Street Wars Aftermath

A continuation of my previous post (scroll down below or click here). One of my colleagues suggested posing like the characters in the infamous Hong Kong breakthrough movie Infernal Affairs 《無間道》. Another suggested a pose with black coats. Another suggested pistols and knives. One even suggested wearing our laboratory smocks, and let the temperature forcer (the elephant in this blog post) blow away the fringe of our smocks!

Anyway, I prefer keeping the previous picture its same way. The al-terrors are always unique - we should be proud of ourselves.

香港無間道
AL-TERROR 無間 道 走廊
To TKD guy, NO, we are not going to be J, K, L, etc... :-P

To Wiwi, in order to honor you, I will retain the wiwi picture. :-)

Facebook App: Street Wars

Yes. The Facebook Application's Street Wars, or 古惑仔 ("Goo Waak Jai" in Cantonese). An text-based game application that makes everyone addictive, especially amongst those Cantonese-speaking people. So, what the heck does it mean??

古惑仔 is a term for member of underground society, or literally - "Black Society" (黑社会), or in short, triad. The term was originated from none other than Hong Kong, and was made popular through the Hong Kong sextet saga Young And Dangerous (《古惑仔》 in Chinese, of course). It literally means a scheming guy - scheming being a characteristic necessary for survival in Hong Kong underworld.

As in Facebook, the Street Wars application/game is a role playing game, where a player can:
- perform tasks and gang-fight in order to gain experience, level (from 1 to 35), and money
- buy properties in order to generate income
- buy items to enhance attack and defense strength (some items need money for maintenance)
- invite other friends to join so that they can become part of a gang. The more people a player has, the stronger the player become during gang-fight
- bank in the money into an underground bank

Since gang-fight is one of the money earning channel, naturally, if two are involved in a gang-fight, the winner gets to snatch away 5% of the opponent's cash. Nevertheless, to safe guard the money lost from gang-fight challenge by someone stronger, a player can choose to bank in the cash at the expense of 10% of the amount being banked in - the banked money could not be plundered from gang-fights. Or, a player can go ahead and attack until the health level drops to red level (there are 4 levels: green - healthy, yellow - lightly injured, red - severely injured (less than 20 hit points), and purple - coma (0 hit points)), then the player is not allowed to attack or be attacked.

As a player soars in his level, more advanced tasks (that can generate more money at the expense of gang members and attack/defense items), attack-enhancement and defense-enhancement items will be unlocked. Also, a player can upgrade 3 attribute ticks (out of 5, which is max hit points (+10), max task strength (+1), max attack strength (+1), attack damage (+1), and defense damage (+1)) As such, many players will try to gain as much experience as possible to advance into higher and higher levels.

One thing that make the game very addictive the the rate of refreshment of attributes. The income generated from properties will be automatically updated every hour. So, right on the 0-th minute, many players will log in to the game to ensure their money is safe-guarded from being lost to gang-fights, either by spending their cash buying items or more properties or save into the bank, or whack other players until they themselves are in the red health zone.

In addition, other attributes like hit points, attack strength, and task strength are updated every 5 minute (5pts, 1pt, and 1pt respectively). So, for every tick of the clock, players will hog into the server for some action. Many times this causes the application to lag while loading, or worse, hang. I for once yesterday could not log in to Facebook properly because of that!!

This game is indeed very popular amongst Hongkie Facebook users. How do I know? Just by the players' names and nicknames in my list of people for gang-fight target. The names are very Hongkongish i.e. Liu, Lam, Tse, Leung, Tsang, etc... And the nicknames are typed in with traditional Chinese characters (only in Hong Kong and Taiwan where traditional Chinese characters are still being used). Yes... nicknames for players with Level 11 and above can be customized into what the player wants (Level 1 through 10 nicknames are pre-assigned). I myself am trying to imitate being a Hongkie, by nicknaming myself 榴蓮地炒蟹集團老鼎爺! Hahaha!!! Just wanna clarify that the phrase "fried crab" is not intended as a pun for some Cantonese vulgar words. :-P

Our gang who are now playing this game in Facebook has become a bit crazy. Just by their nicknames, I can tell they "short-short dei":
攞你命3000
蛊惑佬
你老豆
叫聲大飛哥
挡我者。。。死
笑面虎
龍威

We also become crazy while being in the game:

[ Hitting a female player repeatedly until she fell into "coma" ]

As well as outside the game:

[ 5 of us happen to wear black T-shirts, look like members of triads that normally wear black, so decided to pose for a "beautiful handsome" picture... LOL! ]
One of us wore a T-shirt with a big traditional Chinese character 龍, meaning "Dragon", a mythical creature amongst the Hong Kong society used to represent triads.
Yes. We are indeed addicted to it. Deeply addicted!!!

Hyperlink to the application: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=17326627347&ref=mf

Another My Foot!

"The authorities require a fresh DNA sample from Anwar Ibrahim because the sample extracted 10 years ago is too old."
- Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, July 18, 2008

I am not concocting this statement. Believe me. Percayalah!!! Tak percaya, bacalah sendiri [TheStar dan MalaysiaKini]

I am not a forensic expert, nor an expert in DNA profiling. I am a student who scored poorly in Biology. So, I dare not make any comments without doing some background study. And thus, I made a quick research minutes after reading the news, and the following is what I have found:
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/othernews-nfrm/050606_bear.htm

I quickly read and found that scientists do have the ability to chart a 40,000-year-old DNA sequence, and determined it to be a cave bear. I thought, wow... cool! 40,000 years old DNA and yet can tell it's a cave bear. Not bad!! More importantly, after all the 40,000-year long erosion factors (climate, seismic activity, chemical, biological, and possibly radioactive interference)... the DNA is not so deteriorated - remember, the scientists can still tell it's a cave bear!!!

So, I can quickly tell that it is close to impossible for DNA to be deteriorated after 10 years. In other words, DNA would NOT "grow old" after 10 years!

So, what has our 'beloved' PM just said??

As I say it again, the world is watching and listening!!! Stop making stupid statements, say what is proper, use brain to analyze what other people said, and, if necessary, question the validity of the information received. Most importantly, stop making we Malaysians ashamed of ourselves. We may have biggest, highest, the first, the grandest, and what not, but we are not ready to be called stupid because our leader is so!

And, indeed yes, the world is watching. Tak percaya? Percayalah! Masih tak percaya? Cuba klik sini!!!

And, btw, I was one day behind in posting this blog post, and already there are many people lambasting at the statement above. Try Google "DNA sample too old" and see what you get? The quote above was indeed named as a joke. See here.
_____________________________________

Actually, I already got pissed off one month ago, when our 'beloved' PM said something which is inappropriate and yet interfering with the supremacy and independence of court judges, by saying what his belief in a crime which has not even been tried, let alone judged.

"I don't believe that Najib and Rosmah are involved (in the 2006 murder of a Mongolian woman)."
- Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Jun 25, 2008
[ see here and here ]

And now, one month later, comes another round of bullsxxt. Now, I really do feel ashamed!!! Darn!!! I need to scurry, looking for a rabbit hole!!!

Kuala Lumpur Trip, June 28-30, 2008

One word for me to summarize for the trip. Enjoyable. The following was the full actual itinerary, as far as I could remember.

Jun 28
0505 Wake up...
0620 Leave from Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, heading towards Ipoh
0830 Reach Ipoh Foh San Dim Sum Restaurant
0930 Leave Ipoh (kena saman from DBI... darn), heading for KL
1140 Reach KL - Segambut Yu Ai Seafood Noodle Restaurant
1250 Reach Renaissance Hotel, Jln Ampang
1335 Got our room (# 2511) - Dell Guy, B and I to stay in the room
1420 Leave for KL Convention Center (Dell Guy did not join us)
1455 Seated in KL Convention Center for Beauty and the Beast Musical
1610 After 1:10 delay, the musical began!! Sigh...
1845 Leave KL Convention Center (A left for Kristus Aman, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, the rest leave for Happy Hour in Renaissance Club Floor)
1920 Reach hotel - Happy Hour!
2030 Leave hotel, take Monorail heading to Bukit Bintang
2045 Reach Bukit Bintang's new Pavilion Mall
2105 Begin fish spa
2135 End fish spa
2220 Dinner at Planet hollywood
2340 Return to hotel
0040 ZZZZ
0130 Wake up for a moment as Dell Guy called for help on the air con :-P

Jun 29
0730 Wake up...
0810 Gym
0905 Breakfast
1050 Leave for Mass
1130 Reach Church of St Francis Xavier for 11:30am Mass... right on time
1245 Leave church for KL Sentral
1310 Reach KL Sentral, drop MissG so that she could take transport to KLIA
1345 Reach Sunway Pyramid
1425 Begin ice skating on Pyramid Ice
1610 Leave the skating rink
1655 Leave Sunway Pyramid
1730 Reach hotel for cocktail - Happy Hour again!!
2040 Leave hotel for KLCC
2330 Leave KLCC and head back to hotel
0045 ZZZZ...

Jun 30
0730 Wake up
0820 Gym
0950 Breakfast
1110 JRoldan preparing to take an early leave, heading back to Penang. Stupid tang1-tang5-tang4-tang1 people called him urgently to look into issues... sigh...
1130 Go swimming
1150 Go for spa
1220 Finish spa
1315 Head towards Berjaya Times Square, Imbi Road
1600 Reach hotel for (late) checkout
1700 Leave KL... phew... avoiding the jam...
1900 Reach Ipoh for Low Wong Beansprout Chicken
2020 Leave Ipoh
2200 Reach Penang (back to church before the gate is closed)

The most enjoyable part is, no doubt, the musical. Taking off the two setbacks, the musical was entertaining, funny, touching, and awesome. B, can you comment how much you enjoyed the musical here? Hahaha...


The ice skating session was good. Other than jam-packed with hundreds of people (kids, teens, and adults - uncles), the skating session was fun. B managed to transfer some of his normal roller-skating skills for his new ice skating technique, making him less awkward. Within minutes, he managed to skate without holding on to the side of the skating rink. JRoldan was a bit less fortunate - he need to hold on to the side almost all the time, until B and I encouraged him to let go. Indeed, he tried, and all was well - he's able to grasp part of the techniques before feet pain and fatigue took over.


The fish spa was one of the most funny and ticklish experience. Imagine having hundreds of small fish nibbling at your feet and calf. I began the spa with laughing and giggling out of ticklish feeling all over my feet. Even the non-ticklish B was giggling. Anyways, after a few minutes, we quickly got used to it. Result - our feet got smoother and fairer - yeah, the fish had practically eaten our dead skin away!! For RM30 per half a hour, it is considered a good deal - imagine, we were in Pavilion!! I suppose it could be more expensive, considering the rental, maintenance, and constant re-purchase of the fish (this type of fish never breed in captive, according to A).


The Times Square Indoor Theme Park was the worst experience throughout the trip. I thought of wanting to have fun with the roller-coaster. For two rounds B and I rode on it. After the second round, my motion sickness took over me. Perhaps I had too much food during breakfast - I felt nauseating until I threw up a bit. Other than the Bumper Car session after the throw-up, the rest of the time we spent in the theme park loitering. During that time, we stopped by a wax sculpture stall, and it ended up that each of us bought wax sculpture of our own hands. LOL!

[ Picture to follow ]

The experience on the Renaissance Hotel Club Floor was awesome and wonderful. One of the best thing in the club floor facilities was the room. The room that we had was spacious, and the bed was - ahh... I attempted to act according to Ling's response upon lying on the bed (during the previous trip of A, B, D and Ling, without me), and B felt disgusted... Hahahah!!!


Next, the breakfast buffet was fantastic - I couldn't describe it much. We went to the West Wing breakfast buffet on the 2nd day, and the East Wing one on the 3rd day. Look at the pictures. Btw, beef bacon, turkey ham, bread, and yogurt would be my most favorite food there. Yummy!!

Second day breakfast - West Wing
Third day breakfast - East Wing
The cocktail - I have not had so much alcohol for so long. I did not have a liking of alcohol because it would cause me to have headache. However, looking at the variety of types of cocktail they served in the Club Floor, I went ahead and tried some. The Tequila Sunrise was the killer. I had 1/3 glass, and guess what - I was drunk, and headache took over! LOL!

Tequila Sunrise - The cocktail that made me drunk
And finally, the recreational facilities:

1. Gymnasium - it was fully equipped with treadmills, cycling machine, free weights and complete set of workout machines (there are at least 20 of them!!).

B showing off and Dell Guy posing :-P
2. Swimming pool - huge... I think the length was about 50 metres. Yesss... huge for a hotel swimming pool... normal depth of 1-m to 1.5-m (not as deep as the one in Bayview Hotel, Penang - 4-m :-P)

3. Spa and sauna room - a place for relaxing.

[ No photos for #2 and #3 - completely forgotten to take them ]

The one great food outlet that we enjoyed in KL was the seafood noodle in Segambut. There were 3 flavors - plain soup, tom yam, and curry laksa (in KL, curry with santan is called "curry laksa"). I loved the last one the most. Btw, the bowl was huge... Each large portion cost RM16, mind you.


Other than that, all other food that we had was nothing exceptional. Although I managed to have my delicious Burger King's Whopper Jr. in KLCC, B, Dell Guy and JRoldan did not agree with me. They ordered something else and it was pathetic. Sigh... what to do? After a not-so-good experience of food in Planet Hollywood, here comes another round of disappointment. Btw, Planet Hollywood used to serve great dishes 4.5 years back! Deterioration - probably an effect of inflation... Sigh again...

The Ipoh passing-by food experience - I couldn't comment much because I am an Ipohite, and I always love Ipoh food. A, B, A's mom, Dell Guy, MissG, and JRoldan did enjoy the dim sum in Foh San very much. Let me guess their favorite dishes - yam kuih (芋角), fried carrot cake (炒萝卜糕), glutinous rice with chicken (罗米鸡), braised-pork bun (蓝乳饱), char siew bun (叉烧饱), and prawn dumpling (虾饺 / 虾卖). I am not denying - I love all of them!!


And, because of MissG and JRoldan having to return earlier than the rest, they were not able to savor the beansprout chicken and hor fun in Low Wong. Again, not much comments - not because I don't like it, but rather because I love it very very much!! Okay la... a few comments. I always liked the spring onions mixed with beansprouts and mixed sauce (soy sauce, sesame oil, and some of the 'chicken essence' - boiled chicken soup I guess), seasoned with cut red chili and pepper. Slurp... My family used to order 2 portions of beansprout whenever we went there.


Looking forward to another eat, play (and sleep) trip!! And I'm definitely not talking about Redang here. :-)

Beauty And The Beast - YouTube Video and Lyrics

Beauty And The Beast
Written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman
Performed by Céline Dion and Peabo Bryson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5Cvq416zuQ

Tale as old as time
True as it can be
Barely even friends
Then somebody bends
Unexpectedly

Just a little change
Small, to say the least
Both a little scared
Neither one prepared
Beauty and the beast

Ever just the same
Ever a surprise
Ever as before
Ever just as sure
As the sun will rise

Tale as old as time
Tune as old as song
Bittersweet and strange
Finding you can change
Learning you were wrong

Certain as the sun
Rising in the East
Tale as old as time
Song as old as rhyme
Beauty and the beast

Tale as old as time
Song as old as rhyme
Beauty and the beast

Beauty And The Beast - Broadway Musical

Note: This is not a review, as I am not very good in reviewing musicals. This is only a record of my experience.

Yes, the musical is in town! Not in Penang though (of course la, Penang where got place for stage musical one, somemore from Broadway!!).


I went to KL Convention Center on Saturday, Jun 28, to watch the matinee (3pm show). There were six of us: A, A's mom, B, JRoldan and MissG. For me, I was very anxious and excited about it. I've had a great experience watching The Phantom of the Opera in Singapore, and I was keen in watching another musical this round. And, knowing that this musical originated from the Disney animated movie of the same name, I was keen to find out how the animated scenes were portrayed live!!

Each of the tickets cost RM 212.50 (RM250 with discount 15%). Expensive but worth it.
I used to have a video casette (yes!! the one that needs rewinding one...) of the movie, dubbed in Cantonese. I used to watched it every other weekend, and yes, I watched it umpteenth times! So, I knew the story inside out. Nevertheless, when I watched the musical, I was completely marveled and overwhelmed by the ability of the crew to act, portray, arrange, and supply the music that once again re-capture the moments and feelings I had when I watched the movie last time. Moreover, I was watching in awe of the ability of bringing myself back to when I was a teen.

There were several scenes which were added into the musical, including:

1. Gaston singing while proposing to Belle
2. Belle singing while missing home, with Mrs Potts consoling her
3. Gaston and Lefou singing during the bribing of Monsieur D'Arque scene
4. Belle reading the story of King Arthur to Beast
5. Beast singing "If I Can't Love Her". Yes!! Beast can actually sing!!!

And scenes removed (I understand, not practical to act it out):

1. Snowballs on Beast, birds eating from Beast's palm.
2. Trapping of Belle and Maurice, and saved by Chip.

There are two scenes that touched me. The first one is, no doubt, the dance scene. Although interrupted by the crazy guy sitting right behind me (read below), I was nearly in tears, for Belle had given Beast a second chance. I did cry when I watched the movie.


The second one would be - in the middle of the show, Chip asked Mrs Potts in a very poignant manner, if he would ever be a boy again. And, when, at the end when the enchantment was broken, Chip appeared on stage as a boy and no longer a teacup, everyone cheered!! Chip, a minor character, stole all the limelights! I felt touched at the reunion of Chip and Mrs Potts as persons and not objects anymore.


The arrangements of props were truly amazing. I was brought to my senses that props in a skit or musical is equally important as the performances from my experience in "Watch The Lamb" played in church. I am further convinced that that was right. The props arrangement was flawless. Distinct scenes of the town, forest, and castle was shown on the backdrop and on the translucent cloth that covered the entire stage. The flashing lights showing the enchantment. The bar tables, couch, Belle's house, dancing cutlery during "Be Our Guest". The most amazing part is the transformation from Beast back to the Prince!! Awesome, amazing, and unbelievable!!!

I gotta agree that - Lumiere was the most dangerous character. He needed to control the jet of fire coming out from his enchanted handheld candles, synchronize the jets according to the music, and avoid the fire from actually burning himself and another character!!

The one that still puzzled me was the falling of the petals from the enchanted rose. I wonder... and still had not figured that out. A, any idea??

During in-between acts, I bought myself a T-Shirt, a programme book, and a CD of the Musical, performeby by original Broadway casts. Spent RM180 on the merchandise. Expensive, but worth the price.

B, JRoldan and I posing in front of a banner.
______________________________________________

There were only two setbacks:

1. The musical, scheduled at 3pm, was delayed for 1:10!!! Screwed up all our plans in the evening.

2. The crazy guy behind me. He was sitting on LL37, 3pm show, Jun 29, 2008 - I need to remember that, so that if he ever reads this blog post, he would need to be reminded what a nuisance he is. He laughed at scenes not worth laughing. He even laughed at a poignant scene. Lame!! And, just because of an accidental flash by my friend, he went berserk, yelled "Don't want!!!" and "LIGHTS!!!", and slapped on my friend's back and the head of another friend! He is TOO MUCH!! Well... I guess he is a bit not sane - and that's forgivable. But, if ever he did that because he was drunk - then may God bless him - he'd meet with someone who might actually beat him up.

Arrow Stealth With Scarecrows

This post consists of two parts. First part is a story, based on the famous Chinese novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". The story was based on how much I could remember from the novel, as I was simply re-writing it with my own flow of words, hence it might not be 100% accurate. Nevertheless, the main points are there to lead me to the second part. The second part is what we actually experience, here right now, where a vow was broken merely by silly assumptions.

Part 1 - Arrow Stealth

Zhuge Liang was stranded in the land of Wu. He had no time. Being the most famous military strategist of all time, he could not have let his life hanging on a thread just like that. The Kingdom of Shu needed him. The king, Liu Bei, needed him. And he needed to supply enough weapons for his temporary acquantance, Zhou Yu of Wu, to wage war against the tyrannic Cao Cao of Wei waiting at the other side of the river bank - waiting to attack. He was given 10 days to produce 100,000 arrows, lest he will be beheaded together with other prisoners.

Zhuge Liang raised his hand to shoulder height, pressed his fingers against his thumb, and gazed at the stars in the clear starry night. A short while later he exclaimed, "Three days!" His servants were shocked!! You were given 10 days for a task that would take a month, and now you said 3 days; are you mad, thought the servants.

"Three days?" Zhou Yu was stunned, and was seeking clarification.

"Yes. In three days, you will have 100,000 arrows against Cao Cao. You can have my word."

"If you say so, then so be it. But let me remind you. If you fail, you will never get to return to the land of Shu anymore, for you will be entombed here."

One day passed. Zhuge Liang was enjoying his time around the palace of Sun Quan (king of Wu), pacing around, enjoying the lotus blossoming in the beautiful pool, drinking wine, playing chess, and playing qin. He seemed oblivious of his apparent death sentence that he imposed to himself. Many servants of the palace thought that he was enjoying the last moments of his life. However, Zhou Yu thought otherwise. Being a smart military strategist himself (to the kingdom of Wu), he was getting suspicious of what Zhuge Liang was up to.

Two days passed. Zhuge Liang was still not making effort to call the blacksmiths to begin with arrow manufacturing. Even the blacksmiths themselves were stunned. One of them said, "He is crazy. If he wanted me to make arrows for him tonight, I will tell him straight in his face to go to hell! No one, not all of us, could make 100,000 arrows in one night. It is impossible. The guy is crazy, let him die tomorrow."

The sun was about to set. The weather seemed clear, but at moments a thin layer of mist could be seen hovering above the wide river that separated the palace and the vast army of Cao Cao. Zhuge Liang smiled. He knew he had calculated it correctly. He always knew what was to come. Three days was not a coincidence after all.

He called Zhou Yu's servants to gather as many scarecrows as possible, and placed it in a gigantic warship. After everything was done, he asked the servants to put some lanterns on both sides of the ship, and placed a few gongs and horns on the boat.

By the time the ship was equipped according to Zhuge Liang's commands, the river was completely covered with mist. It was too foggy that the visibility was poor - you cannot even see your outstretched hand. Zhuge Liang smiled again. With confidence, he boarded the warship, and commanded the servants to set the warship to the center of the river and hid inside it.

At the center of the river, he ordered the servants to light all the lanterns and made as much noise as possible with the gongs and horns. And so they did.

On the other side of the bank, Cao Cao's army was alerted and alarmed. How could they be, coming with a small army and attack us with this heavy fog around us? We must stop them, their chief commander thought. Thus, he ordered all his archers to deploy themselves and started shooting the giant Wu warship with arrows.

The waves of arrows were all swept towards the warship. In about 5 minutes, all the scarecrows on the exposed side of the warship was filled with arrows. Zhuge Liang then commanded the servants to rotate the ship, so that the previously unexposed side of the ship would face Cao Cao's army. After that, once again the servants were called to make as much noise as possible.

"That cannot be!! Wu army is weak! Sun Quan could not have so many soldiers left!" The chief commander panicked once more. He commanded all his archers to once again shoot as many arrows into the mist towards the feeble lights on the ship.

In another 5 minutes, the scarecrows on the other side of the ship was filled with arrows. Satisfied, Zhuge Liang commanded the servants to sail the ship back to the bank where Wu palace was. After collecting all the arrows trapped on the scarecrows - voila, they got more than 100,000 arrows!

Zhou Yu was furious, for he could not kill Zhuge Liang! The former was jealous! "I must be a cleverer man, but now I am downplayed!" he thought. He nevertheless smiled and greeted Zhuge Liang at his success of supplying what he demanded. In his heart, he was scheming to kill Zhuge Liang at other times. Never did he know that he would be killed soon, not in war, but by the counter-schemes Zhuge Liang had to plan against himself.

Part 2 - Disgust over broken promise

An engineer was asked mby his manager to supply a table summarizing his findings by 2pm, so that the manager could present the report at 3pm. However, at 1pm, the manager went into the engineer's cubicle, reprimanding him for not taking his effort to compile the summary table. Earlier that day, this manager had given this engineer loads of assignments that stopped him from doing something else.

This situation sounds familiar huh... of course it never happened on me. It happened on somewhere in KL. Btw, the story not yet ended.

The engineer calmly opened his workbook, pressed a pre-programmed macros, and within 2 minutes - voila, the complete summary table was generated! The manager was looking - lak seh (lose face) lor...

What if Zhou Yu did like what the manager did? He could have said, "Zhuge Liang is showing no effort of making the arrows. Let's kill him!!!" History has to be re-written liao.

What if the law enforcers told everyone, "DSAI was commanded to report to us at 2pm, or else he will be arrested. He did not show any signs of wanting to show up at 1pm. Let's arrest him, now, at 1pm!!" THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY!!! They just attempted to kill Zhuge Liang and try ti re-write history!!! What a disgrace!

[ MalaysiaKini: Read here and here for more details ]
[ TheStar: Read here for more details ]

What Failure?

Yesterday, our 'beloved' DPM said that the anti-oil hike rally held on Sunday, July 6, is a failure (see reports from TheStar and MalaysiaKini). According to him, the people did not turn up in the numbers expected. It was expected that 1,000,000 people would turn up, hence so-called "One Million People Protest Rally". If fact, only 30,000 rakyat, fashioning in red T-shirts, flooded the field for the rally.

After reading the reports from both mainstream media and alternative media, I have tons of questions. Yes, tons of questions - summarized into 5.

1. If only 999,999 rakyat turn up for the rally, is it considered successful? A logical answer is no, because "people did not turn up in the numbers expected". Of course, 1 rakyat short what.

2. Only 30,000 rakyat turn up. It is a failure. So, 30,000 rakyat out of 27 million rakyat is a failure. Is it right to ignore the Minority Report? A bit tricky question eh... If anyone watched the movie Minority Report, he should know how devastating a Minority Report could be should it be ignored. Hmm.... points to ponder.

3. Only 30,000 rakyat turn up. It is a failure. So, for the 10,000+ rakyat that vote for Pekan constituency, are they a failure? A more tricky question eh... My personal opinion - of course they are not a failure. They are given the citizenship right to vote for their leader. Every vote counts. Erm... maybe someone does not think so.

4. Can a citizen's voice be silenced just because his voice does not belong to the majority? Read #2 above, on Minority Report.

5. Rakyat around the country is now very, very poor because of the chain effects of petrol price hike. Everything except rakyat's salary is inflated. Food, commodities, services - all inflated. How do you think they could afford to pay bus/plane tickets from around the country to attend the rally? My opinion - if they were given free tickets, the attendees could flood the whole KL.

So, failure? What failure? Failure merely because it goes against some Goliath institution? Failure my foot!!

A reminder - everyone, within and outside Bolehland, is watching what you do and listening what you say.

Missed Some Fun But Gained Greater Moments

I went back to Ipoh on Sunday (2 days ago). Which means, I missed the bball session. Well, the thing that I really missed was the last game with JRoldan, as he is going back to Costa Rica later today (8:10am flight).

From Dell guy's Facebook, I could sense the much fun that I missed:

The bball gang

The game play looks interesting

Ball on midair (nice shot, Pat)

Foul play?? Pity not JRoldan, but pity Oyog!! Hahaha!!!

Gotcha! B and Pat! (click here)

However, I did gain something throughout my moments in Ipoh. I managed to spend 1.5 days' of quality time with my parents. I was so glad that God had once again worked miracles (small but meaningful ones). I felt that my desperate prayers were answered, that 3 of us were happy having times together, talking, having dinner, bringing up discussion, etc.

Note: I am vaguely describing the miracle that I have, because this is really personal!!! A, B, Ling, D, G; this is not going to SWYF testimony session - hope you'd understand. :-)