A Penny For Your Thoughts, Current Issue

What goes up and never goes down?

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Here’s a little riddle for you folks. What goes up, and NEVER goes down? It defies every single law of gravity, especially in Malaysia? Scroll down for answer, folks. It’s one thing that does Papa Viagra proud and makes Sir Isaac Newton howl in shame in his grave..

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PETROL. Well, you got that one right folks. Grab your car keys, start up the engine, fasten your seat-belts and make a quick drive to the nearest petrol station and fill up your tanks, folks, cuz there will be a 15cent increase on RON97 petrol.

Good Lord… one would have thought that they’d at least wait til bloody next year to increase the RON97 again. After all, it had just been increased by 5cent last 1st Nov.

Hallelujah… thank God I left the goddamn ball-less newsroom. Else I would be putting my shoes in my chief editor’s arse hole for being a chicken and refusing to make a big news out of this and report on ‘ Who had sex with who under whose noses’ kinda news instead.

Here’s the ‘revised’ petrol price, effective as of 1st Dec 2010

RON95 RM1.85/Liter
RON97 RM2.30/Liter

Cleffairy: Hope your tanks are full, folks… or else, your pockets will be on fire!

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A Penny For Your Thoughts, Time Heals What Love And Reason Cannot, writing

Attention Seeking Whores: How to get rid of them

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This article is inspired by loads of whores in my life. Dating from school, to my adult years. Credits ought to be given to them, and not to me.

Attention seeking whores. Three words that makes my life a complete mess. Working in the media line, my life is full of socialites wannabe and fame seeking whores sometimes, it’s sickening, because in truth, capable people does not really need to do many things to gain attention.

But I guess not many people share the same sentiments as I do. Some people like to be seen. And likes to show off. Likes to show how perfect they are. They are always on their high horses, and I wish I can tell them to repent, because God is greater than anything in the world, and nobody is perfect.

Besides getting sick and tired for the lack of freedom at work, that is another reason why I quit working with one of our national favourite newspaper. It’s full of bullshits and attention seekers. Did you know that some columns are bought by these attention seekers or people with intention to promote their products and make themselves look good?

Well, some columnist are not exactly chosen or hired by these newspaper companies, but the space was bought by columnists in question so they could use the space to express whatever they like, including advertising their products. Some, on the other hand, pestered the editors to give them some space til the editors get sick of it and give in to them.

I’ve dealt with that sort of people, and it’s funny sometimes that they are so persuasive that I barely can hold in my laughter. Well…such things speaks volumes, actually.

Weak editors who allowed such people to get into their pants is the caused why the newspaper in question lacks quality control. God, sometimes I just wish they could just use the advertisement section instead of columns. They have advertisement space for some reason, you know? Why do you want to cheat people and mislead the readers?

Anyway, I’m straying.I’m just so pissed, so bear with me. Those not so bright people are asking me to reconsider working with them again. 🙁 It upset me, cuz the environment is not for me as I’ve always believe that capable people does not need to do many things to get themselves noticed. Besides, I am happy freelancing for an international magazine right now. Why would I want to go for domestic while I can go international is beyond me. 🙁

I have always believed in that, even as a young child that capable people does not need to do many things to get themselves noticed. And that is why, when I grew up, I try to maintain a low profile, cuz for what it’s worth, being famous is damn easy. If I really want it…nobody could stop me.

Anyway, as of late, I’ve discovered something that I never suspected before. These attention seeking whore are actually mentally ill. Medically speaking. Yes, there is such sickness.  It’s a terrible illness known as Munchausen Syndrome.

Munchausen Syndrome is an attention-seeking personality disorder which is more common than statistics suggest. Munchausen Syndrome, named after a German soldier renowned for exaggerated tales, is a predominantly female disorder in which an emotionally immature person with narcissistic tendencies, low self-esteem and a fragile ego has an overwhelming need to draw attention to herself and to be the center of attention.

In Munchausen Syndrome, this is achieved by capitalizing on, exploiting, exaggerating or feigning illness or injury or personal misfortune. The opportunities for being center of attention can be increased if feigning victimhood through alleged victimization, isolation, exclusion or persecution is added to the equation; the Munchausen person can then depict another person (often a family member or friend) as a victimizer or persecutor and herself as the victim.

Presenting herself as a false victim is also a Munchausen trait. Apart from that, they would also do whatever it takes to be in the center of attention, including lying and using people around them to get attention. They would also, stoop as low as to using children to gain attention and achieve their goals. Terrible, right?

God, I wish I knew about this earlier… that all these while, I’ve been dealing with some terrible psychopath in need of professional help. It would have saved me from wasting my breath and attention each time they do nonsense.

I was told that to deal with these sort of people… with such disorder is just to ignore them. That is the best way to get rid of them. Never ever give them the satisfaction of being in the center of attention, because they never stop, and will never stop. They might not realize that they are doing it, but it will continue til they realize that they are in need of special care and attention from psychologist.

I’m sorry for the misleading title. I don’t have exact solution on how to get rid of attention seeking whores who are constantly getting on your nerves, but the next time they step on your tail, you could mention about this illness to them, and tell them to get some professional help.

Cleffairy: Do you have such tendencies? Please get professional help so that you can get rid of your Munchausen Syndrome and spare me the misery of dealing with you!

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A Penny For Your Thoughts, Current Issue, writing

Take back our country from right-wing tabloids

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I attended an event last Sunday in conjunction of the Press Freedom Day, but I took no pictures because it was a forum/discussion for practicing and non-practicing journalists, and I was too engrossed ith the discussion to even snap any pictures. 😀 This is a rather outdated post, but please, allow me to share this with you:

The right-wing press, especially mainstream newspapers, are spreading lies, hate and thinly veiled racism to make people angry at their chosen scapegoats.

They…

  • Create mass hysteria about child abuse then claim children are allowed to run wild because teachers and parents aren’t allowed to control them – because they’d be accused of child abuse.
  • Misrepresent statistics to have the public under the illusion that everything is all right. Eg: Oil price, economical development.
  • Lie about political refugee and immigrants to stoke racial tensions that they claim immigration causes.
  • Use emotive language to spin articles to their agenda and write about alleged crimes as if they are guilty until proven innocent.
  • Use emotive language to stoke racial tension.
  • Claim to be environmental but side with big business that undermines the Mother Nature.
  • Being politically biased, and reported lies instead of truth, just because they’re under pressure.
  • Etcetera.

What could we do to make the public see this?

For years cigarette packets have come with health warnings, it’s about time some of the local mainstream newspaper came with similar warnings.

You can print these out onto A4 self-adhesive label sheets (available from your local stationers) to stick to the front of the newspaper in question and spread the word.

Sticker downloads

Cleffairy: The reason why I quit being a journalist is that I was forced to report lies. I worked in one of Malaysia favourite mainstream newspaper before, and yet, the newspaper body itself lacks quality and the editors were always under pressure from you-know-who. If I were to work for such newspaper, I’m better off working for a tabloid.

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A Penny For Your Thoughts, Down The Memory Lane, Time Heals What Love And Reason Cannot, writing

Do you remember who was your first?

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Do you remember who was your first? I am not sure if any of you out remembered who was your first. But I do. I remembered the first few people who dropped by my blog and gave me comments when I just started blogging.

When I first started, I never did expect anyone to even read my ranting and raving about Malaysian politic back then in Pak Lah’s not so glorious and sleepy era. I never did intend anyone to read my writing even, but people did, and back then, I was really, really surprised that they actually stumbled upon my blog and were actually hooked on it.

My first commenter was Warrior…the second one was Malaysianjoe, the third was Calvin of Calvinsoo Photography, a blogger turned photographer. Most of them are not active bloggers anymore, and somehow, I missed the good old times with them where we could discuss and debate about the happenings in Malaysia. I enjoyed their presence in my blog so much, as they made my brain twist and turn, and despite of being obscene and disgusting and plain chauvinistic at times, I enjoyed the intellectual discussion that I shared with them back then.

More often than not, we were hardly in agreement with each other on certain issues, but at the end of the day, it was pretty satisfying, because they gave honest opinion and never did hold grudge against each other, and keeps coming back for more. It was pretty refreshing. And they were never the ‘touch and go kind’.

There  were loads of comments from them for just one article every day. Such thing hardly happen anymore. These days, some people just leave their comments just so that their existence is known in hope that they will get traffic from there. Such thing doesn’t happen only in my blog I believe. It happens to almost everyone out there.

And then Pete came along.. Yes… Pete, the foodie blogger who is the only one who is still active among the four, and he introduced to me to the world of food blogging, and there starts my nightmare.

I have come to learn not to blog hop with empty stomach ever again since he came into my life. He never failed to tempt me with his home-cook dishes and made me laugh at his ‘American Friend’ jokes. That was when I was introduced to the fun side of blogging. I never did actually hang out in blogs that revolves around family, food or even diary-like blogs until Pete came along. In truth, I never really did knew that they even exists in the first place. I used to think that blogging is about expressing opinion on current issues not diaries or something of that sort.

As time goes by, more and more people came to my blog and left their trace in my blog, and the conversation in my comment box were not as intense. They are much more lighter, not serious, and perhaps it’s because I’ve really tone down a lot; for I no longer write about politics and current issues on daily basis.

Sometimes, what I wrote was merely for the reading pleasures of my readers, and I came to wonder if toning down is really worth it? Cuz somehow…intellectual discussion became very rare, and some readers could not really stomach honest opinion and gets sensitive rather easily, and some only likes beautiful things instead of ugly truth.

Things really do change, I guess. I’ve come a long way in blogging that sometimes, I am forced to reflect, and sometimes, laugh over certain matters that makes me a wiser person in whole.

Cleffairy: It is interesting to note that my first few readers were all man, and they came here, completely armed with opinions and suggestions.

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A Penny For Your Thoughts, Current Issue, IT/ Computing

Secret Identity: Nothing is what they seems to be

50 Comments

Yesterday a group of bloggers played a somewhat organized prank on their unsuspecting blog  readers, fellow twitter followers, as well as facebook friends. A prank… that comes rather late, in my opinion. After all, April 1st is definitely over. This prank, would have inspired a smile or even laughter if it’s conjured on 1st April 2010, but unfortunately, it is not. Some of you might be wondering what sort of prank it was. Well…head over to Merryn’s blog, and follow Foongpc on twitter @foongpc. The main subject here is, Merryn and Foongpc. Foongpc is an anonymous blogger, who never plaster his pictures all over the net met up with Merryn, along with Iamthewitch and her husband, Saucer.

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Then, after that, they decided to play a prank via Merryn’s blog where she proceed to write an entry by putting up Iamthewitch’s husband’s picture, Saucer and mislead the readers into thinking that Saucer is Foongpc’s husband.

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In the beginning, nothing happened until Foongpc began to rant and rave that he didn’t give permission to her to put up the bloody pictures, and seems to be pissed to the extend that he’s going to take legal action against her. While it is a fact that Merryn did not exactly mention that the picture in her entry is Foongpc’s picture, Foongpc gave many comments both on his twitter as well as in Merryn’s blog to give the impression that he is the man in the picture. And many readers were enraged by Merryn’s action; exposing what she’s not supposed to exposed. From what I gather, she probably received many hate mails and hate comments for it, and I was horrified for her safety as well as her son’s safety.

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I was horrified because of this; the threat for legal action by Foongpc as well as the haters. And my imagination started to run wild. People are hating her for what she did then.  I was thinking, it would be a shame if crazy haters get back at her through her sweet, innocent little boy Ethan. You see… Ethan is one of Merryn’s main subject in her blog. People actually knows how Ethan looks like. Gosh, I can’t imagine the poor thing being harmed or kidnapped just because people hate Merryn for what she did! God forbids that! I may sound paranoid, but this world is no heaven where everything is protected and loads of lunatics roam about.

. The next day, another entry was made, and apparently, everything is a hoax, and it seems that it is a joke made up at the expanse of the sympathetic and foolish readers. So… I kinda wonder why when everything was out in the open, Foongpc even dares to ask us why we fools thought that he is the man in the picture while he himself seems to imply it? I don’t quite get this part of the joke, though. Was he being sarcastic or did he not know that some of us are not only Merryn’s readers but his twitter follower as well? I’m not quite sure. 😛

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Truth be told. I was one of those stupid fools, and should have laughed at myself for being foolish. However, I couldn’t really find the heart to laugh at this little conspiracy. Why? Easy. Firstly, it’s because, deep down, I am somewhat similar to those uptight British bitch, and I am slow at getting jokes to penetrate into my brain, and secondly because I am also an anonymous blogger.

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This may be a playful, harmless joke played at the expanse of the innocent, unsuspecting readers, but to me… the effect is not quite those of a joke. I wish I could laugh with mirth, but I couldn’t find the laughter. Instead, the joke scares me. It scares me to my very core and made me shudder in fear.

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Yes. Shudder in fear. I experience many near-death experience before, however, it doesn’t come close to scaring me like this. Being somewhat anonymous in the world wide web all these while, I felt as if I’ve been doused by a bucket of ice through this entry, making me realized many things.

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Things that I have somewhat neglect to delve into since earlier of this year where I am determined to lead a happier and more fulfilling life by opening up my hearts to more people, and be a better me. Through this entry, I realized that… I MUST be extremely careful when I meet people next time. Or better still… don’t bother to meet strangers at all.

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Merryn’s entry may come out as a well organized joke, but in truth, such thing similar to the jokes she played might be real one day. It may not be from her, but I can’t honestly say others won’t do it for real-reveal one’s identity and expose what’s preferred to be private and confidential in the first place, just because they thought it’s not important and it’s funny or just because they thought it can bring traffics to their blogs.

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If I am not careful enough while meeting strangers, they might do what Merryn did in her entry-expose someone’s identity to the public without permission. While hers is meant to be a joke, such thing might not be a joke when it’s done on me, and that, wouldn’t be a laughing matter anymore.

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It will be an invasion of privacy in the most awful and cruel way, and if it happens to me, I’d be sure the one who did it pays dearly for the damage that has been done to me. I don’t tolerate invasion of privacy well. To me, it is a form of rape. Kindly do not ask me to chill or tell me that I think too much, because I value privacy very much.

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Merryn’s little joke really made me think how dangerous the world wide web is, and I must thread carefully. Plastering my own pictures with my freaking face all over the net is a no, no for me. And I definitely don’t allow anyone to do it without my permission as well. If you do that… I’ll file a lawsuit. Why? Well, you wouldn’t understand it, so, let me explain. This is not going to be a pretty post, and I am somewhat prepared for flames. Well, do your worst but I’m still going to discuss this issue. It’s been in my head for quite some time, but apparently, nothing actually triggered me to write it.

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Let me start with some questions. Do you know why Superman kept his identity a secret? Why Spiderman wears a mask covering his face? And why terrorists NEVER ever carry the picture of their family and children in their wallet?

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The reason is extremely simple. The superheroes, and the terrorists alike have something that others do not have, which is something to protect. By not exposing themselves… their true identity to the friends and foes alike, they are protecting something precious to them, which is their loved ones.

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Imagine everyone who knows who is Superman in his world…he may be a superhero with super powers, but the ones he loved, Lois Lane and his parents are just mere human. If the bad people finds out who is related to Superman, what would they do? Kill his family of course, cuz they are weak and powerless. They might need a kryptonite to weaken and kill Superman, but they don’t exactly need anything much to kill his human family.

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Killing Superman’s family members is as good as having a revenge on him. I am sure many bad guys out there agree with me on this. If you can’t get the bastard, get his family. That would be good enough. This world is not exactly paradise or a heaven on earth, if you ask me. I may not be Superman, or Batman, or any being with super power.

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I am just a normal human, but I have something to protect, which is my family. All of you may have nothing to loose by plastering the pictures of yourself and your children online and have no qualms of letting people know who you are, but I do. I don’t exactly write sweetly pleasant things that makes people happy all the time. More often than not, my writing is somewhat free… I am a very opinionated person, and what I write may hurt people’s feelings rather than not. My writing provoke people’s thoughts,and God knows how many people out there is waiting to strangle me to death for being rather peculiar and opinionated.

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And so… I don’t quite appreciate it when people ask me why I never reveal my face online. I read a comment in Merryn’s page where someone asked Foongpc… why he doesn’t want to show his picture? He looks fine and handsome, and he shouldn’t be shy about it. This freaking stupid, brainless, bimbo-ish question irks me to death. Do you know why?

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Because….you fools… sometimes, people kept their identity a secret not because they are not-photogenic, camera shy or they look fucking ugly. It is because they value their privacy and realize how important it is not to have unnecessary exposure in the public. They, unlike you who exposed yourself, have something important to protect, and they prefer to remain safe than sorry. One may say that they are just pictures… what harm can it do? I say many. People can recognize you on the street while you have no idea who they are. And I shudder to think that some losers out there are looking at your pictures while masturbating.

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Absolutely freaky, if you ask me. You may say they don’t know your address, your phone number. Oh…they do know…this is the information technology era. They can trace you through Facebook… through advertising companies READ: Nuffnang and so on. Maybe you don’t get me yet, but you have to key in your IC number, address andmany other confidential details in order for you to receive payments for those ads, am I right?

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What if some sex maniac and pedophiles reads your blog and wants you and your children so bad and they happen to have access to your confidential profiles?

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I dare not imagine, but I shall say prayers for you and hopes nothing bad happens to you. Seriously, do you think that everything is secure? I say no. Because I live in a world where black hat hackers as well as white hat hackers exists, and breaking into people’s facebook accounts and whatnot is a piece of cake for them. Some even work as programmers…who laugh at the security of these social networking sites. By the way, did you know that in some sites, your password are visible to administrators?Am I bullshitting? No… I am not bullshitting… sometimes, to site admins, they don’t even have to see your passwords to be able to login into your accounts. They have a universal password for it. In other words, the only thing that kept these people from harassing you is just their work ethics and moral.

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Nothing, dear readers, nothing is really secure. Anyway…please allow me to openly apologize to my former journalism lecturer as well as mass communication lecturer. I am so sorry that I did not pay much attention in class when you mention about not trusting whatever we read as well as rumours, noise and miscommunication. I’ve learn my lesson now. The hard way. I am so, so sorry and this will not be repeated on my part ever again. I promise I will try to differentiate  between white noise and the real news instead of just believing. Shame on me…and I dare to call myself a journalism grad. I don’t deserve that.

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Cleffairy: Fame comes with a price that I am not willing to pay, because I saw first hand…that nothing is actually 100% secure in the first place. Do I sound paranoid? Childish and immature? Imagination too wild? Well, excuse me while I go and play Maplestory using a level 135 Bishop to boom at some stupid skellies by using Genesis. And maybe after that, I’ll go watch Sailormoon and waste away by reading Doraemon and Dragonball! You people go ahead and do whatever makes you happy.

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ps: Thank you Merryn, for reminding me how dangerous the Internet can be. Your joke made me realize that not everybody is as nice as you and won’t expose people’s identity. From this day forward, only the privileged few will know who I am 😀

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A Penny For Your Thoughts, Current Issue

A rose by any other name…

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A rose by any other name, would smell just as sweet, don’t you agree with me? Christians, show the holier than thou people that you are above the holier than thou people by showing how generous and peaceful you are.

If the word ‘Allah’ caused so much uproar, why not step back a little, and show the brainless that you have more brains and heart than them by not being barbaric and fight over what would smell just as sweet by any other name?

Instead of using Allah in the Herald, why not use God the Almighty? Or God the Great? Or even God the Merciful? Jehovah…. Jehovah,  Jehovah…God bears many name. I am more than certain He does not mind being called any name, as long as His name is not uttered in vain.

We are God’s creation, God’s children, God’s servants. God does not want us to fight over Him. He wants us to worship Him and do good to the humanity. He wants us to murmur his name in prayers, not scream His name while demonstrating Satanic deeds. God sent us to Earth to do good deeds and be good with each other. That is our purpose.

There’s no point in fighting for a loss cause, no point at all when you know that this is the country where extremists are above all. Don’t you know by now that the extremists are above the King and the government? Don’t you? Did you not see how powerful the extremists are?

They can make everyone, including the King and the government shudder and goes on their knees by terrorizing your family, your loved ones, and your children. They shall make your life a living hell. The King decreed “No… don’t do this, Islam is peace” and yet, they ignored the decree? The Prime Minister says “What went wrong? Sit and talk” and yet, his words were ignored completely.

These are the group of bastards, who claimed to be religious, and yet, they are not God-fearing. They are not afraid of hell’s fire. And therefore, they demonstrate their ways by burning your holy place and sanctuary. They are the kind who cackles like a mad sorcerer when the Muslim and non-Muslim started to have ill feelings for each other. These are the kind of people who does not follow their prophet’s ways…the prophet was a man of peace. He showed the beauty of Islam by forgiving, by showing how merciful Islam can be.

The extremists would never change their blasted ways. They are not qualified to be a Muslim, as Islam itself means peace. Extremists does not reflect that, and shall never reflect that, no matter what. Islam is a holy religion that promotes peace. Islam is beautiful. And yet these people are the kind who uses God’s name in vain.

They are the kind who provoke war and distort the harmony of the country by being a group of nincompoop…these kind of people, are the reason why weapons are created and nuclear warhead are made. These kind of people are the kind of people who plays God. They are the kind who will murder innocent babies who are born out of wedlock, and they are the kind of people who will make women become widows and children becomes orphans. They are the the kind who will torture and kill animals just because they think some animals does not deserve to live. They are the kind who claimed that they are holier than everything under the sun, and they demand we bow to them. In truth, they are murderers, demon possessed destroyers.

God Himself does not descend from His heavenly throne to burn witches at the stakes. God Himself does not light fire on those who defy Him with His own bare hands. And yet human who are extreme does that. God is above terrorist. God is above all, and therefore, God demonstrate mercy, God forgives, and God shows love through all of His beautiful creation.

Those who are truly God’s people…will not terrorize, will demonstrate mercy, will forgive, will love, and will pray for the sin of those who shall be burn in hell’s fire in thereafter.

Muslim, Islam is a religion of peace. Christians, Jesus died on the stake because of the sins of humanity. Muslims, Christians… a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.

The extremists are not a part of Islam, or a part of Christianity. They are a part of hell, for their hearts are full of violence and have been possessed by demons and rage. They are the friends of demons, for only demons will wreak havoc on Earth.

Muslim and Christians, let us be at peace with each other and resolves any disagreement by negotiating peacefully. Be at peace with each other. That is the only way to put the demons in hell, where they truly belong. They deserve hell’s fire for inspiring ill feelings among us.

People of peace… I call upon you… please sign this petition. One signature, one voice. It can make a difference.

Condemn Any Act of Violence Towards People of Other Faiths


Cleffairy: We…are the children of Adam and Eve…or Adam and Hawa…we have the same forefathers. We’re all brothers and sisters. Brothers and sisters does not burn each other’s home.

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A Penny For Your Thoughts, Current Issue

The New Palace…

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Dear Malaysian readers… I found the sentence below very thought provoking, especially in the times of economic uncertainties:

The new “Istana is equivalent to 2.3 MidValley Cities, 4.9 KLCC parks, 209 Khir Toyo mansions, and 3,472 average semi-D houses”.

Should we, the people, not have some say in how we ourselves are financing our Supreme Heads of State?

My answer to what’s supposed to be a rhetoric question… we should have some say in how the government use the money that they extort from us through various tax that they imposed on us. But then again, to question those ‘authorities’ with absolute veto power is punishable by… erm… ISA for treachery and whatnot so if we do not wish to be dump into a place where they feed human pet food, or end up living in a self-imposed exile like RPK or even the bombastic Bala the PI, we better keep our piehole shut.

Cleffairy: One thing will never change until the day the Earth breathe it’s last is that people who wield power over others gets to do as they pleased.

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A Penny For Your Thoughts, Time Heals What Love And Reason Cannot

Some people are simply rude and uncivillized

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Last Friday, my younger sister and her friend came to visit me and they overnighted in my house. I was very happy that they came to visit me. The pleasure of their companionship is something that I longed and needed, especially in this difficult time where I’m still struggling to cope with my new environment and drastic changes.

When I was younger, I never did see eye to eye with my sister. Apparently, I was a jealous monster who wanted my parents to myself and therefore did not have any common ground with her. But I came to realize that we both grew up and became more mature and wiser, and come to care about each other unconditionally.

Anyway, let’s cut the story short. My sister came to visit with her friend, and I tried my best to be a good hostess. I cooked dinner for them and bought supper, and I bet they’re stuffed.

I realized that it takes so little to make me happy and blush to the root of my hair. I did not expect them to thank me or to help me out with the househole chores, but they did. My sister complimented me, saying that I’m a good cook, and the dishes are delicious and thanked me over and over again for the troubles that I put myself through to make them feel comfortable and welcomed in my home.

Same goes with her friend. They both thanked me, complimented me profusely, and I felt that even if they’re lying and just trying to be polite about me being a good cook and the dishes that I prepared actually tasted like ash, I don’t give a damn, because their words boosts my confidence and make me feel appreciated. These two feelings, happened to be something that is quite rare for me, and I haven’t felt it for a very long time.

My sister and her friend not only fed my ego last Friday, but they also offered to help me with my mundane chores. Though I appreciate their offer, I did not accept their help, because just by asking me if I needed help, is more than enough for me to feel happy to do things for them.

My sister also told me when we’re alone that even though I am not perfect, I am strong, and did great job with many things. She said, I did great job in raising my family and taking care of them. Those words almost undone me and made me cry out of happiness. I don’t care if she’s lying about it too. It made me feel good. She made me feel that it is okay to be human. To make mistakes, to feel tired and not be perfect. She made me feel loved and cared, even though she did not do much.

Both of them are two people that I will always welcome in my home. At least, these two are not like any some other ‘guests’ that came to my house. While I welcome them into my house with open arms, I do not appreciate that they criticize on how I run my family and on whether I clean up the house til squeaky clean, or whether I do my bloody laundry every goddamn day or not.

Who gave them the bloody rights to critisize on what me and my husband should and should not do or how we decided to run the family? Just because they are older, does that means it makes them always right and know better than us? Who gave them bloody rights to tell us what to do?

I don’t care if they are older than me or not, and we as younger people are suppose to give them face and respect them and say yes to whatever they say like some mentally retarded dog.

It is simply rude to go into people’s house and critisize people, and tell people’s children or the parent’s what they should and should not do with their child. IT IS SIMPLY RUDE. look up in the dictionary if you don’t understand what rude meant.

I am sure you don’t know what it meant, because only uncivillized people stepped into people’s house, look around and then tell them to follow your advice or rather, orders.

I’m telling you, you have no manners…and even if you talked in a language that you thought I could not understand to my other half. You think you’re bloody brilliant? You are wrong. I understood, even though I pretended stupid and not understand a word. I resent everything you told us, and everything you said.

One should also not concern themselves about other’s parenting skills when they themselves are not perfect either. I call that the pot calling the kettle black. I saw flaws in other people’s parenting skills too when I go to people’s house. Their kids are rude and messy too.

And their house would make a French maid runs back to France in fright. But I don’t go around telling them what to do. I don’t tell them to clean up, or tell their children to behave, even though they are my kin or immediate relative.

I held my tongue. Because to me, whatever people want to do in their house, and how they decided to raise their brats, is none of my concern. Even if I care for their well being, their hygiene or even their academic achievements, I don’t see any harm in allowing people to be imperfect and learn not to make mistakes on their own.

Apart from that, I was raised by my family to mind my manners when I go to other people’s house, and it does not matter if they are older or younger than me. It is just too bad that others do not have half of my upbringing to at least mind their own business or look into their own faults first before condemning others.

Cleffairy: I hope I can send all chauvinistic pigs to the gallows…then I’ll be at peace with myself.

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A Penny For Your Thoughts, Current Issue

We are our own enemy

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No, I am not dead. Perhaps some of you out there thought that I’m already six feet underground. Sorry folks, yours truly is still alive. I haven’t been blogging for a while now, have I? My apologies to those who are expecting me to come up with an entry or two, but time and work have been a bitch, demanding my attention all the time these days.

I have so many to say, but not much time to do so. A lot of things disturbed my mind lately. I feel stressed up again when I think of the future of the next generation- our children, and our grandchildren in Malaysia.

Like most of you, I was extremely irritated and aghast to hear that the government had decided against teaching science and mathematics in English, and therefore, the PPSMI policy have been reverted, and consequently, our children will once again be forced to adapt to an environment where they will be learning science and maths once again in their mother’s tongue.

While I admit it will be more effective teaching children knowledge in the language that they use to converse on daily basis would improve their comprehension on certain subject, I doubt the children would manage extremely well when they pursue further education in college or university, where most subjects are taught in English.

Thinking in the long run, I seriously think that we won’t be able to compete globally as English is an international language. You can’t seriously think that every goddamn subject in local and international university is taught in your mother’s tongue?

Without a doubt, the children who learn mathematics and science in their mother’s tongue would be having trouble when they are in college or university, as the scientific and mathematical terms are different in English. The children soon will slack behind abit when they are in college or university,and if their command in English language are mediocre, they will soon be required to take language improvement classes, which I think, is a complete waste of time because if the children has already mastered the language, the said classes would no longer be necessary, unless they are pursuing language courses such as TESL, Literature, Drama, etc. A  complete waste of time, money, and effort, without a doubt. A stitch in time saves nine.

I don’t understand why must all of us here in Malaysia must slack behind just because certain people play the racial card just to win the approval and the heart of a certain race in Malaysia who always think that they are the most supreme being in Malaysian universe, we have to sacrifice the future of our children? That is a bit too much, isn’t it, dear readers.

I am more  than sure that once science and mathematics are taught in Bahasa Melayu, Mandarin and Tamil once again, the children as well as teachers will somehow take things for granted and English will soon become not important anymore, and mastery of that language will decline. And because children of certain races would no longer feel that they need to constantly improvise their mastery in English, they will soon neglect to converse and mingle with children whose language mastery is better than them(not to mention that the children’s ethnicity are usually different too) and sooner or later, we can see once again the racial barrier-where Malays only sticks with Malays, Chinese with Chinese and Indians with Indians. I do not doubt this will happen. Universal language plays an important role in racial unity. How many of you can vouch that every bloody children in school would speak to each other in a language that other races could understand all the time during schooling sessions?

I doubt you can. You can always see the Chinese speaking in Mandarin and Indians speaking in Tamil with each other in national schools where the communication is supposed to be in Bahasa Malaysia. Abolishing PPSMI would make it worst, no doubt.

Malaysian’s mastery in English language is laughable enough at the moment. I shudder to think the damage that will be done by abolishing PPSMI policy. Well, if the next generation could even speak in ‘rojak’ English at all in the future, I guess all of us should thank heaven and earth. At least Malaysians everywhere are conversing in broken English today. I am not so sure even broken English would even be a practice in the coming years.

In Malaysia, we are our own enemy. We are the prisoner of medieval and barbaric mindset where no one is equal, and we are constantly influenced by the people who are power thirsty not to advance and be united. We are taught that the yellow, black and white can never be in harmony and have to be aware of each other. Last but not least, ladies and gentleman, we are compromising our children’s future by adhering to such un-liberalized mindset as we are no better than a human puppet to those who want to take away the mastery of language, knowledge, advancement just because they need us to be that way in order for them to always be in power.

This is not all that I have to say, but, I’ll just stop here for the moment. I say, we are taking more than thousands steps backwards by abolishing PPSMI, what say you, dear readers?

Cleffairy: In Malaysia, we always take one step forward only to find that soon, we’ll be forced to take thousands of  steps backwards.

ps: Aww, come on, you think abolishing PPSMI will win the hearts of Manek Urai voters? That is rather immature decision, isn’t in, UMNO?

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A Penny For Your Thoughts

The Creepy Grolier Monster

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I am not sure if any of you out there have had a nasty encounter with the Grolier monster. They are the kind of monsters in businessman’s clothing and frankly speaking, yours truly despise them to death and wish that these monsters could be sent to the guillotine so that their obnoxious head could be seperated forcefully from their neck and consequently, they could stop stop trying to convince unsuspecting human from buying their products in an extremely persistent manner .

If you are young, single, have no children, then you probably haven’t had your unfortunate meeting with the nasty, time-eating monsters who talked non-stop to convince you to buy their products that in their eyes, are the best in the world.

If you are married, have children, or happens to go shopping in a supermarket with a toddler or children who are in primary school, then you probably have had your own share of nightmare of the Grolier monster. But for those who haven’t had the misfortune to meet with any of this monsters, allow me to tell you what is the Grolier monsters, and what they actually do.

Grolier…it is actually a company that sells educational program. Some of you may have heard of it. Their so-called bestselling product is Magic English and some bloody encyclopedia that I could not give a damn about, and every now and then, you can see their booth in major supermarket where unsuspecting parents lurk to buy their groceries… like Carrefour, Giant, Jusco, and many more.

I was approached by these monsters myself awhile ago when I was on my recent shopping trip with my family. I have to applaud their marketing strategy their booth are usually placed at the entrance or the exit inside those supermarket, where people could not possibly escape even if they tried. Their booth are usually decorated with balloons, huge toys, a tv set, a huge book rack to attract toddlers and children. They even played psychology game where they blow some balloons and offer it to little children as a lure to stop both parents and children to stop by their booth.

Now, here’s my story. I was walking to the entrance of the supermarket with my family and some of the children that I was taking care of. And you know that it is quite common for people to place children inside the shopping trolley so that the children will not run about and get lost at the hyper mart, right? Well, these Grolier monsters will stop at nothing until they sell their products, and will do anything to get parent’s attention or to persuade the children to throw tantrums so that the parents will have no choice but to give in and buy their bloody stuff.

What happened was that these Grolier salesmen will not give in when you told them that you are not interested in their products. They don’t take no as an answer. They are persistent bastards that would go as lowly as to stand in front of your shopping trolley, block it so that you could not push them away and continue to persuade you on the spot to buy their products (Magic English and some bloody encyclopedia).

Even when you told them that you are not interested to buy their freaking products or have no use for their products, they would say that it is good for your children’s knowledge. They claimed that their products are good investment for your children’s future, and the way they said it sounded as if that you and your children know nothing about English or the education world. When you wanted to leave, they will beg you for a bloody 5 minutes for them to explain about their products… and this bloody 5 minutes will usually last for more than 1 hour if you do not escape these bloody monsters.

In this so called 5 minutes… the monster that is assigned to steal your time will explain that they were from a famous publisher and distributer of children’s book called Scholastic. (Scholastic products are good, but these creeps are tainting Scholastic name by performing such an aggresive marketing strategy)

From the website, they claim that they are leader in educational technology, which is helping children around the world to ‘Learn and Read’ with their world renown programs. The product that they will try to persuade you to buy is of course, Magic English books and CD set.

But later, they will proceed to explain that this is Scholastic’s partnership publisher – Grolier’s book stall, and this is their booth, and the booth will only be there for only two weeks, which is a complete lie because they are there almost every goddamn day throughout the year. (I know so because I frequent the hypermarket often enough to know what stall and booth is there all the time and what is not.) Be forewarned, that they will usually tell you that they will only be there for a limited time for a reason-which is to persuade you to buy their products on the spot without any second thoughts.

The monster that’s assigned to you will further introduced you to one of the educational book set which is costed a whooping RM2300. Now, ladies and gentleman that’s such an expensive book set. Bloody hell! You can already buy a bloody laptop so that you children could learn from the world wise web under supervision with this disgusting amount of money.

Anyway, the said book set contains the following items:

  • A few story books and CDs
  • 10 sets of play and learn activities about colors, shapes, numbers
  • A few books on common words and objects which can help your children to pick up more than 3600 vocabularies in each book. They cover a lot of different categories such as zoo, school, adjectives, actions and many more.
  • Almost 30 “I wonder why, encyclopedia books”

However, ladies and gentlemen, if you listen closely enough to the Grolier monsters in the form of sales reps, you’ll learn that they don’t actually sell you books, but put you on a subscription program. It is noticeable because of the monsters’ condescending approach in trying to get sales. The way the behave is as if they are on a mission. No matter what they do, they will try their best to get you to subscribe to their ‘program’.

The monsters in question tried to point out the benefits of their books (especially the encyclopedias) by trying to ask questions for which they don’t think you know the answers. They too will treat you like a complete idiot who does not know English language and any common knowledge at all. This one pissed me off like hell. As far as I’m concern the Grolier monsters does not speak the Queen’s English, and therefore I blasted with some into their face when they tried to imply that I do not speak proper English and not fit to teach the children under my charge the bloody language. The Grolier monster was flabbergasted for a few moment, but quickly recovered by asking me some questions to divert my attention.

Obviously these monsters are the ones who do not understand English, for they do not comprehend the word ‘No’ or “I am not interested’. My encounters with these suckers is completely a waste of time, because I was not interested in their products and by the time they are through with their bla bla bla, the god forsaken hyper mart is already closed and I could not even buy what I intend to buy in the first place by going there. If I could sue them for wasting my precious time, I really would have done that.

Though yours truly have always believe that books are source of knowledge, but then again, this is the modern era. Books are not only the source of knowledge that you could feed to your young children. There are many more ways for you to teach your children knowledge.

While the products are good in quality, but could you honestly expect children who are as young as 3 years old to sit down and pay attention to read every single books and every single CDs that they sold to us? Children usually have short span of attention, and to most, reading are boring. I do not like the notion that the Grolier monsters are trying to send across, which is to leave your children unattended in front of the TV and absorb whatever the CDs displayed. The best way for children to learn is through playing, and that is not what they are doing. Children too need guidance from parents or caregivers when it comes to learning language…not just books and machines. They need human to teach them and books and CDs are best used as reference, that’s what I always believe.

Books, CDs and whatnot are just tools, not teachers. It is also no use if you buy the books and yet the children are not even interested to look at them. Parents who wants to cultivate their children reading habits should realize that it have to be slowly done… by showing them interesting books that they like, or the excellent show of reading habits by parents themselves. And the books that’s bought, does not necessarily have to come in set or bloody expensive. While the Grolier monsters thinks that children should not be exposed to the world of internet so early, I think getting the children IT-savvy at a young age by letting them use the computer often is crucial in this modern era.

Web sites such as Playhouse Disney Channel, Noggin, Sesame Street and the BBC’s Cbeebies have interesting educational web games and content for children so pray tell, Grolier monsters, why do I have to burn a huge hole in my pocket just so that I could educate the children while I can get high quality education program elsewhere for free?


Cleffairy: Some people have been wondering how I look like because I’ve never plastered any of my pictures online. Well,if one day, you happened to browse around in Carrefour or Jusco and whatnot and heard a skinny woman in her early 20s screaming her head off, swearing and hurling creative insults nonstop at a Grolier booth, that would be me.

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