Razzie vs Oscar

I never knew there was this award called "The Razzies", till today. Heh.. embarassing! The Razzies, as it suggests, is a parody of Hollywood's annual Oscars, saluting the worst that Hollywood has to offer each year. Obviously recipients of The Razzies rarely, or never show up to collect their award(s), which is a gold spray-painted plastic gong the shape of a Raspberry ('Razz' is short of Raspberry). Guess how much the award is worth? hehe... it can't be worth much because they should be ready for it to be uncollected. Organizers say it is worth as much as $4.97 (RM17.35)!!! Only good sports would bother to collect their Razzies. My utmost respect for them!

The best thing is that The Razzies were announced one day ahead of the Oscars! Poor Sharon Stone, still hot at 48, was awarded Worst Actress in Basic Instinct 2. This movie was also awarded Worst Picture, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Prequel. That's pretty sad... perhaps i should watch it. hmmm...

I thinkThe Razzies is reputation-ruining. It should not exist. People are bound to make mistakes, we should just leave them alone to realize. But then again, this 'award' will make film-makers, directors, actors (supporting/main) work harder to avoid The annual Razzies, which is announced before the Glamorous event - the Oscars.

Desperado Offers Best Friend to Debt Collectors

Last week, a 17-year old dropout, desperate to settle the debts to several men, "presented" her best friend to them. The girl asked her best friend to follow her to a car park, telling the victim that her brother was being assaulted. Next thing, the victim was dragged by four men to their car, hands tied and forcibly taken to a room where the men took turns to rape her.

Police managed to round up five suspects. All men were between the ages of 15 and 28.

I find it hard to understand, how anyone can just 'present' their best friend or anyone to settle their own debt. I think it's terribly selfish! This 17-year old girl should learn to bear her own responsibility. Find other ways of settling her own debts which she brought herself into. If she knows that she can't pay back at the end, don't borrow in the first place. I hope this girl learns her lesson.

Gung Hei 'Fatt Choy' !!

As the Chinese New Year approaches, demands for lots of food stuff begin to increase, especially this dried vegetable (more like lichen) called the 'Fatt Choy'. This 'vegetable' is called a 'Fatt Choy' because its outlook very much resembles human hair (in Cantonese called 'Fatt'). 'Fatt Choy' also sounds like 'Prosperity', that is why this 'vegetable' is in high demand during the Chinese New Year.

What probed me to write this is when i read the papers of a lady, grinning from ear-to-ear when she finally found her 'Fatt Choy' which she has been searching for 2years!

The reason to the 'Fatt Choy' being so hard to find is because the Chinese government has limited its harvesting. WHY? Because when this plant is being removed from the ground, the surface soil is no longer bound together. This makes the soil vulnerable to wind and water erosion, causing it to eventually become sand, or in a large scale - Desert.

Extensive harvesting has already resulted in the desertification of large areas in Northern China - Mongolian steppes and the Gobi Desert.

Another scary fact which I read in one of the Chinese papers years ago is that, in order to obtain 1kg of this 'Fatt Choy', one football field of land is being eroded and eventually turned into desert. That is real scary stuff, as 3 families can easily consume 1kg of 'Fatt Choy', think about all the chinese families around the world and how many football fields of lands are being eroded. I think it is absolutely freaky!

The only reason the Chinese eat this is because the name of the plant sounds like 'Prosperity'. But does it really bring one prosperity?

Nevertheless, Gung Hei Fatt Choy!

50 - 56 - 60

Our country's retiring age before was at 50, then it went up to 56, now they're thinking of increasing it to 60! I think that's great actually!

Our PM - Abdullah pointed out that 40 used to be the age of maturity but now people were at the prime of their life when they were in their 50s. He said that when one reached the age of 60, one could still be considered young nowadays.

And i'm in total agreement with him! I think people at 50 are still very young... too young to retire.

One thing we must bear in mind is that, as we grow older, our minds become less sharp. If we discontinue to work our minds, our rate of becoming senile increases.

Well, it also depends what job one has, if it's a labouring job, perhaps 56 is good for the body to retire; but if it's a job that involves the mind (ie. calculation, analytical etc), 65 is fine.

Research has shown the drastic decline of people's memory once they retire. So perhaps for those who'd like to retire young, try picking up mah-jong or Sudoku ;)