Neighbors, a pain in the arse or a helping hand in bad times?

There's one thing about living in a terrace house which defines heaven or hell -- neighbors. Sometimes, you get a taste of both heaven and hell!! Lolz.

Well, unfortunately for me, I've got a taste of both.

At first it was heaven. Everytime we happen to meet anyone of their family in the front yard, we greet each other, occasionaly stop what we were doing just for a light hearted chat. Whenever they have kenduri, we were invited. Of course, my mum doesn't want to organize any party herself due to the tedious work, therefore we never invite them to any party at our house. =p Sharing stuffs and some times cooking a little extra for each other was nice.

But, after a few years, things start to take a down turn. Sharing of food gradually vanish; chats become lesser; even greetings were limited! Well, not that we don't want to greet them, just that whenever we greet them, we get a cold stare. Therefore, ignorance is best at times. It was then that all the negative traits of this neighbor start to show.

No more helping hand at taking in the clothes whenever rain comes; very limited greetings; they even send an anonymous letter to my opposite neighbor claiming that they were too noisy with the piano! (well, my opposite neighbor asked around who send the letter and they indirectly admit it was them.)

The worst of all was the offensive odor they were sending out. I don't actually know what they cook, but whenever they start to fry things, the stench is unbearable! Even my other neighbor couldn't stand it! (I am not alone, you see. =p)

Besides the cooking, both the father and son smoke ciggarettes like a chimney during winter. Therefore, we as a victim, could only enclose ourselves in our house to avoid inhaling second hand smoke.

There are a thousand more negative images for them, but I guess it's not worth ranting it out here. Fortunately for me, I am leaving this house in 11 days, to a foreign land where I shall make home for at least two years. Looks like this neighborhood image is tainted by a single bad apple. I wonder what will happen when I leave. Sigh.

Football, what?

FAM is supposed to stand for Football Association of Malaysia, or is it supposed to stand for Football Assholes of Malaysia? After being trashed by China 5-1, they went on and get trashed 5-0 by Uzbekistan. So what does FAM actually stand for? You make your own decision.

After all these humiliating defeats in the AFC, the people are starting to condemn the standard of Malaysia national football team. I came across this particular letter in The Sun newspaper. The author really proved that Malaysia football team cannot attack, neither can they defend. Please, being outscored 10 goals to 1 goal is a total disgrace!! What's more? That's the total of two games only!

I actually managed to watch part of the Malaysia vs Uzbekistan match. It was pure coincidence. Where was I? Well, at the mamak stall. Yeap, they were airing it live. There was two other Malay boys watching the game as well, and they were seated next to me. I'll bet with you that those two boys were utterly disappointed at the standard of football Malaysia is playing too!

As I am writing this, I can't help but to think of the match between AS Roma vs Man. Utd.. Well, that match ended 7-1 in favor of Man. Utd.. But to say it's a total disgrace to AS Roma is totally wrong. Why? Because AS Roma actually won the match right after that trashing. Now you are talking football. But letting in 5 goals in two consecutive match? C'mon, even non football fans are venting their anger.

And to talk about Manchester United, Malaysia actually cancel their tour here because of this tournament. Well, I think the consequences are showing now, aren't they? Already not many people watch Malaysia national football team play, and now there are people boycotting that event because they don't get to see Manchester United play in Malaysia. And after those humiliating defeats, all those football fans are just going to point at Malaysia football team and laugh their arse off, won't they? Isn't this a case of adding salt to wound? And in this case, adding salt to their OWN wound!

The only solution now is actually to privatise football in the country, just like what England is doing for their very own English Premier League. The government should never ever get involved in any matter regarding football, and should never ever introduce politics into football. You are saying there's no politics in Malaysian football? Well then, tell me why My Team FC is doing way better than all the other football clubs in the country? I'll tell you why. It is because Shebby Singh (manager of My Team FC) picks player aka talent without discrimination; it is also because there is no politics involved in his team. You think his team is not successful? Well, selection for My Team FC 2 is coming up, and this time they are playing against Indonesia. Where's Malaysia? They don't even raise an eyebrow in football!

You can say I am bias in my point of view. But what is football if the players can't even stand up when being brushed aside by other defenders? Please, there is no determination and will shown in the football Malaysia national team is playing. I'll bet that any normal high school team can beat them in a duration of 90 minutes! Disgrace!

~~Down the drain, down the drain. Malaysia national football team standard is going down the drain!~~

I (am an @$$) on duty!!

I went to INTI-UC in Nilai on Saturday for the Inter AUP Skills Challenge. I was supposed to take the bus, but then found out that Foo was driving so I conveniently jump into his car. LOL. Thanks Foo!! Hahaha...

While paying the toll on the way to Nilai, someone honk us. At first me and Foo thought it was Foo who accidentaly touched the honk. But then it came again. This time we were very clear that Foo didn't touch the honk. Suddenly, there was a loud siren wailing right behind us. Then it became clear to us. It was a police bike that honk us, and now he is blaring his noisy annoying siren. He and his big @$$ bike can't go through the toll plaza.

After we clear the toll, we let him through. Guess what? He gave us the kind of don't-you-know-I-am-on-duty-to-send-big-shots-off look. You know, those kind of dirty looks we some times give to people who annoys us. Excuse me? How are we supposed to let you through when we haven't clear the toll? Are you going to clear it for us? We need to find change for the toll, need we not? Even the toll plaza cashier also need to prepare the change right? If your big (arse) shot is so important, he won't even be using the highway, will he? Use the helicopter all the way to the airport!! I'm sure there are thousand of places for a helicopter to land in an airport, aren't there?

Now that I have fallen victim to such embarassing incident by the police force of Malaysia, I finally understand why some people take this incident to the national papers to complaint about the rudeness of police man/woman. Yet I heard that the government said they (the police force) are polite and wonderful, never rude. Say what? It's Visit Malaysia Year 2007, and you show your disrespect to users of highway, on the way to the airport!! Do you think people will still come to Malaysia after that? I think not. What a disgrace!

Good news and BAD NEWS

There's good news, and there's bad news. =(

First up, the good news. I didn't screw History 1 test 1 after all. I don't understand how he (Borges) allocate the marks for our answer, but everyone seems to be getting fairly good results. =) I got 71 marks, not sure it's out of 80 or 100. But anyway, it's just 0.7% difference if that matters.

Next, bad news. REAL BAD!! =( Borges finally got everyone into their trials. And we lost Grace to that bloody witchcraft trials. WTF?! What happened to all those people who raised their hand in support of that cliche witchcraft trial? If my memory (and Wern How's!) serve me right, I remember about half the class voted on witchcraft while the other half was on loyalist! And now you tell me that no one is interested in joining witchcraft, or rather only 6 people willingly join that trial. Where's the logic?! Sigh... I want Grace to be in my group! =( She and Wern How are the people we (me, David, Julian) waited for to take this class for the trials, and now we lost one of them. SOBS!!! Guess we gotta live with it. Borges don't allow changes! =(

Anyway, to add salt to my wounds, I am coming down with a bad flu. =( *sniff* Going to have sore throat soon. And I have basketball match this Saturday. Wonder how will I survive. =(

Sigh. Signing off from a bad day.

What's happening to my beloved country's English?!

I was reading the newspaper today, and I came across this:

Excuse me? How do you spell NOODLE? Noddle? Ok, I can accept that this is a typing error, but what's the spell checker doing? He/she ain't doing the job right, is it not?

Anyway, this isn't the first time newspaper published news with errors. But then again, this might be serious considering that a young kid might just see that news (headline ok??) and start spelling wrongly! Yeah, I think too much, blame it on boredom then.

______________________________

Does anyone watch 8tv's So you think you can dance? Well, one of the contestant is my mum's friend's son. Yeah yeah, complicated relationship, but it doesn't matter. What matter is, he said that the producers of the show actually manipulates the outcome of the results. The judges' decision to put whom into the bottom four (or six now I am not too sure) is being determined by the producers. Guess what happens next? Yes, racist results. Who's racist you say? Well, watch the show for just one night, who gets into the bottom placing even though they outclassed the others in dancing will then determine your answer.

Oh, the emcee for that show, some malay lady, is extremely bad. The show's title is in English, therefore I don't think anyone can have the perception that this show will be entirely conducted in English. Well, you are WRONG! The judges speak malay, and if they speak English, they struggle for the suitable words. As for the emcee, half the time (or more!) she will be speaking in malay, the other half of the time (or less, definitely) she will be speaking horrible English. She can't even pronounce the words correctly, let alone the title of the show! Excuse me? Who will be interested in watching the show if the emcee can't even pronounce the title of the show accurately?! Can't they use other people who can speak perfect English as the emcee? Or these people are too highly paid because of their language proficiency? My guess is yes, they demand more wages. Prove me wrong, anyone?

Ladybug and disgrace

My mum got me this:

Never mind the maths as its background. I am supposed to start studying for my first professional paper, but I have yet to start. =p

Don't you think its cute? Lolz. Little blue ladybug. It's for me to hang on my phone, as a phone accessory. Well, it comes along with a loop so that I can hang other stuffs, acting as a key chain. How nice. =)

Well, besides its cuteness, it can come and haunt you too!

Boo! I am the ladybug ghost. Scared? =p

_____________________________________

Remember the Man Utd tour which clash with the stupid AFC cup which I have posted here before? No? Let me refresh your memory. Disrespectful?

Well, after all the pointless arguments, involving even our Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, Man Utd have finally decided to, damn, cancel their tour to Malaysia. Goddamn it! Mark my words, the AFC cup will have far lesser people watching it. Either it's protesting against it for not allowing Man Utd to play here or for no interest in the poor standard of football being played as compared to European's League, people here will still boycott the AFC cup.

Promoting Visit Malaysia Year 2007? What a disgrace.

Disrespectful?

Something hit the news recently which I felt quite amusing and hilarious. At the same time, I also feel that it's stupid and unnecessary. What is that you may ask. Well, let me show you this little excerpt quoted from one of our national newspaper, The Star.


"The FA of Malaysia (FAM) have caved in to pressure from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and ruled Manchester United out of playing in the country in July, throwing their Asian tour into chaos. "


Another line reads:


"“If they want to come (to Malaysia) during that time they can’t,” Tengku Abdullah said.
“The sanction has not been given by the AFC and we have to follow it. Manchester United cannot come to Malaysia during the Asian Cup. They will have to rearrange their schedule.”
Hammam on Monday slammed United as “disrespectful” for scheduling a tour during the Asian Cup Finals being held in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam from July 7-29. "

Well, all in all, it is just about the Manchester United's Asian tour clashing with the Asian Football Cup competition. The competition is being held throughout the month of July and Manchester United are scheduled to arrive to Malaysia and play against Malaysian XI on July 27.





First of all, how big is the Asian Cup competition? Is it as big as the UEFA European Champions League? How about the English Premier League? The Spanish La Liga? The Italian Seri A? My term of 'big' here refers to TV coverage, advertisements, earnings and so on so forth. Walk around in the streets and randomly ask people this:


"Do you know the Asian Cup competition? Or do you know about the English Premier League?"


Guess what's the answer? English Premier League. Don't trust me? Go ahead and give it a shot. Ask around!





This fracas actually caused much football pundits to question whether should action be taken or not. ESPN's Sportcenter even aired a section of Football Focus, showing each of the football pundits on their views on this outburst.


All the four pundits, reknown pundits Shebby Singh, Jamie Reeves, Steve McMachon, and Paul Masefield, said that the Manchester United Asian tour can indeed co-exist with the Asian Cup competition. They all agreed that there should be some sort of compromise between the two events to promote football in this region. The biggest joke came from Jamie Reeves. He went on and say who watches the local football anyway. My my, that was quite a hit, wasn't it?





Even The Star's forum published views of readers against the Asian Cup. The Star even carried out a poll regarding this issue, and 94% out of 107 people who voted said that the Manchester United Asian tour shouldn't be cancelled.


My point of view on this is, well, who watches Asian Cup? I mean, does more people watch Asian Cup or more people watch Manchester United? Please, one of the biggest club in Europe will be playing in our country. This can even promote Visit Malaysia Year, and you want to cancel it? Don't you think that's outrageous? Another thing, when do you see 80,000 fans watching football in our national stadium? Heck, only when Manchester United or other big European clubs play, of course! There's no point comparing who's going to win if European teams meet Asian teams, what more Malaysia. Besides, it's not even the Malaysian national team who are going to face Manchester United. It's Malaysian XI for goodness sake. Does that affect your competition? And, the match is scheduled on a rest day for Asian Cup. Does that affect the competition also? Don't you think that it will increase the number of people watching Asian Cup if Manchester United plays? Surely, more people will be watching football and the organisers surely can do some advertisements or promotion to attract these fans to watch the Asian Cup, don't you think so?


By cancelling Manchester United's tour to Malaysia, many fans will be disappointed as they don't get to see their football idols in live action. It's a totally different atmosphere watching a live game and watching it on TV, isn't it?





All in all, I think by cancelling the Manchester United's tour to Malaysia, it will be a very dumb move to promote our country and our football, don't you think so? Or all this ongoing fracas is just a desperate advertisment for the Asian Cup as Malaysia is hosting it? Not enough publicity anyone?


Sigh, all ready to shout EPL Champions 2007 in Bukit Jalil and then the hopes suddenly turned gloomy. Absolutely dumbness!!





Oops... =p

Passport Renewal

I went to renew my passport today, at 9.45am. Upon reaching the place, I saw a queue of people outside the main entrance. No choice, no turning back at that point. Queing up itself took about 45 minutes. What I saw (those people queing outside) was just one third of the queue! Queue up for what? Just to take the number for my turn. Yeap, whole 45 minutes of standing behind a guy who seems like he didn't know the existence of soap, or rather did not know there's something call shower. Upon taking the number, the guy at the counter told me this:

Guy : datang pukul dua.
Me : pukul wh- what?! 2?!
Guy : ya. Dua.

After queing up for 45 minutes I am supposed to come back at 2pm?! What the hell?! It was 10.30am at that point, and waiting there for 3 and 1/2 hours is pointless. Therefore, waste petrol and parking money, I end up at home. What nonsense!!

Went back there at 2pm sharp, only to know I was made to wait another hour or more. I met a friend of mine, whose number was about 50 more than mine. Both of us was made to wait till cobwebs start building around us. To add salt to the wound, the centralize air conditioning system was down, making the area stuffy and hot. Imagine more than 250 people cramming into an enclosed area no larger than a football pitch, only having one main entrance without any windows, and only using fan for air circulation!! The body odour everyone is emitting has no mercy!!

Finally it was my turn, and I was assigned to this counter where the person behind it should be a trainee, or maybe someone new. I asked if there was discount for student, he said yes and I gave him all the required documents, except my old passport which was under a paper, prompting me to forget about it. Luckily I came to my senses and produced the expired passport in time, if not I would not know what will happen. He then showed another senior lady further behind the counter my university offer letter. Both of them stared at the letter and tried to look as if they understand what was written on it. Heck! It is written in english for god's sake! Yet it took them ages to see that it is an offer letter. I doubt if they even understand one tenth of the letter, and my doubt was answered when the guy asked where is Drake University located in the States. Right below the letter, there was the word Iowa. What a shame to themselves, ain't it?

It took me another half an hour for my turn to make payment, and I still can't get the passport. I was asked to return on Thursday evening!! (Tuesday and Wednesday are public holiday) Can't they get it done by Thursday morning?!

And here the government proudly proclaimed that passport can be made in two hours. Say what??

Advertisments

I was watching Dr. Dolittle 2 yesterday night, on TV3, a local tv station. See Eddie Murphy?

Guess what? At this time, the advertisement began.

The annoying advertisments:

Then, the show started back 5 minutes later!! Yeap!! Whole 5 minutes for some bloody repeating advertisements. So damn annoying!!

After all those stupid advertisements, they only air the show for another 2 or three minutes, just for this:

The time those credits was showing is:

I mean, what the hell?! Can't they just cut the advertisements and finish off the show? And if they want to air advertisements so frequently, can't they at least make it more interesting and not so repetitive? It's so damn annoying!! They even had the cheek to air their midnight news before finishing off the show. And that darn news is a whole half an hour!! Can't they just bring forward the show for half an hour?? Brainless freaks...

Malaysia Malaysia

My cousin sister, Kit Ying (if you noticed my previous entry, you will know who is she), applied to be a teacher here in Malaysia. She just graduated from high school and with her public examinations results, she started applying for this and that. I went through that as well, but mine was more easy as I have actually fixed my mind on Actuarial Science. She have not made up her mind, therefore applying here and there and see what's the best possible outcome.

After applying to be admitted to be a teacher, the government body replied her. In the reply, they sort of ask applicants to pick the subject(s) they are interested to teach. They even set groupings for the subjects.

My cousin wanted to teach Mandarin and Mathematics. These two subjects are her strongest amongst all. But, the groupings require those interested in teaching Mandarin to have music background, or at least capable of teaching music lessons. Besides that, teaching Maths will need to be able to teach Malay.

The problem is, those who are interested in teaching Mandarin normally come from Ipoh. In Ipoh, music classes are not as common as in Kuala Lumpur or Subang Jaya (where I live). Therefore, people with music background are uncommon.

Ipoh also tends to be more 'Chinese', if you get what I mean. Most Chinese despise Malays, so do the Indians despise them Malays. Therefore, they normally avoid studying that subject, as the language used in schools are more of English and Mandarin. Malay is just another core subject like Maths.

With these two problems, Ipoh people who are interested in teaching Mandarin will eventually lose interest. Yes, you may blame them for being racist, if that's what you call them, but then again, who else in Malaysia are willing to teach Mandarin? I would say, almost 70% of teachers teaching Mandarin come from Ipoh. Ipoh's population consist mainly of Chinese, therefore interest in teaching Mandarin will be generally higher, don't you think so?

Don't you think the government should harness these invaluable resources? The job of being a teacher isn't very appealing nowadays, am I not right? With all these factors, don't you think that the government should cater to these people's needs?

I think that the government should abolish this 'grouping thing' in the education system if they want to improve the education system. To add salt to wound, the government recently complain why so few people want to teach Mandarin.

Irony? Or worst, dumb?

Besides that, how often do you see a Malay excel in Mathematics? Not that I want to be racist, but it is the TRUTH. If the government continue to be like that, the future for education in Malaysia will end up... KINDERGARDEN LEVEL!!

Okay, I am exaggerating, but you get the idea.

Sigh, why is my country like that?

Rubbish

Malaysia recently have this advertisement which aims to educate people about law on the road. It has a common theme which is, children also know about the rules, what reason you have as an adult to not obey the rules. It show scenes such as children in the park playing but stop to look at 'oncoming traffic' at a pedestrian walkway or children sitting at the back of the car saying cutting queue in a traffic congestion is wrong. Worst still, I recently heard on the radio, a young boy pointing out that someone is doing above 80km/h on a road with a speed limit of 80km/h.

Well, one can argue that if children know the rules, what reason is there for adults not to obey the rules. But then again, does children have the same maturity as adults? Does children know how to think as rational as adults?

For example, if you drive on a 4 lanes straight road with a speed limit of 80km/h, would you stick to the speed limit? The road is so straight that it streched for almost 3km and the condition is dry. Do you think people will stick to that speed limit?? Don't you think other people will tend to speed above the speed limit even if you keep to it?? You will end up as a road hazard if you keep to the speed limit, don't you think?

Therefore, what I think is, even though using this theme to encourage people to obey laws, I don't think everything is possible. Children does not have the same rational as adults, neither they have the same maturity. I am against this theme, and I truly hate those advertisements! A disgrace to both children and adults. And here you (the government) are promoting visiting Malaysia year 2007. Excuse me? Clean up all the dirt in the country first before promoting our country to other people around the world!! There is even a report in the newspaper saying tourist does not really see what is so beautiful in our country and will think twice before coming back! Wake up, my dear government! Haiz... Signing off... *disappointed*