Live Mocha

Another great site on the WWW. I recently stumbled on LiveMocha, which is sort of a language learning site coupled with minor social networking abilities. It's awesome!

Anyone with a connection can log on and pick up a new language. All this with the assistance of some really neat self-taken courses, or you can make new friends and chat with them!

Amazingly, all this is free!

www.livemocha.com

It's Christmas

and I'm feeling good.

Sitting here listening to a Christmas CD makes me think of how amazing it is how much this holiday affects people. I can understand a universal appreciation for New Years; hey everyone needs to have a new year right?

But wow. Take a fat jolly bearded dude, dress him up in white and red, have him giving out freebies? You've got the ingredients of a happy holiday. This is despite the fact we don't have reindeer, snow, or sleds around.

So here's to you Christmas. To the rest of you, enjoy this wonderful season. You know who you are. ;)

Disgusting

(Warning: Rant ahead)

Fly fm has this segment they call 'Fix It', where people send in their problems to get them... sorted. Some are good and legit issues, and some are just seriously messed up. I heard one the other day that just made me cringe.

The conversation went something like this:

Fly: Hello XXX, blablabla, we've got your msg, and you say that you have no money to shop during this holiday because you're just a temporary worker/intern.

Girl: Oh yes yes, blabla poor me, bla bla bla.

Fly: (Jokingly. They try...) We sorted a way to get you some cash. You just need to help us wash some cars.

Girl: (In the most whiny, pathetic, put me out of my misery voice) Alahhhh.

Fly: Okok. We don't wanna waste your time, so we've decided to give you RM300!

Girl: (As bimbo as you can sound) Yay. My problems fixed. bla bla bla!

It was one of the most disgusting conversations I've heard. All this girl wants is some cash and is obviously allergic to any form of effort in regards to obtaining it.

I'm not sure who to blame. Western culture for introducing holiday spending? Aku-tak-kisah mentality of spoilt kids brought up badly? or a bad decision for a radio station to oblige such an asinine request.

Phuket oh Phuket

Like I was saying, I had a great time at Phuket. Sun, sea, sand, and a 5 star resort just makes you feel like you're in heaven. Here are a few pics that I took during my stay.

The 'chics' you see in there? They're all ladyboys. Crazy stuff, but that's Phuket for ya.

http://picasaweb.google.com/nimnoospay/PhuketNov07

The pill of knowledge

In the shower today I was thinking, "Gee, wouldn't it be great to know everything?". My earlier post talked about memories being chemicals stored in your brain, much like a hard drive. Imagine that one day in the future, when nano-technology is at its zenith, a pill will be invented to incorporate the entire sum of knowledge available to mankind at that point.

Just one pill, and you'd have the cumulative knowledge of everything man has ever 'studied'. Possible? Yep. Desirable? Now that's open to discussion.

I think the initial negative response would be "Wouldn't it make life predictable/boring/too easy?" I don't think so.

1. It's not an 6th sense pill, so despite knowing EVERYTHING about that car speeding towards you, you're not going to know if the driver will in fact hit you or not.
2. Man naturally learns new things all the time. The pill can only contain so much information as new things are continually being discovered. So it's a matter of taking the pill, and continuing that discovery.

Of course, only the richest people will have access to it, thus probably resulting in the continuous adage of 'The rich get richer, while the poor get fucked over".

The messages we send

I realize it's been awhile since my last post. The past couple of were heavy with work, but I had a great opportunity to go to Phuket earlier this week for 4 days! Thanks BBDO ;) (more about this on the next post)

On the way home from the air-port, passing through the USJ housing area, I realized something about the way we've started barricading ourselves in. (If you're not familiar with the practice, think of it as a housing area sealing off all entrances/exits and posting a guard house at the designated point)

I think the default thought is that it's making things safer for the community (at least the ones in the barricade). However... I believe that subconsciously, this has a negative effect overall for the long run. Here's the equation that I think might happen instead:

The barricade represents a blatant acknowledgment that there ARE active criminals around. The longer the barricade is up, and the more of them you continue to see represents that things aren't getting better. If I were a criminal, I might be inclined to feel part of a larger majority now, thus giving me a 'safety in numbers' feeling.

If you were an 'invading' force, and your enemy has shifted from offense to defense, would you feel like you're winning the battle? I'd think so.

So what can a local community do to make it safer, without making things worse in the long run?