Micheal Jackson - King of Pop Died

It came as a shock to me this morning when I heard it over the radio on the way to work. The king of Pop is dead! The entertainment world has lost the greatest entertainer in history. I still remember when I was a kid I used to sing along with my cousins and friends during the 80's. Michael Jackson has a place in a lot of our growing years.

From Associated Press:
updated 9:10 p.m. ET June 25, 2009
Michael Jackson, the sensationally gifted child star who rose to become the “King of Pop” and the biggest celebrity in the world only to fall from his throne in a freakish series of scandals, died Thursday. He was 50.

Jackson died at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. Ed Winter, the assistant chief coroner for Los Angeles County, confirmed his office had been notified of the death and would handle the investigation.

The circumstances of Jackson’s death were not immediately clear. Jackson was not breathing when Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics responded to a call at his Los Angeles home about 12:30 p.m., Capt. Steve Ruda told the Los Angeles Times. The paramedics performed CPR and took him to the hospital, Ruda told the newspaper.

Jackson’s death brought a tragic end to a long, bizarre, sometimes farcical decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was popular music’s premier all-around performer, a uniter of black and white music who shattered the race barrier on MTV, dominated the charts and dazzled even more on stage.

His 1982 album “Thriller” — which included the blockbuster hits “Beat It,” “Billie Jean” and “Thriller” — is the best-selling album of all time, with an estimated 50 million copies sold worldwide.

The public first knew him in the late 1960s, when as a boy he was the precocious, spinning lead singer of the Jackson 5, the music group he formed with his four older brothers. Among their No. 1 hits were “I Want You Back,” “ABC,” and “I’ll Be There.”

Jackson was preparing for what was to be his greatest comeback: He was scheduled for an unprecedented 50 shows at a London arena, with the first set for July 13. He was in rehearsals in Los Angeles for the concert, an extravaganza that was to capture the classic Jackson magic: showstopping dance moves, elaborate staging and throbbing dance beats. Singer Dionne Warwick said: “Michael was a friend and undoubtedly one of the world’s greatest entertainers that I fortunately had the pleasure of working with. ... We have lost an icon in our industry.”

Hundreds of people gathered outside the hospital as word of his death spread. The emergency entrance at the UCLA Medical Center, which is near Jackson’s rented home, was roped off with police tape.

“Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Jackson has just died,” a woman boarding a Manhattan bus called out, shortly after the news was announced. Immediately many riders reached for their cell phones.

So many people wanted to verify the early reports of Jackson’s death that the computers running Google’s news section interpreted the fusillade of “Michael Jackson” requests as an automated attack for about half an hour Thursday evening.

H1N1 Now A Pandemic

WHO has declared influenza H1N1 a pandemic, the highest level at phase six. Wow! That's serious. I wonder if most Malaysian take it seriously. In fact, I wonder if most people in the world take it seriously. I've asked around my friends who live in Canada, US and Australia, it seems they are going about with their lives. Nothing concerning them about H1N1. Not a worrisome line on their face.

With the summer holiday, a lot of travelling happened with students travelling back to their countries and families going overseas vacation. In just matter of weeks since summer holiday, our H1N1 case (imported) has risen to 11 cases. The health ministry has tied up the measures and precautions. As Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said" drastic measures" in place. When my dad came back from overseas, he was screened, asked his seat number, his next destination, contact details and was given a cert of clearance from the airport screening. This is unavoidable as I'm sure nobody want human to human tranmission. Looks like the pandemic is not going away soon and everyone is scare to fly.

Some of my colleagues have to fly to Singapore and China for training. I wish them safe travel.

Salary Not Enough

Today is 1st of June and I have finished my salary. Well, my bank account is officially empty. I made a few online transactions to pay mortages, bills, credit cards (not full payment) and now I have with less than RM20 for the rest of the month! I have yet to pay some utilities bills. What am I going to do? It's quite strange that during economic crisis, I still can't spread my salary until end of the month. I learnt to accept that salary not enough during the oil hike but now, who to blame? Myself? Maybe I should really cut down further on credit card usage. Maybe the price of daily goods still remain high despite the economy situation.

I spend RM3 on breakfast, RM10 for lunch and dinner at home. That's not too much, right?

Hurray! I'm On Leave

I finally get a day's off after working in an online search company for 7 months!. This doesn't mean the operations is stabled. It's just time I need a rest, rejuneverate and start the engine again. The best place to relax is at home, doing nothing but reading and surf the net. I'm reading "The nature of marketing" by Chuck Brymer. Well, since my goal is to learn and mastered online publishing, I'll grab any good books to gain more knowledge. Besides that, I'm also applying the very, very basic SEO on my site and it slowly show result. SEO and SEM required a lot of hands-on and practical to master it.

Enough about work, I'm looking forward for Angel and Demon's movie later with friend and dinner tonight. Sunday is day out with love one. It's going to be a great and busy weekend. I may need a reflexology session next week.

Mothers-In-Law The Main Reason For Divorce

Today I read an interesting article from The Star about reasons for divorce in Malaysia. The article called "Meddlesome mothers-in-law" by reporter Yeng Ai Chun. Local studies confirmed that mother-in-law is the main reason couple divorce. This statistic is highest among the Indian community. According to the article,data in Malaysia Community and Family Study 2004 by the National Population and Family Developement Board (LPPKN), mother-in-law meddling in their son or daughter's marriage is the main reason that drives Indian couple to divorced.

"Meddlesome-in-laws" as Yeng called it, is the top three factors for divorce among the Malays and Chinese too. The other two factors are incompatibility stands at 42.3%and infidelity at 12%. Can you imagine? Just because there's a infidelity in one of the couple, it ends up with a divorce paper. Interference by in-laws is the main reason for Indian to divorce. It is the top ranked reson at 30%. Infidelity as a reason for divorce is high among the Malays and Indians. In fact, it is the second highest reason among the Malays and Indian with 25%. The Chinese is more tolerance towards infidelity. They consider infedelity as the least crucial reason for a divorce.

Refusal to put up with polygamy rank high in the Malays community. cheating was rank at the bottom along with health and gambling addiction at 4.2%. The finding shows that abuse is not a reason for divorce among the Malays and Chinese, but is a reason among the Indians at 5%. Another reason which top the rank among the three races at 11.5% is 'not being responsible'. With all this numbers, there's only 0.7% of the Malaysian population was divorced in 2000. I'm very sure the percentage is higher now.

Marriage and Divorce

I just found out that one more of my friends is added into the divorce list. Marriage is quite different now compare to our parents and grandparents period. Last time, it will bring shame and embarrassment to the family if anyone of the family members is divorced. Neighbours, friends, colleagues, society will pre-judged a divorce with negative view points. It's sentence to death without a trial. I have heard that children of single mothers were not spare too. They were teased in school and look down upon. However, in some cases, a divorce is the only way out from a broken marriage. Abusive husband was the main reason. These women were very brave to walk out of this kind of marriage for the safety of the children and their own. They were even braver to single-handed brought up their children.

Nowadays, society is more open and acceptable to divorce. Women and men alike, tends to choose divorce when the marriage fails. I don't mean one should divorce when husband and wife quarrel. All marriages have quarrels and difference. But when understanding, co-existance, tolerance, love, trust, dissappeared, there's no point staying in a marriage. Yes, children will be the victim but in some cases, it is unavoidable.

We are living in a society where men and women are more knowledgeable on their personal rights and fulfilment. When we are in love, we get married. When we have differences, we seek marriage counselling. When all atempts fail, divorce is the only solution. In fact, it's not the end of the world when once divorce. We can still find love as long as we open our eyes and heart.

Hot Weather, Hot Politic, Poor Animals

What a weather! It has been extremely hot for the past 2 weeks and I read from the paper that this situation will continue until September. I think by then my skin allegy will be all over my body. I have sensitive skins whereby it will pop up red spots all over my body. It looks like rashes but it's not. It's like a mosquitoe bites but very itchy at night. It only appear during hot season. My doctor always advice me to go to a cool country for holiday once a year to clear it. Yeah, I have an expensive skin :-( What I do is I go for an injection when the rashes become a lot and it will clear off within a week. But don't inject regularly, once or twice a year because you won't want your skin to be immune to the injection. Luckily, I only need an injection once a year or more. Not sure if you have the same skin condition...

Besides the hot weather, the Perak politic is just amazing. Just after an interesting and eventful assembly, the High Court ruled out yesterday that Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar is the rightful Menteri Besar of Perak. It was informed that he can only be released with a vote of no confidence. Datuk Seri Dr Zambry was granted stay of execution today. I hope the issues between both parties will come to an end soon. During Tunku's time, the politic was base on mutual understanding and discussions. Let's sit down and talk. A fresh election will cost money but do we have to take that path?

Last week, we also see Malaysia appeared in a few international news portal for the wrong reason. Pulau Ketam case with about 400 stray dogs were abandoned in an island without food and water. The dogs were left to die a painful death. Luckily, Malaysian has a GOD sent person like Sabrina from the Furry Friend Farm, these dogs have hope of being rescue. TvSmith is keeping regular post and updates. Not to mentioned the importance of viral marketing by fellow bloggers who supported this mission. As of today, a total of fourteen dogs have been rescued. Altough the numbers is small but it's a life saved. If you have extra cash to spare, please donate it to Furry Friend Farm. Any amount will be meaningful to the dogs. You can get the information below or from TVSmith site.

Furry Friends Farm (Current Account Name)
CIMB 1457-000-1182-05-6 (Current Account Number)
*For online interbank transfer, if it prompts for Recipient ID/Business Reg: Just type in 5766