I have never let my schooling interfere with my education, Mark Twain

I've procrastinated writing a post on this for about a year... perhaps this shall serve as a reminder

-Will be off to West Malaysia for a week for CHinese New Year, dormancy instilled-

Put a Sock in it!

"Oh My God!...Help! I can't die like this. I have holes in my little mermaid underwear. Help!"


Over the weekend, I rediscovered The Critic on youtube, an old cartoon series which I adored over it's short lifespan.

Similarly, Paul Wolfowitz, World Bank President was caught with holey socks as he exited the Ottoman era Selimiye mosque in Edirne, western Turkey, Sunday, Jan. 28, 2007. We all know he's a busy man... but being caught with his socks out like that... Hmm... and by the looks of it, caused mainly by not cropping his toe nails either.

Now, yours truly knows how Paul feels being caught out by socks with holes. It's alright in a culture where you walk right in to an establishment without removing your foot couture, but around this part of the world where the removal of footwear is neccesary and considered courtious, attention on proper socks is almost a neccesity.

Worse so, when meeting someone for business meals. It's quite possible that no matter how good you are at what you do, hoisery wardrobe malfunction may just affect perception on grooming and subsequently attention on detail.

That said, Paul Wolfowitz must've done something right... did I hear something about selling one's soul?.

Cheers

Step one, aim and the rest will follow

Among the countries of South-East Asia, Malaysia has much to be proud of, from its immaculate tropical beaches and ancient rain forests to the skyscrapers of Kuala Lumpur, the capital. And yet a perpetual anxiety lurks at the back of the Malaysian mind: the execrable state of the nation’s toilets.

Now the Government is to introduce college courses in lavatory management as part of a continuing “toilet revolution” intended to protect locals and tourists from smelly and unclean conveniences. The country will also mount a toilet exhibition and institute a text message hotline on which sub-standard lavatories can be reported to the authorities.

The course will cover loo design, maintenance and hygiene and will enrol its first students within the next three years, Robert Lau, the deputy Housing and Local Government Minister, said yesterday.

Malaysians are intensely conscious of public toilets that would have Thomas Crapper, pioneer of the flush toilet, turning in his grave. This year the country is mounting an ambitious drive for overseas tourists, and the Government has set out to shame its citizens into improving their habits.

“Try to imagine dirty, disgusting toilets that make you nauseous — these will surely give us a negative image,” Najib Razak, the Deputy Prime Minister, said at a speech last year at the National Toilet Expo and Forum.

“Good, clean toilets are associated with good health, good manners, good upbringing, good housekeeping and civilisation. That is why the Government feels this must be a national effort.”

Apart from unpleasant smells and dirt, and the absence of toilet paper and soap, the problem stems from the transition from the traditional Asian squat toilet to Western-style seats. Tourists sometimes complain of finding footprints on the seats, where previous users have stood. The same problem occurs in other parts of Asia. Until a few years ago, Western-style toilets in Japan bore diagrams illustrating their correct use.

-times online-

WOokie bad, he is... UMMM!!!!

LOS ANGELES, Feb 3 (Reuters Life!) - A Chewbacca impersonator was arrested after being accused of head-butting a Hollywood tour guide who warned the furry brown Wookiee about harassing two Japanese tourists, police said on Saturday.
"Nobody tells this Wookiee what to do," "Chewie" from the "Star Wars" movies said before slamming his head into the guide's forehead, the Los Angeles Times newspaper reported.
The 6-foot, 5-inch-(1.96-metre-) tall 44-year-old man was charged on Friday with misdemeanor battery and later released on $20,000 bail, the Los Angeles Police Department said.
"Superman" and other movie and cartoon impersonators were reported to be witnesses to the aggression in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater amid concern that such behavior could endanger their livelihoods.
Street performers at the world-famous cinema collect tips from tourists by posing for photos, but some are known to turn hostile if they don't get money.
Two years ago, Mr. Incredible, Elmo the Muppet and the dark-hooded character from the movie "Scream" were arrested for "aggressive begging", the L.A. Times reported."

-reuters-

Dramatization fixation

It's the end of the week,
Another cycle passed,
As the sun sets from it's zenith at each cycle,
Another inconsequential moment
without a presence in any thought,
I want to waste away,
To vanish without a trace,
Yet in contrast there's a desire to seek shelter somewhere intimate,
Behind some confidant.
I want to be strong;
to push forward, to keep my head towards the horizon.

Head against the wall,
Water drips, splashes to the floor.
An image of a bloody sink crosses the mind,
A flash and sanity is resumed,
One turns off the taps, wears another smile.
A stiff drink in one hand
and hope balled up in a fist in the other

I feel like dying, but on the contrary
fear death itself.
A room of faces I recognize,
some laughs and some witty remark,
A brief flash, and with intention I fade back into the darkened corner of the room

It smelt of cheap bear, cigarettes and broken dreams
A drop of anguish never looked so at home.

-fin-

*right, i'll stop complaining

THONG, a random fact

Thong is a hamlet in Kent, England. It is south-east of Gravesend.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference


Robert Frost


Perhaps a question that counfounds us daily, at every decision, at every turn...