Mixed Crumbs

Chattering and laughters boomed from the customer service department as I walked in. That is the only area buzzing with activities on a Monday morning. A handful of racketeers has already huddled together trading stories and opinions. Ignored them. My smart ass remarks will come later, after I get some breakfast, and it was Cantonese-style Yee Mee and Deep Fried Spring Roll today. Never laid a finger on the Tapioca Pudding/Cake. Never tried. It just don’t look friendly enough to be introduced to my system.

Planted myself with a loud bang against the partition and eyes darted in my direction. A weak smile and started poking at my food. The yee mee is a bit on the salty side and I had successfully managed to throw on my plate a compact mess of noodles, it lies there in dead calmness. Just like how a dead talapia would look, baking itself in a puddle of murky water, in this case my carrot and spring onion littered gravy. Fished for loose noodle ends from that pool and swallowed. Chewed on the thick mess but gave up soon after. I always kept food wastage at a minimal but today was not that day. So I headed for the bin, picking up the momentum whilst hoping that no one would notice me slamming a plate of noodles down. Two meters away from dump site and my boss appeared. I smiled. Looked happily at my food and poked it once. He went pass soon after a word of morning. Glanced left and right… coast is clear. Slam dunk!

The Score
Abner - 1
Cantonese Yee Mee - 0

New plate. 4 pieces of spring rolls. Re-enact the sit, bang on partition scene and munched. This time my ears cocked up on certain keywords and try piecing the stories they are exchanging. It seems my colleagues are tuned into some mild Tales from the Crypt and are quite excited about it. Well, for the guys that is. Apparently 3 of my colleagues was at work yesterday, a Sunday, from 11am - 3pm… 2 girls (i am being kind here) and a guy. They claimed to have heard noises and one of it being the sound of typing on a keyboard originating from my place or near my place. I sit in the far end of the office corner. It freaked them. The fact that the elevator was going up and down dinging and donging on a Sunday afternoon was not comforting. The last straw came when presence was felt sweeping across the small room. She felt as if someone was leaning inches from her cheek. They decided that they rather get screwed by the boss today.

I noticed that the two girls had puffy eyes today. Wonder if they were kept awake by the incident or …

Anyway, where their story ends is where we began. We add spices. Or one might prefer the word comforting them. Relayed to them that how lucky they were that they do not have printer or photocopy machine in there with them. What in the world would happen if the machines went about working on their own. About ‘them’ crawling out of 15″ monitors and getting stuck when they could choose the new 19″ Dell LCD Flat screens.  Or how your colleague turned out to not be your colleague when they answer your calling by twisting their heads 180 degrees back to talk to you in deep hoarse voices.

It seems that sounds of tapping on the Customer Service glass door with no one in sight is common. Oh and several of us flipped our punch cards to blue which is for the latter part of the month but only to come to work to find it in red. The girls are sure they left it in blue and they were the last to leave the office. I was puzzled today too, to find my card showing the red part. I remembered flipping it to the blue when I left on Friday night. And I was the last few to leave too. I am sure I won’t be the last few to leave today though. It’s still the Hungry Ghost month.

Was rolling around the vast internet wetland and got myself stuck on a particular site that goes by the name Visual Kei. Their latest post is on Miyavi. Am no expert on this genre but it should be categorized as J-Rock. I actually had a brief discussion with my colleague before I made that statement. He is after all a big fan of J-Rock Kingdom and is actively involved in Malaysia’s J-Rock scene. FYI, he plays bass.

He also enlightened me on the term Visual Kei. It is something like what we would coin the Punk. It’s the image+style+attitude thingy. If you paid any attention, you will notice that their make up and hair and dressing is uniquely different. Given on a casual jamming session that is. I bet when they take on the stage, it will be all killer and no filler. No idea what it means, and yeah it came from Sum41. Damn their jamming studio is huge and the video should be a warming up session. Love the solo from the tap dancing fellow. It’s a waste that I can’t load the other videos. They seem to be missing. Am going to give it another listen for today.

PS. My J-Rock mad colleague has already shared his J-Rock collection. Might hold my horses now for I have several independent musicians on my playlist.

Watched a few more videos of Miyavi and he seems to adopt the percussive fingerstyle that McKee and Rodrigo Y Gabriela are comfortable in. The video below confirms it. Might sign up for a crash course in J-Rock, just to satisfy my curiosity.

Yes that’s how I am feeling now. Empty and light.
Nothing seems to hold me down. Legs feels like jelly.

SlowCatchUpKuan seems like I am a little wee ahead of you in regards of my post. Can you guess where I am heading with this post?

I just want to thank for all the support my friends have been giving me. I have not spoken to my brothers about this. Hope they will understand my delay.
Even the words I type are coming off wrong. Have to keep deleting and pausing.
Incidentally the post I was about to make today is the rebirth of Matchbox 20 and their new single, These Hard Times from the album Exile on Mainstream. Enjoy.

MTV on YouTube

Download the MP3

Wish I was one of the balloon right now.
With due respect to all my friends, sorry if I was blunt or rude or uncooperative during this period. I leave you now with These Hard Times lyrics.

Morning falls like rain into the city life
There goes another night
Losing my breath in waves
Knowing that ever crash is bleading the hourglass
And taking the strife from all our lives

Everyone keeps talking
They promise you everything
But they don’t mean anything

We may loose our focus
There’s just too many words
We’re never meant to learn
And we don’t feel so alive

So goodbye, these days are gone
And we can’t keep holding on
When all we need is some relief
Through these hard times
Through these hard times

Move your hands in circles
Keeping me hypnotized
The power behind your eyes
Move around your bedroom cursing the naked sky
You should be here tonight
But you stay alone and cry

Say goodbye, these days are gone
And we can’t keep holding on
When all we need is some relief
Through these hard times
(whoa) There’s something missing
(Oh whoa) You’ll never feel it but you
(Oh whoa) You’re gonna feel it when it’s gone
When it’s gone

Say goodbye, these days are gone
And we can’t keep holding on
When all we need is some relief
Through these hard times
(hey) these Hard times
(oh no now) Hard times
Hard times

Say goodbye, these days are gone
Say goodbye, these days are gone
These days are gone

Had a freakin’ good laugh before Sponkers laptop died on us. We were in Old Town when he decided to share with us an original UK series. Rarely watch UK series for the US and A’s tv series are far more popular here. So there we were… gf and me huddled together in front of the laptop sharing an ear piece each. Slowly we spiraled into the silly and wacky world of IT Crowd. The show pokes fun at IT department and the ones surrounding them. The first few minutes already had me chuckling.
Only managed to watch half of second episode of Season 1. Am looking forward to it, hopefully this coming week. *hahaha*
Ok, here’s a small part of the show from YouTube. Give it a try before you succumb to the power of British sitcom.

The US and A people were suppose to come up with their own IT Crowd TV remake slated for 2008/2009.

This is for dog lovers only. For some might feel that it’s icky and yucky. You have been warned.
*snicker*

Clean My Monitor Now

If you download it, it will be a fullscreen thing. To download, right click and Save Link As…

They used to be in a heavy metal band together. Now it’s just down to two of them. If remembered correctly they went to to play in the streets and somehow managed to get to play with Damian Rice. And the rest is history. Will update if I have the chance.

How was it? Ready for more adrenaline rush from acoustic guitar?
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Just to steal some of your time.

I am so hooked on his blog WaiterRant that I have to read a few of his posts daily over the past week. He is in a phase or should I say evolving from a waiter into a writer. Mmm… that’s not right. He is a writer who waits on table to make ends meet. Er… should be half right. Enjoy his life experiences and his humorous remarks. No… he is not those spitting-into-your-soup type of waiter as far as I know. Been feeding off his blog during my lunch break for the past week. He has been my lunch buddy making me enjoy my polystyrene lunch takeouts and occasionally making me gag myself with muffled chuckles.

Ok… here is one of his post made in January 2007. It’s titled Porn Demon and I hope that the title will entice any of you, you-know-who, to read on to discover his story telling talent. It might not be his best but the title is well, engaging.

Porn Demon
Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007

It’s a Thursday night and I’m having a martini at Cafe American. On my way over I walked past The Bistro. It was the first time I’d seen the place since I left. As I peeked though the restaurant’s front window a weird sensation churned in my gut. It was the same feeling I had driving past my boyhood home after my parents sold it and the new owners moved in. I could see the usual wait staff running food and chatting with customers. If anyone saw me they didn’t let on. The Bistro looked busy. It also looked like the dark side of the moon.

“So,” Arthur, the cafe’s bartender says, “You’re not working at the Bistro anymore.”

“How long did it take for that news to travel the waiter grapevine?” I ask.

“About thirty minutes.”

“That fast?”

“No one’s surprised you left,” Arthur says. “They’re just surprised it took so long.”

“No one’s more surprised than me,” I reply, looking into my drink.

“You gotta admit,” Arthur says, “That place has blown through a lot of staff.”

“That’s true about a lot of places,” I reply.

A customer walks up to the bar and asks for a Manhattan. Arthur and I let our conversation hang in the air while he makes the drink. Its a pleasure to watch Arthur work. All his movements are precise and economical. Not a movement or drop is wasted. Arthur passes the cocktail across the bar, rings it up, and hands back the change. A few seconds later he palms his tip off the wooden countertop, grabs a towel, and walks back towards me.

“So whatcha doing now?” Arthur asks, toweling his hands dry.

“Oh,” I reply, “A little bit of this and that.”

“Working in a restaurant?”

“Not yet,” I reply. “But soon.”

“Want to work here?”

“Thanks, but no thanks,” I reply. “I want some of my watering holes to remain sacrosanct.”

“I hear that brother.”

“How’s things with you?” I ask.

“Auditions, auditions, auditions,” Arthur replies, half smiling.

“Any luck?”

“Same old,” Arthur says. “How’s the writing thing going?”

“Harder than I expected,” I say. “But thank God for computers. I can’t imagine typing this all out on a typewriter.”

“Computers are great,” Arthur says. “Until they go wrong.”

“Ain’t that the truth.”

“My old computer was so infested with porn I had to throw it out,” Arthur says.

“No way,” I reply, taking a sip from my martini.

“I’m not kidding.”

“Couldn’t you reformat the hard drive?”

“My ex brother-in-law tried to fix it,” Arthur says, wiping down the bar with his towel. “He’s a computer geek and even he couldn’t do it.”

“What the hell were you looking at?” I ask.

“Nothing illegal,” the bartender says, suddenly defensive. (more…)

Thought that I share this with you all. Might come in handy sooner than you think and to ensure smoother sailing years ahead. Guys, you can print this and have it folded and slip it nicely into your wallet for those confounded moments when confronting the female species. Make an excuse to slip away to the washroom and refer. Could very well save your neck.

Click for more ya (more…)

You may have heard it on the radio or on other media. It’s boasting to be one of the prime location for shopping and leisure. Niu Ze Xui (NZX) was launched on the New Year’s day and the crowd has been flocking to the new commercial center like ducks to a pond. Within one week, I have been there twice. Quite a number of shops are opened but they still lack products to sell. Most of them just put their stuff up for the sake of the opening. Can’t blame them for NZX is a brand new commercial center. Brought Food4Thot there last Friday and both of us agreed that it’s somewhat resembles Suan Lum Bazaar, Bangkok with a modern Malaysian twist. There are certain angles when it does reminds us of that place.

Here are some pictures taken on the auspicious opening night itself.

Niu Ze Xui Logo … mmm


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