An evening out with friends at the Mybox Karaoke, Taman Merdeka Permai

Tomorrow was a working day for practically everyone, except for those of us working in companies that have an additional planned shut-down. Thus, this extra long weekend is as good a reason for an outing with friends.

There are many karaoke enthusiasts in our circle of friends. Contrary to common belief, you don't have to be a great singer to participate in this karaoke activity, though you may have to be a good listener.... :)

Soo busy selecting songs to sing, while Amelia and Desmond belt out the tunes

Karaoke is quite popular in the East, most probably we have the Japanese to thank (or to frown at) for this invention. It's basically a sound system where your selected song is played, often without the lead vocals, which is then your duty to sing out instead. Nowadays, there are many shop houses being converted to karaoke establishments (one such other place is Crazy Mike at Bukit Beruang). The sound-proofed rooms are often small, with a seating capacity of typically 4-6 people (though sometimes there are larger rooms for bigger group function). The latest in multimedia technology is often employed, as the owners bid to outdo the competition and attract loyal customers. You'll find no less than an LCD/LED TV, touch-screen song selection systems and availability of light refreshments and drinks to complement the sound system. Of course, membership buys you better rates and promotions, to further encourage returning customers.

A typical small cozy karaoke room, where your group can sing to your hearts' content

Back to our planned outing. We planned to meet up at 8.00pm at My Box, Taman Merdeka Permai. It's not on the current version of Google Maps, but you can check out the My Box website for further details, including a rough map to the location. This time, our company was made up of Soo WF (surprised me that she was into this activity), Chea Thin, Amelia, Desmond, and Ms Lai (new material planner, taking over from Chong SL who left Vishay earlier this year in May). It was unfortunate that Steven (who was on business trip overseas) and Chong SC (out station on holiday), our regular group members, could not join today.

It's not quite possible to write details of our karaoke activity in a blog post, without being overly verbose, so to summarize the experience of this evening, in my humble opinion:-

1. A cup of hot Milo and a cup of hot Nescafe 3-in-1 are virtually indistinguishable in dim lighting.

So we learned today, as I ended up drinking that which was not ordered by me, and vice versa with respect to Soo.

2. Remember, they charge by the hour.

So, don't go in and pay first if you're all alone and not wiling to start singing. To maximize the time, either make sure everyone is really punctual or wait outside until the group is assembled before entering.

3. Touch-screens are better than the older system (look up song number in the hardcopy file and key in the song number), but the system is a bit unresponsive. Also, the songs were not organized a user-friendly manner, so flipping through pages one by one of a total >900 available was quite tiring. The listings weren't in any particular order, so English, Chinese, Malay groups and singers were all lumped together. The search function wasn't too useful too. Lastly, since it is a touch screen - **Remember to wash your hands after use!!!**

Guess what drink is on the table (not the Coke) - Milo or Nescafe 3-in-1? In the background, Soo still working on the Star Trek - like panel (unfortunately, high tech but let down by the disorganized song list)

I brought along my DSLR (P&S would have been useless), and in the confines of the dark room, I had mounted on a 10-20mm ultra-wide zoom (which is why you see heavily distortion). Staying off the flash for natural lighting requires a high ISO setting, which is evident in the noise seen in the photos, even after shrinking for publishing on the web. A good thing though is that using such a wide lens is very forgiving in terms of focusing, since the depth of field is huge. This is the *other* approach to photography, using wide angle lenses for that "in your face" perspective. This makes you feel like part of the action, as opposed to using a fast telephoto zoom for "sniper duty", which was what I did in the recent musical event at Heng Ann Association.

Well, in the end, we all had a great time together. Good to be happy and friends not only in the office, but outside the office as well. A big thank you to Chea Thin for pulling everyone together for this event. Already, plans are in the works for yet another outing coming up at the end of the month, but that is another story for a blog post yet to come.... :)

Everyone here and accounted for, except perhaps myself (you can just see the reflection of my shadow on the left side, in the mirror). Well, the cameraman is usually behind the camera, after all....