Blog #6: Walolololo...

Just struck me as I was watching The Simpsons; 'The Bart of War' episode where Bart and Milhouse went about their usual mischief, they got caught and their punishment this time around is to join a community youth group. Bart joined 'The Pre-Teen Braves' and Milhouse joined 'The Calvary Kids'. The Pre-Teen Braves is basically a youth group that resembles the Red Indians and at the beginning when Homer was giving out tribal names to the kids, Nelson's name was Burger With Fries and then it struck me that my friends and I used to play a game where we would guess what our tribal names would be if we were Red Indians. Since tribal names are basically names that reflects that person so we went by thinking names that reflects us and after some thinking the tribal name that I got was Wind That Smells. I think that the name itself is self explanatory =D. So what is your tribal name? You could play this game with your friends next time and see what tribal name you end up with. Do share by leaving a comment until then, have fun.

Blog #5: Bon Bon Bon Bon Odori!

The previous Saturday (18/07/09) was the Bon Odori festival held at Esplanade, Penang. Finally I went after 2 years of setbacks from broken promises and bad weather. The festival was great and the turn out was suprisingly many despite the A(H1N1) risk warning. Just goes to show our Penangnites' daring spirit.There was the usual dance, food (at unusual prices), drums, dance, dance, dance oh and did I mention dance? Food was more expensive than usual (MYR 7 for a chicken rice) but I guess it contributes to a good cause...at least I hope it does. After much observation I realised and I think the most profitable stall was the one selling flavoured shaved ice, for MYR 5 you get a cup with 2 flavours! (Whoopa-dee-doo). Both of my friends bought a cup each (lychee with honey dew and dragonfruit with something) and I got to taste test their purchase and to be honest, I could hardly make out the flavours except for lychee and it tasted even weirder as the ice melts and the flavours mixed. Other than that, there were stalls selling 'Yukata', photo booth, gold fish and not to mention Asahi! Which I found to be quite weird considering that it is considered to be a public event where there will be minors around but hey, I am not going to question the government's decision about that any further as I had my fun indulging although I found one of the stall helpers to be quite rude when asking for a smaller denomination. The following is a quote of what he said to me, "Hello, if everyone gives big notes then where are we going to find change?". I could accept the fact that he needed smaller denominations but I just dislike the tone that he used, even a dvd peddler would have better manners than that baboon.

Back to the filler of the festival; dancing which basically was like on loop the entire night except for some pretty interesting performances (forgotten what it was) and I missed the drums performance, other than that dancing seemed like it was pretty much it. There were 3 main dance sets, 2 of which performed to the tune of some Japanese songs and 1 to the tune of 'Rasa Sayang' and in all honesty, I hate Rasa Sayang now not because the dance spoiled the song, but I think they over played the song. Some might say that my statement is biased as the 2 other Japanese songs were played in a loop too but here is the thing, the Japanese songs has a theme and was mellow where as the Rasa Sayang was too loud and kind of pop-ish. Not surprising my 'self entertaining mechanism' started to kick in and the lyrics of the song changed in my head which I will share will you in a minute.

**Wait for 1 minute here**

(Sung to the tune of Rasa Sayang)
**
Lala fesyen, eh,
Lala fesyen fesyen eh,
Eh, lihat lala sana,
Lala fesyen fesyen eh.

*Sing whatever typical lyrics here* (Apparently there are several versions)

Repeat **

Which brings me to the next topic, Penangnites will never fail to amaze me with their sense of fashion as I saw many lalas and there was even cosplay by some. There is a time and place for everything but I guess some have failed to grasp the concept and I have nothing that I can add about the lalas just that they were the source of my amusement and so I dedicate the song to you all.

Found a video on Youtube that contains 2 of the 3 songs that I mentioned earlier that was played in loop (first 2 songs in the video).

There were also some interesting performances by our local institutions such as USM with this number known as Yosakoi genre and some high schools which did the Soran Bushi.

The highlight of the festitival was of course the fireworks which many of the Japanese companies in Penang sponsored and it was spectacular! It was suppose to come up at 2200 but it came on approximately 30 minutes earlier. I suppose they figured that the attendees were sick and tired of listening to the 3 songs and dance performed at least twice in a row over and over again. Anyways, I find the finale to be a rather emotional finale as I watched the fireworks display a brief flashback of my desire to watch it with the one I liked during the first Bon Odori festival I attended which was quickly wiped away with a smirk and a laugh.


And here are the rest of the few pictures that was taken, what Savannah dubs as Foong's and my hamsap pictures (cis, it is called photographic souvenirs ok Sav).

Foong's eye candy

My eye candy

Blog #4: The irony of Penangnites.

About 3 months ago I went for Cheng Beng, it is a chinese event where people pay their respects to their ancestors and past relatives or loved ones. After you have paid your respects and have 'fed' them, the ritual ends in the same way for most families; burning items for the deceased such as money, clothing, appliances, mansion, cars, maids (no wonder Indonesia imposed a temporary ban on Malaysia...just kidding I meant paper maids), etc. How is this ironic to me about Penangnites? I am coming to that now. Penangnites are afraid of cancer, almost everything that can cause cancer is shunned by us. Take the recent Wimax proposal by our state government that caused and uproar among the citizens about the health risk of getting brain cancer by the mass radiation. If that is the case then stop using radio and electrical appliances and start wearing lead helmets when you want to leave the house, better yet radiation suits my fellow Penangnites. Despite the fear of getting cancer by state government proposals, during the final tributes to the deceased, Penangnites just do not mind inhaling burnt plastics. Here are two pictures taken at the burning ground:

Take a good sniff

What is more appalling is that most Penangnites even burn the tributes with the plastic wrappers on. Even more weeks before Cheng Beng, gravesite caretakers will burn the overgrown grasses and drivers along the road will have to face burning debris and the smell of the burning fence's plastic insulation. I am not sure if the residents around the area mind inhaling those fumes every year, I guess after years of smelling burning bodies from the nearby crematorium has made their senses immune. In a way the state government is saying yes to open burning and we will just have to live with the unenforced regulations. It would be interesting however to see the state government taking a proactive approach about our environment issues by banning the use of plastics in such products but then again the manufacturers and sellers will take advantage of the situation by increasing the price to justify their switch to more 'expensive' alternatives. Since brother Lim wants to develop Penang into a high tech state, it would not hurt to turn it into a greener state as well. Malaysia like to show the world that 'hey, we can do it too', Penang could be amongst the first states to go 'hey, we can do it too and we did it right'. Attitude of devotees will also have to change by being more rational and disposing plastic bags responsibly. I wonder is it the same in the other states? Hmmm...

P.s: People often burn paper tributes in forms of electrical products ranging from mobile phones, televisions, Ogawa massage chairs just to name a few but I have not seen anyone burning 'electric power stations', 'power lines', 'telecommunication transimition station' so imagine how frustrated those receipients are. Imagine having cigarettes but nothing to light it up and why burn 'credit cards' when there neither banks nor credit card machines to use it, heck even more so when devotees burn trillions worth of hell bank notes, why even bother using a credit card? XD Point to ponder.

Blog #3: To a neighbourhood near you.

Just last weekend my neighbour across my house almost had her bag snatched right in front of her house when she alighted from her vehicle. After living in a quite peaceful area (give and take the break ins, minus the robbing or snatch thieves) for 24 years, I guess the peace has been broken. What has not changed though are my 'I did not hear / see anything' neighbours. Why I say that, well my neighbour's kid saw what happened to his mother and starting yelling for help but the only people that came out to help was from my house. The fact people are not willing to care about others but expect compassion from others is just fucked up, just how selfish can people get and the sad reality is, I am living next door with such people. I reckon that people should just eliminate the mindset that helping others might land them in hot water. Prevention is better than cure and sure combating crime is the job of the police however do bear in mind that no police are super police / robocop and they can not be out solving all the crimes including petty ones. Life just is not like a movie and we do not have John McClane. If people remain ignorant and care free and think that the worse will not happen to them well, we do not know what will happen tomorrow. As Inspector Jacques Clouseau once said, "no man is an is-land". Albeit the bleakness there is a shimmer of good as well that is a passer by stopped her car and went to her aid and my neighbour did not let go of her bag despite being dragged by her assailants. Sure she received a few bruises and lacerations but hey, atleast they did not get what they want so kudos to her! And to those that are curious, no the perpetrators were not apprehended so they are still on the loose. Coming this season, Snatch Thieves in a neighbourhood near you.