Monday, June 30, 2008

No longer wise....

Well, the day has come finally...the last straw of the tortureous pain that every individual goes through in his/her life - my last wisdom tooth is giving the "shits"now. Its been hurting since Sunday but I brushed it off just like I did previously as I thought "Nothing a pain killer can't fix". Boy! Was I wrong. I think now its time for it to come out. Got a dentist's appointment at 4:30pm today and believe it or not, I'm actually looking forward to it. I guess the half hour pain would be a lot better than this on-going agony.
I would love to show pics of my tooth but I don't think the dentist would be thrilled with me bleeding and still taking pics while I'm on the chair. Which is what I don't understand - if the tooth is suppose to make you wiser, then it shouldn't be giving you problems right? I wonder who is the wiser one - us or the tooth? I guess it's one of those things in life that there just isn't any logical explanation.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Malaysian Drivers - What Are We Thinking????!!!!

(On a 80cc bike....you gotta be kidding me mate!!!!! Leave the wheelies to the Superbikes! )
(Small car hits big car coz of reckless driving - small car = Kancil, big car - Harrier. Do the math!)
(Creating his own lane just coz he drives a tank)
How many of you have been behind the wheel and cursed at the car in front of you? How many of you felt like running over those bikes that keep screaming through in between our cars making it hard to even switch lanes? How many times you felt like stopping the car, taking that baseball bat (or hockey stick) and pouncing on that car behind you that keeps tail-gating you? How many just wanted to run over pedestrians? How many just wanted to scream in your car coz the cause of the traffic that you were sitting in for 3 hours was because there was accident on the other side of the road?
If you answered Yes to ANY of the above, it proves how frustrating our lives are getting on the road? Firstly, I blame the government. Yes we are trying to potray to the world that Malaysia is a progressing 3rd world country (accept it mates - we are a 3rd world country) and so the need for afforable lifestyle. Do you really think by creating cars that go 40km/h on the highway as top speed helping in any way? Do you think by creating smaller and smaller cars is going to help take people off their bikes and into a car just because its afforable? Bullshit mate!!! Have you ever been to America and seen a car the size of our Kancil? Of course not because these cars are classified as DEATH TRAPS! Even the guy in the motoring show used our Kancil and Kelisa as a crash test to check safety level - guess what happened there.....let me just put it this way, the roads had more bumps on it compared to the flatten Malaysian pride on wheels.
Creating cheaper cars is not the answer. Fix the bus system! Fix the train system! Fix the cabs! Heck - fix the entire public transportation in Malaysia. That's the answer. If everyone stops taking money for their own personal need and stop being selfish, then maybe our country will be in a much better state.
I don't blame thiefs coz they don't steal because they think its cool - they do it coz they dont have a choice. What would you do if you have hungry mouths to feed and you cant get a job? You'll figure something out....and figure that out FAST! But thats an entirely new topic of discussion.
Now, its not that I hate the small cars....i really dont. I dont drive a fancy car myself but its a sedan coz I like the space. What I hate is that these people in the smaller cars - Kancil, Kelisa, Kenari, Myvy, Savyy, etc - they think that their car is invinsible and the way they drive is like putting Lewis Hamilton behind the wheel of a Kancil with F1 technology. Mates - these cars are not fast. Neither are they safe for that matter. Weaving in and out of traffic isn't advisable. What drives me crazy is that when they drive past us, they scare at us as though its our fault for driving a bigger car and taking up so much space - NEWS FLASH!!!! Roads were built for sedan mate. The smaller cars are like the youngest child in a family - AN ACCIDENT! Having said that, I'm the youngest....mmmm...gotto have a word with my parents on this.
My aim in life is to be able to afford a Hummer some day and run over these small cars and bikes. Dreams do come true sometime mates.

Monday, June 23, 2008

India - India - India








India has been a very interesting place to visit. I am from an indian descent and my mom is from India so I travel frequently to visit my mom's side of the family. It's amazing the life you see in India. The rich are super-rich and the poor are super-poor. There is no in between there. During my recent visit to Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), I stayed at this hotel called The Leela Kempenski and it was very near to the airport. Upon arrival, the door-man knew me by name - now remember, I've never been to that hotel before. I was shocked but more than that, I was delighted and immediately felt warm. They took the trouble to inform every member of their staff on arriving guests and made sure all guests felt just like home.


I was immediately escorted to the signature lounge on the 8th floor where my friend and I were treated to a glass of champagne while we were being checked-in. Our rooms were fantastic. I could stuff about 40 people in the room and still have space to move around. The view from the room was great - pool view and majority of the guests were westerners so the pool view made alot more sense.


Our meeting was 3 days longs and doesnt start till Monday so we decided that we would tour on Sunday. We decided to be typically Malaysian's and tried to act Western - "Let's walk and explore" - that was a bad bad idea. We went towards a direction where civilization was disappearing from our view. But what we saw was rather disturbing. The hotel that we were staying in was a 7star hotel - perks of the job mate. Directly behind it, was slumps. Poor people living. It didn't have proper roofs, proper bathrooms - overall, it wasn't even a house.


We drive around our little expensive cars and sit in air-con rooms, and yet we still complain that we dont have enough. Look at these pics. Don't they move you?


What makes things even worse...there are so many RICH RICH Indians from India who have gone overseas to make a living and are now multi-billionnaires - don't you think they should do something for their country? After all, even if they gave 1% of their total net-worth, it could build an entire condominium for the poor in India and manage it for 15 years. I'm not mentioning names here but you have no idea how rich these guys are - buying over F1's Bernie's home in England for millions of pounds, buying F1 teams just for branding, etc. What is 1% mate? Really?


Well, I guess, this is why the world is what it is today. So pity!

Can't they see you for YOU!!!!

I must say that I am completely disgusted by some people where they openly and shamelessly demonstrate the desperation to know someone only because of the power, VIP treatment and cash that he or she has. What has the world come to? But that isn't what bothers me - what really bothers me is that, people are looking at me not as ME but as a brand manager of an international brand which with it brings lots of fame and perks.
It is actually sad to think that, except for those who knew me prior to this position, everyone else that I meet these days, are only interested in knowing the "Brand Manager" and not "ME". There is more to me than just that title you know. Just the other day, I was at a bar (my fault for thinking that I could actually go to a bar / club these days for a drink and enjoy the night with friends) and a group of people were introduced to me. Now, I ain't the hottest mate in town neither am I loaded with $500 bills dropping out of my pockets and ears. Just a regular dude who was at the right time, at the right place and happened to meet the right person with the right pull. Now, back to the story "The Night Out". So, we are in the bar having drinks and given the noise, smoke and crowd, its hardly a place to strike a conversation or have a decent conversation. I kept to my manners and greeted everyone that was introduced to me and moved on to listen to the music, watch the crowd and enjoy my drink. There were many times that people tried to have a conversation with me but its not that I'm rude but if you can't hear anything, after awhile you get annoyed coz you figured that the person talking to you would get the picture especially when you keep going "Say what?" at every sentence. But people would yell just to get a word in. So, after while, I figured that the only way to avoid all this is to leave which I did. The next day, my mate tells me that some of the guys and girls would like to chill with you coz they think you're a great chap. Now, lets do the math alright - that was the first time I met them all + all I said was "Hi nice to meet you" and gave them my business card + when they tried talking to me, I walked away and left after awhile = HOW THE HELL DID THEY DERIVE TO A CONCLUSION THAT I'M A GREAT CHAP?
Apparently, they think that the brand manager is a great chap coz of what he can do at bars - not me. That's a big difference. I've come to an agreement with myself that, this is how the world works. Call me naive but I thought at least maybe there might be a remote possibility that there would still be some nice people out there that don't expect anything from you but your good company but guess I've been wrong for the past 2 years. Oh well - if you can't beat them, abuse them and take advantage of them. Right?