Selling stuff from my studio

Please email me at grooveworks@gmail.com if you're interested..Thanks


1) Avalon 737sm mercenery (blackface edition) - SOLD
This is the mic pre I use in all my productions since 2002.. This is the rare blackface version of 737..It's a single channel tube mic pre with compressor and EQ. The 737 is a favourite of babyface and he has at least half a dozen of those. Used in a smoke-free studio and in excellent condition.

More info to be found at http://www.avalondesign.com/vt737sp.html

Bought for USD1900, selling for Rm4,000 ono

2) AVALON 747 SP
A class A tube dual channel compressor/EQ which is great for tracking as well as mastering.. Hardly used, in fact i used it once. In excellent condition. Might even change my mind to sell. Selling for RM4,000 firm.
More info of the Avalon at http://www.avalondesign.com/vt747sp.html

Front view of 747 SP

Rear view of 747 SP

3)KORG'S MICROKORG
The mini synthesizer/vocoder, selling for RM900
Info at http://www.korg.com/Product.aspx?pd=128

4) ROLAND XV5050 & ROLAND JV880
Both havent been used in years already since I switched to software.

Roland XV5050 - Rm 1200 ono (http://www.roland.com/products/en/XV-5050)
Roland JV880 - rm 500 firm

Just realize I havent blog this year ..yikess..

Just to get things warmed up, I've decided to post this picture i took while driving back home.. I dont think the driver realize how seriously wrong this ad is...lol..

How one little pipe makes all the difference.. Poor Nestle..

Happy New Year

Just a quick note to wish everybody a very happy new year, and I hope it will be the happiest new year ever!

My Thoughts on Yoga & the Fatwa

I have to confess I havent really done much yoga, except for a little brush with it in nintendo's Wiifit software. The fatwa on yoga has obviously caused an outrage in the yoga community and it has become so big that the controversy has even earned an entry in wikipedia!
Yoga indeed have its origin in hinduism, in fact it has even been mentioned that it predates hinduism but I cant really clarify on that. Anyway, outside of india, most of us practise what they call 'hatha yoga'. What I was being made to understand is that hatha yoga that is mostly practised by the west and just about everyone else is just another form of exercise.
Although I dont practise yoga, I do practise Reiki, another form of alternative healing. I practise reiki for health reasons and also to help my family and friends. Some people do yoga to heal, some to improve their fitness level. Everthing people do comes with niat or nawaitu. So is it haram to do yoga with the nawaitu of improving one's health?

If a muslim steps into a church to attend a christian friend's funeral, is that haram? what is his niat? We often judge other people based on the things we do or what we observe, but do we care to know what their intentions really are?

I think yoga classes in malaysia are so commercialised that it becomes impractical to incorporate hinduism elements in yoga practise. Yoga teachers want to attract people from all races and religions, and they know that their clients come to themonly for health reasons. Those who think yoga doesnt make you sweat has never heard of power yoga. What was 30 years ago is totally different now.. yoga has gone mainstream and it is a multimillion dollar industry.

There are so many elements of hinduism integrated in our society. Bahasa melayu apparently has a significant percentage derived from sanksrit. We have upacara merenjis during bersanding as well as the culture of wearing inai that was directly absorbed from hinduism tradition (wearing inai in hindu means becoming one with the hindu God). We have Mak Yong that predates islam in this country and only PAS bans mak yong..What IS majlis fatwa's view on the shamanism in makyong?

Our PM has in fact stated that yoga is now allowed without the chantings etc, but the majlis fatwa says yoga is totally prohibited for muslims. Malaysians are even more confused now.

What I understand is that fatwas are actually just formed opinions of a religious body.. This opinions don't have any legal implications. It is not against the law to ignore these fatwas.. In fact in 1995, the majlis fatwa had even issued fatwa against smoking in a few states (I think it was in kedah, Perlis & Selangor).. Nobody cared to follow. Heck, even osama issued a fatwa against the americans and most muslims didnt take heed.

And a quote from Tun mahathir..

'Personally, I don’t care very much if you stand on your head or stand on your feet. It is not as if by performing yoga you immediately become a non-Muslim '

So what's next? fatwas on tomboys? wait..hang on...

Straight To The Top

What I've learned about customer service is that if you're not happy with whatever service or products you get, complaint straight to the top. Upper management usually doesnt know what's happening down the line. I have a few stories.

Streamyx
I was probably the first person in sg ramal dalam to get streamyx. When I moved in to the area in 2002, streamyx was not covered despite all the heavy advertising by TMNET.. I was a little pissed because I use internet heavily including emailing mp3s to clients etc so I was not going to spend over Rm400 a month on dialup services which by the way, gets disconnected every few mins. I filled in my application form and submitted to tmnet but my application got rejected immediately because the exchange was over 5km from my house. One officer even told me to move out to a nearer place to the exchange !!

So after waiting for 2 years and feeling dejected and insulted, I called my cousin rizal and got the chairman of telekom's contact.I wrote a series of registered letters in BM directly to the chairman and cc to the CEO of TMNET! A few days later I got a call from the chairman's office, the PA called me up and say she will investigate the matter. I finally got the greenlight from TMNET .. and there's more drama... TMNET approved my line but Telekom didnt approve my application (go figure), so I wrote more letters to the GM and after a while, telekom succumbed to my requests and reluctantly approved my account.

RHB Credit Card
I used to work in RHB bank and during that time, the Retail Banking division was trying to promote RHB's own credit card. So he advised us to use our own credit cards, otherwise how on earth do we expect to promote our cards if we dont even use them ourselves. So we execs got free credit cards and I used mine to death..I tied up my card to my entire bills, from maxis to astro, from telekom to TNB.. everything was charged automatically to my RHB card.
Then came the time i resigned. I was told that in order to continue using the card I had to cancel the card and reapply for a new card. I went berserk and got really annoyed because if I cancel the card, i had to write to each of those companies that were tied to my credit card and inform each of them I have to cancel the charges. I wrote an email to the head of RBD telling him why did the bank treat us this way after we supported the RHB card. So anyway after I left, RHB gave me a platinum card with 1 year free membership. I used the card for about 8 mths and supported it and spend over 17 grand on the card until the time when suddenly I found my card cloned, and RHB had to reissue a new card. That got me worried and I decided to cancel the card.

I had quite significant points on my credit card, and after cancelling my card, I called to redeem my points to get some haagen daz vouchers.Then I got a rude reply that I cant redeem my points because i cancelled the card first ?!?!?&#^@ . And yes I got pretty upset and told them that even citibank still redeemed my points although I cancelled the card first.. It was a slap on my face and and the indirect message I got from them was clearly 'get lost'.

A few months later, I got kinda like a reminder letter from RHB asking me to re-activate my card with some incentives and some fee waiver or something. I got furious and decided to write a complain letter, this time to the group chairman of RHB , CC to head of credit card department! and walah.. a week later I got a call from the credit card dept and this time they were trying to contact me to redeem the points..hah !!.. I didnt really follow up because I only complained as a matter of principle... And no, I didnt take their calls.. I just wanted to teach them a lesson. never mind the fact that rhb's customer service is almost non-existence (it takes 15 mins to get through their customer care line and another 15 mins for being put on hold)

Recently, I went to RHB centre to apply for a classic VISA card just for fun. I already have a mastercard from citibank but internet transactions were blocked, so I wanted to get another card. Believe it or not, my application for a CLASSIC card in RHB was rejected. never mind the fact that so many financial institutions are desperately trying to sell credit cards to people. After a few deliberations and a contact from RHB, I found out they have rejected my application because I have a RM50 o/d which I haven't settled. That's pretty strange considering I've never applied for any o/d from any banks in my entire life!.. The only conclusion I could make is that they have blacklisted my name because of the trouble they got into while dealing with me previously.

So anyway, guys and girls, don't apply for a RHB credit card !

And remember, if you're not happy about something, complaint to the boss or the biggest bosses!

HELLO ...IS THIS PIZZA NON-DELIVERY?

This posting is also an old one I posted a few years back..

I live at a pretty remote (ok lah not thaaatttt remote) area of kajang called Kampung Sg Ramal Dalam. It's a nice kampung found at the border of kajang and bangi, surrounded by lots of trees, greens, uneven roads and occasional monkeys(especially sundays). It's also a secluded place where no newspapers are delivered and nobody can find my house using my address alone.

It was a fine afternoon and I was slightly starving to death. I decided to call and order pizza from Pizza Hut. It was around 12.02pm. I tried calling the hunting line a couple of times and 5 mins later I got through. I ordered one big chicken masala pizza and that's it.. My name was in the system but nevertheless I repeated my house address again. The lady on the phone promised me that the pizza will be delivered within half an hour.

Then 45 mins later at 12.50pm, some dude frm Bangi branch called me up asking me for the address again. I thought to myself and kept thinking what the hell is going on At 12.50, half of that pizza should have been in my stomach already. Once again, feeling pissed and deprived of anything edible, I repeated my address.

I was going to give up waiting since it has been almost 1.5 hours.. at 1.15pm I decided to call that Bangi branch to cancel the order. I called up and spoke to the man in charge.. There was no apology from him and I cancelled the order anyway . Before he could explain himself, I hang up. Then 4 mins later, the pizza boy came.. Here he was standing at the gate 1.5 hours later.. I told him I waited since 12pm and I got tired of waiting, so I cancelled the order.. The boy didnt apologize, he just gave me a smirk and left the house. One and half hours waiting for just one large pizza with no side orders?

I turned off the phone, left the house and drove to the nearest stall to eat.. later I saw a lot of missed calls frm Bangi branch but I didnt return their calls. I decided to write about the experience to Pizza Hut.. So I searched the net and found the address of the regional manager.. A couple of weeks later the regional manager called me up apologizing about the incident and promising to compensate me.. Nothing happened after that.. A few days later some GM of some dept called me up and he said he wanted to meet up with me (what the hell?).. Anyway I havent heard from any of them ever since and I havent got my free pizza. Way to go Pizza Hut!

Dominos Pizza. Often comes with the slogan 'Delivery Specialist' .. I once had a case with them . It was due to their refusal to deliver to my area because it is 'too far'. They once told me they only deliver up to some Shell station which is 1 min drive from my house (they even asked me to collect pizza from there should I order.) That's a lot of excuse for a branch that's only located in Kajang, somewhere in the vicinity of Metro Kajang. It is interesting to note that it only takes 15 mins tops to deliver their pizza to my area by bike. Even more interesting is the fact that they DO deliver to Country Heights which is even further away from the branch. So much for being a delivery specialist.

It seems that the only restaurant that delivers is San Francisco Pizza in Bangi.. but the food sucks(now they dont deliver anymore). And McD no longer delivers to my area (both Kajang and Bangi branches have turned down my orders)

Guess you can't have everything.

I've stopped eating pizzas


p/s: those who wanna try ordering pizza, try it online and tell me how long they took to deliver..make sure you get your free pizza if they dont it make it on time !

Not So Fine Dining

I posted this blog some time ago in myspace but I thought I'd repost it here just for the hell of it.. Here's something I wrote about dining in 2006:-

I love to eat but I've always had this jinx at restaurants.. I tell my friends I have this thing for getting bad services at restaurants, mamak stalls, etc.. u name it .. I've gone thru 'em all..

One of the best classic examples include having dinner with my friend marina at TGIF, one utama a few years back.. I ordered a well done steak while my friend ordered some other dish. When the dishes arrive, as I was cutting through the meat, it turned out to be quite red and raw.. I called the waiter and ask them if they could re-cook the steak again. They apologized and took back my dishes.. 45 mins later I was still waiting for my steak while my friend almost finished hers. I enquired and they said 'sorry we acccidentally gave your steak to someone else' . The waiter apologized and assured me I could get my next steak within 5 mins.. I said 'NO!!' and then they told me dessert's on the house.. I didnt want to eat anymore and asked for the bill.. The bill never came.. I tried calling the waitress and finally after countless times trying to get their attention, she came. She put the bill on the table and tried to walk off.. I told them please dont go away.. it only takes less than 15 seconds to take my credit card out and pay them.. She wasnt happy and gave me that look. A few minutes later, the manager came again and apologize, he gave me some free dinner complimentary card. Oh well I keep thinking 'watever la' and told marina she can take the card.

Fast forward a year later, believe it or not I came back to the same TGIF at OU with my buddy JFK. It was the fasting month and we came in early at 6.30pm. We ordered the appetizers, mains and desserts and told the waiters specifically to deliver the food at 7.13pm. At 6.45 pm, the food came.. all the works! We told them please take back ALL the food.. we're still fasting and futhermore the stuff will get cold.. We asked them to preheat the food and send it back just before breaking fast time..At 7.10pm the food never came back.. At 7.13 pm we were still waiting and asking about our meals. At 7.15 pm the food came..and it was all cold and not preheated!

Another bad service I had was at a thai restaurant at mines shopping fair.. It was another buka posa. We came at 6.45pm and waited for the food for a long time .. While waiting, we notice that some non-muslim families who came later then us got the food first.. and here we were at the table with no single food or drink for the last 40 mins (not even kuihs on the table). The food finally came at 7.35 pm after we threaten to leave.. and guess what.. the food was cold. At the end, we got a little bit of discount.

And there was this Victoria Station Jln Ampang. We had steak but they served a complimentary dessert as appetizer.. While eating the appetizer, the steak arrived too.. I asked them why they deliver the main course at the same time but the waitress started getting defensive, raised her voice and told us it's free and no other customers have complaint about this. Next thing I did was wrote about her service in the complain card.. So did my friend, suzie who left her number too. A few weeks later, they called her up apologizing about that incident (I wonder why they didnt call me lol!) telling her that I shouldnt tell everyone else about what happened!

Other notable mentions include.. having to wait for 1.5 hours to be served (at an open air restaurant in Bangi), getting the wrong orders(frequently happened at mamak stalls), and getting ignored by waitress/waiters after trying to make an order for the last 15 mins (Dome KLCC). Oh check this out.. Have you guys ever had your food 'stolen' and 'dumped' into the trash bin before you finished eating? It happened at a food court at Singapore, when i put down my half eaten apple pie to eat something else, when an old chinese man who was apparently in charge of clearing up tables, took my apple pie and threw it away. The same thing happened at an AJL(TV3's Juara Lagu) post party buffet at PWTC where they discarded my plate before I could reach out for the fork again !

Why cant they :-

1) Ask the customer if he or she is done with the meal before sending them the next course?

2) Use a bit of common sense ?

3) Be genuinely polite and apologetic if they made a mistake?

4) Wait for the customer to take out their money or credit card when giving them the tab instead of leaving the bill on the table and going away?

5) Realize that the customer is always right?

6) Try to make an effort to come to the table as soon as possible to take an order?

Having said all that, one of the best restaurants I've ever been is a nice mexican called Las Carretas located in Taipan. This restaurant scores full points in all departments (it's a bit pricey though). The service is excellent and the staffs are genuinely caring.. The ribs are the best I've ever tasted ANYWHERE, and the steaks are better than Victoria's, Outbacks and even Jake's. The desserts are amazing.. the deep fried ice cream and brownies are orgasmic ! .. Anyway here's the back ribs at Las Carretas..


Oh and Happy Deepavali and have a good holiday !