Nightwalker's Realm

The long awaited rant Pt1

2005-02-05T14:50:00.000+08:00

While a friend of mine has been ranting on his blog about being a Unemployment Statistic the past month I have been pleasantly vegetating at home. Try as I may I cant seem to get out of this lethargic rut that crept up and bushwhacked me around mid December last year. I’ve got a pile of paperwork to hack thru but luckily nothing is due anytime soon. Business has been kinda slow these days and should continue into the month of February due to the Chinese New Year.

My grand scheme to retire by the time I’m 35 seems to be unrealistic in the current economic scenario no small thanks to that money guzzling sibling of mine. Well, at least she is graduating soon all I have to do is get her thru University which I have promised to do. I would be the first to admit that me and my sister are not the closest of siblings in the world but I’ve always believed that everyone should they be willing be given a fair chance to get an education. The deal we made was I’ll keep paying for her education if she keeps her grades up and much to my chagrin she actually managed to do a respectable job at it. Oh well its only one more year. After that I might actually be able to save up some cash to get some things done for myself. Only time will tell.

DVD’s

My first foray into the realm of DVD burning was a spectacular failure. The four 10 buck DVD writeable discs that I bought turned into a nice stack of beer coasters. At first I thought my over expensive burner was the problem which would indeed suck since I had the thing brought back from Australia. After a lot of cursing and walking about with a thundercloud above my head for a few days I plunked out more moolah for a new batch of blank DVD’s. Luckily they turned out just fine which diminished the size of that thundercloud somewhat. I must have gotten my hands on a bad batch of discs the first time around. Did I mention they cost me 40 bucks? The old me would probably go out and drowned a kitten to lighten the mood. The new me after I discovered Zen meditation only severed the heads off my no good money grubbing sister’s teddy bear. Ermmm…before anyone start flaming me, I was just joking. I have not drowned any kittens in my life. As for decapitating soft toys….

Piracy

Piracy is a problem. Year after year billions are lost to the pirating of movies, music, software you name it. Piracy is a problem. As for WHY it is a problem well, because the government says so, because the bigass billion dollar industries say so, because the media say so and hell even that muppet Bush said so. Personally, I don’t give a rats ass what people say. As a consumer given a choice between original and pirated stuff the only thing going thru my mind at the time would be the pricing. Does that make me a bad person? Heh

There was a forum I came across in cyberspace a long time ago with a thread that went “Every time you masturbate God kills a kitten.” We still haven’t run out of kittens. Now if instead of masturbation, what if God killed a kitten for each time someone saves some money buying pirated stuff cats would have been extinct a long time ago. The moral of the story? People masturbate a whole lot less than they do supporting piracy. If the people bitching about piracy would just wise up to this undeniable fact of modern consumerism and concentrate on lowering the prices of their products things wouldn’t be so bad. Don’t get me wrong I am not saying that this would completely solve the piracy problem but at least consumers would have a better option. Moving on…

SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. plans to severely curtail the ways in which people running pirated copies of its dominant Windows operating system can receive software updates, including security fixes.

The new authentication system, announced Tuesday and due to arrive by midyear, will still allow people with pirated copies of Windows to obtain security fixes, but their options will be limited. The move allows Microsoft to use one of its sharpest weapons — access to security patches that can prevent viruses, worms and other crippling attacks — to thwart a costly and meddlesome piracy problem.

By mid-2005, the program will become mandatory for Windows users to get virtually all updates, including security fixes available through the company's Windows Update Web site. But users who have pirated copies of Windows will be able to continue to get security fixes if they sign up to automatically receive security updates.

Say what you will about Microjunk but they have got the right idea. Not a very ethical idea but then again no one has ever accused them of being so. After decades of spitting out sub standard buggy programs and being bitched about for it by the competition as well as their customers, Microjunk can finally in their view justify it in a manner of speaking. To stop pirates and people using pirated software. Don’t want your operating system going brain dead? Buy Original Microjunk software to get access to online patches and fixes. Don’t want your computer to be wide open like a RM5 ( the price for your pirated software ) whore? Buy ORIGINAL Microjunk software for the downloadable chastity belt.

Come to think of it Microjunk is probably the only company in the world today that can get away with releasing faulty merchandise into the market. Ever had a car blow up on you or refuse to get in gear? Ever had your brand new 42 inch telly display nothing but a BLUE screen? Ever heard of your favorite instant noodle decompose and crap on you before leaving a Do You Wish To Send This Error Report note when you boil it for more than the recommended 3 minutes? No? Ever had your operating system do any of the above? Oh well, why do we care? We are the billion dollar evil empire and you fuggin pirates are causing us billions for our substandard merchandise. In my case I have learned to live with it…its either that or heaven forbid plunk down 500bucks for an operating system.

Think of the Kittens!

Still Alive...

2005-01-13T21:49:00.000+08:00

I’m still alive! It’s been quite awhile since I updated this blog and I’ve been generally out of touch for the better part of this month. Some of my friends from overseas were worried that I might have been swept away by the tsunami that hit our coasts a few weeks ago. Well, I’m happy to announce that I was nowhere near the coast when it happened.

Actually, Malaysia wasn’t that badly hit compared to other areas. We were almost unscathed, limited deaths and destruction but you would get another picture altogether if you were to check out our newspapers and round the clock news broadcasts. Close to 3 weeks since the disaster, those in the media is still harping about it. Tsunami this Tsunami that, hell they might as well claim the freaking Tsunami was caused by Saddam’s alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction. I’m fuqqin sick and tired of hearing about it. It’s a tragedy yes but there is a limit as to how much of that word a person can take. I’ve given up switching on the news and buying papers till this thing blows ( pardon the pun ) over.

Well, it’s the beginning of a new year. No resolutions for me. I’m not the kind of guy who said I’m gonna do this or I’m gonna give that up. Nope, I’m gonna live my life the way I want it….sin and all. A friend of mine said she was giving up chocolate for the year. Yeah right. I sent her a box of swiss chocs with a note going come sin with me Alice. Needless to say the wasn’t amused and proceeded ( pure hearsay from her brother ) to devour the offending chocolates. When I saw her last weekend she shot me a dirty look before buying me a vodka lime. She has now given up on that silly no chocolate notion of hers. So much for resolution…..I’m evil heh.

Piggy on the other hand wanted to give up drinking. Not that she drinks a lot mind you. I’ve told her that if she wanted to give up something she should resolve to stop buying shoes!! She countered with If I’m giving up shoes I’m going to give up sex as well. I wisely shut my mouth at that point. I do love her wit and times like that makes me love her even more. That girl don’t take shit from anyone.

Finally got my hands on a DVD burner for Christmas but I’ve yet to actually put that baby to work. Now that Arion have dropped by to collect the animes that were taking up space on my hard drive I can finally download some new stuff to watch. Currently watching NOIR with piggy and all I can say is….the bloody soundtrack is awesome. The anime itself is so so but it has enough to keep the viewer interested. I’ll upload a sample when I have more time to redo the look for this site. Going to fiddle around with Photoshop some in the coming few days and hopefully get a new picture to put up for the site.

That’s about it for now. Nothing much I can add at the moment as I’m still in the holiday mood. The way things are going I’ll still be relaxing and vegetating until past Valentine’s day. Sometimes I love my life.

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!!

2004-12-24T01:33:00.000+08:00

Short blog to wish everyone that visit here a Merry Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year!! I'm off on vacation see you all in 2005.

DAIsuki....

2004-12-22T02:59:00.000+08:00

Had some free time this evening so I decided to change the layout of the site abit. I was thinking of putting up a whole new skin but I still haven’t found anything that suits me yet. Most of the blogskins out there are shall we say too feminine for my tastes. Having stars and teddy bears jump out at the reader kinda takes the fum out of ranting and raving like a lunatic.

Nothing major changed apart from taking down the bigass Ayu picture and editing the cursor script so that the pictures don’t flip. Ayu appreciation time is over. I’m dedicating the rest of the year to Do As Infinity one of the best Jap bands out there. Check out their song Honjitsu wa seiten nari or Today has blue skies their 16th single. Their latest called Rakuen is up but I haven’t managed to get my hands on it yet.

Do as Infinity is made up of vocalist Van Tomiko, guitarist Ryo Owatari and group founder Dai Nagao the brains behind the group’s sound. It was shortly after the group released It’s 4th single the chart topping Yesterday and Today that Dai Nagao began taking a back seat in the group leaving the spotlight to Van and Ryo. He still composes and produces the band’s music tho.

While not the most popular group in Japan their music does have a huge following of devoted fans. Rakuen debuted at 13 in the Japan top 20 charts and it looks like its going nowhere but up. Van-chan is a tremendous singer. I’d say she is even better than Ayu hands down. Ryo a huge Hendrix fan and it shows this guy is more than proficient with the guitar. Coupled with Dai’s songs I’m putting my money on them being around for quite some time.

Enough gushing for now...time to out and get some supper. Here piggy piggy piggy.

Dai Nagao, Van Tomiko, Ryo Owatari

Yummy Van-chan

Another DAI pic.

Subculture...

2004-12-20T21:43:00.000+08:00

The Definition.

The Oxford dictionary defines Subculture as social group or its culture within a larger culture. It’s normal in this day and age to belong to one or more of these subculture groups. Take for example, the football watching community, the gamers, the anime otakus, the movie buffs, technology enthusiasts…you get the picture. If you find yourself among a group of people who gather frequently to talk about or do topics/things of common interest passionately chances are you have stumbled upon a subculture group.

Arion has often referred me and a few other friends as the gamers and I guess that’s what we are, gamers. But that is not the be all and end all of it. With other groups of friends I am a football fan and we gather every weekend to watch the EPL matches at the local watering hole. Other times I join another group of friends and we talk about music. Jpop and Rock are common topics of discussion.

So, in a nutshell I believe the modern human being is a social creature who has a myriad of interests. As such, he/she who will seek out others of similar interests to spend time with. That in essence is subculture in its purest form.

Not all subculture interests are equal.

Just like you cant passionately love 100 women equally ( I'd love to try tho ), the division of interests should a person belong to more than one subculture group varies. While I may love football and music to a certain extent and have friends who are into both, I have always and will always be a gamer first and foremost.

I began my gaming life at the tender age of 7. I remember way back then I used to spend all my allowance on those 20cent arcade machines with cruddy ( by today’s standards ) graphics and game play. As a kid I was absolutely bowled over by those things.

Then came home entertainment platforms. I think I still have my Atari game console packed away somewhere. Many long hours were spent defending earth from Space Invaders, chomping evil ghosties as Pacman and guiding a bad rendition of a frog across the street.

Next came those Super famicom game consoles and the introduction of Super Mario Bros. Many more afternoons spent in front of the telly jumping from platform to platform and squishing monsters. My childhood was filled with trips to the arcades or having friends over to play Mario Bros.

The next evolution in my gaming life came in my early teens. At that time I was into badminton but gave it up as soon as I got my hands on my own computer. Now this was waaay before Intel and Geforce cards. My very first computer game was none other than Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Koei. That changed my life forever. Sitting back in the comfort of my living room plotting the conquest of ancient China set the stage for my preference for strategy games. I evolved in other ways as well.

Playing every strategy game I could get my hands on I learned about the history of dynastic China, Sengoku period of ancient Japan and was introduced to Napoleon and the Crusades. I guess looking back, my love affair with Japan and Japanese culture started with Japanese games.

There was a brief spell in between computer gaming where I took up collecting comics. Now that’s an expensive hobby. I got my first job as an all purpose helper ( read SLAVE ) at a local restaurant during the school holidays to feed my comic collecting venture. To be honest, I don’t know where most of my comics went over the years but I still have a few I call my treasures. Ghostrider #1, The Punisher limited series, McFarlane’s Spiderman set, Spawn #1 to name a few. Last I check these comics fetch a healthy sum if in mint condition. My love affair with collecting comics didn’t last long as I couldn’t afford it once school started again.

It was at this time when was 13 that I was introduced to RPG’s and the wonders of those soft cuddly creatures called girls. Like most RPG’ers, I started out with Gamebooks which are basicly nothing more than a storybook of sorts with simple rules and gameplay to let you into the shoes of the hero. I graduated from that to Dungeons and Dragons then from there to Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.

It was at this time that I took up novel reading. Mostly fantasy novels set in the forgotten realms. Books which I still read today but I’ve expanded into fiction and classics.

Playing those games were some of the best days of my life. Mix that with the occasional outing with those cuddly creatures called girls and I had a pretty easygoing childhood. My friends and I even formed our own RPG club in school.

My RPG playing days slowed down somewhat when I was 15 or so. This was when I took up Taekwondo ( ITF not the crap you see in the Olympics which is WTF ). It was a truly satisfying experience. I’ll blog about my Taekwondo days some other time.

The first part of my RPG life ended at 17 when I left school. Everyone in the group left to pursue their various journey in life. I landed myself in college and everything was a blur. I was reveling in the freedom and new experiences not to mention a whole new pool of those cuddly creatures called girls. Those days I fondly remember as The Days of Being Young and Stupid. It was one hell of a ride. My gaming days was put on hold for the next 4 years or so.

It was purely by chance that I met the current bunch of gamers. I was a bored recently heartbroken fresh graduate bumming around at a local book store feeling sorry for myself when I overheard a conversation between Arion and the shop owner. Curious, I walked up to this guy and we talked abit. Contact numbers were exchanged and we set a date for the following weekend to have a go at some RPGing. And the rest as they say is history.

Arion introduced me to a whole new level of RPG gaming and the most evil person I know. Mr. Yusuf Carlos aka Mr.Evil recently known as Mr.Hickies. Actually he is kinda lovable in a Psychotic Destructive way.

These new RPG’s are self made with worlds, rules, magic system.....everything. A whole new chapter of my RPG life had started from a chance meeting. And we are still playing these games whenever we meet up every couple of months.

About a year or so after our first meeting the guys came over to my apartment one evening and we went out to this internet café. Yup, another chapter of my illustrious gaming life started. I went back to computer games with a passion. After that it was online multiplayer games. Actually, I started first with Meridian 59 which the other guys didn’t get into. Then it was Everquest and in the future World of Warcraft. Piggy is complaining that she is going to be forgotten once I start that silly game.

To be quite honest she could be right too. Once I sit in front of the computer with one of these games the world outside could end and I wont even bat an eyelid. Addictive. I’ve been lucky so far to have found piggy.....now if only she would play those silly games with me and all would be good in the world.

One thing is certain tho, sooner or later I’m going to be playing World of Warcraft. Resistance is Futile I’m afraid.

Don't you just love those Dimples.

The Encounter with IDIOT...

2004-12-17T01:20:00.000+08:00

Wow! Has it been over a month since I started Blogging? My my my how time flies when you’re doing nothing but B****ing to the entire world. I’ve blogged about animes, the government, movies, computer troubles and even celebrity sex tapes.

Of late I’ve been having a severe case of writer’s block which is one of the reasons why my output has been slacking. When I jumped on the blogging bandwagon I promised myself that I would not force myself to write nor would I turn this into a diary of sorts. I’ve never had a diary and never will. I’m much too erratic a person to put down every single thing that happens to me in written form. I’d much rather talk about my day over coffee or snuggled up in bed with piggy at night and It’s not like I live an interesting life anyway.

A normal day consists of sleep, work ( if any ), diving into cyberspace, dinner with piggy and some private time for myself at the end of the day to relax. Hardly bestseller material so I’ll leave my dreary live out of this for the most part. That being said we go back to square one...my writer’s block.

Sure I can make up fictitious stuff like taking part in an illegal street race last evening or that I picked up this pair of gorgeous girls for a night out in town followed by hot and sweaty post date workout to spice things up but that would be lying to myself wouldn’t it?

If I were to do it no one would be able to separate fact from fiction....I am confident enough in my writing skills to say that but at the end of the day what’s the point? I’m not getting paid to entertain the masses. Sometimes I wish the government would give me something to bitch about. The BN boys just aren’t fun anymore....maybe it’s time to vote in PAS and have a field day slamming those religious extremists.

Speaking of religious extremists, I’ve had a really interesting conversation with IDIOT ( not his real name but comes close enough ) today. Piggy and me were having dinner when IDIOT spotted us and came over to bum a cigarette off me. IDIOT is a single 46 year old man, no job, no house of his own and above all no money but he does have something I don’t....a direct line to the man above.

This is one of those hardcore Christians who believe that GOD will provide for everything. Our conversation went like this

IDIOT: Hey brother long time no see.
Me: Thinking to myself (Oh F**k) Uh….Hi IDIOT.
Piggy: ……
IDIOT: Can you give me a stick? I just ran out.
Me: (Bugger off you’re scaring the flies) Sure.
IDIOT: Thanks man. ^takes a seat^
Piggy: ..... ( Who is this weird guy )

At this point I knew I was doomed but being the nice guy that I am I didn’t throw the bowl of noodles I was eating at him nor did I ( being the atheist that I am ) draw any mystical signs to ward off evil.

IDIOT: Is this your girlfriend?
ME: Yes.....Piggy meet IDIOT.....IDIOT, this is Piggy.
Piggy: Hi (goes back to pretending to be real hungry and the plate of fried noodles in front of her was suddenly extremely captivating)
IDIOT: Praise the Lord! She is pretty. You are really lucky. ( takes a long pull from cigarette.)
Piggy:(Ewww…something just crawled up my spine.)

I can tell Piggy was clearly uncomfortable. She usually grace people who compliment her with the full power of those killer dimples but this time she just looked real hungry.

ME: Ermm…what have you been up to IDIOT? Where are you working.
IDIOT: The lord told me that he is sending over a pastor from America to take me over there to continue God's work.
Piggy: …… ( OMFG! I’ve got a looney sitting next to me )
ME: Yeah right whatever.

I knew I had to get rid of IDIOT before Piggy totally freaks out. If she buried anymore of her face into that plate of fried noodles she is going to ruin her hair.

ME: Say, I bumped into Ray the other day, he is looking for the 100 bucks you owe him.
IDIOT: Tell Ray that I’ll get the money to him soon.
ME: Cool. When?
IDIOT: I am not sure but the lord will provide. When the pastor comes I’ll get the money from him to repay Ray.
Piggy: ...... ( OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! Get me out of here!! )
ME: Uh ok.....say, we are going to make a move now. You say hi to GOD for me the next time you and him talk ok?
IDIOT: Take care.

Me and Piggy got the hell out of there. I had timed the run close to perfection. Piggy had just finished her noodles and was on the verge of bolting with or without me and IDIOT still has 2 drags left on the cigarette he took from me which meant that any later and I would have found myself another stick short.

When we got to the car Piggy was half screaming at me.

Piggy:Who the hell was that guy!?!
ME:Oh IDIOT? He is Jason’s eldest brother. They don’t like to speak about him so let’s just leave it at that.
Piggy: The things he says. Crazy!
ME: How did you know? The looney bin is like club med to him. Been in and out of there 18 times from what Jason tells me.
Piggy: You’re f***ing with me. ( She really said that btw. A habit she got during her Uni days. )
ME: Nope. Some girl broke his heart a long time ago and he went nuts. Got sent into the looney bin for extreme depression. One day, a church group went to the asylum to visit the inmates…err…patients…that’s when he discovered religion. Long story short he recovered and got sponsored to go to Canada for religious studies but flunked out.
Piggy: You’re lying. How do you flunk out of something like that?
ME: Well a little thing called grass had something to do with it.
Piggy: Oh.
ME: Anyway, when he got back he was saying all sorts of weird things and his parents admitted him to the looney bin again. He has been in and out of the place for the past 10 years or so. Each time something goes wrong or when his parents pressure him to get a job or do something with his life he checks himself in.
Piggy: You’re f***ing with me. ( Yup she said that again. She tends to get that way when she is agitated. )
ME: Nope ask Jason next time you see em. That’s some piece of work over there. Delusional and Lazy. Killer combi.
Piggy: ......next time you tell him to bugger off or I will.
ME: nods.

Now I swear the above story really happened. I might have changed the narration of the scene abit but it really did happen. IDIOT is a loser. Probably the biggest loser I know. What’s worse is, he is absolutely convinced the Lord would provide and he need not do anything with his life. And people wonder why I have no truck with religion.

Sunday....

2004-12-13T16:34:00.000+08:00

Piggy was feeling stressed out from work so I decided to cheer her up by pampering her like the little princess that she is. The day began at 8am for me which amazed her. I usually sleep in pass noon on Sundays. She went “Why are you doing up? Quit bothering me and let me sleep asshole” before snuggling back deeper into the blankets.

Now it has got to be said that men when motivated would move mountains for the ones they love so what’s a few hours less sleep....I really didn’t need to be called an asshole for that. Grumbling to myself I went into the bathroom to pay my respects to the gods and shower. She had a few other choice words for me when I tried waking her up again after I was dressed with bloody idiot being the mildest of them. The promise of food got her attention tho. Food always got her attention, hence the nickname piggy.

It was close to 10am when we reached her favorite dim sum place. We were fortunate that there was a table available. It’s usually extremely hard to get places on Sundays. We talked about what to do over breakfast but she was leaning towards back to bed after food. It’s amazing how she keeps her figure. I have a few theories but I’ll keep it to myself. She makes it a point to check my blog every now and then to see what kind of stuff I put in here.

Anyway, I told her that today was her day and I’m going to spend it pampering her. She gave me a skeptical look which said “You just want to get into my pants” Okay, maybe I deserved that but getting into her pants was the last thing on my mind at that particular moment....that would come later <>.

Told her we were going over to the club spa to help her unwind. That got her interested but she was still a little skeptical. Undaunted I went on describing the stuff I had planned out. I suggested a little frolicking in the pool, an hour long massage to work out the stress before visiting the sauna. The skeptical arched eyebrow look was replaced with the dimpled smile look which meant "You did good, slave".

It was close to 2pm when we were done. The massage did wonders for the both of us and the sauna was amazing. The frolicking in the pool I must admit was purely for my benefit. My piggy looks damn hot in that red 2 piece itsy bitsy bikini of hers. It was good to see her finally relax. Work had been hell for her these past two weeks.

We had some snacks in place of lunch at the club with piggy wolfing down the majority of my club sandwich. I began to start wondering again where she keeps the stuff she puts in. Then she wanted to shoot some pool and have a cold beer to wash down the food so we did just that. I reminded her that it was her day which brought another one of her patented dimpled smiles. I even let her win a few games.

We left the club at 4pm. The sky looked like it was going to rain but I told her our day was not done. Next stop the beautician for a facial and manicure. She was squealing with delight in the car. I'll leave out all the appreciative mushy stuff she did on the way there coz a.) It's private and b.) If it got out I'd prolly have my driving license revoked.

We went to her friend Jo’s place. I dutifully sat there reading the Sunday papers while the both of them gossiped and did girly stuff smiling occasionally at some of the things they talked about. All in all it was turning out to be a great day and she has loving it. Just don’t get too used to it Piggy…..it’s reserved for special days like this one.

An hour or so later we were back in the car. Piggy gave me a big kiss and hug to show her appreciation but I had more planned I informed her. The next stop I was dreading since I have sworn never to go to Jusco during the weekends. Oh well, If I was gonna move mountains lets not stop halfway. My mood has darkened somewhat looking for a place to park but I spared her from too much bitching about damn sheeps. After all it was her day.

As expected she wanted to check out the shoe shops. It was fine by me I said. That cheeky girl put a hand on my forehead to check my temperature going “Are you sure you’re ok?” I guess she must have thought little green men came during the night and replaced the real me with a clone or something.

We walked around window shopping a little before dropping by Black Canyon. To her credit she only bought 1 pair of shoes which made it her 5th pair in 2 months but hey I aint complaining. Times like these even an atheist like me look up to the heavens and give thanks that there arent any Jimmy Choo's outlets around. That being said, I insist on going on record that I am not in any way or form complaining about the obscene amount of footwear she buys. I on the other hand took the opportunity to stock up on toiletries.

We had some snacks and coffee at Black Canyon where piggy showed her appreciation with a lot of cuddling. The family sitting on the next table didn’t approve tho but screw them we were having too much fun. That’s the problem with Malaysians, public showing of affection is still a taboo of sorts.

After dropping off our purchases in the car we went to catch a movie next. I wanted to watch Alexander but Piggy insisted on watching The Polar Express. She reminded me in that little girl voice she uses when she wants something that I said it was her day. Sigh...Polar Express it was. We had 15 minutes to kill before the movie starts. I wanted to go for a last minute smoke before the movie she, on the other hand had other plans. She dragged me all the way down to the supermarket with a mischievous gleam in her eyes.

I knew what she wanted even before she planted me in front of the frozen foods section. Haagen Daaz ice cream. I had introduced her to the art of smuggling ice cream into cinema halls on our second date. Now I have to physically restrain her whenever we go to the movies from lugging a tub into the cinema.

“I want that” the mistress pointed with a newly manicured fingertip and the dutiful slave ( sometime beast of burden ) obediently picked out the Chocolate flavored tub of ice cream and proceeded to reach behind for his wallet. The check out line was horrible and by the time we got into the cinema the ads were already showing.

What can I say about The Polar Express. Not my cup of tea. The animation was superbly done and it was fun guessing how many characters were Tom Hanks but overall it wasn’t Nemo and it sure as hell doesn’t come even close to The Incredibles. A Clichéd Christmas movie that has been done to death. But hey, I’ve got ice cream and someone to snuggle up to…the world ain’t half bad.

We were so stuffed after the movie that we decided to skip anymore food for the day. We did however pack some supper for our parents. While we were at her place she took the liberty to pack some clothes for work the next day. We got back to my place and it was close to 11 by the time we took our showers and settled down. I got a nice surprise when she came out of the shower….she was in that extremely kawaii jammies that I loved. Gonna end it here or I’m really gonna get in trouble with the princess.

Cool eh?

Cyber Terrorism and Unwanted Bugs...

2004-12-12T03:51:00.000+08:00

My dear Jessie went out on an errand for me and came back with all manner of diseases. I guess I’m the one who should be blamed for sending her out into cyberspace without adequate protection. Things are getting extremely bad as more and more people are resorting to browser hijacking, secretly downloading tracking cookies and other spywares onto your poor helpless computer.

Jessie is what I call my comp if anyone is wondering. Yeah right laugh….I know people who name their pet rocks so why not a computer. Piggie has mentioned that I treat my Jessie better than her on a number of occasions but I guess that cant be helped. Jessie has never said “Bugger off I’m having my period” in all the time I’ve had her.

Anywayz, I had to reformat my C drive the other day, a task that took the better part of a day by the time I got thru with her, Jessie was purring sweetly once again. First I had to back up the files I had on my C drive. A task easier said than done cause whatever germs Jessie brought back crashed Norton and knocks out both keyboard and mouse capabilities. After a bit of begging and generous bribe in the form of my treasured Haagen Daaz French Vanilla ice cream I had stashed for footie night, Piggie loaned me the use of her hard drive to back up the stuff I had on my C partition. That being done the operation can commence.

An hour later the reformatting and installation of Windows was complete. Now for the really fun part. I had sworn to take the fight to the fucktards who litter cyberspace with all manner of malicious spyware, viruses and unwanted ads by arming my sweet innocent Jessie with an arsenal of tools. 3 spyware cleaners, 2 popup mashers, Norton and 3 registry cleaners later Jessie’s purr had a distinct dangerous edge to it but something was still missing.

I had debated the idea of a firewall for quite some time and after the last incident where Jessie came home violated and abused, I finally broke down and installed Zone Alarm Pro to her growing defensive arsenal. My baby has a proper chastity belt now. I can finally get rid of the bloody useless tissue paper firewall that comes with WindowsXP. If Mr.Gates calls that useless thing protection, it’s a wonder he doesn’t have a horde illegitimate children.

Everything was coming along just fine at this stage of the operation. Next thing to do was tweak Jessie to give her more bite. A quick hop into cyberspace got me what I needed in the form of TuneUP Utilities 2004. Jessie’s virgin voyage was not without peril as she was assaulted almost immediately by spyware and other nasty stuff. I beamed with pride as my baby laid the smackdown on these unwanted gropers. Things was going according to my gameplan.

TuneUP Utilities is a wonderful little program that lets you tweak and modify your computer settings to suite your needs. It’s extremely user friendly too.

First off on the agenda was tweaking the performance of Windows. You won’t believe the amount of useless crap that comes with a Microsoft product. All the swanky stuff to make each new version of windows more aesthetic slows down the performance of your computer by equal amounts. Of course they don’t tell you that during product launch but you can get by without all the useless background processes and visual themes that comes with a default windows setting.

Once that was out of the way it was time to Optimize memory usage. Another thing those chaps at Microsoft don’t want you to know about. Windows is obscenely memory intensive. A standard installation of Windows comes with a bucketload of background processes and shadow programs that once you install other programs onto your computer the poor dear is already swamped by a bigass headache brought on by the unnecessary workload.

Things were looking absolutely peachy at this stage. Now to do something about the registry setting. I fiddled with the registry a bit before taking it apart and rebuilding it from scratch. Most windows users don’t even know a thing about the registry which is why most machines severely slows down or crash after a few months of intensive usage. Every time a program is installed or uninstalled it messes with the registry. Other stuff like surfing the net, downloading stuff etc. messes with the registry to a certain extent. Spyware, viruses etc. messes with your registry settings which is why it is at times futile to just scan and delete the stuff. It is not uncommon to find some registries with over a thousand entries 90% of which are useless.

Next it was time to tweak the internet settings. Windows default internet settings just isn’t optimal. A few clicks later I was getting a substantial increase in download and surfing speed. I average about 90 to 100Kpbs now with my crappy soon to be upgraded DSL line. A far cry from the 45kbps or so I used to get.

The operation was almost complete now. One final check thru the system revealed a nasty secret Jessie has been keeping from me. She lied to me about her age! About 8 months ago I upgraded my processor from a P4 1.8 to 2.4Ghz at the local comp chop shop. Right Clicking on MY Computer and selecting Properties showed it was running on 2.4Ghz. I didn’t find out that Jessie was still running on the old speed of 1.8Ghz until I checked the bios settings. I guess it was partly my fault. I should have gotten off my lazy arse and do a complete check when I had the new processor installed. A few clicks and a reboot fixed that.

The operation was a complete success with the installation of the programs I wanted to put in. Now Jessie is a lean mean sexy machine. Then Mr. Evil told me about Geforce 6. Sigh…more stuff to upgrade but that is a story for another time. At the moment Jessie and me are happy.

Oh yeah, I'm gonna rebuild this site too once I have the time.

Down with the Evil Empire

Sex Lies and Internet

2004-12-09T01:27:00.000+08:00

My friend Rose just bought a vidcam for her husband for Christmas. At the local watering hole when she showed us the thing Piggy broke out in peals of laughter before saying that she would be looking forward to their bedroom antics on the internet before Chinese New Year. This spark off an evening of celebrity SEX TAPE discussion fueled by beer and Jack Daniels.

Questions like why these famous people seem to have a penchant for taping these private moments dominated the lively discussion and I am surprised to see even the usually quiet backbenchers of our little group joining in. There’s something about the word SEX that gets people’s attention I guess. What’s even more surprising are the ( at first reluctant ) confessions of a few seemingly straight laced ladies who admitted to scouring the net to look for these leaked home videos or prefame nudie modeling jobs. Everyone is a closet voyeur I guess.

Piggy whose a real dirty little peeg dominated the discussion with gusto marveling the table with her seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of celebrity porn which I might add I had no small contribution to her education. I’ve never seen her have so much fun as gossiped animatedly on the topic. Maybe the 2 tequila sunrise and 4 JD cokes had something to do with it.

Pamela Anderson

The former Playboy darling and Baywatch babe had not one but two leaked tapes to her credit. Miss Anderson could also be credited for starting the whole leaked tape/internet download craze. I remember one of my first forays into cyberspace was to look for Pammy Anderson pictures as a teen a long long time ago. You can say that I lost my net-virginity to her LOL!

Getting back in topic. The first leaked tape surfaced a few years ago taken on her honeymoon with then husband Motley Crew’s Tommy Lee and believe it or not it can still be easily found everywhere on the net.

The second tape features Pammy with Brett Michaels the lead singer of Poison. Both tapes are quite long but the quality varies. I guess Pammy really likes her rock stars. People are just waiting for a tape of her and current beau Kid Rock to leak.

Mimi Macpherson

The little sister of supermodel Elle “the body” Macpherson on her honeymoon. Her name is Mimi McPherson and before she became a big Australian Television star, and even before she started her world famous whale watching business in Australia, she was a naughty, naughty little girl.

Geri Halliwell
Got spice? It’s no secret that saucy Ginger Spice did nudie modeling jobs before she became famous but recently the tape of the shoot was released on the net. Nothing much to look at tho as the picture quality is kinda bad.

Gina Lee Nolin

Another former Baywatch babe who wasn’t careful. Bad picture quality by today’s standards.

Christina Arguilera

There was a purported tape of her bonking some guy a few years ago but nothing can be confirmed coz you cant see her face on that vid. Not to be outdone by her predecessors Xtina as she likes to be called did a real raunchy shoot for MTV this year. Dressed in mostly thongs and little else she shows off her ahem assets. I haven’t managed to track down the vid yet but the net is full of vidcaps from the shoot.

Damn this is turning into something that looks like it belongs in a porn site so I’ll just wrap it up soon. But anything on this topic wont be complete if I fail to mention a few of the biggest slip ups of this year that scored millions of search queries on both yahoo and google.

Cameron Diaz

A prefame S&M modeling shoot featuring angelic Cameron. I’ve always liked her….she has this wild and fun side to her. It doesn’t get any wilder than this.

Paris Hilton

Probably the biggest scandal in recent times. The star of Ordinary Lives and hotel heiress shocked the world when news of this vid was released. The net was filled with sites springing up like mushrooms trying to make a quick buck of it. A 3 minute tape was realeased at first then the whole 37 min tape got out about a month or so later. It is reported that some people made millions from it. The resulting lawsuits and countersuits costs about that much too heh. There is another tape making its rounds on the net it seems of her and Backstreet Boy Nick Carter. Well time to dive into cyberspace I guess. Not expecting much tho…I’ve seen dead fishes make more noise than Miss Hilton.

Janet Jackson

If you don’t know about this superbowl oops thing you must have been living on the moon. Changed the face of live television too I might add. Now every ‘live’ event is delayed 5 seconds or so to avoid these kind of national exposure so to say.

Allison Williams

Little know small town tv reporter but what made the headlines was she did it in the TV Van of all places. Talk about asking for it.
Jenna Lewis

If you don’t win a million bucks on survivor lets try the internet. Survivor castaway Jenna released this sex romp of her and her new hubby on the net in hopes of making it a hit ala Paris Hilton. Charging USD49.99 for the thing. I have my suspicions it didn’t rake in that much money tho but more on that later.

Joanie Laurer AKA Chyna

First it was a Playboy shoot for this former WWE female champ. I didn’t go near them. Now it’s a sex tape….wont get me near it either. If I wanted to see apes I would turn on the discovery channel. Nuff said

Carrie Tucker

Miss New York 2000 sigh don’t these people ever learn? Make a tape sooner or later its gonna end up on the net.

Severina Vuckovic

Severina Vuckovic is a top Croation pop star, who used to be the icon of righteous and religious modesty. However, on June 1, 2004 she become the hottest news in the former Yugoslav republic, when pictures of her making love to an unidentified dark-haired man surfaced on the internet. Then came the 11min video. She might not be well known outside her native country but she is by far the hottest of the lot. Arion’s quote “Damn she was enthusiastic”

There is lots more out there and move cropping up every year. The whole reason for this blog is well coz I can and I thought it would be a nice topic. Here are my thoughts on the dissemination of these stuff on the net.

There is a variety of ways such private tapes get circulated. The most common two causes being “damn I lost it” and the ex-boyfriend scenario. Guys are egotistical and sometimes when you mix that with booze you let things slip. It’s not too unbelievable to assume that after a drunken binge with the guys you pop in a tape/CD of you and that girl you dated who just happens to be famous. Then you get friends asking you for a copy of the tape or heck they just snitch if from your place or make copies while you are sleeping off the booze. Here comes the fun part.

Your drinking buddies show off the tape to some other friends who begs/buys a copy. These guys in return show it to other people or brag about it on the net. That starts the rumors. People start taking notice on the IRC channels, PM’s, Emails, Web Forums which in turn spawns an obscene number of word-hits on the internet search engines.

The next part gets better. Somewhere down the line these people actively searching for the tape gets hold of it and spreads it around. Usually starts off in IRC I would venture. The snowball is set rolling down the mountain. About a week or so after that drinking session with your buds you find that the ego boost tape you showed is distributed widely on the internet. Some porn sites gets hold of it and adds it to their collection of celeb nudity, some NEW websites sprout up to make a quick buck off your boo boo, the file is transferred on IRC, Kazaa, Bit Torrent you name it. Pretty soon anyone who is moderately skilled with the use of the internet could find it. And if that is not a sign that the world is truly and utterly connected I don’t know what is.

Wrong to Love?

2004-12-03T06:29:00.000+08:00

Methodist Jury Convicts Lesbian Minister

By RICHARD N. OSTLING, AP Religion Writer

PUGHTOWN, Pa. - A jury made up of United Methodist Church clergy convicted a lesbian minister Thursday of violating church law by openly living with her partner in a committed relationship.

The Rev. Irene Elizabeth Stroud could be defrocked as a result of the ruling, which came on the second day of her church trial. The same 13-member jury was set to meet Thursday afternoon to decide her penalty.

Methodist law bars "self-avowed, practicing homosexuals" from ministry. Nine votes were necessary for a conviction and the jury voted 12-1 to find Stroud guilty.

The last time the 8.3 million-member denomination convicted an openly gay cleric was in 1987, when a New Hampshire church court defrocked the Rev. Rose Mary Denman.

Last March, a Methodist court in Washington state acquitted the Rev. Karen Dammann, who lives with a same-sex partner, citing an ambiguity in church law that the Methodist supreme court has since eliminated.

Before the jury returned, Stroud, 34, told reporters that whatever the verdict, "this case has shown how divided we are" over the role of gays in the church. She had expected to be convicted.

Stroud, associate pastor at Philadelphia's First United Methodist Church of Germantown, set the case in motion last year when she announced to her bishop and congregation that she was living in a committed relationship with her partner, Chris Paige.

At her trial, Stroud's defense was dealt a blow when the presiding judge Joseph Yeakel, the retired bishop of Washington, D.C., excluded expert testimony from six defense witnesses who believe the church's gay clergy ban violates its own legal principles.

The senior pastor of Stroud's church, the Rev. Alfred Day III, attempted to raise a similar issue when he took the stand, saying "I believe that even the testimony of Scripture is far from clear on this subject."

"We have more muddle than clarity," he said. But the prosecuting attorney, the Rev. Thomas Hall of Exton, Pa., asked Yeakel to strike Day's statement and the judge instructed the jury that "constitutional issues are not before this court."

Stroud's defense counsel, the Rev. J. Dennis Williams, said in closing arguments that "the heart of the issue is whether all United Methodists, regardless of status, are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities."

"I only wish you could hear the full testimony we wished to present," Williams said.
But Hall told jurors they had a duty to "hold a good pastor accountable to the standard with which we all live" under the Methodist Book of Discipline.

The basic facts in the case were never in dispute, since Stroud had declared she was gay.

The only two defense witnesses to be called were Day and the senior pastor who supervised her in Westchester, Pa. Both lavishly praised her performance in preaching, teaching and pastoral work. Hall agreed with that assessment.

Stroud's supportive Philadelphia congregation has already agreed that she can continue doing her work as a lay employee without clergy status. However, she will be unable to celebrate baptism or Communion.

It's so sad that in this day and age to see something like this happening. Such narrow ways of thinking is one of the major reasons why I don't bind myself to any religion. What is so wrong about loving someone and being loved in return? Just because they are of the same sex does not mean that they should not find happiness.

The whole problem I think is the archaic notion that SEX is a bad and dirty thing that should only be practiced by married couples to produce offspring. Any pleasure derived from the act is considered sinful in some circles and doubly sinful if said act is carried out with the member of the same sex.

I am a straight healthy male and some of the nicest people I know are gay. Not my cup of tea but hey I've always believed in the freedom of choice. Unforturnately society is still living in the stone age for the most part. People who do not conform to social norms are frowned upon....in some places being gay is tantamount to asking for a death sentance. Such a sad state of affairs much of it brought on by religion or what I would like to call "mortal interpretation of God's will." God, if there is a god should be a little more proactive with the lightning bolts don't you think? After all we are mortal and bound by mortal fallacies in interpretationg what really is God's will ( some people swear it's burgers and fries every Wednesday night ).

Speaking in general terms it's fine but with the story above I cant help but notice the fact that the lady knew what she was getting into. She knew the law and she went ahead and broke it thus the end result. Now, this is where things get a little murky. The lady could have easily quit the church and saved herself the heartache of being tried in court for the simple crime of being in love. Now if she were to do that and denounce her god in the name of love what kind of message does that send? So she stuck in there and got punished for it. Like I said murky.

Overall there is no perfect solution to the matter until people make a concious effort to change. I havent asked this from anyone reading this site yet but I would like comments on this. Please feel free to leave your opinions but please let's make it constructive opinions.

Ayu Appreciation Week...

2004-12-02T03:08:00.000+08:00

Going to dedicate this entire week to one of the best entertainers Japan has to offer the Divine Ayumi Hamasaki. Me and Piggy just finished watching Ayu’s ARENA TOUR 2003-2004 ended at Yoyogi stadium in Tokyo on April 25, 2004 to a crowd of 12,000 screaming fans.

The tour consisted of 31 sold out concerts in twelve Japanese cities playing to an estimated total of 230,000 people. What’s more impressive it’s she does it every year! Plans are already under way for her 2005 concerts and judging from the number of advance bookings already made, it’s going to be another huge success for the petite singer/songwriter.

The highlight of the concert ( at least for me ) was the really heartfelt and tearful rendition of Memorial Address. It’s a really sad song about love and loss…can’t help wondering who she based this song on. Even Piggy was impressed at the end of the 2 hour show and she doesn’t even like Jap songs all that much. One small step at a time…sooner or later I’ll have her brainwashed. Gonna hit the sack now.

Memorial Address English Translation

I remember I went to sleep late that night feeling uneasy
And had a very sad dream
The phone started to ring in the morning, breaking the silence
And the premonition became a reality
Leaving an unfading scar on my heart
You became a star by yourself

*Sayonara --- You have gone to the place where we can never meet again
I can't accept the coldness of the eternal parting
I wish I could have heard from you
That I had certainly been loved by you
Only once, even if it had been a lie

The sorrow I had thought to be endless came to an end
The season has changed, I feel bitterly cold
I will never forget that first day of summer
The sky kept on weeping instead of me this year
I feel as if I were living in the continuation of the dream
And I can't even cry now

Sayonara --- Even my last words don't reach you
I'm made to realize the coldness of the parting
I wish I could have heard from you
That you never regretted the days we had spent together
Only once, even if it had been a lie

Why did you do it this way
Leaving memories only to the very end?

(*) repeat

Please tell me this is only the story of the continuing dream
And that I'm not yet awake

For more info on Ayu go here: http://www.ayumi-hamasaki.org/bio/

Ayu on the Cover of Time Magazine Asia

On being Drunk and Monsters...

2004-11-30T01:34:00.000+08:00

The Bonkura ketsu award of the day goes to Arion for that little stunt with the beer and his battered deathtrap. Don’t do it again dude. I posted a lengthy comment on your blog but it got arfed. That was a really dumbassed thing you did. I don’t have all that many intelligent friends to lose that way. Next time just sleep it off in the car,it’s not like you have work on Saturday or anything. You know you cant hold your booze dude….getting pissed on a few mugs of beer is not unheard of but that’s not drinking.

Enough ranting for now. The last two entries I made here was extremely angry as piggy so eloquently put it. Maybe she is right…I do get grumpy when I’m not getting any. If my last two blogs sounded a bit harsh I blame my girlfriend. Well she should be back by Wednesday evening so I’ll see what I can do to remedy the situation. Maybe I’ll change the skin of this site to stars and cute birdies in bright pink.

I’ve been raving about Monster to anyone who would listen for a couple of weeks now. This anime series is slated for 78 episodes. I’ve finally managed to get up to date with the release at episode 31. It’s got me totally hooked and things are just getting interesting. The whole show I was raving about for two weeks was merely running on second gear for 30 episodes…that’s just how good this series is.

When I first found out how long this anime was going to be I was prepared for mindless filler episodes like other animes of this length. The fillers are there but storywise it’s woven and paced so well you won’t even notice it. Naoki Urasawa is one hell of a storyteller. I’m hard pressed to come up with a comparison that even comes close to its sheer brilliance in pacing and story. Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien comes to mind but even that superb dramanime series is a pale shadow compared to Urosawa's masterpiece. I'm downloading his other manga 20th Century Boys now. Judging from what I have seen of his work so far it's going to be another stunner.

There is no cheap big boobed fan service, no spectacularly choreographed fight scenes, no catgirls, no super powers, no mushy love dilemmas, no laugh out loud comedy, no hype, no pretense just a neurosurgeon running around germany on the heels of what could be the incarnation of ultimate evil.

Like a good novel, the story begins quietly with our protagonist Dr. Tenma facing a poignant moral dilemma regarding the relative worth of human lives. Right from the start Urasawa messes with your head through Tenma. In putting the viewer in Tenma’s shoes as he is makes the decision that ultimately triggers an unavoidable disastrous chain of events, the viewer connects with what drives Tenma. The story gets into your head while at the same time you get into the main character’s.

This is a thinking man’s anime. It pulls no punches as it delves into the human psyche in its quest to answer a very simple yet pertinent question…the existence of Absolute Evil, and whether any human being truly deserves to die. If all men are born equal, then what drives some people to commit acts of barbarism against their fellow men? Could people be born naturally evil? Monster addresses all of these and then some. Certainly not for the casual viewer.

To sum it up Monster is an intelligent tour de force no matter what medium/genre the used to deliver its story. Get ready to have your mind and emotions messed with, Monster is in a class of it's own.

Artist impression of Arion last Friday nite.

The Final Frontier

2004-11-28T04:21:00.000+08:00

The Hari Raya holidays are over and it’s good to see that our esteemed leaders back at work after a long rest. And boy did they get back to work alright. The big boys in Parliament wasted no time in giving me plenty to write about. The holidays are over and stupidity is back....with a Vengence.

First it was the crusade against smoking now it’s space tourism. Bristol Spaceplanes Limited has approached the Malaysian government with a proposal ( which would most likely turn into a joint venture ) to build and operate a spaceport in our sunny nation. In order to fully comprehend the absurdity of such a move, a little background into the way our nation works when cutting edge technology is concerned needs to be mentioned.

Up Up and Away?

Mention the word Air Force and without doubt The Red Baron and Tom Cruise as the charismatic Maverick in Top Gun comes to mind. Well you can forget all about that when our own flyboys are concerned. Instead of Top Gun it would be more like Pray the Bloody Gun works. Malaysia has so many RMAF planes and helicopters dropping out of the sky its not even funny. Scarcely a year goes by without news of planes crashing in padi fields and the like. This year alone, more than half a dozen separate incidents have been reported and quickly forgotten. Now they want to sell tickets into space. The audacity of such a move is stunning.

Lets move on from the Air Force to the Navy shall we? A person I know who works intimately with the Malaysian Navy once told me (quote) “If we ever get invaded by sea were screwed”. At first I was skeptical considering the fact that our military gets new toys every couple of years to play with; surely we would win against Singapore our closest neighbor should a threat from sea arise. His explanation was, most of our ships aren’t even seaworthy much less fight a war. I was told that military spec special ship wiring is replaced with conventional wiring akin to the ones you use in your house when things needed fixing. Saving costs was the reason given. If such sad state sad of affairs is really being carried out no wonder were screwed if we ever get invaded.

Moreover, this friend added, the IFF ( Identify Friend or Foe ) System does not work. Add that to the antique shells that our guns fire and it really paints a pretty bleak picture. After hearing that I remember wondering out loud what would happen if we got invaded over land by bicycles in this day and age. The Japs took less than 10 days to overrun most of Peninsula Malaysia during WW2 and in two months had firm control of the place.

The main problem is maintenance…we simple do not have enough skilled personnel who fully understand how to operate much less fix these toys the military waste our taxpayers money on. Take for example the millions of ringgit spent to send over a hundred people to a developed nation in Europe as part of a technology exchange program between our two nations. Less than a handful of those people sent there actually learnt anything. Most took it as a paid holiday to Europe for a year and a half, came back with blank looks on their faces when asked what they learnt and relegated to clerical duties. Money well spent there.

I can go on and on about the selection process which picked these unsuitable, ill educated individuals who were sent based solely on the merit of the color of their skin and race. This is a major problem in Malaysia. Meritocracy is next to non existent when government money is concerned. All that matters is your race. In my opinion the rampant spoon feeding and cronyism is one of the biggest stumbling blocks in making Malaysia a truly great nation.

Oh yes, its out of context but since we are talking about the navy, the government earlier this year offered incentives in the form of paid holidays and other goodies to overweight navy men as motivation for them to lose weight. I think we are the first nation in the world to actually BRIBE our armed forces personnel to get in shape! I had the chance to get into one of these bases to see for myself just how fat some of these guys are and I was suitably impressed by the sheer “magnitude” of the problem. Call the armed forces whatever you like but at least they are very very well fed.

Getting back to the space program. Malaysia will be the first Asian nation to operate a space tourism centre by 2010. The facility will be based in my very own hometown of Ipoh, Perak no less. The project will cost an estimated Rm480 million aims to promote space tourism in Malaysia. For a measly sum of Rm70k this facility will make it possible for the public to take a 90minute trip to outer space and back. That’s roughly 777 bucks a minute which I’m sure will be a big hit when the average citizen earns between Rm800 to Rm1500 a month. Maybe they’ll give discounts and special rates to the dominant race like they do housing and bank loans.

In a nutshell we are a nation with various technological achievements that we could be proud of and ashamed of in equal proportions. We are proud of the new fighter jets we ordered from the west, we are proud of the helicopters we bought from the west, we are proud of the submarines that we are going to buy as part of a deal that gives our national airline extra landing rights in France, we are damned proud of those little deathtraps our national carmakers churn out and now we can be extremely proud to be the first ASIAN country to have its very own spaceport. Lots of things to be proud of but where the hell are the skilled workers to go with it?

Judging from the way things are done around here a new company will be set up with government endorsement and funding to select suitable candidates ( Hah ) which will be sent for training. Many millions of ringgit will be poured into the training fund and most likely the returns will be a handful of skilled workers at the end of the day and an absurd amount of clerical staff. As the saying goes....Experience is what allows us to repeat our mistakes, only with more finesse!

So, given our air force's outstanding record at ineptness in keeping things up in the sky does anyone really feel like getting launched into space locally? I'm sure the lads at Bristol Spaceplanes know what they are doing...its just the local guys that worries me.

That's the way we do it

The Poison Stick Rant

2004-11-26T02:58:00.000+08:00

I am a smoker. It’s an addiction I make no bones about it nor do I get on my high horse and say that I can quit whenever I like. I smoke plain and simple. It’s a choice I made. Is it bad for my health? Sure it is. I do not encourage people to start smoking. It’s their individual choice as I have made mine. Like alcohol, as long as someone is at the age to legally purchase cigarettes it’s cool by me. Cigarettes kill plain and simple then again if you've got to go so would a flower pot falling on your head while you’re walking to get bread from the local 7-11. If you’re number is up it’s up.

I’ve been joking lately the Malaysian Government is making it harder for me to kill myself. A year ago it was raised Rm0.60 cents. A few months ago when the yearly budget was announced they raised the duty for cigarettes and alcohol yet again. The price of a pack of smokes raised Rm1.10 to Rm6.50 a pack. They have also passed a law that within a year only large packs of cigarettes would be sold. Yup, say goodbye to those 10 stick packs, 14 stick packs etc. All this is in conjunction with Malaysia’s crusade against the social evils of smoking and drinking. In other words those muppets I never bothered voting for just declared jihad on my social life.

What’s next you might ask? BAN the Wonderbra? Somehow if that happens I wouldn’t bat an eye. There were people in Parliament talking about BANNING Barbie dolls a couple of years ago. It seems that Miss Barbie, the darling of young girls everywhere was ermm...shall we say too well endowed for our impressionable children. Another point raised was Barbie was usually clad in revealing costumes ( gasp! that Slut )thus would be a bad role model for our young girls. Our children should have better role models. Okay...look out Barbie here comes Dumbie clad from head to toe in a tent with eye slits which comes in a remarkable 8 different shades of black. I kid you not there was actually talk of a doll that looks like that. But I digress, lets get back to the cigarette rant...

As I was saying, the Malaysian government has declared war on smokers.

PUTRAJAYA: Smoking will be banned in all workplaces in a move to provide a clean and healthy environment for workers.
This move, which is an extension to several existing no-smoking areas, will be included under a new regulation on indoor air quality which will be in place in six months.

The regulation will stipulate what constitutes indoor air quality in office buildings and is aimed at clamping down on smoking in the workplace.
Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr Fong Chan Onn said there was a general provision now under the Occupational Safety and Health Act that required employers to maintain air quality.

“However, it does not state what constitutes good air quality and what kind of standards we should have.

“Following our decision to study the possibility of making smoking an occupational safety and health issue, I have asked the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) to come up with guidelines.

“We want to ensure that workers are not only free from cigarette smoke but also from hazardous chemicals in gum and glue,” he told reporters after the weekly Cabinet meeting here yesterday.

The decision to make smoking an OSH issue came about after Dr Fong’s visit last month to Ireland, where smoking in the office is banned.

“Such a ban is also now being looked at by countries like Canada and Britain,” Dr Fong said.

He said the new regulation should be ready in six months and be made enforceable immediately.

He said failure to adhere to the regulation would be punishable under the Act with a maximum fine of RM10,000 or a jail term of a year, or both.

It is also understood that the penalty to be levied on employers for a continuous offence will be RM1,000 a day.

“After all, the conduct of workers is an employer’s responsibility.”

The above was taken from The Star Online site. Almost all of the newpapers in the country including The Star did a front page on the story. While I applaud the move to cut down the number of teen smokers etc. as always, in order to prove that they are actually doing something constructive for a change, those overpaid muppets end up coming off as too heavy handed...replete with half assed game plans no less. Instead of addressing the problem rationally ( Hmm...I guess you actually need brains to be rational ) they chose to BAN this and BAN that and slap a hefty fine and jail term to errant sheeps who dares to go against the cultural norm. How they are going to patrol and enforce this would be interesting.

Like I said, half assed game plans.

It would be much easier to start with the civil service departments then work hand in hand with the NGO’s ( Non Governmental Organizations ) to ensure the workplace is certified smoke free zones. An official looking certificate could be issued by the Ministry of Health to the companies that sign up for this worthy ( heh ) cause.

Instead of the stick all the bloody time how about a carrot? Each year the Malaysian Government passes out obscene amounts of money to their cronies in the private sectors in forms of Government contracts etc. It would be a simple matter to add a smoke free working environment clause to these companies getting these contracts. Like a pyramid scheme once you get your cronies onboard and they in turn get their cronies...You get the picture.

Once it is company policy not to light up on the premises you’ve got your ball rolling and knowing our bandwagon jumping mentality ( especially with a shiny Government certificate in the offing ) most work places of respectable size would be smoke free. You need for the employers to police their workers not rely on empty threats that no one takes seriously.

Anyway,that's how I would have gone about doing it.Something that gets the public to step up and actually do something about the problem rather than ineffective strong arm tactics. Now isn’t that much better than going:

After all, the conduct of workers is an employer’s responsibility.

Speaking as an employer myself...Yeah they are the my responsibility but WHAT'S MY MOTIVATION to police smoking in the workplace? You're going to send people to do spot checks on my premises? No you're not... then why should I take you seriously?

See the problem with the way they are going about tackling the problem? Such wise people our lawmakers.

Anyway,anyone who has worked with smokers before would know that productivity goes down the shitter if you keep them from lighting up at the unofficial smoking section around the workplace.

All in all the fight against smoking the ultimate losers are poor SOB’s like me. From a purely financial point of view, the price hike was a good move. The government coffers get lined with cash from the tobacco industry who in turn line their pockets by raising the selling price of their products with a slight profit thrown into the mix and dumps the whole thing on their consumers who unlike other consumer products of daily consumption, will not have any choice in the matter since the 20 stick packs will be the norm.

The Government gets richer and ends up smelling like a rose for their GET TOUGH ON SMOKING crusade. A brilliant move and I don’t believe I ever used the word brilliant ever when referring to our lawmakers. A brilliant move financially, health wise it’s not going to make a difference. I know that and they know that but hey, they get more money each year from cigarette tariffs to throw on needless pet projects so why the hell not.

My challenge to our lawmakers...If you want to get tough on smoking and throw the BAN word around so freely, then by all means do me and the other smokers a favor and go all the way and BAN the sale of those poison sticks altogether. Sure, you might lose billions in tariffs each year but hey isn’t the health of your citizens worth it?

They can’t do that now can they? No matter what high and mighty holier than thou justification they use it all boils down to the almighty $$$.

It’s sad but true, money makes the world go round. I just wish those bully boys in Parliament would quit being hypocritical bastards and stop harassing smokers like me by making us pay more to feed ur addiction claiming cheerfully that they are taking more of our money for our own good. Step up or Shut the hell up with the half assed plans already.

End of rant...for now.

Picture of the Day

Shark's Tale

A real good fake btw but fun pic nonetheless.

Otaku's Unite

2004-11-25T06:43:00.000+08:00

Been too lethargic to update my blog for the whole week…not that there was anything interesting happening. Went to see The Incredibles over the weekend with piggy. It’s Amazing! The last time I had so much fun watching a movie was when Fellowship of the Rings came out. Other than that I cant seem to remember a movie that made such an impact on me.

We almost missed the opening of the show coz the ticket seller gave us the wrong tickets and we ended up going for I Know What You Did Last Raya. Partly my fault for not checking the tickets when I got them. Piggy was wondering why the hall was filled with Malay couples some of which gave us weird looks. It wasn’t until the opening credits did we realized that we were in the wrong hall. Piggy surprised me by kicking up a big fuss with the management ( normally she is the quiet reserved type ). Her direct quote to the manager of TGV was “Do we look like we care what the hell happened last Raya? We want to watch Incredibles and you’re making us miss it.” The management couldn’t issue us new tickets because they claimed that it would mess up accounting for the day so they gave us the whole reserved back row to ourselves. PMS can be good sometimes although she would deny the fact that having her period had anything to do with her sudden change in demeanor. Being the attentive boyfriend that I am I filed the information away in what was left of my brain for future reference. In short, I filed it under the folder SURVIVAL GUIDE section D for Don’t piss her off when she is having her monthly feminine thing.

Got a call from Chris yesterday informing me that the puter we use in the office has gone to computer heaven. Went over to have a look and found the hard disk and not the whole computer had gone to heaven or hell or wherever dead hard disks go. Normally this wouldn’t be such a bad thing if those momos followed the guidelines I gave them regarding the backing up of files. As such we lost most of the records for the month of November. Luckily I had the invoices for the first ten days of the month stored at home or I would have ended up doing everything from scratch. Did I mention I hate paperwork? Anyway, Chris was close to tears after confessing that she might have left the comp in the office on by mistake over the weekend. Oh well, shit happens I told her. The hard disk was making weird noises for a couple of weeks now so no biggie apart from me having to redo some work. Nothing some Vodka and a round of Doom 3 wont solve heh.

Finally managed to find the complete Tenjou Tenge series bit torrent link after a week of off and on diving into cyberspace. Would be interesting to see how different the anime is from the manga. One thing for certain certain scenes from the manga would not be there. I’ve also downloaded School Rumble at piggy’s request. First I thought it was some fighting anime but it turned out to be a comedy. I’d definitely recommend this to anyone who liked Full Metal Panic and Love Hina. They even have a character in there who looks and acts like Mr.Evil complete with the moustache. Sigh…I seem to be talking a lot about animes and mangas here….well Arion called me a Nippon Otaku earlier and I guess he wasn’t too far from the truth.I remember telling my drinking buddies once that I was born on the wrong continent. I’ve always been fascinated about the Japs and their culture ( discount the WW2 bit ). It’s still not to late for me to change that tho. The land of the Rising Sun is on my top 3 places to retire to.

Quiet day...

2004-11-17T02:25:00.000+08:00

The end is near...

More Bush bashing today? Well, I cant help it since the Malaysian government is still on holiday. Taking into account the country didn’t go into a downward spiral into anarchy while the guardians of our Malaysian way of life were busy pigging out at the various open houses, I vote to let them stay on holiday. Heck if Bush can take 8 weeks off why cant we? Malaysia Boleh!

Opened up my mailbox today to find junk numbering 102 in my bulk-mail section. I don’t know how those people got my email address. I mean they cant be Psychic since 3 quarters of them seem to think I need Viagra or other sexual stimulants. The other quarter wants me to sign up for various porn sites. Just for once I would like to see an email that goes “Congratulations You have won a million dollars! And if this turns out to be a hoax you can sue us.” Putting up with bloody mail spammers are a small price to pay I guess for the wonders of the internet.

Another quiet and rain filled day spent at home watching movies. A guy can get used to this kind of life but sadly I’ve got to get back to the office on Friday to take a look at the accounts before handing it up to the auditors. Other than that I’m more or less free of work commitments up till Jan next year. Time to think of what to do with all the free time I’m going to have on my hands.

Mr.Evil has managed to land himself in Indonesia until the 22nd AFTER he declared that he didn’t want to go. Oh how the mighty have fallen. It’s kinda sad actually to see an independent, hard working, not take shit from anybody guy like him emasculated like this. I swear that girl has him wrapped snugly around her little finger…not surprising considering she did everything but piss on him to stake out her claim. If I’m a praying person I’d probably pray that he makes it back here in one piece. Although he looks like the majority of the natives over there one cannot be too cautious.

Just a short rant today…hopefully something nice turns up in the morning papers for me to B****log about.

Nightwalker

Who really shot President Kennedy.

Blog surgery part2...Return of the Blog

2004-11-16T01:06:00.000+08:00

Everything is up and running as it should. About damn time too. After an hour of searching thru blogskin’s help forum regarding my wonky text the problem turned out to be the charset on the HTML layout that I used. A little editing got solved the problem. I could have saved myself a lot of grief and used another skin for this site but I like the layout of this skin and colors. It matches perfectly with the picture I had in mind to use. Check out the pic on top….It’s a mix of Hellsing and Neon Genesis Evangelion that I cooked up using Photoshop CS. Not too shabby now if only I can figure out how to make the pic cover the whole of the top column. Well, a problem for another day. I’m all tapped out from crawling around cyberspace fixing things. Oh yeah also added a counter to the bottom to see if anyone comes in here to snoop on my anti-social, anti-establishment rants hehe. If the counter jumps for no reason it probably wont be too long before the gov goons if any comes knocking. LOL!

Still cant find a bloody host for the Bleach Ending Theme by Rie Fu but hey, the BOA song isn’t that bad although the anime Lain sucked bigtime with its confusing storyline. The artwork was good tho. Also a note for people reading this. The band BOA is not to be confused by the Korean/Jap singer BoA. If you’re going Huh? Well, I guess it’s the Lain curse.

It was a pretty quiet weekend for me. Spent the time cuddling and watching anime. Couldn’t do much outdoors coz of the rain. Nothing to complain tho, I could think of worse ways to spend my weekend. Piggy of course is in a surly mood coz I wouldn’t join the sheep stampede at Jusco. For the life of me I can’t understand why that girl insists on going to the mall on a weekend and a public holiday no less. I hate mall crawling during the weekends…. More often than not you find it filled with innumerable sheep wandering aimlessly with blank looks in their eyes. Did I mention the hell I have to go through just to find a bloody parking spot? I don’t mind these places all that much if we’re just going to hang out at the café’s. Movie and window shopping? When hell freezes over. ( You read this piggy! ) Now I’m just asking for it hehe. Must be the coffee talking. It’s amazing what you can get away with when you blame it on coffee or the lack of it.

“So sorry ol’chap, didn’t mean to run over you. I’m in dire need of cuppa from Starbucks and you were in the way.”

It’s Hari Raya over here, the Muslim New Year. I have a theory that the government of Malaysia shut down a week early to prepare for the celebrations. They haven’t done anything stupid all week. Kinda makes you wonder when the s**t is gonna hit the fan doesn’t it? Anyway, I’m enjoying a little peace and quiet over the holidays. I should be in KL with the guys but piggy was sulking so badly when I brought it up I had to postpone the trip. She did have a point ….every time there’s a 3 day weekend I end up spending it with my no good buds and ignore her. Good point but I’m definitely heading over there next month.

The teaser/trailer for Star Wars Ep3: Revenge of the Sith is out. Go watch it here :

http://www.starwars.com/episode-iii/

They put that whiny wimp Anakin Skywalker in Darth Vader's armor! Awesome! Hopefully they give Hayden Christensen (Whinenakin Skywalker) a pat on the back and shove his character in the armor before the first hour is up. Long live James Earl Jones! No sign of Jar Jar as yet but the character is in the movie. I'm sure the guys at the killjarjarbinks website are just itching to restart the site.

Nothing much to add so I’ll end it with Takako Matsu the pic of the day. It was a toss up between her and Avril Lavigne. For those wondering who the hell is Takako Matsu well, she is a singer/actress from the land of the rising sun. Pretty decent actress and okay singer but most importantly kawaii! Touched up the pic a bit with Photoshop.

Takako Matsu

Blog surgery

2004-11-15T06:17:00.000+08:00

Finally got everything working more or less properly. Texts on my previous posts went abit wonky during the template conversion. Tried to fix it to no avail…. It was stupid of me not to backup the old stuff before doing the revamp. Oh well, its 6am and I just woke up. Geocities finally arfed my mp3 link so it’s going to take some time to find a more permanent solution. Gonna try something a little later and hopefully get the Rie Fu song up and running. Sigh!

Hitting a brick wall...

2004-11-14T07:44:00.000+08:00

Ask anyone who really knows me and they will probably say that I am a vain, eqotistical over-opinioned SOB and they would not be far off the mark truth be told.

I've always liked beauty in all its forms and having a plain jane looking blog bothers me. In fact its bothering me to no end. Piggy says I'm getting obsessed. I would like to state for the record that I am not obsessed....well maybe I'm a little too keen but nope, not obsessed ( If I am I blame Arion for starting me down this road in the first place). But this default template blogskin still bothers me.

Spent the better part of the night and early morning looking at blogskins with piggy to spice things up abit. It's amazing what a little HTML knowledge and creativity can do and I am shamed and humbled to say an 11 year old girl from Thailand knows more about HTML than me. She must make her parents real proud. Is my ego bruised? Hell yeah, but I'm not going to make any disparaging remarks about that little girl. Time to go shopping for HTML For Dummies in MPH.

I've also been trying to figure out how to post mp3's here which was a rip roaring success until bloody tripod shut me down. Something about TOS infringement. Which brings me to my problem...I need web hosting what allows outside links to store the pics and mp3's I intend to use for my blog. The few sites I know that would allow this for free seems to be down or not taking any new freebie accounts. Guess I will have to troll cyberspace and hope I run across a site that fits my needs. It's either that or pay for the whole web hosting/domain name thing which I am hoping to avoid since I don't have any use for it other than making my blog pretty. Come to think of it maybe Zabil could help me out and host some stuff for me. Only problem is his new place doesn't have phone access at the moment. Sigh.....I guess I can live with this for awhile. On the upside I've added a taggie to the site. Will probably load up more stuff to clutter the page in a few days. Going to give mp3 embedding another go and pray this new freebie web host don't shut me down heh.

Piggy is sleeping soundly now....damn she looks so innocent all cuddled up under a blanket. Might not be such a bad idea to join her. Will post more when I am concious again.

Ramblings...

2004-11-13T07:08:00.000+08:00

Nothing much happened yesterday apart from going out to do some grocery shopping with S. Showed her this site and far from being impressed by it she had a look of utter disbelief. She says that sooner or later if I continue with this I'm really going to get picked up by the ISA. So much for support. She also warned me not to leave her name floating around cyberspace ( guess she doesn't want to be picked up by the ISA boys for being associated with an anti establishment loony like me. ) and not to divulge anything intimate about us. Personally I think she is paranoid. She almost blew a gasket when I told her I was thinking of posting up a picture of us. And as for not divulging intimate secrets, she has the cutest mole on her....I’m going to get a mouthful when she sees this.

Watched all 17 episodes of Samurai Champloo earlier. Not too bad a show but reviews online were a little bit exaggerated I think. Sure, its by the same people who did Cowboy Bebop but I know some people who didn’t think Bebop was all that hot. The story ( or lack of one ) is about Fuu who sets out on a journey to find “The Samurai who smells of Sunflowers”. Don’t ask me why she is stomping all over Japan looking for this stinky samurai. The show does give some hints but I wont spoil it for the people who have yet to watch it.

To aid her in her quest she ropes in Jin ( your typical stone emotionless samurai ) and Mugen ( your typical wiseass who has a chip on his shoulder ) to be her yojimbos. Each episode sees our intrepid trio getting to a town/city/village broke and hungry before proceeding to rack up the mayhem and body count. Since opponents who could give Jin and Mugen a run for their money is few and far between the guys pretty much run roughshod over everything. The fighting sequences are nicely done and resolved very quickly unlike those epic 4+ episode fights ala naruto with the complimentary flashback and background story or side trips.

Some parts of Samurai Champloo is Laugh Out Loud funny and these help the pace abit until the next bady count. Overall….this is a good anime about samurais. Not very accurate historically but you get a disclaimer in the first episode. Overall I’ve yet to watch an anime of this genre that comes close to Rorouni Kenshin but it’s a start. Eps 18 onwards will be out around January 2005. Lets hope the pace picks up somewhat.

If Samurai Champloo didn’t live up to the hype Bleach sure did. Just got episode 6 yesterday and its going from strength to strength. Bloody funny and action packed. Can’t wait till the next episode gets released. I’ve bumped Bleach to number 1 download priority over Naruto and One Piece….that’s how good this anime is.

Most of my friends are still in a state of amused disbelief over the recent US elections. They were going: “I cant believe they re-elected him.” “Wonder who he attacks next?” Probably Missouri coz it sounds foreign.

My take on the elections?(Time out 5mins while I go laugh myself silly)Okay…where was I…ah yes my take on the US elections. Despite Bush’s and Michael Moore’s best efforts to do otherwise, he got himself another term as the world’s most powerful dumbas….err… moro….ermm man.

Am I being overly critical of Georgie? I think not. I mean here is a guy that on a regular basis hammer out such gems :

"Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB/GYN's aren't able to practice their love with women all across the country."—Sept. 6, 2004, Poplar Bluff, Mo.
I’m sure the doc’s would love a bill to let them spread as much love as they wanted Mr.President.

"Secondly, the tactics of our—as you know, we don't have relationships with Iran. I mean, that's—ever since the late '70s, we have no contacts with them, and we've totally sanctioned them. In other words, there's no sanctions—you can't—we're out of sanctions."—Annandale, Va., Aug. 9, 2004
Yeah right, remember the Iran-Contra affair Mr.Bush? Must've flunked history.

"I was a prisoner too, but for bad reasons."—To Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, on being told that all but one of the Argentine delegates to a summit meeting were imprisoned during the military dictatorship, Monterrey, Mexico, Jan. 13, 2004
Kinda makes you wonder what the good reasons of being a prisoner are.

"The ambassador and the general were briefing me on the—the vast majority of Iraqis want to live in a peaceful, free world. And we will find these people and we will bring them to justice."—Washington, D.C., Oct. 27, 2003
The scary part is, this coming from a guy with nuclear bombs.

"I glance at the headlines just to kind of get a flavor for what's moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are probably read the news themselves."—Washington, D.C., Sept. 21, 2003
To sum it up in latin…"Veni, Vidi, Dormivi" (I came, I saw, I slept)

And My personal favourite…

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."—Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004
Forget multi million dollar ad campaigns, the Kerry camp should have just posted that on every street corner.

Forget Iraq, forget weapons of mass destruction ( which probably constitute as anything General Bush couldn’t pronounce ), forget 9/11, forget the war on terror, forget the obscene amount of money that was spent to buy the presidency ( and Pak Lah was worried about money politics here in Malaysia ) George W-hatcrapdidijustsaythistime. Bush got himself re-elected because John Kerry is a butt ugly Kennedy poser.

That guy has more lines on his face than the entire Malaysian river system. I mean you can hide the entire state of California between the creases on his forehead which would explain why Bush lost that state. Kerry was also accused of not courting the women voters. I don’t know about you but I doubt any warm blooded mother would want this man to kiss her baby much less pay court to the entire female species.

In a nutshell Bush won because Americans consider being dumb a lesser evil than being ugly and that my friends is the ultimate evidence that democracy really exist. I just hope the world can survive another four years of being raped by the stupidity of one man. On the bright side at least we can continue making fun of him. Reggie Lee hit it dead on with our picture of the day…

Says it all doesn't it?

"President Bush announced he has a five-point strategy for getting out of Iraq. Points six through 10 will be handled by the Kerry administration." —David Letterman

"Did you see how happy President Bush was yesterday when he found out he won? Man he couldn't decide whether he should give a victory speech or announce the invasion of Iran." --Jay Leno

"Earlier today, John Kerry went hunting for geese in Ohio, but President Bush says Kerry only did it for the photo op. The weird part is that Bush said this while wearing a flight suit and standing on the deck of an aircraft carrier." --Conan O'Brien

"During the debate, Bush was asked by a lady to name three mistakes he's made. And Bush responded, this debate, the last debate and the next debate." --Bill Maher

"The president finally explained why he sat in that classroom on 9/11 for seven minutes after he was told the country was under attack. He said he was 'collecting his thoughts.' What a time to start a new hobby.'" --Bill Maher

"President Bush said yesterday it doesn't make any sense to raise taxes on the rich because rich people can figure out how to dodge taxes. Then Dick Cheney said 'Shut up! You're ruining everything.'" --Jay Leno

"Campaigning in Iowa yesterday President Bush vowed he will not raise taxes in the next four years. He said I believe it is hard, very difficult to raise taxes when you are not president." —Craig Kilborn

"Is it me or is Bush going everywhere Kerry goes? So far in the past week, President Bush has followed John Kerry to Davenport, Iowa; New Mexico; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; and he follows him to Portland, Oregon. The only place he never followed John Kerry was Vietnam." --Jay Leno

"One guy who's excited about the handover is President George Bush. He's thrilled about turning over power back to Iraq. You know why? Because he's thinking about invading them again." —David Letterman

"President Bush fell off his mountain bike down on his ranch in Texas. A couple weeks ago, John Kerry fell off his bicycle. See, doesn't this make you miss President Clinton? That guy, he could ride anything without falling off." —Jay Leno

"President Bush fell off his bicycle this weekend and you know what was really sad? It's a stationary bike." —Jay Leno

"You know what really makes this embarrassing? The other day the president said the leaders in Iraq are 'ready to take off the training wheels.' That's what he said, 'take off the training wheels.' Then he goes out and falls off his bicycle. And they wonder why the rest of the world doesn't take us seriously." —Jay Leno

"Doctor's concluded that the president's fall hadn't done any damage when he appeared confused and disoriented." —Craig Kilborn

"Last night, President Bush gave a prime-time press conference. It was such a big deal that Fox decided to preempt American Idol. Which made sense to me, you don't want too many amateurs on in one night." —David Letterman

"President Bush says in the last month he has created 300,000 new jobs. Yeah, they're called Kerry campaign workers." —Craig Kilborn

Compiled from http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbush2004jokes.htm

Making Corporate Malaysia wake up and listen...

2004-11-11T16:01:00.000+08:00

Abit grumpy this morning coz the phone woke me up. What is it with people that calls you at ungodly hours. I mean 11:28am is hardly what I'd define as late especially on a public holiday. Happy Deepavali to all those celebrating.

The Bonkura ketsu award of the day goes to... Telekom Malaysia for probable false advertising. Take a lookie here under their TMnet internet services.

http://www.tm.net.my/html/news_details.cfm?id=315&type=News&pg=1

Before my call to them yesterday the ad only read:

MALAYSIA’S FASTEST MOST AFFORDABLE BROADBAND – JUST RM88 FOR 1MBPS! From November 1st, 2004 new subscribers to tmnet streamyx can speed up their broadband surfing to 1 Mbps at just RM88! (without modem)Or just pay RM99 for the modem package and you too could be surfing at breathtaking speeds.

I called them twice yesterday to bug them about the 1mbps line that I was supposed to have since I only got my line on Nov3rd only to be told that they would be upgrading the services nationwide in phases. I kindly ( I can be that when I’m being sarcastic ) pointed out that doesn’t apply to me since the offer clearly stated that NEW APPLICANTS beginning Nov 1st is automaticly provided with a 1mbps line and that what they are doing is false advertising. If so I’m going to blog this and talk to some people in the news industry.

The service personnel on the other end of the line went silent. Literally checked out of the real world into baaabaa land there. The silence was profound as the poor guy struggled to string together the correct and polite response instead of telling me to bugger off and stop being a menace to mindless sheep. I cant be sure but I thought I heard him muttering “why me?” under his breath.

To his credit I didn’t need to wait a full 30seconds for him to compose his reply ( 18secs I counted ) which was to tell me what he said earlier the service is being upgraded in phases and that he was sorry for any inconvenience caused. When in doubt read from the set response script I guess. I reminded him again that according to the ad that doesn’t apply to me since I applied AFTER the offer has been published and what they, TMnet are doing is unethical. They cant go around misleading the public now can they? Oh hell I guess they can since they hold sole monopoly in the nation.

Realizing that I wasn’t going anywhere and didn’t want to push the guy on the other end of the line to road rage when his shift is up I politely told him to get the people upstairs to take a look at the misleading ( I’d call it a blatant lie but I was being diplomatic ) ad and change it before bidding him a good day. Again I thought I heard muttering which sounded like “Not bloody likely after your call you asswipe” before he hung up but again I cant be sure.

Checked the streamyx website again this morning…

Plus, all existing 512k-package customers (both RM88 without modem & RM99 with modem) will also enjoy the new upgraded 1 Mbps speed in phases at no extra cost. Klang Valley will be first to be upgraded followed by Penang, Johor and is expected to be completed nationwide by end of the year. So all existing 512K subscribers look out for your free upgrading from 512 kbps to 1 Mbps soon!

* Speed is at best effort. Service is subject to availability. Unlimited access/month.

I guess the guy I talked to yesterday did tell the boys upstairs. Arion and Mr.Evil would notice the difference since I told them to check out the site previously but the rest of you wont. Just goes to show that if you make a big enough nuisance of yourself and threaten possible litigation things get done. Qui tacet consentit (silence implies consent) so speak up if you’re in the right….how obnoxious you are I leave that up to you. Freedom of choice after all.

To be fair to TMnet they are really moving in the right direction and I for one applaud their efforts in upgrading the broadband connection. They just got to tone down the “Grab their subscriptions fast then worry about service availability” mentality. Its not like they have any competition in this area. Maybe in their view since there isn’t any competition they could afford to treat new applicants like dirt and make them wait ages or put up misleading ads.

“We have you by the balls and if you don’t like if there’s always dialup.”

That’s business I guess, cant really fault them for it but it does leave a bad taste in the mouth of the consumer. Overall, like I mentioned earlier it’s a step in the right direction and maybe just maybe the misleading ad was a faux pas by the people responsible for maintaining the website. Personally it feels good to make corporate Malaysia wake up and take notice….looking back I am really unsure as to what made them jump at light speed to change the ad. Maybe it was my charming personality or was it threatening to blog it so cyberland can have a look. Of course I didn’t mention I don’t have a blog account at the time but now I do so watch out. The kid gloves are off.

Next up….I got a PM earlier from a friend asking me if I saw the Tara Reid wardrobe mishap pictures and video to which I replied I didn’t. A short foray into the murky depths of cyberland remedied that. The verdict is still out on it being a publicity stunt or not. All I can say is…she should demand for a refund on the boob job. A word of advice to Ms.Reid….next time wait till your’re all healed up before flashing the media intentionally or no. I have included the censored pic here. If anyone wants to look at the uncensored ones, well look for it on the net some people that visits this blog are underaged.

Nightwalker

Oooops! Nothing I havent seen before.

I said I wont blog but....

2004-11-11T04:50:00.000+08:00

Well to be honest I had a little time on my hands. Okay so I have a lot of time on my hands while waiting for Samurai Champloo to finish downloading.

Watched the 5th episode of Bleach earlier and It's turning out to be a really good anime. It's by Studio Pierrot the same guys that gave us such hits like Ayashi no Ceres, Hikaru no Go, Great Teacher Onizuka, the Saiyuki series and of course Naruto. In fact the lead character Kurosaki Ichigo looks like a grown up Naruto.

I especially like the ending theme Life is Like a Boat by Rie Fu.The lass is now back in London studying a Graphic Design course lets hope she gets back to music soon. Love her voice and hell, finally a Japanese singer who can pronounce proper english. Life is Like a Boat according to her website is about life, love, finding someone special and realizing you're not alone. I've got the mp3 now to figure out how to post it up here. HTML noobie here. heh. The song works nicely as ending theme for Bleach. It really brings out the sad parts in the anime. Sad parts? Yeah for an asskicking anime there are the complimentary morality and sob story parts and its really well handled. Not surprising considering the director Noriyuki Abe also did GTO. Too bad its only up till episode 5 so far hopefully the manga is available online. Theres talk in cyberspace that this is going to be even bigger than Naruto!

Finally found the pic of Scarlett Johansson I misplaced in my HDD. Cant wait for Lost In Translation to come out. This girl is currently the IT girl in Hollywood...kinda short tho but she does fill out dresses. Like I was telling Arion earlier she reminds me of a young Sharon Stone back when it was still cool to drool over the now plastic and botox remade Miss Stone. Remember Basic Instinct?

Moving on....I know I mentioned on numerous occasions that I wouldnt Blog...jumping on bandwagons etc. Well, after some serious consideration I finally relented. A major factor is to B**ch and rant about the silly stuff and legistlation the boys in gov come out with and pretty much anything else that I want to talk about. Considering this day and age and the development of Malaysia, freedom of speech over here still needs lots of work (more like a miracle). It's not that bad but it can be much better. Some of the things in this country, censorship in particular is still stuck in the dark ages. Like my aussie stepdad used to say, first world technology with a third world mentality. That pretty much sums it up I'd say.

For those of my fellow countrymen looking at this blog, if this post insults your sense of propriety and national spirit ( Malaysia Boleh anyone?) well bugger off and go start your own blogs. If I'm going to be jumping on bandwagons I might as well go in packing. Qui tacet consentit and if anyone has a problem with that vescere bracis meis et fac ut vivas! * Fac ut gaudeam.

Nightwalker
*eat my shorts and get a life! ( in case anyone was wondering )

Yumm...wish I was that dress