the guessing game pt1

So I've got a little guessing game for you guys. I discovered this while out on Saturday shopping with Joyce. A prize for the first correct answer in the comments! You can click on the picture for a bigger shot. No hints sorry.

trip down (iPod) memory lane

Believe it or not, I used to hate iPods.

My uncle would try to convince me to get one of those snazzy lil miracles that Apple called iPods. I kept reminding him that I had a mini compo in my room and that I drove. So why the heck would I need a portable music player? Well I was really wrong. Kinda like '96 over again.

It was the year 1996 and as we were starting to get used to the idea of paying RM45 for a CD of our favourite music - never needing to wade past the first 4 crappy songs on Side A to get to that lovely, lovely 5th song on that junk called cassette - CD ROM took MY world by storm! I remember my first reaction to it.

My uncle asked, "Do you know you can play games on CD now?"

"Huh?" (imagining the Super Nintendo / Sega Genesis but with a CD) "Sure not??"

Sure enough, the CD-I was freaking amazing. Most Malaysians wouldn't have seen this. But it was really hot in Singapore for awhile. Then Playstation came and the rest was history.

Ok. So after I finally got the iPod Mini and I realized, "How could anyone live without an MP3 player? But not just any MP3 player. How could anyone live without an iPod?"

And once again, the rest was history.

I'm not trying to sell you an iPod. I do not like the current lineup at all. The Classic is fat and slow. The 3rd gen Nano looks like a clown puked all over a biscuit. And the current iPod Shuffle lacks the coolness and all-in-one ease of its predeccesor. That is why I'm quite happy when I hear that Apple will be redesigning most if not the entire lineup of iPods and Macs this September. Here's to Apple NOT screwing up their iPod line.

From left to right, chronologically:
iPod Mini 4GB, very first MP3 player I had
iPod Photo 60GB, hand-me-down from Uncle
iPod Nano Product RED 4GB, free with Macbook Pro
iPod Video 30GB, won it from Kit Kat Break Free
iPod Touch 8GB with 2.0.1
iPhone 8GB with 2.0.1 and Unlocked

run forest, runnn!!!

car number two, kelisa

It was a bright sunny morning when I woke up to see, sitting on my front porch, a purple Perodua Kelisa. That was 4 years before I got it from my mom as a replacement for the Kancil.

It was a really good car, but with age catching up, it was better for me to replace it this year. I think it looked so much more better when I was driving it (hah!)

So to end my week of automotive posts, I dolled up the Kelisa and took it for one last ride around town. And of course, one last photoshoot to remember it by.

Goodbye Barney on wheels, its like I hardly got to know you.

Perodua Kelisa, 2006 - 2008

memories, first car

From the very revy manual gear to the aircond that only has 2 levels, soft and really loud.... I loved this car. It was my first and it's what people call a "practice car". The kinda car that has to take all the crap from his punk ass owner. But apart from a major accident which happened in the first 7 days, I think I did a pretty good job being a P driver.

The blue paint was repainted just weeks before selling off the car, the manual stick always made a loud "krraaakkk" and the center panel was way ahead of it's time.

This car saw me through my first relationship, brought me on my numerous outstation trips and had fetched tons of people for YouthAflame. It was an awesome time.

Perodua Kancil, 2003 - 2006

malaysian drivers

A couple of idiotic-ness that I abslutely need to highlight. Not that I really want people to know what I've been going through this whole week, but rather I want a select group of people in this world to realize that they really, should, just go to hell.

The Touch & Go Retard
You know why they have long lines at the Touch & Go lanes. It totally defeats the purpose of having a Touch & Go lane if I have to wait while 20 cars pass me by smoothly in the cash lane before I can even reach the bloody booth.

It's because of the idiot that doesn't check his card's blance!

He keeps waving his card in front of the detector while the "baki kad anda tidak mencukupi" sign keeps flashing on the board in front of him. He presses the intercom but then we have to wait for the attendent to walk from the other side of the world to come and settle this retard's problem.

Why?? Why can't you just reload your card? If you keep forgetting, just use cash!

Don't get me started on old ladies who wait to reach the booth, wind down the window, search for their card all over the car, find it, tut tut, puts it back into their purse, look at the mirror, apply a new layer of lipstick, thennnn leave! My God, why don't you just go into labour while you're at it? Or how about do some online banking and investments?

The Never-See-Before-Reversing Champion
You know you're in trouble when you see a big, black, expensive car in front of you... and the driver inside is some chick who is wearing sunglasses in the middle of the night, or a middle age Chinese "tai lo" wannabe that has the stupidest hair from God knows which era.

Am I generalizing too much here? No.

Seriously, these kind of drivers are the ones who just reverse without looking - not slowly and carefully - more like "When reversing, we should jam on the accelerator. It's the only thing to do riiigghhttt??"

2 incidences this week. One BMW with a girl trying to put her parking ticket into the machine but it wasn't working. So the only logical thing for her (I'm guessing) was just to slam on the reverse like all the 10 cars behind you is going to fantagically make way for your huge ass. I honked like hell! No bump, I was lucky.

2nd one, not so lucky. I was trying to do a U-Turn and I landed behind this black Vios. He wasn't parked properly, but with his butt coming out into the road if you can imagine. So I was going to reverse to complete the U-Turn and get out of there when SUDDENLY his reverse lights came on and his car flew backwards hitting into mine! He basically went from N to R and stepped on the pedal without even looking. And if you can't see a purple Kelisa, you must be really blind. It's like fracking Barney on wheels.

It wasn't serious. But it was a bump. I quickly reversed and moved my car to the side. He looked at me and showed me the finger and shit from inside, with his whole family. Which brings me to....

The Ones You Would Love To See Dead In An Accident
Why do older men always think they're right? Is it because they need to compensate for their shrinking manhood? Or that they really have no brains? Was it because they're Dad whacked them to bits when they were younger, fracturing the part of their brain required to function like a proper human being? I don't know. But I do know that there are loads of people like this.

You are the bane of human existence. Please realize that you are not the law and you are not always right. No, having a bigger car than me doesn't make you more righter. Neither does your stinking old age make any difference. If you're wrong, you're wrong.

close to being the evening news

I reached office 30 minutes late on Friday. Had to meet my boss in PJ earlier in the morning. But this was the best day to be late to Cheras.

If you read The Star today, you would've read about a horrific accident about a lorry smashing into 7 cars after jumping lanes which killed 2. I was there 30 minutes later to watch the aftermath. And to think, if I didn't car pool with Nadia, went to PJ to meet my boss and did some banking TTDI, I would've been in that accident.

That's not the thing that got me all freaked out. The road that the lorry was coming out from (just before it went out of control), is the same road that I take to work everyday! I would've been a few seconds ahead or behind the lorry if it was any other day - either one, I don't think I could've escaped from being dragged into it.

I just cannot imagine that 7 people that day were just treating that morning like any other morning, and then this happened. With only 2 people dying (the lorry driver and a motorcyclist), it is incredible to imagine that the rest survived. If you were to see the van smashed onto the side of the wall, you wouldn't believe it too.

Interested to know what you guys think.

If you were in that situation where the lorry from the opposite direction was breaking through the divider and coming towards you, would the best course of action be:

a. Slam the brakes
b. Accelerate like hell to cut through to another lane
c. Open the door and jump out of the car