Bad luck struck me today. The ceiling fan in my living room just broke down.

My ceiling fan had always been switched on all the time. It’s the jack-of-many-trades, useful in nearly every home space and in virtually every décor. It’s also a necessity for us to cut down on our utility bills, you won’t want to max out your bill charges don’t ya?

But yeah, my ceiling fan broke down today. What a pity, so I’m guessing we’re gonna go shop for a new ceiling fan now. I’ve been hearing those radio ads, KDK safety feature fans… Been researching about it and it looks pretty good. A consumer should purchase a fan that has a good motor, that is energy efficient and most importantly it is SAFE. So yeah, I’ve been thinking about that KDK fan.

What you guys think about it? Any of you have KDK fans at your home?

Amazing Everyday.

The Nokia Lumia 800 is the first child of the marriage of Nokia & Microsoft – the first true Windows Phone. Nokia Malaysia was kind enough to pass me a unit to try it out and what have I gotta say?

Simply Amazing.

Nokia Lumia 800 is a stylish and sleek smartphone with an easy-to-use & attractive user interface. It utilises ClearBlack display whose super bright display makes it perfect for people on the move. The AMOLED screen on the Lumia 800 is very nice to look at. It may not go as bright as S-LCD equivalents, but the colours are deep and lustrous and blacks are truly black.

It’s an amazing smartphone for social media addicts especially as it comes pre-loaded with Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms where you can integrate your phonebook contacts with their social media profiles and check their updates right from it. GPS is also available out of the box as its Nokia Maps is perfectly made for people who often gets lost in their way to a certain destination haha. It also has an extensive app library in the name of Windows Marketplace. Although not as extensive as Apple Store or Android Marketplace, they’re surely on their way there. Microsoft Office is also pre-installed in every Nokia Lumia 800 and it makes it convenient for people to check their documents/presentation slides/excel sheets/etc.

I’ve found the battery life to be no more than adequate. Even with no usage at all during the day, apart from being left on standby, I’ve seen the battery charge drop from 100% in the morning to 30% before the night ends. Some phone calls, web surfing and a few texts in the course of a day plus use of email account and social media updates have seen it drop down to 15% by early evening. But fret not, as I heard that Nokia came out with new firmware to help extend the battery life of the Lumia 800 (which I haven’t updated yet).

The Lumia has a well specified camera with 8 megapixel resolution via a Carl Zeiss lens and dual LED flash. It is also capable of shooting 720p videos. In common with other Windows Phone devices, the Lumia has a ‘touch to focus and shoot’ facility- tapping the subject on the screen can cause the focus to centre and then expose the shot automatically. Alternatively a half press on the camera button sets the focus and a full press takes the shot. My verdict for the camera? It shoots good daylight photos with natural colours (which is awesome), but in low light and macro shots, it definitely need more improvements as the camera from other major flagship phones out there definitely beat down the camera quality output from this Lumia 800.

Overall, the experience from the Nokia Lumia 800 is something worth holding onto. The Windows operating system itself is so engaging and enabling. This phone does pretty much everything you’d expect from a smartphone and more and it isn’t overly expensive either. It isn’t the lightest handset out there but its smooth curves make it a joy to hold. Yes, the phone has bearable imperfections but that’s how technology works anyway because you can’t have the perfect device otherwise there won’t be any upcoming better devices in future. That’s why Nokia is constantly providing support and pushing out fixes and updates.

Of course you may be too comfortable with your current iOS / Android platform, and I know that a change is sometimes too difficult to be made due to various factors. However if you don’t try to step out of your comfort zone, what would be your compasses towards future growth?

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Here are some of my peers’ feedback regarding the Nokia Lumia 800:

Previously I blogged about FlyFM Paranoid Activities – week 1, and now it’s time for WEEK 2!

Paranoid activitiessss~

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Challenge 1 : FlyFM Ratatouille

Iskandar bidded for RM2525 to do the challenge… what’s the challenge? Easy only… heh

Within 40 seconds, Iskandar had to pick out the items on the list (5x 10cents coin, 3x hair pins, 2x wall plugs)

Too bad, he failed to finish on time. However he was given another 10 seconds to pick out the remaining and he managed to finish the task within 5 seconds!

Great job Iskandar, easy money for him as he brought home RM3000!

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Challenge 2 : FlyFM Torpedo Challenge

Renuga Devi had to finish a bowl of torpedo soup for RM2410. You know what’s ‘torpedo soup’ right? It’s… Ox’s penis!!! Ewww gurl.

She managed to finish the bowl of delicious torpedo soup without a problem and she got double dared to eat an extra ox’s tongue for RM3500!!

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Challenge 3 : FlyFM Happy Mansion

Ng Boon Teong bidded the challenge for RM1159, and his task was to walk in the ‘Happy Mansion’ @ Sunway Lagoon Scream Park confidently without fear. He had to grab 5x New Straits Times newspaper in the process as well.

He came out with 3 copies of News Straits Times and was challenged again to collect 2 more in 10 minutes with the condition that they will deduct RM100 for each paper if he don’t get it out. In the end, he only manage to get one paper out and lost RM100 which total up to RM1,059. Still quite a sum of money right, so easy weh!

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Challenge 4 : FlyFM Reverse Bungee

The starting bid for this challenge was RM8000, however the daredevil Abidah won the bid with only RM249! Damn girl, should have bidded higher haha.

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It was a fun and exciting week with exhilarating challenges! All thanks to Sunway Lagoon for providing the FlyFM crew the venue to carry out the stunts

Are you BOLD enough to face your fears?

If you still remember the show ‘Fear Factor‘ on TV where contestants had to complete extreme stunts, consume gross creature crawlies, face their nightmare experiences all in one show; now we have a somewhat similar local version of it and it’s on national radio.

FlyFM Paranoid Activity (co-organized by New Straits Times) offers up to RM40,000 for contestants who bid for the daring challenges each day to overcome their fears.

That’s a pretty huge amount of cash, eyh? Who says facing your fears isn’t worth it?

Here are some of the challenges during the past week:

Challenge 1 : FlyFM Paranoia’s Next Top Model

Zuhaili won the lowest bid at RM2 to take on the very first challenge of FlyFM Paranoid Activity.

His challenge was to pose in front of the camera… with reptiles/creatures! He seemed pretty comfortable with all the geckos, snakes and all because apparently he works in Sunway Lagoon Wildlife Park. However, he’s really afraid of spiders (hehe..)

At the end of the day, he managed to complete the challenge. Not only he got himself his RM2, but he also got an extra RM1000 for being double dared and being so sporting with the tasks although he has arachnophobia (fear of spiders)!

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Challenge 2 : FlyFM Brew of the Day

Chef Shamsudin blended a mixture of chicken liver, oats, milk, wasabi, milo, and egg plant for Sunny, FlyFM Paranoid Activity’s second contestant. The starting amount to bid was RM9500 and he won the bid for RM95.8! He thinks he can get it through easily just because he bid for 95.8 (FlyFM radio frequency)? Ha ha ha.

Well yeah, Sunny downed the first glass like a chanpion. He was then double dared to drink the same second glass in 60 seconds for RM1,500 and he walked away with RM 1,595.80 at the end of the challenge! Wow super easy money, me thinks.

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Challenge 3 : FlyFM Sniper on the Loose

As for this challenge, the contestant has to evade himself from being hit by the paintball. He has to run for his life and will lose RM100 for every shot he has on his body.

He got shot 5 times in 15 seconds, lol poor guy. However FlyFM was generous enough to give him a second chance! He was able to go through the entire shooting ground without getting shot and he walked away with RM1000 at the end of the day. Easy peasy!

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Challenge 4 : FlyFM Blindfolded Wheel

Muhammad Aizad took the challenge and he tried 5 times and failed. And as usual being the generous radio station, the FlyFM peeps decided to give him a second chance! He managed to go through 50m on a bumpy ground and walked home RM1000 richer on that day! Worth it, yes?

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Challenge 5 : FlyFM The Swamp

As for this challenge… ewww. Challenger Ruben Ravi Fernandez has to retrieve 15 earthworms within 5 minutes!

Although he failed the first 5 minutes challenge as the mud was too deep in, he got another chance to overcome his fear for worms. He managed to retrieve 13 worms during the second chance but an extra 30 seconds was given to him to complete the challenge (how kind FlyFM?).

At the end of the day although he didn’t really successfully completed the challenge on time, he still walked away with RM250 in his pocket yo!

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Tune in to the Pagi Rock Crew every Monday to Thursday from 6am to 10am, and listen as they reveal the challenge of the day and the starting price. Call in, or text FLY <space> PA <space> BID VALUE to 33399, and show them just how low you can go from the starting price to face your fears! The lowest bidder of the day will be the one that gets to execute the challenge. Bidding closes at 7pm daily, and another round will begin the next day.

That’s not all! Every Friday, there’ll be an unexpected Mystery Friday revealed in New Straits Times. Listeners have to grab a copy of the newspaper to find out what the challenge and starting price is, and the search for the lowest bidder will continue on air. The 5 lowest bidders at the end of each week will take on their fears on the ground, and must successfully complete the challenge that they bid for to walk away with that cash cow!

Stay tuned as I’ll update you on the second week of the FlyFM Paranoid Activity