Thursday, January 13, 2005

The Great Malaysian Blackout.

I was in Kinokuniya KLCC when the lights failed.

It started when the lights flickered, while I was looking for a travel book (it was an errand for someone). I had found my book the minute the lights failed.

At first I thought it was, just, you know, a normal power outage — one shop, or a part of the building at most. Turns out that the whole building was out.

As I took a cab back to Bangsar (I had learned not to park in Suria KLCC's car parks on weekdays the hard way), I realized that I was in what seemed like a city-wide blackout. Wow. We haven't had one of those since Paka.

On my way to Bangsar, I observed that the amount of pedestrians had doubled. Figures. KL is a city built on air-conditioning and artificial lighting. The minute the lights and artificial ventilation failed, no one could be persuaded to stay in their offices as their cubicles become dark, stuffy hothouses.

When I did get back to Bangsar (after paying an exorbitant fee for a fare ride, and sitting through a massive jam at Jalan Bangsar), I settled into my car and drove back home.

That took a while. The roads, thanks to the screwed-up traffic lights and general disorder, were clogged with vehicles. Spent a good part of an hour stuck in what was only a few hundred metres of road, near the Rothmans roundabout.

Lucky for me, at least the MacDonalds drive-thru I went to had power, and PJ, for the most part, still has electricity. The power outage, though extensive, didn't touch Hitz, Mix, Light and Easy or Radio 4 KL. It got RED 104.9 for a while, though. Pity. I kinda liked them.

They're back now. And I'm home. Saw the Wan (my maid) waiting outside, in vain, for a bus. Told her what happened, and she was surprised and peeved off, to say the least. She wanted to go to Ampang today. Anyway. Will take her tonight, if I have to.

Oh, well. That's it.

[NSFW] And now, something mind-shattering.

Warning: Not Safe For Work. Contains, well, bestiality.

I got this off the livejournal linguaphile community.

Four things.

  1. It's a Hokusai.
  2. It's tentacle porn that's about 135-136 years old.
  3. It's a HOKUSAI.
  4. And here is the translation.

I'm very shocked. The things I learn on the Internet…

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Why, God, Did It Happen?

I've refrained from saying much about Twenty-Six Twelve for a whole range of reasons: I came in late, I did not participate in the initial debate, and everything I wanted to say was said already. But a thought, oh, a stupid, treacherous thought lingered in my head, and refused to go away.

Why did You do it?

For about 200 hundred seconds, you shattered a deeply-held illusion about our safety and our security. You showed us how vulnerable we are.

And then, while people died and lives were destroyed, you showed us how we could help others and salve their pain. You showed us how to be human again. You showed us that the Enemy may not be a true Enemy at all, and that even our foes are human, just like us, and even they feel pain and suffering. And then, miracles of miracles! Some of those foes began helping us.

You showed us how to have faith, didn't you? When the day was darkest and the winds coldest, You were there. You are always there. You could never abandon us, could You? We are the ones who turn our backs away from You, who forget You, and curse You, for the senselessness and the horror.

You showed us that others, even those we call our enemies, are like us. A tsunami can do that, I guess; it strips away the lies that we tell ourselves, the lies that say that the Hindu or the Christian or the Muslim or the apostate or the heretic or the atheist are not like us, but something else. Something less. You took that away. How many Muslims need help in Aceh now? How many Christians? Do we care? Should we?

You showed us the treachery of our so-called brothers-in-faith. The ones who exhort us the predations of our Foes, the Great Satan. The ones who urge us to turn away from them, even as they try to help us. Do our honorable brothers come to our aid? Did they hell. They tell us that what You did to us was punishment, and that we deserved this, even as we deserved our brothers turning away from us in our hour of need. Well, let them.

I hope that we will be wise enough , kind enough, human enough, to not turn away from them when they need us.

And you expect me to blog.

I haven't written a thing for a while.

Call it blogger's block, call it anything you like — hell, call it Steven if you have to. I haven't written a thing for a while.

I could name any number of sources for the lack of updates — massive holiday blues. The Tsunami. The whole blogosphere blogging community up in arms over something-or-other. The fact that I've been more interested in layaning Hani The Sims 2.

End result: No blog updates. People Hani asking me when I'll update my blog. General malaise.

Now Hani looking over my bloody shoulder and eating a packet of crisps go away don't I not bother you when I fucking blog, you nosy woman??

No. Off. Get your hands off my keyboard. Away. Avast!

Argh.