F R U S T R A T E D ! ! !

Thats what you end up with when you actually succumb to and given in to sit down and watch the Merdeka Eve celebrations. You naively assume that this Merdeka you should at least make an attempt to watch the live telecast of the Merdeka Eve celebration held a the Dataran Merdeka. And if all you’ve got on hand is local television channels – then thats all you more or less can expect to watch.

So to the root of my frustration.

First there was this one hosts of the 8TV Quickie, Belinda Chee is the name I googled up, who by the end of the night was way up there on the extremely annoying TV host list. She may have started off OK in the begining but as the time approached midnight she totally went overboard with her annoying antics. She was clearly over-hyped and she kept cutting in on the other hosts while the they were still talking. One would think she wanted to be the only one to talk! Looking past the reason that this is the first time she doing a Merdeka Eve live hosting, which she stated quite a few time, I found her overall effect to be JUST TOO ANNOYING.

Then to put the proverbial icing on the cake, when all is said and done as the Merdeka chant and the national anthem ‘Negaraku’ had been sung – instead of lighting up the heavens with the promised and much tauted fireworks and laser display INSTEAD we get to suffer through not only a boring speech by Mr. Rais but also through the propoganda and much politic-laden speech by Mr. Badawi. And a long, long , long speech it most certainly was. The premier also saw fit to lecture us on matters past, present and future all the while insinuating blatantly that there couldn’t be anything without BN! I think not Mr. Prime Minister but I do thank you most sincerely for further ruining my night!

And then after all that suffering what do I get for my troubles…. not a single sight of any firework nor any laser display. Yup the local TV stations screwed me real good on this one.

However as a concession 8TV – who was the only English channel that was showcasing the event – overall, with the one exception in the form of Belinda Chee, were in great form.

Anybody’s who a Mix.fm listener should be familiar with the latest contest involving the the DJ’s Ika-Serana C-Pietro and the carry around cardboard standup (below) of the trio that the participants are required to tot around every single place they go in order to get a chance at RM 50,000 moola.

What’s the angle? Why Fame and Fortune baby, Fame (i.e great marketing for the show & the DJ’s) and Fortune (i.e. the chance at RM 50,000)! Nuff Said!

Anyhow I heard about this gal called Ivory who’s a participant and she has put up a blog – aptly named ‘Living with Ika, Serena C and Pietro‘ – to chronicle her journey to a possible RM 50,000 cash prize.

This is a very smart move if I may say so myself. A quick glance at her blog show a daily update on her activities with the promotion of the standup at various locations. And boy has this gal been active. I just gotta wonder where she finds time to go about everywhere. Then again RM 50,000 is quite a strong incentive so to say.

Thus far Ivory has made appearance at the Twin Towers, 1Utama, Batu Caves and various other major landmarks in the KL area. Whats more it now seems that she will be taking a trip to Down Under Australia and surprise, surprise (imagine Gomer Pile) the cardboard standup gets to go along – envying a cardboard is so unbecoming, sighhh.

So to Ivory, I sincerely wish you all the best of luck and hope you continue to have as much fun as possible whilst in the contest.

For more fun updates on contestants, do tune in to the Mix.fm Morning Show from 6am-10am and catch the entertaining trio of Ika, Serena C & Pietro doing that things they do oh so well. And since I’m on the subject just a little shoutout:

“Serena you so fine girl, mmmhhhh…..”

and ….

“Pietro, I comiserate with your hardship and sincerely appreciate your standing up for us guys”

I was pleasantly surprised to read on the upcoming Lone Wolf Game which is based upon the well known Lone Wolf series via whymebecause. As a one time fan of this magnificent series this is great news indeed.

But better still is that via a lookup on Project Aon – a fan group on the Lone Wolf series, I am now finally able to continue reading this great series.

The good people at Project Aon, with the blessing of Joe Dever, the author, and other principle parties have made available online an extensive lineup of the Lone Wolf series.

According to the FAQ, the book in the series that are published online are as listed below:

• Kai series (Lone Wolf books 1-5)
• Magnakai series (Lone Wolf books 6-12)
• Grand Master series (unabridged, Lone Wolf books 13-20)
• New Order series (Lone Wolf books 21-28)
• World of Lone Wolf (Grey Star) series
• The Magnamund Companion
• The Skull of Agarash graphic novel
• The Lone Wolf Poster Painting Book
• The Lone Wolf Club Newsletters
• Freeway Warrior series
• Combat Heroes series

whilst the following will not be published:

• Legends of Lone Wolf series

Me being the consummate fan that was ever denied access to the complete series after Book , this find has been a culmination of 12 years of patience and waiting. Now as I finally have access to the series proper, I can once again make the journey with Lone Wolf and maybe recapture some of the memories of my childhood.

I’m off to explore these great blessings and start myself once more on the path of the Lone Wolf.

Life is never a single unchanging sequence of activities. If anything the universe always conspires to throw in the proverbial wrench into our machinery, i.e. our daily lives, every once and a while.

So what’s new in my previously peaceful life?

Well my housemates and I are helping out a friend to doggy-sit her two little dogs for the week while she’s away on vacation. These two are absolutely super cute and a thrill to play with. I can’t recall their breeds, the both of them are mixed breed, but they go by the names of Rika & Ruby. Pictures will be forthcoming.

Unfortunately when playtime is over these little doggies then tun out to be a bloody nightmare. One I have nicknamed as ‘The Yapper‘ – since she can’t for the love of god shut-the-hell-up. Seriously! Whether it’s early in the morning or late in the night and I mean late in the night she still continues to bark. Seriously!

The other cute little beast, after yesterday’s fiasco, I now refer to as ‘The Pooper‘. I am astounded that such a small dog as her can produce such a super-dupe-toxic-waste level doggie poop. I’m talking about dog poop that’s sure to win worst smelling poop of the year hands down – that kinda poop!

3 days down, 4 more to go… sighhhh

The next major distraction is due to a botched attempt of experiencing the joy’s of Halo 2 the PC version of the best selling XBox console game. Of course since the PC version is not out yet, I somehow stumbled upon and conveniently mistook a PC-console emulation of the game for the real and that unfortunately was flawed. Still I managed to experience 3 levels of the game before the troubles started appearing and before long brought me to a complete stop in my enjoyment.

From my brief flirtation with the game here is what I have summarized:

1. Halo 2 rocks!
2. My graphics card, a GeForce 5700 – somewhat of a relic and wont cut it for Halo 2. Time to upgrade.
3. I’m suffering from console addiction.
4. Due to the addition I’m deliberating on the possibilities of getting an XBox. My fellow console fan is however tempting me with the possibilities of the PS3 instead.
5. I’m not rich enough to be able to afford the price of a console! Sighhhhh

And lastly …

Moving on to more ominous matters, 3 days on from Merdeka (Independence Day) I am astounded to hear our country’s No 1, Mr Badawi, proclaim that Malaysia is not a secular state, as provided in our constitution, but an Islamic state.

Talk about a slap in the face!

Best Quote Of 2006?

By Chris Rock

2-28-7

“You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America’s Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, Germany doesn’t want to go to war, and the three most powerful men in America are named Bush, Dick, and Colon.”

–Comedian Chris Rock

That’s right… the title says it all, even if the all new greenish theme does not visually imply the fact.

Just in case some asks here’s my reasons:

1. I felt like changing things around.
2. The green colour makes me feel all earthly – so sue me!
3. I honestly fell that the center column with the post are now much easier on the eyes, esp the links.

That’s all folks. Hope you have a great day and enjoy yourseves while you’re here at The Chronicles.

A couple of my friends, Cindy and Jellio, are going through hell right now through their fist posting as housemen in our local hospitals.

Sufficed to say probably everyone they know has remarked one way or other on their suffering. Guess I too have to throw in my 2 cents.

* * * Gals remember, my intent is to motivate you – reverse psychology way! * * *

Well as the saying goes – A picture is worth a thousand words – here goes nothing…

Ouch!!!

So true in a Final Destination kinda way

It’s only going to get worse, and worse, and worse, …. get the hint.

PS: Gals, Buck Up!

Letter Home to You had just a while back posted a great list of the The 20 Blogging Commandments (head on over there for the entire listing).

My Favorites of the 20 Commandments are the following two:

1. Therein will ye uncover this simple Truth should ye search for it: it matters not the Size of thy Flock, nor how often they attend thy Sermons; it is in the Care ye show for them, and they for you, that is foremost.
2. Therefore I verily say unto thee, focus ye not on the Number of those reading your Blog, but on the Content to be written therein.

Ain’t that the truth! Nuff Said!

I’m done with the Stone of Tears and I’m now already on Book 3- Blood Of The Fold.
Still going strong. Cheers.

Right now I’m currently reading Book 2 – Stone of Tears in Terry Goodkind’s ‘The Sword of Truth’ saga. It’s absolutely wonderful and I’m having the time of my life just reading non stop. At my current rate of reading I’ll be burning through each book in the series at an average rate of 1 book in every 4 days – though not my best pace, it’s still amazing considering the book number 900+ pages in average.

So … what happens is that I’ve ended up putting aside near to everything else. Most if not all of my free time is now allocated solely for the sake of reading. That’s why The Enigm@ Chronicles has been experiencing a drought of posts.  I my defense I can only claim that I’m a total read-a-holic and have been so for the majority of my life. I can’t stop now. I do apologize.

Meanwhile I’ll still try my best to continue posting here.