Manhunk

From today's The Borneo Post (click on picture for clearer view):

The above are those who aspire to be the next supermodel and manhunk (who on earth came up with this weird word anyway?). These are only from the first "Tawau selection of the Sabah Supermodel & Manhunk Search." So I suppose there will be many more people from all over the country getting selected soon.

I wouldn't dare to comment on the women in the picture. I guess at my age, most young women would look sexy and beautiful.

I don't know about you all, but these men don't look like "hunks" to me. If anything, they look more like sissies.

But what is a "hunk" anyway? Well, here's the meaning of the word according to my Oxford English Dictionary 6th edition:

hunk: noun. 1 a large piece cut or broken from something larger. 2 informal a strong, sexually attractive man.

So we can safely assume that we're referring to the second meaning above. I just wonder if by "sexually attractive man", it means sexually attractive in a feminine way.

Bracing Up For Typhoon Diana

Mia and I will be going to Singapore for the Standard Chartered Singapore International Marathon from 5th to 7th December (the marathon is on 6th December). We will be flying home to KK first thing in the morning of 7th December, which is a Monday. And I’m taking 2 days leave from work that Monday and Tuesday.

Typhoon Diana is now set to strike again in the evening of 7th December, at approximately 7pm. So we will be home before Diana’s arrival. I can foresee an exciting Christmas and Chinese New Year in the weeks ahead, and I’m sure my siblings are all ready for a lot of bickering and back-stabbings amongst themselves. As always, I will be having lots of fun watching them with all the commotion.

Mom comes to visit every few years’ intervals. But of course between those visits we do keep in touch with each other through phone calls every now and then. Mom has a special talent in causing turbulences among my siblings. So amazing is her talent that she can cause those turbulences even from as far as Vancouver, Canada, by remote control. This is just one such example of her talent. Needless to say, that amazing talent of hers has an even more potent effect when she’s near at hand.

Mom is not one who’s evil-minded; who enjoys seeing or causing disasters. Most of the time, she’s driven by her concern for our well-being. She’s after all only wishing for all the best for her children. I think most mothers can understand that. So she tries to “organize” some things in our lives which she thinks have rooms for improvements. It is something which we children should be thankful for. Yet ever so often we find that her “ideal” solutions to our “problems” are not so agreeable to us. Then what?

Now I don’t have to mention here that most mothers are very sensitive creatures. If the children disagree with their ideas, that can amount to ungratefulness and disrespect. Mom can feel unappreciated; she can feel unwanted—that her presence is such a nuisance to us children. And unfortunately, there might be some truth in the latter too.

Mom thinks that our children should have their proper afternoon naps. They shouldn’t be eating junk food close to dinner time, because that will spoil their appetite for dinner. And when they’re not eating properly for dinner, then of course that will deprive them of the essential nutrients their growing bodies need. Not too much TV games and cartoon movies too, for those will spoil their eyesight and make them forget about their studies. Not too much candies because that’s bad for their teeth.

Oh if only we know how to bring up our children properly, that would absolutely please mom. Mom’s sons shouldn’t be doing the cooking for their lazy wives even though they’re doing it willingly and gladly once in a blue moon.

And so, we are eagerly waiting for the typhoon this December. When it’s all over, there will inevitably be a trail of destructions, and my siblings will be there to pick up the pieces.

Thankfully, I am immune from the power of the typhoon. This is my life, and I shall live it the way I want to. I shall not be shaken by the typhoon, however powerful it is.

1Malaysia Camp

I have in the past written about our natural talent in finger-pointing. It's been two years since I wrote that article and it's clear that nothing has changed.

Last month the hanging bridge at Kuala Dipang collapsed even though it was a newly-constructed bridge. Within hours, the body of a girl was found. Eventually 3 children died in that tragedy. It was mentioned that the outing was made compulsory, so one has to wonder if the parents of these kids could do very much to stop their children from joining the camp.

So who's at fault here?

Are the parents at fault? Surely they can't be responsible, since all they did was to obey the wishes of the authority wanting so much to promote their 1Malaysia thing? Besides, if it's true that the school made it a compulsory activity, then it would have been even harder for the parents to deny their permissions?

Is the Government at fault? Well, maybe not directly. But surely there must have been an authority that's responsible for the safety of the bridge? Did anyone check the construction specifications before approving the use of the bridge?

Are the teachers responsible? Would it have been any difference if, for example, they had limited the number of students to, say, 20 crossing the bridge at any one time?

Maybe the contractor who built the bridge did not build it to specifications? Somehow it was built understrength?

A lot of questions to be answered, and of course all the parties involved are now working very, very hard to point fingers at each other. However, it seems that the Deputy Prime Minister had recently acknowledged that the recent collapse of the bridge "may have been caused by its flawed construction."

In the following weeks, I'm sure many more excuses will surface, but during dinner shortly ago, I was discussing about this case with Mia. She said her mom is blaming the children themselves. Apparently, it's been reported that the children were playing and jumping on the bridge on that fateful day, and that had caused it to collapse.

I said so what if the kids were playing and jumping on the bridge? If the contractor who constructed the bridge had any brains at all, he would have anticipated the possibility of kids playing and jumping on the bridge. That bridge shouldn't have collapsed merely because the kids were playing on it.

If the bridge was built to a strength of a limited loading capacity, then the contractor owed the duty to notify the people who're using the bridge. For example, a huge, clear signboard showing the loading capacity—say, "ONLY 10 PEOPLE ON BRIDGE AT A TIME", y'know, something like what see in the lifts. It's not mentioned if there was such a signboard there, and if there was, then why weren't the treachers heeding such notice?

Kids being what they are, is it really unforeseeable that they would play while crossing the bridge? In fact, I think it is unforeseeable that they won't! I'm surprised that my mother-in-law is psychoed into believing that it's the kids' fault for the tragedy.

Anyway, I'm eagerly waiting for the final outcome of the investigation. I want to know when and if the guilty party has been identified, what will be done about it.

Intelligence—Pros & Cons

It's amazing how one is able to remember a specific conversation which took place more than 20 years ago when one was about 18 years old. It was during one of those camping trips we had organised to the Police Bay in Pulau Gaya.

One night, some of us gathered to discuss about the mysteries of life. We talked about Buddhism as a way of life (as opposed to a religion); we talked about the many different meanings of richness to different people. This topic, that topic; and then finally we got to talk about marriage and compatibility between spouses. Bear in mind that we were all still teenagers then.

Someone said that he did not care very much about the looks. He said the most important thing to him was the "inner qualities" of the woman. If I'm not mistaken, by "inner qualities", he did not mean it in the physical sense. Or did he? It's been such a long time since I last saw him. I heard he's happily married and has three kids now. But I've never met his wife. I'm curious to know what his wife looks like. Well, anyway, I remember vividly that it sounded a bit unnatural somehow—that I've read or seen all these talks about "inner qualities" from some books or movies.

Another friend put higher priority on family background and upbringing. He was convinced that those were significant factors to choose the right woman! He said one can't go wrong very far that way. Maybe he's right, I don't know.

Yet another friend said that he would prefer a girl who's attained more or less the same level of education as him. He reckoned that if the girl was not up to his level of thinking, they'd have difficulties communicating at the same wave length. I argued that education can't guarantee one's level of intelligence.

I had a different approach. I let fate decide. This thing about looking for that special woman with specific "inner qualities", with commendable family background and upbringing, and compatible level of intelligence did not sound very natural to me. I reckoned that if I tried too hard to stick to a predetermined formula, I might never find that dream girl!

And so it happened that one fine day I met a girl who's not exactly a beauty queen and far from what anyone could describe as sexy. In fact, she was so skinny that if she gained 30lbs overnight, no one would have noticed the difference. She came from a moderate family with a Chinese father and a Filipino mother. And she wasn't very brilliant in school too. But we shared a common interest in outdoor adventures. We travelled a lot; went to Selingan Island and watched the turtles lay eggs. Went mountain-climbing several times too.

About 4 years later, we were married. I then pursued my degree in estate management while she pursued a law degree. It wasn't smooth all the way, especially during the earlier years. One thing about being married to the legal people is that whenever there's a debate, you will know that you're up against a huge concrete wall.

I still think she's not the smartest woman around, and I sometimes find it hard to make her understand the simplest of things. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that her breasts are a bit undersized, I don't know. But contrary to what my friend thought many years ago, it's not exactly a bad thing if the woman isn't very smart. In fact, it can even be a blessing in disguise, if you know what I mean! Intelligence has its pros and cons.

What really matters to me is her determination and will power whenever she sets her mind to achieve anything. Because she has that attitude herself, she can easily understand me whenever I'm obsessed to achieve whatever I want to achieve.

Of Screaming Cats & Howling Animals

JJ has been asking for a pet kitten for quite a while now. Her mommy made a deal with her some time ago—if she can get first in class, mommy will buy her the kitten. Daddy was rather disappointed that mommy made that deal without consulting him first. Thankfully, however, JJ got 8th in the last exams, so daddy is safe for the time being.

The results for JJ's final exams will be out any day now. Based on mommy's tally, she averaged 94.625% this semester. Daddy is impressed with her performance—she's been improving steadily since January. However, she's not likely to get first with 94.625%, at least not in a school like St James. I think she'd be lucky if she can maintain her 8th position. So looks like daddy's gonna be safe again for the rest of this year.

However, if JJ can continue improving on her grades, there is the danger that she will eventually have a shot at getting first in the end; and we will inevitably have to get her that forsaken kitten somehow.

Oh! I can't stand cats! Of all the animals in this world, why must it be a cat?

When I was in Brunei some years ago, our neighbour's cats frequently came over the fence into our compound at night. And when it's mating season they would be screaming the whole night through. That would go on and on for several nights. And that absolutely drove me up the wall! I tried shooing them away many times, but they kept coming back again after a short while, still screaming their heads off, disturbing my precious sleep.

Not that I wanted to be cruel, but I eventually lost my head and splashed them with a pail of water. That helped for a bit; they ran helter-skelter, but all too soon came back into my compound again. The noise—oh! it's driving me crazy!

Why can't they control the screaming? Can't they just do it quietly? Why the screaming? Is it pain? Is it pleasure? If only cats can talk, I would ask them why. I really want to know.

Well, these animals are also screaming and howling like mad when they're doing it. And they, too, are disturbing the neighbours. And the good thing is that they can talk. So they're able to explain what it's like; why the screaming and howling. Apparently, just like the cats, they're unable to control the "vocalisation at such a level as to be a statutory nuisance"—not even with the help of muffling with the pillows.

Some animals are so lucky to enjoy life to the fullest...

Touchy Matter

From yesterday's The Borneo Post (click on the article for a clearer view):

I really shouldn't be unduly concerned about Wong Tze Vui's fetish, as I'm sure the police have dealt with him appropriately. What he touches is none of my business really, but I hope he's not working at the restaurant I go to regularly. But if he's indeed working there, I hope he washes his hands thoroughly with anti-bacterial soap before preparing my food. And it would be even better if he could put on a pair of surgical gloves too.

Pledge Of Loyalty

I had a debate with a lady friend some time ago. She was saying that women and men are equal in every sense. But I disagreed. She argued that these days women can do practically anything that men can—that women have shown their abilities in administering nations; they have proven their abilities in the field of science, business etc. They have even commanded flights into space.

I can easily agree with her based on those arguments, because those are facts. However, women by nature are not generally the same as men. Physically they're weaker than men. In the world of sports, in terms of speed and strength etc, men still rule. Some things, like in the battlefield, women can hardly ever replace men—not even close. In the event of a soldier getting injured in combat, one man can carry that injured friend for miles to safety. Whereas it would take 4 women, probably taking turns, two at a time, to carry that one injured soldier. And they'd probably suffer immensely while performing the task too.

There is also what I'd call the way how the brains work. Many of my readers are familiar with this particular subject which I've discussed several times in this blog. Women generally think differently from men. I am not saying that they are stupid—far from it! Some women I know are very, very clever; they're brilliant. Yet when it comes to something practical in life, they're generally not as good as men.

They are of course some seemingly simple and logical habits which they don't have. Survival instinct, if you like. For example, putting things back to where they belong. Women can't seem to understand that it pays to put things back to where they found them. So that the next time you need to use the screw driver or the nail clipper again, you don't have to turn the whole house upside down to find them.

BUT! women are people too! And there are many things that men can't do which they can. For this reason, I treat them as a complement to the male species. I think it would be quite difficult to get some things done without a woman's touch.

However, some people out there are still treating women as objects. And as objects, they can also become a weird kind of collateral. In this case, women are used as the collateral to pledge loyalty to a political party. Reportedly, if the party member jumps to the opposing side, he pledges to divorce his wife. It's kinda scary that this thing is still happening in Malaysia. I wonder who was the chap who first came up with this brilliant idea.

To quote the words of Shah Alam MP, Khalid Samad as reported in The Star:

"...all elected representatives from the Islamist party had vowed that they would divorce their wives with talak tiga if they quit or jump party...

...that way no PAS representative would jump party because they appreciated their wives and families."

I am attracted to the last line above. One has to wonder how was it that Khalid's so sure that his people "appreciated their wives"? Unknown to him, he may have just provided an ingenious way out from a living hell at home for some of those people!

Furthermore, I'm also wondering if the women members would also divorce their husbands when they jump ship. Somehow nothing's been mentioned about that.

I seriously hope that there was some sort of error in the news report. Otherwise we're all screwed.