Mini Announcement

After loooong and thoughtful thinking, I've decided to share and divide the contents of what I want to blog about between this blog and the Jedi Council Shared Blog. So.. this way, both blogs will benefit!.. just like mutual trade between countries and wait wait what the f*** am I talking about. Ahh too much studying. Ok conclusion, visit both these blogs. Ok? Ok. Finished. Done. Period.

The Last Potter Book

I finally got my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!~!~! But this time around, I felt like I was missing something. During the past years, when a new Harry Potter book came out, I was always very eager to get my hands on one. I just wasn't feeling the same way I did last time when I bought this book. Probably it might be because there was a leak (a real leak, I've seen it) of the copy of the book in the internet.

Salon reports that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has been leaked four days before it hits bookstores. It turns out that someone with access to the American edition of the book has taken a photograph of every one of the pages and made them available via bittorrent. Publishers may well be quaking in their boots, but in some places the quality is barely legible. On many pages the pirateer's hands are in the pictures with other pages needing a bit of Photoshopping just to make out the words. It appears many of the sites have been removing the content, naturally enough.
Source: Slashdot.org

I was supposed to wake up to get the book early in the morning right? But turns out my handphone alarm woke me up at 8, at 9, at 9.30, at 10, at 11, and then I woke up at 11.50am. (Had to reset the alarm everytime it woke me up). Shooot.. my mum drove me to IOI Mall to pick up the book, and I was expecting a queue at noontime. Turns out, there wasn't any. I just walked straight to the counter and picked up my pre-ordered copy along with a free Harry Potter T-Shirt.

So I've got it now!! Wahahaha, gonna read it the whole day today, along with the 6th book, since I forgot what happened in the 6th book. =P

Disclaimer: Having seen a copy of the leaked version on the net does not constitute that I've got a copy of the leaked version and neither did I download it off the internet. In plain words, I don't have it.

Recommended Reads

It's probably sensible to firstly say that.. haha.. I've been really busy during these few weeks that I'm back home. Outings with my KL friends, with my family, and recently with my Concord friends left me with little time which I usually spend in my room reading books, and researching up the KLSE (reading financial statements, annual reports, running up figures, basic accounting and all the lot). I haven't even been home for dinner for the last few days already. Come to think of it, it's just weird, that I'm busy.

Speaking of which there's one book which I highly recommend to everyone regardless of their interest.

Freakonomics / Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

How do I put it.. (this book might be long overdued in review because I only recently picked this up while some friends have already read it months ago) this book is just mind-blowing. There are just so many facts and figures in it that you never really knew or thought of. The best chapters in the book are the ones on the Ku Klux Klan, crack dealers, and crime. Down to it's most basics, the book extends the use of economical application to real world scenarios, and how actions often have underlying motives and reasons.

Another book which is also recommended is The Undercover Economist / Tim Harford.
This book, is unlike the previous book, touching more on basic economical principles. To quote from Wikipedia.

Book provides introductory information on principles of economics, including but not limited to demand-supply interactions, market failures, externalities, globalization, international trade, comparative advantage. It explains in non-technical terms how Starbucks and other coffee providers price their products, why it is hard to buy a decent used car, why the health insurance system in United States is failing, and why poor countries remain poor while the People's Republic of China grew continuously rich in last couple of decades, among other things.

Go go go read these books! They're really really good. Speaking of books, I think I shall wake up really early tomorrow (hopefully) to start queueing for my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at Popular Bookstore IOI Mall Puchong. Du~du~du..

The Launch Of..

The Jedi Council Shared Blog!
As of now, it is still under development as we add more new stuff into it, as well as customised templates and stuff. We also need to list down a code of ethics on blogging in that blog. But.. jinz has already done it.

Anyway, drop by at our new shared blog! There are 12 contributors in total, although it only says 8 now. And.. I'm expecting this blog to be messy, at the very least, due to the nature of.. well, you know..

So, go click on the link on the sidebar now!

Road Rage

Recently there was this case in Subang Jaya where a poor guy passed away after being a victim of road rage. Regrettably, things like this happen. And after reading what one of the ministers had to say in the aftermath, I only registered this one point - Road users will also have to play a part in this, don't hog the right lane driving at 80km/h.. or something like that.

Then there was a letter in today's Views column in The Star with a catchy headline (for me at least). Local drivers tend to become enraged easily. Ahh yes, that I must agree. Driving to and fro on the MRR2 expressway from Bkt Jalil to Pandan Jaya has shed light on many many ignorant idiots who hog the right lane of the highway at 80-90kmh. Not only do these pariahs (no insult to the Hindu caste intended) don't move on the emptier-albeit-slower middle lane, inconsiderately they will just remain on cruise mode, blatantly unaware of the pile of cars that they are holding up.

In one case, I was driving behind one of these aforementioned cars. Someone please create a sticker that says either "I have too much free time and petrol" or "This road is my grandfather's" for them to stick on their bumper thank you. The idiota has refused to budge to my tailgating (not too bad lah, 1/2 car distance) and flashing of lights. I'm not a big fan of horns, so I didn't beep him.. now, doesn't that just make your blood start to boil? It's not that I am being impatient or whatever but don't hog the f**king lane to yourself. If you're not overtaking or keeping up with the car in front, then stay in the middle lane or the slow lane please. And it's not just me, 6 other cars behind me were closely following me, all signalling to pass as well.. This means that each of them wants to go faster! For heaven's sake look behind next time and be more considerate. So eventually, we all had to overtake him from the middle/left lanes. And this also endangers us as well, as we have to go faster on the slower lanes to overtake a slow car on the fast lane.

Take these roadhogs off the road, if they don't know how to be considerate then don't drive at all. The weird thing is that I have never experienced these on KESAS/SPRINT/PLUS/NKVE/KL-Seremban, or other highspeed highways. So far the only 2 with road-hoggers are MRR2 and LDP. Just get off the damn lane if you see more than 2 cars eager to pass you behind.. either comply or sooner or later you'll provoke a road bully and become a victim of road rage.

On other words, I'm only frustrated about roadhogs. I do not endorse road rage, and neither do I support violence on the road. I am all for the removal of ignorant fools off the roads.

Disclaimer: Any injury, physical or emotional, to any other party other than that whom I've referred to in this post has been duly noted, unnecessary, unintended and if intended, in a non-malicious manner. In other words, my deepest apologies to you if you are not an idiot hogging the road who feels hurt after reading this post. (How on earth will that happen?)

You know what..

I say.. screw Midvalley, Times Square, Lot 10, and Sungai Wang. Let's all go to Damansara. There's um.. 1U, Ikano Power Centre coupled together with The Curve, IKEA, and Cineleisure!! After 6 months, one thing I've noticed was that MidValley was becoming Sg. Wang. Little boys wearing stereotypical-gangster-style-looks, and girls with lala pants. It was my first time going to The Curve, and it was beautiful in a sort of way. The food street was lined up and arranged into a sorta italian style piazza, serving a mix of western and eastern fusion. Real nice! I'm guessing quite a bit of effort was put into interior deco because.. it's just so nice, and probably from my point of view, the only mall that can rival it in decorations is Starhill.

Not only that, which other shopping mall provides shuttle buses? That's it, another item on my of to-do-things.. walk and shop around in The Curve, as well as 1U. Lalala dum dee dum..

--
Note: Ever since I came back, around 13 days ago, my nose has been uber-sensitive to dust, and so has my eyes as well.. gah, it's so dusty and dirty back here, and it sucks to have either a runny nose, or a blocked up nose, or a nose that doesn't stop sneezing whenever i'm not in any air-conditioned room, or without fresh air.

P.S: Darren don't so emo lerr, I'm pretty sure things will work out decently fine for the time being.

Reflecting back

Come to think of it, I've been here for 18 years already. Two nights ago, my mum showed me a photo album containing tons.. of pictures of me, when i was 1 month old...2 months old.. 3 months old.. all the way until when i was 1 year old. It's just so heart warming to see myself, smiling and laughing. My mum always told me. "You very guai(good) wan. Sit there and play by yourself all day long only. Then can suddenly laugh by yourself." I wonder.. what goes inside the minds of little children? It's just so cute..

To grow up from such a small innocent being to become an older kid of 18 years.. That day itself, was spent just thinking and recalling whatever happened in all my years. I never knew that my cousin brothers played with me so much when I was still a baby boy, and I never got to see how my aunty or my grandpa looked like, not until I saw those photos. I swear, recalling memories, whether good or bad, in the end, still warms your heart and reminds oneself of the sweeter things in life. So, here I lie, on my bed, typing out this blog entry at 2am in the morning, thinking.. how would I, in the future, look back? What would I feel? Would I still remember whatever bad things that have happened, or would I grow wiser and treat everything bad, as a lesson of life?

So perhaps, I might have just taken everything in a more negative way. Perhaps, I should just bury whatever unanswered questions I still have and walk away from it. Steph once told me, that I should take a long long time off, to find myself, regain my confidence and go for it once more. Yeah, you're probably right Steph, I think I might just do that.

Right, so.. 3 months. Time to stop moping around in my room and start engaging with the outside world. It kinda feels just like Concord once again doesn't it?

NGUM!

I was listening to one of the "the mrbrown show" podcasts yesterday. One particular episode I'd want to highlight is the part on National Go Up Month - NGUM.

Here's my transcription of the podcast. Mark-natural, Tim-Blue, Kopitiam Uncle- Green

--

Eh Tim ah you also terminate your cable subscription ah?

Yalah, cannot tahan what. First 8 dollars, then 15 dollars, now 25 dollars! how to tahan?!

Ya somemore things like world cup must pay extra, and this year, no italian league. Eh let's go and watch the match at the kopitiam ah.
--
Eh uncle uncle, two kopi beng pls.

uh ya ya, lai liao lai liao
(sound of glasses trinkling)5 dollar.

Hah? What! how come so much! It used to be only 80 cents.

Sorry hor, we.. have no choice. July is the national go up month.

And what does that have to do with coffee?

Julyyy.. is GST go up, NETS go up, eleticity go up, and cable TV price go up. Other thing also recently go up is bus fare go up, MRT fare go up, post office go up, polyclinic go up, public hospital go up, sugar cane go up, condense milk price go up, milo go up, household thing go up, CBD Parking go up, rental go up, HDB go up, and.. minister salary go up. So... we also have to go up.

Hah? There is national go up month?

ya, we all together go up, then you all just need to one time pain. We follow the gaumen example. Wan to go up must now go up or else eletion time, cannot go up.

You are just doing it because you are the only coffee shop in the area with a big screen TV showing soccer on cable right?

No la, cannot liddis say.. we have no choice! We are not the monopoly you know. We are competing with other coffee shop also what. They got TV also.

Ya, but they are showing the crappy free to air channels.. no soccer!

They got TV, we got TV. They sell kopi, we also sell kopi. Also is competition what. We have no choice..

So that means we have to be paying two dollar fifty cent for a cup of coffee from now on?

no la, we are not so bad.. two-fifty is for the soccer match price. You want the cheaper? Can come and drink during the happpy hour time. Only two dollar! Happy hour time, no soccer. We have no choice.

Drink coffee also got happy hour ah? So expensive! Cannot afford!

Ahhhh, but the economy also go up..! The newspaper keep saying what, so it must be true! Nowsaday, look like eeeeveryone got promotion, increment, and seven month bo-nus. So you all should be able to afford NGUM.

NGUM? (Tim)

National Go Up Month.. (spelling) N G U M - ngum.. we all follow gaumen wan. July ngum ngum ho.. all go up, we have no choice.

I thought you guys promise not to raise coffee prices? I saw the papers that day, a bunch of coffee shop owners promised!

Oh it's true! Our coffee never go up. We got promise we got promise. Go up.. is the cup rental. We have no choice!

Cup rental? What! Now I gotta pay rental to drink your coffee?

Ya, coffee is still same price. Cup rental only go up. Rental now very expensive you know. So the cup ah, also must rental. We have no choice...

And if I want to drink coffee without your cup leh?

Cannnoottt... you have no choice..

--
If you haven't listened to the mrbrownshow yet.. do it now! I find it really funny at times, and it also highlights the humourous sides in current affairs of Singapore. Now.. on to the next episode..

Contemplation

I've just gone to a farewell party of a friend of mine. How do I put it, the house, the neighbourhood was all lovely. Met lots of people there, every one of them old friends. But, there's a feeling of mellowness, the moment of meeting that certain someone, I can just feel the situation. Everything since then, is different. Everything since then, will have changed. My friends are still very fun to hang out with, and although I seem different, look different, I guess it's the picture that I've painted of myself, and that I cannot repaint that picture for fear of shock, and misrecognition. Perhaps I have silenced the voice that has cried inside of me, perhaps it's just me thinking too much. But I'll have to accept the fact, that I have been crying all this while, with my outer ego covering me. I have changed hearts since then, and not given up hope of finding happiness. In fact, there is happiness out there, it's just a matter of time, and person.

Asking myself, why am I still letting my heart cry? I'm afraid that can't be answered. Probably I'm too afraid to open up again for fear of getting hurt one more time. Probably I haven't got enough confidence. But why, am I still letting myself bring up previous griefs? I've been keeping faith in my own strength for the past 5 months, but why are all the thoughts running through my mind like wind rustling through leaves? One troubling question is.. what has she thought of me all this while?

Now that I've written this out, I guess I feel better. I don't have anyone to talk to about this, so I shall share it with my blog. How nice would it be, to have warmth, and a place where all this insecurity and fear can be cast aside. Maybe, mine will come in due time. Yeah, it'll come in due time..

At the end of the night, I can't help but think, people have grown up so much already. Friends are leaving to different parts of the world. Choices are being made, sacrifices are done, the time for separation is nearing, while the time for faith and independence has come. Boys have grown into men, driving their cars, and standing tall and proud. Girls have grown into fine ladies, wearing perfumes, and makeups.

I guess I'm pretty screwed at this point. Turns out to be a fine mess I've gotten myself into. Left the party at 12.05am, dropped off 3 friends and reached home at 12.45am. Dad's quite ok with it, but mum's angry. But I understand.. she's just worried about crime, especially with all the cases happening at night, after midnight.

Ah well, time to just feel guilty for what I have done for making my parents worried, to patch up things back here at home, and to move on with life. I might be probably thinking too much.