kennysia.com

09 May 2008

Short Talk:

All-In-One Plugs: I'm getting massive amounts of requests from people wanting me to publish something to promote various causes / look for missing people / donate to certain charity. Suddenly kennysia.com became noticeboard.com. It's too many requests for me to handle and they are all important, so I'm putting them here all in one big breath. Here goes.

Donate to Myanmar. Find Low Le Xuan. Save our sharks. Help Phu Thien Nhan. Assist Young Visionaries. Watch a Japanese Jazz Concert for charity! Learn to cook pasta for charity! Run the Borneo Marathon for charity! Yeah!

Khairy Is My Friend

Dun pray pray.

My friend punya wife punya father is the Prime Minister of Malaysia, ok? If you hit me, I can call my friend to call his wife to call his father to soot you kao kao one, ok? He is Prime Minister, ok?

Who wants to touch me now?

:: Posted by Kenny at 7:05 PM | Link | Listen | Comments (53)
:: Categorised as 'Out of the Ordinary'

07 May 2008

Short Talk:

Book Recommendation: The Twisted Stethescope by Penang Medical College student Jason Leong is a autobiography about his experience studying abroad in Ireland.

Malaysian kids like myself, who spent our coming of age in angmoh countries would definitely identify with what Jason Leong went through. It's funny because it's real. And Jason's book is quite a light-hearted read if you enjoy the type of humour that I do.

ADV: My Black Challenge

The words on the pamphlet challenge me, "Could this be your big break?"

This isn't a game of ordinary pool. They called it the 9-ball speed pool.

The rules of the game sounded simple.

This is a game of speed and accuracy. Nine balls are placed on the pool table like that: six close to the pocket, and the other three evenly spreaded out across the centre.

To start, you can place the white cue ball anywhere you want.

The clock starts as soon as you strike the cue ball. The clock stops when you pocket your last ball.

The person who pockets all 9 ball in the fastest time wins.

This competition is put together by GUINNESS® in search for the best amateur 9-ball speed pool player in Asia.

GUINNESS® Black Challenge team right now are touring the whole of Malaysia, running speed pool challenges across 112 nights in 56 outlets in search for Malaysia's fastest speed pool player.

The fastest in each outlet advances to the regional playoffs. The winner in the regional playoffs advances to the national finals held in Genting Highlands this 31st May.

The winner of the national finals will then go on to represent Malaysia in the International GUINNESS® Black Challenge to be held in Jakarta this October in conjunction with GUINNESS® 9-Ball Tour Grand Final, Asia's most prestigious pool championship. All expenses paid, of course!

Anyone can join the challenge. The only condition being that you purchase a pint of GUINNESS® Draught or Foreign Extra Stout bottle at their participating outlets during contest days.

Even if you don't feel like playing speed pool, you could still dip your hand in the hole to win RM100 cash or other exclusive limited edition GUINNESS® 9-Ball Tour merchandise.

Me being me, I couldn't resist the opportunity to take a shot at Greatness.

Besides, how difficult could speed pool be anyway? I mean, 6 of the 9 balls are already close to the pocket so all I gotta worry is the other 3.

It's been a while since I practised playing pool, but I think I can still aim with my stick.

I chalked my cue stick and took it to the table. Time to put my pool skills to a test.

By "pool skills", I meant "poor skills".

Speed pool isn't as easy as it looks. Time is critical so I can't spent too much time pondering my next move.

The worst thing is, I panicked.

And because I panicked, I had trouble holding my stick still.

My balls kept bouncing all over the place.

In the end, I only managed to pocket all my balls in 2 minutes 33 seconds.

Surprisingly, the official told me that I had made a new GUINNESS® record!

Record for LONGEST time taken to complete a game of speed pool.

Another participant that night fared slightly better than me. He completed the game in 1 minute 2 seconds.

The guy ended up becoming the fastest player of that night. As a reward for his efforts, he won 10 pints of GUINNESS® Draughts, limited edition GUINNESS® 9-Ball Tour merchandise and on top of that, he will be advancing to the regional finals.

This guy has gotta buck up if he wanna go any further though. The fastest time achieved thus far in the Malaysian leg of the tour is just under 40 seconds.

Whoever that guy is, he must be really good with his stick and balls.

The preliminary rounds of the GUINNESS® Black Challenge is gonna continue on from now until the end of May at the official outlets above.

It will be tough to beat the current top marks of 40 seconds in a game of 9-ball speed pool. Whatever it is, take comfort in knowing that no matter what you do, you're gonna easily beat my pathetic time of 2 minutes 33 seconds.

Just remember to hold your stick steady.

:: Posted by Kenny at 6:46 PM | Link | Listen | Comments (54)
:: Categorised as 'Life Documentary'

06 May 2008

Short Talk:

AD: Alright, I'm doing this for the girls because I know you all like to look at pretty clothes and buy them online.

There's a very popular local website called PotatoCream.com that sells nice girly apparels at really affordable prices. The people behind this online shop are friendly, and payment is also ridiculously simple.

I saw lots of chic dresses on sale for less than RM50. More of a reason for you girls to go ahead and splurge on all your girly shopping at PotatoCream.

Politician-Turned-Bloggers

This blog entry is dedicated to the stubborn Raja Petra of malaysia-today.net, who refused to post bail for his sedition charge, and chose instead to sit in jail.

It's amazing how one election could change so many things.

Before the elections, bloggers were condemned by government officials as if they were scums of the Earth on par with child rapists and mass murderers. One guy named Khairy even compared bloggers to monkeys.

After the elections, suddenly we have monkeys invading the parliament along with his friend, Big Foot.

Before the elections, politicians who blog are mostly those from the opposition parties. Most famously, leaders Lim Kit Siang and Anwar Ibrahim.

After the elections, even those big shots in the ruling party jumped on the blogging bandwagon.

These past two months alone, we have seen an ex-Selangor MB, the current Malacca CM and the current UMNO Information Chief all starting their own blogs.

The biggest news last week is that our former Prime Minister himself Tun Dr Mahathir has turned into a blogger as well.

So now kids, if anybody tries to tell you that blogging is a waste of time, feel free to say, "But Dr M also does it leh!"

Of course, there is a huge difference in the way these political heavyweights blog compared to the way that we from the younger generation do so. For example, these political leaders don't talk about what they have for lunch, which celebrities they met up with, or how many pink stuff from Juicy Couture they bought. These people tackle the big issues, using head-spinning words like "judicial appointment" and "press freedom" and "rising crude oil prices." Younger bloggers like us simply don't write much of such stuff at all.

What I am saying to these politician-turned-bloggers is, they should really lighten up themselves. Blogging is not just about "changing the political landscape" and all that. It's also about meeting new friends, doing crazy things and having fun. And these people don't do enough of that at all.

I mean, you are never gonna see Lim Kit Siang camwhoring like this on his blog.

Or stupid commenters like this in Dr Mahathir's blog.

Most definitely you are not gonna see Anwar joining some silly "I Sleep Better With Chipster" blog contest.

Still, I welcome these politicians joining our blogging community.

Because previously, when you say "bloggers", you immediately think bored teenage boys or attention-seeking schoolgirls putting 101 camwhoring photos of themselves in skimpy outfits. As early as 2 years ago, parents used to really hate their kids blogging.

But now, we have old politicians whose average age is 60 years old calling themselves bloggers!

I think that's a good thing. Old people using new technology is always cool. I just wish they could be more like friends with us younger bloggers, you know? Stop bashing your political rivals for once, and start coming to our blogger gatherings for a change. There's so much that we can show you.