it has been raining in penang for the past few days. and what a rain it was. within a day, the rain comes and goes, comes and goes, and it was heavy and light, heavy and light.

you get out of your house, cloud is clear. you begin to walk to the bus-stop. halfway walking there, suddenly… whooshh!! the rain came… and it was so heavy! quick, you open your umbrella and continue walking to the bus-stop. as you reach the bus-stop, suddenly the rain stops.

perhaps some of you have came across this before:

————–

What is the height of globalization?

Answer: Princess Diana’s death

Question: How is it?

Answer:

An English princess with an Egyptian boyfriend crashes in a French tunnel, driving a German car with a Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian
who was high on Scottish whiskey, followed closely by Italian Paparazzi, on Japanese motorcycles, treated by an American doctor, using Brazilian medicines!

go get the latest issue of aliran! interesting read! there are 3 articles from people i know. anil netto, a church friend, like martin jalleh. dr cecilia ng, whom i know just casually, and finally from the office of ‘penang office for human development’ - the ‘branch office’ of my office (same big boss, same building).

the following is the editor’s note for this current issue - issue 2004:5 (not mentioned is the ‘rojak song’ article. interesting funny read on our rojak song).

haze help by martin jalleh.

apology to all gmail lovers… this is a grumbling of a non gmail lover.

the god of email???

oh enough already!! gmail! gmail!l gmail! everywhere i go - blogs and forums - people were talking about gmail. i noticed many bloggers like huai bin, oliviasy, meesh, sashi, ash, etc, etc, etc,. had set up contests for those who wants gmail. and we also heard of gmail going to ebay, selling as much as US$125!! gosh! are people that desperate to grab hold of gmail??

from today onwards, you won’t see me blogging everyday as I’ll be very busy.

first of all, I had taken up two ‘moonlighting’ jobs. the first one I blog about it before - a job with a software solutions company, forest software solutions. i had already finished one job for them - a write-up of their website, and is now in process of doing another one - copywriting for their software.

no time to blog again, so here’s are some interesting and amusing stories from my favourite coloum “travellers’ tales” from the far easter economic review (FEER).

——————————————————————————————————-
From The Far Eastern Economics Review Issue cover-dated June 24 2004

TRAVELLERS’ TALES By Nury Vittachi

China Discovers People

The Middle Kingdom’s press has recently discovered human-interest stories and as a result is on the verge of becoming readable

THESE DAYS, foreigners who walk into tourist sites in Beijing don’t excite much comment–unless they are carrying goods purchased from other tourist sites. Then a message runs from stall to stall: Patsy alert! Patsy alert! Tourist stupid enough to buy tacky souvenirs in range!

to all the fathers, daddies, papas out there….

and in other languages:
;Dia Del Padre Feliz!
Giorno Del Padre Felice!
Tag Des Glucklichen Vaters!
Le Jour Du Pere Heureux!
Dia Do Pai Feliz!

i had 2 short stories… er… articles actually written about my late father which appeared in the defunct ‘new thrill’ magazine which i would like to share with readers but i was too busy to type it out. perhaps some other day.

anyway, here is one popular story entittled ‘when god created fathers’ that is running round the WWW, which i believe quite a no. of people had came across.

very very tired last night, after returning from a mass and dinner, of which i’m in the organsiing committee. it’s no joke organising such a big event, mind you (national level, with 400 people in attendance at the dinner). so tired running around. will blog about this later.

in the meantime, for the weekend, let me teach you how to say someone is stupid… or maybe has anyone say any of the following to you??

————
ways to say someone is stupid.

haha. martin is at it again. good write-up here, hence i’m producing it here verbatim in it’s full glory.
—————————————
Of a right hand, old hand, & heavy hand

By Martin Jalleh

When the premiership was handed over to him, Pak Lah had promised that much-needed change was close at hand.The nation would see a gentler hand.

But of late, things seem to be getting out of hand in the country. The alarming rate of crime, violence against women, accidents, the rise in food prices, etc. they all worry us.