Adios 2008 - Mikemmery's Review

Today is the last day of 2008. Like any other years before, I look back of what I had been through and recap here, cherish the good memories and learn from the unpleasant ones. So here is my 2008 summary;

Career

In 2007, I was designated as the Asst. Product Manager in my current company LG Electronics. Due to certain circumstances, I requested for a transfer late 2007 and the company set up a new department for me to handle. 2008, I officially head the Business Development department. Ups & downs throughout the year, the best achievement this year would be the product placement in KLIA, 200 plus LCD screens. In terms of career growth, I had a few calls from competitors in my industry, I did gave a serious thought to it as I had been with the same company for many years now but finally decided to see through the difficult recession years to come.

Family

Not much changes. I had been going back to my hometown, Melaka pretty frequently. At least once a month, if not more. Mom been busy at the shop, at times she would say she wanna rest but since each and every of my siblings are scattered around, she would be bored to stay at home though. Dad as his usual self, had been bad in managing his work stress but overall this year it had been a happy year for him. At his age of 54, he's learning well on the internet. Bought him a wireless modem and besides his weekly football news, he would check on my blog once in a blue moon. Oh ya, my younger brother got married in November. The first in the family, it was a first time to all of us in the family.

Friends

Being single, you need friends. Out of those hundreds of friends, there are handful that you can really count on. Be it their companion or their presence when you needed them the most. My network had expanded tremendously. Blogger friends, clients & customers who eventually became my friends and we hang out together, drinking friends, facebook friends, friends I met during my oversea trips and the list can go on & on. And I wanna take this opportunity to thank you peeps for being there always. Let's rock 2009!

Love

Early of the year, I thought I opened up my heart for someone. She disappointed me a lot, during months of courtship and eventually a very low profile one month relationship, I tried to cherish the good moments. I did during these few months opened up my heart to love again. Well, I still feel I made the right decision to call it off. It is better early than later. I met a lot of new female friends but not many I felt the chemistry. The second half of this year, I had been keeping close touch with my ex, somehow on my past very few posts, I still miss her but conscious mind telling to move on.

Traveling

The country I visited most this year is Hong Kong. Three times in total this year. Besides Hong Kong, I visited Macao twice and stayed in the much talked about casino resort, The Venetian. Been to Thailand twice this year as well. Then as for domestically, been to Cameron, Ipoh, many times to Melaka tour guiding other friends, Kuala Selangor & Sabah. In 2009, confirmed destination for me so far is Thailand in Jan 09, Langkawi in Feb 09, China in Oct 09 & Hong Kong in Nov 09.

Economy

Everyone is talking about recession but our government are still optimistic about next year. I am not that confident though. In a way, I am glad I am still employed. I think this will be one of the worst recession cycle that I will need to pull through. My policy, stay in job & create value.

Movies

The best movie this year, I would award it to Ip Man. Quantum of Solace was a letdown. The Dark Knight is awesome too thanks to Heath Ledger but perhaps being Chinese I am a bit bias to award it to Ip Man.

Music

Age really got caught up with me. I do not enjoy listening to fast tempo songs. I no longer tune to Hitz.fm, my No.1 station now is Lite & Easy followed by Mix.fm. No particular songs I like this year but I learn to appreciate jazz these days.

Sports

Not treble but it is a Double. The Devils did it again. My favorite F1 team lost out though. And on Malaysian sports scene... sigh... just a silver, you will be honored a Datuk. Imagine how many Datuks & Tan Sris it will be if it is enforced in China. Those tidak apa attitude... sigh...

Financially

Improved a lot since the last 2 years. Tone down a lot on my impulse buying & shopping. Unlike those days where I will buy gadgets and landed myself in debts. Spent more on traveling this year and thanks to a friend (he is reading this) who had helped me during my bad days in the previous years. For the first time too, I have the urge to get a house on my own. Probably it will be in 2009.

Figurehead

This year I would award it to the respectable Barrack Obama, the first black president of United States of America. Malaysia? I give up!

Flip-flopper

This time around, let it be Anwar Ibrahim. His plan to takeover sounded like Chipsmore cookies, now you see it, now you don't!

Blog of the Year

Shadowfox! Do I need to say more? Check it out yourself here.

Hmm... the time now is 6PM. I can go on and on the list but time is really limited. Reaching the big 30 this year, unlike those younger years, where I would be eagerly joining the countdown sessions in the clubs, parties, boozing. But tonight I opted for a quieter outing. Going for a movie with my best friend and a colleague & his wife.

Happy New Year to all Mikemmery's readers. I love you all!

Now Every CEO Can Blog

The man himself started his own blog somewhere before merdeka. Welcome to the blogosphere Tony! He perhaps had proven that now everyone can fly, to add to his record now, he proved that every CEO can blog! Check out Tony's blog here.

The intro of the new blog aside, I had been under tremendous pressure past 2 days at work. That is the reason I skipped my post yesterday, my inspiration was drained. It felt not good when you know that you are working hard in the office and yet getting bashing from the top. Tomorrow another battling day. Let's pray for the best!

Just downloaded the new browser, Google Chrome - Beta version. Hmm... I am impressed! It's neat and in terms of browsing, it is pretty friendly. I am still very much attached to Firefox 3 though but it would be good to give Chrome a try. Now I had all browsers in my collection, do download the beta Chrome here. Below is the screenshot of the new browser browsing Mikemmery. Click to enlarge, you can see the browser tab right on the top left corner.



Aww God... I can't wait until tomorrow. It's Friday! After the 2.30PM meeting with my MD tomorrow, I am free, care free, heck care feeling and I am looking forward to the weekend. Will be pimping MATTA fair tomorrow to visit my client's booth and at the same time looking for cheap bargain, I want to travel again. And over the weekend, it will be plenty of seafood, mahjong & family feel.

Cheers!

Ladies First : Beauty Maker Paradise

A silent reader of mine started her blog. Though silent, she had been a very loyal reader and I am amazed each & every time we meet up, she seems to know a lot through my blog. And here she is, starting her new blog and for a first timer, I thought it is pretty nice, clean & neat.

And this site will definitely be a must stop for all the girls out there. I believe you girls have watch "Ladies First", the information guide hosted by Paulian Lan whose coverage of topics ranging from fashion, beauty to marriage tailor-made for ladies on Astro TVBS Asia channel. Talking about beauty, there is this guy in the show, Kevin Zhou, who shares tips & secrets to beauty & make-up. In a Malaysian ladies forum that I read, many female fans of "Ladies First" are having difficulties looking for the beauty products used by Kevin Zhou in that show.

Ladies, worry no more. Beauty Maker Paradise will be the answer for Kevin's products. Although the mega sales had just ended, visit the site now and until the end of September 2008, additional 10% discount for all products purchased online. Pictures below are some of the products line-up, I am not a beautician so do not ask me what is that product for, just check out the site, it has detailed descriptions of the product in Chinese & English.



So wait no more, paradise awaiting you.

ps: darling cyn, good luck in your new blog & business.

Why So Serious?

Went for midnight show for The Dark Knight last night. It is indeed the best Batman movies ever and the best movie I had watched this year. The details and the storyline are simply superb.

However, Batman's role was overshadowed by Heath Ledger playing the Joker. I do think Heath deserves an Oscar for his role in the movie. He however passed away due to some overdose complications.

Unlike many other superheroes movies where most of the bad guys conclusion we have very much expected it to be, but Joker is so unpredictable, as if you wanting for more and more and more to come from him. And it just felt good that this 2 guys fighting each other without much usage of supernatural power or whatsoever, it is so much of strategy and something like in the Chinese movie Infernal Affairs where in the end you do not know what is coming, who is bad and who is good, that kind of suspense.

"You know why I got this scars?" asked Joker. His voice, his laughters. Seldom in a movie you will see the villain overshadow the hero. This is one of them. And I really do not mind for a second watch. Anyone?

MikeMmery Pimped Ole-Ole Bali, Sunway Pyramid

It had been a while since I last write about the makan places. I had this authentic Indonesian food at Sunway Pyramid, it resembles Bumbu Bali @ Bandar Puteri, Puchong which I did a posting for it in the past.

Food wise very much alike Bumbu's. The only thing which is much better is the restaurant's ambience & surroundings. Huge comfortable Balinese plank chair, the smell of some scented joss sticks make the place pretty relaxing and soothing.

But be aware when you order the food. Unless you had a big tank like mine, it is advisable especially for ladies to share their food. Because the portion is really big.

We had this Ayam Betutu and Siap Megoreng which all these specialties will be served with Nasi Kuning, Sambel Matah, Sambel Terasi, Rempeyek, Sauteed Kangkong & other condiments. Both come with half chicken. So imagine the portion.



Then my lady friend had this Mixed Green Salad - a mixture of fresh vegetables, hard-boiled egg, fried shallots, fried tofu with spicy lemongrass & shallot dressing.



And the picture below is another Balinese specialties, Nasi Campur Ole-Ole. It is the combination of Balinese Grilled Lemongrass Prawns, Squid, Fish, choice of beef or chicken rendang & sate lilit, served with Lawar, Sambel Terasi and Sambel Matah.



And the desserts they served put Baskin Robbin to shame. We had this special Banana Bowl - three scoops of Ice Cream (vanilla, chocolate & strawberry), tempting toppings & bananas. Yummy... yummy...



And the damage - trust me, with this wholesome dinner, the damage is relatively be categorized under "Affordable & Reasonable".

Ayam Betutu - RM22
Siap Megoreng - RM21
Nasi Campur Ole-Ole - RM30
Mixed Green Salad - RM7
Banana Bowl - RM9
Service & BN's taxes (15%) - RM13.35
Total Damage - RM102.35

Tempting huh?

Where is Ole-Ole Bali?

0B-1C, Ground Floor,
Main Entrance,
Oasis Boulevard,
Sunway Pyramid
Tel: +603-7492 0308

Malaysian Drama Is More Interesting Than TVB Drama

2008 saw a new time high in Malaysia's political scene. 8th March 2008, the political tsunami finally taught the ever-arrogant BN a lesson. Though the BN still ruling the country by a simple majority, it seems that the Dollah government does not seem to know how to please the people. We were slapped with a 41% petrol price hike (it's still seriously painful to most of us) then come this July a 18% increase of electricity for residence, in which earlier this year Najib brushed off news of price hike in petrol, this indicates that Ministers also human, they do LIE. Our PM also lied, making the tag team of Dollah-Najib Liar Liar. Then we have SAPP issue. More interestingly, read this following article, to believe or not to believe, totally up to you. So much more drama to watch and I cannot wait till the finale.







Sorry for the non-update for the past few days, there is no other reason than work that is keeping me away from other personal stuff. Got to also accompany my girlfriend friend. This morning slept at 4AM, went to this new nightclub in PJ, The Vivo Club (you know those club with overpriced Swing & with GROs sitting with you), blardy tired and sleepy now.

Today after work will be away for Mahjong and over the weekend I participated in some game organized by the Mix.FM Roadrunner team, I won the premiere screening for Run Fatboy Run.





Signing off for now. Though market is bad, I wonder why the corporate sales side (my department) is doing so well. It must be me... AHEM AHEM... must be I am a damn good strategist *perasan*

Back to work now... DUH?!?!?

B2B Commercial Seminar & Roadshow

Short Note: Typhoon Level 1 Red Alert in Hong Kong today (18/04/2008)



My trip to Macao was not all fun like in the previous post. This post will elaborate more on my 2nd & 3rd day in Macao in more details. The seminar officially started on the 14th April, basically it was a seminar for the internal LG staff and the roadshow was on the next day on the 15th April. I came with a co-worker in my department. Unlike the consumer electronics business, this seminar I attended, stressed on Biz-2-Biz (B2B), more leaning towards commercial or corporate sales. Many would not have know the importance in Malaysia yet but we soon to see a booming as we all know Malaysia is always slow in adapting new stuff.



So what actually is the product we talking about here? It is more on digital signages & TV with hotel mode. In many other more developed countries, fluorescent light advertisement board & neon lights slowly extincting. Welcoming LCD technology into digital signages world. It is amazing to see how software does magic to these screens.





From left to right. The very first large screen of 4 pieces is what we call the video wall. It can go as many screens combinations as you like, imagine 9x9 42" screens across or 1x16 screens horizontally, how impressing it is to onlookers. Fluorescent box & neon lights are so dull & plain and the consumers now are much sophisticated than before, go to Venetian, you will see more LCD screens than any other hotel in the world. The second screen from the left is pivotal 3-sides, one of its kind. Too technical and interested party can always contact me. The third kinda of screen is more towards special stretched screens where it will replace those LEDs signages, or even be used in casinos, many casinos in Vegas already start using this kinda screens.



Besides the digital signages screens, we were introduced to the new hotel mode LCD TVs. With the extension of Visit Malaysia Year 2008, many hotels are doing revamping, who still want to stay in hotels with CRT TVs? LCD is the in thing now.



As these are seminar for distinguished guests from Asia Pacific including Middle East, Australia & New Zealand, there were sharing of ideology on how to improve the business and many success stories all over the world. Anyone interested in these screens in Malaysia, please drop me a mail k.



And for lowyat.net forumers who are following my blog, just a teaser on the LG Voyager phone to be launched in US.





And for those 2-days of seminar & roadshow, my next post will be on a short city tour in Macao. More photos coming along.





Out of topik sikit - I was following on some other political blogs in Malaysia and I got a message to this old man who started blogging sebab pasal BN kalah internet war at the GE-12. Ali Rustam, jangan sekadar nak rakyat komen yg bagus, dan tak terima yg tak bagus, pakai otak sikit kalau nak blog, get your facts right, kalau nak blog, terima lar kritikan juga, penakut macam you, bagus tutup blog site you. Malu oi Melaka! I am a Malaccan you know, though you win, I never regret my vote went the other way. If you guys got no idea what am I ranting about, this Mat Ali wrote about piggy story bashing the new Selangor government, after Malaysiakini found out who spearhead the project, this mamat deleted his post and disabled his comment but kita rakyat bukan bodoh, nak menang undi internet bukan senang mat, check here to read the 300+ bashings from the rakyat before this mamat deleted the post. Hadiah kandang babi tu sebelum ni satu lagi projek Barisan Nasional. BERANI KERANA BENAR!!!



Kandang Babi Thumb Up!

LG KF600 : Mikemmery's Review

My fellow forumers, here the special request on the review. Please note that I am not a professional reviewer of a mobile gadget, I am reviewing the unit as a mobile user and this is not an advertorial.



Since I am a user of a full touch screen phone, I have real difficult times to get use to this new interface. LG KF600 is a slider phone, rather innovative of them to embed a partial touch screen on the main LCD. When it is not slide up, the phone shows full wallpaper on both display LCD and touch screen LCD.



When slided up, it reveals a set of touch screen LCD menu and the chess board lookalike keypad. Like any other LG mobile, this runs on a LG sole proprietary OS & UI. Nothing much to shout about on the menu & applications. But one thing which I am impress is that the phonebook memory. A higher end LG Viewty only comes with a 500 entries phonebook memory whereby KF600 comes with a massive 1,000 entries.



Unlike the conventional slider phone, where you have the navigation cursor that tag along with the keypad, navigation made easier with the touchscreen and since LG PRADA, the touchscreen improve hell a lot as it allows both fingers & stylus access to it.



It also supports handwriting recognition for both alphabets & chinese (traditional & simple). It gives a new dimension altogether for messaging and characters input experiences. It supports up to 2GB MicroSD external storage. For detailed specs, please see here.

Now, let's talk a bit bout the camera. It comes with a 3.0MP AF camera, which I believe would be able to take decent picture for a camera phone that is available in the market now. As I am currently using KS20 (2.0MP), I took some pictures using my phone & KF600, let the pictures do the talking ya.



Unlike the pictures of the phone above which was compressed, the following pictures are original, unedited and uncompressed in whatsoever way. Click to enlarge.


Indoor pictures (Atria Shopping Mall 03/04/2008)


KF600, settings: 3.0MP, auto-focus, white balance incandescent


KS20, settings: 2.0MP, auto-focus, white balance indoor


Outdoor pictures (03/02/2008)


KF600, settings: 3.0MP, auto-focus, white balance cloudy (rainy day today!)


KS20, settings: 2.0MP, auto-focus, white balance cloudy


Macro pictures (03/04/2008)


KF600, settings: 3.0MP, auto-focus, white balance cloudy


KS20, settings: 2.0MP, auto-focus, white balance cloudy


All in all, KF600 is a decent phone but for its price, my 2 cents, it will be good if it is a 3G phone. And I believe many experience poor soft MP3 & ringtones playback on LG previous models, but since Shine, it had improved tremendously. Too pricey though, retailing RM1,138 in the market now.

But heck care, I still like my KS20 more :P

LG KS20 Extras & Owners List

OK... OK... I know for the past few postings, it is all about LG KS20 and I am motivated to write more and I just cannot get enough of it. Not "song"? Shoot me then :P

I received a surprise call last night from a reader asking me about the applications that I installed to my KS20. So here, I googled and got some of the screenshots for a better picture of what installed. Forgive me, as I have not got my new notebook approved so bear with me with this old junk I am using now which I have difficulties sync-ing it with my Outlook at the moment, once I got hold of my new ultimate machine, I shall write more about my sync experience with Outlook soon. So to the KS20 lovers, enthusiasts out there, here you go...


SPB Mobile Shell - An extended to the plain default Today's screen. This screen will appear when you wake your phone up from sleep mode. Screen that shows you summary of what's happening, the battery & signal indicators, calendars, etc.



SPB Mobile Shell Screenshots 2 - This is the extended Today's screen. You can easily access to certain programs on the Today's screen itself instead of going through the hassle of tapping the Start button on the top left corner of your handheld.



Owner Info X - This is extended to the default Owner's Information. You can add a display picture to it just like the screenshot above. It is a freeware. Do the googling k.



HTC X Button - This is essential as the default 'X' or 'OK' button of KS20 does not really close the applications. Many times if you check the memory of the running programs, it is always running at the background by default, it will definitely slow your handheld, but with the X Button freeware, your applications will be closed properly.


PCM Keyboard - iPhone lookalike keyboard, I prefer this as it provides pure QWERTY feel and SMSing has never been easier. Another freeware as well.

And another solution I believe would be useful. The KS20 by default does not include SIM Manager like the HTC Tytn which enable user to copy all SIM contacts into phone contacts. In other words, KS20 users would need to copy the SIM contacts one by one into the phone. Pretty lame isn't it? Problem solved - get your 3rd party freeware here.

Now I cannot imagine my life without Google.

OK... now KS20 enthusiasts out there, do participate in the owners list program that I initiated, register here. So far as of now, I have 3 people in the list from LowYat forum. The owners are as below
1. Michael Song aka cybermick @ LowYat
2. StratOS @ LowYat
3. jackal_x2005 @ LowYat

Questions: Do I need to register to start an owners club? What are the procedures? And reason of doing this is that, the owners opinions & voices can be louder and heard if there is huge participation and who knows certain accessories we can get at a discounted rate if we purchase in bulk.

ps: wish list for KS20: 1. Micro SDHC 8GB, 2. Leather Pouch, 3. External GPS device :)