted for the more established and currently expanding Megan Ads. Recommended by Elaine and James, I manage to secure the job in less than a day. Wow! Even I didn’t expect such a quick response. It was a good day, got a job, pay’s good, down-to-earth colleagues and a small office. I prefer smaller offices, really. Because with such a small office, there’s no way there’ll be office politics, everyone is cool with everyone…

The downside (weird enough, there’s actually one) is that I start work tomorrow, alamak! I hope I won’t be rushed into things too soon…originally; I start work in May, but with a ridiculous workload approaching…I guess I’m drafted in a week earlier for obvious reasons.

Lookout working-world, here I come! In my small little red Kancil! OK, I might take awhile to get there, but when I get there…watch out! The tall has been unleashed!

Thanks to Elaine and James for helping me getting the job and pushing my Kancil on Saturday. The car’s battery died on me, had to push-start…

The Office

Today’s interview didn’t go too bad, turns out, Mr. Jay is as Malaysian as they get. A local entrepreneur if I might add. He owns like a ton of shops scattered all over Penang, KL and even Indonesia and Dubai. Sounds like a promising job prospect for a young aspiring designer like myself.

Though first impression was good, I was flabbergasted that I met him at a sundry shop that offers photostat service as well. My head was suddenly flooded with thoughts of regret “What have I gotten myself into? Working in a sundry shop? It’s like a designer’s nightmare! What am I gonna gonna do? Photostat documents? Ahhh!!!” Turns out, he owns that shop, fair enough…it’s a family business he said and finally he led me to the real office; upstairs on the shop lot next to the sundry shop.

Despite the fact that it’s still unorganized, the office looks fantastic (it has been vacant for a couple of years; it used to be a lawyer’s office). It houses a decent sized conference room, 3-4 office/room, a ridiculously big/cozy lounge area and even a section that he’ll turn into an exhibition hall. There’s even one more spare office/room within it that is rented to some lawyer. The best part is…the office doesn’t feel corporate at all, it feels every artsy with all the heritage-like architecture. And everything is wood! And there’s sort of an in-house lawyer in case we get into any trouble. Heh!

Feedback is on Monday, I hope I’ll get some good news then.

Two

Today I finally secure myself 2 job interviews, one tomorrow and the other is on Monday. Both are in Penang, I guess KL can wait a little longer…

I just realized that I still have that Langkawi excursion pending to be exploited. My dad’s not interested (I can understand why, working on the beach for the past 30 years can make you sick seeing the beach) but my mom is really keen on the trip. And with my sister’s upcoming visit back home, mom might probably drag sis into it as well. It’ll be fun, a family vacation. If my sis joins in, there’ll perhaps be no escape for my dad; he’ll get dragged along with us. I can’t even remember when was the last time we went on a family vacation, apart from the wedding reception/dinner in KL few years back which my dad made me drive down all the way with my mom, aunt and uncle and him getting out of it at the last minute. I’m beginning to suspect my dad throws a house-party when we’re gone. Hmmmmmmmmmm…

Cut & Blow

Since mid-September of 2004, I’ve not had my hair drastically re-shaped…until now. Unlike the lousy trim I had back in February which was inconspicuous, people will notice this change. Heheh, OK…the motive behind the hair-cut was my mom’s perpetual nagging.

“Since when I have 2 daughters?!”

“Might as well follow me to shop for skirts next time”

“My son hasn’t come back from KL but this girl with flat-chest did…”

Get what I mean?

Since they have trim-down my allowance, I came up with an ingenious idea to escape cutting my hair. “Aiyah, haircuts are expensive-lah. You ask me to save money-mah, well now I’m saving!” Well, mom sponsored me and I ran out of excuses. I guess its time. I was pretty psyched to have a change anyway. It might actually help me get a job being more decent-looking-guy-next-door kinda thing.

Red Button

Click the Red Button. Don't you just wanna keep pressing? :)

Perpetual Jobless Stress

I finally went on a massive job-hunt massacre, on-line with JobStreet to be exact, heh. My sister suggested that I should fire my applications in all cylinders, that means on-line and in real-life. Just 5 minutes ago I’ve finally settled the application for the ‘on-line’ bit; tomorrow I will embark on a hot, sweaty and extremely uncomfortable drive around Penang looking for jobs.

Man, it’s like firing an M-16 semi-automatic machine gun into space and hoping the perpetual firing bullets might eventually hit on something…or anything. I even applied for jobs in the lousiest weirdest and isolated regions like Bkt. Mertajam and Simpang Ampat (where the fuck is that? Do they even have Internet?!), who knows what sort of pay they might offer. No harm trying :) Most of my other applications are Penang and KL.

I can’t stand being jobless anymore; I need a purpose in life. I’d rather wake up every morning and complain about going to work than waking up at 2pm and go “What the fuck am I gonna do today?” Seriously, I wake up everyday and I have no idea what date or day is it. Just yesterday, I was wondering why there was no ridiculous jam in town and the southern part of Penang on a Sunday! Turns out, it wasn’t Sunday, it was Tuesday! See how bad my situation is?! Ack!

My search continues and with anticipation, I hope I’ll find something in the near future.

Unwaged

A week and two days has passed since the exhibition and here I am still, writing an entry on an afternoon weekday complaining about being unemployed. Sigh, I guess reality has finally set in. The good old college life has finally ended. Man, I missed those days.

So here’s my plan, Bold has not given me any response since my interview with them a week ago and other people already have…so enough of waiting and hoping, time to go on a job-hunt. Haven’t done any job-hunting since the semester before my internship, this is gonna suck. My parents (my mom actually) has decided to cut-down on my allowance and also change the schedule from weekly to monthly. I don’t blame them for the cut, I’m 22 and I should be earning my own money by now. Probably it’s their way of saying “Boy, time to stop free-loading off us!” hehehe.

Anyway, wish me luck. And if any of you have any contacts for a job as a graphic designer, PLEASE LET ME KNOW…I need a job, badly!! Save me!!

Slow-mo

It has been a week since the exhibition. My life since then has been really, really…slow. Which is good, that’s what I was going for…some peace and tranquility. This week has been the exact opposite of being productive. This is what I’ve done for the past 5 days.

Monday
Went for the job interview I got offered during the exhibition.

Tuesday
The graduation committee held a post-mortem meeting which was accompanied by a lucky draw contest that I won!

Wednesday
Hmmm, I think I did absolutely nothing on Wednesday. Hmmm *thinks really hard*

Thursday
Took a trip to town (pickup Ryan on the way from Gurney) to return the streamer-stand I borrowed from the print shop. Lunch at McD’s and of course, Futsal!

Friday (today)
So far, I still got nothing planned.

OK, Thursday was quite fun. We were really short of players during that night of Futsal when suddenly a bunch of 30 year olds volunteered to play with us, along with an old uncle (he’s probably like late 50s). Don’t mess with that old dude man; he’s as solid as Great Wall of China. That was his nickname for that day anyways; no one could seem to go pass him. You’ll see the rest of us attacking while he’ll be the only one defending for us. He can take on 3 strikers with no problem at all. Do whatever flashy step-overs or whatever tricks you want, he’ll just stick his foot in and wins the ball. Just like that! And he’s pretty hard to tackle too. He was our Roy Keane.

Getaway

My luck is extremely lousy when it comes to lucky draws. I mean really really lousy. Any other thing is alright like contest, slogans and etc, but never with lucky draws. Just today, what seem to be yet another pointless meeting with the exhibition committee (agenda of the day: exhibition post-mortem) suddenly took a twist. The chair-man revealed that there was going to be a lucky draw and there was only one prize; a 3 days 2 nights stay at Sun Set Beach Resort Langkawi. The lucky draw is open to committee members only. So, names were written on small pieces of paper while I was trying my best to convince them that we should just use it ourselves, since the rest aren’t here. Well, we have to be fair so the lucky draw idea stays.

We added a couple of new “prizes” just to spice things up. 3^rd price would be 20 OUR Exhibition 2005 postcards, 2^nd prize would be a stack of OUR Exhibition 2005 signed posters and of course the grand prize; the Langkawi getaway. OK, the other prizes are unrealistic, but we thought it’ll be funny. First draw; Acap’s name surfaces and wins the 20 postcards! And the 2^nd prize went to Melissa and with the final draw in the offing, in goes the chair-man’s hand. Shuffled up nicely, he raises his hand from the bag where all the names are placed…slowly unfold and what do you know…”Kok Meng” came up!! :)

I won me a good holiday getaway to Langkawi! Just what I need seeing that I did have plans to go Langkawi few months back…so here’s my chance. Or maybe not, I might just give it to my parents. Just a little “Thank You” gift to them.

O.U.R. Graduation Design Showcase 2005, Moments

The night before the exhibition: The booth was not being nice to me at all. I struggled to fill in anything let alone strike a perfect harmony with the boxes. Help was oblivious. Then came Zach and Annie into the picture. They’re like Xzibit in Pimp My Ride, ‘cos they came and Pimp My Booth nicely. The 3-litre Chivas bottle was a crowd favourite. Oh, we got 3 cans of 100plus for the price of one! Imagine this, I was talking to Zach about how lucky we were back then with this vending machine at Tejani Clinic and then suddenly, *pom!* 3 cans of 100plus just dropped down from the vending machine. Talk about coincidence.

In came Tuck & Co. (along with Ryan & Denys) out of a sudden. Oh, they were drunk too so they really made my booth come to life! (F.Y.I: My project was a pub). And as I was outside having a smoke, Tuck decided to hop on the hammock. That scared the living hell out of me! That thing was not intended for anyone to seat on or sleep on. Luckily Tuck is a jockey, so he’s small and light. Day one arrives and my booth is fully decked out! I hate being an MC.

Day 1: Hanging out and going crazy at everyone’s booth. Acap’s booth in my opinion is one of the best. You can really sense his style. Drey hanging out by her booth. She was afraid that Acap might ‘kill’ her booth cos his booth was over-the-top. But I guess Acap’s messy-like booth made Drey’s look even neater.

Day 1: Going crazy, nuts and restless.

Team iBook.

Day 2: A cameo appearance by Randall aka Spider-man without costume.

Day 2: Drey finally manage to convince us to hangout by her booth rather than mine. OK-lah! Your booth cozy also-mah! It’s just that my booth is by the wall, more privacy.

Note: I don’t know how to thank the people that has made this booth a success! Much love to ya’ll, Zach, Annie, Ryan, Tuck, Denys, Acap and Drey! Thank you!! I mean it! Thank you, thank you, and thank you.

P/S: Did I mention I got a job offer during the exhibition from Bold Inspiration? Wish me luck :)

The Exhibition, Day 2

Here's a little update for ya'll. Being as tired as I am, this is gonna be a picture entry. Full details later. Enjoy.

I finally did it! My fully decked-out booth.


Ninjai showcase at my booth. People like to hangout at my booth, maybe because of the relaxing beach feel to escape the exhibition stress :)


Liz keeping my iBook company, heh!

Pre-Exhibition Blues, Conclusion

The day has finally arrived. All systems standing by…ready, steady…go!

Pre-Exhibition Blues, Part III

Never, ever take anything for granted! That’s my advice for the day. What happened? Well, here’s the low down. It started off fine…until I went to check on my CIS presentation board. To my horror, a few items were damaged by air bubbles. I have no idea how did that happened but somehow it did. And I was left staring at it with complete disbelief. I panicked and well almost instantly I tried to repair the damage. One thing led to another, it actually got worst and I panicked even more…with limited cash and virtually no time left, anyone would panic. In the end, it came down to these 2 alternatives to mend this mess. It’s either that I rip out the damage pieces and replace them with new ones or have the whole thing reprinted altogether. I would prefer to have it done from scratch again (well, because I’m on the front-row, I felt there’s an obligation to have a neat and tidy work on display because I don’t think my work is that great), however…inadequate funding and little time left…fixing is the only method left.

Fortunately, almost everything went according to plan. Maybe a slight delay here and there but other than that…everything went alright. I even had time (or got caught in the moment) to search for that yellow “Live Strong” wristband. And to my dismay, it’s sold out…everywhere (Gurney, Island Plaza, One-stop). Even one shop told me it was not called a wristband. Wtf?! It’s a something you wear on your wrist and its rubber…what else could it be called? A wrist ring?! That happened in the Adidas shop. They only sell it at Nike, if anyone’s interested.

Prior to that, me and Ryan took a trip to the old-school shopping complex, One-Stop Midlands Shopping Centre to find some decorations for my booth. So I pay a little visit to the “RM4.99 Shop” at the first floor to hopefully find some cheap décor for my booth. Believe it or not, there was practically nothing selling at RM4.99. I mean it! Everything there was way more than RM4.99. Some of the items there was like RM49 and more. The only item I found there that was actually selling at RM4.99 was this packet of sea shells. F**king hell. Why bother calling the shop 4.99? What a gimmick. I bought the sea shells by the way :)

Note: One Stop stinks like hell. It smells like someone just had a really really bad case of diarrhea. I mean a really really really bad one. And Island Plaza smells so much nicer. In fact, it smells like coffee…hmmm…must be Starbucks and Coffeebean.

Pre-Exhibition Blues, Part II

Yet again, today another meeting was held, a briefing I suppose before the big day arrives. With 3 more days to go, the count-down is on. Here’s what I manage to clarify and confirm with the other committee members.

I’m still the MC for the opening ceremony on Friday...and there’s no script. I have to write it myself. Gosh, I really didn’t see this coming. If I had known, I would have fought my way out it. At least I’ll have my ‘ex-wife’ speaking mandarin next to me as my co-MC.

Almost everything is finally sorted out. Tables, chairs, booths, power points, etc…

Oh, I’m right in the f**king front row. Yet another thing I didn’t see coming. Man, surprises, surprises…I dunno how much more of this I can take…at least the 3 of my other closest classmates are with me on that intimidating front row. We die, we die together! :)

Pre-Exhibition Blues, Part I

Throughout the whole of March, I’ve been complaining a lot about how the graduation exhibition is giving me tones of unnecessary work and call-backs. And now, it’s April and the finale is just looming behind the corner, Friday to be exact and today is Monday. Damn! It’s too fast, I’m so not ready for this yet…and nobody has sent me the script for the opening ceremony! I’m not even sure if it’s still my job to be the MC.

It’s just weird that I feel like I’m on holiday and that after all this I would just go back to college and resume my studies. But that’s not gonna happen. Haven’t even started job-hunting yet, I’m slacking off big time.

My mood has been swinging like crazy; probably the anxiety is causing this. Oh by the way, everyone is invited to come to this 3-day exhibition in Penang. PLEASE COME-LAH! WE’VE BEEN WORKING REALLY HARD FOR THIS!

Note: I would like this blog to go on hiatus mode, but I know it’ll be impossible to keep my mouth shut and my fingers from typing and complaining…I’ll try my best, really.

Wish me luck!

Piracy & Malaysia

“Malaysia is the largest exporter of pirated entertainment software in the world according to a 2005 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers by the US Trade Representative’s office.” – quoted from The Star.

Being Malaysian myself, I kinda saw that that coming. But it’s still a ghastly reality. What can we do? At the end of the day, I still think the fingers point back at the government. Here are some evident facts thru my own observation:

1. The National Censorship Board has no concept whatsoever when it comes to movie censorship. The slightest sight of a kiss scene or vulgar words are censored out completely, not only audio is cut out; even the visual has to be edited out. Pirated movies are uncensored, giving viewers a chance to admire its true artistic form. What's the point of having ratings (18SX, 18SG etc) when after censorship, all movies are literally rated 'U' and under-18 kids are allowed inside when it is rated above 18. ('U' means Umum which means everyone can watch it)

2. In the cinemas, subtitles cover almost 50% of the entire screen, and you can’t help but notice the awful and sometime hilarious translation to BM. Pirated movies usually don’t have annoying subtitles, if they do…you have the option to turn it off or on, whichever you like. Subtitles sometimes give out the next scene before it arrives, which can really spoil a good movie.

3. Original VCD and DVD are priced at a ridiculous rate. RM50+ for a VCD and RM100+ for a DVD, that’s asking too much from consumers. Malaysians enjoy their movies a lot and with prices like that, no wonder piracy thrive. Pirated VCD/DVD are priced between RM5 to RM15.

4. Pirated music is another agenda. RM49.90 for a original music CD compared to RM5 for a pirated one. The pirated version might have a more basic packaging, but with that sort of price, who’s complaining?

5. Promote the increase of variety in music CD, apart from all the cheesy commercial junk we get everyday or hear on HITZfm, there’s not much to listen to. The local music labels are murderers, they don’t help local artists to promote their music, but instead they put a high price on their material and do virtually no promo. Don’t they realize the amount of local good talents? Ignorant pigs.

6. An average Malaysian earns around RM2000 a month and buys at least 5-7 CD/VCD/DVD per month. If it’s original, the amount spent on these CDs can easily reach RM1000, there goes half the pay-cheque. With piracy, maybe around RM100.

7. It’s amazing the government isn’t taking any drastic action to curb piracy apart from chasing them, putting them behind bars and steamrolling their CDs in public. Don’t they realize when there’s demand, no matter what is done, they will always find new ways to dodge the cops. Yet again, fingers point back at the government.

8. Just a fact, I’ve seen and known quite a number of pirates myself. They’re tapping in a very lucrative market where the government has failed to see. That’s the entertainment CD business. Expensive CDs equals fewer buyers, cheap CDs will sell themselves. Go figure.

Piracy will continue to thrive locally. Hound them, lock them and punish them as they will, there will always be others waiting in line to succeed where their unfortunate comrades have failed. We’re taking them on the wrong game. It’s time we take them on their own game, which is pricing. Cheap prices to be exact.

Ninjai: The Little Ninja

Chapter 12 is finally out! In case anyone is wondering, Ninjai is this really cool FLASH animated series on the internet. I've been watching since my time in KL and its still not finished. But we're finally on #12. I would suggest watching all chapters in order for those who haven't seen it! It's really cool. Check it out! Ninjai: Chapters 1-12

Version 2

There! I can’t contain myself no more. Secretly, I’ve been working on this template for quite awhile now. Actually, it’s not even hard at all. Just that all this while, I’ve either been too busy to have my site completely revamped or I can’t remember any HTML script no more (Green & Slightly Smaller Than A4). But with so much time to spare, I realized HTML is not that hard. OK, it is…with all the commands and scripting, it can make anyone’s eyes so sick of staring at text that the next time you see any sort of text or writing you’ll feel like throwing your computer monitor at it and watch it explode while you’re sipping an ice-cold drink in your PJs.

I love bright colours, I really do. So naturally, black comes to mind. OK, black is an anti-colour, but with a black background, all my pictures and coloured text are more vibrant.

P/S: I never really liked the old template anyways; it’s soooo colourful that it steals the focus away from any pictures I’ve posted. Cheers to black! Black is good!

My Big Fat Head

3 weeks ago, I lost my favourite cap. Correction; my favourite and only cap that can fit my enormous head comfortably. I bought it rather hastily; I just wanted a trucker cap. I was still working in KL with KLue at that time. I made a weekend trip back to Penang and my parents somehow and successfully brain-washed me to cut my hair. Let’s face it; my hair is very thick and straight. So here’s the equation, short straight and thick hair equals Chinese afro. I mean “ugly-chinese-afro that-makes-you-look-like-you’ve-slept-inside-a-tornado”. And I hate putting on gel every time I go out, so I made a trip to Sunway Pyramid’s BUM City. Every other shop was closed and I’ve hyped myself up to get one! And I was not planning to go home empty handed. Caps are so cheap there even Ian decided to get another one himself.

3 week later, miraculously…I found my cap back! *Phew* I love my cap. It’s the instant solution to a bad hair day.

It Rained Somewhere Along The Road

It’s April! And with one more week before the exhibition…Bumming around has become a rarity. Working life is skulking around the corner, better enjoy myself nicely.

Futsal was alright yesterday, despite a poor showing. We did however had enough people to form two teams (not exactly, it was 4 vs. 5). Although we were one man short, we came out on top…as usual. Spoilt brats with only computer games, expensive boots and futile flairs in their minds don’t really stand a chance against our blend of quick simple passes, one-touches and sudden dashes. Heh, sorry. I’m not bragging. You have to see the kids yourself; they’re the ones who like to show off. Alas, after 4 weeks of injuring Ryan during Futsal, he came clean this time round. No injuries.

The raining season is finally here! Seriously, I could never get sick of the rain. The only instance I ever got aggravated by the rain was that football had to be cancelled. But now, we do indoors. So rain or shine, we play! And the rain is alright.

I had to jump right in to the whole B&W bandwagon. I can’t help myself…