Fat 11:25 PM

Isn't that a word we're all familiar with?

As a person with weight problems (or thinks he has weight problems) will tell you, losing weight is one of the hardest things you'll ever have to do. I envy my colleagues who eat and eat and never get fat. Aza had nasi lemak for lunch and tea, and she's thin as a rake. Hiro seems to have a bottomless pit, and can polish off plate after plate. Victor has midnight snacks (bread and lotsa butter!). Too bad for me and my metabolism.

Lee Yi once said "Pity John la, he only eats like snacks,". Haha... I've been having Tiger biscuits and low-fat milk for the last year-and-a-half, and although people tease me about it, I've pretty much gotten used to the routine. Karen once said "I think you're not human!". Lol. Lee Yi also said that "eating with John is like eating alone, its the same theory." Quite true I guess. I just can't bring myself to eat anything oily/from the mamak/fried/lotsa carbs, so I usually end up eating nothing at all, or very little. I actually LIKE going out at midnight to mamaks (PCG, I blame you! ;p), but I rarely ever eat, or will probably only order a drink.

That's whatchu gotta do if you wanna shed those pounds. Maybe I'm just too vain. But it is something I struggle with daily - I wake up in the morning and hate myself sometimes. I will not, however, go the path of eating disorders, I like food too much (that's how I got fat in the first place, hah!).

Anyway, too much ranting on my part, cuz got nothing to do in the office. What was I trying to say? Oh yeah, lose weight, live strong! Hoho ;)

WT*^#@FISH! 2:00 AM

I was scouting for jobs online (I don't need a job, but I do it when I'm bored or need entertainment) when I found the most ridiculous advertisement in KLue magazine's website.

Get a load of this:

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I laughed my butt off. And don't even get me started on this dude's grammar!

An Internship Full of Coffee 4:56 AM

No, I'm not working at Starbucks.

I was at Malaysiakini for 6 days for an internship cum training (it was more of the latter really), and now I'm starting another at Astro Awani. That's Astro channel 501 for the uninformed, watch it watch it watch it!

Anyway I haven't had anything to eat all day since breakfast (wholegrain cereal); it is currently 8pm, and the only thing I've had so far is coffee in different varieties! Having said that, I love the office coffee machine, it can make choc-o-chino (my fav!), espresso, black coffee, mocha, and even teh tarik (take that Starbucks! ;p). Every office should have one!

And I'm working on this show called In Person where we do personal interviews with celebrities/outstanding personalities with interesting/motivational stories. We did Malaysian rapper/businessman/record label owner Joe Flizzow today. Went to his house (can you imagine, his HOUSE!) and his fashion store in Midvalley Gardens called Sole What for the shooting. He was a cool guy and all.




People at the office are totally relaxed, maybe cuz everyone's kinda young? (no offense to senior citizens!) Oh my friend's calling now, they want to do a live recording in the studio and I wanna watch.

More coffee for me!

Narrative Journalism 1:21 AM

We learned about this new thing called 'narrative journalism' during my citizen journalism internship with Malaysiakini, which basically defies the usual newspaper norm of facts arranged in an inverted pyramid style.

Instead of starting with the 5W's (who, what, where, when, why) and 1H (how) as we are taught in journalism school, this style requires that we use facts creatively, in a narrative format to tell a human story, not just state the bare facts. It was quite interesting actually, quite a departure from how I was trained to write news. Check out this sample of what we did in class; I interviewed several Indonesians in front of the Indonesian embassy and in University Malaya about how they were being treated in Malaysia since the Manohara scandal, Ambalat and maid abuse controversies:

We Are Happy Here

Cigarette in hand, he came suddenly into the frame.

"This is a private matter; something the Kelantan royalty has to deal with," said Faizal, a 52-year-old trader of Manohara Odelia Pinot. "It is not our problem."

His friend, Erwin, was being interviewed in front of the Indonesian embassy when Faizal decided he had something to say.

"Such a matter should not affect relations between Indonesia and Malaysia," he mused.

Indonesian model and celebrity Manohara had come under public scrutiny when she fled from her husband, the Prince of Kelantan, while they were visiting Singapore. Now back in Indonesia, she and her mother have accused the Prince of torture and human rights violations.

Under the sweltering heat outside the embassy, Faizal looked old and worn, his beard betraying his age.

"But we are happy here," he insists.

When the news broke of Manohara's return to her native Indonesia, Rudi was there also.

"There were many headlines; we have as many as 11 television stations in Indonesia so you can imagine the kind of coverage it received. There was coverage everyday."

When asked for his personal opinion, he shrugged slightly. "This is a complicated issue, but not one of national concern."

Rudi, Fai and Khalil were all chemical engineering students at Universiti Malaya. Rudi was taking his PhD while Fai and Khalil were doing their Masters.

Fai took to the camera next. "The media in Indonesia is relatively uncontrolled, unlike in Malaysia, hence there was widespread coverage. It certainly was 'hotter' news there."

Despite that, the men claim, there has not been any hostility towards Indonesians living in Malaysia.

Khalil is especially certain. "Everyone in Malaysia has been good."

I Met Lim Kit Siang! 4:22 PM

Ok its probably not such a big deal, but I'll talk about it anyway.

So I've been involved in this short internship (6 days!) with Malaysiakini - its basically an extension of the citizen journalism training programme I did with them last year. We tagged along with a Malaysiakini journalist for an assignment, which was to cover a press conference by DAP Ipoh Timur MP Lim Kit Siang at the DAP headquarters in Petaling Jaya. We (the citizen journalists, or CJ for short) were told to ask him what he thought about citizen journalism and the power of the new media in Malaysia.

After he spoke at length about the spiralling billion-ringgit PKFZ scandal (check out a video of the press conference here), I asked him whether he knew anything about citizen journalism. The day before, our Minister Information, Communications, and Culture Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim was asked the same question, and he couldn't answer it! He knew nothing of citizen journalism it seems, I hope we enlightened him.

I don't think Mr Lim knew that much about citizen journalism either, but he gave this very smart answer: "I was a journalist myself (laughs)... we welcome the new media where anyone can become a journalist... everybody is a journalist, everybody is a reporter, and I think it is most shameful that the Minister in charge of communications knows nothing about it." You gotta hand it to the man, he sure knows how to take advantage of a situation and turn it into a government critique!

And the best part is, my interview was recorded! Unfortunately, I wasn't in the frame, and my voice was barely audible *sighs* But if you pay attention you can hear my voice at 3.35. He asked me if I was a citizen journalist and I said "yes."

Ciao for now ;)

New Beginnings 6:29 AM

Warning: Do not read the old posts!

Haha... I'm resuscitating this old blog. It was originally started as a working-blog for my citizen journalism training at Malaysiakini; we were supposed to start blogging about 'human rights' and other hard-hitting social issues (politics, crime, etc). Long story short - I failed quite miserably at that. I can throw in a whole lotta crap excuses like no time/resources, but the truth is that I just wasn't motivated (guess I lack social awareness? ;p)

So I'm changing things. This will now be my personal blog, after much persistent nagging by Hiro, Kar Woon and other members of PCG to start one. I need a place to vent anyway, and to deposit my randomness.

To those who know me, you might remember me saying that this is not my first blog. I am notorious for starting and stopping blogs, probably have a few I can't even remember about. There are several simple reasons for that:
1) I am too much of a perfectionist
2) I am too much of a perfectionist
3) I am too much of a perfectionist

Subsequently, there are several reasons why I'm revitalizing this one:
1) I had too much coffee+tea today, am pretty wired
2) I enjoy reading PCG's blogs, so I wanna start my own dammit!
3) Its nicer to blog when you have a whole gang doing it
4) Heck, what else do people do nowadays?

So here's to the start of something new!