Hot!

I'm on 2PM roll here. I just have this sudden need to watch all their old MVs. However, today is a special day ^^. I kept singing this phrase and humming out this tune, so naturally I thought of Big Bang. It's more likely it is their song since it has the Big Bang feel when I hummed it. Then, I remember. It's not Big Bang, it's Junsu (or JunK)!!! It's his composition that he wrote years ago and it got a new breath for its debut in 2PM's latest album Hands Up. I love this song!!! It's an up-tempo song and it is featured in the soon-to-be-released Korean movie 'Blind'.

I think it's very 2PMish. 2PM has so many techo-pop songs and they fit them so perfectly. And they suit them since they are a dance group. Anyway, I'm sharing my bit of heaven today!

2PM - Hot

Credit: 2PM, JYPE

P/S: What's super-deabak about 2PM videos is that JYPE put an effort in putting English subtitles for us, Korean illiterates ^^

Memory

This song has such a bittersweet memory for me. I listened to it on replay on my 10-hour flight back to KL a few years ago. I still listen to it from time to time.

2PM - Again & Again

Credit: 2PM, JYPE

I Love The Tie Dance!

Well, it's quite obvious that I'm obsessed with 2PM. So, it's fully justified that I love their 'tie dance' which is a part of choreography for their second Japanese release 'I'm Your Man'. I love Junsu in this one. He looked so charismatic. And I'm happy that he get to sing more in this one. My Chanana also looked super-hot!!!! Did you notice that Taec's profile is so smoking (when he was sitting next to that darned girl!)??? Anyway, here goes:

2PM - I'm Your Man

Credit: 2PM, JYPE, Ariola Japan, KimBoPeepOppaSS

P/S: I am the Queen of Pop and the Queen of Boy-band ^^

Salam Ramadhan 2011

Dear Friends,

Ramadhan Kareem!!!!

P/S: Been meaning to do this days ago -_-'' Keep slipping from my cheese-like brain.

Pufffft, We Have To Much What?

Lately, talks about we are having too many holidays in Malaysia are re-surfing. Well, these talks have been there forever, but since I just came back after years of living away, I think the issue of ‘having too much holidays’ is just too funny. My first reaction upon re-hearing this is snicker. Yes, I snickered, that annoying little laugh came out of your mouth when you least expect it, finally. I can tackle this subject on many levels, from each invested party, from school-age children, to working people, and since I am an undergraduate student, I'll go from there.

First of all, there is a saying that having too many breaks lessen productivity. And in university undergraduate study-wise, that means, less learning. That deserves another snicker. Since when does more time correlate directly to increasing productivity? I’ll bet my whole month allowance (since I’m a perpetual student and I have yet the right to say ‘my monthly paycheck’) that it’s either there are many contrasting study results (if there are even studies on this) or there is no study at all that can prove this. You see, productivity depends on many things, and yes, time has a role in it. And time’s role is called ‘optimum’. That translates to the best amount of time to produce the best result. That’s it. Not too short, duration-wise, or you could never finish your job or not too long or you’ll just get plain bored out of your mind and start to amuse yourself in the silliest ways that actually decrease production. An example is wasting time. Another is government workers who have too much time in their hands that they become too lazy and inefficient. And in undergraduate language, that means ‘ponteng’ (cutting) class or not paying attention since you are in school (yes, it's school, I don't care if people say it's university since it's the way I say it. Deal with it) day in and day out, minimum 8 hours daily.

Case point 1, in most Western countries with 4 seasons, students will be given a summer break that ranges from one month to 3 months and a half. Yes, almost 4 months. That is a continuous break, which means 3 months and a half of heaven of doing nothing productive, if one wants to do so. I've experienced this for 5 years and believe me, study-wise, I don’t see the difference in studying 11 months a year than 8 months per year. Yes, again, 8 months. I’m not kidding you. Let me recap my old yearly schedule. Mid-November to early March, summer holiday. Mid-June to mid-July, about 3 to 4 weeks of semester break. Add that to another week break for inter-semester holiday, which means another 2 weeks break. A few random holidays like Queen’s Birthday, Anzac Day and so on, which if I’m not mistaken count to another week. That’s about 4 to 5 months worth of break. And about 7 to 8 months of unadulterated classes.

Does that means that the students in these universities are lacking in education and information since they have so much holiday and less classes? I don't think so since a lot of family here are so eager to send our children overseas to study and a lot of companies find overseas graduate to be efficient in their work. So, what's the issue here? I think most don't realise that we have sufficient holidays. University schedule-wise (I've been dropping 'wise' left and right today hohoho), we have a good one, from what I've experienced so far. In average, I'll be having about 2 months of holiday annually. Which is less than what I was used to but it's fine, nonetheless. That duration is sufficient to relax and recharge. So, stop the grumbling and do your work. I bet if you manage your time and resources wisely, things can go well despite all the holidays we have.

P/S: I know working population has a totally different set of holidays so I'm not mentioning that because, well, I know more about undergraduate level than any others. Obviously.

These Differences That Irk Me

As much as I don't want to constantly do comparisons between life in Auckland and life here, I think it's necessary to see the difference clearly so that we can improve as a nation. As a first rule, I do realize the many differences between Auckland and KL, economic-wise, culture-wise, academic-wise, technology-wise and many more. While KL may have a population equal to the population of whole of New Zealand (and that is nothing to boast of), in terms of mind-set, we are still way behind. Fact 01, I see a lot of people littering in public and the most shameful part is that parents even tell their children to litter. Is that what early education is for, dear Malaysians?

And don't give me there-is-not-enough-rubbish-bins crap. Even in Auckland, it's not that you can see rubbish bin at every 5 cm you walk. If there is no rubbish bin, can we not just gather our own rubbish and bring it home to dispose of. We create the rubbish, we clean them up. That's a rule-of-thumb that even small children know. Please don't teach children to throw their rubbish anywhere. That confuses them since they are taught differently in school. I think for us to be able to proudly become a developed nation, we have to alter our attitude first.

Secondly, amenities for the disabled. We lack so much in this sense. In most Malaysians mind-set (okay I'm generalizing, but you can ask yourself and ask the people around you whether what I say is spot-on or not), to have a disabled person in the family is pure heartbreak and tragedy. Full-stop. We are in for a hell of a sad sad life if we have even one disabled family member. While it's true that the first reaction we feel is sadness for this special person, we also need to think ahead, to plan. This is what most developed nation realized. That a disabled person can contribute, not just drain national resources.

That's what we should do. To teach the family to teach this disabled person of how to survive and take care of him/herself in this harsh world. By coddling and protecting them, we are doing them a major disservice. What if, in the future, this disabled family member is left alone (as the rest of family members either die or abandon him/her)? How would he/she survive? Who would take care of him/her? So, we need to educate Malaysians and provide proper facilities, help and support on how to rear a disabled child based on different types of disability, be it mental or physical or both. In general, a lot of disabled person can be trained on basic care like eating, showering, cleaning up and basic education. So, by helping them learn, we help them to grow. We help them to become independent.

When I studied in Auckland University, I noticed that there are tracks and braille on the floor and facilities like lifts for the blind. There is also a special department/unit for the disabled called Disabled Department. All of the doors and pathway to classes and rooms are designed to fit and help the disabled to move around easier. There are also special seats in rooms and lecture theatres for them. Even public facilities such as the bus have things like special seats and ramps and the drivers are trained well to assist them by lowering the ramp and waiting for these people to settle themselves before driving.

I can easily say that in Malaysia, we don't have all these. No facilities. No help. No education. If you are a disabled in Malaysia, you are doomed for life. You can only have a chance if your parents are aware of special schools in the city (only in the city, mind you) and you are doomed to not have tertiary education and marginal chance in having a high-pay and meaningful job (since you have little chance of higher education). Even these special schools don't have great infrastructure, facilities and trained educators. I've volunteered in a special school for 2 years before (don't tell me I don't know, I do). What they are doing is great but they do need help and a better planning. Lumping all special students with different needs together in a class won't help these people at all. While I understand the financial constraint, isn't this what our dear ministers are voted and paid for to do? To plan? To think outside the box? To provide? To help in a more realistic manner? This is where our government should pour their energy in, not in building another higher building or newer and fancier palaces for our Sultans that we don't actually need.

We need better basic facilities such as accessible classes. Small doors, standard desk and seats, no ramps, stairs and no toilet for special needs don't help in encouraging parents to send their children to these schools. We need special desks and seats, bigger doors, accessible pathway like ramps and lifts and special toilets (lowered seats, bigger space and lowered sinks) for the disabled. We also need trained educators for special needs. Government, it's time for you to encourage universities to open a quality education department and a specialized programmed like Education for the Disabled as a post-graduate option for educators. I know Auckland University has this department and program.

We also need a national education plan for the disabled. Anyway, I can list on and on on thing related to disabled needs. I know you get it. We need a plan and a good systematic deliverance of this plan. Education is the key. So, dear ministers. Please listen once in a while when the general public is speaking. Don't just sit on your fat ass, acting all powerful, sending all your children to international schools and overseas universities and having legions of wives and mistresses. Do your work once in a while. Do see that we still have poverty (while it's almost impossible to eradicate, at least you can use your brain to think up ways to help, don't you?), low education quality, lack of basic facilities and poor city development planning and execution (and many more I can think of and list)?

Again I can go on and on. However, let's just stop here while it's still interesting. Something to think about before you sleep (or at least for 5 minutes after you finish reading this), aye?

Personality 01

I'm an over-thinker. I over-think every aspect of my life, including simple things and exam questions. That is one main reason why I'm bad at silly quizzes and games. Let me share you some of my experiences:

1. When I was camping (I was about 15-16 years old), everyone played a guessing game around a campfire. When it was my turn, somebody asked me, "How does an elephant goes into a refrigerator after a giraffe enters it first, followed by a rhino?". After what it felt like an eon, I answered brilliantly, "Why would an elephant wants to enter a refrigerator in the first place. Or any of the animals, by the way. Normal human refrigerator is too small. And these animals have absolutely no need to enter it, as they won't fit anyway.". No, I wasn't joking. And no, of course I didn't get it right.
2. In a charade game, one word/sentence is given to you for you to act out for your team members to guess, right? My team would never win if I'm the actor. For example, if I'm given the word wind, the first thing I thought of is actually a leaf falling down on a slow moving river, floating along the waves. Yes, it's too far-fetched. And yes, to many people, that doesn't make sense.
3. My sisters once asked me the definition of 'shore'. Yes, it was the sea line (edge of body of water). What I managed to come out with is 'you know, when the sea waves crash on the bla bla bla'. You get what I mean. It was so convoluted, my sisters ended up checking it on the dictionary later on. Until now, they tease me on that -_-

Anyway, it's also the main explanation why I talk so much and why I write so long ;P. I just have too many things in my head, I feel like exploding. So, I talk or write. And other people suffer for it. Your luck.

What I'm Hooked On These Days

I love melancholic songs of death, break-ups and heartache. I also happen to love kick-ass songs of empowerment, especially women empowerment. Go ladies! Hehehe. miss A's Good Bye Baby happens to fit the bill of empowerment :) The song and the video are not as gobsmaking as I expected (relative to their great previews). This song is intelligently sarcastic, lyrics-wise (kudos to the lyricist!) and catchy. I also think the chorus needs to be emphasized and louder (again just like their 4 previews). I'm really disappointed to not be able to see Min slapping the guy :( I want THAT storyline where all of them slap/whatever the cheating bastard, attractive that he may be :) I just thought that they should make the beat stronger (like in the preview).

Jia really stood out this time, but I already knew that she's a great dancer and she has the scratchy voice I really like. She looks beautiful in long orange hair and her singing and rapping are good. Min, my favourite, well, her expressions are really great. In fact she's the best since she has that I-don't-care and contemptuous looks all through out the video. She makes the best smirks around :) I really hope Min and Fei will have more parts in the future. After all, they are good singers. Fei needs more parts as I also happen to like her singing. She also look outstading with long brunette hair. Suzy, what can I say. She needs more training. Lots of it, in fact. She's less hesitant than before but I predict of various mistakes in their life performances, like she is wont to do. She needs to be as confident as the rest. Cuteness may be associated to her, but she needs to keep up with the rest's quiet elegance and sexiness.

However, I love miss A's brand of charm and elegance. They happen to be all great singers and dancers, relative to most Kpop girl groups. They have the kick ass attitude without the need to scream 'I'M POWERFUL!'. Don't get me wrong, SNSD and 2Ne1 may be really popular but they are so bland to me. I love 2Ne1's Apa, but the rest, not so much. I've heard them live, they are not as good as miss A. Believe me, I've scoured of all live performances of miss A and 2Ne1 and miss A came out better. Bom may be a great singer, but her live singing is just so...uninspiring. As for SNSD, enough said. Some of them may be good dancers or good singers, but rarely they belong to both groups. Their choreography is cute, but oh so boring and repeated. I want them to come out with something great like miss A's choreo, but what can you expect from 9-people group? It's just too many people in a group.

So, without further ado. Here goes:

What Malays Do Best

One thing I hate the most is people who count every one of their deeds. Don't get me wrong, you can count all you want. Do it in the privacy of your own mind or to your closest family/friends. However, it's just to disgusting when you do it in front of other people who are not even close to you. I notice this happens a lot since I've been back here in my home country. And I can safely say, this is a 'Malay mentality'. Okay, I'm making a sweeping statement here (generalisation), but seriously, it's irksome.

Being a Malay myself, that is nothing to be proud of. I'll explain. When you choose to do something, a job you are being paid of, something you've agreed to do in exchange to money and other compensations like holidays and insurance and whatnot, please do it diligently, if not sincerely. It's hateful when you say this, 'You know, I don't have to do this job. I can just leave. You should be thankful I'm here. Bla bla bla.'. That's just petty. First of all, just because I'm young, okay younger, doesn't mean that I'm blindly obedient. That's just plain stupid, I'm never one who suffers a fool.

Secondly, get this straight in your head please, no one FORCE you to take up that job. Just like when a politician/minister chooses to offer his services and done his level best to be elected for a government high administrative job, don't expect people to bow down and let you walk all over us, the mere citizens. Don't expect to do your job, the job you chose to do, the one that you are obligated to do since you are paid for it, and say, 'Hey, you should kiss my big fat ass and thank the great God that I'm here to do this. I don't have to do this, you know.'. Get it right, mister. You CHOSE to accept the responsibility and the job. We are the ONES who vote for you, not the other way round. No one put a gun on your head and force you to do it. So, just do your job well and remember that you CHOOSE to do it in the first place, we CHOOSE you in the first place (and not the other way round) and you are so well COMPENSATED with money, fame, connection, bribes, illegal stuff, cheap women and whatshit, so shut your trap.

But I digress. This actually applies to all people who work. No one told you to take up a job. You yourself has the freedom of choice to accept a job. It may be primarily due to money, I really actually don't care about your motivation/s, but just do your job. Remember (this is becoming a theme), you CHOOSE to do the job and you are PAID to do the job. It's not as if you are doing it for free. Even volunteers don't have the right to say, 'I don't need to do this, you should be thankful that I'm here to save the mankind bla bla bla.' as they VOLUNTEER. Which means, even if you are not monetarily compensated for a job, you CHOOSE to do it. Again, it's not as if someone held you with a knife on your throat and ask you to choose between your stupid fucking life or to volunteer to do a freaking job.

I fucking hate this. I hate it when people who ARE supposed to do their FREAKING job who expect us to listen and do what you bid just because you are performing a service that you CHOOSE and are PAID for. So, please, all Malays out there. Stop this, be-thankful and I-don't-need-to-do-this nonsense. Just shut your trap and do your job. Just because you are older and more experienced, it doesn't necessarily translate to being wiser and better. It doesn't mean that you don't need to earn other people's respect, especially someone younger. Younger people are not obligated to automatically respect you, just like you are not automatically obligated to respect us. So, be mature about this. I don't respect you just because you are in the position of authority. Do your job well and respect my rights, I'll do my best on my part and respect you in return. If you keep on repeating saying the things of the same vein, just quit the job already okay? Comprendre?

Jay Chou - Nocturne (Ye Qu)

I've always loved this song. Still do. Just now, Gegel was asking me about this song as she's forgotten the title. I never failed to tear up every time I hear this song or watch the mv. It's very beautiful and melancholic.