Today is August 31st - Merdeka Day – our country’s National Day.

Commemorating our country’s 50th year of independence from the British rule, the International Fireworks Competition, featuring impressive fireworks displays by countries such as Australia, Japan and Italy, was held in Putrajaya last night.

While I’m sure most of our own MMU students were there themselves, and are telling the story in their own blogs or other networks; I’m still gonna write about it anyways …

Being miserable enough to have lectures until 7 o’clock even on Merdeka’s eve, we departed for Putrajaya at 9 o’clock. Putrajaya is only 10-15 minutes away from Cyberjaya, so the late departure wasn’t a big deal, anyway.

The fireworks performance was scheduled at midnight, right after the countdown to the 31st. We arrived early due to dire warnings from friends who had attended earlier rounds of the fireworks competition, stating that the traffic in Putrajaya would be unprecedentedly terrible.

And it was – really, really jammed! But, only during the return journey!

The journey TO Putrajaya was satisfactorily smooth, and we were there 2 hours early.

Fortunately, Euro Fun Park, a moving amusement park, was business-minded enough to be in Putrajaya during the fireworks competition period, obviously expecting a huge crowd to turn up to watch the competition, and visit their park while waiting for the fireworks display to start!

Oh, it’s been so long since I last went to these fun fairs!

The rides are quite typical of those in normal amusement parks, but there’s one worth mentioning – this spinning rotating thingy:

Now it looks quite fine, doesn’t it?

We thought so too. So, from the seven of us, Alex, Steven and I decided to go on the ride – and it took only a minute to realise that it was a totally – bad – decision.

This ride basically raises and tilts its three arms approximately 45 degrees diagonally, and spins the cars at the tip of the arms while the entire core segment of the machine itself rotates simultaneously – Something like how the Earth spins around the Sun – but at the speed of your washing machine in ’spin’ mode, for, I think, 6 minutes!

It was spinning so go*damn fast that the whole thing was a blur as you can see in this photo:

The excitement and intensity lasted only for the first thirty seconds, and after that, dizziness and nausea floods in. This ride is by no means one of the most intense rides that I’ve ridden. In fact, it was pretty annoying because all it did was spin the shit out of us – low excitement, low intensity, low fun – nothing, just dizziness and … spinning!

After we got down from the washing machine ride, I was the only lucky survivor who didn’t puke his dinner.

Gawd, I really hope they demolish that ride!

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The spinning ride was quite unenjoyable, but there were some that really made us scream:

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At 12A.M. sharp, the lights in the entire fun park went out, and we hurried to the open area where we could have a good view of the Seri Gemilang bridge, above which the fireworks was about to be displayed.

The National Anthem was played, loud and clear from the Putrajaya International Convention Centre; followed by seven deafening chants of “Merdeka!“, which was echoed by the crowd standing excitedly on the ground.

It became silent, and then, it started -

Five long streaks of light soared high up into the midnight sky, followed by a lower array of two dozen white gleams, all speeding off in different directions, and as the first few fireworks reached maximum altitude, they exploded in unison.

We gasped in awe as a myriad of stunning flowers of light blossomed in the sky, illuminating the darkened lake below with enchanting colours of bright blue, white, red, yellow, green. The crowd screamed and cheered, as the magnificent fireworks marked the start of our nation’s 50th year of nationhood.

Here’s a clip of the final two-and-a-half minutes of the fireworks display. You can see the whole sky totally raining with fireworks at the end!

Lately, I received a lot of forwarded instant messages (IMs) from my Yahoo and MSN Messenger accounts.

Every night, when I switch on my computer, I’d be rather unintelligent to not expect a whole bunch of IM offline messages waiting for me. While a small amount of these are actually friends looking for me, but the rest are generally – forwarded messages!

Typically, there’s nothing wrong with forwarded messages except that they come with various degrees of usefulness, or in a more direct term, stupidity.

Let’s analyse :

Here are a few messages that I collected so far. Excuse the grammar, all quotations are original cut-and-pasted sections.

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USEFULNESS – DEGREE 3: Stuff that actually contribute to your knowledge, however small it may be.

Example 1: (News)

“it is believe that yesterday, a girl was raped or ALMOST RAPED by a school guard which is only 17 years old.. Not sure whether the victim did get raped by the guard but one thing to be sure of is that she get bruises all over her face.. The guard even used a hard object to knock her head and punches her too.. and worst thing, he even try to strangle her with her clothes.. Aft he kidnapped her, the guard take off her shirt and pants and started to molest her.. Now, her head needs 7 stiches and SHE IS PHOBIA at attending classes at TARC again~ SO be aware students in TARC.. Danger is everywhere.. P/S: the guard is wearing brown uniform.. not those in blue uniform but anyhow, they’re all dangerous too.. DONT WALK ALONE esp girls.. ::: POST THIS TO REM…” [Message truncated, you get the point]

The news is unverified. I have no idea how true the story is, but anyhow it serves as a reminder for us to be careful, and stuff ….

Example 2: (Request for help)

“help me fwd the msg, a fren’s fren now at ICU KL sjmc hospital, she need any blooD of negative or B-, tis is the contact no. 01x-977xxxx” [Contact number altered]

Again unverified; but at least, it has been proven before that some (at least one) of these messages are actually genuine.

Example 3: (Advertisements)

“Hi all! Tourism club is organising a trip to Redang Island … 20 seats left …” [Truncated ... you get the point]

Even ads are qualified as usefulness degree 3, now you can imagine what’s coming up!

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USEFULNESS – DEGREE 2: Stuff that does not give you any knowledge, and concerns you very little.

Example 1: (“Forward to everyone” messages)

“Why is it so hard to tell the truth…yet so easy to tell a lie, why do we sleep in a holy place but when the sermon is over we suddenly wake up?, why is it so hard to talk about God…but so easy to talk about sex?, why are we so bored to look at a holy magazine…but so easy to read a playboy magazine?, why is it so easy to delete a Godly offline messages …yet we forward the nasty ones? Why are holey places getting smaller…but yet bars and clubs are growing??…..think about it….are you going to forward this or delete it? Just remember God is watching you if u love GOD then send this to everyone on your list. Don’t break this heart! send 2 all.”

These messages exploit our conscience, in the hopes of us forwarding them out of guilt.

Example 2: (Err … Just because it’s kinda sweet?)

“Every girl dreams that one day she will find a boy that does these things for her. even the smallest action can have the BIGGEST impact in someones life. • give her one of your t-shirts to sleep in. • leave her cute text notes. • kiss her in front of your friends. • tell her she looks beautiful. • look into her eyes when you talk to her. • let her mess with your hair. • touch her hair. • just walk around with her. • forgive her for her mistakes. • look at her like she`s the only girl you see. • tickle her even when she says stop. • hold her hand when you`re around your friends. • when she starts swearing at you, tell her you love her. • let her fall asleep in your arms. • get her mad, then kiss her.”

You know, I didn’t receive the SAME message just once, but MANY times from different people!

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USEFULNESS – DEGREE 1: Absolutely stupid, ignorant stuff. I’m sorry if you forwarded them before, but they are!

Example 1: (Purported virus site)

“if you saw the website that stated “www.xxxxxxxx.com/……”….these are virus…so don click on them….” [URL changed]

Now they’ve discovered a virus site, and they’re warning you not to click it, so kind of them! THEN WHY THE HELL send the clickable link, and say “don’t click on it”!?

It’s like saying: “Here, take your piece of the cake, but there are worms inside, so don’t eat it.”

JUST THROW IT AWAY then, WHY GIVE TO ME??

Example 2: (Adding a “virus” to IM list)

“If someone by the name of Ashley Marc James wants to add you to their list dont accept it. Its a virus. Tell everyone on your list because if somebody on your list adds them you will get it too. It is a hard drive killer and a very horrible virus. Please pass this on to everyone on your list. We need to find out who is using this account. Apologies for the inconvenience. Right click on the group name of your friends’ list and click: Send Message to all. Copy and paste then send…”

…

Hohoho …

LOL!

ROFL!

LMAO!

…

Err … right, poor as my academic stuff may be, I’d be so-ultra-horribly mistaken, if you could get your computer infected by simply adding a guy named Ashley Marc James into your IM name list.

What’s more? If your friend adds Mr. Ashley James into their list, you’ll get infected too!

WOW!

I’m … s-s-sorry, I … am … currently … feeling … s-s-so … revolted!!!

Minutes ago, I came across a video on the internet, showing a guy sentenced to 20 strokes of the rattan caning, which is a judicial corporal punishment in Malaysia and some other countries … If you’ve not seen it before, I’m telling you, the nausea level it caused is as high as any SAW movie can deliver…

The entire bare buttocks was swollen and bloody, plus the agonized howls of the convict on every stroke almost made me puke my dinner over my computer monitor… Seriously, I’m still sick to my stomach right now … umph …. umph …

I’m not going to display the video here on this website … If you’re THAT curious to see it, you can email me.

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*After a break*

Feeling better now …

We had our club’s appreciation dinner on Thursday!

The dinner was held at Imperial Palace Restaurant, Puchong. Since most of our high-committee members are Chinese, we felt it absolutely suitable to choose a Chinese Restaurant.

To show our respect towards our ex-president, Alex, who was running late because of his exams ending only at 9AM that night; we waited for almost an hour for him to arrive before we started eating!

Alright, we actually started off with the first dish, and the first dish only! After that we really waited! =)

I think we were the last guests in the restaurant when Alex finally arrived, it was around ten minutes to 10.

The waiters and waitresses served our 9-course-meal at an alarming speed, leaving extremely small time intervals between dishes – An action, they explained apologetically, that was inevitable because their kitchen was closing at 10.30PM!

Fortunately, we were allowed to stay and chat until 11 o’ clock before they officially ended that day’s business.

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A couple of interesting news reached my ears during the past few days:

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Remember the nice, cosy beach resort that we stayed in during our Tourism Club trip to Redang Island?

The resort that provided us with comfortable rooms, exciting marine activities, the beautiful beach … Remember?

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Guess what? IT’S NO MORE!!!

A major part of Redang Beach Resort, in which we stayed during our previous trip to the island, was demolished last Wednesday by the Kuala Terengganu Municipal Council.

Apparently, the owner of the resort had ignored a stop-work order issued when the building was under construction last year, rendering the building practically illegal.

You can check out the online New Straits Times article here.

I can imagine the look of shock and frustration on the owner’s face when he witnessed the bulldozer’s arm thrashing through the building that he invested so much money in, and was earning so much money for him! This is a major beach resort in Redang Island we’re talking about! One of Malaysia’s top tourist attractions!

Sigh, that’s totally sad, the resort’s staff were very friendly to us and we wanted to revisit the place in the future! But I guess it’s no longer possible …

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The second interesting, or should I say, amusingly extraordinary news is about Gwen Stefani’s upcoming The Sweet Escape 2007 Concert, which is scheduled to happen on August 21st, in Malaysia.

Now we all knew this was coming, but I just can’t help but being amused by the way some of our local authorities react to the pop star’s coming.

First, Gwen was told that:

[QUOTE]

No jumping, shouting or throwing of objects onstage or at the audience is allowed. Performers cannot hug or kiss and their clothes cannot have obscene or drug-related images or messages.

[END QUOTE]

Source: The Star Online Article 1

No jumping … No Shouting … Perhaps Gwen’ll have to whisper when she tiptoes onto the stage: “Hello everybody … How are you guys today …? No, shhhh … Please don’t scream … Right …. So let’s get the party started now … quietly …”

I mean, all of Gwen Stefani’s energetic and hot features are totally subdued …! How ridiculous is that!

Next, we have PAS, the Pan Malaysian Islamic Party, a political party, sending requests to the mayor of Kuala Lumpur, to cancel the concert, because:

[QUOTE]

This concert does not bring any good to Malaysians except invite youngsters to enjoy themselves, mix around too freely, get drunk and commit sins.

[END QUOTE]

Source: The Star Online Article 2

Commit sins, right. Now that’s a good reason to cancel concerts.