If you’ve not heard, the Avril Lavigne concert which was supposed to be scheduled for the 29th of August (2 days before Merdeka) has been cancelled. This is because the moronic fundamentalist political party that’s still living in the 15th century called PAS considers that Avril is “too sexy”… and the government buckled.

Too sexy? Too sexy? I mean Avril Lavigne is hot but when I think of her, I always think rebel tomboy more than sex goddess. Then again, these guys who live in the 15th century just can’t control their sexual urges. So a white girl like Avril might turn them all into sex maniacs. Well, they are neanderthals after all. I think that they should crawl back into whichever tempurung (shell) they live under and stay there. Just stop imposing your narrow views on the rest of us who prefer to live in the 21st century.

It’s really hard to chose a side in Malaysian politics. On one side, we have a greedy bunch of dirtbags who are just in it for themselves and on the other we have these fundamentalist types who wanna drag you back into the dark ages. The obvious choice is to leave, actually. Unfortunately, a Malaysian citizenship makes it really difficult to migrate to most modernized countries for the obvious reasons.

I think I’ll vote Obama (if only I could).

The Malaysian Insider: 2 press photographers assaulted

It’s sad to see that there will be hooligans in every bunch. The news today that 2 press photographers were attacked by a group of 30 PKR supporters just makes me sick to my stomach. I’m not sure what these morons are thinking.

One of the victims who was attacked was an NSTP photographers who was taking shots of the BN workers. He was pulled down from the 4-wheel drive vehicle he was on, dragged for about 15 meters before the mob started brutalising him. The other victim was a foreign press photographer who went to the NSTP man’s aid and ended up being beaten up as well.

I’m not sure if the PKR leadership is going to do anything about it but they should if they want to maintain their integrity. I wonder what the police are doing these days. There was supposed to be very strong police presence in the area but something like this still happens?

I’m not sure if I just missed the news or if Apple quietly opened it’s store’s availability to Malaysia.

I was just happened to click on the iTunes store button in iTunes and happened to see the the Malaysia in the list of countries allowed to access the store. I think that it’s cool that we are finally on the list of countries.

I’ve been watching quite a bit of the Olympics broadcast on Astro here in Malaysia as with most other Malaysians as well I assume. The broadcast has overall been very good. Well, at least the portions not produced by Astro. The feed that we are getting is likely from Australia with commentaries from the Aussies.

The segments produced by Astro itself… well, amaturish, full of errors and just plain hard to watch. The worst part are the presenters. I wonder how these blokes were chosen for such a big event. I’m not sure of all their names but I only remember the veteran Raymond Goh (who’s the best of the bunch) and Selina Aziz, she’s the most gawdawful presenter clearing showing that English is clearly not her first language. She speaks so slowly and carefully that you’d think that the Olympics were the most boring event in the world. She struggles with her notes and just seems to have major trouble getting the worlds out of her mouth. As mentioned before, Raymond Goh is the best of the bunch but that’s not saying much. He sounds extremely dated and seems tired throughout the broadcast. The rest of the presenters are just as emotionless and are just reading off their notes.

On another point, how come they are not provided a laptop for their notes? They’re still having computer printouts which most of them are fumbling with. Also, what’s the with errors in the data that they keep putting up on screen? Isn’t there a producer checking through these things? The other day during the badminton event, they listed Wong Choon Hann as being female and born in 1983. It’s so daft that I just couldn’t help but just laugh.

C’mon Astro buck up. You seem no better than the bad ol’ days of RTM.

It seems like in recent times the ACA has been getting really aggressive. I say.. good on ya!!

We are starting to see some of the corrupt individuals in high level positions claim trail. Most recently is the DG of the Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board. There’s news that the DG of the Immigration dept is about to be arrested.

The question is how high up are they willing to go? Are they brave enough to go all the way up Dollah’s administration. Are they willing to look at those closest to him like his “Special K”? Only time will tell.

Seems like the cat is out of the bag. The news broke on China’s Beijing Times regarding the fact that the 28 “footprint” fireworks that were set off throughout Beijing that was supposed to be filmed by a helicopter was in actual fact a 3D graphics sequence. I watched the opening and have to say that it was really well done actually. While watching it I did have the question in my head on how the pilot was able to time it so precisely. But I have to say it definitely fooled me. Kudos to the 3D programmers… shame on the Chinese gov and the organizers.

According to the organizers, the fireworks were actually set off but it was too dangerous to have a helicopter film it live. So they decided to go the 3D animation way. They actually even showed this on the screen in the Olympic Stadium.

I have to say. This is so typical of the Chinese government.

Christiano Ronaldo (a.k.a. Portugese Tart from now on) has again reopened his transfer saga by not confirming that he will stay in an interview after Fergie and David Gill had “confirmed” that he would remain with Manchester United. I think this is nonsense and it’s becoming a real distraction to the preparations for the 08-09 season.

It’s time for United to get rid of this stupid tart. He’s selfish, egoistic and basically a downright untrustable figure. After just signing a contract extension in the past 18 months with a salary increase, he now wants out just because Real Madrid has come calling. Well, I’m not surprised he broke up with his fiance as well. In a way, I think she dodged a bullet. Since he has proven he has no loyalty to anything or anyone, he’s probably want out within the year once the next flavor of the week comes calling.

I’ve had nothing but admiration for Ronaldo during his time with the club and I did think that he was critical player in helping the club win the double in the 07-08 season. I’ve now changed my perception of him. I think that it’s best that Fergie and David sell him for the right price.

We’ve seen the best come and we’ve seen the best go. Throughout all this we are still the most successful club ever in the EPL.

Glory, Glory Man United!!!

P.S. get out you bloody tart. I spit on you!

This Proton Saga was just left by the side of the road next to the BP station in Damansara Uptown. Not sure what happened. No debris on the ground to indicate that the accident happened there. Could be the tow truck driver just dumped it there halfway.

After many tries, I’ve finally gotten my Fuel Subsidy Rebate that the government is giving to all those with cars below 2000cc. Good thing they don’t count in horse power. My “little” Renesis 1.3l liter engine is still within the approved cars to obtain the rebate.

Anyway, back to me getting the rebate. I’ve been trying for quite a few times to get the rebate but everytime I stop by a post office, I’m more than 100 numbers in the queue. I usually go in the afternoon which seems to be a bad time. I’ve had people tell me to try the post offices at the mall. So, I tried the one at Kepong Jusco. Same thing.. I was 160 numbers in the queue. I waited around 20 mins and they only served about 10 numbers. I wasn’t waiting around.

I was about to put up a post yesterday about the situation in the Klang Valley being different from smaller places like my hometown of Ipoh. But I decided to hold off and try a different strategy. I would go in the morning. So, I was all geared up to go first thing in the morning but I didn’t make it to the post office till around 10:30 or so. I saw that the post office was not overflowing with people which was a good sign. I enterted cautiously and pressed the button to get my number and I was only 10 numbers behind. Yay, I thought… but I held back my excitement. This was too good to be true. Maybe when it reached my turn, they would tell me that I needed some other document or something. I mean, this is Malaysia. We’re used to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

To my surprise, when my number was called, it was a little uneventful. I walked up and gave the bloke behind the counter my form and IC. He just ask for my left thumb to thumbprint the form (do we have CODIS here?) and handed me my RM625 together with the receipt. What is even more impressive is that they already have stashes of money that is pre-arranged in the amount of RM625. Cool, huh? This is the post office. They’re not used to being this efficient… are they?

So, it’s done. I have my RM625 and although, I’ve probably gone past the 800 liters had the rebate, I really don’t care. This is money that we never really expected to get. So, it’s feels pretty good.

For anyone who has yet to go get your rebate, my suggestion is that you go in the morning. It’ll save you a lot of time and aggravation.

As you know, I got my rims changed a few days ago. However, there was a slight problem. Due to the width of the tyre (275) and the wide offset (+40), every time there was a dip on the road or if I accelerated hard, the wheel would slam into the rear wheel arch. It gives a loud “bang”. Ouch!!

Consulting with the experts, I was told to get my wheel arches rolled. As you can see in the photo below, they now have this contraption to roll the arch nicely. In the old days, it would have been some guy with a hammer whacking the metal in. These days, it’s a more refined.

I was considering taking the car back to Auto Dynamics ,where I got the rims, to get the arches rolled but decided against it and went to a more experienced tyre shop like Hup Shun in Sunway. It was a good thing that I didn’t take it back there. I’ll tell you why in the next section. Basically, I drove the car to Hup Shun and they immediately knew what needed to be done. The rolling of the arches took less than 2 hours and costs RM120 per side.

As you can see from the photo below, the inner cone is now red. It had to be replaced because the ones that Auto Dynamics installed were the wrong size. When the guys at Hup Shun removed the wheels, they had found that all 4 cones had already been busted. This is only from a few days use. According to them, this is because of the wrong size of cone used. So, I had to get them changed. I was hoping that the cones would come in blue but too unfortunately, it only comes in red. This is what the wheel looks like now.

After rolling, the tyres no longer hit the wheel arch wall no matter how hard or low the car enters the dips in the road. I can drive the car the way it’s supposed to be driven again. Hard and fast.