Unscrupulous people

The tactics people resort to nowadays to close a sale..I was approached by a 'representative' from EON Bank (for those of you not from Malaysia it's one of the local banks here) and he wanted me to sign up for their credit card, telling me that there is a 50% on every movie ticket that I buy. Now the movie buff in me of course is going 'what?! Yipee! Now I can watch movies for half the price all the time!' Then the rational part of me sets in and wonders what's the catch, so I ask the guy and he said there's no catch, 50% for tickets and 10% for dining at the Cafe there.

Fine so I sign up and then later on when I was expecting my card, I was informed by a friend that he got duped because there was a $60 limit on the discounts, meaning about 10 tickets after I would no longer have the discount! By that time it was too late and the bank had already approved and issued the card and it was en route for my collection. So I tried to cancel it but they said I would still have to pay the $50 compulsory fee by the government! I told them that's not fair as I was tricked into signing up but they just would not hear it.

So I had no choice but to activate the card and now have to use it 3 times a month in order to have the $50 deducted. What pisses me off the most is that these unscrupulous salespeople think they can get away with this kind of nonsense. I made an official complaint and after a week the guy called me and didn't even apologize or sound humble and just continued to argue with me! Needless to say I gave him a big piece of my mind and wished him ill because people like that deserve it for treating people like fools. It's just terrible that people are so unethical nowadays. And worse is I suspect the bank may even be aware of this and not doing anything about it!

In or out?

I'm not sure what to make of America's penchant for airing their dirty laundry in public. Is it as therapeutic as they think or more damaging to the self esteem in the long run? I saw a woman who was an alcoholic talking about her experience 2 years ago when she was a drunk and misbehaving and it was all taped for the Oprah show and shown on national tv. Today she is not an alcoholic anymore, but she's lost her whole family after the show and I'm sure faced a lot of stigma. Was it all worth it? She got better, probably due to social pressure...but at what cost? I suppose the road to recovery very often comes at a price...

People are weird

If you know them they don't want to have sex with you cause it's weird, if you don't know them they don't want to have sex with you cause it's too fast.
You think you know someone until one day they totally disappoint you, you think you didn't know someone but you eventually find out they are typical jerks.
You think life sucks until someone comes to comfort you and makes you feel better, you think life is great when family and friends treat you well and make you happy and meaningful until they disappoint you.
People are weird.

Susceptibility and time frame in illness due to aging

We actually live very long on this earth. Of the many creatures, especially mammals of the world we are one of the few that live the longest and not necessarily due to evolution or genetics but the advent of technology and advancement in the field of health care. Of course that has its downside too with modern industrialisation spewing forth an endless amount of pollution that ultimately effects our health too..so are we actually living a better quality of life even though we're living longer? The proponents of modernisation and health care and have us think so.

But What I am more interested in is the fact that why is there a compromise to the quality of life and this concept of aging? Why can we not be young forever, and even if we could why must we eventually fall victim to disease and illness? Yes we are limited by genetics but is nature so intent on killing us off so early and viciously? If there were unlimited resources in the world then would it be necessary for us to die and could we then by default live forever? All these questions are swirling in my head and may never be answered but what is certain is that I would not want to live to a so-called 'ripe' old age if I'm going to be sick and useless..

Ikea furniture sucks!

People say 'Ikea furniture is nice' and 'Ikea furniture is cheap'. Well, I don't think so, because now as I am moving house I find that it is the Ikea furniture that is all falling apart! I'm serious, the shelves on the bookcase are bent and warped, when we tried to move a 'solid' looking clothes cabinet to a neighbour's unit the whole thing fell apart in the lift! We had to tilt it to get it into the lift of course but one would expect that shouldn't cause the whole thing to collapse! I felt so embarrassed with my neighbours..And today the painter came to paint the ceiling and he tried to shift a jewellery or display cabinet and the legs just totally came off! It's like as if Ikea furniture as an expiry date and is meant to fall apart after few years. They just don't make furniture like they used to, those that last forever..so to me Ikea is selling inferior quality furniture and is quite expensive considering they only last a while..

Matured?!

I've had it with this 'matured' look thing that people always give me. I don't want to look 'matured' because that equals 'old'. No doubt some may actually mean it but I have a sneaky feeling that some may just be trying to be polite..I want to look young. fullstop. period.

Water

I wonder..we're all drinking and using water all the time that we assume to be safe, but who really knows whether the water is being treated properly? Especially in a country like Malaysia where the attitude is reprehensible, who knows if the technicians are shirking their responsibility and not changing the treatment equipment as often as they should or at all? I suppose if they don't after a while we would taste the difference in water but what about the other stuff like chlorine and other chemicals that supposedly is bad for your health if there's too much but yet untraceable in the water? Do they constantly monitor and measure? You would think that responsible scientists are doing all this but I wouldn't be surprised if bumbling operators are left to monitor or make sure that everything works properly cause as we know..good help is hard to find! And this doesn't just apply to the municipal water supply, what about the private water companies that purportedly use sophisticated methods and stringent measurements to purify their water? Is it really all that?

Stereotypes

I don't understand why mainstream television still insists on portraying stereotypes like how straight guys are jocks and gay guys are girlish effeminate types, don't they know better by now that loads of gay guys are just like your average joe or even more masculine than a lot of straight guys out there? It's a travesty really how ignorant these scriptwriters are (I'm assuming they're not gay, or even worse they are but have decided to pander to corporate and mainstream sentiments) Whatever the case I think they should really get with the program, it's 2010 already for goodness sakes!

Un-reality tv..

I just watched this show on tv and it's about the life of a tv presenter and her husband, so basically cameras follow them around and chronicle their daily lives..In one of the scenes she's in a session with a psychiatrist and they eventually talk about so-called sensitive stuff and she asks her assistant to leave because of it. I'm thinking here you have the camera man still there and broadcasting for the whole world to see and you're worried about your personal assistant, who's supposed to be one of the people most privy to your personal schedules and activities, being there?! What a crack load of bullshit! That's the ultimate insult as a viewer and a testament to how fake 'reality' tv can be..

Why are gay people more creative?

I just had a discussion with a friend about this and we were trying to figure out why is it that gay people are normally more creative than their straight counterparts, one theory is that gay people have both male and female sensibilities which makes us more rounded and able to appreciate the beauty of life from more than one side or perspective..My theory is that gay people just had to grow up feeling like we were different and so felt that we had to be more creative to stand out and express ourselves, oh and we don't have to spend so much time and energy trying to raise a family so plenty of time to explore other finer things in life..

New home..

Just moved into the new place, finally! After more than a month of getting the place finally moved most of the stuff here and started living in but still takes some getting used to..been getting up really early, maybe cause can't get used to the bed or new place yet but loving it actually, definitely better than the old place cause now my room is bigger and with a new tv and cool beanie glass table and ample cabinets and closets most of all! Though there's still quite a few things to iron out, basically it's just wonderful!

2 deaths in 1 week..

My friend died..and then 2 weeks later my insurance agent died..sigh, people seem to be dropping like flies around me. Or is it because I'm growing older and therefore a higher chance of people I know are also older and possibly dropping dead? Hmm..whatever it is, it's really disheartening because it puts my own mortality into perspective..not that it's never been at the back of my mind but as time goes on and I age I find myself being more and more restless and willing to put up with less and less shit from people and things..sigh..But ultimately I know I will grow old like everyone else, only a matter of time. Fountain of youth anyone?

Artificial skin that lasts forever

We already have aritificial limbs, however it is not yet accessible to the mass market, but imagine if they ever invent artificial skin that can replace our natural skin seamlessly..and replace our failing organs before they fail..we could theoretically live forever and looking young and feeling healthy forever if we can replace everything in our body with viable synthetic alternatives..from blood to skin..the only thing that might not be replaceable would be our brains but who knows? maybe there is a way to migrate our memories to another brain-like vessel that can replace our brains that will last much longer? I should have been a scientist..it may sound more like science fiction than fact but I have hope, many of the things we considered science fiction has become a normal fixture in our lives, such as cars and cellphones, why not cyborgs and robots as well?

Oranges from China..

I'm wondering, with all the flak about food from China, should we be scared of ALL food from China, including fruits? I'm eating oranges from China right now and they taste really nice and sweet surprisingly. But what concerns me is that they don't look like any oranges I've ever had before..first of all the color is really strong, like fiery orange color, not the usual light orange that most oranges have, and the other thing is the shape, they look kind of like orange colored lemons actually so I don't know whether they were interbred or GM (Genetically Modified) oranges, or whether it has to do with the way they're grown. Regardless, they taste great but I'm just wondering whether they're safe to eat..

Name change..

I just don't understand how people can just change their names..Like on Facebook sometimes I want to look up someone that I haven't really been in contact for ages and suddenly I can't find the person, I thought maybe he or she deleted me from the friends list. No doubt that is sometimes the case but every once in awhile, I'll stumble upon the person but with a DIFFERENT name! Why would someone do that?! What could compel a person to change his or her name unless it was something so horrible for them to face that they had to resort to such exteme measures? Well, all I can say is, it would pay to be careful of these here-today-gone-tomorrow characters. Worse of all if they're your friend, are you supposed to call them by their old name or new name? Whatever!

Excerpts from a conversation..

'..even Snow White has seven men! No she has 7 dwarves...oooh she's so kinky!' this was in reference to how hard it is to get guys sometimes and even Snow White has several! Figuratively speaking of course..

'..lost weight but my bulge is still the same, I didn't lose weight in my bulge..' I said to my friend I lost weight but still retain my bulk and somehow he thought I said my bulge..and he doesn't mean the one above the waist..

'curi makan vs. openly makan' To those who do not speak Malay this means in the context of a relationship to 'secretly eat vs. openly eat' i.e. to cheat or to openly have sex with other guys even though attached..My policy is honesty is always the best..

'bottomfly' something to do with a sexual role..

Intolerable cruelty

I don't understand why old people become cranky bitter crackpots when they're old. Is it because they have it against the world and blames everyone that they don't have their youth anymore? Recently I noticed my mom has become progressively worse in her behaviour, i.e. her nagging and doom-and-gloom outlook on life, in fact nowadays she's starting to swear a lot! It worries me because she seems like a far cry from the woman I used to know when I was a child, I mean she never was like a sweet young thing but still, she had a brighter outlook on things, nowadays talking to her just makes me think that the world is going to end anytime. It's scary and it seems that most of my friends around my age are going through the same thing with their moms! What is it that makes old people just go all cucko when they reach a certain age?!?

Population quantity vs. quality

I think the world population has gotten out of hand. Now there are ever more people to clothe, feed, shelter, educate, etc that I think the whole world has adopted the mass market mentality to the extreme. We of course have the ubiquitous fast food that is still the most popular choice of food, food that has nary any nutritional value but enough to satiate our hunger until the next meal, even so called home cooked style restaurants nowadays cater to the masses due to over demand. Goods and property prices have shot up due to inflation resulting in the ever growing demand for cheap mass produced goods. All over the world more and more pesticides are used to ensure higher yielding crops, less and less quality materials are used to ensure more output and the list goes on. Even education, that most vaunted of life's pursuits, has become so commercialised and financially oriented, they're practically churning out cheap low quality graduates that more often than not means low quality jobs for them with no long term career security. Basically our world has too many people for our planet to sustain, we are running out of resources at an ever compounding rate and it truly is a case of quantity over quality where life is cheap, and minimum appreciation of virtues, where violence, cruelty and disregard or humanity abound. I do not dare to imagine what the future is truly like.

No Facebook in China..

Just got back from China, it was freezing cold there! -18 degrees in Beijing, though I really wanted to see snow but it was ridiculous sometimes, felt like my nose would break off or something, thank god nothing of that kind happened, but it was quite worth the cold to have a winter wonderland feel..anyways, I was shocked to find that there's no access to Facebook in China, the whole world is on Facebook nowadays and China is like totally cut off, so I had to live without Facebook for a week, wasn't that difficult actually, didn't suffer from some Facebook withdrawal or anything..though now that I'm back I have a ton of messages and notifications to go through..well, back to the grind..