The thin line

This post is more of an early morning rant of a disgruntled sleeper.

Of late, in a bid to save electricity and do my little bit of ecological preservation, I've been sleeping without the air conditioning. Thankfully the monsoon season has brought us relatively cool nights, so by the time I hit the sack, temperatures aren't too bad and it cools down further as the night stretches on.

However, with the monsoon comes the damned mosquitoes. *rage* It was hell trying to sleep, and now I'm cranky. The situation is not without solution though.

1) Slather myself in Mopiko before bed; probably Malaysia's most popular mozzy cream. (with the possibility of rubbing it in my eye without realizing. *nyaaarrrhhh*

2) Turn on the air conditioning, which I did last night.

However, last night's sleep is lost. Sigh. *continues rage*

Hair Asia???

When I was out driving yesterday, I saw a peculiar truck. It looked like a huge Air Asia banner, but wait a second! It had 'Hair Asia' plastered on the sides instead!

From the 2 seconds as I was 'not' speeding by, it seemed like Hair Asia is some sort of portable hair salon service. (with no frills I betcha)

1) What the hell is a no frills hair-cut (assuming that it IS their sales pitch)
"Hokay sah, ere's ow it works. Your haircut is honly RM4. BHUT we honly provide the cutting. If you wanna to sit down, 'kerusi' kena rent. If you want more than one type of scissors, have to pay. If you want the plastic cover, that cost extra dollars. Hair wash all, longkang situ."

2) Do knock offs like these really work for a hair salon?
I should've taken down their number just to see if they'll be in operation 6 months from now. In my line, I see alot of FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) products that're made by local boys, but have an almost criminal resemblance to the international brand right next to it. I've seen it. It WORKS. People blindly pick the pack up without much scrutiny. (after all, some of these brands invested a large wad of cash to gauge their consumer reactions to the packaging design)

I bet they're really proud when moms go home and pick out their new purchase and go

"Doupe"

Pride?

Any Malaysian right now that's even remotely in touch with some media is bound to be hearing the 'Merdeka' call. After all, it's the 'Big 50', and boy are we proud of it.

50 years of independence? Yeah. Great. Woo hoo. Honestly, I'm appreciative of the living conditions I have. I've been blessed with a pretty nifty job, positive income growth, relatively decent living costs (there was an economic entity that claimed we were one of the cheapest countries to live in) and many more perks, so I don't really have an issue with our national fanfare.

However, the public announcement from one radio station made me cringe. I'm willing to bet I'm not alone.

It went something along the lines of "Be proud of your nation, bla bla bla. After all, we have the 3rd tallest building in the world and the longest pencil in the world (With so much enthusiasm I nearly barfed. Hey another lost word!)

C'mon.
3rd best country to live in? 3rd lowest crime rate in the world? Sure I'd be proud. 3rd tallest building? Gee. Now I KNOW we're on the map for that one.

And do we really need to beat our chests with claims of being able to accommodate giants with an aptitude for writing?

Come the f#ck on.

Lost words

I was crossing the road earlier when I saw a car that made a 'blunder'. He was basically on a traffic light but he didn't need to be there as there was a natural turning lane for him to take. Seeing him take the turn made me go 'opocok', which brings me to my topic today of words that you haven't used in AGES.

'Opocok' (I don't know if anyone knows this) simply means 'oops'. It's more elaborate and sounds a little funnier. Unfortunately, I can't really remember the origins of the word or where/whom I learned it from. The only thing I know is that I've not used it in ages and till a few hours ago, totally forgot its existence!

Thinking about it, there are a few more words (mostly cusses haha) that I've not used in awhile. Try and remember if there are any weird words that you knew, but have stopped using! Whee!

Tastes just like chicken

I read this article a few days ago. In a nutshell, they somehow linked some proteins from Mr. Rex to birds. I'm no scientist, so I won't try to explain what's in it, but I thought it was a catchy title.

Did it really taste like chicken? I don't know, but did you ever wonder where the phrase came from? If you think about it, there are quite a few types of meat that's available in a regular western diet.
No one ever calls the other meats 'just like chicken' (your usual suspects of beef, lamb, venison, turkey). So what would they have had to try to say it tasted like chicken? How many weird things would they have had to taste to coin that phrase?

Lets look at the Chinese diet. We don't go "Hou chi kai kam yeong" at all! Mind you, we eat anything that moves (and plenty of those that don't). If there's anyone that could've logically come up with it, it's the Chinese!

An inconvenient truth

I just had the pleasure of watching this amazing piece of work. Let me start by saying if you haven't had the opportunity to watch this, please do. I implore you.

Regardless of whether or not you've seen it, I'm pretty sure you would've heard of it. From whatever you know, before i get to my point, I think that most people (myself included) have a tendency of being affected 'in the moment'. The now is usually easy to feel... easy to create a response to.. easy to adjust... but the future is a different thing altogether.

How often does it happen that we make promises to change.. to act.. but don't? It's our nature to procrastinate and forget. Often enough, we make excuses. In this context, many will go "Oh, what can I possibly do to change the world?" However, I honestly believe you can make a difference.

I once read that Einstein called the power of compounding the 8th wonder of the world. If he did, he's absolutely right. Let's say you (yes you!) switch off that dvd player after you're done. If everyone does that, the compounded effect will be tremendous! I think it's important that you start with something small (like that light bulb you like to leave on when you go to bed) The important thing is to be consistent.

After reading this, I hope for two things from you. 1) Watch 'An Inconvenient Truth' by Al Gore. 2) Take action.

We move along..

Those of you that know me personally might get the impression that I'm an eternal optimist. You'd be right to some extent. For some reason, I truly do believe that good things will come my way... eventually. Maybe it's because if I want something, I'm pretty darn persistent in getting it.

However, there are times... like today, when you've got to let go. As much as you believe in a particular dream coming true, reality still has the final say. At situations like this, you make decisions. It might not be the one that gives you the greatest happiness/satisfaction in that point in time, but I've learnt (still learning really) that it's equally important to make that call and to stick to it. Perhaps it's an illusion of control. *shrug*

If you've ever had to give up something precious, you'd understand. The only consolation is to try and think of the bigger picture. Maybe the door you just closed opened up another one.

Or maybe that door might one day open again.