Tony Fernandes of Air Asia Has Own Blog

Hey, I didn't know that Tony Fernandes of Airasia has a blog. I've only just stumbled upon it today while google searching for some bio data on the man. It's located at http://www.tonyfernandesblog.com/. I once bumped into him at a local shopping centre. I think that was about 2 years ago at the time of the X Airasia launch. My wife noticed him first and pointed him out to me. Tony Fernandes was with his wife and had the Airasia cap on. They were walking around the ground floor of the shopping centre and finally went into a shop to have a look at some luxury watches. I'm pretty sure the shop attendants must have got a shock albeit a good one.

The Cure's 'Boys Don't Cry'

My 2 1/2 year old daughter, Sophia, hummed to the opening guitar riffs of The Cure's "Boy's Don't Cry" today. I was playing the song on my mobile phone when she started to take interest to the song. That was also the first time I heard her hummed the melody of any song. She normally sings part of the verses of songs she liked but never hummed to any before this.

"Together again" ... after 11 long years

I believe I bumped into Suziesenorita today at Ta Kiong Supermarket at the Spring shopping mall today. Suziesenorita was the girl that many years ago I had tried hard to win her heart but ultimately failed. I wasn't really 100% sure it was her at first as it has been a long time since I last saw her (11 years to be exact) and also because she looked slightly different. Her hairstyle has changed, her face is thinner and she looked ...well, older. She was wearing the dark blue KPA (Kuching Port Authority) coat that she wore so that more or less confirmed it was her. It was a Friday and she must have taken advantage of the extended lunch time on Fridays to shop for some candies at Ta Kiong. I recalled when I went out with her she likes to shop for candies at supermarkets we visited.

Well, we came face to face about 8 feet apart. My 8 month old baby William was with me. When I saw her face I didn't recognize her at once. It was only like a second or two later that realization dawned upon me that it was my beloved Suzie. I don't know why but perhaps by instinct or out of total surprise I quickly turned around. I was not sure how to react. Then a wide smile broke over my face. Did she recognized me I thought? When I turned around, she had already gone back to searching for her candies. For the next few minutes I spied on her from a distance.

'Sounds Of The Universe' Stream

Looks like there's an European site that's got exclusive streaming rights to the new Depeche Mode album 'Sounds Of The Universe'. You can now listen to the whole album at: http://www.dhnet.be/dm/

The sound quality of this stream is better than either the 320 Kbps or 192 Kbps leaked mp3 versions even though its only 120 Kbps. That's because its encoded from a better source. The sound is crispier and better mastered.

I've Listened To Depeche Mode's 'Sounds Of The Universe'

It's now one week after Depeche Mode's upcoming album 'Sounds Of The Universe' (SOTU from now onwards) was leaked. Since then I've listened to SOTU like almost 20 over times now.

I'm surprised the album sounds surprisingly fresh and upbeat. It's like an album from a new band and not from a band that has been around for 30 years. It's hands down better than 2001's lacklustre 'Exciter' and is definitely an excellent follow up to 2005's 'Playing The Angel'.

Continuing on the trend from 'Playing The Angel', this album once again see them embracing their electronic roots again. On this album, they have pushed the guitars to the background and brought the synths back to the fore. Drum machines are once again very evident.

Overall the album has a retro feel to it partly because a lot of old vintage analog synths were used. Although they are using lots of analog synths it must be clarified that they are not using them like they used to. So don't expect anything sounding like 'Speak and Spell' on this album, ok maybe the beginning of 'Perfect' does sound like 'Puppets'.

The tracks from the album:-


1. In Chains - In a recent interview Dave Gahan the lead vocalist of Depeche Mode leaked that they will open every show of their 'Tour Of The Universe' world tour with this track. The track is indeed an appropriate track for opening a show and so I couldn't agree more. The track begins with a long electronic buzz or hum that sounded like maybe that THX thingie from the theatres.

2. Hole To Feed - This album version sounds very different in terms of production from the boring version that was leaked. Its been spruced up a bit here.

3. Wrong - I didn't notice the guitar riff in the background the first time I heard the song from their Echo Awards performance. I've just noticed it. Well, not one of their finest singles but not their worst either.

4. Fragile Tension - The very first track from SOTU to be leaked. Most will be disappointed that there is very little difference between the leaked version and this album version. Perhaps, a bit more electronic sounds sprinkled here and there, that's about it.

5. Little Soul - This song starts off a trio of synthpop tracks that wraps with 'Peace'.

6. In Sympathy - One of my favorite tracks from SOTU. It begins with the riff from 1993's 'Songs Of Faith And Devotion''s 'Walking In My Shoes' but slightly speeded up.

7. Peace - Is this DM doing an Erasure? As it is very Erasure-esque. No doubt fans of pure synthpop will dig this.

8. Come Back - One of the slow songs on SOTU. Embarassingly simple lyrics. The whole song just come across as slighltly pretentious. I usually skipped this track.

9. Spacewalker - The production on this instrumental track could have been from the 'Music For The Masses' era, think Stjarna and Agent Orange. It's their best instrumental in years.

10. Perfect - If Peace sounds like an 'Erasure' song then this sounds like a Duran Duran song. It's amazing how Gahan at times sound like Simon Le Bon on this track. Was it deliberate ?

11. Miles Away / The Truth Is - My least favorite track of the album and not too surprisingly it's a track I usually skipped.

12. Jezebel - The only track helmed by Martin on this album. I found it really nice to listen to this at night.

13. Corrupt - Another track that just doesn't do anything for me. Maybe in time it will grow on me.

Overall, I rate SOTU 8/10.

I owned every one of Depeche Mode's albums (except for SOFAD live). There's no doubt that I'll be getting the official SOTU for my collection when it comes out on April 21st 2009.

'Sounds Of The Universe' Leaked

Depeche Mode's forthcoming new coming album 'Sounds Of The Universe' has been leaked ! Leaked approximately 1 month before the official release on April 21st 2009. I've just found it at Rapidshare: http://rapidshare.com/files/214184744/Depeche_Mode_-_Sounds_Of_The_Universe__2009_.rar
Currently listening to it while writing this.

Adam Khoo's New Book "Profit From The Panic"

I bought Adam Khoo's "Profit From The Panic" book yesterday from my local Popular bookstore. It was priced at RM49.90. Well, RM50 then. It was the last copy left (yeah, it sold like hotcakes).

I immediately got right down to reading it when I got home. I wasn't all too surprised when I was reading it I realised that a major portion of the content in the book is culled from an earlier book of his called, "The Secrets Of Millionaire Investors". Let's admit, he tends to rehash materials from earlier books. For instance, the first few chapters of "The Secrets Of Millionaire Investors" were totally rehashed from at least 2 chapters in "Secrets Of Self-Made Millionaires". So needless to say, if you already have "The Secrets Of Millionaire Investors" then it may not be worth buying "Profit From The Panic" unless you want to add it to your collection.

And like all Adam Khoo's books before, this one's no different in that it's contents are easy to absorb and are presented in an easy to read manner. That's why I enjoyed his stuff. Some books by other authors I've read that deals with similar subjects tends to waffle and bogs you down but Adam Khoo's books doesn't. His is straight to the point and offers valuable info and teaches practical methods that one can put into practice right away.

In my opinion, 'Profit From The Panic' is excellent and recommended for the novice investor who wants to be taught the right way to stock market investing without getting turned off. For the seasoned investors they would find this book useful as well as it offers a few insightful info that they probably did not know before and perhaps will help them understand why they kept losing money in stock market investing all this while.

More 'Sounds Of The Universe' Tracks Leaked

Two more tracks have been leaked from the upcoming Depeche Mode album, 'Sounds Of The Universe' and they are 'Hole To Feed' and 'Come Back'. 'Hole To Feed' which is a Dave Gahan composition is not a bad electronic number. You can listen to it at YouTube:

Download YouTube Videos

Nowadays you don't need a software installed on your PC or a plug-in for your web browser to download YouTube videos direct to your PC, PSP, Mobile or iPod. That I just know after I was introduced to a web site that can convert YouTube videos into various video formats like .flv, .mpg, .mov etc. for download. It can even convert the videos into audio formats like mp3, mp4, wav etc.

The site I'm referring to is http://www.captureYouTube.net/

In the field provided at the site, just specify the URL of the YouTube video that you want to download. For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2GaCnAiuvo

After that, select the format you want the video to be converted to. Next step is to click on the 'Convert and Download' button to begin the conversion. When the conversion is completed (usually after 3 seconds), you should see a message that says: 'File Converted Successfully. Please download the file from below'. Click on the 'Download' button to download the converted file.

It's the best find for me this year and the best thing of all, the service is free. There is no charge and registration involved !

Depeche Mode's 'Wrong' Music Video

I've just seen the music video for Depeche Mode's new single, 'Wrong'. And wow, it's quite different from all the videos they have done previously.

This one's very dark and creepy ... and disturbing as well. I wouldn't recommend it for the little kiddies.

You can watch the 'Wrong' music video here: http://www.depechemode.sk/magazin/aktualita/videoklip-wrong/