saving the World a tech at a time.... ?

Nowadays with the obvious results showing its ugly face caused by global warming, comapnies and countries are taking several measures to prevent it from getting worse.

The steps they take are always related to more advanced technologies. It's not a bad thing really, but the thing is, it's interesting how they're approaching a solution to the problem. Instead of taking actions to cut down their emissions, they're using this opportunity to introduce and market new technology, which would make the company look good, and also proof they're "doing something for the environment".

It's more of a 'who has the better toy" kind of competition, rather than "who can save the World" type. True, they're doing something to reduce emissions, but how much of these tech toys they show do they really use practically?

But I do admit, their stuff they show are really appealing though ~ Take for example, the car industry. So far, Toyota and Honda has commercialized the hybrid cars, which is a good effort to reduce emissions. While other car manufacturers are coming up with their own version of emission-reduction engines such as BMW with thier hydrogen engine and Tesla with their electric powered engine.

but with the weather becoming weirder and more dangerous by the months, it's starting to scare me, how long more does our dear Mother Earth have before it comes crumbling down... ? Nowadays, if it's not raining, it's blazing hot. US just recovered from a heat wave, as well as Japan, which according to what I read, they suffered the highest temperature ever recorded in history, marking slightly over 40 degrees celcius!

Frightening......

Local productions

I don't see why people should be so closed up when it comes to local production movies, or even when it comes to mentioning about Singaporean movies. The moment I mention it's local or Singaporean to most, they would just shut out the idea, or to some, laugh, bitch, joke, and insult about it, then only say "wah, you serious arr...?"

I watched a local movie called "Impak Maksima" (Maximum Impact in English)today. The movie wasn't all bad... the cars were not bad, the girls were kinda hot... the story.... ok, it sucks... but that doesn't mean one should immediately close-off the movie and take it as a complete joke.

At least local production companies are actually trying to come up with something decent, even by going against what the local authorities are trying to stamp out (i.e. illegal racing). Of course, they can do much better in many ways though still... but hey, at least they got some effort ~

Talking about our neighbouring country, Singapore local movies are not bad at all, especially from Jack Neo. The comedy movies he directs are really hilarious, as it depicts to a certain level, the life of typical Singaporean culture, with a twist of humour :p The interesting thing about his movies though, is that he portrays the Singaporean government as seen by the public, and although humorous, it can be an insult to the government; yet they allow his movies to be published.

The other thing is the language in the movies. He uses "Singlish" in his movies and tends to mix other races' languages as well (Malay, Chinese, Tamil mainly). The interesting thing I read not long ago, is that even though Singapore is trying to prevent usage of Singlish (I think... I don't know if efforts are still being put in...), they are one of the best English-Speaking countries in Asia.

Anyway, coming back to the point I'm trying to say.. Singaporean Director Jack Neo was willing to risk it by commenting on his Government in his movies, and actually comes out really nice as a movie, yet, when I mention it's Singapore origin, they suddenly give a low-down sigh and say something like "haiyah... dun wan la..... sien...."

Another good example of bad reception to local productions is our infamous Proton. Mention Proton, and the first word people think of is QUALITY; not because it has it, but rather it lacks of it... yea sure they have I think a decade worth of bad quality products in their lines, but that doesn't mean they're not improving.

But when it comes down to it, I wonder if you can really plainly blame Proton in the first place.. I came across a post in a forum one day, stating that not only Proton cars has these problems, actually a few other international car companies with CKD models in Malaysia faces these problems, some with even major problems like brakes failure.. !! So, the way I see it, it's the workforce to be blamed.

Even when it comes to maintenance, Proton now I think is doing much better in the recent years. Their newly launche i-Care initiative has yet to proof it's worth, and their latest model, the Proton Persona, has yet to live up to the test of time. But before it's even launched, people are already bashing it. But their marketing strategy, in my opinion, is questionable however...

All these makes me wonder.. do people in Malaysia then generally "brands" a person by their biggest mistake? Sure, these cases I've mentioned have been there for years, but it's more or less branding them for good.

From what I see, people generally do maintain what they always do, but people can change. Although, for example, a guy is always lazy, but at some point, he can change to become hardworking, given enough motivation. But that doesn't mean with his efforts, you should just say "aiya, change also no use lar.. once lazy, always lazy" or shoot his efforts by saying "why a lzay person like you want to change, dun try lar, you sure go back to lazy again wan la".

Sure, I've got my moments like these, but does that mean you have to comment like this? At least give them some support !!

Then again, if someone's will can be changed by these trivial comments, it won't be able to last either....

Politics, politics.....

Yesterday I was invited by a friend to go for a dialogue session organized by Democratic Action Party or more popularly known as DAP. Their dialogue was entitled "Whither Bangsa Malaysia?", which was mainly about the unity of races in Malaysia as a single group.

It was about 3 hours long, mainly talking about the racial unity in Malaysia. But throughout the talks, almost every member who gave a speech mentioned our current, infamous, online "star" Wee Meng Chee, or known online as Namewee.

It seems they are trying to push for Meng Chee's freedom, in other words, to try to make sure he's not prosecuted for his work, "Negaraku ku". I really appaud their effort in helping him, as from what I read, he's really innocent(individual's opinion will differ..).

All he's done is tell the truth basically. Yea, the truth is harsh, whether in the eyes of the public or the government, but it's nothing but the truth despite how you may deny it. It is true that he's "modified" the national anthem, but he only meant for it to portray his love for his country. The way he did it is questionable, that's true, but how many of us will actually go to this type of lengths to show love for our country, Malaysia?

I read in one of the newspapers article few days back, which mentioned him bringing along the national flag with him when he went to Taiwan to study... how many people can actually say the brought the flag overseas with them?? Don't even need to go that far... how many people can say they actually have the flag at HOME with them right now, barely 2 weeks from our 50th Independance Day ???

I pass shops, and see just a few hanging the Jalur Gemilang (Malaysia's national flag), I'm not even mentioning houses here. And here, we're trying to prosecute a 24-year-old, who brought the flag to Taiwan with him!!

Yea, people are saying it's an insult to the country, but from the way I see it, what's the insult ? Another thing mentioned in the dialogue was most of these political things are usually misunderstood because of a person's "state of mind". I mean, yea, it's true, a person may see some action or idea differently from others, but this is only because people's experience through life is different.

Show a child the a piece of paper with the exact phrase written as "D**k" and show an adult the same thing, what do you think would be their first word in mind? It's all a matter of perspective really. Just because someone used the national anthem as a means to promote patriotism in their song, it means he's already wrong ?

The song title, "Negarakuku", if you take it as what it actually is suppose to mean, it should have meant "My Negaraku". Instead, people are taking it as "Negara Kuku"! In Chinese, "kuku" means a guy's reproduction thingy... and in the newspaper, someone actually said it was taken as "Cuckoo", as in crazy !!

What the Hell are they thinking?? Yea, I go back to saying, this is all from a person's "state of mind". You only think it's negative because you want it to be negative. Can't you think of it in a positive mindset, as how it was suppose to be listened to???

That is only about the song. Now people want to take action on this guy for doing this. I'm not one who knows the law, but prosecuting him for modifying the song, I guessed it can't be helped since he did do it, but if he's doing that on the terms of insulting the country, I seriously disagree!!

Well, anyways, I don't want to go on, otherwise I'd be the next possible victim... since I've no idea how senstitive this is... but to cut it short, basically DAP is trying their very best to help Meng Chee from being punished because of this rap song.

Last time I used to hate politics a lot, but as time passed, I was more and more aware that politics is around us, everywhere we go, whether we want to care about it or not.. Everyone is influenced by politics, whether you know it or not, which is sad really, as not everyone will notice it, but suffers from it..

but one thing though.. although DAP is very noble in their cause to help Meng Chee, it seems that all these "special help" are suddenly emerging one by one by various major parties. I can't help but think that all these are done just to push themselves up in the coming elections.. Although their help is really a thing to be extremely thankful for, but don't you think it will also make DAP look really good in the light of the public ?

As it is, now almost half of what I browse through in newspapers are about what this party did, what this party said, what this party is fighting for, so on and so forth... But all this are just stepping stones for them to bring in more votes ultimately..

Maybe I'm still very shallow with all these national politics... It's something I need to understand more. But from what I believe in, the only way to see if a party is truly worth supporting, is what they do after the elections are over, the period between then and the following elections.

I take a quote from the famous CHILDREN'S book, Harry Potter:

"If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals. -Sirius Black"

As applied here, it's not how they treat thier own member's or "kind", but it's how they treat others with their powers which determines their true value.

Why do you blog ?

Sometimes I wonder why some people blog ~

I initially blogged cuz I had hopes of becoming as famous as our local blog celebrity, kennysia. But after several posts, I found it's not as easy to make a post interesting, what's more, to keep it constantly interesting as he does.

So after awhile, I gave up, and started to blabber about everything and anything I can think of. Actually I still do it, which is now the reason I blog; I share out whatever and whenever I feel like telling or stating something. It's not a habit yet though, still trying as you can see how plain this posts are....

Anyways, on a side note, came across an interesting news, for those interested in Astronomy, I'm sure you're familiar with the Perseid Meteor shower. It's happening in in the wee hours of Monday morning if I"m not mistaken. However, I'm not sure the exact time estimate for Malaysia though. It'll be a sight to behold as it does not occur often.

me... myself.... ?

just caught a new movie earlier today; a Thai romance comedy called "Me Myself".

It's a nice movie I would say, but warning to those who can't stand it, it's a sentimental movie, so generally slow moving.

But after watching the movie, one thing my friend made me notice... the movies this year all seemed to be themed on "making choices", haven't you noticed... ?

For example, Spiderman 3, it's about the choices you make... Transformers, also about choices (no sacrifice, no victory).. this movie, also about choices you can make.

I wonder if it's really just coincidence, or if there's a certain pattern... trying to say something to everyone....

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On a different note, my finaly year project is slowly progressing to submission date... another 72 more days according to the automated countdown feature available in my college personal website. That's roughly 2 months to complete everything, allocated time to proof-read the entire documentation, and preparing the hardcopy of it.

And as current progress... I've nothing to show... it comes as a shock, but not surprising, that time has passed so much... I was given 10 months to complete this project, and now it's down to the last 2 months.. and with a blink of an eye, I'll be working... it's funny how I worry about time passing so slowly now till the end of the semester, when I look back, and, like a flash of light, almost 5 years has passed since SPM...

People always say, don't look back to your past, look forward to your future. Yea, I'm doing that, but without looking at the past, what will be my motivator, my pushing force to propel me forward ?