2 Teachers I Will Always Remember

Just got back from Penang. Damn stupid and unlucky at the same time. Halfway to Penang I did something stupid and ended up hurting the engine of my poor car. Fortunately my car was still able enough to take Princess and me back to Penang but I had to leave my car in a workshop there.

In the mean time I have to borrow another car from my Dad. A Honda Civic.... great car actually... really like it!

Anyway I was talking to Princess today about two teachers I have had in my life that I will always remember.... but not for good reasons.

Let me tell you about both of them.

1) "Selamat Pagi Datin".

The first teacher was one I had in secondary school. She only came in as a replacement teacher one day. When she walked into the class, my friend Samuel who was the class monitor shouted out the routine

"Class Stand...."

And the whole class of 40 boys got up from their seats and stood up.

Then they followed the class monitor's cue when he said

"Selamat Pagi Cikgu".

When everyone proceeded to sit down, the teacher shouted 

"SEKALI LAGI!"

Puzzled the class monitor shouted the greeting.. but a lot louder

"SELAMAT PAGI CIKGU!!!"

The whole classroom including myself echoed at the top of our lungs just in case she was upset we didn't say it loud enough at first.

Seconds later we all stood to watch her to see if we could all sit down and yet it wasn't enough.

She scolded us and made us wish her a few more times until she finally got fed up and told us to say instead

"SELAMAT PAGI DATIN!"

So we all followed her cue and finally she let us sit down.

We later found out that day that her husband is a Dato so she insists that everyone greet her as Datin... not as Cikgu.

2) "I knew you could do it"

The other teacher I will always remember is my mathematics teacher in college. Here's the story.

I didn't do Add Maths in school because knowing that I never wanted to be a Doctor, Scientist, Engineer or anything like that I decided to go into the Arts Stream instead. When I went into A-Levels though I wanted to take Maths and the first time I walked into a Maths class there I was terrified. I had never before even heard of anything like Differentiation or Integration at the point in time and the teacher was teaching it as the basics as if everyone was already supposed to know it.

Of course everyone around me was doing okay because all of them did Add Maths in school but I was completely clueless. So after the first class I went up to the teacher Miss J, and asked her for help. After she learned that I never did Add Maths she told me to drop the subject or she's pretty sure I will fail or get a C or D or something.

I refused to believe that I couldn't do it so I started taking private tuition and working very hard on my maths. Miss J wasn't much help though. Whenever I went up to her for help she would get impatient with me and say 

"I told you to drop it! You're going to fail now... nothing you can do".

On the other hand, she was really nice to a select group of A students in the class who were good in math. I don't look up to teachers like this. I mean anyone can teach students who are naturally already good in the subject.... but a teacher really proves his/her worth he/she teaches someone who is bad in the subject and guide the student to an A at the end. This teacher had no patience to do any of that.

Somewhere in the mid-term or something she gave this really hard test where almost everyone except a few people passed the test. She came up to me and said 

"I'm surprised you passed Tim".

At the end of my A-Levels I had gotten an A for Mathematics. I bumped into her in a mall with some of my friends the other day and I told her my results.

She said then

"Congrats... I always knew you could do it".

She was suddenly all nice to me and COMPLETELY ignorant to the fact that for 1 and a half years she had reminded me that I would fail or get a C at best.

I smiled out of courtesy but at the back of my head I was thinking to myself

"No thanks to you Miss J"

So these are the two teachers I will always remember in my life. I sometimes wonder if they had impacted anyone else the same way they impacted me.

Hello Radio Channels!

A few days ago I found myself all the way at the Astro office in Technology Park Malaysia. Was there for some meetings but right after my meetings I was given a tour of the AMP studios.

AMP Radio Networks is the company that houses many of the radio stations we listened to like Hitz.fm, My.fm, Mix.fm, Lite Fm and a whole lot more. It's owned by Ananda Krishnan, one of the richest men in Malaysia.... who owns just about everything else except maybe the chair I'm sitting on right now 

Junior is the nice person who offered to give us all the tour. He's the guy on the left.

For those of you who don't already know, the girl inside the studio through the double glass windows is Jojo Stryus.

Also inside the double glass is the legendary cockroach that somehow managed to get itself caught into between the windows many many years ago.

This is how a cockroach that has been there for many many years looks like.

It's been there so long it's probably already best friends with the metal screw next to it.

Junior made me promise to tell the story that it's not that they didn't want to remove the cockroach but just that it proved to be extremely difficult since it was in between two big pieces of thick glass.

So they left it there... perhaps hoping that it might just turn into dust and disappear one day.

Here's where your favourite radio shows come from.

This is Mix.fm

And that's Jay on Air on the inside.

She was really nice. When she saw me trying to take a picture of her later on she started waving and giving me a big smile.

We moved on to the rest of the studios and I spotted a studio that had the words "My.FM" on it.

I jumped a little excitedly 

"WOW!!! MY.FM" and darted closer to see who was inside.

Junior caught up with me and said 

"DUDE!!! You just walked RIGHT PASS HITZ!!!! I guess I know where your loyalty lies".

I went "Whoops", put my head down and turned around to check out Hitz.fm's studio. I had met Ean earlier that morning right after he just finished his Morning Crew stint. 

This is what the Hitz.fm studio looks like.

Right in between the My.FM and Hitz.FM studios was this panel for the show's producers to sit on and monitor.

There was a screen with a whole playlist on all the songs that were going to be played on air. So if we saw that Lady Gaga's Poker Face was the next song in the queue, right after the current song finished Lady Gaga would start playing.

All really computerized you'd almost think it could run itself. That's the future. Everything running itself and doing things for you. One day I'm sure they're even going to invent a computer that would calculate exactly how much toilet paper you need to use to wipe your ass on each swipe.

The music you hear in the studio is actually 8 seconds earlier than what we hear on our radios elsewhere. They have the 8 second buffer just in case someone makes a mistake or says something that they shouldn't say on air.

Right next to the My.FM studio is the Xfresh studio where Shaz was DJing.

Xfresh is a very unique station compared to the rest. It plays only Indy music and it's not allowed to play any other form of music. It can't for example play anything from overseas. If they do it, they'll get some big fine and all the XFresh staff will have to go out in the car park and do 300 push ups under the hot sun (No I'm kidding about that second bit).

Serious serious offense.

Right after the Xfresh studio were these little booths that DJs could go into to do some pre-recording. You know recording stuff to be played later on the show.

I like how they're designed after the London phone booth.

I walked around to check out some of the other stations like Era.FM 

and finally even came across a wall filled with autographed stuff from the artists that come by.  

So everyone that was my tour of the stations we listen to every day :)

Thanks for the tour Junior.

Weekend's here! WoohoO!

Gifts When They're Most Needed

I just got Princess a new phone that she needed badly.

Princess had her eyes on the LG Ice-Cream for the longest time. Ever since she saw the LG skinner we put on her blog as part of a Nuffnang campaign a few months ago.

Problem was that she already had a new China iPhone from her Dad so she really didn't need a new phone. Heck already I'm getting so much flak from the Nuffies that scold me each day for "spoiling the market" so I wasn't going to buy her anything that she didn't need.

Thanks to her rough hands and sloppiness though, she managed to break her China iPhone in record time.... within two months or something. Living on a "borrowed" phone from her mum she needed a new phone so I decided to help out a little.

Princess felt bad and didn't want me to give her anything without an occasion so I said that this was our advance 1st Anniversary present.

Her reply

"That's like... 5 months away!!!"

But here's what I think about presents like this. I always believe that we shouldn't be governed by a fixed time or occasion before we buy someone something. I think if there's any point in time we think of something that your special someone would like or need, then why not buy it then when he/she needs it most?

So thanks to Mike for helping me source for the phone, I managed to get one for her.

I think the phone is great. I mean it's not expensive and has all the features you need. Plus the keypad is big which helps for girls with long finger nails like Princess.

She was happy... ripping open the box the minute I brought the phone into her room.

This same phone woke me up late last night when it started ringing though.

I began to think that maybe I should've gotten her a phone without a speaker. Heh... but well.. whatever makes her happy.

Meeting Kenny, Pierre and Lay See

Kenny was in town so I met up with him last weekend in Pavilion.

It just dawned on me that day that I've known and been working with Kenny for 2... coming 3 years now. That flew by really quick for me.

A lot of people ask me what Kenny Sia is like in person and sometimes I feel the rumours that go around just don't do justice to the person. Honestly before I met Kenny I had heard my fair share of 'not-so-nice' things about him. You had everything nasty anyone could say about him in the list. But here's an honest account of what he's like.

He's humble (yes... HUMBLE... the opposite of arrogant) and while I think he separates personal and business issues very well, he tends to very often considers how people on the "other side" feel or are whenever he does anything. He's easy to get along with. Simple and generous as well with both his friends and business partners. And I am pretty sure that of the 10 people out there who talk bad about him, 9.5 of them would change their minds if they had a chance to sit down with him over lunch to really get to know him.

Oh and if you're thinking that maybe he's just nice to me because I work at Nuffnang you're wrong again. He was like this to me even when Nuffnang just started and I had nothing. Even at a time when he knew I needed his support/help most, he made sure of it that he never took advantage of me.

One thing that people say about him is true though... he's often surrounded by pretty girls 

but heck like that's his fault!!!

Anyway, after lunch with Kenny I dropped Princess to go shopping with Suet and Jia Meei in Bangsar. Then I headed home to meet Pierre to do some serious business. While the girls had some shopping to do, the boys had some serious business to take care of.

We had lots of aliens to kill and a world to save.

After saving the world Pierre decided that it was time to celebrate.

So he brought his wife Lay See, Princess and I to Jake's in Starhill for a wonderful steak dinner. When I say wonderful... I mean... "DID I JUST DIE AND GO TO HEAVEN" kind of wonderful. Allow me to illustrate my meal that night.

It was so good I felt so bad having to shit it out the next day. 

Funny thing is, one of our new Nuffies in Singapore was apparently from Pierre's school in Malacca. She told us that Pierre and Lay See used to be the most popular couple in school because well... both were good looking, from well-to-do families, smart and uhmm... tall or something. You know, the Malaccan equivalent of the head of the football team dating the head of the cheerleading team.

I guess that holds true even up till today. I mean look at them, compared to Princess and I.

They're both tall, dress well, carry themselves with class and even when they laugh they do it with "class".

As compared to Princess and I who dress like a bunch of school kids, short (or fat) and roll around like beavers when we laugh.

*sigh*

We will never be that "it" couple.

Lottery Ticket

A few mornings ago, I skipped out of the office for a while to buy some breakfast from a nearby coffee shop. Right after I walked out of the coffee shop I heard an old lady call me

"Leng Chai"

I don't know what it is but it works. When somebody calls me "Leng Chai", I just turn around and look to see who! Even if it's a guy! 

When I turned around I saw an old lady on a wheelchair sitting right outside the coffee shop asking me if I would like to buy some lottery tickets she was selling. 

The immediate impulse reaction when somebody tries to sell you something is you just say no thanks and walk away.

As I was walking back to the office though my mind starting thinking about that old lady. She was of old age and on a wheel chair yet she had the courage (whether by choice or not) to come out and sell lottery tickets to make some living. I thought about where her children were (if she had any) and then I thought about how would I feel if my parents had to live that kind of life in their old age. My heart sank for I have always promised that I will never allow my parents to live a lesser quality of life than they have given me while I was growing up.

Then I realized that one lottery ticket is probably only going to cost me a few bucks but would give her so much more not just in the small money she makes but in the confidence she might get.

So I turned around and walked all the way back to the coffee shop and bought a ticket from her. I just simply picked the ticket on top. Her bored discouraged frown had turned to a very big smile on her face the minute I expressed interest in buying a ticket from her. I wish I could've caught it on camera to show you guys but I didn't have my camera with me at the time.

I headed back to the office and started thinking that maybe it was a sign. Maybe I'm supposed to buy this ticket to help her and also maybe to give it to someone else to win something. Then I remembered that today is Robb's birthday so I went back to the office and gave it to Robb.

I said 

"I hope you win the Proton Persona on the ticket or the jackpot or something".

Robb started scratching the ticket straight away.

Unfortunately that ticket didn't win Robb anything (at least so far till we wait for another draw results to come out at the end of the month).

But it felt great anyway because it reminded me how sometimes with one small gesture and with a small amount of money, we can put a smile on someone's face.  

Web Wednesday!

Today is Robb's birthday. Happy Birthday Robb!

Yesterday I decided to bring my camera out with me everywhere I went that day to document my day.

Here's what I did.

1) Went to the office but hopped out for a while to have a quick breakfast with Cheng Leong who is this famous anonymous blogger out there.

During the night he blogs but during the day... he's a high flying lawyer!

Very busy lawyer. Always on his Blackberry. 

The funny thing though is that while you might think he's always checking e-mails and doing work stuff, the truth is most of the time he's just on his Blackberry chatting with someone else on MSN or Gtalk. Right dude?

2) After breakfast I headed back to the office to start my work day. 

This is the view from where I'm sitting.

That's Carol, sitting right in front of me. She was working in the office till 1.30AM the previous night and was back again in the office by 9AM that morning.

I worry for her.

I bet she goes home and her mum complains to her 

"Why your company work you so hard wan? Do they pay you enough or not?"

I met her mum that night though at a Nuffnang Screening. She introduced me to her mum and I greeted her with a

"Hi Aunty, I'm Tim. Sorry we've been overworking your daughter."

And she was nice about it. She said "It's okay... when young must work more to learn more".

3) Soon it was lunch time. Seriously trying to decide where to go for lunch with the Nuffies is just so difficult!

We normally just bicker about a place to go until someone in the Nuffie team says

"WOI FASTER DECIDE!!! F-CKING hungry lar!"

Then we all rush out of the office

That day we had lunch at this restaurant near our office.

I was trying to take a random picture of Vernice. Some people look good and some people look bad in candid pictures but somehow Vernice looked damn lansi in this picture don't you think?

With her chin up and all. She defended herself saying that she was looking at something on the ceiling.

Sure Vernice... sure...

I got Vernice to take a better picture with Jestina and Carol.

And I got Penton then to take a picture of all of us at the lunch.

4) After work that day, I went for this thing called Web Wednesday at Souled Out, organized by the Malaysian Digital Association. It's this after-work gathering with all sorts of people from the online media industry in Malaysia gathering around to have some beers.

You know whenever you see any ads online, whether it's on Facebook or the news portals or even blogs, chances are it would have passed through the hands of some of the people in that event.

To name a few people there.

From left: Me, Tze Khay and fehmes blogger Desmondkiu

From left: Me, Mehlin, Michelle and Shelly

From left: Daniel and Danny.

From left: Me, Jordan, (uhmm shit can't remember his name), Ham and Desmondkiu

Had an embarrassing moment with the guy in the pic whose name I don't remember. I had met him some time back and I recalled that he was from some agency. Couldn't remember which agency though.

So when he greeted me I said 

"You're from Arachnid right?"

He said "No... I'm from Arc" (a completely different agency).

Everyone around the table laughed. Desmondkiu and Ham poked fun.

"Well you got the "A" right... and the "R" as well.... "

5) I left Web Wednesday early to rush to KLCC for our Nuffnang Monsters Vs Aliens screening. 

Picked Princess up on the way too to have dinner at the food court in KLCC.

She had her favourite Yoshinoya.

6) I had Fish & Chips 

but right after that I felt like having a McDs Apple Pie so I went over to queue up for one. The girl at the counter told me that I had to wait 3 minutes so I said okay and both Princess and I just stood aside to wait.

To our very big surprise, they poured us both a cup of Coke each just to give us a drink while waiting.

I was SO pleasantly surprised. I mean it wasn't the drink. I wasn't feeling thirsty or anything but it was the very nice gesture that made my day. 

And all I was buying was an Apple Pie! Kudos to the people at McDs for that!

7) Then we went for our movie.

This is us posing as the little cartoon characters in Monsters Vs Aliens.

Princess and I were fighting to do the pose of Bob the blob. 

And nobody wanted to pose as Dr Cockroach.

So in the end we decided to take turns.

This is me posing as Bob the blob and Princess posing as Dr Cockroach.

And this is Princess posing as Bob the blob and me as Dr Cockroach.

Everybody was looking on wondering why the two of us were fighting just to pose.

After the movie we went home and headed straight to bed.

Such a tiring day.

I'm a Standout in Life

Nuffnang is having another big party coming up on the 6th of June: Standout with Tiger and Nuffnang. Just like all our other parties, we all need to write entries on our blogs to gain an entry (you know so the Nuffies can help narrow down who to pass the invites to if there aren't enough tickets to give away).

So that means even I have to write an entry in order to go for a Nuffnang party. This time though I thought the entry was a little more fun because all we're supposed to write is how "I'm a Standout in Life". At first I thought it would be easy, then after pondering over it for a while I began to realize that hey, it's a lot harder than I thought it would be to try figure out why you're a standout in life.

I even tried asking my friends on Facebook and these were a few of the responses I got.

I particularly thought the one from Vanda was interesting. Something I never knew myself.

Anyway here are a few things that I think make me a little different.

1) I have an abnormal craze for Fu Chuk. Like INSANE.

I LOVE FU CHUK... whether it's in steamboat or Bak Kut Teh... it is just... THE BOMB.

2) I buy ice-cream not by the scoop but by the bucket.... especially when I'm stressed.

I have though successfully managed to cut down this really fattening habit. I'm going to try to resist. End of the month on the 30th I'm going to buy some New Zealand Natural ice-cream and I am going to try to buy "reasonable quantities" instead. :)

3) Unlike a lot of other people, I wear a Man Utd jersey sometimes not because I'm a fan or anything but because Ming bought me one all the way from Old Trafford customized with "Boss Stewie" at the back of it.

He's been trying to convert me to a Man Utd fan. When I walk around with the Man Utd jersey a lot of other people I see with their own Man Utd jerseys turn to look at me... you know thinking I'm one of their kind when I'm not really.

Not yet at least... Ming's constant campaign to turn me to a fan is slowly working though. 3 months ago I would never wear a Man Utd jersey out.

4) When Princess posted pictures of herself growing up from what she thought was an 'ugly duckling' to the beautiful swan that she has become today, I said that my favourite picture was this one.

Instead of say... this one.

I don't know what it was about that old picture but it just had that very cheeky grin of hers.

At dinner one day I made Princess do that same smile she did in that picture and she came up with this.

Then I tried to follow it but I failed.

It's a lot harder to do than it looks. Try it... bet you'll need a few tries before you can pull it off.

5) And finally... I love beer but I have the uncanny ability to get very red when I drink. I don't mean just ... red or a little red... I mean... freaking red.

Far more red than my Man Utd jersey or red like Sebastian from The Little Mermaid.

I unfortunately don't have that many pics of myself being that red but I guess you'll see me in that colour at the Nuffnang-Tiger party.

If you guys are going... see you then ok?