Bottled in Extreme Clarity

But one slight difference.

Friend had been away from Malaysia for 16 years. Came back at last to live for four years in KL: Result? Sick to the bone of KL. There she was nagging (for the millionth time) when I decided to just blog it. I asked her and she agrees, “I just want to say what I want to say… I have no time to blog.”
So here goes:

Everything used to be so nice, people were nice, we were growing up slower, life was slower paced, people weren’t so fucked up…if you wanted prostitutes you go to a designated place for them. Not be surrounded by them. Now we have Mat Rempits. And Beach Club. Please come see our Bohsia girls, too… please.

Visit Malaysia Year? What Visit Malaysia Year??

I call my friends to come visit and they don’t even want to!

Everything has gotten worse…downhill. Maybe we just have nicer buildings.

Do we have culture? Besides maybe Penang, and a few of the temples and mosques that we have… do we have culture? NOOO, we don’t. Our neighbour Thailand has culture, even with their prostitution and everything…but they are poor…

Such righteous fury. I love it when she does it.

Bless, baby xxx

Its been over a week…… havent been able to go out since shift to Land of Isolation.

I dont really want to test theory of climbing over iron grille. Have also taken cab from KLIA to house once and it was nearly an hour for a RM60 cab fare… managed to shave Rm10 off cos i knew the driver from a past incident.
But just imagine taking one from town after midnite? Twould be a disaster.
Where’s my drinking bud when i need her?

I think she will be back on same day that a friend has her wedding…. may be wearing a saree on that day…. just imagine partying after the ceremony…. in a saree. Guffawing loudly and thumping my mates on the back. In a saree. Jumping up and down in hoe house. In a saree. Tottering over and falling on bum. In the saree. Actually trippng over and falling down. In that saree!

…was awake fairly early….the whole family was gone.
No food in the house, no stove of any kind to even make drinks, no form of entertainment and no way of escape… i was stuck in a luxurious prison of sorts. ARRGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I live in the kind of community where families go out all at once, cramming in their 4WDs to have excursions to town (for entertainment, to replenish sustenance or to renew contact with society). Anyone unlucky enough to be stuck behind (ie. me) are left to hunger and thirst. I KNOW my family…..they arent big on stocking up on food or drinks. I remember days of yore when a tiny fridge about 4 feet high was all that was needed to keep a family of 7 going for about a month…. well, mom always got fresh poultry, veggies, fish daily from the wet market but thats beside the point!

What about if i want to munch on something, or crack a kuaci, or crunch on fries or even open a fizzy soft drink??? Will McDonald’s deliver to this part of the world????????????????????

And while this house rocks…its huge. Filled wit barebones of furniture… my brother’s MP3s echo thorugh the quite empty house. More furniture are to arrive from hometown of Melaka…guess the parents are moving in for sure now.

And I dont get the alarm system. It auto controls opening and closing of the front gate which anyone could easily climb over. Either that or just climb over the low iron grill to the right, or even just mosey in via the rubbish chute…take your pick!!

Was my sis really so considerate at to overlook it, thinking that could me points of entry whenever i come home late after a night on the town?

On the plus side of this imprisonment, I get to get a lot of work done (courtesy of broadband, thank god that was set up in advance)…. if i dont perish from starvation first.

And so begins my love-hate relationship with my new home.

…colleagues have gone to Taiwan and visited z hot springs where they took this pic…. I dun know how authentic it is….. but wihout the noisy flash clicking…. i guess you can get away with most anything… plus note the distance at which they had to take pic…tsk tsk tsk

This is prob. one of my favouritest pic of dadda n boo…
Lately ive been givin him grief abt how fast boo growing..she’s all skinny …. he’d be awfully mad and lecture me cos he tot i tot he was dieting her!!!!!!……theres never been a more loving and sensible dadda ….so one day i explained…”She grows so fast… I cant see her chubby anymore.”

And he said, “Well, im sorry.”
“Really?”
“Cos she’s growing so fast..”

…i tried to imagine boo…. still so young, and still one of the youngest of 30 kids at a birthday party..
Boo’s so big…she’ll trample the rest
Soon she will, says dadda. She’s still so little now (though much bigger than the little bundle of pink and orange 2 years ago!!!)…. hardly comprehending the magician’s show but just sitting, watching, experiencing, learning… all while chewing something.

Its inevitable…. growing up is the only way boo can go….. she cant be a baby forever and grow up big she should!!!………then i gots the pic above which reminded me of something else all at once… no matter how fast she may be changing and developing…..even if in another brief 18 years she will be leaving the home nest and pursuing a life of her own or after that when she falls in love, settles down and has little ones of her own (OMG!!!)………..to him she will always still be his big baby girl, and he will always be her dadda.
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Yes, last nite was World Cup opening…. ive never been a fan but the girls were already to put on flag capes in support of their fave teams… i was stuck with Switzerland cos no one wanted that……… plus d girls seems to think i have penchant for incredibly notty Swiss people… peh.

So, off we marched to our fave local where the game was already on… Germany was already one goal up and then whilst we were getting our free beers and right up front to the television……the most amazing thing happened…. Costa Rica scored thru Wachope!!!

What am i saying….im not a fan… i shouldnt even be talking abt football… i totally hate the game……i can appreciate individual skills of football players…the dribbling, the tackling etc etc…..but the game of football is often so slow moving that you can hardly see the strategies that the teams are employing…. much less teamwork. Im not unfeeling to the near goals, goals, or misses or drama……its just that theres so little teamwork to appreciate.

Now baseball… i love baseball……its all slow at first but dun let it mislead u…..the players are all tense with anticipation and ready to move the split second that the bat connects wit the ball….. then its almost like poetry in motion…..do you think its easy to know where the competing team is going to cause the most damage?

It all boils down to team work…team communication….. the eyes connecting with ur teammates adn the flash of understanding that “the ball is headed your way”, “Field it”, “Dont give him your base!!!!!” and then, “THAT BASE IS EMPTY!!!” or bla bla bla….and all sorts of jargon that baseballers and fans use.

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Compromising pics of a compromising situation….not just a foursome….but four devices with 3 diffferent platform operating systems.

1. Blackberry 8700g with Blackberry OS
2. Dell Axim X50v with Windows Pocket PC 2003 OS (not the latest but not the oldest), and modem-ed by me trusty Nokia 6680 with Symbian
3. The hot new kid in town - Nokia N80 with the latest new Symbian S60 OS with MiniMap browser!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have to say their differences are obvious, and you dont know how grateful i am to be able to get onto the GSM then IP layer without having my line unceremoniously dropped at intervals…… and more about that later.

For the past few months Id been blogging abt how busy the particular month is gonna be. Now more so than ever.
Ive been abt the only person in office for the past few days already cos the others have gone on media junkets out of Malaysia - China, Taiwan, Germany….. picking up picking up.. had some peace and quiet and more space to get some things sorted and done…..and Im glad and thankful…. this is where i want to be. There’s only so much more input and info I can take and process (still single core and non-multi-threaded)….that if i dont somehow find an outlet….i will literally explode.

Four out of KL events (six actually) will be taking place till about late July………. I cant begin to imagine where to start…though it was this very thought that kept me out of bed and at the puter for about five hours.

If in the first place, one has never opened themselves up to learning or being humble enough to see/know teh difference and take the opportunity to…… they are still as wet behind the ears as they ever were. I am not the one suffering for it…but Im sad/frustrated about it - six years down the drain to transform into *this*?
Direction of any endeavour is always important and its getting from bad to worse - we’re taking the easy route, instead of the one we must; thats bad steering for you.

The awards at www.interactiveawards.com will be having a Malaysia launch this Thursday to honour the best in the industry. I think it would be a good event to take a look at.

…
June - movers come
July - apartment is released
end of July - sis goes to korea for friggin’ 1 1/2 months.

Its either i make up mind whether to move with sis or move out…in which case theres not much friggin’ use cos i’d be expected to live in a huge empty double storey house ALONE all by myself in friggin Puchong, far away from work, town adn the rest of civilisation. And for 90 days no less. Not much choice, is there? Peachy.

Too much to handle. Right about now would be a good time to scream. And Gloria Estefan is on the radio.

Worse news, 7 yr old nephew lost his eardrum in a freak accident…. poor lad had to have graft surgery done and with time on his side… his eardrum may grow back again…. poor Justin.

About two days, in a fit of frustration had sent out an email pointing out that we were becoming much much MUCH too busy and forgetting to slow down to smell the roses… or rather in email’s case forgetting to slow down to see whats happening around us and letting too many mistakes happen.

I still remember much simpler times………….could it have been that long ago? When the weather wasnt so hot as it is nowadays - 5pm usually signalled a sun that didnt shine so fierce and bright as it does nowdays…………….we could count on rainy seasons to come late in the year and end by around the time when we would be celebrating Chinese New Year… when calling a friend usually meant going to the nearest public phone booth and making sure to bring enough coins…when all one had to worry about was finishing homework, doing well for exams and making sure one wasnt ostracised in school………….when not only my long term memory lasted but my short term one as well and I wouldnt misplace as many things as I do and for as often as i do nowadays……………when quality family time meant something, usually evenings in front of the television when everyone present; and nowadays there’s talk of Mobile TV and the need for it and the certainty it will take off because people are spending lesser and lesser time at home, theres still demand for not just Blackberrys’ but more and more push email devices because nowadays its OK to spend less time on yourself and friends/family………. ah.

The paper chase. The accumulation of material wealth. The social climb. And the tech we need to take us there and prove to ourselves and the world that we’ve made it.

Form Six’s General Paper used to have essay topics where we’d have to talk about society’s need to chase material wealth at the expense of quality of life……….all the general paper exams in the world surely wouldnt prepare Form Sixers for this……….they should have made us take the paper when we are older like now………cos we are literally living it.

Cars
This animated movie was NOT what i expected… truth be told i didnt know what ti expect … but thats the thing with animated movies…theres a guarantee of good fun, humour and feel good buzz. But, it touched a surprising theme that we seldom see in any kind of movies past or present. Though I guess it suited when talking characters in the movie are automobiles and theres expectation for them to DO what they were built for - go places fast.

Go watch it and see for yourself.

Its nice to be blur once in while. Just not all the time, yah?

But life goes on…

Had gotten some nice wrapping paper to wrap up some sealed microwaveable food. Gave up trying to wrap the damn thing and stuffed everything into a paper bag… i guess it will be easier this way for friend to pack into suitcase…. had to leave out the roti canai though.

House seems half empty now… and well it prob should cos housemate has shifted out… the bulk of junk in the apartment belongs to me and sis anyway….. there IS a whole lotta junk.
Im contemplating if i should not follow sis but get my own place…. I make a godawful housemate/roomate but think it beats having sis and having to live all the way in Puchong……. transport will be horrendous nightmare…. i wont have access to wherever i want to go anymore, which is even more shitty than the expensive fares….Puchong aint central.

Bleedin’ sis even got a Toyota Avanza which baffled me no end…its a tank! And the last car she got, she left with z parents in Melaka… her driving experience is next to nil and she really expects to drive that thing everyday thru heavy traffic and at nights after she finishes work at godforsaken hours?

Had a stinging dadda lecture too:
dadda: oi
dadda: not too skinny
dadda: shes perfect
cat: skinny winny
cat:
dadda: your too skinny
cat: skinny si
cat: lookit her eyes
cat: big big big
cat: cos too skinny!!!
dadda: you want to fall out??
cat: no

….. after some moments….

cat: u watched da vinci code yet?
dadda: dont change the subject till u apologise
cat: why?
cat: shes only two and lost all her chubby wubby!

…. how time flies… soon it will June and we’ll only have six more months to go till another new year.

And Things are definitely picking up…. June and July are set to be jam-packed, even the previous week already was…. with a movie marathon of sorts - Over the hedge, da Vinci Code and X-Men3.

In a way maybe it was to prepare for the upcoming move. Housemate has already packed up her 14-inch television… about my only other source of entertainment besides the puter……. there goes my couch potato, McD-filled weekends in front of the idiot box…

In an ironic twist of events, visited friend who had the brilliant idea to cook dinner….so off we went grocery shopping ( i also had to get wedding gifts for Swedish friends who were hungry for Malaysian food) got home and cooked - fried chicken liver with chilli, kai lan with oyster sauce, clams with chinese wine, Codfo luncheon meat… and i had to resist opening a can of chili tuna.
After that we settled down to watch Formula One on TV….. what luck that this week’s circuit was Monaco… one of the more famouser racing tracks for F1…. and i did not regret watching it for one second. About 6-7 race cars were out due to engine overheating mostly… one of the more prominent drivers were Raikonnen and Webber who had been in front of the race pack at 2nd and 3rd position respectively… what a loss for them!!!

Bleeding Schuey, who had cheated the day before at the qualifiers started from behind and was even one lap down at one point till about the 60 plus laps then he overtook Alonso to race and catch up to 5th or 6th placing, just behind his former teammate Barrichello… even heard a story of how before Barrichello had braked before the finish line to let Michael overtake him and get first placing… after all Micheal was first driver mar…UNBELIEVABLE!

And Renault’s Alonso showed impeccable form leading all the way from start to finish, twas just unbelievable.. Our very own Petronas’ Heidfeld even managed to overtake Honda’s Button to get 8th placing… no mean feat at all! What an awesome race on one of the racing world’s most notorious circuits.
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Last Friday had gone for a work event and had a stupendous sort of rewarding time. In honour of World Cup 2006 a Quiz Trivia involving 12 teams was held.. with some awfully good luck (and frantic calls for answers) we managed to scrape through to the semi-finals. There we were pitted against 2nd placed team for a spot in the finals. The challenge involved a computer game of trying to make goals out of 5 tries, as well as saving goals made by the opponent team…. u can imagine there was a lot of guesswork and mind games to be done.

We made all five goals …BUT. could not manage to save any as well.. so it being a draw meant they went into the finals for a shot at a 26-inch LCD TV..SOB!

Pretty glad we managed a draw however… though i suspect if opponents had been peeps who knew me, they would have been able to guess direction of my goal kicks… cos they’d know how my “warped” and “twisted” mind works… *sNiCkEr*

At least for our joint third placing, we were rewarded with two goody bags and i opted for the electronic shaver (DUH!) and FIFA endorsed football ;D
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X-Men 3 ….what can i say?

Am i a Marvel comics fan? Id honestly say no, though i have to admit when i heard of plans to make the first X-Man movie, my heart sank. It hit rock bottom when i heard Halle Berry was to be Storm.. cos I saw her in a James Bond movie and SwordFish and was thoroughly unimpressed (what a hottie though!!!)…just not Ororo aka Storm material.
I was going frantic with the thought that a screen adaption of me beloved superheroes would never EVER hit the nail on the head…. leaving true-blue fans like me sorely overwhelmingly disappointed with a void of dissatisfaction that would never ever be sated.. how is the silver screen ever expected to capture the essence, atmoshpere that is so lovingly pencilled, inked, coloured and speech bubbled by artists and creators?
Wow, am i overdramatising here? YES, I AM.

More bitching later.

“Malchik Gay” full blast in me ear now courtesy of beloved iTunes and headsets… Somewhat daunted at what I found out this afternoon during lunch.
The phrase “Yahoo! has widgets…. ” left me totally exasperated, so here I am.

Looking at the widgets/gadgets that Yahoo! and live.com, i wonder if downloading a desktop search app. would help me better organise my info. A nice big wallpaper of BabyBoo reaching out to a doorknob is surrounded by various doc files, folders, .jpeg’s, .exe’s… wotta mess. Lets not forget all the webpages Ive had to bookmark, too… Everything at my fingertips, my foot.
Widgets/Gadgets to the rescue? We shall see.

In other news, had invited someone out last nite for drinks and polite pro chit-chat……
OK OK so it wasnt for polite chit chat but m i n d l e s s grilling!!!

But the bar’s overly superb sound system thwarted my plans… and i ended up taking full advantage of the nite to dance like mental with da gals at Hoe House.
Note to self: Never let A brainwash convince me into thinking that the org. is something pretty grand. Well, after it all sinks in, it actually really is. And a pretty big deal too.

Even chatted with someone who supposedly organises LIMA… he only has to work once every two years and carries two phones… a Sony Ericsson P series and a new Samsung P300…. Kewl… slim like the RAZR but hadnt chance to find out where the shutter button is. And it isnt ergonomic to hold without its casing.

Interestingly, before we left there was a rather curious bunch of asians parked near us. At a glance, one might think they are typical ah bengs, but upon closer inspection…………………… they actually werent.
One of them stated that he lives in Melbourne but was born in Malaysia, good lad. Highly doubtful the rest of his gang were Malaysians.. they looked Korean.
So strange, so so strange…. what were they doing at our bar?
And why oh why…did one of them blow out the light from my lighter?

Had a nice convo with dadda:

dadda: Boo is a mindless word sayer now
cat: awwwwwww
dadda: about 50 words now
cat: AWWWWWWWWWWW
dadda: flower
dadda: fish
cat: F words….hehe
cat: hey, she’s saying her name in a way *love sign*

Of course there was bad news…

dadda: saw the vid last weekend
cat: what vid?
dadda: her diary vid
cat: !!!! I would give anything to see that!!!!!!!
dadda: lol
cat: Im serious.
dadda:

ANd soon she will be two years old……….. *sniff*

..Event was Dopod’s but the Product of interest was smtg caught on someone’s camera during HP launch in Disneyland, HK.
Processors? Intel’s
BT? V 1.2
Size: small
Possible competitor? ATOM and 818Pro
ANything else? dunno, dunno, DUUUUNNOOOOOOOOO!