Marsha Maung: I write. I love. I live

I get this question a lot – why are you always online? Why is your FaceBook always active? Why is it that you spend so much time telling everyone what you’re doing and what you’re thinking? Have you no sense of privacy? Whenever I open my FaceBook or Twitter account, you’re there – don’t you think you’re overdoing it? And my answer is standard – it’s what I do and I do it for a reason, believe you me. I don’t do it merely because it fascinates me (well, it does but that’s not the point) but it helps me with my business. This is where I go into grave detail about what I do and defend my predisposition for revealing so much information about myself – but I won’t. I will do it in a very simple, personal and easy-to-understand manner so that you can understand it the moment you read it. Well, not so much because you would have to spend a second or two thinking about what it means. Familiarity Breeds Business . Continue Reading Here

I. JUST. CAN'T. TAKE. IT. ANYMORE. OK, just imagine you have a really busy schedule and you're consistently caught in a whirlwind. The only time you get to read the papers is when you're sitting at the john. But because you're a nice person, you said OK when someone asked you help them perform some transactions. You don't see how you're going to fit it into your schedule but you don't have the heart to say 'no'. You organize some of the stuff and got things going a little. Now, things got stuck a little cause the schedule conflict cannot be ignored - it's screaming at you! You inform that person that you're sorry and would it be OK if they made a trip somewhere to collect the documents and then deliver it to a place. Wah, you know what or not? The fler got the fooking cheek to say, "OK lah, OK lah! Hopeless lah, ask you to do things!" Wah-lan-eh, right there and then, my blood went past boiling point. Why the hell do I hav...

I feel that some women should not be mothers. I feel that if a woman were to start a family, give birth to children, she should understand that putting the kids as top priority is NOT AN OPTION . I feel that although she is entitled to look and feel good, the kids are not decorative items. I feel that if you can give birth to a child, you CAN….I repeat, CAN take care of the child on your own. I feel that even if you work outside of the home, you should look at the kids’ homework, ask them what they ate for lunch and what they want to eat for dinner and if they made new friends in school. Even if the kid is below par, a mother’s job is to be concerned, address the issue, speak to the teachers and carefully help the child around his or her problem as best as you can. I feel that as a mother, you have NO OTHER CHOICE but be concerned about their health, diet, mentality and happiness ( not limited thereto ). I feel that if you don’t care whether your child comes home from sch...

The kids had a wonderfully exciting day today. Now, this is as extreme as this mother is going to get. Mommy goes Paintball, kids go mountain-climbing...I think I've fulfilled the criteria of offering my kids a fun and exciting life as a kid. :-) It was one of their friends' birthday party and they're a little bored of KidzSports...that's for BABIES, anyway, they say. So, off to Camp 5 then, says the birthday boy's mother. Camp 5 in 1 Utama is located near Neways Karaoke, for those who have never been there before. It's a neat little corner tucked up on the roof of the massive shopping complex. Anyway, the kids had tons of fun although a little apprhensive when they saw how high the 'rock' was. It's actually quite neat and if I didn't feel like throwing up whenever up on higher grounds, I would have wanted to try it as well. The highlight of this party came in the form of a rescue mission. As we all know, when one is frighte...

Can't say this is the first time I've heard this. The first time someone told me first-hand about how he has slept with some A-list HK stars, I bulked and called him a bluff. Maybe he was puffing up his sexual portfolio to impress his friends or something...who knows?  Then about a month and a half ago, I met up with a potential client and over coffee, this couple told me the same thing. It's common knowledge that if you wanted to get somewhere, you'd better be willing to escort, drink your liver out and sleep with some big time CEOs or People of Power. This...in exchange for 'sponsorship' or 'endorsement' deals.  So, if you refuse, you're probably going to have to fight very hard or perhaps, be relegated to B-list roles forever. No wonder I see a whole long list of really good actors and actresses who never got anywhere, you know what I mean? They're really good but they always play secondary role. I am sure you can recall at least one HK acto...

I think Vogue is the kind of magazine reserved for the snooty (elite) and rich (will ride the economy tide OK) people. So, you read Vogue, well…too bad. I don’t. I read Archies and Calvin and Hobbes for your information, so, let’s not stand on ceremony over that one. But have you not noticed that Vogue is utterly so…..written for….vogue people? Duh! The Malaysian or most Asian versions are probably not like that but recently, I took notice of some magazine covers (for creative purposes) and realize how snooty this magazine really is. I can count the number of times I’ve purchased this magazine on one hand and can’t remember a single article that jumped out at me and asked me to devour it. I remember more about Jughead.  All they focus on is a bunch of products that most people can’t afford now. And instead of giving us good articles to read or ideas with pictures, they interview the elite, celebrities and ask them what their future plans are, the names of their babies and projects t...

As much as 'There's no free lunch' rings true for most of us, the phrase 'Experience Must Be Bought' should remind us that life is a journey filled with MANY learning curves. There's no such thing as a free lunch because every experience that you learn (what I really mean is, REALLY learn), must be bought. Slow learners, people with no enthusiasm, and especially people who are UNWILLING to pay for the experience will suffer in the end. They will continue to make the same mistake over and over...and sadly, over and over again. Every time they get whacked in the head, they pay a price. Hence at the end of the day, people who are willing to learn and pay the price for the experience pays a smaller price compared to those who refuse to learn from their own mistakes. *** *** *** Joseph sits outside on his porch wondering if the world will ever be the same again. The dimly-lit skies above tells him that today will be no different from the past week. He's a ...

It's just so cute that I can't resist not posting it up...lest I forgot such innocent statements when they're older. As all boys are, my kids are into all those cool alien things and Pokemon as well. It's hard for a mommy to keep up with her boys. It's different when you're a mother to daughters and you can get whatever's on your daughter's mind. But when your kids think booger-diggin in utterly so cool, fast cars, invading aliens, fallen buildings, crashing motorbes....sigh....I just find it so hard to get.  One of the things they're really into these days is Ben 10 Alien Force. Ben 10 started off with a young boy who discovered this watch that stuck to him and allowed him to change into 10 different aliens to conquer the evil world. I have to admit it's kinda cool.  But as Ben 10's audi ence grew, Ben 10 has to grow too, hence, there's Ben 10 alien force whereby Ben is now older, much wiser and have a team of people with him to fight...

I am sad beyond words. Look at my FB status…it says that I am heartbroken. Oh, don’t worry, friends. Nobody broke my heart….no man (or woman) is capable of doing such harm to my consistently broken heart now. For some reason, someone decided that something is of value to him or her and it belongs solely to me. I am going to fight this one out. It’s my name for heaven’s sake! I lost my domain name www.marshamaung.com. I don’t know what the domain name would mean to the person who snatched it from under my nose! I mean, what are the chances of this person having the same exact name as me? I’ve promoted this name so much in the past that I have to fight to get it back now. The blame? Godaddy. I’ve been their loyal customer for the longest time and I can’t believe they did not do enough to warn me that the domain name has expired. I’ve tried to change my email address on their records before and it didn’t work. I registered my creativejooz.com email with them. I don’t own the domain n...

It’s a typical scene in a Malaysian home. The wife is in the kitchen, she’s been slamming things around since 7.30pm trying to come up with a decent meal for five. Her hair is sticking out in all the wrong places and she looks as if she’d liberally splattered on some cooking oil on her face for the perfect effect. The yellow-face-wife in the kitchen.  The eldest daughter is helping to set the table while the other younger two boys are horsing around in the living room, toppling over whatever they can topple…preferably something that their sister just corrected. The husband is sitting upstairs at his computer table PRESUMABLY WORKING. He’s actually checking out on the latest news occurring in the fiasco called Malaysian Politics. He’s highly amused by the latest antics.  The decent meal is complete an hour later and the family sits down together to eat….well, actually the kids and the husband sits down to have their meal while the wife continues toiling in the kitchen. This time…to...

So, you’re sitting there, twiddling your thumb….checking your empty stats for the hundredth time that day wondering…what in the world is going on? Aren’t people (and spiders) supposed to be clamoring all over themselves just to get to your website by now? You’ve submitted your website to all the search engines and directories…and it was tedious, so….now what? Instantly high traffic? Sadly, this is not the case – will never be so, in case you did not get my drift. Search engine marketing and online promotion takes a lot of work but it’s THE CHEAPEST and MOST EFFECTIVE form of advertising. It’s free if you do everything from A to Z on your own, by the way, but most business people really have no time to learn the B to Y of internet marketing…and that, hee hee hee….leaves room for people like us, of course. Today, a cousin of mine asked me a question and I’ve decided to be nice and share something with bloggers to help with their traffic. How do you promote your website or free blog to se...

Boredom…..a disease that strikes just about anyone who does repetitive work for prolonged periods of time. Boredom can strike anyone and writers are no exception. Well, in short….yes, I get bored with writing too. My fingers uncharacteristically ache whenever a thought or reminder dawns on me that the time has come for me to….well, tap out, yet, another article on a subject matter that is of no concern to me as a person or individual. But tell that to a website designer and the designer can tell you the same thing. Yeah, it gets boring. Here’s where a writer’s sense of responsibility and capability comes in. As much as I, sometimes, feel the dislike of having to delve into a topic that is off my tangent, I remind myself that this is my job and I have the heavy responsibility of delivering whether I like it or not. My preference is of no concern to the client. They are depending on me to come up with articles or web content that makes sense…but most importantly, makes them money. CONT...

...I don't have a mobile phone with QR Code scanning abilities but the QR Code system is actually very intriguing. People in Japan have been using this for donkey years and here we are, still living in the jungle. Apparently, with this small square box (think The Matrix) tells you a whole bunch of things. It's like the groceries that you buy from the supermarket....one scan and all the information comes pouring out. So, you can actually have a secret message encoded within the QR Codes. You can say 'Fark Albert' or 'Screw Melinda' or 'Mr. Tan is a donkey doped up' OOORRRRR....you can put your website URL like www.marshamaung.com , etc. You see the usefulness of these codes yet? :-) I created my own QR Code using this website, http://www.beqrious.com and the above image is the result. I cannot test whether the code is accurate or not so, for those of you who have iPhones or Blackberries with QR Code scanning abilities, would you be kind e...

Having a really shitty Monday so far and it's only 10.30am. Sigh....some days are just like this. You feel like there's a tornado in your head and you can't find your shoes coz it's flying somewhere up there along with your neighbor's sofa and the car. So, what's a tornado-head like me to do but to publish something funny to share with you guys. Here it is. I hope many years down the road, I have a perkier butt than that. :-)