Friday, January 26, 2007

Yves Saint-Laurent or a wooden contraption?

The word YSL crossed my mind this morning and got me thinking.

Do we all have to pronounce it as individual letters à la "Why Ess Ell"? Can we start pronouncing it like how it's spelt, ie "Eezel"? And if it's pronounced "eezel", doesn't that sound like another word - "easel"? And if the word "easel" can be spelt with 60% of the letters (meaning 3 letters instead of 5, tsk!) and still be pronounced the same way, why didn't they spell it that way? It'd be easier to engrave (18th century), easier to write (19th century), easier to type (20th century and onwards) and on the whole, much bloody easier to remember during spelling tests...

Maybe someone should petition the Royal Academy of Spelling to change the spelling of "easel" to "ysl". Then maybe someone in Hong Kong can start a clothing brand name called "YSL" and if he gets dragged to court on copyright issues, he can just claim that he wanted to use the word "YSL" in the sense that it is a wooden contraption used to hold canvases for painting.

But why go through all that trouble, actually? There are probably a dozen "YSL"s already in Japan.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Blood Diamond

Watched Blood Diamond last night.

It was so stirring and I was still deeply affected by the scenes of rebels and the plight of the refugees and victims in Sierra Leone when I was trying to sleep later. Blood Diamond is a really powerful movie and shows the atrocities of civil war and the horrible realities of neighbours killing neighbours. I would say the worst situation pictured in the film was the situation of child soldiers being brainwashed and used to kill fellow citizens. And I mean child soldiers, children as young as 8 or 9 being dragged away from their families. And other children being massacred on the streets just because they were born in that country.

The Sierra Leone crisis may be over but you can help those in Iraq and Sudan now by visiting the UNHCR Donation site. UNHCR is the United Nations Refugee Agency. Can you imagine your city being ripped apart and being all alone, separated from your family? A one-time donation of USD50 registers 150 exhausted refugees in order to assess their needs and trace their families. Families' names are printed on several lists and fortunate people who manage to find these safe refugee areas are given the opportunity to look for their family's names and be reunited with them.

If you're thinking, 'Why should I help people so far away when there are people suffering in my own country so close to me?", then don't be like the majority of people out there (including me, embarrassingly), just feeling a bit of heartache when you see a slideshow, visit the Malaysian Charities directory and scroll down for a list of charities you can help.

Oops! They did it again!

The lawlessness of motorcyclists in KL has found new bounds.

This morning I was in my car, waiting at a red light. It turned green and the cars started moving. I was probably about the fifth car in line and just before I passed the traffic light, a motorcyclist comes from another set of red lights slowly, while holding up his hand to signal me to stop - WHILE HE CROSSES RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! Do I even have to mention that my light was still green?

What the hell is his problem? There are TOO MANY reasons for me to toot my horn these days and it annoys the living daylights out of me. Yesterday after work, a van cuts into my lane, just milimeters apart from my own car. And he got it. The big HOOOOOOONK.

Back to this morning and I'm just round the corner from my workplace. In front of me is a taxi who's squeezed as near as possible to the left side of the road as he can. And going at 20km/h. Man, the bloody driver may as well get out of the stupid taxi and walk. Then he can at least do his part in saving the environment, even though he IS a taxi driver. KL taxi driver, that is. And yes, you may argue that he was squeezing all the way to the left, but what difference does it make when the lane itself is only 10 inches wide?

Can this situation ever, ever improve? Only if these irresponsible road users cease to exist. And so, what a good idea it would be to put them all in a roundabout, close off the other roads, put up some cameras for live feed, and watch them drive over each other?

Thursday, January 11, 2007

MPPJ Sucks!

MPPJ has the uncanny ability to choose the best times for their damn road works.

Thursday morning, 11am - A workday. So why the hell are they blocking off 2 out of 3 lanes on Jalan Gasing, an extremely busy road, without any warning? Radio, newspaper, TV announcements I don't care about. But the right thing to do is to place signboards AT LEAST 500m (1 km would be better) away to inform road users of the impending bottleneck so that they can turn off and use another road if they want to.

Why are there always incapable people in such positions? People who don't know how to use their brains (or perhaps don't want to because they're not expected to) and who are so bloody inconsiderate and self-centred. Can we please get more people-friendly employees in power for the MPPJ?

PLEASE?

Friday, January 05, 2007

Thank you Astro!

Hooked on the BBC Entertainment series, Judge John Deed.

It's not a reality or talk show like Judge Judy et al, it's an actual 1 1/2 hour long series with a brilliant storyline, great characterisation and awesome acting by Martin Shaw (John Deed). I've only seen 2 episodes but it's got me by the collar and it won't let go :P

Another series I'm starting to get hooked on, embarrassingly, is Waterloo Road, which is *gasp* a soap! This is horrible! And there I was, sniggering at those Cory and Emmerdale freakazoids. Admittedly, Emmerdale is worse than Cory, but only because of the awful accents. Completely hideous.

Thank you Astro - for giving me BBC Entertainment. And lack of sleep because of it.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Happy New Year 2007 @ Somo

Happy new year everyone :)

I hope you've enjoyed the past year of photos and articles. My New Year's Eve celebration pix will be up as soon as I've got hold of all them people who were snapping away that night. Which might take quite a bit of time, so be patient. We celebrated at Somo, next to Coffee Bean Mont Kiara - I got fizzed with champagne, challenged with tequila shots and various other activities that you can imagine would occur. I heard a guy actually broke a glass table??! I don't remember much from that night but just take it from me - Stolichnaya vodka - HORRID!