Petaling Jaya Owns The Smallest Roundabout In The World

You will not know this if you are not a PJian or someone who's familiar with roads in Petaling Jaya. Little did people know that Petaling Jaya (PJ) actually owns 2 of the smallest roundabout in the world (I guess). Both of these are tucked in not-so-familiar area of PJ.

The smallest (or ex-smallest) is roughly with the diameter of 3 feet. However, owing to the rapid development and redevelopment around PJ old factories, I need to check it out physically if it still exist. It is located at the industrial area of Section 51, near to the housing area and next to Malaysian Oxygen (MOX) factory. Very often, people will just drive through the roundabout, thinking that it is just a hump on the road from shoddy roadworks. Besides, due to the interlocking tiles used in that area, it is also difficult to differentiate the height of the hump. I'm hoping it is still there to clinch this title.

The next smallest (it still exists) is located at Section 51A, next to the MCIS building. The diameter is roughly around 6 feet, and this is easier to identify and notice by drivers. Due to the fact that the nearby government office are no longer in use, this roundabout has become less useful nowadays, other than forcing the cars to move along its perimeter.

Too bad, I do not have the latest photo to share, but I hope to get them as soon as I have the time to visit them. You will also noticed that they are not easy to be located from Google map.

Malay Songs That Will Kekal Selamanya

When you ask majority of the malay song listeners, many of them can name songs from the past era, but not those from the current batches. Even if they can, most likely they are songs from senior artistes such as Jamal Abdillah, Ning Baizura, etc..

There are a few songs that I think will last forever or kekal selama-lamanya due to the message contained in the song.

1) Fikirkan Boleh by Metropolitan
> This song appeared back in the 1980s, and it can be used in any events that needs to drum up for support and prep up the Boleh attitude.

2) Tanggal 31 by Sudirman
> This is a very fast and catchy patriotic sung by Sudirman. This will always be used as one of the Hari Merdeka song.

Trust me, you will like them the moment you listen it for the first time.

> Updated with link to the songs (09/07)

The Sorry State of Our Lagu Melayu

The local music scene, especially the malay songs are in a pathetic state, according to my observation. I was a net malay song listener from 1989 to 2007. Similar to the Malaysian soccer condition, the current state is really parah (sick in Malay).

The first song that got me hooked up was Suci Dalam Debu by Iklim. At that time, Juara Lagu was a show that I always looked forward to each week. This was way back in my secondary school times. Then, I knew more and more songs, singers and bands from TV and magazines. It was fun to hear band names such as Mega, Gamma, Metafora, Sera, Ekamatra, etc.. Then there was a time when the government ban local bands from adopting English names, and those related protested because it will be funny for Search to change to Mencari and Wings to Kepak.

As time goes by, slowly the quality of the songs began to drop. At one time around the year 1992~1993, there were only a few famous songs, and they kept on repeating on the radio. Songs from singers such as Fotograf, Nash and Jamal Abdillah became the chart topper each week for many weeks, even months. Much later, more and more younger bands came up and created a healthy replacement for some of the older bands. They are such as Ukays, Slam, Exist and Samudera.

When KRU and 4U2C came out, the music scene has seen a big leap out of slow rock, or known locally as rock kapak. This was the time where Malay rap was introduced, but too bad, I think they failed miserably. Raps are best in English, and never good in Malay and even Cantonese. Surprisingly, when the nasyid groups came out, they suddenly became a hit. I don't deny that I once liked some of the songs, especially those sung by Raihan and Saujana. This genre lasted for at least 5 years, but it became history now.

As of now, in this 21st century, I have totally lost touch with the current batch of singers, more so the songs. I think the last good malay song was Spider's Relaku Pujuk and the last good band is Spider. It sounds quite irritating for those songs that uses Facebook as their theme. It definitely sounds out of place when you hear "like" and "share" words in a malay song.

I just can't help but felt sorry for the current state of the malay songs that I once adored. Each time when I was looking through Youtube, I would only search for rock kapak or those songs that was from 80s and 90s, to early 2000s. Anything from 2007 onwards are not my cup of tea anymore.

Ten Brothers 十兄弟: My Childhood Superheroes

There is another Chinese movie that is considered quite a legend is the Ten Brothers (十兄弟). It was about a family of ten brothers who were born with supernatural powers. A check on the internet showed that the original story came during the Ming dynasty era, but over the time, the story line underwent several changes, especially on the type of supernatural powers each brother has.

It is a fascinating story because rarely can we see a family-oriented movie that involves Chinese superheroes. Besides, you don't see the special powers copied and applied in the Western movies on super or action heroes. Other than Fantastic Four, it is not often that we see superheroes come out in a bunch.

So far, there are only 4 movies or drama series that has been written on the Ten Brothers, and the latest being the TVB version in 2007. In this drama, the superheroes actually came from heaven and was born by the mum who accidentally ate the 10 heavenly pearls.

Each of the ten brothers have their own superpowers that one will find interesting and amusing.


1) 1st Brother: Thousand Mile Eye (千里眼): Able to see through walls and far away
2) 2nd Brother: Distant Hearing (順風耳): Able to hear through walls and far away
3) 3rd Brother: Strong Three (大力三): Has super strength
4) 4th Brother: Stretchy Four (奀皮四): Able to stretch  the body and invincible
5) 5th Brother: Flying Five (飛天五): Able to fly
6) 6th Brother: Iron Head Six (銅頭六): Has a hard and strong head that is able to knock down anything
7) 7th Brother: Long Legs Seven (高腳七): Able to extend his height
8) 8th Brother: Digging Eight (遁地八): Able to drill into the ground and travel underground
9) 9th Brother: Big Mouth Nine (大口九): Able to shout to far away
10) 10th Brother: Crying Ten (大喊十): A cry baby and his tears can heal sickness

I was wondering when is this drama going to be picked and adapted into a Western movie.

> Added: 7 July 2012

Interesting Buildings People May Have Missed

I have seen many postings and articles on interesting buildings, and I'm also joining the bandwagon to create my own list. I'm not sure if the authors were really evaluating based on their preference, or just copying from the first author that published this list.

As for my list, I have been to some of these buildings, and some of them are in my wish list. I have also included a local favourite, Petronas Twin Tower in my list, reason is because of the aesthetic value rather than national pride. It looks like a poster look when you stand just beneath it and look upwards towards the twin towers at night. Just simply amazing! For those who are familiar with the China people, this building is one of the icon that made Malaysia known to them.

 
Some of the interesting buildings I saw was in Barcelona, especially those that was designed by Antoni Gaudi. Buildings such as Sagrada Familia, Casa Mila,  Casa Battlo and Casa Museu Gaudi surprisingly were not listed at all in any of those so-called interesting building lists. Besides, you can also find other interesting buildings in Spain such as the Twin Tower in Madrid and Museu Dali in Figueres.

 

I also thought that Mont St Michel in Saint Malo, France is an interesting and beautiful building, especially for the fact that at high tide, it turns into an island with a land bridge, and when it's low tide, it's back as a hill. It would be an interesting idea to walk from the mainland to the castle during low tide. The distance is just close to 2km that should take approximately 30 minutes by walking with a backpack.

My List Of Interesting Moments in Olympics

London 2012 Summer Olympics is coming soon. The opening ceremony is scheduled on 27 July, just 25 more days to go. For the sports mania, this few weeks will be a good break after following closely on the Euro 2012 in Poland-Ukraine for 2 weeks. For the Europeans, especially Swedish and some other countries that observe summer breaks, it's a whole 2.5 months of fun and activities throughout June, July and August.

I began watching Olympics in 1988, when I was still in primary school. Each Olympics have dished out some interesting moments and highlights, and I can recall some of them because I watched them myself. Hopefully, there are more to come in the coming edition in London.

1) Florence Griffith Joyner in 1988 Seoul Olympics
> The US sprinter set the Olympic and world record in 100m and 200m that are unbreakable until today. Besides, she's also famous for her long and colorful fingernails and unconventional sports attire.

 

2) Ben Johnson in 1988 Seoul Olympics
> The Canadian sprinter broke the world record in 100m, but was later disqualified for drug. He was on the spotlight because he managed to break the domination by the USA, but ended being infamous, instead of famous.

3) Greg Louganis in 1988 Seoul Olympics
> The USA diver was a diving champion, but he hit his head on the springboard in the 3m event. It was just funny that an established diver can do such a thing, though it was an accident.

4) Anthony Nesty in 1988 Seoul Olympics
> The swimmer won the 100m butterfly event by beating Matt Biondi, and he came from a lesser known country, Suriname. I believe not many know where this country is located.

5) Lighting of opening ceremony flame cauldron in 1992 Barcelona Olympics
> The lighting of the cauldron was done by an archer, Antonio Rebollo who shot with an arrow with fire.

6) USA Basketball Dream Team in 1992 Barcelona Olympics
> The basketball team of USA consisted of professional players playing in the world famous NBA.

7) Razif and Jalani Sidek in 1992 Barcelona Olympics
> Malaysia won the first Olympics medal, a bronze through badminton. However, no datukship was awarded after this success.

8) Lee Lai Shan in 1996 Atlanta Olympics
> She's Hong Kong's first gold medallist, by winning the sailing event. Though it's a not so famous event, it is actually a huge achievement knowing that "yellow skin" people, other than Chinese, Japanese and Korean can do it. She's also the only one athlete to win before Hong Kong's return to China.

 

9) Joint gold medallist in 2000 Sydney Olympics
> Anthony Ervin and Gary Hall Jr won the 50m freestyle in identical time of 21.98. This was an unbelievable result, and even the photo finish technology could not identify the clear winner.

10) Eric Moussambani in 2000 Sydney Olympics
> Eric represented Equatorial Guinea in the 100m freestyle heats and became famous when he finished top in his heat, but at a time more than twice the time of the gold medal winner. It was his countries' best time, and also his personal best.

11) Michael Phelps in 2004 Athens Olympics
> He won 8 medals in swimming, where 6 was gold medals and 2 was bronze. He almost equalled Mark Spitz 7 gold medals record.

12) Lighting of opening ceremony flame cauldron in 2008 Beijing Olympics
> The last torch bearer was Li Ning, an ex-gymnast. He was suspended mid-air and mimic the running around the stadium before lighting the fire cauldron.

13) China beat USA in the medal tally in 2008 Beijing Olympics
> China's medal tally was 51 golds, beating USA at 36 golds. However, in total number of medals, USA still topped the chart by extra 10 medals.

14) Usain Bolt in 2008 Beijing Olympics
> It has been awhile since the last person who made a great impact in sports as Usain. He became the currently undisputed fastest man on Earth, with his gold medal and world record feats in 100m, 200m and 4x100m track events. What was so special was the distance he beat his opponents, and he seem to be able to do even better.

Euro 2012: Spain Will Win

There is no doubt that Spain is the favourite. On FIFA world rankings, they are rated number 1. In this tournament, they are one of the most steady teams, winning all their matches in full time (except the match against Portugal, where the won the penalties 4-2 after drawing 0-0 after extra time). In terms of club football, they have 2 of the most glamorous and reliable clubs in Real Madrid and Barcelona. They were the previous winner in Austria-Switzerland (2008), beating Germany 1-0, and the World Cup winner in South Africa (2010), beating the Netherlands 1-0. Most of the first team players are team-mates themselves, so teamwork shouldn't be a problem.

 

Most likely, the only problems are over-confidence and complacency. Italy is very good at capitalizing on these weaknesses, especially with Mario Balotelli in a high-spirit after netting 2 goals against Germany.

Another interesting prediction is whether Fernando Torres, Cesc Fabregas, Xabi Alonso or Mario Balotelli is able to snatch the Golden Boot from the other Mario Gomez of Germany. The Spaniards are currently at 2 goals each and Balotelli at 3 goals, and it would be a great finals if any one of them won. This would mean the match would not be a dull one, and worth staying up for.

My pick: Spain to win

Score: 2-0

* amended on 3 July 2012

Superheroes Not Yet On Silver Screen

I have been having these thoughts about childhood superheroes, and was wondering who else haven't been made into a movie yet. Of late, we have the chance of seeing Captain America, The Avengers, and Smurfs, joining the group of superheroes and action heroes that have gone to many installations such as Spiderman, Batman, and Transformers.

As I can recall from my childhood memories, we were served with interesting cartoons from 4.00 to 5.30pm, and these I think have yet to be on the silver screen yet such as Thundercats, Voltron, Mask, Gobots and Silverhawks.

I believe many of the 70s and 80s babies will be the first to queue in line for the tickets and salivate all the way to the cinema seat when one of these movies are shown. Just as in the first installation of the Transformer movies, there were many chaps who stood and applause when the movie ended. Well, it sure sent the signals that they are either very mystified by the movie quality or satisfied that the movie brought back the old memories.

For my little kid, before she knows all these daddy superheroes, she already has two superheroes whom she is growing together with; Barney with BJ and Baby Bop, and 水果奶奶 (Fruity Pie Granny). No doubt, they are the unsung heroes for teaching her the first words and songs in English and Mandarin.