la mia amico

my friend

The Calming Effects

hehehe..meow meow meow

~ pics from google images ~

POYO

One of the most used slang in Malaysia at the moment is poyo (pronounced Poe Yoe). It is so popular even the non-Malays understand and use it. Poyo is used by almost every generation in Malaysia from children, teenager, young adults to adults.

When a person is labelled as poyo or called a poyo, he/she is assumed to be a kind of show off, an attention seeker or an over enthusiastic person. It has also been overused to the extent of labelling an exaggerator, an over reacting or over excited person as poyo. Poyo is often used with negative intentions, which I think is wrong and should not be that way. Someone who is outspoken is often called a poyo, those proactive and brave students in class are also often labelled as poyo. I think this word has been misunderstood, overused and misled from its original meaning. Lets see how this word is derived and coined.

Online Urban Dictionary has stated that poyo might originated from the video game character Kirby.

* Kirby (カービィ Kābī?) is the main protagonist of Nintendo's Kirby video game series created by Masahiro Sakurai at HAL Laboratory. The Kirby series is one of Nintendo's many well-known game franchises, spanning nearly twenty games since 1992. Kirby is described in his games as a small pink puff ball, who is a citizen of Dream Land (プププランド Pupupurando?, lit. "Pupupu Land") on the planet Pop Star. Kirby has a positive attitude, and helps to save Dream Land through the use of his unique powers. Although (or perhaps because) he appears cute and innocent, many commercials and ads have showcased this as a contrast to his extreme fighting skills when he takes on the abilities of an enemy. Kirby is a character of few words and rarely speaks in-game. His dialogue is largely limited to appearances in some games' instruction manuals, and brief comments such as "Hi!" or "Poyo!".

* Since he first appeared in Kirby's Dream Land, Kirby has received positive reception. GamesRadar listed Kirby as one of the most lovable blobs, calling him one of the cutest things to appear in a Nintendo game, yet also calling him nothing in the way he defeats his enemies. He ranked sixth on IGN's top 10 veteran Super Smash Bros. characters, described as the "pinkest badass ever made."
* summarized from Wikipedia

Urban Dictionary also said that many believe it may also be a form of poyopoyo which is Japanese for toddling.

* Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki (ポヨポヨ観察日記 Poyopoyo Observation Diary?) is a Japanese manga series created by Rū Tatsuki about a spherical cat named Poyo and the family that adopts him. The slice of life stories only have very mild continuity between them, and can be taken as stand-alone episodes. Episodes often deal with regular day-to-day interactions between family members, occasionally showing how family members celebrate holidays or deal with everyday inconveniences like rainstorms. At first, younger brother Hide dislikes Poyo (Hide is younger brother of Moe, Moe found and adopted Poyo), but as the stories continue, we see that Hide has grown somewhat attached to the family pet.
* summarized from Wikipedia

The series revolved around situations people encounters when living with a cat. From reviews about this series on the net, I assumed that Poyo is a little cat who can be really cute and whacky without being annoying. (note : whacky or ludicrous means so foolish, unreasonable or out of place to be amusing.)

From the above notes, I think it is believable to say that poyo as used in the Malaysian slang is derived from either the Nintendo video game`s character Kirby who likes to say "Poyo!", or from Poyo the cat in the Poyopoyo manga series. As underlined above, Kirby has a positive attitude, unique powers, appears cute and innocent, has extreme fighting skills, rarely speaks/only give brief comments, loveable, and at the same time a badass. (note : badass is a tough, aggrasive or uncooperative person; internetslang defines badass as a cool and confident person.); while Poyo the cat is a spoilt brat who can get away with anything cutely, a little bit annoying at times, but loveable and well accepted. Maybe somebody who is an avid fan of Kirby and/or Poyopoyo, took the word poyo and used it on someone, when he couldnt find an exact word to describe that person`s character or action, hence he used poyo derived from the character in those two series, as elaborated above.

Okay, with the above observations, from my point of view, poyo is for some people to describe other people, when they themselves do not dare to do what that 'poyo' person does, and when they feel jealous towards the 'poyo' but at the same time impressed by him/her. So they labelled him/her poyo. It is a kind of that love hate feeling. It is different from hating or disliking somebody who is a show off. A poyo does it subtlely, and he/she is not showing off. He/she is just showing his/her true self, and having the guts to face whatever the consequences are. Well that is what poyo is to me.

"Ini semua poyo! Hahahaha.."
"These are all poyo! Hahahaha.."

A Productive Holiday

Been doing some research on Malaysia`s urban language and slang.

My handwriting is getting worst! haha..

Me, surrounded by love.

That`s Lola Boy on his crib..

..and Peachy Boy lazing around on the floor..

..with Jelly Bean high up on the old fridge that has become their food storage!

CNY

Malaysia is having a stretch of holidays from Saturday 09 February till Tuesday 12 February 2013. Enter the year of the Snake. It`s the Chinese New Year! From what I heard, its gonna be a challenging year of the black water snake. Well, whats new? Have you ever gone through any particular year without any challenges? After all, "Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are,” said Bernice Johnson Reagon, American Historian and Musician.

// Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew. They're what make the instrument stretch-what make you go beyond the norm. - anon. //

All together we have 4 days straight of holidays. Most of KL residents will Balik Kampung (go back to their hometown) to spend time with families back there, it does not matter whether they are from the Chinese ethnics or not. The Chinese normally will have to be in the house during the Chinese New Year eve, for a family dinner together. Do not quote me, but from what I know, among the must have dishes are a whole fish (a fish complete with the head and the tail, symbolizing that everything must have a beginning and an end), and prawns and crabs (for the color red, as when they are cooked, they will become red, signifying prosperity).

There will be a lot of mandarin oranges handed out and red color angpows given by the married to the unmarried during the CNY celebrations.

Most major shopping complexes will decorate their complexes with the CNY themes, normally either in reds, pink, with flowers all over or a whole lot of lanterns around. See some of this year`s CNY decor here.

The "Listen" Affair

Source : MSN Online News. Thu, 17 Jan 2013 14:13:33. By Reta Lee, Head of Editorial. Titled : Listen, Listen advertisements catch on.

"By now, you would have watched and heard about the viral video which showed Suara 1 Wanita Malaysia president, Sharifah Zohra Jabeen berating local university student Bavani K.S. The clip, that went viral over social media sites have since accumulated 684,535 views, and has also attracted major brands who've jumped on the bandwagon.

Casual dining restaurant group Nando's, first came up with this hilarious ad which has been shared over 15,000 times since it was introduced on their official Facebook page on Tuesday,

..while telecommunications giant DiGi followed suit, with two ad copies.

One of Malaysia's largest classified company Mudah.my has also launched a copy ad

..and Japanese restaurant based in Pavilion Mall, KL, Suki-ya is attracting customers with a 50% deal, although the copy has some clear grammatical errors."

* Article and photos credits : MSN News (online).

Lily The PA

Mummy is travelling and Lily is worried and wants to follow.

Lily taking care of Mummy`s lappie.