Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Monday, December 29, 2008
Now, what's the food?
Is it the "Best in JB and Singapore, and some say Heaven"?
The location is in Taman Sri Tebrau, JB. Ask those JB-ites like Foxy if those signs are meant for uhmm, Kiasu-ites across the Causeway. I personally didn't try it as only losers will go for claypot chicken rice in JB, instead of Kampar.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
There were exactly one cube of potato and three tiny pathetic clams and LOADS of black pepper. So, don't even try if you crave for clam chowder.
Well, can't complain much. That's the quality you get with less than USD2.
Want some authentic one? Pay more and uhmm, you'll have to fly many many miles away.
Mmmm, mmmm, so heavenly....
This is how an authentic New England Clam Chowder should look like, bahlol London Fish Tales! Where's the oyster crackers also, btw?
I miss Faneuil Hall, Boston.
On the other hand, this is a place you should try - Little Taiwan.
Claypot braised beef kueytiau. Very authentic even though it's not literally from Taiwan. But then again, Malaysia is still part of Asia, right?
Washed down with a glass of red tea.
Lesson of the day: When in the West, don't go for 'ngak gwai lou' (scam white people) inauthentic Asian food and when in the East, don't go for 'oh-I'm-trying-so-hard-to-be-white-with-the-fake-accent-and-food' inauthentic Western food.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Some franchise lar. You sort out the location, ya?
Spanky new! It think it just opened earlier this week.
Now, here's the deal. With rendang daging. Price: RM 7.35!
Sure endorsed by Sime Darby (read: IJN).
Merry Christmas! My first in Malaysia in 5 years!
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Yeah, this place.
I was half-expecting the dimwits were there to protest, but I guess there were too busy with pigs.
The play started off with the 'ISA' song.
And the play centres around the ISA interogation room, with the background voice of the wife of the detainee.
Erhm, do they really wear orange there?
Yeah, the SBs are exactly as sterotyped - with moustache, belly, and loves the fag and teh tarik.
I think we've heard much of the account from the detainees there, from RPK to Syed Hussin. But this is the first time they have a (short) play on it?
Playwright (by ex-detainee Hisham Rais) encompasses a lot of reference to current events, like C4/Razak/Altantuya to things like Saiful/main bontot/tilam and Rompin-MP-raba-bontot-Brickfields etc.
Play's stil running. Go catch it.
Venue : Bar Council Auditorium, Level 1
Time : 8.30pm
Space is limited, kindly RSVP.
For more info kindly contact 012-4651671 @ fadiahnadwa9[at]yahoo[dot]com
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Meanwhile, Mr Mugabe continues to claim that cholera is being used as a weapon of war - a pretext for Zimbabwe's former colonial masters to launch a military invasion on his country.
Meanwhile, Barisan Nazional continues to claim that democracy such as freedom of speech is being used as a weapon of war - a pretext for Bolehland's former colonial masters to launch a military invasion on his country.
At a public engagement just last week, Mr Mugabe declared that "cholera is no more… there is no cholera", as news of more infections emerged.
At a public engagement few weeks ago, Mr. Najis C4 declared that "crime is no more...there is no more crime; all is perception." as news of more crimes emerged.
And if you let Mahathirism return and UMNO rule (there, I said it) for...no need for long lar, say 5 more years:
The country that was once the jewel in Africa's crown, able to feed itself, heal its sick and educate its people to the highest standards on the continent, is now in a pitiful state
The country that was once the tiger of Asia, rich in oil, able to feed itself, heal its sick and educate its people to the highest standards on the continent, is now in a pitiful state.
Read about M bff's country here.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Iran has one of the most vibrant blogging communities in the world - despite government boasts that it blocks five million websites. The BBC's Jon Leyne in Tehran is spending the day with bloggers to see what makes them tick.
With much of the official media controlled by the government or hardline conservatives, the internet has become the favoured way of communicating for Iran's well-educated and inquisitive younger generation.
Go online in Iran and you will find blogs or websites covering every topic under the sun.
Politics, of course, but also the arts, Hollywood cinema, women's issues, women's sport, pop music. Whisper it quietly, there is even an online dating scene in the Islamic Republic.
Day-by-day there is an intriguing cyber-war, as the government wrestles for control of the internet, and Iran's bloggers wrestle it back.
Iran hosts around 65,000 bloggers, and has around 22 million internet users. Not bad for a country in which some remote areas do not yet have mains electricity.
Even some journalists who work in the mainstream media use the internet to publish articles they can not get past their newspaper or programme editors, or the official censors.
The real attraction for bloggers, in this claustrophobic political climate, is that someone is listening.
That is the view of Seyed Vahid Aqili, assistant professor of mass communications as Islamic Azad University in Tehran.
"The young generation now have access to the world, to express their ideas and their beliefs and their attitudes. The internet is a good vehicle to let people express themselves," he says.
Even on the internet, though, free speech in Iran is limited.
Amir used to write a political blog. While he insists he did not include anything "offensive", one day he switched on his computer, to find his blog had been blocked by the authorities, just for daring to discuss politics.
To get around the restrictions, many websites are forced regularly to change their internet address.
Internet users in Iran learn to download anti-filtering software and other technology to beat the restrictions.
There are also some recent reports of bloggers having been arrested, though the facts are hard to pin down.
And a few months ago, parliament began considering a law that could impose the death penalty on bloggers found guilty of using the web to spread corruption, prostitution or apostasy.
It is not clear what progress the bill has made.
Yet, sometimes government attempts to control the internet are strangely half-hearted.
An ordinance recently urging bloggers to register with the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance was quietly dropped after few people complied.
Perhaps the authorities realise that screwing the lid down too tight could be counter-productive.
Nevertheless the authorities are clearly worried by the impact of the internet on the Islamic society and culture they work to foster.
In a recent publication, the Revolutionary Guards complained of "internet imperialism" and warned that the CIA was trying to use the internet to provoke a "velvet revolution" in Iran.
They accused international media, including the BBC, CNN and The New York Times, as being part of this conspiracy.
Yet the striking thing about the internet in Iran is how un-political it is.
Life online in Iran is simply complete divorced from anything you see or hear in the official media.
"The majority of blogs focus on social matters, art topics, personal diaries, poems, and commentary on topics ranging from arts to cinema and music," said Dr Aqili.
"Most bloggers just want to express their ideas and their private lives to their friends," said Amir.
"It's something the youth in Iran need, because they do not have any special entertainment or hobby. And they cannot say anything freely."
But even if there is no direct political threat to the government, what takes place on the Iranian internet does provide a fascinating commentary on Iranian society.
It is not a picture the defenders of the revolution may be so happy about.
Take pop and rock music. Playing the electric guitar in public is banned (the devil's instrument!). Singing in English is a definite No. As for women singing solo - forget about it.
So all of this has gone underground, online.
The hundreds or possibly thousands of Iranian bands distribute their music on the internet, with everything from heavy metal to trance music. And everyday you can hear the music played on tape machines in taxis across Tehran.
Not that Iran's rock music generation have a monopoly on the internet.
The government recently announced plans to launch 10,000 weblogs for 10,000 bases of the Basij - the militia arm of the Revolutionary Guards.
Already the religious capital of Qom is one of the best connected cities in Iran. Clerics research Islam, and publish their findings on numerous religious websites.
The government also promotes its ideas on the web. News about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad often emerges first on his own personal website.
Iran has often lived under a siege mentality since the Islamic Revolution three decades ago.
Satellite TV dishes are banned. International credit cards are useless in the country. Political, religious and military leaders caution the dangers from abroad, and warn of the danger of attack.
Yet at the same time Iranians are fascinated by the rest of the world, and cherish their contact with foreigners. Never more so than in Iran's flourishing internet culture.
Abhisit Vejjajiva hails from a wealthy family of Thai-Chinese
is the English-born, Oxford-educated 44-year-old leader of Thailand's opposition
Young and photogenic, though by no means dynamic, he has a reputation for
Distinctly upper-class, Mr Abhisit hails from a wealthy family of
Thai-Chinese origin. Both his parents were medical professors.
He was born in the British city of Newcastle in 1964 and educated at
England's top public school, Eton. He then went on to gain a degree in politics,
philosophy and economics (PPE) at Oxford University.
Mr Abhisit's support is drawn mainly from southern Thailand and from
Bangkok's educated middle-classes. He has had less success in attracting the
support of working class and rural Thais.
In 1992, Mr Abhisit joined Thailand's oldest party, the Democrats and, at the
age of 27, entered parliament as one of its youngest ever members. Having tried
and failed to become party leader in 2001, he eventually got the post in 2005.
Championing a raft of populist policies, Mr Abhisit campaigned under the
slogan "Putting People First".
While not entirely ditching the liberal reforms of "Thaksinomics" - a term
used to refer to the economic set of policies of exiled former Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinawatra - he has argued for a more statist approach.
Among other things, Mr Abhisit has advocated free healthcare, a higher
minimum wage, and free education, textbooks and milk for nursery-school
Mr Abhisit opposed the Thai military when it overthrew Thaksin
He has also been a consistent campaigner against corruption.
When Mr Thaksin called a snap election in February 2006, Mr Abhisit said he
was "prepared to become a prime minister who adheres to the principle of good
governance and ethics, not authoritarianism".
Later that year, he opposed the military when it overthrew Mr Thaksin in a
"We cannot and do not support any kind of extra-constitutional change, but it
is done. The country has to move forward and the best way forward is for the
coup leaders to quickly return power to the people and carry out the reforms
they promised", he said at the time.
The patrician also expects high standards of probity from his party and any
government he would lead.
Going beyond the current transparency rules for Thai MPs, he would require
all future Democrat Party representatives to declare their assets and any
involvement in private companies. Currently, those measures apply only to
Before entering parliament, Mr Abhisit had a brief academic career. After
Oxford, he taught at Thailand's Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy.
Later, he returned to Oxford to study for a Master's degree. He then taught
economics at Thammasat University before studying law at Ramkhamhaeng
Failure and material hardship are not common features in Mr Abhisit's family
history. His family is a circle of accomplished individuals.
One of his two sisters is a professor of child psychology, while the other is
a leading Thai author.
Mr Abhisit's wife is a dentist-turned-mathematics lecturer at Chulalongkorn
University. They have two children.
If there are any chinks in the Abhisit armour, it is perhaps that his good
looks tend to outshine his rather bland political pronouncements.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Everything was pretty pleasant there, especially with the eye candies, until this...
To be fair, there were the sama annoying Ananda Krishnan's drug-pushers over there also.
It's crazy. They don't even have a cow sense of Marketing 101 that hard overselling overkills. Word of advice: if you're going there this evening, avoid the war zone at all costs or prepare to suffer the wrath of hard-sell hell.
How was the fair? Pretty tame, I guess. Some say even disappointing.
Did I buy anything? Yes. Not telling. :P
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Bet Kayveas' balls have shrunken and became ovaries instead by now.
I'm waiting for March. Not the Sesame takeover. But the rally.
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Our Internet papparazzi, a.k.a bloggers, have been going to town literally exposing “AP Kings”. According to one blog, the former MITI employee, Syed Azman Syed Ibrahim, is the king of kings, with a total of 32,062 APs (The Malay Mail, July 28) – as the Chinese say, chia bay leow (“eat also cannot finish”)! One blog posted a picture of the AP King’s second home, allegedly a 28 million ringgit house at Ampang complete with a helipad, which is still under construction. The first home, also with a helipad, is said to be in Bukit Antarabangsa. The man is said to possess three helicopters but they didn’t say how many Ferraris or Massaratis.
Jeff Ooi blogged today with pictures of the two AP King’s homes.
Haniff Abdul Aziz’s home has every single metal fitting on his house plated with gold. The land of his house alone costs RM 5 million. His entire house is estimated to be worth RM 30 million.
Syed Azman has two homes featured. The first one is still under construction. It’s being built at 3 lots at Taman TAR in Ampang.
His other home in Bukit Antarabangsa looks like an office complex. Reminds me of the incubator buildings at Technology Park. The house and land costs and estimated RM 28 million. There are helipads at the first home, and the second home at Taman TAR also has helipads under construction.
Syed Azman has three helicopters and uses them for recreation, like going to have a game for golf. Each time he goes and comes back from his golf games, residents of Bukit Antarabangsa pray that the helicopter does not crash down on their homes.
Throw a stone at the residents there and you'll definitely hit one with the prefix 'Datuk' or 'Datin'.
[Source: Star Graphics, pg2, 7 December 2008.] Despite being the Malaysian 'Chernobyl' (although it has nothing to do with nu-ku-ler, but then again, aren't we gonna adopt nu-ku-ler pahwer soon?), people still stay there. Because what they only care is their crony providers' landslide (victory).
And remember the Highland Towers Tragedy verdict?
Ah, and where's Semi Value when we need him with his golden quote 'Act of God'?
Yes, karma kameleon indeed.