Blogging... blogging... blogging...

... when the resources and time are at hand. Well, these few days have the free time there is... and best of all, 4 days of holidays there are, beginning from Friday till Monday! Yay!!! And the even best thing is that a new notebook is now a pride to call one's own. At first, it was thought that HP Compaq Presario V3000 notebook looked better in terms of its specifications, though no integrated webcam was included, but alas, stock of it SenQ had no more, as of 13th October. Looked through the specifications of the next best offered notebook that was also yearned for quite some time. Well, good as it seemed, with a 1.3 megapixel webcam included, as well as the integrated add-ons, such as WLAN, integrated LAN card, Bluetooth and the like. Cool it seemed, so it is now called The Owner's Pride instead of Acer Aspire. Here is the picture of The Owner's Pride:

Guess what, the moment this beautiful baby is at hand, off to the Starbucks Coffee and connect to the Internet wirelessly and seamlessly. Day in, day out, before or after working out at Celebrity Fitness in Gurney Plaza or at Fitness First in Island Plaza, surely The Owner's Pride is always there at Starbucks Coffee and surf the net. So, with wireless connection and a Wifi-equipped notebook, coupled with lots of spare time, there will be no reason not to connect to the net and blog away or surf the "waves" of the net.

Anyway, good-looking laptop, eh? OK, guys and gals, let's go to Starbucks Coffee now and surf the net away!

Happy moments...

Oh no... I really seriously did not realise 3-seconder actually tagged me on 29th September to write this meme until I realise it today. Oh great... it's really hard to start writing about happy moments when I am actually still mourning my grandma's demise 5 days ago. Anyway, will try my best to write it.

Let's see... how am I to start writing it? Been thinking about this for some moments now. Right... got it. Here we go...

Well, thinking of the past times, some happy some sad moments, a lot of changes have taken place this past year and while I was in Kuala Lumpur before moving to Penang in June 2005, I have been meeting a lot of plu friends who have come and gone, and still get into contact with some of them every now and then, including those I have met in here. Well, I have lovers come and gone too, with relationships some long, some short and a lot of heart breaks in between. Some gone on for quite some months and worse still some just gone on for just a week. That was the shortest relationship I have thus far.

Then, Lady Luck winked an eye at me when I got to know this W, whom I met in November 2006. We became lovers 2 months later.

My HAPPINESS! at last. One day, W proposed to be my lover earlier this year, and if I can still recall it, it was on the 1st or 2nd of January. That was exactly the happiest moment in my life!!!

OH... HOW HAPPY I WAS!!! INDEED! YES!

**********

Author's note: WE ARE NOW GOING TO THE " WORLD OF PAST TENSE"... (an excerpt of my diary written sometime end of February / early of March 2007)
"We have been spending time with each other since then. Life is really good now. I am praying that we can go on forever. Just recently, on Valentine's day, I bought W a camera phone, a box of Ferrero Roche, and a hamper package of facial and body cleansing gels and creams. Not forgetting the 3 romantic cards I attached with those 3 Valentine gifts. How touched W was! We went to a Korean restaurant to eat and celebrate the special day.

"And 8 days after that, W gave me a nice branded wallet for my birthday gift. We were spending time together again and we ate at a Taiwanese restaurant. On that night, W gave me a kiss on my lips and I was really, really extremely HAPPY with that unforgettable kiss. I was extremely touched. I licked the very spot where the kiss was planted. Those were the two special gifts that I will never forget and that which I will always keep in my heart forever and ever. Since then, we have been going out shopping and watching movies with each other almost everyday."

**********

But now... it's all over. The sweet dream's now over since 3 and a half months ago. It's actually very depressing trying to come to terms with it, knowing very well that the next morning when you open your eyes from your good sleep, those sweet dreams have faded away, leaving you only a sweet memory to remember by and your lover has left your heart in pain. Yeah, it's just so very hard to let your lover go away from your life just like that and it's even harder to accept this painful separation.

This is how my meme ends, in melancholy, so that there's no more happy moment to spread around (no more tagging, that is!). Anyone cares to spread around sad moments instead, eh?

What world are we living in now?

Taking another cue from Magus Young's blog on Yangon Monks, I would like to now pen down my thoughts and feelings on the issues around the world affecting us here and abroad. We are now living in a dangerous world, full of paedophiles, rapists, murderers, war-mongers, racists, homophobiacs and religious-haters.

Weeks ago, we have seen the horrible, brutal murder of Nurin Jazlin, who was murdered by a sick f**king bastard paedophile-cum-murderer. This horrible news did not end here. Years ago, we had seen the many news and cases of horrible and brutal murder of so many rape and murder victims. And just recently, Star Online reported a girl who was surpised to find that she was sent a nude photo of herself by an unidentified stranger, most likely a rapist or even a paedophile. These events show there are a hell lots of evil people out there; you just do not know if they even live next door to you. So caution is the word. At times, it's best to practise cynicism. Don't trust strangers. They may be dangerous people.

Backtrack to more than 4 years ago, we had seen the utter destruction of Iraq by that war-mongering s.o.t.b. George Bush. Many people perished, not to mention the many thousands who lost their homes to the savaging war and eventually civil wars. Yea, we know it's for the sake of the Iraqi people to remove that evil dictator The "Sad, Damned Who Sinned", but WTF! The s.o.t.b. literally destroyed people's lives, instead of bettering their lives. Look at what happened to Iraq now? We are so sad to see its current tumultuous state. Anyway, just "Make Love, No Wars", ok?

Now, back to us humans. Reflect on ourselves we must! Is this what we humans are capable of? Inflicting pain and sufferings upon others? Discriminate others just because these group of people are different in a way from the other groups of people? Maim and murder people? Annihilate people and their nations? Why?

Well, speaking about various types of discriminations in terms of religions and human races and gays/lesbians, I have always kept thinking about why would such discriminations ever happen. Why should there ever be racism, sentiments of religious-hatred (especially Islamophobia, ever since the tragedy of 9/11), and homophobia? Why would racists of certain race think that their own human race is far more superior than other races? Why would some religious-haters say that a certain religion is a disease of the world when the said religion IS NOT a harmful or NOT even a violent religion, but a very peaceful religion? Why would homophobiacs be so judgmental that they even think they have the same equal right as God to judge certain group of people that these group of people are the evil-doers by quoting verses from religious Holy Books? I think we all should END these sentiments of hatred; hatred towards the races of people, hatred towards particular religions and hatred towards a certain group of people. That's because I think that HATRED OF ALL KINDS IS THE MAIN NUMBER 1 MURDERER OF HUMANITY. Let's reflect for a moment the various tragedies that occur due to these types of hatreds:

A CASE OF RACISM
------------------------
(March 9, 2005): Judge Joan Lefkow, 61, was once targeted for death by a white supremacist leader, and her husdand and mother were killed by white supremacists in Chicago on 7th March 2005. White supremacist sites applaud the killings, saying that they are satisfied that 2 black people have been killed. The link to CNN news is here: http://cnn.com/2005/US/03/03/schuster.column/index.html

A CASE OF RELIGIOUS-HATRED
----------------------------------------
(October 25, 2001): There have been incidents of Arab-Americans removed from planes because of fears expressed by other passengers. And one man, a Sikh convenience store owner in Mesa, Arizona, was killed September 15 by an angry bar patron upset by the terrorist attacks, thinking that the Sikh was a Muslim, judging by the turban that he wore. The link to CNN news is here: http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/10/24/rec.arab.americans/index.html

A CASE OF HOMOPHOBIA
--------------------------------
(October 26, 1999): Matthew Shepard was hit at least 20 times by blows so hard they fractured his skull six times, a coroner testified Tuesday at the trial of Aaron McKinney, one of two men accused of killing the gay Wyoming college student last year October. The link to CNN news is here: http://www.cnn.com/US/9910/26/shepard.trial.02/index.html

Hope that the reiteration of these issues wake us up from our "sleepy hollow" and hope that we can reflect on ourselves as humans who are capable to offer compassions, yet also capable of inflicting so much pain upon others too.

Let's do something small (not necessarily big) instead of just sitting here and rant away unpurposefully. As the famous classical verse says, Actions speak louder than words. Let's start small by helping the abandoned children's homes, the old folks' homes and the caretakers of unwanted stray animals by giving donations (not only financially, but also anything such as clothes or books or food) to them. Adopt a child or two if you can afford to do so. Visit the old folks and cheer them up if you have the time to spare. Adopt a stray animal as your pet so they would not be put to sleep. The all-time beloved late Mother Theresa has set an example for all of us. Her love for humanity has us admire her so much and inspired us to do good.

Let us all do these little kindness to help make the world a better place to live in, albeit the many evil "predators" out there. It's always good to do kindness, however little it may be, and at the same time, it is also a good practice to "always look over your shoulders" (be cautious, that is).

Finally, all of us hope we can make this world a better place to live in. So, how would you like to contribute your offer of good deeds to the society?

Dear Grandma...

It's been almost 9 decades you have been living in this world, with joy and sadness, through the thick and thin of times. One early Friday morning, you never woke up from your sleep anymore. Life is now never the same anymore without you. Photos of you and family members are now only etched in photo frames forever, albeit turning yellow with time. All the fond memories with you may have fade away with time but they have never been wiped off from our memories.

Remembering the time when I was a small boy, of about 4 to 5 years old, I was crying when my cries drove you out of your wits. You lighted a match and threatened me that you would burn my lips if I kept crying. I blew it off and cried even louder. You lighted the match again and did the same thing. But I have forgotten how I stopped crying then.

Another time, when you were our caretaker (mum and dad were out working at that time), you threatened to leave me and my sis (2 years younger than I am) when my sis and I quarrelled over some matters and to go to my aunt's house which was a stone's throw away. Not wanting you to leave us alone, my sis and I quickly resolved our quarrels and you came back into the house.

I remember once when I was a naughty little boy, running around the house and switched on all the lights and you frantically ran after me to switch off all the lights. Fortunately, the house was small, only a storey high and about 1,300 sq ft. But what happened after that, I don't quite remember much. Guess you were panting away and mad at me for being so naughty.

Well, there are so many fond memories we had had with you when you were our caretaker. I may have forgotten some of them now but I will never forget you. You will always be in my heart. All of us love you and miss you lots. I tried to control my tears during the funeral ceremony this morning but I couldn't. It just welled up in my eyes and I started sobbing away. You know all of us miss you a lot more. We are glad you did not suffer any pain or illness before your demise.

As the hearse moved along slowly, we followed you from home to your final resting place. After your coffin had been properly placed into the sarcophagus, we offered you our silent prayers and gave you the very last respect. As the sarcophagus was sealed off forever, we left without looking back anymore.

Rest in peace, my dear grandma. Goodbye.

Which category are you in?

Taking a cue from Magus Young, on the topic of Connected, now I proceed to write about my thoughts while I was working out in the gym today.

Today, the whole day, I have been to Fitness First (FF) at Island Plaza and Celebrity Fitness (CF) at Gurney Plaza. While I was doing the RPM (the cycling exercise routine) at FF, suddenly, the thought about "No pain, no gain" struck my mind. Thoughts after thoughts came streaming through my mind after that. So, now I would like to share those thoughts with you all. All right, here we go:

Category 1: No pain, no gain
Read: Hey you couch potato, get up from your comfort zone now and do some workout lah! Don't just stay there doing nothing! You get nothing by doing nothing!

Category 2: No pain, got gain
Read: I think you must have taken the shortcut to get that dream body, you blady cheater! You must have been taking the steroid, eh?

Category 3: Got pain, no gain
Read: Hmmm... I guess you must have done the exercise routine wrongly, man! Get a personal trainer if you can't figure out how to use that machine!

Category 4: Got pain, got gain
Read: Yay... congratulations... you have achieved what you have been dreaming for so long, all through your hard work! You have got that good-looking body!

So, which category are you in?

Today 22nd September... what a boring day indeed...

Again... I am bored, with nothing really better to do except...

Browsing through my fellow blogger's bloggies, I read some of their blogs. It's the few usual targets at hand. Like a machinegun at hand, I started shooting "bullets" into their blogs. Click on some of their bloggers' links in their comment sections and more "bullets" are expected in their blogs. I mean, comments lah! Hehehe... like I have got nothing better to do. Well, indeed!

Nothing really catches my attention, except for a few who has updated their blogs just recently. Oh yea, not to forget I bookmarked them too. And now, to fill my time, I write about their blogs, just to promote their blogs here.

Hmmm... let's see... Yea, I left a comment on the blog of 3-seconder. It's the in-thing in Friendster she was referring to. Really, people nowadays are just crazy adding people as friends they don't even know. What if the person is a petty criminal? A rapist? Or worst still, a murderer? Ohohoh... Scares me... Oh yea, just read her "Power of Five" blog. Hmmm... looks like a few of the usual bloggers are just into writing the "five things" blog. Among them are Janvier, Queer Ranter, and Bibik Nyonya. What's with all these meme hypes? Just wondered.

Bibik Nyonya has got a, oh so cute, blog and few pics of her students' drawings. Hmmm... that reminisces me of the time when I was a little young boy who loved to draw all types of monsters and ghosts on anywhere I like. But definitely not on the walls of my parents' house lah. I just don't know why I loved drawing all these things, but I guess it's my natural gift. Back then, life was so easy... only learn how to draw monsters all the time... without anyone teaching me how to... out of pure imaginations and creativity.

Ah, the usual bloggie target for more than 2 years now. Braving KL has not been updating his blog for quite some time now. Oh, how I miss his writings. Really, for the past 3 weeks or so, I have been expecting him to update his blog. Braving, where hast thou been?

Next, it's myself again... Checking my blog every now and then for any comments left by my fellow bloggers. Oh yea, not forgetting about checking the visitors' counter too. Not many comments, except for one or two comments that I appreciate very much. Thank you, dear bloggers, for those who have dropped by and read my blogs.

The Oddity That is Us, written by Janvier Soldat. His latest blog was 5ive. Looks like this meme has caught on among fellow bloggers. Oh yeah, not forgetting our fellow blogger from the UK, Hrugaar, who has also posted the same "Five things" blog. Hmmm... thinking about Janvier, when I last view Janvier's page, I was about to close the pageview by clicking the red button (that one with an X) at the top right of the window. Suddenly, OMG, his The Oddity That is Us page popped up and kept popping up all the time, making my desktop and taskbar becoming cluttered with his page. This is the proof:

Don't know why it happened. Anyway, I had to keep pressing Alt-F4 to close them, and yet they kept popping up. At last, I pressed Ctrl-Alt-Del many times to get rid of all of them, without the need of shutting down the computer. Janvier, it's not your blog's fault, k?

Next on the list is m5lvin. Talking about his laziness while studying, hehe, back then, my attention span was very short when studying... and yes, the most touching of his blog was this one. Nearly cried reading this blog. I look at her and she "looks" at me, but this beautiful angelic pic of hers will be etched forever in m5lvin's blog. May Lord God bless this beautiful little angel.

Hehe... Magus Young. One with the saucy, naughty blogs. Looks very much like that of Braving KL's. A lot of those... hmmm... fascinating blog stories to satiate avid readers like me. Oh yes, not forgetting that he is a book-whore, a movie-whore and a gym-whore. Been reading his gym journal and really got impressed with the details of his gym exercise routines. Wooo... train me, Magus. Impressive, I would say! Hope to see you in Fitness First someday soon, yea, mate?

Oh, Paul Sung the Savante! Love your blog to bits! Looks like you have some interesting stuffs to show, eh? Hehehe... really fascinating with all the... hmmm... saucy bits of the Bedtime Story. Hey, come tell me some saucy bedtime stories, please?

Aha, another blog coming up. This time byyy..... a self-confessed Queer Ranter. Just commented on his Deloris Umbridge blog. And... wow!... a book whore too! Just like Magus Young! Like myself, too! Well, I myself am a confessed book whore too and I have a huge library of books, from literature to investments to science to geography books, all in one library; so many categories of books, you name it! Hey, QR, share with me whatever you can offer ok? We go for an exchange!

Another "5 things" meme by William. Hmmm... seems a real catch-on, eh? Actually, just want to know who exactly started this first? OK, since it is a catch-on, let me share with you, this list of my "5 things". Here we go:

5 things on my computer desks:
(1) A Dell Inspiron notebook
(2) An external DVD writer
(3) An external CD Writer
(4) A speaker
(5) A webcam

5 things you can see me go out with all the time:
(1) My 3 wallets
(2) My 3 handphones (Nokia 3120, Sony Ericsson K610i and Motorola SLVR L7i)
(3) My Sony MP3 player and iPod nano
(4) My Fitness First watch
(5) Sometimes, my cap

5 things in my room:
(1) Books, yes glorious books!
(2) My facial and body cleansers (helluva, have got tons of them!)
(3) A clothes closet
(4) A bed
(5) Sport bags (Fitness First and Celebrity Fitness)

5 things in my wallet:
(1) Credit cards (Public Bank, HSBC, AmBank)
(2) Celebrity Fitness and Fitness First membership cards
(3) Cash, yes lots of cash!
(4) Driving licence
(5) MyKad IC

5 things on my bed:
(1) A blanket or duvet
(2) A pillow
(3) A bolster
(4) A box of tissue paper
(5) Myself; yes that's when I am sleeping on it!

And so many 5 things you can really list down endlessly. And yeah, there are also so many bloggers out there, but of course, I can't tell you about ALL the bloggers out there. Just way too many, man! Thousands of apologies if I do not include you. That's not because I don't like your blogs or whatever; it's just plainly because my blog is getting longgggg.... Anyway, hope you guys are not offended in anyway by anything I write here. If I have indeed offended anyone of you, please pardon me, ok?

Well, got to retire soon. Good night, my fellow bloggers. Have a nice day and sweet dreams, too!

~~~ Luv all ye bloggers out there... Cheers, mates! ~~~

Yesterday was Friday... the bored me...

Thinking of nothing better to do, I took my time to read the bloggies of some of my fellow bloggers online. Thinking they may be posting some "catchy-catchy" bloggies, I typed in my username and password onto the Google toolbar (the one with the green button named Settings, yea) and proceed to click-open my bookmarks.

Yes, and a few on the top list of my bookmarks did I open. OK, here is the screen shot of that bookmark:
Notice the bookmarks enclosed in the red box? Hehehe... those are my TARGETS! Opening each of them, I proceed to read each of their updated bloggies, and at the end of the, oh so fascinating, read, I left my digital fingerprints in some of their comment sections. And they replied me back. How nice!

One thing I tend to do was to click onto someone else's bloggie link in their comment sections. Thence I came upon the person's bloggie site. If theirs are catchy enough to worth my read or to giggle away at some "particularly outstanding" bloggies (as in Bibik Nyonya's bloggie on the "cocky and pussy" children tunes), I would surely leave a comment or two. Bookmark them I will and surely be back again to check their bloggies every now and then.

Aha... and not forgetting my own bloggie page too. Surely I will return and check if anyone's been checking my bloggie page and leave their digital fingerprints here.

I barely noticed how fast the time flew, till at the end of the day, I retired and snoooooze away...

~~~ Luv all of ye bloggers out there... Cheers, mates! ~~~

Semangat Merdeka masih lagi hangat membara...

Walaupun sambutan perayaan Merdeka sudah lama berlalu (dah beberapa hari lalu dah!), semangat Merdeka masih lagi hangat membara dalam hatiku. Oleh itu, saudara-saudari blogger sekalian, izinkan saya untuk mendeklamasikan sebuah syair yang telah saya ciptakan bertahun-tahun lalu (sememangnya ini ciptaan saya pada 22hb. Februari 1998, jadinya, jangan tiru, ya!). Akan saya paparkannya di sini demi menyambut Kemerdekaan Malaysia Ke-50. "KERANAMU MALAYSIA" Syairnya berbunyi sedemikian:


Malaysia makmur aman dan damai,
Negara indah cantiklah permai,
Nasionalisme sudahlah disemai,
Dalam jiwa rakyat yang ramai.

Alhamdulilah syukur nikmat,
Malaysia maju rakyat selamat,
Semoga Malaysia dilimpah rahmat,
Biar sampai hari kiamat.

Lawan menyerang pahlawan tak gentar,
Demi Malaysia tanah tercinta,
Semangat kental tidak terkata,
Dalam jiwa pahlawan berjuta.

Amalkanlah semangat patriotik,
Dalam hati biarlah berputik,
Semaikanlah setiap detik,
Tunjukkanlah semangat autentik.

Yakinlah kita ekonomi pulih,
Langkah yang bijak kerajaan pilih,
Kejayaan ekonomi kita meraih,
Tunjukkan bahawa Malaysia boleh!

Satu bangsa, satu visi,
Kita melangkah zaman informasi,
Kemajuan MSC suatu misi,
Kebolehan Malaysia jangan disangsi.

Inilah Malaysia negaraku gagah,
Di bawah lindungan awan dan mega,
Nama Malaysia tetap kujaga,
Walau berkorban jiwa dan raga.

Akhirnya juga Malaysia merdeka,
Setelah melalui suka dan duka,
Malaysia berjaya kita berbangga,
Malaysia makmur rakyat pun suka.


Ya, begitulah deklamasi syair saya. Nampaknya, memang betul patriotik saya ini, menulis syair sedemikian rupanya. Buat blogger-blogger yang tak faham Bahasa Malaysia (bukan lagi Bahasa Melayu, ya!), tulislah satu dua komen kepada saya dan dengan sukacitanya akan saya terjemahkan blog saya ini dalam Bahasa Inggeris kepada saudara-saudari blogger sekalian.

SELAMAT HARI KEMERDEKAAN KE-50, MALAYSIA!

Ada apa-apa komen, sila ajukan kepada saya, ya. Jangan malu-malu, ya!

My Bloggie site...

OK, what has happened to my Bloggie profile? Look at this and see for yourself...

It seems there's nothing wrong with it, right, folks? Well, read the first few words of my "About Me" profile description. It says "A poet. A music lover. A nature lover...". Obviously, I was trying to write my personal profile in a poetic format, but look at what this Bloggie site has done to my poem? It looks like a longgggg... sentence with a bunch of words concatenated together with commas in between! It JUST DOESN'T KNOW what a linespace is (i.e. When you press ENTER on your keyboard while writing on say, MS Word, the line of sentence after the ENTER is supposed to be starting on a new line). The poem is supposed to look like this:

In a little Valley (hello... read Klang Valley, please...),
David rises like a warrior,
Lo and behold, men of earth!
Here comes a man of gracious name,
A name of beauty,
A man of courage,
One who rises to the challenge of the world!

In the darkest shadow of that Valley,
Rises David like a new-born warrior,
For he fears no evil,
Fears nothing but the Only One,
For with Thy Strength,
And with Thy Faith,
Will David rise to the challenge of the world!

David the Man is here,
O men of earth,
For cometh he with Knowledge,
And guide you all along,
Through the journey of a man's life,
In this blog of his.

There goes the same with my interest section in my profile. The groupings of the interests concatenate with the next word.

All right, no more complaints. I will still use this Bloggie site despite its minor shortcomings, since I can use my Gmail account to logon this Bloggie site. Convenient, eh? Well, as for the minor shortcoming, I can't do anything about this since it has been formatted that way. Maybe I can try to use HTML codes like <\br>, perhaps? Well, any suggestions, folks?

Ha! I'm back again!

Hmmm... how long have I been away? Like 2 years plus? OMG, that's a gracious long time!

Well, the truth is that I do not have Internet access in my rented place in Penang and of course, I am not being paid to write blogs in my company. I seldom come back to KL except during celebrations of festivals or public holidays.

Or... maybe you can call me a plain lazy bastard. Ahem! I can only call myself that name. Oh dear... looks like my writing perks up again after a long, long absence... After reading other people's blogs, of course! That's where my inspirations come from! Thank you, my fellow bloggers!

Just today, I have updated my profile on this blog site and have written something you might think a little too vain. Vanity, I mean. Now don't get me wrong, my personal profile is written that way to spice things up! I don't suppose you want your profile to sound so mundane.... something like this:

Hi I am David, a 29 year-old man who hails from Kuala Lumpur... blah blah blah...

OK, great. According to Merriam Webster online dictionary, vain means (it's listed as the 4th meaning):
"4 : having or showing undue or excessive pride in one's appearance or achievements : CONCEITED"

Look, maybe you read it that way, but spicing it up using that descriptive poem will surely make it look much more interesting. Anyway, life is about getting oneself spiced up.

All right. Anyway, here I am, back again. Please welcome me, dear fellow bloggers!