12:12 12/12/12

89 years until the next one.

Monkeys Wrapped in Suits

There is something about yourself that you don't know. Something that you will deny even exists until it's too late to do anything about it. 

It's the only reason you get up in the morning, the only reason you suffer the shitty boss, the blood, the sweat and the tears. This is because you want people to know how good, attractive, generous, funny, wild and clever you really are. "Fear or revere me, but please think I'm special." 

We share an addiction. We're approval junkies. We're all in it for the slap on the back and the gold watch. The "hip, hip, hoo-fucking-rah." Look at the clever boy with the badge, polishing his trophy. Shine on, you crazy diamond. Cos we're just monkeys wrapped in suits, begging for the approval of others.

- Jake Green, Revolver 

Old Sarawak Tie

My mum managed to dig out this old tie from somewhere a few years back. I chucked it into my wardrobe and kinda forgot all about it. I recalled it when I was last back in Kuching last year but I couldn't find it in my wardrobe and so I thought it must have been unfortunately misplaced.

Now that I'm back in Kuching again, I thought I'd give it another go and it was with great relief that I managed to find it hiding inside one of my shirts. Damn you tie for giving me grief over the past year! Now to find my misplaced stamp collection and the (Enid Blyton/Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew/3 Investigators) books from my childhood.

So what's so special about this tie you might ask? Why all the fuss?

Note the emblem on the tie. Sorry for the crappy quality of the photo. You can blame my webcam for that. Here's a closer look at the emblem.

Yes, that emblem is the old flag of Sarawak set in a shield. That flag was used way back during the Brooke era and when Sarawak was known as the Kingdom of Sarawak. It was in use from 1870 until 1946 when Sarawak was ceded to Britain and became a British Crown Colony, after which it was retained as a shield on a British Blue Ensign. It was then restored and used as the state flag after the formation of Malaysia in 1963, up until 1973 when a new flag replaced it. Sorry for the history lesson but with Malaysia Day coming up, I thought it appropriate. Heh.

Flag of the Kingdom of Sarawak (1870 -1946) and the State of Sarawak (1963-1973)

Flag of the Crown Colony of Sarawak (1946-1963)

Considering that the flag seized to be in usage from 1973 onwards, that would mean the tie is at least 40 years old, if not older. It must have belonged to either my dad, grandfather or one of my uncles. 

Ok, so the above two images of the tag are beyond crappy. In order to remedy this problem, please kindly donate to my camera fund. All proceeds will go towards the buying of a new camera to take better quality photos than the two above.

As we can(not) see from the above, the tie is made by Crocodile with its unmistakable Crocodile logo (which bears a striking resemblance to Lacoste's croc logo). Though in the above image it can easily be mistaken for a cicak (Donate. Camera Fund. Now.).

That mass of blur below the logo says "Symbol Of Quality". And to save you from damaging your eyesight in the second photo, it says "High Class Taritate. Washable. Wrinkle Free." I have no idea what taritate is as googling does not turn up any results. Some sort of material long lost to human knowledge? Damn I might have just stumbled onto a gold mine.

3 Years

It doesn't seem so long ago. But the sand in Chronos' hourglass never stops flowing.

3 years. Has it really been that long since you left? It's a long time. So much has passed since then.

There are days I've often thought about how much you've missed out. And how much more you are going to miss. All the firsts in life. All the things you must have wanted to see and experience. The things you wanted to be proud of.

I wish things could have been different. But life does not allow such luxuries. And so we have regrets.

Wherever you are, I believe you are in a better place.

Until we meet again, rest in peace.

11:11 11/11/11

.............

Mind Your Language

Just finished watching the entire first three seasons of the 70's British sitcom Mind Your Language. Ah, the nostalgia. I first watched it on TV2 in the mid 90's when I was around 10.

They don't make sitcoms like this anymore. And I mean that quite literally. The show got its laughs by playing on the racial and cultural stereotypes of the different nationalities of the students in the classroom. We have the communist, Chairman Mao-loving Chinese from China who spouts communist propaganda at every available opportunity while replacing her "R"s with "L"s (who incidentally, is played by a Penangite and speaks Hokkien in several episodes), the Pakistani Muslim and Indian Sikh who are ever-bickering over their religions and calling each other a barbarian and an infidel, and the Japanese who ends every other word with an "O", just to name a few.

In this age of (extreme) political correctness, it would be a miracle for a sitcom such as this to be produced and broadcasted. In fact, Mind Your Language was cancelled in the end due to fears of criticism being directed at it for being racist. Screw political correctness is what I say. Sometimes, it goes so overboard that its ridiculous. Methinks that nowadays, we spend too much time sanitizing and tip-toeing around our words out of fear of offending the other person instead of just taking the piss and having a laugh over it.

And that's what makes Mind Your Language so special. It's a comedy of its time, where political correctness was not so prevalent and we could all have a laugh over the gentle ribbing of the different stereotypes as compared to now where the authorities would go berserk over anything deemed 'politically incorrect'.

As for me, watching Mind Your Language now takes me back to the days when I was a young boy, eagerly waiting for the next episode of Mind Your Language to air on TV2 and laughing at "por favor", "holy ravioli" and "santa maria". Good times.

Sucker Punch

will be watching this tomorrow..am so psyched up for it! this movie can easily be a movie with a shitty plot that's just an excuse to show off all that stylish action but i don't care. i wouldn't care even if it's just a 2 hour long trailer with no plot line at all...i'd still pay to watch it.

to quote a comment from the youtube trailer

1. Girls with Guns: Check

2. Girls with Katanas: Check

3. Dragons: Check

4. B-25 Mitchel: Check

5. Biplanes: Check

6. Samurai: Check

7. Giant Robots: Check

8. Gatling Guns: Check

9. Giant Robot Samurai with Gatling Guns: Check.

This trailer. It does not make sense. But I do not care

it's a geek's dream come true. it's the ultimate homage to geek imagery. it's geek heaven!

and i'm not the biggest fan of vanessa hudgens but even she looks awesome in this movie. fuckin 'ell...i cannot wait to watch the giant samurai with the gatling gun scene.

i hope i don't break down in tears of joy tomorrow..heh

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

apparently to commit suicide.

i was waiting at a traffic light in the middle of the night and there weren't any cars on the road when i suddenly saw this chicken running quite quickly pass my car and down the road. it just kept on running and running and i couldn't see anything chasing it or find any reason why it was running. it was both a bit amusing and perplexing at the same time. you don't often see chickens running at full speed without any reason do you?

after the light turned green, i went down the road the chicken took and i saw the chicken on the opposite lane trying to cross the road a little distance ahead of me. an oncoming car drove by and i couldn't tell if it hit the chicken or not as the headlights were quite bright.

next thing i saw was a dead chicken lying on the road in front of me. i'm assuming the car probably hit the chicken and it flew over to my side of the road. if that was the case..the chicken flew quite far after being hit.

or maybe the chicken i saw running was trying to get to its dead pal on the road.

10:10 10/10/10

In accordance with my previous post, this just had to be done.

!!!

i think i just died from an orgasm and gone to heaven but that cannot be....

becoz that's gonna happen on the 19th october. unless one can die twice.

thank heavens i didn't waste all that money to catch them in singapore.

and yeah..cheapest tickets available but wtf, i'm still seeing them nonetheless! hayley, here i come!