Top Ten Reasons Why I LOVE Malaysia

So fifty years, eh? Yes, I am damn proud to be Malaysian. I don’t have a little flag stuck to my car, but I am still damn proud. Besides, those little plastic sticks are really dangerous when it comes flying off on the highway.

There’s a flood of lists out there about Malaysia, let me make my own. There won’t be 50 in the lists, or you’ll stop reading after the second one. So I’ll stop at ten. After that, you can add your own.

Top Ten Reasons Why I Love Malaysia.

• I can stop and park my car at the side of the road, and buy great tasting goreng pisang from the guy with the wooden pushcart. Yeah, try doing that in Singapore.
• All the National Day ads on TV inadvertently feature Malay, Chinese and Indian smiling together. Not just this year. Every year.
• We have a three-time reigning world champion, born and bred in Malaysian. Although in the rank of popularity, she’s a little below the winner of whichever latest two-bit ‘reality‘ singing contest. Don’t worry, Nicol, you’re number one in my book…
• If you are late for anything at anytime during the day, there’s one excuse that can be used to get you off the hook – “traffic jam“
• We’re in Malaysia, but we have selipar Jepun, mee Jawa, Bombay toast, Masjid India, Bukit China, Manila card, ayam belanda, mee Siam, sirap Bandung and Colombo Plan.
• Every single Malay stall in the country has a different interpretation of what Mee Hailam tastes and looks like. I’m even sure anymore it originated from the Chinese.
• Only in Malaysia, white coffee isn’t white, Black Maria isn’t always black, budaya kuning isn’t yellow and blue films aren’t blue.
• The ultimate in Malaysian exotic gourmet experience – sour plum sweets.
• No matter how depressed you are or how pathetic you feel, take one look at our national football team and instantly you’ll feel like a champion in comparison!
• Malaysians, by and large have a fantastic innate sense of balance on two feet. Just look at the LRT at peak hours.

Selamat Hari Merdeka, folks. Don’t drink and drive.

++++

Also, Celine is looking for this Turkish blue eyes necklace (???). Apparently, it looks like this. Anyone can help? Thanks…!

Hey There Delilah by the Plain White T’s

Ever since i left the days of metal and hard rock behind in college, i’ve not really gone into the modern day bands much these days. I do like some of the emo bands, but it’s never the same as the fist in the air sounds of Iron Maiden or Megadeth.

But when i first heard this song recently, i absolutely fell in love with it. Story of a boy struggling to make it, keeping a long distance love with the girl he loves.

Hey there Delilah I know times are getting hard
But just believe me girl Someday I’ll pay the bills with this guitar
We’ll have it good We’ll have the life we knew we would
My word is good

Just breaks my heart everytime i hear it.

Technorati Tags: Plain White T’s, Hey There Delilah

Tyres Cost A Bomb These Days!

I’ve a little dilemma maybe some the auto guys may be able to help.

The other day i was shopping around for tyre prices when a shocking truth hit me. Tyres prices are damn expensive these days, man. It’s been less than 3 years since i last change car tyres (that was for my old Iswara which i have sold) and prices have gone up.

I find it pretty ironic that Malaysia is one of the biggest rubber exporters in the world…! Haha.

Anyway, i need to change the tyres on my current car. Stock tyre is Goodyear NCT 5 185/55/R15. Ha, now you can probably guess what car i drive.

I’m not changing my rims, and 185/55 is quite an uncommon size, and i understand there’s only like 2 other brands that carry that size. And they are all not cheap.

One option is to change to 195/50/R15 or 195/55/R15, which are more common sizes, but slightly higher price. If i change, what brand should i get? Not Sime, too entry level and i’ve got some poor experience with them. I don’t mind paying up to RM180, but anything above that is too much for me.

Alternatively, if i want to save money, i can buy 3 of my stock tyres and use my spare tyre as the 4th (it’s new). But then again i’m concerned with mixing a 3-year old tyre with 3 other new ones…

Hmmm… decisions, decisions. Help, anyone?

Some other books J.K.Rowling can write now that HP is Finished

I heard that J.K.Rowling is planning another book. No really, she is. I bet it’s probably going to make the New York Times No.1 bestseller spot based on pre-order alone, let’s not even speak of the first day sale. Even it’s about the mating habits of tree frogs.

Some other books J.K.Rowling can write now that HP is Finished

• Harry Potter Book 8: Look I Need More Money So I Lied About Stopping At 7
• The New Adventures of Mary Lotter the Little Girl Witch (Book 1 of 14)
• The Secret Diaries of Harry Potter Aged 3 to 10: The Official Prequel Series (Also 7 books planned)
• Dummies Guide to Becoming The Richest Woman in The World
• “Why Dumbledore is Way Cooler Than Gandalf and Yoda”: A Scholarly Treatise

Okay, okay i’ll lay it off. she’s rich enough to buy out Malaysia if she wanted to…

Technorati Tags: J.K.Rowling, Harry Potter

Studio Ghibli!

Yesterday i was at IKEA/Ikano, doing some window shopping. i was at the first floor and saw that there some music exhibition at the ground floor concourse area, so i went down. Actually my kid was attracted to the huge promo poster for High School Musical 2, damn that thing is going to be so blardy popular in a few weeks’ time…

Anyway i was pleasantly surprised to find some cool DVDs and music CDs for sale.

This is what i bought.

Woo-hoo! Studio Ghibli! Hayao Miyazaki!

14 movies on 5 DVDs for RM35.90. I know i can get it free, but this comes with full features like multiple languages and subtitles. I actually have some of them, but since it only works out to be about RM2.50 per movie, i get the boxset anyway.

Disc 1:
Totoro
Only Yesterday
Whisper of The Heart

Disc 2:
Porco Rosso
Kiki’s Delivery Service
Laputa

Disc 3:
Nausicaa Valley of the Wind
Sound of the Ocean
Pom Poko

Disc 4:
Grave of Fireflies
Princess Mononoke
Howl’s Moving Castle

Disc 5:
The Cat Return
The Castle of Cagliostro

For the uninitiated, the movies above are classic Japanese anime by the legendary director Hayao Miyazaki, co-founder of Studio Ghibli. I first discovered Miyazaki through Spirited Away, and slowly started to explore his ealrier works way back to the mid eighties.

You read more about the man and his works here and here.

And so that was my bit for the whole ‘buy original’ anime scene…

Technorati Tags: Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki, anime

Greetings from A Cybercafe

My PC is out of order, for the third time this month, so i am without internet. Again.

I am currently at a cybercafe, surrounded by schoolkids and college students. You KNOW you are out of place in a cybercafe when everyone in there is playing some MMORPG and you’re the only one checking your mail and updating your blog.

I don’t even know what game they are playing, all i know is that it isn’t WoW and it has big sword and scantily-clad warrior women (don’t they all?) And the game somehow involves the players to swear out loud periodically, and in different languages and dialects.

Oh, wait there’s this other geezer next to me watching the stock prices, looking like his wife going to deliver a baby any time now.

I can live without Internet for a week, but i don’t know about longer than that. Already these two days i’ve experiencing withdrawal symptoms – drinking more coffee, channel surfing every few seconds, sitting at my desk staring at the blank LCD monitor, twitching my hands at the dead mouse. I dunno. Another few days i think i’m to start hyperventilating.

Maybe i should start playing those MMORPGs with the scantily-clad warrior women…

A Change in The Scenery

It’s been an eventful two and a half months in my life, even if it hasn’t really shown in this blog, it really has been.

For one, i have just changed jobs, after 3 long years in my previous job. I know three years isn’t a long time for a lot of people, but it sure felt like a long, long time for me. From the day i joined, it was pretty much a temporary job, since i was desperate to get away from my previous employer.

Lo and behold, before i knew it, almost 3 years had pass… actually, to be frank, after a few months on the job, i had started to apply for other positions. It was until about early this year that i started looking seriously, because in many ways my job had become untenable.

The job was difficult, that was one of the main reasons. The other reason was that KLCC (where my head office is) was very far from my place, and the project is even further, twice the distance. Imagine the amount of travelling i had to make daily, having to wake up at 6.30am (what an ungodly hour!) and be in the office or site by 8am.

Then there is the hours. Being someone who treasures his time with his family, i am finding it increasingly difficult to put in 60+ hours a week for something i don’t particularly enjoy, so that was a definite push factor.

The other reason was my boss, but let’s not get into that. Some things are best left unsaid…!

Anyway, i had to give up my company car and my notebook and a higher pay, but at least things are a lot better (in some ways) at my new job. But it’s only been 2 and a half months, so i’ll reserve my comments.

Quite a lot of change has been happening due to the new job, more on it the next time…

Guide to John Hughes’ 80′s Teen Movies

The other i was watching the 90′s spoof comedy ‘Not Another Teen Movie‘, i couldn’t help noticing the numerous John Hughes references, not least of all with Molly Ringwald appearing in one of the scenes.

In my book, John Hughes is the king of 80′s teen movies, primarily working a select few young stars he loves to use, like Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez and Judd Nelson. Hughes has also written and directed lots of other movies from different genres right up to the present, but he is almost always remembered for the trio of movies that inspired a whole generation of teenagers (and not to mention modern day moviemakers) – Pretty in Pink, the Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles.

Sixteen Candles - “It’s the time of your life that will last a lifetime.”

The first of the three movies, written, directed and produced by him. Story of Sam (Ringwald) who’s parents forget her sweet 16th birthday amidst preparing for her older sister’s wedding. In the mix, she’s also in love with the cool guy in school (Michael Schoeffling). Michael Anthony Hall and a very young John Cusack appear in the movie as two geeks. Takes the (birthday) cake for introducing a character named Long Duk Dong.

The Breakfast Club- “They’ve Only Met Once, But it Changed their Lives Forever.”

I’ve written about this before (read it here), it’s by far my favorite movie from the 80′s. It’s funny, touching, sad and inspiring at the same time, definitely reminded me of my school days… although i never spent a day in detention…

Pretty in Pink- “The laughter. The lovers. The friends. The fights. The talk. The hurt. The jealousy. The passion. The pressure. The real world..”

Written by John Hughes, it’s about a social misfit Andie (Molly Ringwald again) from the wrong side of town who falls in love with a rich guy (Andrew McCarthy). John Cryer plays Andie’s best friend who’s (not so) secretly madly in love with her. I remember feeling that the ending was a bit cliched, but what the heck, this was the 80′s…!!

John Hughes also wrote and directed two more famous teen comedies (among many others), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Weird Science, but did not feature any of the Brat Pack stars from the trio above:

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off- “The laughter. The lovers. The friends. The fights. The talk. The hurt. The jealousy. The passion. The pressure. The real world..”

A superb film that makes slmost any top ten 80′s list, it’s deliciously funny although a little impossible how he could have fit all those activities in one day! Too bad Matthew Broderick didn’t become the huge star i envisioned him to be after the movie, although he IS married to Sarah Jessica Parker…

Weird Science- “It’s all in the name of science. Weird Science.”

Didn’t really like this show, although Kelly LeBrock appears. Watching it back, the effects and the computer ‘tech’ looked really cheesy and outrageous, but i remembered it spawned an equally forgetable TV series starring Courtney Cox. Kind of weak compared to the other John Hughes movies…

Technorati Tags: Not Another Teen Movie, John Hughes, Molly Ringwald, 80′s, teen movies, Emilio Estevez, Pretty in Pink, Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Weird Science

What Am I To Do With A Million Ringgit Lying Around…?

Got this from God’s Little Angel…

Actually, me and my pal Ray used to discussed this at length when we were back in college. Those were the days that we were young and bright-eyed, eager to stamp our mark in the world and make our first million before we reached forty… before the reality of hard work hit our faces on the first of work. Among other things.

But then again.

Fantasies aside, what would we do if we had a million ringgit (granted a million ringgit was worth more in those days, but what the heck…)?

Of course, ten percent goes to tithes, goes without saying.

After that, it’ll probably in this order…

1. Pay off car loan.

2. Gratuity to parents (this one long time no pay oredi…)

3. Children’s college fund (which at market rate, costs an arm and a leg).

4. Get a big 2nd car for the family (FORD ESCAPE!!! Specifically, a RED colored FORD ESCAPE!!!)

5. Go for one week holiday with friends and family to London, Paris and Ireland (that’s SO going to happen, right, Pat?!)

If there’s any money left, i’ll buy a lifetime’s supply of Pringles and Starbucks while i watch DVDs… But you know, i’ve come to the realization that i can achieve all the above through hard work, but it’ll take a lot longer and with more sweat. As they say, our dreams have to be beyond our reach… But even if after i tried my level best and yet fail, life goes on, money isn’t everything in the world. We will have to make do with what we have, and be thankful for it…

As i used to say all the time, life is a journey, not a destination.

I won’t tag anyone, but if the usual suspects want to try it, let me know, i wanna read about it.

I need to lay off memes and tags for awhile.

Harry Porter and the Deathly Hallows (No Spoilers)

No spoilers.

And so i have finished the book. I’m writing this review immediately, to record my immediate impression of it while it is still fresh in my memory, before i even read any other reviews on the ‘Net.

It was quite good. For an end to the most hyped book in the history of publishing, I’d say it was quite good. Not great, I think that it’s well established that Rowling is no more a great writer than any of the hundreds of published ones out there, and the series itself is guilty of being crushed by it own weight of hype and expectation on many occasions in the last decade.

First the ending.

For those moaning about how it ended, I’d say this for Rowling – for her, it’s really a case of damned if she did, damned if she didn’t. Anyhow she chose to end it, she’ll have her critics, so she probably went with what she wanted to write instinctively, which is what every writer should. Evenbefore the book was released, I don’t think any of the hardcore Potter readers out there would seriously doubt how it would have ended in the first place, that good should triumph over evil. The only question was would Harry die, and along with him, who else would?

I won’t say who died and who didn’t, but i to me the ending wasn’t much of a big surprise to me. However, she really shouldn’t have added the epilogue. Not only was it corny, and sort of ruined the ending a bit. In the interim years between books 6 and 7, i have read and re-read Garth Nix’s excellent Abhorsen series, and while i absolutely love it, i can’t stop making comparisons between the two series in more than one aspect. I won’t go into details, but let me just say this, Garth Nix KNOWS how to end a book as it is – just like that. Just like he did with Sabriel and Abhorsen.

The writing is quite even with the last book, although the tone is quite dark (yes, i know, everyone will say that). The book trudged along in the middle, especially the months in the tent, i suspect that Rowling lost her focus there a bit, maybe in an attempt to stretch the storyline a little longer than it deserves. Rowling falls back on too many of the plot devices that she has used in almost all the books in the series, I was almost hoping she would do a different route.

And so what next, now that the series has ended and Rowling has sealed it in a way that any sequels are virtually out of the question? I hope she leaves it be. She should. While Tolkien once famously that he ‘left Middle Earth too soon‘, i am completely glad he did, although it would almost be sacrilegious to come Tolkien to Rowling.

As for me, I am really glad it’s all over, now we can all get on with our lives (until the last movies is released, that is). But on that note, can’t wait to start on THIS series…

Technorati Tags: HP7, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry Potter, Golden Compass, Garth Niz, Sabriel, Abhorsen, J.K.Rowling, his dark materials