I'm a hip and happening person.

I'm a hip and happening person.
I'm a hip and happening person.
I'm a hip and happening person.

Perhaps if I said it often enough, it might come true. But at the meantime I am still crouched in front of my computer, listening to the distant cries of Happy New Year and firework crackles, blogging the first post of Year 2009. Also watching some HK dramas at the side, and applying Mopiko onto my mosquito bites. I think I've been spoiled by Singaporean mosquitoes. Su Lin says that Singaporean mosquito bites are not as potent as Malaysian ones. I didn't believe her till I got these bites at Bukit Tinggi and one of them swelled up to the size of my palm o_O Hail the formidable Malaysian mosquitoes!

2009 so far has been... er... uneventful.

The new year resolution last year was to write a travel book, which obviously did not happen. I did a fair bit of travelling though. New year last year was celebrated at Picton, together with Robert, Val, Marten, Lyla and Kaisa. Came back from NZ end of March. Travelled with YKent and Guang Hong on a road trip around Peninsular Malaysia early May; with Asa to Thailand mid June; with Val around Peninsular Malaysia again in July. Met Robert in Malacca right before starting my term in Singapore in August. Slogged through coursework, bought an impulse ticket to KK, went to KK with Jia Ling end of November.

Second day, 11 hours into 2009.

I suppose I should put down some new resolutions. The less I have, the less I break, so I guess this year I only have two: One is to keep track of my finances, which so far I have left to the Gods, and to not look at my bank account balance. So, umh, after coming back from KK, I have no idea how much money I actually have. That's probably not what they teach you at Personal Finance 101.

Second one is to travel out of the Asia Pacific region. This I have some plans for, fingers crossed, hopefully this year I'll be able to finish my research proposal and pave the path for more travelling, a.k.a. time out of Singapore, the Christchurch of er... the Southeast Asian region. Yeah insider joke that insiders themselves might not understand. Moving on.

Oh well I'm going out with Woei in a minute and have to prepare. OK one more resolution - I'm going to try my best to be happy in 2009.

To the loo!

Proving The "Good Stuff" Can Be Found in the Creative Department

I've been in enough campaign ideations to know it really took some convincing to get a client to sign-off on a "dog fish" as the lead in your new car commercial. When evaluating a campaign, one often asks is the campaign more about the car or the driver. I have never asked is the campaign about the driver's genetically, mutated pet?

Perhaps this came up in research? The target consumers enjoy surfing, swimming and own dogs so how about we develop an ad using a mystical creature that's half dog and half fish? I have to admit it does sound like some good stuff, please pass the ganja. At least it's memorable, which is something I can't say about most ads; though, the memory is more about the pet and not the car. I know it was Volkswagen. But was it a Golf? A Jetta? A Passat? Oh wait, I think it was a Jetta, a Jetta station wagon...

The ad was developed for the Brazilian market. more.

Toyota Saturates to Annoyance

Maybe it’s the use of 80’s song “Saved by Zero” by The Fixx? Or perhaps it’s just that no matter what program you watched, on whatever channel you had on, whatever station on your radio too, you were bound to catch Toyota’s national sales promotion to get 0% financing in one of the worst auto slumps and the first time Toyota recorded an operating loss.

Apparently you are not alone if you had enough of this ad. It even gathered some negative sentiment when a Facebook group started called "Stop Playing Toyota's 'Saved by Zero' Commercial" recruited almost 10,000 members.

It’s official now the WSJ and AdFreak.com voted it one of the worst ads of 2008.

Really? The worst? Sure it was lame and the link between 0% financing and “Saved by Zero” wasn’t the most ingenious connection ever. But is it the worst because of the song choice or the message? It was the relentless buying spree that Toyota went on to promote the offer. The problem was over saturation. Toyota could’ve handled this issue by coming up with a variety of ads for their 0% financing campaign. Rotating ads with different messages could’ve also appealed to different consumers.

I’m not sure “Saved by” is the right language too at this perilous time. The message implies Toyota is reaching out to help people by having them buy a new car with no financing charges. Good luck. The problem right now is too much debt and people are for the first time in years reducing their debt load.

It is a brutal time to sell cars. Unfortunately, the entire backlash around heavy consumer spending in prior years, macroeconomic stress, and most people concerned with just keeping what they already have, all caused Toyota a bit of negative press when they bought a ton of airtime promoting “Saved by Zero.” Unfortunately, they’ll be playing “Red Skies” at their upcoming shareholder meeting.

sketch

building...

Cadillac's Reality TV Version of Gran Turismo

I am a performance minded driver. I love watching Top Gear, I watch some racing, follow enthusiast magazine and boards, and I even do performance modifications on my own car. From this foundation, I am a bit of a sucker for performance minded marketing efforts. The latest example in this space is a rather interesting site from Cadillac called The CTS-V Performance Driving Lab.

Cadillac took several drivers to Monticello Motor Club from November 7-9. There drivers were given the opportunity to test the new 556 hp, 0-60 in 3.9 seconds, powerhouse from General Motors. The cool thing is the way Cadillac brought the experience to everyone else by posting everyone’s drive on a website.

Pro driver Andy Pilgrim set a benchmark for the track and then novice track drivers took their tries for the best time. The site shows you three camera angles – cockpit, heads up display, and another showing the turn of the wheel close-up on the brake caliper. You also get to see real-time speed, RPMs, and G-Force numbers. It all gives one the impression of some video game like Gran Turismo. The gauges are real-time too along with a GPS readout in the lower left to see position on the track. All of this is some pretty amazing technology integrated into a great way to showcase the CTS-Vs performance credentials.

But it is it compelling as a marketing tool? I would argue yes and no.

Why Yes?

I can see performance minded consumers checking out a few videos. There are tons of videos all over YouTube showing track times, races, you name it it’s on there. Cadillac did post the Andy Pilgrim video on YouTube, so it is promoting the CTS-V Lab site on YouTube through their MyCadillacStory Channel. I can see why they didn’t just use YouTube as a place to host all the content since most of it is video and it would follow a more natural experience leverging YouTube’s place as where to go for video online. The issue is with all the feedback, real-time data extras that make the experience great and unusual. So, score a big YES for Cadillac on showing how to do real-world performance in an interesting, engaging way on the ‘net.

So Why Yes and No?

It is interesting seeing novice drivers take their shot at the track, but it’s far more interesting to see several experienced drivers compete and show that competition in the way Cadillac so beautifully does in this execution. Plus I think it would be more sought out by performance racing fans that like to see their driver(s) take a stock street legal car for a competitive spin. So, it loses some luster by having novice drivers who are a bit guarded in how the push the performance of the car, as seen in many of the videos. There are just a lot of poor laps on the site, though Cadillac did try to solve this, provided one sees the link for “Fastest Lap Times” that is left dangling from the main navigation.

All in all though I think the site is an interesting take on showcasing a performance car and I commend the team who brought in some nice features and feedback data for true driving fans.

Finally Truth in Consumer Marketing Research

I always thought the aspirational target customers developed during consumer research were rather two-dimensional cardboard cutouts of imaginary people. Fortunately, Mitsubishi felt the same and decided to create “Paper Craft” versions of their researched customers and pair them up with the appropriate vehicle.

Make sure you checkout the numerous examples on Mitsubishi’s site. See them here.

What you’ll find is an exhaustive range of vehicles, most found outside the U.S. market. They really are pretty cool looking things. I have young twin boys and decided to download a couple vehicle cutouts to see how they looked after following the supplied instructions. It took me a little while longer than expected to put a car together. In fact, my wife was watching me and pulled the paper and scissors out of my hands to show me how it was done. I was told I was doing it all wrong and that her years of cutting paper dolls was the proper training for this. I was more than happy to oblige as I was finding this whole experiment rather tedious. So, please find a seasoned paper doll expert of your own if you try this at home (the result is the photo above, yes that's my own Mitsubishi eKWAGON, the easiest cutout I could find.)

The email newsletter I received that included a link to the cutouts, invited me to build one and email them a picture of my completed model. I am doing so and will see what comes back (so stay tuned.)

I personally love the black clad, dark grey shirt couple sporting the Lancer Evolution as their car of choice. I don’t know what your experience is but most Evo owners don’t look this cool. They usually are wearing a Sun Microsystems white t-shirt, khaki shorts, and Nike shoes. Oh well, it’s all about image and who really wants a cutout of some 35 year-old software engineer?

I have to admit though I did enjoy playing with these and the kids really found them entertaining, even though, they couldn’t push a paper cutout across the living room floor at 15 mph.

I recall years ago that Mini Cooper ran some print ads with paper cardboard cutouts in Wired magazine that I quickly punched out and put together on my desk at work. Yeah I’m a geek. Better get back to learning Ruby on Rails.

Gutted.

Down. down. down. down. down.

Got my exam results back and for the course that I studied for the most, I got a B-. B Freaking Minus. I'm not going to lie about my utmost disappointment. I was so sure that I had executed the arguments coherently and convincingly. And this is the same prof who said that there are no wrong answers, just bad answers. Which means that my answers were bad. Like way off mark.

A colleague, who doesn't even know how to cite references and *censored to protect the innocent*, actually got a B. WTFFFFF. OK I'm feeling really inferior now. Someone just knock me down dead, please. And if I get wind that, God forbid, the Assignment Wrecker from Hell got anything like B and above, heads will freaking roll. ROLL, I tell you.

I've emailed the prof to schedule a session with him to at least let me know where I went wrong. I mean we got an A for his assignment, which means that I flopped majorly in the test to pull my scores down. Honestly I wouldn't care as much if I had got a B (which I was aiming for) and if I had studied less for it. The other two tests that I didn't study as much for, I got A and A-.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggghh.

The writing of the research proposal is coming along very slowly as I am experiencing extreme mood swings of YES I CAN DO IT to NO I WILL NEVER GRADUATE AND I WILL GET STUCK IN SINGAPORE FOREVER AND BE FORCED TO MARRY IN ORDER TO OWN A HDB.

*sob*

And this exam result business has me visualizing the decor and location of my HDB. Preferably without window grilles and somewhere high so it'll be easier to kill myself in a dramatic move to leave this cruel world.

OK no more energy.

Back
to
work.

=(

Cayenne

I Guess the Idea Sounded Better on a PowerPoint

Hilo Chevrolet, of Hawaii, decided to roll-over their Asian competitors Honda and Hyundai by throwing monster truck wheels on a Chevy Suburban as a way to crush the competition. Unfortunately, the demonstration backfired when the Suburban blew a hydraulic hose and leaked vital fluid while the Honda remained waiting for more.

This just a week after a Ford dealer in South Carolina insulted Asians with his rant about Japanese cars being "Rice Ready, Not Road Ready." I get the not road worthy part, but what the hell does "Rice Ready" mean? It's another example of a gregarious dealer trying to show his triumphant patriotism in an idiotic manner.

With all of the fear and worry mounting from a month of bad Big Three press and questions surrounding a Bailout (that thank heavens finally came through), it is of little surprise that local marketing departments have lost their minds. The problem is neither of these two examples help the U.S. auto cause and, at worse, backfire. American cars have a poor history that many of us remember who owned 1970s and 1980s models. Repairing the reputations has been a tough road, but the good news is that quality issues have lessened dramatically, high safety ratings are not exclusively denominated by any country, and style is improving.

I'm personally excited to see such cars as the Pontiac G8, the 2010 Ford Fusion, the new Mustang, and great little roadsters like the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice. These are all products I would love to have in my garage and are far more fun and interesting than a bland Toyota Camry or Honda Accord (though both are fine cars.)

It's just sad that some dealerships are losing their minds and making their brands look as bad as the all the complainers against them. What the U.S. auto manufacturers need is more myth busting around poor quality and less patriotic flag waving. People who do not work for a brand buy a car because it is the right choice for their needs and expanding some minds by showing American brands are worth looking at, because it's not 1985 anymore, is a good thing and good for a healthy competitive marketplace. So please park the monster truck and no more name calling.

You know what I'm not doing now?

I'm not having a beer in the office.

Well, the past few days I've been so happy, I figured that it wouldn't hurt in not having a beer to not cheer me up further. The beer was not left over from the rooftop midnight picnic that I didn't organize.

Everything's peachy and the world is such an inviting place full of worthwhile people to hang out with. Hell yeah. Good kind people who genuinely care about you, interesting types who make you laugh, gorgeous guys who make you swoon.

Hahahaha. I'm not laughing in irony. Seriously not. *belch*

First Mayan Food Festival at Hacienda Chichen Resort, Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico

This past 12th of December, 2008, Executive Chef Josue Cime and his cooking team offered a feast of Mayan Culinary delights to guests and visitors at the Hacienda Chichen´s First Annual Mayan Food Festival. For two days, the Chef offered free Mayan Cooking Classes and healthy organic snacks created with fresh ripe fruits and veggies from this unique Green Boutique Hotel’s own Organic Grown Crops.

Visitors enjoy Papadzul Tamales with pumpkin seed and fresh tomatoes sauce; Chaya Empanadas, a vegetarian traditional recipe; Mango and Tangerine Colada; Classic Guacamole; Chicken Chili mole and other delicious delights. This First Mayan Food Festival was so successful that the Chef got encourage to Celebrate the 6th of January 2009 with guests, visitors, and tourists alike; he plans to share "Día de Reyes" a traditional Colonial Festivity popular all over Mexico where children get their presents and gifts from family friends, and everybody enjoys a special Hot Cocoa (chocolate) Drink and shares the traditional "Rosca con el Niño Jesus" (a brioche egg bread shaped as a crown with a small porcelain baby Jesus in it). All guests are invited to take a big slice of this bread; the person that gets the little figurine is expected to invite the group to a party for he or she is the future host of another Grin Fiesta in February!

So, if you plan to be in Chichen Itza, on Jan.5th and 6th, take the time to join in this enchanting Mexican Fiesta which will be hosted from 4 PM to 6 PM at the Main Garden of the hotel. Personal donations are welcome to support the Maya Foundation In Laakeech own Día de Reyes fiesta for the Mayan Children Nutrition Clinic in Xcalacoop; please give and share freely, a dollar can do so much good to help us help their nutritional needs.

Why am I blogging this?

I've lost my glasses and have been groping around the room for them for the past 15 minutes like half a blind bat. Or a half blind bat. Whatever. Whoever that hid my glasses, it's not funny! The mystery is that I took them off before going to bed, putting them on my bedside table as usual, and now they're gone!

*WTFness growl*

Update after 2 minutes
They were in the bathroom =_=
Now I can see again

The last real man on earth.

Today I went to Jurong Point, which by the way, has expanded to twice its size.

The shops had bright, glitzy lights, decked with congratulatory bouquets in front, and people busying themselves with the merchandise sold. At the ground floor there was some performance with throngs of people crowded in front of the stage where a person dressed in a bear suit was singing along with some girls wearing short pants, some pop songs with lyrics slyly altered to incorporate Christmassy words like Christmas and Santa. Good old commercial propaganda.

I stood at the newly furbished third floor of the new wing, looking down at the masses of people, of all ages, flowing like water, rubbing shoulders, talking, smiling, carrying bags, pushing prams, holding hands. You know what I think? I think they're not real people. Not really. They're illusions. They don't exist. I think if I had the balls to walk up and touch any of them, they would shimmer like holograms and walk straight through me.

The escalators ferried a constant stream of humanoids. On my way up an escalator there was this guy coming down on the other one. He wore black rimmed glasses, was checking his wallet and looked kinda lost. Kinda human. A cute one at it. Maybe if he looked at my direction, I would catch his eye and we would share some kind of connection, and he would understand the whole conspiracy of us being the only real ones and the urgent need to save the earth from evil human wannabes, and possibly repopulate the earth, I wouldn't mind.

But he was oblivious of my presence and quickly merged into the crowd when he stepped off the escalator. I looked backwards longingly, and my heart broke a little when the last of his silhouette disappeared, and I knew that I had lost him forever.

Handcrafted AMG Snowflakes for the Holidays

Every snowflake is unique. Mercedes-Benz wants it’s customers to know that every AMG engine is unique too. Using engine parts, visitors to the new Mercedes-AMG Snowflake Creator, can move around engine parts into various repetitive designs to generate their own snowflake to send it to their friends along with a message. I’m thinking I should send one to my wife letting her know what I want for Christmas – a $194,700 AMG SL 65 Black Series. She can skip the giant red bow.

The snowflake creator is a somewhat interesting execution. It’s not particularly entertaining as you only have five auto parts and an AMG logo to create your masterpiece, but adding more parts isn’t really necessary.

What is interesting is taking the idea expressed on the homepage, “’One Man – One Engine.’ This is one of the signature components of the AMG philosophy, speaking to the unique hand-craftsmanship utilized for every AMG Mercedes built.” We all know snowflakes are unique. (Or are they?) Bringing together an idea we all understand, take a symbol of the holidays, and mesh it together back to your brand’s desire to communicate the uniqueness of your product. It is a compelling message and a great way to reinforce the special quality of AMG.

Sending an email works well at a time when people are exchanging e-cards over the holidays. I like it when companies can find a way to make the holidays relevant to their marketing efforts. Besides, I’m sure it’s more welcome than getting this e-card.

The site doesn’t let you save your snowflake as an image or post it on your social networking page, but that doesn’t seem necessary as this is a holiday card application and who really needs an picture of your “unique” creation. It’s about creating a card that is uniquely you though it isn’t communicated to the person receiving your e-card that the snowflake is part of the AMG philosophy of being handcrafted and unique. It just looks like the typical Christmas e-card with some strange looking circle floating down to the hood of a Mercedes. So, the message of the site is lost when sent along to your friends.

Overall, it’s a nice execution and a timely way to demonstrate the uniqueness AMG is reinforcing about their products. more.

While waiting.

Whiling away time, I have an 11am meeting and I thought it probably would make no sense to dive into my research now, since that I would be interrupted 20 minutes later. And I hate being dragged away while I'm at it because it takes some time for me to settle down and actually start doing it again.

"My spring has come," I told the girls yesterday. Because it has. I mean, finally I can do my own research without worrying about other coursework which, I told my supervisor last sem in a rather presumptuous manner that were only distractions to my real work. In time I found that it was not true, the coursework that I did, especially the one by Prof K was really useful in giving me the theoretical foundation, of what was available out there. But I'm glad that's all over and December, although cut in the beginning and the end for homecoming purposes, will be my "spring" for all the ideas frozen underground to sprout and to take shape.

Already I've found this guy Eric Uslaner who works on trust and social capital, whose work is exactly what I'm looking for, and he provides this huge list of papers which I am going to comb through today, syokness!

Oh yeah I watched Muallaf yesterday! (Wikipedia contains spoilers! I recommend you read only after you watch the movie - here.) It's directed by Yasmin Ahmad my favourite director, showing at The Picture House. It was really good, although I'm not really spiritual or religious but the movie gave me goosebumps anyway, it shows faith with forgiveness, with love, with beauty; which is a far cry from the contemporary media portrayal, what with the banning of yoga and suicide bombing and religious warfare and etc. For the first time in perhaps ever, I thought maybe I'm missing out, being an agnostic. No I'm not an atheist, I have this really vague idea that might be considered as my religion, of karma and of a personal guardian angel who looks over me. But I don't belong anywhere and there's no verses that I chant nor hymms that I sing - upside is that there's no religious bigot to tell me what to do and not, because I'm the only one belonging to my religion and I make the rules. Downside, well, I suppose there are reasons why the big religions are big. I just don't know enough about them to actually believe in them.

OK gotta go.

Weston Miniseries #1: The Nepenthes

A whole flock of birds has been cackling outside my window for the whole morning, waking me up and keeping me awake. Since I don't want to go to school at 7 freaking am, I shall blog - about Weston =D

Weston is about 2 hours' drive away from Kota Kinabalu, so by the time we reached there, the sun had almost finished setting, leaving some really dramatic colours in the sky amidst a horizon of mangrove trees afar (picture from Pol's SLR) . Weston Wetland Retreat is a short boat ride away from the jetty at Weston. It's an independent structure in the swamp, with the lounge area by the river and a wooden bridge leading into the living quarters.

Taken by Pol on our boat trip to Weston Wetlands

Nothing much happened on our first night (except a great dinner of huge crabs and prawns, and it was included in our fee of RM280 per pax per night, weeee!!) , so I'll jump straight to the second day. We woke up early and had the provided breakfast, and went for a guided short walk in the jungle area right beside the house, which had lots of pitcher plants, or known as the Nepenthes, or known as Monkey Cups, some of them like adorable little pots on the ground, and some big ones hanging from their stems, here are the pictures:

Adorable little pot

A family of adorable little pots

Close-up of the cup

Ants on Nepenthes

Big red one

Cricket on Nepenthes

Another family of pitchers

With my fingers for scale on how puny they actually are

Pitcher plants are carnivorous. Pitcher plants are cool. To mask the fact that that's pretty much all I know about them, I'm going to leave on the pretext of getting a shower before going to school.

Going to get a shower before going to school.

Link to previous post on Kota Kinabalu.

Ford KA, So Little, Can You 'Find It'?

Ford's UK campaign for their KA compact auto will be launched with a mobile phone campaign called "Find It". The work will debut in January 2009.

From Marketing Magazine: "According to the company ‘It's the first ever campaign in mobile marketing, by an automotive brand, to use augmented reality...[which] is a field of computer research that deals with the combination of real-world and computer-generated data, where computer graphics objects are blended into real footage in real time.'

"Direct packs have been created by youth experiential group Don't Panic, and will be distributed in bars, clubs, fashion boutiques, universities and at music events. The packs contain QR code stickers, which by using a wap link through a camera phone projects a 3D Ka onto the screen, available in three designs. " more.

Cool Concept From Toyota Hi-CT

Toyota Hi-Ct was introduced at the 2007 Tokyo Motorshow. The new concept from Toyota “Hi-CT” aims to offer a new "coolness" and new ways to have fun as a departure from conventional vehicles-an edgy, urban vehicle inspired by the thinking and lifestyles of youth. With a it’s unique looks and hybrid technology would this car attract more youth user and would it be mass produced ? Only time will tell.

Toyota Hi-CT Highlights :

• Offers a new kind of automotive "cool" and sense of enjoyment.
• Has a new look unconstrained by conventional vehicle size (length 3,330mm x width 1,695mm x height 1,780mm).
• Adopts plug-in hybrid technology, which allows it to charge from an external power source and gives it a greater driving range when running on its battery-powered motor; by placing the battery under the floor, achieves a highly efficient cabin with a higher driver position.
• Comes with an AC100V accessory socket that enables stored electricity-made possible by plug-in hybrid technology-to be used for a variety of applications.
• Features a removable rear trunk and a deck where surfboards, bicycles and other equipment can be loaded.

General specifications :
Country of origin : Japan
Numbers built : Not Available (Prototype)
Produced in : 2007
Introduced at : 2007 Tokyo Motorshow

Dimensions :
Length /Width/Height : 3330 mm (131.1 in)/1695 mm (66.7 in)/1780 mm (70.1 in)
Wheelbase / Track (fr/r) : 2325 mm (91.5 in) / N/A / N/A

Just as Difficult to Comprehend as Cubism

The Nissan Cube finally debuted at the LA Auto Show last month, but before that Nissan debuted their Nissan Cube pre-reveal website. The site was tailored to the attention deficit disordered consumer with plenty of clickable cubes that brought you to no content about the car, just a bunch of stuff about cube-isms (witty sayings written by Nissan’s marketing group) and the ability to share the site with your friends. My question is share what? The pre-reveal site had no content about the car. In fact, there is only one shot of the vehicle in a small 150-by-150 pixel shot of the car in a 3/4-rear angle.

The site also featured a Twitter link allowing you to subscribe to Nissan Cube Twitters. There were updates nearly everyday that just sent you more “cube-isms”. There were 118 followers and 88 updates. Some real examples: “my dog gets me”, “I’ve got shag on my mind”, “I roll with the carpool” and my personal favorite “why all the fuss over money?” Huh? The Twitter ended when the car was revealed in LA and now asks people to visit their… you guessed it – Facebook page.

What I wonder is did the Twitter increase engagement? Possibly, but most likely not. The witty statements did fit with the cutesiness of the car and it’s youthful target certainly fits a Twitter user. The big issue I have with the execution is why end it on Twitter when the car is revealed? Few people would ever visit the pre-reveal site since it is not aligned with all of the press releases and auto show coverage. Seems Nissan could’ve had a more significant Twitter audience if they kept it going with their new reveal site and Facebook page.

Ramblings.

Times like these I want to write and write and write but I don't really know what to write. For instance I could talk about my book launch yesterday, where only less than 30 people turned up, which was good for the butterflies in my stomach but not so good for the forum in general. I sat at the panel and felt secretly mischievous as the whole thing felt so much like a fake stage, a rehearsal, because of the empty hall. I looked at the people who came and wondered why they did. Not that I don't appreciate their attendance, I do. And then I remembered previously that I would also turn up for forums like these, just for the heck of it. So apparently yesterday the gods in charge of the just-for-the-heck-of-it lever to the world only dispensed a little of the good stuff so not many people came.

Weston. I wanted to blog about Weston so bloody much when I got back from KK. Then I was busy with the book launch speech, which was crap, and then Gayo my Filipino classmate from NTU came to visit and I got us gloriously lost in the labyrinth of Kuala Lumpur, and then I worked on the speech some more, and then I got lost in an awesome book called Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer. When I grow up I want to write just like him. And then there was the book launch. After that was now, and later I am going to the mall with Jen Hui to catch a movie, maybe Kinta, which is the first martial arts Malaysian film, or so I've heard. I'm also going to buy a set of PJs. That's because tonight I'm holding a pajamas party. Noone knows what's going to happen besides pajamas or lingerie (yeah right) are mandatory and it's going to be held at my house. As one of the hosts I am too lazy to ask the other host YJ what we plan to do. I don't think we're really good party throwers.

Wow, I just discovered this really neat feature of Google! I put in "Kinta", because I wanted to see the showtimes, and then there's this field that you get to put in your postcode. With much sceptism I put in 51200, my postcode, and was brought to this page, with all the showtimes of all the cinemas nearby! Batman is superbly impressed.

Tomorrow I'm leaving KL, going back to the Land of Queues in the evening. As much as I am reluctant to - and believe me I am very, very, very, (infinite loop) (break) reluctant to go back - I have to, because I am a good responsible adult and I have work to do, money to earn and travel plans to fund. I had this burning desire to travel and write a travel book again, yesterday. I hadn't had this desire for ages already. I mean, travel, yes, but to write about it, no. Good books inspire people to read, wonderful books inspire people to write.

Prof W says that I shouldn't take more than 3 years to finish my PhD, because I have the capacity to. Mum says that I should just take my time because my scholarship lasts 4 years anyway. I am undecided. But inclined towards 3 years. I think if I put my mind to it I will be able to do it. But what next then?

I should go. Jen Hui's waiting for me.

So I was reading.

I was in a current of words, which brushed against me, I could almost feel the friction on my skin, the slight resistance, stronger than wind, weaker than warm sea water, somewhere in between. I didn't always understand what the words meant, although I understood what the words meant. It's like listening and hearing. Sometimes you hear, but you don't listen. Or was it the other way around?

When there was comprehension, I was carried in a whirlwind of emotions the words afforded me, I saw what he wanted me to see, I was in his body, I became one with him. I cried, I laughed, I heard his voice accompanying the current of words. Sometimes it was heavy, like thunder - not loud, startling crackles, but slow, uneasy rumbles in the distance. Sometimes it was light, like tinkles of bells, like children laughing, and I was happy.

Sometimes I lost track of the words, they were rushing at me in torrents, so I contented myself with skipping through the pages like bouncing on rocks in a stream, absently looking at the meaning trickling in between the words, consciously taking care not to pay too much attention, in case I got ahead of myself and discovered too much of what was in store. It was like being a fortune teller. Sometimes I glimpsed good parts coming up, at times bad. When I saw bad parts I would read extremely slowly, trying to prolong the inevitable downfall, while hoping endlessly that I had misread the crystal ball and it would be good after all.

Never, never would I skip to the end. That would be sacrilege. It would render The Book meaningless, everything from the page that I'd stopped halfway till the last page might as well be blank because they didn't matter anymore. The end had happened in spite of all the expanse of pages in the blank. And I love The Book, I never want to finish it. I love how it makes me feel, parts of my soul that I had forgotten that I had. I want to prolong this open window of looking at precious little corners with some childhood left in it.

Like a lingering scent that you want to smell for ever and ever although you know you have to stop breathing in at some point or your lungs would burst, and then the scent would be lost. For a while you might remember how it smelt like, how beautiful it was, till it fades away, even in your memory, and there is only one line of words left in your head - "It was a beautiful smell, a little like cinnamon, a little like freshly laundered bedsheets dried by the sun, a little like him." Then even that line would shrink, slowly becoming "I smelt a smell. It was good." to "Singapore sucks, I hate my life."

Then and there the window would be closed, and you have to wait till another time when you get a whiff again, and remember how beautiful it was, how lovely your soul can actually be, and the amazing things you could do if you held on to this moment and continued to dream like how you did, before the world came into the picture and messed you up.

L/Studio Advertises on Facebook

While responding to a status update this evening on Facebook, I noticed a Facebook advertisement for the Lexus L/Studio site. The best part is that the status update I was responding to was on the topic of the Real Housewives of Orange County, leading me to believe Lexus has bought up some interesting keywords around the guilty pleasures of bad reality television.

There is no mention of Lexus in the ad. The advertisement features Lisa Kudrow, ignoring any mention of the automotive brand. This is obviously a lifestyle play by Lexus and one that is still receiving some investment as it looks to find an audience.

Elisha Cuthbert Wallpapers

Elisha Cuthbert was born on November 30, 1982 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Elisha Cuthbert began a career in entertainment as a model at the age of seven. But soon she decided to make her career on this line when she starred in "Are you afraid of the dark" as an extra but then she was called up to work for the series as a regular actor.

This blonde beauty Elisha Cuthbert has successfully carried the success from Popular Mechanics for Kids and Are You Afraid of the Dark? into a featured role on the hit FOX series 24 and a successful film career. A Calgary native who landed her first modeling job at the tender age of seven, it was a mere four years later that Cuthbert instinctively knew that she wanted to spend the rest of her days in front of the lens. Following an appearance in the 1997 feature Dancing on the Moon, Cuthbert landed a job as a field correspondent for the acclaimed Canadian television series Popular Mechanics for Kids, and her reporting proved so effective that she caught the attention of first lady Hillary Clinton, who invited Cuthbert to Washington for a meeting.

Though she spent the majority of her youth in Montreal, Cuthbert moved to Los Angeles at age 17 in order to pursue an acting career. Featured roles as a reluctant pilot in Airspeed (1998) and a time traveling teen in Time at the Top (1999) were soon to follow, and by the time Cuthbert joined the cast of Nickelodeon's Are You Afraid of the Dark? in 1999, it was obvious that her talent was growing.

Her role in the made-for-Canadian-television feature Lucky Girl only furthered her reputation as a dramatically capable rising starlet, and her distinct onscreen facial expressions and convincing performance soon caught the eyes of producers who were preparing a new thriller series for FOX. Cast as Jack Bauer's (Kiefer Sutherland) damsel-in-distress daughter, Kimberly, in the breakout hit 24, Cuthbert's character suffered through multiple kidnappings and a mountain lion attack over the course of the series' first two seasons. In the episode of 24 in which she shared a scene with the mountain lion, Cuthbert made news when the beast actually attacked her on the film set, sending the frightened actress on a trip to the hospital with an injured hand. On the heels of 24, Cuthbert took a supporting role in the comedy Old School before appearing in the subsequent romantic comedies Love Actually (2003) and The Girl Next Door (2004), the latter of which found her taking the lead as an ex-porn star who becomes the object of affection to a lonely suburban boy unaware of her past.

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Amrita Arora Wallpapers

Amrita Arora was born January 31 1981. Born in Bombay, India to a Malayali mother and a Punjabi father, she is the sister of Malaika Arora. Her brother-in-law is Arbaaz Khan, the brother of Salman Khan. Her father died of cancer when she was 10. She was romantically linked to Kevin Otter, Upen Patel and Ashmit Patel. Currently, she is dating Usman Afzaal.

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Masako Umemiya - Japanese Hot Babe

How to Boost Your Energy and Lose a Dress Size in 14 Days

Our World is pure energy - a pulsing, living, life force. Energy never dies. Never. It only gets transformed. YOU are energy: two kinds: there is the one - potential energy. That's what you have - potentially, meaning it's there but you're not doing much with it. It's like the teacher who says to the mother of the eight year old child, " Your child has potential - yes, I see it - but they're just not doing the work. To lose weight you have to first decide that you will do the work it takes to reach your desired goal. How can you translate the thought into doing? That's called kinetic energy. By taking action. Yoga, a 5000 year old form of exercise takes you to kinetic energy and guides you to the path of doing, of taking action.
Yoga also makes you think. When you think about something - that's potential - the actual doing puts your energy to work. Yoga guides you to see the potential of being your fittest self in mind, body and spirit. So what does that term mean- mind, body, spirit and how can yoga help you lose weight? First off, you must decide to lose the weight. Weight loss begins and ends in your mind. Yoga brings you a realization of your full potential of kinetic energy to motivate your mind to take the actions so vital to take charge of the health of your body. When your mind and body feel are positively in sync, your spirit feels energized and ready to take on the challenges of your busy life.