Milk Tea in August

What is the Malaysian identity?

2012-09-06T22:30:00.000+10:00

This post was dug up from my old (now deleted) blog... dated Thursday, 24 Nov 2005

"What is the Malaysian Identity?"

In college, we've been asked to create designs that represent the Malaysian identity so many times that I had to put some serious thought to answering it for real.

Here goes...

For many, the definition of Malaysian Identity is mixing 2 or more elements from different ethnic cultures together. You can say that we live in a nation with many different races and we celebrate 'Kongsi rayas'(Chinese New Year + Hari Raya) and 'Deepa rayas'(Deepavali + Hari Raya), in notions of a truly undivided people in a truly united country. But under the facade, we are essentially very different from one another.

For me, the Malaysian identity should be defined not by the somewhat shallow efforts of attempting to put everything into one bowl.

You can say that we have a country-wide cravings for good, cheap food. That there is such a huge variety of fusion foods we have in Malaysia. That everyone wears batik on formal occasions. That we have fashion designers who would marry Batik motives with the Chinese tops or create designs by including two or more cultural elements from the many different Malaysian cultures.

Indeed these are beautiful attempts that should be lauded for their efforts alone, yet does the mere plastering of 2 distinctive culture create another unique identity? Not any unique identity, but the Malaysian identity?

Your answer might be different, but mine is definitely a NO. You can't put a dog and a cat together and say that they represent the united animal kingdom. But you can have a kitten and a puppy grow up together in one roof and become loving companions for life.

The Chinese were from China, the Indians were from India, and the Malays were from Bugis people from Majapahit? Srivijaya? Or somewhere from the land four, five hundred years ago which we now call Indonesia. Dig as you might our histories from the past, what's important is that we're all under one same roof now, a place which we ALL call home.

The uniqueness of our identity is not merely in the mixture of food, dance, language, art, festivals, and traditions but the way we open ourselves to embrace the mixture.

These are my two cents. I do not pretend that I can define the Malaysian identity. But let's all have a part in it and start putting some thought to it. And maybe, the Malaysian identity will start to surface into the light.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
P.S. Corrected some of my grammar and spelling mistakes in the post. Because *OMG* some of the sentences were terrible. >_<"

Challenge - Buy only what you need

2012-09-04T01:43:00.002+10:00

Check out my stash of nail polish..!

I have a problem. A serious problem. I buy too much stuff I don't need. I would go crazy whenever I visit a pharmacy, suddenly from wanting to get a toothbrush, I would end up with at least four or five other items that I didn't know I wanted from eye drops to nail polishes to liquid hand wash. On top of that I buy at least 4 items of clothing a month online and offline, and this is after seriously "trying" to cut down my shopping urges.

I googled up articles on smarter shopping and how to buy only what you need and found this great read on Oprah.com - "Do You Need to Go on a Buying Diet? - By Martha Beck"

I think what the author says is very true. Instead feeling deprived when we try not to buy things we want, we should focus on the abundance of stuff we already own. It will seem ridiculous to buy another nail polish when you have 40 bottles, isn't it?

So this month, I'm going to do something about this terrible habit. Starting from today, I vow not to buy anything I do not need, by this I mean items such as cosmetics, clothes, books, electronics, anything I buy needs to be replacing an old item or something that has run out, like shampoo or conditioner etc.

Sounds like a plan. Since I already have a wardrobe full of clothes, a table full of notebooks, bookshelf full of books, shoe rack full of shoes, I think I will survive.

Food and drinks don't count since we need to eat and drink to survive hehe... and I love food too much.. :)

3 September 2012, Monday

Lunch - RM6.70
Mineral water - RM1.00
Chatime - RM4.90
Toll - RM4.20
----------------------
Total : RM16.80
----------------------

Thoughts:
- Successfully stopped myself from buying a yellow top that I didn't need at a boutique after dental checkup at Desa Park City. *Celebrates*
- Bought a bottle of mineral water to drink on the way home (But I should have brought my own.. Tomorrow I will bring my bottle)

Further reading:
How to buy only what you love and need - Apartment Therapy

Oprah.com - "Do You Need to Go on a Buying Diet? - By Martha Beck"

Change.org

2012-08-29T02:12:00.000+10:00

Change.org is a social action platform that empowers anyone, anywhere to start, join, and win campaigns to change the world.

Do your part and sign this petition! Get CLEO Australia to stop using altered images on their magazine.

AirAsia Empty Seat Option! Get empty seats next to you on the flight!

2012-04-22T13:34:00.000+10:00

I'm a sucker for advertising and marketing ploys, I must admit.

AirAsia is very good in getting every dollar out of me. Should I take the 15kg bag? or 20kg? Should I get in-flight entertainment or no entertainment..? Shall I pick my seat?

I tend to end up with an additional of RM400 in meals, in-flight entertainment, baggage allowance and seat choice in most cases. AirAsia, good on you!

However, today was something different. I received an email from AirAsia regarding my upcoming flight to Melbourne in May. This was what was attached in the email...

Get empty seats next to you from RM 20! You won't have to guess what next... I clicked on the banner.. and was offered the "chance" of having empty seats next to me.

I believe there is nothing more wonderful than having an empty seat next to you in a full flight. No big person next to you, invading your space, no accidental awkward brushing of your elbows on the arm rest
which is clearly big enough only for one elbow.. If anyone have tried to put two elbows on it, the result will be a teeny 2 cms of elbow resting space per person.. hardly satisfying.. No one needing to get out to go to the lavatory except yourself - fantastic!

And of course, you can have a side table for your bags, your books, and stretch out your legs across the seats!

The most awesome thing I've ever heard on an airplane

Even the oatmeal made a comic out of it... which are my sentiments exactly.. Hahaha..

So, naturally, I paid for the Empty Seat Option provided by Optiontown for AirAsia which, naturally, cost more than RM20.. It was around RM240 in total.. because they charged a total of $79 in USD.

So how it works is, an email will be sent to you 1-3 days before departure to confirm your empty seats. Otherwise, the empty seat price will be fully refundable if not assigned to you.

Looking forward to an enjoyable flight next month! :) *Fingers crossed* Don't disappoint me!

Learning to de-clutter my desk (and perhaps my life)

2012-04-16T02:57:00.000+10:00

My desk is constantly cluttered with way too many things. I have things that I am currently working on, stuff that I'm not working on but should have been working on, notes, notebooks, post-its, random pieces of brochures and collateral that I collect because they were pretty and inspirational. I was too busy to organize my desk, and if I ever did get it cleared (once in 6 months), it would just return to the same state a few busy, chaotic days later.

I used to explain to my colleagues, friends, and even my bewildered mother who totally could not understand how I worked with the mess on my desk, that being cluttered was good for creativity. You could have one reference on top of another and another bit of inspiration here and there.

But eventually, I found that the best feeling I had was when my table was clean and empty, like it was at the time when I first bought it from IKEA. It was a clean environment to be productive. Nothing getting in your way, nothing cluttering your peripheral vision. It makes things easier to find, it also reduces stress and chaos.

So today, I'm going to clear it so that nothing remains on it, nothing but my iMac, keyboard, mouse and notebook. Even the tissue box and alarm clock will have to go. I'm looking forward to that sexy minimalist desk already! :)

Before...

After!

Links:

Today I stumbled upon zenhabits.com, a blog with a wealth of articles written about personal development, simpler living, how to live life and be happy.

Zen Habits is about finding simplicity in the daily chaos of our lives. It’s about clearing the clutter so we can focus on what’s important, create something amazing, find happiness.

Leo Babauta - zenhabits.com

Since it has thousands of articles, I suggest you start reading here where you will find some of the most popular posts.

Type Connection - Find matching typefaces!

2012-03-31T05:04:00.000+11:00

Type Connection - A typographic dating game

Splash page of http://www.typeconnection.com/

Type Connection sports a lovely clean design that immediately draws me in to play the game. I admit that typography, as much as I try, is not one of my strengths, and I always struggle when it comes to choosing fonts for a design.

I would be scrolling through a whole list of fonts and then ending up using the few "safe" fonts that have worked for my previous layouts. And I rarely travel out of my comfort zone in mixing different families of font together for the fear of it being unsuitable together.

However, this game has inspired me to try more funky mixes. Time for some typography experiments!

Choose a font family to begin the game~

The game tries to let you match up fonts using 4 main strategies :

Personal preference would be to "Embrace the other". I think the ability to mix a serif and a sans serif would result in great contrast and add visual interest for sure.

This one one of the matches that I made in the game! Lovely!

A little rationale on why it works...

I didn't continue playing the game because I got a bad losing streak after my first try.. Here are 20 great combinations that they have listed out..

View them here →

This site was a MFA thesis project of Aura Seltzer. I must say, what a fun thesis project!!

The Hungry Hog restaurant in SS15 Subang Jaya

2012-03-26T02:39:00.000+11:00

Today, we returned for our second helping of porky goodness at the Hungry Hog, SS15

The last time I was here, I ordered bangers and mash for RM15.90, which were two home made pork sausages with mashed potatoes & onion gravy.. The gravy was the bomb.. ! So you should soak up as much gravy as possible when eating the sausage or mash.. and especially the caramelized onion bits... Yum!

Excuse the photo quality - iPhone camera :(

Today I had the 3 Little Pigs Burger.. pork patty, ham, and bacon in one big burger.. it was a huge plate.. and great value for RM15.90. And because we didn't get to order the sides the last time because they ran out around 8pm.. I greedily ordered Bacon strips (RM10.90) and Keropork(RM5.90) as sides... Bacon strips were heavenly, and Keropork, which are crispy fried pork skin was sinfully yummy..

3 little pigs burger

A tad bit on the pricey side, 6 bacon strips for RM10.90

Keropork! Love the name of this side dish and for RM5.90 you can't go wrong.. Came with a dip of vinegar.. which completes this super crispy fried pork skin... although fried in oil, it doesn't drip oil or feel too oily in your mouth.. if you get what I mean...

We managed to finish our mains(minus the fries) but the Keropork had to be taken home.. It really was a huge bowl of pork skin... But after this meal, I'm going to have to redeem myself with salad for two meals tomorrow... haha...

Hungry Hog contact (from their website - hog.my)

Email: thehungryhog@gmail.com

Tel: +6012 - 225 0877

Facebook Page: The Hungry Hog

Hours:
Lunch: 12pm - 2:30pm
Dinner: 6pm - 10pm
Closed on Mondays

Address:
71, Jalan SS15/4C, 47500 Subang Jaya

London Trip - Spring 2012 (Part 1)

2012-03-26T00:33:00.001+11:00

Loved the typography seen on shop signage and store fronts in London!!

Nice art deco font on this patisserie

Caffe Nero is everywhere.. looks like there have more outlets than Starbucks

Tea House.. love the windows

Simple reminder on the streets to tell you where to look before crossing..

The tiny Twinings store on 216 Strand, London

LV store front.. All white!

Coming soon~ Part 2 - Buildings / Architecture in London

Waze App : Fight traffic jams and get the best way to go somewhere!

2012-03-22T06:19:00.002+11:00

I've downloaded the Waze app a while ago because M kept raving about it.. But I haven't used it yet... However, today I decided to check out their website... The thing that made me download the app in the first place was because of its cute logo... I couldn't help it! (I know its pretty insensible to be judging an app by its icon logo.. but people work in weird ways)

Take a look at the little smiley car thingy! Doesn't it make you wanna smile? Haha.. it definitely made my day... looking at the animations in the video...

www.waze.com

The website was full of surprises... There was even this embed code to let you add this cute little video to your blog! And because its super cute.. I had to embed the video below: Click on "Go" to view!

Tomorrow I'm going to take the app for a spin... See if its going to help me get to work without the jam!

Currently jet lagged from the trip to London(which I will blog about soon!) but determined to wake up early tomorrow! RAWR!

My Tattlys are here!

2012-03-21T03:19:00.000+11:00

Came home to a lovely surprise in the mail today... They're the Tattly temporary tattoos I've ordered..

(Photos from my iphone)

They arrived in the post in a lovely thick recycled kraft paper card stock envelope and an envelope containing all the tatts...

Here are the ones I bought... Popsicles, bunny, camera, tattone, focus and workisnotajob. They gave me a free one - Love what you do! :)

I feel like a child again.. seeing these cute temporary tattoos.. the instructions are simple to follow and they're on the back of the tatts..

First, cut to shape(if necessary) and peel the plastic paper..

Place the tattoo facedown onto clean and dry skin.. then place wet cloth on top for 30 seconds.. (forgot to take a pic of just the tattoo facing down..

Peel off the paper and put it under running water...

At this point the tatt is still a little tacky and sticky... but it looks fab no?

The only down side is it comes off pretty easily as temporary tattoos are wont to do... Some parts of the k came off after accidentally rubbing on it :(

Docracy

2012-03-07T15:00:00.000+11:00

Legal document templates that are free to use / edit / improve

Docracy is a social repository of legal documents. Docracy’s mission is to make useful legal documents freely available to the public.

How does Docracy work?

Anyone can upload or write a new document, or branch, edit and improve existing documents either for the community or for personal use. Documents are private by default: only you can see and edit them. If you make them public, only you, as the owner, will be able to edit them (thus creating new versions), but other people will be able to branch them, privately or publicly.

http://www.docracy.com/

Cutest designer temporary tattoos by TATTLY!

2012-03-06T03:10:00.000+11:00

Who would have thought temporary tattoos can be so lovely!?

I would definitely buy these from my little sister! They're too adorable! In fact, I want some of them myself... !

I'm buying popsicles, workisnotajob. and TATTONE, Skin pantone!

Pictures via - http://tattly.com/

The Eatery App

2011-11-04T03:49:00.000+11:00

eatery.massivehealth.com

Found a new iPhone app that was very similar to what I wanted to build at the Hackweekend..

Unfortunately, there were not many programmers who were interested in eating healthy perhaps. So there were no takers when I pitched the idea.

Nevertheless, I'm happy someone has built it, so now we can all benefit from watching what we eat.

The Eatery is a simple app that you fire up at every meal and keep track of what you eat everyday.

Your eating habits, whether healthy or unhealthy will be beautifully displayed in graphs.

Although I must say, I don't know if the social rating way of deciding whether food is healthy really works. You can't really tell whether the food is really healthy based on just a photo. So the model might be flawed.

However, since they are branding themselves as a "Massive health experiment" I am willing to give it a spin and try to stick to the plan, tracking everything that I eat for 2 weeks. Will report back if it is worth a try!

Urban Decay Naked Palette & some new accessories from Diva :)

2011-06-12T22:32:00.002+10:00

I finally have the Urban Decay Naked eye palette. Thanks to my lovely sis, who sent it all the way from US! I think this will be all the eye shadow I ever need for a long long time. Given that I am a fan of neutrals and looking natural. :)

It comes in 12 sexy neutral shades : Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar, Buck, Half Baked, Smog, Darkhorse, Toasted, Hustle, Creep & Gun metal

I must say that I am super smitten! This might even encourage me to put on make up much more since they're such pretty shades!

Here's a recent photo, using Sin + Toasted.

Cannot really see much, but I like it that way..

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips Review

2011-05-22T22:03:00.001+10:00

The packaging

I was in Melbourne attending the AGIDEAS design forum 2 weeks ago. My friend Yan told me to look out for these wonderful Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips that were hitting the Melbourne pharmacies in March 2011. I went around many pharmacies and only found 1 pharmacy in the CBD which sold these. Even the Bourke Street huge Priceline Pharmacy didn't carry them or were sold out when I was there.

So, girls in Melbourne, you can get yours at Priceline Melbourne Central near Lonsdale Street. I am not sure if they have it in Malaysian pharmacies as of now, I haven't checked. Because I'm hooked! You'll see why later.

Most reviews said the price was usd$9.99 but in Melbourne they were selling for aud$14.90 (RM48) which is comparable to having a manicure done. As much as I love them, unless they sell it at a more competitive price, these won't be on my dressing table too often. :(

I'm going to show you the one that I bought, Skinny Jeans, which is a denim print. I chose this because its a polish that you can't get even if you went to a nail salon to do your nails.

Here are the contents, 2 foil wrapped nail strips 16 strips in
various sizes, one cuticle stick, and one nail file/buffer

First, the instructions tell you to gently push your cuticles back and smoothen your nail with the smooth side of the buffer and to give nails one last swipe of nail polish remover to remove any excess dirt & oil. This step is important because if you had dirt, oil or moisturiser on your nails, the strip wouldn't stick properly.

The instructions booklet

I did all the preparation steps as instructed and proceeded to open one foil pack with strips. You should leave the other one unopened as they would dry up and lose their stickiness after a while. You'll smell the familiar smell of nail polish which is what these strips are actually. They are real nail polish but dried.

Gently peel off the clear protective sheet first.

Then peel the nail polish strip off from the silver tab.

After that, break the tab away, and find the side that suites your nail the most. You will notice both ends are of a slightly different size and shape. Best pick the right size before you begin. Then I stuck the first strip on my thumb. Push around with the tip of your fingers(not nails) the strip is pretty fragile at this stage.

Sticking it down was easy enough, but now comes the tricky part. It says to bend the excess strip over the edge of your nails and file using the hot pink side of the nail file in a downward motion. I wasn't too sure at this point because my brain logic is telling me that the nail file is not sharp, how can it cut the excess strip? LOL

But if you just do as the instructions say, you will find that the excess strip does get trimmed off by the rough side of the nail file. You can use the flat side of the cuticle stick to flatten or smooth over the sticker near your cuticles.

So far, one nail down, I'm impressed. No dry time! Looks perfect and impossible to replicate nail pattern! <3

One thing to note is really really be gentle when filing, I ruined my second nail because I was too quick about it. And then I tried to peel it off which resulted in this.

Don't peel it! As the strip is made of nail polish, just take out your nail polish remover and wipe it off.

Here's another view on bending the nail over to file it off.

After about 15-20 minutes, I've finished sticking them on all my fingers. Here's the end result.

I've only used one foil tab of 8 nails because most of the nail polish strips are super long and actually can be cut in two and used twice. So you can actually make these more worth it. =)

Kekeke.. I'm so stingy.. but don't waste lah...

Update: 5 days later my nails are still going strong. The one on my left hand is still pretty intact.

Considering I didn't put any top coat on, they're quite lasting. Let's see if they can last up to 10 days like the box claimed.

Right hand got a bit of a chip on my thumb. Guess can't help it
cause I use my right hand more than my left.

YesLife? No. Not really international roaming and 3G data roaming charges apply.

2011-05-21T18:08:00.000+10:00

When YES pre-launched their 4G network in November 2010 allowing people to sign up for a free number, I signed up to claim a 018 number but did not activate the service after learning that I needed to carry an extra thing(Huddle, Go dongle) or to switch to another phone to use it.

If I were to need my laptop, yes, perhaps I would be happy to use a Go / Huddle, but to carry an extra item just to get 4G on my iPhone, perhaps not. After I switched to the iMac, I rarely bring my MacBook around anymore and rely almost entirely on my iPhone to check Google Maps for direction, search for information on the go etc.

27" iMac = 2 full sized browser windows side by side!

Last week, YesLife was launched and there was some buzz going around town about how the iPod/iPad can now make calls and the video claimed that there would be no international roaming charges*. Note that there's an asterisk next to that claim. Watch below around 1:33.

Plus enjoy NO roaming charges* while abroad. Wow, really?

As a traveller who's been hit with expensive international roaming / data roaming charges in the past, if there's an app that would help me save money, I would definitely try it. See my roaming bill in China from Maxis last year. (Sorry for the low quality scan)

Total = RM1,123.75 Crazy right?

Coming back to YesLife app, I did some research on the yeslife.my website FAQ / Called up the support helpline and confirmed that:

YesLife can be used overseas with Wi-Fi / 3G but not the Yes 4G network because they do not have coverage overseas
You must have constant internet access to use YesLife app (and the app has to be turned on in the background on the Apple iOS devices to receive calls to the 018 number)

This video confirms it too:

"It'll run on any 3G connection, wifi connection, edge connection or any connection that's got decent quality. You'll be able to make and receive phone calls and SMS using YesLife. And therefore, you don't have to pay all these exorbitant international voice roaming bills."
- Wing K Lee, CEO YTL Comms

So, YesLife requires data to do "international roaming" overseas. In order to find out how much data roaming charges cost, we need to find how much bandwidth does YesLife application uses.

I had a friend to help cause I didn't know how. He did something called a packet trace and found that YesLife uses G729 codec in the voice call.

According to the VOIP Bandwidth Calculator , including IP overheads, G729 compression uses approximately 24kbps (kilo bits per second). That means, every minute (60 seconds) you talk, you may consume about 1.4mb of data usage.

Again, I called up all Malaysian Mobile operators to see how much that would cost me...

In Singapore / Australia (on roaming)

Maxis - RM 30.80/mb
Celcom - RM 20/mb (providing you're roaming with M1 network in SG / Vodafone in AUS)
DiGi - RM 38/mb

1-minute call on 3G data roaming using YesLife / Skype / Viber :

Maxis = RM43.12
Celcom = RM28
DiGi = RM53.20

So if I made just 5 minutes of supposedly free international roaming calls on YesLife unknowingly on my Digi line in SG/AUS, I would have been charged RM266.00! What?! My current monthly bill is only RM73+.

Many people tell me they can survive on using Whatsapp / Skype / Viber alone while overseas, but I think its not that easy. In my last Melbourne trip, I left Malaysia without knowing that my new Digi iPhone plan had no international roaming activated. It was horrible. My phone was virtually useless with no coverage at all.

And to make matters worse there were no free wi-fi spots in the melbourne airport. In the end, desperate, I paid aud$6 (RM19.25) for only 30 mins of WiFi in the airport to whatsapp my friend who was coming to pick me up.

Melbourne South Bank - taken with Photosynth

So don't be going down under hoping you can have free WiFi access everywhere. No such luxury there. I bought an Optus micro-SIM card and reloaded it with aud$30 (RM96.30) for 500mb data plus aud$300 credits which was the best plan out there for an iPhone 4 user who needs their data.

With that, I got to use 3G like I'm used to at home. I do admit that it's a pretty steep price, but compared to the data roaming charges from Maxis/Digi/Celcom, this is way cheaper.

Here's a comparison chart I've made based on the rates given.

Conclusion, making calls via Data Roaming is even more expensive than the existing international roaming calls using Maxis/Celcom/Digi.

But there is another solution. FlexiRoam, only RM10/day with unlimited calls.

Advantages of FlexiRoam :

FlexiRoam does not require data at all to work. It works on normal GSM mobile networks.
Unlimited making & receiving calls! Only local charges apply (means RM0.10/min)
Since I need to buy an overseas SIM card anyway(cause it's too expensive otherwise see above), I can get a SIM that has data included.
I don't have to inform people of my overseas number, and can receive/make calls from my Malaysian number, which is the whole point of roaming
Don't need to activate international roaming (like me) but can receive calls on Malaysian mobile! Amazing.

Disadvantages of FlexiRoam :

Cannot receive SMS to my Malaysian phone while I'm overseas, unless I am a Digi customer with International Roaming activated and I carry a second phone to receive SMS. However, I can still use my overseas SMS as per usual.
Must have call forwarding activated on my phone.

Who should use FlexiRoam?

People who need to stay constantly connected to Malaysia on their Malaysian phone numbers.
People who are traveling to places with no free Wifi coverage (Japan / Australia - my personal experiences)
People who already buy overseas SIM card while traveling overseas.
People who don't want the hassle of informing their family/friends/business contact their overseas number.
People who want to save money on roaming bills.
People who don't want to come home to RM1,000 bills.
People who receive more than 3 minutes of calls a day and make more than 1 minute call a day. Then you justify your savings.
People who want to have no worry when they make calls overseas.

Check out FlexiRoam Unlimited International Roaming, cause you might need it for your next trip overseas.

Cheers,

If you have any questions, leave a comment and I will try to answer them to my best.

[Disclaimer: I work at FlexiRoam, but the above post is all of my personal experience, opinion and observation.]

Update: More Groupon Clones

2011-01-23T16:43:00.000+11:00

I Love Discounts .my (Latest!)

www.ilovediscounts.my

- They're advertising on Radio. (Heard on FlyFM)

- Pretty lovely design. The colour is mostly black and white with a hot pink accent. Which works pretty well.

- Currently available in the Klang Valley and Penang.

View my previous post on Malaysia Groupon Clones.

Groupon Clones in Malaysia

2010-12-30T04:23:00.001+11:00

Dealmates (Latest!)
www.dealmates.com
- This groupon clone is new! They are launching soon. First 1,000 people to sign up stand a chance to win an iPad or RM10 credit.
- One of the two Groupon clones in Malaysia with .com urls. (the rest have .com.my)
- Their web domain seems like a good descriptive name
- They have quite an awesome motion graphics video explanation of what their site is about :)

Check It Out
checkitout.com.my
- First saw Check It Out from Facebook Advertisements in early Sept 2010. I "checked it out" and signed up for the pre-launch. But when it did launch, I was disappointed by the site design.

- The navigation is not clear and there is no option to view past deals.

- Also, clicking on "check it out" link on the navigation doesn't bring you to the current deals, it brings you to a page with lengthy paragraphs of text. After landing on this page, I had no idea how to get back to the "Deal" page so I promptly left the site.

- By the way, what a distracting logo, red gradient logo text with white stroke on black background plus a bunch of tiny people holding colourful shopping bags. It looked better when it was bigger(in the beta site), but now that it is resized to a smaller size, they should cut the details and simplify the logo to ensure legibility.

Group Ego

groupego.com.my

- Seems to be aiming at the chinese speaking market with a chinese name 酷易购 (roughly translates to Cool Easy Buy)

- But I noticed this similarity between Group Ego's site and Wow Deal(listed below) it looks exactly the same!

- I guess both sites didn't bother to change the images from the script the bought from here. Check out the screenshot of the demo below:

- I think they should at least change the graphics even if they were to buy a script to run their own Groupon clone. And I guess if you are not dedicated enough to create your own identity, it would be hard to succeed in the long run.

GroupsMore
groupsmore.com.my
- I have bought 3 deals from this site to date. I would say that payment is really easy(credit card/online bank transfer) and they have integrated Facebook Connect for an easier sign up process. Perhaps Facebook Connect is also the reason they are reaching their target of 50,000 users in a mere 4 months.

- I think the site design conveys fun and confidence to the users with their slick design. I'd give GroupsMore two thumbs up! Hopefully they will continue to serve up interesting coupons for us.

- Feedback from Pedicure worth RM43 at Sommerset, Bangsar bought for RM21.50 - The lady who was trimming dead skin off my toes didn't do a good job. She accidentally cut too deep and I was jolted a little by the pain. I think she didn't realize she had just cut off part of my toe, as she put my foot back into the basin to soak like nothing happened.

After she finished trimming the other foot(a good 5-10 mins later), she took the foot out again to start painting the nails which was when she saw that it was bleeding. She said sorry a few times and asked me what she should do. I asked if there were any antiseptics. She went off to rummage in the cupboards and found none. So in the end she sprayed some liquid on it and continued painting my nail. There was no compensation of any sort after that. (Photo of the cut below)

- For the record, they did a good job painting my nails(pictured above, please ignore the veins), no signs of chipping and it has been more than 2 weeks since. I would have gone back again if not for the cut.

MyDeal
mydeal.com.my
- My Deal covers a few cities such as Johor Bahru(coming soon), Penang, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur(of course). They seem to have sold many coupons, with one of the latest deals reaching 1263 buyers!

- Apart from catering to other cities, My Deal has a cheerful character in their logo, which in my opinion stands out from the rest of the groupon clones.

Orange Deal
orangedeal.com.my

- Orange Deal has only posted 3 deals to date, despite launching with a boom with an event that was covered on the Star(view news article here).

The Sun Daily Deal
dailydeal.sun2surf.com
- Seemed to have stopped updating. November 26, 2010 was their last deal.

Wow Deal
wowdeal.com.my
- I think they are pretty new as well. Not too sure about it but there seems to be no one purchasing deals just yet.

- Apart from blatantly using the purchased script's original imagery, they have also messed up the optimization of the images and have left some pixelated images on their "Tour" section near the top. (see above)

Facebook's lousy compressed photo quality

2010-12-17T02:08:00.000+11:00

I am incredibly upset with the terrible compression of profile photos on Facebook. Facebook profile pictures or photos just doesn't look good. Especially when they are in RED! And more so when they are simple flat graphics or logos.

This terrible problem came up when I was working with a client who needed a banner created for their Facebook fan page. And in the past hours I have been tweaking the same logo in hopes that I somehow find hue of red that might be spared from the Facebook profile photo compression. But I've failed and all I could do was to explain that it was "Facebook's" fault.

I tried everything, even putting a bit of texture onto the background didn't work. So I went looking at other Facebook pages with red in it.. And I found that I wasn't alone!

Here are some examples of other red logos that look horrible on Facebook due to the compression.

http://www.facebook.com/joinred

http://www.facebook.com/RedmondPie

http://www.facebook.com/RedTix

These on the other hand, look okay...

http://www.facebook.com/redmusiconline

http://www.facebook.com/RED

http://www.facebook.com/DietCoke

My advice is, if you are planning to put any logos with lots of plain red onto your facebook fan page or profile, make sure it is full of details so that it doesn't get compressed into schmuck. I have no better workaround at the moment, but I'd need to come up with some real soon. I have another job with red written all over it launching soon.

Heal Thy Fresh? - The importance of kerning

2010-10-06T14:21:00.000+11:00

This morning, I thought I accidentally discovered an engrish(http://www.engrish) moment on this packaging.

Written underneath the brand name Carefree, was "HEAL THY FRESH", quite a weird tagline.
Turn it right way up and it reads "Healthy Fresh" this could have been avoided by properly kerning the space between L and T...

Another important typography lesson for us designers, and perhaps we need to look at our designs from another perspective (sideways? Upside down?) to always ensure the quality of our designs.

Fried Assam Laksa at ss14 Subang Jaya, Well Cook Gourmet

2010-09-16T02:39:00.002+10:00

Today's lunch, the colleagues brought me to this place for fried assam laksa! Feeling more curious than adventurous, I ordered the small plate for RM6. I looked around and on almost every table, there would be a few plates of fried assam laksa, which confirms its popularity amongst the customers.

Sorry for the lousy photos.. They're taken with my iPhone camera. (Time to get the iPhone 4?)

Taste:
The noodles came to me at a very high temperature and it maintained that way till I finished eating. I think it is because they fry it in a wok with high heat. There are speckles of egg which makes the dish taste a little like Char Kway Teow. For me, it doesn't taste like the classic soupy assam laksa, but there are obvious hints of its origins with the spearmint leaves as garnish, the fresh onions and the pineapples.

So, my comment would be that it needed to be more sour and with more assam taste. My colleage said that usually on weekends, the fried laksa would be more sour than it was today. So I will have to come again to test it again.

And it was missing the obvious ingredient! Ikan! Fish! How could they have left that out. There were a few shrimps in there (again, making more like char kuay teow) but some fish flakes would have been perfect.

Well Cook Gourmet

I've passed this restaurant many times as it is in my neighbourhood, but I've never been inside. Moreover, the signboard says wan tan mee in chinese and my favourite wan tan mee is next door at Wong Soon Kee. Maybe they should publicize their popular dish on the outside instead of the wan tan mee.

Cleaned the plate. Yum!

Thank you Jef for recommending the place. Although 3 out of 4 of us had a trip to the toilet right after reaching the office, I wouldn't speculate about the cause of the toilet trips. After some Googling on the place, I found quite a few blog posts(with more spectacular photos) and one bad review.

Address:
Well Cook Gourmet
No. 74, Jalan SS 14/2,
47500 Subang Jaya,
Selangor

Tel: 012-6811623 or 012-6583738
website: http://wellcookgourmet.blogspot.com (wow they have a blog! Rare to find coffeshops with blogs ahha)

Awesome videos! Projection on Buildings & FreddieW amateur, but amazing special effects

2010-09-15T02:38:00.000+10:00

Saw this video a while ago. This was by Nuformer Projection hailing from the Netherlands. It is really amazing what people can do with video nowadays. By projecting onto a building facade, the animators play with light and shadow to create optical illusions that are so real you gotta touch the wall to know its fake.

On the other hand, FreddieW here does amazing stuff with After Effects and creative video shooting. I'd say they are pretty good at coordinating the shots. Not to mention pretty cool sound effects.

My fav: Rocket Jump - a classic move in Quake and other FPS(First Person Shooters).

And this parody of Kanye West's Power music video, Hilarious...

If you look through his list of videos you'll find several tutorials there mentioning his methods. Seeing these really gets me pumped up again to learn Adobe After Effects properly.

Today's catch

2010-04-21T00:57:00.000+10:00

Polka dot pumps :) from ShoezObsession

Super cute lip gloss, free with Lip Ice sheer colour lip balm

Sukin Organics - Australian Natural Skincare

2010-04-18T12:31:00.001+10:00

My friend discovered Sukin Organics skincare products in Priceline and after testing it urged me to try the cream cleanser.

I checked the bottle and read the label prior to testing. What interested me was this long list of what this line of products does NOT contain. NO Sodium Lauryl Sulphate, NO Artificial Fragrances, NO Petro-Chemicals, No Parabens and so on. Most of the chemicals that were on the list are harmful to the human body, some are cancer-causing, some are irritants, therefore it was assuring to find out that these things were NOT on their list of ingredients.

The cream facial cleanser is wonderful for its delicate smell and smooth texture. The best part is, it removes makeup and no oily residue remains on your skin afterwards! Well it's not as effective on waterproof mascaras, but the rest of the make up washes off easy with this. Besides, eye makeup should always be removed with eye makeup removers.

I loved it so much I wanted to buy some to bring home before I left Melbourne. I didn't get to do so because my luggage was severely overweight from trying to transport 2 years of stuff back. More woes of having too much stuff.

I swung by the local organics marts(which have sprung up like mushrooms in my suburb over the past few years) to search for Sukin and was delighted to find them on the shelves. I have just splurged and invested in a big bottle of hydrating body lotion, an infusion of aloe vera, nettle, horsetail and burdock combined with rosehip, avocado and jojoba oils. Packaged in a convenient pump bottle, just what I wanted. Easy to squeeze out what you need and apply. No tubes and jars tops to fumble with after getting your hands all moisturized.

After scrutinizing the bottle label further, I found that Sukin Organics is located in Albert Park. It soothes me to know that I have a part of Melbourne back here albeit in the form of facial cleansers and body lotions.

Hopefully my scaly dry skin on my calves will be smooth and supple soon. =)

We should not clutter our houses with stuff!

2010-04-17T17:29:00.000+10:00

I think we have too much stuff. This realization came when I had to call up the shipping company for some packing boxes to send our stuff home. I ordered 18 boxes in total, the large ones measuring 61cm x 51cm x 41cm each and are equivalent to the volume of one and a half luggage bags while the smaller ones were 51cm x 41cm x 31cm.

In 2 years, the loft style apartment that we've been living in had literally become a junk yard of stuff that we don't use. There's barely enough space for us to walk without encountering more stuff with each step.

I lived in Osaka for 3 months in a pristine, white room with blue carpets. I kept the room relatively neat and uncluttered. The room almost had a zen like atmosphere about it which I enjoyed immensely.

I really yearn to be able to start from a clean slate and not have so much stuff. Perhaps I should try to do a spring clean session and see what I can get rid of in my room.

Check out this article by Paul Graham's entitled "stuff". Insightful reasoning to why we all tend to accumulate so much stuff.