Freak!!!

Today was one of those days. Sing with me now.. "Just one of them days"....keep on singing while I plug my bleeding ears.

Apapun, siang siang sudah get an idea of where my day was heading. My noon meeting was called off an hour before, leaving me on the way to the city with nothing to do. Killed time by having lunch and window shopping as I had taken half the day off - sort of.

Anyhoo - my evening assignment lak was to check out the auditions for this competition called SUTASI. First heard it was a songwriting competition. Then apparently there's a singing side to it too. Not much info elsewhere, either they have lousy PR or something dodgy's going on.
So gi lah usha the second day of auditions, which was supposed to be for bands, because semalam alkisahnya untuk soloists.

Sampai PWTC, nampak the sign... after much searching. Mak aih... wat audition lima negara, pastu regional showdown, siap konon nak ngan other parts of Asia and all.. tapi audition kat bilik paling ujung nun jauh. Kicik jerk.

Ok ok...takpe...

That's not the half of it.

Masa aku finally jumpa that it was on the third floor... ni apa aku nampak.

Dah naik escalator, went all the way down to the hallway...mung hai!!! Ramainya yang muncul tuk ujibakat! Korang tak nampak ke? Tak baik korang... tu la namanya pencarian bakat orang bunian.

I think 'live' was definitely a wrong choice of words.
Masa tuh lum kul 3 petang, so since process tuh bermula 10 pagi kononnya, takkan lah dah habis?

Nak carik orang bertanya, mamat seorang ni confident mintak aku sign up. Merasalah! Ada ke look rock star aku nih? Takpe... bersangka baik. Enthusiastic lot ler meka ingat aku nak mai audition.

Note that not having any instruments or band members would have given the game away, but nope... they were too excited to notice that I suppose.

Tanya pasal nak cakap ngan orang sana nak interview pasal the competition, yang seriously cam tak cukup info. Tapi meka kata, meka pun tatau apa apa dan setakat 'contractor' ditugaskan untuk set up the thing jerk.

Pelik benar. Aku pun tunggu ler tuk orang yang meka kata mampu menjawab semua soalan aku. Demi kerja, dok sampai 5.30pm, which they said orang berkenaan would be back. Ado??? Nan ado katanya!

Aku dok sampai kol 6 petang, when a three piece outfit went in, and that was it.

Malas kalau da orang nak bagik publicity, meka sendiri tatau camna nak organise an event.

Pening.

Caught a promo poster of the auditions, which they've been hyping over Hitz, the official radio (or so they say, not sure cause I don't listen to ANY radio station for the crap selections of teeny bopper fodder and endless advertisments).

This is what it claimed.

WOW!!! Grand nya!!! Very the One In A Million! Hadiah one million dollars katanya! Erm.. .problem is, US dollars ke Bruneian dollars ke apa? Very vague. Korang check out website dia pun cam pelik sikit. Katanya annual event, tapi tak pernah dengar. Kalao setakat kali pertama tu, dan nak hold it again, agak agak ler sikit nak make claims.

Kalau tadik kat poster terbaca dia kata hadiah one million dollars, ni lak kat website kata peluang nak record with TOP producers, work with TOP songwriters (semua top takde yang bottom ke), global promotion (amik ko, worldwide katanya), a music video termasuk the prizes apart from the cash.

Erm...iyolah tuh. Peliknya kata later nak SMS pelbagai masa in the later stages, tapi, takde lak mention broadcast partner? Takkan kat Hitz kot?

Apapun, tak kuasa aku! Launch kat Bangkok kisahnya grand, dengan Thai rockers Hangman at the launch semua.

The point is - awareness level of SUTASI is as good as the hygiene of a rempit. Non existent. And still their own staff ignorant katanya of what's going on.

Made my way back through the rain, spotted this store along the way from PWTC. Cam familiar jer nama kedai nih.

Could it have something to do with this book I'm supposed to read tapi takleh stomach? Ampun Meor carut hasil tulisan ko.

Heh... jangan marah nok, aku gurau jerk.

By the time got home, beat as all hell, tak larat nak wat per pun. Dragged myself through the shower and popped into the lovely air-conditioned sanctuary of my room, to the backing music of John Legend, as I fired my laptop up to download the latest episode of Heroes to watch tomorrow.

Esok meeting yang tak jadik tadi will tak place. Selain tuh, got to send in some stories, and after that, I'm done for the day.

Been neglecting my Boo for a couple of days now because busy habis, so hopefully tomorrow night ada masa nak kuar ngan dia ngan kengkawan dia to lepak.

Honesltly, I feel like curling up in bed for the rest of the week with a good book (I have several unread ones), tapi tuh lah. I guess I'm really going to appreciate my holiday soon. I have a total of 49 days, half of which I have to clear by the year end, So that makes it almost a month off, including weekends! Amik ko! Cuti puas puas. Tapi nak tunggu bonus kuar dulu. Thinking of the beach somehow. A good tan... a good book... the sea... and just lazing away.

Aduh... sounds so good.

Tatau ler jadik ke tak, opting between that or an urban getaway. Supposed to visit Jakarta, but Bangkok is also in my list for some self-indulgent shopping post bonus.

Eh, by the way, someone was talking to me about the Justin Timberlake gig in Kuala Lumpur, and refered to him as the 'king of pop'.

Whatever happened to Michael Jackson? Dah pass crown ke? Wel, JT may be the king of pop to today's generation, but for me, Michael will always be king of pop, as Elvis will always be the king of rock and roll.

Speaking of Michael, ni a pic I had for the past week now. The latest, exclusive interview with Michael Jackson himself in Ebony magazine in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of Thriller (GOD I FEEL OLD!!!). Amik ko pic dia!!! Tak sabar tunggu member belikan this issue for me.

Also had this picture of one of the hottest Halloween masks yang baru lepas tak lama sudah. Is it scary enough for you? It's available online so look around... korang leh beli and freak someone out!



Won't be much use for it except for Halloween or when your mother in law comes to visit. But kalao ko shopaholic cam aku, and feel like you want to get something unique to add to your stash of useless stuff, CLICK HERE to get it! (if you do, leave me a note, send me some pics or better yet a video of you wearing it, while moonwalking next to a five year-old) The Wacko Jacko mask retails for US$29.99.

I bet it's as useful as 1 sen coins!

Speaking of which... came across this news report.

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 13, 2007): From April 1 next year, bills will be rounded up to the nearest five sen in all over-the-counter payments made with either cash or non-cash modes. This is to speed up transactions and cut minting costs, it was announced today.
Effectively, a total bill amount that ends in one, two, six or seven sen will be rounded down while three, four, eight and nine sen will be rounded up to the nearest multiple of five sen.
Thus RM82.01 will be rounded down to RM82 and RM82.04 rounded up to RM82.05.
Domestic Trade & Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Mohd Shafie Apdal said this applies for payments made in cash or non-cash like cheques, credit cards or debit cards, but not for online transactions.
He, however, said the one-sen coin will continue to be legal tender.
Mohd Shafie said a rounding mechanism table with the ministry’s logo must be clearly displayed at the cashiers’ counter to ensure the public are well informed of the mechanism.
Although the mechanism will come into force only next year, retailers can start now, adding that it will benefit both businessmen and consumers as it will reduce handling costs and speed up transactions.
The ministry will check on the prices of 300,000 outlets daily to ensure the new mechanism is not abused.
Mohd Shafie said the government would also be able to save costs in producing the one-sen coins when demand for the coin drops.
"I was told that almost 99% of the one-sen coins produced by Bank Negara were not in circulation," he said.
Since 2000, out of 2.2 billion pieces of one-sen coin issued by Bank Negara, only 23 million or 1.1% had returned to circulation.
Earlier, Bank Negara assistant governor Datuk Mohd Nor Mashor said with the production of 30 million pieces monthly, Bank Negara had produced a total of 4.4 billion pieces of one-sen coin thus far.
He said the production cost had gone up considerably because copper price had gone up from US$1,500 (RM5,028) per tonne in 2002 to US$7,500 (RM10,057) per tonne this year.
"The government can save at least RM14 million a year in minting costs through this new mechanism," he said.
"We still want to maintain one-sen coins. But, hopefully the demand for one sen will reduce over time. Hopefully, by next year, there will be no demand for one sen."
Federation of Malaysia Consumers Association (FOMCA) director of communications Mohd Yusof Abdul Rahman believed the mechanism will be well-received by the public.
He said the rounding up will prevent businesses from confusing consumers with complicated price structures such as products sold with a 0.99 sen price tag.
And in case you are wondering, some scrap metal collectors are offering to buy one-sen coins at 95 sen per kg.

Looks like the price tags with 99 sen at the back are going to be changed. Bummer on the strategy of not having the appearance of a lower price. Ok lar...calling it a night.