See, offer a reward to dogcatchers and these are the consequences. Can you imagine what would happen if the ludicrous competition that was proposed by the Selayang Municipal Council had taken place?

~~~~~

In today’s NST Focus section (Sunday, 30 Sept 2007), there was a feature on dog catching in Malaysia.

Read the article here.

Like Christine Chin (chairperson of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals (SPCA) Selangor) says “Every country recognises animal cruelty, except ours“.

Also, after reading the article, I noticed that they only mention DOGS being captured. I wonder what happened to the CATS? I guess they only practice selective catching, no prizes for guessing WHY.

Few things are less appealing about a guy than one who displays un-gentlemanly characteristics. (Appealing in a general sense, that is)

Today, me and my colleague (both of us females) were moving 4 sets of PCs from the 10th floor to the 5th. Two of those PCs were for a few external consultants (EC) to use. They are working on our current project.

We had to go a few trips coz the trolley couldn’t take the whole load… no space.

So fine, the first load was the monitors. We were supposed to place them near where the ECs were sitting. There was one guy among the 2-3 females. My colleague wheeled the trolley there. I was expecting the guy to offer to help to move the monitors from the trolley to the table coz hey, those are monitors and they are kind of heavy. But you know what he did? He just asked my colleague “Are those for us?” She answered “Yes” and he went back doing his work!!!

What the…??!!! A bit the bodoh right?! At least offer to help laaa!!! Hey, if it were me, I would offer to help, regardless whether male or female. Some guys just don’t know how to be gentlemen. Some more he looked like the decent type, polite and all. But didn’t even offer to help move the stuff for us. Duh! I guess looks can be deceiving.

The next load we brought down were the CPUs. This time, I wheeled the trolley instead coz I wanted to sound him for being un-gentlemanly. I accidently (really!) hit his table while manouvering around the table and the CPU toppled onto its side. And he just put the CPU upright, ON the trolley, not on the floor under the table, where it was supposed to go. Adoi! See, I even gave him another opportunity to redeem himself but he didn’t take it. After that, I muttered, “Oh, you’re so helpful”. He replied “Thanks” and I said “Oh, that was meant to be sarcastic.” He didn’t get it. But his boss did, coz she laughed.

I tell you, some guys are just hopeless!

Today was Day 4 of our Odissi workshop.

Boy, I’ve never experienced being coated in sweat for such an extended period of time! You could literally stick paper on me and it wouldn’t come off! Haha.

We’ve got 7 days to learn this new item. The style is interesting. It incorporates a lot of folk moves, which I haven’t been exposed to before and takes a little getting used to.

So far, it’s been a good learning experience, though I wish we had more time to do it. As it is, we only have till this Saturday (or Sunday, I’m not sure coz the instructor is supposed to be leaving on Sunday) to learn the entire work. But then again, I’m only an understudy so…

~~~~~

Last night was another gruelling but satisfying session. It’s particularly satisfying to break out in sweat after a workout. Somehow, it makes me feel like I did more work, hehe.

But my tailbone is starting to hurt again. Happened when I went to Bangkok and walked for most of the day for 3 days.
I hope it doesn’t get too painful till I can’t dance

Man, I hope I can still stand by the time this is over!

*This is a semi-work rant*

I detest it when people don’t check properly before jumping to conclusions and accusing someone else of doing/not doing something. And then when they’ve been proven wrong, they don’t even apologize!

So this Aunty-Colleague remarked, condescendingly, to me yesterday morning, concerning an email that I had sent to the vendor. “Next time, can you bcc me in the emails that you sent to the vendor?” I retorted “I DID. You can check the Sent mail.” This took place verbally, with my other colleague around.

A while later, I get an email from Aunty-Colleague, “Oh ya, received it. Somehow it was marked read so I didn’t notice.”

First of all, she didn’t even apologize for accusing me blindly for not bcc-ing her in the email. And secondly, if you can accuse me in front of people, you should bloody well own up to your mistake in front of people as well.

See, I’m ok with people making mistakes. Hey, no one’s perfect and I’ve made plenty of mistakes. But you must also be big enough to acknowledge the mistakes you’ve made and apologize, when necessary. I’ve made a similar mistake like the above i.e. someone was supposed to send me an email and I thought I didn’t receive it so I asked them to re-send but upon further checking, I found out that I did receive it and had somehow missed it. I would immediately apologize, verbally, and not thru email.

Now is that so difficult to do?

This is a very small matter but to me, the way people react to the small things tells a lot about their character and how they would respond to more important matters. If one can’t own up to small matters, do you expect that they will own up to larger, more critical matters?

~~~~~

*This is purely a work rant*

Eeeeeeeee!! I seriously cannot tahan this Aunty-Colleague! I don’t know why but the way she says/writes things makes her sound like a pompous @$$!! She sent another email and I am so itching to send a sarcastic reply but am controlling myself. Not professional to show open hostility to people I’m supposed to be working with, heh.

She’s always so eager to make it sound like she knows everything. It’s so irritating! It’s fine if she knows a lot but she shouldn’t need to try so hard to make herself sound so smart *rolls eyes* Nothing wrong with being humble right?

Argh! Cannot tahan cannot tahan cannot tahan!!

Quotes from TheSun, 24 Sept 2007 :

The PM, on the investigation of a senior judge implicated in a video clip discussing judicial appointment with a senior lawyer,
“We cannot take this lightly and the matter must be addressed promptly.”
Duh. Isn’t that stating the obvious? And while you’re at it, there are so many other things that cannot be taken lightly and must be addressed promptly so why don’t you look into those as well? Like making good of your promise to rid the country of corruption when you took office how-many-years ago.

Minister in PM’s Dept, Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, on the possibility of charging Nurin Jazlin’s parents with negligence,
“Law is law… we need to take action, nobody can slip away.”
Double duh. If the law IS law, why don’t you remove all the corrupted ministers in the govt. before picking on grieving parents? Why don’t you actually do something to curb the rampant crime instead of allowing it to continue terrorizing your citizens?

Two words : Incompetent morons

The latest brutal attack and murder of eight-year-old Nurin Jazlin is nothing short of horrifying.

I seriously wonder what type of sick individuals are among us, who are capable of doing such heinous things to an innocent child.

Stuffing brinjal and cucumber into her private parts? What type of human bring even thinks of doing something like that?

And I particularly detest the reference being made to this “person” as being “worse than animals”. I just wish people would STOP associating such crimes to animals because animals are NOT capable of such things. Only humans have the mental capacity to even think of doing such deplorable acts. Sure, animals kill other animals but they only kill due to their survival instincts. Unlike humans who are capable of premeditated murder and doing all sorts of unthinkable things to other humans like chopping them up into bits, blowing them up with explosives, or stuffing foreign objects into their orifices.

Just the other day, I was reading an article on child sex slaves in some Asian countries and how men are preferring to have sex with young children. That is just plain sick. What is so pleasurable in having sex with a child? It’s a child, for heaven’s sake! And in today’s TheSun, there was a write-up on online child pornography and how it is a global business with an increasing demand.

The statistics : Explixit sexual acts and genitalia are shown in 92% of the images, 80% show penetration, 21% rape,
bondage or torture of children. And the abuse is becoming increasingly brutal.

I can’t even begin to fathom what is the desire for people to see such disturbing and horrifying images. And these abused children are getting younger : 19% are under 3, almost 50% are between 3-5. Altogether, 86% of victims are under 12.

Just even thinking about makes me sick to my guts. What type of monsters are there out there, who actually enjoy watching, if not participating, in this sick pastime? And the scariest part is that, the report says that 80% of abuse seen on online child porn is done by people the children know. It is believed that direct family members are responsible for 45% of the abuse. The remaining include doctors, teachers, sports coaches and other persons of authority, from all social levels.

I don’t understand why this is happening. WE, as adults, are supposed to be guardians and caretakers of our children. WE are supposed to keep them safe from harm. WE are supposed to know and teach them what is right and wrong. WE are
supposed to be the people to whom our children turn to when they want to feel safe. But what have WE become? THE ULTIMATE PREDATOR. This is so sickening and disgusting.

It’s sad to know that the environment today is so unsafe that our children can’t play in the taman with minimal supervision anymore. Gone are the days when they are able to cycle around their taman unaccompanied by adults. I used to love cycling around my taman with my best friend and we used to cycle alone, without a worry in the world. But now, the idea is getting more and more unthinkable. No wonder kids today are now stuck indoors, glued to their computers or TV sets, and getting more and more socially challenged. Makes me think twice or more about bringing children into this sick and polluted world of ours.

It is even more frightening to know that even in their own families, some children are not safe.

by Dean Sluyter

*This excerpt was taken from one of those mass subscriptions, which I’d never subscribed to but somehow I got spammed at my work email and I can’t unsubscribe since I don’t have internet access at work. But I thought it was rather interesting so here goes…*

I’ve got a photograph, somewhere in the clutter of my desk, that is one of my very favorite pictures. I clipped it out of the newspaper several years ago, and it is a picture of a convocation of seven winners of the Nobel Peace Prize at a university in America. What it shows is Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa seated in a chair, and standing behind him is the Dalai Lama. Both of them are laughing uproariously because what had just happened in the moment before the picture was snapped was that the Dalai Lama had tried to snatch Desmond Tutu’s hat. Just a couple of saints fooling around.

Now, to me, this sums it all up. This picture sums up how to live your life, which is, address yourself to the most pressing problems, do what needs to be done to improve the world, and then sit back and have a good laugh. Be a mensch and enjoy the joke.

Now this word “mensch” is a favorite Yiddish word. Literally, it means “man,” but the implication is something much more than that; it has nothing to do with gender. It means a solid citizen, a conscientious person, the opposite of a flake. Probably every culture has some such word. In some cultures, this type of person would be referred to as “noble.”

The true quality of being “a noble one” is inner. It’s a matter of the development of one’s awareness. But that inner development necessarily takes outer expression — not necessarily in big, dramatic ways; it can be in the smallest, most mundane tasks. You know, the little things are where we live our life. Do you signal your turn when you get to the corner so that the other drivers don’t unnecessarily wait for you because they think you’re going straight through? Do you put the new roll of toilet paper on the holder when the other one is winding down? Do you, when you think you’ve finished a job, look around to see what you’ve missed and then really finish it? Do you pay your bills on time? Do you give full value for every job that you’re paid to do?

There’s a wonderful story about the great blues singer Joe Williams. He once found himself performing in a nightclub, and there were only three couples in attendance because there was a heavyweight title fight that night somewhere else in that city. Most people were elsewhere watching “the greatest” Muhammad Ali boxing. Nevertheless, Williams just sang for all he was worth. And afterward, someone asked him about it, and he said as a child he learned to do everything as if it’s the last thing you’ll ever do. And as a matter of fact, it might be. Who knows? So, the lesson here is be a mensch.

Part of being a mensch is taking responsibility, is not putting things off. I used to have a dentist whose sort of motto was See me now or see me later. And seeing him now meant getting a filling. Seeing him later might be a root canal. Problems that are ignored, problems that are shrugged, fester, become worse. A mensch, a conscientious person, knows that, takes care of business.

It doesn’t mean that you have to make impossible demands on yourself, which will just lead you to make impossible demands on others. You understand your own weaknesses. I saw a T-shirt once with a wonderful motto on it. It said, “I may not be perfect, but parts of me are excellent.” Well, if that’s good enough, that’s good enough. But know which parts of you are excellent and play to your strengths. Know what your weaknesses are and come up with compensating strategies for them. If you know that you’re always 10 minutes late for everything when you thought you were going to be on time, plan to be 10 minutes early, and it’ll work out.

Movies are always trying to portray menshes in some outward way. My favorite example is Gary Cooper in High Noon. He knows that the killers whom he sent to prison have now been released and they’re coming to town on the noon train. He tries to recruit a posse, tries to get the cowardly townspeople to join him in standing up to these people. And eventually he realizes it’s just going to be him versus the killers. There’s a point at which he’s going to have to take his stand. And there’s a wonderful shot where he finds himself standing in the middle of the dusty main street of the town looking around. It’s just him, seeing how utterly alone he is, as the camera pulls up and back, emphasizing his isolation.

Read more here.