fake plastic words

If only I didn't cut my hair and kept my overgrown curling locks, I would've been a few hundred bucks richer. The casting agency hasn't called me for the longest time, can you blame me?

If only I don't have classes on this Friday morning, and the pre-arranged afternoon drive down to Port Dickson, I would've been a few hundred bucks richer. The casting agency hasn't called me for the longest time, can you blame me?

If only I still have my overgrown curling locks, skip class on Friday and just drive down to Port Dickson later at night, I would've had gotten enough dough to get my (sort of dream) Tamron lens that I've been dying to get for the longest time. Or at the very least some extra much needed camera gadgets.

Tuhan tak sayang aku ke?

Sedih okay?

Sedih.

On a separate note, freelancing photo jobs have been falling on my lap for the past couple of weeks. Crazy, overloaded college assignments aside, August till mid September (and maybe God willing October and December as well) might just be the busiest times for me ever. And I can't even begin to talk about dozens of amazing upcoming events that I'm dying to go for. Butterfingers Kembali showcase is top in the list, naturally.

Tuhan sayang aku kot.

Happy okay?

Happy.

But then again, at least half of my upcoming assignments, events and jobs are clashing like mad. How to manage lah? I'm already more fickle than I should be. Even choosing one job (studies aside) will be a major, major undertaking. If I missed any of the upcoming events this month and the next, I will surely die, from self-strangulation. Plus, I'm still waiting for Envy Magazine to come back to me with confirmation of articles to be submitted for their upcoming issues. And there's way plenty more other nonsense that I can't recall from the top of my head now.

So, apakah conclusion nya?

Tuhan sayang aku ke tak ni?

Mungkin tak. Sebab aku manusia yang amat jahil. Tapi, aku rasa aku orang yang agak baik juga. Walaupun aku hampir tak pernah sembahyang 5 kali sehari, sembahyang Jumaat pun tak ingat bila kali terakhir pergi, puasa pon tunggang-langgang, dan lain-lain lagi perkara haram yang aku selalu sangat buat. Tapi macam mana pula dengan benda-benda baik yang mendatangkan banyak pahala yang aku dah banyak sangat buat?

Maybe God is telling me:

1. "You've been a bad, bad boy, so I'm gonna screw you up nicely"
2. "You've been a (relatively) good boy, so I'll give you some perks"
3. "Qadaq dan Qadar, paham-paham saja lah"

Bak kata pepatah P. Ramlee, "Cobaan".

8:12 PM
Categories: butterfingers, casting, college, envy magazine, events, everyday, port dickson, predicaments, random, rant, stupidity, trip. Author: sleepwalker

Of polka dotted horses jumping over rainbow poles, great food and the beautiful Nurul.

(3Q Classic hosts the South East Asian League World Cup event, and its Equestrian Promotion’s Triple Crown of Show Jumping and Dressage)

I bumped into a friend at 3Q's equestrian event. I just found out then that she was riding for Malaysia. Surprise, surprise. The dressage was boring, I didn't really understand that part of the event much. The riders and their horses were just circling around the arena. Nothing spectacular really. The show jumping was a lot of fun. They had 3 stages or levels or whatever else you call it, and raised the bar each time. I think it went up to over 1.5m. When you're up on a horse, believe me that's pretty damn high. Two riders got thrown off their horses, where one of them had to be sent to the hospital for a broken thigh. Night time rolled in and the "party" started. They had fantastic BBQ food, karaoke and an open dance floor. Nurul (Ajai's ex, the songbird) was there. She is absolutely drop dead beautiful in real life. Among all the local celebrities I've met she might just be the nicest, warmest, most down to earth personality yet. She did a few impromptu numbers during the karaoke and man can she sing.

Of uber expensive t-shirts, man in mini skirt and hot MILFs.

(Zang Toi New York Fall & Resort Collections 2008 at Hotel Istana)

Zang Toi's charity fashion show was fun. It was held in the Grand Mahkota Ballroom at Hotel Istana. We were completely out of place, for sure. The invites wrote "Formal", but there I was in a tucked out shirt, corduroy pants and white sneakers. I saw a few notable models and some goodlooking MILFs. Hoo yeah. We were walking around, looking through Zang Toi's new line, and there he was, the man himself, coming out of the press conference wearing a black baby tee and a black leather mini skirt. How often do you see a sane, 5' 5" Chinese man, wearing a leather mini skirt in public and get away with it? Zainal Abidin was the guest performer that night, and sang a few numbers. One of them was his most famous song, Hijau. He was surprisingly pretty good. Later on after the show we met Zainal Abidin and Zang Toi to snap some photos.

Of an impromptu rendezvous, white washed cafe and shitty ventilation.

(Oh My God That's What I Call Music #2 at Cloth & Clef featuring Laila's Lounge, Telebury, the Stoned Revivals and Rashdan Harith)

Cloth & Clef was just around the corner so we decided to stop by and check out that night's event. The place looks like a Palate Pallete wannabe. The line up was good, but the Stoned Revivals played a tad too long I think. We were waiting for Telebury, but decided to bail out early since it was getting so hot and stuffy because the place was cramped up with so many people and the ventilation was utter shit. I'll think twice if ever there's another event there again.

Of pretentious wannabes, great music and wasted nights.

(Twilight Action Girl at The Loft, Zouk)

I think it's been at least a few years since I've been to TAG. I was in the neighbourhood, since the hotel is only walking distance from Zouk, so I thought what the hell. Bumped into a friend there, as always. The music was good. Though I was entertained more by the crowd than TAG itself. I don't know if they're pretentious, trying too hard or both. Thank god it was only a minority, but there were still some sore sights. I saw at least 7-8 people with almost identical black & white horizontal stripped tops in a crowd of about 30 plus people. See, that is what happens when people try too hard to look unique and artsy and all of them congregate at the same spot on the same night every week. Idiots. That night I got completely sloshed. And that was probably only the third time in my life I've ever gotten completely smashed. Funny thing was that I didn't get any hangovers the day after. Hmm.

Of over-budgeted events, Taiwanese rappers and Flo Rida.

(Hennesy Artistry presenting Flo Rida, DJ Latin Prince, Machi and Pop Shuvit with visuals by VJ Callen)

Last weekend's Hennesy Artistry was crazy awesome. The set up was completely mind blowing. I felt as though I was at an international event somewhere overseas. They must have spent at least millions (I heard from the grapevines it was a little over RM1.5 million) on the whole event; artists, visuals, stage, free flow drinks, etc. I'm not a big fan of any of the performers that night but I thought since the invites were free, why not? Among the line up that night, I enjoyed Machi the most. No doubt they were a bit pop-ish, but entertaining nonetheless. DJ LP was crap. Flo Rida was great. We managed to climb up the tiny podium right smack in the middle, barely a few feet away from the stage. What a view that was. If only I had that same spot at Sunburst when Incubus performed. Now that would've been insane.

Of late mornings.

My holidays are coming to an end. Thank god for that. Long holidays drive me crazy. I don't really feel like writing (explains why I sound so bleedingly boring). But I just had to, for remembrance sake. There's a lot of other things that happened in between, but none that I can recall now from the top of my head. It's probably written in pieces of paper or my notebook, somewhere in my room.

Oh well.

12:05 PM
Categories: cloth and clef, debate, equestrian, events, fashion show, flo rida, hennesy, holiday, mia palencia, nurul, reza salleh, tag, twilight action girl, zainal abidin, zang toi. Author: sleepwalker

I have to take my hat off to Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

His showmanship on tonight's Agenda Daily "Hari Ini Bentuk Kerajaan Esok Turun Harga Minyak" Debate at Balai Budaya Tun Syed Nasir, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka was truly a work of art. He outperformed Dato' Shabery Cheek by a mile. We all know of his world-class oratory skills, and they were on full force tonight.

But that is all just surface, of course. On closer analysis, you will find that Dato' Seri Anwar used a lot of useless arguments. He has a knack of using powerful rhetorics and sensitive sentiments. Words such as "fitnah", "membantu orang miskin", "membantu nelayan", "ekonomi merosot", "rakyat merana", and many many more, were thrown in every rebuttal with reckless abandon. But of course, it wasn't just reckless, it was all part of his grand political plans. He used simple statements sprinkled with sensitive sentiments and repeated it many times to drive home his rhetorics. Anyone with half a brain who listened would've believed him to the death.

PKR's biggest weakness has always been the failure to get Malay votes. It doesn't help that Dato' Seri Anwar is close friends with Paul Wolfowitz, the former Secretary of Defense (read: Zionist, chief architect behind the War on Iraq/War on Islam) and former President of the World Bank (read: IMF). That definitely doesn't pan well with Malay Muslims. Middle class non-Bumiputeras are their largest and strongest supporters, rallying behind PKR's call for a non-sectarian, Malaysian Malaysia. Post-Mahathir times saw the masses supporting Pak Lah to the end, with almost a clean sweep during the 11th Malaysian General Election in 2004. The Malays were generally contented with Pak Lah and the ruling government at that time. PKR did not manage to sway the Malay votes in their favour. Fast forward to today, a few years of mismanagement and poor implementation of promised policies and changes by Pak Lah saw an unprecedented swing of votes. The urban middle class Malays have uttered their disappointments with the current government by voting against it. PKR, PAS and DAP walked away with a surprisingly large chunk of votes.

And then came the oil price increase. Barely months after the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional, suffered huge losses in the recent elections. Again, the rakyat as a whole are grumbling, complaining, criticising, cussing at the 40% increase in petrol prices. Such an unpopular policy is bound to create noise and anger among the rakyat, be it Bumiputera or non-Bumiputera alike. Again, a quiet sway of votes are cast against the government, against Barisan Nasional. And then came the sodomy allegations against Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. That, obviously, worked in his favour. Again, reminiscence of 1999, whispers of government conspiracy theories and invinsible pats on his back accompanied by sighs of "kesiaaaan dia kena aniaya, kena fitnah, kena seksa".

I believe that those events leading up to the debate has worked in his favour. The elections, petrol price increase, the sodomy case, to name a few, have all elevated his position that much more. And tonight's debate on national TV was exactly the kind of stage he needed. To throw around rhetorics, play with sensitive sentiments and tug at the hearts of the rakyat, particularly the middle and lower income grouped Malays. He understands the Malay psyche well enough to know how to toy around and manipulate it to serve his own political goals. You can see that the way he moves on the stage overwhelms the words that comes out of his mouth. His showmanship overshadows the measly facts he occasionally throws around.

If you ever studied the human body language, you would have noticed how effectively he uses that skill. Every great orator knows how to play the crowd. How to manipulate the viewers into believing in something, even though it is not based on concrete facts. The facial expression, hand expressions, intonation of voice, all play a crucial role in influencing the audience.

And if you noticed, when the both shook hands Dato' Seri Anwar's hand was placed above Dato' Shabery Cheek's, a stance of dominance. The person who wants to gain that extra psychological advantage, to exert his power, will always place his hands above the recipient's. Next time you see Pak Lah on TV, notice how his hand is always on the lower end, marking the sign of a weaker character. We all know how nice and soft he is, and that is one physical proof of his malleable characteristic.

I personally think the debate was a bad idea. In the name of democracy, freedom of speech and transparency, it was a good and important step. No doubt about it. But if you were to take a step back and analyze the current and recent political climate objectively, you'd know it wasn't a wise move by the ruling government to go ahead with the debate. Tonight was exactly the kind of stage that Dato' Seri Anwar wanted, and needed. He didn't need to take it to the streets. He didn't need yet another sodomy case. He didn't need his blog, and those thousands of other PKR supporter (or anti-BN, anti-UMNO, anti-Pak Lah) blogs. All he needed was a slot on national TV, in one of the most anticipated programs in media history, to take a stand and deliver yet another one of his infamous political speeches.

No doubt the debate was about the oil price, but he meandered so much with political talk I swear that the moderator was paid money to keep mum when he deviated from the topic. More than once, to say the least. Dato' Shabery Cheek did very well to hold his own. His closing statements, in particular, was very strong and hit home a clear, firm message to the masses. Though I do think that although it was all backed up by facts he shouldn't have personally attacked Dato' Seri Anwar too much, that was a mistake. But overall, his rebuttals were based on cold hard facts and his statements were crystal clear, free from emotional and political sentiments.

At the end of the debate, we were trapped in the building for awhile. The reporters went berserk. They were fighting and arguing against each other, pushing and shoving the crowd, throwing punches and kicks at the security guards, yelling at the cops. It was a mad house. Right outside of Dewan Bahasa the streets spilled with PKR's supporters, closely watched by police in full riot gear. I was kind of hoping for a riot to break out, just for amusement sake. But of course at the same time I hope it wouldn't, that would just be crazy.

It was a rather enjoyable night. Not as entertaining as the kedai kopi scenarios at the Parliament, but enjoyable nonetheless.

12:06 AM
Categories: dap, dato seri anwar, dato shabery cheek, debate, democracy, dewan bahasa dan pustaka, election, events, freedom of speech, malaysia, media, oil price, pak lah, pas, pkr, politics, transparency, tv. Author: sleepwalker