A Strange World We Are Currently Living in...

So I've stumbled upon this one fast-rising band in Malaysia performing their hit song live in studio. I've watched and listened to their song countless times, because my friends love it. Such a manly and powerful voice...as they frequently told me. 

I didn't object nor do I agree with them. I became as naive and neutral as Evian natural water (Evian is the most expensive natural mineral water in the market. If you look closely, Evian spelled backwards will be 'naive'. Not that this trivia has any bearing on this topic, but I love this small, insignificant fact).

Their live performance was below par at best...their lead singer unsuccessfully hit the required notes on multiple occasions. But he did try his very best, and that deserved praise. Other than that, they were mediocre and average.

But, lo and behold, the overwhelming response was puzzling. People rained in with outpouring of praises, uplifting their performance to the Godlike status. I am not a professional musician, but you don't need a trained ears to differentiate what's good and what's not. A well played song will always be good to our ears.

To be fair, there were a fair share of dissenting voices who uttered disagreement, but they were swarmed by chorus of supporters who claimed those in disagreement were either stupid or envious. In the end, the comments were crowded with exaggerated praises which overtly defy the actual standard of the performance.

I am not envious of them. Far from it. I am not singer, let alone an artist (my sister once reprimanded me for singing at the back while she was riding the bicycle. I stopped singing since then). What brings my displeasure to the forefront is the sheer hypocrisy on the part of the commentators. 

We can support something but not to the extent of blindly supporting it. Praise where it was due, because some of the band's other live performances were brilliant. If we focused our argument to the band's latest live show, it was vastly inferior. To catapult an inferior performance as such to a great height was akin to deceit.   

Know The Difference

This is a book ê

This is a selfie album ê

Be smart. Be a book lover. Not a self lover.

A New Hope

Just stopping by to fill some time gap.

I'm waiting for UEFA Champions League semi-final match between Manchester City & Real Madrid, which is due to start in less than fifteen minutes.

I'm Liverpool at heart, but I always have a soft spot for Real for unknown reasons.

So I hope they'll win tonight, albeit without their talisman Ronaldo, who fails a late fitness test just before kick-off.

Even without him, Real have enough class within their team to see off the Citizens.

On another note, I made some drastic changes today.

With this renewed vigour, I hope to open a new book, and start a new chapter in my life.

I'm charting a new course of action...it will be met with some difficulties, so I sincerely hope all is going to end well.

As one African proverb beautifully puts it,

A Calm Sea Does Not Make A Skilled Sailor  

It's about time. Match time.

S>L>E>E>P

I just half-finished the second articles for today. A long way to finishing those two...but I'll bide my time.

It was very tiring for my mind to consistently stringing up all those proses. I wonder how all the great writers of the world (Malcolm Gladwell, Ha Joon Chang, Haruki Murakami...to name a few) come up with their beautiful narrations at the drop of a hat?

That's why they are all great writers. Top of their field. Whereas I am still sitting here. Top of my chair.

My second straight night of insomnia. I don't know what is happening to me, I just couldn't sleep. 

I was thinking...maybe my whole body system is working together secretly in staging a coup against me? Could it be that they wanted to take over me?

I am your master...I won't give up that easily.

Dr Amir abruptly came over just now, in the middle of me cracking my head reading and analyzing what I was reading. He greeted me with his simple word "banyak fikir Mi?"

Of course Dr. I was even thinking how to beat myself to sleep.

Dr Amir left shortly afterwards.

Zila messaged me just after midnight. Due to some circumstances, I wouldn't be able to attend her wedding day.

Of course I feel terribly guilty. Who wouldn't? It's her big day but I won't be there.   

Maybe, I was not a good friend after all.

Now, please sleep. 

My Journey Towards SleepyLand

Insomnia is haunting me yet again.

It's past 3 a.m but not a shed of sleepiness is striking me this very moment. I am as fresh as a junior undergraduate eagerly preparing for his first class of the day.

Or as fresh as newly prepared nasi lemak on display in Nasi Kandar's restaurant early in the morning.

Now, double trouble. I am not sleepy AND hungry at the same time.

I am well aware that the fastest way to fall asleep is to make your mind tired. Mind fatigue is human's simplest route to falling asleep.

I've done my reading for today (reading is the simplest short cut to tire our mind) so I will embark on a different path.

I am going to wear out my energy by walking around USM aimlessly. When my body is exhausted, my mind would tremble in fear. Fearing his master would walk until the end of time, it will activate its survival mechanism by gradually shutting down my whole body's system.

That way, I will feel sleepy. Or at least that's how I imagined it to be.

So I walked down the basement of Biology School. This was where I played ping pong the evening before (less than 9 hours ago).

I am not really into ping pong, but this is the simplest sport to kill time with my friends. If all my friends are enjoying it, so why not jump into the bandwagon?

That evening, after sharing a fair share of wins and losses in ping pong, I went back to my lab to find this:

 

Milo Ais after a tiring session of ping ping was a great deal. Or was it? Because I bet this Milo Ais was the reason I am still awake right now.

Never mind.

Then I continued my journey to sleepiness. I walked past the small road facing the Biology School. It rained sparsely not long before, so I could see puddles of water in the road.

I glanced towards the parking lot. Amni's car was gone. So Syaher's assertion was true, that Amni was back from her home town.

I hope she brought back some keropok lekor. Because I was hungry.

I headed towards USM mosque. I tried to withdraw some money from the ATM, but it was dysfunctional. Feeling betrayed, I walked towards a drinking machine located not far from the ATM. 

At least I could get a good drink even though I didn't manage to get money, was my inner thought.

But as if fate was playing fool on me, that drinking machine refused to accept my money. Double betrayal.

So I walked back towards my Biology School in utter despair. It was eerily quiet along the way. Darkness was blanketing the night sky. Everybody was asleep but me.

After a brief aimless night walk in search of sleepyland, I failed.

I STILL COULDN'T SLEEP.

Running

A meaningful quote seen recently in one of the Indian shops in Indian Street Penang, while I was accompanying my friend to buy saree.

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve.
It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.”

Throwback Sunday

So much for the intellectuals...

"As a young professional and graduate from British university, I am unclear about this topic...so I would like to ask some questions..." 

"Even though I possess an advanced degree in English from University of Manchester, I would like to reiterate that I seldom use English as my medium of communication...I prefer Malay"

Ever heard the above phrases? I heard it so many times...and on so many occasions...it's difficult for me to recall where and when I heard those phrases.

The thing is, is it necessary to mention the above highlighted words? Would it be proper for the projected meaning of the sentences if the above highlighted words be included...or better be left out in the first place? Will it have a different meaning then?

I'm not quite sure about the differences in meaning...but it sure has a difference in their intention. From the above quotes...the speaker's intentions are clear...they bragged about themselves first, before appearing to be 'humble' and 'down to earth' seconds afterwards.

If their purported intentions are to display their humbleness, it's better to leave the highlighted words unmentioned. Just say, for example "I don't understand a few things...so I want to ask a few questions..." or "I prefer Malay". As simple as that...why go the extra length to mention your credentials? Seeking instant recognition?

*****************************************************************************

The above short and unfinished rant was written by me way back in 2007, when I was in my early twenty's. It was never published up to this day, for reasons that I have already forgotten.

As I'm getting older day by day, the anger within me has gradually subsided. But that doesn't douse my feeling of discontent towards these so-called intelligentsia, who rabidly promote themselves by juxtaposing their credentials and apparent ignorance on the same page to the unsuspecting public.

This was to manipulate the public into thinking that they are intelligent and humble at the same time, a rare traits in our modern society.

How I despised this kind of person, even to this day.

Update 24/4/2016
It's called humblebrag. This kind of person whom I first observed and hated more than ten years ago is aptly called humblebrag in our modern term.

I still hate them until today.