Lapsus linguae

Miss me, but let me go.

2011-07-20T00:28:00.002+08:00

Found this poem while trolling the web. Touching.

Miss Me – But Let Me Go

When I come to the end of the road

and the sun has set for me,

I want no rites in a gloom-filled room.

Why cry for a soul set free?

Miss me a little, but not too long,

and not with your head bowed low.

Remember the love that we once shared,

Miss me, but let me go.

For this is a journey we all must take,

and each must go alone.

It’s all part of the Master Plan,

a step on the road to home.

When you are lonely and sick of heart,

go to the friends we know

and bury your sorrows in doing good deeds.

Miss me, but let me go.

The link to the poe m.

Whither Shall I Wander?

2011-05-26T10:46:00.000+08:00

By Robert Louis Stevenson

"Home No More Home to Me,..."

From Songs of Travel
(To the Tune of Wandering Willie)

Home no more home to me, whither must I wander?

Hunger my driver, I go where I must.

Cold blows the winter wind over hill and heather;

Thick drives the rain, and my roof is in the dust.

Loved of wise men was the shade of my roof-tree.

The true word of welcome was spoken in the door --

Dear days of old, with the faces in the firelight,

Kind folks of old, you come again no more.

Home was home then, my dear, full of kindly faces,

Home was home then, my dear, happy for the child.

Fire and the windows bright glittered on the moorland;

Song, tuneful song, built a palace in the wild.

Now, when day dawns on the brow of the moorland,

Lone stands the house, and the chimney-stone is cold.

Lone let it stand, now the friends are all departed,

The kind hearts, the true hearts, that loved the place of old.

Spring shall come, come again, calling up the moorfowl,

Spring shall bring the sun and rain, bring the bees and

flowers;

Red shall the heather bloom over hill and valley,

Soft flow the stream through the even-flowing hours;

Fair the day shine as it shone on my childhood --

Fair shine the day on the house with open door;

Birds come and cry there and twitter in the chimney --

But I go for ever and come again no more

Hahahaha...

2011-05-23T22:38:00.001+08:00

Nude Clock!

Stop and be thankful

2011-05-22T10:18:00.002+08:00

It's been a while since the last post and the pensive mood is still prevalent nonetheless. The past month at work has been crazy to say the least, my aging has greatly accelerated and my jadedness has reached new levels.

Time for a change in directions? Not yet, me thinks. I just need to be a little more efficient and increase my level of detachment (not like it's not high already..)

Got these pictures from an email, so I just thought I'd share.

R.I.P. Elizabeth Taylor

2011-03-23T23:17:00.002+08:00

I was so surprised to hear that a legend, Dame Elizabeth Taylor, has left us.

May she rest in peace. Thank you for the memories.

Where shall I go?

2010-11-17T10:19:00.000+08:00

I can't wait.

2010-10-11T00:08:00.001+08:00

Tak kenal maka tak cinta

2010-09-29T08:38:00.001+08:00

Fly fly...take me somewhere...wherever.

Death Cab, no Cuties

2010-09-21T23:01:00.000+08:00

I always enjoy my conversations with taxi drivers. From the land where kingdoms unite to my tanah tumpah darah, I’ve seen the gamut of topics.

The topics vary from personal anecdotes, politics (a pet topic with Malaysian taxis), food, economy, finance, and entertainment even.

For purposes of this post, I will confine it to my Malaysian experience. Prior to my becoming a pupil, fortunately or not, I’ve had little experience with taxis. (In hindsight, I think rather fortunately. I am beginning to despise the way they conduct their services.)

I take the taxis quite frequently these days. It gives me breathing space while I rush from X to Y and Z (these variables being the laugh-house in Duta, Dante’s Paradise and Mark Antony wannabes).

For people in the service industry, the taxi drivers are a very opinionated lot. And more often than not they’re very intelligent and sadly not much credit is being given to them for being ambassadors of the country. They are also a good gauge of how civilised a country is. They will surely find jobs being a politician or lawyer here if the stress of driving a car ever gets to them. While I find this to be refreshing and progressive for our society, it’s the bad lot of them that really gets to me. Of late, these taxi drivers are painting a very bad picture of our country.

What bad eggs do you mean? It’s the lot of them that refuses to take passengers to certain “unprofitable” areas, the ones that refuse to use the meter and the cursed ones that commit crimes. I am lucky I have not met the last category though I am beginning to feel that the first and second are merely subset of the third category.

Semantics aside, I do not understand why the passengers are being literally taken for a ride (pun and all) by their absolutely unreasonable and despotic, I might add, conduct. Sure, I get the logic of not wanting to take passengers to the less-profitable-than-usual places, but if every single taxi thinks the same way, why not just have the taxis function like an LRT ferrying passengers from say KLCC to KLSentral and go nowhere else. This is ridiculous. Cab-rank rule does not exist! (Not that it ever did) The Union/government should do something about this. The drivers tried explaining to me about how they have to pay their daily rents before they may count their profits. Big companies get the licence in bulk and then they “sub-let” their licences to the various individuals. I think there should be an NGO similar to the Bar Council or something of the same to properly address the grouses and problems these individuals are facing. The customers are the ones left taking the brunt of this joke of a system.

Lest I forget, I also totally hate the drivers who charge a flat rate quotation whenever you tell to take you to such and such a place. Reasons for this may be like the above, where the place is not so profitable, or that they’re just eager to pull a fast one on desperate passengers. Given a choice, no one would take them but I pity those who are desperate. Especially the foreigners, rich and poor tourists alike. Immigrants (legal or otherwise) too!

Let me not even go to the final category; taxi drivers who commit crimes like rape and robbery. I’ll have them flogged alive and then fed to the crocodiles.

I have had foreign friends who complain about the taxis here. Heck, I complain about them. They should start making taxi jokes soon. Now I just need to start packing a Glock before I hail any taxis here.

Here's looking at you

2010-09-19T14:06:00.001+08:00

If you stare at something, it works faster. Now how true is this proposition? I know it is not novel but it just suddenly crossed my mind. There definitely seems to be some connection, at least psychologically, that when we stare/look at something, it will be done faster.

Of course, I am not talking in the context of your boss staring you down while you complete his latest order or when your mom looks at you while you finish eating those vegetables.

Instead, I’m referring to inanimate objects such as looking at a download bar while a file downloads, a kettle boiling, a bus/taxi from yonder, the traffic lights...i think you get the general idea.

I highly suspect that you suffer from this as well, or rather have done this at some points of your life, if not your entire life. Logically, we may or may not realise that looking at it will not make it work/move faster. Yet, we still do it. Why so? Were we conditioned to do as such so that we may be ready for the eventual outcome? To illustrate, the act of staring at the red lights on a traffic light is in actual effect our body priming for the eventual green light. So that we may be ready to move.

I am not saying that it is true, but I am just thinking out loud. I have wondered at times but never really thought deeply about it enough.

Another reason that I have conceived (during my usual stare at the sky/etc contemplative moments) is that we do it because we do not want to think about other commitments/responsibilities. Example, staring at the kettle for it to boil so that we may cook our cup noodles. We do not want to think/look at anything else because our mind is so preoccupied with the thought of cooking the cup noodles, eating it. In a similar vein, it may also be alternatively construed to be focusing on something when in reality we should focus on something else. Such as waiting for your mp3 files to download finish, you could go on and finish a paragraph or two (or maybe more since we are slaves to Internet Monopoly in the Golden Chersones) but instead you feel more inclined to look at the download bar. Avoiding and procrastinating in a sense. Isn’t it?

Then there is the Law of Attraction. Thinking of the green light, making effort towards achieving that green light, visualising yourself moving forward at the blink of the said light, feet already on pedal, gears in D... Does it really make the green light come quicker? Aren’t the lights already pre-programmed to come on after a certain period of time?

Having said and done all, the fact that I’m writing this is probably a means of escaping the work that I am supposed to be doing. Oh well. I better get back to it. Just think about it. Will staring at my work make it finish it a lot faster?

These changing times..

2010-09-05T04:40:00.001+08:00

I read this on a website today. Hilarious!

In a small town in India, a person decided to open up his Bar business, which was right opposite to the Temple. The Temple & its congregation started a campaign to block the Bar from opening with petitions and prayed daily against his business.

Work progressed. However, when it was almost complete and was about to open a few days later, a strong lightning struck the Bar and it was burnt to the ground.

The temple folks were rather smug in their outlook after that, till the Bar owner sued the Temple authorities on the grounds that the Temple through its congregation & prayers was ultimately responsible for the demise of his bar shop, either through direct or indirect actions or means.

In its reply to the court, the temple vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection that their prayers were reasons to the bar shop ' s demise. As the case made its way into court, the judge looked over the paperwork at the hearing and commented:

"I don't know how I ' m going to decide this case, but it appears from the paperwork, we have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer and we have an entire temple and its devotees that doesn't.

Bills bills bills.... NOT!

2010-08-17T00:53:00.003+08:00

Today I did work that was non-billable. Wow....actual work that I couldn't and shouldn't bill. It felt so weird not to enter into my timesheet the work that I put in and the duration. I'm so used to listing my work done that it felt just unnatural that I'm not billing.

Truly, I'm loving my legal aid experience. Quite a load of fun. The environment is a lot more cosmopolitan than my usual work place and the people I get interact with are literally from various subcultures in South East Asia.

I'm still basking in the euphoria and the glow of a satisfying day. Actually, I fell asleep for 2 hours after dinner because I was too tired. Woke up, did some prep work and now I'll be sleeping again. A very tiring but awesome day.

This is what you pay lawyers for

2010-08-13T23:34:00.001+08:00

You just have to read this. Rock Paper Scissor as a deadlock breaker?

Read this

Stars and Stripes Forever?

2010-08-09T17:13:00.002+08:00

I think I need not explain how expensive things are these days. Let us not even go into inflation and taxes. (By the way, the GST and RPGT taxes are another topic which I would love to go into, in maybe the next post)

So yes. Everything is expensive. What's more if you would want to travel to some foreign country. A developed one, mind you and with a currency strength several times higher than your own. Simply put, bloody expensive.

Throw in the visa payment and you have a real slaughter. Your purse and bank account will never be the same again. Ok, I may exaggerate but it still does not detract from the fact that the high costs for visas are often unjustified and not explained to the potential travellers. On top of that, it's a gamble as to whether the visa will be granted at all. Now if this is not the lottery or Big Sweep, I don't know what is.

My current peeve is the US Visa. It has gone up higher and higher since it was introduced post 9/11. Yea, THE 9/11. It is a tragic moment in the history of mankind but it is not reason to justify the cutthroat visa ~~scams~~ schemes.

I faced the same problem when I had to deal with the headache (not to mention heartache) that was the UK Visa. Documents after documents have to be shown to justify our intention to visit. Sigh, immigration is such a big issue now.

This brings me to another bone of contention. People who flee their countries not out of persecution or poverty but out of a need to want to make MORE money. It is not as if they are totally mired in destitute in their own country but instead choose to do things like overstay at a country so that they may earn MORE money.

I'm a big advocate of liberty and justice and all that schmalz but frankly these overstayers just gets me riled up. Perhaps the fact that we innoncents have to pay the price for their blatant disregard for sovereignty is what gets me.

It's Monday. I have the blues. I have issues. At least I'm not ranting about work.

Part 2 of 2

2010-07-21T23:16:00.000+08:00

On the third week of July, I was off to Club Med in Cherating, Pahang. It was all expenses-paid company trip and despite my initial apprehension at the thought of travelling with my workmates, everything turned out fine.

My only complaint was that it only lasted for 3 days. Even as I type this, I’m suffering some form of post-holiday blues.

The place is beautiful enclave of tourism in the middle of nowhere. The sea is quite beautiful, at least by Peninsular Malaysia standards, though the sand is somewhat coarse. What makes the whole place Club Med is most importantly the people. The GOs (that’s the staff....GMs are the guests) are extremely friendly and were helpful all the way. Although some of my colleagues complaint of being marginalised and not treated properly, I personally did not encounter such a thing. That being said, I suppose discrimination happens everywhere.

Back to the people, not only the GOs were sporting and fun, the guests too were clapping to the same tune. Some of the guests stay on for ages from weeks to months even! Talk about affluenza alert. If anything, this trip has served to motivate me to work harder so that I may achieve this lifestyle soon. Very soon!

The drinks were free-flowing from the bar, from juices, to cocktails, mocktails, beers and basic neat liquors. All the meals were buffet with various counters such as Japanese, Korean, French, Western (in general), Italian, Indian/Local, Dessert and Drinks. I basically stuffed myself silly with everything that caught my eye. I was also drinking, though not as much as I would have liked because I wanted to try out the activities as well. I can’t go trampolining after 3 glasses of pina colada can’t I. Not unless I want to decorate the floors with partially-digested food and gastric juices. Not to mention wrecking my GM social life there.

The place is definitely a must visit for the family, if they can afford it. I think it’ll make a wonderful escapade. If things don’t work out for me in the field of letters and notices and applications, I would definitely love to apply to work there. In fact, I think I should go search for some vacancies now.

Bah! Get me out of here!

Part 1 of 2

2010-07-19T23:14:00.000+08:00

Warning: Since I have not been posting as much I would have liked, this will take a bit of space. This will be part 1 of 2 for my next post.

The past two weekends have been awesome to say the least. If anything, they’ve been a great respite from the working weekdays that have plagued my life since February this year. This is not to say that the work is terrible but more the fact that nobody likes the work that they do. Well, most anyway. I am actually very thankful that I’m working in an awesome place with great people and am learning a lot. There is proper work life ratio and the pay is somewhat commensurating, at least when compared with most of my peers.

Before this post dwells more on my working life (or non-life, rather) I would like to share my two recent weekend experiences which have been quite simply, fantastic!

On the second weekend of July, I went on this Skytrek circuit with my friends. (The name itself sounds amazing already isn’t it?) It is like a outdoor theme park with flying foxes and obstacles and lots of ladders and ropes. It is located in Shah Alam, some Bukit Cahaya. The park itself is pretty large and I think it is quite the place for picnics and weekend family outings.

Reaching there, we had to take a tram ride along a meandering road up the hill. Along the way, we can see many people (adults, kids...you name it) cycling along the road. I suppose the bikes were rented. After like 10 minutes (or perhaps it was a 7), we came to a stop and proceeded to a small hut to register. We had to fill in disclaimer forms and get our gears. This was also the last stop to snack up or fill up the tummies before the “adventure”.

The gears look pretty high tech and feels like it too. Personally, it makes me feel like I was a professional rock climber. My only complaint was that the gloves that they provided were really icky. They were practically still wet with sweat from previous users. Talk about Yuck!

Once we were geared up, we were taught the basic safety procedures especially when reaching a station. I think I should explain more. The circuit consists of many stations all located up trees. To move from one station to another, one has to go through some form of “obstacle” such as walking on cables, flying foxes and the like.

Moving on, my favourite obstacle was the flying fox and the “tarzan swinging”. They were absolutely fun. I think the first time is always the hardest...making the first move/jump. Kinda like real life and relationships too I suppose. But I digress. Once you overcome the first-timers fear, there’s no holding back.

My only concern was that they should have at least fenced up the stations. The stations were basically just wooden platforms without fences. Of course, we’re harnessed to the cables tied around the trunk but I can’t help feeling that putting up a fence would have been wise.

At certain stations, there is an exit of sorts where a person may “chicken” out by sliding down a netting all the way to the ground. This exit strategy is aptly named the “chicken coop”.

There’s 3 type of circuit to choose from, there’s the first (I can’t remember the name), Big Challenge (that’s the one I went) and the Extreme. Apparently, the Big Challenge is the one which is most fun because of the many flying foxes. Extreme is just tiring with a lot of ladders and whatnot. Of course, this is all hearsay from the people who’ve tried both but nonetheless, from my own personal experience, Big Challenge was a lot of fun.

Overall – highly recommended.

Excess baggage

2010-06-21T01:41:00.000+08:00

There is Hermes. Lana Marks. Vuitton. You would think these are poncey names that are the hallmarks of sophistication. Apparently. And then there’s the most important bag of all, the eye-bag. This is perhaps the one bag that no woman (would ever) wants and a bag that even a man would know about.

My bags are getting bigger and my panda-rings are more defined these days. Perhaps I am getting older. I usually have no problems with it, but it’s just that people are now supplementing ‘Hello’ with ‘you look terrible (or other similar adjectives)’. I suppose it doesn’t help that my pale skin only serve to highlight such natural gothic cosmetic on my face. This is in addition to the fact that my salt and pepper hair is becoming salt than pepper.

Oh the vagaries of life.

Random

2010-06-20T01:40:00.000+08:00

Confession. Confession. I think I need to start opening up more. There’s only so much I can hide and keep in. I don’t need this stress. Too many actors, too few scenes and limited time.

I’m sorry. I’ll keep my promise.

H1N1 free! (supposedly-lah)

2010-05-13T08:32:00.003+08:00

I just got vaccinated for H1N1. No, I did not get diagnosed for it. It was all paid for by the company.

One of the staff's kid contracted it and the entire family is now under quarantine. This meant that the firm had to take precautionary measures which is the vaccination. It costs RM65 (corporate price) or RM80 (individual).

I must say that I haven't been needle-jabbed in a while. Haha..not that I like it. My arm is a little heavy at the deltoids but apart from that, I'm good. Thank heavens.

I'm now vaccinated against H1N1 and 2 other flu viruses (the vaccine protects against 3 strains of viruses) for life (yea, apparently it lasts for life). From what the doctor told me, the vaccination is determined by WHO every year as to what strain of viruses that a person should be vaccinated against. This year it is the H1N1 and 2 others. It varies from year to year and the doc suggested that one may go about collecting vaccinations each year just to be "protected" against various strains.

I suppose I'm pretty old-fashioned in the sense that I do not like to take medicine/drugs unless I really really have to. If anything I do not want to be too reliant on them lest I may need stronger dosages when it really matters.

That said, if it's free...then why not? :D

Toka koka

2010-05-12T08:28:00.000+08:00

I've just attended my first disciplinary board hearing and it was really quite an experience. It wasn't wam-bam-bow-wow kinda experience, but it was eye-opening nonetheless.

The entire proceeding was so informal and very much like a normal mediation. Luckily for me, it was a good hearing because all the parties were courteous and there were proper exchange of questionings and submissions.

Sadly for me this experience cost me nearly my entire working day which only resulted in a further backlog of work when I got back to the office.

Bah!

Random musing

2010-05-10T08:47:00.000+08:00

Took the bus home from Bukit Jalil on Friday. Puduraya station is supposedly being renovated. That’s where all the south-bound buses will be stationed for the time being. It is a lot easier to get to Bukit Jalil from my new place than Puduraya but the ride there is so much longer.

Added to this is the fact that the travelling time on the highway and the overall journey-lah to put it short, can be quite tiring and draining in the emotional and physical sense. Yet, my eyes tell me, on that Friday, that many still brave the road/commuting to get to the station with their luggages for their bus rides to their brief sojourn home. Perhaps it is to refill the very same emotional and physical need that they are using their remaining energies to get back.
I love people watching and the scene that I witnessed was in a way quite inspiring and fulfilling. There were many Malaysians of different races, ages and stations in life all gathered for the same purpose; to get back home/holiday/somewhere. There were a lot of noise and a lot of colours. Despite having to wait for over an hour for my ride, I would say that the time flew by quite quickly. In between my reading of my articles and watching the people around me, I have found (briefly) a new sense of hope for the next few months (maybe even a year).

The electricity in the make-shift tent was momentarily cut for about 15 minutes but I could see that the people were not too bothered and everything went on like nothing happened. Is this the versatility and adaptability that pompous pricks, I mean politicians, like to brag about? I don’t know about them, and frankly, I don’t really care too much, but I do believe in the Malaysian people. Yes, the people.

I sit and watch as days go by

2010-05-05T23:42:00.000+08:00

Some days are a blur, some drag on for excruciating stretches. I’m just trying to fill each day with as much activity as possible and to learn as much as I can.

I’ve seen the glam (perhaps just a slight glimmer) but I’ve also seen (even more of it, I might add) the toil and crap.

Give me liberty or give me death!

I have moved!

2010-05-02T19:50:00.002+08:00

No no...not the blog, but my place of residence. It's from one hood to another. A ghetto to the next. Not that I'm saying where I'm staying is a ghetto...

From above a shophouse to an ok apartmentlah. Quite a comfortable living quarters but the size of the room is considerably smaller than my former. Nonetheless, the facilities and the ample space everywhere else more than makes up for it.

The only downside is that getting to work will not be as smooth as when I was in the field of bricks. Let's see how things work out for me..

I'm pretty satisfied at the moment, but of course there'll be teething problems. I'll try to post pictures in my next post.

So deja vu.....

2010-04-13T00:06:00.003+08:00

I can't believe that I have to sit for another exam...called Ethics! Words cannot even begin to describe how farcical this sounds. I've glanced through the materials and i am quite disappointed to say that they don't even justify being called "materials".

If anyone is serious about making this a serious subject, (or at least that's what I think they are are trying to do from the foreword), maybe get some proper "materials" in the book.

It feels like 2009 all over again. Please excuse me while I go regurgitate. "Answers" that is.

Where is my clockwork orange?

2010-03-28T14:16:00.002+08:00

It is said that familiarity breeds contempt. Same old, same old...deja vu. The same strain. Nothing new, nothing different...one gets bored. Those who thrive on difference and uniqueness will empathise with this.

However, some find routine comfortable and friendly. There is nothing more, nothing less than what one has gone through and will go through again, the next day, on a consistent basis. Anything that throws him off his schedule, he will come to hate and despise. It destroys the regularity of his itinerary.

Where do you fall? As I age, I find it surprising that i'm falling more and more into the latter category than the former. Which is weird, considering how much I abhor doing/seeing/eating/ the same thing/person/etc again and again and again. I've been stuck in a rut-of-sorts for the past 2 months now and I have begun to "appreciate" my newly-established routine. When some new kinks get thrown in, I get rather upset because it disturbs the harmony and balance of my already fragile ecosystem which I have just only perfected.

Nonetheless, I think there is still a part of me that seeks to break free from the chains of working-life. Perhaps this is because I am not getting enough creative outlets to channel my imploding creative (like hah!) energies. I suppose once I get more settled in, and have become more familiar (and perhaps gained more expertise) in my routine work, I will revert back to my former love for everything new and different.

Till then, I guess I'll have to be content with repetitions and clockwork life. Oh woe!