Happy Birthday Malaysia!

Today my country, Malaysia, celebrated her 58th birthday...:) It was a bittersweet day for Malaysia as 2 days prior a rally was held in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. The rally was dubbed Bersih 4.0. Bersih means clean in the English language.

Over the years, the people of Malaysia has slowly begun to find their voice. They are now more willing to speak up when they are dissatisfied with something. They used to have the mentality that someone else will deal with it. The rally was the 4th installment of rallies that have been held over the years. The ruling government has been in power ever since Malaysia's independence and there no longer exists the proper check and balances to ensure a democracy. There is no longer the crucial separation of powers between the Legislative, Executive and Judicial arm. The government no longer holds themselve accountable to the people who elected them.

There are still those who says "What is the poing of rallying? It's not going to change anything." That is the mentality that frustrates the hell out of me. If everyone adopts that attitude that change will never happen. Change takes time. I am not under any illusion or that naive to believe that change will happen overnight, but we have to start somewhere right?

If you do not know what the Bersih rally is about, go Google it up. It is too long to get into here and will probably bore you to death. But the gist of it is to ask for clean elections (where a government is there by winning the popular vote, not by gerrymandering). justice and freedom of speech.

But the rallies also reminded us about the true spirit of Malaysians. The theme for this year's Merdeka (independence) celebration was "Sehati, Sejiwa" which means "One Heart, One Soul", which is ironic seeing as the government has been doing it's best to creat discord amongst the races (mainly between the Malays and the Chinese). At the rally people from all walks of life and from all races marched on together. Whatever differences they had, they put aside. For those 2 days they only had one aim, one goal, one vision. On that day, there were Malaysians (not Malays, not Chinese, not Indians, but Malaysians). They stood tall, they stood proud and most importantly they stood united.

The Great Tinder Experiment

Ok. So I did it. I joined the online dating community. I actually signed up for Tinder and OK Cupid. What transpired left me in stitches.

Let's review Tinder first. Am definitely not surprised that Tinder is used more for hook-ups then for anything else. You don't really get to write much about yourself. You are only given 500 words or so to describe yourself and everything else is based on the photos that you post on Tinder. Since I was not gonna pay for Tinder Plus,  I could only search for those who are within 100 km of where I am. For those of you who don't know how Tinder works, you will be shown a bunch of pictures. If you swipe right it means you like them. If you swipe left it means you have no interest in the guy. So if a guy that you swiped right too also swiped right on your photo, then you guys can start chatting. I don't mean to diss Malaysian men but honestly some of the photos posted just left me wondering about what those guys were thinking! If you were gonna go on a dating site, you could choose a better photo. Some of them look downright sloppy! Needless to say, I didn't swipe right to any of the guys. Call me superfical to judge someone based on looks, but on Tinder that's all you can do!

So, next I went on to OK Cupid (or OKC for short). So for this, you are given a bunch of questions to answer as part of your profile. It may not tell you the whole story about the other person. In fact it could all even be a bunch of lies. But it can at least give you a sense of whether that person has a sense of humor or is even remotely interesting. Based on your answer, OKC will then match you with guys who they think could be a good match for you. You can limit your search to your area or you can even search worldwide. I find OKC a much more interesting and effective dating app. Not that I actually went on any dates. I just found it interesting to read the profiles on it. But I have definitely drawn a conclusion. There is a huge difference between the Chinese that are born and raised in Asian countries and those who are born and raised in western countries. Here are some of them :-

(a) the AC (Asian Chinese) always try to get the conversation started with pick-up lines, some of which are so damn cheesy. The Western Chinese (WC) will just generally ask you how your day was etc.
(b) the ACs don't take that much pride in what they wear and somehow lacks a certain level of confidence. The WCs are well dressed even when in jeans and a plain t-shirt and their self-assurance always comes across in the photos.
(c) the AC's lack individualism and their profiles are usually a bore to read. The profiles of a WC are generally more humourous and interesting to read.

I may be over-generalising but the above is what I discovered as well in my interactions here in Malaysia with the Chinese as compared to my interactions with the British born Chinese from my days in the UK.

I find that I identify better with the WCs than the ACs. My personality and character is quite strong and most ACs don't really like those qualities in their girls. Oh well, C'est la Vie!

Heroes by Alesso Feat. Tove Lo

Check this song out by Alesso feat. Tove Lo. Love it cause I am a different kind...:) 

Everyday people do everyday things but I

Can't be one of them

I know you hear me now, we are a different kind

We can do anything

New Addition to the Family

There is a new addition to the family and he is super cute! His name is Simba and he is a 7 week old toy poodle.

To be perfectly honest, the arrival of Simba was greeted with mixed feelings. Our last dog, Vader, died a year ago and my mum and I said no more dog. My dad however, immediately wanted to go out and get another dog. Don't get me wrong, I love dogs but I work full time and I didn't want my mum to have to end up looking after another dog. It's time she had a break from always having to care for someone or something. 

The first week was really tense on the home front. My dad didn't quite live up to his promise that he would be the one taking care of the dog and my mum got left with trying to toilet train it, cleaning up the dog's poo and stuff, feeding it and bathing it. She got pretty frustrated and finally voiced out her frustrations. My mum will avoid confrontation if possible so she mostly keeps her frustrations to herself. Anyways, after that they worked out a schedule. I try to help out whenever possible but since I am working full time, I am not really at home much.

Anyways, my mum is sucker for a cute face so it is not surprise that she has fallen in love with Simba. Just check out his cute little face, it is hard not too!