The Dreaming

11:11 11/11/11

2011-11-11T11:11:00.001+08:00

.............

Mind Your Language

2011-07-12T00:16:00.003+08:00

Just finished watching the entire first three seasons of the 70's British sitcom Mind Your Language. Ah, the nostalgia. I first watched it on TV2 in the mid 90's when I was around 10.

They don't make sitcoms like this anymore. And I mean that quite literally. The show got its laughs by playing on the racial and cultural stereotypes of the different nationalities of the students in the classroom. We have the communist, Chairman Mao-loving Chinese from China who spouts communist propaganda at every available opportunity while replacing her "R"s with "L"s (who incidentally, is played by a Penangite and speaks Hokkien in several episodes), the Pakistani Muslim and Indian Sikh who are ever-bickering over their religions and calling each other a barbarian and an infidel, and the Japanese who ends every other word with an "O", just to name a few.

In this age of (extreme) political correctness, it would be a miracle for a sitcom such as this to be produced and broadcasted. In fact, Mind Your Language was cancelled in the end due to fears of criticism being directed at it for being racist. Screw political correctness is what I say. Sometimes, it goes so overboard that its ridiculous. Methinks that nowadays, we spend too much time sanitizing and tip-toeing around our words out of fear of offending the other person instead of just taking the piss and having a laugh over it.

And that's what makes Mind Your Language so special. It's a comedy of its time, where political correctness was not so prevalent and we could all have a laugh over the gentle ribbing of the different stereotypes as compared to now where the authorities would go berserk over anything deemed 'politically incorrect'.

As for me, watching Mind Your Language now takes me back to the days when I was a young boy, eagerly waiting for the next episode of Mind Your Language to air on TV2 and laughing at "por favor", "holy ravioli" and "santa maria". Good times.

Sucker Punch

2011-03-24T01:40:00.003+08:00

will be watching this tomorrow..am so psyched up for it! this movie can easily be a movie with a shitty plot that's just an excuse to show off all that stylish action but i don't care. i wouldn't care even if it's just a 2 hour long trailer with no plot line at all...i'd still pay to watch it.

to quote a comment from the youtube trailer

1. Girls with Guns: Check

2. Girls with Katanas: Check

3. Dragons: Check

4. B-25 Mitchel: Check

5. Biplanes: Check

6. Samurai: Check

7. Giant Robots: Check

8. Gatling Guns: Check

9. Giant Robot Samurai with Gatling Guns: Check.

This trailer. It does not make sense. But I do not care

it's a geek's dream come true. it's the ultimate homage to geek imagery. it's geek heaven!

and i'm not the biggest fan of vanessa hudgens but even she looks awesome in this movie. fuckin 'ell...i cannot wait to watch the giant samurai with the gatling gun scene.

i hope i don't break down in tears of joy tomorrow..heh

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

2010-11-11T03:25:00.002+08:00

apparently to commit suicide.

i was waiting at a traffic light in the middle of the night and there weren't any cars on the road when i suddenly saw this chicken running quite quickly pass my car and down the road. it just kept on running and running and i couldn't see anything chasing it or find any reason why it was running. it was both a bit amusing and perplexing at the same time. you don't often see chickens running at full speed without any reason do you?

after the light turned green, i went down the road the chicken took and i saw the chicken on the opposite lane trying to cross the road a little distance ahead of me. an oncoming car drove by and i couldn't tell if it hit the chicken or not as the headlights were quite bright.

next thing i saw was a dead chicken lying on the road in front of me. i'm assuming the car probably hit the chicken and it flew over to my side of the road. if that was the case..the chicken flew quite far after being hit.

or maybe the chicken i saw running was trying to get to its dead pal on the road.

10:10 10/10/10

2010-10-10T10:10:00.000+08:00

In accordance with my previous post, this just had to be done.

!!!

2010-09-28T23:40:00.003+08:00

i think i just died from an orgasm and gone to heaven but that cannot be....

becoz that's gonna happen on the 19th october. unless one can die twice.

thank heavens i didn't waste all that money to catch them in singapore.

and yeah..cheapest tickets available but wtf, i'm still seeing them nonetheless! hayley, here i come!

May The Wind

2010-09-01T05:21:00.003+08:00

May the wind be always at your back

The sun shine warm upon your face

The rains fall soft upon your fields

And until we meet again

May God hold you in the hollow of His hand

Rest in Peace

And So The Cloud Breaks

2010-05-20T03:45:00.002+08:00

After 11 days, I'm finally able to get a good night's sleep.

Thank you.

Sweet dreams.

=)

Four Nights Ago

2010-05-12T23:59:00.001+08:00

It was all one big blur. A hazy vortex of blurry images and cloudy moments, as if one was looking through a sandstorm. A few minutes or a few hours, who knows? It's hard to tell the time in the dream world.

What happened was lost to the drifting sands of dream as consciousness reigned once again, sweeping the lingering images into some deep dark corner in my head. I could remember nothing save for her, but that was enough. I think I smiled when I greeted the morning light.

Two hours and 1200 km were bridged in an instance. And so was a bucket full of longing sated, but only for the moment and barely just. Here's hoping that I'd dream of the sweetest thing again tonight. Maybe I should make a phone call just before I lose myself to Hypnos' arms, it seemed to work the last time around.

Sweet dreams.

Dreams

2010-04-09T01:34:00.003+08:00

had a funny one just now. dreamt that dad was still alive, he had recovered from his illness. funny thing was that everyone thought he was dead. i remember thinking to myself, "shit..we gave out the wrong info to everyone..he's still alive".

another point to note was that we were staying in our old house at nanas road...and we were all together in the master bedroom.

dreams of nostalgia?

09:09 09/09/09

2009-09-09T09:09:00.001+08:00

Just because.

Kindergarten Photo 1994

2009-06-18T18:01:00.008+08:00

So, following the post I made about kindergarten, I managed to get my hands on a copy of my Year 2 kindy photo, courtesy of Brendan Chin.

Hoping to be able to get my hands on the Year 1 photo.

So without further ado, here it is in all our youthful glory, the Year Two Blue Class of St. Jude Kindergarten 1994.

I know the identity or have kept in touch with only a handful of those in the picture. As for the rest of them, their identities I do not know. I've posted the picture on Facebook and hopefully the pic will make its rounds and get some tags and we get to discover our long lost kindy mates.

It's really quite fascinating to see how someone looks like after 15 years and the last time which we saw them was when they were only 6 years old. It's interesting to see how we've all grown up and gone our own, separate paths. Just imagine, you're walking down the street and you see someone you do not know and you just dismiss them as some random stranger when in fact, that person was playing with you in the playground all those years ago.

Makes me feel all funny thinking about it. In a good way.

He Doesn't Know

2009-06-16T08:01:00.002+08:00

Artificial darkness envelops him as the birds began their songs and the world awoke to their melodious tune. The hiding sun peeks out and chases away the lingering darkness as the window becomes a frame for a beautiful picture bathed in the soft morning light.

He wishes it was 6:40 AM, 24/7.

The sounds of silence plays as artificial light illuminates the 86 keys his fingers dance upon.

Why the dance? To prove a point? He doesn't know.

Time flies. It scares him. The solution? Photos. Time captured in a single frame, for eternity. A dozen emotions and stories fatefully intertwined and interwoven into a single, split microsecond.

Photos. They lie. They tell the truth. It's a room full of smoke and mirrors. But undoubtedly, they also elicit strong feelings of nostalgia in him.

He reminiscences on the past. He is sentimental and he yearns for days bygone. His sense of longing causes him to relive past happiness in his imagination. He smiles to himself. Imagination is a powerful tool.

He is a wistful fool. Some laugh at him, say he's stuck in the past. He doesn't care. He knows when his body fails him, when the future holds nothing for him but eternal darkness, all he has left is his past. When everything else crumbles to dust, all that's left is the echoing call of his memories. He knows when he goes six feet under, his Maserati doesn't accompany him. His $8.5 million mansion doesn't accompany him. No. The only thing that accompanies him is his memories.

Photos make him feel the same way every time. It's bittersweet and he embraces every moment of it. It's the bitterness that makes the sweetness all the more sweet. Bitter and sweet. Two sides of the same coin. They define each other. Without one, the other would not exist.

Oktoberfest

2009-05-22T07:01:00.005+08:00

This is not a post about the wonders and joy of the festival celebrating beer and all things German.

No. Instead, I refer you to this post.

Check out the part about the Oktoberfest girl.

Well, I managed to snap a shot of her blown up ~~cleavage~~ photo.

Please ignore the cool looking guy in the foreground. kthxbai.

R.C.

2009-05-20T16:19:00.008+08:00

They say a picture paints a thousand words. A picture also paints a thousand lies. And that's only just a picture. What about a video?

I guess that's why there's this little thing we call 'acting'.

Can we call it acting? Or is it the real you? If you're acting, take a bow. Take a damn big bow. If it's you, an appropriate question for the situation would be what lies beneath? We never know.

Maybe it's a bit of both. As Shakespeare once said;

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women are merely players.

We are all actors and actresses in this one big play called 'Life'.

You're 3,000 miles away but here you are before my eyes. Close enough to touch and touch you I do, but through plastic and film. So near yet so far. And you're not the only thing I'm touching.

You're charming and you charm all of us snake charmers into charming the cobra. Cobra Commander would've been proud.

Charming. Princess Charming.

You weave your magic. So cheerful. So bubbly. So cute. So enthusiastic. So perky(!).

Perfect ingredients for the perfect tragedy.

We fall under your spell. So delightful. So alluring. So adorable. So enchanting. So...charming.

And so the world comes crashing down as the illusion is washed away along with all the make-up, glitz and stardust.

The merry charade gives way to a somber funeral for what might have been. The facade is dropped. It goes up in a blaze until all that's left is the smoke from sweet ol' Mary Jane.

You were given a second chance. You were given water to put out the fire. You traded it for gasoline. Cheese was put it one hand, you chose to grab a mouse in the other. I guess you had your reasons.

From steak and wine to bread and water. How far you have fallen.

How far you have fallen.

kindergarten

2009-04-17T05:23:00.005+08:00

Tadika St. Jude. the ages of 5 and 6. that was 15 years ago. 1993. the world wide web had just been introduced into the world then. time flies.

2 years of memories, but all that remains is a handful of distinct memories. where did the rest go? i wish i could revisit those years. i love the smell of nostalgia (in the morning).

i remember the first two days at kindy. was crying all day long. mum was there looking through the window. she asked my classmate to take care of me. i can't remember him. i wonder where he is now.

i remember playing football. all of us rushing for the ball and just kicking it around. no goalposts. it was possible to count the number of times i touched the ball. three. i was so happy.

i remember holding hands and walking in a line, two by two, to the toilet with zinc roofing at the edge of the forest. the smell of the toilet was, at times, barely tolerable.

i remember brushing-our-teeth-by-the-longkang sessions which were held occasionally.

i remember losing my two front teeth after tripping and knocking them on the floor when running back to class after a teeth brushing session. always thought i tripped over a pothole on the floor until recently when Bren Lo told me i tripped over his leg. he said i even accused him of tripping me but i cannot remember.

i remember telling the headmaster through a bloody mouth, my home contact number. ended up writing it on a piece of paper if memory serves.

i remember the dentist yanking my teeth out with a pair of plier-like instrument. twist and yank. ouch! couldn't smile for the wedding pageboy photos with two missing front teeth.

i remember walking pass the little shop that sold odds and bits, on my way to the kindy gates after class had ended. frequently ended up with a packet of Ding-Dang or Tora, those little boxes with chocs and toys in them.

i remember Cikgu Doris and Miss Irene from 1st year of kindy. Cikgu Doris was strict and Miss Irene was kind. i wonder where are they now?

i remember having a soft spot for Miss Irene.

i remember her showing me a pen flicking trick using her fingers. assuming she was 21 when she taught us, she'd be 36 now. i wonder what has happened to her in the past 15 years?

i remember taking the class photo at the museum gardens. i don't know where the photo is anymore.

i remember holding a grudge against a classmate for reasons i cannot remember.

i remember sitting with the girls as punishment for doing something wrong. the tables in our class were combined to form two long rows on each side of the classroom. one for girls and one for boys. i was so embarassed, i think.

i remember kindergarten through sepia tinted glasses. a time where life was so much simpler. carefree and without worries. the innocence of childhood.

Holidays

2008-12-28T04:01:00.004+08:00

pics will be up soon.

so the first two week of my mid-sem break (22/11 - 5/12) was spent in KL. i used to visit KL once a year but this year alone it has been like 5 to 6 times. lepak in KL until sien also d. never thought that would happen. Heh.

finally got the Swatch watch that i've been eyeing for so long. and it was a pleasant surprise when a book i've been looking for so long and had given up on ever finding, suddenly made a surprise appearance at Kinokuniya.

the last two weeks of the holidays was back in Kuching.

being away from home really makes me appreciate Kuching more. especially the food. kolo mee, teh c peng, sarsi cincau. aaah. plus the ABC at Song Keng Hai (stall no.2) and at Open Air. and not forgetting the roti at Curry House. used to have it like three times a day every time we stayed back after school.

really makes me proud to be a Kuchingnite.

also made it back to Kuching in time for AGC. was nice going back to St. Jo and kinda reliving the secondary school atmosphere. it's a different atmosphere from uni but both have their own special appeal.

also managed to pay a visit to MV Doulos on its last journey to Kuching. was disappointing though for me as their selection of books were mostly Christian books which isn't my cup of tea.

flew back to Penang on Dec 20. seems like USM is the only uni in Malaysia to reopen their semester before Christmas. curses.

Of Exams and Ferringhi

2008-12-28T03:12:00.002+08:00

hi.

referring to my last post where i said i would recount recent going-ons in a future post. this is it. yeah. tho it isn't so recent anymore. it was like two months ago. so yeah. this post took two months in the making. and i haven't even got the pictures up yet. they'll be up in the future, so watch this space. basically my blog and by extension, my life, just screams 'PROCRASTINATION!".

so here's the recap from Nov 1 to Nov 22.

exams started on the 3rd. timetable was pretty messed up. for the first week, had 1 paper a day on Mon, Tues, Thurs and Fri with only Wed being the rest day. the last two papers were on the following Fri. so basically my first week was filled with papers on an almost daily basis followed by a whole second week without papers before finishing my exams with two papers on the same day.

my clock was quite screwed up. i would sit for my papers in the morning, sleep the whole afternoon and then burn the midnight oil all the way to the paper the following morning. procrastination at its finest. wtf ftw. yeah.

you'd think i would learn my lesson but no, the 2nd week which was the week without papers leading up to my last two papers was spent basically on lepaking. even manage to catch Quantum of Solace on Fri of the first week. good movie btw. Olga for the win. she looks better here and in Max Payne compared to her breakout role in Hitman. didn't like her hair for Hitman.

had a week after exams in Penang before going off to KL. plans of going to Langkawi were flying around but in the end had to settle for Ferringhi as it was too last minute.

originally wanted to stay at Sri Sayang. we didn't expect it to be fully booked so we didn't book beforehand but when we got there it was fully booked. after a round of hotel surveying we settled for Bayview. Had to pay RM 50 per person compared to Sri Sayang's RM 17 but it was worth it though.

even managed to throw in a visit to Gurney on the way back after the stay, the new wing just opened. was smaller than i had expected though.

pics will be up soon, so check back on this post.

End of Sem I

2008-11-22T08:49:00.003+08:00

cliche, i know. but how time flies. it's the end of my first semester here in USM and yes, procrastination has gotten the better of me. i'll upload the long overdue photos of my time in Penang soon.

i'm gonna keep this post short, so i'll recount what i've been up to recently in a future post.

just finished packing up everything in my room. kinda troublesome, but we need to clear out everything from our room for the month long end-of-semester break. gonna be leaving my car and my stuff at a friend's house. if by any chance you happen to read this, thanks very much, i really appreciate it. you know who you are. =)

pic of my room, post-packing.

sien le, took a while to pack everything up. gonna unpack again in a month. *sigh*

flying off to KL later at noon, meeting mum and sis on Tuesday in KL before flying back home together on Dec 5th.

Dean and Chester are in KL too. along with the rest of the usual suspects that are based in KL, looks like a big gang reunion in KL is on the cards. heh.

happy times.

Happy All Hallows' Eve

2008-10-31T17:07:00.012+08:00

we don't celebrate it here but it gives me the chance to put up this awesome piece of art. i posted it before last year but wtf it's still awesome.

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so yea, i'm back. what's new? lots.

spent my one week Hari Raya break lepaking in KL. crashed at Andrew Norman's place and met up with Gerard and Iggy. haven't seen Iggy in a while. i also saw this in Sunway Pyramid. heh.

there was also this cool piece of art outside one of the entrances of KLCC that was made entirely out of soft drink cans.

major cool.

but nothing could beat the piece of art that was this....

a giant ~~plastic~~ stone penis! this was at the outside of a restaurant called 'The Cave' which features interiors that were designed to resemble, yes you've guessed it, a cave. somewhere near SS2 if i'm not mistaken. and it's fibreglass or something that looks like stone.

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in other news, i passed my lifesaving exams. yes, i took a lifesaving/lifeguard course. it felt like such a chore to go training and i wasn't very sure i'd pass (my low stamina didn't help as well) so it was a real relief that i passed it. and very nearly too.

one of the events required us to coil a rope and throw it ten metres away to a victim in the pool, all in one minute. my throwing was quite inconsistent. passed all events except for that one. examiner gave me a chance at the end to repeat the event, else i'd have to retake the exams again on another day. someone must have been watching me from above as i aced it on the 2nd attempt. Whew!

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yet in other news, Liverpool are having a flying start to the season. beating Chelsea at home, woot! all this talk about us being real title challengers are a bit premature i'd say. i'm optimistic but i'm keeping my feet grounded. we'll see how liverpool do once they hit some setbacks. that's the thing that's undone us in recent campaigns. hitting setbacks after a good start and not bouncing back quick enough.

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went on a movie binge, three movies in three days. watched my first ever malay movie in the cinema. Kami.

good movie to break my malay-movie-at-the-cinema-virginity. one thing i like about it is that it shows teenage life in Malaysia and it's something i can relate to. yea, there are countless western movies depicting teenage life but being a Malaysian movie set in Malaysia, it shows off teenage life in a setting closer to home.

here's an example.

western movie/lifestyle - finish exams, major party which involves a obscene amount of alcohol followed by banging of hot chicks.

Malaysian movie/lifestyle - finish exams, road trip to the beach, hanging out with friends at a gig.

guess which of the above happens in my life (and in the life of most Malaysian students).

oh, and i'm surprised that they actually use the word 'palat' in the tagline. it's a foul word in Bahasa Sarawak, which explains why the word was censored in the movie and in the poster.

The House Bunny was the second movie. nothing to say about that one.

watched Max Payne. one of my favourite computer games with a killer story that would lend itself pretty well to a movie adaptation but i didn't had my expectations up too high going into the movie. the verdict? could have been worst, but could have been better.

most of the major plotlines were intact, but there were noticeable differences as well. in my opinion, the movie would have been better off if they had done a faithful reproduction of the game's storyline without any changes. no changes were needed. the story was just fine the way it was. this just serves to show how awesome the game's original story is.

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was in KL again over the weekend on 24th October. one of my friends was commenting on the frequency of my trips to KL and was asking if i had a girlfriend there. haha..nope. i just like lepaking in KL. took the bus this time. 5 hours! damn..was hoping that i wouldn't have the sudden urge to shit while on the bus. heh.

went there to see Gerard performing in this musical sketch and it was pretty darn impressive. it was also a good excuse for me to just lepak for a few days in KL.

here's the map on the back of the ticket for the performance. sorry for the pic not being clear, but take a look at the building located just above Jalan Maharajalela. Haha.

can anyone tell me who the model is? she is teh hawt. the shop is twopercent at The Gardens that sells Japanese inspired fashion. so i'm guessing the model is Japanese. but i don't think the shots were taken exclusively for twopercent as it's not an international brand or anything. more likely they just took the image off somewhere.

EDIT: Thought twopercent was some random shop but actually it's a brand name from Japan. Girl is Lena Fuji (refer to comments for this post..heh) who is the spokesperson for the brand.

speaking of taking images off somewhere, this reminds me. i saw this photo below in the Borneo Post back in 2006 that accompanied this article about the start of Oktoberfest. the girl in the front is cute (cleavage!), so i googled the photo on the net for a saved soft copy.

well, i saw that exact same photo blown up really big in black and white, at the outside of a German restaurant which is next to a Subway restaurant somewhere near Pavillion in KL. looks like i'm not the only one smitten by the girl. ehehe.

oh, and i saw Anne Hathaway at Midvalley.

not really, but she's still Wawaweewa nonetheless.

Gone

2008-10-31T15:34:00.000+08:00

had to rush back to Kuching very last minute on 23 September due to the passing of my granddad. he passed away on the morning of the 22nd. came as a shock to me as i wasn't informed of the situation and was only notified after he passed away.

he was experiencing chest pain and was given anticoagulant medication to make the blood less thick so that he wouldn't suffer a blood clot. he fell and knocked his head, went to the hospital to get a scan but everything looked ok. he was put in observation nonetheless and he complained of a massive headache. Panadol was given to no avail. seeped into coma and another scan showed that there was bleeding of the brain. his whole head was filled with blood. didn't help much that he was under anticoagulant medication, causing the bleeding to accelerate.

he was always helpful. used to get rides from him down to school on Saturday mornings before i was able to drive. always dropped by every now and then to give Rusty a little treat.

cynical as it sounds, i was afraid when i went to penang that i'll lose somebody at home during my three years in penang.

the last i saw him was when i was in kuching for a week in mid-august. drove him back from the hospital after he was admitted for chest pain. never realised it would be the last time i'd see him.

drowning in money

2008-09-15T14:14:00.003+08:00

about time. finally a victory over Man Utd. shock start but we settled in and it was one of the most convincing displays against United in a long time. may finally kick start our season after a sluggish start. even better that we won without Torres and also without Gerrard for a hour.

coming to the main point of this article. Man City is a joke. now that they've been gobbled up by a filthy rich billionaire Arab from Abu Dhabi, they're throwing cash at everything but the kitchen sink. as we say in hokkien, 'tim lui tek si lang' which translates as throwing money and crushing people to death with it and that's exactly what Man City is doing.

Al-Fahim must be deluded if he thinks he can get what he wants by throwing money around like water. there's three reasons why a club might sell its players.

1. club is desperate for money
2. player is unwanted by club
3. player wants to leave club

taking into consideration too, the status of the player to his club. if the player is a star player for the club and is valued highly by the club, no amount of money is going to buy the player if the above 3 criteria aren't met.

the targets of Man City such as Torres, Ronaldo, Villa and Silva among others, are all players of big clubs that don't really need the money. they are also star players for their clubs and are highly valued by their clubs. and i really doubt that any one of them will want to leave their clubs to a club of smaller stature like Man City.

so Man City can flaunt their cash all they want but they'll soon learn money can't buy everything.

what's that i hear you say? you're protesting that i am labeling Man City as a club of smaller stature? shouldn't they be a huge club now that they have all the wealth in the world?

no. they aren't. Man City may have huge, ridiculous amounts of cash but they don't have the stature of clubs like Man Utd, Real Madrid or Liverpool just to name a few. big clubs have histories and history is definitely one thing money can't buy. go ask Chelski, they should know.

with all his cash, Al-Fahim should get some lessons about respect. he should know better then to go around in public, naming targets and cash figures as he likes. Torres for 50 million, Ronaldo for 134 million, that's just disrespectful. bollocks.

which brings us to Liverpool. majority of the fans want Dubai to buy out Liverpool from the Americans but if Dubai is anything like the owners of Man City, i would rather stick with the Americans. seems like a choice of choosing the lesser of the two evils, and i definitely think the Americans are the lesser evil. in fact, i am quite indifferent towards the Americans.

Gambier Street Market

2008-09-15T13:41:00.006+08:00

from the Borneo Post

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Former Gambier Street Market to be pulled down
By Zora Chan

KUCHING: The former Gambier Street Market will be demolished to make way for the proposed extension of the waterfront as the decades old structures are deemed unsafe.

Kuching City North Datuk Bandar Abang Mohamad Atei Medaan said the old market comprising the vegetable, poultry and fish markets would be knocked down but did not mention when it would take place.

“All structures will be demolished as assessment from the Public Works Department (JKR) showed that these were too old and not suitable to be kept,” he told reporters here yesterday.

Atei said the structures could not be salvaged, adding that the department did not recommend to the city hall to preserve the buildings.

“Safety comes first,” he pointed out.

Asked if the concrete retaining wall along Sungai Sarawak stretching from Pangkalan Batu to the markets and wharves that was built by Rajah Charles Brooke in 1902 would be preserved, he said Kuching North City Commission (DBKU) had yet to decide.

On the progress of the extension, Atei said the city hall had asked consultants to make various submissions for the proposed project.

Last month, Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud announced that the site that used to house hundreds of hawkers right up to Ban Hock Wharf would be turned into an esplanade as part of the waterfront extension.

On June 15, the majority of hawkers were relocated at MBKS Stutong Community Market.

Taib had said he had asked DBKU to prepare the plan but envisioned that the esplanade would have lots of trees to provide the much needed shade on sunny days and make the city a greener and better place to live in.

Once completed, he said the esplanade would stretch from Kuching Hilton to Ban Hock Wharf as well as across the river to ensure both riverbanks would be developed beautifully and making them a popular recreational spot for city dwellers and visitors.

He said the proposed extension would turn ‘unorganised part of the old days by the riverbanks into a scenic recreational place’.

In June, Sarawak Heritage Society (SHS) had expressed its concern about the old market, saying that the buildings should be preserved.

“The Gambier Street Market has outstanding heritage value,” said its president Mike Boon.

Harriete McDougall’s writing and water colour paintings in ‘Sketches of Our Life At Sarawak’ roughly told us how old the market really was, he said.

Based on Harriet’s description and other records, he said the society believed that Gambier Street Market was older than what had been written on the market’s wall.

On the wall of the vegetable market, it was written that it was built in 1935, poultry market in 1959 and the garment store in 1929.

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this is bullshit. no proper reason was given to justify the demolition. unsafe? make it safe then, do some restoration work. put your funds to good use for once, instead of using it to fucking line your own bloody fat, bulging pockets.

"could not be saved".

could not?

COULD NOT?

meaning it's not possible to save it? why ever not?

OH! i know why! it's because the money is better off being put into the "tabung membeli mercedes baru untuk menteri".

i mean, it's ok if you don't want to rebuild the Satok Bridge, as it was accidentally destroyed. But now you want to deliberately destroy our heritage? Congratulations, you've taken your first baby steps to achieving your goals.

as is the case with so many other things, i have a sneaky feeling that this has something to do with our supreme overlord of Sarawak, he-who-must-not-be-named-lest-you-kena-tangkap-ISA-but-is
-famous-for-his-white-hair.

the Gambier Street Market probably interferes with his plan for ~~WORLD DOMINATION!~~ the new esplanade. so what does he do, he asks DBKU to demolish the building on grounds on being unsafe. sneaky lil bastard.

Max Payne

2008-08-29T23:53:00.003+08:00

yay! another piece of news that we've all been waiting for. Max Payne is coming to the movies. yes andrew pan, it's finally happening. the news has been out for quite a while now actually, but i guess i wasn't so hyped up when they first announced it because it was only an announcement with no trailers or anything.i have yet to see the trailers tho. bloody university blocking most streaming movies. can't seem to find a download for the trailer.

based on the initial synopsis of the movie, it seems like there's a supernatural element to the story. and winged, supernatural-like creatures have been seen in the trailers as well as in the posters. that would totally ruin the movie as the game didn't have any supernatural elements to its plot. unless those creatures are from the dream sequences in the game. though they weren't any creatures in the dream sequences, that would be more acceptable rather than have them as a main plot item.

haven't seen the trailer yet but according to the comments, it sounds similar to Constantine. if it was a normal movie, i'd be delighted because i'm a huge fan of Constantine. but because it has the name Max Payne attached to it and is an adaption of the video game, i don't think being a Constantine look-a-like is a good thing.

Mark Walhberg and Mila Kunis as Max and Mona, they could have done worse but they could have done better too. all the main characters in the game were modeled after real life models and both Max and Mona were modeled after relatively unknown actor Timothy Gibbs and actress Kathy Tong. would be more faithful to the game to get them to act in the movie, and being obscure names would help too in my opinion.

Ludacris as Jim Bravura is radical departure from the game, but it's something i can live with (compared to the possibility of angels and demons in the movie). but where's Vladimir Lem? where did our favourite russian go? and our favourite thug too, Vinnie Gognitti.

loved the graphic novel cutscenes in the game and it'd be cool if they could reproduce it in the movie. they could take some still shots and stylize it to look like a graphic novel (perfect reproduction of the cutscenes from the game would be uber-cool), then introduce these scenes in the movie at the exact point where the cutscenes were introduced in the game. yeah, that's basically my wishlist for the movie.

haven't seen how bullet time is incorporated into the movie, hopefully it'll be alright.

GTA IV

2008-08-29T02:18:00.003+08:00

aaah yes..the news we've all been waiting for. we all knew it was coming, it was just a question of when. and now we've got our answer. nov 18. that's when GTA IV is released for the PC. awesomeness. just in time for my holidays too. major coolness. 'tis the season to blow up shit and mow down random pedestrians. again.

mental tsunami, part deux

2008-08-29T01:31:00.003+08:00

alright, whatever it is that the government was thinking (who knows what goes through the mind of our fearless leaders these days), i'm glad they finally came to their senses and allowed the concert to proceed as normal. maybe it's because they read my blog (i flatter myself sometimes). maybe not. better not. i'd probably end up in ISA if they did read my blog.

momentary relief. that's what it was. because part two of my mental tsunami came soon after. PAS is now planning to protest if the government doesn't ban Avril.

what the fuck. announcement to PAS. this may sound very much shocking and foreign to you, so please bear with me. you don't wanna watch Avril in concert, oh so simple solution. DON'T GO.

nobody's pointing a gun at your songkok and screaming at you to attend her concert. no need for such a hardcore solution like protesting, demonstrating and preaching your propaganda bullshit. labour ain't cheap these days, so don't waste precious resources doing shit like that. do something constructive instead. you'll actually feel good after that. really.

but in my ever so humble opinion, i think it'd do you a world of good to attend her concert. hopefully she'll rock the shit that's been clogging your mind, outta your brain.

Mental Tsunami

2008-08-20T06:13:00.006+08:00

YES!!!

Have you heard the news? Avril Lavigne's concert in KL on the 29th August has been denied a permit by the government. I'm so fucking happy! Yes!!

"Malaysia on Tuesday canceled a concert by Canadian rock singer Avril Lavigne, saying it may taint the Muslim-majority country's independence day celebrations after the Islamic opposition slammed her show as being "too sexy."

"It is not timely. It's not in the good spirit of our National Day. If we go ahead with the concert, it is contrary to what we are preparing for," said Shukran Ibrahim, a senior official from the culture ministry's department."

I'm so glad because I was afraid that by watching Avril in all her sexiness, I'll have such a hard-on that I'll tear a hole in the front of my pants. And not forgetting having a nosebleed so major, I'll die of blood loss.

Oh! It'll also disrupt my mental and physical preparations of getting ready for Merdeka Day. It ain't easy spending the whole month of August hyping myself up for Merdeka Day. My daily training regiment consists of 731 shouts of "Malaysia Boleh" followed by 8 hours of waving the Jalur Gemilang all the while singing "Keranamu Malaysia" before ending it with 235 shouts of "Merdeka".

If I had to go to the Avril Lavigne concert, I'll have a mental tsunami and it'll fuck up my mind so bad, I'll forget how to flag wave and sing "Keranamu Malaysia". And that would be bad. Very bad.

-------------

You seriously gotta have an IQ of retardation if you were thinking the above.

I'm having a mental tsunami right now. It's mind blowing, brain boggling and IQ busting as to how on the unholy fuck is this happening.

For your knowledge, I'm not an Avril Lavigne fanboi nor was I planning to catch the concert.

I'm just amazed at the utter stupidity of this whole hullabaloo.

Mind you, this is not the first time this has happened. Pussycat Dolls, Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera have all fallen victim to the stupidity that is the Malaysian government.

But this does not hide the fact at how stupid this whole affair is. I'm sorry for saying the word 'stupid' and its synonyms like, 78942456456 times but there's no better word than to describe the situation and its perpetrators.

You can hardly find Avril and the word 'sexy' together in a sentence. When one mentions sexy, Avril is hardly the first to come to mind. More like the 428th. If they think Avril is sexy, wait til they see SEXY. Oh wait, sorry, they've never seen SEXY before. Probably they're afraid that tits are going to eat them alive. Or that a little flesh will cause their dicks to erupt in a rain of orgasmic bloodfest. Those poor souls.

Plus, as if 'too sexy' wasn't a lame enough excuse. They had to come up with another classically stupid one. "Inappropriate due to it clashing with Merdeka Day". Hello?? What the fuck does the concert have to do with Merdeka Day? It isn't even on the same day, you freaking fags. How in the shit is going to a concert by Avril going to disrupt our spirit of Merdeka? Oh, that's right. It's probably going to disrupt us from our spirit of stupidity.

Merdeka Day is supposed to be a day where we celebrate our liberation from our colonial masters. Pah! Seems to be more like a celebration of our liberation from intelligence and common sense.

English Premier League 08/09

2008-08-17T02:44:00.002+08:00

Here we go again. The start of the new football season. For us Liverpool fans, it's been the same story year after year. With the start of the new season comes renewed hope for a title challenge but we always get disappointed in the end. And all the while Man Utd have been slowly creeping up to our record of 18 league titles. Hopefully this year it's different.

Good start to this year's campaign. It could have easily turned out differently. Poor first half by Liverpool, better show in the second half. But when Torres and Keane got in the way, I was starting to think this wasn't our day. Torres is king though, he starts the season the way he ended the last.

I've one question though. Plessis ahead of Alonso? What the fuck Rafa, what the fuck? Seriously, he annoys me at times with his decisions. I don't think it was coincidence that the appearance of Alonso coincided with an improved performance by Liverpool.

Alonso is class. Barry is alright but he should never be bought at the expense of selling off Alonso. That's just daft. Instead, money can be better off spent buying some quality wide players. Seriously Rafa, get your priorities straight. Geez.

On a unrelated note, well done Lee Chong Wei. We're at least guaranteed a silver medal but let's do the fantastic and pull off a win against Lin Dan on his home turf and with that earn our first Olympic gold medal. Go Chong Wei!

Kelabing in Penang

2008-08-15T12:19:00.003+08:00

So I finally managed to go clubbing in Penang two nights ago, with a friend and two of his friends. Awesome bunch of people. Same with the clubs. We went to Upper Penang Road where a bunch of clubs are all clustered together making it very convenient for the bar hopper. We barhopped 3 clubs in 3 hours, that's a personal record for me.

Clubs are way better and happening compared to Kuching, but also pricier. Need to pay an entrance fee, which is unheard of in Kuching. Syasya (hope I got her name right =P) was telling me that this was nothing compared to the clubs in KL. Boss kat KL..I'm looking at you..haha.

First club we went to was Momo if I'm not mistaken. I thought the club was quite high end/classy/happening at first (compared to Kuching la), but when I went to the other two clubs later, Momo was quite unhappening in comparison..ehehe.

Second and third clubs were Slippery Senorita and Mois respectively. Damn those places were happening. Especially Mois where people were dancing/grinding til their fucking dicks fell off. No dancing for me, but I really enjoyed the eye candy. Eheh. Met a couple of coursemates from USM at Mois. So much for me thinking that my friend and I were the only ones from the group of people we know at USM going clubbing on a weekday.

We went on a Wednesday night which was Ladies night, so there was quite a crowd. I can't imagine going on the weekends, it's going to be a bumper to bumper grind-fest.

I took a few pictures of Slippery Senorita though unfortunately I don't have any pics of us clubbing. And camera phones are bad for clubbing photos, which was why I couldn't take any photos of people grinding at Mois.

The girl on stage was the shiznit. She's in the center of the first pic and at the right in the second pic.

By the way, I'm going back Kuching later this afternoon. Arriving at 7:40pm, Kuching International Airport. So they'd better be a red carpet reception filled with hot chicks, limos, the press, bling-bling, my ~~minions~~ supporters, etcetera etcetera etcetera that's worthy of the President (of the Kuching Kong Hokkien Uoa Kong Huey). The King is back baby!

Beijing Olympics 2008

2008-08-08T11:51:00.001+08:00

08/08/08 - 08:08 PM

(the numbers just look so nice)

Let the games begin!

First time I'm following a major sporting event outside of home and without easily accessible television. Fortunately though, my one week holiday falls in the middle of the Olympics, so I can catch some of the action in the comfort of my own home.

Managed to watch the opening ceremony with a group of friends at Khaleel, the mamak store nearby USM. Only stayed til the Chinese athletes came in, didn't catch the torch lighting ceremony. I forgot about it. =\

Mum said she recorded the ceremony for me though. Yay!

You can bet your bottom dollar that China, with their reputation for putting great emphasis on national pride, was gonna put on a great show and they didn't disappoint. It was teh awesome.

LeT's PuT A SMiLe oN THat FacE!!

2008-07-29T02:26:00.002+08:00

Go watch it. If you already did, go watch it again. I did. On consecutive days. Actually it was on the same day. Midnight show on Sunday, again on Sunday evening. It was that damn good, and it lived up to my expectations as well (I was worried I had my expectations too high and it would disappoint, but it didn't). I did manage to catch it in Queensbay on the day I posted my last post.

Words won't do the movie (or the Joker) justice. Just go watch it if you haven't. If you did and you didn't like it, I'd recommend you go to the doctors instead of the cinema the next time around.

Oh, and if you tell me you didn't find the Joker the least bit disturbing/scary, you're either lying or you don't have a pulse.

I'm such a fanboi. =/

Why So Serious?

2008-07-19T10:21:00.002+08:00

Ever since The Dark Knight was announced last year, I've been eagerly anticipating the release of the movie. It's the first time (to the best of my knowledge) that I've so looked forward to watching a movie. The main reason why I'm so hyped up over it is none other than the gleefully maniacal villain of the movie, The Joker.

He's one of those few villains that are truly scary. Being evil is one thing, but being evil without any logic or purpose is truly terrifying. When facing a villain, we can take some comfort in that we can understand why he's doing what he's doing and try to predict his next move. The Joker though, is unpredictable in every way and seems to create chaos and disorder just for the sake of it all, and he does it with his own brand of twisted humour. He's someone that can really entertain in the movies, but not someone I'd like to meet in real life.

Heath Ledger's portrayal as the Joker really surprised me. I didn't really paid attention to him before, but his role as the Joker really made me sit up and notice just how good he is. It's just too bad that he's gone.

Anyways, if tickets are available, I'll be catching the Dark Knight tonight at Queensbay Mall. Yay! Such a bonus that I'll be catching the movie in a top class cinema, unlike dingy Star Cineplex back in Kuching.

To end my post, here's a couple of movie stills that'll cheer you up. Let's put a smile on that face!

Something Original Please?

2008-07-18T02:14:00.002+08:00

Haven't been reading the papers for the past month or so and I've been totally uninformed on what's going on in our world. Only just found out that Badawi's stepping down in 2010, Najib will probably be succeeding him and that Anwar's been stirring up a hornet's nest resulting in him being arrested on sodomy charges. Again.

I don't really have much to comment on Badawi's stepping down, I've been really indifferent to his reign. I doubt Najib will be better than Badawi, if he's not worse.

Anwar's case is what I really want to talk about. I find it quite unbelievable that he's being arrested for sodomy charges AGAIN, timed so conveniently just as he's about to cause major problems to the government.

They did that before back in 1998, which was quite controversial and left many doubtful as to the truth of the whole incident. By doing it again this time around, they're really trying to stretch our suspension of disbelief.

Guys, could you come up with something more original please? Sodomy is like...so yesterday.

Too Much Time

2008-07-18T02:10:00.003+08:00

Life in ini. Too much time in between classes. So what do we do without air-conditioning in our rooms? We take a ride on the buses that go around uni. Just going round and round on the same route, enjoying the free ride, the air-con and the strenuous activity of people watching. Haha..the things that we do.

Here We Go Again

2008-07-17T00:31:00.002+08:00

Wheee...here we fuckin' go again. Thought things would start anew in Penang, but I've continued where I left off in Kuching. Same old, same old. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Different environment, different people, same old problem.

The more I see, the more I want..and the more I'm reminded of the fact that I can't get what I want. At least not now, if not never. Signs aren't looking good. Oh, what the fuck am I talking about? I think I should be saying no, no go (I think. Shit, I don't know). But hope has got me saying hey, ho, let's go. That's what's killing me. The uncertainty of it all. I guess that's what I was touching about in the previous post. Hope sometimes leads us astray. It makes us say go when we should be saying no. False hope.

We don't always get what we want. Life's like that, for good or for worse. Right now, it seems the latter for me. Or maybe I'm not being far-sighted enough. I'm like that sometimes (ok, maybe most of the time), live for the moment, questions come later.

Seems like the best piece of advice I can give myself right now is to hope for the best, but expect nothing. I've said that before, and I'll say it again. It's a saying that can be best applied to almost every situation in life.

Hope for the best, but expect the worst/nothing.

As mentioned before, it's from the lyrics of the song 'Forever Young'. Gem of a song.

The mind is giving sound advice. Problem is, the heart and the mind don't always see eye to eye. The mind is like the parent and the heart is the rebellious wild child. The mind exercises logic but the heart just seems to say 'Screw this shit, I'm doing what I feel like doing'. It's a battle of the heart versus mind. Impulse versus logic. And when the mind wins, it's when you've learnt how to control your emotions.

Hope

2008-07-11T01:03:00.003+08:00

Hope. It keeps us alive and going. It's the reason why we do anything.

Hoping for that cool toy car in the toy shop. Hoping that we pass our exams with flying colours. Hoping that the girls dig our new hairstyle. Hoping to graduate from university with a degree. Hoping for our dream job. Hoping for that luxury car we've always wanted. Hoping for that flashy apartment pad in the middle of the city. Hoping to get the girl of your dreams. Hoping to escape from our miserable existence and go on to greater and better heights. Hoping for a better life.

Whatever it is, it's hope that drives us on with our life. It gives us a sense of purpose, hoping that what we do will lead to better things, giving us something to look forward to. Without hope, we might as well be dead.

But sometimes, just sometimes, hope can mess up your life. Too much hope and you never know when to quit. It's good to have a 'never quit' attitude but in some situations in life, quitting is the best thing you can do. Cutting your losses when you're fighting a battle you know you cannot win. Carry on fighting the battle and you might just end up losing not only the battle, but the whole damn war.

At last!

2008-07-05T03:57:00.003+08:00

Orientation week is finished! My laptop has arrived! Internet connection!

Orientation week was tiring. Especially when you can't go out from the uni during the whole orientation week. And lotsa stuff in orientation is keh liaw wan.

Just got my laptop a few hours ago and with it, Internet! I've been so out of touch with the world in the past week. Has the world ended yet?

Everything here is good. USM is nice, so are the friends that I've made in uni. Lots of new experiences. Penang is a nice place too. Only been to Queensbay Mall so far but it has lived up to my expectations. And it has Topman! Oh, and my friend managed to win 2 VIP tickets to High School Musical on Ice (August, Kuala Lumpur) in a basketball shooting competition while we were there.

Looking forward to catching The Dark Knight in GSC. Whee!

The sights here on Penang are very pleasing on the eyes too, if you get my drift...hehe.

Oh, and this is a great place for the President of the Kuching Kong Hokkien Uoa Kong Huey to further his studies. And his plans too for world domination as well as the global expansion of the Wawaweewa Empire. Everybody here in Penang speaks Hokkien.

Only downside is transportation. It's fine, but having a car would be so much nicer. Wondering if I can convince my parents to ship my car over here next semester. So many places to go, not having my own car is killing me. And oh, how I wish I know how to ride a bicycle. An opportunity is staring me right in the face, if only I know how to ride a freaking bike!

Will try to get some pictures asap, pending personal censorship. To post or not to post?

Penang

2008-06-26T03:50:00.002+08:00

Got into Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang. Will be on the main campus on Penang Island. Doing Management there for 3 years. I get to choose which field I'd like to major in on the 2nd year. Marketing and Finance are among the options.

Hate that they give you such short notice before you're required to register. Reply came out on the 18th, have to be there by the 28th. It's been rush rush rush these past few days.

Penang. Nice place, no complaints. KL would have been good as I know people there. But still, Penang has it's own attractions and it's a place I don't mind going at all.

Meh

2008-06-26T02:16:00.004+08:00

The world is round. We have 24 hours in a day. Petrol prices are going up. George W. Bush is a cunt. St. Jo won the state level marching band competition. What's new?

Well done St. Jo. No, really, well done to you guys. I'm so chuffed to bits, I'm going out on a limb here to post a video of me applauding you guys. Anything for you guys.

Oh! By the way, it probably won't matter, but I like to call that my Clap de la Sarcastic.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm Josephian to the core and I'm proud of it but one thing I'm not proud of is the school band. And I'm not the only one who feels that way.

Not all of them are like that, I know some band members, I have friends in band and they're really nice people. But the majority of the band members have ego problems. Superiority complex. Elitist issues. And in school, they take priority over everything. And I mean everything. It's so unfair that if the UN Human Rights Council did a investigation, our school band will be on trial right now. You get the point. They're untouchable.

Maybe it's not even the majority of the band. Maybe it's just a minority. But you know what they say, a few rotten apples spoil the basket. Or something to that effect.

What I do know is that the root of the problem lies with those in charge of the band. The school authorities. The people calling the shots in band. Again, not all of them I'd say, but a few is more than enough. They were the ones who made the band untouchable and with that comes the elitist and superiority complex.

I have a love-hate relationship with the band..mostly hate though. On one hand, they're making the school proud but on the other hand, they're real arses, for lack of a better word. I don't know whether to cheer or jeer, which makes me look like a hypocrite at times.

Anyway, about the competition. No matter how much I hate the band, if they deserve to win, then I can't say anything. They didn't deserve it though, Chung Hwa Miri deserved to. Which makes the whole thing a huge pile of bollocks.

Bollocks.

100th Post

2008-06-25T17:48:00.003+08:00

For the 100th post of my blog, I'd like to dedicate it to my latest crushcrushcrush and object of affection, Hayley Williams of Paramore.

Green eyes and red hair, my favourite. Hey hey hey!

Azza Burger

2008-06-09T03:53:00.004+08:00

Azza Burger

Since my cash frequently goes out to this stall, I think it most appropriate to be dedicating a post to the one and only Azza Burger.

Roadside burger stalls are a dime a dozen in Kuching and most of them taste the same, but there exists in Kuching a elitist clique of roadside burger stalls. The crème de la crème, the cherries on the top, the star on the top of the X'mas tree. Call it whatever you want, but these burger stalls stand out from the rest of the crop.

Arguably the best roadside burger stall in Kuching for me is Azza burger, located conveniently in front of a 24 hour convenience store, at a traffic light in front of Waterfront.

Best thing about it is that it opens til the wee hours of the morning. It has helped to satisfy my craving for roadside burgers which I get during the most unorthodox of hours. Azza has even motivated a group of us (which included girls) to scale the fences of our school compound and walk for 20 minutes (back and forth) to the burger stall at 2 AM in the morning. Though admittedly, I guess it was more of the sense of adventure that motivated us to do that.

Azza is somewhere up there in the ranks along with the likes of Sunny Hill Ice-Cream, Curry House Roti Canai and McDonald's Sausage Egg McMuffin. I'm probably gonna have a wet dream soon about making sweet love to some hot chicks, all the while stuffing Azza Chicken Egg Full Cheese into my mouth. Sweet.

In the words of Chester, I am giving Azza a huge ego-masturbation indeed.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have Burger Times. I officially boycott that burger stall which ironically is the only chain roadside burger stall to my knowledge (it's available at most coffee shops). I do not care that they have unashamedly ripped the name and logo of Burger King. What annoys me about them is that you have to wait a fuckin' long time for their burgers. Most burger stalls are 2 man stalls but Burger Times only has 1. Not only that, last time I checked, their prices were slightly pricier compared to their competitors. All this despite their burgers being just mediocre. They can say what they want about how their cook their eggs differently from other stalls but to me it's just a gimmick and in fact it doesn't taste as good when you cook your egg separately from the meat patty instead of wrapping it around the patty.

I have a feeling they're feeling real good about themselves because the Borneo Post ran an article about their burgers a while back, so they think they can get away with all that. Bollocks. In my opinion, the newspaper picked them not because their burgers were good but rather because they were the only burger stall to have a proper shop (Times Cafe) and their egg gimmick (as to the less informed, most burger stalls would taste the same, so the newspapers were looking for a burger stall that had a gimmick).

Anyway, have I mentioned that Azza also sells tasty nasi lemak? I haven't tried it myself (not a nasi lemak person) but according to friends, they have some really mean nasi lemak.

All this from a company that started off selling reload cards (if my sources are reliable). Wicked.

Kuching Kong Hokkien Uoa Kong Huey

2008-06-09T01:15:00.008+08:00

Peng Eu! Ho bo?!

As Supreme High Chancellor, Ph.D(Sociolinguistics - Hokkien)(Petaling Street University), M.A. in Teaching Hokkien as a Second Language (University of Padungan), B.A. (Language Studies - Hokkien)Hons(Civic Centre College), of the Kuching Kong Hokkien Uoa Kong Huey (Kuching Speak Hokkien Language Association), I feel that it is most appropriate to compose this post in Hokkien.

However, due to the necessity of reaching out to a wider audience with this propaganda broadcast (and due to the complexities of composing a post in Hokkien), this post shall instead be in English.

Greetings my fellow Hokkien Language lovers. It is imperative and of the utmost urgency that I relay this most grievous news to you all. The proud bastion of the Hokkien language, the fair city of Kuching, is under threat from the imperialist Mandarin language.

Less than 25 years ago, Hokkien was the lingua franca of the Chinese people in Kuching. From the upper class elitist to the common class rabble and further extending down to the peasant peons (yes, that means you, the reader!), Hokkien was the language of choice for them all. If it is to be believed, according to propaganda broadcasts from that era, even the other races in the city knew how to speak basic Hokkien.

How far we have fallen from those glorious heights. With the rapid rise of the sleeping dragon that is China and the Mandarin language that they advocate, Kuching too has not been spared from the negative effects of globalisation. The imperialist Mandarin language pig-dogs have taken full advantage of this and have planted a strong foothold in our city.

More and more Chinese youngsters are now speaking Mandarin (with the aid of the Chinese schools that they attend) and ignoring the original Chinese dialect of Kuching, Hokkien. It is of great shame for me to say that most Chinese youngsters nowadays do not speak a word of Hokkien. Oh! The shame! The dishonour! The majority of Hokkien speakers nowadays consist of the older generations. This does not forebode well for my dream of a city (and further down the road, an empire) that speaks nothing but the Hokkien language.

The Hokkien language in Kuching is an important cultural identity for our city. It serves to remind us of our roots, our forefathers and most importantly, our cultural supremacy that shall one day overrun the region and crush all those who oppose the Hokkien language! If the Hokkien language should fall in Kuching, so shall the city itself! We will be Kuching no longer. We might as well be called the city of Anjing, as it will make no difference. Lawlessness and chaos will then reign supreme in our city as "Ni hao ma?" and "Ta jia hao!" will run rampant across the city.

As such and for the survival of our cultural identity and supremacy, I urge us all, from the pathetic slaves to the snobbish nobility, to wake up from our complacent attitude towards the blasphemous Mandarin language insurgency and crush it once and for all! Viva La Hokkien!

For a start, here are 3 simple ways you can support the Kuching Kong Hokkien Uoa Kong Huey.

Stare incredulously at any person that attempts to engage you in a Mandarin language conversation, as if they've just said the most ridiculous thing in the world about your mother. Reply back with a Hokkien swear word of your choice. A simple 'Mai Ji Bai' should do the trick. Follow it up by spitting on the ground. If he/she still attempts to converse in Mandarin, physical violence is then deemed necessary.
Join the weekly Kuching Kong Hokkien Uoa Kong Huey demonstration at Hui Sing Garden every Friday night at 7 PM. Don't miss out! Oh, and do bring your most creative self-made banners (must be in Hokkien). Proudly sponsored and fully endorsed by the Wawaweewa Gang.
Buy the official "Kong Hokkien Uoa!™" line of merchandise that is available at your nearest Kuching Kong Hokkien Uoa Kong Huey branch office. We have a special on our popular Button Badges that will last til the end of this month. Buy 2 and get 1 free. Buy the original! Belilah yang ori! For further inquiries, please contact 1-800-HOKKIEN-UOA.

T-Shirt (Black/White) - RM 39.90
Cap (Black/White) - RM 29.90
Knowing how to speak Hokkien - Priceless

*Does not come with model. Model sold separately. Further details can be arranged by calling the number above*

I'm also taking the opportunity to say how disappointed I was with the turnout for our fund raising project which was carried out last month.

This traditional Chinese opera in our beloved Hokkien language was held at the stage (next to Medan Pelita) opposite the Chinese temple at the end of Carpenter Street as part of our fund raising activities. Proceeds from the fund raising goes directly into the 'Funds for the Betterment of our Beloved Supreme High Chancellor', with the next item on the list a Mitsubishi EVO X.

Check out my blow-your-mind-fo-shizzle-ma-nizzy jacked up ride yo. Complete with custom decals.

And the turnout was a measly 7 people! Count 'em! Unbe-friggin-lievable. How am I gonna get my new car?! Never the less, looking at the bright side, it could have been worst. It could have been a no turnout. So to those 7 people, my heartfelt thanks for supporting me, your Supreme High Chancellor. As for the rest of you people, I am your Supreme High Chancellor so worship me, motherfuckers!

Nostalgia

2008-05-26T06:24:00.009+08:00

Staring at a photo, brought back memories of an incident from the past
Memories almost forgotten, glad that I didn't, bittersweet tho it may be
Happened across the sea, in a city I visited for the very first time

In the middle of the night, hand in hand we walked
Down the corridors built in the time of the British, a time oh so long ago
Reinforcing the perception that almost everyone had
So as to deceive our brothers from across the Strait
Doubtful we were though, that it would actually work
But the deed was carried out, without further thought
Saw it as casual fun, and so it was

But was it as simple as that?
Or did we had other intentions?
I don't know about you
But you can say I did
Though the feelings that made me clasped your hand
Weren't fully formulated yet at the time
They were just starting to grow
In a place deep down in my heart

It must be Fate herself
Playing games with me
Foreshadowing how I was going to feel about you
With that simple gesture

And now the games that Fate plays
Has Nostalgia joining in
That sense of longing
For the past and the simpler times
For the time when I held your hand
When I had high hopes for us
And the painful truth had yet to surface
Proof that Ignorance is bliss
And the truth hurts

It's amusing
How I didn't fully appreciate it when we locked hands
When the feelings were finally developed
And I knew how to appreciate it
I wished for the opportunity again
Only to find that there probably won't be a second time

It's like listening to music today
Without knowing it's the last time you do
Because tomorrow you're becoming stone deaf
Life has a wicked sense of humour

Did I play a part in my downfall?
Did I jump the gun?
Did it come out too early, the words that I spoken?
Or was it all irrelevant
And we just weren't meant to be?

I guess we'll never know
As what's done is done, and we cannot reverse Time
And as Time marches on
All that's left are memories
And bittersweet Nostalgia

-------------------

Vague is the person but in the archives lie clues to the method to reveal the identity
And remember the fact that
Naturally, history tends to repeat itself

Vote Cobra Commander '08

2008-05-23T02:19:00.005+08:00

Found out about this from Chester's blog, it's just too good to not repost.

You cannot call yourself a child of the 80's/90's if you don't know who Cobra Commander is. Look him up. Wikipedia is teh awesome. If you think Hitler was charismatic, you aint' seen nothing yet. He's pwns Hitler's ass a million times over and still has time to drop in for a cup of tea with the Pope. He is the magnificent, the inspiring, the kind, awesome and supremely borderline insane psycho megalomaniac, Cobra Commander!!!

He may have failed in his illegal quest for global domination but with your help, yes you, the people of America, you can help him this time around with his legal quest for global domination. Vote Cobra Commander!

If you're sick and tired of hearing Obama and his promises for better healthcare, or Clinton's promises of ending the war in Iraq, why not throw your hat in instead for CC and his ingenious Weather Dominator™!

If you still aren't sure whether your vote is for CC (though I can't fucking imagine why), maybe the following videos will help make your mind up. Or maybe you'd like some insane Cobra Ninja Assassins with mad skillz knocking at your doorstep to help you change your mind. And I mean that literally.

And how can you call yourself a presidential candidate without your very own campaign song?

Vote Cobra Commander '08! Yes, we shall!

Cobra La La La La La La La La La La La La!!!!

PAID FOR BY COMMANDER FOR PRESIDENT AND APPROVED BY COBRA COMMANDER

DDA

2008-05-23T01:19:00.007+08:00

Yes damnit, I am a self confessed ex-DotA disser (I'm pretty sure I just made up that word). I'm here at Dota Dissing Anonymous to share my experience as an ex-Dota disser to all of you so that you would not repeat my mistake again.

Anyone who regards himself as a respectable gamer should know what Dota is. Unless you've been living under a rock for the past 5 years. Which I sincerely hope for the welfare of your mental state, is not the case.

If you haven't been living under a rock and you still don't know what Dota is, you fail in your gaming knowledge.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Yes, just a year ago I was dissing Dota as a game, despite never even playing it. As is usual for the majority of society, I was dissing something that I had never even tried.

To quote a line from the movie 'Ah Long', "belum try belum tahu. Sekali try, hari-hari mahu".

Oh, how have the ignorant fallen.

On that dark, fateful stormy night when I was playing CS at the local cybercafe, in she walked. A leggy broad, pretty as a picture. Eyes as blue as the ocean, lips as red as ruby. A tousle of long blonde hair, cascading down to her shoulders. A sexy, elegant and tight dress on her lithe body. Long, slender fingers holding a thin, slowly burning cigarette on a cigarette holder. The room descended into a hush, beady eyes roving all over her body, as smoke from her cigarette arose to frame her head. She was the classic femme fatale. My heart skipped a beat. Her...hey, wait a minute! Is this the film noir script writing class? I was introduced to the game that is Dota. It blew my mind. Mind numbing, orgasm inducing. Never had I played a game like this before. Here was a game of strategy, teamwork and cunning. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. Somewhere in the universe, a sun exploded. A star collapsed. A black hole swallowed an entire galaxy. Man Utd won the Champions League. Drogba announced he was gay who enjoyed buttsecks. Cobra Commander became the president of the United States with his Weather Dominator™. But none of that mattered, compared to the awesomelicious pleasures of Dota.

I played like a man consumed with hunger. Hunger for nothing but Dota. Blink strikes, mana burn and sacred relics were my only sustenance. I broke into a feverish sweat. Hands on mouse and keyboard, eyes on screen as I triple killed, monster killed, beyond godliked and dominated my way to paradise and beyond. My heroes were no longer Cpt. Jack Sparrow or King Leonidas. There were replaced with Sand King and Terrorblade. There was no longer good or evil, there was only the Sentinel and the Scourge. The Tree of Life and the Frozen Throne.

I was a DotA disser no more.

3 Libras

2008-05-21T18:00:00.003+08:00

Threw you the obvious
And you flew with it on your back
A name in your recollection
Down among a million same

Difficult not to feel a little bit
Disappointed and passed over
When I've looked right through
See you naked but oblivious
And you don't see me

Well I threw you the obvious
Just to see if there's more behind the
Eyes of a fallen angel
Eyes of a tragedy

Here I am expecting just a little bit
Too much from the wounded
But I see
See through it all
See through
And see you

Cos I threw you the obvious
To see what occurs behind the
Eyes of a fallen angel
Eyes of a tragedy

Oh well..
Oh well..
Apparently nothing
Apparently nothing at all

(4x)
You don't
You don't
You don't see me

You don't see
You don't
You don't see me at all

- 3 Libras, A Perfect Circle

Beautiful song with beautiful lyrics.

The lyrics for the song is pretty deep and abstract and each will have their own interpretation of the lyrics. Here's my take on it.

Basically, the song is about how disappointed one feels when his loved one overlooks him and doesn't see him at all.

'Obvious' here seems to refer to the singer's love for the other person, as in it's pretty obvious that he is in love with her. The singer makes it obvious that he loves the other person. So 'threw you the obvious' seems to be saying 'I told you the obvious, that I love you'.

But his name is just another name to her along with all the other names that hold no significance to her.

Fallen angel, tragedy and wounded refers to her. It seems like she got hurt in a past relationship which is the reason why she seems to be overlooking and passing him over, perhaps for the fear of getting hurt again, thus she is wounded. A fallen angel used to be an angel, a being filled with optimism but has now been corrupted to a being filled with pessimism. This could represent her, in that her optimistic view on relationships had been corrupted by that particular relationship and now she views relationships in a pessimistic light. She is now, in essence, a tragedy.

He's been throwing her the obvious to see her response but evidently he's been expecting too much from her because in the end, her response according to him is "apparently nothing, apparently nothing at all".

Ok, I better stop before the slitting begins and the blood starts to flow.

Remember kids, down the road, not across the street.

Looking Back In Time

2008-04-23T18:29:00.003+08:00

It is possible. All you have to do is just look at the stars above you in the night sky. Or the sun.

What's the science behind this?

We are only able to see an object when light is reflected or emitted from the object into our eyes. Now, let's say a star is 5 light years away from Earth. This means that it takes 5 years for the light from the star to travel to our Earth.

So when we are looking at a star that is 5 light years away from us, we are actually looking at the star as it is 5 years ago. The star may have suddenly disappeared 3 years ago, but we wouldn't know until 2 years later, when the last of the light from the star reaches our eyes.

So everytime we look at the heavens, we are actually taking a look back into the past.

In case you were wondering, it takes 8 minutes and 18 seconds for the light from the sun to reach our planet. That means that if the sun were to suddenly cease existing for whatever reason, we would only notice the absence of sunlight 8 minutes later.

This isn't actually rocket science and anyone who knows about how we can only perceive things when light from the object enters our eyes should know all that I've stated above, but I still find it interesting regardless.

Again

2008-04-22T19:08:00.002+08:00

Its seems like the footballing gods have a wicked sense of humour. Champions League semi-final and who do we draw again? Chelsea. Three times at this stage in the last four years and the only year we didn't draw them in the semi-final, we got them in the group stage.

Oh well, it will surely guarantee us fans a whole lot of drama, though not necessarily good football. Anyway, for a change, this time around Anfield will play host to the 1st leg. I'd rather have it the other way around but at least playing the 2nd leg away means that every goal you score counts as an away goal and can potentially be worth two goals.

The Price of Getting What You Want

2008-04-22T04:57:00.005+08:00

Is getting what you once wanted.

We all want what we cannot have. Why? Who knows, it could even be just because we want to know how it feels like to own the thing we want.

Whether we still want it after we get it though, is a different matter altogether. Be careful what you wish for, for the price of getting what you want, is getting what you once wanted.

So we have what we want. We are happy with it, we treasure it and we carry on with our life.

But sometimes, in getting what we desire, we no longer want it. The quest for the unattainable, the thrill of the chase, whatever it was that made us desire it in the first place, is no longer there. And then we discard whatever it was that we used to covet, throwing it aside like a broken trinket.

And what of those sacrifices that we make in our effort to get what we want? We may had thrown away friendships. Destroyed. Betrayed. Killed. All for what? To obtain something you really wanted but didn't really want in the end.

"The price of getting what you want, is getting what once you wanted."
~ Dream, Sandman #19

Audio Hosting

2008-04-22T02:08:00.002+08:00

Can anyone recommend me a free and reliable file hosting website where I can host my mp3 files? I used to have one courtesy of me being a member of a forum, but the privilege was rescinded after complaints were received from the domain master about too many forum members hosting licensed materials.

In other news, my social circle is dwindling. Everyone is leaving Kuching for further studies. I may or may not be leaving Kuching. I don't even know if I want to leave or not. With all my friends leaving soon, the next few months are going to be the last few pages in this chapter of my life with my current group of friends. The next chapter and my next group of friends will be when I enter college/university. With it comes the excitement of meeting new people and the apprehension of the challenge of fitting into a new social circle, just as expected.

Oh well, nothing stays the same. Changes are inevitable. As someone once said, nothing is constant, the only constant in life is change itself.

Amazing

2008-04-09T04:45:00.002+08:00

Amazing. Fucking amazing. Another dramatic night at Anfield, another European win for Liverpool.

For a minute, Walcott and Adebayor thought they had become the heroes of the night. Literally so. A minute, it only lasted a minute. And that's all it takes for ecstasy to turn to agony. A single minute. Bloody hell.

If they were any heroes, I thought Skrtel was incredible. He was a rock. How many clearances did he make? I lost count. He has settled down very quickly at Liverpool. And then there was Gerrard. Nerves of steel baby...nerves of steel. And need I mention Torres? He's on the highway to cult status at Anfield, if he isn't there already.

Next stop, Chelsea. Can you believe it? Bloody hell, three times in the past four years at the semi-final stage. Well, we've done it twice, let's make it a hat-trick. And the past two times we've played against them, we've made it to the final. Good omens.

Commentators were saying Arsenal were hard done by the penalty. It was a penalty in my opinion. There wasn't really that much contact, I've seen penalties not given for more contact than that (Kuyt in the previous leg springs to mind, but that's a different story which I'll touch on later). But at the pace Babel was going, that amount of body contact is going to make him lose his balance. Penalty.

As for Kuyt who almost gave away a penalty in the previous leg, my opinion is that it should have been given. Liverpool were lucky on that occasion.

The Godfather Liverpool - Arsenal Trilogy

2008-04-08T19:47:00.003+08:00

Part I and II of the trilogy which ended in draws has set the stage up for a exciting Part III and conclusion to the Liverpool - Arsenal trilogy.

Two draws at the Emirates Stadium and with the last leg at Anfield has left me fancying our chances of making it to the semi-finals of the Champions League. Liverpool can't take things for granted though, as Arsenal have shown in the last round against AC Milan that they have what it takes.

Winning at the San Siro is no easy feat and Arsenal will be boosted by that fact going into tonight's game with the conditions pretty similar to their previous round against AC Milan (1st leg home draw, going into the 2nd legs as slight underdogs and at an intimidating stadium) but this time it's not the San Siro that we're talking about (despite it being an intimidating stadium in its own right). Instead, this is Anfield.

A FA Cup and League Cup match at Anfield last season has Adebayor saying he knows what to expect at Anfield tonight. Oh boy. He's in for a surprise. FA Cup, League Cup and Premiership matches are nothing compared to European nights at Anfield. European nights is what Anfield is all about.

Let's hope Anfield can produce another one of those magical European nights again.

Suicide Note (April Fool!)

2008-04-01T10:16:00.006+08:00

Seeing that it's April Fools' Day today, I thought it suitable to post this up. Haha.

I posted this 'suicide note' way back in 2004 on a forum that I frequent a lot. I was a daily poster at that time and during Dec '04, I had to attend our school's Red Crescent's Annual Gathering Camp, leaving me without internet access for the next few days. I decided to pull their legs a bit so on the day before I left, my last post on the forum was the 'suicide note' (which I might add, is an original and written by myself..haha.. ;P ). I even posted up two pics for good measure.

Best of times, never will I forget
Acheron, river of woe, my soul approaches my target
Charon the Boatman, patiently awaiting his toll
Keenly reaching for, my silver obol

Finding my way across, the dark empty void
Racing past the shades, hordes of ghostly humanoids
Icy grip of Hades, forever I cannot avoid

In the beginning, they greeted it with skeptism but after the 2nd or 3rd day, they started to worry. Haha..I finally got back and told them I was just taking the piss. In fact, I had left them a clue in the poem indicating it was all fake. Around 10 of them for 5 days, and they didn't spot it. Can you one up them and spot it?

.......

.......

La di di da da da

.......

*tumbleweeds*

.......

Here
Is a
Clue

Got it?

No?

Read the first letter in each line, from top to bottom.

Back Fri

Haha..I was coming back on a Friday hence, 'Back Fri'.

Now, if I ever have a need for a suicide note, I already have one in hand. Haha.

Happy April Fools' Day, fools!

;)

Cancelled

2008-03-29T16:01:00.003+08:00

I didn't get to go to Miri after all. Was eating lunch and getting ready to go to the airport when I found out that the trial got postponed and hence the Miri trip was off for me. Bleh.

Miri

2008-03-26T01:29:00.006+08:00

Flying off to Miri later at 12:30pm, accompanying my dad and my boss (yeah, I've been working at my dad's friend's law firm since Feb 29, for exposure) there for a court case. It's pretty damn hard to get a flight from Kuching to Miri and back for the next few days, both MAS and AirAsia were fully booked. I heard it was because of Qing Meng.

I didn't write about my trip to Sibu. Well, Sibu is, in my opinion, a small, sleepy town and was boring like hell, and I was just there for 3 days. I can't imagine living there, I'd go nuts with boredom. Not surprising lah, Kuching is already quite boring at times, what more to say Sibu.

It's all a matter of perspective though. I assume that KL citizens would say the same thing about Kuching and if I grew up and live in Sibu, I'd get along just fine in Sibu.

Oh, and there's something I'd just like to mention about my stay in Sibu. We went to the MAS ticketing office there to sort out our flight back to Kuching, it was the FRIGGING longest wait I've ever had to endure in my life. There was only two staff working the counter, but they took like 20 minutes each to serve a customer. I don't know whether it was because of the incompetence of the staff or what, but we had to wait two hours before it was our turn. And there was like only ten people or less they had to serve first before it was our turn. If I'd known earlier, I would have gotten my number, gone and catch a movie at the cinema before coming back to do my ticket. And I think there would still be ample enough time for me to grab a drink after the movie too.

I was so bored that I started playing Sudoku on my phone, the first time I've ever played Sudoku. And I've never had much of an interest in Sudoku too. Bloody hell.

Here's a pic of that heavens-be-damned office that I took out of sheer boredom.

There was also this lady who came in, took her number and it must have been at least 20 more numbers to go before her turn, so she started rummaging through the pile of discarded numbers that some people left on the table because they couldn't afford to wait and she got the number closest to the one being served. Pretty smart. Some of the waiting customers saw her do that and started doing it themselves. Hehe..

My dad also brought me to one of the places he used to stay at when he was a kid. It was a shophouse on the highest floor. There's a karaoke now on the first floor, here's a pic of the entrance. Ghostbuster's Karaoke & Lounge. Heh.

He also told me he buried some coins next to a tree on a tiny piece of grassland opposite that shophouse when he was a kid. The tree is gone now (and with it probably the coins), in its place are some newer trees.

Anyways, I've been to Miri before once for a short while, in 2001. Can't remember much but I think it's better than Sibu. I wanna go see how the waterfront looks like now, it was still under construction last time I visited.

And oh, just got my driving license renewed on Monday. No more 'P' now, yay! Haha..feel more pro now, haha. Took the wrong road on my way up to JPJ, was halfway to Kota Samarahan before I realised I took the wrong path and turned back. Heh. Had to get my photo taken the previous night as I've run out of photos, had nearly forgotten to get it taken. Van says my photo looks like a police mugshot..ahah. It's probably because of the hair.

There was one thing that didn't make sense to me. If you get your license renewed before expiry, you can only renew up to a maximum of one year. Getting your license renewed after expiry will allow you to renew up to five years. What's the difference between getting it renewed before expiry and after expiry? Make life hard only..typical Malaysian bureaucracy.

I am hope

2008-03-21T04:31:00.008+08:00

"What the shit is he talking about?"

That (or something similar) may have been running through your mind ever since you first read my 'Alter ego' section on the top right of the page.

If you've been wondering what's the deal behind that but never bothered to ask, this has been a long time coming but wait no longer, it's finally here, my explanation for it.

It's actually from the pages of 'The Sandman', my favourite graphic novel. It's an extract (the ending actually) of a conversation between Morpheus and Choronzon.

To shed some light on the background of the conversation, The Sandman (a.k.a. Morpheus, Dreamlord), who is essentially the anthropomorphic manifestation of dreams, travels to Hell to regain possession of an item of his which has fallen into the hands of Choronzon, a demon and duke of Hell. In order to take back what is his, he needs to play and win a game of 'Reality', which is a verbal game. Losing will cause him to be a slave of Hell for all eternity.

It's a bit hard to explain how the game works, but you should be able to understand it from the full conversation between them, which I will quote below.

------------

CHORONZON: I am a dire wolf, prey-stalking, lethal prowler.

MORPHEUS: I am a hunter, horse-mounted, wolf-stabbing.

CHORONZON: I am a horsefly, horse-stinging, hunter-throwing.

MORPHEUS: I am a spider, fly-consuming, eight legged.

CHORONZON: I am a snake, spider-devouring, poison-toothed.

MORPHEUS: I am an ox, snake-crushing, heavy footed.

CHORONZON: I am an anthrax, butcher, bacterium, warm-life destroying.

MORPHEUS: I am a world, space-floating, life nurturing.

CHORONZON: I am a nova, all-exploding... planet-cremating.

MORPHEUS: I am the Universe -- all things encompassing, all life embracing.

CHORONZON: I am Anti-Life, the Beast of Judgement. I am the dark at the end of everything. The end of universes, gods, worlds... of everything. Sss. And what will you be then, Dreamlord?

MORPHEUS: I am hope.

---------------

Choronzon had no reply to that, and Morpheus won.

What I really like about it is that it shows how powerful hope is, that it's virtually impossible to find anything that can defeat hope.

It also says a lot about what each of them personifies. Choronzon is a demon, and basically the dark at the end of everything, while Morpheus (who is the anthropomorphization of dream) is basically hope, as hope is quite closely connected to a person's dreams.

Which brings me to the lyrics of the song 'Forever Young' by Alphaville. There's a part of the lyrics which says,

"Hoping for the best but expecting the worst"

which I think is very sensible advice. Heh.

Freedom of Choice

2008-03-21T03:00:00.003+08:00

Freedom of choice
Is what you've got
Freedom from choice
Is what you want

~ Freedom of Choice, Devo

The above is an excerpt from the song 'Freedom of Choice' by Devo. It's a political song about the issue of choice that one has to make during an election.

First off, I'd just like to say it's really cool that with just the change of a single word, replacing 'of' with 'from', the meaning of the sentence 'Freedom of Choice' is completely changed. In fact, it means the exact opposite. Instead of getting the freedom to choose whichever options are available, it becomes having no choice at all in your options. Aaah, the power of English.

Anyway, the lyrics in the excerpt above poses an interesting situation. An individual possesses the freedom of choice, but freedom FROM choice is in fact what the individual desires.

All of us usually desire to have the freedom of choice in the matters that we are dealing with, but they are some situations where I've personally felt that it's better to have the freedom from choice.

Right now, with the completion of Form 6, I'm dealing with the issue of deciding what to study. I've always been unclear as to what I would like to do in life. I believe it's important to choose a career that I'm happy with, because it'll be something I'll be doing for my whole life, and I don't intend to spend my entire life doing something I don't like, even if it's really good pay. That doesn't mean though, that I want to do something that I like but pays like shit. It's important to pursue a good paying career, but it's equally important as well that it's a career that I like.

The problem is I can't really see what it is that I'll be happy to do for my entire life. Sure, I've got some ideas in mind, but those are a bit too fanciful to be realistic. It's one thing to say 'Chase your dreams!', but we need to be realistic about our dreams too.

I guess it's hard to decide because you never know if the route you choose is the correct one for you unless you're walking on it and by that time, it's too late to turn back.

Anyway, right now I have the freedom of choice to choose whatever career it is I intend to pursue, but the problem is in making the correct choice. Maybe there is never a correct choice, as one never knows until he looks back in hindsight on the choices that he makes. Which is why I wish that I have the freedom FROM choice right now. It definitely would be easier to make a decision because there's simply no choice at all, but then again that may force me into a career that I'm not happy to pursue.

So in the end, it seems that freedom of choice, though the harder option, is the best option to have right now.

Freedom of choice or freedom from choice? Which would you prefer? You decide.

Kuala Lumpur

2008-03-07T01:42:00.002+08:00

So yes, it's happening. Will be leaving for Kuala Lumpur later at 7am with Chester. A bit sad lah..only us two. With college classes starting already, it's hard to find penganggurs like the two of us. Andrew N and Yew Inn can't go due to parents issue. Oh well.

Sarsi Cincau

2008-02-16T15:34:00.003+08:00

That's what caused my food poisoning. I thought it was the kolo mee, until Andrew N said that he had food poisoning too. We went out that same night, but he didn't take kolo mee, so that couldn't be the source of poisoning. He thought it was the spaghetti he had, but I didn't take spaghetti. The only common food link between us was the Sarsi Cincau we had.

It was kinda amusing to hear that we went through the exact same symptoms. Feeling of bloatedness in the stomach before going to sleep. Mine was at 2am while his was at 3am. He puked in the middle of the night after waking up from his sleep. I had to endure an uncomfortable night's sleep with a bloated stomach until I barfed at noon the next day.

He was worst off though, feeling dizzy and weak with a fever while I had the same minus the dizziness. Fortunately it wasn't that bad and we were both out again the following day. Haha.

I still love Sarsi Cincau but I don't think I'll be ordering it again very soon..hehe. It's made worst by the fact that most kopitiams don't sell it except for the one we went to. Damn.

Random Shit Part 3 (Happy Valentine's Day!)

2008-02-14T03:46:00.005+08:00

I have just realised it's Valentine's Day. Happy Valentine's Day! Not celebrating as always, but I did do something for a friend. Hehe.

Also am having a slight case of food poisoning now. Had a bowl of kolo mee on Tues night, I'm thinking it wasn't very clean because a few hours later, my stomach felt uncomfortable and I felt like vomiting. Finally vomited the mee out this morning, accompanied by slight chill to the body and feeling tired and weak. It's not as bad as the last time I had food poisoning though, and am feeling better now. Am starting to feel hungry again, a good sign.

Am going Sibu this Sunday, accompanying my dad on a courtcase. Just staying for a night, will be back on Monday. Never been to Sibu before, am looking forward to it so that I can add it to the list of places I've been to. Plus it's the birthplace of my dad and his siblings.

And if all goes to plan, will be going KL on March 7th with friends. I beh kam guan that I didn't manage to go KL last Dec, so this is going to make up for it.

Results coming out soon, I still don't have a clue on what to take. Bloody fuck! Need to do some serious soul searching now.

Reformatted my comp. Cousins were here during X'mas and staying in my room. They were using the comp and I didn't use it for a couple of days. When I finally did use it after they left, I found that Norton had expired and my comp had been a sitting duck for viruses. Comp started acting weirder and weirder until I reformatted it last week. It'll take a while before everything is as I like it. Seems like everytime a virus hits my comp, I'm never the one using it.

Random Shit Part 2

2008-02-14T02:52:00.004+08:00

My post looked like it was going to get very long, so I've broken it up. Easier on the eye.

So what has been happening during my absence in posting? The New Year has come and gone. Clubbing was how I spent my last few hours of 2007. More like bathing actually. On the night of New Year's Eve, it was raining like all the angels in heaven had decided to take a piss at the same time (anyone who can name me the game this line is from gets a prize). Didn't help that we were jumping between SoHo and Mojo before finally settling at Mojo. Good thing we did because there was a fight and the police came at Soho. Some of us got regally drunk. Someone lost their shoe or slipper. I managed to lose 2 of my umbrellas, never to be seen again.

Next up was my birthday on Jan 12. Had a blast partying at my house with friends. Sis celebrated on the same day too as her real birthday (Jan 16) was on a weekday while mine was on a weekend. Next year may not be as merry anymore as a couple of friends may be leaving Kuching in the coming year. Too bad as next year is going to be the big 21 for me. Oh well, we'll leave that for next year.

Chinese New Year is up next. Feb 7, just last week. CNY is the festival I look forward to the most and it started off as usual, with the skies filled with fire as the clock struck midnight on the 1st day of CNY. Wasn't home but out visiting the whole day for the first four days of CNY. The only exception was noon til 3pm on the 1st day of CNY due to open house at my place.

To all those that wanted to visit but I wasn't at home, I humbly apologise. Same to those that invited me to their place but I couldn't make it.

CNY was pretty eventful this year, it didn't disappoint I'd say. Had tons of fun visiting with friends. Found myself a new family, my car got a nickname and we have our own theme song...haha. Gained a number of new acquaintances.

Unfortunately though, I lost big in gambling. RM 100 (yeah, it may not be a big sum for some but it is for me). I have really shit luck in gambling this year. But I can't blame luck itself, I've got to blame myself too. No, it's not because I'm an uncontrollable gambling addict. It was down to me being the cheng keh (banker) in blackjack for the first time. An inexperienced cheng keh. Oh well, learn from the experience..we all gotta start from somewhere. Being inattentive to my cards in one of the rounds that I lost big didn't help either.

A friend of mine scratched the front bumper of my car while reversing her car. Fortunately it wasn't a bad scratch..barely noticeable. Will just need to polish it off. But that's not the end of the story. Her mum bought her car number and mine, and my number came out in Sports Toto. Special prize. Haha..now that's a prosperous Chinese New Year.

Oh yeah, another friend broke the leg of my table, mistaking it for a stool. Haha..a bit of hot glue did the trick though.

Random Shit Part 1

2008-02-14T02:18:00.002+08:00

Almost two months of non blogging, so here's some random shit from my mind.

It's funny how I blog so much during STPM and yet now that I have all the time in the world to do shit, I'm not blogging. I say it's because when I need to do stuff I don't like doing (like studying during STPM), I find ways to get out of studying, so I start blogging.

I've come to realise that I blog too formally at times and pay too much attention to details and stuff. I can take hours to post a post (Hmm..so maybe that's why I seldom blog). Do I have slight OCD? Screw that shit..I've always advocated the use of Manglish and Singlish as I consider those informal, rojak languages to be a symbol of cultural identity and something to be proud of..so screw decorum and bring on rojak posting! (Am I making sense?)

Speaking of cultural identity, am I the only one that feels aggrieved that a lot of people nowadays, especially youngsters, are speaking Mandarin in Kuching? The lingua franca in Kuching has always been Hokkien, and the Hokkien dialect spoken in Kuching is very special, it's different from the Hokkien spoken in Taiwan (as shown on those Hokkien dramas on tv that never seem to end. Bold and the Beautiful anyone?). In Sarawak, Kuching is the only major place where Hokkien is spoken. Sibu speaks Foochow and Miri speaks Mandarin mostly. West Malaysia is mostly Cantonese or Mandarin. Of the very few places that speak Kuching Hokkien, the most notable are Singapore and Penang, though even the Hokkien there is a bit different from ours.

Therefore, I can say that Kuching Hokkien is one of the cultural identities of Kuching. With more and more people in Kuching speaking Mandarin, one of Kuching's cultural identities is being threaten, especially when those speaking Mandarin are the younger generation. That's the story behind why I like to proclaim myself as the president of Kuching Kong Hokkien Uoa Kong Huey (Kuching Speak Hokkien Language Association).

End rant.

All's Well That Ends Well

2007-12-27T12:30:00.000+08:00

X'mas turned out pretty well for me. Dad's health was just a scare, so he's alright. And I've patched things up with my friend, so that's alright as well.

I've never made New Year resolutions before, but I guess my first ever for next year would be to be in more control of my feelings, especially jealousy. Heh.

Merry X'mas.

I Spoke Too Soon

2007-12-23T01:09:00.000+08:00

The green eyed monster never left. And this time, the fucking beast has strained a friendship of mine. I thought I had it out of my system but it came back, vicious as ever, seemingly determined to prove me wrong.

Aargh..who am I kidding? I'm weak. And stupid. I knew the damage that jealousy could do but when it reared its ugly head, I just wasn't strong enough to ignore it. Instead, I was stupid enough to lash out at its goading.

And now, I'm paying the price. I always knew how to correctly respond to emotions and situations like this. But knowing how to respond correctly and whether you're strong enough to carry out the proper response are totally different things. I always thought I was strong enough to respond correctly, but I was wrong.

I was right about one thing though. My whole post on jealousy. That

Jealousy -> Paranoia
Paranoia -> Distrust
Distrust -> Conflict

That it's destructive. That it's irrational, illogical and impulsive. I was right about it all.

It doesn't take much. There were so many reasons why I shouldn't lash out but in the end, the green haze blurred all those reasons out and only focused on that one stupid reason why I should lash out. That one silly reason that was filled with so many presumptions and assumptions, but still, foolishly lashed out I did. I walked right into its trap.

Jealousy turns you into a suspicious bastard. Every single small, minor detail turns into a reason to distrust someone. You become a senseless fool, ready to believe that the whole world is against you. That harmless things are actually something meant to hurt you. You build mountains out of molehills. You make jelly out of pudding. You make a big deal over a small thing.

The look that I got. Anger. Disbelief. Disgust. If looks could kill, I'd be in a coma right now.

I sincerely hope it'll turn out alright. I'm the one to blame here, no excuses. Dear Lord, please don't let me be like that ever again. Let this post serve as a reminder to never, ever be such a jealous idiot again.

It did serve to remind me how important friendships are though, and to never ever take them for granted.

I'd also like to thank my friends who tried to help and advise after the incident. Thanks too for bearing with me when I behaved petulantly, not only this time but every time I've been like that.

Something else troubling has popped up for me. My dad's health. Hopefully it'll turn out alright too. Christmas has always usually been a very mute affair for me, but this year, it doesn't look all that merry for me.

Merry X'mas, Jason Chang.

How Things Change So Quickly

2007-12-18T19:06:00.000+08:00

It's amazing how things can change so fast in just a space of a few days. Remember my posts on Dec 3 and 5? The reason that spurred me to post those posts isn't going to bother me anymore I dare say.

It also proves that I was right in my prediction that it was only a matter of time that something would pop up and make me move on.

CU-02 in Love by Goro Fujita

2007-12-17T03:41:00.000+08:00

Here's another gem from CG Society, this time it's a whole story by an extremely talented artist whose style I really like, Goro Fujita. Enjoy.

Funny Little Things in Life

2007-12-17T03:22:00.000+08:00

Heh..it's little things like this that makes life so interesting. So a couple of months back, someone I didn't know added me on Friendster. I still remember thinking to myself at the time, "Who's this person?" But I accepted the invite anyway.

Fast forward a couple of months later, and I'm attending the Red Crescent's Annual Gathering Camp in school. Made a new friend there. So I go to Friendster to look her up and surprise surprise, the stranger that added me so long ago is my new found friend.

It's kinda like discovering your boyfriend/girlfriend is your long lost brother/sister. Except it's less drastic. Hehe.

The Green Eyed Monster

2007-12-05T17:22:00.001+08:00

Jealousy is the dragon in paradise; the hell of heaven; and the most bitter of the emotions because associated with the sweetest.

~A. R. Orage

Jealousy, the green eyed monster. Money is the root of all evil, but I reckon that jealousy can give money a run for its money (no pun intended) as the root of all evil.

Similar to what a famous green skinned alien (no relation to the green eyed monster) in a galaxy far, far away once said, though his was in reference to fear, "Jealousy leads to paranoia. Paranoia leads to distrust. Distrust leads to conflict." And before you know it, your whole world has collapsed and you're living in your very own personal green hell.

It's a destructive emotion if not controlled. It's irrational and denies all logic, and it's impulsive, based largely on a person's raw and powerful feelings. It's often easy to analyse and find the source of jealousy, but understanding why the source causes jealousy is often illogical and does not obey any rationale. It's a perfect example of heart over mind.

You can find out why you're being jealous and come up with a hundred and one ways why you shouldn't be feeling jealous, but despite all that it's always the one and only illogical reason you have to be jealous that matters and overpowers all the other reasons. Sometimes there doesn't even need to be a reason, you're just jealous.

Uncontrolled, the feelings of illogicality and irrationality manifest themselves as paranoia, where every slight action by anyone is perceived as a threat and may cause the loss of the object the person holds dear.

Hand in hand with paranoia, comes distrust of everyone, including close acquaintances, causing a breakdown in relations and conflict to set in.

But jealous souls will not be answer'd so;
They are not ever jealous for the cause;
But jealous for they are jealous;
'tis a monster;
Begot upon itself, born on itself

~ Emilia, William Shakespeare's Othello

Recipe for my mood

2007-12-03T23:18:00.001+08:00

A cup of bitterness, a dash of cynicalness and a tablespoon of jealousy is how I'm feeling right now. Bleh..what a potent mix of venom. This is one concoction I'd like to go without. I'd rather have a cup of Teh-C-Peng.

I hate it when I feel this way. I know I shouldn't be feeling like this, but like what Gerard said, the heart is not like a water tap where you can just turn your feelings off. The following quote sums it up perfectly as well.

"You can close your eyes to the things you do not want to see, but you cannot close your heart to the things you do not want to feel."

Still sucks though.

On a sidenote, STPM is over! Got myself a little treat for the beginning of hols.

Installing as I type.

Dream

2007-11-23T17:39:00.000+08:00

Heh..had a weird dream.

Started out with Sean and I outside this house lounging on some beach chairs. The next morning, there's gonna be this tv gameshow so the participants of the show start coming to the house to spend the night there. One of the guys came up to us and asked us if we were participants too (we were not) and we pulled his leg by saying yes. In the end though, we apologised for pulling his leg.

The setting suddenly became the La Sallian convention, Sean disappeared and the guy became a blind man. Van appeared, she was about to participate in a basketball competition, one of the activities of the convention. I escorted her over to the court, and on my way back to my seat to watch the game, I was stopped by a police cadet at a gate to be asked some questions before being allowed to continue my way (this part is apparently from Sports Day, as the gate into the field of play is guarded by police cadets).

At courtside, I had a look at Van's new phone, a Nokia 8800 Gold edition (she just got a new phone in reality, but it's not a Nokia 8800), which was unusually larger than in real life. Justin Lo then came up, he said that the blind man was, in his own words, "My grandmother's mum's son", which would make the man his grand-uncle.

One of the basketballers who turned out to be Edward's younger brother (I don't think he has a younger brother in reality) picked a fight with the organisers, and a group of people including Edward and I had to intervene.

Our delegation consisted of Brendan, Laura, Van, Adin and me, and we were supposed to pass to the rest of the delegates of the convention a picture of our delegation. I asked Van and Brendan why the picture was only of them both, including an accidental Lovena at the side of the pic.

We then discovered that our delegation would all be sleeping in the same room (in the real convention, we were divided into different rooms). Van and I went to our room, she took a shower and I was playing around with the lights in the room when I realised I forgot my handphone charger. I also discovered that one of the light switches caused candles around the beds and around an altar in the room to be lit, and I left the lighting like that.

I then went outside the bathroom to shout to Van that I left my charger at home and inquired if anyone had a Nokia charger. She replied by asking me to go buy a charger for RM 60.

Now beyond the bathroom was the outside corridor, and I could see through the walls that the Undertaker was walking along the corridor. He stopped when hearing us shouting at each other. Now the walls of the bathroom was strangely made of bamboo, so he just tore two bamboos aside to look into the bathroom and uttered something which I can't remember. He left, but then something that looked like this

appeared behind me, rising up from the floor. It was floating, but it had a black full body cloak on instead, much like the Grim Reaper. It's mask was like the one in the pic, except it was all white with no designs, with the exception of two eyeslits. It was covered in red that looked suspiciously like blood. The atmosphere of the room, which was all dark except for some candles if you remember, only served to make it worst.

There was a gap between the walls of the bathroom and the floor, so I slid into the bathroom immediately through the gap (Van was in a white towel you pervs!). The thing then gave us instructions accompanied with visual imagery to do three things, similar to playing a treasure hunt, around the place where the convention was held. If not, we'd be dead or something by 3 days.

Then it ended, unfortunately.

Truth and justice are no longer Malaysian way

2007-11-23T17:36:00.000+08:00

The Government of Australia will probably change hands this weekend. There will be no arrests, no tear gas and no water cannons. The Government of John Howard will leave office, the Opposition will form a government and everyone will accept the verdict.

For this, every Australian can feel justifiably proud. This playing by the rules is what has made Australia rich and a good place in which to invest. It is a country to which people want to migrate; not leave.

Now consider Malaysia. The weekend before last, up to 40,000 Malaysians took to the streets in Kuala Lumpur to protest peacefully against the judiciary's lack of independence, electoral fraud, corruption and a controlled media.

In response, they were threatened by the Prime Minister, called monkeys by his powerful son-in-law, and blasted with water cannons and tear gas. And yet the vast majority of Malaysians do not want a change of government. All they want is for their government to govern better.

Both Malaysia and Australia have a rule of law that's based on the English system. Both started out as colonies of Britain. So why is Malaysia getting it so wrong now?

Malaysia's Government hates feedback. Dissent is regarded as dangerous, rather than a product of diversity. And like the wicked witch so ugly that she can't stand mirrors, the Government of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi controls the media so that it doesn't have to see its own reflection.

Demonstrations are typically banned. But what every Malaysian should know is that in Britain, Australia and other modern countries, when people wish to demonstrate, the police typically clear the way and make sure no one gets hurt. The streets belong to the people. And the police, like the politicians, are their servants. It is not the other way around.

But increasingly in Malaysia, Malaysians are being denied a voice — especially young people.

Section 15 of Malaysia's Universities and University Colleges Act states that no student shall be a member of or in any manner associate with any society, political party, trade union or any other organisation, body or group of people whatsoever, be it in or outside Malaysia, unless it is approved in advance and in writing by the vice-chancellor.

Nor can any student express or do anything that may be construed as expressing support, sympathy or opposition to any political party or union. Breaking this law can lead to a fine, a jail term or both.

The judiciary as a source of independent viewpoints has been squashed. The previous prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, did many good things for Malaysia, but his firing of the Lord President (chief justice) and two other Supreme Court judges in 1988 was an unmitigated disaster. Since then, what passes for a judiciary in Malaysia has been an utter disgrace and the Government knows it.

Several years ago, Daim Zainuddin, the country's then powerful finance minister, told me that judges in Malaysia were idiots. Of course we want them to be biased, he told me, but not that biased.

Rarely do government ministers need to telephone a judge and demand this or that verdict because the judges are so in tune with the Government's desires that they automatically do the Government's beckoning.

Just how appalling Malaysia's judiciary has become was made clear in recent weeks with the circulation of a video clip showing a senior lawyer assuring someone by telephone that he will lobby the Government to have him made Lord President of the Supreme Court because he had been loyal to the Government. That someone is believed to have been Ahmad Fairuz Abdul Halim, who did in fact become Lord President.

A protest march organised by the Malaysian Bar Council was staged in response to this, and corruption among the judiciary in general. But the mainstream Malaysian media barely covered the march even though up to 2000 Bar Council members were taking part. Reportedly, the Prime Minister's office instructed editors to play down the event.

Instead of a free media, independent judges and open public debate, Malaysians are given stunts — the world's tallest building and most recently, a Malaysian cosmonaut. Essentially, they are given the play things of modernity but not modernity itself.

Many senior Malays are absolutely despairing at the direction of their country today. But with the media tightly controlled they have no way of getting their views out to their fellow countrymen. This means that most Malaysians falsely assume that the Malay elite is unified when it comes to the country's direction.

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, a former finance minister and today still a member of the Government, told me several weeks ago in Kuala Lumpur that he could see no reason why today Malaysia could not have a completely free media, a completely independent judiciary and that corrupt ministers and other officials should be publicly exposed and humiliated.

According to Tengku Razaleigh, all of the institutions designed to make Malaysia's Government accountable and honest have been dismantled or neutered.

It didn't need to be like this. Malaysia is not North Korea or Indonesia. It is something quite different. Its legal system is based on British codes. Coupled with traditional Malay culture, which is one of the world's most hospitable, decent and gentle cultures, Malaysia has the cultural and historical underpinnings to become one of Asia's most civilised, rules-based, successful societies.

Instead, Malaysia's Government is incrementally wasting Malaysia's inheritance.

Taken from here

Misleading Signs

2007-11-21T19:18:00.000+08:00

Misleading signs

Jokes To Play on People in the Hospital!

2007-11-16T05:22:00.000+08:00

Know someone in the hospital? Do they seem low in spirit and depressed? Why not try some of these pranks to cheer them up?!

Go up to someone on life support and distract them. Talk about anything: business, sports, any such useless subject matter will do. Then while they're not paying attention, unplug their life support unit! Twirl the cord in your hand with a nonchalant look on your face. Say "Oh.. I'm sorry, do you need this? I'm not going to plug it back in until you smile." Then plug it back in and say "Just kidding, HAHAH" Unplug it again and repeat. They'll die of laughter.

If you're in a hospital emergency room and you see a family that's distressed over the condition of someone they brought with them, try this prank to cheer them up! First, find a white doctor's jacket and a clipboard if you can. Put the jacket on and make a serious expression on your face. Then go up to the family in the emergency room and say "I'm sorry I have to tell you this, but it doesn't look like he's going to make it.." Wait a few minutes to let it to sink in (grab a bite to eat, watch some TV). Then, if you remember, go up to the family and say "Just kidding! I'm not a doctor. HAHAH" Everyone will get a good laugh.

How about some mental ward mayhem?! Try this to cheer up your insane buddies: First, stop by a gag store and buy some fake blood. Then go to see your friend in the mental ward (bring a knife). While you're talking to your friend, cover the knife in blood and drop it on the ground. Put some blood on your hand and run out into the hallway screaming "AHHH.. he slashed me!" They'll increase his supervision and won't allow him to see visitors anymore. Nobody will believe him when he says he didn't do it because he's crazy, and you two can have a good laugh together if he gets out.

Fun with the dead: make a recording of some moans and thumping, or someone saying "HELP! I'm still alive!", then put the recorder in the morgue department. Leave it on play and walk away. The hospital staff will have fun for hours tracing where the sound is coming from, and they'll all get a good laugh when they finally find the recorder.

Is someone you know anorexic? A good joke would be to tell them that they're fat. They'll laugh because anorexic people aren't fat. HAHAH

How about some baby swapping? Always a good joke to play is swapping babies in then nursery room. When the parents find out 20 years down the line, they'll all laugh. Let me know if you try any of these pranks.

137,834 people have tried my methods
to cheer people up.. and failed.

Taken from www.maddox@xmission.com

Suicide

2007-11-16T05:10:00.000+08:00

Suicide isn't so bad, give it a chance.

Thinking about suicide but you're not sure if it's the right thing to do? Here are some tips to help you decide whether or not killing yourself is a good choice:

1. Do you live at home but your parents are always making you clean your room and do your homework? It's a sure sign that they don't love you and that they want you to kill yourself. Why else would they make you clean your room? What are they going to do next, ground you? Make you wear braces? Don't kid yourself, the message is clear.

2. If you just got out of a bad relationship and you feel like things are never going to get better; you're right. Everyone knows that suicide is the only option, stop procrastinating. Look on the bright side, at least your ex will feel guilty for a couple of minutes--but don't count on it.

3. Depressed? Don't have any friends? I guess nobody told you, but being depressed and feeling lonely isn't normal. Everyone else is happy, and has lots of friends so there must be something wrong with you. Put the prozac away, what you need is rat poison.

4. Spill a drink at a party? Drop a plate of food in a restaurant? Nobody else has to live with that kind of embarrassment; you know what you have to do.

5. Flunked out of college? Don't know algebra? Here's a question you should know the answer to: Flunked out of college + Don't know algebra = Time for _____. Chances are you still don't know the answer, so here's a hint: it starts with an 's' and ends in 'uicide'.

6. Traffic jam? Sometimes bad luck isn't a coincidence. Do you really want to sit in traffic for another half hour? Look on the bright side, if you're a viking you'll be going to Valhalla. Then again, you're probably not, but eternal damnation in hell is probably the next best thing.

7. Telemarketers keep calling? It's easier to hang yourself than to get rid of a telemarketer, am I wrong? If you're lucky, Home Depot might be having a sale on rope. After all, you don't want to die letting people think you weren't frugal.

8. Flu? You realize that there's no cure for the flu, right? Well, no cure that doesn't involve painting the wall with your brains.

9. Flat tire? Do I have to spell it out for you?

10. College application get rejected? Take the hint.

Hope you found this guide helpful, mention it in your suicide note. On second thought, why bother? Nobody will read it.

4,102,635 morons have killed
themselves after reading this page.

Taken from www.maddox.xmission.com

I'll Miss You Dad

2007-11-16T04:58:00.001+08:00

Found this touching photo on my travels through the Net. It's true what they say, a picture says a thousand words.

Dice Stacking

2007-11-14T05:37:00.000+08:00

Dice stacking, it looks really cool. Basically, it's the art of using a cup to scoop up a several dices one after another at high speed and stacking them together vertically after that. Check out Youtube for more vids.

http://www.youtube.com/results.php?search_query=dice+stacking

World War II..l33t gaming style

2007-11-14T05:29:00.000+08:00

It's a .gif file, click on it. Some knowledge in l33t (online speak) and online RTS gaming required.

8-0!!!

2007-11-07T20:40:00.000+08:00

Unbelievable.

The shitty thing is, I didn't manage to catch the match live! AAARGH!! Set the alarm at 3:30AM. It rings and I promptly shut it off and went back to sleep. Happened a couple of times before. The next time, I'm not going to sleep at all!

Woke up at 5:30AM, exactly as the match ends. It's like there was a conspiracy or something. Text message from Sean tells me the scoreline. Mixed feelings ensue, delightment at the scoreline, frustration at oversleeping. GAH!

The Unwritten Laws of Football

2007-11-02T01:19:00.000+08:00

The Unwritten Laws of Football

Before kick-off

— Any player being filmed leaving a team bus must ensure that he is wearing headphones and carrying a small Louis Vuitton wash bag.

— Players who once represented the same club must stop and chat animatedly to each other in the tunnel as they wait to come out, even if they never really spoke to each other when they played together.

— On the day of a cup final, players must walk on to the pitch in their club suit approximately 1½ hours before kick-off and touch the turf to make sure it is just like all the other grass they play on every week. At least one player must pick some and throw it in the air to gauge the wind direction even though it is May, very still, and, therefore, very unlikely to affect anything.

Scoring

— If a player mishits a good chance, he must look down and carefully examine the pitch, maybe even treading back in some turf, so that everyone knows he got a bad bounce. If it is a televised game, he should continually blow mucus out of his nose as the camera tracks him back to his own half.

— When a player makes a great assist only to see a teammate tap the ball in, he must stand well away from the celebrating players and wait for them to come over and individually congratulate him.

Corners and throw-ins

— All throw-ins must be taken at least ten yards farther up the pitch than where the ball went out. The referee is allowed to tell the player off, but only when he has exceeded ten yards.

— All corner takers must push the corner flag to one side, regardless of whether it gets in the way. They must also raise a hand before taking the kick, irrelevant of where they intend to send the ball.

Free kicks

— Two or more players should always dispute who will take a free kick, even though they have spent an entire week on the training ground working out who will take them.

— When a player has conceded a free kick, he must pick up the ball and run several yards before dropping it behind him without looking. When a free kick is awarded and the referee places the ball in the required spot, it is essential to pick it up and place it down again at least six inches further forward, ideally with a backspin motion.

Offside

— When a player is judged offside and still shoots but doesn’t score, he must pretend he knew it was offside all along and didn’t really try to score at all. On the other hand, if he does score, he must act “outraged” and “robbed”.

— Any striker who is more than five yards offside must still either wag a finger or launch a tirade of expletives at the flag-bearing official.

Substitutions and injuries

— A player leaving the pitch on a stretcher must always be applauded, while players with equally serious injuries who are helped off by the physio must be booed.

— When water bottles are thrown on to the pitch while a teammate is receiving treatment, players must always squirt some out on to the grass before taking a sip.

— Players warming up along the touchline must always put their hands behind their backs and kick their heels up to touch them, even though they never do this in training or at any other time.

Goalkeepers

— Before kick-off, goalkeepers should always hang from the crossbar to check it does not have any cracks in it.

— Keepers must use the special adhesive power of saliva by spitting into their gloves as much as possible during games. They should also kick the soles of their boots against the post at least three times in each half.

— Goalkeepers should sprint into the opposition penalty box for injury-time corners, even if they have never connected with a header in their life.

Managers

— Any manager facing lower-league opposition in a cup game must describe the team he is facing as “well organised”.

— Assistant managers must be equipped with a blank piece of paper on which they can pretend to show substitutes the opposition’s tactical formation. In addition, assistants should shout and gesticulate in exactly the same way as the manager, only two seconds later.

Officials

— The referee must only blow for full time when the ball is in mid-air after a long goal kick.

— The fourth official must always check a substitute’s studs before he comes on, even though none of the studs of the players on the pitch were checked. It should be noted that no substitute in the history of football has ever been caught wearing “inappropriate studs” and no substitute has ever been refused access to the field of play because of a “stud check”.

— Fourth officials should always be of a smiling disposition when trying to calm infuriated managers back into the dugout.

Have A Jolly Halloween!

2007-11-01T00:57:00.000+08:00

Beşiktaş J.K.

2007-10-31T20:15:00.000+08:00

What amazing fans they have.

Was watching the Beşiktaş - Liverpool match last week and their fans were out of this world. They were singing and chanting throughout the whole match, and some of the stuff they did were just incredible. Swaying and jumping in unison, it was a wonder the stadium didn't fall under their weight. They even managed to stop swaying together at the same time, it was an spectacle indeed to behold. Anfield has competition.

Flares were lit as well, making it a really visual spectacle. Speaking of flares, Galatasaray's stadium is nicknamed 'Hell' due to the large amount of flares used, adding to the already intimidating atmosphere.

Flares and terraces (which are banned in England) may potentially be hazardous, but they do add to the atmosphere of a football match.

Besides their fans, Beşiktaş have a stadium (Inönü Stadium) with a beautiful view, it's located by the Bosphorus river and one can see the river while in the stadium, as well as other prominent landmarks. It's also frequently stated that it's the only stadium in the world where one can view two continents, Asia and Europe.

Rat in car

2007-09-21T19:14:00.000+08:00

There's a damn rat in my car. My sis was putting on her shoes inside the car when a rat jumped out and scooted off somewhere inside my car.

That was a few days ago and this morning when I got into my car, there was this smell. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to put two and two together to realise that Remy the rat must be dead and smelling.

Now, does anyone have any idea how to find the bloody thing. I fear it's somewhere inside the dashboard of my car.

I'm tempted to let my dog inside my car and see if he can sniff out the body.

Bugger.

UPDATE: Brought the car for servicing, they found two rats dead under the bonnet. One was inside the engine. They were in the middle of putrefaction.

Public Service Announcement

2007-08-26T19:15:00.000+08:00

Never go to Jalan Song at night if you're driving.

My driver seat window got smashed last night when I was there watching football with friends. Damn bastards took my cd player and my ipod. CD player didn't really cause me much grief, compared to my ipod. Bloody wankers.

It's the second time this has happened. The first time was Dec last year, when my family's CRV got its window smashed in as well. They took the suitcase of a German guest of ours that had only arrived in Kuching a few hours earlier, leaving her with nothing but the clothes on her back. Subsequent police report revealed that this happened very frequently at Jalan Song.

The first time, my dad parked his car at a very dark spot, quite far from the kopitiams. So last night, I parked my car pretty near the kopitiam, which I thought would be fairly safe, even though the car couldn't be seen from the kopitiam (due to the fencing from the construction work blocking the view). Boy, was I wrong. Had to happen twice for me to vow never to go Jalan Song at night anymore. Hopefully, those bastards get what they deserve.

Now, all this leads to an question just begging to be asked. If the cops know that this happens all the time (almost every night, or so I've heard), why aren't they doing something about it? Why don't they post some plainclothes policeman to patrol the area? I suspect the culprits are always the same people (and I suspect they're from the nearby construction site too). If indeed this is true, by posting some cops there and catching the culprits, it will end these incidents once and for all. Recently, there've been a lot of cops patrolling the roads in the middle of the night, they should really spare some men to patrol Jalan Song and other areas where the same kind of incidents occur.

The Magnificent Shiny Disc Hero

2007-08-24T18:51:00.000+08:00

Yo..hello friend! Do you know what DVD9 is? You know, nine? Sembilan?

Has anybody seen the Astro On Demand commercial, starring the Magnificent Shiny Disc Hero? Before you guys shout out a resonating "Tai Jor Lor!", I just wanna say that this commercial is insanely hilarious! Props to the creative minds that came up with this commercial. Hehe..when I first saw it, I thought it was a commercial for anti-piracy.

I gotta say, Malaysian commercials have always been pretty good. Though some are bad and cheesy, they've always been a fair share of gems out there in the mix. And TMSDH is one of the best I've seen. One of the reasons I'm really fond of it is that the commercial uses a pirated disc seller who sells his wares at a kopitiam, something that we encounter frequently and which I daresay is uniquely Malaysian (the act of a walking vendor selling discs at kopitiams I mean).

For those of you that haven't seen it (or you just wanna see it again), here are the commercials, courtesy of Youtube. There are 3 of them so far, hopefully there's more. The 1st one (and the longest one) is the best.

Now if anybody asks you if you've seen the commercial, you can answer "Tai Jor Lor!!"

Fernando Torres!!

2007-07-11T00:12:00.000+08:00

Yeah..it's been almost a week, but you'll have to excuse me as my internet connection was down for the past few days. But anyway...Torres!!

Looks like the long wait has finally paid off. I was getting worried that there was no major activity in the transfer market for Liverpool this summer. There were rumours here and there that we were targetting Torres, but it always turned out to be just that, rumours. So I wasn't paying much attention when the rumours crept in that we were targetting him.

When it turned out the rumours might just be true after all, I stood up and took notice, getting really excited. And fortunately, it happened. In my 10 years of supporting Liverpool, this is the biggest signing we've ever made.

Manchester United and Chelsea have record signings of 30+ million pounds. And it's really astonishing that Liverpool, which is one of the top clubs in England, of equal stature if not better than the two aforementioned clubs, only have 14 million pounds as their (previous) record signing. Man Utd and Chelsea have been signing players for 15+ million pounds consistently throughout the past few seasons. Therefore, the signing of Torres is an optimistic sign that Liverpool are starting to have the financial strength to compete with the other clubs.

The Torres deal was pretty hush-hush right until the very last stages of the signing, so even though there isn't any news now, I'm hoping that Liverpool are currently negotiating in some really top class transfers. We need two good wingers right now. Reports are Quaresma is our next target, I hope we land him.

Really looking forward to the new season now.

I am currently...

2007-06-22T03:09:00.000+08:00

READING

Ian Fleming's 'From Russia With Love'.

PLAYING

Tomb Raider Anniversary.

LISTENING TO

lostprophets' 'Liberation Transmission'. Particularly the song

Can't Catch Tomorrow (Good Shoes Won't Save You This Time), which is off the album.

I have also just finished watching

'Run Lola Run', a movie I have unsuccessfully looked for for the past year and a half, I couldn't even find a torrent for it. I was pleasantly surprised when I stumbled onto an original DVD of it at Speedy, which didn't have it for the past year or so.

...

2007-05-24T04:49:00.000+08:00

I don't understand it. I just don't understand it. Milan did not deserve to win the match. Liverpool were the better team the whole match, Milan were committing schoolboy errors left, right and center.

They claim they didn't deserve to lose the match two years ago. Well, I don't think you can complain when you have a 3 goal lead and your team is celebrating as if they've won the cup at half-time, only to concede 3 goals in 6 minutes and then lose the match. There is no way a team doesn't deserve to win the match when they have to crawl back from a 3 goal deficit.

Fast forward two years later, and though they may claim they deserve to win the match after what happened two years ago, I beg to differ. Your team wasn't the better team two years ago, nor were they the better team tonight. They deserved to lose the match two years ago, and they did not deserve to win the match tonight. End of.

I guess you can say that Liverpool lacked the killing touch but still, Milan did not play like they deserve the cup. But sometimes, you don't always get what you deserve. That's football, and life too.

I'm sure most of you are thinking of the word 'sour grapes' right now, but I assure you, I'm not. If Milan were the better team, I'd congratulate them and accept defeat. But it's hard to do that when they were not the better team. But I won't deny the fact that had Liverpool won the cup undeservedly, i wouldn't complain. Heh.

Zenden was shite, I hope he's on his way out in the summer. Kewell should have started from the beginning. Mascherano was a rock in midfield, he contained Kaka really well. Credits to the lads though, they did awesome but things just did not go right for them.

They may have lost the cup, but they did it knowing that they tried their best and on another night, they should have won.

You'll Never Walk Alone.

This is Athens

2007-05-24T01:34:00.000+08:00

And hopefully, this is where we will claim our 6th European Cup.

If there is any one city in the world that can lay claim to the title 'City of History', Athens would win, hands down. And it would be great if Liverpool can add another chapter to their glorious history in this historic city.

I've always read about the glory days of the Reds back in the 70's and 80's, where trophies after trophies made their way to Anfield. 10 League titles in between those 20 years, with 6 of those titles and 4 European Cups in the space of 7 years. Quite a remarkable achievement.

But it's been almost 20 years since we last won the league. Man Utd dominated the 90's, Arsenal and Chelsea, the better part of the 00's. Hopefully by winning our second European title in three years and with the backing of a new board, we will have turned the corner and embark on a new era, a return to our glory days.

But first things first, AC Milan stand in our way. They'll be out seeking revenge for the cup they claim we should have never won. You want revenge? Come and get it, to quote Leonidas. We'll be out to reclaim our position as kings of Europe that we lost last season. Conditions that will hopefully help to produce a match that will leave a mark in Athenian history for all the right reasons. Though a repeat of that historic match in Istanbul is very much unlikely.

Admittedly, Milan go into the game as favourites, but that won't stop us. Nobody gave us a chance as well in the 2005 finals. And that suited us just fine.

Go give 'em hell. Again.

Dreams

2007-05-23T18:20:00.000+08:00

Dreams. They're such funny things. Don't really know what to make of them.

There are times when you dream and you realise that you're actually dreaming, but there are also times where the dream really feels like reality. I recently dreamt that something happened, something which I really wanted to happen for quite some time now, and the dream felt all too real.

So it was with great disappointment when I awoke to find out my dream was exactly what it was, a dream. It's a bittersweet feeling, to experience something you really want to happen, only to find out it was all in your mind.

"The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened."

I agree with the quote above, except that it forgets to mention the worst thing about dreams, which is when you reach that point of awareness that your dreams are actually fantasies.

Oh well, I guess I do enjoy having dreams, the good ones of course. They may just be dreams and aren't real, but at least I get to enjoy something that I really do want to happen, even though it didn't really happen and even if only for a brief moment. As they say, all good things come to an end, and why should dreams be any different? Enjoy it while it lasts I guess. Especially dreams of things that can happen but do not seem very likely to happen in reality.

And who knows, that dream that you really hope to come true, however unlikely, might just turn into reality.

Destination: Athens

2007-05-03T22:40:00.000+08:00

WOOHOO!! How do you like that? HAHA!! Athens, here we come!

Liverpool were the better team and deserved to win the match I'd say. Reina is the king of penalties. Tensioned filled match for me, what with Kuyt's header that hit the post and the offside goal that in my opinion, should have stood. What relief when Kuyt scored that penalty.

I don't mind who we face in the final, though I'd prefer Man Utd, our old rivals but instead we got ourselves a rematch of the 2005 final. Milan will be looking for revenge. We'll be looking to equal their record of 6 European Cups. Athens, the city of history. Let's hope we'll be making some history of our own on the 23rd May.

We won't be having the Anfield effect in Athens. We'll be having the same amount of fans as Milan in Athens, and the Milan fans are raucous as can be, but I'm confident the Liverpool fans will make Athens as Anfield-like as possible.

20 more days!

Welcome to Anfield

2007-05-01T19:07:00.001+08:00

Does anyone feel the same way like I do, that Stamford Bridge tries to be like the Kop on European nights with all those flags? Poor effort though. All the flags are identical. Unoriginal. In fact, they were given out to the crowd by the club.

Tonight, we're gonna hand Stamford Bridge a lesson on what makes a stadium truly atmospheric. I do wish that someday I'll have the chance to stand on the Kop on European nights at Anfield, but it seems unlikely given that the new stadium is going to be completed soon sometime in the near future.

Anyway, on with business. Liverpool really need to get a clean sheet in this match. Conceding a goal would only make life harder for themselves. A goal in the first 10 minutes would really improve our chances and get the game going.

Hopefully Agger will be able to contain Drogba, he was having problems with Drogba's strength at Stamford Bridge. I'd actually like to see Hyypia, he may be slow, but he has the strength and experience to deal with Drogba.

Playing at home is always an advantage, more this is even more true at Anfield. Let's hope it'll hold true tonight.

Anfield awaits. Let's go Reds!

Chelsea - Liverpool; Part 1

2007-04-25T23:56:00.000+08:00

2 more hours, I can't wait! Chelsea vs Liverpool, we're gonna give them the blues! With a build-up to the 1st leg that couldn't be better, I'm fancying our chances. And with the added bonus of having the 2nd leg at Anfield, I'm thinking we have a decent opportunity to advance to the final.

Just started dawning on me that this may possibly be the build-up to us winning our sixth European Cup (yeah, that's more fingers than you can count with one hand!). Am really going to savour every single remaining moment of our CL campaign.

With Man Utd having a decent chance of advancing to the final after winning 3-2 against AC Milan, it would be awesome to meet our old rivals in the European Cup final, making it the first all-English final in the European Cup. Excellent chance for us to rub it in their faces!

UPDATE: BAH. Still optimistic about Anfield, but if Chelsea score a goal there, we're screwed.

Chelsea were better in the 1st half, Liverpool in the 2nd. Fairly tight I would say, just the odd goal separating them. Superb save by Cech, Reina too on 2 occasions. Zenden played surprisingly well today.

Layers of Me

2007-04-01T23:00:00.000+08:00

Been tagged by Naomi. I'm too lazy to think of the weird things I do, so I'll just answer the simpler one, in an effort to liven up by nearly deceased blog.

And being the nice guy that I am...=P, I'm not going to tag anybody else.

The Layers of Me Tag:

Layer 1: Outside
Name: Jason
Birth Date: 12/1/88
Eye Colour: Dark Brown/Black
Hair Colour: Dark Brown/Black
Righty or Lefty: Right

Layer 2: On the Inside
My Heritage: Hainan Chinese
My Fears: Losing all my friends
My Perfect Pizza: Pizza Hut's Super Supreme.

Layer 3: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
My Thoughts: Yesterday's for the memory, today's for the moment and tomorrow is for the future.
My Bedtime: After 12.
Missed Memory: All the good times of days past. I'm a nostalgic person.

Layer 4: My Pick
Pepsi or Coke: Fizzi Pamelo. If I had to choose, both of them are the same, so it doesn't matter. But if you insist on an answer, I'd go for Coke.
McD or Burger King: Burger King. But maybe that's because we don't get it here, only McD. So I can't say.
Single or Group Date: Equal amounts of both I guess. Single is where you can talk about all the private/personal/intimate stuff, and group is where you just have fun with all your buddies. Not saying you can't have fun on single dates though...*wink wink*... but group dates is the kind of fun that 'the more the merrier' applies to. And before you start snickering at the combination of the words 'group date', 'fun' and 'the more the merrier', stop, you sick sick person. =P
Adidas or Nike: Converse. Adidas would be second.
Tea or Nestea: Not much of a tea drinker.
Chocolate or Vanilla: Chocolate. Vanilla is bland.
Cappuccino or Coffee: Don't drink much coffee too.

Layer 5: Do You…
Smoke: Never have and never will.
Curse: Quite a bit at certain times unfortunately, but not if I can help it.
Take a shower: Definitely.
Have a Crush: Of course.
Go to School: Yes.
Want to get married: Hopefully
Believe in Yourself: Yes, realistically of course.
Think you’re a health freak: Nope, I'm not a health freak.

Layer 6: In the Past
Drank alcohol: Yes, both beer and wine, but I like wine better. Not a frequent drinker though, and only when there's an occasion or something.
Gone to the Mall: Duh
Been on stage: Yes.
Eaten Sushi: I think so, but I don't like it.
Dyed your Hair: If highlighting my hair with a yellow highlighter that turned my hair green, then yes.

Layer 7: Have you ever…
Played a stripping game: Nope.
Changed Who You Were to Fit In: Don't think so.

Layer 8: Age you’re Hoping
To be married: When it is time! =P

Layer 9: In a girl
Best eye colour: Green. Grey comes a close second.
Hair colour: Any. Brunette, hazel, blonde, red, auburn..as long as it's not sky blue or anything similiarly shocking.
Short hair or long hair: Normally long, but depends on the person's face really and whether it matches the hair or not.

Layer 10: What were you doing
A minute ago: Surfing the net
An hour ago: Finish watching Phua Chu Kang.
4.5 hours ago: Walking around Saberkas.
1 month ago: Carrying out life as normal.
1 year ago: Whoo! Having fun, with my newly obtained driving license!

Layer 11: Finish the Sentences
I love: Too many things.
I hate: Too many things.
I need: Too many things.

Wah..that was surprising long.

Desktop

2007-03-16T18:37:00.000+08:00

How to be a ninja!

2007-03-16T18:29:00.000+08:00

300

2007-03-09T17:27:00.000+08:00

The long anticipated wait is over. 300 came out yesterday, and I'll be catching it tonight. Even though I'd like to watch it yesterday, I didn't expect to watch it so soon but Sean messaged and tonight, I'll dine in hell (to quote King Leonidas in the movie). Hehe.

Still haven't gotten my hands on the graphic novel yet. I did have a chance when I was in KL in December, but the hefty pricetag (RM 100) put me off for the time being.

I can't wait for tonight!

UPDATE: Rocking movie. Was well worth the wait. If you intend on watching the movie, be warned that it's a slaughterfest, with more than it's fair share of dismembered limbs and heads, though it shouldn't be that bad as I can't stomach strong gore, and this movie didn't disturbed me at all. This movie makes killing and dying with honour, oh-so-cool.

The movie also had it's fair share of quotable dialog and though some might say the lines being bellowed by King Leonidas to be cliche, but I think they rocked regardless.

For your information, although the Battle of Thermopylae and the general events in the movie really did happen, some of the things portrayed in the movie were greatly exaggerated, to make the movie cooler and more entertaining I presume. Nothing wrong with that, and the movie (and the comic which it's based on) never claimed to portray history accurately. So that would answer your question on whether Xerxes was really 8 feet tall and a transvestite, among other things.

300, you can say it's like Lord of the Rings but without the gay 'But Mr. Frodo! No SAM!' crap. Heh. Let's admit, most people enjoyed LotR only because of the battle scenes.

300. If you like epic battles and last stands, heroic sacrifices, cool dialog and general awesomeness, this is the movie for you. Watch it.

This is Anfield

2007-03-06T22:08:00.000+08:00

Tonight's the night. It's going to be one of those nights where the special Anfield atmosphere will be at its most electrifying. Anfield is going to be positively rocking against Barca. Let's hope we get the result to match it.

Barca won't know what hit them because this is the home of Liverpool Football Club. This is the home of the 18 times League champion. This is the home of the 5 times European Cup winner. This is the home of football.

This is Anfield.

Liverpool Soccer Club

2007-02-07T17:47:00.000+08:00

Crap.

Liverpool has been sold to the USA.

I can't believe this shit.

I'm gutted that Liverpool has been sold to the Americans.

I strongly believe that Liverpool, being an English club, should remain in the hands of the English. However, success and trophies in today's football demand high finances, so it is inevitable that Liverpool will soon be sold, probably to an overseas investor.

When Thailand's ex-premier, Thaksin Sinawatra's bid to takeover the club failed, I was elated. Didn't last long though, when DIC and the Americans launched their bids.

I would have preferred DIC over the Americans, as they seemed to be passionate fans of the club (though if they were, I think they should have persisted in trying to acquire the club, instead of giving the club a deadline to take it or leave it) but it was really, to put it frankly, choosing the lesser of the two evils for me.

I can't believe that people from one of the few countries in the world to call football, 'soccer', are now owners of the club. People of a country who view football as a fourth rate sport, behind their beloved basketball, baseball and 'football' (NFL).

But what's done is done, and there's no use moaning about it. I only hope that the takeover will lead to greater success for the club (I've heard that the ex-chairman and GM of the club, David Moores and Rick Parry, will still be helping to run the club, which is all good), especially the capture of the Premier League, but I do hope that this will not be at the expense of the tradition, culture and history of the club, which is what Liverpool have in abundance. Money may bring in success, but tradition, culture and history can never be bought.

Things are already looking ominous for the tradition of the club. The new owners have announced they may consider selling the naming rights for the club's new stadium, which will prevent the new stadium from retaining the name of the old stadium, Anfield. The name 'Anfield' is synonymous with Liverpool Football Club and its success, and plays a tremendous part in the history and culture of the club. The two are inseparable, Anfield has been part of Liverpool ever since the club was born 115 years ago and it is difficult to think of Liverpool without thinking of Anfield, so it will be blasphemy if Liverpool do not have Anfield as the name of their home ground. Can you just imagine Liverpool playing at Nike Stadium or McDonald Stadium?

I do hope that the new owners will drop their incredulous idea of selling the naming rights of the stadium and that this is not the start of a ton of similarly bad decisions.

Only the future knows what is in store for Liverpool Football Club.

Olympics Commercialism

2006-10-29T03:50:00.000+08:00

Heard of the recent decision by the IOC to hold the finals of the swimming and gymnastic events of the Beijing Olympics in the morning? It's due to pressure from US broadcasters as morning finals in Beijing will coincide with prime viewing time at night in the US, so the events can be shown live on prime time for the US.

News Article

What a crock of bullshit.

I'm surprised that the IOC bowed to the pressure. This completely goes against the ethics of sports and what sports stands for and the IOC, one of the most important sporting bodies in the world, should know better.

Commercialism is all good and well, but it shouldn't impact the way sports are played or ran. Displaying the names of sponsors on the jersey of a team or on billboards surrounding the arena is one thing, changing the schedule and thus creating situations that may affect the performance of the athletes is another thing.

Sure, fans are an important part of sports, but I believe the people playing the sports should have greater priority. They are after all, the people creating the action and being involved in it.

Even so, why we catering to the whims and demands of the US viewers? How about those in the host nation itself, and those in the Asia Pacific region? Do we not deserve to watch the events at night, the prime viewing time? Yeah...it's because the US broadcasters have paid big bucks for the television rights, but money should never have been an issue in the first place.

What a load of crap.

Primary 6 Essay

2006-10-22T17:23:00.000+08:00

Heard that this was written by a Primary Six student (12 years old). For those that don't understand Malay, I'll provide you with a rough translation.

"My family"

Everyone in this world has a family. 'Keluarga' is 'family' in the language of the white man. A family has a father, mother, older brother, older sister, younger brother and sister, grandmother, grandfather, uncle, aunty and etc etc.

First of all I would like to say is that everyone in this world has a peaceful family and do not war but there are also those that are not peaceful because they war.

I would like to tell you about my family. I have a mother and a father but my mother says she slept with three men before in a hotel room and with that it is confirmed that I am a bastard child because my blood is different from my father who is in this house. My father does not care when my mother goes out with other men. My mother on the other hand, does not worry if my father does not come home even if it's for almost a month.

My older sister and brother are not schooling anymore because they stopped. My sister is pretty with a resemblance to Marilyn Monroe who is dead. She died because she got hit by my grandfather's motocar that has a 500cc engine.

My older brother is handsome or kacak (handsome) like Amitabh Bachan or Sunjay Dutt, sometimes his face changes like AaCapan when he wakes up from sleep. When he finishes bathing, his face is like his own face. Those are the qualities of my brother.

Next I would like to tell you about my younger siblings. Even though I don't have younger siblings but I lied to you by telling you I have younger siblings.

That is the story of my happy family when it actually isn't. With that, please be informed.

Sincerely :-
Bob