Month: April 2003 (Page 1 of 2)

Spoonfork’s interview
was out yesterday and today Alphaque’s got posted.
Nice insights! :) Alphademon
oughtta do more of those!

And Albster
has got a rather eloquent toilet humor
thingy going on! Good UI (user interface) design can help in
keeping toilets clean.
Of course, this thing I mentioned yesterday has gotta be the
ultimate appliance
for those who can’t stand being AFK (away from keyboard) for prolonged
times.

My apartment in Sunway is now complete and almost ready for occupation! Went there this morning to inspect the place and collect the keys. Few minor defects here and there but quite happy with it overall. It is, after all, THE most expensive thing that I’ve purchased with my own money so far so it’d better be worth it! I’m estimating June/July timeframe for me to move in there by the looks of things. It ain’t no Casa Impian right off the bat by any stretch (it’ll get there eventually — but for now, I’ll be content with a fridge, microwave, futon bed, my computer, stereo and Astro. Anybody wanna help me source this? :P) but what the hey, it’s gonna make as a good, comfy and functional crib for my ownself in the next two years or so (gonna hafta migrate my “R&D Center” soon too). Surprisingly spacious living area, good view from the balcony and master bedroom, airy when all the windows are open and quite shielded from direct morning/evening sun. Nice location too as major amenities are very close to the place. Can’t wait!

Listening to: Eric Benet – Poetry Girl

I have been waking up rather early the last few Sundays (as opposed
to “normal” standards of late morning/early noon like some people I
know — okay, so I don’t sleep much anyways). Early enough that when
I start channel surfing on the idiot box, can’t help but notice that RTM‘s
Selamat Pagi Malaysia morning talk show has been consistently
featuring Pop Yeh Yeh groups all this while. I have nothing
against that genre of music (I only have problem with dangdut) but
why can’t RTM feature newer artists or musicians or at the very least
have a good balance between the old and the new? The artists of
yesterdecades have had their day already and are not really producing
any new materials these days. Newer artists are the ones who are in a
better position to provide “movement” in the somewhat stagnant local
music industry ‘cos like it or not, it’s the younger population who’d be
inclined to buy and listen to music rather than the senior people who’d
be listening to music more for nostalgic reasons than anything else.
Perhaps it’s due to the fact that RTM is being run by senior people (I
rather not use the term “old” here for reasons of political correctness :P)
that we get these kinda things happening. It’s not that we want to
forget the past completely (if so, The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Frank
Sinatra and Nat King Cole wouldn’t be known today) but move on with
the times! At least our neighbors Singapore and Indonesia are doing
justice to newer/emerging artists by giving them ample exposure, hence
we see more movement there than here in Malaysia. Help promote
those in the now but create awareness of those in the past, not the
other way around.

Still on the musical note (Heh! Geddit? Music – Note. No? Nemind… :P),
I only managed to watch the second half of AIM 2003
last night. Definitely a much better show than last year’s
as far as performances and hosting by Afdlin Shauki and Bob Lokman
are concerned. It’s also good to see that newer talents are credited
where it’s due and more variety emerging from the local music industry.
At least there’s some progression and departure from the
“blame-the-pirates” excuse that has been cited time and time again.

Pak Lah (our Deputy Prime Minister) mentioned the following in his
keynote address to members of the Oxford and Cambridge Society
of Malaysia sometime last month:

“The way I see it, the malaise affecting Malaysia that
may well jeopardise our way forward is a case of having First World
infrastructure and Third World mentality. From poor execution and
inept management to shoddy maintenance and appalling customer
service, Malaysia is in danger of possessing the hardware, but little
software.”

Something very poignant indeed which I’m sure will fall on deaf ears
anyways (Malaysians generally don’t like to hear negative things about
themselves). Enough with the technology transfer for now, I reckon.
What we *really* need at this moment is an Attitude Transfer.

If there’s one thing I cannot accept no matter what is having to pay for
piss poor product or service. Isn’t it ironic that you have to pay toll to
use a road that is massively jammed and doesn’t help you at all in
expediting your journey? If it weren’t for the presence of toll booths,
roads like the LDP at Sunway would be smooth flowing ‘cos it won’t
“bulge” in the middle (like 7 or 8 lanes to accomodate the toll booths)
and then converge to 2 or 3 lanes in less than 500 meters. Knowing
how Malaysian drivers are, you can bet it’s gonna cause massive jams,
especially during those rush hours. Civil engineers responsible for road
design and construction oughtta learn a bit about the psychology of
Malaysian drivers and take that into consideration when designing
roads here in this country. Personally though, I’d rather abolish those
darned Samy Vellu “chetti” houses.

You may have already noticed some changes on the sidebar of this website by now. Tidied up some of the links you see at the Linkages section to take out some "cobwebbed" sites and add a few more sites of friends that I regularly visit as well as those who have kindly linked my website from theirs (I don't owe you anything anymore right, Lyna? :P). Also added a link to the Gallery page (which has been featured before not too long ago) for your visual pleasure (or not!) and convinience (or not!).

Getting away from doing regular stuff usually does good to me most of
the time. The trick is to be able to get back into groove at the right
moment just so that one can get back with a fresh outlook whilst not
caught being too laid back that you’re not able to do much and
subsequently lose touch doing stuff after that. That’s the case with this
website and I recently, I guess. I think I got away for a bit too long
that I’m beginning to get lazy over it. Heh!

While we’re on the subject of getting back into the groove, as some of
you might know, I quit my job
sometime end of last year and have been keeping quiet on that end
since. Well, I *have* been up to “stuff” not too long after that in fact
and I guess it won’t be too long till I officially take the wraps off that. ;)

It also seems that Michael Schumacher (Ferarri) and brother Ralf
(Williams BMW) are back into the winning groove themselves. Much
respect to the both of them for being able to race exceptionally well
today while coping with the loss of their mother the morning before
the race.

Winding it down with Robert Palmer – She Makes My Day

A friend of mine said this to me the other day: “Marriage is like the
military: there’s the General and the Major. Depending on who and how
your significant other is, you will assume either rank. I thought I was
well and good out of the QC (Queen Control) situation since I get to
assume the role of the General and my wife as the Major in my
household. But it ended up that she has the final say over everything
anyway ‘cos she will claim that everything within the household is a
matter of major importance and none of it is general
in nature.”

‘Nuff said! Bwahahahahahaaa!

I thought today’s Formula 1 race was funny. We got a carnage of cars
when several drivers aquaplaned and crashed out at turn 3 of the
Interlagos circuit, including the rainmaster himself, Michael Schumacher
(Ferarri). Those race marshalls stationed there certainly had a very
busy day today as well as the Safety Car driver since it had to be
deployed four times throughout today’s race. The race had to be
stopped several laps before the chequered flag (Heh! So much for
“training” supermodel Gisele Bundchen on flag waving) as Fernando
Alonso (Renault) ran into the debris left behind by Mark Webber
(Jaguar), creating more chaos and carnage on the track. Final chaos
ensued in the pits when the engine on one of the top three finishing
cars belonging to Giancarlo Fisichella (Jordan) caught fire. Then there
was a confusion in determining today’s champion as well before it was
announced that Kimi Raikkonen (Mclaren Mercedes) emerged as
today’s race winner (that’s two in a row already for Kimi) followed by
Fisichella and Alonso in second and third respectively. Alonso wasn’t
present on the podium as he was being attended to after sustaining
injuries from that final crash. We certainly COULD have used some
incidents to spice things up a bit at Sepang two weeks ago. So what’s
in store at Imola a fortnight from now?