HCFoo's Blogyard

Today has been a pretty exciting day. My friend Chia Chia had a called from NTV7 asking her to 'audition' for the show Deal or No Deal (English version). She invited me and another 3 friends to come along and join the recording of the show at 4.30 p.m.

We reached there on time and were asked to sit at the waiting area watching together with a bunch of teenagers (whom we later found out were the contestants of Star Idol) and friends of the Deal and No Deal contestants. We had to wait until about 5.30 p.m. before we were asked to go into the studio. During the waiting period, we were provided food and watched the American version of the show from a small TV.

Well, I don't have any photos to show because I have no camera phone and I was too chicken to use my digital camera. This is my first time watching a live recording from a studio and I thought it will be against the rules if I use it.

The recording started immediately after a briefing to the audience. I never watch the show before so I have no clue how the game show works. It has been ages since I watch any NTV7 shows and besides the timing of the show isn't right for me (at 7 p.m. every Monday and Tuesday).

The host is Goh Wee Ping (according to Michael Pang, he's actually Non the ex DJ of MixFM) and it's amazing how thick his foundation and make up is. During the preliminary round, we were introduced to 6 contestants. The first person who got 2 correct answers will move on to the next round, which is the most exciting part of the show. The questions were very simple and in the form of multiple choice:

For example (the questions sort of sound like this):
1. What is the name of the transport that move on land and sea ? Answer: hovercraft
2. Which of the following is not wind instrument? Answer: xylophone
3. SpongeBob has a best friend. What animal is he? Answer: starfish

One of the contestant was able to answer question 1 and 3 correctly and he automatically moved on to the next round.

During the recording, we had many breaks in between the show. After the first break and changing the setting, it was time for the 26 Revlon girls to walk out to the stage with their briefcases with numbers 1-26 on them. These girls are really hot and definitely the highlight of the show.

I'm not going to tell you how this game show works since you can read it from Wikipedia or watch the game show yourself. It was pretty exciting to watch the show live because you get to participate by yelling the number of the briefcase trying to convince the contestant which one has the lowest amount of money.

Guess what? We had to sit through the entire show from 5.30 - 8.30 p.m. So we were there for 3 hours and but never felt bored at all. In the end, the contestant walked away richer by RM3000. Well, I did not get anything except a bottle of mineral water, some sweets in my stomach and a fun weekend.

The other day when meeting my ex-coursemate/housemate, Lily, she said she did dropped by at my blog too. She told me my blog was serious. Errr... yeah it's true. Since school time I can't write anything fictional or funny. I always chose to write serious and factual stuff (if you must know I'm definitely not a blogger liar).

Well, here is something entertaining (but still something factual). I always like Tyra Banks especially her show America's Next Top Model which I never miss a single cycle. And you know Tyra has a talk show called The Tyra Banks Show. So Katharine McPhee, the first runner up for American Idol 5, was on her show and guess what Tyra did? She felt Katharine up. Check out this clip.



That's not the end of it. Guess who's her latest victim? When Tyra was on Rosie O'Donnell show, The View, Tyra gave Rosie a serious groping! Eeughh... Haha... I wonder who's next?!



You know what they call Tyra now? Since Tyra always thinks herself as the next Oprah, people started calling her Goprah.

I think I should say something about Kaer's debut album in my blog. After all, his album is worth mentioning and I want to show my support to local artistes.

If you do not know who's Kaer, he's one of the student in Akademi Fantasia 2. Although he did not made it far in the reality show, I must say that he's one of the most talented contestant in that show. I did tell myself I'll definitely going to get his album if he's going to come up with one.

So Kaer had his first album recently. I'm so glad he sticks to his R&B cum Indonesian-influenced music. You know what? This guy is talented and you definitely don't want to miss his songs from this album called 'Menjelma'.

There's a combination of slow and fast songs in this album. The album started off with a fast paced number, Menjelma. Then of course there's his hit song, Izinku Pergi. You must check out the music video of this song.



One of his song that gives me goosebump is Dalam Kenangan written by Azlan Abu Hassan who also penned the song Izinku Pergi. Other songs that worth listening are Sinar Cahaya, Apabila, Hilangnya Cahaya, Kembali Bersama 2004.

So, if you like to listen to Anuar Zain, you should listen to Kaer too. For more information about Kaer, check out his myspace site.

I think most people who played paintball before would agree that it's one of the best outdoor game. Paintball is suitable for team building activities as well as leisure especially with a group of friends.

Ultimate Paintball is no doubt one of the largest online paintball gun store in the world. Besides selling paintball guns online, there are also paintball safety gears, paintball markers, paintball masks, paintball tactical masks and many more.

For your information, some good paintball guns are not cheap at all. For example the special edition of WDP Angel 1 costs you about $1.5 k. If you are looking for reasonably affordable paintball gun package, you can get it between $120-430. Some of the top selling guns are the Tippmann A-5, Tippmann 98 Custom, Smart Parts Ion, and Spyder Pilot ACS.

You can make payment online using credit cards or through Paypal. Shipping charges is free!

This is a sponsored post.

Vamos Rafa!

Nadal proves he's the undisputed clay court specialist by winning his third consecutive titles at the Monte Carlo Open.

In my humble opinion, today's match is his best match of the week by beating Roger Federer 6-4, 6-4 in just 1 hour and 35 minutes.

Fedex made a lot of unforced errors and looked rather tired during the game. I don't think he believed he can beat Nadal on clay.

Hence, this victory means Nadal has 67 consecutive wins on clay court. So, he's pretty much the man to beat in the up coming Rome Open.

Actually I have posted a similar post back in March. Just that now I'm spending even more time in front of the idiot box on Monday.

Firstly, you have America's Next Top Model Cycle 7 from 8 p.m. onwards on Channel V. Right after that you have to turn to AXN Channel to watch The Amazing Race: All Stars from 9.pm. to 10 p.m.

Then you have a 30-minute break to do whatever you need to do and come back to your TV set at 10.30 p.m. and tune in to 8TV to catch Prison Break Season 2. By the time the show ends at 11.30 p.m. you have another 15 minutes to stretch your back and make some drinks. After Quickie @ 8TV, you can't wait for the third reality shows of the day, Average Joe: The Joes Strike Back on the same channel at 11.45 p.m. to 12.45 p.m.

I'm not sure if this is only happening to me. So, Monday is not really blue for me because I'm always looking forward to it each week.

This morning, my online friend for 7 years, KMei sent me a sms saying that Britney Spears who is a big fan of Sanjaya, the famous American Idol reject, is interested to record a duet with him.

I'm not sure how true it is. I mean perhaps Britney Spears is trying to create a 'positive' publicity for herself.

It's definitely going to be interesting to see them performing on stage. After all, we haven't seen Britney's performance for a long time. And I don't think Sanjaya is going have any career move in the music industry since he's not that talented nor he is as bad as William Hung to secure a record deal. So a duet with Britney is definitely going to help him in the entertainment business.

But seriously, if the duet is real, I think Britney's music career is going to be a disaster.

I really hate Star Sports for not continuing to show the live match between Rafael Nadal and Tomas Berdych at the Masters Series Monte Carlo. But as usual it's Saturday and it's football day and I have no choice but to wait for the delay telecast.

The first semifinal match between Roger Federer and Juan Carlos Ferrero was shown earlier on with a predictable victory for Fedex. Fererro did not fight like what he did in the quarterfinal match against Richard Gasquet.

Now that Fedex is guaranteed a place in the final tomorrow, I can't wait for Nadal's win to setup a Battle of the Year between the two top tennis players in the world. It's a crucial game for Fedex in his quest to win the one and only Grand Slam that he hasn't achieve yet, French Open at Roland Garros.

While I'm writing this blog, I'm actually following the live score on the Masters Series Monte Carlo's official website.

Nadal started off with a fierce and convincing play. He punished Berdych 6-0 in the first set in less than 30 minutes! For your information, Berdych has beaten Nadal three times in their previous four meetings.

The second set was a tight race with Nadal trailing Berdych from behind. However, Nadal managed to control his game and won the semifinal match with the result 7-5.

Hopefully Star Sports will be screening the final battle between Federer and Nadal LIVE tomorrow. Gosh, I can't wait to see it!

After defeated Kristof Vliegen 6-1, 6-1 in the third round, and Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-2, 6-3 in the quarterfinal moment ago, Rafael Nadal continues his winning streak to on clay court to a massive 65 matches!

His next competitor in the semifinal is Tomas Berdych, who had to fought in three sets after dropping the first set to Robin Soderling.

Based on the match, it seems that Nadal is going to have a great chance to move into the final and setup a meeting with Roger Federer whom I believe have no problem in overcoming Juan Carlos Ferrero. But again Ferrero is not easy to beat on clay court.

Oh, by the way, Federer just recorded his 500th career win. What a magnificent record by a great living legend!

Rafael Nadal, the King of Clay, sends strong warning to his rivals at the Monte Carlo Open. He only conceded 4 games in the second round against Argentinian Juan Ignacio Chela.

The 6-3, 6-1 victory will definitely boost Nadal's confidence and hopefully his winning streak which increases to 63 matches will continue to rise until he wins this Masters Series title!

Watch out Federer! Nadal is not going to let you dominate tennis games. Definitely not in clay court.

By the way, Star Sports is not showing the live telecast of this match. I hate the fact that they don't prioritise tennis sports. They showed Federer in the morning but not Nadal in the evening. Idiot!

Oh my! Nadal is going to play later in the second round at ATP Masters Series Monte Carlo and it's all up to him to continue his record of 62-match winning streak on clay court.

His competitor is going to be Argentinian, Juan Ignacio Chela, currently no 22 in the ATP ranking. He's considered a veteran player. So I don't think Nadal will have any problem continuing his domination in clay court tennis.

Besides, I think Nadal is going to be very confident because Federer has a tough time on his debut this morning against Andreas Seppi.

Vamos Rafa!

Disclaimer:This series of posts will only focus on Rafael Nadal games. If you are interested in the full coverage of the Masters Series Monte Carlo Championships, please go to the official site.

Probably you have heard of Nokia N95 Wireless Adventure on TV recently. It's like a treasure hunt ala the Amazing Race with a twist.

Through the Nokia N95, your team which comprise of you, your team mate, a local celebrity and a media dude will work through a given list of 8 clues over the course of 2 days! The clues will lead you to different locations with specific tasks to carry out.

During the course of carrying out the tasks, you will navigate the city (using Nokia N95) and capture specific urban elements that make it unique. Interesting, right?

In the end you will unearth the Soul of the City (which I do not know what it is) as well as to unveil the grad prize which is a jeng jeng jeng... all paid expenses to Europe and Nokia N95!

I think there will be interviews for selected participants. I've already submitted my application last night. Just try my luck lar. Anyone interested to join too? Let me know. Maybe we can form an alliance later if we get selected.

I'm not sure if you are going to agree with me. Many bloggers (whether local or international) are writer wannabes. I mean they want to be a writer in a conventional way. Not just publishing their writing in the blogosphere but also getting their manuscripts published.

Hence, self publishing business is booming outside of Malaysia. Inside of Malaysia, this concept is nothing new to us but somehow the industry here is way slower.

Try asking for the printing cost from local printers who provide Print On Demand (POD), you are expected to pay about RM15-25 per book (let's say a 120 pages, B&W, A4 size specification). And you have not paid for illustration, typesetting, editing, proofreading, etc yet. So in the end, how much profit are you going to make from your book? Most importantly who's going to buy your book if the retail price of your book is so high?

Am I discouraging you from self publish your book? Not really. What I'm trying to suggest to you is why not print the book and bind it yourself to save cost? If your intention is to publish the books and sell it to your friends and family and a small number of customers, then I suggest you to engage with a reliable photostat shop who does B&W and colour printing and you do the binding yourself.

The cost for professional binding is not cheap. I've once asked a photostat shop and it costs RM5 per book for perfect binding.



I came across a great youtube video on book binding. It's quite easy and straight forward and absolutely suitable for soft cover book. If you have a manuscript, why not get the typesetting done yourself, then print it out and bind it yourself over the weekend. If you are a handy person, you might have a neat result.

The copy of the book is definitely suitable to be submitted to publishers along with your book proposal. Who knows you might get a deal soon.

So I'm in the dark right right now.

There's no electricity in SS2 and my friend staying in Damansara Jaya is facing the same problem too. But luckily it's not a national crisis.

I tried to call Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) 15454 to report the matter but it seems that I'm not able to get through even after many tries.

I thought this is the common thing that happen during the 80s but it seems that even in the 21st century we often having this kind of problem. I had couple of similar experience last year.

So what TNB has to say about it?

Updates: I didn't charge my battery earlier so I couldn't online. So basically I'm doing nothing but trying to get a nap and fed the mosquitoes at the same time.

I had been calling TNB's Customer Care Line only to find myself in the 30th and 40th caller in queues. Thank god the electricity is back at 1 a.m.

When Anthraxxxx tagged me with this meme, I felt a lil' bit intimidated because his post was really good!

This fantasy meme actually goes like this:
“You are in an alternate universe. You are a single person not involved in any relationship, and you have just published a New York Times bestseller. A movie studio has invited you to Hollywood to talk about a movie deal for three days, and as part of the wooing process, they offer to host a one-on-one dinner each night with the celebrity of your choice. Who would you pick? It could be a star you want to have a shot at ‘hooking up’ with, or it could just be someone you admire.”

Come on, if I'm a best selling author, I'll definitely ask for Oprah Winfrey! We are talking about the most powerful woman in the world who can make me even more famous and rich. You know she loves books. I'll ask her to consider to put me on the Oprah show because I'm going to be the next big thing! Remember I'm going to have a movie career soon....

On the next dinner, I really want to meet up with Angelina Jolie. I'm going to tell her I've just met up with Oprah and she's a nice lady. I'll ask Angie to forgive Oprah for being so bias and stood by Jennifer Aniston without listen to Angie's side of story. I'm going to persuade Angie to accept Oprah's invitation to be on the Oprah show. Of course I'll remember to ask about how Pax Thien adapt to his new life and if Maddox is doing well in school.

The third dinner is going to be a very important one. I have a best selling book and a movie career soon. And it's not going to be complete without a music career. So I want to meet up with Timbaland to see if he's interested to collaborate with me in my next attempt to launch a career in the music business. If he doesn't agree, then I'll have no choice but to look for Scott Storch, his rival instead.

Actually I'm not really keen in meeting up with celebrities. I just want to meet up with 'Chow Kung' because I'm really sleepy now. Good nite!

Updates: Ok lah, I've decided to tag Vhanded. I'm curious to know what he would say or do when meeting his hero, Bill Gates.

PapaJoneh, thanks for remembering me. And thanks for tagging me too.

I know this might not be the end of the blogosphere or hcfoo.com because I'm planning to write more posts tonight.

But seriously, if this is my last post, I'm going to make full use of it by writing my last sponsored post! Haha... just kidding. Of course no way, man.

Ok, here it goes my last post:

Firstly, I want to say I love all my friends, bloggers and strangers who dropped by my blog everyday. Thank you guys for taking your precious time to read and comment in my humble and yet narcissistic blog.

I can't believe the blogosphere is coming to an end now. It's pretty devastating because I'm not going to be able to share my opinion and experience with you anymore. The worst thing is I'm not going to be able to drop by and see how you blogger friends are doing anymore. You know what? I enjoy reading your blogs more than writing mine.

Well, I think that's it. Sad things shouldn't be bragged. It's better to be nice and short.

So, until then, see you guys again, whether in real life or after life.

I received a letter from Golden Screen Cinemas today. You know what? My heart was pumping really fast. Recently I joined one of their weekly contest and I could be winning the prize to stay at Club Med Cherating!

And so I did win! But I won the consolation prize which is 5 movie vouchers. It's not bad at all since a movie ticket costs us RM10. I'm sharing this prize with my friend, SYong, since she was the one who initiated to take part in the contest and gave me to total trust to write the slogans for two entries.

Now we are aiming for the grand prize, the trip to Club Med Maldives!

I've just created a new blog site about music from the 90s called revive90s. It's just a simple blog about my favourite and least favourite songs and artistes from the 90s.

I'm not going to say anything in detail here but if you are a fan of music from the 90s, do drop by and support me. I'm going to hold a 'guess the song' contest every month and giving out some cash and prizes to encourage people to listen to the songs from the 90s. The first contest will take off within this week.

Currently Penerbit Mega Setia Emas (PMSE) is looking for fresh or experienced English, Science and Mathematics editors on a full time basis. For your information, PMSE is an established educational publishing company that publishes many workbooks as well as textbooks.

If you are:

• willing to put in extra effort and doesn't mind working long hours (I mean really long hours especially when rushing for projects)
• an organized person who is able to meet reasonable deadline,
• willing to work in Kota Damansara,
• a person with excellent command in English and Bahasa Melayu with passion in writing, editing and education,
• doesn't mind working closely with authors, typesetters and graphic designers,
• creative and original,

To be honest, I love Sanjaya the first time I saw him at the American Idol audition. I loved him even more when he showed his love for his sister as soon as he knew his sister didn't made it to the next round at Hollywood audition.

If you read the forum at the American Idol website, you knew he was the most popular guy until Antonella Barba case was exposed. Barba didn't lasted long in the show but Sanjaya fame continues to rise not because of his talent but his personality and hairdo.

The rating of the show continues to fall but I don't think anyone should blame Sanjaya. The show is bland: Melinda Doolittle and Lakisha Jones are flawless even Simon didn't know what to comment anymore, Ryan Seacrest and Simon and their homophobic jokes, Randy Jackson and his same ol' "It was a little bit too pitchy for me" comment and Paula, I don't even want to talk about her.

The American Idol show is now depending on Sanjaya for publicity. I don't watch the show as regularly as I did before. I just tune in because I want to see if he performs really bad that week and I don't want to miss the moment if he's voted off. But hey, there are other contestants like Phil Stacey and Haley Scarnato who are far worse than Sanjaya who should be voted off first but they continue to stay on.

Going into my main point, people like Gina Glocksen, Chris Sligh and my favourite Stephanie Edwards are the victims of the voting system. I have long disagree with this so-called democratic approach to find a talented singer. We didn't make a mistake the first time when we decided that Jaclyn Victor is the well-deserved winner of Malaysian Idol. But look at what happened to Malaysian Idol in season 2.

Another significant weakness of the voting system was shown in Akademi Fantasia. Mawi is not my favourite contestant in AF3 but this man deserves to win because he's really popular. But what happened to other contestants in the same batch with him? The huge gap between Mawi and his fellow friends was very demotivating because you know you did your best and received applause from judges but you will never be able to match the popularity of Mawi even though he made mistakes like forgetting lyrics, sang out of tune or received bad reviews from the judges.

Once I heard that some contestants from Blast Off spent thousands of ringgit to ensure they will go far in the competition. Another contestant in Astro Talent Quest not only won the competition through the voting system but also represented Malaysia in a TVB8 singing contest and won the most sms votes despite his lack of popularity and losing in the singing contest judged by Hong Kong celebrities.

To me the voting system is a total rip off of viewers money because for each vote, you are paying like 50 sen or 65 sen. And now Akademi Fantasia is introducing Afundi Sakan whereby viewers can place 3 or 5 votes with each call. What is so democratic about the system?

The moral of the story: the voting system in reality shows is the symbol of the democratic world we live in. Look at the suffering world around us. The influential and rich will always win or have better advantage than those who doesn't. But since we accepted the system, we made decisions on who becoming our leaders (whether you vote them or not) and hence we will have to bear the consequences of our own action.

Currently I'm using a custom domain (hcfoo.com) but my blog is still hosted by Blogger. After purchased the domain name at GoDaddy, I tried to configure the settings but failed many times because both Blogger help site and GoDaddy support team gave me different information.

How do I use a custom domain name on my blog?
How do I create a CNAME record for my custom domain?

Vhanded tagged me!

Here are the 10 weird things or habits or little known facts about me:

1. I'm 30 years old (no, I'm not afraid to let you guys know my age) but security guards at Genting casino still asked for my MyKad. It happened so many times I'm not sure if I should take it as a compliment or an insult.
2. Speaking about Genting, I'm one of those people who chose to sleep in the car at the parking lot in the open air.
3. I'm obsess with mint. From mint chocolate ice cream to tiger balm, I can't live without them.
4. I can't swim and I'm afraid of the water.
5. I have phobia over snakes. It's pretty serious because if I flipped through a magazine and unexpectedly come across a snake picture, I'll jumped up.
6. I've written fan letters and send sketches to New Kids On The Block, Toni Braxton and Wilson Phillips when I was in secondary school.
7. I used to have 5 piercings on my left ears.
8. I'm very particular about toilets. I would rather tahan until I go home. And I appreciate clean public toilet like the one at Mobil Bandar Utama.
9. I'm easily touched when watching movies. It doesn't have to be a romance movie. As long as the movie has a touching line, I'm moved.
   
10. I still keep a journal of all the sajak I've written since secondary school.

1. flsam
2. che-cheh
3. aziya
4. papajoneh
5. julie
   
6. princess shin

As expected Donald Trump won the Battle of the Billionaires and Vince McMahon had to go home bald.

After the shave, while celebrating Donald Trump's win, Steve Austin a.k.a Stone Cold gave Trump an unexpected Stunner! However, the Stunner was totally off. Either Trump did not practice enough or chicken out in the last minute.



This is the impact on Donald Trump after the Stunner.

Have you guys listen to this song called 'Papa Jahat' by Fabulous Catz (Cat Ruffedge) before? I heard it on FLY FM last week and my sister told me her Malay colleague said that the phrase 'papa jahat' is used when people having sex.

I think this song is not so suitable to be played on the radio. I'm not conservative but hey, the radio station used to ban a lot of my favourite songs back in the 90s such as Boys To Men's I'll Make Love To You and Inner Circle's A Lalalala Long (Sweat).

So what do you think of the lyrics? I'm not sure if I'm dirty minded and misinterpret the lyrics. Why don't you be the judge?

I love to watch documentaries especially on history, sociology and culture.

Recently there an interesting show on Buddhism on National Geographic Channel (Astro Channel 52) called Light at the Edge of the World: Science of the Mind. The upcoming repeat will be on Saturday @ 11 a.m. Here's the synopsis of the show.

Light at the Edge of the World follows Wade Davis, an anthropologist, writer and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, from the foothills of the Himalayas to the tundra of the Northern Arctic as he explores how four indigenous cultures adapt to preserve their unique heritage. Buddhism asks the fundamental questions like 'What is life and what is the point of existence?' Wade Davis goes on an anthropological and spiritual path into the Himalayas of Nepal to learn the deepest lesson of Buddhist practice.

I haven't watch the complete show because the first time it was shown on tv, I had to juggle between this show and The Amazing Race. At one part of the show, Wade Davis shared the Four Noble Truth with viewers. Another interesting part of the show was when Davis cried during a meditation. I'm not sure why but let's find out this Saturday.

I was away to Cameron Highlands and Sungai Klah Hot Springs Park over the weekend for friends' birthdays.