PC Fair 2009

I went to PC Fair today with good old friend Zhee Chuan. I bought what I wanted, and had kinda great time, but I cant say if I had a good day.

It started with the train. I got into it at bout 12, and expecting myself to be meeting up with ZC at the promised 12.40, latest. However, it felt like Mr. Driver was having his nasi lemak at the wheel, as the train occasionally cruised at walking pace (okay, I’m lying. I could walk faster than the train) and at other times, sped at full speed, and it felt like it couldn’t brake on time at the next stop. Never mind, I could be easily spotted at KLCC as the idiot who ran all the way from the train station to the Kinokuniya bookstore at the top floor.

And so I met up with ZC, albeit being bout 10 minutes late, and we proceeded to the food court. Once again, out of luck. The place was packed like Genting on the first day of Chinese New Year, and we spent a good 10mins searching for a seat. Still no luck, so we had to head to Burger King for lunch.

There, because ZC bought the meals, I thought I’d get him the self-serving drinks. but at the drink dispenser, sits probably the stupidest ice dispenser in the universe. The dumb machine is precisely built in a way that as you press the dispenser with the cup to fill it up with ice, none of the ice would flow into the cup. Instead, all the large chunks would narrowly escape the lip of the cup and fall onto the floor, and only the small, miserable pieces would fall in. So, I used my hand to push the dispenser with my hands, only to DISPENSE some purple F&N onto my hands. My mistake, of course, but guess what? When it dried up, it left a stain on my hand. Its almost 8 hours later, and I still cant get the stain off. The bigger problem? I drank a cup of it. Stupid.

After lunch, we headed to the Convention Centre, and got up the escalator. Suddenly the bloody escalator stopped. (Probably due to overloading) I lost my balance, and although I managed to skillfully avoid the butt in front of me, the escalator still drew blood, and I had a small cut on my leg. My luck, I guess.

Things went for the better as we headed into the exhibition halls. I managed to get myself a headset, a SonicGear noise isolation earphones, while ZC had all the info he’s looking for. I also managed to convince the salesgirl that I didn’t need another SonicGear earphones (I only have one me, one MP3 player, and 2 ears, not 4, so, sorry….). But it didn’t go as well as I wanted too, for my battery went low when a bunch of Avira models were available for photographs, so nothing for you guys to feast your eyes upon. And then there’s the weirdest advertisement I’ve ever came across.

What have they done to the biggest action star from Hong Kong? Of course, it looks kinda cool, but what has martial arts has gotta do with antivirus?

Anyway, it was good outing, but the drawn blood was really unnecessary, Mr. Convention Centre.

Look Upon the Stars……

It was in December 2008 that I gone through one of the most enjoyable day in my life thus far. No, it wasn’t speeding up and down the windy roads of Cameron Highlands the whole afternoon, nor eating ice-cream on that particular freezing-cold day. It was my trip up to the tea farm in the middle of the night, which I’ve done a million times, but this time with a totally different perspective to what I see.

It was about 10pm, when my cousins and I left Tanah Rata for the tea farm located midway to Gunung Brinchang. By the time we got to Kampung Raja (the foot of Gunung Brinchang, and the entrance to the tea farm), it was already half past ten. We made a left turn up a small hill, and a couple of twists and turns later, we stopped at the side of the road. The road, in the middle of the tea farm, was dark and serves as an access road to those living in the farm, and Gunung Brinchang, so traffic was extremely light at night, let alone this late. So we turned off the engine and lights, and got out, only to be hit in the nose by the chilling breeze that ought to pierce my throat. As it was pitch black, there wasn’t a view at all, although the road overlooks half of the farm, and the moon wasn’t in sight too, presumably looking for somewhere warmer. A little gossiping the next day told of temperatures in the region of 16s in Tanah Rata that night, and a few degrees lower in the farms. I wouldn’t doubt that.

Then we looked up, and the sky was lit up with stars. There were many stars, presumably hundreds of them. Some were blinking (I hear you say satellites, but lets not spoil this, okay? :P) while others were brightly lit, and as always, I stare in awe.

This place never fails to surprise me. The previous time I came here, my cousins held a birthday party for me (two cars, a piece of Secret Recipe cheese cake, a candle and multiple torchlights at 12am), and about a year ago, my cousin broke up with her dude at this very spot.

Having completed my AS at that time, it was a real time-out for me, to catch a breath before returning to KL. Just like taking off my glasses (Post 2), but this time, it’s all real and a lot more comforting. Being in a peaceful place with no phone signal is one thing, but being in a peaceful place accompanied by the sounds of insects and leaves feathering each other, you have to be present to feel the serenity.

I laid on the bonnet, staring straight at the sky, while trying to reflect on life and what I’ve been through the past 12 months, but all that comes to mind is that the next 6 months of A Levels will (fingers crossed) be much better. Indeed, life at TCSH was much better over the months, but its only when my results are out that I could tell you life was indeed better there. Until then, I’m just gonna lie atop this cold metal bonnet and try not to fall asleep.

Market Crimes- Just a Joke, A Bad One

About a week ago, I met up with a couple of friends who took Economics during their A-Levels stint. A few drinks later, we ran out of topics to discuss, having already talked about our target universities, the courses and other ‘general’ matters (girlfriend-boyfriend things), so we accidentally came up with a nonsensical joke about economics in the market. If there was someone to blame, it has to be me, having started the topic which ended as a really crappy gauge of our economic knowledge. Anyway, here’s how the joke went.

It started out as a kind of news statement; I asked them if they heard of the incident in the Damansara market, where this fishmonger was arrested by the AH MA (Anti-hedging of Morning-Market Associations) for illegally hedging his supply of tuna. Since oil prices were high, people were getting hungrier, and global warming has caused many tunas to be medium-rare when fished, prices of tunas have shot up three-fold, so this good fellow decided to hedge these tunas in advance to his loyal customers. Indeed, they paid a higher price for the meat, but they didn’t mind, as long as the tunas kept coming.

Our crapping frenzy started, and soon, ‘news’ of short selling of pork in a market in Desa has been being banned has emerged. Prices of pork had risen to hundreds lately, and farmers are desperate to short sell them to maintain a high demand for it. The local ARSE (Association for Regulating Short-selling Entity) received complains from local customers who missed out of the fun of short selling, and pork selling short when they got to know of it.

In as separate case, a swindler, known as Tan Mad-Off of Puchong market, had cheated thousands of their life savings for buying chickens that never existed. Local authorities, AH PA (Anti Haggling Ponzi Association) called it a “highly-organised Ponzi scheme of chicken feet and salted eggs”, but declined to comment further.

A spin-off of beef also occurred in Subang, where increase in prices of beef forced its derivatives to rise as well. Beef has got so expensive that bull riding is a rarity nowadays, donkey is the new cow, and Disney replaced Connie the Cow with Donald as cost-cutting measures. Local municipal councils are closely monitoring beef prices to prevent foreclosure of less competitive farmers, as well as to ensure the NCR (National Cow Reserves) remain at an optimum level in case of any spike in demand i.e. dinnertime.

Finally, courtesy of a friend who never fail to fail Econs (just kidding!!), he gladly informed us that the Fish and Chips Index reaching all time high. The FTSE (Fish and Tuna Stock Exchange) remains stable, but the KLCI (Kuala Lumpur Chicken Index) fell by a few points, and a whole lot of feathers.

It was a joke, a lousy one. And this was my afternoon gone. I couldn’t think of a worse afternoon.

Luxury Cars: Outlook of the Future

Funny as it may seem, the car segment which is radically changing and undergoing a revolution right now isn’t the performance sector, nor the superminis. The GT-Rs and GT2s and Veyrons have pushed the envelope of racing technology, and as far as it goes, twin-clutched gearboxes and trick 4-wheel-drive is the best and the most radical it could muster. The Focus RS returns to its roots; 300bhp and FWD (which makes it less likely for you to kill yourself), as well as the Abarth (lightweight body with torquey engines). The only segment undergoing a revolution is clearly the luxury car segment.

The likes of the A8, 7-Series, and S-Class have, in a way, enjoyed monopolistic position and advantages in the relatively small but important segment over the years. It is these cars that represent the flagship of the company; these cars are fitted with crème-de-la-crème gadgets before slowly being mainstreamed to the rest of the range. The revolutionary ABS and Drive-by-Wire coming from the S-Class, the love-it-or-hate-it I-Drive, and the similar but simpler MMI all found their way to the lesser models over time.

Then there are the smaller players, such as the Phaeton, Phantom, Maybach, LS460, and Quattroporte which command a smaller share of the market overall, but somewhat a tour-de-force in their respective country; the Lexus in the US, the Volkswagen (tied with Audi) in China, and the Rolls-Royce in, well, Dubai?

What is there to revolutionize in this car segment, I hear you ask. Just get a car with the wheelbase of a truck, stuff the interior with exotic wood and dead animals, put in the largest engine available and there you have it; a luxury car. But think again. If the current crop of luxury cars and all its techno stuff is as far as it can go, then these two cars, to be launched soon, will have no purpose to exist: the Porsche Panamera and Lamborghini Estoque. And it ain’t the techno part that these two cars is pushing; it’s the design envelope.

These two cars could be the ugliest metal sheets you’ve ever seen, or the prettiest to your eyes. And this is where these two cars differ from mainstream. Is the A8 or the LS460 ugly? You wouldn’t call it hideous, nor you’ll call it pretty; their design is ‘safe’ as a luxury car, appealing to the young, but not offensive to the elderly (which can’t be said of the 7-Series, but that’s a different matter altogether.)

However, this where their similarities stop, for the reasons of existence are as different as myself to an otter. The Estoque, to begin with, was born to continue a historical path; to succeed the 4-seater Espada, but this time giving it 2 extra doors and a larger boot. The radically-designed Reventon-wannabe ought to be Lambo’s first four-door, four-seater (apart from the LM) and expect it to fill up the rear mirrors of the Gallardo on the autobahn, given its monstrous engine and performance. It targets Russians and Asians who had struck rich with their oil fields, though sales isn’t the main reason of its slow birth.

Which cant be said of the Panamera. Designed by Pininfarina, it serves to please the eye (though as I said, not all will think so). However, the design of the interior that is relatively similar to the mainstream Porsches and the use of engines shared with other models, makes it, in my opinion, less exclusive compared to the Estoque, and has more to do with chasing sales figures in the Middle East, which is exactly what’s done to the Cayenne, now the best selling model of the car maker. It seems to me that it’s the numbers that Porsche is after, and not the essence of building cars that lives up to its heritage, that Porsche is doing, given the financial setback its undergoing.

I hope I’m wrong about it, and although I’m not a Porsche fan, I have to admit they have been producing really fine cars over the years and its indeed sad to watch the once-exclusive brand being commercialized.

Kuantan Trip (Final)

I got home yesterday evening. Had to leave due to (UN)foreseen circumstances. Or maybe I was just plain tempted to leave anyway, not that I really mean it.

I took the 1.30pm bus, so it was quite a hurry to leave (I had to pack my clothes, eat durians, and play Midnight Racing once more in less than 45 minutes). Anyway, I got to the station on time, and looking forward to reaching KL.

The bus however was slightly depressing. To begin with, the air conditioner at the rear wasn’t working (yaya, sudah buka AUTO, belum start lagi, Mr. Driver said). Then, it was driven slowly on the highway (to my relief), but at Karak Highway, it picked up speed (not to my relief), and it was overtaking everything in its path. It even raced an empty dumptruck and a one-tonne lorry.

Soon the brakes were starting to smoke, and the whole cabin is filled with scents of freshly charred brake pads. What happens next is something I’ll never forget. Smelling the scent, the other (uninformed) passengers started to panic. But instead of trying to find out what’s that smell, they all started to shut their air con vents, so it ended up being hot AND smoky at the same time. Only after a while that a dude went to ask the driver about the scent, and being informed that it was the brakes, only they started opening up the vents again.

I got back to KL at about 7pm, and really had no mood to go out that night, except for a short meet up with my primary school friends in 1U. So, if you are reading this, Kelvin, I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to your party. In simpler terms, I didn’t want to spoil it.

So much for a holiday, and it turns to be otherwise.

Kuantan Trip (Part 2)

Or maybe not.

Its day two. And I have all the time in the world to blog.

I’ve been nowhere today, nobody wanted to bring, or ask me out. I’ve got no newspaper to read, all’s sold out. Sad case.

Or not. Cos I made a new friend. My new best friend for the day is the PS2 darling. She’s from Japan, real slim, slender and stands tall and proud. She’s warm too (I think it’s got to do with the cooling fan). And she’s really good at what she does too, playing the MIDNIGHT RACING: DUB EDITION DVD smoothly. I’ve got so much time today I toured the whole Tokyo city in the game. It’s quite real, the scenarios and maps quite similar to the real thing. I spent time chasing trains, running over pedestrians, crashing the cars until they burst in flames.

Then, I moved on to knowing the wrestling dudes better. Its Kelly Kelly vs Victoria in WWE WRESTLEMANIA. And the top time-burner I’ll recommend to any gamers whose girlfriends dump them for the GUCCI store: the 30-dude ROYAL RUMBLE. It took me more than 40 minutes of intense finger-breaking actions on the controller to complete it. The 4-man TLC is also quite a time burner, with 30 minutes of table-crashing, ladder-smashing, hammer-lashing and bamboo-caning to win the bloody campaign. Others like the TRIPLE THREAT and HELL IN A CELL, takes about 25 minutes to complete. Great for boring, lonely afternoons.

Another game, the NSF: CARBON, my cousin completed it before this, so I’m just playing to earn some cash to spray all his precious cars pink and brown. Pink ZONDA F, what blasphemy. Pink SKYLINE though, it looks kinda cute. Or the intense boredom is has got into my brains.

It’s raining now, so I guess there won’t be any drinking-out sessions until the rain stops. And the beach is closed, so no outing either.

Looks like there’s more ranting to come over the days.

Kuantan Trip (Part I)

It’s the first day that I arrived, and I just came back from East Coast Mall. It didn’t take long for me to start missing KL. Though I’ve been here a million times already, this is the first time I found out how lousy some shopping centers can get. Mind you, this is not the first time I’ve gone shopping here, but nevertheless this is a real eye-opener.

Getting to the mall is perhaps the most comforting thing to do in this outing so far. There’s no traffic at all, the basement parking is abundant and easy to find and, surprisingly well lit. So up we go, and I first headed to a bookshop (so that I don’t have to stare at dresses and high heels and stuff like that). I’m not going to name it, otherwise I’ll go into another fit of rage, but never mind, the interior décor is kinda nice, and that's where the complements stop. I started reading TOPGEAR to burn some time, and I could sense the ever presence of the sales girl, keeping a lookout at me relentlessly like I’m going to run out of the store with the July issue of FHM. Never mind, I thought, this isn’t KL. Then I went on to read a paperback, FREAKONOMICS, if my mind, and rage didn’t fail me. As I reached the 10th page or so, this same dudess came to me and said, “Tak Boleh Baca”. I went, ‘OK, where’s it stated?’ and I looked around for a sign or note. She just said “Kalau u sudah baca, mesti beli buku ini.” This is my holiday, and I didn’t want to ruin it so quickly, so a quick “idiot” whisper (and another ton of maternal expletive later) and I stood up and left.

Only two things that came to mind when hearing her ‘statement’, one by far is what distinguishes KL shopping malls from the ones here; bookstores in KL leave chairs around the place for customers to sit down and read whatever they like. The stores here not only expect you to stand while BROWSING, they also expect you to but something without knowing the content. Ok, some might think that you can read the rear leaf on paperbacks to understand what’s going on, but the leaves don’t tell you the author’s writing style, or the size of the fonts (this for me is important, because paying more than RM30 to squint doesn’t make any sense) .

The other funny thing is, and this is for you, Ms. Stalker, WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT I’LL BUY A BOOK IF I’VE READ IT?? Sudah baca, mesti beli…..go back to kindi, goodness. How am I supposed to baca the 200+pages in less than a day? Heck, even if my eyes can take it, my legs would have given in long before, ‘cos you didn’t provide any bloody chairs.

So now, here I am, constantly reminding myself that this is not KL, and it’s not a BORDERS that I walked into. Bookstores here don’t have chairs for you to sit (they have chairs to stand and reach up the cupboards) and everyone in the store is a stalker. I could have gone on with the stalkers in the DVD shop, but never mind, I'm letting you off with a warning. Hopefully its only in Part I that I’m ranting.