Merry Christmas!!!

Yahoo!!! its Christmas and its the best time of the year!!! its been a good christmas so far and all i can say is thank God for the abundance of food we had and i hope and pray we all continue to enjoy such blessings. Its also been great to meet up with some old friends which i havent met in ages as well chilling out with my regular friends.Wish y'all many blessings during this season, Cheers!!!

P.S: In view of those affected by the floods down south and have their Christmas holidays wrecked, lets all pray and contribute to their rebuilding. If New Orleans can, we can too.

End of the road for Cyberjaya

"The Klang Valley will be turned into a Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) in stages, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. He said details of the plan were being worked out and more cybercentres would be rolled out quickly in the Klang Valley." - The Star Online Friday 8/12/2006

Does this mean Cyberjaya has come to its end as town?With no reason to move here will mean that it will stop developing and might end up a dead town. You can say anything you like bout Cyberjaya but its my town and i love it the way it is. I have wrote bout my feelings on Cyberjaya here before but the prospect of it really dying saddens me.I do really feel attached to this town after all the fun of stealing banners at nite, walkiing from MMU to streetmall or even to Cyberview Lodge for that game of pool and jug of beer. Its a town where you know the faces (used to be exclusively MMU)and lastly not least its my home since Dec 2001.

Tommorow Never Dies

Its been a whirlwind 2 weeks for me and it doesnt seem its gonna end soon (i hope it ends by Xmas tho). Imagine taking over the process of managing a RM20 million online database project for the Malaysian Government and at the same time managing multiple tasks invloving other projects (tasks include meetings, preparing proposals,price negotiation,etc) and also doing my networking (attending meetings and dinners)which shall i say tiring. To sum up what have been going on in my company:

1) My company has been bought over by UEM World
2) Colleagues leaving (either back to parent company or somewhere in Cyberjaya)
3) In view of the previous point, guess who is the one elavated to the coveted status? me?

Its slowly taking a toll on me but i guess i'll take my toll another day. Anyways, you know my name and i only live once.

Happy St. Andrew's Day

Today is St. Andrew's day which is also happens to be Scotland's National Day (St.Andrew is our patron saint). Although it is moderately celebrated back in Scotland, there are calls to make it a celebration worthy for a saint plus a few days back the Scottish parliament have voted to make St. Andrews Day a new national holiday . Anyways, here in KL whats St. Andrew's Day without whisky eh? God Bless Scotland & Cheers!

Some facts about our saint:

SAINT Andrew and his brother Simon Peter were both fishermen before joining Jesus to become disciples and "fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19). After the crucifixion, St Andrew spent his life spreading the word of God through Asia Minor, Macedonia and southern Russia. It is believed that he was martyred in 70AD at Patras, Greece, by the Roman governor who ordered him to be crucified on an X-shaped cross known as a Saltire Cross. His bones were removed in the 4th century by Emperor Constantine and taken to his new capital Constantinople.

Legend has it that St Rule, an Irish assistant of St Columba, was told by an angel to remove St Andrew's remains to the "end of the earth" for safekeeping. St Rule did as directed and took a tooth, an arm bone, a kneecap and some fingers from the tomb. St Rule was shipwrecked off the east coast of Scotland near a Pictish settlement at what is now St Andrews and where he took up residence.

The rest of the saint's bones remained in Constantinople until they were stolen in around 1210. These remains are now in Amalfi in southern Italy

While the story is speculative, what is a matter of record is that by the mid-8th century a religious centre was founded in the area of St Andrews by either St Rule himself or the Pictish King Ungus (731–761). Another version of how the bones came to Scotland has Acca, Bishop of Hexham, a renowned collector of relics, visiting this religious community and bringing the bones with him in around 732.

The bones were placed in a specially constructed chapel until 1160 when they were removed to the newly built Cathedral of St Andrews. Medieval pilgrims travelled to view the relics here and it soon became established as the religious capital of Scotland.

During the Reformation, on 14 June 1559, the interior of the cathedral and, it is thought, the relics were destroyed by a mob led by the Lords of the Congregation who - fired by the teachings of John Knox - destroyed many Roman Catholic buildings in Scotland.

Scotland was to remain without relics of the saint for many years. Then in 1879 the Archbishop of Amalfi sent a small piece of St Andrew's shoulder blade to the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. In 1969 Pope Paul VI gifted more relics of the saint to Scotland with the words "Saint Peter gives you his brother." These can be seen at St Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Edinburgh.

St Andrew is the patron saint of Greece, Russia and Scotland. As protector or guardian he is also invoked against gout and a stiff neck.

- source from The Scotsman

Sad State of Affairs

We live in interesting times where the world has lost its mind and it seems like the epidemic has reached our shores. This entry will an unprecedented event as i never blogged about politics before this and i think things have reached a level even an ignorant bum like me got something to say.

I have lived in this country for most of my life and grew up loving it till lately where i realised it aint so sweet anymore and recent political affairs/foreign news reports/comment from an Iranian friend just confirmed my fears that indeed this country is 'tearing apart' (to quote a good friend's term) and there is nothing we can about it. The neo-con politicians from the party that represents the country majority ethnic group are busy talking & arguing about issues of NEP,other races are taking away our wealth, bla,bla,bla without caution or care that these viewpoints actually spook the minorities in the country and of course the foreigners who dont or little understand how Malaysia works. Now, firstly i think the NEP is relevant still and should stay in place but what rattles me is that the policy had been hijacked to benefit a few and most of these few are politicians themselves. The policy had been abused where you see it actually encroach the rights of its minorities and the minorities are not happy anymore.

Of course they wont shout it out like the majority but they will retaliate in a quiet & subtle manner. The key to this retaliation is the economic power the minorities still have and the most powerful weapon of all, education. The country's brightest people have already left and will continue to drain out and the business community will put their money somewhere safer like Singapore or Hong Kong. It will make Malaysia an uncompetitive nation in 15 years time and it will be too late then to reverse the damage.

The short-sightedness of the country's rulers will see Malaysia slip further economically and the likes of Thailand & Vietnam overtake us as the prefered foriegn investment destination. I can also see that more & more minorities are planning or already migrating to other countries and this means the brightest and smartest of the Malaysian minority will contribute to the likes of Australia & Singapore who appreciate their contribution. All these will slowly but surely be felt and when it does, its too late to reverse the damage.

I personally dont see any future for this country anymore unless a miracle happens and its sad that being called a Malaysian for many means nothing anymore. All i can say is God bless Malaysia.

from
Don, a Scottish born Siamese who has been residing in Malaysia for the past 20 years.

"May God grant me serenity to accept the things i cannot change, the courage to change the things i can and the wisdom to know the difference."

Baroque and Roll @ Singapore

Train tickets: RM 70
Concert Tickets: SGD75
Hotel: SGD 60
Getting deaf while watching Yngwie Malmsteen live in front of you: Priceless

Yea man, i caught Yngwie (pronounced Ing-way) Malmsteen live in concerto at Fort Canning Park in Singapore last Thursday nite. With the Great Wall of Marshalls (guitar amps), it dawned to me that this is not going to a symphony in the park. How true that was as the maestro wasted no time in starting the concert with the opening number The Rising Force and we rocked all the way rock kapak style (long hair, tight leather pants, guitar shredding) for 2 hours and its an experience to behold to watch one of my guitar idols live in action with his famed lighting speed adagio solos. Imagine this guy actually made Bach sound good with electric guitars and heavy drums plus some quick fingers over the fretboard (Vanessa Mae eat your heart out!!). This is Neo-Classical at its best!! I got some pictures below to show to you all, enjoy!!





P.S: Despite the great time we had, there were some grouses that nite concerning the sound setting (amps dont sound right & too much echo) and the promised meet and greet session didnt materialize at the last minute (we were waiting the hotel till some fellow fan told us it has been cancelled). Of course more pictures will be uploaded once i get my hands on them.

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

Wine Tasting @ Denise

Its takes alot for one to agree to go for wine tasting on a wednesday night in view of the next working day plus the factor your home is at least 1/2 hour drive away as opposed to the 5 minutes drive for others. So i took up the offer by a colleague to join him and 2 more office mates for some mid-week wine action at Denise Wine Shop @ SS2 PJ and the results was rather relaxing which comes as a suprise.

We tasted a few bottles of wine that day but the ones that stand out are Famillia Zuccardi Reserva Malbec 2004 reds which is perfect for the beginner who wants something light bodied and the other one was some Orzaba Cardignan reds ( cant remember the full details, ask me when you go wine shopping) which is more full bodied and is suitable for those who loves Cabernet Sauvignon type of wines. Its was a lovely to end a working day with some friends and of course good wine. Some pics below:

Its Ramadhan again!

One year ago around this time, i was a junior in my company and now fast forward today i am a senior in a company that is looking more empty as the days gone by. Oh well, what can i do bout people leaving (might consider it next year though). As usual, Ramadhan means some of my frens will fast and miss the lunch sessions, massive after work traffic jams, zombies walking around due to the lack of vitamin C (cigarette withdrawal syndrome) but it also means food galore every evening (kuih-muih etc)for us that dont puasa hehe.

Anyway, i dont have much to bitch about this time round so i'll just wanna wish my Muslim frens Selamat Berpuasa & have a good Ramadhan.

Lets Pray for the 'Hamster'

As a regular follower of the BBC show 'Top Gear', i am actually quite shocked and saddened by the Richard 'The Hamster' Hammond's accident and i really hope and pray that he makes a quick recovery from his injuries. We seriously dont need another TV show host death ( its bad enough that the Croc Hunter is gone ) and let's all pray together for Hammond.

Links to latest updates:

A night out at the theater

I managed to catch Puteri Gunung Ledang : The Musical on Thursday night, this time after missing out on the first one. This time there was no qualms that we paid good bucks for good seats ( Stephenie said it was on only 100 bucks!) and a good performance by the cast. The cast led by Tiara Jacquelina (Gusti Putri) & Stephen Rahman-Hughes (Hang Tuah) were excellent in delivering their performances on stage but i must say that A.C Mizal ( Gusti Adipati) was the star of the night as the Majapahit emperor where he exudes charisma on stage and brings the character of Gusti Adipati to live (albeit dramatic). The singing and song arrangement was good although the surtitles on top of the stage could be better placed ( we have to strain our necks to read it) but i can see that the second time around everyone seemed to be comfortable in their roles and enjoying it to full measure ( Adlin Aman Ramlie seemed to enjoy his tyrant Sultan Mahmud role ).

On a more serious note, i think this production has shown that a locally staged play/musical in Malay language can succeed as well or even better than the usual suspects such as Cats, Miss Saigon etc. It was done professionally and it was fantastic to think that the creative crew were all Asian with Tiara being the driving force behind it all. If only more future local Malay language plays/musical can be as good as this, i think we can expect to see more support as what we have seen with Puteri Gunung Ledang : The Musical.

Never Gone

After being away from Earth for about 3 months, i am back again ( i wasnt in Marijuanaville searching for my roach clip on a rope, i swear). So what did i missed out? oh yeah, the World Cup which Italy triumph and i wont talk more about it as everyone else has done it. Not forgetting also the political turmoil at home (old man vs. successor) and also some fudge brownies.

So here i am writing again inspired by the taught and the fact that i am 25 but i felt like 30. Is there a reason for this? Perhaps its a sign of burnout like the one suffered by Michael Owen & Nicolas Anelka both which are still young but seems like they have been there for a long time and now is fading. Am i fading away or is it that i am losing focus on my ambitions? Maybe its all of the reasons and at my age i should be on top of my form and nearing peak but here i am still sturggling to get back on form with some flashes of brilliance now and then but inconsistent throughout the season.

But what i like to do in the near future is get my life sorted. Maybe i should find someone and get involved in a relationship again. Its been too long i guess and it always leaves a bitter taste whenever a girl breaks your heart and leaves for another guy. But i didnt sulk like Jose Mourinho and moved on but at times i do feel that perhaps i dont want to experience the deja vu again ( i've been hit twice) and want to be on safe side. One day perhaps things will change, till then i'll continue to blow bubbles in the air.