Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Michael Jackson: The Greatest Comeback

Well, I guess, he can rest in peace. His wish for a one-off comeback has actually became his GREATEST comeback. Not only the >30yr olds are reciting his lyrics, even 5yr olds are singing to it!

Fact is, my first ever music album was MJ's Thriller album. This was a big deal coz at that time, a cassette was $12.90. And being consistently either 2nd or 3rd last in class, I had no reason to persuade my dad to buy one for me, other than being consistent.

But, since I looked stupid, it was easy to come up with a muka seposen to con my dad to buying it for me... I mean, who can resist a sad AND stupid face, right?

Anyway, I got the cassette and I promised him to start doing some school work. Eventhough it turned up that my dad listened to the cassette more than me.

In that little cassette, there's an instruction on how to do the moonwalk. That little booklet was always in my back pocket, alongside my yellow comb. Of coz, after some beatings, it usually landed on my big bro's pocket (yes, along with the comb), but it was that lil' booklet that taught me the moonwalk.

Picture courtesy of Azrena's magazines.

O well.

MJ; you have just made a comeback that even the Beatles could only dream of. Not just coz you have funky synthesizers in your music, but more for the lives you have touched with it.

That little moment in that little music store in Penang, where I got that cassette with that little moonwalk booklet, is probably one of the biggest moment of my life. I could never forget that moment, holding on to that cassette... with the face and all.

Dude, it was great knowing you (not that he can hear me, but please just play along, this is a closure for me) and thank you very much for the 'gifts' you've given me.

Heal the worrrld... *sob sob*... make it a bedda plaaaacceee.... *sob sob*... for youuu and for meeee... and the entire human race.... *bubye dude!*

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Welcome to the Twitter Age (What is Twitter?)

Smthng just happnd to me. My spellng has gone all wrng. Ths is life on earth; post-twitter age. So, the questn now is: xctly wht is TWITTER? Y izt such a rage tht evn Oprah is ridng on da wave?

Truth is. I really dnt knw. Wht I knw is tht I keep lookng up on my bb evytme it tweets. And tht is actually evry few mins of my livng life.

If u ask me wht do I get frm a twttng, I'd say, "less idlng time". Oh, and "bettr utlztn of my rm120/mth unlmted data plan".

Wld my life be any dffrnt w twtr? For now, defntly not. Its jus anthr additn 2 life's sprficial values. But, in the near future; lets jst say, once my kid has grown into a teenager, i'd wnt her on twtr 24x7. & she nds 2 twt on her evry sngle move. W attchd pic. As long s she does tht, i'd forgv her 4 her rpttve errors in spllng.

Some say twtr is micro-blogging. Sm say its anothr way to sms. Sm evn say twtr is just anthr fb sttus updte. I'd say, twtr is "self-brodcstng".

Jst lke a radio sttn, it brdcsts its pgm based on wht the sttn is all abt. & if u missd the brdcst, it wnt b replyed. Twtr is xctly like tht. But its an indvdual brdcst. If u miss a twt, u'd mssd it. Thts it. & 4 evry brdcst, the airtime is just 140letters at any 1 time.

Intrstng bit abt it is tht.. unlike radio sttn, twtr is intrctve. On this note, my dfntn of twtr has grwn to "intractv self-brdcstng". I convrse w my wife & frens on twtr. I got evry update on Wimbldn & EPL on twtr. I even get live-feed frm the local nwspapr on d latst news! N since its a brdcst, evry1 on the same 'freqncy' can 'c' the tweets or feeds. Whch can b annoyng (in a gud way) yet invitng at times.

Y twtr now? Not ystrdy? Well, it wont wrk ystrdy. Coz ystrdy, internet was only for porn. N mobility was just anthr science fction. Today, we've come to an age of 2.4Ghz, blckbrry, MIDs, netbks & free bloggng. Tho moblty is not yet on full swng, those w blckbrry (whch is moblty at its best) will testify tht they can c the bnfts of twtrng.

MID = mobile internet devices, btw.

So twtr, as simple as it seemed, works today. & its destned to b quite a way of life. I see tht it needs some fine-tuning, w spam n stuff, but just like how diamnds like frndstr were cut into a fine jewel like fb, twtr will b going thru a few evolutns until it bcomes part of a human culture. Till then, pls value the fine crft of spellng. Coz itll b gone soon :P

Monday, July 06, 2009

On Frederer, again (The Greatest Evah!)

This would probably be my last blog on Abang Frederer. Well, at least until the next Slam. But, now that he's a record holder of the most Slam titles, the question of "Is Frederer the greatest ever?" should be put to rest.

To me, he's da man. Holding on to top spot for 237wks takes a lot of discipline and self belief. Especially you have the likes of young strong players lurking on the rear mirror. Of the top 5 longest #1 rank holder of all time, he's the only non-American. In fact, him being Swiss is also a testament of how great he is, coming from a country not known to produce great tennis player.

Being one of the only 3 (in the open era) male singles player to ever won on all 4 Slams is also a testament of how awesome this brader is. Even the great Sampras have never won all 4. The other two are Rod Laver of the 60's and Agassi of the 90's.

And the sucker punch is; he doesn't even have a coach. In the Wimbledon finals, Roddick was an altogether new player. And reason #1; he's got a new coach. Nadal, Murray and almost the rest of the pros have a squadron of coaches, therapists and physicists. Not Frederer. Read here or Read here.

When Rog performance took a blip in 2008, people went like "seee, i told u that u need a coach!". But that statement came in after 4years+ at #1. And now, he's back at the top spot and still, without a coach or mentor. This guy comes up with strategies and tactics himself! Gila!

And to top it up, in '03, he founded the "Roger Frederer Foundation" that focuses on helping the disadvantaged. And with him being an active humanitarian such as UN's Goodwill Ambassador and UNICEF, we all should be happy to have such a champion.

So, a record was broken yesterday and I want to be part of history by blogging about this great man. With all time record of 15 Slam titles, his mastery in tennis should never be question. Do you notice that his power backhand swing is by using just 1 hand, not both hands? How kewl is that?

Enough from me. I'm biased anyway. Let's hear out what the rest of the pros or sport commentators think about him. Click here to bbc.co.uk blog.

Wimbledon '09

Roger Federer won a record 15th Grand Slam after beating Andy Roddick in an epic fifth set 5-7 7-6 7-6 3-6 16-14. (bbc.co.uk)

I followed thru almost every game, one with Frederer in particular. So with it over and out, from Monday onwards, I can now get back to my usual slumber routine at 10.30pm.

But before that, apart from Star Sports Channel, it was great following the event coverage thru Twitter @wimbledon. The guys at the end of the keyboard, or keypad, whatever, have done a stupendous job keeping the tweets interesting & fulfilling. The picture feeds were great. The RTs (retweets) from Serena, fans, whoevers, were like SMSes from friends.

For a game like tennis, where watching full-match replays is psychotic & suicidal, its great to get uplifting news, quotes & feeds via Twitter.

To Roddick & Frederer, it was a great 5-match finals. In the end, Frederer is da man. Even at the declining age of 28, he has again shown the world why he is such a living legend.

A world record of 15 Slam titles.

And still serving.

Friday, July 03, 2009

Why its Frederer over Nadal yada yada?

Frederer, with his 90's boy-band hairstyle, showing off his immense kung-fu
chop-style move without even looking at the ball. Picture from Wikipedia.


I'm very technical.
And my reasons are based on logical explanations.

Frederer, 28, held the #1 spot for a blistering 237weeks.

Nadal, his closest competitor is 23 yrs old. He's been #2 for a frustrating 160 weeks under Frederer's shadow. On Aug'08, Nadal took the #1 spot away from Frederer.

But is Nadal worthy enough to overshadow the great Frederer? Just think:
  • Frederer, at 28, is probably past his best and Nadal, 5 years younger, is rightful to grab the #1 spot. But, after '09 Wimbledon, Frederer might reclaim the #1 spot again.
  • So, the argument is: If Nadal is even as good as Frederer, why can't this bicep-pumping 23yr old defend his #1 spot against a 28yr old for even a year? Mind you, 5yrs difference is mega huge in this sport.
My predictions: Nadal will lose his #1 rank after '09 Wimbledon. Frederer will keep competing until probably 2010 and then retire. By then, Nadal would be happy that he'd have Frederer out of the picture. But, just as he wants to stay at the top spot, 22yr old Andy Murray will snatch it away from him. And come 2010, Murray could very well be the worthy successor of the great Frederer.

Why Murray will be the next greatness? Coz, just like Frederer, he doesn't make that Sharapova's constipating 'uuurrghh!' sound on every shot. Like Nadal does. So, go Murray GO!

Like I said, I'm very logical.

My first blog on Frederer was back in 2007 entitled Darth Frederer. Read it here.

BlackBerry, no added sugar. Just plain natural sweetness.


Life is sweet. I love RIM.

RIM is the maker of Blackberry. And Blackberry is sweet.

This will be another countless blog on Blackberry. A blog which I never bother to count. Coz its just so sweet.

As hippie as I sound, life is sweet with a Blackberry.

Ok. Over la.

The reason why I'm so Cloud 9 is because I just updated the firmware of my aging, old, calar-balar, comot, huduh and outdated 8310. See the pic at the top, guess which one is mine XX

Fact: My '07 BB looks just horrible against the Curve 8900, Storm or Bold. And while it serves its purpose as a 'dewa komunikasi', it still lags in terms of features.

But recently, RIM has announced a firmware upgrade for its older models. From profitability point of view, I can't see the view nor the point. But from customer relations, let's just say, RIM, I love you.

What OS ver4.5 offer from ver4.2 is mind-blowing. Especially when its free.

For example, 2 functions that I use extensively during my Nokia days were the voice recorder and video recording. Both absent from my 8310. Sob, sob.

Well, not anymore! :-)

And on top of that, my oldie baloney now has the exact interface of a Bold and Curve 8900. And if I can find the neon-looking theme, it would even look exactly like them!



*Send via BlackBerry* <-- another 'over' statement