The Best of My 2008

It's the Dong Zhi today! A festive day for Chinese, signifying winter solstice and also the end of previous year. Two days later we'll be celebrating Christmas. It's time to say "Happy New Year" !


It's the time in a year to start making conclusions for the previous year, and make new year resolutions for next year. So far the year 2008 has been a year of widening circles, opening views, stretching horizons and growing up for me. I feel grateful as I draw my conclusions for my own 2008.

1. Joined a band

"I heard that you play bass?" asked Calvin when my roommate gave me his MSN. "Yeah," I replied. And that marked the beginning of me having a band - now with Calvin as one of the guitarists, I as bassist, Pei as drummer and Khai as guitarist also. And I wouldn't forget to mention this time - and Teko as band manager (and vocalist sometimes) ! :P


2. Valuable memories on Terengganu islands

In mid May and June I went to two islands in Terengganu - the happening Redang and the breath-takingly beautiful Lang Tengah. It was the first time I ever see such crystal clear seawater when I reached Redang. Saw colourful corals, fishes and got to feel a live sea cucumber. Got myself a photo of snorkelling under the sea. Danced and drunk in Redang too!



Lang Tengah was yet another great experience -I saw five sharks in one day of snorkelling. I even got to play a Nemo with my own hands! Jungle trekked and saw Green Tears (a kind of plankton that glows in the night, usually seen on beaches), baby turtles and shooting stars!! And I touched the Christmas Tree corals, too. :)



3. Went to different places

I never really went to many places myself, I'd not been overseas and I only been to Melaka, Johor, Pahang and once to Sarawak. But that was before September this year! My coursemates and I went for trip to Taiping, Perak and Penang Island after our finals ended for the May semester. Nigth-safari-ed the first time in Taiping, and tasted real local Penang food in Penang! Ah, those asam lasak, fried oyster, Muachi....Yummy!



Right after came back from Penang, I went to Ipoh to attend one of my best friend's birthday party at her grandmother's house. Treated myself to lots of tasty Indian food - that was when I knew there were sooo many different kinds of Indian curry! Visited the Kellie's Castle and Gua Tempurung and also tried a few famous local dishes such as the Ipoh Tauge Chicken.



4. Watch gigs and see musicians in action

Thanks to Calvin and Teko, I had chances to watch more gigs and see more musicians in action than ever this year. The first would have to be Moonshine Gig in Laundry Bar on 13 November. Calvin brought Pei and I to watch the gig, I finally got the chance to see Tempered Mental in action - not mentioning that I even got to talk with their drummer Jimmy and Ocean of Fire's drummer Jonathan Scull in person -although they just said one or two sentences to me. :P

5. Widen musician circle

Things really would run once you got it started. At least now I know a few more musicians than just those in my own university. And it's great to know more!

6. Joined a new gang of friends

This was truly unexpected - I knew this gang of new friends through Teko. I'm the ultimate night animal for years and couldn't change. And it's great to have gang of friends to hang out in the middle of the night! Yum cha and yum cha for nights! Hehe. It is also a whole new category of people I ever mingled with. And it's very fun to hang out with them. I certainly learnt more than I would have thought. :)

7. More horizons widen!

There are still lots and lots more of experiences I gained this year. Street Dance competition I went to report about, heart patient I interviewed for my assignment, short film shooting I helped for, and the new friendly roommates and housemates! :)



I guess I just love NANA (seven in Japanese), it has been the second post I listed up to seven things. And these are the conclusions I drew for year 2008 - I'd been surprised, growing up and grateful.

That was my 2008. And how was your 2008 so far? Do tell me about it!

Until then, Happy Dong Zhi and Merry Christmas!

Seven Ways to De-emo

Emo. It's the kind of feeling you feel when you sit down alone finally after a crazy party is over. It's the kind of feeling you feel when you thought of a meaningful memory when it rains. It's the kind of feeling you feel when you just got hurt by a friend's insensitive words, but you find no way to express your feelings.

Almost all of us dislike feeling emo. It draws us down, it makes us vulnerable, it makes us feeling lonely.

To lead a positive life, we would have to think of ways to cope with emo. And it differs between people and people in their ways of over-coming emo.

As a person who emo quite frequently, I have discovered seven ways to help me out of emo through all these years of in-and-out-of-emo experience.


1. Watch informative documentaries

Surprisingly, watching TV programmes such as National Geographic, Discovery Channel, and History Channel put me at ease easily. Whether it's the awe of new technology or the surprising fact about history, or even the firm voice of the narrator in most documentaries, documentaries have always been successful in drawing me out of the black hole of emo-ness.



2. Watch humourous movies/dramas

This works just as amazing as documentaries on me, but it's just that it's a little harder to get access to movies and dramas I want to watch than documentaries sometimes. Though, watching a light-hearted movie such as Bridget Jones' Diary, 101 Dalmatians, and Madagascar, I feel better having a laugh. And of course, some black humour in dramas such as Desperate Housewives or Gossip Girl entertains as well too.



3. Blog

Sometimes I get so emo that I couldn't even drag myself to be couch potato, so I stay in front of the cold hard monitor and start typing out my feelings into my poor grey blog. It feels a lot better after you get to pour your feelings out. Even though it's just writing out your feelings for no one to read.

But anyway, blogs are great because of its ambiguity - you write things there because you don't want to make your friends worried by telling them, but by posting in blogs, your friends have possibilities of finding out and might just come and console you some time later. However, regardless of the motive of blogging, it's really one of the great ways to de-emo.



4. Try out something new within the interested areas

For instant, I try out new ways of playing a certain bass line, or experiment on writing lines on my own with my bass. And I think by plotting out a whole new kind of story in my mind also helps to de-emo. These kind of things excites, thus the mind would go more positive relatively.


5. Sleep

One of the effective ways for me to overcome emo is to sleep, if my mind isn't too restless. It seems that with enough sleep, people could feel happier. I probably have the emo cycle frequently due to my sleep-deprived lifestyle. Feeling emo is one of the ways my body is telling me it needs rest probably. :P



6. Get out of the house with friends


This solution could be the best and also the worst of all. Sometimes by getting out, my mind is allowed to sway into other fun stuffs with friends. But sometimes getting out in a state of mind that is emo, friends not only didn't make me feel better, but I make them down as well. And that is the worst of all situations. So it's a risky decision to make when I'm emo.

7. Chat with friends on instant messenger


Although I put this one as the last in the list, but it doesn't mean it's not important. In fact, I clicked on to this option like 90% of the time when I was emo. However, equally risky as the 6th option, chatting with friends on IM could lead to disastrous situation sometimes, too. You may just end up being hurt more or hurting yet another person because of your inconsiderate words or the other person's inconsiderate words.

You never know how sensitive you could be, or your friend could be at the moment. And not to mention you never know how busy/messy your friend's mind is at the moment. Though nevertheless, when it works, a few words from your friend could just happened to be your salvation of the day.


People are complicated animals, we could never really predict what we would get or what we wouldn't get. That is why the key to de-emo, I would advised, is to change the "mode" of your mind without having to rely on another person's reactions to help.

It is no doubt friends really help a lot, when they are capable of helping. Most of the time we can only self-help. And anyway, you may never know, maybe by doing more self-helping, you could then become a more independent and reliable person for others.

Emo could slow you down, make you stay. However we can always discover ways for ourselves to de-emo, to start running and to start moving on. You may never know, the good things in life might be already on their way to your doorstep!

15 seconds in remembrance with Keep Moving

I know I've been procrastinating to upload the photos of the video shooting like weeks ago. And finally, I'm here to upload the photos. :)

Director Marco at the left, The girl Carmen, and Main character Chi Hou at the right, me as background. :P


Discussing about how the scene will look like...


Getting ready...Camera man Che Kian at right


Testing out.....Wonder how would have Carmen and Chi Hou felt, being camera-ed at such a close distance :P


And you can see me standing far away....


More takes of the same scene....



Examining the film we recorded...



Another scene.....director telling me to walk from point A to point B. @.@



Finally the video shooting for the day was done......took pictures to remember the day :) [notice : I was the only one not doing any pose at all in this picture....oopz :P]



The guys wanted to stand in front instead of behind the car....hehe

So that was it, the day I went to help out in a short film video shooting. Would have to thank Marco, Che Kian, Chi Hou, Callum and Carmen again for giving me this new experience.

And yeah, JcX....there you go....photos are here finally. :P


Reference : 15 seconds, keep rolling and Keep Moving!

The 2% of Intervention, Or Not.

Sixty-five million years ago, a fatal star fell from the sky. Dinosaurs, who roamed on this planet for more than 160 million years did not survive the catastrophe. And man, turned up to claim the throne as the ruler of Earth till the present day.

Darwin has shown to the world that evolution is the mechanism behind how this world works. All creatures, all living beings in this world in the present day, come from one common ancestor - a pool of primordial soup. The little cell was the origin of all the variety of the branches of organism we have today.

Dogs split from their wolf ancestral line 15,000 years ago. Horses evolved from a small dog-sized animal without a hoof 55 million years ago. Elephants, are believed to be directly linked with the Mammoths lived in the Ice Age 300, 000 years ago. And apes, were the ancestors of human beings.

Though, how much of the story of evolution is true?

Are we the direct descendants of the primates, or was there a missing link between ape and modern human?

According to genetic analysis, human DNA is 98% identical with the DNA of chimpanzee. 2% of diversity is due to normal species variation. Yet a podiatry surgeon, Dr Roger Leir, found that 223 genes in the 2% diversity have more significance than merely species vary mutation.

In year 2003, Dr. Leir "discovered that 223 genes do not have the required predecessors on our geonomic evolutionary tree." - The Canadian

"In the evolutionary progression from bacteria to invertebrates (such as the lineages of yeast, worms, flies or mustard weed – which have been deciphered) to vertebrates (mice, chimpanzees) and finally modern humans, these 223 genes are completely missing in the invertebrate phase. " - Z. Shitchin, world-mysteries.com

The significant genes are responsible for important psychological and psychiatric functions in Homo Sapiens.

Dr. Leir, and some other researchers believed that the siginificant two-third difference in genes between chimpanzee and modern human could be proof for the presence of extraterrestrial generic intervention.

However, some scientists claimed that the presence of these 223 genes was a result of horizontal evolution, a kind of "bacteria insertion", and not any result of extraterrestrial intervention.

Even though the missing link between ape and human hasn't really been found, there wasn't any physical evidence to proof that extraterrestrial intervention ever happened.

Yet, Llyod Pye, a writer and a lecturer, presented a skull found in Mexico that he claimed to be a Starchild skull - the skull of a hybrid of human being and extraterrestrial being.

Starchild skull

However till date, "no test result was inconsistent with the theory that the child was anything other than human. " - Wikipedia

Other claims of extraterrestrial intervention rise as well, such as the reknown Anunnaki in Mesopotamian myths, the debatable Dendera light bulb in ancient Eyptian temple, and the mysterious purpose of Nazca lines in Peru.

Dendera light, showing the single representation on the left wall of the right wing in one of the crypts

Did we originate from apes alone, or had we actually descended from a far away species in the unknown outer space?

It is interesting to imagine that we could have come from outer space, that we could have been descendants of extraterrestrial beings. However all of these, are merely assumptions, theories without physical evidence.

In the cautious science field, we always stick to the explanation that requires the least assumption - until there is a physical evidence to prove that it is wrong.

Extraterrestrial intervention in human evolution - if you would look at it cautiously, there are way too much assumptions made and way too little physical evidence if any, to support.

Nevada Highway 375, also known as the Extraterrestrial Highway, in Rachel, Nevada.

Truth of myteries would be revealed someday, and in the mean time, we can spend time wondering if we are closer to chimpanzees or grey aliens. Or neither, and we're simply descendants of the Almighty God.


P/S: A post inspired by the programme "Is It Real" aired on National Geographic. :)
P.P/S: Might write about Anunnaki myths or the Dendera light bulb or the Nazca lines some other time.....hehe

Tiny, Yet Could Be Big.

The world has always been irony. The smallest of things could cause the biggest of impacts. Virus, the tiniest semi-organism on Earth ever known, could kill hundreds and thousands of people. Bacterias, small as they are, without them decomposing the compost, Earth would be a barren wasteland of mass garbage.

Subsequently, it's not a surprise that 40 years from now, our source of fuels would come from small little water-living organism with the size no bigger than a peanut - the algae.

In the second part of the series Ecopolis, aired on Discovery Channel, the problem of transportation are being addressed. Transportation nowadays poses one of the biggest threats to the future of our cities. Scientists estimated there would be two billion vehicles and a seven-fold aviation increase by 2050. These large numbers of vehicles and aviations could emit 12 gigatons of carbon dioxide into the Earth’s atmosphere.

Los Angeles ranked as the most polluted city in the nation for all categories in the report, even though LA's pollution levels have dropped. (Credit: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)

Four new advancements has been introduced as possible solutions : algae biofuel, fuel cell vehicles, blended wing aircraft and the electric jeepney (e-jeepney).

Today, I'll briefly introduce the most appealing advancements to me here - algae biofuel.

The algae transform carbon dioxide under the exposure of sunlight into energy. As part of the process, the algae produce oil. They "can generate 15 times more oil per acre than other plants used for biofuels, such as corn and switchgrass.

Algae can grow in salt water, freshwater or even contaminated water, at sea or in ponds, and on land not suitable for food production."-ScienceDaily (Aug. 19, 2008) .

Environmental engineering professors Andres Clarens (center) and Lisa Colosi (right) have teamed up with commerce professor Mark White to investigate how algae may offer the biofuel of the future. (Credit: Melissa Maki)

Besides, algae feeds on carbon dioxide and organic material such as sewage - using algae as source of fuel would also help to clean up the environment.

The algae produce purer oil in terms of low carbon products than vegetable oil. It could mean less carbon dioxide emission when burned in the engines of vehicles.

However the new technology faces a few challenges too. One of them is the mass financial support in extracting the oil from the algae - it involves a form of complicated technology that costs a lot. Though scientists supporting algae biofuel remain optismistic that there would be better and more cost-efficient algae-oil-extracting technology being introduced in the near future.

In spite of that, it is still in question if the burning of algae biofuel would emit other harmful gases beyond carbon monoxide and green house gases.

It sounds almost the ideal solution to the problem of pollution causes by transportation - using algae biofuel requires less usage of lands than petroleum processing, less time of extracting than oil-palm planting, and they can be grown easily in mass.

However in the second part of the series Ecopolis, the host Dan Kammen examined all four advancements and decided that e-jeepney would be the best choice, considering that people should be encouraged to use public transportation.

Though the idea of algae biofuel still sounds the most interesting to me - imagine our cities fueled up with the oil extracted from these small little algae, we would be literally being lifted up by these small giants.

Although e-jeepney has been chosen by Kammen, but still, the idea of algae biofuel makes a food for thought - how could we have thought that things as small as an algae could be the big hope for our future on Earth?

This world always has its way of surprising us, in ways we least expected. Hope, can be found in the most impossible place.

Something I like

It has been another busy week :P...My sister's wedding, final exam, my internship briefing. But today I'm not here to talk about any of them, but about my BASS.

I guess most of you who are following this blog know that the blogger (yeah that's me) has been learning to play bass for almost a year already. And well, to be specific, the instrument I'm playing is electric bass guitar, which you can often see it in modern rock and jazz bands.

You can see a bass in bands such as Mayday ...

Bassist of Mayday, MASA

....or Red Hot Chili Peppers, and more.

Bassist of RHCP, Flea

So at least if you don't have an idea of what is bass, now you do. So yeah, that's the 4-string thingy I'm playing.

When I first picked up bass as an instrument to master, a lot of people asked me why. Why, out of all the musical instruments, had I chosen bass - the most low profile, least noticed in a band?

I couldn't really remember all the answers I'd given to that question, but I guess sometimes the real reason of picking up something, does not come before you pick it, but after. I couldn't really tell a solid reason to why I chose bass when I was given the choice to choose.


But it's after I've known bass and known a lot of other things and people through bass, that I slowly know why. Maybe other instruments could have led me to another path, and maybe to some other people, some other things. But I'm grateful as where I am now.

I guess, when you choose your musical instrument, you have also chosen part of your life through it.

Life is one big mystery.


If I hadn't chosen music, I would not have love music. Guess it's a choice I've made long before I even decide to love music.

I think it would be dry and hard to explain what about my bass and stuffs, but I'll show you the bass I'm using currently.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Xerxes!

Yamaha RBX270J in Metallic Red, that is.

In fact I don't know what else I could say here ... I guess only people like me would understand. Thanks to my bass...literally, you've opened me up to a wider world, a richer life.

Music, Play For Change. Music connects. :)

We can accept, if we would believe.

Differences. We are familiar with it. In life, we're constantly dealing with it. Getting your bread from the Indian grocery store, buying your nasi lemak at the Malay stall, having lunch and reading your newspapers in the Chinese restaurant. We are certainly no strangers with differences in Malaysia.

As Malaysians of a multi-racial country, we know, and should have known, that acknowledging differences is not the end of what we should do. The most important thing, far more important than acknowledging differences, is accepting differences.

Yet what we understand here in this multi-cultural setting, might not be understood by the others in the world.

And I really wish they'd understood. Do understand. And will understand very soon.

Anyway, it seems like I've strayed too far away from what I really wanted to talk about initially. Things happened lately, world is falling in grey. But I do wish to believe in the good of people.

In fact I just wanted to say that I'd just watched a movie titled "Outsourced" on TV. The story was about an American salesman being sent to India to train the workers there.

It was a good movie, for it has successfully depicted the changes in the main character, from cultural shock, to learning to accept, and finally truly adapting. What was really good about this movie was that it gave a different look, a different light on India and the people in India.

That the child who stole the main character's phone returned it with hand-drawn paintings; that the fierce-looking man in poverty had the generous heart to invite the main character to dine with him; that the seemingly rules-and-norms-restricted country has its colourful side of fun and enjoy during festives.

Behind everything that doesn't look acceptable, there is one thing that connects - the warmth of the people.

Maybe it was just a movie - I'd not been to India myself, but what I really like about the movie was the message inside.

"Like you, I was reluctant with everything here. But once I gave up fighting with everything, it feels so much better,"said another foreigner the main character met eventually in India, in the movie.

Maybe we've been grown up learning the differences between us and the others; Maybe we've been grown up fighting with everything that is different from us. But have we tried to slow down, give up fighting, for a moment?

It could have been so much better.

Differences, it draws us apart. Acceptance, it connects people with differences. Citizens of the beloved Gaia, are we ready to accept differences? Even if we don't look the same, even if we don't talk the same, even if we don't dress the same, even if we don't eat the same, even if we don't pray the same...... Can we at least share one common faith in the miracles of acceptance?

In paranormal field they always say : "You can see, if you would believe."

And I shall say....We can accept, if we would believe.

Thanks again, to the movie "Outsourced".

15 seconds, keep rolling and Keep Moving!

How long do you need to standby for 15 seconds of appearance in a film?

No conversations, no monologue, even the face can barely be seen in the background - for 15 seconds of appearance.

You may think that it takes maybe like, half an hour? But no, the answer is ....TWO hours. And it takes a whole day from 12p.m. to 8p.m. outside for the pre-, the -ing, and the post-.

"Are you free tomorrow? We need a girl my height to act as my friend in a video," asked Carmen on Saturday night. And then a phone call from Carmen and the director himself.

Hence I agreed.

So yesterday I'd gone out to help out as an "anonymous-friend-of-main-actress" in a short film shooting near Sunway.

The short film is a work by the production team "Keep Moving", and it is meant for taking part in TVF (Tokyo Video Festival) next year.

"The story is about a guy who traps himself in his own music world, and shuts himself out of the real world outside," said the director cum script writer, Marco, as he explained the theme of his short film.

As I read through the script Marco has written, it was no doubt he must have a good sense of humour. I couldn't help but laughed when I read words like "main dude", and "become genki again" in his script.

Imagine the poor main character being referred to as "the main dude" again and again. LOL.

"The short film would be around ten minutes," added Marco.

The photographer of the day was Che Kian, who is also working for a professional photographing company. And he was also the one who came over to fetch me, thanks! :)

So my friend Carmen was "The Girl" in the short film, who seems to have slightly special relationship with the main guy character in the story.

The main character was played by Chi Hou (translated), a quite good-looking guy who I personally thought he looks like Leo Ku, the Hong Kong singer cum actor. Oh and yeah, he was the main dude then. :P

After like numerous time of retaking NGs, and I'd taken out my handphone and pretended to sms, and walked from point A to point B and turned to smile, for numerous time.....Finally, the part with Carmen and I was done.

Callum, the guy who was to help out during the scene, helped to take a few photos of the whole team working on that part that day.

And we all went off to a famous Ice Shop at Metroprima, Kepong. (Oh no, yet again for me. ) We all talked and then Marco and Che Kian drove Carmen and me back home.

Helping out as an "anonymous-friend-of-main-actress" was already so tiring, I could imagine how tired it could be for those actors and actresses. The video-shooting session today gave a whole new experience to me.

Thanks to Marco, Che Kian, Chi Hou and Callum - Best wishes to you all in TVF next year!

P/S : Stay tune for photos later, they're with Callum still. :P
P.P/S: Personally I think this team Keep Moving is quite creative, do check them out at
http://keepmoving5.blogspot.com


Follow-up : 15 seconds in remembrance with Keep Moving