Mullings of a lunatic

So, the other day I was speaking to Jai about the current economic crisis and he asked me, "How long do you think this crisis will persist." Now as a person who has thoroughly believed that America was on the way to recession way back when 'leading' American financial eggheads *who may have been pressured externally* where proudly proclaiming that the subprime mortgage and the credit crunch wasn't a problem and will just go away if they were to close their eyes and wish it away... Right..

The thing is that, although America is the source of this economic crisis, the rest of the world has been feeling the brunt of this crisis. Just look at the exchange rates and the way the stock markets world wide have been progressing, the Nikkei is at a 26 year low, the british pound is at its weakest since the 1997 asian economic crisis and Malaysia, although already rife with a degree of political instability that would've escalated to civil war but hasn't because of the civility and maturity expressed by the bigwigs and regular rakyat.

Which brings me to the topic of home, Malaysia's cash cow is its high grade crude oil, so naturally one would assume that with the drastic increase in oil price which we saw last year that the rakyat would reap the benefits no? Contrary to what you would expect, the rakyat in general saw nothing of the record profits which Petronas posted last year, *with the small exception of the handout that it gave to the government*. Infact what the government did was to throw Malaysia's shielded economy into disarray. Remove the oil subsidies they say, it'll be alright they say...... I mean sure, it could've been worse, but for a country where baseline pay for uneducated labour is anything from 600 ringgit to 1100 ringgit depending on the job, it was badly handled.

I'm not saying that the reduction of fuel subsidies was bad, the idea was good, infact I applaude the move to remove the subsidies, Malaysia has been shielded from real world economics for too long and its about damned time that the rakyat know that there is a world outside Malaysia and that there are speculators and doom mongers there are out there to profiteer off fear and distrust. No, the thing I didn't like was how it was handled, how the government made a statement in May on how the subsidies would be lowered in August, only to remove it a couple of days later.

Some say this was a good move, that it prevented the greedy uncouthe profiteers from stockpiling petrol, and that it's better to make a snap decision because it'll soften the blow of inflation. Whatever the reasoning behind it, it's probable that it was sound and logicly thought off but the lack of transparency was the main reason for alot of the noise which was made by the rakyat and the opposition.

Its a sad fact that politics and economics go hand in hand and that the results of the elections in march is causing the incumbent bigwigs to panic and start acting in a questionable manner by incarcerating opposition figures under the ISA. This only exasterbated the situation which translated to economic wobbliness.

--==to be continued==--

Name: Lum, @ JY
Sisters: Nill
Brothers: 1
Shoe size: 9 - 10
Height : 5'9"

Where do you live: For the next 2 or so years MT
Favourite drinks: A good cup of Chinoise Tea
Favourite breakfast: Anything that isn't from the food zoo or American in make or design
Have you ever been on a plane?: Durrrrrr.
Swam in the ocean : Durrrrr

Fallen asleep at school : As much as the next guy has
Broken someone’s heart: Nien
Fell off your chair : Nien
Sat by the phone all night waiting for someone to call: Nien
Saved e-mails: Nein

What is your room like : Everything is organized chronologically by height until I sort stuff out
What’s right beside you: To my left a printer, to my right my space heater
What is the last thing you ate: Char Siew, Kao Yuk
Ever had chicken pox: Abuden
Sore throat: Not in recent memory and hopefully not for a while

Stitches: Y
Broken nose: N
Do you believe in love at first sight: Attraction, yes. Love? Dont think so...
Like picnics: I dunno, maybe
Who was the last person you danced with: Dance?

Last made you smile: I dunno, while watching Eureka
You last yelled at: Haven't got the daftest clue


Today did you:

Talk to someone you like: No
Kissed anyone: Nien
Get sick: Do stomach flus count?
Talk to an ex: What a nice tree
Miss someone: I dunno, sorta?

Eat: Pancake for brekkie, fried chicken for tea, kao yuk and char siew for dunner
Best feeling in the world: Picking my nose
Do you sleep with stuffed animals: Not for 10 years, although I still have my lamb and tiger sitting in my room back home
What’s under your bed: Storage boxes and suitcase
Who do you really hate: Cigarette Smoking, Alcohol imbibing minors who think that they're superior to me
What time is it now?: 1221 @ home 2221 @ UM


Random:

Is there a person who is on your mind now: Indeed
Do you want children: Yes
Do you smile often: Sorta
Do you like your hand-writing: It's acceptable
Are your toe nails painted: I r guy

Whose bed other than yours would you rather sleep in: Any bed that is not stained with unknown yellow patches or infact stained with any sort of patches.
What color shirt are you wearing now: blue
What were you doing at 7:00 p.m. yesterday: Recuperating from playing Cricket
I can’t wait till... : 14 Dec 2008
When did you cry last : That's a pretty flower

Are you a friendly person: Selectively Friendly
Do you have any pets: My Apso Lafsa/Shih Tsu mix
Where is the person you have feelings for right now? Prolly in her room not thinking of me
Did the last person you held hands with mean anything to you now? Hold Hands? Is there such a thing?
Do you sleep with the TV on?: I like the noise

Have you ever crawled through a window?: yerp
Can you handle the truth?: This is not an interrogation.
Are you too forgiving?: I hold things against other people until they've heavily compensated me for my grief or I forget, more latter than the former
Are you closer to your mother or father?: Meh
Who was the last person you cried in front of?: considering that was many years ago i haven't got a clue

How many people can you say you’ve really loved?: A handful
Do you eat healthy?: Foodies never eat healthily
Do you still have pictures of you & your ex?: I guess, somewhere
Have you ever cried because of something someone said to you?: Feel gutted yes, cried, not that I recall, but then again I have alot of repressed memories
If you’re having a bad day, who are you most likely to go to?: Tsan, but she hasn't been available since forever

Are you loud or quiet most of the time?: depends on the crowd
Are you confident?: does having really thick skin count as confidence?


5 things I was doing 10 years ago:
a) Was in Std 5 larking around with my mates
b) Eating
c) Sleeping
d) Taking showers
e) Getting scrapes on my knees

5 things on my to-do list today: (make it tomorrow)
(i) Finish my mkting assgn
(ii) finish all my readings
(iii) nerd
(iv) play with my new guitar
(v) annoy the crap out of anyone i can find on MSN

5 snacks I enjoy:
(i) Chocolate Muffins with Chocolate chips
(ii) a banana


5 things I would do if I were a billionaire:
(i) Invest most of what I have in the stock market and binge 1m on toys
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)

5 of my bad habits:
(i) occasionally passive aggressive
(ii) permanently lazy
(iii) needs a whip or a candle under my butt before i do stuff
(iv) being the worlds biggest hypochondriac and hypocrit all at the same time!
(v) being very selective

I have wit?

Curiouser and curiouser.

I seem to have lacked the drive to write anything or in fact do anything. Partially because there really is nothing of great significance other than the daily norm, but mostly because I seem to have lost my ability to write anything at all.

Even so, I've been told by a couple of people that I have wit? Really? Reading through my previous entries all I see are a number of interesting post but nothing that is particularly witty.

The scene back home though isn't one of a pretty picture. Rumours are circulating about possible unrest which may arise, due to powers which are beyond the control of the people. So much so that it's caused a lot of people much concern and making me rethink my stance on coming back to settle down once I graduate.

Brain is in much a mess. Hoping, yearning, wanting for a certain someone to pull them self togather and give little ol' me some of their time.

Random - the ingredients for 400 hampers

Your EQ is 133

50 or less: Thanks for answering honestly. Now get yourself a shrink, quick! 51-70: When it comes to understanding human emotions, you'd have better luck understanding Chinese. 71-90: You've got more emotional intelligence than the average frat boy. Barely. 91-110: You're average. It's easy to predict how you'll react to things. But anyone could have guessed that. 111-130: You usually have it going on emotionally, but roadblocks tend to land you on your butt. 131-150: You are remarkable when it comes to relating with others. Only the biggest losers get under your skin. 150+: Two possibilities - you've either out "Dr. Phil-ed" Dr. Phil... or you're a dirty liar.

What's Your EQ (Emotional Intelligence Quotient)?

Testing of new banner

Boo

Float

Everyone is entitled to a few major screw-ups in life, provided that they learn from them and better themselves. Folk who constantly screw-up and continue to make the same mistakes should just bloody go and lock themselves in a little shed and never have kids, or interact with anyone who might be susceptible to suggestions by said folk.

Just now on MSN

M******: i feel like i want to get a lil depressed
M******: i miss the feeling
Seta: wtf! you sadist
M******:better to feel sumtin than nothing
M******:i miss emo ing

Ri--ite........

林の日

Hayashi no Hi

Seeing as my surname in Kanji is, Hayashi, I have thus decided to label the daily happenings that are of interest to myself as such.

I was strolling around 1-Utama, muttering to myself intermittently, dodging glances of folk who notice me mumbling to myself. And to my astonishment there were quite a few folk around, meandering the halls of 1U. So there I was creeping people out whilst minding my own business when I noticed something in the corner of my eye careening towards me. A creature I had thought to be long extinct, Kids with wheelie shoes.

Because I was self-absorbed, happily enjoying my cup of Hazelnut Hot Chocolate which I had appropriated from Starbucks. I lacked the agility to evade said flying gremlin, and within moments of impact the piping hot contents which were once held within the paper chalice were now all over the place. The casualties of the hot chocolate bathe include myself, the floor, and the gremlin who was at this point crying because, a) it had smacked into me and fell on it's butt, and b) it was partially coated in a layer of hot chocolaty goodness.

Needless to say I was highly annoyed, my RM11.55 worth of orgasmic goodness was now gone, my new white shirt was stained, my hand sore from the scalding it had recieved from the spillage catastrophe, and the parent of the gremlin who was giving me an earful for not looking where I'm going. Okay, granted that's what parent's should do, stand up for their kids, but this was just silly. I'm getting heat because this twerp rams into me at 200 million miles and hour, and the creature's mom makes ME look like I was at fault.

Having a small gremlin cry, it's parent yelling at me, and my 'couldn't be buggered' demeanor with matching scruffy and unshaven look drew quite a crowd, much to some housewives delight. But of course, this being Malaysia things didn't end there. In my attempts to reason with the woman I had addressed her as Madam, which she took as an insult, for whatever reason. (Insert WTF?!?!?!?! expression here). I stood my ground saying that I was not at fault, and the creatures parent went on and on and ON about how folk like ME spend ALL my time lepakking at the Mall (Insert WTF?!?!?!? Expression here). I retorted as calmly as I could by stating that she was making baseless claims about my character, and I had nothing to do with her kid ramming into me. Then she started to argue about inane things like how I use bombastic words on her and how I think I'm greater than her. Hell yeah I think I'm greater than her, I'm in the right, I have evidence to back me up, and She's trying to put me at fault using faulty logic. The situation resolved when I the kid still sobbing eventually spoke up and said it was at fault. *THANK GOD*. The mother dumbfucked said nothing and just left.

It's creatures like these that irk the hell out of me, granted I could've handled the situation better, and perhaps not let my pride get the best of me, but like hell I'm going to allow some silly person who speaks unintelligible English, reacts brashly, and thinks that Madam is an insult to walk all over me.

I think this is why I should not go shopping alone, Evil creatures tend to prey on those who shop alone.

A cup full of sky

Boredom has a way of creeping up on you and raping your brain, leaving it numbed, muddled and konfoosed, Such is my state of affairs currently. Home alone, with a new diet that seems to be halting the expansion of new borders at my waist line, and absolutely nothing to do, I blog. What I blog about doesn't matter, heck, it doesn't even make sense. But what defines 'sense' or 'common sense' or even general knowledge. What dictates sense?

A vision of things to come

The worlds weirdest dreams are often the most profound, although this particular dream should be kept privy

ぇじゃrぢんでとうｔえでいえん

Babies and Musical Tickets

There are times when the inspiration to writes takes you by the throat and chokes the living daylights out of you forcing you to write, although there is a term for this, I shall temporarily dub it writers cramp. No, it is not my muse speaking to me, it is more the need to pen my thoughts down.
For many months I've been agonizing over the fact that my life has been becoming increasingly stagnant, folk and friend alike have moved on, just yesterday I had a conversation with an old friend of mine who tried to sell off her precious phantom of the opera tickets as she won't be able to go. When I queried on the reason why, she dropped the bomb. Below is a log of the insanity that ensued.

Jen: u knwo, i was planning to go and then i realized, last minute that i can't :(
Seta: uh huh and?
Jen: felt quite sad u know.....got in the mood for it n everything
Seta: so why can't you go?
Jen: i'm talking about the SECOND time i thought i was going
Seta: ouch, and?
Jen: well they are really good seats....which is a pity letting them go towaste..
Seta: so why can't you go?
Jen: because i am pregnant!! and i need a shitload of documents to pass through customs!
Seta: you're pregnant?
Jen: and it will take me AGES to collect all the documents singpaore wants
Seta: wait wait wait wati YOU'RE PREGNANT?!
Jen: ya,and as much as i want to see the show i can't go!
Seta: more importantly congrats!
Jen: thanks :D it's a bit wierd telling every1
Seta: you think it's wierd telling, try being on the recieving end after not conversing with you for a bit
Jen: cos i know ever1 feels wierd, and i dont' really like to make ppl feel like that
Seta: brain hurts, unable to process info
Jen: its alright, ppl get used to it
Seta: yeaah.... and the fact that you're fretting over the fact that your wasting tickets, and not putting precedence on the fact that you're expecting is befuddling, gimme a moment to process.
Jen: well....... i know i've been pregnant for a while, so i've gotten used to it
Seta: A while? how long aways are you?
Jen: 7 1/2

after that the conversation lulled down, we talked about her being pregnant and all. but the defining fact is that. She was agonizing over the fact that she can't go watch The Phantom 'JUST BECAUSE' she was pregnant. Which is befuddling on it's own. I need to get out more