Is it time?

So it has been over a year since I last posted on this blog. It would have been more, possibly never again if I hadn't visited Leanne's innovation management blog which got me inspired to rant again. But reading all the posts I have made on this blog since year 9 is kind of like looking at your school pictures and cringing. Why did I write what I did??? Oh well...

So have I matured? I like to think at least somewhat. For example I'm not obsessed with celebrity hotties anymore. I don't think I've made a hottie list in over three years and even if I tried to now I'd struggle.

Also I don't tend to rant about my imaginary reign over a gaseous planet. Let me just say that I think I retired that alter-ego at least a good couple of years ago when I stopped using it as my username in random forums. I don't tend to really rant in general unless it's about something everyone finds particularly annoying like public transport. And now that I've finished uni I have nothing to really complain about; no assignments, merciless tutors or unreasonable exam timetables.

But some things in me remain inherent. Like my love of making pointless lists. My love of all forms of entertainment and constant need to make playlists and point out sitcom quotes. My aspiration to become a music/film nerd (though I don't think that would ever really happen).

But this lack of blogging can be attributed to a lack of audience due to, what I call, the Facebook effect. The fact that people only seem to communicate via social networking has taken away the things I used to really love about the internet, namely:

• blogging and commenting on friends' blogs


• emoticon wars at 2am on msn


• emails. yes, actual emails, not junk or fwds. Ones that say "Hello, how are you? What have you been upto? The other day I..." These have been brutally replaced by wall posts for everyone to see.


• posting in the forums I used to run with my friends back in high school. Where we'd play pointless word games and write the dirtiest smut about each other.

I briefly contemplated retiring this blog and starting a new, more 'mature' themed one. But I see no point in that, seeing as no-one would read it unless it were on Facebook or had some official purpose like Leanne's one does. So I've decided to keep this one, not only as a timeline, but also as a back up place to rant.

End it with a bang, don't drag it 'till it whimpers

I love this moment so much, I want to have sex with it - Dr. Cox (Scrubs, My Unicorn, Season 4)

The time has come for another one of my TV rants; unfortunately for my dad, I can't rant on anything "productive" like politics or global warming. Well at least I rant at all, so this will have to do.

So why have I decided to rant about Scrubs? Perhaps because it has become very dear to my heart over the last couple of years, and by 'dear' i mean uploading every single episode of all existing seasons on my ipod, while still catching the daily afternoon reruns on cable. Perhaps it is because my friends who claim to be 'fans' have not yet 'caught up-to-date' with the latest episode. Perhaps it's because we've been through a drought eversince the switch from NBC to ABC, thus I am eagerly awaiting to be plunged further into the storyline. Or maybe tis because there is much debate about how the series should be coming to an end. Be it anyway, I have a few things to get off my chest.

So the producers are currently deciding when to end it all. Should they continue after season 8 when J.D. and Carla would be out of the plot?

HELL NO! As a lover of this eccentric show, I want to see it end properly. Firstly, the show started with J.D., stayed with J.D. (except for those few His/Her/Their Story eps) and should therefore FINISH with J.D. Centering on another character such as Elliot, Turk or Janitor would be okay as a spin-off, but would make everything here rather tacky.

Secondly, Turk and Carla have had the kind of relationship that we felt would always be forever throughout the entire series, no matter what they went through. Therefore how would the story continue with Turk without Carla? Divorce would be too inconsistent with everything that has happened before. So would Carla taking time off to take the baby to the Dominican Republic.

Thirdly, we have seen all the twists and turns that we could expect; Elliot almost getting married, J.D. having a son, Janitor getting a girlfriend, even Dr. Kelso telling the board to 'suck it' and leave the hospital. The writers are only human and would have to be extraordinarly gifted to shock/surprise us and give us something new that we're sure to like.

The main point is, I want this show to end with dignity, much like Friends or Will and Grace. However the indecisiveness of the producers makes me worried to think that they may drag it and it would end up a disaster, much like another one of my beloved programs, That 70s Show.

70s Show had the chance to end it well. With everyone leaving at the same time, with some shock appeal like Donna being pregnant (or something better that an actual sitcom writer, not me, could think of). But dragging it on for a painful season without Eric and Kelso just damaged everything, with nothing but mediocre plots of Jackie settling for Fez, Hyde's problems with his stupid stripper wife and Donna's indecisiveness about that stupid blonde guy who's name I cant remember, and her real feelings for Eric who was, apparently, too far away to care. The last show about New Years Eve 1979 had that real "Farewell from the Brady Bunch" aura about it, despite the fact that Eric and Kelso make an appearance. The whole final season disappointed me greatly after seeing what they were capable of from the previous fantastic seasons.

Having witness such a slow, painful death to one of my favourite shows, therefore, I really pray the same thing will not happen to another one of my favourite shows. If Scrubs manages to pull it off at the end of season 8 like it should, then;

This moment (would be) so great, I'd cheat on that other moment from before, marry this one and raise a family of tiny little moments.

Wouldn't we all, Coxy?

What's on your mind, Ruwi?

It so appears I have not ranted since the lovely days of Eurovision, what with wasting several hundred bob all around Malaysia, attempting to conjure up costumes for all these themed 21sts and, oh yes, uni crap. Regardless as to whether anyone still reads this rather mindless garbage, I still need an outlet while my dad hogs the cable just to watch some bloody cricket match.

So, what's on my mind?

Several things, so to prevent my head from exploding or my fingers from bleeding from typing hyper-emotionally, I will spell out my brain in point-form.

- Assignments. Yes, we have to do that. I'd rather have them than have a subject that's 100% worth by doing the exam. But doing a so-called "mini-assignment" every bloody two-weeks? Come ON! There ain't nothing mini about it, because they expect us to pretend we're in a world where we are writing a report for managers. I have my own pretend world; over there, I shove the @#%@#$ing 10 pages of mindless dribble up their rear ends (yes, i'd divide the report into equal portions just to they ALL get a piece of it)

- My own 21st. Be it in 2 months, my parents have had me working on it for... a while. If it were upto them it would have taken up the majority of my year. Unfortunately some of their paranoia has rubbed off on me and I cant think why. Invite list, seating plans, deposits, hair, make-up, nya-gaaaaaaaaah! 'Tis a 21st, not a bloody wedding. But judging by my romantic life, who knows when that'll happen, so I think I have to oblige them this time.

- The Olympics. This time around, I couldn't give a rat's arse to be honest. Australia's doing mediocre and I dont care. It just bothers me that they take up so much TV time with their bloody re-plays. We've seen it before, if people haven't, then that's their own bloody fault.

- My neck. Why is it so sore? Is it because I slept on it wrong, with my tri-pillow halfway up my face? Or was it because I spent Saturday night at a 21st outside in the cold without a jacket, with just a feather boa? I detest the smell of Dencorub, and it stings like someone has whipped me 20 times with a wet towel.

Technically at this stage, what should be on my mind is anxiety disorders, market share analysis, buyer attitudes and activist film. But there's no room for it all.

Eurovision Rant - Part III: Final

Sooooo, having already commented on the majority of the acts during semi-finals, it seems I have only five left to scrutinise.

UK - way better than most years, not so campy, very 70s funk, so not too bad. The song wasn't too interesting though, for a genre I like. And yes colour is good, but this was verging on Teletubbies sort of colour, it made my eyes bleed.

Germany - the German version of the Spice Girls, i suspect? Who taught these women to sing? Who actually THOUGHT they could sing? And some of the hair, goodness, it looked like Barbie had gotten too close to the cat.

France - hehehehe, loved the bearded men and women, such a bloody catchy song, unfortunately sung without much of a French accent though. Except for that part actually in French. Didn't really get the significance of the blow up globe. But I WANT his little cart!

Spanish - when I first saw the clip for this I thought it was going to be complete, utter garbage. When they came on stage, however, it was something that just made you smile. Now THERE's daggy on the good level. Unfortunately for them it was stuck in my head and I was probably saying something completely different in Spanish anyway, but that's another story.

Serbia - quite Lord of the Rings, which was the theme a few years ago. The singer was pretty good, but I just got the feeling they weren't trying bcos they we're already the winners.

Verdict? I was quite surprised with the result to be perfectly honest. Russia? That one just made me crack up. And I was astonished at how many points the Latvian pirates got, I mean is Europe going through a child-like state at present? I was a little upset that Denmark didn't get too far up the ladder, but that was sort of to be expected.

Eurovision Rant - Part II: Semi-final 2

So, was I ready for another night of obnoxious vibratos, not-quite-naked catalogue models and the sea of glittered attire? You bet I was. After last night I was hoping for something more along the lines of my taste, whatever that may be. Were any of these songs worthy of my Ipod? Last year was a dud in that respect, but 2005 and 2006 managed to somehow attach one each onto me.

Iceland - started off the evening with classic Eurodance/trash. Not a terrible song, the kind you could dance too after you've had a few too many jelly shots and will dance to almost anything with a pulse. Didn't like those slight twinges of pink on an otherwise perfectly ok black outfit. Quite meh-ish.

Sweden - was she all black and white at the start? Cos that really screwed with my eyes; not a good start. The microphone looked a lot like a diamond-crusted dildo, so I dont know whether it's even worth considering whether that was supposed to be innocent or not. I'm pretty much sick of power disco ballads by now, no matter how much longer those stalks of legs could possibly get.

Turkey - looked a lot like Kings of Leon, minus the identical haircuts. Loved the silvery guitar, so there's a plus. Good enough song, probably better than most band acts so far, can't find anything particularly interesting to say about them though.

Ukraine - another scantiliy clad chick in sliver? Very much like a 90s dance pop song. Like a Bond-girl with all her skinny goons following her around like flexible robot slaves.

Lithuainia - long dark hair, tight leather pants, puffy half-opened shirt, two of the greenest eyes you'll ever see.... nope. Unfortunately this guys failed miserably at the sexy medieval type, he looked more like a former wrestler trying to turn goth. Anyway, he tried waaaaaaaay too hard at singing powerfully that it backfired right from the start.

Albania - pretty girl, better voice than most other girls, but yet another boring ballad. Enough with the "emotion". By the way, was that a cape she was wearing? Oh, so when SHE does it, it's stylish and supposedly sexy, but when I do it, I resemble a mental patient?

Switzerland - finally a singer with substance. And piano. *sigh*, the simplicity. Well, minus the pyrotechnics and out-of-place dancers. The guy's voice wasn't anything too special, but I dont care cos my goodness what a hottie! He had that smile that said "I'm a good boy, but still oh-so-shaggable". And the fact that the song was in Italian didn't calm down my repeated sighs. *sigh*!

Czech Republic - female skimpiness and slight silver cover-up seemed to be the theme for tonight. The "Dj" had the kind of moves that make you want to bash his face in. And whoever told this girl she could sing was either tone deaf or was trying to play a rather mean prank.

Belarus - enough with the greasy hair and tight, half-open shirts already! Well, at least it's not that frequent this year, but this is probably the second, if not third one. We GET it, you're trying to make up for what you lack by sloshing your hair with reeking after-shave and showing everything else to make us guess the proportion, but mate, unless you've got a Lambo and a well backed-up cheque book, I aint falling for it. Leggy dancing girls don't make it any less gayer, Asta la vista, indeed, listen to your voice on a recorder, please!

Lativa - good lord, pirates? Do I look 5 years old to you? I bet they stole it from Hi-5's repetoire. You could try to tempt me with hidden treasure and say "hi hi ho ho hey" all you bloody want, but this level of daggy aint cute.

Croatia - very Gotan Project-ish, so therefore not too bad. Actually quite catchy. If only the frontman were younger and hotter. But someone should have given that poor old man his pills, he looked just plain confused and intimidated by all the lights.

Bulgaria - numerous epileptic seizures were probably caused by all those blue flashing lights and breakdancers. The only thing that broke it was yet another blonde girl in a dress tailored for a drag queen.

Denmark - cute, catchy, The Basics meet The Cat Empire, therefore sweet. Nice simple tune, the lyrics coulda been better in some respect, but that's me being really nitpicky. Therefore a pretty good song, keeping in mind that i'm speaking relatively here.

Georgia - Boooooooooooring. The glasses made her look like a fly. Not as dark as it was probably trying to be. And the swtich from black to white? Peace will come? Puh-lease, if I wanted to watch the questions section of Miss Teen America I would.

Hungary - good if Bette Midler or Barbara Streisand is your kinda thing, so the kinda ballad my mum would like. Good back up singers. Not deep enough for me, but then again what in this contest is?

Malta - intense dancing, sounded almost like that electronic murder of Zorba the Greek from a few years back. Didn't really like the singer, probably because she wasn't very tuneful. Hope they were able to treat their leg cramps after that speed-fuelled performance.

Cyprus - femme fatale with their traditional flavour, so something slightly original for one. I could be asking for too much here, but the energy with which the girl dances reminds me of a certain fateful awards performance, don't need to name names here.

F.Y.R. Macedonia - white rappers. Thank you. Just when I thought we'd go and entire contest without seeing any. I thought we left them back with Eminem in the early noughties. The singer seemed too heavy for the dancers to give her a decent lift. Not a particularly sexy for a song that's asking us to let them love us.

Portugal - the singer's lipliner is so intense that it made her look like her wax-job came back with a Magnum P.I. style vengeance. Looked like something out of a musical, something an evil witch may sing, but not good enough for something like Wicked. Boring overall, but at least the vocals were decent.

Quite tame compared to last night. Nothing desparately woeful, so kudos to the Europeans on that. The hot Swiss guy got my vote, so obviously I was yelling at the telly like a mad-woman when they didn't get through and the stupid pirates did. Who gave the kindergarten kids a phone? At least Denmark got through, so all is not lost, but if I want to see my new sweetie again I have to bloody youtube him.

Eurovision Rant - Part I: Semi-final I

What should I have been doing this freezing Friday night with nowhere to go?
A) Study for an upcoming test on Australian national identity in films
B) Knit yet another garment with that mass of turquoise wool left over from my karaoke scarf
C) Watch the Eurovision semi-finals
D) Do nothing on facebook but poke

If you picked C), you were horribly wrong. The answer is all of them, due to my insane ability to multi-task.

Why Eurovision, you ask? It's something I look forward to all year. It's the one thing that allows me to feel just that little bit saner, when compared to all those high-pitched, oddly-attired, epileptically dancing individuals. So here's what was going through my mind throughout.

Israel - Some guy called Boaz singing a song for his brother. To be honest I wasn't looking at the screen at the beginning and thought it was a woman's voice. Weeeellll, not too far off.

Azerbaijan - Didn't know angels were supposed to be scary. Too funny to be dark angels either. Now there's a falsetto at a new freaky level, could it be his pants are too fitting? I didn't get the dark throne bit, is it supposed to be hell vs. heaven? Anywhooz, I kinda tuned out after the drums came in

Belgium - Kinda... odd. Trying to be cute with that ditzy soft polka act, doesn't work for me this time. (the last time that worked was when Austria did it in 2005, too bad Europeans dont know how to vote cos it didn't get past the damn semi-final)

Andorra - OMG, it's Nikki Webster grown a few inches taller in a steel corset! Seriously, she should give it a try at EuroDance stuff like this, she's failed everything else, so nothing to lose, really.

Armenia - more obnoxious percussion, gyrating male dancers and a model-turned-singer in a Tina Turner costume. She has pretty hair though, too bad it was sprawled across her face with her glittery sweat by the end of it.

Finland - You'd think these Scandinavian countries have had enough of the death/goth metal genre, but nooooo, they have to take it further to an unreasonable level. These guys aren't even in costumes that distract us away from their poor attempt to be like Nightwish. The frontman has nice hair though. For a BIKINI MODEL.

Poland - What is it with women and power ballads? You can tell people in the audience are switching off, I know I did. Cos I cant remember enough of it to make any judgement at all, let alone a valid one.

Boznia & Herzegovina - four brides, a mental laundry woman dancing with no obvious choreography, and a guy who looked like he had stepped off that episode of That 70s Show where Bob and Midge have a Packer-themed 2nd wedding. The song was catchy enough. At least their eccentricity maintained my attention for the entire song, so kudos to them on that.

Ireland - Who knew the once hailed champions could stoop so low? It looked like Priscilla from planet Zutron. And what the hell was that "creature" supposedly turntabling? Maybe it's just my vision but I made it out to be an irregular eel with a beak, wearing a feather boa. This was supposed to be funny. 'Nuff said.

San Marino - Like John Foreman gone emo. Song wasn't too bad, probably one of the more saner acts. The dancer was odd though, didn't fit in with anything.

Estonia - It's the Wiggles, overweight and out of the retirement home in Vegas, missing Jeff who at that age couldn't damn well be bothered to wake up. Was that a picture of a cake and parsnip? I'd love to know what the song was actually about cos even trying to imagine it in English wont make any sense of it.

Norway - Blonde x 4 = visual pleasure for any guy I know. At least they could get something out of it. Not at all bad singers to tell the truth, but this contest is showing more and more proof of countries picking "singers" from a modelling agency catalogue. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Now we know that it's not about the music anymore.

Greece - Barbie, the Medeterrainian edition. Looks sweet enough, nice dress and all, but if Eurovision had a dollar for every act that tried to be like Shakira, then they could extend their set by another 500m. And what a surprise, in the green room, she spoke with an American accent.

Slovenia - former Miss World contestant? Yes, you could see the beauty queenness in her. At the beginning it looked as if there was going to be some sort of S&M kinda thing going on but that thought went out the window when everything turned green, and she looked as if she had formed from a bunch of lightsabers.

Russia - this one made me crack up the most. First that guy with the one-buttoned shirt, crawling all over the floor in... (ahem) emotion, with all the classic tea-towel hand movements, accompanied by those various expressions of constipation. Mate, give prune juice a go. The violinist was normal enough, but the blonde-bobbed, overly limber skater on the mini-ice-rink, please someone explain the point of that! What's more the first guy HAD to rip his shirt open, puh-lease, just add artificial rain and you got Bollywood.

Romania - quite Il Divo-ish at the start, minus the obnoxious vibrato, the guy was better than most so far. Though the woman ruined it for me. Then it just became funny; when she started stroking his head and him looking away, making up my own twisted story to it was too hard to resist. Like him leaving her for her brother. Or something like what you'd get on a typical day with Jerry Springer. Or Days of Our Lives for that matter

Montenegro - Initially i thought this guy had a monobrow, unfortunately it turned out to be only his fringe, so there's one less thing to make fun of. Here's another one I switched off during, I was getting lost into the greasiness of my meal-substitute.

Not surprised with the top 10. Though I thought the comperes were hil-a-ri-us. Quite so. Especially the dimwits in the green room (not the "groom" room, as quoted by the hostess) with their "ticking heartbeats" of anticipation. Adorable accents ontop of everything else.

Hotties and notties? Romania and Norway weren't too bad, but I'd choose Young Einstein's sister and her giant leprechaun dancing around the washing from Bosnia & Herzegovina. The worst without doubt would be Ireland, considering their standard about a decade ago, and the fact that I didn't understand ANY of it eventhough it was in English. If I could vote, I'd choose the Serbian performance while tallying the votes, it was the only thing with substance and weird pig-looking instruments that nevertheless sounded amazing.

Think-bot, my arse!

In case people are wondering, I have recovered from my sickness about 80% (damn excess fluids) cos my jaw's throbbing as if i've eated 500 pounds of extra-chewy beef jerky, and one of my ribs is hurting after having an unsavoury coughing fit after laughing at some sitcom (can't recall which one, since i'm enamoured with several).

I havent had a full on day of uni for a long time. Who thought that my 2 hour marketing tute would actually run for the full 2 hours this time? Why today, when I have so many things infecting my mind? Thinking so much for 7 hours straight? I dont even get that tired at work (who would need to bother using an ounce of brain power to argue with daft-minded customers about the $1 fine they have to pay for returning their DVDs after the damn due date?)

I am dabbing my infected mind wounds with a generous amount of evening tv. I suppose you know by now that tv is my remedy for anything. Though I never thought I'd develop a crush on a dog (don't judge me, i'm talking about a very intellectual Brian! He talks, he writes, what GUY, let alone DOG can do that?).

My mind is sooo tired at present that this rant is going in no particular direction. None at all. Because I cant think of one. I just like the way my fingers feel when I type something non-uni-related. And I'm multi-tasking; watching Family Guy and trying to think of something remotely intelligent to write is rather an impossible task. In fact it's a feat in itself that I'm not merely typing down the dialogue that i hear, even though I do rote learn them and recite them randomly to scare my friends.

Therefore, I think I better stop. Not only have I run out of things to say (for once, I can hear some people's sighs of reliefs echo throughout the universe) but I feel I should do something productive. Like read that article for film and television. Or play with my mum's Ab-Pro King.

Or finish watching this rather intriguing episode about pies.