TuneIn radio app

It has been a very long while since I ever thought about buying one of those Internet wifi radios. The idea appealed to me a lot. As far as I can remember, I had been playing around with short-wave radios, dialing in to all sorts of radio transmissions from across the world, whatever I could like audible on the radio waves. I wasn't into it in any big way, though. More like dabbling with this stuff. And my radio-listening hobby began most probably from my primary school days.

The very first transistor radio in my possession - actually, bought by my father - was this Hitachi WH-817. My first window to the world. Practically slept with it. With the adjustable lever on the front, I could switch from medium wave to short wave. It's long been spoilt and thrown away but I saw the exact same model in a museum in Sitiawan last year, still with its original leather case. So you can imagine my excitement. Wow, wow, wow.

This was my favourite transistor: the Sony ICF-7600D which I bought in Singapore. The price then was a cheap SGD100 and at that time in the mid-80s, the Malaysian Ringgit was still at near parity with the Singapore Dollar. It's still in good working condition but where I'm living right now, I shall need a good external antenna to pull in any decent signal. All things considered, the Internet radio would be a logical progression for me in this modern age. Many radio stations have turned to streaming and I would been able to pick up their radio streams easily.

How long has it been since I was eyeing a wifi radio to buy? I think it must have been at least two years. There were a few models that I was drooling a lot after, in particular the Philips Streamium MCi298 and the Logitech Squeezebox Boom (and later, the Touch).

The Streamium was supposed to be launched in Malaysia but despite all the hoo-haa and hype on their webpage, the model was never released locally at all. After a while, all traces of information on their webpage were removed. I tried to get in touch with the Philips office but always, I would hit a blank. Moreover, there was nobody replying to their customer service emails. Well, nobody answered my emails anyway.

Disgusted with the lack of information and response from Philips Malaysia, my attention turned to the Boom. I happened to be in Singapore and friends directed me to Sim Lim Square. If ever there's a place where you can find computer peripherals, this must be it! But despite walking all the floors, I was disappointed. None of the outlets carried the Boom but there was one shop carrying the Touch which they claimed was a newer model than the Boom.

I was rather hesitant because what I was looking for was a portable Internet radio that I could carry around the house. The Streamium or the Boom would have been ideal. The Touch would require it to be hooked up to a hifi system or at the very least, a pair of small portable speakers. I wasn't particularly interested in keeping a radio that could not be moved anywhere easily, although the idea of connecting it to my hifi system was very appealing.

So I didn't buy the Touch as well. A second visit to Singapore followed months later. By then, my resolve was already weakening. Surely, this time I will buy a unit. But as fate would have it, I didn't. Again, I hesitated. I'm due to make a visit there again sometime next year. Surely, I will pick it up then? Maybe yes, maybe no.

Then yesterday, a Singaporean friend asked me to download the TuneIn radio app for my new ipad. It's really good, he said, lots of good channels. Stephen knows me well enough; he knows what I want and he knew I was still searching for a good Internet radio.

True enough, TuneIn is a very interesting app for the ipad. It pulls in streaming signals from all over world so I'm able to listen to transmissions from far-flung places like the States or Britain or Australia or wherever. I'm only limited by the speed of the Internet line.

And last night, I wondered how the sound would be like if I were to connect the ipad to my hifi system. Well, it sounded alright. The music resonated out through my speakers with clarity and good separation. No fuzziness or distortion at all. I suppose it would be the same if I were to hook up the Touch to the hifi system as well but now, I'll never know.

I'm glad that I did not buy the Touch earlier. To me, the ipad performs just all well. It serves my purpose and that's all I want.

Four heritage sites in George Town

I came home yesterday thoroughly spent, having endured more than five hours under the blazing sun with my old classmate, Siang Jin. We were walking up and down the so-called Street of Harmony in the core heritage zone of George Town. He was taking photographs of the heritage sites while I was telling him where to aim his camera.

You see, I am mighty glad that my collaborative work with him is now almost at any end. It was an assignment that began in December last year, which means that almost 10 months have been spent on it. Ten months, 10 long months.

I had spent all this time to talk with people, research for information from long-forgotten books and documents, and spent hours piecing together new documentations for 10 heritage sites in this small area. Most of the work was completed between December and February. And now, all that remained was the photography work. This would be a job that required my friend to come up from Kuala Lumpur. After all, it was his initiative that the assignment ever got off the ground at all. Now he was here to finish it up.

Just like to share a few of the pictures that I snapped with my little Panasonic camera.

This is, of course, the interior of the Church of St George the Martyr in Farquhar Street. This is a perspective that's not normally seen. We asked permission to go up the staircase to the floor above the main entrance.

I think most people would be too familiar with the richness of the Khoo Kongsi's main building in Cannon Square by now. Therefore, I thought that this picture of one of their stone bamboo windows would make a nice change.

Elaborate carvings on the pillars that adorned the Kapitan Keling Mosque in Pitt Street. During one of the last restoration projects for the mosque, the carvings were uncovered after the workers had peeled away the multi-layers of old paint.

Our last stop at the Kuan Yin Temple in Pitt Street. It coincided with Kuan Yin's birthday itself, so the temple was full of people and smoke. These are just some of the big joss-sticks in the front courtyard of the temple.

NZ travelogue: Pinegrove Cottage

This is the Pinegrove Cottage which is located along the North West Arch in Twizel. It's a nice decent cottage with two self-contained apartments. Sliding glass doors open into a large living area with a dining room table, sofas and a television. The kitchen was large and well stocked with utensils. There were two bedrooms with queen-size beds. The bathroom was large with a huge shower.

The entire unit was very clean and comfortable. Of course, the moment we arrived and unloaded our stuff, the living room became totally well-worn. Later when we went out for dinner, our hostess, Joh Ingram, came in and left us our breakfast basket. Very healthy living!

As we had arrived quite late in the evening from Christchurch, we didn't get a chance to look around the grounds although we did get a breath-taking view of the night sky.

So it was only in the morning after partaking our breakfast and checking out of the cottage that we managed some time to walk through the spacious gardens. There's even a spot for people to do some barbequing if they are so inclined but at the tailend of autumn itself, that would be out of the question for hot climate folks like us!

We didn't get to meet much of our hosts, Alastair and Joh Ingram, except for the brief moments of checking in and checking out. In fact, when we were checking out, Alastair was already no where in sight, leaving Joh alone to cope with her guests.

I did hear that they were thinking of selling off the cottage and moving elsewhere. Whether or not this happens remains to be seen.

A blast from the past: Ghulam-Sarwar

I opened my computer this morning and wasn't surprised to see an email with "Hi" as the subject line. I do receive such emails occasionally. But I was surprised when I saw that this message was from Prof Dato' Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof.

This man is not unfamiliar to me. In fact as long ago as in 2008 when I was writing about the early years of the Penang Chess Association, I was already mentioning his name in this blog. And we had exchanged some "strong" words in public some 39 years ago. Not exactly proud of what my friends and I did then, but that was at a time when we lived more carefree lives as students.

Basically, he had a big role to play in forming this new association in 1972. However, his tenure at the association was very brief. By 1974 when the association held its annual general meeting, he was already out of the  picture. And I wasn't in Penang to really know what had happened in those two to three years.

So this morning's email from Ghulam-Sarwar shed some light on his role. Below is an extract from his email. I know he won't mind me sharing it here. It basically explained his activities in Penang - not only in the local chess circle - circa 1972:

Interesting that you should mention your surprise at my involvement in the Penang Chess Club. Why? I don't know. Just one of those things, I was involved in so many things before I left for Hawaii to do my PhD in 1972. I had to resign from more than twenty committees. Once back,  the same thing happened and it still happens, even though on each occasion I know I am doing too much.  

Prof, so glad to hear from you.

NZ travelogue: Day Two

The time we spent on the road during the second full day of our holidays in New Zealand turned out to be longer than expected. It wasn't that we travelled a farther distance than the previous day. I think it was about the same distance. But somehow, we spent a longer time driving around on Day Two. Perhaps it was due to us stopping a bit too often to take in the sights. At the Archway Motel in Wanaka where we stayed at journey's end, I joked with the proprietress, telling her that we had taken too much time stopping practically every 100 metres or so.

There is a little grain of truth in this, actually, because we were so taken in by the scenery. Okay, we might not have stopped every 100 metres of the way, but we stopped every time we saw something interesting or breath-taking.

For example, we left the Pinegrove Cottage only at 10 o'clock in the morning. We wanted to leave earlier but we were so taken in by the garden. Little stone statuettes, pine trees, huge pine cones and a fat, inquisitive tabby cat that refused to let us carry him. But as you can see, we did manage to do that eventually! Huge monster.

So we left Twizel at 10 o'clock. Set our GPS for Aoraki Mount Cook and drove all the way along the Lake Pukaki to the Mount Cook national park. Then it was another long drive back along the same road to Twizel before continuing along the highway to Wanaka. We only arrived at this town at about 6p.m. by which time it was almost dark.

The drive from Twizel to the national park was when my wife got her first reasonably close look at snow (this being one of the reasons why I wanted to go to NZ in the first place). The rolling hills had given way to the snow-capped alpine mountains. This, unfortunately, was about the nearest that we got to the snow experience.

When we stopped at the Glentanner Park along the way to the national park, we wanted to take a helicopter ride to the snowy mountain top and perhaps stop there for a few minutes. However, we were told that it was too windy that morning for the helicopters to fly. So that put paid to our intention. My wife would have to admire the snow from a distance.

Omarama? Where's Omarama? Oh, you mean that sheep town that we passed right through without my heart skipping a beat? Great, that was one of the few hiccoughs of our travel. We missed out completely on the town. Had meant to stop at this large merino sheep sculpture at the corner of Omarama Avenue and Chains Hill highway. The sculpture is representative of the town's main obsession with its livelihood, sheep rearing. What was I doing, forgetting about that??

That apart, the rest of the drive was interesting but not particularly uneventful. Uneventful meaning nothing happened. Interesting because we had to wind through the Lindis Pass. The drive took us up the mountain and down again, up another mountain and down again, etc. Drove at speeds not exceeding 65 kilometres per hour at many stretches. Here is one of the stops along the way.

Quite liked the interesting rock formations, especially this layered limestone outcrop. There were many others. Seemed to me that even in a small place like the South Island, different areas have their own distinct geological differences. But of course, it isn't totally unexpected because the country as a whole is located in a geologically active region. The landscape is ever changing.

And finally, just before we entered Wanaka itself, we crossed this magnificent one-lane bridge on Kane Road which crossed the beginnings of the massive Clutha River system. The bridge is obviously very old and must have been an engineering feat in the past. As no attempt had been made to widen or modernise it, still features only a single lane for traffic to get through.

New toy, old toy

I had been thinking of getting one of these play things for a very long time but had put it off for one reason or another. But mind you, it's not because of a certain Mr Steve Jobs (deceased), okay? None of that. It's just that several weeks ago, I happened to see the usefulness of the ipad2 for presentation purposes. Quite a nifty little machine, that! So I went to the Switch store at Queensbay Mall this afternoon to pick up this 16Gb+3G baby. What I'm left with now is for a friend to return from overseas so that I can copy the presentation slides from him....

On death

I found a copy of Steve Jobs' commencement address at Stanford University on 12 Jun 2005. Here is the part that interested me most. I think he must have been a Buddhist at heart:

Steve Jobs at Apple's "Let's Rock" media event in San Francisco on 9 Sep 2008

"When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

"About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

"I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

"This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

No more Jobs

 

Stories are everywhere on the Internet. Initially, I read it here and here, but then I saw it here, here and here. No doubt, I'll see it there, there and there too, eventually!

NZ travelogue: Drinking in the Milky Way

The second shock we encountered in New Zealand was that although technically you could be well within the town limits, certain roads may not be lighted at all. For example in Twizel, we were confronted with roads without any street lights as we made our way back after dinner to our cottage along the North West Arch. Luckily, we had the GPS to guide us back without incident but even then, we had to inch our way slowly through the dark in order to find the entrance into the compound.

But the pitch darkness had its advantage too because there is no light pollution. I think it was about nine o'clock at night when I decided to brave the cold and step outside our cottage. I put on my jacket, slid open the glass door and stepped onto the lawn. Everything around me was dark except for the lights from the cottage.

Then instinctively, I turned my eyes upwards and the wonderful sight of the Milky Way in the southern sky hit me right there and then. As my eyes began to get more accustomed to the darkness, more stars appeared until a whole swathe of twinkling stars stretched from one end of the sky to the other.

As this was something to be shared, I called out to my wife to put on her thickest clothes - and jacket - and join me outside. It's something you won't regret seeing, I assured her, as I knew that she'd preferred to be warm inside the cottage than freeze outside. You'll never see this back home in Malaysia, I added. It was like waiting a lifetime but eventually, the door slid open and she joined me.

For a long while we stood outside, looking upwards. We peered here and there, trying to locate the Southern Cross. There was a formation that looked like that constellation but I couldn't be sure. But ultimately it didn't matter to us because more importantly, the sheer enjoyment of the brightest and clearest night sky was more meaningful to us than just one constellation. 

Toppled down

Gosh, I just heard about this construction boom toppling down at about midnight and crushing two pre-war houses at the junction of Transfer Road and Sri Bahari Road. Worse, one man was reported to be killed while three others suffered serious injuries. And I can see the other end of the boom resting on the highrise building in the background. Surely, the force from the falling boom would have damaged that building too? From newspaper reports, the crane was being used to build a 20-storey hotel diagonally across from the destroyed houses.

AFTER the accident

BEFORE the accident

While the authorities are trying to find the cause for this accident, I've a hunch why it happened. I'm sure there is a combination of reasons but I would guess that ground stability is the main one. I hear that a big ditch or canal used to run parallel or beneath the road. The ditch or canal could have been filled up but the instability of the soil would remain. Who knows but this proposed 20-storey hotel could be coming up on this unstable land? If so, the construction boom would have been dangerously erected and it won't take much force, like violent gusts of wind, to bring it down. Just my speculation, of course.

This urinal has little room for error

The stock market has been lousy lately but it should be a good time to pick up some good stock as the prices are depressed. The only question is that we don't know how much lower the prices may plunge. Anyway, I was at the Bukit Mertajam branch of HwangDBS Investment Bank this morning to make payment for some stock that were picked up last week. (But don't ask me what they were, okay? Just know that their prices went down again this morning.)

Right, as I was about leave the building, I had to visit their washroom. Had drank too much water and slurped too much soup this morning so much so that my bladder was calling out for relief. I stepped into the washroom and saw two urinals side-by-side. Walked up to one of them and was surprised to see its unusual height. The other one was just the same.

As I was doing my business, I was thinking that gosh, the contractor that did this job must have run short of the concealed piping and decided to mount the urinals higher up on the wall. The urinals would be comfortable enough for any six-footer man to use but if a five-footer man were to walk into the washroom, he would most probably have to stand a little back and aim his shot upwards into the air and let gravity finish the job for him.

As for me, I could just about able to get my dick comfortably over the top of the urinal's base, still with some little clearance of course! So this is a good gauge to guess that I'm somewhere between five feet and six feet tall. The only positive consolation for this badly mounted urinal is that if a user of average height is prone to poor aim, there isn't much room for his golden shower to spill out of that blasted contraption!

Solving problems with money

Back online since yesterday at about 5pm, thanks of course to a new adsl modem. Who says all problems cannot be solved with money? Here is one that was solved with money. My money, All RM45 of it. That's the cost of the new adsl modem.

At first, I went to the one and only computer shop on the first floor of the AEON Seberang Perai City shopping mall. You cannot miss it because it's just two shoplots away from the entrance to the Jaya Jusco. However you SHOULD give it a miss, unless you don't have time to shop around anywhere else on the mainland.

For one thing, the prices there are generally steeper than other computer shops that I know on the mainland. I know that people would usually say that since they were already at the shopping mall, they might as well buy from the shops there. But do you shop at the spur of the moment? Very few people do that nowadays. They would have considered choices and prices and head to the shop that offered the best deals. If you are one of such folks, then this computer shop at the AEON Seberang Perai City should be struck off your list because of their pricier-than-normal price tags.

Another thing is that despite the size of the outlet, the stock level is very low. There was only one unit of the adsl modem on the shelf so if you really wanted to buy it, there wasn't much choice but to pick that one up. I asked one of the staff for network cables. She didn't understand me and had to refer to someone else who told her and she then told me that they weren't carrying cables.

And I've also to mention that inflexibility. Of course, I was desperate for a new adsl modem. So of course, I had to pick up the last one on the shelf. Cost was RM49, which I was willing to pay, but by credit card. But the cashier refused to accept my card, saying that they only accepted card payments if the amount was at least RM50. Come on, there was only a RM1 difference between the modem's price of RM49 and their policy of RM50. I believe they could have used their discretion and accepted my payment. No amount of persuasion could change them. They were adamant. I too can be stubborn. I refused to buy from them and told them straight off that instead of closing a sale, they had lost one customer. And all for RM1.

So where did that leave me? Why, PC Depot near the Pacific Megamall, of course! I didn't mind going there from the AEON Seberang Perai City because I knew that the guys at PC Depot could be rather helpful. I went into the shop, spoke to one one of the staff there, quickly got what I wanted - and there were so many in stock - made my payment of RM45 by credit card without questions, and breezed out of the shop within 10 minutes. A satisfied customer, having saved RM4 some more...

At home, the installation process went smoothly enough; I just followed the step-by-step instructions once I placed the installation disk into the desktop. Almost idiot-proof. No hiccups encountered. Finished everything at 5pm and started getting back online.

At 6.20pm, received a call from TMNet asking whether my connectivity problem had been resolved. I said yes. End of conversation. Didn't want to say much to them. But as I'm typing this, I'm just wondering how much their technicians had been doing at that end in the 24 hours since I reported the fault to them. Okay, so this was basically an equipment failure on my part instead of a line problem on their part but I really, really wondered what they were doing. Perhaps nothing more than to monitor the traffic on my telephone line, I suppose, and when they saw traffic back as normal, decided to give me a call to confirm it.

As an afterthought, my suspicion that they could have been monitoring my Internet activity might be correct because just a few seconds before I received the call from them, I noticed that my connectivity was momentarily lost and then it came back on again. Maybe they were just removing their equipment from my line...

Frustrating Thursday

I've had a lot on my mind recently. Yesterday was no help to me. Woke up in the morning to find that my Internet connection was lost. Before I go on further, I just want to mention that my Internet set-up comprises the telephone line to the adsl modem and from there, a cable to the wireless router. Another cable connects this wireless router to my desktop whereas the notebooks and netbooks connect by wireless.

As I said, I woke up yesterday to find the Internet connect lost. At first, I fiddled with the desktop and saw that although there was no problem with the desktop-router configuration, there was no outside connection to the Internet. So that ruled out any computer-related problem.

The problem was to figure out next what could be wrong with the equipment. Inbetween communicating with a friend in Kuala Lumpur and my own trial and error in Bukit Mertajam, I couldn't find any possible fault. Could it be a problem with the service provider then?

I contacted TMNet and asked them to check at their side and they said that they could see no technical problem at their end. They suggested that perhaps I should reinstal the modem router software. Tried this several times but always hit a snag. The modem router couldn't talk with the service provider at all.

Then last evening, something cleared up in my mind and I decided to hook up my secondary telephone line. Again, an explanation. I have two Internet lines at home. I applied for the second line more than a year ago only because I wanted to get a netbook for my son. I looked at it and saw that it was a good deal. But I also had to apply for a second telephone line as the terms of that netbook application would require a new Internet line as well. I had opted for the slowest (and cheapest) connection. All in, only about RM37 per month, which I can cancel after about 15 or 18 months. Just about now, actually. And in the past year or so, I believe that I had turned on the modem perhaps four or five times. All due to a downtime with the main connection.

So at least for last night, I had some slow connectivity on my netbook. I was able to clear my essential emails, my wife was able to clear some of her office emails as well. But it was frustratingly slow on the netbook.

This morning, after a good night's sleep, I awoke to an idea. Why not plug in the desktop cable into this secondary Internet connection? Would it work? Kept my fingers crossed. Yes, it did work. Then I tried it the other way round. I connected the modem router to the secondary telephone line. No, it didn't work this time. So I think my problem must be with this modem router. On its last leg already. Or as we used to say in the vernacular, kau tang already. It's time is up! Definitely! Looks like I'll have to make my way to the computer shop soon for a replacement....

Remember.... (part 4)

Well, 48 hours have passed by and I still don't see any word from the Film Censorship Board with regards to the fate of the video clip, Undilah, that's supposed to create awareness to our citizens to cast their votes at the next general elections. That's efficiency for you!

But never mind, we don't have to depend on the mainstream broadcasters to show the video. It's available on YouTube:

NZ travelogue: Lake Tekapo

We could have easily missed Lake Tekapo as my GPS destination was set straight to Twizel. Although there were signs along the highway from Geraldine to Twizel that the junction to Lake Tekapo was coming up next, it's quite easy to be distracted by the sights and you forget to take the turning. It was only after I had passed by the junction that I had to turn the car around.


Eventually, we arrived at the landmark Church Of The Good Shepherd which sat at the edge of the lake. It was just past four o'clock in the afternoon, New Zealand time. Just our luck, we could see the custodian of the church locking the door and walk away. Therefore, no chance of going inside the small church. What else was there to do but to loiter around outside the building?

Seemed that a million other people had the same idea. Although the church was closed by the day, there were still lots of people walking around, taking snapshots of the building. The surrounds were not as empty and desolate as the tourist brochures would have us believe. If I had thought that the quaint building would be a good place for a photo opportunity, it was not to be. Too many people wandering around gave us no hope of privacy.

But at least, everybody was helpful enough to take pictures for other strangers. I took their photos (with their cameras, of course) and in turn, they took our photos (with our cameras, of course, too).

And as we were standing around the church, a tourist bus soon arrived to spill out another large group of tourists. Either Japanese or Koreans. I couldn't be sure, but within minutes they were swarming about us. Many wandered off to have their pictures taken at the alternative tourist spot, the statue of the shepherd dog, which was about 50 metres away. Thank goodness for that. I would have felt positively stifled with so many people around me!

So I told my wife, why not let's wander a bit closer to the lake. From afar, we could already see its magnificence. Snow-capped mountains in the distance. Surely, my wife would be thrilled to see real snow-capped mountains for the very first time, which she was.

We were glad to have seen the lake. Wow, what a vast expanse of beauty. Quiet, natural beauty. At least, with very few people having the same idea as us, there were less human traffic around. Here's my last impression of the Church Of The Good Shepherd and the Lake Tekapo. Hope you have enjoyed the panoramic views of the last few pictures.

Remember.... (Part 3)

Well, 24 hours have passed by and I don't see any word from the super-efficient Film Censorship Board with regards to the fate of the video clip, Undilah, that's supposed to create awareness to our citizens to cast their votes at the next general elections.

Anyway, when I went to take a closer look at the video, I was pleasantly surprised to see my favourite Hainanese restaurant in Kuala Lumpur being used as a venue for the video shoot. Yes, the Yut Kee Restaurant in Jalan Dang Wangi. At first glance, I had thought that the place looked mighty familiar...

Sri Aruloli Thirumurugan Temple, Penang Hill

During my last trip up Penang Hill with friends, I took some time off to visit the Sri Aruloli Thirumurugan Temple which was about 100 to 150 metres from the funicular train's upper station. The temple, which was dedicated to Sri Bala Muruga, was located on a small mound at the summit and accessible by a short flight of steps.

The temple's quite compact and visitors could walk freely around the spacious compound. Except for some parts of the external walls where the paint was peeling off, I was quite surprised that the building and statues were well maintained. I did go inside the temple to look around but it was generally too dark even for the camera's tiny in-built flash to illuminate adequately. Besides, it didn't help that the day was beastly hazy. Normally, we'd be able to see George Town from the summit but on that day, even the most optimistic visitor would be frustrated. Well, we were.

So except for one composite shot of the protectors of the temple's arthamandapam (antechamber), which housed the statue of Sri Bala Muruga, the rest of the photos here were snapped outside the temple building.

This is the statue of Sri Bala Muruga outside the temple. He is normally identified by the vel (spear) that can be seen in this picture. The blue peacock, Maragatha Mayil, is also a common feature of this deity.

And finally, there is this magnificent sculpture at the temple grounds. It's more for decoration, like the rest of the statues and scultures adorning the sides of and atop the temple's building but I've known of people praying to it. To the uninitiated, this may only look like a group of Hindu deities but actually, this is a representation of Hinduism's First Family of Deities.

The largest statue in the centre is that of Sri Shiva, one of the three most important gods of the Trimurti (Hindu Trinity). Beside Shiva is his consort, Sri Parvati. Sitting on Parvati's lap is Sri Bala Muruga, identified by his vel, and the one of the left with an elephant's head and four arms is Sri Bala Ganesha. Both Muruga and Ganesha are the sons of Shiva and Parvati. How Ganesha acquired the head of an elephant is a long story best left to another time to tell. 

Remember .... (part 2)

Well, I've just seen this news report on The Malaysian Insider website. Already, you have a joker from the ruling party who says that the Undilah video clip, which was yanked from the local broadcasters on orders from the MCMC on the filmsy excuse that it hasn't been passed by the film censorship board, contained some subliminal messages detrimental to them.

Subliminal message? Of course, there are subliminal messages everywhere. It's only whether a party feels boxed in enough to think that the message is only about them. It's all in the personal perception, that all.

But coming back to this story, I'm sure this is a strong hint of what's to come next. Come Monday or Tuesday, what are the bets that the censorship board will say that the video clip cannot be aired at all? I'd like to see them prove me wrong.

Remember....

I call this post "Remember" so that I can remind you to do the right thing when the next general elections are announced. I am putting this short video up on my blog because I am upset that the MCMC has called for it to be pulled from any television station's broadcast.

The filmsy excuse given by the MCMC is that the film has yet to get through the censorship board. So now I am watching the situation closely to see how efficient the censorship board is. How many days will it take the board to approve this video? It's not as if this is a zillion-dollar foreign blockbuster movie. This is is just a short local video that was produced by some Malaysians.

But until then, I just want to remind everybody to "remember" your rights as a citizen of this land and do what's right come the next general elections!

Not disappointed!!

The satisfaction was in the sitting down in front of my computer with my wife on Thursday night to watch the first episode of the second season of the new Hawaii Five-0 series.

We watched the cliffhanger several months ago and had been waiting patiently for this new season to start. We weren't surprised with the general development of the story because after all, the foursome's reunion as a team was to be totally expected. But neither were we disappointed.

I'm far, far from being a TV addict but hey, if there's only one television series that I can watch regularly, this must be it. I know that Jimmy, one of my chess friends, has been telling me ever so often that the episodes from the last season were b-o-r-i-n-g but to me, watching the action on Hawaii Five-0 is just like watching the late, great Mikhail Tal playing chess! Totally exciting. Totally gripping.