ScatterBrain

Don’t Steal My Idea (Lah!) (Malaysian Slang)

Posted in Random Rantings by edwardsoo on November 11, 2009

WARNING: A FREAKING LONG POST! (BUT PLEASE READ LAH!)

I went for an AIESEC talk one day and I don’t know why but AIESECers seem to have this extremely spirited personality. They were like so excited about the talk and going so gung ho about everything, especially the head of talent management who organised the talk, invited the speaker. So… the speaker came late as usual. Nothing unusual, I sat there, spoke a few words to my new Khazakh friend called Dana Skakova. She’s got a hot name, I know. And out of a sudden everyone started giving a large round of applause and the speaker arrived.

He delayed the talk about another 10 minutes, sync his laptop with the projector. Okay, bad start, wasn’t as spirited as the others. And my first impression of this person was. Eerrr.. ordinary guy. Former AIESECer perhaps. Might be a good speaker but… eerr nothing much to be impressed of. Then he introduced himself and started his talk which was entitled “Daring to Dream”. It started off like a sermon in church actually. Cracked some jokes, promoted the brand AIESEC, told us some stories. Spoke to us about choices in life, how there’s no such thing called fate and that you can decide on your own future. Nothing too special. Dull, to some extent.

Then he started talking about himself. He was born in France, to an abusive father and submissive mother. Father threw him down the stairs when he was very young when he was trying to protect his mother from being beaten up by his father. He broke a few of his ribs that day. Mother went crazy after being beaten up till she got brain damage. Months later, his grandmother saved him and his mother – brought them to London to hide from his father. Moved from a place to another, a school to another, mainly to try to hide from his abusive father. Had to fund his own university education and pay for the bills as his grandmother was too old to work. One day, gave his “dumb” mother the wrong dosage of medicine. She died.

Unbelievable how someone can still lead a life with direction, confidence and strength after committing such a terrible mistake. His aim was to earn as much money and buy his grandmother the apartment that they were living as that was what she always wanted to have. Did that in I think 23. By 26, owned his first Ferrari and a chain of shops that sold antique furniture. Was promoted to be one of the directors of Ernst & Young before he touched 30. He opened a club in Soho, London called Tiger Tiger. It was a huge success. Claims to be the first club to have the “different room, different music” concept. Made profits in only the 8th week of operation when most clubs took them about a year or two just to break even. (do note that I said WAS a huge success, a lot of people don’t seem to like it very much these days)

I must say. I am now impressed with the guy. HAHA. Marcus Orlovsky. Fascinating character. But one thing I am quite disappointed though, HE STOLE MY IDEA. HAHAHA.

Me and Jason WERE trying to join an entrepreneurs challenge and we had to think of an idea. I realised that there isn’t a sky bar in London. The closest to that is the Penthouse. But my idea was something much higher above ground, on a tower, maybe the Gherkin, overlooking the beautiful City. Just imagine the lights and scenery. Dammit, Marcus Orlovsky plans to do that some time soon. HAHA. I thought about it before he did! I swear I did! HAHA.

Oh well, the bottomline is, I don’t know, I feel like opening my own club. I know me and Damien, my former colleague had the idea to open one in Malaysia with our own concept (which I will not reveal as it is mainly Damien’s idea), but opening one in London, with a brand new concept is just, surprising. My dreams were…. changing the way Malaysian governments govern the country or… winning the Nobel Peace Prize or… going to Kenya for 2 months during my summer break but now…. to build a club in London? WHAT?! No idea how I was inspired. Don’t care.

So here’s the idea. The club will of course be at the top of a tower. And okay. I shall tell this from a customers point of view. The client and a bunch of friends arrive at the bottom of the tower, all dressed up, very happy and excited. The usual stuff happens on ground floor, check if you’re sneaking in alcohol, check if you’re legal, all that rubbish. And you will get like a token which will come in various forms which I will explain later. this token has a chip inside and its like a touch n go or an oyster card. Clients will top up their card before hand (online or at ground floor) with however much they want to spend on that night. One card brings in 5 people and a minimum credit is laid of course. So I want the token to be as random as possible. It could be like in a form of a necklace. It could be a bracelet. It could be a belt. It must be something rather than a boring card or chip. And it must be funky, sparkly, bejeweled, and just simply fun! All the stupid stuff is done downstairs. Once you step in the lift, you’re in the fun zone. Clubbing MODE. And the journey up to the top is like, transporting the client out of this world. All the worries, the stupid crappy, stressful stuff of life is all left downstairs, and everything upstairs, is all about a great experience, a great night, fun fun fun. Its like a journey to heaven, being in the lift I mean.

And the client gets into the lift with his friends. The lift has been modified to enhance the experience. We have a layer of LED lights covering the “boring” walls of the lift. The doors close, funky music is played, the lights do amazing stuff like you’re in a small dancefloor. This part is where we try to loosen everyone up. Throw away all ’self consciousness’ and be ready for real thing. Then, the doors open, voila, you’re in the club. You hear music, everyone’s excited and ready to have fun. No more queues, you can just go up to the bartender, get a drink and touch your token at the machine and “pay” for your drink in that way. We’ll have a huge dance floor in the middle. It vibrates and the entire floor circulates around the DJ which is right in the middle as you see the beautiful view of London through the windows. You look up, you see the stars, the moon. and just beautiful lights pouring down at you to give you that clubbing sensation. We will also have machines placed around the dance floor. These are like vending machines that allow u to buy booze easily. Just press what you want, tap your token and you get your drink.

Now the true originality is here. We will have different rooms not just with different music but entirely different moods. So you have rooms that are named, passion, creativity, random, infatuation, wild… etc. And to get to these rooms, you will have to go up some staircases. These won’t be boring staircases but some of them will twirl, some will have zig zags, some require you to physically climb up, everything to make you more active and to loosen up your body while you’re heading to a room. So of course the different rooms will play music of those kind of moods. And you have different interactive stuff in the rooms as well. In “infatuation” you will have many chairs hanging from the ceiling where two people can lie down on and just hand there in the air. We will have dark corners, bright ones, and just the right music to keep you ‘infatuated’. In creativity, we will a very special machine. This machine is basically an alcohol mixer. You will see like tubes n tubes of alcohol with different colours on the machine right in front of you. You can just imagine the green, blue, red alcohol right in front of you And you can just press and ask the machine to mix whatever alcohols for you and you see the colours slowly flowing into your drink, blending and stuff like that. And all payment is done easily. Just tap and go. The wild room, we will have poles and other very funny equipment like whips, etc. Of course, this is just a very basic idea, we will have more and more interactive and fun stuff in the rooms which we will have to put in their creativity and think and create and invest something cool and develop a magical experience for everyone.

One final room that we feel is very important is just… a room filled with couches, dim lights and its just supposed to be a noisy room. Friends sitting down in an area, having fun, playing cards, drinking, making noise, making a fool out of themselves. Just like a common area, with no rules. Do whatever you want, just don’t puke all around and kiss girls who don’t want to kiss you.

SO yeah, the rooms are all about emotions, feelings, not just about different music. If you want the usual trance and pop its all at the main dance floor but of course the music in lighting, bass all that must be up to a great standard in the rooms as well. It is a club, people like to dance and we acknowledge that. But the main issue is that we want to bring out the soul in everyone. We don’t want it to be just, a DJ, with music and everyone dancing. We want people to enjoy themselves, do things they don’t usually do in their life (unless its obscene). Have fun in a very sporting way. Act dumb, make fun of others, do somersaults, dance like a geek, do a robot dance although u suck at it, tell the crush of your life that you’ve loved her since you were 12, catch up with friends that you’ve never met for the past 10 years and talk about the most embarrassing moments of your lives, have a pillow fight, ………………………..

The problems that we try to solve in this club are the following: (in client’s POV)
1) I can hardly hear my friends when we’re on such a noisy dance floor.
2) I have to shout at the bartender just to explain to him what I want and then wait for change.
3) I have to wait to get my coat in the cloakroom.
4) I don’t like dancing, but I like alcohol, can’t I just drink and have a good time with my friends without simply dancing?
5) I’d like to do more random stuff when I’m really high and I want to explore my spontaneity.
6) I have to bring cash to a club, it is so unsafe and I’m worried I will get pickpocketed or robbed after or during clubbing.
7) I have never been to a club before, I am worried that people will laugh at the way I dance.
8) I want to bring my girlfriend to a club. I don’t want it just wild and fiesty, I want it to be romantic as well.
9) I’m frankly quite bored with going to a club to just rub asses with sweaty girls, I want something more fun!
10) I have a girlfriend. I like going clubbing with her. But we always have friends tagging along. We want some privacy and space alone.

Tell me that the idea is shit. HAHA I don’t care! It is still on ‘fantasy stage’ of course. There’s a lot to think about. I think there’s a lot of room for exploration and improvement in the “rooms”. but anything random, cool spontaneous, any kind of idea would work.! “hey, lets put a bathtub in one of the rooms and showers sprinkling alcohol!”, “hey, let’s have a small planetarium inside where people daze at the stars and get dizzy!”, “hey lets make funky toilets that have oddly shaped toilet bowls that make people think they’re drunk when they’re actually not!”, “hey, let’s have a geeky room! we will have hologram chicks dancing on a platform!”. “hey! let’s have trampolines in one of the rooms!” All these ideas should be just inserted into clubs these days. It should be an experience that you’ve always secretly wanted to do but dare not because its so damn weird and awkward and ‘uncivilised’. But the main idea is to get people to be really sporting, spontaneous, and just plainly random and fun. A club shouldn’t just have sweaty chicks and hot guys dancing. It should be more than that and a lot better.!

Clubbers deserve more.

PS. One last problem that I am trying to solve:

I always get lost in clubs. I can’t seem to find my friends in the big big clubs! I need something like a GPS!

2 comments

Robert Enke.

Posted in Random Rantings by edwardsoo on November 10, 2009

Let’s all mourn for the loss of a great footballer whether you love football or not. His daughter died in 3 years ago when she was only 2 with a heart problem. He and his wife decided to adopt an 8 month old baby after that. He died today, after being hit by a train, leaving his wife and newly adopted child and a German side which will probably find it hard to get a replacement for him in time for the World Cup.

Life is so unpredictable. I am grateful for everything I have and all the opportunities that have been laid down for me. I cannot promise that I will not take things for granted but I will try my best.

I really don’t know what to write for tonight. Seem to have nothing on my mind. Not in the right mindset to do some kind of composition as well.

Update: The police believe that he committed suicide. Darn, I don’t know what to say.

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The Wombats, Lady Gaga, Calvin Harris AND Kings of Leon

Posted in Random Rantings by edwardsoo on November 9, 2009

I know that I have not posted ANYTHING for quite some time! My apologise to all my readers. HAHA. I find it quite a habit for me to be doing certains so frequently for quite a period of time and then stop completely. As you all know, I used to have a website, then it got shut down after I stopped posting articles in it. I used to play a lot of golf and chess and was pretty good at it. Then I stopped, don’t know why. I used to be so active in St. John Ambulance in highschool and also in debate, I don’t do that at all now. I want to, but circumstances aren’t allowing that to happen. But no, I want to keep this blog for as long as I keep my hotmail account for my msn. I don’t see myself ever stop using msn and I don’t see myself closing this blog down. It would be a sad scene.

So to update people about things. I don’t listen to any radio stations now. I just download albums and listen to them. I must say, the wombats, lady gaga and calvin haris’ albums are fantastic. All three very different artists, but quality music. Calvin Harris is just too random but great techno/trance mix of music. Lady Gaga, enough said, makes your body bounce whenever you listen to her. The Wombats, great lyrics, fantastic indie quality. And yes, Pia DID introduce the wombats to me. Again, her taste of music just impresses me. Hehe. Kings of leon, amazing band. Such great voice the front man has. Love them.

Okay that’s enough of words, this will be a photo based posting. Just photos taken from my iphone. Yes, I have THE IPHONE 3G S!!! It is a MUST TO HAVE if you call yourself a geek! Okay, its a great, simple, user friendly, convenient, light weight, a multi-tasker’s dream, has the world’s best mp3 player, and accessibility is definitely there.

Anyways, PICTURE TIME! (Click on the pictures to enlarge) (Right click, new tab would be best)

I think I should do some more fun posts in this blog. It is my reading week now, aka, holiday for a week, so I guess I have no excuses not to post more. Some topics I will consider posting:

1) My new London club concept and general idea
2) A very funny day, the day I met jia-wei, tang in london and the following events
3) My lecturers and tutors, how I find alot of them cute (including the males)
4) How much I appreciate my life and things that I have.

I shall end this post with my iphone ringtone!

Off to satisfy my geeky needs! With crysis warhead babeh!

PS. MORE PICTURES ON FACEBOOK! and do check out this video! What we did on 1am in the morning in Oxford Circus. It is basically an intersection, a very very busy road in the day and the traffic lights will all turn red while people can cross the roads DIAGONALLY. yeah like what the japanese have always done. So what we did was, when no one was crossing the road at 1am. We lied down on the centre of the intersection! HAHAHA

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=172642555641&ref=mf

4 comments

Creepy London.

Posted in Random Rantings by edwardsoo on October 7, 2009

I got up at 745am. Brushed my teeth, washed up and took my breakfast at the hall cafeteria. By 820am, I was at the entrance of the hall, holding an umbrella in one hand, making my way to University College London in a horrible London weather. 20 minutes later, I arrived at the Christopher Ingold Lecture Theatre, almost half asleep, partly due to the late night piracy downloading, the late night instant noodle cooking that me and my hallmates seem to enjoy very much and also, the gloomy, bleak and uninspiring London weather.

All that was just the beginning. The lectures were good, I enjoyed My Pavoni’s lecture on Macroeconomics. He certainly added a lot of Italian spice onto Economics. I went back after a 2 hour recap on Statistics. I thought that the Stats teacher was really good. She spoke really well and was very patient with us. I lied on my bed and just  dozed off once I arrived at my hall. I woke up about half an hour later and went online. I realised that my Facebook has been spamming people unknowingly, recommending some kind of slimming website to a number of my facebook contacts. I seriously don’t know where that came from. Maybe it was a pop up that I accidentally clicked on or something. The fact is, I really don’t know what went wrong and it was quite frightening to see my facebook being attacked or sabotaged by this scary, freakish spamming virus. After writing a brief email to Facebook, they instantly deactivated my Facebook account, to remove all the rubbish and ensure that all my other private matters were safe. I went up to my door, wanting to go to the toilet and I realised that I did not lock my room door! I frantically searched if anything was missing in my room, but could locate none.

That was scary enough, still feeling very drowsy, I made my way to the toilet. Sitting on the toilet bowl, I decided to call Ya Hui to ask if she wanted to go to Drayton House to get some second hand books. I called her handphone, I heard Jason Chow’s voice. I called her handphone again, Jason picked up and said that he was in his room, why am I calling him. I turned my handphone off and on again, this time, I dialed Jason Chow’s number, he picked up (not surprisingly) again! Then I dialed Ya Hui’s number one last time, to make sure that my phone was not sabotaged in any way but no one picked up this time. I made my way out of the toilet and saw Jason and Ya Hui standing right at my door, with a… mischievous glee on t heir faces. I instantly knew I was fooled. Damn! That was scary, first it was my facebook, then my handphone. I also changed all my email passwords as it was highly recommended by Facebook.

Finally, I went to UCL, again in the lousy weather, rain drops just falling from the sky as if mother nature was weeping for the lost of its innocence (WTH!). I went to a seminar where many Management Consultancy Firms like accenture, Mckinsey, PWC, etc sent representatives. It was a really weird scene watching Jason Chow, sitting right next to me, slowly dozing off as the prominent speakers answered a couple of questions posed by the master of the ceremony. It was a scene like no other. Just imagine this, Jason Chow’s head, just… oscillating, downwards, almost towards his crotch and finally just collapses onto his thighs. Once his head touched his thigh, his head instantly rises onto an upright position, and then the process continues. (Maybe I need to learn more on how to describe things). Anyways, while I was watching Jason doze off, someone kept mis-calling me. It was an unknown number and I was getting quite annoyed with the constant vibration of my phone. I finally sent him a text message asking who was this? The reply was “Who is this? This is Bank.” I thought for a moment, ‘is it HSBC calling me? Or has someone REALLY messed with my LIFE!’  I finally texted a couple of people, asking if they know someone called Bank. Fortunately, Jia Wei replied saying that its the Thai guy. OH GOD! Seriously! What’s happening to my life! One thing after another seems to be giving me reason to be fearful of something else! Then, while trying to calm myself down, I decided to lock the keypad of my phone. Instead of pressing the * (star) button, I pressed the # (hash) button which deactivated the silent mode! And everyone in the room could hear my phone ring. OH MY GOODNESS! How embarrassing it was. Jason Chow even woke up and told me to be quiet. =.=

Well, I’d like to think and also like to hope that it all turned out to be a Disney ending. I think it is. After the seminar, there was a networking session. It was probably the first kind of networking session I’ve ever been to. I met a consultant from Deloitte as he talked about how he switched from genetics to consultancy; I spoke to a manager from Hildebrand as he spoke about how problem solvers end up being the most successful consultants; and finally I spoke to two ladies from PWC as they told me not to fear about not being able to compete with the EU and UK students as the consultancy firms insist on labour diversity in their workplaces. Rushing off to the University of London Union (ULU) building, I thought about how much opportunities there are in today’s world and that I should just focus on getting my studies right and there’s no need to worry about career and all that although everyone else seems to be doing so. St John Ambulance has been the best and the biggest thing in my high school life. I want to continue serving the Ambulance here in the UK. I went for the SJA ULU unit meeting after the networking session and I think that fire that used to be in me when it comes to serving the community and helping people through first aid has been reignited. I am glad and now I am going to get ready for the Fresher’s Ball at Ministry of Sound, London, the United Kingdom. WOOOHOOO! Let’s hope its great!!!

2 comments

lapse.

Posted in Random Rantings by edwardsoo on September 24, 2009

Its funny that we were talking about religion today and I took sometime out to reflect on my own ’status’ when it comes to religion. London, a new place has really, somehow pushed God away from me, filled me with tons of distractions and worries. I feel sorry, sorry for myself, to be able to be swayed so easily. Its not like I fell into some kind of deep sinful actions, its just, I feel I have neglected my faith and the whispers in my ears. It is tough to keep reminding myself that I need to invest in what’s real and not, what’s real. It sounds stupid, doesn’t it? But it is quite true. I am glad that I have woken up. Woken up from the fact that I am in a brand new place and that I will be here for the next 3 years, that things will be tough. But most importantly, woken up from the fact that I need to hang on to what has been real and true to me; to what that has put me where I am today. Religion is a personal thing. Or maybe faith is a personal thing, religion is something you subscribe to, says my new friend Rish (hope I spelt it correctly). It is a personal choice and I made a personal vow. Only through personal strength and discipline I will be able to accomplish it, personal, but maybe I bit of help. =p

Check this out!

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You? (random statements.)

Posted in Random Rantings by edwardsoo on September 22, 2009

The land of fat, spoilt pigeons. It is known for its rainy days but it has been sunny all this time. Filled with nasty people, with many nice ones to cover up for them. Miniature is what they call me, big and fat is what I call myself, or used to. Good warm bath, with water strong enough to give you a massage. Running half naked past my corridor after bath, got caught by a girl. She giggled, I apologised. Still feeling sleepy, have to wake up for orientation tomorrow. First time seeing Arsenal fans making their way to Emirates via the tube, first time taking the tube since arriving here. Bus ride is another first, Argos was too. Imax was big, 3D meatballs aren’t really tasty. Real ones that do not threaten your life in Leon, the Strand, are more appetizing and edible. Laptop locks give you just that extra, that extra is all I need (hopefully). Dilemmas on handphones, room changing, food and plans but set on settling in swift and smooth. Lecturing (both literally and sarcastically) mom back home, mass sms spammer when I’m overseas. Enjoys Londoner jokes, barely catching their words. Bad ears, bad peeling skin. Cracked lips, no pain. Few friends and acquaintances, many random “Hellos”. No supper, heavy breakfast. Big parks, no footballing kids. A ton of buildings, non sky scrappers. Russell Square, one of the smallest parks in London, One Canada Square, tallest building in London. Only 50 floors, billions of assets. City ain’t a city, towns are towns. No idea how to do laundry, there’s youtube. Same time zone, different place, feels so far away although you’re an hour away.Canary Wharf, is it ‘WArf’ or ‘WOf’. “Can’t speak like them”, good excuse to not fall into it. Probably a dead pirate, a new me then. If not a geek, then what or who? No identity, establish one. Lazy, but anti-social isn’t the way forward. Still waking up from the fact that I am here. Like the water, enjoying myself, keeping up with the walking speed too. Threadneedle Street and its one mile radius. It is parallel, that’s north, where’s east? Radiohead but no fishhead curry. Curry’s Digital reeks, CarphoneWarehouse rocks, but HSBC got the raft.   Don’t try to be smart, you end up being stupid. Miss you. But who? Goodnight, anyways.

london1

Ps. See if you can spot some buildings in this picture. Try the Tower Bridge. Then 30 St Mary Axe. Finally, the Bank of England. Pretty easy actually. Then try One Angel Court and Tower 42. hehe. I love google earth.

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Global Warming in London.

Posted in Random Rantings by edwardsoo on September 21, 2009

“Global warming is clearly visible in London. Someone as hot as myself is living in it.” Only a bimbo or a really lame person would say that. But, really I find London pretty warm. It is a beautiful day here in London.! I went for a walk in Greenwich town using my 2nd sister’s ever so accurate map while enjoying the lovely, lovely weather. Seriously, it is quite a good first impression of London (although it is not my first time here). My sister’s apartment is pretty  big with only two girls living in it. It is spacious and the environment, wow! Just look out the window and you see all that greenery.

I made my way to Greenwich town which is not really far from here, only a 10 minute walk or so. Went to the National Maritime Museum, found it boring but the staff were very nice and welcoming, took away all that shyness and timidity that I have had since arriving here. Then I started searching for the Observatory, cause I knew that the Greenwich meridian line was there. I soon realised that the Observatory is located on top of a hill and you had to climb up to reach it. But the pathway from the Maritime Museum to the Observatory was just beautiful. You have a nice broad walkway with green grass surrounding you and tons of trees growing. The tiring part was that the pathway up to the hill was quite tiring, I was panting all along. Panting of course because it was very steep, the hill, and also because the view was almost breathtaking. It was this beautiful view of the Museum and the plain green green fields, a great view of city centre London and finished by a beautiful clear blue sky with just perfect sunlight, just enough to keep you warm. It is a really great day, a perfect day to fall in love (with someone else or with the weather or with London in general).

It was indeed quite disappointing though, the Observatory. Yeah, they had a really big telescope and tons of stuff about all the astrologers, but nothing really intrigued me. The meridien line was literally a line! Maybe I was just not in the mood to absorb information, but many young people were! (Amazing!). (While checking them out), I saw many girls actually reading the history and the background about things they were looking at. It was very encouraging to see that and it was a pretty sight (if you get what I mean.) Then I had to find my way back. It was quite scary, considering the fact that I was being very sarcastic when I made the statement about my sister’s very complete map. But surprisingly, I actually remembered quite a number of places while making my way to Greenwich museum. So relying very much on memory, I found my way back! WEE! It feels wonderful! I always thought my memory was very, very poor.

Okay, finally, a few things I need to settle. Number 1, open a bank account. I think I am looking very closely at HSBC. Number 2, get a new phone line and a new phone, but I need to complete no.1 before I can complete no. 2. And I have not decided on whether I am willing to spend a bit more on a phone! OH NO! ZZZ. Things to decide and think about! I shall be as kiamsiap as possible, find the best deals that still manage to make me happy. Finally, I need to start shopping on minor, minor things and also start thinking about winter clothing.

A LOT TO DO! A LOT TO SEE! A LOT OF NEW PEOPLE TO MEET! SO TILL THEN, SEE YA PEOPLE!

7 comments

Small Breasts? No Worries.

Posted in Random Rantings by edwardsoo on September 13, 2009

Man this is so freaky. Reminds me of the mind controlling Yuri from Red Alert. By the way, that is from Discovery Channel, no bullshitting.

In this video, there is this short part where the Japanese Government uses the professor’s brain washing expertise to brain wash some terrorists into being moral and good citizens. But really, does the government have the right to do so? Don’t we all have the right to believe in what we want to believe in and that no one can impose any sort of values (whether good or bad) upon us? I wouldn’t like the Government to brain wash me into thinking that clubbing is all bad and no good at all and that Michael Learns to Rock is a band that sings songs of the devil. I don’t think that is very fair, I want to believe what I want to believe in; similarly, I want the voting system during elections to be just so that the real elected party rules this nation. This brings about so many issues in this country. One of the main ones would be the law of the country that only allows partial secularism to happen. Non-malays or non-bumiputeras can believe in any God they wish, but Malays cant. Isn’t religion a personal thing that no higher body can actually decide for us, or limit us to just one religion, for the rest of our lives including after we’re dead? (you need to be buried the Muslim way). So my final question is, is this a democratic country or is this a communist country?

I personally do not think that Governments should be given such power to impose any sort of rules, beliefs on its people. But if you ask anyone down the street, they will tell you that this is the government’s way of maintaining their control of the country. This is the strategy that they play to continue to be rulers of this land. Our freedoms are limited. Our freedom of speech is probably down to just, talking bad about the government in a mamak stall and that participating in any sort of peaceful protest is deemed ‘unethical and unlawful’. Our right to fair and just judiciary system has been toppled off by first of all, corruption and the lack of segregation of power between the Judiciary and Executive in the country and secondly, the ISA, in which we can be raped, yes raped, physically and emotionally without reason and without being given a fair trial. We obviously have very little freedom of choice as well. Many Malaysians are forced to buy poorly designed and manufactured local cars simply because the taxation imposed on foreign cars are impossible to afford (for their case).

Now I can go on with many ways we are being limited by our own government, which they do so, in the name of ‘protecting the welfare of the country and its citizens’. The funny thing is that, we the citizens are quite blissfully ignorant about this. We do know that the government is making us buy Proton Sagas when we can afford BMWs and we know that they are badly managing the funds of this country, and yet, we only complain about it to our closest friends and relatives during outings and yam cha sessions. The question is really, can we do more, and if so, are we? Throughout this entire article, I have been trying to think of methods to voice out and take action against this ridiculous system of ours. But there are only three methods really. 1) We vote for the opposition. 2) We become a politician. 3) We complain to our opposition leaders.

For the first method. I begin to question the strength of our opposition. If, in 2012, Pakatan takes over as government, will they be able to work together, as one throng, 3 separate parties, to lead this country? It is indeed sad that BN has been very happily pointing out many weak points of the opposition, although it only makes them look childish (Mummy, you see! che che also like that!). I think that our opposition is not strong enough. DAP needs to move out from their comfort zone, which I believe are the cities, especially densely Chinese-populated ones. I wish that PKR would focus a lot on winning over Sabah and Sarawak, which is the most essential two states in Malaysian elections. I recently asked someone (don’t want to mention), a speaker in Malaysian Student Leaders Summit 2009 (MSLS) regarding how we as normal citizens can actually speak to our friends in Sabah and Sarawak, tell them and educate them about the real situation here. He said, Air Asia is really cheap now, all we need is will power, we can have some kind of trip to Sarawak and Sabah where we can speak to natives there and tell them about the horrifying stories of our ‘leaders’. But really, I thought to myself, what a stupid answer. First of all, we do not have the time. We are students and we have priorities! And also, we are poorly informed ourselves. We do not know which villages to visit; we do not know who are the leaders of these villages; we do not know which language to speak to them; we do not know what are their main concerns; we have no clue on what is the best way to share our perspective. It isn’t that simple. I think that the opposition needs to take up this responsibility. If they want to win, they need to win in Sabah and Sarawak, not just in Kuching and KK. They are in politics full-time! I am sure they can find the time and the resource to branch into these areas where the people have the right to be well-informed about the true situation here in Malaysia. Opposition leaders, you take the lead, you organise the events or campaigns and we, the citizens, will follow through by supporting these events in whatever way we can and not forgetting, vote for you in the next election. TAKE CHARGE my dear opposition LEADERS, are you all still busy waking up from the fact that you have more than 1/3 of the country’s voice? Look to win, don’t look to stay opposition.

For the second method, I think that the word or title ‘politician’ has seriously been smeared by many of our local and foreign policitians. Politics has always been deemed as corrupt, evil, or whatever word you want to use. But I think the same thing goes for law. Lawyers are not protectors of the law, but of criminals, rich ones.! Yet, many people still want to pursue law! Indeed, the degree of severity in terms of bearing a negative image for law is waaayy less than politics, but I think that one of the main problem is actually fear. Many young people are so gung-ho about politics these days, but in the end, how many will actually really want to be a minister or MP in this country? Close to zero, I believe. We are suckers really. We talk talk, make tons of noise, speak about unfairness, but when it comes to taking the lead, we back out. I think there are many political talents in our generation of young people. I admit, I am a coward myself. I’d rather live a more stable life, go into business and make my own share of money, or even better, LEAVE THIS COUNTRY WORK IN LONDON! I feel selfish, but I am not ready to truly decide on what I want to do in life and I want to think that I am still very young and time is on my side. HAHA. Let’s just keep this option open shall we?

Third method, been there, done that. HAHA. YP Tony Pua (my MP), I wish you read my blog, I lazy la to go tell you all about the problems, I am sure you are aware of that yourself. Otherwise, why did we elect you in the first place?

How did we divert from breasts to opposition leaders? Wait a minute, we did not even talk about politician sex scandals…!

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From Zero to Zara

Posted in Random Rantings, The Happy Economist by edwardsoo on September 9, 2009

There was a post that I did on this blog a couple of weeks ago mocking women on their shopping habits. But I must say that it isn’t really easy to shop, especially when you have a limited budget. Of course it is really easy if you have all the money in the world. But it was a painstaking process, trying to find the right jeans, with the right cut and size and style and price of course and purchase it. I bought, 3 pairs of jeans, one from topman, another pull and bear and finally one from camel active. I also bought a sweater! But I don’t think I’m done with my shopping. There’s a lot of ground to cover for being such a geek, not shopping for the past 1 year or so. hehe.

I found it intriguing how Pull and Bear got its name. When I was heading home, I had this really retarded image of a coat with a zip. Pull and bear is like, unzip and I’m naked. Something like that. You pull the zip down, and there you go, I am bear. HAHAHAHA OH NOz. LAMEZ. But really, I have no idea how did the founder actually created that name. If you actually say Pull and Bear to someone who has never heard of it before, very likely he will think it is Pooh and Bear.

Google Images “Amancio Ortega” and you will find these two pictures.

You have Amancio Ortega, the guy and Marta Ortega Perez, the lady. Curiosity killed the cat, mine gets me on google most of the time. It turns out that Zara, Massimo Dutti, Pull and Bear, are all owned by the same man, Amancio Ortega. His first shop was actually one that specialised in bathrobes and not fashionable clothes. But I guess bathrobes fits in very well with  my idea of what Pull and Bear means eh? =.= Then in 1975, he opened the first Zara store. No idea why he named it Zara, maybe it was the name of his mother, definitely not the name of his wife or daughter. Zara is a true success, proudly carrying the Spanish flag everywhere it was found. The idea behind the success of Zara is that it is a vertically integrated retailer. Which means, it controls every process of its production line, from the designing, to the production and finally, distribution or retailing. In this sense, they are able to perfect their entire production process easily and maneuver according to market changes really quickly. According to some study, Zara only need 2 weeks to design new products, mass produce them and deliver them to consumers compared to the 6 months that an average fashion design company does. Ortega calls this “instant fashion” and claims that fashion trends vary so quickly that the usage of IT in the fashion designing world is crucial and that his staff work in groups to produce new apparels and not individually. This obviously increases their productivity and speed in producing new clothes.

The funny thing is that, Zara was not built to be a trend setter. It was built to be a copycat, and a very good and fast one indeed. Something like a chameleon, or the china or japan of the manufacturing industry. The idea behind it was to steal fashion designs from well known designers, edit or perfect those designs to make them look younger and not to awkward looking to wear on the streets and mass produce them. Its funny that Malaysians find Topman and Zara as ’sudah sangat fashionable’, but in fact they’re not. They’re probably in the mid-range income sort of retailers, not very expensive, and definitely not cheap as well. It may be disappointing to many but if you tell me that you got a really nice shirt from Zara, its not wrong for me to call you… cheapo, since Zara is like… a chinese copied iPhone, called iPone or something. hehe. One last thing about Zara, it doesn’t like to advertise, it rather spends money onto opening new stores.

About opening new stores, I found it such a coincidence that so many shops are actually from the same group. Of course, I mentioned Zara, Pull and Bear, Massimo Dutti all under Inditex ; then you have Topman, Topshop, Miss Selfridge, Burton and Dorothy Perkins under the Arcadia Group; moving out of the clothing industry, you have Italiannies (can never get the spelling) , Fridays,  The Apartment, Laundry, Teh Tarik Place, all under the same group as well. This reminds me of the distributor I bought my XPS from, Fosa Marketing. Fosa Marketing is actually pretty big. If you go to lowyat, they have many stores there, and one large DELL shop. They all have different names, but they are all under the same company. This actually gives them some kind of leverage or market position, to set prices, set trends and influence consumer tastes. Just take for instance if you go to lowyat and you are looking for one specific laptop. You go to 5 shops and they all specify the same price or something close. Imagine they all raise the price, you wouldn’t even know you’re being cheated, you would just think, oooh, that’s the market price. And that is how many chinese entrepreneurs make a lot of money in Malaysia, especially when we do not have a competition authority or its not functioning if it exists. The strategy is, if you are big, break up and attack! Don’t move forward as a big group. Similarly, do you know how to be really strong? Split your one big fat pack, 6 packs. HAHA Then, you can control the market. OMG LAMENESS 101! I wonder how Microsoft can make use of this strategy, any ideas?

PS. Marta is single (I think). She’s up for grabs! And her 1.8 Billion USD fortune too!

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When You’re Too Busy Having Fun, You Forget To Blog.

Posted in Random Rantings by edwardsoo on September 7, 2009

The title of this post is true, unless you are a bimbo. HEHE. (Warning, this post is pretty dry).

But it is true that I have been having too much fun lately, that I don’t remember that I have a blog. I have so many things to sort out, so many things to go for that I think I stopped sitting down to gaze and think about random things. I suppose that is a good thing. But really I warn you that this post is going to be very dry. I’m not in my ‘inspired’ and ‘hyped’ mood that I am usually. Oh well.

Although it is a very bimbo thing to blog about your life, I think I’d like to share a bit of what I have been doing these couples of days and I think, briefly what I have learnt as well. Firstly, I GOT MY NEW LAPTOP! Say hello to the Dell Studio XPS 16!

Specs:

Intel (R) Core 2 Duo P8700 2.53Ghz
4.00Gb RAM
500Gb Harddisk Space
1Gb ATI RADEON 4670
Blue Ray DVD-ROM

Price: RM4400

There are a few downsides for this laptop before I tell you about my gaming experience (no life, I know). The laptop gets really hot when it runs on full performance. This would mean, if you touch the bottom of the laptop when you are playing Crysis or COD, its really hot! But its fine on the top and when you are just surfing the net and doing some office work. Its big, with a 16 inch screen which gives you fantastic gaming and movie watching experience, but it is pretty difficult to carry around in a bag. You probably need a larger than usual bag to fit this large laptop. Just below 3Kgs in weight may be a bad point about it. But you can’t expect it to be light, slim and still function that well. The Macbook PRO 13inch, performance wise, loses out to this Dell; style wise, I think they’re about the same (full black vs full white) ; brand wise, a Mac, is a Mac.

Moving on, it provides you with amazing gaming experience. I AM SO HOOKED with Call of Duty 4. AMAZING GAME! The theatrical aspect of it makes it so much more fun to play. Not your usual FPS kind of gaming. The great thing about it, its believable and realistic, you get to manage different types of weapons and play different roles in the air and on the ground. One thing I really like about this laptop, the speakers are pretty good too. Clear and amazing sound.

Okay, it is time to get out of geeky mode. I went for UCL Freshers Camp too. It was wonderful. I had a great time and I think that it was great to have met and bonded with a good bunch of people. I was really noisy though. Seemed really kiasu like, tried to fool everyone into losing points in a charades game and quite a few times disagreeing with the judges decisions, but I don’t think I was being kiasu. I like to state my point and I am very outspoken, but I don’t have that “We must win guys! or I’m going to be so pissed!” mentality. So, if I turned out as damn kiasu to some of you, I’m sorry. I’m a pretty good loser! I laugh about my failures and share those experiences with anyone who wants to listen to them. HAHA. Otak-otak the best la wei!! Although we got last in the end. HAHAHA. (Must use more Manglish before I leave). I’m sorry for being so awfully loud and noisy. Some of the guys likened me to a cockerel, partly because it sounded obscene and that is, to them, really fun already, and mainly because they thought I would wake them up in the morning with me, being me. :( But oh well, when its time to play, I play, when its time to work, I work. HEHE. Back to the camp, IM GLAD I got to know tons of people, both juniors and seniors. London is no more this unknown, gloomy, scary looking city in my mind, but a beautiful, exotic and exciting place to look forward to. Thank you people!

I think it is essential to share a little bit about some of my small thoughts about Malaysia in this post. I went to KL alone the other day, to get my Grads card done. I must say that I am disappointed with MAS, our national carrier. The Bangunan MAS address tells us that it is in Jalan Sultan Ismail, which it is. But the funny thing is that they expect us to enter from the back, which is Jalan Tengah if I am not mistaken. That is just extremely stupid! I made my way to Jalan Sultan Ismail, walked down the road several times, trying to look for that Malaysia Airlines logo, but I never found one. I finally found one that says, “Malaysia Airlines Parking”. I find this really embarrassing for our national carrier that supposedly won many awards for best service in the world or something. I understand that the building is no longer owned my MAS, but it is essential to put your logo outside the building so that people know that you are inside! To make things worse, I was not the only one looking for the building, another girl was strolling down the same street, looking for the same building.

Now for the good stuff,, I am reasonably pleased with the Monorail. It is quite fast, not that stuffy, and I think it really  does help you get around in main city center KL. I’d think that it is one of the few things that Ahmad Badawi can be proud of. HAHAHA. Another thing is the SMART tunnel. It is the only kind in the world, really efficient and works really well. The great thing is that I think we showed the world (once again) that if we have a problem, we can solve it TOGETHER. The discovery channel review of the tunnel really showed that Malaysians (with the help of some foreign expertise), of different races really put in a great joint effort to get the work done. My Dad says that Mahathir should be given the credit for both of these infrastructures, although they were completed during Badawi’s time. HAHA. No clue. Still not a BN fan, not even Khairy’s charm can win me over.

One very frustrating thing though. I think it is absolutely idiotic to call KL Sentral, KL Sentral when it is, extremely tiny for one, and it doesn’t have all the public transportation under one roof. The size of it may seem pretty big when compared to Puduraya, but looking at the number of people using it to interchange public transportation just makes it seem really small. It is not very convenient to move around that small building which is so stuffy. I recommend they get rid of all those stalls that are placed in the concourse area. They only serve to reduce the walking space of the tourists and local users. Secondly, it was extremely disappointing to get to KL Sentral, take 10 minutes to look out for the monorail sign and end up realising that the Monorail station of KL Sentral is 300 meters away. It is also not a straight 300 meters path, it is one that requires you to cross two roads where tons of buses, especially in the KL Sentral bus terminal and taxis and fast moving cars are using those roads. I think it is embarrassing for us to make our tourists walk such a distance, in such a bad environment (fumes, the honking, the literring). Sigh, I shall not be pleased with the fact that I am leaving this country pretty soon.

I’ve completely lost the mood to blog all of a sudden. It might be the disappointment, it might be the lure to get on with my COD4. HEHE. But I’d like to end this post talking about  something my friend told me sometime ago. “If you are really happy, don’t be too happy, because happiness never last”. I believe it is awful to have that sort of mentality. I am very happy at the moment. I think I am having one of the best times of my life, otherwise, the best.  I don’t expect things to go perfectly well in the months to come. It will be tough being in a new environment and all. Nevertheless, I shall trust in God and I thank him for all the great things that has happened to me. My greatest comfort and the only comfort that I need is that I know He will be with me, through thick and thin, and He will provide when I am in need, for “I shall not be in want”. I am grateful with what  I have. The rest who do not trust in any God, I think that life is too short for you to worry about tomorrow? Life is too short to spend it on worrying about things you cannot control.

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