RACONTEUR-ESQUE SCRIBBLINGS

On Thursday night, men clad in red and blue dotted the green field of Bukit Jalil, their sole purpose to be in possession of an elusive ball, just so that they can : i. Score a goal and defeat the other team ii. Keep it in possession so that the other team doesn't score. I don't really watch much sports, because I think it's much better if you go out and play the sports yourself, so my sitting in front of the TV hugging a cushion on Thursday night waiting in anticipation for the Malaysia vs *Singapore FIFA World Cup Qualifying Round was surprising even to me. I suppose I got influenced by my colleagues who actually left the workplace that evening clad in the Malaysian team colours headed straight to the stadium. Throughout the day, I kept hearing snippets of conversation about the match later that day, and rightly so, as compared to just three years ago, the Malaysian team had improved tremendously. So much so that at the end of last year when we won a rather important...

If I were a psychology student, a study on people's inclination towards curiosity might be something I would pick for a research study, because lets face it - everyone is curious up to a certain degree. I occasionally preface questions with a 'just curious' remark before I dive in.  However, since I've long left the days of sitting at a desk with a coffee mug, a thick book and an assortment of pens and pencils, and have doubts about having any use for psychology (I am not exactly what you'd call a people person), I figured I'll just blog about it. On Sunday night, an *old friend (let's call him Pineapple) whom I haven't seen or had a proper conversation with for years and years (probably since 2000) decided to say hi when he saw me online. While this in itself was not all that weird to begin with since most people say hi to each other when they meet them online especially after a long time, what I found strange and a tad bit unnerving is that the questi...

Was there a winner on the 9th of July rally for electoral reforms? The answer probably depends on who you ask. While people may argue that the objective of the rally - to march peacefully and handover the electoral reforms request to the King, by hand, that is,  was not really met that day for certain reasons, it can't be denied that the news surrounding the happenings on the day of the rally and the days after that has increased the people's awareness in general. I've always thought that a "government" was something 'by the people and for the people', but when you read/watch the news, something is just not quite right. While the government seems to be 'by the people', it hardly is for the 'people' in a general sense. It's more like *"by the people, for 'some people', and if you're not in the category of  'some people', then it's the government against the people" As (ahem) leaders, self appointed or...

The heat rolls in waves, marking would be lazy days - for those of us who can be lazy, that is. In a small part of the world, specifically where I exist, hazy days may be something quite usual, but not lazy days. Not at this period in time, anyways. While I love a good challenging mystery every now and then, the fact that quite a few mysteries decided to drop by together like unexpected relatives passing through your area en route to some other place is a mystery in itself. Questions like 'how?' and 'why the hell?' never seem like good enough questions to get to the rootcause of the problem. And then, suddenly and unexpectedly the answer reveals itself. It's July. The lousiest month of the year! Aside: Apparently, July was once known as Quintilis in Latin (source: wikipedia) Imagine using 'Qui' instead of Jul to indicate July in cramped writing spaces. And talking about cramped spaces, my mind is one right now. Hence the deviation from the previous topic....

There is a certain country where peaceful rallies require a permit, which will usually be denied in order to maintain peace , or so they say.  Over the past few weeks, the whole country was abuzz with news of a planned peaceful rally, by a group of NGOs who are fighting for clean and fair elections, with 8 reasonable requests. Any sensible Malaysian could see that there was no harm in this. After all, clean and fair elections would benefit everyone in the long run, among them laying to rest the notion that dead people and phantom voters are at large and voting in favour of a certain party, and overall equality for all those who are taking part in the elections. A slightly less than sensible Malaysian though would say that the rally would disrupt peace and harmony among the many races that call themselves Malaysian (sniggers), and selfish business people would complain of loss of income due to the people not being brave enough to venture out of their houses to shop during ...

I think I surprised a fellow blog buddy just now over a revelation that I'm not really into movies by admitting that I had not watched Die Hard, which according to him is the basis for all action movies. And then it just got worse from there, because it turns out that I had not watched a whole lot of movies that are the basis of modern society! So, in an attempt to challenge myself (after a whole lot of prodding from him despite it being a conversation that was carried online) I have decided to undertake the *daunting task of watching (gulp!) the movies that this particular blog buddy thinks are 'must-watch' movies. The list is as follows: Terminator 2 Die Hard Aliens (After reading the IMDB page, I realised that I have already watched this) Pulp Fiction Goodfellas One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Schindlers List The Godfather (I've always wanted to watch this, but could never find a copy of the DVD anywhere) Shawshank Redemption Memento The Usual Suspects Leon: T...

Porridge is bubbling Porridge is bubbling, bubbling hot, Stir it round And round in the pot. The bubbles plip! The bubbles plop! It's ready to eat All bubbling hot Traditional We were eight years old, and a classmate of mine actually cried as he struggled when he was made to recite the poem above during English class when our English teacher was auditioning for those who were talented in reciting poetry to represent our class in one of the many competitions held during the English Language Week. But then, this post is not about porridge, nor is it about the unfortunate classmate of mine. Instead, it's sort of connected with the insane heat we've been having of late. And how is porridge precisely connected with the heat wave? They're both Hot. Well, mostly. In fact, it's been so hot that at some point I imagined that the witch from Hansel and Gretel had put in the whole earth into her oven to slowly cook us and eventually eat us up.