Goodbye Boys

Its a first time that i have watched one local after another (the other was Rain Dogs which i caught last night). This movie by Bernard Chauly (the director of Goal&Gincu) is about 8 boy scouts from Ipoh taking a 5 days 100km journey as a requirement for the King Scout badge is a typical coming of age teenage boys movie but with a local flavour. Although the movie is set in 1990, it stayed clear of being nolstagic which i feel is nice.At this point i could share more thoughts about the technical aspects of the movie or even talk more about the characters but i shall leave that to Joe (if he blogs about this movie lar). What i want to share is that sometimes during the movie i cant help but to think back on my own days as a scout and a uniformed body member. Watching some scenes reminded me of my own experiences and moments cutting wood in the forest near my shcool, camping and eating over campfire just came into my mind. After finishing the movie, i cant help but look back at my old school time photographs and remembering the days how simplicity is at the end and complexity has just begun. I can go on and on talking about those days but i think its better for you to catch this good piece of film and see if it can invoke some good memories of your own school days.

All the free time

Long holidays normally pose a problem to me in terms of how am i gonna spend all that time. Of course its not much left after discounting doing your chores, sleeping and going out to hang out with friends. Well, over the last few days i managed to cover these activities:

Eat
What can i say? its the festive time of Deepavali and Hari Raya and glorious food. Had a good outing at a good friend's house in Klang for Deepavali and as with previous years, the mutton curry still rocks! The adventure continues on the 1st day of Raya yesterday where i was treated to some good Johor style cooking at a colleagues house for lunch and one more time in the evening at an old friend's home. Good food and good times, that's what Malaysia is all about man and no one can take that away....unless the chef decides to move elsewhere.

Sights
Lets start with the stuff i watched over the few days. After reading bout it in Joe's blog, i went and bought 'The Devil wears Prada' from the friendly neighboorhood DVD shop in Seapark. Its a good watch and although it may look like a chick flick it isnt. Its a good movie and Merryl Streep gets my applaud for her excellent performance here. After watching the movie, i actually thought about my work and where i want to be in my career and it seems to me that when you are at the top, life is boring and you are alone.Hmm.Anyways, check out Joe's entry on that movie for more or lurk up at IMDB.com

P.S: 'City of Blinding Lights' never sounded so good before...hehehe

Sounds
I also managed to watch G3 Live in Tokyo: Satriani/Vai/Petrucci on DVD. Now this was a recording of the G3 concert last year in Tokyo that featured ny favorite guitarist Steve Vai and his buddy Joe Satriani along with John Petrucci of the DreamTheater fame. Its a godd concert DVD and i think i liked this more than the previous one featuring Malmsteen as the guest. Well, below is how the cover of the DVD looks like and you can get it from Amazon.com.



Read
I did also read a book. Yes i do read and even though i dont get to do it often i love reading. This time around a friend of mine whom i catch up with over the weekend recommended me to read a book by Paulo Coelho titled The Alchemist. Now i have heard about this book for a long time now since i was in shcool and it never occured to me to read this book until that friend told me the book is good as the story is inspiring and yada yada. So i bought it at Borders (it aint cheap at Rm 33 for a book less than 200 pages. Like they said, 'Dont judge a book by its cover' and to my suprise the book is really an interesting read! Its a story about a boy who dreamed about a hidden treasure and his adventures from Tangiers to Egypt to search for the treasures. It deals with the topic of how one finds his destiny or purpose in life and what can be learned from your journeys and the observation of nature.Its fun book to read and i recommend you to read it as well. Its quite short and i finished the book in a few hours (suitable for a 4 hour flight). Below is how the book looks like and again you can buy from Amazon.com or your local bookstore near you.



Talk
And finally of course, talking. Its what i do best and i spend some quality time with some friends doing just that over coffee/tea/juices. The topics can range from Rm30 shoes in a pasar malam, life at work, cars, chicks and money but the thing is that time was well spent catching up with one another in this fast moving life of ours. I feel good doing so.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri

Salam Aidilfitri diucapkan kepada semua member-member Muslimin & Musliman!! Mohon maaf zahir & batin!! Tidak lupa juga untuk mengucapkan Selamat Hari Raya kepada keluarga pakcik ku di Kedah. Lets all have a very good and blessed Hari Raya.

Happy Deepavali!!

Happy Deepavali to all of my friends that are celebrating!!! the festival of light is here again with good memories of mutton curries and of course hanging out with friends. Well, i'm looking foward to these memories again tommorrow at a friend's house.

My two years of working (in Technicolor)

Yeps, October 18 marks my two years of actual work after graduating from MMU. From my days in HSBC until today in Pharmaniaga Solutions, i have come a long way in terms of maturity as well as gaining extra kilos on the sidelines. My bank account aint swelling as much as i thought it will be initially and defenitely my credit record aint that lovely either. On the serious side, the past one year has been a big learning curve for me. Exposure to managing people and business has opened up my eyes and mind. I am more aware of people now in terms of how snaky they can be and some deals are just aint what it seems. Importantly, i realised that good colleagues are hard to come by and its been a blessing here in my current workplace. Work environment is important to motivate you to come to work in the mornings (money too). There is so much knowledge and experience i have that i cant put to words (some classified others my vocabulary limited my thoughts) but i have some pictures from the time i started in 2004 till now 2006. It kinda shows how i have changed.



( my pai kia pose in 2004 )


(cleaned up my act and got myself a new job in 2005 as a conman)


( conned some mat salleh in jakarta in 2006. Sorry Martin!)

Words from my speakers: Ozzy Osbourne

was listening to some old songs in my library till i came across a song by Ozzy Osbourne titled Dreamer. Now, when i listened to it years ago i wasnt really understanding the lyrics but today it suddenly sounds meaningful looking at how screwed up the world is at the moment. Here are the lyrics for the pondering but remember to download the song and listen to it. Oh yeah, dont forget to support Ozzy by buying some legit CDs or through iTunes. Cheers!

Dreamer
Gazing through the window at the world outside
Wondering if mother earth will survive
Hoping that mankind will stop abusing her, sometime

After all theres just the two of us
And here we are still fighting for our lives
Watching all of history repeat itself, time after time

Im just a dreamer, I dream my life away
Im just a dreamer, who dreams of better days

I watch the sun go down like everyone of us
Im hoping that the dawn will bring a sign
A better place for those who will come after us this time

Im just a dreamer, I dream my life away, oh yeah
Im just a dreamer, who dreams of better days

Your higher power may be God or jesus christ
It doesnt really matter much to me
Without each others help there aint no hope for us
Im living in a dream, a fantasy
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah

If only we could just find serenity
It would be nice if we could live as one
When will all this anger, hate and bigotry be gone?

Im just a dreamer, I dream my life away, today
Im just a dreamer, who dreams of better days, ok
Im just a dreamer, whos searching for the way, today
Im just a dreamer, dreaming my life away
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah
- Ozzy Osbourne

Red Alert!!!

I felt dizzy and nearly threw up when i saw this on apple's website. I just bought the 2nd Generation iPod nano 2 weeks ago and now they release a red one. If i knew this earlier i would have waited. Dont get me wrong on this, i love my silver nano which is fine but i would have bought this one!!! goddam it, damn youse apple! damn youse all to hell!!! ..oh yeah, guess who's idea this was?




Nope, not Oprah but Bono. The red ipod nano is part of the (red) initiative to combat AIDS in Africa and apple is donating USD 10 to the fund for every red nano that is sold. Its noble enough to support and to find out more go ask Terry who i think knows what this www.joinred.com thingy more than me. Cheers!

the old grunge me

I was watching TV the other day and the Foo Fighters video that was playing made me think about my school days, my uni days and of course now.In a way, i grew up along the time from when Dave Grohl was drumming for Nirvana till Kurt killed himself and also from when Dave formed Foo Fighters and of course today they still rock the charts. I think that is a long time ago and for Dave to be rocking today is just amazing i think (with all the youth gone soft and emo).Grunge defined me during my formative years in school and i still feel so connected when i listened to Foo Fighters these days, kinda relates to me ( the old rocker from 90's soldiering on). The teenage angst has mellowed so has the wild days. To think bout it,the 90's was good man, it was so good.

The Wait

We wait,for the bus,for the plane and for some cases the boat.But when a delay occurs we would ask ourselves will it arrive? or is it gonna arrive at all? We see other bus/plane/boat arrive one by one to other destination but ours have yet to arrive. We wait, till we lose our patience and start being agitated for we dont know when it will arrive and we dont like unknowns for an answer. we lose all control of ourselves till finally it arrives. It arrives. For all the waiting & mess, we will in the end reach our destination. Dont ask when or how long, just wait.

- conceptual emo