For a long time, I have never had this much fun for Chinese New Year.

 

Chor Yat (First Day) started with the standard prayers, and the most important part…

  

 

FIRECRACKERS!

 

This is the only time I can get a good shot of firecrackers. Once it’s lit, all I can get is a pic of a HUGE bunch of smoke, like how Hindraf protestors get loaded with teargas during their demonstrations.

 

 

But the highlight of CNY 2010 wasn’t the firecrackers.

 

On the first day, my house was the meeting point for many of my mum’s side relatives.

 

 

Now, everyone has long-lost cousins. They could be working or studying abroad, pursuing some gold mine or some sugar daddy / sugar mummy. As in, they’re normally far away.

 

But for me, I’m possibly the only guy in town whose long lost cousins actually live in KL. The only problem was that we lost contact… for over 15 years wei. And so we were reunited in one single makan sesh.

 

 

I now have 2 additional cousing who’re half-Malay. Happening kan?

 

This is 80+ year old granny. She forgot to give out angpau this year. Maybe she wanted to save $$ for a pair of dentures.

 

JoyLKChan is naughty.

 

 

Me, Ego and cousins.

 

In countries like Taiwan or China, the very enthusiastic people like to release big lanterns during the Mooncake Festival.

 

 

Back home, we Malaysians are too impatient to wait til September. So we do it during Chinese New Year.

 

 

And it works! Hahaa.

 

 

We initially planned to make our first trip in 10 years to Butterworth, dad’s hometown…and this, I was very excited about. The only thing was, the above party ended about 3am and we were supposed to leave at 8am the next day.

 

So we left only at 10.30am cos too tired haha. Reach Butterworth at 5pm. Fail!

 

 

This is my Dad’s Dad, Ahkong’s house.

 

The best moment is upon stepping into the house and breathing in all the once-so-familiar sights and smells that I was attached to when I was a kid.

 

Old school cupboard, big cross-stitch hanging on the wall, old pillow. Banana on the doorknob. Nostalgia was imminent. Lucky I never emo on the spot or I’ll be crying on the first day of CNY lol.

 

My first CNY gambling session involved Anglia Shandy, lots of coins, EGo, myself….

 

….and my cousins : in their pyjamas. Dah lah damn hot, still wearing long sleeve and pants hahahaha.

 

 

In my Siew Kucheh’s room was where 4 of us bunked in for the night.

 

And in the corner of the room, was a picture on the wall. It was my favorite part of the house:

 

 

No, that’s not my Siew Kucheh! Haha.

 

 

Next day was the reunion with more uncles, aunties and cousins. Thanks for lunch AhKong

 

Again, I must be the only guy in town who fails so badly in keeping contact with these cousins (dad’s side). Because despite their northern-state origins, most of them study / work around KL. Fail # 2.

 

:):)

 

My AhKong is 81 years old. The coolest grandpa around because he’s one of the nicest, most independent, steady gramps you will ever meet.

 

Why is he cool? Because his house is equipped with a home PC + broadband + router. And he even has a Gmail account and MSN.

 

 

 

What’s even cooler is that he calls me EVo online. Shiok.

Next, I will teach him how to Facebook and Twitter.

 

Cheers!
EVo

As we all (obviously) know, one of our beloved ministers, Datuk Seri Utama Dr Rais Yatim, who is our current Malaysian Information, Communications, and Culture Minister, has been shining like a star for the past 2 days.

Not literally, although his botak forehead does catch a camera flash very easily.

…Nor is it because of the frequent funny faces that he makes in public.

Pics courtesy of http://malaysiakini.tv

…But because as always, as usual, our ministers make the front page for all the wrong reasons. This time, it’s not just any local paper’s frontpage, but on Twitter’s frontpage.

As of 8.35pm, Rais Yatim has made it to the #5 trending topic on Twitter, aptly named “#yorais”.

Screenshot courtesy of http://spinzer.us @spinzer

To get an idea of the magnitude of Rais’s ‘branding success’ on Twitter, (him ranking #3), it is 3rd to the world-involved earthquake in Haiti, whose hashtag is #Haiti, ranking at #1.

My word, that makes him a world celebrity. Why?

Because of a few uncouth, shallow, untasteful words that formed a direct attack on users of the Net-izens of Malaysia (like myself), during a press conference 3 days ago.

From @StarOnline

SEREMBAN: Malaysians, especially Muslims, must avoid being totally immersed in the internet culture, especially Facebook and Twitter, said Information Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim.

He added that facilities like internet could not be accepted wholly because it was a form of business introduced by the West and “Malaysians were just users.”

“We are not saying that they cannot use Facebook or Twitter but when using such facilities they must upkeep the values taught by Islam, Buddhism or Christianity to maintain our culture,” he told reporters after opening a Seminar on the 1Malaysia concept here on Saturday.

This made him an instant enemy. Twitter or Facebook, possibly our ONLY source of unaltered, uncovered news, facing a potential block? Other attacks on our internet freedom by Dr Rais were carried out in August 2009, when he stood up against ‘child porn’, or in other words, his i-wanna-kill-you-political-blogs-and-real news propaganda.

Our Malaysians (truly One when it comes to defending something that we love), took it in their stride to produce one of the most creative, both offensive and defensive flurry of tweets (that helped #yorais to #3). Over the past 24 hours, some instances are:

8:13 am    bongkersz:     Rais Yatim is so ancient, he co-authored the Ten Commandments #yorais

8:31 am    5xmom:     Rais Yatim is so ancient, Eve was his girlfriend #yorais  (this sounds like a compliment)

9:25 am    lightyoruichi:     Rais Yatim is so ancient, that Yoda was his padawan #yorais

9:27 am    benjicajess:     Rais Yatim is so ancient that when i asked him to act his age, he died #yorais

At this point, someone said :

9:29 am    starwing:     – I will transfer RM10 4 d best quote about RaisYatim. #yorais. Pls RT

Cash prize. Not bad. Anyway….

11:30 am    angeliCassie:     @PatriciaLow #yorais is so ancient that WOI PAT I SERIOUSLY DUNNO WHAT’S UP until everyone on my Twitter is #yorais-ing (we have a new verb : yorais-ing)

3:29 pm    jfkjohan:     #yorais came first. Sorry chicken, Sorry egg.

4:12 pm    GypsyQue3n:     @alixchase lemme know if any of ur tweeps are making #yorais shirts. (who wants to make $$ – this is an excellent idea!)

4:38 pm    MikeyVoon:     #yorais is so out of touch. He wants to ban ALAMAK! He thinks it’s Western for Mother of God. (Wana talk more Allah again?)

6:21 pm    ky123456789:     #yorais thought ‘walao’ was the short form for walaubagaimanapun..

8.00 pm    Mikeyvoon:  #yorais  is so ancient. where he was born, was still Negri Satu then while he became adult during Negri Dua. (He’s from Negri Sembilan)

all the way to midnight..

11:56 pm    martianunlimite:     #yorais is ancient, he discouraged use of papyrus scrolls as it can be used to spread rumours

Well what can I say? Malaysia Boleh! And these 12 tweets above is only a MOLECULAR section of the 12,000+ tweets with the #yorais hashtag. I plugged it all into Word and I got this.

If Malaysians could combine all their energy from tweeting and reading these tweets, we could rebuild the damn country lol. It took me bloody long to read everything ok hahaha. As an added bonus, here’s the nicely-arranged 12,000+ tweets list for download and personal enjoyment.

So, what do think would have happened if Yorais, I mean Dr Rais Yatim has it done his way? Here are 4 possible ideas.

#4  Bahasa Kebangsaan will be used in every announcement, regardless of how international it is, or no matter how many non-Malay speaking delegates are present. After all, who does not know Malaysia? And if everyone knows Malaysia, everyone should know Malay, right? Right.

*’My Mode’ was a Yorais quote taken from a Malaysia Kini video where he was defending the Internet Filter Plan. Someone asked him a question in English. Kantoi. You Must watch the video to see why Malaysians love him so much.

#3   When friends meet each other, the standard way of greeting of ‘Yo’, ‘What’s up?’, ‘Hi’ will be accompanied by a casual, bestial scratch on the body. Just imagine a gorilla and you’re half-way there.

Watch the video to believe it. Exactly at 0:30.

Just do it (the scratch). After all, he is the Minister of Culture.

#2   After being a hero in August 2009 by taking a cheap shot at ‘liberals’ to look at countries that had become “victims” of pornography, Rais will do a complete clampdown on online pornography because ‘kita tidak boleh bertolak ansur’ (God knows what pointing 3 fingers mean).

But he will introduce more CULTURE into our society by promoting the use of Japanese magazines.

#1  When Twitter and Facebook have been blocked in this small part of the world, and all the #Yorais tweeters have all been arrested by the government’s best friend ISA, Dr Rais will introduce the replacement for Twitter.

Cheers!

EVo

Check out other interesting posts:

- Spinzer

- Icednyior

P.s. This will be the last #yorais i will ever tweet. Ever. I don’t wana go to Kamunting!

Hello All.

It’s 2010! ‘Happy New Year’ is what I’ve been constantly chanting to everyone that I meet..even though it’s already 7 days past 1st Jan!

Most people at this stage will still be reeling at how 2009 went for them. I am too. I’m happy that things went quite well for me. New friends. New jobs. New ventures. New freebies. Same girlfriend.

(The last one is a good thing ok)

To talk about it all here would pretty much take a long time. I know many people like listing their ‘Success Stories of 2009’ but I guess I’ll skip that this year. My last year’s ‘Success Stories’ took me damn long to write wei. Not because there was too many, but because I couldn’t find the old records. And I forgot half of it so had to refer to pics and slowly type type. Haha…!

I’m pretty sure this year would be a good one. Challenging, though, but with good prospective.

Because, I’m going for Ne-Yo’s concert tomorrow. I almost feel like the king of the world. Thanks x 1000 Leowazza and Friendster!

I’m not a great fan of his (don’t kill me), but recent constant OVERWHELMING of his songs on radio should really say something about him. Maybe he’s really that good. Go and see lah. Apparently cameras are allowed…so out comes the dslr. And video camera. Imagona use all hands and feet to record everything!

I can only hope that what happened during MTV World Stage (where I smuggled my videocam into McD takeaway and had to leave it all behind because food wasn’t allowed) wouldn’t happen again. If not then FML liao.

Within the first days of 2010 saw the creation of the all new #Twtclub. If you have been following my little section of the Twitterverse, you’ll know what it’s all about!

1st #twtclub gathering at Zeta Bar. Pretty good stuff, considering i walked into KL Hilton with a round-neck tee and jeans. Mega-informal.

The highlight of the session was meeting up with the faces behind:

@DiGi_Telco ! Her name is S Classified laah. For personal Safety reasons lol.

And there’s not just one, but TWO people behind @DiGi_Telco. His name is G. Personal Safety reasons remain also lol.

Picture taken with @meiyingt, who I’m trying to lure into the dark side called Salsa. Ahahaha.

The other special appearance was by the very cute @StarbucksMy. 2nd from left, girl with yellow blouse and smiling until cannot see eyes. Her name is Jone, The name can be revealed because it was revealed before. No more classified-ed for you Jone!

Visit www.twtclub.com for updates and how you can join us in our misadventures

And also within d first few days of 2010, was my ex-Sony Tai Lou Sunny’s wedding. Aih, another Angpau goes out. Think of Karma, Eu Veng, think.

2010 will also see the launch of the new factory in India, as a result of the joint venture between our company and Wuxi Driveshafts in China. Be ready for more shizzits from India. Accha Hai.

2010 will also see the rise of the side-project, Podfolio, which will hopefully be launched before mid-year. I pray hard for this to work out. Or I will convert to an Indian and disappear from the face of the earth. Ahaha.

My main resolution this year : Not to make more than 3 resolutions. Really mah. Plan more, fail more. Might as well focus on a few.

1.  Micro resolution : Don’t waste time. This’ll lead to further success kes

2.  Macro resolution : Make the people close to me realize that they’re valuable to me. This is gona be effin hard.

3.  Know when to RELAX. Yeah babeh.

So as a start, I’m gona practice Resolution # 3 first. Yeah babeh. Ne-Yo here I come!

If you’re going as well let me know. Tweet @euveng / text / call me!

Cheers!
EVo