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Here In My Home by Malaysian Artists For Unity (MAFU)

Pete Teo (Malaysian songwriter) was juggling tomatoes.
Bored. so he telephoned a few friends. “How about getting together to make an anti-racism national unity song and music video?” All said yes without hesitation, not because Pete threatened them with a sharp and rusty knife, but only because they love Malaysia.
The contingent swelled to 52 people a few days later. It included filmmakers, dancers, singers, producers, musicians, actors, entrepreneurs, designers, footballers, activists, celebrities, students and a florist. Nobody would be paid, yet they were enthused. Not because they were high on speed, only because they love Malaysia.
They gathered to record the song. It had a catchy chorus and was able to induce a mass sing-along. Everyone was happy when it was done. They named it ‘here in my home’. Then more people joined. The party now included more than 120 people, but the budget remained exactly zero. It seems even the spreadsheet loves malaysia.
Everyone turned up for the video shoot. Much fun was had and friendships made. Video editors went to work after the shoot was done. Both the recording and the video would be given away for free - a gift to the nation. From those who love malaysia to those who feel the same.

Did you ask what this is all about?
It’s about love.

Song and video downloadable from Malaysian Artists For Unity.

The choir included a wide array of Malaysians from Jaclyn Victor to Tony Fernandez (rarely without a stash of red this time). Even Jason and Orked from Yasmin Ahmad's Sepet is in. Something cool indeed for this year's Merdeka celebration!

What The Hell Is Happening To...

I was procrastinating (h'm, taking a productive break) from Molecular Cell Biology a few days back when I bump into the aviation forum Malaysianwings. Being a hardcore aviation enthusiast the 'productive break' quickly spiraled into a helpless fascination and hours glued to the screen reading forum posts.
It's been to my knowledge a few months ago that my favorite airline is undergoing some major changes in their cabins, with new uniforms rolling out replacing the old melon-colored kebaya very soon. And in all Indo-China routes hot meals had been replaced by the 'Snekbox'.
All photos from Malaysianwings unless otherwise indicated:

MAS says they got 91% satisfaction for their Snekbox...

...which consist of some Sandwic, fruit, air (water or air?) and typically some sweeties.

Another variation of the Snekbox, with a bakery bun, cake and yoghurt.

Eliminating hot meals means cutting lots of costs involved in passenger meals - hot food needs to be prepared fresh, rapidly chilled, and re-heated again onboard before serving. With the 91%-satisfaction snekbox MAS staff can earn extra income by doing OT packing the boxes, and send them to the airport for the following day's flight. Wallah, clever move!
However, it seems awkward to many that an airline which boast itself being 'more than just an airline code; MH is Malaysian Hospitality' would serve something so...common on its flights. Less than a year ago the hot meals usually comes in 2 options - Asian and Western. The Asian meal, being representative of Malaysia, would usually be Nasi Lemak or Rendang. And now, a Sandwic? Where is Malaysian Hospitality?
And I doubt the packaging is more expensive than the contents...

Serving the cheap snekboxes with award-winning cabin crew won't help.

Last but not least, they've decided to overhaul the seat fabric as well. Remember the oh-so-classy squarish seat covers they had? The square designs are reminiscent of a weaving motif of Sarawak (of which minority group I couldn't recall). They don't look classy like the leather seats of AirAsia, but at least it's some representation of Malaysian Hospitality.

I am especially attached to 737s of MAS as they are the usually the last flight before home.

And now...the new seat fabric...

Seems they will introduce flights directly to Bollywood very soon. Let's pray the colors are not going to stay. Give me back the blue-green covers! (The above seat covers are only applicable to domestic flights as of time of writing.)
Luckily for me Taipei is not an Indo-China destination, and Penang is too short for them to dish out Snekboxes. So, for my next flight with MAS I will still get nice hot meals and full-can sodas. But I do have to make two Kuala Lumpur-Penang trips this August. Let's hope the Bollywood covers would be history by then.

Fragmentary Weekend

Living is about making decisions - deciding what to do with your life, deciding what to do at what time, deciding when to do something, deciding who to marry, who to blame, who to praise. Making decisions make you feel powerful, and that's the reason you have Starbucks allowing you to make 5 decisions in a span of less than 10 seconds - Cappuccino, grande, cold, no sugar, take away (cappuccino doesn't come in grande by the way).
No, I'm not talking about a visit to Starbucks recently. I haven't been to Starbucks since...last semester? And I can only afford to go to Starbucks only if it's on the house. No, I'm speaking about life as a whole.
Making decisions that affect your life - the teachers who decided to shield her students during the quake; the daughter who ran away first, and then spent days checking her mother's name on the survivor name list; Myanmar deciding to abandon foreign aid; China welcomes and praises all forms of foreign aid. It has brought me to realize - you can't change fate, but a timely decision alters consequences.
I have this little bamboo coin box I received a few months after I enter school, and since I found out how coins are actually destroying my leather wallet, I usually deposit $1 coins into the box (it's a cylinder actually) if I had any. Over time, the cylinder became more and more laden with coins, and it's a catastrophe if it ever fell from the cabinet during an earthquake. The coin box is more of a weight relief to me than a money deposit, I had no intention anyhow of spending the money on anything. Now in it's second year of accumulation, the cylinder is almost 5/6 full, and very heavy.
After watching Jacky Cheung's latest song for the China quake victims, I decided the money should go to good use. In less than 10 minutes, the cylinder was lying in my bag on its way to the Tzu Chi Compassion Relief Fund counter. I was wearing my most typical weekend costume - shorts and slippers, and entering an area where people wore QiPao's and suits (recall the Tzu Chi robe). I slipped in within a second thanks to my agility. And now the trouble starts.
Out of 10 encounters with Tzu Chi members, 9 will gasp if you reveal you're a TCU student. Out of that, 7 will poke and probe you as if you're from Mars, inquiring more information on, say, your coin-laden cylinder. And maybe 5 of them are influential people they can get crews of the DaAi television (Tzu Chi's news channel) to film a feature of you. I want nothing of that. I won't want to appear in front of the whole world with shorts and slippers, and my shorts was stained from yesterday's dinner. I was half-praying there would be no one at the counter so that I could change my mind, or just drop my cylinder and escape from the Palace.
A man in his 40's appeared. With the most polite but un-Tzu Chi-ish way I said I would like to donate for the Myanmar and China relief fund (Tzu Chi combined both). With a fluid motion he drew out a huge ledger while I reveal my 2-kg cylinder.
"Oh, I thought it was cash."
"(monologue: I'd be in Starbucks then) Heh, collected this for 2 years, thought it might go to good use now."
"Sure sure."
And while I was wondering from the very beginning how are they going to open the coin cylinder (it's fused with super glue, I tried breaking in numerous times with no avail), and start the agonizing process of counting every single dollar ($1 = 1 cent in Malaysia) in the Palace, he offered me relief.
"We will send this to the monastery, and there will be people there who have special equipment to open them up. You can leave your name and address, and we can mail you the receipt."
"(Oh, so these cylinders are to be opened by 'special equipments') Definitely. And can I get my coin box back after that?"
"If you want to, sure. We'll call you to collect it once we're done."
They say it's a feeling of enlightenment you get when you helped somebody. But when I exited the Palace with shorts and slippers I don't feel anything, except being pleased the man didn't drag me into their TV station for a feature. The indifference might also resulted from so many people pouring a waterfall of money to them they don't think the cylinder of one-dollars are useful.
Anyway, my psychology teacher says happiness is not because of what you do or what others do for you, but what you think. If you want to be happy, then go ahead. Nobody posted a sign saying 'you're allowed to be happy' for you to be happy.

God Be With Sichuan

I dedicate a piano theme composed for the World Trade Center for all victims of the Sichuan earthquake. May God be with all of us.

It's Bordeaux!

My exchange had been confirmed 10 days before, it'll be in the southwestern city of Bordeaux, France! First seeing the word 'Bordeaux' rang a bell inside, but I can't recall whether it was in my encounter with Les Miserables, the French movie Les Choristes, or Jackie Chan's Rush Hour 3. Upon looking up in the internet, I found out that Bordeaux is synonymous with wine - right, I've seen the name on a wine bottle before.

According to Wikipedia "[w]ith a population of 1,200,000 inhabitants in the Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, the fifth metropolitan area in France is known to be the world's wine industry capital, and it is considered Europe's main military space and aeronautics research and construction complex. Bordeaux wine draws its name from the famous wine that has been produced since the 8th century. The historic part of the city is on the UNESCO World Heritage List as 'an outstanding urban and architectural ensemble' of the 18th century."

Gate to Bordeaux, from lonelyplanet.com

From the top of the church, from wikipedia

Bridge across the Garrone, Bordeaux's main river, by night. From lonelyplanet.com

And Lonely Planet wrote "[t]he city has excellent museums, lively nightlife and beaches close by. Wide avenues, neoclassical architecture and well-tended parks all give the city a certain 18th-century grandeur. An ethnically diverse population and a lively university community of some 60,000 students complete the picture."
This made me realize how big the university in Bordeaux is. In fact, it is divided into 4 campuses, with Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2 University the campus for medicine and life sciences. It houses 15,038 students (2002).

Campus of L'université Victor Segalen

And now to the project I'm assigned to - I'd be following F. Mergaud and B. Bergey in Study of gyrA-gene mutations associated with unusual fluoroquinolone resistance profiles in Campilobacter species. To tell you the truth I don't even understand a single word from the project name. It may be as foreign to me as Russian. Nevertheless, my exchange officer wrote to me about it:

Technique: Bacterial culture, PCR, Sequencing, Susceptibility testing...

Your role :

to write a full project

to perform the tests

to interpret the results

to prepare a draft article.

Bacteria culture is not a problem - who doesn't know how to grow bacteria? Just stop bathing. PCR (polymerase chain reaction) in quite simple (basically it's a procedure used to amplify copies of DNAs), though it requires patience, and delicate hands. Susceptibility testing is something we'd only learn next year, and I'm still looking if any teacher at school might be kind enough to teach me before leaving.
Finally, I bought my French Railpass (Eurail) yesterday. For those unfamiliar, Eurail is a ticket specially tailored for non-EU residents that allows a passenger unlimited ability to travel on nearly all European railroads and some shipping lines at a fixed price per day of travel. There are limitations depending on your type of ticket, however. Mine is strictly French, and is valid only for 6 days in 1 month. This means during my exchange period, which is ngam-ngam 1 month, I can choose 6 days when I feel like traveling and take any train to anywhere, free of charge (of course the Eurail costs me RM700 already). Nevertheless, the TGV (French High-Speed Rail) and Lunea and Teoz (sleeping bulk trains) impose minimal fees for Eurail users (still much less if you're buying full fare).



Looks like most of what I need for France this summer is ready, except my exams before it. I'm so looking forward to traveling again, especially before I step into the 24/7 schedule of Anatomy next semester.

The Zeros and Sub-Zeros Flying

Flip open any newspaper, or log on to any Malaysian website and you'd be bombarded with advertisements promising rock-bottom domestic airfares recently. Malaysia Airlines, after a successful turnaround, is currently embarking on its second phase - transformation. Promising zero fares on their domestic and ASEAN routes (of course, you'd have to pay for your airport taxes and fuel surcharges), this is the lowest fares MAS offers in a long time.
Just wanting to hop into the excitement, i logged on to Malaysia Airlines and according to their accountants I have to pay a total of RM76 for a one-way flight. Quite reasonable considering I paid RM150 for a similar trip one year ago (and it was already heavily discounted using my GRADS status).



Then come the big bad wolf the next day. Air Asia naturally made a big fuss about their new competitor, and trust Tony Fernandez to make sure every newspaper and media covered his whines about how unfair the MAS-AirAsia fight is turning out. As a consumer I will not debate government policies and competition between a newbie and a 60-year old national carrier here. I just want low prices and good products. So I watched the fight going on.
Before midnight, AirAsia's executives was probably surviving on double-thick espresso and made this fancy e-mail for me: Fares Below Zero.


Made a similar search for an AirAsia flight minutes ago. Same flight dates, almost the same flight time and same destination. The fares are even better than MAS, like what their e-mail promised. But just wait...


After taking into account all 'frills' - baggage, insurance, boarding (gosh, now passengers even have to pay to board, where is the logic in that?), the price is RM2.50 more expensive than MAS.
Consumerism comes in play under such circumstances. I started AirAsia with RM15 (basic fare from Penang to KL), then on one click the price ballooned to RM62.50 (including taxes and surcharges). On the next page it was asking whether I have any baggages to check-in (MAS provides free baggage up to 20kgs), which costs me another RM3. On my last click they automatically included an insurance called Go'n'Insure which costs me another RM6. Then there's the priority boarding which costs another RM10 (with seat allocation on MAS, you can be the last to board and first to disembark without having to fork out the red note). This is absolutely outrageous and out-of-the-world! Of course, like all other LCCs, this is a way AirAsia knocks money out of passengers without them being aware at all.
MAS simplified everything down to one slim figure: total price including tax = RM76.00. For me I'd fly them in their old 737s (which will be replaced soon) with free juice, free peanuts, a magazine, and no red-dressed demon spanking cents and dollars out of everything I do onboard*.
*Author's personal opinion

Medchorus Festival Taipei 2008

It's difficult to imagine a chorus festival had had 31 years of history behind its name - Medchorus in English, Ten Medical Choirs (十醫) in Chinese. Congregating choir groups from all 10 medical schools in Taiwan, it is a yearly event which schools boast itself on their musical abilities and creativity.
TCU being one of the youngest and smallest medical school in Taiwan, but not wanting to show its weak side in front of others, arrogantly zipped itself into this glorious festivity, with only 13 people. A choir with 13 people is quite equivalent to a 6-seater car with only 1300cc. And, seriously lacking tenors (in a choir there are usually 4 parts - soprano, alto, tenor, bass), we were one doomed team if it wasn't for the zippy selection of songs. Our only confidence lie in the songs we are to sing.
This year's festival was hosted in National Yang Ming University, one of the most prominent medical universities in northern Taiwan. I was definitely excited to go visit a school far more superior than ours.

This is the ChungShan Medical School choir, I could count at least 25 at a glance.

This is us, 13.

Glazed with pride with our creamy songs (there were easy and have infectious melodies, unlike ancient pieces by Mozart which drives you to Slumberland in two instances), imagine my shock when I saw 2 out of 4 of our songs collide with other schools. And we were the last to perform.

Pep talk session with Miss Liu, our teacher (woman in black shirt). Terribly hot day in Taipei, and we were allocated a room no bigger than a coffin with with ceiling-to-floor glass panels on one side (looks like a zoo chamber from the outside).

This is us. A choir with 13 persons. If you count more than 13, the rest are the pianist (front girl in jade green shirt), a photographer, and a Mommy (she decide not to sing but accompanied us here to 'have a look').

Boys are highly treasured in a choir, especially in a girls-predominating school. I reformed the boys this year - instead of wearing black ribbons, which made us look like third-class clowns, we wore black ties, which made us look like funeral parlors.

We screwed up some parts, as expected. We were weak in terms of number and volume, but I do think we made up on our skills as most of us are experienced singers. The most important of singing comes in handy - passion. At the end of the day, it didn't turn out that badly, though the arrogant leader of Taipei Medical University sneered at me on my way to breakfast the following day.

Group photo after the performance. Background Chinese words - let's join Medchorus (一同參十醫『三十一』to commemorate for the 31st anniversery of this festival).

History will remember me as a chorus leader who brought a group of 13 to perform, and end up not so badly despite having literally no voice balance and not-so-bad voice integration. Anyway, time will pass and soon people might even forget who held the 31st Medchorus. Everything will become history and be forgotten.