Up, Up, Up and Then Some Burnt Hands (Yes, folks, it's Our Stock Market)

Even if you don’t play the Malaysian stock market, you’d seen the headlines. First the there was the bull run, starting with some time in December / early January. Actually the first liners started moving much earlier, but the 2nd and third liners didn’t really follow immediately.

Then when January came, almost every other stock was going up, along with the price of chicken. The mostly docile Malaysian players, starved of action for more than 10 years, started to go into a frenzy.

Everyone had something to say or brag about. "Wah, today I made 40k before lunch, man", Gahmen is pushing it for the Chinese New Year only lah", "Eh, my remisier / uncle / mechanic told me this share can double by next week", What is this Bursa ah? What happened to the KLSE ah?"

So up, up and up it went, even last Wednesday, the 4th day of New Year, the market was buzzing busier than ever, contrary to previous years, where up until the 8th day of the Lunar New Year, everyone was still too busy with their mahjong and chongker and boozing.

Well, those who bought early and sold early in good discipline (or pure luck) did well. Those who bought at the peak, well… well there’s still hope the market can still recover in a day or two, right? Hmmm… uh-huh.

In the meantime, there’s still plenty of opportunity to play some more new year mahjong or show hand…

I Think I'm Going To Join the Black Parade

Been listening to My Chemical Romance's new album for the past few days. Good stuff. Looks like they've going for the rock opera thematic Queen-esque album here, with the phantom marching band and their Black Sgt. Pepper styled coats.

(pic from wikipedia.)

When I was
A young boy,
My father
Took me into the city
To see a marching band.
He said,
"Son when
You grow up,
Would you be
The saviour of the broken,
The beaten and the damned?"

He said
"Will you
Defeat them,
Your demons,
And all the non believers,
The plans that they have made?
Because one day
I leave you,
A phantom
To lead you in the summer,
To join the black parade."

Good stuff, man. When i was a kid, my dad never brought me anywhere, let alone to see any parade. I would have loved to be the saviour of the broken, the beaten and the damned.

Instead, I've now joined the Dark Side, the Evil Empire. Also known as the corporate 9-t-o-5 life.

How To Put On 10kg During Chinese New Year (And Fall Sick After That)

How To Put On 10kg During Chinese New Year (And Fall Sick After That)

• Doesn’t BBQ meat taste great? Just repeat to yourself, “Once in awhile only, and I worked hard to deserve this…”





• Eat lots and lots of mandarin oranges. And don’t bother to peel off all the white strands of skin.





• Eat, sleep, PS2. Eat, sleep, PS2. Eat, sleep, PS2. Repeat ad infinitum. Make sure your mom comes in once a day to water you and turn you towards the window.





• Nobody’s eating all the keropok and cookies on the table, such a pity to see it go to waste…





• Don’t drink water, even if it’s 40 degrees Celsius outside. Just load up on Coke and Orange crush. With lots of ice.





• Who needs sleep when you have tons of TV shows and downloads and DVDs to watch? It’s not like you have to wake up before 12 noon to go to work, or anything?





• Use the phrase as your mantra – “I’ll work it off after the holidays” and you’ll have a great guilt-free binge.





• Seven words –Chinese New Year open house free food. That veritable time honoured Malaysian tradition. Who cares which bigshot politician is hosting it, as long as there is food…





• Firecracker fumes can be SO addictive…





• Set back your bathroom weighing machine about 10kg and your all set for a great holiday.

My Very First Beat 'Em Up on My Old Apple II...Karateka!!

High atop a craggy cliff, guarded by an army of fierce warriors stands the fortress of the evil warlord Akuma. Deep in the darkest dungeon of the castle Akuma gloats over his lovely captive, the princess Mariko.
You are one trained in the way of karate: a Karateka. Alone and unarmed, you must defeat Akuma rescue the beautiful Mariko.

Put fear and self-concern behind you. Focus your will on your objective, accepting death as a possibility. This is the way of the Karateka.

Beat-'em-ups, of fighting games are the staple of PC games and consoles, a trend largely inherited from the coin-op arcade forefathers.

On the consoles, you have dozens of realistic fighting games, like Street Fighter, Tekken, Power Stone, Dead or Alive, Mortal Kombat. Each game has a particular idea, which they execute pretty well, and that's what make it a good game, apart from the literally hundreds of wannabe games out there.

But many years ago, the very first beat-'em-up game a humble little game we played on the monochrome screen called Karateka. At that time there were other great fighting games on other platforms, notably Double Dragon and The Way of the Exploding Fist.

Karateka, programmed by a guy called Jordan Mercer for Broderbund Software (they were also famous for Lode Runner, Mercer went on to Prince of Persia), came in a single 5.25" floppy disk (yes, those days they came in 5.25" disks only).

The game was super simple. This hero with while hair climbs up a mountain cliff onto Akuma's lair (the bad master) who is holding the beautiful princess Mariko hostage (yeah, like the hero has still all the energy to fight after climbing up the mountain).

First you fight the guards outside the palace one by one (gee, don't these henchmen know how to gang up on you? Or use weapons?!), then you enter the palace and fight the stronger henchmen. Finally, you take on Akuma's annoying eagle, then the great master himself. And finally, if you win, you get to save the princess...

The game was simple, with 3 punches and 3 kicks (high, medium and low, go figure), a far cry from all the combos and juggling attacks you get on Tekken or Virtua Fighter.

Some interesting stuff i remember from the game:

• The sound and music was pretty good for such an early game.


• There was a gate at the entrance to the castle. If you ran straight into it, it would fall down on you and instantly killed you...


• If you approached Princess Mariko with a fighting stance, she'd kick you down and you die. Yeah, i know it's cruel...


• As with most games of that era, you couldn't save the game at any point. Which really added to the fun of the game...

I remember my friends and i were really crazy about the game, one of 'em had an all-expensive colour monitor and we could see Akuma's regal costume in full colour. There are emulators around the internet for the game, but i really wish i had my old apple II to fire up the game one last time... Meanwhile i should probably stick to the latest Street Fighter on the Playstation.

The Twenty One Lies of The Internet

I haven't had this much fun writing a post for such a long time. Dedicated to all my friends, both real and online.

1. "I’m only going to check my e-mail."


2. "Hot girls are waiting to talk to you now."


3. "No, I never googled any of my friends."


4. "Click here to unsubscribe."


5. "Fastest growing petrol stocks."


6. "Click the monkey and win a prize!"


7. "I never surf the internet during office hours."


8. "Credit card for authentication only."


9. "My name is Mahmooud Ghafoor and I’m the former Minister of Finance of Nigeria."


10. "I was just surfing, I didn’t even know how I got this website."


11. "No, I don’t know any porn sites."


12. "Your computer may be at risk."


13. "There must have been a mistake with the credit card online billing, I have never subscribed to anything on the internet."


14. "Increase your manhood."


15. "Your computer clock may be wrong."


16. "No, I never read any blogs…"


17. "There is some problem with your PayPal account."


18. "We assure the privacy of your e-mail address and details."


19. "30 day free trial."


20. "Great post, I’ve bookmarked your page."

Okay, I just had to add this one, 21 is a good number to stop at.

21. "Streamyx Unlimited Broadband Access up to 2 Mbps."

If You Can Read This... (Also Something on Black Lagoon)

Saw this at the carpark. Picture of the Day.

No idea what it says, though... :pbpbpbpb


In a totally unrelated matter, i've got to mention this - Silencers is absolutely spot on - Go and watch Black Lagoon. It's brilliant.

******

(pic from wikipedia. Is there any other good English fansites?!)

Disclaimer

This will serves as a disclosure policy that the owner of this blog, blogs for money sometimes. Some of my posts may be paid per post. However, regular folks can be assured that my priority is to keep everyone informed and none is misled or tricked into buying anything that I dispense.