Friday, December 31, 2010

Hampeh

Its just that way.
We just don't want any pizza.
Geez..

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Funny Ha ha

Pergaulan antara rakan2 kian lama menimbulkan situasi2 janggal. Walaupun sudah lama berkenalan. Tetapi kejanggalan itu yang membuat mereka rapat. Kadang2.

Lagu2 kings of convenience kedengaran didalam kereta pinjam.

Makhluk A: Antikk gak lagu ko pasang dlm kete.

Aku: Ok a ni..skang pn dh mlm nk blk.

Sunyi.

Baru terlintas dalam otak aku yang perkara ini lebih kelakar di dalam fikiran aku.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

?

People ask stupid questions to get attention sometimes (or most).

Friday, December 17, 2010

Direction

I think I need a long post. Yes, need. Its been hard to focus on something specific when the world around you is chaotic. People say they write when their depress or have issues. I say fuck it. People are over analyzing situations that is more black and white than MJ ever was. Perhaps its like a high somehow. A kick if you may.
I just want it to be simplistic.
A long post.
Heh.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Exclamation mark!

Ecstatic. Even with some sore throats, loss of hearing and fatigue that even a triathlon runner would go "thats some shit", its another step from the previous platform of positives. I'm hoping for a run to catch on.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

!

Ekstatik. Harap ia akan menjadi satu landasan untuk membina masa depan.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Kalau burung terbang terbalik

At the end of it all, everybody will only be asking did I get there? or have I gotten there yet.
But there's always that someone, something that will ask the question of how I got there.
If you ever thought that relevancy or lack thereof is the ultimate gauge, I'm sorry.
For you have missed life.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Misteri

Aku tahu yang dia tahu. Dia tahu yang aku tahu.
Aku tahu yang dia tahu aku tahu. Dia tahu yang aku tahu dia tahu.
Tapi takpe, dunia tak tahu.

Monday, November 29, 2010

.

Aku bukan nak cerita panjang.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Name that Movie 7

Sam: You've grown.
Lucy: Have I?
Sam: Yeah, 'cause your ears are bigger and your eyes are older.


Sometimes, it just needs a line of the obvious to propel fantasy.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Risiko

When there's high risks,
the devil comes out to play.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

The sound

The realization of silence is slowly creeping in.
Perhaps this is a test of endurance.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Bad Pitch-ing

As I have mentioned probably dozens of times before, the type of reading I delve into are more often than not concerning pop culture in any form. It is hard to believe that after a lot of years having problems and slight phobia's on reading, I manage to find something that suits my attention span.

This is not an historical look at my personal past. This is more of a continuation of previous post.

After reading about music specifically, I have learn (through experiences as well) that most people see artist and their arts as two separate things. It is not any wonder that the world we see today are run by famous faces. The rapid growth of technology has made Andy Warhol's view of 15 fame look like quotes from ancient times.

Faces are now more recognizable than the art their trying to give to the world. People now judge someone's art by the artist. Should I be giving any examples? Nah. Its now blatantly obvious I think. It's not long ago that the world view artist in retrospect. Their personal lives usually have little barrings on how the art that they produce is viewed by the world.

Don't judge a book by its covers they say? Well maybe that ol' saying doesn't ring true anymore, well, not in the case of pop culture that is.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Hearing aid

Manusia mahu dengar apa yang mereka mahu dengar. Baik perkara itu baik mahupun yang buruk.




Aku sebenarnya ada idea ingin menulis tentang art dan artis. Tapi harini gua xnk layan bende tu.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Tendangan padu

Bola itu ditendang dengan sekuat yang boleh oleh pemain di bahagian pertahanan pasukan itu. Ia ditendang agar mereka di hadapan dapat menyambung momentum bola itu kearah gawang gol.


Sebelum ini mungkin bola itu hanya akan ditendang oleh beberapa orang sebelum sampai ke kawasan terakhir sebelum kotak penalti. Itu hanya cara mereka bermain. Tapi kali ini lain, kali ini mereka ingin terus ke hadapan untuk pemain teratas mereka menyumbatkan gol.


Bola yang ditendang itu melalui semua pemain dan terus keluar padang. Itu perkara biasa. Mereka bermain bola. Cuma bezanya kali ini bola itu keluar kerna tiada pemain dihadapan.


Bola itu bukan sahaja tentang fizik dan fizikal.
Sekarang ia lebih dari itu.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Emerse Yourself

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.

-Scott Adams-

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Multiply

Aku harap akan datang aku akan diklonkan dalam kuantiti yang banyak.
Ini bukan kerna mahukan produktiviti ataupun efisyensi.
Ia kerna perasaan malas melayan karenah manusia semata-mata.
Tiada orang mahu layan gua maka gua layan sendiri.


Ci-bai.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Passion

Throw your heart out in front of you, and run ahead and catch it


If only.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Material

Aku dan fad masakini tak "click".

Go figure.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Silap Orang

Aku melihat arah seorang perempuan tanpa melihat perempuan tersebut. Aku lebih sebok dalam perbualan dengan freud aku menganalisa perbuatan masa lampau aku.


Tanpa aku sedari perempuan tersebut juga memandang ke arah aku.


"What?" beliau bertanya kearah aku.


Perbualan berbahasa melayu aku dengan si freud (ya, beliau hebat menggunakan bahasa), yang dalam imaginasi aku menyerupai pak cik dalam iklan televisyen yang kene di ban dan di tarik balik tempoh hari, terus hilang bagaikan si jutawan baru-baru ini.


Aku sedikit janggal menyaksikan perempuan yang aku tidak kenali itu datang mendekati aku lalu mengatakan "what is it?".


Aku dengan tidak berfikir panjang terus menjawap "Errr, I thought you were someone I knew".


Beliau kelihatan ingin berkata sesuatu tetapi dengan sepantas kilat perkataan-perkataan sudah pon keluar dari mulut aku yang membentukan satu ayat "But she's way prettier".


Beliau mula menghembus nafas lebih mendalam dan sebelum beliau mengeluarkan sebarang bunyi, aku sudah pon tiada di depan mata beliau.


Lies are what we want the truth to be.


Ha ha.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Kring....

Sedang aku asyik membaca laporan2 syarikat tertentu telefon bimbit aku berbunyi. Ade orang call. Aku lihat caller ID yang tertera di skrin telefon aku menunjukkan nombor telefon dari kawasan KL. Aku gelisah memikirkan suara bos aku meminta laporan yang aku patut hantar dua hari lagi.


Aku mengambil panggilan. Rupa-rupanya ade minah dari sebuah pihak televisyen berbayar di hujung talian.


"Ini pasti tentang saman yang kami dikenakan atas sebab tidak bayar satu ketika dahulu" aku berfikir dalam hati. (Ya, kami diberi surat saman dari pihak mereka atas sebab paling bodoh)


Tetapi tidak tepat. Beliau menelefon aku atas sebab ingin mempromosikan sesuatu.


"Ini en. Zulhilmi bin Mohamad?" tanya beliau.
"Hmm.." aku hanya mengeluarkan hembusan tanda ya.
"En. ada astro beyond?" beliau bertanya lagi.
"Tak" pantas aku menjawap.
"Kami disini menyediakan tawaran bla bla bla bla bla" beliau membebel untuk beberapa minit panjangnya.


Selepas panjang beliau mempromosikan produk mereka, perbualan bertukar sunyi. Tiada siapa pon bertutur dalam masa lebih kurang 30 saat dalam realitinya tapi sudah pasti bagaikan berabad lamanya kalau aku cerita.


Kemudian beliau memecahkan kesunyian dengan bertanya "En. tak berminat eh?"


Sunyi sebentar.


"Exactly." akhirnya aku berkata.


Beliau mengucapkan terima kasih dan lantas meletakkan telefon.


Silence is easy, it just becomes me

Perlu ramai lagi telemarkerter sebegini aku berfikir melupakan tugas membuat laporan aku.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Point X

Kalau superman pakai wheelchair.
Manusia ber-evolusi.


Kita dah sampai mana dah ni?

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Polusi pendengaran

Sekitar akhir 90an awal milenium.

Aku teruja. Ya lah, buat kali pertamanya aku dapat menyaksikan perlumbaan F1 secara langsung. Tak pernah lagi merasakan gegaran dunia perlumbaan secara 'live'. Sebelum ni hanya saksikan highlights2 di skrin televisyen sahaja. Dulu siri F1 ni tak diambil perhatian sangat, maka aku hanya dapat melihat 'snippet'2 si jordan hill kat tv. (ironiknya, aku tak suka pon jordan hill).

Aku pergi dengan bapak aku. Tiket percuma, sapa tak pegi ye dak? Seat2 kami berasingan. Beliau di box sebelah starting line, aku dekat straight line sebelum u-turn tower tu. Aku tak rasa kekok sebelum perlumbaan bermula sebab rata2 peminat yang lain juga menyaksikan perlumbaan ini dengan memakai baju cap thai mereka. Tak se'elit' yang aku bayangkan.

Race pon bermula. Seat2 mula menggegar. Literally. Macam gempa bumi berskala kecil. Pabila kereta2 selaju jet lalu didepan mata aku, aku tak perasan pon. Bunyi yang kuat membuatkan aku menutup mata buat seketika. Aku cuba cari jalan lain. Aku membuat konklusi yang aku patot cari cara untuk tutup telinga aku bagi mengurangkan tahap polusi pendengaran ni. Maka aku ke tandas untuk mencari 'ilham'. Kat tandas tu surprisingly tak sekuat diluar. Aku tak tau kenapa. Mungkin bunyi yang kuat boleh menganggu seseorang itu untuk melakukan nombor dua. Mungkin.

Aku dapat idea untuk menyumbat telinga aku dengan tisu. Aku pon ambil tisu yang banyak dan celupkan sedikit air supaya tisu2 yang disumbat itu padat dan menutupi telinga aku secara menyeluruh. Aku keluar dari tandas untuk sambung menyaksikan perlumbaan. Eksperimen aku berjaya dan aku dapat menyaksikan perlumbaan tersebut tanpa ganguan mental akibat bunyi yang kuat. Aku lakukan ini semata-mata untuk saksikan perlumbaan yang aku telah nanti-nantikan semenjak aku tahu tentang F1 walaupun tisu yang tejolor keluar bukan satu 'fashion statement' yang menarik. Menarik perhatian, mungkin. Tapi bukan menarik.

Selepas race, aku pergi jumpa bapak aku diluar litar untuk balik. Kami berborak tentang pengalaman menyaksikan perlumbaan bertaraf antarabangsa itu. Pada masa kami di dalam kereta, beliau mengambil sesuatu dalam poketnya lalu memberikan kepada aku.

"Nah, amik ni," kata bapak aku.
"Tadi abah duduk dalam box tak dengar sangat. Box tu sound proof. Tapi dia bagi jugak ear plug ni" tambah bapak aku.

'Sial' aku berkata dalam hatiku.

"Nak pergi makan dulu ke? Abah dah kenyang. Tadi dalam box dia bagi makan skali. Buffet." bapak aku tanya.

'Lagi sial' aku berkata dalam hati.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Looking back

As with the previous post, it is never surprising to find more memories of sporting events lodged in my head as I embark on a sense of time travel through memories. One thing about time travel is that we want it purely because of the knowledge we gain from the experiences after the preferred time.

We want to travel back in time because of the fact that we know what would happen next. But what if when you travel back in time your in the same state of mind, soul and physically the way you were at that particular time. To me time travel is like a videotape you want to rewind. When you rewind back a story, the character never knows what will happen next. It is like their memories of the time after it was erased. This is why people always fantasized time traveling with limitations or certain regulations.

One would say "I would want to go back so and so if I had my current knowledge or physical attribute or whatever attribute that you would have at the present time." The other "flaw" of time traveling would be location. Since the earth is on an axis tilted in a way, one would not be in the same position in the past as they were in the present. Heck they could even be miles above or below ground. This is just minor details compared to more complex stuff such as stability of human atoms or the earth's aging process.

So enjoy life. Let the past be an education for the present to guide the future.

Sesi merepek hari ini habis di sini sahaja.
Sekian terima kasih.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Football saved my life

Aku, seperti mana ramai yang tahu, tidak begitu mahir dalam bidang akademik. Malah, subjek "power" (english kononya) aku masa di sekolah dahulu tidak setanding mereka yang lain di dalam kelas aku. Untuk cuba elakkan dari tertinggal jauh di dalam bidang akademik aku menumpukan separuh perhatian aku kepada sukan. Apa kene mengena dengan masalah akademik aku tadi? Aku tak tau. Tapi pasti itu sudah kamu tahu, bukan?


Aku dari kecil memang aktif di luar rumah, berlari-lari sakan di mana-mana ruang yang ada untuk menghabiskan tenaga aku. Dengan pengaruh rakan-rakan dan juga famili, aku mula meminati sukan bola sepak. Tetapi minat aku dengan bola sepak bukan sekadar minat aku terhadap bola dan pergerakan kaki, ia (aku rasa) lebih dari itu. Inilah sukan yang telah membuat aku rasa buat pertama kalinya kepedihan didalam kekalahan dan juga kepedihan apabila tangan patah. Ha ha.
I fell in love with football as I would later fall in love with women: suddenly, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain it would bring.
-Nick Hornby-
Bola ini secara ringkasnya mengajar aku tentang kehidupan.


Bola bagi aku, suatu sukan yang boleh di mainkan di mana sahaja dan dengan sesiapa pun. Tidak kira kelas, posisi, warna, dan agama seseorang itu. Di sinilah aku belajar tentang pemisahan kelas. Sukan bola sepak ini bukan seperti sukan berkuda yang hanya untuk mereka yang punyai status elit sahaja. Aku mengenali pelbagai rupa manusia tidak kira status mereka. Di sini mungkin juga di mana aku berminat mengetahui tentang sejarah pemisahan kelas, politik dan seantara dengannya. Bola membuat engkau bergantung pada orang lain dan mereka juga bergantung kepada engkau. Dalam kata lain, kerjasama.
I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.
-Mia Hamm-
Apabila aku mencuba game football management yang di berikan kepadaku oleh saudaraku, aku mula memahami akan penjagaan kewangan dan pengurusan sebuah entiti. Ya, pada esensinya, aku belajar bisnes yang kini sedang aku cuba pahami lebih mendalam. Sedikit ironis. Di sini juga aku pelajari komunikasi dan interaksi diantara manusia (lagi-lagi dengan karekter aku yang kurang ingin bersosial ini). Minat aku dalam sukan bola sepak ini juga dimana aku pelajari geografi secara am dan lebih penting budaya-budaya yang terdapat di dunia. Juga kultus-kultus tempat-tempat tertentu. Ha ha.
In football everything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team.
-Jean Paul Sartre-
Aku cuba, sehingga kini, mengaitkan bola sepak itu dengan pelajaran aku. Sejak dari sekolah rendah sehingga kini. Jadi, adakah ia keterlaluan jika aku berkata bolasepak hero hidup aku?

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Pressure cooker

I often come to school excited but not about school. More often than not, the memories I have of school is when I'm not learning in class. Does this make me odd? Perhaps. But I do believe this is relatively a normal occurrence among students especially students here in our country.

Why? My theory is that it is because of the over bearing responsibility we have to score on our exams. The reason why I eventually chose to stick to the science stream in my school was because it has the highest probability among the streams of a high grades. More emphasis is put on the science stream to score and with that in mind, most of the top students and teachers are put into the science stream classes even if in a holistic look at a person it may not be the most suited of streams.

The other reason is because of the environment. Yes we do have a lot of time when the noise level in class is akin to that at the race tracks but it still is in a normal mode when considering at the daily average. Most other classes are somehow bound to have "trouble". And you think that the unity problem in our country is all about race. We are stereotyped at a young age and brought to paths that are "ideally" the best for us. Perhaps it is, eventually. Perhaps I will scuff at the fact that I thought otherwise. But even if so, aren't we the ones who are experiencing it?

"Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't.”
-Pete Seeger (folk signer) -

The most I remember throughout my schooling especially at the senior level was the experiences I had when I was out of school during school hours. I would meet different people with different backgrounds at different places. From representing my school in sports as well as educational activities, to the outdoor visits we had, I knew more about the beauty of the world's interaction than I could have had in the classroom looking at the blackboard. Of course the time spent inside the classroom was equally important to me in terms of growth as a human being but too much of something is not any different from too much of nothing.

The cliche answer of peer pressure? Well I think its just a sub and insignificant part if it was not for the core problem of limited freedom. Teen angst? Perhaps. This is why somehow, I think, sports changed my life. How sports, specifically football, changed my life? That's for another day.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Tauhu tak habis

Conversations between me and strangers are never smooth or even interactive. I have awkward conversations with people I know, let alone the ones I don't. But on that day, it became more than just awkward. It went into somewhere not many people have seen before. Most people go into this zone in dire need.

That day I went into the personal zone with strangers.

"How old do you think I am?," tanya si kakak menjual rojak secara tiba-tiba sambil memotong bahan-bahan dengan pisau yang kelihatan terlampau tajam untuk hanya memotong tauhu.

"I don't know. Mid 30's?," aku menjawap tanpa memikir apa yang telah dituturkan. Aku terlalu khusyuk melihat pulut panggang yang sedang di buat oleh makcik tua stall sebelah ini.

"What?" si kakak itu bertanya seakan-akan tidak mendengar jawapan yang aku berikan.

"Mid 30's" aku sebut balik hanya atas sebab aku berfikir dia tidak dapat mendengar jawapan aku dalam pasar yang kecoh ini.

"I mean I've seen people in their 50's looking more youthful than you" aku cuba jelaskan sebab aku memilih jawapan itu.

"What?!" tanya kakak itu yang sudah berhenti memotong buat seketika.

Aku melihat mukanya bertambah garang, lalu aku cuba mengelakkan daripada perkara itu masuk ke zon deep shit dan terus berkata "Err... I mean...I like your hair?"

Aku ambil makanan aku dan membayar pada kelajuan cahaya dan beredar dari situ.

Apabila kembalinya dirumah aku dapati rojak aku seperti kurang bahan dari dulu.

"Mungkin sebab ekonomi global teruk" kata aku dalam hati.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Part 6: Caught in between

I tried to focus on what majestic beauty I just saw but my neurons heading towards my brain had a doughnut break because of the traffic. I scrubbed my eyes for awhile to try and stabilize any sense of gravity inside my head. When I finally managed to meet the horizontal line with the vertical I realized she was gone.

I was confused. Distraught. I searched around to see if I could find her. Or so I thought. I was actually just spinning my body at a 360 degree angle, the angle in which a multisource assessment is achieved. Hence my logic to have spun. Maybe it wasn't my day, I thought to myself or perhaps it was because of all those feel good complications I had before. Whatever it was I tried to let it go.

Snap! Flash! I was caught by Elm a few meters away from my dazed self. Elm a 6 foot 5 tall cat-loving man from a Swedish background was surprised that I didn't try to run. With striking blond hair, it should have even been caught by people who died in the titanic hundreds of feet under the sea. But not me. Not that day. I was still fixed on the girl I barely remember. Who barely smiled. Who barely said a word.

After everybody was caught, we headed to get something to eat. After running like a bunch of little children after eating all those Halloween candy, we perhaps lost as much as half our body weight in less than a day's time. Then again, perhaps that was the mushroom side effect talking. As we were eating our not so fresh manufactured pizza we bought at your not so local pizza place, I still couldn't get her out of my mind.

With ash brown hair flowing smoothly up to her shoulders and perfectly proportioned eyes and lips, her gentle smile made the world stop for awhile. I think. It was perhaps a faulty memory plagued by a sense of fantasy. I couldn't actually remember her exact features as I was dazed. Or if she wasn't actually a he. But for that brief second, the world, my world, stopped to enjoy beauty.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Past

Ramai yang mengatakan hari-hari "kemeriahan" kini tidak semeriah dahulu.


Aku?


Sama macam dulu. Bagi aku itu lebih kepada mentaliti dari perkara fizikal. Tapi itu cerita kedai mamak.


Aku hanya ingin mengimbas kembali bulan puasa dahulu kala.


Alhamdulillah aku telah berpeluang berpuasa di luar negara. Di 2 negara asing. Tapi, seperti pengalaman-pengalaman yang lain, aku hanya menggunakan memori selektif. Seperti mana aku perlu bersahur di tengah malam akibat imsak pada 3 pagi atau berbuka pada 9 malam pada musim panas. Ini semuanya memori selektif.


Tapi ketika kecil dahulu, hari jadi aku banyak jatuh pada bulan yang mulia ini (ini mungkin sebab mengapa hari jadi aku tidak memberikan signifikasi yang lebih mendalam setiap tahun). Di Amerika misalnya, aku perlu bersahur pada tengah malam sebab imsak awal. Apabila di sekolah, aku hanya duduk diam di dalam kantin ketika rehat (salah satu perkara yang aku suka tentang Amerika, mereka mewajibkan berehat dikantin, dan kemudiannya memberi rehat yang sama panjang untuk berehat diluar.) Seperti kanak2 kecil dahulu, aku banyak meluangkan masa lapang aku di luar rumah. Bermain di padang, misalnya. Bulan puasa pun tidak berubah, aku tetap berlari-larian di dalam hutan seberang rumah aku dahulu. Bila balik ke rumah sudah pasti penat, dan rasa seksa tunggu buka pada 9 malam. Tapi aku sekarang lihat itu sebagai pengalaman.


Ketika aku berpuasa di tanah suci, kami sekeluarga membuka puasa di masjid. Mereka membentangkan kain putih dan menyediakan kurma, roti dan yogurt untuk kami berbuka. Selepas pulang dari sembahyang baru kami makan "berat".


Dan di sini pula, ia lebih bermakna kerana manusia-manusia disekeliling dunia aku. Ketika masih di bangku sekolah, kami pasti bermain bola di petang hari sebelum balik berbuka. Sehingga hari ini teknik dan cara bermain aku banyak diambil dari pengalaman bermain di dalam gelanggang tenis taman aku (the academy we called it). Malam pula lagi meriah, tapi itu cerita lain.


Sekarang, pada tika ini, banyak yang berubah dari fizikalnya, tapi signifikasinya masih sama. Tidak pernah lagi terlintas bahawa bulan puasa dan raya baru-baru ini tidak meriah. Mungkin aku naif. Mungkin aku tak dapat lihat. Atau mungkin aku terlampau selektif dalam memori.
Macam mana pun, kehidupan ini banyak blindspot. Kamu pilih blindspot yang betol?

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Waste

Since I've got loads of work to do, I thought it would be an appropriate time to actually put a post up for the heck of it. The one thing I know how to do perfectly (I think) is to annoy people. Its like an art to me personally. Heck, I annoy myself most of the time.

To me there is certain degrees of how to annoy a person because of different personalities. Different people get annoyed by different things and I seemed to have mastered what those different things are whether it was consciously made or by accident.

There's also different levels of annoying. From the first slightly mild level of annoying that makes for some awkward giggles to the mother load of doucheyness, asshole. Then there is the angle of which the "attack" is made. Be it verbally, physically, subconsciously and other known specimen of movement.

At the end of the day having annoyed somebody deserves some kind of reward. Usually its in an edible form. Or drinkable. Sometimes its just the mere pleasure of knowing it happened with a cup of tea.

So,



care for a drink?

Friday, August 13, 2010

Kereta Laju

Watching hundreds of cars passing by,
I just stand still here,
at this spot,
this lane,
this way,
as cars pass by speedily,
awaiting the bus.
Knowing the inevitability that,
I will be in one of these cars.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

First Step

Working productivity is not the priority of the day as we embarked on the holy month of Ramadan. The main priority I guess is self productivity in a holistic sense. Not to get too preachy so I'll just make this virtual toast, here's hoping for a good and wonderful time during the month of fasting.

There have been a lot of things I intended to write but now is not the time. A month++ to go. Come on!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Pandangan Pengalaman

I have lived in a semi-urban environment almost all my life. In touch with both the urban mindset and those rural areas?. So how has this affected my life in general? Well I think this has impacted to my ordinarism1 (if there was such a word). I have always thought of myself as the quintessential average person. I know not much of anything and not little of anything either which makes me generally average in terms of knowledge.

Where this then diverge is in my personality. I don't have an average personality in a general context. It has come to my attention that at an early age I saw things differently than most people because I take knowledge that's mainly general but on a different angle. In other words, a bulk of general information that is distributed evenly amongst us and I pick a different segment (an normally the most unpopular one at that!) than anyone else.

At school, most people in my class was there because 1. they were sent there by the school (or picked, whichever you see fit) and 2. they had a good idea of the science stream. I didn't have both except that's slightly untrue for the first one because I was sent to a science stream but doubtfully picked. Ha ha. I had a liking towards more factual medium such as history but I wasn't fully aware of it back then since I was trying to catch up on the "core" science subjects namely chemistry and add maths.

As I jab at making sense of everything I find that this piece of information is not particularly parallel with my big question of is passion for something give that much leverage in one's knowledge? Of course the general answer would be yes, but in a detailed look at things does this apply to everything else you have knowledge of especially those that are sprung from experiences? Do I know more about a bicycle after having the experience not only using it but also maintaining it without any passion behind it than just mere passion about it? Confusing? Good.

Esok Harga panadol naik! Ha ha ha. Supply and demand people..supply and demand...

It seems that there is no such word by using blogger's spellchecker [1]

Friday, July 16, 2010

We want you!

As I was reading away other people's blogs I wondered if any of us are influential. I mean apart from famous bloggers that are in the realm of celebrity (because we lack celebs in Malaysia) do you read another strangers blogs every once in awhile to get updated and sometimes get inspired? This does not count the bloggers whom you know and met in real life.

Blogs are mushrooming up like crazy this last decades especially in the last 3 to 5 years or so. Some are updated, some barely updated *cough cough*, and some just die in space. How influential can a certain blog be. This is a very valid question since the world wide web are advocates of freedom of speech and information. Nothing is impossible in the realm of the three w's.

If they are and your a blogger, do you feel burdened by the influence or at least aware of it? Most probably like most of us, you just don't give a damn because like I said before, blogs are mushrooming in numbers and perhaps most blogs become insignificant. They just become mere numbers in the statistics of the virtual world.

This is going nowhere. Ha ha.

A-ny-way, I was thinking of post themes like the tagged post, where people ask an x amount of question as a template and tag other people to do it (almost all blogs have 'em, almost). I thought about a different type of tag. Rather than an x amount of questions how about one question or word or object to theme your post regardless of your post format. Whether personal thoughts, short story, lyrics, poetry and so and so (you get the idea, I think).

To make it short, I'm proposing that we do a post on one particular album. (this is going to prove that 1. I'm seriously loosing my mind and 2. how much people actually read this space. Ha ha. Its a narcissistic thing.)

So, any ideas on a common album?

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Imej

"Have you ever wondered how the realisation of your self image reflects your social environment especially where infatuation is concern?" tanya aku.

"Ha?" jawap kawan aku yang sedang memasukkan satu blok berbentuk bulat pada tempatnya bagaikan seorang air traffic controller membimbing kapal terbang mendarat dengan selamat.

"I mean, do you, as time goes by, perceive people differently depending on how you see yourself in the eyes of that person?" sambung aku lagi.

"Ha?" jawap kawan aku dalam kebingungan.

"Say you have a rating system based purely on looks. 10 being the highest while 1 is the lowest. You meet a person that at first you think is a 10 but when you realise that in her eyes your merely a 4 do you consciously lower your ratings towards her?" aku cuba bertanya dengan bantuan contoh.

"Milo." jawap si kawan aku.

"Milo?" kini aku kekeliruan.

Tapi sebelum aku bertanya akan signifikasi milo dalam konteks perbincangan ini, aku berfikir sendirian " Why the heck am I in a day care center."

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Kompleks

Aku dan engkau mempunyai, atas permukaannya, sifat yang sama.
Tidak kira secara dalaman mahupun fizikal. Tapi aku dan engkau jauh berbeza.
Aku mungkin tidak banyak bercakap, tetapi itu tidak membuatkan aku bisu. Aku mungkin kurang pengetahuan tentang sesuatu, tetapi itu tidak bermakna aku kurang pengetahuan tentang sesuatu perkara yang lain.

Tidak pernah sehari pon aku merasakan kita berdua sehaluan. Engkau dan aku berbeza.
Gaduh itu bagaikan sudah menjadi santapan harian kita berdua. Tapi itu tidak bermakna aku mahu lari dari engkau.
Ini kerna, wahai kawan aku,
sudah pasti aku akan mati.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Part 5: Flash

One night of pure misadventures excitement led to a magnifying painful hangover the next day. Some of us were half nude from the night before. But that didn't bother us much because it was all in good fun. This type of hangover is not the ones you get after a bloody Thursday night at a bar watching a basketball game. This was more subtle somehow. Maybe its because we were by then half junkies.

On with the road trip. Next stop a metropolitan city with a park nearby. As each of us got out from the van, we were all ready with our digital cameras. The five of us had to split up around the park and tag each other with a picture. Running around with a camera trying to catch each others faces wasn't your typical hometown game but a futuristic-esque approach to a game we all knew too well.

The basic objective of the game was to capture everyone faces in the camera. So off we went. All to a particular part of the park trying to hide as well as have a good vantage view of the others. These were post "relaxed" people and running was not our main forte at the moment. Some stumbled into bushes, others zig-zagged their way behind trees. The game started by mutual consent of counting to 90, 50 or whatever other numerical that Liebniz fellow made up for the world.

With my slow digital camera in hand I tried to go for the spectacular. I rushed towards my first few targets, Greg and Basel. Yeah I know, Basel! Who wouldn't want to get his picture. Running at full speed, which was equivalent to a elementary schoolgirl walk, I headed for the two. Flipping and rolling along the way as to avoid getting my picture taken myself. Finally after a couple of minutes or so, I reached a close enough point to capture Basel. I ran towards him but in the midst of the adrenaline rush, I tripped on a radicle root of a tree and subsequently stumbled rolling to the ground. To be counter productive to the mishap I started clicking endlessly on my digital camera.

I had bumped my head on the ground. A bit woozy. Dazed. I tried to regain focus on my vision. I looked up and there was perhaps the most stunningly beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life. I tried to get my head together to mutter a witty remark on the untimely stupid situation she just witnessed but the best I could do was "ergh-archs-fioziasti". She smiled. I think. I still haven't got my mind in tack as of yet.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Bill Please!

Every so often I get a bill that has a percentage of service charge along with it. Now this maybe nothing new if at all recognized but do you feel that sometimes that percentage doesn't mirror the actual service given?

I have always asked the question of "do we have the right to not pay the charges?". Although these questions are asked to family and friend most of which have no real knowledge of actual consumer laws here in Malaysia. As I see it, and in the eyes of many I know, we are entitled to deny payment of such charges. Nonetheless I have never seen such a case where somebody has refuse to pay it in front of my eyes.

Why do they put up such charges anyway? My theory is our culture doesn't register a tipping system. Like it or not, if we were to rid the service chargers none (if not at least most) of the customer will not give tips to deserving (or in some cases undeserving) servers. We are not used to such a "foreign" concept. This is the same with not cleaning up after eating at a restaurant because the staff will do it for us (in cases of fast food joints and stalls). At a very early age, we are thought to leave behind our plates on the table for the cleaners to get them for us.

Now I'm not just pointing the finger at this country, I've seen such acts done in the UK and Europe where most of the cleaners, like here, are Asians of foreign origin. When I was a kid growing up in the States, we were made to clean up after our plates. Okay, the word "clean up" is mostly misunderstood because the fact is we just threw away any unusable stuff and leave the tray on necessary table, so it might not have come to the extent of "cleaning up" but the point I would want to make is the effort we put into helping out.

My theory is that with us helping out a bit, this results in better customer relations, hence better service. This also (might) result in a cleaner place unlike what you see in most fast foo joints outside a mall here in Malaysia. most notably the McD in Ayer Keroh. Ha ha! This will enhance our awareness of helping out and maybe (just maybe) improve our ethics in public situation (like that of a public transport where most pregnant ladies are still standing up).

My mom argues that this is due to a low minimum wage. Which to me is confusing because if people had a higher minimum wage, wouldn't they need to do more? But the logic is this, when the minimum wage is higher, less employees are hired. This lacks the man power to clean up. Where as with lower minimum wage, more employees are hired and assigned clean up jobs. In reality I don't see increment in employees in parallel to the work that needs to be done. That is a human right issue however (i think).

In regards to the tipping system, my logic is that if there was one, wouldn't the server increase their work performance (service and customer realtions) to get more tips? Restaurants are reluctant to gamble on the idea so they have placed a fix service charge (and a high fixed percentage at that!). So unless there are any major changes, look foward to that 15% chargers on your bill.

*This is only in theory (mine in particular) and no statistical evidence provided (because I'm that lazy). Ha ha! Observation of a guy with to many questions that are mostly useless.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Mind the Gap

For as long as there are human interaction, there is always the interaction and usage of emotions. As I am daily user of the national public transport system, I get to deal with a roller coaster of emotions each week, and in some cases each day!

As I'm sure all of you are aware, the public transportation system here in this country is not developing in line with the nation's image of a developing country. It is sad to say that the system just sucks. And sucks bad I might add.

Okay, perhaps it is a mild exaggeration (yes, mild!) but it doesn't have any signs of progress. After the disastrous decision to give private companies to run the LRT and Star system back in the 90's, the government is on a steep mission to rectify the problem and at the same time elevate the system into something of a well organized one.

Each day as I stand near the bus stop where a bus passes every 30 minutes (which was "supposedly" 15 minutes) at best, I stand on an imaginary hill of emotions as other vehicles pass by. Whether their too early or too late the buses integrated under the same company is in dire need of re-organization. It seems that there are not many buses that run in one route. The problem here is volume and not the traffic jams. Regardless of the traffic activity, there should be an increase in bus volume especially in peak hours to accommodate the need of the consumer. If there is a low man power to accommodate such demand, than it is in the company's' capability and responsibility to supply. Others also have to go to work what.

There has been an improvement in the rail department within the vicinity of town but it is nothing to woo about. There's still the need to packed ourselves in such little space (sardine style) as there is an inconsistency in the coaches provided. More often than not, you will see the 2-coach train roll out instead of the 4-coach during peak hours. It is reported that only 16% of the city inhabitants uses public transport compared (most, in my opinion, foreigners) to 50% in more developed countries. That is a stark difference especially since one of which is our own neighbour, Singapore. Maybe it's a cultre thing or a trend thing. Perhaps people think that using public transport are so passe.

Now there's a new plan to develop MRT into the city which is great news only if the current system is improved to accommodate delays in the implementation (the Malaysian way la!) of such a project. Improvements must be made, and fast, if the government wants to see an increase in the number of people using the public transportation system.

*serius sangat? take that you government-oriented newspaper!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Bola Itu Bulat

Three more days to go as advertise. Splattered all over the news, ads, tv and all other media platform. Its coming. Yes, three more days to go. Te-ri mor dez to go.

If you don't know by now, Im talking about FIFA's World Cup. With all the hype surrounding this one month long event, companies are producing products and services to cater the needs of the "football fanatics". But why is the count down so important that its on most main page of our local newspaper (or at least the back page since I usually read newspaper manga style, ha ha). The fact is, if your holding out the three days specified you'd be left dissapointed, unless your a particular fan of either the host nation south africa or mexico.

Yes, theres a "star studded" extravaganza before the kick-off for the opening ceremony but if you've been waiting to see the world cup, I'm betting that you don't even care about the opening ceremony let alone would want to watch it. No disrespect to south africa or mexico, but an opening match between the two is not a match I'd get excited about. The only thing that might get me watching is if future Man United player Javi Hernandez is playing. Other than that, I think I'll pass.

The "big matches" in the group stage will not start till the 15th with Cote d'Ivoire facing Portugal in what is regarded as the group of death. The kick-off hours in this part of the region is a bit difficult especially if you want to watch the big guns going at it (unless you think France under Domenech are big guns". Ha ha. I kid, I kid.) Although there are some favourable match times in the group stage, its going to get tougher to watch the games as the tournament sprint for the finish.

I'm one to first admit that I might be a little too addicted to football, but the opening match of this, and other world cup before it, has never managed to get me watching. On behalf of football fanatics everywhere, please give us the permission to go crazy for this whole month and let there be panadols for breakfast as we zombie back to work!

P/S: Selamat Pulang? Ha ha ha.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Name That Movie 6

Paul : You know, if we're going to do this we should write our own stuff. Then we don't get stiffed by the record companies.

John: I write stuff. Not songs, more poetry...you know,stories.

Paul: Add a tune to that and you've got a song.

John: You've written any?

Paul: A couple.

John: How do you know so much? You don't seem like the rock and roll kind of guy.

Paul: You mean I don't go around smashing things up and acting like a dick?

John: Yeah.

Paul: No. It's the music. That's it, its just music. Simple.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Name That Movie 5

Tommy Corn: [Albert and Tommy sitting on marsh rock] What are you doing tomorrow?

Albert Markovski: I was thinking about chaining myself to a bulldozer. Do you want to come?

Tommy Corn: What time?

Albert Markovski: Mm, one, one-thirty.

Tommy Corn: Sounds good. Should I bring my own chains?

Albert Markovski: We always do.
[Scene goes blurry. Tommy hits Albert in the face with the big orange ball and then hits himself in the face with it]

Friday, April 30, 2010

Bunyi Vakum Berfungsi

Perlukah aku memulakan nukilan blog ini dengan kata-kata untuk menjelaskan habuk maya yang telah terkumpul dalam blog ni? Pastinya tidak bukan? Jikalau itu satu pertanyaan yang engkau mahu aku jawap, ternyata engkau tidak kenal sama makhluk ini. Ayat ci-bai.


Terduduk memandang skrin putih didepan aku ini, aku tidak berfikir tentang apa yang hendak ditaipkan malah aku tidak berfikir. Period. Ha ha. Tapi itu cerita lain. Bak kata orang kolumpo, apa cer? Ayat lagi ci-bai. Jadi aku hanya menaip perkataan-perkataan yang aku rasa nak taip. Kita lihat jika ia akan menghasilkan ayat-ayat novel melayu yang sdah di sunting oleh pihak penerbit atau hanya kata-kata pra fantasi.


Untuk kita tenungkan lagi isu-isu debat diatas, aku berhenti disini.
Ayat paling ci-bai.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Gambar Jalan-Jalan 3

Malaysian Hall



Mark And Spencer's Cafe



On the way to Carnaby Street.



Old Trafford



Sunday, April 11, 2010

Lame Bebenor

Okay, so I haven't been posting as much as I would have liked to but that's life. Deal with it (talking furiously with myself). It's been awhile now since I've issued out some thought provoking, well organized, intellectual yet funny things in this blog and if you know me, I'm not going to start now.

So till here for now. Heh.

It's still my fucking blog.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Pantas

Aku pergi makan di restoran yang menyediakan makan berat bersama kawan aku. Seperti biasa kami berdua sahaja. Order masing-masing dan kami mula berborak.


Sedang kami sedap makan beliau bertanya kepadaku "why don't you play football like the way you talk about it?".


Tanpa memikirkan apa-apa aku lantas menjawap "why don't you look like what you eat?".


Beliau sedang makan salad ketika itu.


Kami berdua senyap seketika.


Okay, soalan beliau sebenarnya bukan itu. Aku tipu. Beliau sebenarnya bertanyakan "why don't you speak like you write?". I wasn't offended. Tapi ia bagaikan satu refleks pantas yang keluar dari mulut aku.


Sorry beb. You know me well enough. Ha ha.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Gambar Jalan-Jalan 2

Ninja Canada



One things for sure..we love 'em food.



Ya, aku dan adik aku bawak bag roller berjalan-jalan hari itu sementara yang lain bawak lite..ini baru bagpackers sebenar.



Semua lokasi di atas, di universiti tertera.



Train station yang tutup hari Christmas. Aku tak tau kenapa tutup. Tak meriah pon hari itu. Ha ha.



Aku dan Sir Matt kawan baik, tapi dia sorang je dpt statue.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Gambar jalan-jalan 1

Obviously not in chronological order.



Baklava
Location: School Road Acton.






Malaysian Cuisine
Location: Restaurant Tukdin, Cravern Road near Paddington station.
Amik engkau lapar!

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Warning

Ada beberapa permintaan dari rakan-rakan baru-baru ini untuk blog "personal" aku. Atas sebab aku tiada akaun sosial seperti facebook mereka ingin melihat gambar-gambar yang sempat aku atau mereka disekelilingku tangkap ketika berjalan-jalan terutamanya gambar-gambar baru.


Untuk pengetahuan semua, aku tak banyak gambar. Mungkin sampai ke tahap tidak mahu bergambar. Tapi itu tidak pernah menghalang dari gambar aku ditangkap. Pening sebentar. Uphamol.


Atas sebab kekurangan idea semenjak dua menjak tiga menjak ni, aku akan ambil inisiatif untuk muat atas?kan gambar jalan-jalan aku.


Jadi ini satu amaran, blog ini akan menjadi lebih personal dari sekarang. Sediakan tong sampah anda semua.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Part 4 : Time Travel

It was another droning day at the office but it was different somehow. I just couldn't put my finger on it. Perhaps it was because today was a Friday and the weekend was about to start. Ah, the weekend. Two and a half days of deflecting work. Two and a half days of pure satisfaction whatever it is your doing. Or perhaps it was because we finally made plans for the weekend. All of us. The housemates that is. Its such a rarity that we plan to spend time together as we rarely see one another at home.

The work day didn't feel at all an awe inspiring uplifting experience. Running around to far too many places. Having to deliver things before the holidays is such a pain in the ass. Everyone is already in their festive mood and would like to send all their works at the same time just to annoy people like me. Luckily I had enough Advils to numb any emotions towards the workload.

The clock ticking ever so closely to 5 o'clock. Everybody is packing up their stuff to finally make use of them. I on the other hand have already packed. Not much to pack anyway. Light is the way to go in this town, especially when my preferred transportation is my old bike. As I got home, the guys were already there waiting with their bags on the floor ready to go. We weren't going far away though. Most of the stuff inside their bags were food. For you see, this trip needed lots of food.

Hoped on Steve's, my housemate, 63' Corvair. Okay so it wasn't your adventurous vintage 85' GMC Vendura the A team used or the magic mystery bus that were the center of Scooby Doo and the gang but it still had the charm and character to it. The five of us inside a van that had only 3 seats at the back because of one ingenious night we all had after some frolicking around. Guys with huge testosterone high after watching a basketball game. Luckily for us there was just the five of us this time. Usually in this kind of circumstance we would have had at least five more friends that came along and most of us had to sit down on the floor of the van. Off we went. It was getting dark so Steve turned on the headlights which we all know was slightly just more powerful than a double A battery operated flashlight. Just. It wasn't such a long ride but it seemed that way because of the speed the van was going. It was to be another one of Steve's pet project. To fix his van. One of millions.

We finally arrived to nowhere. Nothing insight for miles except the big flat terrain and a few hard hills. Sand filled the sky as the air drizzles. It was for some the desert. Than one of my housemates, George, took out his stash. It wasn't much but it was enough for the five of us. This dark plant that has an umbrella for a head has magical powers they say. Everyone took one but later added a few more. Henry wasn't one who could digest it that well so he put it in a sandwich to nullify the pungent taste. These magical plants took us to places we've never been before. People cope differently when consuming such mystical plants. Henry was the quiet one after such a trip while Greg would be the overtly paranoid one. It didn't mean much anyway since we all had one thing in mind. Food. Hunger strikes best when your high. With backpacks full of any junk food we get a hold on, it was to be one hell of a night.

So we were there in the middle of nowhere while being everywhere at the same time.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Prihal semasa

If you want to shoot your fucking leg off, don't fucking get it messed up on me for fuck sake.

Excuse my fucking french.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Silap orang

Orang yang bukan kawan aku berlari kearahku dan mula berkata "abang, ada 5 minit tak? Ini product bla... bla.. bla..."


Aku mendengar sebentar. Aku baik begitu. heh.


Selepas aku sedar beliau sudah mengambil lebih dari 5 minit yang telah di tetapkan ketika itu aku pon berkata, "takpe la. Saya nak pergi dulu, terima kasihla."


Beliau menjawap dengan pantas "rilex la abang, tolonglah melayu." Aku tak tipu.


Aku pelik, MLM pon ada utamakan kaum ke?


Aku menjawap "saya tidak mendifinisikan kaum."


Beliau tergamam dan lalu menyambut, aku tak tipu, "melayu mudah lupa."


Okay aku tipu, tetapi walauapapun perkataan yang boleh dituturkan selepas itu sudah pasti aku sudah bersedia dengan bitch slap. Ya, bitch slap. Tak perlu flying2 kick pon ketika berlakunya perkara ini.


Pada realitinya beliau berlari-lari cheetah kearah lain. Cheetah.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Name That Movie 3 & 4

The Firts Movie:

Miss Dodger: At a certain part in your life. Probably when too much of it has gone by. You will open your eyes and see yourself for who you are. Especially for everything that made you so different from all the awful normals. And you will say to yourself, "But I am this person." And in that statement, that correction, there will be a kind of love.

The Second Movie:

Boris Yellnikoff: That's why I can't say enough times, whatever love you can get and give, whatever happiness you can filch or provide, every temporary measure of grace, whatever works.

Clue: The second has the title of the movie in the line.
p/s: yes, I've only managed to copy and paste movie quotes for the past posts. Perhaps its some kind of writers block I'm going through. Perhaps I'm that lazy.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Name That Movie 2

Andy Dufresne: That's the beauty of music. They can't get that from you... Haven't you ever felt that way about music?

Red: I played a mean harmonica as a younger man. Lost interest in it though. Didn't make much sense in here.

Andy Dufresne: Here's where it makes the most sense. You need it so you don't forget.

Red: Forget?

Andy Dufresne: Forget that... there are places in this world that aren't made out of stone. That there's something inside... that they can't get to, that they can't touch. That's yours.

Red: What're you talking about?

Andy Dufresne: Hope.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Today

I look to the right of the screen where this month's post are archived and I laugh. Dry spell. More of a whole lot of laziness going around. The more I'm busy, the more it is I write. With exceptions to when I'm extremely bored that I talk to myself and convince myself to write a post. I do talk a lot to myself, I guess that's just the kind of vain person I am. Ha ha.

I've been watching a lot of movies this months hence the Name that Movie post which I might put up a couple more whenever I want to post something but don't have any idea of what to post time comes up.

This is a fairly short post. Just because.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Part 3: Lesson Learned

This home, though it has been only 5 years since we rented it, has changed a lot over that period of time. Once full of color now has become what the surrounding world was, colorless. There were 4 of us living in this apartment, one of which was me. I knew Greg the longest since we were in the same orphanage together.

I knew at an early age that I wasn't perceive as normal to the outside world. I had no parents. I didn't know my biological parents. Fuck it, I didn't want to. My fellow orphans became my family but later on I didn't care much as many of them were sent to foster families. I watch as kid after kid waved goodbye. I too was sent many times to live with foster families but none of which ever worked out.

Even though I masterminded a lot of devilish acts as a kid, especially to get out of the foster parent's home, I was always the one who got bullied. I was little in physique and grew slower than the other boys at the orphanage. I was tormented by this one deaf boy almost everyday. Each day I force myself to learn sign language so that one day, at least for one day, I could beat him up. I knew if I learned sign language it won't be much of a case in sympathy and that then, we were even. Him with his hearing impairment and me with my scrawny physique.

That day came and I went to confront him. Needless to say, he didn't at all looked happy. His size twice as big as mine and with hands as big as king kong's he ran to me with anger. If this was a movie, he'd be running in slow motion. Unfortunately this was more a slapstick comedy than a full on action drama. I was a bit surprise that for one he could move that fast, and secondly why he's even beating me up in the first place. Okay, I might have lied, maybe it was because of my endless cussing. Okay, I might have lied about that too, it was more of a one finger hand gesture than a poetic line of cussing.

I was out of breath by the time he was finish beating me up, and by the looks of things so did he. So what it was only because of the energy needed to do the beating up, I still managed to make him sweat in my books. A mental win I thought. I did however learned that I could still think to myself while getting beaten up. It was another mental win. Even though I was thinking of why I learned sign language instead of self defense, I still prefer it to be rationalized as a mental win. Eat that deaf boy as I said to him in my mind.

I grew up knowing one thing from that encounter, don't fight those who are bigger physically than you. The other thing that I got from all of the beatings was a best friend in Greg. He was beside me throughout all the beating. Even though he was getting beaten himself, I did feel we would stick together for a long time. A combat brother. The kinds where you hear from veteran soldiers who was at 'nam and Korea but on a smaller scale.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Name That Movie 1

Mr. Edward Magorium: [to Molly, about dying] When King Lear dies in Act V, do you know what Shakespeare has written? He's written "He dies." That's all, nothing more. No fanfare, no metaphor, no brilliant final words. The culmination of the most influential work of dramatic literature is "He dies." It takes Shakespeare, a genius, to come up with "He dies." And yet every time I read those two words, I find myself overwhelmed with dysphoria. And I know it's only natural to be sad, but not because of the words "He dies." but because of the life we saw prior to the words.
[pause, walks over to Molly]

Mr. Edward Magorium: I've lived all five of my acts, Mahoney, and I am not asking you to be happy that I must go. I'm only asking that you turn the page, continue reading... and let the next story begin. And if anyone asks what became of me, you relate my life in all its wonder, and end it with a simple and modest "He died."

Molly Mahoney: [starting to sob] I love you.

Mr. Edward Magorium: I love you, too.
[picks Molly up, sighs heavily]

Mr. Edward Magorium: Your life is an occasion. Rise to it.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Si Badut Dunia

Engkau hidup dalam kegelapan,
hanya keluar melihat cahaya apabila di panggil..


Engkau tiada ruang bernafas,
di sogokkan dengan penipuan orang sekeliling..


Engkau di putar, di pulas dengan sekuat hati,
sampai pada satu tahap engkau tiada perasaan selain dari letupan dari dalam..


Engkau tidak tahan pada musik yang di mainkan,
hanya putaran bunyian menyakitkan asas musika dunia pada masa kamu mahukan pembaharuan..


Engkau wahai kawanku,
Jack dalam kotak.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Melampau

People can be dickheads sometimes.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Tembak

Sometimes I think that I have dug a hole so deep into the flaming volcanic core of the earth that I'm not able to get back up. I've dug myself too deep that I just want to take my P08 Parabellum and conjure up a new life.

I truly hope none of you out there have the chance to quote me on that.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

So dance good

Mia: Don't you hate that?

Vincent: What?

Mia: Uncomfortable silences. Why do we feel it's necessary to yak about bullshit in order to be comfortable?

Vincent: I don't know. That's a good question.

Mia: That's when you know you've found somebody special. When you can just shut the fuck up for a minute and comfortably enjoy the silence.


Classic.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Risk

When in doubt, flip a coin.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

I sent you to school and all I get is this?

As I woke up today, I had this burning sensation to actually clarify why I actually do what I do (which for the most part nothing). What I'am micro focusing on at this moment in time is writing.

As early on in my childhood I have never liked reading. Reading to me was a chore and still am for certain books. My theory is that when you start reading, the books that are given to you are generally fictitious stories or mythological reads. It's at this point your personality begin to stereotype books and its just a question of whether you like reading or not.

As kids we tend to have two sides of everything and stereotyping what we know. The black and white of life. My dislike of books got me out of the house to play outdoors. Which began my infatuation with sports. Along with sports and school, television filled my day almost everyday. Those Japanese cartoons that made us all do silly stuff and eventually made us quite brand conscious at the time. Not your high profile brands but at the time, the difference between a tamiya made car and a rip off in audi was huge. Some will nod in agreement and some would be puzzled but that was the "it" thing at the time. I remember the days of the digimons, tamiya's, yo-yo's and all that other stuff people were into in those days *cough cough*.

The turning point of my reading phobia was when I got an autobiography on Bill Gates. Who other than my dad to give me that book. Now this book was huge. It was bigger thicker than all the form 4 and 5 textbooks put together. I mean, if I wasn't reading those, why in the world would I read this? I thought. To those who didn't know me back then, I was into business (even though it is a very different situation now, which made me think of the saying you don't know what you got until it's gone, but that would be a totally different story altogether). I sold numerous of things when I was a kid. Trading cards, pucks, books, cds that were mostly based around my friends. I never thought of going big or anything like that though. Just enough to get by I said. I had worked in retail even before PMR by helping out with my mom's store. This is where I think I developed my retail brain calculator (which, I think, is why my mom and friends like having me around to shop with). Anyway, back to the real story. I started reading the book slowly. I am no fast reader (if you see me reading fast, then I'm probably not gonna realize what I just read by the time I finish reading it). I was fascinated in reading the experiences this guy went through, and by looking at the book, you knew he had plenty.

This got me thirsty for autobiographies but since I wasn't "mature" enough to read most biographies I was left with mostly inspirational leaders to read into which became quite a bore later onwards. So here is where I think my infatuation with history started. So I got more non-fiction books to read. Until this day I mostly read non-fictitious books but now I'm mostly reading about popular cultures.

A-ny-way, after reading autobiographies and liking them, I began to make my essays at school more factual which didn't go so well with my dad after he found out that I wrote the story of how he decided to marry my mom, but it did get me an A though and it did get to the 200 words mark (or was it 500). Ha ha. So I began to flirt with fiction after that. Some more semi-fictitious. It has been a twisted ride on my evolution in writing but I hope it does not end here even though I think that my writing is getting awful by the day. I still like doing it. Ya, like, bukan love.

And all the while you were reading this you once thought to yourself, what the fuck?! Spread the pain people. Spread the pain.
Ha ha.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Part 2: Time slows down

It took what seemed forever to have made my decision but finally I said no and he said "your lost." If I were to get some more I'd be lying about where I had been to my boss the next day. I put on my Ipod and helmet and went my way. The city buzzing in excitement all the way to the bank I worked for. No, I wasn't your executive calling all the shots at this so called big bank nor was I even the bank teller. I had more liberté working at the back. The glue to every organization I would always imagine. The office boy.

Everything seemed grey. Life was more symmetric than I would have hoped for. Almost every people I meet inside the bank are DOA. This seemed weird considering the huge amounts of money they make each year. Every cliche you could have ever imagined was evident right smack in the middle of this high paced monetary center. Every phone never stops ringing, every keyboard never stopped clicking, and yet the people who are in the middle of everything looked like zombies. No, not your Hollywood big block buster movie zombies, they were more B movie zombies who were too slow for even considering eating peoples brains for livelihood. I didn't want to be stuck doing that for the rest of my life. Hence my past working experience of 5 different jobs all of which that slowly shred any soul left in me. I have worked for the head honchos of the business lines but gained nothing other than an imaginary cancer. I was still waiting for my appointment at an imaginary hospital about that.

My day consisted of mainly sitting around doing other people's chores. "Send this to this department," they would say or "pick up this and that". It wasn't your normal 8 to 5 job but it does get me a little wee self time on my own. I could be lazying around the office drinking coffee or having a snack outside the building. Plus I get to go home earlier than the others especially when there is anything left to do which for the most part a usual occasion. When I do go back late, my ride back home is like the game Frogger. A balancing act if one could have imagined. The impatient honking cars, the speeding motorcycles weaving around the conjunctions and fast walking zombie like creature heading to the nearest tube. I head back home to do it all over again the next day.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Useless Facts 3

In New York State, it is still illegal to shoot a rabbit from a moving trolley car.

Whoever made that law possible is a legend. Ha ha.

Privisi

When others are not applying and understanding your reasons, it is time to just shut the fuck up and lay back watching.

You can quote me on that.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Telinga bengkak

After what seems like forever, I came back. Even though it has only been 4 days, I'm back at home. Ha ha. I have a hard time to quickly adapt I guess. Yes, 3 semesters per year yet I still have a hard time. Enough of the yip yaps, there are far more questionable materials to unravel but since I'm not into politics, lets just leave it at that. Ha ha.

If your like everyone else, there is slightly more chance of you liking music than the political scene. Whether you own only one album or more it would be hard to find a person who can live without music. It is like living life without colors. I have this knack for music of the past. I'm an oldie they say. Even the choice of songs I hear today are not what your normal radio stations play (this has now been a major influence in the local music industry as it tries to reignite itself, but is another story altogether). The lyrical content of today's songs are very much questionable to say the least. There are fewer genuine singer-songwriters today that has caught the attention. Even up to the 90's we could still see a good amount of these people making it to the popular music scene in the likes of Jewel, Alanis Morrisette and bands like No Doubt or the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Now I find that to search for the type of artist that expands ones minds I need to search outside of the popular music scene.

Don't get me wrong, there are some inside the chart topping circle that are good songwriters but they seem like a dying bread. Taylor Swift for one has caught the attention of many with her down to earth relatable songs. One thing that a song should do is have it relate to the listeners which I find confusing in a current world with more show than talent. Even the hip hop scene, which was once glorified by the lyrical production, has now became more of a booty shaking extravaganza than anything else. The one who has still caught my ear to this day with his lyrics is Jay Z. Even Eminem has faded a bit (although this might be because he is producing more behind the scenes).

So here I salute thee, singer-songwriters. Ha ha.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Surat kosong

I know you kinda have problems with your internet connection right now and your probably going to miss this post unless you were soo bored that before you clicked on the archive button or older post button you scratched your fingers against the blackboard just to have a higher level of entertainment than this.

I'm here to make you feel like laughing (unintentionally of course), disgust, paranoid, nausea, and other symptoms that involved involuntary vomiting. I got you going now didn't I. Ha ha. So how long has it been? You say 1 and a half years, and I say because of the "life changes", so to speak, it was like a lifetime. Tom-ato, to-mato. (In that song British, American thing). I know, it had been that long. You were busy, I wasn't. When you weren't busy, I wasn't as well. Ha ha. I'm not sorry for disturbing you doing your work though. Ha ha. ( We're each others killjoy right?). I'm sticking to the fact that you are getting older you know. Which reminds me to ask you, why 18 anyway? Of all the numbers that could have been taken. You picked 18.

When I said I was a bit different than before, I sugar-coated it a bit didn't I. (I know, I know..Your saying, "A bit?! Really? A Bit?!). I blame it on responsibilities I tell ya. Too early to have 'em. Ha ha. At least I haven't lost my sense of humor right? And I see the same from you. After all, it is what makes us sane, right? Of course as usual had a blast even though it was slightly marred by an overdose of dairy on your part. Ha ha. ( I won't forget it as well ). To answer your question, yes I do think I have matured a bit over the last couple of years. It might be a bit surprising to know that I'm not stuck reading only comics anymore. Ha ha.

So anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is that thank you for your time. Thank you for keeping me sane all these years. I'll try not to go missing again. Ha ha. As long as you always make me feel that home is home ( after everyone's departure into "adulthood". ) Your still no Peter Pan of young adult by the way. Ha ha. So thank you friend. Best friend.

I know, I know. Your gonna some how get all wound up about the sentimentality of the matter and that its all gdik..gdik.. Ha ha. Which I still don't know the exact definition to. Ha ha. I nose you too well la amoi. And vise versa. Ha ha.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Darah

I have always been stuck with other people's problems but never stuck in a problem with other people.

Bloody hell.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Part 1: The clock starts here

Puff. One hit. I was in. It wasn't my first nor was it my last. I was hooked. Finally it seemed clearer. The world showed it's beautiful colors. As orange as an orange could be. Bright lights of neon surrounding this dark city. This was early in the morning. The mist was still here waiting for the sunrise to squall them away.

I stood silence looking up to which I thought was the sky but in reality it was the white ceiling. The color of blue hidden in between the whiteness of the wall. My stomach growling, begging for someone to fill it with anything. It was at a time where you don't care what the hell is there to eat as long as it fulfills its natural needs. I took a box of cereal out from the food cupboard. Got out my bowl and filled it up till the cereal overflowed. Milk was then poured. It looked like if the Niagara falls upside down. It wasn't that pretty of a sight when I gorged upon these colorful rings of sweet wheat covered in the natural white color of the milk. It was like a marathon I had to finish. A dash to the finish line trying to beat the time. This was it. I was going for the world record of over excessive gorging. A gorge-a-thon. My friends became time as it slowed down for me. It stopped for me. Me.

After I gobbled up every few bits I sat down on the floor. There was this young guy sitting the opposite of me smoking some light cigeratte. It was George Harrison. With his liverpudlian accent he asked me if I wanted some. I shook my head. It was somehow a different George. His accent didn't sound scousers at all. I didn't care at the time. Why would I? I was sitting chatting with one of the fab four. We later chatted about their works and how he was never liked by the others. Their public image taking a toll on their apperception and psyche. He then said he had to go to work and left me there just sitting, waiting for something but couldn't get my mind around it.

I looked at the clock, it seemed crooked. What looked to be 3 o'clock was actually 6. "My hand was bigger" I thought to myself. It took awhile for me to see myself but when it did, it hit me that I had to go to work. Stumbling down towards the showers hitting everything in sight. Luckily we were a bunch of guys who didn't use a lot of money to buy furnitures. I showered and got changed. Got my bicycle out, protected myself with all of the pads and helmet. On the way to the door, my house mate stopped me and said, "one for the ride".


With my bicycle in hand, I looked to the door, turn to see the rumpled piece of paper stuffed with magical plantation and stood in silence.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Minggu Baru, Masalah Sama

Your life falls apart when your neglected. But you loose sight of real happiness and reality when your not. You don't know what you've got till its gone, again.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Hari Somber

Travel is a means to an end.






Home.