Linolumixa's Notebook.

This post discusses IKEA's move to use Verdana, a typeface mainly used for its notable legibility on web pages, but also closely associated with Microsoft. In-between paragraphs are images of IKEA which I have captured for the past four years (serving mainly as a documentation of the transition and a last look at IKEA before Verdana).

First, let's know about Verdana's origins (but this, you can Google it yourself).

Second, let's think of where we usually see Verdana being used. After the age of home-made websites read in Times New Roman, along with animated GIFs, 'Sign My Guestbook', MIDI background music and scrolling titles, Verdana came about as the primary typeface of the body text on web pages. One website that sums up what the web looked like in the year 2003 is Myspace (and it still does).

Thankfully Helvetica came to clear things up and became the prominent typeface for the past 4 years. Despite that, Helvetica has been given an unfair treatment, especially by whom I would call militant revivalists and pseudo design practitioners, but that's a totally different story altogether.

Although Verdana is quickly being phased out online, many message boards and online forums today still use this typeface (like lowyat and macrumors, which isn't much of an issue). Very rare do we get to see Verdana in real life, except on printed announcements made on the spur of the moment (like notice boards you'd find in schools).

But all of a sudden, without warning, surprisingly and so on, IKEA is adopting Verdana as a part of its identity, replacing Futura (or a variation of it), which they have been using for decades. Naturally, my reaction was "WTF?!". This was when I downloaded the US edition of the catalogue, released way earlier in August. I noticed the usage of Verdana but subconsciously dismissed it, thinking that it's just some electronic formatting error or something technically similar to that.

Then I noticed many design blogs making a lot of noise about IKEA's latest typographical paradigm shift. Some unsuccessfully defended that it is IKEA's effort to be 'truly accessible', but most protested that it is 'one step backward' and 'a backlash to the utilitarian chic which IKEA has been advocating' (not real quotes; just a summary of the majority of the comments).

This has got me thinking to myself not just why IKEA switch to Verdana, but also the motive behind this degrading decision, what sort of justification IKEA would state for their move, the connection between using Verdana and the 'expected' rise in sales (which company would want to make a move that decrease sales, eh?), and what beauty does IKEA see in Verdana which Futura does not have?

I mean, let's face it. Verdana is not a good-looker in print. Other than that, I won't comment onto the complex details; I'll leave that to the experts. Would it make sense if I were to speculate that Verdana is just some one-off thing and it's back to Futura next year? Probably not. It's not just the catalogue that is being morphed into some Verdana junkyard, but also the store signages and website. However I haven't seen Verdana on its product packaging, but we can expect that soon.

If you can recall, IKEA was using another typeface, a serifed one (which I can vaguely remember seeing it printed on its product packaging and instructional booklets [in off-white recycled paper]) 13 years ago (this was around the same time I first knew of IKEA through their billboard of a cow-print sofa with a copy that says "Home is where IKEA is", located on the Federal Highway somewhere near Angkasapuri).

One way I can think of to refer to this particular typeface is in the picture above, which is a small tray which the restaurant had back in 2006, the one similar to the numbers printed on the DEKAD alarm clock. I am not sure if it had any significance to anyone when IKEA stopped using that typeface. If you are familiar with this, do share it.

So how do I talk about IKEA's switch to Verdana without getting emotional? Not possible. Instead of checking out the lovely new items and room designs and admiring Swedish-looking families in the kitchen, featured in the catalogue like how it should be every year, this year's has got me shaking my head all the way through.

I could go on and on about the horror of Verdana + Microsoft, making very bitter remarks and then conclude that life must go on. But I am not even a typography specialist; if I see a typeface that looks good and has no disturbing connotations with renowned ugly brands like Microsoft, I'll support it. And Verdana is no way one of them.

And while being on topic, I would like to touch on the local IKEA's effort to include the Malay language in their signage, advertisements and promotional items. It's about time IKEA gave recognition to the national language. To this date, all local IKEA catalogues are published in the English language, but I hope there would be a Malay version soon. IKEA is quickly gaining attention from the Malay middle-class (who uses Malay as their first language) market who are getting familiar with the IKEA culture of buying furniture and accessories as frequent as buying groceries. From my own observation, the Malay that is being used in IKEA are mostly English-isms and direct translations. I hope they will improve on this.

Actually, there are many other things I'd like to bring up about IKEA today, like the wonderfulness of the new IKEA PS line, people who don't clean up their tables, a man who spent an hour wrapping his purchases at the wrapping tables before sending it through air mail, and a space age-looking booster seat, but I'm putting the full stop here.

How do you feel about IKEA's switch to Verdana?

I found the house which was used as Meera's residence in the 1995 film Ringgit Kasorrga, which I have written about early this year.

After hearing and seeing the no-longer-existent cenfad, I've been getting nostalgic on the route I used to take twice a week back in the years 2005-2006, for my inconveniently-late drafting class at 6 pm. Starting from my house at 4.30 p.m., it took a brisk 9-minute walk to the LRT station. I spotted at least 4 people in the cabin with white Apple earphones, like mine. An improvement.

Taman Jaya looks quite the same like before. The house at the end of the area, the one which had a nice-looking swimming pool, is no longer visible due to the noise shield [installed quite some time ago].

Many of the squatters in the Pantai Dalam area were burnt / demolished to make way for this new development called 'Bangsar South'. A new, ugly-looking building complex can be seen from the Federal Highway.

10 stations later I reached KLCC. The platform was abnormally warm, even though there weren't many people yet. I surfaced to the concourse level, seeing Rotiboy still baking aromatic bread, and the news stand where I used to buy my monthly dose of ELLEgirl. Before heading to the underpass to the convention centre, I dropped by the news stand at Cold Storage. Now, it has a nice shelf displaying niche fashion magazines, although the shop still makes one move around like a crab.

In the tunnel, the advertisements have obviously changed. I used to walk past Samsung/Chelsea ads, LG air-conditioner ads, but today, it has an iPhone ad in English and Malay.

The ascending escalator took me to the park level, where I would walk past ticketing counters and exhibition halls. This time, there were considerably more passer-bys, chiefly Arab tourists and expo people in suits.

This corridor is directly connected to Traders Hotel, which still has the same-looking lobby.

Out of the hotel and on to Jalan Kia Peng, there were several more familiar sights, like this RapidKL bus parked by the roadside, where its driver would take time to clean their bus and sleep.

I was a little odded out to find a house belonging to the ambassador of Germany. I could have sworn it was Belgium's.

Right after the cross-junction, a new firm has taken over the old house next to cenfad. It's Design Development Centre [DDEC], owned by MARA.

I took a look at this house where I used to by my lunch at the grilled fish stalls behind it. I realised that its architecture and layout greatly resembles that of cenfad's.

At the courtyard, I saw two men playing a game of badminton. I asked them what this place was, and what happened to cenfad next door. Very friendly people. They advised me to check with the receptionist to know more, before continuing their game.

At the reception, I was greeted with a man who was trying to conceal his Kelantanese accent. He allowed me to look at the company's works after I asked him some questions, like is there a connection between DDEC and cenfad [there isn't]. What would describe DDEC best is a design consultancy firm.

I noticed there were people still working, like the CEO, who, even though is not a Mac user [based on his display, anyway], is quite a looker. I particularly enjoyed the see-through floor at the reception area.

For comparison purposes, here are two pictures of the gate, taken from the same location four years apart. The first picture includes some of my former classmates running in the rain, back to class after a lunch of grilled fish. The second picture is the current view.

If anyone's curious on how cenfad's interior design studio looks like now, it's on its way to become a jungle.

Here is the same cross-junction [Jalan Kia Peng x Jalan Stonor], about three years apart.

I walked towards KLCC park, passing by new luxury condominiums, which all look uncreatively-alike, except for The Troika, but only for hanging on to Foster+Partners' design, which is designed so that each unit has a KLCC view.

Actually, the view from the site is more of the KLCC park rather than the twin towers. Other new high-rise homes in the area include The Oval, Suria Stonor, Dua Residency, Stonor Park and an unidentified condominium beside The Binjai's showhouse.

Upon entering the park, I asked the DBKL enforcers hanging about near the under-renovation Masjid Asy-Syakirin if bicycles are allowed in the park [in case I happen to bring mine in for fun]. They told me that you can't ride it, push it, nor carry it. Crepes! But walking along the jogging path is fun enough. Fun to sight-see.

Away from the humidity of the water fountain, I headed to Kinokuniya to read some Bauhaus and Swiss design-related books for about an hour. I went back to the LRT station after some dinner and reached my starting point 5 hours after I left it.

I was walking in a quiet neighbourhood somewhere in the outskirts of KL, where security guards patrol on bicycles, one late afternoon on a weekday. I was walking very, very slow, and noticed a girl lurking about on the sidewalk across the street. She openly sneaked up to me, with a cup of corn flakes in hand. Sentences in italics are spoken by me.

"I've been spying on you,"

First thing I noticed about her is the lack of shoes.

"I prefer to go barefoot. It feels so free..."

In my mind, I thought, "Yes, and maybe one day you'll start to get into nudism,"

"When I am not barefooted, I usually wear my crocs,"
"Every household seems to have them, I notice,"
"The only thing I don't like when not wearing shoes is when I step into sticky floors that are covered in syrup at school,"

"My name is Nisaa' - double 'a' with an apostrophe,"
"No 'Nurul' or 'Nor' or 'Siti' at the beginning?"
"My full name starts with 'Siti', and sometimes my friends mistakenly call me 'Siti Nurhaliza' because our names sound alike in full,"

"I like peanut butter with jam but sometimes I just scoop the peanut butter from the jar and then eat then my mouth will get sticky,"
"And then, will you brush your teeth?"
"No. There's no toothpaste [in my bathroom],"

We passed by some shop houses where all the grocers and cafés were, and received some odd looks from other people, but both of us know we are cooler than them. I decided to take off my shoes when we reached the pavement at the main road.

 "Where is your school?"
"Just next to my house. I am famous for that. My teachers often refer me as the girl who lives right across school,"
"So, that means, if you forget to bring something to school, you can just rush back to your house to get it?"
"No, we're not allowed to leave school while in session,"
"Which school are you going to for your secondary education?"
"Next year we'll be moving to France [pronounced the American way],"
"France? You mean France [pronounced in the British way]?"
"Yup, my dad's company is sending him there. They've got branches all over the world,"
"And what about your mother?"
"She works nearby. Her job is related to construction, and she's always a busy woman,"

We reached Nisaa''s house, which is really just 10 metres away from the school gate. Inside, her siblings, all below the age of ten, are busy playing chess and Risk. This is too ridiculous. I don't even know how to play chess!

Nisaa' brought me to her room which she shares with her younger sister. Here's how she reacted after I gave her some drugs...

No, no drugs were involved. That is just how kids her age act when they are being recorded. She will end her childhood very soon, and will enter teenagehood, and lose all her kiddie wisdom and  perhaps, start wearing shoes. No, I don't want that to happen.

I also taught her how to draw the dojob man.

But she really did read to me the entire book [in a localised American accent (the kind you'd hear from an upper-middle class teenager with a quilted Chanel purse look-alike who enjoys a Mocha Frappuccino on weekends at Pavilion)]!

After all that story-telling, we headed to the dining table, where we waited for Nisaa''s father [referred to as 'Dada']. He burst through the door with plastic bags full of groceries from Mercato. "Come, let's eat. Have you taken your shower, all of you?" he asked his little kiddies.

While eating, Dada asked me the question I do not like to answer - "What are you doing now?". After a few sentences, he start to go on about the goodness of imaging software, and commented, "Even Ansel Adams uses Aperture to make his blacks blacker! You should try it one day,"

After a dinner of rice with black pepper beef, omelette and broccoli, Dada summoned me. "Aina, come and take a look at my comics; I've got some titles you might like," as Dada took me to his bookshelves. He handed me about 5 kg of books. Unfortunately, Dada doesn't read Tintin. But he has mad love for Bone. "Read it. I did, and I literally laughed out loud!". Hm, that explains all the comics I saw at Nisaa''s room.

It was close to nine at night, and Dada got busy in the kitchen with his Jamie Oliver cook book [another trait of an upper-middle class household, or should I say, yuppie], caramelising onions for his spring chicken dish.

"Er, sir, I think I should leave now. My bed time is in thirty minutes,"
"Oh, OK. Which books are you borrowing?"

Due to the majority of the visitors of this Notebook coming from Google searches on 'Cold Storage Jaya One', this post will be all about it. I was there today. The official opening is on this coming Thursday, 16th of April. On to the report...

There are two ways of accessing the supermarket [that I know of]. One is from the basement parking lot [if you're from B1, there's a travelator to lead you to the main floor], and one is from Jalan 13/6, along Wai Sek Kai.

Odd choice of colour [red] for the panel, because Cold Storage's colours are green and blue. The corridors in this side of the building are filled with small shop lots, a current trend in shopping centres where there are many food outlets, convenience and service shops located nearby the supermarket floor.

Just like how it was in Jaya Supermarket, there is a Guardian pharmacy; very good for getting antiseptic cream, cough lozenges, hairspray and vaginal douche.

The supermarket itself is sealed so I didn't get to wander about. It looks bigger than its Section 14 predecessor, has a special deli-looking section, live seafood tanks and organic produce.

By now the security guard was trying to chase me out of the floor, so that's it for now. I may update this post when I visit this place when it's officially open, and compare it to the nearby Jaya Grocer [where I usually shop my groceries at].

There is one more thing missing from this setting. A bookstore! Seriously, there is not one bookstore in the neighbourhood, unlike back in the day when there were two MPHs and one Popular in Section 14 alone. Borders would be a nice addition [so I don't need to travel so far to browse my favourite imported conceptual magazines].

Extra info: The Cold Storage in Section 14 was the finest supermarket around back in the day, and where even our late Tunku Abdul Rahman bought his groceries [my mother told me this]! There is an article on The Star Online about the Tunku launching his book there. Haha!

I took over a hundred of pictures when I was out of my backyard recently, but I won't write it in a regular 'out-of-town weekend in review' method because I don't go by that format anymore.

Somewhere in the southern part of the Malay peninsula...

This special putu piring is yellow in colour, thanks to the turmeric powder added into the flour mix. Only good to eat when it's steaming hot.

These people are serving themselves a lunch of a typical Malay wedding cuisine, which happens a lot during school holidays. You can't see the dishes, because it's supposed to be mysterious.

I had a massive lump of special ais kacang at a food court nearby the Diamond Jubilee Hall, that also serves really tasty roasted char kueh [?] and apparently the best sotong kangkung [according to two SMSs found at the foodie section on the last Sunday Star]. Really tasty Kacang Pool / Foul beans can be found at the same food court, but only for breakfast.

A stall at the Sunday night market near the Larkin Stadium sells Laksa Pening. The stall operator knows it's a typo... and currently waiting for someone to redesign the label.

About a half hour away from the capital is the old capital city of Kota Tinggi [back in the day, I think], which is quite a lifeless place, unless you're into outdoorsy stuff like mining for bauxite in Teluk Ramunia or climbing Gunung Panti [good for collecting mineral water]. The government buildings are apologetically stuck in the 1980s...

Introducing the very first edition of 'Conversations With Strangers', where I have... conversations with strangers. My first subject is Mrs. Majidah Majid, an interior designer originating from Kajang.

On one early Sunday evening, my friend JK and I wandered along Jalan Damansara and found this lady feeding a colony of monkeys. We started a conversation about what she was doing there.

"I live just down the road. My neighbours have seen me feeding the monkeys, and scolded me for doing so. I don't listen to them. There are some people who would come all the way from Ulu Klang to feed this lot. You can see in my car I'd always have six long loaves of bread. I used to feed the monkeys with bananas, but I've noticed that they prefer bread to bananas. I bought this loaf at TMC Bangsar."

"There is a rambutan tree on my lawn, and sometimes the monkeys take some of its fruit. My Japanese neighbours are very annoyed by that. They have a dog, and it has bitten a monkey's bottom before. I feel so sorry for the monkeys. I told my son to not be friends with our neighbour's daughters."

Other than monkeys, Majidah talked about the fate of this area known as Bukit Damansara, one of the greener and well-aged affluent residential area in Kuala Lumpur, mentioning several 'personalities' such as Ling Leong Sik's son and Pak Lah's son-in-law whom she finds "corrupted", and how our politicians wear Hugo Boss suits but behave badly in the Parliament.

After a half hour at the monkey-feeding spot, Majidah invited us to follow her to her house. This is the exciting part, because I never thought I would actually step into one of these million-Ringgit homes.

Green plants are everywhere, even on the exposed brick walls. I wish I knew how to identify plants, so that I can name-drop the hundreds of plant species one can find in the lawn. According to Majidah, the main purpose of the plants is to shield off the noise from the road. The traffic can get quite heavy during weekday evenings.

Inside, JK and I were served some mango juice, and continued our little dialogue. Between quotes you can find photographs of the house's interiors [could be better because sunlight was disappearing], which I have captured with the apartamento aesthetic in mind [I hope I succeed in this].

"My house is made out of Port Dickson fair face bricks, which costs only 10 sen at the time it was built. This land belonged to one of the Chinese engineers who wanted to migrate to England and Australia after the May 13th 1969 attacks. I paid RM 20 000 for this land when the price should have been RM 40 000. This house was completed in the year 1970. The total price for this house was RM 53 000, not including the cabinets. The area is about 7 000 square feet."

"I am 65 years old. After my husband passed away, I started to wear the tudung. Now I am back to being single. I have the freedom to do whatever I want. I think of myself as a liberal person. I believe in hikmah; behind every bad thing, there is always something good coming out of it. My husband is gone, and that's sad, but I get to be independent and live my life the way I like, and that's a good thing. I studied Interior Design in England in the 1960s, and became one of the first interior designers in this country. Only since a few years ago that it is recognised as a profession here. I was a judge at the recent Malaysian International Furniture Fair. It flooded, and many furniture were ruined. I am very sure next year's will be very unsuccessful."

"My cats are sleeping in my room upstairs. One of my grandsons lives with me; his name is Adam. My oldest grandson is now 14 years old. I love to collect ceramics and shells. I never pay the zakat through the government. They would just take the money for themselves. What I do is I help my relatives who are in need of money. Everyday I read newspapers cover-to-cover, including the sports section. But I don't like football. What I like are tennis and golf."

20 minutes and 20 shots later, JK and I put our shoes back on, as it was getting dark. Majidah let us have a peek of her one-week-old BMW 5 series.

In true Malaysian fashion, it took us another 10 minutes to reach the car because we couldn't stop talking about many more random things, such as other neighbours, advice on life, and a hilarious comment on a wife of a prominent politician.

"The family living opposite of my house are very well-bred. All of the children are now working as an accountant, lawyer, engineer. When you go overseas, don't just stick to the people of your origin. Mix around with everybody. And if you hold on to your values, you should know the limits of socialising with other people."

"Did you see her at the (so and so's) funeral? She was wearing high heels, and her legs resemble pig trotters! Haha!"

And so, that was the end of our encounter. I hope I get all the statements right, because they were mostly mentally-recorded. Next thing I'll do is to get a sound recorder, and make sure my digital camera is fully-charged. And then maybe I'll meet a stranger who lives in The Troika.

The Mega Magazine Matching Game is finally up. For the past few months I have been collecting a 25 cm-tall stack of magazines. Before these printed mediums of communication find their homes in my bookshelf, I've photographed most of them to make a little game out of it. Here's how it works:

1. The first four rows are made of sixteen magazine front covers.
2. The final four rows are made of sixteen magazine back covers.
3. Just pick a magazine front cover and match it with a magazine back cover [correctly, of course!].
4. Take note that there are five magazine front covers that do not have a back cover.
5. There are also five magazine back covers that do not have a front cover [just to make our lives a little more difficult].
6. Answers will be provided upon request.
7. Have life-enriching fun!

FRONT COVERS

I have expanded my carbon footprint by driving on scenic old trunk roads to Teluk Intan [formerly known as Teluk Anson], recently. I took an exit from the PLUS highway to Tanjung Malim, hoping to find a pau, but all shops were closed. But that's only because it was the first day of Chinese New Year. But I did get a crate of guava at Bidor. Very crunchy and light guava it was.

It took me more than two hours to reach Teluk Intan, but it wasn't a difficult journey as I thought, because the roads were quite well-kept, and there were no toll booths. The first place I headed to was the leaning clock tower at the town square. This tower used to be a water tower, where a tank still sits at the top of the building.

Just for scaling purposes, here's myself about fifty metres away from the tower. It really is leaning, but not visible from this angle.

Other interesting buildings in Teluk Intan include numerous old-school elevated brick houses with wooden shutters and organic engravings, abandoned clubhouses [such as this one below]...

... and schools. Looking at this night school building, it reminded me of my late grandfather who used to go to night school to learn shorthand.

Some Cubist art can be viewed at a particular Convent school.

The highlight of this Teluk Intan trip was a queer phenomenon in the clouds... it looked like a piece of luminous cling film soaked in a foamy solution being laid upon a dark cloud, with the sun at its top. Beautiful!

Other than Teluk Intan, I visited Nilai 3 several days before. It's supposed to be a really happening wholesale centre but in reality, it's all carpets and wedding supplies and fabric stalls. I got out of that place after lunch and used the old road to get to Seremban. I passed by this factory that makes... those signs. For some reason it reminds me of a backlot at PIXAR's Toy Story film set, especially at Dinoco and Pizza Planet.

If anyone is attracted to a sign leading to a Homestay at Kampung Pelegong, don't be fooled. Driving down winding roads through palm oil estates was a complete waste of time because this Homestay is a complete phoney. Even the route to alleged waterfall Jeram Tebrau came off as a scene from a horror film.

Eventually I reached the congested Seremban. There were banners and buntings all over the city, with the mayor's face and New Year greetings. I didn't like it. What I like is this avocado sedan used as a wedding car.

A building resembling an old cinema theatre...

... and a bowl of cendol at Sharif's ends this trip.

Not too long ago, I travelled to Klang by the old road, and photographed several interesting views. Such as the poor man's Loftcube...

... zinc roof collage...

... and a forklift showfield.

The upcoming post shall be about a stack of magazines on my table.

Down in selected hypermarkets across the Klang Valley, all great for lurking and finding something unexpected, there are bins full of outdated Malay film DVDs. Many titles were from the 1990s; among them were Selubung, XXRay, Maria Mariana, Jimi Asmara, Sayang Salmah... perfect to watch when you've got RM 8.9 to spare.

One film I would like to highlight is by Shuhaimi Baba, called Ringgit Kasorrga. I suspect this film came out in the year 1995. The plot goes like this; a dance studio called Blaze Studio headed by Meera [Tiara Jacquelina]...

 ...is selling its dancers as social escorts for the rich and elite.Then comes Nina [Deanna Yusoff]...

...from the village to work as a receptionist at the studio. Back in her village, her uncle is a politician who is working for a parliamentary seat, backed by a Datuk [Zaidi Omar]. This Datuk is also a lover of Meera. One day, Nina became a talent for a mobile phone ad [for ancient brand NEC, to be precise], because the actual model fell ill on shooting day.

The Datuk became interested in Nina from watching the ad, and wanted to 'get it on' with her. Nina thought it was for her modelling portfolio, and she had to help out her uncle by being friendly with this Datuk. But, this Datuk had something else in mind.

Nina did not like it at all, of course! And things got worse when Meera tried to sell her to Kasorrga, the island resort where all the social escorts were being 'screen-tested'. Nina learned that her fellow colleague was also being 'sold' there, and they went back to Blaze Studio to confront Meera. It didn't go well because Meera claimed that it's the girls who were willing to sell themselves.

Actually, the objective of this post is to remind me what the 1990s looked like. This film featured a lot of chunky gold jewellery.

foil brocade blazers, waistcoats teamed with A-line skirts...

oversized t-shirts...

really gaudy dance routines...

Ah, no wonder. Yaohan department store sponsored all the clothes!

And also, familiar KL scenes...

Anyone who used the Federal Highway to get to KL back then will not miss a massive Konica billboard near the Old Klang Road exit [which then became an ad for Salem cigarettes, and now, Vincci Nose shoes].

The house that was used as Meera's residence is very attractive, in a sort of, post-modern-ish, kind of way.

Written in chiseled tip Artline marker on a big brown envelope is Blaze Studio's address. In real life, it's not an actual bungalow lot, but rather a shophouse located adjacent to Penang Village restaurant / Maybank.

The year 1995 looked quite swell back then, eh? I may 'review' more 1990s local films in the future, perhaps a film that had Sidi Oraza acting in it, or Ramona Rahman. Hmm...