Angels And Demons

damn.. i hate Dan Brown..

i dont have enough sleep coz of his books.. and thankfully, thatz the last of 4 books of his that i read.. Angels and Demons..

and so now.. the final book, i completed it in 9 hrz 30 mins from beginning till the end..

ah.. Welcome Home, Zul.. :)

i just got back from Christchurch, New Zealand.. one of the closest points to Antartica..

btw.. do Polar Bears eat Penguins?

location info..

Antartica = South Pole..

the REALLY closest point to Antartica would be in Falkland Islands, and the closest base to fly to the South Pole, and for whatever reasons that u might wanna go to South Pole.. i wouldnt know.. would be from Chile..

therez an Antartica simulator next to Christchurch airport.. and i've heard that they do a very good simulation of it.. and itz open to the public to try out..

and no.. Polar Bears dont eat Penguins.. coz they had never met.. except in the zoos perhaps..

Polar Bears are from the Artic..

Penguins are from the Antartic..

Artic is from a Greek word, means Bear..

and Antartic means No-Bear..

just as simple as that..

but if they would ever meet.. i dont think the bears would think twice..

but who carez.. penguins are short and black and they walk funny..

that sounds like me..

just that i dont walk funny..

itz late-Summer/early-Autumn now down south.. but the weather seems to be crazy.. when we landed at 10am, it was 7 degrees..

slept thru the day, and woke up just in time for dinner with some of the crew.. headed down to a Thai restaurant just across the street from the hotel.. and had seafood fried rice..

and u know how much it cost?

SEVENTEEN BUCKS..

thatz abt 19 Singapore Dollars..

for a plate of Seafood Fried Rice??

WTH..

so.. ok.. thatz the first and last time i'm ever gonna eat there.. itz not like itz a posh restaurant or something like that..

slept for a while and woke up at 2am.. i couldnt sleep so i picked up the book and started reading it.. and couldnt put it down till 11.30am when i finished it..

damn..

i hate Dan Brown..

his books are really addictive..

slept till 3.30, and had to wake up coz if i dont, i'll end up being hungry coz, like everywhere else in the world except for Singapore and Hong Kong, shops close at 5pm..

so i headed down alone to the foodcourt at Cashel Street.. near to Eastgate Shopping Centre.. and had an extremely extremely spicy Lamb Curry.. which was nice.. and CHEAP.

at abt $8 SGD.

now.. see how lucky we are to be able to get a full meal with drinks at a coffeeshop in Singapore for abt $3?

after the early dinner, sat down at Starbucks and did some programming.. and yeyyy.. i figured out the problem that i had with WinProc..

not that anyone cared anyway.. heh.. but yeyyyyy... that solved a MAJOR part of my problem..

sat there for White Chocolate Mocha.. and yepz.. sorry.. u guys dont get it here.. so if u ever come across WCM at other Starbucks anywhere else.. try it.. itz really nice.. i first had it at Whistlers, just outside of Vancouver, in Canada.. and i'm addicted to it..

sat ard for a while and watched the Maori kids go by..

the Maoris are sort of the aborigines of New Zealand.. but now they dont live in villages anymore.. so they are just like any other teenagers.. loud, listens to hardcore shitz and stuffs like that..

at abt 8pm, i left and went back to my room and did some programming..

ok.. picture time..

New Zealand is very much like Australia.. the weather, the culture, the shops, the brands..



summer's ending anyway.. and here comes autumn.. soon enough, all these will wither and leaves will fall..



the tram that runs across the city and cuts into Eastgate..



and there u go.. very much like Australia..

and still..

I HATE DAN BROWN.

and now since i have read all 4 books from him.. and therez no more books from Michael Crichton, or Anne Rice, or Brian Herbert or James Patterson or John Grisham.. damn.. i'm running out of options but to re-read my programming books..

but then again.. i've read a book by Michael Connelly recently and damn.. itz good..

and my initial reaction to Angels and Demons..

why do the bad fella have to be a Muslim?

but then again.. why not?

and 2 of my friends had joined the Ku Klux Klan..



Umi and Din from the KKK..

3rd Anniversary of the Iraq invasion and nuclear threat in Iran, and the invasion of the Russians..

such a sad political thing to talk abt..

i wish all these problems will end soon.. so petrol prices can drop. itz burning a hole in the pocket tau to spend on petrol every other day..

ok dah.. thatz it abt the topic...

i'm backkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk... from Seoul.. arrived at home abt 2 hrz ago..

really not much to talk abt this time.. really.. i swear..

i didnt do much in Seoul.. watching model-like Russian working girls roaming the club.. it was ladies night.. and really.. unlike Singapore.. on ladies nites in Korea, itz like 80% women.. and 50% of them can be ranked between Pretty to Gorgeous..

or at least.. in the dark, they are..

most of them are foreigners.. from Eastern Europe, i would guess.. and most of the not-much guys there are Americans.. and i would guess, from their hair and style, they might be from the US Army coz the Americans have a very active base in South Korea..

the South Koreans were quite pissed with the American army presence several years back.. and of course.. the Americans kept them in fear with talks of nuclear threats from the North and therefore overstayed there again..

aiyah.. i hate to talk abt politics.. so letz get back to the girls..

and reaaaaaaalllllllllyyyyyyyyy... the girls were beautiful.. but now the Russian girls are EVERYWHERE..

several yrz back.. my family tried out running a stall at New Hawa Restaurant in Joo Chiat.. so i saw this Mat with a very beautiful Ang Moh girl.. and i was like.. WTF?

i was doing my reservist back then.. so i was telling my troopmates abt it lar.. so the whole group came down to the stall one day to see coz he's there EVERY EVENING..

we were like thinking.. maybe he's a nice guy?

ermz.. doesnt seem so.. he looks rowdy to me.. and got blonde Mat hair.. with a Matrep style.. somewhere ard 30 yrz old.. the girl looks like she's in her early 20s..

and they were holding hands...

and he got a tattoo..

then we thought.. maybe he's rich?

no again.. coz i saw him taking a bus..

so a badly-styled not-rich below-average-looking rowdy Matrep sangkut a very beautiful blonde ang moh girl..

unlikely pair..

only weeks later i found out that the girl was actually a Russian prostitute..

aiyahhhhhhh..

but not bad eh that Matrep.. can pay so much money coz he's with her so often..

maybe he striked 4D..

or maybe he's the pimp..

which is unlikely.. i dont think i have read abt any Matreps being pimps.. runners got lar.. but to be the head honcho himself? no way..

to opt to be a Mat shows a lack of IQ in the first place.. so how to run a successful prostitution business rite?

so i'll stick with the strike-4D theory..

anyway.. now the Russian prostitutes have invaded the world.. young late teens and early 20s model looking girls.. from poor states in Russia like Chedunnohowtospellkia, Blablablavia, Slovenia, and places that sounds like that.. which is sad.. coz these girls really did it to get out of poverty.. but then again.. when u see how they behave and how yaya papaya they are when they are being ogled by the men.. wah lau eh..

i dunno how much it cost anyway coz i dont go to prostitutes.. i'm happily married with 15 kids so i stay away from these ppl.. itz just a matter of observation..

one of the places where u can see a lot of these beautiful Russian prostitutes would be in Dubai..

or at least thatz the memory of the club that we used to go to lar.. itz full of them.. and one of my friends just approached one of the girls to ask, out of curiousity.. and she said.. it was US$500..

FIVE HUNDRED FREAKING US DOLLARS???

not worth it xia.. i'd rather buy more RAM for my PC..

but maybe she just said that coz:

1. she knew he wasnt really interested.. just curious to know how much she cost for a nite..

2. she prefers to do rich Arab sheikhs so at least the prospect of being Julia Roberts and him being an old fat and bearded Richard Gere is there..

3. she knew he cant afford it or unwilling to part with his cash even if she said twenty bucks..

so if any of my bachelor friends here want to get married to a pretty, model-looking girl with the prospects of having a nite after nite porn-style wife, go do some backpacking in Eastern Europe, in the extremely poor countries.. and who knowz.. some parents might offer their daughter's hand in marriage if u can give her a good life here in Singapore.. no need to go to SDU and get married to some pimply spinster who brags abt having more degree in her spectacle lenses than u do..

well.. thatz it abt the girls..

and yes.. still.. i didnt do much in Seoul.. just to Itaewon and the club.. and i spent the entire nite reading Dan Brown's Digital Fortress in 5 hours.. from beginning to the end.. my record of the shortest period for a Dan Brown's books.. Da Vinci's code took me a week and Deception Point took me 2 days..

and i spent abt 6 hours writing abt 600 lines of codes.. and for the first time in a very long period of time.. I GOT STUMPED!

ok ok.. so if any of u are familiar with WinAPI, especially something that got to do with Win32 shell, please tell me.. i'm trying to figure out some messages in WinProc.. else my workaround is a very resource exhaustive alternative..

if u dont understand the previous paragraph, it means that the message is not for u.

To uphold justice and fight crime the American way..

yo.. wassup ma homies..

i'm in San Francisco now.. in my hotel room.. tapping into one of the available (and unreliable coz itz free) wireless networks.. in the hot sunny California, in the land of equal rights, freedom and opportunities..

heh..

yeah.. rite.. of course..

itz abt 6 degrees now in the unhot and unsunny California.. highest being 11 degrees in the afternoon, under the hottest sun of the day.. and therefore.. itz *NOT*.. i repeat.. *NOT* hot and sunny..

lemme try to describe this place as best as i could..

San Francisco is basically the capital for homosexuals in United States.. in fact.. the first recorded AIDS infection was recorded here.. in which they called it initially as the Gay Cancer..

ermz.. for the record.. the first victim was a Flight Attendant.. *gulp*

but then again.. he's gay.. i'm not..

for the record.. as homophobic as i am.. i have nothing against gays.. i have some very pleasant gay friends.. and as long as we respect each other's space, i think it should be fine..

i remembered watching a Gay And Lesbian Parade here from my room window several months ago.. and u'ld be surprised at the population of homosexuals here.. and they were hugging and kissing.. ermz..

and i love the United States.. so whatever opinions that i am gonna be giving here is gonna be unbiased.. i've got nothing against them.. just to give an insight of how the place really is..

ok.. as i have mentioned.. itz too cold in the usually hot and sunny California.. and in March.. it should be approaching spring.. but it feels like its still in the middle of winter..

it normally looks beautiful and cool in the States rite.. especially in this particular part of States.. but then again, they always show beautiful ppl on TV too.. but to get to see one here? ermz.. VERY VERY rare.. so what do u really get here.. in downtown San Francisco..

u get beggars on the streets, every few feet.. homeless ppl, drunks, addicts.. and the smell of piss everywhere.. rubbish on the streets..

Americans are used to avoiding eye contacts with strangers.. coz they might just stop u for money, cigarette or everything else that u have..

so much so of being a land of freedom rite.. u have to trade in ur freedom of having whatever u have in safe Singapore for the freedom of speech and doing everything else..

1 in 3 Americans are noted to have some sort of psychological problems.. i dunno where i got that fact.. but i read it somewhere..

there had been cases among my colleagues thru the years, some got robbed and some much worse than that.. right here in San Francisco itself.. i think i had mentioned abt some stories and locations of Los Angeles previously in my entry abt Hollywood..

so.. if u wanna live in the United states.. stay away from the major cities.. go look for some nice quiet towns like Smallville..

location info.. San Francisco is a city in the state of California.. California is a state at the strip facing the Pacific Ocean.. and u can drive down from San Francisco to Los Angeles along the Pacific Coast Highway.. though u might grow old before u arrive in Los Angeles..

and Los Angeles is at the border of United States and Tijuana, Mexico.. itz like going from Woodlands to Johore..

but despite whatever i mentioned.. it's one of my dreams if i could work and live in San Francisco.. but not coz i'm gay though.. but coz of Silicon Valley.. which is the heart of the computing world.. located right at the Bay Area of San Francisco.. a haven for nerds..

another location info here..

the Bay Area is made of up 9 counties that surrounds the San Francisco Bay.. and San Francisco is a BIG city in State of California..

arrived here yesterday, in the morning.. and headed out to lunch right after that.. after lunch, i headed down to Nordstrom, a shopping mall at San Francisco Shopping Centre.. to spend some cash in Abercrombie..



Nordstrom, along Market Street..

the shopping centre is located right in downtown SF, just a few minutes walk away from Union Square..

got too tired after that so i just headed back to my room and slept..

woke up this morning, hungry like hell.. and one of the crew, Annabelle, called me out for an early lunch.. so we headed down to a diner..

after lunch, we headed down to Starbucks and sat down for a chat for a while.. Annabelle left to go shopping after that and i came back to my room before heading down again to walk ard on my own..

it was raining thru the late afternoon, and too cold.. and so itz not a good idea to go down for clam chowder, as i wanted to initially, at the Fisherman's Wharf..

so i headed down to a record store and got myself a twin DVD of Aquabats!

kelakar giler..

anyway, i had pics of the Wharf and the Golden Gate Bridge and Pier 49 in my previous posting abt San Francisco..

i came in from Seoul, South Korea, yesterday.. and heading back there tmrw morning..

didnt do much in Seoul coz it was way too early to get up in the morning to report for the flight.. so when we arrived, most of us were too tired..

that's it..

picture time..



view from my room.. facing Macy's along Market Street..



Powell and Hyde Cable Car.. one of the main attractions of Downtown San Francisco.. heading from Powell Street right down to Fisherman's Wharf.. it goes up and down the hills here.. and yepz.. this place is very hilly.. so it might be a good way to lose weight if u wanna walk there... but thatz not for me..

another sight nearby the Wharf would be the Alcatraz.. which was a prison island, and now converted to a tourist attraction..

it is said that no one can ever escape from the Alcatraz alive.. except for Sean Connery..



Powell Street, heading upwards..



Powell Street, facing Market Street..



view from outside my hotel lobby.. along Eddy Street..

ok.. thatz it abt the trip here.. and now.. backtrackking time..

i just came back to work, after 2 weeks of not working, slacking at Esplanade and spending time with my parents and my 2 yr old niece..

no whinings..

nothing else to complain abt..

hmm... issit? but thatz not me..

ok.. lemme think..

lemme think..

lemme whine abt girls now..

somehow.. some girls think that when they have a bf, his life have to automatically revolve around her.. all his hobbies and his mates have to come second to her..

fine.. whatever.. as long as they are in their honeymooning period.. it should be a norm..

but how long does it last?

we guys would do all that for a girl at the beginning of a relationship.. we talk on the phone for hours at a time.. every day and nite.. but i should say that it would be at abt the first two weeks of a relationship.. during the time that we are still obsessed with the girl..

and u will get less frequent calls.. and u will start to realise that the attention is not the same anymore..

any guys who remain longer than this is not normal..

itz either that they are new to RELATIONSHIPS on itz own, and therefore still obsessed with the new "phase of life" rather than obsessed with the girl, or that they have somethings to hide..

a friend of mine mentioned recently that her ex bf calls her all the time, and checked on her every waking second.. till she realised that he had another girl and he wasnt really checking on her.. he was checking on her location and therefore he is safe..

hmm.. ok.. i can think of another reason..

insecurities.. just like a girl..

if the girl is like so gawddamned gorgeous.. thatz a reason to be continuously obsessed..

but please.. dont think that u are gawddamned gorgeous if u *THINK* ur bf fits into this category.. coz he might just fit in the previous ones..

if no other neutral ppl (besides ur bf and ur mother) had said that abt u without trying to be kind, like when u just bought a new dress.. or the time that they are trying to get into ur skirt.. or when other girls say that u look beautiful coz obviously they were secretly expecting u to say the same for them.. then u shouldnt think that u are.. ask my opinion and i'll give u an honest one..

* to my bandgirls.. dont ask me anything in relation to this topic *

so does it mean that we guys dont appreciate our gfs?

of course we do.. but girls have to understand the fact that male love is based on hormones to begin the relationship with.. and after the obsession-state/initial-sex ended, then we might probably start to like her, then we start to care.. then we start to love..

so when that love starts.. and that might be a true love.. we will take care of our girl with our life.. but at that point, she have to understand that our lives dont revolve just around each other..

sad to say that when the honeymooning period starts.. the love is not there yet.. just the raging hormones and we need to keep the girl interested in us long enough and not to drift away to the next hormone-raged male..

if u want a bf that do whatever u say and spend every waking hour talking to you.. get a bf with no hobbies.. or better still.. a nerd whoz closest sexcapade would be in the closet with his right palm.. and he might get one of those short range walkie talkie to be contactable to you and might even move on top of the tree in front of ur block..

but if ur bf has a character and friends before he met u.. i think itz only fair that u allow him to live his life as fairly as u could.. let him be as cool as he was before he met u, and for the reason why u fell for him..

if u take him away from his passion, and he does that for u.. and if u really think that he do all that becoz he loves u.. well.. u might be in for a shock later in the relationship..

and if he does, sincerely, for the moment.. trust me.. he will get tired of it.. and if he develops a new hobby and somehow u become his major time-grabber.. u might end up being dumped at the side..

most guys will hang on to a relationship coz we are too tired to fight it.. so just flow with it.. so if u want us to do this and that.. we do it.. but just coz we dont think that itz worth the hassle and itz not gonna be forever anyway..

and whatz with the topic of this posting?

i was just watching 2 episodes of the Superman movies.. yey..

this is gonna be an exciting year with X-Men 3 and Superman Returns..

up up and awayyyyyyyyyyyy...

Me, Myself And I

hmm.. someone mentioned to me before that i dont blog about my life..

some others told me that my blog is like a newspaper..

ok.. lemme whine.. and think about my life..

i dont have much complains abt my life anyway.. i whine abt other ppl... i have a nice job, my own house, a car.. and i have the freedom of getting things that i need, no wife to nag at me..

so.. letz talk abt ppl..

i hate when ppl talk when they dont deserve to talk.. when they comment abt things that they dont have the rights to..

i divide ppl who give opinions into two major groups..

the significants, and the insignificants..

if u are significant, i'll take ur words with lots of consideration, and i will value ur comments..

if u are not.. then forget it.. it makes no difference.. ur opinion doesnt matter.. and never will..

dont get me wrong.. i dont hate individual ppl.. i hate attitudes.. and characters and traits.. so if a person i come across possess such traits.. i'll tend to stay away..

ok.. thought i'm gonna blog abt Nonoi.. since everyone is.. and coz my blog is like a newspaper.. so.. letz talk abt her now..

its sad that she died.. very sad.. and she is of my niece's age.. and itz really hard to comprehend why anyone would wanna kill such a small child..

or kill anyone at all..

but its even sadder that she was born.. and her siblings.. and the bleak future that they gonna face..

with a mat father and a minah mother..

hell.. even her grandmother is a minah.. and her grandma's "late fiance" was a mat till he died..

in my previous posting months ago, abt my sister and her screwed up life.. her son is a mat.. a pure one.. with blonde hair and tattoo, and he cant read or write..

ok ok.. if he cant read.. he definitely cant write..

my sister is a Pakistani.. so she cant qualify to be a minah due to racial interference.. but her son.. a mat.. and if he gets married? he get little mats and minahs..

i shudder to think of the consequences..

and when i talk abt things i dont like.. i end up talking abt mats and minahs again..

*sigh*

the fact is.. if a society moves too fast.. there would be a lot of ppl being left behind.. and these ppl are those that u cant save..

Singapore is a developed country.. we have more amenities than we can think of.. our needs are being anticipated..

but u still get secret societies and killers and rapists.. and given the opportunities, the killers would turn serial if not for the good work of the investigators.. in Singapore, they dont have that chance to do that..

but at the bottom of this list.. the mats and minahs.. and the ah lians and ah bengs.. those that will reproduce before they are old enough and create replicas of themselves.. and forever this lineage remains..

scrape the bottom of the barrel.. those are what they are gonna find in Singapore.. together with the loansharks, execution-style killers, arcade gangsters, wife beaters, and drunks under the blocks..

but come to think of it.. we need these ppl.. when everyone is a boss, someone has to keep the toilet clean and make coffee.. so in future, mats and minahs and ah bengs and ah lians are employable..

as it is.. they are already now.. just go in IRC and u see mats and minahs talking abt getting those kinda job..

and they are proud of it.. coz they can "club" in the mats and minahs hangout.. like Momo, MOS and HRC..

and they can go riding with their mat and minah friends..

ok ok. letz stop talking abt mats and minahs.

see.. even when i wanna blog abt my life.. i cant.. i got nothing to complain abt..

so ok.. backtrackking time..

i had been on leave for the past *almost* 2 weeks.. ending on Monday.. so i'll be going back to work on Tuesday..

so from 14th to 21st, i will be away to Seoul and San Francisco..

back to natural life..

i had been enjoying myself spending time with my parents and my niece.. whom i'll be sending back to Johore for my cousin to take care of for a week while i'll be on flight and my parents in Jakarta..

and therez nothing to blog abt coz itz the same thing over and over again.. and i enjoyed it..

the only excitement that I had was at the chalet.. before sunrise.. when me, Hamdy, Din and another guy went up to the Old Changi Hospital.. in darkness.. and damn.. itz really scary.. especially after listening to the caretaker's stories abt things happening in other chalet.. and he told us to stay away from certain units..

guess i wont be posting till after my flight unless i have some other things abt other ppl's life that i wanna whine abt..

till then..

Ready Steady Go!

we are the Mods, we are the Mods, we are we are we are the Mods..

hmm.. no.. i'm not a Mod.. nor a Rudeboy.. or a Skinhead.. obviously..

i dont really listen to Indie or Brit Pop and Oi!.. just whatever in that genres thatz nice..

but i'm addicted to Ska..

and alternatives/grunge and metal..

why Ska?

somehow.. thru the years.. there had been some beats and tunes thatz always in my mind.. the kinda music that i enjoy playing..

and i find that in Ska..

i love the upstrokes of the guitar.. the snare sound that sounds so steely.. the horns.. the drop notes in the 2nd and 4th beats.. the style of playing the music..

the history that goes with the music..

the reasons why it moved on..

the 2Tone era.. or rather.. movement.. the legacy it created..

most of my friends here would not understand what i'm talking abt.. so lemme explain some things abt the culture surrounding the music.. the cultures that evolved on their own.. and somehow, no matter how far they go.. they seemed to be attracted back to the music..

and some ppl reading this blog might not understand why some ppl get involved in these things.. some might think that the ppl in the culture are lame.. and for these stereotypical ppl.. lemme just pray that u will get out of ur shallow minds..

guys need to be in gangs and groups.. pakciks at the coffeeshops need to be with their gang.. and police officers go out with police officers.. in groups.. IT nerds go out with IT nerds coz they can talk nerdy stuffs and be cool for knowing the smallest details abt the latest microprocessors and therefore look cool among their peers..

the original Rudeboys from Jamaica should be in their 70s now.. and they are still Rude.

the Mods in England still dress up the way they were...

the Skinheads are still cropped..

the Blacks are still rapping..

but of course.. these are foreign cultures.. but i dont see a reason for it being wrong to embrace it for those who wish to if they will belong in a group where they think the same.. act the same.. dress the same..

unless u ppl want to embrace the Mat culture.. thatz local..

or u wanna be just like everyone else and get married and get kids and whatever.. thatz ur choice..

anyway.. I had never been in these cultures myself... the closest that i think i could get was to be a Rocker.. in which it doesnt run well for my support of those who wishes to be a Modernist or a Skinhead or a Rudeboy.. as long as u respect other ppl's rights no matter who they are..

back in the early 90s, i had long hair.. EXTREMELY long hair.. and spotted an earring, with my leather jacket and tight jeans and boots.. we used to fight for every reason we can think of.. and do a lot of stupid things...

back in those days, it was a much rougher time.. but we were in gangs..

i graduated from that to being a police officer during my National Service days.. and to being a metrosexual as a cabin crew.. and still we are in our own groups and gangs.. and i think itz safe as long as u dont harm anyone, dont plan terrorist activities, dont overthrow any governments and dont steal or invade the properties of others..

but lets think of these misunderstood ppl.. the boys and girls in the underground cultures..

true.. most of them are kids.. so be it.. if they are nurtured with the proper mindset like how it was when the movements started, i think they'll be on the right track..

lemme give a brief Culture 101..

the Rudeboy culture originates from Jamaica in the 50s.. when the youth flocked down to Kingston, the capital, looking for jobs.. and not getting any.. so these youth turned to crime and a Rude way of life..

Ska came abt several years before that and therefore, being the popular music at that time in Jamaica, it was embraced by those youth.. and since then, Ska had been closely tied up with the Rudeboy culture.. itz like how naturally S.M Salim embraced Lagu Melayu Asli.. but loving Ska music does not make u a Rudeboy.. even though itz unheard of a Rudeboy who doesnt listen to Ska..

the Mods, or Modernist movement came abt in the 60s in England.. among the working class youth who had disliked the scruffy look and attitude of the Rockers, and these kids were smart looking and with good attitudes and all.. except for the fact that they liked to popped pills and the fight at the beach with the Rockers was considered as a disgrace to the original Mods, therefore breaking it up into a different faction..

the introduction of Ska and Reggae music during those period by the West Indies to the Mods had caught on by the 70s, spanning Mod bands that play Ska-influenced music.. and redefining Ska itself.. with bands like The Specials, Madness, Selecter, Bodysnatchers and so on..

hmm.. this posting is becoming much longer than i expected.. just off the top of my head.. so for those Mods and Rudies and Skinheads that dont agree with the information, sorry.. therez too many different minor versions of the culture that small details normally makes no difference.. and this posting is more abt Ska..

the most misunderstood culture of all would be the Skinheads.. a breakaway of the Mods who decided to be tougher and yet stylish.. and ppl would associate Skinheads with gangsters and ruffians and Neo Nazis and anti-Asians and racist pigs..

the fact can be no further than the truth.. in real life, Skinheads are the best ppl to be considered as the forerunners of anti-racism movement.. of course.. there were a different breed of them initially who got involved in politics and racism, being recruited by the British political party, National Front, and therefore, the rest of the Skinheads, known as a collective group called SHARP (SkinHeads Against Racial Prejudice) would refer to them as BoneHeads rather..

the movement for anti-racism among the Mods, English Rudeboys and Skinheads are due to the fact that the Black boys were coming and growing up in England, and therefore it was inevitable that the two culture will unite.. and they did, in a way that is much better than any other places.. with white boys fighting for the equal rights to live for Blacks and Asians and Pakistani and everyone else who is of a different color..

thatz the reason for the 2Tone movement.. the black and white checkered logo thatz so related to Ska was derived for the integration among the Whites and the Blacks.. there are no racial prejudice among these cultures and they fight to uphold these ideas..

the sad thing is that.. no one realise these facts abt them.. just as it was, last Saturday.. we had cops coming into the gig at Kampong Glam CC, just to make their presence felt, and terrorising the kids coz they wanna keep a lookout on the Skinheads..

u get cops everytime u have these gigs..

fair enough.. u need to uphold the law and order and prevent rioting and looting and everything else.. but there should be a line drawn somewhere..

the rudeness of the police officers there on that day itself should not be tolerated.. I served as a police Sergeant during my reserve duties still.. and i can see the hypocrisy in them when they dealt with the public and when they come down to these events.. just because they think that they can be rude and get away with it..

a show of power..

with the ideas of racial harmony among Singaporeans, although itz very obvious to everyone that they are just ideas and most Singaporeans are still prejudiced, no matter how small.. i think they should try to relate and support the ideas of the racial unity among the Rudeboys and Skinheads, and ok.. let the Mods live their Way Of Life and put mirrors on their scooters..

i proposed a gig to reignite the movement of Rock Against Racism.. and i have talked to several local Ska bands, like Comic Strip and Sally's Rejex and DOS members, and if we could get it, we'll try to organise a Ska and Oi! event to understand and uphold the anti-racist movements..

and for us all to understand and fully agree that racism has no part in our lives..

my dad's a mix, with a Pakistani father and a Chinese mom.. and my mother is an Indian.. and i look and speak Malay and i embraced part of the Malay culture coz they accepted me..

most of us Singaporeans are mixed in some ways or another.. but somehow, some ppl got mixed up instead..

let's get the authorities involved in this.. and understand the reasoning behind these cultures.. and we all can live happily ever after..

Rock against Racism..