So Long 2006, and Thanks for All the Fish

Today’s 29th December, the last Friday of the year. The Internet here in Malaysia is still pretty slow, apparently it has affect Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia.

Frankly, it’s times like these people start to evaluate their dependency and / or addiction to the ‘Net. With the overload of newsfeed, blogs, online content, P2P downloads, i suppose some people can’t remember how life was pre 1995, when we actually had to do things the ‘slow’ and ‘hard’ way.

Some things I learnt in 2006…

• Coke and mentos is volatile mixture.
• A website for people to broadcast their pets (or themselves) doing silly things for voyeurs to see is a bloody good idea.
• LimeWire kicks a$$.
• Instead of Disneyland, a giant (seasonal) water-theme park in Johor may be just the tourist attraction for Visit Malaysia Year 2007.
• Heritage means jack to some people. No wait, scratch that. To A LOT of people…
• A pop princess getting married or some local two-bit reality “talent” show is far more important that a Malaysian becoming a WORLD CHAMPION. TWICE. (Nicol David rocks.)

There’s definitely more, I’m sort of in a rush. Have a good weekend folks, and Happy New Year…

Untitled Post

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(That’s a 2-toed sloth, if you’re wondering…)

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The internet today.

Things that are slow. (Internet is freaking slow today, maybe something to do with the Taiwan quake.)

The last picture was supposed to be “watching grass grow”. I couldn’t find “watching paint dry“.

Technorati Tags: internet, Taiwan, earthquake

Another Almost Familiar Christmas Themed Top Ten List (With the Title at the End)

• Santa sleigh getting hit by the AirAsia KL-Bangkok midnight flight.
• George W. Bush actually spreading some peace on earth and goodwill to mankind.

• A Nintendo Wii under my Christmas tree.
• Bill Gates getting pwned at World of Warcraft by a 13-year-old pimply Japanese kid.
• CNN showing live footage elves staging a protest against low wages and discriminatory working hours outside the North Pole.
• Donald Duck, after all these years, comes out of the closet.

• A white Christmas, for once (and I don’t mean fake cotton wool, either.)
• No petrol price or toll price increase next year.
• The new Neon Genesis Evangelion movie is released.

• Rudolph with his nose so bright gets shot down by skeet hunters for venison.

The topic…?

Ten Things I’d love to see for Christmas, but would probably never happen.

Merry Christmas, folks.

Technorati Tags: Christmas, presents, gifts, list, Santa, Neon Genesis Evangelion

My Old Christmas Tree

December stands for a lot of things for many different people, year-end bonus, Christmas parties, a time for reflection, or even clearing of annual leave.

I somehow love year ends. I dunno, maybe it’s a carry over from the old schooling days, when December (and November) usually meant the long 6-week holidays, and of course Christmas. Being from a Christian family, I always looked forward to Yuletide, even if we didn’t really celebrate it in any big way. But from a young age I had already understood the significance of the event from a spiritually point of view. Forget about the snow and Santa and stuff from TV, being in Malaysia (very hot) made sure I understood clearly the distinction between TV land and reality.

But in happier times, I remember my family celebrated Christmas once together when I was 7 years old. I don’t remember much of it, but I have a photo to remind me of it. The three of us kids were standing around the Christmas tree at home on eve night, my brother, my sister and me. We were all holding our presents, and dressed in our nicest clothes, which really wasn’t all that nice. My sister was wearing a maxi skirt, something you don’t see anymore these days.

I remembered I got a toy truck as a present, my brother got ‘Scrabble’ and my sister got one of those old-fashioned plastic doll, the ones that closes it’s eyes when you put it lying down. A far cry from the Barbies you see everywhere these days. I don’t know what happened to my toy truck, but my brother’s Scrabble is still around, in almost pristine condition, although one ‘E’ and ‘H’ is missing.

Our tree was quite old, it was given to us by Auntie Rosemary when she bought a spanking new 6’ tree, she donated her 10-year old tree together with the toy reindeers and tinsel to us. The decaying tree is still probably around, now packed in a box somewhere in the old house.

I dunno, things started going downhill for my family in the preceding years after that.

These days, I have my own Christmas tree at home now, and my children love it. I try to make Christmas special for them, and for them, I try my very best to avoid the path that I was forced to tread in life.

Merry Christmas, one and all.

Technorati Tags: Christmas, family

Mothers And the Art of Manipulation

And the Word of the Day for today, Wednesday, December 20th, is:

Manipulative (adj)

Comes from the word manipulate, or the noun manipulation, which, wikipedia explains:

In a psychological context, manipulation means to influence a person or a group of people in such a way that the manipulator tries to get what he or she wants or makes a person believe something in a calculating, indirect and somewhat dishonest way. Like indoctrination, it is a form of psychological abuse.

For example, a manipulator will use arguments that the manipulator does not believe in himself use of false reasoning as with fallacies and paralogisms withhold or distort relevant information, provide false information (disinformation) “play” on the emotions (fear, hope, love…) of the person.

Mothers are masters of manipulation, although in these cases, it isn’t viewed as dishonest, only coercion. Especially Asian mothers. Especially Chinese mothers. Especially Malaysian Chinese mothers. Other mothers (Malays, Indians, Caucasians) are probably expert at it too, but I seldom observe them in action.

Example of a manipulation in action:

• “Go ahead with your trip, no need to worry about your old and frail mother, I’ll just stay at home by myself.”
• “It’s okay, at my old age, I don’t really expect much, after all it won’t be long until I pass on…”
• “What can I do, nobody wants to listen to me, people think an old lady like me is useless…”

A related idiom:
lay a guilt trip on

To make or try to make (someone) feel guilty.

Example:

“I carried you for 9 months and spend 35 hoursin labour for you and this is how you repay me…?!”

(Sidenote: Not talking about anyone in particular, just some observations.)

Me And The New Espresso Machine

My office has a spanking new espresso machine, and boy, is it a lot of fun.

I’ve never liked all these designer coffee with their fancy names (espresso? Latte? Cappuccino? Apa binatang ini semua?), except for one or two I usually order at Starbucks or Coffee Bean.

You see ah, I like my coffee sweet, like the ones you get at the old town kopitiam. Nescafe is okay la, but getting a right brew is like Mission Impossible. Either too bitter or too sweet or too undrinkable. Plus drinking too much Nescafe will result in one of the following:

• Yeet hei (heatiness)
• My pee smelling, um, Nescafe.
• Any other condition related to item one above, like sore throat, etc.

Anyways, this espresso machine in my office very teh pwn one. The satchets dem expensive one, but I beginning to try out all the different combinations of tastes and methods. So far the decaf latte is my favourite. At least not so yeet hei…

Technorati Tags: Starbucks, Coffee Bean, nespresso, espresso, Nescafe, coffee

I Think I’m Going To Join the Black Parade

Been listening to My Chemical Romance’s new album for the past few days. Good stuff. Looks like they’ve going for the rock opera thematic Queen-esque album here, with the phantom marching band and their Black Sgt. Pepper styled coats.

(pic from wikipedia.)

Good stuff, man. When i was a kid, my dad never brought me anywhere, let alone to see any parade. I would have loved to be the saviour of the broken, the beaten and the damned.

Instead, I’ve now joined the Dark Side, the Evil Empire. Also known as the corporate 9-t-o-5 life.

Technorati Tags: MCR, My Chemical Romance, Black parade, Welcome to the Black Parade

Things NOT to Give Your Boyfriend or Girlfriend As Christmas Gifts

For Your Boyfriend:

• Any pansy stuff like moisturizer, lotion or scented bath candles. You might as well flush your money down the drain.
• A necktie – if he’s never worn one. He’ll probably won’t wear it either.
• Gift vouchers. Try harder, woman.
• A book, any book. Especially if the last book he read had something to do with ‘Peter’ and ‘Jane’.
• Any kinds of tea. That includes green tea, oolong tea, fruity tea or any derivation of that healthy crap. Stick to coffee.

For Your Girlfriend:

• Membership to any fitness club, slimming centre or any of that sort. Even if she’s slim or fit. You’ll die faster compared to swallowing glass.

• Anything associated with the word ‘carat’, ‘gold’ or ‘Swiss’. You don’t want to set the standard so high so early on, or you’ll have a REALLY difficult time in years to come…
• Anything that comes with instruction manual or ‘some assembly required’.
• Any kind of gift that YOU will be using more often than her. Like PS3 or bodykit for your car, subscription to FHM, etc. They don’t like it, for specific reasons.
• Gift vouchers. Try harder, man.

Technorati Tags: Christmas gifts, gifts, presents, boyfriend, girlfriend

It’s A Holiday In Selangor And Here Am I in the Office Staring At the PC

It’s the Sultan of Selangor’s birthday today.

It’s also one of those days that makes me hate working in KL…

***-***

My office is virtually empty today, although it’s a working day.

The accounts girls are still on exam leave. But wasn’t the last paper on Friday? I guess hangover Monday (from too much partying Friday-Saturday-Sunday) still counts as exam leave.

The other guys in the office are ‘out for meeting’.

I bet some of them are still sleeping at home.

***-***

I saw my Senior Manager somewhere in Cheras yesterday bringing his family out for a Sunday brunch in his company car.

Hah! And he has the nerve to tell us company cars are ‘strictly for company use only’.

***-***

I bet KLCC will be packed with crazed shoppers today.

1-Utama has Mickey Mouse appearing, Sunway Pyramid has the Teen Titans, Ikano has Scooby Doo and gang, what has Suria KLCC got? I bet it’s those perfume chicks trying to suffocate us with their RM119-per-bottle scented cyanide. Actually the chicks i don’t mind, it’s the guys that… never mind.

Christmas Gifts for You. If You’ve Been BAD. VERY BAD…

From Your Girlfriend (if you’re a boy) – a box of Kleenex tissues, and a book entitled, “Being Dumped: Dummies Guide to Dealing with Break-ups”. There’s also a small letter attached…

From Your Boyfriend (if you’re a girl) – He forgot a gift.

From Your Kids (if you’re a dad) – A framed photo of your kids. Behind it, they wrote, “Remember us?”

From Your Kids (if you’re a mom) – A cookbook. For beginners.

From Your Parents (if you’re below ten) – Brand new PlayStation… One.

From Your Parents (if you’re… never mind) – Free 2-week holiday. At Lose-That-Flab Fat Camp and Fitness Spa.

From Your Boss (if you’re working) – A copy of the latest employee handbook. With certain pages bookmarked and passages highlighted in red for you.

From Your Staff (if you’re the boss) – Nothing.

(pic from wikipedia)

Technorati Tags: Christmas, gifts, presents, playstation