Archive for November, 2005

Wednesday, November 30th, 2005

aujourd’hui il pleut ("today it rains")

Today it rains,
Today I unbolt my eyes to a brand new day.
Hirtherto! Once again, it rains.
Today, a flank of window glass stood allay between us.
I gaped ajar this very plinth only to "tÃter"
my face struck with ice, distant smog, banter
Was it really my face?
Or was it
"mademoiselle masquer"?
The wet beads be not a caress, but an aching "
flanquer";
Mellifluous and slight it was.
Irony! It was.
My flesh dissipated by droplets of hoarfrost and wet.
Pall and wet.
Likened in the vein of the way I endure a flailing feud within
Hush! Hush! Tell them we must not.
We must not.



Let there be rain,
let there be clamour and rain to deafen the ears
Ears that heed my feebleness not.
Inside, Outside
Does it matter?
There is not an iota of comfort, absent is the sanctuary
There is but hankering reminiscence of an untimely past
Blurry, hazy, "past".


Afar they be. So far away.
Can they reach me? Can they grasp me?
Like the droplets that dismantle my heart.
Alas, the glass protects me. It protects me.
Still, today, it rains.
I linger ever so slightly in awe watching,
Droplets beat the window pane,
Rhythm, pleading, beseeching,



Is it so that I see but my flogging heart in glassy reflection?
Will it a crack in the glass be result to a crafty compostion?
Will it ever wash away my corroded armour?
Will it ever wash away my pristine, encrusted visage?
Will it wash away the blood from my wounded psyche?



Or will it gobble my wounds deep, digging, unending
My maimed wounds only be left alone
When its presence supplanted by bone.

One by one,
a-plenty they plunge, as they hit the pane.
Tedious are my eyes to spectate in solemn misery
Scantiness is but emptiness.
This indolent-ness.
Likened to a poet’s silent cry,
Likened to words, dying soldiers once uttered,
Lolling in blood, grime, mutilation,
With but ardent fervour, their declaration

"dites donc"!
"Dulce et decorum est".

-ping. 6.00pm

btw.that dulce et decorum est means in latin "honourable to die for your country".

er. in the context of the last paragraphy it means that optimism and idealism cannot thrive universally. 

oh btw. i also discovered that my greatest abilities are also my disability.  which means im basically in deep fucking shit.  and my lungs are suffering big time.  i wont start w my hair.  im waiting for it to fucking grow and turn jet black again.

ma.hai.


the BEP’s.

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2005

I hate the fucking black eyed peas. They’re one toilet roll sweatshirt away from dropping a bomb of overrated suck equal to that of OutKast a year ago. Talk about staying power. One good album and now we’ve got black guy who pushes over the dust bin in fake rage doing absolutely nothing and Andre 3000 getting bitch slapped by Mark Wahlberg in shitty movies.

Anyway, The Black Eyed Peas what a bunch of horse-shit.


WHO ARE THE BLACK EYED PEAS

I’ll take a shitty band of token rappers and arbitrary blonde that can sing for 500 alex.

FERGY

Stacey Ferguson joined the group at some point after they had already established themselves, giving the band a much needed HOT LATINO TYPE BOOTY SHAKING SHAKIRA STYLE ARCHETYPE.

Now personally, I find Fergy about as attractive as the underside of Missy Elliot’s snatch, but for some reason the vast majority of brain-wave redundant heterosexual males see abs and then proceed to got fucking ape shit. She’s not even attractive. Even remotely. She’s got a nice body I’ll give her that, but she has the face of an ape that was interrogated by Joe Pesci in Casino.

Fergy started out in a sub-par kiddie group called Girls Incorporated which is like the poor-man’s Mickey Mouse Club. That might actually be the saddest thing I ever say.

Actually thats a lie, Fergy was never in Kids Incorporated, nor was she from an affluent suburban family. As we all know she was born and raised in the hood, where SHE HAD TO FIGHT FOR HER LIFE AND EVERY NICKEL SHE EVER GOT. DON’T BE FOOLED BY THE ROCKS THAT SHE GOT SHE’S STILL SHE’S STILL FERGY FROM THE BLOCK.

Currently, Fergy is looking for the love. Where is the love? Can you find the love? CAN SOMEBODY TELL HER WHERE THE LOVE IS SO SHE CAN SHUT THE FUCK UP.


OH RIGHT, THERE’S MORE

Be honest. How many of you actually know the names of any of the other people in the band. I don’t have a fucking clue. I know the dude on the left has some stupid moniker like will.i.am or some shit but past that? Not a clue.

I’ll call the other dudes The Perminator and Paul Calderone (the guy that played the bar-tender in Pulp Fiction. Trust me they look identical)

I think they’re looking for the love


THE BAND’S STYLE

From what I can gather from the number of recycled videos and audio trash MTV hits me with on a regular basis like a sucker punch to the throat, that the Black Eyed Peas basically consists of the music slowly devouring your soul for a minute, before one of the random rappers starts spitting rhymes about as imaginative as a jennifer lopez movie ending, and then just when your average sixteen year old is about to flip over to VH1, Fergy comes on screen and flaunts her abs and suddenly we remember, THE BLACK EYED PEAS ARE SO EDGY MY GOD WHERE IS THE LOVE???


THE BAND’S HISTORY

Lets take a look at how the band has evolved.

BEHIND THE FRONT

This is the band’s first album. You should notice that due to the complete lack of Fergy whorage, she has not yet joined the band. The album is released in June of 1998 and does absolutely nothing, despite have a parental advisory sticker which we all know pretty much guarantees kids are gonna go ape shit for them.

I bought Coolio’s album "Your Soul" or something just because it had that sticker on it and I thought I could impress girls by listening to edgy music. Unfortunately the joke was on me because I was listening to rap music.

BRIDGING THE GAP

The second album ditched the parental advisory sticker and was released in September of 2000. Trust me, the album still needed the warning sticker. Terrorists should be subjected to this kind of auditory punishment. Apparently this album scored them the prestigous title of "#141st Single of the Year". Score.

ELEPHUNK

The third album drops and despite being given a two star rating by Rolling Stone, everyone recognises it as the second coming of christ. The Black Eyed Peas are suddenly heralded as the best band you’ve never heard of before.

Everyone who had heard their previous shitty albums are thinking oh my god, was the stuff they made before actually really good? And the legion of fans who’d loved the Black Eyed Peas since their very first album continued to live on in the land of night rainbows and leprechauns.

The album goes double platinum and suddenly everybody loves the brain rape of the Black Eyed Peas.

Hang on a minute..


THE EQUATION OF SUCCESS

I like to teach as well as mock, so here I present you some mathematics to keep the old mind sharp.



ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOTHING





ACTUALLY, NOW THATS NOT EXACTLY ACCURATE……






Oh yeah, that’s right.

y’all ready to be k-fed

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2005

"YOU AIN’T READY" by K-FED

THIS SONG DEMANDS AN ENTIRE ARTICLE. I haven’t even heard the entire song, just the minute-long snippet that was released on to the internet today. I don’t know if it was illegally leaked, or whether it was a carefully constructed marketing ploy dreamed up by Britney’s money men.

But trust me,

NEITHER OF THESE WOULD BE WORTHY EXPLANATIONS. This song is shit. Actually scratch that. This piece of auditory brain spunk is shit. There are few things that rival the ultimate cash cow of straight anal ownage that is this song. Maybe the holocaust. Maybe the assassination of President Kennedy. Maybe Forces of Nature with Ben Affleck and Sandra Bullock and the love they find in a WALMART. But that’s another story. Yes back to the ’song’… Imagine being straight pile-drived by a nazi midget from behind, and if you can in some way, translate that into music. That’s what listening to this is like. I know I’m not the most knowledgable person on the subject of music, but I’m pretty sure that it - especially pop music - should at the very least

a) sound good and

b) be entertaining?

Well listening to this song

a) sounds about as good as having N’Sync release an album where only the fat guy from My Big Fat Greek Wedding sings and

b) is about as entertaining as a Shaq movie.

That said, like I mentioned earlier, I haven’t heard the whole song, and I could actually be really wrong about it. I FUCKING DOUBT IT THOUGH. The first couple of lines of the song are:

"i should be sayin’ keep my damn name outya mouth, but yall people keep increasing ma change amount, so.. go ahead and say what y’all wanna"

Genius. Just genius.

Not entirely sure what "increasing ma change amount" means, but hey.. Can’t really say anything else about that. Sure, I’ve made the occasional red-neck living off of his hick ho of a wife, it’s just an easy joke, like calling Rosie O Donnel fat, or Calista Flockhard SKINNY TO THE BRINK OF INVISIBILITY. It is true, people are always talking about Kevin Federline, or K-Fed. So lets move on.

"i know yall wish you were in my position cos i keep gettin in positions that you wish you wasn’t."

Errm. Dyslexic are you there Kevin? What the fuck does that mean? I guess we should find solace in the fact that things can’t really get much worse than that and move quickly on.. "Cousin." Ooh. Shit. You just rhymed "wasn’t" with "cousin"…. Hell we’re already on this paternal, family type theme, how about we burn up another line and run with it. "i’m not ya brother, not ya uncle, i’m ya daddy, doo steppin in this game y’all dont got a clue" Nice "but know that you really can’t wait cos people always asking me whens the release date well maybe then you can wait and see until then all these pavarottis followin me"

Errmmm…… You didn’t just say…..Pavarottis….did you? Yes Kevin, you did. You dumb fuck. How many people do you have working on this fucking song, because you damn sure didn’t write that music, record, dub, mix and all that shit, and not one of you fucking spunk bubbles could pick on the fact that you used the word - fuck that not even a fucking WORD - a name, Pavarotti, instead of PAPARAZZI?? "Back then, they called me K-Fed, but you can call me Daddy instead, Y’all Ain’t Ready." That’s the chorus I guess. Who fucking called you K-Fed.. Really? Jesus this song is fucking awful.

——————————————————————————–

A LITTLE SECTION I LIKE TO CALL THANK YOU VERY FUCKING MUCH BRITNEY Everyone knows Britney Spears. I’m pretty much sure you could shout hit me baby one more time and the sperm in an 18 year old kid would know what you were talking about. She could have probably ended world hunger with all that moolah she’s made singing about subversive violence, tearing her clothes off and thrashing around on stage as if shot in the solarplexes. But what did she decide to do? Oh yeah thats right. Launch the musical career of one Kevin Federline. K-Fed. The Mack. And now every fucking radio station on the planet is gonna be force-fed his shit, until its in regular circulation,

you know how that shit works?

YOU KNOW HOW THIS SHIT WORKS I think I’ve lost all frame of reference and direction here…

quantum musings on a rainy day

Friday, November 18th, 2005

from the first sip of morning coffee to the weeping sinner prostrate at the stern foot of Christ;

from banal bar chatter to philosophical discourse;

from the sensual gyrations at clubs electric blue with decadence to the perfectly whirling forms of broadway dancers;

from the quick sandwich lunch to intricate banquets and social gatherings;

from the one-night-stand to the reverential gazes of old lovers at the sunset of their lives.

every day is a face-to-face with our finitude****;

every event a filling of our time, somehow; every second a choice.

the human condition is this: that we have this choice. but it is not our choices that measure our humanity: it is coming to terms with the understanding of why we have choice in the first place. and so increasingly i’m coming to feel that humanity - true humanity - is realizing this inescapable, infinite finitude. and living with it. or, you know, just living, generally. yea.  i like that. 

*****************************************

finitude*****

We must be born with an intuition of mortality. Before we know the words for it, before we know that there are words, out we come, bloodied and squalling with the knowledge that for all the points of the compass, there is only one direction, and time is its only measure.

Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

theres two things i found out.

(preconditioning needed: now ive been studying moral and human psychology lately and discovered something right under my nose.

you see.  men have almost all the capacity needed to cheat. now the only thing holding them back is social conditioning.  but nature has its rights in that men were in fact created to spread their seeds as far adn wide as possible.  think the entire fucking continent. yeaaaaaaaaaaaa.

hence hypothetically speaking, men. when confronted w a stimulus (i,e women w/and/or big/small boobs)  will get itchyfied and jump at the chance. and will grab wotever they can handle (metaphorically). ie they will then unwittingly pick up the strings that come w it.  shes a hoe.  she got hiv, shes got two kids, shes a transvestite, shes got baggage, shes got expensive taste…bla bla….

there is sound evidence as to why this is so.  and no, its not that they are bastards and they can keep their penises in their pants.  well true dat.

you see, men have penises directly connected to the brain and visual organs/taste/smell via a stimulus (ie the above). and hence once triggered nerve endings will start the hypothalamus (node in the brain that controls appetite, peeing times, body temp. e.t.c) goin, and hence blood flow increases to the penis.)

hence we have wot we call the much dreaded "stiffy".

hence you cannot really blame all them men for being the despicable way they are. cos they just are.

hence back to wot i was saying.

you see?  we are all connected through 6 degrees of freedom. friendster is a great reiinforcement of that.  and that all events in ur life are directly/indirectly interlinked w ur same species.  cool daat?

*********************************************************

now my next attempt is to mathematify the whole fucking 6 degrees f freedom thing so that we can calculate wot steps we need to take in order the meet the right ppl adn not to kena burned like me.

much the same way 

"A few months ago, I knew zero japanese words. Over the past few months, I have acquired knowledge of one japanese word:

er. Kawaii?

By my expert mathematical calculation, this has created a percentage increase of infinity [calculation: (1-0)/0], a fact that enables me to make the following claim: I have infinitely improved my knowledge of the japanese language.
Aren’t you going to just salute me, warren?

hence also the fact that i suspect we can make a mistake both ways 50/50.

increasing our misery/happiness by infinity or….

we can fuck up twice as bad as we can gain from a windfall

result?: [expection= 50%Xour outcome. i.e happy/sad =(50%x1.0x10^gazzion)

and    : [variance=50%xour outcome(squared)]   =>this shows we a spoilt for choice. and that we have many many many chances to find out la !

so, my point is we esentially have a choice. even when we dont have a choice, its cos we choose not to choose. its kinda like set theory…….(click on link)

now, warwick just had to let another genius on the loose to go init?
ppl dont call me bollocks for nothing.

though, i maintain that my maths is all within sound logical reasoning.

wot dyu want to be wen you grow up?

Sunday, November 13th, 2005

im was just wondering.
if it is even remotely possible to swop lives w someone else.
cos ive been suffering from a growing affinity towards schizopherinia (its that how you spell it)
yea well. maybe thats a little over-exxagerating.
but i cannot help but pass my days w a little day-dream of someday (soon) leading the high-life of maybe a fashion editor, fine artist, event manager, maybe and remotely even an economist. oh god forbid.




intellectualism is wot spurs my gist for life.
just the same way watching a good film, devouring a good book, working on an art piece, remininiscing or exploring a different culture, or even revelling in current affairs does.
pls dont get me wrong. i am a highly drama rama raja that expects to rule the world on a pedestal w perhaps, christian troy at her beck and call. did any one hear carnal appetite?
oh sorry

back to wot i was saying.
i love life. i do. maybe i hate a love-hate relationship w it from time to time. cos ppl in it have the ultimate potential to spoil it for me. they really do. do. do!!!!
hence this i must say w ardent fervour.
"no one shall and will rule my emotions, my habits, my state of mind and therefore my destiny and eventually my life"





looks like im sounding like a contradicting character.
ok. i can say i love life. but maybe not mine. at least for the moment.
hence the need to maybe swop lives for awhile.
anyone willing?
stella mcartney maybe? how bout roberto cavalli.
id really love to see the world andy warhol did. to the point i wouldnt mind dabbling in homosexuality.
and i really wouldnt mind being ann krueger for a while and having a stint w the IMF.


i cant help but sound the least bit 6 year oldish when i say
"wot the fuck am i gonna be when i grow up?"

im not proud to say that i havent been stuck in such a dubious state of mind in my entire life and frankly im getting quite scared.

oh yea. and at the risk of soundind maybe a little shallow headed. (but i am at times)
"God! will you pls give me a flat chest? higher nose? a flawless complexion? maybe more chiseled cheekbones?

how about adding 5 inches to my legs in exchange for those off my waist?"


maybe then. and i say this w as much conviction as my expression can muster.
il be happy?

or not.

cos when i come to think of it, there are abt a million and one other things id demand.
money, fame, talent,
and lord pls "a brain that can separate emotion from hard logic".


so as i begin to build up on my never ending wishlist i also start to wonder wot the fuck life really is all abt.
and wot the fuck my life’s purpose is.
have you ever sat down and pondered upon it?
how then are you so sure you are leading the life you were meant to lead. and that you have in fact derived maximal satisfaction from it?



these series of questions have left me seriously more perplexed than i was when i was shitting hysterics over my linear algebra exam. which. i infact passed. w flying colours.

too bad i failed 2 papers. and too bad i left warwick and ended something i was supposed to do.

nobody’s perfect. anyone can tell you that.
but i really cant help but wonder am i or am i not harnessing my abilities to its full capacity?
am i or am i not compensating in all that i can to cover my weaknesses.

all i can say is that watching mtv wotever thing’s the "AIYA- CREW" all day is not helping the situation one fucking bit.



but i love them buggers!!! theyre so fucking funny!!!! ha. ha. ha. there.

i met this boy once.

Sunday, November 13th, 2005

Too bad I was also blessed w perfect timing, un called for circumstances and a temper violent enough to rival stewie griffin.

I once met a boy.
He wasn’t terribly good looking or absurdly intelligent or did he ooze charisma like your regular motherfucking player.
In all aspects, you can say that he was pretty much an average Joe.
W a more eccentric edge than I would’ve preferred.
But the one thing I was drawn to him by was his big heart and his capacity to love and love and love even more. Almost unconditionally. Almost.
i don’t know if it was his droll affinity towards life and its bitching. But in any case he never once failed to smile even when there were tears streaming down his face.
I don’t know why, how or when but I did eventually fall in love w this boy.
And in many aspects. Which id rather eloquently deny, i admire him
I don’t think I can be anymore blessed w such good timing that I have now.
Wutthefuck.
Makes me really wonder if things would have been different if we had just remained friends and only began to explore the avenues maybe another 5 years down the line.
A little too late.
There is nothing left to explore. And little left to look forward to.
I probably know him better than his mother. In all ways possible. (and I leave that to imagination). I think we know each other a little too well for comfort.
You know the feeling?
Being too close for comfort.
Exactly my sentiments.
And I guess the sad fact remains that he and I will be too dysfunctional together. Maybe its cos, we are in so many ways so similar. Almost like twins but yet for some uncanny reason we want different things and that im predicting that if it spelled trouble before, im sure it will again. History sure has a sneaky way of repeating itself and fucking you up and down, before you realize it.
Maybe it would have been better if we broke off much earlier but remained friends till perhaps timing was on our side.
And at the back of our minds we knew our relationship was falling apart.
But we sacrificed everything to make it work. Sorta like throwing all your possessions into a fire that was going to eventually burn out anyway.
We acted as if we were in fact going to last forever. Why? Cos I don’t think ive ever loved someone more than I did he. And when you know something is valuable, it takes a lot to finally loosen your grip. Yes?
Call it blind faith? And till this day I wonder if he would have waited. Now only time will tell.

Its just so sad though. At one point in time it was as if he was the best thing that happened to me. Like mr. perfect. I couldn’t have asked for more. He was a perfect lover and best friend all rolled into one. And funny as hell too.
Then wot the fuck happened to those happy times?

As a tried and tested cynic I maintain that happiness can never last forever, ppl grow up, ppl change, ppl move, obstacles come in between. And all this nonsense.

This test of time shit.

Yea, like I said its sad though. I hopelessly in love, only when it was too late and ive never stopped loving him ever since. Is that possible? Believe me it is.
When u go through with dating so many guys (all of which are pretty damn hot), and getting into a serious relationship w another motherfucker and getting seriously burned.

Just when you thought you has successfully packed him into a suitcase and shoved him into your closet and forgot abt it.
You wake up one morning w this dull ache in your chest. Many a time ive asked myself “oh geesus. Wot have I done?”

And I cannot count the number of times ive hit my head on the wall and slapped myself silly after realizing ive let slip the best thing that ever happened to me.

Just like that.

Like that.

It all seems so pointless. It didn’t mean a thing.

Its like ive fallen into a booby trap over and over again.

And its pretty much torture when you know you love the guy and you want to tell him that, but its too late.

Hes moved on and the last thing he wants is to be reminded of painful trauma that left him feeling vulnerable.

You might as well pull masking tape over my mouth.
Cos words like this will just fall on deaf ears.
Its hell when you cannot repent. And you’ve gone too far, for your quest for redemption.
But despite all this, there lies within you a faint glimmer of (blind) hope that one day he will return and one day he will realize that ending it that way was just not right.
Perhaps only then the skeletons hanging around in my closet will disappear.
But for now, all I can say is that I was once blessed w the most awesome guy I could have fathomed.

global government?

Sunday, November 13th, 2005

I had a chat with warren and chao abt the deplorable state of the Malaysian education system, and how, compared to

Japan/canada

(where they had been for the past three years), Malaysian public school teachers are probably on a whole other scale………

of incompetence.

You know, I blame it on the pay.

so blame it on the govt. or the "malaysian mentality"

sod it.

Government school teachers are paid (pretty much) peanuts for their educational service, so instead, what they do is offer home tuition to their students at exorbitant costs, and then teach topics during this home tuition that they won’t teach at school. The children are therefore forced to attend the exorbitantly-priced home tuition, or face failing school tests (in which material only covered in tuition will come out) and being "relegated" to a lower class.

And so contrary to the general perception that teachers are generally extremely poor, Malaysian government school teachers sit at home in their cushy houses, charging RM50 an hour to EACH STUDENT (and they have something like 5O STUDENTS, which at four hours of tuition a week comes up to a whopping RM40,000 a month, which is more than most businessmen get).

Madness. Absolute madness.

Anyway, that wasn’t my point.

I meant to say that the comparison between Malaysia and Japan got me thinking about whether people - humans, if you like - are essentially the same or not. Actually I was thinking about whether it would be possible or even desirable to have a world government………..(.regarding my conclusion that the state that globalisation was in was infact "global governance without global government")

although I suppose if you think about it, it’s really the same kind of question. If you believe people are generally the same, e.g. rational, making decisions on logical reasoning and lucid rationality, then you would probably think a world government would work. The idea of a world government would be logical in many ways - in terms of avoiding war, diverting resources that would normally be used for war towards creation and development instead, greater respect for the natural world, etc. It’s a very large-scale macroscopic idea, because it regards the progression of humanity as a whole, rather than as a competition between different pockets of humanity within a network of geographical boundaries.

i.e for the dummies "WIN-WIN SITUATION"

But if you believe people are generally too different to ever agree on a world government, and that moreover people are irrational and emotional, then you’d probably say a world government isn’t possible.  WHICH IS THE FUCKING CASE IN OUR COUNTRY AND WORLD.

As a hard cynic, I can see several problems jump straight out at me with a world government. How would a world government deal with religion? It’s all very well to say we can adopt a "neutral" view of it, i.e. believe what you wish and no one will be prosecuted, but some countries in the world operate on religion, and so this "neutral" view would be just as bad - if not worse - than saying "the world government is atheist". How would they deal with education, and what about currency, there would be no such thing as an exchange rate anymore. There are many, many more problems I can think of…

World government protagonists point to the Federation of the United States of America as a working model of what could be a world government - a whole host of different religions, cultural backgrounds etc., all combined and represented by one government. The country is divided into states, and each state has power over their people, but all states defer to a larger Federal Law. In the same way, the world is divided into countries, and each state would have power over their people, but all countries would defer to the world government.

This isn’t meant to be a comprehensive discussion on all the nuances of the argument for and against a world government,

although rest assured it’s all in my head :)

Just that if I typed all my thoughts out, you’d be here till (NEXT)  Christmas.

Anyway, isn’t it a beautiful thought?

No war, development of humanity as a whole, united we stand, yada yada.

Still, call me cynical, but I don’t think so. The closest thing we have to a world government (or a world anything, really) is the United Nations, and…well, judge it for yourself. Also, "possible" and "desirable" are quite different concepts. You might think that a world government is not possible, but desirable nonetheless, while someone else might think that a world government is neither possible nor desirable. I don’t know if anyone can sincerely believe a world government is possible, but if you think it’s desirable, then by all means, go ahead and hope.

As for me, I’m with Thomas Jefferson when he said "That government is best which governs the least". Laissez-faire, that’s the way to go.

economics of the all you can eat kind

Monday, November 7th, 2005

**this is dedicated to my dear friend james, who is now in aussie and as we speak is probably throwing mini pebbles at koalas, tasting fine wine, and checking out the hot surfer dudes @ bondi on my behalf (u better!).

my sincere apologies, cos thinking of you always made me think abt food.

so, dear james, may you always be in the pink of health and be bestowed w such unworldly appetite that befits you stature and copious amts of "charisma"

wouldnt it be well cool , had i the requisite brain and expertise, to write a paper on the economics of all-you-can-eat buffets. you see, ive affliated myself w many ppl that wouldnt give up their food if their life or maybe waistline depended on it.  they give a whole new meaning to the phrase "fat and happy" as tish once blatantly told me.

you see to them, paying homage to haagen dazs, or finishing that pint of ben and jerry’s yields just as much utility as id derive from swipping a credit card over a counter in exchange for a pair of manolos.

which brings me to my very point.

for ppl like them, more is better.  and how better than to treat themselves to an all you can eat buffet?

however, as a friend genuinely concerned abt their wellbeing and satisfaction, i cant help but wonder, are they feeding themselves right?

how does one truly maximize utility?

a few incoherent suggestions:

  1. straightforwardly, people would unselectively eat as much as they could in order to maximize the value of their money. equal, plentiful amounts of every dish on offer. increase in quantity eaten translates directly to decrease in cost of each unit eaten.
  2. arguably, though, you could eat as much of your favourite dishes in that buffet as you possibly could, in order to maximize your utility even further. so, someone who likes fried chicken far more than fried vegetables would enjoy greater utility by eating more fried chicken than fried vegetables, rather than equal amounts of both.
  3. however, marginal returns diminishes. after the fifteenth piece of fried chicken, having a bite of vegetables would probably increase one’s utility more than the sixteenth piece of fried chicken.
  4. in addition, one could subscribe to external regulators of value. these are the people who will go into an all-you-can-eat buffet and eat no carb dishes like pasta, rice etc, because these are cheaper, fill you up faster, and are therefore less valuable in terms of ratio of stomach space to dollar spent. ahahahah. chao? familiar?
  5. relatedly, there are those who maximize their utility by heaping their plate with lobster, caviar, oysters, pate, peking duck, and all things expensive and rare. rationally this is to do with maximizing unit value of return on each dollar spent. you see, A $5 buffet spent eating pasta is "less valuable" than a $5 buffet spent eating peking duck.
  6. conflict arises, however, when one actually prefers pasta to peking duck. which would increase one’s utility more?  uh oh.
  7. also, do any one of these methods of increasing utility increase utility more than the others? even if one prefers pasta to peking duck, i.e. eating pasta would increase one’s utility more than eating duck, could one’s utility actually be increased more by eating peking duck simply because one knows that duck is more expensive than pasta?
  8. and for all good intentions sake, how the hell does desserts fit into all this??

if anyone economically-inclined ever writes a paper on this, maybe lemme know?

so for all u cynics out there.  economics love it or loathe it can be applied to just abt anything in life.

heck, if researching this paper allows me to peruse all-you-can-eat buffets all over the world,

i’ll write the damned thing myself.

-in kind regards to your email.

see you soon.  buffet?  maybe?

globalisation and its discontents

Monday, November 7th, 2005

Im fucking bored out of my fucking mind. 

Ive been moping around the house in my pjs, smoking and watching BBC and ingesting editions of the economist. 

At least I don’t sit around and scratch my ass. 

Like I said I was bored.  And ive been thinking. Like, A lot.

And I guess, when I think, I write.  Like a lot. 

Don’t get me wrong.  I was once told by a misinformed someone who didn’t know wot the fuck he was going on abt., that I should be a writer.  Sod that.  He was way too dumb to be taken seriously anyway.

Anyways!

My point is.

After all the glory media flashes in front of our eyes. Day in day out.  When u eating in front of the telly, fliipin through channels, and shit

Ive come to a (non comprehensive) conclusion that:

We all know we live in a world of hypocritical paranoia.  One can argue that we have come so far, and made progress only Sir Malthus himself dreamed abt.

We have come so far, yet we are living a life more backward than we think.  All hail

America

.  Look at them ppl.  We look towards being like our most prosperous, technologically advanced, socially integral nation. But then when activists point out blatantly that the very same country is being plagued by obesity/ill health, beauracracy within its medical care, government.

That it is in fact a greedy tyrant w more political triblulations, social inequality, comparative poverty problems, unemployment and rising crime rates.

We then shut the fuck up.

We stop hailing and we look the fuck away.

Now, I cant decide whether these social ills are a cause or an effect.  But its there, every fucking day, right in front of your eyes.  We just don’t choose to see it.

America

can be used to symbolize the bigger picture of the global economy.  And  perhaps then we can see that (in lame men terms) that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer? Yes? No? I don’t know?  Go away pls, im watching O.C? 

Now, then. Why is this so?  Well.  Attack me if you will. But I believe that root of this problem lies within the phenomenon wed like to call globalization. 

Id say its globalization and its discontents.

Everybody whos somebody knows abt the IMF and the WTO and their pioneering advocation of free world trade and globalization in all its fucking glory. 

Now.  Many ppl (especially if you are an average stupid American) look up to these figure heads and think “wow, they really did it for us, they are our modern day heros”.

Yes in the name of god, globalization hold within it many virtuous intentions of making the world a better place to live in. 

Who the fuck wants to see a child die?

Who the fuck ever stood for poverty, disease, and having to rob, and rape for satisfaction.

You see, in times of desperation like these alongside the G7’s growing concern towards the ailments of the developing world, the world top leaders, politicians, scholars, activists, and economists alike saw a need for a fairer parity in the worlds wealth if we were going to live longer than our evolved ancestors.

Wot the fuck am I on abt you ask?

Globalization you nimwit.  And the perceived good it brings.

-opening up for international trade has helped countries grow faster than they would have otherwise done. 

-its aids economic development when growth is export driven. Export led growth was the centerpiece of the industrial policy that enriched much of

Asia

as we see it today.

-life expectancy has almost doubled since the last century, so much so govts in developed country are dealing w another problem known as the ‘aging population’.  Now old hags are being shipped of to s.

Korea

to enjoy the rest of their days.

-standard of living has proved to be something most can be proud of nowadays. 

-globalization has brought abt the much needed sectorial development, to both spur and sustain growth and development in developing countries.  Yes. Ppl in the west may regard bigwigs like Nike and coke as exploitation, but in fact for the disenfranchised it provides a job alternative to slaughting all day in the farm/sea.

-it has indeed reduced the sense of isolation felt in much of the developing world and has given many ppl an access to invaluable knowledge only exclusive to the west before.  Look at

India

and how they became one of the smartest fucking ppl on the planet and decided to take on the world and migrate everywhere. *ananannanana*.  Oh. Sorry.

-globalization gives rise to new technologies and innovation, look at dell, Microsoft, McIntosh, IBM.  They are the fucking reason your child knows how to surf porn at the age of 8.

-foreign aid, for all its faults still has brought benefit to millions, often in ways that are unnoticed such as guerrillas in the Philippines being provided jobs by WB financed projects as they lay down their arms. 

The list goes on…..

Now then.

why the hell are these international beauracrats-the faceless symbols of the world economic order being apprehended under attack everywhere?

I mean after all our heros Mr. IMF and his counterpart, senor WTO are on a life long pledge to save to fucking world from eating itself up right?

I take a rather droll affinity towards scrutinizing the very fact that virtually every major meeting of the IMF, WB and the WTO is now the scene of much violence, anger, conflict and turmoil. 

Yes yes.  Like I was saying.  (u see this is of much relevance.  I’m not digressing).

Why then has this phenomenon –a force that brought as much good akin to Luke skywalker restoring balance to the galaxy (for you star wars fans)

Become the fucking pinnacle of controversy?

Yes. Those who vilify globalization often overlook the benefits.  But the proponents of this very ‘hero’ have been if anything, even more imbalanced.

To them glob. (which is typically associated w triumphant capitalism, yankee/soros/trump style) is progress . 

progress that developing countries must accept if they wanna get out of the poverty trap. 

However.  To many in the developing world, this just has not brought abt the promised economic benefits.

Which just goes to show my fellow minion, that the US in all its yankee glory are just a bunch of hypocritical motherfuckers that gain media popularity by publicly addressing their plans to heal the wounded to save the falling.

So to speak. Aiyaaaaa….. Mahai. Lat. Speak?

Yet they sit there flat on their fat white arses.  All those Americans know shite abt any fucking thing that is going on other than their neighbors gossip.  They are too fucking busy watching despo on Fox tv, while Mr. bush has plans to bomb

Iraq

, flat, overthrow Sadam and suck oil out of the ground from a silver straw. 

So wot the flying fuck they on abt helping the poor and restoring balance to the galaxy they believe they dictate.  Theyre fucking paying homage to Hitler, and yet, they turn around and smile pretty for the camera saying they are all for world piece. 

Aiya. Those Yankees can go fuck themselves for all they pls.  they already are anyway. 

Thanks to Lewinsky and Clinton.

Cant they open their stoned eyes and see that ppl are fucking dying and collapsing of hunger everywhere?  I guess not. 

Cos the last thing you’ll catch is fat Joe giving up his double cheese whopper for a donation to the poor.

A growing divide between the haves and have nots has left ppl in the 3rd world living on less than a dollar a day. And despite those poverty reduction schemes and promises, the last time I checked (out of pure boredom) the no. of ppl living in this state has upped by 100 million the same time ttl world income grew by 2.5 percent a year.  Check it out!

Those rich buggers really have it going for themselves.

In

Africa

high aspirations following colonial independence have been largely disgruntled.  Instead the continent pluges deeper into misery while the scourge of aids continues to ravage the young, old, rich and poor alike. 

I once read abt a documentary going on in parts of

Africa

where poverty ruled high.  The cases of HIV had risen dramatically since the last few decades, and the latest trend had HIV positive males raping young female/male virgins and leaving them w the disease.  Reason being tribes had a belief that if you were stricken w a deadly disease, sleeping w a virgin rid you off it.  voila!!

This lead to something even bigger.  Even though they had abandoned African socialism, managed to install reasonably decent govts, balanced their budget, and kept inflation down, the mere thought of AIDS scared away many of the vital, wealthy private and multinational investors.  And guess wot? 

Without it you cannot have sustainable growth. 

And it hasn’t done too well in ensuring stability either.  If at all.  Crises in Asia and

Latin America

have been a threat to economies in trade partners and fellow developing countries and unions. There are fears of financial contagion spreading around the world. Take for instance wot happened in 1997/8, the Asian crisis when the volatility of the currency created a trauma so great that firms and households and governments alike are still cleaning up the mess.  The mess that was single-handedly sparked by our very favourite George soros.  The fucking mahai that sold and sold the fucking ringgit till it fell overnight. Now hes another one of those sick bastards that treat trading in the stock exchange like some predatory game.  Yea well.  Go take the dow jones/nasdaq and shove it up his ass. 

The introduction of the market economy promised to bring w it unprecedented prosperity, but instead it brought unprecedented poverty.  Look at post communist

Russia

.  The pressing issue is not this, however.  We all know wot incompetent so hais the west can sometimes be.  It’s the fact that there is an obvious contrast between

Russia

’s transition as engineered by international economic institutions and that of china designed by itself couldn’t be greater.

The critics of the ill-handling of globalization accuse the west of hypocrisy.  And damn right y’all.  The west have pushed poor countries to eliminate their trade barriers while they kept their own.  Resulting in a deprivation of much needed export income.  Export driven growth, my ass! The

US

was of course one of the prime motherfucking culprits.  And they funny fact is that I wasn’t only hurting the developing world but its own domestic economy; it cost them as consumers, in the higher prices they paid and as tax payers to finance those siao ting tong subsidies. 

But even when they weren’t indicted for hypocrisy, they had ensured that the agenda garnered a disproportionate share of the benefits at the expense of the developing world.  Who else?  Those stupid Africans can go beating around the bush w their fellow argentinans and see who goes down first. 

How you wonder? Along w the unfair trade regulations they imposed, western banks benefited from the loosening of the capital market in Latin America and

Asia

, but those countries suffered when inflows of speculative/hot money that had poured in, suddenly reversed its course.  Wot the fuck! The result?  Collapsed currencies and weakened banking systems, bankruptcy and many a riot.  Fuck

America

!

Ya, and just when ya think the worst has happened.  Ya think?  Well intentioned efforts backfiring is one thing.  But having to clean up and eat up all the external costs is another.  Environments have been destroyed (go take a flight to

brazil

if  you don’t believe me, and play “spot the forest” cos they have to rely now on fucking tourism to fund their govt defict.  Why ar? 

Cos

of failed trade treaties and talks in just abt every WTO meeting).

Political processes have been corrupted.  Hence leading on to the subject of terrorism which I wont go into cos its just no fun toking abt the Taliban.  Cos the

US

will never leave them the fuck alone and that issue wont ever be dropped for as long as

America

is still floating around in the world map.

Pace of change has not allowed for cultural adaptation.  Hey aborigines and Hawaiians have been up tourists ass since the brits invaded.  But did you know that its happening in G7 countries such as japan and

france

as well?

  As we all know the French are fucking anal abt everything, namely the language/culture.  Don’t ever fuck around w their language.  But globalization did just that. Now the French are demanding that a new rule be installed saying that

“we shall not yield to the fat Americans.  And we shall have a French word for everything in English.  Even a French term for the mcdonalds hamburger”. Beat that.

Oh yea.  Well then back to the initial question. 

Wot the fuck have the IMF and WTO and WB been doing all this while?

For starters they’ve locked themselves up in a box and are bickering (up till tdy) abt who is right and who is wrong.

Funny init.  Our only hope for survival are throwing tantrums abt who is better and who is smarter.  While half the world subsists is starving their asses off , fighting AIDS like no bodies business.    

And the Americans and sitting on their fat arses chowing down pizza after pizza, watching family guy and flippin the channel from time to time to see Mr. bush smiling pretty for the camera.

Theyre a whole bunch of losers.

Over the years of inception the IMF has changed markedly.  Founded on the belief that markets function badly, it had chosen to leave JM Keynes rolling over in his grave to see wot has become of his baby while it champions market supremacy with ideological fervour. 

The mission statements between the IMF and WB were growing apart quicker than the the bloody Americans gaining their pounds.  And they remained distinct even though they were both founded upon for the same cause.  And damn the fact WB needed IMF’s go ahead before any financial procedure.  And that often came w many imposed conditions. 

Now it seemed as though the IMF was the smart alec w all the answers (basically the same blueprints for every country, rich or poor).  And while the WB debated over the best stance to take, IMF didn’t see the need for all this discussion that was going on, it sorta became like a vacumm to provide all the brilliant answers.  In their defence,  they would use the fact that the WTO was busy spending money hosting forums in cancun and just abt any where else in the world that never came to any consensus anyway. and almost always ended badly. Why? 

Cos the bloddy G7 leaders had all the fucking say and wouldn’t hear out any of their other humbler counterparts.  It was basically an excuse for these leaders to go away for the weekend, get some sun, speak abt shit they didn’t even know wot they were on abt, and then appear on the media w a killer tan, expressing their ‘heartfelt sorrows on why oh why they couldn’t seem to stop the vicious cycle of poverty’.   

Ah.  The solution was of course to try harder. Next time. 

So IMF has failed in its mission.  WB and WTO are both hiding behind it, shunning any questions. 

In spite of the fact that our understanding of economic processes have increased over the last 50 years.  Well, I guess its just abt that we have achieved.

Why?  Cos world leaders just don’t understand that they need to view today’s problems in a dispassionate way. Put ideology aside and base their policies on hard facts, evidence and statistics. 

Too much politics!  Don’t politicize!

  Maybe there is a reason politicians are dubbed failed scholars or scientists due to their inability to engage in any sort of logical/scientific debate, but instead, followed their instincts and beliefs. 

And worse, many of these harshly forced policies have promoted global instability instead of growth and god forbid. Development !

Today.

we have no world government accountable to the ppl of every country to oversee this inevitable globalization process (which will happen in its own course anyway)

Analogous to the way national govts guided the nationalization process. 

Instead we have a system that I would prefer to refer to as “global governance without global government”.

-Maybe its high time to rethink, adapt, reinvent the rules that were once set so rigidly before.  That were not flexible enough to complement many of these developing countries’ economic volatility. 

-Think once again abt how decisions get made at an international level- and in whose interest.  Cos “1size fits all” is bollocks .

-Place less emphasis on ideology and look more on wot works in the real world. And fast.

-Yea its safe to say that globalization can be remolded into something much finer, and deeper and perhaps more receptive.

And when it is, with all countries given a fair vote into the policies affect them and their generations to come,

There is a slight chance that it might all just maybe……work out.

Then a new global community is born founded on economic stability and growth sustainable enough to witness the fruits of labor to be more equitably shared.

Oh yea.  I forgot one thing! God bless

America

.  J

Now I am in no way trying to sound cocky or blatant.  Maybe just a little. 

Nor do I think that im in any position to.

since I am in fact a failed dubious mathematician that has resorted to home schooling herself. 

Just because. 

And part of the reason lies within the fact I hate wasting time being preached to like some parrot in class abt analysis and linear algebra and then fail cos I sleep in class, 

when I can learn the shit on my own and apply it elsewhere. 

Hence before I rant on abt the education system, I must tell you this. 

That being aware of wot the fuck is happening around you and asking why and seeking for an answer is just as important as any algebra you will learn in school.

That said.  I must say, girls pls be aware and go check  BCBG maxazria’s and galliano’s fall/winter collection out now. 

Amazing just falls short of their expectations.  Enjoy!

-

-

t

Sunday, November 6th, 2005

Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN

Ive been hibernating in my room by means of cigarettes and milky chamomile having nothing but myself for company.
Of course, within the closed up affinity of my room ive been reduced to girl boxers. And toe socks. Nothing more nothing less. Smelling like a million bucks but wreathing in a discontent of some sort. Im not too sure if it’s the result of the awkward curlers in my hair. Or the fact that my tan is diminishing and my days are passing by slower than chao munches on his noodles. Or maybe something deeper? I don’t know. I look at myself in the mirror. And my nose twitches. I frown and look away.
i put keane’s bedshapped on replay. And I burnt some ylang ylang oil just for reminiscence’s sake.

I get bored easily.
Yea. Im that itchyfied. I pick at my nails. Then my hair. And at that growing zit on the side of my cheek from lengthy phone conversations to david.

Watching Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN was just abt the most productive thing I did in my ‘alone time’ today.
Wots it abt you ask?

A basic intro goes like this :
“Julio and tenoch are 2 teens ruled by ragaing hormones and a mission to consume the most exotic of substances. But one fateful summer, the boys learn more abt life than wot they bargained for, when they meet seductive 28 year old luisa and set off on a wild cross country trip in search of the most beautiful beaches. Both taste the allure of forbidden fruit as luisa schools them in the finer points of suave, erotic passion.
But will their mutual desire for her destroy their friendship forever?”

As a matter of fact it did. Julio and tenoch never spoke to each other again. After they found out that they shared a more incestuous relationship than they could have imagined; i.e they were unknowingly fucking each others girlfriends. The last straw came the morning after they shared a homosexual snog while spending the night with luisa.
You see, there is this universal trait that prevails in situations like these. Sexual relations, between men and women have evolved into not just for a reproductive purpose. Friendship and sex are like black and white. But there is no grey. And things can never be the same again

But that is not the point.

You see, the intro to this movie barely even scrapes the surface. Yes yes yes. It is sexually as explicit as you can get, and breaches the fine line between art and soft porn. Bums, pert breasts, and hanging bits a many for those after a cheap thrill.

But one soon finds out as the movie progresses that the cheap thrill the boys bargained for lead to a lessons they kept for life.

Turns out luisa is stricken w a terminal illness dubed as cancer. And her husband cheats on her, more times than she deserves to know. She leaves everything behind, turns to the boys for company and resorts to smoking spliffs and downing booze to pass her days. Of course. That comes along w copius amounts of sex. Sex sex. She treats every day, every encounter as if it were her last. Needless to say she enjoys herself shamelessly. I guess in times of desperation, many would understand why a woman like luisa would treat sex like some addiction that needed to be sated. Quite evidently, the reason being pinning for lost love. And dealing w death of loved ones.

So luisa satisfys her carnal appetite in the rudest fashion ever as means to end her days as a happy sated, endorphine high woman. Never mind STDs, pregnancy scares. She was going to be dead by then

That got me wondering. Wot the hell would I do or stop doing the moment (touch wood) I found out I was diagnosed w a terminal illness. ?
Wot would you choose as loving company and memory for the last of your days.

Tough question.
Im not too sure myself.
Maybe I wont run off and fuck 50 guys to get it all out of the system.
I don’t think il travel the globe, spend money like a mofo, or eat the food i pleased.
I hate long airplane journeys and long car road trips. I wouldn’t be in good enough shape to weather that out. The last thing I want is puking my fucking brains out mid-flight to belize.
Its pointless spending the money now. For how long more would I last to enjoy the tangibles it bought?
Food? I wouldn’t care no less. My taste buds would probably be numb. And food is just food, maybe to help me live a few more days. But if I really had to choose it would be one bite of burger kings mushroom swiss.

I would however make headway to the beach. Id lie in the hammock all day in a bikini bottom, Straw hat and little else, not having to worry about skin cancer.
Id braid my hair and run my hands through the multicouloured beads, just cos I love the way it feels.
Id rub in toes against the sand and breathe in the salty air, and find solace in the sound of waves rushing up and washing away. I wouldn’t want, however that stupid chinapeck to stand next to me and tell me again, the reason why waves exist, was due to the moons gravitational pull. oh geeesus. pls just fuck of and leave me the hell alone.

Yea id lay by the beach and munch of banana goring and sip Malibu or pinacolada until im intoxicated.

Then id look through my list of ppl to call “when im slightly intoxicated”
And id ring david to say "thanks dude" just because hed probably be sitting next to me at that very moment
Id call char and tell her to love herself more and that she was a gorgeous person inside out.
Id call hann and come out w “hello stranger” knowing that he was anything but that.

id ring nad and gg and say to, warwickian life would have been nuth if it werent for them
Id call mr. f and say “ hey motherfucker, you finally picked up” if he did.
And id leave a “ if only I knew you were never worth it” note on his voice mail if he didn’t.
Id msg sher to tell her to look in her drawer to find the watercolour painting titled “serenity” I left for her.

Id get my mom to post a letter to john Galliano and cavalli telling them that they were the fucking reason couture ever made a name for itself. And that maybe it would be cool to incorporate some retro, bling bling and afros into their next season.
Oh and Id never want anyone to touch or wear my clothes. All the missoni/bcbg dresses, fedora hats, stringy bikinis, pointy toed shoes.

Why? Because I am anal and that is about it.

But that’s my take on it.
Wot would be yours?

you make my life perfect-`