Found this on someone's blog

Bai Hu - Tiger!Mythological Background: The tiger is associated
with strength and the desire for a challenge.
It is also associated with hope to win, or
rather, the blooming season. It is also linked
to meandering, or the ability to be in contact
with a lot of aspects. The tiger also stands
for war and soldiers fighting to the end, for
the sake of their country.

Which Chinese Mythological Being Are You?
brought to you by

You are the Aqua Marine Mermaid. You are pure and
brave. Strong and True. Your best freind is
your seahorse, your steed. You have fought many
battles in your own life and in the sea. No
matter what challenge you overcome it.
Congratulations there are very few of you.
Would you rate my quiz for I am brave too?

What kind of mermaid are you? (Gorgeous Pics)
brought to you by

Merdeka

Tomorrow will be Merdeka, yet is there real independence in Malaysia from the issues that made it so difficult to get her independence in the first place? I don't think so.

Racism is one of the biggest problems we face today along with religion. Until we learnt to talk about it and to be at ease with each other about it we will be faced with it for a long time. However, I realise that it is a difficult task because most are still immature when it comes to this topic. They come not to understand, but to prove that their race is superior (don't we all?) Until we can change that attitude, talking about race and religion will always be a dangerous thing.

Suggestion on how to...

Make crime go away.

It's very simple you see. The Americans have a good idea:

They award honours based on acts that are deemed courageous or outstanding, such as:

You save your entire platoon by running ahead into enemy fire to give them time to escape. On your certificate, it details what you did, when you did, and other details about your 'feat.' And then they give you the cert.

A suggestion for the Malaysian police and other associated members would be the quota system, where if they did something exemplary they would receieve not only a cert and a title, but also a small raise. That policeman who got shot in the face for example, should be given a Dato-ship at LEAST for going beyond the line of duty.

If we did that instead of giving it to businessmen we would have less problems and idiots in power. At least we'd know the justification for giving them the title.

Guest Lecturer (Pt 1) Or so my lecturer says...

Edited and updated:

Today's main event of the day was that we had a guest lecturer (for the whole of the Mass Comm. programme I see) was a guest lecturer from OmniMedia, who was none other (cynical drumroll please) than Suhaimi Sulaiman, a TV personality who now provides media content and content creation to others. (Please forgive the cynicness... I'm just not myself today).

The guy is a media strategist (42 yrs old?) and was a broadcast journalist, anchor, editor, content and editorial manager, AND a buyer/seller for Grand Brilliance. His background is, surprisingly, in corporate banking (I knew those types couldn't be trusted!- mom included). His clients include 1901 (hotdogs), SWIFT (NGO), and Sime Darby. There are more but too lazy to list them. :p

Here's the lecture, as promised:

There are a lot of opportunities for content creation for the new and traditional media today. Malaysia is still continuing to support the mainstream media but there's an explosiuon of new channels providing content. The the media thus, is fragmenting because there is a big demand for information keyed and targeted towards a particular group with differing viewpoints, etc. This means that the media, particularly the new media such as the Internet, is getting more and more specialised.

According to him (Suhaimi) blogging is the trend of the future. Apparently Bill Gates calls it the new business tool. While I agree, I would like to point out Suhaimi, that GOOGLE is way ahead of you. It bought Pyra Labs late last year, I think, and Pyra Labs run Blogger.com (which is what I'm using :p).

Another trend is web streaming. Web TVs are becoming more popular (as an alternative to terrestial TV and Astro) as well as Streaming Radio. What is a bigger trend, IMHO, are the evolution of data compression on the web.When the data compression trend finally slows down and stabilizes, we'll get much better audio and video streaming. The thing to do now is to get ready for that.

All of these translates to huge opportunities for content creations specialists (who could be writers, readers, anchors, etc.) There are plenty of risks, but the profits to be gained fit the risks.

Preparation

One should know how to read between the lines so that one could spot things that are amiss.

You should know the trends/able to see it.

NETWORK with the pros.

Start from being a slave (entry-level, I think) and then slowly graduate to becoming a master:
- Look at the whole process and remember that change comes faster than you think.

Main Problems

People don't understand, or don't want to.
Traditionalists will hate you (which answers the question of why PAS never came up with the idea of having their own TV station)

And sometimes: It's like a YOU-ME-AGAINST-THE-WORLD kind of thing.

Qualifications

The new media is growing side by side with the traditional media.

One has to be prepared to migrate (write, read and talk)

Be prepared to be pulled out of your comfort zone.

Take CALUCALTED RISKS.

Makings of a Good/Popular/Sensational Journalist

Inform, educate, entertain.

Relevant- looking for new topics and opportunities.

Versatile and multitasking.


So, do I still want to be a Journalist? Hell yeah! :)

Event

Something happened just now in the cafeteria in LUCCT. There was this 'dance' competition and well, it was interesting to see how the only girl among the four of them won. Just thought I'd note this down.

I love IKEA!

In case you didn't know, my group chose IKEA as our tutorial presentation. What our lecturer wanted was for us to make a connection between the tutorial and the lecture presentations. I wasn't sure as to whether to bring in yesterday's lecture, and finally decided in the end to give it a try. NAZHA LOVED IT! That was what she had been waiting for all this whille.

*Phew!*

In any case, there's no doubt that we got high marks for the presentation, and now the only thing left to do is to do the reading logs and pass up the assignments.

It was quite interesting to get the reaction from our fellow classmates because they were normally quite quiet and shy. I also found out that I'm not the only one who wants to decorate my home IKEA-style. :) See ya!

I suspect...

A conspiracy. It would seem that the main reason why there are so many classes in the afternoon at the labs and so many students free during those hours are not because of concern for students, but to line someone's pockets. I don't know, but when the bus leaves at three and you discover that there is nothing else you can really do except eat and read in the cafeteria it makes you wonder, does it not?

WELCOME HOME!

To Datin Endon, the wife of Abdullah Badawi. I think I speak for most Malaysians when I say that I hope she gets better soon. We are praying for you, dear lady.

A Malaysian Daughter,
Patricia.

The Finals were horrifying!

If you watched Malaysian Idol last night, you'd know what I was talking about. The boys were totally outdone by the women and the girls were... fantastic! If there was a man who should be out, my vote would be on Roslan Aziz. It's not so much that I don't like his judegements, but more of how he's just so unprofessional. Attacking the contestants personally was uncalled for and just proves that he doesn't deserve to be there.

That said, I think Saiful should go out, though there's a chance that he might return by virtue of being a 'pretty boy.' I hope that doesn't happen. Oh, and Saiful, Seribu Impian is meant to be danced to, not catwalked.

Reading Log

For one of my classes this semester, I'm required to read certain papers and to listen to the comments and presentations made by the speakers based on the readings. My group chose to do the readings entitled (collectively) Shopping, Gender and Modernity. (Some may say that the choice is obvious because all three members (including yours truly) are women) However, let me just point out that none of us are 'streotypical' women. (That's for another topic)

In any case, the reading I dfid this morning was Chua Beng Huat's Postcolonial site, Global Flows and Fashion Codes: Power Cheongsam and Other clothes in Singapore. In case you're wondering, the guy's from the department of Sociology, attached to the National University of Singapore.

One of the things he pointed out was that clothes form part of the identifier of the society. The clothes are the most easily identified part of a person's culture, especially if you have not seen them up close yet. Clothes change and varies though, and the cheongsam we know today was not as restrictive as it is now.

What REALLY caught my attention was the statement he made about the Baju Kurung. In South East Asia, the baju kurung is to the Malay what the Cheongsam and the Saree are to the Chinese and the Indians. However, the baju kurung is a modified version of the Baju Kebaya, which was the original.

All three costumes (Kebaya, not Kurung) were meant to show off the women without being overly provocative. The saree bared the midriff, the cheongsam showed off the legs, and the Kebaya flattered the figure. While all three have undergone SOME kind of modification, the kebaya was affected the most.

Being Malay is synonomous with being Islam. And the men are VERY conservative. Need I say more?

Thoughts of the day...

I was listening to Mix FM on the way to college and the topic of the morning is that would you choose your husband from a reality show ala The Bachelor. My answer would be a resounding NO! What's the point then? All you see is the best side of him, and you wouldn't be able to really see him as he was.

All the 'dates' and what not that you go out would seem a farce, with the camera taking every shot. How would you know what he's like?

Good night.

MY NAME IS CLEARED!

*Phew!* Finally!

I finally found out why I failed. And yes, I already expected that I failed because my marks were low, not because I plaglarised (sp?). Though my parents will probably scream blue murder at me, but at least my name is cleared.

And Mom will probably scream at me because I failed. So what? At least I'm not accused of doing something I didn't do. WHOPEE!

She finally did it!

I can't believe it! Lilian Too finally tripped herself up! She said that evidence of feng shui is anecdoctal, and that there is no proof of it. Sigh... I wonder if people reading this will be able to accept it. Feng shui works on beliefs, and there is no reason (if you want to do it anyway) to use simply the feng shui symbols 'sanctioned' by Lilian Too. After all, if you can use Santa Claus, why not use a potrait of Jesus instead, which is infinetely more beautiful? :)

Respect

Respect, as many have often said, must be earned, and once it's gone, like trust, it is difficult to regain. However, there are some people that automatically 'must' have a person's trust and respect. Parents and the guardians. What happens though, when the parents lose that trust? No, I am not referring to incest and abuse (only abuse of power). Those are heinous crimes, and I'll cover them later.

What follows here will be a rant with not much relevance to the above topic. Please skip if you don't want to read it.

I'm talking about parents who seem to think that they have the right tomake their children into puppets simply because they are the ones who have 'brought' the kids up. My mother, though I hate saying this, has a certain claim to that right. She was there for most of my life.

My father on the other hand, is an absentee father. He was never there, and when he was, he was only there for my mom and brother. Is there any real reason I should respect him? He seems to think that simply because he has a penis, he should be the one in control. For those who know me pretty well, do you see WHY I'm a feminist?

I would be the first one to say that not all men are like my father. Most of them are kind and nice. However, my father is one of those who seems to think I owe HIM a favour simply because I disappointed HIM. Please! He can disappoint me and expect to get away with it? This, coming from a man who could not even attend his daughter's first concert?

Some people don't deserve to die. He doesn't, mainly because think his insurance isn't paid up. If he dies, everything else goes.

I got my toe nail taken today

I just got my toe nail taken out today. The funny thing was, the procedure itself didn't hurt, but the jab did. OUCH!