We Can’t Own Music Anymore!

Today, I read an article in The Star in the newspaper saying that in this modern world of entertainment and piracy, record labels has taken the most extreme step to stop piracy or at least lessen them to maintain music quality and originality.

And what have they done? They have found a way to limit the number of time a music file can be copied and burned into another CD and also the number of times the music file can be shared is also limited. So those people that just came back from Tower Records with a brand new album in hand, don’t be too happy because what you have just purchased is actually a loan.

The music CD looks like normal, sounds like normal and feels like normal, however, there’s something hiding inside the CD which cannot be seen of felt. This is anti-piracy and copyright software. Similar to the above, it limits the number of times the file can be copied. So if you want to compile a CD of various music files from various music CDs to listen in your discman or car, don’t be too happy because, you can only burn it several times and that’s it. It’s something like a prepaid thing. You’ve just paid for something and used up all the credit and there it is, unusable and stale.

Downloading music from the internet such as Yahoo! Music also has similar stuff added into it’s music files. One can download a music file for USD0.99. He can listen to it a zillion times if he wants to, but if he wants to burn it into a CD, the number of time the file is permitted to be brunt into a CD is controlled. Once the limit is reached, the file will not permit the computer to duplicate it anymore. So he can only listen to the file for the rest of his life with no worries but cannot burn and duplicate it anymore. If you want to duplicate it again, you would have to purchase the file again for another USD0.99 and the process starts all over again. So basically, the music we just purchased is actually “rented” and to continue receiving it’s “services”, we have to continue paying the rent until we don’t want it anymore.

Looks like now we have to be extra careful not to simply burn the file into the CD. Careful though and thinking must be put into it so that the limited number of duplications allowed is used wisely. So people out there, stop piracy and start buy the real original stuff!

A Make Over for My Room

This weekend was a very hectic one. For the first time in a year that furniture in my room is actually moved around. My parents were making new bookshelves and wardrobe for their room, so I got their old bookshelf. As usual, space must be made to accommodate new furniture, so all the old unwanted furniture in my room were removed and all the stuff in it taken out into the cold open. So everything in my drawers were taken out and had no place to put. To solve the problem, everything was stacked up. My dictionaries were stacked up, my story book and novels were stacked, my books were stacked up, everything was stacked up. So in the end, my room was filled with mountains and hills of books, left and right. Really messy. Even my computer was dismantled, so I had no computer for a whole day, which was by the way torture for me!

At night, I have to sleep in the midst of towering books all around me which had a probability of toppling down and crashing on me while I am sleeping but thank goodness the worst didn’t happen. So the new shelf came, put everything in, shifted some furniture to make the room more organized and tada! We have a new room! I was relieved that it all ended. However, the nightmare hasn’t ended for my parents, which still have 30 1.5 meter tall stacks of books left to sort out and stored into the shelf. Well, that’s their problem, mine has ended. However, the room now I have isn’t much a difference compared to my previos room, it’s just the furniture moved around to make more space. I’m no Fab5, that can make a zero into a hero, so my room is still an average room of an average guy…

Below are before and after pictures of my room, however, the before pictures aren’t as messy as it supposed to look…

Proton Savvy

Savvy. According to Dictionary.com, there are three meanings to savvy.

1. Savvy (v) informal to understand; comprehend
2. Savvy (n) informal practical understanding or shrewdness
3. Savvy (adj) informal well-informed and perceptive; shrewd

To start off, what do think of when you think about Proton Savvy? What were the people at Proton thinking? It seems that they held a contest to see who can come out with the most creative name for the next Proton car. And amazingly, this Malay girl from Malaysian Islamic University which doesn’t even have a driving license yet won the contest. The name she suggested was, you’ve guessed it! Proton Savvy! I heard that before this contest, the people at Proton decided to name the car Proton Sassy.

Sassy. According to Dictionary.com, there are also three meanings to sassy.

1. Sassy a western African tree (Erythrophleum suaveolens) of the pea family, having bark that yields a poison and wood that is used for construction. Also called sasswood, sassy bark.
2. Sassy (adj) rude and disrespectful; impudent, lively and spirited; jaunty, stylish; chic
3. Sassy (adj) improperly forward or bold

Proton didn’t realize that sassy actually had meanings that bring negativity. They only thought that sassy meant stylish. After many bloggers in the Malaysian bloggosphere blogged about the horrible name of Proton Sassy and it’s “behind” meanings, then only Proton realized that Sassy isn’t going to be the name. There goes a whole day of wasted brainstorming for them. So the poor car that is already ready to be launched soon still isn’t named yet. How sad. So Proton decided to hold the contest for more so called “groovy” suggestions from the public. Proton is now aiming at the new generation, the X Generation, to sell their cars. They want their cars to appeal to them. So they want a name to appeal to them to. However, it is clear that the people at Proton isn’t the X Generation people and doesn’t understand the mind sets of the X Generations.

So they came with Savvy. Proton Savvy. According to the meanings of Savvy above, Savvy says that Proton is has shrewdness and practical understanding in them. However, I think it’s otherwise. They aren’t well-informed at all about the X Generations they don’t have a practical or deep understanding of the market they’re aiming for and they don’t understand the tools of the trade. This is why Proton is now having problems, actually lots of problems in marketing. Production wise, they have improved a lot since the first Proton, Proton Saga was launched. However, their market has been shrinking ever faster than imagined. Proton has been loosing out to other imported cars like Toyota, Honda, Hyundai and KIA which has better cars and cheaper cars inspired of the high taxes applied on imported cars.

How can Proton compete with them? Toyota, Honda, Hyundai and KIA cars are so cheap. It’s even cheaper than the cost price of a Proton car if there aren’t any taxes. Besides that, imported cars are much better quality wise. They have a lower rate of defectiveness. Compared to Proton, the rate of defectiveness is so much higher. Just look at all the Proton cars that get spoilt every year. It’s even more than all the Toyota, Honda, Hyundai and KIA cars all put together that get spoilt every year! So imagine how Proton is going to compete. They’re just lucky that the government is helping them a lot. However, nowadays, Malaysians are getting richer and richer and imported cars are getting cheaper and cheaper and more and more people can afford imported cars. So now, people shift from Proton to Toyota and Honda and even Hyundai and KIA.

When the Perodua Myvi was launched the Perodua showrooms were packed with people all wanting to buy the car. However, when Proton Savvy was launched, the feeling wasn’t there. The Proton showrooms weren’t as full and crowded as the Perodua’s showrooms. Just like the Perodua marketing manager said, Proton is too late. They launched their Proton Savvy too late. Many people that want to buy a new mini MPV already bought the Perodua Myvi. So Proton already lost more than half of their potential customers. Well, it’ just too bad for Proton.

If they want to improve their sales, they have to think of something fast! A few suggestions.

1. Name your cars wisely. Don’t name cars with funny and silly names like Sassy and Savvy. Proton Wira, Waja and Satria sound more decent and original.
2. Make cars that more aerodynamically friendly. A classic example is the Proton Juara. The car looks like a rectangular box on wheels. It looks horrible! Even the design of the light and interior was terrible!
3. Shrink the gap between the local quality and export quality cars. Export Proton cars quality wise is better tenfold! Besides, the interior design and the exterior details are much nicer compared to the local ones. If Proton wanted to sell their export quality cars locally, they would have won the market from Perodua.
4. Design the exterior more creatively. Just look at the Proton Sassy, it’s behind looks like a pile of crap! The way the lights are arranged looks ugly. And the exhaust being in the middle isn’t a good idea. Furthermore, there are too many angles on the car. Too many sharp edges on the car. It looks like it can easily cut you. It doesn’t appeal to people. People want aerodynamically efficient car not a car that creates resistance and “cuts” the air with its sharp edges.

Well, I guess Proton is now on its own. To survive, they better have an emergency meeting to discuss a total make-over for the company and its creative designers to make a fresh start and to improve its image in the eyes of demanding Malaysians.

A Total Waste of Money

The Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia a.k.a. Malaysian Certificate of Education is one of the most important government examinations in secondary school. Actually, it is the only and most important government examination in secondary school. When the result were announced in March this year, many were let down by their poor results. Many expected more. According to statistics in the newspaper, the total amount of achieved by all the students is 3000 As which includes A1 and A2. However, the previous year, which was by the way, General Election year, had a total amount of 6000 As! What a difference! And the year before election year only had 2000 As! Isn’t it so obvious that the government is trying to bribe the people to vote for them by giving good results to the students and in turn the students in the future will also continue to vote for them. What kind of democracy is this?! Is ain’t democracy any more! This is more like bribing the people to vote for the biasly so that the current government will continue the country forever and ever…

Well, that’s one thing, as for me, I also had results that were unexpectedly undesirable. I had two C5s which was so unexpected because I thought those two papers were easy. I thought could at least achieve a B3 or something more. Being unhappy with my results, I and many other students went to appeal for a remark. Just to make an appeal, there were so many chores to do. After all those hectic chores were done, I finally posted it to the Ministry of Education with high hopes of getting better results compared to my present results.

After waiting for 4 gruelling months for the results, it letter finally came and I opened it eagerly and read the letter contained inside. To my disappointment, the letter stated that my results will remain the same and no changes will be made. WTF! I was devastated! All my hopes of making my certificate look better without any Cs in it has all faded. Literature was one of the papers that I sent for appealing. I felt that the paper was so much easier than the paper that was set by the school. Besides, the paper set by the school, I’ve never scored less than a B4 before. Some of the literature student never even passed the paper before and could score a B4 as for me I fell 2 grades to C5! This is heart-breaking.

Other thing, all those people that sent their papers for remarks all found out that their results will al remain the same. Just like me, all felt disappointed. What is the government doing. Are they too lazy to even remark all those papers? Are they just wanting our money? Take note that appealing is not cheap. It costs MYR50 per paper! I think that they are just too lazy to even look into our appeal forms and even lazier to look for our papers in the whole pile of exam papers to send it for remark.

Our government is just not performing as well. They’re inconsistent, corrupted, money-minded, power-greedy and on top of everything, lazy bums. I do appreciate what our current Prime Minister is trying to do to stop corruption in the government but I don’t think that it is done effectively. Just look at the road side, traffic police asking for bribes from convicted drivers. Government officials accepting bribes and redirecting money out to their pockets illegally. This scene of the Malaysian authorities is just too ugly to comprehend. They’re just making a big embarrassment of themselves and yet they still haven’t realized their doings.

Well, all of us Malaysians have to do is just bare the embarrassment and just continue living and hope that the government will one day have an enlightenment which by the way would be a miracle and would never happen. Well, not in my life but maybe in the future I hope…

Patriotism Comes From the Heart, Not By Force

I’m supposed to blog about this yesterday but I was in a pile of stuff to finish so I didn’t. Anyway, I here now. Okay here the story goes. The start of a very hectic day which was yesterday during breakfast, I was reading the newspaper. Suddenly I came across a small column in the main paper in The Star stating “Fine or jail for disrespect to Negaraku“. Stated in the article, anyone refusing to stand or sing the National Anthem may be fined RM100 or jailed up to a month. It also said that the government is planning on enforcing a new protocol before any leisure activity (including before movie screenings). Deputy Information Minister Datuk Donald Lim said that the National Anthem will now be played more often than before. Now even private institutions are “encouraged” to play the National Anthem as often as possible. He also added that the people may forget the words of the anthem.

First of all, the whole purpose of this action is to instill more patriotism in the people. I guess or Deputy Information Minister, dear Datuk Donald still doesn’t understand where patriotism comes from. You can;t just tell the people of the nation to love the country and be ready to sacrifice themselves (including our lives) for the country. Like hell that will happen! No one in this entire world will automatically love the country and die for the country when told to. Not many people are willing to just give up their lives for their country. I will not be surprised even our dear Datuk Donald is also kiasee (hokkien dialect for scared to die). I also admit that I an also kiasee. However, I am not scared if the time comes for me to die “naturally”, I can’t do anything to stop it.

Second, singing the National Anthem before every movie screening is a totally mindless idea. This is an outrage! Who would want to sing the National Anthem everytime we go the movies? More will opt for DVDs which are now getting ever more cheaper. I totally agree with our Information Minister, Datuk Seri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir. At least he has more brains compared to his own deputy, our dear Datuk Donald. Datuk Seri at least realizes that singing the National Anthem before movie screenings will be inappropriate. Even my mum said that just after Malaya achieved independence in 1957, the National Anthem will be played before every movie screening. My mum said due to this, many movie goers go to the movie late. Maybe Datuk Seri had this experience before and knows the reaction of the people unlike our dear Datuk Donald which is still much younger.

Lastly, I would like to ask this question, “Why is the government so insecure about the loyalty of the people?” This is the exact same question Backbenchers’ Club chairman, Datuk Shahrir Samad asked. Why are they so worried that the people would actually betray the country? If we betray the country and get exiled, we would have no other place to go. No country would take a betrayer as their citizen.

The more they force us, the more we hate it. The more patriotism they force into us, the more unpatriotic the people becomes. I guess they haven’t learn the tools of the trade. Forcing something in will actually bring more negative effects than positive. Imagine trying to push an oversized cupboard through a small door. In the end when the cupboard get through the door, it will be broken to pieces. In turn, the cupboard should be dismantled and slow brought in piece by piece and then build it up inside. So the government should also do this same. Forcing patriotism into the people all at one time will definitely bring negative effects. It’s their fault they didn’t firmly plant patriotism into the people’s heart from the start. They should slowly rebuild the people’s patriotism from the foundations up, this way, the people will not feel like being forced to harshly like getting fine or jail for disrespect for the National Anthem.

Not Patriotic Enough?

Today’s headlines on The Star newspaper: National Anthem played before concert for the first time in Malaysian history. Is this a good move by the government?

It’s already a torture to sing the National Anthem in school every Monday mornings during assembly. Now the government wants all those that enjoy their lives a lot to get tortured by one and a half minutes of horrible noise. All of us students in Malaysia which has entered a government school before will know how awful the National Anthem sounds like. It doesn’t even sound patriotic at all. It sounds as if we are singing to a funeral and all of us are going to die. Shouldn’t have said that but it’s a fact! It’s really is an ear sore.

There was once the government decided to give an uptempo for our National Anthem. All of us thought that it was a good move to actually help the National Anthem to sound a little better compared to original piece which was “the horror”. However, our hope were all smashed when the plan to uptempo the anthem was abolished. Once again, every Monday morning the Anthem will start playing aloud on the speakers and the whole school will start singing to the rhythm. Of course not everyone has an exceptionally good hearing towards music keys so almost three quarters of the school will start singing the anthem out of tune which of course sounds even more horrific and it adds to the torture of actually singing the National Anthem!

Thank goodness, now most of us are in private colleges and finally the burden of singing the anthem has finally lifted of our shoulders in an instant. No more boring Monday morning assemblies and no more singing the half dead or actually can be considered dead National Anthem. All of us Malaysian will definitely hope for a make-over for our National Anthem. At least give the Anthem more beats and flares so that it’ll sound more patriotic and all of us can “feel” more patriotic when we sing it instead of the dead and stagnant feeling we experience everytime we sing it.

Now, the government made it a law to actually sing the National Anthem before any entertainment programs. This is the worst ever move the government has made! Imagine artists from all over the world came all the way to Malaysia in the East to perform beautiful and inspirational music and dramas and acts but now all the mood is spoilt by the National Anthem. I can’t imagine the look on the artists’ faces when they hear Malaysians singing their every own National Anthem full with dead emotions. Such an embarrassment!

Anyway, what can we do? That’s what the government wants so that’s what we have to comply. We aren’t the people in control so we have to comply with every order of the government until the next General Elections which is coming in the following year. Until then, the population will be in control of the government…

Are You Really That Good?

Well, I just came back from the moving pictures with sound box a.k.a. television set. Malaysian Idol aired on TV just now. It’s already the second week of the audition series. This time it was in Johor Bahru, Johor. This time I seriously think that Malaysians are really going over the top with their singing talent.

As all of know, oh wait, some of you may not know so I better explain. Malaysian Idol is made up of several stages of elimination to finally achieve the final contestant who will be crowned the Xth Malaysian Idol. The first is the 2-stage auditions. The first stage is the auditions in front of a camera without any judges. The video captured by the camera of the contestant is then reviewed by a panel of producers a.k.a. “judges” to eliminate the thousands of hopefuls who wish to be the next Malaysian Idol or just to be on the “moving pictures with sound box” nationwide.

Next, after eliminating those so so and average performers, those few contestants will then face the horror of facing the judges. All those good ones will definitely get good remarks from the judges. However, those bad ones a.k.a. those who desperately think that they are really good which actually they really suck in that business or those which just want to appear on national TV will definitely face the music of the judges. Well, I’ll continue the process of elimination next time since that I’m only going to blog until this stage.

Back to the topic. As I was saying, Malaysians are really going over the top with their singing talent. Yes… Hmmm… Can’t remember what I wanted to say… Errmm… *scratch scratch*

Ah yes! As I was saying, Malaysians are really desperate to win this title of honour. All those contestants in the show actually thought that they were so good. Some of them even boasted that they could even beat the previous top 5 finalists. They said it from their bloody mouths that they are much better than Andrew or Saiful, some even said that they are even better than Dina and some went over the edge when they said that they are “definitely” better and more talented than Jaclyn Victor which by the way, was the first Malaysian Idol.

After much boasting in front of the camera, they went in to face the judges and throw all their skills and talent out for the judges to evaluate. Not surprisingly, all of them sucked in singing. They sang all the wrong keys and had no feel for the song. They just vibrated their larynx to the max and hope that it was a good performance. Generally, all of them that thought too highly of themselves in front of the camera all couldn’t sing at all!

There was even one that won first place in her secondary school’s very own Idol contest. When she said that, I was expecting something spectacular and powerful to remember. But she let me down by singing the song without any power and feel for it. She also had this funny way of finishing off a verse of the song. Besides that, she also had a lot of pitching problems. I had experience in music since I was 7 years old and I’ve never been so let down by a person which actually won singing contests but actually sucked at singing! She definitely embarrassed her school that crowned her the school’s Idol. Disappointing, disappointing…

Well, a message to all those Malaysian Idol hopefuls out there. Please, please humble yourself. Pride will never prevail. And also please consult a professional vocalist before you actually enter Malaysian Idol. Listening to this “noise” doesn’t bring a good feelings around very much at all. It doesn’t, it really doesn’t…

Is Socializing Good in Every Occasion?

I’m sure all of us like to socialize around with everyone wherever we are everywhere, everytime. We socialize in restaurants, in the mamak stall, on the phone, while walking in the mall, even socializing in the “toilet” is pretty common. Everywhere we turn there will definitely will be people talking and talking. The only place where people don’t socialize is in the library and in an operating theatre in the hospital.

However, there are some places where there isn’t any rules where it states that socializing is forbidden. But people would love others not to socialize to make the environment more comfortable. This environment includes the cinema. People don’t talk aloud when watching a movie with other people unless the cinema is totally empty and he is the only person watching the most probably lame movie where no one wants to watch it.

On the other hand, today I went to the cinema to watch House of Wax whose actors include Chad Michael Murray and Paris Hilton with a bunch of my secondary school friends. All of us were pretty unfortunate already because we got the fourth line from the front and the screen is already so close in front of us. So we didn’t let this unfortunate happening let us down. We got to our seats and sat down with our drinks and looked forward to watch the movie.

Everything was going fine. The advertisements were running smoothly, the crowd was whispering around and all of us were feeling a thrill of excitement. Then the moment came when a group of girls came and sat down behind us. Well before the movie started, they didn’t pose and problem for us. It was until when the movie started the horror really begun. It was about 5 minutes into the a couple which was fashionable late came into the cinema. Well, it wasn’t a problem they coming in late but their seats were behind us. And… Don’t know what the lady was carrying but while she was trying to go to her seat in the middle of the row, all those stuff she was carrying collided into all of my friends’ heads including mine! You could feel the impact of the stuff colliding into our heads. Imagine you are happily sitting down enjoying a movie then a big huge pile of stuff came crashing down onto your head!

Well, that wasn’t the problem. My friend sitting beside me and I soon found out that group of girls behind us loves Paris Hilton and Chad Michael Murray. Everytime when Chad Michael Murray and Paris Hilton appeared on the screen all of them will go, “Oh my God, Chad Michael Murray is so hot!” or “Oh my God, Paris Hilton is so sexy!”. For goodness sake you are girls and you look at girls?! There’s something wrong there. Besides that, everytime when something bad happens to either one of their idols they’ll go and say that person is bitchy and etc. Talking about bitchy, I personally think they are bitchy ones. Talking aloud in the cinema. Once I heard one of them talking about what to shop after the movie! Shopping this shopping that! Oh my goodness! Can they just discuss shopping matters “after” the movie! Then when Paris Hilton’s character died in the show, they said, “Okay Paris Hilton’s dead, let’s go…” aloud! Oh my gosh! Could they be ever more quiet?!

I was hoping they left but unfortunately they didn’t. They stayed on having found out that Chad Michael Murray is still “alive” and they continue their gossiping and talking and discussion about shopping aloud! It was total hell! I tried to “sush” them a few time and they complied however it didn’t last long. After a few minutes, here they go again! Seriously I just wished that an inventor would come out with a repellent to put a stop to this lame people’s actions in the cinema as my friend said so!

For goodness sake and for the people around you, please, please don’t talk and socialize so freely in the cinema. The cinema is for watching movies and not for talking and criticizing those characters on the screen! So please, I’m begging you, please be more considerate of those around you and don’t be so self-centered.