Cat Burglar

So I'm blogging in full view and full screen awesomeness in the office due to the fact that the whole office has gone for a 1.5 day offsite Business Review & Brainstorming Meeting. I'm not invited because I've already resigned and there are "confidentiality issues". Awesome!

Anyway, I took the opportunity to start moving today over an extended lunch period. Of course, the cats went nuts because there were strange men making lots of noise, and in the chaos, I couldn't find Speedy, the 1-year-old male. I almost freaked out. I thought it was going to be another Pinky: The Case of the Missing Bengal Kitten. And then the movers started to pick up a chunky bedframe and then BAM! he came running out of nowhere. He'd scratched a hole underneath the bedframe and had been hiding in there.

I related the story to my department secretary, a fellow cat lover, and she told me about her friend's cat who's a kleptomaniac. For serious. The cat collects anything - scrunchies, pieces of foil, bracelets, anklets - that's shiny, and squirrels them away in a tiny little hole. No shit. It's incredible. I'd heard of such behaviour from rats, but not cats. I'd love to see it for myself.

So that's that. Another entry will probably follow tomorrow, due to the lack of work and lack of people. Enjoying it while it lasts.

Things Worth Fighting For

For those who are not in the know, whoren and I went to Koh Lipe, Thailand over Hari Raya Haji weekend and, dear god, was that an escapade.

It went like this. We didn't book ferry tickets for Langkawi - Koh Lipe in advance, so we shouldn't have been surprised when we got there and they were fully booked for the whole weekend. Deciding to wing it, we ran over to Kuah Jetty where we got tickets for Satun. From there, we hopped on a tuk-tuk which took us the 1 hour to reach Pak Barra, and then hopped on another ferry to get to Koh Lipe. It was about a 4 hour journey, I think.

By that time we felt pretty adventurous, winging it and all and figured that the worst was over. We chilled and illed by the beach, I went diving and got sick and got waited on hand and foot by men on the boat (I love being a girl), and had crazy awesome Thai food. We don't know what it is about Thai food but it's like they put something in it that makes it awesome. Also, we got super tanned. Basically it was just what both of us needed, despite the inherent Phuketness of the beach.

And then on Sunday, we left Koh Lipe on the 1.30pm boat back to Pak Barra hoping to catch the 5.00pm ferry from Satun to Langkawi. Unfortunately, we got the times wrong. The last ferry from Satun to Langkawi was 4.00pm, which we missed by 30 minutes.

Panic.

No buses out of Satun until the next morning, nearest airport was Had Yai to which taking a taxi would have been too expensive.

We begged and chartered a longtail (think sampan) to take us the 1 hour over to Kuala Perlis like illegal immigrants. From there, we ran to get tickets to the last ferry out to Langkawi leaving at 8.00pm which would have gotten us to Langkawi by 9.00pm in time to see if we could catch the last 10.40pm flight back to KL, all the while calling Air Asia's hotline (who refused to pick up, by the way). They told us the flight was fully booked.

Panic.
Pray.
Hope.

Ferry delayed by 45 minutes. Docked in Langkawi at 10pm. Reached airport at 10.20pm. Ran to counter. Begged guy to let us on the flight. He gave. Again, awesome being a girl :) Also, we were allowed to board because flight was delayed and the plane wasn't even there yet, and 4 people didn't show up, leaving 4 free seats.

We finally reached KL at 1 a.m. and home at 2 a.m. after 12 hours of travel and taking 3 different modes of transportation. What an escapade. Guess it just goes to show that good things aren't always easy, and things that you really need are worth fighting for. I wish more people realised that.

Pet Peeves

Just for fun, here's a post on my pet peeves:

1) When people think I'm going out with a guy just because I happen to be out with a friend.
2) People who cut lines.
3) People who insist that I'll change my mind about getting married. Maybe it's not about marriage. Ever think of that?
4) People who don't look in their rearview mirrors.
5) People who think that there's only 1 correct way of doing things.
6) When people ask the obvious, like "so your pizza is here?" when I'm walking around with a box of pizza in my hand.
7) People who assume things about me.

March of the Penguins

... warm up or cool down, Humboldt penguins seek the security and comfort of their nesting burrows. Humboldt penguins, like all penguins, are monogamous. Mated penguins can ... - Woodland Park Zoo

Something deep down in my soul said, ´Cry Girl´, when I saw you and that girl, walking out. I would rather, I would rather go blind boy, Than to see you, walk away from me chile. - Etta James

May 2009 Be Known As The Year I Celebrated My Birthday With Fireworks

It appears that I mostly post videos of fireworks. This is what happened when I decided to celebrate my 25th birthday by setting off a bunch of fireworks. It drizzled all night, but we wouldn't be deterred!

We started the night with some easy ones - thunderclaps and dragon eggs. We managed to get off some trilogies. Couldn't do a 4some because there weren't enough lighters. Or players. Turns out my friends are scared of loud noises. I know.

After we got tired of waiting for the drizzles to stop, we brought out the 3 big boys: the KLCC boom booms. The first was easy - it's like a tube so you just set it on the floor, light it, and get 50m away (That's what the instructions said. For serious.) That was awesome but my cameraman was crap.

Then came the second - a big rocket-like thing that needs a firmly attached stick to hold it steady. We didn't have one so we settled for a not-so-firmly attached stick. Bad idea. It set off and went horizontal - right into the tree. A KLCC boom boom went off in my backyard. Literally, in. Fucking awesome. I will remember that sight for as long as I can. The following is the video that Kuntum took unsuccessfully. Pretty fucking funny la if you ask me.

Needless to say, we didn't try the third one.

I hate nights like these

I wonder how my life would have turned out if I weren't so "strong" and so "capable". Maybe I wouldn't be tossed aside because "I'll be okay. I'm so strong. I can take care of myself." Maybe the people who I need to take care of me wouldn't have left me. Maybe I wouldn't be such a bitch or escape so much because every night I have to drown out the hurt. Maybe my life would've been so much easier.

Why Do You Do (Do You Do) The Things That You Do?

Well hello. It's been a while. I suppose because I've been so busy doing other things like working on my house, working, being in Syria and not having internet at home. On the bright side, my house is totally on time! Unfortunately it's costing me super a lot more than I thought it would.

I've been wanting to write this entry for a while but I've only just gotten to it, so here it is. I'm pretty sure a lot of people I know wonder why it is I complain so much and why I seem to take so much pleasure in it. I guess it's because my reasoning is like this:

1) If someone doesn't know they're doing something wrong, they can't fix the problem.

2) If I tell someone they're doing something they're not supposed to, it gives them a chance to fix it.

Well that was basically one reason.

Anyway, that's why I take it upon myself to complain to companies when they've done something they're not supposed to. I do it so that others don't have to. It's totally a public service.

To be honest, I don't enjoy it. I hate getting stressed out and not letting it go because I have to follow up on it.

Sigh.

How Many Continents Are There?

The whoren and I got uber-intellectual last night over at hapsap's place while she was packing. The question of the night was, "How many continents are there?" because someone asked me once, and I said 7, and then I couldn't name them.

So get this: it doesn't matter if you answer 5, 6 or 7. You're WRONG! (or right...). According to various sources, the answer to the question of the night could be 5, 6 or 7 depending on what you work as and where you are. For serious. From About.com: Seven Continents:

By most standards, there are a seven continents - Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. Most students in the United States are taught that there are seven continents.

In Europe and other parts of the world, many students are taught of six continents, where North and South America are combined to form a single continent of America. Thus, these six continents are Africa, America, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, and Europe.

I'm not absolutely sure how "most students in the United States" count as "most standards" while the rest of the world are counted as less than "most standards", but there you go. I'm also not absolutely sure why North and South America are classified as different continents, seeing as how a continent is defined as a large landmass (Wikipedia) or a continuous tract or extent, as of land (Source: Dictionary.com). A quick check on Google Maps (pay attention, whoren) shows that North and South America are indeed connected by a little strip of land known as Panama.

But that's not the end of the story, oh no. You're probably thinking, "Well, if a continent is a land mass separated from other land masses, then Europe and Asia should also be classified as 1 continent because they are part of the same land mass". You'd be right. Apparently Russia, Eastern Europe and Japan, which are more "geographic-centric" (whatever that means) teach the 6 continent model where Eurasia are 1 continent while North and South America are separate (Source: Wikipedia).

Blows your mind, doesn't it?

Points to ponder:

• If Australia is the world's biggest continent, why isn't Greenland (the world's biggest island) a continent too?
• If Antartica is a continent, then what about the North Pole? We looked this one up but that'll be an update for another time.
• Who the hell came up with this shit?
  

Once upon a time, I had a blog entry in mind

And then I forgot it. That's what happens when you're internet-less for almost a month. Seriously. My Nokia E71 has been at the shop for 3 weeks, my internet at home has been cancelled to save money, and work has banned almost everything via internet filter. It's crazy. I feel so out of touch. I'm doing this from my client's office.

It's like, the other day everyone was talking about how Kanye sucks and I was like, what? What happened? If I had access to Twitter, I would've been like, "Pfft, that's so 20 minutes ago guys, come on". But no.

Hari Raya is 1.5 days away, today is Friday and the next 4 days are holidays. How super awesome is that? I'm counting down the hours till I get to home. 3.5 hours, FYI.

Oh, also, I will update my prizes won blog entry to include the 1.5 iPod Shuffles that I won in a work contest and the other stuff that I've won lately.

Another blog entry will come up if I can figure out something more meaningful to write about. In the meantime, this is it, so enjoy it, bitchez.

Big Thighs Are Better

From BBC: Large thighs 'may protect heart':

Men and women with thighs over 60cm (23.6in) in circumference have a lower risk of heart disease and early death, a study of 3,000 people suggests.

The relationship remains even when body fat, smoking and blood cholesterol are taken into account, a Danish team says.

Those with narrow thighs may not have enough muscle mass to deal with insulin properly, raising the risk of diabetes and, in turn, heart disease, they say.

Experts cautioned that the research needed corroborating.

Some said it was too early to change current advice on eating and exercise for heart health, but the researchers said thigh size could be used as a marker for at-risk patients.

The study, published in the British Medical Journal, followed men and women in Denmark for more than 10 years.

They were measured for height, weight and thigh, hip and waist circumference and their overall percentage of body fat was calculated.

The thigh measurement was taken just below the gluteal fold, which is the crease caused by your buttocks.

Researchers also looked at the activity levels of the participants, whether they smoked, their blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

They then monitored incidence of heart disease over 10 years and death rates over 12-and-a-half years.

HAH! Take that, waif women! I will outlive yew!

A Furry Story

Introducing The Players:

• Jet - grumpy, black adult female
• Pinky - playful, rapidly increasing in size female Bengal kitten
• Lula - playful adult female
• Speedy Gonzales - the only male in the house and definitely does not have the balls to prove it

Bath Day:

Jet has only recently been transferred from my parents' house to my apartment due to the recent disappearance of her sister, Ewok (hope she's okay :( ). Being the super grumpy hissy cat that she is, she was angry at everyone and everything and hated all the resident kitties.

Fast forward to bath day - the day of reckoning when all the cats hate me. Jet was hanging out in my bathroom when I brought Speedy in for a quick one. Now, whenever I bathe Speedy, it's as if I'm torturing him. I swear, I'm surprised nobody has called Animal Welfare on my ass yet.

So there I am bathing Speedy who's meowing his little head off as if I'm disembowelling him, and Jet starts meowing too. I pay no attention to this as she's quite the little attention-whore. Imagine my surprise when Jet jumps onto the side of the tub and bites me in a bid to protect Speedy from the evil water-wielding human.

It was only a superficial bite, which drew a bit of blood but I didn't really care about that. Cat owners tend to have such things every so often. What totally caught me by surprise was Jet's willingness to fight for a cat that she hates and hisses at every chance she gets.

This isn't the first time I've seen cats respond to another cats' call for help - everytime I bathe Speedy, I open the bathroom door to find the other cats standing outside waiting for him. Once, Lula even came to the bathtub and looked distinctly worried. I'm not kidding - brows furrowed and all.

There was also another incident when I took Lula out for a walk and left Speedy behind because he's terrified of the outside. When we came back, Speedy meowed his little head off at Lula and sniffed her all over to make sure she was okay.

I don't really have a point to this story. I think it's just interesting to note that there's more to animals than we give them credit for. Sure, they're just animals, but when they start displaying emotions?

Are you for serious?

That previous blog entry just didn't seem like it was enough. I felt that this issue warranted its own entry by itself. Let us begin with, "WTF?" At least The Star made it clear what the appointees were allowed and not allowed to do. I'm in such disbelief that I don't know what to do.

Let's start with Step 1: Checking out our Internal Job Postings microsite. Nope. Nothing open outside of Malaysia. Step 2: Consider discussing potential secondment with boss. Well, yeah, but then what do I do with my newly renovated house in PJ? And I don't really want to move to Singapore. Oh woe is me.

Time To Run?

Malaysia made it into Reuters again, and this time for the case on which I feel that my livelihood and future hangs in the balance. This was the case that was perpetually on my mind when I went to Singapore. I didn't plan the trip with the intention of deciding if I could live there, but that's certainly what ended up happening.

For those of you who are away and unaware, from Reuters: Woman wants public caning for drinking beer:

Kartika, a Malaysian citizen married to a Singaporean, is a Singapore resident. Religious authorities caught her drinking at a hotel in Kuantan, the state capital of the central Malaysian state of Pahang, on December 11, 2007.

Kartika said she had three glasses of beer before the hotel was raided in what she said was her second time drinking alcohol. She and the other patrons were asked to provide urine samples.

Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno will be the first Malaysian woman to be caned under Islamic laws applicable to Malaysia's Muslims, who account for 60 percent of the 27-million population.

No woman has ever been caned in Malaysia before, and no one ever thought they would. This woman not only refuses to appeal, which is a disservice to all Malay women, but also wants to do it in public. This woman has clearly never Googled a caning before or watched the videos on YouTube.

I think she's being selfish, because once it's done, there is a legal precedent set and the courts won't hesitate to cane another woman.

Yep, I think it's about time I have a backup plan. I never thought I'd have to, honestly, because I love KL so much and I've always had faith in Malaysians. I just don't know anymore.

Update (24 August, 12.11pm): From Reuters: Malaysia frees woman on caning charge:

SUNGAI SIPUT, Malaysia (Reuters) - Religious authorities in Malaysia on Monday freed a Muslim woman who had been sentenced to be caned for drinking beer, although she refused to leave a van taking her to jail when returned to her home.

And her father said the change of mind would ridicule Islam, which bans Muslims from consuming alcohol.

"The warrant cannot be executed," Sharafuddin Zainal Ariffin, head of enforcement for the state of Pahang's Islamic Affairs Department, told reporters after Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 32, was returned to her house.

It was not immediately clear whether the sentence, the first time a woman has been sentenced to caning in this Southeast Asian country, had been overturned or merely postponed.

Both the woman, a Malaysian who has two children and who had worked as a nurse in Singapore, and her father had called for the sentence to be carried out quickly and in public.

Kartika was to have been taken to another state to be caned some time this week.

"I will not come out without a black and white document explaining the status of what has happened. I am surprised and speechless," Kartika told reporters.

Her father said the change of mind would bring "ridicule" on Islam. "We had already
accepted the punishment," Shukarnor Mutalib, told reporters.

Thank god, and also, what?

Update (25 August, 9.03am): From The Star: Mosque officials get power to nab Muslims drinking alcohol:

SHAH ALAM: Mosque officials in Selangor have now been empowered to arrest Muslims drinking alcohol in public places.

Also at risk of being arrested are Muslims selling, storing and displaying alcoholic drinks for sale.

Announcing this yesterday, Selangor executive councillor Datuk Dr Hassan Mohd Ali said the mosque officials empowered to carry out the arrest were the nazir, imam, bilal and siak.

Dr Hassan, who is also the Selangor PAS commissioner, said the officials were empowered to arrest without warrant under Section 18 of the Syariah Criminal Precedure (State of Selangor) Enactment 2003.

He said the officials would be required to adhere to procedures under the enactment.

“These officials have been appointed to assist the Selangor Islamic Religious Council and the Selangor Islamic Re­­ligious Department,” he told reporters after a briefing at Shah Alam mosque here.

The briefing was for the first batch of 300 mosque officials and was conducted by Selangor assistant Syariah legal adviser Mohamed Fouzi Mokh­tar.

Dr Hassan said officials from 170 mosques throughout the state would be briefed on the arrest procedure.

Explaining the procedure, Dr Hassan said those who drank in public would not be immediately arrested.

“They will be issued with a notice and they can be fined, especially those who retaliate or are uncooperative,” he said.

He added that mosque officials could not detain the alleged offenders for more than 24 hours.

“They have to be surrendered to the police or religious authorities within that period,” he said.

Dr Hassan said that if convicted of consuming alcohol in public places, an offender could be fined RM3,000 or jailed not more than two years or both under Section 18 of the Syariah Crimi­nal (State of Selangor) Enactment 1995.

Those caught selling, displaying for sale and storing or buying alcohol, could be charged under the same section and fined RM5,000 or jailed for not more than three years or both.

Dr Hassan also said that Mus­lims who commit offences such as eating, drinking, smoking and selling food to other Muslims during the Ramadan month could be charged and fined RM1,000 or jailed for not more than six months or both.

For subsequent offences, they could be fined RM2,000 or jailed for not more than one year or both.

Dr Hassan said the officers from the religious authorities could not arrest those who commit such offences.

He said the officers were only required to take down the alleged offenders’ particulars, offences and the exhibits.

Enforcement officers from the religious authorities would need the state head of Syariah prosecution’s approval before investigating.

Yep. Beginning of the end. Time to look for a job in Singapore.

Top 10 Funny Jokes Of The Year

I like to start my days with things that make me happy, so here's one for you, too, from BBC: Hedgehog joke wins comedy:

1. Hedgehogs - why can't they just share the hedge?
2. I was watching the London Marathon and saw one runner dressed as a chicken and another runner dressed as an egg. I thought: 'This could be interesting'.
3. I had my boobs measured and bought a new bra. Now I call them Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes because they're up where they belong.
4. I went on a girls' night out recently. The invitation said 'dress to kill'. I went as Rose West.
5. I'm sure wherever my dad is; he's looking down on us. He's not dead, just very condescending.
6. Going to Starbucks for coffee is like going to prison for sex. You know you're going to get it, but it's going to be rough.
7. To the people who've got iPhones: you just bought one, you didn't invent it!
8. A spa hotel? It's like a normal hotel, only in reception there's a picture of a pebble.
9. I've been reading the news about there being a civil war in Madagascar. Well, I've seen it six times and there isn't.
10. I started so many fights at my school - I had that attention-deficit disorder. So I didn't finish a lot of them.

Lol. Personally, I liked numbers 5 and 7.

Why I Am Vegetarian

See, I told you I'd do it. No, it's not because I'm on a diet. No, it's not because I'm watching my figure. No, it's not meant to be temporary. No, it's not even because I'm being compassionate about animals. I don't even believe that turning vegetarian will help the global food situation. As a matter of fact, I personally believe that turning vegetarian will make it worse. Please send flames and hate mail to go@away.com, thanks.

The reason I'm turning vegetarian is because I've been put off meat. A combination of things have resulted in me looking at a drumstick in a funny way. For example:

1. In Australia, whenever I bought chicken with the skin on, the stems of the feathers would still be stuck on the skin which would just totally put me off.
2. Several times, when I've cracked open an egg, there'd be "something" in it which, at first glance, would just look like a speck. Closer inspection would reveal otherwise.
3. Several comparisons between meat (both pork and beef) and human meat have made it so that whenever I eat meat, I have to think of something else to distract myself.

Why now? Well, I've always kind of wanted to go vegetarian. When I was about 11 years old, I actually told my parents that I wanted to, and was met with questions like, "Where are you going to get your protein? What about your calcium?" and because I was 11 and didn't actually like eating vegetables, it didn't work out. I've found that vegetables now, I guess through a combination of cheaper import costs and agricultural development taste much better than they used to, especially the leafy green stuff.

What changed? Well, to be honest, the only reason I never went vegetarian is because I didn't think I could. That's what changed. I'd tried it before for just a day and thought I couldn't do it because I'd get hungry too quickly. MisDeeds convinced me that I had to try it for more than a day before I could see what it was really like. I did, and quickly found out that it was much easier than I'd thought.

And now, after a 2-3 week trial run, I'm officially a full vegetarian.

A vegetarian's guide to being, well, vegetarian

Yes, I know, it's been a while since my last post. Shut up. I've been very regular right up until now, and this time it's only because I thought my office content filter would ban Blogger. Fair assumption, right?

Anyway, since the last time I posted, I've officially turned vegetarian. No shit. For real. Hence, the following nutrition guide for beginner vegetarians:

Friedchillies on Twitter have also been very helpful after they found out I'm a n00bie vegetarian. I haven't told my parents yet. I suspect they're going to go, "Where did we go wrong? What did we do to deserve this?"

In other news, we had a Farewell Meat pot luck at my place where I spent a day pigging out on the carcasses of dead animals. But seriously, I bet your question now is, "What the hell? Why?" so I shall follow up this entry with another entitled, "Why I am vegetarian".

Oh No! Our Rocks!

No seriously, they lost some rocks. And apparently these rocks cost AU$400. No seriously. From BBC: Theft dismays Australia curlers:

More than a third of Australia's total supply of stones for the winter sport of curling have been stolen from a refrigerated lorry in Melbourne.

Police say the thieves probably thought they were taking a lorry full of alcohol from a secure car park at an ice rink.

The loss of 58 expensive stones has disrupted training for both serious curlers and those new to the sport.

Officials are appealing to the thieves to return the stones.

"They are useless to anyone else except for us, apart from as a doorstop or propping up a coffee table," curler Paul Meissner told the Associated Press.

"They might be valuable... but that won't do you any good. They could sell them to the Canadians, but they've got their own rocks."

Australia has only about 150 granite rocks, which are each valued at about $400 (£242). The lost rocks will cost more than $23,000 (£14,000) to replace, officials say.

The rocks had been stored in the refrigerated trailer to keep them frozen as part of the Curling Federation's attempts to boost membership to the sport in Melbourne.

"We had a lot of fun introducing about 40 people to the sport every Tuesday night, who really enjoyed coming here, which is an important part of developing the sport," said Mr Meissner.

"It is a massive loss. We might have to explore options including a loan from the World Curling Federation."

Curling is an Olympic sport that involves four players on two teams who sweep ice in an attempt to slide the rock towards its target.

Wtf is curling? How the fuck is it an Olympic sport and car racing isn't? "Oh yes, I'm sliding rocks. I'm an athlete. You're not, Lewis Hamilton". Wtf? And AU$400 for a rock? Holy hell, the world really is confusing me.

I Wish I Were More Selfish

It's a weird wish, but I wish I were more selfish. I'm not saying that I'm the world's most compassionate person, but the pressure that the world puts on people in general these days to care is incredible.

I can't walk around without feeling guilty about something or other, and it doesn't matter how much charity work I do, I'll always feel bad for not donating money to someone who I know prefers not to get a job because he makes more money begging.

I think it just got to a point where I felt enough was enough when I flicked a red ant, watched it die and then felt incredibly sorry because it had to go through the pain and suffering that I inflicted on it.

Really, I think there should be a switch when I should be able to switch it off.

List of Dreams to Fulfil

Sometimes I feel as if life is pulling me in all directions. I'm so confused as to where I want to go. When I'm at work, I want to have a great career and have a respected opinion. When I'm diving, I want to be a Dive Master and work at a diveshop and hang out on a hammock in my spare time. I get so confused sometimes, and when that happens, lists usually help. So I'm doing a List of Dreams to Fulfil sepet-style.

List of Dreams to Fulfil:

1. Be a Dive Master
2. Work in a foreign country (ex-Australia, ex-Singapore)

To be honest, I think that's about it. Travel is a given, but that isn't really a dream since I do that quite a bit. There's also the new house, but that's also something that's actually happening. Gee, I guess life really can be that simple.

Sunglasses With Lightning Are Always Going To Be Better

So after some ridiculous neglect of my blog what with work, TechMiso (shameless plug), Twitter and all that taking up so much of my time, I'm finally posting something. This could quite possibly (with the exception of August 2008 when I was in the interiors of Sabah) be the longest non-posting period on this blog. I don't know if that's something to be proud of or worried about.

Updates on my life (but everyone who reads this knows this already):

1. I'm a Rescue Diver now, certified by PADI as of 28 June 2009. Just one certification away from Dive Master.


2. I'm moving into my own house, and am going to commence renovations as soon as a contractor gets in touch with me.


3. I'm terribly excited about moving.

I have some money in PayPal now, and all I want for my house is a Marc Johns drawing. Sunglasses With Lightning Are Always Going To Be Better is awesome, but slightly (read: a lot) out of my budget. Cutlery Is Better With Lightning would've been oh-so-perfect for my dining area but it's sold already [Insert upside-down smiley face here]. Time to step up my monitoring of Marc Johns to make sure I don't miss anything anymore.

Dear Marc Johns, please draw slightly cheaper stuff to decor my house with. I oh-so-wanted the Deluxe Carrying Case For An Ampersand but alas it wasn't to be. Sigh.

Perez Who?

So I've never liked Perez Hilton. I mean, I'm sure he's a nice person in real life and all that, but to be safer, let's say that I've never liked his public persona.

For starters, his real name is Mario Armando Lavandeira. To go with a name like Perez Hilton is a bit like, wtf? I shall call him Mario Armando. Because that's his name. Secondly, have you ever seen what he looks like? He's a fat and ugly mofo. There's no law against being a fat and ugly mofo, but there should be if you're making a living off making fun off celebrities. I don't have anything against gossip bloggers. I, myself, depend on The Superficial for my daily light reading at work, but I feel that once people start calling themselves 'celebrities' and joining reality shows with other pseudo-celebrities, that's where I draw the line. I've said all this before, and I'll definitely say it again if someone asks me.

The source of this rant is of course the ubiquitous news story about how Mario Armando was 'attacked' by Will.I.Am and his honchos. Apparently, the sequence of events went like this:

1. Will.I.Am sounded off on Mario Armando.
2. Mario Armando gets annoyed and says 'Why should I respect you? I don't respect you ... you're a fucking faggot'.
3. Skirmish.
4. Someone knocks out Mario Armando in the melee.

So, Mario Armando gets angry because he's a reporter (let's go out on a limb and call him a 'journalist') and the subject of his reporting becomes angry at, let's say 'alleged falsehoods claimed against him'. I may not actually be a journalist so I wouldn't really know, but isn't that (gee, I don't know) part and parcel of being a journalist? And then Mario Armando the genius also instead of saying "Hey, man, don't hate the playa, hate the game", goes on to say "you're a fucking faggot".

This is, to me, akin to someone bumping into me at clubs several times and then knocking over my drink. Ehem. They deserve it.

Oh, the fun continues. Mario Armando proceeds to tweet about it calling on his Twitter followers to call the police and ask them to go to his location. Yes, because the police have nothing better to do than answer hundreds of calls asking them to go save the life of a man who was punched in the face. Nope, no car accidents or emergency situations. None.

I felt a bit callous when I tweeted that it was stupid for someone to tweet about how badly they've been hurt and how they need the police rather than call the police and ambulance (since oh my god he's so badly hurt) themselves. And then, thanks to the lovely The Superficial and John Mayer, I felt validated.

Let's make this clear. This isn't a tirade against Mario Armando. I don't hate Mario Armando as a person, but I hate how he makes himself out to be a celebrity and acts in the dim limelight that casts upon him every so often.

Moving on up

So I'm thinking of moving out. I know, I've already moved out of my parents' place. The difference is that this time, I'm thinking of moving somewhere to live alone. Well, the only real reason I'm going to be living alone is because I feel that I need to move away from my sisters and there are no close friends who are moving out now so no potential housemates. I mean, it's likely that my house will serve to be a weekend house for some, but no one permanent. No, that wasn't a hint at sexual activities.

Let's run through the reasons why I feel I need to move (again). This is just as much to sort through my thoughts as much as anything else, because I always feel a bit more organised and sure of myself when I list out reasons for doing things:

1. I can have my cats with me. The apartment my sisters and I are supposed to be moving to is owned by my parents and they refuse to let me bring my cats, regardless of my reasoning or begging.
2. I will have less frustration over irreconcilable differences with my sisters. I love them, but we each have little idiosyncracies that don't sit well with the others. They're small enough that it would seem silly to make a big deal of it, but after living with it for a while it builds up. You know?
3. I want to have a permanent place to hang my hat. Somewhere I can make cosy and really call my home. A place that I can make my own in my own style suited to the taste of my comforts.
4. I won't have to worry about rent, or moving out once the tenancy agreement is expired, or unnecessary wastage of electricity, or other things along those lines.
5. I can have as much alone time as I need.

There. That's sorted. Tomorrow, I break the news to dad because mum's away in Russia for a week or so. I've told no one in my family, so I hope my dad is as supportive as I need him to be.

Beware, call centre staff

Today is the day that I catch up on all my 'calling up and sorting out' errands. Not to say that I don't have any work. Actually, I have quite a lot of work. I'm just procrastinating. Anyway, my point is, you'll probably see more than one entry like this today.

Call to Citibank

I lost my credit card sometime 2 weeks ago so I cancelled it and they issued a new one, which obviously has a new credit card number. I haven't got around to checking my mailbox quite yet, so I haven't received it or activated it. I did try to pay my credit card bill last week, however, by calling up the call centre, asking for the new number and Maybank2u-ing to them. Following is the conversation that occurred after I got an SMS from M2U telling me that my payment was rejected:

Me: Hi, can I find out why my payment got rejected?

Him: I'm not sure, ma'am, it might be because the card isn't activated yet.

Me: Well that's ridiculous, I called last week and the lady said it was fine if I made the payment. Who's going to pay me back my Interbank Giro fee of RM2?

Him: Oh, your card doesn't need to be activated to make payment. I'll activate your card for you now.

Me: What? You just said I don't need my card to be activated to make the payment, but I need to activate my card now?

Him: Yes.

Me: ... I don't understand.

Him: You need to activate your card.

Me: Why?

Him: Have you received your card?

Me: No, I don't have it yet.

Him: Oh, then it's better if you don't activate your card if you don't have it yet.

Me: I know. I'm not calling you to activate my card [fuckwit]. I just want to know why my payment was rejected. Let's not talk about activating cards anymore. Now will you tell me why my payment was rejected?

Him: Maybe it's because the account number is wrong. You'll have to check with them if the account number is correct.

Me: Can I check with you?

Him: Okay.

Me: Please read me the account number.

Him: xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx

Me: Okay, the account number was wrong. That was all I needed to know. Thank you.

Yep. Beware, call centre wallas. Today's the day of reckoning.

It's not what it looks like

You know what's a shame? I'll tell you what's a shame. Obviously, otherwise this wouldn't be a blog entry.

It's a shame that people think it's weird for other people to want to be alone. It's a shame that they automatically think that there's something wrong with you. There doesn't have to be something wrong with you to want to be alone.

For example, I love my alone time. I cherish it. I especially love it when both my sisters are away. I love just kicking back and watching TV and generally just being alone. That's another reason why going home for lunch is so awesome for me.

As an extension of this, I love going out for Saturday/Sunday lunches/dinners alone with a good book (and my Archos and heavy duty headphones on Sundays, because that's family day). For a long time, it was IT by Stephen King, just because it was such a thick book. I swear the waiters at Nero Fico saw the progress as I made my way through the book week by week.

And then of course, there are the glances by people who generally think it's odd that I'm sitting there alone having dinner on Saturday night. That sucks, because honestly, I couldn't think of a better way for myself to spend Saturday night other than just chilling out, having a good dinner and a couple of drinks, with or without other people.

Airbus Boycott?

I think most frequent flyers have noticed the unusually high number of aviation incidents lately. If you didn't, then take note. Most notable were:

• May 2009: Air France's Airbus A330 disappeared off the face of the earth [Link].
• Feb 2009: 50 people were killed when a small Colgan Air aircraft crashed into a house (Donnie? Donnie Darko?) [Link].
• Oct 2008: Qantas' Airbus A330-300 suddenly dropped in altitude [Link].
• Sept 2008: Boeing 737-300 crashes in Russia, killing all [Link].
• Aug 2008: Spanair's MD82 aircraft catches fire, 153 dead [Link].
• July 2008: Qantas' Boeing 747-400 developed a case of a hole in its fuselage while in mid-air [Link].
• June 2008: Airbus 310 crashes in Sudan [Link].
• Dec 2007: The year ended with another big crash in Turkey which killed all 57 people
  on board [Link].
• Sep 2007: Jetliner skids off the runway in Phuket [Link].
• Aug 2007: Twin Otter DH6 Turboprop crashes in French Polynesia, killing 20 [Link].
• July 2007: 191 died in Brazil as an Airbus A320 came in to land too fast in one of the country's worst aviation disasters [Link].
• June 2007: Plane crashes in Cambodia. Toddler is sole survivor [Link].
• May 2007: 114 dead as Kenyan plane crashes into swamp [Link].
• Jan - Mar 2007: 2007 was a particularly bad year for Indonesian airlines, with 3 aviation accidents in the first quarter of the year alone, one in each month. Not kidding. Quite unfortunately for Boeing, they were all Boeing 737s [Link].

I started to compile the list of passenger plan incidents since 2007 but it got too depressing after I got this many. There was an accident in virtually every month of 2007. It's pretty ridiculous, and it really doesn't help my recently developed fear of flying. Wtf.

Ophidiophobe

I have ophidiophobia. I don't think it's a secret to anyone who's known me for more than 2 days.

Main Entry: ophidiophobia
Part of Speech: n
Definition: a fear of snakes; also called ophiophobia
Etymology: Greek ophidion 'small snake'
From Dictionary.com

So now that you've learned a new word, my point is this: I hate when I tell people that I have a fear of snakes, that they decide to tell me things like, "But you should just go and touch one and it'll be fine and you won't be afraid anymore!" as if I live in a TV sitcom where all my insecurities, fears and problems can be solved in just one fun-filled, you'll laugh at this later, wholesome event that fits in a 30-minute or 60-minute time slot.

I am an ophidiophobe, and I stand by my fear. It's not an irrational fear. Snakes can kill you. Snakes can kill you in a very real and painful and sadistic manner. Seriously. Ever try looking at a python's teeth? Google Images it. Go on. I'll wait.

There you go. And the beauty of this beast is that they're indigenous to Malaysia, and no, not somewhere outside of KL, but in the very heart of it. Both family homes that I've lived in during my lifetime have had snake problems ranging from 6' pythons being found in the house to nests of King Cobras.

Again, I reiterate, my ophidiophobia is a rational fear and a fear based on the basic human instinct of survival and not being eaten alive. It's not an irrational fear of an animal that only lives in a country I'll never visit, or of inexistant monsters that go bump in the night, or of non-life threatening insects like spiders.

I have tried to deal with this fear in several ways. Well, just one way, really, which consisted of me going to the snake zoo-like place (whatever it's called) in Langkawi one fine day. I walked through it at a leisurely pace, I looked at the snakes, I kept getting mini heart attacks everytime my ponytail touched the back of my neck, and I got through the whole thing.

And yes, I'm still an ophidiophobe. And I'm proud of it. Leave me alone.

What? Complaints?

From The Star: Actor flees Jais raid on fiancee's home without his clothes:

A TV actor tried to make a quick escape – minus his clothes – when Selangor Religious Department (Jais) officers raided his fiancee’s apartment in Petaling Jaya, reported Harian Metro.

The 20-something actor, who appears in a mystic and horror TV series, managed to climb to the next unit’s balcony on the fifth floor at 3am recently.

Five Jais officers raided the apartment after receiving complaints from neighbours that the actor and his fiancee would meet up frequently at her home.

The woman, also in her 20s and an assistant producer in the TV series, told the officers that she lived alone.

The woman, who was dressed in a sleeveless top and skimpy shorts, allowed officers into her room where they found a pair of men’s trousers and shirt.

Jais Special Force Unit chief Shahrom Maarop said: “Further inspection found signs that a person had exited through the balcony.”

The officers then went next door and found a few male foreigners living in the apartment.

One of the officers spotted a man who had wrapped himself with the curtains near the balcony.

“Officers questioned the actor who tried to pose as one of the foreigners. But the ruse did not work as his accent and skin colour were different from the occupants.

“The actor finally admitted that he had been sleeping at the woman’s home and that they were engaged,” Shahrom said.

They were detained for questioning and released on bail.

What? Who complained? And more specifically, apparently they complained that these 2 are always at her home. Methinks the chick pissed off one of her neighbours. That kind of makes people want to call Jais. Am I right, Bitcheline?

Accident? Ya, Right.

From Reuters: Warship fires on village by accident:

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian navy said on Friday that one of its anti-submarine ships had fired artillery at a village by mistake, state RIA news agency reported.

The navy said no-one had been injured when a small anti-submarine ship on Thursday opened fire on a village in the Vyborg region of St Petersburg.

"On the 28 May, a small anti-submarine ship from the Baltic fleet was working on a host of exercises in the gulf of Finland including artillery fire at aerial targets," RIA quoted a navy spokesman as saying. "No-one was injured."

Russia's navy has been plagued by a series of mishaps since the collapse of the Soviet Union, including the Kursk submarine disaster in 2000 in which 118 sailors died.

More like sailors going, "Let's see who can get closest to hitting that church steeple!"

I will/I won't

I felt the urge earlier to write a poem. That was a blast from the past. Haven't written anything in probably 4 years at least. Am I regressing? Am I wishing for a time long gone?

Probably, yes. I think I'm longing for a time when I was still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, when I was still the 'ice queen', could keep myself protected in my little fortress of solitude and all was right with the world.

Now I find myself longing to tell people,

'No, I don't want to hang out with you because you will make me want things that I don't want, you will make me long for things that I don't want to long for, you will make me step outside my fortress and make me long for a life that will destroy me.

'I will schmooze when I need to, I will be the social butterfly when it is required of me, I will conform to that fit that people-shaped hole in your mind that you think I belong in when it is called for.

'I will be the cool aunt, the crazy cat lady, the girl with standards that were too high so she didn't get married, the woman who's too independent and couldn't find a man. I will do this for as long as it takes until I can carve my own little cave out of life and fill it with the love that I need. 

You have what you want of me. Let me be.

What would a woman have said?

I saw the following caption on Reuters' Weird News, Odd News, Funny News Stories page:

Man tried to hire prostitute for his son, 14
LONDON (Reuters) - A man who tried to hire a prostitute to take his 14-year-old son's virginity as a present was spared jail by a court on Friday.

And I thought, the judge has to be a man. And guess what? It was! From Reuters: Man tried to hire prostitute for his son, 14:

LONDON (Reuters) - A man who tried to hire a prostitute to take his 14-year-old son's virginity as a present was spared jail by a court on Friday.

The Polish national took the boy out in his car and allowed him to pick out the prostitute, who was standing at the side of the road in the red-light district of Nottingham.

But the 42-year-old father was arrested because the teenager had chosen an undercover police officer, Nottingham Crown Court heard.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was handed a 10-month prison sentence, suspended for a year, after he admitted a charge of trying to solicit a woman to have sex with a child, the Press Association reported.

The court heard that the father, who came to Britain eight years ago, was arrested last July during an undercover operation by the city's vice squad.

Prosecutor Adrian Harris said the man and his son had approached the undercover officer whose code name was Sarah and beckoned her over .

He asked "Sarah" how much it would cost for her to have sex with his son and they agreed on a 20 pound fee. However, when the car pulled over, the man was arrested by plainclothes police officers.

"The boy said that they had driven past the girl and his dad pointed to her and said 'will she do?'" Harris said.

"He said 'yes' and they had turned round. He said his dad did this because he was still a virgin and he was taking care of that for him."

Judge Jonathan Teare said he would spare the father jail because of his excellent character and that he believed he did not mean any harm to his son.

"You have a duty of care to your son and that is to look after his moral welfare, not as you might think to break him in to the ways of sex through a prostitute," he said.

The court was told the boy would continue to live with his father.

I'm guessing that a female judge would have ruled in a completely different manner. The ruling would probably have included such words as 'depraved', 'sexual maniac', 'irrepairable psychological damage', 'unfit parent' and 'propagating sexual deviance and human trafficking'. But no, the guy lucked out and got a male judge and a slap on the wrist. Hmm.

10 most dangerous foods

Following is a list of the '10 most dangerous foods to eat', whether the danger is to your personal health or to the environment. Be aware that some of the claims are contentious, but it's good to bear in mind, anyway.

1. Farmed Salmon
Tim Fitzgerald, a scientist with the Oceans Program of the Environmental Defense Fund, says, "Salmon is the third most popular seafood in the US, so people are eating a lot of it and most of what they're eating is farmed. As a result of the feed salmon are given, they are very high in PCBs and environmental contaminants. For reasons of health, the environment, and popularity with consumers, farmed salmon is at the top of the list of seafood to avoid." The average dioxin level in farmed-raised salmon is 11 times higher than that in wild salmon.

2. Conventionally Grown Bell Peppers
Even though pesticides are present in most food at very small trace levels, their negative impact on health is well documented, and certain produce carries a greater risk. According to a report done by the Environmental Working Group, sweet bell peppers are the vegetable with the most pesticides detected on a single sample (as many as 11 were found on one sample). In addition, bell peppers are the vegetable with the most pesticides overall with 64 different pesticides found on samples. Better to buy organic and eliminate this risk.

3. Non-Organic Strawberries
In order to increase sweetness, some growers of non-organic strawberries are said to irrigate the plants with water laced with the artificial sweetener NutraSweet. And that luscious red color is caused by the fungicide captan, recognized by the EPA as aprobable human carcinogen. Do you really want to eat something bathed in a chemical sweetener and doused with a likely cancer-causer? Probably not.

4. Chilean Sea Bass
Chilean sea bass, otherwise known as Patagonian toothfish, lives for a very long time and grows to a large size; both are automatic warning bells for being high in mercury. Fitzgerald says, "We have some pretty comprehensive data that Chilean sea bass are extraordinarily high in mercury and not something you want to eat very often. When you factor in the very serious environmental issues with illegal fishing and bycatch, it's definitely a double whammy for us." "That said, we don't want to give the impression that if you eat one piece of fish with mercury, you're going to get mercury poisoning. But if you continually eat fish with a lot of mercury over an extended period of time, that's when you're going to see more serious issues like unexplainable fatigue, memory problems, and tingling or numbness in your extremities," Fitzgerald says.

5. Non-Organic Peaches
Peaches aren't just juicy and delicious, they're magnets for pesticides, often topping the Organic Center's consumer's pocket guide for pesticide-riddled produce. The Center's chief scientist Charles Benbrook says, "Peaches top the list because their skins get soft at the end of their season on the tree and the last pesticide spray can move right through that skin and get into the tissue of the fruit in a matter of hours. That's why it's easy to find peaches with ten different pesticide residues in them." Benbrook adds, "The last thing that we want to do is scrooge people from eating fresh fruits and vegetables. If anything, we want people to eat two to three more servings of produce a day. But the science is irrefutable. If the average family sought out organic versions of the top four fruits and vegetables they eat the most often, they could eliminate 90% of their overall pesticide exposure."

6. Genetically Modified Corn
If you read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, one of the more shocking truths is the amount of corn found in the American diet. Corn is in everything from frozen yogurt to ketchup, from mayonnaise and mustard to hot dogs and vitamins. Unless specified as organic, the corn you're ingesting is likely genetically modified. Genetically modified organisms have not been tested thoroughly enough for long-term consequences, but a series of studies has found significant health risks in animals tested, and an increase in certain allergies for humans.

7. Bluefin Tuna
Maybe it's a good thing that not everyone has the luxury of eating a lot of toro at the sushi bar, because bluefin tuna is in grave danger from a population perspective. It's also one of the more dangerous fish for mercury consumption, making it both a bad eco choice and a health risk for mercury exposure. Fitzgerald says, "The bluefin tuna is in such horrible shape right now. There are some populations that may go commercially extinct in the near future if we don't ease up on the fishing."


8. Industrially Farmed Chicken
While there has been much debate over chickens and hormones, there exists a great deal of misinformation. Poultry is not allowed to be given hormones in the United States, so while reports have existed for years that schoolchildren are experiencing early puberty due to excess hormones traced to chicken, there have not been enough studies done to prove this conclusively . What we do know is that tests done by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy found arsenic in conventional chickens. Arsenic has been linked to cancer and contributes to other diseases including heart disease, diabetes and deterioration of mental faculties. In addition, a study conducted in 2002 for the Sierra Club and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy found multiple antibiotic-resistant bacteria in brand-name poultry products . Scientists believe antibiotic use in animals raised for food contributes to antibiotic-resistant bacteria transferred to humans, mainly through contaminated food, resulting in drug-resistant infections. In order to avoid poultry that's been dosed with antibiotics or given feed laced with arsenic, better to opt for an organic chicken at the grocery store.

9. Non-Organic Apples
"Apples come with a red flag based on the sheer amount of apples in our diet and the reliance of pesticides in humid parts of the country," says Benbrook. Apple skins contain higher pesticide residues. Higher risk apples are grown in the humid mid-Atlantic states and Michigan: They use more pesticides than California, Oregon or Washington state. A lot of those pesticides seep into the skin of the apple, so it's always good to peel it. Unfortunately, approximately 1/3 of the nutrients come off with the peel, according to Benbrook.

10. Cattle Treated With rBGH
The use of genetically engineered drug rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone) is widespread among the cattle industry in the United States. Banned by all European nations and Canada, U.S. dairy farmers continue to use the synthetic hormone which escalates production of the cow's own hormone ICF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1). This hormone does not break down when humans consume milk from those cows and has been traced to higher risks of certain cancers, including breast cancer, and hormonal disorders. The only guarantee against ingesting these dangerous excess hormones is to buy milk labeled "no rBGH."

Incidently, there's a breed of corn that is being grown in Cameron Highlands which are so sweet that you can eat them raw. They're awesome. I wonder if they're genetically modified. Will I spout a tail or an extra head if I continue eating them? Hmmm...

Source: Sprig.com

Calorie Demons: White rice vs brown rice

Carbo breakdown. Nothing surprising, just FYI.

Source: Calorie count

You know what I hate?

I absolutely hate (among other things, of course) being pigeon-holed within seconds of meeting someone new. I hate when the second I say, par example une, "I work in a bank" and BAM! they go "oh yeah, you won't be able to talk to my bosses because all you'll be able to talk about is accounting and business". It's annoying because there are so many adjectives that define me other than Banker that they don't bother to find out about, e.g. diver.

Also, the following (summarised) conversation took place:

I took 2 degrees, one in Economics and one in Sociology.

What does Sociology do? Is there a practical application?

No, not really, but it was great to learn about.

Why would you study it if there's no practical application?

For fun. I didn't want to go to uni and miss out on the chance to learn something new that I wouldn't get anywhere else.

Isn't that a waste of money?

I don't think education is a waste of money. There's no practical application, but it really helped me open my mind to other things.

What? That's bullshit. I don't believe that.

Is it just me, or does that conversation worry you about the future of mankind too?

What are we? Chopped liver?

From BBC: Jacob Zuma's three first ladies:

The question that has South Africa's media all of a twitter is: "Who amongst Jacob Zuma's three wives will be the country's next first lady?"

It was hoped the inauguration ceremony of South Africa's first polygamous president this Saturday would be some indication, but it has been reported he will be accompanied by all three women.

Polygamy is still common in rural KwaZulu Natal, where Mr Zuma is from.

According to political analyst Protas Madlala, many Zulus who are Christian have turned away from the practice, but it persists in rural areas because of the low standard of education and enduring poverty there.

The BBC has just called just under 2 billion people uneducated and poor. I'm having such mixed reactions to this. On the one hand, my religion allows polygamy (under very specific circumstances, which includes permission from existing wives, gentlemen), and on the other, I'm so against polygamy that it hurts. And then there's the argument that it's better that you're aware of the husband's antics rather than he have secret mistresses, which too me is a moot point.

But anyway, the fact is that there are incidences of polygamy in upper-middle-income countries too, and there is likely a higher incidence among the wealthier and more educated than one would think (which is evident in Malaysian society). Arguably, in these countries, polygamy is a 'luxury good' as higher income means you can afford more wives.

Either way, any data collected on the issue is biased because polygamy is illegal in all but a few countries in the world. I declare, therefore, that this statement was unsubstantiated.

Take that, BBC!

From The Star: Don: Malaysia needs to be high-income economy:

DUH! What did he think, that we chose to be middle-income? That we went, "oh that's ok, we're pretty comfortable down here, we don't really need high-income"?

Why does someone have to die for the world to take notice?

From The Star: Group to fight snatch thieves and Mat Rempit menace:

BATU PAHAT: The Home Ministry will set up a joint committee to come up with a plan to fight snatch thieves and Mat Rempit in the wake of the tragedies that claimed the lives of two pregnant women.

Deputy Minister Jelaing Mersat said the committee would involve other ministries and departments, such as the Transport Ministry, Puspakom, the Road Transport Department and local authorities.

Jelaing said snatch thieves and Mat Rempit had become serious problems.

“We aim to come up with a big effort to solve these problems,” he told pressmen after visiting Razali Ahmad, 41, at his home in Ayer Hitam here yesterday.

Razali lost his wife Jamilah Selamat, 31, who was two months’ pregnant, following a snatch theft in Taman Ayer Hitam on Sunday.

She fell off her motorcycle, hit her head on a pavement and went into a coma.

Yesterday, another snatch theft in Kota Baru claimed the life of Saripah Mohd Nor, 34, who was four months’ pregnant.

Jelaing said the ministry and police had to step up their crime-fighting efforts, adding that the perpetrators must be caught as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, Johor police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Mohd Mokhtar Mohd Shariff, who was also present, said a task force led by state CID chief Senior Asst Comm (II) Datuk Amer Awal would carry out investigations into Jamilah’s death.

He said police were still waiting for the post-mortem report and results of Puspakom’s examination of the victim’s motorcycle.

DCP Mohd Mokhtar said he had ordered Batu Pahat OCPD Asst Comm Ibrahim Aris to set up community policing and neighbourhood watches in Taman Ayer Hitam and Taman Mekar here.

He also urged witnesses to come forward to assist police with investigations.

Those with information can call the police hotline at 07-221 2999 or go to the nearest police station.

Why does someone have to die before people sit up and take notice? If you follow the 'most read' tab on the news websites, it always has to be a tragedy or a sex-related crime for people to find it interesting. It's deplorable.

In this case, 2 pregnant women didn't have to die for the police to take action. The signs were everywhere. All the police had to do was go out for a drive in a plain car to know the extent to which motorcyclists are getting out of hand. They should try to change lanes in slow-moving traffic, and just generally drive around and notice the motorcyclists going the wrong way, using the sidewalk as their own personal lane, and generally being ridiculously crazy.

So why did it take the loss of 4 lives for them to sit up and take notice?

Customer Service Review: Flickr

Business: Photo website

Location: n/a

Website: http://www.flickr.com

The Situation:

I signed up with Flickr forever ago, back when I had 6 email addresses and was still in a different country. And then it lay dormant for a couple of years while I whittled my email addresses down to just 3 or so.

Come 2009, and for some inexplicable reason, I find the need to reclaim my Flickr account, but *gasp* it's linked to one of my dormant email addresses that no longer exists! Shock! Horror! You'd think that, that's it, my Flickr account is gone and unreclaimable, but you'd be wrong.

I emailed Flickr's Helpdesk, and in less than 2 days, someone had emailed me with a solution. It didn't work, but they tried. When it didn't work, it was escalated to someone with more power, and BAM! in less than 5 days, I have my Flickr account up and running again. How awesome is that?

The Verdict:

If only Malaysians were this efficient. You'd never think that a website with so many users could be so efficient, but they are. The CFA people could learn a thing or two from them.

5 Stars, Flickr! Also, tried to reply to the email to say muchos gracias, but it was a donotreply, so THANKS FLICKR. Hearts.

Calorie Demons: Chilli's Grill & Bar

Depressing, isn't it?

Source: Chilli's

http://icanhascheezburger.com/

May Day

Tomorrow's Labour Day. Awesome. I really need the break. I bet most Malaysian workers are thinking the exact same thing, "Another meaningless public holiday. Life is good."

So what are we actually celebrating/observing on Labour Day, a.k.a. May Day? According to Wikipedia, there's all kinds of reasons, ranging from what I suspect Malaysia thinks it is, i.e. a day of celebration for the achievements of its labourers, to pagan celebrations of fertility (which, as we all know, is always the underlying reason for holidays), to an olden-times version of St Patrick's Day involving a lot of dancing around poles and stealing them from other villages. It's even been attributed to the Virgin Mary.

And yet, Malaysians make a big fuss over cultural holidays. I think it's a whole issue of what the media decides to make a big fuss of. Power to the people, not the media. Take the initiative and read. Find things out for yourself. Don't be sheep.

I think I've lost the point of this blog entry.

Echo Park fashion show @ Megamall

Props to KL Drumline Corp, ECX and the other b-boy group whose name I forgot (sorry). It was a pretty entertaining show. My Poh-Poh was rockin out to the music and the beat.

Man cuts off finger, eats it

Seriously. From Reuters: Man cut off finger to protest overdue wages:

BELGRADE (Reuters) - A Serbian union official who chopped off his finger and ate it in a protest over wages that in some cases have not been paid in years, said Monday he did it to show how desperate he and other workers were.

"We, the workers have nothing to eat, we had to seek some sort of alternative food and I gave them an example," Zoran Bulatovic told Reuters. "It hurt like hell."

Bulatovic, a union leader at the Raska Holding textile factory in Novi Pazar in southwest Serbia, used a hacksaw to cut off most of his left-hand little finger Friday.

Bulatovic said he decided to act after his deputy, "a single mother of three, was the first to say she would cut off her finger. I could not allow her to do that," he said.

State-owned Raska Holding was a major textile producer in the late 1980s with a workforce of 4,000. It suffered during the collapse of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s and a loss of markets and mismanagement during a decade of wars and sanctions led to massive job cuts, leaving the company with just 100 workers.

Some employees have not been paid for years, only collecting social benefits, like free medical care.

About two dozen workers went on a 19-day hunger strike last year. They want the company's debt to be swapped for state-held equity and a welfare program for those nearing retirement.

Bulatovic said his comrades will not back down from their demands, but they will postpone planned self-mutilations at least until talks with government officials in Belgrade expected Tuesday.

First of all, WTF?! Secondly, gross.

And finally, this brings up a point that I've been thinking about lately. One day I was driving home at night and stopped at a light and I saw a homeless man sleeping on a shopfront. I sat there deciding if there was enough time for me to run out and give him RM5, and if it was a good idea, and if I'd get robbed/kidnapped in the process, and a multitude of other things. And then the light turned green, and that was the end of that.

But it begs the question of why I was more willing to give money to this person who did nothing and would probably continue doing nothing as opposed to the good people who walk around Bangsar trying to sell stuff.

I think because we sympathise more with the helpless (or faux-helpless) that we're willing to help them, but the second they look semi-presentable, they're ignored, and the outcome is that those who manage to drag themselves over the poverty line by fighting tooth and nail are then neglected when they're in real need. And now that we're in a recession, the poorest of the poor suffer, but so do they, and yet they're still neglected.

So what are we supposed to do? Keep giving money to the poorest of the poor, where giving $1 means you'll have to keep giving $1 for them to live; or give money to the marginal, where giving $1 means there could be a point where they can live on their own?

I hate the gray areas of life.

Really? It was that good?

From BBC: Woman held for noisy sex 'breach':

A woman has been remanded in custody accused of breaching an Asbo banning her from being noisy during sex.

Neighbours complained of hearing Caroline Cartwright, 48, groaning and her bed banging against the wall at her home in Washington, Wearside.

Earlier this month she was given a four-year Asbo banning her from making excessive noise anywhere in England.

But she appeared in court on Monday, charged with three breaches of her Asbo in just 10 days.

She was remanded in custody until 5 May.

Cartwright was convicted of five breaches of a noise abatement notice on 17 April and fined £515.

But Houghton le Spring Magistrates' Court heard police arrested her on 18 April, on 22 April and again on 26 April, after reports from neighbours she was flouting the ban with her husband Steve.

Prosecutor Claire Ward said neighbours complained to police about early morning noises including shouting and groaning coming from the Cartwrights' home in Hall Road, Concord, Washington.

Cartwright elected to be tried by jury and the case will be transferred to Newcastle Crown Court at a later date.

They should also prosecute her for wasting taxpayers' money on frivolous cases.

Customer Service Review: Borders Bookstore

Business: Bookstore
Location: Berjaya Times Square; The Curve
Website: http://www.berjaya.com/berjayabooks.htm

The Situation:

I'm looking for The Biggest Loser Cookbook, because I'm going to be on study leave for 1.5 weeks and I thought I'd cook at home. I'd heard that the book has simple recipes with simple ingredients as opposed to those ingredients where most people go "... what?"

So of course I go to the website of my favorite bookstores, in order of preference: MPH, Times and Borders. MPH and Times are pretty easy, with simple and user friendly websites that allow searches of the stores' inventories online by Title, Author, etc. Now comes Borders.

Borders doesn't really have a website. Not only that, the crap website that it does have doesn't give you the phone numbers of all the two stores that they have, which as I understand is way too difficult to put down two phone numbers. So nevermind, I call the number that they do have and ask for the number of their other branch which isn't situated in such a ridiculously inconvenient spot, and I get it easy enough.

So get this: not only do they have a crap website and only 1 phone number, they also have a phone system that doesn't put you on hold when the customer service officers are busy. If you happen to call and the lines are engaged, you just have to call back and try your luck!

That's ridiculous!

Verdict:

I know that Berjaya Group has a history of low levels of customer service, but just once I'd like to be surprised. The verdict is a 1 star customer service level for a purportedly 5 star brand name and outlet.

To data plan, or not to data plan?

My Nokia E71 (white, so pretty) has opened up whole new worlds to me. Things I've done with it so far:

1. Hooked up my 3 Gmail accounts to update whenever I'm around my home network.
2. Installed MSN.
3. Installed mIRC.
4. Installed the 'Go To' function on Nokia Maps.
5. Pimped it out with themes.

So now I'm deciding on the pros and cons of going with a data plan. Last month, my bill came to about RM10 less than it would have been if I signed up with a data plan. So I'm thinking, "isn't RM10 worth it to pay for unlimited access?"

Pros:

1. Unlimited internet access.
2. Realtime tweets.
3. Unlimited internet access.
4. Realtime emails.
5. Unlimited internet access.

Cons:

1. Unlimited internet access.
2. Realtime emails.
3. --- productivity

Sigh.

Good old fashioned disfunctional families

From The Star: Sex affair just to spite parents:

KUALA LUMPUR: More underage girls are having sex to get back at their parents for neglecting them.

This startling information was revealed by police who said that the girls had initially claimed they were raped but later admitted to have consented to sex with their boyfriends.

Statistics compiled since 2005 showed that the number of girls below 16 years old who are sexually active has been increasing every year.

The study also revealed that an alarming 60% of girls between the ages of 13 and 15 had sex because they “wanted revenge” on their parents. Sex with a girl aged under 16 is classified as statutory rape under the Penal Code.

The girls, largely from urban areas, confessed that they had befriended men as they were angry with their parents for subjecting them to emotional and physical “abuse”.

While some had sex with men just to get back at their parents, others were coerced into it by the very men they had turned to for solace, said Asst Comm Suguram Bibi Munshi Deen, head of the Sexual Abuse and Children’s Division at Bukit Aman.

Noting that teen rape had risen since 2005, she said that the victims – mostly from cities and major towns in Selangor, Johor and Kedah – usually ended up pregnant.

“We are not pointing a finger or exposing the private lives of families but the public must realise what is happening,” said ACP Suguram Bibi.

“Children, teenagers and youths are our future leaders and we as adults, parents or guardians must guide and instil in them right and proper values.”

Statistics from 2005 to 2008 showed 75% of the rape victims were below 18 years old and at least 60% of the girls were below 16. Boys below 18 made up between 8.4% and 13.6% of the “rapists”.

The study also showed that teenagers got bored easily, craved attention or wanted the freedom to express themselves.

ACP Suguram Bibi said parents should educate sons to respect the opposite sex and not take advantage of them.

“We also found that some boys were challenged by their peers and forced to commit sex acts to prove that he was one of the gang and to stop being ridiculed.”

Yep. There's nothing like a few orgasms to get back at your parents.

That said, kudos to the Assistant Commissioner for coming out and addressing a 'taboo' issue so that Malaysians are hopefully more aware.

Twittered

FYI: I'm officially on twitter. http://twitter.com/[my full name, no spaces].

I've found a new love, and his name is

marc johns. Exactly like that, no caps. He's awesome. I found him through my love of Savage Chickens. But back to marc johns.

I love his simplistic style of drawing, his simple intellectual humour (as opposed to complicated pseudo-intellectual humour), his way of poking fun at society and its idiosyncrasies. If I lived by the beach and had a simple little beach shack and a simple little car (that's a big 'if'), this is the kind of thing I'd buy to fill the walls and make it home:

Photoshopped goodness

Above is the new ad by Audrina Patridge for PETA. Firstly, she is not that hot. That's ridiculous. Secondly, just look at the extent to which she has been photoshopped. She has no knees! The only way she could have knees that smooth is if she were a Barbie doll. And we all know she's more skank than doll.

Dwell not upon thy weariness,

thy strength shall be according to the measure of thy desire. -Arab Proverb

As you may or may not know or care, I toyed with the idea of walking to work after I moved. As the bird flies, the distance between my home and my office is so near it's scary. The problem lies in the distance that I'd have to walk, and given the rising crime rate, snatch thefts and rape cases, it's always a worry for safety.

So that plan was scrapped.

The other day, I suddenly thought, 'Why not cycle?'. For some reason, it never cross my mind before. How odd is that?

Anyway, I'm now considering cycling to work. I've scoped out the route there and worked out that there is a sidewalk that goes most of the way. The only issue lies in U-turning, meaning I have to make my way across a busy, 4-lane highway. Suicide? Maybe not.

Issues to be considered:

1. I'll be sweaty from cycling due to the uphill and downhill-ness of it all.
2. I have to find a spot to U-turn without killing myself.
3. Safety.
4. I'd have to bring my office clothes in a bag, as well as my handbag. Where do these things go?

I'm seriously leaning towards this. Come help me solve my issues and help me become greener.

Calorie Demons 3: Alcohol

It hurts me to do this one.

Source: BBC

Pirate Bay Founders Jailed

From Reuters: Pirate Bay's fileshare four get year in jail:

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Four men behind The Pirate Bay, one of the world's biggest free file-sharing websites, were each sentenced to a year in jail on Friday for breaching copyright, and ordered to pay $3.6 million in compensation.

Analysts said the guilty verdict in the closely-watched test case could help music and film companies recoup millions of dollars in lost revenues, though they doubted it would stem the tide of illegal downloading.

In a broadcast on The Pirate Bay's website one of the four defendants, Peter Sunde, taunted the court, holding up a mock IOU note for 31 million Swedish crowns ($3.6 million) followed by the initials "JK" -- Internet lingo for "just kidding."

"That's the closest they're going to get to getting money from me," Sunde said.

International trade body IFPI, which represents some 1,400 record companies across the world, reported earlier this year that about 95 percent of music downloaded in 2008 was illegal.

On its website, The Pirate Bay scorned the ruling, calling it a "crazy verdict."

"It was lol (laugh out loud) to read and hear," the message read. "But as in all good movies, the heroes lose in the beginning but have an epic victory in the end anyhow. That's the only thing Hollywood has ever taught us."

IFPI Chairman John Kennedy welcomed the court sentence which he said in a statement provided a "a strong deterrent" against copyright infringement.

"This is good news for everyone, in Sweden and internationally, who is making a living or a business from creative activity and who needs to know their rights will protected by law," he said.

The men linked to The Pirate Bay -- Sunde, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Fredrik Neij and Carl Lundstrom -- were charged early last year by a Swedish prosecutor with conspiracy to break copyright law and related offences.

They denied the charges.

Companies including Warner Bros., MGM, Columbia Pictures, 20th Century Fox Films, Sony BMG, Universal and EMI also sought damages of more than 100 million crowns ($12 million) to cover lost revenues.

The Stockholm district court said in a statement the four were found guilty of breaching copyright laws and each sentenced to a year in prison.

APPEAL

Lundstrom's attorney, Per Samuelson, told journalists he was shocked by the verdict and the severity of the sentence.

"That's outrageous, in my point of view. Of course we will appeal," he said. "This is the first word, not the last. The last word will be ours."

The lawyers defending Sunde and Neij told Reuters their clients would also appeal the verdict.

The group that controls The Pirate Bay, launched in 2003, says that no copyrighted material is stored on its servers and no exchange of files actually takes place there so it cannot be held responsible for what material is being exchanged.

The prosecution said that by financing, programing and administering the site, the four men promoted the infringement of property rights by the site's users.

Industry experts were not convinced the verdict would have a lasting effect.

"Every time you get rid of one, another bigger one pops up. Napster went, and then up came a whole host of others ... The problem of file-sharing just keeps growing year on year, and it's increasingly difficult for the industry to do anything about it," said music analyst Mark Mulligan of research firm Forrester.

Dan Cryan, senior analyst at media research firm Screen Digest, said the lack of international copyright law meant websites dedicated to illegal downloads could simply move on to a new country if legislation tightened where they operated.

"Pirate Bay was brilliant at self-publicity, but the reality is there are lots of other torrent-tracker sites," he said.

"The closing of the one that shouts the loudest won't make any difference."

I salute the Pirate Bay four for standing up for what they believe in. You may balk at my support of piracy, but I believe that it's the ultimate way of using my economic power to support the artists that I want, and to signify the need for change. If I thought Kelly Clarkson's CD was worth RM40+, I would have paid RM40+ for it. As it is, I'd rather pay the radio stations RM40+ to not play Kelly Clarkson's songs.

Maybe if the record companies want people to buy CDs, they shouldn't price them at RM40+. Downloading a song at RM3+ doesn't help, either. Also, putting in copyright measures doesn't help either, because if I pay for a CD then I most def want to listen to it on my MP3 player. Stop hoarding your money and start doing things differently, dammit.