Deteriorating Courtesy in the Midst of Advancing Technology

 

TECHNOLOGY has progressed tremendously. What used to be business calls strictly from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. has now invaded the personal parts of our lives. The speed and connectivity has allowed us to communicate at any time of the day, anywhere in the World. In the 80's, when someone made a promise on the telephone to meet somewhere at a specific time, we honour it, albeit some delays due to unexpected traffic condition. Today, you can be waiting for someone at a specified venue, date and time; but gets frustrated by a late message that says, "Oh! Sorry I forgot", or "Something came up, I cannot make it". Most of the time the reasons given are superficial, or, in other words, Bull Shit. We are very effective in communicating our ill thoughts about others on social media like Facebook, TikTok and Instagram; but ignore the messages sent to us for matters of good faith. Sometimes we find ourselves giving up waiting for responses on the phone for messages that we send to others. It does not take much effort to reply simple words like, "Thanks, will digest", or even a simple icon of a thumbsup would do. It is common courtesy to do so regardless whether you are a CEO, or an artist, or a Grab driver. Replying to a message from others is expected from everyone even when you are disinterested. Imagine going to someone face to face to say, "Hi!"; and then the person you addressed that to simply ignores you as if he or she is a wall. It sucks!, doesn't it? We take advantage of the convenience that technology has provided. We misuse the efficiency that technology has presented. We misbehave despite the modernisation of humanity. We have lost the decorum of respecting others. This deteriorating courtesy in the midst of advancing technology warrants everyone to just flush down the toilet the privilege of using Whatsapp, emails, social media or even a mere handphone.

E-Wallet Can Be Annoying

 

E-WALLET is something that may be viewed by many as technological advancement. However, for an old dude like me (Well, I'm that old, just half a century to be precise), it can be annoying. Very annoying sometimes. I brought cash in British Pounds nomination with me to the United Kingdom last year to enrol my son into a university. The entire journey, until I was back in Kuala Lumpur, did not demand me to use any of the cash. Everything from cabs to coffee only accept e-Wallets or Credit Cards. I wanted to leave the cash behind for my son, but even he refused to take it. For me, this is a WTF moment. Recently, I got stuck in a parking lot because my TNG card had really low balance. I had to park at the side to sort out the TNG Card. Bloody hell, the new TNG App puts the bloody TNG Card Icon way at the bottom hidden behind a "More" button. Then when I tried to top up my TNG Card balance, it won't work. It seemed that the bloody handphone cover has a metal layer for which the NFC could not work. Then when I lose the cover, it still won't bloody work! I had to top up the e-Wallet first, then I had to transfer from the e-Wallet into the TNG Card. Whaddahell! Of course out of all the time in the World, that particular moment my phone battery was on orange or red bar showing 2% power. And of course, I had to forget to bring my power bank too! Damn! It took me quite sometime to go look for someone in the building who could lend me his power bank. I was already profusing with sweat running everywhere to get this sorted. Of course Murphy's Law had to be applied. More screwups came along. The bloody line couldn't get me connected with Credit Card or the Debit Card. To cut a long story short, what was supposed to be a short endeavour became a long one. Some may view me as "Outdated" as far as the latest technology is concerned, but, imagine this, I was so used to the old TNG Card where it automatically deducts from my credit card everytime it reaches RM50. So, for twenty five years since 2000, I had never had to worry about manual top ups. In 2026, I find myself putting a calendar reminder every 1st of the month to check my TNG Card balance. Although the e-Wallet has an auto credit card charges but not the top ups into the TNG Card. So, it is what it is. To close the issue, I just wanted to share what happened to my late father. In 2021, when he was 85 years old, he went to a Chicken Rice Shop to eat Chicken Rice. Lo and behold, there was no menu. It was all embeded into a QR code. This poor 85 year old man has no clue where to find the QR code in his handphone, let alone understand how things work. He has never even used Maybank2U for heaven's sake. His deal was simply signing cheques and withdraw cash at the ATM. Alast, he left the place feeling frustrated not able to eat the chicken rice, and settled with just bread and yesterday's reheated fish curry. I rest my case.

Washing the Ass Hole

 

ASS HOLES need to be washed properly when you have done your thing. I cannot comprehend why people, especially those who make decisions for property developers, fail to apply the most basic of all concepts, How to Wash Your Ass Hole? When you shit, it does not hit the fan, it spreads all over your ass hole. Therefore, you need to address that. Out of all the elements God had given us, some people choose paper? Come on. We all know paper can't do shit. If you don't believe me, try licking the ass holes of those who just did paper wipe. If you are lucky, the dude had sharwarma last night, and maybe you'll get a weird version of minced lamb taste. Whatever happened to the liquidified format of compressed two Hidrogen atoms with one Oxygen atom? H2O. Don't you think water does better than freaking papers? We do not need rocket science. For heaven sake, we sent a man to the moon but we cannot wash our asses properly? And when we do get water, it will be one of those modern Japanese toilet. Why can't they just give me a water gun a.k.a. bidet? No, they had to give those stupid water shooters that comes out like a crane targetting your ass. Don't they ever considered that apart from the ass, we'd probably also need to wash our dicks?

The Les Paul Incident

 

GIBSON LES PAUL Greeny is my most precious guitar from a collection of 69 pieces. Six months ago I fell down the stairway while holding two Gibson Les Pauls including the Greeny. Out of impulse, I accidentally had a quick and sudden response to move my arms upwards to save the guitars at the expense of the well being of, luckily, just 1 arm/shoulder. As a result, the six months were full of pain and agony to the extent that I had numerous sleep disruptions. Finally in April 2025, I did an MRI and found out that I had torned my shoulder tendon and ligaments. Now I am on frequent physio treatment at Thomson Hospital, Kota Damansara. But, don't worry, the Les Pauls are not damaged. Fiuhhh!!!..... 

Friendship, Faith and Food

 

FRIENDSHIP is all about reaching a common ground between people of the same social group. Four friends; a Buddhist, a Hindu, a Christian and a Muslim discussed how they should meet up for a potluck lunch without offending anyone's religion. The problem is, they only decided to discuss this during the meet up when they had all brought each other's contribution. The Buddhist said, "I am a strict Vegetarian. So, I cannot eat the chicken, the crayfish and the beef that you guys brought". The Hindu said, "I am a strict Hindu. So, I cannot eat the beef that you guys brought". The Christian said, "I am a strict Christian. So, I cannot eat the crayfish that you guys brought". The Muslim said, "I am a strict Muslim. So, I cannot eat at all because I am fasting". The four friends decided to adopt the strictest diet, hence they all fasted. Soon they got tired and weak and they all fell asleep. The Buddhist, the Hindu and the Christian then woke up at around dusk and they saw the Muslim eating the veggies, the chicken, the beef and the crayfish.

Social Media, a New Age Opium

 

MALAYSIA is ranked 5th globally and 2nd in Asia for cyberbully incidences. Wow! What a category to have achieved top rankings. We, Malaysians, should be ashamed. What had caused this? The narcissistic behaviour (on line & social media) of Malaysians, particularly the young ones, is pathetic. This may have invited cyberbullies to capitalise on personal information of individuals. There are 28 million social media users in Malaysia. That is almost 93% of Malaysia's population (2024). I can't help to notice that Malaysians love to post everything that they do in life onto social media. From the proud moments of their children getting A's in exams all the way to what tea or coffee they drink. Why? I hope what had happened to Vivy Yusof of Fashion Valet becomes a learning point to all. Perhaps Malaysians should follow Vivy's approach and fasting from posting (on social media). A refreshed privacy can be achieved I reckon. War against social media should suffice to curb this new age addiction that is deadly in deteriorating all of our brains. Perhaps opium would rank lower than social media? God forbid, our brains may become useless at some point. No wonder humanity is showing interest in artificial intelligence. An eventual slavery for humanity I suspect.

It is Always at the End of the Terminal

 

AIRPORTS pisses me off. Is there something wrong with me that the Universe decided to ALWAYS assign me the last and farthest air plane boarding gate? As far as I can remember, in my entire life, I have always had to walk so far down the corridors until the end of it, coupled with occasional transit trains or busses to another detached terminal, for which, embarks me to another long walk down another corridor, yet again with the last gate at the end of the stretch. This is very amusing, confusing and leaves me to wonder why. Once I'd reach my destination, that is almost to the end of the World, suddenly, a son, or two, would say, "Daddy, I wanna go to the toilet!". Guess where the nearest toilet would be?