TRISTUPE.COM

Monday, June 28, 2004

The AXN Full Dress Rehearsal...

My write up in :Old Putera Info Blog

Time: 0830 - 1500 hours
Venue:
Mountain Biking:
SC - Kiara Club - Kiara Park - Rimba Kiara - Kiara Park - Kiara OffRoad - Hartamas - SC

Running:
Bukit Aman - Lake Garden park - Muzium Negara - Planeterium - Bird Park - Lake Garden park - Bukit Aman

Attendance:
Alpha: All Presents
Bravo: OP Zuflin @ Kutik not able to make it

Total Distance covered: Far enough to be walking like something stuck up our a$$ today.

Alpha (L-R) : Stupe, Bandit, Doc

Bravo (L-R): Upak, Chipok

We started our ride from Security Commission (since Bandit could give us free parking) and we moved towards Kiara Country Club. After coaxing the security guard that we are the AXN crew, we managed to get into the park and had to show respect to all the horses that is moving around the park (meaning, we are pushing our bikes). We got to the other end of the park, where there is a small door, leading to the Kiara Park.

After some major Uphills and downhills later, we converged at Taman Rimba Kiara, the starting point of the race. We strategised, putting ourselves into the organiser(and the race director's mind) of what would happen on race day. We all came to the conclusion that it will be one hell of a long climb up the Kiara Park, to where the single trail offroad section will be. Lactic acid build up...burn..burn burn...
Doc, Chipok and Upak was superior yesterday, showing no sign of tiredness despite the whole climbing ordeal. Whereas for me and Bandit, we just had to haul our body up the hill. "cadance! Cadance! maintain 60rpm!!" Doc shouted...yes, when the body is tired, telling the legs to do 60rpm is almost imposible as me and Bandit found that we are out of gears on our bike and is doing 90rpm...hahaha...

The offroad trail is exciting and dangerous. With the monkeys as the habitants in the jungle of Kiara as the spectators, i swear i could hear them snigger at us when we fail to ride up slopes laced with brances and roots. When we say single trail, it is only big enough to permit ONE bike to go through. Upak was *baptised* in Kiara, he took a slip and went down the slope, with his Giant bike on him. Doc, rushed to help him. Fortunately, he only suffer some bruises and cuts. Unfazed, he went on to conquer the whole kiara...

As for me, i buat MTB - Mari Tolak Basikal... The condition during the race day will be worse, as 150 participants will be going into the single trial, with at least 10-20 person arriving at the same spot at the same time...traffic jam in Kiara Jungle...SO, anohter strategy cropped up. We will let the gung-ho-adrenalin-flowing-young-warriors to go ahead, get themselves swallowed(or killed) by the trail, then, Alpha and Bravo will move in and conquer the tracks...err...sounds good eh? LOL

Checkpoint BOULDER: View taken from the top fo the slope, before a 45 degree ride down...Yeehhaaaa!!!

We emerged at teh other end of Kiara, ie Hartamas and cycled back to SC.

From SC, we moved to Lake Garden. Refill water and off we went, in full gears, helmets, bags, shorts, shoes, food, humour... We ran, we walked and we looked for visible clues to what and where we will be doing some challenges. We went from the park to Muzium Negara, to the Planeterium where the smell of Ramli Burger almost made us give up our training ends prematurely. From there, we went to Bird Park, being one of the sponsor for the race, we sorta think that a few items will happen in Bird Park. Me and Doc was running in Lake Garden on Saturday and we didn't see anything unusual. BUT yesterday, lo-behold! we saw 2 parallel metal/steel cable running from one of those metal pillars(to hold the net for the park) to another pillar. We also saw anohter anchoring point, which we are sure where the horizontal abseiling will happen (horizontal? yeah, Horizontal!!!). This is also where we suspect some compass/navigational skills will be tested on one of the team members while the other 2 does the rope challenges.(clue: Ms. Race Director said: Watch out for birds when you are climbing to the platform!) Yeah,Birs we saw, some big...really big...OUCH...

As of today, we've not managed to secure any form of sponsorships, but we did recieved a lot of wishes and we would like to thanks all wellwishers.

Apart from that, we've just found out that OP Zuflin(Kutik) won't be joining us for this race. His Father in law jsut passed away last week, and his mother in law is still in coma. With all due respect, we do not think he should, or could, even if he wants to, to be able to commit to the race. With this, Bandit, works his charms and had managed to get the organisers to agree to let us replace Kutik with one new team member. As of the time of writing, Chipok will put in his superfit brother in law...and now, Bravo is back in action...BUT, we still has not gotten our harnesses issue out of the way, at RM250 each, this race is getting more and more expensive...

Our aim? To finish the race this 3rd July, and show to the other participants, That we RMC Boys, will crawl to the finish line, if that is what it takes, to get it done in 7 hours. We are also going to impart all the knowledge gained from this debut race to future OP participants. Talk are also on the way to enrol into the ATMA Eco Challenge.... now, who say that anyone that weighs 80kg(Average) with a 36 inch(average) waist line can't do these kinda stuff? We will prove them wrong!!

AXN Challenge 2004

Been getting my arse into action again. Time to lug my heavy and fat body through what i used to love. The outdoor.

Long Climb

Me and 5 more friends will send in 2 teams of 3 each into the race. It will last 7 hours. It will be torturous. It will be merciless. It will be FUN.

What do you expect a bunch of weekend warriors to do when they see things like this? It is not everyday you cna cycle and run like some (wo)men possess in Kuala Lumpur City.

This year race is teh second time they are doing, and from what i've heard from past participants, they were required to abseil and rappel down KLSE building, that is after climbing about 20 floors of stairs of course. They were made to cross Gombak/Klang river via a rope attached 12 feet above, near Central Market. They were made to Kayak the whole length of lake in Lake Garden. They were having FUN.

This year, the race format won't change a bit, except of course for the route. They will include OFFROAD Mountain Biking...something that these 6 weekend warriors always does.

i'm in the middle. My teammates are far behind, or was it infront?

We will start in Taman Rimba Kiara, jsut outskirt of the City. And the race will bring us all around the capital of Malaysia, before ending at KLCC.

Wish us luck come this 3rd July.

how to make stupe...

is this thing for real??? LOL...this is totally different from what i know about the birds and bees.

How to make a stupe

Ingredients:

3 parts competetiveness

1 part humour

3 parts leadership

Method:
Blend at a low speed for 30 seconds. Add a little lustfulness if desired!

Personality cocktail
From Go-Quiz.com

Blardy Idle

This is what you get when you have to work with NON OPs.

1. NO SENSE of URGENCY
2. NO SENSE of RESPONSIBILITIES
3. NO SENSE.
4. STRESS.
5. MORE STRESS.

it will be a wonder if i could just give him HELL.

He is making my life hell...

1. Driving at 90km/h at 110km/h stretch
2. Refused to pay full toll prices and rahter pay RM4.70 than RM5.10 from PJ to Putrajaya. This is done by Exiting at the Hicom Intersection (RM2.70), then pay at LDP Puchong Barat (RM1.00) and LDP Puchong Selatan (RM1.00).
3. Rahter just drink coffee in meeting than help out to separate some BQ from the tender documents.

All the 3 items above was done when we were late for meeting by 30 minutes. Did i tell you he was whistling all the way when driving from PJ to Putrajaya and almost took the Serdang/kajang junction.

3. Didn't press/iron his shirt.
4. Didn't introduce his date to any of us.
5. Took the best seat in the table without even offering it to his boss, and his intermediate boss.
6. Didn't even polish/clean his leather shoes before wearing them.
7. Took the last piece/bit on the plate without asking if anyone else wants it.
8. Pushed OP SC-Chairman away. Can't he even just say EXCUSE ME SIR?

All 4 items above was done during the OPA Dinner. Where is the manners?

8. Didn't clear the post box before entering the office.
9. Dumped all the Tender Documents on the table without properly arranging them.
10. Placed 4 copies of Who's Where all over the Table.
11. NO Initiative to get work done. It took him 4 phone calls to ask 4 different questions that should be asked in one phone call. (yeahla, who else probe him what to do? ME la.)
12. Didn't refill the paper at the FAX machine, resulting in all the incoming faxes being jumbled and mixed up. And guess who is having a hard time separating 10 different set of Letter of Award with all the Clauses?
13. Kept chatting online in MSN and Yahoo when there is things to be done. (refer to item No. 1 and 2)

If he is from RMC...i am sure he knows better than to let me list the 13 items above.

Blardy Idle.

Merit System -can ah?

News was splashed all over. 128 top scorers can't secure a place in Local Universtities to do Medicine (or related) programs.

The government has make away with the old Quota system, and hence, introduced the merit system, using STPM and Matriculation as the based entry requirement. While matriculation has been all the while based on CGPA(Cumulative Grade Point Average), STPM students are judged based on one exam alone and it is still considered as CGPA (Cumulative? what is there to average out if it is based on one exam??)

Equal chances, yes. I am all in for it. To score a perfect 4.0 CGPA is tough. But, as tough as it seems to be, there is a handful of STPM students scoring the perfect 5A's. That is like every STPM student's dream come true, as with those results, it is near impossible for anyone with that results to be *rejected*.

Unfortunately, that is the case.

The paper wrote, that based on merit, of the 779 candidates who got into medicine in public universities, 439 (56.4%) were Malays, 297 (38.1%) Chinese and 43 (5.5%) Indians. DPM was asking that all parties not politicise the issue...

Only a few days ago, the Health Minister asked that all 128 top scorer be admitted to the Universities. Even Keeran's fav minister voiced his concern.

Health Deputy Minister chipped in and say to take only those with real interest. Now, how do we define REAL interest? My batch mate, OP Iqbal Farim, is getting bored of the whole thing (actually, just ER work). This is like after spending close to 11 years doing and reading on this. Rather subjective, isn't it?

Trust the politicians to politicise these all further.

And, all these won't go unnoticed, as one lower six student points out.

Then, some of them comes out with their own theory and reasons

Now, the thing is, all these has been debated and has been happening for the longest time. I was offered to do Biology in UKM after my Form 6; that is absurb as i did Double Maths in Form 6 and didn't even read any Biology except in Form 5! I rejected the offers, and went forth with whatever interested me that that point of time. Well, that is history, as you all know that by now.

Ah...well...we'll just see how things will go from here, from now. Oh sorry, i just heard one more politician saying that the number can't be increased because it will cause the standard of the universities to further degrade.

He meant that it is already degraded? No wonder why parents nowadays prefer to send their kids overseas, and those left behind and can't afford it, has to struggle through whatever means there is, just to get that piece of paper that will tell their future employer about their achievement in Universities.

Well, for a start, that piece of paper doesn't tell how WELL and how GOOD he/she will be working as an adult, isn't it?

American Idol

The new American Idol, Season Three...

FANTASIA BARRINO

oh, sorry, did i spoilt it for you?

still prefer the living motown jukebox : George Huff

William Hung? nah, i'll give him a miss, he made me cry with his redention of I Believe I Can Fly. Listen to Rocket Man as well...

Racial Harmony

taken from http://oldputera.info
My 2 sens about racial intergration.
-------------------------------------
OP Keeran spoke about Trust.

OP RAS spoke about the Realisation of Bangsa Malaysia

OP Anis spoke about the whole BIG picture.

So, now, what do i have to say about this issue?

Immediate LEFT HAND Side neighbour : Malay family - 20 years
Immediate RIGHT HAND Side neighbour: Chinese Family - 5 years
Immediate INFRONT Neighbour: Malay and Indian - 20 years, both.

Neighbourhood composition (within 10 houses away each direction, except behind my house, which is Lembah Keramat -100% Malay neighbours) :
Left hand: 5 Malay families averaging 15 years, 3 chinese families, averaging 13 years, 1Indian Family, 20 years and 1 empty house, previously chinese family.
Right hand : 8 Malay families, averaging 18 years, 1 chinese family, 5 years, 1 indian family, 10 years.
Infront: 4 Malay families, averaging 12 years, 5 indian Families, averaging 10 years, 1 mamak family, 2 years.

If you ask me, this is a very very very healthy mix of races in Jalan Permata 10, in Taman Permata, Ulu Kelang.

HIS-story began

For as long as i can remember. i shifted to this home of mine since i was 5 years old. This has made my family the longest living family amongst the 30 houses i took as samples in this *survey*, possibly one of the first few pioneer here.

Racial intergration wasn't much of a problem here, seriously. I went to SRK Taman Melawati that consist of a very healthy mix among races. I grew up with my friends coming to my house for dinner and me going over to theirs for dinner. During festive season, you can see the family that celebrate the festivities bringing and sending goodies to all neighbours house that do not celebrate them.

From 5 years old, i grew up eating rendang and nasi himpit from my malay neighbours and muruku and min kari from my indian neighbours.

No one tried to outdo one another with a bigger or newer car or properties. Kids run freely and we played freely (and fight freely too)

Well, the religious and racial tolerance extend to the fact that each of us knows what we can't eat and can eat. You see, my family do not take beef(well, i'm of exception), and my malay neighbour had never offered beef rendang or kari to us, but to others, yes. This is what i call sensitivity and run along the term *tak kenal maka tak cinta*.

During Raya, you can see that the chinese will help out their malay neighbours in preparing for the festivities, chain link fences are brought down, so that the house that celebrate the festival will have a larger patio to accomodate the guests. Rendang and delicacies are prepared en-mass, with my mum that don't take beef, helping them out cutting beef into cutlet and learning how to make rendang...well, you can call that *espionage*...

All my friends are made up from all races that i could think off, pure blood, mixed blood and all sort of background from having parents that are drivers to army generals.

Growing Pains

I then went to SM Lembah Keramat (it was changed to SM KEBANGSAAN Lembah Keramat, to reflect and to carry on the fact that this is, originally a school proud of their tradition with multiracial setting), there, i was the ONLY non malay in the class (in form 1) and i was the class monitor for the fact that i mingle around everyone with ease. I didn't see it as a big deal then, I was made a prefect in Form 2, and was later absorbed into the prefectorial board, incharge of the afternoon session. I was also the VP for the Red Cresent Society and a few other clubs as well. Not a problem, i handle the so-called racial barrier with ease, and if anyone were to ask, i brisk through it.

I even remembered once, i was taunted by the Form 5s when i was in Form 2, believe me, i had all my friends, you name it, from every race and every age that stood up for me, and obviously, that had scared the prepatrators off. I didn't call for help, but they all saw it, and they came to my rescue.

Infact, most of us felt funny when issues of racial intergration in Universities and in schools cropped up, if i recall correctly, it surfaced up when my ex-girlfriend enters university in 1997. Students are made to stay in room with at least one races each. It was akward, for the others of course, but not for her, because just like me, she has a best friend that is from a Malay ancestory, so, she can't understand what and why the hype about all the racial thingy all about.

I went to RMC after Form3, my parents objected to it, not because of what other realtives said that it will be "all Malays and minorities will be crushed", but because i didn't get their consent in the first place, i simply told them i went for some camp with my friends. 8 of us from the same school(SMLK) went for the interview in Sg Besi, and 4 of us got it. OP Iqbal Farim, Dr. -G coy, OP Faris Ismail -D Coy and OP Aminuddin - F Coy, and me of course. The other 4 failed because they can't scrap through the Medical Officers....But Capt Sahar(A Coy) allowed them to remain in RMC for the interview, for them to taste what it has to offer. Obviously, all of us has turned out great, and my relatives that once said what they said, has to swallow their words, and even asked me if it is posibble to get their kids in next time...of course i said yes...

I did my Form 6 in Victoria Institution, an English medium school rich in Her own history of multiracial settings (with each sports house named after the founder of Kuala Lumpur, how unmultiracial that could be???). I was made a prefect again in VI just because i was the ONLY Ex-Boy that year there. OP Liaw Ban Thong was my junior when i was in VI. OP Patrick Chiam (89.93H) was with me for a lil while before he got a scholarship to do medicine under the MINDEF sponsorship. No racial problem whatsoever still when i was doing my Form 6. Hmm..maybe that was because by now, it has been 18 years since i was brought up in a multiracial setting, hence, it become like second nature to me(?)

Culture Shock!
Then i went to TAR College, only did i realised that i was *sidelined* even amongst my own so called race. Not coming from a Chinese school and not being able to read or write, has made me into an outcast, well, at least, i don't need to carry an english-bahasa-chinese dictionary around when i go to college. I made good friends with some other students from other faculty which are not of my race. I was denied the post of the Student Rep because i can't write or read chinese (what?) and the Student Rep that was elected, spoke in england that only his *kind* could understand....those are the bad days, if you should asked me, the worse period in my MULTIRACIAL life.

I didn't manage to finish TARC, and i went to KDU to do my degree, in KDU, it was an almost global mix of students, with people coming from countries i've only read in books or atlas, to people that wasn't my peers(younger or olderla...) No problem with racial intergration here, well, i guess, that was what i thought, but there was chide going around about those *China* girls doing part time in some joint and all that...well, that got nothing to do with racial stuff la...not too sure about *intergration* though. ;-)

Working Life
As a young adult, that basically warmed up to join the rat race, i must say i did pretty badly...hahaha, not only my work now doesn't require me to wear long sleeves shirt or a tie, i am sometime seen as some uneducated contractor. Actually, i had a short stint in working in Malaysia's largest Ad Agency. That is a totally different experience altogether when i comes to racial intergretion. It was then i heard terms like *KULIT-FICATION* i was like W.T.F??? It was hard, for me, being and coming from a "Sheltered" life as M-Boy (Multiracial Boy la...what think you?)

It was also then that i start to hear and listen and read more about intergration in the paper and media...that was when i knew, that we are, indeed, moving backwards as a nation, as opposed to moving forward...

Too much prejudice. Too much race stereotyping. Too much heartache.

The Future
Do i see us all, being the TRUE BANGSA MALAYSIA? Where we don't need to fill in BANGSA anymore in any government forms, where just stating MALAYSIAN will do? Will our kids and our kids' kids, have the privy to be able to grow up the way some of here did? That is, without any prejudice against anybody of any kulit(fication)??

I have a dream...what about YOU? Rakyat Malaysia?

Interesting read: Martin Luther King's Speech

ps- i've just recieved a phone call from my client's land surveyor, he must had thought my name was IWAN, instead of Ee-Van...he greeted me in the way a Muslim would...now, i can't wait to see his surpised look when he see that i am not.... hahahaha...Malaysian? I am definately one!

Idiots

Mood: Tired and irritated
Listening to: Nothing, mind is blank.

Just got back from Melaka with my colleague. For a change, he drove, and i just sat in the passenger seat. Luxury, now i know what it is like to have a subordinate...LOL...

Okok, riddle of the day:
what has 10 pairs of hazard lights blinking and moving at 90km/h on the right lane of the PLUS highway?

more clue:
6 of which are BIG YELLOW vehicles, 2 BLUE 4x4 and 2 WHITE CAR WITH SIREN?

Answer:
BUNCH OF IDIOTS.

Now, lets look at some driving law concerning Hazard light usage WHILE driving:

UK:
Hazard warning lights. These may be used when your vehicle is stationary, to warn that it is temporarily obstructing traffic. Never use them as an excuse for dangerous or illegal parking. You MUST NOT use hazard warning lights whilst driving unless you are on a motorway or unrestricted dual carriageway and you need to warn drivers behind you of a hazard or obstruction ahead. Only use them for long enough to ensure that your warning has been observed.
Law RVLR reg 27

Aussie:
Using hazard warning lightsThe driver of a vehicle fitted with hazard warning lights must not use the hazard warning lights, or allow them to be used,unless the vehicle is stopped and is obstructing, or is likely to obstruct, the path of other vehicles or pedestrians
Link

Malaysia:
This one is a lil bit tricky..i went to JPJ site and well, full of craps..even with some background music...i can't even get any notice of hazard light do's and don'ts..

i then try to search for "undang-undang lalulintas" and found this JPJ Penang website...wow...they have KRU's AWAS playing in the background..what a load of shit.

Now, i can concur, that in Malaysia, as long as you are a minister, or police or anyone that wants to get to your destination fast, hazard lights are the way to go...

If only they knew how dangerous it is to be driving with the lights on in the rain or at night...it will give the impression to the other traffic users that the vehicle is stationery and parked at the road kerb, no wonder accidents happen often...

And yeah, those idiots i saw on the road today was on a convoy, with utter disrespect to other road users that they are hogging the road on a 110km/h stretch, driving at 90km/h...give me a break.

Malaysia BOLEH!

My NickName

Now, I know that most of you here know me as STUPE.

So, to satisfy the curiousity and to ensure that my nick STUPE is not a short for STUPID, here is the guy behind it all.

There you go. Stupendous Man was Borned in 1989, that was when i was in Standard 6...However, the name stuck to me only after RMC..dunno why, maybe i didn't lobi for it to be used when i was in RMC.

Best Regards,