Scratch Post

29 June 2009

[Work] Mind Games

Stuck at customer site, being targeted for mind games it's quite interesting will tell the story someday...
In some sense doesn't really affect me coz partially i'm an asshole myself, and i've been brought up in racially topsy turvy msia :)

27 June 2009

[Self] Boring Friday Weekend

Just when the Friday weekend couldn't possibly get any more boring (or hot as per June weather)... the entire of Al-Hamrah compound suffered from a full blown power failure. I managed to confirm that via IM thru a few of my colleagues staying in the other wings & other units who were probably as bored as I was thus resorting to the Net to kill time.

Well fine, I thought, maybe the highlight of the day would be a terrorist attack on Al-Hamrah. It's been 6 years plus since the last bombing?

But no, no blasts or gunshots or screams 10 mins after that. So heck I called up a mate and we went out for dinner instead (Hummus + Zaitun Salad + Grilled Chicken).

17 June 2009

[Work] Handholding the Client (literally)

...... I could see that he appreciated my point and effort, and that was when my client counterpart reached out and ...... held my hand

And that's when I had to, in a split second -- repress the 30-odd years of cultural upbringing. It was hard, damn hard. If something like this happened in KL (or anywhere else in the world), I'd definitely recoil and yell "Oooi apa buat brudder?!"; but there in the client's office in Riyadh, I didn't.

In fact, I was oddly cool. There was a weird calm despite the dichotomy inside.
- On one end, my psychological and physiological being had to quickly come to terms with the local Saudi culture of expressing friendship within the brotherhood at lightspeed.
- On the other end, let me illustrate via this example from Prison Break (Season 1): Ever seen the parts where T-Bag would reverse-flip his pocket to a fresh inmate he fancied? Well, I felt like the freshie.

So back to my first time .... I felt time had slown down to a trickle. Our handholding lasted about 2 whole minutes plus plus, but it felt like an eternity. The closest I can get the reader to understand would be like this:


---- ---- Incident Begins ---- ----

1038am: Errr ... what the heck?!?!
1038am (parallel to "what the heck" feeling): Calm down, calm down its the Saudi custom.
1038am (a few seconds later): Its really "eeewwww", but on the plus side it means that I've managed to gain trust after the few weeks here.
1038am (more seconds later): It is still weirdly gross though....
1038am (more seconds later): Still gross. And weird.
1038am (more seconds later): Really, really weird. Weird experience indeed.
1038am (many more seconds later): If I pull away though, it'd be rude. I don't wanna be rude. Respect the local customs I say....
1038am (agitating seconds later): How long did we hold hands already? Oh wait, there's that MS clock on the bottom right of the screen.
1038am (seconds pass): Hey, its 1038... Did we start handholding at the start of 1038 or at the middle or end of 1038?
1038am (an eternity seems to have passed): I guess it must have been the start of 1038.
1039am (a revelation): Whoa!! It's been maybe 1 full minute already??
1039am (a new disturbing revelation, some moments later): Hey, is it hot in here?
1039am (the disturbing revelation unwinds): Someone's got sweaty palms ... which dude is it? I cannot check my own nor can I check his... crap!!
1039am (sweaty moments are forever): OK this is not cool man ... what to do???
1039am (panicky sweat seconds pass): I could pull out, but it's weird right? Can I? I don't wanna piss off the client counterpart ... dammit!
1039am (more panicky sweat seconds pass): Aha, well maybe if I just reposition my palm just a little bit via a bit of body movement to cover up this palm positioning effort? It could just work ...
1039am (time slows down dramatically): OK, I'm straightening up and moving my hand and elbow a bit ... easy does it ...
1039am (time suddenly speeds up again): Mission Success!! Ohmygosh the small pockets of air between our palms are allowing ventilation to gush through the previously sweaty bits!! Bloody hell its so refreshing!!
1040am (time decides to slow down again): Hey its 2 minutes plus dah! Apa cerita its really been a while ... What's the standard average of handholding btw dudes in KSA?
1040am (time is a blur but sometime during the period defined as 1040am, the client releases the hand): I'm freeeeeee!! Wow that's been a really long time paradox I experienced there.

---- ---- Incident Ends ---- ----


Since that episode, some friends have asked me have there been more incidences? I reply very humbly (with a slight whimper) ... 'yes". But let me declare too that we've always kept it professional, and never even came close to 1st base.

15 June 2009

[Self] Babes & Swords

After my first trip from Saudi, I was going through some DVDs in KL and came across Chanbara. The cover promised a kickass (double) sword-weilding babe in bikini plus a cowboy hat, roaming across the remnants of Japan killing zombies while looking for her lost sister.

Touching storyline right? Not to mention Chanbara was supposed to have some other companions too. 1 was a biker chick with a shotgun and 1 more was some chick with some weapon too (sorry -memory blurred out).
With all that juicy action, the deprived soul that I was should have soaked it all up right? Well no actually, I couldn't finish it despite having loaded the DVD 5 times separately.
The effects were so bad and the acting was grotatious that I've not managed to finish the simple 80~90 minute affair. I really couldn't continue on and stopped where Chanbara faces her sister gone evil and biker chick dies (I think, like I said - forget the memory blurred out).
Despite this, I do hope to finish Chanbara sometime in the future ... maybe attempt #10 should do the job.



And then, 2 weeks back from my second Saudi trip - I went to watch Blood. Cool poster I thought, a morbidly pissed off looking vampire chick with murderous cold eyes and an equally frosty blade to hack, slice and dice the vampires and monsters that dared stray into her violent path.....
Now, I was told it would be better as it starred that Korean girl from My Sassy Girl in it, and it after all had the credits from the people who did Hero + Crouching Tiger.
I really hoped it would restore my faith in the movies of the genre of "Babes with Swords". But no, Blood was just damn bad!!
The lighting was crappy, the effects were crappy, the American dialogue and American actors were crappy, the action was clumsy (and crappy), the storyline if it existed would even be lucky to be called crappy!! Blood was in fact far worse than Chanbara.
Chanbara was low budget and crappy, but it was honest and tried to do its best. But Blood obviously has money pumped into it and still came out (drum roll) ... CRAPPY!! I dozed off in the 15th minute, woke up30-40 mins later, dozed off again, and then staggered out of the cinema with my 2 other brothers. 3 guys and we couldn't stomach the (drum roll) ... CRAPPINESS !!!

"Gosh No!", you say ... "Does it mean all movies with babes & swords are just bad?"
Answer: Nope, there's a rare gem that will always stand out.
Partially coz Uma's in it, and yep Kill Bill is the lone standard of this genre that excels. The only other I can think that comes close would be Milla in the red dress killing zombies in Resident Evil 1 (but no sword so we have to sadly disqualify her).