ADV: The Irish Spirit

Event Coverage 15 Comments

Is it just me or has anyone realised we have something to celebrate every single month for the past several months?

Last month, we had a long Chinese New Year holiday, then Maulidur Rasul and even Valentine’s Day.

The month before that, in January, we had the New Year of course. Some people drank so much they are still recovering from their hangover from the 1st January.

Then in December there’s the Christmas and Awal Muharram public holidays.

As if that’s not enough, Najib declared 18 December a public holiday because we won the ASEAN Cup.

Yay.

Imagine if we won the World Cup. Whole year no need to work!

In November? A Triple Whammy. Hari Raya Haji, Deepavali and Kenny Sia’s birthday. The latter not currently recognised as a public holiday, but maybe in the near future.

Anyway, my point is, after a good four months in succession filled with public holidays, we got so used to the constant festivities and celebrations. Then all of the sudden, we arrive in the month of March and we realised, "Oh shit. No public holidays in March. Got nothing to celebrate! HOW NOW?"

To that I say, "Don’t worry lah bradder. If Malaysia got nothing to celebrate, then we borrow from other country loh!"

Of course, I’m talking about the most important day on the Irish calendar – St Patrick’s Day!

All around the world, people are celebrating St Patricks Day doing one of three things: (1) Going on a street parade.
(2) Partying in an Irish pub.
(3) Drinking Guinness!

In Malaysia, we seem to only concentrate on the last two, but the St Patrick’s Day street parade is the SECOND most colourful street parades I have ever witnessed.

Serious!

The first was the Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras.

March last year, I was in San Diego for a convention. I stayed back just to see how the angmohs celebrate this festival honouring everything green and Irish.

The St Patrick’s Day Parade held in Balboa Park, San Diego was a real eye-opener for me. They say you can’t be too serious on St Patrick’s Day, but these people really took the whole parade soooo seriously.

There were people dressing up as druids and elaborate horsemen outfits.

There were old men on mini toy cars.

Even puppies joined in on the parade wearing green tutus!

Of course there were also plenty of stalls selling everything green and Irish (but made in China) products.

It’s such a silly but simple event. Yet it created such happy moment for everyone who participated or watched the St Patrick’s Day parade.

That’s the Irish spirit – happy, carefree and never take oneself too seriously.

Its difficult to describe a St Patrick’s Day parade for those who haven’t seen it. The best way I can describe it is if I call it an Irish version of the Chingay parade, but it’s still quite hard for people to imagine what it’s like, so the best thing to do is see one for yourself!

Guinness is bringing some St Patrick’s Day’s joy and merriment to Malaysia this 17 March. They gonna do it like they do it in the West, complete with pub parties, good food, fun contests and a Grand St Patrick’s Day Parade featuring bikers, buskers, cosplayers and Irish dancers all skipping down Changkat Bukit Bintang.

So it’s not like there’s nothing to celebrate in March. You just gotta
be merry.

The main St Patrick’s Festival is happening this coming Thursday 17 March at Changkat, but there are lots of opportunities to celebrate being a silly Irish at the many smaller parties happening all around the country including in Kuching. All the details are on the Guinness Facebook page!

And for those that can’t make it to ANY of those events, well… I suppose you can always put yourself and your friends in the shoes of the Irish dancers by playing a GigGag on them.

Silly, I know. But St Patrick’s Day is all about being silly and merry with friends. After all, life’s more fun when you don’t take it too seriously.

Fullscreen capture 1132011 22807 PM

Ride a bike, do an Irish dance, play the GigGag. Go do something different.

Like I said, it’s the Irish spirit. And everyone can be Irish on the 17 March. That includes you, me…

And John Cena!

Lee Chong Wei

Parody 39 Comments

The biggest news last Sunday was obviously our very own Datuk Lee Chong Wei defeating his arch-nemesis Lin Dan to be come the All-England badminton champion.

One man is absolutely over the moon over Datuk Lee Chong Wei’s win, and that man is none other than our beloved Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

The PM called Chong Wei before his match, called Chong Wei after his match and stayed up all night just to watch his match.

I dunno, but that kinda enthusiasm is inching dannngerously in on man-crush territory.

Sadly, the PM stopped short on making a decision that would make me give him my vote next Elections. 🙁

He did promise that he would give Chong Wei something though.

Many have wondered what exactly the government will give Chong Wei. After all, our badminton champion already have a ‘Datuk’ title, a RM300K cash prize from his Olympic win and a RM3,000  monthly pension for the rest of his life.

He got the title, he got the money, I mean… what else could he possibly need right?

 

 

 

Until I saw this.

All of the sudden, the Prime Minister refers to Chong Wei as THE Chong Wei.

The Chong Wei. The Chong Wei.

‘The’, as in, The Rock.

 

 

Why settle for ‘Datuk’ when you can be called The Chong Wei?

I Wonder Why

Thoughts & Musings 33 Comments

Have anyone ever noticed that when an airplane lands at the airport, someone knocks on the door on the outside before someone on the inside opens it?

Sometimes I wonder how come they are smart enough to make a 50-ton aircraft fly… but not smart enough to put a doorbell on the outside?

ADV: Nikon Projector Camera

Reviews 33 Comments

Walk into any camera shop, see hundreds of digital cameras on display.

It’s hard to get excited about new cameras these days. After getting lost in all the technical mumbo jumbo (14.8 Megapixels, F/3.9-5.8 and 6400 ISO, understand?), you realise all the big and small cameras out there pretty much perform one function only, – taking photos.

That’s boring.

But once in a while, some genius comes up with a gadget that blows your mind away.

In comes the Nikon Coolpix S1100pj with one secret weapon…

A mini projector, built right into the body of the camera, allowing you to instantly show off whatever photos or videos you took on any flat surface.

Suddenly that changes many things.

For example, no longer can you take a photo of the girl you like, then stand really really really close to her under the guise of showing her the photo on your camera’s tiny LCD screen.

Don’t pretend. EVERY guys use that technique to get fresh with girls one.

The camera still comes with an LCD screen, but the cool thing is that it ain’t just your grandmother’s normal LCD screen. It’s a touch screen, which means you can flip through photos by swiping your finger through them.

You can even use the included stylus to draw right on top of the photos if you want.

This feature is extremely useful for drawing devil’s horn and moustaches on your friend’s face.

Or writing your phone number, then project it across the room to the girl you like.

For the more serious ones among us, the camera can be hooked up with your PC, so you can use it as a projector for your business presentations.

There’s a remote control included, which is good for controlling presentation slides. The remote control is also great for taking your vainpot camwhore shots without your face taking up two-thirds of the entire frame.

The Nikon Coolpix s1100pj is already on the market now selling for around RM1,000. It is a fun, little compact camera to use.

If I gotta pinpoint a couple of faults, perhaps it’s just that there’s a small but noticeable lag with the LCD touch screen. That, and the battery runs out in less than an hour if you use the projector function a lot, so don’t count on using it to watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy or something.

Otherwise, I really enjoy using it to impress friends during parties. I just dunno whether to call it a camera projector or a projector camera. Truthfully, it performs both functions equally well.

Feel free to click to enlarge and inspect the image quality. It’s a picture of the 100-year-old Tua Pek Kong temple I took with the Nikon camera. I’m surprised it’s so good for a RM1,000 camera.

For other less-intended uses for this projector camera, I made this video right here:

Just don’t be too enthusiastic with that last suggestion in the video. 😉

Fun Kuching

Distinctively Kuching 21 Comments

Some months ago, Janet flew into Kuching to film an episode of Fun Asia for TLC.

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I’m so ashamed I had never even heard of the show before this. After the episode had gone to air, I kept getting phone calls and SMSes and tweets from people who are surprised to see me on the show.

For those of you who missed it, this is me showing my hometown to the pretty Taiwanese travel host.

I think she likes me.

ADV: Do You Have A Good Heart?

Thoughts & Musings 25 Comments

According to an article I read in AsiaSpa, people are likely to do 3 things to improve their wellness: exercise, eat and visit a spa.

Unfortunately in our country, we really only do one of those three: EAT.

Even then, we tend to eat food that are high in fat and low in fibre instead of the nutritious ones that will bring benefits to our body.

On top of that, we don’t exercise. Only the richer ones among us will visit a spa – even then it’s probably the OH CHI PALA type of spa and not the clean-clean ones.

No wonder newspapers reported that heart diseases has been the number one killer in our country for the past 30 years, causing 1 out of 8 deaths in Malaysia – even more than cancer-related deaths.

Over 3 million Malaysians are at risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and heart diseases. If left untreated, these people are opening themselves up to strokes, heart attacks and organ failures.

But here’s the most startling part. Most people DON’T even know they are at risk of developing heart diseases.

Most people in my age group have this mentality: we think we are invincible. We are young, and so we can do whatever we want and nothing is gonna happen to us.

So we smoke, we drink, we don’t exercise, we don’t eat healthily and we don’t allocate time for exercising. By the time we reach 50 years old and the medical bills start rolling in, we regret we did not take care of ourselves when we were younger.

In fact, when I ask the 20-somethings in my fitness centre what they come here for, "looking good" is a often bigger reason than "staying healthy". That shouldn’t be the reason people exercise!

People in my fitness centre often work out to improve the appearance of their waist, their chest, their butt and their biceps. But I feel it’s even more important to improve the health of the heart.

This involves 3 steps.

The first is to take a Heart Health Test to determine what risk level your heart is at based on your current lifestyle and diet. If you have done a medical check-up lately, it is a straightforward test that can be done online at www.myhealthyheart.com.my

Otherwise, just do the test anyway and you’ll be given a discount voucher for a medical check-up at your nearest BP Healthcare.

That’ll provide a starting point for your roadmap to better heart.

Second, start exercising.

We often hear from doctors that just 30 minutes of moderate cardio activity 5 times a week is enough to prevent up to 75% of chronic diseases, including heart disease. It is such a little investment for a high ROI, and yet it is ironic that many people wouldn’t even want to spare that 30 minutes in the 24 hours they have in a day!

People, you gotta eliminate your excuses and start exercising now!

And lastly, stop smoking and start eating healthy.

Eating healthy doesn’t mean you gotta completely stop eating KFC. It just gotta be done in moderation. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so I make sure I have a bowl of Quaker Oats when I wake up, and some fruits and veg in my diet throughout the day.

All these hype about eliminating carbohydrates for weight loss is getting a bit overboard. The key is to take in good carbohydrates like hot oats, and not too much sugary carbohydrates like alcohol and sweets.

It’s that classic food pyramid that we learnt since primary school but chose to ignore.

If you can do all three, then maybe you too can have a healthy heart. Like me! 😀

This community message is brought to you by kennysia.com 🙂

Happy New Year

Re-discovering Myself 61 Comments

This is what happens when you procrastinate.

You made a promise to yourself that you’d update more often everyday. Unfortunately by the time you get home from work exhausted every night at 10pm, you tell yourself you’re too tired and that you’ll blog the next day. But when the next day comes, you tell yourself to do it the next day, and the next day, and the next day.

Next thing you know, a month has passed and you hadn’t even typed a single character on your keyboard. So here I am, guilty as charged.

In the process of procrastinating, I missed out on 2 traditionally very important dates on my calendar.

1st January – the day I welcome the new year and make my resolutions.

4th January – the 6th year anniversary of this blog, kennysia.com

Come to think of it, I didn’t even celebrate the new year at the stroke of midnight this 2011.

For the entire day on New Year’s Eve, I was at a local shopping mall doing the greatest fitness roadshow Kuching has ever seen. I gotta be there because it was the first time we conceptualised and set up a large-scale roadshow completely on our own without hiring any event organizers.

At the end of 10 hours I was completely knackered. I took a disco nap at 11pm, thinking I could wake up in 15 minutes to go to one of the many countdown parties happening around town.

Next thing I know, I was rudely awakened by the continuous booming of (illegal) fireworks. It’s the start of 2011 and I have officially welcomed the new year by lying horizontally in my bed.

The very fact that I was sleeping instead of going crazy drunk at some party somewhere… basically sums up my entire 2010.

2010 is when I did some serious growing up. In fact, I believe I have grown up a lot faster than I did in my early 20s.

The things that mattered to me 5 years ago – big parties, lots of alcohol, hot girls and fame – those aren’t as important to me anymore. Instead, I concentrated my efforts on the running of my business. I dedicated my 2010 to a business that aims to improve people’s lives, both those of our members and my amazing team of staff.

At the start of last year, I made a list of 5 new year’s resolutions:

1. Complete a 42km marathon in less than 6 hours. (I did mine in 6 hours 9 minutes)
2. Achieve my sales and membership targets for Level Up Fitness. (About RM5,000 away from my target)
3. Be more optimistic about relationships. (Yeah, not all girls are psychos. There are some really good girls out there after all)
4. Stabilise my business, so I can put more time back into blogging. (HAHAHAHAHA)
5. Help people around me realise their true potential and talent.

I attempted all 5 and although I fell slightly short in first 4 of those resolutions, I must say I made pretty darn good progress.

That said, of the 5 resolutions, I’m definitely proudest of number 5.

P1020611

Don’t get me wrong, I definitely still enjoy blogging (Twitter is more my weapon of choice these days). But heck, even Tony Fernandes can’t fly planes all his life. If you follow his Twitter, 8 out of 10 tweets are about his F1 venture.

Compared to running a blog, it’s a completely different sense of satisfaction I gain from running a fitness centre. When I wrote a funny blog entry, some anonymous commenter goes "haha! 1st~~" on the comment box and that’s all.

At the end of the day, you wonder what positive impact you make on people’s lives, and what contribution have you made to society?

Last time I photoshop faces on people’s bodies. Now I do it in real life.

It’s different with a fitness centre. People literally come up to you and thank you for turning their lives around.

We have members who thanking us because they have lowered their cholesterols, defeated diabetes and got back their pre-pregnancy weights. We have extremely shy and quiet members transforming into confident charismatic BodyCombat and BodyJam instructors, earning respect and admiration of the hundreds who attend their classes each week.

These instructors become Change Makers – who in turn motivate even more people around them to turn their lives around for better.

Isn’t that such a wonderful thing? To see positive changes in people, taking place right in front of your eyes? Moments like these are truly priceless.

Of course, although neither of those achievements are close to even 1% the result of my sole effort, I still feel the sense of pride and satisfaction that I have somehow played in part in making it happen.

That, to me, is infinitely more satisfying than receiving a "haha! I’m 1st~~~" comment on a blog.

We are all young once. We go out, we travel, we party, we "live the life" so to speak.

Then we become selfish, we chase money and we let it control our lives. Eventually there comes a point in life where you think to yourself, just for one second – that if you were to die tomorrow, what will people remember you for?

In 2003, I was known as Kenny Sia – the youngest son of Simon Sia.

In 2005, I was known as Kenny Sia, The Blogger.

In 2011, I’d like to be known as Kenny Sia, The Change Maker.

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