Much ado about Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell is one of those authors I don't mind reading once, but wouldn't really buy and/or keep. There's too much fluff and there aren't enough details and stuff gets glossed over. Even the psychological aspects are too sensationalised and there doesn't seem to be any logical conclusion in his books...

I remember reading Blink!, but I don't remember much of it.

I've heard the audio version of Outliers (narrated by the author). Here's the summary: Bill Gates, The Beatles, etc achieved extraordinary success from being in the right time and place and 10,000 hours of practice (the "10,000 Hour Rule") in the first 2/3 of the book and his own origin story in the last third, where he says he is where he is now because his mother was a descendant of free slaves. There, I've just saved you money buying the book.

Also heard the audio version of his latest one, What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures, which is a compilation of his New Yorker articles over the years, which (I guess) is targeted towards the fans and people who don't read The New Yorker. [FYI, you can also read ALL the pieces on his personal website - shit you not]. While I found some of the pieces to be interesting, there were some that nearly put me to sleep.

To be really Chinese about it: Malcolm Gladwell is one cheong hei (long winded) guy and I don't think I've learned anything from his books.

Lydia Teh's Stretching Your Dollar$ and $ense

So I got a signed copy Lydia Teh's Stretching Your Dollar$ and $ense - More than 300 money-saving tips for anyone and everyone from the author herself from a contest she ran in her blog in her own effort to win a laptop (which she did - nice!).

Most of the tips I'm already aware of and practice some. Some of the tips could stand to be updated in the research department, and there were some that got me thinking, like the more adult aspects of finance like mortgage and hire purchase (which I must get round to asking someone what that's about). You can't miss the slight doses of humour peppered throughout.

Anyway, if you're Chinese (heh) or already very cheap anyway, you don't really need this book. You need this if you ever ask yourself why your money seems to slip between your fingers.

Lite FM is not light anymore

Is it just me, or is Lite FM not playing a lot of "light" music anymore? I'm just wondering because it used to be one of those stations I can't listen to when I'm driving cos I don't want to drop off to sleep at the wheel (*shake fist at* Damn you, Norah Jones). I admit to be quite a channel surfer (people who rode with me would attest) - I'll change stations until I find something I like. The only time I stop is when a Beatles song is playing, which is not all that often. The music that they used to play used to be the music that the baby boomer parents used to like: songs from the 50s to the late 70s, which was fair enough considering that it was supposed to be the "oldies" station.

NOW - they would play songs from the 80s and 90s, eras where there aren't a lot of slow ballads to begin with.

My Twitter so far....

I admit I wasn't an early adopter of Twitter as I can't really see it taking off at the time, even though I've known of it for a few years now.

But I finally signed up this year, in between the early adopters and before its acceptance into the mainstream pop culture and the celebrities started Twittering.

It's crazy and also pretty easy: all you do is send a message in 140 characters or less, answering the question: "What are you doing?" It's like the status update thing on Facebook, but with wider readership... provided you didn't combine the two.

It used to be more troublesome when if one wants to tweet, they would have to log on to the website to update. Now you could do it from your phone, from Facebook, and many other mobile apps one could Tweet from... frankly, there's no reason NOT to tweet apart from maintaining privacy.

I can't complain about how Twitter's all mainstream now, cos there's so much stuff you can do with Twitter that was no way available a few years ago, like SecretTweet.com, the Twitter version of Postsecret, weird "#" games you could join in, finding out what your favourite celeb is doing... There are plenty of things you can do on Twitter if you have the time to look through and to invest in.

If you're into podcasts, you can try out Twooting - the daily podcast about Twitter. Those guys never run out of things to talk about. At least at the moment.

You know Twitter is a bit out of control when people sign their pets up and pretend to tweet from their point of view - there's a cat who currently has over half a million followers.

For bloggers, Twitter's not bad for when you...

• Have a one-liner you have got to share, but not necessary enough to do a blog post about.
  
• When you're on the road without a computer and you could tweet from your phone.
• Potential blog post ideas

Oh yeah, don't forget to follow me on Twitter - @synical.

After 6 days of D-Toxing....

I was gas-sier than usual. Good thing I was only taking them after dinner as opposed to during the day.....

Bowel movement - nothing really significant..... Still feel unusually constipated even when I'm on this and having my period at the same time (which usually has an anti-constipate effect on me). Maybe they cancelled each other out? It should be compounded, but... hmm.

I don't think there's any significant weight loss or flattened belly. *wistful thinking*

In the tune of Mythbusters... this one's BUSTED.

NEXT!!

Are the Chinese trying to poison the rest of us?

First, it's the toys with traces of lead in the paint.

Then it's the melamine tainted milk. So everywhere in the world, they are doing product recalls of dairy products like (for example) chocolate, milk powder and White Rabbit candy (which I never liked anyway, so thank goodness for that).

Now they say that there's dangerous levels of melamine in other stuff like containers, fruits and vegetables. WTF man.

Like that, Wal-Mart should just close shop already because most of their inventory consists of products they contract out to China and who knows what kind of chemicals have been added to them somewhere along the supply chain. (Anyone seen that episode of House where the guy was dying from wearing poisonous jeans?)

IS NOTHING SAFE ANYMORE?!

Anyway, if anyone's hankering for chocolate, I say Hershey's should be pretty safe so far as there's nothing about them yet.... I'm just saying.

I say it's the Chinese government's way of population control with the planet because of the overcrowding and the declining health of Mother Earth. *Sorry, channelling Al Gore now*

Another thing that I don't get

Is the weird nicknames that are derived from names like James, William and Richard.

Where in the name "James" could anyone get a name like JIMMY? Everything after the first letter makes no sense.

And why Bill (from William)? WHY?!

Also not forgetting Dick. Was the guy named Richard such a dick that people decided that people named Richard should be called Dick?

I'm pretty sure I'm missing a few. Clue me in.

Tax season

You know it's tax filing season when you see and hear the reminders everywhere to file them on time (at the end of the April). The Inland Revenue Board (IRB) has been plugging the online filing (E-Filing) system for the last few years; and while my parents are not likely to ever use it in their lifetime, it comes in useful for the Generation X and Y-ers who are already handy with the Internet.

That, and when Mum starts demanding that her children hand over her their receipts for tax deductible items like books, magazines, and personal computer (in my case), on top of her own. No, I don't dare to think or put a number on how much I've spent on books and magazines over the last year (but it is quite a bit); however, I didn't pay full retail prices for most the books I've bought.

As a clueless working young Malaysian adult, I don't know how the whole income tax thing works. I don't even know how is it in Malaysia: whether it's the "everyone has to file" or there's a lower limit of gross (or net?) income as there's no Tax Filing for Dummies or anything of that sort.

As I didn't want to be accused of tax evasion, I've looked everywhere online for some indication, but nothing conclusive. After asking around, I should be glad that with my income level, I don't have to worry about filing.

From Prodigy to Prostitute

To anyone who has not read The Star lately, the math prodigy who went to Oxford at age 13, is now a call girl 10 years later. (The story initially broke out in the UK, but we've been regularly updated on the situation here as well - The News of the World article has NSFW pics). The only reason why (I think) she's being mentioned in Malaysian papers at ALL is because her mum's from Johor. Say it with me: "SO?"

Ashley Dupre comes to mind.

Or Belle Du Jour. But no one still knows who Belle really is. (And no, it's not Billie Piper, though she plays Belle on TV).

Sufiah's story (I can say) is a little (a smidge, at most) sad. But you have to admit, she made kids everywhere look bad when she got into Oxford at age 13, right? When the parents start nagging on and on...

Speaking of family, I'm sure they must be SOOOO happy. Can't help but think: Got family discount or not one, ah?

All I can say is: Good on her - as long as she's happy; frankly, I don't give a damn lah. At least she's doing something she likes, as opposed to the rest of us, who are doing jobs we hate for money.

There's word that the religious nuts are organizing a "Save Sufiah" campaign to "bring her back on the right path". RIGHT..... like that's gonna work.

But I can imagine some variation of conversations like this taking place at least ONCE in every home...

Mum: *Sees daughter watching TV* "Ah girl, go and study"

Daughter: *Sick and tired of hearing that* "Tired lah - how to study?"

Mum: *Getting exasperated* "JUST GO LAH!!!"

Daughter: "Study, study, study.... that's all you ever talk to me about; after I stress so much, I run away become kai (hooker, prostitute...) like that girl, then you know...."

Of course you people can finish that hypothetical conversation, which might include being disowned (among other things).

Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law

I finally got done watching the entire run of Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law. I first stumbled unto it while channel-surfing between commercials during one of those long, cold nights in Bemidji and I couldn't quite figure out how Birdman became a lawyer and all the other 1960s and 70s Hanna-Barbera (HB) characters (basically, old school cartoons lah) became his clients and why some of the voices sounded vaguely familiar.

A couple of years later, I downloaded the entire series for the heck of it to see what it's about. And blog about it since the video game's out (friend Ivan thought that it was only merely a game until I told him that it's based on the show).

Turns out it's not an officially sanctioned (by HB) project. It's a parody with a surrealist streak. It's like the Simpsons but on Cartoon Network with HB characters. Whatever you thought you knew about these characters is seriously challenged. But in a funny way.

Having watched waaayy too much HB cartoons when I was 12, I pretty much still remember all these characters, and I was amused by how they've "evolved" here.

Basically it's about Birdman who retires as a superhero and decides to defend for justice in the courtroom instead as Harvey Birdman: well meaning, bumbling lawyer. Despite wearing a suit and tie, he still has on his mask, wings and yellow shoes. His sidekick Avenger is now his legal secretary, who can type (in English), file and take dictation despite the lack of fingers. I still have no idea how Birdman understands Avenger when all it ever says is "CAW!".

He also a "team" of sorts: Peanut (his legal clerk) and Birdgirl (aka Judy Sebben, daughter of Phil Ken Sebben). Birdman's boss is randy, one-eyed Phil Ken Sebben (Falcon 7), who owns Sebben and Sebben. I think the character's hilarious and another plus for me was that he's voiced by Stephen Colbert.

The villains are also either his opponents in court or his friends.

As far as the plot goes, you can't expect much, but I'm a sucker for hidden references and innuendo. I'd get the DVDs if I could.

My Rambling Memories of Jaya Supermarket

[Another draft that I've had for ages - by now, Jaya is already a skeleton of its former glory, so here's what I happily remember about the place]

Frankly, I have no idea why I like Jaya Supermarket that much. Perhaps it's because of the huge toystore that was there when I was a kid? Or was it because it's the times spent with my cousins when we were merely children and our late grandfather would take us there just to get us out of Gran's hair for a couple of hours? It's probably just sentimentality.

I think I also remember going to the very first incarnation which was probably built in the seventies or something which gave way to the blue incarnation. Or I could be making that memory up, I am not sure - I don't want to pull a James Frey. Some bits are fuzzy but they're real.

But I do remember (when we were younger) my late maternal grandfather would bring me, my bro and our cousins there during the holidays to jalan and he would indulge us the way that grandparents do: buying us stuff at the toy store and paying for our kiddie rides. It had a merry go round and everything. No need to go all the way to First World.

I also recall having some bad supermarket yogurt once and I puked it back out within the hour of consumption out in one of the back alleys. Since then my gag reflex is still pretty sensitive and that incident put me off yogurt for years before I would try it again.

Then there was also a MPH bookstore which shared space with Guardian Pharmacy. I remember that Guardian having cosmetic counters that one now only see in department stores now. There also used to be a street level MPH outside Jaya (where the convenience store is now, next to Sinma).

I never understood the logic of having two MPH stores within 100 metres of each other. Not that it was doing well at the end. But if it wasn't for that MPH store, I would never have started reading Harry Potter. That story some of you may remember me telling you personally or don't give a damn enough to remember, which I understand. I'll save that for later.


In the last few years Popular and Pay Less Books set up shop on the second floor across and facing each other at the end of path. For me Pay Less Books is always a good enough excuse to go to Jaya. Now that THAT's gone I'm not there as often.

(Back then the toy store used to be where Guardian or Popular is now and it was HUGE - it sold a variety of toys that Toys 'R Us can lawan and it had an arcade with arcade games and kiddy rides - which I thought was pretty cool for a neighbourhood mall at the time).

Even as I go back there now, there are still a couple of shops that's been around for decades that are STILL there. It's amazing. Like the watch shop on the ground floor where Dad got me my first Baby-G (which still ticking in a drawer, but it turned from blue to green with exposure to various elements) watch when I was thirteen for doing well in school. And the hardware shop that's on the first floor that has been there long before Handymart came along.


Before it totally closed, it's just one of those "huge mall" substitutes - I want to go someplace but I don't want the hassle of a huge mall.

[Took a shit load of photos last year for this post, but frankly I don't know where they've gone. Oh well]

Asian Food Channel

It's been several months since the Asian Food Channel (AFC) made its place in the Astro channel roster. Honestly, I can watch food-related TV channels for HOURS at a time. Because a lot of the shows are about half hour long, it's pretty digestable TV. Best thing about it (for me, anyway) is that it's in the "default" package and you don't pay extra extra for it.

As far as programme variety goes, it's not TOO bad lah, they've lived up to their end of the bargain. I was just hoping that they would have shows from the AMERICAN Food Network and not just the Canadian Food Network. I miss the shows that I use to watch on (American) Food Network: Good Eats, Everyday Italian, Iron Chef America, Ham on the Street and Sugar Rush. I love that they've got the other Gordon Ramsay shows that's not Hell's Kitchen, like F*** and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, but I could never remember to follow those.