Shocker

"A friend of mine the other day commented about how emo my blog felt. Got meh? Anyway, today I shall be blogging about something a lil more exciting."

Just a few weeks ago, I was chatting on the line with one of my buddies and I received an incoming call..


Private..

So I just finished up with my friend, and took the incoming call..

*tuut tuut..tuut..*

So I went along doing my own thing and I got a call.

*121* (Voice Message calling me.. I find this rather cool actually, having 'Maxis' call you)
"You have one new message.. First message.."

I listened.. and listened.. My heart slowed down only to start beating faster and harder, "I hate it when this happens.." What the.."

Thoughts of times where I raced past a red light, argued with a cop, settled with a cop, rioted, vandalised soemthing..
Or perhaps more recently..God forbid, the I.S.A. is after my ass for discussing recent sensitive issues? Thoughts of me possibly ending up like the fate of our dear local warrior, Namewee with his trendy anthem passed. Could I be heading to a high-profile government intervention into my private life?

I wanted to swear off Malaysian politics there and then.

My colleague Nic was sitting beside me merrily talking when he suddenly realized that I had a pale look on my face.

"You ok ah, bro?", he asked.

"Yeah.... gotta make a call. Be right back..", said I before I got out of the car to contact the High Court. Here's how it went.

Me: Hello, nama saya Justin Wong dan saya baru dipanggil oleh Makhamah Tinggi kerana saya tidak hadir dalam satu perbicaraan.
HCstaff: Ya ke? Kamu ada menerima apa-apa surat berkenaan hal ini, tak?
Me: Takde. Tapi saya baru dapat 'miss call' daripada mereka dan mereka tinggalkan voicemail saja.
HCstaff: Oh, ini penipuan la, En. Wong.
Me: ...
HCstaff: Ya, memang beberapa orang sudah komplain tengang ini.
Me: *phew* -_______-"
HCstaff: Eh, kamu jangan bagi nombor IC tau!
Me: Ya ya. nasib baik voicemail aje.

I figured the modus operandi of this sly bs3rds is:

1. To let you hear this pre-recorded message.
2. You will (Well, I would've) then press 9 for 'further information'.
3. Like other services, the 'obvious' thing to do next is validate your identification so that they can 'check' their database for your 'case'.
4. Thinking that the High Court is so advanced, unsuspecting civilians would surrender their private information and then *SLAM*.. they put down the phone on you leaving you with no option to retrace the information or sue the heck out of 'High Court'.

So my advice, be VERY careful with where your IC number or any other sensitive information goes, whether it be on the phone, telemarketers, online pop-ups, credit card agents, etc.

I'd like to thank whoever it was who was talking to me, the High Court lady staff and God for bestowing me good luck against this Sohigh court.

*phew*

Take it to the max

It's 2008!
Most of us went through either:
Multitudes of new year SMSes - some thoughtful, some inspiring and some recycled and corny,
Extreme partying i.e. reducing the blood in our alcohol stream,
Bonding with our loved ones via house parties and such,
and of course trying to make our resolutions for the rest of the year - trying being the keyword.

In relation to making resolutions, I scouted the web for some inspiring quotes to do my part in spreading the SMS joy and found this.

We will open the book. It's pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. This book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.

I thought I'd spend a few hours contemplating on my resolution for the coming year. But some would disagree on the concept of a new year's resolution like others would disagree about Valentine's Day; Why spend one day 'celebrating love'? Does this mean that you can't do it on any other day? In fact, you should.

I however think that if one tries to make big decisions everyday, he would end up becoming a very tension-fied wreck and perhaps constantly disappointed - at himself.

But I was proven wrong.

So wrong it even felt like I was getting scolded by the book Awaken the Giant Within, written by Anthony Robbins (my favorite life coach). I bought the book instantly. Tony says that in order to stretch yourself to your maximum potential, you have to make conscious decisions to direct your life everyday. It's akin to wishing upon a genie but instead, you demand this decision out of yourself.

Deep stuff. The book is slightly long winded (his style) but highly reccomended if you'd like to awaken yer giant. No, pun not intended.

Yes, I got carried away. But back to point - How would I like my year to be?

Well, a brief recap of 2007 has told me that:

i) I'm fond of doing involuntary charity to whom I will never know

I think my pants have holes that I'm not aware of..

ii) I just can't/don't take serious things seriously.
iii) Despite having my watch 36 minutes early, I'm constantly 22 minutes late (in actual time) therefore qualifying me for time zones of Bangkok, Hanoi or Jakarta.
iv) Food is good and I'm getting prosperous.

There's definitely more where that came from but this year I'm taking a different approach I learnt from BAT called Continuous Improvement. Reason being new year resolutions should not be a one-off thing. It's like asking you to lift a forest worth of logs in a day. Rather, one should pick a stick a day in order to reach the destination without dying.. in spirit.

So the first one, would be to get in shape.

Nice.

And my mantra (something that you'd repeat day in and day out to motivate yourself) for the year to keep me going is, "I'm something else".
Do share if you have or can think of any good ones.

Shoot me

About a week ago, a dear friend of mine lent me one of his latest hard-earned toy - his Fuji Finepix S6500fd or..

So I got quite excited when he agreed to the short loan. (Well this dear friend of mine just so happens to be very particular about the condition of anything of his - books, cam, car, car door, etc.)

I began thinking about wild trips to the jungle just for the sake of photography. Can you imagine, everyone going to a random place - be it a jungle, a god forsaken town, etc. - just to capture still scenes of the world.

Overdramatic.

Anyhow so after meeting up, I spontaneously suggested that I follow him back to Putrajaya to take some night photos and so that he might be able to give me some insight on how to operate this advanced piece of thing-a-magic. To cut a long story short, I present to you a beginner's go at pro-photography. =D

(Please click on the thumbnail for the full blow-up. Images have been scaled down and quality compensated to avoid hair loss while uploading pics..)

So there was this bridge. It's one of the 3 bridges that connects the Precints of Putrajaya.
"Is it important", you ask?
Yes, it is if you don't have any avenues to claim fuel or have a Petrol-growing-tree at home.

Well, this is one of the mosques that we had a direct sight of while he was givin me my cam tutorial

Trying to be all artistic..

Our dear friend trying to have an emo pose. Didn't really jadi(make it), tho.

I stumbled upon this road on the way to the bridge (below). Turned in and this was all I got. A.. em, compound? What's wrong with these people man..

Close up. See what I mean?

Bridge pic.

Another bridge pic.

This is my bitch, Pixel. She has two peculiar things about her:
i) She has a pigtail, literally. It's curled.
ii) One of her ears refuse to listen to her, lol.

Su's present for me. A close-up. ;)

Attempt at camwhoring. Su said I 'looked like an alien'.. --____--"

WTH.

Comments are always welcome! :)

Barely passing

Today was another one of a stream of bad events that has been going through my life. When Ian found out, he said Buddhists would call it bad karma. I feel that God's trying to 'put me to the test..and deliver me from evil' as they say. And what's worse, I don't seem to be passing. :(

I duno man. Call it whatever you will, karma, luck, fate, etc., I'm avoiding succumbing to attributing events in my life to these factors. Apparently a friend of mine said that a typical 'Chinese' cure would be to give some donations to the poor. Although I have nothing against that and makes alot of sense, I still feel that it's an indirect way of washing your hands of things, dont'cha think?

A conversation could between Mr.Aeh and Mr. Bee would go like:
A: Man, damn crappy weh today..
B: Why la bro?
A: Duno la, keep screwing up everything
B: Bad luck weh u..
A: Yealah, bad luck.. What to do?
B: Can't do anything bro, just plain 'ol bad luck.

See what I mean? My approach is that unless you've done everything in your capacity to avoid whatever just happened to you, it ain't luck bro. I call it "Learning it the Hard Way" or an "Expensive Lesson".

Oh also, I did something today that I never imagined I'd do. I yumcha-ed with about 7 cops. I didn't know much to talk about when they were going about their usual police garblebob language. Duno whaat la. I'll reserve whatever comments I have for now, though.

On another note..
Here's a fantastic track by Boyz II Men called Tracks of My Tears. In case you didn't know, these guys ROCK. What I'd give to have any one of their voices. Don't get too mesmerized that you forget to check out their coordinated steps too.

Btw, didn't they have 4 members before?

Anyway, here are the lyrics to it. (As far as I've looked, I'm one of the few who have a copy-able version on the net, so you're welcome for typing it out! :)

Boyz II Men – Tracks of My Tears

Verse 1
People say I’m the life of the party
‘Cause I tell a joke or two
Although I might be laughing loud and hearty
Deep inside I’m blue

Chorus
So take a good look at my face
You’ll see my smile looks out of place
If you look closer, it’s easy to trace
The tracks of my tears

I need you, need you

Verse 2
Since you left me if you see me with another girl
Seeming like I’m having fun
Although she may be cute, she’s just a substitute
Because you’re the permanent one
[Chorus]

I need you, need you

Bridge
Outside (I’m masquerading)
Inside (My hope is fading)
Just a clown (Ooh yeah since you put me down)
My smile is my make up
I wear since my break up with you

[Repeat Chorus]

I like. :)

credit to LenJin for introducing this clip to me

Finger lickin good

No, I'm not referring to KFC, but the stuff this guy comes up with his guitar. Simply Amazing, and not just skilled like some rockers - it actually sounds darned good. Anyway, watch and you'll see what I mean.



Do you agree with me now? Percussion+Strings = Percusstrings. Never have I heard/seen anything like this, seriously. O_o"
Now Zack Kim looks like he has some competition.

You can also check out and vote for the other guitar clips running for the Best Guitar Clip award at guitarworld.com.

BTW, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all a Merry and Jolly Christmas and have lotsa fun with your loved ones. And also take extra good care of your wallets/purses.

Love!

Oy, wan fight ah?

It's 12.30 a.m, and I have work tomorrow. But knowing what I know now, I feel that it is my personal responsibility to myself and my country to inform you all of the following happenings.

As you all would know, there has been some widespread violence going around in this country by all parties. (lets not be biased here, most were arrested for a reason) But most of you all probably would not be aware of the extent of which this is happening. Below are a compilation of some videos of the happenings that would show you how close to home this is..and how lightly it has been portrayed to us in formal media.

Hindu temple Demolition in Klang Oct 2007

It's business, not personal..

Don't forget them reporters!



Even in parliament!

That was something. Havoc's even happening outside of parliament. Look at blatant insult to the sanctity of the parliament (ordinarily considered sacred judicial grounds of the law), the justice system - whatever's left of it - as well as individual rights.

click here for a longer and clearer version. Watch from 8:30 onwards.
And most recently, the Hindraf rally, 25th November 2007.

I TOTALLY can't agree with the interviewee, can you?

and finally quoting from Nak Tak's article:
Police says: 1000 people attended the rally
Media says: 4000 people
Najib says: 10,000 people
Bersih says: 40,000 people
Picture says:
A picture is indeed worth a thousand words - tens of thousands in this case.

This shit is f*cked up, seriously. And I'm pissed off.

Losing grip

Much *pause* has happened during my absence from this blog. In fact, these happenings are perhaps the cause of my desire to avoid writing about them as:
Firstly, there's too much to write.
Secondly, there's nothing much to write.
Thirdly, to think about what I'm writing would be like trying to blow an already fully inflated balloon.

I'd

pop.

Dramaticism aside. I'm at one of the lowest points of my life where almost nothing I do seems to be right. Have you ever been through that? You don't have to be a genius to know that it's tough. Especially when you're used to having almost everything going your way right before this.

So I'm wondering to myself,
"Why is this happening?"
"What's different now?"
"What am I doing wrong?"
"Should/can I blame anyone else but myself?"
"Is it me.. or is it my situation/condition?"
"Is it me?"
"Is it..me?"

Notice never once did I ask, "Why me?"

I understand that in this life, you have to go through the rock bottom of shit to know how you should appreciate the times you're not in it.

But this is close.

I'm probably trying too hard to be too [insert adjective here]. Maybe I'm trying too hard.
Working too hard.
Loving too hard.
Thinking too hard.

Yeah bro, the person who gets hurt most in the end is.. (yep, you guessed it) yourself.

Come to think of it, all this being hard is making me soft in the head. (No pun intended, whatsoever) No really, methinks this is draining energy out of me. Everyday I come home tired and mentally exhausted. (For some reason, I've been needing naps periodically and needing additional night sleep. Much more than what I used to need)

All I can do now is utilize my time to the best of my capacity; the rest is up to God.

I can't bring myself to say that this'll be better soon, but I've learnt the hard way not to overpromise others and myself. To those who're also going through trying times, you have my moral support and I'm sure I have yours.

In the meantime, I'll be working overtime. So pardon my neglect of this blog temporarily; though I may drop in to write a word or two once in awhile. Wish me luck, 'n thanks for the love.