26.11.06

Books

Sometimes I feel obliged to post something on this blog even though I don’t really have anything to write about. I guess that’s what they call “commitment”. Gosh, I hate “commitment”. In every sense of the word. Yet, I put up with it. What can I do? I’m forced to.

Anyways, approximately two weeks ago, I bought three books.

They were Brand New Friend – Mike Gayle, Everything is Illuminated – Jonathan Safran Foer & Monster – Jonathan Kellerman.

Gayle & Kellerman were recommended by friends and I did some research over the Internet and finally decided on the two titles. And I bought Everything is Illuminated because it had a dog named Sammy Davis Junior, Junior. Yes, really. That was the reason.

I finished Brand New Friend within a week. It’s a lad lit, so it wasn’t heavy reading at all. It revolves around the strangely familiar and often done theme of platonic relationship between guys and girls. Or more precisely, the struggle to maintain a platonic relationship between guys & girls. It tells the story of how Rob struggles to just be “friends” with Jo, and at the same time convince his girlfriend the same thing.

Sound familiar? Well, I’ll admit; it’s not really ground breaking stuff, and it’s a subject that has been more or less covered in at least 2 Meg Ryan movies. In fact, reading this book, I just can’t help imagining that if this were a movie it would most definitely star John Cusack & Meg Ryan. Yeah, its THAT kind of story.

But I’m not saying that the book is bad. Not at all. This book is absolutely hilarious. It made me laugh out loud. And that’s quite an achievement. I don’t remember reading anything that made me laugh out loud before. This book must be pretty good.

I like the writing. It flows effortlessly. It’s very conversational (if that’s even a word).

And being a lad lit, it covers a lot of stuff that I can relate to. One thing that Gayle does well is his observation of the male behaviour, as more often than not I end up nodding in agreement to Gayle’s description of typical male actions.

I’m fully aware that reading lad lit is totally uncool but hey, I enjoyed it. It was an easy and pleasant read, I laughed out loud, it was profound in some places, it was decent. Tak pening kepala langsung. The 5 stars given by Amazon.com readers I feel was a tad too generous but if I were to rate this I’d give it a high 4.

I’m now in the middle of Everything Is Illuminated. This is a completely different book to Brand New Friend. Its so chaotic, everything is everywhere, the dialogs are crazy nonsense, it’s kinda like the Malay Male blog. I like this. Though the only complaint I have so far is it has far too many difficult words, and I have to refer to the dictionary every 2 minutes its annoying.

Oh, in between Brand New Friend & Everything is Illuminated, I’ve also began reading (for the 2nd time) The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. I loved it the first time but I’m enjoying it even more the second time around. Please read it. It’s very very witty. And charming.

And lastly, I just want to say I hate Nescafe. It’s not coffee. I’d rather have Kopi Kapal Api.







23.11.06

Visitors

I've just realised that this site is actually more popular than it seems. And I've got secret admirers! I guess that's very flattering.
Thanks anyways for visiting. Come by often. Drop a comment or two.
But make sure its signed off as anonymous. If not, it's no fun for me. I like to guess.

P/s: This is in no way a sarcastic post. I'm honestly thanking people here. I just can't help it if it comes off as slightly cynical. Its just the way I write.


21.11.06

I'm back

Hey people. I am back. Been missing for a couple of weeks, I know. But work is really hectic the past 14 days, and only on my last day at work, I've had the chance to relax a little.

I finally bought a book. Well, actually I bought three. And I've managed to finish reading one. I'll write about that in another post.

Liverpool are getting crappier each week. Benitez is a decent man and all, but dude, your bullshit excuses has to stop!
And you know what else is bullshit? Persidangan Umno.

Anyways I'm off to Perth, Australia next week! Getting myself some summer sun.

Have a nice week ahead, and I'll update this site soon.

6.11.06

Season Review

First off, I'm praying that they find the missing pilot off the shore of Kerteh. This is really scary.

Secondly, I think it's not too late for my own personal review of the 2006 F1 Season, which I thought provided so much entertainment and thrills throughout the year.
It's all off the top of my head, so if I screw up the details, please correct me.

Best Driver - M Schumacher. Excellent in the 2nd half of the season, in races where lesser mortals would have no chance of even competing, Micheal repeatedly proved his masterclass by coming back from the dead to score valuable points. And often the comebacks are from way back on the grid. He may be unlikeable, but in terms of pure driving, he's genius.

Best Team - Renault (maybe). Had a great car early on, that was until the mass damper thing was removed. Only screw up when Alonso had a wheel nut/suspension (?) failure in ????. That's as far as I can remember. Apart from that, they had a competitive and more importantly, reliable car, though towards the end of the season, Ferrari stepped up a gear and gave them a run for their money.

Most Disappointing - Kimi & McLaren. How many finishes did Kimi/McLaren have? No wins, as I recall. A few podiums kot. Good luck with Ferrari next year Kimi. And hope Alonso would give something extra to McLaren.

Most Promising - Without a doubt, Robert Kubica. Awesomely quick in his debut, under difficult conditions (Hungary in the rain). Improved rapidly with each race, and towards the end of the season came really really close to beating team mate Heidfeld. This lad is a star. I'd be worried if I were Heidfeld.

Best Race - There's a few to choose from, but the one that really sticks in my head is once again, Hungary. Normally a boring race, this year it was full of drama and events, none bigger than Jenson Button winning his first ever race. It rained heavily, visibility was poor, a lot of crashes, unlucky Kubica disqualified after finishing 7th (?), it had everything.

Moment of the Season - Micheal's Ferrari breaking down at Suzuka. Schumacher who was leading the race, suffered a major letdown when his Ferrari had a failure (engine ?) soon after his pit stop, leaving Alonso to take over the lead, and eventually win the race. This ended any realistic hope of Micheal winning the World Championship, thus ending the dream of a potentially fantastic, magical comeback.

That's all I can think of. Anything to suggest/add? Please put it under comments. Thank you.
And please pray for the pilot.



4.11.06

I Swear!

I have a tendency to swear a lot. I do my swearing usually within the presence of my buddies, very rarely towards strangers (unless I'm cursing at them) and as far as I can remember, never with my parents or elderly relatives.
With my friends, the favourite swear words are the usual -
fuck, shit & asshole. That's in English. Malay - pukimak, cibai, babi etc. You get the point. Occasionally, I'd vary the swearing by adding wanker somewhere in between our friendly banter. Example: KJ is a fucking wanker, yeah? And slowly, but surely, wanker has become an accepted and well used swear within our group. But of course cursing a Mat Rempit using wanker serves no purpose, as I am absolutely sure they don't know the meaning of the word. And it's not like they'll go home and look it up in a dictionary.

But swear words are only good if people accept & use them.
I've been trying to introduce and encourage even the use of cunt in our swearing. I'd slide in cunt in everything I say during our usual borak borak sessions, in the hope that my mates would catch on. But unfortunately, they just stared at me with blank faces, and then, with an expression of total annoyance, said "What's up with all the cunts?"
I took that as a sign of disapproval of the use of the word, maybe it's too harsh or too I dunno, vulgar (?). And after that, I reduced my usage of cunt. It goes to prove that, without peer endorsement, a swear word is useless.

I still harbour the hope that someday the word would gain a more widespread use in our society. However ridiculous that sounds.

Anyways, the thing that annoys me is that in the new Martin Scorsese movie - The Departed, as shown in our cinemas, they censor all fucks but not cunt. Is it because the censors think cunt is a lesser swear word than fuck OR more more worryingly, they don't know what it means?

OK. Have a nice weekend. Don't swear too much. It's bad.

1.11.06

Judge by Cover

They say - Don't judge a book by its cover. But doing this - literally, is difficult, isn't it? I mean, I have a difficult time in choosing what book to buy, and it's a million times harder if you can't even browse through the book because it's been nicely plastic shrink wrapped.
And the only thing you can see is the front & back cover, plus the spine.
So, if you have nothing specific to look for in a bookstore, and you just want to "look around & get yourself a decent book", it WILL be hard not to choose based on what's printed on the front & back.
Therefore, you need to judge a book by its cover.
And for sure, I'd be more inclined to buy a book that has a nicely designed cover and more importantly, if there's lots of endorsement-praise-quote things printed all over. OR, it's been shortlisted for an award or better still, it actually won one.

So anyways, I'm still looking around for a nice book to read for the next few days. Any suggestions?
Fiction only. And no Tom Clancy military bullshit, ok? Or Dan Brown.
Thanks.




30.10.06

Gangster

I had the chance to enjoy a very special Raya offering on Astro last night - a Malay movie entitled "Gangster". Whoa, sounds very scary, innit?
The movie stars Rosyam Nor (but of course, who else). I read somewhere in the papers that En. Rosyam Nor apparently was on every bloody channel this Raya, playing such diverse roles of a gang leader, ungrateful son, abused father & many more. Okay, I made the diverse character bit up, but still... he was on every damn channel. Respect man. Dude's a SUPERSTAR.
But back to GANG-STER... It seemed that the movie had a very disjointed storyline and had 3 sub-plots without having a main cerita. En Rosyam Nor however plays 3 characters in each of the sub plots, the most ridiculous being the super tough, blond bearded, leather jacket wearing, deep voice mumbling ultimate evil villian. He's supposed to be scary, but come on, leather jackets - in KL? The blond hair & beard weren't that intimidating either, he looked more like a funfair clown than anything else. It's not En. Rosyam Nor's fault though. Blame it on make up.
Anyways, GANG-Ster (like Friend-Ster) revolves around the healthy lifestyle of street racing & making new friends through casual chit chat at a night club bar. AKO is supposed to be the clean cut gambling street racer (probably an oxymoron), the Malay version of Paul Walker in the Fast & Furious movies, and to his credit he does it very well. He wears a nice Ferarri shirt while racing his Evo. Not that it means anything. I'm just mentioning this for no reason.
One thing that pisses me off in the Malay production GANGS-TER, is the fact that people order mineral water & Coke at the bar. Fuck that. It's a fucking bar, dammit. And I'm sure as hell that someone high on E won't be ordering mineral water. Coke, maybe... but still un-realistic. I'd like for once, to see in a Malay movie, someone come up to the bar and order good old BEER. That'll be cool.
The movie G-ANGST-ER had one more sub-plot with En Rosyam Nor, which I thought was the better of the rest. Because it didn't involve any scenes anywhere near a club.
At the end of the day, I have to admit (embarassingly) that I enjoyed the movie Gangster. Maybe its the Raya mood still, or whatever. I had ZERO expectations watching the movie, so that probably helped a bit. It's decent. But nothing more. The car race scenes were quite good though.
Go & Watch this movie.



25.10.06

Selamat Hari Raya

Wishing everyone Selamat Hari Raya & Maaf Zahir Batin.
Should've posted this earlier but I had issues with the Internet connection.
I just got back from work, and it's another long journey back to my kampung.
Have a nice Raya everyone. And be good.



19.10.06

Blog Entry

Read this blog entry. It's about Pasar Ramadan (and I know it's getting to the end of puasa, but what the heck) and it's fucking hilarious. And if you have time, read all the past posts too.

Note of caution though: This blog uses the words fuck, ass, shit, bitch, suck my dick liberally. So if you're easily offended, you might want to stay away.


17.10.06

I'm cultured, but not that much.

I'd say I'm a cultured person.
Why?
Because I read books, occassionally go to art exhibitions & once I even went to see a play. Ok, not exactly a play but it was a live stage comedy performance thing.

Therefore I am a cultured bloke. If not, I would be bikin-ing my bike and become a Mat Rempit. Then, I'll say things like "Weii wakenabeb!!".

And as I am a cultured bloke, it's obvious that I'd enjoy going out with cultured girls and do all these cultured things.
But the joy stops when they want to have sushi. I hate sushi. Never was a fan and never will be.
And just because I don't eat bloody sushi, I am deemed un-cultured. Well, fuck that.

Another thing that annoys me is that these people think that they're sophisticated and smooth and cultured and classy because they listen to jazz. Or Corrine Bailey Rice or whatever her name is. Well, eff that too (I'm trying to cut down on the swear words).

13.10.06

What the fuck?

What the hell happened?
My blog is GONE.
Tried entering toddekk.blogspot.com and I get "this girl lost her smile..." instead of the nice blog that is/was Jealous Again.
I am pissed. Fuck blogger.
Will this message get posted?
FUCK
FUCK
FUCK


10.10.06

Back to Work

When was the last time you had a Ramly burger from your friendly local rock "brader"? It's been years since I had one of those, and I'm having a craving for that now. And have you ever noticed that these "brader" joints are usually located either opposite or near a 7 Eleven outlet? Weird, eh? Coincidence?

Anyways, it's been 2 weeks already since I came back from work. Now it's time to go back for another 14 days.

7.10.06

Pickup all the names you've dropped

I will be name dropping a lot in this post, so beware. If you happen to be the uncool dude who doesn't know who/what I am referencing, feel free to Google or Wikipedia any of the unfamiliar names. You need to know them to be as cool as me! Really.

I'm in a 90's mode right now. But one thing you should know is that I only really experienced the 90's in 2000, when I started uni. I mean, I only watched all the 90's movies in the year 2000, a whole bloody decade late. Oh well. As they say, better late than never.

Out of the blue, suddenly today I felt the urge to re-watch all the 90s classics once again. 90s classics = Kevin Smith. Here are the movies that I feel like watching:


Clerks
A classic Kevin Smith movie which revolves around two blokes: A convenience store dude (who's not supposed to work that day) and his next door neighbour/buddy a complete arsehole of a person, video store attendant.

Mallrats
This movie marks the acting debut of skater Jason Lee. It has Jay & Silent Bob performing Jedi mind tricks. Yet another Kevin Smith movie.

Chasing Amy
Joey Lauren Adams has a superbly sexy voice. A movie about how boys can't just be friends with girls. Kevin Smith, again.

Empire Records
This is just a feel good movie about a record store. Not a Kevin Smith movie, but it has it moments. And Liv Tyler.

The Big Lebowski
The Dude is so cool.

And to really capture the spirit of 90's teen movies what better than to play Evan Dando/The Lemonheads as the official background soundtrack of the week.

The Lemonheads have a new self titled album out. And this time ex-members of The Descendents are in the band. I like the Descendents. They play fun happy FAST songs. But for some reason, I always get them confused with the Adolescents.


5.10.06

Seri Muka Update

I can't find a decent seri muka. At least not in Sri Damansara. Fuck it. I give up. Maybe I need to go to Kuching.

But now I have another massive craving for berbuka.


I want to eat cakoi. I hope you know what I'm talking about. Cakoi - those soft long fried bread-ish sticks that's amazingly pleasant when eaten panas panas. And cicah with kaya.
Fortunately I am going to balik kampung this weekend, and they have the best cakoi there!! I can't wait.

1.10.06

Seri Muka

It's fasting month once again, and as always I start to get huge cravings for seri muka for buka puasa. I've always been a fan of the seri muka, and I really think it fits perfectly during buka puasa. The combination of pulut and topping yg manis (never really knew what they're made of) is soothing and pleasant to my tastebuds.

My friend says that its weird, craving for seri muka. Whatever.

Unfortunately, finding the best seri muka is such a big challenge. There's like a million people selling seri muka at the Pasar Ramadan, and they all look nice. But I'd say only a handful could pass as decent while the rest prove to be complete letdowns. There's no one and truly perfect seri muka, not yet at least.

My quest now is to find the best seri muka in KL. Any ideas where to find such a thing?

28.9.06

Football & other stuff

My beloved Liverpool have won 3 games in a row, the latest being a nerve wrecking 2nd half experience against the mighty Galatasaray of Turkey. Despite leading 3-0 at one point, the Reds again nearly blew it by some piss poor defending. Luckily we managed to hang on for the win. Must do better next time. Finnan is no good in the air. And neither is Aurelio.

But the Reds have been improving, I must say. Wins against Newcastle & Tottenham probably gave the well needed injection of confidence to the side, and the marked improvement showed so obviously during the first half against Galatasaray as Liverpool were intent on getting an early lead.

Anyways, it was really nice to see good old Danny Murphy back at Anfield, albeit in a Spurs shirt. I thought he played well the other day, and deserved the applause & cheers as he was substituted late in the game. He's not the most talented individual but his commitment to the team was never in question. I've got a soft spot for Murphy and I wish him well at Tottenham.

On another note, I'm back in good terms (I think) with one of my long lost friends. It's not that there was any "bad" terms or anything like that, it's just that we ended up growing apart and left things being really awkward a few years back. But a chance encounter during work had us talking to each other again, and suddenly, to me at least, whatever happened in the past was gone. I guess we just grew up wiser and decided to ignore the foolishness of our past. We began to remember how well we "clicked" and just hit it off straight away. I'm glad that we managed to bump into one another. It feels much better now.




24.9.06

It's a Sunday.

It's a Sunday but I don't feel well. AND I have to work. Shit.

17.9.06

10 Things I Hate About You


I like Julia Stiles in 10 Things I Hate About You.

10.9.06

What the...

3-0. Three fucking nil. What the hell.
It's been a while since we've been humiliated in this manner and to make matters worse, it was at Everton.
I was so disgusted with the Reds' performance that I stopped watching the game by half time.
It's time to drop the frustratingly out of sorts Alonso, and to never ever play Garcia again.

I'll be away for my vacation starting tomorrow. So that should be fun.
And for the next 2 weeks starting Wednesday I'll be back at work. Probably minimum updates to this site during that period. But anyways, feel free to post a comment. Or if you want to belanja me makan you can also post a note in the comments section. Or if you want to introduce someone cute to me, you are most welcomed to do that too. Ahah.