All posts by Wan Kong Yew

Politics

Malaysians ignore call to boycott U.S. and Israeli companies. Utusan Malaysia baffled.

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Maybe it’s just me, but I found this article published in the Malay-language newspaper Utusan Malaysia hilarious. To recap, Malaysians are supposed to boycott products and services made by companies linked to either the U.S. or Israel due to what’s been happening in Gaza. This isn’t anything official and the government has said that it’s up to the conscience of each Malaysian whether or not to actually boycott anything.

It should be no surprise that Malaysians have by and large ignored the call to boycott. No surprise to anyone except Utusan Malaysia apparently. You can just hear the petulance in the article’s whining over how Malaysians are apathetic to the plight of the Palestinians and continue to patronize businesses like McDonald’s and KFC. Remember that “This is Sparta!” line from 300. Guess what, Utusan Malaysia, “This is Malaysia!”

Plus, extra points for trying to link this to justifying the existence of the ISA, however tangentially. Your political overlords must be proud of you!

Films & Television

Heroes continues descent into spiral of death

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Since I gushed over the first season of Heroes so much, it’s only fair that I take the time to write about how awful it’s become. My wife and I have just caught up with the first half of Season Three and though it isn’t exactly the debacle that Season Two was, it’s nowhere close to the greatness that was Season One. It appears that the main lesson the producers learned from the previous season was never be boring. Things move along at a breakneck pace and there are plenty of action scenes through with hardly any quiet moments at all.

Continue reading Heroes continues descent into spiral of death →

Games

Surviving the Wasteland

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I’ve been wandering around the Capital Wasteland for what feels like ages now, but when I look at the map, it’s obvious that there’s still a lot of unexplored territory left. I’m kind of beginning to feel burnt out on the game though and I think I know why: I feel too powerful. There’s literally nothing that I fear out there anymore. A Vertibird dropping an Enclave patrol? A pack of deathclaws? Sentry robots? Bring them on. Between my pack full of explosives, thousands of rounds of ammunition for my unique plasma rifle, an endless supply of stimpacks to keep me healed up and my companion helping out, it’s only a matter of seconds before all my enemies bite the dust.

It’s not just a question of turning the combat difficulty up a notch either. All that does is increase the health and the damage of your enemies. That kills immersiveness because it’s just silly to see an unprotected human head take so many direct hits without turning into a bloody pulp. No, the real problem is that I’m too rich and have too much stuff now, so the Wasteland no longer feels like a forbidding, fearsome place to me. Where once simply stepping out beyond the relative safety of the walls of Megaton felt like an adventure and spotting the bald green head of a Super Mutant was enough to give me pause and think about my approach, I no longer take any care at all travelling. I’m perfectly happy to barrel straight towards my destination knowing that whatever is in my path can’t possibly be any significant threat to me.

Continue reading Surviving the Wasteland →

Fun, Politics

Mugabe on holiday in Malaysia

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It seems that the President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe is on a month-long holiday in Malaysia. According to the news report, his wife has withdrawn about RM330,000.00 for the trip from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the couple owns a home in the country. I wonder where it is. Perhaps one reason why they’re here might be because the travel bans imposed on them by the EU and the USA are still in effect. I guess the Malaysian government doesn’t have a problem with them spending their poor country’s money here.

It’s also worth noting that Mugabe’s wife, Grace Mugabe, has often been a target of criticism for her habit of going on expensive shopping sprees while most Zimbabweans are deprived of even the most basic necessities.

Politics

Malaysian Minister: If you don’t like it here, just leave

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My rough translation of first few paragraphs of this news article from Malay-language newspaper Utusan Malaysia:

Individuals who aren’t satisfied with the laws of Malaysia can emmigrate to become citizens of other countries, stressed the Minister for the Interior, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar.

He said that if such persons felt that the laws that are in effect in the country are not appropriate, they are free to choose to become citizens of the countries that they prefer.

If we follow the Rukun Negara, as citizens of the country we must be loyal to it including abiding by the laws that are in effect and if they feel that these laws are not right for them, they are free to choose to be citizens of other countries.

The proof of loyalty can also be interpreted as not inviting foreign powers or other governments to interfere in the domestic affairs of our country, he said while officiating a Gotong Royong Program at Sentosa Village, Sedili, near here today.

Malaysians probably won’t be surprised, though honesty of such frankness from a minister is somewhat refreshing. What’s really funny here is that he then went on to berate an activist from the ethnic Indian minority for having the temerity to call upon India to impose economic sanctions against Malaysia for its treatment of Indians in the country, when the Malaysian government seems perfectly happy to call for sanctions against Israel for what’s happening in Gaza.

Best of all however is the fact that back in December, the Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak announced that the Malaysian government was willing to help ethnic Malays in countries where they are a minority, which presumably would entail interfering in the domestic affairs of those countries. Double standards anyone?

Also, you’d think that if a country’s citizens don’t like the laws currently on its books, they could, you know, vote in a new bunch of legislators to have them changed. Apparently, in Malaysia, any citizen who dislikes any of the laws in the country is expected to leave it instead.

Games

Fighting in the Wasteland

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After playing through a good bit more of Fallout 3, I thought I’d make a series of posts to note some of my observations about the different aspects of the game. This one will focus on the combat. As expected, this works very differently depending on how much you choose to rely on the VATS system. VATS is really a variation of the bullet-time ability introduced in Max Payne except that it pauses everything while you decide what to do and allows you to target specific body parts. While paused, you decide what actions you’re going to perform using your allotment of Action Points, with different weapons costing a different amount of APs to fire. Once you’ve made your decisions, your actions are played out in a slow-motion cinematic which can be cool to watch the first several times.

Continue reading Fighting in the Wasteland →

Fun, News & Politics

Porn industry asks for bailout

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Since I spotted this both on LYN and QT3, I figured it was amusing enough to post. The adult entertainment industry in the United States has just asked the government for a bailout. The article writes:

“People are too depressed to be sexually active,” Flynt said in the statement. “This is very unhealthy as a nation. Americans can do without cars and such but they cannot do without sex.”

“With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind. It’s time for congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America. The only way they can do this is by supporting the adult industry and doing it quickly.”

Obviously, this is a tongue-in-cheek move made for publicity reasons rather than a serious grab for cash, though as one astute QT3 poster pointed out, they certainly wouldn’t say no if any cash were actually offered. After all, they’re only asking for US$5 billion, a mere drop in the ocean compared to what’s been doled out already. Still, it does highlight how arbitrary it would be if government’s simply dolled out public money to companies that complained about being unable to survive a downturn. Companies are meant to compete in how well they deliver to consumers what they really want, not in how good they are at persuading public officials to hand them cash.