1F

Every morning, ready for school, the kids would tune in to the Playhouse Disney Channel while waiting for us to get ready (usually ibu, abah siap cepat). And every morning, they (the network, not the kids) would have the segment for the birthdays. And yesterday, they (the kids, not the network) sang me the Birthday song along with the TV.

If today is your birthday, there's so much things for you to do,

If today is your birthday, here's a birthday cake for you,

Happy birthday..happy birthday to you!!

Or something along that line...well, my birthday started pretty normally, until my Office Manager leaked it out to everybody. By lunchtime, everybody knew about it, got a cake for me, sang, took pictures..the usual stuff.

In the afternoon, Najwa called me from home (she got the maid to dial my number) asking when will my birthday start. A bit confused, I replied it has started already, she wished me in the morning no? When she repeated the question a few times more, it dawned on me that she wanted the birthday 'Event'. With cake and candle blowing and singing and the works. Always one who would not celebrate anything if the need doesn't call for one, I haven't got anything planned for home. So I promised her I'll buy her a cake.

Later in the evening, she called again to remind me about the cake.

Rotidua, on the other hand, took me out for a Japanese dinner and paid for it(just a perfunctory gesture anyway, I know where the money came from) It was really really nice. Truly. Wanna make me happy? bring me to a japanese restaurant. Or buy me a huge tub of wasabi.

2F

While watching the football match (or soccer to the person from Washington, did the Seahawks made the playoffs?) I wondered about the reason why a company that was supposedly losing billions for the past 5 years would still go ahead making glossy TV commercials and become a major sponsor for the half time show?

I mean, usually, IF a conglomerate is losing money, and are undertaking a major cost sating exercise, the biggest cut would be felt in the A&P and Marketing Department. Budget for promos and what not would usually would be cut by half.

Unless they are really really good at their job and managed to get the advertising agency to work next to nothing, the TV Commercials (not to mention the Media Plans) would cost a few mil. At least.

3F

Here's another morsel for you to ponder on. It's a bit tricky presenting this to you lest I could be branded a 'rebel' or the content could be labeled as seditious.

If your enforcement are caught with their pants down (figuratively of course) doing something that they should not do. And worse, doing it to a foreigner (does not matter if the foreigner works using the lowest form of denominator), wouldn't it be easier to present a fall guy (or in this case, girl/woman) in order to save your country the billions of revenue generated by the said foreigners' countrymen that came to your country every year?

Better to damage certain bodies reputation (not that it was great to start with anyway) rather than cripple another industry. One that has been the major money spinner for the country no?

4F

Closer to home, much much closer, a furore was put out by some viewers of local TV about some TV Shows that encourages people to participate in a certain quiz show via SMS. Then some powers that be proclaimed that it was against a certain religion and that those kind of shows should be banned from even airing. It even got tabled in the Parliament or Dewan rakyat I think.

Now, this is the crux of the matter. The basis of the view from, aha, viewers, are because the participants need to pay money (something like RM2 or RM3 per SMS) in order to win the prize (usually cash around RM250 to RM10,000). It does not involves skill at all and it is all based on luck that you were picked to be the winner. So that constitutes as gambling.

So, what we have here is that if you pay some money to enter a competition, then the winner won because of luck, it constitute as gambling?

What if I tell you that the above scenario is not for the TV show, but for a fishing competition? The basic competition rules are exactly the same:

You have to pay to enter the competition, if you want to enter more fishing rods, you have to pay extra (RM40 per extra rod). More rods means the higher chances of you getting that huge fish no? And it is by luck you would get the big fish no? It is by luck you chose a spot where just by luck the big fish is swimming by and by luck, the big fish bite your bait no?

Why not extrapolate further? You want to set up a restaurant. People tells you that the most important thing in this line of business is location. So you look for a good location. Could it be called luck if you get a high traffic spot with the kind of budget (lease or rent or bought)  that you have? So you have to put money first no? You would not know for sure if people would like the restaurant or not no? It is again by luck. So if you are lucky, you would only be in the red in the first year.

But what if those above does not matter at all?