It's finally done...

... and now I can move on with my life. Yes after years of struggling with the choice and weighing pros and cons I have finally taken the plunge and bought an Apple. Here it is below, so from now on I can't say I should have bought the Apple... blah blah...

Sophie on Video!

This is a very shaky video taken from a blackberry bold. Testament to my great video recording skills (Not). Taken just a week ago from her usual play area at the Forum on Orchard Road. She loves jumping into the ball pit...

Lunch at Rendezvous Hotel

My parents had their first date at Rendezvous Hotel in Singapore. This time we returned on father's day, well actually the day before.

Back then it was a three story hotel next to the Cathay on Bras Basah road where they watched a movie. When they were here we revisited the hotel and the restaurant that was still there. The food wasn't bad a little bit localised compared to the old days my Dad thought. I forgot to take a picture of the frontage which was preserved well. The interiors were similar as well, while originally the restaurant was on the ground floor in the wing of the hotel that now houses the coffee shop. It has since been moved upstairs but looked like it retained a lot of the 60s charm: tiled floors and walls, stone tables and old rickety wooden chairs. They of course had to have the requisite collection of old photos but I couldn't find an old picture of the hotel in any one of them.

We finished off the food, took pictures and headed to the museum for more nostalgia. One thing that impressed me about the museum is the care and attention they gave to the Malay movie business in the 50s and 60s which really took off from the Jalan Ampas studios in Singapore. The exhibit paid homage to the good ole days of Malay cinema including a multi part documentary featuring interviews with the producers and performers of that age. Highly recommended for anyone who's into old movies and films.

The history museum was comprehensive, but too long, I'd say if you actually could experience every single one of the exhibit it will take an entire day. It's a very photogenic building lots of things to snap at - but the presentation of the exhibit was the winner here. Every visitor is given an electronic device which functions as a tour guide and story teller for the exhibits. It was cool and easy to use, just way long winded and just too many things to listen to. So if you're on a schedule there's no need to listen to ALL the exhibits - I guess they do it this way so that they will get return visitors - it's impossible to pay attention to everything.

Updates

Last night was bad - small fry woke up late night because we tried to give her medication for her fever. She didn't end up sleeping until about 1230am or 1am, I got fed up already by then and handed her over to her mom. Watching an hour of Teletubbies in the middle of the night is not my idea of fun.

Turns out I was too wound up to sleep and ended up continuing my Civilisation IV game until 330am before deciding that staying up all night and going to work was probably not the best thing to do.

For those geeks interested - I usually play Persian and I'm not that good. Last night I was at the receiving end of a 4 way gangbang compliments of the snake Russians who got me into war. Why I play Persian I don't know probably because of all this news about the Iranian elections.

Read Reza Aslan's book No God But God, they give a good account of how Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took power there in 1979 - through deception and outright lies. I'm not surprised the clerics are cheating to keep power - but this is what we really need, more political power in the hands of reformist and moderate muslims. You can't count 40 million votes in 12 hours it's just too obvious a cheat. Besides Ahmadinejad was also called out for cheating the first time he won - he's obviously the Supreme Leader's favourite.

European nations should take heed and understand that "secularism" is just another way of discriminating against other cultures. It is oppressive. On the other hand Muslims need to get out of the shadow of the Mullahs rule and the only way is to give reformist and moderate muslims a voice in the government.

Anyway, today my nose is bad, I feel the possible onset of a cold coming.

And now I'd like to draw your attention...

to my buddy Patrick's new blog. He's been trekking for more than a month across Thailand and Laos on a dirt bike and has been posting good pictures and news along the way. Damn wish I was there too... sounds like a good adventure.

Here's the link:

Patrick's Blog

It's also on my link list over on the side bar.

Yes I am a bit nuts...

What mental disorder do you have? Your Result: Manic Depressive   You have extreme cycles of highs and lows. Sometimes you feel like you don't know who you are. One week you could be very hyper and happy and the next week you are slow and depressed.
Paranoia
ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder)
OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)
GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder)
What mental disorder do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Gong Xi Fa Chai

From all of us!

Prayer for Gaza

Al Fath, 26-28

When those who disbelieve had set up in their hearts zealotry, the zealotry of the Age of Ignorance, then Allah sent down His peace of reassurance upon His messenger and upon the believers and imposed on them the word of self-restraint, for they were worthy of it and meet for it. And Allah is Aware of all things. (26) Allah hath fulfilled the vision for His messenger in very truth. Ye shall indeed enter the Inviolable Place of Worship, if Allah will, secure, (having your hair) shaven and cut, not fearing. But He knoweth that which ye know not, and hath given you a near victory beforehand. (27) He it is Who hath sent His messenger with the guidance and the religion of truth, that He may cause it to prevail over all religion. And Allah sufficeth as a Witness. (28)

Check it out at http://quranexplorer.com (awesome site)

Meanwhile the Arabs continue to bicker:

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/14/gaza.diplomacy/index.html

Cheeky girl...

Trying to put on her shoes... no she can't pull it off just yet.

Happy New Year...

If you can really mean it that is... the world is a pretty messed up place isn't it? Makes me think if human lives are really that cheap? But the truth of that answer is that: it always has been... hasn't it?

We've been killing each other for ages and likely we'll be killing each other for ages more - all because the people who have not want something of those who do have it... whatever it is: land, power, money it usually thins down to any one of those three. Sometimes all three.

As I write over 900 people have been killed since Israel launched its offensive on the Gaza strip, a large portion of those are children, maybe 30 percent or so. I suppose they call it collateral damage. Let's call it murder. I'd go a step further and call it genocide. It's ironic how a land that was created after the holocaust could now go and create all new ones for brand new reasons - then justify it in the name of peace or self defense. Everyone knows its crap, no one does anything about it and frankly no one can.

Israel is not an illegal state. I've received several notices and emails proclaiming this, but it is not entirely true. The warring Arabs and the foreign nations after the great wars had more to do in allowing the Zionists to settle there than the Zionist themselves. Had history taken it's original route the Zionists would have settled in Argentina and not Palestine. It was America and Great Britain who finally settled on the so called "jewish lands" in the middle east, thereby creating the problem we see today - but that would not had happened if it wasn't for the Arabs of the time allowing it to happen.

The problem with the middle east is also an Arab and Islamic problem. Namely the question of who's land is it really? Does it belong to the Arabs or the Zionists? How far back in history do we have to go to prove the point - all the way to the holy books? There is no question now that in order for peace to happen, there need to be a land for both nations - neither party can discard the other; any group that declares otherwise is piloting his own kamikaze airplane and we'll have war in perpetuity. Somehow, somewhere, the two are just going to learn to live with each other. It's really simple but why doesn't it happen?

Then there's the war between fundamental Islam and moderate Islam. Proponents of fundamental Islam disagree there is a feud denying the very existence of a moderate Islam. I've heard it before: "there is only one kind of Islam" and usually they mean the fundamental one. The war in Palestine is also about the war for modernization of an old belief. Shall we accept "western" ideals on human rights and freedom in exchange for greater participation or shall we insist on our own ideals and ways and expect to be accepted within the world? Both seems sides seem to present a fair argument. Can muslims really live in an Arab land neighbouring a jewish state? Shall we ignore modernity and embrace our faith, or shall we race towards the future side by side with the christian west? In every muslim majority state this same war is being fought, even back at home in Malaysia. It is fought as strongly in the street corners as it is in the mosques, from television to politics, we see the shadows of religious influence meandering and questioning, always trying to gain grounds.

It is the question of Hudud law and the question of gambling and alcohol sales. It is about how much the state should invest in monitoring the kissing habits of its citizens in public parks. I know where I stand in this fight, but it is interesting to note that just a decade ago I would be standing clearly on the other side. Alas the ample bosom of modernity has me firmly in its grasp, there really is no escape, not that I want to anyway.

So the fight continues - at stake the moral status of an entire generation. But here's a parting thought: the world is a much smaller place than it was 1500 years ago, and it's bound to get smaller, so let's keep those sharp knees and elbows curled and in place, less we poke our neighbours where we are not supposed to.

Happy 2009

Hello old friend...

The last few months must be the second longest time that I skipped blogging since I started some years ago. That doesn't mean the View from Above has had no views what so ever since July, it's just that I felt it was better I kept my views to myself.

Now the year's coming to an end, 2008 started out rather bad and seems to be ending in a worse note - talking about globally and generally not specifically about me. The wars that was on earlier in the year are still on, some new conflicts have erupted since then; piracy is getting worse and making my job a little bit more complicated; the economy is going downhill; and worse of all to me there has been little to no changes to the politics in Malaysia.

Isn't it wierd how polarized the world has become of late? We're either for the government or against it, we're 100% muslim robots or we're kafir/munafik, we're malays or we're chinese or indians or whatever you have... Someone writes something remotely challenging and everyone gets off their rocker. Most times without even properly reading the said offending pages or investigating both sides of the story - case in point the RPK issue or take any racial or religious issue that emerged in the last 3 months in Malaysia.

I had at least 3-4 notes to say about all of that - fortunately for everyone I have been keeping my anarchist-anti establishment thoughts to myself, of course where's the fun in that? I'm getting just so detached recently with all the crap happening or not happening that I think I need a little emotional motivation to continue - otherwise I would stop caring. And caring means sharing... So here they are in point form and in summary, my anarchist take on things:

1. The Malaysian government should all resign - they have failed to keep up with the state of the world and seem to only have time for politics and not work. There's only 24 hours in a day, at the rate the news and gossips on politics are going on one wonders when the work actually gets done. Forget the corruption charges how about start with negligence and work from there...

2. The Malaysian opposition should get a first warning letter and some should already resign for cases of idiocy and just plain moronic behavior. Look DAP/PKR/PAS are not even on the same platform at the core of it, it will be a miracle if Anwar holds them together until the next election. While we're on that topic, Malaysia will never accept non-racial politics - at least not in my lifetime I think. Come on, do you really think all these lovey dovey Rakyat Malaysia gatherings are spelling the end of non racial politics? At grassroots levels Malays want to be Malays, Chinese want to be Chinese et cetera et cetera. There might be a few exceptions, but not many. We're temporarily united against a common foe, UMNO and the threat of corruption and economic decay. We're not ready for true unity, that takes a heck of a long time. It took America 232 years to elect their first minority president, and he's still only half african american. When we're ready to let go of some cultural identity - and I think one of the first are segregated schools for different races - then we're making progress. You can learn language from any school - just stop segregating the races!

3. Islam is beautiful religion, but please leave it off politics. As a religion we have all we need to lead our lives, as a society do you not realise that the abuse of religious beliefs to stay in power have led to the destruction of muslim societies everywhere? Religion is not democratic, no one can question the word of God or the words of his holymen so why do we need it in politics? The "afterlife" is not a good enough a motivation to run a proper country. Besides who are we kidding, it's always religion on top but really its all about money, politics, power and land. I'm not saying that we should all support secularism - no I think secularism is another form of religious discrimination. But whatever it is leave religion out of governance - it has place in our lives not in how the government is run.

4. It's about poverty idiots. Eradication of poverty shouldn't be a priority, it's a necessity. In this day and age I can't believe there are still people out there with no roof over their heads, no food and no access to clean water - no I'm not talking about other countries but my own. And yes it gets worse elsewhere. Incidents of violence, racism, crime and what have you are higher in areas of extreme poverty - the lack of means to even support oneself can lead to various acts of desperation and even turning to extremist groups for support and protection. What can we all do about it? And I believe governments should do more.

5. And it's about education. It's a given. I'm appalled at the state of education which in so far seems to just exist to educate enough - to fill the brain with data and then leave out the important clue as to what to do with them. That "we're not taught to think" is a common phrase I hear in Malaysia and Singapore. Worse yet I think Malaysia's investment so far in education has been just plain ridiculous. Teaching is no longer a favored job, schools exist so that parents can get their kids out of the way for part of the day and the focus is still too much on examinations and getting grades. Don't get me wrong I love exams, think they're swell. But why is it I remember more from my 2 years in the US school system (standards 4 and 5) than I did my entire high school? I know American history better than 70% of Americans (according to an online test) - and still recall pages of books and projects I did when I was 10. But I cannot remember anything significant from my highschool days. Ad-maths - NOPE, Chemistry - close, but I had to look 95% of stuff up again, English - NO WAY, - BM - EVEN WORSE, - History - Some vague references to Adat and the history of Melaka but that's about it and that was from Form 3. Heck most of what I remember and know now are results from self learning and reading. So... what the F? Does the system work? No I don't think so...

Anyway, enough ranting already.

Living with Sophie

She's such a big girl now, but having the girl around does slow down time a little and helps take my mind off work. She's recently been having some bad sleeping habits and waking up late nights thinking it was already morning.

Not sure how many times she woke up last night, but around 1-2am she thought it was morning and wanted to brush her teeth - I think we only got her to sleep after an hour. I got up around 6am today when Sophie did, she wanted to get up and crawl around - after showing her the sights outside the window we went back to her pallet and while I wanted to sleep again, she was intent on brushing her teeth.

So we did that and cleaned up, then went outside to her play area and started on her music books. I made her some bread and jam for breakfast and she ate while moving and playing around. Then later after her breakfast she found her shoes and wanted to put them on, she walked for a while before deciding it's faster to crawl (as it always happens) and started to get on the floor again.

Usually I get to sleep in and her mom will be doing all of this, but once in awhile it's daddy's turn. Anyway it's good to be able to play with her a little in the morning before the daily commute. After I got dressed, we had a group hug and she waved me off... typical morning...