Marsha Maung:: Freelance graphic designer and writer

New blog address is now? http://trulymarsha.wordpress.com.

For better or for worse, I'm gonna be in it with you, Lydia.

 My new book review on Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays is up here.

I know everyone likes him. He’s like the crowd darling or something. Trust me, I know someone’s advising him to manipulate that advantage. I know Kevin can sing….well, he would probably hold a crowd in total captivity IF he was in a karaoke. He’s really good.

But…….an idol??? Why does it remind me of that William Hung incident? That ‘accidental hero’ incident?

Anyway, this week, Melissa McGhee is booted out.

Might as well cause she was like a…..non-event. If compared to our local singers, Melissa would have kicked our local singers’ asses without a doubt. But unfortunately, she’s competing in the American Idol and the standards are so high it touches the sky!!! ( I know, sounds lyrical again? Hey, blame Bette Middler Albeit: lyrics to Wings Beneath My Wings).

But I am surprised that Kevin Covais is still in? He’s got the audience hooked, doesn’t he? I mean, I agree with Simon Cowell most of the time…more so now. I am a pretty good critic when it comes to singing and man, Kevin doesn’t have the whole THING. He’s lacking something…something.

If I had it my way, Covais would be booted out this week. Next Kellie Pickler. Too country…too Carrie Underwood wannabe. I saw the similarities. But I don’t think it should work. Singing and being an idol is about being original, being unique, being able to stand out, being King/Queen on stage. Your job, as a singer, is ALWAYS (I’ve learnt) to hold the audience CAPTIVE. I can’t see Kellie do that. She’s just too…..bland. ordinary. So…bimbo-ish.

Next up, Bucky Covington. Too unbending on his country image. So BBBBOOOORRRRIIIINNNNGGGGG…. If I wanted to see Bucky sing, I’ll go to a local karaoke, thank you very much.

I still like Katherine McPhee, Mandisa and Taylor Hicks.

Add one more….Chris Daughtry. After that Stevie Wonder night, he’s got me. This man’s got STYLE!!!!!! If nothing else….

I believe that as our kids suck the life, energy, and finances out of us, we have to learn how to suck it out of them too! Believe it or not, I think all mothers do this…we thrive and survive on the joy that they give us, the smile that they can bring to our faces and the love that makes our hearts expand like an inflated balloon. No one can truly explain to you how a mother feels like when they look into the sleeping faces of their kids unless they are a mother themselves.

When the worst hits us, we can turn our thoughts and focus on our children and they will stabilize our emotions (on top of driving us insane with their consistent littering, but we’ll learn how to adapt to that). On a stressed day, you look at how simple their lives are and how they grow and learn from their little-little experiences, you’ll feel like… “Hey, what’s there to gripe about? I’ve got the best thing in the world with me…their butterfly kisses are all I need”

Well, I wasn’t feeling too uppity these past few days because it’s school holidays and when it’s this time of the year, I feel all stressed out because the kids are home ALL THE TIME and demanding my attention, want me to take them out, keep littering the house and can’t keep their gaps shut for one single second. They can’t make peace with each other and like to de-hair each other all the time! And I can’t find the time to work on my stuff.

But suddenly, one evening, Jared was singing on my swivel chair, dancing, and the chair (being a swivel chair) was about to tip over backwards. I screamed and grabbed him off the chair and chastised him for his foolishness.

He looked at me in earnest regret and said, “Sorry, mom. I promise not to hurt myself. Thank you for protecting me”.

Silence…..I was caught off guard as my mouth hung open. Jared is known for his comic relief but not his language-skills and communication skills. He’s 3+ for Crissakes!!

But here comes the clincher…..

He takes a deep breath and said, “When I was a mommy, I will protect you too. And when I was a mommy, I will take money and buy food for you; when I was a mommy, I will wash the plates in the kitchen and I will teach you how to do your homework. And when I was a mommy, I will kiss you before you go to sleep and I go work on the computer. When mommy was a kid, you can play and watch TV, ok?”

Oh boy…..he’s got my heart firmly in his hands. I hope that he will remember his words and keep his promise.

But yeah…it’s time like this that you thank God for giving you something back for those few hours spent in the labor room screaming at your husband. And it’s times like this that makes those hours of washing, cleaning, bathing, feeding, cooking, sweeping, picking and packing, ironing….all worth the time.

I swear to you my heart expanded to the size of a well-fed elephant when I grabbed him and gave him a big bear hug.

Jared, when you was a mommy, you’d better remember this friggin’ promise!

You know what I hate most about emails? I work day in and day out with emails…without it, there’s nothing linking me to my clients and there’s absolutely no way for me to get instructions and send/receive files with, right? well, apparently, the boon of emails is sometimes overshadowed by large attachments people send to me via my business emails!

I work with advertisements and there’s almost always large files involved. I am talking about massive graphics files that might take HOURS just to download!

Gosh, they take such a freaking long time to download! And the strange thing is that even though I’ve asked people to stop sending me large attachments via email, they continue to do it…like I haven’t spoken at all.

For those of you who have the same problem, here’s what you should get others to do.

Use the following services:-

www.yousendit.com (very good and efficient)

www.sendthisfile.com (also quite good and reliable)

www.savefile.com (quite slow and you have to copy down the link somewhere so that you won’t forget the link. And it doesn’t send you an automatic email message to let you know that the file has been sent or anything. But still reliable)

in fact, you can save your images in a free image hosting company called www.imageshack.us and the restriction for the size of the file is about 1024kb or something like that! Pretty generous as it is, if you ask me.

That’s it for today! Check the links out and hope it helps to ease some of your downloading and uploading problems.

Ta ta!

I’ve seen good ads in this lifetime and I always pay attention to the excellent ones. And I have found a damn near perfect one. If not for the colour and parlor of the ‘coaster’, I would have called it the PERFECT ad.

The advertisement I am talking about is Campbell’s ‘No vegetable in vegetable soup’ ad.

The advertisement is printed on a coaster which is a long-term gift item. Smart move. You want to leave a consistent and permanent image in the mind of consumers. PLUS they don’t make ads like this anymore.

It is somewhat editorial, very direct and slightly on the long side. Most Malaysians or Asians wouldn’t consider it to be a good ad. Sadly, most Malaysians would prefer the ‘We have the best deal in the world’ ads or ‘Superb pricing and excellent quality’ ads. So direct that you’d know what’s coming at you a planet away!

Anyway, here’s what a good ad, in my personal opinion, should be like.

CAMPBELL’S NO VEGE IN VEGE SOUP AD

*** start of ad ***

Headline:

THERE IS NO VEGETABLE IN OUR BEST-SELLING VEGETABLE SOUP.

(One smart move. No cliché exclamation mark there. Just a full stop…like very nonchalant about it. It gets your attention with the headline, as in, WHAT? NO vegetable in your vegetable soup? Then what IS in there – plastic?)

Editorial:

How utterly scandalous!

To think that for the past 130 years, America’s favorite vegetable soup has been made, not from a single delectable leaf of vegetable. But amazingly, from fruit instead.

Alas! It is true.

And not just any run-of-the-mill fruit, mind you.

Ripe, luscious, juicy tomatoes, to be exact.

“But isn’t that a vegetable?”, you argue.

‘fraid not, maam.

You see, the tomato as it turns out, is not what it’s perceived to be.

Grown in England as an ornamental plant, this berry (Yes!) was carried by colonists to North America in the 19^th century. But because only vegetables were taxable in days of yore, the Customs for the Port of New York conveniently labeled it as such. And it has been known as one, ever since.

Fruit. Vegetable. Whatchamacallit.

It doesn’t matter, really.

Semantics, after all, is not on our list of priorities in bringing you the best tomato soup there is.

Unlike, say, quality.

The quality of our tomatoes, for instance, which are specially grown at a specific day and night temperature differences of 13 degrees Celsius.

Then tenderly ripened in nature’s womb of alluvial that’s 100% au naturelle. And harvested at the optimum level of antioxidants and fructose that your body needs.

To stay hale and hearty.

That’s why we are especially proud to admit, that not only do we use fruit in our best-selling vegetable soup.

We use only the best ones.

Ironically, that leaves us with a niggling question.

If our best-selling soup is made entirely from fruit, shouldn’t it be then be our best-selling drink instead?

Oh, boy.

Here we go again.

**end of ad***

Lethal Weapons of Love and Passion

Starring: Raymond Lam Fung, Charmaine Sheh Si Man, Bosco Wong Chung Chak, Derek Kwok Jing Hung, Sonija Kwok Sin Nei, Sharon Chan Man Chi

Rating: 4.5 stars (5 max)

Summary:

The Mongols and the Haans have a long history of political struggle. Most of TVBs ancient series drama are based loosely on that brawl. Lethal Weapons of Love and Passion (LWOLAP) is based, also, on a Wu Xia story. I have to say that if I knew how to read Chinese, I would be devouring all of the stories because all the stories spun are engaging and very dramatic. And I want drama.

The Haans overthrew the Mongol King in an unscrupulous way – killing young boys for fear that the living Mongol Prince is still alive. A massacre occurred and countless Haans and Mongols died in the battle. Haans emerged victorious and the Haan King took over China.

Story

This story is fictional, as far as I know, but it is absolutely riveting! Nothing less. After China took over the reign, the King became obsessed about the Mongols coming back to get the throne back. Part of the reason why he was obsessed was because he killed many young Mongols while battling it out with them – he didn’t want the Mongol Prince to be alive.

Unfortunately, the Mongol Prince is…and Raymond Lam took the role of Fung Hang Lit who is basically non-chalant about life but focuses his attention on the girl(s) he loved. What he wanted out of life was peace and quiet. Fung Hang Lit lost his memory after the battle due to a wound to the head. Pong Ban, a devoted Mongol, wants to bring back the anger in Fung Hang Lit and went about doing it in an unscrupulous way – including sacrificing the person he loved to Fung Hang Lit. All this because he wants to bring back the Mongol Prince so that he can lead their troops to regain the throne.

After finding out that Gan Bik Wan (Sonija) is not REALLY in love with him, and that she is actually a Haan who defected to the Mongol’s side because of Pong Ban, Fung Hang Lit is distraught. And this is when Chun Mong Yiu (Charmaine Sheh) comes in to support him and bring him back to his feet. A slow and stable understanding develops between the two. They each sacrifice a lot to help each other and the love deepens.

Later on, Fung Hang Lit finally finds out that he is actually the Mongol Prince. Reluctantly, he takes on the role. Deep inside, all he wants is still a peaceful life and no war. But he is bound by duty to protect his people and to avenge the death of all the people who were killed – including his parents. And worse yet, the enemy is someone he loves and the people who have welcomed him into their homes despite the fact that he is actually a Mongol.

Unwillingly, Fung Hang Lit had to use the advantage that he had – and that is the trust that his Haans friends had in him. He used it to find out information and to form plans.

His betrayal is hurtful but he had no other choice. He could not let his people down and yet he couldn’t let the people trust him down either.

Review

This is one of the most engaging TVB ancient series shows I have seen for a long time. It’s all very well balanced out between the drama and the love story.

Raymond Lam (my fave) did an extremely good job in this series. He’s only 26 (if I am not mistaken) but everyone else who is older or same age as him has to call him ‘Fung Tai Kor’ therefore, he has to look much older than them. His girlfriends, BOTH OF THEM (different times, of course) Charmaine Sheh (30) and Sonija Kwok (31) is older than him and yet, he is supposed to be the Tai Kor (big brother) in the show! I had my doubts because to me, Raymond is actually a very youthful personality. He’s funny and very cheeky too – can he actually carry off this role?

The answer is – yes, he can! The makeup and hair had a lot to do with it, of course, but his bland acting, slow and steady speech, subtle reaction all gave Fung Hang Lit a very mature and sensible personality.

Charmaine Sheh – What do you expect someone who can just ‘cry on call’. During a show in China, there was a contest between Gigi Lai and Charmaine to see who can cry the fastest. And Charmaine shed tears within the first 10 seconds! Raymond Lam and Charmaine Sheh plays lovers in the show and they did a swell job! Their eyes spoke to each other and told a whole story in itself. It’s no wonder that Raymond Lam won the ASTRO Best Actor award and Charmaine Sheh won the Best Actress award recently.

Bosco Wong (picture right hand side) – Very funny and his acting has been improving all this while. In this show, his improvement shows because he goes from absolutely rib-tickling to angry to sad to powerful. His range in this series is much wider than Raymond’s and he has got the chance to show the audience what he can do in one single series.

Derek Kwok – Never doubted he could act. Although he’s not ‘leading actor’ material (don’t know why), I consider him to be a charismatic screen presence to be reckoned with. He can play good and bad at the same time – which is precisely what he did in this show. He didn’t fail me.

Evergreen Mak – Another riveting actor! He’s not handsome-handsome and I’ve seen him being funny-funny but not serious-serious like this. He’s the next in line to the throne. He’s fair and honest, noble and trustworthy. Sounds like a simple character to play? But Evergreen added new dimensions to the role to help audience understand his character more. An incredible job, I’d have to say.

Conclusion

All in all, I think anyone who is interested in TVB drama series should go rent this. It’s really quite good although the ratings in HK were not very encouraging. HK people just have different taste from the rest of the world – and as far as I know, the rest of the world is often right. HK people want silly stories that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever…like Virtues of Harmony (yikes!! Hate it). I want good acting, I want good script, I want excellent editing and good chemistry among all actors. Pretty people, in HK, make the ratings soar.

Well, if you’re not into renting videos, stay glued for this show on your ASTRO Wah Lai Toi a year later. I am quite sure Raymond and Charmaine are making a go for the Best Actor and Best Actress award this year.

I am like….Oh My God!!! I was watching 8tv a moment ago and then you know what? I saw this ‘message’ from the Government of Malaysia produced by Filem Negara Malaysia educating people about how to prevent snatch theft and it was OH SO EFFECTIVE. The police who went on air was an officer by the name of ‘Mohamad’ (don’t even think it’s his real name) and he was like looking into the camera, looking at the script, looking at the camera, looking at the script, pause, look at script again, look at camera….

Sad to say, the quality of the clips or films produced by Filem Negara Malaysia (FNM) sucks to high Heaven. I know I am using a lot of religiously sensitive words but this blog is categorized under ‘ramblings’ and I can ramble on, right? Don’t read if you don’t like swearing. :-)

I mean, they’ve had all those years to improve. Even the Malaysian film industry have changed…they’ve progressed. We pay taxes and they get loads of money from the government, right? Where’d it all go? Can’t they like….do SOMETHING….ANYTHING to improve the quality of the film they produce?

Honestly? It looks like something even I can do, you know what I mean? You have that Windows Movie Maker on your computer, right? I bet you can come up with something better. With a better actor, of course. Try training your kids to do it. I believe they can do a better job than that Mohamad guy.

And besides, all they (that Mohamad guy) said was to carry as little money as possible (we have credit cards these days), don’t show your money to other people (OF COURSE, duh???) and keep your handbag or purse very close your personal self (aaarrrrggghhhh!!!).

Oy, make some sense, can or not? If you want to educate people about how to prevent snatch theft, tell us something useful, something we don’t already know. GET IT????

The standards for American Idol is much higher than that for other countries…for reasons that are quite obvious. Americans are more ‘vocally’ inclined and parents tend to nurture the talents of their kids from young. For us, Asians, if you tell your parents that you want to be a singer, you’ll get a smirk, a pat on the back, a shake of the head and ‘Sorry, son/daughter. You aren’t going to be rich being a singer in this country’.

And the truth is…it is true.

I remember telling my dad about me wanting to be a singer. He didn’t disapprove of my ‘hobby’ or ‘talent’; in fact, I think he was (and is still) kind of proud of my singing because he is quite a proficient singer himself. (Heard he serenaded my mom when he was courting her. Ahem!) But the harsh reality of it is, you’d have to be damn near perfect if you want to be a singer in this country (Malaysia, by the way) if not, you have to sing in a certain way (read: Rock or alternative) or be a certain race/religion in order to make it here. Chances of making it big as a singer in Malaysia is rather slim for non-Malays because the market is too small. Chinese would rather listen to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singaporean, Korean singers. Indians would rather buy albums from REAL Indian singers. Therefore, the market is limited to Malay songs. If you don’t sing it, you won’t make it. As simple as that.

I have to admit that over the years, the market has changed a bit. For alternative groups like Too Phat and all that (no pun intended but it sounded lyrical), they’re unique and superb in singing and churning out catchy songs. They successfully emulate the West culture and intertwined it with Malaysian culture to make them so sellable. In fact, I had friends (actually Clients) who asked me if Too Phat was Malaysians.

Anyway, Paula, Randy and Simon (bless his mouth! Love him cause I always agree with him although I don’t agree with his delivery) have trimmed the troop down to the last best 12 contestants. And I have my favorites.

And they are….

First choice….Katherine McPhee

 Young, beautiful, and possesses an incredibly addictive voice! The last song she sang (cannot remember the title but it goes something like ‘Freedom, Freedom, Freedom….’ Absolutely ROCKED. Even Simon Cowell was bowled over. And we all know it takes a lot to impress Simon Cowell. She’s got the whole package, really. In the music industry, you have to be beautiful too…that’s the sad truth and without it, chances are slimmer. Talking about slimmer….my second choice is….

Mandisa

GAWD!!! That voice! That voice! She puts everyone to shame and make everyone else look like Kingergarten students trying to impress the headmistress with their ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars”. She’s got that voice but….she doesn’t have the body. Like is said, in order to truly make it, she needs an image. The image goes with the body and that is why some people make it and some people don’t. No matter how big your voice is, if your body is big, your chances are not. And this is my opinion of Mandisa. Poor girl. She might NOT become the next idol, but she will definitely get a lot of recording offers!

My third choice is... 

Taylor Hicks

Now, he looks to be oldest of the lot and has the least chance to become the next idol. Everyone is young and beautiful. Taylor is neither young nor beautiful. But he’s got this charismatic quality about him…you know, that star quality in him that is really quite hard to deny. You look at him and go…”Man, this man can sing!” Not only is Taylor a good singer but he’s a brilliant performer. Unafraid, unique and absolutely confident in himself and his ability, this is what Taylor Hicks has and this is what is needed to be the next American Idol.

Judging from writing style, you will understand why I say I am fighting for every single second in a day. Every single second counts. Sitting down, lying down doing nothing, dreaming and surfing around aimlessly on the Internet is out of the question. Absolutely so. But….

Lydia made me do it. Tried the “Desperate Housewives’ test although never watched it before. No time. But I am technically now partially (most of the time) a housewife struggling to find time to fulfill my business obligations…so, why the heck not??

RESULT:

You gave up a great job for this? No one really appreciates you, and yet you slog on, with very little sleep and very little thanks. Who can blame you when you occasionally lose it? Hang in there. Just lay off the Ritalin.

How true, how true. But….what’s Ritalin. Might want to give it a shot if it helps. J

Wanna try the quiz yourself? Go here…

http://abc.go.com/primetime/desperate/quiz/index.html

On familial front….

Jared fascinated with sunglasses – he’s a vampire, you see. He’ll hide under my shirt whenever we go out into the sun. We found old his old sunglass and he decides to wear in everywhere he goes. Night time, I told him he can’t wear it because if he did, he wouldn’t be able to see where he’s going. He said, “But mom, I can use my mind”. Absentmindedly I said, “I can’t use my mind to see, honey” and he said, “Oh, mom, you can use MY mind. I can see with my mind, mom”

What a laugh I had.

In the meantime, Joshua is going through this…’ghostests and monsters are hiding under my bed’ phase. He’s never had this problem before…well, ok, he occasionally is scared by stuff (like me, easily scared and overactive imagination and all that) but never this bad. Well, thanks to Scooby-dooby-doo. He’s watched it a couple of times with his cousins and now he thinks red-eyed skeletons with sagging green skin is hiding behind every door and translucent hands are going to come out from mirrors.

He’s never going to watch that show again. EVER if I had it my way.