Mr. Haxa Does The Blogs

Six Degrees of Separation On My 30th Birthday

It's a six degree separation affair on my recent 30th birthday.

I had great birthday lunch with Shahril and Zaiha at the Italiannies in One Utama. The complimentary starter bread served with olive oil and vinegar were amazing. For main course, I had the Sienna Platter which was awesome; huge serving with tasty pesto and beef-chicken that's cook to perfection. Then, came the creme brule; sweet and fattening, yummy!

After window shopping at those boutiques at the new wing, we made our way to the Ikano Power Centre as Shahril had to get the paper shredder and their cat teeth hygienic food!

Apparently, Harvey Norman is the place to go for paper shredder! They have good selection Fellowes and GBC models and with price ranging from RM90 to RM560! While Shahril and Zaiha were busy checking out which models to get, I heard someone calling my name!

What a small world! It's Najah and Fische with their son, Idris who were in town from Singapore had just finished their lunch at the Ikano's Kluang Cafe Station.

Najah was looking for noise canceling headphones, and what do you know! Zaiha wanted one too after she experience blissfulness with my KOSS UR20.

So, both Najah and Zaiha got themselves the Philip's SBC HN110 Noise Canceling Headphones for Travel. Fische tested Najah's unit using my iPod and Zaiha tested hers using her PSP!

The noise canceling is AAA battery powered and it is one great companion on long flight. I love the unit look that comes with cool case, airline adapter, and stereo adapter!

We went to the pet store after that and bumped into this auntie who had her bulldog in the cart. Apparently, her bulldog who is NOT pregnant is producing milk! And interestingly the bulldog feeds the lady's kittens with her milk!!! I told the auntie that the dog food might have had side effects on her bulldog's hormone!

After Shahril and Zaiha had to leave for hospital visit, I called Pick Yin and she'd just arrived at IKEA with Huzaimi, her blog's friend; whom we'd met before on our bloggers' eating trip to Malacca. They had meatballs-fries-coffee for dinner and since I was full, I didn't eat anything and enjoyed the chatting.

After dinner, we headed to The Curve's Starbucks to wind down. It was already 10pm and we had great discussion about love, Malaysia - its sorry state of competitiveness and questionable leadership. We shared a lot of stories and life experiences over our macchiato and chocolate drinks.

We decided to call it a day at 1.30am! And there goes my 30th birthday - meeting six friends separated (and also connected) to make it a fun six degree separation day!

Hilarious 2006 Asian Games TV Comment

After five failed attempts of successful hammer throw; the Kuwaiti woman athlete finally managed to throw a mere 23.92m in her last sixth throw. The event leader at that point threw 65m.

I laughed out loud when the commentator had this to say:

" I know for sure she won't be throwing any party tonight "

Review: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

I am about done with Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (EHM) after reading it on a lovely Friday evening over Chicken Curry Noodle (with hot Chinese tea) and sipping my all time favorite, Caramel Macchiato at the new Queensbay Mall in Penang. There are two Starbucks within this mall - each at North and South Zone. I was in the Starbucks inside BORDERS. This Starbucks has few comfy sofas seated by the glass wall that overlook Pulau Jerejak and the nasty traffic on Penang Bridge on Friday evening.

I have been longing to read Thomas L. Friedman's The World Is Flat, and it seems like the perfect reading after John Perkin's Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. It'll transition you from Perkin's American corporatocracy imperialism 1963-present day to Friedman's award winning book talking about new form colonization of ideology, i.e. globalization.

In EHM, a tell-all first account experience; John brings us to his early childhood, youthful rebellious years to his interview with NSA, and later into Chas T. Main, Inc. (MAIN) - a consulting firm where spent many years of his life as economist, partner, and later Chief Economists.

Throughout his career, John had traveled to work in countries of strategic long term economic value to the United States. Yes, we are talking mostly about the black-gold-energy rush here. It was John job to forecast energy demand in developing countries such as Ecuador, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Panama to justify American loan and infrastructure-engineering construction. Equipped with complex tools such as econometrics model, economics data and statistics can be manipulated and skewed for inflating the forecast numbers.

His work is essential into inking agreements with these government that'd see major infrastructure development such as dam, electric dams, pipelines, etc. and forcing them to leverage on American banks loans and rewarding billion dollars contracts to engineering and construction firms.

" In essence, most of the money never leaves the United States; it is simply transferred from banking offices in Washington to engineering offices in New York, Houston, or San Francisco. "

Consequently, large amount of loans coupled with high interest rates only position these nations into servicing large amount of debts that accumulates over the years.

Unlike other MAIN economists, John is well mixed with the government leaders and locals. John came to symphatize the position of insurgence and hatred towards America form of imperialism that's coming to their nations; and interesting characters such as Rasy, Fidel, Paula, Yamin, came into play.

Perhaps my favorite part of this book is its historical important conflicts that are well told by John. It was almost like learning World Conflict 1963-Present Day 101. I learned a great deal about charatecters, ideologies, and conflicts that led to death, installment of puppets, wars, etc:

1. Sukarno-Suharto power transfer in Indonesia,
2. Panama's nationalist General Omar Torrijos that led to his plane crash death,
3. Saudi Arabia's House of Saud's Prince W.,
4. Iran's Shah of Shahs (King of Kings),
5. Ecuador's Jaime Roldos Aguilera
6. Iraq's Saddam Hussein
7. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez
8. America's transition from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan's Hollywood-CIA era, to George H. W. Bush, and to present day George W. Bush

Through meetings, acquaintances, friendships, and correspondence,; John came to realization his dilemma being in the middle position of his founding father's Tom Paine revolution ideology and the new corporatracy imperialism movement. Thus, making his decision to quit MAIN, focusing his energy to building new form of coal energy production, later working in another consulting firm, and finally decided to start writing book to tell his experience to the world.

John narrative spy-like style writing of these encounters make this an interesting reading. This book is a must-read non-fiction work. I can visualize this book becoming a film (the like of Lord of War) with the elements of economist James Bond and whiz-kid Forrest Gump.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand all the conflicts above and connecting the dots that matter.

RIP: James Kim (1971-2006) Tech Reviewer

Photo: Engadget

After declared missing and days of searching, James Kim, 35, C|Net senior editor of digital audio, is found dead in the wilderness of Oregon. James is survived by a wife, Katie and two young daughters, Penelope and Sabine who were with him on their Thanksgiving road trip to Pacific Northwest. The tragic incident happened when the car stranded and James had to leave the family looking for help in extreme winter weather.

Besides C|Net, James Kim is well-known in the tech community from his days in TechTV. He hosted Call for Help and Fresh Gear shows. Throughout his career, Kim has provided us with 400 product reviews, helping us consumers making informed decisions on wide array of competing audio player products!

C|Net has posted the memoriam video expressing condolences and displaying some of Kim's review on CNet. More diggs from his TechTV mate Kevin Rose, who is now famous for his Diggnation. Engadget has been posting series of entries on Kim's updates. The volume of condolences, eulogy, and grievances signify how much Kim is missed by the tech community.

For us, a lesson learned from this incident is to always ask local residents on routes, especially if you are doing traveling in the US. Here's the wikipedia posting on Kim highlighting the limitations of online mapping, i.e. GoogleMap, MapQuest, YahooMap:

" Some observers believe that the Kim tragedy highlights the limitations of Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, MapQuest, and other online mapping applications. Because the Kims, who did not know the area, had telephoned from Roseburg, Oregon to a motel in Gold Beach, to say that they would be arriving late, it was speculated that James Kim, a technology expert, used online mapping to find the “fastest” route between Roseburg and Gold Beach.

During the hunt for the Kims, a number of computer users tested programs such as Google Maps and MapQuest to map the shortest route between the two towns. The programs reportedly listed Bear Creek Road, where the Kims got stuck, as the most efficient shortcut. However, it is rarely used even by local residents due to its difficult terrain and inclement weather.^[11]

The online mapping programs have apparently changed and as of December 7, 2006, show the drive along Highways 5 and 42 to Coast Highway 101 as the preferred route between Roseburg and Gold Beach.

Outdoor writer Tom Stienstra of the San Francisco Chronicle, although he did not blame the Kims for their ordeal, wrote a list of safety tips in which he recommended that travelers always ask local residents for road information.^{[12] " Wikipedia}

I can't agree more to this limitation as I had to rely on GPS rather than the printed maps from MapQuest I had planned to use for driving directions in Folsom, Phoenix, and Hillsboro. There were instances when when my colleague was misdirected to a dead end location which as closed down 3 years back on his trip to California.

I would like to extend my condolences to Kim's family on his demise. Kim will be known as a great tech reviewer with huge fan base and a loving family man. Rest In Piece. 

 

Starbucks Caramel Macchiato = 310 calories; Burning 310 calories = 40-min jogging; Drink Pleasure / Gossip / Business Deal = Priceless!

Wonder how nutritous is your Starbucks latte, frappuccino, or caramel macchiato? Apparently, folks at Starbucks want you to have informed decision before you place your next order.

You can calculate your bevarages and food as well at the Starbucks' Nutrition information page http://www.starbucks.com/retail/nutrition_beverages.asp. I calculated a hot Grande Caramel Macchiato, whole milk, no whipped cream and as you can see here the 16fl.oz. drink is packed with 34g of sugars.

The typical sugar sachet you typically find at hotels or restaurants is about 5g. So, about 7 sachets for that caramel macchiato average Grande serving. It all boils down to the amount calories consumed = 310!

So, I then find out how in the world am I going to burn those calories intake from that Grande drink; I exclude the cheese cake or tiramitsu here or I'll get all depressed. I use the calorie burner counter at http://avera.adam.com/pages/tools/cal_burn.htm (powered by ADAM) and entered my weight and favorite outdoor activity, jogging.

At this point you have to try an error on how many minutes it'll take to burn 310 calories. After a couple of attempts, i found out that it take 40 minutes of jogging to burn just that!

And given the point that Starbucks is all about experience and ambience, you'll probably hang out there with your laptop connected to their wi-fi and socialize with your friends. Or perhaps just reading books or looking at people! So, nothing much got burned for that 310 calories after you have immersed yourself with the pleasure of the beverages, food and the excitement of catching up with your friends or business associates.

Well, you better find out how you have consumed on your Starbucks orders and find out the type and duration of activity you have to perform to burn them!

Act now! Starbucks Anonymous, anyone?

Sean Ghazi Semalam

There are generations of crooners making albums covering selections of songs and music from the Great American Songbook collection. Michael Bublé became a household name because of his success in this genre. His version gives new interpretation to these songs and most importantly, new generation can now relate to these songs.

Better yet, Pink Martini breakthrough Sympathique and Hang On Little Tomato are so good they cover American, Latin, and Europe big ballad, big band jazz, swing collection; making it a daunting task to classify musical genre of this Oregon-based 12-piece band.

The Malay music scene has such classics throughout the decades and they need to be reproduced for our generation. I applaud Sean Ghazi's 5-year effort releasing this debut album, Semalam. "By looking back we find the way forward" says Sean in his album booklet. He's definitely right there. From marketing point view, this album is critical for him to determine the direction of his sophomore effort.

I have no doubt that this album will grab few awards in  2006 Anugerah Industri Muzik. I'm thinking of best cover and vocal arrangement in an album. I'd have used the image below though for the cover album as it has more character.

Semalam (Yesterday), released in November 2006; takes you on a musical journey from 1951 to 2006 covering the likes of P. Ramlee, Anneke Gronloh, Pink Martini, Sudirman, Jimmy Boyle, and a few Broadway. The orchestra music recording was done in Sydney in analog format and later the voice was added digitally in Kuala Lumpur. You can read more on the album trivia in the Media Presskit provided on his website.

It's great vocal performance with great musical arrangement and good song selections that makes this album stands out this year! Enjoy the embedded YouTube video music of Ku Impikan Bintang.

1. Semalam (2006) (Listen to this song)
This is the only original song written for this album, his collaboration with Izlyn Ramli. It's almost like a collage of music from the rest of the other tracks; setting the mood for the entire album.

2. Ku Impikan Bintang (2004)
This is translated from Pink Martini's Hang On Little Tomato album (Let's Never Stop Falling In Love). The translation work to Bahasa Melayu lyrics is done nicely to capture the emotion of the song.

3. Rambut Hitam, Matanya Galak (1962)
This is Anneke Gronloh's classic. It's so catchy and the big band jazz music makes me want to tap my feet everytime I listen to this song. Hands down, this is my favorite song. You can check out Anneke on YouTube!

4. I Have Dreamed (1951) (Listen to this song)
This is what he does best, Broadway. Sean plays the character Lun Tha both in The King And I musical and 'Anna and the King'. I wonder which part of the musical this song is sung.

5. Hujan Di Tengahari (1954) (Listen to this song)
This is a soundtrack from the film 'Perjodohan' (Fated) sung by P. Ramlee. I love this big ballad arrangement. My dad hums and sings this song when I play the CD in the car.

6. Jauh-Jauh (1959)
Some history here. Jimmy Boyle who wrote this song was famous in Penang music scene in the 50's. He played piano, pop jazz and written number of songs. Besides his passion for music, Jimmy was a school teacher. Adibah Noor performed this song in Istana Budaya Konsert Putera Puteri in 2004. I hope Adibah records this for her next album.

7. Punch Card (1982)
I wonder whether you can call this Sudirman and Habsah Hassan work a rap song? This song reminds us the time when government servants can leave office at 4.15! Maya Tan Abdullah whom I worked with in OPs Ophelia is one of the background singers!

8. Getaran Jiwa (1960) (Listen to this song)
I prefer this version of Getaran Jiwa compared to Sheila Majid's Legenda. This masterpiece is a creation of P. Ramlee and written by S. Sudarmaji for the film 'Antara Dua Darjat'. It is both philosophical and poetic. P. Ramlee use music as common factor between the different worlds portrayed in the film.

9. Dengar Ini Cerita (1953)
This catchy P. Ramlee comedic song is about a husband dating his secretary, Mary (makan luar!) and had a day out in the park. It's a delight to have Ida Nerina (as Mary) and Adibah Noor (as 'My Wife) in this song. Interestingly, the lyrics are updated to this song:

" ... Merah bibirnya macam cherry, Sekali pandang macam Helle Berry" ...

... " Perabut IKEA terbang melayang-layang." ...

10. Somewhere My Love (1966)
Somewhere My Love is a song from the movie Dr. Zhivago. I personally think that this is a poor song selection in this album.

11. Sabar Menanti (1976)
Datuk Ahmad Nawab, our new Seniman Negara wrote this song for Broery Marantika and was used the film 'Hapuslah Air Matamu'. This is another favorite of mine from this album. Both Sabar Menanti and Anneke Gronloh's Rambut Hitam Matanya Galak are good bets to break into the Indonesian music scene.

12. Let's Never Stop Falling In Love (2004)
You decide on how Sean compares to Pink Martini's China Forbes.

Tell me what do you think of this album?

 

Economic Hit Man = Ah Long ?

I spent the entire Sunday afternoon at my neighborhood Starbucks reading the paperback version of John Perkin's Confessions of an Economic Hit Man over the Toffee Nut Latte. 

What amuses me when reading this book is that when I read The Sunday Times, which featured some articles on Ah Long; I can't help but noticing the resemblance between the micro (Ah Long) and macro (Economic Hit Man, EHM) version of loan shark.

Here's a couple of paragraphs from the book's prologue describing what EHM does.

" That is what we EHMs do best: we build a global empire. We are an elite group of men and women who utilize international financial organizations to foment conditions that make other nations subservient to the corporatocracy that runs our biggest corporations, our government, and our banks. Like our counterparts in the Mafia, we provide favors.

These take the form of loans to develop infrastructure—electric generating plants, highways, ports, airports, or industrial parks. One condition of such loans is that engineering and construction companies from our own country must build all these projects. In essence, most of the money never leaves the United States; it is simply transferred from banking offices in Washington to engineering offices in New York, Houston, or San Francisco."

Can you imagine the extend of chaos if Ah Long dictates the entire business chain; for example dictating business borrowers' source of raw materials, etc!

Here's en excerpt from the book.

Review: Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol

Snow Patrol, a five-piece alternative rock band from Northern Ireland came to fame after its single Chasing Cars was used by Grey's Anatomy as soundtrack to the second season finale episode, Losing My Religion. The song climbed to top five on numbers of chart worldwide and it was mostly downloaded single on iTunes Music Store the day after the release of the show second season DVDs.

Besides appearing in the band's fourth album Eyes Open you can also find it on Grey's Anatomy, Vol. 2 [Sountrack]. Another similar success story is The Fray's 'How To Save My Life'.

If there's ever a song that could capture the mood and emotions of the actors on a TV show, I think Chasing Cars does that successfully. Watch the video embedded here from YouTube; Chasing Cars (Grey's Anatomy version, which was edited to include clips from the show) and you'll understand what I mean.

It was really an emotional moment to watch my favorite character, Izzie Stevens who look stunning in the pink gown (Katherine Hiegl) had to experience the death of her lover who had just proposed her.

I simply love the music and lyrics of this song. The music begins with progressing guitar sound in the beginning, explodes at the chorus with rich sound of guitar, drums, and keyboard to stir your emotion. It winds down in the end by repeating the early tunes.

The lyrics are poetic and Gary Lightbody delicate vocal made it all beautiful. I've played  so many times on my iPod and I'm not exaggerating to call it the most beautiful pop love song of 2006!

iPod Part I: Falling In Love With Music All Over Again

I splurged when I purchased the white 30GB iPod 5G (Video) during my last Singapore trip in early September. Despite the initial syncing trouble on my IBM T41 USB2.0 port, I finally got a gigabyte of music synced after a sleepless night. Yes! For some weird reason, iPod loves the USB 1.0 on Windows XP. To date, I sync my music-videos-podcasts from my home's Pentium III 666MHz USB 1.0 port. It's just so weird!

Also, a lesson learned from installation is that make sure you install the CD that comes with the iPod purchase. Don't make the same mistake that I did, thinking that the iTunes installed on my desktop takes care of the installation!

Right after I got the iPod to sync and play music, I had to leave for Kuala Lumpur on NICE coach. It was a pleasant ride with some electronic numbers playing. And the occasional peek on celebrity on bus, Elaine Daly. I seem to meet celebrities on my bus trips to and fro Singapore. I suppose they like to shop and wind down there too. Or perhaps they have some shows or recordings or moonlighting across the Causeway.

Upon arriving home, I started downloading songs and ripping off my CD collection. Good thing that I have started to use iTunes months before that. So, I was all familiar with the iTunes library management, desktop folder arrangement, importing CD, etc.

To populate the iPod Music: Album-Artist-Song library, I have bought few albums this year, hogging Streamyx bandwidth for album downloads, exchanging-transferring songs from friends who are kind to share (let me rip their CD collections or let me copy their external HD) their favorite music with me. Oh, I haven't squirted any music for that matter. No iPod wi-fi or Zune for now, OK!

After 3,578 songs installed to date, I have learned to appreciate a variety of genre and artists. Perhaps a new discovery for me is the lounge music, particularly the European electronic hotel-DJ scene; from the hot Parisian DJ Stephane Pompougnac of Hotel Costes, to famous Ibiza clubbing scene, Cafe del Mar; to  St. Torentz. I recommend Hotel Costes 5: Cinque and Hotel Costes 4: Quatre for starters. 

Good electronic music (and other genres) appreciation requires good bit rate audio compression encoding (or if you have space to spare, go for Apple Lossless Encoder) and good ear or headphones. By appreciation, I am referring to enjoying every bits of music (bass, vocal, instruments) played from the entire frequency spectrum audible to human ears (20Hz to 20KHz). There are high end headphones that could pickup down to 2Hz!

Higher bit encoding with the right compression technique means you have to trade off with storage space, but it ensures that you could feel and experience the music as if they are analog! Otherwise, mp3 128kpbs/256kbps/ 320kpbs are good enough!

For Sean Ghazi's debut album, Semalam; I use the Apple Lossless format for the first time which output a 250Mb of m4a format for the entire album. The album was recorded in Sydney in analog format. The big-band, swing, lounge, orchestrated pieces are VERY pleasant to the ears and they take me to musical journey from Anneke Gronloh he covers to P. Ramlee and Broery Marantika. More reviews on this favorite album soon.

Back to head/earphones. For the time being, I'm using the iPod earphone and I got myself the KOSS UR20 headphones for its promise of deep bass and maximum sound isolation. I am contemplating of getting the new Bose In-Ear earphone. I'd also recommend Sony MDR-EX (71, 81, 0r 90) series.

For detailed reviews of the above mentioned headphones, go to iLounge for its extensive review of headphones to a wide range iPod accessories. The iPod economy is definitely booming that iLounge's 2007 iPod buyers' guide is getting thicker with lots of options that'll spoil you!

iLounge also does the iPod Overseas Report, reviewing iPod scene in a few cities (including Malaysia - Thanks for Jeremy Horwitz and the entire team for these reviews). You might want to come to Penang for another review on Malaysia iPod scene.

Oh, the iPod video is infamous for its scratching problem. So make sure you purchase the get the protective plastic and get the Apple store customer service personnel to install it on the screen, click wheel on the front and the metallic part at the back.

A good casing for shock-fall-scratch protection is a must . I am using the Krusell's (Orange label) leather black leather case. It's a good light case that I'd even use to carry when I am jogging in my neighborhood. The Krusell comes with the innovative Multidapt belt clip. I plan to get the Mac Extreme armband soon to protect the unit during my outdoor activities.

 

One of the great iPod video features is the ability to display photo, thus the ability to display album artwork (sadly not in full screen as Zune).

Although there are lots of other competing mp3 players out there, e.g. Microsoft Zune, SanDisk Sansa, Sony Network Walkman, Toshiba Gigabyte, Creative ZEN; the music experience that iPod provides me is fulfilling, enriching, and satisfying. For its has been a great part of my music life; iPod renews my love with gadget (after my PalmOS-based Sony Clie obsession) and making me fall in love with music all over again!

How has iPod changed your music experience?

To be continued, ...