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“Hey! Be A Man. Do The Right Thing.”

Published March 11, 2008 in Malaysia oh Malaysia. 9 Comments

Where have you been?
Why aren’t you updating your blog?
Go and update your blog lah.

Those are some of the remarks thrown to me from the people around me for the past few weeks. I am back from my break for over two months now. Unfortunately, my blog is left deserted and untouched (except for some comment monitoring) ever since.

Some of the reasons for my absence include:

  • I was lazy.
  • My addiction towards mapling resurfaced. I put the blame on both my younger siblings for this. :twisted:
  • Blogging about some of the current issues like the just ended General Elections might alert my own “internal-ISA department” to restrict my blog content.

I do miss blogging, I really do. Instead of listening to the voice at the back of my head speaking to myself like a madman, I get to voice it out, or at least pen/type it down.

The Malaysia’s 12th General Elections did produce some shocking results. Even before the dust of the previous “tsunami” has settled, a new storm seems to be brewing. I don’t want to talk much about it so I’ll just link a few articles below.

“Najib Must Step Forward Now” - Malaysia Today
Khairy mahu cetus rusuhan? - Malaysia Today
Mukhriz’s press conference causes a stir - Malaysiakini
Mukhriz tells PM: Do the right thing - Malaysiakini

When our ex-PM and his son asked our current PM to “do the right thing”, I kept thinking about Russell Peters.

Quoting from 2 minutes 30 seconds into the video:

“Hey! Be a man.
Be a man. Do the right thing.”

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My First Summer In Wellington

Published December 8, 2007 in Personal. 5 Comments

It feels “suffocating” to update a blog when there are rules involved. There are things that I can’t write and some things that I shouldn’t write. Then, there are also things that I do not wish to write. In the end, there really isn’t much to write. I guess it is time to either break some rules or to break some personal habit.

I woke up this evening and noticed that it was still bright outside the window. When I checked the time on my mobile phone, it showed 8.30pm. It couldn’t be true. How can it be so bright outside when it is already so late into the evening? With the X-Files’ soundtrack playing at the back of my mind, I start to wonder what could be happening.

Later, my sister told me that this is how it is this time of the year. The sun sets after 9pm and rises at 5am.

Myself at the Auckland Airport

After spending more than 10 hours in the air, enjoyed some (pretty good) Malaysia Airlines food, beer, wine and a Magnum drumstick, my mother and I safely arrived at the Wellington airport. We’re here for my sister’s convocation and will be spending a few weeks here before returning to Malaysia.

Mas steward posing for the camera

A nice guy who was willing to pose for me while I was waiting to take a piss.

Cinta Malaysian Kitchen in Wellington

My sister took us to a Malaysian restaurant called Cinta. It is operated by a Chinese family that came from Seremban. The food was okay and was quite reasonably priced, I guess. The thing that caught my attention was the price of their rice and roti canai. One plate of steam rice cost $2.00 while a roti canai cost $2.50. I am not even sure if the roti canai comes with kuah. I guess that means no midnight roti canai snacks until I get back home.

Dining in Wellington 1

Dining in Wellington 2

Dining in Wellington 3

I am still trying to adapt to the weather here. It is summer but can be quite cold at night, early in the morning or when the wind blows. On the other hand, it can become quite warm when we enter into a store or restaurant. The constant temperature change is giving me a headache.

I experienced my first morning in Wellington today. Two words described it — freaking cold. I woke up a couple of times but just couldn’t pull myself out of bed. It was so cold that I had no choice but to “sleep it off”. After many rounds of waking up and sleeping back, a knock on my window by my sister “saved” me. I forced myself out of bed to open the door.

I told her what had happen and she asked me why I didn’t switch on the heater last night. I didn’t thought it would be that cold. In fact, I just wore a pair of shorts and a sleeveless shirt to bed last night. Thank goodness she gave me a thick blanket. :-P

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UUM Graduate Sharing Experience On Dress Code

Published November 29, 2007 in Malaysia oh Malaysia. 3 Comments

Two (or three) days back, I received a very long comment for one of my older posts. The post is titled, UUM Students Faced With Immature Dress Code. The person who left the comment is a graduate from UUM. (S)He shared his/her experience studying and living in UUM with such strict rules for three years.

Since the comment is really long, I wouldn’t want to copy and paste the whole thing here. Just click this link to read the comment. From the comment, it is really difficult to identify the gender of the person who left the comment. At first I thought it must be a guy but then it could end up either way.

Below are some quotes from the comment.

It wasn’t too bad for the guys. It got from bad to worse for the girls, though. It went from formal attire, knee-length skirt to (in my final semester) long-sleeve only plus long pants for the girls. I even heard a couple of cases where girls who didn’t wear long-sleeved attire were barred from going into the library and being “disciplined”.

Some college administrators, on the other hand, seemed overzealous in imposing the rules. I have been reprimanded once, quite harshly, by the administrator of a residential college because I was wearing shorts to fill in water (the water dispensing machine was located just outside the college cafeteria) at 11.30 pm. Sure, there’s a 12am curfew (yes, there is) and I’m wearing shorts, but I’m just filling water. It’s not like I’m doing anything downright illegal! I have had to consciously remind myself to put on trousers every time I had to step outside my block for three years!

I spent three years studying in UKM and have never come across such ridiculous dress code ruling. I am truly thankful for that. There isn’t such a thing as a curfew but guys are not allowed in some areas (usually girl’s block) after a certain time (eg. 10pm). I’ve walked out of my block to the canteen way after midnight and there will still be people studying or just hanging around.

The way UUM implements their dress code makes me feel they are more like a military school instead. It is acceptable if they want their students to dress up smart (as in no torn jeans, micro skirts, super low cut jeans, mighty low cut blouse, etc). However, to go to the extend of “long sleeves only” is asking too much.

All I can say is thank goodness I didn’t choose to study in UUM.

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Politics Is A Subject I Can Never Understand

Published November 25, 2007 in Malaysia oh Malaysia. 6 Comments

First, it was the BERSIH rally on the 10th November. Hindraf organized another peaceful protest that brought forward more traffic jams caused by roadblocks setup by the police. The march was scheduled at about 10 am today. Unfortunately, tear gas and chemical-laced water was fired into the crowd in an attempt to disperse them as early as 7.40am as reported by Malaysiakini.


This is a very sad story to me. Not that I am taking any sides but to read and see things like this happening in Malaysia is beyond my comprehension. I guess it could be true that I have been sleeping in the Matrix for a little too long. Time to wake up, maybe?

In the video, P Uthayakumar, Hindraf legal adviser mentioned that the government of Malaysia tried to stop 100,000 people from gathering today by setting up roadblocks. People from all around the country were prevented from joining by having bus permits cancelled. Below are some other quotes by him taken from the video.

“They are even going into hotels, asking hotels not to accept Indians to stay in the hotels.”

“We also have information that the police are going to raid the hotels to lookout for Indians.”

UPDATE:
You can check bmahendran.com for more updates on this march, that is if his server could handle the load. There are almost 200 visitors on his page the last time I checked.


Al Jazeera report

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ShutterAsia Portrait Challenge

Published November 25, 2007 in Photography. 2 Comments

After finally getting my Nikon D40x, I was determined to learn more about photography and ways to take better photographs. Even after taking thousands of photos with my now retired Panasonic DMC-FZ3 for the past three years, I realized that I still do not know much, if any about photography at all.

Take for instance the mode on the digital camera. Apart from taking “macro”, portraits, landscapes and some other preset modes, there are P, A, S and M. I have always shot in the P mode because that was what I was taught when I first got the digital camera. I never knew what the other modes do and what difference they make. I guess I wasn’t that enthusiastic to learn about them back then.

I have since joined ShutterAsia to learn more from the other shutter enthusiasts. There are many great tips and photos uploaded by the forum members that I find very interesting. When I was going through the forum looking for more information on the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D lens, I notice a thread inviting members to participate in photography challenges. There will be a different challenge every month where cash vouchers and other prizes await the one who comes up with the best photo. This month’s theme is portrait.

I was very interested to join the challenge but hesitated in doing so knowing that it would be a head on collision between Kancil and Mercedes-Benz. After considering the idea for a while, I decided to take up the challenge anyway. It wasn’t for the prizes but to challenge myself to experiment and learn more about taking presentable photos.

The rule of the challenge is that the submitted photo must be taken within the challenge period (1 November to 25 November). I went to the beach and my local mini zoo to take some photos last weekend. There are two photos that I am quite happy with. Thankfully, the organizers mentioned that portraits of animals are acceptable. This is my submission to the challenge.

Monkey warning taken at Teluk Cempedak

The photo above was taken at the Teluk Cempedak beach. I spent around 10 minutes taking over a dozen photos of monkeys at close range. The monkeys were hanging over my head only a few feet away. I was worried that one of them may suddenly decide to jump on my head and start chewing into my skull. Anyway, I didn’t have an alternative since my kit lens isn’t capable of a further zoom.

There is nothing special about the photo, really. Apart from being lucky that one of the monkeys decided to stretch its jaws and having a glimpse of its balls, there is nothing much to it.

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