Archive | October, 2010

Happy 6th Birthday To My Blog!

Posted October 26, 2010 at 5:45 pm in Site News

6 long years ago on October 19th, 2004 I made the first post on this blog – which started the legacy that is still here now.

Yes – 1,209 Posts, 16,723 Comments, 6,081 Tags & 25 Categories later and I’m still here 🙂

Blogging has been an interesting journey and one that is not over yet. It’s had ups and downs and sometimes I’ve felt like packing it in, but most the time I don’t.

It’s interesting to read back through your own blog archives and see some of the experiences you’ve journaled in your own little space on the web.

In the early days my entries were a lot less organised, very chaotic, very personal and probably very much more interesting than they are now. I was traveling a lot for work during that time too which meant I had a lot of random stuff to write about.

I used to do some epic yearly summaries, check them out here:

2004

2005

2006

2008

My first anniversary post was here – Happy Birthday to ShaolinTiger.com

The 2nd here – Happy Anniversary to ShaolinTiger.com!

And well there’s been no more anniversary blog posts since then. I feel like it’s time for an update soon, a fresh theme, some new features..I’ve been running this theme (which is the 3rd iteration) since June 2007 – so it’s getting a bit long in the tooth, back when WordPress was at version 2.2.

You can see some of my most popular posts here (by views and comments) and my full archives here – https://www.shaolintiger.com/archives/

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The Latest Buzz – Apple iPhone 4 – My Review

Posted October 20, 2010 at 9:30 am in Internet & Tech

Some might have seen me as an Apple or iPhone detractor in the past and well perhaps I was especially the 1st gen iPhone – which whilst being a neat media device was a terrible phone and didn’t have 3G at a time when even the most basic phones already had the capability to go beyond EDGE connectivity.

By the time the iPhone 3G came around things were looking better, but there were still very basic functions missing. The appeal of course was the growing Appstore – an app for anything you could dream of, and apps to solve problems you didn’t even know you had – all for only $0.99! Much like shopping at the RM5 shop Daiso – you’ll find things you never even thought could exist.

And well when the iPhone 3GS came out, I started to think it was a reasonably capable phone – but there was still a big issue for me. The camera did indeed take nice pictures (in reasonable light) but there was no flash, and to me a camera-phone with no flash is near useless.

Then finally, along comes the iPhone 4…WITH FLASH! I’m not going to list out the specs here or a bunch of product pictures as you can find those anywhere online. Nor will I share an ‘unboxing’ video or a bunch of pictures of what is inside the box. This is more about my experience with the phone, and what it has been like using it every day for the past few weeks or so since I got it at the Maxis iPhone 4 launch.

iPhone 4 - Malaysia

The one thing that worried me immediately when I got the phone was the fact it was glass…glass edge to edge – both front and back. Having experienced dropping my phone before I thought it wise to immediately buy a rubber case and a screen protector for both the front and back, which you can see in the picture above. Although the front screen is tough and scratch resistant gorilla glass, the back is not so it’d be wise to protect it.

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The Social Network – Movie Premiere In Malaysia – Ticket Giveaway!

Posted October 17, 2010 at 9:30 am in Movies

The Social Network - Movie

On a fall night in 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programming genius Mark Zuckerberg sits down at his computer and heatedly begins working on a new idea. In a fury of blogging and programming, what begins in his dorm room soon becomes a global social network and a revolution in communication. A mere six years and 500 million friends later, Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history.

Want to watch it 10 days before it hits the big screen? I have 20 tickets to give away – follow me on Twitter for details @ShaolinTiger

Date: 22nd Nov 2010(Mon)
Time: 9pm
Venue: GSC Mid Valley
Ticket collection: 8pm till 9pm

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Polis “Intimidation” And Corruption in Malaysia

Posted October 11, 2010 at 1:07 pm in Serious Issues

The big buzz today is the follow video which currently has over 45,000 views and 1700+ comments:

I think calling it intimidation is a bit dramatic, honestly my level of Bahasa Melayu is not that high so I don’t understand everything that’s being said but I understand the gist of the conversation and generally what is going on.

From my personal experience I find most polis to be fine enough, they are reasonable chaps if you are polite and respectful. That’s all they want at the end of the day, if you are arrogant and sarcastic they aren’t going to react well and they are going to make your life difficult.

Of course there’s still the issue of corruption and some officers are still fishing for kopi duit, but from what I’ve seen it seems to be less than before. For me personally, I’ll never pay a bribe – it’s just wrong. People complain about corruption on one hand but on the other hand they have no problems giving a cop RM50 to escape a legitimate summons.

If I did something wrong I have no issue with accepting the summons and paying for it, after all I’m at fault here and the road & traffic regulations are in place to keep everyone safe and keep the traffic flowing smoothly.

And well if you maintain that stance I can honestly say 8/10 times you’ll get away without a saman and without paying a bribe, because if they are fishing for money (illegal road-block, stopped you when you didnt really do anything wrong etc.) they can’t give you a saman and if you refuse to bribe them there is actually nothing they can do.

Some may say I get away because I’m a foreigner and they don’t feel secure bullying me or it’s too much hassle to write me up. Honestly I don’t know, but from what I’ve seen with others that do the same thing it usually works.

The most important thing is to be polite, ask them what the problem is – listen to their explanation, smile and apologise and ask them nicely to please issue you a saman it’s not a problem.

Anyway that’s my 2 cents, what is your tactic/strategy? And do share your thoughts on the above video.

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Movie Review – Get Him To The Greek – Amusing

Posted October 8, 2010 at 4:19 pm in Movies

Get Him To The Greek (2010)

Aaron Green gets things done. The ambitious 24-year-old has been given a career-making assignment. His mission: Fly to London and escort a rock god to L.A.’s world famous Greek Theatre for the first-stop on a huge comeback tour. His record mogul boss, Sergio Roma, gives him one warning: “The artist is the worst person on Earth. Turn your back on him at your own peril.”

I actually tweeted almost 4 months ago that I wanted to watch this film – before it was even released! Mostly I think because Russel Brand is in it and he is generally hilarious, the trailer looked good and the poster intrigued me.

It’s actually doing pretty well on IMDB with a solid 6.8/10 – which is quite rare for this kind of movie. But then again it is an Apatow film, and they are generally well done and well received (Pineapple Express and Superbad were genius).

The film itself is actually somewhat of a spin-off from Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which in itself was a great movie and of course featured the genius character Aldous Snow played by Russel Brand. Jonah Hill was also in the movie, in a different role.

One of the things that interested me most about this film is that it’s a great vehicle to merge the UK and US comedy styles and I have to say – they did a great job. Both Jonah Hill and Russel Brand were fantastic in their parts and the chemistry between them was truly hilarious.

Russel Brand & Jonah Hill in Get Him to the Greek

Another surprise for me was Sean Combs AKA Puff Daddy AKA P Diddy AKA whatever-the-fuck-else-he-likes-to-call-himself. He was actually glorious as Sergio and pulled off the part really well. The whole Vegas section of the movie was epic, somewhat reminiscent of The Hangover.

“When the world slips you a Jeffery, stroke the furry wall.”

Sean 'P Diddy' Combs in Get Him to the Greek

All in all it’s a very entertaining movie and the soundtrack is fantastic, they wrote a bunch of songs under Infant Sorrow performed by Russel Brand himself which are hilarious. There are ups and down and lots of laughs, the pacing is good and the side-characters like the father of Aldous are a funny bunch.

Good movie to watch if you don’t feel like anything to heavy and want to watch a bunch of idiots doing crazy stuff.

If you haven’t watched this movie yet I suggest you do if you are a fan of any of the above (Apatow movies, Russel Brand or Jonah Hill).

I give it a YOU GOT THE CLAP 7.5/10.

We got the itch
You got the scratch
Burns burns burns like the head of a match
You took the front
We took the back
Oh yeah

Infant Sorrow – The Clap lyrics

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Random Post #11 – Ikea Hotdogs, Wong Ah Wah – Jalan Alor, Renovation & More

Posted October 5, 2010 at 2:31 pm in General Nonsense

So what have I been up to lately? Normal la! Work work work, eat eat eat..and the house of course. Had some interesting revelations lately and have been reading ravenously again. I thought reading on a phone would suck, but iBooks on the iPhone 4 is actually nice and not tiring to the eyes as the brightness of the screen is adjusted automatically using a light sensor – so if you’re in a dark place the screen gets really dim. Rather pleasant!

Thought for the day – surround yourself with positives, if there’s something negative in your life simply cut it out. Life is so much better that way 🙂

One positive recently was finally getting to try the famous Ikea hotdog and yes it is good and yes it only costs RM2! Plus the curry puffs are fantastic. What a way to have dinner, 1 hotdogs, 2 curry puffs and an RM1 can of Mountain Dew from the vending machine near the lifts – total cost for dinner RM5!

Ikea Hotdog

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