My Library

Weather: Slightly Gloomy

From now on, I've decided that each of my posts will be preceded by sort of weather forecast. For no good reason really, just Because I Can, which of late has disturbingly become my guiding principle in life. I hope this phase, like my obsessive Chu Yok Fun phase passes quite quickly as it has wrecked minor havocs in my life, mostly because I've embarked on multiple grandiose Because-I-Can ("BIC") Projects, and am now living with a half sloppily painted livid pink living room, a rather ratty looking painted white chest of drawers and must now live with the impending Volcanic Eruption that is called Mother when she discovers my BIC Projects. Probably this weekend. This is a major contributing factor to the weather forecast above.

Inspired by betta's therapeutic book loading trip, I decided to embark on one myself. This is of course, despite having embarked on a similar book therapy trip just a week ago, and having bought two books, one which I finished and enjoyed immensely, and the other which is sitting sheepishly in my empty apartment.

After entering Border's at The Curve with a extreme self resolve to only buy one book, When Genius Failed, I predictably came out with three, Will Eisner's Contract with God, (Forgot Author) When Genius Failed and (Forgot Author) (Forgot Title)**

** Note: This is why my thesis took so long to clear during my misguided years as a master's candidate, because it was generously littered by many brackets with bold red fonts going (xxxx?????), much to the amusement of my professor of the legendary moustache fame.

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

I am continuing this post many days later. Not surprisingly, I have completely lost my train of thoughts and forgot what I was going to rant about in the first place. Apparently it had something to do with Eisner, but on a recent google trip, I found out that he is dead, which is probably the most profound thing that can be said about him at this point, so I shall leave it at that. 

The weekend didn't turn out so bad as Mother finally discovered said Pink Living Room and did not go all ballistic, but commented rather calmly that the living room painted from my own sweat and tears (many tears) was: "very ugly colour and very ugly painting" and that I should "stop destroying the value of my apartment". I could see her mentally restraining herself from declaring the room Fugly. 

Anyway, the calm response from her discovery came as quite a surprise to me as I had expected something many decibels greater and much prolonged. This is happy news for me as this means I can now expand my painting efforts to include the bedroom, kitchen and other random parts of the apartment. The only thing holding me back between me and beautiful Sloppily Painted Pink Apartment will be my extreme innate laziness, of which one can never truly understand the bounds of. 

Some other random thoughts.

• I am nearing the end of my stint at this current job, and the end is rushing towards me before my feelings can catch up... I guess that's all I'm able to say at the moment, but it is enough for now
  
• I now have three pairs of slippers in my office because I keep bringing a new pair over to walk around in, forgetting that I already have one there. I do not know how I am going to transport all my things out when I have to leave. Perhaps the new cubicle tenant will appreciate a couple of slightly worn and chewed pair of blue plastic japanese slippers
• There is a box of fruitcake underneath my desk. It was a Chinese New Year present from the company. This gives an indication of the length of time it has been there. I do not touch it because I am afraid of what might happen if I did at this stage. This is another present that I will leave for the future cubicle tenant in addition to the slippers
• I have mixed feelings about my half painted pink hall. I do not know what to do with it. Logic dictates that I should finish painting it, especially the edges which I have purposely left out because they were 'hard'. This however is starting to seem like an insurmountable hurdle to me. I do not know how I can ever finish all the 'hard' parts.

 

New Brog

But haven't decided what to do with it.

If I do with it at all.

Pensive Poetry

Something grabs

a hold of me.

Tightly.

Flow like a

Harpoon

daily and nightly

Will I ever stop?

I don't 

Know...

...

Turn off the lights

and I...

glow

To the extreme

WTF WTF WTF WTF

I can't bereef it, I have HIGH CHOLESTEROL

This is God's way of saying, "You Need To Go On A Diet, Fatty"

I have to put down my dog.

I've discovered, with the help of my stealthy new camera, that my dog is actually, an EVIL KILLING MACHINE!!!

Note the evilness:

1. Pretends to be friendly waggy little dog with the 'Can I come in face?'


2. Comes into room and pretends to fall asleep

3. While I sleepeth, she sneaks up onto my bed...

4. And tries to DEVOUR me with the deadly Fangs of Death


Shocking.

*** I have decided not to put her down after all. I will just have to battle the Fangs of Death night after night after night.

Excerpts of Conversations from Today

Today I feel like zees

Stolen from tierrie's bunch of photos

I rike this picture

Again, liberally 'borrowed' from here

Self Reflection

Decided to have a 'light' dinner before badminton tonight so I wandered down the street to the lok-lok man. While I was eating daintily by the roadside, I peered across the melting blocks of ice and blobs of seafood at a petite little young thing eating on the other side of the van.

And then her bill came, and the lok-lok man told her it was RM 7. I mean, RM 7 ! For lok-lok! How do you eat that much!

At which point my head went,

"Eatin a wee bit much are we, Porky Pie"

"Havin our way with the munchies are we Tubby Tot"

"Aiming to roll back home are we Blobby Boo"

Which is wrong and evil.

Anyway God paid me back in full when the Lok-lok man said in what I thought was an unnecessarily loud voice, "17 bucks leng lui"

After which I died of shame and migrated

Piss us off some more lah... padan muka

Malaysian Front Regrouping After Shock Poll Setback

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's ruling coalition tried to regroup on Monday after a shocking electoral setback that decimated its ranks and sent markets swooning over the political uncertainties ahead.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was sworn into office amid mounting calls for his resignation after the National Front (Barisan Nasional) lost the two-thirds majority in parliament it had held for nearly four decades.

Malaysian stocks dived their limit 10 percent in mid-afternoon Monday and the ringgit skidded as investors sold off infrastructure stocks and shares linked to the federal government or its favored tycoons.

Abdullah called a special meeting of the coalition for 3:00 a.m. EDT. At the very least he will need to fill some holes in his Cabinet -- four cabinet ministers lost seats in the weekend election, including Works Minister S. Sami Vellu, the head of the main Indian party in the coalition.

"The political stability of the country becomes a question mark," said Pankaj Kumar, chief investment officer at Kurnia Insurance, who helps manage about $500 million in assets.

Sources close to the Prime Minister said Abdullah had cancelled plans to attend next week's Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit in Senegal -- he was to hand over chairmanship of the 57-member grouping -- to deal with the crisis at home.

Chieftains in Abdullah's party, the United Malays National Organisation, trooped to his residence on Sunday to pledge support. Another key partner in the multi-racial coalition, the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), did so on Monday and the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) was expected to follow suit.

But the poll carnage was spectacular and analysts said Abdullah will need to fight hard to keep together an alliance that has ruled Malaysia uninterrupted since independence from Britain in 1957.

REVIEWING MEGA-PROJECTS

Race riots erupted the last time the ruling coalition lost its two-thirds majority in 1969, but the streets have been calm since Saturday's vote, perhaps because members of all three ethnicities voted against the status quo.

Barisan Nasional won just half the popular vote and 62 percent -- down from 90 percent -- of the seats in the 222-member national parliament. The MCA saw their strength in parliament halved from 31 to 15, while MIC lost two-thirds of their seats.

Abdullah's humbling performance was capped by the loss of his own home state, the industrial heartland of Penang.

A loose alliance of three opposition parties took control of five of Malaysia's 13 states, their most by far. They have threatened to review the multi-billion-dollar development "corridors" in states now under their control that have been the centerpiece of Abdullah's economic program.

Malaysian states control land and water and can effectively scuttle federal development projects.

The first indication of that came on Monday when the new opposition state government in Penang said it was reviewing plans for an $8-billion real estate project, whose major backer is a firm partly owned by businessman Patrick Lim, a friend of the prime minister's son.

Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who anointed Abdullah his successor and who still commands some influence in the party, advised him on Sunday to take responsibility and quit.

Mahathir's son Mukhriz Mahathir, a senior executive member of the UMNO youth wing who commands factional support within the party, was also expected on Monday to call on Abdullah to quit.

The opposition Islamist party, PAS, scored shock victories in the northern heartland states of Kedah and Perak and easily retained power in its stronghold in northeastern Kelantan state.

PAS sought to play down fears it would try to ban gambling and alcohol in states under its control. Party president Abdul Hadi Awang said non-Muslims were free to do whatever their religion permitted.

A protest vote from ethnic Chinese and Indians, upset over what they saw as racial inequality in terms of business, job and education opportunities, had been expected.

But Malays, who are all Muslims and traditionally support Barisan, completed a perfect storm for the government, giving the opposition Islamists a record vote to protest rising prices.

Without a two-thirds parliamentary majority, Barisan can no longer change the constitution or make some key appointments.

(Reporting by Jalil Hamid, Writing by Bill Tarrant, Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

o MAI GAWD

I cannot bereef it.

I'm still in a state of mild shock over how THE PEOPLE manage to give Barisan Nasional the biggest mooning of its life. Democracy is well and alive indeed. In spite of all the odds, with the phantom voters, recounts, vote buying, voter trucking and 'postal votes', we pulled together managed to give the coalition the biggest "NaaAAaaAAaaaaaaaah...." ever.

So far the reaction from BN is largely commendable. Koh Tsu Koon graciously let in Guan Eng, leaving the office with nothing but his pillow aaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Several prominent BN representatives have called for BN to do some soul searching to understand how things could have gotten so bad that people found themselves voting across racial and religious lines, united in a single cause against Barisan Nasional.

Of course every political party will have its own belligerent deluded and out-of-touch ratty looking Michael-Jackson-level creepy stump of a weasel...

Mamak ni... (loss of words)

I know that at this point, lots of people have been calling for Pak Lah to step down after the polls confirmed what everyone has suspected for the past four years, that he was an incompetent, lazy and narcoleptic little bugger.

Personally, I don't really care if he steps down now or not, because I don't think he would survive the year. I would however, would like to call for the resignation of Wong Chun Wai. For those of you in the know, this man is purportedly 'Group Chief Editor of The Star Newspaper'. Everytime I say that I laugh hysterically.

I wish someone would go for his head. Between this one and rat-face up there, I'd really like to see this one go first. He hurts alot more because his betrayal was repeated, rampant and blatantly obvious to the entire population of Malaysia. Not only did he fail in his professional duty to uphold the integrity of journalism, he has abused a position of great authority and power. An institution that use to stand for truth and independence has now been completely bastardized.

Thanks Chun Wai.

Like The Construction Worker, I don't know how this one sleeps at night.

I don't know why drawing a unibrow, moustache and a mole with hair made me feel better, but it did, you should try it too!

Rock on Penang

Picture 'borrowed' from TVSmith

A Rare Serious Post

The irony of the fact that in Malaysia what we essentially have is Barisan on one side, and The Opposition on the other (i.e. DAP, PKR, PAS, PSR). One represents the Government and other representing Anti-Government.

Having a manifesto built on nothing but 'Anti-Government-ness', which is what the Opposition is really all about, has really got very little to do with the true day to day governance of the very socially, culturally and economically complex society of Malaysia. None of the Opposition parties have shown, in manifestos or otherwise, a sound pracical and workable plan to address our issues of corruption, racial division, shoddy education, slow erosion of public security and the widening economic gap between the haves and have-nots.

It saddens me that they have to campaign on a platform of nothing other than disgruntlement for the current government unlike the Democrats and Republicans in the United States, where each party actually represents different (not always) philosophies on governance, education, economy and foreign affairs. What saddens me more is that, I myself cannot think of a better, more effective to reach the masses at this point in time given the current public resentment towards our Government. This is, ultimately, what we want. And this is, what they are giving us.

Can we as citizens really be satisfied with denying BN the 2/3 majority? Should that really be our goal - diminishing the powers of the government? Or should our goal be the (loftier and more difficult) Getting The Right Government in place.

If I could vote, I would vote for the Opposition with a heavy heart knowing that Barisan, and more importantly Pak Lah, has exhausted the goodwill and the trust of the people who put him there four years ago has forced my hand, and yet wishing I had someone better to vote for than just, Anything But Barisan.

Election Schmelection

Having wandered around the past couple of weeks in a sort of guilt-ridden stupor which grew exponentially with the many incidences of the following conversation:

Person: Where are you registered to vote?
Me: (mumble)
Person: Hah? What? Can't hear you laH?
Me: i'm not registered
Person: THE SPR DIDN'T PROCESS YOUR REGISTRATION!!! OH HOW THEY THWART DEMOCRACY!!! THOSE DEMOCRACY PIRATES!!!! HIJACKING OUR COUNTRY!!! THEY KNOW YOU WILL VOTE OPPOSITION!!!
Me: acherlly... i never got around to it. (ashamed)
Person: o_O
Person: Communist (angry face)

So yesterday I decided I had Enough. No longer was I going to walk the walk of Irresponsible Voter Shame. I would pay my penance and do some volunteer work in DAP PJ Utara office. Go Rocket! ! Of course it being a working day, I had to... 'take leave*'. 0-0

*In some organizations, taking leave, without filling up an official form, or without informing your supervisors, or without telling anyone in the office where you are going would be considered, WRONG and Grounds For Dismissal, but I am proud to say that I do not work in a company that is so Narrow-minded and Archaic.

DAP's Rocket bears an uncanny and unecessary resemblance to our neighbor's one... salah. so salah

Anyway so I found myself at the DAP office where there were many little excitable people pottering around doing national service. I have to say that it was a really bare-bones outfit, with a ratty little couch, couple of basic tables, and the World's Slowest Printer (seriously).

A couple of people asked me if I was there because I wanted to help out Tony Pua, to which I would reply, "Tony WHO?" which of course immediately branded a large IDIOT sign over my forehead.

After a while, I realized that one of the fellows pottering around the office, looking vaguely like 78% of all my male high school classmates (they all looked arike) was Tony Pua The Superstar! I don't need to go into details of why he is a superstar, you can check it out at his website. (Also because I'm very lazy).

Tony Pua and his fashion faux pas ... Ei it rhymes!

Anyway, they thought it would be 'safe' for me to man the phones (iaitu, Kesalahan Besar Yang Pertama). So there I was merrily giving WRONG directions to people heading for the ceramah that night.

Note: I'd just like to say, to all the DAP supporters who tried to make it to the SS4D ceramah last night, if you had the unfortunate luck of asking ME for directions on the DAP hotline and ended up on the side of the LDP which I told you to go, and found yourself looking across the massive 6 lane highway to find the ceramah on the OTHER SIDE OF THE HIGHWAY, I sincerely apologize. I am NOT representative of the DAP people, most of them are pretty competent. Some slip through the cracks.
To all the Barisan supporters who wanted to go to the DAP ceramah in SS4D last night, and found yourself on the other side of the road, well, sucks to be you.

After a while, they realized their grave mistake and delegated me to the job of shifting things into tidy little piles and typing (both skills which I excel at). Anyway, during my little stint on the phone there were alot of excitable aunties and uncles who wanted to know where Lim Kit Siang was, which I duly told them, "In Puchong and Cheras" which was of course just slightly off from where he ACTUALLY was, in Klang and Bukit Bintang (about oh... 30 km away and 1hrs drive away)

And there was SURPRISINGLY AROT of people (read: guys) asking me about Hannah running in Subang, so I asked around a bit about her. Everyone talked to me about her being a feisty, smart, charismatic, fresh young blood for DAP. It wasn't until I googled her that I found out she was also a, as they say, HOTTIE, always a plus. Although I did find it strange that the people in the DAP office had completely skirted around the issue of her being a major Babe. INTERESTINK .

Yay!

That's too long a post and a half.