Moonlight Resonance

We watched 2 episodes of this last night. Like the hubby says, it's been a long time since he's watched such a good TVB drama. It's full of drama (duh), really. I can't wait to go home tonight to watch more! Actually, I can't wait for the weekend when I can do a TVB-marathon! (like so free liddat) :D

Review fuel prices every 15 days??! You know, as a non-policy-maker, I sure have a lot to say about those actual policy makers. Are they dumb or what? Either you make the petrol prices run at market prices OR you fix it properly. I DO NOT want to be caught in a petrol-hike and fuel-guzzling jam EVERY 15 DAYS!

And can you believe that the moron who suggested this 15-day review is someone who's looking to lead the Chinese component in the ruling party? He seems to think he did us a favour!

On the opposite end, someone actually thought threatening us would make us stop complaining. Hah! The Sunday papers sure are a joke. If people didn't have to work so hard to feed themselves, I'm sure smarter people would be running our government.

Petrol in the news, again!

Gosh, our PM is proving to be a compulsive liar! Petrol price will be reduced to RM2.55 per litre starting tomorrow (I presume it'll be in a couple of hours at midnight). And our dear PM (and his Ministers) repeatedly told us the past couple of weeks that they'll revise it down on August 31st (or is it 29th, I forget, too many dates being published in the paper these days).

Today, after announcing a 26-year high inflation rate of 8.5% (26-year high out of 51 years!), he tries to cushion the blow and say we get a present of reduced petrol prices because he understands the plight of the rakyat in these challenging times. Like hellooo ... inflation went sky high only because he pushed up petrol prices so drastically in June!

See, our PM was so shortsighted to not have foreseen market oil prices would go down. Okay la, people in the street like us don't know about how market oil prices work. But you'd assume a country's HEAD would have intelligence to advise him on whether pushing the burden of petrol prices onto his citizens was a right step or not. Obviously he's either not very intelligent or his intelligence wasn't intelligent enough, since immediately after that oil prices went dipping dipping down down (and meanwhile, the government's cash register kept ringing in the windfall income). So, his shortsightedness caused sky-high record inflation rates immediately after he pushed petrol prices up. Smart. Our dear PM caused companies to suddenly incur extra costs and caused living expenses in the country to suddenly increase - apparently for no reason at all except to break a 26-year record of inflation rates.

Now he reduces petrol price a few days before the mother-of-all-by-elections. Doesn't take a genius to see the obvious connection here.

I think if he could, he'd even bring forward the Budget announcement and put in all kinds of goodies "to reduce the burden of the rakyat" - if it ensured he retained his seat as PM til his planned retirement.

Dear Datuk, please realize that your PR ploy of riding on the trains brings you no brownie points, merely emphasizes what you should have and could have done when it mattered most. To be fair, whatever you do now will just be too little too late, and will be criticized to no end by most. Just go with dignity - the earlier, the lesser mistakes you'll make, the less criticisms you'll take, the better.

(And on that note, I hope too, whoever goes up into that hot seat, will have good economic sense and have a love for Red Bull to be able to last thru briefings and meetings).

Panda's coming to town?!

When I read this headlines in The Star : "Panda for Zoo Negara", I was horrified.

One of my future plans (in the unforeseeable future, but planned, nonetheless), is to visit pandas in their natural habitat (not in the zoo) in China. I think they look like real adorable creatures - and this has nothing to do with Kungfu Panda ok.

So, I should be elated they're gonna be in the neighbourhood, right?

Not exactly. Having heard stories about how our National Zoo is run and in what state it's in (although I have no way of verifying the stories unless I go and see for myself, but no way am I paying to enter a zoo with animals-who-are-not-there), I quite believe that the Chinese pandas will not be very happy here.

Please please, I hope the pandas don't come to our zoo. And if somehow or other, some moron actually approves of the pandas coming here, I pray and hope the pandas are hardy and strong-willed ones who will be able to defy all the odds of animals who have ended up in that sorry place in Ukay.

Swimming seems to be the sport to watch these days, with world records falling left right centre everyday.

A colleague said, "It's amazing. Our whole country's aiming for just one medal, any medal would do. And here's this one guy aiming for 8 gold medals for himself alone." Doesn't this just put so much perspective as to where our country's headed?

Finally, I get to upload my profile pic from my computer, instead of the hassle of hosting it somewhere. So there it is, the memorable pic of the prettiest I ever felt in my life (bimbo-nye), and the most ladylike I've ever been (I purposely got piercings just to take this pic ok).

At the moment, I'm busy reading this. I have this weird interest in the lives of the Boleyns. I find it amazing that women last time could cajole and cavort their ways to become the King's favourite mistresses - that it was a much-coveted title. And that fathers then, would allow their daughters to be traded like cattle. However, nothing beats Philippa Gregory's historical fiction writings on the Boleyn sisters. They are truly riveting.

Work's become quite a burden lately. I'm looking forward to Bangkok as much as I can. Nothing soothes the soul like massages and Thai food - and a great exchange rate! :)

Distant Dreamer

Although you think I cope

my head is filled with hope

of some place other than here ...

Although you think I smile

inside all the while

I'm wondering about my destiny ...

I'm thinking about

all the things

I'd like to do

in my life ...

I'm a dreamer

a distant dreamer

dreaming for hope

from today

Even when you see me frown

my heart won't let me down

because I know there's better things to come

And when life gets tough

I feel I've had enough

I hold on to a distant star

I'm thinking about

all the things

I'd like to do

in my life

I'm a dreamer

a distant dreamer

dreaming for hope from today

I'm a dreamer

a distant dreamer

dreaming for hope from today

Yeah I'm a dreamer

- Performed by Duffy, one of the most talented new artists to surface this year, in her Rockferry album, which is one of those rare albums where every song is beautiful. And have you seen her Mercy video? It was her voice on the radio that first caught my attention. After watching the video, I fell in love with her lack-of-nonsense, and her seemingly "oldies"-style. She has a great great voice. Get her album, youtube her and you'll see what I mean ;)

It has been an interesting week indeed.

Nat gave birth to little baby Anne! I popped by to see them a day after she was born, and boy, is she a cutie! Big eyes, prominent nose, thick pouty lips. She was sleeping throughout when I was there, and she looks real adorable ok :) And Nat says her natural delivery was completely painless - haha. Thanks to the epidural - the invention that has saved all of mankind. With the epidural, women will continue to give birth and mankind can continue to evolve :P Btw, Nat got married to CM 6 days before my own wedding - and she actually has something to show for it now, haha!

On the same day a bunch of us had dinner with Maris as she was leaving M'sia already. I gave her a pack of bak-kut-teh instant noodles and soup packets to bring home. She just got back from Perhentian Islands and was so tanned! But tan looks good on her :) One day, one day, I shall find the moo-lah to be able to travel to Estonia.

It's actually August now. Work in the office has piled so high that it's getting quite demotivating. But *takes deep breath*, I must set my sights on the goal, musn't I? Just drag myself to the finish line. I can and I will. My mind and will has always brought me where I want to be :)

I read this most interesting but quite disturbing article in The Star this morning : "She was riped for the plucking".

1. Ironically, 82% of respondents (offenders) over the age of 50 raped girls aged 16 and below.
2. The majority grew up in rural areas, including Felda schemes (71.1%), and had low education levels. Most are married and reported good relationships with their mothers but not their fathers. Their views concerning females are, in general, degrading and humiliating. (So this implies that the parents who were the main educators of these victims seem to be blamed here.)
3. The rapists also blamed pornography and uncontrolled lust as the main factors which caused them to rape. (Blamed porn and uncontrolled lust? Hellooo ... ever heard of self-control? Whose choice was it to watch porn?)
4. Many of the men committed incest while their wives were in menopause, pregnant, or unavailable for sex. When the men couldn’t control their urges, they sought the easiest women they could find. (Ok, this is depressing. Makes it sound like sex is everything and without sex, these men can't seem to go about their daily lives.)
5. There is no conclusive research that pornography leads to rape, but a higher number of rapists tend to view it habitually so it is a contributing factor. (A friend once told me, the more you suppress someone, the more radical they become. So, if porn were easily available, does that mean there'll be less rape?)
6. They (victims) are trained from young to believe that they have to be gentle, sweet and submissive. A man rapes a woman as a way of putting her in her place. (So girls, remember to project yourselves as forceful independent women - presumably this makes you less rape-able.)

What the rapists say :

• Jika makanan sudah dihidang, kalau saya tak makan, lalat akan turun. Biar saya yang makan.
• Nak tidur, bantal pun sampai, kita pun tidurlah.
• “He said his stepdaughter is a ‘hot blooded teenager who needed to be taught the right way to enjoy sex’.”
• ‘she’s mine anyway’

Eurgh.

The article stressed that women were definitely not to blame for the occurrences of these rape incidences. Because "if a shoplifter is caught, do we blame the merchandise for looking too attractive?". Which makes a lot of sense.

But the world revolves in such a way that, a female has to be attractive in order to attract the opposite sex and henceforth, allow for procreation. To ensure the existence of humankind. Why does such a basic instinct have to be tainted with such impure acts? Who, in fact, is to be blamed? I can only think the perpetrator is the only person to be blamed, not the victim, not the family and definitely not society. Early education on self-restraint and heavier punishments (a life sentence) seem to be the only key at the moment.