Tag: Malaysia

Two sides to every coin, even Bersih 3.0

So I didn’t get tear gassed and I wasn’t covered with chemical laced water by the cannons fired by the FRU. However, I did follow the updates closely of my friends who took part in the rally today. Here are some of the notable pictures by Malaysians who courageously took part in this campaign. You know who you are, leave a comment if you took the original photo.

#1 Razor wire all setup
#2 Malaysians are not weak
#3 Malaysians came
#4 Malaysians conquered - that's 1 street by the way
#5 Malaysians even came prepared

The extended Bersih 3.0 activity

#6 Leave goodwill messages

One Malaysian tweeted that there’s a goodwill tree for people to leave a message on and it was said that it’s allowed to be displayed until the upcoming general election. The truth in this is unconfirmed for me.

#7 Go go yellow ranger
#8 Bersih 3.0 Ipoh
#9 Bersih 3.0 Johor

In addition, there were Bersih 3.0 gatherings in other states like Penang and Melaka. Also, I’m pretty sure there may be much smaller groups who supported this in their own states but may not have added a photo to the #bersih hashtag via Twitter. Nonetheless, you’re still part of this movement already.

#10 Bersih 3.0 Japan
#11 Bersih 3.0 Hong Kong
#12 Bersih 3.0 Shanghai
#13 Bersih 3.0 Mekah

Besides that, Bersih 3.0 rallies were taking place in other parts of the world like Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland to name a few, by the Malaysians residing in those countries.

We’ve still a long way to go

It’s only fair to talk about the other side of the coin as well. Here were some of the things which happened.

#14 Habit of throwing stuff conveniently
#15 Why couldn't we do it the right way in KL
#16 Just because you can doesn't mean you're suppose to do it

The worst event of Bersih 3.0 – police car incident

I had friends say their eyes hurt due to the tear gas and some which said they were having a skin reaction to the chemical laced water. However, my dear Malaysians, this was suppose to be a peaceful rally. Whether or not you were influenced by the forces to behave otherwise, I hope you reflect on your actions for it.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ara569Nh_U0]

I was very surprised to find news that Malaysians overturned a police car. My heart gave the full benefit of the doubt that we won’t be behave as such cavemen. However, watching the first 15 seconds into the video proved me otherwise.

From such a situation, it led to a more worst scene. The police car had reportedly run into some Malaysians. Some say it resulted in a fatality. Watch closely 35 seconds into the video below.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0TnNtzIhTw]

Some Malaysians jumped right in to control the crowd frenzy happening. The priority was to help casualties of the collision. This resulted in the overturn police car as some Malaysians believed there may have been a person trapped beneath the car.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZmS2AczePY]

Based on the videos I’ve watched, there are 2 sides of the coin to be blamed. Whether it was only caused by 1, can and will only be proved when there’s proof of it. Until then, we can’t ignore the fact that we lost a fellow Malaysian here.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xh52zernUM]

This video close up revealed the beating and damage taken to the police car, which shouldn’t have happened. But it also shows our justice to beat down those who were wrong for their actions. And, it shows our compassion as Malaysians (even in a rally) that we love our own and we know when we need to protect and rescue them from harms way.

To all the Malaysians who took part in Bersih 3.0, I thank you for carving a hole of light for our future. We know when we have to stand and we know when action will be necessary.

*salute*

BE A MAN Russell Peters

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qtrAMK7_Qk]

I was introduced to the comedian by my group of friends. Oblivious to his existence, I never knew Russell Peters until I saw that video and it just stuck. Be a man.

Other than that video, his other memorable line would the $34.50. Russell was impersonating how when you buy stuff, you’ll get a hard time bargaining with a Chinese stall owner. My, ain’t it true. LOL! 😛

Sure sell out

So, little I’ve to say as you may have heard, his show has been sold out in Malaysia since the ticketing started today. Event company websites like TicketPro Malaysia and AirAsia RedTix had a very hard time coping with the influx of traffic of customers waiting to buy tickets to the one-time show on May 12.

Cue awkward silence

I opted to purchase my tickets from TicketPro because they gave me the better impression of an events company that I could rely on. However, I guess sometimes they doubt how well their website would hold up to a super surge of traffic. And I could see all the frustration vented on their Facebook page at the time. To make matters worst…

What...the...fuck...

After waiting for more than 10 minutes (some say they waited 2 hours), I was unlucky to come across this message. Hence, all I could do was wait – again.

Thankfully, an almighty power of the universe, may be God, got me to the purchasing page for my tickets after that. Without hesitation, I put down my order of tickets and paid for them. Hoorah, the war had been won!

What do you mean retractable?

We’ll be seated at the East area and really, what do you mean retractable? My Dad joked that maybe the seats will move like we’re on some motion master ride. *slaps forehead*

I’m really looking forward to this international act and I’m very curious as to what jokes will Russell pull out for us Malaysians. 🙂

Removing the dreaded road tax sticker

If you drive a car and have stuck on recent road tax stickers, you know the stupid ass shit you’ve to do now to rid yourself of the road tax sticker. Especially the goo, gunk or sticky crap stuff that comes with the sticker.

Road tax sticker goo

This is the shit I was talking about and not to mention how ugly a sight it is on the windscreen!

The previous year, I tried using an eraser but trust me, don’t. It’ll make matters worst because all it’ll do is mostly shift the crap around and leave smudges.

So this year, I decided to give nail polish remover a try after digging some solutions to remove the road tax sticker. Now let me say, it ain’t a great smell to have on your hands or fingers. But it gets the job done.

After 5-10 minutes of nail polish

I’m not sure if nail polish removers have different grades, but it took me definitely more than 5 minutes to clean off the gunk. Even after that amount of time, you’ll notice leftover gunk still stuck on the windscreen. And the shit ass glue plays die-hard that it even leaves traces stuck on the cleaning cloth. Eesh.

Ta-dah!

After a good 15-20 minutes, I finally managed to get back the windscreen I once lost. Finally!

My fingers now still smell of nail polish remover and I nearly got a heart attack for sticking the wrong road tax sticker on the wrong car. However, I was lucky enough it peeled off without problem and didn’t tear. Phew.

Originally, I didn’t want to stick the road tax sticker directly on the windscreen this year but on a clear plastic first. But my Dad said if I did that, anyone can steal and use your road tax. In addition, his reason despite me saying the road tax sticker has our car number, he says no one checks that – go figure.

Anyway, here are some other suggestions to remove the goo other than using nail polish remover.

  • Goo Gone. Heard it’s a product you can buy from Ace Hardware. I’ll probably get myself a bottle to try for next year. 😛
  • Pen knife and hard card to peel and scrape the gunk. Though many fear damaging the window or their tint.
  • Lighter fluid. Beware that it’s flammable liquid.
  • Thinner and turpentine. Some forumer discouraged this as it can damage the tint.
  • Soap water. I was thinking of whether or not to use this but just went with the nail polish in the end.
  • Hair dryer. Apparently you heat up the sticker, it’ll come off easily. Though I doubt there won’t be traces of goo.
  • Eraser. As mentioned, from my experience, it just smudges the goo around than remove it.
  • Wet tissue. I thought I could just wipe it away after applying some nail polish remover but the tissue fibre just got caught in the goo.

Lastly, some people have said you can ask a workshop like Brothers or Eneos to help you remove, clean and stick the new road tax sticker for a small fee.

Anyway, the reason I’m not using the clear plastic technique is because I read this with regards to the compliance to JPJ, if you’re using the stick on plastic then stick on windscreen technique.

Display Of Motor Vehicle Licence ( Section 20 of RTA1987)

(1) Every motor vehicle licence granted under section 16 other than a motor vehicle licence granted in respect of a motor cycle or an invalid carriage licence shall be fixed to and exhibited on the vehicle in respect of which it is issued, in the manner and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed.

(2) No person shall (either by writing, drawing or in any other manner) alter, deface, mutilate or add anything to any motor vehicle licence, nor shall any person exhibit on any motor vehicle any vehicle licence which has already been altered, defaced, mutilated or added to as aforesaid, or upon which the figures or particulars have been illegible or of which the colour has become altered, by fading or otherwise, nor shall any person exhibit any colourable imitation of any such licence.

(3) Any person who contravenes this section shall be guilty of an offence.

Have you or friends been stopped by the traffic police because you used the plastic technique on the road tax stickers?

Dropping Malaysian quality of people

Okay, so I thought of starting with “all my life growing up in Malaysia” but the fact is the 28 years growing up in Malaysia, I’ve experienced noticeable changes in our country’s people.

I don’t have a problem with foreigners coming here for better jobs and such. However, it pisses me off feeling their not-so-good habits are influencing our culture. Any by foreigners, I’d say it even extends to the Malaysians whom came to KL from out of state.

Ignorant and arrogant motorists

If you’re my age or older, have you noticed the drivers here are now worst than what they were 10 years before. Seriously. When I first got my license, there weren’t idiots who squeezed their arrogant faces just before they can’t do it. The motorcyclist were more careful of the vehicles for the safety of their life rather than trying to be king of the road.

Making kids behave

Now as an adult, you reflect on the actions your parents did to discipline you. You get it now. Which is why you find old cartoons now lame because you actually pay attention to the scripts in them – that’s another story. I’ve noticed parents nowadays are more lax with their kids. Unlike when I was a kid, parents advised kids to not be so rowdy. Thanks to technology, you know this was coming, Apple’s iPad not only has kept the kids quiet but sometimes detached from observation. Which is why I myself am wondering how’d I bring up my kids with such technology later.

Keeping Malaysia cleaner

I don’t deny we can’t make our country spotless. But I’ve experienced enough in countries like Australia and Singapore to know, we can help keep our country; Malaysia, cleaner than what it is today. More smokers are chucking their buds out the car windows. Even normal motorist just throw their rubbish out the window. People who use parks with food or anything with disposable items don’t throw them in the bin. It keeps getting worse.

Cleanup after yourself at fast food outlets

When I was in Melbourne, I noticed patrons cleaned up after themselves when they finished their meal. It was weird for me as back in Malaysia, we never did it and I couldn’t understand why. So I decided to do the same and since then, I do it when I’m back too. It not only felt good to help others already working there, but you leave feeling proud that you did something great. Even it meant just cleaning up after yourself. Give it a try. Ignore the weird eye brows and cooks stares coming from other patrons.

People create the culture

That’s what a friend of mine said and as an adult, I understand the statement. Our parents who taught us to be better people aren’t going to be around forever. Our children are going to grow up following our discipline and habits. If we don’t start now and make others realize it, I’m more concerned our generations won’t have much of a culture.

So please stop throwing buds or rubbish out the window. Bring a black bag to the park for rubbish. Cleanup after yourself at your next McDonalds visit. Tell your relatives and friends their kids are not leaving them a good impression as a parent if they continue behaving that way.

The government is one thing. But we need better Malaysians too.

How Simpleet started

Simpleet is the website design company me and my partner; Hawk, started. However, we never started Simpleet as Simpleet. So I’d like to share how we started Simpleet and keep this as my note of historical events.

Back in the days

Me and Hawk made our first contact in our secondary school years. It so happened that our friend; Terry, put us in touch because I had some web questions. From then on, Hawk was always my go-to-guy when I had technical questions. However, we kind of last touch when we went to college and university.

just like fate

My lecturers in Australia had me motivated and inspired as I completed my multimedia degree. This gave me my higher purpose to return to Malaysia, help and show students interested in pursuing a career in the Internet industry that there was a future and they should pursue it if they had the passion for it.

Just like fate, a website project brought me and Hawk working together. At the time, we were both freelancing under a project manager. However, a fallout happened in a project between the customer, our project manager and even, us.

The first step

Of course, the story didn’t end there for me and Hawk because we were both doing what we loved. We both saw how our skills complemented each other and not long after distributing my business cards like confetti, we got a project from my brother’s friend.

We didn’t call the company; Danny and Hawk, or had a cool name at the time, but we did agree to start calling our makeshft company; Websites Made Simple. And because the domain was taken, the default website for our outfit was my personal domain; dannyfoo.com

People found us

Ever since we started, it’s been about people finding us through the search or having referred by friends or relatives. And I do find it weird sometimes when people say they found us online, because we never exactly optimized the website for targeted keywords. *shrug*

World of business networking

I was invited by a friend to experience word-of-mouth marketing. It was an event that started at 7:00AM in morning and all I was told was it would be a great opportunity for me to network with business owners. And honestly, the word “network” worried me and thought what I had gotten into. Because the word was easily misconceived as mutli-level networking. Thank God it wasn’t!

The organization called; BNI or Business Network International, was me and Hawk’s first serious step towards marketing our business. I really liked the idea and experience of how a room of business owners exchanged business referrals for one another AND didn’t expect commission in return. It was fantastic!

But…yes, there was a but. In order to qualify for participation, we had to be a real business with registration and all. Though this would sound embarrassing, this was the truth. When me and Hawk ran Websites Made Simple, it was sheer simplicity. All profits were split 50-50 when projects completed, that’s it.

How we ran the business changed when we joined BNI. We approached a company secretary to register our company. But we didn’t want to call it; Websites Made Simple, because it was a mouthful. And our research showed, a good name is between 2-3 syllables.

Simple 1337 gamers

We cracked our heads coming up with names. But the one which stuck is now known as; Simpleet.

It was really tough deciding on a name. So much so, I started to read articles how web company names were made – joining 2 words and how choosing a good company name is between 2-3 syllables.

One night over mamak, Hawk and I tossed names for the company. We both wanted to keep the word “simple” in our name because we built websites made simple for users. But being a mamak session, conversation detoured to games we were playing too. Then, I asked if he knew about the leet language so he told me about the hackers language and origin of 1337.

From that point, we slowly came to the name from simple and elite to simply elite then Simpleet. And the rest they would say, is history.

Simpleet’s higher purpose

I just finished reading the book; Delivering Happiness: A path to profits, passion and purpose by Tony Hsieh, CEO at Zappos. I was absorbed through the whole part of Tony talking about company culture because this was what I want in Simpleet ever since we started and I know we will be doing it.

But other than that, reading this book made me feel it’s time I sat down with Hawk to find out, what is Simpleet’s higher purpose now.

To Tony Hsieh: Thank you for writing this book and making it really real. Thank you for sharing your experience and I know that I would’ve wanted to work for Zappos if I finished my degree in the US and worked there. Thank you for the motivation and inspiration from your book. And if given the chance, I would definitely love to tour the Zappos office, experience the WOW, bump chest with you and give you a hug as a final thank you. Thank you.