it's Rain-ing...

Recently I finally get to watch Rain on mtv. Man, this guy is really cool in the video "I Do". He's like Asia's very own Usher (they are both good looking, can sing so well and dance so smooth). If he's in the Korean Idol (if there's any), the judges would probably say he has the whole package.


Watch the "I Do" here (you'll definitely gonna love it):
mms://mmc.daumcast.net/mmc/1/500/0902098000603h.wmv

Other videos are listed below (including the hit song "It's Raining"):
mms://211.196.186.116/MusicVideo/007/102707.WMV (It's raining)
mms://211.196.186.116/MusicVideo/048/101948.WMV
mms://211.196.186.116/MusicVideo/047/100547.WMV
mms://211.196.186.116/MusicVideo/041/102141.WMV

the million dolar homepage mania

In today's NST, there's a success story about a 21 year old boy, Alex, who came up with a million dollar idea which turns out to be a hit. He eventually set up a website called the Million Dollar Homepage which contained exactly one million pixels (the tiny dots that make up an image on a screen). He uses that page as an advertising noticeboard where advertisers could buy space at $1 per pixel. This boy made half of a million dollar already!

raya movies: tentang dia (thumbs up), gol & gincu (thumbs down)

This Raya holiday was the perfect time for me to catch up with some of the local movies (and Indonesian as well) on tv. I'm glad I was able to watch Sepet (again after attending the screening & conversation with the director, Yasmin Ahmad in UM), Tentang Dia and Gol & Gincu.

No doubt Sepet is a great movie (no need further mention). So does Tentang Dia. I wanted to watch this Indonesian movie but couldn't find any friend who is interested when it was in the local cinema. I particularly love the songs and the storyline. Not to mention the creative and emotionally-driven scenes. I especially like the scene when Rudi was on the other side of the busy street trying to tell Gadis that she loves her as a sister. There was also countless raining scenes which added to the emotion of the movie. And I love the rooftop scene as well, the place where Rudi and Gadis always meet up and share their thoughts and feelings. However, I find the poetry written by Rudi was a bit lame though.

Then there was this latest movie, Gol & Gincu, by the same producer who brings us the successful 3R infotainment show. Gol & Gincu is not so successful though. It was badly-scripted (the attempt to tackle the various social issues is definitely not working), mediocre performance by the actors (except Sharifah Amani and J's mother) and for one very obvious reason, it was very local MTV-styled (if I'm not wrong, the director Bernard Chauly is the one who directed one of Siti Nurhaliza's mtv Debaran Cinta). On the positive side, I love the diversity in this movie. So, I'm looking forward for more movies from the producer.

desperate housewives: a good show with bad moral

I thought Desperate Housewives was a good show. After all, they received good ratings and publicities (including the interviews on Oprah and even the First Lady Laura Bush said she watched the show). No doubt the show was well-scripted and not to mentioned the amazing casts especially Teri Hatcher (Susan) and Felicity Huffman (Lynette).

However, the recent episodes made me realized why Desperate Housewives was knocked out by Everybody Loves Raymond in the 2005 Emmy Awards. It was simple. Everybody Loves Raymond is a good show with good moral values while Desperate Housewives doesn't.

Not enough with murders, suicide, infidelity, abuse and various taboo issues (s&m and homosexuality) at Wisteria Lane, I found that the most disturbing character in this show is Andrew (Bree and Rex's evil son). This boy not only escaped (thanks to the parents) from the law after knocking down Carlos' mother, he hates his own mother so much that he would kick and spit on her. This evil kid, who confessed to Reverend Sikes that he doesn't believe in god, said he will be good and one day when his mother is least expected, he's going to do something really bad and rock her world. For godsake!

I hope this show is only watched by adults and not young kids. This is definitely a bad show for them. Bad bad show....

should I pay for the token of appreciation every end of the semester?

Currently I'm pursuing my master in educational management and by the end of each semester, the leader of each class will ask us to pay between RM5-10 to buy gifts for the lecturers. I'm not sure if this is a norm in other faculties or universities. It's not that I'm a cheapskate but I really believe that this is not really a good practice. I'll tell you why.

There are these class 'leaders' who are usually government officers or teachers who collect money from between 20 to 100+ students in each class. The money collected will be used to buy expensive stuff like branded accessories, batik shirt and even gold bracelets. Imagine, I'm attending one particular class of about 120 students and we are asked to pay RM10 for a gift and dinner (just outside the classroom). Okay, let alone the dinner and the token of appreciation. What I'm really dissappointed was when the leader announced to us about the collection, he mentioned, "Bayar RM10, mana tahu, kita dapat A ke..."

Some government officers and teachers bring along their negative habits into the university. For example, there's one senior officer who is about to retire. Instead of bringing his assignment, he brought in duku and langsat for the lecturer. However the lecturer was smart. The lecturer did not accept it but instead asked him to share the fruits with all of us and reminded him to pass up his assignment on the following day.

Sometimes we just blame entirely on the management or lecturers for the poor standard of our local universities. Perhaps, it's the attitude of its students that should change as well.