Well I dont have any problems with renewing my license on my birthday. At least if somebody doesn’t know what to get me on my birthday, they can always renew my license for me as a birthday gift.

So the breakdown of the cost :

• Adjustment : RM15
• 1 year driving license renewal : RM30
• Post Office commission : RM2
• Total : RM47

BAMcafe

Free Things to Do

You could easily not spend a dime on entertaining yourself in NYC. Look up! There is stunning architecture towering overhead and Central Park is a fantastic spot for people-watching and picnicking. With a bit of planning, you can visit New York City art galleries for free. Thursday is a popular opening day so in the evening, do some free gallery hopping in the Chelsea district. MoMa is free on Fridays between 4pm-8pm and between 5-8pm the International Centre of Photography operates a pay-what-you-can evening. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a $20 suggested donation.

If you are looking for a cheap night out on the town check out what’s on at the cool BAMcafé, They often host free live music events and even the drinks are economical. Also in Brooklyn, there are toe-tapping swing bands livening up Sunny’s Brooklyn bar on Wednesdays while Otto’s Shrunken Head tiki bar has a backroom for rockers and rockabillies.

MoMA

Eating and Drinking

It’s not a cheap city, but remember, these are American-sized portions. It is the norm to ask for a doggy bag so save your leftovers for another meal back at your hostel or have a picnic in the park. There are some darn greasy food vendors on every street corner selling hot dogs for as little as €1.50. But for others, it’s a passion and an art that’s perfect for a quick and cheap bite to eat. Try Wafels and Dinges for verdekke (waffle and ice cream sandwiches) with bananas and nutella. Or go for something savoury with bbq pulled pork. They have four trucks including permanent locations at the gate of Central Park Zoo, at the Great Lawn and also in front of the Time Warner building. For a decent burger, find out where @fritesnmeats is heading next on Twitter

Accommodation

Urban Oasis

Don’t think staying in cheap New York hotels means you have to sacrifice style! Fancy a New York loft-style apartment? Check out the Urban Oasis which has a trendy guest kitchen and gorgeous private rooms – some with views of the Empire State Building! The Sohotel is a great boutique option on the Lower East Side, close to some great NYC nightlife and The Gershwin Hotel offers shared rooms for budget travellers as well as a cosy coffeeshop on the ground floor. If this is not your first visit to Manhattan, or you fancy seeing New York’s local and alternative scene, try Brooklyn. Even though you are just 25 minutes by train from Manhattan, accommodation is generally less expensive and the area hosts some of the city’s best nightlife events.

Public buses and the subway are both cheap at about $2 a ride and run through the night. But the subway is a much more convenient way to get around. A fun alternative if you want to get out on the water is the infamous Staten Island Ferry which also operates around the clock as is absolutely free. If you are really travelling on a shoestring, you probably won’t need taxis! But they are in fact relatively cheap in comparison to other cities.

by Hostelbookers.com

This article is a contributed article from Hostelbookers.com. Hostelbookers.com is a website that offers booking access to a wide range of hostels, youth hostels and cheap hotels throughout the world at the best rate.

Synopsis

The movie is about two brothers who are children of a hooker, Am (Shaheizy Sam) and Ad (Shafie Naswip), who , in the desperation of life in big metropolis KL,  work in a human trafficking syndicate which takes in girls with unwanted pregnancies, take care of them and sells their children on the black market. Am has lost hope and has resigned to fate and resist any change because he thinks this is the only way to survive in this world. Ad on the other hand is desperate for change. he tries to enter a dancing competition to win the prize of RM50,000 in order to escape their pathetic fate, but later fails.

Then one day his best friend Razak’s (who died of drug overdose) sister, Hawa, who was also in an unwanted pregnancy situation was picked up by the syndicate and they had to handle her. What happens next, well you have to watch it yourselves.

Highlights

The best thing about this movie is it’s not cliche. I mean most of the Malay movies I have watched before are usually predictable and you can guess what will happen next. Not in this movie. It’s anything but predictable. The plot is well thought out and leaves very little space for critiques to question the plot. Everything questionable in the plot has an explanation.  The most well thought out part of the plot is why the girl, Hawa, was pregnant and why her dad, who was searching for her, instead of calling the cops, followed the syndicate and attempted to take things into his own hands. That is revealed at the end of the movie in a cleaver way, if you can figure it out that is.

Shaheizy and Shafie’s acting was the best acting I have ever seen in a Malay movie. They really played their parts very well to the point that you would really believe they are those syndicate type of people. You can also feel their bond as brothers looking out for each other although they have different directions in life. Hawa’s (Sara Ali) acting was just ok, as she was a new comer in the industry, so its understandable. The additional actors were not that good though, but not bad enough to affect the whole mood of the movie.

Cinematography was very professional and clean, not to mention the soundtrack was also awesome too. Most of the songs came from Monoloque, the same guys that came up with the Kanda Dinda song which was quite a hit not too long ago and the way the songs fit into the scenes were also pretty slick.

Downside of the movie

However Songlap is not a perfect movie. The ending is somewhat hanging. Not everyone live happily ever after, in fact we don’t know what will happen to Am because that part of the ending was the part that left a big question mark. They only needed maybe 10 more minutes to close that loose end, but they didn’t. On the part of Ad, no one knows why he didn’t tell the hooker that he was her son. But I guess the outcome of the movie would become different if he did. they would have to ad an extra 15 min to the movie to go down that road.

The Bottomline

There are 2 types of people that watch movies. 1 : the type of people that watch movies as a form of stress relief, they want to be entertained. 2: The type of people that watch a movie to really absorb the story, these people want to hear what message the movie is trying to convey and learn something new. For the former, the movie would be a bit boring because it develops a bit slow, it’s a pretty heavy storyline too and there is not much action in the movie, although there is a car chase at the end of the movie. For the latter, this movie is interesting because highlights the issue of human trafficking, how it works and why people are involved in it in the first place.

To put it simply, I think this movie is as the same level as the late Yasmin Ahmad’s movie, only it has a better commercial value and its a thousand times better than Nasi Lemak 2.0, which is more leaning towards the entertainment side. I would rate this movie 9/10, according to Malaysian movie standards. I would recommend anyone to just pay for the Astro fee and watch it.

Synopsis

Again, I don’t want to give too much spoilers so I’ll just give you a synopsis of the storyline. Chronicle tells a story about 3 high school friends who stumble upon a strange extra-terrestrial anomaly within an underground cave in the woods. After barely escaping a cave in, they find themselves with the special psychokinesis ability , which is the ability to manipulate objects with the mind. One of the 3 friends, Andrew is the most talented  among them but the most unstable, coming from a broken family where his short tempered father  finds excuses to abuse him at home. He is, by the way, the character that owns a camera and shoots every aspect of his daily life as a way to escape his daily problems with fitting in the crowd.

The story tells of the ups and downs of the three friends from the time they start exploring with their powers until their downfall where everything starts to get messed up due to ones arrogance after getting so much power.

What makes this movie interesting

I believe the best thing about this movie is how the whole plot develops. For some the story might seem to progress slow, but I think they got the formula very right by unfolding the story at just the right pace that you will not be overwhelmed by hardcore action but at the same time not to leave you waiting anxiously for something exciting to happen.

The movie also, at times, make you feel that you wish you were among the friends in the movie, especially when they learnt that they can fly. What an awesome moment that was.

Another interesting part of the movie is, unlike other similar genre of movies, the camera will remain shaky all throughout the movie. But the plot is cleverly played out that early in the movie Andrew (who is in charge of the camera) learns and masters the art of controlling the camera using psychokinesis, which means the camera is floating around and the shots are more stable, just like a normal movie, without loosing the first person feel to it. Those with motion sickness will really appreciate this very much as it makes a whole lot difference.

The directors decision not to exclusively use Andrews camera’s view as the sole source of vision is really a good idea, although it sacrifices realism (I mean how do you get footage from many different cameras in real life). So you get many points of views from Andrews Camera all the way to CCTV and iPad shots.

The finale is by far the best part as it might seem like a scene from Dragon Ball Z, shot by amateur photographers.

Bad things about this movie

Well, nothing much I can say that makes this movie bad. Maybe if you are the Transformers action movie fan type of person you might not enjoy the movie to its fullest potential. A big part of the action is at the end of the movie. But if you are the type that enjoys a good storyline, then this is a movie for you.

However, I can’t help but wonder that more could be done to the storyline to make it a bit more fulfilling. Somewhere after the final scene, you might feel that it’s not enough, something is missing, but you cant point your finger to it.

But on second thoughts, I think if they did more on the movie, it might end up like Smallville where all sorts of strange creatures start to appear in the series towards the end of the series.

The bottomline

Chronicles is not your average first person sci-fi movie. It may use the familiar plot (good man gets super power, good man then becomes corrupt, havoc) but the way they unfold the plot makes the movie enjoyable.

I give it 7.5 stars out of 10. Worth you money to watch it in cinemas, just try to get the more cheaper tickets.

So much for helping the people. This makes it only look like a half-hearted attempt to help the people in need. Oh well, we’ll just have see what other schemes the government are scheming in the future

The idea is using the returns from the SARA 1Malaysia to pay for your monthly PTPTN repayment. Unless you went to a private university, your PTPTN repayment should be around RM200 to RM300 and if you did a diploma or just a skill certificate, it’s even less. Whats even better is if your monthly PTPTN repayment is RM134 and bellow, you virtually dont have to pay PTPTN from your own pocket at all! At the very least you get to subsidize your PTPTN loan with the returns so that you don’t have to pay the full amount.

But the challenge is how do you get RM5000 for the initial investment, which you can later get back after you have finished payment of the PTPTN loan. Borrow it from your parents or something and pay them back in installments….whats important you can get the RM5000 back when you are done with the loan. Just make sure that the RM5000 you borrow is interest free.

However, I must emphasis that this is just a suggestion among many different ways you can lessen the burden of your PTPTN repayment. If you feel its good, you can apply for SARA 1Malaysia and implement it or you can repay the loan the old school way, with sweat and tears.

Ciao!

From Big Mac to Double Fillet-o-fish to MegaMac…, whatever Golden Arches have offered in Malaysia, chances are Ike and I would’ve eaten them. So this post comes as a heartbreak to me personally. I am writing to share with fellow McDonald’s enthusiasts (other than the fact that I’m a tad annoyed by this whole experience. So here goes…

Dear Golden Arches, I refer to your recent prosperity burger offerings for the looming Chinese New Year festivities.

The Malaysians-McD Memories

The thing about Malaysians and food is, no matter who you talk to, everybody have had a meaningful memory with McDonald’s ranging from sharing a sundae on the first date, to the late night studying or just simply leeching on the free WiFi (yes, I know you do that at Seksyen 14 PJ!) And what happened last Saturday at the busiest/highest volume McDonald’s outlet in Peninsula Malaysia, was disheartening…

Ever been in that situation when you have about RM20 in your wallet and upon seeing the price of the food, you’d think it’ll be more than enough to feed two person?

That’s basically what happened. At a glance, A Prosperity Burger meal is a winner. I mean, look at the price above (this was on display last Saturday night at the LCCT outlet).

RM 8.88 ala carte or just for the burger alone. You’ll save 68sen if if you go for a medium meal and if you add another 62sen, you’ll get the Large meal.

I mean how cool was that?

Right?

We thought so too, until…..

The Charges for Mssrs Golden Arches

The charges for a Medium Value Meal Prosperity Burger (Chicken) + Twister Fries aka MVMPBCTW comes to RM12.98! A whopping 46% higher than what’s advertised, in effing McD!

And if you had Coke instead of Milo, it’ll be another RM2.60 for a grand total of RM15.58 for a Medium meal…. Costs 90% more than what’s advertised yo!

What Do You Think McD Should Do?

With CNY coming in less than a week, it’s still not too late to rectify this situation. Dear Golden Arches, please do something about the price tag for this value meal at LCCT or any other outlets that are displaying this misleading article.

So ma fellow Malaysians/McD enthusiasts, what do you think McDonald’s should do with this situation? Leave a comment or else….,

Don’t say I didn’t warn you :p

Disappointment?

It really does sound good, but there is one thing that makes it not really a worthwhile investment. In fact it may look like some more candy from the government right before elections.

The major disappointment that I’m talking about is everyone is limited to 5000 shares per person and because it’s a dividend base scheme, the returns are not reinvested to buy more shares meaning your returns are stuck at RM134 until the end of time, unless the government decides to revise the return rates somewhere along the way. Oh ya, not to mention the price per share also does not increase too, so selling the shares doesn’t make any difference. Not that interesting now huh? I mean RM134 is really not a lot and for most, it’s not worth giving up RM5000 to get that every month. However, for the lower income group that money can help a lot.

The Bottomline

So based on those facts, what can we conclude?

Well, I’m guessing if you bring back RM3000 a month and you’re single, you might not have any interest in this anyway. But if you earn the same amount but have many children and interested in this scheme, you most probably don’t have RM5000 in hand, if you have it, it wont be worth investing your own money. So, if you still want to invest, take up a loan. Although you end up with only RM50 per month, its pretty much free money because you have already covered the monthly repayment. And after you finish paying the loan, you get RM134 per month nett. There’s nothing much to loose.

On the other hand, after a few years, inflation will catch up with that so called “free money” and RM134 won’t be worth much let alone RM50 (if you take a loan). If you DO take a loan, by the time you have finished repaying the loan, RM134 might only have a negligible value.

It’s also good to speculate who will potentially profit from the whole venture; the stakeholders, so to speak .

The Banks.

They will profit from the loans issued. Let’s say borrowers get a 5 years repayment term (60 months), this means the total repayment will be at 60 months x RM84 (the monthly repayment amount) = RM5040. However this is just a minimum estimate. I don’t think the banks issue 5 year loans for only a RM40 profit, so, until I know the correct repayment term, I can only speculate how much the banks earn.

The Government.

By now you might realize that participants of this scheme might not really have much to gain from it. Maybe, the gain is not in the form of money, rather political. Especially as the elections draw closer, the government wants to be seen as lessening the burden of the people, and I’m not saying this scheme does not do that, but, come on….they can do better than this. The way I see it, the banks might be the ones who profit the most because we all know how banks profit from selling loans and stuff.

Despite all the stuff discussed above, if you want to participate in this scheme, don’t let me stop you. After all, you won’t loose anything by participating. It’s just that you don’t gain much either. Choose your investments wisely.

iMyn

So to cut the story short, I went to the Perodua dealership and bought myself a Viva 850 manual, which costs around RM32000 (got a RM 2000 discount due to promotion). But actually even if it is not a promotion you can also ask for a discount from the dealer if you are good at talking. A portion of the car price goes to pay the commission of the salesman, so if you can manage to convince the salesman to lower his commission, you can get a discount. Take into account also the free gifts given. They might be useful and not worth sacrificing for a good discount.

Payment method

Did you know that some banks offer a repayment period of 10 years? But this is usually for degree holders and so far I heard only Bank Islam offers it. You might try asking the salesperson about it. However the interest rate usually is higher. I took a normal 9 year loan, which translates to RM365 of monthly repayment, but I chose not to pay the down payment and opt for a full loan. I usually won’t recommend it since the monthly repayment would be higher but I have my reasons. The main reason being as a business owner, my income is sometimes not fixed. So, to avoid defaulting, I would rather use the money that I would have paid for the down payment and pay my monthly payments in advance so that I have buffer time in case I’m not able to pay for the loan on a particular month.

Running costs

Since the car is a small car, its running costs are pretty small. You can go 100km for about RM11 worth of fuel or less if it’s a highway. However I’m a bit sceptic about the service costs. I mean the normal service costs are OK, but in the maintenance schedule there is an anti rust treatment that I have to do every year. I’m not sure how much that will cost or even it is actually necessary, but what I know is if I don’t do it, the warranty is void. I guess that’s a way they assure business for the service centre operators.

Conclusion

So far I’m happy with the car, despite some downsides in the luxury department (hey, its a cheap car, what do you expect). But it satisfies my requirement of getting from point A to B in as lower cost as possible, so I have no complaints .

iMyn