Theory of the name "Bisho Toshihiko" in Perman

This is a follow-up to an earlier blogpost, "Bisho Toshihiko - a character in Perman and a question in Ask John".

Yesterday, after reading @cherry_drops123 tweet about Bisho's name that it is an uncommon name in Japan, I later realised that his name matches how he looks like in person.

His surname, Bisho ( 美庄), represents the first two characters of "Bishonen" ( 美庄年), a Japanese word for a beautiful-looking man, distinguishing from "Bishojo", another word which means beautiful-looking woman.

His first name is Toshihiko (年彦). The first character of his name is taken from the last character of the latter, but the pronouciation is changed from "(bisho)nen" to "toshi'. Toshi is another word for year in Japanese, the first was "nen". The last character of his name his "hiko", the suffix for boys' names. Reminds me of Yuzuhiko, a character in Atashinchi.

My video upload: Garang Pictures endcap 2012

Taken from "DIY: Dengan Inovasi Yo!" on TV3 (21 September 2012).
Garang is a Malay word for angry, hence the lady who gets angry in this endcap.
Might be a spin-off company of Red Communications Sdn Bhd, I guess? Low Ngai Yuen had been working for Red Communications, isn't it? I just kept the last bit of the end credit as a reference.

Bisho Toshihiko - a character in Perman and a question in Ask John

Last night (September 22) I'm feeling over the moon - I've found two new items on Twitter, both related to anime.

@cherry_drops123 changed her icon tonight. Her icon is a drawing of a really handsome young man. At first I thought that he appeared in her series called "Perman Parody World", but @cherry_drops123 later explained that the character was actually the one that appeared once in the Perman manga. He is Bisho Toshihiko. He is Perman's rival. Kagemaki also sent out a tweet to @cherry_drops123 enclosed with a excerpt of Bisho's appearance. In the excerpt, Bisho introduced himself. Perman looks worried.

@cherry_drops123 こんばんは！アイコンは美庄年彦くんですね！／(^o^)＼ twitter.com/kagemaki_K/sta…
— あわ食ったカゲマキ (@kagemaki_K) September 22, 2012

Another one was about a question "Why Do Older Otaku Watch Kids' Anime?"" which appeared on Anime Nation's Ask John. I've seen it from a link tweeted by nyusu.fm. John mentioned that after having experienced watching anime for 20 years by watching other genres of anime, he became addicted to children's anime. Before that period, he prefered to watch other genres of anime than children's anime because he wanted to watch provocative, artistic anime. John said that children's anime is far more interesting than fast-paced or hardcore otaku animes. He had sampled some children's anime and claimed that he own Japanese DVD volumes of children's anime. He also mentioned a 2004 Perman movie where it is "has more fluid animation". He refers to the art design and animation of the movie. Even though I'm not at the same age as John, I still agree with his opinion.

PS (Sept 28): @cherry_drops123 responded to me back saying that his name that I mentioned was "Bisho Toshihiko", not "Biwaki Toshihiko" as I mentioned in this blog. I thought that his name "Biwaki" was like Iwaki, a character in Atashinchi, another anime and Iwate, a city in northern Japan.

Jejak Jepun Bersama Zizan on Astro Prima

A new local programme called "Jejak Jepun Bersama Zizan" is airing on Astro Prima. It is a travelogue based programme. It is hosted by Zizan, a comedian. The programme is produced by kyanite.TV and Astro. There are six episodes for the programme's run. In each episode he will visit interesting places in Japan while accomplishing his mission, for example becoming a samurai in while he was in Osaka. His main mission is to meet Ayumi Hamasaki, a popular Japanese singer.

I watched the first episode today at 7:00 pm. Astro Prima and its other channels on Astro are flexible and has many other airtimes for each programme besides the main airtime unlike free-to-air stations where they had to schedule each programme to once a week or maybe more.

In the first episode, Zizan went to Osaka via Kansai International Airport boarding on Air Asia X. While arriving at Osaka, he went to Rinku Premium Outlets. He stays at Fraser Residence Nankai Hotel.

The next day, he went to Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan. Later he went to the Osaka Castle, where he accomplished his task to be a Samurai (as I said earlier). Zizan learned that samurais are elite class warriors. He also went to the Floating Garden of Umeda Sky Building, the tallest building in Osaka. Floating Garden  is the obesrvatory platform of Umeda Sky Building.

Since the filming for the programme occurred in early July, he had the opportunity to make a wish with Tanabata trees with wishes made by people written on paper hung in the tree. His wish is to have a Japanese girlfriend. Later, he went to Takimi Koji, a museum containing replicas of how Osaka looked like in the 1950s and 1960s. It is located at the lowest floor of Umeda Sky Building. At night, he went to Edoyaki Unagi Hishitomi to taste unagi (Japanese eel). He also went to Ebisu Bridge Dotonbori, a shopping district in Osaka.

Before the end of the show, he reminded that if you want to visit Japan, you must make a visitor visa at the Japanese embassy. The visa will be ready within 3 working days.

Mad Markets - local TV programme hosted by a blogger

A new local TV progarmme called "Mad Markets" is airing on TV9 under the 9X programme block. It airs every Wedenesday at 10:30 pm starting September 12. "Mad Markets" is a shopping travelogue programme hosted by blogger Hanis Zalikha (http://inibelogsaya.blogspot.com/). It is unusual to have such programmes hosted by bloggers. I remember some local programmes that concentrate on bloggers such as Blogger Boy, a local drama aired on 8TV in late 2000s and U Wartawan, a programme on Astro Awani concentrating on issues made by bloggers.

Three news items about the development of Korean TV

Last week I've read three interesting news items about the recent developments happening in Korean TV.

The first one was about the drafting a new law on restricting alcoholic advertising aimed due to problems such as binge drinking (episodic excessive [alcoholic] drinking) and alcoholic-related crimes, as reported by news agency AFP on September 6, read via The Star newspaper on September 7. The draft legislation, says the Ministry of Health and Welfare, prohibits TV programmes targeting teenagers to air alcoholic beverage advertising. There are also plans to ban alcohol advertising on other platforms which is on public transport systems.

The second was from KBS World Radio. The Korea Communications Commission held a plenary session on September 7 and decided to lift a ban on late-night broadcasting of terrestrial TV stations, including KBS, MBC and SBS. The broadcasters can start broadcasting 24 hours a day starting next month. Currently KBS, MBC and SBS air from 6:00 am to 1:00 am the next day. The KCC expects that the late-night broadcasts will allow low-income groups who cannot afford cable TV services to watch programmes late at night and also allows uninterrupted breaking disaster news.

The last one, also from KBS World Radio, reports about the start of HD programming on KBS World. KBS held a ceremony marking the conversion to HD programming from standard definition programming on September 4 at KBS Media Center in Seoul.

40th blogpost and my appreciation on social media

Today I've set a record of making 39 published blogposts. August was the busiest month for my blogging activities because I spent blogging during long festive holidays with 19 blogposts.

It's been six months since I started embracing the world of social media. In 2008, I started using Facebook to interact with my family members and relatives. In March 2012, I started blogging and tweeting after being influenced from @ootayasuko, a fan of Perman from Japan who uses social media by blogging and sometimes tweeting with Twitter. From that moment, I became very serious in social media. Much of my weekend activities is spent by using the internet for social media and editing on Wikipedia.

I started tweeting by opening my Twitter account in the midnight of March 11, 2012. My Twitter handle is "@hazimworks", a combination between my name and Primeworks Studios, the production company of Media Prima which airs its programmes on Media Prima. I also coincidentally found out that Media Prima's TV channels also show my favourite shows which are Fujiko F. Fujio anime such as Doraemon, Kiteretsu and Perman.

My early tweets have the "Inspirasi ceria di hatiku" phrase made by myself by mixing out Media Prima's TV channels' slogans. I created this phrase to show my appreciation of Media Prima TV channels showing Fujiko F. Fujio anime and my passion for those channels.

My best friend on Twitter is @cherry_drops123. We share the same interests - watching Perman, an anme based on the manga by Fujiko F. Fujio. @cherry_drops123 owns a blog called "Aikotoba" where she posts her fan fiction novels of Perman. She lives in Osaka, Japan and she also speaks some English. This is the factor that makes me more comfortable tweeting to her. Besides Perman, she is also a fan of TVXQ, Arashi (influenced from Kaibutsu-kun TV drama where Satoshi Ohno becomes Kaibutsu-kun, One Direction (English boy band) and the Japanese police comedy-drama series Bayside Shakedown.

Other twitter followers who follow me are also Perman fans and also my family members and relatives. Perman fans such as @yoneemon, @PAT_I_SUMER, @kagemaki_k and @KAGE64. I also follow twitter handles that tweet about links to news items. Much of the news items I used are for my edits for Wikipedia articles that I make.

In my blog, I would usually talk about events that happen around me, reviews about TV programmes that I watched, my interests and pictures taken by me. I also labeled each blogposts according to what content I typed.

Without these social media sites, it would be impossible to make out such things in this information age. I don't want to miss out on anything brand new.

Majalah 3 on September 1, 2012 about Berita Harian

Tonight's Majalah 3 is all about Berita Harian, a local Malay newspaper by New Straits Times Press, a company of Media Prima. Several months ago, Majalah 3 has a new montage to replace the old one that has a new recomposed theme.

It starts off with a reporter and a cameraman spying on some people making a transaction on wanting to have a degree which is actually "fake diplomas". The day before at Balai Berita Bangsar at Jalan Riong, the headquarters of Berita Harian, the reporter and camera made a meeting with Berita Harian's journalists and editors. The journalists receive information from sources via e-mail.

After the first commercial break, it concentrates on the departments of Berita Harian. The photography unit is home to some veteran photographers who have experience in capturing historical events. Noor Azmi Mat Noor, one of the photographers in Berita Harian has experiences capturing events of Hari Merdeka. One of his tricks for capturing pictures is the photographer tells the people who wants to be featured in a picture to say Merdeka and then the photographer capture it. Another photographer, Loh Chok Heng, has exeprience of doing photojournalism for four decades. Mat Salim Shaari says that sometimes their photography assignments would be interrupted during bad weather.

Abdul Samad Ismail was the first editor-in-chief for Berita Harian in 1958. Datuk Mior Kamarul Shahid is the current editor for the newspaper. He says that there were many differences between the past and the present in making resources for a news item. Berita Harian has changed as time evolves. I've also seen Berita Harian's 1970's masthead design for the first time.

Berita Harian's interactive services are its internet website, and its social network services Facebook and Twitter. Khairul Asraf Abdul Aziz who works in the IT department, works as a web designer. His tasks are doing latest news updates in its internet website and spread the word to social network. Mohd Zaeem Salim, on the other hand, does his work on the layout for the newspaper's tablet version. Berita Harian's tablet version is available on iPad. He says that the tablet version has a more magazine feel (I also feel the same too!). It publishes every week and most of the articles are exclusive to the edition. Mior (the editor-in-chief which I said earlier) says that the mainstream media must use new media to help the continuation of the media.

After the second commercial break, the episode concentrates on the process in making the next day's newspaper. At 5:00 pm, the editors have a really important meeting - the editorial meeting. The editors discuss about which news will make to tomorrow's edition. Its news items must be critical and unbiased. I can also see a multitude of screens at the top of the meeting room screening most of Berita Harian's print version pages.

Mior says that Berita Harian initially was a carbon copy of New Straits Times, later becoming a self-recognised newspaper with its own team of journalists.

At 9:00 pm, the staff in the newsroom are really busy preparing for tomorrow's edition. They edit the news items written by the journalists. Editing was made to ensure the news items' content follows the newspapers' language style and information content.

In the graphic unit, many staff are busy making layout design for printing. Nur Amalina Jaafar changes byline and does some layout to the newspaper. Saiful Hanafi makes out some really careful touches to the front page of the newspaper. He receives material from the editor-in-chief. They have 45 minutes to complete the task. This task is done between 10 and 10:30 pm. The offstone time is at about 11:00 pm. "Offstone" is a jargon used by the staff in the newspaper making business.

After the third commercial break, the episode continues to concentrate about the preparations for tomorrow's edition. Mahfar Ali, the deputy editor of Berita Harian says that the editors must find suitable words for a news item "to get the 'oomph' factor for news.

At 1:00 am, the staff at Balai Berita Shah Alam, NSTP's newspaper printing plant are busy making preparations for tomorrow's newspaper. The newspaper's content are sent to Shah Alam for pre-press making. The staff checks for important information such as place of printing, KDN permit number and date of publication. The plate making is the process of making inserting printed materials in the middle point of between the physical and the newspaper copy. Later is was bend to be mounded on a cylinder for print.

The newspaper is published in high grade recycled paper. More than 500,000 copies were made everyday.

After the last commercial break, the episode concentrates on the making of the article about fake diplomas. The journalist has to find interesting materials for her article. She finds good pictures to suit the article in a system after the taken pictures were handpicked by the photographer who had chose the best shots. The journalist is interested in social issues.

At 3:00 am at Balai Berita Shah Alam, the day's newspaper are printed. NSTP also has printing plants in Seberang Prai, Penang; Ajil in Terengganu and Senai in Johor. (The episode didn't mention that Berita Harian is also printed in Sabah and Sarawak and is also available at the states' newsstands when it arrives in the morning instead of the afternoon. This was started in January 2012). Paid workers then began organising the newspaper bundles to be sent by lorries.

At 4:00 am, the newspaper copies arrived at the designated areas, including one in Market Square near HSBC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. The newspaper vendors then organise the newspapers' sections and then arrive at newsstands.

To conclude the episode, Meor pointed out that Berita Harian evolved from having broadsheet sized to tabloid size and also interacting with the social media. Berita Harian has many segments each targeting a every member of a family.

PS: I've written this blogpost by refering to my written notes and then compiled to here. I think I have written this blogpost to my best.

#Merdeka55

Yesterday (August 31) in the evening was the "Himpunan Janji Ditepati" at Stadium Nasional Bukit Jalil Kuala Lumpur. The event uses Twitter as its social media tool. The most interesting part of this event was tweeting messages of patriotism with the hashtag #Merdeka55. The event targets to make a record of having over a million tweets between 8:15 and 9:15 pm. 

Here are some pictures of the event as seen on TV...

Starting off with a speech by Rais Yatim

A rather 1Malaysia feeling speech by Najib Razak! He initiated the spirit of 1Malaysia by making many transformation programmes, including 1M4U 

The historical moment when Najib tweets about #Merdeka55 on his iPad, accompanied by some of his cabinet's ministers. He wants to appreciate all twitter users for the tweets hashtaged with #Merdeka55.

Several minutes later, an official announcement came out from Rais Yatim. Two records have been made for the Malaysia Book of Records. Both of them are about tweets hashtaged #Merdeka55 during the 8:15-9:15 pm period. 10,128 participants for the event in the stadium have tweeted to Najib Razak using the #Merdeka55 hashtag while there were 3,611,323 tweets made by Malaysian Twitter users tweeted using #Merdeka55. The ceremony of the certification for both records will be made at the Hari Malaysia parade celebrations in Sarawak on Sept 16.

Tahniah dan Syabas!

Tweet Merdeka!