It's a GIG

Assalamualaikum and hello there!

There was TV9’s Gig at i-City Shah Alam on the 9th of July. So since i-City is like, 10 footsteps away from my house, I thought why not give it a try. If I was lucky, maybe I’ll bump into my idol, Ahmad Izham Omar. (yes, IDOL. you got a problem with that?! tetiba nak emo)

So hari Ahad tu, aku dan Azy bersemangat bersiap sedia nak pi GIG for the first time together. Masa aku dok besiap, Azy dok la kelebek Twitter dari iPhone dia. Tiba-tiba, aku dengaq Azy terjerit-jerit dari hall aku. Isk, deni kena histeria pulak ka? So aku pn berlari keluaq sambil bersiap sedia nak letak tangan ataih dahi dia and baca Bismillah.

“Anis!!!!! AIO kat ataih stage dengan Wings!!”

“HA?!!! OMG!! Kita dh lambat!! Cepat wei.. cepat!!!” lalu berlari masuk ke bilik balik. Aduh, terseliuh pinggang aku masa “lap” nak masuk bilik tadi.

In less than 10 minutes, we reached i-City entrance. More and more people started to come, cars started to line up to enter the parking lot. Sampai-sampai, ada sorang akak ni tengah collect duit.

"Sepuluh ringgit, dik," akak tu berkata.

Then I gave Azy this jom-kita-demah-deni-buang-sedaih-dua look. Azy then "replied" with bayaq-ja-la-jangan-dok-buat-ramai-nanti-aku-kot-yang-demah-hang look. Isk, tak mau aku didemah oleh Gangster Jalan Makloom nih. Lalu kami pn bayaq la parking tu dengan rasa tak rela hati langsung.

After we paid the parking fee, we drove up the hill, to enter the parking lot. Azy said, still tak puaih hati dengan parking fee mahal tu, "Isk.. apa punya mahai tak tau.. sampai sepuluh ringgit?? Aku dok ingat lima ringgit ja td. Gila. Nak galak orang mai, orang galak yang mai." (Kami la yang galak tu)

The parking lot was quite horrible. Tanah tak rata dan berbatu-batu.

“Rosak roda aku aih. Tudia ‘roda’. Macam aku bawak keta lembu pulak,” aku membebel sambil mata meliar cari spot yang best.

Lepas ja aku park keta, aku kata kat Azy, "Alhamdulillah.. spot baik punya dapat. Dekat sikit nak bejalan masuk."

"Spot beik la depan sampah!" Azy menjawab sambil tunjuk ke arah sampah sarap di depan keta aku.
Ahh.. lantak la. Bukan nak kena angkut sampah tu tgk gig pn.

Orang semakin ramai. Kecik, besaq, tinggi, pendek, tua, muda, Bangla tak Bangla, Indon tak Indon, semua ada. Aku pegang erat lengan Azy, takot hilang.

“Kepala aku ketaq dh wei…” aku berbisik kat Azy. I always get that "ketaq kepala" effect when I get excited about something. Kena bawak berubat ni.

“Hang ni.. BAYANG dia pn tak nampak lagi dh ketaq kepala. Aku BERUBAT nnt kot,” Azy balaih. Hurm... she read my mind!

Hati aku makin berdebar. I kept on thinking what would I say if I saw him? How would I react? How did I look now?!

Kami bejalan laju tuju ke arah tepi stage yang gah berdiri. There were 2 stages and Hujan was performing on the left stage. Aku tak rasa apa, sebab aku takdak la minat sangat Hujan ni. Aku lagi minat kumpulan Halalintaq. (mesti hangpa tak penah dengaq, sebab.. kumpulan tu takdak pn).

Mata aku mula meliar cari Ahmad Izham Omar. Isk… where could he possibly be? Think Anis, think!

Tiba-tiba, Faizal Ismail dan Aidit keluar ke pentas - they were the hosts that night. Tak dapat jumpa Ahmad Izham Omar, Faizal Ismail pn jadi la. Tapi masalahnya lani, aku dok nampak Faizal tu besaq kala jengking ja. Kirim salam je la.

Not long after that, they announced that Aizat was going to perform on the stage on the right. I love Aizat! So aku and Azy pun kelam kabut jalan ke stage lagi satu. Kami punya bejalan malam tu, dengan lajunya, dengan men’cilok’nya, dengan panasnya, turun sekilo dua apa.

Aizat sang a lot of songs that I was familiar with. So I got to sing along with him, which was quite fun. Sambil menyanyi, mata bukan tengok Aizat punya performance sangat pn.. dok laaa mencari Ahmad Izham Omar. Asal nampak a guy yang pakai spek, T-shirt TV9 Gig, hati aku dh tersentap. Not him. Damn it!

Ok, I thought, I couldn’t be standing here expecting him to appear. I had to get moving. So I said to Azy while pointing at more crowded...er...crowd. “Azy, aku nak pi masuk sana sat, kot-kot la dia ada situ,”

Azy mengganguk sambil kata, “OK, aku tunggu sini. Aku usha kat sini punya. Apa-apa telepon.” Tetiba rasa mcm dok cari orang jahat pulak.

After a few minutes in the crowd... i saw someone.. and I ran straight to Azy.

"Azy!!! Mai ikut aku! Cepat!!" aku berkata dengan excitednya sambil menarik lengan Azy.

"Dia ka weih? Hang nampak dia ka?! OMG!!" Azy turut sama excited.

I pulled Azy into the crowd and pointed to this one guy and said, "Ada abg juai koci."

the professional me

Assalamualaikum and hi people.

God, I am super tired, it should be illegal.
Work will never leave me alone. It follows me home. The only way to get rid of it is to marry someone who would let me be a housewife. But wait.. if i were a housewife, my home IS my work station! Urgh... guess I'll never get rid of it.

So today at work, when I got back to the office from my meeting with client around 8.30pm, I checked my email.
There were like 10 unread emails and 1 of it was an email from our COO.

Apparently a few people are required to write a professional bio along with a professional picture.
And I am one of the few selected people, of course. I was like "Shoot! I am bad at this."

Honestly, I'm bad at "selling" myself. I perform bad during interviews.
Interviewer: So tell us what you're good at.
Me: Hurm... I wouldn't say I'm good.. but... I can type without looking at the keyboard? not good.. boleh la tahan. takde la terrer sangat. kadang-kadang tu ada gak typo error. tapi kadang-kadang la.
And I'd lose the interviewer at "keyboard?"

Well anyway, now I'm thinking what the hell am I gonna write?? Let's try it out here, shall we?

Hanis Hashim, 27 years old (but people think I'm 22! wohooo!!)

Born on 4th July 1984, Hanis shares birthday with big celebrities like Will Smith who reminds her of her brother Akir who loves to draw and watches Will Smith movies.

She graduated from UiTM Shah Alam, with a Bachelor's Degree in Mass Communication (Advertising), where she made a lot of friends and stayed in a rent house with Eryn, Fuzan, Mimie and Lily who had once played UNO when they had a big exam tomorrow (Dasar-dasar tak sedar diri). She could still remember the time when it was her turn to put her card, one of her friends Eryn looked at her and said "Jalan". Immediately she stood up, and walked around the circle.

Hanis believes that experience is the best teacher. Although Hanis' experience in advertising has only been 4 years, she has been exposed to experiences that a person with 20 years experience in advertising might not have. She learned that motorbikes can't go into the Smart Tunnel and that she should not assume something that looks like candy is... candy. She also learned that offering "candy" to the owner of a company is not advisable and frowned upon. She also...

Wait.. what am I writing again?

aku dan micheal bay

Assalamualaikum and hellooooooo people!

Ok, this was way back when I was at Spencer Azizul doing my internship (again).
I discovered what I wanted to do for a living. Check it out.

Sometime in 2008...

Today I had a new spirit. For once, I was so sure what I wanted to do for a living. It was no longer advertising. It was film making.

It all began this morning, when I arrived at the office, and nobody was around. I remembered that I wanted to view Micheal Bay’s profile because I admired the work of this Transformer’s director. This was when I came across his official website – micheal bay dot com. Believe me, it was very inspirational.

I loved movies. And I loved what’s happening behind the scene. I admired the director’s powerful imagination and skill. So, excitingly I read his profile and the story of his life. This was part of it:

“When I was 12 or 13, I used to make these very elaborate train sets in my bedroom. I just loved going into my imagination and making stories about the little fake town and creating my own little disasters. It was very elaborate; detailed mountains, mom-and-pop stores, houses, trees, golf courses. The idea was to make it as realistic as I could get it. I remember one time my parents came into my room to have a serious talk, you know. I was spending too much time locked away with my train sets, and they wanted me to get outside more. I actually made my first movie about one of my train sets. I was doing some glue fires and the buildings caught on fire, and that caught the drapes on fire. I put most of it out, but it kind of wrecked my room. I was grounded for three weeks.”

Mr. Bay remembered his mother's visit to the "Pearl Harbor" set in Mexico, the same huge water tank where James Cameron filmed much of "Titanic." On the set, Mr. Bay and his team had constructed portions of Battleship Row, the central cluster of military vessels that were hit by Japanese bombers on Dec. 7, 1941.

"The crew had put up this director's chair for her and put a sign on it that said `Mom,' " Mr. Bay said."And she came and sat down and looked around, and it was all really just massive. And she said, `Oh, it kind of looks like your train set, only bigger.' "

After I read this, I grew to admire him even more. And I so wanted to be part of it. I wanted to be part of the crew! So I went to Hairil, my internship partner and told him my new ambition.

“Hairil… aku dah tau aku nak keje ape..,” I said, walking in his department. Well, not his department, actually. He just coincidently appointed to sit there and because he was the only person to be in that huge room, he felt like he was the CEO of the agency. (Hairil tolong jangan libas aku)

He made a what-the-hell-are-you-talking-about look to me. Then I replied with my do-not-make-me-repeat-myself look to him. After a few seconds of digesting the information, he opened his mouth, “So, ape yang ko nak sedih-sedih ni?”

Then I was like, did he digest the information right?

“Ape ko ni? Aku kate aku dah tau aku nak keje ape la,” I said.

“Iyelah aku tau la, gile. (that’s what we call each other) so if ko dah tau ko nak keje kat mana, you should be happy la. Tak payah susah-susah cari keje lagi,” he replied. Still maintaining that look.

Then I threw him a you-certainly-did-not-digest-the-information-right expression and said, “Sape kate aku dapat keje. Aku kate aku tau nak keje ape la bengong! Apela susah sangat nak cakap dengan ko ni?? Semput aku tau.”

“Owh… I thought you kata you dah tau you nak keje ape tu maksudnye you dah tau you dapat keje kat mane. Ha, ape ko nak keje?” he said, glancing at his computer.

“Itula ko. Cakap dengan ko selalu buat aku semput. Information yang sebaris boleh jadi lapan belas baris dengan ko tau tak,” I continued.

“Cepat-cepat-cepat. Jangan nak membebel di sini. Cepat la gile ko nak keje ape??”

Then I paused and saw Hairil waiting patiently for my answer.

“Aku nak keje dengan MICHEAL BAY!!!!” I said, in a sad but slightly excited tone voice.

And slowly, I saw the expression on Hairil’s face changing. He looked like a murderer who just found his long-lost enemy and needed to kill his enemy right away. And the enemy was me! And when he opened his mouth, “KO NI MEMANG MEMBUANG MASA AKU KAN! AKU PUNYELAH SERIOUS NAK DENGAR, KO MEMAIN DENGAN AKU YE! AWAS KO!"

“La… I was being serious! Aku nak keja dengan Micheal Bay~! keje buat air pun jadilah… huhu… Hairil.. nak keje dengan Micheal Bay…,” I said, making a sympathetic face.

Unfortunately, he was not fooled by my so-called sympathetic face and said, “Suka hati ko lah. Malas aku nak layan.”

Only after that, I realized that I could never work with Micheal Bay.

The End.

the 30-second crush

Assalamualaikum and hello awesome people.

Ok this time I wanna share you a story that happened a few years back when I was doing my internship at Spencer Azizul Advertising. (masa zaman muda-muda la nih)

Di suatu petang yang tak brapa panas...

I was writing something when Hairil came to my desk, asking whether he could print something from my PC. So I moved away and headed to the restroom.

10 minutes later, I came out, finding myself amazed by a cute guy. Who’s he? He’s not familiar. Definitely not from this office. He was wearing a uniform with “Pest Control” label. Yeah, definitely not from this office. I acted cool, walking straight to my desk.

Hairil came to me, showing me an action note that he wrote, asking me if it was ok. I looked at it but all I could see was that guy’s face! And all I could read was “He’s so cute, he’s so cute”! I couldn’t hold it any longer. I must share this! I looked at Hairil, trying to make eye contact with him. Now is the time to improve my non-verbal, speaking-with-my-eyes skill.

So I said (using my eyes) ~ “look at that guy. He’s cute!”

Hairil looked at me with a confused face. Well he certainly did not attend the speaking-with-your-eyes class! So I had to use my speaking-with-my-head skill instead. I pointed my head to that guy’s direction. If my head could speak, it would say “look at that guy you moron!”

Thankfully, Hairil attended the speaking-with-your-head class and understood what I was trying to tell. So he looked at that guy, who was doing his job at my department. After he had done with the ‘pest-controlling’, he walked passed us, and I could feel my heart stopped beating. After that, he vanished from our sight. Why does the brand department have to be so damn small??? Why couldn’t it be like the size of the football field so that I could spend more time looking at his cute (yet macho) face??!!

After I made sure he was far enough to hear me talk, I said to Hairil, “Cute kan?”

“A’ah. Sangat,” Hairil replied. We both giggled like two ‘gedik’ internship partners.

“Macam Johnny Depp kan?” I said, remembering his face.

Oh why oh why did he has to be from some place else? Why didn’t he work here, sitting beside my desk? Or he could sit at MY desk and I could stand all day beside him. I don’t mind standing. Well, unless my feet hurt.

“Yesss! Sangat! Aku dah macam nak kata tadi kat ko,” Hairil said enthusiastically. For a moment there I thought – is it me or YOU who’s admiring him??

I smiled and said, “Macam Johnny Depp tu… gile handsome. Haha.”

Thank God he didn’t look like Jake Gyllenhaal. If he looked anything like Jake (my dream hunk), I would have terminated my internship at SpencerAzizul Advertising and continue doing internship at his Pest Control place instead. So thankfully, I didn’t have to go through that process.

So, yeah, the guy was that cute. Johnny Depp kinda cute. Then I thought, you are so damn handsome, you should be modeling or acting! Here you are, working at a Pest Control place, where no one could appreciate your Johnny Depp looks! It’s such a waste.. that handsome face should be mass communicated. Seriously.

Oh, FYI, HE was my 30 seconds crush. The cute ‘Pest Control’ guy. And by the time I finished writing this, I’ve already forgotten how he really looked like.

- The End -

thank you

Assalamualaikum and hello to those who are reading (well, obviously).

I've been looking forward to "something" these past few weeks.
I've been praying hard for it. I've been praying to Allah that if it was the best for me, please let me have it. I prayed for it every single day.

And today, Allah has answered my prayers. The answer was NO, NOT THIS TIME.
I took it hard. Quite hard. I felt like I lost it. I felt like it was taken from me, just like that.
I cried, even though deep down I know that He has better plans for me. I truly believe that. But as human being, I couldn't help but feel sad and frustrated over losing something I wanted to so bad.

However, despite whatever happened to me today, I am thankful to Allah for so many other things that He has given me.
As soon as I shared the news with my family and friends, they were there for me, telling me that Allah had better plans for me, and that everything was going to be ok.

One of them even called me right away and managed to make me make a joke (it's amazing how I can still joke around when I'm at my worst). So yeah.

Their words of encouragement and comfort showed that I have not lost anything, because I got everything I ever need - Great, loving family and friends.

I am so thankful to Allah, to have all of you in my life.
I could never image my life without you.

Thank YOU.

Raya

Assalamualaikum and hello people!

Last year when Raya was approaching, we were asked to share some ideas for Raya campaigns. I thought.. hurm.. this might be an area I'm good at (take note of the word "MIGHT"), and what the heck, I'd give it a try.

So I gave it a very deep thought. What would the target audience be attracted to, or most importantly - RELATE to. So I used my personal experience as an inspiration. Aaaaaand here it is.

When it comes to Raya, we always, always come across these common Raya images/icons - ketupat, rendang, kuih, duit raya, salam-salaman, baju baru,
BUT, there are things/scenarios which happen during Raya that people don't realise. Scenarios that almost all Malays can relate to.

THE IDEA
Difficult things become easy when it's Raya - share a bed with your fat cousin, wake up at 5.00am in the morning just to skip the hassle of fighting over the bathroom or spend an hour to look for your slipper after Raya prayer.

You don't mind going through all that, because it is that time of the year to be happy, thankful and blessed. (And to forgive the one who stole your brand-new Raya shoes at the mosque and to forgive yourself for bringing it in the first place)

So these are some scenarios that I can relate to.
Scenario #1: Sleeping beramai-ramai in the hall because there are just not enough rooms in grandpa's house.
Imagine thin, short, tall, fat, not too fat, not too tall cousins on top of one another, sleeping in the hall.
And the ad reads: It's that time of the year again. Selamat Hari Raya.

Scenario #2: Lining up to take a bath because there's only one bathroom in grandpa's house.
Imagine thin, short, tall, fat, not too fat, not too tall cousins and uncles in their towels, and aunts in their kaftan waiting in front of the bathroom.
And the ad reads: It's that time of the year again. Selamat Hari Raya.

Scenario #3: Slippers and shoes piling up in front of the mosque (for Raya prayer)
Imagine slippers, boots, high heels, technically all kinds of shoes you can find piling up in front of the mosque.
The ad reads the same thing.

Visually on print, it'd be nice in illustration ala Lat's.

I think when it comes to Raya ads, you have to show something that is very close to your audience's hearts. Something they can relate to, something they are familiar with, something that some times, they take for granted. Remind them to be thankful for what they had, and what they have.

Back to the idea - well, it didn't get executed.
Maybe I'll take this proposal to Petronas. Or Keropok Mony. Start small.

strategic planning 1

for those of you who wants to work in advertising, please equip yourself with a lot of patience and strategic planning skills (like me), because you will surely face this situation.

we always have to print out the ads, mount it (in layman term "lekat ataih kadbod") and bring it over to our client's office for their approval (in my client's case, particularly).
and like many clients in this world, there will be 10,000 rounds of changes to the ads before they're approved and go to printing.

- More vibrant colours
- Enlarge our logo!
- Put in telephone no on the billboard (even though people don't have time to take down the number while they're driving)
- Logo too large now. Reduce the size.
- Shift the headline to the left.
- (Half an hour later) Shift the headline to the right.
- Make the logo not too big, not too small.

and today, we had to make the 10,001th revision - "MAKE THE HEADLINE BIGGER"

So on our way back to the office, we were discussing on what to do next etc.

Boss: after we revise the visual, do we have to print out again? i'm scared they're gonna scrabble on it and make more changes.

Me: we print out, and laminate it.

see how strategic my planning is?