Éclectique

This is an open letter to all Malaysians who aggressively 'boycott' McDonald's.  Why do I put the inverted commas?  Because many of my fellow Malaysians are not boycotting McDonald's.  Many are protesting McDonald's.  There is a very big difference. According to Merriam Webster, the definition of boycott is as follows; boy·cott  \ ˈ b ȯ i- ˌ kät\   to refuse to buy, use, or participate in (something) as a way of protesting : to stop using the goods or services of (a company, country, etc.) until changes are made Whereas protesting is defined as follows; pro·test \ ˈ prō- ˌ test\ something said or done that shows disagreement or disapproval of something. Don't believe me?  Here are the links for the definitions of  protest and boycott .   I give the definitions to highlight the differences.  Boycotting is a passive act.  Like refusing to eat when your parents didn't buy you that LEGO set you wanted.  Protestin...

In light of the impending elections, many are tired of BN and are calling for a change of government.  To my friends who can vote, take a moment to think whether the options truly are better than BN. I am not saying BN is good and squeaky clean, nor am I trying to shove my ideology down your throat.  But take a moment to read up, think, listen to ALL sides (pro-Bn, pro-Opp, & neutrals).  Listen to their arguments.  Research whether the claims are true or smear campaigns (they are so rampant these days), whether their arguments hold water, and then re-evaluate whether a change in government really is in the interest of the people.  If it is, then by all means, vote for it. :) Remember; there is no such thing as a clean politician. I personally have heard very few complaints against the Opposition and that scares me.  It scares me because I do not know their lies.  It scares me because the people may have been blinded by their frustration with ...

This is my answer to a question my friend posted on Facebook.  His question was, "What say you guys?  Please, I want to hear a mature point of view from you guys," and pertains to an article published by The Independent.  Do read the article first. :) Fi rst of all, I strongly oppose gender segregation.  In developed countries like Malaysia and the UK, I think it achieves little.  What is the couple going to do?  Have sex right on the floor?  Not likely.  & if the girl is being harassed by a member of the audience, she need only ask for help and that particular member of the audience would be promptly escorted out. The university's move to ban the group, quite frankly, is acceptable.  The group was formed with the university's permission.  It is understood that the university does not tolerate segregation in any form and it was made clear to the group organizing the debate.  Yet, they chose to ignore the university's polic...

1 minute into the lady's speech & I can't stand it anymore. Miss Bawani's tone may have sounded 'heated' but as a debator, I call that passionate. I call that conviction.  Based on her content, I call that prepared. Most of all, I call that, having a stand.  Yes, Ms. Sharifah also has a stand but I do not feel that her responses are appropriate nor within the nature of a debate. I personally find the response "then go to those countries" a coward's response. Why? Because the reason many have not done just that is because we/they are unable to.  Others on the other hand, have decided "NO! I will stay, and I will improve this beloved country of mine!" Tunku Abdul Rahman was one such man.  Tun Dr. Mahathir was one such man.  Miss Bawani is one such lady. I find that a sign of patriotism.  Wanting to see the country prosper.  Yet, they are shot down.  Broken & trained to live within the four sides of a box.  To be born, follow orders, a...

In light of the recent horrific shootings in Connecticut, I've been observing some debate amongst social media users regarding gun laws in the United States. Some are saying for people to always have their firearm loaded & on their persons, the younger the better, etc. On the other end of the spectrum, some are calling for either stricter laws or outlawing guns altogether. In my opinion based on what I've seen in the media (which may be biased/lopsided/etc), as well as during the recent Presidential Elections, the community demanding gun laws stay is rather powerful.  It was one of the topics of debate during the elections & if I recall correctly, neither candidate did much about it. Given the number of shootings that are happening recently, I think, no wait. I don't think, something NEEDS to be done about the gun laws.  Do I feel guns should be outlawed outright? Honestly, yes.  Is it feasible?  Probably not.  There will be resistance, issues...

Religiously, I cannot endorse homosexuality.  However, the recent flurry of posts regarding a supposed guideline endorsed by the Ministry of Education offends me as to how shallow & simple minded they are when it comes to identifying homosexuals.  Their list pretty much includes majority of Malaysia. -,- Each category only has four items or guidelines.  Yes, there are only four things.  Who knew homosexuals were so easily identifiable, eh? Just to quote & comment. Quoted is in red italic  while comment is not. :) Symptoms for gays Have a muscular body and like to show their body by wearing v-necks and sleeveless shirts .  This applies to pretty much our ENTIRE athletic contingent.  Is the government implying they are gay?  Also, straight men do it to attract girls because let's face it, a well toned body is a big ego booster for men, and an attraction for women. Prefer tight, and light colored clothes .   I tend to...

So today, Aneez, Fang, Vic, Naufal & I went on a daytrip we had planned for quite a while now.  Things only came together so it was a bit rushy.  Pulled off the logistics, though! :D The original plan was to rent a van & go to Bidor, Perak.  After a few discussions, plans changed and we opted to visit the Orang Asli village in Trolak, instead.  The whole objective of the trip was to deliver the NoKero lights we had raised funds for during our events in school. Left rather early, and made it to the Sungkai exit on time.  Unfortunately, we got a little lost thanks to a mislabel on Google Maps.  Luckily, it wasn't difficult to get back on track.  Once we were deep-er into the plantation, we turned off the a/c & rolled down the CR-V's windows.  It was fun as we weren't going that fast.  The final stretch going up was fun to drive.  Hehe!  The village itself was very quaint, and despite being rather close to the Felda Resid...

I saw this status on Facebook once; "You're 10 & you have a laptop, iPod & Blackberry. Dude, when I was 10 all I had was a Tamaguchi". When those things came out I practically begged for a Tamaguchi. Didn't get one. Instead, I had already been given something better. I just didn't know it at the time. When I was 6 or 7, my parents enrolled me into swimming class. The coaches said I was like a fish in water. Kept going & I almost made it to the State team. By this time I was still young, 12 at most, and didn't want to continue. Kept swimming for fun, though. In between 6/7 and 12, I had gotten a bicycle and I loved to cycle around on it. It was basic & had to use training wheels at first. One day, I realized that I didn't need the training wheels and convinced my dad that I didn't need them. That feeling when I first rode without training wheels, I felt like I was going really fast! Then at around 14, I picked up golf. Wasn...

Recently, there has been some commotion regarding the refugee exchange deal between Australia & Malaysia. After reading up about it, hearing talks about it, I have noted the reasons this deal is opposed. The entire act of the exchange is in breach of something called the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention in which a government has no right to forcibly deport asylum seekers. Note, asylum here does not mean the loony bin. Australia being the instigator of the deal is technically merely transferring their international obligation & responsibilities to another country, especially since they are a signatory of the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees . They have tried a similar move with East Timor and are currently in discussion with Papua New Guinea for a similar deal. Why is this a cause for disagreement? All 3 countries -- Malaysia, East Timor & Papua New Guinea -- are not signatories like Australia. This has something to do with international...

Recently, there's been some commotion from the States about the whole pat-down thing being performed by TSA (Transport Security Administration) staff. Many people feel that this move is very violating as the person being searched is groped and touched in very private areas. Man, this is actually quite hard to write about. I'm trying to be as objective as I can and I don't want to sound like some tabloid reporter. Yuck. Back to the story, a family travelling back home from a vacation in New Orleans was selected from the line to go through the screening process. Now, there are 2 steps, you get scanned, then you get physically searched. Though it appears to be fairly random as to why you get searched. Selection from the crowd is also random, I think. I'm not following to closely. Anyway, this family was chosen and after everyone was scanned, their 6-year old daughter was chosen for the physical search. Imagine, you've been telling your daughter that it is wro...

Looking back, mountain biking, particularly XC, is sadism at it's finest. During the race you feel your spirit breaking, you want to cry and give up yet you keep motivating yourself, "I want to finish this, I want to finish this," and you do. You don't win, but you did finish where many others pulled out. You're body is aching, and you feel like collapsing. At the same time, once you cross that finish line, you're like, "I actually did it," and you look at the expressions of those who didn't finish it and you feel a mix of joy and pain. Days after that, after you've recovered and gotten back in the saddle, you think, "I can't wait for the next race." It's borderline stupid but it's addictive. That feeling when you're atop the hill and you know you pedalled and struggled your way up. You didn't take some big 4x4 and wreck the environment to get the view. You broke a sweat, you swore, you struggled, and whe...

As the title says, this post is going to be about mountain biking. Yes, I'm bored. So just to introduce my fellow readers to the realm of mountain biking. I'll do my best to include photos so you kind of get the idea of the different bikes and objectives of each form. Before I start, let me introduce very briefly on what categories I will be elaborating on about below. First of all is Cross Country, the very roots of mountain biking. Afterwards I will explain on All-Mountain/ Enduro . Following that will be Downhill. My personal favorite. Following up on that part will be Freeride / Slopestyle . And last but not least, Fourcross . This is the most popular form; Cross Country or XC in short. XC mountain biking was one of the first forms of mountain biking. It was pioneered by a group of friends in the early to mid-80's. I could go into a long-winding talk about that alone but I think what I've written suffices. If you want to know more, just look it up. The inte...

There's so many questions! What do I want to do? where do I want to go? how am I going to afford it? Let's start with the first question; what. What do I want to do? I feel like taking engineering but I'm not sure I can carry it -- thanks to poor grades in Add Math so far. I really REALLY hope I did way better this time. Insyaallah. If I do go for engineering, what type of engineering? Not civil. You're not supposed to take that right away, I think. Mechanical? I like to tinker with stuff but I'm not too sure about job opportunities. -Sigh-. Second question; where. This is very much depended on what course/field I'll be taking. But I really really want to go to the US. Maybe Canada. Ivy League colleges are too expensive. The US and Canada have a lot of good colleges. I'm looking for a QUALITY education. Any good college should provide that. I'll just have to keep scouring. Right now, I'm just looking at application deadlines, ent...

I've finally finished the heaviest of 9 of the 10 subjects. Like I've written in my previous post(s), I'm taking 10 subjects totaling about 23 papers. O_O". So I've done 21/23 papers! YEAAH!! The heaviest are over! Today was Biology. Next week is English for Science and Technology (EST). I'm not panicking too much because all I need to do is read through my National Geographic magazines. I have around 2 years worth of them. Hehe! Great pictures AND great articles. I guess you could say that National Geographic is what got me into amateur photography and writing. To top it off, I've always loved animals and the environment and issues that matter so it was a really natural fit. When I mean issues that matter, politics doesn't fall under it. Unless it's something really major and/or will affect me. Speaking of which; in Malaysian newspapers and/or news networks there's too many of these things: 'Politics'. It's rarely abo...

Only 14 more days till SPM... Ouch. I'm not ready! Least of all for Add Math. I can barely pass, let alone scrape an A... 14 more days till the start of SPM. 10 days of exams -- not counting the breaks in between. So that makes... 13 days to go till I'm free! -Gulp-. -Sigh-. Time to hunker down & give it my all. After that, once I'm done with SPM, I'm going to blank out and forget about everything I've learned and refuse to study. That's a fact. Even if I don't want to -- pfft as if -- I WILL. Especially the last part. After exams, I always have difficulty studying. Things to do After SPM: Driver's license!! Putrajaya Challenge Park. No way is ANYBODY stopping me! Triathlon. Which reminds me; I need running shoes. S.A.T. This one is my parents request. :( There's a lot more on that list but not enough time to write it all down here. Not yet anyway.

It's nearly the end of Ramadhan and tomorrow, I'll be hitting the road heading back to my 'kampung' or village in Perak which is about 100+ kilometres up north. My father said to brace ourselves as traffic is bound to be heavy, especially with Eid il Fitri right around the corner. I'm bored and I can't sleep. Lately, the state of our education system keeps playing on my mind. Learning is supposed to be fun. That's the most efficient way to learn. Where you see it's application in daily life and you get the appreciation because you know how it works. Well, when the students despise going to school, something isn't right. I can tell you for a fact, I learn best when I know and understand it's application in daily life. That really helps me. Like history, it's facts regarding what has happened and I kind of like history so I'm sort of alright there. Modern math is fun to do because our teacher really walks us through it one by one, ...

So much has happened. Sad, happy and everything in between. A fast-forwarded version would be like this. Editor's note; most events listed below have happened whereas some have yet to happen. I watched Toy Story 3. And I cried. Well, not sobbing crying but yeah, I shed tears. I really grew up with that movie. During the 1st movie, Andy was moving to a new house. Around the same time, I was moving back to Malaysia from the US. Sad times. In the third movie, Andy is 17 & about to go to college. So am I. I got an invitation from a friend to participate in the Urban Downhill event of the King of Fraser's Hill mountain bike carnival/bash/event/wtv. But I can't go. Huhu. I learned how to take out my back tire, take it apart (tube & tire only) and of course put it back. Another milestone in learning about bikes. My grades are slowly climbing. Yaay! Except for Add Math and Chemistry. Huhu. I'm paying more attention in class than ever before. Which is a g...

I was reading an article on Yahoo! News and there's been another accident at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. This time involving a two-person bobsledding team. Neither members were seriously hurt but that's not the point. What's scary is that it happened on the same track the late Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili died. The Olympic governing body had allegedly taken safety precautions to improve the safety of the track. Particularly since the tragic death of the luger had occured during a training session. I feel that either the governing body has either not taken sufficient precautions or that the entire track itself is not safe. I understand that many sports -- including luge and bobsledding -- have high risks but one death and one accident on the same track during the same Olympics? Something is amiss. Merely my point of view, here. A short post this time, I'm afraid.

That is the title of the seminar I went to this weekend. It's part of the 5-session thing organized by NST & sponsored by Sime Darby. Yesterday, the activities were a tad bit boring because the activities were just the group carrying it out and then pasting it up on the wall. No presenting. It was fun, don't get me wrong. It just wasn't the most involving or challenging, that's all. Today, the activities were less group-based and much more individual participation. We did some personality profiling on ourselves. There were 4 categories; Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholy and Phlegmatic. I know some of the names are not so pleasant but that aside, the activity was quite fun. Everyone will get a combination of two personality groups except the following combinations; Sanguine-Melancholy or Melancholy-Sanguine and Choleric-Phlegmatic or Phlegmatic-Choleric My combination was Sanguine-Choleric. Sanguines are very talkative, cannot sit still, hyper-active and ver...

Recently, so many things I enjoy have been cut down. Among which include; my phone, my laptop, PS3 and TV. And though I admit, it is pretty much my only ticket to getting back to the US where I can see once more what the country of my birth looks like. Last time I was there was 13 years ago. I want to go back. But then there's something my mom keeps saying; work hard now and enjoy success later. Problem is, first was UPSR, then was the constant monthly exams, then PMR and then SPM. Once all of that is done, you have 4 not-so-relaxing months applying for colleges that will accept your SPM Trial results. And when we finally do get into a college, we have to struggle -- again -- to stay in college, graduate with decent results and get a good job. And finally, we're done struggling. AAANT (buzzer sound) WRONG ANSWER! Why? We have to work hard until we're seeing therapists to stay sane otherwise that 6-digit paycheck we worked so hard to earn, won't come in. So, we...