Listen to me now.......

I have no face
I have no body
I have no heart
I have no soul
I don't care if you're young if you're old
Here's my mission
I'm out to get them those who be slippin
Creepin while they be creepin
I be enterin into them
Silently violently that's not me
Quietly you'll never know I'm in your blood stream
Swimming I been injected now you're infected
And when you find me here it will be worse than you expected
Temptation, that's how I get in, that's how I got in
Information, is what you lackin, now I'm attackin
Your mind, and body functions, don't seem to function
Somethin, ain't how it used to be and it's because of me
Killin you, cold-blooded murderer
The bible told the world I would be here and now I'm servin ya
Along with the floods mass destruction and wars
You can listen to me, but the choice is yours

- Eightball on "Listen to me now" with MJG.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I needed something to listen to and popped in an old CD, which I hadn't heard in years. I bought this CD called American Is Dying Slowly (AIDS) in year 12 and thought the CD was really overrated. When I heard this verse it just stunned me. Stopped me dead in my tracks because its so graphic. So cruel in its shockingly true portrayal of one of mankind's greatest killers: AIDS. The editor on Amazon describes it in this way:

"Adding to the various viewpoints offered here, Eightball and MJG offer 'Listen to Me Now' a rap from the virus's perspective. "

And I think that's why the words are so strong and powerful, because they talk as if they are the virus - entering your bloodstream, silently not violently. Read it again and absorb the words, get the CD off me, or *find* it on the internet, because the way Eightball tells it, you better listen to him now.

Peace Out,

DJ Ho.

Smells like City Rail Stench (the Nirvana remix)

Woke up this morning at 7.30am and realised i had an important meeting with my manager at 9am about my performance review. Also came to the realisation that if i was late to my own performance review that wouldn't look too good. Rushed out of the house, no breakfast, brand spanking new Navy suit on with light purple shirt, hair gelled up (as best it can be when your running late) - i was determined to look good for my own review.

Rock up to the station and realised that the line for train tickets was at least 100 people deep! It went down the stairs, curled around the fence, and was spilling onto the footpath. Were they buying Rollingstones tickets? Hell no, they were buying weekly train tickets.

I waited 20 minutes and missed 3 trains. Eventually, I got to the front of the queue, and the operator said "Sorry, machine out of order -buy ticket at destination". So you made me wait 20 mintues, and i'm potentially late for an important meeting as well? Frustration.

Disclaimer - buying tickets after a public holiday is not a very good idea. But they need to have a better system in place. In fact they need to just have a better train system overall. So hear me out playa.


The Octopus

They should make it like Hong Kong's MTR (their City Rail name). Its fast, efficient, and clean. It's just awesome. People move quickly, the lines aren't that long. The trains are crowded, but they come so often, it doesn't matter.

Give me my Octopus card anyday! It's just so good, you can get through the barriers by scanning the card instead of putting it through the little slot. Also, its a smart card thingy - you just top it up by putting more money into the card. It just debits your card when you scan it at your destination as it works out where you've been when you first scanned it. This saves a lot of time instead of queueing up.

But you know what, I don't think we could have a system like that in Sydney. In Hong Kong, everything is brand spanking new - you need a complete overhaul to have a system like that. Also, the whole city is pretty compact, as in its not spread out as much as Sydney. In fact, most of the money went down the drain with that airport tunnel and now they are spending billions "untangling the train lines".

For once, Honkies do it better.

Give me the Maglev from Shanghai. That train was da bomb. Maglev stands for Magnetic Levitation, and was designed by the Germans. It runs from the City Centre of Shanghai all the way to the airport. From my understanding, it floats above the train tracks, based on magnetism. Kinda like some Magneto X-Men stuff. It's a tourist attraction in itself. You've haven't been to Shanghai unless you've taken the Maglev and the Arnold Schwarzngger cruise* on The Bund

The coolest thing is its fast. Real Fast. It goes at up to 430km an hour! Serious. I've got a photo with the speedometer. It didnt feel like it until you couldnt see anything out the window. That was crazy. And it cut down like 2 hour trip into 8mins. As Hoi would say, its gangsta. And it was pretty cheap as well and ON TIME. Well if it was running late, the driver could always crank it up to 430km p/h to make up for lost time.

But alas in the words of Biggie:
"It was all a dream/
I used to read MX and 9 to 5 magazine/
City Circle ran like a limousine/
Staring at destination maps on the train wall/
Every Weekday, City Rail never stalled/"

Carl Scully/John Watkins, you did a bang up job. Late trains, broken ticket machines, dirty and dingy carriages, overpacked peak hour journeys, crowded city stations. Unexplained regular "weekend" maintenance. Your constituents are not happy!!!!!!

I'm out like City rail queues,

DJ Ho

* The Schwarzneger cruise is one of a dozen cruises operating at the Bund, the river at one end of Shanghai. I was by myself in Shanghai and after checking out the various options along the wharf, I decided to go on the most legit one. So I took the one with the Terminator 2 poster which said Arnie had been on it. It was also the only cruise with Westerners at the ticket booth. If I was going to get ripped off, I could at least claim Schwarznegger had been on it. It became notorious, as I recommended to Ceclia and she scoured the whole wharf til she found it. BTW this text is deliberately small - so you'll have to squint.

Queenstown, New Zealand - February 2006

Study/Prison Break

I've got my exam on Corporate Tax on next Monday, except i haven't done any real studying. From my impressions of this subject the material is quite hard. One of the main problems with the exam is that it's a closed book exam, in that we can only take in legislation and no notes. So I'm contemplating doing the above, ala Micahel Scholfield in Prison break and getting tatts of relevant tax cases and sections.

I should have been studying today, except I watched Season 1 of Prison Break in about 18 hours, from friday night 12.30am til 6am Saturdary morning. The show is so addictive and i couldn't let go and sleep. The show was just so intense and the plot had so many twists and turns. let's just say that the toe cutting incident by John Abruzzi was v crazy - I actually was so scared/stressed for Michael. I put it up there with my top Prison shows/movies. Impromptu list - see below.

DJ Ho's Top 5 Prison shows/movies:
1. OZ - hands down one of the best tv shows ever.
2. Prison Break - its all about the escape, the planning and the setbacks.
3. Shawshank Redemption - one man against the world
4. Escape From Alcatraz - classic, the original prison break out movie
5. The Longest Yard - absolutely funny, and their football team was sick!

Honourable mentions: The Green Mile, Lockdown, Con Air.

We just chilling, for the next 25 years.

I'm not sure what attracts me to Prison movies. I think its because it takes me to a world in which I will never see and I don't want to see. Its an intense environment, filmed in a compact area, and usually has a variety of really weird characters. What I also find interesting are the various groups that usually represented - the Black homeboys, Italian Mafia, The Latino's, White KKK types, and the loners.

Its in the way the various groups interact, the constant threat of violence in the air, the Correctional Officers ("CO's"/Hacks), the Warden and the elaborate and trafficking of drugs. Prison is all about survivial - and you do whatever it takes and of course you never rat on anybody, unless you want to get shanked.

Enough about AWB already!

Kickbacks to saddam? Just raise your hands in the air like you just don't care.

Is anyone else sick of hearing about AWB? Get over it! No one cares about it anymore. To be honest, I didn't really care when it first hit the news, and now the coverage is just blown out of proportion. In fact, its very hard to not know about it and I believe the average Australian doesn't really give a crap about it.

If you've been living under a rock, it was a scandal about the Australian Wheat Board (AWB) giving $300m in cash kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime, to allow AWB to supply tonnes of wheat to Iraq as part of the UN Oil for Food program. This was in breach of the UN conventions. The more recent debate surrounds whether the Australian Government knew about it and the Cole Inquiry was set up to investigate the issue.

Look ma, no kickbacks

The Cole Inquiry? I'll give you the short DJ HO Inquiry summary. It was wrong and immoral. It also bad business ethics from AWB's standpoint. Both John Howard and Alexander Downer had to know about it. The evidence suggests so. Thus they should face the consequences but because John Howard instituted the enquiry, handpicked Mr Cole, the lawyers never really grilled him in examination in chief or cross examined, its over. It was a kangaroo court. He was never going to go down and I don't think it'll be more than a blemish on his career. Both Howard and Downer will walk away unscathed. End of story. Now go report about more important issues like the NBA playoffs.

Kofi (thinking): I can't trust a guy with a cheesy grin.

Downer (thinking): I can't trust a guy with a name that goes with two sugars.

I'm out like kickbacks,

DJ HO.

Taking a break

Guys, just want to let you know that I'm taking a break from blogging. My first entry was in 23rd June 2004 so I've been blogging for almost 2 years. It actually takes a lot of effort and time to write each entry. After spending all day in front of the computer at work, its not so good to be spending another 2 hours on the net after work. I try to update it twice a week and its killing my eyes and giving me a headache all this time on the computer.

I'm not sure when I'll be back (maybe a week, maybe a month) but I need to sort out some other stuff as well. Thankyou to everyone who has been reading my blog for the past two years and all your comments, thoughts and opinions.

Like Arnie said "I'll be back".

From the vault - pictures that never made the cut for DJ Ho's blog

Over the years, I've accumulated a lot of pics for my posts. But not all of them make the cut. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll notice I usually start with a picture because that grabs people's attention, then every 4 or so paragraphs I'll insert a pic to break up the text.

After I finish writing, or during the writing, I'll think of what pic I want. I usually consider what the paragraph is about, or a key word and find a suitable pic. I always use google image search and I usually know what pic I want. Sometimes I might trawl through hundreds of pics to find the ideal one. Like I said, to make a blog takes time, especially if you want to make a good blog.

Here a bunch of pics in my "vault":

This was for the Shower from Hell post cause the communal shower reminded me of that shower scene from American History X. This is one of the memorable scenes where he shoots two black people and he surrenders with his arms open.

There were heaps of pictures available of the Cronulla riot, but these two stand out in my mind. It represents a sad moment in Australian history and what happened in those couple of weeks - helpless people being attacked for no other reason than being of a certain race and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Note, the same person is being attacked and is then dragged by the police out of there whilst another man tries to punch him.

I've got heaps of pictures of basketball players - of AI, Amare, D Wade, Kobe. But I guess I wanted to put up Paul Pierce aka "The Truth" aka P Squared because he doesn't get as much publicity as those guys, but I think he is one of the game's best players.



Originally I had planned to use both these pics at the start of two recent posts I had done. But I also had some other pics I wanted to use. I chose the black & white Martin Luther King photo over this one, because it had a better effect with the black background of the blog. Black and white pics seem to look better as you can't see the borders and fit more seamlessly. The other half naked Constanza photo was chosen cause i thought it was funnier :P

I wanted to use this for the "Democracy: so necessary" post. Its quite a simplistic picture but it shows what we must do to move forward as a society - it's all in or all out. It kind of annoyed me that no one commented on that post. Usually I don't care if no one comments. But when I write about something serious I dont get as many comments as opposed to when I write something humourous/entertaining. Maybe that's the reason. We read blogs for enjoyment and some of the stuff I write about might be too heavy for people to digest or they simply don't care. My brother simply says "DJ, no one wants to read an essay".

Legally Ho - starring DJ Ho

The admission ceremony oath:

"During the admission ceremony, you swear that you will truly and honestly conduct yourself in the practice of a lawyer in the Supreme Court of NSW and that you will faithfully serve as such in the administration of the laws of this State according to the best of your knowledge, skill and ability"

When the oath is read out in court, you either swear by saying "so help me God" or declare and affirm by saying "I do".

I'm gonna be admitted as a lawyer tomorrow - become offically a lawyer of the Supreme Court of NSW. It's been a long time coming. 5 years of law school, player. 16 weeks of work experience. And now I can verify your documents! Well hopefully I can do more than just that. It's a quite a prestigous position to hold in society, unless your a certain Asian conveyancing lawyer in Hurstville (ranting).

The Ho-Maker starring DJ Ho as Matt Damon.

I loved studying law. The $64 million dollar question is: Will I become lawyer? That's an option I'd like to explore in the future. I mean why not? Its a prestigious position, intellectually challenging, and the money ain't too bad either.

You know my last semester at uni was just pure law. Without any pressure since I had a job already I just focused on studying law. I did so well that I walked away with the prestigious double:
1. The NSW Bar Assocation Prize for 1st Place in legal ethics
2. Inner West Law Prize for highest combined mark in legal ethics & legal accounting.

So I'm credentialled as a regulator, biatch.

A Time to Ho - You may have seen DJ Ho in the film "Legally Ho" & "The Ho-Maker.

If your in the city and want to celebrate with me, come to Bligh Bar after work. It's serving as a double occasion - a reunion for UTS class of 2004 (so hot right now), organised by Alexs and Anna. Check this review:

"This is one of the better bars for post-work drinks. There are 20 types of rum available by the glass. The selection cannot possibly be tasted all in one night."

I'm out like my non-lawyer status,

DJ Ho.

I Caste Thee Out ~ !

You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. Remember that all I am offering is the truth. Nothing more.
- Morpheus in "The Matrix"

Life is about choices. In this scene, Neo has the choice to take the blue pill and continue to ignore the truth. Or to swallow the bitter pill (pun intended) and find out what is really going on. For me, I've got options and I'm fortunate to have that. Sometimes we are fortunate to have a choice, sometimes our hand is forced. And I'm facing a huge crossroad at the moment. One of these minor crossroads is whether I continue on with my Masters of Law, start the Chartered Accountant program, Securities Institute course or simply do nothing.

I caught a train home with my brother and his friend today. His friend was telling me about his 3 month internship in India. I don't know a lot about India, but I know a lot for an non-Indian person. I asked him about various stuff like did he eat Butter Chicken, cows in the middle of the road, the various languages they had, Indian standard time (Indians are rarely punctual) and lastly about the Caste system. My brother didn't know what it was, so I gave him a breakdown.

I struggled to explain what it was, but I gave him an analogy which I had read in a World Religion textbook. Consider the Indian population as a person. The feet represent the beggars. The hands and arms represent the warriors. The body represent the merchants/workers. And the head reps the Rich and Royale. I think its changed a lot since then, but it still exists to a certain degree and that's why I asked this dude, who confirmed it did. See the thing is, if your born into a certain "class", that is the class that you will stay for the rest of your life. A person born into poverty will stay in poverty. A rich person will stay rich.


Here is an exerpt from California State Universtiy website:
"The Indian caste system has been in use for many years. Still today the values of the caste system are held strongly. It has kept a sense of order, and peace among the people. There are five different levels of the system: Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, and Harijans. Within each of these categories are the actual "castes" or jatis within which people are born, marry, and die. They all have their own place among each other and accept that it is the way to keep society from disintegrating to chaos. This system has worked well for Indian people and still has a major role in modern India."

That's what it was like in England in the 18th Century. It's like that in a lot of other countries as well. Even in our modern Australian society we have classes: Upper, Middle, Lower. But the thing is we have the opportunity to move from the middle or lower class to the upper class. There is much more fluidity between the classes. Sure we have the poverty cycle, but there is the possibility of getting out of the poverty cycle through education, tax breaks for low marginal taxpayers, social & welfare policies, and creation of employment for the poor.
Class or caste?

I've cut and pasted snippets of text from the site adaniel, Wikipedia and somewhere else:

"Legally the government disallows the practice of caste system but has a policy of affirmative discrimination of the backward classes."

"But with all this positive discrimination policy, most of the communities who were low in the caste hierarchy remain low in the social order even today. And communities who were high in the social hierarchy remain even today high in the social hierarchy. Most of the degrading jobs are even today done by the Dalits, while the Brahmans remain at the top of the hierarchy by being the doctors, engineers and lawyers of India. "

From what i've read, it doens't exist so much in urban india, more so in rural India. But still I'm fortunate in a society like the one i'm living in that I have choices. I've got the means to move up the social order because I am highly skilled, my firm has invested in me to do further education, and I've got a decent job. Like a certain controversial political figure said, "By any means necessary" I'm going to move into the upper class. Because of the time and the opportunities I was given in life, I will never work in one of these "degrading jobs". I'm going to be a part of the elite in society. And I'm grateful for these choices that I have.

Peace Out,

DJ Ho.

p.s. is that tabloid material?

When East meets Kanye West: Kanyeezy @ Hordern Pavillion

When the taxi pulled in @ Fox studio's, the line was already curled around the block. I didn't believe it til I saw the throng of thousands of people stuck in the cattle like gates which funnel people in. The line stretched as far as the eye could see. The atmosphere was building up - scalpers were working the crowd, there was a buzz in the air, ladies and gents in the spot looking extra fly.

Finally, I got into the Hordern at 7.30pm but the place was still pretty empty. The warmup acts were Aussie RNB acts Chen'elle and Daniel Mereweather, who were entertaining but the crowd booed them after they finished.

At about 9pm the lights went out, and it was pitch black. Amongst a bright blue light and a smoky stage, Kanye emerged like an angel from the clouds. He started off with his second biggest hit "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" which utilises the Shirley Bassey line "Diamonds are forever". I couldn't even see Kanye West clearly. To be honest, I wasn't feeling the first two tracks that Kanye performed. He came out flat and I just couldn't feel the vibe. I recall that I couldn't see jack because the lights were just flashing red like a Target sale.

I wasn't the only one that couldn't see as Kanye admitted later that he had tripped over, sprained his ankle and had it taped up inbetween the second and third song. He actually came out and apologized for the inability to perform at 100% and remedied the pain by drinking a glass of Hennessy.


College Dropout

Kanye took us back to his first LP: College dropout. When he first emerged, he was a breath of fresh air. The songs were different, the beats were funky, and it was the resurgence of the soul sound. He played "All Falls Down" and the crowd went nuts. Then he hit us with the crowd pleaser "The Workout Plan", where he talks about women who are groupies, using men to define success.

But before his magnum opus, real heads knew him as the beatmaker/producer behind Talib Kweli, Jay-Z, Slum Village. Real heads appreciated him back in the day so he dropped vignettes from Talib's "Just to get by", Ludacris "Stand up", and Hova's "Encore".

This then led to a shortened version of "Spaceship". :
"I've been workin' this graveshift and I ain't made sh*t/
I wish I could buy me a spaceship and fly past the sky"


Late Registration

Other mad tracks that he performed include "Drive Slow" which features Paul Wall, which is one of my favourite tracks on his followup Late Registration album. He also hits us with the song "Roses", which he performed whilst sitting down. There was just so much conviction and emotion in his performance, like he had lived through those very words:

"I know it's past visiting hours/
But can I please give her these flowers?/
The doctor dont wanna take procedures/
He claimed my heart can't take the anesthesia/
It'll send her body into a seizure"

But I think one of the best songs he did all night was "Hey Mama". The performance was really off the hook, and I loved the way he did the "aarghs" in the song. Oh, and "Get'em High" featuring Talib Kweli was also done to perfection - I love the beat in this song, in fact I listen to it on a semi-daily basis. I've actually heard Talib Kweli perform this track as well. If only they could perform live together - that'd be CRAZY!!!!!!

Backup, Backup

As always, the backup a performer has really enhances or deflates the show. Kanye's backup singers were just so good. Tony Williams has a crazy voice and he really showed it off on "Heard'Em Say" and that chick had a heavenly voice as well. Normally right, a singer has a band to back them up - Kanye had a strings section! That was so cool. All the band members had violins, and cellos! I've never seen anything like it.

And before I forget, his tour DJ is A-Trak, who is well credentialled as a member of the Invisible Scratch Pikelz. He's also won all three DJ battle crowns as well, plus I saw him perform live at Chequers @ Mandarin Club on Saturday.

Wrapping up

As a performer, Kanye is very good. He knows how to work the stage, improvise and just simply entertain. Since he tripped over, he played two extra songs. He rapped "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" over the beat from a Verb song, which really shows his versatility.

The moment of the evening though, was the last track he performed: "Touch the Sky". Other people say it was "Jesus Walks" but I was in the bathroom when it started playing, and i ran back as soon as I heard the "Bom, Bom, Ba Da Bom" intro! It was just an awesome finish to a great night. And everyone (and I mean everyone) raised their hands to touch the sky as he said:

"I gotta testify, come up in the spot looking extra fly/
For the day I die, I'mma touch the sky!"

Rated R

I give it a 9.5 out of 10. I'm a bit restricted since I gave Common 10!

Peace Out,

DJ Ho.