Quaint Melody » WTH?

Local foreigner syndrome

cc — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 10:31:00 +0000

This post is inspired by my fellow blogger friend Firehorse, who is a great blogger who writes posts that are fantastically funny. I read this post of hers and it reminded me of something I wanted to write about but has since forgotten and thrown to the back burner.

During my trip back home (Malaysia), I encountered a lot of things good and bad, but there’s this one thing that annoyed me the most. You know those people who went overseas and came back with a weird/fake accent? Well, I am not one of them. Mr K did have one old uni mate who is lidat. He was in the same class with Mr K and went to the same uni for the final year. For your information this guy is Chinese Malaysian with Chinese educational background, so his English was like mine back then, half half only. Have you met those people who tried so hard to speak the slang of certain country but end up sounding very weird? Well, he is that sort. He would go around talking to gui lou (Caucasian) and trying to use all the ‘big words’. Frankly, he sounded like a fool. I mean it is not that I am against learning to fit in and adapt to the environment, but that is a limit before one start to sound weird and make an embarrassment of himself/herself. It is natural that we as Malaysians would have an ascent of our own, that is nothing to be ashamed of. Why have to go and hide that fact?

The joke is, a year after graduation, Mr K met this guy in a conference and introduced him to his boss (a kiwi), who was there with him. After the guy left, his boss asked him, ‘why do you guys sound so different? He sounded really weird!’ Heh. Again, I want to emphasis that I am all for fitting in the local culture and we inevitably will have to do some changes in order to adapt, but that’s a way to do that and not loose your self identity and culture, right?!

OK, I totally digressed. As I mentioned above, the thing that annoyed me a lot was that a lot of people asked me whether I can still speak Chinese/dialect, and also asked whether I am still used to the weather or not. WTH?! I only lived in NZ for 7 years, it’s not like I totally lost touch with my friends and relatives, and transformed into a gui po or something. We are talking about the country I was born in and lived for 20 years! That was 20 long years where I breathed and lived the culture and people. How could I totally ditch that and come back a foreigner? The thought of it really baffles me. To me, no matter how long I’ve been away or how much adapting I have done in order to fit in, Malaysia will always remains home in my heart. So, that’s it, once and for all.

p/s: Something came onto me when I wrote this post yesterday, sounded so angry one hor. I am not an angry person ok. ;P

annoying thoughts

Post from: Quaint Melody

Similar Posts:

If you drink and drive, you’re a bloody idiot

cc — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 19:21:00 +0000

Taiwanese pop singer Shino Lin was involved in a DUI car crash and killed a woman motorcyclist on 7 June. Shino Lin was driving under the influence after a late-night party under heavy rain and her car crashed into a scooter at an intersection. The motorcyclist, who was a nurse on her way home from work, sustained serious head injuries and showed no signs of life upon arriving the hospital. Apparently Shino Lin’s alcohol reading at the time of the crash was as high as 1.1 milligrams per liter, way above the standard 0.25 mg/l. And of course, she escaped with no injuries what-so-ever. The singer has since publicly apologized to the victim’s family but the apology has not been accepted by them.

Quote from Taiwan Headlines:Her agent Chuang Chih-wei also apologized to the victim’s relatives and to the general public on behalf of Shino Lin on Wednesday afternoon.

Chuang said that Shino Lin knew that she had “made a mistake.”

“Shino was agitated and felt low,” said the agent, adding that she claimed that “visibility was very poor yesterday morning” because of the torrential rain and she was not sure what happened when the accident occurred.

The visibility was poor because she was DRIVING UNDER HEAVY INFLUENCE of alcohol, for crying out loud!! Bloody hell, this type of news always gets my blood boiling. No amount of apology is going to bring back the deceased to her family. What is done, is done. Under certain circumstances, apologies are just words, meaningless words. There is report saying that the singer is suffering from depression following the accident too. Yea, tell that to the victim’s 8-year-old son!

There are a few things that is absolutely terrible and unforgivable in my book and drink driving is on the top of the list. Sure everyone makes mistakes, but there are certain mistakes that should never be made, and never be forgiven. Every responsible human being should know that you should never drink and drive under any circumstances, not if you ‘think’ you’re not drunk, or even if you think your alcohol tolerance is high. It is bad enough that you show total disregard of your own life by doing so, but others shouldn’t pay for your sin. Unfortunately, the innocent victims are always the ones who ultimately pay for it.

No one can estimate what alcohol will do to one’s body. If you are unsure whether you’ve had one too many drinks, call a cab or let your sober mate take you home.

Drink driving is an act of total disregard of life.
If you drink and drive, you are a bloody idiot!

drink driving Shino Lin

Post from: Quaint Melody

Similar Posts:

Grumpy at work

cc — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 04:06:00 +0000

I did not sleep well last night. The nice people over at CCTV inspections decided to do their pipe cleaning and inspections at 10pm. The loud noise continued to well after midnight at around 2am and started again at 5am! Are you freaking kidding me?! To create such loud noises at these hours in a residential area, on a week night no less! And guess what? It will continue to 12th of June. Yeah!

I am already sleep deprived! So I woke up this morning, lack of sleep, grumpy and frustrated. Let’s just say there’s a weird sight of huge panda walking around the metro area today.

Post from: Quaint Melody

Similar Posts:

Crazy woman called Jordin Sparks obese

cc — Sun, 27 May 2007 12:33:00 +0000

Watch this video and tell me if you don’t want to punch the bitch in the face.
As you know Jordin Sparks has just won the title of American Idol. And there went some ridiculous woman calling her obese and criticised her for portraying an unhealthy image to others?! While I would say she is not exactly thin, but there is no way she is obese! She looks perfectly fine and beautiful to me! I mean get down on your high horse and stop using the ‘health awareness’ as your mask, crazy woman. If you ask me, she is just bitter. Trying to justify her stick thin body by labeling people with a few extra pounds obese and unhealthy. Lady, thin does not equal healthy you know?! It is people like that who is causing some teenagers to hide in the bathroom and vomit her guts out right this second.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svxLdNsxPSw

Jordin Sparks

Post from: Quaint Melody

Similar Posts:

Crazy Chow phenomenon

cc — Wed, 23 May 2007 13:27:00 +0000

Warning: If you are Jay Chow’s hardcore fan and are easily offended, I strongly advise you to stop here and close this window. Proceed further at your own risk.
This disclaimer exists solely to prevent the blogger from being stabbed to death.

Yes, I’m talking about the all-mighty-God of the Chinese pop music, Jay Chow. Now, I agree that he is talented and everything, but what’s the big deal? Pardon my great ignorance, but I just don’t get it. Is it the mumbling words in his song that no one can understand, the whole-world-owe-me-money look or his I-could-care-less attitude? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate him, well, can’t really say I hate him since I don’t really know him that well, but I seriously think he is overrated. Everybody in the industry seems to like him. For his talent? I think not in all cases. The whole hype is just created by his marketing team and what a brilliant job they have done! They sort of created a Chow phenomenon. So much so that everyone must listen to his song, or at least know of him or you’re so out-dated you can die. Well, what do I know, I’m just an insignificant minute bored blogger with no life, typing away some nonsense in the hope of drawing some attention from some bored insignificant soul out there, right?!

Again, if any one of you are a hardcore Chow fan, please don’t bite me. Thank you.

Jay Chow

Post from: Quaint Melody

Similar Posts:

Ridiculous bin thief.

cc — Sat, 19 May 2007 05:39:00 +0000

Something ridiculous happened today, or should I say happened again.

Here in NZ, we are given a wheelie bin (a big lidded rubbish bin with wheels) and green bin for the recyclable items. The city council allocated a collection day for each suburb and we have to put both the wheelie and green recycling bins before 7am on that day. The rubbish collection day for my area is Friday. As we live in an enclosed community housing area, we need to take the recycling bin out to the road side. Not the big wheelie bin though as the mechanical rubbish collector truck will come in for that. So, normally what most people do is to bring the bin out on Thursday evening, and collect it during the following evening after we are back from work. Sounds pretty simple right?

Except our recycle bin got stolen, for the SECOND time! Can you believe it? STOLEN, RECYCLE BIN! Now, not that I’d condone it, but I could at least see the point if we needed to pay for the bin. BUT the bin is FREE! It’s freaking free, people! All the bins are provided by the city council for free. If yours get lost or damaged, just make a call and they’ll deliver a spanking new one to your doorstep. So there’s really no need to steal here. I could force myself to understand when it went missing the first time around, as the marking on the bin was almost gone so someone might have mistakenly took it. But this time, we clearly marked our house number on the bin with a thick, black waterproof marker. STILL, someone had the nerve to steal it! Of course, being the human nature that is, we occasionally let someone put their recyclables in our bin. I don’t mind that as our bin is never full, but steal it?! For the the light of me, I can’t figure out why?! Do they run out of storage boxes in their home or something? I am just lost for words. It never seizes to amaze me what people do these days.

Now, where’s the damn phone number to call for the replacement bin, again.

Post from: Quaint Melody

Similar Posts:

Free rubbish disposal service?!

cc — Wed, 16 May 2007 10:25:00 +0000

MR K brought home some yummy goodies from work yesterday. Or so it seemed. That usually has me jumping up and down in joy (being the glutton that I am). He brings home biscuits, chocolates and the likes from time to time. These goodies normally come from clients of the company he works for.

Now, who doesn’t like freebies, you tell me. But beware, as the saying goes, good things come with a price tag and free things are usually not good. This is no exception. The boxes of so called “Gourmet Sticks” are all well passed their expiration date last year!!! To think of the generosity the client has! Apparently they had sent cartons of these goodies to my husband’s office. Oh, I am enraged! Hello?! Do we have the words ‘rubbish disposer’ engraved on our foreheads?! Do they take K’s office as a huge rubbish bin to dispose of their expired goods?! I mean come on, don’t try to act like you’re generous by showering others with some expired products, that only show what a cheapskate you are! Shocking, I tell you.

Technorati tags: my life

Post from: Quaint Melody

Similar Posts:

Media frenzy over VTM.

cc — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 05:33:00 +0000

No, this is not a post about the Virginia Tech massacre. I don’t think there’s anything that has not been said or published or shown on TV (repeatedly) already. What I would like to put my two cents worth is about how the media jumped the gun and accused the wrong person in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy. The victim?? Wayne Chian g, a guy whose descriptions unfortunately match the killer’s. And here’s the 5 so called ‘clues’ to the media. (quotes Chiang during an interview)

“I was five for five,” Chiang said, referring to the descriptions of the killer being reported in the hours immediately following the killings. “I’m Asian. I went to [Virginia] Tech. I used to live in the dorm [where the first shootings occurred]. There’s the infamous picture of me with my guns.” Chiang also had written on his LiveJournal blog last week that he had broken up with his girlfriend.

“It sure sounds like me,” he said evenly. “I joked about it with a friend online. I didn’t think it would go anywhere � but obviously, it did.”

What followed is just like a big nightmare for the poor guy, thousands flooded this blog and many leaving angry comments and even death threats. Though the truth came out in the end and apologies were made, the damage has been done. What puzzled the hell out of me is some still continue to pick on him on his way of handling the situation (of which I think is ridiculous as he has been handling it with nothing but grace and maturity); and worse, a TV station continues to use his images in conjunction to the killer’s. Now, that’s just pure ignorance and lake of professionalism right there.

I really wonder what is becoming of our media. Isn’t journalism about discovering the news and finding the truth? Shouldn’t some verification be done before presenting the news to the public? It’s really becoming like a circus nowadays. Maybe I should just go to the fiction section in the bookstores instead of the newsstand next time. BAH!

My condolences and prayers go out to those involved in this horrific tragedy.

Technorati tags: virginia tech massacre wayne chiang

Post from: Quaint Melody

Similar Posts:

Hoopla of Chow Yun Fat and Crown Macau commercial.

cc — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 06:07:00 +0000

This is the all new commercial of the soon-to-be-opened 6 star casino hotel, Crown Macau. Featuring the one-and-only every-so-coolly Chow Yun Fat. Also starring the third runner up in the 1st season of America’s Next Top Model, Eleyse Sewell.Apparently, the commercial created waves of controversy in Asia, especially China and Hong Kong, with some questioning Chow’s choice of the job and criticizing him for promoting gambling. And these are the same people who sneered at his decision to enter the world of Hollywood stardom (Well, that’s a whole other story). I guess the whole hoopla started due to one reason. According to the press, Chow was paid 25 million HKD for the job.

Now, we all know Chow is famous for his classic role as the seasoned gambler in the God of Gamblers movies. So it is natural and perfectly suitable for him to take on the role of a classy gambler in the commercial. I really don’t see what the problem is here, except there’s a bunch of goody-goody trying to act as the moral police. It’s not as if he’s asking people ‘come come come, gambling is good for you’. The business is already there, approved and built. I don’t see them criticizing the Macau authority for approving such an establishment or any other casino for that matter. The only obvious reason is that the green-eyed monsters in them cannot stand it.

Period. What a bunch of bollocks!

Technorati tags: Chow Yun Fat Crown Macau Crown Macau commercial

Post from: Quaint Melody

Similar Posts:

Patient-visiting etiquette 101.

cc — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 03:57:00 +0000

I have been contemplating on whether to write about this or not because the culprits themselves might come across it but WTH, I am enraged. Take this as an etiquette 101.

When the news spread that my dad was to undergo heart surgery, many people called and voiced their concerns. Now, we really appreciated all the kind gestures but there are a few who over-did it and are in borderline of being rude.

The opportunist.
The type who seemed to care a great deal but actually wanted to take the opportunity to pursue their private agenda. He/she had made many calls prior to the op and came to visit first thing after the surgery. In the beginning, we were touched by his/her kind gesture and thought it was out of pure concern. I think not. Well, maybe part of it was, but it was mostly to create an opportunity/excuse to sell his/her products.

Right after my father was transferred out of intensive care, he/she came without any prior notice. Armed with plenty of pamphlets, he/she started on a rambling sales pitch. There was total disregard of the weak patient who had just undergone a major surgery and could hardly speak. My mum and I kept hinting him/her to stop but what did he/she do? He/she lent a deaf ear and continued with the seemingly endless long speech of how great the product is.

Now, I have nothing against direct-sales people, but there’s a time and place for everything. Trying to do a sales pitch in that situation is definitely NOT it. You don’t see me selling baby products on your wedding day, do you?!

As if that’s not enough, he/she made what seemed like a gazillions calls during the following weeks, wanting to come again. My mum actually was being quite frank and told him/her it’s not convenient for him/her to visit as we were all quite tired and some of us were coming down with flu. But still, he/she asked where we were staying and insisted on coming. I don’t know about you, but this is totally inconsiderate and highly unacceptable in my book. That wasn’t the end of it either. After we were back home, he/she called my mum once again, trying to pitch a sale. This time, he/she accused my mum of not wanting to listen when my mum told him/her that she would be in contact if she was interested. Aiyo, you said la, where got people like that one?!

An advise for you, when you keep blabbing on your sale pitch and people only answer with ‘erm, ahuh, ic…etc’, take it as a cue to stop and run with the wind! They are simply not interested. Don’t keep coming back for the shoot-down. It will only make people agitated and have a bad impression of you and your hard-selling tactics. I simply have zero tolerance for a behaviour like that. BAH!

The me-me-me type.
The this the type who gets angry if we don’t follow what they want. They only cared about their own needs and whether they were the first ones who knew about any news. They got angry when the patient told them he was too tired for visitors and had kindly rejected their visits. A phone conversation between me and the said culprit went as followed:

Me: Hello Aunt-so-and-so, I am calling to tell you that the surgery is a success and my father is doing very well now.

MMM: Oh, have you called other people about this? Who else knows about this?
You know I called your dad weeks before the surgery and wanted to visit him, but he rejected my request, said that he would like to rest and would not at home at that time. Why like that one? Why didn’t he want to let me visit?

Me: Well, we went away because he needed to rest and didn’t want anyone to disturb him lo.
MMM(still didn’t get the hint and continued to blame us for not letting her visit): AIyo, I wanted to come and discuss about it with him ma. Why like that one?!

Me: …..

Finally, a kind reminder:

Always call before visiting someone, this goes without saying. It is quite rude to go and visit someone without giving them notice. This is a considered an invasion of privacy. People may have had prior engagements or may be too busy to entertain you. Be a little considerate. Plus it saves you the trouble of going all the way to people’s home and finding out that they are not in. So it really plays out well for everyone.

The other thing is, when you are visiting, always bear in mind that the patient needs his rest, and his lunch! Don’t over-stay your welcome or come during lunch hour! I can’t keep count on how many people who chose to visit during meal times and sit until the cows came home. The patient has been starved in many occasions. ;(

p/s: If you are offended by this post, then you probably is the culprit. Yes you! It’s time to do a self-revision of your manners!. GRRRR…

Post from: Quaint Melody

Similar Posts:

Queue and a fool.

cc — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 21:20:00 +0000

I have to blog this before I forget about it. But I highly doubt I would as it is just too funny. Anyway here goes.

I was at Jusco few weeks ago and queuing up at the cashier. There was a man in front of me paying and a middle aged woman behind me. After a short while, I realised I was queuing in the wrong direction and quickly walked over to the other side. Now, what I did not expect was that the middle age ah so(aunty) who was standing behind me went ahead and cut my queue. I most definitely cannot stand people like that. I firmly but politely told her ‘please queue up’. What was to happen next is beyond comprehension. She had childishly threw the only one thing she was intending to buy, and rudely barked ‘Then you take the whole queue la’ before stomping away!

It actually took me some time to register what she had just said. Even the cashier was in awe of what had happened. Aiyo, aunty, didn’t you learn this at school? Even kids at kindergarten could behave better than she did. I wonder if she has any kids, and how she would have taught them. The thing is, since she had only a single purchase, I would have let her pay first if she had asked politely. Well, that’s life eh?! It’s always fun to see some silly people making a fool out of themselves once in a while.

Post from: Quaint Melody

Similar Posts: