My last post…Christmas wishlist

What a way to end a blog. Shamelessly displaying my Christmas wishlist. I guess I will never be a “good” blogger. Just have too many things on my mind to worry about other than updating this site. 

But for the record, I still read blogs. I enjoy reading the good ones anyway. 

But without further ado, Christmas 2008 Wishlist. Just one from the above will make my very, “very” happy. 

1. A DSLR camera. Preferred Canon or Nikon. 

2. A HP HPX Pavillion notebook. a.k.a “The Dragon”. It’s basically the monstrosity of a notebook that can do almost anything you expect a multimedia notebook to do and more. 

3. A sofa set and piano. 

4. A car. That Mercedes Kompressor’s look awfully good. But otherwise, a MYVI will do…haha

5. Some rich “Datuk” to pay off the MOE tuition grant liability. That damn thing is hanging like Damocles sword above my neck. 

In all seriousness, 5 will pretty much make me extraordinarily happy compared to the fulfillment of the other four. 

So long…

Up the Skrang River

Will be travelling to Sarawak from the 19th to 23rd of September. 

It was actually quite amazing how I managed to join this trip. Earlier in the year, I felt that God was challenging me to join a mission trip. Seeing how my younger brother went to China even though he was Mandrin-challenged made me kind of embarassed. 

But then again, opportunity was scarce to come by. 

And then I joined the CELLS in Holy Light. And then I met Pastor (who was then a church elder) Gan, who happened to be on the missions committee, and who happened to be the team leader for this trip. And how he just invited me out of the blue and how the timing was flexible enough for me to take advantage of the mid sem break to go. 

The way God works is really amazing. And so here I am, typing this out when I should be darn well packing. I have to wake up at 400 am tomorrow and well…

Till then.

The 2009 candy bar

Budget 2009 was tabled this evening as usual, after the stock market closes.

And as expected, it was chock full of sweets that before you know it, Malaysians will be flocking to doctors for diabetes management.

Anyway, the man himself couldn’t resist taking a swipe at the Opposition, slamming them as being populist.

I don’t know, this budget is pretty populist to me. The Government is throwing money at nearly everyone!

Here are things that will affect me:

Households which incur monthly electricity bills of RM20 or less, will not have to pay for electricity, for the period from 1 October 2008 to end of 2009.

* The current tax rebate of RM350 per person be increased to RM400 for those with taxable income of RM35,000 and below.

* All interest income from savings for individuals be tax exempt.

* Reduce import duties on various consumer durables from between 10% and 60% to between 5% and 30%. These include blender, rice cooker, microwave oven and electric kettle.

Full import duty exemption on several food items, which currently attract import duties of between 2% and 20%. These include vermicelli, biscuits, fruit juices and canned sweet corn.

* Reduce the road tax on private passenger vehicles with diesel engines to be the same as those with petrol engines, effective 1 September 2008.

I WON’T HAVE TO PAY (maybe a minimum sum of RM3 lah) FOR MY ELECTRICITY USAGE as I consume < RM 20 every month. Coupled with a meagre RM4 of water, I effectively don’t need to pay for utilities. Ah…the perverse joy of living in Malaysia.

I have been planning to get a blender and microwave oven. This means that over time, probably next year, these things should get cheaper.

It’s nice to know that comfort food should be cheaper tomorrow. Ah..now I can buy Chipsmore without feeling too guilty.

Now by some perverse reasoning, I don’t want Anwar to take over!! Then I need to pay for electricity 😦 But wait, Anwar promises cheap petrol, and since I’m planning to get a car sometime next year….hmmmm

Condolences

Ju Liang passed away today.

Condolences to his family, especially to his mother.

He was diagnosed with leaukemia in 2005. It has been 3 years now. But at least he is not suffering any longer. He was just 21.

The “M” and “F” word

It seems that the hottest topic dominating Singapore news nowadays is marriage and family life. Singapore leaders have said it in no uncertain terms, ” Singaporeans need more babies.”

I love to read the letters in the ST forum concerning this issue. But more or less it waters down to much of the same. Usually it pairs ” High cost of living” with ” Too busy.” That’s probably a huge disincentive to procreate and I don’t criticize that since technically I not employed …

But never mind. After a very family orientated sermon by the church elder with 4 (gasp!) children and knowing that a homemaker in my CELL group is expecting her 4th (gasp!!) child, I’ve begun to think about how many children I would want if I get married.

Now, I come from a family of three. And the three of us are as distinct as the sun, moon and stars. My father comes from a family of six and my mother, five. And so of course the magic number is: 4 (doink!!!!). Yes, I would love four children and I will call them Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy.

U-Liang is getting lame…

That ugly side of Malaysia…Malay special rights

It has been a long, and I mean long time since I have written anything that might land me behind bars.

This is one of them.

This morning about 8000 UiTM students marched in protest of the suggestion by Selangor Menteri Besar’s suggestion that 10 % of UiTM’s annual enrollment be opened to non-Bumiputeras and foreigners.

For some of us reading this, we would think that the MB’s suggestion is a no brainer. As a graduate of a NUS, which is anything but racially homogenous, marching against opening up the enrollment is a travesty of what higher education is. A prostitution of democratic rights if I may put it.

Mind you, I’m not against the 8000 students marching. Its their right to air their grieveinces however I may find it immature and childish. (Comparison with the way the government cracked down on HINDRAF and this march really shows what sort of government we have, a fair and just one…lol)

Unfortunately the news article from which I got wind of this is in Malay. But here is a snippet of stupidity that results from having a university that caters solely to the Bumiputeras.

Diminta mengulas mengenai pendapat yang mengatakan percampuran pelajar Bumiputera dan bukan Bumiputera akan mewujudkan satu persaingan yang sihat, beliau tidak bersetuju dengan pendapat itu.

“Saya amat tidak bersetuju kerana telah terbukti seperti apa yang berlaku di universiti-universiti lain setiap kaum tertentu hanya akan bergaul dengan kaum mereka sendiri.

“Ini bukan persaingan yang sihat. Keadaan ini lebih bahaya jika wujudnya perasaan mementingkan kaum sendiri walaupun belajar dalam satu institusi,” katanya.

Tegas beliau walaupun UiTM terdiri daripada kaum Bumiputera sahaja, tetapi para pelajarnya telah dididik untuk menghormati agama, adat dan kepercayaan kaum lain.

And the translation into English:

Asked to comment on the opinion that the mingling of Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera on campus will produce healthy competition, he disagreed with that view.

” I absolutely disagree with this view because it is proven that each race will only mingle among themselves as it is happening in other campuses.

” This is not healthy competition. This situation is more dangerous if there sentiments of racial self-preservation exists even when studying within the same institution,” he said.

He stressed that eventhough UiTM consisted only of Malays, each student is taught to respect the religion, custom and beliefs of other races.

This was quoted by the president of what we would call the Student Council.

Firstly, it’s certainly not true that students in other institutions of higher learning mingle amongst themselves alone. That’s just Malay chauvinism making that kind of assumption.

Secondly, granted that people of common ethnicity tend to group together, it is by no means a dangerous precedent or anything to be overtly worried about. Since over 90% students will be Bumiputera in UiTM (if the proposal is accepted) in any case, wouldn’t it be nice to extend a welcoming hand to the 10% others who wish to study with you too? Instead of focusing so much on the fact that we are Malay, you are Chinese, you are Indian, you are lain-lain, just being nice and welcoming will diffuse any unhealthy tensions straight away.

Thirdly, nobody is taught to how to live harmoniously in a diverse society. You’ll have to embody it and suck up to the occasional hiccups that living together brings. The fact that the so-called president in his eminent wisdom has seen fit to criticize and organize a march for nothing more that a show of juvenile immaturity shows that the lessons of living together in a multiracial country has not made an impression on him (and the rest of his ill-informed gang.)

I just find it shocking that tertiary level students still think like primary school kids. It’s little more than, “I dun wan to fren fren with you.” Which is ironic because throughout primary and secondary school, Malay, Chinese and Indian study together. Somehow upon reaching tertiary level, we feel there is a need to have schools like UiTM, which caters exclusively to one race.

Office calisthenics

When I first saw it on CNA, it looked simple enough.

On your office chair, grip the seat with both hands and push your body upwards so that your buttocks is lifted from the seat. Then bring your lap towards your abdomen. Repeat three times.

Believe me, its haaaard. After trying it 2 x 3 times, I was tired. And when I got back, I was aching.

But if it keeps the love handles away, I don’t mind the pain 😉

* * *

I really must see the dentist this weekend. Something is not right with my teeth, I can sense it. And I don’t want to wait until I can feel it.

“You complete me….”

That line, spoken by the Joker to Christian Bale’s character Batman a.k.a. Bruce Wayne is actually a spoof of the very old film Jerry Maguire.

It didn’t send chills down my spine though. Maybe because by the time the film had reached that point, I was emotionally spent. I would spoil the film if I went on from here. Let’s just say, from then on I didn’t ‘feel’ for the characters anymore.

Heath Ledger’s acting is top class, but so are the others. I especially loved Gary Oldman. He played James Gordon, and certainly is one of the better actors overlooked by movie critics who seem to have a girlish crush on the psychopath Joker.

The ending of the show was meant to be inevitable. Harvey Dent’s ‘fall’ from grace was sort of predictable, given his explosive personality and holier-than-thou characterization. But the ending was supposed to be tragic, it just didn’t seem that way. Anti-climatic was how I would describe it. Harvey “Two-face” just doesn’t cut it a tragic hero-I had no sympathy for him.  The Dark Knight, I am sad to say, was a failure on that point.

Go watch The Dark Knight. Go watch it for Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Christian Bale, Micheal Caine and Morgan Freeman. Go watch the suspense, the action, mind games and clever writing. Enjoy this while you can, because with the way the movie ends, you’ll end up wishing that there had to be another way of telling a story.

A big yawn.

Anticlimatic.

That’s how I would describe today.

Some may wonder why I haven’t been blogging much about the state of affairs in Malaysia lately. Well, the reason is because when the police claim to have thwarted a ‘planned’ protest rally in anticipation of the motion of no confidence debate in parliament when none was conceived in the first place, what’s there to blog about?

All they did was to piss of commuters and city folk.

In the end, the Speaker disallowed the motion, on a mere technicality. But of course, everyone would have anticipated it-lar.

This sandiwara is getting boring. Seriously, boring.

So what has been happening?

Yes, it has been a long hiatus from this space.

What have I been up to? CELLS!

It started out with a simple e-mail to the church pastor and then an introduction to the CELL leader. So CELLS are on Fridays. I like it there, and I’m wondering why on earth didn’t I join earlier. An added bonus, since the leader sends his daughter to Riverside (which is in Woodlands), he kindly offered to pick me up as well to Marsiling (or Clementi). Happiness…

Other than that, studies wise, I definately feel that I have not reached my peak yet. But then, there this ‘glass ceiling’ that I must break. Originality! Where on earth are my original ideas!!

I finished Inuyasha, H2, Miyuki and Touch. The latter 3 works by Mitsuru Adachi. Undoubtedly one of the best manga I have read. H2 is a little baseball heavy but a little Wikipedia clarifies the terms and how the game is played for me. So which one did I like more? H2 or Touch?…I must say H2, although plenty of other people say Touch is better. I don’t know, H2’s ending has a bigger emotional punch, whereas you could anticipate how Touch was going to end.

Yes….I am very tired these few days. Must have been because of the late nights. So sleep beckons.