Review : Honda Hot Import Nights 2011

Let me tell you, how insulted I am after attending Honda Hot Import Nights 2011. I swear it was the most disappointing car show/event for the year 2011. Ask ALL of the people who attended this event, they'll agree to this statement.

I spent RM 20, and traveled 32 kilometers and braved the Sunday morning jam. I had trouble finding parking spaces because just opposite the event venue, there was a carnival. 

Paid for the tickets, received free magazine and poster. Well, they could have at least removed the price sticker for the Hot Import Nights magazine. RM 2.90, what the heck yo?! 

The minute I stepped into the venue, I was greeted by booths selling cheap, China quality accessories for cars. 2 DIN players, steering wheels, you name it. It definitely gave you a preview of what to expect for the next 10 minutes into the event.

The venue was small, there was limited booths to showcase, it wasn't pack, it sounded boring and dull, wasn't lively. And by standing at the seating zones in the stadium, you'll have a full view of the WHOLE event. 

 Leona Chin's ride was also on display.

 Didn't know Kancils were considered 'Imports'. Malaysia boleh

=/

 I was surprised with the presence of local cars. I guess local cars that are converted to their Japanese counterparts are considered Imports after all. Kudos =/

I felt cheated, seriously. From the HIN website, the pictures telling you how awesome the event is gonna be, is just a huge lie. Honestly, this event wasn't even worth the RM 20 that I paid. Took me 10 minutes or so to finish visiting all of the booths. Dyno wars didn't start when I was there in the afternoon. Honda should have changed the time to start in the evening instead in the afternoon. 

Nevertheless, a disappointing event like this is saved by the presence of exotic and tuners . Lamborghini, a few Volkswagen and Mini Coopers, tuned BMWs, a Camaro, the usual tuners like the Evo, Sti and GTR

There's just so much wrong about this event. The wrong choice of venue, the false advertising, the typical Malaysian mods that were too much. I didn't see the Veyron or the AMG Widebodykit Benz as promised in the event. Greeted by booths selling average  quality accessories for cars just states the standard to expect from this event. The presence of local converted cars just shows the organizer's negligence of the word 'IMPORT'. Somehow with more car audio booths, I felt this was more of a car audio event than an Import event. Add on RM 15, I should have went for the Formula Drift at Merdeka Square. At least you get to see drift cars burning rubbers. I actually expected it to be like those Import events you see happening in the States or in any Western countries. Guess this is the Malaysian version. 

Again, I felt cheated. 2 of my close friends got cheated. And to those who traveled from out of KL all the way for this event, I feel you. I do hope whoever plans to organize next year's one, do look back at 2011's most disappointing auto event.

Went back home, went through the free magazine. Oh well, thank goodness its free, and for RM 2.90, there must be a reason its cheap on newsstands.

(pictures taken from Zerotohundred.com's FB Album for Honda Import Nights. Credit goes to them. Do like them on Facebook =D).

Erase/Rewind

Today was the final paper that I've sat for college, pengajian Malaysia, or also known as Malaysian Studies. The last time I felt really nervous before a paper was Marketing Management for my 2nd semester last year. I just hope I'm able to pass this, which means this is the first time in my life that I went through a school year without failing any sub =D

Nevertheless I do have my packaging design final assessment to do and next year January 5th, the class and I would have to present it at the college's gallery to my lecturer and a few invited guest. I'm excited for this last project before internship, but also well, a lil bit sad that its been almost one year gone. And it was like just 12 months ago I started my 3rd semester by grouping with the April intakes.

Starting out I didn't really talk to them at all, but give it after a semester (yes, it took me one whole semester before actually befriending some of them), we're close enough to call each other silly names.

For this final semester of projects before internship and exhibition, I had the honor to be able to work with them for my digital video & audio final. Jessica, Jeremy, Yung Tyng, Balqis. It was one hectic month of preshoot, filming and editing before we could finally render it into a 10 minute video. Our video project has this mix of sci-fi, action with a dose of drama theme. So imagine time-travelling, a car chase, shoot outs and what not.

Yes the lecturer actually gave us a 7 minute limit, but one whole night of compressing and cutting out any unnecessary scenes, we were down to 10 minutes. We tried convincing the lecturers that since our group got 7 members and it is only fair enough that each have a minute plus to direct, but they were quite strict about the rules and to them its unfair for other groups to only have 6 minutes of less while we have 10 minutes.

Well, no one asked you to give 7 minutes, we would have been really happy if you have gave us 10 minutes. So here's the final cut, and hopefully Benchmark Productions would release a director's extended cut, with minutes worth of extra footage that had been deleted off.

African Americans in Paris

So I just watched the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2011 on Youtube, and few days before I actually got to see it, a few of my friends posted links of performances on that show.

And one of them was, "N*ggas in Paris", probably in my opinion, the rap song of the year. I didn't really liked that track after the first listening, but then again I thought since Kanye's 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy'was awesome at the first listen, I give it a 2nd chance.

And shit, I frickin' loved it a lot. Clever lyrics and that heavy, heavy background music. 

N*ggas in Paris received heavy air play on American radios, N*ggas in Paris was performed at every special guest performances, N*ggas in Paris was encored at their Watch The Throne American Tour.

N*ggas in Paris, should be in your top 10 or even top 5 rap/hip hop tracks of the year. 

N*ggas in Paris, should be your alarm clock tune, your message tone, your ring tone, the one you jam to during the peak traffic hours on KL roads.

N*ggas in Paris, is just class rap. I just don't know how to describe this song. Love it or hate it, N*ggas in Paris is just, awesome =) 

Its gonna be December y'all!!! WHOOOO I smell Christmas is just less than a month away. WHOOO!! But anyway last Christmas was a tragedy and I do hope this year would be a heck lot better.

The Wedding

 So on 19th of November 2011, my bro got married to the love of his life, Joyce. The wedding was held at St. Francis Xavier Church at Jalan Gasing, Petaling Jaya. Rehearsals were done on Thursday evening. And I brought Elizabeth along =)

So an hour before the wedding started, my leather shoe's heels came off, both of them. I had to drive all the way back to Elizabeth's house to take his brother's shoe.

But thankfully, I wasn't late for the main event.

Happiness.

Final registration.

Walking out as husband and wife.

Ohana.

Black and Blue

So here's what happened. Today before the final day filming for my Digital Audio & Video assignment, I tripped and fell just because of missing a single staircase step. Both knees, left elbow and my left side of the waist had bruises. Black and blue =/ 

Went through the whole day walking in pain XD 

So its that time of the year when I'll be wondering, why good things with cheap deals only come to me when I'm short of cash to get them =/

So far I've yet to get a call from any company regarding my internship, might wanna go back to Adwizard Sdn. Bhd. for 3 months. I mean since I've worked there for a month last year December, I thought it'll be nice to help them out again.

Then again, it'll be nice to do internship elsewhere. I'm struggling now.

Bye Bye PPSMI

So the decision on Maths and Science to NOT be taught in English is FINAL.

Thank you my dear Deputy Prime Minister, for screwing up my future kids' education in such epic fashion. I wouldn't mind if it was bilingual, but NOOO!!!! Just because some people think giving up Bahasa Malaysia for English is unpatriotic and un-Malaysian and what not, you listened to them. Your decision alone upset the majority of the parents who want a better future and education for their children. Your decision made us go BACKWARD instead of FORWARD. France, Germany and Japan, these countries that are able to use their own mother language to teach and develop science and technology because they are ALREADY ADVANCED.


"One can be patriotic in Malaysia, but then tell me, HOW MANY countries in the world is using our "Bahasa Kebangsaan" in their speeches? Yea, the French speak french, the Germans speak German, the Japanese speaks japanese and so forth, BUT comparing their English level and of the English level with the youngsters in Malaysia, the youngsters in Malaysia loses out more! You complain of your Rakyat being too western n etc, but do you know, oh wise Minister, that in the Western schools they have to take 4 additional language subjects whereby 1 of it MUST be English?! " (Patricia Naumann, The Malaysian Insider, 'Muhyddin Decision on PPSMI Final' comments)


I might not be able to vote for the upcoming General Election, but telling my parents to NOT vote for your party is FINAL >=)

3 years...... =D

So this is what college students do when they're mad bored. Water condom balloon. =D 

Bath Time

So in my Digital Audio and Video short film assignment, my car was used in a car chase scene and after watching it speeding through bumps and weaving through traffic at Bandar Utama, time for a good wash =D

So if you noticed on your Facebook news feed you see your friends started sharing all sorts of picture quotes about life, love and what not. Yes, I do think they should have a Tumblr account if they're planning to share 20+ quote pictures a day, because most of them are from Tumblr. I stumbled across this picture of a Chow Chow doggie.

This Chow Chow dog was abandoned by its irresponsible owner, and managed to find its poor self back home, 3 times. The owner got so fed up, decided to injure its eyes so that it wont find its way back home, ever again.

I do have a soft spot for dogs, and this has got to be one of the most heartbreaking stories of dog mistreatment in months. The description of the picture was in Chinese, and I managed to understand most of it. I assume, repeat ASSUME that this took place somewhere in Mainland China.

I personally think China's society is just going down the drain. Last week I saw this video of a 2 year old girl got run over by a van and a lorry, left to die on the road and after 18 passerby, a garbage collector went to aid her. She died over this weekend. 18 lifeless bastards could have not care less about a 2 year old child lying on the road, dying.

What's up China?

So Far I'm Mentally Exhausted.

So......I'm currently having my one week midterm break and right now I'm feeling damn exhausted. I'm currently focusing on my digital audio and video assignment. My group's filming this short film that has a lil bit of time travelling and what not.

So here's what I've been up to

College :

So Monday we went around Bandar Utama to scout for a place to shoot the first few scenes of the film. Tuesday I went for this Kancil Awards briefing at 10 a.m, came back and my PC couldn't start after more than 5 times rebooting. Until I wait for another 30 minutes, it didn't freeze right after the desktop. Decided to download this registry cleaning software. And so far my PC's alright.

I've completed my resume, sent to my brother to send to any of his friends working in the advertising line. And till now I have yet to receive any updates/news from him. Am really tired of waiting. I might as well give my resume to the college admin and let them handle it. Or I might wanna go back to Adwizard, but the problem is majority of them converse in Mandarin. Although I've graduated from a Chinese primary school (that was 7 years ago, mind you), I completely lost it all after form 1. I can't write and speak well than I used to.

This Saturday and next week Tuesday/Wednesday, its filming day. I do hope everything runs according to plan. We didn't bother planning the camera angles in today's meeting because whatever we planned, we failed to follow. So let it be spontaneous =D

I have no confidence in competing for the Student Kancil Awards with my friends. We're just so tired and pilled up with loads of oncoming assignments and stress. We're mentally stressed out and soon after this semester I really need to take a darn break from all these.

My portfolio, dm-artndesigns.blogspot.com. Do give comments and tell me what is there to improve and what not. Thanks =D

Life :

Same shit different day. I'm having a hard time having a good rest. Unifi installed already, have to say goodbye to Astro. Thank you for 8 years of entertainment provided. So far Unifi's stable. The Hypp TV's good, MTV Live HD is focused 100% on music, no more crappy reality tv shows. Goodbye Sweet 16, Awkward, I Used to be Fat, Plain Janen and The Hills and Jersey f*cking Shore.

I really need a new phone. Its not that I don't wanna change, the problem lies on my dad. Yes, I still depend on my dad to get my needs. I didn't have time to find a part time job because of the short holidays after each semester ends. And whenever I saved enough money to feel better, I had to spend on assignments.

I don't know, I just hope October's gonna be good to me.

R.I.P Alex Ho

So this week has been tough for me. A friend of mine Alex Ho passed away unexpectedly on Thursday morning due to a heart related sickness. I was shocked throughout the evening, didn't really had the mood to have my dinner.

Tom and I decided to head to the Kuala Lumpur Chinese Cemetary to pay our last respect to Alex Ho, with a bunch of former classmates and school mates. Its just sad that within a year I've lost 2 friends.

I got to know Alex through Tom. During form 2, both of them were crazy about Japanese anime shows and online gaming like Maplestory and what not. I remember we went to Tom's house for a sleepover and I brought my Playstation 2 with Zone of Enders to play. Alex Ho completed the game within 24 hours. We also watched the movie, 'Eurotrip'. I also remembered during the weekends we would go to the cyber cafe near Leisure Mall to play a few hours of Serious Sam, Counter Strike.

I didn't talk to Alex much after form 3. He mixed around with a different gang of friends. Tom went to the science stream, I went to the Arts.

The last time I ever talked to Alex was after graduation ceremony, we exchanged handphone numbers to keep in touch. I remembered he told me he wanted to study hotel management, somewhere in the tourism line.

Alex didn't go to college, he ended up working at Nike Pavilion. By looking at his Facebook updates, he seemed to be enjoying his working lifestyle. Getting new kicks, be it Jordans or Dunks.

He's just 20 years old, still have a lot to achieve. His death only reminded his friends, and me that death doesn't care how old you are and life is always unpredictable.

So paying my last respect to him was the only thing I could do. Its a shame I didn't get a chance to try and catch up with him. Ronald's gonna miss you Alex, you were his bro since secondary school days.

What a bad way to end the week, huh?

I shall say goodbye to this phone soon, died whenever I was about to make calls to anyone.

Arthur's Day 2011

So last Tuesday I went and pick up the exclusive invites to this year's Arthur's Day. As you know from my previous Nuffnang post, Taio Cruz alongside with our local acts will be performing and celebrating 252 years of Guinness stout =)

And I decided to have Kyle, Sam and Ian to tag along for this event. I've missed the previous 2 years of Arthur's Day, so this would be my first.

This year the venue changed to Speed City KL, nearby Astro and The Mines. Traffic was heavy after turning into Sungei Besi area, and we spotted a few cars with passengers (note : girls) dressed in black.

Traffic officers were at the roundabout nearby the entrance to Speed City, they blocked the roundabout and all the cars that were supposedly heading to Speed City had to drive further to make another U-turn.

After another 15 minutes of extra traffic jam, we were greeted with this =D

After going through the ticket counter and what not, we're in the venue. So the first thing we saw was this globe, with 4 Guinness models posing with the people, Arthur's lounge further on the left, and the tabs on the right side, with the main stage in front of us. Moots and a Hitz.fm dj was entertaining the crowd with 'Club Hitz'.

Picture taken by Guinness Malaysia official photographer.

So before the concert starts Ian and I thought of having a few pints to drink, only to be denied entry to the drinking zone because we were under 21 =/ Oh shucks.

So this was how the crowd is at 8 p.m

Now Guinness Malaysia has asked the fans to vote for 1 of the handful of local acts to perform. I thought about voting for James Baum, but then I thought about checking out Prema Yin. And wow, I'm surprised how good her voice was. Her style was a mix of jazz, a lil rock and a lil soulful. I voted for Prema Yin, and damn...she didn't disappoint one bit.

Prema Yin came in 2nd place, Dragon Red won the voting competition to be the opening act but Guinness Malaysia was very kind enough to award the top 2 to open up. Thank you!!

I do not have pictures of Dragon Red performing, and couldn't find any of them on Guinness Malaysia's photo album, but thank goodness there's a rock act to rock out the stage. They were full of energy, and did pretty well on a cover of Lady Gaga's 'Bad Romance'. The crowd around me was busy headbanging to their cover of 2010's smash hit.

Moots and DJ Skeletor

So this is the crowd around me and the gang.

Mizz Nina, our very own Queen of Hip Hop, gave another energetic performance to remember. She belted out a couple of new songs, and also with the ones we know like Takeover and What You Waiting For. She sang, rapped and danced for us.

This picture sums up Kartel's performances. It was good, but they were on stage for WAY TOO LONG. Prema Yin, Dragon Red, Soler, Mizz Nina did four to five songs (if not mistaken), but I thought Kartel did one whole album on stage with SonaOne, Dandy from Silksounds and a guest appearance by a Japanese rapper.

1) SonaOne used autotune. I was surprised because its the first time I hear a local act using Autotune to perform. And Joe Flizzow at times tried too hard to sound like Lil Wayne. I'm serious, even Ian, Samuel and Kyle managed to recognize the style he was trying to copy.

2) Close to an hour on stage, that is way too long for a local act. Look at the picture, it was posted by a fan on Guinness Malaysia's Facebook page, showing crowds with the Guinness balloon making a X sign to show their feedback towards Kartel's performance. The energy just died after their 4th song because majority of the crowd probably never heard of Kartel or even know who is Joe Flizzow. Well, only some that actually followed Too Phat 10 years ago know that Joe is one half of the hip hop duo.

At one point, the crowd chanted 'Taio Taio!!" before Kartel started playing another song. Joe Flizzow and the rest knew the crowd was getting impatient, and told the crowd to give him another 5 minutes. 10 minutes later Kartel was done on stage.

JJ, Ean from Hitz.fm, along with former Hitz.fm crew Serena C were the MCs for the night, and they did a good job entertaining the crowd. Kudos. JJ was challenged by Serena to shuffle, and failed in front of 20 thousand plus people. Nevertheless, they managed to do their job well. I do hope they come back and MC next year's Arthur's Day event.

Finally after hours headbanging and singing along with the local acts and other international artiste, the main act of the night everyone's been waiting for appears on stage in style. The crowd went nuts the second he steps on stage.

A few days before the event, I actually thought Taio Cruz would lip sync or use autotune throughout his setlist. But I was wrong. Taio sang, with a minus one track accompanying him. He even played on keyboard during his first song of the night.

Taio Cruz also is probably the last few humble recording artist to exist on planet Earth. When Taio talks to the crowd, he sounds gentle and always thanked us after a song is finished. He always ensured that we had a good night before and after the event ends.

And that's when them big white Guinness balls then appeared. While I was recording one of his songs, one of the giant balls hit me on the head XD

Taio performed : Break Your Heart, She's Like A Star, Little Bad Girl (a David Guetta song which he was featured on), Dirty Picture, a new song off his upcoming album called Troublemaker, Higher and an encore performance with Dynamite.

To end the night off, the MCs called out all of the acts to gather on stage to make a toast to Arthur. And then....

This happened.

The crowd, blessed with gold confetti and then

Fireworks for 5 minutes =D

So about after midnight, Arthur's Day Malaysia ended and Kuala Lumpur was chosen to be the finale for Arthur's Day. Singapore, you mad? XD

Took us 1 hour to get out of the car park zone, all because only one booth was opened for exit. Came back around 2 a.m, legs tired.

(some pictures were downloaded from Guinness Malaysia's Facebook page, and the rest were taken from Ian, Samuel and Kyle)