“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.

Key Observations

Another observations post…that is to say a post on pure randomness.

1) Less is more. I tried making chicken curry today. I only had chicken(obviously!), potatoes, stock, curry powder, curry leaves and lemongrass. After adding a few cardamom pods, it tasted the best so far of all my attempts (when I played mad scientist with the curry.)

2) I have a renewed appreciation of the so called ‘Langlands philosophy’ or (functoriality principle). I shall not even attempt to describe it here; not because it is complicated, but because of the amount of prerequisite background knowledge, motivations, history and vocabulary needed to even make the idea sensible. Although at its core, it’s a really simple idea.

3) I am training myself to sleep later-but wake at the same time.

4) I’m currently trying to understand the Harish-Chandra Plancherel formula for semisimple groups. I know now that there are those that create; lesser mortals like me plagiarize.

5) Making daily personal targets aids productivity. I shall start disciplining myself to make such mental notes.

And there you have it a little snippet of what I do.

Doctor 007

I remember mentioning to a friend that election rallies were like carnivals.

” With party banners and clowns?” she asked.

If clowns are politicians, then yes.

And my, my does our Deputy Health Minister know how to make a clown out of himself.

Mr Abdul Latiff’s comment was made in response to a question in Parliament about the quality of the country’s medical services.

He said, ‘The doctors have a license to heal and license to kill so we (the ministry) have to ensure that our doctors are well-trained so that we can safely receive treatment from them.’

Of course I understand you lar, Latiff…tapi mengapa hendak digunakan frasa ” License to Kill” untuk merujuk kepada kecuaian sesetengah doktor?

(Why is there a need to use the phrase ” License to Kill” to refer to negligence?)

He must have watched too many Bond movies the night before. Eh, minister you know rite, Quantum of Solace, November 2008.

Or maybe, just maybe by a Freudian slip, he is actually a closet supporter of Doctor Jack Kevorkian.

But in any case, here is my advice to the (deputy) minister. APOLOGIZE!

* * *

On the other hand, it is refreshing to note the response to this incident. It seems to me that Malaysians in general still view life as something precious and worth saving, rather than something that is owed and discarded when I grow tired of it.

Oh, GGM. Facepalm…..

Credulity is stretched thin when you read news articles like this.

School uniform sexy, says group

KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian group condemned the uniform worn by girls at government schools, saying it encouraged rape and pre-marital sex.

“The white blouse is too transparent for girls and it becomes a source of attraction,” National Islamic Students Association of Malaysia vice-president Munirah Bahari said in a statement.

If they didn’t take it so seriously, I would have fallen on the floor laughing out loud. The baju kurung! and the pinafore dress…SEXY!!!??

But here’s why this isn’t something to laugh off. It wasn’t some closet pervert guy who said it, but a lady! When even women make the dubious argument

sexy clothing (please lor, school uniform is not sexy lar!)=== rape and all kinds of immorality

there something ‘else’ other than sex that’s at work here. It’s a conscious, deliberate and manipulative effort to pressure women (in general) to conform to a standard that should really just be left to personal choice and conviction.

Newton’s third law of motion

Just says that for every reaction

Abdullah Badawi wants AG to investigate 6 including former PM, Tun Mahathir implicated in the Lingam tape scandal

There is a equal and opposite reaction

Tun Mahathir quits UMNO!

That’s Wesak Day enlightenment for you

* * *

Watched Narnia: Prince Caspian yesterday. It’s quite good. I really like the ending credits song written by songwriter/singer Regina Spektor.

Pajak is illegal!!

Check out Jeffooi.com

According to him, the ‘pajak’ sistem for public transport is ILLEGAL! Well technically it’s not Jeff who said it, but the Kementrian Keusahawanan that said it.

I didn’t know that.

The bus companies here in JB have this system in place. And it does does its job. Not efficient, but hey I’m not really complaining.

The best way to put it is: Damned if you enforce it, damned if you don’t.

Social Mobility

Is Malaysia socially mobile?

I overheard the bus driver talking to a lady passenger. And one thing he said struck me

” Yang kaya, terus kaya, yang miskin, lagi miskin”

(Those who are rich, remain rich. The poor remain poor.)

Economic betterment in the 21st century is something of a silver lining. Always elusive. Its true that for the vast majority of us it is harder and harder for us to earn beyond what our parents earn nowadays. At least those parents who are still working-and I mean that in inflation adjusted terms.

Such a paradoxical situation really. Malaysia’s annual GDP growth rate is between 4-6% the past few years. But you don’t get a sense that our salaries are increasing at a 4-6% rate!!

I remember that my father said that when he first started teaching (40 years ago), his starting salary was RM 700.  And he could  get a house and support his sisters (my aunts)  to school. Now that’s REAL purchasing power.

Isn’t it strange, to where all those economic growth actually goes?

* * *

It’s the start of the summer holidays and NUS is like a museum piece diorama. Quiet and empty-which I like really. June’s wedding (ceremony; they ROMed long time ago) this Saturday, and looking forward to catch up with some old friends.

Getting the message across

I had originally wanted to blog about the bus hold up at the checkpoint. But this article in the StraitsTimes perked my interest instead.

A NEW school of thought is emerging on what a country needs to grow economically.

And leading it is China, which will use the upcoming Olympics Games as a platform to get across its message on growth, said Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.

And I thought to myself, “Precisely!”

During the Spielberg resignation, the People’s Republic crackdown on Tibet and the anti-Chinese protests that followed the Olympic torch relay every other news commentary and letters-to-the-editor in the Singapore media was along the lines of don’t-politicise-the-Olympic-games vein.

But you know, I guess is not really about the Games and being apolitical, but about whose politics gets to ride on with the Games. I guess since it is China’s Games, it should be China’s politics and political ideology to permeate the Olympics. And that is what Old Harry is telling us with that statement.

So if it’s Western values of freedom, democracy and basic respect for human dignity, the Olympics should BE APOLITICAL. But when it is about economic growth, peace and stability, it becomes A PLATFORM. That is deconstruction in real life for you.

* * *

I had an unpleasant encounter with a totally unprofessional taxi driver. After getting into his cab, he lingered on hoping to pick up OTHER passangers en route to Permas Jaya. I had to tell him off before he finally got going. Sigh…