My Demons...

Ms. Hypertune

At the Club



I met up with a few friends of mine at Soda Club, who were some of the official sponsors for the Ms. Hypertune 2006 event. And before you think that I'm some perv who enjoys ogling at an endless string of bikini clad women, let me clarify that I was there mainly to meet up with my friends. The beauty pageant was but a mere distraction...*ahem*



The night was pretty mundane, with the exception of some moron who called in with a bomb scare. Such idiocy! In the end, everybody had to evacuate the club for the better part of an hour while a team of police combed the building with their sniffer dogs. Bugger.

After what seemed like ages, they finally let us back in. Due to the delay, the beauty pageant only began at around 11-ish. I wasn't that excited about it though, I've seen the past Ms. Hypertune pageants before and for some reason, the girls contesting just don't strike my fancy. They can usually be divided into 2 categories, a) pretty in an ah lian way, and b) ugly in an ah lian way. No matter how you cut it, they are all usually ah lians. Such a pity.

As the contestants began to walk onto the stage, every male began to jostle and fight tooth and nail for a vantage spot, leaving their girlfriends fuming at the back. Hah....they are soooo gonna get it later at night.

Me and my friends were seated in the VIP section, and therefore had the 'luxury' of having the girls come to us. We did not have to jostle with the above mentioned Neanderthals, thus preserving our dignity.....hahah.







In the end, I got bored halfway through the event and decided to leave. Like I said, beauty pageant's aren't my thing. As the girls paraded up and down our section, my mind kept wandering to other things. Which is quite scary if you actually think about it. We've become so desensitized to sex that the sight of scantily-clad woman gyrating to music can get boring pretty quickly.

Either that or the contestants weren't that hot to begin with...hahah

Here are some photos, you decide.

Decline of a Nation, UMNO General Assembly

My optimism has faded

UMNO recently kicked off their general assembly and our local newspapers have been plastered with reports on speeches made by their politicians, issues discussed by their ministers and grouses vented by their members.

Reading all these reports, I inadvertently felt a heavy sinking in my heart. After all these years of independence, after so many years of working and striving together, it is incredibly sad and frustrating to see that the issue of Malay rights and equity-ownership still takes precedence over everything else.

While the rest of the world marches ahead with globalization, and millions of people around the world are enjoying levels of prosperity which is unmatched in the history of mankind, our UMNO politicians are still intent on maintaining their stranglehold (and even increasing it in fact) on a piece of an ever-shrinking pie.

I once felt optimistic about Malaysia. I once thought that it was a great country to be in, that everyone had an equal chance to succeed given hard-work. Today, for the very first time, I actually thought about what it would be like to leave the country. I am not saying that I will migrate. I am just saying that the thought fleetingly crossed my mind, and that saddens me.

They don't seem to care that Malaysia is sliding down the ranks of competitiveness, transparency and education. After all, according to UMNO and the people they represent, everything is a zero sum game right? In order for them to win, someone has to lose.

This mentality, together with all the problems which plague UMNO and Malaysia is neatly encapsulated in this speech given by Azlieza Azizan, the Malacca representative of Puteri Umno. She said, and I quote,

"We want the Malay corporate equity ownership to be raised to 60%. We have been tolerating the private sector for too long. They apply strict regulations to make it difficult for us to find a place (in the market)"

In a nutshell, her lack of progress is everybody else's fault except her own. The concept of meritocracy is alien to her. The concept of hard-work, sacrifice and perseverance are shunned by her in favor of complacency, greed and self centered-ness.

I know I have Malay readers for my blog. To them, I plead, please oh please tell us that not every Malay sees things the way Azlieza Azizan does. Reassure us that we all have the country's best interest at heart, and that we will all work together to ensure that Malaysia continues to prosper in the international arena.

Not all Malays think like her right?

To those who don't speak up and be heard.

There were many, many other comments which were uttered by people such as Hishamuddin and Khairy which reeked of racially-tinged aggression, but for the sake of brevity I will not quote them in this post. You only have to pick up any newspaper to see just how divided our country has become. Everything seems to be simmering just beneath the surface, and I sincerely hope that it will not reach its boiling point, for all our sakes....

...for all our sakes.


(above: What happened to the Malaysia I knew)

Making A Decision

Status Quo No More

It's been 10 days since my last post. I don't know why, but even with all the free time I've had over the past few weeks, I just can't seem to find the inspiration necessary to come up with a post which will not put my readers to sleep after the first 2 sentences. (My posts usually put my readers to sleep after 2 paragraphs, which is a great achievement me thinks!)

Yup, I have been relatively free over the past 4 weeks. Not surprising actually, considering that I've been unemployed. Yes ladies and gents, I have uttered the dreaded 'U' word. No, not 'underwear' you nitwit, UNEMPLOYED!

Some of you may already know this, but I left my previous employer around a month ago. I know I know, most people would ask why in the world did I leave before securing a new job right?

Well, without trying to sound corny, I left early because I felt it wasn't right for me to continue accepting my pay when I wasn't giving a 100% anymore to the company.

Alright, there is NO way of saying that without sounding corny.

I'm not claiming to be an extremely noble individual or anything like that. But I just felt it was the right thing to do. After only around 3 months into the job, I realized that the IT industry was not where I wanted to be 10 years from now. I just couldn't get myself sufficiently excited over software solutions and system integrations and bla bla bla. Sorry to all you IT folks out there who get goose-pimples and tingling feelings up and down your spines whenever somebody mentions the words 'system development life cycle', 'object oriented programming', 'database mirroring' and 'tivoli/websphere/lotus/(insert name of boorish IT product here)', but it's just not my cuppa tea.

Having said that, I would really like to thank God for recently blessing me with 3 new job offers. I'm currently contemplating on which one I should accept, as they all each have their attractive points. I hope to be able to come to a decision by next Monday, not much time, I know. Ah well, I'll just have to pray hard :)

Turning 26

29th of October

Gosh, has it already been 26 years? Time seems to creep up on you, ready to pounce when you least expect it. It only seemed like yesterday that I was a fresh faced college kid, eagerly awaiting his first day in college. Now, I'm a working person with 4 years of work experience under my belt. I know 4 years is not much, but it sure doesn't seem like it.

Heck, in another 4 years, I'll be celebrating the big three-oh *shudder*

I can't imagine myself as a 30 year old man. Then again, a few years ago I would have told you that I couldn't imagine myself as a 26 year old young adult. A person's perspective of age sure changes a lot the older they get eh. When you're 18 years old, you think being 30 is old. When you're 30, the 'old' age is 40, and when you're 40 it gets pushed back another 10 years or so. Soon, we'll have 60 year olds claiming that life only begins at 70.

Denial me thinks?

As for me, I intend to age gracefully (I hope!). I know at 26 I am no longer considered young. Sure, I still fall under the category of a young adult, but I'm no longer young in the 'carefree, youthful' sense. I am only young in the 'hair still black, face haven't wrinkled, perut haven't buncit' sense.


26 green bottles hanging on the wall.......

So how does it feel to be 26? Not much difference actually. Sure, my body doesn't process junk food as well as it used to anymore, resulting in my gaining weight (ugghh); my hair seems to be thinning in certain areas; and I am beginning to get that old person syndrome where your body creaks and pops whenever you change from a sitting to standing position, and vice versa. But other than that, there is not much difference - really.

Of course, to me there is not any difference, but I am sure that it won't be long before school kids start looking at me and thinking 'uncle'. Even now, toddlers and pre-schoolers are being taught to address me as Uncle Bernard.

Arghhhh!!!

I tell you, the day 20 year olds start calling me Uncle Bernard is the day I'll buy myself a flashy sports car and zip around in a vain attempt to recapture my youth. Forget everything I said about aging gracefully!!...

The grim reaper of age and senescence will have to pry the chalice of youth from my cold, dead fingers!

He'll have to drag me kicking and screaming down the alleyways of arthritis...

..across the ditches of dentures, over the gunungs of geriatricity and through the valleys of viagra-dependancy!

I won't go down without a fight!!

My birthday, Brokeback style

The melodrama aside, this year's birthday was pretty memorable for me. Not only because my girlfriend brought me horseback riding, but because I managed to spend it with the people who matter to me the most - my family, girlfriend and friends.

Oh, did I mention I went horseback riding? It was something my girlfriend planned for me, and it was my first time. Yup, I'm a virgin when it comes to spreading my legs and mounting a big, hairy, muscular animal...oerrr.



It was quite scary at first. Walking up close to a large animal such as a horse, I couldn't help thinking "What would happen if it turned around and kicked me in my nuts?"

Thankfully, I never got the chance to find out as I obediently followed the instructions of the horse-dude and planted myself near the head of the horse at all times.



After explaining the basic components of horse riding, the instructor asked me to get on the animal and take it around their small track. Getting on it was simple enough, but once it started moving it was an entirely different story altogether.

"Tarik rein ke kanan untuk jalan kanan!" yelled the instructor, who by the way is named. Junior.

I yanked my reins to the right, but nothing happened. Bear in mind that at that time I was traveling straight towards a wooden wall (I know that the horse wouldn't be stupid enough to run into a wall, but that knowledge somehow eluded me then)

"Lebih Kuat!!"

Panicking at the sight of the fast approaching wooden wall, I gave a might tug at the reins. The horse responded by giving a loud, annoyed snort and ignored me entirely.

Crikey! Images of me somersaulting over the horse and the wooden wall, off the cliff and to my death crossed my mind. Thankfully, the horse avoided the wall (as a horse normally would) and I timidly let it lead me around the track a few times while I worked out the proper technique for using the reins.

After while, I got it! When the horse first responded to my commands, it was amazing. Pull left on the reins, and it goes left - pull right and it goes right - pull back and it stops. It's just like a remote control car! A remote control car which can throw me off its back whenever it likes and stomp on my nuts of course.

I am glad to report however, that there were no nut-stomping incident throughout the entire hour we were with the horses. Instead, we went for a very fun one hour ride around Bukit Tinggi. Sitting atop such a majestic animal, with the clip-clop of its hooves emanating throughout the hillside - I almost felt like Legolas from LOTR. Of course, unlike Legolas, I almost shitted in my pants when the horse suddenly began to gallop.

Looks like I'll need a few more lessons before I can reenact my LOTR fantasies.




Birthday parties

I say parties because I was not the only one celebrating a birthday on that particular weekend. My friend Norman also celebrated his together with 2 other friends of his.











Below is a picture of the birthday dude looking nice and sober. I heard that wasn't how he ended his night though....hahahah.





Daniel on the other hand, appeared quite normal - but the truth became apparent when he strutted around with his chest sticking out, inviting us to abuse him. We came up with a very good test to see how sober a person is (which we tested on Daniel), we even had it down on video but due to its nature, I don't think it's appropriate for me to post it here *ahem ahem*





For my birthday, we celebrated over dinner at The Smokehouse along Jalan Ampang.

I am quite malas to story what happened. The photos are pretty self-explanatory hor.





















All in all had a great time on my birthday. Thanks to all my family and friends who made it special for me. When I turn 30 we'll celebrate big time okay? We'll all go get ourselves a couple of drinks (tea of course) and reminisce about the good old days when we were young and full of vitality!

Sounds like a plan!