Harry Potter and the Deathly Price Wars: Part Two

Tumultous times here in Hogwarts, I mean Malaysia as the Harry Potter boycott saga continues with:

• One Cabinet Minister saying that the price war is good for consumers. Click here.
  
• The Malaysia Bookseller Association telling hypermarkets to "Stick to your discounts on milk powder, rice and other food products" and not bestselling books like Harry Potter. Click here.
  
• Carrefour will continue selling the books at the current price, unless the Trade Ministry stops them and Borders has ran out of stock. Click here.
  
• Readers complaining that the action of the Big 4 deprived them of the books especially those not living in the vincinity of the hypermarkets. Click here.
  

Sure, the bookstore business isn't as nice as it looks, behind the soft cushions, well stock aisles, quite nice lighting and coffee chains right inside the store, you are stuck with allegedly low profit margins and a nation of people with not much emphasis on reading books. But the question is now what are the Big 4 going to do with their unsold inventory of HP7 books?

The director of one of the Big 4 even mentioned returning the books (click here) to the distributor. Might as well burn them while you are at it. I would actually recommend discounts or bundles, I don't think the marketing/sales/PR departments are as daft as their upper managements' decision making process, surely they can come up something to sell the books.

Won't work you say, how 'bout this, Borders gave a discount since launch day (20% off with purchase of any other item...just buy a damn pen along with the book if you lack imagination) and managed to sell off their books by yesterday!

Besides, I'm sure that there are readers out there who would throw economics to the wind and prefer to buy the books from bookstores and there are those who don't live near hypermarkets as opposed to bookstores to begin with.

I don't think what the hypermarkets did is wrong, it's a free market afterall. But not selling books, I think the Big 4 has a bigger social obligation to fulfil rather than just profit margins. After all, they are bookstores!

You Have Very Nice Veins

Part 1:

"Fill this up"
"But I did this earlier."
"Where?"
"When I was registered just now...I don't think I can now"
"When was that?"
"An hour ago"
"An hour? Can-lah...go fill it up"

Part 2:

"You have very nice veins"
"I know and you know what, I hate needles"
"I was about to ask you that. I hate them too, but I've to go through this every 3 months"
"Why?"
"It's an appraisal thing"
"This gonna hurt? I don't go hospitals much..so I don't know"
"Ant bite"
.
.
"Clench and unclench"
.
.
"That wasn't so bad after all"

Part 3:

"She said I have nice veins"
"Of course la, badminton player.. even I also miss nice veins, we bloodsuckers"

Part 4:

"What's this tablet for?"
"It's for the pain"
"But I'm not in pain.."

Part 5:

"You know what, I'm probably the only non-sick person warded here"
"Do you want me to come over with a fruit basket?"
"What for? I'm not sick"
"So you can watch me eat"
"I'm not sick! Don't come!"

Part 6:

*reaches for a strange instrument...
*brain: biopsy?!
Checks ear

*reaches for even stranger looking instrument
*brain: biopsy?!
Checks nose, both nostrils

*reaches for a metal tongue press and an instrument with a mirror
*brain: biopsy?!?...don't be nuts
Checks mouth/throat.

Part 7:

"Nak makan apa untuk sarapan?"
"Ada apa untuk makan?"
"Nasi lemak, bihun goreng"..."chicken chop, sphagetti"
"Eh?...ada ke?"
"Takde la"..."Takde? Kantin bungkusla.."
"...nasi lemak...milo panas satu"

Part 8:

"Bang, ni GameBoy ke?"
"Oh..yang ni...canggih sikit"

A small boy was left his own devices as his dad was sleeping in the ward and his mum had left for work. Knowing how boring a hospital stay can get (even for a visitor), I let him play with the DS, while I went about my own business.

Suffice to say the DS was the babysitter (and quite an effective one at that) the entire morning; the most I did was change cartridges, and showed him how to get around a level or two of Castlevania. And he referred to NSMB as "game lompat-lompat". Hehe.

Siemens Run

I just got back from the Siemens Run 2007, and in a word, it was a BLAST! And I even got videos of Reshmonu performing at the Dataran stage after the race.

More about the race. It started a little late around 7.40 a.m. YAB Rais Yatim flagged us off at the Dataran. The course was pretty tough, as it led runners right into the Bukit Tunku area. I don't really like going up extended inclines, but that was the nature of the course. The downhill portions were pretty smooth, it was going up that made life abit difficult.

In any case, I like the way the organisers ran this race. There were small billboards indicating distance to the finish line throughout the entire race. And the water stations, there were so many of them along the way that I lost count. There was even one in the first kilometre!

I finished the race in an hour and fifteen minutes, not really a good time as I finished the KL International Marathon 10km race in an hour, but that was a walk in the park compared to this.

But despite all the very nice organization, and all the fun activities at the finish line, the abundance of sponsored drinks available at the Dataran (Powerbar, 100 Plus, Milo, Vitamilk, plain old mineral water), a massage tent, a recovery centre with inflatible pools to put your hot feet in, and having Reshmonu perform on stage, the disappointing part was the attendance.

I'm not expecting something to rival that of the KL International Marathon, but come on, give these guys (the organizers) a break. Are you people still tired after the Penang Bridge Run?

It was rather appaling to see not many answer the call to a good cause. I understand that the proceeds from the race go to charity. Case in point, I was talking to a lady manning one of the tents and found out that Siemens donated to the National Cancer Society.

So, this time next year, get off the couch, switch off that LCD TV of yours, and go running in the Siemens Run.

And before I forget, here are the videos. A little small though, since I was recording with my phone and I couldn't get closer without blocking the view for a number of people.

Fan-boys: Keeping the Faith

Hop into any message board or forums with regards to console gaming and it would be not uncommon to find people expounding the virtues of the consoles manufactured by the companies that they practically worship (e.g. the big three: Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo) and the irony being that some of these consoles are not even out in the market yet.

So what makes these "fan-boys" tick and behave the way they do, which can be way beyond civilized conversation (example: "Sony suxor, Nintendo rawks, Microsoft can s*** my b****")?

Is it because of the pleasure obtained when gloating about the features of a particular console or the honor of becoming the spokesperson for a. a well know game developer, b. a console manufacturer or c. the boss of a huge video games publisher?

I offer you a better explanation. Blind faith. These fanatics have absolute faith that their console manufacturer "gods" can come up with something that will totally blow their minds. This is a fact that makes civilized conversation totally useless when it comes to them as nothing else matters (or has any relevance) except their faith in their "god".

As for me, I am just a bystander having a good laugh. It is amazing how much rubbish can be produced when a forum thread titled "Console X beats Console Y in feature Z?" Instead of the normal intellectual discourse that should take place, the forum becomes a battlefield. Get a laugh or two out of this.