Auspicious occurance

I'm early today! Entered the gates of the coop at exactly 9:50AM - ten minutes ahead of "punchcard time"! It's a good thing that we don't do punchcarding here, or today's entry would be the only one stamped in black after a long, looooong time.

Tahniah!

Blown out of...

... proportion.

I'm talking about the Siti Nurhaliza hate-email case. Yes, yes, yes, people are still talking about it. Yes, yes, yes, many people aren't convince that the guy they arrested yesterday is the real culprit.

Yes, yes, yes, I'm tired of hearing about this case, yet around me it seems to take centrestage, so I can't help but blog about it - from a normal Malaysian point of view.

And yes, yes, yes, the hens in the coop are clucking - if you ask me it is them, rather than the case, that's going out of proportion. Here's a conversation I had the misfortune of hearing:

A: Hahaha, this Asmah & the Gang is so famous now!

B: Infamous, you mean.

A: Famous, infamous, it's still talked about.

C: Ya lah, publicity, good or bad, is still publicity.

A: Hah, imagine if anyone would cash in from this situation...

B: How la?

A: Er, maybe a new hip-hop act will call themselves "Asmah & the Gang"?

B: Hahaha... then they'll have a song called "Siti Tertipu"!

A: "Siti tertipu tertipu tipu tersiti!" Kahkahkah!

C: Then someone will do a based on a true story film about this!

B: Aaa... Puteri Kuala Lipis!

A: No, no, no! Email Laju-laju!

B: What if they do a reality-TV show? Lagi interesting!

C: Eh, how to do a reality-TV show from hate-email cases la?

B: Can pin webcam on stylists or singer then make them go behind stage with Siti...

A: You mean see if anyone can catch her swallowing eggs in a toilet is it?

C: Like Punked? Eh.. come to think of it if Asmah & the Gang is actually a guy then..

A: .. how did he caught Siti doing that "egg business" in the ladies eh?

C: Exactly!

B: I know, I know, he's a cross-dresser!

At this point I pick up my butt and left my desk, went over to the publishing exec's desk to pinjam her Harian Metro, Malay Mail and Berita Harian...

Does a rooster bray?

Of course not. Braying is a donkey thing. Donkeys bray. Roosters don't. Simple, right?

No. Life is rarely simple. So once in a blue moon, a rooster might just bray. I haven't seen one, but that does not mean it has never happened - maybe it did, say in a cartoon series, a rooster did?

OK, OK, I know I'm going nowhere with this. The point is, if roosters don't bray, then what do you call the sound that they make?

p/s: For the record, I can't remember if a rooster brays, roars, cuckoos, purrs or barks. Does anyone?

Sad news

If you're asking what's the sad news, thanks, and lemme tell you that the sad news is - I got a raise.

Yeah, I know, I should be yelping "Yea! Yea!" or "Ai yee ba!" or simply sing Babe's version of Jingle Bells right? (You know, the one that goes, "La la laa, la la laa, la la la, lallaaa..." right in the midst of the farmer's wife dilemma between roast pork or lemon duck for Xmas dinner?)

But I won't cause.... IT"S TOO PUNY! PEANUTS! (One colleague even said, "Taik gigi je...")

I can't even see the difference! Though I did hear that the coop's not doing too well etc - but since the management did whine that the coop spends about RM7million for the 2,000 hens' dedak, I then figured, I'm not even getting the average!

After some talks with colleagues I found out I'm not the only one with gripes - everyone's suddenly not really lunching... "No mood lah, you go ahead.." said one, and "Gotta start saving from now you know, Raya's near!" said another.

Uwaaaaaa!

Hee ish! What a grouch! I should be saying syukur - so, syukur alhamdulillah... So friends, feel free to claim a Kit Kat or Chupa Chups the next time you see me OK! Cik Tinn, you can also claim for that tumbler I've been meaning to give you, and Sue, you must remind me to return your UK-mali Cosmo.

Yep. Me's grinning and bearing it. Yep, me can live with it - hey, I've survived with much less, haven't I?

Have a good week ahead :)

"Catwalk calves", anyone?

Check this out: A 22-year old law student of Cardiff U, Sian Mansell thought her legs were too thin, and today's Malay Mail (synd: DM) reported that she had just became the first woman in Britain to have gotten silicon implants inserted into her calves!

The things humans do, eh?

p/s: Catch Rentak Juara at 9PM, TV2, tomorrow and vote for Superfriends! (Type Rtm Super send to 39330)

Still reading the broadsheet

Somehow the NST just loses flavour when I pick up the compact - I've always like reading broadsheet, and NST and broadsheet are like lagu and irama - andaiiii... dipisah... laguuu dan irama, lemah tiada berjiwaaa.... hampa... - and Vick's through to the next round!

Well, well, the guy is getting better, good loh - but poor adinda Saipul yang cantik manis - what an upset that he's gone and Andrew stays - but he smiled all the way out - probably he's gotten a recording deal already!

Anyway, back to my broadsheet adventure - I must make note of this: Come the end of this year, 50 police stations in major towns will have 24-hours ATMs installed.

Wau la wehh... What a good idea! I mean, unless cops become robbers (unlikely right?), withdrawing money from the ATM won't be so scary after this. Now... when will they drop that RM0.50 charge for fifth and so on withdrawals ya?

p/s: Hep hep, a post-script about Siti Nurhaliza - can't believe Kak Pah aka Sharifah Aini's is suddenly the suspected culprit! Lawak apakah ini?

I mean, I know she has an online gift boutique business going on (I did a review on the website), but she doesn't seem to me as someone who'd succumb to such cowardly online doings! Not that I'm really questioning her online-savvyness... but, I don't see Kak Pah being the kind of lady who has time to pour over emails anyway.

But sheesh, I don't see how Kak Pah could've gotten the idea to concoct some nasty junk about Siti N then pin it to the so-called notorious Asmah and the Gang for the e-mails. Why "Asmah?", Kak Pah, why?

My main gripe here is: In the Malay Mail she was quoted to have said (regarding two individuals whom she lodged a report against), "One of them even said to my face that 99.9 per cent of the Press think that the writer of those nasty e-mails was me! This is ridiculous!"

Dang right tis al-ridiculous! Hey I'm part of the Press (ok, probably I don't get to interview Jamiroquai or Spider, since I'm not attached to the entertainment desk but I've interviewed the victim of the hate mail too! And I've interviewed some local celebs so there you go - I qualify) but I don't think Kak Pah did it... I can't be the only one in the 0.01 per cent gang right..?

Huh, talk about generalization - haiya, when will these people learn you must not generalize, you must only speak for yourself, never put words in people's mouth... Sian Kak Pah...

One of the games this hen plays at the coop

... is the Smiling Game.

It's simple. First you smile to a hen you pass by along the corridors of the coop. Then you glance a bit longer just to check if the hen smiles back.

If your smile is returned, the reward is: The pot of knowledge containing a potion called, "There you go, a friendly hen in the same coop!" With that you can cluck happily for the rest of your day - yep, that's what a friendly smile can do to a hen - make her happy all day long - cluck, cluck, cluck.

If your smile gets a blank respond, the reward is: The pot of knowledge containing a potion called, "There you go, a not-so-friendly hen in the same coop!" With that you as the hen who gave the smile first would likely tsk, tsk, tsk inwardly.

Now, how do we use this particular pot of knowledge? This potion is not meant to be used, actually.

You know how some people like to collect bottles and parfums? When you get the pot of knowledge containing a potion called, "There you go, a not-so-friendly hen in the same coop!" the potion and the pot is meant for storage.

Once in storage it becomes a "Reminder pot" that says, "Well, you've tried bridging friendship with that particular hen, but she's probably having a bad day. The important thing is, you've tried."

Reminder pots, ideally, should challenge you to try again - so if you are on your positive side, give that hen another smile, see if this next time would be worth clucking (note that as a hen in this coop, clucking means you're happy - among other things).

Also note that a Reminder pot can easily turned into "Revenge pot", especially if you are having a day full of negative vibes. Revenge pot will lure you into the darkside, willing your beak to turn downwards (can hens do this aa?) the next time you bump into that hen who won't smile back at you the other day.

In fact, Revenge pot becomes much more potent when that particular hen, at the next bumping, becomes a good hen that throws a smile at your direction first. In this scenario, levelling your beak to a solemn curve and turning to look elsewhere would become the best Revenge option.

As you can see the Smiling Game has its darkside, just like anything else created by humans... But I like this game - it is especially nice to play now that the Biggest Farmer of the Coop had announced that the relationship between senior and junior hens are no longer as mesra as before.

As far as I have played the Smiling Game, I kinda noticed that the most senior hens tend to be more friendly. In fact sometimes when playing the Smiling Game, they tend to become the initiator.

Meanwhile others, especially tudung mama hens aren't as friendly, nor are ones who are not as old as the most senior hens, but too old to be called junior hens. As for junior hens, most of them tend to play the Smiling Game moderately well, smiling back shyly everytime I give them a shot.

Yep, things do become pretty mysterious, yet exciting at this coop every now and then. Next time, I'll tell you about the Lift Game, the Telephone Game and the Let's Hide In The Lab Game...

Banyaknya...

Saya ada banyak kerja.
Saya ada banyak meeting.
Saya ada banyak masalah.
Saya ada banyak songeh.

And my soon-to-retire deskmate suddenly exclaimed, "Eh eh, I don't know how to spell 'solemn'. I wana type 'I hereby solemnly...' How do you spell it?"

And I go, "S. O. L. E. M. N, then add L. Y. for 'solemnly'."

And my memories went back to the days when I can simply ask my mom or dad how to spell this and that, and what this and that word means, and when to use "despite" or "in spite"...

I think I want to balik kampung this weekend...

How old are you again?

I read with interest The-Sinner's blog today - noting that it's the blog's birthday today! Happy Birthday!

But lemme tell you guys that the writer of the blog has been a blogger longer than a year ago, right Tinn... Thou started blogging here, and you had that nice stripey greeny skin incorporated... yup, she's pretty much the one who rekindled my "passion" for html - cheers!

Which I tried to emulate as she did on her blog - but could never get it right. It's a good thing Sue's much better at it - this soothing grey skin I have on Singsingsong is Sue's find, I can only innovate by changing the graphics in the box... pathetic, but still html tau Miss Lily!

Hmm, I wish I can remember that Javascript coding that Lulu gave us - ala, yang bila mouse-over the graphics change tu... Ada sapa-sapa ingat lagi tak or do I have to swing by that monkey site?

Anyway, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Miss Lily Kasiran, for introducing us to the fascinating world of e-publishing back then in 1999... [BTW I'd also like to thank English 111's Mr Mustafa Abdullah for teaching me how to write and not get sued!]

Been away

Was away from the office for about four days last week - not just cause of the weekend - I was injured! I didn't even know how it happened.

Anyway the nice Dr K from the clinic downstairs gave me two days of MC for Thursday and Friday - right on the deadline... After declaring that I had a small hemorrhage on my right eye due to stress, he subsequently restrained me from watching tv, using computer, play video games, read and such.

Boringnye!!!

On Thursday I was a good girl, patient and totally conformed to the pantangs, but on Friday I had to watch ze telly! I missed tv so much on Thursday that on Friday I even caught the Bajet 2005!

Though I was worried about my eye, I could not help but curi-curi tengok Pak Lah delivered the bajet live on TV3. He read the whole thing in a single shot, and garnered excited response from his audience (those present there) only twice, regarding the cigarette and liquor issues, which in fact was summed up within two sentences.

After the crowd died down, he said, "Cukuplah pasal isu rokok dan minuman keras ni," and went on with the rest of the bajet. And today, cigarettes are RM1.10 more expensive than yesterday...

And I'm still wondering (in fact since last year I was) why the government ditched that nice word "belanjawan" and used "bajet" instead... Bajet, badjet, bubblejet...

It's a first in many moons

I got in early today!

Imagine, seeing the coop at 10:10AM - I've not achieve such feat for a long, long time. And to think last night we had a girls night out (yup, Jenny B and I were hypnotized by Intan into following her catch a dose of live band) and came back quite late.

Since I've had a taste of success so early in the morning I hereby decided that today, no matter what last-minute thing they throw to my face and no matter what stupid gadget they flung onto my to-be-reviewed basket and no matter who's hounding me left and right for a story, I shall be in a good mood.

Wish me luck!

p/s: Today's gonna be a long one at the coop..

Tak rock aa...

I did watch Malaysian Idol last Friday, but had to miss some part of it cause I also took interest in TV2's Rentak Juara (I switched channel everytime the two blardy hosts opened their mouths - to think I have to stomach them this Friday when sis' band Superfriends and my friend Jalut's band Gerhana Ska Cinta compete... *shivers*...!).

I did catch most, if not each one all the way, of the remaining contestants:
1] Andrew the Ent (heeheehee dunno why he reminds me of TreeBeard)
2] Dina yang tak la rock sangat rupanya
3] Datin's favourite Zamil
4] adinda Saiful yang cantik manis
5] boring Niki
6] "I never fake myself" Vic
7] Jac the club singer

T'was supposed to be "Rock Week" and only a few of them actually sang real rock songs! I mean, c'mon, didn't these guys and gals know what ROCK is?

Ini pi nyanyi lagu progressive pop la, teeny bopper la, alternative la - according to an insider, apparently most of them chose the song themselves, ignoring the long list of song prepared by "rock consultant" appointed by the organizer.

OK, OK, maybe a lot of them thought that songs that falls under the "cross" category (for example alternative rock like Creed and teeny bopper pop rock like Avril Lavigne) can pass as rock jugak la. Fair enough - but if that's the case then why didn't they choose something they can really handle?

If I have Dina's voice I'd ditch the skirt and sing the other Evanescence song, the haunting My Immortal or better still, an Ella track. Songs like Kitalah Bintang, Dua Insan Bercinta should be alright.

Skip Gemilang and Cinta Ala Amerika unless you can carry high notes - hmm, maybe Jac can try those, but compared to Dina her voice tak berapa sesuwai la... besides her Sweet Child of Mine was good!

If I have Zamil's voice (I'd first freak out, then) I'd sing Like A Stone (Audioslave) - hey, since they're not singing rock, I guess post-grunge is OK.

If I had to have Vic's courage to be different I'd try to bring the house down with Silverchair's The Greatest View (which is actually alternative pop/rock).

I seriously think that Andrew could've pull Search's Gadisku or better still, that famous Beyond song - had he sang any of these song, he could've retained his normal I-just-wanna-stand-still-and-sing-my-heart-out-with-my-eyes-closed persona... right?

Well, anyway, lucky none of them sang any Michael Learns To Rock song ekk...

Loved last weekend...

I'd call last weekend a good one cause:
1] Got all the beauty sleep I needed!
2] Got to watch all my favorite programs! (Er, how'dya spell "favourite"?)
3] An angel came and brought food for me to eat while I watch my favorite programs!
4] My sis' back from Kuching for a two-months gig at Rush - the club's alright...
5] My mom sent me an SMS (she's new to this) - seems like she's got her own set of texting shorts already!

And coming back to work today is a real drag cause
1] Forgot to bail out dosh from my jeans - halfway to work I had to withdraw money at ATM! (My 4th withdrawal! Next one will make me RM0.50 poorer!)
2] It's deadline day - shuckkkkkssssss!
3] The coop's having a nasi lemak challenge, but I don't qualify as critic...
4] There's still talks about Siti Nurhaliza - of course she's a bigger news than Anwar, but as if it's not enough that TV3's Melodi dah tanya Kris D, "Selalu ke buat rombongan Botox?" and Misha Omar told Bacaria that dia ikhlas berkawan dengan Siti... Check this multicast from my team-mate:
Receive Message
Multicast from... Wan Pablo Montoya at Mon Sep 06 11:25:27 2004
Asmah and Gang claimed to have seen the dark side of Siti. Well I've seen the backside of Siti*. No big deal.
*at a TM Net sure heboh konsert. i was at backstage.

Still, I get to blog and get updates from my fwens like Bob (hmm, you're going to Sarawak and Sabah soon eh? Enjoy!) and Jenny B (ingatkan dah takmo balik KL dah...) plus marvel at Sinner and Lulu's new skin on their blog - hmm... nice changes... I miss Sinner's devil in apron tho...

Me... I got a cat staring back at me... telling me I really need to get back to work...

Big news, big news

First big news: Anwar released!

Second big news: I'm trapped! Again - yes, I know that's not so big of a news lah.

Still, allow me to dwell on the second big news, please (regarding the first big news I'd just like to quote our PM who told Bernama yesterday, "What are we concerned about? Nothing.").

Just now the new man in charge told us that the publication we're attached to will no longer be active - we'll be absorbed in to the main player in the group. As for what's going to happen to each one of us specifically, we'll have another four months to sing que sara sara...

Today's the day they'll announce...

... the Federal Court's decision on Anwar Ibrahim's final appeal... Will he be released, or will he stay behind bars till 2009?

At the coop employees wearing "Big or Small" Tees are flocking in front of the old telly, hoping the one o'clock news will bear some light - nothing so far...

NST compact edition now available in Klang Valley!

I hate it. I know it's smaller. I know it's easier to carry. I know it's more reader-friendly.

But I still hate it. It's a good thing they're also giving us the broadsheet copies - at least I can still use BT as brolly on my footway to LRT.

But the shrunk version is not the only way to enjoy NST - we have it online as well! Log on to www.nst.com.my for the digital version of this 159 years old publication...

Why so stupid one...?

Today I found out one of my stories' headline has been chopped to death. It was a review on the Nokia 7610 - which I'm sure many of you realize that it's a bloody cameraphone - and I put "Megapixel camera in Nokia 7610" as the title.

It was changed to "Megapixel digicam". "Megapixel digicam". "Megapixel digicam".

(Have you ever watch the Malay film called Toyol? For me the scariest part was when a terrifying voice called on, "Bachok..! Bachok..! Bachok..!" And the same voice is reverberating "Megapixel digicam..! Megapixel digicam..! Megapixel digicam..!" right now!)

The edited and sub-edited title, which has been published with my byline very visibly next to it, is the very the making me the very the very angry.

First of all, it was changed in haste obviously, and without consulting me. See, usually we get to see the stuff we write on layout version and we get to proof-read it before off-stone.

Second of all, it was changed incorrectly. I mean c'mon, it's a bloody handphone first and foremostly, not a bloody digital camera.

Had it been a digital camera or a digital videocamera you think I'd not use the term digicam or something similar already? Of course I would've put the damn word there already!

It's misleading to use the bloody word "digicam" there! A phone, is essentially a phone, and the "megapixel camera" part there is supposed to be the somewhat a "verb" to describe the subject lah, hello!

OK, maybe my title's too long (but we did have a 4-word rule and I applied it!), but had they changed it to "Megapixel cameraphone" that would've been at least still accurate. Ni macam la gua tak kenal mana satu handphone mana satu digicam - bloody hell.

The paling bodoh part is, my bloody by-line's there. In other words, the air-head here is... nevermind.

This is not the first time my story/headline's been changed so brutally. I have consulted the people responsible, so now there's less steam coming out of my ears - fuh! Fuh! Hot!

Wish I can just write and not have to put my name right under every story. Takpelah tak dapat recognition pun takpe, janji no one makes a silly mistake and in turn make me sound stupid pulak - mana aci gitu ekk...

p/s: Q: Mana aci? A: Kat Buntong! - Note: I think only Ipohans can relate to this lawak bahlul...