Thursday 24 December 2015

Christmas Entry 2 : Random Stuff in Life

A very funny packaging for rubbish plastic bag I found during shopping at Tesco Kajang.
Life must be depressing enough in Malaysia, for someone to have an idea to to put motivational quotes on rubbish bags.

Christmas Entry 1 : marriage planning 2015



And so below, with or without words, photos summarising my experience of planning my own marriage, expected on March 2016.

Sunday 20 December 2015

Between Two Asian Leaders



Between Two Asian Leaders

Game Result Dec 19 2015
Man United 1 Norwich City 2
Leicester City 3 Everton 2





Euphoria




If you play guitars, keyboards, or whatever musical instrument you can play,  then having an opportunity to have fun at a music studio to jam with your buddies,

At first you want to get it right with your buddies.
(first few plays just to warm up)

Then if it all works out, everybody had fun and able to play each instrument at their best capacity,

You will feel some kind of vibe.

Without words, you know there's a certain heart-work going on.

These soundtrack symbolises that.

For musicians, I guess these are the euphoric moments of their life.


Wish you guys a nice weekend.


Monday 14 December 2015

May pretty horses comes to you as you sleep


Excerpt below :- 

This song is about feeling powerless. Note all the quotes in the song. It is someone repeating mantras of sanity over and over “we don’t really want a monster taking over” “over my dead body” and yet that’s exactly what happened.

This stuff was written back in the buildup to war, when there where marches in the streets and people shouting, all of which didn’t do a damn thing.

 
George Bellows - River Front 1 (1915)

Thom Yorke (who was very much involved in that shouting) is writing about how powerless it made him and all of us feel to know that there was not a damn thing you could do to stop it, even though he knew how crazy it was.

The urge to go to sleep is not just the goverments’ desire to make you forget, but also your own, to avoid the guilt of letting this happen.


 
 George Bellows - Edith Cavell (1918) 

I think the “tiptoe around, tie him down” thing is about the realization that the sort of peacenik thinking that we had become accustomed to, the leaders actually paying attention to the populace, isn’t going to work with these people.

 George Bellows - Steaming Streets (1908)

Radiohead have actually said in interviews that this album isn’t about the war or Bush and Blair but about how powerless they felt in the whole mess, so I think this is justified.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_to_Sleep

Directed by Alex Rutterford, the CGI-animated video shows a full-blossom red rose swaying in the wind, and proceeds to show Yorke sitting on a park bench singing the song while around him men and women in business suits walk by rapidly.

In the middle of the video, the buildings, in classical architecture style, spontaneously crumble into pieces and moments later reassemble themselves, only to have become modern in style. The shot returns to the rose shown in the beginning, which is now closed in a bud.


 George Bellows - Central Park (1905)

-beyondthispunkt/firdaus-9898

I felt this resonates the helpless feeling in me now.

Reflecting back at Malaysia’s street rallies Bersih 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, people’s power shouting march, the demonstration, the call for change, the call for eradicating corruption, what does that mean now?

I remembered back in my student days reading Nyanyi Sunyi Seorang Bisu (Lonely singing by a Mute) by Pramoedya Ananta Toer.

We are nothing. We are helpless. 

May pretty horses comes to you as you sleep.

Sunday 13 December 2015

bureau-critics


One of the weakness in most of Korean / Japanese Construction companies in Malaysia, is, their poor communication and cooperation in their own inter-department.

I laugh until my head almost comes off, when attending meetings with my current Korean main-con,  because, sometimes each department head answers to the Client and Architect = "Sorry I do not know, it's other Department responsibility".

QA/QC Dept, Mechanical Dept, Electrical Dept, Design Dept, this Dept that Dept but no cohesiveness in action, with each representative only covers their own butt.

Dept = Department


Client paid millions, and sometimes billion Malaysia Ringgits, and their company representative told Client to kindly refer to another representative from the same company.

For them, at least their butt is saved for another day, another meeting next coming week.

But in the long run, Malaysian construction community perceives that, Japan and Korean, no matter how technological advanced they are, behaves more or less the same with the locals, or the foreign Chinese.

So why bother paying high cost to foreign contractors when the butt-saving practices is more or less the same?


I think this culture is being made as a protective shell for the company, but hell, it is bloody annoying.

Malaysians adapt this culture very well, you can see this in government offices.

Malaysia government agencies tends to get entangled in bureaucracy, almost to the point of idiocy.

That's why people are cynical with Government. Bureaucracy, plus the increasing cost of living, increased life's pressure. Inefficiency in whatever reason is deeply hated.


And it is the reason why most construction / engineering companies, ie. the sub-contractors, operates in a China-man kind of way, ie, small numbers of staff doing multi-tasking, because, at the least, the staff is answerable. No finger pointing.

If the staff made mistakes, well it depends, because deep inside everyone knew, the current employment market is panicky, they couldn't afford to lose staff and having to hire new staff, with the re-learning process of the job taken, etc.

But staff is replacable, nevertheless. No staff is more valuable than the company. Company is there to make profits based on project progress, the engineers are there to make it happen.



This is the bloody truth that most younger generation in construction do not perceive.

Most junior engineers, they ain't humble and too proud of themselves. 

Being answerable with integrity is getting rarer in Malaysia.




This week, there was this political party Umno Main Assembly 2015, in Malaysia, televised in most TV channels at prime time.

Any long winded speeches that does not solves problem, and doesn't entertain you, what's good in that?

Problem not solved yet long winded talk. Inefficiency in whatever reason is deeply hated, and this political people still wondering why younger generation so cynical of government.



I kinda pissed off even with my fiancee, (if you read this, dear, 0_0 ), just tell your problem in simple summary, then I'll fix it for you.

If you want to tell it as a story-telling so I can understand you more, don't.

Tell a guy a problem with the intention of getting it fixed.

Problem not solved = inefficiency. Inefficiency in whatever reason is deeply hated. Your well-intent story telling are just bureau-critics to our mechanical mind.


Tuesday 8 December 2015

Utada Hikaru MTV Unplugged Tokyo 2001

Utada Hikaru MTV Unplugged Tokyo 2001

Utada Hikaru MTV Unplugged Tokyo 2001  
 
1. Wait and See

2. First Love

3. Addicted To You

4. Parody

5. 蹴っ飛ばせ!

6.  With Or Without You

7. Automatic

8. Final Distance

Monday 7 December 2015

stp







It must have been love








Lay a whisper on my pillow,
Leave the winter on the ground.
I wake up lonely, there's air of silence
In the bedroom and all around

Touch me now, I close my eyes and dream away.

It must have been love but it's over now.

It must have been good but I lost it somehow.
It must have been love but it's over now.
From the moment we touched, 'til the time had run out.

Make-believing we're together
That I'm sheltered by your heart.
But in and outside I've turned to water
Like a teardrop in your palm.

And it's a hard winter's day, I dream away.

It must have been love but it's over now.
It was all that I wanted, now I'm living without.

It must have been love but it's over now,
It's where the water flows, it's where the wind blows.

It must have been love but it's over now.
It must have been good but I lost it somehow.

It must have been love but it's over now.
From the moment we touched, 'til the time had run out.

Yeah, it must have been love but it's over now.
It was all that I wanted, now I'm living without.

It must have been love but it's over now,
It's where the water flows, it's where the wind blows.