An interview with the Reverend

A search for Carnival of Light in youtube seems futile. It seems impossible to get a hold on something which is not officially released but I don't expect for the whole track. Just to get the hint of what it is. Still there is no hint or whatever of Carnival of Light in youtube. Not wanting to close the window I clicked aimlessly on the videos. It landed me to a clip of cartoon.
I read through the description
"In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace. 38 years later, Jerry has produced a film about it. Using the original interview recording as the soundtrack, director Josh Raskin has woven a visual narrative which tenderly romances Lennon's every word in a cascading flood of multipronged animation. Raskin marries the terrifyingly genius pen work of James Braithwaite with masterful digital illustration by Alex Kurina, resulting in a spell-binding vessel for Lennon's boundless wit, and timeless message."

Though not a fan of Lennon for his utopian political ambition and what he was the animation looks distinctive and unique in its own way. Lennon in his mild Scouse accent spoke about what length the people could do collectively to achieve peace, the rest of the Beatles (amazingly he missed his closest friend Paul instead talked about George) and the message in his music.
A visionary message to say the least, very creatively narrated and this legendary interview was done by a determined 14 years old!!

Do we have any lifeline?

"NASA scientists have discovered enormous underground reservoirs of frozen water on Mars, away from its polar caps, in the latest sign that life might be sustainable on the Red planet."


whoaa, this is real opportunity. Let's setup a Mars real estate company.Soon the earth will face the devastation due to green house effect, wars between our own kinds and what nots. The land in Mars will appreciate exponentially in only a year time if Mars is sustainable for the Earthlings.

Our own natural reserves will dwindle. The air in 50 years time from now may greatly lack in quality compared to what we have now. Water? We will have water with a little percent of toxic waste in the future (Don't worry we will have our own place to chatter and drink coffee in our own mutant league lounge.)

And the best reason to bid goodbye to planet earth is the global warming and green house effect.

Lets have a methane shower in Mars. Bring all of our own livestock (quasi- Noah and the ark) and become the first Adams and Eves of Mars.

If only that is going to happen.

read the full report here

Woman you may want to avoid... or men you may want to avoid

As this was taken from a guys dating guide women may want to change the "she", "her", "women" and so on to "he", "his", "men" and so on...

cheers

1) She falls in love too fast.

When a woman advances WAY faster than most women do, watch out. It may not mean you're "lucky",it may just mean you're dealing with a psycho. Watch out for her either dominating your life completely or falling out of love with you just as fast as the saying goes "Easy come easy go"


2) She treats her family badly...

If she doesnt mind screaming at her mama and call her an old bag then you can expect more screaming and name-calling at you.

3) She likes to blame the world.

Enough dealing with a wet blanket. If a woman blames the world for everything
that happens to her instead of taking responsibility for her actions, you can be sure there'll be lots of drama in your life if you start dating her. Cut the connection before you even start and avoid the "pessimism" flu


4) She's on drugs.

Drugs are bad and will mess up a woman's mind and body, period. Don't get mixed up with the intention of being a lover to help out a junkie. It may cost your wonderful life. Let rehab do their job and you stay away from smackhead.

5) She's an alcoholic.

It's okay to date an ex-alcoholic who's been clean for a few years, but it is NOT okay to date a woman (or man) who is still an alcoholic.


6) She hangs out with the wrong crowd.

You can judge a person's character by looking at theirchoice of friends. So if your new girlfriend hangs around with the wrong crowd, watch out.


7) She plays mind games from the start.

If you can "sense" a woman is playing mind games with you, chances are, she is.
Stay away...or there'll be a lot of drama and hurt feelings...potentially on BOTH
sides!


8) Her income and living space do not justify the lifestyle she has.

A little surprised that she can afford all the nice clothes and makeup when she lives
in a hole or works at a coffee shop? It's a sign that she's a gold digger and has at least one
other man out there who is supporting her.

Always be cautious about women who lifestyles do not match with their income or
home. Even if she is NOT a gold digger, you don't want a woman who maxes out your credit
on handbags and fancy gowns when youget married. (Yes - there are many people
out there who live on credit. NOT good!)


9) Her stories don't match up.

Do her stories seem to not match up? Watch out? She could be a chronic liar.

10) Your friends tell you there are things wrong with the woman.

Friends are usually less-biased than you are since they are not in love with your
girl. If everybody starts telling you how they think your new girlfriend is a slut or a
manipulative bitch, it's time to take a step back and see why they feel that way.

culture preservation vs animal wefare

A gory scene like this could only be seen in Faroe Island. 950 or so long finned Pilot whales will be killed annually here, mainly during summer as part of their grindadráp festival (Pilot whale slaughter).

In this small island, maybe they have had enough of kinky bubble party so they seek for adrenaline-pumping fun activities like this.

Most Faroese consider the hunt an important part of their culture and history but animal rights group as usual hit back by claiming that the hunt is unnecessary and cruel.

Well, I don't bother as long there is ongoing project by the authorities to ensure that the population of the species will not be threatened in near future. For Faroese I dont think they will care as long they could happily whaling while sing along to the chorus line *"Raske drenge, grind at dræbe det er vor lyst"

*Strong young lads, to kill the grind that's our joy

Can savers and spenders stay married?

This is one of the life's toughest question. Just like water and oil, spenders and savers seems in nature do not meant for each other.

But love is also blind. So the question is if both spender and saver meet and fall in love to each other and willing to take the path down the aisle will their marriage last forever?

So the answer- according to Reader's Digest is YES (hooray!!)

According to experts though disagreements over money are leading cause of divorce it does not mean that it will be the end of their marriage. However expect lots of work because you are married to someone who has opposite philosophy towards money than you.

Always talk in terms of "ours" instead of "mine" or "yours" and work to your strength.
The saver should draft the budget and the spender gets to be in charge of holidays and celebrations.

Anyway, just wondering in this testing time of economic turmoil will there be any spenders left?

Who is the most obscenely and grossly overpaid Gorilla in the world?

An American Jew by the name of Richard S Fuld, Jr nicknamed "The Gorilla" for its penchant in weightlifting was the last CEO of the infamous Lehman Brothers and directly responsible for its collapse in September 2008.

CNN named him as #9 in the most wanted culprit for the recent financial collapse (My guess for #1 is Alan Greenspan the previous Fed Chairman for letting the banking sector expand without regulation).

Do you want to know how much this Gorilla worth?
Over USD 500 million even by causing a 158 years old legacy to fall and cost USD 700 billion to the taxpayers.

Solo trip to Egypt (May 08)

I missed sphinx and the pyramids as my trip encompassed for 4 days but I will go there for sure ( I hope the drop in fuel price will further catalyze for cheaper flight ticket :D )

Cairo is an extremely busy city (2nd most populous in the African region and the biggest city in the Arab world) with the population of about 20 million people. Cairo from the Citadel

a religious festival
The Citadel Nile River
Part of Cairo

I would like to express my gratitude towards Farizan and Fadhil for being informative and really great tour guides. I was so lucky to stumble upon them when i was browsing around the Citadel.

Special thanks to Mama Steffi and Anne Deike for nice accommodation and food and great hospitality. I would love to visit Cairo again. Maybe next year ;)

The Bear market already on his way

What is more depressing than the realm of possibility that there will be no more innovation after ps3, Nintendo wii and xbox?
Or the nightmare of there will be no more flashy concerts in town?

This seems far-fetched but amid the current stormy weather of global economic such extreme cases might possibly happen.
The deflation, as the economist coined it is the opposite of inflation. Sounds like a good thing isn't it but bear in mind that deflation has its downside just like inflation as well. Deflation cause reduction in money supply and with little amount of money chasing a lot of products will lower the consumer prices thus reduce demand. This in long term will cause productivity to decline and factories have to lay off workers to avoid loss. At worst case factories may have to shut down. This will be the end of the invention of new products and services, if the situation gets worse but lets remain hopeful.

The intricate knowledge within the banking sector may become the things for city slickers only but the general public love to gossip about what has come from beneath the surface especially during times like these. Aside from a lively coffee house debate others already affected may seek for comfort and direction. It is likely that more people will turn up to God in times of harsh condition. The future as predicted from yesterday global stock price plummet seems bleak but this is a painful lesson again to human that the immortal world offers no system invulnerable from defects and mistakes.

Never attempt to speak English in Egypt

You have been warned. Unless you have a reliable tour guide with you who can speak excellent arabic you are exposing yourself to the peril of being "robbed" in the broad daylight.
Well, I don't mean it directly but according to my experience a lot of street hawkers and taxi drivers tend to put obscenely high price for english-speaking tourist. Some people also charged you for photo-snapping ,keeping your shoes when entering mosque and even the tiniest bit of work-finding a place to park your transport.
Typical scene in Nasr City, Cairo

There are still a lot of good samaritan offering an honest service but what I meant here is for you to be aware of the condition there. If the person looks terribly in the need of financial support dont hesitate to offer tips. Be considerate.

Don't blame the people on the streets because they have minimal power to change the situation. I would blame the corrupted government.

So before you head to the land of the Pharaohs learn arabic or hire a reliable tour guide ;)

How to get a free train ride across Niederrhein

**DISCLAIMER**

The writer intends to share his experience travelling in Germany with the readers, though the post title may incite temptation to commit similar action, the writer hopes that the readers will have good judgment to pay the ticket either at the station or on the train.

However if any of the readers decide to commit similar action on their trip on the Bahn the writer is not responsible for any misfortune experience by the readers upon getting caught by the officials.

This is the sample of the student rail pass within the Niederrhein region, Germany. It is so easy to be replicated that it needs only a simple photo-editing software, a plain white paper and a common student printer to make one like this. I got the chance to test the validity of what my friend told me earlier "You don't need even a cent to pay for train ride to Düsseldorf".

So a budget traveler like me will always welcome an occasion like this- by using the fake student pass I traveled from Krefeld to Düsseldorf before heading to Koln-Bonn airport to catch flight to Cairo. I was at Krefeld the morning earlier after arrived from Weeze airport.

Destination A is Weeze airport at the Germany-Netherland border to destination B (Koln-Bonn airport)

I was a bit nervous because usually the train conductor will check the ticket or pass of every passenger on the train. By looking at the information on the fake student pass I should be on my 4^th term of study means that my command of German language should reach at least conversational level.

With my basic command of Deutsche Sprache and the rucksack on my back the locals would find it easy to spot me as a tourist. However I decided to up the ante and put all the stake in this trip- just for the pure fun of it.

Stealing time for a nap on the train.

The journey brought me across the glimmering river Rhein under the summer sun and finally to the Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof. I sighed a relief when no one comes to check. It was a hot summer and the Deutsche loves to develop suntan while drinking beer at the roadside.

I ordered for myself a banana split.

(Thanks to Herr S.A. for making the trip possible)

Düsseldorf, city by the river Rhein in the summer of 2008.

the memoir of losing my flip flop

When I was a kid my dad used to bring me to a jetty located at the tip of peninsular Malaysia in Pontian Johor. We would go there almost every evening when the weather is calm and bright.
As a 4 years old kid I remember the sound of waves hitting the rocks, the cry of seabirds flying in the sky and the smell of the jetty- salty water and fish all over. It was a small jetty surrounded with seafood restaurants, kelongs and tug boats.
There was a small island called Pulau Pisang (if my memory serves me right) just across the small fishing village and you could get to the Indonesian Pulau Batam by using ferry with reasonable fare.

So there I stood on the edge of the jetty bracing the bar that separates ground and sea. Soft breeze slapped my face and I enjoyed the picturesque scenery of a fishing village.

I would stood there watching tug boats and ferries sailing to and fro while licking lollipops or whistling randomly to unspecific tune. One of my feet extended beyond the edge playing with the air whilst several meters below was the green sea.

I would do as such unnoticed that the flip-flop has loosened a bit off my feet. It hung dangling till it suddenly slipped off my feet into the sea causing a small ripple out of the calm water. I gasped with my both hands on my mouth as I watched it wobbling on the surface. It rocked and moved back and forth due to the waves as it distanced. It was impossible to get it back.

My flip flop has started its own journey across the sea and it did not bid good bye to me.

That night I have difficulty to sleep on my bed. It was my first time of losing. For a 4 years old kid who never lose anything before in his life that kind of losing really made him think and wonder. The flip flop was regarded as my own companion who was always there with me through thick and thin. A sudden detachment still inflicted a broken heart All sorts of question about the fate of the flip flop rummaged through my head just to find no answers. The harder I think the more likely I yawn and the easier for me to doze off but the questions stuck in my head for several years to come.

The informal gathering starts at 0930

There will always something to be discussed about and never a day without a topic to literally live up the mundane north west weather. An informal meeting of the three us always ended up in front of gala's.
The topics are ranging diversely from love life,work to cultural exchange.

It is only a month I have been there and we, to quote Wendy , " get along like a house on fire".

Today's topic is your friend's bizarre obsession that seems misfit to modern society or to be more exact the social norm.

First day of Ramadhan

This conversation is based on true event

Farhan : Im fasting today.
Miss Fox: Ouh, so you eat no food today?
Farhan : I wont eat and drink from 4 this morning till the breakfast time at 8 o clock
Miss Fox: (gasped) are you sure you can stand that?
Farhan : Been doing this since i was 10 or 11. Already get used to this so it wont be a problem.
Miss Fox: I just cant believe it if you are not drinking till 8.
Farhan : .............
Miss Fox: If you wanna drink. Just hide behind the bush (wink)
Farhan : lol
Miss Fox: lol

Anyway, selamat berpuasa kepada semua. Raya ada 27 hari lagi hehe

Fab Four - the great beatles impersonator

More than 40 years ago 4 lads from Liverpool shook the world with their music. Without The Beatles Liverpool is not as complete and perfect as now to be decorated as 2008 European capital of culture.
The Beatles music is a part of Liverpool culture. Annually the city council will held a street musical festival called Matthew Street Festival and The Beatles sound is an essence to represent Liverpool to the tourists from all over the world and to preserve the authentic "scouse" within the Liverpudlian themselves.
The Beatles has been officially disbanded about 30 years ago but their music is still alive and kicking to these days to the extent of tribute bands being formed so that people can enjoy the live performance similar to that of The Beatles during their heyday.
There are a lot of Beatles tribute band out there but Fab Four is one of the best.


City Centre
The crowd loves to enjoy live music while basking in the summer sun


Super excited nana. Once a hippies always a hippies
Paul Macca's impersonator of The fab four. Every face expression and
voice is wickedly similar to Sir Macca.

traffic jam

I got back from work at 930 am just to find myself in front of my laptop struggling to access malaysiakini.com. and malaysia-today.net

Huge traffic entering those sites make it impossible to access the latest update on the mother of all by-election in permatang pauh. It is the reason I have no mood in posting any new updates in my blog though I have already drafting on my next new post in my mind last weekend. Tailing closely every details of the mother of all by election for the past week.

Anyway of all websites the least difficult to access is Utusan.com.my



This graph from Alexa.com comparing 2 websites malaysiakini.com and utusan.com.my is self-explanatory.

Engagement day

At last the well-known lovebirds since high school days got engaged just recently. My heartiest congratulation to Fatta and Nadiah.
Semoga berkekalan hingga ke jinjang pelamin dan ke anak cucu :)

The hero within me?

When Wendy and Chiew ceaselessly told me that I look like Bruce Lee I just grinned in lack of surety and made his famous "watttaaaaa!!" gesture in front of them just to serve their seemingly serious remarks. Well I do think the opposite.

I looked at the mirror and touched me face. Do I look like him? hmmm hair, yes. others..nah

Whatever.

The Olympic fiasco

Bless Yang Peiyi and Lin Miaoke, screw so-called Nationalists

While I find most kids are adorable and cute, some people in the the government of People's Republic Of China had other opinion. I dont mean to insult the people of China because I have a bunch of wonderful friends from there but some people responsible for the Olympic opening ceremony should get rid of that quasi-Nazism mentality.

Here is the video link.

While I dont really agree with over lambasting by the Americans but some of their points did make sense.
The top officials had just broke the little girl heart in a mean way that she will never forget all his life.
Here is the full news.

the clay person, Linda Hamilton, mundane Liverpool weather and Kids Fest 08

I participated as a volunteer in Liverpool Children Festival 2008. This was a part of the 'interview' to work as crew in Novas, (an organization that promote appreciation towards multiculturalism or minority cultures. Try google.) so Linda the supervisor said.

I dont really aim to work at Novas and I could smell a reeking dead fish behind the intention of calling volunteers to work at the festival. But I volunteered happily, snapping the "Novas job bait", because I have nothing to do at the moment. Anyway this could be a lot of fun volunteering at the kids festival, so I thought.

So my task with another volunteer, Gary is to help 2 mancunian ladies in their late 30s to organize a clay people workshop.
P and Sara are nice and moderately outgoing. I like them better than Linda but anyway after a while the festival seemed mundane because the weather is not summery at all and Novas don't provide food to volunteers. This annoyed me a bit because I missed my breakfast just to make sure I get there on time and supposedly they should at least provide sandwich and a cup of coffee to volunteers. But anyway, I have to get through this till 4 pm so I think it is not bad as I thought.

Getting dirty with clay seems a lot of fun at first but after 3-4 hours i started to feel bored and hungry. Plus I seem to have no talent in clay modeling. I made a presumably Patrick of Spongebob Squarepant and scared a kid away. P just laughed at me for my own talentlessness.
The only model that I successfully made is a lounging clay-man. Then I put it on the steps to dry it up, along with numbers of clay models from kids and adult who also made their model in the workshop.

At the end of the festival, after helping P and Sara cleaning up the table covered with clay I went to pick up my clay-man on the steps.

Gee whizz, it sucks.

I left it under the lamp post before called it a day and headed back home.

At the beginning...

How it all started...
One evening I was watching a WW2 movie where there was one scene of people speaking german to each other.
It was love at the first sound.
Thats how I decided to learn german and want to find someone who can teach me german.
So I went online in a language forum I cant remember the name.
I found bunch of ppl (read: girls) and asked them if we can swap language.
Some replied some werent.
And there is a lady from a town called Osnabrück who agreed to take me as her student.

It was friendship at the beginning until she took me as her godson.

Later I called her Mama Steffi and regarded as the second woman I would put my highest respect after my biological mom.

Am I normal?

I was once had problem sleeping at night. This happened few years back when I was still in college doing A-Level and it lingered for half a year. Though I had a bizarre behaviour of disliking sleep but due to human nature I could not help myself but to succumb to my biological needs.
It dreaded me anyway because I dont have enough sleep at night and have to wake up early in the morning to attend class. The only time I could sleep soundly (though not much) is in the afternoon.
I have no answer why it happened to me because I never consult with a doctor or psychologist for a proper analysis.
However I eventually recovered from the "sickness" a month shy of my A-Level exam.

Along the journey of recovery I have tried a lot of method to fix my biological clock and only one works best for me.

It is by fantasizing a role-playing game in which I am the assassin involved in a plot of killing his enemies. The scene is usually set in Iraq (or desert).
By doing this I will doze off in 5-10 minutes.

In reality I never hold a grudge against someone. Even if I am angry with someone I am sure it never reach to the thought of harming, let alone killing him/her.

Is this some sort of dual personality or something?
Psychologist help!!

The Kaninchen question

As several people asked about the meaning of "Kaninchen" I would answer it here in my blog.
Kaninchen is actually "rabbit" in german (which in grammatically correct Deutsch is Das Kaninchen).
The term derived from my beloved Deutsche Mama letter to me which addressed me as
Das Versuchskaninchen.

Das Versuchskaninchen means guinea-pig or in my case, someone who volunteered for experiment (I volunteered as her german lessons experiment). However it would be quite lengthy to write Das Versuchskaninchen and people who never learn german will have a chance of 99% (I guarantee) to incorrectly pronounce the word.

So I remove versuchs and adopt Kaninchen (Ka-Nin-tion) instead as my pseudonym.

It is catchy and fresh and Deutsch (credit goes to Mama Steffi)

I know it has been a while....

This is not the first time I blog.
I had one blog in wordpress and countless blogs in blogspot but this would be the second time
I would blog seriously ( I hope).
The others are just to satisfy my capitalist needs (lol)

This one would not escape as well from my capitalism greed (hence the embedded nonsense ads :D )

But this would become the primary blog to express my love in blogging towards anything, really. And hope it would stay as it is.

And you are welcomed to have your say as well.. in Malay, English or Deutsch (im still a beginner, so dont drain me too hard ;) )