Monday, October 27, 2008

Shake your ass for the Earth!!

Up till today, I've gotten sick and tired of the "Environmental friendly" paradigm...

Yes, I know that the Ice Caps is melting and that the Earth's climate is getting weird...Al Gore made that pretty clear in his documentary.
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Japan also played a big part in irritating me. With endless campaign of "Use Eco-bags, not plastic bags"....."Use your own chopsticks, not disposables"...."Turn off the lonely light bulb"...all these are no doubt a good move, but too bad, people only embrace these campaigns for so long. Japanese can be quite a hypocrite by doing things so that they "look good" in front of other people....they turn ugly as soon as one turn away.

And compulsory lectures that include "Save the Earth" topics isn't making life any more interesting either....as if scoring an "A" for that particular lecture will help regulate the Earth's climate. That's a worse crap than my blog...

I was thinking...
"To HELL with this save the earth thing...leave me alone and let me live my own selfish life!!!! Fine, I'll recycle and piss in the dark(turn off light bulb in my toilet)....just leave me alone with all these bullshit about 'envirofriendliness'. I have enough friends around, don't need to befriend the Earth. I'm not that lonely."

But then I saw this news report about a night club in Rotterdam, Western Netherlands...
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Apparently, a nightclub called Watt, has installed floor panels that generates electricity when people dance on it.

The amount of generated electricity depends on how heavy the person is and the rhythm to which that person is moving. So, yeah..that means the fatter you are, and the more ridiculous your dance moves are, that makes you more earth-friendly. Time to eat more and learn to dance silly!!!

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This floor panels can generate enough electricity to power the lights underneath the panels and some more...

To think how much energy could be saved if this technology is implemented in every night clubs...it's a significant amount as night clubs uses 150 times more energy than average household. And if they can install these in train stations in Tokyo where hundreds of thousands of people commute everyday...that's a hell lot more efficient than "Not use plastic bags" campaign.

Never knew that saving the earth could be this much fun. GO DUTCH!!!

Looking forward to see Al Gore dance in night clubs....

"Hey baby, look at how I'm saving the Earth by doing the Chicken Dance..."
"Let me hear you go....Y....M...C....A.....let's all save the earth.....Y...M..C...A..."

^^

Sunday, October 26, 2008

The oh...so comfortable bed...

I'd say, Mother Nature must has been reading my blog....she must have seen the (embarrassing)video of me flirting with two Hong Kong chics, and now she wants to visit Japan. But then again, she's busy dealing with melting ice caps, so she sends one of her sons, Autumn to visit Japan instead.

Nagaoka have been enjoying a long period of warm days, with bright blue sky and trees green with pride.

Then, Randy posts video of himself with two HK chics...and here comes Autumn, wanting to meet cute little girls in Nagaoka too. And along with his visit, comes along clouds and cold winds, bringing the temperature down.

Well, what I'm trying to say is...it's getting colder.

Cold days like this, there's no place better than spending time in your warm, comfortable
bed....embraced by soft, blankets welcoming you with open arms.

I woke up at 8.30 this morning but I just got out of bed at 1.40....it's amazing how much effort I take to bullshit myself with endless list of excuses of why I should stay in bed for just 5 minutes longer. And a person like Randy, who was notorious for his nonsense/crap/jokes during high school....bullshit excuses are my specialty, thus the reason why I was awake in bed for 5 hours. It took me one excuse every five minutes for five hours for me to run out of things to say to myself.

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There's only one person out there who is better than me....sleeping beauty. A pinprick to the finger cause her to sleep for a hundred hours? Hah!! She must be the most extreme in insisting that she stays in her big comfortable bed. It took a kiss from a very handsome prince to convince her to get out...
As for me...I waited for 5 hours but no princess/cute chic/pretty girl/any girl came to my house to give me a kiss...

Sigh, I know I should be out of bed experiencing things so that I would have material to write in this Blog but...ahhh...the oh...so comfortable bed...

Now, I will summon all my willpower not to go back to bed. God knows I will slap my hands silly if it ever try to unconsciously reach for the blanket!

Friday, October 24, 2008

The moment of my life!!!

Remember me mentioning that I was featured on TV in Hong Kong??
Well, Miss Vanko haven't sent me the video yet, but here's the video clip from you tube..



It's only a short clip of me....probably because my Cantonese was very bad for the rest of it.. (^_^;
They even forgot to mention my name....sigh.......

But damn, watching myself on TVB Hong Kong is a little embarrassing...haha.
Looking at the video again reminds me of how I struggled to come up with a reply, and when I did come up with one, the conversation have already progress and I have to think of a new one yet again. Sigh, if only I wasn't intoxicated with alcohol and remembered my Cantonese better...

"Each time I watch the video, I had to laugh...and skip your part. Just too funny...hahaha"
said my housemate. Me too, I just can't bring myself to see the video....it's embarrassing. Makes me wonder how those actor/actresses live their life watching themselves on TV....

Anyway, thanks to Min Ven for allerting me about this vid!!

Monday, October 20, 2008

Apple of my eye..

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away..."
-English proverb-

"But two apples a day make your friends curious on whether you are dieting or not."
-Randy's Words of Wisdom-

Lately, I have been adopting the style of eating fruits for lunch. Instead of eating a full meal of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats for lunch, I eat 2 apples, last week was persimmons. There's no specific reason to why I started eating fruits for lunch..it wasn't for health, it wasn't to keep two doctors away, and it wasn't because of money....I just felt like it. It's funny how eating fruits sparked all kinds of comments from my loyal-to-rice friends...

"EXACTLY which part of you is fat?" challenged a plump girl....

"So you are on diet, huh? Wanna look good for who??" teased a friend of mine who recently found herself a boyfriend...

"Nasi lah....NASI!!" and she bangs the table to make sure she was heard. hahaha...

Well, no I'm not on diet. I thought that I was being too nice to everyone, so, if one single apple can corrupt Adam and Eve, imagine what two apples a day could do to me!! I'd be a full fledge devil within a week! hahaha...

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But no, I just felt like eating fruits. Oh, I eat properly for breakfast and dinner so.....Mom, if you are reading this, don't worry about me not getting enough food and developing gastric. Eating fruits is surprisingly filling, two is enough to sustain me till school ends. And they don't cause afternoon drowsiness caused by eating too much for lunch.

But as for apples keeping the doctor away, that's bullshit. I'm down with flu now even after eating so many apples. Well, either it's bullshit or Japan have more doctors than apples.

Now I'm a quest to find out which fruit really keeps the doctor away(cure my flu)...

PS: Have you heard the rumour about how you will sneeze when someone is gossiping about you? Maybe, since I started eating apples, people talk about me so much that I developed flu...

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Old and dangerous...

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So, what do you see in this picture? While most of you may see a sweet old lady, ripe with old age with a pocket full of candies to give to small kids, what her face is really showing is...

"Don't mess with me punk, or I'll beat the shit outta you!!"

All of us young, healthy and strong people have been taking the old for granted. Just because they are old, we automatically assume that they are harmless little angels with saggy wrinkles and head full of white hair....how wrong we are!!

The reality would be that Japanese old folks mostly dye their hair purple and they are far from harmless!!

Recently, Japan's crime rate have been rising....and, believe it or not, most of it(more than 60%) are caused by old folks. Yes, old people have been terrorizing the streets of Japan, especially in big cities like Tokyo. I know...it sounds nonsensical that old folks here manage to achieve what terrorist like Osama bin Laden failed to do in Japan.
Retirement must be hard on them....poor retired folks, they must have gotten so bored that they decided to do crime for fun. Either that or that they are taking their revenge at the young ones. Jealous at us being so youthful and skin as smooth as pearls...or whatever you use to compare smoothness with.

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But no, of course that's not the real reason why old folks are making police officers busy..

Autumn is approaching fast, and that means the weather is getting colder. Homeless folks like the guy in the picture faces long, cold, cruel nights sleeping out on the streets. So, they commit crime so that the police arrests them and lock them up. In prison cells, they get heat, food and security...all the things that they wished for when they are out in the streets. While most commit petty crimes like shoplifting and eating without paying, some go to great lengths such as stabbing and slashing at random pedestrians to guarantee that they get a long stay in prison cells.

Once, A 78-year old lady was arrested for slashing two pedestrian. When asked why she did it, she said that if she got convicted and sent to jail, she can spend the cold winter comfortably with ease. She actually smiled when she was sentenced 3 months jail...

With poor plans for the old folks, more is committing crime and prisons in Japan is turning into old folks home. It's kinda sad reading this on the papers...country as advanced as Japan would have problems such as this.

So, the next time you are out on the streets, ignore the spiky hair, blonde mohican style hair, young looking gangsters.....you'd want to beware of saggy lines and hunchbacks. If you see any old folks smiling kindly at you, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!! Worst, if any old lady smile AND wave at you...RUN AND SCREAM FOR YOUR LIFE!!!!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Randy vs. Disney....

A remark by a friend today have had me thinking....what do other people think of me?

Today, during lunch, a bunch of my female friends were talking excitedly about attending Disney on Ice, which is to be held on the 25th October here in Niigata Prefecture. They were all discussing about which seats to take, who would be driving in whose car, which favorite character will be skating on Ice...
Then one of them saw me listening on them and innocently asked me if I want to join them...all I could do was smile when another said

"Randy and Disney on Ice? That's just IMPOSSIBLE!! It's so wrong..."

I'm sorry if I have given the tough guy/macho image but, I LIKE Disney...What? Tall, well built guys can't love Daisy Duck? Tough guys can't like Ariel the half-tuna? Macho man can't dance to the Mickey Mouse song? Don't get me wrong though, I'm not saying that I'm macho, tough guy....but I'm just making a point here. What is so weird about a full grown man lining up among small kids to take photos with Mickey Mouse? Disney don't discriminate right?
Yes, I admit that it's damn embarrassing to fight with kids to get a chance at photos....but....nothing wrong, right?

Long have I been understood.....but once again, I'm a sucker for cute cartoon characters. Especially the ones that I grew up watching.

If you really wanna know, I adore Donald Duck and I LOVE Ariel the Sardine.

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Saturday, October 11, 2008

One of Japan's greatest, The Nagaoka Fireworks Festival...

Now that autumn is approaching, and summer is but a warm memory, think it's bout time I write about what can be considered one of my fondest memory ever...

Summer....in Japan, there's only one thing in mind when summer approaches....and it is fireworks. Just like Chinese New Year in Malaysia, Japanese have their yearly festivals during summer and it is always accompanied by great displays of fireworks. And my place, Nagaoka, just happened to be the place to host one of the 3 biggest fireworks display in Japan. Internationally famous, the Nagaoka Fireworks Festival boasts 100,000 visitors each year....this year, they had 100,001 visitors. Oh, did I mention that this is my first visit to this event? I wonder who added to the number of visitors...

Now, I think I have decent skill in English Language but I don't think I'm good enough to actually describe the incredibly beautiful fireworks...so, here are some pictures...

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FYI, This is "Hello Kitty" firework..
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Well, actually, this event was held in August...and it's way past the expiry date, but I have a valid excuse...

You see, during the whole summer, I was busy going everywhere to perform taiko, including the Nagaoka Fireworks Festival. So, as a performing member, we were given VIP seatings during the fireworks display. Joining us on the same seatings that day, was this two very pretty girls(Yes, girls again...Randy is a boy with plenty of testosterone and no girlfriend, so...forgive him). They weren't part of the taiko team, so it was quite strange for them to share the same space as us....but of course, I didn't mind at all sharing seats with them. The moment the girls came, my team leader immediately turned to me..."Damn, those girls are pretty!!!"...but I was already starting to think of ways to break the ice and speak(Randy's dictionary defines speak as flirt) to(with) them....

Then I heard them speak in cantonese...

OK...sweet!! I understand cantonese, so there's my ice breaker..

*in cantonese*
Me : Hello...
Chics : Oh hello...wow, you understand cantonese!
Me : Well, I am Malaysian...
Chics : A Malaysian...wow, and you are part of the taiko team?
Me: Yes...erm....I umm...can you understand English?
*in English....I totally forgot how to speak in cantonese, although I still understand what was spoken*
Me : It's been a long time since I spoken in Cantonese...and my four years in Japan have not been kind towards my Cantonese....

What I learn from speaking to them was that they are actresses from Hong Kong, Vanko Wong Shuk Ling and....I forgot what the other one's name is. Vanko was the friendly one, the other one was quite a stuck up...so, didn't remember her name.

Yeah, "Wow" right? Who would have guessed they were actresses....

They were here in Japan to do a travel program of some sort, and they are doing the story on Nagaoka Fireworks Festival....we chatted about a lot more stuff but...let's not bore you with them "juicy" conversation shall we?

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From left : Stuck up girl, Vanko, and Malaysian guy who've forgotten cantonese....

Anyway, not long after, their manager approached me and explained that part of the travel program includes them meeting a "new friend" ...and they wanted me to be that "new friend". Wow, suddenly I'm to be casted on TV!! It's my 3rd time appearing on TV actually, so didn't really get nervous about it though...

You must all be thinking "Randy, you lucky bastard!!"...

but no, being on TV can be quite depressing and stressful. For example, I had to repeat the same conversation a few times cause' our voice wasn't loud enough...cause' the lightings was bad...cause' they wanted to wait for a firework to go up so that they get a good background as well...cause' the stuck up girl was being stuck up and wasn't talking. All kinds of funny reasons to do the same conversation...made me lost count of how many times I have to introduce myself...but all in all, it was a fun experience.

Not only I get to be in VIP seatings watching one of the biggest fireworks display in Japan, I get to be on TV in Hong Kong as well... The show will be aired at tomorrow on TVB HK....was gonna wait till she send me a video clip, that's why I waited so long to post this. But...nah, not gonna post the video here anyway.

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Here's a polaroid we took together...and what a nice smile Vanko has...

Oh, did I mention she gave me her e-mail? Haha....nah, we're just friends now. She is only 18, but she's very matured and quite an interesting person to talk to. One of the few person in my life that I have the utmost respect for...

Anyway, hahhhh.....what a nice summer that was....

PS: I just remembered what the stuck-up girl's name was!! Her name is Katy Kung

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Raya!!

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Selamat Hari Raya Folks...

Yeah, yeah...I know. Raya was last Wednesday but the selfish Japanese government wouldn't make it a National Holiday, so us Nagaoka folks celebrated it today.

Raya in Japan have always meant celebrating it at the embassy....but after the food poisoning scare last year, embassy didn't make any open-house celebration this year. They made it instead at the Malaysian staff houses. If you ask me, they should have made it at the embassy...if anything go wrong we can always blame China for it...ha ha.

But lucky I'm studying in a University with many Malaysian folks...so, the atmosphere here is still great and full of festive air. Plus, folks here are pretty good cooks.

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It's always a custom to pray and thank the lord for the food....
Living in Japan for so long,which means taking god for granted...I forgot that and I almost reach out for a cookie while they were praying. Lucky I stopped just in time...

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Satay guys...the most blessed beings of the day...

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A few of my close friends, namely Farhan, Nabilah, Umi, made these and I'm eternally grateful for them....

See that lonely fork in the Tupperware? I think they prepared it for the Chinese guest to use as everyone else seems to ignore it and just use their hands. I....I used my hands though. No reason to not behave like a real Malaysian here...

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As if to remind ourselves that we're still in Japan, someone tried to be funny by making onigiri or rice balls...Oi! It's Raya-lah...it's ok if it's wrapped with daun pisang, but why the onigiri??

Gathered at a hall, we had a lot of food....satay, rendang, nasi kunyit, murtabak, and a variety of cookies which names are a mystery to me. After we had our fill, we had a long photo shoot session...everybody had their cameras with them, so one picture actually means 3 or 4 pictures. Photo sharing not part of Malaysian culture huh?
And I realized that, they like to take many picture with the same group of people. I helped a group of girls take pictures facing North, East, South, and West....and when I thought they were done, they started facing North East, South East....never ending, never fulfilled desire of having Randy take a picture of them. But it was a fun day, so I didn't mind indulging their needs...

Not long after photo session ended(finally), some started handing out plastic bags. Oh, time to leave....end of celebration.

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Here's a picture of Calvin "Ta Pau" some rendang for dinner....always a heart-warming sight to see fellow Malaysians do that, just reminds you of home...

So that's it folks.....hope you had a nice Raya too...

Selamat Hari Raya!!

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

First ever hand massage...

Today was the anniversary of the establishment of NUT. So, as a proud student of NUT, I did the one thing every other proud people of the education system would do...

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I got a haircut....

And I even add color to it!!

NUT must be sooo proud to have a student like me.

ANYWAY, while I got my hair cut, the salon director graciously gave me a free hand massage service. Wow...she must have really liked me to have given me a free service like that. Guess that all my apple polishing was worth it....ehem...it's always good to say "I think you look cute!" to your hairdresser, especially if she's a woman. But then again, she really is cute...so all I did was spoke the truth  (^_-)~☆

Hairdresser : How do you like your hair?
Me: Sorry, I can't see without my glasses...
Hairdresser : How bad is your eyesight?
Me : When I don't have my glasses on, everyone girl looks cute and guys handsome..
*Take note that I said "girl" instead of "woman" or "lady"...
Hairdresser : Here you go. *hands me glasses* So, I look less cute now that you have your glasses on??
Me : Nah...you, YOU still look cute after I put these on...(^_-)~☆

Ehem...there, truth spoken. Remember "nilai Kejujuran" back when we had "Pendidikan Moral"??

Anyway, that's not the main point of this post by the way...what I was trying to say was that I got my first ever hand massage. To make things worse, the lady who massaged my hands was a very very attractive lady.

"To make things worse? Isn't it 'To make things better??' " you might ask...

Well, like I said, this is my first ever hand massage...I just don't know how to react to all this. Plus, it's been a very long time since I have my hands held by a beautiful woman. And I kid you not when I say that it felt very good...both the massage, and being held by a pair of soft, beautiful hands. And not forgetting that the lady sat very close to me and I had to summon all my strength and will power to not keep staring at her while she massages my hands.

After a few heavenly minutes that seemed like hours, she was done.....with my left arm.

Now she gotta do my right arm...

This time, salon director started cutting my hair....having someone do my hair and hands at the same time is quite a new experience for me....and I have to be honest and say that I felt a little uncomfortable at this. I...I'm just not used to this, ya know. The salon director must have sensed my rigidness as she asked me how did I feel being treated like a prince.

All I could do was smile sheepishly as I could not think of any smart reply for her...attractive lady with soft hands laughed her cute laugh as she continues working magic on my hands.

Gosh...NOW I know why some people like massage so much...