Wanton Punishment Part III

At this time of writing, I am currently experimenting this using a wireless network at Starbucks across my neighborhood. Quite a dull day, a bit. The group Good Charlotte was at Subang Parade, where I did my grocery shopping today. I could have been joining the run at Kiara Park but the session of attending Clemen Chiang's preview of Options Trading prevented me from doing that thing. In my opinion, that was more interesting. Both are interesting.

While I went shopping today, there was heavy rain at around 3 p.m. But the problem was that it was quite heavy and a there was a thunderstorm. I got to thank myself that I bought a surge-protected cord that protects against lightning strikes. It saved my modems bacon. I wanted to rush back home to see if there would be a disaster on my modem or not. Saved by that thing. The car was left at the tire shop in order to do some rotation.

My friend told me that Windows Vista has a different IDE which might create problems for applications that runs well in Windows XP. Take SQL Server 2005 for example. It installs fine in XP but in Vista I encountered a problem where I could not proceed on. It's like that they could not detect the instance in my machine. Took me the whole day to discover the actual solution. The solution is two ways - one which is setting the machine name into upper casing and the other one is to disable case-sensitive collation. But I can't guarantee whether one of the applications that I carry - the office one - will work or not. Since their database is designed to work on SQL 2000. SQL 2000 does not work on Vista. Instead you need SQL 2005 SP2 to run. I hope it runs fine, since it is run together with JTDS JDBC driver.

Wanton Punishment

This would be the third part of the Punisher retrospective. I might consider of adding one more as to show those prequel: Born or the First And Last series in future, but I figure that those literally are the bookends of Frank Castle's life. Today, I would be covering the last two of the books.

The Slavers is called as the most brutal and humanistic drama in the current Punisher canon. This is the one occasion where the horrors inflicted on Viorica and other women who became the unwilling prostitutes of the Slavers - brutal men from the Eastern bloc nations triggered a spark of conscience in Castle's black heart.


The theme is clearly simple and clear: Slavery. For the sake of money, these men are willing profit from capturing women during the ethnic cleansing of the Serbian war of 1991-95. NATO's influence in the peace-keeping occupation to stop the ethnic genocide had forced the mercenaries led by the father-son team of Tiberiu and Cristu Bulat to leave their native Moldova (a fictional country) and depart for the West - to make money. The one thing that Cristu never like about his father was the unwillingness to change or adapt to the new lifestyle. He makes money but Tiberiu refused to be part of it.

In the first segment, Tiberiu slaughtered a gang of Yardies at an abandoned shipyard. Rather than killing one to show the rest a lesson, he killed all to show that. That eventually boiled the son down and that's where the crushing ball starts rolling onto him.

We are living in the current world where money is the essential need in order to meet our demands for the basic needs that a human has to have: food, shelter, clothes. Simply put that you cannot meet the basic needs if you do not have money. But money can be acquired in both legal and illegal ways. It the current psychology that people will do anything to get money at short term. In the context of legal ways of making money, many people think of one that is working. But a niche knows that there are many ways than that: passive income. A millionaire makes money through many streams of money avenues.

Internet marketing is one way, options trading is another new way. Options trading is a new way. This morning, I attended a preview of options trading by Dr. Clemen Chiang, a renown options trading expert. With options trading, according to him, a person can leverage 10 times the profit than in the stock market and still make money disregarding of the market condition. His method is proven around the world and people can make up to $50000 in one night. The most valuable playing field for the options trading is always the New York Stock Exchange. Only the best companies in the world are listed in the NYSE.

However, Robert Kiyosaki warned that the US market is currently in the slowdown. This situation currently foreshadows the impending stock market crash that might affect the US and possibly Asia except for Singapore (Malaysia - unsure) for 14 years from 2009. When that happens, you can imagine what happen to stock market players suffering from money loss. It's like a global level of the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997. Consequently, you can say that people might be resorting to crime just for the sake of money.

The moment that sparked the chord of conscience in Frank was the moment the Slavers murdered the infant child of Viorica. This was the point that those genocide people had gone too far. These men had a mole in the NYPD at the form of the timid detective Stuart Westin. In the first-half of the story, Westin used his influence to exert the NYPD to declare a open-season manhunt on Castle. He had distorted the truth of Frank stopping NYPD's Parker and Miller without beating them or killing them. The NYPD had support for Frank for he had done things that they cannot do beyond the law.

These slavers are ex-soldiers by themselves and they know the rules of engagement and strict military discipline. But as the tagline says, "They think they know what war is," this doesn't mean that they the best soldiers ever. With that kind of military mentality, they know no bounds of violence or greed. Not even the prison cells hold them. You can't hold Frank forever in a prison, for he can find a way to get out. Try Ryker's prison. The only thing that they can fear of is someone who is equal and can show them what war is. This was evident in a soldier showing a soldier at the end of part 4.

Much of the scenes in the The Slavers were based on the under-appreciated Bond movie staring Timothy Dalton entitled License To Kill. In his two films as Bond, Dalton's portrayal is the most accurate ever as was written in Ian Fleming's novels. So far, License To Kill is the most brutal of all Bond movies, evident with the release of the Ultimate Edition last year which shows the gore including Leiter's stump, Dario getting minced and etc. Dalton's Bond exhibits anger and real emotion that is never seen in Moore's period (1973-1985). An actor that was chosen as Bond will be offered a customary three-picture deal with an option for extension depending on fan reception and box-office performance. This was the time we get to see Bond as a one-man vs organization with no help whatsoever. Frank is used to be under this kind of pressure and situation, so for Frank it's merely a clockwork for him.

You can check the review of License To Kill here.


Frank can be Bill the Butcher -as how he cut open the guts of Cristu at the end of the second act of the story. And this was the first time that an enemy is scared for his life, and eventually bled out to his death. The final act of Frank executing the father is the exact mirror of the climatic scene of License - Sanchez being burned to death after being soaked with kerosene. Frank has the dark menace inside him - he recorded the video to show those scum in Europe, "Don't come back here." Not even his allies are spared from his phrase here. He doesn't like people to come back and find him, believing that it might disrupt or interfere with his modus operandi.

But the reason d'etre behind his decision is was to serve as a warning to the rest. He knows that he cannot stop the entire criminal activity like kidnapping and robbery, drug smuggling and etc and one time. As the tagline of HYDRA, "kill one and another will pop out" applies here. Just the issue of pirated goods rampant in Malaysia, you can't shut down one and just stop - there will be more trying to exist and so on.

People without humanity -seems like it's better to have Frank step aside and get Anniyan.

For some reason, Barracuda proves to be part-drama and black comedy thanks to the superb performance of Barracuda, the 300-pound black man whose comedic humor was the reason he was chosen as Wizard's Best New Character in a comic book. His humor and slogan - the FUCK YOU gold teeth is something that will intimidate an opponent.


Barracuda is perhaps Ennis' dig of corporate crimes at the former ENRON energy company. According to Wikipedia, the Houston based Enron employed around 21,000 people (McLean & Elkind, 2003) and was one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas, pulp and paper, and communications companies, with claimed revenues of $111 billion in 2000. Fortune named Enron "America's Most Innovative Company" for six consecutive years. It achieved infamy at the end of 2001, when it was revealed that its reported financial condition was sustained mostly by institutionalized, systematic, and creatively planned accounting fraud. Enron has since become a popular symbol of willful corporate fraud and corruption.

The description of Dynaco - a fictionalized account by Sid Stephens a man rescued by Frank in the opening matches the current description of ENRON.

Note: Sid Stephens was drawn based on actor Damian Lewis and loosely based on Neil Coulbeck.

The plan by Dynaco of withholding parts for electricity generation was to ensure maximum premium profits for its stockholders. A brainchild of Harry Ebbing and his golden boy Dermot Leary, modeled after Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, the idea - in the eyes of the Punisher would be to cause another Hurricane Katrina disaster and in the process cost people money and worst of all - lives of those in the ICU of hospitals since you need power for those critical machines like the breather system.

Dermot Leary - near to the end of the story - boasted to Frank that he can't defeat an organization with just bullets and guns "Why not just go home?" But Dynaco never saw the entire picture that their scheme - the sharks of Wall Street - is still killing people indirectly. So that's why Frank thinks it's for the sake of those innocents, rather than having their blood spilling onto their hands decided to wipe all at one shot. So again, once again, we start to question of post Communism. Capitalism has taken over, and Dynaco is the dark side of capitalism - the choking and torture of the middle and lower class people.

Following the ENRON scandal, Arthur Andersen was shut down following the organization's crime of obstruction of the law and withholding audit evidence of ENRON to be given to the court of law. One of those member of the organization that I knew, Adrian Tsen was a victim as the result of the shutdown.

Barracuda is the collection of the negative stereotypes of black people of one. Hence the humor and his attitude towards those involving him. The funniest moment of all was the moment where Stephens asked him.."FUCKY?" He lost the OU teeth during his skirmish with Frank. Losing a few limbs doesn't stop him from his humor or his capable of maiming people. Barracuda is loosely based on Jaws - the lovable villain in The Spy Who Loved Me. He's a cynic.

Live and Let Die - the first Moore Bond movie is prominently referred to, particularly about Barracuda's characterization. Felix Leiter got bitten by a shark in the novel here. Sharks and combination of JAWS are prominently here.

A few cynical moments of Barracuda:

1. He sings the bad-mouthed version of Rod Stewart's I'm Sailing
2. He got annoyed with Stephens calling him FUCKY. "Bitch you best disappear with the fuck now! You are putting a strain to my famous god damn sense of humor!"
3. He was sent by Harry to look out for Alice and found her with Dermot. He wanted to chop them down with a machete but the next moment he eats pancakes!?

Alice Ebbing is the most perfect whore that I've ever seen in the comics. Artist Goran Parlov drew her as a nod to John Romita Jr and Sal Buscema's modeling of Mary Jane. According to the sleeve notes, Alice is the flipside of Mary Jane herself. A whore who gets what she wants and event backstabs Harry and Barracuda for freedom with Dermot.

Perhaps it's the popularity and critical praise for Barracuda that Ennis decided to write a spin-off of Barracuda. How he escaped the shark at the end of book remains a mystery. And it is up to me to grab the paperback and see how he escapes. But I had a hunch that it will be like how Jaws escaped The Atlantis - he bit the shark!

Well, that's the retro of The Punisher, for now..but in future there will be one. But I guess that it might be either next month or in year end when the TPB of Widowmaker is out.

Wanton Punishment Part II

I had a good head start in writing the Search Agent script. The head and mid section is running fine. But not the lower-half and the tail section. The program isn't taking in the dynamic variables that I've assigned to. That is why I am taking the chance of trying to do this at home. However, I hit a snag when I could not install this in SQL Server 2005. Once finished installing, there are other things to do including turning on port 1433, installing SP2 for SQL and testing the database. Spent the whole day trying to fine tune the bottom half but without good progress.

I was wondering whether if one of my marketing dept. colleague, Geraldine was trying to snoop people's private business. I mean, trying to ask whoever could not come for the sports club early morning run tomorrow the reason for unable to participate the event. Eventually, almost everyone reluctantly agreed to turn up, except for me in the department. My Technical Director was asking everyone who initially said nay to coming for the run. Geraldine anticipated that the four common reasons of inability to turn up for the run would be: personal appointment, lazy to get up, no shoes and just blankly no. I was under the first reason, but my mandatory personal appointment at 8 a.m. prevented me from participating for the run. I have no intention of saying no, but having a seminar tomorrow morning until 11 a.m. prevented me from this.

My friend from Lahad Datu wanted to visit K.L and me tomorrow. Originally, his plan was to be here for about two weeks. Part of it is to help her younger sister to register for college. Unfortunately, the plan hit a snag. The National Service camp in which his sister was assigned to rejected her request for early leave, claiming that by leaving early means delaying the course. They recommended her to finish the first module until the 7th of May. This means that possibly he would only be coming for about 10 days on the 9th. A sad thing for him though. He had missed numerous occasions including last week's PC fair, and wanted to visit Ipoh end of next week.

Wanton Punishment

As promised, I would be reviewing the next two story arcs of The Punisher Max. The next arc after Kitchen Irish, Mother Russia details the story of former SHIELD director Nick Fury being assigned to send Frank Castle to Russia to retrieve a deadly retrovirus called Barbarossa. I had a feeling that the premise is a combination of Mission Impossible II or Resident Evil: Apocalypse since it involves virus and a child as the McGuffin thing. Note: A McGuffin is a Hitchcock-coined term for a plot device.


What is interesting that is worth exploring is the bureaucracy and the hideous secret plans hatched by a small group of generals. This literally refers to a cell of groups - think P2, Masonists, Illuminati - hatching a plan as part of the greedy policy of global domination at all costs. The recent news of Paul Wolfowitz, the World Bank head being under scrutiny is largely due to the fact that he neglected the Bank's main objective in helping nations and also combat poverty in Africa. What he did was serving America's hidden purpose. Remember, Wolfowitz is one of the architects beside Rumsfeld behind the Iraq 2003 invasion, prior to his appointment in 2005. The White House continuously support him even though he admitted that he was behind the mess. The mess is already there, other members wanted him out.

Back to the earlier statement, sometimes an assignment contains a hidden purpose as written in Mother Russia. Unknowingly, when Nick agreed to the assignment, the cabal of generals had a hidden plan in hand. With their extra hand, Rawlins, in the Middle-East, they recruited a number of people to hijack a plane and crash it into Moscow. The purpose was to divert the Russians from paying attention to the mission, should things go wrong. However, not all Russians are totally stupid. Some of them actually can see through what Americans do, like our Man of Stone himself, Nikolai Zakharov. Fury became disillusioned over the fact that America became a greedy nation that is out to achieve their objectives by playing dirty. In fact, while they - on behalf of capitalism - defeated communism at the early 90s fearing of communist subversion, they in the end became the main capitalist subversion in the world. They play dirty - whatever tricks in the sleeve, legal and illegal as to ensure that all nations submit to the will.

Nick Fury was raised with believes before World War 2. During the time before World War 2, there was only the Depression era and the American Dream where everyone thinks of America as a paradise and a migration location. However, things turn ugly after WW2, starting with the Truman administration, the US leaders pursued a grand imperial strategy with the aim of staking out the globe. They wanted to achieve dominance at all costs.

"I can no longer sit back and allow communist infiltration, communist indoctrination, communist subversion and the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids. " Jack D. Ripper - Dr. Strangelove or: How I Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb

Mother Russia's main theme is actually the examination of the Russians, being disillusioned following the fall of Communism in 1989. As I have mentioned in the previous post, Francis Fukuyama famously declared that the greatest achievement in history would be the fall of Communism. With that comes the end of the Cold War. Of course, the Russians are the ones that were on the losing side. When that happened, they crawled back to the shadows and sob themselves away in sorrow. Most began to question of their roles in the post-war. The Man of Stone himself knows how the Americans act and think. Going back to the first part of Mother Russia, the old man Formichenko thinks that the Russians had lost the respect after the Cold War. In the past they were heroes, soldiers, having fought against the Nazis in Stalingrad. Now most people perceive Russians as gangsters and cutthroats, not those who make the reputation and being respected by other people.

Alexei Pajitnov, the man behind the Tetris games, remains one of the few from the Eastern Bloc who is respected by people around the world disregarding the creed. The Tetris game remains the longest selling electronic game ever. The game lasts days, hours non stop until you can't go on anymore.

With Communism out of the way, the Capitalist began to spread their influence towards the world. As the saying goes, while you try to fight something you hate, you eventually become the thing that you once hate. But smartly, Zakharov knows how they think:

1. They do not start a nuclear war. That's their policy
2. If there is something happens perpetrated by them, they will not respond to a call. Because they have people listening to Russians response in Moscow!
3. Most of them are Caucasians
4. The Russians today will start to panic and makes things worst if an ominous rumor reaches to Moscow - "Moscow is full of mental pygmies, like the kind they send to run the missile silos"
5. They are clever, imaginative and tenacious.

But an opinion by Zakharov is worth considering. Maybe Communism is the solution to the current problems the world is facing. Maybe it should not have fallen, maybe there is still the Cold War around. Like Iraq, the Americans chose to attack places they wish to eradicate and build places over it and using the resources in the enemy nation as their own. Being a parasite that is.

In the climax, Frank decided to play chicken on him by launching missiles all over Russia. It's like playing a bluff in poker. Maybe that's how he got the reputation as The Man of Stone. He just knows that there is no nuclear going to happen and leave it there. In the end, he thinks him as a "Russian born here by mistake."

Up Is Down, Black Is White is by far the most cohesive and the best story line ever written in the Punisher. It is actually a back to the basics story of a man's seeking out to punish the sacrilege committed by a grim hollow man. Nick Cavella, whom managed to escaped Castle at the end of In The Beginning is back but this time he had a plan of how throw Frank off the edge by committing the sacrilege of digging the grave of his family and desecrate it. The video footage broadcasted on TV provoked him and Castle went on the killing spree of 70 people in one night, unlike anything before.


Note: The title was taken from the tagline of Miller's Crossing starring Gabriel Byrne.

What makes Nick a hollow man? Bad influence from her Aunt? How he handles his assignment that goes over the edge and puts the Mafia and the Chinese gang in war? He is also meaningless, he relies on his subordinates as his cannon fodder. A leader is supposed to show his leadership by setting himself as a role model, not being bailed out by Carmine Gazzera's sister. He thinks he is above all by committing the murders. The truth, as Frank revealed at the end, is that he doesn't do it. The reputation that he has will carry to one point where he cannot go on.

The other thing sub-themes in here is perhaps about the little cabal of generals as in Mother Russia are desperate to cover their secret by hiring Rawlins - their instrument man and O'Brien's ex-husband to kill Castle. As the teaser said, "Cavella's scheme unleashes a wave of violence that rocks New York to the core, other predators start to come out from the darkness. Scores to be settled, blood to be spilled." Being an instrument man means that he is trained to do whatever he is ordered to do so. That means that Frank had an upper hand and can use the hand to blackmail them.

Kathryn had gained the respect of Castle through her admission. After being sent back to jail, it was admitted that he was not supposed to be a trained animal to be set loose on the enemies of the state. Her role is clearly augmented and expanded well here. Her motivation of saving Castle was clearly the spark of conscience seeing that he was once a family man, thrown into the mess. As for her, she was thrown into the mess with five failed marriages and being recruited at Princeton, senior year. This clearly implies that the Bush Sr. administration had subverted her and turned her into what she is now...to be used in the Gulf War - Desert Storm. After that, what can she do?

Nothing can bring back the dead. Not even the power on earth can do that. But the massive murder as the result of the sacrilege this time struck fear on thugs alike. They fear that little crimes means big punishment on them. That's a big domino effect caused by this little act. But the main thing is that there is more characterization here than any other story arcs. Not even Mother Russia can beat this thing.

Yeah, Man! At Least I Have Something!

Today's a pretty quick and short post. Seems that time does not permit to write as much as yesterday, meaning that my second part of Punishment retrospective is put on hold until tomorrow. You know what? What ever I rant here, things come in the next day, meant to fix the problems that I am facing.

Here's the situation to illustrate my point:

I didn't have anything to work on except for the JIRA program. I reminded my P.A that this program lasts for another six days before expiry. We don't work on Saturdays so that was taken into consideration. Just as I have lamented about people unwilling to go beyond typical hawker or Chinese food, the next day it happened after writing the post. In this case, I was given a little assignment to do. Another Search Agent Manager script to be written. That's pretty good already.

That's why I decided to finish as much as I can on the preliminary draft of the script. Then tomorrow, it's either revision of JIRA or revision of the script. But this script doesn't have a deadline...ha.

The office has just installed the automated door locker system. I thought that I would be using that card from now on, but when I reached the floor, everyone was standing outside. Apparently there was a power trip yesterday and I think that the system got defected. So those who were there early had to wait out for about 30 minutes or so, waiting for whoever to dismantle the system and open the door manually. That thing had to be taken back for a replacement. Defect on the first day? Seeing that, I am starting to wonder whether the policy of cost-effective thing is worth the thing or not. If you are cost-conscious and the quality of the things that you buy are defective, what is the point of being cost-effective? But this doesn't happen so often does it? I thought of some people's opinions saying that sometimes, you pay more but it's worth it in terms of performance and quality. Stark opinions, does it?

Wanton Punishment Part I

I still really got nothing to do today. I kept reminding myself that I only one more week left minus Thursday before the JIRA evaluation period expires. And then my P.A. did nothing serious to pay attention to this work. Please, come on. We got to finish this, then I want to do something else. I've seen other colleagues at work with tasks in hand. What about me? Are you leaving me behind?

One thing that annoys me is that my Indian colleague sitting next to me kept crying at certain times. She must have been hit hard since her father passed away last December, sometime before my grandmother does. But it's already four months already and she's still mourning? Maybe it's the Indian folk music that she played and listening through her earphones makes her something like that. But she's still staying back in that circle of mourning. The truth is that you can't stay in there forever. You need to move on. Can't she get this to her senses?

Anyhow, since today marks the official release of The Punisher Vol 7: Man of Stone, I will be writing three parts of wanton punishment in retrospective about one of comics finest and popular vigilante: The Punisher. In case you do not know, here is the TPB cover of Man of Stone.

Most fans agree as I do that Irishman Garth Ennis, who writes The Preacher is the only man who can write The Punisher at its best compared to anyone else. The Punisher is the modern day incarnation of Josey Wales as modeled by Forrest Carter (1925-1979) in its Wales duology titled Gone To Texas and The Outlaw Josey Wales respectively, with the latter being made into a film starring Clint Eastwood. Like Wales, Frank Castle is a man who lost his family to evil and resolved to wage a one-man war against crime. His modus operandi is not on revenge -to him revenge is a dark emotion -, but punishment where there are circumstances where law cannot punish the guilty. His rules are somewhat similar to the Hammurrabi Code concept: "an eye for an eye." The Punisher is the best selling title in Marvel's MAX line - aimed for adult, matured readers only. Full of violence, profanity, uncensored stuff all intact. That's where The Punisher should be.

In each of the story arcs, Ennis has placed a common theme and sometimes Bond references (He's a James Bond fan BTW) in the storyline and setting. If you go through the arcs, you will notice that these themes represent the crimes that are committed by the USA - which is part of its hegemony - the quest for Global Domination. Famed critic Noam Chomsky, in his book Hegemony or Survival outlines the sins of America in its greedy quest to become the undisputed superpower on the planet.

The first story arc In the Beginning marks the return of Frank's associate Microchip, but this time working with a team led by a rogue CIA agent Robert Bethell. In 1989, Francis Fukuyama declared that greatest moment in world history is the fall of Communism and the Cold War. In here, Frank was questioned of his role in the new millennium - just as in GoldenEye, Bond is questioned of his role in the post Cold-War era. For both men, they were the past. Whatever he did was during the post Vietnam War is now under question, and maybe no longer be accepted. To Microchip, Frank is a direct relic of the Vietnam War. He thinks that Frank never has enough of what he did, ever since the moment he became the Punisher back in Vietnam. Some of the scenes were referred to in the prequel to the series, Born. In the world where we live in fear of Al-Qaeda and the post-911, the CIA thinks that they can erased his past criminal records clean and give him a clean slate by making hunting the terrorists including Osama Bin Laden.

Castle always work alone. At times, trust is something that gets a person killed. He had encountered double-crosses. The latest double-crossing by Microchip is something that he'd never forgive. He gave Microchip a chance to run while he is alive but in the end...was punished for squandering the opportunity before Frank changed his mind. James Bond is described as a blunt instrument for the government - an extension of its dirty work. Frank saw through this and immediately said no - knowing that he'd be manipulated - something evident later on in Mother Russia.

Bethell is a corrupt agent who would smuggle drugs for weapons and money. His crossing with New York mobs coupled with Nicky Cavella and his gang made him an easy target. He's a CIA agent - he can do anything - good or bad - and maybe things tilting to your favour. And while Frank is held captive by Bethell, the gangs think they can eliminate two birds in one stroke. Lewis Larossa modeled Cavella after actor David Strathairn but in the later arc, it's different since it was drawn by Leandro Fernandez. A common cliche in stories is the recurrence of a female damsel-in-distress character that most people seem to be tired with. Thankfully, it was avoided. Kathryn O'Brien is the partial flipside of Castle - an instrument of the corrupt bureaucracy, an unlucky woman who had to do the worst to save her image and sanity. Wisely, she was written as a all-round character with her own independence and the ability to take care of her reputation.


The second story line, Kitchen Irish was mainly about Irish gangs in New York fighting for the will left by an old man Nesbitt worth 10 million dollars. The premise is somewhat the famous Gangs of New York, fighting for control in the turbulent period of 1847-1863. The questioning here is of some people are still stuck back in the past. The past actually serves as lessons for us, to remind us while we move on, taking care to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. Many of Irish people are still scarred over the fighting between the Irish Republican Army and the pro-British faction during the 30 year civil war of Northern Ireland, the worst being the Bloody Sunday in 1972. Ennis, being a Irishman himself suffered during those times there. In the later point, Michael Morrison lamented:

"What are we like anyway? All that misery and bloodshed back home and we come to the States and the best we can do is just fucking carry on with it? Did you not even hear what Maginty was saying? We don't have to slaughter each other! We can get what we want without that! We're free now...free of the frigging past!"

In GoldenEye, Bond's ex-partner turned villain, Alec Trevelyan's motives was purely blaming on the past: the British sending his ancestors, the Cossacks of Lienz to their deaths in World War II. In Harry Potter series, Voldemort turned bad because of the past where his Muggle father, Riddle Sr. abandoned her mother, Merope. See the coincidence? It's like letting the past shaping you into a pervert and succumbing to the evils conjured from it. What about the River Rats? They are still kids inside...playing pirates!

The Continuity IRA is also a political example of the syndrome. To that cell, anything short of a total victory is like capitulating to the British. People are sick of fighting already. They want to go on and rebuild their lives rather than destroying because of a group of perverts. In this context, there is no Kingdom of Heaven. A kingdom of heaven is a place where there is no fighting, everyone living together in harmony, each respecting one another, work together. Some don't like it...take the Nazi Germany for example. Purity of race?

Here's one of Tyler Durden's quotes in Fight Club:

"The people that you're after are the people you depend on. We cook your meals, we haul your trash, we connect your calls, we drive your ambulances, we guard you while you sleep. DO NOT FUCK WITH US."

There was a saying that once you are a baddie, forever you are a baddie. This would be the case for old Napper French. He had enough of doing the past job and retired to a happy life until the Dublin nigger Maginty dragged him back into the gang fight. The past haunted him and it showed clearly to the little boy. The question is no matter how hard you try to forget the past, why does it come back to haunt us?

A problem with the arc is that there lacks the opposite sex relationship between a man and a woman. Ennis attempted to address one by putting it here, but it is not until when we reach the later story arcs, that we have somewhat a complete working relationship between man and woman later on. However, though it worth to point this out, Frank ended up being the supporting character of the story. Kitchen Irish remains the least cohesive story arc of all. Maybe it is full of black comedy as the MAXI series and it is not serious enough. The arc is pretty independent of the others. In the next few storylines, neither one is associated with Kitchen Irish. But perhaps you should take the inspiration from The Devil's Own or Gangs of New York as the source of reference when reading this. Or maybe read Frank McCourt's memoirs such as Angela's Ashes or The Teacher Man.

An interesting side note about Kitchen Irish is the locations used. For example, Pier 86, The Intrepid Museum is Frank's setup point for The Westies and the gangs fighting here. For those who do not really know which part is it in New York, it is located on 46th Street below the Joe DiMaggio highway. That's Pier 86. Secondly, the fictional O'Malleys bar used in the shootout is actually the McSorley's Old Ale House, located at 15, East 7th Street, near St. Mark's Square.

Next: Mother Russia and Up Is Down, Black Is White

Massacre Near Roanoke

I just don't know what to say already. I just couldn't think of what to say here, except of seeing shocking news of 33 students got massacred in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Alright...I wanted something else to do besides waiting for feedbacks on what to tinker in JIRA. My PA told me instead - Go through one round and wait. Wait for what? Can you please give me something that might challenge me rather than just boredom? And I don't know why...maybe because of yesterday's ranting today's lunch was not the typical Chinese food type but instead Secret Recipe shop. Those girls totally don't even know how to take beef. They are young but is it because of religion that they can't take it? I don't think so. Then the next thing my fussy fellow said to me was about the brownie which came in as a desert. When her brownie came, she noticed that hers was as solid - as if that came from the fridge, whereas mine was kind of bit melting, particularly it is served after it is heated in the microwave oven for about 30 seconds or so? She started asking questions to other colleagues seating next to me? "Why his is not like mine?" Then again, she wasn't as bad as the Tan family that Edmund spoke of. That family was the worst of the lot. Primitive minded. Thinking that the whole world revolves in their home only. It's no doubt that they have the worst kind of mentality ever.



Back to massacre, the massacre occurred at Blacksburg. According to Google Maps - one of the pioneer online applications using the AJAX technology, Blacksburg is about 60 kilometers from Roanoke. Something interesting at Roanoke is that it is the setting for the sequel of 1602: The New World. Monsters, primitives alike, Peter Parquah, Lord Iron? What..some weird thing. The thing about that place is it serves at the perfect setting for the legend of Pocahontas. At the far end of the east coast is Jamestown, the starting point of the English migration to the United States back in the 17th century. Is this thing meaning that Hulk and The Lost World striking back? Does that mean that the spirits of the settlers are back with a vengeance? Hahahaha.

Surprisingly, I am getting a grip of typing using my laptop's keypad, but strangely at times, the cursor would jump elsewhere and I had to type the UNDO command and retype the last few words again. While at home, I might as well plug the keyboard used for my desktop to type this entry. Edmund tried writing his post using Chinese Wordstar. Hey, I have an alternative - why not type using Altavista's Babelfish?

All Day's Work & No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy

Quite boring today. I only had one task remaining: revising the JIRA program upon feedbacks with my main user. However, my PA colleague was on leave today, leaving me nothing to do all day long. You know, it was like "All days work and no play makes jack a dull boy."


However, mine was the opposite: play but no work. I just had virtually nothing to do today. I wanted to ask whether if there's assignment for me to do, but couldn't since the PA usually assigns work to us. So all the 8 hours excluding lunch there is just merely search, surf and do some stuff. Only today, I guess.

I really enjoyed my job very much that almost everyday, I was kind of focused after waking up and wanted to do whatever I set in my targets as in the yearly appraisal. So far, it's good, but the U.M has gave me some sort of motivation to help improve my work prospect there during the yearly appraisal. I didn't really have a problem with colleagues - I did this by trying not to upset them. I harbor no hard feelings against them except one. I noticed that she tends to be fussy and most of the time - evidently during lunch hour - she's always the one calling the shots. She was not under the Java dept. But having sticking in a group for lunch and observing her, her behavior clearly reminded me of my granny - my paternal granny while she was still alive. The group - mostly 5 women out of 7 people never go for something special except for sticking to Chinese or hawker food. They never tend to have beef or western food except if it's a special occasion. From my observation, out of say 7 occasions, it would be average of 5 times she calls the shots. At times it really irked me and I felt like engaging her in a shouting match.

A senior of mine (not that one above) - quite helpful during my first few months in the company will be leaving at the end of the month to pursue her Masters. So, I guess, there will be a big loss especially she's has the extensive knowledge of the company products and its workings. Really, I kind of feared of getting stuck at times if she's not around. I can say she was the saving grace and bail-out person at hard times.

I saw a comment left by Edmund's friend yesterday and I find that it's kind of insulting in nature, also from first glance. I don't really have much understanding of those religious matter, so I just say that it was kind of insulting. Then, when I was in the gym - I was there early today, I saw a staff clearly resembles Regina. Then I saw a promo where you pay $38 for six weeks membership and a free personal trainer session. Maybe she might consider this. Jennifer Walters always go to gym as to improve her superhuman strength when she goes green! I bet this would be good for Regina - slimming to the perfection isn't going to work -it might cost sanity or your health. Talking about that reminded about Anna Nicole Smith whose obsession of beauty ended with her mysterious death in February.

Last week, the PM announced that there was no plans to introduced blogging laws in Malaysia. So, it's a hooray to bloggers out there. Then today, I noticed an interesting comment by one of the Star's editors, Joceline Tan. She said that Shaziman was pervert. He lied about Singapore having a mandatory blogger registration thing. It doesn't exist at all. Here's the extract from Jeff's blog:

It is a medium which they are still not too familiar with, going by the way Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor, the Deputy Energy, Water and Communications Minister, tried to talk his way through the firestorm.

Shaziman, an engineer by training, looks contemporary enough to understand the new media but his response to the issue was baffling, to say the least.

He reportedly told Parliament that Singapore had started registering bloggers and the government here may do the same. A few days later, he said the government merely wanted “to assess the situation and keep track of the number of bloggers in the country and on the information provided by them”.

He was totally unconvincing and, besides, there is no such registration of bloggers in Singapore.

It's Emma's Day and I Have Nothing!?

Waking up in the morning, I only had two things to do today: see my friend and then do my grocery shopping. Unfortunately I could not contact my friend today. Could not get a dial tone at all. So half of my plan went up in smokes. I had a late breakfast today and I thought of going to Sogo and walk around Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman to do some sightseeing on textiles.

To some of the Harry Potter fans, April 15th is always known to them as Emma's Day - named after the two stars of the movies, Emma Watson (Hermione) and Emma Thompson (Prof. Trelawney - the old coot Seer but always right). Both share the same birth date - today but they are about 30 years apart. It was no strange coincidence that this occasion was known to the fan circle as that E-day.

With my plan got snag, I thought of looking for a parking nearby Sogo where I can park and walk across there for my shopping. But there were no other turns except for one behind Sogo. I took a long shot and on the way, I thought of stopping by and see the National Mosque. Adjacent to the mosque is a Islamic Museum. Just to fill up my time, I decided to take a look, even it costs $12 for a visit. I was amazed by the number of Islamic displays and photographs that they've collected and displayed in here. Inside the museum, there's a special room called the Ottoman Room - special room, opened by Prince Andrew and donated by Standard Chartered Bank. At least I get some understanding of the Kiblat, the mosque architecture and the East West photographs...stunning.

Finally, I decided on going to that place for shopping. Driving back again to Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, I finally found Campbell Complex - next to Pertama Complex as one place to park without hassle. A $3 flat rate is good enough already. And I did my shopping there.

I called mum today. She told me that my maternal grandmother passed away on Wednesday. It happened so soon than I expected. I guess that last Friday's visit on the way back home would be the last time I saw her alive. Told me that she had some sort of a long term illness that is sapping her health gradually. Funeral was yesterday. I guess I lost my maternal grandparents and my granny last December - all in the space of two years. But I didn't feel anything at all like if there was no emotional impact on me. Absolutely nothing except doing my work and going back home.

I was quite tired by the time I reached back home at around 5 p.m. Strangely, I felt my right hand shaking uncontrollably while I had lunch. Was it because of me carrying too much heavy stuff yesterday? I supposed it is.

A Goal Accomplished But Microsoft Shoos

Today I was quite eager to going downtown for the PC Fair - looking for the NX 6330 book. Something that I really wanted for quite a time. I wanted to save some money on fuel so instead of driving today, I took a train down to KLCC. I knew that I had to clear up my credit card bills, so that was the first thing I did. I am also aware of a probable occurrence of getting mugged, so I carried a bag alone and changed my money to a $100 notes. After all, having a small number of notes is better than having a big number of small value notes?

I had a tough selection today. Rather than going back and buy it unlike the previous occasions, I decided to buy my stuff today and go somewhere else tomorrow. After going through the entire halls to gather catalogs of notebooks, I went off and go through to narrow my selection. To my disappointment the NX series was not on sale today. Maybe the target of buyers are more for end-users but that book is under business class notebooks. After the first round of going through, I spent 30 minutes in the shopping mall going through and deciding which was best for me as well as money. My final three selections were Asus, Dell and HP. The Asus model that I wanted is good but the price is a little over after adding the upgrades, so that was off. The HP Pavillion was way off my budget and it goes a little over the actual purpose of buying the book - which is for work only. My reasoning to shun Pavillion and ultimately Dell was that the specs beats my intention of work. Finally I decided for the lesser known Compaq Presario. I think the slight limitations may help to remind me that book was not for media entertainment. I know the OS included was not good enough for work, so I paid another $500 for the upgrade - more functionality including the key component - IIS - very important if I were to do an ASP.NET application.

But the surprising thing from my decision to buy that notebook was that I was given two bags for free but the price for those bags was at $249. First was the normal bag and the other was the knapsack style bag. And then I get to spin for a special prize - came close to getting a IPAQ or a Samsung 32 inch TV but at least a spare pen-drive will do well.

On the way back, it's a thunderstorm. But reaching back home proved to be pretty difficult. Running the last 500 meters back home and got myself wet in the process. Ha. I was quite excited to see what's in the package and what can the notebook perform. I was quite stringent in the specs. Anything less than what I need might affect the performance. I think sacrificing some features for actual purpose and savings might be the thing. After this, I just have to focus on how to handle paying the remaining credit back to the bank. Just had those in mind already.

While I was testing the system and installing applications for my new notebook, I came across an interesting article. Microsoft was ordering all PC manufacturers like Dell and HP to stop shipping PCs in XP by December this year. They want them to roll in Vista. Come on, experts say that Vista is still full of bugs and incompatibilities - like some I've encountered just now and you want us to upgrade? Dell is still thoughtful of providing XP systems - particularly Professional Edition favored by every expert user.

It says here: "Many home users- especially gamers- do consider XP the 'greatest'- especially after all the media articles and benchmarks showing very poor gaming performance and compatibility on Vista," wrote another.

At the end of this year, however, Microsoft OEMs' contracts will no longer give them the option of selling XP-powered machines. This is despite problems that have surfaced for consumers as well as businesses, such as games and application incompatibility and driver problems.

Most recently, users complained that Vista's start-up, shut-down and application load times are far too long compared with Windows XP. Users on Microsoft's Performance & Maintenance forum, who sound pro-Vista for the most part, have vented about a variety of speed issues."

Read the article here.

Saturday Saturday Saturday!

Seriously, this week I am really looking forward to a weekend. There will be a PC Fair downtown and this time I will be getting a notebook. The current machine which I have been using since 2002 will be sold in a two-three months time once I have assured myself that I am able to take care of the new machine.

I managed to raise about 2/3rds or 1/2 of the notebook cost. The desired cost will not exceed $5000, which is my budget.

Now Who Says Romans Are Invincible?

Quite tiring today. I just didn't feel like going to exercise and really wanted to sleep. All the time, my mind kept thinking that today is Friday. Huh...another day to go. Maybe this post and then some cleaning - before going to bed.

Yesterday morning, I woke up and felt some sort anxiousness to see what was the scoreline between Man Utd against Roma. I thought it's some sort of 1-0 or something. Instead, I turned to the Net during breakfast and wow...7-1. I always have the believe that the Italians have the tendency to have a very tight defense and then hit back with counter-attacks. The conventional game of cattanacio.

Check one of the videos here of how Romans are blown off.



Roma captain Francesco Totti made claim to the press during the first-leg of the tournament that Man Utd missed him out as the one of the men to watch. But then when the Romans came to Old Trafford, they were blown away. Now who is the one laughing out loud? It's no longer Totti, but Ronaldo and Carrick. I had a talk with a few friends on the big chance of Man Utd to win the League title. Mainly it's because you have Ronaldo and Vidic. Vidic provides a very stout defense for the team. People criticize Michael Carrick because he didn't score goals. But what not many people understand is that he starts some of the moves that leads to a goal. Eric Cantona called Didier Deschamps as the water carrier, but Deschamps provides the moves to Del Piero, Vialli, Vieri and some people on way to goal.

You know some people think that Italian game is good, which was why they won the World Cup. The Premier League is much more intense. Not many foreign players adapt well to the game. One of the worst cases would be like Carlos Tevez. In England, a player has less than 5 seconds to decide and play the ball or else he would likely be dispossessed by an opponent. Okay, I think that the Italians had their turn already. The biblical prophecy do say that the seven-hill city - Rome will fall soon. Yes, and so does the Italian teams this year. I have the confidence that it will be an All-England final at Athens.

Training Day - The Inspiration Behind The Iraq Invasion

Two days ago, I stumbled upon the published screenplay of Training Day by writer David Ayer (SWAT, Dark Blue). The draft is the shooting draft which includes deleted scenes excised from the final cut including the alternate ending of the film. You can check the shooting draft of the film here.

Before we go on, let me go through briefly the premise of film:

Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) is a rookie cop who is out to make a cut as a detective in LAPD's Narcotics Division. On this training day, he was assigned to be the understudy of veteran head Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington), whose methods of law enforcement are being under question. Harris methods has landed Hoyt into various problems including being framed for a murder, being a central character of a corruption scandal within the LAPD. Soon, he began to witness the dark, corrupt side of Harris which he must try to solve various twists and turns to solve a puzzle.

Much of the premise was written based on the 1998 Rampart Scandal involving disgraced office Rafael Perez. Hence, Washington based his character on Perez himself. If you look at some of the scenes of both cops beating up and arresting gang members only to have Alonzo letting them go and under his thumb, you can see this was how it culminates to Perez's testimonial of the Rampart Scandal. People in Los Angeles began to call the 70 groups of CRASH - Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums - the worst gang compared to the LA street gangs themselves. Following the scandal, CRASH was disbanded by then L.A.P.D head Bernard Parks.

It was only then I later found out that much of the metaphors of the script written by Ayer served as parallels that the White House would use in its official stance behind the decision to invade Iraq in 2003. Here is a summary of the metaphors written by Mark Kelly, a PhD candidate of philosophy of The University of Sydney :

1. Film: Jake Hoyt is a naive rookie who aspires to reach success and assumes that his methods and his contributions will help to make the community safe. On the training day, he helps Alonzo to patrol the streets of L.A from narcotics. On certain occasions, he played into the hands of Alonzo in his naivety.
Real Life: America's current aim is to spread its intention of peace using its own forthrightness, spreading its own doctrine and subversion to the entire world. During the 80s, America had come to work and helped Iraq to stop the Iranian Islamic Fundamentalism. But secretly, America had allowed Saddam to invade Kuwait and started the Gulf War.

2. Film: Alonzo is king of his neighborhood, but he was hated in secret by everyone.
Real Life: Saddam Hussein is president of Iraq but every Iraqis hated him in secret.

3. Film: Hoyt was nearly killed by Smiley (Cliff Curtis) and his gang in the bathroom but his forthrightness through saving Smiley's cousin who was gang-raped earlier of the day spared him and earned Smiley's gratitude. That allowed him to go out and hunt down Alonzo later.
Real Life: America was nearly destroyed by the 9/11 attacks, but the right-wing American government had a moral fortitude of going to Iraq and eliminating Saddam fearing that it has WMDs. In the end, the government was accused of lying to the people by fabricating the fact that Iraq has WMDs.

4. Film: Nobody helped Alonzo during the final stand-off. Not even his own children or the neighborhood. Even the gangs did not do what he said. Hoyt had earned his respect of the neighborhood.
Real Life: When the Iraqis learned that the U.S military was in Baghdad to remove Saddam Hussein from power, they just let them pass through without hindrance. Even the Republican Guard does that too since Saddam never respected them for what they did.

5. Film: Jake shot Alonzo at the last minute (seeing that he was to get shot too) on the thigh and left them to the people, including the Russian gangsters to deal with Alonzo - only after he settles some things including his evidence. From what he learned about Alonzo owing money to the Russians and the forbidden rule of killing a fellow officer, he delayed and left Alonzo to his grim fate.
Real Life: Though capital punishment is objected by Britain and Australia, the Americans left it to the Iraqis to decide justice on Saddam.

The legacy of CRASH and the 1992 L.A riots was still a painful scar of the past for Los Angeles. There was a rift corruption among the D.A's office, the LAPD. Take the "Three Wise Men" in the film, each represents the upper levels of corruption. The three helped Alonzo to solve his problem by cashing out on Roger (Scott Glenn) and fabricated the fact that Roger is a drug dealer. As the result of that, the naive Jake was setup as the man who killed Roger in cold blood in front of witnesses and Alonzo the perpetrator. Even Garth Ennis modeled the crooked cop and the police Tom Price (as in The Slavers) from Bernard Parks.

Maybe I might get out of point, but reading the script again and noticing the parallels made me realized that the similarities that the Bush Administration is using to manipulate the people to invade Iraq. And the 3 Wise Men subplot also serves as the corruption in White House and currently the scandal of Alberto Gonzales and his men.

The People vs George Bush

I've read an article yesterday that documents an insiders account, Ali Allawi about the ultimate failure of the United States to stick to its word. According to him, good intentions but with a big mess left behind. The U.S achieved the Iraqis desired to rid of the tyranny of Saddam Hussein. However, they have replaced that with the corroded, inefficient, incompetent and corrupt state of the new order. See the connection above? Is that as parallel as Star Wars Episodes III and IV?

The actual article is at this link: here

Noam Chomsky's book, Failed States clearly supplements, complements and demonstrates the proof of failure committed by the United States. The main mistake is caused by bureaucracy and mismanagement. Extracts from the article include:

1) The Iraq army was disbanded with after Saddam was ousted. A fatal mistake here as they could have retain the army and help to ensure the security of the people. Instead, they become renegades and were forced to become the pool of resistance against the American stooges.

2) They purged 10 thousands of members of Saddam's Baath party where they could have retained them to ensure proper administration of the country, rather than dismantling from scratch and start again.

3) The Coalition Provisional Authority took the fuel subsidies and sell it at a giveaway price, thus reducing the country's budget.

Paul Bremer together with some generals, who ran the CPA, wanted to retain the military and government members and instead they were rebuffed from the White House cohorts. Bremer's authority was undermined by the W.H's micromanagement. He was never given the chance to do the job properly.

In addition to that, Moqtada Al-Sadr's Shiite community clearly stated their intention of to have the military leaving Iraq as soon as possible. There is a point hidden from here, which is a big group of Iraqis DO indeed know of the hegemony and hidden crimes committed by the Bush administration. People everywhere are indeed very angry of this endless war. What will they get except for the oil that the people crave for.

To the Bush administration, this was part of their "Bush Doctrine" and their intention of spreading their word of Bush - their policies, democracy and the American way, which is a subversion of the dream, truth and justice as well as a perfect utopia that Caesar or even Kennedy imagined.

The thing people started to see through the holes of the black veil of that is the Bush administration. Chomsky stated that 80 percent of Europeans and 36 percent of Canadians perceive America as the biggest threat unlike the Axis of Evil - Iran, North Korea and Iraq. People are getting worried on living in a world shaped and dominated by the U.S And they have come to be deeply fearful and suspicious of them. Imagine this, you walk to JFK airport, those immigration people no longer greet you and you will susceptible to an intense body check including your orifices! That will take about close to 30 minute to 1 hour before you are cleared. If you are Muslim in particular, they are trained to be more prejudiced to them. After all, isn't the Al-Qaeda responsible for 9/11?

*Motherfucker* - A Therapeautic Expression

I've read a few posts by our lovable Patrick Teoh and among the two blogs that he has, the first blog is the most humorous of all. Featuring a special expression that laments his displeasure on certain things, Patrick brings cheer but a cynic way of expressing our sorrows at certain groups.

My mum met Patrick back when he was in Ipoh sometime back. She really wanted to look forward meeting him someday. But I might be meeting him sometime end of this month.

"NIAMAH!!!!!!" Is a Form of Therapeutic Expression. Say it out loud!

You can check his posts at his or TOKKOK.

A Warm Sunday

Seeing how warm it is today, I think I wouldn't want to have any ice-cream today.

Very warm indeed. I continued playing God of War 2 - and could stop only at the Deep Chasm. I couldn't go on as disc 2 is needed to play the remaining of the game. I noticed that the main premise of a man's quest to alter his fate - seeking the Sisters of Fate is somewhat akin to Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. But it also couples with our man's obsession to kill Zeus. We had brunch today - nothing for lunch. I didn't feel that hungry today.

Edmund today spoke about narcissism and told me that her younger sister Regina is one example of that kind of syndrome. Mainly it's about having too much of obsession and the willingness to go extreme with constant believes that your reputation on the stake. I mean, look at some people in the rich class - I find that when they are being praised or being recognized in the high-class society, sometimes they feel that they got carried away by the reputation and from that it's like the starting point of gradual obsession. Correct me if I am wrong, according to this and by referring to the dictionary -it leads to vanity. Thackeray made his point about this in Vanity Fair.

One of J.K Rowling's characters, Narcissa Malfoy - Draco's mother - is the exact modeling of narcissism. By reputation, she is actually weak in stature - derives on the wealth and reputation of being married to one of the richest wizard families of Britain - the Malfoys. Now that the family is accused of being the in league with Voldemort - what can she do when she is pulled in? This goes to Regina - Edmund's sister - what will happen if she is stripped of the rights or the source that is the foundation of your reptuation? Will you go suicide or go bonkers or something? The thing is that is a definite factor that causes a man's fall from grace. The kind of excessive pride and greed that drives you to a dark end.

After dinner, I watched The Spy Who Loved Me. By far, this was the best of Roger Moore's Bond movies. I didn't really like the others with exception of For Your Eyes Only. It was a commercial success since it featured the biggest set - the main room of the tanker set - in Pinewood Studios designed by Sir Ken Adam, the cartoonish but sadistic villain Jaws (Richard Kiel) and the Lotus Esprit "Wet Nellie".


Jaws was the part inspiration of Garth Ennis's comical villain Barracuda. Both men are big size , capable of maiming people but one exception: Jaws is more or less like Non the silent but dangerous man in the Superman movies. In fact the role of Jaws was intended for Jack Halloran who played Non. The metal teeth serves as the "Fuck You" teeth for Barracuda. But Barracuda is an example and the collection of the negative stereotypes of people. In the spin-off, how Barracuda escaped alive from the clutches of the shark was a mystery - until the paperback comes out but I think his escape show is somewhat like how Jaws escaped: he killed a shark and eat its flesh! Test audiences cheered for that guy - like our comic fans do for dear Barracuda!

A Greek Myth Twist

I am writing two posts today, as to make up for yesterday’s post. Dad came back home today from K.L since Thursday. This would the first time I met him for the last six weeks. Fifteen days in the United States, the first week he was in the West Coast. The photos that he showed to me documented his one week in New York. He had visited many places in that weekend. He got stopped in Chicago airport, awaiting shuttle flight to JFK airport. He told me that he encountered actor Nicolas Cage – crazed fans chasing him for the autograph.

I came back as early at 9 plus on Friday night, and made a detour to see my maternal grandmother. She’s not in a good shape. She could not longer move as normal and remained in the bed. I fear that she might not last as long by the end of the year. I hope she pulls out well and I wish that the subsequent visits might not be the last few while she is alive.

Dad didn’t expect the weather to be as low as -10 celcius. He thought it would be somewhere between 8-10. He didn’t carry his winter coat. When he was visiting Wall Street, the snow was as high as two feet. Cars could not move at all. He visited many places including Rockefeller center, Central Park, Tussaud’s wax museum, the Ground Zero site and various places within Sunday. He could not cover all places and take all photos.

While I was in K.L people are playing God of War 2 – the sequel to one of the best video games of 2005. So I spent the entire weekend playing that game. It’ like a twisted story of a man who became God but still unhappy over his past transgressions. His decisions have angered Mount Olympus and now he got double-crossed by the Gods. Near death, he was rescued by the Titans led by Gaia – Mother Earth herself, in the Titan’s quest for revenge against the gods. Ever wonder of the famous Titan Prometheus? Cursed to be eaten alive forever for stealing the torch for mankind? You bet it.

Our man Kratos is more of brooding character and sometimes a cynic fellow. He sacrifices his own worshippers – Spartan soldiers into a gear machine to activate a door. He battles some people including Perseus – gee, Harry Hamlin’s cameo and reprisal of his role originated in Clash of The Titans and Icarus – the guy who uses the wings to fly.

The environments are not as frustrating as the first game, but in place of frustration are boss fights. It took me about at least 5 tries or so to beat them. BTW, I am using the Normal mode to start out. However, after one point, I could not proceed on. I was supposed to step at one point of the Deep Chasm in order to trigger a cutscene but it didn’t show out. Then my brother told me that the game was split into two discs and the disc that I played was only the first half of the game.

I really wanted a notebook out of my own – but I am typing this at my brother’s house using my dad’s old Pentium III book intended to be used by his staff. Seriously, seeing that I am to venture into additional marketing business to support myself, I think that I need one for portability. I definitely believed that I can raise half of the total cost as to support my payment in the coming months.

The Fight Club

Do you know what Shaziman Mansor called us today? According to The Star paper today and complimented with this interesting article by Jeff Ooi himself, Shaziman is calling us - the bloggers as the snipers. Snipers at shooting at the powerful people from far and hiding in the shadows! Hey, the local daily isn't the only daily that documents the 'sniper' calling. It's mentioned in articles from international dailies including Jerusalem, Paris, Canada and Sydney! This newspaper extract was taken from Berita Harian.

Seriously, I need to discuss this because this case is getting out of control and I feel that our right as responsible bloggers are in jeopardy from the remarks of certain people who are not IT-savvy. Shaziman was proposing of having every blogger registering. But he has forgotten something: there is no free blog. Whoever wants to have a blog will have to register to Blogger - the current blog software that I'm writing on or even fill up a form to apply for a web server either locally or elsewhere! Where is the logic? Is he trying to spread the pre-paid doctrine used in the mobile phone episode over here?

The current episode of Shaziman proposing the idea of registration clearly mimics Marvel comics big event of 2006: Civil War. Civil War is Mark Millar's mockery of the 2002 Patriot Act. In the story line, superheroes are required to be registered under the Superhero Registration Act as to control the uncertainty pertaining to superheroes that might go out of control. The main proponents of the program would be Iron Man, Miss Marvel, Mr. Fantastic and certain people. America's icon Captain America refused to register saying that it will take away the free rights that everyone has. Eventually, there was a battle by the proponents and those who refused it.

Seeing that the fight causes more damage, Captain America eventually surrendered but before he could go on, he was assassinated by an unknown gunman. See what happens? Captain represents the perfect utopia - the American Dream, the ideal world. With his death, it spells the end of the dream and plunging into the current chaos that parallels our world. It is like everyone of us being torn of choosing good or evil and in the end we become a clockwork orange.

I look at some of the pictures which featured the establishment of the NAB - National Alliance of Bloggers led by Jeff and Ahiruddin. Great bravery there - out to protect the interests of bloggers like us. I wonder what if the mandatory registration is enforced, will those people even read cooking recipes that are shared by female bloggers? Will my mum's posts be scrutinized by them?

Update: My connection crashed just now, but now I got all my previous written paragraphs back! So that's one of Blogger's safety net. Hmm....

Seeing that clearly the main interest of BAM is to protect the interest of bloggers reminds me of the establishment of our very own Fight Club. Author Chuck Palahniuk was inspired to write the novel after he was beaten by some people of the neighborhood when he screamed at them as to request them to lower the volume as he wanted to sleep. He vented everything in the novel.

Here's something funny in related to the case above. In the DVD, there was a 1-second only blink-and-you-miss disclaimer from Tyler Durden. Part of the disclaimer reads:

"Are you so impressed with authority that you give them respect and credence to all who claim it? Do you read everything you are supposed to read? Do you think everything you're supposed to think? Buy what you're told you should want? Get out of your apartment....Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you're alive. If you don't claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned...Tyler."

The last few lines in the disclaimer clearly mirrors what we bloggers are facing right now. We are at the point where the best defense is the offense. Jeff's post on Mahatma Gandhi's method might help to sway public opinion on this matter: Satyagaha

via mass disobedience. Ever wonder why students nowadays start to disobey certain school rules? They find it is absurd. They act by mass disobedience. Start booing teachers, start mocking teachers. In my brother's class, some of his students drew a chalk outline on the floor representing the dead body of one of their teachers that they hate.

Don't Look At Me, Look At The Road!

"That's how accidents happen!" - Rambo - First Blood

My real concern is that many drivers on the road that I observe violated many rules in basic driving ethics. For the last two days, those common mistakes by drivers reflected the kind of mentality that 60 percent of Malaysian drivers are. It is like most of them are still in the dream world, unconcerned of others and inattentive. As the saying goes, ignorance is the main factor that breeds fear and darkness.

"The Age of Darkness is the child of two fathers, Fear and Ignorance" - Thief III

The latter factor is what most people are aware but decided to ignore it. Sometimes these bastards deserved to be shot in the face or give a hand *fucking* hand sign to show how disdainful they are. Do you want to know their common mistakes?

1. You don't look around 360 degrees using the mirrors.
2. You keep minding people's business particularly if an accident occurs.
3. You keep thinking you've got plenty of time but you are in the fast lane, others are rushing to work and you seemed to be ignorant to it.
4. You don't turn the signal. It's like giving the wrong and confusing info to people
5. Women drivers tend to brake every 5 minutes disregarding of traffic conditions.

A majority of these mistakes are committed by Malay and women drivers. Out of the 20 cars you would pass, for example, approximately 12 of them would be classified into those two groups and those 12 will make any of the 5 mistakes many times.

See? That's the problem with Malaysian drivers. And I emphasize, a FUCK finger would be a way to see the real mistake. Or you might want to get this guy to shoot the bad:

Aye To Our Local Bloggers!

Today, top local bloggers, Ahiruddin Atan of Rocky's Bru and Jeff Ooi of Screenshots filed an application to the High Court of Kuala Lumpur to join their cases under one case in a bid to strike out the defamation lawsuit filed by New Straits Times.

The main reason behind the merging of the cases into one were mainly due to the fact that the series of articles written by them in relating to the NST were indeed similar and in amount. In addition, Ahiruddin is planning to call current PM Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi and ex-PM Tun Dr. Mahatir to provide testimony for the case. Merging both cases will save the PM from testifying twice. Both of these men were accused by the NST for defaming them in a series of posts that might possibly cause damage in reputation and defamation of the NST. By joining their cases into one, they can halve the court costs and this indirectly shows the symbol of bloggers fighting obstruction by the media whom through their lawsuit stiffed the freedom of expression by other bloggers locally.

Ahiruddin Atan

Jeff Ooi (Screenshots)

Here's the extract of the post from Jeff in related to today's episode - with gratitude from the author (if it is read):

Today's hearing in chambers for my application to consolidate my defamation suit (The NSTP & 3 Others vs. this blogger) with that of Rocky's, and have them heard in KL High Court S3, could not take place as the plaintiffs' lawyers pleaded for more time to prepare their Affidavits-in-Reply.

My lawyers agreed, and presiding Judge, Justice Malik Ishak, allowed it. A new date has been scheduled for June 19, 2007.

Meanwhile, the mention of my earlier applications to strike out the plaintiffs' claims against me, and to set aside the ex-parte injunction ordered against me -- both based the plaintiffs' original Statements of Claims of January 11 -- still stays as per earlier scheduled for April 24, 2007.

March 20, 2007: Defence lawyers served on the plaintiffs a sealed copy of my application to consolidate both Rocky's case and mine under High Court S3. Basis: The consolidation will (i) lead to saving of time and costs; and (ii) ensure that decision of an inconsistent nature will not be handed down by the courts.

The application was made, and my lawyers agreed, as there are common points in both cases, and consolidating them would expedite the proceedings.

One of the members of plaintiff involved in the lawsuit was former editor Brenden John Perreira whom some claimed him to be a plagarist.

The news of the defamation suit saga, started since January has triggered the outcry from the the local blogger community and the opposition party including the leaders, Lim Kit Siang and former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. The local blogger community feared that should NST win the lawsuit, it would stifle the bloggers right to express their opinions even issues that they might not agree upon.

Here's the post regarding these events from Jeff. Click here.
This is the post from Ahiruddin. Click here.


Melvin's Opinion:

I feel that through observations and readings of the articles relating to this saga, NST had the wrong kind of mentality - this goes as well as certain groups of citizens - by suing the bloggers on articles that might defame them. The first question that they should ask - in this mess, were they in the wrong at the first place but attempting to hide their guilt by the lawsuit? Second thing: Did the NST absolutely ensured that the coverage of the articles written by their reporters (commented by the bloggers) were rightfully reported? Third thing: If they are wrong or find that Jeff and Ahirudidin missed out something important, they should clear things up. Admit the mistake or they should have write a special editorial column clarifying the hype surrounding the issues reported and proof Jeff and Ahiruddin wrong!

IMO, not all bloggers are spreading the word that might cause dissention or ruckus among the Malaysian community - only chauvinists, racists and extremists would do that. Bloggers just do not cover political-based issues alone! However, when we write something that might be political or in response to a media-reported issue we should have the rough knowledge of the ISA - the Internal Security Act, as it do serves as a borderline for bloggers to control their statements. Actually, we won't mind posting as long as we know where our line would be. The main advantage of blogging is as a replacement to the past pen-and-paper version of your own personal diary or posting your opinions in regarding to an episode / event that is happening - depending on your tastes. Life is full of contrasting opinions, where each one of us has a different opinion over a subject matter.

Here's my experience from trying to write an opinion in a paper. In October 2006, the police has announced the measures for Ops Sikap XI. My concern was that the speed limit coverage might cover the Federal Highway. I have concerns over this issue as within the month before Hari Raya, people are still working. Imposing the speed limit means encouraging people to procrastinate, or creating more road hogs than ever. I wrote this to The Star. My opinion was published three days later, but I noticed that my post has been heavily sanitized compared to my original post.

After seeing my friend's blog, created at the end of January, I realized that having blog can serve many purposes including being your own boss over your opinions. I always believed in myself that as long you have self-discipline and sense of responsibility over what you write, writing posts in blogs will not be a problem.

I fully agree with the Star's GEIC, Wong Chun Wai's comment on the blogging saga. Chun Wai highlighted a point here:

Jeff Ooi and Rocky have made a name for themselves with their fearless comments and even breaking news. They have a huge following among Malaysians and, in the case of Screenshots, there are even advertisements, which is unprecedented in Malaysian blog journalism.

Their blogging has made Malaysian democracy more meaningful although not everyone agrees with their views. They should not be regarded as dissenters because democracy is about tolerance.

They have been bold enough to bring up issues that mainstream newspapers have not done.

It is unfortunate that many Malaysians only look at the political scene in black and white.

It would be meaningless if Malaysians were to agree to everything our political leaders say. We would be doing a great disservice to the country’s leadership if we do not speak up.

Unlike newspapers, where journalists can consult each other on the legal implications of stories, the one-man show depends entirely on the blogger.

From that above, the blogging can serve as 'filling in the blanks' that people do not know. If we are constantly told to shut up and listen, the government is actually promoting negative mentality and behavior among the people, which is totally wrong and against the proper quality of life. This concept has thus made students in schools everywhere in Malaysia unwilling to speak up or ask the teacher questions when in doubt. I would say that there's something gone wrong - and one of them is promoting the wrong mentality.

The post's point, "It would be meaningless.." has another strong point here. Each one of us have contrasting opinions to an issue. Making everyone to agree to a leader's comment means total suppression of freedom when it comes to the battle of freedom vs authority. The 9/11 saga and its aftermath now remains the number one battle between authority and freedom. With the 2002 Patriot Act still intact, even Americans and other people - foreign workers, immigrants and even students are under the strict scrutiny of the CIA, Robert Mueller's FBI and even Alberto Gonzales and his Justice Departments sub-ordinates. We talk on the phone and they are actually listening and trying to catch us saying something like 'bomb'. Isn't that over the line - the death of an American Dream?

I recalled watching Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth that former White House staff Phillip Cooney edited the researchers findings on the global warming effect, which eventually was leaked to the internet, edited without permission. This has triggered an outrage from environmentalists and even American citizens. According to Cooney's testimony, he was ordered to subvert / edit the findings in accordance to the environmental policies set by the White House /Bush Administration. To this day, Bush has refused to ratify the Kyoto protocol and was stil pushing for refineries of ethanol which caused rice prices to spike up and causing more damage to the environment. I find that it is a deliberate mess intended and it makes for the next administration to clean the mess up - a waste of resources and time.

I believe that the credibility and the bloggers rights are in stake in this lawsuit. No bloggers like those two are capable enough to stand against a big party that is out to stamp them off the blogging grid. Most of the Malaysian blogging community are behind them. This has evoke my admiration and respect of those two men whom help to shape and provide the support / foundation of the continuous blooming of the local blog scene.

Hit them hard, taffers!

Hey...Nothing You Can Say...!

You may wonder why I put that wanted mock-up poster yesterday of the two impostors running around in America. Well, I intended to put that as a belated April Fools joke. That thing was in my mind for quite some time and I just put that thing there? How?

One morning, I woke up and this thing came across my mind after looking through some press-kit photos of the upcoming Order of The Phoenix movie, due on July 13. There are recurring characters such as Hagrid and Ginny in the series. I happened to read some past articles about the making of some movies and suddenly two things came in mind. Two Ginnys, and there is a Hagrid look alike, well, I thought for a while and had a laugh before deciding to put it on. The most amusing between the two things is about Hagrid's impostor, those two fellows, I would explain below.

The second Ginny is a short name for Virginia 'Ginny' (to her friends) Katz, who edited Dreamgirls starring Eddie Murphy and Beyonce Knowles. She too edited Fearless (Huo Yianjia) starring Jet Li himself!. I happened to stumble upon a cover article discussing her work on Dreamgirls, sadly she was not nominated for an A.A for her work, when I noticed the similarities of calling names. But the Weasley was called Ginevra - Italian for Guinevere.

The other person I discovered appearing similar to Hagrid is famed cameraman Allen Daviau. A long time friend of Steven Spielberg, Daviau shot many memorable films including E.T - starring our little Drew Barrymore, Empire of The Sun, the start-off movie starring Christian Bale and of course the recent Hugh (Mr. Wolverine) Jackman's movie Van Helsing. It was written that Steve had high hopes for Daviau to win for his work on Empire of the Sun but following his lost at the Oscars to Il Maestro Vittorio Storaro (The Last Emperor), they part their collaboration.

For a few occasions, I doodled around the idea of connecting two characters with two real-world people and finally, I didn't want it to be just in my head, I decided to put it on, as some sort of an April Fools joke. I did thought of considering putting the bald-mugshots of either Donald Trump or Vince McMahon (Battle of the Billionaires) match at Wrestlemania.

I had a less stressful day today, I was able to concentrate on other tasks such as preparing implementation kits and a 'Gatekeeper's Guide !?' - which is just a nick for reviewers for an agency using the Alfresco document repository system. Ha. But the day ended with a heavy rain since 5 p.m. Traffic is badly jammed and I just hope to come back to home and have good rest before watching RAW post-Wrestlemania. RATED-RKO? Gone.

I happened to read a post saying that Google is trying to implement an underground wireless network called TISP. Of course you don't need phone lines but instead toilet bowls! What - toilet bowls? Read here.

Runaways From Fiction

This following news is a news update bulletin issued by The Ministry of Magic, Britain
To be issued to all law enforcement agencies Muggle and Magic Ministry worldwide

We have reasons to believe that the two of our British magic citizens going by the names of Ginevra Weasley and Rubeus Hagrid had violated magic security protocols laid to deter potential Muggle intrusion into our society by spreading information deemed confidential by the Ministry to people in contact with both of them.

See the following mugshots for a clear identity of the runaways.

Ginevra (Ginny) M. Weasley

Rubeus Hagrid

Miss Weasley, in addition is declared a juvenile runaway following a verbal clash with her parents, Mr and Mrs Arthur Weasley six weeks ago. Mr. Hagrid however has severely injured two of our Ministry Magic Enforcement Officials in a skirmish for his refusal to be taken back to the ministry for interrogation.

According to our recent information discovered from our Magical Enforcement agency of our friends in America, we have discovered that the two of them
had been in hiding and masquerading using other aliases. The following photos
did prove that they are in America. It was taken by an undercover agent three weeks ago. These two fugitives are keeping their guises under a heavy dosage of Polyjuice Potion. Their aliases are:

Ms. Virginia Katz


Mr. Allen Daviau

Be advise though that both of these fugitives are armed and extremely dangerous.

The ministry is offering a $5 million reward upon information leading to the successful capture without termination of these two fugitives. If you encounter, do not go toe to toe with them. Instead, please notify a police officer or contact Mr. Percy Weasley or Mr Rufus Scrimgeour or Ms. Dolores Umbridge directly at our hotline: UK 62442.

Your co-operation is much appreciated.

By order of,

Rufus Scrimgeour, OBE, CDR
Ministry of Magic, United Kingdom,
April 1 2007.

Disclaimer: This notice is intended for the A.F celeb only. Used with permission from elves and ministry officials.

And Now What?

The original post posted just now did not make it into the new blog list as the poor line conditions prevented the posting. Wireless connection conditions are quite unpredictable unless you place the modem at a very strong signal position.

I didn't go out in the morning. It was raining pretty heavy and I felt like waiting until the rain stopped - which only just before noon. Before bed, I thought of going out early and enjoy the sightseeing which I loved every weekend here. But today was Chinese All Souls Day. By right, I was ought to go back to town and go to temple to pray. But I could not make it and I told the folks back there that I would only be back this weekend.

I read Edmund's commentary on Sampson's story and I felt that it was a story which prompts everyone of us to pause for thought. But it raised a question: Where would be the line before someone is deemed to materialistic? If you are a family man, how far will you go? Will you have to be that thing in order to provide comfort and the high quality of life that children should deserve to? Every father or parent are bound by duty to teach the child and support him whatever means necessary to help the child to reach adulthood.

Kiyosaki and Trump did commented and admitted that in the current social state and world economy, every person is will have to get their hands dirty as to put themselves out of the rat race cycle. Somerset Maugham once quoted, "Lack of money is the root of all evils."

But then, I agree and recalled that whatever things you enjoy here are only temporary. The things you have are borrowed from God and when your time is up here, all those are returned to HIM. Everyone has to pay in full price.

Call me of a sudden interest in religious subject, but after reading Edmund's post, it made me try to ponder on the parallel with our lives we are in. IMO, the preaching presents the opportunity and reminder to repent our mistakes that we make. We can be unfaithful in times, but God is faithful; he is everywhere, no matter where we are.

It's Monday tomorrow. Everyone hates Mondays. Break's over and my granny used to say, going back to the cage or prison. Ha!