[wtH] Bad Shows - Can I Have 4 Refunds?

An unlucky streak recently - went thru several bad shows that were really crap. I knew I should have gotten WWE's Royal Rumble instead there was probably more storylines and believable acting in it.

Year Of The Dog -- Molly Shannon plays a middle aged woman who after her beagle dies, goes thru some kind of depression and ends up as some animal rights activist. If the intention of the show was to actually highlight the benefits of being vegan and bring to light the issue of "animal rights" - this show did a swell job to belittle them, and certifies that only cuckoos become vegetarians and/or believe that cruelty should not be applied to animals.

Balls Of Fury -- Great trailer, but trash movie. It goes to show that Maggie Q still has absolutely no acting talent, and Hollywood actors are like politicians - they all have a price and willingly get into cheap theatrics.

All The King's Men -- If they couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again, neither could a somewhat "solid" cast of Sean Penn, Anthony Hopkins, Kate Winslet, Jude Law who couldn't much to mend a terribly boring movie.

No Reservations -- Katherine Z. Jones, Aaron Eckhart - expect instead an undercooked storyline with overcooked dramatics that has nothing to do with romance. If you are looking for lots of sizzling - cooking & romance, kitchen humour then I think that TV series called Kitchen Confidential is much better (main star is that guy who used to be on Alias as a analyst / sidekick). There is 1 single redeeming point - "No Reservations" is a romance comedy produce still marginally better than that Growing Jane show by Kate Hudson.

Any other crap movies that the general public have to be warned of?

[Msia] Elections 08: T + 6

Heard an interesting quote today - "When you're in a hole ... keep digging".

Msian politicians:
- BN yes keep on harking back on policies that the colonial masters invented, you have absolutely no zeal or a creative thought on how to make Msian society better; you should be attracting talent and reform not hoarding zombies!
- Oppo parties the clock is ticking, start learning how to dance you are making unimportant squabbles, if you have a limited bank account for mis-steps - use them wisely for some governance implementation issues that are genuine!

Msians:
- Monitor those on top closely always it doesn't matter which party is in charge of the administration it is always a matter of implementation. What are they implementing and how well?
- The country has to progress beyond race politicking, be pragmatic and realize class issues + economic competitiveness should be the 2 main drivers to upgrade Msia.

[Msia] Elections 08: T+2

It is a fascinating time for Malaysian society. The way the opposition parties made gains in state and Parliamentary seats is to say the least - stunning. While the first shock has passed (that the BN did that badly), the after tremours have really yet to be felt. My own wonderings:

- It is weird (and this applies only in the Malaysian sense due to history) that the BN "lost" - it is truly a perception game. Getting the 2/3 majority is probably a rarity in other democratic countries. I suspect that getting the 2/3 majority will be hard to ever achieve again.
- There is not enough credit being given to the police and all parties (BN and opposition parties) that there were no riots. And Malaysia still functioned as a peaceful country the next day.
- Although there was a lack in the cohesion of the BN spin after the results were final. They seemed to want to attribute the losses to the dismal performance of the MCA and MIC. On the surface, it may seem right. However, one notes that UMNO which was supposed to carry the Malay vote had to also have had to perform badly else it would not have been that bad.
- How will the state governments that are formed under the opposition work? Realistically they only shared 1 temporary common goal during the campaigning period. But in the longer term, how do the fragmented and competing interests converge?
- While there could be some common ground for DAP and Keadilan to work on, how does PAS come into the picture? I cannot see this as being some reflexion point where a strong 2nd Opposition slowly emerges. More likely I feel is where West Coast politics are concerned - that Northern states will form a more "detached" identity from its Central + Southern brethren.
- I do wonder how will the opposition parties manage their respective wins. Now that they are not barking from the outside and will be forced to work from within - how will they really perform is probably how well they get elected / kicked out in the next election. As the saying goes - be careful for what you wish for ... you might just get it :)
- I can only imagine what is going on in the BN right now. Hot wok + ants = a lot of scrambling. I only wish this gives them plenty of fodder for reflection. Is 2-4 weeks enough time to know if Badawi survives or not?

If this recent election somehow releases new streams of sociall dynamism in Malaysian society -- be it from the opposition parties (via their new policies and experimentations at governance) or BN (in it's quest to remain relevant and reinvent itself properly this time), I can only pray that this somehow leads to the overall betterment of Malaysian society.

[Msia] Elections 08: T-1

Flipped thru The Sun newspaper today, election fever really burning up. Some notes:
- Every other page had a BN ad. Except for 1 DAP ad somewhere at the end of the paper. I think the editor must have made a mistake and accidently published it there.
- MCA seems to be begging for votes to continue its relevancy. Had a pic of Ong Ka Ting.
- MIC ads quite aplenty too but they are doing a lot of hard selling. No pic of Uncle Samy - is his face considered a liability? (MCA after all didn't have a prob with printing the MCA President's face)
- UMNO ads - couldn't recall seeing any. Maybe I'll buy Utusan later.
- BN ads - a lot of hard selling also they need better copywriters too. I dunnow, but I feel some of the themes they are trying to put out are inferenced from US politics ... maybe some of the people in there watch stuff like CNN politics, Meet The Press, Tucker, Hardball, The MacLaughlin Group.

And took some taxi rides recently, the best info, analysis and punditry you get from the taxi drivers ... NOT from those smug, smarty-pants wannabes on TV with weird accents.

[Msia] Election 08: T-4

Touched down earlier tonight, and then had a canai, not a prata*. Came home - channel surfed, saw some really professional MCA ad with a lame-o tagline (totally weak message and terrible positioning).

Then went out - and actually managed to go out a catch 15 mins worth of a ceramah. Interesting stuff the politicos are in a frenzy baying, yelping any kind of promise and retheoric they can come up with (truths, half-truths, close to falsehood "conventional wisdom" etc).

On my way back, my dad actually told me that a bridge linking the SS22 zone to the SS21 zone was recently under works over the past week or so. The foundation is there and they have been "ting-ting-tong-tong"ing every night.

Now, this bridge in current works was in fact a promise made by the MP several years ago replace a smelly underground pass. And now in the final days before the election, they are toiling away like mad to get it up. It is comicseque to say the least - I can imagine a scene where the MP hammering away like Wile. E. Coyote with some iron bars and a box of Acme screws.

Gosh this is cool stuff, I wish we had elections every 2 years instead!

* It's a Msian food vs SFE issue.
** Of course, there is always a risk that if the MP is not re-elected we'll be left with slabs of concrete on both sides of the expressway.

[Work] Garlic Bomb

Had 1.5 loaves of garlic bread just now.

God I stinketh even I can't stand my own breath.

[Msia] Of Condoms, Dildos and Msian Politicians

I hoped onto SBS #10 yesterday, and on the mobile TV there was some Msian news.

Election fever time even Channel 5 was carrying more Msian news then usual - Badawi was talking about some corridor (we've got so many of them lately but I am very dissapointed nowbody came out with any goofy government song yet - very unbecoming of our bureaucrats @ bawah tempurungs indeed!)

And then the next news flash came in and I saw some politicians enthusiastically waving .... a bunch of red condoms. I sat up straight with a bemused look thinking - "WTH? What kindof weird ass cheap retail campaigning is this?"

But nope, I was wrong - it wasn't a cheap tactic, nor was it somehow that Msian society enlightened overnight during my short stay in SG & embraced the need to promote reproductive education. It was just a terrible terrible design flaw gone awry - it was actually the DAP politicians waving some rocket toy / action figure.

Here - I managed to find this online somewhere:

Come to think of it, upon second thought - it actually looks like a red dildo....

[Work] Whack A Mole

There used to be this whack a mole game in the Old Jusco (Taman Tun) on the 3rd floor. Slot in 50 cents I think (felt a hell lot of expensive then) and you'd have about 2-3 minutes to whack moles that randomly popped up.*

20 over years later, I find myself in the landofcrapfood (guess where?) whacking SDLC moles. Whack one, and another mole pops out. And I'm not playing 1 set, but 2 sets!

*Of course back then, I tried to figure out the logic or sequence of this randomness but couldn't. That is why I can only admire programmers but survive on "soft skills". In typical PM fashion even as a kid then, I focused on whacking a few, and assigned my brother to take care of the others. His charge out rate then? Innocent fun with his big bro ;)