anak merdeka

Today, I had the awesome opportunity to be part of Malaysia's 48th Independence Day celebration. No, this is not some kind of cheesy talking about "great experience"-kind of writing. This is a bit more like a banter rather than a... something. Anyway, once again, I had to go and 'pretend' to be one of those 'anak merdeka', who's born on the 31st of August to represent my own race to recite the Ikrar Negara. But the thing is, I wasn't born on the 31st of August.

I wasn't about to lie, of course, like last year. This year, anyone who asked me whether I'm borned on the 31st of August or not, I said no. In fact, I have no right to be standing up there representing the Chinese people as if I'm the pride of the country simply because TODAY IS NOT MY BIRTHDAY. The only rational that my teachers gave for me to lie is because those in my school, who are born on the 31st of August are not the type that can read Ikrar Negara with pure patriotism and exuberance. Pure bull.

Can you even believe the fact that at this age, even TEACHERS are asking the students to LIE and I can't imagine what would our education system be like 10 or 2o years down the road. I know this is a very menial task and tiny matter but all the huge problems start from a tiny error. Take aeroplanes for example. The carelessness of an aeroplane engineer, who accidentally uses the wrong screw size(although the difference is less than 1 mm) can cause the death of hundreds on the aeroplane. So, I suppose a 'tiny, menial, harmless' lie like this could cause the downfall of the Malaysian education system. It seems like we're only focusing on the academic part of the system although the government 'stresses' and 'prouds' itself on being well mannered and pure compared to the westerners.

Of course, this is a very special day for Malaysia and I'm not going to about this only. In fact, I have more to say about the spirit of 'Merdeka' in every souls in Malaysia. It's to see that the very people who are leading the governing bodies in Johor itself behave like teabags. Here's what happened, people from the MDSR(Majlis Daerah Simpang Renggam) literally make fun of EVERYONE and ANYONE who's performing on this big day where all Malaysians are supposed to be joined in unity, peace and harmony. I'm especially peeved about the people from MDSR because of the way they made fun of the Indians when they perform their Silambam acts(oh, have I mentioned that everyone who represented the MDSR are Malays? Hmm...). They also make fun of the poor old man when he's reciting a great 'syair' when the PA system went wrong.

It is truely appalling to see these kind of things happen on this wonderful celebration of our country's independence. What rights do these people have to enjoy themselves at the expense of others by humiliating them, making funny sounds and behaving like Mr. Dick. I really don't see the point in having this kind of huge celebrations. Sad to say this but the spirit is now lost. It's grand and beautiful on the outside but the inside is just as rotten as a 3-year-old apple, and you know how rotten an apple that old can be.

If you are a Malaysian, please, I beg with you not to be hypocrites, who proudly professes ourselves to be loving, kind, helpful, polite, well-mannered and pure Malaysians, when we really are behaving the opposite. Let's practice integrity and not follow what every other Ahmad, Ah Seng and Bala* are doing.

Well, there's only so much that I can do. I can only say and act upon myself whereas the nation is slowly decaying away. I can't blame those at fault too. We're only humans.

Happy 48th Birthday, Peninsular Malaysia!
Happy 42nd Birthday, Malaysia!



* That's my Malaysian version of Tom, Dick and Harry, hehe...

NOTE: I'm actually talking about everyone in general but I used MDSR as an example because they really were making a racket about everything. I don't care about your damn water supply, Simpang Renggam. Go dig a well.

laundry's a rocket science

I've been doing my own laundry for the past few days(unbelievable, right?) and realised that it's not as easy as dumping them into the washing machine and pressing the purple button. I've followed my mother's instructions explicitly and still the laundry turns out bad. Just plain bad. As in my clothes still smell, yes, I did use the detergent. What is wrong with the way I dump my clothes in? Must I like arrange them according to the materials used to make it? Like cotton 12 o'clock, polymer 3 o'clock and lycra 8 o'clock? Or do I have to use some kind of TOP SECRET add. maths formula to solve it? Hmm...

Living alone has it's pros and cons. Duh. I've figured that living alone is great cause you can go out for tea ANYTIME you want, as long as you have a car and friends like Mich and T.Li. Tea is probably the highlight of this week long holiday. Besides that, one can also determine WHAT to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner and WHEN to eat too. Even better, when NOT to eat.

With all that fun, what about the good ol' books? That's where the cons start to rain down on the parade. Being alone at home means no one will care what I do(or DONT do). Many would say that being alone late at night would be freaky as the wind would be blowing hard against the windows as the wolves howl till kingdom come. I would personally rate living with family freakier than living alone with my imaginary Bobby and Tim.

Here's the song of the week:

SAVE THE LAST DANCE FOR ME

You can dance-every dance with the guy
Who gives you the eye,let him hold you tight
You can smile-every smile for the man
Who held your hand neath the pale moon light
But don't forget who's takin' you home
And in whose arms you're gonna be
So darlin' save the last dance for me

Oh I know that the music's fine
Like sparklin' wine,go and have your fun
Laugh and sing,but while we're apart
Don't give your heart to anyone
But don't forget who's takin' you home
And in whose arms you're gonna be
So darlin' save the last dance for me

Baby don't you know I love you so
Can't you feel it when we touch
I will never never let you go
I love you oh so much

You can dance,go and carry on
Till the night is gone
And it's time to go
If he asks if you're all alone
Can he walk you home,you must tell him no
'Cause don't forget who's taking you home
And in whose arms you're gonna be
So darling,save the last dance for me

'Cause don't forget who's taking you home
And in whose arms you're gonna be
So darling,save the last dance for me
Save the last dance for me
Save the last dance for me.

- Michael Buble


NOTE: Yes, I do realise that Harry Connick, Jr. also sang this song and probably did it way earlier than Michael Buble but I like Bubby's version better.

wonderful world

WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD

I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world

The colours of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shakin' hands, sayin' "How do you do?"
They're really saying "I love you"

I hear babies cryin', I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll ever know
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
Yes, I think to myself, what a wonderful world

Oh yeah

(George Weiss / Bob Thiele)

When you look around and take yourself totally out of the picture and slowly analyze the 'world' around you, I'm sure you'll agree with me(and Georgy as well as Bobby) on how wonderful this world is. Unfortunately, this is only a presidential suite loaned to us by God. We'll have to check out of this suite when our time is up.

I can imagine how the writers feel as they stroll along a peaceful country side with birds chirping in the background, trying to come with a song to describe what a wonderful world this is. If so much can be done just to put the 'wonderful-ness' of this world into a song, I really cant imagine what would a song that describes the 'wunderfull-ness' of heaven sounds like. It would be really interesting...

chores

For the past 1 and a half hours I've been doing my chores. Chores that my mom have been egging me to do for the past two months. Things like wiping the keyboard, wipe my study table, change my bedsheets, hang my clothes, etc...

So tonight, I did just that. And I've never felt so 'complete' in a long time.

To start of my chore-a-thon, I wiped my study desk, cleaned up the tape residue with lighter fluid(awesome stuff) and change the table organizer thing to this month's paper. Roughly 10-15 mins of work there.

Next, I went off to clean my keyboard. This is the most amusing thing I've done all day. I started off by wiping the keyboard's surface and then I thought to myself, "Why not wipe the keys individually as well as the inside of the keyboard?" And I did just that. Me and my brilliant idea, eh? So, I took out 100+ of individual keys of the keyboard, wiped the inside as well as the individual keys and then assemble them. Took me about an hour plus or so.

After that, I felt the urge to change my bedsheet out of fear that the bedbugs might come and bald my head one day. Somehow, in a very strange way, changing bedsheets prompted me to go downstairs and pick up the massive pile of clothes to be hung in my wardrobe. Since I was banging my head to the tunes of my MuVo, I don't really mind doing all that.

And now, here I am, sitting in front of my computer and back to square one once again. So, what really makes me feel good after doing all these chores?

sank low

You know people always say, "Come on, just ignore this jerk. No need to argue with him to sink down to his level." Well, it's some kind of insult that people usually use when 2 people are fighting/arguing.

Unfortunately, I sank to one of those teabag's level today.

It was a normal and usual Wednesday morning at STK. Shaun and I were doing our usual walking around in the Pra-U block during assembly and I went into PU2B1, I believe. There were 4 students in the class. 2 chinese, whose name I can't remember as well as Lew Yen Yee(haha) and Agilan. Here's a little transcript of what happened:

Me: Please leave the class now and go to the assembly.

*The two chinese boys did their own thing and Yen Yee and Agilan rebeled, as usual.*

Yen Yee: No.
Me: Why?

*Agilan took out his graph paper starting copying Yen Yee's work.*

Agilan: Give me a minute. Let me copy this first.
Me: Oh come on, you're going to take ages to finish. Go down now. Please don't make my work difficult.
Yen Yee: Fuck off.
Me: Who's talking to you? Go down now.
Yen Yee: Why should I listen to you?
Me: Well, who do you think you are?
Yen Yee: I'm your senior and why the fuck should I listen to you? No respect.
Me: Well, I'm a prefect and I have authority. What kind of authority do YOU have? Come on, move it. Don't make me loose my temper.
Yen Yee: Well, fuck you. Why should I listen to you? Who are you?
Me: Don't have to go 'fuck this' or 'fuck that' with me. Just go. I'll let Agilan finish his work but you will have to go down.
Agilan: Don't worry about me. You just go.
Yen Yee: No, I'm going to stay here. I'm not going to leave you.

*At this point, I was thinking what on earth is this man thinking? Is this some kind of war or what? Haha, loser. Anyway, at this point, I lost it. Literally.*

Yen Yee: Just fuck off and go away. Why should I listen to you?
Me: Who the FUCK do you think you are?

*Yen Yee stood up, as if picking a fight.*

Yen Yee: No fucking respect. Kids nowadays are so disrespectful.

*HAHAHA!!! Pot calling the kettle black!*

Yen Yee: I tell you, if you go out into the streets with this kind of attitude, you wont survive! You watch out!
Me: Whatever, shitbag.

*I walked out of the class*

Well, there you go. Have fun and you're welcome to point and laugh at me for my stupidity and good show of patience. As for the 2 chinese boys, they were probably confused with what on earth is going on. Either way, all the drama ended after I went out for a talk with Shaun. Something inside me wants to throw a punch in his face so badly. I'm sure I'll see him again. Next time, I'll remember not to sink to his level.

parting

There are some things in life that I find hard to part with. Things, literally. There is my bass, of course. And then this chocolate bear or something that Hui Ying bought for me for my birthday(which I've kept in the fridge since March) as well as this parcel full of Kinder Chocolates that my friend from Holland sent me. I don't understand why there is such 'connection'. Just take the chocolates as example. I want to eat them but my heart feels funny and strange and not wanting to eat them. How I wish I was never given these awesome things in life so I don't have to think about parting with them!

Strange, isn't it? I would rather give them away rather than keeping it to myself and enjoy it all by myself. Take the Kinder Chocs as example. Since young, I've always wanted to have them, especially those Kinder Surprise eggs but they were never available in Malaysia and even if they were, we could not afford them last time(yadda..yadda.... getting all emo here). Now that I actually have 3 of these eggs in my fridge because the kind person sent them to me all the way from Holland(Yeah, I know I can buy them from S'pore but what the hell), I don't wish to eat them. I guess the best thing to do is to give them to my siblings.

This is a rather strange entry because I know exactly the kind of feeling I'm going through now but I don't have any idea how to put them into words. So, I'm pretty much typing spontaneously without thinking much. I know you would say, "Aiyah...just type itlah...". Well, if I just type it out, it would look like this:

#^ZS%DSG%*&$%^&DFAR#&TFD*UGUG*GHSAV
HC%R^#^saASDASDFA@%TgfdjhA#R^&%*&DTRFYSDFAT#
#@%W$Y((^&%YGN<>?TFGHA#W%R#AW%#W%AWFASGH

And the moral of the story is: Don't buy me anything that is too awesome.

If you don't know how Kinder Surprise looks like and wish to know what is it that's burdening me, here it is:

abortion?

It is about time that we put some facts straight about abortion and refocus our attention on what needs more attention than the other. I'm not here to tell you that abortion is good or bad. As we all know, abortion is termination of pregnancy and expulsion of an embryo or of a fetus and it means robbing the life and the future of the fetus before it's born.

I have seen and heard numerous campaigns, demonstration and speeches on why abortion is bad by countless Christian organisations and non-government organisations. The question is this: Is abortion really bad? I have read a book that touched on this sensitive topic, where the authors of this book did a study connecting the legalization of abortion in the 1970s to reduced crime in the 1990s. While there are many other theories as to why crime declined (more prisoners, better policing, the strong economy, the decline of crack, etc.), most experts agree that none of these very convincingly explains the 30 percent to 40 percent fall in crime since 1991.

In March 1970, Jane Roe filed a lawsuit challenging the current US law that disallow any and all forms of abortion unless the life of the mother is threatened or the baby was concieved because she was raped. You can read about the whole lawsuit drama, which they call Roe vs Wade by checking out this website that gives you all the detail that you can ever need, I think. The end result of this lawsuit is Jane Roe won and abortion was legalised first in a few States in USA and later throughout the whole of the country. Later in the 1990s, criminologists suspected that there would be a 'bloodbath' because of they predicted that the number of crimes will raise by 500% by the middle of the 90s. Instead, crime rates fell by 30 percent to 40 percent since 1991. Many believed that is so because legalized abortion leads to fewer "unwanted" babies being born and unwanted babies are more likely to suffer abuse and neglect and are therefore at an increased risk for criminal involvement later in life.

I AM NOT SAYING THAT ABORTION IS GOOD!!! read on...

In my humble opinion, we(people who think abortion is bad) have been focusing on the wrong things. We have been putting in too much energy and resources to campaign against abortions instead of battling a bigger problem; that is the cause of abortions. Most cases are because of sex before marriage. Come on, let's admit it loud and clear together: SEX BEFORE MARRIAGE IS THE MAIN CAUSE OF ABORTION, with the exceptional few extreme cases where victims are raped or whatevernot. I think that the number of abortions can be significantly lowered if people would just understand the fact that sex is for your spouse only and not to be done before marriage where both the guy and the girl are not ready to take up the responsiblities of raising a child. This will lower the number "unwanted children" being born as well as abortions performed.

In conclusion, abortion is bad but there is a bigger problem behind it; sex before marriage. Like many other cases in the Bible, God can use something bad/small/insignificant/terrible to cause something different that we may not expect to happen.


Reference:
1. Does Abortion Prevent Crime? By Steven Levitt and Steve Sailer
2. Roe v. Wade
3. Dictionary.com/abortion

cant smile without you

You know I can't smile without you
I can't smile without you
I can't laugh and I can't sing
I'm finding it hard to do anything
You see I feel sad when you're sad
I feel glad when you're glad
If you only knew what I'm going through
I just can't smile without you

You came along just like a song
And brighten my day
Who would have believed that you were part of a dream
Now it all seems light years away

And now you know I can't smile without you
I can't smile without you
I can't laugh and I can't sing
I'm finding it hard to do anything
You see I feel sad when you're sad
I feel glad when you're glad
If you only knew what I'm going through
I just can't smile

Now some people say happiness takes so very long to find
Well, I'm finding it hard leaving your love behind me

And you see I can't smile without you
I can't smile without you
I can't laugh and I can't sing
I'm finding it hard to do anything
You see I feel glad when you're glad
I feel sad when you're sad
If you only knew what I'm going through
I just can't smile without you

- Barry Manilow

Have been listening to this song lately and realised that Barry Manilow has a pretty good voice(duh, else his songs won't live till today on Light&Easy FM). Actually, I've listened to this song a lot more than I should and it's getting a bit unhealthy cause I tend to sing this one whenever I have the chance to(which creeps out everyone).

Before this post turns into a lovey-dovey post, I would like to show you a picture of Strongbad. Click on it to view it in super-duper excellent 3D detail(really, you won't be disappointed):

cleaned up

After a long while, I've finally taken the time off my busy schedule(yeah, right) to give Michelle a nice thorough clean up and polish as well as covering it with a thick layer of gold. Okay, I lied on the last part but the bass is so much cleaner and better looking now, heh.

Behold, I present to you the CLEAN Michelle:


Took me a while to get everything nice and shiny.


First, we shall start with the headstock. As you can see, I took the trouble to use cottonbuds to clean up these little nooks.


I don't have a chrome polish liquid thing. So, I used lighter fluid instead to clean this up. Looks pretty neat now compared to before.


The sticker's still there cause if I tear it off, it's going to ruin the bass. I dont mind having my name on it, anyway. Note that I've also used a black marker to blacken the masking tape wrapping around my strap. No more zebra-like thing :)


Time to oil the strings in....ages.


Took me a while to realise that I was taking the picture the other way around.


There you go. A much more 'artistic' picture.


The back of the headstock. Didn't really put much effort into cleaning this as I was getting bored after 1 hour of cleaning and polishing.


The metal plate that joins the neck and the body together(I think). It looks pretty bad now because of wear and tear.


Another shot of the black wrapping around the strap to prevent it from falling out on it's own. It's actually BLACK now, heh.


Mich's sticker's still there. It looks all beaten up cause of friction when I play the bass. Anyhow, for the same reason as my name's sticker, I left it there and promptly fixed it up with more tapes.

And that would be it.

expiry date soon?

Am I going to die soon?
Is the end near for me?

After being whacked out and depressed for the past Saturday and Sunday, today has been exceptionally well. I got an A1 for my Pend. Moral for the first time in a long time after a long run of C5 and C6. I didn't get my butt kicked for not completing my Modern Maths homework(I forgot, really) and I had an afternoon nap, which totally made my day. Although everything may be just a dream but I'm pretty much left with a 'satisfied' feeling inside me. Like I've completed my life.

But life isn't that short or easy to complete, right? I still have higher education, work and family to think about. Mich gave me some really good points to think about last night. How can you love someone without thinking about them? Hmm... If God is the standard measure, there can be some problems too; like what kind of aspect? Everything? I'm thinking... So, standards = bad, no standards = bad All in all, having a standard measure can be a bad thing and not having one would be pretty bad as well. So, the conclusion is: we become. Man, that's a lot to think about. As the standard measure, there is no above and no bottom.

We Become.

It can bring a lot of meaning to just a short phrase(maybe not even a phrase). Well, we become what, when and why? Many of you are familiar with the book Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. The book gave many interesting insights on the 5 main purposes in life: Mission, Worship, Discipleship, Fellowship and Ministry but it seems to me that it isn't as complete as I wanted it to be. Probably it's because it doesn't include the "Live-it-out" part cause that one I'll have to work on it on my own.

I'm trying to slowly digest all the stuff that I've heard yesterday but there's a little too much for me to handle at the moment. With a guy like this, what can possibly go wrong:




Have a nice day... Cheers!