Merdeka

Happy 50th anniversary Malaysia.




Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka.

whatever meaning it brings.

RM171,000 Rental Car

RM171,000.00 to rent a car! The Star reported that is how much our government is paying to rent a Nash Rambler Custom Convertible 1951 car, so that our prime minister can ride in it along with a couple of his ministers. Dr Rais Yatim, our nation’s merdeka celebration coordinator feels that by re-enacting the scene where a similar car brought Tunku around when he return home to announce the country’s independence will somehow show how patriotic the bunch is.

RM171,000.00. For a couple of hours use when launching the 50th National Day celebration. Man, am I furious. This is the time when we are bombarded left right with how our government is being wasteful (think the Angkasawan project, the Brickendonbury football academy in London, the new VVIP airplane for the PM etc), how the laymen are suffering from then rising inflations, how the government’s money (that means yours and my money loh) will be use to bail out a sorry example of our fail corporate governess and horrible corruption in the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) fiasco.

RM171,000.00. That’s low cost housing for 3 families, 34 motorcycles for the low income group, 342 bicycles for our poor students, 34,200 Malaysian flags for us to hang on our cars (so that we can prove how patriotic we are, as some politicians implied!) or even 1 and a half Ford Focus 1.8l for me for 10 years use. Sigh.

RM171,000.00. What ever gives Dr Rais the impression that riding on the car will instill patriotism in us? Or bring back any nostalgia of 1957. How many of us remembers or even cares what kind of car Tunku rode on? Wouldn't it be more important to remember what Tunku faught for? Merdeka is not about all this ‘remeh temeh’ thingies. It is about the correct spirit in all of us. How us Malaysians felt about loving our country and are love back by her. How we feel that we can be proud of our leaders and not be treated as a lulu by them. How we are made to feel that there is a bright future for all us Malaysians, rregardless of our skin colour or religious, if we work and toil hard for the nation.

I am furious, man. But moreover, I am sad, very sad.

I am f*****g worried!!!!

Saw the matches against Shenhua and Feyenoord. Looks like we are going to have the same problem as last season. Ball dominations without clinical finishing. The match against Feyenoord should demonstrate quite well why I felt this way. Chances after chances are wasted. Balls are crossed blindly into the penalty box. Our players hardly touches the ball inside the oppositions' penalty box.

Kewell and Pennant showed up short again. Voronin is non existence, Kuyt is running around again being busy but still not scoring (the disallowed perfectly scored goal notwithstanding), Alonso seems disinterested and hardly passed forward, the back four were caught asleep, and even Stevie G gave up after half time.

This season is suppose to be our best with the new attacking-minded signings, but I dont really see any of them giving their all. Torres and Babel's scoring record with us is still very disappointing. Benayoun is an exception in giving his all but somehow kinda lack a great player's qualities to grab a match.

I am f**king worried!!!!! I hope I am wrong!! Reds for EPL champions!!!!

ps: a friend told me Charity Shield winners never win the league in the same season. So there goes MU.
And an earlier version of this post posted on a sport forum out there.

RapidPenang

Yesterday, purposely leave work sharp at 5.45pm. Purpose, wanna ride the new RapidPenang bus services. Why? Freeeeeeeeeeee mah. NO need pay money wor!

I rode my bike to Weld Quay Jetty. Reach there around 6.15pm. A lot of people there also. Notice lots of uncle and aunties. I intended to take any bus that goes to the more hulu places, for the longer journey, such as Teluk Bahang, Balik Pulau or Paya Terubung. I know there are also services to Prai, but those used the Jelutong Expressway, no scenery. Besides I don’t want to get trap on a bus in a jam on the Penang Bridge.

Here, I saw the ugly side of Penangites. Don’t want to queue. Don’t even want to wait for those one to bus to disembark first. Don’t even want to wait for the bus to come into a standstill.

Wait and wait for almost 15 minutes, still no bus that I wanted. Give up, and take the one to Penang Hill station. The bus is clean cause new mah! Aircond also powerful. Inside the bus, I decided to stand, and leave the seats to anybody else. I saw that the bus could sit 29 and standing room for another 20. First impression, realize many uncles and aunties. I believe must have been on the bus for the whole day already. All booked seats swee swee already. Bus starts to move even though only around 25 people on board. A good sign. Past experience, don’t care whether you have to wait 30 minutes or an hour, as long as not full, the bus will wait.

Reached Komtar. Walau eh, here people mountain people sea, all waiting to board the bus. Saw a yellow Milan bus there also, empty. And as usual, again typical kiasu penangites, as soon as the bus doors open, there is a mad rush to board the bus, even using the door behind which is suppose to let people get down from the bus only. End up, almost 80-90 people on the bus. Pack like sardin. Barely able to close the bus doors. Luckily I am tall, people smell my ketiak only :)

RapidPenang should have some personals to stop people from boarding a packed bus or even to drag down to stubborn one. Just like those at Putra LRT at Masjid Jamek, KL. At least to stop people from boarding a bus using the back door, i.e. no need to pay.

The ride is slow. Penang after office rush-hour traffic mah. Some more coincide with schools finishing their evening session.

Anyway the trip reaches Air Itam market. Decided to get down there to have a bowl of the Air Itam famous laksa. Nowadays quite salty. Overheard the Laksa uncle said last night when the bus service is ending, he saw a bunch of lau yi come down from a bus, all very ‘hua hi”, very syiok. Must have ridden the bus all day already. Some even “chuah soon chuah kia”.

After the laksa, took another bus, which is waiting nearby, back to Jetty. This one got music somemore one loh. But back door already faulty. Hydraulic failure so cannot open automatically. Overheard one uncle says, “three day only spoiled already ah”. So have to open and close by hand. And since I am standing there, I appoint myself to be a temporary doorman for RapidPenang for the whole trip. Wonder can claim salary or not?

My parents lagi terror. They also took a bus from the bus stop near my place to Komtar. And from there to Megamal Prai. Uncle and auntie also wanna have fun mah. Their trip lagi best. Their first bus halted at Jalan Datuk Keramat, due to engine failure or something. forcing them to walk to Komtar. Luckily quite near Gama already,. Kesian…………

2007 Summer Blockbusters

The 2007 summer blockbuster season has come and goes. This is the list of movies I have watched.

Spiderman 3

Stupid movie. Spidey is a whimp. He can’t even beat any of the Supervillans without help. The fight sequence are also blurry and dizzying. Trying to cramp in to many things into this movie resulting in too little time for anything. My advice to Superhero movie directors, stick to one supervillain.
My verdict : 3.5 out of 5

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Watch the movie because of Johnny Depp and Tai Kor Fatt. Enjoyable. Depp is again excellent. Looking forward to Pirate 4. One thing which I really found out of place in the movie, the Davy Jones Locker. I expect it to be more scary place and should definitely far more difficult to escape from. The final battle sequence seems strange and out of place. And whats that about the sea goddess?
My verdict : 4 out of 5

Fantastic Four : Rise of the Silver Surfer

Stupidest movie of my list. Stupid computer effect, stupid plot, stupid anti-climatic finale and Jessica Alba don’t even look hot in this movie.
My verdict: 2 out of 5

Transformers

The computer animations are really cool and wonderful. The humans are a pain in the ass though. Sam Witwicky (played by Shia Lebouf) whines and whines and whines. The autobots’ characters sounds more like a bunch of juvenile misfits rather than Earth's saviours. And whats with mouth on Optimus anyway? I feel there is a scene when viewed from side way, his face looks like an ape (a tribute to Optimus Primus, maybe?). And Frenzy (the radio robot) looks like a stick insect rather than a transformer.
My verdict: 4 out of 5

Die Hard 4.0

Bruce Willis rocks. Best movie of the lot. Tonnes of explotions, witty one liner. Yippi-kay-ay

My verdict : 4.5 out of 5

The Simpsons Movie

Funny but don’t really have the Simpsons magic. Too much Homer and too little Bart, although Homer is my favourite Simpsons. And the Spider-pig song is hilarious.
My verdict : 4 out of 5

and I am proud to say I watch all these movies in cineplexes. Say No to Piracy. Which also means I miss the scene after the final credit in POTC3 and during the credit of Simpsons. Crap

Kayveas oh Kayveas

I really think this M. Kayveas guy is a real joke.

He came out all conquering and was even quoted even by his own PPP website spelling out his actual words, "MENGANCAM" to pull out PPP from BN if PPP is not allocated more seats for the next General Election.

Then the guy backtrack and says that his statement is not a threat. I think my BM-English transalation skill is good enough to recognise that "Mengancam" does mean "to threaten". Mr Kayveas also shows off his language skills. I quote him "A threat is waving a keris and asking when you are going to draw blood".

Refering to a certain UMNO VP and some of its members, maybe?












Anyway, of course, when you issue such threat, some big shots like DPM Najib, Umno VP Muhyiddin Yassin, Melaka Chief Minister Ali Rustam, MCA VP Dr Chua Soi Lek etc. all come out trying to be heros and lambast the Kayveas guy loh.

To make things more interesting, Kayveas replies all fired up hammering Ali Rustam, citing examples such as "(Ali Rustam) award 200 Datukships to people without positions or even addresses in Malaysia". I am thinking, because of these allegations by a federal deputy minister, if I am a Malaccan, I will try to sue to Malacca goverment for lowering the standard of Malacca datukship and other titles. I think I would have a case, wont I?

Farny business la...

PS: for a political party who claims to have 500 thousand members, I think it is kind of strange that the party's website only listed 3 names as any office bearers, ie the President and two other names from their Cheras division.