Malaysia is The Axiata Cup 2013 Champion!

by Daniel Chiam

Yesterday was my first time attended a live badminton finals match and it was for the Axiata Cup 2013 between Thailand and our very own team Malaysia! It was indeed an awesome experience. The atmosphere of being there personally to witness and to cheer along with the Malaysian supporters is really priceless.

The dude standing on the left was super excited for every performances in between matches.

The first match between Thai's Ratchanok Inthanon and Malaysia's Sonia Cheah was a blow to the home supporters because Ratchanok clearly dominated the match and with so many mistakes by Sonia, the first point of the night goes to Thailand. Ratchanok really played very well that night.

The second match was between the mix doubles Sudket Prapakamol and Saralee T against Goh Liu Ying and Chan Peng Soon. I have to say it was the most interestingly intense match to watch on that night. It was definitely the match that pleases the crowd the most. The long rally, exchanging smashes and fast pace of the game really got the crowd cheering and standing on their feet to cheer on our national heroes.

The last time I met Dato' Lee Chong Wei was last year when I got the opportunity to send him off at the airport to London for the Olympic 2012. Axiata Cup 2013 finals was my first time seeing the man himself playing live before my eyes. The match was clearly dominated by the world's number one and Thai's Tanongsak clearly had an experience disadvantage when facing Dato' LCW. 

Nonetheless, Dato' LCW's decision to play for the Malaysia's team in the finals was overwhelmed by the supporters and the whole night the crowd was cheering and chanting his name. At some point of the time, they event cheered for his newborn son's name - Kingston!

The passionate Malaysia's supporters that sit in front of me.

The last match of the night was the men's double between Boonsak Ponsana and Songphon A against Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong. It was clearly a win for Malaysia when half way through the game you realize our men's double are more experience than the Thais. 

To me that night was just simply amazing. It was the supporters that fascinates me the most. They kept on cheering and cheering and cheering the whole night. I was thinking when are they going to stopped, and they never did till the very last minute when Malaysia finally won the final. I am really glad and happy to be apart of that loud and noisy supporter that night.

Thank you again Axiata for the tickets and of course to Nuffnang for an experience that's going to be hard to forget.

"Seize the day, Caper Diem"

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[Movie Review] The Host (2013)

by Daniel Chiam 

A Twilight remake ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 3/10

I have never read the book before. So review will be solely base on the movie itself. I never like The Twilight saga, so my expectation for The Host aren't really high at all since its a story from the same author. 

The movie sets in the future where human race has been assimilated by extraterrestrial parasite that called themselves "Souls". Melanie Stryder who was captured by the Seeker was then infuse with a soul called "Wanderer". Melanie somehow survived the procedure and is struggling to take control of the body with "Wanderer".

I'm not quite sure how the peaceful creatures can really invade earth without violence. Then again, this sci-fi movie was anything but an action movie and some girls would just go gaga over this movie (especially the Twilight fans) because its a complicated-sort-of-love-story or just because a body needs to decide between two good looking guys of who should be kissed.

Sad for Malaysian because there were a lot of kissing scenes and it just had to be cut off (thanks to Malaysia's censorship). It's like someone fast forwarded in between scenes and somehow it spoiled the flow of the movie.

I'm not sure how Melanie talks with accent and yet Wanderer that took over her body can speak without an accent. Logically the parasite should have taken the ability of the body itself and be able to do exactly what the body already knows to do. 

Anyway, I find the movie overall was a lil' too dull, unintentionally funny at most part and its really feels like a remake of The Twilight in a much different version with all the actions taken out of it.

Movie Trailer |  Official Website

"Seize the day, Caper Diem"

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WeChat - The New Way to Connect

by Daniel Chiam

That's right people, you chat, I chat, we all chat and last night was the WeChat commercial launch at club Neverland, KL. A large numbers of bloggers, local celebrities, media members and partners had showed up to hype up the event.

Awi Rafael, one of the local celebrity performing that night.

As of January 2013, WeChat already have 300 million user accounts and I was there when they first launched WeChat in Malaysia. Back then I have to be very honest that I am not so fond of the app at all but today, with the newly improved user interface and functions that they have, I realized that I have been missing out a lot.

First of all you have to know that WeChat is absolutely free to download and it is available to all the major mobile platforms; iOS, Android, Symbian, BlackBerry and Windows Phone. In short, everyone can use WeChat. Now other than the basic functions that you have on a messenger - texting, calling, video call and location, WeChat also provide "Voice Chat" function which I find very useful and fun to use.

Any idea what we are talking about?

The WeChat's Voice Chat or Hold to Talk (is what I like to call it) is basically a voice recording function but I find it works faster and better on WeChat if compared to the existing messenger that I am using. I'm not sure how fast will this drain the data plan but for whats it worth and the convenient that it provides, I'm totally loving WeChat for this.

This works best when you are driving and stopped at the traffic light. Most of the time I find it very hard to concentrate between texting and my eyes on the traffic light but with WeChat, replying back to someone else is just as easy as holding a button only. Love it!

Here's a tv commercial of the WeChat 's 2 new ambassadors; Lisa Surihani and Shaheizy Sam using the voice chat function:

The WeChat's live chat works like a walkie-talkie and it's really fun to play with. Also with a lil' bit of creativity, you can actually make use of it specially when on a road trip with friends, event and any possible occasion that you think would need a walkie-talkie to keep in touch with one another.

WeChat's Live Chat

So far those are the two similar functions that I really had fun using and personally think that it really made a difference in how you connect with others. Can't wait to explore more of WeChat and see what other cool stuff that it can do. For more info do checkout www.wechat.com

"Seize the day, Caper Diem"

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