No more teh ais, thanks...
Man that was a heckuva weekend....
Thursday-Harvard boy Ow just got back, so of course he was hankering for some Dota. After another seriously muak-ified session with mr wong's colleagues, Rog, Chan and Jess came halfway during yum cha and then had another two games. Seriously....thank god we won't be having anymore sessions anytime soon.
Friday - Chan's surprise party. While mr wong cunningly dragged him around 1 Utama, all the while lying through his teeth we were back at his place setting up the BBQ. I had the pleasure of startin the fire - although by the time it was roaring and the fat fires were a-leaping i think i singed pretty much most of the hair on my right hand. The BBQ rocked though. Yummy grub, and some blasts from the past courtesy of the Chans and some intriguing photos.....
After the party died at Chan's we carried on to Rogers' - while the teamsters threw chips over poker the others karaoke onlyyy.....after that pun still got ppl go yum cha pukul 4 pagi - madness.....
Saturday - [ crickets ] oh yeah dinner at home with cousins
aaand Sunday!! - man wassit a full day - got up early to finish up the chicken(fine it DOES taste like satay) and my Sage roasted lamb with mango and mint vinagrette dressing while kak nab threw down her 'orgasmic' soto for my sorta-kinda-annual thing with kakaks and abangs Petronas - Naz, Elle, Su, Awien, Liyana, Ariff and Shahrul "Ayam" made it this time. I'm sure kak nab appreciated the soto applause - if only she could have seen Naz's face tho. Kalau bukak warung kat Rhasta camana ar? Soto Puncak Shahwat? Dont think shooo.....
After that, went to The Curve to ramble around the sunday bazaar, and MAKAN LAGI. After a quick pitstop at my place again, ( fhuahh kelisa bunting 7 budak jolap naik bukit!!) had another rendesvous at Plaza Damas, followed by ANOTHER rendesvous at NZ Wangsa Maju, which was like another planet to me. Jauh bangat weiiii.....
Just a carbon, plaid update. No rants, no introspection whatsoever and no bitching. I'm tired and happy, so there.
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Ahh....finally i'm sitting down at my box and i feel like blogging too - thought i'd have a break from Dungeon Siege 2 (rocks!). Anyway gettin back up to speed :
Of Chains & Bicycles
Yes here is the story i have so passionately recounted to a coupla of you. I'll try my best to keep this one short - On Thurs, i cycled to 1 Utama to grab some groceries and also to catch a bite with Puteri and a friend of hers, having locked my bike to the reverse side of the taxi place where people have been doing so for ages. 45 mins later, i saw another chain and padlock on my bike, and a message that says " We have clamed your motorcycle. Please proceed to the carpark office to settle the RM 20.00 fine for clamping" Balls.
Needless to say i was rather miffed. I distinctly remember another bike being there, unclamped, and there were no signs anywhere saying not to park bikes there. And obviously this was a bicycle and not a motorcycle. So i took off the sign and tried looking around for the carpark office buuuut gave up cos Tai Uei and David were already waiting at my place to go climbing at Summit. Well the bike sure as hell wasn't going anywhere with two locks on it so i went off and planned to come back later to give 'em hell over this.
Before i left with them i told Kak Nab about it for a laugh and she found it hilarious too. Unfortunately, she called my mom, who did not. She called me on the way to summit and started another loooong lecture on priotizing friends over property etc etc etc and told me to go back and settle the bike now. WTF? How was i gonna go back? Sooo i told her i'd do it when i got back from Summit and she just hung up.
When i finally got around to having my dad drop me off there so i can call the security asswipe to complain and unclamp my bike, i let him have a piece of my mind - like wtf right? No signs anywhere, only my bike kena, and then i kena inconvenience like kok because of this. I wasn't yelling outright or anything but i was visibly and audibly miffed laa - and all the time my dad was telling me to keep it down. Mahai i kena marah by my mom for free, have to go through all this shit, and he's telling me not to get mad? After i was done with him, he promptly took the bike off for free, and after he cabut my dad marah me pulak for being rude to the guard. Not my fault kalau some mat rempit from kampung lubang taik tak pass PMR and couldn't tell apart a motorbike and a bicycle kan? This from Mr. "Throws a hissy fit at a restaurant for the littlest thing" and Mr. "Rag out a salesboy for forgetting his receipt" I'll be fucking beligerent to fucking whomever i want.
That pretty much ruined my Thursday and killed my mood later that night when i caught up with the others for Dota and shit. Its been a while since two of the things that pissed me off the most kena me in one shot - inconvenienced by someones stupidity and getting ragged by my mom for something totally irreverent & not my fault.
Day & Night of Fun & Madness
Screw my mother's silent treatment. I wasn't gonna let this stupid crap ruin my whole weekend. Amazingly, i didn't pass out on Friday after 2 days of almost whole sleep and a whole day out - Had to get up early to setel the food for Su's potluck, which i went to after Friday prayers. I don't think as many ppl as last time came, but it was still a blast - jeles siall dengar cerita re-orientation korang. After the all important catching up and gossayp ( and makan macam babi kebulur) we all went down to Pyramid - la chicas checked out Dian Sastro's new sob-fest Ungu Violet ( which i heard was 'orrible) while the rest of us went about 'window shopping' .
After that i bummed a ride off Tai Uei around 10pm to join the Cempakan crew for some serious partyin at Velvet Underground next to Zouk. Tried to go easy on the hooch - as i havent eaten since lunch-ish and i WaS pretty dead tired - but after a while the thought went out of the window. Whaaackk only! Everyone was obviously in a mood to partay dowwn - haven't seen so many cempakan's rippin it out on the floor for ages. Music was great house with a latin tinge - live percussion, vocals and sax. Definitely haven't partied that hard all summer. Props to Edwin who ended up gettin smashed again ( it'll be hilarious if they were to reuse the ice in that bucket hmn?) and Siew Keong who were the casualties of the night. Oh yeah and the Kuah - who was so kindly holding Mei Seen's handbag until he got chatted up ( or somethin) by a drunk angmor GUY. Yeah but that was a heckuva night. ROck on you groovay biatches. More this weekend? Hmmn? yesno?
Ergh next day was a killer tho. May have burnt off all the alch yesterday, but barely got 2 hours of sleep before havin to go to town with dad - buat baju melayu la...setel some things at the club la...etc etc etc. And then had the Warwick Freshers' thingy at the Renaissance. Bleargh - most of the freshers looked quite skema. Hopefully the more interesting ones had something better to do on Saturday night.
..& up to this point
Sunday wasn't much - just more lectures from my increasingly uppity matron which at this point and age just immensely irritated it instead of somehow rewiring my already hardwired persona. Sheesh when is she gonna realize that i'm 21 and i've been away from home for 4 years.
Met up with Azu and Viv for Sbux at 1 U ( i walked, yes) before i had to skedaddle of to whack me olde man at tennis. Funness. Went climbing again on Monday , followed by dinner at 1 U again and a final Dota session with da Singh.
Oh yeah , supposed to go down to Singapore Weds morning to catch up with you IC folk, and esp mr Poon whom i havent seen for a year and is going to US soon. The plan was to catch a coach down with Charl, but at the last minute my mom screwed me over again. Cannot go. Maaaaahaiii. God give me strength just for one more month. Sorrriieieeee i couldn't see y'all!!
Well i had better cut myself off before i start ranting more about my parents.
Oh yeah this just HAD to be said - POCO!!
Errata corrige: mistakenly put 'met up with puteri and viv' earlier. Its corrected now. Sorry azu!!! serious aku serik blog ngantuk ngantuk lagi nih. Nanti if you come over again i buat laksa sarawak just for you....sorry sorry sorry
Of Chains & Bicycles
Yes here is the story i have so passionately recounted to a coupla of you. I'll try my best to keep this one short - On Thurs, i cycled to 1 Utama to grab some groceries and also to catch a bite with Puteri and a friend of hers, having locked my bike to the reverse side of the taxi place where people have been doing so for ages. 45 mins later, i saw another chain and padlock on my bike, and a message that says " We have clamed your motorcycle. Please proceed to the carpark office to settle the RM 20.00 fine for clamping" Balls.
Needless to say i was rather miffed. I distinctly remember another bike being there, unclamped, and there were no signs anywhere saying not to park bikes there. And obviously this was a bicycle and not a motorcycle. So i took off the sign and tried looking around for the carpark office buuuut gave up cos Tai Uei and David were already waiting at my place to go climbing at Summit. Well the bike sure as hell wasn't going anywhere with two locks on it so i went off and planned to come back later to give 'em hell over this.
Before i left with them i told Kak Nab about it for a laugh and she found it hilarious too. Unfortunately, she called my mom, who did not. She called me on the way to summit and started another loooong lecture on priotizing friends over property etc etc etc and told me to go back and settle the bike now. WTF? How was i gonna go back? Sooo i told her i'd do it when i got back from Summit and she just hung up.
When i finally got around to having my dad drop me off there so i can call the security asswipe to complain and unclamp my bike, i let him have a piece of my mind - like wtf right? No signs anywhere, only my bike kena, and then i kena inconvenience like kok because of this. I wasn't yelling outright or anything but i was visibly and audibly miffed laa - and all the time my dad was telling me to keep it down. Mahai i kena marah by my mom for free, have to go through all this shit, and he's telling me not to get mad? After i was done with him, he promptly took the bike off for free, and after he cabut my dad marah me pulak for being rude to the guard. Not my fault kalau some mat rempit from kampung lubang taik tak pass PMR and couldn't tell apart a motorbike and a bicycle kan? This from Mr. "Throws a hissy fit at a restaurant for the littlest thing" and Mr. "Rag out a salesboy for forgetting his receipt" I'll be fucking beligerent to fucking whomever i want.
That pretty much ruined my Thursday and killed my mood later that night when i caught up with the others for Dota and shit. Its been a while since two of the things that pissed me off the most kena me in one shot - inconvenienced by someones stupidity and getting ragged by my mom for something totally irreverent & not my fault.
Day & Night of Fun & Madness
Screw my mother's silent treatment. I wasn't gonna let this stupid crap ruin my whole weekend. Amazingly, i didn't pass out on Friday after 2 days of almost whole sleep and a whole day out - Had to get up early to setel the food for Su's potluck, which i went to after Friday prayers. I don't think as many ppl as last time came, but it was still a blast - jeles siall dengar cerita re-orientation korang. After the all important catching up and gossayp ( and makan macam babi kebulur) we all went down to Pyramid - la chicas checked out Dian Sastro's new sob-fest Ungu Violet ( which i heard was 'orrible) while the rest of us went about 'window shopping' .
After that i bummed a ride off Tai Uei around 10pm to join the Cempakan crew for some serious partyin at Velvet Underground next to Zouk. Tried to go easy on the hooch - as i havent eaten since lunch-ish and i WaS pretty dead tired - but after a while the thought went out of the window. Whaaackk only! Everyone was obviously in a mood to partay dowwn - haven't seen so many cempakan's rippin it out on the floor for ages. Music was great house with a latin tinge - live percussion, vocals and sax. Definitely haven't partied that hard all summer. Props to Edwin who ended up gettin smashed again ( it'll be hilarious if they were to reuse the ice in that bucket hmn?) and Siew Keong who were the casualties of the night. Oh yeah and the Kuah - who was so kindly holding Mei Seen's handbag until he got chatted up ( or somethin) by a drunk angmor GUY. Yeah but that was a heckuva night. ROck on you groovay biatches. More this weekend? Hmmn? yesno?
Ergh next day was a killer tho. May have burnt off all the alch yesterday, but barely got 2 hours of sleep before havin to go to town with dad - buat baju melayu la...setel some things at the club la...etc etc etc. And then had the Warwick Freshers' thingy at the Renaissance. Bleargh - most of the freshers looked quite skema. Hopefully the more interesting ones had something better to do on Saturday night.
..& up to this point
Sunday wasn't much - just more lectures from my increasingly uppity matron which at this point and age just immensely irritated it instead of somehow rewiring my already hardwired persona. Sheesh when is she gonna realize that i'm 21 and i've been away from home for 4 years.
Met up with Azu and Viv for Sbux at 1 U ( i walked, yes) before i had to skedaddle of to whack me olde man at tennis. Funness. Went climbing again on Monday , followed by dinner at 1 U again and a final Dota session with da Singh.
Oh yeah , supposed to go down to Singapore Weds morning to catch up with you IC folk, and esp mr Poon whom i havent seen for a year and is going to US soon. The plan was to catch a coach down with Charl, but at the last minute my mom screwed me over again. Cannot go. Maaaaahaiii. God give me strength just for one more month. Sorrriieieeee i couldn't see y'all!!
Well i had better cut myself off before i start ranting more about my parents.
Oh yeah this just HAD to be said - POCO!!
Errata corrige: mistakenly put 'met up with puteri and viv' earlier. Its corrected now. Sorry azu!!! serious aku serik blog ngantuk ngantuk lagi nih. Nanti if you come over again i buat laksa sarawak just for you....sorry sorry sorry
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Sunday, August 14, 2005
I dont think i'm gonna trust Konfabulator's weather widget anymore after this - sure they have KL weather and its mostly ROUGHly accurate but today:
Last update : 2.25 pm
Weather: Partly Cloudy
But over here in the real world:
Time : 2.30pm
Weather: Is that lightning and hail? Natch its just a bitching storm. Oh lookat the tree outside breaking in the wind. That branch in the garden's gonna be a doozy to drag out.
Anyway,
Multi racial harmony poster kids
Amazingly, the potluck the guys randomly decided to hold at 2am Friday morning at McDs after a Dota sesh actually happened later that night at Horng Jye's near OUG. Everyone actually brought something - satay, pasta, cantonese kuey teow, shitloads of KFC, dominos, a cake and even some liqour. Of course, while convoying in KL evening traffic to bloody Klang some of the food got picked at - well in Chan's car at least. Mahai that feller almost langgar tiang driving while picking out pasta with his hands hahahaha. EEeeyurrr
The dinner was a blast- mooore than enough food for everyone. After everyone kenyang babi , there was the customary drinking and gambling. Props to Daim - his first time gambling with us, and getting well and truly smashed after enduring a gruelling drinking sesh. Haha drunkards left right center. Sam blew chunks and passed out, but not before an amazing display of drunkeness - number 1 was walking straight into a closed glass sliding door. THUNK hahahahaha. Singh was a bloody lothario when he's had a bit and generally everyone was just little smashed. Many classic quotes, among them:
"Minum, Melayu haram minum!!"
"Aku Nabi Wong! "
"Oh yeah? I'm the Invoker!"
"Allah! Blackjack lagi?!?"
The photos were more classic than the quotes tho. Wohoho.
Damn syiok drinking game also - haha played 007. Dunno the game? Grab some liqour and give me a call. hahaha. Might have drank quite a bit also but i was still mostly sober. Daim, the hero of the night spent a half our in the can and later Kuah, Edwin and i kena espionage sikit putting him to bed at his house at 4 am in the morning. Adventurrre i tell you.
Barely had 2 hours of sleep before i had to get up early. Mahai had some things to do in the morning. Somehow ended up sitting in for fucks in a meeting my dad was having at RSGC to plan some royal charity golf tourney. Mahai thats 2 hours of my life i'm never getting back. Lesson learnt? Next time you have Smirnoff, Hennessey & Chivas in one night make sure you goddamn puke. Eeerrgh.
"It'll be nice if i could haunt a house, someday. " - Charl
Last update : 2.25 pm
Weather: Partly Cloudy
But over here in the real world:
Time : 2.30pm
Weather: Is that lightning and hail? Natch its just a bitching storm. Oh lookat the tree outside breaking in the wind. That branch in the garden's gonna be a doozy to drag out.
Anyway,
Multi racial harmony poster kids
Amazingly, the potluck the guys randomly decided to hold at 2am Friday morning at McDs after a Dota sesh actually happened later that night at Horng Jye's near OUG. Everyone actually brought something - satay, pasta, cantonese kuey teow, shitloads of KFC, dominos, a cake and even some liqour. Of course, while convoying in KL evening traffic to bloody Klang some of the food got picked at - well in Chan's car at least. Mahai that feller almost langgar tiang driving while picking out pasta with his hands hahahaha. EEeeyurrr
The dinner was a blast- mooore than enough food for everyone. After everyone kenyang babi , there was the customary drinking and gambling. Props to Daim - his first time gambling with us, and getting well and truly smashed after enduring a gruelling drinking sesh. Haha drunkards left right center. Sam blew chunks and passed out, but not before an amazing display of drunkeness - number 1 was walking straight into a closed glass sliding door. THUNK hahahahaha. Singh was a bloody lothario when he's had a bit and generally everyone was just little smashed. Many classic quotes, among them:
"Minum, Melayu haram minum!!"
"Aku Nabi Wong! "
"Oh yeah? I'm the Invoker!"
"Allah! Blackjack lagi?!?"
The photos were more classic than the quotes tho. Wohoho.
Damn syiok drinking game also - haha played 007. Dunno the game? Grab some liqour and give me a call. hahaha. Might have drank quite a bit also but i was still mostly sober. Daim, the hero of the night spent a half our in the can and later Kuah, Edwin and i kena espionage sikit putting him to bed at his house at 4 am in the morning. Adventurrre i tell you.
Barely had 2 hours of sleep before i had to get up early. Mahai had some things to do in the morning. Somehow ended up sitting in for fucks in a meeting my dad was having at RSGC to plan some royal charity golf tourney. Mahai thats 2 hours of my life i'm never getting back. Lesson learnt? Next time you have Smirnoff, Hennessey & Chivas in one night make sure you goddamn puke. Eeerrgh.
"It'll be nice if i could haunt a house, someday. " - Charl
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Feeling : Absolutely incensed
Listening to : the squidgy sound my stress relieving squeeze thingy makes & ironically, Shakira's La tortura
You know when start blogging this much that i'm either getting very very antsy , or wayyy too many things have gotten on my nerves lately. Its a little bit of both actually.
MANNnn i need to get away from my parents. Dey...Charl...when the hell are you gonna go down to Singapore ar? Before the 18th kan? Cepat cepat must settle. Between mom's neverending lectures on values and dad's obsessive lectures about safety and running commentaries on ANYTHING on TV, i really cannot tahan already. I have my late nights out like what...2-3 times a week? And its almost always someting innocuous enough like Dota or random yum-cha ing and i have to fuckin put up with a 'balik lewat lewat tak manis' lecture every fuckin next fuckin day. Who the hell cares? Not like i'm some village belle yang mesti kontrol reputation or something. Fuck that shit. What the hell is the fuckin point of that line " Yes we know you're technically an adult" if they still berate you like a fuckin kid? Not like i'm out smoking crack or anything.
Another funny thing - my mom has this fixed image of ALL cybercafes as a front for drugs and where leery shady gangland people meet to conduct illicit deals - and she will believe nothing else. WHAT.THE.FUCK. She even refuses to go near one, so i can't even show her its just friends kicking each other's asses at games, or the occasional unbathed foreign worker emailing home or some antisocial gimps playing MMORPGs or that stupid keyboard rythm game. Bah.
Still on the subject of the oh-so unjust attempts to clip my wings. The horrible haze we're using now? Sure its very very unpleasant but not life-threatening. The last time i checked, i was neither asthmatic or especially prone to respiratory problems. Sure as hell doesn't stop my parents using it as another excuse to keep me from going out. Naturally because of that alone, ( and not the fact that i taste rubber and steel the minute i open the doors) i've developed a vendetta for the haze and all the things that caused it. Obviously, the number one cause was slash & burn farmers down in Sumatra. And i'm sure local farmers burning rice husks chip in here and there too.
Dude, weight the survival of the odd tiny barely self sufficient farming community that just exists without contributing anything to society against the economic health ( tourism especially) political chaos ( NGOs bitching with the Enviroment ministry), Health issues ( apparently the haze does fuck up old folks, kids and certain people) and the related inconveniences of a certain neighbouring country. Send another tsunami their way, i say. Hey - it'll put out any fires still going, the sudden water and air current change should bring more precipitation our way, and it will go further towards solving their overpopulation problem. Juuust being practical.
I might have gone a little bit overboard on that , but fuckit. I don't need anymore things happening that will crimp any of my holiday fun directly or otherwise. Nothing short of the hand of god physically restaining me himself is gonna keep me at home. Dumbass farmers.
Listening to : the squidgy sound my stress relieving squeeze thingy makes & ironically, Shakira's La tortura
You know when start blogging this much that i'm either getting very very antsy , or wayyy too many things have gotten on my nerves lately. Its a little bit of both actually.
MANNnn i need to get away from my parents. Dey...Charl...when the hell are you gonna go down to Singapore ar? Before the 18th kan? Cepat cepat must settle. Between mom's neverending lectures on values and dad's obsessive lectures about safety and running commentaries on ANYTHING on TV, i really cannot tahan already. I have my late nights out like what...2-3 times a week? And its almost always someting innocuous enough like Dota or random yum-cha ing and i have to fuckin put up with a 'balik lewat lewat tak manis' lecture every fuckin next fuckin day. Who the hell cares? Not like i'm some village belle yang mesti kontrol reputation or something. Fuck that shit. What the hell is the fuckin point of that line " Yes we know you're technically an adult" if they still berate you like a fuckin kid? Not like i'm out smoking crack or anything.
Another funny thing - my mom has this fixed image of ALL cybercafes as a front for drugs and where leery shady gangland people meet to conduct illicit deals - and she will believe nothing else. WHAT.THE.FUCK. She even refuses to go near one, so i can't even show her its just friends kicking each other's asses at games, or the occasional unbathed foreign worker emailing home or some antisocial gimps playing MMORPGs or that stupid keyboard rythm game. Bah.
Still on the subject of the oh-so unjust attempts to clip my wings. The horrible haze we're using now? Sure its very very unpleasant but not life-threatening. The last time i checked, i was neither asthmatic or especially prone to respiratory problems. Sure as hell doesn't stop my parents using it as another excuse to keep me from going out. Naturally because of that alone, ( and not the fact that i taste rubber and steel the minute i open the doors) i've developed a vendetta for the haze and all the things that caused it. Obviously, the number one cause was slash & burn farmers down in Sumatra. And i'm sure local farmers burning rice husks chip in here and there too.
Dude, weight the survival of the odd tiny barely self sufficient farming community that just exists without contributing anything to society against the economic health ( tourism especially) political chaos ( NGOs bitching with the Enviroment ministry), Health issues ( apparently the haze does fuck up old folks, kids and certain people) and the related inconveniences of a certain neighbouring country. Send another tsunami their way, i say. Hey - it'll put out any fires still going, the sudden water and air current change should bring more precipitation our way, and it will go further towards solving their overpopulation problem. Juuust being practical.
I might have gone a little bit overboard on that , but fuckit. I don't need anymore things happening that will crimp any of my holiday fun directly or otherwise. Nothing short of the hand of god physically restaining me himself is gonna keep me at home. Dumbass farmers.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
One for the techies & gamers. w00t!
Originally, i was going to go on a rant about people who constantly bash Microsoft - well, Windows, to be more exact. These also tend to be the ones who go about glorifying to all and sundry the wonders of Macs, Linux , Solaris etc etc. Well - its the lesser of two evils - it's a lot easier condemning people who take the piss out of Windows rather then DEFENDING Windows hmmn? After reading a little more into it though, even if you have nothing against - or even if you actually LIKE Windows, i'm ready to fire a few shots myself at Microsoft. First of all...
p.s- had some pics to go with this post, but i haven't installed picasa's Hello on neither my new desktop or refurbished laptop, and i'm still looking for a free photo repository i can just display the pictures out of.
Why Windows? or No Mac version? Ohhh what a shame.
Allrighty then - up till last year, i have been using Macs and PCs alongside each other for about 15 years - so first off, i have every right to flame Apple N00bZ. Yeah bitches im from the 'rainbow apple' days - it wasn't fun living off shareware & freeware (and once in a blue moon 'legit' proper software) off Mac mags from system 7 through to 10.3. And i've spent quite some time literally pulling my hair at Linux workstations(Mandrake and SuSe distributions) on my Java, Prolog and Haskell coding assignments during my doomed tenure at IC doing computing. Jeez first it was " My computer's soo much better looking! It's got colours!" and then it was "OS X is soooo stable - it's never crashed on me before!" Trust me, it can. While i ran OS 10.0 through to 10.3 it crashed almost as many times as my Windows machines - and it was all work apps and surfing - not even games. A well kept Windows system can be just as relatively hassle free until you bring in the odd buggy game.
Stability issues aside, all OS-ses are pretty much equal when it comes to normal and work apps - surfing, graphic and design, watching movies, music etc etc. With the right mods, you can skin any OS to look like the other. System vunerabilites? Lets put it this way - most systems worth breaking in for information or other purposes are mostly Windows boxes, hence the constant discovery of holes and bugs. Malicious hackers also code their worms and the like to disrupt Windows systems as they are the most common consumer OS and are predominantly low-level users who dont know very much at all. Unless you wanna do it for bragging rights, to be one of the L33t, not many people bother coming up with malicious code for other OSes.
I guess the main point, the surrendering point, for using Windows is the convenience and compatibility issue which unfortunately comes with massive monopoly on home and business machines. While major appliances like printers and scanners are well supported by most OSes, you'd have a freaking adventure trying to work webcams, MP3 players, PDAs and other gadgets on OS-es other than Macs and Windows. If you have multiple computers, its also SOOO much easier to keep all of them on 1 OS , especially for the sake of sharing files, media and apps and synchronization. Having to use a FAT 32 disk to bridge my Mac HFS and NTFS disks were a nightmare, for one thing. Obviously, industrial strength OSes like Solaris are cold & tight when it comes to security, but i'd hate to be the person who has to make an iPod work on it.
Oh yeah - games too. Since PCs are still the best platform for games - anyone ever played an RTS on a console? Eeeeyurghh! - because of their scaleability and choice of control inputs. The people who MAKE the games obviously want the biggest market possible, hence coding it for the most common OS. Thereee ya go - another big win for Windows
While i'm all up for the Open Source movement, there's also a lot of good free software for windows to be had. Programs that you'd have to [cough] pay for tend to work a lot better anyway than something a bunch of sunlight-averse agoraphobes coded together on their off D&D days.
Micro$oft $uck$ A$$
Over the last coupla years, Microsoft has been screwing over one of its biggest supporters - gamers(not like they have much choice anyway). It all began with the X-Box and its flagship game, Halo. Initially it was supposed to be released for Mac and PC as well, but Microsoft wanted it to be an X-Box exclusive, actually giving people a reason to buy it over the PS 2. They had actually almost finished the PC version when Microsoft threw Bungie a big wad of cash and sealed the deal. Halo for PC wouldn't even have came out if it weren't for the enormous ( well as loud as gamers can be anyway) outcry.
Since then many other good games have been bought out as X-Box exclusives, depriving PC and also PS 2 gamers of some good game franchises. Such a pity especially as many excellent first person shooters never made it ( or were snatched at the last minute) away from PC gamers. I've tried playing Unreal Championship on an X-Box, and i was obviously far less graceful than i would be on the keyboard and mouse. How the hell are you going to circle strafe or do the rocket spam ballet on a gamepad? Seriously - FPS and RTSes should be for PC only. Fighting games, racing games and rail shooters are the shit for consoles.
Recently, the've also announced that Quake 4's going to be the X-Box 360's flagship release, meaning that the PC version will be "greatly delayed". They can delay it only for so long before ID Software offices gets overrun by a horde of die-hard PC gamers. Especially those who are not getting xbox 360s because of their principles ( or not having sold your junk on eBay for as much as you thought you should). Also, even before the PC expansion for Half Life 2 has gone gold, theres already talk of Half Life 3 being ANOTHER xbox 360 exclusive. Bitchery i say. Its seriously the equivalent of Microsoft giving the finger to gamers everywhere.
Just when you think " Fine , i'll get with the fucking program and save up to buy a fucking X-boX. Crap i'll need a TV too. And extra controllers. And memory cards. And a carrying case, and gold plated SCART cables and programmable vibrating gamepads and..." (at which point you go into convulsions and collapse foaming at the mouth) theres a whole new game afoot in the business.
Following some carefully worded press statements which essentially meant the PS3 was going to be fuckin powerful all in one home entertainment solution but also frighteningly expensive, Microsoft has upped the ante with new graphic processors on their X-box 360, among with a slew of new features that will no doubt increase its price. Apparently some executive who probably hasnt played a console game in his life thought that the comparatively cheaper tag of the 360 meant it wouldn't get as much "respect" as the uber PS3. This pissing contest can't have a pretty ending. Probably by the time either of them comes out, not only would the 360 cost as much as a small country, the latest version of the "Super Parallel Nanometric" CELL PS3 processor would have become self aware and enslaved the entire human race a-la Terminator's Skynet.
Therefore, in effect Sony and Microsoft's one-upmanship could very well bring about the end of the world. Or at least produce ludicrously priced overpowered consoles. Snap.
Originally, i was going to go on a rant about people who constantly bash Microsoft - well, Windows, to be more exact. These also tend to be the ones who go about glorifying to all and sundry the wonders of Macs, Linux , Solaris etc etc. Well - its the lesser of two evils - it's a lot easier condemning people who take the piss out of Windows rather then DEFENDING Windows hmmn? After reading a little more into it though, even if you have nothing against - or even if you actually LIKE Windows, i'm ready to fire a few shots myself at Microsoft. First of all...
p.s- had some pics to go with this post, but i haven't installed picasa's Hello on neither my new desktop or refurbished laptop, and i'm still looking for a free photo repository i can just display the pictures out of.
Why Windows? or No Mac version? Ohhh what a shame.
Allrighty then - up till last year, i have been using Macs and PCs alongside each other for about 15 years - so first off, i have every right to flame Apple N00bZ. Yeah bitches im from the 'rainbow apple' days - it wasn't fun living off shareware & freeware (and once in a blue moon 'legit' proper software) off Mac mags from system 7 through to 10.3. And i've spent quite some time literally pulling my hair at Linux workstations(Mandrake and SuSe distributions) on my Java, Prolog and Haskell coding assignments during my doomed tenure at IC doing computing. Jeez first it was " My computer's soo much better looking! It's got colours!" and then it was "OS X is soooo stable - it's never crashed on me before!" Trust me, it can. While i ran OS 10.0 through to 10.3 it crashed almost as many times as my Windows machines - and it was all work apps and surfing - not even games. A well kept Windows system can be just as relatively hassle free until you bring in the odd buggy game.
Stability issues aside, all OS-ses are pretty much equal when it comes to normal and work apps - surfing, graphic and design, watching movies, music etc etc. With the right mods, you can skin any OS to look like the other. System vunerabilites? Lets put it this way - most systems worth breaking in for information or other purposes are mostly Windows boxes, hence the constant discovery of holes and bugs. Malicious hackers also code their worms and the like to disrupt Windows systems as they are the most common consumer OS and are predominantly low-level users who dont know very much at all. Unless you wanna do it for bragging rights, to be one of the L33t, not many people bother coming up with malicious code for other OSes.
I guess the main point, the surrendering point, for using Windows is the convenience and compatibility issue which unfortunately comes with massive monopoly on home and business machines. While major appliances like printers and scanners are well supported by most OSes, you'd have a freaking adventure trying to work webcams, MP3 players, PDAs and other gadgets on OS-es other than Macs and Windows. If you have multiple computers, its also SOOO much easier to keep all of them on 1 OS , especially for the sake of sharing files, media and apps and synchronization. Having to use a FAT 32 disk to bridge my Mac HFS and NTFS disks were a nightmare, for one thing. Obviously, industrial strength OSes like Solaris are cold & tight when it comes to security, but i'd hate to be the person who has to make an iPod work on it.
Oh yeah - games too. Since PCs are still the best platform for games - anyone ever played an RTS on a console? Eeeeyurghh! - because of their scaleability and choice of control inputs. The people who MAKE the games obviously want the biggest market possible, hence coding it for the most common OS. Thereee ya go - another big win for Windows
While i'm all up for the Open Source movement, there's also a lot of good free software for windows to be had. Programs that you'd have to [cough] pay for tend to work a lot better anyway than something a bunch of sunlight-averse agoraphobes coded together on their off D&D days.
Micro$oft $uck$ A$$
Over the last coupla years, Microsoft has been screwing over one of its biggest supporters - gamers(not like they have much choice anyway). It all began with the X-Box and its flagship game, Halo. Initially it was supposed to be released for Mac and PC as well, but Microsoft wanted it to be an X-Box exclusive, actually giving people a reason to buy it over the PS 2. They had actually almost finished the PC version when Microsoft threw Bungie a big wad of cash and sealed the deal. Halo for PC wouldn't even have came out if it weren't for the enormous ( well as loud as gamers can be anyway) outcry.
Since then many other good games have been bought out as X-Box exclusives, depriving PC and also PS 2 gamers of some good game franchises. Such a pity especially as many excellent first person shooters never made it ( or were snatched at the last minute) away from PC gamers. I've tried playing Unreal Championship on an X-Box, and i was obviously far less graceful than i would be on the keyboard and mouse. How the hell are you going to circle strafe or do the rocket spam ballet on a gamepad? Seriously - FPS and RTSes should be for PC only. Fighting games, racing games and rail shooters are the shit for consoles.
Recently, the've also announced that Quake 4's going to be the X-Box 360's flagship release, meaning that the PC version will be "greatly delayed". They can delay it only for so long before ID Software offices gets overrun by a horde of die-hard PC gamers. Especially those who are not getting xbox 360s because of their principles ( or not having sold your junk on eBay for as much as you thought you should). Also, even before the PC expansion for Half Life 2 has gone gold, theres already talk of Half Life 3 being ANOTHER xbox 360 exclusive. Bitchery i say. Its seriously the equivalent of Microsoft giving the finger to gamers everywhere.
Just when you think " Fine , i'll get with the fucking program and save up to buy a fucking X-boX. Crap i'll need a TV too. And extra controllers. And memory cards. And a carrying case, and gold plated SCART cables and programmable vibrating gamepads and..." (at which point you go into convulsions and collapse foaming at the mouth) theres a whole new game afoot in the business.
Following some carefully worded press statements which essentially meant the PS3 was going to be fuckin powerful all in one home entertainment solution but also frighteningly expensive, Microsoft has upped the ante with new graphic processors on their X-box 360, among with a slew of new features that will no doubt increase its price. Apparently some executive who probably hasnt played a console game in his life thought that the comparatively cheaper tag of the 360 meant it wouldn't get as much "respect" as the uber PS3. This pissing contest can't have a pretty ending. Probably by the time either of them comes out, not only would the 360 cost as much as a small country, the latest version of the "Super Parallel Nanometric" CELL PS3 processor would have become self aware and enslaved the entire human race a-la Terminator's Skynet.
Therefore, in effect Sony and Microsoft's one-upmanship could very well bring about the end of the world. Or at least produce ludicrously priced overpowered consoles. Snap.
Saturday, August 06, 2005
Feeling : Rather miffed and in SuCH a mood to rant.
Listening to : Angguk Angguk Geleng Geleng - Ahli Fiqir
Imma dive straight into a rant right now - one of my aunties from my fathers side, who hardly shows unless there's some drama in her corner of the family, suddenly called this evening and said that she'll be crashing over for the night - she's with her new husband (2nd or 3rd i cant remember, yes plenty of drama there) so she can't bunk over in kak nab's room. My estranged and not-quite-technically divorced cousin is still living with us in the guest room - she has been for about the last 2 months or so.
THEREFORE, they have kak nab's room, and she has to bunk over in my room for the night. Okay, sharing a room with her is not so bad ( besides from the freight-train snoring and the eventual wake up call at 5am for dawn prayers) but to be inconvenienced as such aGAin by a relative from my dad's side. My mother didn't like the ' husband stealing wench' either so dad, mom, cuz and i went out for late night mamak together for the first time. With any luck , probably after i'm done blogging she'd be up.
Mmhmn of course families are supposed to stick together and such, but my fathers' side has soo much more than any families share of problems. Of course, with him being the only decent and responsible one, he always has to end up bailing them out by mediating endless fights or by ponying up moolah - sometimes its like his siblings conspire to exxagerate a small problem just so that he'll just throw them some money to be over with it. Like, c'mon - one of his brothers has 12 kids ( doesn't look like he's stopping soon either ) and also gambling debts left right and center. It really grinds my gears because he obviously gets stressed about it and throws these little hissy whiny fits once in a while, and that in turn pisses mom off, and eventually i get these loong loong lectures about responsibility and such. Errgh
And that bitch still manage to fill up half our fridge with chocolates for random people back home before her flight tomorrow, and she had the gall to tell us that none of it is for us. I can only pray that the flight will end up like an off-film Malaysian version of Lost.
Ahhh....baru puassshh
Now, for something different!
A quick review of albums in heavy rotation on my playlist - heyy - i actually bought some of them tau!! Suppport!! Well when i say review, i mean my brief thoughts of the music followed by off the wall rants about the artistes or their genres. Still reading? Dear you must be rather bored, aren't you?
Juwita Suwito - Brand New World
Pretty darned good for a local artiste - actually deserved her AIM award for best local english album. She used to do gospel so a coupla of the songs and lyrics has that slight gospel tinge, but they're very well written and performed. They ranged from light-hearted poppy easy listening ballads to those with a touch of rock. Her shot at R&B wasn't bad, except that the lyrics and idea for that "SMS" song was completely daft. Compared to her other songs it was like a joke track done just for fucks.
Ahli Fiqir - Hari Ini Dalam Sejarah
I might not have heard that much Malay music from Singapore, but if we're to go from their collabs with local artistes , and groups like Bhumiband and Ahli Fiqir , there are manna to the ears compared to typical local shite - especially m'sian malay rock groups. Their lyrics actually have a semblance of poetry and prose, and their production values are much better too.
In the case of Ahli Fiqir, most of their songs are quite catchy, especially Angguk Angguk which is practically playing everywhere - and their lyrics have a real " Hidup Melayu " feel to it - you know, the whole cast-off-your-stereotypes-and-get-off-your-lazy-ass thing. Sometimes you just have to think whether that in itself is kinda diametric in itself as they are the typical malay hip-hopper - b-boy kinda crew - and the artists they associate with like Too Phat and the Teh Tarik crew arent really doing their bit to berjuang untuk menaikkan martabat melayu, y'know what i'm sayin?
Jamiroquai - Dynamite
Another cd in typical Jamiroquai fashion - catchy, electronic and funk beats with the occasional lapse of R&B and chillout. You gotta wonder how he affords his stable of cars and his 72-arce Buckinghampshire estate though. ONE rare vintage restored Maserati is no excuse for his fleet of typical Premiership Footballer-ish cars. He's been throwing so much money to Ferrari that they let him have one of the first Enzos AND let him use their prancing horse insignia on one of his album covers.
Anyway, isn't Jamiroquai a group? Howecome you never see any of the other members? Are they hideous misshapen lepers chained to the mixers and synths? Or are smart enough to quietly take their money, invest it and live low key lives. Not like some brash skinny twat who for some reason still manages to reel in record catches of poontang.
B.E.P - Monkey Business
Personally, i liked it better than their last album - the songs actually sound different - well more than their last effort anyway. Besides from their two songs gettin heavy airplay - Phunk and Don't Lie, Like That and Pump It are damn syiok to listen to as well.
My beef with them? Nothing much - haha but they're obviously such camera hams - you can see how much they are into it when they do their videos, especially Phunk. Hooo yeah and Fergie's still one hot momma. Daayymn!
Missy Elliot - The Cookbook
Everything Missy-E touches turns to freaking gold. Especially if Timbaland or The Neptunes is on board. Just like her last 2 albums, all her songs are a good mix of that ol' skool vibe, beats you be 'feelin, and catchy-ass lyrics. Also, she is still somehow losing weight - Enough to actually dance in her videos! GasP! Go Missay !!
Other albums worth a listen:
Nina Sky - La Conexion
Jason Mraz - Mr. A-Z
Jesse McCartney - Beautiful Soul
And now, something completely NEW!
I dont normally, if not never , go into politics on mah blog, but this is gonna be a first. Following the recent gaffes and faux pax in Malay politics - Gambling Debts, Proton , APs, Melayu 'Glokal' and such it's inevitable that most of the conversations in the house veer towards lamenting the state of Malay Politics. My parents are all for BN, but they also are very leery of some aspects of the Malay governance, especially with my mother being a civil servant for a govt body, having the inside view of their practices. Its amazing how thoroughly corrupt Malay politics are with so many people at the top being just straight-out mark-ass smooth-talking thieving fucks. I am soooo not looking forward to paying taxes if it's gonna go towards some Datuk's gambling debt or hideous European palatial furniture in some Datin's crib.
I read quite a sagacious article the other day, summing up the failure of the NEP and why Malay politics is in such a state, while at the same time not being too condeming or biased. For those of you Bumi or Non Bumi who oh-so-love discussing this issue, you just HAve to read this article -
Listening to : Angguk Angguk Geleng Geleng - Ahli Fiqir
Imma dive straight into a rant right now - one of my aunties from my fathers side, who hardly shows unless there's some drama in her corner of the family, suddenly called this evening and said that she'll be crashing over for the night - she's with her new husband (2nd or 3rd i cant remember, yes plenty of drama there) so she can't bunk over in kak nab's room. My estranged and not-quite-technically divorced cousin is still living with us in the guest room - she has been for about the last 2 months or so.
THEREFORE, they have kak nab's room, and she has to bunk over in my room for the night. Okay, sharing a room with her is not so bad ( besides from the freight-train snoring and the eventual wake up call at 5am for dawn prayers) but to be inconvenienced as such aGAin by a relative from my dad's side. My mother didn't like the ' husband stealing wench' either so dad, mom, cuz and i went out for late night mamak together for the first time. With any luck , probably after i'm done blogging she'd be up.
Mmhmn of course families are supposed to stick together and such, but my fathers' side has soo much more than any families share of problems. Of course, with him being the only decent and responsible one, he always has to end up bailing them out by mediating endless fights or by ponying up moolah - sometimes its like his siblings conspire to exxagerate a small problem just so that he'll just throw them some money to be over with it. Like, c'mon - one of his brothers has 12 kids ( doesn't look like he's stopping soon either ) and also gambling debts left right and center. It really grinds my gears because he obviously gets stressed about it and throws these little hissy whiny fits once in a while, and that in turn pisses mom off, and eventually i get these loong loong lectures about responsibility and such. Errgh
And that bitch still manage to fill up half our fridge with chocolates for random people back home before her flight tomorrow, and she had the gall to tell us that none of it is for us. I can only pray that the flight will end up like an off-film Malaysian version of Lost.
Ahhh....baru puassshh
Now, for something different!
A quick review of albums in heavy rotation on my playlist - heyy - i actually bought some of them tau!! Suppport!! Well when i say review, i mean my brief thoughts of the music followed by off the wall rants about the artistes or their genres. Still reading? Dear you must be rather bored, aren't you?
Juwita Suwito - Brand New World
Pretty darned good for a local artiste - actually deserved her AIM award for best local english album. She used to do gospel so a coupla of the songs and lyrics has that slight gospel tinge, but they're very well written and performed. They ranged from light-hearted poppy easy listening ballads to those with a touch of rock. Her shot at R&B wasn't bad, except that the lyrics and idea for that "SMS" song was completely daft. Compared to her other songs it was like a joke track done just for fucks.
Ahli Fiqir - Hari Ini Dalam Sejarah
I might not have heard that much Malay music from Singapore, but if we're to go from their collabs with local artistes , and groups like Bhumiband and Ahli Fiqir , there are manna to the ears compared to typical local shite - especially m'sian malay rock groups. Their lyrics actually have a semblance of poetry and prose, and their production values are much better too.
In the case of Ahli Fiqir, most of their songs are quite catchy, especially Angguk Angguk which is practically playing everywhere - and their lyrics have a real " Hidup Melayu " feel to it - you know, the whole cast-off-your-stereotypes-and-get-off-your-lazy-ass thing. Sometimes you just have to think whether that in itself is kinda diametric in itself as they are the typical malay hip-hopper - b-boy kinda crew - and the artists they associate with like Too Phat and the Teh Tarik crew arent really doing their bit to berjuang untuk menaikkan martabat melayu, y'know what i'm sayin?
Jamiroquai - Dynamite
Another cd in typical Jamiroquai fashion - catchy, electronic and funk beats with the occasional lapse of R&B and chillout. You gotta wonder how he affords his stable of cars and his 72-arce Buckinghampshire estate though. ONE rare vintage restored Maserati is no excuse for his fleet of typical Premiership Footballer-ish cars. He's been throwing so much money to Ferrari that they let him have one of the first Enzos AND let him use their prancing horse insignia on one of his album covers.
Anyway, isn't Jamiroquai a group? Howecome you never see any of the other members? Are they hideous misshapen lepers chained to the mixers and synths? Or are smart enough to quietly take their money, invest it and live low key lives. Not like some brash skinny twat who for some reason still manages to reel in record catches of poontang.
B.E.P - Monkey Business
Personally, i liked it better than their last album - the songs actually sound different - well more than their last effort anyway. Besides from their two songs gettin heavy airplay - Phunk and Don't Lie, Like That and Pump It are damn syiok to listen to as well.
My beef with them? Nothing much - haha but they're obviously such camera hams - you can see how much they are into it when they do their videos, especially Phunk. Hooo yeah and Fergie's still one hot momma. Daayymn!
Missy Elliot - The Cookbook
Everything Missy-E touches turns to freaking gold. Especially if Timbaland or The Neptunes is on board. Just like her last 2 albums, all her songs are a good mix of that ol' skool vibe, beats you be 'feelin, and catchy-ass lyrics. Also, she is still somehow losing weight - Enough to actually dance in her videos! GasP! Go Missay !!
Other albums worth a listen:
Nina Sky - La Conexion
Jason Mraz - Mr. A-Z
Jesse McCartney - Beautiful Soul
And now, something completely NEW!
I dont normally, if not never , go into politics on mah blog, but this is gonna be a first. Following the recent gaffes and faux pax in Malay politics - Gambling Debts, Proton , APs, Melayu 'Glokal' and such it's inevitable that most of the conversations in the house veer towards lamenting the state of Malay Politics. My parents are all for BN, but they also are very leery of some aspects of the Malay governance, especially with my mother being a civil servant for a govt body, having the inside view of their practices. Its amazing how thoroughly corrupt Malay politics are with so many people at the top being just straight-out mark-ass smooth-talking thieving fucks. I am soooo not looking forward to paying taxes if it's gonna go towards some Datuk's gambling debt or hideous European palatial furniture in some Datin's crib.
I read quite a sagacious article the other day, summing up the failure of the NEP and why Malay politics is in such a state, while at the same time not being too condeming or biased. For those of you Bumi or Non Bumi who oh-so-love discussing this issue, you just HAve to read this article -
The Malay Today
by Din Merican
[Reprinted from Malaysia Today Thursday, July 28, 2005. www.malaysia-today.net]
The problem is that most Malays today do not read. Dr. Bakri Musa made this observation in one of his books, Seeing Malaysia My Way. To most Malays, as related by Bakri, anything beyond a simple essay is “too difficult and too long, lah.”
Others note that there are not enough books published in Malay. Or that maybe we Malays want to be spoon-fed.
Poor Excuse
If indeed there is a shortage of reading materials in Malay, then learn English, or any other language of one’s choice. Spend your ownmoney and attend night classes if need be. More truthfully, it is a question of attitude and motivation. The Vietnamese for example, are highly motivated; they work during the day and learn English at night. For ten years (1965-1975), the Americans tried to bomb their country into the Stone Age but failed. Unlike the Vietnamese, we Malays have our NEP and NDP now for over 35 years (1970-2005).
We have our share of exemplary Malays as worthy role models. Sadly most were in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Paradoxically those were difficult times, and those Malays are a vanishing group. They will disappear soon.
What we have today to be the role model for our young are self-serving Malay leaders and the so-called Malay “lingo” nationalists. During the early years of independence, these “lingo” nationalists were in league with ambitious Malay politicians who wanted the Malay Language to be the world’s lingua franca. Malay nationalism was the road to fame and fortune, the consequences be damned.
These “leaders” successfully won the day, with Malay replacig English as the medium of instruction in our schools and universities. Did we have the books, articles and other publications in mathematics and the sciences and other subjects then? No, that would come later, we were assured. We probably thought those things would magically drop off from the sky.
Thus was the national language policy implemented, in earnest without regards to developing the necessary infrastructures and softwares needed to ensure its successful execution. “Dasar dulu dan yang lain semua belakang kira.” (Policy first, all other things can come later)”.
Today we see and bear the consequences of this myopia. We have Malay university graduates who are unemployable, and government officers who are scared to speak at international conferences because they lack the prerequisite English language skills.
Dewan Bahasa and Pustaka was created 40 years ago to accommodate the “lingo” nationalists. Since then it has been on a steady decline. Perversely, while these nationalists were publicly championing our national language, their children are all fluent in English and other languages because they have been educated abroad!
The burden of the national language follies is borne by the poor Malay kids in the kampongs and small towns. Yet these language nationalists are still around today, punching their kerises in the air, and strenously opposing any policy change.
Dewan Bahasa is still active, but preoccupied with doing the same old and outdated things. Vested interests, a feature of all bureaucracies, prevent any meaningful reform or strategic change. I do not deny that we need to develop our language but the vast sums of money invested in this institution were a colossal waste.
A cynic might say that Dewan Bahasa was very successful in fulfilling its mandate, which is to promote the use of Malay in administration and business. That served our domestic needs. But times have changed and in the era of globalisation, it would be a great advantage if Malaysians were fluent in English, Japanese, German, Mandarin, French, and other foreign languages.
Glokal Malays
How can we be “Melayu Glokal” if we lack foregin language skills? If we cannot handle own language, then something must be wrong with us. Of course we can, but what about English, for example?
Our home-grown intellectuals, with few exceptions like Kassim Ahmad, Syed Hussin Ali, Rustam Sani, K.S. Jomo and Terrence Gomez, tend to go along with their political masters. If you watch the television coverage of the recent Umno General Assembly, the guest commentator was an UMNO apologist. He had nothing original or incisive to say. Many others are like him. They shape Malay opinion, advocating a culture of conformism. Hang Jebat goodbye!
Those who dare speak and offer alternative views are marginalized. They are rarely invited to sit on government committees to help shape national policies. Worse, their writings do not appear in the mainstream media which are consumed with self censorship. Or when they are published, the are heavily “edited” beyond recognition. In some cases their books are banned. Fancy banning books and publications in the 21st Century! Even sadder, a few have been imprisoned and suffered police brutality.
Fortunately thanks to the Internet, today we have independent websites like bakrimusa.com, kassimahmad.blogspot.com, malaysia-today.net and malaysiakini.com, to name a few, as well as the many bloggers. They allow us to express our views and discuss our concerns in an open and responsible way.
We will soldier on and get our share of readers. Raja Petra Kamarudin’s Malaysia Today receives some 250,000-300,000 hits daily. Unfortunately, Raja Petra’s house was recently raided by the police because he publsihed articles critical of the Negri Sembilan Royal Family. What is the message here?
I must admit that I do not have time for Malay novelists and writers except for Keris Mas, Tongkat Warrant, Samad Said, Kassim Ahmad and Baha Zain. I have a preference for the classics, biographies and autobiographies of great men of history, philosophical treatises, international relations, and economics. My doing so does not make me less of a Malay. In fact my readings make me very conscious of my “Malayness.”
It is not correct, as one reader put it, we just “simply nag and make noise in our own circles.” You as well others of your generation must write and act, but do so responsibily. To be able to do that, you must first read and and be able to think critically and develop your writing skills.
At my age of 66, I have done more than my share through the years. My contemporaries and I have made it possible for you and your generation to move forward. The question is: Will you and your friends take up the challenge for a better Malaysia and a stronger and more dynamic Malay society?
It is time for action by your generation. By all means, correct our mistakes. Be aware however that even the most well intentioned policies carry their own seeds of destruction, the Law of Unintended Consequences being operative. Politicians and their sycophants choose to ignore this reality. Actually they could not care less of the the consequences, intended or otherwise, of their policies.
Tidies up most things, doesn't it? I for one believe most of it is true - come on - look at our parents' generation - those who were educated through the 50s through to the 70s. Look at them and their peers - They're more liberal ( come to think of it, they were a lot more liberal in the 60s and 70s in certain ways compared to today) and open minded when it comes to issues of race relations and i'm sure most of them won't care much for affirmative action no matter they're Bumi or Non Bumi. It's not just a society level thing - its just that there was actually better overall racial unity before the NEP screwed everything up. There are a lot more relevant thought-provoking articles discussing the "Malay Malaise" at this Blog
Pretty long post, innit? Probably one of my longest not even including the article. Wouldn't it be funny yet strangely appropiate if they got Ahli Fiqir to do a gig at the next UMNO grand assembly? I doubt most of the fatass "teh & kuih" constituents have the mental capacity to comprehend anything faster then one of those murderously slow and boring UMNO adresses. Islam Hadhari and Melayu Glokal? Rubbaysh. Its just like when you see words like 'synergy' or 'paradigm' in a corporate address. Its just codewords for "total,fuckall filler bullshit"
Well better UMNO then PAS. I dunno bout'cha, but i'm not big on never seeing anymore of a woman other than her face in public ever again OR a Final Solution-ish approach to stamping out anything that resembles entertainment - imagine back to back Nasyid videos and religious forums on tv. God even those western-culture bashing friday prayer sermons bake my cookie.
While we're on the subject of the Malay Dilemma, i still have a rant in me about Akademi Fantasia, but since most of you who read this far are probably tired enough from the scrolling alone, so i'll leave a vitriol infused rant about that show dan segala yang sewaktu dengannya for another fine day.
Another quick thought - altough its generally better to be able to see both sides of an argument you're in to get a clearer picture and set everything in perspective, it just sucks when as a result of that you lose conviction in your own points and start thinking way too much into it, no? Especially in those situations where no one is really at fault ( or both parties, for that matter).
Anyhoo, If you're lookin for me, i'll prolly be at 1 U gettin some Leka Leka gelato. MMmmnn lychee and mango gelatooo....
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