New Photo Site

I've created a site exlusively for my pictures / photos. Please check it out at http://skatingsingh.multiply.com/

Have fun!

Water Play

Attended a neighbour's children birthday party and the theme was water play. Was fun to see children play with water, it seems that most children love water, must be all that 9 months of swimming in mummy's tummy..

Sign of the Times

Found this sign in Sentul this morning. When I saw it, I just knew that I've found the picture that I was looking for, not a particularly aesthetically pleasing picture, but one that I feel carries a message.

The sign was obviously old and seems to testify to the stories our parents and grand parents tell of how harmonious Malaysians of various races and religions lived together in "those days".

I believe that this sign truly represent a time when there were genuine mutual respect, equality and love among all Malaysians of different races, religion and creed. I just love the way it represents every major language, demonstrating the desire to communicate and connect with every language group.

What a contrast this is with "signs" of our generation, we have obviously lost something along the way and probably need to learn from our past and carry our personal signs as our fathers did.

Ghost

This has got to be one of, if not the best Malaysian made television series I've ever watched. I'm talking about "Ghost" on 8tv (Sundays, 10:30pm), of course. Admittedly, I've not seen that many Malaysian TV series, but that's not without good reason. Astro offers so many world class series, and advertises it so extensively that it's sometimes difficult to notice the local productions (much like what happened with Malaysian soccer, that’s a story for another time), and I guess I'm also guilty of not supporting the local productions (Sorry!), but after this show, I'm now a born again believer!

In a nut shell, it’s a supernatural, murder mystery series! Zack Imran (Nazrudin Rahman), a promiscuous mega movie star, is murdered, but the murder was covered up as a drunken car accident. Zack’s ghost then continues wondering on earth seeking to reveal the truth with the help of Eza (Cheryl Samad).

The acting is seasoned, very natural and totally believable, despite some of them being fairly new at it. The flow between the 2 leads is so smooth and it just develops so well over each episode (I kinda sense some love interest brewing in there somewhere). Carmen Soo, as Julie is beautiful, talented and carries her 'best friend' role very well. Reefa's mysterious character leaves us guessing.

In the first few episodes, the plot was simplistic and built around the 'who dunnit' plot, but this changed very soon with Eza's love life, Julie's personal struggle and a corrupt, murderous Datuk (sounds familiar!) all thrown into the fray, yet intricately connected. The suspense at the end of each episode keeps the interest high.

I'm don't claim to be a expert in the technical aspects of film making, but just from a layman’s observation, it seems professional and impressive, the angles, panning, lighting and general quality is a class above. I'm told that the director is meticulous in his details and the results really show. The special effects are believable for the most parts and are still commendable in comparison with other series (different story if compared with the local movie scene). My only gripe would be the frequency of the special effects. Because Zack is a lead role and is in most scenes, it's easy to forget that he is actually a ghost without a regular dose of special effects to remind the viewers.

In summary, I love it and highly recommend it, a true example of 'Malaysia Boleh'. I sincerely hope to see a second season.

'Ghost' airs on 8TV (channel 708 on Astro) at 10:30pm every Sunday. You can also catch interesting snippets of information on the show like bloopers on the 8TV web site… http://www.8tv.com.my/

Wind of Change

What can I say that's not already said of the General Election? Simply amazing. The Rakyat has truly spoken loud and clear, unmistakeably that we want change. I'm especially excited since it's my very first time voting and what better induction into this democratic decision process than to see such a turn of events and to know I was part of it, is just "da Bomb"

Despite the seemingly unlimited campaigning budgets and air time on the mainstream communications channels like television and radio, the ruling party performed disastrously against the opposition who had only "the cheap" alternatives like blogging, SMS, Internet..etc, I guess it was the content and not the channel.

I started with watching RTM1 for the latest results on the poll, but was quite disappointed that the results seems to be slow and the topics of discussions uninteresting. Then I got an SMS that Malaysiakini was publishing live reports and I jumped up to my PC and got onto the Internet and was surprised to find out that lots more are happening than what RTM would have us believe, reports were streaming in rapidly, what a contrast to what was being broad casted on RTM1, isn't it obvious that it will be known in due time anyways, what's the point in the delay? (I guess that's why our information minister lost)

It was entertaining though to see some rather senior figures losing their cool on national TV. At one point, one of the guest seemed to have been veering towards some very uncomplimentary remarks about the BN when the channel mysteriously went blank, only to come back on few minutes later without this guest, I guess he very quickly got uninvited..

I believe that the journey has only just began and there are lots of work to be done by the winning parties to now make good of their promises and truly make the changes that will turn our beloved country around, to put aside the differences and move forward.

For those that have left or has plans of leaving Malaysia for perceived greener pastures (I think that they will find that there are problems everywhere, not just in Malaysia), I really hope that this will serve as an eye opener that there is hope yet for our Malaysia and to stay and get involved and contribute to our nation.

God Bless and good night.

My first Ceramah

Yet another first for me, my very first ceramah. Was at the DAP ceramah at SS2 tonight and there was a large crowd there, will not attempt to guess at the numbers, except to say that it caused some serious traffic congestion through out the SS2 area.

The rain did not stop the speakers nor the supporters, who were out in force, umbrella and all. Some even came with their own chairs. It was a cool night with hot speeches. Tony Pua, Haris Ibrahim and Govind spoke and got the crowd going..

Heard a new phrase today and I think it sounded like "Makul Sakti" (hope I got this right), I was told that this meant "People Power" in Tamil, a slogan or rally cry started by the Hindraf. This was often heard during the ceramah, but I only got the meaning of it after. When I first heard it, I was wondering why "makan satay" was being promoted at a political rally! Felt a little cheated by this as I didn't follow the crowd and shouting this as I did not know the meaning then, guess there is always the next time.

Overall a very interesting experience, at short notice, a large crowd could gather just via information via the web and SMSes, access to information is truly power in these days. I can't help feeling that although many people came out in a show of support, but does that really gets converted into votes? I hope so.

I know I'll be voting for change... I'm really looking forward to getting in line, the registration, casting my first vote and the whole experience, I feel included and involved, feels great.. can't wait..