Still Being Random

A lot of us would like to see our own site coming up on the first page of any search result from any search engine.

However, I found out that my page appears as a result of a search for 1) drunk malay and 2) nurhaliza chinese teresa. Huh?! What's up with that?! That's almost as bad as mac's girls on ladder search result. I wanted to add the link to his blog but I couldn't find the posting he made about it...or even if he did post an entry about it. Hmmm....

And since I've been getting a lot of hits from people looking for siti nurhaliza and the Royal Albert Hall, I suppose I could write what I've heard about the whole thing.

One thing I heard is that the Royal Albert Hall is not in the habit of inviting people to perform there. They have better things to do. So most people clamour to get a spot to perform there. And if you have a stint there on April Fool's Day, not many people are likely to take it seriously.

Another thing I heard is that not many people consider Siti Nurhaliza's performance a success because the attendance was 2,500 Malaysian people, most of which are students studying there and the rest are from the Sultan of Pahang's entourage! Some people in the entertainment industry would consider it a success if she had managed to get the Londoners to watch her show. Well, I do remember 2 British men making a statement about liking her music when they picked up her CD while they were in Malaysia and they had decided to attend the show when they found out she was going to be there.

Another thing I heard is that Siti got an interview on BBC about her show. Again, I didn't catch it myself. But my very reliable source said that Siti was asked what she thought about Britney Spears. To which she answered that she wants to establish her own image and not copy anyone else's...or something to that effect. And my only reaction is...huh?

Which brings me back again to the quality of English in our country. It scares me that our people actually go overseas with these English skills that we currently generally have. I'm not counting Sabah and Sarawak because we're generally still stuck in colonial times where language is concerned.

It's only in Sarawak where the conversation would go something like:
Person A: Tempat ya kat Limbungan Brooke kah? (That place is at Limbungan Brooke - basically means Brooke Dockyard anyway)
Person B: Kan!! Nya di Brooke Dockyard!! (No! It's at Brooke Dockyard)
Well, here, I know of people who are so used to hearing the names in English that they think you're bluffing when you tell them there's a Malay name for it too.

And another incident went:
A friend was in England for the first time. He was standing in line with a friend at a grocery store. Then, the friend who was in front of him told the lady behind the counter that he wanted Coke. Unfortunately, he said it as 'cock' not 'Coke'. Let's just say that the lady had to ask him to repeat it twice before my friend took pity on them both and quickly said 'Coke' in the correct pronounciation.

All these incidents are funny when you look at them in hindsight. But if you're ever caught in that situation, it is embarrassing.

And how did I get from search results to Coke?

My cousin just sent me this link. He recommended it for the next time I'm in KL. How do I tell him that my sisters are sometimes scared of even being in their own house alone and that I have the most active imagination ever, even among my friends?

On the other hand, the morbid side of me finds this very interesting. Maybe I could ask my friends and Shook along instead of my sisters. My sisters would scare me to death along the way. With anyone else, I'd be too proud to show my full fears :)

Looking at the sites though, it seems to appeal more to the possibility of hauntings rather than really well known haunted places. And there are quite a few in KL and even here in Kuching. Or maybe they just don't want to push their luck.

But hey, if Americans can have tours of the Winchester manor, why can't we do something along the same lines?

I recently found this blog and thought the rantings touched on a few of the issues that has been bugging me about our Malaysian version of The Amazing Race.

However, unlike this blogger, I am not concerned with who should be the perfect host or the race tasks or the excitement level or the talking. My issues are of a slightly different nature.

I watch Explorace on and off ever since it first appeared on the screen. When I happen to catch it on, I'll sit and watch it just to see how well Malaysians deal with pressure or even with foreigners overseas. It pains me a great deal sometimes when the contestants need to ask fro help to read the instructions despite the instructions being in English and the country is Australia. It also pains me to see the contestants asking for directions in their broken English and the English speaking foreigner giving them a blank look. Most of all, it pains me to see the contestants trying to ask the Australians for help when searching for a flag on a small section of the beach and the Australians making fun of the way the request was asked.

But I do understand that these are the limitations of the contestants themselves. This is beyond the network's responsibilities. However, what is within the network's abilities to prevent are the grammatical errors that are in the sentences that appear at the bottom of the tv screen. Two episodes ago I saw the line '...managed to caught up with...'. My first reaction was "What the hell...? Oh, maybe I saw it wrong." So being a typical myopic, I actually went closer to the TV to have a proper look. Yep, the words were still there and those were the actual words.

I was horrified. I would have expected a huge network such as TV3 to be able to find someone in their crew to be able to at least spot these grammatical errors. Worst comes to worst, ask Daphne to check them. She's from Sabah. Her English ought to be good.

This was not the only mistake of this nature. I've spotted a few but this was the one that really got stuck in my head. At first, I thought, it's not too bad. After all, we are only on national TV. Then it was pointed out to me that Astro has TV3 on it and that's when my horror really set in. We're on REGIONAL TV and that's what we are showing the other countries!! There is our government making a big deal about bringing up the standard of English in the country and a national network makes these sort of errors. The pain of it all!

The other thing that annoys me about the show is the use of visual overlay. During the recap sessions, TV3 likes to have a moving background against the clips of the race. This is the most painful moment of watching the show. The scenes jump up and down and the sounds come and go. Not only can you not see what was happening (in case you had stepped out a moment and missed it), you can't even hear it either! So usually I change to another channel when this segment comes on. And sometimes...just sometimes...I get stuck on another channel which shows smoother footage.

It was brought to my attention that the overlay problem has been there ever since TV3 first started using this trick on screen. That means, quite a few years now. If that is the case, why has nobody either remedied it or just gotten rid of the usage entirely? Why torture our poor eyes and ears with it? As far as I am concerned, if you can't do it well, either try harder or don't bother at all.

One other thing that has always bugged me about Explorace is that, if you don't want the teams to be together then why ask them to come in pairs? At which point does cooperative teamwork come into the whole scenario? At the end? When the big tasks are all complete? I don't get it...

I enjoy watching The Amazing Race. For me, the best part of the show is not the race itself but the human interactions. It shows how people behave when faced with obstacles and competition, how humans react when they want something so badly that they they would stoop to the lowest possible level just to get it, how childish some people can get and how double standards set it. That's the fun part. Reaching the finish line is secondary. That's why The Amazing Race always only eliminate the last pair to reach the pit stop, and I think that's fair. It gives the show an edge, something to get excited about.

The only time I got excited about Explorace was when the Sarawakians gave up without even trying hard enough!! It was so embarrassing! I can't say I can do better but I would have thought that they could have at least tried to finish the task. Oh, the other time I enjoyed Explorace so much was when Philip and Godwin were on. They are so cool. They didn't take themselves too seriously, they had fun, they had a funny strategy which I knew from the start would have annoyed the other pair and they were just fun to watch. Their segments were the best I've ever seen. I had hoped they would make it further but we can't all get what we want.

Oh, and I did try to get through to the official Explorace website. The feedback was through the forums, which does not always guarantee your opinions being read by the producers, and I was also asked to register and then wait for a confirmation email before I can voice my opinions. Talk about trying to discourage feedback!

This is my Mac, short for Macavity. Nothing mysterious about him though. He's an open book. You know when he wants attention, when he wants food or when he just misses us. His name also explains why I get rather confused when Shook mentions Mac when we talk. Especially when we're talking about my Mac and macdyne Mac. See how confusing it can get?

This is a picture of Mac waiting at my kitchen door waiting for someone to see him there. He's also probably a little upset with me because a few minutes before I was bothering him when I took pictures of him sleeping.

On another note, CSI:NY is on tonight on Astro AXN. I'm not glued to the TV because I've watched this first episode. It's a little gruesome so I'd just rather not watch it again. However, I think the CSI appeal lies in those one-liners Gil, Horatio and now Mac like to dish out before they go to the opening credits.

I just noticed!! Way too many Macs in my life!!

My best friend who is currently living in London sent me this link. It is hilarious and quite addictive. I was supposed to go to bed 20 minutes ago but got stuck on this. Try it! It's fun!