Pirates of the Carib-bean: All hands on deck, set to the bean!

Mateys of the seven seas (or the invisible (inter)net),

So luck struck me this past Thursday as I got summoned by Davy Jones himself to his fully furnished cinematic locker to enjoy the latest Pirate flick to his the world – Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger’s Tide.

Why was I lucky? Well, it’s because I got access to a special screening of the very-soon-to-be blockbuster of the year (I hope), and all that in a very 3 dimensional way, in KLCC.

Sometimes I don’t like how technology these days play around with our minds and… eyes.

It just didn’t feel natural. Like we’re not born to do those kind of thing. I wonder whether it will become a thing of the future……Maybe it’s just me.

I got two free tickets so I watched it with my bro. Brotherhood time.

With huge set of popcorn and an (almost) equally huge cup of soft drink, which was obviously diluted, we sank into the comfy maroon cushioned chairs.

About the movie itself, it was nothing to hoo-haa about.

Yeah, as usual we have the idiosyncratic Jack Sparrow, who is as agile as a sparrow but clumsy as a bear.

This time however, without a ship or crew, he is truly on stranger’s tide.

The fountain of youth is the main focus of the movie, as everyone (the Spanish, the English and Blackbeard representing the pirates) race toward the mythical but very true salubrious water.

The story line was interesting but a bit messy, covering different leads and crossing lines between the adversaries. Most of the events are somewhat predictable, so suspense isn’t much around.

Just the usual trolling and satire that we would laugh at. Not to mention the appearance of innocent looking, nubile mermaids that defy conventional fairy tales and will stare you in the eye while contemplating your dea…… Don’t wana spoil to fun here.

But there is one thing about the main mermaid that I couldn’t get out of my mind.

No, it’s not the fact that she is almost nude all the time. In fact she is nude all the time, with her hair covering her womanly parts. The bottom part, of course, is covered in scales.

The really funny thing is that on land, the mermaid in question suddenly has legs. Tail? No more. Yup. And she even tried to walk.

Weird huh? Mermaid with legs? Since when?

And after returning back to the water, the tail suddenly appeared again, replacing the legs. So I guess it shows that the mermaid is an amphibian that adapts to her surroundings, being able to change from one attribute to the other, along with physical manipulation.

I couldn’t agree more that there’s much diversity to the characters. There’s even a clergyman in there, with a bible. Such anachronism! But what an ending to this noble man!

Using the English (Pirate) version on Facebook made me more aware of the pirate language they used in the movie. Quite fascinating, really.

It’s like they have their own grammar or something.

At the end of the story, piracy still rules. Although the philosophies and moral values are not lacking, I wonder what the might of piracy in the movie is trying to convey.

Imagine getting the pirate movie in a pirated version. Now that’s what I call a trolling, and maybe overt symbolism of the real might of piracy in the real world as well.

Oh, and there’s a special something after the credits.

I actually waited for that, but the credits were way too long. So I waited not.

According to this movie review in a popular newspaper, the after-credits is not something that one could cry for after missing it. In a way, I’m relieved.

Aye! Lower the long boats and set to the beach, err bed…

If you like pirates like I do, you would enjoy the movie for sure. If not, there are plenty of other attractions in the movie (think mermaids) that would shake the sleep out of you.

So do check out this pirated movie.

 

Disclaimer: This pirate here isn’t raising the flag of in the name of piracy in any kind or way. What you landlubbers choose to do, whether relating to piracy or not, is up to your fancy, and none of my ship’s business. Just a note: when in a captain’s ship, mark your captain’s words.

Your Daily Mile

Believe it or not, there’s a social website that’s healthy with the name of DailyMile.

In this Facebook-like workout social network, users can post their workouts, whether it is running, cycling and what not, and share it with the whole world.

Pretty interesting.

It gets even better because you can even plot your running or jogging route in an imbedded Google map and the distance would be calculated for you.

I find that the best feature of this route plotting is the ability to actually analyze the terrain of the entire route from start to finish. Pretty darn good I must say.

A snapshot of my running route the other day spanning about 10 km.

See the blue graph below the map? That’s the elevation of the entire route. As can be seen, the running wasn’t an easy run because of the slightly mountainous terrain.

If you noticed that the graph is symmetrical, it’s because I ran from point a to point b and back to the origin.

I haven’t explored most parts of the site yet, but I do know that it even calculates the number of calories you burn.

Check the site out for yourself. http://www.dailymile.com

Ball on Ball

My goodness. Today (yesterday) was a long day, and it ain’t the end yet. To sum it up, it has been a day of sports. Phew!! I just can’t have enough of it.

My day started with pre-dawn jogging that took a bit more than an hour to complete. Yes, I did manage to wake up at 6 am this morning. Kudos to myself. The distance travelled: about 10+ km. It felt good to be running great lengths. But it wasn’t an easy run.

My tummy hasn’t been feeling so usual these days. Actually since Sunday. I would get sporadic tummy pain, and more often than not after meal times.

Maybe it’s due to my erratic meal times. I don’t know. So the run was quite unpleasant at times, especially the first-half. After taking a walking break and ready to go for the second half, I felt better after burping. Yup. I got too much wind in me.

As though the run wasn’t enough, I then went to play frisbee. Not that I ain’t tired but because I haven’t played for a while. Not to mention that I haven’t met my frisbee buddies, old or new, for a long time too.

Then just now, at around 11pm, I played futsal with my college friends, and the worse of the day happened. My ball got knocked by the ball that was kicked by one of my friends who tried to score a goal. I was at the wrong place with the wrong blocking pose trying to block his shot.

In return, I got shot…in my scrotum. Ouch!!

One word is enough to sum up the experience – PAIN.

It left my writhing on the futsal court for a moment. Man, what a pain it was. My right ball got a direct hit, it seemed. Getting up after that took some time. Hopefully my organ is okay. I need it for obvious future purposes.

The worse thing is being hit on one side. At least if it hit on both, the force would be more distributed. Physics applied!!

At least if one fails, I will be left with the other one.

It was a pain a woman could neither experience nor understand. Like how men will never comprehend the pain of giving birth, women will never understand the pain when the crotch is hit.

How I wish I have balls of steel, for when ball meets ball, only the stronger survives. Another option would be to have the male genitalia inside the body. Hmm…Females really have some advantages over men, considering that there’s nothing to stand in the way of the groin area.

So that’s a thing females should be thankful of, and men should be protective of.

Remember that any ball game is dangerous. The ball is round. Unpredictable.

Speaking man to man, I’m a victim of ball on ball and hope you protect yours well.

Tomorrow (today) is yet another long day. So I should get my much needed rest. Same goes to my hanging organ down there.

A day dedicated to teachers

Monday is the day yesterday. It coincided with Teachers’ Day. Happy Teachers’ Day to all who had been my mentor and to all who are my current lecturers. From the kindergarten teachers whom I have no recollection of to the inspiring and ever lively lecturers of the American Program.

I wish all of my teachers (once a teacher always a teacher) a good journey ahead of them and continue doing what you all do best – teach. 

Although some of my teachers taught me in an unorthodox way (e.g. Mr. K), I will embrace all differences and treasure the teachings and guidance as long as my mind could take it, though I think I should mention that my memory is not my best of tools.

Today is also quite special because Ian came back from the States and met up with his old pals after about 1 year of MIA.

Somehow, some change was expected in him but then again, I’m quite glad that he is now pretty much who he was back then. No big transformation. No big hair or long hair. Just like how I knew him.

He was quite reluctant to showcase his newfound American slang though, something that I’m sure he acquired after staying so long in the U.S..

After a small reunion, we made our way to the bowling alley, that also after a long discussion of what-to-do-next.

To keep a long story short, the bowling thingy didn’t materialize. There was some sort of Teachers’ Day event as many teachers could be seen strutting their stuff with big heavy cannon balls, with 3 holes for some fingering.

I can’t believe that we actually waited for maybe more than 1 hour or so, all the while looking and staring at balls being thrown recklessly by some bowlers. Not forgetting some funny antics.

However, all of these don’t seem to really offer much entertainment as Zhi Yu felt asleep as soon as he arrived. I tell you, this guy has mastered the art of sleeping. Particularly, I marvel at his sleeping while standing routine in trains. Pretty amazing.

So somehow the arcade replaced the bowling. And we got into the trigger-happy mode. Everybody was taking turns holding and firing and the initial plan was to do so until we finish the game.

It didn’t go according to plan…

Next we went to the gym for some workout. Whoo. Push pull push pull. Heave hove heave hove. It was only like my 3rd time in serious gym mode.

I am neutral about going to gym. It is a stuffy exercise (at least at my place), and it mainly has to do with machinery (not that I hate machines), but it still gives a decent workout when the outdoor are not so conditioned.

Although I’m quite eager to put on some muscles on my skinny structure, protein powder is not my choice to achieve my goal. I guess that’s what they call a naturalist.

If I’m gonna gain muscles, I’m gonna gain it naturally, without supplements. I would rather eat mussels than eat protein powder, mark my words.

Maybe I should add some fats first before thinking of muscles. Weighing less than 55 kg, I am certainly in no position to put on extra sinews.

Spent the night doing some “work” that I’m involve and glad I’m involved in. Work keeps a person working. That’s what I would theorize. Also, not to mention the little fun I had getting my ass kicked in Panggilan Kerja – Call of Duty.

I didn't perform well in the game. My fingers were quite stiff. Not sure why, and I can’t blame bowling. Or it could be the awesomeness of my friends who owned me.

And the last task before my day really ends, is to blog. By right this is suppose to be a 10-minute post, but well, I went over the limit.

See you soon. I have to sleep early. Look at the time! Tomorrow is yet another long day and many things are already gearing up to ambush me. For starters, there’s the supposed pre-dawn running or jogging at 6:30 am. So much for signing up for a half marathon…

The question is: can I wake up?

Rexona Men Adventure Challenge

23rd of July is the reckoning date, and the place – Taman Pertanian Malaysia in Shah Alam.

Are you up for a challenge. If so, for a mere RM 30, you can try out the Rexona Men Adventure Challenge that would make you adrenaline go sky high.

Be forewarned though, that this is not going to be a walk in the park. Rexona is a renowned brand for active men, so the challenge is designed specifically for those who are brave and tough enough to rise up to the challenge.

The challenge: An 8km obstacle run…wow. A run with obstacles.

With prizes up to RM 30,000 and a trip to New Zealand, it will be worth it for all the soon-to-be free flowing sweat. But don’t you worry because it’s Rexona we’re talking about, remember?

I wonder if they’ll provide the participants with the hyped-up deodorant that could keep one dry for 24 hours. I don’t really care. Anyhow, I never really used one. Ewww, right? I guess I just smell good.

To know more about the challenge, hop on to this link.

Here is a motivation video to lift your spirits for the upcoming challenge.

Rexona Men Adventure Video–Are you motivated?

A lazy Sunday

May is a lazy month, Maybe. And this is a lazy post, easy.

I woke up at a record breaking 12 noon today. What an achievement. It was my latest wake-up everrrrr. At times, not being shackled by alarm clock is a good getaway from discipline. Once in a blue moon is okay I guess.

Perhaps this relaxing mood can be extrapolated to yesterday’s sojourn to Golden Palm Tree Resort & Spa with other enthusiastic bloggers. The trip was made possible by Selangorlicious!, an ingenious brainchild of Tourism Selangor.

Will get back to that trip when I get my hands on the camera’s USB cable. Now where is Shafiq…Credits to him for lending me his amazing camera, a Samsung digital camera capable of many functions which allowed me to take amazing pictures of the food carnival at Sepang. Wait till you see the pictures in the next post.

Actually, I have just recovered from a tummy ache. Not sure what caused the ache, but I’m pretty sure it has got to do with the Roti Kacang I consumed at a mamak stall. Or maybe it was the nasi goreng ayam.

The Roti Kacang didn’t turn out to be what my friends and I thought I would be. We were quite confident that it was a roti canai with stuffing of nuts. Well, I guess they were a bit nuts when they served a roti canai with red beans. What a combo. Fiasco.

If you see a weird thing on the menu, most probably it won’t taste good. But then again, this particular mamak stall has over 100 variety of roti canai to choose from. So it has become a task for some of my friends to try all of them.

I’m still busy though, even in the lazy month of May. I seem to have a knack of keeping myself busy and submerged in something all the time. For now, I’m involved in a project that’s going to end soon, and hopefully it’ll end in a good manner. Managing people, from what I gathered in this project, is a mighty task. Man-handling, if it can be called that way, has to be handled in care. People are like rubber. When you give them too much push, they would break. When you give them too soft a push, they would show some resistance. It would sure come in handy for future use. Muahahaha.

But it’s cool. Everything should go well and according to plan. Just hope that efficiency won’t be the major obstacle here.

I like to multitask. Juggle more than one thing at a time. It is a challenging thing. Challenging stuff is my kinda stuff. I would like to be a jack of all trades, know a bit of this and a bit of that. I wonder if anybody’s up for a little gaming time. Time to release some stress.

If Sunday is a lazy day, I wonder what’s in store for me on the morrow. Monday has its own blues.

5 Cool pictures of Shah Alam

Yesterday while I was taking a stroll looking for a library somewhere in Shah Alam, I managed to capture some epic-ness of the capitol of Selangor. The only downside: my friend and I ended up all wet in the insides, thanks to the unforgiving heat. We were out because of a project we’re having but since there was time to kill wile waiting for the Friday prayers to be over, we decided to lepak around Section 14.


Either the 3 young ladies were pulling our legs when they gave us directions to the library (that was no longer there) or they were as innocent as babies telling us what they (honestly) thought was correct.


Whatever it was, it made us walk for an hour circumambulating a huge complex, trying to find the elusive library but in vain, and most of the time under the blinding rays of the Almighty Sun. The only positive outcome was a tanner skin. Anyway, the library had been moved to another part of Shah Alam for a better future.


Even so, the “walk in the park” had revealed to me some gem-like scenes of Shah Alam that was hitherto hidden to me. Feast your eyes with these picture-perfect shots below…





A building from a sci-fi movie? Think again. What looks like a futuristic and sophisticated building, looking a tad like a slab of concrete rocket (what’s with the design of the vertical supports below), is actually……. drum roll…… the MBSA (Majlis Perbandaran Shah Alam) building. Haha. I bet you had no inkling at all. Quite cool eh. It’s not bad at all, at least from this camera angle.








The eye-captivating blue clock tower of Shah Alam ticking away mechanically, partially blocked by a tree. (A perfectly balanced cock on its zenith should perfectly complement the tower) Or maybe the sky scrapping building next to it is the highlight here. I’m not sure myself. Perhaps the cropped out photo-bomb pedestrian spoilt the whole thing in the first place.





Hohoho. This my friends, couldn’t get better – The Blue Mosque of Shah Alam in all its shining glory. Hmm…the color blue looks to me a theme of Shah Alam. With four minarets piercing the cerulean sky and the curvaceous pathway seemingly leading to the mosque, this looks like a passage to heaven. Accompanying the majestic building is the holy-like clouds that were in the process of forming a halo (the doughnut shape can be seen forming together) at the time of Friday prayers. Whoah. An exaggeration of my imagination? You don’t say.





I call this the artsy cylinders of Shah Alam, with blue strips of course. Now it’s without a doubt that blue is the official color of Shah Alam. Look at the far left building in the background. It’s none other than the Blue Wave Hotel. See. Everything’s blue in this city. I wonder if the stripes glow like neon lights at night.





This here is a part of the Tourism Selangor building. The building itself is a marvelous piece of architecture that is too amazing to be taken. You have to see it for yourself. Many activities are lined up by them throughout the whole year, portraying their efforts in promoting Selangor as a tourist destination. Having spent my life growing up in Selangor, I realize that I don’t really know much about it. Sob sob.





That’s me, dressed and equipped like a tourist. A camera holder is attached to my belt as cannot be seen in the picture due to the perfectly-timed position of my right hand.


One last thought. DSLRs are a trend nowadays, so I might think of buying one myself. But the price of one is not quite affordable. Maybe a normal digital camera is sufficient, though it's not as flexible or fun than a DSLR. It’s a dilemma! For now, I’m contented with borrowing other people’s cameras, and in worse case scenarios, rely on my untrustworthy 3.2 Megapixel camera phone. By the way, the above pictures were taken using a digital camera.

“Explore your own backyard, for you may never know what lies before you, even though it’s right in front of your face.”

Pictures of Malacca

Malacca, the famous historical city, the once home to the great port which acted as the “middleman” of international trading between the East and the West.

This is an outdated post. Last year, I had the chance of going to this historic state thanks to Suresh who invited me and many other friends to crash his house during Deepavali.

I guess I’ll just make this a pictorial one.

My friends and I were greeted by cute and fuzzy little worms like the above upon our arrival. We came down from the bus, and looking around us we can’t help but notice them.

They can be seen rock-climbing on rocks, on bushes and on the ground. Some sort of activity was going on. Perhaps it was their mating season.

They were kinda obsessed with this yellowish flower or fruit from some unknown tree species. It was as though they hatched out from that very thing. Zooming in, it’s quite disgusting to look at, especially if they are clustered together.

This my friends, is the loyal and handsome dog of Suresh. Aww, look at his countenance when he was being caressed. He or she (I forgot) looked cute and innocent. But the dog is not as small as it may seem.

Some of my friends after the party at Suresh’s. The day was still very young, so being a bunch of adventurous students, we explored Malacca a fair bit.

Here are some picturesque scenes in Malacca…

Mamee is a brand that can be seen almost everywhere in Malacca, making it the Mamee land. No surprise that the Mamee’s HQ is located in Malacca. This brand name can be spotted at all bus stops. Hmm…they should give away free Mamee Monster snacks too.

Hot stuff!

My oh my! Global warming is making its mark. The temperature in Shah Alam and perhaps the whole of Malaysia is at record’s high, and it is neither caused by hot girls, nor hot magazines.


Rain rain go away,
Come again another day.


This is something I used to sing whenever it rained when I was younger. Hmm, how I wish that “another day” could be today, or tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow.


Now I find myself singing…
Rain rain come my way,
Go elsewhere another day.


It’s funny how a simple song we sing in our childhood years can seem to play a joke on us.


Either you are a cactus or you haven’t noticed, the mercury level in Malaysia is sky-rocketing to an intolerable and unbearable level. I feel like I’m in a desert. The omnipresent sun scorches everything under the sun. To add insult to injury, it hasn’t rained for many days already. I can sense a draught setting in soon.


Rain God, please break your bowels and unleashed your blessings upon us, before a child is sacrificed.
Behold…the weather of the city of Shah Alam, the place I currently resides, my second home.

Source: Google

Today is Monday. Lookie. It surged to a high of 36 degrees Celsius in the afternoon. Wow, I wonder if I felt any hotter in my whole life. The temperature at night suppose to be 26 degrees Celsius but it shows 29. That explains why I was literally working out on my bed. Like everyone else, I had a hard time sleeping yesterday because of the extreme heat. I remembered sweating profusely whilst having dinner on Sunday night.

Source: www.met.gov.my

What we can see here is a weather forecast by the Malaysian Meteorological Department. From the many suns in the forecast, we know that this problem will go on and on until the end of this week, when rain is predicted to fall on this then barren ground on Sunday. Wow, that’s quite a long way to go. By then I would have lost some weight due to lost of bodily fluid and become even skinnier than my skinny condition now.


Everybody is complaining about the heat. What to do? Sweat is coming out of our bodies like mucus coming out of a running nose. What to do? Surely there are some ways to keep cool and stay cool.


Here are some home remedies to stay cool and cold.


1. Drink lots of water.
Make sure water is a hand’s length away so your could lazily reach out to your water bottle and drink away like a camel every 5 minutes. By the way, what I meant by water is plain water, either cold or room temperature. Don’t bother drinking air suam, or milo panas, or kopi panas, unless you like sweating.


2. Minimize movement.
One way to stay cool and prevent your body from over-heating is to minimize your movements. Avoid moving around too much. If possible, be immobilize and stay still. So make sure a water source is near enough that you don’t have to travel a distance to get water.


3. Turn off the lights.
Besides saving power and showing your support for the Green campaign, by switching off the lights you could be lowering down the temperature in the room. Light emits heat. So sleeping early is a good choice too, considering the difficulty of inducing sleep on a bed that makes you sweat even more.


4. Sleep on the floor.
It’s important to go back to basics when things get too complicated. The bed may not be the wisest option to opt for in this steaming hot condition. You would just wet your bed. Instead, make the floor your bed for a few days. You’ll start to feel the soothingly cold touch of the floor tiles on your flesh.


5. Repeat steps 1-4.
I think the heat is affecting me. Can’t….think….no….more.


Gosh, I’m starting to sweat again. Have to minimize hand movements as well.


Enjoy the remainder of the hot days. It may be the only time for some of you to feel HOT and don’t feel bad about telling others.

Happiest candy in the world

Cock: Do you know what’s the happiest candy in the world? You wana clue? Lol.

Bull: I know I know. Its…

The 3 letter word

Man!

No that’s not the word. You see, I’m having a theme going on here that could explain the purposeful error, hence the word man, at the very start of a post.

What is the most used and hackneyed 3 letter word? I don’t know what it was long time ago but now it is quite obvious – LOL.

Lol is a powerful word, and word has different meanings. Lol is an acronym for laughing out loud. It is a slang in the techno/IT savvy youths of today’s world, and most importantly, it is a world wide phenomenon. It is universal.

Instead of typing “hahahahahah”, which is very long, now one could just type “lol” to sum up all the haha’s. A timesaver. But let me tell you something, if you use this word in cyberspace, it is safe to call yourself a hypocrite. Hahahaha. Yes, you are a hypocrite. Next time when you type lol, try looking into the mirror.

Lol could mean other things as well. If my memory doesn’t fail me, it means a whole different thing in Philippine. Just ask any Philippino about it. I don’t know the actual meaning of lol in their language but all I know is this – it is nothing but vulgar.

A game developer is taking advantage of this ubiquitous word as well, ensuring that it stays at the tips of people’s mouths when they talk about online gaming. It is none other than LOL – League of Legends. An RTS game that rivals that of DotA and HON, LOL has somewhat a similar gameplay but with distinct differences. It’s relatively new in the market but the best thing about it is it’s free to play. We all like free stuff. If you’re bored, you could check out this game. I’ve just started playing it and other than the slight cartoonish graphics during gameplay, there’s no other complains.

Lol, I guess that’s all for this post.

How to create your own Sudoku puzzle from scratch

Sudoku is a 9x9 box of Japanese puzzle that has been assimilated into some of our daily lifestyle. It provides an exercise for the brain, hence some people have a daily dose of it to keep the brain galvanized and to stay in tip top condition, possibly keeping any mental disease at bay as well.


Just take a look around in any bookshop and you’ll for sure will see Sudoku puzzle books being sold in the fun/puzzle/hobby section. They offer various difficulties and they also come in different multitude of shapes and sizes. To me, they are just a waste of money. What you’re investing in is actually just the aesthetics because you can create your own Sudoku puzzle by yourself, free of charge, without spending a single cent. All you need is paper and pen and pencil.


To create a Sudoku puzzle is as easy as ABC or 123, seriously. One just need to have a basic know-how of Sudoku to do this and the difficulty can be tweaked according to one’s will.


This method doesn’t involve complex algorithms which are used by computers to generate the puzzle.

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Here’s how to do it:


Step 1:
Start with a basic Sudoku grid.





Step 2:
As can be seen, there are 9 big boxes which contain 9 smaller boxes in them. 


Starting with number 1 (whichever number doesn’t actually matters), fill up each big boxes with the same number, ensuring that none of the Sudoku rules are broken.






Like so. See, all of the 1s have their own ranks and files which don’t intercept.




Step 3:
Repeat Step 2, but with the remaining numbers i.e. 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9.


After doing the afore mentioned steps, you should end up with a complete Sudoku puzzle, like the following.





Step 4:
Now we have a completed Sudoku puzzle, we can set the difficulty level by erasing away some numbers from the grid. The more numbers we erase, the more difficult this puzzle will get. Here is the breakdown of the difficulty according to the number of missing numbers:


Easy level: <46 missing numbers
Medium level: ~51 missing numbers
Hard level: ~ 54 missing numbers
Insane level: >56 missing numbers


For example, this puzzle that we created is easy when there are roughly 46 missing numbers:





Tadaa! See, now you have your very own self created, hand-made Sudoku puzzle from scratch. I bet you can even publish your own Sudoku puzzle book now and put it up in the bookstores.


This method that you’re looking at isn’t plagiarized from any sources and it is merely the writer’s way of creating a Sudoku. Any similar method that can be found elsewhere in cyberspace doesn’t relate to this post.


This is my way of creating a Sudoku puzzle from scratch. If anyone has other ways of doing it, feel free to share it here.

The man in the KTM

I was on my way back home after going to a 5-day long course/camp, which was surprisingly very informative and insightful. But I’m not sure if I’m goanna post about my experience though. What I can superficially say is that the place in Klang is fab and conducive. Food is served 6 times a day, nom nom nom… Not to mention that the toilet is top class too. In the camp I learned a lot of stuff about my beloved country, the constitution and pretty much about peace and unity. Overall a great experience and I hope every Malaysian has a chance to take part in it.

Moving back to story. I was boarding the train and fortuitously I spotted an empty seat. Seating beside the seat was an wizened man cladded in sarong, obviously just returning from the Friday prayers. Everything looked normal, that is, until I took my seat on the targeted chair and when the train started to move.

Out of the blue, the old man initiated a series of Islamic lecture to a teenage boy seating beside him, whom is not me by the way. He was blurting seemingly nonsensical religious stuff, and that in a loud manner. Everyone was rather bemused and gobsmacked as the eyes of some scanned the old fellow while other eyes tried not to make contact with the mysterious man.

Because of his loud manner, I can’t help but eavesdrop overtly. What I remembered was his saying about women being sinners. Referring to the ladies as “kaum hawa”. He went on saying that majority of the people in hell are women, that women make up the bulk of people in the netherworld, that one will find more women graves in graveyards and such. Unsurprisingly, he evinced his notion by involving the story of Adam as well.

Then he said something about tall humans back then. If I’m not mistaken, he said about how prophets can walk from a continent to the next in just one step or leap. But nowadays, according to him, humans have shrunk. Last time people allegedly can travel around the world in the blink of an eye. If that was true, I was thinking that gargantuan human remains should have been discovered by now.

After a couple of stops, the old man finally reached his destined-nation. As he left his seat, a void was left. People were looking at one another. Some were even guffawing at one another.

The atmosphere in the train was back to normal. People resumed whatever activities they were doing beforehand. As fast as lightning, the incident would  soon be forgotten, or perhaps not.

Why did he said those things? Could it be that what he said were true? I’m in no position to answer that but heck it was something that really added spice in the mundane journey of KTM, where strangers are always caught in the awkwardness of silence.