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Let me share with you my experience in a cab today. Terrifying and amusing at the same time. I should be horrified but somehow it kinda made my day and I even afforded a smile as soon as I got off the cab.So a bit of background first. I was catching a cab from Subang to KLCC this morning. I saw one parked and jumped straight in. I told the old bloke (I’m guessing 50-ish) where I was heading and then the old geezer started the engine.Cabbie : Saya satu je tak boleh buat.Tak boleh pakai seatbelt.And with that remark, he started to drive. And my journey begins.Cabbie : So, kerja sekali dengan anak Merican?Me : Ha’ah, lebih kurang. (Thought to myself.. Yeah, right)Cabbie : (Now starts addressing himself as “pakcik”) Pakcik kenal Merican tu. Orang Sungai Petani. Tapi anak dia tak suka tolong orang. Orang Kedah memang camtu la. Tak suka tolong orang. Keluarga sendiri pun tak tolong. And then he started rambling on about Mahathir.Cabbie : Mahathir pun tak suka tolong orang. Dulu pakcik bawak anak sedara dia. Anak sedara dia cerita Mahathir tak mau tolong dia la apa la. (Oh, imagine also that the cabbie speaks with a loghat Utara)Cabbie : Orang Perak suka tolong orang. Megat Junid tu yang tolong saya, teksi ni saya dapat sebab Megat Junid yg tolong.He then went on about how Megat Junid awarded his company (Yes, he’s a contractor too.. “Bawak teksi ni saje saje je, boring…”) to clear some land to start a new plantation. Cabbie : Dia punya personal life tu, hal dia la. Dia buat apa pun tak kacau kita. Tapi yg penting dia tolong kita.Me : Hmm.. betul betul. (Berpura pura layan)There was a brief silence for a while as we started entering the NKVE. But not too long. Pakcik then started on with another story and added more weird remarks.Cabbie : Anak pakcik sorang balik dari Mesir skarang kerja kat Jepun, yang tua skali. Sorang belajar kat Iran. Yang muda skali jantan tak kawin lagi, dah 27 tahun.Me : Muda lagi tu. (Again, pura pura layan… I was now enjoying this a bit)Cabbie : Anak pakcik semua baik baik. Tak hisap rokok, tak main pompuan. Bukan macam pakcik, pakcik dulu jahat. Tapi pakcik ajar anak anak jangan jadi macam pakcik.Me : (Thinking.. How jahat is this pakcik really?)And, as if he could read my mind, he elaborated more on his “jahat”.Cabbie : Dulu pakcik gi night club, jadi bouncer lagi. Zaman dulu dulu la. Banyak lagi benda jahat pakcik buat. Hisap rokok, judi, minum arak. Jahat dulu pakcik ni.Wow. Good on ya, pakcik. That’s quite impressive.Cabbie : Anak pakcik yg muda skali tu tak kawin kawin lagi. Susah nak cari pompuan Melayu yg OK skarang ni. Pakcik tau la, pakcik bawak teksi ni dah lama, macam macam la pakcik dah tengok. Perangai semua takde yg baik, pakcik nak cari calon yg sesuai la, tapi zaman skarang ni susah la, especially kat KL ni. Jangan harap la nak jumpa.Me : (Nodding in agreement) Betul tu. (This time I genuinely agree with him, tak pura pura)Cabbie : Anak pakcik kalau 23 tahun, pakcik dok main kote lagi.Me : (I don’t have a fucking clue where that came from, or even what it’s supposed to mean. But I guess it was a bit funny)Now we’re cruising along NKVE heading towards the Jalan Duta Tollbooth. Pakcik got his cab in a long queue. (As you do when you drive to KL around 8.15-ish). So now we’re idling in the queue when suddenly pakcik yelled “Oi!”)I was a bit shocked, to be honest. Tetiba je dia jerit.I then realised that he saw his taxi buddy in the line next to us, but about 5-6 cars ahead of us. Pakcik decided to take matters in his own hands. Switched on the right indicator lights, and without even a glance on the sideview or rearview mirror, he jumped into the next lane. Ok, not exactly into the next lane, more like he squeezed into the space between the two lanes. O Oh. He’s jumping the queue. I always curse at people who jump queues, but today I’m in a crazy cab who’s doing it. He sped the cab right up next to his mate’s cab, signalled left, and cut in front of him. And his mate did give some space for our cab to cut in. I guess that’s one of the cabbies’ rules. Let your mate cut in front of you during jams.I tried not to look outwards at the other motorists who I’m sure were pretty bloody pissed. I was a bit embarrassed.Pakcik then decided that it would be good for me to know a bit more about his mate behind us.Cabbie : Kawan pakcik tu duda. Dia nak kawin lain tapi anak anak dia tak kasi. Susah la macam tu. Kalau tak kawin, sape nak masak nasi untuk dia, nak jaga dia kan?Me : Ha’ah. (What else was I supposed to say?)Now we’ve passed the Duta toll, and on Jalan Duta (is it? Dunno). And there’s a slight but not too massive jam. But a jam nonetheless.Seeing a potential delay of 5 minutes if we stayed in the queue, pakcik made a move to the emergency lane. His mate somehow managed to overtake us, I guess he went onto the emergency lane quicker than we did. There we were, two cabs speeding (relatively speaking, compared to the almost non-existing movement on the three ACTUAL lanes) along the emergency lane (Is it called emergency lane? The lanes on the most left side of a multi lane road, which not an actual lane? I dunno, but you get what I mean.)And then we reached a point where we needed to get back on the right-est lane. Pakcik selambaly put his hand out, waved a bit, a cut across 3 lanes: from the “emergency” to the 2 lanes turning left, to another lane heading straight, to the lane going right. All in one movement. I kid you not. This is magic! And there wasn’t a single horn being directed at us during this crazy display of utter disregard towards safety, not to mention the sheer ignorance of road ethics. But at least pakcik acknowledge the inconsiderate driving he did.Cabbie : Cara memandu macam ni takde akhlak punya cara.Haha. Really? You think?I’ve gotten used to pakcik’s constant weaving in and out of traffic, sometimes braking real close to the car in front, always jumping queues, cutting in front of blokes who’ve been stuck in line for ½ hour, with no single trace of guilt. Respect, man, respect. You must be gangsta to do this shit. It certainly made the journey much much faster. Imagine only 30 minutes from Subang to Jln Ampang in early morning traffic (around 8 lebih).But before we got to Jln Ampang, we were on Sultan Ismail. And yet again, pakcik has a story.Cabbie : Pakcik dah gi Iran 5 kali. Tehran, Esfahan, bla bla. Iran la contoh Negara Islam yg kuat. Negara Islam yg ditakuti. Pakcik ade tgk video kat Internet, Iran punye nuclear torpedo speed dia 400 km sejam. Tu yg Amerika cepat cepat lari tu. Takut. Setakat test yg India Paksitan dok buat tu, mmg hari hari Iran buat.I kept quiet. Ok, let’s see where this goes.Cabbie : Makan kat Iran sedap. Orang Iran makan kalah Mat Salleh. Makan kambing, makan steak, makan roti. Kat sana takde Coca Cola. Ada zam zam Cola, diorang buat sendiri. Tapi orang Iran ni mmg kuat minum air gas. Tu yg kena buat Zam Zam Cola. Pakcik kejap lagi nak gi beli arak Iran. Ada jual kat sini. Tapi arak yg takde alcohol. Sedap.Me : Apa nama dia? Boleh saya cari nanti. (Well….I had to ask, I wanted to know…plus, arak takde alcohol? Biar benar orang tua ni..)Cabbie : Pakcik tak ingat la. Tapi mmg ade jual kat sini. Kat Iran tu Ahmedinejad pakai kereta buruk je. Kereta 504.I had to assume he was talking about the Iranian president. And he drives a Peugeot 504 (ada ke 504? Have to check)So, he’s telling me this:This dude….
Drives this car….
But soon after, came this shocker.Cabbie : Pakcik ni Islam Syiah. Dah lama berguru dah ni. Pergi Iran belajar. He then brought down the sunvisor, and there were a lot of papers terselit in between the visor and its attached strap. He removed the papers from the visor, and showed me this black cloth with some Arabic written on it.Me : Hmm hmm. (Translation = I have no idea what it means)Pakcik then showed me a picture of a man that was pasted onto the driver’s sun visor. I don’t know who the person is, but it looked like Osama Laden, yeah with the long beards and serban. On second thought, it might well be Osama. It looked like this:
Cabbie : Ni la ketua kita. And the he started kissing the picture. In the middle of traffic. Kissing the picture!! More like “kucup”. But he kucup-ed the picture of a bearded Arabic dude wearing a serban. Man, read that again! He kissed a picture of a bearded Arab bloke wearing a serban in a traffic jam!Me : (This bloke is a terrorist? God. Well, bloody fuck.)Not wanting to end his “creeping the passenger” routine, he then proceeded with another shocking confession.Cabbie : Pakcik ada masa 13 Mei. Pakcik bunuh ramai orang. Haha.I could sense pride in him when he nonchalantly admitted the “killing people” bit. Well, maybe he did kill a few people, who knows? That could well explain the terrorist thing.Anyways, we’re now very close to the junction to Jln Ampang. We were a few metres from Renaissance Hotel, approximately 20 metres from the junction itself.The road was packed, and we were at the outmost right lane. We needed to go the outmost left.And once again, showing some cool headedness (or just plain “I don’t give a fuck”-ness), pakcik just selamba-ly cut across 3 lanes (and about a hundred annoyed semi-road rage drivers) to get to the lane where we should’ve taken miles earlier.Just as luck would have it, the lights turned red and traffic had to stop. But pakcik still wanted to squeeze through and get to Jln Ampang as soon as possible. The car in front was standing still and won’t move a bit at all. And what does pakcik do?Well, he climbed up the curb!! Yes, he drove up the curb, as if it weren’t there.So now we have two wheels on a 6 inch high curb and the other two "lower". Its like a see saw.Cabbie : Haa.. senget sikit eh?Are you fucking kidding me? Senget sikit? I must look very very stupid in the eyes of the other drivers.Alas, despite managing to elevate half the cab onto the pavement, he still couldn’t get the car to squeeze through the minute gap that existed in between the car in front and the rest of the curb. So he gave up. Finally. Decided to wait for the lights to turn green.And when it turned green, almost immediately pakcik stepped hard on the accelerator, and before you knew it we’re already at KLCC. Amazing! He made the red white Iswara go from 0 – 100 km/h in less than 3 seconds. Eat that, Evo!! Ha-ha.So when we reached KLCC, he dropped me off.Me : Ok, terima kasih….Cabbie : OK, nanti ada rezeki jumpa lagi..And that was it.The cab ride from hell. It wasn’t really a bad experience. It was rather amusing, entertaining, exciting and to some extent fun. But of course we could’ve easily gotten ourselves into an accident, judging by the way pakcik drove but I got out of the cab feeling kinda good. In a weird way, the cab ride actually made my day.My cab ride back from KLCC to Subang was the complete opposite. The cabbie didn’t say a word all the way to Subang, and he was a “pemandu berhemah”. It was a quiet journey.
Here's a story from work:
At our plant we have 3 electric generators (A,B and C) powering 5 huge pumps. These pumps are crucial for our production and therefore, by default so are the generators. One generator down would cause 2 pumps out of action, which means we lose approximately RM 2 million per day. And a few days ago, something went horribly wrong with Generator C, it was out of service and subsequently 2 pumps need to be taken offline. We lose 2 million. The thing is still down until today, so we decided to have a meeting to discuss our plan for this problem. In the meeting we had: 1 Senior Engineer/Old Guy (OG), the generator engineer (GE), myself and about 5 more people.
OG : So what's happening with Generator C?
GE : Well, it's not working, that's for sure.
Me : Yes, obviously.
OG : What were your findings?
GE : There were metal chips in the lubrication line. That's not good.
Me : So what can we do?
GE : What we can do is NOT run it.
OG : Well, that's what we've already done.
GE : We need to get this thing sorted.
Me : It doesn't look like it'll be solved easily, we might need to overhaul the whole thing.
GE : I don't feel very good looking at the amount of metal particles found.
OG : We know that. We shouldn't have anything inside the tubings.
GE : Which is why its not good.
OG : We need to get our production back. And this is holding us.
GE : 2 million a day is a lot of money.
At this point OG starts to look frustrated with the lack of definitive answers.
OG : (Looking directly at GE) Mate, you're the master of stating the obvious.
Upon hearing the comment, I tried very hard not too laugh too loudly. That was the exact same thing I wanted to say!
End of story from work.
See how useless meetings are?
Have I ever mentioned that I'm an Anthony Bourdain fan too? Well, in the same manner how I am obsessed about Hornby, I bought both of Mr Bourdain's "cooking-adventure" books in one go: Kitchen Confidential & A Cook's Tour. Between the two, I'd say I prefer Kitchen Confidential but I like the Cook's Tour TV show. Tony taught me that cooks are COOL and not GAY. It wasn't really the cooking that attracted me to the show, it was Bourdain's cynicism and sarcastic sense of humour that had me hooked. A typical episode will start off with Tony meeting up with one of the locals and then being brought to the most obscure of places to eat some really interesting (if not weird) stuff. I've watched an episode where he drank a shot of snake blood. Whoa. He's been to freezing Russia, in the deserts of Morocco, jungles of Cambodia and bla bla bla. I guess it is interesting to see what people eat in different parts of the world. And watching an outsider showing sheer pleasure after tasting these delicacies somehow makes me feel good. I mean, in a way it re-assures that although the stuff looks weird it doesn't taste THAT bad. Am I making sense?
You know you're old when you go to other people's houses, they tell their children: "Pergi salam uncle" instead of "abang".
Today it suddenly struck me that Proton cars have curiously similar features as an Alfa Romeo. Maybe you've noticed, or maybe you haven't but I actually spent some time looking around at Protons today and made an analysis (ah, analysis - what an engineering word) comparing our beloved national car with arguably the sexiest cars ever.
So here's the similarities I managed to come up with:
1. This is quite obvious: Front grille of the Perdana looks exactly like the front of any Alfa.
2. The wheels/rims of the Gen2 looks very close to the trademark "telephone dial" wheels of the old 146.
3. Savvy has AMT which is a variation of Alfa's Selespeed transmission.
4. Alfa traditionally has poor reliability, same goes for dear 'ol Proton.
I'll hazard a guess: Proton design engineers are secret Alfa lovers.
I love Alfas. How can you not? Just look at the new Brera. I'll splash my cash just by looking at it.
Does this site look alright in Internet Explorer? I usually use Firefox, but today I opened the blog through Explorer and it looked messed up. Damn Microsoft.
On another note, isn't it just annoying when the car behind (or in front of , I guess) you has one headlight that beams "higher" than the other? That irritates me. A lot.
You must've heard of Da Vinci Code by now.
And you've probably read the book too.
So what do you think? Good, bad or just plain memesongkan akidah?
I guess the facts were stretched a bit (i.e false) but it sure as hell sounded pretty convincing. I'll give Dan Brown credit for that. But apart from these dodgy factual statements that pop up every now and then, the actual storyline is rather weak. To be honest, I started to lose interest reading it about 3/4 way through. Maybe it climaxed early? Haha you can't imagine how dodgy it feels just to write that last sentence!
I have a feeling that the movie would be good. They'll show lovely old architecture.
Not really sure about Tom Hanks as Langdon though. But the albino bloke is spot on! Exactly as I imagined!
I can't help but laugh everytime I hear this song, and I've heard it on the radio a few times already.
Does anyone know who sang this?
It goes more or less like...
I'm feeling kinda lonely
On top of that I feel kinda horny!
HAH.
What? Really?
I'm totally smitten all over Missy Higgins. Damn.
Pekat nak mampos Aussie accent dia.
Why isn't there any tampon ads on TV?
I was just wondering.
Sometimes, once in a while, I like to reminisce about the past.
I'd recall and look back a few years and remember all the bands I used to listen to back then.
For instance today, while I was driving around suddenly I had the urge to put in my Taking Back Sunday CD into the CD player. I didn't know where the urge came from, or how it came about, and before you know it TBS is playing loudly in the car stereo.
Reminds me of my emo days instantly. I would be embarrassed to even mention that I listen to TBS now, let alone play it on my stereo ever so loudly. But in a way, it did become the starting point of sorts for me to venture deeper into the whole genre of rock music.
As the CD player begins to play the last track, I begin to think about the other bands I listened to during this whole "emo" period. Names like Saves the Day and Dashboard Confessional come to mind. I'm pretty sure I've deleted all of my Saves the Day mp3s so there's no way of recovering that back, but I do have a DC CD. I'll probably listen to it sometime this week, while I'm still in the emo mood.
I'm totally smitten all over Cheryl. Damn.
I like to read before I sleep, 'cause it makes me sleepy real quick. And usually I have more than 3 reading materials at my bedside (or rather; mattress-side). A quick glance (ok, not exactly quick) reveals that I have the following items for my reading pleasure prior to my deep slumber.
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
The Importance of Being Ernest - Oscar Wilde
Italian in 3 Months
My First French Word Book
Modern Engine Tuning
March issue of F1 Racing magazine
Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age - Duncan Watts
Fever Pitch - Nick Hornby
Production Operations
February issue of Stuff magazine
That's pretty random, innit? Except for Hornby, I like Hornby.
Let's start off by acknowledging that I'm BLOODY hungry right now.
All I had for dinner was Cintan Perisa Itik. Have you ever tried Cintan Perisa Itik? It's yummy. I always had the impression that ducks are "liat" for some reason, don't ask why.
Anyways, if you plan to watch the Malay movie Gubra, then I recommend you change your plans to something else. Like feed some ducks or watch paint dry (oh so cliche!). I wasted 10 bucks and more importantly 2 hours of my life (oh so nearly another cliche!) by watching this overly dramatic, masyarakat muhibbah berbilang kaum bullshit. I have a few issues with this movie, each of which will be elaborated in the following paragraphs (read with a very formal tone, please).
So I read somewhere that this isn't a sequel to the previous movie Sepet (which I enjoyed). Instead its a story that has characters from the previous movie but in a different timeline. Oh okay.
Hey wait a minute, if that is not the EXACT definition of a sequel, then what is? If it had the characters from the previous movie AND had the same timeline, then it would've been the same bloody movie, wouldn't it? It's confusing for simple folk like me, all this.
Okay, this really should be blamed on the article's writer instead of the movie itself. So fuck you article writer who felt the need to defend this dumb movie by saying its not a sequel when it really is because it has the exact same people in the movie as the first movie.
The movie is excruciatingly SLOW. Should the viewers see the dude walking to the surau, switching on the lights DOWNSTAIRS, then slowly climbs up the stairs, struggle to find the key, opening the door and finally switching the lights UPSTAIRS. The whole scene probably took close to 5 minutes (okay.. maybe 2) and I didn't think that it would've mattered much if we just saw the dude already in the surau. And there were other scenes that I think were supposed to add "dramatic artsy effects" that were just so so slow it annoyed the hell outta me.
Did the Chinese dude just stopped short of saying that he had a BIG BLACK DICK?
Is justifiable to cheat on your wife when your wife goes around touching another dude's naked chest in front of public toilets?
I'm hungry. I can't think more. I'll continue later.
I swear if I hear that song one more time, I'll kill myself.
Is it just me or this James Blunt bloke is getting really really annoying. To me, it's more close to "I wanna bash you up" kinda annoying, you know, the same exact feeling towards the idiot who constantly tailgates you.
What's this dude problem really? He goes on and on and on about his lost "love", writes very weak, pathetic, cliched songs and I kinda have a bit of an issue with his voice as well.
I guess what pisses me off the most that he potrays himself as this lonely loser guy but in reality he's dating super hot models. What the..? Is he faking the lonely broken hearted thing to get some chicks?
To borrow a line from the movie Lucky Number Slevin:
How do you justify being lonely and dating hot models?
Blogging is something I do occasionally, apparently. I suppose I'm more of a "as-you-feel" kinda blogger, as opposed to "I'll tell you what happenened in my life today, EVERYDAY!" blogger. Not that there's anything wrong with that. So dear reader(s) or reader (Anonymous, where are you? Missing your comments, ha! I sound like a bloody loser!), in short here's a few random things that I've been planning to write about but were postponed and postponed until eventully I forgot about them. Until now, of course.
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Playing golf hurts. Hurts your pocket severely, not to mention the sore arms & hands.
If you're a male Malay dude, you're probably obssesed with the Mitsubishi Evolution. You go, "Whoa.. Evo, Evo!" as one passes by. You're pathetic.
I went to the book fair and bought a kindergarden colourful kiddie cartoony book titled "My First French Word Book". Cute, eh? I plan to learn some French words through this pre-schooler book. Yet another crazy idea.
I've also decided that I'll do my own repair on my FRIEND'S car! Haha. I'll spend a mere RM 130 for a 1990s Mercedes C-Class Haynes Manual. I should be a certified Merc expert once I finish reading this. And this poor bloke's car would be my first specimen.
I hope I get transferred back to KL. I've lost interest in working lately.
I've started jogging every evening, just before I go hitting golf balls at the driving range.
I can't go to the range everyday. I lose my swing. I'm bloody inconsistent. Either that or I just can't pay attention/concentrate too long.
My friend left his electric guitar and amp in my room. I'm practicing crazy ass psychedelic solos every night now.
Seven fucking nil, eh? Followed by a derby win, without Gerrard some more, aiya!
My car guzzles so much fuel. Bloody hell.
When's my trip to Perth? I need a vacation, pronto.
Hasan Merican is kinda cool.
Sure, this all doesn't make any sense. You know why? Cause it's some RANDOM stuff I've been storing in my head for a few weeks now. That's why.
But with a bit of effort, I'm sure at least 50% of this post is relatively understandable.
I discovered something new to prove that I have a really really short attention span. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Out of the 100 balls I hit at the driving range today, I messed up the first 10 or so (finding my rhythm), hit the next 30 decently (my hits were between sweet and okay) and totally fucked up the rest (utterly useless, complete loss of concentration). So it goes to show yet again, that I can only do things well for a very short period, and then I'll just lose focus and mess the whole thing up seconds later.
Alright then.
Continuing on with my "singer-songwriter" phase; after a short pause to indulge on some Placebo (which by the way, will take a bit of time to appreciate), I'm back with my next acoustic guitar-strumming, semi-artistic bloke. Except that he's not really semi-artistic.
As embarassing as it is, I have to admit that my current guilty pleasure is no other than Jason "Mr. A-Z" Mraz. Normally, anyone that gives himself a pathetic nickname like "Mr A-Z" is a bloody motherfucking wanker in my books, and deserve to rot in hell. But I'll let it slide this time. Just because the song Wordplay is so annoyingly happy.
Funny how I seem to always "get" a song while watching a movie. I was watching the movie "Lord of War" just now, and it had the song Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley playing in one scene, and at that very instant I realised how gorgeous the song really is.
I've had Jeff Buckley mp3s in my PC for a long long time now. I think I have the albums Grace, My Sweetheart the Drunk and the live album stored somewhere in my hard disk. But it's not like I listen to them all the time, I'm not even a big fan of Buckley. It's more like a random album that I play when I need something new to listen.
However, after watching the DVD I just couldn't get the song out of my head, and now I'm playing this track on repeat, possibly for a couple of days. It's just weird how only today I've seen the "light" and discovered beauty of this song. Sure, I don't have a clue what the words mean, but the music is really nice, perfect for the not-so-good feeling I'm in right now.
I don't know, maybe I'm just in a singer-songwriting, slightly depressing, melancholic phase. First it was Damien Rice and now Jeff Buckley?
Playing golf without any sunblock is a bad, bad idea!
I'm all sun burnt now (or tanned, depending on how you look at it).
But at least I'm not a golf virgin anymore.
I'll be staying away from the course for a week after this skin-burning and stamina-crushing day of golf.
I'm too excited and I couldn't wait until a few days for my next post!
Straight after my previous post, I surfed around and discovered that there's a new Placebo album.
I'm going to download it now!!
I'm stoked as hell.
I'm gonna put my Without You I'm Nothing CD right away. Just to get in the mood.
Maybe I'll watch the concert DVD after that.
Wow.
Ahh...
It's Friday night. Oh no,actually it's not Friday night. But it sure does feel like a Friday night. Maybe because tomorrow's a holiday. Yeah that's probably why.
Well, it doesn't really matter.
I just realised how much I miss watching Rage on Friday & Saturday nights on ABC. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, I guess thats OK.
I miss watching weird ass and cool video clips.
I remember watching the latest White Stripes/Strokes video on Rage.
I remember watching back to back to back Pennywise videos (haha... my "punk" days, thats funny)
I remember watching a Misfits/Dickies/Ramones/Black Flag clip for the very first time in my life on Rage.
It's like my whole musical education began with this program Rage.
And I remember being excited surfing the website for the week's playlist.
So, just for good old times sake, I present to you the Rage playlist for this Friday. (Or is it last Friday's?)
See how much good music I've missed.
Friday 17 February 2006
triple j Hottest 100
11:51pm Evie (Part 1) - THE WRIGHTS EMI
Why Do You Love Me - GARBAGE Fest/Mush
Themata - KARNIVOOL Chatterbox
12:00am Face Without A Name - KISSCHASY Virgin
On This Side - CLARE BOWDITCH & THE FEEDING SET EMI
The Fallen - FRANZ FERDINAND SBME
Heartstopper - EMILIANA TORRINI Shock
Bastard - BEN FOLDS SBME
Like Eating Glass - BLOC PARTY - Live Fest/Mush
We Can't Hear You - THE HERD Independent
12:30am Into The Dark - BEN LEE Inertia
Tightrope Walker - EPICURE Independent
White Unicorn - WOLFMOTHER - Live on JTV Universal
Filthy/Gorgeous - SCISSOR SISTERS Universal
Smoke It - THE DANDY WARHOLS EMI
Let's Take The Long Way Home - THE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS Independent
1:00am Believe - THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS Virgin
Fuck Forever - BABYSHAMBLES Shock
The Fighter - AFTER THE FALL Fest/Mush
First Day Of My Life - BRIGHT EYES Stomp
Hypnotize - SYSTEM OF A DOWN SBME
Que Onda Guero - BECK Universal
The Sound Of White - MISSY HIGGINS Virgin
Better Together - JACK JOHNSON Universal
1:30am I'm So Post Modern - THE BEDROOM PHILOSOPHER Independent
Run - COG Independent
This Year - THE MOUNTAIN GOATS Remote Control
Jesus I Was Evil - BUTTERFINGERS Independent
Ashes - THE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS Independent
The Denial Twist - THE WHITE STRIPES Remote Control
Always Worth It - SARAH BLASKO Universal
2:00am Sitting, Waiting, Wishing - JACK JOHNSON Universal
Divorcee By 23 - CLARE BOWDITCH & THE FEEDING SET Independent
Beware Wolf - GYROSCOPE Warner
Jesus Of Suburbia - GREEN DAY Warner
All The Money Or The Simple Life Honey - THE DANDY WARHOLS EMI
Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole - MARTHA WAINWRIGHT - Live Shock
Little Sister - QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE Universal
2:30am It'5 - ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI Remote Control
Landed - BEN FOLDS SBME
Two Shoes - THE CAT EMPIRE Virgin
America, F**k Yeah! - TEAM AMERICA Independent
Be Yourself - AUDIOSLAVE Universal
Live With Me - MASSIVE ATTACK Virgin
Song To Say Goodbye - PLACEBO Virgin
3:00am Eddie's Gun - THE KOOKS Virgin
All The Young Children On Crack - TELEVISION PERSONALITIES Remote Control
Bullets - EDITORS SpeaknSpell
She's Love - END OF FASHION EMI
What's Your Damage - TEST ICICLES Remote Control
Turning The Screws - GERLING Warner
Never Say Never - VANDALISM EMI
Chewing Gum - ANNIE MOS/EMI
Ride A White Horse - GOLDFRAPP Virgin
3:30am Sorry - MADONNA Warner
Suffer Well - DEPECHE MODE Virgin
Kevin Is Gay - GIANT DRAG Universal
Conceived - BETH ORTON EMI
Little Self Centred Queen - CLARE BOWDITCH & THE FEEDING SET EMI
Kelly - VAN SHE Universal
Love For Sale - FAKER EMI
All Ones And Zeros - THE EARLY YEARS Remote Control
4:00am Hand Of Blood - BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE SBME
Coming Undone - KORN - Live Virgin
Sink We Swim - A DEATH IN THE FAMILY Independent
Far Too Sober - CREECH Independent
You Know - LOUT Independent
Time Won't Tell - FLICKER SWITCH Independent
Fallen Angel - BLACK LABEL Independent
Car Chase - COLD HARBOUR Independent
4:30am C'mon - THE DIRTY SECRETS Independent
Space For Rent - WHO MADE WHO MOS/EMI
Love Is A 256 Colour Word - MUSIC vs. PHYSICS Independent
Keep On Rising - JAY-J featuring LATRICE BARNETT Independent
Say Say Say (Waiting 4 U) - HI_TACK Central Station
Sex, Bass & Rock 'N' Roll - BROOKLYN BOUNCE Central Station
Flaunt It - TV ROCK SBME
You Take My Breath Away - THE KNIFE MOS/EMI
5:00am Perfect - PRINCESS SUPERSTAR Inertia
Club Night - J-CASTELL Independent
There It Go - JUELZ SANTANA Universal
Everybody Get Up - PITBULL featuring PRETTY RICKY Shock
Soobax - K'NAAN Universal
Bring That Beat Back - PUBLIC ENEMY Stomp
So High - JOHN LEGEND SBME
5:30am Every Little Bit Hurts - ALICIA KEYS SBME
Unbelievable - CRAIG DAVID Warner
The Effect On Me - MINT ROYALE Shock
Hoppipolla - SIGUR ROS EMI
Saint Simon - THE SHINS Stomp
Jackson - JOAQUIN PHOENIX & REESE WITHERSPOON SBME
Everything To Me - LIZ PHAIR EMI
Call My Name - CHARLOTTE CHURCH SBME
6:00am Biology - GIRLS ALOUD Universal
A Night To Remember - LIBERTY X Big/Rajon
Cash Machine - HARD FI Warner
Going Nowhere - CUT COPY Universal
Area - THE FUTUREHEADS Warner
Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt - WE ARE SCIENTISTS Virgin
I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor - ARCTIC MONKEYS Virgin
Keelhaul - PHARAOHS Independent
Off The Record - MY MORNING JACKET SBME
Funny Little Frog - BELLE & SEBASTIAN Shock
6:30am Opportunity - PETE MURRAY SBME
I Was Alive - THE WHITLAMS Warner
I knew about this Damien Rice song by chance really, on a fine morning the video appeared on TV2, of all places! I've heard of Damien Rice a few years back, and how his album O was highly regarded amongst those hipster magazines. To me, being drooled over by hipster mags is always, always a sign of disappointment. Hence the reason why I never took the effort to "discover" Rice.
I still haven't listened to the rest of the album though, and am just forming my opinion based on this one track only. I'm a bit obsessed with this song recently, I've downloaded the mp3 and had gone as far as watching the movie where the song was featured in the soundtrack. Fucking hell.
I'm just fascinated by the feeling of helplessness, depression, sadness, despair and hopelessness that this song never fails to evoke everytime I listen to it. It feels good to feel depressed, if that makes any sense.This is probably among the bleakest song I've ever heard, ranking close to Johnny Cash's haunting "Hurt".
And on other matters, I hate you Johnny-bandwagon-jumpers who suddenly talk and comment A LOT about Liverpool. I bet you watched the Champions League final last year as a "neutral", then when we actually won the damn thing, you're suddenly a Red. You get super excited with our winning run but immediately whinge when we lost a few games recently. Well, FU. Go back supporting Arsenal, Manchester Utd, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona or whoever the hell you think plays "good" football.
A few days ago, we had this contractor coming in the office to do a presentation on their findings on a just recently concluded exercise they did.
This particular group of contractors then brought along with them their Technical Consultant, a white mat salleh to help them out, I suppose.
So just before everyone gets settled down, and while waiting for the presentation to start, there's this really awkward silence (as you always do), where everyone just looks around, staring blankly into space. One of my colleagues, in an attempt to start some "small talk" - I think, suddenly broke the awkward silence. With his eyes staring directly into the foreigner's, he selamba-ly asked, "Are you Danish?".
The puzzled & embarassed look on the poor white man's face was priceless.
I thought that was kinda funny.
I used to like Weezer.
Not anymore. Not after hearing that god-awful song Beverly Hills.
Too bad, 'cause I was really into them a long long time ago.
I still like Gilmore Girls though. I think.
I used to like watching the TV show Gilmore Girls because: - It had an unbelievably witty, funny, sarcastic and amazingly hip script.
- The chicks are hot and also good actors.
- It name dropped Greg Ginn.
Well, it name dropped a lot actually; obscure bands, cool bands, Mojo, some weird writer, hip stuff like that.
Newsflash.
Robbie's back at Anfield. Will he wear 23? 9? Nope, it's 11.
It feels good. Oh so good.
Lately I've been getting blank SMSes from a number that I don't recognise.
Psycho gila babi. I guess I'm just not into stalkers. Wanker.
So anyways, feel free to contact this asshole of a dude. But don't say I sent you.
019-9556894
When was my last post?? A good fucking 2 weeks, that's when. How am I supposed to be a "dedicated blogger" if I can't post anything every 24 hours? Gosh, it's hard to live the hip and happening life, my friend.
Well, a lot had happened within those two (or maybe more) weeks; work in the middle of the sea, an uneventful raya haji, broken my glasses, being charged a fortune for a new pair, reunion dinner, pulled out one wisdom tooth, being charged a fortune for the tooth, hosted an office dinner, and so many other stuff I don't even recall anymore. Oh, but I do remember the one day where I dusted off my CD collection and put on good 'ol Dashboard Confessionals in the CD player. That was so gay.
Question:
Is the new Strokes record any good?
This review is funny.
But no, seriously. Is it any good? Should I download it?
And are you excited? Are you?
Well, you better be 'cause this weekend its the mother fucker of all matches : Liverpool v Man Utd
Are you excited now? Are you as excited as the first time you saw naked boobies? Of course.
Dear Polis/Utusan/Harian Metro/etc.:
I'll be killing a goat this week. Please don't come and raid my house. I promise you that this has nothing to do at all with any Black Metal, ajaran songsang, luar akidah, perangai Syaitan activities. It's for my Hari Raya korban.
Yes people, Black Metal is officially the worst thing on Earth right now. It's true. I read it in Utusan. Apparently, Utusan brilliantly came up with this great explanation on why metal is evil. It's something like this:
METAL = SATAN = HELL = BAD
Notice the colour & font that I use. I think it stresses on how evil black metal really is. Red represents the fires of hell.
Wow... thanks Utusan. You must have excellent reporters who worked hard to come up with this SHOCKING!! news.
OK, moving on.
Happy New Year. I know it's kinda late, but what the hell.
Hope you keep your resolutions, well at least until the end of the month.
A totally dominating performance by Stevie G & Co. saw Liverpool ease past hapless Newcastle last night. Owen's reurn to Anfield didn't exactly turn out as planned.
And how much better is 'Arry Kewell getting? Quite a bit, I have to say. The cross for the second goal was perfect, although he did screw up about 10 attempts before finally getting it right. Keep it up, 'Arry!!
Next is Everton, and I'm pretty sure we'll get through that particular battle safely. Just don't let pussy Garcia play.
New Years coming up but sadly I'll be celebrating it in the middle of NOWHERE.
I don't usually watch Malay movies at the cinemas, for obvious reasons (i.e they're crap and cheesy) but I did manage to haul myself to TGV over the weekend and watch a comedy entitled Baik Punya Cilok.
And surprisingly, it was an enjoyable experience.
Ok, initially I thought it was another stupid movie, or probably a movie that's trying to be too cool. The familiar-looking, Reservoir Dogs-style movie poster further added to my early scepticism. Ohh, another Tarantino rip-off, how lame.
But it turned out that it was nothing like RD.
It was hilarious and funny. Funny funny. Smart funny, I should say. It's not like a movie where someone runs around and gets in the head kind of funny. No, no.
There's Awie in the movie. And man, he is a funny dude, whether that's intentional or not I'm not too sure. This is the only movie that had Awie in it that I'm not ashamed to say "Good movie". Yeah, I didn't think I'd say that. But there you go. And hey, weirder things have happened. Seeing Awie without his (Harley) bike is rather strange though.
It's really a good movie, and I mean it. Do yourself a favour and watch it.
Ahh.. it's the season to get married, it seems. Or get engaged, at the very least. Two of my friends are getting married (not to each other!) this weekend, and one's getting engaged the next. In fact, I've been to wedding ceremonies the most this year compared to any other.
So obviously love is in the air.
Which brings the question of whether or when will I get married?
Hear that?
Sounds like peer pressure.
Honestly, I don't know. I don't know a lot of things. Like, am I going to marry the current girl?
That's hard.
After a hugely satisfying victory and an excellent display against poor Wigan, coupled with Arsenal pretty boys' unability to answer Bolton's spirited aggression, the Mighty Reds are now third. Back in the top three although the margin with Chelsea is embarassingly huge. Big gaps are not good. Tight ones are better. Always better.
The game itself was a night to remember for our lanky cat-looking (well, at least I think so) Peter Crouchie. First one was an own goal, but the second was quite good really. Nice lob over the keeper. And good control and great long ball prior to that.
Everyone had solid, if not great games. Warnock, initially I feared will cause some panic in our own defence but as the game wore on, he did quite OK. Gerrard & Alonso were controlling the midfield and dare I say it; Harry "what the fuck is going on with my pony tail" Kewell had a decent game as well. I particularly liked his outside of the right foot one touch pass to Morientes in the first half. Class.
All in all, great win. I must say, this is the first time since our Champions League victory that I felt this good after a match. I was practically grinning the whole night.
You can't really trust gadis bertudung nowadays, eh. They'll happily give you fellatio if you play your cards right. You could even record them on your mobile phone, if you're THAT good. It's true. No kidding. But I'm sure you've got at least one of them clips on your high tech phones already, so you know what I'm saying, right??
Hey, what's fellatio? Get a dick-tionary and you'll know.
Hey, there's a band named Machine Gun Fellatio. Check them out. They're kinda weird.
And......
How bad is the show SOCCASTARS MALAYSIA?
Very much. Awful. Horrific. Pathetic.
I watched one of the 6-minute "highlights" just now. The "soccastars" were asked to demonstrate their guitar playing ability and their skills (or lack of) were judged. Whoever got the highest score keeps the guitar.
Hey, wait a minute. What the FUCK is going on here? How does having excellent musical abilities make you a SOCCA STAR??? I don't recall Jimmy Page playing for Chelsea. Or anyone else, for that matter.
Answers on a postcard please. Please.
It's not raining anymore. Which is good news. We can watch Astro again.
A few days back, Petronas signed a new deal to continue sponsoring the Formula One team previously known as Team Sauber Petronas but now called Team BMW-Sauber. That's a sweet deal, especially for the Petronas staff, since they'll get 50% off for the next 3 Series that they purchase!!! Fuck yeah! I'll get one of them M3s thanks.
The lads at home have a new craze lately. It's called Saidina.
Yes, dear readers, it's Saidina, our own local (and cheaper) version of Monopoly. It's where you buy Kuala Lumpur & Pulau Pinang (the 2 most expensive "tapak"s), spend a fortune to build up 4 houses, and no one ever lands on your property. Instead they land on the cheap ass hotels on Kangar & Batu Pahat. The game where you don't generate much income buying Sandakan or Teluk Anson, but you'll make a hell lot of money buying Shah Alam, even though they're located side by side. A game where people will still buy Tenaga Nasional & Jabatan Bekalan Air, even though both of them are pretty useless. A game where weird terms like "absahan" appears (on the Keputusan cards).
Saidina sessions usually start at around 8 and can end anywhere between 10 to 12. And that's on a workday. Weekend sessions are more hardcore, and can last until 2 to 3 am. Weird that this simple game is very addictive in its own way and dare I say it's far better than playing Winning Eleven on the Xbox. But that's probably because I'm so retarded playing Winning Eleven and always dibelasah every time.
And oh just so you know, the part about free BMWs is a lie. Please don't go bother your fiendly Petronas station worker and get them to buy you a car. They'll smack you in the head.
I'd like to congratulate ayie, one of the 5 people who actually read this blog; for successfully getting himself engaged. Not exactly sure when nor do I know anything more detailed than that, but well done (?) nonetheless.
You gots da hook on, need to reel it in, bradda. If ya know what I mean.
I'm glad to say that the kittens are now alright. We put them in another shoe box and brought them to the petrol station (where we dumped their mother) last night.
And as soon as we put the shoe box down, we backed off a little to observe what'll happen.
The kittens started to meow, and suddenly out of nowhere, a large cat came rushing towards the source of the meows.
It was their mother.
Ahh, scenes like these just brings a tear to your eye, eh?
So no more pussy problems, this time for real. I'm glad we did this. My conscience would've killed me if we didn't.
P/S: I forgot to put AC/DC & Motorhead in my list below.
The day before yesterday, we had a bit of trouble at our house. Out of nowhere there was this black & white cat in our house. It was in the living room, kitchen, bedrooms, everywhere. I kicked him out and shut all doors, windows, even the slightest of openings. And we managed to keep him out for a while. But throughout the night we could still hear the meows and sounds of the cat scratching at the door.
This kept on happening the whole day yesterday. And it was bloody annoying. Imagine a cat meow-ing non stop the whole day, and would swiftly enter your house as soon as you open the door. I don't fancy cats, so to me this isn't cute at all
.
So last night I said to the lads,
Jom buang kucing ni. Bising je. Aku dah tak tahan dah ni.
Buang kat mana?
Buang je kat Petronas station tu.
And so we did. We put the cat in a shoe box, took it for a ride in the car and as soon as we reached the petrol station we dumped the poor thing near some bushes. And we fled the scene quickly, as you would when you throw cats away.
We were free of pussies!!!!
That night I slept well without the meows of a stray cat.
But as I woke up the following morning, I heard more meows. This time louder, even more annoying, and non-stop.
I had a look outside and saw three newborn kittens struggling to move around.
"Fuck! We threw away the mother!!!!"
And here's some pictures of them little buggers
Once again, I’m heavily inspired by High Fidelity, possibly the best book I’ve ever read, for this post. I thought that it would be interesting to list down all the bands, artistes, freaks, poseurs, etc. that I’ve been listening to all these years, in CHRONOLOGICAL order. Or at least close to chronological order, since I’m not sure if I can remember the exact sequence of ALL my musical adventures. It would still be cool to see how I went from Nirvana to The Clash to The Stooges to Jeff Buckley. Of course, there’ll be some downright embarrassing bands in the list as well but hey, cut me some slack, ok? I was young, dumb and easily influenced back then.
So here it goes.
* Green Day – Dookie
* Nirvana – all of them i.e Nevermind, In Utero, Unplugged
* Weezer – Blue album
* Bush – Razorblade Suitcase & Sixteen Stones
* Tonic
* Smashing Pumpkins
* Pearl Jam
* Silverchair
* Subculture
* Butterfingers
* Rage Against the Machine
* Powderfinger
* Smashing Pumpkins (again)
* Metallica
* Blink 182
* New Found Glory
* Simple Plan
* Sum 41
* Unwritten Law
* Vandals
* Jimmy Eat World
* Dashboard Confessional
* Get Up Kids
* Coldplay
* Travis
* Sarah McLachlan
* The Shins
* Pedro the Lion ( I think that’s the name)
* Far
* Finch
* AFI
* Dropkick Murphys
* Misfits
* Ramones
* Danzig
* Sex Pistols
* Snoop Dogg
* CKY
* Fugazi
* White Stripes
* Placebo
* The Smiths
* The Cure
* Pixies
* Alkaline Trio
* Built to Spill
* The Stooges
* Johnny Thunders
* Cave In
* Burning Brides
* Iron Maiden
* Led Zeppelin
* Rush
* The Clash
* Black Flag
* Bad Brains
* Placebo (again)
* Slint
* Ween
* The Good Life
* Broken Social Scene
* Neutral Milk Hotel
* Galaxie 500
* Explosions in the Sky
* Interpol
* Joy Division
* Bright Eyes
* Seven Collar T-Shirt
* Jeff Buckley
* Elliott Smith
* Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
* Pavement
* Replacements
* Weezer (again)
* Missy Higgins
* White Stripes – Get Behind Me Satan
Yeah, so that’s about it. More or less. And according to this list, the last album that I listened to was White Stripes’ Get Behind Me Satan. That’s quite old. I don’t listen to any new stuff anymore. There are too many new bands to discover & I don’t have the time to listen to all of them and get disappointed (or pleasantly surprised?).
Nothing against Riise. It's just that he looks like someone who loves to eat cheese. That's why he's so strong and healthy and fast and can only kick a ball with his left foot. And with the reports of a possible takeover by Kraft, I think Riise would be totally wetting his pants already now, in joy of course. Pretty exciting times ahead eh, John? Yes, I know professional football players on a first name basis. Are you impressed?
Please say YES. That'll boost my ego. Thanks.
Oh now I know why I picked on Riise!! It bloody rhymes, ma. Well, it rhymes if you read it wrongly. Cheese and Riise. Riis. Cheese, Riis.
Now you must be wondering; "What the bloody hell has this guy been smoking lately?", right?
Answer : Nothing. I don't smoke, I don't do drugs, I don't drink, I don't party. I'm fucking hardcore straight edge, buddy!! Remember straight edge? With X marks on both hands, I rock to Fugazi (is that sXe?), while I enjoy my freshly grown organic salad for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I eat leaves! How hardcore's that?
I'm really full of ideas right now, but I won't type anymore today. I've typed long enough. Now it's time for you good readers to holla back, yo!! I ain't sayin' she a gold digga. Fuck man, that song's stuck in my head.
It's the third day of raya and I'm already back at home in KL. It was a pretty short raya this year. Usually I'll only be back on the 5th or sometimes a whole week after raya but this year the extended celebrations have apparently been cut short. Which is puzzling since I took leave for rest of the week. Ah, whatever. I'm confused.
Anyways, raya was actually kinda fun. Probably the best time of the year to meet up with family members. Everyone's in a (relatively) happy joyful mood, except for the little brother & the 2 cousins who have to study for their exams. Also, having 5 small children running around the house all day long is enough to make it riuh rendah. And those little buggers are quite smart too. Somehow they managed to get me to fork out more than 100 bucks to buy them KFC on malam hari raya. And another 100 the next night to treat them Pizza Hut. Bloody hell. These guys are good.
Conclusion : Cute children melt your heart. Damn you, kids.
Selamat Hari Raya & Maaf Zahir Batin to everyone. I'm taking a long break starting tomorrow. Invite me to your open house.
And by the way, what the hell is a tag???
I'm kinda dumb. Looks like some crap I used to get in Friendster.
But anyways, Ayie.. I'll take that as a compliment.
Well, well, well.
Comments are coming in ever so frequently nowadays. I probably need a better comment box than the standard issue one Blogger gives me. Which one's good?
Speaking of car stickers, I still say that Tuned by Razo is the most chav (or is it chavest?) of all.
Other notable mentions include:
New Zealand All Blacks; complete with the fern leaf and all.
West, placed across the top of the front windscreen
Blues Selamanya
Decals on the side, on a Proton Iswara.
Vodafone (?).
Type-R, Nismo, Ralliart on Kancils.
Hitz.fm car sticker (obviously a yuppie)
Transformers logo (it was cool for a while until everyone and their cousins had them)
Official Mafia's Car
Any more?
I contemplated buying a car sticker that says...
If you tailgate, I'll brake.
But then I realised that probably most of these "Tuned by Razo"-driving idiots wouldn't have a clue what tailgating is.
They'll read the sticker and go...
(Works best when read in a Kelantan accent)
Tailgate? Gapo dio tuh?
Ekor pagar? Dok pahe.
Bodo binate beruk babi nih.
Yes. Harry Kewell's back, folks. The answer to our prayers, the saviour, the ammunition supplier for beanpole Crouch!! Well, at least that's what Uncle Rafa thinks. The level of optimism is a bit too high and to expect so much of our injury-friendly Aussie mate is rather naive. 10 bucks says that Kewell would probably have an average game at best on his "comeback" game. You just don't pick up form right after a few months layoff.
CUNT!
Ok, I'm glad that my compulsary swearing is done with already.
Let's read a story now, eh?
I was somewhere in an industrial area near Bukit Kemuning (it's in the middle of nowhere-town) for the past week on a working assignment. I was there with an older colleague (he's twice my age & has a few children, I suppose) of mine to supervise a repair job. So one day we decided to take off early, since we got bored of watching dudes welding and grinding metals from early morning. Older guy (OG) wants to go home but I wanted to go to Sunway Pyramid. Problem is, I didn't know how to get the hell out of the place to go to Pyramid.
The OG then offered some help.
"Kau ikut aku balik rumah dulu, nanti sampai rumah aku suruh anak aku tunjuk jalan nak gi Pyramid."
I agreed. He lives in Shah Alam, so at least I'm on the right track already.
So we went to his house.
He invited me in, and I entered and sat in the living room.
OG disappears for a while. Probably went to tell his kid to "tunjuk jalan nak gi Pyramid" to me. And at this point I feel kinda silly. I need a kid to tell me how to get to Pyramid? Damn, kid must think I'm a loser.
Anyways, OG re-appeared in the living room and had some news for me.
"Kau bawak je la anak aku jalan jalan kat sana tu. Diorang tengah siap tu. The eldest and my 12 year old"
Fucking hell. Aku kena bawak anak mamat ni gi Pyramid? Ahh.. belasah je la.
Of course I said yes. I didn't want to be rude. Especially to an old man.
"Ok la."
So I waited in the car outside for these 2 kids to come out and join me to Pyramid.
And then when they finally show up, I was surprised..
Turns out that the OG's eldest is one hot 18 year old girl. I mean, really HOT. Next to her is the 12 year old kid brother.
The trip to and back from Sunway Pyramid was rather awkward.
There's silence. Then I ask "Kiri ke kanan?". The she answers "Kiri (or kanan)". Then silence again.
I didn't want to ask too much about her fearing a) she'd tell her father I was hitting on her or b) she'd think I'm a creepy old dude or c) the 12 year old brother would report that I was hitting on the sister or d) OG would probably kill me.
I ended up asking these instead.
"Kat roundabout ni masuk mana?"
"Lalu highway ke ni?"
"Kiri ke kanan?"
I'm bloody hungry. I watch TV all day. Even when there's nothing good on.
And that Lindsay Lohan chick's song - I wanna come first sounds way too dodgy to me.
She wants to come first?
yeah, baby.
Selamat Puasa to everyone.
I'll be updating the blog probably right after sahur everyday (or on the days that I wake up in time).
xxxxx It's the weekend. Hanging out on the sofa, channel surfing with my (alleged) friend.xxxxx
Me: Nak tengok channel mana ni? Takde cerita menarik.
Alleged Friend (AF): Mana mana laa. Aku dulu kat UK memang suka tengok TV. Semua cerita best.
Me: Tengok ni la. Melayu ni. Bagus. (Switches to channel 4, Anugerah Era or some shit like that).
AF: Oii. Apa jadah kau tengok ni. Camni aa cerita Melayu. Bodoh nak mampos. (Continues swearing for another 2 minutes)
Me: (Ignoring the swearings, still watching the TV).
AF: Diorang ni, takde suara nak jadi penyanyi. Harap muka je cun. Arsehole. Baik kau tukar channel la. Bukak Channel V ke ape, aku rasa skarang ade Club V.
Me: Fuck you. Aku tukar channel lain. (Switch to Channel 11. Jamie Oliver).
AF: Kat UK memang senang nak dapat daging, sayur fresh. Tu yang Jamie Oliver masak nampak sedap tu. Orang UK memang pakai barang fresh. Lepas tu masak pasta, pizza. Aku dulu selalu masak pasta. Senang je. Kerja pun kat Pizza Hut. Memang diorang jaga kualiti makanan. Bukan cam kat Malaysia. Ntah ape ape. Kerja Pizza Hut, tapi tak tau procedure, camne nak treat customer. Pastu kalau makan gerai, taruk Ajinomoto banyak nak mampos. Tu yang aku tak suka makan kat gerai gerai kecik ni. Aku lagi prefer duduk kat UK, at least makanan sume memang takde taruk MSG ni.
Me: (Switch to TV1, Highlights TM Liga Perdana)
AF: Malaysia padang buruk nak mampos. Camne kau expect orang nak main bola bagus. Dah la player tak reti nak control bola. Main cam baru belajar. Kat UK budak sekolah pun lagi bagus dari player Malaysia. Pastu berlagak macam star. Padahal macam sial.
Silence for about 5 minutes.
AF: Takde cricket ke? Aku dulu selalu layan cricket. Dengan member member, lepak pub, layan cricket. Selalu gaduh ngan geng geng India pasal cricket. Aku memang boleh layan satu hari cricket ni. Aku selalu follow.
Me: So sape menang Ashes this year?
AF: (Looking totally confused and sounding like a complete retard)
Ashes tu ape?
Castello(!!) endorsing Julie’s cookies. This cracks me up for a million different reasons. . We have a cookie company promoting their cookies by putting a notorious criminal’s face on their packaging wrappers. Really? What were the marketing dudes at Julie’s smoking? We might as well have Hitler selling Big Macs.
Here's looking at you, kid.
"You have to present it in terms of dollars and cents. That'll grab the management's attention."
My friend and I were talking the other day about how Malay movies nowadays are crap in one way or another. It's either a cheesy Yusof Haslam movie (Sembilu I, II, III....), or some idiotic cartoonish "comedy" (Senario, Mami) or overhyped (Sepet) or corporate sponsored (anything that has a Hotlink ad).
Whatever happened to all the old school dramas? I think there was one period in the 80's or late 70's that these dramas would come by the truckloads. You know, all the Esok movies. There's Esok Masih Ada, Tiada Esok Bagimu, Menanti Hari Esok and a couple more. The main dude was always Jins Samsudin.
And damn, those movies were hardcore tearjerkers, man!
I recall one of these Esok movies where Jins Sams lost 2 children because of leukemia from his wife then he was forced to remarry another woman and gets another child and the child dies or something like that. Can't remember what happened next but one thing I know is that is was damn sedih (for some reason). Movies back then were simple but they definitely had some impact to the audience. Unlike the movies of today.
Too bad they don't make any Esok movies anymore.
If you care about oil prices, you'd probably know that it's about US $70 per barrel right now. That's pretty fucking expensive since the price was only around US $30 a little over a year ago.
Which means you'll have to pay more for petrol. And that sucks. But why do we always complain as if we're paying like a million times more than the old price although in reality it's more like a 10 - 20% hike. I guess we just like to complain rather than getting to know how the oil & gas industry works. It's a bit more complicated than just drilling for oil and then selling it.
Well anyways, Selamat Merdeka. If that means anything. I'm a bit irritated at the minister bloke who's annoyed that people aren't putting the flag on their cars. Fuck you. I'll put my flags wherever I want, thank you.
So it's yet another public holiday and to me that translates to another day of lepaking in front of the TV. I'll watch whatever's on. Even Malay dramas. The stories may not change since the 1900s but at least the chicks are getting nicer.
I used to think that I'd get a BMW when I have the money. But now I'm not so sure. I'm heavily leaning towards Alfas now, for some unknown reason. Maybe its because it has more character and a hell lot sexier than any German made vehicle. Plus, I'd think an Alfa will pull more chicks than a BMW. I guess different cars have different appeals and express or invoke different emotions. Maybe I'll try and explain it through the use of football players.
An Alfa for example is like Paolo Di Canio or Jay Jay Okocha, full of flair and passion but does not quite reach the absolute top. And prone to be inconsistent once in a while. But surely breathtaking, stunningly sublime and capable of the spectacular. An Audi on the other hand seems like a Steven Gerrard or Gatusso kind of player. Full of drive, aggression and efficiency, with the odd deft touch. They're reliable and to an extent ruthless, not to mention single minded. A BMW is probably like Bergkamp/Sheringham or Tugay/Alonso. All classy, effortless, full of guile and quick thinking.
Did you know that Rolls Royce don't really make cars anymore? Well, they don't make money making cars. But they bloody hell do make money making gas turbines!
I had the chance to have a closer look at not one; but two (!) Rolls Royce gas turbines last week. The RB 211 is hugely impressive, not to mention its enormous size. There's so many tubing that flows lube oil, fuel gas, air etc. I gave up tracing the each line early on when I got stuck at a point where they were too many tubes intersecting. I got lost there. I'm not sure how much power it produces but I think I overhead someone mention 30000. I may be wrong, but it does kinda make sense.
The other engine was the KB7, which is a smaller capacity engine compared to the RB211. The tubing/piping system isn't as complicated and where each tubes starts and ends its relatively easy to locate. They were doing detergent wash while I was there, so I stayed around to see they wash the thing. Its quite cool, really. And you can see how dirty the engine is when its being rinsed off.
The control system of both systems are quite elaborate, using heaps of controller cards and stuff like that which takes me forever to really understand.
Gas turbines are bloody cool, bro
Why is this called italic?
Do you know how to weld? I wish I can weld (properly). I've been hooked on Monster Garage lately cause its bloody addictive. It gives me the urge to weld some metal together, maybe cut some stuff up, bend tubes, tear down my car, put on air bag suspension, install a V-drive, shape some sheet metal, weld brackets, remove engines, burn things, drill holes, fabricate mountings, buy actuators, install actuators, build a chopper, paint some cars, install a rollcage & pimp my ride. And that's only Season 1, dawggg. Snoop Dogg. Before he joined boybands.
Where can I get some help around here?
Yes, sir. How can I help you.
Well. Firstly, fuck you for being bloody late attending me. And second of all, do you have that guy's new CD?
Which guy?
Ahh, the shaven head one. The girls like him. He's skinny. He's into drugs, I guess.
Jamal Abdillah? Yeah, that dudes cool with the ladies. And some guys too, bro. Been in and out of jail but still DA MAN!
Right on. But he's not the dude who's CD I'm looking for dude.
No?
No
Why not?
No
Then? Who the hell you looking for?
CD, Asshole.
Well, we do have this new guy from that Malay show Akademi Fantasia.
Mawi? World yo yo yo, fuck yeah.
Wanker.
Yes that's what I was looking for. I like.
Wanker.
Wanker? No. That dude in the Celcom ad is a wanker.
Which bloke dude mate?
This bigass huge motherfucker. Shaven head. Wears nice looking designer shirt with the top button unbottoned.
Top button unbottoned. Sounds weird dude-bro.
You know the ad where he scrolls across the screen with that dumb retarded smile thinking he DA MAN!
Jamal is DA MAN! Not this wanker dude-bro, eh?
No-siree bob.
Yeah I know that bigass m/f. Fuck him.
Yeah fuck him.
No, I mean fuck him.
?
You go and fuck him.
?
In the arse.
?
Go.
Where's my CD?
In the arse. Make sure it's done, bro.
So here's some more info on Nik's wedding. Read the special message below.
Assalamualaikum w.b.t
Kawan-kawan yang dirindui sekalian,
Insya Allah pada 20 Ogos 2005 ini saya, Nik
Syahrim bin Nik Anwar akan diijabkabulkan dengan
Nur Shahida binti Tajudin. Majlis akan berlangsung
di Kulim, Kedah (Sabtu, 20.08) dan di Kota Bharu
(Sabtu, 27.08).
Dengan sukacita dan hormatnya saya menjemput
kawan-kawan sekalian ke majlis ini.
Sila berikan alamat anda ataupun emel supaya kad
jemputan boleh disampaikan.
Semoga dengan kehadiran anda semua akan
mengembalikan kenangan manis kita di kolej dulu,
disamping mengeratkan lagi persaudaraan kita.
Sehingga bertemu di sana;
Yang benar;
Nik Syahrim bin Nik Anwar
Ahmad House 9498
University of Applied Science Heilbronn
email: niksyahrim@hotmail.com
niksyahrim@yahoo.com
Tel: +49179 792 4555 (Deutschland)
: 013-9008304 (Malaysia, hanya selepas 27.July 05!)
Ok that's done.
Whatever you plan to do this weekend, just don't go and watch Seven Swords. It's really really fucking stupid. And its nearly 2 1/2 hours long. That's bloody long for a stupid movie. But if you insist, for whatever reason I'll give you a bit of a summary of the good bits. And there's not a lot of them.
This movie has a lot of horny old school Ming Dynasty Kung Fu practising farmers. This one dude just can't keep his dick in his pants and tries to screw around with his girlfriend inside the bangsal. Girl says "Me no love you". Bloke gets all emo and starts becoming mentally unstable. Do we really need this scene in the movie? I bet it was put as filler material to make it longer.
There's another horny bloke who looks the same as the first horny bloke who; after a hard fought battle, takes home a Korean girl back to his place (as a souvenir, I guess). After some pretty freaky and quite strange foreplay, they finally get it on in a cave. But we don't get to see the "getting on" but after the rape style foreplays I think it was for the good of everyone that they cut that scene off. The movie is long enough already.
But its not all sex in this movie. There's sword fighting scenes as well. After all, it is (supposedly) based on a legendary Chinese warrior tale of some sort. So we get fight scenes, where the 7 swordsmen can kill off a million bad guys. Yes, they're that good. But the movie drags on and on and gets longer because these blokes need a bit of time to beat the hell out of 1,000,000 pathetic low rank guards. At the end of the day, we get a lot of dead Chinese people lying around.
In between the horniness and fights, theres a few parts that I really didn't get. I really could not make sense of any of these scenes. It seems like they were random ideas put in by the make-up person or tealady or whoever the fuck wants to put it in. There's a scene where they released some horses but then this one horse came running back, refusing the freedom given to it? There's another scene where they found a super special sword but we get to see a glimpse of it and that was the end of that story. All the good guys look the same and it gets bloody confusing to identify which one is which. And, oh did I mention that the movie is really long?
So in summary, this movie is perfect if you want to see some Chinese farmers living on the mountains, cause they look great. And goats too. They keep a lot of goats on the mountains.
Two more of my buddies are getting married soon. Don't have the exact details but will post it later. Anyways, congratulations to Nik Syahrim, Asmadib and a special belated ....congrats/good luck dude to Nawal Ghazali.
God bless you all. And remember, premature is for losers. So try to hold it a bit longer.
The posts are becoming rather sporadic lately, eh?
Well.... sporadic schmoradic. It's my bloody blog. Ehhhh.
The theme this time is sports,eh.
So to recap whats been happening lately. Gerrard finally made up his mind and stays at Anfield, resisting the temptations of some Russian money and the bright lights of London.
The British & Irish Lions were pathetic in their tour of New Zealand. 0 for 3 as the Yanks would say.
BMW has bought over Sauber racing and this'll lead to a sudden increase in Sauber supporters come next year's race in Sepang.
There's nothing decent to watch on TV. What you get is extensive coverage of the World Pool Championship in Taiwan. Wow. Like, fun eh? Right. Come to think of it, any sport that involves hitting a ball with a stick is kinda retarded and boring as hell.
That's all I know about sports.
I'd say something about some good bands to listen to, but I haven't been music-ing much lately. I need my fucking groove back, baby.
A whole lot of them.
I reckon I had nearly 10 durians this evening. Of course, I didn't enjoy the fragrant smell and sweet, lovely, lemak-y taste of the durian alone. I had a few mates around.
We started the feast near Maghrib time, after work & after my now-compulsory 5 minute jog. Haha. 5 minute jog? That's as useless as a 5 minute futsal session.
But anyways, we had about 7 bijik durian by Maghrib. I was full but had to force a few more in just to not "membazir". Most of the durians were super sweet and perfect. Or as I'd like to put it, "sedap gila babi". We started off like some hungry durian crazy bastards, opening them by the minute. Then after the 4th one, everyone slowed down but still didn't want to stop. We were obviously getting full but yet were not willing to take it easy on the durians.
"Try satu lagi.."
And so we did. In fact we had 3 more.
I felt sleepy afterwards and had a nap. When I woke up, they wer just starting another durian session. Whoa.. I woke up at the right time, lucky. I had a few more.
And then came the pening. Seriously its so bad that I couldn't open my eyes. I'm even feeling a little bit migraine-ish typing this post. I want to go to bed.
Yeah, I'm back blogging. I had a little hiatus a while ago due to several reasons (more like excuses) including work commitments, lack of interest, laziness & unavailability of Internet access. But hey, I don't need to justify why I don't blog!
Pejam celik, its already halfway through the year. And I've been working for a bit more than one year now. I can't exactly say how much experience I've gained over the past 12 months but I'd like to think that I've learned bits and pieces of a lot of things. I better. I've always been a rather slow starter-late blossomer (if thats a word) and that's why only now, after one year I'm beginning to grasp and "get it". The first 12 months were like a blurry period for me. Struggling here and there trying to learn about everything. But now I'm more focused and I know what I'm doing. Which gives me a great deal of relief and a feeling of content. And that's good. No more being unsure of what to do, no more taking up unrealistically and "waste of time" tasks and shit like that anymore. I'll leave that to the next new guy coming in.
One thing I've learned is that you have to work smart in this type of office environment. By that I mean doing stuff that's worth it. Sure it sounds bloody obvious but you'd be surprised to see how many people get stuck doing the unnecessary stuff while ignoring what's really essential.
Okay, I'm beginning to sound very serious now. I think I better stop before this becomes a boring lecture on how to work smart.
What do I know? I'm just a new kid in this huge business. You'd be better off reading Dilbert (which by the way is only a click away from here.....see the column on your right? Yes? Click, click, click)
Am I still bitching about emo? God, that's soooo 2003. I better keep myself updated and whine about the "indie revival" quick.
It's been a week since the great comeback and I'm still buzzing. I bet those "neutrals" would start buying the new jersey soon and then claim to have "followed" the Reds through the not-so-bright times. Fickle fukkers.
Work is extremely stressful still and I have the paranoid feeling of being screwed, big time.
Haven't watched the new Star Wars movie and proud of it.
Looking forward to the Initial D movie though.
Long weekend coming up but undecided on what to do.
KINGS OF EUROPE - LIVERPOOL FC
The greatest match I've ever seen. We're were down and out by half time I thought, but those six crazy minutes, sparked off by Gerrard's header turned the game completely. Dudek's double save in extra time saved the game and from that moment on I knew we were destined to win. Luck? Hell no. It's fate.
European Cup count:
Liverpool : 5
Man Utd : 2
Arsenal : 0
Chelsea: 0
Eat that, wankers.
You come to the office one fine Monday morning only to discover that you've been FUCKED in the ass big time. Of course not literally, although if your "office" happens to be a jail cell, then I guess you'd have to expect it.
... being fucked (metaphorically speaking) isn't a good thing.
But, someone has to get fucked. Unfortunately it's me.
So here I am, waiting for this imaginary dick to get out of my ass. That's another metaphor, kids.
It's the weekend and I find myself browsing through my friends' Friendster profiles. It's depressing. Other people seem to have better lives. Gets all the girls. Have all the money.
My Weekend Tragedy
What a perfectly typical name for an emo band. Excellent. Wanna join? We'll play 3-4 chords repeatedly and produce something that could barely pass as a "riff" and then sing about how our Friendster profiles make us depressed. And we'll sing about the Friendster girl who didn't reply our message and broke our hearts. And we'll wear makeup and eyeliner and wear red ties and scream and do so many other punk stuff.
And then we'll "experiment" and try to become Duran Duran.
Or Attack of the Jedis or whatever the hell the next Star Wars movie is.
Is it just me or is there anyone else who totally don't care about this. I don't need to see it on Opening day. Or Opening Week even. But somehow, being somewhat the popular culture conformist that I am, I'm probably going to see the movie sooner or later. Damn you, peer pressure.
One thing's for sure, I won't be the super-fan boy freak figurine collector loser, definitely (If I do, please shoot me...Thanks). Nor will I ever discuss/argue about Star Wars with anyone. Or read articles off the 'Net about "How Star Wars Changed the World". Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just not my scene.
To me, it's just one of those things that you have to do; watch new Star Wars movie--check. Now move on to next on list. It's more of "let's get this out of the way" rather than "Whoaa... wanna check out how good dude turns to Black Metal Face?". It's like a Radiohead phase, you just have to have one but you don't necessarily have to agree that OK Computer is the best album ever. Get it?
So it'll be a couple more weeks before I get to know how the saga ends. Not really the end but you know what I mean right?
This may one full week late but I'll mention it nonetheless. We're in the bloody finals!
The only real high in a season full of lows. I just couldn't be bothered already where Liverpool finish in the league this season. Being fucked completely in the first half against Arsenal sums up how frustratingly inconsistent we are/were this season. Disappointing would be a huge understatement.
But who cares. We're in the bloody finals!
FA Cup? Premier League trophy? Who needs that?
We're in the bloody finals!
We were at Zamir's wedding reception yesterday when suddenly Shaw asked a rather interesting question.
"Bila kau kahwin nanti, kau nak main lagu ape?"
To which I replied.
"Ntah la, nanti aku google. Nak search lagu yang best."
It was a pretty cool reply, I thought. At that time of course. Now it just seems a bit dumb. And so, another intriguing enquiry is left unanswered.
So what do you want played on your wedding?
I went back and actually gave some thought on this.
And I've decided that I want Fell in Love with a Girl by the White Stripes being played when I get married.
Whoaa!!!
My post about High Fidelity had actually inspired a great article about lad lit vs. chick lit by my knowledgable friend zaha.Go read it!I actually don't care much if its a chicky story or a bloke's tale or anything, as long as its good and funny. And anything that has the words "fucking" & "wanker" in the same sentence is hilarious by default.And did you ever notice that all my headings don't actually relate to my posts? How retarded is that?
The site's OK I guess. Except for the links. I should've put links to people I know. But I couldn't be bothered. Not now. Too much effort needed.
It's quite good to see comments from people. That's nice. I don't have a counter or anything to monitor how popular (or not) this site is with masses, but a few comments here and there is enough to show that there are people reading this.
I've been reading Nick Hornby's High Fidelity for a while now. Yeah, I know it's been around for what, 10 years(?) already but I just got the urge to actually read it last week. I've seen the movie a couple of times but.
It feels kinda weird reading a book after you've seen the movie. You just can't escape picturing the movie scenes throughout the whole read. I kept picturing the main character as John Cusack, and the annoying record shop assistant as Jack Black. I feel like I'm cheating somewhat, by not using my own imagination to picture or create images of these characters. I'm just using some other guy's interpretation of the story to help ME enjoy the story. For all I know, Hornby's character may not even look anything like Cusack or Black. And they'd speak with an English accent, unlike the movie characters. Rob's (main character) flat would probably look different, the record store would probably be different, they'd probably hang out at a pub rather than a bar, blah blah blah (you get the point).
I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy the book. I did. In fact, I thought it was brilliant. Great bloke literature (as opposed to chick-lit). It's just that it might've been better if I didn't try to link both the movie and book together. Maybe I'll do that the second time around.
Did you know that HELL is a bad place to visit? I just wanted to remind you guys that.
So, whatever you do... just don't go to hell.
Congratulations to my ex-schoolmate and part time skate buddy, Raqib. Raqib is getting married this weekend but I can't make it to the ceremony. I have to work. I can't take any more days off since I've been out of the office for the whole week, and just can't afford to appear even more incompetent in front of my boss. 
And to celebrate this wonderful occasion (for him), I'm dedicating this Toy Machine picture since Raqib used to aspire to be a famous and artsy skater-boy, just like Ed Templeton.
If there's one thing thats annoying me today its this: Malays speaking with an American accent. For some reason, I find this particular thing very annoying but I can't really pin point what exactly is annoying me, is it the Malay bit or the American accent bit.
I'm leaning towards the American part. Would it annoy me as much if some Malay dude spoke in an English accent, or Australian, French, African or Malay accent? I don't think so.
But it would annoy me if some Asian looking dude spoke with an American accent, for sure.
Finally, I got caught stealing the header/banner/whatever-its-called. Sorry, ayie. But the design fits perfectly with the whole theme I'm working on here. No, really.
I'm in Miri right now, for work. Or so that's what my boss/office colleagues think. Well, you could say it is work in a way except that it's more like a talk talk talk with no action type of thing. Which suits me well. Anyways I'm supposed to buy some ikan masin terubuk for my mum, and where the hell I'm going to find that? Ikan masin terubuk? Ape tu? And I have to carry the thing around in the airport nanti. That could potentially be a) embarassing and b) illegal. Worse if its both.
I spent the past 4 days prior to this trip listening to the Ramones - Anthology. And I think they fucking rule. In fact, they're the rulest band ever and can completely kick the whole ass out of anyone. Even those blood drinking goat fucking Norwegian black metal bands. And goats don't make a good shag. I think.
I'm stoked. Liverpool are in the Champions League semifinal, going through after drawing with Juve away. I was quite nervous throught the match though but thankfully a very limp performance by Juve helped the Reds through.
Based on an experience at a record storeHot chick at a listening station. She's checking out Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds' B-Sides and Rarities (Trust me, it doesn't get any cooler than this, son). Now you know that she has excellent musical taste. You strategically stand at the CD rack opposite her. You then start prentending to browse the CDs. As she's about to take off the headphones, you somehow manage to make eye contact.
What's your line, brother?
