Beyond Apprehension

It's late in the afternoon, and it's gonna get dark soon. The roads are jammed up to the brims, heavy grey exhaust fume hangs around like the memory of your first love. The maddening din of honking soon manifests itself as a dull throbbing in your left temple. The hustle and bustle of the sidewalks is maddening yet comforting in its' familiarity.

Strange, but sometimes when I'm away from the city I would miss this.

I think I'm in love with KL.

Twenty Seven

The correct and acceptable manner: Thanks guys for the wishes and stuff. Really appreciate that, I heart you all! *hugs*

The actual situation: Twentysevenohmygodohmygod. I should start hanging out with older guys to make me feel young. Haz? Zad? VJ? Han? Joe? Jom lepak!!!

Oohh 3 more years to go for my Beemer/Audi deadline. How lah?

Wawasan 2020, Satu Pandangan Jauh

2020 is only a decade away, yet I'm not seeing any flying cars yet or people going to work in silver suits a la The Jetsons. But it would be interesting to go Nostradamus and predict what 2020 would be like, based on comparison with the last decade:

2000: KTM Komuter was never on time, always packed to the brim during rush hours, and tend to stop in the middle of the tracks for no apparent reasons for several minutes (sometimes with even the A?C turned off).
2010: Despite it being the biggest moneymaker for KTM, it is still notoriously bad.
2020: Since the RapidKL LRT service has been expanded to cover until Seremban in the south, Bentong to the east, Port Klang to the west and Rawang to the north (with extensions to Ipoh under works), the Komuter has been relocated to serve Kelantan's rural outbacks instead with stops such as Gaal, Manek Urai, Pahi and Dabong proving to be very popular.

2000: ASTRO was the premium satellite TV provider, with the sole competitor being the 5-channel Mega TV cable. Mega TV soon went out of business and ASTRO had a monopoly of the market.
2010: ASTRO still has that monopoly, surprisingly. They can dictate the price and service level sesukahati since there's no market pressure.
2020: ASTRO staged a coup d'etat of sorts, when they assumed controlling stake of Khazanah Nasional. Effectively, Tan Sri Ananda is named as the Finance Minister and Telecommunications & Multimedia Minister (double portfolio). His bid to become the first non-Malay PM was denied by the Legislation.

2000: BN had a firm grip on the nation's political scene. Despite Adil's attempts at breaking the status quo, they are ultimately unable to shake the longstanding position of power.
2010: The last General Election saw a division of power unseen before, where PR led by PKR (Adil decides that it is no longer adil, so it changed the name. I think) managed to seize power in several states.
2020: Due to incompetencies and personal glory-hunting, PR quickly dissolved and PKR merged with DAP to create Keadilan Untuk RAkyat Progresif (KURAP). PAS decided to merge with UMNO's Team B and create Parti UNtuk DEmoKrasi (PUNDEK). UMNO Team A merged with MIC & MCA to create BAngsa Bersatu Untuk Negara (BABUN). However the General Election was largely won by Parti ASTRO.

2000: Malaysian football was in disarray. Despite the best efforts of Claude LeRoy and Allan Harris, the national team very much sucked. Many blamed it on having too many politicians and rolayties in the administration of the game.
2010: We still have many politicians and royalties involved, but we did won the gold in the SEA Games with a single lucky goal. FAM went crazy immediately, The Sports Minister followed suite and went just as crazy (oh my bad, foaming at the mouth does not always equals to crazy). The national squad will be sent to Europe for stints, while national age group teams will also be sent to Europe to play as a team in some obscure Eastern European league.
2020: With the 'Golden Generation' reaching the twilight of their careers, we have since won the Asian Cup once albeit with the help of 7 naturalised Brazilians playing. What heppened to the European trainees? Well, most of them did not make the grade and resorted to opening restaurants in Europe. Now you can enjoy mamak food in Prague (Sri Zaquan Adha Maju), and Krakow (Darul Bunyamin Omar 786). Weirdly, the Pahang royalties still controls FAM (and Pahang is still in the top tier tournament despite coming last every season)

So what's your prediction?

Cerita Joe

"Ade sekali nih, masa aku belajar kat UM lagi la, pegi lepak mamak tengok bola dengan kawan-kawan. Sekali tengok ade mamak baru kerja situ, punya lah selalu pergi sampai dah boleh cam kalau ada orang baru.

"Aku pon panggil la 'Aney!', datang la aney baru nih. Kitorang nak order air. So sambil-sambil bebudak dok fikir nak order apa, aku layan ah borak dengan aney tuh jap.

"Aku tengok atas meja ade nasi lemak bungkus kecik-kecik, aku tanye berapa. Dia jawab '60 sen'. Tengok ade kuih ape benda ntah, aku tanya gak harga, die jawab la '30 sen'. Bukan aku nak beli pon, saje nak test dah reti cakap melayu belum.

"Aku pon tanya la pulak 'baru datang Malaysia ke?', die geleng kepala. Tanya sudah reti cakap Malaysia, die geleng kepala. Diorang kan geleng kepala kalau 'ya'. Last sekali aku tanya 'BERAPA lama dah datang Malaysia?'

"Aney tuh tenung aku jap, then die jawab dengan confidentnya '60 sen'.

Are You Kidding Me?

Is it just me or is it really weird that only a Sargeant is being implicated in the missing F-5E engine case? It is not like a few boxes of pens or paper that can easily go unnoticed for a year, it's two big ass engines worth RM100million purpotedly. I'm sure some other people are involved to get the necessary clearance to at least get it out of the Bases.

So the Sargeant must've worked alone since he's the only one being charged. I wonder how did he sneaked those engines out, in his pockets? Even if it is true that he worked alone with no higher ranking officers involved, then I believe more heads should roll since such a significant theft was left undiscovered for a year. Hrmm, the wonders of Malaysia...

Monday's Musings

It's 2010 yo. 2009 seems like a wasted year, did not have much to say about it really.

New year's resolution? Hrmm, lose weight, run more, swim more, save the animals, world peace and all that jazz. Last year's resolution? Can't really remember now but I suppose it must've been lose weight, run more, swim more, save the animals, world peace and all that jazz.

Seriously, I wanna get either a promotion or a new job this year. If the bank doesn't think I'm kissing ass enough to promote me, then it's time to seek new pastures (and asses to kiss, oh joy).

Am gonna turn 27 in a fortnight, got a reality check during lunch last week. Temasek Scholar was talking about some guy and he said 'he's very young, early 20s like that'. Then an uncomfortable silence reigned for a while before someone quipped 'yep boys, we're late 20s now'. That dream about owning a 3-series before reaching 3-series, well that's why I need that promotion or big move away.

Anyway, hope it's not too late to wish you folks a Happy New Year. Have a fulfilling year ahead, God bless.

Ideas For A Better Malaysia #215

There's been way too many fatal bus crashes in this country, and everytime it happened the people in power would start condemning this and that, suggesting this and that, investigating this and that. But every single time, it would just quieten down again in a few weeks and all's swell again. Until another crash that is. Repeat ad nauseum.

As someone who used to ride longhaul express buses regularly for close to a decade, I can tell you that rarely the ride was comfortable. If it travels by day, the aircond were never cold enough. By night, it feels like Siberia. The seats would sometime be broken, either you can't lower it, or it won't stay up. The toilets would always be horrendous, leaving you to hold it in until the next stop. And the worse part is, the drivers are always very reckless. I would usually stay up the whole journey since I don't dare sleep with that kind of driving (as if by staying awake I could do much about it).

So as a (former) seasoned bus traveller, I am here to present two solutions:
1. Get the all-talk politicians to actually ride one those buses incognito, and feel the thrill. They'll be shitting their Brioni pants before the bus even reached Bentong or Kuala Kangsar. But of course don't expect swift action. It'll take years for things to actually change around here. Even with shit-stained Brionis.
2. Modify the buses. Don't bother putting in speed limiters, or GPS or what not. Just make the driver sit outside the bus. Mould the bus body to exclude the driver's area, so he'll be exposed. Don't give him a seatbelt either, just a helmet would do. Then we'll see if they'll drive as recklessly anymore.

What say you?