I read on MusicCanteen about a Christmas Eve gig in Plaza Mont Kiara at the office. Too bad then, that I had to meet up with family for church.

They picked me up at an LRT station, and we headed to the crowded roads near the church to park. My sister was sick, so the following conversation ensued:

Mom: Are you sure you're up to going to church?
Sis: Yeah, I can still go...
Mom: (Looking at normally empty roads full of parked cars) Are you sure? You can't be sick for Christmas!
Sis: Yeah, still can go...

We didn't go in the end. Deep down, I knew my sister wanted to go for some innate reason. I didn't say anything to influence the decision, so I was glad when my mom so happened to take the Hartamas route back home. I asked to be dropped off, and I strolled into McDonalds.

I bumped into the marketing dude of a big, big company. DJCS knows him. He asked what I was there for; I told him about MusicCanteen, gesturing to the soundcheck. He typed out an email on his laptop to various people, asking them to check out the site.

What a flukeful stroke of luck, if I should next see their logo there among the list of sponsors for an event. It would be somewhat thanks to me!

So there was Frequency Cannon, Edge Of Fire, Nitrus, TragicComedy (with cool Hendrix licks), One Buck Short (featuring Zack of Cosmic Funk Express), Flatline, Naked Breed, and...

Estranged.

Featuring Alda (the original bassist) on bass and Mooky (of One Buck Short) on vocals.

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As if that wasn't enough, Adam (of Dragon Red) took to vocals after that, for a furious Velocity.

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Another surprise was Dragon Red; during Fade Away, Adam guided Amil down the stairs of the stage, where he did his solo in the moshpit.

It was then that Debbie and I realized he was a bit too far from his amplifier!

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Righto. Wireless. The way it was revealed (with Amil walking far out) was major coolness.

As for those who worried about the rock quotient, well most bands didn't even play Christmas songs, unless they were featured in MusicCanteen's Christmas compilation.

And now, for something outside depressing chronological order.

I finally have something new for my Quotes page:
"If you're the only one left, you're always right!"

I went to The Curve in Mutiara Damansara. Scenic indeed it was, as this was a scene out of a mafia crimelord's mansion:

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Oh and Merry (belated) Christmas! Note the merged cube (an article describing how to do it yourself will come).

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Clickety click for my article.
Rock The World 5

To Lionel, well Nice Stupid Playground was disappointing. Disagree is fine for a closing act to keep people. The closest to cult would be Tempered Mental, really, though from the crowd's reaction, they'd have stayed if Dragon Red, One Buck Short, Love Me Butch or Cromok ended the show.

In other unrelated developments, I woke up at 9am last Sunday, went back to sleep, and woke up again at 9:30am. I missed the quake. :(

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in advance. In response to people who say "I didn't know you celebrate Christmas", I say yes, I do sleep in church as any born Catholic would. At least I won't be stealing tires.

Today's format will be pictures and text. There might be a hint of chronological order.

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What could be more limited edition than Syefri^TM in a box?

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I was in Ampang Park LRT when I saw this; a most fun way of donating. Coins would slowly spiral down the cone. What size coin will roll down the fastest?

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How does a bus get towed? With an bigger tow truck, of course!

Saturday, December 18th, 2004

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Shaz came, bearing gifts one week before Christmas. It was Bobby's Xfresh bloggers gathering.

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Retro! I greatly prefer this to a scan radio (those where you have to press to scan upwards, and it has no indication what frequency you're on...)

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From left: Kirk, Jamie, Will and Suet Li.

Caught In The Flash

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Once again, I managed to catch the flash off another camera, hence the weird lighting. From left: Shair Ein, Vi-Vien and Suet Li again.

Frus, Jamie and I took the bus from Midvalley to Central Market, then to Hang Tuah via the STAR LRT, and to Maharajalela via the monorail.

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Drinks were not allowed in at Rock The World 5 at Stadium Merdeka, but thanks to my new bag (again, thanks to Shaz Claus), my 1 liter bottle hid calmly inside. I bumped into Karen. Her hair was a victim of smuggled alcohol.

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The set list. Surprisingly, not too many changes.

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During Rock The World 3 and 4, Mandarin Oriental hotel could be seen; this round, it was Mandarin Court hotel.

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That Bentley blues meister shreds metal with The Hidden!

I didn't take much pictures in the media area since my camera wasn't up to it. Better pictures were taken with Nora's camera. Jenifer's picture gallery also has some pretty ones.

It's a bit sad, though, how Rock The World 5 ended with Disagree. Not that I disagree with them being there, but they just don't have the cult status that Butterfingers (staple Rock The World show-enders) have.

But hey, Jason Lo said there were 20 thousand people, twice the amount of previous Rock The World concerts. Definitely better off than the Too Phat and Friends concert (or rather, One Phat!) which supposedly had a meagre turnout. For once, the rockers seem to have engulfed ebonic music (probably ten-fold).

In other unrelated developments, Ed and Bobby are now official proteges of mine... in solving the Rubik's Cube. Ed even silicon-sprayed one of my rough un-original cubes (they lack springy feel.) When I first tried it, it was like changing from an SUV to a Mazda RX-8. (In Need For Speed: Underground 2, that is.) So smooth, with a tendency to oversteer.

I like Mozilla Firefox when coupled with the Mouse Gestures plugin. If only it didn't crash so often.

I also like these Philips SBC HP200 headphones Will got me for my birthday/Christmas present. When maxed out in the Sound Blaster control panel, its bass distortion (if any) is actually pleasant! Yes, nobody in the office will be spared from its volume.

What would be a cool Christmas gift? A drumset.

A proper picture blog of events since last Saturday shall come soon. In short, an unofficial Xfresh gathering and Rock The World 5. However, I shall distract you with something else.

A friend was misconstrued as arrogant (or lansi as we call it in Malaysia) because she turned her head too slow during a formal introduction.

What do you do when you have such a problem? Having a slow neck?

That's where Albert Ng, professional head-turner, will come to your service.

All I ask for is a meal in return for how I will drastically change your life. I shall train your neck. I will begin with an excruciating neck massage that invigorates the blood flow. We will then walk about in a shopping mall and I will point out false alarms.

"Hey! Was that Utt we just passed?"

"5 O'clock! Some guy who looks like Adam Sandler!"

I guarantee you that after my certified neck-training, your neck will be up to speed with that girl in The Exorcist.

The office pantry now has a sealed partition with a folding door and a chair inside. For weeks, its purpose was a mystery... until an email was sent to the entire office.

It was a breastfeeding room.

In the past four years (in 3 days it will be exactly 4 years) I've worked at ASTRO, the number of births have increased, and the number of pregnant ladies seen around have increased. This, we know, from the public emails.

It's funny in a way, as it reminded me of back in my last year of secondary school, the year 2000. More and more teachers were getting pregnant! It didn't help that I didn't go for tuition.

Oh and last Thursday I went to support Jin's HELP play... by showing up. It was Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. I didn't understand much of it, perhaps muddled by their Old English and missed lines. Thank goodness I escaped mandatory Literature for SPM by being born 13 days early, so I didn't have to read all that flowery language (and perhaps know the story before its end.)

Just like Shaz, I can claim that my dad works for the government. Well, he used to. He is now a pensioner.

Imagine the shock I got when I got home, and my mom told me I wouldn't get free medical treatment anymore. (Not like we got to use it on my funky excema...) Firstly they spelled my name wrong (nobody has ever misspelt my name in official documents before!) and secondly, even if they did fix it, I'd have until the 18th to get it free.

On a side note, Friday's outings gave me a lot of things to think about. One friend was ready to bust out her dad's pension money! Eep.

After that, another friend tried sunglasses at Petaling Street. The saleswoman quoted RM25. "Errr..." "How much you want?" "RM20 can ar?"

I said, "I was gonna say RM15 but nevermind."

The lady left it at RM20.

She looking in the mirror, repeating, "Does this look nice ah?" I didn't know what to say! I got the hint that she wanted me to somehow lower the price, but I didn't know how to, unlike Sara. If I said it wasn't nice, she wouldn't have bought it; if I said it was nice, how would we lower the price?

And so, she awkwardly handed RM20 to the saleswoman. My now-more-fashionable-friend and I walked awkwardly away.

"Aiyah, can get for RM15 lah."
"Dunno lah, shy lah... kesian the lady."
"Yeah, I think it was her English. Did you hear her English? It was excellent!"
"Oh yealah maybe that's why... her English was excellent lah."

As we passed by shops selling sunglasses for RM15 and RM10, she went, "Aiyoh, so wasted lah..." "What, you only paid twice the price what."

Dimebag Darrell was shot dead.

This, 24 years after Yoko Ono was made a widow. Even as a fan I have to admit that Pantera songs like F***ing Hostile and Five Minutes Alone were songs that called to aggressive action, but what did The Beatles sing about to have John Lennon shot? Did I Am The Walrus drive fans nuts?

I woke up with an emo punk song in my head but ended up writing this pop punk crap.

Don't say hi or hello
Our talk will have its toll
Once you've sparked the flow
Of words beyond my control

Don't send me home
I don't want to go
To places that we may roam
Where we'd be rolling out dough

Don't touch me or say that you care
Don't fancy or ruffle my hair
Don't party and say that you'd share
For presence should at least be paired

Don't wake me up
I'm in slumber so deep
It was last night's tea cup
That wouldn't let me sleep

Don't forgive me
I'll never remember
The things you said to me
Were in a previous lecture

Don't compliment
I'll miss it the next day
Don't stop the argument
For we had a lot to say

(cue Seinfeld bassline)

So I was entering the office when I saw this hot chick. I looked at her, she looked at me, and her eyes diverted down at my shoes. Now, had noone told me that "a girl who looks at you and then diverts her eyes down to your shoes is checking you out", I would've thought, "what's up with my shoes?"

The next time a chick checks out my shoes, I'll look down at my shoes with the expression, "did I step on something?" It would be fun, nevermind her "what a cute idiot" expression.

I've always wondered what's with people and puking upon the sight of something gross. For example, we were at this upperclass mamak in Bangsar, when two dudes went in and saw faeces in between two urinals! One dude ran out and threw up a bit. In a Jackie Chan movie, a gangster opens a body bag and throws up.

However, the most scary/gruesome of horror/action movies don't make people throw up in cinemas, right?

Maybe it's just me. I don't feel like throwing up. I haven't vomited in like 10 years or so. I haven't gotten that wasted.

Maybe it's my reaction. Personally I think it's ridiculous that someone's phone rings during the day, and it's an unknown number, and he/she goes, "who the f*** is this?" Don't they have friends who always run out of credit and borrow other friends' phones?

Or, situations like these:

Me: So right, I was in Midvalley, taking the escalator down to the lower ground floor, when I saw James...
He/she: Who the f*** is James?

If he/she had been remotely patient, I could've finished the sentence and said that James was the classmate who I thought just flew away to Australia the day before.

Friday

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Jenifer and I went to the Young KL Singers' Beat It Sing It, and Tracy got us the best seats. Yes she did. Right behind her, so close we could see her sheet music and read who the composer was. :)

Saturday

I went for the DiGi Youth Forum in the morning; Jason invited me. There, we spotted Instant Cafe Theatre celebrities. Funny thing is, one of the people I couldn't recognize was my facilitator.

They gave us free DiGi SIM packs! Thanks to them, my sister can live a normal urbanite teenage life with her newly acquired number. (I already have a number, remember?)

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Then there was this posh, free lunch at Senja. Sweet.

Still, I only had half as much fun as I should have; I left halfway through to head to KLCC for an unofficial Xfresh gathering. I am but too lazy to annotate details, and so, I leave your attention spans to gorge on these pictures:

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They say a boy with gadgets will attract attention. I say this picture is cute.

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She has a secret identity: Elastigirl.

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For once, I managed to take a picture, without flash, but using the flash of some other camera! Such tricks require the best of skill... or luck. Notice that the other cameraman's hand is dark, so it couldn't be my flash.

I've been putting off a picture gallery blog posting for ages because of my lousy 9.6kbps-like Streamyx connection. The days will have dates:

Wednesday, 17th November 2004

I headed to Block E, HELP College again, for the Motley Fest. While having a teh tarik at a mamak in Bangsar, I called Jamie to ask if she was going. "Oh it's in Block E? (Opens door.) Whoa! What is this?"

I was there for the rock gig, as well as the HELP chicks. Yeah.

I wasn't holding a digicam as professional as Joy's so I had to shoot from the top of my head. Literally. We sat too close to get a wide view, and by then, the auditorium was filled. Kevin of John's Mistress said it was funny playing to a seated audience.

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From above: John's Mistress, Naked Breed and Prana. Prana sounded weird without the vocalist and deejay. :(

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Check it out, the didgeridoo is miked (and plugged into an amp!)

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As far as HELP celebrities go, there is the obligatory crazy off-center shot with Ayunami, the Linda Onn lookalike.

Saturday, 20th November 2004

Fazri and I took our time getting lost getting from Bandar Tun Razak STAR LRT to Aznin's open house to One Utama and back to the LRT. I then headed to Le Bernardin for Shelley Leong's Songwriters Avenue.

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From left: Kevin, Zal and Khai (Justin Guber?) Here, Kevin was Broken Scar. I had never seen Zal alone on guitar; her voice was, well, excellent and was one of the reasons Cosmic Funk Express was deserving of that spot in Rock The World 5. Khai sang his Ballad Of Justin Guber, and it explained just who Justin was. Zal finished with an invitation to jam in the key of E. Khai's rock solo on an acoustic was cool.

The songwriters played in round-robin fashion, meaning they took turns to play one song each.

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From left, going downwards: Max and some dude, some dude, some dude, some dude, some dude, Ahmad the dude, Jerral the Shelley guitarist dude, the dude who I bump into often and the organizer herself, and Shelley with the beautiful guitar one could win from buying her CD. Imagine! The fretboard could extend till the bridge since there was no soundhole below the strings!

Meanwhile, in the office, some of us broke the 4-year-old chairs:
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Once you've sat down, you wouldn't want to get up.
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Due to the lack of chairs, we had to pack off some stuff staff.

Saturday, 27th November 2004

YK, Tech and I went to Bintang Walk in search of Transformers. He ended up getting the Dead End Alternator (the Japanese Binaltech equivalent wasn't worth it, even though it was die-cast, as the car didn't have a shiny finish.)

We then headed to Great Eastern Mall. So much for greatness; I hadn't seen such a small shopping mall in a long time. It was even smaller than say Ampang Park, supposedly one of the first shopping malls to have been built in Malaysia. At Alexis Bar, Tracy was already sitting in her reserved table, and most tables were reserved so YK and I went up to Chicken Rice Shop to have dinner. We knew 9pm was late, as the lights were off already!

"Are you guys still open?"
"Oh sorry lah blackout."

As we walked away from the counter, the electricity came back on.

By the time we got back to Alexis for Pete Teo's songwriter's round, Alda and Debbie had to sit on bar stools! For most of us rockers, it was awkward to be in such a classy place.

How unlikely it was that Warmpaw would come as well, so I could follow her back. :)

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From left: Az, Melina (of Tempered Mental), Eugene Ng (a Chinese singer), Roslan "jaga pitching" Aziz and Mukhlis (the songwriter for Zainal Abidin's Hijau - no wonder he sounded like him!)

Again, it was in round-robin fashion. Az added comic effort in songs like "Lagu Royalti Belum Datang", ending his song with "oh there's the postman!" I bought his Acoustic Gestures album that night. Look for me in the credits!

Melina was excellent, and her voice projected clearly and strongly that night. She played Tempered Mental compositions on solo guitar, complete with all the progressive fills! Sure, the bass and guitar solos weren't there, but it was cool to hear the song in your head, expect the riff, and see her play it! (Khoo, the guitarist, was for my first time ever seen with an acoustic guitar, but he didn't play.)

Eugene Ng reminded me of John Mayer somewhat as the girls fell for him. Mukhlis crooned and played lead fills on guitar, with Roslan as merely a rhythm guitarist.

That's all, folks. May your connection be fast and consistent.

(name hidden) says:
eh u got take SPM meh??
I'm done with SPM. Now can I have my life back? says:
of course la! otherwise how to masuk college?
(name hidden) says:
u form 5 this year ah?
I'm done with SPM. Now can I have my life back? says:
i form 5 in 2000 la brother
(name hidden) says:
??
(name hidden) says:
then u take SPM again?
(name hidden) says:
what for??
I'm done with SPM. Now can I have my life back? says:
no, i only took it once
(name hidden) says:
ooh
(name hidden) says:
well
(name hidden) says:
i gtg now
(name hidden) says:
ciaoz
I'm done with SPM. Now can I have my life back? says:
ciao

I'll be darned if he who shall not be named reads this. I'm having fun with my technically-correct MSN nickname. :)

They played Maroon 5 - Sunday Morning on Channel V. Great. Now they're gonna overplay it and I'm going to hate hearing it again and again from my colleagues' speakers. (His playlist is just one mix Top 40 CD.)

Why, dammit, why? That was my favorite Jamiroquai-revival song off their CD! Smashpop would play it, and we would roll our chairs around the office, posing like top hat man Jay Kay in Virtual Insanity!

Soon, everyone is going to change their MSN nicknames and blog titles to lyrics from that song. Gah.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't hate Maroon 5 - Harder To Breathe was them playing backing for *NSYNC, so I wasn't impressed then, but This Love (and the album) convinced me that funk and Stevie Wonder R&B still exists.