For some of you who don’t know, I’m a wannabe competitive scrabbler. My participation in the Malaysian Scrabble Association National Championships 2010 would mark my return to the world of competitive scrabble after a year-long hiatus. Naturally, I would do all the training I can beforehand and hope for the best.

Upon arrival, I was informed that the turnout of Intermediate players was too small to play amongst themselves; we would have to play with the Masters (and place among ourselves at the end of the tournament). That’s when the nightmare began.

Not only was I severely outmatched, I ran into an uncanny string of bad luck. It is bad enough to be the losing player to the highest-scoring game of the tournament, it happened twice: two players scored the high game of 619 against me.

Sure, I’m playing with Masters, what would I expect? Unfortunately, my spread (cumulative score) was pretty low, that it meant the difference between me in 5th place (out of 7 intermediate players) and 3rd place as we have the same number of wins.

Bingoes that I have placed:
SALIVATE, SPARRED, POPULAR, LICENSES, SHRIVEL, THREADS
I can’t remember the other half.

Well, my rating stands at 1534 as of date. In all likelihood, I will be MIA for a year and my rating will disappear again.




I have in my hand one of Nokia’s first attempts to break into the touchscreen smartphone market with the Symbian S60 operating system. They positioned it as a music companion, sporting a widescreen display, quality built-in speakers, and a standard sized 3.5mm headphone/video-out jack. Coupled with an included 8GB microSD memory card, I can safely say that the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic makes good consolidation of a phone and an iPod Nano in terms of capacity and function.



The sound quality of the speakers is rather remarkable for a phone; at maximum volume, it is loud enough for you to have to raise your voice to converse inside a car. The headphone jack is a welcome feature, as it breaks you free from proprietary Nokia earphones. Plus, the Music Player app functions well for the average music lover. Nokia has succeeded in delivering on its asserted strong points.

The 5800 XpressMusic handles differently than an iPhone as its screen is pressure-sensitive and not touch-sensitive, which people can get used to with time. However, the interface is not as fluid and fast-loading as the iPhone, despite having sufficient processing power and RAM. The tiny vibration, emitted every time an on-screen button is pressed, does help to some extent. Nokia goes all out on making this phone as usable as possible; you can use your fingers, the stylus or the included plectrum to type on up to four different virtual keyboards.



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To the people of racebending.com and all who agree with them,

First a brief introduction. I am an amateur actor born and raised in Malaysia, which makes me an Asian actor. While I am all for ethnic equality and all, I think you are ‘bending’ the issue out of proportion.

The characters and setting of Avatar: the Last Airbender are based on Asian/Oriental backgrounds. But think about it: Aang the cartoon character is pale, has big eyes, capable of martial arts and even speaks in an American accent. In my opinion, Noah Ringer fits the description, and more so if he has good acting chops.

As for the Prince of Persia, Jake Gyllenhaal also more or less looks the part and has good acting chops. To me, that is good enough for him to carry the role and entertain me in his adventures (whether the movie is great or not is a different story).

You must understand, the creators of Avatar the cartoon series are white Americans, and so are the majority of its viewers. It is normal for them to cast white actors, also because the pool of talent in America/Canada are mostly white. In other parts of the world, the same ‘phenomenon’ also occurs: in a Hong-Kong made Street Fighter movie, Chinese actors are cast as Guile, Dhalsim, Bison and Blanka. Who can blame them?

It seems that the ‘racebending’ issue only surfaced upon the impending release of The Last Airbender (correct me if I’m wrong). When other ethnicities are affected, did anyone say anything? How about the time when an Irish played a German Nazi, or when a half English played Gandhi, or when a Korean played a Japanese (twice), or when an English played a Polish Pope, or when an English- Scottish-Finnish-Swedish American played a South African Afrikaner athlete, or when an Irish-Slovak-Swiss American played Jesus Christ? Did anyone have any problems then?

Sorry, but I would be more sympathetic to the cause if somebody can name an ‘Asian’ actor who can carry the role just as well, if not better, than Noah Ringer. I understand the plight of Asian American actors seeking equality in casting, but a boycott of The Last Airbender is not going to help that much. At the very least, you should watch the movie and see for yourself whether or not Noah Ringer is worthy of the role. If you deem him unworthy just because he is white, then isn’t it you who are racist?

This is the first Monday since I quit my job.

Oh by the way, I quit my job.

Getting things done never felt this good.

Stay tuned for awesomeness.