Brand Bowl & a midget Darth Vader

As is the tradition, every time the Super Bowl comes around you have a huge bunch of corporates running around creating various TVCs that they want to air during that time, seeing as almost the entire North American populace is watching the telly. Not including Canada of course. Or Alaska.

Brands usually spend the around the same as the GDP of an African nation to secure a spot during the Super Bowl. Suffice to say, getting a spot is quite the pinch to the wallet, so much so that even the Super Bowl organizers do their own bit to track overall sentiment and who basically wins the Brand Bowl. Many iconic TVCs have been conceived, produced, aired and made popular by the Super Bowl. In fact, PepsiCo has been notorious for creating some of their most popular ads for the Super Bowl spots, including the celebrity gladiator match with Beyonce, Pink, Britney Spears or the Pepsi Stuff ad with Justin Timberlake.

Come Super Bowl 2011, companies release their ads to the hungry eyes of the world to see. At the time however, young Mali was asleep. The following morning finds young Mali sitting at his terminal at work, clicking and typing away furiously, social media guru that he is. (Yes, Mali occasionally refers to himself in third person). His good friend Arun linked him to something. He said it was a Super Bowl ad. He said I'd like it.

One minute and two seconds later, total productivity = zilch. Amazement = +infinity. Star Wars fanboy = +500 Force.

What I liked about this ad, besides a bite sized Darth Vader, was that the parent played along and boosted the child's imagination. It also represented VW in a more relaxed fashion, playing along consumer passion points. T'was refreshing!

My bid goes to VW for this year's superbowl. Have you guys seen their Beetle ad yet?

Twiddiction

Image via CrunchBase

Right.

I've an excuse. Really. I'm addicted. The only reason I've not blogged in so long is because I'm addicted. Yes, it's true. It's called Twitter.


I could go on about my addiction to that service for quite some time now, but I really shouldn't and should spend some time to focus on this post.

* At this point the date is now the 20th of February. This post was created on the 14th. Twitter is slowly taking over things. *

So for my first meaningful post in all of February, I'm quite surprised as to how quickly Twitter has grown onto me, and I'm hoping that I'll be able to somehow find time to live my life in between all my tweeting. It's come to the point where I'm considering the purchase of an iPhone or BlackBerry just so that I can stay updated and update my tweets while on the move. Time spent away from my computer makes me constantly think of Twitter and all the tweets that I'm going to have to catch up on once I'm back at my workstation at home. Wow. It's so pathetic BUT I LOVE IT!

Anyway, February has been a relatively eventful month. On the 12th we had the Twestival at Barasti at Le Meridian Mina Seyahi and I attended that along with Lhjunkie. It was fun! We met a whole bunch of people that we only knew as screen names and avatars. It was great fun getting faces for the names. It was also interesting how we referred to each other by the screen names. People like "DaddyBird", "MBzle" etc. Soon after that we also took the time to go meet DaddyBird again on the 16th for his birthday.

Hmm, something else happened in February too that I wanted to blog about at the time, but I can't seem to recall it now.

My eldest brother, Masroor, and his family left for the USA for good. It was always on the cards, but when he actually left, it was weird. I remember telling myself that I won't really mind him leaving because it's not like I'm going to miss him or anything. But on the morning of 14th of February at the airport, I realized how much I was going to miss my brother. Sure we had fights a lot and I'd swear at him (in my mind) but now that he's gone I really miss him. He was the moderator of the house and it was always fun having him around. He also kept me grounded and my big ego needs someone who can pop the bubble from floating and keep me firmly on the ground. Masroor used to do that. I miss him :(

Oh well, too bad he'll never read this. He used to make fun of my blog a lot too.. moron..

Either way, now that I've finally gotten down to writing this post, I'm hoping that it will help me snap out of Twitterdiction and let me focus on writing some more articles.

More posts as addiction is controlled!!!

Cheers!


M


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(PS. OMG I'VE NOT UPDATED THE WEEKLY STUPIDS IN FOREVER!!!! Somebody shoot me.)

Hee Hee EEEEEEE

Hehe hehe hehe HAHAHAH STOPTEHTICKELS!!!

M


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Just a personal update :)

January 2009 is over. The first month of 2009, which I intend to make an awesome year, has been up to par so far, and I'm fairly happy. Exams went well, I'm growing my profile as an MC or Host or Stage Manager, am starting to work in Dad's company more and all around progress in all fields. School reopens on the 8th, so I've got that long to relax before I get back to the University grind.

Unfortunately for me, earlier this month my hard drive was damaged by a dear friend of mine, and the data was unrecoverable and the hard drive was fried. My friend was deeply apologetic, and was sweet enough to reimburse me with a brand new hard drive with the same capacity. Albeit I lost all my data (AND MY MUSIC WTF!!!!) but she's really decent and I couldn't thank her enough. I went to the beach yesterday and gave my old hard drive a burial. The whole nine yards. Toy spade, rocks to mark the grave, sea shells to decorate and everything. T'was an awesome night.

Here is picture of above mentioned grave.


For reasons yet unexplained, the picture refuses to load the right way up, so you're gonna have to tilt your head to your right so see it from the angle that the picture was taken.

So that was yesterday. A lot of guests coming down in the next few days. My eldest brother will be leaving the UAE and heading back to USA for a few years. so we've got a bunch of folks goming down here from all around the place to see him off. My brother from Egypt, an aunt from India, my brother's in-laws, his friends etc etc. A flurry of activity around the house really, and February's probably going to be a busy busy month. A busy and crowded month. Bright side is I get to see the kids and that's always a good thing.

The fact that the kids have grown, means I will have to hide a lot of my stuff. Stuff that can be broken. Stuff that can be dangerous. Stuff that I only have one of and so can't share it with the kids. All these things will have to be hidden if I am to avoid any damages/losses to or of these items as well as to prevent fights amongst the kids.

the 26th of January is the Indian Republic Day, and on that night, I hosted a fashion show at the house of the Consil General of India. It was a part charity part university promortion fashion show, but it was a good one. Met a lot of interesting people there, including the Consul General of India Venu Rajamony, the Consul General of Britain, France, Guineau, China, South Korea, Thailand and many other dignitaries. Also met a fellow Tweeter PKGulati and his wife. Was nice to run into them.

I also took part in a little blogging experiment that T held, and submitted a guest post on the topic of change on his blog. If you haven't already read it, give it a read here.

Either way, that was January 2009 for me. Moving in to February in a couple of minutes or so. Let's keep it going, shall we?

M


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So like our EP's out man...

My band is called Tree-Graded Space. We began in Jeff's garage about 2 and a half years ago. It took us a while to find our roots but we settled in for post punk, pseudo rebellious, carefree music. Bart Simpson is the cartoon manifestation of what we play.

Our first album'll be hitting stores next month, and it's called, 'Keeping Up With Yesterday.' It's all about procrastination and it's perks.

This album cover was selected from Flickr, and it shows how the plastic nature of today's foliage. And the odd child here and there.



Thanks T!

Cheers!


M



PS.

Play the game:

1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random The first article title on the page is the name of your band.

2. http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.

3. http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/ The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

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Help Save Wikipedia!

Every child in today's generation has used Wikimedia to his or her advantage. Research, projects, assignments or homework, we've all referred to the online encyclopedia. And not only our generation, but absolutely anyone with a computer and internet at their disposal has gone to Wikipedia in search for answers.

All this year we've been seeing a little bar on the top of Wikipedia's pages asking for donations to help keep the monster of a website running. If you go back now, you'll see in it's place a message from the founder Jimmy Wales...

-x-x-x-

As I wrote that last sentence, I opened up a new tab and went to the Wiki page so as to link a few words to the message and instead I found that Wikipedia had finally reached their target donations and the new banner was now a thank you from Jimmy Wales. Looks like they reached their targets. But still, if anyone who reads this can afford to, then please donate to the largest free online encyclopedia and source of free information and knowledge to internet citizens. Anything helps

I'll leave you with this funny little strip from XKCD about Wikipedia. It's quite... precise?






:)

I was gonna do my little bit in trying to help Wikipedia stay afloat. Thankfully, it's already done!

Who'd've thunked?!


M


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Two Oh Oh Nine!

(funny fact: I opened up this window to start this post, wrote in the title, and they typed nothing in for 2 days. Window was minimised and I just went about doing other stuff. Today I opened it again and was like OH THAT'S WHERE IT WENT!)


Well, procrastination is one way to start the new year, albeit not the most effective way. But hey, it's THE start. GFWMG officially ushers in 2009 with this post, with a more positive outlook and a few minor changes to the layout of the blog. I now try to advertise (and link to) my favourite webcomics. 6 links have been interspersed throughout the blog and will add some colour here. Also it'll give you an idea as to the influences of my sense of humour. A quick list beckons:

1. Questionable Content
2. Least I Could Do
3. XKCD
4. Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
5. Cyanide & Happiness
6. Dr. McNinja

Now that the new year has rolled in, it means so have my semester end papers. In a week, I begin my exams and start with Economy & Business in the UAE. One of my favourite topics (Econ) blended with the country I live in. Ingenious! The crappy thing about my papers is that they continue without break, so it means I have one paper after another. The flip side of that is that I get to finish in 6 days.

I went out to a New Years party with some friends, and suffice to say, I had a lot more fun than I originally thought I would. I had an inkling that it would be fun, but it turned out a lot better than I imagined. I wanna do it again!

I was asked if I was going to make any New Year resolutions (and not like: I'm gonna lose some weight) and I didn't have to think much. There are a few things I'd like done. Firstly, I want to regain my mojo. I'm already on a fast track there, but I want to hit it YESTERDAY! I want to learn to be more content with my life. I want to learn when to limit myself, in many ways. I want to increase my work ethic. I'm also going to try and work harder to remain in touch with people. It's surprising how many people you can let go of, just because you didn't try hard enough. And you tend to let go of the nice ones, so I'm gonna try and turn that around for myself.

This year, I want to do something more interesting during the summer. I've not given it much thought, but all I know is that summer of '09 is going to be a lot better than the last two summers that I've had. Just need to figure out what it is I'm going to do. India (GOA!) is an option, along with Hawaii, NYC, DC, Houston and Russia with the Cookie Monster. A few of my friends from University also plan on hitting Goa this summer, maybe I'll go with. Or maybe I can try and go someplace for like 2 weeks, but work in a great place the remainder of the time. That would be ideal, but I've got a good 5 months to fuss over what it is that I want to do this summer.

I will also look to this year to really boost my professional side. Gonna try and actively pursue careers in Public Speaking & MC-ing, the media industry and also in the gaming industry via a few contacts that I made in these industries. As for my degree, if all goes according to plan, I ideally would want to do something related to my degree in one of these industries. Hopefully I'll pursue my secondary hobbies (becoming a Game Tester, or, a TV Reporter, or, an Anchorman) along with.

And with that, I'm tying my shoes and rolling up my sleeves.


2009, bring it!


M


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100 things everyone ought to do..

tole this off T who, well, stole this off another blogger. Hmm. I really should stop ripping him off...

Or not.

100 things that everyone should do.

Those in bold = done
Those in italics = really really wanna do

1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a preying mantis
10. Sung a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched lightning at sea
14. Taught myself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child [LNZA =) ]
16. Had food poisoning (could you imagine it if THIS was in italics..)
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown my own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught myself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance (yes. it's true. I DO want it)
47. Had my portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (How about ONLY killed?)
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Ridden an elephant

So that was my version of the same. Hope you liked it!


M


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Long time coming..

How can this not make you smile?



At least SOMEONE got to do it..


M


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Zack & Miri Make a Porno..

My brother is SO gonna talk to me about this one..... (And I'm SO watching this movie)



I LOVE THE MOVIES

xD



M




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I can SO relate to Marten and Dora..

Totally... Story of my life..

Although we normally went, 'Hmm. Hmm Hmm Hmm..'

:)



M




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GOBAMAGO!!!!

Everyone's heard of LOLcats. From one of their branches, I present:

LOLPolitics...


I scoured the website to bring you some of their funniest shit. Most of 'em are anti-McCain, but there are a few that were just WAY cool..

:D

[Forgive the terrible formatting.. Wasn't able to outsmart Blogger's not so great picture upload thing... :( ]







































































































































xx



M




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I love MSN... (sometimes) .. & Comic Timing.. (all the time)

LOLZMORF!!!!!!!


Moe says (2:00 PM):
Was it all uncomfortable and shit?
MaWreeNa says (1:59 PM):
no things are good now :)
MaWreeNa says (1:59 PM):
VERY good
Moe says (2:00 PM):
YAAAAY!
Moe says (2:00 PM):
You made out, a LOT, huh?
MaWreeNa says (2:00 PM):
NO
Moe says (2:01 PM):
xD
Moe says (2:01 PM):
(That was funny.. and it's going on to my blog.. :D)
MaWreeNa says (2:01 PM):
i swear
MaWreeNa says (2:01 PM):
we didnt make out. we were at the airport. airport got LOTS of cops



xx



M




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Twice friendly?

Ok, so I did the Spiderman thing before, but I couldn't help but put this one up as well....





xD




M




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I always wondered if Spiderman was anatomically correct...

It's been awhile since I started reading webcomics, thanks to her, and well I've come across some novel examples of awesome humour. This strip for example:





Hahahaha lolwtf..



M




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I rest my case..

I've blogged this video before, but I just HAVE to do it again. This time with subtitles.



That's all I have to say to ANY redneck smartmouthing the Middle East or Muslims in general..


M

And we're back online folks!

So it's been awhile since I blogged. 'Bout 2 months anyway.

Been busy and all that, but I assure you, after THIS entertaining filler, I WILL give you guys a proper post and tell you what's what in Mali's World.

Either way check this out. This cracked me up.


RULES:
1. Put Your itunes, windows media player etc on Shuffle
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS


So I saw this on Facebook in the morning of my Marketing Paper.. Here are my replies:


IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
M.I.A - Avenged Sevenfold

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Save The Population - Red Hot Chili Peppers (Yes. With my raging sperm count)

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Freak On A Leash (NIN Remix) - Korn (HAHAHAHA OMG!!! <3 )

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Mobile - Avril Lavigne

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Illegal I Song - Velvet Revolver

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Ceiling Unlimited - Rush (Apparently I'd do well in Real Estate)

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Kiss From A Rose - Seal (Hmm. Not too bad)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?
Weak & Powerless - A Perfect Circle (OMG ITUNES HAS A SICK SENSE OF HUMOUR. If only it met my parents. We'd see who's Weak and Powerless THEN puny apple inc. software)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Numb - Linkin Park (heh.. right)

WHAT IS 2+2?
Thorn Within - Metallica (Yea I eat pain for breakfast)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
For You - Coldplay (Aww)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Come Clarity - In Flames (WICKED! Wow, I almost believe that I'm setting this up, but no it really IS iTunes)

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Empty Apartment - Yellowcard (See. Real Estate. Again. Wtf.)

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
It's Only Us - Robbie Williams (W.T.F.)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
American Life - Madonna (Appropriate.. My parents keep telling me that anyway)

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Judgement Strikes (Unbreakable) - Hatebreed (That would be awkward. Considering all the religious folk there. I don't think they'd appreciate the headbanging)

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Hanging By A Moment - Lifehouse (But.. But.. I'm ALREADY dead..)

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Drown Me Slowly - Audioslave (Yeah.. iTunes really enjoys itself)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
Room 21 - Hinder (oooooh aaaaah random room fear. MOVIE!)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Heaven - Lost Lonely Boys (?)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS? Slide (Acoustic) - Goo Goo Dolls


__________


Some of it was kinda interesting. Others, not so much.


Either way, more updates VERY soon!


Cheers!


M

Oh Oh look!!! NEW POST!

Yeah.. New post.. :P

Look Look videeo$!!




:D



M

One Oh Oh

So this is my big 100th (one hundredth) post.

Now that I'm here I really don't know what to say. I sat down to write something and realized I was writing purely due to the fact that I had to write a hundredth post.

I guess we all get that at some point in our lives. The desire to seek acceptance or, more importantly, recognition creeps into everyone's heart one way or another. Implicitly or Explicitly. Consciously or Subconsciously. It hits you. And you know it does because you realize it but you choose to ignore it. You feel it and you know it's there lurking in the veins that run through you but you choose to believe that you're doing it because that's who you are.

Meh.

I do not wish to be morbid and so I shall end this post with a lovely display of hilariousness.

How to have Anal Sex with your Girlfriend:



:D

M

MUST BLOG THIS!

The moment I saw this video I KNEW I was blogging it.

It speaks for itself...




xD


M