Smashed, Crashed and Mashed – Tow Truck Vultures

Posted July 17, 2005 at 2:22 am in Serious Issues

It’s been a very stressful few days, I’ve been meaning to blog about this since Friday…but I was busy, then I was asleep, then I was traumatised, then I was depressed about being a dumbass…

The moral of the story is:

a) Concrete walls are stronger than cars

b) Don’t try and beat the orange light if you aren’t ‘that’ close and you don’t know the road

c) Don’t go too fast round corners when you don’t know the road

d) Don’t go fast at all around those areas the tow-truck vultures hang around with their cans of roadshine oil

e) Don’t take corners fast when you have extra weight in the back you aren’t used to, the back end WILL spin out

If not…the result might look like this:

So what happened you ask? I was rushing back from Bangsar after meeting some friends for supper…as it was Thursday night I didn’t want to get home too late as I had work the next day, so I came down towards the lights exiting Bangsar back towards KL, Jalan Johar I think where there is a sharp corner up to join the highway…

I passed the junction and went round the corner, the car skidded round, like a normal tight corner, the tyres squealing, I thought it was going to be ok.. After the apex, the extra weight of 2-passengers in the back pushed the back end out, the car span slightly, oversteering, I fought to get back control and it jack-knifed 3-4 times, I thought I had control back when it flicked at the last minute straight into the concrete wall, there was a flurry of sparks, then stillness, and shock..

Then 8 guys with walkie talkies and name cards appeared 6 seconds later…suspicious no? They looked so happy too, they were literally cheering, that kinda disturbed me.

I know the corner under the highway to Eastin hotel is known for ‘oily’ conditions, a lot of accidents and these tow-truck vultures..but I didn’t know about this corner, I can’t blame them though, even if they did put oil on the road, I should have been going at a speed that it wouldn’t matter.

There was another wing mirror on the floor beside my car, exactly at the same spot I hit the wall, at first I thought it was mine, but I checked, and mine were still on…looks like they were having a good night.

I have contacts at Thong Hing though, so I refused to let them touch the car unless they got someone from Thong Hing..

The police were there within minutes too, looking for some ‘kopi duit‘, they wanted to get me for drinking and driving, but well they didn’t have a breathalyzer and I wasn’t drunk. So fuck them.

I had no camera and my phone can’t really take pictures at night, so there’s no shots from the incident..These pictures are the from the next day at the repair shop.

It’s going to take 2-3 weeks to repair aswell…because the engine bay got pushed in slightly so they need to take the engine out to straighten it, hit at an akward angle. So I’m kinda carless again, different reason from last time..But I’m hoping to go back to UK in a week or so, so it should be fixed when I get back from my holiday.

I got home about 3am, but was so pumped full of adrenaline I couldn’t sleep…

I kept replaying the incident in my head, running through all the what-if’s…

What if I’d stopped for the red light

What if it hadn’t rained earlier that day

What if my friends took a taxi back and I had no weight in the back

What if I hadn’t gone that night at all and met them on Friday instead

What if, what if…

All pointless as it’s already happened.

Friday was filled with going to the workshop to retrieve some things from my car, thankfully my laptop had been safely stored, and my friends car keys which were in my glove box..

Filled out the forms for the Insurance claim and to authorise the repairs, then headed to the police station to make the report..

I had to pay RM300 for ‘losing control’ and the guy wouldn’t take any discount at all…and I had to pay on the spot because I’m a ‘foreigner’.

After the headed home and slept, slept a lot.

Well that’s my story, a story of a dumbass who drove into a concrete wall.

As my friend said it was a good accident, any accident everyone can walk away from is a good accident. There was only one injury, a broken fingernail[/url].

That’s my lesson, don’t drive into concrete walls, it’s fucking scary, and beware of places that might have oil on the road, because your car will spin like a mofo (look out for a group of towtruck drivers drinking coffee).

I’m just truly thankful no-one was hurt, no other cars were involved, only my vehicle and my ego were damaged.

Continue Reading · 30 Comments · Serious Issues

The Influence of Television – The Devolution of the Mind

Posted July 13, 2005 at 10:38 pm in Deep Thoughts, Ranting

Now I’ve never been a great fan of the idiot box, perhaps due to my parents, I don’t recall us ever having a TV until I was about 9 years old, then it was mostly monopolised by my fathers fanatic love of gambling, thus it was horse racing, cricket, rugby, football, motor racing, golf, tennis and any other sport it’s possible to bet on.

I did save up my earnings from my early jobs and bought my own oldskool 1980’s TV when I was about 15.

Even then there was very few shows I really liked, among those I remember were Red Dwarf, Absolutely Fabulous and Quantum Leap..there were a few others.

I didn’t watch TV all that much, I mostly used it for playing with my NES! Then SNES, I remember buying the imported version of Street Fighter II from the US for about 60 pounds…Man that was expensive, but I was the first kid around to have it. That whacked like 3 months of savings.

I did used to love Channel 4 though, it’s like the UK’s slightly alternative channel, they used to have loads of interesting documentaries about drugs, hookers, the slave trade, child labour, gangsterism, triads, eastern european crime syndicates, all kinds of stuff right on the edge and some just plain bizzare comedy programs.

In London we did have cable TV, but that was mostly because we just wanted the broadband, we didn’t actually watch TV much, even though we had a 32″ widescreen, we mostly used it for movies and playing on the Dreamcast. (I bought a DC after my PSX got stolen)..I did enjoy discovery channel and history channel sometimes though.

Even now I don’t really watch TV much, I have a big TV, but I don’t have Astro and the terrestrial stations here are extremely limited. I use it pretty much solely for watching DVDs. I do like one channel on Astro though, channel 38 I think it is, the one that plays tons of old Kung-Fu movies and Shaw Brothers flicks, I dig that shit!

The only time I used to watch it in UK was when I got home late and I couldn’t be bothered to do anything involving, I’d just slouch on the couch and take in some idiot rays from the goggle box. Nowdays I just surf the web, read some blogs, play some easy DOTA.

But here in Malaysia most stations finish around midnight and start playing those stupid SMS chat things and music videos. I actually never watch it here as there is nothing at all worth watching on Terrestrial TV.

I do feel myself getting dumber when I watch TV, it’s just so unimaginative, it’s all laid out for you, you don’t have to do anything, you can feel your synapses shutting down as the mindless drivel is pumped into your head, TV programs nowdays are laced with subconcious political innuendo and all kinds of hidden commercial messages intended to get your dollars out of your wallet and get your votes going in a certain direction.

It takes a lot away from books, kids nowdays don’t know how to read. What I mean by that is of course they are literate, they can read and write, but they can’t ‘read‘ as in read novels, read classic books, get into a good fiction or thriller. It takes a certain mindset and practise to be able to read fluidly, to be able to immerse yourself in the book, you have to able to read without effort, without trying, without stumbling in your mind so you just absorb the words and get into the book.

I believe TV destroys this, TV removes the requirement for literacy, TV removes the requirement for imagination.

TV has a an amazing capability of creating a time vortex too, it just sucks your time away, you find yourself watching something just because it’s on, you don’t know what it’s about, who’s in it, what the hell they are mumbling about and you have absolutely 0 interest in it, but you keep on watching it, flicking channels, sucked into the land of the couch cabbage. You could have spent 4 hours watching TV and learnt nothing, enjoyed nothing, realised nothing, you just existed for those 4 hours, jeez what a waste of time.

It also influences language a lot, I’ve noticed in Malaysia people often use American prounounciation, even though Malaysia is an ex-colony of Britain, so you’d think they would use British English? But no….TV is all pumped in from the US, all the US shows are syndicated, you rarely see UK shows here, so American English is taking over, you can also see the quality reflected in the local comedy shows, they are very basic and slap-stick, much like the majority of American ‘humor’ [sic], it doesn’t have the complexity or subtlety of British humour, which granted a lot of people don’t get.

It also seems to have deeper implications such as influencing morality and social connatations, like some people believe the lifestyles characterised in ‘Sex in the City’ are real, so they try to mimic them…

People believe what they see on TV like it’s real, like they read it in a history book or a newspaper, when even the TV news stations are totally biased. I like to think that BBC world is the least biased, but that of course is a biased opinion from me.

All in all, what I’m saying is TV sucks. DON’T DO IT!.

Don’t waste your life in front of a TV, read a book, surf the net, watch some movies, go see your friends, turn that crap off.

Continue Reading · 35 Comments · Deep Thoughts, Ranting

Joss Stone is the pwn!

Posted July 13, 2005 at 11:55 am in Music

Just got addicted to this girl..

I remember when her music first hit the UK before I left in November 2003.

Her song was played SO often on the radio but it was just cool as hell. I think they were playing Fell in Love with a Boy back then.

She was so young but just blew everyone away with her husky voice and unique jass-esque style of singing.

She manages to sing with such clarity and emotion too, quite amazing for her age, and she’s HOT! She shows music really still can have soul.

Miao!!

At the age of 14, she auditioned for a popular BBC show, Star for a Night after that she kinda took things with a run and she’s now a superstar.

2003 was the time of super cheese pop and Joss was a welcome break from Britney and her clones.

Right now I’m digging Right to be Wrong and You Had Me..

Her album sounds so fresh too because a lot of it was recorded in real time with the band in a studio, very few songs are actually done like that now, they are played seperately and mixed together after, very little programming on this album.

Anyway better hit the sack 😉

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I am surrounded by evil – I SEE THE DEVIL

Posted July 12, 2005 at 3:52 am in General Nonsense

No really, it’s like OMFG, WTFBBQPLZ?

What does it all mean…is it a sign?

Is it an OMEN!??!

The sign of the devil..behold….

I was so bored at work I downloaded all the mailing list mails I subscribe to, to read offline at my desk as I had nothing much else to do..LOOK WHAT I WAS CONFRONTED WITH!

Yeah scary isn’t it…

Then I remember a while back I was checking my stats in a normal blog whorish way…and I noticed this:

More evil!!!

Then one final straw, another thing I remembered….I was pretty sure one of the DOTA map versions[/url] was 666kb…so I checked out my maps folder..

NOOOOOOOO!

So, what does it mean, what is it all about….

SHOULD I BE SCARED?!?

Have you ever noticed any weird stuff like this showing up around you before?

I have always been a bit evil though, perhaps now it’s just manifesting itself..

Or perhaps it’s all just a perfectly normal coincidence, who knows.

Continue Reading · 28 Comments · General Nonsense

Malaysian Marine Day – July 13th-17th

Posted July 10, 2005 at 9:48 pm in SCUBA Diving

The objective of this project is to instill social and environmental responsibility on behalf of the local dive community. This in turn will be recognized in the international diving community as the Malaysian contribution in our effort to preserve our marine environment. Participants will be educated on ‘coral planting’ techniques which are currently practiced worldwide to promote the growth and preservation of new coral reefs. Besides this, there will also be an underwater clean-up to support this project.

It’s Malaysian Marine Day this week and Project AWARE[/url] is coming up later in the year.

Malaysia has some of the most beautiful and varied coral and marine life in the world, it should be preserved, and people need to start respecting it.

It’s this weekend in Mabul.

Past Marine Days:

Marine Day to promote coral conservation
Mabul Marine Day

I don’t think I will be able to make it this year, but I’m hoping to get to Project Aware[/url] later in the year in Redang!

Will post more about that later.

Continue Reading · 4 Comments · SCUBA Diving

Random Ramblings – Poppy sucks ass

Posted July 9, 2005 at 3:10 am in General Nonsense

The London Tragedy[/url] has put a sad edge on things, kinda depressing.

At least 50 dead and 700+ injuries..

We are not afraid.[/url]

I am still missing my camera, and having withdrawals from not taking pictures..

There is a few movies out I want to see, Initial D, Unleashed and coming soon Seven Swords and Myth (Perhaps Fantastic 4 aswell)..

Guess I better do something constructive today like go shopping.

Went to Poppy last night, after hearing so much about it for so long from FireAngel, I thought it must be good.

Turns out it’s complete shite, half open air concept with no air con, sweaty with the worst DJ in the world who played the same beat all night, like a 5 hour warm-up set, just makes you feel sleepy..yeah play the same songs more often please LEARN HOW TO WORK THE CROWD MOTHERFUCKER.

FA[/url] and Suanie[/url] FFK’ed us, but God[/url] and Kim[/url] were there, was kinda zz, hate going clubbing on Friday nights, no energy, lack of sleep.

Anyway better go and do something, like EAT!

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Continue Reading · 17 Comments · General Nonsense

London Bridge is Burning down…

Posted July 7, 2005 at 9:27 am in Serious Issues

Motherfuckers…

Bombing London on such a joyous day, I was going to blog about the great news of London winning the Olympic bid for 2012, beating the stinky garlic munching hairy arm-pitted frogs of gay paris by 4 votes..

But how can I when my country has just been blown to shit.

It’s pretty sick aswell, coinciding with the start of the G8 summit in Scotland…

According to the latest news, there were 4 blasts, all targeting public transport during rush hour…

Currently known as 2 dead and a LOT injured, maybe more than 300, am not sure as of now..ITN is reporting up to 40 dead..

Blogs responded to the blast quickly as due to congestion the cellular networks were down..

As I’ve been saying blogs are the new media..

Jeff Ooi also has some coverage on this.

Injured people, bloody and covered in soot were seen coming out of the tube stations..

We always said if they hit, they’ll hit the underground…I didn’t except the buses too..

A group calling itself “The Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe” posted a claim of responsibility for the blasts, saying they were in retaliation for Britain’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Web statement, republished on the site of the German magazine Der Spiegel, could not be immediately confirmed.

The full statement:

In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate, may peace be upon the cheerful one and undaunted fighter, Prophet Muhammad, God’s peace be upon him.

Nation of Islam and Arab nation: Rejoice for it is time to take revenge against the British Zionist Crusader government in retaliation for the massacres Britain is committing in Iraq and Afghanistan. The heroic mujahideen have carried out a blessed raid in London. Britain is now burning with fear, terror and panic in its northern, southern, eastern, and western quarters.

We have repeatedly warned the British Government and people. We have fulfilled our promise and carried out our blessed military raid in Britain after our mujahideen exerted strenuous efforts over a long period of time to ensure the success of the raid.

We continue to warn the governments of Denmark and Italy and all the Crusader governments that they will be punished in the same way if they do not withdraw their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. He who warns is excused.

God says: “You who believe: If ye will aid (the cause of) Allah, He will aid you, and plant your feet firmly.”

Makes me feel sick to my stomach.

Good summary from a UK blog HERE.

For all those that SMS’ed me, thanks for caring, yes it feels horrible and my family are all ok, we are near Birmingham, so well out of the way of London.

*Sigh*

What more can I say? Apart from..MAN THIS IS FUCKED.

Continue Reading · 24 Comments · Serious Issues

Waking up on the right side of bed – I’m a night person..

Posted July 6, 2005 at 9:12 pm in General Nonsense

It does a soul good
To see the sun beamin’
Now I continue my walk
Do a bit o’ day dreamin’.

Ray O’ Sunshine by Ruth Norman

It’s a pretty rare occasion I wake up before my alarm not feeling like I’m about to die, especially on boring long, drawn out projects like my present one, which tend to suck every drop of willingless to live out of my body and remove any motivation to get my ass off my comfy coconut fibre mattress.

Usually I wake up like arghhhwtfomgbbqplz IT CAN’T BE MORNING ALREADY!!

I am a night person though, it may be biorhythms or something, I thought it would be different in Malaysia as I’m in a different timezone, so it’s not…

Perhaps I’m just a lazy bastard that likes to sleep a lot?

I am totally more alert at night though I have more brain activity, more creativity, more energy, everything..

By 11pm I’m usually wide awake, so sometimes I have trouble sleeping at midnight or before 1am..

From what I’ve seen most geeks seem to be like that…I always much prefered doing complicated things in the middle of the night, or doing things that require a lot of thought or concentration…for one the above, I am more alert, also there are no distractions, there’s nothing on TV, there’s no noise, it’s quite and dark and cooling..ideal time to hack away at something.

Still for some reason I woke up this morning at 7.30 like wide awake, akin to being hit with a beautiful ray of sunshine…I was even shocked myself as to why and what the hell was happening..

So I got up and grabbed a coffee and surfed for a while, it was nice..

And here I am at work, I still don’t feel as horribly listless and depressed as I have every other day on this project though, I guess it’s just one of those good days, and I’m in a good mood..

I did have a great dinner last night though, impromtu beer and too much food session at Chili’s Bangsar..with a bunch of hot chicks, people seem to keep commenting I’m always surrounded by chicks…must be my metrosexuality[/url]!

There was me, Suanie[/url], Mata Kecik[/url], FireAngel[/url] and Kimberlycun[/url]..

We had plenty of beers, LOADS of food, ok too much food and LOADS of laughs, was pretty hilarious, I had great fun.

Need to start eating less and get my flat (not fat) arse to the gym, am starting to feel noticeably unfit..

Don’t worry though, no cause for alarm, I still look hot, bwahahha (beh paiseh)..

Have a great day, I love you all 😛

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Continue Reading · 5 Comments · General Nonsense

War of the Worlds – Half a classic?

Posted July 5, 2005 at 11:37 pm in Movies

Ray Ferrier is a working class man living in New Jersey. He’s estranged from his family, his life isn’t in order, and he’s too caught up with himself. But the unthinkable and, ultimately, the unexpected happens to him in an extraordinary sense. His small town life is shaken violently by the arrival of destructive intruders: Aliens which have come en masse to destroy Earth. As they plow through the country in a wave of mass destruction and violence, Ray must come to the defense of his children. As the world must fend for itself by a new and very advanced enemy not of this world, it’s inhabitants must save humanity from a far greater force that threatens to destroy it.

** CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS **

This was *almost* a great movie, I mean really really great, a classic, for the first 2 acts, the first half it was gripping, emotional, scary, involving and just great to watch (Especially on a THX screen!)..

There was another War of the Worlds made in 1953[/url], which although not totally faithful to the book was better than this one, especially for it’s time it was definately one of the best Sci-Fi movies made….BTW the grandparents at the end, they are the original actor and actress from the 1953 movie.

Speilberg has the power to make any movie he want and he comes out with this pap.

The movie seems to almost grind to a halt and change tone half way through…The special effects stopped pretty much, and 1/4 of the movie was wasted in a freaking basement, where I almost fell asleep, then after that it was just the most horribly sickeningly syphillitic cheese dick ending.

It was almost like they ran out of budget..

Tom Cruise played the first half pretty well, as it suits him and his 2 expressions (Shock, and Gormless Shock)..he is well experienced in playing expressionless assholes..And he just spent all his time running..which he seems to do pretty well.

The special effects were mind blowing, they were so realistic, especially with the THX system shaking my bones, I actually felt scared during the first half, which is pretty rare, that’s how atmoshpheric it was and how well directed it was…truly chilling..

Then they got the basement scene, from then onwards the movie went downhill fast..Even the cellar scene with the alien probing lacked suspense and has totally been done better before. Tom Cruise became the hero type, which he isn’t supposed to be in this movie..

There was a lacking plot, a huge dollop of prime cheese sauce at the end and a lot of stupid shit that didn’t even make sense..

Like:

Why after the EMP kinda lightning thing, did that guys camcorder still work?

Why after the huge devastation and multiple plane crashes there was still a neat lane for Cruise to drive out of in his undamaged MPV?

Why were the force fields off? Because the aliens were ill, they just like switched off?

Why can the super high-tech robot probe thing not detect people whispering a few feet away but seems to notice everything else?

The burning train did rock my socks though..

There is a lot of character development at the beginning…but then it just stops too, you end up not really caring for the characters..

Plus the ending just dribbled away like a bout of mild diarrhea going down the drain, the aliens just caught a cold and died, how nice..

Why did he still have to be alive? That just was just TOO CHEESY, and the grandparents, in the untouched street with make-up and coiffured hair? WTF?!

It was kind of a roller-coaster for me though, I was expecting it to be bad, then it started out, I was like OMG THIS IS AWESOME, then it turned to shit after the cellar scene. *yawn*

It’s pretty hard, I mean nigh-on impossible to stick faithfully to the legendary book by Orson Wells, but still it could have been a GREAT movie.

Overall hard to rate….it’s worth watching, but once they get to the cellar feel free to leave as it’s just crap.

The first half would be an AWESOME 9/10
The second half would be absolute BABOON TURD 2/10

So overall something like 5/10

Continue Reading · 18 Comments · Movies

Metrosexual or Homosexual? Where is the line?

Posted July 4, 2005 at 9:43 pm in General Nonsense

It could just be down to vanity I guess, but well…

The typical metrosexual is a young man with money to spend, living in or within easy reach of a metropolis — because that’s where all the best shops, clubs, gyms and hairdressers are. He might be officially gay, straight or bisexual, but this is utterly immaterial because he has clearly taken himself as his own love object and pleasure as his sexual preference. Particular professions, such as modeling, waiting tables, media, pop music and, nowadays, sport, seem to attract them but, truth be told, like male vanity products and herpes, they’re pretty much everywhere.

Wikiepedia: MetroSexual

It’s a play on words from metropoliton hetersosexual, it’s come to mean guys more in touch with their ‘feminine’ sides, who care about their appearance and personal hygeine.

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy[/url] is a great series which tries to change typical slobby, style-deficient macho guys into new, trendy metro males. It’s like pluck that monobrow, shave that nose-hair, trim that back rug!

Monobrows/Unibrows are so NOT ON, even being a guy, I mean what’s the deal with looking like a neandrathal, pluck that motherfucker man.

On the same note, I found this very funny site:

Celebrating the Unity of your Eyebrows[/url]

Ok so how metro am I?

I’m definately not homo…but am I metrosexual?

[list]
[*]I own and use moisturiser
[*]I know what ‘Cleanse, Tone, Moisturise’ means
[*]I own facial wash
[*]I use hair conditioner
[*]I own cotton pads
[*]I have used toner in the past
[*]I care about what I wear (although I’m not a designer label whore)
[*]I don’t like football really
[*]I don’t like F-1 at all
[*]I can cook
[*]I keep my appartment clean
[*]I can iron
[*]I enjoy shopping
[*]I can understand people’s ‘feelings'[/list]
Or am I not metro:

[list]
[*]I’ve never paid for a facial, manicure or pedicure (I’ve had a facial, but it was when my aunt was practising for her beautician exams)
[*]I am uber prosu hairy
[*]I burp in public
[*]I like beer & liquor (I don’t drink bitch piss like Bacardi Breezers or wtf)
[*]I like geeky stuff
[*]I get my hair cut at the Indian barber, not some poncy salon
[*]I don’t really give a fuck about most peoples ‘feelings'[/list]
I remember vaguely using foundation once when I was about 15 to cover a huge spot I had when I was going to my High School graduation ball…I can’t remember though if I rubbed it off or kept it on!

I have never waxed any part of my body, nor do I intend to.

One thing, I’m definately not as faggish as Superstar Bryan[/url] our idol 🙂

Do you guys have moisturiser? Do you use conditioner? Have you done anything you wouldn’t tell your ‘macho’ friends about?

Continue Reading · 29 Comments · General Nonsense