The magic of fluorecent lights and a speeding car combined..

A sudden brownout, or a blackout, what happens? Classes cancelled, underground carparks goes dark, elevators and escalators cease to function, office work lost because it was not saved, water pumps stops functioning, traffic lights go on vacation, petrol pumps can't do their job... A lot of things happen.

So, what ensues after a blackout is something which will end up in a chaos. People leave work for home because no power means no work can be done, they leave in dozens in their cars, entering the traffic snarl waiting for them outside because the traffic lights are out of order and presto, an instant gridlock. At the same time, people curious about what happened calls their friends and family to check if their places are also affected, or calling them to go out for some bite, or just to look for them in the mess and presto, an instant cellular network jam and failure. People unfortunate enough trapped at their workplace will congregate at the nearest mamak which is already filled to the brim just to get away from reality for a moment. When work goes undone, productivity goes down and the economy receives a kick in the ass, so stock market will plunge and investors will be disappointed. Panic-striken people starts calling the TNB 15454 number and will end up jamming the lines, and all questions about the blackout went unanswered. Fearing the worse, some people will squirm to the nearest sundry shop, supermarket, hypermarket and hardware stores to stock up supply, fuel and electric generators in their homes and presto, causing an even worse traffic gridlock. In those stores, queues at the cashier lanes rival the long queues at the toll plazas during the balik kampung season, impatient people will simply walk out of there and if someone sees them doing this, they'll follow them (the typical Malaysian attitude, they will only do it when some brave soul managed to prove that its ok to do so), security guards are overwhelmed by the "catch and carry" patrons, looting then breaks out and havoc everywhere. Police is called in and if not enough, FRU rolls in with their water cannons and tear gas cans. And presto, mass riot and looting in the streets. Nervous wrecks around town go on overdrive mode and start packing up to leave town or turn their homes into WW2 bunkers. A national emergency is announced, martial law and curfew imposed. And rumour mongers tells everyone that terrorists are behind the power outage thus feeding the public's fears.

No, that didnt happen today, thank god we're all civilized people. But hold that breath, this happened before and it happened in the world's financial capital, New York City in the 70's when a major blackout hit the city. And does the looting sound familiar to you? Just a few years ago, in the same 21st century, looting happened in Nilai after some customers waiting for a warehouse to open its doors became rowdy. And our nation is not alien to having rioters walking down the street, in our 47 years of independence, we had at least 2 riots in the capital. A bunch of disgruntled Indonesian workers went on a rampage in Nilai just a couple of years ago, overturning police cars and destroying public properties. And after all that, everyone stats to point finger on whose fault was it. And the government will start saying "Kita seharusnya bekerjasama dalam keadaan yang tidak menentu dan elakkan ini daripada berlaku lagi", dozens of campaigns and enquiries will spring out which leads us to nowhere, and in a few months time, everyone forgets.

This goes to show that we all live in a society bounded by daily routines, like computers following a path of commands rigidly. And if something were to happen, something that would knock of our spot unexpectedly, we would crash like a computer with a destructive virus. Just imagine how fragile we are....

Today was the orientation day for the newcomers of the archi course of Taylor's, a prelude to something far less pretty, depends on the angle you're looking at the course, maybe prettier, whatever. But these fresh faces I saw today, like cookies that had just been taken out of the oven, perfectly cooked and not burned, reminds me that it has been two long years since I was in their place right now. Fresh out of school, or out of national service for some of them, they have expectations no different than what me and most of my coursemates had in mind when we had to go through the same thing last time. Building big and something-that-looks-good was all on my mind, kinda immature when I think about it now. That butterfly-in-my-stomach feeling made me a nervous wreck on my 1st day when I saw a group of my ex-schoolmates congregating at the main gate of TCSJ. Leaving school and starting college life was a big thing for me, I bet the rest of school-leavers would think the same. Driving license, more independence, flexible schedule, clothes and outlook became important and finally learning something that I would be more interested in, its a sudden change from following strict timetable, school uniforms, heavy textbooks and school teachers. Its like a prisoner was released after serving 11 years in prison, overwhelmed by freedom and clueless on what lies down the road.



Well, everyone enjoyed the orientation day organized by the seniors of SAQS, there were interesting moments like making their first model and presentation (it looks like some of them will become the creme de la creme of SAQS) and there were somewhat memorable moments like concocting a somewhat "appetizing" mixture of cili padi, wasabi, eggs, milk, celery and coke right before lunch. A small Fear Factor took place there, but everyone went thru well. Didnt get to see what happened after that, but from what I heard the seniors were pretty cruel in doing something that involved water, dunno lah, due to the Yearbook thingy which had been going idle for some time and now the book has to be published sometime in the 1st quarter of this year after orders from above, not so sure. Overall it was a good day, but unfortunately wasnt in the best mood, unusually tired, and worried and uneasy about certain things which are practically stupid and... dunno lah. Made some new friends which was pretty cool. Well, college begins on Monday, hope everything will be Okay...

Okay, another year has passed, another round of what seemed to be an eternity of "roller-coaster ride". 2004 has been a very wild ride, full of ups and downs, and countless events that will stay in this distorted psyche of mine forever. On a wider scope, the world is no less different, Iraq is still obliterated from within by suicide bombers, George "Dubya" Bush got relected (why him???), Arafat died, Malaysia was beaten by Indonesia in the Tiger Cup semi-final (audiences were fighting, pathetic.. Not to mention the Myanmar-Singapore match, it was even worse, Myanmars supportes and players are just a bunch of a**holes, no offence, just watch the match and you'll see why) and more recently the tsunami which struck 11 nations around the Indian Ocean (my deepest synpathy to those affected). There is always a surprise at the corner of the street, always something waiting to strike you when you least expected.

Nothing much to write now, just to commemorate the arrival of 2005, although its almost 5 days late... Just keeping my blog alive. Till next time.