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No other superstar in history has ever been so famous for grabbing and rubbing his penis during international performances – except Michael Jackson.

The King of Pop passed away from cardiac arrest this morning in his house in Los Angeles.

Everybody’s got a tribute for MJ today so I wanna have mine too!

But I’ll be brief, hehe.

Strangely, my impression of MJ was that he was a really good guy. I wasn’t really a fan of his, but with some of his songs like ‘Earth Song’, he seemed to me a man with a good cause.

Furthermore, when I was a kid, like really really young, I saw one of his performances on television, where a female fan had ran on stage, plunged onto him and hugged him tightly, and kissed him!

It was to my amazement when I saw that MJ was cool about it, and that he actually hugged and kissed her back!

I was young and when I saw that I was like “wow, this is really a fan-loving guy!”

If I were to see that scene at my present age, I would have thought “OMG after this she can get rich by charging each of the fans $100 to touch that inch of her skin that Michael Jackson has kissed with his royal, sexy lips.”

So generally, I thought good of Michael Jackson… until Southpark came along.

Episode 117 of Season 8 parodied him as a man who behaves completely like a child, has tendencies of molesting children, and ends up having his surgically enhanced nose ripped off his face and his whole ‘artificial’ body gruesomely falling apart.

That, coupled with some previous controversies of him molesting children – successfully planted an image of him as a total freak in my mind.

However, I later learned that the child-molesting charges against him (in real life)  had been dropped and he was acquitted as an innocent person.

Personally, I am not that interested in him being a good person or not, because even if he were a serial killer, I would still admire his sleek moves – the moonwalk, the anti-gravity lean, the trademark yelp – “AW!” and everything else that had been so influential in the past few decades.

He was so cool in his MVs… Can you do his moves? You can’t, so he wins. He’s the man.

His death is a tremendous loss to the entertainment industry. I think the world would never find a substitution superstar who had such a warm, bright smile, such unbeatable dance moves, and such great passion toward penis-grabbing during performances.

Michael Jackson, you will be sorely missed.

(This entry is a rant. So no pictures hehe… )

Despite the fact that my university is owned by these guys, I really have a lot of shit to say about this company – TM.

TM, if I’m not so badly mistaken, is one of the greatest companies in Malaysia. And they have improved a lot since the old Telekom Malaysia times.

But, is it enough? No! Hell NO!

Where to start? A couple of months ago, I seeked their support when I lost my TMOnline password (TMOnline is the website where you can view your bills and pay them etc. and you have to create your own username and password on that site to use it, what I’m saying is – you don’t use your internet account’s password but a different password specially created for that site.)

Also, I know it sounds stupid but I lost my username ages ago too, because I’ve registered on that website since the day I signed up for Streamyx and have never used it since then.

Last year, when I finally had the need to check my bills immediately and not wait for the monthly paper bill, I decided to recover my password. Without my username, of course – I could not use the TMOnline website’s password retrieval system.

So I called the TM hotline, they verified my identity, recovered my username and password, spelt it out nicely to me through the phone, and I happily thanked them and hung up the phone… only to realize that it was NOT the TMOnline username and password that I needed, but they had instead retrieved my StreamyX username and password!

My head steaming, I struggled to recall back and was sure that I had made it crystal clear that I needed my TMOnline username and password, not the friggin’ internet login password.

Anyway, realizing that talking through the phone would not be clear enough, I went to a TMPoint (their customer service centers), queued for 3 hours, and asked them what I should do. The lady in the TM-branded coat pondered my problem for a while, tapped her keyboard confusedly, and turned to consult the guy sitting beside her.

Then, she turned back to me, smiled, and asked me to hold on while she tapped on her keyboard. I sat there, expecting some expertly intelligent solution, only to see her browsing to the website and trying to password retrieve my password using the website’s password retrieval system!

I was  speechless. She then asked me for my username, which I promptly broke out of my stupor and iterated – clearly – that I had lost it.

I continued to tell her that I had tried using the retrieval system before but failed because I didn’t have the username. But she tried anyway, and of all things, she keyed in my Streamyx username instead in the login field! As if hoping that I would have been stupid enought to have confused the two! Of course, it didn’t work.

After trying for some time, she then turned to me and said calmly: “Sorry ya, but we really need your username to do this…”

I wanted to stand up and take off all my clothes to show her that I wasn’t hiding my username underneath my armpit or something, but resisted. I  just repeated that I had, very unfortunately, lost BOTH my username and password.

The lady sat stunned for a full three seconds, as if she had finally discovered the earth-shattering truth and at the same time, had never met with such a moronic customer who could lose both his username and password at once. She then looked up and told me blandly – there was nothing much they could do.

I  asked desperately: “Isn’t there some ways that the system can recover, like, both my username and password? I am here in person and I can answer any questions regarding my identity!”

I was, despite apologetically, told that there was none, and that the only thing I could do was to find my username.

Defeated, I decided that I wasn’t going to use the damn system anymore, anyway. Sticking to the old paper bills would be good enough to keep me alive.

That was at the end of last year.

This year however, in late March, I again found the need to use the TMOnline system to check my bills because I had just cancelled one of my packages (The Voice28 package), and the officer in charge had said that my account had just recovered from a suspension that day, so she would have to do the cancellation process for me the following week (because that day was Friday); the following week, however, would have been April already, so she told me that because they would be processing my cancellation in early April, the bill for April would have already been processed by then and I would have to wait until May for the package to properly stop working. She asked me to check the bill routinely to see if my package made it to be cancelled before April’s bill went out.

Despite having to pay 2 months of extra package fee for nothing (I no longer make land line calls), I wasn’t complaining much, because I knew big companies were memang macam tu.

I had also tried creating a new username and password and somehow, even with the new username and password, I still couldn’t log in to TMOnline. I even used the password retrieval system to retrieve a new password for that new username to confirm that the system recognizes my password – still it didn’t work!

I called the TM customer line again, and this time kept reminding myself to make perfectly sure that the operator understands which username and password I was referring to.

I succeeded in making my point! The lady seemed to finally understand, after many rounds of me saying “No no no no no, not the Streamyx username… the one being used on TMOnline, the TM website used to pay bills!”, that I wasn’t looking to recover my Streamyx password…

… But she seemed clueless of what I was ACTUALLY looking for.

She even blurredly asked me for the address of that website that I was talking about. So I spelled out: “t…m…online…dot…com…dot…my”.

I heard her type on her keyboard and clicked. Worrying over her seemingly confused and uncertain voice that she might have never actually seen the website before (OMG, TM employee?), I followed to say: “ OK, now you see on the upper right hand side, right? There’s an orange box with the login button…”

Jeez, I felt like I was the customer service operator, not her.

She tried, and tried, and tried again to log in with my username and password (as if I have not already tried countless times before calling her), and finally, she seemed a bit impatient and said: “Could you please hold on?”

And she left.

LEFT!

I waited bleakly on the phone for another 1 minute, 3 minutes, 5 minutes… and as I saw the time counter on my phone reach 10 minutes, I hung up.

I GAVE UP.

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I just received my telephone and internet bill for May last week. Somehow, I was not too surprised when I saw that the package fee – was still being charged to me.

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OMG

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THREE MONTHS STILL NOT ENOUGH TIME TO CANCEL ONE STUPID PACKAGE AH?!

… so I sent them an email to confirm this absurdity.

After 3 days, I got this:

Dear Mr. Chow,

Thank you for contacting TM. Firstly, we would like to apologise for the late reply.

Referring to your e-mail dated 26th May 2009 on billing issue, upon checking in our system, we found that your Voice 28 package is still active. Therefore, we would like to advice you to refer any nearest TMpoint at your area for termination this package. Kindly visit  http://tmpoint.tm.com.my/content.cfm/ID/9B23CE18-F53B-4088-B8B0FFC3D6BFF971 to check the nearest TMpoint outlets at your area.

We hope the above revert to your query. We truly apologize for any inconveniences caused. Nevertheless, we would like to express our high appreciation for your patience and understanding.

For further assistance or feedback, kindly e-mail us at help@tm.com.my.

Alternatively, you can also contact TM at 100 and select “Internet Services”.

Regards,

Che Ashaliana

Customer Care Support, Internet Services,

Customer Service Management,

TM Retail.

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I’m going to sort this out once and for all in their corporate headquaters building – Menara TM, this week.

Hope it goes well.

Hey, Merry Christmas everyone!

Although I may have been shamelessly missing in action for some time now, but you can be very, very sure that I will be back to blog for Christmas!

And here I am! Why? because Christmas is the best and most happening festival of all – for me!

Yes, I know – for many of you, Christmas is but a one-day *only* holiday in the middle of the assignment submission week and a week before the accursed MMU final exams…

Why, me too! I’m an MMU student as well! But that isn’t going to stop me from celebrating!

Let’s not wait – Check out my very own Christmas room!

I think it is so beautiful and comfortable! I really couldn’t have done it on my own!

Compare it with last year, and you’ll see that there are some really exciting improvements! The extra mini Christmas trees, the Christmas candles, and…

… the super awesome structure beside my table is the very same Christmas tree as last year – only that this year it is much, much more awesome!

See the tree!

It is transforming into more of a ‘Toy Tree’, actually… But it feels really warm and happy to see such an innocently decorated tree that reminds us of our childhoods – in my own room! 

The first picture of this entry is my classic Teddy-Bear-hug-tree^TM Christmas tree tip decoration! Like last year!

HOHOHO… It’s 2 days till Christmas! Are you ready for it?

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Last year, I did an entry on Malaysia’s Top 7 Christmas Malls, which resulted in Pavilion KL topping the list with its magnificently tall, occupy-able, Christmas tree structure.

This year, I wanted to find out if the malls kept up their marvelously good work, so we set off on a journey to check them out again! Santa bless us!

Like I said last year, only shopping malls seem to have the ability to deploy massive Christmas decorations  in Malaysia. Yup, not even the most expensive hotels can do as good!

Throughout the December month, we went though many of the most prestigious malls in the Klang Valley, and, ladies and gentlemen – here is what I consider the seven most wonderfully decorated and ‘Christmas-est’ malls in the country:

*drum roll*

Rank #7 – The Gardens

(Visited December 20th, 2008)

A newcomer! The Gardens wasn’t in my list last year because there were hardly any Christmas decorations in the mall save some usual Christmas trees along the walkway… But this year – it’s different!

The Gardens has deployed a three-storey high Christmas tree and what’s really special is its ‘cage’ theme.

Of course, there are many ‘ways’ to see this theme – it could either be:

(a) a tranquil garden in the middle of city filled with tall Christmas trees and gigantic, nicely-lit bird cages,

or,

(b) erm, looking at the human size structure and the multiple entrances into the cages, is it just me, or do they look like dance cages in strip clubs that would do well with a pole added to the middle and having strippers dancing inside? 

LOL!

I think the chandeliers in the cages are really beautiful and somehow, the combination of lights and finely-crafted cages in the middle of the greenery creates a really peaceful yet elegant impression – if that is what the designers had had in mind, then I think they did a great job!

Yes, I know The Gardens Mall is under Midvalley’s management, and by principle its decorations should be counted as part of Midvalley’s… But anyway, I really think the decorations are that nice that The Gardens deserve a separate rank of its own!

The Gardens: A refreshingly new design concept, but still relatively small in size to leave a deep permanent impression. Yes, size does matter, but great job nonetheless!

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Rank #6 – Pavilion KL

(Visited December 7th, 2008)

Don’t be surprised to see Pavilion at number 6, it is really quite a let down this year.

Most malls deploying the same Christmas decorations year after year become boring to us viewers, but few actually become worse - and now we’ve seen one.

The gigantic Christmas tree structure that had proudly stood at the concourse last year probably couldn’t afford the rental fee there, and was thrown unceremoniously out of the mall! Poor tree…

I had walked pass Pavilion a few days before December and had seen the unfinished tree outside Pavilion. I had thought they were just assembling or moving it…

I still can’t believe they actually moved the thing outdoors! They further coated the tree with some white stuff that looks like cotton from afar… and they removed the chandeliers!! (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, see last year’s entry!)

The thing that I applauded the most last year – the chandeliers – was completely dumped! And replaced by some gold baubles that looked like they had been placed on last-minute!

Walking into the mall, this came into view:

The concourse area, looking rather bland with the absence of the three-storey Christmas tree in the middle of the symmetrical escalators, was turned into a decorated shop selling Christmas stuff, operated by Tangs.

The wonderful lights above, decorated with long arrays of (again) golden baubles, is really nice – but insufficient to salvage the interior’s otherwise disappointing Christmas atmosphere.

I’ve tried to be very neutral and not let my previous impressions and expectations blind my opinions on any of the malls that I am going to review… but this really isn’t that good – the interior is just so-so, and the tree wouldn’t exactly be a wonder to me either, even if it were the first time I visited Pavilion!

After the lights are on at night, it looks like this:

The structure is still big and impressive, and decorations in Pavilion are indeed renewed every year. Pavilion still deserves the spot at number 6 in my personal Malaysia’s Best Christmas Malls’ list.

Pavilion KL: An admirable effort to ‘bring about change’ (quote Obama!) to Pavilion’s Christmas decoration concept, but changes seem to not always be for the better. An additional note: In my review I am not expressing disappointment at the shopping mall itself, but just the decors. As a matter of fact, it is the reality of Pavilion being one of the most prestigious and reputable malls in KL that empowers us to hold high expectations for its everything – including Christmas decorations.

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Rank #5 – Sunway Pyramid

(Visited November 27th, 2008)

If Sunway Pyramid really did disappoint me last year, they totally made it up with me!

This year, Pyramid’s decors were the first to make me ‘WOW’!

I’ll just make this short: the decorations are simple, they aren’t really humongous and storeys-tall, and it’s apparent that it is not really a super high-budget project – call me childish, but it really brought out the excitement in me! The warm smile etched across my face didn’t fade until I left the area completely. The area radiated a vibrant aura of fun, of joy and of laughter – the spirit of Christmas. They did it!

What’s more, it seems to me that Sunway Pyramid was one of the first malls in the Klang Valley to have its Christmas decorations fully set up! This photo was taken in November!

Sunway Pyramid: A definite improvement from last year. Simple yet joyfully meaningful. I’m sorry for not being able to explain how exactly it is meaningful, I myself do not know why, but it is – at least to me.

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Rank #4 – Suria KLCC

(Visited December 20th, 2008)

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! It is still the same!! THE… TREE… IS… STILL… THE… SAME!!

It’s been five or six years already lor!

Petronas must be losing money now that world oil prices are so low… There’s not even lights on the tree this year! Of course, they changed the decorations on the tree, but I still think that the last year’s was way better.

Someone please tell Santa Clause to give Petronas a new tree next year! Tell him a smaller and shorter one is OKAY!

If I were to review this in my own biased, previous-impression-based mindset, I’d think this old tree wouldn’t even make it into the top-7 list… but let’s be fair, I’m not the only person whom they are displaying the tree for.

The fact is: The gigantic five-storey Chirstmas tree bought from Giant Hypermart (yes, just a pun), although being used year after year, is still one hell of a skyscraper to behold.

I came up with this logic: Maybe the guys in Petronas are so proud that their twin-towers is standing as the tallest stucture in the country, they are determined that their Christmas tree should also be nothing – literally, NOTHING – but the tallest.

Suria KLCC – This is one mall that I would not be disappointed if they followed Pavilion’s footsteps; in fact, I had even jokingly suggested it last year – plant it outside the twin towers. It’s time to change to a new Christmas decoration concept, KLCC, you’re good enough for it!

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Rank #3 – Midvalley

(Visited December 20th, 2008)

My first impression was… Oh God, a voodoo ceremony!

In my opinion, Midvalley has definitely played down its Christmas decoration budget this year. This year’s fantasy-like theme is a creative idea – but I’d still go for the previous year’s ‘autumn garden’ concept any time of the day.

Anyway, don’t be fooled, the Christmas tree behind the smiling face is three-and-a-half storeys high!

Midvalley has never been too stingy in decorating its interior. This year, a huge, round stage with this enormous, grinning, joker face stared down at the passerbys in the megamall!

“The Midvalley God is watching… Don’t steal.”

It was very impressive: the play of bright colours, the concept of a population of jungle animals all gathering around in a circle like some ancient ritual about to begin… I’m sure there must be great performances on the stage at some other time as well! Too bad I didn’t get to watch them!

In a way, I liked this ‘fantasyland’ theme quite much, especially with all the animals gathering around the stage! I particularly like the elephants, I dunno why.

Another thing incredible about Midvalley is that apart from its main decorations at the Centre Court, it has so many ’sub-decorations’ all around the mall!

And each of these ’sub-decorations’ are not too inferior after all! Like this one at the North Court (or was it South Court?)

The red, old Santa in the middle looks like he’s being hanged to death! And there’s a soldier beside him!

Midvalley: Impressive large-scale project as expected. Although perhaps not that much to my taste, the decorations are evidently the brilliant product of creative design and tonnes of tireless effort.

(P.S. Please don’t hang Santa Clause, breaking into people’s houses through the chimney is a crime – but not one that deserves the death sentence.)

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Rank #2 – 1 Utama

(Visited December 5th, 2008)

So gorgeous that it is only fitting to have a diamond exhibition underneath these glamorous babes!

A 180 degrees shift from the playful, innocently cute Toy Soldier concept last year, this year’s electric wired-tree display is simple, yet ingeniously sophisticated!

1 Utama had wasted no time in starting to impress me, way before the stage was even completed. Just looking at the construction site in November tells us that something big is coming up, again!

I realized that 1 Utama had always liked the display concept of a center stage with some huge, towering decorative stuff behind.

The brilliantly lit Christmas trees are somehow reminiscent to last year’s acclaimed Pavilion Christmas tree. I find them so nicely lit (yes, there are trees that are lit but not nicely lit) that I couldn’t take my eyes of it for many, many seconds when I first saw it!

However, this year, young kids will probably NOT be so enthusiastic about the decorations. Yes, they are really nice and everything but they simply aren’t – cute – anymore!

Seems that 1 Utama alternates between captivating the hearts of kids and of adults! Last year, kids were probably crying when asked by their parents to leave the area; this year, adults would probably scold their kids for asking to leave!

… or maybe not!

I think that their theme this year is poker cards – an item long associated to gambling. (less children friendly!) But the entire area was surrounded by this beautiful green wall and just across the entrance was a walking path of gigantic poker card pictures.

Even their ‘regular’ Christmas trees had poker cards on them! How unique!

Haha, I don’t mean to offend the good and thoughtful people of the 1Utama management… but well, the theme and glamorous decorations would really make, and be fitting of, nothing but a splendid casino!

1 Utama: Absolutely fantastic display with a very unique theme, wouldn’t have expected anything less from this great shopping mall (just don’t add roulettes and slot machines next year!). Keep it up!

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Rank #1 – The Curve

(Visited December 14th, 2008)

The Curve in Mutiara Damansara reigns as emperor this year for the best decorated shopping mall in the country!

The entire concourse area was turned into a goddamn garden! (pardon me. I couldn’t think of another adjective to describe the incredible awe I had felt at the sight of it)

The area was so vast that I couldn’t even take it all in with my camera, not even in 16:9 widescreen mode!

Everywhere was scattered with brilliant lights and every angle that you turn to, you come face-to-face with beautiful, lush greenery!

With a towering three-storey-high Christmas tree standing proudly at the side, the garden features many really cute animal-shaped trimmed trees!

What’s more, they’ve got adorable Christmas Elves doing the job!

Again, elephant.

I thought Christmas Elves were supposed to be in Santa’s village in the North Pole busy manufacturing presents by now? Or had they taken leave? And it’s almost Christmas already, Santa and his wife will have to do it all by themselves!

People were photographing almost every other step they take, and I believe every photo snap was absolutely worth taking!

To complete the garden picture, there was even a small pool with fountains adding real moisture to the already refreshingly natural environment!

This garden, no doubt, will fascinate both boys and girls, kids and adults, humans and elves alike. And one of the best parts is even when the Christmas display is so magnificent, The Curve has minimal, and really few, commercialisation involved in the decoration area…

… meaning that you don’t see a lot of stalls around the display area. The display is genuinely – just – for display. And we appreciate the intention that the marvelous displays are not there just to attract our wallets, but rather us - as persons – trying to indulge a little in the joyful spirit of Christmas.

The Curve – Uber cool garden themed display! Very fresh concept that is superbly compatible with this relaxing time of the year filled with enchanting dreams of distant fairy tales. Both kids and adults will no doubt adore it! Excellent job!

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Overall, I still think that shopping malls are better decorated last year (maybe due to the financial crisis?) But of course, Christmas this year is not that disappointing as well, it is always a very good feeling to be able to shop or simply walk in places where Christmas atmosphere fluorishes!

There are some other shopping malls that I have visited in the month of December but that did not make it into the top-7 list. Here are some of them that are worth mentioning:

IKANO Power Centre

(Visited December 11th, 2008)

Has a great tree…

… an area with fake snow for children to play with…

… and also a small hut for pictures with Santa and Santarina!

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Berjaya Times Square

(Visited December 7th, 2008)

Dropped out of the list this year… Sporting the same tree as last year:

The most notable decoration was this Santa that looked totally like Doraemon! Cute!

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Cineleisure Damansara

(Visited December 14th, 2008)

Looks great, doesn’t it?

This structure of a Christmas tree and three angels was actually built ON the fountain in front of the main entrance!

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Starhill Gallery

(Visited December 7th, 2008)

There was a heavily guarded exhibition in Starhill during the time that I visited.

There were security guards armed with rifles at every corner!

You had to register yourself with your identity card and scan your visitor pass every time you pass through a different corridor!

As for Christmas stuff, there weren’t much:

Just some huge silver baubles hanging from the ceiling.

I’m not sure if they have added more decorations after the exhibition ended on the 14th, or they are just gonna leave it like that for Christmas.

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The Street

(Visited December 14th, 2008)

I’m not really sure if The Street is under The Curve or Cineleisure’s management (or both), so I’ll just put it as an individual place! (Although I have a feeling it’s under The Curve)

There was no night market but all the stalls were specially decorated for Christmas, and the lighted trees and hanging lights really gives it a distictively Christmas feel!

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Now you know where to go shopping this 25th!

HAVE A MERRY, BLESSED CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

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Please remember that:

All rankings, reviews and writings in this blog entry are entirely my honest opinions based on my findings and perceptions as a customer being present at the shopping malls at their respective dates as stated. My visits to these places are casual in nature and it is possible that I might have missed or overlooked some or part(s) of the decorations in the malls. Please also remember that there might be better shopping malls out there that I have not visited or known; and that the shopping malls listed above may have added or improved their displays after my visit.