Happy New Year Peeps!

Not sure how you rate 2009, but I'm pretty sure things can only get better for the world in 2010. So, let's welcome the new year (and decade) with a big freakin... WOOHOO!!!

Since I'm blogging this at home, it's obvoious that I'm not at some party with rattlers in hand. In fact, as soon as the clock strikes 12, I'll be off to be bed to get some beauty sleep and gear up for a big day tomorrow...

See you then!

My Favourite Stuff Of 2009

Film
District 9. Gripping, suffocating stuff. No blue beings, but it's the most awesome flick this year in my mind.

Docu-Film
Michael Jackson's This Is It. A magical ride for fans, especially. Much, much better than expected.

CD
Them Crooked Vultures. Not just any supergroup, the album is simply an instant classic.

TV Show On DVD
The Big Bang Theory. Nerds rule! When they have execellent writers, that is.

TV Show On TV
Lost. Flashbacks, flashforwards, good bad guys, bad good guys... So many reasons why it's the best show on TV.

Book
Story by Robert McKee. Not a new book, but it's been my trusted companion this past year. It's both andinstructional AND a self improvement book for me.

Gadget
Blackberry Bold. How did I ever live without this before?

Social Media
Twitter. How did I ever love without this before?

Gossip Website
Celebslam. Gossip for guys? Oh hell, yeah…

Vacation
Australia. Best giler ah.

Food
Las Vacas. Juicy steaks. Always good.

Mall
Pavilion. For the first time in years, it's not One Utama for me. Pavilion's just swankier with shiner shops and better makan places.

My Favourite Moments Of 2009

Talk about bittersweet, 2009 must rank as the mother of all bittersweet years. When we look back years from now, 2009 will be remembered for its merciless natural disasters, celebrity deaths, sucky economy and just a couple of reasons to make stuffy historians smile.

On a personal level, bittersweet would best describe my year as well. But being the chirpy chap that I am, the focus of this post would be only on my Favourite Moments. Here goes:

Shaved head
Took a gamble, and it turned out alright. Only problem, this shaving thing has become quite addictive!
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Anarchy in the UK
Well, not really. But it was a nice trip back to the UK which covered London, Birmingham and Coventry. Nice.



Unveiled GUA’s new look
After a year plus, we unleased a slicker, well, less cluttered gua.com.my. The result? We’ve been kicking competitors’ ass all year long (check Comscore if you want, haters!).
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Hosted Hujah
It was only for a couple of episodes, but I had a blast. Oh yeah, if all goes all, you’ll be seeing me hosting another show in 2010. So, do watch this space.





“Mingguan Lelaki”
I penned the script which turned into gua’s most popular content with some 900,000 views. It’s about a geek who works at a men’s magazine. Yeah, I sort of wrote what I know. If you haven’t seen it already, watch it HERE.





Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!
Went Down Under, twice; and enjoyed the best of what Gold Coast, Brisbane and Perth had to offer. Best part? All is booked for another jaunt in 2010!
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Family matters
At the end of the day tho, love and family are my most favourite bits of every year, although they’re too numerous to mention here :)

Fun Day, B-Day!

So it was a pretty nice day I had on the 8th, aka my 3_th bday. The office folks threw a simple bash for me and fellow bday boy Nick, complete with pretty large cards.

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There was also the whole totally-not-gay, joint cake-cutting ceremony...

And later in the night, celebrated with the fam at HRC where I had my most favourite food in the whole wide world... nachos.
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Thanks everyone for making it quite a day! Just wish next year I could, you know, cut the cake alone :)

ASK!

So last night, we totally rocked Anugerah Skrin 09 (ASK). It was the biggest production so far for us at Alt Media and we delivered the good stuff alright. We live-streamed the Red Carpet before the show started, which you can now watch HERE.

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Photos were also uploaded realtime, and for the first time ever, we had two concurrent streams starting at 9pm. One was for the actual show, and the other was our own backstage stuff, streamed for the entire 2 1/2 hours.
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Tiring for the guys, but everyone had fun making history yet again...

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ASK & KJH

So, all of us at Alt Media are gearing up for a pretty busy year-end. In just a few hours, ANUGERAH SKRIN will be coming to you live from PWTC. And of course we've got some excellent online offerings!

At 7.30pm, there will be a live-streaming of the RED CARPET event! This is exclusively online, so you can't catch it anywhere else except at www.tv3.com.my/ask09 . The celebs will even be tweeting live! How cool is that???

And of course, throughout the entire show, photos and results will be updated almost at real time at www.gua.com.my. So loads to look at.

Oh yeah, raise your hand if you're a fan of NUR KASIH! Wow, so many guys as well... hehe. Anyway, now you can order the DVD online thru www.tv3.com.my/nurkasih.

But if you're a hardcore fan (stop jumping already!), you can MEET the stars of the show, TIZ ZAQYAH and UMMI NAZEERA at the GUA booth tomorrow and Sunday at KARNIVAL JOM HEBOH, Bukit Jalil. Come by the booth at 5pm to see them!

Hey, Ho, Hanoi!

So yeah, it was my first time in Hanoi, Vietnam, and I must say it was a pretty interesting experience. For one, I had heard about the world-famous traffic, and boy did the Viets delivered. ...

But first things first; I was there on official business to attend a New Media Contents workshop that was also attended by reps from Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and of course, Vietnam. Supported by the French embassy, we were also graced by a team of French speakers. Interesting indeed.

We were booked at the Mercure Hotel in the heart of Hanoi. A fairly new establishment, it’s a pretty cozy and modern hotel and is highly-recommended for visitors.
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The workshop took place at the VTV (Vietnamese TV) Training Centre, just a 5-minute van ride away.
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But straight away we were treated to the traumatic chaos of Hanoi traffic. And if you think Malaysia was the home of maniacal motorbikers, well, think again. In Vietnam, there must be more motorbikes than there are sheep in New Zealand.
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Throw in the cars, becas, bicycles and suicidal pedestrians, and you get an experience like no other. And oh yeah, honking at others is totally acceptable here, so the noise level is extremely high as well.
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If you’re a passenger, it’s best that you play with your thumbs rather than paying attention to how the driver would attempt to maneuver through the traffic without causing a few accidents here and there.

What was interesting to me was the fact that we only did see one person on a motorbike got bumped by a car the entire five days. And only ONE taxi driver actually rolled down his window to (mildly) scold a few slow-coaches.

Back to the workshop, the organizers basically stuck to the 9-5 schedule, which meant we never really got the chance to see the city in daylight.
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Lunch was provided upstairs, but us Malaysians did manage to sneak out to this Malaysian Restaurant almost every day to get our fix of confirmed-halal food. Haha.
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We also went back to the same area on most nights to check out the souvenir stores and the Hoan Kiem Lake nearby. If you’re into silk stuff, this is definitely the place to go.
......The best lunch we had was definitely at this food centre ala The Chijmes in Singapore, where I totally binged on some excellent seafood.
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We also got to visit the VTV offices and studios one morning…
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One very interesting thing we noticed all over Hanoi was their own version of the Mamak. Basically makan places on the sidewalks with very small and low tables and chairs. But although we asked around, we never did get an answer as to how this “tradition” came about.
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And oh yeah, how can I not talk about the weather? Perth a few weeks ago was chilly, but Hanoi was freezing on most days. Which I totally dug, of course…
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The closing ceremony was done at the French Cultural Centre where we got to hear more French people speaking and were eventually handed our certificates.
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Overall, a rather enjoyable trip with some good stuff picked up during the workshop. If only we got to see Ha Long Bay…