Sad news for a smart Malaysian (UPDATED)

Sufiah Yusof, the child Maths genius who won a place at Oxford University when she was just 13, has been found to be working as a prostitute, according to a report. Read more here.

I have followed her story since 1997. Her downfall since entering university as a young teenager, I must say is rather spectacular.

She was the pride of Malaysians; appearing on the front pages of our local dailies when she was only 13, wearing a square hat and an innocent smile. Although we know she isn't exactly Malaysian (in fact, a UK citizen), but having a Malaysian mom was enough for us to stake claim on her most amazing mathematical prowess.

She was admitted to Oxford University to study mathematics at the tender age of 13. At 13, the only maths I know was who stole my marbles, how many and what colours, and how many parts I was going to chop the thief up.

She commanded a lot of respect from the academics. I remember the media portraying her as an all-rounder, played tennis at an highly competitive level and having seemingly normal relationship with all her family members. The message sent out was obvious, she was normal, just a little more hardworking than the rest of us nubs. So that gave us, the average joes, some hope - if you put in the work, you should see the result.

But sadly, the real result was catastrophic.

As soon as she started life as a uni student, she went rebellious with a capital R, complete with some divorce papers and a uni dropout tag some years later. It was never clear why she'd gone the other way. She blamed it on her relationship with the father, who himself made headlines and now doing time for molesting a student.

But the shock-and-awe, no, the awe-and-then-shock ending to the story never crossed anyone's mind. Now that she is richer than the average 23-year-olds, the English media has successfully put a halt to her colourful alternative career by blowing her cover (her glamour name is Shilpa Lee!). Although, I reckon, if she is unrepentent, she could easily cross the pond and make an even bigger fortune shooting porns in USA, with this new found infamy. But that's the devil in me talking - you can ignore that.

But as a Malaysian, and as a caring member of the society, I do wish she can re-start her life away from the glare of the public and do something that commands more respect, because clearly, she can do better.

Hhmm...life.

Angkasawan official space result... HERE

I didn't intend to post until much later, but I simply cannot pass up the chance on this one... :)

Star Online reported: "The results of experiments carried out in space by Angkasawan Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor will be released next month."**


After reading it, the only image I had of our space tourist national hero was...

ANGKASAWAN OFFICIAL RESULT AFTER 10 DAYS in SPACE:

He he. Sheikh n Mix(uszaphar)...

It is indeed very possible for a Malaaysian to beat the Russians and Americans in zero-gravity! (Super Chick Sisters)


....that would be news :).


** please read the Star article; Universiti Sains Malaysia had just concluded a week long campaign called the BRAIN AWARENESS week. One whole week for brain awareness. Don't you just love our university copywriters' sense of humour?

Oh, my heartiest congratulations to Star Online on their site facelift - someone in their IT dept figured that it was about time they did some web template revamping and image rejigging! Nice, I like it. Now let us pray someone senior from their editing and content management department also do their own revamping - NO MORE RUBBISH ONE-SIDED REPORTING PLEASE, EVEN IF YOUR BIGGEST SHAREHOLDER IS SOMEONE FROM THE GOVERNMENT. You need that more than a simple facelift to give yourself a much needed credibility. Go on, be brave and be honest with yourself.

counting the steps

...in a popular KL location.

IS THERE A SIGNIFICANCE?
(follow the creepy "revelation" below)

My conversation with weirdo t_____ on yahoo messenger:

t____ :have you been to the pavillion?
me: of course
t____ : you know the steps leading to the bintang circle?
me: what is bintang circle?
t____ : the open area where they hold all kinds of launches
me: ok
t____ : have you ever counted the steps leading to the bintang circle?
me: why wud I do that?
t____ : i knew you say that
(pause)
me: so? and?
me: *buzz*
t____ : there are 35 steps
me: wow u actually counted them
t____ : there is a reason for this
me: u bs-ing again!
t____ : no
me: ok, why?
(pause)
me: *buzz*
me: oi
t____ : to avoid bad wind
me: what is that? fart?
t____ : funi you. bad wind means bad lucklah.
me: no one say bad wind as bad luck
t____ : got, you can be very ignorant
me: oi thanks
me: so? u counted the steps. And?
t____ : 35
me: this is so random
t____ : you think?

i went to toilet. Came back and was greeted with these messages.

t____ : 35
t____ : 35
t____ : 35
t____ : A corporate figure was killed at a shopping mall construction site 3 years ago
t____ : He was 35
t____ : The wife got seriously injured
t____ : She was 35
t____ : A Myanmar worker was killed in an accident at the Pavilion contruction site.
t____ : He was 35
t____ : A landslide in a KL construction site 2 years ago, killed an Indonesian worker.
t____ : Guess how old? 35!
me: coincidence
me: u just pull some random facts together
me: coincidence la
me: hello
me: *buzz*

Suddenly I felt like we are in a scene from Da Vinci Code II (numerology comes to KL).

I googled for the news to validify those accidents:
News 1: 2 workers dead, 10 seriously injured
News 2: A PhD corporate figure killed in freak accident
News 3: Construction landslide killed worker

have i been prematurely april fooled?

NEWS for potential back-stabber and back-stabbee: a community message

The dismal showing by the ruling party in the recent poll has split opinions over the timing of UMNO party's election.

Some say now.

Others say hang on.

Some say postponing will calm the storm.

Others say postponing it will make things worse.

Whatever it is, most of us are happily watching this sandiwara...

We can certainly expect a lot of bruised egos, keris-unsheathing, and back-stabbing in the run-up to this election.... yummeh.

For those who feel a little vulnerable, you still have time to purchase:

Slash resistant T-shirt

(new T-shirts offer protection against knives)

adeh! i tot u were my brudda...

(A community message from Sisuahlai.)

Glossary:
sandiwara (malay) - drama

The New Democracy

If you can string a sentence together, you can blog. No, if you can cut, copy and paste (and dodge copyright laws) you can blog. It's that easy. - Sisuahlai

The Malaysian PM has finally acknowledged the role played by bloggers in the last election. He admitted ignoring the internet was his biggest mistake. For years, bloggers are seen as rogue media, rumour-mongers and lies-generators by the Malaysian government. Of course we are. Anything that is unregulated is free to be exploited, sure.

Sadly, that was the ONLY perception of us bloggers held by the government (before the tsunami hit them). Woosh..

There will always be bad apples among bloggers. Same for politics. Same for the police force. Same for anything in a democratic society.

This is when we call for the function of brain! Pak Lah, we are all born with one - this is the purpose: to pick our favourite apple.

I say it is important to have bad apples among bloggers.

Only then, will we see true democracy working. If people choose to listen and believe these so-called bad apples, that basically shows that the good apples are doing an appalling job at convincing them. Kudos to the bad apples, fair game.

This is the reason why society that bans certain religious beliefs, books and restrict non-violent free expression will never see the day of a progressive group of people leading their nation.

Certain governments claim that true democracy can only be allowed once the educational needs of the people are fully met. It cannot be unleashed to a society that is not fully equipped with the right knowledge otherwise extremism will prevail.

f--king rubbish!

True democracy accelerates educational advancement. True democracy weeds out extremism (where are the majority of extremists hiding; and where are they hatching their plans from?). True democracy allows us to have a wider view of the world. True democracy allows us to accept different races as belonging to the same family - thinking humans.

There is no place for limited democracy. It's either full democracy or no democracy. And thank goodness for blogging, and to a certain extent Pak Lah's government for allowing free flow of internet information (unlike China), we are beginning to see some hope in our beloved country...

Pak Lah said, in his "Invest Malaysia 2008" keynote address yesterday, "we thought that the newspapers, and print media, the television were supposed to be important, but young people (ahem, I think you mean young and older people) were looking at sms and blogs."

He went on to say "I thank the Malaysian people for this message. Point well made and taken."

What a painful way to to learn a lesson, losing 2/3 majority of parliamentary seats and losing 5 states to the Opposition! I have one suggestion Pak Lah, please subscribe to my blog feed* to get the latest news. :) Free of charge, no need to tender some more.

From Sisuahlai (mr. bad apple)

*also applies to RPK, Rocky Bru, Marina Mahathir (she is now celebrating her 1,000,000th hit), LKS, S Dali and other bad apples. :)

pajama party withdrawal syndrome

Constantly blogging about the party, over and over

Constantly mentioning about the party: on msn chat, on the phone etc etc...

Constantly searching for new pictures of that party (esp. on innit)

Constantly looking at the party pyjamas, and can't help thinking how lonely they look now...

DIAGNOSIS: CHIAK LAT

so sad (the second meaning)

Shyness not included: let's organise a kennysia chatters meet

Before calling oneself a pro-blogger, there are several milestones one has to surpass.

The first milestone is to pull in the traffic number by the shed loads. The second milestone is to have the advertisers queuing for your precious blog-space. The third one, slightly more disturbing, involves your very own readers jostling and fighting for the first commentor spot on your latest blog entry.

pretty scary.

But the real acid test, and most ultimate milestone, IMHO, has to be this one: having a personal chat box that grows and grows in participation, culminating in the emergence of resident chatters who never seem to take a holiday! I mean never.

Only when you have achieved the above, can you hold your head up high and call yourself a PRO-BLOGGER. You might also consider changing your name to Kennysia.com. Because this is exactly the influence he has on our blogosphere.


In this entry, I'll be paying a special homage to those amazing Kennysia.com resident chatters. You'll never be lonely if you have them as friends because they are always there. Always.

in no particular order...proudly presenting

MUNAKS: whenever he sees me on ks chat, this guy (almost) always greets with me with this : "sisuahlai lai liao". It was creepy at first, but I soon learn to accept. I say he is a good guy, despite accidentally hitting his meat-spinning links on several unfortunate occassions (in the office)!! Cheers Munaks. BTW, he keeps a great blog on wordpress .

n!ck: N!ck is another resident ks chatter. He confesses to playing poker on facebook. I owe this guy some oysters. He may be secretly in love with nic_kiss, but I cannot tell for sure (then again more than half of malaysia and sg blog readers are in love with her, so you cannot blame him). He writes on blogspot, on the classy minima black template, just like sisuahlai. :P

nina: She's a good friend, both in the virtual and non-virtual worlds. She can definitely mow anyone down with her writing if she wants to, so don't mess with her. In life, a friend once told me that it is always wise to have at least one gangsta friend; so if i needed one, I will email her. :)

Jane: She's from Sarawak and she is on my sunshine links. She wants to meet for coffee, but it is presently impossible to drive to Sarawak from KL, definitely not with my MyVi. She writes on her travelogue.

Linda: She is a star and she is Twinkle's mom. She writes about her starlet here.

zomfgwtfbbq: if this was a legit english word, I'd fail my spelling test. I am not sure if he's human, I presume so. But zomf is definitely the penghulu of ks chat.

carmen_wen: Wen wen is also from Sarawak. Another minima template blogger like n!ck and I. Classy. She says she likes to read magazines, sleep, chat, sms-ing (i initially read this as s&msing, got a little excited) and laugh, among other human activities. She identifies herself as the lonely lost zebra; the first zebra native to Sarawak I'm sure.

copykate: My fellow pajama party goer. We didn't say hello to each other, as her eyes were probably fixed on kenny or tim, while mine firmly screwed on dawn. Copykate writes with distinct originality here, and she is no blog copycat.

fritz: Another resident ks chatter. She writes on blogspot. Her picture wobbles with excitement everytime you touch them. She is an engineer in the making.

Other notable regular chatters are of cos ms doctor kelly, another pajama party attendee ch@rlie, mr corporate/pharmacist in south Thailand seizhin, your royal highness Steph, mr politics CK, another mr politics chee hoe and don't sue her Sue.

Kennysia won't be kennysia without this colourful chatters.


(wouldn't it be good if we all get together and hold a kennysia.com chatters meet one day? Kenny if you're reading this... will you be the patron for this cult gathering :)?)

P/s any self-admit ks chatter, if I omitted you please nudge me here. Let's see if any chatters here are keen to meet up one day.

ideas for nuffnang Singapore party

I'm like a bird...

If you haven't logged into the nuffnang site or read the newspapers in the last 2 days - can i just inform - the nuffnang pajama party was covered by both NST and Star. Whoa, I've never known a more celebrated one-year old.

Kudos to the nuffneng team for a party so well organised. It's embarrassing to admit, but I am looking forward to the Singapore leg of the next nuffnang bash. It's not easy to get a 30 year old excited, but nuffneng somehow just know how to push the right bloggers' buttons. Damn u.

right, let me propose a few themes for the next bash:

(1) SWINGERS. ha, ha. like real...

(2) BACK-TO-SCHOOL. this one is quite fetishistic, but if britney can rock our world with pak wa baby ke chi' pai, why can't nuffnang bloggers do it for ourselves?

(3) STAR WARS. expect many girls turning up to the party with Leia's curls. And men carrying cardboard rolls as lightsabers.

(4) COMIC villains and heroes. this one should be really fun! I reckon the guy with the transformer's helmet will make a repeat appearance. Be warned decepticons. He takes kilkenny.

If required, he can also take tiger. (where's your straw, sir?)


(5) HALLOWEEN. Hmm, very seasonal and yawn, boring.

(6) or if those nuffnang guys cannot think of something original (unlikely), they can always return to their default theme: the PYJAMA PARTY, the one that's spelt with 3 As la. :P We cannot get enough of pyjama bash, can we?

So, do you have a better idea for a party theme?

Glossary:
pak wa baby ke chi' pai (hokkien) - hit me baby one more time
pajama - nuffnang possibly copyrighted this spelling

Till next week.

WTF

I sat through 2 hours of 10,000BC last evening. I almost grew a beard, it felt like 12,008 years of torture! Almost, had it not been for Camilla Belle and the last 25 minutes. I wish I had scratched a pimple on my face at the beginning of the show, bled, excused myself from the cinema and never went back. But I sat through like stoopid.

I don't know how you describe this movie, epic tu-em-si, love story tu-em-si, history tu-em-si. (If you have two free tickets from Nuffnang to watch any GSC movie, go watch something else ok... Duyung perhaps?)

Ok, I sidetracked even before I got to the subject matter.

Not too long ago, I had an argument with an auntie about kids nowadays having a richer vocabulary. I think they do. But this auntie disagreed, and argued that we watch too many TV and read very little.

(see how I slip in we in that sentence, cos I'm still a kid ok)

So as a result, she argued, kids' everyday conversations are peppered with needless repetitions like "see", "seriously", "kinda", "basically", "like", and swear words. Trashy and no creativity at all, she said.

So what? As long as they can communicate their point across clearly, why should parents be worried?

She said,"It does matter, it is not just about articulating a point. Having a rich vocabulary helped them think better."

The argument went on for 30 minutes, sorry- the lecture went on for 30 minutes.

Throughout most of this, my mind slipped in and out of hibernation, only intermittently coming out alive to wonder how I landed with this conversation in the first place with an auntie I barely know, in a public place!

My internal conversation went something like this, "Shit, shit, shit. How do I get out of this? I hardly know her, wtf she?" (I think some kids behind me could possibly hear my thought and mercy plea, but I was ignored)

Now that I have some time to reflect, I think the auntie could be very right.

I didn't offer anything to convince her otherwise sial!

Glossary:
tu-em-si (hokkien) - "it isn't"
duyung (malay) - mermaid
sial (malay) - damn
WTF - hooderfak or wadderfak

A yellow card for laziness!

Let's see if they will be less lazy with the new cabinet line-up...

picture was taken by a cousin in Kuching, pre-election time
(featured in The Star "Thumbnail" section; 18 March 2008)

Read what I think about the new cabinet line-up here.

Sisuahlai's Everything You Wanted To Know About Love - revisited

(1) Men prefer women with a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.7 and symmetrical, happy faces. No use having a perfect ratio but with a chiak cheng-ji face (worried face, one that has bitten a bullet!).

(2) Love and fear send the same type of message to the brain: take your date to a horror film and they're more likely to find you attractive. Suggestion: Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

(3) Men, if given the choice, will reject the younger LESS good-looking women in favour of an attractive older women. Beauty is more important than youth and fertility. Silly, but true and fair.

(4) Twice as many men as women prefer bad sex to no sex. Men are really just bags of rampant hormones and misfiring nerves.

(5) A woman looking for a sense of humour in a man is saying "Show me how socially skilled you are." When a woman laughs a lot, a man's instinct is: "She must think I'm great".

(6) Money overrides factor (5).

:( hmph....

Glossary:
cheng-ji n. - gun-seed or bullet
chaik v. - eat

images from filmreference.com

Obituary: Anthony Minghella (January 6, 1954 - March 18, 2008) an Academy Award winner for the English Patient. He also directed the popular London opera, Pucini's Madama Butterfly.

One of the best love stories shot on film...

...my DVD supplier doesn't have this one... (sad); do you have a copy?

Nuffnang 1st Birthday Bash (update 3)

More pics, my friends.

The Chipster Guy wearing his Dolce and Gabana - chicken flavour.
Adeline (of Dreamgirls) with security-breaching poser.
Quasimodo found Barbie.
Two Kuching guys getting a little cosy.
"Microphone meet bloggers, bloggers meet microphone."
When Kenny laughs, the whole world laugh at with him.

Happy Days.

Malaysians await an important announcement tomorrow

Disclaimer: a fictional conversation obviously (obviously?)

Unrelated links:
Khairy to decide who is the next Gerakan Penang CM
He is not my adviser, says Abdullah

Nuffnang 1st Birthday Bash (update 2)

Why do bloggers love nuffnang™ parties? (Easy)

Reason 1: freebies.

Reason 2: opportunity to meet life-sized wax figure. NO0-la, just jOoking :). This is Dawn Yang; one of the three wikipedia characters making their special guest appearances at the Nuffnang Pajama Partay. Look at the camera pls Dawn... pls, I promise I won't look down.

Reason 3: if you think you're a weird person, you will really feel at home here. My weirdo role model...is this guy who decorated his room with bags and bags of keropok Chipster. He walked away with a cool Apple laptop... jealous man.

Reason 3: Nobody is uncool here if Kid Chan is in the house. Sing it Kid...

Reason 4: Meeting cuties like Helena, Su Ann, Jerilyn, and Lily. (L to R)

Reason 5: And more cuties. ta' le habis...

Reason 6: Definitely a highlight, listening to Nicole serenading to a crowd of 300-odd oddballs (me included).

Reason 7: hanging out with my soon-to-be lunch kaki. Thomas "the tank engine" Yap.

Reason 8: (not really a reason, but I include this anyway) Relieve to find out that Malaysian models do makan. So who is your favourite Dreamgirl? - free plug again

Reason 9: Chance to get out of the house and have a life away from the computer!! Yay!


:) happy birthday Nuffneng-neng.

gulp!

Nuffnang 1st Birthday Bash (update 1)

Miss 'Sally' Sisuahlai was there.
Xiaxue was there.
Jayden and Sisuahlai were there.
Ringo (of Dreamgirls and Cheeserland fame) was there.
Those girls were there.
Valerie and mom were there. Those pillows were also there.
So where were your pyjamas last evening?

More update soon, I'm tired, never had so much fun meeting so many pyjamas (and bloggers)....


Blogs that we'll be following for some delicious party updates...
liyuansremedies.blogspot.com
xanga.com/jerilyntiffanny
jacsafterparty.blogspot.com
povege.com
yapthomas.com
pinksmurf.com

Mahathir's Protégé is No Prodigy

Dear PM,

Isn't this a worrying trend?

Your popular vote is waning. The Perlis and perhaps Terengganu royalties are not listening to you. Mukhriz (allegedly) penned this letter (the translated version) and you don't know how to react to it without delegating the job to your keris-waving junior. I hope your other senior ministers are not secretly enjoying this moment and slowly bidding their time for their own position of glory.

Like Britney used to say, why don't you do something?

"Now you're all in my grill
cause i say what i feel
only rock to whats real
baby bump bump
but i cant do that with you
only here with my crew
you can roll if you can
don`t be a punk punk

what you gonna do when the crowd goes aiyo?
why you standing on the wall?
music`s startin everywhere
so why dont you just move along?

i see you looking at me
like i`m some kinda of freak
get up outta your seat
why don`t you do somethin`?"

Malaysian Dreamgirl part 3 of many (the final 12)

Once upon a time, in a land, not too far away from my city condo, 12 special ladies were ushered into this palatial shelter where they will receive weeks of intensive training. Wisdom and knowledge of the ancient art of looking pretty in various combination of clothes and poses will be imparted to these eager apprentices.

The host reminded the girls how lucky and bertuah to be the chosen 12. She advised, "now make yourself at home but be mindful at all times, we have a pool. If you use it wisely it will take you places. Now don't look at me like that... hurry up, got chance to wear bikini now. Chop chop."

(The mostly male camera crew could not believe their karma. What have they done to deserve this?)

Some of the apprentices were allowed into the diary room to air their grievances; or sometimes, just to share their views with the camera crew and host. Why this particular pretty padawan wore a bikini and a towel for the interview I also don't know. She look drugged? No0-la.



Master Elaine imparting some tips from the pedestal.

"This is the way of the wise my apprentices...now please stand up and wiggle your hips."

"Now look down at your toes; look for the signs... look"

"Now stand up and arch your back like this.."

But the best (these ones are not made up) Manglish lines came from Episode 3:

Elaine: "Both hands are out like that you know. One hand might be chopped off. So you just might want to angular a bit more, just suck in your tummy.." (Episode 3 part 2; clip 4:00 to 4:12)

Hand (arm) chopped off? What is this?
Hmm...what are the chances if this is an academy for selecting Malaysia's...

Sisua-salute to the Dreamgirl academy.

Glossary:
bertuah - (malay) fortunate
Manglish - mangled English/Malaysian English
Lu kong hamik -"what talk you"