Entries Tagged 'Observations' ↓

If anyone ever told you that looks don’t matter, laugh in their face and tell them its a load of crock. For, looks DO matter.

Even lamp posts are getting in on the act.

Not satisfied with the minimalist spartan look with smooth clean lines of the traditional street lamp post, all the lamp posts along Jalan Loke Yew heading from Cheras into Kuala Lumpur are being transplanted and replaced with shinier, better, newer, curlier… PRETTIER lamp posts.

I have one question - WHY?!

What was wrong with the old traditional lamp posts? Did the local government feel that more space was needed for birds to perch on while observing the snail pace traffic passing by below? Do these new fancy schmancy street lights come with super bright halogen lamps that turns the night into day, thereby making driving along this stretch of Jalan Loke Yew that much more comfortable at night?

Actually, I have another question - HOW MUCH DID IT COST?

Anyone care to answer this?

Picture a kid’s playground with a bunch of kids playing in it. On the fringe of the 8 kids in the playground stands a small little boy, eager to be noticed and to be let in on the game. After a long while, someone notices his little face and decides to let him in to play with the big kids.

For weeks, they play together, a band of 9. All is well.
Suddenly, one day someone notices that this little boy is not a little boy at all, but a dwarf. Immediately, he is tossed out of the exalted group of 9 and banned from playing with the big boys for ever.

Worse still, they start calling him names.

Now, take this scenario to an inter-planetary level and you have the story of Pluto - The little planet that could.

First, there was the shock discovery that outside of the known solar system was a little cold dark planet called Pluto after the mythical god of the underworld. For years we hung onto the notion that the solar system has 9 planets of which the furthest and the darkest and coldest planet is called Pluto.

2 years ago, came the shock demotion of Pluto as a planet. This cold lump of rock is no longer to be classified as a Planet because it just isn’t big enough. For 2 years, we reeled at the shocking information. Do we un-teach what we taught our children? Do we un-learn what we learnt at school? How many planets does the solar system have now? Are there going to be any other shocking discoveries? Is Earth the only planet left in the solar system?

Why do I feel so strongly about this demotion? I’m a Scorpio and my ruling planet (or used to be) is Pluto. Astrologically, its still Pluto but for how much longer?

But that’s not the biggest insult (to me anyway). The biggest insult is that Pluto is now a Plutoid! PLUTOID?! Its been given its own class of planetary body which is, as the name suggests a Plutoid. Here’s the official speil:-

“Plutoids are celestial bodies in orbit around the sun at a distance greater than that of Neptune that have sufficient mass for their self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that they assume a hydrostatic equilibrium (near-spherical) shape, and that have not cleared the neighborhood around their orbit.”

In short: small round things beyond Neptune that orbit the sun and have lots of rocky neighbors.

The two known and named plutoids are Pluto and Eris, the IAU stated. The organization expects more plutoids will be found.

Its like, if the Earth was suddenly demoted from planet status, we’d be put in a special category called Earthoid - celestial bodies in orbit around the sun between Mars and Venus.

I like having a cold distant dark planet in the solar system. It adds mystery and romance. Bring Pluto back please. The solar system just isn’t the same without it. What am I going to do with the ping pong ball that used to depict Pluto in diagramatic representations of the solar system?

Indiana Jones = Harrison Ford.

There are no two ways about it. Old or not, haggard or not, Indy Jones = Harrison Ford.

When The Last Crusade was released, I thought that would be the end of the Indiana Jones series. After all, Harrison Ford is good for doing trilogies - see Star Wars (Han Solo *drools* ok ok I like older men - sue me ) and of course the Indiana Jones trilogy.

So, when there was talk about the new Indiana Jones, I had the impression (don’t know from where) that Indy was no longer played by Harrison Ford so I was quite adamant I wouldn’t watch it. And then, my dad (of all people!) told me that it was indeed Harrison Ford reprising the role of Indiana Jones, which led me to google up the information which led me to watch Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull last night!

Did I enjoy it? Of course I did! Its Indiana Jones isn’t it? Delightfully camp and tongue in cheek and all. But what else did I think about it? Please watch out for spoilers after the jump!

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In my case, the early bird gets my business!

I was down in Melaka yesterday morning and at about 9.35am found myself done and at a loose end. I had driven down early at about 6.30am so naturally, I needed my morning caffeine fix. I can’t function without it!

So, spotting a Jusco mall nearly, I figured that would be a good place to start.

There was free parking, and a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf right there in front of me. Woohoo! But wait! It was closed! Huh? Checking the small print, I saw they only opened at 10am. WTF!? This place serves breakfast sets and they open only at 10am?!

Next to it was a Secret Recipe. There were bodies inside and lights were on, but again, I was turned away because it only opened at 10am. Seriously, what’s wrong with these places?!

Walking along, I saw the familiar red and yellow McDonalds sign. Well, beggars can’t be choosers right? If I can’t get my regular cappucino, a McDonald’s coffee would have to do. I was already thinking of the RM4 breakfast Egg McMuffin I could get there. But WTF?!

They were similarly closed till 10am! There were bodies in there preparing for the opening, and delivery motorcycles were parked in there. I could not resist taking a picture of the sign that said “We deliver 24 hours”.

The irony! If I had just sat out in the car park, and called in my order at 9.30am to their delivery line, I’d get my coffee and Egg McMuffin with no problems at all. But try to get it in person and I’m faced with a locked glass door.

I guess I’m spoilt by living in KL City, where places serving coffee and breakfasts actually open early enough for customers to get their morning coffee and breakfast, without having it stretch into lunch or brunch. Or maybe people in Melaka just prefer to go to their local kopitiam.

Either way, I was not terribly amused. At 10am, I presented myself again at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and was met with the smiling countenance of the server and I got my double cappucino in hardly any time at all, with free wi-fi to boot. That sort of made up for the wait.

Sort of.

And on a happier note, Rinnah has organized a little tea party for Klang Valley bloggers! She kindly labelled me co-organizer but honestly, she did all the work and came up with the idea. I said I’d help if she needed it but hey! It looks like she didn’t!

When?
Saturday, 31 May 2008. Tea time begins at 3.00pm and ends whatever time you want it to end…

Where?
IZZI – Uptown, PJ
No. 45G & 47G, Jalan SS 21/37
Damansara Utama
47400 Petaling Jaya
Selangor Darul Ehsan
Malaysia

Telephone : +603 77290855
Fax : +603 77290955

I’ll be there unless something unexpected pops up to spoil plans, so I hope to see you all!

Happy Weekend everyone!

I don’t watch much TV these days but I’ve been intrigued by a teaser ad that’s been showing on NTV7 (I think). What it shows me is the famous Beverly Hills 90210 post code and say that something’s “Coming Soon”.

Are they rerunning the BH 90210 series that epitomized the 90’s? The series by Aaron Spelling that catapulted Jason Priestly, Shannen Doherty, Jennie Garth, Tori Spelling et el into fame and fortune (and seriously, where are they now?!)? The series that made every secondary or college school kid at the time long for the not- so- wonderful- on- hindsight- in- fact- they- were- pretty- screwed- up lives of the rich and famous in Beverly Hills?

In short, this:-

Eeks! I can just hear the theme song starting in my head! Make it stop! Hot on the comback heels of the other 90s wonder - NKOTB, comes the NEW Beverly Hills 90210!

No, seriously. They are or have re-made the series! I read most of it on the NZ Herald and I am gobsmacked. There are actually some of the original cast making their comeback to the series and reprising their roles! Jennie Garth is confirmed. Gosh she really epitomized the super bitch from high school, didn’t she? OMG I really don’t believe I’m reading all this!

But wait, reading more online, it seems that they are only in the process of remaking it. So, is NTV7 re-running the old series so once they make the new Beverly Hills 90210, they can just seamlessly join up? Well with 10 seasons to go through, there’s going to be loads of time for newbies to catch up with the exploits of Brandon and Brenda and their pals!

Yes, BH 90210 was a popular series indeed. I can imagine it was what spawned all the other high school/college series - One Tree Hill, The OC etc (and my mind starts drawing a blank at about now because I left my teeny bopper days too long ago) but does it merit a re-make?

Let’s hear your say!