What was once

young, is now older.
everything, is now nothing.
impotent, is now potent.
tepid, is now passionate.

foolish, is now relatively more experienced.
angry, is now more reflective.
hating, is now a little more loving.

As with all living things, growing takes time. Be sure to have a nice mugful of patience and grit for breakfast every morning.

As with all living things, what is our life, but a brief flicker in the entirety of the existence of the universe.

And finally but what I know to be most important,
As with all living things, being able to make a difference another day is indeed a blessing, even if veiled as a curse. Also having the ability to interpret it as a positive difference is in itself another blessing.

That cannot be all I learnt in four years??!!

I need my metaphorical breakfast before bed too, looks like.

xoxo

a serious case of athleticism

I cannot believe this. I am finally regarded as an athlete. By myself that is. In my opinion, an athlete/sportsperson has to undergo many hardships, including but not limited to:

1. broken bones
2. sprains
3. loss of friendships when playing a friendly match

I have finally suffered quite a severe case of number 2.

My foot was like some potato that had just been dug out of the ground. My toes were protrusions of growing tuber.

Thankfully I did not cry. I've had worse, so this shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Chinese New Year will be spent moping around the house playing Left for Dead 2.

Malaysian Taxi Drivers Anonymous

Malaysian cabbies worse problem than dirty toilets: minister
A top minister slammed Malaysia's taxi drivers Wednesday, saying they were more of a problem for the tourism industry than the nation's notoriously filthy toilets.

A top minister slammed Malaysia's taxi drivers Wednesday, saying they were more of a problem for the tourism industry than the nation's notoriously filthy toilets.

"The complaints by tourists about the taxi drivers' behaviour are more than toilets now, so in that context the taxi drivers are worse than dirty toilets," cabinet minister Nazri Aziz said.

"People are complaining about the taxi drivers overcharging, being impolite and not using their meters, forcing the tourists to bargain with them," he told AFP.

"This is the third-world taxi driver mentality. Even in China now, taxi drivers can no longer (haggle), they just have to take the passengers, no questions asked.

"It's not that all taxi drivers behave like that, it's just a small group of them but that is already giving Malaysia a bad name," said Nazri, who is minister in the prime minister's department.

Complaints about taxis are common the world over, but it has become a hot topic in Malaysia where frustrations are vented on blog sites and in letters to newspapers.

In a survey by the local magazine The Expat last year, some 200 foreigners from 30 countries rated Malaysia the worst among 23 countries in terms of taxi quality, courtesy, availability and expertise.

The respondents lashed the fleet as "a source of national shame" and "a serious threat to tourists -- rude bullies and extortionists".

-------------------

I stole that article from MSN Malaysia (http://news.malaysia.msn.com/weird-news/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3740754)

Wow, so we actually admit our public toilets are shitty. Great news people! Malaysians have finally come to their senses and are starting to pinch their noses when entering 20-sen-per-entry toilets ( there were these automated public loos in Bukit Bintang that costed 1 buck or something right? crazy..).

I love it how we are all aware that we stink at cleaning up after ourselves after taking a dump. Fair enough. Now, all we need to do is take action. Hmm, wonder when that will be....

Endword:
This aspiring writer is sooo sick of flushing toilets for people everytime they just leave it after pissing all around the urinal. They should pay him for all he has done. Wait...that's what they pay the janitor for. To clean up after ourselves. So, if he does flush the toilet and keep the place tidy, the janitors would not have anything left to do. Bottomline, kindly keep the toilets dirty.

as idealistic as a squashed persimmon is about being consumed

The way I see it is that this country could be going somewhere in a handbasket unless we all stop being such selfish citizens.

I like to liken (hmm... couldn't help that back there) this situation to Malaysians about to board one of our various public transportation systems. Hmm, this calls to mind buses, taxies, trains? Everyone wants to get in, but because of that, nobody manages to get out. On the whole, no one gets to go where they want, and people are stuck. That is of course before the police/warden swings his night stick in a wide arc towards the crowd (this is me exaggerating) and/or blows his shrill whistle ever so loudly for the benefit for everyone including people less than a feet away to hear. But I digress.

My point is, we have all been very self serving. That's fine. In this world, the fittest survive. But it wouldn't be very nice if you trod on someone or God forbid beat someone to death over a baguette stick.

We have to start mixing around and not form political parties (or different language clubs) in schools/colleges/universities as I so often see. Here and there we have a group of people speaking a language I haven't an idea about. There is absolutely no assimilation.

People don't take the time to care about others simply because we do not let them. Do not let language be some kind of barrier for us to hide behind. And stop calling others derogatory names in your mother tongue.

Another thing I despise is that people of the same skin will come to coin up some words to call others who are different than themselves. Names I will not mention here or AdSense will revoke my publisher status.

Are we all so xenophobic and intolerant?

Hmm...I thought as much.

Oh yeah, I forgot to add a disclaimer.

DISCLAIMER:
In case anyone decides to follow any of the following tips to unify Malaysians and gets hurt/in prison in the process, the author of this blog will NOT be held responsible.

(this one's for you vinnie)

-"For the good of the town, the good of the people."

bumpy beginnings

Ok. I would have to call this a comeback.

Still trying to work out the kinks in my fingers. Blogging seemed to have been a lifetime ago and here I am, an old fogey trying to relive the good/bad old days. Some things never change and people never learn from mistakes.

Hmm, not bad. I managed a paragraph.

Razzle Dazzle

Can titles get any more clichèd than this? (see? I'm not lazy anymore, managed to find that "e").

Aih, ma nu semester is starting tomorrow. Bye bye holidays, nice knowing ya and see you soon. Goodbye baby of seventeen, hiya eighteen. It's gonna be pubs and clubs from now on. I think.

New moves babe

Aah, yes I am sampling the "post post by post" (email..) function of Blogger. Here are my list of seemingly random and disconnected sentences which actually sum up my few weeks (month) of blog-free bliss/pangs.

 

We deviate and bullshit a lot when it comes to very important things like studying.

 

Exams are over.

 

Computer games are all the rage.

 

I wanna be a rugger bugger (well, join the rugby team is what I meant...don't laugh.)

 

My legs hurt.

 

Swimming is the order of the month (well, before the 18th of May that is)

 

I start my next semester is 3 weeks time. Whoopee!

 

The gym costs 160 bucks for 4 months. That makes 40 for 1 month. Worth it? I need some opinions.

 

That's all for the post-by-email trial. Does it work?

--
John