Goodbye 2009

I know it's Christmas and as cliche as it may sound, I wanna thank all of you who participated, followed and commented on this blog.

And for those who suffered this year, leave it all behind. Give yourself a new purpose in 2010 and forget the satbacks. The truth is, everyone will hit a torn or two as they move. Really, nothing is certain and nothing is perfect. Still, we can take precaution and reduce the chances of unwanted situations.

For this Christmas season, try staying at home, after all Christmas is a family event. We can give the drinking and unprecedented hook ups a rest, take this opportunity to communicate with your siblings, parents and neighbors.

Last but not least, be safe. Don't indulge too much in smoking, drugs and sexy chicks. Trust me, there's 101 better ways to end the year with than a silly one night stand because you and I know that those thoughts are false unless you're willing to stick a 1000 dollar bill up her ass. Grr...

Till then,
Enjoy Your Holiday.

All American Rejects - When The World Comes Down

Ever since All American Rejects appear in the music scene, they have never fail to entertain alternative rock fans.

On their latest album, When The World Comes Down, comes with 11 sizzling tracks and one crazy cover with their new abbreviation AAR. And with just a glance, two of their hit single I Wanna and Give Me Hell reached top on RickDee's Top 40 and Billboard Top 100. Still, it is Fallin' Apart and Breakin' that makes this album great, aside from their usual staple.

And unlike most of the artist that relies on certain hit tunes, this album comes in a package of 11 amazing tracks that are both exciting and mind-blowing.

All American Rejects latest is in all leading recording store nationwide.

Green day's 21st century breakdown

For fans who love their original style will find it hard to digest the slow and emotional tune on 21 Guns. In fact, they no longer portray the American Idiot we once know but rather something mature in the 21st century. Still, not all is lost. Tracks like 21st Century Breakdown does reminiscence their old ways but this time with more vocal and less screaming. That's not all, if you're in the mood to flirt, try Viva la Gloria and you'll experience a very different vibe considering the band's history of obtrusive music. Overall, this is one hell of an album and arguably the best of Green Day so far.

Green Day's latest is in all major record stores nationwide.

Horrors in temporary jobs

I’m in the midst of self discovery and other potential alternative in career. There are certain areas in life that I’m yet to find out. After all, we can only see and hear what other people do, which could be accurate or inaccurate depending on each and every individual interpretation.

For that, I instinctively disseminate my resume massively hoping to lay my hands on a writing position but alas, it didn’t went according to plan and everyone had sufficient left over to run December issue.

But since I persist, an editor from Clive, quickly forwards my information to Warner Music Malaysia. And to my surprise, they called almost instantaneously for an interview.

Sadly, I was only half prepared during the interview and I forgot to ask two important questions before I agreed working with them. And like any other people, I assumed my job scope with the confidence and trust from an editor/writer since he knew how much I wanted writing.

But unfortunately, I wrote nothing and interviewed no one and spend most of my time indoor doing what adults hate to do, packing, printing, cutting and filing. Eventually, I do get to go out but it wasn’t for an interview or to pester someone but to dispatch items around, since every company has a staff that runs errand like that. And with me being new, I acted as the pawn that any bosses need as dispatch.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry, I’ll send my people over,” said with a grind. I got up from my uncomfortable executive chair, collect the items and rush to the mapped destination.

When I finally reach the place, after hours of traffic congestion and car park hassle, I hand over the package and it went swiftly without a hint of gesture that I might take a name card from his/her assistance.

From there, I begin to realize my job scope and gotten a bigger picture of what I’m supposed to do. And more importantly realize that how wrong I was to assume the interview.

Still, I persevered and continue doing my daily task of packing, scanning, printing, cutting and replying unimportant emails on their behalf. It was tolerable until one day my efforts was unappreciated.

***

That was the time when I was told to pay Astro a visit for a few deliveries. I panic for a second and told him that it will be better if I courier the items over and pointed the fact that I’m not familiar with the route but he insisted on sending it anyway.

So I took the liberty to learn the road from my father and reached Astro without too much problem aside from getting honk now and then for last minute swirls due to my lack of alertness in the new journey.

And as clumsy as I always were, I drove into the premise without realizing that only employees are allowed to enter.

Though the journey was rough with bits and bytes everywhere, I still manage to reach the lobby without wasting too much time.

But that day wasn’t my lucky day. It rained heavily and I was stuck in Astro until my higher up begin to suspect my adequacy and texted me several time to come back.

When I got back, I did the usual things that an office boy will do and leave when 6.30pm came but it was no easy feat. Every time I try to leave, I’ll get a quiz on things that I’ve done with suspicions that I slack during working hours and also the intimidating aura that suggest “don’t go back if your work is not done”.

Even said so, I was still confident to leave because everything I was doing wasn’t even close to the actual operations in the office. Besides, I’m only doing things that other people hate doing as a senior.

Still, my level of tolerance is safe but I begin to build up a rebellion force inside me and sometimes I just wanted to retaliate.

On the next day, I begin embracing life as it is and begin accepting little task that was told relevant to the media. And today, I got a few boxes with 200 CDs each to be sent to 26 radio studio nationwide.

Never did I think that I was expected to finish the packing by end of the day until I receive a sounding/remark despite having strain my hands the whole day. Further, I don’t usually leave at 6.45, most of the time I leave slightly later.

I got home feeling angry and tendered my resignation the next day. Little did I expect that temporary job/Internship could be this streeful.

So I urge enthusiast out there to ask your employers two very important questions I left out.

-What exactly am I going to do?
-What are my working hours?

By getting the answers to those question, they will be oblige to fulfill what they have promised you and not simply asking you to perform errands that others kill to do. Best of all, if you don’t like what they propose, you can just find another temp. job.


Signing off,
To life and trouble free temp. jobs!

How much we really know about the internet?

With the rising popularity of the internet, one cannot but embrace the fact that technology has taken a leap and is crucial that we know what to do with the opportunity available for us.

Since Google and online mail services dominate our lives, people are now able to communicate in real-time situation rather than spending time with a pen and a paper. Moreover, hands phone are well acquit with wifi capabilities, not to mention sms's advantages as well. There's no real reason why Google and Yahoo couldn't make money.

Still, do we ever sit down and think about the success of these companies? No. Instead we believe that these companies succeed for simply being the first to provide free email. Sadly, wverything we know only consists of 20 percent of their actual reason behind their story. There are other bewitching steps taken before the establishment made it to what it is today.

Just think about Friendster and how it gave us a new purpose in life. Think about the reason why you enjoy being around people in the club. Friendster poses a condition free environment for people to socialize and interact with one another. Moreover, people tend to be open when they are not obligated to give you the good first impression contrary to clubbers.

For the less appealing individuals, they tend to participate more on online social network than in real life. They sometimes disguise as someone else or animated characters to boost their confidence when interacting with others. And just like that, they are able to communicate with the kind of people they like in appose to the chances they have on a real life social environment. But that doesn’t deter “prominent” people to stop using Friendster. They too can be insecure without realising their own potentials.

In business terms, think of it as selling your ratings for free to Friendster. What they have created is a community, where possibilities mentioned above happen, regardless whether it is positive or negative.

Still, how much do we really know about online social webpages? They could be imposing themselves as Microsoft or Motorola and secretly disguising themselves as an ordinary user with hidden agenda. We really don’t know that.

Before we start utilizing the free medium, we need to analyst what users want and how they can use the community you created to their advantage. Blogging for instances, give us the confidence because we’re not judge on a professional point of view but rather constructive criticism from ordinary people. From there, we can improve before throwing ourselves into the ocean. Kudos to bloggers.com.

The point is, brands should put themselves out there and not merely a website with historical background. Brands should build communities. By communities meaning to give users a safe zone to do what they can’t in real life.

A good example to that would be Lowyat forum. Clearly the content of the forum has nothing directly related to the premise but it does want you to visit and get a feel of the experiences within. To do that, they construct a forum where people can sell stuff, discuss issues, introduce games and other general hobby, with Lowyat as the tagline in the forum homepage.

With good faith, opinion leaders and sellers can meet up at Lowyat to do their transaction and other community based activities evolved in the forum.

And when such participation exist, Lowyat became a popular site and some would even regard it as the place for IT parts and any other computing product.

Still, it’s easier said than done. You cannot aspect something as miracle as this to happen in a day. A community is build in weeks, months and even years before you see actual result. You cannot escape from internet either because potential business partners and customers are using the same platform to connect with everything around.

It doesn’t have to be business, even non-profitable organization or special project can benefit from the use of internet. But still, is up to you to make the first move before your counterpart does.


Till then,
Bye

What I've been doing?

Greetings!

Like all other students out there, we are probably having a nice time now without assignments or exam pulling our legs.

And unlike some who chooses to enjoy, I took the liberty and got myself a learning opportunity at Warner Music Malaysia and amazingly, in the first two weeks, I found some really depressing issues about the music industry. I fear that music might one day be extinct.

With YouTube and Torrent downloads rampant on the internet, we can now listen to music without having to buy CDs. Car accessories are no child play either, they too install convenient USB hubs to accommodate mp3 and wma audio files.

Unless, you come from a background with very little technology, I can't see a reason why you fail to download music like anyone else. Hail to TMnet and other internet service provider.

The thing is, label companies, took hours of promotion, collaboration and nurturing of local and international artist to give us what we have on Torrents and Limewire today. If we continue to download without control, we're probably see the extinction of music, faster than sharks and orang utans. And judging by the addiction of illegal downloads, torrent will soon put a price in every download.

If that's the case, why not contributing to the original music industry instead? There's no valid reason why hackers should earn your money. I know that CD's are expensive but if our attitude don't change, we might be responsible for destruction of music. And yes, I agree we can't live without illegal downloads but we still purchase original once in a while, with a balance for both pirated and original. With only a small effort of buying the CD's you really love, will brighten our day in label industry thus putting a smile in your favorite artist.

Before we press the download button, think of ways to get the government to reduce taxes for imported CD. With the correct influence and petition, we can demand for cheaper CDs.

But no matter what, there's always promotions and discounts available for us, especially on this month of giving. And so happen there's Warner and EMI cheap CD campaign.

It is the little effort and commitment that keep the music industry running and fret not, your contribution is not wasted. If things go well for the industry, you can be reassured that we (labels) will force your favorite artist to produce more hence better music.

Till then,
Bon Voyage blog reader,
A community service article by me.