A place to breathe

Friday, November 28, 2008

Negaraku

We were discussing with some of our friends on the origin of Negaraku, Malaysia's national Anthem.

I pointed out to this excerpts from Wikipedia :


The song was composed by Pierre-Jean de Béranger (1780-1857), a French lyricist. It became a popular French melody, and was prominent on the island of Mahé in Seychelles. The song's popularity spread across the Indian Ocean and reached as far as the Malay Archipelago early in the 20th century. An Indonesian Bangsawan made the first debut of the song while performing in Singapore. The melody soon became very popular among the the people and was given the name Terang Bulan(Bright Moon), becoming a Malay 'evergreen'.



While I don't trust all content of the Wikipedia, I know that Negaraku was originated from the song "Terang Bulan". I remember learning it in History lesson in secondary school.

I'm not making any point here, except, we should think of originality next time. I agree that originality is rare (even Nirvana's song Smells Like a Teen Spirit was inspired by song by The Pixies, "Gigantic"). But the song sounds distinctive enough that we (at least most of the kids grew up in the 90s) know exactly , when we listen to the few chords at the beginning, we know it's Smells Like a Teen Spirit, and nothing else.

Don't believe me? Listen to this orchestra

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

No more car

I'm returning my car tonight to the original owner whom I bought the car from. My life becoming more hassle with the big house and car, and I don't really need both of them fancifully. at least at this moment. I'm moving out to smaller room (still looking).

I just need a simple life, family.
And nice music.

What's your dream car?

This is more like the questions for myself. What's my dream car?

Here's what I want, in order of "affordability"

1. Proton Persona
I want this car. I feel like this is a good buy, although I know that Malaysians have been pretty much being ripped off when it comes to buying cars due to Proton protection mechanism. Still, I think Proton Persona is an affordable luxury. (Luxury you say?? Yes, I mean, at least it's bigger than Kancil!).

2. Proton Perdana
Not much of what I really want, but it's something that I could afford to buy if I have a lot of money (I mean, decently).

3. Volkswagen Jetta

I've been dreaming about this car since I was in college. The built look sturdy, and I was thinking maybe I want to buy it one day.

4. Mercedez Benz (SLK series).

So by now, you know that I'm currently dreaming. It's good to have a dream, as long as you don't become Mat Jenin. I want this car. I hope I can get a better Benz series, but this is a good enough of something to be dreaming about.

I don't particularly passionate about BMW, but it's a nice car.

If I become a millionaire one day, the order of the above list will be reversed

Now, let's get back to reality. I mean, should I buy Modenas Kriss, Yamaha Lagenda or Honda EX5 Dreams?
Yes, it's good to be dreaming. That's what Honda said - the Power of Dreams.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Do nothing

You know, life is pretty simple if you think about it.

There are two three things we do in this world:

1. Work
2. Play
3. Pray (if you have religion).
4. Nothing.

There are a lot of people already talking about Work, Pray, Play. But who ask themselves when can I do absolutely nothing?

I'm not talking about doing nothing to the extent where you don't even breathe. That just means that might as well be dead.

I'm talking about you just sit on your ass and do nothing.

When?

1. When you're lazy to wake up from your bed on Saturday morning. You feel like listening to the song "I'm Only Sleeping" . You'll do nothing for like a couple of hours.

2. When you come back from work and you don't want to do anything. You just relax at Nasi Kandar, or plucking guitar, or just staring at the wall.

3. On Sunday morning after you are done doing some outstanding 2 weeks laundry, wash car and mop the floor. You want to do absolutely nothing. You sleep until nth hour.

4. When you're stuck working on something at work, and you usually want to relax for a bit, and you look there's no incoming emails and so you just want to relax. I usually read the Edgar Allan Poe's poetry around my cubicles and then just want to do nothing after a while.

5. When you start your car and warm up the engine. You listen to the music, blast loudly, and you want to do absolutely nothing after that.

6. When you're not sleepy, but you're already at home after work and after dinner, but still early to go to bed. Since Astro keep playing the same program over and over, or I don't like any of the programs despite having so many of them, I want to do absolutely nothing. Just go to the room and relax on the lazy chair, and do nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Any other suggestions when can I do nothing, please let me know

Sunday, November 23, 2008

What the hell happen in this country?

I was looking for a cheap room to rent and I was quite shocked on just how people here choose their preference on their roommates. I could understand that the Female want female roommates (also Male, with male, i don't care). But Chinese working/Student and Malay Working student? Who cares?

What, do you care that I don't eat pork and whether I pray or not? You are in your room, and I am in my room. Unless you are concern on me putting on loud music and disturbing you if I pray so loudly (am I? I don't think so). Who cares.

Seriously, do you foresee that we would have something like:

Preference: Bangladeshi, Male. Vietnamese, Male, working


You're Malaysians, and that's all I care. I can even stay with Bangladeshi, who give a shit.

Monday, November 17, 2008

back hurt and Django dev

My back hurt so badly. I haven't gone to exercise for too long.

The sugar cane plants that I grow at my Teluk Kumbar house are now growing tall, about 5 inches (there are 4 of them) now. This is great.

Last weekend, I got Django web framework running on a user space on a hosted site. It was a bit hassle because I have no admin rights but I got it to run. The way I did is by installing python itself and set the PYTHONPATH into the newly installed version. Django is pretty easy to get it up and running. The next step is to create project.

I've thought a lot these days. Since ReCom lost in AYA dream awards last Nov 9, it got me thinking of many things.

About Me

I'm currently a software engineer. My specific interest is games and networking. I'm running software company called Nusantara Software.