Brunei Left Out?

Right at this very moment, hundreds of thousands of people in the Merdeka Stadium, KL are having the time of their lives, relishing each and every second of having Justin Bieber in front of their eyes, listening and singing altogether to the song he is currently performing live. Whereas we here in Brunei are only left to wonder of how much fun these Malaysians are having right now.

Its really unfair.

My Twitter homepage is currently brimming with woeful and desperate tweets of the local 'beliebers' mostly saying how much they want to be in Justin's concert right now, on the other hand, some of them are demanding Justin to come to Brunei after his tour in Malaysia by tweeting to him endlessly along with #BruneiNeedsBeliebers inserted in their tweets. Honestly saying girls, I don't think such an attempt would be effective because 1) I doubt Justin even reads them 2) He's already been schedueled to perform in Indonesia after this, and another country after that and the list goes on and on. Though, Brunei isn't included in that list.

Its really disappointing, its not like we live under rocks or something. We're as much exposed to western celebrities like all the other countries, we even declare ourselves as big fans of them. However, we're always left out, Brunei is never included in any World Tours made my by international celebrities. I heard it has something to do with the government's policy of restricting foreign celebrities to have concerts here in Brunei. If it were true, I'd say its not fair for the people.

Other countries like Malaysia allows such entertainment to be brought upon their people, why can't Brunei do the same? We feel envious of them and we also yearn for the presence of famous celebrities from other countries to be here in Brunei and put up their concerts. If it's a celebrity as popular as Justin, I doubt the tickets to his concert would be on sale for long here in Brunei. Trust me.

All We Need Is Peace And Harmony

Theres this particular song called 'Peace and Harmony' frequently played on our local radio station Kristal FM, I must've heard it a dozen times since earlier this year, but only today have I discovered who the singer is.. his name is Aziz Harun. And much to my surprise.. he's a local Bruneian, furthermore.. he's probably only 12.

The song really hit my interest big time! I've always been curious about the song ever since I first heard it, I've never really seen it being featured on MTV, let alone being played once there. But all the answers came springing in on me all at once when I typed the name of the song along with part of it's lyrics and search it on Google.

And man, did reality slap me hard! The singer, who I've always pictured in my mind to be a blonde country girl with short jeans, was apparently a pre-teen boy (which basically explains the voice-misunderstanding I had) who lives in the same country as I do, maybe even in the same neighborhood -that I don't really know. Him being a local is way better than what I had expected, yes way better than that country girl from my delusions. lol.

I realized I'm a bit late on the recognition front, I reckon probably the whole country knows who he is by now. Nevertheless though, I must say I'm really impressed with his work, Aziz wrote and composed the song when he was just 11. For a boy that age, I'm really surprised the song isn't about his crush or having to party every Friday like you-know-who but instead the message he sent in the song is about peace amongst the people across the world. The music and lyrics are simple and down to earth, yet enough to make the song one of a kind.

Not only that, I've listened to some of the songs that he covered on Youtube, Aziz has one heck of a voice and a talent that will bring him far in life.. I'm supporting you all the way little dude, looking forward for more of your original songs!

"You Are Going To Die Now"

Imagine being in class one morning, waiting for the class teacher to make an entrance into the class as usual, but instead you find a man walking through the door wielding a gun in both hands and saying "you are going to die now" in front of the whole class. Then he would start shooting everyone with his guns.

I know.. just the thought of it is sickening.

However, such a thing did happen to one of the schools in Brazil. The exact same thing.

I was reading the Sunday Bulletin this morning and its where I came across the article regarding this killer. According to it, the man's name is Menezes De Oliveira, aged 23, -a rather young age to be killing children if you ask me. He came to a school called Tasso Da Silveira in Brazil, which also happens to be his old primary school. He arrived around 8am just as school has started for the students there. He managed to get past the school's doorman and a teacher who had spotted him. He wasn't wielding any weapons at that point, which made him look like a normal, decent looking guy who wouldn't harm anyone. That is, of course, until he entered a class full of 13 year old students with no teacher, took out his revolver and handgun, yelled to everyone "you are going to die now", opened fire and started shooting them in the heads.

It was reported that he had killed 12 of the students, leaving 11 more injured. It was also said that he killed himself after a police had intervened. According to some other source I found online, the killer also had a suicide note with him. Though I still can't find what his actual motives were to kill those children at a school he once studied at. Anyway, here's a video, obtained from the school's security camera, showing some of the students who had managed to escape the killer's killing spree.

I couldn't even imagine why he would do such an inhumane thing killing those innocent children who didn't even saw this coming.

I mean, usually, the worse thing that could happen in school is getting bullied by thugs or being sent to the principal's office for an offence.. but who would've ever expected a killer to appear and open fire with two guns all of a sudden.

But nonetheless.. my condolences go out to the victims of this said massacre and their devastated families as well.

Jerudong Park: Disappointment

So its the weekend.. I for one am not going anywhere fancy today. Initially I was thinking of going to Miri with dad to fetch mom up at the airport.. but then, just the thought of having to sit for hours in the car because of the inevitable weekend traffic jam en route to Miri made me change my mind almost immediately. Thus I blog.

Now onto the point of my title..

I've acknowledged some people's tweets and Facebook statuses lately saying they're going to Jerudong Park to spend their Sunday. The first thing that popped inside my mind is you guys don't know what you're about to get into.

I went to Jerudong Park with the big family last week.. by that I mean with my cousins and all. All I could say at the end of the day was: its not worth the excitement, its not worth the money and its definitely not worth waiting in the long queue just to purchase the tickets.

Just few days before that, having heard that Jerudong Park was reopening, I was as excited as Rebecca Black in her Friday music video! And from what I can remember during my frequent visits to JP in my not-so-long-ago childhood, the place was all about fun and amusement.. but when we actually got there that particular day.. I was instantly disappointed.

The main reason why I got all psyched out for JP at the first place was because of the anticipation to ride the roller coasters -been a while since I did such a thing. Much to my surprise though, not even one of them was opened, all had been shut down, not just the roller coasters but all the extreme rides including the Water Log, the Sudden Drop and all those alike. Whats left to be amused about for kids my age are the bumper cars, the paddle boats and the go-karts.. but I didn't even ride any of them, why? because of the unbelievably long queue one has to wait in just to get a turn to play.

You don't even have to stand in line just to know the wait is long, you could pretty much tell just by looking at the desperate people waiting there. And whats worse is, you only get to spend about 10 minutes of what you've been waiting half an hour in line for.

Much more to my disappointment, I expected JP to have a face-lift or something now that it has reopened again, but things remained almost the same and old like the last time I visited it years ago. And of all the things I did spend my ticket on was at the Shooting Range booth, and that place alone looks decapitated and in need of some serious renovations. Enough said on that.

After spending more than 3 hours of simply wandering about the place, the little ones finally got tired of playing in the playground and so we finally, finally exited JP. Some of us still have our tickets left.. unspent.. so they decided to sell them to the rather desperate people waiting at the ticket booth. Its better to do so than let it go to waste, right?

On our way out, surprise as we all were, we could make out a traffic jam of cars moving inch by inch to enter JP. The traffic jam was intense and made very slow progress. It stretched from the parking lot all the way into the highway, the jam ended precisely on the Jerudong highway bridge, near the filling station. Funny thing is, we didn't even have to go through much trouble going into JP that evening, even as we got out from it. Though I really felt sorry for those people in the traffic jam and those still waiting in line to get a turn to play the bumper cars.. is it worth the wait? I doubt it.

Here's a snap shot of me and Ammar before entering JP, very excited to ride the non-existent roller coasters. Sigh.

Call Me A Nerd

If it's one thing I want so badly right now, its this book right here.

Its the fourth installment to the Gone Series written by Michael Grant. I have read the first three books and I was so intrigued by it! Here's a book-review I've written in my old blog.

This fourth series just came out a few days ago -April 5th- and I've asked mom to look for it in KL since she's currently on a shopping-spree with her girls there -but no luck, it hasn't been marketed yet I guess. And I have no doubt its not even gonna be sold here in Brunei at all or at least for years to come. Think I just have to purchase it online like I did to get the previous installment. Thats a good thing I guess, because I'll be having more time to finish reading my current books: I'm reading a copy of Time Riders and Endymion Spring, both of which are relatively awesome as well.

And as per usual, all the books of the Gone Series have their own book trailers. I mean how cool is that.. books that have trailers are always the first to catch my attention. Check this out:

Another book that is number two on my list of must-haves is Hunger Games written by Suzanne Collins. I heard its one hell of a book.

Working For BSP?

So we had this BSP career talk the other day at school.. and in spite of that motivational speech delivered by a local engineer and a Nigerian woman working in Human Resources .. I still can't trigger the slightest of interest to work for BSP in the future.

Those two speakers did a fine job in getting their points across clearly regarding the career talk. Though I wasn't especially intrigued in what they had to say.. which was of course about BSP. Now I may sound a bit controversial here, but I'm only trying to get my points across. From what I actually learnt from the career talk is that working for BSP could be very advantageous as it does provide its employees with good salaries, modern working equipments, safe environment to work in and all those stuffs. To put it simply; working for BSP could be worthy of a career for many people. Though, I reckon I am not going to be one of those people.

I could say I do know a lot about BSP since both my parents are working for it. For me, I just don't see myself having a profession like them in BSP in the future -even despite the fact that jobs in BSP are diversified. Besides, to work in the much higher class in there you are required to have a high knowledge of mathematics, science, technical skills -all of which I have very low interest towards. I have other careers in mind that I can see myself working suitably in when I grow up, but of course -thats a whole different story.

Reblogged: Myth Vs Reality

I got this from Tumblr. Its something worthy for everyone to know.

Myth: Young people rarely think about suicide.

Reality: Teens and suicide are more closely linked than adults might expect. In a survey of 15,000 grade 7 to 12 students in British Columbia, 34% knew of someone who had attempted or died by suicide; 16% had seriously considered suicide; 14% had made a suicide plan; 7% had made an attempt and 2% had required medical attention due to an attempt.

Myth: Talking about suicide will give a young person the idea, or permission, to consider suicide as a solution to their problems.

Reality: Talking calmly about suicide, without showing fear or making judgments, can bring relief to someone who is feeling terribly isolated. A willingness to listen shows sincere concern; encouraging someone to speak about their suicidal feelings can reduce the risk of an attempt.

Myth: Suicide is sudden and unpredictable.

Reality: Suicide is most often a process, not an event. Eight out of ten people who die by suicide gave some, or even many, indications of their intentions.

Myth: Suicidal youth are only seeking attention or trying to manipulate others.

Reality: Efforts to manipulate or grab attention are always a cause for concern. It is difficult to determine if a youth is at risk of suicide All suicide threats must be taken seriously.

Myth: Suicidal people are determined to die.

Reality: Suicidal youth are in pain. They don’t necessarily want to die; they want their pain to end. If their ability to cope is stretched to the limit, or if problems occur together with a mental illness, it can seem that death is the only way to make the pain stop.

Myth: A suicidal person will always be at risk.

Reality: Most people feel suicidal at some time in their lives. The overwhelming desire to escape from pain can be relieved when the problem or pressure is relieved. Learning effective coping techniques to deal with stressful situations can help.

The Come Back: I am back baby!

Back to blogging that is.

This is my second blog actually, the other one is iWaly.. I haven't really updated it since last year for some reasons. Well one of the reason is because I have lost a large amount of readers due to my lack of updates and another one might be because I got tired of blogging after I discovered that tweeting is much more amusing.. but eventually I got tired of shrinking my sentences and using short forms just to get my points across in less than 140 characters.

Since then.. I've been meaning to blog once again.. then I figured, what better way to make a come back -oh I just love using that term- if not on a new blog.. with a new name! Something fresh to put it very simply. Though, frankly, I don't really know how long this blog would last. Lets just hope it will for a very long time.

I don't really wanna talk much on the introduction front.. so I'm just gonna stop right here. Oh wait, theres one more thing.. I'm really looking forward for new readers.. everyone is welcomed!

Hola!