Remember the Old Days? (For Boys)

Remember Pokemon? You know Poké Balls, Poké Dex, gotta catch 'em all etc? And back then we knew every names, types, infos on the 251 Pokemon, and always bring our Game Boys to school and tuitions to trade, battle or just to show off lolz. Those were the days...

It's just a phase when all boys are in a hype of something (like we have anything better to do at those times). Well our batch of generation Y (1986-'88) was caught up between two hypes for Digimon and Pokemon and I remember the fad lasted a few years, until we grew up found something better to do. Somewhere in Primary 5-6 most of the boys got a Digivice and beat the crap out of other kids mashing C A B, B A C, A B A B A B C buttons on the Digivice just to give the other Digimon a virus. As if after my parents bought me a RM54 Digivice wasn't enough, I found another Digivice which someone left at my house (and didn't claim back) and the fanaticism for Digimon grew.

Then somewhere between Primary 6 and Form 1 there was a transition betwee Digimon to Pokemon. When a GAME BOY COLOR was first introduced to me, the first game I got immediately was Pokemon lolz. From there the real bigger craze to catch 'em all began began all the way till Form 3. I would just come back from school and play the damn thing no matter where or when until the batteries ran out. The versions I played was according to the version release chronology. First it was Pokemon Yellow, Red and Blue (black and white), then it's the colorized Pokemon Gold, Pokemon Silver, Pokemon Crystal and then stop. Those game tapes weren't cheap either, RM70+ if I'm not mistaken and unfortunately there weren't cetak rompak tapes around. Even though I stopped I still find myself playing new versions like Emerald and Ruby emulated for PC (bored but still find it fun to play). Now I lost track of the game updates already, heck I lost track of the hand-held gaming world, mainly because I have to disconnect myself cold turkey from my old gaming life of hand-held and console (but not PC hehe).

You guys still remember this? Back then used to buy some of these mini cars and race them at Sing Kwong race track (old Hobbies & Toys Center) or home-made tracks. I think I still have one model Black Shadow left collecting dust in my display shelf.

But now I see the trend of boys fad hype is dying. See this:

Digimon > Pokemon > Yu-gi-oh > Naruto? > ???

(Sorry if I exclude Beyblade or Crash Gear or etc in the chronology, I just want to make the chronology look clean). As an ex-wee little lad I'm pretty much concerned with this development. I fear my own kid one day would not enjoy the pleasure of living a fad and share the experience with friends like how we used to. Sure, right now seeing my young 8-12 year old cousins and nephews cutely greet each other Naruto style (you know those fancy hand thingy) and talk about the anime episodes, chakra and s*it that I'm clueless about (I'm not into Naruto FYI) is normal since we used to do almost similar things at our age, but I do hope this scene will persist in the future. But should the trend of these hype fad dies the kids in the future would be stuck at their holographic computer screens playing games 24/7 and all their socializing and sharing interests as mentioned above are done online, quietly with the kids smiling and laughing to himself. I already started to see those scenes with small kids playing DotA today. And that suck. Haihz...

Happy Hormones

It's one of those moments again whereby I got a sudden surge of testosterone and endorphin out of the blue. Most likely due to the fact that this is day 7 of me doing almost nothing besides sitting and sleeping. In other words the body is in a 'culture shock' because where it came from it used to do work and loads of other stuff, then over here it's unable to adapt to a slacking life. Or in visual terms, it's like Arnold's transformation here happening overnight. Shocking... lolz (so far still 'THEN', hopefully won't turn into 'NOW' anywhere in the near future...)

Play sit[1], listen to lecture sit[2], eat sit[3], walk[1] a few meters in campus and to DPS to resupply, sleep[1] meniarap, go 'invest' sit[4], wait for bus sit[5], walk[2] some more in house to do laundry and to the washroom, then go home sit[6] watch anime, do assignment sit[7], then LAN party sit[8] from 9pm-4am, then sleep[2] meniarap again. That's 8 sitting, 2 sleeping and 2 walking activities ONLY. Virtually 7 days of almost inactive actions, and the hormones built up slowly until one day I can't take it anymore. I need to spend it on something or else I'll pop like the Hindenburg X(

The LZ-129 Hindenburg POPPED! So will Ham if he is unable to find any heavy activity soon.

Back in the old days (circa 3-4 years ago...) used to get and release those happy hormones playing soccer and the lot on a balanced and fixed basis. Now kinda impossible to do that though considering there's no one to play soccer with here, but then again it's hard to even try to get into the field dominated by the big guys -__-

But I don't mind the excessive happy hormonic flow in the body system because it does make my mood better and happier, I'm just worried the pain-killing endorphins will null my senses. Heck I already got a 3-inch cut on my arm from who knows where or when, and I didn't feel or notice it until I scratched my itchy BCG. I fear one day I get a 40'C fever and I won't know it because of those happy endorphins running amok and jamming all the pain signals... Haihz never mind, 23 more days to go before summer course ends, and then I can get back and do what I do best wakaka

Summer Course withour Summer

Got back in Oil Town on the 1st afternoon for my summer course which will begin on the 2nd. Enrolled in Consumer Behaviour 102, which should be sap sap soi as rumored and apart from that I can bodek the lecturer for extra marks because I knew him from another unit last semester hehe woops.

Day one for my first sumer course lecture got lagged in startup (who doesn't if you already got used to sleeping at 3am and waking up at 11am... then today had to wake up at 7am so all the body system went !@#$%^&). And then at the first day of class I was told the schedule had to be reshuffled to 9am-12pm AND instead of 3 days we will have class for 2 days only per week. S*it I thought the original 3 days per week was nice but now I had to find more ways to kill time in this forsaken Senadin area. With the condition in this place (clan members still off on holidays, almost no line in my house, most shops closed etc) I'm like Tom Hanks and his ball Wilson in his movie Castaway.

My first day of summer course could've have started slow but that sunny mild morning I was greeted by these two who sempat do what they do best; doggystyle. At least they taught me that it's never too early to do anything XD Jia you!

And why on Earth is it called summer course anyways? I mean I know la Oz is in summer right now, but please do change the term when it is used here. We don't have summer, just monsoon and drought but now mostly monsoon with occasional flood. Monsoon Course - nah there sounds like some fancy meteorological studies exclusively available here only.

Fortunately CB102 have no finals, just tests along the course of 1 month so I will be home for CNY as unexpected this year wee :D For now I have to survive being casted away on this deserted house (ok not so deserted, got Irwin coming over for a mini duel LAN party) for the next 27 days... WILSON!

Moshi Moshi 2008

2008

Insightful image from www.indiadaily.org

The night before New Year in Kampua Town was supposed to be quiet, dull and peaceful. Instead, some smart ass b*stard sent SMS saying oil price was going up by 40 cents next year (2008) then all hell broke loose. Just like a computer worm, it infects the whole network and caused utter panic and chaos to the system. Almost all 90% of Kampua Townies came out not to go to the 2008 Countdown in Town Square, but to queue up at all jammed petrol stations in town from 4pm - 11pm. Monkey see monkey do, when more people saw people queuing up and asked what happened, they themselves went home to bring their vehicles to refuel and told even more people about the mythical price hike. All accessible petrol stations were virtually clogged as if the whole town population is going to run away, causing major traffic jams within 1km+ of each stations. Plus the rain that night didn't make the situation worse, causing the town folks to show their true nature -___-

This kinda scene was not limited to Kampua Town only apparently, as reliable sources told the same happened in the west, especially in KL. The rush to refuel as much as possible that night just show how much people would do just to save some bucks. I don't blame them, because the cost of living in this country is just enough to make common folks like you and me to be happy, but not enjoy life to the fullest. During the mad rush I talked to a fellow Kampua Townie who shared a very insightful thought (sorry it's in rojak, I'm in no mood to translate);

"Betul ka olang cakap minyak naik esok?"
"Saya pun tak tau oo, tapi saya rasa tidak la"
"Mana ada beza isi ini hari atau esok bila minyak naik, nanti sama juga mesti isi minyak nanti, bayar pun sama, sien kalau ini macam satu Sibu keluar kerana minyak naik 40 sen saja"
"Yalah, nanti pun isi sama juga perlu bayar nanti. Memang minyak akan naik ba next year, tapi mana logic government mau naik esok hari. Mungkin bulan tiga la lepas election, tapi sekarang dia takut-takut orang cakap minyak naik, tapi cancel, mau pancing itu undi..."
"Politik oo, habis undi mereka naik la... olang macam kita ikot saja ma, bising-bising lepas itu diam, poket habis kena d*ao kena ini balang, diam saja la jangan buat keleja bodo sudah la"
"Lol, ya tui-tui... ok la uncle saya chow dulu. Hepi nu year! Xi nien quai le rofl!"
"... :|"

In the end the price stays. So much for the town's rush for oil. The people should form an angry mob and d*ao the b*stard responsible for spreading the SMS in the first place. And reminder to the others, don't be gullible when new information hits your inbox. Always read between the lines, cast doubts and protest against any suspicious info regarding money... or else we kena tipu again like what happened on the 31st. Waste of energy and time, especially after eating dinner in the mood of embracing the new year.

The shark fin soup was nice :}

That's that for the last day of 2007. I checked out town for a while, met some kamchengs here and there and enjoyed a night cruise listening to Satisfaction and other songs to the max (hey it's nice to let go the ah beng inside of oneself sometimes lolz). Got pulled over by cops at the roadblock in front of St. Mary's (I didn't do anything wrong, the cops are there to stop more would-be-dead mat rempits racing on new year's eve, they can't touch me I'm a hokkia ba XD yeah right). And then had a feast with the familias that night at town and that's it. May the new 2008 has something special for all of you. Happy new year!

You're Getting Married?

Today I went to town late evening to check out the new Delta Mall not far from Muhibah on the east side of town. The place was crap because there were still ongoing constructions at every corner and only 5-7 shops on the 3 level mall were operational, and to add insult to injury it reeks of intoxicating wet paint smell, it seemed the whole mall air con was put to the coldest temperature and there was nothing purchasable. Sure there was Cindy (Sissy stuff -__- I don't even go there unless forced to), Seno (nice plasma TVs, laptops and washing machine but no thanks), uh Boulevard IT, what else, some more IT shops and yeah that's it. Honestly everyone there wanna check what's all the hubbub about but really all us patrons did was walk around see stuff and like "Oh" then went home. The opening ceremony concert was just so-so, but still okay.

I'd give it some more time to improve. For now the would be shops there are Popular and KFC as I saw their signboard at their shop lot partitions. Hopefully more good shops will come in like Burger King, Dunkin' Donut or San Francisco (dream on Ham). It's kinda small for a mall and the thing that I find uncomfortable are the escalators. They're kinda narrow probably because of the mall design and the optical illusion trick, but bottom line is whenever I use the escalators I get the feeling I can fall off to the side at any time, Final Destination style. *Splat!*

After Delta Mall I went to downtown for a fitting because I needed a new custom-made coat. The tailor, out of the blue, just asked "Are you getting married?" And I was like beyond wtf:

My stunned/blur/beyond wtf look after the tailor asked the question

LOLZ... a "Hah no, I'm still studying" reply was sheepishly given. Nuts, I used to be so pissed off a year ago when people asked what Form am I in now when I was already in university (yesh, I sometimes feel offended being dubbed still young, well that's another story). Now the incident this night was a bit of an unexpected scenario and I'm not sure what to feel. It's like trying to react upon seeing Bush and Ahmadinejad being friends and sit down together to watch Malaysia playing in the FIFA World Cup.

Come on lah a young man making new coat doesn't mean he wanna get married, especially at this kind of age. Right now I'm still a confirmed bachelor and not looking forward to tying the knot this time around (hey, doesn't mean I'm gay or anything, it's just a Libran Earth Dragon nature). Still got loads of stuff to do like taking over Sarawak, or buy a land lot on the Moon, or get a PhD first (okay maybe not PhD, at least MBA, but right after my degree), or even more important; buy a Sony Playstation 3 ^^ Careful world this Ham is mundian to bach ke wahaha.

It's a Durian Life

After lunch it's durian. After dinner it's durian. And whenever the bosses come back from short trips to Durin it's another durian fest at home. Fuh I can't get enough of those horny fruits (sh*t that sounds so wrong XD)... But yeah, been enjoying perhaps too much of the king of fruit but I want to cherish them now as I won't be seeing them until next season next year.

This is what normal healthy durians should look like, rotten sick durians will have orange-brownish patches on the contents, with occasional purple durian worms crawling around. So be careful, but no harm in accidentally eating the worm though, I think. (Pic from nealford.com)

So what's up with durian in Kampua Town apart from the fact ang mo find it as a terrifying biological weapon of mass stinkyness?. Well it's a durian runtuh right now even though it's monsoon and flood season so the price is dead dirt cheap compared to the ones sold in Oil Town (but that was when there was less durians and they have to sell it by kilos instead of bundles like now). So after experimenting with various D24s (the nick for durians lol) on almost a daily basis on the holidays, I found some durians that I would like to recommend. As you might know not all D24 are the same, as they a split into more 'specifications' that makes each durian sold by different vendors unique. For example some durian have nice thick mushy layer but small seed, some thin layered with big seed but have nice 'stinging' flavor, while some is just pure crap and waste of good RM10 for 8 biji.

And here are the durians in and around the outskirts of Kampua Town that might pique your interest. First the main and closest source of D24 are around the tua pek kong where vendors from outside and local sit there from 6am till as late as 11pm selling their D24s. The best ones are sold by the Iban vendors from 6am-8am (by 9am sold out and/or she had to catch the express back to e.g Kapit) Those are 4 stars D24s which is rather small with equal seed/layer ratio but has a nice firm solid layer (not mushy so you won't get messy when you eat it) with stinging smell and flavor. Try it out and she will give RM10 for 7 at first, but if you might get lucky to bargain and get 8 instead.

Another spot is at Kingwood area near Lanang. Have not tasted it yet personally but a neightbor recommended it and it should be uber nice.

The next spot is in Sibu Jaya. Fuh this is where another 4 star D24 is sold. The durians there are fat, with small seed but mushy. Damn nice and it's also good to make tempoyak (something like whip cream, except it's made of D24 but I don't like them).

The last and best spot is Durin, just beyond Sibu Jaya. For those who haven't been there it's where the Durin ferry point used to be, with small shops selling handicrafts, jungle produce and katanas on the ferry point across the river. But now the area is kinda dead after the completion of the !@#$%^&* bridge I've ever seen, the Durin Bridge. So the vendors moved near the end of the bridge, and here you'll find the best of the best D24 Sibu has to offer. Here you'll find the durian tembaga, durian emas and other non-kahwin durians (durian kahwin or hybridized D24s are a bit 'inferior' in terms of quality). I can't describe them in words honestly, but those are full 5 stars uber best D24s that's worth your 50 minutes drive there. You can find both mushy and firm layers, and I found the emas D24s to be the best (it's not made of emas/gold, it's just the contents are golden).

My advise though; don't eat too much and definitely don't eat it before you attend a function, a dinner, elevator, pak to or queuing up at the bank. You're officially a walking biologically hazardous material with those durians digested in your wee little belly. Those excess digestion gas is not pleasant when released both from the front and the back door, ESPECIALLY FROM BACK DOOR. If you do, gerenti 100% the person 10 feet radius around you will siang at you. Pooh!

I Forgot What to Post

Walao my 5 weeks holidays almost over already. Felt like almost last Monday I was craving to go back home to Kampua Town, and now I'm just going to enjoy my last week and prep everything for next week. So anyways I was supposed to post something 4 days ago regarding something which sadly, I have forgotten about. Sad. But one thing for sure I have to post something here to talk about, so here it goes.

Ok so last week was Eid ul-Adha or Hari Raya Haji to commemorate Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael. Celebrated in mediocre level, and yup to make things special had a reunion with kamchengz. Again instead of talking more about what we're up to now, we're more to eating and drinking, mostly drinking XD.

All the bachelors of their respective fields enjoying happy hour. Yeah yam seng!

Catching up with friends is nice, considering we all somehow know we'll end up meeting again with more stories and s*** to share. But life's like that. And I need some sleep. My head is not complying well after my biological clock was thrown off-balanced 4 days straight (blame on online gaming episodes), and the rainy nights here is not helping at all thus making this blog post a cliff-hanger and dull. Swear all you could for having me wasting 1-3 minutes of your life reading this. As for me I need time to recuperate and think of what to do in the limited time.

Sirim (that's me, sitting) and XVIII posing out of boredom in RF Online

Darn it, I still couldn't recall what was the issue I wanted to blog about. All thanks to procrastination, laziness and games, mostly online games. Looks like I have to say vamos for now until the next post.

True Gangsters

Gangsters here do all kind of crazy stuff and s***. But not as crazy as these two Western thugs...

What the hell am I?

During the holidays while helping out with the businesses I always get the question above from other people. Not only during the holidays, but it pops up now and then whenever I meet new people or when I'm getting acquainted with someone. Lolz I don't mind actually being asked what am I all the time but at certain point some people do make me and the questioner him/herself confused in the end, which left both of us with no choice but to start a new topic to talk about. A couple of conversations that I could still remember not long ago:

Conversation 1:
XXX: Ok so you mix what? Chinese Malay?
Ham: No, Melanau Chinese Japanese, dad Jap-Melanau mom pure Chinese but got adopted by my Melanau grandma
XXX: So that means you're 1/4 Chinese, 1/4 Melanau and 1/4 Japanese
Ham: Huh wth? 1/3 Chinese 1/3 Jap and 1/3 Melanau la how can be 1/4
XXX: But you said your dad Jap-Melanau oo, then mix mom so 1/4
Ham: No it's still 1/3 how the... still 1/3 la what 1/4?
XXX: But how come, correct lo if you dad mix already 1/2, plus your mom become 1/4 lah!
Ham: No no no... 1/3 dude, confirm 1/4 eh-eh-eh 1/3
XXX: But... how come... correct la 1/4 nah ni kan (while calculating fingers) this your dad mix edi, plus mom 1/2 become 1/4 de...
Ham: I lost you...
XXX: Haiya correct de 1/4 edi!
Ham: ......... so anyways that leng lui over the next table look nice
XXX: Na li?
Ham: Neh, the one in the red shirt, c'mon XXX go ask her number! Jia you!
XXX: You sot ah, where got leng that one, not even student, that one cleaning lady la! Chiu!
Ham: Wakaka!

-----[END]-----

Conversation 2
ZZZ: So you're Malaysian Sarawakian?
Ham: Yup
ZZZ: You don't look Malaysian to me
Ham: Lolz, what do you mean?
ZZZ: Well for one thing you look more like Chinese to me
Ham: Lolz you see, Malaysia got a lot of race here, Chinese, Indians, Malays.
ZZZ: So you're Chinese or Malaysian?
Ham: Uhh... I'm mixed actually, Chinese Melanau, one of the Sarawakian natives here.
ZZZ: Ok so that means you're not original Malaysian is it?
Ham: Uhh... I am Malaysian
ZZZ: Ok you making me confused here, you said you were mixed Chinese earlier and didn't mention mixed with Malaysian
Ham: ................
ZZZ: /:???
Ham: I think I will confuse us both even further if I continue to explain... hey there's a bug in your food

-----[END]-----

Haihz those were the moments :]. Well that's that about ancestral confusion, let's move on to a related topic. After 19 years living here I can see how people tend to mix up about people's origin most of the time, not only among locals but foreigners as well. For one I noticed people who are muslim are tend to, ok maybe not tend, usually will be called Malay even though he/she could be Iban, Kenyah or Chinese muslims. Sometimes I do feel a bit offended and annoyed not because people keep asking "Are you Malay?", but because of the stereotyping and pure ignorance. There seems to be a confusion between race and religion here, which should be cleared up in this kind of day and age where stereotyping does not apply well anymore. Frankly speaking on the subject I stumbled upon a fellow blogger who shares my problem which could give you an idea of wtf I'm talking about (click here). Few Chinese converts I know in Kampua Town including myself experience this "If you are a muslim, you must be Malay" situation. Haihz... look at Zheng He, he's a Chinese muslim and a fleet admiral for China, but he lived life like any other mainlander would at that time (ok well technically he spent a lot of time on sea voyage expeditions instead). So no difference from me living a modern Melanau-Chinese family life where we do not forget our roots' traditions and customs of both cultures (well the Japanese side inheritance died down here, but that won't stop me mastering nippongo from my aunt and uncle who're coming over this week ^^)

As for foreigners (especially the ones who just came in) some of them quite often got confused over the concept of bumiputera and non-bumiputera, hence explains the confusion in Conversation 2 above. In other words it's just a confusion of nationality and race. But yeah, if a foreigner ever ask what am I, I'd just stick to "I'm Malaysian" reply to avoid more confusion and debate...

Sorry if this topic offend, but I did not intend any malice towards any party and I just wanted to express the issue above, just as one of the voice of non-Malay muslims nationwide. Fuh, how many times did I use "confuse" lolz

The Little Things Give You Away

I love models. The pleasure of plucking the parts from the kit, assembling the model piece by piece and see the final work satisfies my urge to create something with my own hands as opposed to my lust for destruction in games. It's a ying yang thing i guess ^^ But last nite I bought these mini model kit of insects from Thai Choon as I haven't assembled kits for a long time. All was fine until I saw something that was seriously off. Click on the image and try to see what the genome soldier is laughing at.