Man, I Feel Like I'm In Malaysia Again in Portugal!

Why? Visited our ex-colonial master in the early 16th Century, I let these pictures do the talking:

KL's weather:



Lisbon, Portugal's weather (summer):



The crave for spices led Afonso de Albuquerque to be our first colonial master in Melaka...

Spices sold in a market...

Ball is called Bola, just like in Malaysia...

Bola Tennis, Mini Bola Nike...

Butter=Manteiga/Mentega...



Lime=Limao/Limau...



Church=igreja/gereja...



Also, not shown:
1. Fork=garfo/garpu
2. Cupboard=armário/almari
3. Window=janela/jendela

So, why the fuss of the overzealous anti-Bahasa Rojak campaign? Some of our words are derived from Portuguese!

HOWEVER, the word 'malas' is not lazy. It means 'luggages' in Portuguese.

Casa=house, malas=lazy? No!

Some very delicious authentic Portuguese egg-tarts, cloned by King's Confectionery...



Looks familiar? Remember one time, a Portuguese-Malaysian singer singing Sejahtera Malaysia who caused a controversy as the 'lain-lain' race was over-represented?

Puji dan shukur pada....

Last but not least, here's an advert of the horse-toothed Ronaldinho (Portugal has a strong link with Brazil as the latter was a colony of the former), specially for Amoi:

Your breath needs to smell good also when you kick around...

Why not visit Portugal when you have a chance?

The Malaysian Palm-Oil-OrangUtan-Extinction Lobby: Truth of Myth?

The lobby against Malaysian products by developed countries is not a new issue, more notably the palm oil and the rubber; orang-utan extinction and allergic reaction for the former and latter.

When I was away outstation for a workshop, a full page article in The Independent on the 23rd May took me aback for a while, urging all the UK citizen to boycott against soap and toothpaste made from Malaysian palm oil, allegedly causing extinction to orang-utans in the Borneon jungles. Read the article yourself (Click on image to enlarge):







The Malaysian government, as usual with its denial syndrome, denied numerous claims that the palm oil plantations kill off orang-utan. Perhaps the 'Act of God' killed them? And if you still remember earlier this month when The Medicine Man was in Texas for the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) 2006, he actually begged phoned Bush to voice our country's concern about the lobby against palm oil by the developed countries.

A Google Search for 'palm oil lobby malaysia orang utan' revealed puzzling results. There's even a PDF called 'oil for ape scandal'.

So, whom to believe? Are these developed countries boycotting our products solely to reduce market competition? Or are they really concerned about the extinction of this mascot-worthy animal? Are we purely white innocent then? All these could only be avoided if our government would be more transparent in dispersing information (freedom of information) if we have the point to prove that they are wrong!

Oh, did I tell you that my lab has changed from latex gloves (proudly made in Malaysia ones) to nitril gloves (still proudly made in Malaysia ones)?

"Screw M's Crooked Bridge, I Have My Own Disneyland Malaysia!"

So you think The Medicine Man (TMM; not to be confused with the same initials as the predecessor) is a bit tad weak, eh? You're wrong! He has his own way-the Mickey Mouse way (pun not intended)!

Exactly a week ago, Taiko first whispered that TMM was in Japan to bring Disneyland to Malaysia. Then today, Bernama confirmed this news:



And it was also quickly picked up by Beebs:

Are you sure, Beebs? The 'new bridge' was called off already!

No mega-projects from TMM, eh? See who's the real Medicine Man in action!

Note aside, he spent too much time backpacking around the globe more than me that I lost track of where he is now. Could someone enlighten me on this?

Who needs a Disneyland, by the way? No need to search far; we already have our Bolehland Zoo- in the Rumah Barlimen!

Let's See What Have I Missed...

It's sometimes nice to take a break and forget about the sickening Malaysian socio-politics for a while.

So, let's see what have I missed throughout the whole of last week (according to chronological order):

1. As anticipated, the 'miracle' interview between Malaysia Kini and Tun M. Still harping on the crooked bridge issue.

2. Fresh after the Sarawak elections, the second fark from behind of the year- the electricity hike. Still harping on the 'cheapest in the region' thingy.

3. Lelaki Komunis Terakhir had to succumb to the Lord of the Country. Screw power-sharing! You know now who's running the country. It was then banned indefinitely.

4. That 'close-one-eye' bloke trial thingy. Why the fuss? He's just a small fry in Barang Naik!

5. The fuel and electricity hike protest which ended up as a Bloody Sunday. Sometimes I wonder why the Your Royally Force would be so brutal doing that against their own countrymen. Do they even have conscience? Are they smiling all the way after the hike?

6. Anti-IPCMC threats from the Your Royally Force itself. They even had the guts to say that they will 'biar jenayah meningkat' (let the crime increase) if the IPCMC would to be implemented. As usual, the Head denied knowing it. And The Medicine Man remained silent as ever, smiling all his way at the Asian Media Summit.

Oh, the Indonesian earthquake and the East Timor violence also.

Last but not least, glad to know that non-existing fracas between that attention-whore blogger noob and Uncle Desi was finally resolved. Told ya! Just made me ponder if Uncle Desi would to do the same thing likewise, I wonder I would be visiting him in Kamunting already and his Desiderata flags would be burnt down across the world!

Will be catching up with you guys later this week, o.k., fingers-crossed!

Back!

Back finally! One second it was like scroching hot in Malaysia and another second it was freezing like the Artic here. More updates soon later of the day. Nap time now. Here's a teaser photo for the moment. Guess you know now where I've been to?

The Sensintrovert Is On A Break Again...(4)

Last update on the trivial post before I come back on Tuesday. Just managed to get internet access now. What have I missed besides the electricity hike? Gosh! I feel just like home here! Guess where am I now?

UPDATE 4: Hope that you're bearing with me...some funny animation for you here.

The Sensintrovert Is On A Break Again...(3)

UPDATE 3: More eye-feasts from my e-mail inbox-Paper Art Work:

The Sensintrovert Is On A Break Again...(2)

UPDATE 2: Can you believe that I am updating this from a phone booth? I will post a picture to prove this when I come back later.

Some forwarded stuff again:

If you look at this picture very carefully, you can notice that Black ones are shadows, white ones are the real camels? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The snap has been taken from top......... Simply unbelievable

The Sensintrovert Is On A Break Again...(1)

The Sensintrovert is going on a break again and there will no blog updates till next week. Going for a workshop and then to A Famosa's original builder's country. Feel free to leave comments but it will be moderated to prevent malicious contents. I will be running a series of trivial stuff (like the previous one) forwarded to me.

To start off, here's a piece of article.

Signs of social decay ...???

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 60's, 70's and early 80's probably shouldn't have survived, because our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint which was promptly chewed and licked.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with pans.

When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip-flops and fluorescent 'spokey dokey's' on our wheels.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags and riding in the passenger seat was a treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle and it tasted the same.

We ate chips, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy juice with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.

We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and no-one actually died from this.

We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We would leave home in the morning and could play all day, as long as we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us and no one minded.

We did not have Play stations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no DVDs, no Internet chat rooms.

We had friends - we went outside and found them. We played elastics and rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt! We fell out of trees, got cut, and broke bones but there were no law suits. We had full on fist fights but no prosecution followed from other parents.

We played knock-the-door-run-away and were actually afraid of the owners catching us. We walked to friends' homes.

We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school; we didn't rely on mummy or daddy to drive us to school, which was just round the corner.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls. We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of...they actually sided with the law.

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all. And you're one of them. Congratulations!


Pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow as real kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good. For those of you who aren't old enough, thought you might like to read about us.

This, my friends, is surprisingly frightening......and it might put a smile on your face:

The majority of students in universities today were born in 1986........they are called youth.

They have never heard of "We are the World, We are the children,"
and the "Uptown Girl" they know is by Westlife not Billy Joel.

They have never heard of Rick Astley, Bananarama, Nena Cherry or Belinda Carlisle.

For them, there has always been only one Germany and one Vietnam .

AIDS has existed since they were born.

CD's have existed since they were born.

Michael Jackson has always been white.

To them John Travolta has always been round in shape and they can't imagine how this fat guy could be a god of dance.

They believe that Charlie's Angels and Mission Impossible are films from last year.

They can never imagine life before computers.

They'll never have pretended to be the A-Team, the Dukes of Hazard or the Famous Five

They can't believe a black and white television ever existed. And they will never understand how we could leave the house without a mobile phone. Now let's check if we're getting old...

1. You understand what was written above and you smile.
2. You need to sleep more, usually until the afternoon, after a night out.
3. Your friends are getting married/already married.
4. You are always surprised to see small children playing comfortably with computers.
5. When you see children with mobile phones, you shake your head.

MPs' Series of Unfortunate Misconducts...

Kisah MP-MP Yang Terlampau...

In Prague, Czech Republic:
















In Taiwan:













In Malaysia ! (Caution: Some of these videos are very offensive and are serious noise polluters. While they are safe for work (SFW), remember to turn down your speaker volume as not to offend the surrounding people).









Enjoy!

Hatred/Bigotry/Mockery/Bitching/Character Assassination Blogs: How Do You Deal With Them?

Well, if you are an avid blog reader, you might realise that bloglitics and blog-wars are not new in the Malaysian blogosphere (and also across the Causeway). So, who's the main culprit and instigator of all these disruption of peace and harmony in the blogosphere? Most of the time are the bloggers themselves! I won't bother putting up links for examples but here are a few categories of those blogs (general, constant contents; not intermittent contents) which I managed to think of:

1. Hatred blog.
Mainly directed against an individual. Or an institution. Or a club, if you know what I mean.

2. Bigotry blog.
Mainly pertaining to a particular race or religion, thinking that it is ultimately superior than the others.

3. Mockery blog.
Generally hopping on a popularity of a well-known blog, a 'celeb' blog or a blog with a high site-traffic. For example, The Sensintrovert could be mocked as The Seweltrovert or something like that, if you know what I mean. Blogs belonging to this kind might be created just out of pure jealousy, or even a stalker/groupie of the original blog! The posts mainly satire about the original blog's particular post or a certain phrase. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?

4. Bitching blog.
Not to be mistaken with a blog with the same name, these kind of blog rants about almost everything under the sun, with no strong research of evidence and examples to support their points at all; mainly giving out sweeping statements. In short, it could be taken as a dog barking up a tree with no apparent reason. Normal occasional rants in a blog should not be mistaken as belonging to this category.

5. Character assasination blog.
Famous across the Causeway, not sure whether they are found here or not. Almost like the mockery blog but more harsh, aggressive and may even use the same name as the original blog. For example like The SensinStupidTrovert or something like that.

So what do you think of these blogs? Would you even bother to visit these blogs in the first place? And if you do, would you bother to support or argue on their points?

IMHO, the only way to deal with these blogs is to play the reverse psychology. Don't bother clicking on them when you see their pings or just click the red cross button within a second if you don't like what they're saying. If you bother to engage in a debate with them, this will mean that you will have to visit their blog more frequently to hear what they might argue back. In the end, this will only feed their ego more as they are have successfully created a controversy (which is their main agenda anyway) and also getting a healthier site traffic! Oh, believe me, the site traffic (frequency of visits and the length of stay) is the MAIN ego-booster of a blogger.

Let 'em rot... Image source.

I just let these blogs rot to feed the germs in earth and let them syiok sendiri. What do you think?

"Mummy, Why Is Dr. Octavius A Bishop in The Da Vinci Code?"

Warning: Plot spoilers ahead. All photos are sourced and copyrighted to Rotten Tomatoes.

O.K. I didn't actually hear that at the cinema just now when I catched the movie. It was just a portrayal of the 12A BBFC Rating for the movie, which means that any child could easily swallow the movie.

The Dr. Octavius I was talking about is Alfred Molina of course, as Bishop Aringarosa in the movie.

The tech-savvy Dr. Octavius repented his job to destroy the world to be a bishop.

Other catch-phrases that I could think of would be:

"Mummy, why is Forrest Gump's hair so bloody funny in The Da Vinci Code?" or
"Mummy, has Amelie became a cop in The Da Vinci Code?"

O.K. Enough of the sarcasm. Here's my review of the movie, which I will leave out any religious controversy about it.

Generally, despite several negative reviews at the Cannes festival lately, I find the movie pretty enjoyable, pleasant and tastefully filmed (trust me I'm not being sarcastic here). Well, at least it is better than the narcissictical Tom Kulus' M:I:III!

Here's the movie poster:



Here's the book...

If this book might interest you, why not check on further the blog on the background , eh? ;)

And here's the movie synopsis if you live in a cave are in the dark and haven't heard what The Da Vinci Code is all about:

The film follows a professor of symbology, Robert Langdon, as he is called to the scene of a grisly murder in the Louvre. Along with a young French cryptographer, Langdon tries to solve the message left by the victim in order to preserve a secret, kept for thousands of years, which could revolutionise the Christian faith.

In 6 words, I would describe the movie as:

Book read already, see for what?

as I believe that any Tom, Dick and Harry on the street would have read it in various languages already

or

Amelie Joins Cast-Away In Treasure Hunt

The hype of turning the novel into a summer blockbuster film began exactly a year ago where I speculated that Sean Penn should be Robert Langdon. However, he wasn't in the list of probably candidates which included Bill Paxton, Russell Crowe, Ralph Fiennes, Hugh Jackman and George Clooney.

Some memorable scenes and quotes:

1. Ladies and brokeback practioners, rejoice! The villain, Silas is an eye-candy. You'll get to hear his sexy Italian accent and see lots of his skin. And if you're into S&M, what more can I say?

Does my bum/face look white in this make-up?

2. CGIs of some re-enactment scenes of ancient Rome and London.

3. The decoding of The Last Supper, of course.

The 'prostitute' and Sophie...

4. Sophie trying to chat up with an Asian bloke (in the UK, the term 'Asian' refers to those from the South Asian origin; Cina punya not included o.k.) in the double-decker bus to get his library card. Also, got internet access to search for 'London, Knight, Pope' through this bloke's mobile phone instead (which is not in the storyline of the book).

5. Sophie slapping Silas on the airplane and saying this to him:

"You think God will like you if you kill for him? You will burnt instead!" (or something like that, couldn't remember that well).

6. Captain Fache beating up a lazy-bum clerk at the airport control centre who said 'I'm taking a 10 minutes break' when asked for the list of flight schedules. (rings a bell for the 'taking a break' part? ;)

7. The 3 questions: "Cofee or tea or me?", "Milk or sugar lemon" and " Harvard outrow Oxford man" before Leigh Teabing would let fugitives Robert and Sophie in.

My overall rating for the movie would be 7/10.

p.s.(Not Princess Sophie, o.k.!) It is better if you haven't read the book. And if you anticipate lots of audience-involvement, thought-provoking, code-solving (as in National Treasure) scenes, don't have too high hopes for them. Possibly the makers of the film realised that thousands of people out there knew the code already.

Now, for the narcissistic part, in case you wonder, yeah, been there on New Year's Day, FOC!!!...



...done that:



...but not the Mona Lisa's one as photography was prohibited and it was at a bloody dark corner as no light was allowed.

And the real Westminster Abbey in London, not some fake Lincoln Cathedral substitute...



Oh, if you worship S.E.X., The Da Vinci Load (hey, I'm not making this up; just Google it o.k.) is already out, with The Priory of the Se**n, Da Vinci [censored]-off and painted the Mona Lisa with his [censored]. Also in the cast: Professor Lee Teabag.

Last but not least, for those protestors of this film for thinking that it might insult Christianity, you are wrong. More people are interested in finding out about Jesus, Mary and the Bible after watching this film; Christianity in general.