Mood: Lets just say that i got to watch scantily-clad asian women up close. ;)
Currently listening to: Bleed American - Jimmy Eat World [left-click to listen]

Ok, this one's gonna be a large(ish) update in order to make up for the last few days of near non-existent posting. Yup, this one has pretty much everything that this blog is quasi-famous for (well, except for a Zamil update but there'll be one tomorrow) - the brief description of the happenings in my life thus far, useless links and news articles which you'll probably have no interest in whatsoever, and a rant (or rather, a recantation of two lonely and rather bitter persons ranthing) thanks to Al!

w00t indeed.

Right, lets just get into it then...

Mein (Ongoing) Kampf

Monday

Hrmmm... can't really recall too much about Monday... As i recall i went to uni, had a group meeting, and met up with Julian after keeping him waiting for two hours (sorry dude!) after which we had a late lunch and some LAN gaming goodness. So good, that he was late picking up Joa from work.

Digital Entertainment: 1
Love/Sex/Cuddles: 0

Sign of the times men! Now all we need to do is wait for those smart bastards in some MNC to create the ultimate robot sex to... ah... 'woo-man' and it'll (finally) be paradise on earth. ;)

Er... yeah, that was about it i guess.

Tuesday

Looooooong day.

Spent the vast majority of it in uni - quite literally from the crack of dawn till the commencement of the setting of the sun. It was Toastmasters night once again, except that this time Al was getting sucke... i mean, getting in on the act. Of course, rush hour and Midvalley tend to be a VERY bad combination and we ended up arriving thirty minutes late and missing the impromptu speaking section of the evening.

Hah!

It went on as per usual and i'm pretty sure that Al will be sticking around with the rest of us usual suspects - Alvin, Chen Hoe, and... Sneexe? Hey where WERE you?

*tsk tsk*

So, yeah, we went to Nando's with Miyuki and Alvin's other friends (one of whom is his ex) who had come to find out for themselves as to what the whole Toastmasters gig is about. After the chow we ended up going to the opening celebration of this bar/restaurant next to Bar Savanh, courtesy of the invitation extended to us by Gaia, so we hung around there for while to have a beer and listen to the seriously overdone live music. Victor and Ai Ling happened to be there as well, which was nice, seeing that the last time i saw them was during a rather drunk night two months back in Bangsar... Also met Nadine's brother again (she's my brother's current squeeze) and all i'll say is that i wish i was as drunk as he was. :)

Note to self - hang out with Gaia and friends more, they seem to know where all the free flow events happen.

So, anyway, Al, CH, Alvin, his ex (i forget her name), and myself soon find ourselves at a table in the restaurant downstairs having this whole messed up conversation about Alvin's love life. You know the scenario - cluster of friends(?) listening to, mocking, and offering 'advice' about the situation which the poor(?) victim is in. Albeit i don't think he's quite so poor since this has some vague semblance of a love triangle with some very dodgy dealings/advice/morality being revealed during said conversation...

No. Wait, i don't really know, i was tired by this point, my interest in this matter was not picqued, and i was actually spending my time there checking out the girl with her boyfriend at the table opposite ours (as was Al i suspect)... ;)

Meh.

So, yeah, drove Al back home and on the way we ended up first at a 7-11 and then an Indian mamak stall for a two hour... Tirade? Realisation? I'm not too sure as to what to call it but you can decide for yourself since Al has ever so kindly written it down for the purposes of public scrutiny and future recollection, so go read it right after this section...

Oh yeah - most hilarious moment of the night: Al falling into the decorative water thing at the bar in front of everyone.

Priceless. ;)

And as an aside...

Ok, at this point you, dear reader, may not have realised it but five hours has passed. It is now 5:48am. I got addicted to my mp3s and C&C Generals again so i fear that my level of English and interest in writing this is quickly slipping, and as such i would like to apologize if the remainder of this post feels a bit rushed or... well... y'know.

Dammit, its at times like these when i wonder if i don't have an Attention Deficit Disorder of some sort... Or maybe i'm just fickle? Bleargh.

Ok, back to the normal scheme of things now...

Wednesday

Uni, plus lunch with parents since it would be my only chance at saying goodbye to them before they left. Got money, cheque, car keys, and a whole list of things to watch, wash or water. Never-realised it but this is a pretty high-maintenance house!

Hrmmm... i'd better enjoy the solitude for a while longer... i smell incoming guests and, dare i say it, a house party perhaps? ;)

Wait a minute. Do my parents read this? Hrmmm...

Screw it. So i met up with Leonard and Chin for dinner and they managed to get me to go watch this competition down at Bar Med. I can't recall the name of the company exactly (it had something to do with some automobile lube or somesuch i suppose) but they were having a public competition in order to choose a female representative to represent the company.

Of course, by that i mean that it was just a flimsy excuse to get 15 good looking (generally speaking) girls on stage in various stages of undress before a massive crowd of boistorous and undersexed men who all had happened to bring their cameras... coincidence? I think not.

Long story short, i had a good enough time checking out the girls from up close while Chin was happily snapping away with his digital camera. And yes, i'll post the pics up when i get them... ;p

It was a pretty biased competition. Basically, the girl with the biggest pair of breasts won. Which, i suppose is really saying something in Malaysia but, to her credit, she did have all the other requirements to win. Not sure about her intelligence or personality though... there WAS a question session (a la Ms World where the contestant is asked a single question) but that entire section of the show was invariably drowned out by catcalls or drunk bastards standing on tables and screaming out their mobile numbers to the poor girl.

But hey, thats about the closest i've gotten to bare female flesh in three years (and even THAT was in a strip bar *sob*) so, hey, i had a good time... ;)

Fear and Loathing in Taman Desa... kinda

By Albert Lim ;)

"Goddammit, an entire generation... pumping gas, waiting tables. Slaves
with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes. Working
jobs we hate, so we can buy shit we don't need.

"We're the middle children of history, men. No purpose or place. We have no
great war... no great depression.

"Our great war is a spiritual war.

"Our great depression is our lives.

"We've all been raised on television to believe that we'll all be
millionaires and movie stars and rock gods. But we won't. We're slowly
learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off."

-- Tyler Durden

Pat thought this material was interesting enough to record for posterity
(though I suspect he was just too lazy to write a whole blog) so here it is.

So anyhow. Patrick and I are sitting on the street outside a 7-11 in Taman
Desa. It's around 1.30 in the morning. We get to talking, as us loveless,
bitter nerds are going to do when we get some Heineken in us and allow it
sufficient time to seep its alcoholic goodness into our bloodstreams. A few
minutes after we had dispensed with the standard-issue "...dude, why are all
these women so fucked up?... dude, I don't know, they just are...", the
conversation slowly shifted to talk of the future. We were both relatively
filled with uncertainty and doubt about the months and years to come (after
all, bullshit does take up a lot of headspace), and then one of us (I
honestly forget which) says,

"Man.. I just wish something would happen. Some-- ANYthing!"

A military attack, alien invasion, a fucking meteor crashing nearby and
giving us super powers, we didn't care. SOMETHING to give us what we felt
was sorely missing in our lives: a purpose. It was then we realized that the
both of us had in our own way been waiting for something to happen, some
epiphany, some life-changing experience that would make everything clear for
us... that would give us something to fight for, that would give us the
chance to be part of something real, something huge... a reason to exist.
The following is an attempt at reproducing the resulting conversation. Or at
least, salvage the most interesting bits.

"Do you ever just wish something tremendous and devastating would happen
just so you could have some action in your life?"
"Like a war or natural disaster or something?"
"Yeah. Or maybe something more personal but no less dramatic, something
which just sweeps you into the throes of adventure."
"I used to daydream funky shit like, what if a divine presence appeared
before me and told me I was the physical manifestation of an archangel, and
I'd have all this power.. I would be like, 'Does this mean I have to start
going to church again?'"
"Yeah, more or less. There just has to be more to our lives than this."

"How did Osama Bin Laden get started? Here's a guy who seemingly has
everything: money, intelligence, charisma, and power. What does he do, he
joins a terrorist organization and masterminds the World Trade Centre
slaughter." Did Osama ever sit down somewhere and just wish things were
different? Did he ever wish he were doing something bigger? He's got
followers and supporters numbering probably in the millions, he's got money
coming out of his ass, he's living it up somewhere right now, and America
STILL hasn't caught him and brought him to some kind of justice. Osama Bin
Laden pulled off the single most devastating attack against the continental
United States of America on its home soil, ever, and he's laughing his ass
off about it.
"It was an extraordinarily shitty thing to do, but he changed the world. He
walks around going 'I am the fucking MAN!'". If you think about it like
that, Osama Bin Laden is the essence of Rock and Roll. Some teenager walks
up to Ozzy Osbourne and goes "DUDE! You are like, the fuckin' coolest guy
ever!" What's Ozzy going to say (besides "who the fook are you, mate?")?
Probably, "Yeah. I am." I mean, think about it.

"Do you think Alexander the Great, or Napoleon, or Genghis Khan ever sat
around somewhere going 'Damn man, this sucks. What am I going to DO with my
life?' Maybe they went through this phase just before something happened
that turned their lives around and transformed them into these... you know,
world-dominating badasses."

How do these men end up leading the lives they do? What sets them on the
path to that special something more? Is it fate, or maybe blind luck? Did
they manage to gain control over their own lives and choose existences of
greatness?

"Wouldn't it just be so hilarious if the two of us end up in positions of
extreme power one day and we look back at this and go 'hey remember that
7-11 in Taman Desa?' 'Yeah man, back in the DAY when life was simple.'"
"Who knows, you probably just jinxed the both of us."

At this point we decide to wander across the street and get a drink. We are
now sitting under a huge umbrella decorated with rotting bananas and
drinking milo ais at some anonymous mamak stall, while a nearby television
set saturates the very air around us with song and dance from some Bollywood
movie. It is now around 2 in the morning.

"Do you ever get depressed after you watch a movie which strikes you as
powerful, maybe epic?"
"Happens to me all the time. I think it's because they show us lives of
incredible adventure that we just aren't living."
"Like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, that was the shit, man."
"Damn straight."
"We need someone like King Theoden.. someone that we can just look at and
go yeah ok, I'd follow --him-- to death and beyond."
"Fucking eh.. someone with that sort of charisma. Maybe we can stumble
across the antichrist and become his lieutenants or something. Damn man, we
should do that!"
"'Why be a servant in Heaven when you can be a superstar in Hell?'"
"What movie did that come from?"
"Beats me, man."

Seriously, we don't know. If anyone reading this does, tell Pat, will you?

"It never fails to amaze me how someone can walk into a room and just cause
everyone to drop their shit and just stare. Then they talk and it just moves
you. You know?"
"Yeah. Like Hitler managed to do... I don't know what it was with him,
people keep talking about his eyes. I guess we'll never know."

"You know what I think we need is just some adventure. Some serious,
honest-to-goodness adventure."
"Yeah, and nothing planned, it's all got to be spontaneous."
"Dude, how cool would it be to be like John Crichton in Farscape? Just
like, a wanderer on the edge of the universe, caught in a cycle of endless
adventure."
"Yeah, and it's like, you don't choose fate, fate chooses you. You get
swept up by events you didn't initiate or have any control over, and somehow
you manage to persevere and be like, 'Well, I have no idea how I managed to
get this far, but I did, and I fucking rock!'"
"Dude, that's what I'm talking about."
"It's all about being the right person in the right place at the right
time."
"Yeah, like in Die Hard. Dude is just an ordinary cop, he gets shot,
stabbed, beaten into a pulp and cut to shreds, and he still kills all the
bad guys, gets the girl and rides off into the sunset."
"Yeah, something like that."
"I think the most appealing part of that is when he kills all those
motherfuckers and then rides off in the limo. It's like, 'wow.'"

"I wonder how many people had apples fall on their heads before Newton."

"Do you ever think about why you want more? Do you ever think about some
homeless guy, destitute and struggling to stay alive, dependent on the
kindness of strangers? All he wants is a home, food, maybe a little cash.
Here we are, we're two guys from well-off families, back from several years
overseas..."
"And bitching about how our lives are missing something. And yet, we
continue."
"I wonder why that is."
"Dude, it's like, unlimited wants, you know? You always want what you don't
have, that kind of thing. If that homeless guy were in our shoes he'd
probably be thinking the same shit."
"Maybe, but it's like, we were born into this. If we had to go through all
kinds of shit to get what we have, and we earned it, we'd probably
appreciate it a lot more. Like Lenin.. now THERE was someone who was like
'HAHA! I fucking did all this shit, I created an ideology and a nation,
people worship me and I had to go through all these obstacles and here I
fucking am! WOO!'"

"OK. So if like, the hand of god appeared suddenly and gave you 24 hours to
change the world. You know... make everything right. What would you do?"
"I think I'd get rid of religion and nationalism totally. Right there,
that's at least 70% of all our problems."
"Hmm... yeah... no more religion and nationalism means no more war. Which
means all our energy gets focused on peace, which means no more famine or
disease."
"Fuckin' eh."
"I think the first thing I'd do is get rid of greed."
"Do you think that's even a possibility? I mean, that's like, the most
basic part of human nature. You might have to brainwash everyone or some
shit."
"You're right... defeats the purpose, doesn't it?"
"Yeah man, people are so fucked."

"I seriously think what we need is a good old alien invasion like in the
movies. That would definitely bring all of humanity together. It would be
like 'You're Black... but THAT guy's got four fucking arms! You're cool with
me!'"
"Yeah, a common enemy is probably the only way we can ever get these
assholes to not focus their hate on their neighbours."

"If we ever get the sort of thing we want... do you think it'll be enough?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well... say you were a fireman in New York on September 11th... and you
were one of the heroes, you did your thing and you saved lives and such. Do
you now go 'Whew! Well, that's enough excitement for me!'"
"Hard to say man, unless you were actually in the shit... I'm thinking I'd
probably start believing I was invincible and join the army or something."

"Man... do you think any of our other friends think shit like this?"
"I'm not sure... I think at least one or two might, but most of them
probably don't."
"You know what would be interesting is to hear some old guy tell his
story."
"Yeah, like that guy running the mamak stall... for all we know he could be
some retired superhero, he's had his fill of adventure and now he just wants
a quiet life of anonimity and shitty Indian movies."
"And then he'd overhear us and be like, 'Hah! Have a milo ais on the house,
boys!'"
"Yeah, he'd be like, "You kids don't know the HALF of it!"
"Well kind of, but just like an ordinary old guy though. I'm sure he had
wishes, dreams... I wonder if they'd be anything like what we think."
"Dude if we're talking ordinary people in Malaysia, they'd probably think
we were fucking insane."

"Do you ever think that if we were only just like everyone else, you know,
with a steady job and no real aspirations beyond that, that we'd at least
get to meet more women?"
"Maybe. I wonder how so many people can choose to live like that... they
plan their whole lives out to be as safe and small as possible, it's like
they chose to be sheep."
"Dude, I just don't fucking want to be 'normal'".
"Yeah."

"Lately I find I've been thinking about death, a lot. Not in terms of
suicide, but just.. you know.. death."
"Yeah, same. I fucking used to have dreams where I'd die in all these
different ways."
"It's like in the Hagakure, where it says you should always keep death in
mind... meditate on it. Imagine yourself getting stabbed, shot, thrown off a
cliff. Like what if someone walked up to me and shot me, right now, kind of
thing."
"Like all those people like Napoleon or whoever... that incredible high has
to come crashing down some time. I don't think I'd mind dying if it meant I
got to be on top of the world for a little while, you know?"
"Yeah, or like, when you're the hero who dies to save the world or at least
a bunch of people. A death worth dying."
"Damn straight. Kind of like that NFL player who turned down millions of
dollars to join the special forces and got killed in Afghanistan."
"Yeah... it's like, he'll be remembered forever as a hero."
"And at the moment he died, he was probably like, 'I'm about to die for
something I truly believe in. I'm here in the moment and I'm going for it
and I'm going to die in the defense of people I love.' It's like, yeah."

"You know, this material has so much potential for a book or a movie."
"Yeah. I guess it's just a pity we don't have enough discipline to take it
that far."
"Mm. I wonder how many stories get thought of every day, doomed to go
untold. Sobering thought, huh?"

Around this time we decide it's late enough, and we pay for our drinks and
leave. And yes, we really did say all this shit. The whole conversation was
one of those "you really really had to be there. Really." kind of things, so
hey. It's now 5 in the morning and I'm tired as hell so I'm going to stop
typing.

(Pat: Yup, i can see my shrink rolling her eyes right about now... hi Sharan! :p)

Skype 1.0



Stumbled across this nifty little application from those kooky KaZaa founders while i was wandering around the Net checking up on Web to Phone costs and services. So what is it you ask? Here's their take on it:

"Hello. We’re Skype and we’ve got something we want to share with you.

We’ve got a simple bit of software we want to give you. It’ll let you make free phone calls to your friends all over the world. And we don’t want any money for it. It’s free.

You could think of us as the big, free Internet telephony company. We prefer to think of ourselves as a big group hug, even a present. Yes… that’s it… we’re a present… but without the ribbon.

Our software’s quick and easy to install. Just download Skype, register and within minutes you can plug in your headset, speakers or USB phone and call your friends. The calls have excellent sound quality and are highly secure with end-to-end encryption. You don’t even need to reconfigure your firewall or router. It just, you know… works.

You can also use our SkypeOut function to make calls to friends who only have a landline or mobile phone anywhere in the world at local rates. You can even transfer files of up to 2 gigabytes.

Now what do we ask of you in return? A bag of seed? A back rub? The keys to your city? No. We just want you to share us with all your friends. Why? Well, you can only speak to your friends for free on Skype, if they’re also using Skype. So the more people you share it with, the more people you can talk to. Simple when you think about it… so, is it a deal?"

So, yeah, i downloaded it and gave it a whirl with my buddy down in Melbourne. Hrmm... lets see... yep its free to make PC to PC calls, doesn't hog too much bandwidth, no spyware or ads, and yeah its pretty damn clear compared to some of the other services out there. Of course he and i are both on cable connections but this is supposed to be able to work well with a 33kps modem as the minimum. And from his end of things he was likewise surprised to find it working from behind his company's firewall without and fiddling on his part - another plus point. All in all, its a pretty good service, its free, and its easy to use (hell it LOOKS like MSN Messenger) so i think i'll be keeping it around.

Wouldn't mind using it to get in touch with the likes of Boon, Bryon (hint, hint), or anyone else for that matter. Hell, maybe even those two, Al, and myself could talk via conference about the good ole days... ;)

So... if you've ever had an urge to speak to me for as long as you want without destroying my mobile's credit (*glares at Joa*) by all means use this. Sure i might not be online (or invisible) but it doubles as an instant messenger service so send one asking for a time beforehand ja? ;)

Thatcher on bail over coup plot

Pretty sure you've all read or seen this piece of news by now, but what the hell...



"Mark Thatcher has been released on bail by a South African court following his arrest in connection with an alleged coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea.

The son of former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was ordered to pay a bail bond of two million Rand (£165,000) and hand over his passport. ..

...An alleged plot to overthrow the president of Equatorial Guinea has sparked dozens of arrests across Africa.

South African arms dealer Nick du Toit is accused of helping to organise the coup.

He went on trial with 13 other foreign nationals on Monday in the country's capital, Malabo.

The eight South Africans and six Armenians have been detained since March this year.

A 15th defendant died in prison. Both Amnesty International and Mr du Toit's wife allege the accused were tortured.

Seventy other accused mercenaries are on trial separately in Zimbabwe, where they were arrested on 6 March as they allegedly prepared to board a leased aircraft to launch the coup.

The alleged plot leader, former British SAS captain Simon Mann, an old Etonian turned leading African mercenary, has admitted trying to procure dangerous weapons - a charge which carries a possible 10-year jail sentence."

Hah, and these corporate backed (oops! Did i say that?) mercenaries and coup attempts are more common than you think (Congo in the 70s springs to mind), read your history books kids. Of course, involving an ex-Prime Minister's son is always a good touch... On a side note, look! Armenians! ;)

Shit.

Me tired now.

More random meaningless things tomorrow.