Kebodohan melanda...

There is a web group who claims to be free of political ideology, religions, race and business promotion. Unfortunately, they failed to distinguish themselves from being "taksub" and "Bodoh tak Bertempat".  It can be loosely translated as " Being stupid for no reason".


How could you say promoting personal tweet as a business promotion? It is understood that we are not supposed to promote any business or any of the first three "don'ts" above in the website but promoting oneself's  twitter site is considered business proposition? Come on lah! No wonder the Group only having 3000 odd members who's activities only to comment on foods and what nots....Better change the name of the group to be "Foodie Gooks"

I am not condemning all but i see the need for paradigm shift in thinking if the group wants to be a force to be reckon with in Malaysia,. We can no longer reminisce on our past glory or worst, " katak bawah tempurung" mentality. A lot of things need to be changed. In order to have wide perspective in life. the group members should widen their horizons. They should travel the globe. The travels can no longer limited to Umrah only but should also cover other countries and civilizations. The business can no longer limited to our local vicinity, but should spread to other states and the region. The  command of language should be dual language. Don't ever say you do not understand English because everyone of us learns English since Primary school unless the people administrating the group never went to school before.


So, if this group who claims to be independent of any influences continues with their 'syok sendiri" factor and berated others who try to bring any change to their 'syok" level, we are looking at "biarkan Luncai terjun dengan Labunya".  Unless something drastic is done to change this level of mentality, this "Bodoh Tak Bertempat" is very deep rooted in our society and they seem to rule this country. I say Good Luck to you All!!

Free Style Cooking..a tribute to Bro Amree Mohamad

an example of combo dish @ noname

I am always an advocate of free style cooking, the art of cooking without any recipe or any predetermined  ingredients. The whole idea is to cook with whatever ingredients we can obtain from the refrigerator and in the kitchen. This art of cooking ala "Master Chef" has its own risk of not being edible or too gross to eat.

Me and Arwah Amree during our first semester at UNC, CO - Fall 1982

It all started during my college days in USA in the early 80's. One of  my house mate, the late Amree Mohammad ( he died in the early 90's) started doing this free style cooking due to limited ingredients available then and also to save time. After all, as a student, we din't have the big budget for our groceries then. Amree used to throw in squids with meat and vegetables as one dish and when asked his rationale for this style, his simple answer was, "somehow they all  get mixed in our stomach"

with Amree -( Colorado - Oklahoma - Kansas -  Texas trip- 1983 )

Arwah Amree was crazy and genius at the same time. He was good in two things : 1) Mathematics and 2) Guitars /music. The rests were optional for him..He did not complete his studies and forced to leave the University of Northern Colorado during his junior year. By then, I had already transferred to the Utah State University in 1985. During our two years together in Colorado, Arwah Amree used to tag along with me whenever i traveled outside the state. He didn't drive but he was a good navigator and travelling companion. I was always being considered a hardcore driver and  i did not mind driving alone for 15 hours non stop ( except for gas & meal break) just to complete one stretch of a journey. And all the travels were mostly done using my faithful Datsun B210 model 1974 which i purchased for USD700 in 1982. For your information, Datsun B210 is similar to Datsun Bahulu or Datsun 120Y in Malaysia.


Arwah Amree had another passion, riding motorcycles. He was one of the rare guys who rode motorbike in the midst of winter in Colorado. Apparently, he had a good tolerance on winter cold but it did not spare him from falling down many times from his bikes due to the slippery roads. Speaking about winter, Colorado experienced one of its worst winter in decades for the  1982-83 season and i remember clearly when Amree and me were stuck in the snow and ice coming back from Denver to Greeley. It was only a 60 miles journey but it took us more than 6 hours to reach home and Amree, for big part of the journey was the one who helped to push my white lamborghini forward when it got stuck in the snow. The same night, i got to sacrifice one sarong to be used as the traction for the tires on the snow.


Crazy guy? yes but he was one of the guy whom we could say, the ultimate carefree individual with attitude that defies the norms and rigidity in many of us. He was a fun guy to be around with and one of his lasting legacy as far as i am concerned is the Free Style Cooking that he brilliantly executed with ease then and now becoming my favorite way of telling people, anybody can cook!. Rest In Peace Bro Amree! Al Fatihah! 

Appetizer for the insomniac dudes....

baby bean...zero problem!

There is nothing special about this writing except for the last few bars of my energy before i retire for the night ( morning, shall i say..). Each morning when we wake up, have we ever asked ourselves what do we really want from this life? Why are we in this current situation? Is this our choice of life or this is what the society expects from us? Why are we doing the same like other people, day in and day out? 

Kelantan Peasants - picture taken from Raykinzoku blog- W.A Graham 1907

Have you ever wonder living in Tanah Melayu a century ago? It was the time when  "Malaysia" was unheard of and as a matter of fact, did not exist yet in any prints or any spoken language. The WWW1 had not yet started and our first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman was still a young boy then. Even the mighty Titanic still had not made its ill fated maiden voyage across the atlantic ocean. 

kelantan river 2010 - Take notice of the teh tarik color

100 years ago,  i could only imagine the air was still fresh from carbon pollution, the jungles were full of games for the hunters and hidden treasures for the learned ones. The rivers were free of industrial and household wastes and the water was clean enough for direct human consumption ie: to bath and for household chores. However, human's greed changed everything, starting from the deforestation of forest which led to the land erosion and siltation of rivers. The rivers started to change color and the fish that used to be in abundance in our rivers are now becoming extinct and hard to find.  We have lost our biggest treasure in life and we have betrayed the trust of our future generation in us. 

The invasion of materialistic world also contributed to our current state of greed. Now, everybody wants to have big villas with swimming pools, fancy sport cars, luxurious household items, designer clothing, and branded personal items. The desire to have these items items also contributes to a change of priority in life. We are no longer contented with only sarong and shirt to go around. Nowadays, we prefer Armani shirt, Ferragamo shoes, Zegna tie, Mount Blanc Pen and Gucci's cologne as a must have items for a man.

PCB, Kota Bharu 1968

Our life was much simpler then. We didn't have that much of of the wordly possessions but we were happy lots.  We didn't have fast  car that goes 0-100 in 5 seconds but we had much time with our family and people around us. We didn't have big villas then but we had the whole village as our home. And we didn't have swimming pools then but we had plenty of clean rivers to dive in and bath. 

1965

In reality, we lead the life of what is expected from the current modern society and that has been programmed in our mind due to the changes in our living environment and the advent of many man made things. Eventually, we have become the slave of our own desire and lust. We are the android of our own creation and we are also responsible for our own destruction.  Ameen!!

revenge of the nerds..

I like this title very much. This is the same title used in the summer of 1984 movie, "Revenge of the Nerds" starring David Carradine and few others. The plot was simple, this whole bunch of  nerds tired of being bullied by the footballers who belong to a certain fraternity in their college, started plotting their own revenge against their tormentors. They, not only managed to beat those guys in their own games but to add insult to the beefy guys, the nerds also managed to conquer the guys' girlfriends. This movie would be more interesting and dramatic if  the poster boy of everything nerd, the one and only Bill Gates was to be featured as one of the character in the movie.

Nerds are roaming the earth in big numbers nowadays and i believe there are more nerds now than the so called macho guys in this world. We , for once, might have belong to the nerd groups in school. This is the result of the current education system and the expectation from the society for us to perform well academically. Most of the schools in Malaysia do not put heavy emphasis on other activities except for academic related activities. It was quite obvious as observed in the recent sports day of my children's school in which i could easily mistaken it  with a telematch events.


During my primary school days, school sports day was one the premiere event for the year beside the speech day for the academic achievements. The whole town folks would turn out to watch the sports day and other schools in the vicinity would also participate in the invitational 4x400 relays. That was the pinnacle for an athlete's career in primary school because everybody would be cheering for you. I will touch this issue in my separate writing.




Nerds are always being presented in a negative way as you can see in movies and televisions. It is presented in a negative intonation like, Eee, You Nerrrrd!!! The "Fonz" of The 1970's TV series, "Happy Days" was quite successful in playing down the nerds with his trade mark sneering tone on nerds. Thanks Fonz for those Happy Days.. 

The Fonz of Happy Days

On the other hand, being a nerd has its own reward. On average, nerds earn more than the rest of the guys, thanks to the boom in the ICT industry and with due respect to their academic superiority. Unfortunately, the nerds score low in the department of love and people's management. Nowadays, in recognition of the nerds' talents, most of the big companies have a special grade ie specialist title for these talented but social shy professionals and for them to earn good salary without having to be in the managerial positions that involve managing people.

Nerds are a special breed of people who should be treated with respects. They occupy the top spot in the list of world billionaires and the moment the nerds go on strike, the world will be crippled because we depend too much on their brain and expertise. I hope it's not going to be the same case like the asshole who decided to go on  strike and forced the other parts of the body( who initially laugh at the idea of asshole becoming the leader)  to surrender after many days of asshole shut down including the brain. 


The moral of the story: There's nothing wrong of being a nerd...  

dear Maria....Postcard from Mexico

Dear Maria,


Hola, Como Estas? It is almost 23 years after this postcard reached me in Malaysia. I was rummaging through my personal belongings last week and i found this postcard alongside other old photos and that's when my mind started playing the old tune of the Wham's " Wake me Up before you go go".. So i decided to write to you as i was informed by your sister that you are now married and settling down in Panama with your family. I hope you have nothing to do with the Noriega's family and i wish you a very good health and  a wonderful life. I am not sure whether I had replied to this postcard then but let's assume i did. Damn if I didn't...


Dear Maria,,

i am writing this as a reminder to myself  that i was once a young chico living and studying in America similar to your dream and ambition. The life then was very simple and full of fun and joy. Unfortunately, you didn't stay long enough in the United States because you left for Mexico right after your English course. Before I met you, the "Maria" i knew was Maria Arshad (Malaysia actress in the 80's) and the Black Maria of Pudu Jail, the black van that was used to carry criminals to the court and back from Pudu jail. If people ask me, "hey, what about Maria Carey? she's also popular.." My straight answer is that Maria Carey did not exist yet then and perhaps she was still singing in some cheap pubs  somewhere in the southern states, if my knowledge about her is correct.


Dear Maria,

not Maria, but Loreena..

The first time i set my eyes on you in the late 1985, you were just arriving from Mexico to learn English at the Utah State University. Instinctively, when i met senorita es bonita like you, my Spanish came alive and i was eager to practise my  Spanish lingo. And with you, I thought i could practise my spanish that i learned in my previous university. It was a good fun with my limited spanish when i visited Tijuana and Juarez during the school breaks before. Unfortunately, the language that gave me so much joy is going down the drain..


Dear Maria,

In 1988, i was just starting my career as a trainee executive in one of the global insurance company in Malaysia. I remember that you sent me many postcards from exotic parts of Mexico and i like what i saw in Mazatlan but perhaps because of my ignorance, we lost contacts with each other after i moved out from the Kg Bary address (as how you always wrote it). Just imagine, I used to live next to the house belonging to the mother of one of the richest people in Malaysia but too bad, i didn't get to share his wealth, thus i remained a poor young executive then.

Dear Maria,


Do you still remember Lhong**, your English course mate from Thailand? He didn't talk to me for quite sometime after he discovered that i was going out with you . I didn't know that he got a big crush on you. He came to me saying something which i could hardly understand but sufficient enough to know that he was not happy with me because of our relationship. This issue could have caused an international incident and no wonder until now, the level of trust between Thailand and Malaysia is still at a very low level, perhaps sparking from this incident 25 years ago, 1-0, Malaysia over Thailand , oops..!!

Our three angels

crazy Japanese in front. "madonna" in blue blouse..

And do you still remember all the parties that we used to attend especially the ones hosted by the South Americans? The South Americans gave new definition to partying in the conservative Mormon state of Utah. I wonder if  you still remember the rest of the crazy guys in Logan..Thiep, Katsutaka, Hiroshi, Jasmin, Lisa & Mike, Lorena, and the rest of the gangs.. But things have changed with time. Now, we can only look back and reminisce our good old days, the young and healthy college kids who happened to be in a foreign land and shared the same  idea of studying, partying and staying happy with the hope to graduate with a degree in hands.

Hasta Luego, Mi Amiga!




Regards,


Nick the "D"




* Disclaimer: This is just a semi fiction from the writer, no relation to  anybody alive or death. Or it's up to you to believe....
** Name changed. He is a big shot in Thailand now.