tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83502202024-03-14T15:14:38.082+08:00Why Are You Here?Can't sing. Can't dance. Not witty. Not clever.<br /><strike>Not titled</strike> <a href="http://rajan.menj.org/" title="Vote for ME!">Now 100% Pure Rajan</a>. <a href="http://hanishoney.bebudak.net" title="By a lovely, lovely woman!">Hen-pecked</a>. Not intellectual. Or famous.T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.comBlogger115125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1140747198232683212006-02-24T10:08:00.000+08:002006-07-04T06:58:41.156+08:00The fundamental difference between the Non-Sequitur and Jyllands-Posten controversies.<p>The difference is between <em>losing face</em> and <em>having your principles violated</em>.</p>
<p>It shames me that we cannot tell the difference. It should shame you too.</p>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1140691809821015702006-02-23T18:40:00.000+08:002006-03-12T01:35:21.233+08:00Long Time No See, Eh.<p>So. Jeff Ooi’s <a href="http://www.jeffooi.com/2006/02/post_7.php" title="external link">fucking lost it</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p style="font-style: italic;">Why axe Non Sequitur at this juncture, one might ask? Is it an admission of guilt for having published a controversial instalment on Feb 20, and defiantly re-published it on Feb 22 despite having caused much furore among the Muslim community in Malaysia?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Admission of guilt, huh? So much furore, huh?</p>
<h3>The Only People Who Make It An Issue</h3>
<p>I think it should be said out loud: Jeff, you’re batshit. The only people who have made any kind of disapproval known about this comic are the same people who approved of <acronym title="parti Islam Se-Malaysia">PAS</acronym>’ police report, or who have a bone to pick on the <acronym title="New Straits Times">NST</acronym>.</p>
<p>And let’s face it, <a href="http://www.jeffooi.com/" title="external website">pussy-boy</a>, <em>you</em> have a bone to pick with them. Not because the NST are unprofessional, or that the NST have engaged in plenty of unethical acts against you, but because you don’t like them.</p>
<h3>A matter of convenience</h3>
<p>And so, because it is convenient for you, and because you get to kick the Big Beast while it’s down, you ally yourself with twerps who don’t even know what ‘freedom of expression’ means.</p>
<p>Congratulations. You are a blogger.</p>
<h3>Small fish</h3>
<p>Forgive me. I’ve forgotten my place. I mean, who am I, after all, but some small-time quasi-pundit who has barely any audience, no advertising revenue, and zero awards from anyone? I mean, that’s what we are, of course, according to you: a big fucking <a href="http://www.oonyeoh.squarespace.com/chrome/2005/12/3/jeff-ooi-screenshooter.html" title="yeah, I'm still sore about it">disappointment</a>.</p>
<p>Well, you know what they say; what does the little guy know? I mean, compared to me, Jeff has so many contacts, so many accolades poured on to him, and a prestigious career spanning more than half a decade. <em lang="ms">Siapalah aku</em>. Why should I dare criticize King Jeff?</p>
<p>But then again, to the NST, who is Jeff? Compared to the Jeff, the NST has literally more contacts, more resources, more people, more money, and a history that spans more than a hundred years. <em lang="ms">Siapa Jeff Ooi</em>? Why should <em>he</em> dare criticize King Paper?</p>
<p>He made a fucking reputation out of <em>that</em>, by saying he had the right. Chew on <em>that</em>.</p>
<h3>Don’t play the game the way the big boys play it</h3>
<p>Jordan actually made my feelings for it pretty clear <a href="http://macvaysia.com/?p=144" title="link to article">here</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="font-style:italic;">I used to think the major difference between my blog and Jeff’s (other than the traffic, which I remain childishly jealous of) was the fact that my blog is all about me whereas his was all about issues. Now it seems more and more apparent to me that Jeff Ooi’s blog is really all about Jeff Ooi, only he’s still trying to disguise it as a blog about issues.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I chalked his behaviour towards his commenters and fellow bloggers (okay, to <a href="http://t-boy.blogspot.com/2005/11/what-hell-hit-me.html" title="Link to my post">me</a>, specifically) as, you know, big guy too busy looking at the issues to pay attention to the huwt widdle feewings of some nobody pariah blogger. So that’s why I kept quiet after the initial expression of shock, and went on my way.</p>
<p>Sure, I admit spending less time on my blog—life’s pretty busy, and it’s not as if I disappeared off the face of the planet. If you take some time, folks, you can find my tracks all over the place on the Internet.</p>
<p>But now this shit happens. No way in hell would someone who was really commited to “Thinking Aloud, Thinking <em>Allowed</em>” stoop so low as to seek the alliance with people who are, right now, building an injunction to stop perfectly relevant and not-quite offensive comics from being published.</p>
<h3>The issue</h3>
<p>People have restated the issue, but let me try, just one more time. What the people who made that police report may not know and Jeff has, in his zeal to excoriate and persecute the New Straits Times, has deliberately forgotten<sup><a href="#LTNSEf1" id="LTNSE1f">1</a></sup>, is that there is a difference between the Danish cartoons and the <cite>Non-Sequitur</cite> ones.</p>
<p>The Danish cartoons caricatured Muhammad and reduced him to a figure of fear or mockery, an unalterable Other. To reduce Muhammad like that was an insult, but it also <em>hurt</em>, because so many Muslims were brought up to believe in Muhammad as an ideal.</p>
<h3>Butbutbut we’ve done this before…!</h3>
<p><a href="http://www.aisehman.org/archives/2006/02/a_mockery.html" title="link outside blog">Aisehman</a> ’s argument should be addressed as well, when he says this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="font-style: italic;">I have blogged on this before but for those who are not aware, there is a frieze that includes the Prophet on a wall inside the US Supreme Court building.</p>
<p style="font-style: italic;">It has been there since 1935, and I’ve yet to come across reports of large-scale protests against it, although there have been calls for it to be removed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That’s because, smart guy, the frieze does not depict Muhammad in a negative, stereotypical way. It violates taboo, which explains why the calls are there for it to be removed, but protests? Whatever fucking for? It represents Muhammad as a figure of Justice, which is why it is at the Supreme Courts of the United States.</p>
<h3>Losing the cause for the fucking fight</h3>
<p>Ironically, his blog led me to this <a href="http://www.aisehman.org/archives/2006/02/wrong_message.html" title="link to post referencing quote">quote</a>, by Usman Bawang:</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="font-style: italic;">What kind of message are we sending the Government by continuing to harp on NST’s mistakes (if it ever was).</p>
<p style="font-style: italic;">We all are getting confused about the reasons why we hated the NST in the first place. And now, judging by our response, we are all going to encourage the very culture of journalistic cowardice that we ourselves abhored.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yeah, fucking irony, geniuses. Is this a question of journalistic integrity, or is the idea of fucking NST up the ass getting your e-penises up and throbbing, waiting to spear the scarred, vile and onerous hole that is NST’s anus?</p>
<h3>Oh, and in case you think you can get away so easy…</h3>
<p>Let’s get back to the Representatives of Islamdom, who are calling that the NST be whipped in public for, <em lang="ar">Ya Allah</em>, <em>insulting Islam</em>.</p>
<p>How <em>dare</em> you use <em>my</em> voice to state offense over something <em>I</em> do not find offensive. The particular work, have you seen it, or did you avert your eyes, the way they teach you that ‘good’ Muslims should do?</p>
<p>Did you see Muhammad’s face? Did it imply that Muhammad was, in any way, evil? Did it imply that Islam was a violent religion, or that Islam was wrong, or that Islam is inherently stupid?</p>
<p>Get it straight. <cite>Non-Sequitur</cite> insulted <em>you</em> and your zealot counterparts on the other side, with your querelous little hearts and shallow little minds, for flipping out and burning shit and killing people in your quest to show the world that Islam is a force to be <strike>feared</strike>‘respected’.</p>
<h3>Words of wisdom from a “<em lang="ar">munafiq</em>”</h3>
<p>Funny, because I am reminded by this little thing Farish Noor, the Great Traitor to Your Religion, <a href="http://www.brandmalaysia.com/movabletype/archives/2005/12/farish_a_noor_w.html" title="link to external site">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="font-style: italic;">The victory of Islam, it should be noted, <em>is not necessarily the victory of Muslims</em>. The victory of Islam is only secured if and when the universal values of Islam are realised in the wider contex…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>How can you be considered fighting for Islam when all you care about is how our community is perceived by others? It is not just we who are marginalized; others are as well. It is not just <em>we</em> who are insulted in day by day language; others are as well. The world does not consist of just us and others against us, it consists of small people oppressed by big people, and <em>we are one of those small people today</em>.</p>
<h3>Fucking perspective, bitch!</h3>
<p>How can you claim in one breath to be upset over a cartoon that insults <em>you</em>, not Islam, and yet turn a blind eye to the fact that married women in this country can be metaphorically and literally fucked over, when poverty still hurts the poorest of you, and when your kin do injustice towards others and kill themselves and others over a religion you keep claiming is the “Universal Way of Life”?</p>
<p>How can you, after all this, be so arrogant as to “defend” your religion’s honor? There are bigger things to fight for! <em>Fight for them</em>!</p>
<h4>Fütnotes.</h4>
<ol>
<li id="LTNSEf1" style="font-size: small">You’d think I’d leave Jeff the benefit of the doubt. I don’t <em>think</em> so, Mister Press Freedoms. <a href="LTNSE1f" title="back to top">Top</a></li>
</ol>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1134040024624083792005-12-08T18:55:00.000+08:002005-12-08T19:13:19.756+08:00Those Reptile-Brained Maniacs.<p>I’m not a hardcore gamer.</p>
<p>I don’t think I ever was, really, when you get down to it. When my brother and I were younger, we’d compete on videogames, and I invariably lost most of the time. I never had what it took to win, and that lack of winning spirit always ensured that I always ended up on the losing side of any competitive endeavour.</p>
<p>I wasn’t hard enough. I was a pussy, soft, a carebear, a sopping wet vagina doomed to a life of being screwed over by dicks. In other words, a loser, a big socialist pinko, a liberal tree-hugging hippie.</p>
<h3>Fear and Self-Loathing In Petaling Jaya</h3>
<p>I didn’t exactly understand it myself, honestly—it was either a combination of a disinclination or an inability to optimize, to plan the perfect solution, or just to <em>see</em> The Thing One Must Do. It was my biggest weakness, and frankly, it still is. </p>
<p>I liked taking my time, I liked hanging around, I liked spending my time immersed in something comforting, like an overgrown baby missing the comfort of his womb. And I generally hated myself for it. </p>
<p>Look at that. You’d never guess by the way that sentence was arranged, with its wishy-washy qualifier and neutral, conversational tone, of the depth of loathing I had for that failing.</p>
<h3>Those Damn Gamers.</h3>
<p>So it didn’t really surprise me when I saw this over at <a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/" title="The Escapist Website">the Escapist</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I believe the seemingly endless popularity of these particular games, in which players take the role of soldiers, spies and other enforcers of government policy, can be attributed to the inherent appeal of a particular ideology. The practical implementation of this ideology can include myriad bureaucratic and cultural details but whose fundamental appeal to the human animal comes down to the notion that might makes right.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He’s <a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/22/18" title="The Contrarian: Why We Fight">talking about fascism</a>, folks.</p>
<h3>The Essential Division</h3>
<p>When you get down to it, the pure mechanics of gaming is about one thing: who wins. There is no room for losers or the honorable in a game—only a winner and the chumps. </p>
<p>You can lie to yourself about the honor of sportsmanship, you can blind yourself to optimal strategies with your misguided injunctions against manipulating and exploiting your fellow man, but all that that allows you, in the end, is a sense of comfort before someone without your delusions comes by and eats you alive.</p>
<h3>Pray That Isn’t As Simple As That</h3>
<p>I hope to dear God that games aren’t like real life, and so far evidence is supporting my claim. Society, frankly, is inefficient. Trains do not, in general, run in time. You are not, one hopes, an expendable cog in a machine. You can still express yourself with relative impunity. Might, for now, does not make right.</p>
<p>Because god help you if it did:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A friend of mine studied political science at Yale. In one class, the professor posted a game scenario: You are the newly empowered dictator of a third-world country. Your people face famine, plague, poverty and unrest. What policies would you enact to solve these problems? (Fans of Tropico, you know how this works.) My friend’s solution? Death camps. Round up the sick, the lame, the infertile, the ignorant, the useless, the unproductive and execute them. Bring the workforce and the job market into sudden alignment. Reconcile the mouths to feed with the supplies of food.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>Nature Brown In Rust And Dried Blood</h3>
<p>If this sort of strategy worked, even once, it would have spawned a state far more successful than any other, and by the Darwin’s laws of evolution it would have replaced all other states. Death camps would have been the norm.</p>
<p>Instead we have this tangled, paltry mess.</p>
<h3>A Nasty, Vicious Theory</h3>
<p>I have a theory. It’s a nasty, vicious theory, and it goes against my somewhat (ha, pussy!) liberal leanings. It goes on like this:</p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson" title="Wikipedia article about Jack Thompson">Jack Thompson</a> is a lunatic, but a lunatic with a point.</p>
<p>He talks about games being murder simulators and trainers for a new generation of psychopaths. It’s completely batshit, but perhaps it has a grain of truth. Perhaps games don’t train psychopaths, but instead cause gamers to self-select; the ones with the winning drive go to the top, and the ones without it lose and eventually give up. </p>
<h3>Don’t Stop Them Playing!</h3>
<p>Maybe that’s all there is to gaming, and the best players are those with no clear scruples: people who would, without blinking an eye, <a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/19/23" title="The Escapist: A Deadly Dollar">defraud fellow players of approximately 16,000 US dollars of in-game property</a>... and then <a href="http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=172529" title="EVE Online Guiding Social Hand Press Release about the attack">brag about it later</a>, justifying their actions as being completely within the rules of the game.</p>
<p>Maybe the best thing we can do to prevent a generation of psychopaths and sociopaths from taking advantage of people again is to not take these games away. Design a game that will optimize the selection of psychopaths and sociopaths, latent and obvious. And then, <em>force</em> everyone to play them. With each other. </p>
<p>Why? Because then, the best, the nastiest, the most vicious will possibly be the most successful people in that game, and you’ll know who they are by their performance. </p>
<h3>That Won’t Work This Time, Buddy</h3>
<p>No point hiding behind complex layers of manipulation. No point behind trying to fool a battery of psychiatrists. No point in suppressing their desires, because there they’ll be, out there in the open, in the top ten rankings.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We gamers have had the training. We’ve learned the mindset. We know the score. We are efficient, deadly, methodical. If only we were in charge – then, oh then, we could show the world how much we care about it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Maybe if we knew who these people were, we could stop them before they get their hands on other people’s lives and cause some <em>real</em> damage.</p>
<p>I mean, who wouldn’t want to take down the next reptile-brained, psychotic maniac before he sinks his teeth into people’s lives and <em>really</em> cause some hurt?</p>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1133450812527241812005-12-01T23:25:00.000+08:002005-12-01T23:26:52.543+08:00And Now, For Something Completely Different<p>Right, okay.</p>
<p>I just took a look at three of the last significant blog posts I’ve done, and they were dour, solemn and wanky. </p>
<p>This is not good. I belong, first and foremost, to the geek-dork-nerd spectrum: I need to think about feeding that part of my Internet Soul, really.</p>
<p>So here’s the deal.</p>
<p>I would like to run a role-playing game campaign in the near future. The idea is mostly embryonic, and largely impulsive—I’ve yet to think about when to do this, how many people will want to do it, et cetera.</p>
<p>But I’ll let that worry come later. I’ve got other fish to fry.</p>
<p>Okay. Here are the games I have, separated by system and continuity:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Wolf%2C_Inc%2E" title="Wikipedia: White Wolf, Inc.">White Wolf</a>’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storyteller_System" title="Wikipedia: Storyteller System">Storyteller System</a>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Darkness#The_original_World_of_Darkness" title="Wikipedia: World of Darkness - the original World of Darkness">Old World of Darkness</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mage:_The_Ascension" title="Wikipedia: Mage: the Ascension">Mage: the Ascension</a> <acronym title="third edition">3e</acronym></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werewolf:_The_Apocalypse" title="Wikipedia: Werewolf: the Apocalypse">Werewolf: the Apocalypse</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li>Æon Trinity
<ul>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure%21" title="Wikipedia: Adventure!">Adventure!</a></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberrant_%28role-playing_game%29" title="Wikipedia: Abberant">Abberant</a></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_%28Aeon%29" title="Wikipedia: Trinity (Aeon)">Trinity</a></li>
</ul></li>
</ol></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizards_of_the_Coast" title="Wikipedia: Wizards of the Coast">Wizards of the Coasts</a>’ <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D20_System" title="Wikipedia: D20 System"><acronym title="20-sided dice">d20</acronym> system</a>
<ol>
<li><acronym title="Wizards of the Coast">WotC</acronym>’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons" title="Wikipedia: Dungeons & Dragons">Dungeons and Dragons</a> <acronym title="edition 3.5">3.5e</acronym></li>
<li>White Wolf’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravenloft" title="Wikipedia: Ravenloft">Ravenloft</a></li>
<li><acronym title="Wizards of the Coast">WotC</acronym>/Lucas Licensing’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Roleplaying_Game_%28Wizards_of_the_Coast%29" title="Wikipedia: Star Wars Roleplaying Game (Wizards of the Coast)">Star Wars <acronym title="role-playing game">RPG</acronym></a></li>
</ol></li>
<li>Other Systems
<ol>
<li>Mongoose Publishing’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia_%28role-playing_game%29" title="Wikipedia: Paranoia (role-playing game">Paranoia</a></li>
</ol></li>
</ul>
<p>Now, there are a couple of games I’d like to get, both in <acronym title="Portable Document Format">PDF</acronym> format:</p>
<ul>
<li>Atomic Sock Monkey’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Inside" title="Wikipedia: Dead Inside">Dead Inside</a></li>
<li>Lumpley Game’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogs_in_the_Vineyard" title="Wikipedia: Dogs in the Vineyard">Dogs in the Vineyard</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Sadly, these seem to be in the future.</p>
<p>Now, take a look at these games. Ask questions if you want, in the comments, and I’ll answer them <acronym title="as soon as possible">ASAP</acronym>—if you need more description of what each game is like (though honestly, I don’t really know—never did find the players to try them in detail).</p>
<p>All right. Fire away.</p>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1133434886125704612005-12-01T18:29:00.000+08:002005-12-01T23:35:47.266+08:00I can feel my sense of humor draining away.<p>I don’t like the kind of questions that popped in my head when I read this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="font-size: 90%;">...I was more upset seeing the ugly side of a foreign-owned private hospital in Cheras, which doesn’t even wink staring at a life dying at its doorstep.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>(Read the <a href="http://www.jeffooi.com/archives/2005/12/post_21.php" title="Screenshots - A private hospital with no caring heart">post</a> from <a href="http://www.jeffooi.com/" title="Jeff Ooi's Screenshots">Jeff’s blog</a>)</p>
<h3>Get Angry, Moralize.</h3>
<p>The predictable response to this is readily obvious—anger, shock, disgust. It <em>is</em> the worst thing to happen to one’s child, and the feelings of helplessness and anger and sorrow that the parents of the victim and our feelings are <em>real</em>. Let us not deny that.</p>
<p>I’m going to talk about my own personal reaction to this post.</p>
<h3>First Impressions</h3>
<p>The first thing that popped into my head when I read the news was this—“How many other people have gone through something like this?”</p>
<p>What drew my eye to this whole post were these parts:</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="font-size: 90%;">Two nights ago, as I was following TV3’s news coverage on Noh Omar, I stumped onto visuals of <acronym title="Deputy Prime Minister">DPM</acronym> Najib’s wife, who was sobbing uncontrollably.</p>
<p style="font-size: 90%;">[...]</p>
<p style="font-size: 90%;">I was told Khairul’s family was known to Rosmah Mansor, wife of Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, as Khairul and her daughter were classmates at the international school in Damansara.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>The Stain</h3>
<p>Understand this. I am not belittling the death of that boy. What happened to him was horrible, unexcusable, and a terrible stain for Malaysians everywhere.</p>
<p>But the thing is, if the classmate of the daughter of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Najib_Tun_Razak" title="Wikipedia: Najib Tun Razak">officially the second-most powerful man</a> in Malaysia can die from simple, <em>criminal</em> neglect, because that’s what it <em>is</em>, how many other people have gone through this, have died because of this?</p>
<h3>Jolted Awake</h3>
<p>It should not take the death of the child of someone influential to jolt us out of our fucking sleep. It shouldn’t. It shouldn’t take the death of someone known to influential people to get our ministers to say that they’ll revoke the fucking license of pricks who put profit before ethics.</p>
<p>It should take a crowd of angry people <em>several decades ago</em> to say, “Fuck this. We don’t want to be treated like bags of money with a straw in it.” The <strong>market</strong> should have caught this error and fixed it.</p>
<p>But it didn’t, so here we are. The system failed. <em lang="fr">Quelle surprise?</em></p>
<h3>Ugly rumors, uglier truth?</h3>
<p>I’ve heard tales of bodies of the recently-deceased held by private hospitals who refused to let the body be treated with dignity and respect, the way <em>human beings</em> are supposed to be treated. Hell, there were dying people, <strong>fellow Malaysians</strong>, who were, apparently, refused treatment because they didn’t have time to pony up the goods.</p>
<p>How many times has this happened? How many times were the people involved in it ignored, threatened or cajoled to shutting the fuck up and letting this pseudo-hypercapitalistic piece of shit we call the status quo continue? Hundreds of times? Dozens? A few? Once?</p>
<h3>Once is too much.</h3>
<p>It <em>is</em> a tragedy. It <em>is</em> terrible. Here’s something to chew on, though: the story wouldn’t have gotten such big coverage if the boy’s family was poor or not well-connected. Ministers would have said nothing if the boy was some poor nobody from Klang. Nothing would have happened if this was some old guy who died of a stroke because groups of tight-fisted cunts who have the fucking <em>gall</em> to call themselves hospitals refused treatment.</p>
<p>So. Where does that leave us?</p>
<p><strong>Edited</strong>: I’ve realized that some of you might have misconstrued a couple of my statements as racist and unnecessary. Frankly, since I didn’t intend it to be that way, I have removed a significant portion of what looked like racist remarks. Remind me if you see any more, why don’t you?</p>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1133169332400465672005-11-28T17:00:00.000+08:002005-11-28T17:17:15.810+08:00A Quick Update<p>Okay.</p>
<p>I just got back to my computer, and I find that I have six emails, count them, six emails, from various sources.</p>
<p>One email was a comment confirmation for this particular post. That’s cool. Nah, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/2214075" title="Elizabeth's Blogspot Profile">Elizabeth</a>, I don’t think <a href="http://t-boy.blogspot.com/2005/11/naked-woman-police-brouhaha.html#113315850459690847" title="Link to what Elizabeth said">I’d be cut out to be a columnist</a>. The pay sucks, I’d end up getting my posts edited, and I’d have to run against a deadline, and I <em>hate</em> deadlines. I do this for a hobby, and I’d like to keep it that way. Also, I think <a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/blogtest/Elizabeth.jpg" title="Hey hey, we're only telling it as it is!">you’re very pretty</a>. Thanks for visiting!</p>
<p>One was from <a href="http://www.equalmarriage.ca/" title="link to website">equalmarriage.ca</a>, a website advocating same-sex marriages, and another four were from <a href="http://www.desiringod.org/" title="link to website">DesiringGod.org</a>, apparently a Christian website that apparently spreads the Word of God (the Christian one, apparently). Both were attempting to confirm my subcription to them.</p>
<p>I’m going to assume that it was a honest mistake by someone else who was named Tariq Kamal who has a gmail account, and I’m letting it slide for now. I have, however, placed these emails under my ‘Spam’ folder, and these emails, and future emails like it will go under Spam and will be summarily ignored and flushed periodically, without them being opened.</p>
<p>Nothing else has changed. Have a nice day.</p>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1132912554257780302005-11-25T17:43:00.000+08:002005-11-26T21:23:51.676+08:00What the hell hit me?<p>Okay, so I sent a comment to Jeff Ooi’s blog about <a href="http://www.jeffooi.com/archives/2005/11/technology_for.php" title="Technology for transparency?">this particular post</a> :</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="font-style: italic;">I don’t know about the rest of you, but the reason why I didn’t talk about the technology behind the whole leak was because I didn’t give a damn on the authenticity of the video, or where it came from. I instead focused on the rather sorry state of the relationship between the police and the community they were supposed to be protecting.</p>
<p style="font-style: italic;">The fact that technology uncovered this means nothing. The issue was that we were, and still are, so willing to believe it, because that’s how we view the police. Whether this was because of the actions and the integrity of the police or the administration or something that is inherent in Malaysians, I don’t know.</p>
<p style="font-style: italic;">Oh, and Jeff… I am a reader of your blog, I admit that. People have called me your h0, and there’s a grain of truth in what they say. But you know something? Sometimes you can be a big jerk. This, matey, is one of those times.</p>
<p style="font-style: italic;">Thumbs down.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Here’s his response:</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="font-style: italic;">JEFF OOI says: I don’t make a living out of blogging, much less am I here on a beuty parade or on a popularity race. So, must I give a damn as to what/how you feel so long as I keep my e-space serene and rational? If you urge to hand down decree, go jerk it elsewhere. Here, you play by my rules.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Huh. Intellectual masturbation reference, and then implied insult to my ‘lifestyle blogger’ position. Which I don’t even care about, since I’ve never really done the whole “blogging as a lifestyle” thing.</p>
<p>I honestly don’t know how to think about this. Okay, so… I come into his blog, knowing full well that I do play by his rules. Yeah, okay, so probably I walked into that.</p>
<p>For some reason I keep getting the feeling that the response I got from him was not proportional to the “attack” or decree I made. I made a decree? What, who voted and made me Member of Parliament?</p>
<p>I am, actually, kind of in shock. Mind you, Jeff’s always struck me as a bit of a robot. I’ve never had any meaningful interaction with him, other than the usual rare, curt and brusque reply. His posts tend to be impenetrable, or at the very least, not aimed at my target market. Maybe because I’m a popularity race or beauty train blogger. Yeah, that’s probably it.</p>
<p>I’m still thinking about whether this crossed the line between firm reminder and Going Too Far.</p>
<p>Hell, I’m still thinking whether what I said or did was wrong or not. I guess this is what happens when someone big bitch-slaps you around. You stagger around, in shock.</p>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1132874719959780022005-11-25T07:23:00.000+08:002005-11-25T10:06:55.520+08:00Naked Woman Police Brouhaha<p>I heard the <a href="http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/43554" title="Malaysiakini: Nude woman police abuse clip sparks uproar">news</a>. And worse still, later on, I saw a <a href="http://www.brandmalaysia.com/movabletype/archives/2005/11/with_authority_1.html" title="Brand New Malaysian: With authority comes great screw-ups">series of stills</a> that purpotively capture the act, as it is, with its pants down. There is, predictably, <a href="http://www.jeffooi.com/archives/2005/11/who_is_bared_na.php" title="Screenshots: Who is bared naked... the Chinese woman or our Police?">even commentary</a> <a href="http://www.bobjots.org/archives/001722.php" title="b o b • j o t s: Time Honoured Traditions Threatened">about the</a> <a href="http://www.brandmalaysia.com/movabletype/archives/2005/11/with_authority.html" title="Brand New Malaysian: With authority comes great guffaws">whole issue</a>.</p>
<p>I’m going to take the best-case scenario and assume the video is fake. Not because I believe it is, or I want to believe that it is (quite the opposite, actually), but I want to show you how effective my argument is, even if the video was proven to be fake.</p>
<h3>Malaysians And The Law.</h3>
<p>Malaysians have an interesting relationship with the law. The best way we can describe it is, very probably, “If we can ignore it we will.” We’re not very law abiding—pirated goods still sell pretty strong, traffic laws are mostly optional, and generally we’re free to do what we like so long as we pay the monetary price.</p>
<p>It isn’t exactly cynicism, really. Take a look at the news, and you might suddenly realize that if you do have the money and the right connections, you might even get away with murder. Allegedly.</p>
<h3>What, Us?</h3>
<p>Is there something wrong with us? Some fundamental flaw that makes us incapable of following the law, either through the letter or its spirit? Are Malaysians, genetically, incapable of following the law?</p>
<p>I don’t really think so. Part of it lies with the impression we get from the news—that yes, if you’re clever enough, and if you’re subtle enough, you <em>can</em> escape from anything, on a technicality and public prosecutor incompetence. Crime doesn’t get punished here, not really.</p>
<p>The other reason, the one I’ll be going to at length, is our relationship with the police.</p>
<h3>Bad Boys Bad Boys…</h3>
<p>The police have been trying to get people to trust on them more for the past few years. You’ve seen the posters and signs—“Rakan COP”, and the like. They’ve been trying to bring the message that the Royal Malaysian Police are competent, transparent, and especially, especially, <a href="http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/11/24/nation/12680948&sec=nation&focus=1" title="The Star Online: Cabinet advises cop to withdraw action against girl">don’t fucking doubt it or we’ll fucking sue you, bitch</a>, not corrupt.</p>
<p>They’re not succeeding. Partly because, hey, the aren’t exactly competent, transparent and not corrupt, but the solution to that one is particularly obvious—stop being incompetent, not transparent and corrupt. The second reason is a little harder to deal with, and involves a paradigm shift not only in the <acronym title="Royal Malaysian Police">RMP</acronym>, but in Malaysian society in general.</p>
<h3>What ‘choo Gonna Do When They Come For You?</h3>
<p>The police force owes a lot to the Communist Insurgency. When you have an insurgency, folks, your police force needs to be good at several things to enforce the law. One of these things is that you start getting good at—specializing in, even—controlling the populace by fear.</p>
<p>You’ve got to give credit where credit is due, of course—the police are <em>amazingly</em> skilled in some things. If you want someone to handle riot control, you really can do much worse than Malaysian police. If you want checkpoints, same thing. Ditto suppressing terrorism and the like. Our cops are just <em>that</em> good<sup><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup>.</p>
<p>The problem is, the <em>real</em> problem behind all of this is that they haven’t moved with the times.</p>
<h3>Cops, Actually.</h3>
<p>If anything, what I loved the most about my time overseas was to see a different relationship between the police and the local community.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Police_Service" title="Wikipedia: Metropolitan Police Service">police in the London Metropolitan area</a> don’t, let’s face it, have an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policing_in_the_United_Kingdom#Recent_and_current_issues" title="Wikipedia: Policing in the United Kingdom -- Recent and Current Issues">awesome reputation</a> either. They shot some kid dead without due process, didn’t they? But the fact was, they responded well. The London community <em>trusts</em> the police to a degree, and the police find that their work in enforcement is a lot easier.</p>
<p>Yeah, it <em>is</em> actually easier to obey the law when you know that the police are on our side. It stops being a matter of lawbreaking being something you do to “stick it up to the man” and more that lawbreaking becomes something that goes against your interest in the end.</p>
<h3>Bad Attitude</h3>
<p>It boils down in the end to our attitude towards the law. The law, imposed by an external force, is a burden. But the minute a society realizes, or is made to realize, that obeying the law, <em>all the time</em> is to their best interests, they do. This isn’t foolish optimism—the idea in itself is based on Skinnerian psychology. Rewards <em>are</em> better than punishment.</p>
<p>It’s something that not only our police fail to understand. The music industry here fails to understand that as well, with their campaign against media piracy. It is pointless to try the legalistic argument in Malaysia—no one trusts or necessarily obeys the law.</p>
<h3>Who cares if it’s fake?</h3>
<p>Who cares if the video is fake? The fact is, the video is seen as conforming to our view of what policemen do. You may have, no doubt, heard some stories. They don’t exactly protect and serve in those tales, do they?</p>
<p>The thought of cooperating to the police for your own good is alien to the mind of many Malaysians. What we do instead is cooperate because of fear of greater punishment. </p>
<p>What kind of incentive is that?</p>
<h4>fütnotes</h4>
<p id="fn1"><sup>1</sup> Or maybe not, if you hear rumors about how we’re supposedly the terrorist hub in the region. We might actually be, you know.</p>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1132566678282725342005-11-21T17:48:00.000+08:002005-11-21T21:31:38.386+08:00Hard Science, Fuzzy Belief<p>I agree with a lot of what <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins" title="Wikipedia: Richard Dawkins">Richard Dawkins</a> says, especially with his views on pseudo-science, New Age beliefs, and the current obsession with combining science and religion into one coherent, harmonious whole.</p>
<p>I think, like him, that it’s a load of crock. It’s bullshit, it’s stupid, it leads to bad science and even worse religion.</p>
<p>I’ll get to that bit a little later. Here’s the funny clincher, though—I think Dawkins, and atheists in general, have gotten religion wrong.</p>
<h3>The Un-Nameable Cause</h3>
<p>The ironic thing about my beliefs is that I am a hard scientist. I like my science hard and deterministic, the universe devoid of any intrinsic unifying meaning, there being no Great Bearded Being in the sky. </p>
<p>And yet, I am a Muslim. Yes, I hold witness to the affirmation that there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger.</p>
<p>It seems like there’s a contradiction there. Let’s leave that contradiction for a bit and revisit it later.</p>
<h3>Reason and reason alone.</h3>
<p>Listen to the fight between the forces of Reason and Enlightenment versus the forces of Faith and Superstition and you’d think that there was only one way of seeing the world, One True Way, and all other ways were… well, stupid. Foolish. Misguided. Nonsense, meaningless.</p>
<p>This of course fails to take into account on what role faith and reason have in the modern world. We know reason has a role—take away reason and you can see the immediate consequences, economically, politically, militarily. But it seems that if you take away faith, nothing happens. Apparently.</p>
<p>Which is ironic, since religious fundamentalism and New Age quackery is on the rise, despite our best damn efforts to leave superstitious claptrap behind. The promised fruits of abandoning Old-World Superstition—the end of killing, the abandonment of war, the elimination of self-righteous blindness—seems even further than ever.</p>
<p>One of the arguments that anti-religious people seem to trot out—that religions inspires people to do horrible, <em>horrible</em> things—looks hollow in the face of this cold historical fact: that the driving force behind the the biggest human and technological catastrophes of the past 100 hundred years wasn’t even religion.</p>
<h3>The Real Killer</h3>
<p>It isn’t. Take the top five catastrophes. And I mean the <em>top five</em>, in terms of what impact it had on how many people. You’d be surprised. September 11th, however horrible it was, doesn’t even come close to what we can do to each other.</p>
<p>Hiroshima. Chernobyl. The Soviet Gulags. The Killing Fields. The Great Leap Forward. Exxon Valdez. While to say that religion didn’t play a part in at least some of these is <em>preposterous</em>—but it wasn’t the be-all and end-all. There were other causes—technology run amuck. Nationalism. Racial hatred. Ideological insanity.</p>
<p>Even the even that shaped our national policy <em>today</em>—the May 13th riots—was less about religion and more about the politics of race and economics of inequality. Religion wasn’t fashionable <em>then</em>, as it is now. We did not need to cry out for ‘jihad’ then as we do now.</p>
<p>But the parade of horrors I’ve just shown you was meant to tell you one thing—you do not need religion to justify your horrors. We thought it was, once. We were wrong.</p>
<p>But enough of that. Let’s talk about something else.</p>
<h3>Meat and Bread.</h3>
<p>But what good is religion? It doesn’t explain the universe—it’s <em>terrible</em> at it, and attempts like Intelligent Design and trying to justify universal events through Scripture just read like a rather pathetic attempt of stealing the throne science wrested away very recently—at least in historical terms—from religion.</p>
<h3>You’ve lost the throne, children. Move on.</h3>
<p>Science does a great job in giving us <em>explanations</em>. It doesn’t do a lot good for <em>meaning</em>... at least for me. Some people don’t need it, which is why they can find wonder and joy in the real world. But those people aren’t everyone, at least not yet. Maybe not ever.</p>
<p>For others, there’s always those nagging questions: “Why? What are we doing here? Do we need to do anything? What is the sum total meaning of my life, really? Am I here merely to exist, to breed until I cannot, and then, to merely die? Why should I?”</p>
<p>And here’s the moment where you think I’ll sell you religion, right?</p>
<h3>The search of meaning</h3>
<p>That, ladies and gentlemen, is what preoccupies us a lot these days. We look for something to anchor us, to give us context in our lives, to make some sense of it all. Yes, we are a collection of baryonic particles held together by coincidence and goo, transient and evanescent.</p>
<p>Try getting out of bed in the morning for that. Believe me, I tried. For two fucking years. Didn’t work. Got diagnosed with depression.</p>
<h3>The Real Use of Religion</h3>
<p>Religion is a tool, much like anything else is a tool. I am a Muslim, because, you know, that’s what I am. I tried atheism for a while, you know. I couldn’t do it—I was raised a Muslim, and turning away from God felt impossible. Rather than tear myself away from Him, and risk damaging something, I came back. I made peace with myself.</p>
<p>I could never hope to be a <em>good</em> Muslim, so I settled with being just a Muslim. I relearnt the language of my religion, the cadences that <em>spoke</em> to me<sup><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup> in a way that philosophy and reason didn’t. I moved away from the absurdity and the contradiction inherent in <em>any</em> religion, and found that that contradiction masked a deeper meaning that really can’t be expressed in words. You have to experience it to <em>get</em> it.</p>
<h3>Meaning?</h3>
<p>When you don’t have meaning, life is empty, pointless. It doesn’t have to be religion—you can believe in your fellow man, in a political ideology, in your family, in your culture, in something, <em>anything</em>—we’re adaptive that way. But look for something, and hold on to it.</p>
<p>I chose Islam, <a href="http://hanishoney.bebudak.net/" title="Hani's website">Hani</a> and my family. <a href="http://centerpide.net/2005/11/21/having-faith-the-ultimate-requirement/" title="Straight From The Heart: Having Faith - the ultimate requirement">centerpide</a> chose Jesus and Christianity, and hey, that works for him. Other people choose mystical and magical paths, others choose relgion, a few adopt a philosophy of life, others devote their lives to serving others or escaping desire and pain. </p>
<p>Everyone has their own goddamn path, and there’s not a lot you can do to convince the other person to your way—only to guide them into whatever it is they need.</p>
<p>It isn’t religion that’s the danger, to be honest—it’s being blind to the truth, that there are other people around you, and that not all of them share what you believe. To live in the modern world means abandoning any kind of ideological certainty, or to be in danger of repeating the same meaningless horror over and over again. </p>
<p>No, it’s not pleasant or easy. But since when has life ever been <em>that</em>?</p>
<h4>Fütnotes.</h4>
<p id="fn1"><sup>1</sup> And that was the thing that people don’t get about Osama bin Laden. He <em>used</em> language, at least in the early days of him in hiding, in a way no non-Muslim or moderate Muslim could. They were <em>good</em> at it. We had a lot of catching up to do. We still do.</p>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1132146311632886442005-11-16T21:02:00.000+08:002005-11-16T21:07:01.820+08:00Angry Religio-Cultural Rant #646,242.<p style="font-style:italic;">This is an angry rant. If you don’t like it, leave. If you want to talk about it, leave. If you don’t like that, you know what to do.</p>
<p>I’m a Muslim.</p>
<p>Being a Muslim isn’t <em>just</em> the intellectual acceptance of what I believe—I leave that to other people, really. It’s not <em>just</em> me growing up a Muslim—but sure, that played a part. I’m a Muslim because that is my identity. Body, heart, mind and soul, that’s who I am, and I suspect a significant portion of Malaysian-Muslims are like this, but don’t care to admit it.</p>
<h3>Too Much Time On The Net Is Bad For You.</h3>
<p>And I go on the Internet. It strikes me how ironic these two ideas can be, especially when you consider this:</p>
<p>There isn’t a lot of criticism about Islam for Malaysians <acronym title="in real life">IRL</acronym>. It simply isn’t allowed, mainly because of hypocritical bullshit about avoiding racial disunity. Yeah, it’s hypocritical, especially when you hear those fucking xenophobes you call <acronym title="united malay nationalist organization">UMNO</acronym> Youth rant. Bullshit racial disunity. We’re pussies about criticism, fellow Malay-Muslims. Face facts.</p>
<h3>The Great Muslim Shock.</h3>
<p>Because I’ve been on the ‘net for seven years and I still can’t get over the Islamaphobic bigoted shit that keeps cropping up. Significant portions of it are dressed up as if they’re the voice of <em>reason</em> and <em>civilization</em>.</p>
<p>The worst part about all this shit is how it attacks <em>Islam</em>. I mean, it’s hard enough to deal with shit when your own <em>belief system</em> gets treated like a fucking pathogenic meme.</p>
<h3>Pathogenic meme?</h3>
<p>It’s <em>not</em>, fuckers! I don’t see people other than certified nutjobs say that Catholicism is responsible for the actions of the <acronym title="irish republican army">IRA</acronym> or that fundamentalist Judaism is responsible for Palestinian oppression<sup><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup>.</p>
<p>I don’t need to drag out the reasons why Islam is not “inherently violent”. Most of the <em>1.1 billion people who profess to that religion</em>, some of them living, like, <em>next door to you</em>, go through most of their goddamned <em>lives</em> without a single violent impulse in their head. Or, if they do, they deal with it <em>the way you do</em>. Some of these self-same people are <em>religious</em>. <em>Traditionalist religious</em>. You don’t have to be liberal to be peaceful.</p>
<h3>What Do You Want, The Moon?</h3>
<p>Are you saying that that’s not enough for you? Well, then, <em>fuck you</em>. Go fuck yourself, you pansy-waist armchair crusader-academic-or-general-manque. I’ve had enough of your pontificating. I’m <em>sick</em> of it. Pontificate by your fucking self. Assholes.</p>
<p>There is no room for discussion. Feel free to send an email whining about how I’m oppressing you by shutting comments down.</p>
<p id="fn1"><sup>1</sup> But then again that’s what Pusat Islam always says during Friday sermons. But shit, you want to listen to <em>Pusat Islam</em> for an unbiased view of global events?</p>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1131299026856710702005-11-07T01:35:00.000+08:002005-11-07T01:43:46.906+08:0023/5<p>Got it from <a href="http://mudpond.blogspot.com/2005/10/235-meme.html" title="percolator's attempt at the meme">here</a>.</p>
<p>Hey, what’s the harm, right? Besides, I was curious.</p>
<p>The 23/5 Meme via <a href="http://mudpond.blogspot.com/" title="Percolator's The Mudpond's main page">percolator’s ‘the mudpond’</a>.</p>
<ol>
<li>Dig into your archives</li>
<li>Find your <a href="http://t-boy.blogspot.com/2004/10/i-dont-hate-you-cause-i-hate-freedom.html" title="this was my 23rd post">23<sup>rd</sup> post</a>.</li>
<li>Find the 5th sentence (or closest to) and post it in your blog along with these instructions.</li>
</ol>
<p><del>fnord</del></p>
<p>And here it is:</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="font-style:italic;">How many of them can spell properly again, much less spell “Jalan Riong”?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Mmm, feel the burn!</p>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1130392439329584092005-10-27T13:50:00.000+08:002005-10-28T15:55:14.826+08:00On Being Multi-Cultural<p>I had a fairly angry blog entry before this, but something in <a href="http://www.minishorts.net/">minishorts</a>’ blog <a href="http://www.minishorts.net/?p=484" title="Minishorts: A Letter">changed my mind</a>. So I’ve decided to make a rewrite.</p>
<h3>Fitting into Multicultural Societies is Hard Stuff</h3>
<p>You might not think there is a link between what MENJ says <a href="http://blog.menj.org/index.php/2005/10/22/deeparaya-sacriligeous/" title="MENJ: Deeparaya? Sacriligeous!">here</a> and <a href="http://blog.menj.org/index.php/2005/10/22/100-christian-proofs-of-islamic-falsehood/" title="MENJ: 100 Christian Proofs of Islamic Falsehood">here</a> with a certain <a href="http://www.jeffooi.com/archives/2005/10/post_19.php" title="Badruddin truly needs the right surgeon">MP’s so-called ‘racist’ statements in parliament</a>. Admittedly, there are fundamental differences—the Member of Parliament in question is a cretin (not unlike many of his counterparts), while <acronym title="Mohd Elfie Niesham Juperi">MENJ</acronym> is, by all indications, of above-average intelligence and education.</p>
<p>But both have one thing in common. They do not fit into a multicultural society.</p>
<h3>You Tak Suka?</h3>
<p>I don’t say this to mean as if it is a bad thing. I don’t mean to go at the <acronym title="Member of Parliament">MP</acronym> or MENJ and say, “<a href="http://blog.shafla.com/index.php/weblog/this_is_fun/" title="The Syndicate Journal: This is Phun!">You Tidak Suka, You Keluar Dari Malaysia!</a>” —although admittedly, it would be <em>fun</em> and ironic to say to the MP himself, who has made himself inadvertantly famous by putting his foot in his mouth with <em>that</em> statement.</p>
<p>But the fact of the issue is, you live in a society where not everybody thinks and lives like you, and it is not likely that they will <em>ever</em> do so.</p>
<h3>In An Idealized World</h3>
<p>Not because it should be this way—let’s face it, in an <em>idealized</em> world, everyone would have his own space, everyone would belong, and there wouldn’t be any conflict between anyone at all. But let’s face it—there are about 23 million people crammed by history and circumstance into an area approximately 330 thousand square kilometers big. That isn’t a lot of space.</p>
<p>And when you’re all crammed up like that, one of the last things you want to talk about is how people should behave and where they belong and what is the true truth. You’re just struggling to not push the other feller into the sea (where they could probably sue your sorry ass for being an ass), or get pushed in either.</p>
<h3>Priorities, Man, Priorities.</h3>
<p>I’m not saying that what you believe and what you say is unimportant. I’m saying, look at your other priorities first. You don’t live in an all-Malay (oxymoronic—have you heard of a ‘true Malay’?) all-Muslim country. You live in a multicultural one, which means that you <em>must</em> accommodate. Not <em>should</em>, because frankly I’d go somewhere else if I could, but <em>must</em>.</p>
<p>And if you don’t, well, why should the other guy?</p>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1129530696967826112005-10-17T14:27:00.000+08:002005-10-17T14:31:36.973+08:00A Fairly Serious Announcement<p>Right. I’ve got something important to say.</p>
<p>Most of you know about me and <a href="http://hanishoney.bebudak.net/" title="Hani's Honey">Hani</a>. For those who don’t, we’ve been dating for five years, which is a decent chunk of time to date before taking any kind of next step.</p>
<p>Well, guess what. We <em>are</em> taking the next step. Hani and I are getting married.</p>
<p>Both our parents know, and have already began planning for the event already. I’m not sorry to say this at all, but it’s going to be invite-only—there are too many people who may want to come, and frankly, it devolving into a circus is the <em>last</em> thing I want.</p>
<p>But the dates? Well, we’re both getting engaged by the end of this year, and we’re hoping to tie the knot by the middle of next year. We <em>may</em> post dates. I’m betting that Hani wants to post photos—frankly I shan’t stop her, though I must wonder why we must submit you lot to the indignity of me in a <em lang="ms">pelamin</em>, but that’s the way things go.</p>
<p>And yes, some of you will get invites. No, I haven’t thought of who yet. I will.</p>
<p>That is all. For now.</p>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1128434459469776112005-10-04T21:59:00.000+08:002005-10-04T22:18:05.440+08:00YARP 2005: Remember the Forgotten<p>“You know,” I told my dad, while we were having dinner last night, when they announced that Ramadan would begin on Wednesday, “For a little while, I forgot what fasting during Ramadan was for.”</p>
<p>“That’s an odd thing to forget,” he said.</p>
<p>Yeah, it was.</p>
<h3>Less Than the Best.</h3>
<p>I’m not even close to being a devout Muslim. I know what being drunk feels like, I’ve done things with the ladies that could be described as… interesting and educational<sup><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup>, I occasionally blaspheme, and sins upon sins, I am often liberal and irreverent about my religion.</p>
<p>I could put blame on it on my upbringing. My dad’s pretty much a liberal Muslim too, with pockets of conservatism. But hey, he grew up in the sixties, and idolized <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariq_Ali" title="Wikipedia: Tariq Ali">Tariq Ali</a><sup><a href="#fn2">2</a></sup>.</p>
<p>But I’m not going to. It was a decision I made, I guess, a long time ago.</p>
<h3>Times Change.</h3>
<p>Yeah, and it’s harder to be a Muslim now. I mean, they blew up fucking Bali <em>again</em>. I mean, what’s the point of it? People die, Muslims take a <acronym title="Public Relations">PR</acronym> hit.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.brandmalaysia.com/movabletype/archives/2005/10/bali_who_stands.html" title="Farish Noor on Brand Malaysia: Who Stands To Gain From Maiming Indonesia?">Farish Noor</a> ’s article, as usual, stands out as a fairly good piece of writing from a fairly moderate Muslim, but he’s lost the point again, hasn’t he?</p>
<p>Yes, it’s about the Muslims versus the West. It just gets to the point where you bring up the litany about how the West wants to bring down Muslims, force it to assimilate into what it believes is the global culture, and go along in its business.</p>
<p>Well, maybe that’s true.</p>
<h3>Justice.</h3>
<p>But that’s not the point again, is it? Yes, focus on the conflict. Focus on the ideological battles Muslims have with the West, and with themselves and each other. We’ve entered an age of soul-searching, we Muslims, and it’s often not pretty.</p>
<p>But what has this got to do with forgetting what fasting is for? Well, everything. What is the Ramadan fast for?</p>
<p>The Ramadan fast is an injunction from God. Oh, great, argument settled, let’s go home. But that’s not just it, is it? When I was a kid, we were told that the fast was to remember the suffering of the poor, of those people who often did not have enough to eat and drink, the ones we walk on past whenever we go to work, or go home from work, or on Jalan Sultan Ismail, on our way to a night of debauched revelries.</p>
<h3>Forgotten and Forsaken.</h3>
<p>The fast is for the forgotten. Yeah, I know, it’s symbolic, but we’re weird that way. Humans, I mean; not Muslims. We’re weird in the sense that we need symbols to start something. Reason doesn’t cut it, and frankly, I don’t think it ever will.</p>
<p>So we commemorate the sufferings of those we forget so often by depriving ourselves of what they are every day deprived of—food, drink, comfort and pleasure. And every year, we do it, and try to become better people, by remembering.</p>
<p>Of course, that doesn’t necessarily happen any more; but that’s semiotics for you.</p>
<h3>Forgotten, and Forgetting That We Have Forgotten.</h3>
<p>It’s easy to forget these things when you’re afraid, or defending yourself. It’s easy to just say, “Oh, we’re Muslims, we don’t do this sort of thing,” or “Oh, those Muslims, they’re always doing this sort of thing,” or whatever. </p>
<p>When we’ve got elephants running around in our heads, important things—like democracy and freedom, <em>real</em> freedom, not this McDonalds-Starbucks piece of shit we’ve got masquerading for freedom—get forgotten.</p>
<p>And life goes on. And people get trampled. And no one remembers.</p>
<h3>Safe Fasting, ya’ll.</h3>
<p>So. That’s a reason to fast—it’s not necessarily a religious and cultural thing Muslims do, but also a political thing<sup><a href="#fn3">3</a></sup>, a social thing <em>anyone</em>, Muslim or not, can do. Sure, you’re fasting because it’s an injunction from God, and you must do it if you are able. Think less of the ritual, and more on the <em>mindset</em> behind fasting.</p>
<p>But that isn’t it, as well, is it? Remember the poor. Remember the people who don’t have anything. Remember the forgotten. Farish’s article was a call to not forget what Islam stands for, and to fight for those things.</p>
<p>And to never forget.</p>
<h5>Fütnotes.</h5>
<p style="font-size:smaller;" id="fn1"><sup>1</sup> And quite, quite private. No luck getting anything out of me about <em>that</em> any more.</p>
<p style="font-size:smaller;" id="fn2"><sup>2</sup> And it was no suprise where he got my name then.</p>
<p style="font-size:smaller;" id="fn3"><sup>3</sup> Muslims don’t usually separate religion from politics, which usually scare the shit out of people who are experienced with Christianity, who’ve had shitty several hundred years worth of religion and politics mixing together.</p>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1128179774756438512005-10-01T23:08:00.000+08:002005-10-02T10:23:01.573+08:00We Don't Need the Fucking Water.<p><em>This is for you, <a href="http://centerpide.net/2005/10/01/my-clubbing-experiencenothing-grand/" title="Straight From the Heart: My clubbing experience that made me feel inferior">centerpide</a>. Don’t take it too hard.</em></p>
<p>I don’t go clubbing too often.</p>
<p>But when I do, really, I go out with <a href="http://hanishoney.bebudak.net/" title="Hani's Honey">Hani</a> and we go out with a couple of her friends to a club or a show and what not.</p>
<p>She’s the one who taught me to club, see. I had never been to a club before with friends or alone until I met her, and she taught me several things about clubbing.</p>
<p>I’m going to talk about them now.</p>
<h3>Dance motherfucker, dance.</h3>
<p>They’re rules that apply to anyone—from newbie clubbers to old vets that have done this shit since god knows when and have seen shit come and go. They’re good rules of thumb. I like them.</p>
<h4>Remember what you’re there for.</h4>
<p>You might want to go clubbing for the music. You might want to go clubbing for the drinks. You might want to go clubbing for the chicks, or the dancing, or to pose around looking beautiful. Fine. </p>
<p>But know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it before you enter the club, and keep at it until you leave. While in the club, Doubt Is Not Your Friend.</p>
<p>Imagine—you’re dancing, and suddenly, you see your girlfriend laughing at you, or a bunch of people laughing at you, or something. There are two things you can do:</p>
<ul>
<li>Feel self-conscious, and thus angst about it.</li>
<li>Ignore them.</li>
</ul>
<p>The club is possibly the most forgiving environment you can be in. You don’t need to fit in; that’s something only the Outside World needs to think about, not you. Not while in there.</p>
<p>The rules apply when you dance and get laughed at, or when you flirt and get rejected, or when you pose and people throw paper umbrellas at you (and you probably deserve it as well, <em>you bastard</em>), or if you puke your guts out and get kicked out, or if you’re listening to the music and the <em>music suddenly starts sucking</em>, or whatever.</p>
<p>You’re there for a reason. The minute doubt starts, take a break; go outside. Relax for a minute. If it doesn’t go away, stop. Go somewhere else. Or go home. </p>
<p>You’ll be fine.</p>
<h4>Pay Attention to the People Around You.</h4>
<p>You really do need to. While ignoring people’s reaction to you is great, please try and remember, you’re not alone. Pay attention to something we call “personal space”. </p>
<p>Dancing is great, but don’t start hogging into people’s space. No one needs an asshole—least of all a drunk asshole who’s having fun at other people’s expense.</p>
<h4>Go With Friends You Trust.</h4>
<p>Friends are great. They support you, they bail you out of shit, they dance with you, you have fun with them. But who do you trust?</p>
<p>Clubbing is the acid test of a friendship. No matter how nice someone is, no matter how accommodating they are outside the club, they can be the worst piece of shit ever inside. </p>
<p>I swear—that nice girl outside who is nice until she’s in a club, and she disappears and you find out later that she spent <em>hours</em> dancing with complete strangers while you and your friends panicked, worrying if she’s the next Canny Ong or what, or that guy who’s great while sober but kept trying to sneak vodka into your drink, and you’re Designated Driver and the only thing that’s stopping them from taking a fucking cab home and/or a fiery death they probably deserve….</p>
<p>The worst thing is, really, that you’ve never clubbed with them before. Fine, so go clubbing with them once. If you enjoyed yourself, do it again. But if you don’t, then stop going clubbing with them. No, I don’t mean stop being <em>friends</em> with them. Remain friends! You can still be close to them!</p>
<p>It’s just that you’re not going to run around behind them and getting them out of trouble <em>yet again</em>, or you don’t really fancy getting fucking stood up while your friend goes and tackles that hot specimen of the desired sex.</p>
<h4>Reward Trust</h4>
<p>Mind you, if someone takes care of you while you’re smashed, and if they’re good at it, and patient… <em>hold on to them</em>. Be nice to them. Buy them drinks when they’re not being Designated Driver. Keep them, don’t let fate or ill fortune take them away.</p>
<p>Trust me on this.</p>
<h4>Take Care Of Yourself</h4>
<p>Practise a few precautions, and generally you’ll be okay. Going clubbing to dance? Remember to drink a lot of water along with that Red Bull+Vodka you’re having. </p>
<p>Going clubbing for the music? Okay, but don’t stand too near to the speakers if you value your hearing (then again you might not. What? Eh? Speak up!)</p>
<p>Going clubbing to flirt and score? Condoms and a small bottle of lube, and lay off the sauce. You’re going to need all the control you can get.</p>
<p>Going clubbing to drink? Learn the adage: “Beer before liquor, never sicker; Liquor before beer, in the clear.” Pace yourself. Don’t binge.</p>
<p>Going clubbing to not get raped? Go in a group of people <em>you can trust</em>. No, that cute guy you just met in Economics class is not someone you can trust. Your friends. Someone who has her head screwed in. Someone not stupid. I know, that last one is a bit of a tall order.</p>
<h4>Have Fun, Go Somewhere Else Or Go Home<sup><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup></h4>
<p>Really, it says it all. If you’re not having fun, go somewhere else. Tapped out all the locations? Go home. </p>
<p>There’s no shame in it. So you’ve decided to spend the rest of the night asleep, or eating a tub of ice-cream and watching <cite>the Three Stooges</cite>, or online, blogging. So what?</p>
<p>Sometimes clubs suck. Sometimes it’s the music. Sometimes it’s the crowd. Sometimes the police have raided the place <del>for more coffee money</del> to catch people using drugs and shit. It happens. Place sucked? Go somewhere else. Clubbed out? Go home.</p>
<h5>Fütnotes</h5>
<p style="font-size:smaller;" id="fn1"><sup>1</sup> Well, doesn’t really apply if you’re being a Good Friend. Tough it out, mate, and I feel for ya. Hope they appreciate what they’re doing, or else you might be going out with some new clubbing friends….</p>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1127649567410035872005-09-26T10:20:00.000+08:002005-09-26T15:00:11.110+08:00100: Never Forget the Craft.<p>Well, post #100. Wow. I missed my 1-year anniversary on blogspot, but I still have this.</p>
<p>Shame to waste it.</p>
<h3>On Priority</h3>
<p>I’ve always wondered what is it I find most important about blogging. It isn’t the fame (I’m secretly horrified that <em>too many</em> people will know who I am, and I am often horrified when they tell me that they read my blog), or the potential of freedom of speech (I spent several years in USENET, which cured me of wanting <em>that</em>), or the potential advance in technology in the sharing and reporting of views that blogging allows us (as opposed to every technological advance before this?).</p>
<p>There are those who see blogs as a form of personal expression (I do, too). Or a vehicle for a cause. Or a technological wonder. Each of these have their adherents.</p>
<h3>The Craft</h3>
<p>But then it hit me—it’s not about the technology, or the political, emotional, or cultural freedom. None of that matters to me. It’s respect to the <em>craft</em>.</p>
<p>Come off it, Tariq, you might say. Blogging is hardly an established medium. It’s been around, what, less than a decade? We’re still experimenting!</p>
<p>So what? You don’t blog an entry, do you? You write it. That’s the skill you use, and just because you’re in a newfangled medium changes nothing. The <a href="http://www.legadoassociates.com/blogbinge.htm" title="National Post Online: Blogs? Zzz...">medium isn’t even all that newfangled</a>. It’s sobering to realize that the medium is not at all new—that it owes so much to older, more traditional media. </p>
<p>You’re not just a blogger when you’re writing an entry, you’re a writer. You agonize over word order or sentence structure, and whether your ‘voice’ will hold the reader, or what rhetorical device you can use to get your reader (who may <em>just</em> be yourself) to be <em>interested</em> in you and not just skim through your article out of sheer boredom or confusion.</p>
<p>That’s why I have certain blogs in my list and others I visit infrequently. There’s no point in naming names for blogs that I don’t at all read regularly because they suck at their craft, but there are those whom I read almost all the time.</p>
<p>And why? Because reading them gave me pleasure. Because they were accessible, and when they weren't they were works of art. Or, in this case, craft.</p>
<h3>An Issue of Respect.</h3>
<p>The blogs I love may not the most popular blogs in the world. They have a dedicated fan-base, but that’s about it. They may not talk about The Latest Hot-Button Topic. They may not even be <em>regular</em>, which the rest of this community treats as a deadly sin.</p>
<p>But that’s it, you see.</p>
<p>If you want to be a good blogger, learn to respect the craft. Technology can compensate for irregularity, rhetorical skill can reduce the ennui of mundanity, and nothing warms cold nights like being cult and not mainstream. But nothing replaces craft. Mastery of the craft may not get you the hits, it might not get you the newspaper articles or interviews, it may not even pay the bills, but it’s priceless for one reason—nothing else replaces it.</p>
<h3>Writing, Even For An Audience Of One</h3>
<p>Respect your readers, even if the only person who reads this is you and a small group of friends. Or just respect <em>yourself</em> if you don’t have friends.</p>
<p>It isn’t enough to have a clever, rational argument—you’ve got to present it clearly. It isn’t enough to just have a passion for blogging—you’ve got to tighten your rhetorical voice, your cadence. It isn’t enough to be famous—you’ve got to have a balance between introspection and observation.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter if your subject is mundane or dull; it doesn’t matter that the thing you’re talking about is so far away from the cutting edge people wonder why you’re talking at all.</p>
<p>If you can respect the craft of writing, you’re worth reading.</p>
<h3>Screws On It All</h3>
<p>Screw freedom of speech. Screw the sharing of ideas. Screw new technology. Screw innovative, revolutionary ideas. Return to the base of it all, and learn the craft.</p>
<p>There are books out there that will help, and web articles—go out and find them, because they’re valuable resources (I'm a fan of William Zinsser myself—his book, <cite>On Writing Well</cite>, is one of my favourites). Blogging is a tool of communication—<em>learn to communicate!</em></p>
<p>Because if you haven’t got respect for the fucking craft, what else can there be?</p>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1127650498869149512005-09-25T20:15:00.000+08:002005-09-26T07:07:45.746+08:00The Blog Meet.<p>Did you know, <a href="http://hanishoney.bebudak.net/" title="Hani's Honey: Practising Discretion">Hani</a> and I nearly missed <a href="http://www.petertan.com/blog/index.php/2005/09/08/mid-valley-megamall-bloggers-meet-ii/" title="Peter Tan's Digital Awakening -- Mid Valley Megamall Bloggers Meet II">the blog meet</a>?</p>
<p>Honestly, we thought it was going to be held at the 3rd floor food court. It was fifteen minutes later did we realized that that court wasn’t called Oasis, and we went downstairs.</p>
<h3>First impressions.</h3>
<p>You know, you can tell when a grouping of bloggers are sitting together. When a bunch of people are huddled together in a food court, not eating but instead just <em>talking</em> about stuff and fondling digital gadgets, you know you’ve got a meeting of bloggers.</p>
<p>But yeah! I got to meet with <a href="http://www.petertan.com/blog/" title="Peter Tan: The Digital Awakening">Peter Tan</a> (he waved at me! <acronym title="OMiGod">OMG</acronym>! That’s so cool.) And I met <a href="http://sashiweb.com/" title="Sashi's Sashi-isms">Sashi</a> for the first time. Man, he’s skinnier than I expected. Yeah, I guess he does write like a fat guy.</p>
<h3>Surreality</h3>
<p>Oh, and I met <a href="http://minishorts.net/" title="Minishorts!">Claire</a> for the first time. Oh, oh, oh, and <a href="http://blog.menj.org/" title="Mohd Elfie Nieshaem Juferi">MENJ</a>, I got to meet MENJ. That particular meet was surreal. See, the guy had apparently waged some kind of covert war thing on me when I first went on this blog. He took it the wrong way and there was some name-calling.</p>
<p>Yeah, it was surreal.</p>
<p>There was this <a href="http://emilyyoon.blogspot.com/" title="Emily Yoon's Blog: The life I choose to live">other gir!</a>! She had come from her ballet exam, so she was really sweaty and <del>hot</del> warm! I didn’t have a problem with that at all. Nosir.</p>
<h3>So Many People, Cannot Keep Track</h3>
<p>And then there were so many people! And two people shoved their recording devices to my face, and interviewed me. That particular bit was weird and scary.</p>
<p>But it was fun! I guess. Wouldn’t mind doing it again. Only, er, next time, can we do it somewhere other than a food court? Oasis had this weird smell, and there were all these people….</p>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1126863922699339972005-09-16T17:43:00.000+08:002005-09-17T01:29:25.263+08:00Mack, Back The Hell Up<p>I mean, really. <a href="http://www.brandmalaysia.com/movabletype/archives/2005/09/let_the_law_dec.html" title="Mack: Let the law decide">Just back the hell up</a>.</p>
<p>I don’t disagree with what he says, no, at least the core message—what goodman did was wrong, he shouldn’t be abusing freedom of speech the way he is, if you shit on someone else’s lawn you deserve at very least a tight slap and at the very most legal proceedings.</p>
<p>But the minute he started bringing up Nazis my wank sense started… tingling…!</p>
<p>Mack, here’s what I think you did wrong:</p>
<h3>You Broke <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law" title="Wikipedia: Godwin's Law">Godwin’s Law</a>.</h3>
<p>Actually, you didn’t; your argument instead matched the observation that is postulated in Godwin’s Law. But that’s not as catchy as saying that you broke it.</p>
<p>Not that you’re not supposed to, mind you—but remember what Godwin’s Law is supposed to do:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[Godwin’s Law]’s memetic function is not to end discussions (or even to classify them as “old”), but to make participants in a discussion more aware of whether a comparison to Nazis or Hitler is appropriate, or is simply a rhetorical overreach.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Your argument was a rhetorical over-reach. The Nazi’s <em>murdered</em> 6 million Jews. Racists in our country have not yet killed anything close to that number. Neither are they in power the way the Nazis were, and neither did they dominate the nations the Aryans did.</p>
<p>The Nazis are semiotic poison. Unless the groups that are being compared to them bear more than just a passing resemblence to Nazis and Naziism, or are as virulent as the Nazis, avoid using them in comparisons.</p>
<h3>You Went For the Groin.</h3>
<p>Seriously. While ad-hominem attacks are generally <em>de rigueur</em> in situations like this, implying that goodman’s arguments are the results of insanity diminishes the whole edifice of people who <em>do</em> have a grieviance, however imagined, against Malays.</p>
<p>I’m Malay, with Chinese, Javanese and Indian blood in my veins. I can’t claim to be as <em>rojak</em> as you, but you <em>do</em> know that non-Malays have a legitimate grieviance.</p>
<p>And, to top it off, you called him a pathological liar. That’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fandom_wank" title="Wikipedia: Fandom Wank">wank</a> material there.</p>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1126797670666389582005-09-15T23:17:00.000+08:002005-09-16T12:09:11.680+08:00So You're Getting Fucking Persecuted.<p>There was once a time when <a href="http://www.jeffooi.com/" title="Jeff Ooi's Screenshots">Jeff</a> <a href="http://www.jeffooi.com/archives/2005/01/brain_scan_on_n.php" title="Screenshots: Mack does a brain scan">called</a> me contrarian<sup><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup>. I was flattered<sup><a href="#fn2">2</a></sup>! And then people forgot forgot me and I had to abandon my plan to make money of blogging, and instead get a real actual job. That sorta sucks.</p>
<p>Serves me right for not being regular. I wonder if bloggers have their own kind of bran.</p>
<p>Anyway! Enough reminiscing. We’re here to talk about the Freedom of Speech!</p>
<h3>Getting Started / Get Retarded</h3>
<p>Yes, it’s a post referencing <a href="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/167812/1/.html" title="Channel News Asia: Two bloggers charged under Sedition Act over racist remarks">that</a> <a href="http://www.todayonline.com/articles/72254.asp" title="TODAYOnline: 'What's sedition?' debate goes online">event</a>!</p>
<p>First off. It’s interesting to note that while there’s a lot of reacting to what happened in the news, I didn’t actually <em>see</em> what those two forumgoers posted, so I have no idea if <em>what</em> they said was racist or not.</p>
<p>Secondly, <em>assuming</em>, of course, that the statements made by the two defendants <em>were</em> actually racist in nature, then all I’ve got to say, again, assuming that what they said was racist, is that those they had it coming.</p>
<h3>Being Harsh On The Ones You <del>Love</del> Mildly Dislike</h3>
<p>I’ve never been very kind to my fellow bloggers. I’ve heckled them, mocked them, belittled them and, in general, challenged them to actually <em>prove</em> that what they say is important in the general scheme of things. </p>
<p>My argument is that blogs are intrinsicly uninteresting—dull, even plebian and horrible at times. You get what you pay for in terms of low cost of ownership, and sometimes you may get overcharged.</p>
<h3>Quality Oxymorons</h3>
<p>Nothing gives you the <em>right</em> to be important, least of all being a blogger. Most of us will be trapped in the personal limbo of being uninteresting to all but the closest and most obsessive of our readership, while a select few will get to be the next <a href="http://www.kottke.org/" title="Jason Kottke's Blog">Kottke</a> or <a href="http://www.jeffooi.com/" title="Jeff Ooi's Blog">Ooi</a>, or whoever it is that is popular.</p>
<p>While being read and respected by thousands is nice, it certainly helps to realize that while Jeff gets another fucking award from yet another international organization and Kottke gets his six billionth reader, you and I will be filling up what we can charitably call <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law" title="'Ninety Percent of Anything is Shit'">Sturgeon’s Bottom Ninety Percent</a>.</p>
<p>If you’re still dreaming about making it to the big-time by blogging, get over it. </p>
<h3>That ‘Fundamental Right’</h3>
<p>And then there’s the ‘fundamental inalieable right to Free Speech’. While many people focus on the right to say whatever you like without fear of censorship, I say “bullshit”.</p>
<p>Freedom of Speech means freedom of living to the consequences of what you say. While you can say what you like online, you’re never, <em>never</em> free from consequence. </p>
<p>The government may not be able to do a <em>thing</em> to you<sup><a href="#fn4">4</a></sup>, but that doesn’t mean that what you say can’t get you fired, or get you verbally slapped around like a two-buck whore online, or cause your friends or lovers to leave you.</p>
<h3>Welcome To The Land of Shut The Fuck Up</h3>
<p>And so you <em>do</em> and <em>must</em> censor yourself. You think to yourself, “Can I say this? Is this right?” before posting your vitriol across the public wire. Of course you must. Being free to speak doesn’t mean you are free from being told, in very firm words, to be quiet.</p>
<p>As a matter of fact, as a Citizen of the Internet, you are allowed to speak whatever you like. Freedom to speak doesn’t mean that you must be listened or that your words deserve immortality. You are free to speak. What happens next is not up to you.</p>
<p>And frankly, like religious bigotry and outright stupidity, racism is hardly a defensible thing. You want to get in trouble, get in trouble by yourself. I’m not defending you, not because I do not care about free speech, but I have better time defending the right to the free speech of others who are more deserving.</p>
<h5>Footnotes</h5>
<p style="font-size:smaller;" id="fn1"><sup>1</sup> And my work eloquently-crafted, but I’m a crafty bugger, and I can spot a backhanded compliment a mile away!</p>
<p style="font-size:smaller;" id="fn2"><sup>2</sup> And yes, I know what it means! It means he thinks I’m on crack<sup><a href="#fn3">3</a></sup>!</p>
<p style="font-size:smaller;" id="fn3"><sup>3</sup> Do not deny it, you crafty old bastard! You know it in your bones to be true!</p>
<p style="font-size:smaller;" id="fn4"><sup>4</sup> But it <em>can</em>, and <em>did</em>. Oh dearie me. That’s so unfair! Whatever shall you <em>do</em>?</p>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1126527619429613992005-09-12T20:18:00.000+08:002005-09-18T21:38:46.563+08:00Rememberance.<p><a href="http://pickyin.blogspot.com/" title="Life is Great: Pick Yin's Blog">Pick Yin</a> did this, and she tagged me. I had an odd time doing this, really. I haven’t thought about my childhood much, much less talked about it to anyone here.</p>
<p>But anyway, here it is.</p>
<h3>1985: 20 years ago.</h3>
<p>My earliest memory. I am in my grandmother’s house. It is late morning. I am walking in, and I see the family dining table. I see old photos, medals, rememberances. The floor is terazzo. </p>
<p>My grandfather calls to me, calling me by a name no one else uses: “Muhammad Tariq”. He is a jolly fat mamak man, who dotes on me and spoils me.</p>
<p>I have a younger brother, just two years old. He is chubby and cute, and I bully him often, as older brothers do.</p>
<p>I love the television; often too much, as I often stand in front of it, blocking everyone else’s view. It’s a bad habit I will eventually abandon.</p>
<p>I start kindergarten this year. My first day, and I see a beautiful, blond-haired fair-skinned girl and fall in love with her, thus setting a rather unfortunate trend on my relationships with the opposite sex.</p>
<p>The only times I will ever feel this way again will happen after harsh bouts of illness, when I am young and fragile again, and the world feels fresh and renewed.</p>
<p>I am 4 years old.</p>
<h3>1995: 10 years ago.</h3>
<p>I am a <a href="http://cempaka.edu.my/index_damansara.html" title="Sekolah Sri Cempaka, Bukit Damansara">Cempakan</a>, and I hate it here. It’s probably the hormones, and some of the isolation. I don’t feel like I belong here.</p>
<p>I have seen death visit twice; once to take my baby sister away after seven months of life, the second time to take my grandfather away.</p>
<p>I have another baby sister. She is 4 years old. After the death of my late sister, she comes into the family like tinkle bells and the spring breeze. Everyone loves her.</p>
<p>I have established a reputation of being an underachieving social outcast. I am often lonely and frustrated. My parents note how angry I often seem to be. </p>
<p>My brother is now taller than I am. He seems more popular as well. We don’t get along too well.</p>
<p>If Simple Plan was popular, and if I cared about music, I would have been their biggest fan.</p>
<p>I discover the Internet, and at almsot the same breath, thanks to <a href="http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,983116,00.html" title="TIME: Coming Near To A Screen Near You"><em>the</em> article</a> in Time, easy access to pornography. Really easy. A love-hate relationship begins.</p>
<p>I am 14 years old.</p>
<h3>2000: 5 years ago.</h3>
<p>I am in <a href="http://www.intisj.edu.my/" title="ICSJ homepage">INTI College Subang Jaya</a>, which, after Cempaka, is a welcome change. I lose some of the rage, but the loneliness remains. A string of stalky “relationships” begins.</p>
<p>I move from my house in Ampang to a place in Petaling Jaya. At least we don’t have to wake up at bloody daybreak to get anywhere now.</p>
<p>I discover Half Life and Counter-Strike. I am not as good as I used to be, back in the days of Quake Multiplayer. But I have fun for quite a long while.</p>
<p>Not knowing what to do, one of the women I… well, ‘stalk’, gets the help of one of her more confident and aggresive <a href="http://hanishoney.bebudak.net/" title="Guess Who?">friends</a> to either scare me off or distract me. We start dating.</p>
<p>My parents aren’t exactly pleased; having had <em>no</em> experience in dating or what to do or behave, I screw up introducing her, among other things. The mistake takes years to rectify.</p>
<p>I am 19 years old.</p>
<h3>2002: 3 years ago.</h3>
<p>I have been in London barely four months, and my girlfriend calls and shatters my world. I don’t recover for a long time, but the aftermath leaves us stronger.</p>
<p>I have really long hair now. It reaches below my shoulder, and is the envy of hippies all around.</p>
<p>I’m beginning to doubt what I want to do for the rest of my life. Programming and computing science doesn’t seem as attractive as it used to.</p>
<p>Homesickness takes its toll. I’m beginning to realize, outcast that I believed I was, nothing compared to the sense of alienation I felt when I am alone here.</p>
<p>The isolation, doubt, and homesickness eventually will cost me my degree here.</p>
<p>Thanks to the urging of my friends, I begin blogging <a href="http://nyarlahotep.pitas.com/" title="What Are You Looking At?: Tariq's First Blog">here</a>. It was for friends, and was very sporadic. It will eventually die from lack of support, and a few <acronym title="HyperText Markup Language">HTML</acronym> comments-based bugs.</p>
<p>I am 21 years old.</p>
<h3>2004: Last year.</h3>
<p>I come back, after two years of trying. Sometimes people need to go away to realize what they’ve already got.</p>
<p>I start a <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/tariq_kamal/" title="Tariq Kamal's LiveJournal">LiveJournal</a>, mainly to keep in touch with friends who use this service.</p>
<p><a href="http://t-boy.blogspot.com/" title="Tariq Kamal's Why Are You Here?">Why Are You Here?</a> comes to life. It doesn’t get at all regularly updated, disappointing people for some damn reason.</p>
<p>This is a time of relearning—I re-enrol to <a href="http://www.help.edu.my/" title="Higher Education Learning Programme">HELP</a> and major in Business Information Systems. I begin feeling some degree of reverse culture shock, which is a shock in itself.</p>
<p>Hani and I spend more time together, getting a feel of each other after two years of no physical presence. She introduces me to bloggers. I get along great with a some of them.</p>
<p>I do something I’ve always fantasized about, but thought I’d never do. It’s fun, but exposes me to feelings that I never thought I’d feel from doing it. A couple more incidents like it, and that’s it.</p>
<p>My <a href="http://t-boy.blogspot.com/2004/11/finally-he-talks-about-it-ungrateful.html" title="Why Are You Here?:Finally He Talks About It, The Ungrateful Bastard.">first birthday at home</a> in two years is held in a Swedish Pizza parlor. </p>
<p>I am 23 years old.</p>
<h3>2005: This year.</h3>
<p>I graduate this year, with Second Class Upper Honours. My parents are understandably very proud. So is Hani.</p>
<p>I start looking for work, and I eventually find it. It’s a change from being a student.</p>
<p>I break the news to my parents, who are understandably upset and taken aback by my decision. Much negotiating begins, and the rest of my family becomes privy to something I have kept secret for almost half a decade.</p>
<p>My sister grinned and gave me the thumbs-up when she found out I had done the deed.</p>
<p>I call my brother, who is in Australia. We both talk. He expresses concern, and asks me if I think it’s a good idea. I say it is. He wishes me good luck.</p>
<p>I’m looking forward to Christmas.</p>
<p>I am 24 years old.</p>
<h3>2006: Next year.</h3>
<p>Performance Review Time. I get past that particular hurdle, and another stage of my life begins.</p>
<p>Another major event the middle of this year. It’s a frightening prospect, but I look forward to it. Probably more than some people, though…</p>
<p>I am 25 years old.</p>
<h3>2015: Ten years from now.</h3>
<p>“Daddy, what are you thinking about?”</p>
<p>Oh, nothing, kiddo.</p>
<p><hr /></p>
<p>Well, that’s that. So now, I’m tagging…</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://hanishoney.bebudak.net/" title="Hani's Honey">Hani</a> (which she’s done, <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/hanishoney/49208.html" title="hanishoney's LJ: Carrying On">but not on her blog</a>).</li>
<li><a href="http://macvaysia.blogsome.com/" title="Jordan's MacVaysia">Jordan</a> (he done been <a href="http://macvaysia.blogsome.com/2005/09/12/i-done-been-tagged/" title="Jordan's MacVaysia: I done been tagged">tagged</a>)</li>
<li><a href="http://insaneox.org/" title="Ash's Insane Ox Speaks">Ash</a></li>
<li><a href="http://isorule.blogspot.com/" title="Jay's But Enough About You">Jay</a></li>
<li><strike><a href="http://www.sashiweb.com/wp/" title="Sashi's Sashi-isms">Sashi</a></strike> Well, <a href="http://www.sashiweb.com/archives/2005/09/08/a-meme-meme-here-a-meme-meme-there/" title="Sashi-isms: A meme-meme here, a meme-meme there....">he did it already</a>. </li>
</ul>
<p>And, for the hell of it, these people:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://rajanr.com/" title="Rajan Rishyakaran's Blog">Rajan</a> (or, once you read what he's written, “<a href="http://rajanr.com/2005/09/14/forgotlah/" title="Rajan's Blog: Forgotlah">My Descent Into Alcoholism, Drug Addiction, and Eventual Starvation</a>”.</li>
<li><a href="http://blog.menj.org/" title="Mohd Elfie Nieshaem Juferi's Critical Thoughts">MENJ</a></li>
<li><a href="http://brandmalaysia.com/" title="Aminuddin 'Mack' Zulkifli's Brand Malaysia">Aminuddin</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>Feel free to take it up, if you’d like. It’s a free-ish country.</p>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1126059355505441282005-09-07T08:26:00.000+08:002005-09-07T14:34:02.806+08:00I Respectfully Request For: Yet Another Blogger's Manifesto<p>Hey, <a href="http://www.brandmalaysia.com/movabletype/archives/2005/09/the_maturing_in.html" title="Brand Malaysia: The maturing internet society in Malaysia needs a manifesto">a call for a manifesto</a>! Sounds like fun; I think I’ll do one!</p>
<p>The Malaysian blogging community is, while not very large, very active and quite diverse. You get all sorts of people, from generally one walk of life—the well-educated English-speaking people who can afford semi-regular access to the Internet<sup><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup>.</p>
<p>Anyway, as a Malaysian blogger and well-known small fish, here’s my manifesto. Feel free to steal and modify it; I’m releasing it to the public domain.</p>
<h3>I Respectfully Request For…</h3>
<h4>The Freedom of Speech and Consequence.</h4>
<p>Anyone and everyone has something important to say, at the very least in his eyes. While being allowed to speak whatever and whenever is one facet for this, so is the right for other people to slap you in the face for being an ass.</p>
<h4>The Right To Control Our Medium.</h4>
<p>What about those bastards in those comments, then? Should we just empower them to spew their hate-filled vitriol, or worse still, their advertisements for Viagra and casinos?</p>
<p>No. Emphatically so. While the space you own on your blog may be free, it doesn’t give others the right to come in and shit on your lawn. If we want to screen comments, let us screen comments. If we want to use <acronym title="Completely Automated Public Turing tests to tell Computers and Humans Apart">CAPTCHA</acronym>s in our comments system, inconveniencing others and spammers, well, I guess we’ll have them whether you like it or not. If we want to have <strong>no</strong> comments in our blogs, then no comments it is. Stop whining.</p>
<h4>The Right To Perspective And Humility.</h4>
<p>We <em>aren’t</em> new newest and greatest experiment in journalism and democracy. We’re not even real journalists. Big Media is <em>not</em>, despite all appearances, all-evil and should be replaced by a cadre of a bloggers.</p>
<p>Don’t be stupid. We’re poorer, less accountable and not at all edited. <a href="http://www.robinsloan.com/epic/" title="EPIC: The Death of the Fourth Estate?">EPIC 2014</a> will never happen, because there <em>is</em> a market for reputable, vetted news. There will always be a market for somewhat trustworthy bastards. And no, we’re not even <em>near</em> trustworthy. If that pisses you off, at least know that we're quite good at being bastards.</p>
<p>We’d like to be judged at this standard, please. Please stop looking at us like we’re the new <em>Nanyang Siang Pau</em>. The people in <em>Nanyang Siang Pau</em> get paid to do more shit than we’d ever bother doing<sup><a href="#fn3">3</a></sup>.</p>
<h4>The Freedom of Diversity.</h4>
<p>No, I don’t mean diversity of opinion, or language, or culture. We’re very diverse, opinion, language or culture-wise. That’s not the problem.</p>
<p>Diversity in medium is our problem.</p>
<p>Face it. When you’re a blogger, you tend to be:</p>
<ol>
<li>A journoblog, scavenging news link and providing commentary, or not.</li>
<li>A personal blog, all ranting and opinion and precious little else.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.kahsoon.com/" title="Kahsoon: Less original material in here than in Malaysian cinema">Kahsoon</a>.</li>
<li>A mix of all three.</li>
<li>Other.</li>
</ol>
<p>It’s the size of “Other” that’s so bothersome. Funny enough, a lot of it can be pretty <a href="http://darthside.blogspot.com/" title="The Darth Side: Memoirs of a Monster">brilliant</a>.</p>
<p>Shame there’s so little of it.</p>
<h5>Footnotes</h5>
<p style="font-size: smaller;" id="fn1"><sup>1</sup> Yes, I think so. Name me one who isn’t well-educated, rich enough to afford Internet access or fairly proficient English<sup><a href="#fn2">2</a></sup></p>
<p style="font-size: smaller;" id="fn2"><sup>2</sup> Well, okay, maybe not the last one.</p>
<p style="font-size: smaller;" id="fn3"><sup>3</sup> Unless you’re <a href="http://jeffooi.com/" title="Jeff Ooi's Screenshots">Jeff Ooi</a>. Come to think of it, where does he get all that free time anyway?</p>
<p><strong>Addendum (2:33 PM KL Time)</strong>: After a string of rather suspect comments, have decided to test that whole CAPTCHA system. I wonder how well it works. Apologies for those inconvenienced!</p>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1125636892338789332005-09-02T12:48:00.000+08:002005-09-02T13:02:02.353+08:00Because It Needs To Be Done.<p>When it comes to the battle between traditional mass media and bloggers, I don’t usually take either side. I still don’t; both are sleazy and stupid in their own ways, and I don’t feel like I need to comment about their foibles any more.</p>
<p>But I need to link you to <a href="http://interdictor.livejournal.com/" title="LiveJournal: Interdictor's LJ">this</a>.</p>
<p>Why? Three reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li>It’s on <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/" title="Main LJ Page">LiveJournal</a>, a service typically associated with angsty diarists and fen who write all sorts of crap. I happen to like <acronym title="LiveJournal">LJ</acronym>, so having this happen on it is something that pleases me. The service doesn’t matter, only the content.</li>
<li>It’s an important news item. It needs to be seen, it needs to be told. </li>
<li>It’s being written by the people <strong>who are there</strong>. You'll never get better coverage than this; and from people who have a stake at it, not some armchair wanker like me or slick media pirate.</li>
</ol>
<p>Go. Now.</p>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1124370906858415942005-08-18T21:06:00.000+08:002005-08-18T21:15:06.866+08:00Hey, You Malays!<p>Did you guys see the <acronym title="Petroliam Nasional">PETRONAS</acronym> ad that was aired on TV3, just after the news?</p>
<p>You know who made that? My dad. I know, it's disgraceful how gleefully proud I am right now.</p>
<p>The ironic part is that I have, for quite a while, wanted to talk about the state of my own ethnicity, what with calls to bring back <strike>Bumi-centric favoritism</strike> affirmative action and our kris-waving <strike>demagogues</strike> leaders….</p>
<p>And I was beaten to the punch by my dad! Sure, even he admits that the ad was “preachy” (I think it's a little cheesy myself), but hee hee hee! What a message!</p>
<p>“It's better to step forwards than to take a step back”? How's that for a kick in the nuts, you fuckers?</p>
<p>Hee hee hee. I've been pwned rather comprehensively by my own father. That's not the unusual part, no sir — what's unusual is that I'm quite enjoying it.</p>
<p>How's that for a kick in the nuts, haa? Heh.</p>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1122431252748892972005-07-27T11:26:00.000+08:002005-07-27T11:26:36.570+08:00Now Even The Man Can Blog<p>This was inspired from <a href="http://www.jeffooi.com/MT3/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=4689" title="Jeff Ooi's Blog -- Vintage Mahathir: Comments">this</a> from this <a href="http://www.jeffooi.com/archives/2005/07/vintage_mahathi.php" title="Jeff Ooi: Vintage Mahathir">post</a> at <a href="http://jeffoo.com/" title="Jeff Ooi's Screenshots">Jeff</a>'s:</p>
<blockquote><p>Hey, Jeff, I think what Mahathir needs is a blog!. You think you can help him create one that he can administer and run and of course write all his comments and of course we shall have a link to it from your blog. And then we can all talk directly to Mahathir. Might perk him up a bit and I think it will be really good for his health too.</p></blockquote>
<p>Excuse me while I giggle madly. The Mahathir Blog!</p>
<p>While our local politicians blogging is about as likely as me winning the next General Elections single-handedly and blindfolded, here are some considerations to future politician-bloggers:</p>
<ol>
<li>Make an effort to post on a regular basis. Either learn the tools yourself, or dictate it to someone, but whatever you do, you must do it yourself.</li>
<li>Spend some time track-backing. It would be considered ‘interacting with the Malaysian blogosphere’. You may not have time, in your busy schedule, but it's not something an enthusiastic research aide will do. Be sure to vet each link before you go — the last thing you need is a link to Something Objectionable.</li>
<li>Get your own provider. While Blogger is good for plebians like us, famous people like you will require a medium that can provide an effective spam-fighting platform and yet be accessible enough to be interacted with. We recommend <a href="http://wordpress.org" title="WordPress Official Page">Wordpress</a>, ourselves.</li>
<li>Want to post something private and personal? I recommend <a href="http://livejournal.com" title="LiveJournal">LiveJournal</a>. Not only will your entries be relatively safe, but there is a rich community that you might enjoy. Invite other fellow politicians and statesmen, and form a community! Squee at the latest Larry King episode, or whatever it is you old fogeys do to pass the time.</li>
<li>Oh, and when you do get your own hosting solution or whatever, make sure to either register it yourself, or get someone with a <strong>clear</strong> and visible link to you to do so. Leave clear communications details, so that people can communicate with you if they whois you. Make sure that you're able to prove that you are who you are.</li>
</ol>
<p>That's about it. Good luck with your foray into the horrid morass that is blogdom!</p>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8350220.post-1121600079517838552005-07-17T19:17:00.000+08:002005-07-17T19:34:39.596+08:00JK Rowling and the HP Fans.<p>We bought <em>two</em> copies of the book; the ‘adult’ edition for this house, and the ‘children’'s edition for my mother's place in Bangkok.</p>
<p>Yes, cost a fortune. Yes, it was worth it, because my sister and I could read it and not squabble over it.</p>
<p>My sister and I have finished reading the books. Took me about 12 hours, but I took breaks, unlike <a href="http://themeeshexperience.blogspot.com/2005/07/completed-hp-6.html" title="the Meesh Experience: Completed HP 6! :(">a certain fellow blogger</a>, who did 7 hours of non-stop swotting.</p>
<p>Can't say I'm too upset by the death of the major character. For one thing, we already knew she was going to do it again, after book five. No big deal.</p>
<p>Okay, granted I was hoping the feller would come back to life again, but that would have been cheap. So I guess that's that.</p>
<p>Mildly disappointed by the Judas, though. It seemed so obvious, hindsight, but I didn't exactly want to believe.</p>
<p>Oh well. Looks like Book 7 will be interesting.</p>
<p>Mind you, the whole series is beginning to get the feel of a teen movie. Which sucks, because I <strong>hate</strong> teen movies.</p>T-Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846000376281629712noreply@blogger.com8