Colourblind

Anyone watched the Independence Day advertisement by Petronas? Where two schoolboy kids were asked to spell dinosaur, and how they spelled it wrongly. The interesting is near the end the cameraman asked one of the boy "Who is your best friend?" (or something like that). Then the boy pointed to his friend next to him and the cameraman asked "What is his race?" (again, something like that).

What the boy answered really touched my heart. "Race? What is race?" See how children are untainted with the cruelty and harshness of the world. How kids are colourblind, they treat others without prejudice regardless of your skin colour, religion or race. And even wondering why we adults teach our kids to do good and live good, but we ourselves don't practice what we preached.

It's a miracle how a simple advertisement left a thousand meaning..


[note] Quick test for you guys, no need to post your answer here. Enough with you knowing the answer yourself. List down as many name as you can of your friends during your primary and secondary school who were not the same race as you, and then list the name of your friends with the same criteria currently. Is the number growing, or is it shrinking rapidly? You be the judge..


p/s: it's colour because I follow British way of spelling it.


[addition] I got the advertisement's address at Petronas server (I believe so...) from Azhar (no need to click the link, his blog is and will not be updated for a long time because he just get married LOL). In effort to avoid all that copyright jack-shit, I don't want to save the video to my PC and upload it. It'll be best if I just link it here. This is the best option, because all other advertisements are worth checking for :)

Merdeka La Jugak..

Apa yang membimbangkan ialah ada kalangan rakyat Malaysia yang tidak mengambil berat sambutan ulang tahun kemerdekaan jauh sekali berfikir untuk mempertahankannya. Bagi kelompok ini, laungan merdeka hanyalah rutin tahunan yang tidak membawa sebarang makna.

Manakala cuti umum pada setiap 31 Ogos hanyalah peluang untuk berehat dan menghabiskan masa bersama keluarga. Tiada yang istimewa tentang tarikh keramat ini. Bagi kebanyakan rakyat Malaysia, ia cuma hari kelepasan umum sama seperti cuti-cuti umum lain tanpa ada sebarang usaha untuk mencipta perbezaan atau kelainan.

Jika pun ada keprihatinan untuk memperuntukkan sedikit ruang bagi kemerdekaan hanyalah apabila mereka menonton sambutan kemerdekaan menerusi televisyen. Itu pun sekadar menonton dengan ulasan-ulasan negatif seolah-olah memperlekehkan usaha pihak yang berkenaan bertungkus-lumus untuk menjayakan sambutan ulang tahun kemerdekaan negara.

Utusan Malaysia, 1 September 2007

I am attracted with the message the writer tries to convey here. Apparently so, I am one of the people who just watched the Merdeka celebration on the idiot box. Physically, the only act of patriotism I've shown was when I helped my brother to hang the national flag, Jalur Gemilang, on top of my house. And exactly as what the writer has pointed out, I also had given negative comments during last night's celebration. Here's why..

I'm sick of the way the celebration was done. I don't deny you that the performance, the fireworks, they were marvelous. Heck, my younger brother even performed in that celebration (too bad the cameraman didn't focus on his face LOL). Seeing many of country leaders were there together celebrating the glorious event, it was a blissful sight. I was really happy to see our beloved Agong and Raja Permaisuri Agong, Tuanku Mizan and Tuanku Nur Zahirah, our Prime Minister Pak Lah and ex-PM Tun Mahathir, Deputy PM Najib and many more sitting there enjoying the event. But to tell the truth, I was also looking for Opposition's party leaders to be there. And sadly, there was none shown on the tv. I felt even sicker when it was shown some of the crowds carrying BN and UMNO flag. Well I'm not being politically biased here, but this is the magical question. Isn't Merdeka supposed to be for everyone? If I am not mistaken, I remember Raja Nazrin Shah had reminded all of us that Merdeka celebration shouldn't be bordered by political groups. What had happened last night really took all the Merdeka spirits in me. Either last night's celebration was only one-sided, or the cameramen were instructed not to shoot any of the Opposition's party members, or the cameramen forgot that there were other people there. That kind of attitude shown on the tv, and you expect me to not give negative comments? Don't lecture me on patriotism, my dad is an ex-army. He knows what patriotism is and I damn sure I've had a full load of it inside of me. Who is it to blame when my patriotism is slowly washed away? Government, media, environment, or myself? I would say, all of them..

My precious Merdeka spirits, imagine it to be a glass ball, someone took it to the top of Petronas Towers, and dropped it from there. Selamat menyambut Hari Kebangsaan ke 50.

p/s: I'm not an Opposition supporter or anything. In my mind, Opposition parties need to be there to ensure there's a check and balance in the government. Hence, the importance of their presence. No, I have not registered to be a voter. Yes, I know there are many places where I can register. No, I'm not planning to register in the near future and that will be discussed off-topic. See me face to face and I'll tell you the reason why :)

p/s/s: Jangan sue saya, saya tak ada duit. LOL..

Hello

Say hello to my new toy, hehe. With regards to my old, faithful Pentium 3, please don't ask anything if you don't want to see me sad. That should give you the point already..

Home Sweet Home

Back from client's site at 4am just now. Finished my last task which was assisting the night auditors to run daily closing, checking reports and some minor things to be settled first. At last, I get to sleep on my own bed. Been missing my bed, my family, my Izma, everything, for about a month already. Today is exactly one month after the first day I started to have my life at the client's site. Now that everything has been settled except for some minor things, I feel very relieved and stress-free.

Firstly, sorry to those I had accidentally or incidentally neglected for the past one month. The job really required me to give my full concerntration, and being me who is quite workaholic, I sometimes put my job in front of anything else. Special apologies to my Izma who I had been paying less attention for the past one month, and many many thanks for understanding what kind of line I am now. Thanks for being with me, listening to my bickering when I was under stress, sharing stories with me, it all adds up to me. And many thanks for being such a wonderful girlfriend. Love you.

To my family, erm, they are used to me being away LOL. But thanks Mom for taking care of your son.

To my client's staffs, thanks for making this installation a great experience to me. I learnt a lot from you guys, and the friendship we built this past month is greatly appreciated. Ms Helen, Mr Yim, Mr Hamzah, Madam, Nicolh, Maha, Hassan, Zaidi, Dedi, Khuzir, Shereen, Siti, Nazri, Faisal, Fahmi, Azmi, Saudi, Haslina, Daisy, Carol, Karen, Mak Shima, Noor, Irene, Ah Sin, Mas, Fadzil, Hakim, Azrinna, Zed, Chef Baskaran, Izzati, Siew Chen, Ms Christin Loh, Tony, Qamarul, Loretta, Dina, CD, Amy and many other shitload of names that I may have left out. Big thanks to you guys.

Now, I have to sleep first. Have been a zombie for quite some days already, I need to realign my bodyclock now.

Oh, one note. However workaholic you are, health is the most important thing to take care of. You need to know your limit, else your body might just snap. Unless you want to be strapped to hospital bed with ECG devices and drips attached to your body (like yours truly) for being over-exhaustion..

D-Day plus 9

Finally, had the chance to rest for a bit. I've been stuck at client's place for almost a week now, doing system installation. Being the client is a four-star hotel, the environment is nice. Food is good, I've been given room for the whole installation period and I get to meet lots of people from various background. Most importantly, I manage to learn project management skills instead of doing technical jobs behind the scene. Can't comment on the food, it's on the house. I can just walk in to any outlets, order anything that I want and tell the waiter their management will pay for my bill. But then, work is work. I don't really have the time to enjoy the hospitality of my client as my mind is more focused on the job that lies ahead of me. Thankfully the staffs are very co-operative and understand my needs to get the job settled on the dateline. And the best thing is, I get to make lots of new friends from various departments as well as hierarchy levels.

For the past 1 week installation and training time, there was little time for me to get the news from outside world. After woke up, I needed to prepare for training session. Finished at 6pm or so, then went for dinner. After an hour or two rest time, continued preparing the setup environment. Didn't know how much I've missed this 7-days time. Managed to learn that suddenly, everyone is an expert in Malaysian football scenario. I have no comment for the national football team, as I have given up following their news or updates for a long time (since 1990s I think). 5-0 and 5-1 ain't that bad isn't it, we can still do post-mortem on that. Moving on to the tragic news. My deepest condolences to the families of our brave heros and heroin in green who died in a helicopter crash last week. Your death in ensuring I can live peacefully are followed by lots of thanks from me. You lived a hero and heroin, and so does your death.

On other aspect, I'm quite amazed how suddenly Malaysians become an expert in military equipments. Yeah, same scenario like the football news. All of a sudden, everyone is condemning the Nuri as if it's a piece of junk. Yes I don't deny that Nuri (or Sea King, as it's original name is) is an old work horse and should be replaced. But please, don't just because one incident you guys decided it's not worth it to join RMAF just because the chopper is old. What, you think the chopper just cost a penny? It takes billions for the government to replace our also-old F5-E with MIG-29N and F/A 18-D, and now with the addition of Sukhoi SU-27. Take into account the soon-to-be-arrived Scorpene subs and MBTs from Poland. Government has its own plan for this, eventually the Nuri will be replaced with a new type. I believe with proper maintenance, it still can serve as testing bed after its service is no longer required in the Air Force. My point is, unless you really follow the news and development of our heros and heroins in blue and green, then shut your mouth up and just enough with giving condolences to the families of the deceased. To one girl whom I heard saying she's thankful not to join the RMAF because she's afraid to be assigned to Nuri squadron and die in an air crash, guess what? I think you are afraid to die in ANY condition. So stfu and live on with life.

Sad news about my faithful PC. The motherboard I bought about 6 years ago started to show signs of it being old. It happened starting from last two weeks, where my computer suddenly shut down and restarted without any warning. Tried to check the Windows log and event viewer, to no avail. That was when I suspected Windows was not the culprit behind all these. Pulled out all cables and reattached them back firmly, clearly I started to diagnose my PC. It was painful yes, but I had to do it. The sight of the thing that has been with me for the past 6 years is in pain, it saddens me. How pathetic it is to feel sentimental with your PC, some might think. Well in my defence, this PC was the one I personally bought the hardwares separately and installed everything by my own. Back then I was not the type who believed in buying PC in package with everything installed, and still am. I just found out this morning that another RAM slot has died. I'm now left in doubt, whether to find replacement for the motherboard or to upgrade altogether. Haha yes, I'm the few who sticks with Pentium 3 while all others have been experiencing Core 2 Duo. I don't play games that much like back in university days, so upgrade is not really a priority. So, I'm in a quest of finding an Intel Socket 370 815-chipset CUSL-2C motherboard to replace my faithful motherboard who is having a slow, painful death. If you happen to know someone selling this (or you yourself selling), do contact me ASAP. I accept 2nd hand item as long as it's working, but if you can get a brand new one it's even better although I highly doubt it someone still selling this motherboard.

That's all, I'm back to play Tiberian Sun. Running on a single 256MB SDRAM is really painful..

[addition]: Condolences also to the family of Shearwey Ooi Ying Ying (4 years old) found dead with body parts scattered and some are still not found as at time of writing. I failed to imagine what Malaysians have become nowadays. If you're frustrated with your live then by all means, please, kill yourself. But why a cute 4 years old girl? May your soul rest in peace. Picture of her can be seen here.