XP

ex-lady users

2009-05-28T17:51:00.005+08:00

Exams are barely 3 weeks away and as usual, instead of hitting the books, I'll be in front of my PC with Facebook open while looking at sales threads of phones and audio gear.

One thing I noticed is that whenever someone wants to sell a phone, they always state "ex-lady user" as though it is something which will guarantee that the phone hasn't been abused, misused and what not. It also implies that male users tend to drag their gear through the gauntlet of death or something.

Well, lemme shed some light here.

Honestly, women are (save for a few exceptions) the ABSOLUTE WORST gadget users in my books. They stick all sorts of nonsense on their phones, they drop them, throw them, hang metal pieces off them, put them into their handbags which are littered with a brazillion other stuff and the list goes on and on.

To me, "EX LADY USER" is definitely NOT a plus point when buying second hand gear. Instead, try "CRAZY OCD GEEK" or "GADGET FETISH FREAK" or something along THOSE lines. At least we know they LOVE their gear.

Geez...

Ok... back to staring at sales threads. :(

All ears

2009-03-25T23:25:00.002+08:00

In the months leading up to my graduation, I realise that my carefree days are numbered. After this, it will be 9 to 5 at the office and classes in the evening. Weekends are reserved for sanity-recharging activities. I can't wear just anything I want anymore and I definitely can't bring my audio stuff to work.

So, after much inducement from a certain somebody, I have decided to pierce my ear; something I had wanted to do since college but never had the guts to (I was more concerned about the impact on my family rather than the piercing itself =.=)

On with the pics:

The initial stud that they used to pierce my ear with

The ring that almost destroyed my ear

A design that I've been looking for a long time

Similar but black

Oh, in case you're gasping in horror, I pierced my left ear and not the right as the pics suggest. But my webcam takes inverted pics and I'm lazy to correct it. Hahaha...

And it's really now or never. Don't want to be the newbie in office with a stud in his ear for 2 weeks or more.

For me, piercing my ear is more of personal satisfaction than anything else. Not trying to prove anything, nor am I trying to change who I am. Those who knew me since college would know. And I don't see how it's such a big issue that I did.

But as expected, my mum flipped, my cousins stared in awe and my friends; well, some welcomed it enthusiastically while others were indifferent.

IT'S NO BIG DEAL SERIOUSLY! =.=

Just a hole in my ear.

Morning Train Chronicles

2009-02-22T00:01:00.001+08:00

Having taken the train to work almost everyday for more than a month now, it has given a totally new meaning to the phrase life is like a box of chocolates. Except in this case, it is all about smells.

Getting on the train at Taman Bahagia at about 7.30 - 7.45 means that you'll be squeezing in that sardine-can of a train carriage with most of the working community of PJ who commutes. And THAT is a LOT of people.

Having so many people in close proximity, the first thing that you'll notice is the various smells that come from each and every direction; some pleasant, some downright nasty. So here is where life is like a box of chocolates.

Firstly, count yourself lucky if you don't end up directly in some dude's armpit, in front of some lady who hasn't washed her tudung in years (this is some real bad shit), in front some guy who doesn't believe in brushing his teeth, or within 3 feet of the worst of them all; the sweat-soaked guy who smells like a wet dog. These REAAALLLYYYYYYY break my day. It's absolutely impossible to turn up at work feeling all motivated with that flame in your eyes when you have just been through the harrowing experience of a 40 minute train ride with a smelly wet dog.

If you're really really lucky, you'll end up next to someone who has some light flowery perfume, refreshing breezy cologne or even some nice fruity shampoo. But there are also times when someone turns up with so strong a perfume that you'd think that he is trying to impersonate a flower. Now these are a real pain in ass; especially if your nose is abnormally sensitive and things like this can send your nose into mucus-producing overdrive. Bleh... Try taking out a tissue to blow your nose in a sardine-can packed train and you'll know what I'm talking about.

There are also the hidden surprises where all of a sudden, a thick diarrhoea-class fart envelopes the carriage like a lethal fog; engulfing all of the passengers in a cloud of death. It's no use trying to see WHO the farter is. Instead, you've gotta make a decision REAL QUICK - to exit at the next station to catch the next train at the risk of being late, or to just endure the olfactory torture for the remainder of your journey at the risk of death. I just blame it on bad karma and continue on. After all, after a few minutes, my nose becomes numb from what I presume is the death of tens of thousands of my smell receptors.

Now mix this with the wet dog dude, septic-mouth dude and the flower-wannabe dude and you've got yourself in a real mess.

That was last Wednesday. :(

I survived... barely...

Wonderer

2009-02-15T23:07:00.003+08:00

While heading towards my car from mamak just now, I noticed this man sitting on a park bench in the middle of the dark, staring into space with a forlorn look on his face. I wondered if he had a home to go back to. I wondered what is he thinking of. I wonder what are his hopes and dreams. I wonder if he even HAS hopes and dreams. I wonder...

Being born and bred in a society where I never had to worry about food being on the table, strangers knocking in the night, wars, disease, famine...

All I had ever needed to care or worry about is ME.

All I ever worried about is whether I'm gonna ace that exam, whether I'll finish that assignment on time, when will I be able to buy this and that...

Now seeing that old man, so worn and so hardened, it really makes me wanna go there, buy him a drink and ask him about his life story.

Maybe I'll do that next time.

Fear

2009-02-01T04:11:00.002+08:00

Fear of lack of innovation, fear of getting sucked into a status quo, fear of being just another face in the crowd, fear of being a part of a system, fear of being ordinary...

But somehow, I know that I'll be sucked into the system eventually... like everyone else where I am now - a part of a meaningless equilibrium. And that it's up to me to keep afloat, by reinventing myself over and over and over again.

Mehh... thoughts at work....

I know this place

2009-01-26T01:38:00.003+08:00

Hello... I've been here before. It's been such a long time that it almost seems foreign to me. Where do I go from here? Someone please tell me...

Obligatory new year address

2009-01-02T05:35:00.002+08:00

Oh yes, I'm still alive and this blog is still very much alive. If you're wondering what I'm still doing up at 5.35 am, you obviously don't know me well enough to know that sleep is something I seem to be doing very well without.

Anyways, first, a wrap up of 2008 -

2008 was a year of multiple triumphs and failures for me. I have been severely humbled by all that has happened to me especially in uni - having failed a pre-requisite unit TWICE and being held back a semester. Yes I know I was sick on my second attempt but a fail is a fail. Although I've gotten through it with a credit on my third attempt, it has undoubtedly left a stigma. Hopefully it does more good than harm. :|

Looking back at the years gone by, I was too used to getting things without injecting in much effort. As such, I have taken many many things for granted. Time - the luxury of being able to do things without pressure; money and support from my parents (although I do try not to depend on them too much) which gives an undeniable sense of security; and love; among others. Learning that you have taken something for granted is painful to say the least; not to mention the unpleasant surprise packages they come in. :(

We live in such a skewed world. While I'm sitting in an air-conditioned room, listening to Chopin and typing this entry, somewhere in the world, someone's dying in the cruelest ways, someone's praying for relieve from a fate so bleak that it is unfathomable to us, someone running for their very life from horrors beyond our imagination... and yet, my greatest concern currently, is whether my package will arrive safely in the mail.

Sometimes, I do wonder what it would be like to have to run for my life. I hope I never have to.

Right, enough of the morbid thoughts.

Year 2008 is also the year in which I actively participated in politics for the first time. If you know me well enough, you'll know that I take great interest in Malaysia's political scene. Although nothing has changed and our lawmakers still comprise a bunch of kncuckleheads, at least it is steering in an encouraging direction. :)

Touching a little on hobbies and interests, I have developed an interest in audiophilia. For this, I have Casper and Yuheng to blame. Now songs are no longer just songs - every single detail is dissected, analyzed, judged and digested. And as time passes, I seem to be getting increasingly dissatisfied with what I'm hearing - which spells bigger holes in my wallet and more junk in my room. Haihhh... hope this doesn't develop into an obsession.

Oh and not forgetting, as at year ending 31st December 2008, Screamyx STILL sucks. In fact, I feel that it sucks even more now. =.=

So much for the year 2008.

Now for my obligatory 2009 resolutions:

1. GRADUATE
2. Lose 20kg
3. Allocate at least 8 hours a week to music
4. Love
5. Start to read Chinese newspapers
6. Sleep more
7. Get back into martial arts
8. Watch at least 1 MPO performance a month (Peter, you promised! Everyone else is welcome to join me)
9. Put more effort into maintaining my room
10. Plant something

Haha... I'll be lucky to achieve half of what I just mentioned.

Anyways, Happy New Year everyone.

Happiness

2008-09-06T00:56:00.005+08:00

Happiness, seems to be loneliness,
and loneliness chilled my world;
how could you guess, when you're only thinking of yourself,
when you looked to other girls

-DJ Tomcraft-

This phrase from DJ Tomcraft's "Loneliness" intrigued me deeply.

Happiness = loneliness? Does it make sense?

What is happiness? Is happiness the absence of sadness? Or is sadness the absence of happiness? Or is it both since you don't really know happiness when you haven't tasted pure deep sadness? Or does happiness and sadness come hand in hand and you can't have one without the other?

Someone once told me that everything is a balance. Everything has something equal but opposite working against it. You sacrifice your time to work to earn money. You sacrifice the money to buy something you like. You sacrifice that thing you like when you learn that your significant other can't stand it. You sacrifice your significant other when YOU can't take it anymore. Everything is traded in place of something else.

So where does the trade-off end? Where is the end of the rainbow where happiness = happiness? Where happiness does not come at a cost of something else?

What if the only way to be happy is to endure loneliness? What if you regret later? What if you are regretting NOW? What if...

What if I stop pondering too deeply on MOS anthems...

yeah, that's much better. :D

How to minimize your shareholders' wealth

2008-07-20T16:59:00.003+08:00

There was once this company called M. All the shareholders of M live in a controlled environment governed by M where they eat, sleep, as well as go about their daily activities in facilities and infrastructures provided by M.

Ever since it's incorporation 51 years ago, it has been under the same management team, U. And this management team, has time and time again stressed that all it's ever done was in the best interests of the shareholders. The shareholders, being inexperienced and naive, believed every word they said. Unknowingly, the shareholders' wealth were eroded over time through alienation of funds, cronyism, as well as misappropriation of funds. To ensure that the shareholders do not go against the management team, they brainwashed a portion of the shareholders with false claims that they were given higher weights and rights as compared to other shareholders. Those shareholders, being inexperienced and naive, was of course suckered into Team U's manipulative statements and wanted to preserve the status quo.

Over time, amidst increasing political awareness and eroding confidence in Team U, many shareholders relinquished their shares in M inc. and crossed over to a variety of other companies especially S inc. and A inc. But these are normally those who can afford the transaction fees involved. Not all shareholders of M are this well-off. Of course there are also those who know of these issues and can afford to crossover but are still hopeful of the growth opportunities of M especially with news of a reshuffle of the management just around the corner, led by a victimized ex-staff of Team U, Mr. A, who leads his new team called Team PR. And since the Annual General Meeting on March 8th where Team PR garnered strong support, Team U knows they have much to fear.

The new group of people, Team PR, who are hopeful of taking over the management of the company citing issues such as the agency theory where managers are more interested in championing their personal interests rather than the interests of the owners, as well as misappropriation of funds. In fact, one of the issues brought up by this group of people is the rising costs of living within M itself which should not happen since most of the basic necessities of living in M is produced in-house. Many are also bumbled by the high contribution margin charged by the management team for internal transfers when the very reason for the establishment of that particular division was to insulate the shareholders of M from the inflation of global prices of those necessities in the first place. Compared to other companies where their necessities are also produced in-house, M's prices are outrageous.

Another issue capitalised by Team PR is regarding the appropriation of the excess funds received from the high internal transfers. The current management team stated improvement of infrastructure as the reason but even after many reporting cycles, there has been no tangible improvements at all. Furthermore, time and time again, the Team U has exercised questionable strategic decisions such as bailing out divisions that hold no benefit at all to the shareholders of M. Other than that, Team U also insisted that the decision to maintain a 40% buffer zone for their power supply from external power producers although the required amount is only 20%. This would invariably incur higher costs at the expense of the shareholders; 2 billion Ringgit to be exact. The reason being to go against the terms of the agreement would be "anti-business".

The thing is, the sole-purpose of conducting "business" is to maximise your shareholders' wealth. If you can't even do that, who are you to go around telling people whether one is "pro-business" or "anti-business". In fact, MOST of your very own policies have been "anti-business" (e.g. policies that favor a group of investors compared to others).

So, Datuk Shahrir Samad, WHO is the kerajaan perompak now. The one who gives priority to outsiders at the expense of their very own shareholders? Or the one who wants to rectify things with the external parties for the benefit of their shareholders? I believe you're not too dumb to know the answer.

And just out of curiosity, you mentioned that the RM2 billion in savings would not mean extra money in the country's coffers. So the savings would mean extra money in whose coffers then?

This post is in response to THIS

"DNA yang sudah ada sudah lama" - Badawi

2008-07-18T20:34:00.003+08:00

"DNA yang ada sudah lama" or "the existing DNA that we have is old" is the reason given by our "illustrious" ~~bumbling idiot~~ of a prime minister that Malaysia currently has for needing a new sample from Malaysia's premier-to-be DS Anwar Ibrahim.

Source

OMFG!

That is like saying every Malaysian needs to re-register as a citizen AGAIN because our IC numbers are old.

=.='''

Digitalised information does not degrade lar bodoh... neither does people's DNA composition.

It's so obvious that your trying to take Anwar's "ling-ling" and stuff it into Saiful's "long-long". Either that, or you fellas are pretty desperate to wank Anwar off. Ughh...

Aih... news like this just makes me fangry!

Be strong DS Anwar Ibrahim. Malaysia's behind you all the way (and to some extent, US too). Won't be long before we stuff PR's ling-lings into their long-longs.

P.S. - To all molest victims in Malaysia, kindly report to Najib's office. You'll be transported to a safe house somewhere and be given full police protection. Your suspected assailant will be ambushed and escorted to the hospital for DNA sampling in a convoy of 15 police cars and he will spend the night at the place normally reserved for hardcore criminals regardless of whether a warrant of arrest is present (not important in Msia).

The home minister (Syed Hamid Albar) will then go all out; even to the extent of ammending rules especially for you in case your suspected assailant does not cooperate (not willing to give DNA samples). This is of course regardless of whether the police ALREADY has a DNA sample or not. They just like to wank others off. Ughh...

And remember, this is NOT politically motivated. It's just normal procedures. I repeat - NOT POLITICALLY MOTIVATED!

YOUR GOVERNMENT CARES FOR YOU! TO DEATH!

Laptopless...

2008-04-16T01:30:00.003+08:00

My laptop finally gave in altho it has been on life support for a few months. It has been overheating really really badly to the point that it auto shuts off by itself. to have it running, I had to turn on the A/C AND blow a fan at its exhaust. As if that wasn't bad enough, it refused to be formatted - it shuts off everytime I try - As though it knows that I'm gonna send it to the service centre and this is its last form of defiance ><

Anyway, I managed to format it (2 fans + 1 A/C) and had it sent to the service centre. It'll be back in about a week's time.

Till then, I have to bear with these 2 inferior common pc's at the hall. Ughh... I have no idea how my brothers maintain these. They have higher specs as compared to mine but IT'S FCKING SLOWWWW!!

Not to mention the amount of errors in it. OMG LARRR...

Just to have it print my lecture slides required SO MUCH troubleshooting that I might as well get paid for it. Heck, even at my previous job, I got paid for less cumbersome jobs. X(

Never thought I would miss my laptop so much.

Birthday dinner at Bora Asmara

2008-04-13T01:07:00.001+08:00

MeliaBelia organized a dinner gathering for me for my birthday at the Bora Asmara (a scenic restaurant in the middle of some kampung).

It was a blast!

It was a ensemble of great Balinese food, soothing traditional Balinese music, a scenic environment, a live band to sing you the birthday song, balloons, a hyperactive crazy-dancing clown, a chocolate cake, and the best bangla roti plantas in the world! What could be better! Haha...

A pretty view at the Bora Asmara

The lovelies

The Kuantan dudes and dudette

Otak-otak wrapped in the shape of a chicken and set ablaze!

The aftermath of a delicious dinner

A one-of-a-kind cake (It reads Happy Burfday Bangla; Love Roti Plantas) XD

Chenn & Melia at the after-yum-cha

For some reason, there weren't any pictures of two other banglas namely Him Kong and Andrew. Haha... See lar... complain somemore when I try to take your pictures. Padan muka.

Fuh, anyways, today was a blast! Admittedly the best birthday I've ever had. Thanks guys!

and then again...

2008-04-11T19:37:00.003+08:00

... and then again, sometimes, nature reminds me that compared to others, I might as well be living in paradise

Despair

2008-04-11T01:57:00.002+08:00

Despair is...

Lying in bed unable to sleep staring at the clock which is showing 5.45 am knowing that you have a class later at 8 am. And tonight will be the second night that this has been happening.

Finishing a blinking long and complicated assignment just to find out that the ending figures doesn't match. And no matter how and where you look, you can't find the error. Damn accounting...

Making the effort to go to class only to collapse in front of the tutor.

Having that gut feeling that the tutor is going to ask you that stupidly impossible tutorial question only for it to come true (and her pronouncing your name wrongly).

Buying a new table lamp and room light (I absolutely love buying new stuff for my room XD) from IKEA, unboxing it excitedly, only to find that they didn't include the bulbs... T_T

Deng...

Bleh... So there...

Haha... a whole month without any posts... my poor blog

2008-04-06T03:10:00.003+08:00

Oh boy, nothing spells neglect better than a blog which hasn't been updated for more than a month. Oh well, in case you're wondering, no I'm not dead yet... YET... ><

Anyways, here is a summary of what I've been up to:

Celebrated May's birthday at Marmalade

Poor May... her birthday always ALWAYS falls during assignment season. But no matter, you know who'll always be there to celebrate with you right? ^^

-------------------------------------------------

Hung out with the shoumiaet

Haven't been hanging out as often as I'd like to but... oh well... assignment season. Bleh...

Speaking of assignments, to do what I wanna do, I've calculated that I need to score an average of 88.7% in all my remaining units - which... damn... is almost impossible. Oh well, where there's a will, there's a way. And I definitely have the will. Cheer me on kay guys. *sighhhhhhh...*

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New Love

Welcomed a new love into my life :D But those of you who knows me well enough KNOWS that love affairs of this sort don't last long. Just hope it lasts long enough for it to be worth-while. *sigh...*

And for those who are going "GASP! HE'S CROSSED OVER TO THE DARKSIDE!!", well... yeah I guess so... temporarily anyways - at least till Windows Mobile 7 (aka Photon) comes out. *droolll...*

Speaking of the darkside, this unit really surprised me with its multimedia prowess and it puts me to shame that I've been demonising Nokia all this while. Damn... O_O

It's music player falls short only by a slight margin over my previous Sony Ericsson devices and its camera... is just PWN-ING! DAMN!

Will post up a few sample shots if I feel like it later. ><

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Cheated death while eating nasi lemak tong sampah.

What you see here is the aftermath of what could've been a disastrous site of an explosion involving ignited gas tanks.

We were happily eating our nasi lemak ayam's when suddenly there was this HUGE commotion at the cooking area.

Due to some freak accident, the ane frying the chickens ignited the top of the gas tanks and was trying to put it out by rolling the tank about - especially near the other gas tanks. Maybe he was thinking "hmmm... maybe I could BLOW this flame away" ( =.= )''

Anyway, that wasn't the only weird thing at the scene. What happened next; in my opinion, can only happen in Malaysia. All the customers (me included) - even those sitting less than 10 feet from the fire (me) whipped out our cameraphones and tried to take a picture of the incident. :D

If it wasn't for Casper who yelled "RUN LAR F*CKERS!!", everyone would have still been sitting there snapping away. After he yelled, everyone scrambled to their feet and ran from their seats ( =.= )'''

The flame was put out within a few minutes and everyone went back to their seats to continue eating their nasi lemak - like nothing happened; even when their lives flashed before their eyes only minutes ago. Something that I believe also ONLY happens in Malaysia.

Oh last but not least...

-------------------------------------------------

Algebra baybeh!

I was chilling at Casper's place when my younger cousin called me - and presented me with this.

( =.= )''

I dunno what gave him the preconception that I am a maths genius... or that whatever I'm studying in university has ANYTHING to do with his homework... but yeah... get stuck at add maths, call Kenny. Deng!

Anyways, I solved it and took a picture of it and MMS-ed it back to him. Hahaha... technology application at its best!

Well, that's all for now... better get back to my assignment if I'm to meet that darned 88.7% average target.

*sighhhh...*

Vindicating the Virtuous Values of Valentine's Day

2008-02-14T17:39:00.008+08:00

Happy Valentines Day everyone. Today I'll be talking about the "anti-couple" policy that is practiced in most government-run schools.

Anyone who has joined any club or society would know that Valentine's Day is a cash cow. I mean, when else can you sell flowers, candy, bookmarks, trinkets and other mumbo jumbo at exorbitant prices and people would still buy? Just because you can "personalise" your gift by having a message written on it and have it delivered to the recipient personally.

And what better way to make a statement and set an impression on a potential high-school sweetheart right?

Plus, what is school life without the little anxious excitement from anticipating a gift for Valentine's Day?

BUT

My 'beloved' alma mater has embarked on a kempen anti-kapel which in effect banns all clubs and societies from selling things and running projects related to Valentine's Day.

Which I think is CRAP!

Oh like the students wouldn't go out and buy presents and cards from Memory Lane or what not.

BODOH with a capital "Q"!

What is their problem? To this date, I can't see what is wrong with school kids dabbling with puppy love; as long as they know their limits and how to protect themselves; both physically and emotionally. This in turn, the onus is on the parents to teach their kids how to handle and respect the opposite sexes.

So not only are you suppressing our students' entrepreneurship, you are also denying them the opportunity to learn first hand the dynamics of a boy-girl relationship.

Sometimes, I feel they do this because they were raised by super-conservative parents and didn't have the chance. So now they are sort of getting back at society for their loss.

Damn them. Trying to act so noble when we've seen them flirt around with female students countless of times. Heh... one of them even had they're car scratched for flirting around with the wrong girl. Padan muka.

Some people are just NOT meant to be educators. Let alone teachers. But then again, a LOT of people are where they are NOT supposed to be in this strange little country of ours.

Heh... and we all know why...

Anyways, now that that is out of my chest, let us all have a grand Valentine's whether it's going on a overpriced date with your significant other; or going out with a bunch of buds and drinking to Single Awareness Day.

Me? I'm going to pai tin kong. Haha... damn random.

Abdul Ghani = puke-alicious two-faced liar

2008-02-10T00:59:00.000+08:00

Be forewarned, reading this post may induce you to regurgitate all your delicious Chinese New Year cookies and gourmet dishes.

If you read yesterday's newspapers, the first thing noticeable will be the many articles about how the citizens of Malaysia should come together regardless of race and celebrate the festival together; of how "united" our country's leaders are; pictures of them lou sang-ing together; blaa blaa blaaaaa...

Frankly speaking, it makes me SICK! Are we facing any racial crisis at hand? Why stress on these racial sentiments? Why are you stressing the differences between the races? SICK SICK SICK!

BUT!

The worst of them all is THIS where the aforementioned Abdul Ghani said that the people should remain united and vote for the national coalition (BN) because the party has a "long history that we have moulded together as Malays, Chinese and Indians".

OH COME ON!

Stop trying to portray yourselves as such a pro-peace-loving-national-unity party. The public knows better.

Just barely 2 years ago (when the UMNO general assembly was around the corner), this joker said that the concept of Bangsa Malaysia which unites all Malaysians is a nebulous concept whose origins are not clear and that may lead to national instability. Furthermore, he keeps on harping the issue that Malays will "have no refuge against the onslaught of globalisation and liberalisation".

Obviously you have no interest in the unity between the races. You just want them to co-exist in a stable environment where as long as there isn't any trouble, semuanya OK!. So please don't act like you're interested in national unity when you are actually a racial bigot. If anyone were to ask people to vote BN because they have supposedly promoted national unity, be it a dog or a cat, anything but not YOU Abdul Ghani.

This is just examples of the lies this blasted ruling coalition is capable of. Wanna hear a joke? Here's a treat, compliments of the prime minister himself:

PM: I work very hard

ZOMGGGG!!! LAUGH TILL STOMACHACHE!!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Want more?

Hear out the people and correct mistakes, PM tells leader

You mean like how you listened to BERSIH, the lawyers and HINDRAF is it? Like how you corrected the body-snatching situation for the Gan family is it? Like how you prevented the demolition of the temples in Klang is it?

Thank you but no thank you.

So vote wisely my Malaysian brothers and sisters. Do it for the sake of your future generations. It's about time we became a proper country instead of some ultra's plaything. The difference starts HERE!

Me? Migrate?

2008-02-09T05:52:00.000+08:00

This year's Chinese New Year's gathering was a rather strange one for me. I find myself being surrounded by relatives asking me the same question:

"Ehh... final year already arr? Don't wanna go overseas meh? Go overseas la... then stay there. Then can bring your parents and your brothers over. You're good at what you do right, sure got LOTS of opportunity for you there!"

Their reason for wanting me to migrate overseas?

"Haiya, you see the country so luan, it will get difficult for you later wan laa... Now everything also give Malay people. Next time you sure no opportunity already. Stay here sure die. Go over better; just like how ma ma and ye ye came over from China last time. "

*sigh*

What do you say to sentiments like that? They are sincerely advising you because they are thinking of your welfare. Rebuking them will not only be a show of disrespect towards elders, they might also view you as a rebellious young thing who doesn't know what's good for him. In fact, my cousin is believing in this so much that he is applying for his PR as I'm typing this.

My view? Yes! Our country is screwed up. Yes! Our politicians deserve to burn in hell for what they're doing to the country. But is that a good enough reason for me to join the exodus?

I don't think so.

I love my country. Not because of the nasi lemak, not because of the char koey teow, not because of satay kambing; but of national pride. Malaysia is where I'm borned and here is where I belong. When people ask me where I'm from, I'd like to be able to hold my head up high and tell them "I'm Malaysian. And no, we don't live on trees, oh, yes, the government sux big time but we're fixing it. XD"

You know how they say that Chinese people outside China don't really belong anywhere? Hell, if I leave, then I'll really belong to nowhere. I dahlah already a little bothered that I cannot go back to China and be recognised as one of their own.

*sighhhh*

But what I'm afraid is that if the situation in the country DOES become alarmingly dangerous, then I might regret not bringing my family there for safety. I don't mind fighting for my country but I don't want my family to be harmed in the crossfire. The safety of my family comes before any political crap.

Why is our country so screwed up? Why are people so greedy? Why do they wanna stay in power even though they know their screwing around? Do they have no conscience? LOVE YOUR COUNTRY AND WORK PROPERLY LA DAMN IT!!

If anyone should leave, our corrupt politicians should. PERIOD!

My most favourite American Idol audition EVER!

2008-02-08T00:45:00.000+08:00

Please please do yourselves a great favour and watch this video. The guy auditioning, Renaldo Lapuz, is officially my new hero. Omg... he must be the earnest-est person on earth! His comments, his aspirations, his motivations... they're all so... so... WHOLESOME!

He is the only person I know who can like Simon before the audition, during the audition and after he's rejected. Impossible!

Heck, if he came to Malaysia and form a political party, I'd vote for him no questions asked.

"YOU ARE MY BROTHERRRR... MY BEST FRIEND FOREVERRRRR..."

LOL!!

The bangla is FREE!

2008-02-06T12:49:00.001+08:00

Haha... finally I'm done with my summer course and can FINALLY enjoy my holidays... Not that I haven't behaved like I was on holidays also although I had classes. But at least the pressure of exams, reports and presentations are outta my hair XD

Didn't sleep a wink last night so I went to uni like an over-stimulated monkey high on sleeplessness. Blergh... at least the paper was do-able. Hoped I did better tho.... Damned marketing strategies. ><>

Nvm... the angpaos will conteract this negativity. Haha...

Happy Chinese New Year everyone. XD

The nose who ran away

2008-02-05T22:42:00.000+08:00

I'll be having my Consumer Behaviour unit finals tomorrow. I feel that I'm ready; having read through the notes 2 or 3 times and the textbook once. But still, Nida, Andrew and Harry never fails to find some obscure part of the syllabules which I have never heard of let alone read which is reportedly one of the topics expected to be examined.

Damn stress sial.

Furthermore, I'm having a real bad bout of runny nose today because I barely had any sleep last night. Stayed awake till 9 am when I fell asleep till 3 when I met up with Nida and Harry for lunch at McD's. Then we went back to the uni library to study.

Throughout the whole day, I felt like I was gonna fall asleep right where I was standing or sitting. X(

Hopefully my nose tires out and stop running tomorrow otherwise my grades will be joining it.

I haven't even bought my new clothes yet and tomorrow is already new year's eve.

STRESS!

By the way, have your internet been acting up lately? The rate of disconnection of mine is so rampant that I feel like I must have been popping up and down like a rabbit on your MSN notification. XP

Anyway, signs that the unreliability of screamyx is getting to you? You'll know when:

Ian: NKVE is the only road in Malaysia with a 110 km/h speed limit
Me : Aiyah... when there are no cars, I normally go about 120kbps on the LDP anyway
Ian: Your think you're driving on the internet ar?
Me : *Disconnects again*

That's when you KNOW that it's getting to you.

Cold, rainy lazy saturday

2008-02-03T01:05:00.000+08:00

Rained practically the whole day today (my day starts at 3 pm when I wake up) and it was so cold that I didn't have to turn on the AC at all unlike other days which are so friggin HOT! My Consumer Behaviour finals is on this coming Wednesday and I'm hardly prepared for it. In fact, today I literally stared out my window at the rain and passing cars. Damn it, I have the attention span of a barnacle!

Hoping to cover the last 3 chapters today and start doing past years tomorrow. Still need to figure out how to link the theories and models together. Currently their like jumbled pieces randomly floating about in my head with no association with one another at ALL.

*sigh*

Anyways, there are some interesting pieces which I've posted on this other blog called Criticalfikir which I won't be posting up here as that would be redundant. Why the weird name? "Criticalthinking" was taken; at least that was what the blog starters told me. This blog is essentially started BY critical thinking Malaysian youths FOR critical thinking Malaysian youths to discuss about issues pertaining our country, gender issues, environmental issues... blaa blaa blaaaa...

They have a discussion every now and then too. If you're interested to come, please leave a comment there.

XD

Btw, did you know that our 8th position on World Competitiveness as claimed by Badawi is not entirely true. The old geezer is trying to bloody hoodwink us. We're actually no.23.

And did you know that you have to pay for rain in Selangor? Unbelievable? Believe it. It's all there at Criticalfikir

Blerghh... okiess... time to switch off the PC and resume eating paper!

Random

2008-02-01T04:06:00.000+08:00

Staring at my textbook at 4.06 in the morning, I suddenly thought of something really funny my parents said sometimes last year:

Mum: Who's your tax lecturer?
Me : Umm... Dr. Jeyapalan Kasipillai
Mum: Wah! Got Pillai means sure can fight one.
Me : (-.-)""

*sigh*

The stereotyping.

My parents need re-education. XD

Indian bros n sis', don't take offence ya.

And eating fun-sized Mars bars for sustenance while studying is really turning me into a really fun size too.

Damn... sure kena chat by my relatives this CNY.

><

Speed test schmeed test

2008-01-30T00:49:00.000+08:00

I can't believe I wasted nearly 3 hours typing nonsense on 10-fast-fingers' Speedtest. All thanks to the ghost.

Oh well, for what it's worth, here's my measly top score. XP

Touch Typing online

77 words

Steering my life

2008-01-29T02:59:00.001+08:00

Fuh... it has been a stressful and exciting month filled with presentations, mini-tests and reports and it'll all come to an end on February 6th with the commencement of my finals. After that, it's CHINESE NEW YEAR! Mmm... I can already taste all the cookies and other goodies awaiting me.

XD

Actually, I can literally taste them because my mum bakes them. Oh well...

Having taken Consumer Behaviour (or CB as it's affectionately known as) has really opened my eyes to the options that are in front of me. I felt the same too when I was working for Catchacorp last month; helping them organize their 'Movies Under the Stars' event. Perhaps taking mass communication or marketing as my major would have been a more appropriate choice rather than accounting, banking and finance. Heck, I even feel that I should have taken computer sciences too.

But then again, it's not like I haven't been through this and the reasons for the path that I've taken are still crystal clear to me.

Don't you just hate it when you do something because it's the right thing to do rather than what you want to do? But then again, don't you wanna do the right thing?

*headache*

Recently, I applied for a contest by P&G entitled the 'FMCG Challenge 2008' and after I've submitted my resume, I had to undergo a compatibility test. One of the questions really stood out from the rest:

What are your biggest fears while working?

My answer after some pondering?

Having to work alone all the time.

Yes... it's not the dateline. It's not the workload. It's having to work alone ALL THE TIME. I guess when I start working, I'd most likely apply for a job where I'll get to meet lots of people. Perhaps that is why I excell in my part-time job as a salesperson. Maybe I just like to talk. XD

Or maybe I just don't wanna be alone.

So coming back to the fields I'm majoring in; Accounting, Banking and Finance. Zomg...

So what will it be? An accountant and then an Auditor? A financial product and services salesperson? A personal financial mangement consultant? A bank clerk? A dog walker? A fruit picker? (oh... I want to go to Australia or NZ to become a fruit picker after I grad just for fun XD)

Maybe I'll just sell gadgets forever... T_T

Damn... I hate thinking bout the future late at night. So depressing.

No bowling, so archery instead

2008-01-24T00:09:00.001+08:00

Met up with Andrew and Mun Mun Bun Bun at Sunway Pyramid for a game of bowling and a movie - only to find out that the bowling alley was being utilised for an inter-state bowling tournament. (weren't we supposed to be celebrating Thaipusam today?)

*sigh*

Only in Malaysia.

Andrew & Mun Mun Bun Bun

The mall itself screams of Chinese New Year too. But... TODAY'S FREAKING THAIPUSAM! What the hell is wrong with us?!

Cool... but wouldn't wanna be caught dead in it

Anyway, since the bowling alley was closed to the public, we went for archery instead. Andrew's left-handed strategy wasn't working today apparently; meaning last Friday was nothing but a fluke.

Gaya... check! Skill... NOT! XD

After archery, we went for a movie. Since people were saying that Cloverfield sux, we watched Gabriel instead.

Not worth the RM11 I paid at all. Although the twist at the end was good, the plot and the story progression was terrible. Heck, people were even laughing when it was supposed to be intense.

*sigh*

Anyway, here are more pictures from today

aww... so sweet XD

Not many elderly couples hold hands anymore - unlike this couple. It's like the effect of being married for over 30 years doesn't affect their relationship at all and their just as loving as they were when they were courting.

Or maybe they could be lost in the Asian Avenue in Pyramid 2 and being the only old people in a sea of youngsters, were scared shitless and holding hands is just a natural response.

Oh well...

During lunch, Andrew took this picture of me where I look like a bloody small kid. And damn... he's right.

15 again!

Damn I hope I don't look like that ALL the time. *pray pray*

With crazy wacky Mun Mun Bun Bun the dancer

Will be meeting this Friday again for bowling. Damn we love bowling. XD

Bowling on Thaipusam Holiday

2008-01-23T08:19:00.000+08:00

Having been in perpetual sleep deprivation mode, I've completely forgotten that today is a public holiday. Yep, it's the newly announced Thaipusam PUBLIC HOLIDAY!

Thaipusam, an Indian festival has just been declared as a national public holiday by our garglement barely a week ago after certain groups urged Mr. Badawi for it. Lo and behold... the power of the cumming erections!

Why did it take so long to make this special date a national holiday?

Dunno...

Doesn't it bother anyone that motions like this only come during the months leading to erections?

Don't care...

Compared to the erections in Ijok not too long ago, this is phenomenal! It's a new bloody national holiday damn it. What is pouring in billions of Ringgit worth of projects into a sleepy forgotten town to buy over the people there compared to this?

Ahh... but we have the Hindraf to thank for this as well. Had they NOT have their rally, I doubt the garblement would have paid THIS much attention to the Indian community at all.

Well, in the end, this IS Malaysia that we're talking about - a land where the non-Malays should bersyukur (be thankful) with whatever scrap that resembles kindness and a sense of belonging thrown to us by our oh-so-noble grumblement.

I guess we're so used to being treated like second or third class citizens that just a little treat such as this should be able to appease us and make us forget about the atrocities commited by the garblement for the past 3 years, just long enough for us to cast our vote for them AGAIN THIS TIME ROUND. Corruption? What corruption?

And when they win the erections AGAIN, they'll continue being them, and we'll continue ranting about them in our blogs and the cycle continues again and again for all eternity.

*sigh...*

Screw politics, I'm going bowling.

Messed up

2008-01-22T23:42:00.000+08:00

Have been phenomenally lazy these days. Sitting in front of the TV for hours on end when I'm supposed to be doing my report - and then staying up till the wee hours of the morning to do some of it due to guilt.

So, I watched TV till about 3 am yesterday. Did my report till about 8 am. Slept till about 2 when my bro pestered me to send him to the dentist. Blergh...

Heh... behold the new breed of nocturnal humans.

Sleep? What sleep?

new house... new home

2008-01-20T19:06:00.000+08:00

OMG LA!! First blog post of the year. XD My poor poor neglected blog.

Well, for those who still dunno, I've shifted and have been busy since Christmas day. Even now, there are still little things here and there to settle coz the contractor did a crap of a job fixing the place up. Sighh... dunno when I'm gonna throw my housewarming party also.

A few interesting facts about my new house:

My room has a balcony! But the problem is... everytime I step out, I feel as though my neighbours are looking at me. I know for fact that my next door neighbour slows down and peers into my house everytime she drives past. Freaky...

My bed is a supposedly a good-for-your-back coconut husk fibre bed which... well... makes you feel like you're sleeping on hard wood. It's so bloody hard that when I sleep on my side, my thighs hurt. Omg... what's the use of a mattress which is good for your back when you don't get any sleep at all? This bed is gonna kill me I tell you.

My room is also a quarter of the size of my previous room and my bed is now a single bed instead of the queen-sized bed I had last time. Although we've been here nearly a month, I'm still not used to it. Normally when I wake up in the morning, everything else other than me is on the floor. T_T

We have solar heaters for our water now. These are great! They help us save a hell-lot of money on electricity and the water is BLOODY HOT. Haha! Cun!

Will update again when I can. Got an assignment to complete as well the finals to study for.

JB Job photos

2007-12-20T10:35:00.000+08:00

Okay okay... dah bangun dah dah bangun dah...

In JB, everyday was rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain and more rain... it was SO wet that when we got back to the hotel, we felt weird because we were TOO DRY. XD In the 3 days that we were there, I think I "played" rain more than I've ever done in 20 years.

It rained...

... and rained...

... and rained and rained and rained...

But no matter, we still have some tricks up our sleeves. Believe it or not, our answer to this was a bomoh - who told us to "sula" a dried chilli and stab it into a garlic and make beacons of these around the perimeter of the event area. AND IT WORKED DAMMIT!

Our secret weapon

As silly as it looks, it's no joke. Seriously...

After setting up the "beacons", it rained like mad BEFORE the event, and AFTER the event. Miraculously, not one drop of rain DURING the event. Pelik sial. Unfortunately, that also meant that most of our work will be under the heavy rain. Damn...

While we were in JB, we also visited Dix's family there who treated us to a JB specialty - Chilli Kon Lou Mee!

Pedas sial!

Thank goodness for the bandana. XD

Casper the part-time cherry

After that, we went out for the famous JB chocolate ice kacang and fried toufu.

BEST!

OooOOooo~~~

Was supposed to go to Penang after this but apparently my services weren't needed anymore. T_T

Back from JB!

2007-12-09T19:10:00.000+08:00

Fuh... I'm back from JB after 3 days of tying banners, putting up buntings, carrying heavy stuff, playing in the rain, laughing at clowns, sleeping in buses, bullying bosses, watching Transformers 3 times back to back, stamping hands and controlling the weather.

Full post after the nap.

Zzzz...

In need of a saviour

2007-11-30T21:24:00.000+08:00

I wish that someone can come up to me and convince me to allow myself to believe

that everything will be fine;
that everything will be taken care of;
that it isn't a big deal;
that I'm forgiven;
and that IT'S OKAY!

I wish that someone will come up to me and tell me that I don't have to bother anymore cause he/she is taking over from there.

I wish that someone will come up to me to tell me that my actions and decisions were correct.

I wish... that I was a kid again.

Gadget therapy

2007-11-30T09:28:00.000+08:00

I'm depressed... I want an iPhone... :(

12 hours a day - 5 days straight...

2007-11-26T15:43:00.000+08:00

Had a fair in Mid Valley from Wednesday to Sunday and I must say, this has been the most punishing job I've EVER taken up. Standing 12 hours straight for 5 days in a row... my legs hardly felt like they were mine anymore.

Our meals consists of walking to Breadstory, getting a bun or two, walking back to our booth and continue FREAKING STANDING. Everyday, right after 10 pm, most of us just sat on the floor - 'merajuk' already as Casper puts it.

Leg breaking... blerghh...

*Sigh*

Oh well...

On the other hand, I entered Zouk for the first time last last thursday. Yeah I know I'm lame but clubbing isn't exactly my thing and after I went in, clubbing is not DEFINITELY NOT my thing. Smokey, crowded, noisy and EXPENSIVE! Don't know why anyone would wanna go there. XD

Damn out of place

Organizers

They were having this DJ contest there but by the time we got there, they were already announcing the winner - the contestant from Hong Kong. After that, that DJ starting doing his thing and his mix is actually quite good!

The finalists

Haha... So maybe it wasn't so bad.

Anyways, yesterday being the last day, Casper and I celeberated with a meal in Carl's Jr. Heh... it's gonna get messy!

Land of giant burgers @ giant prices

Before

After

Aduhaii...

I'M LOSING HAIR!!

2007-11-21T00:12:00.000+08:00

In case ur wondering what I've been doing these days, most of them are spent being my mum's driver. So my days are pretty much bed - toilet - kitchen - car - kitchen - toilet - bed *sigh*

Myvi - my second home

Anyways, since I'll be working tomorrow, I figured that it'll be a good idea to get a haircut today (since my routine has more or less turned me into scruffy looking jungle man).

I thought of going to my regular stylist but that was all the way in Kepong. Then Cas called and said that he was going to MV. So what the heck...

Cas and Dix (Most interesting name couple EVER!)

By Cas's recommendation, I got my hair done in Derrick&Team. The first thing the stylist told me as I sat down was

"lei tao fat lat tou hou kan yu hor..." (Your hair is falling quite a lot)

(0.0)"

That is probably the worst thing to tell a guy. Serious...

My bald spot(s)

He then proceeded to recommend that I take their super funky hair regrowth 'procedure' which includes some weird machine and some handheld cattle-prod like thing... In fact, a guy right next to me was undergoing this 'procedure'. Looks like he was being brained. Damn...

Oh well... as Cas said. Open your wallet to show that you only have JUST ENOUGH for a cut and wash and ask him whether can "pow mai" the procedure or not. He will commence washing and cutting your hair immediately - no questions asked. XD

My 'new' haircut - yeah yeah... I know it looks exactly like the previous and the previous and the previous...

Overall I'm satisfied with the cut. But I did feel I was overcharged. RM35 for a wash and cut. Damn... now even broke-er. Besok makan roti only la... wait... roti naik harga! X( X(

Holidays schmolidays!

2007-11-20T03:16:00.000+08:00

When it's really damn hectic, I complain. When it's not, I complain too. Haha... Don't know what I want. (>.<) Anyways, I've been hanging out with my highschool buds really often these days. Wanna spend quality time with them before they go on their respective industrial trainings. As for me, it's all work and summer courses this hols. Here are some pics!

Friends whom one can ajak out without anywhere specific to go

Ended up in Starbucks with donuts. WTF...

Hanging out in Starbucks today with Melia while waiting for her specs to be ready. Damn, I really pour too much money into Starbucks. (-.-)"

Most comfortable loafers EVER

Damn lorry broke down at a blind spot. How convenient. Only in Malaysia

Went to Sunway Pyramid to visit my work buds today too. Just in time - Nicholas wanted to bring us to this seemingly SUPER SPECIAL place where people KILL to get a place at. Since Johnny was all you-jump-I-jump with the whole thing, I agreed to go too. Little did I know about how much I'm gonna regret this later

Dinner in the middle of nowhere

Nicholas brought us to this really ulu place in bloody SERDANG! Drove for a good 45 mintues before we reached there - only to discover that it's almost exactly the same with Talipon (o_O) Oh no...

As expected with cooking with Planta (banglaa...), the oil tends to crackle and pop - sending scalding hot droplets in your direction. Well, this happened while I was leaning towards the pot and I got a good serving of boiling hot Planta straight to my face! MY FACE! Thank goodness for my glasses or I would have been blinded. Imagine that - blinded by planta. Damn...

As if that wasn't bad enough, somehow or rather, Johnny managed to induce a piece of chicken cooking in a pool of Planta to BLOODY EXPLODE! Yes, it BLOODY EXPLODED! In fact, it exploded with such a pop that it sent everyone at our table stumbling backwards. Now how often do you get that. The US should send Johnny to Iraq with raw marinated chicken, Planta and a grill set man. The war will end the very next day.

Anyways, here are more pics of the in-the-middle-of-nowhere-restaurant outting.

Johnny the WMD

Nicholas the nowhere-restaurant-finder and Ah Fatt the satay-chicken-king (I swear he nothing but that (-.-)" )

Opening inventory

Work-In-Progress

Closing inventory

Fuh... damn bloody full man. Burned 30 bucks in a nowhere restaurant in Serdang. Damn. Taking into consideration the original Sony Ericsson HPM 70 headset, the crystal case and the 2GB M2 card that I just bought too, I'm officially broke. Thank goodness it's at the end of the month. Hehe...

Oh well, at least I'm working this week. MONEY LAI LAI!!

The only constant in the universe is change

2007-11-18T02:51:00.000+08:00

Warning - This is gonna be a LOONNNGGGG... post. XD

Change; a whole lot of that happening around me now.

1. I'm single again
2. I'm moving in a few weeks time
3. Not that sure in my studies anymore
4. Got fatter X(
5. Changed phone (again)

Yeah, for those who haven't heard, I'm single again. Nothing ugly, nothing messy. Mutual decision. Why?

Love. What is love? To me, love is to care for someone without benefit, lust or possession. My philosophy of getting together with someone? - because I believe that I can give that person happiness far greater than anyone else could and that by committing myself to that person, I'm allowed to go all out for her happiness.

But lately, I've realised that being in a relationship also requires acceptance of massive proportions. To BE with someone is to accept that person wholly and unconditionally - all their strengths as well as their flaws. And that although we may love someone wholeheartedly, if so happen that there are chinks that cannot be ironed out, differences on a core level that cannot be rectified, it could pose problems in the future which can turn something beautiful into something ugly.

Therefore, when things reach such a stage, it would be selfish for one to force oneself to accept the other knowing that deep down, it's not something done willingly. It is even MORE selfish to fool the other party by giving a false impression that we have the capacity to accept ALL their flaws when we actually don't. When it reaches such a stage, we know that some things are just not meant to be. Perhaps not yet.

But as I've said, to love someone is to care for them unconditionally; without benefit, lust or possession. So although the emotional commitment is no longer there, I'll still be around and I know that you will too. We'll still be doing crazy things and we'll still be very much involved in each others' lives but on a different level - one where we can accept each other wholly and unconditionally.

For that, I thank you for being in my life. Your presence is a gift that I'll treasure forever :D

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next up, I'll be shifting in the next few weeks. No where far away, just down the road. XD (to my SS3 buddies, don't worry, pasar malam on Tuesdays still on! Laksa dinner still on!) Things at the current house I'm staying in is havoc. Both my neighbours (next door and behind) have moved and the new owners of the units are BLOODY DEMOLISHING THE HOUSES. So every morning, I'm greeted by the noise banging on the concrete, piling stuff into the ground, heavy machinery crawling about, etc etc... MADDENING!! XP

In fact, yesterday, a bloody crane was parked right in front of my house - so much so that all the cars in my house had to be parked outside and my gate cannot be opened fully. Bangla roti planta... I can't wait to shift (although one of my neighbours is a real smart ass - but I'll forgive him since he's old).

Big ass crane in front of my house

Our new house is also currently under massive renovations and my new room albeit being smaller than my current one, will have a balcony! Haha... haven't had a room with a balcony before. But given that our weather is getting so whacked up these days (either scorching hot or torrential rains), I doubt I'll have the opporunity to enjoy it. *sigh*

Anyway, this shift is a real fresh start for my family and me. Things have been really crazy lately - things that I'm not at liberty to discuss so I'll leave it at that. But it's a good, well-placed and needed change. I'm glad. :D

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Regarding my studies, I believe that I'm at an all time low. I have never expected myself to dip so low - with my standard reduced to trying to pass instead of aiming to score. Something needs to be done. AND QUICK. I can't let my family down nor can I let myself down. My studies is something that I cannot take for granted and it's something that I will not - at least from this point on.

A few posts prior to this, I said that I'll buck up and really focus. Well, to an extent, I did - but definitely not enough. *sigh*

Next year will be different. Things are different now. No more posts like these. That's my promise to myself.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Similar to my all time low in my studies, I'm also at an all-time fat. Damn. Something needs to be done here too. Don't want horror stories from the doctor anymore. Hrmph! And it starts today. 18th of November, 250 calories burnt from a 4Km run. I'll make this a habit. Or at least try to. *dua puluh minit setiap hari, dalam seminggu, hanya tiga kali* XD

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh... and I got a new phone (yeah yeah... not again... I know...)

That's all for now, will update more later.

XD

Khairy Jamaluddin admits to cronyism

2007-11-02T23:07:00.000+08:00

cronyism
(also croneyism)

• noun - the improper appointment of
friends and associates to positions of authority.

AskOxford

PETALING JAYA: Khairy Jamaluddin says that being the Prime Minister’s son-in-law has provided him “protection” which he wants to use to change things for the better.

The Umno Youth deputy chief said he was able to “push the envelope now” partly because of that relationship with the prime minister.

“There’s a certain extent (to which) these people in Umno will not go after me. So it gives me ‘protection’ to change things.

“If I don’t use this ‘protection’ to change things for the better, then I’m just wasting time and marking my time to go up the ladder of politics. That’s not what I am about.

thestar.com.my, 2/11/07

Well, we've been seeing dumb politicians spew crap out of their mouths without using their brains (if any) a lot lately haven't we. It's really hard to believe that he graduated from Oxford and has written articles for magazines before. I don't know whether he knows that he had just openly admit that he will take advantage of his position as the PM's son-in-law.

According to the article, he wants to use this 'privilege' to create 'change'. Any change coming from someone who supports mat rempits (he calls them 'mat cemerlang's) and is OBVIOUSLY racist to the core (he was the one who incited the fear among the Malays that the Chinese is going to take advantage of them) is definitely NOT welcomed. I can only imagine what kind of change he will bring about. Oh and Khairy, if you're reading this, YES WE'LL REMEMBER WHAT YOU DID... FOREVER!

Btw, he called me a monkey. If fact, if you're a blogger, he called u a monkey too. Haha... I bet he's just jealous we know HTML and he doesn't.

But as usual, if there's a hoo-haa about it, it'll brushed off as a press misquote or some shite. Business as usual. Only in Malaysia.

Who needs sleep when you have STRESS!!

2007-10-16T06:43:00.000+08:00

Exams are merely 2 weeks away and as usual, i start to shuffle between at least 7 timezones. It's an endless cycle that can only be broken when I reach my bodily limits.

Distractions during the day (forums, phonecalls, TV, FOOD, people) make it impossible for me to study - Believe me, I've tried. I have the attention span of a goldfish *sigh*.

Pressure and stress at night keeps me from sleeping at night - which is a good thing actually because it's the only time I can concentrate although I know that my brain will be a pulp later in the morning and I won't know the difference between the subject I'm taking and Russian literature.

Blergh... have been sleeping REALLY badly nowadays. Sometimes I wonder what's the point. Might as well don't sleep.

Ok fellas, it's pulp time. XP

Freak accident

2007-09-29T22:53:00.000+08:00

It was 11.30 pm. I was on my way back from KL. Traffic on the Federal Highway in front of Armada Hotel was slightly congested. Thought it was normal; after all, it WAS a Friday night.

I was sitting idly in my car with my handbrakes up enjoying the music when WHAM!! A bloody freaking black Myvi crashed into my back causing my car to surge forward and hit the Proton Saga in front.

What a way to get into an accident. @#$%&%$#!

The damage to my car is pretty extensive; car can barely start, brakes felt like a toy pedal, gears were locked up, the boot won't close, driver's door jammed... DLL

Not to mention the stiff neck the violent jolt gave me. Bangla!

Back

Front

Luckily I'm a law abiding citizen and had my seatbelt on. Otherwise, I would have been a goner.

The stupid girl in the black Myvi didn't even apologise to me. What a bitch. And her car was FULL of people - guys AND girls. And yet, noone dared come out of the car to check on the damage, the person they hit, try to do some damage control...

Nothing! They just sat there like a bunch of mangos. And I didn't even bring out my steering lock - YET!

Thanks to the bitch who bears the same surname as me, I'm gonna be car-less for a friggin MONTH! If I had it MY way, I'd have her chauffer me around for the entire time. It's HER fault anyway.

Anyway, I'm charging every single damned thing to her insurance. Hope her premium goes sky high because of this. Hrmph!

A day for appreciation

2007-09-22T00:24:00.000+08:00

You know how we always take things for granted, and only appreciate them when something is wrong?

Kinda like having a toothache and feeling remorseful because you didn't brush your teeth the other night? (No, I DON'T have a toothache)

Well, this picture made me think:

It made me think about those times when our "beloved" and "well respected" Indonesian neighbours decided to just BURN UP their forests for farming, enabling those of us who haven't been to cold countries to enjoy fog-like haze.

There was even once when we couldn't see past 5 metres. Cool huh!

Well, so there I was, walking to the car and suddenly it struck me - You know, the sky is really-REALLY clear! There's no haze at all. I'd better appreciate this before our neighbours decide to run amok with matches again.

As I was inhaling deeply to enjoy the clear air, the carbon monoxide filled air from the vehicles zooming on the road brought me right back to Earth. Oh well...

Dato Seri Syed Hamid Albar - the Malaysian crap talker

2007-09-16T01:14:00.000+08:00

Please spare me a little of your time and click on the link below to watch the interview between Sarah Montague and Dato Seri Syed Hamid Albar.

And learn why I vomitted blood all over my PC.

BBC Hardtalk - Dato Seri Syed Hamid Albar

The first impression that one gets from watching the video is that NONE of the questions are being answered! He just goes round and round, beating around the bush and talking cock.

Furthermore, he has this tendency to blame everything on other countries. Watch the video and notice he keeps on saying "well, look at other countries for example..." when asked about the shit that happens here. Crap lah this fella.

Another significant message that he just sent out to the world is that rural areas riddled by poverty is only inhabited by Malays. The Chinese and Indians in Malaysia are all rich.

And his favourite line; "You have to look at it from this way...". Heck! If I want to analyse the situation, I can look at it from any angle I want. Why the hell should I look at it from your's? Can a rapist tell the police to "look at it from this way" that he cannot tahan already and that it's god's will? Crap crap crap! Just look at Sarah's face during the interview; it screams "omg... wtf is he SAYING?"

Anyway, here are a few discussion points:

Point 1 (3 min 20 sec):

SM: Is it fair that it's easier for Malays to get into universities?

SHA: (summary of his bullcrap)
- It is not fair that rural folks don't get to go to university.
- Currently it is based on meritocracy. But looking at the ratio of non-Malays to Malays, the non-Malays are still outnumbering the Malays.
- This should not be an issue that divide us.
- gov is now giving scholarships to non-Malay students as well.

>>> Okay, now can anyone tell me which part of his answer answers the question? And how exactly does letting unqualified Malay students to enter universities HELP the rural folks?

And you say it's based on meritocracy; and THEN continue to say that it is based on a racial quota. Which is which? So does that mean that a qualified non-Malay student has to give up his/her place in a public uni to a unqualified Malay student because of this?

And DUH... it is a CAUSE of racial divide in Malaysia. And we haven't even gone to the scholarship part yet. THAT'S another issue. Stupid... sure never read newspaper this one.

Point 2 (4 min 59 sec)

SM: What about gov contracts?

SHA:
- contracts enjoyed by the non-Malays in absolute terms is even more than the Malays
- 1 acre of land in rural area will be valued at RM10,000. 10,000 sq ft of land in urban area will cost millions. (I have no idea what he's trying to convey here)
- "we don't look at building a nation that has been left divided, being recognised by their economic activities. Now we're building on common factors." (more SHA shit. No idea what's he trying to say so I quoted him directly)

>>> Hello... tak baca surat khabar. Gov contracts are awarded to unqualified crony companies which subsequently SELL those contracts to non-Malay contractors. Ever heard of "Ali-Baba" relationship? I think it's time for this katak to come back to the tempurung.

Point 3 (5 min 45 sec)

SM: Do you not accept the danger of rising resentment among non-Malays because this situation has persisted in a situation where it doesn't need to persist any longer?

SHA:
- this is open for discussion. But don't interperate this discussion as something that is negative.
- outsiders should butt out. Look at out 50th Merdeka. All citizens participate and there is a sense of belonging.

>>> Issue of rising resentment among races?? Open for DISCUSSION?? Should not be viewed as NEGATIVE??? *pukes blood*

Excuse me but everytime there is a discussion of a racial nature, out comes the sedition act and out comes the ISA. Feel the love y'all!

Point 4 (6 min 43 sec)

SM: How is it that non-Malays get a sense of belonging when they can't get access to the top cabinet post?

SHA:
- who told you that? XD
- what do you mean top cabinet post? XDD
- I can argue in the same way with so many countries (told ya)
- let me tell you in a way that you won't get excited and upset over something you don't understand (Sarah's face: @#%&^$#@!)
- whenever we want to do something important, it is important for us to look to other countries.
- there will come a time when all races in Malaysia have accepted the arrangement.
- How can somebody from outside come and tell us we're doing it wrong? (SM: Gotcha!)
- if all the Chinese parties come together and want to change things, there's nothing to stop them

>>> oh... my... god...

Let's see. First, he obviously either does not understand the question or he does NOT want to understand the question. Secondly, he says that Malaysia learns racism in politics from other countries. And third, he bloody claims that Malaysians have ACCEPTED this system?! WTF! Go die lah!

He's a total retard I tell you. He's definitely representing the wrong country cause certain political parties in this country have been telling folks that if the Chinese come to power, they will take over this country, they will kill all the Malays, rubbish like that. Like hell they'll ever let a non-Malay get to the top cabinet posts.

DAP, I believe the last line is an open challenge to you.

Point 5 (10 min 55 sec)

SM: although the Malaysian economy grew rapidly over the past few years, it is slowing and your neighbours' economies are growing rapidly faster. (due to racists policies)

SHA:
- last time their economy grew slower than our's
- "you have to look at it, have it succeeded in creating peace and stability in generating prosperity among the races, have we succeeded in infusing diversity out of our culture..."

>>> wow... I can't believe he said what he said. For your information, our neighbours are booming faster than us because of foreign investors. If we continue to fail to woo these investors, we're definitely going to die.

Not like what that moron said about "last time they slower than us". So what? Next time we grow faster than them again? And then, like a see-saw we go up and down? Crap man!

Oh, and she asked about the economy laa... not racial harmony laaa... which by the way, we have not succeeded in creating peace and stability in generating prosperity among the races. Look at the poor. They are getting poorer and poorer by the day while the rich get richer. The only prosperity they get is the McD's prosperity burger during CNY.

Point 6 (12 mins 46 sec)

SM: Why is society becoming increasingly divided?

SHA: the important thing is to understand the issues and then try to address them and not to look at the issues and say "oh it's getting worse".

SM: but do you not accept it's getting worse?

SHA:
- no... I think that race relations all over the world is getting worse.
- But we shouldn't give up
- current gov is giving the opportunity for everyone to talk about it

>>> This guy is a real no-brainer. Everyone knows that the issues exists. She is asking about it getting worse. Indirectly, this fella has just said that it's ok if it's getting worse, as long as we're doing something about it - even if it's making it worse. On top of that, even though it's getting worse, we should not acknowledge that it's getting worse.

When Sarah corners him, he makes the "race relations all over the world is getting worse" statement.

...

Amazing... What a convenient thing to say - without proof or logic.

And are you sure the gov allows us to talk about racial issues? I don't want to trust you and then the next thing I know I'm getting jiggy with the Sedition Act and the ISA.

Point 7 (16 mins 03 sec) ***MOST IMPORTANT***

SM: Lina Joy wanted to convert to Christianity but she wasn't allowed to

SHA:
- You have turned this thing into something very negative.
- Lina Joy wanted to change her name.
- She was NEVER NOT ALLOWED to convert into Christianity
- A person is born with an Identity Card which is part of Malaysia's system
- She was just not allowed to change her name on her ID.

SM: In the case of Revathi Masoosai who was sent to a Muslim rehabilitation centre because she tried to live with a Hindu

SHA:
- that happens all the time
- we see whether she has converted voluntarily or not, then she would have the choice of her own
- this case doesn't represent the whole country

SM: it's important because it shows how it can affect other individuals. If you take her case, why couldn't she practise as a Hindu?

SHA: If she's ultimately decided that she wants to become a Hindu, then it's up to her

SM: but she had to go through 6 months of rehabilitation which was described like a prison

SHA: yeah... out of the how much of Muslim women who got converted to Hindus?

SM: She now has to live with her mother in order to see her child

SHA: ...... to see her child with derrr.....

SM: she has a child with the Hindu man

SHA:
- when you follow a certain religion it's like being a member of a club and you're subjected to certain rules
- to get out of the club, must follow the rule of getting out of the club
- nobody will stop anybody who so strongly profess another religion but will create misunderstandings
- Malaysia survived because of that rather than having no interference at all
- Malaysia practises more freedom than anybody in this "country"

SM: these cases are used as an example of creeping Islamisation of Malaysia

SHA:
- it's prejudice rather than Islamisation
- In constitution, Islam is official religion
- it is an Islamic state but not a theocratic Islamic state
- syariah courts is only for the Muslims

>>> Ho ho ho... boy did he open a HUGE can of worms for himself. First and foremost, MUSLIMS CAN CONVERT TO CHRISTIANS? Are you sure? If so, then how come they are still tried in a Syariah Court? (Since Syariah Courts are only for Muslims)

And you imply that MANY MUSLIM WOMEN HAVE CONVERTED INTO HINDUS?? And that this happens ALL THE TIME?? Dato Seri Syed Hamid Albar... are you sure? Don't simply open your mouth cause there's no taking it back once the shit hits the fan.

And if she is a willing convert, then she shouldn't be a Muslim anymore the moment she claims that she professes another religion strongly. Why is she still forced to go for "rehab"? And at first, you say that if someone really want to convert, nobody will stop them. Yet after that you say that interference was necessary to keep the country's racial mix in order. Why the contradiction?

Lastly, you say that Malaysia is a non-theocratic Islamic state.

So.....

It's a secular Islamic state?

Take my advice. Next time, please don't do interviews especially if you don't know your own country well. Since you like other countries so much, why don't you talk about them instead. At least then you won't sound like a moron. You'd just be a busybody who doesn't know his place; just like how you perceived Sarah to be.

Why I will never EVER pay my taxes

2007-09-12T23:22:00.000+08:00

I guess we've all heard about the MEGA misappropriation of funds by our "beloved" government.

Purhcasing 4 freaking pairs of screwdrivers for RM224 (market price = RM40), RM5,700 on a bloody carjack (market price = RM50), technical pens for RM1,146.56 (market price = RM160) and 3.1 megapixels for RM8,254 (market price = RM2,990)??!!

WTF!

Better still... the Treasury's explanation:

"On the purchase of equipment at higher than the market price, the Treasury said this was due to the different locations of the IKBN, with suppliers also including infrastructure cost in their quotation"

"each device (3.1 mp camera) came with a tripod, USB cable, video cable, desktop computer and software CD"

"the 90 sets of Faber Castell technical pens bought for RM103,190.40, with each set costing RM1,146.56, the Treasury replied that each set included a set of spare nibs with a Rotring Vibrator"

. . . . . . . .

I'm speechless...

infra structure... what infrastructure? If you want to pin it on infrastructure, please list down what "infrastructure" was "utilized"! And what kind of infrastructure do you need for 4 sets of screwdrivers??!! A touch-sensitive, hydraulic screwdriver dispensing system is it?? Or a special lorry JUST to transport your 4 screwdrivers is it??

CRAP! With the price paid, you might as well buy a screwdriver-making machine!

And what kind of bloody carjack did you buy? Gold plated?? 5K++ difference. SHIT!! At that price, I'd expect it to waltz, sing Negaraku, cook me dinner, do my assignments, make phonecalls AND jack up my car!

Worst of them all, since when did digital cameras come with DESKTOP PC's as a bundle??!! WHAT THE -insert profanity here-! JUST HOW STUPID DO YOU THINK WE ARE??!! And you bought 1 desktop computer PER camera??!!

Maybe it's not how stupid you think we are. It's more of you're more stupid than we thought.

And sorry to burst your bubble but "tripod, USB cable, video cable and software CD" normally COMES WITH THE SET AT NO ADDED COSTS! Bodoh bangang! That means that each PC costs RM5,264.

You know, the more I talk about this, the more it sounds like some stupid minister's son got hold of a 3.1 mp DSLR cam and a high-performance gaming PC and showed it off to a bunch of his dungu minister's-son-friends.

Then they got jealous and asked their bodoh bangang daddies to get the same for them and their bodoh bangang daddies conveniently charged it to their departments. Sounds feasible no?

Comon laa... do you really expect us to fall for it arr? Infrastructure costs, PC's, stationery??

I'd rather you take the rotring vibrator and make yourselves happy in a quiet corner. Total rubbish.

Now THAT'S why I'll never pay my taxes!

Sorry Cacing-Dacing, it's about time Malaysia truly gained independence.

Diet diet diet!

2007-09-03T22:52:00.000+08:00

Boy I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!

I've been on a diet regime since Saturday - 2 low-carb full meals a day and only nuts, muesli bars, oats and fruits for in betweens + a 2-mile run (250 - 300 calories burnt) every alternate day on the treadmill.

I found out from here that I need around 12902.4 kilojoules a day to maintain my weight. So technically, as long as the input is less than the output, my weight should start dropping.

Hamster food

Ok... the reason for this sudden shift from excessive "wholesome foods" eater to uber-healthy-weight-watcher-calorie-counter freak?

...

My cousin's wedding is coming up... and I can't fit into my favorite shirt. XP

It's not that I can't button it up; it's more of a fits-just-right-when-starving situation if you know what I mean. But imagine starving at a wedding dinner. ZOMG! NEVER!!

Worse... I'm supposed to be his "heng-tai" since he has no brothers and I seem to be the one closest to him. Being a "heng-tai" will spell doing stupid stuff when picking up the bride and drinking on his behalf during his wedding dinner.

So... fits-just-right-when-starving, definite no-go.

Oh ya, forgot to mention that it's good for my health too. Dr. Teoh will be so proud of me. XDXD

Plus it's waaaayyy better than that chemical-breakdown crap that forces you to eat beetroot. Ughh... beetroot... rather eat a mango-tree leaf.

4 oz of beetroot = capital punishment in negara Kenny

Anyway, being on this diet also means that I have to stay away from my absolute favorites:

Cure for hunger, depression, insomnia, headaches, fevers, "fong-sap", cancer...

My solution to a short but happy life

I miss them so bad that everything smells like KFC now. If only I can programme my brain to make everything TASTE like them too. Then, beetroot? BRING IT ON!

Anyway, weight lost to date = 2 Kg

GAMBAHTE!

New toy!

2007-09-02T23:42:00.000+08:00

This post is about 2 and a half weeks late. Refering to one of my previous posts, I had an itch that JUST had to be scratched. Often, this would include me dumping a wad of cash on something that I'll regret purchasing in a few weeks time.

So far, I'M LOVIN' IT!

Haha... anyway, ladies and gentleman, here it is...

VGA Monstrosity!

If ur wondering, yes... it's a phone...

Kinda looks like a war prop!

Initially, it was all dull gray and metallic all over. Nothing a little "skinning" couldn't solve!

My previous O2 Mini was also "skinned" in a similar army-design fashion.

Dunno what's with me and camo. Just gotta have it. XDXD

Love it!

Happy Merdeka!

2007-08-31T10:53:00.000+08:00

Happy Merdeka Day everyone!
Yes yes... I'm still alive... Just that this month have been extraordinarily hectic with assignments and presentations and tests. Not to mention the passing of my old modem.

Anyway, back to the topic; Merdeka.

Am I a patriotic person? Yes! Do I love my country? YES! How am I feeling on this glorious 50th Merdeka?

Pissed...

Why?

For 50 years, we have been living next to each other; Malays, Chinese, Indians, Punjabs, DLL's... and yet, shit like "are we a secular state? Are we an Islamic state?" is happening. What the hell is your problem?! The constitution says secular so secular lorr... Wtf is "our country is not secular nor is it Islamic"?? So what the hell are we?

Pemuda PAS asking the Selangor mayor to cancel the Gwen Stefani concert.

“This concert does not bring any good to Malaysians except invite youngsters to enjoy themselves, mix around too freely, get drunk and commit sins” - Kamaruzaman Mohamad.

Okay... so picture this.

Go watch The Great Escape 2007 Concert, make new friends with a few fellow G.S. fans, then leave together after the concert to go get drunk, have random free sex, rape, kill and rob??!!

Hello... sorry to tell you but most of us Malaysians prefer to go for a mamak yum cha session and call it a night after concerts. Most of us need to work/study the next day you know. If you feel like getting wasted, killing, raping and stealing after watching good-looking women perform, you seriously need help dude. Leave me a comment and I'll recommend you a good shrink.

If you insist fellow party members are so animalistic, then by all means ban YOUR MEMBERS from going. Not cancel the concert!! Great move towards putting Malaysia on the map. Yeah, a place NOT to go to that is. Idiot. If anything needs to be banned, IT'S YOU!

And who the hell gave you the right to speak up for ALL of us? If you can't think straight, you are not qualified to represent anyone especially communities comprising different races and religions.

Next up, what the hell is out ruling party's problem with a Malaysian Malaysia?! What the hell is wrong with a Malaysian Malaysia? Bangla Roti Planta! That's what we're striving for you fool! Just because it's DAP's slogan you have to oppose it. So what do you want us to follow? "Sedia Gempur"? You want peace or you want war now? Crazy fools!

News flash for you Zainuddin Maidin, after 50 years of staying here, eating here, sleeping here, shitting here, dying here, Malaysians will remain Malaysians forever and we ain't going nowhere. So what's the big hoo haa about Malaysian Malaysia? Everybody be Malaysian and Malaysia belongs to every Malaysian la. Why? You don't want to let us be Malaysians is it? Goblok punya orang.

Then we have parliament members who belong in Zoo Negara making strong statements during parliament proceedings that reek of genocidic sentiments such as "You tak suka, you keluar dari Malaysia".

Comon la Badruddin bin Amiruidin... You tak suka Malaysia multi-racial, you keluar lorr... Pergi tinggal seorang-seorang. Then noone to challenge you lorr...

Mohd Said Yusof and Bung Mokhtar Radin who caused the "tiap-tiap bulan pun bocor" fiasco also shows a lack of seriousness while dealing with the country's issues. Is this the type of behaviour you'd expect from grown men IN PARLIAMENT? These are the people whom we have elected to represent us for heaven's sake.

Unfortunately, most of these jokers are let off the hook with a "oh, they didn't mean it. It was just a spur of the moment thing". Spur of the moment my ASS. There's a reason why elected representatives are called "Yang Berhormat". It's because they are expected to be of a class above the rest, one who shows exemplary behaviour and hence a role model for others. "Spur of the moment" shouldn't happen with these people. There's no excuse.

My 4-year-old nephew has more class than ANY of these donkeys.

Sigh...

Buildings and structures that are unsafe for use due to certain parties cutting corners, RAISING TOLL RATES (toll rates should decrease over time), THE GOVERNMENT WAGING WAR AGAINST BLOGGERS...

Ahh... the list goes on and on...

I love my country and THAT is why I'm pissed. If you love your country, wouldn't you?

Mr. Badawi, it's not too late. Reform like you promised to. Otherwise I will have no choice but to ride on the rocketship.

Damn... if not for nasi lemak.

Kena racun

2007-08-16T13:55:00.000+08:00

Die... once again in my life, I terkena the gadget poison. (Zhong tok in cantonese)

The first time I was infected with it was when I was about 15 and MP3 players were the IN thing. I wanted one so badly that when a friend offered to sell a unit that he won in some contest for 400 bucks, I agreed without even blinking.

It was a Compaq one (heh... bet you've never even heard of a Compaq-branded MP3 player). The audio quality of the player was great. In fact, it IS still one of the best I've ever have.

The only problem was that it doesn't come with any built in memory. Instead, it featured 2 MMC slots which I subsequently filled with 2 pieces of 256 mb's. THOSE days, a 256 mb MMC would cost you something like RM270. X(

The other problem with it was that my songs kept on getting corrupted and I had to reload ALL my songs into the machine over and over again. On average, this occured about 3 times a week. Heck, if I'd worked out at that frequency, I'd be as fit as a fiddle by now. Tiga puluh minit setiap hari... dalam seminggu, hanya tiga kali...

Next up was the handphone craze. This was about one year after the MP3 player case. Everyone had one. Everyone was SMS-ing each other. Everyone was cool. Except me... X(

So once again, all my head could process was maxisdigicelcomnokiamotorolaericsson (that time still no Sony Ericsson). I still remember how I would venture from mall to mall annoying phone shop dudes by being one of those ask-but-don't-buy fellas.

In the end, I starved myself for a few months and bought myself a Nokia 8250 for RM580. Heh... now I was COOLLL... But by then, everyone had upgraded to phone with a colour screen / polyphonic ringtones / camera. Damn... tak puas.

So I sent my innocent little 8250 for a major surgery. What I did to it was somewhat equivalent to installing twin turbo engines, V-shaped exhaust, 4-wheel drive transmission, 17" wheels and dual-woofers on a Kancil.

Although it had a LOT more lights, louder speakers and vibration that'll make you moan everytime a phonecall came in, it didn't even make it to it's 3-month-old birthday.

So then started my EXTREME splurging on mobile phones. Within a year, I changed from a Nokia 8250 to a Motorola C350 to a Alcatel OneTouch511 to a Nokia 3650 and finally to a Sony Ericsson T630.

While the mobile phone craze died down, the PDA craze began. I started off with a Palm Tungsten E. Boy I LOVED my PDA. In fact, my love for gadgets started with it. I'd fidget with it all day; before class, during class, after class, while having meals, while taking a crap, before bed, first thing when I wake up, while being scolded by mum... yeah... we were inseparable.

Best buds

During that time, I had begun working in a PDA shop so I had the money AND the source of getting my gadget fixes. It was heaven.

When my beloved Tungsten E started to die on me (faulty battery), I decided to upgrade to a Zire 72s. Damn... I LOVE MY ZIRE 72S! I still miss it sometimes.

Replacement best bud. Damn not loyal XD

With my Zire 72s and my SE T630 around, I was finally happy... for a while.

My next racun period came when O2 launched the first mini-sized PDA Phone (during those times, carrying a regular PDA Phone is equivalent to putting a brick in your pocket).

Damn... really kena racun gao gao... But at about RM26++ a pop, it was WAYYYY... outta my league.

After months of pining, my opportunity came when someone wanted to sell of his for Rm1300. I literally ran to the ATM to withdraw the money. Damn... again, it was one of the happiest days of my life. I have an O2 dammit!

First PDA Phone

I used my O2 XDA II Mini EXTENSIVELY. Installing and testing new software every other day, reformatting it every week, trying to install new interfaces on it... every single imaginable crap. I was happy for a while...

After a year, I exchanged my O2 Mini for a HP hw6515, a PDA Phone with a on board QWERTY keyboard and built-in GPS. Yes sir! GPS!! (I can see Melia rolling her eyes)

If I were to compare, I'd actually say that I was much happier with my 6515 than my Mini. The on-board keyboard was truly heaven-sent. Replying messages, chatting on MSN, typing long emails and even doing my assignments on it was a breeze. Mmmm~~

Keyboard wonder. Can never go back to non-keyboard models already

It served me faithfully for about a year and a quarter when it's keyboard that I loved so much started acting up. The "n" button started to have bouts of moodiness and would stop functioning.

Damn... normally, this indicated that it's time is nearly up.

So I sold off my faithful 6515 and bought a Sony Ericsson W810i whose multimedia prowess is by far unmatched by any of the devices I previously owned. In fact, most of the pictures you see on this blog is taken with it. XD

As for music, I bought a 4gb memory stick and now, who needs an Ipod? Haha...

Back to basics

4 months later, we arrive at the predicament that I'm in right now; poisoned all over again. If you have been following my lengthy technological misadventure until now, you're either officially lifeless or you're a technology gizmo freak. OR you're my really good friend. XD

Now all day and all night, all I can think about is dopodo2asuspalmwindowsmobilepalmosbluetoothwifigps!

And the only way to cure this poison is to splurge a whole wad of cash on something that I will eventually regret buying a few weeks after but will use nonetheless.

Damn... zhong tok already.

Busy busy busy as a bee!

2007-08-14T01:15:00.000+08:00

Assignments are due-ing, exams are creeping in, mid term tests are approaching, tutorials are lagging...

Fuh... I meant to blog about the PC Fair but I just don't have the luxury of time.

Well, at least the pay cheques are coming in as well. XD

See lah how... X(

GONE! IT'S GONE!! : (

2007-08-09T20:09:00.000+08:00

My thumbdrive got stolen today. Ok, actually I dropped it somewhere between the library and the cafeteria but saying that it got stolen makes me feel better. Someone MUST'VE picked it up and claimed it for his/her own coz I doubled back at least 5 times and still it was nowhere to be found.

Damn...

All the journals that I've collected for my upcoming assignment was in there: 3 hours of staring blankly at the PC screen, speed reading through tiny-font-ed journal scans, picking out the needles out of the haystack.

Sigh... oh well, shit happens. Carolyn, now I know how you must have felt when you lost your hard drive cept that your entire life was in there. So that must have been at least a hundred times worse.

crap...

Food, more food and a horror story

2007-08-02T23:27:00.000+08:00

I don't know whether it is caused by percieved expectations from past experiences or what, but no matter where, cafeteria food sucks.

The cafeteria at the new Monash campus is no exception. If you were to hear about the cafeteria for the first time, you'll definitely be impressed; a cafeteria which has its own San Francisco Coffee, 1901 hotdogs, Indonesian food, mamak stall, mixed rice stall... where else can you get such a mix?

But when it comes to the quality of food served there, heh... believe me, it's enough to boost anyone's willpower to go on a diet.

For example, the roti canai (chennai) there is waaayyy too thick and this in turn causes it to be slightly tough and bisuit-like. Ugh... The mixed rice on the other hand, for some reason or another, just looking at it makes my appetite go bon voyage.

The only edible food one can get around here is either the 1901 hotdogs or the San Fran stuff - but of course, you have to be prepared to pay premium price for them. Sigh... damn I miss my old school canteen food.

The reason for this rambling? Well, I was running late for class and i hadn't had my breakfast yet. So where else better BUT the cafeteria to get something to get some breakfast. And so, I ordered this questionable neatly-packed-and-segregated box of nasi lemak to give it a try.

Macam prison food

Pathetic

The friggin thing cost me RM3.50 okay. At that price, I could've gotten a tambah-sotong-tambah-kerang deal from the lady near my house. It didn't even taste right. To top it all off, it gave me a stomachache later too.

Damn...

Anyway, after class, Melia promised to catch a horror movie with me (she hates horror movies) because we couldn't watch the Simpsons together. Before the movie began, we went to Italiannese to catch a light meal.

If you're a salmon lover, behold...

The salmon pizza!

MmmMmm~~~

Thick juicy strips of smoked salmon adorned the cheezy crispy thin crust... it was heaven! Damn... even while typing this, I could feel my tastebuds craving for its divine taste all over again!

MMmMMMmMMmmm~~~~

If you're absolutly starving, one pizza can serve 2. Otherwise, I would recommend it for 4 persons as it comes with 8 BIG slices with BIG strips of salmon.

We had it with some mushroom soup and bottomless drinks. We were stuffed.

The face tells it all

After that, we went to watch Dead Silence. Hands down one of the scariest movies I've ever watched. I'm one of those psychos who watch scary movies to scare myself for kicks. This movie kicked me SO many times that I think I'll shy away from horror movies for while.

Melia on the other hand had her face buried in her jacket most of the time and she kept on asking me "what happened? What happened? Who's there? Hantu come out already or not?" DAMN ANNOYING OK! XD

But I was proud at her willingness to watch the movie with me although she's SO FRIGHTENED by the freaky faces in it. XDXD

We headed home shortly after as I had to prepare for the PC fair the following day. Gonna stay at the Corus Hotel again cept with a whole new bunch of fellas. XD Should be fun!

Chronology of Melia's hair misadventure

2007-07-31T23:52:00.000+08:00

Okay, you've probably heard it by now; Melia's hair had a little misadventure. What was supposed to be a little trimming ended up as a huge chopping instead.

Et-chelly, since only a small portion of her hair is curly, Melia had wanted to trim those parts and the damage should leave her hair length about slghtly above the shoulders.

The hairstylist decided to go all kung fu fighting and use her zham tao fat mm zham ngan kim fa on poor Melia instead.

Boots?? Err... are you new?

So anyway, lets look at the entire process shall we...

Before. *extra-terrestial! hair. Should've kept it like that*

And the kung fu performance starts!

*Wong Fei Hung theme song starts playing*

"Haiyak! Ma lau zham shu lam!"

"Hek! kong yan sek chou!"

"Hak! Mou yeng sao!"

"Gao chai hak mao chai!"

The "gao chai"

TAH DAH!! The "mao chai shocked at
the "gao chai" of hair that was chopped off"

Now we know...

Don't worry darling, you're still beautiful in my eyes. XD

Carl's Jr at 1 Utama Promenade

2007-07-30T23:41:00.000+08:00

Carl's Jr opened an outlet at the Promenade section of 1 Utama (2 doors away from Genki Sushi), much to Melia's delight.

Et-chelly, a long-long time ago, Carl's Jr already HAD a branch in Malaysia. But due to reasons unknown, they've closed down and now, they're making a return.

Since Melia's trip to Singapore where she had her first taste of Carl's Jr's divine burgers, she's been rambling on and on and on about them - why Malaysia don't have laaa... wondering if she can open a franchise here laaaa... laa laa laa laaaaa... well darling, your wishes came true!

Upon hearing that a branch has opened in 1 Utama, we've head down there to give it a try. I myself have been curious of what exactly is so special about their burgers that the amount of attention they get from my girlfriend rivals the attention that I get.

When we reached there, the first impression that one would get is that it is definitely a fast food restaurant. First of all, you have to queue up to place your order at the order counter as opposed to being waited at your table like in other restaurants.

However, after placing your order, instead of getting your food fast a'la a fast food restaurant, you get a number. Then after waiting for an eternity, a waiter will deliver your order to your table. Well, luckily for them their drinks are freeflow so we get to refill as many times as we want.

Lucky not 38 (sam-pat)

Carl's Jr's signature dish would be none other than their EXTRA LARGE burgers. Furthermore, the stuff that goes into their burgers are that of premium quality; go try it and your taste buds will tell you. XD

Burger: Bluekkk...

Melia had the Portobello mushroom burger and I had the double western bacon cheeseburger (yummm~~).

Portobello Mushroom Burger

Double Western Bacon Cheeseburger

Needless to say, the burgers were huge and the taste, even bgger. But the largest of them all is the price tag. At over RM20 for a medium-sized combo meal (1 burger, fries and refillable soft drink), Carl's Jr is definitely NOT a place where someone can afford to have lunch everyday! (unless you're loaded). in fact, our bill came up to RM50.60, pretty hefty for a burger meal. After all, it IS fast food; just of better quality.

stuffed to the brim

Will I come back? Without question. Just wait for the wound in my wallet to heal first. XD

Pak Wan's return and the Wai Loon fiasco!

2007-07-27T23:56:00.000+08:00

Pak Wan is back! Pak Wan is back! And noone is returning her calls. Haha... sad... So she had no choice but to hang out with Wai Loon and I. XD

Imported from Sheffield

When I picked WL and PW up, it was already 11 pm and for some strange reason, PW insisted on going to Tesco to get a towel hanger... definitely something wrong somewhere. Must be the shock from the Malaysian heat after spending months in Sheffield, UK.

PW didn't find what she was looking for but WL decided to get a can of tuna and a can of sardines (some fitness-freak-diet apparently. Ugh...). But while we were walking around in Tesco, he dropped the can of sardines, watched the oval-shaped can wobble and roll across the floor and subsequently under the shelves. LOL!

The scene was so hilarious that PW and I couldn't stop laughing. Especially the scene where the oval-shaped can rolled... omg... we have GOT to be the lamest people on Mother Earth! X(

Anyway, we left Tesco and headed to the Curve for some drinks. There's a new hangout place there called The Apartment (sounds like the title of a sitcom) and we wanted to check it out.

By the time we reached there, their kitchen was already closed and we could only order drinks. Then PW suggested that we moved over to Laundry Bar instead since EVERYONE's going there and she's never been there.

As we sat and caught up with one another, the alcohol was starting to get to our heads and in no time, we were talking and laughing animately at one anothers' stories. Wished there were more kakis there; would have made the atmosphere more happening.

Just like old times

Then suddenly, while stressing a point about his gym and PW's dad, WL slammed his wine glass on the table and it broke; with a loud crashing at that!

The victim

Heads turned around us and there was even a waiter directly behind us who turned around to see what was going on but I'm not sure if he saw the broken glass.

Then shamelessly, the three of us got up and left like fugitives while laughing our heads off. MAN! We must've been drunk. Well, WL's hand was cut pretty bad from the broken glass and he had to go to the washroom anyway. I think it'll be quite a while till we set foot in Laundry Bar again. XDXD

The culprit

We then decided to call it a night and I sent everyone home, but not before letting PW take my car for a spin. Well, seeing that the roads were deserted (it was about 2 am) I guess it was pretty safe. She used to drive a Naza Ria anyway.

One weird thing when we sent PW back to her place; the guards had decided to put a realistic tiger plushie out front at the inner guard house and PW was SO AFRAID that it was a REAL TIGER!

PW: Wei... is THAT a tiger?
Me: Huh? NOLAAA... where got tiger in the middle of the city wan...
PW: Really laa... it's a bloody tiger!
Me: Aiyo... not a real tiger laa...
WL: *peers out the car window to see what's going on*
WL: Woi... faster lah... I got work to d.. OMFG! THAT's A TIGER! DAMN I'M DRUNK!
PW: SEE! IT'S A TIGER!
Me: It's NOT A TIGER LAH...
PW: Really...?
Me: REALLY!

Then off she went. Tiger konon! Well, at least it proves effective from keeping outsiders away. XD

Tiger lady

Buffet dinner at Hilton KL

2007-07-25T23:18:00.000+08:00

My mum recieved an invitation to attend a new regional fund launch at the Hilton KL and since it's related to my major, she thought it was a good idea for me to go.

Posh and luxurious! Scenes from a previous life

The speeches, the market outlook presentations bla bla blaa... weren't as good as I thought. There were lots of blunders, typo in the slides and moments of speechlessness by the speaker. Funds managers, maybe. But as speakers, definite no-no.

Mum being bored

All in all, the organizers thought that investing offshore in middle class industries such as tourism in south east asian countries such as Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and friends was a good idea since currently, with the current opening up of China and the modernization of other third world countries, the middle class citizens would be growing rapidly and so will their spending. That's BIG CASH there!

View from outside the ballroom

Anyhow, after all the bili bala's by the fili fele's, comes the REAL reason I came for the event. THE FOOD!

It's CHOW TIME!

But the majority of the people being kiasu Chinese folks, as expected, the line was DAMN long, old folks had to wait just like everyone else and the food vanished as quickly as they appeared. Whatever happened to the privilege of senior folks? Malaysians...

The food was good but not great. The few that are worth mentioning will be the mushroom soup, beef rendang and the desserts.

YUMMMM~~~

The mushroom soup was MmMMMmm~~~ heavenly! It was creamy and chunky but NOT STARCHY (like Campbell's. Ugh...). The finely chopped wild assortment of mushrooms which form the chunky part also gave it a distinct aroma. Fantastic!

The beef rendang on the other hand was tender and well marinated. It was neither too spicy nor was it bland. Just the right mix. XD

But the highlight of them all was the desserts. o_O If you are a chocolate lover, prepare for a flood of saliva in your mouth. If you're NOT a chocolate lover, you'll either turn into a chocolate lover immediately, or you'll puke yourself into oblivion.

Among the assortment of desserts that were available, my favourites were undoubtedly the chocolate cake and the chocolate strip thingy (don't know if it has some fancy name).

modern-day designer drugs in disguise

The chocolate cake was moist and creamy, neither too sweet nor buttery and it was generously littered with sliced almonds to give it the extra 'oomph'. It was so good that I was reluctant to have my juice for fear that I would wash away the divine taste from my mouth. X(

Next up is the chocolate strip thingy.

heavennnn~~ heaven oh heaven can you hear meeee~~~

Now imagine a strip of chocolate, 1" high, 1/2" wide and about 5" long. Now add a crispy thin rice-cracker like biscuit coating its ends and bottom. Now imagine heaven...

OMFG! The chocolate cream is not exactly fluid, nor was it hard like a chocolate bar. It was kinda fudgy but firm at the same time; like a piece of fine belgian chocolate, left to soften at room tempreture. The flavour of the chocolate on the other hand, was rich and milky. I was kinda disappointed it wasn't dark chocolate. But either way, it was a gift from the gods. Chocolate confectionaires must be the happiest and most brilliant people in the world.

What started off as a good day was almost ruinned by this bloody stuck up lady at our table. In fact, she's SO stuck up that she wouldn't look anyone straight in the face. Instead, she would turn her face till it was about 90 degrees to your's and jeling at you from the corner of her eye. Bloody biatch!

Seeing that she was only having soup and nothing else, out of kindness, my mum asked her if she wanted to try some chocolate cake. The bitch jeling-ed at my mum and said, "hrmph... I only eat good food".

Bangla roti planta!! I then turned to her and said, "auntie, I only eat FREE FOOD! SO THERE!" XD

Hate stuck up people.

Lambda Driver

2007-07-24T15:41:00.000+08:00

- PC acting up
- Phone acting up
- Hair acting up
- Lecturers acting up
- Car bumper terkena curb AGAIN

If I had the Arbalest, my mood will send the world into oblivion

I'VE GOT THE FINAL HARRY POTTER BOOK!!

2007-07-21T07:40:00.000+08:00

3.45 am. Kicked Allan outta bed. Got dressed. Sneaked into parents' room to get gate keys. Turned alarm off. Opened gates. And it's off to Carrefour Subang!!

4.00 am. Carrefour Subang was deathly quiet. No cars in sight at all. Waited for 15 minutes. Decided that Tesco Damansara was a better place to wait.

4.30 am. Reached Tesco Damansara. Felt hungry. Dropped by McD's across the road for breakfast. Was eating amongst clubbers. Yakked with brother.

5.15 am. Saw a few people lingering around entrance. Rushed across road to entrance too. After a while, people left. Felt stupid.

5.30 am. Wing Hoh came. Shouted Ma weng Cheng at each other (inside joke). Bitched about uni. Small crowd started to form. WE'RE IN FRONT! XD

5.45 am. Mr. Irwan and his daughter arrived. Kids these days.

6.15 am. A huge crowd was starting to form. Security guards pacing around on the inside of Tesco laughing at us. Joked with Wing Hoh, Mr. Irwan, Allan and a few others on how the security guards will come charging towards us with the book opened at its last page. Suddenly everyone's face turned serious...

6.30 am. A security guard came to tell us that the OTHER entrance was going to be one opened and NOT the one we're at. Thought he was joking as he was smiling mischieviously. Turned out he wasn't. Ran to the other entrance. Now position reduced to no 2. Bangla roti planta!

6.45 am. Guard says doors will be opened at 7.00 am and that once the doors open, we'll have to make a dash for the books which is on the 1st floor. Heart starts pumping.

6.55 am. Guard proceeds to open door. Rush in like a mad monkey with his tail on fire. Ran as fast as I could but was still behind this other guy (the bangla roti planta). Reached 2nd. Grabbed book and paid. RM69.90 poorer.

7.00 am. Felt stupid coz no prize for being 2nd. Not even first. Took some photos and went home. XD

ahh... dah pagi...

Harry Potter launch fiasco!

2007-07-20T23:44:00.000+08:00

As reported by the news Tesco and Carrefour will be selling the latest and final installment of the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" at a cut-throat discount price of RM69.90 instead of the recommended retail price of RM109.90.

Furthermore, in defiance of the hypermarkets' actions, four major bookstores; MPH, Popular, Harris and Times, are boycotting the official launch date (7.01 am, 21^st July 2007) by refusing to release the books for sale in addition to cancelling all events relating to the book launch. But all pre-orders will be honoured.

Walaoeh...

In my opinion, the biggest losers here would be none other than those who pre-ordered the books, thinking that they will get a 10% discount (RM99.90 instead of RM109.90). Not only did they have to pay a deposit of RM50, now instead of getting a discount, they're actually paying MORE as compared to those who will be buying them off the shelves tomorrow.

Heh... instead of a discount, it has become more of a booking and availability guarantee premium. A hefty RM40 one at that!

According to Penguin (the official distributor), Tesco and Carrefour will be incurring losses from selling the books at the cut-throat discounted price. The two hypermarkets on the other hand claimed that all they wanted to do was to provide their customers not only with groceries at lower prices but also the Harry Potter book at lower prices as well.

Heh... sure or not... so generous?

From how I see it, although selling the books at such cut-throat prices will incurr losses, in the long run, it will strengthen these two hypermarkets' market positioning as a goods-at-lower-prices store. This I believe is in response to Giant Hypermarket's annoying "... and then to Giant!" radio commercials Blerghh... Hate them.

Comon... look how big the case have become. All I've been hearing for the past few hours is "Carrefour", "Tesco", "Harry Potter" and "damn cheap". So far, it seems to be working.

Seeing that Penguin Distributions did not set a price floor nor a fixed price policy, they've completely taken advantage of the situation and came up with such contraversial marketing schemes. The final Harry Potter book somemore. It's now or never man!

So whose fault is it anyway? Is it Tesco's and Carrefour's fault for makan-ing the smaller bookstores? Is it Penguin's fault for not anticipating such happenings and had therefore failed to set a fixed price policy? Is it Popular and gang's fault for not going with the flow by reducing their prices?

At the end of the day, it's nobody's fault really (although I feel that Penguin has to bear some responsibility). It's a dog eat dog business world out there and there is no telling what some may do just to stay in the game. What ever it is, boycotting the launch is DEFINITELY NOT AN ANSWER.

Dia orang bodoh ke apa?

If I were them, I'd follow suit by slashing prices too! RM1 margin? Nevermind! As long as I can make some money out of the launch and my pre-order customers will not feel THAT cheated. Even though not as cheap as RM69.90 also nevermind. At least not friggin-RM109.-friggin-90!

After that, you wanna flame Carrefour and Tesco all you want, noone will blame you.

To me, their boycotting manoeuvre is totally stupid. Now not only are they indirectly forcing everyone to get their Harry Potter books from Tesco and Carrefour, they are also detrimenting themselves by potraying themselves as high-priced dealers and hence driving away all future pre-orders. Comon... even MPH can give an offer at RM70 for the books to their members okay!

In the end, Carrefour and Tesco will emerge as heroes, Popular and gang will be remembered as sore losers and Penguin Distribution will be labeled bird-brain for failing to impose some price-control measures in the first place.

Anyway, gonna be lining up outside Carrefour at 4 am tomorrow. Gotta finish the book before some idiot posts up who's gonna die on his/her MSN nickname and I've no choice but to ter-read it. Damn... can die ok! XD

Out!

Riot at RHB Bank Taman Megah

2007-07-18T11:35:00.000+08:00

As we all know, PNB opened up the ASN (Amanah Saham Nasional) subscribtions to non-bumiputras (non-malays) today. A total of RM500,000,000 was allocated for non-bumiputras nationwide (where got enough dammit). With a rate of return of between 6 - 7%, no wonder some were queueing up as early as 5 am, waiting for the bank to open.

Newayz, my mum and her friend (MMNHF from here on) were there at 7.30 am. While they were happily queueing, suddenly this bastard of a man appeared and started giving out numbers. MMNHF was DAMN tulan man. I mean who are they to suddenly appear and start giving out numbers??!! You want the ASN, you bloody queue up dammit.

Well, the bastard then gave MMNHF their numbers - 36 and 37. -.-!!! It seems, his WHOLE family was coming here and he reserved numbers 1 to (n-1) for them. BANGLA ROTI PLANTA ANJING KUCING CACING DACING (BRPAKCD from now on) arr... (please note that he's got no affiliations with the bank at all).

Then at about 9.00 am, the bank manager came out and asked us to queue up. She said that she does not care what happened outside, what system we're having, what bloody number crap... she just wants a line; nice nice like small little primary school students. Thank god she didn't ask us to put our index fingers to our lips too.

Malaysians being Malaysians, after hearing that the bank didn't recognise any number shit, many threw their numbers and started pushing to the front and all hell broke loose. All the Tarzans and Xenas in them started surfacing. There was shouting, quarreling, shoving, bla bla bla... think KLCC LRT station on Mega Sale day 1. Now multiply that by the largest number you know. I had to yank MMNHF to safety for goodness sake!

For a while, it seemed that the advocates of the NO-NUMBER policy were winning and a line actually formed in front of the doors. There was peace and order for once and the transactions proceeded smoothly. THEN out of nowhere, the BRPAKCD decided to play pengawas sekolahand proceeded to the door and started telling people whether they can go in or not. WTF! He was like "see number! No number? GO TO THE BACK!!" WTH man!

As if his little distorted-superiority-complex-induced actions were not bad enough, some lady (apparently his family member) SUDDENLY jumped queue to the FRONT of the line shouting that she was number 7. The problem is, number 7 has already gone in; how can she be number 7?? Wah... kecoh man...

It seems that she got the number 7 from the previous number 7 lady and wormed her way to the front. LIKE THAT ALSO CAN! BLARDEE MOU KAH GAO OK! Not to mention thick skinned! Newayz, being the BRPAKCD's psycho-incestuous-megalomaniac family member, HE FUCKING ALLOWED HER IN!!! KNNYKNNCCB!!

When the bank officials tried to stop her from the inside, she was heard yelling "I DON'T CARE! I DON'T CARE!". BLOODY DAUGHTER OF A BITCH ARR... she even cut the line of a lady who was ALREADY INSIDE!! Walao... I serious no more bad words ady man... in order NOT to disrupt the flow of the transactions, the bank was FORCED to let her go. Stupid bank. Got security guard maaa... security guard got gun maaa... haih...

When it was our turn, we went in and the bank manager's super black face greeted us. Then she told me, "let me tell you a joke. In about 5 minutes time, the subsciptions will close. *cackles to herself*". I was thinking... 5 minutes... HEY THAT'S US! I don't know if she did that on purpose but she's one bloody evil witch I tell you.

As foreseen by the black-magic-woman, we didn't get our ASN subscriptions, my mum's friend didn't get to top up her account and we scrammed before the news was released outside for our own safety. There was nothing more we can do but go for makan to de-stress. We Chinese love our money and our food!

Today has been as sad sad day for the Chinese for we have shown the other races that we are no better than starving monkeys in a banana stall when it comes to money.

And as for BRPAKCD and his brood, just you wait. I'll be handing you YOUR numbers next year and it won't be small! After all, I'm also a hungry monkey remember! X(

New Monash campus; Take 2

2007-07-14T16:02:00.000+08:00

Teman-ed Melia to pay her fees today and decided to explore into the nooks and crannies of the new Monash building. Overall, Melia and I were very impressed with the new infrastructure. The old campus situated INSIDE Sunway University College definitely pales in comparison to the new one.

First up, the library; or as they call it, the "Library and Learning Commons" (Sai mm sai arr?).

When we entered the library, the first thing that hit me was that it was BLARDEE COLD! It was such a big contrast from the blistering heat outside that all my bulu stood on ends!

The atmosphere in the library is somewhat like a lounge of a hotel minus the lounge music. The lighting, the furniture, carpeting... omg... so freaking comfy you'd just wanna lie down where you're standing and fall asleep!

The library also features its own toilets and lift. YES! LIFT! Boy we're a pampered lot aren't we. The library consists of 3 floors in total - each furnished more or less in an identical manner but with different books. There are miniature couches for those who're planning to read as well as reclining chairs and desks for those who wish to write.

Not as comfy as it looks

Other than that, each floor also has its own photostat machine and, believe it or not, a paper recycling bin.

Well, I guess it's only natural since going green IS sorta the IN thing now. And Monash students DO have the tendency to waste paper like it's made of out of thin air. (Stand next to the printer in the comp labs and you'll know what I'm talking about)

Overall, the library seems like a pretty conducive environment to study and I hope that I will be spending many long hours here. After all, this sem, I MUST bertaubat already!

Next up, the lecture theatres!

Boy, were Melia and I stupefied by the sight of them. It looks more like a cinema if you ask me. But the thing that I'm most grateful for is the individual sitting rather than the long bench+table type that we have in the old campus. This means, no more climbing over the back of others to get to the centre, no more waiting for the ones at the sides to leave before being able to get out and most importantly, NO MORE STEPPING ON OTHERS' TOES!

Even more amazing were the auditoriums. Here, one can literally use it for a movie screening. It's as big as a regular cinematic hall, and it has all the kah chang needed for it as well.

Oohh ahhh...

OOHHHH.... AAHHHHHH....

Now let's have a look at the classrooms and computer labs.

SE~LA~MAT~SE~JAH~TRA! CIK~GU~

I'm not sure about the others but the classrooms that we checked out each had their own projectors. The windows are all slightly tinted to block out the glaring sunlight that we have in Malaysia and we have what appears to be wooden desks this time around (the doors were locked and we couldn't go feel them).

This is in contrast with the old Monash campus where the tutorial rooms had big-block-motived walls, were windowless and gloomy. They didn't have their own projectors and students had to borrow them from the resource centre should they need them. To me, the improvements in the tutorial rooms are definitely significant.

As for the computer labs, they retain more or less a similar design to the previous building except that the number of PC's have been increased. Other than that, the warm and woody colour scheme of the lab's interior is definitely an improvement over its previous cold blue-gray motive.

"wahh... So many... "

We also checked out potential hang-out spots for students to ~~loiter around wasting their parents' money and smoke~~ meet up and mingle. First and foremost, THE CAFETERIA!

"wahh... so small..."

In our books, the cafeteria was a disappointment. It was so freaking small that I don't think there'll be enough tables and chairs for the students. Next, other than 1901 hotdogs and San Francissco Coffee (which is obviously pricey), the regular rice dishes were not exactly economical either.

Which other uni has San Fran Coffee and 1901 Hotdogs? Only in Monash!

RM5.50??!! For a rice dish??!! Daytime robbery lerr!

With the nearest food court, Medan so far away, I really don't know what I'm going to eat here. Maybe I'll just starve and loose weight at the same time. Monash, in support of fitness and health huh... X(

This is definitely a bummer for scholarship students and parents-saved-every-penny-religiously-since-the-fella-was-a-baby-so-that-he-could-go-to-university students (like me XD). People tend to think that just because one studies in Monash University, he or she MUST be well off. This is not the case at all.

You know how universities across the world like to include pictures of students sitting on the grass with their books next to them, or performing tasks outdoors; getting in touch with nature, or gazing into the open horizon with the "I'm gonna make it! I'm gonna be successful! SAYA BOLEH!" kinda look on their face?

Well, sorry to disappoint you but that can't exactly be done in Malaysia; not without giving yourself skin cancer and heat stroke that is.

In Malaysia, it's just too darn hot. So that is why, these wouldn't work:

Funky benches between the blocks. They're so gonna burn your ass

A clearing directly on top of the libr... I mean "learning common"

Who the hell in their right mind will hang-out at places like these under the Malaysian mid-day sun? Can die okay! I'd rather be chilling my ass off in the libr... I mean learning common's discussion rooms where the it's SO COLD that you'll make believe that you're in the UK.

I feel that they should have provided shade for those areas then at least, on cloudy days, I might actually just sit there to enjoy the breeze. Not so pretty but more practical.

The lepaking common aka MUSA (Monash Uni Student Association) on the other hand, appears to be a uber cool place.

Tiba-tiba, RM30 per entry XD

I can now foresee that the pool tables will CONSTANTLY be used, the foosball table handles will stink of male palm essence and the couches will sag in a year due to overloading. XD

The rest of university grounds are as follows:

Chewah... stylo!

Now we can be the next KL Convention Centre! PJ Convention Centre?

Comprehensive directions for the direction blind *raises hand*

Staff lounge. Damn... now I wanna be a Monash lecturer

LIFTS!!! LIFTTTTSSSS!!! WAKAKAKAKAKAKAKA!

Mech eng lab - looks like a big-boys-toys area XD

Kakak's storeroom! (what?? it was open maaa...)

Cracks on the wall. Hai-yohh... tak tahu... wonder whether got leak or not?

No more buying mineral water!

Fuh... that's all folks. Class starts day after tomorrow. Really looking forward to it. Gotta go get myself a new pencil box, pens, rulers, eraser... bla... bla... bla.... Just like how I do every year before school starts the following year. Back to school shopping maa... XD

The New Monash University Malaysia! A walkthru

2007-07-13T17:32:00.000+08:00

Went to pay my fees today at the new Monash building. I must admit, I am quite impressed at the way the building is designed; it looks somewhat like a cross between an exclusive clubhouse and a sophisticated office building. If giving their students a sense of exclusivity and class is what Monash University Malaysia had in mind, then I'd say that they're most certainly heading in the right direction. At least with the external aesthetics anyway.

The new Monash building

Anyway, there ARE a few chinks here and there that MAY spoil the "Monash Experience" for some. First and foremost, to get to the campus from the carpark, students have to cross this tiny leettle "bridge" that spans over a ~~giant longkang~~ monsoon drain. Now imagine the number of students increase by a few folds; just as how Monash envisioned it and it's a busy morning and about a few hundred students are trying to cross that thing. Sure jam and *touchwood* I hope that the bridge won't barai.

Pagi-pagi dahlah traffic jam. Sekarang bridge ada human jam.

Another thing noteworthy about the little ~~river of sewage~~ monsoon drain is that it reeks of algae and sewage. DAMN BLARDY STINKY I TELL YOU! The water itself is a dark murky green in colour. Makes you wonder if mutant monster fishes live down there. Ugh... totally gross...

Spawning pool where snatch-thieves, robbers, rapists and mat rempits come from

The walk from the "bridge" to the campus by itself is an adruous journey. It's a DAMN FREAKING LONG WALK OKAY!

It's roughly a good 100 - 150 metre distance and I can already see myself cursing the path on days where I'm already late for class. I think in due time, this should solve my overweight problem. XD

As for the interior of the campus, I did not have time to fuly explore the nooks and crannies of the building. But here is a cacat-ed panoramic view of it.

The glass-paneled section towards the right is the library and from the outside, the library DOES look mighty impressive. I'm planning to check it out tomorrow.

Anyway, the biggest gripe that I have with the new campus is...

They just had to squeeze every last cent out of us don't they?

Dammit... RM12K in fees... still cannot get free parking meh?? Bangla roti planta busuk punya orang! Since I'm forced to pay student amenities fees, i DEMAND some amenities NOW! I WANT MY FREE PARKING DAMMIT!!!!

More to follow tomorrow

Disappointment

2007-07-13T01:49:00.001+08:00

The results are out. As expected, I failed my Malaysian Income Tax Law paper; for which I was terribly under-prepared and I have noone else to blame but myself.

With this failure, I have failed my parents once again - failed to meet their expectations of me, failed to match my elder brother's achievements, failed to be on par with my cousins who are my peers and most importantly, failed to meet MY own expectations. I hate this feeling. I hate it SO much.

I can still recall the first time I felt this way - when I refused to take my Yamaha grade 6 piano exam, which was kinda like a step into music-teacher-hood. My mum was SO disappointed. I know she's always envisioned me teaching music - just as uncle Julius Chee, my first and last piano teacher who is insanely talented in music. For a long time when I was little, he was sort of my hero. All the kids LOVED him.

Then more recently, when I refused to take my violin ABRSM grade 8 exam. I know my mum is still mad at me for this. From time to time, she brings up the topic of how much she spent to buy me that heavenly Chen Jin Nong handcrafted violin that cost her a BOMB and the total amount of collective fees from about 10 years of tutelage that I've literally flushed down the toilet with my refusal to take the exam. My justification for not taking the exam? I didn't feel like it. To me, the violin is just an interest, a hobby that I'd enjoy from time to time and not something I'd adopt as my life-long career. Not to mention that I'm not really good at it anyway.

But of course, coming from a traditional chinese family, such excuses are well, inexcusable. I know, I should live for myself and not for other people. I've been told this many-many times. But being from a family such as mine, this IS my LIFE. The responsibility of meeting family members' expectations, the whole culture of being compared to my peers, the pressure of bearing my parents' status in my achievements... these are the norm. This is how my world revolves; nonsensical or not. This is my reality; one that I cannot escape.

On a more academic note, recalling the past, in school, I've always been a straight "A"'s student. I was expected to be one such as how my older brother and cousins were before me. If we did achieve straight "A"'s in our exams, instead of cheering and celebrating, all we got were sighs of relief and a "well done". If by any chance should a "B" tarnish our perfect score, the silence was deafening. Although noone would say anything, their judgemental glares and whispers is enough to drive anyone over the cliff. I witnessed this first hand when my elder brother failed to obtain straight "A"'s in his SPM. His result wasn't bad at all. In fact, he still had 5 "A1"'s in the bag. But everyone was treating him like he commited some hineous crime and should be shunned for the rest of his life with phrases like "why he like that arr?".

As in MY case, although I've goofed around in school and HAD failed some papers in unimportant internal tests, I've never failed or even gotten a "B" in any public examinations. But it all came to an end while I was doing my GCE A-Levels. Overconfidence and arrogance got the better of me and in the end, my result of an "A", a "B" and 2 "C"s dashed my mum's dream of me getting into medicine. I didn't even qualify for Melbourne University's school of Commerce and I had to settle for Monash University. I know my mum still blames me for NOT being able to get into Mel U as she still brings it up from time to time - adding on that not many people have the opportunity of going overseas and that I'm taking mine for granted. Everytime she does, I feel like I've been stabbed in the heart - that I've failed my fundamental duties as a son of honouring my parents' expectations. It really hurts. I really hate myself at those times.

Now that I'm in Monash, there has not been any improvement at all. Instead of getting distinctions like how I'm expected to, I'm getting only passes and credits and even FAILING some of my units. Failing Business Law last year and Malaysian Income Tax Law last semester really brought me down to a level unlike any I've experienced before. My brother has since redeemed himself by obtaining a second class upper honours degree and landing himself on a full Monash scholarship to do his Masters. He's even tutoring part-time. Sometimes, when I'm asked "what happened to the Kenny who used to get perfect results?", all I'm able to do is to smile sheepishly and excuse myself while having my innards torn and shredded by the mere fact that I don't know where he's gone to and that I desperately need him back.

Sometimes, I feel like I don't deserve all the opportunities that I've had. I feel like I'm nothing but a waste of my parents' money and most importantly, I'm nothing but a disappointment and a lost cause. Everytime I see my parents, my heart aches a little as I know that they're disappointed with me and despite that, they continue to pour tonnes and tonnes of money into my education while sacrificing their wants.

I know my dad wants a new car. But instead of getting one for himself, he gets my brother and me one each as to accomodate our different schedules. I really hate my car. I hate the fact that in getting it for me, my dad has to sacrifice getting himself a new one. I hate it that I really enjoy driving it because my dad traded the enjoyment of driving a new car for mine. I hate it that my new found freedom and convenience comes with a hefty price tag - my dad's. Although I really love having my own car, deep down, I really hope my dad sells it off so that he can get the car of his dreams.

As for my mum, she's the only lady who have been declining invitations to shopping outings, holidays and such by her friends - not once or twice; but for almost a decade. The only time my mum goes shopping is during CNY sales and she will ONLY buy items that are on sale for herself. Perfumes from a previous life have since run dry. Jewellery and adornments have been worn time and time again. All for the sake of this ungrateful child's future. I really-REALLY hate myself for this.

So for the sake of my parents, my family and myself, a radical change is needed in my life. I cannot continue down this road which leads ultimately to my doom. I owe that much to my parents and to myself. I have to start meeting what is expected of me again, to be able to be on par with my peers again and most importantly, to be able to make my parents proud of me again - something that they have not been able to feel in a long-long time. Many may feel that I'm a fool for feeling this way but a life of expectations, obligations and responsibility is the only life I know and that will be the life that I will continue to choose to live in.

The cobbler, the aunty slippers and the steamroller

2007-07-09T23:45:00.000+08:00

New sem is gonna start in less than a week. Results for last sem gonna be out in a few days. Not exactly too keen on knowing them. *sigh*

Since uni is starting soon, I've stopped working indefinitely to enjoy what is left of my holidays and to settle into the new sem in which my lectures will be held at the new Monash building. I hope the change will inspire me to study harder so that the next time I post something of this nature, it will say "OMFG, I can't wait till my results are out". XP

Anyways, I sent my favourite pair of sandals to the cobbler today as they were "tongue"-ing already. Damn... thought they would last longer. After all, they're Neckermans.

Apparently, to glue the soles back, the cobbler has to cut deeper into the sandals and start glueing from within. Either that or the cobbler is a psycho and has some vengence towards Neckerman sandals.

As if cutting up my favourite pair of sandals weren't bad enough, while waiting for them to be ready, I had no choice but to wear a pair of really-REALLY auntie slippers.

Walaoeh... really feel like a sicko with a fetish for womens' footwear man... at least the elevated heels made me an inch taller during the wait. XP

Anyway, after getting my uber-comfy sandals back, I fetched my mum to the bank and on the way back, we encountered numerous port-holes and HUGE-ASS-LOBANG-holes on the road that bounced my tiny car around like a ragdoll. As I was complaining to my mum about them, some fella approached my car and asked my to turn the opposite way from where I was heading. Reason being that they were repairing the road - during the mid-day peak hour.

Our town planning people really need to get their heads examined. Seriously. Semuanya bongok punya orang

Weddings, midnight sales and the 7th of July, 2007

2007-07-07T23:21:00.000+08:00

Today's date is pretty interesting being 07/07/07. For that reason, today will also be the day that countless traditional Chinese folks hold their or their childrens' weddings. Just look at the amount of wedding-decorated cars outside my door...

This must either be some SUPER rich dude or there are DAMN A LOT of weddings happening at the same time

*sizzle*

I don't understand why when some people see fancy sports cars or rare luxury cars, they MUST take a picture of the car WITH THEM IN THE PICTURE! Are they going to use it as "proof" and tell people "hmm... see or not, see or not? Lis is mai kar ohkayy... Jealous boh?". Geez... Wanna pose next to a Ferrari like it's yours, go buy one.

Not wanting to miss out on this special date, Low Yat's management launched a last minute midnight sale where shops are ~~begged~~ asked to stay open till midnight. They've also set up a stage out front complete with MC's and performers.

stage under construction

The only problem is...

When the event started, save for a handful of curious passer bys, the crowd was just pathetic.

As for the staying open till midnight crap, Kenny So and I just sat there eating our company-sponsored KFC. Customers? None. Lame...

New Toys!

2007-07-05T17:05:00.000+08:00

Microsoft Wireless Intellimouse Explorer 2.0

PCMCIA to 4 x USB 2.0 cardbus

and now;

A 6-USB-ported laptop with a 1000 dpi 4-buttoned, scroll-wheel + left-right-pivoting wireless mouse which also has an EXTRA long battery life of approx. SIX FRIGGIN MONTHS on a single set of batteries!!

Happy!

Boringest day of my life

2007-07-03T16:48:00.000+08:00

The most unproductive day ever. 10 hours of:

waiting for customers' GPS devices to connect

waiting for customers' PDAphones to synchronize

BORING!!

Chicken rice ball trip!

2007-07-01T23:23:00.000+08:00

Just came back from Malacca. The sole reason this trip was made was so that I can FINALLY see and try what a 'chicken rice ball' is. (yes yes... I know... I'm a lousy Malaysian).

Lima Sekawan

Anyway, as usual, events such as these MUST start with some 'events'. First, we almost left Wai Loon behind and went on the trip without him. I mean what kind of ding dong plays a prank 2 days before the trip that goes something like this:

Hey, your trip arr... I don't think I can go lerr...
What? *disappointed* Why?
Got lar... Got something to do.
Oklorr... then next time only lorr...
Sorry man...
It's ok...

*puts down phone*

Now can THAT even be passed off as a FRIGGIN' JOKE?? I really took him seriously man. We were just about to leave for Malacca when at the eleventh hour;

*phone rings. Phone shows Wai Loon's face there*

Hello?
Oi... your trip THIS Sunday or NEXT Sunday?
... What? Why? Ehh? *confused*
Is the Malacca trip still on?
WTF??! BANGLA ROTI PLANTA CANGGGIHHH!!! I THOUGHT YOU SAID NOT GOING??!
Eh... oh... it was a joke. You really believed ar?
... ok... I come pick you up now... *#%&$%@#$*

*puts down phone*

So anyway, after we picked Wai Loon up, we went to tah pao McD's as brunch. On the way out my car went up a curb. My car, my fault. Bloody memalukan. X( Somemore I just had my car serviced, realigned and balanced the day before. Blerrgghhhh...

The drive there was pretty 'event'less. The furthest I was willing to push my engine was 3000 rpm so we took about 2 hours to get there. Everything was smooth with the exception of Ribenaberryman (inside joke) fixing the road on the other side and hence forcing incoming traffic into our road causing a mild jam.

Anyhow, when we arrived in Malacca, we headed straight for the chicken rice ball place. Bangla-Roti-Planta-Canggihhhhh!-Wai Loon spotted a sign heading to 'Bukit Beruang' and hence our torture started. Every time we pass a friggin' sign that says 'Bukit Beruang', Wai Loon would jump up and down like a 5-year-old and shout "eh Bukit Beruang!, do u really think they have beruangs (bears) there? Why they call it Bukit Beruang if got no beruang?" OMFG WALAO-EH! xP

"I waaannnttt~~ Bukit Beruaaaaannng!"

Bukit Beruang waterfall?

Nevetheless, we reached the chicken rice ball place!

YUMM~~

Frankly speaking, I feel that the chicken rice ball and the 'pak cham kai' there is nothing to shout about. Heck... I feel the stall down the road from my house serves better chicken rice. Damn potong steam man. But their 'leong cha' with honey was nice though. XD

Long queue outside just for this

After the chicken rice ball meal, we visited Jonker Walk where we walked the entire stretch under the mid day sun. Freaking hot man... and to add to Melia's annoyance, I was acting all touristy; going into each and every souvenier shop although they sell EXACTLY the same thing at the same prices. XDXD

Jonker Walk

ULTRAMAN! HSIAHH!!

Chenn acting cute

End of Jonker Walk

*pant pant* "I'm hot and I'm tired. I want go Bukit Beruang NOW!"

Just as we were about to collapse from the heat, we found a quaint little coffee shop that served Malacca chendol! Malacca chendol was... orgasmic! The sticky gula melaka drizzled on the chendol was the bomb man. Loved it!

Time stands still here

Orgasmic

Besides that, we also tried the Malacca laksa. So-so only.

Next, we walked to (we walked DAMN a lot) the part of town where the red buildings were to camwhore. Here's the result

Painting the town red

Lovey dovey in Malacca town

Wai Loon feeling holy

trishaws equip with amps and woofers! KEWL! Oh ya, they're colourfull as well

supposedly the best chendol in town

A trip to Malacca isn't complete unless you've visited the A Famosa fort built by the Portuguese. I'll let the pictures do the talking:

A' Famosa fort

Walao... as tall as 5 beruangs

loose cannons

Reincarnated from ex-cannon operators

or were we ex-guards?

A slab identifying Wai loon's previous self

rain how ah?

"Waaa... how to climb ah?"

historic steps

I wonder what gesture was he showing with his right hand that they chopped it off

a pretty sight XD

Our shadows misbehaving like Peter Pan's

After that, we headed back to Selangor where we had dinner at Yuen seafood booffay! Lurvvee the chicken wings there! SO DAMN GOOD! In fact, it's so good that everytime they replace the platter of chicken wings, it's gone within seconds! YES, SECONDS! The seafood and soup on the other hand was average. Kepong one better. XD

MAKANN!!

After the meal, there's only one more thing left on our mind. ZzZzZzzz...

Confessions of a paranoid PJ-ian

2007-06-30T23:03:00.000+08:00

Melia once told me that many PJ-ians are narcissits where we think we can make do without the rest of the world. Well, who can blame us? We have Sunway Pyramid, 1 Utama, Summit, SS2, TTDI, blaa blaaaa blaaa... Why go all the way down to KL while you have all these right at your doorstep?

Anyway, back to MY story, ever since I got mugged at the Pasar Seni LRT station, I've always had this phobia of going to KL alone. Having been pick-pocket-ed twice there doesn't help either. To me, KL has always been a place of crime and violence. So when I was posted at my company's new branch at the Low Yat Expo, I was really daunted ESPECIALLY by the fact that I'll be commuting home alone after 10.

But as the days go by, I started loosening up as I came to realise that although there ARE a few ~~thuggish-looking brutes with faces that yell "ME WANT KEEEELLL YOOOOO! BWAHAHAHAHA!"~~ suspicious looking characters around, most of the other commuters are just regular Joes and Janes, like me! XD Maybe what happened to me in the past is just a little bad luck mixed in with a little wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time. Shit happens right.

Anyhoo... as the crime rate in KL and PJ alike continues to rise, let's have a look at SOME of the contributing factors:

1. Usage of a wallet almost TWICE the length of your back pocket.

Modern day Robin Hood tak jadi. Work for the rich and get robbed by the poor

This guy's wallet was literally screaming "pinch me! Pinch me!". I could have sworn I saw AT LEAST 3 suspicious looking things eyeing him (yes, I have a habit of judging people whom I don't know X( ). It's bad enough that he'd put his wallet in his back pocket, with one third of it sticking out, really mou tak kao already. I still wonder if his wallet is still with him.

2. Sleeping in the train with your bag hanging loosely from your barely-clenched palms:

His friggin laptop is inside and what if during a stop at a station, some guy just runs in, grabs his bag and runs out just before the doors closes. Mampus his laptop. Or as WL will say, "mei you, mei you!".

As the thought was crossing my mind, a guy dressed in black slowly approached the guy with the bag with the "should I? should I?" look on his face. He hesitated for a while... and then he moved in for the KILL! In a swift but precise move, he swooped down and...

syioknya tido...

... and sat at the empty space next to the guy with the bag and fell asleep too. Man, now I feel like sleeping...

Oh well, I guess if you bother to take the proper precautions, the level of risk exposure is relatively low. Shit may stil happen from time to time but as long as you're not trying to make your butt look smaller by tayang-ing an XXL wallet in your back pocket, you'll be fine. XD

In KL... in KL...

The Commuter!

2007-06-28T23:30:00.000+08:00

10 am. *phone ringing*

Aaron: Hey bruuddeeerrr... are you free the next few days?
Kenny: err... why?
Aaron: We need more staff at the new Low Yat Expo opening
Kenny: Okayy... when?
Aaron: tomorrow
Kenny: ...

Since I've not been working for the past few MONTHS since the PC Fair stint, I thought what the heck since I'll also be able to rekindle my relationship with the gadgets that I adore! XDXD

10 pm. *starts thinking of how to get to work*
3 am. *Calls Kenny So*

Kenny C: hey, I'll be working at your branch tomorrow. Can tumpang?
Kenny S: *grumble grumble* Cannot laa... I'm fetching my girlfriend
Kenny C: Hah... liddat arr... then nevermind lorr... I commute lorr :\

The last time I commuted to get somewhere on a regular basis was when I commuted to tuition classes 3 years ago. o_O (Not counting the time Melia and I took the LRT to go watch My Fair Lady)

But rather than braving the morning KL morning jam, I'd rather expose myself to the risk of muggers, robbers and the such.

So...

Blurrr... 9 am at the LRT station

Anyway, the Low Yat Expo IS the ex-bowling alley opposite Federal Hotel. Now, it's a messy cluster of phone shops, gadget shops, phone shops, gadget shops, more phone shops and MORE gadget shops! OMFG... talking about competition. XP

The mamak stall directly behind. HAPPY! XDXD

The opening on the other hand, was EXPLOSIVE! Bouquet after bouquet from suppliers who wants you to buy more stock from them flowed in a'la KL flashflood.

If only it was Valentine's Day

The opening was SO EXPLOSIVE that it blew all the customers away:

Land of the DEADDDD~~

That's why, as you can see, there are NO CUSTOMERS!.

Kenny and Kenny

The response to the new wing of Low Yat is SO bad that most of the time, there are more staff than customers. Maybe it's still new... oh well...

We packed up at 9.30 pm and we're off.

Monorail station

Exhausted

First date in AGES!

2007-06-26T23:13:00.000+08:00

Finally, the assignments are long-gone and forgotten, the exams over and done with and WE ARE FREE! So Melia and I went to catch a movie at The Curve and to try the much-hyped Dunkin Donut's newest competitor; Big Apple Donuts.

Camwhoring in the car

The first thing that greeted us at Cineleisure was THIS:

WTF? Kempen pandu selamat? IN FRONT OF CINELEISURE????

The first thing that popped in my mind was I know Malaysians like slowing down to look at accident scenes but isn't bringing the accident scene to the masses stretching it a little too far??

Cheh...

After we bought the movie tickets for Ocean's 13 (the movie was DAMN good), we went to The Curve to walk-walk. We visited some of the smaller boutiques and Amelia bought some tops from them. Then... we saw it... Amelia's dream come through and my nightmare...

NOOOOoooooo.........~~

ugh... watching someone shop is like watching someone mow the lawn. Literally. XP

After a while, I was SO worn out LOOKING at Amelia shop, I went for a break at Starbucks (standing next to her while she's shopping is also jor teng for her). I ordered a grande sized choc cream chip frap with whip cream and choc drizzle WITHOUT the cap. XDXD The guy there was nice enough to mengkau-kau-kan the whip cream and choc drizzle to form THIS!

Healthy for the mind, DEADLY for the body *sob*

Happiness...

Haha... and much to Melia's chagrin, I kept on sucking up chunks of ice + choc chip which according to her looks like stuff you'd dig outta your nose. XDXD

Mmmm~~

We went to Nichi but couldn't spend much time there because the movie was going to start soon (the Oprah scene in Ocean's 13 was a killer man.)

After the movie, we went on to Italiannies where we had the ooh-so-lovely carbonara (I don't care what others say, I still think it's good) and their so-so cream of mushroom soup. Though good, Italiannies' food is also easy to get sick of so I don't think I'll be coming back any time too soon.

Scrrrumptiouussss...

Don't she look mixed here?

After dinner, we tah pao-ed our donuts and met up with PY and Chenn at Chandran's for yum cha where significant yapping and gossiping took place. Then nature called... X(

Dou-naht

So we stopped by Melia's house where I answered the call and THEN Melia realised that she's left her shopping in Italiannies. Zomg... drama man... thank god the staff were kind enough and kept it in their store. XD kudos to them.

Fuh... yep... that's my first date in ages. Laughter, tears and a stomachache. XD

Hair terror at APT

2007-06-23T23:48:00.000+08:00

After our Tax Law paper (that I so proudly flunked), what better way to destress but to go for a nice cut and wash. Although I really DO need a haircut, I'm really going there for the nice massages that comes with the wash. Not to mention their minty fresh shampoo.

Melia decided to get a wash, cut, DYE and TREATMENT for her hair. Being the all obliging boyfriend that I am, I offered to wait. I mean... how long can that take right? XD

5.30 pm, we reached APT, I got my haircut and wash. I didn't get my favourite stylist though. He was doing Melia's hair instead *grumble grumble*. He's really good as he knows what he's talking about and what he's doing. Better still, he'd never tried to sell me ANY of their hair products that costs 3 times more than the regular retail. He is Senior Hairstylist Sam in case anyone decides to go to APT Kepong at Metro Prima.

Since it was an exam day, I wore a cap ~~as it helps keep the knowledge from escaping~~ as getting up earlier to style my hair was the LAST thing on my mind that today. As a result, I had cap hair and if I were a hairstylist, I would HATE to do a headfull of cap hair.

DAMN... uncle hair

As she was cutting my hair, I could feel the awkwardness when she was trying to bend them back to their normal direction and after a while, she said "I need to wash your hair a little first. I can't see how long your hair is".

...

That is the wrong-est thing to say to any guy especially when you've cut off a good deal of his hair (guys are REALLY sensitive when it comes to their hair).

So I washed.

The result wasn't as bad as I thought *fuh*. After telling her to trim and chap chap har here and there, I was done. Result, "you look exactly the same as before" by Melia. Great... X(

Melia was... well... from what it looks like, having some sorta head operation.

Providing good haircuts are as complex as performing surgery

She's actually having her hair cut before they dyed her hair. She looked kinda like a Japanese doll once they were done cutting. The time was 6.00 pm.

Next, they dumped a whole wad of gunk on her head. It was weird the way they spread some and "paint" in along her hair XD . Anyway, since Melia's dyed her hair before, they have to dye her hair twice to cover up the original colour that was starting to show.

"Mat Rock wannabe with dainty fingers. Tak jadi betul"

7.00 pm. They started with the second colour, I was hungry. Heard them whispering that have to wait till 8.30 pm. *GROANN...* By then Melia was getting restless too.

I don't know about you but I've never understood the sinister-looking "apparatus" that they have scattered in salons.

Here are a few.

Imported straight from Area 51 and Roswell

8.30 pm. Melia's whisked off to the basins for a wash (HUNGRY!!). Then to my horror, Melia's going for the Brain-Boiler!

OMFG! You can see her brain-vapor coming out! I wonder if this is what blondes and bimboes are made of?

OMG... she's Goofy XD

Hahahaha! Joking only darling. Your still the most brilliant girl I know. XDXD (Totally saving my ass)

The whole brain-boiling process took another half an hour. By the time everything was done, it was already 9 pm. They were thoughtful enough to offer me a cup of tea and a packet of biscuits to munch on though. XD

Totally saving THEIR ass

Otherwise, I would have gutted one of the employeess with the pernicious penetrating probe, removed his head with a harrowing head hollower and boiled him with the brain boiler. That would have made a scrumptious pseudo-steamed chicken-y kinda meal no? Mmmm~~

Anyhoo... I liked Melia's end look so all is forgiven. Haha... See the end result here

Nonsense parking machine

2007-06-21T20:37:00.000+08:00

"10 sen palsu dan 20 sen palsu sahaja"

3 down, 1 more to go

2007-06-20T07:31:00.001+08:00

3 papers down, 1 more to go! Malaysian Tax Law; a class which lecture I've honestly TRIED my very best to attend. But we know how that goes - the lecturer will be reading off of the lecture slides shown from the projector ala Barney the purple dino: "" alright kids! Let's read the slides together!! *chuckle chuckle*. I louve youu... you lourve mee... ". XP Boring shit man.

"I hate you..."

It's another open book paper which means that we can bring our notes and charts in but we all know how the previous open book paper went. Huh... might even experience something like this:

Invigilator to chief

"I could have sworn I saw a candidate sitting behind that pile of papers"
"Are you sure? I don't see anyone"

*pile of paper rustles*

"Whoa! Did you see that?"
"Yea man! Let's go check"

pokes and prods the pile of paper

*a smothered-to-death Kenny drops out of pile*

Blergh... hope I don't lose anything THIS time. *touchwood touchwood*

On another note, we went to Pizza Uno in Centre Point AGAIN for Father's Day. My dad LOVES the ravioli there. I must admit; the sauce IS pretty good. Go give it a try if you can.

When we arrived home,

Bro: Hey look, a BIG worm.
Me : Big worm? Where? *sees "worm"*
Bro: Since mum is so scared of worms, let's call her *snicker*
Me : Wei, it's not a worm la. IT'S A FREAKING SNAKE!!

"I have my mouth full dammit. Take later can or not?"

It had half a lizard in it's mouth too. "Crikey! It's GORGEOUS!" XP

Our first response to it wasn't to catch it, kill it or trap it. Rather it was to whip out our cameras to see whose has the best picture quality under bad lighting; adjusting ISO's, flash levels, 'mine cannot adjust shutter speed' X(...

For a moment I was wondering where the heck did all the cameras come from. DAMN we have a lot of cameras

Anyhow, if it was a poisonuous one, both of us would have been dead already, with cameras in hand. This is nature's control system to keep the human specie's number in check. *one human too many? NO PROBLEM! Chuck a dangerous snake or 2 in an urban area. Gao tim...*

Malaysia's Katrina

2007-06-17T10:56:00.000+08:00

I LOVE rain. Rain creates the perfect conditions for sleeping; steady pitter-patter rhythm, dimmed cloudy light and cool fresh air. When your driving, it creates a strange romantic atmosphere especially when slow, jazzy songs are playing on the radio. Heck, I even wash my car in the rain XD

Night rains are the best because they create mornings like these:

However, little did I know that the afternoon was going to turn to THIS:

Crazy typhoon like winds blew torrential rain around in a mad fury. It was SO heavy that even my neighbour's house was curtained by it and I could only see the outline of the premises.

As I was looking out the window, suddenly, WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP! All the windows of my study was blown shut by the strong winds. Crazy! Our weather system is DEFINITELY going to hell. Dang those bouvines for their flatulence! It's not the human's fault! Our cars and factories have NOTHING to do with it!

Gummy Bear Terror at Starbucks

2007-06-15T22:26:00.000+08:00

This is what happens when you combine exams, stress, crazy nuts and A BAG OF GUMMY BEARS!!

Me and Melia were studying at Starbucks and the next thing I knew, she had a bag of Gummy Bears in her hand with a sinister smile on her face.

Melia fact 1: She LOVES the green gummies.

Melia fact 2: She hates orange Gummies.

Melia fact 3: Disposes them at MBPJ-mouthed-overstressed-induced-psycho-eyed bf.

So in the end, noone escapes! Wohohohohoho! (No, I dunno why um' Gummies are speaking Japanese.)

After the Gummy Bear massacre, we resumed studying when suddenly, "snoorrrtttttt...". I was wondering what in hell could've made that sound? A pig? A donkey? A deranged Gummy Bear? And then I saw...

WTF?? Who on earth takes an afternoon nap in Starbucks?? A coffee parlour?? OMFG! This is the place that you come when you want to FRIGGIN STAY AWAKE DAMMIT! Not to mention he was hogging the nice plush couches too. Dang, these Starbucks couches are too cmfortable for their own good.

Btw, his wife (gf? Never know these days) was sitting opposite him staring at me wondering why the hell I'm "messaging" at such a weird angle. Initially I wanted to take another photo which shows the ugly pose he was in but I guess that would engage me and her in a Brandy and Monica style "The Boy is Mine" in which I'll have no choice but to Stressed-Induced-Psycho-Eye her. Behold!

Turns you into a Gummy Bear

Kenny - 5; Rats - 0

2007-06-14T21:32:00.000+08:00

Tape = Man's second best friend

But I see a Phase 6 in the making. Fucking persistent vermins! I feel like having my ENTIRE ceiling remade after the exams. It's so freaking ugly that it's a blasphemy to moshi-ism that demands for neat and clean ceilings.

"Thou shalt keep thy ceiling neat and clean"

Revenge of the Rat Engineers

2007-06-13T22:43:00.000+08:00

Remember the movie back in 1963 where prison inmates dug a tunnel to escape?

And the mates keeps runnin' runnin', and runnin' runnin', and runnin' runnin'...

Or the tunnels underground used by the Vietnamese during the Vietnam war?

Would probably happen to me~~

Well, this is how my room is currently. I came back looking forward to a cold shower and a comfy bed to sleep only to discover this:-

Phases 4 and 5 of the "Kenny's Roof Tunneling" project

The hole caused small pieces of wood and splinters to litter my floor and my bed. Damned rats! There goes my nice and comfy bed.

Freaking hell! Actually, the rats up in my roof have been at it for months. They're DAMN diligent man! From the looks of it, it's only a matter of time before the whole roof comes down.

Foiled attempts:- Phases 1 through 3

Till now, I've been fixing it by taping up the holes but after a while the tape comes off and I have to retape it back. Anyone has a better suggestion?

This fellow must be pretty smug now. Bangla roti planta!

Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho, it's home from work we go; squeak squeak!

When AIS = ICE; signs that the impending doom is near

2007-06-11T23:18:00.000+08:00

Sign 1:

You order the Red Bean Frap at Starbucks

Sign 2:

Your notes are suddenly in Tibetan

Sign 3:

Your last resort

Die lorrrrrr... I'm so not ready for the finals in 2 days time. Maybe I should just end it all with another Red Bean Frappuccino. XD

Actually, it didn't taste THAT bad. It's just after a while, I started tasting stuff like banana?, vanilla, hazelnut, caramel... you don't want to know the rest. Either those things were used to create the blend, or the drink made my tongue hallucinate. After 3/4 through, blerghh.... And those pesky red bean skin WILL choke you!

Btw, the cat's name is Moshi. No idea what it means but if it'll get me through the exam, *sembah moshi, sembah moshi*

birthday surprise!

2007-06-10T21:21:00.000+08:00

Alas, 61 days AFTER my birthday, I got my present from Audrey, Selene and Wai Loon. Well, as Wai Loon says, blame it on the logistics company aka Audrey Corp XD. Here it is:

better late than never

It's great! I almost got a leather pouch myself. Love it!

Other than that, Amelia baby got me this (on time):

Haha! Boss maa!

Xin Yi got me a really cool jacket all the way from Ireland but I have yet to fit into it (aheheheheh...) But my mum loves it SO much that she cilok-ed it. No idea where she's hidden it. I think my mum is the only mum in the world that ciloks her son's stuff. (I saw her leering at my bag earlier on so I'd better be more cautious XD)

My brithday this year was literally un-celebratable.

2 days prior to it, I was still soaking the sun in Sabah, returned ON the day itself around midnight and the very next morning, I was all-packed for the PC-fair which lasted another 3 days. All the while during this crazy schedule, I had an assignment due RIGHT AFTER the fair and I was completing it at night.

CRAZY SHIT I tell you

Oh well, at least I had heaps of fun. Haha... XD

Blurry

2007-06-09T21:52:00.000+08:00

Ever paid RM35 for 5 pieces of sushi?. Almost did. The worst thing of all was that I actually paid and walked quite some distance away before thinking "hmm... wait... something's not quite right". Only then did I realise that I paid RM34.80 for 5 pieces of sushi. o_O

So I went back to the cashier lady to tell her that I was ~~deathly~~ overcharged and was subsequently told that I have to settle it with the sales lady at the sushi counter *grumble grumble*...

At the sushi counter, the lady said in Cantonese, "Uh, Jusco don't let us refund money just like that. Why don't you pick another RM27 worth of sushi" (bloody lazy b*tch). I told her, "bangla! U want to feed Acheh or something is it?". Nolah, I'm not so bad. I just told her to print another price tag for me and I'll settle it with Jusco. *sigh* Customers have to do everything themselves nowadays. And so she did.

The cashier refunded the outstanding amount (Jusco don't allow konon) and I was happily on my way swimming in my giant pool of sushi XD (ok fine, kiddies pool... umm... teacup?) . THEN I realised that she didn't give me the 20% after-9pm discount. !@#$%&@#%&$!! (poor working/studying class people like me can only afford this since the rest of my money has already gone to my caramel frap earlier on XD Priorities man! Priorities! )

Oh well, not about to go through the hassel for RM1.50. Hmm... maybe I should have... RM1.50!!! BAGI BALIK!! BANGLA ROTI PLANTAAA~~!!

Finals Day 1: barai-ed shitto day

2007-06-07T13:57:00.000+08:00

OMFG... it couldn't have gotten any worse.

For one reason or another, couldn't sleep at all last night. Add that with a law paper that I've already FAILED once the following day and you'll end up with a very-VERY messed up me. ugh...

The paper was tough but manageable; but given my hangover-like state, probably eating sand would be more feasible.

My hands weren't my own today. They were so wobbly that I hope the examiner who's going to mark my paper downs a shot of vodka or two before marking.

Next, I had 3 sets of notes from 2 semesters, 4 years of past years (2 sems each), the textbook, 13 sets of lecture notes, an art-block full of charts and the usual reader containing the statutes. Basically a old-newspaper-man's dream come through. If I stacked all of them up, it would probably reach about a foot in height. Now imagine ALL that PAPER, on a desk roughly about 1 metre by 3/4 metre wide. HAVOC!

Scene 1: just realised that I spent 1 hour and 15 minutes on the first question and I have another 4 more to go. Time left = 1 hour 45 minutes. Brain goes into meltdown mode. Logical thinking ceases. Hands writing some bullshit on their own.

Scene 2: need to reference something from one of the charts arises. Looks for chart. Finds chart. Question paper goes missing in mega pile of papers. Starts cursing under breath. Invigilators looking suspiciously.

Scene 3: finds question paper in between chart for contract law and lecture 7 notes. Packs pile of paper aside to avoid anymore unnecessary scares. Answer booklet goes missing. KNNYKNN! Feel like packing up stuff and leaving hall.

Scene 4: finds answer booklet between pass year papers. Clock says 1 hour left. Ok... question 2. FCUKED!

In the end, 3 1/16^th out of 5 questions answered in 3 hours. 27 marks gone. Buffer = 8 marks. Basically, that means that I need to have at least one question scoring a perfect score. Lemoned.

Today's lesson, don't over-prepare for an open book test.

Selene: Glasgow, here I come!

2007-06-05T19:51:00.000+08:00

Leaving on a jetplane

2007-06-04T10:16:00.000+08:00

It is a little hard to believe that Selene will be leaving for Glasgow, Scotland tomorrow to pursue her final year in pharmacy. That'll mean mamak sessions from now on will be Selene-less for a year! Gasp! Selene, Wai Loon and Audrey, three highschool-mates whom I grew close to not IN school but AFTER highschool. Now, they're my best buddies and I'll cherish them for life.

I guess it's also due to the fact that all of us live close to one another (with the exception of WL who moved) and D.E. (our regular mamak) was the place that gathered us all. Regardless of the event, or AFTER an event, BEFORE an event, and sometimes DURING an event, we always seem to end up in D.E.. We even have our own regular waiter, Raj, but he's leaving for Canada soon too X( . D.E. with it's uber-maggi goreng and murtabak, it's a place like no other.

It's strange because never in my life did I expect things to turn out this way. I considered myself to be quite the weirdo in highschool and my social life was almost zero. I used to think of my friends as uber-popular people with heaps and heaps of friends, tonnes and tonnes of events to go to and sometimes, I just wonder what the world would look like through their eyes, what it must feel like to be them. Sometimes, I even wished I WAS them. Ok, that sounded a little freaky. But in the end, they turned out to be more special than I thought they were. They were normal (T/C applies) people, a little small in size, but extra-large at heart.

Anyway, since Selene is leaving for Glasgow tomorrow, this song is dedicated to her:

All my bags are packed
I'm ready to go
I'm standin here outside our door
I hate to toughen up and say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin'
It's early morn'
My daddy is waitin'
He's blowin his horn
Already the weather's hot
I could fry

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Will be a year till I'm back again
Oh no, I hate to go

There's so many times I've turned you down
Mamak food, you made me frown
But now that I'm leaving, I crave you more
E'vry bite I take, I'll think of you
Even spaghetti, it TASTES like you
Oh Chinese food, you, I simply adore!

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Will be a year till I'm back again
Oh no, I hate to go

My MX-5, for a year I'll leave you
One more time
Let me drive you
I can't believe,
there, I'm FREAKIN WALKING EVRYDAY
Dream about the days to come
I'll have to do chores my own
Kakak, come with me, what would you say?!

Oh, kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Will be a year till I'm back again
Oh no, I hate to go

But, I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Will be a year till I'm back again
Scottish hunks, hmm... leaving is now not so pain

Wakakakakaka! XD

P.S. Remember your promise to blog. And I want Scottish Kambing

Huang Tian

2007-06-02T11:33:00.000+08:00

Something strange happened today; the sky turned yellow. I guess not everyone finds it strange anymore since it started to happen on a semi-regular basis since the GREAT HAZE of 2005 caused by those stupid nincompoops who thought that clearing forests by burning them was a GREAT idea. ~~burn them burn them burn them!~~. Sorry... but haze is the 3^rd worst enemy of all sinus-asthma people X( with the first being dust and the second second-hand smoke. X( X(

Anyhow, as I left my house, a megastorm was building (no pun intended for Jovial's AT obsession) but strangely, there was little rain albeit much lightning (the kind that blinds you temporarily). Well, everyone knows it and the governments are slowly admitting it, the world's weather is mutating. Hail, super-floods and mini-typhoons in Malaysia, water-spouts in Singapore, snow in Australia... maybe if it rained cats and dogs somewhere literally, we can all go back to worshipping the weather god.

Ok... enough about the weather. Tried this new place in Kepong baru called Gasoline. No, they didn't serve gasoline as drinks but they do have a weird concept; wheel-barrows as chairs, the entire interior downstairs was made of cement, the tables were covered with comics (manga) and the music was LOUD. Hmmm... not exactly my cup of tea.

Another thing one might notice is that almost the ENTIRE show is run by KIDS. 15-year-olds taking orders, bringing orders, cooking, washing, preparing drinks, wiping tables, ~~yelling, sulking, whining, hating the world, rebelling, swearing~~... Yeah you get the picture. I guess the only grown-up there is the boss who's at the cashier.

Unfortunately, the food was nothing to scream about. We ordered fried mushrooms and otak-otak (spicy fish-paste) spring rolls and triple-scoop chocolate ice cream (oohh... the fat). The fried mushrooms were soggy and the spring rolls felt like they were filled with sweet potato. ugh... The ice cream was fine. Amelia loves the butter biscuit served with it. Verdict, not exactly too keen to go back there anytime soon.

Car wash!

2007-06-01T11:34:00.000+08:00

I am hopelessly fussy when it comes to washing my car:

1. No car-shampoo is allowed;

2. No physical rubbing (sponge or rag) is allowed;

3. Only continuous uniform rinsing with water is allowed;

4. The source of the water must be organic and distilled. No other forms (eg. water from the tap) is allowed.

In other words,

I only wash my car when it rains. XD

It rained quite heavily today, so I took my car out for a half-an-hour drive and voila! A squeaky clean car!

Talking about cars, Perodua is now the leader in market share of Malaysian-made cars.

It seems that Proton has just lost in its attempt to sign Volkswagen as its foreign partner. Furthermore, Proton has just posted its fourth consecutive quarterly loss. Some sources indicated that in a last minute decision, Volkswagen decided to continue talks with Proton but it seems bleak if any good were to come out of it. Other than Volkswagen, Proton has also been eyeing on GM. My opinion - pack up those faulty-power-windows-and-creaky-doored cars and sell them as fast as you can. Perodua is the way to go now (although I find the design of the new Perodua Viva ~~excrutiatingly painful to look at~~ distasteful. Just stick to the Myvi will 'ya)

The slave of time

2007-05-30T03:14:00.000+08:00

A tune plays softly in the background, heard but not listened to, nothing but mere background noise. Sipping cocoa which tastes inappropriate at this ungodly hour, the procrastinator reflects upon his fate as a slave of time.

Time stealthily catches up with him as he watches the grains of fine silvery sand slip through his fingers at an unforgiving pace. Although undeserving, he wishes that time would just stop awhile for he is breathless from the chase.

Then it dawns upon him; while the rest of the world was running, he was standing still, waiting for something that isn't there, comforted by the illusion of timelessness. A pang of regret rushes through his guts. Any attempt of justfication is waived as he owes the time lost to noone other than himself.

With a sigh, he continues his chase, hoping that lost time can be reclaimed, with a slight knowing hopelessness playing at the back of his mind.

Dammit! Gotta upgrade my 'procrastinator-no-more' from new-year-resolution to reality! But we all know how it goes. X(

The tute, the cafe & the pet shop

2007-05-28T23:40:00.000+08:00

Today was wet, warm and humid just the way I don't like it. Considering the fact that I only had 2 and half hours of sleep and Amelia had none, both of us were feeling pretty lousy. But with the exams so close, we figured it would be suicide NOT to go for tute. So we went.

After the tute, we went for lunch at this little cafe/cakehouse which claimed that they've perfected the Italian Gelato recipe. Well, being broke as I am, we didn't try. Our meal there was weird too; fries were soggy, mashed potatoes were bland, etc etc... The weirdest of them all was the cream of mushroom soup. When it arrived, it looked more like cappuccino to me.

After lunch, despite our battered condition, we decided to check out the pet store nearby and something there turned Melia into a puddle of omg-that-is-SO-CUTE-my-dog-will-SO-love-it-I've-gotta-get-it.... Through her eyes, it must have appeared something like this:

Chronic Strawberry obsession... XD

breadmaker

2007-05-26T20:12:00.000+08:00

Mum has a brand breadmaker from Citibank. Haha... she so juvenile when she recieved it; asking my dad to teach her how it worked, checking to see whether she has all the ingredients, opening it to see what's inside... think 5-year-old kid getting his first Transformers toy.

It's a little conraption where you only need to put in all the ingredients and everything else; from mixing to kneeding to re-kneeding is done by the machine. Super easy, super convenient. It takes about 4 hours to bake a loaf of bread and in a day, you'd probably be able to bake 2 if cooling time is taken into account.

Tah-dah... the new addition to our family; or at least my mum's cookery family. The bread is still baking inside - LCD indicated that 3 minutes till ready - frequency of checks by anxious mum = 10 per minute. I bet she wasn't even this anxious when she ~~was pregnant with me~~ got her first blender (a must have in every household).

Bread ready! The aroma was Mmmm~ so mouthwatering although as can be seen it is a little lopsided.

The tasting! Simply scrumptious! It's like those really milky bread served in hotels except this felt fluffier and fuller (heavier); probably due to the amount of milk my mum used. PLUS, my mum being my mum, she couldn't resist putting in raisins and that had made it even better! That's it, no more Gardenia for this family. XD

Exam blues

2007-05-25T21:26:00.001+08:00

This semester's finals is merely 13 days away and counting. Oh boy... stress, stress! Till today, I have absolutely no idea what the Accounting Information Systems paper will be testing us on and past year papers are not available too as this is a new subject. This is bad.

And I think, somehow, my modem got possessed and is toying with me. Today, yes-connection, tomorrow, no-connection. Wargh! Anyway, freezing it helps subdue its demons. Put it to freeze in my room last night and voila! a working modem! Perhaps the hot weather is getting to it as to all of us. *sigh*

IT'S ALIVE!!

2007-05-23T01:27:00.000+08:00

JV came over today to have some of his artwork scanned and miraculously, after a week of playing dead, my modem suddenly decides to wake up! And not a minute too late too (I was just about to have it ~~ripped open and its innards diced for spare parts~~ repaired)

Me: Did you bring your thumbdrive?
JV: Nope. I was thinking of uploading it to the internet
Me: Too bad pal. My modem's fried
JV: Hmmm? Looks fine
Me: Err... DSL and Internet lights out?
JV: Errrr... no...
Me: ... *checks* ~> *dumbfound*

VOILA! Maybe JV just has the power to heal modems. *Heroes theme song playing*

Or it could be TMnet being TMnet. Ugh...

Flunked my Management Accounting quiz today. X(

Life after internet

2007-05-21T18:30:00.000+08:00

My modem has been fried for almost a week now and hence the title. I've been enlightened to the many things that we can do OTHER than surfing, foruming, blogging, wiki-ing, chatting, emailing and downloading that have become essentials in most of our daily lives. They include banging my friggin' head on the wall, begging my modem to miraculously come back alive, trying to figure out the neighbour's WEP password and mindlessly refreshing the browser again and again hoping that by some divine power google wil load. Yeap, that about wraps it up!

THERE IS NO LIFE BEYOND THE INTERNET!

Anyways, since JV is back from Singapore and since Ms Moo Moo is going to Glasgow soon, I figured that our trip to Restoran Talipon has to be now or never; since Ms Moo Moo is determined to get as much unhealthy-divine-tasting Malaysian food into her tummy before she leaves.

THIS time, instead of watermelon skin ending up on the grill and in the soup, we had mango-flavored agar-agar instead by the brilliance of JV. XP

After our little meaty stint, we went to DE for a chillout session where we watched MU lose to Chelsea. Amelia was upset. X(

Spiderm.. ma.. mmm.. zzzz...

2007-05-14T14:54:00.000+08:00

Went to watch Spiderman 3 today. The movie was SOOOOOO draggy... and we were SOOOOO sleepy... big mistake. I guess we'd enjoyed the movie more if we weren't so tired and sleepy. Sorry Melia.

PY's B'day party

2007-05-13T12:27:00.000+08:00

Went to Manhattan Fish Market at the Curve to celebrate PY's very-VERY belated birthday today. I was still quite sickly from the allergy that I got from my grandma's birthday party but it WAS PY's 21^st birthday so I went anyway.

The girls (Melia, Chenn n PY) were camwhoring shamelessly (as expected when they're all dressed up) ALL the way through while waiting for the food to arrive (the food took ages to come).

Here comes the stupid part. After the main course, the waiter brought out the cake; IN the plastic bag that we gave them in; WITH the candles still taped to the top of the cake box; WITH THE FRIGGIN' RECEIPT STILL ON THE BOX! @#$%&@!! What ever happened to the waiters-coming-out-with-lighted-cake-while-singing-song routine? Noobies!

Anyway, there was this quirky photographer armed with a polaroid camera who offered to take our photos. I guess the novelty of it covered the restaurant's incompetence and we left without ~~murdering the manager AND the waiter~~ complaining

Grandma's 78th B'day today

2007-05-13T02:04:00.000+08:00

Typical to any traditional Chinese family, an important function must have:

1. Karaoke
2. Photographer/videographer
3. Enough food to feed the entire Afghanistan

and true enough,

Furthermore, typical to any traditional Chinese family, the song choice of the night was:

1. Shanghai beach
2. Mandarin song no 1
3. The moonlight represents my heart by Teresa Teng
4. Hokkien song no 1
5. Mandarin song no 2
6. My Way by Frank Sinatra
7. Hokkien song no 2
8. Birthday song (this was strange)
9. Mandarin song no 3
10. ... (and so on and so forth)

I don't get it. Why do Chinese people LOVE 'My Way' by Frank Sinatra SO MUCH? It is literally sung at EVERY SINGLE FRIGGIN FUNCTION as though it's the only English song that they can sing. Even Chinese uncles who're unable to string 2 complete sentences together in English sing it! An nao... de en ish neah... en so I faesh... de finerl kretrern... XP

Anyhoo... about 55 peeps turned up for the function and the little room that was booked was PACKED. The food was great too. I feel like 1/55^th of Afghanistan now. Fluergh...

Here are more photos...

Grandma cutting cake

People waiting to eat the cake

Whoops!!

Heh! It's only Butt-crack bun (some desert which name I cannot remember)! Can't wait for a lil kid to ask me, "Koko... what's that?" Wakakakakaka!! (Must be all the wine I had... XD)

End of assignments! Hurrah!!

2007-05-11T20:49:00.000+08:00

Today, I handed in the last of assignments this semester. In english, that would mean no more late night researching, no more working 36 hours straight, no more panda eyes, no more grumpy mood, no more stressed induced insomnia and NO MORE DATELINES! WOOHOO!

Yeah yeah... I know that with better time management and if I just didn't procrastinate so much, I'd probably wouldn't have to endure half of those crap but hey, I'm a typical Malaysian student. Fact of life: you ain't a regular Malaysian student if you don't procrastinate. I'm not implying that ALL Malaysian students are like that; there are some EXCEPTIONAL ones and I'm priviledged to have enjoyed their company (they manage so well that it's mind boggling). But for the rest of us, it's late night researching, working 36 hours strai... XD

Anyway, the weather's taken a turn for the worst today with it being hotter than EVER! It's as though it is in response with my previous post regarding the weather and it's back with a vengence. The blistering heat today was UNBEARABLE!

Even the setting sun seen though my room's tinted windows AND blinds looks like that other part of the neighbourhood got A-bombed or something.

And what way better to combat the heat but a cup of leong cha. The other day, my parents returned from shopping, hauling bags upon bags of Chinese herbs. No idea what they are for but what caught my eye was THIS!

Kuk fa cha (chrysanthemum tea) in the form of flower buds!

Oh well, it seems like my parents are going crazy over tea just like Selene's dad. Haha... a cup of cha anyone?

Name calling

2007-05-10T23:56:00.000+08:00

Think your name sucks? Have a look at their names...

literally means fu*k in Cantonese

Coming from a public school in Malaysia, initially, names do not mean much to me. Making fun of others' names, surnames, giving each other funky nicknames and competing to see who can say 3 generations of this Indian guy's name the fastest were all part and parcel of my primary and secondary school life (I was at the receiving end of the fun-making having my Chinese name translate to "fish shit" in Malay).

Watching all those old Chinese Kung Fu shows where the family pai (a board on which the family name is written on) means nearly everything to them; to the extent where the hero of the movie sacrifices his life just to prevent the board from touching the ground was all alien to me.

www.wongfeihung.com

However, having come from a very traditional family (we have a book in which states the guidelines of everything down to the names of our children), I have been constatly reminded by my 88 year old grandma (her blood test results were better than mine XD) to honour my elders as well as to protect the integrity of our race and the clan name.

Little by little, I began to see what this hoo-haa about names is all about (their brainwashing is setting in). Names represent our identities, our history, what we are today and where we are going tomorrow. Names not only signifies that we are recognised and remembered by others, they also carry the honour and pride of our elders on them. After all, as Chairman Durandal said, "a name signifies ones existence. If a name was fabricated, does that mean that one's existence is fabricated too?" (Heh, sorry, GSD junkie here).

Therefore, it doesn't matter if your name means "fu*k" in Cantonese or "fish-shit" in Malay. Be proud of it and if someone tries to make a mockery of it, protect it by ~~breaking his nose and coming up with a better insult for his name~~ showing that what he's saying is nothing but hogwash and that he doesn't even deserve the smell of your breath. Knowing some head-swaying fan-twisting chinese proverbs will help too.

"Mama... can I learn the family Kung Fu now?"

Nice weather eh?

2007-05-10T01:36:00.000+08:00

Today was cold and gloomy as opposed to the punishingly hellish HOT and sunny days; or the torrential typhoonish destructive rain we were experiencing (we had that during the wee hours of yesterday morning).

Today, it was drizzling lightly for most of the day and in the evening, we had some nice sun in the cool air. *Breathes in the wonderful after-rain smell* ahhh...

Gloomy skies; Prefer this to the other two

Sun coming out

Chocolate cream chip frap for a change

I also had the priviledge of experiencing second-hand smoke at its best - an ang moh sitting at the next table smoking a cigar, and a group of 6 (all smoking) sitting behind me (didn't dare take a pic of them since they were sitting so close XP).

No matter what my friends tell me, I still don't see the logic in smoking. It's dumb, it's stupid, it's not cool and it shows that you can't take the heat.

Great, nothing like a bunch of smokers to spoil the nice weather. They should build smoking rooms next to toilets and impose an outright bann n smoking in public. Then, if they still persist on smoking, ~~we'll pee on them~~ the authorities ~~can collect more bribes~~ can fine them and ~~buy luxury planes and houses in Aus~~ build better roads and schools

P/S: HAPPY 21^st b'day Khong Khong!

Steamboat Schwimboat!

2007-05-08T23:13:00.000+08:00

The best buddies for steamboat. (From left: Selene-CookItAll, WaiLoon-FitnessFreak, Audrey-the-"IJustEat"

Tom yam steamboat (half the stuff inside is meant for BBQ but it tasted alright XD)

Jasmine tea in nice porcelain tea set to accompany the steamboat

Desert: Green tea icecream with Apple flavoured black tea. (We had a LOT of tea this evening)

WaiLoon-FitnessFreak after all the food. (actually he tossed the box of tea bags around and it hit his eye. Ouch! XD)

Dining at Selene's always gives me that fine-dining-gourmet feeling although the food is as ordinary as steamboat. The best part is, the entire dinner just cost RM6 per person. Cheapo!

Okay! time to bring out the grill and the BBQ!

My Fair Lady

2007-05-07T14:56:00.000+08:00

Got free tickets from to the "My Fair Lady" musical from RHB Bank from my mum. Initially my mum wanted to go with my dad but my dad was SOOOO... reluctant to go for a musical that my mum also malas to go. So in the end, I'm bringing Melia instead. Haha...

Sounds like a perfect day? NOT! Whatever that can go wrong HAS gone wrong today.

First, our lecturer lost our assignments. (bloody hell, he'd better find them or else). Next, I left the tickets at home while going to pick Melia up *bangs head on dashboard*. On the way back to my house from Melia's house, there were 2 accidents along the way causing a massive jam FOR NOTHING! *scream*...

Figuring that we wouldn't make it there in time judging by the KL jams at 7pm, we decided to take the LRT. I almost died of anxiety and I swear I saw the needles of my watch tick faster.

The time indicated on the tickets was 8.00 pm. We reached the hall at 8.15 pm. When we got in, the organisers were just finishing their speech. Talking about being lucky! Anyway, the show was GREAT! It's funny, it's emotional and it's culturally rich; simply smashing Highly recommended!

Anyway, here are more photos:

View from the Plenary Theatre Hall, KL Convention Centre

Our FRIGGIN expensive dinner. RM15 for 2 sandwiches and a bottle of mineral water

View from inside the Hall

Just couldn't help it

Assignment week again... sigh

2007-05-06T22:18:00.000+08:00

I'm so bored. No drive to do my assignment at all. For starters, I didn't get a wink of sleep at all last night. Made a mistake loading myself with enough caffeine to perk up the entire ocean; except, no perkiness here. Just fatigue and NO SLEEP. *sigh*

Today was another one of those friggin hot days where you just wanna bundle up in an air-conditioned room and sleep the whole day through.

sleepy as hell...

didn't help at all...

view from my slumped head

On a lighter note, today's dinner was pretty interesting. It was supposed to be western but I feel it had a tad bit too much of Chinese influence

cream of mushroom soup with prawns n herbs!(it was nice but a little too salty)

Grill chicken chop with black pepper ~~cream~~ sauce! The sauce was REALLY thick man. Ugh... felt like eating glue. Taste wise, it was ok

Oh well, sleepy end for a sleepy day... *sigh* Assignment still not done yet!

goodnight everyone

What on Earth is wrong with these people??

2007-05-04T21:41:00.000+08:00

Gang-raped in terror carjack

JOHOR BARU: A woman who was waiting in the car while her husband went to a toilet was held up at knife-point and taken on a terror ride, gang-raped and robbed.

The 28-year-old woman who works in Singapore, was driven around Plentong for three hours after being abducted from the petrol station in Tampoi. Her three-year-old son was in the car with her.

The drama unfolded when the victim and her son had accompanied her husband to town on his way to work in Singapore at 4am several days ago.

The husband stopped the car, with his wife and son inside, at the petrol station and kept the engine running.

Soon after, the woman was shocked to see a man armed with a knife, knocking at her window demanding that she open the door.

The woman, fearing for her son's safety, complied and the suspect then drove the car to pick up his friend from a nearby area.

They blindfolded the woman and threatened to harm her son if she struggled.

The woman begged the men to let them go as she was pregnant but they instead took her to a secluded area and took turns to rape her.

They then picked up another man before dropping both mother and son in Permas Jaya and driving off with the car and her belongings.

Johor Baru (South) OCPD Asst Comm Shafie Ismail said that the car had been recovered two days after the incident in Majidee. He appealed to those with information to contact the police hotline at 07-221 2999 or the nearest police station.

http://thestar.com.my

News like this just gets my blood boiling. First the nearly-raped KTAR student case and now this. The lady was pregnant and her son was there!

The prepetrators should be locked up forever ~~where they will have rods and cylinders of various sizes stuffed up their asses~~ without a possibility of parol and ~~have routine gang-rape sessions with gay inmates~~ whipped.

Not to mention castration, electro-shock therapy and hours upon hours of Oprah and Dr Phil

To the victims, may you get over this ordeal and may you be well and happy. Sadhu