former drivaholic gibber incoherently

i drive with my head sticking out a bit these days, not so that i can get a better view ahead, but so that i will fit in the part of being a tortoise. since i have to drive like one i thought i might as well act like one, to entertain myself as i drive on them nasty roads of bandaraya kuala lumpur and the newly conferred bandaraya petaling jaya, oh! and certain parts of daerah subang jaya too ... you know, the sunway-puchong bit. oh! driving out of kl on a friday, is like driving up to taiping. yucks!

not that i'm old but when i was younger, just slightly younger since i'm still young, i used to love driving. i'd jump to every opportunity to drive, even to carrefour. i wouldn't mind driving hefle home in taman kosas, ampang after a night out of cucuk langit + later cross kl again to get home in subang jaya. i even volunteered to pick a group of friends from ttdi, drove up to seremban, a few hours later back to ttdi + home. oh ya! on that trip, i was doing a 160+ when i realised that there was a police patrol car behind me, and i bimboly asked my friends, "what's the speed limit again?". like d'uh! and of course, i was my mom's supir kehormat, from taiping to kota bahru to johor bahru; i've ventured into them terrains. was, since now there's choices: my sister, bibots, + my brother, wawan (his flight schedule is not as tight as before), well, we take turns.

so, have i stressed enough how i used to love driving?

today, i'd drag myself into the car even when the destination is pasaraya viran, which is parallel to mamak bistro.

why am i babbling about driving? i don't know, probably because i'd be driving in a bit, but the motor trade industry is currently not doing well, they had projected a 6% contraction in the industry. recently at a wedding, auntie aishah had told us at the table, there's actually a contraction of 10% and proton is badly hit. of course, bubble of clouds started emerging around me + i went into my little micro + macro economics theorem adventure.

i'm not going to tell the government through this blog what they should or should not do. instead, i'll just continue to positively decipher their policies + spending decisions + programmes. remember the star's warning: "bloggers beware!". well, wierd things are happening within the 'administrative department'. i don't want to end up in tomorrow's headline with evidence that i murdered someone. not that i think that someone might think i'd be a threat to them. come on, a walking oxymoron like myself? if i catwalk past them big gun 1,000 times, they wouldn't even noticed, and that with my plunging neckline.

by the way, don't believe everything you read in the newspapers. an nst reporter once mentioned, two things you can trust in the newspapers are waktu sembahyang + nombor ekor. do you know what the 2005 national library study reported? malaysians read two books a year, less than seven pages a day. if we're not going to improve the statistics, just make sure we maintain the figures. though i said we shouldn't take everything from the newspapers as true, that doesn't mean we should stop reading the newspapers.

researchers from newcastle university found green and black tea help improve your memory. bottled tea such as teh botol, on the other hand, are normally sugar rich. another research from the usa showed adults with hobbies that exercise their brains - such as reading, jigsaw puzzles or chess - are 2.5 times less likely to have alzheimer's disease, while leisure limited to tv watching may increase the risk.

it's time to brew your own tea + sit back to a good read, with shiela majid in the background.

have a good weekend!

a plot for contemplation

much ado about nothing

i guess i have to do this once more...

a message to them peeps who likes to spam my comment boxes (and other comment boxes) with racist hate comments, propagating disintegration, you're barking at the wrong tree laa sayang. no doubt, being in an environment where peeps are race conscious, i sometimes get sucked in but personally, black, white, yellow, red, brown and green (incredible hulk kan green) ... they are superficial to me.

let me give you my stand on the concept "ras" made popular during the era when aryanism peaked. (betul ke nazi yang 'popularise' the concept? ... sorry! i oso kompius oredi on this, forgot oredi my readings) to me race is a social, cultural and political concept based largely on superficial appearances. the concept of race is a historical construct and doesn't provide either valid classification or an explanatory process. popular everyday awareness of race is transmitted from generation to generation through cultural learning. attributing race to an individual or a population amounts to applying a social + cultural label that lacks scientific consensus + supporting data. sapa science person angkat tangan!!!

to young parents reading ... i beg you to break this curse. your children are our hope. when their mind are free of racial prejudice, then perhaps a better malaysia for all is possible.

come on, this race business was introduced by our former penjajah, it's the divide + rule legacy. the invention of the 3 main categories are a by-product of ang moh's imperialism feat. we all know the communities grouped under 'chinese' general heading ada macam2; hakka, hokiens, cantonese etc. similarly, the 'malays' ada macam2 jugak; javanese, bugis, makasarese, sumatrans (minang, mendahiling, acehnese, lampungs etc), jawi peranakan, arab peranakan, indian peranakan, chinese peranakan etc. (taadaa!!! see, in the malays oso got your cousins)

the two examples because the posts in my comment boxes were about the two.

what's beautiful about malaysia, this is where many of the world's cultures meet. even the orang asli were originally from the african continent, they travelled by land. oh, my marga lubis mendahiling ancestors ... they were a tribe from central india, they moved when the iranians attacked central india, travelled by land through semenanjung, and settled in sumatra. my great great grandfather ran to semenanjung when the dutch influenced the sumatrans to execute certain sect of the community. only a fraction of me is mendahiling, i'm a hybrid of macam2 culture. very the rojak. but i donch like mamak bistro's rojak, last time i had rojak with cik pms my tummy upset big time ok!

this realisation, of my family lineage, explains the attitude laa kot. we should learn to live with difference in our midst. asal kene rebut, fighting to prove who's more significant? who's more superior? that's very nazi passe ok. bak kata farish, our ancestors didn't seem to have any trouble living in a shifting world of overlapping territorialities and plastic identities. why us? why now?

how many of you believe in adam + eve? if you believe in adam + eve, that we were from one, then why are you contradicting your belief system?

jeng! jeng! jeng!

kru once rapped, "bersatu kita teguh, bercerai kita roboh".(yucks! i remember their tune!!!) we want malaysia to work, right? sudah2 lah tu ...

by the way, thank you for thinking that i'm an UMNO material. ske gila! *wegra blushing* you peeps are not the first, you know. *blushing again + went malu2 hiding behind her hair fringe* unfortunately, i'm not. i mean i'm not in UNMO, if i may, i'd like to still think i am an UMNO material, so again wrong tree. hmmm ... i wonder if i accepted the offer to play an active role in UMNO, would i have posted the "three-oh, oh oh!" post? if i did accept the offer, maybe i'd now be working towards *cough* world domination ... opocot! no, i mean being the first lady prime minister of malaysia ... opocot! eh ... meow actually ... rrRRRRrr!!!

*mode gila kuasa ON*

keris, a feminine object - a good read!

soroptimist

it's been ages since i last entertained invites, no! not that i'm sombong or anything. do keep them coming. it's just that i'm going thru this phase, i felt i need to be by myself to assess things. (yeah! like the phase has been going on more than a year now. psycho!)

anyways, somewhere last week we, mama + myself, decided to confirm attendance for soroptimist international's "end violence against women" programme called "city survival skills for ladies" on sunday. my sister fong fei kei-ed because her boyfriend is home.

the person who gave the talk was bala, i've read about him, he's won loads of humanatarian awards. he started doing voluntary work after a freak accident, where people thought he had died + covered his body with newspaper + put stones around him, while he watched on in his pool of blood.

it always take a near death experience for a person to appreciate the real value of doing good. ok, probably not but i could relate to him. what i found intriguing was he majored in behavioural science, well human behaviour is something i find fascinating especially with the encouragement of a former flatmate who was working towards being a forensic psychiatrist and a sister who is going thru criminal cases as her homework.

jeng! jeng! jeng! ... takoot tak?! ...

the talk was a little revision and a lot of new information. if you ladies are interested on what i learnt, we can go over it over eskrem goreng or limau ais! (not posting them here as tips to penjahat wanita)

incidently, on friday, someone close to me was assaulted, with the intention to kill. luckily, he's smart + a fighter + able to think clearly under stress. he managed to escape getting killed + survived with 30 stitches on the head. there were three attackers with weapons - a baseball bat, an iron rod + an iron chain. a general rule when being attack, never get inside a car or an enclosed building with the attacker(s), because you'll be finished. another, don't put up a fight, defend self + run + get help from others!!!! don't believe what you see in hindi movies.

motive of the attack, you'd ask. a particular 25 year old boy had his best friend whispering to his ears that this person i know (MA) is having an affair with his soon to be ex-wife, who is MA's employee. i think it is gila bekos we're doing a project with him + the girl is just a minutes taker. they both have employer + employee body language + i've met them both in numerous occassions but i don't even know who this best friend is + what his assessment was based on.

i really think the 25 year old boy is dumb for gulping in 100% of his so called best friend's words + for taking action based on hearsay. even when someone say something to us or we see certain behaviour, they could be misconstrued by us + the scary part, a portion of that definition or label we gave to the person actually reflects us.

another ... jeng! jeng! jeng!

lesson: it's inefficient, but if you're going somewhere with the opposite gender for a meeting or on a project, the make up of our society requires us to have a third party.

to blokes out there, please don't be dumb like the 25 year old. even when your lady implicates another person, don't jump to batter another, investigate objectively first.

i'm sure you reading are bred a gentleman.

a reminder to self: never think that others think like you do nor do you think like others do.

gauntleted

allya's going off today, ima's going off on monday. i'll now have two less friends to sesuka hati shoot text messages or bug when i'm feeling bored or prankish or waggish. or i can still call + text them but face more frequent barring feat from maxis. it's only when the phone gets barred, i'll go snooping for a maxis centre to pay my bill. yup! i'm not an adult yet in that sense but at least i've now got my driving licence renewed + speed alarm switched on when driving! ada usaha for self improvement ok. :op

talking about 'self', there's this character test forwarded by hefle. what's interesting, all of my old friends whom i managed to coerce into taking the test are of 'grass fragrance'. birds of a feather? perhaps. or probably that's the only end offered by the test?

jeng! jeng! jeng!

'self' is part of a larger entity; the world (mawi world!!!! ... sorry, i can't help it)

i find the world we live in rather uproarious. with characters capable of the comical antics of a clown, myself being one of them. so much so if it were to be wrapped in a movie, it'll have audiences rolling in the aisles.

remember i mentioned earlier that mama went to dubai?

well, in dubai she met this black guy who claimed to be the prince of an african country, who's travelling to malaysia on behalf of his dad to invest in malaysian companies. mama being mama was polite throughout the encounter. prince anthony, so he claimed his name was, exchanged cards with mama, his without a phone number. his justification? it's his house address.

a few days after mama reached home, prince anthony rang to tell her that he had difficulties with malaysian immigration and was sent back to dubai. mama being mama had to reply, "you should've called my mobile, i can help you." yet a few days later, he rang asking mama to wire him some money. by then mama was sceptical. a few minutes ago, he rang mama + asked her to meet him in dubai with a small sum of cash as collateral, in exchange he'll wire the us dollars his dad wanted to invest into the company account.

my delayed reaction was, "ma! there's no royal families there. africans were tribal nomads, if i remembered right. liberia is a government started by the black american settlers." mama answered, "but he travelled first class." my sister suggested, "he's a professional conman la ma. would his story be plausible to you if he were to fly economy? i think you should see more movies on con meng-con."

any good con meng-con movies we should let mama see?

anyways, never mistaken kindness for stupidity.

unless you think it is stupid to be kind. i think people who consider being kind as a sign of stupidity are scary. if i'm not mistaken, a conflict management text i read sometime back suggested that people who are manipulative view kindness as a weakness. how far true is that? nauzu billahi min dzalik, wallahu a’lam.

have a good weekend!

what remains is future

i saw a snippet of this documentary like movie called "ciplak" by a certain 26 year old khai. (a production made possible with the f.o.c. help from his malaysia + uk based friends ... that's what friends are for, for good times and bad times, i'll be on your side forever more, that's what friends are for, that's what friends are for) recently, when i crashed their preview for gsc peeps, i have to be honest with you, "ciplak" caught my attention; i was surprised + excited. no doubt the film smells low budget but it was the delivery which had swept me off my feet. (ti.e.na, no more medulla oblongata joke, thanks very much. nanti orang assume we're no school-ded vacuous bimbos when we know we're talking about cerebellar dysfunction); "ciplak" was refreshingly witty, full of humour. "ciplak" offers a candid discussion on the local bajakan industry. if you like "fast food nation" or alamak, apa title the indie on trainers, well if you like them, you'd like "ciplak". (i know i'm over doing the (...), it's bugging the flow of my karangan + some might go, "enough already!!!" + my answer? ske laa, jeles pe?)

apa lagi, catch it at the gsc near you lah! they'd be screening "ciplak" for the next two weeks yo.

"my only intention of making this movie was to make it ... because my dream was to make a feature-length movie before i turned 26. i just wanted to make a movie by the time i was 25, which i did. it’s just coming out now that i’m 26." - khai

shoot! i'll be 30 in two years time. would i be able to deliver my 'vision 30.y.o.' when i turn 30? and so that is the question we're left with. one of which (the vision laa not the question) is to hit the *cough* milloinaire mark by the age of 30. the younger, ambitious me didn't specify a millionaire under which currency, thank goodness! (i'm now imagining myself swimming in my rupiah converted ringgit) *snickers* hmmmmm ... maybe if we make the right moves we'd hit jackpot. if khai can do it, so can we. *the sneaky snicker turns to a nervous titter*

*wegra goes back to her drawing board*

by the way, we hung out last night ...

we were at the ciplak launch party. i was excited to go because i found out that dragon red was playing. they played an acoustic set though + surprisingly they were still really good, especially that guy who was plucking the guitar away. what was his name again tiena? i went smiling when i saw baki emceeing, i haven't seen him since he made his career move. the thing i remember about him was the drama in his narrating, a simple boring encounter sounded theatrical coming from him. apparently he's got his own show on 8tv now, with a fan in tow bugging him last night for the tee he was wearing. oh! it was a male fan. hurmmmm ...

is 8tv changing their approach? they used to have party fun peeps on their programmes. i'm wondering 'cos ain's on the breakfast show now. both ain + baki are smart + witty. this common friend who's been bugging me to watch the breakfast show even commented that ain brought in "pandai" into the show.

dzu + sooz + ifzan + friends dropped by for a bit much later.

by 2 a.m. the battery has gone way beyond weak yo!

tonite i'm out to win cranium in beluntas. have a good day folks!

i reckon

... it is timely that the nation consider venturing beyond the forever pilot syndrome, demonstrator applications or pilot projects are expensive investments and goes to waste when many failed to roll out

... the press, especially the titles formerly known as the broadsheets, should highlight the brains behind policy development like Dr K J John (an OP ... not bad!) + their proposals instead of batu seremban + teh tarik in space so that peeps, especially the previledged + educated, are assured that they are in safe hands

... i should upgrade to K800i (phewwit!!! ... cepat muz, experiment!)

... i should ignore my sister when she asks me out to the malls (shopping spree x 2 ... pokai very the ok)

... i should kick shrek's + tiena's butt tonite for pulling their own hitz fm gotcha call on me, when i was in a serious mode doing work (see ya later folks!)

three weddings and my funeral

battling with the roses to a background of

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(dari kiri)

calon pertama
panggilan manja - im
pendidikan - lse.ac.uk
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kepada mereka yang berminat, sila hubungi kami di talian 1-800-55-2525

NOT!!!

three-oh, oh oh!

when i suffered my 26th birthday, i decided it'll be the last one i "celebrate". exactly then, (i was having a lunch do in viccuda) i got a phonecall announcing nor + man's baby arina's arrival across the road at the damansara specialist hospital. i spent the next one helping out with arina's first birthday party preparation. i'd probably do the same this year? (may i, mummy-o + daddy-o?)

call it a symptom of approaching the big three-oh, oh oh! (nope, now is not a good time to give that "age is just a number" talk. thanks very much.)

fine. no doubt turning 30 is only a barrier in the mind. it's not as if we'll suffer a combustion on the thirtieth birthday + we'd turn to ash or even that our braincells would suddenly frizzle away so that we'll start having spots of amnesia. it is purely an arbitrary milestone but one that inevitably leads to a greater reckoning.

jeng! jeng! jeng!

when i was young i never imagined that i would get to be so old. well, when i was young, i considered 25, old. (****** **** ****!!!) life stretched out before me, full of possibilities + without discernible limits. life, now, feels more like a roll of toilet paper that i've accidently dropped + am watching it disappear under the door, full of woe. (erk!) ok, fine. i exaggerate. (hey, you're reading words of a drama queen here.) but i reckon there is a nano technology of truth in the analogy. think about it, hmmmm ... or is it just me? (demmit!!!)

to be young is to be naive, optimistic, well even certain that our potential will be fulfilled in whichever field one chooses. often the means of the dreams do not have a specific shape but the ends are certain. fame, wealth, adulation + of course the attention of the opposite gender. (amboi! gatai no!!! ... hi hemsem! *wegra flashing her sexy smile* ... err ... sexy ke pun? :op)

of course, it's not all over.

but ... but the thing is napoleon was well on his way to becoming the first consul of france by the time he was 30. apparently, alexander the great had conquered three empires + was in the middle of destroying a fourth on his birthday. i wonder what would i be doing on my thirtieth birthday? go to subang parade's cold storage to buy myself a tub of ben + jerry's? (oits! i'm not 30 yet ok ... i still have a few more YEARS. what? you didn't get that ... Y.E.A.R.S. to go. thank you.)

let continue ... orson welles directed citizen kane when he was 26. the beatles had already disbanded before any of them were 30. nicholas leeson bankrupted the 227 year old british investment bank, barrings, when he was 28.

now lets move closer to home ... hafiz ibrahim directed his first petronas ad + used humour to deliver a message instead of the typical yasmin ahmadesque meruntun jiwa (was his the first?) at the age of 23. ada orang ni + ada orang tu are earning 5 digit salaries at 23 and 25 respectively. sigh!

but then again i suppose i should be more circumspect.

proust was 32 when he started writing. woody allen was 34 when he directed his first film. freud was 44 when he published the interpretation of dreams.

closer to home, both yasmin ahmad + fly guy were in their 30s when they started earning their 5 digit salaries. (betul ka hearsay ini?)

as we approach 30, we know that childhood has come to an end + yet we still cannot truly believe ourselves to be adults. sometimes our achievements do not match up to our expectations, our post-graduation life plan failed to materialise, we suddenly find ourselves in a different path altogether. sometimes we realise that the best opportunity or answers we've embraced have now become a burden. sometimes we hear a little voice whispering, telling us that we are mediocre.

don't get me wrong. i don't hate my life, though i'm way off my initial 'life plan' + i've had that moment of bliss, where i thought life's perfect. i have self belief but sometimes when i sit in a corner to reflect + asked myself what i've done, i have very great trouble finding anything that i can point to as something i am really proud of. i've read quite a few good books, seen more films that i care to mention, travelled to a few destinations, tried extreme sports, did some charity work, saw a few good plays, went for gigs, saw robbie williams in his blue boxers shorts, but none of them things would look too good on a CV. then again, is having the best CV it in life?

even as the years fly by + birthdays chasing one another, all moving at a rapid speed after starting at the corner of 25, i'm no nearer an answer. maybe i'm getting wiser, well, i hope i'm getting wiser. in the end, i'd have to quote alfie, where, at the end of the movie, he turns to the viewers + says "i don't know. life, eh. i mean, what's it all about?"

by the way, i think i'll now have to push my 'old' mark to a kadar umur yang jauh lebih tinggi, since now i'm a strong proponent of "life begins at 40".

have a good weekend in singapore, zeeks + tiena, not forgetting cikpijoh who's now in ceruk mana ntah kat the uk tu. :o(

i'm imposing a good weekend to all as well! :o)

something from maliq + d'essentials for you peeps...

"kangen"

90/10 principle

i've just read my aunt's blog on stephen covey's 90/10 principle, reminding me what i've forgotten. yeah, i'm actually human. wegra mudah lupa too. do remind me, if in the future, yet again i lupa. kalo tak putus kawan!!!

what does 90/10 principle mean? 10% of life is made up of what happens to you. 90% of life is decided by you, how you react to a situation. your action, how you react is your decision laa kan. wow! man, we are really powerful. *mode gila kuasa ON*

with power comes responsibility. if 90% of life is decided by us, that would mean if there's screw ups, we should look at ourselves first. demmit!!! blardy hell betul stephen covey, i like blaming others lers. your principle sucks big time ok!

lets cut and paste an example (i donch have time to write ok, i actually have work in the office + i bet later today i'll beat myself up for wasting time this morning. that's an example in itself. wow! aren't i a genius. *psycho mode ON*)

You are eating breakfast with your family. Your daughter knocks over a cup of coffee onto your business shirt. You have no control over what just happened.

What happens next will be determined by how you react.

You curse.

You harshly scold your daughter for knocking the cup over. She breaks down in tears. After scolding her, you turn to your spouse and criticize her for placing the cup too close to the edge of the table. A short verbal battle follows. You storm upstairs and change your shirt. Back downstairs, you find your daughter has been too busy crying to finish breakfast and get ready for school. She misses the bus.

Your spouse must leave immediately for work. You rush to the car and drive your daughter to school. Because you are late, you drive 40 miles an hour in a 30 mph speed limit.

After a 15-minute delay and throwing $60 traffic fine away, you arrive at school. Your daughter runs into the building without saying goodbye. After arriving at the office 20 minutes late, you find you forgot your briefcase. Your day has started terrible. As it continues, it seems to get worse and worse. You look forward to coming home.

When you arrive home, you find small wedge in your relationship with your spouse and daughter.

Why? …. Because of how you reacted in the morning.

Why did you have a bad day?

A) Did the coffee cause it?

B) Did your daughter cause it?

C) Did the policeman cause it?

D) Did you cause it?

The answer is "D".

taadaa!!!!

You had no control over what happened with the coffee. How you reacted in those 5 seconds is what caused your bad day.

Here is what could have and should have happened.

Coffee splashes over you. Your daughter is about to cry. You gently say, "Its ok honey, you just need to be more careful next time". Grabbing a towel you rush upstairs. After grabbing a new shirt and your briefcase, you come back down in time to look through the window and see your child getting on the bus. She turns and waves. You arrive 5 minutes early and cheerfully greet the staff. Your boss comments on how good the day you are having.

Notice the difference?

Two different scenarios. Both started the same. Both ended different.

Why?

Because of how you REACTED.

You really do not have any control over 10% of what happens. The other 90% was determined by your reaction.

Here are some ways to apply the 90/10 principle. If someone says something negative about you, don't be a sponge. Let the attack roll off like water on glass. You don't have to let the negative comment affect you!

React properly and it will not ruin your day. A wrong reaction could result in losing a friend, being fired, getting stressed out etc. (suara2 tak puas hati: oiiyyy, but they started it. they must know they hurt-ed us, they must pay. an eye for an eye is cool, mate. it's way cool.)

How do you react if someone cuts you off in traffic? Do you lose your temper? Pound on the steering wheel? Do you curse? Does your blood pressure skyrocket? Do you try and bump them?

WHO CARES if you arrive ten seconds later at work? Why let the cars ruin your drive?

Remember the 90/10 principle, and do not worry about it.

You are told you lost your job.

Why lose sleep and get irritated? It will work out. Use your worrying energy and time into finding another job.

The plane is late; it is going to mangle your schedule for the day. Why take outpour frustration on the flight attendant? She has no control over what is going on.

Use your time to study, get to know the other passenger. Why get stressed out? It will just make things worse.

Now you know the 90-10 principle. Apply it and you will be amazed at the results.

You will lose nothing if you try it. The 90-10 principle is incredible. Very few know and apply this principle.

The result?

Millions of people are suffering from undeserved stress, trials, problems and heartache. We all must understand and apply the 90/10 principle.

It CAN change your life!!!


taadaa again!!!!

wan bi, please donch saman me for plagiarism. good stuff are meant to be shared. i love you long time! :o)

sekian, wabillahi taufik wal hidayah wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh

p.s. yesterday, when i picked my mom up, i saw tintan. she's leaving for london today to join ip. bagus korang ni, can i squat at yours if i tetiba decided to visit london? hehe! oh and on the way to the airport after klia tollgate ... it rained heavily kan last night, tetiba my car bau rose kuat gila ... my sis + myself went looking at each other ... h.a.n.t.u. ke tu?