"Bad Day" MTV

Lie to Me as well.

Daniel Powter

It's as destructive as vandalism. No?

If I were a painter

If I were a painter, I would paint my reverie
If that's the only way for you to be with me

Norah Jones, in Painter Song, 2002




For May 16th post's exiled Acridotheres tristis

Jurusalem, Tasmania's Mosque and Shah Alam's Church

Jerusalem belonged to all three faiths and that no one religion can take it as if "it is all mine."

I don’t really wish to have any religious elements in my blog but I wish to express my agreement to the statements made by our current Prime Minister lately in Japan.

http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=199895

Too modest to be harsh. Too kind to be effective. Too little to make presence felt. But I’d think that shall be the sole means and faith towards world peace. Not beauty pageant, nor hatred, loathing or absurd beliefs.

Ironically, see this.

This reminded me of an old Cantonese movie. A miser was trying his best to be nice to people around him, regardless of their social status. Frequently, his elegant and kind wife reminded him about four words, that to make others respecting him, the only means is through his sound manner and good deeds. These magical, yet easier-said-than-done, four characters in mandarin are "以德服人" (practice of good deeds to earn respects).

In the story the miser has to constantly remind himself, and get reminded of course. I supposed that is because it’s of human nature to be short-sighted and biased sometimes. In this modern world, we are brought up with carefully designed education system to be unbiased and tolerant. But why do ridiculous cases keep happening? Do we feel unsecured? Do we feel inferior of what we are, that we should be worried about others growing? Do we?

What needed is definitely not articulate speakers the have the words flying all over the media alone. Be more open-minded. Or get left behind.

I

The night was getting deeper into nothingness. The mind has nonviolently settled down. Hein’s song “Hurt So Bad” came out from the laptop’s embedded speakers, sneaking through the ears into the mind making the sentiment deadlier and deadlier.

The clock ticked its way 37 minutes past midnight into Monday. I was wondering whom was I thinking, as the fingers hastily typed some Mandarin words, a skill which I eluded for quite some times.

II

Driving unaccompanied in the dead of night made me feel so distant from everything so worldly. Notwithstanding the monotonous rattling of the aging engine in an attempt to unsettle the mind, it’s as peaceful as the surface of a lake devoid of even an apparent ripple. Neon lights were going backwards, as if the shifting illustration was in a music video shooting, and I was the director. But why were the images of the dreary night scenes remaining rather identical for already a couple of years?

Only then I noticed I was just a puppet director, framed by the scorched and duly life.

Worse, I was complacent.

二

一个人在漆黑夜里驾车，感觉特别远离俗世。 纵使车厢嗡嗡作响，有规律性地骚扰思绪，那平静如湖面的心，涟漪却全都无影无踪。霓虹灯一盏一盏地向后退，前进的车躯使画面似是在拍摄音乐录影带。导演是我。可是。。。怎么就只有这一幕幕看了三四年的熟悉又萧瑟夜色？

原来我只是框框里的傀儡导演。

竟然还沾沾自喜。

I am alone in the apartment this weekend II

Piercing beeps of cell phone’s alarm woke me up from a short yet perfect sleep after a Category 5 session till 2am the night before. Rays of sunlight penetrated through the curtains as I found my way to the bathroom.

Submit MNS form, I remembered. 6 years after I paid a visit to MNS KL in Jalan Kelantan, I joined the society as my baby steps towards contributing some minuscule effort to the Earth. But when I was on my way picking up PL to show me the MNS hut in Botanical Garden, some ironic thoughts came as a great astonishment.

Yeah, I am adding fuel to the fire, releasing more anthropogenic CO2 where the emission of the most prevalent greenhouse gas is already counting up to 25 billion metric tons per year.

The annual fee is just 70 bucks. Well, the word “just” isn’t relative to how much cash I have. It’s how much it could go its way to alleviate the illness of the Earth.

“Save Belum-Temengor Campaign”. That would be my maiden involvement with MNS. http://www.mns.org.my/. Soon after that I found myself savouring sharkfin soup (artificial, of course) and delicate dim sum before heading to Gan’s housewarming party for lunch.

Gan’s house was amazing after transformation!

I was there some times ago when it’s till under renovation. It didn’t look that delightful for some reasons that we failed to find out. But that house was entirely exotic after that. Too bad the photographer only has part of the garden area taken as picture. Thanks to Gan and his wife for the plentiful fishballs of my fondness, specially bought ice cream for the Sarsi Float, and the cozy mansion for us to play Category5. (What? Again!?)

I was told that I can sing like Eason!

That’s flattering! : )))) I was singing with WC’s friends who came visiting her when one of them selected the song “K-King” from Eason. She thought it’s a wonderful song. I knew I could sing the song pretty well, nevertheless I just rarely opt to sing it in any k-session. Why do people always put aside things that are best to them in life, I ponder.

Lok-lok and Fried Oyster

We had lok lok and fried oyster after that. Guess what, we had our Category 5 session in the hawker center. How desperate. How tiring a day could be that it took me 5 seconds to sleep that night.


Eh hem... Do you see food first?

*************************************************

It's Sunday morning. I was forced to make a declaration of war to the birds after a series of “shuu-shuu” ultimatums failed to deliver good in expunging the birds from their assault by building nest in the apartment's balcony. Humane enough, I have let them stay till the chicks master their hereditary skill of flying.

I turned a cloth hanger into spear and explosively started my war with the birds, removing the empty nest of dried grass and artificial polyesters. Those descendants of Archaeopteryx were certainly no losers, shrieking and fly-ambushing in an attempt to win the head-on battle with a homosapien. Unfortunately, I was just so determined to get rid of the chirping noise early in the morning and the phobia of avian disease. Bye bye Acridotheres tristis.

That close encounter made me think of Alfred Hitchcock's classic - the Bird, and my visit to its original shooting location in Bodega Bay, a serene and secluded township about 40-minute drive on hilly country road from Rohnert Park.

Duh, I jsut miss those days, of bone-chilling wind and carefree moments.


Kids frantically running away from the birds.


Tall mansion. Hmm, I look tall too?


Solitary seagull. Cold Summer in Bodega Bay.


It got proof!


Picturesque yet melancholy Bodega Bay

I am alone in the apartment this weekend

There was an re-organization in the office lately. I was not affected but my beloved ex-group of SA PEs was torn apart and was jumbled into two other groups. Hmm, a bad move, I guess.

Wesak day. Wesak Friday. Cold and windy. I bet it rained this dawn. Called by a colleague to become a tour guide (again!?) this morning and did some forced shopping. :P Neverthelss, happily I bought a scalp-sunburnt-prevention cap for Siam Reap trip. Hahaha.

I just want to laze around for this 3-day break. Pretty hard though, I guess. Another Category 5 session tonight. It's so popular lately. (A N, let's play when you are back! :P). And Vodka? Nah... I dont drink. :) )

Then it would be a whole-day house warming party tomorrow, for my die-hard table tennis partner Mr Gan. Oh... Sunday! Sunday! I want to sleep through Sunday! But I owe boss so many reports and reports and reports and reports and reports. Was I just repeatedly typing something?

一

夜已阑。人是静了。刚刚把计划书弄好，电脑传来的是张敬轩的hurt so bad。怎么听着听着感觉那么沉重。沉溺的意识，愈沉愈重，愈重愈沉。

星期一的零时卅七分，打的是多年没写的华语。惦记的，又是谁？

Forgiving press

Malaysia lost to Denmark in Thomas Cup semifinal yesterday night. I thought we should have won that. But the decisive third single was just another revelation that Malaysians have always been stumbling when it matters most. Tonnes of unforced errors just depicted so well how we could not concentrate and being “self-centered” when it matters most. I would think this probably is one of the reasons why Malaysians couldn’t perform up to par.

Other than lack of talented players, I think that Malaysian sports is facing one obscured problem. Forgiving media. Take a look at unsympathetic critical Chinese media and sarcastic US media. Take a look at http://sports.sina.com.cn/ ** and http://sports.yahoo.com/ on how well the media disseminate news and views while putting pressure to sportsmen that carry taxpayers’ money in quest for country glory.

Take a look on how merciful, forgiving, and news-selective our http://www.thestar.com.my/ and http://www.sinchew.com.my/ are. Though there are columns that let critical columnists voice out their opinions, how widespread the opinions are? Where are the columns we can post our opinions freely? Words of encouragement don’t work anymore. Take a look at how our first double fared in the quarterfinal that we nearly lost to a lower ranked South Koreans that cost the team to fight till the last point. They were lucky that they have the chance to redeem themselves in the semifinal. They did it excellently, whilst I think partly of the spur they have came from the feel of guilt and “I owe the country” after their quarterfinal unexpected loss.

In short, a too forgiving media and impoverished channel to both sportsmen and their associations was, in my 2-cent opinion, a pulling factor for the advancement of Malaysian sports in the era of blooming internet.

Well that’s just for established sports. For other unpopular sports in Malaysia, the fact that academic excellence is a more pivotal factor in one’s success in life is still the main “predicament” for Malaysian sports. I do not blame this, and do not have any suggestions of solutions. Probably we can ask the Singaporeans, provided we don't feel embarrassed to import players. :D

**
http://sports.sina.com.cn/o/2006-05-05/22312196505.shtml
http://sports.sinchew-i.com/content.phtml?sec=3&sdate=&artid=200605053023

Even this popular Chinese website helped us in being more critical and unforgiving. I hope you could really see the differences here. I feel that the extra words of encourgement at the end has been superfluous and cultivating towards Malaysians' forgiving culture.

Coming to KL, episode N

I’ve finally completed my second redesigned board with this company before heading to KL for some catching up with old friends during the Labour Day weekend. That was really a huge relief as the prototypes passed after suffering a resonance at around 7GHz (That’s pretty RF-microwave, but that doesn’t matter). You know, they called the design Sputpack Mixer. Anyone can tell me where this name originates I might consider offering you something… name it. :P


Baby 1, Baby 2, Baby 3,Baby 4 and the mama

Leaving behind the work in Penang, I drove to the Metropolitan with three other colleagues as the clock ticked 5 on last Friday. Departing in another 10 minutes later might get us trapped bewilderedly in the dunno-why-it’s-jammed Penang Bridge. (Ironically each and every Bayan Lepatians know it get real stuck after 5pm in every Friday evening).

I safely reached Kim’s spanking new apartment around midnight. It’s in Hartamas, but it’s Puchong’s .;) She got herself a self-made “blink-blink” curtain at the entrance of the doorway leading to the rooms. She is really fond of it, though the brother and I think that it makes the cozy and cute apartment look like some Gypsy fortune teller’s. :D

The next morning the cool breeze swept through Puchong as I waited SW to pick me up for a trip to Pulau Ketam with some CLS guys. We arrived at the jetty around noon, after settling down with some gibberish excuses for being late from three dunno-who-was-the-culprit car-poolers. :D



Forlorn yet imposing


Harmony in divergence



I see you in me.


A fishing boat. I think he is lonesome.

Do visit this blog, there are loads of pictures there with quite a detailed journal of the trip.
http://ta469ch.multiply.com/photos/album/101

We spent the day in Pulau Ketam before meeting up with our big sister back at mainland in Port Klang. The big-earner treated us some good food in Pandamaran, a town of its own infamousness.

An immense blanket of darkness covered the vigorous city in the beautiful April night as Kim and I met up with Keat in Damansara Perdana’s Friendster. The starbucks wanna-be does offer something good, including some board games. We really took pleasure in when people peeping at us playing the card game brought in from the States, the Category 5. :P

Keat didn’t reveal much of his problems as he claimed to have in that bustling coffee house. But I guess three of us felt a mutual tranquility in its own way.

The next two days I spent meeting up with big-sister gang, colleagues, and three Grhans in Ikea and the Curve. Yet another pleasurable episode in the vibrant city.




Missing the two "luxurious" Grhans... :D