Thursday, January 31, 2008

I Found Hope

My previous posting, I am glad a great friend and also a reader of mine offered his car for me for the coming few days and even during the Chinese New Year. I did not get approval to reveal his identity here and as I knew he will be reading this, this special message is for him, "Hey J, thanks and I appreciate it very much."

CNY is around the corner, I have not get myself a single piece of clothes as yet. Cannot find the time is a thing, another is that I would not want to spend so much as I have yet to know what is the repairing cost for my car.

And geez, I realized my past few postings got pretty dull as I did not include much photo. I was browsing through my picture folders and found this few masterpiece. Can anyone know what camera I use here?







Something bound to happen soon here!

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Anyone Got Extra Car???

While driving back from an appointment this afternoon, I felt a weird reaction from my car. Worried about it, I drive straight to the nearest Perodua service center. Went in the reception counter, seeking assistance from the person in charge, explaining the behavior of my car to him and immediately he ushered me to my car to test it out.

After the test drive, he looked at me and shook his head, I looked at him, he said my car is terribly sick. Perhaps it was due to this. I found out that the appointed workshop by my insurance company did not fix it the way it should be. My front wheel base is in terrible shape that it needs to be changed, was quoted in the region of RM6k for this. I was panicked getting the quote but the '2 Choices' mentality I adopted does help to calm me down a bit. I left my car there and phoned my buddy, Alan for assistance, he guided me to send the car to his foreman buddy for a thorough check, let's cross fingers that it will not cost me a bomb (kuan yin ma, I had been good lately, hopefully poh pee, poh pee)

Met 2 new friends with great personalities today. I shall not reveal their identity here but I am sure they will be my readers starting from today. Hey dudes, if you are reading this, thanks & nice meeting you all. I shall find time to understand in depth about your short talks today :)

Officially I am crippled & paralyzed, without a car to travel. My colleague is kind enough to fetch me back today and I will be troubling him again later to fetch me from my place to office. Thanks Andrew, I owe you ya.

Let's hope later someone actually called up to loan me a car to travel during the CNY. My car will be hospitalized perhaps more than 2 weeks I guess.

I can choose to be in bad mood or in a good mood, I chose to be good mood... Stay positive Mike, things will eventually get better!

Cheers!

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

LG Strategic Partnerships

One of my major project this year, I am seeking strategic partnerships tie-up with F&B outlets and fashion retailers in high traffic area.

At the moment, I am looking for one major pub/bistro/cafe to tie-up. In this partnership, the outlet is entitled to equip the outlets with LG products at a very special price. In return, it will be officially the outlet for LG to have its soft launches & events there. I am also looking for a chinese restaurant to work with and also a branded fashion retailers in Klang Valley.

Anyone interested? email me at michaelsong@lge.com

Monday, January 28, 2008

Two Choices

My younger brother sent me this, I rarely read forwarded mail but this is really something I feel we overlook at times. Simple and yet meaningful. Overall, I had a great weekend breakaway with Aaris & Nicole in Melaka but end up with minor glitches on family matters. Hope things will be ok soon. Check out the content of the story below;

Jerry is the manager of a restaurant. He is always in a good mood.

When someone would ask how he was doing, he always would reply,

"If I were any better, I would be twins!"

Many of the waiters at his restaurant quit their jobs when he changed jobs,

so they can follow him around from restaurant to restaurant.

Why?

Because Jerry was a natural motivator.

If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was always there, telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him;

"I don't get it! No one can be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"

Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, I have two choices today. I can choose to be in a good mood or I can choose to be in bad mood. I always choose to be in good mood.

Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be victim or I can choose to learn from it. I always choose to learn from it.

Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life.

I always choose the positive side of life."

"But it's not always that easy," I protested.

"Yes it is," Jerry said.

"Life is about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice.

You can choose how to react to situations.

You can choose how people will affect your mood.

You can choose to be in good mood or bad mood.

It's your choice how you live your life."

Several years later,

I heard that Jerry accidentally did something that you are never supposed to do in restaurant business.

He left the backdoor of his restaurant open.

And then???

In the morning, he was robbed by three armed men.

While Jerry trying to open the safe box, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination.

The robbers panicked and shot him.

Luckily Jerry was found quickly and rushed to the hospital.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intesive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body...

I saw Jerry about six months after the accident.

When I asked him how he was,

he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Want to see my scars?"

I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place.

"The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the backdoor," Jerry replied.

"Then, after they shot me, as I lay on the floor, I remembered I had two choices: I could choose to live or could choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared?" I asked.

Jerry continued, "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the Emergency Room and I saw the expression on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared.

In their eyes , I read 'He's a dead man.'

I knew I need to take action."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Well, there was a big nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry. "She asked if I was allergic to anything."


'Yes,' I replied.

The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply.

I took a deep breath and yelled, "BULLETS!!!"

Over their laughter, I told them, "Please operate me as if I am alive, not dead."

Jerry lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude.

I learned from him that, every day you have the choice to either enjoy your life or to hate it.

The only thing that is truly yours - that no one can control or take from you - is your ATTITUDE, so if you can take care of that, everything else in life becomes much easier.

Amazing story, simple yet meaningful. My life - my choice. I chose to be happy.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Famous Malaysian Quotes

Sit down, relax and reflect what these famous people had blurted out...

1. "Correct, Correct, Correct" - Datuk VK Lingam
2. "Looks like me, Sounds like me" - Datuk VK Lingam
3. "Mana ada bocor? Batu Gajah pun bocor tiap-tiap bulan juga" - Mohd Said Yusof, Jasin MP
4. "I'm the man in the video. The girl is a personal friend" - Datuk Chua Soi Lek, ex-Health Minister
5. "Saya pantang dicabar" - Pak Lah
6. "The first day after renovation, everything in the toilet is the most beautiful like a new bride" - Uncle Sam
7. "If you can't fight rape, better lay down & enjoy it" - Haji Roselan Johar Mohd, KK Umno pro tem head
8. "
Ee chiak lu, lun pun um chai" - Lim Keng Yaik
9. .....

Anymore to contribute....??? Funny bunch... wtf...

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Getaway to Ulu Yam



2 Sundays ago, my best buddies brought me to this place called Ulu Yam. I had not been there personally but heard of the name of the place, thanks to many famous Ulu Yam Hokkien Mee stalls in KL. It was a pre-planned trip, to visit a local Buddhist temple for blessings. I must say besides that, it was an enjoyable outing with great food & much needed breakaway from the hustle of the city.



After the prayers, we went to this Swee Yen Restaurant located in the suburb Ulu Yam. I got to say I had one of the best Hokkien Mee ever here. We also had Loh Mee and the famous hand-made fish cakes here.







After lunch, we went to a Siamese temple named Satya Temple. I did not know there is such a temple in such secluded town from the city. It is very much a Buddhist temple with great Thai influence on the interiors & exteriors.


We can feel immediate peace in this temple as there were not many visitors on that particular day. As usual we prayed and chill around the temple admiring the craftings & peaceful surroundings.







While chilling & sitting at one corner of the temple, I had this companion who walked towards me, wailing his tails and readily posed for my camera phone, he camwhored a few times and this is one of the best shot that I took.



Finally, while on our way back, we stopped at one of the recreational waterfall park. The slight drizzle did not deter us from pimping the famous Ulu Yam waterfall.











It was a rejuvenating weekend, I might be bringing 2 friends there again after the CNY. Hmm... CNY approaching, and I have not done any shopping yet. Today's Thaipusam but it is an official working day for the sales & product team, but it is OK since we are given a longer break for CNY.

2008... another big change???

Monday, January 21, 2008

TGIF Voucher From Nuffnang

I had a very bad backache this morning that I had to take time off from work, something that I cannot afford to do due to my action-packed schedule before the CNY. Went to consult doctor, doctor said it's dislocation of my back joint during sleep. Not feeling used to staying home, I MSN-ed Timmy to meet up @ The Curve to collect the TGIF voucher that i won earlier for the TGIF posting.

So here I am blogging from Starbucks, Curve. Was pretty lazy to write as I am lack of inspiration lately and the creative part of mine just fail to shine. The timezone connection today pretty bad that the only site that I had no problem accessing is the blogspot. Was surfing & blog hopping political blogs and in this posting I would love to share some sites that actually worth a visit to read and to know what is actually happening in our Boleh-land.

Let me introduce Nathaniel who blogs at jelas.info , I came to know him (not really in person), during the time he was arrested by the police. Went to a few of his forum after his release to share his experiences & saw him a few times during talks by the Coalition Party. Also check out Nat's gf who blogs at PolyTikus.

Another political blog that I visit almost daily would be ScreenShots by the famous Malaysian Blog Godfather. Knew him through his blog and eventually met up with him a few times during LG Mobile function & meeting. A very down to earth man who catches attention almost immediately when he talks.

Rant blog by the daughter of former PM of Malaysia, Marina Mahathir is another worth read. She recently wrote about the breakdown of Streamyx service, that is what prompt me to voice my dissatisfaction here as well. She even wrote of thinking to get the Maxis broadband, and Maxis did called her up to offer a free trial. And personally, I do hope some Maxis people read my blog as I had my fair share of ups & downs using the broadband. As of now, the customer service who attended to my call most of the time did not fail me providing me infos that I need. But when comes to broadband, I am a little upset, due to the fact that I cannot cancel the service as according to the contract I had signed up for 18 months agreement. I do hope that Maxis can grant my wish to terminate the service as I would still continue my postpaid services with them. To pay RM138 for a service that I rarely use, I rather use the remaining amount on my mobile. Can someone in Maxis enlighten me pls?

While blogging this, Tim arrived with Samantha handled me the long awaited voucher. Thanks Timmy (like he reads my blog :P ) & Sam of course. Let's catch up another day.

This will a super dull post without pictures, as the bad timezone connection here does not allow me to do so. Will be back tomorrow as Wednesday officially a national public holiday. Geez... one thing good about this country is that we have plenty of holidays.

Hmm... with the voucher who should I call out for dinner leh? Or who is willing to be my date for dinner in TGIF or Itallianies??? Anyone??? *sob sob*

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Smarter Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) Pls!!!

I am following one of the hottest political drama in Malaysia. Like others, I believe many would have watch the infamous "Correct, Correct, Correct" 14 minutes video clip.

Trilogy: The video clip consisted of 2 clips (Part 1 & Part 2). In that video, starring Malaysian lawyer VK Lingam continously mentioned names of Malaysia's ruling politicians. To summarize it - the video conluded that the was a "suspected" special arrangement in the appointment of Malaysia's Chief Justice (CJ).

With the general election approaching, with the pressure from bloggosphere & public, the RCI was set up. And you cannot blame a simple Joe like me being influenced by all this external factors to even think of migrating out of country. Do not get me wrong, I love Malaysia but not the administrator of this country. If the above is true, can you imagine what other special arrangements this country has? We are talking about the No. 1 man in juridicial hierarchy here, the man who can further make several 'special arrangements' with his authority, the impact on the juricial system of Malaysia.

Sometimes we read in national paper or see in free TV, how opposition leaders was condemned & critisized but these are people who brought us all this to our attention, these are leaders who instill logic when they talk & speak. It is sad to see, when the administrator of this country fail to answer to rakyat's call, we had to with other hundred of thousands Malaysians to walk to the palace to seek King's help. In my humble opinion, I believe all the countries in the world, there would be controversies in politics but I felt ours were drafted in such a comical way & can make us the laughing stock of others. God, I beg for your forgiveness & save this country.

I stumbled upon a posting by Lim Kit Siang which subsequently inspire me with this post. Why the RCI cannot just summon the leading actor??? Arrghhh... f*** it. I am pissed! I need to get coffee, anyone???

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Want a LG LCD TV this CNY?

Many had been wondering with my new assignment in my company, what actually I do in business development. I seldom elaborate much about my clients but this time it will be good to share the in sight of what my new assignment is all about.

Many of my followers & readers would have know that I am attached with one of the electronic giants in the world, LG. I will let some of the pictures here to summarize the activities that I kicked off successfully when I am in the department.

One of the most prominent would be BRAND's Chicken Essence which currently running a co-branding campaign with LG with the Stay Alert, Stay Ahead Challenge. For more details check out at their website here.





So why wait? Stay Alert & Stay Ahead with BRAND's. And who knows? You might be one of the 15 lucky winners to walk away with LG 42" LCD TV.



And if you happen to pimp any 7-Elevens & convenience stores, do check out the Mister Potato Chinese New Year Instant Win Contest. Stand a chance to win instant prizes worth of RM88,888 in cash or LG products when you purchase Mister Potato.





Do also check out their interactive site for more information, who knows this year Choy Sun Yeh is on your side leh?



And the next time you pimp KL Tower, Pavillion, KL Sentral & KLIA, check out the new T Station kiosks. It is one of the alternative advertising medium targetting mostly tourists as this kiosk serves as information counter for tourists. There are LG LCD screens & monitors and if you are looking at an alternative to do advertisement at a targetted segment and an affordable price, get more info here.





ps: this is not a paid advertorial. Any of my readers here keen to work with LG? Pimp me!

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Am I A Good Leader Now???



I realized my past few posting seriously so boring that I can die. Reason being my brain stucked! Black out!

I was summoned by my company to attend a leadership course, as you know, it had been a while since I really flip the text book. Overall, it is a pretty good course under the guidance of leadership guru, Mr. Glen Walker from Australia. Not only I learnt bout what is a quality leader like but also reflashed my college days, carefree, joyous, full with shits crap days.



And after 3 gruelling days, and 3 modules, I finally graduated for yet another time in my life. My brain is still tired, troubleshooting issues for my old department & implementing new objectives onto my new department. It ain't easy but it's worth the hardwork.



I was chilling last night with bunch of colleagues & personal friends. We were talking about blogs and to my amazement, I got few regulars from that group *blushed & felt good inside*, introducing my buddies @ work Kar Jun, Ee Ray, Kiv, Andrew & Li Chin...







And last but not least... the loving couple... hahahaha :P


Monday, January 14, 2008

KS Cbox Gathering @ Cafe Cafe, KL

This is a long due update, past few days, mikemmery is busy attending Group Leader Course, I shall blog about it another day. I recently changed phone again, another 5.0MP phone after LG Viewty, Sony Ericsson K850i Cybershot, so most of the pictures updated here are taken with SE K850i.



Met up with bunch of KS Cbox regulars 2 weekend ago, it is a gathering initiated by the charismatic Kelly and attended by a few close KS CB kakis. And it was my first time in Cafe Cafe, Kuala Lumpur. The ambience & atmosphere is really nice and I am planning my 2nd outing there this coming Valentine's. So who is going to be my Valentine? :P



I will let the pictures do the talking. Food presentation wise, the food itself, 2 thumbs up! And pricing wise, it is pretty reasonable.













Sorry, I did not take the pictures of the main course as I am not having anything that particular night due to my not feeling well condition. It is good to meet up with bunch of people who you always chat with in the cbox.







All in all, a great outing. And for those who have not been to Cafe Cafe, here is the map, click to enlarge it. Worth a try.



What's install next???

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Nuffnang vs Advertlets vs Nufflets

For the past few days, I received 3 emails from the above mentioned blog advertising networks. Without me elaborating more, I believe many would have receive Josh's crybaby long-winded mail explaining how he forgot to renew his site's domain. Best part is what you know? There is a line saying this "Whose fault is this? OURS", so say sorry? Pay money lah! It is like Josh offering you a packet drink, then you realise it had expired, then he apologizes claiming he forgot that it had expired... wtf??? Josh, go watch this and who cares if you going to launch your v2.0 in Feb???.... SILENCE!!! Or I'll Kill You!!!

Then I received another mail from yet another new bird in the blog advertising industry, Nufflets. To be frank, the mail was a reply to my question. Pretty prompt feedback by the owner himself, I shall give him the benefit of the doubt about his company survival in the blogosphere. My question were simple, "Why Nufflets?" Actually I roughly got the idea why it was called Nufflets, just that I want to see if this man is like the romeo above who will eventually get his company collapse. Impressive, indeed he is "Dr. Chua Soi Lek" enough to admit it was a copycat the word "NUFF" from NUFFnang and "LETS" from AdvertLETS. Good one Nabil, I am pretty sure you can do far better off than your ex-boss :)

Always save the best for last - you can labelled me as a pro-Nuffnang or whatever terms you wanna call it but the fact is I had never receive a single lame mail from Nuffnang before. Whether it is computer generated mail blast or not, thanks to Samantha, some of the Nuffnangers will be eligible to join the Nuffnang Exclusivity Program - The Nuffnang Glitterati. I am one of those Glitteratis and will enjoy far more benefits than those who put up other advertisements from other ad network in his/her blog. To all of my blogger friends who got their blog sites robbed last weekend, it is still not too late, Glitteratis campaign will be officially launched on the 13th January 2008. So guys & gals.... THE POWER IS IN YOUR HAND :P

ps: This is not an advertorial. I am not paid to write this :)

Happy Birthday Mommy

Like in my new year resolution post, I mentioned before the priority in my life now, very much towards my family. They are there for me when I needed them the most, especially the sucky year of 2007, and here it is today 8th January 2008, it is my mom's 52nd birthday.

Dear Mom,

My sincere apology that I can't be with you on your big day but surprise surprise I got you something. Thanks for this wonderful 29 years, your love, your guidance. Happy Birthday Mom! And I know you read my blog & I hope I make you proud, my apology if there were times when I am rebellious but deep down inside me, I love you.

Happy Happy Birthday!

With lots of XOXO & Loves,
Your fat son :)








ps: something out of context from the above mentioned title. my prayers to my fellow malaccan blogger friend, Nicole, I am proud of you too :)

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Advertlets Bankrupted

Dr Chua Soi Lek's issue aside, the above title is the most interesting this week. I made a discovery as well when I googled "Advertlets Sucks", my post was top of the list and I believe many small time bloggers had been conned by this so called"Asia's Better Blog Advertising Network"

Many Advertlets loyals who have yet to remove the ad html code from their site will be affected with their site to be redirected into another page. The only solution to it is to remove the codes totally from your site and for those who are still very much into that conman company, you can still check the latest news on the free blogspot site here.

I am not very sure how many people are actually affected by this scam. As of today, I received only one email from my reader with the nick Peace Love (Mike Ng), here is what he got to say,
"Hi, just to introduce myself first, i'm Mike, yeah same name as you, except my surname is Ng. i also have the same prob as u all. i have yet to receive my rm200++ and with a "will get back to you soon" message from Adverlets support team. i have earlier left a comment on slowcatchupkuan's post also... as for my blog, i have not yet put anything similar to ur 3 post or slowcatchupkuan post.... hope to hear from you soon. and from wat i can see, there are quite alot of us tat are in the same situation."

Advertlets support team? Support team = Josh? Should have redefined the word 'team' to 'personnel' instead. I hold no grudges nor I am pissed, I am not sure either if Josh gonna call me again and tell me his grandmother stories of why the domain was not renewed. Time is bad, cari makan susah, just do not want the entire Malaysia & Singapore blogging community being used and conned, each & every corner of our site has a value and it will be wiser to let the expert to do the advertisement marketing for us.

This week itself, I got "Youth Malaysia", "LG Viewty" & "JobsDB" occupying my ad spaces. So who is the first & best advertising network company, you decide now. The Power Is In Your Hand.

:)

Saturday, January 05, 2008

2008 1st Week Summary

I started the New Year with a bang, got myself wasted at The Loft, new assignment in the office with greater power & greater responsibilities. The very first week been good so far minus the crude oil prices that finally hit USD100 per barrel, mark my words, we will see significant price jump in petrol after the general election (talking about our country as the oil exporter... DUH...)

And the most blogable topic now in the first week, our very own Clinton-Lewinsky. Former Health Minister was caught pants down with his "personal friend", I watched the video, conclusion, I can perform better than him... hahahaha... just only because he is one of the key politician in MCA, that is why all the big hoo-haa now.

Plus I spent my very first week with very important people in my life, my colleagues; my buddies & perhaps my new love. Last evening, thanks to Aaris for inviting, spent time with her and my closest childhood friends.




Got ourselves wasted high, thanks to few jugs, buckets & 4 towers of Long Island. Great night, enjoyed myself seeing antics of some of my buddies that I rarely see, thanks to the influence of alcohol baby...

And ending up the first week, the missing piece - tender love & care (TLC)... is she the one??? suspense, suspense...




As I am updating the blog now in Starbucks, Low Yat, I suddenly recalled that tonight I will be joining the KS CBox dinner with the chatbox regulars @ CafeCafe. The dinner is by invitation only, good that will be meeting the rest of peeps that usually chatted over the chatterbox. Hopefully I will not get myself wasted again tonight. HaHa

Life's Good!