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Crossroads I have not been able to sleep . My mind has been pre-occupied with paths to take in the next couple days.

Over the past 2 years, I seeked to begin a new journey, but somehow I got lost too soon. Too slow to react and to change my bad habits has got me tangled in a mess where I believe, at present, I am slowly coming out of.

But I am not certain whether I should cry for joy, because out of the tangled webs are shades of grey skies blurring the paths forward. A Procrastination Philosopher once said "A year from now you may wish you had started today". My year is up and that is exactly what I am wishing for.

I may be walking in the dark for the next couple of days and I hope that my other senses will wake up too and lead me to converge with a beautiful path I dearly so want to be on.

My only fear is that this beautiful path no longer meets up with mine, perhaps diverging to other greener pastures, while I remain isolated and desolate.

But when in love, there is always hope.

A speaker at the second International Muslim Leaders' Consultation on HIV/AIDS caused an uproar when she claimed that "Islam teachings worsen spread of AIDS".

Further reads:
1. The Advocate
2. The Independet Online, South Africa
3. The Daily News, South Africa
4. Marina offered to resign after incident, The Star
5. The New Straits Times

Does anyone know what Dr Amina actually said in her speech?

6. An interview with Dr Amina Wadud

Does anyone get this?

The Indians think that our Convergence initiative, putting broadcasting, communications and information technology (IT) under a single regulator, is heading towards disaster.

Lim Liong Sik and Lim Ah Lek have resigned from the no. 1 and no. 2 posts of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) respectively.

UMNO is also undergoing a transition period at the top level. We will know more for certain in October.

But in the Malaysian Indian Congress, Samy Vellu has returned unoppposed for the ninth consecutive term on May 10th.

With the two main parties in the coalition government having a change in leadership surely the Indian community will benefit in a change as well?

Note: MIC does not have an online presence other than the Kluang and Cheras divisions.

I have recently found out that Record Labels are humans.

Much have been said about Vivendi, Sony, BMG etc., and how anal they are at protecting their "copyrights".

Record labels are very much resposible for (sometimes) publishing, promoting and marketting and as well distributing works by the artistes globally. And problems with piracy makes them very sticky of any "exploitation" of their artistes' works. Hence their, Singaporean style of doing away with the music "bad-guys" such as Napster and more unsuccesfully with Kazaa and Gnutella, and implementing law-infringing controls on their products.

What was surprising to me is that most artistes are paid less than what I would think they were in the first place, sometimes earning single digit percentages of revenue sales.

Much to the artistes chagrin of course. And worse still contracts are laid out so that all intellectual property is owned by the record labels, turning them into libel zealots over copyright infrigements and the artistes', well, not as rich as they can be, but more importantly they have less or no control over their own creations.

The new media i.e. internet is opening up various opportunities to budding artistes. Proper exposure on the internet can generate some kind of revenue and you will have to play the marketting game to compete with the bigger boys and girls. There is no one on the internet that has been succesful (at least enough to be printed in conventional media) using this model.

While the likes of Gnutella and Kazaa continue to find loopholes within the copyright laws and piracy prevailing, artistes can look at the net for better profit margins; although the truth remains that this would be most succesful if the likes of Madonna was to sell all her music on madonna.com, but also to threaten record labels; pay more or I'll go solo, if they dare.

Music buyers are to blame too, for not buying of course, but the paradox here is that while music lovers continue to share and download music through peer-to-peer networks, they are to a certain effect helping the artistes to a better deal with record labels.

But Record Labels being humans will want to protect their profit margins, as I would as a business owner, will continue to fight to keep their piece of the cake fiercely.

Other reads/watch:
1. Vendors deride copyright controls
2. Why Grokster and Morpheus Won, Why Napster Lost, and What the Future of Peer-to-Peer File Sharing Looks Like Now
3. The Future of Intellectual Property in the Information Age (Real Video Feeds)

From InstaPundit.com, how close are we from having flying cars as in the Jetson's or The 5th Element?

Actually quite recently. But we can't fly them just yet. Oh bummer.

Someone was angry with me for wanting to watch sports on TV. I would not have mind being told about it and would have definitely obliged not watching too!

Links:
1. Ferrari might still have pipped McLaren but Kimi is still top!
2. Arsenal wins something - finally! (phew...)

Recently Azalina Othman and Puteri UMNO wanted to push for an increase in the wing's age limit to 40. Some say it is so because Azalina wishes to remain Chief of the Wing but she needs to remain elligible (yes she is forty!).

Apparently, Mahathir has spoken and Puteri has a change of heart.

Other links:
The Straits Times