Goodbye GeoCities .... Oct 27, 2009

I remember way back in 1996-97, when I first entered this wonderful experience of chatting, surfing and being and internet freak, there was a place called GeoCities. We had hmtl chatrooms, we could private chat, we could even have our own little easy to create and maintain webpages - sorta like the start of all this blogging mania that continues today.

On Geocities, I met many interesting people from around the world. And as we chatted, exchanged information, teased, flirted, some fell in love and were happily ever after, some fell in love on to crash boom bang one net met real life, it was a vibrant platform for interaction across all corners of the world.

There were chats themes and for all lifestyles. I remember I met my best friend on one of those alternative websites. We started talking. I was in a stage of learning that people's choice of sexual liaisons was a personal choice and one that did not usually dictate the rest of their interactions. Speaking with the gays, lesbians, bi-sexuals, transexuals in that particular room, and I discovered friends and friendships that opened my mind and made me more understanding. Just because someone is different from you it doesn't make them wrong, because there will come a time you might be different from the rest too. These were extremely intelligent, successful, caring loving friends. And me and my best friend, we have stood the test of time and distance and I can only love him more for the wonderful person he is. ~~~MEEEEEEOOOOOOOWWWWWW~~~ you know who you are :))

The most significant chatroom in Geocities which touched my life and I made so many friends globally was the Rainforest. And in the Rainforest, I was known as the lioness. :)) doesn't take a genius to figure out this was because I live in a Rainforest country and I am a Leo hence the lioness. If I look at my Yahoo Messenger and email address book, I still have many of those friends from that time whom I keep in touch with some sporadically some more frequently. And all have remained amazing supportive friends through the years.

Many I have met in person either in my travels abroad before or they've made trips or in transit in Malaysia. And we met with some misgivings at meeting someone who other than typed words exchanged was really a stranger only to find when we said hello, there was none of the 'stranger anxieties' but really just friends catching up in person. Conversations flowed easily, like as if we did this every other day. Three people who immediately pop into my mind from the Rainforest are AbbyN, Pseudoreal, and Silas - and 13 yrs later, we're still in touch. The power of internet eradicating distances.

I had my first 'blog' too on Geocities. It was called the Lioness of The Rainforest (I think - my friend .sha would remember better coz he reminded me of this final days of Geocities). I put up pictures, I had stories about my love story with Jacob. I had poems. I actually wrote all of the html codes myself even with funky flashing text and all. It was my pride and joy. When in 1997 I moved to KLIA site, .sha did me a favour and backed up all my files and pictures of my spot on the web and gave it to me in the harddrive of Charles my pc. Charles the pc has long died and the harddrive was saved (still have it wrapped in exactly the same plastic .sha gave it to me in after he'd rescued it just for posterity sake) Charles the pc was a 486 running Windows 95 - ahahha man have we come a long way now ....

Some of the material from Lioness of the Rainforest I had in written form which I have since loaded into my more current blogs. Some of it remain on Charles the pc's harddrive that is obsolete and forever shall remain thre.

Goodbye Geocities. It was the catalyst to an amazing menagerie of friendships that have lasted 13 years and I am confident will survive the test of time. Thank you for the memories, thank you for the experience.... and you were doing great until Yahoo bought you and things got a bit more complicated. I am sure many of your early users also hold extremely fond memories of your. RIP Geocities.

Ooooops ... Oct 21, 2009

Teoh Beng Hock's Cause of Death .... if you can't read it on Malaysiakini here's the text below.

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21 — Thai pathologist Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand told the coroner’s court this morning that there was an 80 per cent probability that Teoh Beng Hock’s death was homicide and not suicide, and suggested that some of his injuries were sustained before his fatal fall.

Under questioning from Selangor state lawyer, Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, Dr Pornthip testified that the political aide was indeed alive when he hit the ground but added that he was unconscious, judging from the lack of injuries to his wrists and ankles.

She explained that if he were still conscious when he fell, there would have been “reaction wounds” to show he had instinctively tried to stop from hitting the ground.

She said that Teoh’s injuries showed he could have been strangled and that he sustained anal penetration before he fell to his death on July 16.

Dr Pornthip added that Teoh could have passed out as a result of the strangulation or from the pain from injuries to his anal region.

She told the court that the likelihood that Teoh had committed suicide — the theory previously put forward by the two pathologists who examined Teoh’s body after death — was only 20 per cent.

The stunning testimony made by the forensic expert, who gained international prominence from her work in identifying the 2004 Asian tsunami victims and more recently in the death of Hollywood star David Carradine, appeared to suggest Teoh was assaulted before his death.

Using a graphics presentation, the 54-year-old who has carried out over 10,000 autopsies over the last 27 years, told the court that not all the injuries sustained by Teoh were consistent with those caused by a fall.

The anal tear, which she described as a “penetrating injury”, appeared to have happened before he fell.

Dr Pornthip noted that the tear measured 6cm-wide by 2cm-long.

She rejected the idea that the anus was penetrated by a bone fragment, which had been put forward by local pathologist, Dr Khairul Aznam Ibrahim from the Hospital Tengku Rahimah Ampuan in Klang.

She reasoned that if that had happened, the force would have punctured the area opposite its entry and not as what was shown in the autopsy photos taken.

She suggested that they were caused by an object inserted into Teoh’s anus from a bottom-up direction, which she indicated with a blue arrow on a picture slide projected on a white screen in the darkened courtroom this morning.

“This kind of injury, I’ve not seen in cases of fall from height,” the director-general of Thailand’s Central Institute of Forensic Science (CIFS) said.

However, she could not say what the object was.

She also said that the depth of the tear was not measured or mentioned in the autopsy report.

Dr Khairul had jointly written the autopsy report with Indian pathologist Dr Prashant Naresh Samberkar who is currently based at the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre in Kuala Lumpur.

Several stripes on Teoh’s upper thighs, just below the buttocks were also pointed out as inconsistent with injuries caused by a fall.

Dr Pornthip suggested the horizontal lines were the result of a beating with a stick.

She added that if she had carried out the autopsy on Teoh, she would have cut open the thighs just under the skin to check for internal bleeding in order to confirm her theory.

She also pointed out several “round” bruises on Teoh’s neck, which could mean “manual strangulation” by fingers.

Her lengthy explanation on Teoh’s neck injuries was peppered with graphic references to her own case studies of strangulation victims.

The skull fracture on Teoh’s head, she said, was not typical of an injury from a fall, but more compatible with the result of blunt force applied directly to the skull.

“I found contusion on fracture line, so the fracture could be caused by blunt force injury directly on skull,” she said, explaining why she disagreed with Dr Khairul’s and Dr Prashant’s theory.

The two doctors who performed Teoh’s autopsy had previously put forward the idea that the head injury may have been caused by the momentum of the landing.

“For transfer of force, (you) only find ring fracture at base of the skull along (the) spinal column, not a linear fracture and not a cervical spine fracture,” she added.

She said that her assessment was based on Teoh’s autopsy report, the photographs of his injuries and from snapshots taken at the site where his body was found.

Dr Pornthip who had earlier suggested that Teoh may have been dragged before he plunged to his death told the coroner’s court after lunch break that she no longer held the view.

In her testimony earlier, she had contradicted Dr Prashant’s idea that it was caused by the impact on the ground.

She explained that she had been allowed to view the original pictures of the shoe, which are of a better quality than the copies she had been provided, and confirmed that the marks on the sole were indeed caused by the impact when Teoh landed on the hard and rough ground feet first.

She told the court she would like to carry out her own autopsy on Teoh, but magistrate Azmil Muntapha Abas who is acting as coroner in the inquest, indicated that it may be too late to do so at this stage.

Dr Pornthip had also previously sent two assistants to join the court to survey where Teoh’s body was found on a 5th-floor landing outside the offices of the Selangor branch of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in Plaza Masalam here.

Teoh, who was the political secretary to a DAP state executive councillor, had been questioned overnight on July 15 to help an ongoing investigation into claims his boss had misused state funds.

Dr Pornthip was engaged as an expert witness by the Selangor state government.

She had been among the first names suggested to carry out a joint autopsy on Teoh, but was rejected by his family whose reasons remain unknown.

Earlier, she told the court that she had conducted over 10,000 autopsies in her career, of which more than 100 dealt with fatal falls from high places.

She estimated Teoh to have died between 6am and 8am on July 16.

Now isn't this finding interesting hmmmm .... After all the crap that chap Hishamuddin Hashim came out and said, I really dunno if they think all Malaysians are absolutely daft and dumb to think Teoh actually committed suicide.

It scares me to think that the powers that be can so blatantly lie. But I am looking forward to seeing just how they still manage to wrap this up in a nice bundle and say the boy killed himself.

Justice are you forever blind????????

Happy Diwali .... Oct 16, 2009

Here's sending you the warmest of wishes to all the netizen on this happy celebration of Light.

"On the eve of when Good overcomes Evil;
When in the morning hour Light overcomes Darkness;
We send you wishes warm and bright this Diwali"

Loads of love and hugs from us 3 - .ani, Ashna and Kasha