RACONTEUR-ESQUE SCRIBBLINGS

Some time ago, there was this episode on "How I Met Your Mother" in which all the characters were trying to quit smoking. Watching that episode (and comparing it with some much older movies/literature) it finally hit me how people's opinion on smoking and smokers have changed. What used to be normal way back is now viewed with some disdain.  How else do you explain smokers being given a smoking bay where so many of them sit in cramped up spaces to get their fix AND inhale secondary smoke from their fellow smokers, or even while I was in Japan, where it seemed as though everyone smoked, they were forced to smoke in small groups at little ashtrays by the kerb - hardly a sociable activity, or in some areas, they stood in alleyways behind tall buildings in their nice clothes, smoking mournfully in the cold.  The other day, the papers had a piece on new rules for cigarette manufacturers in terms of packaging size and pricing (among the methods employed to reduce young ...

"Guilty until proven innocent - if you can find a way to prove your innocence, that is. Ha ha ha ha" The line above sort of sums up the newly ammended evidence act, where as the owner of a website, blog, e-mail address, facebook or twitter account or even as the owner of wifi connection that someone else is 'borrowing' because your password got hacked, you will be held responsible until you can prove that you're not the one responsible for whatever was posted. How you gather evidence is your choice, but if you can't then be prepared to get sued/go to jail/pay fines, etc.  In view of this horrible development, the CIJ (Centre for Independent Journalism) is organising our very own Internet Blackout Day on the 14th of August. As I do use the internet for blogging, have various e-mail accounts, and use Facebook as well, plus the wifi connection is registered under my name, I think this is an extremely important cause and I'm in full support of the Bl...

They're centenarians, lined up along the road, providing shade against the sweltering afternoon heat, and giving wannabe photographers the opportunity to get good photos. Back in July 2010, I saw them in person during a visit to the Taiping Lake Gardens . The other day, my mother told me that there was a big issue over some development plans for the Taiping Lake Gardens, in which these 120 year old raintrees may face a situation they have not faced in the past. The very next day, my favourite radio station interviewed a man who started a petition to stop the Taiping Municipal Council from going ahead with their plans of building kiosks at the area despite assurance that the trees will not be in immediate danger. The problem is, you can never tell with development -  what if greed gets in the way? According to the interview, the proposed kiosks will end up blocking the view of the lakes and I'm assuming that the aura of tranquillity which we get there now will be gone foreve...

A primary school/elementary level bad joke: Teacher: What is the scientific term used for water? Student: HIJKLMNO Class: Ha ha ha  Bad jokes aside... There has been talk earlier this year that the state I live in will be facing a severe water shortage by 2014 unless the state government allows the federal government to go ahead with their plan of building a new water treatment plant. The state government insists that we do not need a new water treatment plant as reducing the current wastage from the present operational water treatment plants will actually be able to cover the projected shortage. Enter SYABAS, the private water concessionaire who is in charge of the distribution of treated water who shamelessly suggested that water should be rationed from now to prevent the acute water shortage. An article I read * here states that the previous government left behind a very complicated system where water is treated by several different companies, while Syabas is in ...

If there was an Olympic medal for worrying, I'd probably win gold. Adrian Mole said something like this in one of his diary entries, and I personally think I could win if I competed against him. After all, I'm real while he's (ahem) fictional. :P One of the few things I'm currently worried about is the fact that I think I find quite a bit of things which people generally do not find funny to be rather funny . It's not a new development, though. I've been doing this for years - and if you're interested, there's a label called "funny stuff" at the sidebar of this blog.  Of late, just as the government declared under a certain transformation program that the number of crimes have reduced due to the efforts of the program, the reality of the situation is the complete opposite. People in my neighbourhood had their houses robbed by thieves who carried weapons, my boss had her house broken into, a woman was assaulted in an elevator in a shoppi...

Contradict and Confuse A long time ago in a country which hadn't even been properly formed at the time, a rather devious (but clever) method was employed to ensure that people wouldn't rebel against the powers that be - the ruling class. It was known as 'Divide and Conquer', or "Pecah dan Perintah" in Malay, the language used in our history books.  This "Divide and Conquer" policy worked to a certain extent, until the ruling class got bored/ran out of money/had other interests, and the people begin to see some light. Nevertheless, even after the country was formed, the current ruling class (voted in by us, unfortunately) loved the idea of "Divide and Conquer"so much that they continuously practised it, although they modified it to suit modern times. People have learned though, and some are beginning to reject the "Divide and Conquer"approach.  Now, based on the 'breaking news' topics as seen in the picture i...

A first year student stood up and asked the following question: "I have a pen pal from Russia. Am I allowed to correspond with him from here?" I can't remember what was the answer to that fairly odd question, because it happened way back in 1998, when I was a first year student as well. This question was asked during our long and tiresome orientation week where we learned the university song (laughed at it too, of course), and where people droned on about the rules and regulations and explained the many different ways you could get yourself expelled. That was also the time when we all found out about AUKU (University and University Colleges Act) Being 18 and politically ignorant then, my friends and I never did find the act get in the way of our daily lives. Many things have happened since then, and thirteen years later university students are actually rising against the act. For some reason, they believe that political freedom and participation is a must in orde...

How many people need to be buried under their respective houses before anyone realises that building houses on hillslopes is a bad, bad idea? Earlier this month, the star online ran an article mentioning that the court has ruled in favour of a housing development in Bukit Gasing, one of the few remaining natural places (a hill for hiking) where city folk get in touch with nature. Actual article here : I had actually highlighted this hillside issue on this blog before, and instead of repeating myself, I figured I'd just reproduce the post here. Originally posted on December 8, 2008 "You'd think that people would learn good lessons from tragedies past and attempt to prevent them from recurring and causing pain and injury all over again. Based on what's going on though, that seems to be not the case at all. About two days ago, a landslide happened near a commercial area near Damansara Heights, where the roads were closed and the buildings evacuated. And ev...

Unrequited love. A term I first got acquainted with in English Literature class, where our teacher, a fan of all things French and romantic introduced us to abridged works of authors such as Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo. At that time, it was just another new term which I unfortunately could not incorporate into any of my essays for school. Now, if you have been *following the Malaysian news for the past one month, you'd probably know that we have had an incident with our less than friendly neighbour, the Indonesians (from a certain group that call themselves BENDERA actually). They seem to have taken a very dramatic stance by burning our flag and throwing crap at the Malaysian Embassy. (Ok, the throwing of crap is just plain gross... I think even with utmost hatred, the most dangerous thing I'd throw at someone is a Rubik's cube) *Actual news link here Anyway, incidences aside, what amuses me the most is the reaction from the Malaysian (ahem!) leadership. I was ...

The courtroom seemed divided. To one side were a number of young people, most of them nervously biting their fingers as the judge was quietly deliberating the situation. On another side, several old religious looking men sat, looking smugly at each other. It was the first ever case of it's kind to be tried in court. The judge got up and addressed the courtroom. "The defendant is found guilty" The defendant looked up, and then stood, albeit unsteadily, overwrought with emotion. She thought to herself, "I'm going to die because the people who knew better, the people who were supposed to guide me, pretended that sex didn't exist" Two weeks later, early in the morning, she was ushered out, and prepared for her impending hanging. As her head was covered with the thick, black, heavy cloth in the silence, it occurred to her that she and her baby were the cats that curiosity killed. 6 Months Ago She certainly didn't expect it to be so wrinkled, red...

So the country is apparently thinking on broadening her economic horizons using the partnership with a certain foreign biotech company that specialises in and develops medicine which also unfortunately involves testing on animals. While broadening economic horizons is crucial to the development of a developing nation such as ours, I personally think that using animals to test the effectiveness of the medicine meant for humans to be a tad bit cruel, although it had been done for some time until some intervention. Now you get stuff (mostly cosmetics) that says it was not tested on animals. The other day, while I was reading one of my usual lunch time reading materials I came across the article below: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/mouse-pain-expression/ I sort of discussed the article with my sister later that night and she did say that mice had the tendency to double up in pain (like we do) when they were subjected to painful conditions that could give them ulcers - stres...

In just three days, the nation will be celebrating the 52nd Independence day from the British after they (the British) seemed to have lost interest in the Asian nations for several reasons that I can't really recall but which I could recite without any problem about 12 years ago when I used to be 'ahem' book smart ;) In the old days, we looked at Independence day with awe, at home and at school. I remember getting up early as a child to watch the parades on TV (I should ask my mom why she made it a point to wake us up to watch it, though - on a public holiday of all things!), and I even used to be able to sing along to the particular year's chosen song. I drew the flag, even if I never got the 14 points of the star symmetrical enough and put it in front of the house because we didn't have a cloth flag back then. Independence day or Merdeka (as we call it) used to be something to really look forward to. These days, other than it being a public holiday (long weeke...

While the whole world hides behind their television sets appraising Mr. Obama as he moves about in his daily duties as one of the most anticipated Presidents of the United States, some quarters have started observing Mrs. Obama and commenting on every other thing she does. I was *watching the recorded news on CNN about 10 this morning which had the headings written at the bottom of the show regarding Mrs Obama and her Royal Hug, followed by the question "who made the first move?" Oh, come on! I had to stop and laugh, though. To be honest, the kind of scrutiny this woman is under surprises me. I don't recall any other first lady being commented about this much. I think the media should give her a break, so what if she hugged the Queen? I don't think the Queen would have minded it at all. Maybe hugging (or putting her arm behind the Queen's shoulder - as that is what I saw the other day) is just her thing, and protocol (if there was one) just escaped her min...

You'd think that people would learn good lessons from tragedies past and attempt to prevent them from recurring and causing pain and injury all over again. Based on what's going on though, that seems to be not the case at all. About two days ago, a landslide happened near a commercial area near Damansara Heights, where the roads were closed and the buildings evacuated. And even before the shock of that incident had blown over, another landslide happened in the hillside residential area of Bukit Antarabangsa near Ulu Klang in the middle of the night, killing four, injuring several others and destroying houses in the process. So far, about 3000 to 4000 people have been asked to evacuate the area. Back in 1993, a tower block of this place called Highland Towers, another hillside residential area around the same area of Ulu Klang collapsed leading to the deaths of 48 people, and the formation of SMART (Special Malaysia Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team), because we never had ...

It was after 9 p.m. and a woman walking alone was abducted by four men with less than honourable intentions. They took her for a joyride which only they enjoyed, and had confiscated her mobile phone. What they didn't know was that she had two mobile phones, so one still remained in her pocket. Finally after hearing her pleads, they allowed her to get off into the bathroom of a petrol station to do her thing. The smart chick locked the door and immediately called the police. They arrived, and the four men drove away. So one woman was saved from being another number in the papers. The thing is after reading the article, we kind of discussed what the emergency numbers are. I think the general number is 991, and they connect you with the relevent authorities to help you out. However, an even older incident from the news comes to mind, where the number 991 was used from a mobile phone and it didn't work. Apparently 991 is only accesible from land lines. But in the case of an emerg...

Ok. Get a bucket ready by your side. Or one of those paper bags people use to throw up in during travelling. I believe that this might cause you to cringe in utter disbelief. Well, I went into google looking for something earlier, and it led me to igoogle, which had this headline below. My thoughts on the issue are italicised. School uniform sexy, says group (Sure, whatever you say) KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian group condemned the uniform worn by girls at government schools, saying it encouraged rape and pre-marital sex. OK, I'm listening(reading)... “The white blouse is too transparent for girls and it becomes a source of attraction,” National Islamic Students Association of Malaysia vice-president Munirah Bahari said in a statement. The uniform is the ugliest thing I've ever seen. From the colour right up to the design. It makes you look chubby. I can't imagine anyone being attracted to them (the uniform as well as the kids, cause everything is just too ugly!) A...

It may be a day late, but it's never too late to support a good cause

There's this piece of document we all lug around and hold on to for dear life. Although we can very well say that we are so and so (insert name here) but if the document doesn't say so, then we might as well dig a hole and bury ourselves in it. This so called document is none other than a normal sized card that fits snugly into some wallets which goes by the name MyKad. I was watching the local news last night (surprisingly there was no hailstorm that followed - not in this part of the world anyway) on channel no 7 which ceased making us feel good with their self righteous, moral police wannabe ways. They had a poll seeking the opinion of the general public about the new rate for replacing MyKad. I'm taking the liberty to make assumptions as I could not obtain the full story - I seriously lack the time to do proper research. All I know, is there might be an increase. And it makes you wonder if the people in charge of suggesting this idea actually think that people lose t...

I'm not being lazy... The last thing I need is an unauthorized copying lawsuit. I could use my hard earned money for so many other better things. http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=254012

I find myself not being able to blog at a comfortable frequency nowadays, possibly due to a busy schedule as well as more interest in reading blogs, which is why this post is very welcomed... See, with every non-blogging day, I end up missing out on an important event of some sort. Take for instance, International Women's Day which fell on 8 March. Now, women have come a long way from the old days when they were unfortunately considered to be second class citizens and denied several rights like going to school, or voting or getting involved in politics or even defending their country (Remember Joan of Arc?) However, things are much better for women now. We get to go to school and study in fields that were once only for men, we have the right to vote and we get to work. Although there are still some quarters which can be improved. For instance, safety for women in certain countries is still an issue, where a woman travelling alone may be kidnapped and raped, and closer to home, ...