This is so funny…

Just read this…I won’t comment. Except that I am SOOOOOO looking forward to Iron Man!

PS. and that I really love Fake Steve Jobs aka Dan Lyons.

Anyone interested in winning a Nokia N82?

Hi guys,

In the midst of all the election posts, I thought I’d just ask if anyone out there wanted to win a Nokia N82.

Nokia Malaysia (full disclosure: my client) is now calling for public entries to join in on the Nokia Nseries Wireless Adventure 2: Discover the Soul of the Night. All you have to do is sign up and if you’re one of the eight lucky people selected to run the race on April 5th, you’ll win an N82 to keep. The winner of the race will also get to go to Hong Kong. All you have to do is go here or www.nseries.com/soulofthenight

Okay, that’s the winning stuff part. I’d also like to share a bit of the whole concept of Discover the Soul of the Night – it’s not just a race, but it’s an online platform where we’re trying to encourage people to go online and post photos of interesting locations, events and activities or just things they’ve seen at night.

Of course, if you’re curious and also want to discover stuff that happens at night, you can also do just that by checking out what other members have posted. Better still, if you use a Nokia Nseries device, you can download an application that’ll let you post stuff up immediately.

Bad, bad service at expensive restaurant *geram*

So we decided to go out for lunch today to celebrate a colleague’s confirmation. We settled on one of them none-too-cheap restaurants over at Gardens, Midvalley and were all hyped up for a sumptious meal. After all, as you can see from the pic below, it promised “Hospitality with a Heart.”

Turns out to be another fanciful tagline that means nothing because the whole experience quickly turned into a highly stressful one, leaving me to walk away wondering: “Why are we paying so much money for so mundane food (which you can get from a hawker stall by the way) if not for good service (which is still charged at 10% service charge)?

Instead, we had a couple of immigrant workers (read: cheap labour) serving us and getting us off the wrong foot by messing up our order. Despite repeated attempts to communicate, they just didn’t get it.

First, it was the wrong drink.

Then, they refused to cancel an order of rice (beats me why?) until we “insisted” quite “firmly.”

The food came slow. The bill came slower. And our dessert, well… let’s just say when I peered over after waiting for 15 minutes, I saw one worker scolding another worker for forgetting to “process” the order.

The best part of the whole experience? Well, my colleage ordered a takeaway of his drink. Mind you, this was a new order for a new drink, just that he wanted it packed for takeaway. Guess what he got?

His RM 8.00 Lemongrass mixed with syrup water was packed in a plastic bag a la mamak stall. What? From a high-end restaurant, I expect better. *shakes head*

Well, I’m sorry to say this but, is the restaurant business so difficult that you need to overcharge AND cut corners by hiring cheap labour who can’t speak the language whilst saving money by giving us plastic bags for takeaway?

*shakes head*

RIP: Gary Gygax

Once upon a time, children and adolescents used to play with toy soldiers and fashionable dolls with little more than their imagination, hands and mouth.

Then, sometime in the 70s, a man came along and thought: “what fun it would be if we added dice, swords and dragons to this?” Thus, the great-grandfather of all Role-Playing Games (yes, even World of Warcraft) was born – Dungeons and Dragons. Or rather, its predecessor first – Chainmail.

The man responsible for our great hobby – Gary Gygax – has passed away today according to Troll Lord Games, his latest publisher. He aged 69.

May he rest in peace.

This song is dedicated to all you PR Consultants out there

Boss shared this with me. We sniggered.

This is dedicated to all the PR Consultants out there coz you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. If you’re my client, this is not aimed at you. I love all my clients *saysng*. It’s just, so, funny.

*addendum*

In case you can’t hear the lyrics, here it is:

Sometimes you call me up and beg me for free advice…
You’re stealing from me, and wondering why I’m not nice…
My mind and my time–are my merchandise.
Don’t make me say this twice:

If you come to my office or call my phone, I’m billing time.
If you stop me at parties to whine and moan, I’m billing time.

You say you want the best but then you don’t pay the fee.
Motions cost money, but you think they should be free.

You cry “Oh why, is my bill so high?” [my bill so high?]
Well let me clarify:

If you come to my office or call my phone, I’m billing time.
If you stop me at parties to whine and moan, I’m billing time.
If I think of you when I am all alone, I’m billing time.
If you’re late for appointments, I will be waiting… and billing time.
Still billing time…
I’m billing time.

Also, I found this on the net, and am not sure who to attribute to. So if this is your work, (and I’m speaking to “you”) let me know ok? You’re brilliant!

Free Books? Neil Gaiman and Harper Collins says so…

I’m a huge fan of Neil Gaiman, simply love his dark mix of mythology and reality.

Just yesterday, Mr. Gaiman and his publisher Harper-Collins just announced the availabilty of one of his classics – American Gods – for free reading on the Harper-Collins website. Apparently, this is going to be some sort of experiment to see if people who take to reading full whole books online would buy an actual hard-cover or paperback.

I think this is a fantastic idea because the most unnerving thing about purchasing books online is you never really get to know the content of the book, especially if you can’t find that same book in bookstores. Preview pages are great, but sometimes, I want to just browse through the entire thing before I buy.

By putting full books online for reading / browsing, publishers are effectively translating the whole in-bookstore browsing experience online. It’ll be just like walking into a brick and mortar bookstore, picking up a book you’ll potentially buy, and reading the first couple of chapters before actually buying the book.

Naturally, there’s a fear that people will just read the entire book online, but in my humble experience, there’s nothing quite like holding a real book in your hand. Besides, book piracy is already rampant on the internet and you can easily find best-sellers on any ‘pirate’ torrent sites out there, so I doubt putting full books online for free is going to dampen sales at all. In fact, it may encourage it.

Kudos to Harper Collins and Mr. Gaiman for this move. Amazon, what are you waiting for? Enough with crummy first chapters already!

Sleeping like a Chipster chip? Here’s how…

Have you ever wondered what it feels like to be a potato chip? To have your skin rub against metallic-plastic foil wrapper? Well, I think I might have just found out.

It all began with the challenge from NuffNang Malaysia to member bloggers to post the 1) picture with the most Chipster packs in it 2) Quirkiest post 3) Best pajamas ever.

I realised I could probably not afford to buy enough Chipster packs to challenge anyone in that category, or be quirky enough to win the Wii…. so…. last category left – make the best darn pajamas there is.

After spying what the competition had to offer, it made natural sense to do what they didn’t do (see, there’s a strategy to this) and do it better. So, I spied and I spied and then… *aha* “Potato Chips have to sleep too, don’t they?”

So I went to the store and bought ablout 16 Chipster Large packs. Couldn’t find one single flavour, so had to go mix and match.

Went home and started doing:

First step was to cut out all the Chipster packs VERY CAREFULLY and keep the foil wrapper intact. Then, once all the foils had been cut:

You have to dump all the Chipsters into TupperWares. Wife and I actually tried to makan the Chipsters on the spot, and failed. You can’t imagine the amount of Chipsters 16 packets hold. Lydia says: “I think can keep till next Chinese New Year.” On to the next step:

Each Chipster foil had to be scrubbed clean. Otherwise, it’ll be super oily and definitely not something you’d want to soak your skin in. *Health Tip* I read somewhere that too much direct contact with salt is bad for your skin. Once it’s clean, you can move on to:

Putting the pieces together: this step requires a plan. Which I did. In my head. Serious! Anyway, this step by step is starting to put me to sleep so I guess I’ll jump right to the end. Ta- Da!

Some glam pics of myself posing:

Front – Who’s the REAL Chipster man now?

Back – I am too sexy, too sexy for my…

The Sleep Test

After spending the night in Chipster Wrappers, like a potato chip, this test subject can confirm that Chipsters-made pajamas are indeed snug and warm, best for climates. I guess that’s how those potato chips are kept so crispy!

Last, but not least:

My wife, Lydia, would like to thank Chipster for organising this contest as she now has 16 bags to go through. She has one request, though, as her eyes light up when I mention the NuffNang Chipster Pajama Party (”Will there be lot’s of Chipster to eat?”) – can she tag along for the party? Here’s her pic, on my blog:

Please say yes!

Coming Soon…

Guess what? Check back tomorrow night.

When virtual and real collide…

There was a story recently on the BBC news about scientists who predict that computers the size of blood-cells will be here by 2033 leading to “fully immersive virtual realities.” Lead inventor Ray Kurzweil predicted “Virtual will compete with reality.”

That, Mr. Kurzweil, is already happening in Malaysia. Check out Jeff Ooi’s post:

On Page A14 of Guang Ming Daily (Feb 27, evening edition), my opponent whipped all bloggers in a broad sweep by stating that “bloggers hide behind computers and live in a virtual world”.

I laughed out loud at this comment.

There are more people than just bloggers who “live in a virtual world.” Today, virtual is real.

Many, many, many, people live in the immersive virtual world of emails, websites, blogs and forum. You talk to people you don’t know IRL (in real life) who have funny names like “CyborgBoy” or “Haxxergurl.” You chat with colleagues from halfway across the world whom you’ve never met except on Instant Messaging and email.

You make use of this virtual world to share, communicate, transmit, discuss and interact. But you know that this virtual world is just a conduit, because unless you fancy talking to a bot, these are still real people you are interacting with.

The reason why social networks like Facebook and MySpace are so popular is in fact, because you are really connecting and making friends with real, breathing, living people.

Sure, there are bloggers or virtual personalities who prefer to remain anonymous, but there are just as many who prefer to merge their real-world identity with their online presence. Jeff Ooi is a prime example – his mobile number is listed on his blog for goodness sake. I wouldn’t call that hiding.

The truth of the matter is, especially for the industry I work in, the virtual and the real are colliding. We don’t need to wait for another 25 years and for micro-computers to be injected into our blood. Identities are unifying.

Remember the first time you signed up for a Hotmail account? Then your first Geocities account? If you’re like me, you used different sign-in names. In stark contrast, people are now using the same identity again and again online – I’m davidlian on most sites and forums I participate in – and with more and more relevance to their original identities.

Movements like the OpenID initiative are going to unify our identities even more creating a stronger association with our “real-world” alter egoes. You going to need to be authentic online as much as you’re authentic offline.

That’s what I’d want my MP to be.

EDIT* Nigelsia had a great pic to illustrate this post, stolen shamelessly off someone’s Flickr:

Elections Brand Plagiarism

There’s a sub-culture in urban states (like the US and even here in Kuala Lumpur) called “Brand Plagiarism or Logo Culture” where you take the logo of a known brand and turn it into your own message.

Some brand-guardians think this is flattery, others are mortified by such butchery of their brands.

I’m just wondering how Celcom is feeling right now:

Was driving past this yesterday night. They even used the bird symbol! LoL!