Month: July 2012

Win pure gold Olympics medals worth RM 12,000!

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klcc fountain

It’s Olympics season and Malaysia has a contingent of 30 athletes to participate in 9 sports in the London 2012 Summer Olympics! We’ve got our very own competition here in the spirit of the Malaysian delegation and you’ll also get to win gold medals! 🙂

…but first, a little bit about gold.

forex

I’ve been monitoring the forex market lately, coz I have some Euros that I need to change to pay my rent. Just keeping an eye on the dismal Euro exchange rate – it has been steadily dropping by the day, it’s 3.78 last time I checked. The USD is also on the decline, and when things get to be this way the price of commodities like gold increases.

It’s the traditional hedge against a recession and gold is universally accepted as the basis of currency – federal banks have to hold the same amount in gold and silver for banknotes it issues.

malaysians

Anyway, back to the topic on hand Maxis is running a contest called Launch Your Way To Gold to commemorate the Malaysian contingent going to the Summer Olympiad! The grand prize (there will be 5 for each category) is a medal made of pure gold worth RM 12,000!

The contest is based on how the Olympics is run – there are 5 categories in which you can participate in. You can choose one (or all five) based on your strengths – whether it be writing, photography or even stuff like costumes and poses.

There will be a pure gold Olympic medal to be given out to the winner of each respective category, which are:

Olympian-A-Like

submit

This is where you flex your muscles and pose like an Olympian. Do you know how to do great impressions? Well, here’s where you can show off how well you pull things off! 🙂

Tribute To Our Olympians

Gifted with the written word? Write an essay or a nice catchphrase and submit your most creative tribute to the Malaysian Olympic athletes. You can also use pictures, illustrations or photos to supplement your entry.

Captioned By Fans

submission

This is for those who always has a witty remark at hand. Images will be posted here and it’s your job to caption them. I found this one particularly funny. Heh.

Rings of Creativity

You know the 5 interlocking rings symbolizing the Olympics? You can make your own here out of anything – just get that creative mind in gear and put together your own interlocking rings with cheese ring snacks, tires, or whatever that looks vaguely circle-ish. 😉

Malaysia’s New Rally Cry

raya house

Are you good in getting people riled up (in a good way)? Well, here’s your chance to submit your most powerful and stirring slogan if Malaysia were to host the Olympics!

win olympics gold medals

Besides the five pure gold medals worth RM 12,000, there’s also a host of other prizes guaranteed to make you drool – iOS and Android smart phones and tablets are up for grabs. There’s also daily prizes and daily winners for Maxis Prepaid Internet Starter Kits, cloud storage space and ebooks.

Read all about the prizes, get more details and submit your entries now and Launch Your Way To Gold!

Gold medals worth RM 12,000 awaits! 🙂

Timothy and Audrey’s Up Themed Wedding in Penang

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up wedding

I just came back from Penang! Tim and Aud had their Up themed wedding last night, on the 28th of July 2012 – a date I’m sure will be plenty significant to them for the rest of their lives. 🙂

up themed wedding

The wedding was held at Straits Quay Convention Center and the place was done up really nicely according to the theme. I really liked the floating house held up by balloons.

tiah couple

It’s actually pretty cool to have a theme like that – there were helium balloons everywhere like in the animated film Up.

tim aud wedding dinner

The food was catered from E&O Hotel and I found the first dish with the ostrich meat really good. Also on the wedding dinner menu is the signature E&O Pe Pa Duck. Gotta love the wedding favors – it’s a mini jar of honey that says “Meant to Bee Together”.

aud tim wedding

I really liked how the couple looks so happy in this photo while pouring champagne.

timothy audrey wedding penang

It’s pretty much like a fairytale wedding in that everything was fascinating and wondrous to behold, since there were bright colors everywhere.

tim aud hb

Congratulations Mr and Mrs Tiah! Here’s to an adventure of a lifetime and may you both grow old loving each other for a thousand years! 😉

DJ Ferry Corsten @ KL Live

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system f kl live

DJ Ferry Corsten a.k.a. System F came down to spin at the new Heineken bottle launch at KL Live. The entire place has been transformed into something that looks like Emerald City from the Wizard of Oz.

invite

Even the invites look awesome!

emerald city

It was all Heineken green – the entrance was emblazoned with an asymmetrical neon light feature that gave off a new and different, exclusive even, ambiance once you stepped into the threshold and embraced the pumping music inside.

dirty nelly

I arrived early and had dinner at Dirty Nelly’s – it’s right beside KL Live. I opted for the Sausage with Mustard Mash and Sweet Sour Red Pepper. It’s described as a “jumbo pork banger” but I was taken aback at the sheer size of it when it arrived.

It almost made me feel inadequate. 😉

ee lin

Thanks for dinner Heineken! Cheers to Ee Lin from the brand team for picking up the tab.

heineken k2 launch

Anyway, I was surprised by the sheer amount of people inside. KL Live was packed. I met a lot of new people and got reacquainted with plenty of old friends that night.

june desmond

It was awesome!

friends

I happened to be wearing a white shirt that day, and after a lot of festive merry-making to the beats of Lap Sap (the opening act), DJ Ferry Corsten came on stage and got the entire crowd cheering.

dj ferry corsten malaysia

There were bouncers in front getting everyone to stand back while the crowd pushed forward to take photos. I had wisely *cough* positioned myself in the front before DJ Ferry Corsten’s set was on so I was right in front. I didn’t know why the bouncers were keeping people away until he came onstage, the music started, and fireworks and flames went off in a dazzlingly well choreographed moment.

cindy

I was caught by surprise by the wonderful pyrotechnics display that I didn’t manage to take a shot of it – some of the debris landed on my (white) shirt. So that was why the bouncers were keeping people away from the stage – there was going to be pyrotechnics . Heh. *hindsight 20/20

DJ Ferry Corsten kept the energy going high and with the free flow of Heineken beer going, the crowd was moving right along to his beats. He played a great set.

heineken k2 malaysia

It was the launch of the new Heineken bottle with nifty new practical and aesthetic features detailed in my Heineken contest post and Heineken threw a huge party with an international DJ just for it.

dj ferry corsten

It’s just how Heineken rolls, being a premium beer.

uv

You’ll be seeing these new Heineken bottles replace the old ones right about now. I nicked the photo below from Heineken’s Facebook photo album to better illustrate it. 😉

heineken girls

Oh and before I forget, there’s a contest going on with truly awesome prizes! The 3 grand prizes includes a trip to Sensation in Taiwan! You need 50 points to stand a chance to win and there are 3 ways to gain points:

1. Toasting Friends

You basically send your Facebook friend a new Heineken bottle and if they send it back to you, you’ll get 1 point. I’ve detailed this in my previous post and you can refer to the app for more details.

2. Check-in via Facebook

check in to win

This is where you check-in via Facebook when you go out for a drink at participating outlets.

check in

Here’s an example. You can earn a maximum of 1 point per day and you’ll need to verify the check-in via the app after you’ve done it. Don’t worry if it doesn’t appear immediately, each check-in can only be verified after 12 am on the next day.

outlets sibu

There’s a list of participating outlets – I see a lot of familiar places in my hometown of Sibu. Heh. You can filter via state to see which are the ones that will earn you points.

3. Scan Heineken ads with iSnap

the star mobile

This is an interesting one – if you have an iPhone or Android smartphone, download iSnap (it’s part of The Star Mobile app) from iTunes Store/Google Play respectively. I have it on my Sony Xperia S. Search for a Heineken ad in The Star newspaper and scan it. It’ll earn you a staggering 5 points! 🙂

The prizes that I mentioned? The grand prize is a trip to Sensation in Taiwan! It’s held in Kaohsiung and there will be 3 winners for this dance music festival! There’s also 200 personalized editions of the new Heineken bottle to be won. Imagine how cool it would be to own that! I won’t even drink it, it’s the kind of stuff you display.

prizes

Go to the Heineken to.a.star app and start collecting points now and you might be on your way to Taiwan! 🙂

pamela

I had an great Saturday night at KL Live. I had a few beers from the new Heineken bottle (which is the real star of the night), enjoyed mingling about and Heineken was thoughtful enough to provide water (Evian, no less) to rehydrate yourself after dancing. 🙂

How to smell manly 101

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girl scouts

I have this peculiar habit. I use shower gel when I’m in KL and soap when I’m in Sibu. It’s not like there’s no shower gel back home, in fact that is what we use. Only problem is, it makes me smell like a little girl. Considering it’s either belongs to my mom or my niece (probably the latter), I’m not very surprised.

Thus, I end up being the only one using a bar of soap in Sibu.

I usually get it myself.

dettol soap for men

I don’t know what my dad uses but I think it’s the generic flowery one, which isn’t exactly what you want. It’s considered ungentlemanly to smell better with more floral notes than your date.

Okay, I just made that up but you get my point.

dettol high performance men

I’ve always used Dettol and last year they came out with a range of shower gel for men. Dettol High Performance for Men is the first product by Dettol designed exclusively for men (if you didn’t get the label ;)). There are two variants – Extreme and Aqua.

I’ve been using Dettol for Men Aqua and Extreme for almost a week now and I like how the shower gel is in a container that has a proper grip.

This is very important in a bottle that doesn’t stand and use a pump to bring up the shower gel. A hand-held container has to have grip (see side) or else you’ll end up dropping it when you reach for it with slippery lathered fingers. I don’t know how many times I’ve dropped my shower gel in unsavory places while backpacking.

dettol extreme aqua

(loofah isn’t mine)

Dettol for Men Aqua has a more invigorating smell and keeps your skin feeling hydrated while Extreme is a classic masculine smelling shower gel that lasts the entire day.

I’m already a Dettol user so the question for me is:

Would I use Dettol for Men Aqua instead?

The answer is no. I’ll use Dettol for Men Extreme instead. Heh.

dettol for men

I’m switching to that coz I love the manly smell and it provides the same germ protection qualities and deep pore cleansing properties inherent in the Dettol brand. However, since everyone has a different olfactory perception – check out both and see which one you prefer more.

I personally like the smell of Dettol for Men Extreme – it’s a matter of preference, really. I love it coz it makes me smell masculine. Seriously, it does, try it out and see!

You know, sometimes you just grab whatever is available (there’s a bottle of shower gel here that one of my ex-girlfriends left and I use it when I run out) and go out smelling like a rose.

rose

Smelling like a rose is perfectly fine, a highly exalted attribute even…for females. It doesn’t work the same way for men.

Fun fact: I also noticed that if a couple uses the same shower gel, you practically cannot smell each other! You have to use different shower gels so you can smell your girlfriend/wife/It’s Complicated (TM).

unlease the man

There’s a fun and funny survey going on that asks a lot of quirky and sometimes thought-provoking questions on Facebook and tells your your “Man-Level”.

men

I won’t spoil it for you but some of the questions are truly laugh out loud funny. 🙂

fb face

You also get to upload your photo, choose one from FB or take one on the spot – it’s important for later.

click fest

…and there’s this mouse destroying click fest that is a surprisingly fun mini-game (gotta love a bit of destruction) before the results are unveiled. 🙂

punchballs

What type of man are you? I won’t say I’m close to Bear Grylls (don’t drink my own pee) but Poh “Punisher” Punchballs seems pretty manly to me. Heh. Find out when you take the survey at the Dettol Malaysia Facebook page. There’s a lot of interactive stuff that you can play around with plus a RM 150 Dettol hamper to be given out each day for the lucky 50th person to complete it.

The new Dettol High Performance for Men range is my choice for showering right now. I won’t make you want to poke your eyes out with shots of me doing that so go check out the Unleash The Man app instead. smirk

It feels like Boxing Day!

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bend it like beckham

I just made that up and I thought it was quite cool. I’m sure people have made oblique references like this before but I haven’t seen it – although I’m sure the idea isn’t new, I’ll love to have coined it.

I’m don’t think a lot of people would get it, but that’s kind of the point.

Okay, it’s like the day after Christmas when you’re hung over and eating cold turkey sandwiches while watching football. 🙂

Damn, I’m quite good with analogies that makes perfect sense. Heh!

P/S – The movie is really good too, watched it about 10 years ago when it came out.

Seize the day!

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pamela hb

Morning peeps! I’ve been up for quite a while so I expect to crash pretty soon. I had breakfast at TDH with Pam, which I usually miss coz:

1. I don’t really eat breakfast.
2. I don’t wake up that early on weekends

I’m glad I went today though, coz I ended up sitting in there for 5 hours (!) talking to Pam. She has this really cool tattoo that goes “Carpe Diem”.

carpe diem

Seize the day indeed, something that everyone needs reminding of once in a while.

pamela ooi

Anyway, Leanne was in town for the weekend from Australia. I had dinner with her at Jalan Alor and got some interesting insights from her. It’s truly inspirational how she travels while juggling all her responsibilities.

leanne mangan

Pam, Jess and Konstandinos joined us for drinks later at Changkat Bukit Bintang. We had originally wanted to go to a gay bar for something different (thanks for the recommendation Lynn) but the place didn’t serve food so we went to another watering hole.

leanne us

I ended up drinking diet Coke and singing in a jarringly off-tune key to classics from the 90’s – it seems that a couple of us has the same tastes in music. The DJ was constantly inundated with requests by us and the bar was dominated by our playlist of punk, rock and metal classics. Heh.

hb pam

Anyway, today is a date of some importance to me. I think. I won’t be sure yet for another 28 days but if all the stars align I’ll get a tattoo that says 22/7/2012.

Seriously.

3 things I did in the past week

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I’ve been sick the past couple of days and now that I’m feeling better, here’s 3 things I did last week! 🙂

1. Got on a talk show on Bernama Radio 24

bernama radio 24

This is an interview with Gerald during the 9:30 pm slot. I was at Bernama’s studio on the 5th floor and appeared on air for roughly 40 minutes.

gerald radio 24

I didn’t know where the time went! I expected it to be quite long and started talking and before I knew it, 40 minutes has passed. Heh.

radio 24 bernama

I also met Jun Sern (tall guy at far right), the man in charge of the English segment and bumped into Nadia (blue tee), who’s the first person I met in Malaysia who knows who NOFX is. 🙂

2. Spoke at Nuffnang Blogopolis Malaysia 2012

nuffnang blogopolis speaker

Nuffnang was kind enough to ask me to speak at Nuffnang Blogopolis Malaysia 2012.

nuffnang blogopolis malaysia

It’s the first one in Malaysia and it was held at Concorde Hotel.

hui wen

My fellow speaker is none other than Hui Wen – last time I bumped into her was in Singapore so it’s good to be on stage and talking to everyone with her.

nuffnang blogopolis speaking

It was also the first time I’ve ever done anything like this, that’s another thing done from the bucket list. 😉

3. Watched The Dark Knight Rises Preview Screening

dark knight rises preview screening

I’ll not spoil this movie for you but it’s an awesome conclusion to Nolan’s Batman trilogy, which is much darker than the previous Batman movies. I preferred the second one with The Joker but this final iteration wrapped up all the loose ends nicely and it’s a very long movie – about two and half hours!

the dark knight rises preview

I was hoping there will be a post-credits scene or trailer but we waited and there was none. This is the grand finale of the Nolan trilogy and it’s awesome!

I just watched it a couple of hours ago and I can’t wait to re-watch it – this time in IMAX! 🙂

Volkswagen Transparent Factory in Dresden, Germany

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transparent factory germany

The glass building behind us is actually a factory for assembling Volkswagen Phaeton. It only does that and the cars you can see are all spoken for – they’re just awaiting for the owner to pick it up. We went on a tour of the transparent assembly plant in Dresden as part of our trip and it was surprisingly interesting!

german guide

This is our English speaking guide – you must have a guide with you when you tour the VW transparent factory and no photos are allowed inside.

You can hear her speak a little here.

pheaton factory

However, you can take photos outside of the assembly area. This entire factory assembles Volkswagen Phaetons only. It’s fully customizable in Dresden, Germany. This is where people come to buy a Phaeton – you’re guided to an area where you can choose everything from the color of the car to the interior features and get your own customized VW Phaeton.

volkswagen phaeton factory

I was rather astounded by the sheer cleanliness of the factory – it’s totally unlike any other factory I’ve ever been to before. The employees even have white overalls that are spotless! I don’t know how the Germans do it but we could learn a thing or two from them.

glass factory germany

The interesting thing about this factory is that it’s one-of-a-kind. The buyer experience it offers and the tall glass building combined with the robots makes this unique. There are automated carts that follows a magnetic path (which can be changed) along the factory floor so parts will be available to the staff when needed.

pheaton

You’ll probably be wondering how they get the cars out of the tall transparent building – it’s automated! There’s a car lift that goes up to the floor you want and rotates to the segment you want to extract a particular car (always a Phaeton since that’s what this factory produces). Very nifty.

vw factory dresden

There’s also a huge sphere where you can watch commercials, old ads and so forth – watch out for the latest one, it’s quite funny and targeted towards the Asian market since it’s the largest market now. The Volkswagen Phaeton transparent factory is worth a visit if you’re ever in Dresden. It’s a remarkable example of German efficiency and one of the attractions in Dresden – it’s the only transparent factory of this scale here.

transparent factory

I don’t think the Volkswagen Phaeton luxury sedan is coming to Malaysia in it’s current form e.g. infinitely customizable so purchasing the car is an experience in itself. However, it might be coming (don’t quote me on this) in several preset models – check out the Volkswagen Malaysia Facebook page and ask, they’re more qualified to speak about this than me. 🙂

The Leaning Pole of Dresden

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leaning pole dresden

This is a peculiar structure located in the middle of the old part of Dresden Square. It’s a pole that leans at a 45 degree angle. The oblique inclination of the pole points towards an underground passage that leads to a railway station but the pole itself has no particular significance that I could decipher.

It’s not an optical illusion.

There is no signage to illuminate questing minds as to why the pole is canted.

I didn’t know why it was leaning.

It’s as if the pole had lofty dreams of becoming an attraction equal or superior to the Leaning Tower of Pisa but never quite made it, gave up, started drinking and…well, leaning.

leaning pole dresden square

Thus, we dubbed it The Leaning Pole of Dresden and took stupid photos with it. Heh.

Camwhore Level Asian

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sony center

I was walking through MidValley on the weekend when I saw that the Sony Center over there had a contest for the Sony NEX-F3. This is exactly the very same camera that I used to take awesome photos like this in Germany:

germany profile pic

This incidentally became my profile photo for Facebook, Twitter and my other social media sites. Heh.

I also took quite a few in Sibu, you can see the sheer quality of photos here:

sibu backyard

My backyard. It used to be bigger and filled with mango, rambutan and apple custard trees but it was chopped down and paved with concrete to make way for parking. There were five cars at one point before my dad sold one off, junked one and I drove mine to KL.

largest temple asia

The biggest temple complex in Asia or South-East Asia. I think it’s the former and it’s located in Sibu.

snail

One large garden snail. We eat this in Sibu. It’s considered a delicacy. I’m kidding, just took a photo of it to show the incredibly low noise in low light conditions. I snapped this after midnight when I went out back for a smoke.

I’m telling you, it sure was hard to return the review unit, I really fell in love with the dSLR quality images with easy shooting modes that the Sony NEX-F3 affords.

promoters

Thus, I tried to enter the contest. It’s quite easy, really. Just head into any of the 10 participating Sony Center outlets on a weekend (Saturday or Sunday) and go to the counter where the Sony NEX-F3 is.

sony nex f3

You won’t have any trouble finding it – there are promoters there to help you with the process.

sony nex f3 promoters

Basically, what you do is to take a photo of yourself using the 180 degree tilt function (a camwhore photo self-portrait in other words ;)) and they’ll help you upload it to the official contest website.

sony nex f3 launch

I did mine at the Sony NEX-F3 media launch with Kim, Rachel and Shah – didn’t win anything though – and asked the promoters if I can do this again at the Sony Center.

camwhore

It turns out that you can – just take a self-portrait of yourself and upload it to The Ultimate F3 Photographer Contest. The contest requires you to upload shots taken with the camera at the Sony Center itself. However, you can also bring your own SD card and slot it into the Sony NEX-F3 if you want to keep the photos. 🙂

One of three Sony NEX-F3 units awaits you! I hope one of them is mine, this is really a nifty camera to bring traveling.

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