Mergers & Acquisitions

What I wanted to do was to update my blogroll.

What I ended up doing... well, you can see for yourself. I just can't tear myself away from Blogger's Layout page.

To be perfectly honest, that's also why I put up my side blogs which I never update. It's really to play around with my limited design skills. It's also supposed to present variety to my blogging but knowing me, I'm not too consistent with blogging anyway.

So I've decided to abandon my side blogs altogether and gather the material right here instead. Kind of like a consolidation exercise.

At the same time I've updated my sidebar with a little bit more stuff. Green links, to appease the guilt of my capitalist soul. Labels, because I just like label clouds. I'm keeping an eye for a good widget to display current reads, listens, etc. Any suggestions?

I'm also experimenting with Twitter (yes, I'm now officially a Twit), to see if I can go anywhere with it. At the very least, for those times when I'm too uninspired to blog, I could twit up a random line. Theoretically.

Sort of like blogging, except unplugged and running low on battery.

And yes, while doing all that, I rearranged the furniture. And put up a new sign.

Oh. Wasn't I supposed to clean up my place instead of my blog? And aren't my parents arriving very soon? Like, in an hours time?

Looks like I got the family activity for the day mapped out. Let me just go stash my porn first.

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Update 2 Sep: OK, so the banner isn't as colorful as before. How about the one below then? A little bit of the previous banner, a little bit of the new one, and a little bit of the blogspirit one :P

Let me know!

Give It To Me In C Minor, Please

I was gonna write a merdeka post as I've been wont to do the past few years, but then apathy set in and the rest, as they say, is sejarah.

So, I'm gonna turn my attention to something I have a little more passion for - music. Meaning, I'm gonna rip off Queer Ranter's song meme and fill in all the wierd and obscure lyrics I love so much. Hey, you just might even recognise one or two!

1. I know it's late, I shouldn't call at this hour. But yet, my fate, I need lips to devour.
[ Sleep - Conjure One feat. Marie-Claire D'ubaldo ]

2. I am milk. I am red hot kitchen.
[ Milk - Garbage ]

3. Hush, hush. Don't tell me cos it hurts.
[ Don't Speak - No Doubt ]

4. Everytime I get my hopes up, they always seem to fall. But what could've been is better than what could never be at all.
[ Could've Been - Tiffany ]

5. Have I been blind? Have I been lost inside myself and my own mind? Hypnotised, mesmerised but what my eyes have seen?
[ Carnival - Natalie Merchant ]

6. I'm trying to control myself, so please don't stand in my way.
[ Shattered - The Cranberries ]

7. There's nothing to do but believe. Just believe.
[ Breathe - Telepopmusik ]

8. I'm high enough from all the waiting, to ride a wave on your inhaling.
[ Breathe In - Frou Frou ]

9. Ooh eeh ooh ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang
[ Witch Doctor - David Seville ]

10. All the lonely hearts in London caught a plane and flew away
[ Supreme - Robbie Williams ]

11. Late at night, I toss and I turn and I dream of what I need
[ Holding Out For A Hero - Bonnie Tyler ]

12. This is the book I never read, these are the words I never said. This is the path I'll never tread, these are the dreams I'll dream instead. This is the joy that's seldom spread, these are the tears, the tears we shed. This is the fear, this is the dread, these are the contents of my head.
[ Why - Annie Lennox ]

13. Butterflies are free to fly and so they fly away.
[ Always On Your Side - Sheryl Crow ]

14. Snip by snip, I'm losing it bit by bit.
[ Caught In A Moment - Sugababes ]

15. I know someday you'll have a beautiful life, I know you'll be a sun in somebody else's sky, but why, why, why can't it be... why can't it be mine?
[ Black - Pearl Jam ]

16. Autour de moi je ne vois pas qui sont les anges, sûrement pas moi
[ Paradise (Not For Me) - Madonna ]

17. I ran from my house that cannot contain me. From the man that I cannot keep.
[ Mer Girl - Madonna ]

18. Our love is swollen. Made of the quietest shade of loud.
[ Swollen - Bent ]

19. When you know the notes to sing, you can sing most anything
[ Do Re Mi - Julie Andrews; also used by Madonna in 'Deeper and Deeper' ]

20. So I say thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing.
[ Thank You For The Music - Abba ]

So there you have it. Some of the songs that have caught my interest over the years. And I really do mean over the years. Song titles and artistes are between the square brackets. Really.

Well, hope this brings some of you down memory lane. Or, which is the more likely, get you wondering just what kind of songs these are.

By the way, the post title's also a line from a version of one of the above songs :P

Have a good week, all. And to my fellow countrymen, a great merdeka weekend!

High On The Hill

What an amazing time
What a family
Gwen Stefani

Gorgeous! Fabulous! Stupendous! Absolutely fucking wild!

Despite the half hour wait. And the anthem preceeding that wait.

She came. She sang. She had us eating out of her hands with simple "terima kasih"s and "you guys are one of the best crowds I've had" (probably says that to everyone, the hussy) and "my father-in-law's wife is from Malaysia which makes her my son's step-great-grandmother, you know" (guess she is a natural blonde then).

Never mind the leotards. She was gorgeous. Absolutely.

Harajuku girls. Cute.

And the male dancers. Hunky. Very.

The band was great. Her backup singer almost stole the show from her.

Youngsters of all races and quite a few nationalities were mingling freely. They were enjoying themselves, even. Not-so-young ones, too!

Yes, the stage was kinda small. But she worked it, running from one end to another. She even ran out to the stands to shake some lucky audience's hands (the bastards).

And the little screen behind showing clips. I so did not get the Sayuri's kelumumur dance (as she sang Early Winter). But those clips of her with that album cover look - stunning.

I bopped. I clapped. I waved. I sang along. I screamed till my throat was hoarse. I'm still hyped up now though I really really should be getting to bed.

What an amazing time indeed.

The Sin Escape

I feel so lucky to live in country with men of upstanding character. People who would not bow down to something as flimsy as populist opinion but hold true to what they know to be right and true.

Kudos to those fellows who so politely requested the mayor of KL to do what is necessary to ensure the good people of the valley are not corrupted by the dreaded budaya kuning.

Stefani, they say, must be stopped.

According to one of them, “This concert does not bring any good to Malaysians except invite youngsters to enjoy themselves, mix around too freely, get drunk and commit sins”

Of course, the good man has not, himself, ever attended a Stefani concert. He is too fine a man to stoop to so guilty a pleasure. He has, however, seen "pictures on the Internet and advertisements on television".

I can only imagine the horror the poor guy must have been put through seeing such pictures and advertisements. No doubt they must have showed him in painfully explicit detail the debauchery that goes on at such concerts. Why, youngsters are enjoying themselves! Actually enjoying themselves! How can parents allow this? How can our mayor allow this?

And the sins being committed? Well, it must surely be too horrific for him to explain what dire, diabolical sins that are carried out in the concert arena, right here on our very own hallowed soil. I'd rather not imagine it, but what if she shouts? Or, heaven forbid, jumps around on stage?

Oh and it gets worse. News is, Beyonce's coming as well! And not only is she from the wicked west, she's black. With bigger boobs.

I think our country's gonna collapse very soon.

It's quite scary that such things are happening right here in our tolerant, peace-loving community. Surely we need to wake up to threat of such negative forces that threaten to tear apart our way of life, one that we know and love?

Oh, our moral guardians. What would a country be like without you?

The Curse Of The Golden Flower

Everytime I even think about drinking it, I'll think of you.

(...and remember how you once snapped at me for drinking the chrysanthemum tea and leaving you the soya bean, even though I was the one who had bought the drinks back. That was when I learnt a little more about you...)



Curses.

Jubilation And All That

Sixty. I cannot imagine so many years. But there we have it - sixty.

Mom had a quiet little weekend celebration with close friends and family (though unfortunately, while both her natural sons made it home, only one of her four inherited kids managed to be there). It was a pleasant affair. Non-stop eating. As usual.

But, sixty!

Makes me think that I really need to show more love and appreciation to the folks. Well, I'm always telling myself that anyway.

At the age I'm at now, mom was already raising two children (one of whom was purportedly a terrible tyke), while juggling being both a teacher and a housewife - jobs which were somehow both full-time. Quite incredible, really, since I look at myself and see a guy who can barely take care of himself much less keep a nice home and a happy family. Or at least a clean home and a well-fed family (close enough).

It's amazing how our parents pulled off all that they did. How they managed to manage.

In contrast, I still feel like a doddering kid. Even though I'm already past my thirtieth.

Is this how things really are? Are we all really just big kids simply putting on an adult mien and adopting grown-up behaviour in the hopes that it would eventually rub off? Or is it just me, one foot snagged in the brambles of Neverland?

I may never know for sure. So I guess I'll just have to dodder my way through this life any which way I can.

And, who knows? I might be in as nice a place as my mom is now when I get to be sixty.

...

Not that I'm ready to be sixty.

Live Eat

Take an overpriced cafe, beam wifi through it, and bring in a laptop and a cam-phone. What do you get? Why, a live food review, of course.

Well, not entirely live lah. Not like I'm doing a podcast. But at the very least, instant.

So here I am sitting in a... not quite a cafe, really. It's more like your typical chinese restaurant serving noodles, fried rice and stuff. This particular one, which unfortunately can't remember the name (even though I'm still sitting inside right now... no name displayed anywhere and I can't quite be bothered to ask for the menu, which is really a piece of laminated paper).

Anyway, this place is in Chai Leng Park, Prai (as in the wrong end of the Penang Bridge lah), and it's supposedly famous for it's mee sua tow. They plaster newspaper cuttings all over the front as testament to this. At RM10 a bowl, it better be famous for the right reasons.

I walked in not for the promise of great food, but for the wireless connectivity they offered. I figured if I was prepared to pay ten bucks for coffee with a connection, why not a bowl of noodles?

Shark's fin mee sua tow with ambra & lime drink

The sharksfin mee sua tow I had (yes, I can hear the greenies screaming bloody murder now) was okay. Just okay. Seriously not quite worth the ten bucks I'm paying. It's not particularly tasty or anything. At least it's got bits of seafood in it - almost all of which were actually real. There were even bits of what I'll generously assume to be real shark's fin (probably the cheap type but still real). However, if I were looking for a satisfying serve of seafood noodles, I'd rather head to KL's Jalan Ipoh.

Or nee

For dessert, I'm having (yes, 'am', as in present tense) or nee - a teochew dessert which is kind of a yam (and sometimes pumpkin) paste with gingko nuts - that's not so easily found in eating places here in Malaysia whether you're in the north, central or even south. I guess I'll have to be grateful for this even if the one served here isn't great (not too bad, just not great), and is served in plastic container. And I didn't even check the price of this thing.

Oh well, I'm always the fool when it comes to food.

And wifi.

Dear Dolores

Well, hello there, Ms. O'Riordan. It really has been quite a while, hasn't it? Fancy seeing you again after all this time, and without your gang!

There hasn't been much fanfare, has there? I suppose it's a bit tough these days, having to contend with other breakout names like Gwen and Stacy. Still, I must say you got me excited to see what you've come up with after such a long hiatus. Did ditching your mates result in something new? Something different?

To be perfectly frank, after running through your release, I was a tad disappointed. Still the same old you, aren't you? In a way it's sort of comforting, having the familiar you around instead being confronted with a strange Dolores trying to be someone else. But I do wish you explored a little further rather than just letting in a little more pop.

At this point, the closest comparison I can make is the old you with a slight slant towards Marion Raven. You've got a whole lot more rock cred, of course, but still...

Oh well. It's okay still. I've missed you. You're back. I'm glad you're back. And that's really all that matters.

Yes, Dolores, I really was listening.

The Unbearable Resonance Of Being

The universe vibrates. Every molecule, atom and electron. It's kind of amazing to think about it, how everything vibrates, singular and yet in relation to everything around it.

And then... something hits that exact frequency, and something else amplifies and is pushed to the brink. Resonance... at times orgasmic, and at times catastrophic. And sometimes both.

Driving my car this morning, I sure wasn't having an orgasm. Wish I was, but this was pure disaster. Running across a bumpy stretch, I suddenly noticed a strange vibration that was not part of the usual shudder of my car trying to move along. Then, to my utmost horror, it dawned on me just what was giving off such violent agitations.

My belly.

I guess my friends weren't just being mean when they said I had put on weight. They were being honest and mean.

But hey, even Sean's got a gut, hasn't he?

Ahem.

On a completely different note, I just learned that I've been nominated for a G*Spot award. Here's the proof...

Shucks. It's nice to know my frequency resonates with at least one person. Even though I have, the last I checked, a grand spanking total of zero votes.

Oh crap. Can I just say I was totally kidding about the vibrating belly? I'm actually a steamy sexy stud (think Sean Connery except younger, more hair, with exotically indeterminate Asian looks, and I speak English). My friends are all just jealous because I am beautiful.

Really.

And oh, by the way, vote for me!

Ahem.