I will stop writing for a while.

Now is another busy time of video shooting and editing, and i also bought a lot of DVDs, not mentioned the DVDs that accumulated since 2 years ago... so i think i better concentrate on watching all these DVDs and working on the videos... plus looking for jobs and scholarship in KL. so, i'll disappear for a while. :)

Fight for Chinese school - Mr. Lee

We said bye bye to Melaka by 9.30am, reached Seremban toll by 10.30am. Met up with the reporter, and we drove to Mr. Lee’s farm. Mr. Lee has been driving kids to school for 8 years for free. The school is far inside a rubber estate, no student wants to attend the Chinese school anymore, but he felt that it’s very wasted to shut down the school; he volunteered to send students with his van. 8 years of doing so, the money that he spent on petrol is enough to buy a terrace house. During the interview, we found out that he was only doing so because at the same time he was sending his children there too, no other kids are like tumpang lah. When asked after his children finished school, will he continue to send other kids to school, he said no…. hahahaha! Not very noble lor… but then think back again, he can always send his children to other school at town, easier, but he still insist on sending them to that school, he must has loved the school so much!



We went to the school, a very nice one, fresh air green scenery, even got internet access now! Whole school has only 7 students, all in their standard 5 and 6. The school next to it is a Tamil school, packed with students! Such a huge comparison. They wanted to move the school out of this estate to the town so that the number of Chinese schools in Malaysia won’t be dropping, but faced a lot of problems from the government. Still he is fighting for it…

After taking some shots of him picking up the students after school, we said goodbye, and the reporter brought us to have lunch in Seremban. Bought a few famous Seremban siewpao, we were ready to go home to KL. Stopped by Seremban museum to see some Minangkabau architecture and snapped some photos, we drove back to KL by 3.30pm. Reached KL around 5pm. Went to Petaling Street for dinner, this time the ikan bakar was MUCH better!!! We treated the students, and another students who are now working in KL, some sort of gathering. Again we ate like bulls…. I must have gained weight a lot! Then we went shopping there, noticed a lot of “pirated” shoes selling for RM60 o.n.o. So tempted, but managed to control. We went back to my house, and slept!

The next day, we went to the press office at PJ, talked to the chief editor, got some videos from them, I then brought my students to APV to meet up with Chen. APV changed a lot!! So different from last time when I worked there… the design is ok lah, more modern and glamorous, but I prefer the warmer feel last time. Asked my fren to bring my students around and brief them on the online, telecine, tape room, and offline… my students are so amazed. Then we went to the mamak nearby for lunch with Chen, ah Bo and other ex-colleagues. They were still the same, we joked like last time, and my students were amazed to see me that crazy. Ah Bo got a crush on my student, gave him her card… so funny!

Originally wanted to go Ikea, but too tired, and everybody was eager to go back Penang, so we leave KL 2.30pm. Sayonara.

The jail counselor - Mr. John Tan

We leaved KL by 6.30am. We were supposed to reach the Kluang train station by 9.30am. The night before, I’ve already phoned up a fren to check for direction. So, no problem in finding it despite a few wrong turns. Hahaha! Reached there probably by 9.40am or something. The reporter brought us to the cafetaria next to the station to have according to her the famous coffee and toast. We ate like bulls, hungry like hell, wallup all the toasts, nasi lemak, eggs, fried beehoon, and the reporter gotta belanja… hahaha! That’s not the point lah, I mean I did insist on paying mah…

Mr. John Tan came to the station by 10am to bring us to his house. A very kind 50s man, soft spoken and very polite and friendly. Hard to imagine he was a gangster head before, and also a drug addict. He quitted drug, but the side effect stays, we could see his hand and leg were with bandage and damn bengkak. Now with his experience and successfully quitted with the help of religion (Christian), he is a full time counselor and give seminar all over the world. In fact, he was going to Australia to give talk 2 days later.

During the 1 hour interview, he told us a lot about gangster life, drugs, counseling, even gave us his VCDs, acted for us to shoot. 1 thing I learnt from him is – never tempt an ex-drug addict, he will starts taking it again. Those who successfully quitted normally did it with the support of their families, leave the circle of frens they used to have, and a very strong religious support. John’s house also been transformed in a “half-way-home” for the druggies to stay if they have no one to turn to – with 1 condition: they have the determination to change for good! John told us, he thinks it’s his duty to do this job, because he was once a drug addict and gangster, so he could relate well with them, and more credible in persuading them that it is VERY POSSIBLE to quit all these bad habits.

I’ve asked John about a fren's case of wanting to try cocaine out of curiosity, he told me NOT to!! There was a case when 3 doctors tried it with the same reason to understand how addicts feel… 1 ended up suicide by jumping down tall building, 1 dead of OD, another still addict to it… Nobody is strong enough to fight it, and to put a stop to a second shot, so DON’T CHALLENGE IT!! Please don’t even start! Ok!

We’re done with John by 12pm, and he suggested treating us lunch, we turned it down coz wanted to meet a fren (the pregnant lady’s fren) in Segamat. Only later found out that the fren in Segamat was sick. So we headed to Melaka straight. Reached Melaka by 2pm, supposed to meet up with a student’s fren, but she got work until 5.30pm, so we drove to the town by ourselves to look for the famous Chicken Riceballs… so hungry!!! We just parked the car at roadside, walked down, grabbed an aunty and asked which restaurant is the famous one… she told us “Chung Hwa”. So we walked there, ordered and makan!! Nothing special, just the shape of the rice… hahaha. And so expensive! After makan, because of 1 of my student saying he wanted to visit the red house, and a-farmosa because it’s his first time here, so we walked with him, snapped some photos, and really really tired!!! Sat down had cendol, then the ladies wanted to go shopping already!!! (they were not tired meh??) So, we walked to the Chinatown and cruising shop by shop because we still have 2 hours to kill. Nothing to buy, but I bought a massage stick for my mom, and some scented sticks for my frens back in Penang.

The fren sampai around 6pm and brought us to her aunty’s flat… that’s where we would be staying for a night. The aunty looked very young, like 30-something, but actually she is already 43! She could not believe that me and the pregnant lady are the lecturers, she said I look like 24yo…. HAHAHAHAHA!!!! I told her I want to belanja her satay celup!! But then she was not free to join us, so we went with the fren, her boyfren, for satay!! It’s very much like “Lok-Lok” in Penang, but quite nice lah. The boyfren looks like gangster, but actually he is very very nice man. While eating satay celup, he was already thinking of where to bring us next. Then he brought us to the Portuguese Village for ikan bakar… mmm…. Not so nice, the fish got funny smell, the la-la was good though. We returned to the flat around 10.30pm, he still wanted to tapao some kuih, white kuih that only could be found in Melaka sort of thing, but then the shop closed lah… we were so tired, we slept straight away!

The swimming instructor - Mr. Ng

We reached Seberang Jaya Swimming Pool by 2pm. At the entrance of the pool, we could see a dark and fit man talking to some Malays, but we were not sure whether this was the guy we were waiting for. By 2.15pm we saw a lady who look like reporter walking towards the man, so we also approach them.

It was a bloody hot day, 21/3 was supposed to be the hottest day ever. Trust me, shooting at the middle of the pool, no shade at all, we knew it was the hottest!!! Damn, my face and hands darken quickly. This man, Mr. Ng, is a swimming and life-saving instructor, and his assistant, Mr. Teoh, both were like charcoal, so what did they care about being dark? They talked to us under the hot sun, while training a girl of Down syndrome in the pool, casually, while we were trying to be professional but hot to the max.

Well, enough of complaining, back to why we were interviewing them… they teach disable children for free – like Down syndrome, handicapped, or generally they call them “special children” or “challenged children”. They also perform physiotherapy to them for free. If they can swim well, they will also train them for free to join any sport events or paralympic. This girl (Down) that he brought today to let us video is one of his student who enter competition. A very shy girl name Shi Ling, who knows all 4 strokes including butterfly, and according to Mr. Teoh, she is probably the only Down syndrome person to know Butterfly… I was puzzled so I asked why? He told us that people who suffers from Down normally have an extra or distorted bone at the neck that stop them from swimming butterfly, the stroke might dislocate or hurt the bone and will cause death. Besides, Down syndrome ppl also have hole in their heart, so they cannot swim too aggressively.

The Malay lady teacher that brought Shi Ling also is remarkable!! She teaches in special school with very very low salary (I think is around RM400 only), yet she is willing to bring students to swim here and there, for absolutely no fee, not even the petrol… wow! She really loves these students. But of course during the interview, they were taking the opportunity to urge the public to donate some money lah, but that’s understandable.

After the shoot, we went over to the Malay stalls opposite the pool, Mr. Ng wanted to belanja us makan. So we had ais kacang, mee goring… mmm… yummy!! And we chatted more. Then I told Mr. Teoh that I’ve met him before, that’s when I was still a lifeguard in USM years, I also saw him during life-saving competitions.

By 4.00pm, finally we were done, and ready to drive to KL, then the pregnant lady wanted to go home to take bath first. I have to agree lor, so we only started driving to KL by 4.30pm. All the way to KL, there were heavy pours, could hardly see the roads clearly. We reached KL by 8pm, my mom has all the food readied, so we just makan lah! Yummy!! By 9pm, fetched my other student from Kelana LRT, she was coming from Genting to join us, brought her home to feed her. By 10pm, we went to SS2 to meet up with Chew Yan to pass her VCD and info of the logo and to brief her on how we would like the graphics, logo, and opening to be.

We went home after supper by 11pm. Watched a little bit of 《不见》directed by李康生, the 1st 10 minute was all about a grandma looking for her missing kid in a park… boring shit! But however, I would watch it again on my own, just don’t want to bore my students to death! Then it’s goodnight after that cause the next day we need to wake up by 6am to depart for Kluang, Johor.

The weightlifter with no legs - Yin Choo

Today 2pm we were at the press office meeting another reporter to bring us to YinChoo's place at Butterworth for video shooting. YinChoo is a disable woman, both her legs were stepped by a neighbour kid when she was very young, since then the legs seems not to grow anymore and are easily broken. she told us, she has broken her legs at least 6 times. however this disability does not stop her from performing, especially in the sport arena. she actively involves in tennis and weightlifting, she even represent Malaysia to Vietnam and won Bronze medal in the 48kg category. later this year, she will represent Malaysia to SEA Games in Philippines, and she has also set a target to join Paralympic in year 2008. Yet again, another optimistic person, and make me, as an able person, felt ashame of myself. i found myself after shooting so many inspiring people, starts to realize that if you set a goal in your life and stick to it, you will eventually get there... just stop being lazy and say i'll rest first, there's plenty time to do it. look at these disable ppl, they never stop pushing their limit, and that's what get them far.

Tomorrow we'll go for shoot at Bukit Mertajam at 2pm, i think this guy is a swim coach who teaches disable kids for free. shall see how it goes. after the shoot tomorrow, we will head to KL straight.

Going out for steamboat with aunt's family.

At first thinking of updating my shoot today, but just received a call from my aunt to join them for steamboat at 'Flame', Crystal Point. so i shall go take bath now, and shall update my journal only later lor. see you guys.

Here's the update:跟阿姨一家去了“火锅皇”吃打边炉，对，就是郑浩南开的那一间。鸳鸯汤底为姜片牛奶及猪骨汤。不错，蛮好吃的。RM138的套餐看起来不多，吃起来还真饱！唯一不好的是冷气房，结果每个人出来整身都是火锅味。阿姨的女婿阿斌刚从日本名古屋公干回来，因为我之前帮他从理大图书馆借了一些关于TPM的书，他送了一个名古屋象征物大象的手电链给我。他儿子（6岁）看见我很兴奋，一直喋喋不休的用福建话跟我讲他学校朋友的故事，这小大人。。。我把从Bukit Kayu Hitam买来的dark chocolate送了给他，苦苦的，不知他会喜欢吃吗。哦哦，到现在还很饱！

Man with 1 leg - Mohammad

again, a long stretch of driving ahead... 1st we departed Bukit Mertajam after lunch around 1.15pm, arrived at Alor Setar's toll at 2.30pm, waited for the reporters that will lead us, departed from toll 2.40pm, reached UUM 3.10pm... tiring enough!

we met Mohammad, a undergraduate of UUM studying IT, he is a very very ordinary guy, only thing is he has only 1 leg since birth... when we called him to inform about our arrival, he jumped out from the hostel to receive us. yes! literally jump! more precisely - hopped!! with 1 leg! and he is smiling ever so "sunshine"! he doesn't like the "fake leg" because he feels uneasy and even a bit painful with it. he rather hop all the way. his balance is amazing, standing with 1 leg, he doesn't need to hold on to anything, he can even ride a bicycle with 1 leg!!! the best thing about him is, he is such an optimistic guy. with his handicap, he is not feeling despair or disappointed, he even feels lucky because there are ppl who got worse than him, he is thankful for that. only thing that he thinks he can never do is to play football and to strike like David Beckham. the spirit is great!

a very sporting guy too, we asked him to ride the bicycle, twice, for us to shoot, he'll do it. we wanted him to dress formal, follow us to library and act like he is going to study, hopping up long staircase to library, he'll just do it for us. no complain! great guy... not to mention handsome too. a mixed guy with malay and chinese parentage... mmm... very cute guy! hahaha! ONLY problem is - he can't speak, not meaning he is mute lah, he is just not good in expressing his thought. we ask 1 thing, he answer 1 sentence and stop!! a big huge different if compare to Mylene. my pregnant partner almost strangled him to death! hahaha! ask him who is his role model, he shook his head said "none". ask him what he wants to be next time, he look at us, with an innocent eyes answered "dunno yet". ask him any frens look down on him, and how he feels, he said "dun care".... god!!! can he says more than 1 sentence!!! luckily he got that cute naive smile all the time, or else i might just kill him! kidding lah. but really very hard to conduct interview with ppl like him.

so we finally "done" (we actually gave up and decided to use more voice over instead), we waved goodbye to him, then the 2 reporters (ladies) suggested that why not go to Bukit Kayu Hitam for shopping! things real cheap in the duty free shop. so we said, why not?! off we went... wow, i really bought something... got 6 bars of dark chocolate, me and my dad's favourite. i also bought Sapphire Gin for RM50 (normally cost around RM100), and a bottle of Smirnoff vodka for RM38 (normally RM80)... SO CHEAP!!! also got a pair of sunglasses Gucci (of coz fake one lah) for RM12... i am happy boy now.

then we gotta past through the kastam, the officer held us and check our bonet. Full of videocams and equipments, he asked what are those things for? so i said we were shooting a documentary in UUM just now. he very busybody asked me shoot what subject. so i answered shoot a guy with only 1 foot. he looked at me amazed, asked "1 foot??" i nodded my head. his expression looked so unbelievable... then he pointed the palm exactly 1 foot above the ground and asked, "this tall only ah?"... then only i get it, he misunderstood me, he thought the guy is only 1 FOOT tall........ what a dumb uncle!!!

we finally get through the checks without the liquors being found... hahaha, escaped tax! we went for Thai dinner nearby, usual tomyam, kerabu sotong, otak-otak, kangkung belacan... eat until so full!!!

so i got home only just now around 10.10pm... all tired, but inspired, and now i'm going to make myself a cocktail... pamper myself!!! tomorrow still got shoot 2pm at Bukit Mertajam again... this time is about a lady with no legs, but a weightlifting champion in a competition held in Vietnam. well, shall see how the shoot goes tomorrow. now - rest!

"recycle" housewife - Mylene

today I woke up around 6.30am and get ready to depart from Penang with my student by 7.45am. Waited for him until around 8.15am, get to Bukit Mertajam to meet up my pregnant partner by 8.45am, then went to the press office by 9am. the coordinator was late, so wait til 9.20am. he arrived with a reporter who would bring us to Mylene, our interviewee's place.

we reached Mylene's house around 9.40am, she already waited for us with her hubby, Don. She is a chinese lady, housewife, whom with the help of Don, a Portugese guy, practise recycle and promoting it to the neighbourhood and other ppl. they have held more than 200 seminars teaching ppl how to recycle practically everything that could be recycle at your own household. They are very aggressive ppl, the minute we arrived there, not even started to set up the camera and lighting, they started talking already and inviting us to attend their seminar... so the whole 2 hours she and Don talk talk talk like nobody's business. good thing is we don't have to ask questions, they already answer everything. bad thing is, all the points are so draggy and spread in the 2 hours video footages, we need to find out bits by bits from this long duration to edit out only 4 minutes of video... that's tough!

they are very respectable, all they care is the environment, a better earth for the coming generations to live. they have their own collection centre next to their house. then every week ppl will collect from them, like papers, glass bottle, plastic bottle and containers... then the money they get, every single cents go to charity. i respect them a lot. they believe that a thousand miles starts with a single step. if ppl do not start recycling, they will never. however 1 point i do not agree with them is they said they want to make ppl feel guilty about not recycling... do you need to do that to get ppl's attention? i think we should teach them to appreciate the outcomes of the recycling rather than make them feel guilty. teach them to be thankful about it, not scare them away. in fact, their aggressiveness actually set me off a bit...

at around 11.30pm, we have to say goodbye because we need to rush to UUM for the next shoot that same afternoon. another reason is if we dun stop them, they will never stop... that 2 hours, we even talk about public transport in Penang and Malaysia, how underground trains can help, Pak lah and other politicians, entrepeuneurship in recycling.....

after finally getting to say goodbye at 12pm, we headed to a restaurant to have yam rice with pork intestines and ham choi tong... very nice!! :)

to be continued.....

恐怖的拍摄行程

暂定的拍摄日期为：
1。 19日 － UUM，大山角
2。 20日 － 北海
3。 21日 － KEPALA BATAS（吉打）
4。 22日 － 吉隆坡，芙蓉
5。 23日 － KLUANG，新山
想到都怕怕，最近比较疲累，还要驾长途车，不知负荷得来吗。。。只好走一步见一步咯！很可能拍摄完新山后会去新加坡逗留一天走走玩玩。。。然后25日又要赶回学院开会了。生活算挺充实的了！大家都要加油咯。

It's going to be over real soon!!!

Finally my supervisor reply me just now, guess that left me only 1 night to do the finetuning... sigh. but luckily his comment is not all bad. :) phewww...

Here's his reply:

Dear Beh, I went through both drafts. Good. Structurally, the ideas presented connect with each other. To give you an example of finetuning, I have corrected the first two pages of the first draft sent earlier. I am attaching the file. Go through and take care of language slips, grammar and stylistics (that is italicising, single quote etc.,) carefully. Go through the draft once again, edit it and clean it up, that is my first suggestion.

Secondly, what is permissible goes and what is not the focus goes away. For instance, in the introductory paragraph of chap 1 you mention national enunciation. Such usages may warrant a different usage of enunciation (benveniste's) which is not attempted here. Hence you can take away enunciation from your usage.

Do you want to see me today (sunday) or monday? If you want to see me today, may be we go online in the evening after 7pm. if you want me to meet tomorrow, you can see me before my class (10 to 12) at 9.30 am in my office or after 12.15.

Good effort with a focus. Scope for further research.

Hopefully everything goes well, and I shall be a really happy lad by tomorrow!!

悄悄悄悄的看了SEPET

已经悄悄悄悄的跑去看了，怕它下画嘛。。。1.30pm场，只有8人，包括我这个唯一的华人，附加一个吵到要命的小妹妹！真希望能像关Nokia酱把她变silent mode！！！天！

Sepet是不错的电影，但可能我对Yasmin的期望蛮高的，所以有点失望咯。节奏嫌太慢，有些场慢到我不耐烦，Rabun的控制较好。比如阿龙跟阿强讲古（关于Peranakan）时，我就差点睡去，幸好身边的马来小妹妹够吵，我才没找周公去！

结局还好啦，蛮有feel的，很浓的遗憾，然后就是end credits的Sam的歌了，“人皆寻梦。。。”，让我的忧愁久久不散。人就是酱，总要待好时机错过了才珍惜，若两人都愿提前踏出那一步，一切可能从此改写。。。我是不相信造化弄人的！我只相信没有好好把握当下。

喜欢Yasmin挑战人的刻板印象，我就不一一列出了。但比较不喜欢Perankan（baba nyonya）的母亲一直讲马来话，连一家人吃饭爸爸讲广东，妈妈讲马来，媳妇讲华语，根本没交集，未免太刻意了点。

好了，暂时写酱多先，下次得空再写个full的review，会贴在我另一个blog － “My Review”内。

PHEWWW...

So has gone to meet up with supervisor just now, he is okay with my analysis, but "need changes". he hasn't really read through, so will email me later. however, he thought that my methodology is kinda problematic cause my analysis tends to be character analysis and thematic analysis, but in my methodology chapter i said semiotic analysis. although all three are somehow interrelated and overlapped, he suggested that i should justify it in my thesis.

So, yes, tonight and tomorrow will be rewriting chapter, finetuning other chapter, and finally proceed with my conclusion chapter. then wait for his correction, then it's considered done. YAHOO!! hope i'll be able to catch Sepet tomorrow night as planned!