Quarter-finals..

Now that we have reached the quarter-finals stage of the World Cup, I will try my hand at predicting the winners of each remaining match.. :)

Netherlands Vs Brazil
It will be a draw with A Selecao eventually making the cut overOranje on penalty kicks.

Uruguay Vs Ghana
La Celeste will triumph over The Black Stars.. just barely..

Argentina Vs Germany
Here I would have to go with Die Mannschaft winning against La Albiceleste..

Paraguay Vs Spain
La Furia Roja will prove to be too much for La Albirroja to handle..


Let's see how accurate are my predictions.. :)

9 months later..

3 quarters.. 9 months.. 36 weeks.. 270 days later.. I am still at home.. still jobless.. :x but no longer as depressed as before.. actually, I am beginning to enjoy the time that I have.. currently planning to undertake one or two new endeavors..

Although I have yet to find a way to gain financially (other than the occasional translation jobs) , I have been using the time to read up and improve my knowledge in various fields.. since I can't control all those external factors, I can only equip myself with whatever knowledge and information that I can get my hands on so that when opportunity does eventually knock, I am ready to grab it by the neck!!

What have I done these past 3 months?

Bought and read 6 books:

• The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the future of Reason by Sam Harris
• Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why we need a green revolution - and how it can renew America by Thomas L.Friedman
• god is not Great: How religion poisons everything by Christopher Hitchens
• Gods and Heroes in Art by Lucia Impelluso
• What the Dog Saw, and other adventure by Malcolm Gladwell
• The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar

Watched 23 movies..

• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
• 家有喜事09 (All's Well, End's Well 2009)
• Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
• The Cove
• The Life Before Her Eyes
• Cirque de Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
• Julie & Julia
• It's Complicated
• Mamma Mia
• Quantum of Solace
• City of Ember
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine
• Ghosted
• The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice
• The Librarian: Back to King Solomon's Mine
• The Librarian: Quest for the Spear
• Resident Evil: Extinction
• Resident Evil: Apocalypse
• Burn after Reading
• Jarhead
• Clash of the Titans
• 夺帅 (Fatal Move)
• おくりびと (Okuribito, Departure)

Completed the following drama series

• Dexter - Season 2
• The Amazing Race - Season 15
• The Amazing Race - Season 16
• House MD - Season 6
• Heroes - Season 4
• Survivor - Season 20
• LOST - Season 6
• Drop Dead Diva - Season 1
• True Blood - Season 2

and some 20+ episodes of 康熙来了..

So what are my plans next?? In no particular order..

• Read up and familiarize myself with the anatomy of the human skeleton, especially the spine
• Read up on the basics of Traditional Chinese Medicine (3 books to be exact)
• Read at least 10 books, maybe a couple of novels, since I have not been reading much fiction
• Evaluate the feasibility and draft up a business proposal for something that I had in mind
• Watch a couple of Japanese drama/anime series to refresh my Japanese

I think these will keep me busy for at least a couple of months.. Hopefully as the year progresses, my translation jobs will increase.. even though they won't bring in big money, at least they are enough to cover my daily expenses which is actually very minimal as I am still staying with my parents..

Bees for me..

The habit of applying body lotion was picked up while I was in Japan.. the windiness of Tokyo made my skin very flaky and dry, especially during winter.. and this is one of the few habits that I still keep..

Being one who is hardly swayed by packaging, it was one of those rare occasions when I saw this cutely packaged body butter and realised that I had to get it..
Luckily, the smell turned out just nice, not too flowery nor overpowering.. And did I say that I really like the cute little drawings of bumble bees on top? :P

If it were any other motifs I would not have even give it a second look.. Cos to me, usefulness and practicality is the key.. If I really need to choose, I prefer motifs of bees to any other insects.. In my mind, beetles are too weird-looking (except ladybugs), ants are too boring, and butterflies are too frivolous.. maybe bees just appeal to my melancholy personality that values hard-work, self-sacrifice, loyal and purposeful. :)

The beautiful game...

That is the phrase used to describe football.. :) And for these soccer fans (some say that there are over 2 billion of them worldwide), the World Cup happening in South Africa right now is a good reason to stay up late and/or hang-out with fellow fans to catch the games..

Too bad I don't have Astro (the satellite television provider in Malaysia).. So I could only depend on the national broadcast stations for free-to-air telecast of ONLY 25 matches (out of 64).. but that didn't dampen my enthusiasm one bit..


I even bought the Official Sticker Album from Panini when I know I should be thrifty as I have yet to find any source of income.. It cost me MYR9.90 and came with 3 packs of stickers, and I bought another 2 packs at MYR1.90 each.. so I started off with 25 stickers for an album that requires 638 stickers to complete..

24 years ago, I had a similar album for World Cup 1986 in Mexico. That was quite an indulgence for a 12 year-old kid.. my dad allowed my brother and I to complete that album.. it must have cost us quite a bit back then.. that was also the time when I became an avid supporter of Team Deutschland.. :)

I love the way the German team played.. those set-pieces.. with such discipline and rapport.. There were many great players in the German team through the year, but they were known more as team-players.. unlike the individual flair so well-known of the Brazilians, they are members of a well-coordinated team that play together flawlessly... They were runners-up for Euro 2008, hopefully with this young but no less talented team, they will be able to win the Cup this time.. Even after losing to Serbia ( 0 - 1 ) last Friday but not before demolishing Australia ( 4 - 0 ), they are still my bet this year to lift the Cup..

Go Germany!! :) :)

原来

原來懷才不遇， 是那麼地令人沮喪。。
原來生不逢時， 是那麼地無可奈何，，
原來不去強求， 他人就把你當凱子。。
原來為他人著想， 別人只會佔盡便宜。。
原來不強人所難， 到頭來只會自己辛苦。。

看來我真的要把吃苦當吃補咯。。


原來失業在家，也能活的精彩充實。。
原來成事在天，但也需要謀事在先。。
原來念頭一轉，頓時海闊也天空了。。
原來樂觀一點，窮日子也相對的好過多了。。
原來抓著不放，比放開手更加累人。。
原來生存模式，終究還是由自己決定的。。

看來我得重新調適心情然后整裝出發咯。。

Stop the killings!

Watched the best documentary for the 82nd Academy Award, The Cove early this month.. and I was beyond being upset.. I was shocked, pissed and furious that such atrocity is being perpetrated every year and no one spoke up against it, much less do anything to stop it!

Now that I have more or less calmed down, I would want to share my thoughts on this matter..

The "reason" that the Japanese kept using to "justify" their whaling is that it is part of their culture and tradition.. well, if their logic is accepted, then the headhunters in Borneo should be allowed to continue to cut off heads of their enemies, since that is their culture and traditions too.. and we should also allow the female genital cutting to continue in some Asian and African countries too, since it is their culture and traditions!

Just like the tiger penis, bear bile from its gall bladder, rhino horns, shark fins and many other body parts of endangered animals, consumption of these "exotic cultural" food should be banned.. There is no special nutritional value in eating whale or dolphin meat.. in fact, these meat are high in mercury.. and could easily lead to mercury poisoning! In fact, there were already news reports that said among others, Mercury levels of whale-eating town's residents 10 times average, Mercury In Packaged Whale Meat Across Japan May Be A Major Health Problem and Mercury warning for Japanese diners who eat dolphin meat.. As if the problem of aging society and low-birth rate isn't bad enough for the nation of the Rising Sun, that they wanted to poison themselves further...

Of course, the Japanese are not the only guilty ones.. The Norwegians, Russians, Icelanders, Faroese have cetacean blood on their hands too.. If they wanna use the culture-and-tradition reason to hunt whales and/or dolphins, then they should set out on wooden ships that use sail(wind) and harpoon these mammals using their bare hands like what their forefathers did, and not use any kind of modern technology to "assist" them.. when they do that, just like what some of the Eskimos are still doing now, they can hunt as many whales/dolphins as they are able to..

At the wedding of my senpai 2 years ago, I was given a door gift that was filled with whale meat products.. Initially I didn't want to take them but I was also curious as to why the Japanese are so into it.. so I decided to bring the 2 cans of whale meat back to Malaysia when I moved back from Japan..
A look closer at the can, one would see the words written at the side that says.. 鯨は日本の食文化。海の生物資源を大切に利用しましょう。 when translated means "(Eating) Whale is Japanese culinary culture. Let's use the biological resources of the sea consciously." which I find it to be very ironic, won't you agree?
Then further at the side, another paragraph that says, 本製品は国際捕鯨取締条約にもとづいて、（財）日本鯨類研究所が実施した捕獲調査の副産物です。捕獲海域は、南氷洋（ＷＡＯ）、北西太平洋（ＷＮＰ）と缶ぶた上段の左側に記載しております。　when translated means "This product complies to (the regulations of) the International Whaling Commission and is a by-product of the research done by The Institute of Cetacean Research. The whaling area consists of the Antarctic and the Northwest Pacific as indicated on the top left corner of the can." which I find to be obvious self-justifications..
Then I pour out the content and heated it up.. and it looked like this.. which, to me, tasted like pork.. seriously, there is nothing special in its taste nor its texture.. and considering its super high mercury content, I can't find any good (rational) reason to eat it!

I really hope that everyone will realize this and stop killing these beautiful cetaceans.. It is bad enough that we are polluting the sea (like the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill) and depriving them of their habitat, we shouldn't be massacring these majestic mammals at the same time.. Spread the words around and help save these sea creatures!! Else sooner or later, we might be the only living creature alive in this world.. and we won't last too long after that either..

Rice dumplings..... 包粽子

It is going to be Duanwu Festival (端午節/端午节) or otherwise known as Dragon Boat Festival tomorrow.. Since I am around to help out, my mum decided to make rice dumplings or zongzi (粽子) last Sunday..

So my mum went and bought all the necessary ingredients..
which includes glutinous rice, dried Chinese mushroom, dried shrimps, white beans, pork and chestnuts.. of course, not forgetting the important dried bamboo leaves..
First, we had to "cook" the dried bamboo leaves in hot water.. like this..
so that the leaves will turned into these.. green in color and "supple" enough to be used..
All the ingredients (the glutinous rice, pork, chestnuts, mushrooms and dried shrimps) are slightly precooked.
Now that everything is ready, let the wrapping begin!

First gather 2 bamboo leaves and make a shape like this..
Put some glutinous rice first, then add in the other ingredients..
then cover it with more glutinous rice..
then come the most tricky part.. making the "required" tetrahedral shape.. I am not able to take any picture of it as both my hands are needed for the wrapping.. once the shape is formed, tied it with a bamboo string.. and the end product is like this..
Once a few bunches of these zongzi are ready, it is time to cook them.. boiling them the traditional way, using charcoal!! :)
After about 70-80 minutes, the end product is like this..
Ever since I went to Singapore, I have not been able to make it home for this festival since as this festival is not high in importance in our family.. and luckily my skill in wrapping rice dumplings was still intact.. and none of my zongzi fell apart during boiling.. :P

This time round, we wrapped around 60 rice dumplings in around 2 hours.. Other than the ones that are filled with pork, we also made some 20 smaller Jianshui zong (碱水粽) which has no fillings..

All but a dream..

Seemed like I have just woken up from a dream.. a dream that lasted more than 3.5 years.. a dream that started in Feb 2007 when I got the letter telling me that I have been awarded a full government scholarship to do my Masters in Japan.. a dream that gave me the luxury of doing things that I didn't have time for while working full time.. a dream that allowed me the time and money to visit many countries.. a dream that I can make amends and really study hard to get good grades that I know I should have gotten for my first degree.. a dream that gave me the opportunity to make new friends and be more sociable..

Alas, it was all but a dream.. Time to wake up and face the reality.. I did had a great time, experiencing many new things, (emotional) highs and lows.. trying new stuff and challenging my own boundaries.. traveling and enjoying myself thoroughly.. yet, nothing last.. those awesome grades (only 1C among my 25 As) that I have gotten doesn't mean a thing in the real corporate world.. those unforgettable experiences I have no one to share with.. all those fantastic photographs are just taking up space in my hard disk.. 98% of the friendships made during that period didn't manage to withstand the test of time (left Japan just 9 months ago and I've already been forgotten).. all the good times we shared became a mockery to our supposedly "closeness" as friends..

Maybe I am a dreamer.. maybe I am too sentimental.. maybe I should stop believing all the nice politically correct things that people say but don't mean them at all.. maybe I should stop hoping those supposedly "good friends" of mine would remember to say hi once in a while... maybe I should stop wearing my heart on my sleeves all the time and kept getting hurt in the process.. maybe I should stop thinking that people actually give two hoots about me.. maybe I am just a useless piece of shit who has nothing to look forward to, thus the constant reminiscing.. maybe I should just stop feeling..

不·没

不動怒並不代表好欺負。。
不強求並不代表沒要求。。
不還嘴並不代表全接受。。
不申訴並不代表沒埋怨。。
不開口並不代表無話說。。
不反擊並不代表真軟弱。。
不生氣並不代表沒氣生。。

沒堅持並不代表很隨便。。
沒反駁並不代表全贊同。。
沒經歷並不代表難諒解。。
沒逃避並不代表要面對。。
沒成功並不代表不努力。。
沒失意並不代表很順遂。。
沒離開並不代表要留下。。

文·言·文 （二）

用真心？ 真用心。。
只會有過之而無不及！！

想不要？ 不想要。。
無可奈何花落去！！

傷滿身？ 滿身傷。。
往往不期然而然！！

不愛你了？ 是你愛不了。。
我只會春蠶到死絲方盡！！

不放下？ 是放不下。。
畢竟哀莫大於心死！！

死心了？ 是心死了。。
須置之死地而后生！！

Why?

Had wanted to blog another matter that is close to my heart, but I just have to get this out from my system..

Why are good people always get put down/bullied/taken advantage of?? Where is the compassion or empathy for trainee doctors? Why are trainee doctors being treated like trash and yet expected to contribute their "invaluable" service 110%? Why do medical doctors, specialists and HOD (Head of Dept) like to "show who is the boss" by making life difficult for trainee doctors, putting them down and treating them worse than a maid, and still want them to have self-confidence?

The current culture in most government department is everyone for themselves.. the camaraderie, the rapport, the cooperation and the willingness to put in an extra effort are all but a myth now.. maybe they existed 20 years, but now no one could remember how it was done and whoever that tried to "revive" it is going to be crucified, taken advantage of or simply burnt-out.. Instead of serving the public like they should be, most, if not all public servants are expected to be served or at least "feared" by the public.. Do you know how some older folks dread talking to any pegawai kerajaan (government officials) in government departments? How many friendly officials have you seen, who is truly sincere in serving the public and really helpful??

Only in Malaysia, public servants can scold or belittle the public and get away with it.. Most of them are either rude, aloof, apathetic or just plain "not-there". To them, the public is a "nuisance". If they can be mean to the public, who is actually their paymaster, just imagine how they are treating their subordinates... Will any subordinate dare to speak up against any injustice/corruption/abuse of power/mistreatment/harassment?? Will any subordinate dare to voice their TRUE opinions when they knew that they would be "blacklisted" forever as a "troublemaker" if they contradict their bosses?? Is there any wonder only "deadwood" and "yes-men" is left in the public sector??

Why do I say so? Cos anyone who is in the public service, especially those qualified medical doctors, are there because they have nowhere else to go.. Seriously is there any "prestige" left in staying in public hospitals? Or any monetary advantage? Those who stayed are either sadist (like to "torture" their trainee doctors, stressing them out just for the fun of it), egoistic (like to pull rank, and order everyone around using seniority), lazy (don't do work or pretend to do work and still get paid) or simply flawed (no EQ, no bedside manners, no empathy).. Does one even need to ask why medical grads are lured away?

Stop appealing to our "loyalty", "morality", "ethics" so that people will stay in this country.. We can't live on "patriotism" alone.. Not when we are always the punching bag and default boogieman whenever the ruling party wanted votes from their own people.. No wonder 400,000 left the country last year.. How many of those will come back? How many are gone forever? The government doesn't seemed to be interested nor want to stop this brain-drain, even though those who left are those whom are really needed to help the country grow..

Actually, the solution to this problem is a no-brainer.. Implement meritocracy and promote/demote according to merits and contributions, not skin-color or religion.. But I think there is no point in flogging this old horse, as things here are beyond remedy.. Old culture die hard and old dogs can't be taught new tricks.. Maybe national bankruptcy is the only way for the country/government to swallow the bitter pill and resolve to a thorough transformation.. Maybe only then would the country grow to its potential..