Guns Anyone?

Is there an ultimate Toys for adults? No I am not talking about our spouse. Our spouse is not a toy; they are our companion, our supporting pillar, our lover, our shoulder to cry on, our brain, our yin, our other half, our…etc. I am referring to things like Hi Fi set, cars, MP3, hand phone, notebook and etc. What do you think of guns? If Malaysia allows individual to have guns, will you go out and buy one?

A lot of people love to play paintball, wearing army attire, with a smirk on the face, preparing to shoot at anyone on sight, paying a lot of money to engage in simulated warfare and “death”. What is the attraction? Is it because it is an outlet for us to let out some steam, relieving us off our stress. Seeing our fellow human bleed in paint OR is it the feel of a piece of gun that you are holding, caressing its handle, pulling the trigger. Or is it the feeling of “control”, pointing and deciding the fate of someone by just a pull of a trigger.

Some even goes one step further by going to a firing range. I am not sure does Malaysia have one but Thailand has a lot. Whereby the guns that is being used is “real”. In Thailand is legal to own a gun or a few guns. There is even a market whereby you can sell and buy guns; you might even earn a living on it. Do you think us Malaysian is mature enough to do the same? Or we are such trigger happy lot that the government did not even think of legalising it at all. Below is a picture of “my gun” a smith and wesson hence do not play play with me………..

2 Bad News

First is the news on the PM wife, Datin Seri Endon Mahmood, she passed away this morning at 7.50 am. I do not personally know her but she is like an icon to a lot of cancer survivor. May her soul rest in peace.

Second is the National Automotive Policy (NAP), my new car is barely a week old and there is a possibility that the price could dropped. I have actually waited for a year plus for it to be announced before taking the plunge. I anticipate it to be announced together with the budget but it did not. Let’s hope the price will not drop drastically else the price range of my dream car will be nearer. This might result in me selling my Camry and going for my dream car. Will I?

Datin Seri Endon Mahmood, rest in peace…………

Obligation

As I am sitting in the office absorbing the coldness coming from the overhead aircond, it starts to rain. I could actually hear the rains hitting the roof of the mamak stall just below my office. On a fine day the smell of fried chicken will actually engulf my office sipping in through the gaps in the window, overcoming the smell of new paints and glue. On this unproductive day I was still trying to recall the things that I need to do for tomorrow. As I am wondering in and out of my thoughts, the sound of rain drops from outside has actually hypnotised me with its tune, “Tik Tik Tik”. It has somehow transported me back to those fun loving days in Primary School. I remember watching the rains dripping down from the roof. As it fell, it catches whatever light that is still left in the sky emitting some sparkle that enters my eyes.

It was rainy season and today is a day whereby the best thing to do is to sleep but now I am in the classroom doing my spelling test. As I was observing and listening to nature’s symphony from my little desk situated beside the window, my class teacher spoke loudly. As the word entered into my little brain it get translated into alphabets which I wrote diligently, alphabets after alphabets in a piece of paper that has my name on the top of it. In those days exams is conducted 3 times a year. Each exam is like a race, a race to become number one in the class or to me Top Ten in the class. If we manage to do well, we will be the main subject for our parents to talk about during Chinese New Year. We torture ourselves to remember all those text just to fulfil our social obligation which is to get good marks and position in the class. I do not think I remember what I have studied.

I remember that I was very good at History as remembering dates of historical meaning were my favourite past time. I remember there is this one incident which happens at the final year of my standard six. There is this particular classmate of mine who has been chasing me playing “catch me if you can” during recess just before my history exam. After all the chasing and panting, he confess to me his little secret. He told me he asks me to play because he wants me to forget all those date that have been cramped inside my tiny brain. He is worried that I might score higher than he is as he saw me blurting out the dates with ease after recess. He has decided to make me sweat hoping “all the dates” will come out together. Do bear in mind; we are just 12 years old and we are supposed to have a hell of a good time. Our society has actually instilled in us that our priority in school is to score as high as we can, to satisfy our parents and to ensure that we will eventually succeed in life by securing a well paid jobs in an air condition environment holding a pen instead of holding the “Big Pen” sweeping the street in the early hours.

Do we actually make use of what we learn during school? I guess our years spend in the primary school is just a foundation for us to seek out knowledge and to understand it. As memorising pages of text does not help much, it could only improve our memory which will eventually or finally will decline as we grow older. Getting to understand and able to read other languages like English actually opens and expose us up to a much bigger world. We do not have internet access back then but we have libraries which has thousand of books in English waiting for us to explore and learn. Of course we learn good and bad things along the way. We learn there is another part of the world whereby the human occupants there has body hair that is red in color (Hong Mor Kua). We learn that there are words like “tits” when we explore illegal copy of playboys. I am not sure how will a primary school students behaves now, there might be some who might be blogging about their daily school life, how nice if back then we have internet…..I could then relive my life by reading it on my own blog….

Toys

When I was small I used to play with Airplanes modal. Those that need glue to stick each part together. The package will come with a diagram. A diagram which shows how each part is connected to each other. I make quite a number of it but I have no idea where is it now. It could be that it has since got thrown away like other unwanted stuff when we move house.

Yesterday my wife nephew bought a toy which has the same principle that is you need to have the patience to “build” it first before you could enjoy playing it. Actually come to think of it, it’s a good way to build a children character. Nowadays youngster is used to sitting around and just enjoys the fruit of their parent’s labor. They no longer need to "work" for things.

On the Left side is the box and the right side is the instruction on how to assemble each part to finally become a "toy". This particular modal do not needs any glue. The instruction is in English, hence this old man is the most suitable candidate for the "assembly" job.

Above is the tiny parts that I have mention. It took me almost an hour to have it assembled. Below is the end result, the toy and a happy 3 years old kid smiling.

Nissan Teana

This is also one of the car that I have been waiting for quite some time, Nissan Teana. It has a shape which I deem update. The dash is very nice and the wood panel on the dash and below the windows is not too woody. Too bad, although it has been introduced for quite some time in thailand but I have yet to see any on Malaysia Road yet.

Maybe I could get one if the newspaper report is true, that every Malaysian is allow to import a car during their life time. This means each of us will have an Approved Permit (AP) to bring in Cars from overseas. Of course there is always a "but" in our society. You need to be in overseas for a certain period of time for a "valid" reason like studies or etc...umm I guess I am not entitle to an AP yet. Or having a foreign spouse entitles me to have one?

Foward thinking

I am not sure why guys love big, fast and comfy cars. They are gals who love car but they could not match the relationship of a man with their cars. It could be that cars are closely link with girls, beautiful girls. Hence the bigger, faster and comfy it is, the more girls will be attracted to the driver, I mean to the car. Do not agree? Ask the guys, if they dream about cars, which car do they dream of? Wira? Kancil? Iswara? Hahaha I guess it will be Porsche, Lamborghini, BMW, Benz, Bentley and etc.

I was parking my Vios at a departmental store in BKK when I saw this Black Mazda 3 opposite me. Over here in BKK, you can get the top end modal with just RM80K. Mazda has been coming out with some great cars that have style. I do not think our Waja or Gen2 could match it. It’s like comparing a Chap Ah Kow underwear against a Calvin Klien. The Mazda range was beef up with a new member, Mazda 5, which is going to replace the 6 years old Premacy. However with all these modal, the only one I have ever seen on Malaysia road is Mazda 6.

I am not sure why Malaysia is so slow to adopt new modal. I guess the government has a lot of rules or taxes impose onto foreign made cars until it is not feasible to have it on sale here. By doing so it deprives us of artistic thoughts. Foreign car markers will dump their modal over here when it has become outdated. One good example is Citroen Picasso. It was only introduced here a year plus ago when in Europe it was almost at the end of its life cycle. No wonder I could see that we are way behind in terms of design as we being expose to outdated modals. How can we expect our national car designer to come out with great looking cars?

I guess not only the car industry is suffering from this. Other industry that requires constant exposure to artistic thoughts and ideas like fashion, interior designs and etc has the same fate. Some might say, just buy magazine or surf the net for inspiration. How do we explain then that the best design always comes from a foreign country? When you walked in streets Paris, what do you see? How does it inspire you? How do we move forward when day in and day out we see things that are meant to be in the history books? Beats me, I manage to take a picture of a car that I dream of daily, guess what car is it? Guys don't stop dreaming as there are possibilities that your dreams might comes true one day, I hope mine has.

Wxxxxx8

My Colleague or friends and fellow bloggers who frequented my blog would know that in this past one year you could see that I have been doing some heavy shopping for gadgets, furniture, car and etc. Most of the “trophy” is in Bangkok as my wife has finally moved into the house that we have bought for almost 5 years. The loan is took under her name as in Thailand it’s difficult for a foreigner to own any property or assets. If my wife decided one day that this old man is no longer her fancy I might end up being out on the street in Bangkok.

Well I have ordered something in KL which is due to arrive this Friday. However too bad I am not around to collect it hence it would need to wait until this coming Monday. I am now in Bangkok until this weekend. What prompt me to finally get myself directly back to a situation which I have avoided for the past 3 years? A world whereby once you have put your name on a piece of paper it would mean that part of your salary will be channel to it. Although I am not the only owner of this item (my sis is co owner) but it is something which I thought that I would not spend much on. Anyway lets wait and see what mess have I gotten into………

Socializing with the correct group

As we are gliding around in this society there are times, we are pressure or coax into doing things that we do not like. During school, I remember boys would visit the gents in groups. They will say “Jom, lets go to the Loo”. I am not sure how and where they learn that all humans have the same bladder size. Or they prefer to rough it out together at the urinary bowl with shoulders rubbing each other and their legs spread apart aiming at a hole. Wouldn’t it be fun if we count to three and wee wee at the same time and check who last the longest?

As we graduate from our schools or university we are being tossed into adulthood and independence but we still tend to stick to certain group of colleagues. I guess it could be the animal instincts in us that prompt us to do it. It could be that we feel safer in groups or it could be the way most company are structured. That is you will normally follow a senior to learn the “trade” but you tend to stick to a more junior group of colleague. No one in their sound mind would like to join the senior group in the first few months, as they are earn and spend more and they are the one who “torture and grill you” every moment you are in the office hence you will prefer to join a group who would curse and gossip about them during lunch time over a plate of mee goreng.

I guess to be able to stand in this society you will need to be linked to certain groups. This is what I called “exposure”. If you join the wrong group you might get less increment, bonuses and slower rise in the career ladder. For example if you worked in a big company whereby there are more than 1 thousand staff, hence the group that you go out with during lunch and happy hour is very important. It is the same as product placement in a movie. You will need to “broadcast” your talent to a certain group of staff who is close to “that person” who has the authority to decide the additional $$$. Why? If not how? Do you think big company have a good appraisal system? Just imagine by the time the news of your achievement reach the correct person it has turned to be another person achievement.

This applies to the circle of friends that you hang out with, be it ex colleague, ex school mates, neighbours or etc. Someone once told me this, it does not matter if you are smart or not but as long as you know someone who is and who has “make it”, things will go your way. If you know someone who knows someone who is in “High Places” you might get richer faster that most of us who only know someone who only know someone in “Low Places”. Do you know why I am still blogging here and sitting in a below 200K apartment instead of sitting in a bungalow watching some adults beating a white ball in a golf course and sipping bird nest? Yeap, I belong to the later group, the group who buy CD in Pasar Malam, who eat breakfast in KopiTiam and who wear pagoda singlet to sleep….the group that are stuck in the middle.

Blog Addict

I have not been updating much recently and I did not really go online as often as I used to. It might be due to various reasons; it could be that I am a bit restless, a bit not my usual self. There are things that are running in my head that I could not explain. It could be that my heartburn is acting up hence causing me to feel uneasy. Sometimes I do wonder whether the discomfort that I have is coming from my own head or it’s really there. As there is a saying, it’s all in the head. The brain is the master of our physical body. We are just renting it for the period of our lives.

I have read that cancer patient do feel depressed sometimes causing them to fell into depression. Although mine is under remission but the waiting game is quite dreadful. I do feel that sometimes I would just lay back and see where fate would lead me to. I do miss my hokkien mee and nasi lemak, hahaha. Blogging is a way to release it all, the bottle up feeling, the uncertainty and etc. I could not control the cells in my body but I could control what I wrote and when will I post an article in the blog. At least that what I thought that is until I realise blogging itself could be addictive.

Although blogging is between me and a screens that has a keyboard attached to it but as it progresses, it evolve into something that has a magnetic field that could pull us in. Into a world of obsession, a world whereby we would blog whatever that comes across our mind. The article that we read in the newspaper, the chat that we just had with the colleague and etc. As it progresses, it develops into a relationship, one between the readers, comments, the bloggers and the hit counters. I guess there are a lot of bloggers who is addicted to this. Actually this whole week is a week whereby I have proven to myself that I am not one of them as I have actually managed to restrain myself from actually posting anything (thank you heartburn, hahaha). What’s next? Sniff sniff, hand shaking, shall I blog somemore today? Guess not, I am ready for my dinner….

Health System

A transcript from the budget 2006 “A Health Tourism Unit will be established under the Ministry of Health to improve the quality of health services to attract more foreigners to seek private health services in Malaysia”. Is this is what we are aiming for? I think we need to examine our current system to cater for us Malaysian first. If we could not attract our own people to seek treatment in our own country, how are we going to attract foreigner. That is unless they are seeking for cheaper services instead of quality.

If you have relatives that is facing some serious illness and if they belong to the high income bracket, it’s almost certain that they will seek medical services from neighbouring countries like Singapore. This is enforced by a series of high profile Malaysia citizen/government officer doing so. Personally I have seen a lot of serious flaw in our medical system. We do not need to dig back faraway but you just need to look at the current dengue problem. If the newspaper does not report wrongly most patients that dies from it is those that have seek treatment but was somehow not diagnose properly. The recent is a contractor.

Personally I felt that our Health Ministry do not have a proper plan and there is not enough of publicity. Most of us will have the basic understanding that if we just did our yearly blood test with those tumour markers & etc and if its turns up fine, we are fine. Our medical professional personnel also share the same understanding. This is one big misconception. They have a very old thinking that for men, there is no urgent need to have a full medical until we reach well above 40. Actually this could be true if we are back in the 80’s or 90’s. Nowadays the society works in lightning speed hence the type of pressure we face now and then is totally different. We should push the age limit down to at least 35 or less. Even we do it earlier, is our health system has the expertise to detect chronic or serious illness earlier or they just push it aside and blame it our hectic working life and etc.

Our government have some kind of weird obsession with quantity but they never looks at the quality, refer to recent report of target to produce 2,500 doctors a year. I guess the government wants to increase the current high unemployment rate of graduates to include doctors also. It seems most of this graduate needs “re-education” again. We do not need 5 persons to fix a light bulb all we need is one good personnel to do it. Why do we keep repeating our mistakes again and again? We do not want Quantity, we want Quality? After reading Hui Ying post, I do feel there are a lot of doctors that are making mistake but it was not highly publicize. The doctor that certify my dad death was worst than me. He looks more shocked and disbelief than me. He even put his IC incorrectly in the death certification. Of course we could see a lot of blunders like the recent news in regards to nurses that could not even determine the gender of a newborn.

Most private hospital in Malaysia still runs like a sundry shop. The medical record is not centrally kept. They look pretty outstanding on the outside but it just end there. Having a good health system does not solely depend on personnel; we need to improve the infrastructure and processes also. The Health Ministry and other related ministry like agriculture and etc should start to implement checks on food product in Malaysia. Now I dare not even eat certain fruits as I could hear stories like it has been injected with certain chemical or it has been make ripe by using certain material like used battery or whatever. I could see the health ministry certify certain organic vegetables but I think the ministry should expand it to other products as well like fruits, canned foods, breads, even water filters and etc. Until then I guess I will continue to selectively choose my food…….

Writes or speak

It was a “hectic” last week as my colleague is on leave. She helps a lot. So when she is not around I was answering more email, think and doing more documentation than usual. On Friday evening, I have actually calculated the number of emails that I have sent out for the week. In average it was around 25 per day. All of these are business emails. I guess when my colleague comes back from her leave she will be shock with the number of email that is floating in her mailbox waiting for her retrieval.

What routine have I got myself into? The phone is right in front of me. I could pick it up and settle most item but I still find it more comfortable writing than talking. There are times the person is just right at the back of me but I will use email instead of lifting my butt up and walk over. I am not sure why, it could be the way I was “trained” by my previous boss. Or it could be my voice that does not sounds attractive. I do not have a good voice, there are times I felt that my voice is soft and there are times I think I murmur and I could see the person that I talks to is trying very hard, straining their ear drum to make some sense. I do remember some of my ex colleague says that my voice does not match my size. I used to be big. If you are a girl and are on the end of the phone, you might think that I being “cute” as I speak like cat enticing the mouse to come down and “play”.

The government is promoting the usage of IT but sometimes I think it will actually broaden the gap between human. Eventually it will reaches a time whereby everything is done within that stupid little cube that sits on your desktop or your lap that comes with alphabets and numerical symbol. We will forget what is like to feel the mood and feelings of a person. A voice could disclose the thoughts of a person but now we prefer to use “Bold” or “CAPITAL” or “Colours” letter to represent our feeling in an email.

Of course there are times writing is a good way to actually express ourselves. We could use it to express our feelings to our loved one like writing love letters. These letters or emails could then be saved or printed out. It also could be used as milestones to represent a significant period of our lives. For example, this blog. It chronograph events that is happening in my life, it captures my feeling at a specific time. As I grow older, my memory starts to decline; writing allows my life to be captured instead of letting it being eroded and dissolve in time.