It was suddenly time to leave. =(

Although we had been literally counting down every Friday since the very beginning (“ahh… after today seven weeks left! etc.), we weren’t really prepared for the final day to come.

And it came in the form of a rude revelation that we would no longer be working together in the same building, seeing each other, joking, playing games and slacking in the office everyday, anymore!

Looking back at my four months in AMD, the best part was, and has always been, the people.

It  was really a privilege to have found a working environment where we could work and learn as employees, but at the same time still behave like students – noisy, active and restless.

Sometimes I feel that the REAL employees who worked on our floor (although a majority of them work on the floor below us or in other buildings) must really hate us interns! =)

Although we generally do behave ourselves and do our work during normal working hours, but when the time approaches 5PM, or when a really exciting plan like our Genting trip is brewing among us, or when somebody is finishing and having his/her last day in AMD… Almighty chaos reigns.

Nobody cares about the fact that there’s a CCTV right behind us monitoring our behaviour. I guess the security dept. people were just shaking their heads wondering why weren’t we all fired yet.

And that’s because we were doing our job fine! We complete our jobs as told without delay and with minimum mistakes, and sometimes we even produce more! We had no problems contributing creative (and sometimes ridiculous) ideas that helped our supervisors solve real problems!

What’s more, we’re doing our job for a very humble pay (as compared to the permanent employees) for full time! =)

But we were not and will NEVER complain! AMD has given us a great and invaluable opportunity to learn and experience how being an Engineer is actually like! Plus in a fun and enriching way.

And I think none of us would exchange any of that for a fatter pay check.

Although people will say that we are biased because we’ve already worked here, but I would still say that none of us would have wished we had worked elsewhere, other than AMD!

Besides, even the management treats us interns pretty well!

On the final day we basically finished and packaged off all the works and projects that had been in our hands, and spent the rest of the day saying goodbye to the numerous levels of workers in AMD – managers, engineers, technicians, vendors and operators, all of whom we had formed a close bond working together in the silent, freezing production line.

I realized that some engineers and operators do not communicate well and generally say nothing more than work instructions and reports to each other.

We interns were something in the middle, and we were able to be good friends with both sides of the divide – and were naturally not deprived of a great deal of gossips and interesting stories that could only be exclusively revealed by either side.

After saying goodbyes and settling all our reports, paperwork and presentations, the only thing left was the exit interview that would be conducted by our manager regarding our experience in AMD.

Our manager was a charming, friendly gentleman who firmly believes in the power and genuine competitiveness of AMD microprocessors and graphic units. We chatted light-heartedly and he was delighted to hear that I was using ATI graphics in both my laptop and PC. He was eager to listen to my views about the good and bad sides of AMD and ATI products and how they could be improved. As our conversation progressed to the comparisons between us and Intel, I showed off a bit by injecting some technical knowledge about the internal architectures of microprocessors and fortunately he was impressed. (Luckily I had just took the subject ‘Advanced Microprocessors’ last semester in university and was loaded with technical stuff to bullshit at will LOL)

After the longest interview among all the interns, we were given our job completion letter! YAY! Industrial Training completed!

I’ve specially reserved this last portion to dedicate it to my dear supervisor – Mr. Jalil. (Although he’s insisted that I drop the ‘Mr.’ since the first day), who has been so kind and helpful, who has never once looked down on us because we were interns, but treated us with the friendliness of a true friend.

He may look unsmiling and scary in photos but he is really, really gentle and kind! We talked about everything from football to my Toastmasters club to ranting about which colleague he disliked and gossiping about which manager we both feared. He has even given me the password to his PC and printer!

I was Mr. Jalil’s only intern at that time and he was so patient and understanding when explaining long and tedious engineering stuff to me. Throughout the internship period he has given me a lot of freedom, to the degree that I only had to meet him once per day in the morning and later even this was not needed.

By doing this Mr. Jalil was neither lazy nor irresponsible, but he had chosen to not assign me with dull and repetitive ‘operator’ work as some other supervisors had been happily giving their trainees. Instead, he gave me real projects, real issues to ponder and solve, and then the freedom, authority and contacts to implement directly into the production line; After my design was approved, I was tasked to draw up guidelines and OPLs based on my design, and conduct official briefings to the operators on the new implementations. I was then required to follow up, evaluate, receive feedback, and if necessary improve on the implementations.

I consciously reminded myself to appreciate the freedom that was given to me and never take it for granted. In return I gave my best endeavour to produce the best results. Although I may slack in the office every now and then and do nonsense with the other interns, but I always made sure that the lost time was made up, deadlines met, and finally results produced.

My supervisor has tried his best to help me, to teach me; and I did my best to make him proud, to produce results for him so that he can produce more, for his superiors.

I can only hope that I have done enough. =) 

On the last day I was so touched when I found out that my supervisor wanted to buy me a farewell present, and he took me down to the AMD shop and got me this really nice AMD collar T-shirt and key chain. My friends joked that he wanted me as an walking AMD billboard, but I loved and treasured the two items as jewels.

Before we left my supervisor gave me a signed and company-stamped performance evaluation form, which was a mandatory document to be submitted to the university…

… I was the only one among interns to receive a full 20/20 overall evaluation score.

I am pretty sure nobody’s perfect and I for one am definitely not close to one, but I whole-heartedly appreciate and am humbled by the gesture of faith that my supervisor has shown me.

It was truly a sad day that we will no longer be working together – my supervisor, colleagues and friends – but hey, we’re all engineers right?

Maybe we’ll meet again some day in the industry. =)

Long distance relationships suck and her being here is wonderful gift by itself. So we thought, since I’m working here in Penang, why not tour the island as tourists? =)

I have been to Penang several times when I was very young, but somehow I don’t retain a lot of memories about it. This 2-day tour served as a great refresher!

We literally found ourselves a tourist map and drove around town, stopping by randomly to eat and visiting places that Penangnites will claim “aiya, these places only tourists will go one la…”

The greatest ‘sweet’ problem of the city, however, is the food. It is so good, so damn good, that I just realized that two months into staying here, I’ve gained 5KG!

That’s a huge thing for me, you know, as my weight had always been, err, very non-volatile!

And the most wonderful food on this island are those that are sinfully fried with tons of oil and you really can’t stop eating once you’ve tasted it.

Have you ever heard of the stalls in food courts in KL or elsewhere named ‘Famous Penang Healthy Bread’ or ‘Famous Penang Fruit Salad’ or just something plain like ‘Famous Penang Mee Hon Soup’?

Of course not. Because it’s all ‘Famous Penang Char Koay Teow’,‘Famous Penang Fried Oyster’, ‘Famous Penang Loh Bak’ etc.! ALL FRRIIIIIEEED!!

Haha of course there are stuff that are not fried too, like this unbelievably appetising jelly coconut!

My friend Ariadne’s mother first recommended us to try out these jelly coconuts during our first trip to Penang back in May, and we’ve been hooked and have gone back to the very stall to buy them every time we’re in town!

During the trip we’ve also visited tourist sites such as the Botanical Garden, which is an exceptionally scenic garden that has taken 29 ha. of Penang’s precious prime real estate.

I guess with Penang’s exorbitant real estate prices, the Botanical Garden site could be worth hundreds of millions of Ringgit. But well, I guess it’s the duty of every responsible government to allocate some land for greenery…

And this particular greenery is occupied (well I was about to say infested) by scores of monkeys! Much like one of the temples in Bali last time!

Fort Cornwallis with its Age of Empires-ish castles and cannons…

We didn’t take much photos because my camera was somehow busted. But we were determined to visit purely ‘tourist’ places!

… and so on… This is so unlike me last time where I kept snapping pictures wherever I go… nowadays I’m lazy to even bring my camera out except for travelling and events… =(

Not only does it mark the glorious passing of another happy year spent with my dear, it also highlighted the day in which I must solve the problem of how to celebrate our anniversary while I am in Penang and she’s in KL!

It would be an easy task if August 4th were a Saturday or even a Friday, but no – August 4th fell on a Wednesday!

A Penang-KL day-return trip would be unfeasible, especially in the middle of a working week where I still have to wake up at 6.30AM the next morning.

But truly, it isn’t really that hard to decide, is it?

I had to choose between two alternate scenarios:

A) To fly back to Subang and spend a loving and wonderful time with the most amazing girl in the world; or

B) To stay in AMD Penang and spend my anniversary with engineers and machines and half-made silicon microprocessors.

I made my decision like within a second but told my dear nothing about it. I subscribe to the philosophy that without surprises a relationship will die. Err… Pleasant ones, of course!

After my decision, which was several weeks before August 4th, a couple of things needed to be done immediately.

I went online and booked my return flight ticket, then took a deep breath and strolled boldly up to my supervisor’s desk to ask for three straight days of leave – August 4th, 5th and 6th – all the way till the weekend.

I was fortunate enough to have scored a remarkable discovery a week ago in the task that I was working on, and thanks to this achievement my boss seemed to be fond of me enough to not ask much about the reasons behind such a shameless request. =)

A day before the 4th, I stopped by a florist in Queensbay Mall to collect a rather fat bouquet of flowers that would later put me in the most uncomfortable centre of attention on my flight back to KL.

I had carefully placed the bouquet deep into a huge paper bag and carried it around my arms like a baby in the airport. Due to obvious reasons, I did not check it in with my other luggage, but my grand plan blew when I accidentally wet the paper bag’s exterior while washing my hands and the bag started tearing apart.

It was only a couple of minutes before boarding and I hastily found a medium-sized plastic bag and cramped the bouquet in.

Unfortunately, the plastic bag was half-transparent and everybody from the flight attendant to the woman sitting next to me, to the taxi driver – gave me wide, obviously-trying-to-be-polite smiles as they looked down from my defiant face to the plastic bag with half-protruding leaves that I was cradling in my arms.

Once I landed in Subang, I took a taxi to my dear’s apartment, only to realize that I did not have the elevator access card with me!(You see, I was determined to make my dramatic appearance in front of her doorstep as TVB-like as possible, you know, the type that makes viewers go awwwwwww to the chorus of a slow, romantic background music… So calling her to come down to get me was out of the question) so I had to wait patiently on the ground floor with my luggage, laptop and the huge bouquet of flowers (now taken out), for some resident to come so that I can piggy-back into the elevator.

When a tall African finally arrived and scanned his access card in the elevator, I zoomed in and quickly pressed the button to the floor that I wanted to go. As the elevator was ascending I took out my phone and stared blankly at the main menu, not daring to look up.

Finally, I dragged my luggage forcefully out of the elevator when my floor had arrived, and as the door was closing I could still see the African guy staring at me and my mountain of stuff…

… Like, who cares? My mission was accomplished…

… Only to realize that I was too used to pressing ‘13’ while staying in my condo in Penang, and back here in Subang my dear is on the seventeenth floor!

As I dashed up the staircase, a janitor with a lot of stuff in his hands appeared on the steps in front of me, and I will never forget his facial expression as he darted to the side to allow this strange, panting guy in smart wear with flowers to lumber pass him.

I felt as though I had just crossed the Himalayas when I finally stood in front of my dear’s door on the 17th floor. I cooked up a story on the phone about what I was ‘busy doing’ in Penang and when the perfect timing came – when she told me she missed me – I rang the door bell. I waited there with the phone still close to my ear. Her footsteps approached the door, and then the lock clicked and the doorknob turned…

-

The rest was indescribable by words. But suffice to say that all the trouble that I’d gone through to be there, at that very moment, seeing her reaction… was worth everything in the world. =)

As we grow older, a lot of people say, we don’t celebrate our birthdays as much anymore. Especially guys.

It is a sad fact that indeed as you grow older, you find less and less friends who are ‘free’, or think that celebrating a birthday is important enough to take up their precious time! As opposed to more ‘important’ things like doing assignments, clubbing, shopping, watching PPStream at home etc.

But I still count myself lucky enough to have a group of friends who are willing to do just such an unimportant thing! Celebrate with me! Yay!

It was more or less supposed to be a ‘surprise party’, but unfortunately the hidden agenda was pretty much obvious when they asked for a friends’ gathering on a sudden Monday night…

And also when I asked them what we were going to do (movie, dinner, karaoke or something), one of them replied: “Aiya, later when you reach then you will know lor…!”

LOL, didn’t even bother to make up some fake events!

But I am absolutely not complaining, I can’t express how much I appreciate their time and effort. In fact, I was so happy that I could not stop smiling.

That’s just Hanif experimenting with my camera’s smile shutter function.

After the dinner, a few people had to leave, but the remainder of us went to Alamanda.

Originally, we had wanted to go for bowling… but unfortunately there was some kind of bowling competition (10PM at night!) going on and so we changed plan and went for a movie instead!

We happily bought the tickets for the movie ‘Legion’  (which would later prove to be a ridiculously bad movie) and while waiting for the movie to start an hour later, we went to the arcade to kill time.

We spent most of our tokens playing race cars, as they were the only machines that the many of us could play together. Although that was just for killing time, but we had a really great time in the arcade!

**********

The night before, on the eve of my birthday, my dear had already celebrated with me on a very different scale: just the two of us in a quiet corner in a TGI Fridays, The Gardens.

And she also gave me a wonderful present to celebrate me having roamed the Earth for 22 long years!

… A wonderfully packaged CK Eternity Summer eau de toilette with a very delightful scent! It’s really no secret that guys do not (or utterly rarely) buy perfumes for themselves, and if they happen to have a bottle a two, the fragrances are usually given to them by girls!

I dunno why that seems to always be the case but the only reason that I can imagine is that fragrances are historically feminine and perhaps it strips certain men of their ‘manliness’ to shop for them along the aisles of some beautycare shop.

Anyway, who cares? Happy 22nd birthday to myself!!

Just hope I don’t get old too soon… =)

Just received it several weeks ago! The black one is mine, and the red one is my Dear’s.

In the beginning, it was only the Apple notebooks that were shiny and all, but now Dell laptops have managed to gloss up their covers too!

Actually it is so shiny that I feel that even with extra care, it will probably be full of scratches by the end of the year!

LOL I don’t have pictures of my own laptop so I’ll have to use my dear’s. And I can’t take new pictures of it either! My Sony USB cable is lost so all pictures taken lately using my Sony camera are stuck inside and irretrievable!

That, of course, is one of the reasons I have not been blogging for quite some time (besides being lazy).

Now one of the reasons that I chose a Dell as my second laptop is that Dell is DELL. Unlike my previous dear Acer, Dell doesn’t seem to have the notorious reputation of breaking down once the warranty period is over!

Everyone knows that there seems to be some ‘breakdown time-bomb’ installed in Acer laptops. It works this way:

If your warranty period is 1 year, the timer is set to 1 year and 3 months; and if you have extended warranty, say, 3 years, then the bomb is mercilessly set to detonate in 3 years + 1 hour or so.

Once your warranty is over, *click*… booooom~~

All the problems come flooding in. And they have no obligation to repair it for you… without cost.

Anyway, this laptop really not bad leh… For my casual use – Core 2 Duo, Windows 7 and slotted with Graphics Card… What more to ask for?

(Although this photo was taken ages ago… )

Now all of them, except Steven, are working. And it has been years since we have hung out together.

They may look all good and nerdy on the outside, but believe me, they are some of the craziest people and fun friends I’ve ever met!

Being old-time clubbing kakis, we went to MoS last Saturday night.

With this being a catch-up gathering, I can’t believe that my camera decided to forsake me and refused to be switched on!

Out of battery on this special day where the four of us finally had the chance to go out together once again!

Especially when the venue is a place with extreme low light conditions, where camera phones simply don’t function well!

Anyway, still tried to take photos using camera phone…

I can still remember the first time I came to MoS, I wasn’t even 21 yet, and I was lucky enough to be let in… But this time around, especially weekends, identification checks were all in place, and Steven who totally looked like an under-aged kid was I think being checked twice!

With a stroke of luck, my housemate Alvin and some of friends, including foundation studies friend Soo Wai, were there as well!

Yeah I know can’t see a thing in the picture, but Alvin’s the one next to me and Soo Wai’s the one next to Alvin.

Alvin did something naughty that night! Kekeke… *keeps quiet*

Anyway, Steven, the super insane heavy drinker, totally drank like almost half of all the liquor that we had; and for the record, our experience of drinking with Steven had given us really crazy memories!

Memories like him lying drunk beside a drain while we had supper, confessing to a girl that we didn’t even know too well, as well as throwing an entire guitar from his apartment window all the way down into the public swimming pool on the ground floor while he was drunk!

Not crazy enough? Check this (unrelated) video out. Steven being smacked-down by Jon!

She was on the show ‘Cheer 2009′, aired on last Friday, 14th of August at 9PM!

The interview screenshots on this post were taken from the streaming video in the members’ page on 8TV’s website, so the image quality sucks.

A few weeks ago, she was invited by 8TV to an interview as an ex-cheerleader in Titans – her secondary school cheerleading team!

Titans is one of the teams to make it to the Top 5 in the National Cheerleading Competition 2009 held in Bukit Jalil earlier last month.

We went to watch the competition too this year, as well as last year!

You know what?

The cheerleading competition is one of those rare, fantasy-like places on earth where thousands of young, active, open-minded, and irresistibly-charming schoolgirls gather in a packed place, all just having fun!

And best of all,  the ratio of girls to boys in that place is probably… like…

10:1

And the ratio of pretty girls to not-so-pretty girls:

10:1

Therefore:

Girls (10:1) X Pretty Girls (10:1) = OMG HEAVEN!!!

…

You would totally wish that cheerleading is the national sport of our country…

Back to the interview, my dear and some of her former cheer-colleagues were asked to talk about some of their past experiences and stuff about cheerleading.

Sitting next to her is Chooi Yee, one of her good friends and also Titans assistant captain of year 2005.

My dear has a blog entry on the day she went for the interview.

Two days – 17th and 18th, of last month, were very musical days to me – because I went to TWO music concerts in TWO nights!

On the 17th I attended the performance of the great oratorio ‘The Seasons’ by Haydn, and on the 18th ‘Mass in B minor’ by J.S. Bach.

If you’re bored skip the following paragraph (stuff read from concert booklet):

The Seasons was performed by suprano Sibylla Rubens, tenor Maximilian Schmitt and baritone Michael Nagy, all three of whom were German, music by  the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO), and choir by the Swiss Chamber Choir. The concert was performed in the German language.

And it was performed at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas just underneath the twin towers!

My brother always attends these concerts and this time, he was so kind that he got me real cheap student-price tickets!

They were only RM15 instead of the usual RM90+ per ticket!

Really great, isn’t it? =D

There’s my bro and his friend, who went to the concert together.

Apparently you had to wear like totally formal to get in. Probably because the organizers were afraid of the Malaysian teenage culture where students would probably buy the RM15 student tickets and wear FCUK™ t-shirts with pasar malam short pants in.

According to my bro, if you don’t have a suit or blazer, you could rent one from them, free of charge!

My dear and her brother went too!

The interior of the concert hall was so architecturally beautiful that they disallowed any form of photography within the concert hall, even before the concert had started.

If you took out your camera and took a photo, the ushers would walk over to your seat, inform you that photography was prohibited, and request (or more like demand) you to delete the photo in front of her eyes.

But, they forgot we had Google Images, so here you go – the interior:

The second concert that I attended, J.S. Bach’s Mass in B minor, was held in Menara PGRM, Cheras. In case you haven’t known, the Mass is a Roman Catholic rite, so naturally, the Mass in B minor is a very religious piece of work.

This time, the orchestra and part of the choir is from Yin Qi, a Christian Music Organization that is rather well known in its own industry.

While The Seasons was performed in German, the Mass in B minor was sung in Latin. If you had not paid attention to the translations on the screens or booklets, you would have no idea what they are all spluttering about.

While the hall was huge, the crowd was only average. I guess a RM50 ticket to listen to the work of J.S. Bach, who was indeed the greatest composer in history, loses out to a RM200 ticket to watch Jay Chou live in Stadium Merdeka…

Sad, our new generation, isn’t it?

My first month of 2009 has just passed.

And the passing of January 2009 is nothing ordinary.

It marks the incredible milestone of me stepping into the glorious age of 21, baby!

Now, how glorious, exactly, is 21 - it’s the age that you are, finally and completely, on your own.

No more age restrictions, no more consent forms, no more nothing!

More practically, no more thoughts of smuggling into clubs and casinos, no more – NOT – being able to do anything just because of your age!

You’ve complete broken out of the last of any age restrictions or supervisions – you can even get married without your parent’s consent! (Not that I condone it )

Now, of course, we all know that these age restrictions were there to protect you. And activities with an age restriction (well, except marriage and arguably, sex) are generally ‘unhealthy’ activities – smoking, drinking, gambling etc.

And at age 21 you’re expected to be mature enough to judge for yourself what is good and what is bad business.

So yes, you’re free to do anything you want at age 21, but if you do screw up, you also lose all the protection afforded to juveniles and face the consequences straight and hard. No chances, no mercy! Bad huh?

Why? Because you’re already a grown-up; no longer an innocent kid or a wild teenager. You’re an adult… A man.

So, moral of the story – try all the crimes you want before you come of legal consent age. That way at least you won’t go to jail!

No, just kidding!

So, back to myself – if 21 is such a great milestone age, and the next milestone age, 55 (the retirement age), is just so far away, I had expected to celebrate my birthday this year, like – very, VERY EXTRAVAGANTLY.

But alas! Check your desktop calendar and you’ll find that January 25th – my birthday, was on, of all days, Chinese New Year’s Eve this year!

What does that mean?

It means I didn’t get to celebrate my precious 21st birthday the way I wanted! Because no one was going to stay back that day! Everyone had to go back to their hometowns to have their reunion dinner! And that includes me, too!

Note: No, this isn’t a photo of my reunion dinner.

And typically, you don’t just leave the house anytime  soon ‘before’  or  ‘after’ the reunion dinner. You gotta stay back and sit in the house for “reunion’s” sake. So there went my long-awaited 21st birthday party, at least that was what I had thought.

Luckily, I can still write right now, that I still had a very, very memorable 21st birthday.

Still having a small number of charming, special friends (and one particularly) putting in a wonderful amount of effort, surprise after surprise, to prevent my 21st birthday from sliding into the list of my most terrible birthdays ever…

I am so, very wonderfully blessed…

…

… but one of the birthday cakes was definitely not!

It was terrifyingly destroyed by our special, barbaric eating method!

The beautiful ice-cream cake, at first:

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Step 4:

Step 5:

There were no plates involved.

**********

Haha, it’s been a whole month without any updates!

This new year – year 2009, however, is going to be different! Why? Because this year, my New Year’s Resolution #10:

I’m going to make absolutely sure that this blog is updated regularly – and this is no joke. If anything like this happens again (whole month no update) in 2009 – listen carefully – I am going to TAKE DOWN James-Chow.com, as a penalty to myself.

Meaning – I am going to destroy this website, along with the domain name, all the posts, all the photos, – EVERYTHING – if I fail to update for so long ever again!

Now that’s some motivation for me, since James-Chow.com really means a lot to me! Hehe…

**********

This new year has been great so far… But 2008 wasn’t bad either.

So it was really a happy moment to throw 2008 into the dusty storeroom and welcome glorious 2009 into our lives!

This is the countdown celebration that I attended at The Curve.

The fireworks were magnificent, and the crowd was as though Anwar and Najib were turning up for a one-on-one wrestling competition.

As midnight approached, it was almost impossible to even move through the monstrous crowd!

After the countdown, confetti, streamers and fake ’snow’ were everywhere, the next picture looks like it was snowing over there!

It seemed a crime to be clean without a serious mess on your hair and clothes, and I guess the ‘cleaner’ you are, the more you got sprayed on!

No one had any mercy on my hair:

I looked ridiculously like an old rabbit with fluffy grey hair… and with a very bad haircut. Anyways, that was how 2008 passed me by!

Well, I’m not gonna write too much into this post, since I’ll be updating regularly lah! Can relax a bit on the content…

Trust me. I’ll keep to my word, or else…

Right now, this very second – *tick* – that I am writing this entry, I am supposed to be on a one-day Ipoh trip with tourism club…

Yes, Ipoh is my beautiful hometown and where the irritatingly popular Old Town kopitiams came from… a trip to my own place, but I still signed up for it, because I knew it was going to be very different going with friends.

HOWEVER, I am now – instead – sitting lazily in front of my computer writing this entry because I am sick – got a head-splitting headache, fever and some very annoying sore throat…

… and it has been haunting me for like almost a week already… Huhu…

I hate missing the trip, I really do, but thanks to waking up only at 2PM this afternoon (instead of 4.30AM if I went for the trip), I’m feeling slightly better now.

Anyway, come to think of it – if I went for this Ipoh trip, this would be the 4th consecutive weekend that I’ve gone back to Ipoh!

It’s like – go back – come back – go back again – come back again – and again – and again… 4 TIMES – more than 1500 kilometers in journey! Simply double that distance and we can reach Taiwan by air!

The 1st trip back to Ipoh was made in the week straight after the Endau Rompin trip. I went back for the semester break and then returned after a few days for a very special Genting trip;

We stayed there for three nights because of the terrible afternoon fog that scared us from driving down after the second night – so we stayed for another.

By the way, check out the brand name of the bumper cars used in the Genting indoor theme park:

… as if reminding everyone to say:

Anyway, the following weekend, went back to Ipoh for a wedding dinner, at which Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan made an honorable speech, and then tendered his resignation from his ministerial post less than two weeks later.

Then last week, I went back to Ipoh again as an assistant in a children’s camp.

…. where kids were painfully tortured and laughed at.

NO LA! We were very good teachers… The other kids did it to them! And the ‘victims’ volunteered themselves…

**********

Before I end, let me announce that my laptop is – again – not working!

This is neither the first, nor the second, but the THIRD time I have to bring my laptop to friggin’ Times Square (so far away) to fix it…

… And that’s because local computer shops have checked it and don’t think it’s a small problem and asked me to bring back to the official service center - terrible huh?

What’s more, all three times it’s been the same problem… And although each time it seems to be fixed, it comes back again!

(For the record: I have an entire house of IT students staying with me and I am an Electronics major myself. I’m not being infected by some stupid virus or other software stuff, thank you.)

And to add insult to the injury – my laptop is just slightly over a year old! The warranty has only just expired!

Let this add me to Acer’s already stinking unsatisfied customers’ list.

**********

Sigh… It’s dinner time now, I think the other committees who have gone for the Ipoh trip are probably having their steamboat dinner now…

I gotta go for dinner too! Update soon!

Tonight is supposedly the night that the moon shines the brightest… I’m not too sure about the astronomical accuracy of this, but the moon tonight sure shines like a spotlight!

For the innocent fun of it, my housemates and I bought a bunch of candles (the kind that kids play with) and a dozen lanterns!

Yes, we are over 20 years old…

One of my housemates was online playing DotA when the rest of us started playing with the candles and stuff, making him having to leave his game…

As I mentioned in detail in one of my earliest entries, being a leaver in a DotA game is disgraceful enough, but my friend even had to write:

[To All] “hey i gtg ady… mooncake festival I want to go play candle…”

… and receive such responses as:

[Vengeful Spirit] “…”

[Zeus] “wtf”

[Spectre] “f*ck u la… don’t play candle go play c*ck better la”

[Razor] “swt”

[Chaos Knight] “…”

[Bloodseeker] “swt… u how old lor?”

LOL

I was there I saw the conversations myself…

*********

We formed nice shapes with the candles outside our house!

Nice or not…? A heart shape within a greater circle! The candles were first put into place and then lit together!

It was slightly windy and some of the candles went off sometimes, so we had to keep re-lighting them.

We wanted to light and hang the lanterns somewhere but couldn’t find any place or anything to hang them on…

So in the end we decided that they should go up in flames! Like some sacrificial ritual… being burned within a circle of candles! Kakaka…

OK, I know we seemed like no-lifers and had probably watched too much fantasy movies; and yes, I know we were being totally wasteful and it was not a good thing to do at all… But what should we have done?

Keep them for the next year? Not worth keeping – the lanterns cost less than 50 cents each…

Throw them away? It would be more of a waste…

-

… at least we had some sick fun seeing them being burnt into ashes…

**********

Something unrelated:

A few days ago, something rather scary happened.

It was 5AM and I was about to go to sleep when suddenly there was an eruption of loud barking noise.

I listened carefully in my room, and could recognize the sound of our neighbor’s dog Ruby, a Rottweiler with a very powerful voice. She was definitely barking at something, but still… the noise was too loud for a single dog.

I creaked open my window and peered outside into the darkness of our backyard (my room was facing the other side, the back of the house).

It was pitch black. I saw nothing… But I made a startling discovery – almost all the dogs in the neighborhood, front and back, were barking… ferociously. Almost madly.

There must have been something. But I couldn’t see it…. Suddenly, a sharp, unidentifiable, but terrifyingly loud scream pierced into my ears.

Immediately, the dogs’ barking intensified. But still in the deafening barkings I could distinguish the direction of the scream clearly. It came from the front of our house.

It was undoubtedly NOT made by non-living objects like car tires screeching or something. It could also NOT have been made by a cat or human being attacked. It was very high-pitched, terrifyingly hoarse, and almost… demonic, gasping scream.

It was like someone being tortured – or something – in tremendous agony and suffering…

And then, it seemed for a moment that the dogs’ barking was going to drown out the scream… when it all stopped. All the barking and screams fell into dead silence – as suddenly as it all began.

I was very sleepy. I went to bed. It was way past 5AM.

The next day, I found out that two of my housemates had also been awakened by the noise, but each of us thought it was only us alone who heard it.

When we found out that all our descriptions matched precisely – the barking, the strange hoarse scream, the abruptness of how it all stopped at the same instant…  along with the time that it had happened, and with them describing the sound as having come directly from our front gate… it was bone-chilling!

We discussed and concluded that it could not have been an animal, or human, being attacked. It did not sound like an attack at all. Another housemate had gone out and looked around the area – there was no sign of any struggle or attack.

Then what could have made the strange scream?

-

-

… or it could have been just a cat…

*Just a short update. (Huhu… how come my holidays are busier than my school days? )*

Shortly after my friend’s car was stolen, my own car – was crashed.

I was sleeping in the front passenger seat when the car hit a truck on the north-south highway.

I’m OK, or I won’t be writing this entry, right?

… but the car is finished…

**********

We (finally) started moving to our new house today!

We rented a lorry to transport the big bulky stuff like cupboards and tables – things that cannot be moved by car. It was incredible how much stuff we can cramp into a single journey!

… and that wasn’t all of them yet!

We had originally thought that we were going to live in this house until we graduated, so we all had quite a huge amount of things…

Alvin (and me too) had to come back specially for this because we had to empty this house by the end of this week!

At six o’clock, we successfully moved all the bulky stuff downstairs, including – after an extraordinary combined effort by me and my helpful housemates – my incredibly heavy 3-door cupboard and L-shape table!

Soon after, the lorry came and we moved everything up, leaving behind those that we are going to move by car.

Check out my room’s current condition – with the things to be transported by car scattered everywhere!

Yup, the Christmas tree is STILL standing! Haha… But this time for a few more days only, that’s for sure! Hehe…

We’re going to move the remaining things to the new house in the next couple of days.

I’ll try to update more…

Then, the house – despite its terrible piping and electric problems (one of the rooms have not had any electricity at its sockets) – was raised by RM300 in monthly rental.

And NOW, our horrible agent, the one who uttered the infamous sentence:

“… so, I guess you all are just… err… unlucky lor…“

is refusing to refund a RM300 deposit to a friend who had paid it for the agent to find a new house, and she had promised that the deposit would be refundable if she couldn’t find a house for him…

… which she did, actually – yeah, she found a ridiculous RM1,900/month house, which was

small in size,

awful location,

terrible environment, and

ludicrous architecture!

… one of the ‘rooms‘ actually had to – and could only – be entered by getting out to the rear lawn and entering from its door placed there (there’s no door into that room from inside the house)!

I didn’t see the room myself, but from what my friends described to me, I Imagined it to be like some garden shed!

A BEDROOM that could only be entered from the back garden! A house like that, you stay lor…!

We’ve decided that we had had enough – we’re not gonna stay in Cyberjaya anymore.

OK, to be fair - Cyberjaya is a great, hi-tech, peaceful place, and its housing areas are very nice…

… all except those around the university! Despicable landlords and agents monopolizing the student’s market and capitalizing on the helpless students’ desperation of finding a place to stay near campus…

… teamed with terrible food choice and quality, shameless groceries price mark-ups, disgusting service attitudes… That’s my opinion on Cyberia – the place where many other MMU students and I are now staying at.

RAWR!

**********

I’m gonna stop criticizing…

A few friends and I went to Seri Kembangan yesterday to look for a house. It’s already May and it’s quite late to look for a house, but we had no choice, we needed to!

We went around this area called Bandar Putra Permai and simply called up whichever telephone number being displayed on the ‘for sale/to let‘ signs on houses…

Of course, there were some that we didn’t want to call – like this house that has a fully-grown TREE near the front door:

… or this one – with a perfectly preserved wildlife habitat in your garden…

The rental fees for houses around here are typically RM500-RM700 for single storey houses, and RM600-RM900 for double storey ones.

Very cheap leh! Compared to the RM1,300-RM1,800 range for townhouses in Cyberia!

And the sizes are almost the same! Here we have better food, more places to buy stuff, and much friendlier agents!

We even found that with RM1,500 – the rental price for our current Cyberia house starting next month, we can rent a semi-D with a super, incredibly HUGE lawn, in Seri Kembangan!

Can even play football in the garden!

Yesterday, although we didn’t really intend to get this house, we arranged with the owner to take a look in the house the next day, but the owner called us today, last-minute, and told us that she had decided to sell the house – not renting.

Finally, we settled with this house:

The outside looks kinda messy because it is a new house and it hasn’t been occupied for years – so I think after the landlord clears up the mess outside a bit – it should be very nice!

20-minute drive to MMU, I think this place is quite ideal!

**********

I’m going back to Ipoh tomorrow, coming back on Tuesday or Thursday…

I was (sort of) deaf since I came back from Redang, and I think some of my closer friends would know that…

Apparently, some Redang seawater, or sand – or fish – had gone into my right ear, causing it to be somehow ‘blocked’!

A GP (ordinary doctor) had suspected that there could have been an infection in the ear, and recommended me to an Ear, Nose, Throat (ENT) Specialist in Damansara Specialist Hospital.

I didn’t have the time to go and see the doctor because it has been a busy couple of weeks, plus the fact that the hospital is so far away!

So, all this while, I could only hear with ONE ear – my left ear!

When friends talk to me, I had to tilt my head to the right side and concentrate listening with my left ear! Huhu…

… and when I talk to friends, they told me, I would uncontrollably talk softly, much softer than usual… I think that was due to fact that I couldn’t even hear my own voice completely; so even when I tried my best, I couldn’t effectively control my volume.

I knew this problem had to be solved, the Nemo that had swum into my right ear had to be removed immediately – so, two weeks ago, I went to see the ENT Surgeon for the first time; and yesterday for the second time.

Both times, the doctor peered deeply into my ear with some strange metal device and used a really small but loud (considering it was operating just beside my eardrum!) ‘vacuum cleaner’ to ‘clean’ the insides!

It was quite painful also!

Anyway, since yesterday, I have totally recovered. Now I can hear with both ears… and talk normally! YAY!

**********

I didn’t have a phone for the past two weeks. Ever since my phone was spoiled, I had been using Jon’s ‘backup’ phone!

I could have easily continued using Jon’s phone until, at least, I’ve passed my current ‘financial crisis’…

But unfortunately, Jon’s phone is not at all suitable for ordinary use – calling, SMSing etc. If it is ever suitable for something, I think it would be doing magic tricks!

Why magic tricks? Because, you don’t need to press the ON/OFF button on the top of the phone to switch it off!

All that is needed is a tiny little knock or impact to the back of the phone, and the power’s gone!

Jon had even removed the battery cover because the cover itself was enough to cause the small ‘impact’!

Basically, whenever there’s a small knock to the back, or when the phone is held too tightly, it switches off!

Here’s a demonstration:

If David Blaine sees this and wants to buy it from Jon, contact me! I want a commission! Kakaka…

Anyway, this phone would turn itself off simply by the pressure of my jeans! So, basically it was useless… I was still missing all my calls and messages carrying this phone in my pocket…

Yesterday, I went to Low Yat to get my new phone. I could not wait any longer…

I had always wanted to buy this phone, even when I had my original phone; I had wanted it as my ’second’ phone.

It is not exactly a new phone, and the functions are so-so only… but it is a 3G phone nevertheless. Anyway, I really like the design!

My humble new phone – Sony Ericsson Z610i!

And, its MP3 player is really quite OK, so I think it can also replace my lost iPod for the time being!

It’s basically the 2nd generation of my previous Sony T-20! The front design is almost the same, except that the front sliding-cover is much thinner.

When I first lost my camera, I said that I would never buy a Sony again, maybe a Canon. Because I didn’t want myself to be reminded of that tragedy whenever I saw my new camera.

Ironically, now, I end up with a Sony again – with a model that looks almost identical to the previous one, only that this one is white!

Haha, I am not able to forget the old camera after all!

In addition to the design, this camera has a touch screen, meaning there are no buttons on the back side; and the famous Sony smile-shutter feature, which automatically snaps a shot when the people inside the screen are smiling!

Plus, I really like the 16:9 wide-screen!

James, don’t lose this camera again!

**********

It is Glen’s birthday TODAY!

Not just any birthday! It’s his 21st birthday!

(I dunno how I managed to make the cake look so weird in this photo. In reality, it was really pretty!)

We planned to go out that night, but before that, our small group went to Steven’s house (where Glen occasionally stays during weekdays *his own house is in Puchong*) for the birthday song and cake-cutting with Glen and his housemates!

Although we wanted to, we didn’t dare to splat his face into the cake when he blew the candle… because Steven’s housemate bought the cake and it looked really delicious.

However, Jon ended up pressing his own piece of the cake onto Glen’s face, almost literally ‘drawing’ with the cream on both sides of his face!

*I don’t understand why David (first person from the left) ’s face is always blurred in the photos taken by my camera, see this picture and the previous one!*

Glen’s face is full of creamy, chocolatey cake but he can still smile nicely…

Actually, the Jon’s throw-cake-on-face was quite artistically done, compared to this:

OK the photo might look kinda stupi-*ahem*… but don’t underestimate him! Let me reveal a secret -  Steven is the almighty beer king around, and you have no idea what he is capable of doing when he gets drunk!

Last year, I had the opportunity of witnessing him totally wasted by beer, and I don’t think he’d happily allow me to share what I heard and saw.

Anyway, we searched his room yesterday and found ‘evidence’ that he really does beat everyone when it comes to drinking.

All these – by himself!

Yet, no – he is not an alcoholic. To him, he drinks only when he wants to, and I can see that there’s definitely no addiction.

**********

Later at around 10.30PM, Jon and Agnes went home because they said they had just had two exams in a row that day, and were tired.

So the five of us went for a drink at Rainforest, Sunway Pyramid. We had originally planned to stay there until at least midnight and countdown to Glen’s 21st birth-Day).

But Steven, who had earlier said we should find a place that was to be not too noisy so that we could at least talk, started saying that the place was too boring.

It was quite true – there were very few people and we were the only few people talking against the music, taking pictures, and… nothing else!

Indeed, it was a Monday night and naturally, pubs everywhere were slightly quiet.

Finally, we paid the bill before 12am and went over to Bar Celona, where there were much more people, and more ‘movements’.

This was the first time Glen and the rest went clubbing with me. It had been both difficult and funny to imagine the always polite and timid guy, Steven, dancing and grinding with girls on the dance floor, so I had really planned to, if I could manage, take a video when he does and show it to Jon and the rest!

But my uncooperative new camera chose to run out of battery right after we took the first few photos!

Remember the blazer that contained my ex-camera when I lost the Sony T-20 in the cinema a couple of weeks ago? That blazer was lost TOO, yesterday! Argh! I think the blazer couldn’t bear parting with my ex-camera so he left me too…

Not my fault leh! David and I were the first to go out and hit the floor. I had thought that at least one person would stay back and jaga the drinks but no one did. It was not until the lights were turned on at 3am before I was sure that it was taken by someone…

I liked the blazer very much ler, bought it from Sub a few months ago… In fact, I liked it so much that I didn’t allow myself to wear it too frequently…

OK, OK… I know I totally suck in safekeeping my items. Huhu… I think I’ve learned my lesson. I will be very, very much more careful with my belongings from now on…

Anyway, went on a Monday, naturally, there was no weekend or ladies night crowd – but It was nevertheless quite enjoyable.

**********

Glen is officially 21 today! I think being 21 years old is really one of the greatest milestones in a person’s life. You are officially AN ADULT, not even a teenager anymore.

No more restrictions to anything, anymore – can do whatever you like. But at the same time, you lose all protection, and dependence on almost everything that you had when you were young – It’s all up to you now, whether you live happily or miserably from then on, no one’s able to help you anymore.

In a way, it’s quite scary to think of it… Hmm…

*********

But still, being 21 is great! Many more months before I’m 21! Haha!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GLEN!

Jon was driving. We went to PJ to have dinner, then to Kepong and when we got back to Cyberjaya, we met this ‘great’ driver – best driver we’ve seen in our lives!

The road was on a curve, and it was one of those typical two-way roads, with one lane on each direction, and a double-white-line in the middle. Let me say that again – double white line in the middle!

The driver was driving smoothly on our lane – across the white line; and there was no car on his lane, so he wasn’t overtaking anybody!

Common sense, and sufficient marks in the undang driving test, told Jon to always turn the steering wheel and evade to the left in an emergency situation. But this driver, being exceptionally brilliant, turned right - his right, which was our left.

We collided head-on.

Fortunately, both cars were on emergency brakes, so the impact was minimal. Jon got off the car, went over, and screamed at the driver. It was understandable, this was more than just crashing a car – it was Agnes’ car, and the responsibility to protect it was his.

The rest of us exited the car too, and checked the damage. Jon’s car was in better shape – only the lights, bumper, number plate and hood was damaged. We checked the internal stuff such as the engine and everything, and nothing was visibly damaged.

The other car was less fortunate. Apart from similar damages as ours – but in a worse state; it’s also got its windshield slightly cracked, and smoke was rising from inside the hood, it smelled bad.

The driver was a foreign student – a Black guy. Probably a student from MMU or Lim Kok Wing. He was apologizing profusely, explaining that, in his country, the steering wheel was on the left, and he wasn’t familiar with our roads yet.

Great reason – I bet he didn’t even have a driving license!

Minutes later, came a guy with another car – another foreigner, probably an Arab. Apparently, the Black guy’s car was a rental car, and this other guy was the person who ran the rental business.

The scene was ludicrous – we had thought that this guy would, like, totally defend the Black guy – after all , he was his client, and that was his car; but we were wrong.

He yelled at the Black guy in tones much scarier than Jon, the rest of us, and Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu combined, and ordered him to get into the car while he settled the matter with us.

The Black guy had said that it was his fault, and had wanted to deal with us himself; but the other guy was all like: “You just get in the car! Go now! I’ll settle this and you follow me afterwards!”

At one point, the Black guy got impatient with the other guy’s rude attitude, I thought we were going to witness a fighting scene – but the Black guy sort of gave in.

The other guy was also polite to us. He said he would take full responsibility for the damages and that he would compensate. He said that there would be no need to make a police report. All he wanted was we settle this fast, before the police arrived.

The intention was obvious, if you ask me – his car rental business was illegal!

He said that he had a workshop, and he could send it there for us and he’ll repair everything at no cost to us. We said no, obviously. Jon said that he would send the car for repair ourselves, and the guy said: “OK OK, no problem, you just send it for repair and give me the receipt.”

We didn’t trust him, so Jon demanded that they pay at least RM300 first, and we would settle any remaining costs later. The black guy said that he only had RM200, and the other guy was constantly rushing us to settle this so that they could leave before the police came.

I had a bad feeling about this; I’ve never trusted people in situations like this – but I guess we had no choice.

Jon took the RM200, got the contact numbers of both the guys, and we left. He said that he will get the money from them in the next two days.

We’ll have to see.

My pet had almost everything a crab would dream for, or perhaps what I think they would :

Adequate, nutritious and yummy food, a rather nice tank with fresh water (changed daily!), suitable temperature, free from predators and competition to survive, and me playing with ‘em everyday!

To thank me for salvaging it from the terribly boring and crowded display tank at the pet shop, my crab constantly gave me attention by knocking on the glass with its sharp pincers and moving the marble pebbles around the tank all night, disturbing my sleep, study and everything else.

Sadly, despite our ‘loving’ relationship, I could tell that it was not happy.

Over the days two weeks ago, I had noticed that my crab was decreasing in activity and natural response. It no longer ran around when I let it out; it no longer made the annoying but cute bubble popping sound with its mouth; and somehow, I noticed that the bright colors on its body, blue and orange, had started fading…

Besides, I could see the desperation in its eyes – my crab wanted something more, something more than just good food and security – it wanted freedom.

During my week in Ipoh, I pondered over this.

This pet of mine has given me lots of funny and laughing times, I can still recall how it climbed out of the container that held it when I was changing the tank’s water for the first time, and all hell broke lose – no one dared to recapture it.

Indeed, I can still remember how my friends jokingly asked me to fry and eat my crab when it was making such a racket with the marble pebbles in the tank, and we talked over the ways to cook it – steam it, roast it or fry it…

And, I won’t forget how we were so worried that it would cut its own eyes out with its scary pincers when it started clamping on them when I first got it back from Midvalley.

But as I considered, funny or stupid as those memories were, I realized that they were nothing more than my pleasures, my pet itself was never happy – well, who would? My crab was after all a prisoner, a captive, an object of my entertainment.

After a long period of consideration, I made up my mind. However unwillingly, I decided to do what’s best for it. I decided to release my crab back to nature, where it first came from.

This decision meant that the ‘crab cuisine’, the tank, the anti-chlorine and the strenuous effort used to transport my crab back to my house in Cyberjaya then to Ipoh – would be for nothing.

I was very heavy-hearted and unwilling to part with my crab. (Don’t laugh!) I had not kept it for a long period, but I happened to like it quite much. Although I always complained that it gave me a great deal of extra daily work and was a distraction, I never came to hate it.

However, who am I to restrain it from finding its own future, to deprive it of the freedom it deserved – just because I enjoyed it being around? I finally decided that if I could not make it happy, I would return its liberty to find happiness by itself.

On the day I traveled back to Cyberjaya from Ipoh, I released it on a river bank in Ipoh – a place that I’ve spotted for quite some time since I started considering its release. The long, soft stretch of mud along the river bank, flowing fresh water, and the abundance of hiding places provides the best imitation to its natural habitat available around.

My friend sent me there. I hesitated before stepping out of the car by the river, but I knew it had to be done.

My crab stood motionless when I released it from the tank onto the soft river bank soil. I took a couple of pictures, said goodbye, and left – I didn’t want to keep my friend waiting. It still hadn’t moved an inch when I looked back at it for the last time from across the river.

I’m now in Cyberjaya. I don’t know how my crab is doing now, or even if it is, you know – still alive. I’ll miss it and do hope that it will live a good life.

-

**********

-

On a happier note, Jon’s five baby rabbits are growing like dinosaurs!

I dunno if Jon’s giving them Steroids or growth hormones or something… But when I came back from my one-week vacation, I was totally shocked.

This is how they looked like before I went back to Ipoh:

Their eyes were still closed and their legs couldn’t even support their body weights properly yet.

And when I came back a week later, like, ONLY ONE WEEK ladies and gentlemen… They transformed into these giants:

Really huge difference you know! … But still so damn cute – big or small!

Apparently, I was wrong about the Jon’s-rabbit-naming-convention thingy… I expected Jon to name the baby rabbits the way he did to their parents, which is always a repeat of a single Chinese word, such as mummy rabbit’s name – Kei Kei.

But guess what? He named the rabbit I am holding above – ‘Maya‘. I have no idea where he got the idea for that name, but I think it’s quite a nice name though.

They can now eat solid food and drink water from the water dispenser by themselves. Although Kei Kei doesn’t always give her kids priority when it comes to food and water, and usually keeps food to herself when food is in shortage; but the baby rabbits are still growing up quite healthily.

They don’t sleep day and night like they used to anymore too! They are now very active and always running around while Kei Kei assumes a motherly pose lying at the side watching her kids play around the cage.

However, if we take the baby rabbits out of the cage, Kei Kei doesn’t give so much as a second glance. Hmm… Not too protective of her kids, eh? We could easily barbeque her kids one by one for dinner without her even noticing! Hehe!

But anyway, I think Jon will roast us alive before we can ever succeed in lighting up the BBQ stove. So don’t worry, even if mummy rabbit Kei Kei is not protective enough, ‘daddy’ Jon sure as hell is. Like, ‘daddy’ Jon doesn’t even allow us to play loud music in the living room, saying that it could damage the baby rabbits’ ears… Sigh…

There you are, the five siblings! So insanely cute! Don’t you think?

Sadly, Maya is the only baby rabbit that Jon plans to keep. Its siblings will have to say goodbye and be adopted when they grow up. Yes, it’s a pity, but I don’t think Jon’s cage can accommodate seven grown-up rabbits either.

Can you spot which one is Maya?

OK, for the sake of this blog post I will SLAM onto the ‘i’ button today whenever I need it! Wahahaha…

**********

Sometimes I think I’m terrible at keeping blogs.

Originally I planned to write an entry every 4-5 days, and with that frequency I ought to cover a great number of happenings in my life, at least most of the public ones.

But, recently I notice I’m only writing once every 1-2 weeks, which in the end resulted in a mediocre score of 3-4 posts a month…

Sometimes, I stop blogging because I’m stuck in my hometown and my laptop can’t hook into my house’s internet connection; else, I’m having exams and stuff; otherwise, I don’t have photos for a particular event, and I try not to write about stuff online without images accompanying.

… and other times, I’m just plain lazy.

Haha, alright… I’ve gotta start making things right. Not gonna stop writing for too long anymore, OK!

**********

I stopped by Jon’s house in Batu Gajah, Perak, on my way back to Ipoh two weeks ago. Sebastian, and Agnes – Jon’s girlfriend, were there too. I’ve always wanted to visit his house because he promised to give me some of the… what do you call them… ‘fragrant coconuts‘!

The area was something like a traditional village area, with trees and nature everywhere – not something we can see everyday in the deserts of Cyberjaya.

The lawn in front of his house was huge, with towering trees stretching up in every direction. Coconut trees are prominent among the gigantic pillars of wood.

At first, we tried to use a long pole to poke at the coconuts and try getting them down. The pole was long and very elastic, making it very difficult to focus our energy on getting the coconuts off their stems!

Everyone tried hard under the blazing afternoon sun, and all failed… All except me! WAHAHAHA!!

Fine, maybe I was just lucky!

The coconut that I got down was very special! It was not the ‘fragrant coconut’ type though, mind you, just the normal type; but the special part is… it has gas!

Seriously! The coconut ‘water’ was carbonated! Like the Coke or 100-plus that you drink! We even saw gas bubbles forming around the glass when we poured out the water!

We had no idea where the ‘gas’ came from, but it tasted good, something like sparkling coconut juice. Haha!

Later, Jon brought out the professional coconut-harvesting gear – an even longer pole with a sharp blade at the tip!

With that menacing device, we plucked coconuts with great ease! Each of us took a couple of the ‘fragrant‘ ones home as souvenirs!

In strong contrast with the timid little cute rabbits he keeps in Cyberjaya, Jon has six monstrous dogs in Batu Gajah!

In ‘monstrous’ I mean huge in size, not scary or ugly. In fact, they were very friendly – a bit too friendly, actually.

Imagine an enormous dog that you’ve seen for the first time, charging towards you and start licking you like you’re a great lolly pop; and suddenly leaps and leans on you, sinking its huge paws into your shirt, eager for you to stroke its head! I literally staggered backwards at its weight, they were really heavy!

But at least they were friendly.

I couldn’t take any pictures while they were out, partly because I didn’t want to operate my camera with hands full of dog saliva; and partly didn’t want to risk getting my camera gobbled down by these gorgeous canines.

For the record: Jon has a Siberian Husky, two Rottweilers, a Labrador Retriever, a Mini Pinscher and a Pomeranian – If I ever became a burglar, I would probably break into Buckingham Palace before I try his house.

**********

While in Ipoh, I attended a church member’s wedding.

I know the bridegroom quite well and I’ve attended many Church weddings since I was young; but each time it never fails to make me feel how distinctly special and meaningful it is to have a church wedding, compared to a conventional wedding, in my opinion!

Maybe it’s the ceremony that makes it extra meaningful.

The processional, the wedding vows, the ring ceremony, the candle and signing ceremony, Pastor’s pronouncement and benediction, and even the last sentence: “Ladies and Gentlemen, I now present to you Mr. and Mrs. So-And-So”, is so heartwarming!

If I’m not mistaken, there’s a Church rule mandating both the Bride and Groom be Christians in order to permit a Church wedding.

Like, what if I converted to Islam before I got married?

**********

-

Yesterday was my birthday. It was simple, yet it was unforgettable.

I’ve always respected professionals, or at least people who act professionally. To me, doctors are some of the more ‘professional’ professionals, because the doctors that I’ve seen have never given me much bad impressions. It seemed to me that all doctors are well trained and almost always know what is best to do and say when it comes to their job.

A few days ago, very unfortunately, my nice impression of doctors was permanently destroyed.

I am suffering from transient insomnia. As of today, I have not slept for nine nights. Nope, this is no joke – I have not slept for nine straight nights!

All the sleep that I’ve been getting for the past nine days are small 1-2 hour naps that I accidentally doze off while doing something else, and the only ‘long sleep’ that I had was on the fifth day, in which my brain, perhaps couldn’t take it anymore, shut down for a considerable number of hours.

Apart from those, I have not slept at all. I did try, but failed in every single attempt.

For those who know me well, they’d know that this is no fresh news. In fact, this condition can be traced back to my Foundation year, which is more than two years ago. I’ve written about it before, only that the condition has been consistently worsening.

I’ve consulted several doctors on this problem and each of them gave me fair bits of advice. A Psychiatrist diagnosed my condition as anxiety, coupled with a mild case of depression. (is there? I dunno…), but is so far trying to deal with the problem without relying too much on medication.

Since the effects of every treatment being done now is nothing dramatic, I have the habit of seeking out different doctors and talking to them about it, and see if they have any alternative opinions.

That day, I met Doctor D, who happens to be, like, the most pathetic doctor I’ve ever seen, please forgive my saying so.

Let me try to recall the dialogue: (This is not 100% accurate or complete, but it covers the ‘essential’ parts!)

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Me: “Hello, Doctor.”

Doctor D: “Hello, James, what seems to be the problem?”

Me : “Doctor, I think I have a sleeping problem, I couldn’t sleep for the past five days.”

Doctor D: “Oh, ya? (frowns in a sceptical way) Why you think you can’t sleep?”

Me : “I dunno, whenever I have to wake up the next morning, I’d keep thinking about it and won’t be able to fall asleep.”

Doctor D: (Stares silently at me)

Me : “Like, I’m having my final exams these few days, and they are mostly in the morning… So I think that’s part of the cause…”

Doctor D: “Do you think you didn’t sleep will affect you seriously in your exams?”

Me: “I don’t know, but for the exam I took yesterday, I felt really groggy and my brain was almost blank… Couldn’t have done too well, I think… So I guess, yeah, it does affect my exams…”

Doctor D: “So, tomorrow you have another paper? (I nodded) You plan to go for the exam?”

Me: (Thinking what kind of stupid question is this) “Err… This is the final exams, of course I’ll have to go, won’t I?”

Doctor D: “Uh-hm…” (Still smiling)

Me : “So, err, what do you think I should do?”

Doctor D: *Shrugs* “Nothing much (I nearly LOLed hearing this), I can give you some medicine to sleep…”

Me : “Yes, Doctor, that’s what the other doctor offered me. But I would really like to know if there’s anything else that I can do about this problem, other than taking sleeping pills…”

Doctor D: “Em… Try not to be so stressed la, try not to worry so much… (Duh, ‘best’ advice ever…) You having exam? No need to worry so much la, try not to take it so seriously la…” [Annoying point #1: Giving extremely unprofessional (and useless) advice]

Me : *swt* “But that’s my final exams, how can I, err, be not serious about it?”

Doctor D: “Just try don’t think about it all the time… don’t walk also think, go to bed also thinking what haven’t finish studying…”

Me : (Gives up) “So… other than trying not to worry too much, there’s really nothing much I can do about it by myself?“

Doctor D: “Ya ler… *shrugs again* we… general doctor… can’t give you much advice (WTF?!) If you want further, you have to see specialist, see Psychiatrist…”

Me : “Oh… Psychiatrist…” (pauses while I consider whether I should tell the doc I am already seeing one)

Doctor D: (Still looks at me with that stupid smile, as though she had caught me telling a lie or something)

Me : (Decides not to tell because she’d probably ask me to go see the specialist instead) “OK. So, err… this Psychiatrist, where can I find one around this area? Because, actually, I don’t really want to...”

Doctor D: “… See! I know, many people are like that…! (smiles in what she thinks is a very understanding way) Many people think if go see psychiatrist, you are crazy! They think must have serious mental problem only see psychiatrist! Actually no! Small problem you can also see specialist!” [Annoying point #2: Jumping to conclusions (Hey, I never thought that way, OK!)] (I was about to say “Because, actually, I don’t really want to see a Psychologist alone in KL, would prefer to see one back in my hometown where I can go with my parents…”)

Me: *stunned* “Er… OK… So, where can I find a Psychiatrist around here?”

Doctor D: “Putrajaya Hospital got… Other hospitals also I think got…”

Me: “What about Serdang Hospital?” (Nothing to ask, asked for fun)

Doctor D: “Serdang… I not sure la… But Putrajaya got la.”

Me: “Erm, apart from government hospitals, are there private ones around here?” (Another question asked just for the sake of asking)

Doctor D: “Private ah… I’m not sure la, but I know hospital got la.”

Me: “Do I need some kind of recommendation letter from another doctor to see a specialist in a government hospital?” (This question suddenly popped up in my mind)

Doctor D: “Yes, you need”

Me: “You can write one for me if I need it?”

Doctor D: “Yes, if you really need, I can.”

Me: “OK, so… If I need it I’ll come get it from you. Sometimes I just wonder what I can do about this problem, because it seems to be getting more and more serious and it’s starting to affect some other parts of my life…”

Doctor D: (suddenly and quite sarcastically) “Erm, James, do you know any friends who like to come see doctor before exams, and try to make their case sound very serious, and try to get fake MC to not take the exams?” [Damn Annoying point #3: Jumping to conclusions AGAIN! (Now this idiot thinks I'm here to get an MC to skip my exams! Grrr!]

Me: (Totally taken aback) “Huh? Err… yeah, I’ve heard that some people do that…”

Doctor D: “They’re usually… International students?”

Me: “I have no idea…”

Doctor D: “……” (Still looks at me with that stupid facial expression)

Me: (Getting very fed up, just wanted to get out of the place) “So, err, I think that’s all… doctor. Erm, are you going to give me any medicine?”

Doctor D: “I can give you some pills just for these few days, how many do you think you need”

Me: “Err… I think two or three pills would be enough” (I knew it is a controlled drug, and doctors usually won’t prescribe more than a few tablets.)

Doctor D: “OK, you know the dosage, right? Just take one tablet after dinner, and then you can go to sleep at around 10PM, then you can wake up at around 5AM…” (This loser really doesn’t know how us students’ time goes, sleeping at 10PM and waking up at 5AM is ridiculous Whatever!)(By the way, I think the instruction is not too accurate either, all other doctors have told me that that particular drug should be taken shortly before I go to bed, not after dinner, as it acts rather quickly and effectively puts you to sleep in 30-45 minutes.)

Me: “OK, I understand”

Doctor D: “And, make sure you follow the dosage ah, don’t take all at once ya!”

Me: “Huh? What?” *bewildered*

Doctor D: “Don’t take all at once, for fun or anything, like don’t take all 3 tablets at once ya!” [Annoying Point #4: This smartass was actually worrying that I would abuse the drug! Or maybe spike some girl's drink and rape her! What an insult to my personality!]

(I know this might be the doctor’s responsibility to warn me or something, but still, that’s what I thought and felt when I heard those words! Ish!)

Me: “Right… thank you, doctor.”

And I left.

**********

There you have it. It may not be word-to-word accurate, but I assure you that I did not intentionally add in or exaggerate any of the main points in the dialogue. (And yes, the doctor’s English was bad!)

I could tell that the doctor did not believe in my insomnia story entirely. I think this doctor probably thinks I am either faking my situation or exaggerating it – I could sense the doubt in the tone and body language. If you were there, you would understand!

Please, Doctor, if you can’t trust your patient, who the heck are you going to trust?

Despite a relatively uneventful New Year’s Day countdown last week (because it was – of all days – on the first day of our final exam week!), a new year has come, and I am looking forward to a great 366 days ahead!

Some very interesting events happened during the last two weeks or so, let me recount a few of them!

Remember the murderous rabbit incident? In which Jon’s rabbit Kei Kei killed her own baby? Guess what, she gave birth to another pack of five little babies roughly two weeks ago!

But this time, there is no killing!

They are so insanely cute! They can’t walk properly yet, even their eyes are still closed!

This time, it appears that all five babies are going to survive because Jon said that the ‘dangerous period’ has passed, it is the period in which the mother might freak out and slaughter some of the babies.

I don’t think Jon’s rabbit compound will be able to accommodate Mummy and Daddy rabbit plus their five children once they grew up. Jon said he’s probably gonna have to give them away…

We couldn’t think of five names for the babies yet, but I’ve got the feeling that Jon’s going to follow his rabbit-naming convention of giving names that repeat a particular Chinese word, like the mummy rabbit – ‘Kei Kei‘, and the daddy rabbit – ‘Pom Pom‘ (I dunno how to translate this to English, but it sounds something like that).

On the other day, when Jon was buying food and grass (hay) for his rabbits at Pets Wonderland in Midvalley, I got myself a crab.

Yes, a crab.

Haha, I’ve always wanted to have something alive other than myself in my room (other than stupid mosquitoes and microorganisms and other stupid creatures), so I got myself a pet crab! A bit more specifically, it’s called a Rainbow Land Crab.

It is very small, not like the ones you happily eat at seafood restaurants. It is actually small enough to fit completely in a palm! (Not that I’ve tried before, still quite scared of its sharp double weapons…)

Now, don’t think it looks stupid or scary in any way, you have no idea how cute it is when you see it moving!

It is so cute when it is trying to find food from under the pebbles using its pincers; it is even cuter when it rubs and massages its eyes with its pincers (yes, it does! We’re very worried that it will accidentally cut it off! ); it is cutest when it simply stares at you, occasionally blinking its eyes (the eyes actually ‘drop’ into the shell like a car wiper when it blinks), and gurgling bubbles in its mouth! (It does it all the time – imagine the Pokemon Krabby in the cartoon! )

Hah!

What’s more, my crab always disturbs my study and sleep by consistently knocking on the glass with its pincers and making the distracting gurgling sound with its mouth…

When I decided to buy the crab, I was wondering what I am supposed to feed to a pet crab. Insects? Small fish? I really had no idea…

After asking a shop attendant, I was instructed to buy this:

CRAB CUISINE!!!

Dictionary definition of ‘Cuisine’:

cui‧sine / kwɪˈziːn / [uncountable]
A particular style of cooking
- French cuisine, vegetarian cuisine

So, this product is either – special food cooked in crab’s style, maybe prepared by a huge red crab wearing a chef’s hat; or – ‘crab’ is the main ingredient of the ‘cuisine’, like an 8-course meal served with different varieties of crabs and shellfish.

I can imagine my poor crab looking up at the words ‘Crab Cuisine’ with its huge popping eyes and visualizing itself on a steaming pot being cooked.

**********

Alright, back to some of my new year’s thoughts…

I am turning 20 in a couple of weeks’ time, and I think that leaving the ‘1x’ age range is really an unsettling reminder that I really need to start getting in strict control of my life, focus my mind, and head towards accomplishing something realistic.

All the while it’s just been just talks, imaginations and bold statements of how happy and successful I want to be when I grow up. But confidence aside, I sometimes wonder – is there real action being taken? Are there specific and realistic goals that I’m, more than just talking, but seriously working towards?

Sadly, there seems not to be.

Is there any concrete foundation on which my personal principle – to live a happy, successful and purposeful life and bring happiness to the people whom I currently, and would later, hold most dear – is to be built on?

No, I think not.

Some might not see it as so, but currently, my life is essentially a mess. A mess that is not really physical, but more ethereal, or perhaps – psychological. No, it does not involve drugs or any criminal stuff, just a jumble of problems that other people might actually consider trivial.

Trivial stuff, but in no small amount. Summed together, it is only too apparent that they would become painful obstacles to my future. Nonetheless, To make this change, to turn back to the path where I should be heading – is indeed something that is not too comfortable to imagine, and rather frankly, I’m quite scared to walk alone.

Dear 2008 – May you be the year in which great things happen; from which I depart into the next year, not carrying the thoughts I expressed in this article.

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Wishing a very, very belated happy new year to James-Chow.com, and to everyone!

I know myself – I need to sleep at least 8 hours, or at least-est 7 hours a day to be my normal self.

Whenever I get insufficient sleep, I tend to be grumpy, emotional and do/say stupid things; I would also not care about my image and outward appearance – I’d be extremely cincai with the choice of clothes I wear, usually wouldn’t even bother doing anything with my hair, and walk around looking like a drunk man.

I’d also lose the mood to do anything productive. I wouldn’t be in the mood to study, pay attention in class, meet people, play games, have conversations, attend meetings, make friends… nothing. All that I was in the mood for was to go home, crawl under the warm blanket, and sleep!

On top of that, my complexion would look really bad, my eyes would be completely swollen and bloodshot, and occasionally, my mouth would be hanging open unconsciously, looking totally stupid.

Yes, I acknowledge it and I really hate it. I know that there are people who can sleep like 3-4 hours per day and be perfectly fine with it. I admire the people who can, but I really just can’t! Can’t even do with 6 hours!

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Today’s Thursday. I haven’t had a good sleep since last Saturday! I heard that if you had insufficient hours of sleep, you’d have a ‘sleep debt’ to be compensated the next night. Let’s look at my case!

SATURDAY NIGHT - Slept at 7am and woke up at 10am – 3 hours of sleep.

Reason:

The nice black guys living right next to our unit were having an all-night-party! It was pandemonium! They were like blasting music all night – repeating the same playlist over and over again! Imagine that!

The music is still a small matter, but they were chatting and laughing and yelling on top of their voices at their unit’s rear garden, right outside my window!

I recorded the noise from my window, and it was recorded with zero noise from my room or anywhere else, all the noise that you can hear is exactly what I hear from inside my room. Check it out:

We slept at 7am – I woke up at 10am because I had to go out and meet someone at eleven.

No. of Hours away from a ‘good’ night’s sleep: 8 hours – 3 hours = 5 hours

Cumulative sleep debt: 5 hours

SUNDAY NIGHT – Slept at 5am and woke up at 7am – 2 hours of sleep.

Reason:

Couldn’t sleep – This happens all the time: Whenever I have an early class the next morning, I can’t sleep early. Doctors call it anxiety-induced insomnia, I blame it on the stupid early morning classes.

I had a lab session that morning followed by classes that continue through the day, ending at 7pm. 8AM-7PM of classes! 11 hours! Imagine the torture I went through! (Of course there were small breaks and gaps between some classes, but still…)

No. of Hours away from a ‘good’ night’s sleep: 8 hours – 2 hours = 6 hours.

Cumulative sleep debt: 5 hours + 6 hours = 11 hours

MONDAY NIGHT - Slept at 6am and woke up at 11am – 5 hours of sleep.

Reason:

Phone call – talked on the phone until 5.30am. Yes, it happens occasionally.

Anyway, I had to wake up at 11am because of our business’ participation in a carnival happening this week in campus.

No. of Hours away from a ‘good’ night’s sleep: 8 hours – 5 hours = 3 hours.

Cumulative sleep debt: 11 hours + 3 hours = 14 hours

TUESDAY NIGHT – Slept at 6am and woke up at 8am – 2 hours of sleep.

Reason:

Editing Photos + Ruined Plan – I used up the whole night… like… editing photos. Photos need to be edited and ‘improved’ before they can be published, to me they do!

Being not really a pro in image editing, I used up 3 hours doing just that. Practice makes perfect, right? Anyway, I had a stupid 8am class on Wednesday, so had to wake up early.

The reason behind why I slept so late is quite funny: I actually planned to skip the 8-10am class in the morning, and only go for the 11am-2pm class. That was because I wrongly read my lab schedule and thought that I was going to have a lab session the following afternoon at 2-5pm.

I wanted to skip the early morning lecture because a full day schedule of 8am – 5pm with few nights of lack of sleep would be totally disastrous.

It was only at 4am that night when I realized that there was no lab session the next afternoon, and that I misread my schedule; so it was then only I decided to go for the early morning class and tahan till 2pm, and rush home to sleep! It’s quite a stupid plan, I know.

No. of Hours away from a ‘good’ night’s sleep: 8 hours – 2 hours = 6 hours

Cumulative sleep debt: 14 hours + 6 hours = 20 hours

WEDNESDAY NIGHT – Slept at 5am and plans to wake up at 11am – finally! 6 hours of sleep! But still not quite enough.

Reason:

Writing this blog entry! Writing a decent blog entry needs around 3 hours! At least for me! The time NOW (when I’m writing this) is 4.15am. I’ll probably fall asleep at around 5am, anyway… I’ll continue writing this entry tomorrow, good night!

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Hello! It’s Thursday afternoon now, yes I slept for 6 hours last night, so:

No. of Hours away from a ‘good’ night’s sleep: 8 hours – 6 hours = 2 hours

Cumulative sleep debt: 20 hours + 2 hours = 22 hours

Oh my God… If the sleep debt thingy is really counted like this, then I’ll have to sleep for 22 hours + 8 hours = 30 hours tonight to fully replenish myself!

30 hours! That’s more than one whole day! No way!

Err… I would really like to post a nice photo of me and my new hair colour in this entry but somehow, just somehow, I couldn’t take a photo that can capture the colour! I have no idea why!

I’ve taken many photos of myself, from different angles, with and without flash, in different lighting, but somehow the colour just doesn’t want to be seen!

My hair in all the photos that I took appear black, totally! Here’s a sample:

…

Alright, this is not really just a sample, I chose the one that I look best in. Like, it’s not a crime now to put the nicer photo on and discard the rest, right?

Anyway, here’s my point:

It is black. It is SO BLACK!

No there is no hair gel on it, no water… maybe a bit of clay, but it won’t turn it black! It looked perfectly red behind the camera!

There is only one photo in which my hair looks (slightly) red, but it’s extremely blurred, see.

… and I look kinda stupid, too. But see, I don’t mind putting my not-so-nice photos online!

There you go! That’s the red I was talking about. I dunno why this particular photo successfully captured the colour, while the rest failed… Maybe it’s because of the blur, or the light, or something…

I kinda like this new colour. In my opinion, this is better than my previous selection of brown-blonde.

It actually resembles the hair colour of actress Charmaine Sheh in the TVB drama that we’ve just finished watching – 歲月風雲! Of course, that wasn’t the motive for my choice of this colour, just a coincidence!

Like, of course, her hair looks a hundred times nicer than my blurred sample. There’s no need to argue.

Nevertheless, I did a survey and asked ten different people (6 guys and 4 girls) about whether they think this colour selection is better than the last one (the brown-blonde).

Guess what? Six people said this is nicer, while the remaining four preferred the previous one. All of the four people who said that the previous brown-blond looks better, are guys.

Jon, in particular, said that the red colour looks GAY!

Whatever! I’ve still got a (small) majority supporting the new colour!

Maybe I should have just left it black.

Let’s see what happened: five weeks ago was my super exhausting study week. Hey, when I say exhausting I don’t mean being exhausted from studying or something.

No way.

But instead, I was physically exhausted running in and out and around the campus to settle my incredibly annoying change of academic major issue.

Please sit down, and let me explain.

*I’ve put some cute animal photos taken during the holidays in between*

You see, I was going to change my major in the coming trimester, for reasons that I do not feel like disclosing now. But I’ll tell later, OK?

Anyway, the new major looked great, the subjects seemed better… Everything was excellent except – I have, in my previous trimester, already taken some subjects that are within the syllabus of the old major, but not in that of the new one!

Get it?

That way, I’d have to take the exams of some subjects that are not going to count anyway! No way! What if I failed? Then I’d have a couple of extra wonderful F’s in my transcript when I graduate!

That’s why I had to take the trouble of dropping those subjects before the exam week, in order to avoid taking the final exams of those subjects and having the risk of failing them! Mark you, those are not exactly subjects that anyone could pass!

However, the great trouble was that students are not allowed to drop any subjects within the last week before the final exams; that’s one of the damn irksome rules set by the university, but – but I’ve got to! I really didn’t want to take the stupid exams!

So I had to go through zillions of tedious work which include forms, inquiries, letters, meeting with lecturers, advisers, the faculty Dean, officers, and a whole bunch of other people who were all-too-frequently NOT THERE when you needed them.

I had to make repeated journeys in order to meet some of these busy people. Yes, I-forgot-to-make-appointments-with-them-beforehand, but that’s beside the point. =)

When I got home in the evening, I had to start – yup, that’s right – start studying for my other subjects.

In a week so busy I couldn’t have blogged, could I?

The following two weeks were my exam weeks, and being, you know, the student that I am, how could I forgive myself if I wasted time, like, blogging in my final examinations period, right?

The three weeks following the exam weeks were holidays, and I was back in my hometown Ipoh until yesterday. Yes I did bring my laptop back but somehow I just couldn’t get my house’s internet connection to work on my laptop, I have no idea why…

And I couldn’t blog using my house’s computer because all my other softwares are either in my computer in Cyberjaya or in my laptop. Hey, those softwares are essential for writing a (good) blog entry you know, like image editing softwares, thesaurus, FTP client and stuff.

Therefore… Ahem… I couldn’t have blogged in those weeks that I was in Ipoh… Hehe…

So many excuses… But the one month gap is justified, is it not? Wahahaha!!!

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Now that you’ve seen so many cute pets, let me show you a frightening one.

In fact, a murderous one!

Behold, my housemate Jon’s beloved Kei Kei - the rabbit who killed her own baby!

See, Kei Kei the killer was staring at me with blood on its head! Seriously! That’s real blood on its head!

In fact, that’s her poor baby’s blood splattered on her head!

Jon’s rabbit had just given birth to one single baby rabbit, which was already irregular, (Jon said that rabbits usually have more than three babies at once) and she killed it! Bit the poor thing to death!

You wanna see it? I’ll show you! Don’t scream…

It looks like a rat more than a rabbit… Huhu…

Apparently, rabbits do sometimes kill their young if they’re stressed or disturbed. I think this happens to many other animals as well…

Besides being able to do an extremely entertaining presentation on Terrorism, we were all supposed to do some kind of social work as part of the coursework!

Usually, social work in our country means you go to some old folks’ home, orphanage, hospital, or home for the disabled, to do some work and help out in some way. This typically involves cleaning up, preparing food and drinks, entertaining and accompany the people et cetera.

With only two people in our group – me and Glen – we decided that we do not want to go to the places where other people are going. We did some investigations and found out that most groups are going to old folks’ homes, kindergartens, and most common of all – the Cyberjaya Fire Brigade.

Jeeez, kindergartens and orphanages are fine, but social work at the fire department? Makes you think we’d have to help put out fires or something…

Anyway, after much consideration, we settled with the, presumably, most fun idea of all – a visit to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in Selangor. Through the phone, we made an appointment for a Saturday afternoon, and they accepted.

On September 8^th, we went to SPCA Selangor at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Expecting a really fun afternoon, we stepped into the rather smelly receptionist area. I mean, after all, we’re dealing with animals, and I really like animals, so how bad can it be?

First, the ‘admin’ lady was like: “What? Voluntary work? Why are you guys so late? There’s nothing much left to do already!”. Then, we were brought into the animal shelter compound, where the ‘admin’ lady told another lady: “These people are here for voluntary work! Do you have something for them to do? No? Find something for them to do.”

Luckily for us, the other lady was really friendly, she looked Australian. She introduced us to a girl, who seemed to be the daughter of the owner of the place.

The girl told us there’s really not much to do at that time of the day, but we could help out with the cleaning of food bowls, as they were going to prepare dinner for the dogs soon.

So she brought us to a place where a huge basin filled with soap water was, and instructed us to wash the food bowls piled beside it. God, when piled up I think they’re taller than both the heights of me and Glen combined! I’ve never seen so many bowls waiting to be washed in my entire life!

So we were on. Glen started washing the bowls with a small scrub and the soap water in the basin, while I rinsed the bowls and piled them up for drying.

I must say, the process was extremely gross because we had to remove unfinished food from the bowls and all the remains went into the disgusting mixture of soap water, rice, vegetables, and dog saliva – Into which we had to dip our hands repeatedly for like, more than a hundred times.

It gets a thousand times more revolting when water from that basin gets accidentally splashed on your face, and even once, into my eye. Oh SHHHIIIITTT!!!

Anyway, we finished washing the piles of bowls in about an hour. And we were so proud of it. That’s the time where we wondered how the good people at SPCA managed to wash so many of them, twice a day, DAILY!

They must love animals so much to commit such a sacrifice!

With our major task done, we were free to look around the area and play with the animals!

Basically, this place is divided into two parts, the dogs’ shelter, and the cats’ shelter. There were many, unbearably cute puppies at the dogs’ area!

And kitties at the cats’ area! – This one looks kinda bored.

Oh how I wish I could adopt one of them and rear ‘em at home! But then if I did so, Jon’s rabbits will be made dinner by the new pet. Rabbits are, after all, at the bottom of the food chain.

Commemorating our country’s 50th year of independence from the British rule, the International Fireworks Competition, featuring impressive fireworks displays by countries such as Australia, Japan and Italy, was held in Putrajaya last night.

While I’m sure most of our own MMU students were there themselves, and are telling the story in their own blogs or other networks; I’m still gonna write about it anyways …

Being miserable enough to have lectures until 7 o’clock even on Merdeka’s eve, we departed for Putrajaya at 9 o’clock. Putrajaya is only 10-15 minutes away from Cyberjaya, so the late departure wasn’t a big deal, anyway.

The fireworks performance was scheduled at midnight, right after the countdown to the 31st. We arrived early due to dire warnings from friends who had attended earlier rounds of the fireworks competition, stating that the traffic in Putrajaya would be unprecedentedly terrible.

And it was – really, really jammed! But, only during the return journey!

The journey TO Putrajaya was satisfactorily smooth, and we were there 2 hours early.

Fortunately, Euro Fun Park, a moving amusement park, was business-minded enough to be in Putrajaya during the fireworks competition period, obviously expecting a huge crowd to turn up to watch the competition, and visit their park while waiting for the fireworks display to start!

Oh, it’s been so long since I last went to these fun fairs!

The rides are quite typical of those in normal amusement parks, but there’s one worth mentioning – this spinning rotating thingy:

Now it looks quite fine, doesn’t it?

We thought so too. So, from the seven of us, Alex, Steven and I decided to go on the ride – and it took only a minute to realise that it was a totally – bad – decision.

This ride basically raises and tilts its three arms approximately 45 degrees diagonally, and spins the cars at the tip of the arms while the entire core segment of the machine itself rotates simultaneously – Something like how the Earth spins around the Sun – but at the speed of your washing machine in ’spin’ mode, for, I think, 6 minutes!

It was spinning so go*damn fast that the whole thing was a blur as you can see in this photo:

The excitement and intensity lasted only for the first thirty seconds, and after that, dizziness and nausea floods in. This ride is by no means one of the most intense rides that I’ve ridden. In fact, it was pretty annoying because all it did was spin the shit out of us – low excitement, low intensity, low fun – nothing, just dizziness and … spinning!

After we got down from the washing machine ride, I was the only lucky survivor who didn’t puke his dinner.

Gawd, I really hope they demolish that ride!

**********

The spinning ride was quite unenjoyable, but there were some that really made us scream:

************

At 12A.M. sharp, the lights in the entire fun park went out, and we hurried to the open area where we could have a good view of the Seri Gemilang bridge, above which the fireworks was about to be displayed.

The National Anthem was played, loud and clear from the Putrajaya International Convention Centre; followed by seven deafening chants of “Merdeka!“, which was echoed by the crowd standing excitedly on the ground.

It became silent, and then, it started -

Five long streaks of light soared high up into the midnight sky, followed by a lower array of two dozen white gleams, all speeding off in different directions, and as the first few fireworks reached maximum altitude, they exploded in unison.

We gasped in awe as a myriad of stunning flowers of light blossomed in the sky, illuminating the darkened lake below with enchanting colours of bright blue, white, red, yellow, green. The crowd screamed and cheered, as the magnificent fireworks marked the start of our nation’s 50th year of nationhood.

Here’s a clip of the final two-and-a-half minutes of the fireworks display. You can see the whole sky totally raining with fireworks at the end!

Every night, when I switch on my computer, I’d be rather unintelligent to not expect a whole bunch of IM offline messages waiting for me. While a small amount of these are actually friends looking for me, but the rest are generally – forwarded messages!

Typically, there’s nothing wrong with forwarded messages except that they come with various degrees of usefulness, or in a more direct term, stupidity.

Let’s analyse :

Here are a few messages that I collected so far. Excuse the grammar, all quotations are original cut-and-pasted sections.

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USEFULNESS – DEGREE 3: Stuff that actually contribute to your knowledge, however small it may be.

Example 1: (News)

“it is believe that yesterday, a girl was raped or ALMOST RAPED by a school guard which is only 17 years old.. Not sure whether the victim did get raped by the guard but one thing to be sure of is that she get bruises all over her face.. The guard even used a hard object to knock her head and punches her too.. and worst thing, he even try to strangle her with her clothes.. Aft he kidnapped her, the guard take off her shirt and pants and started to molest her.. Now, her head needs 7 stiches and SHE IS PHOBIA at attending classes at TARC again~ SO be aware students in TARC.. Danger is everywhere.. P/S: the guard is wearing brown uniform.. not those in blue uniform but anyhow, they’re all dangerous too.. DONT WALK ALONE esp girls.. ::: POST THIS TO REM…” [Message truncated, you get the point]

The news is unverified. I have no idea how true the story is, but anyhow it serves as a reminder for us to be careful, and stuff ….

Example 2: (Request for help)

“help me fwd the msg, a fren’s fren now at ICU KL sjmc hospital, she need any blooD of negative or B-, tis is the contact no. 01x-977xxxx” [Contact number altered]

Again unverified; but at least, it has been proven before that some (at least one) of these messages are actually genuine.

Example 3: (Advertisements)

“Hi all! Tourism club is organising a trip to Redang Island … 20 seats left …” [Truncated ... you get the point]

Even ads are qualified as usefulness degree 3, now you can imagine what’s coming up!

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USEFULNESS – DEGREE 2: Stuff that does not give you any knowledge, and concerns you very little.

Example 1: (“Forward to everyone” messages)

“Why is it so hard to tell the truth…yet so easy to tell a lie, why do we sleep in a holy place but when the sermon is over we suddenly wake up?, why is it so hard to talk about God…but so easy to talk about sex?, why are we so bored to look at a holy magazine…but so easy to read a playboy magazine?, why is it so easy to delete a Godly offline messages …yet we forward the nasty ones? Why are holey places getting smaller…but yet bars and clubs are growing??…..think about it….are you going to forward this or delete it? Just remember God is watching you if u love GOD then send this to everyone on your list. Don’t break this heart! send 2 all.”

These messages exploit our conscience, in the hopes of us forwarding them out of guilt.

Example 2: (Err … Just because it’s kinda sweet?)

“Every girl dreams that one day she will find a boy that does these things for her. even the smallest action can have the BIGGEST impact in someones life. • give her one of your t-shirts to sleep in. • leave her cute text notes. • kiss her in front of your friends. • tell her she looks beautiful. • look into her eyes when you talk to her. • let her mess with your hair. • touch her hair. • just walk around with her. • forgive her for her mistakes. • look at her like she`s the only girl you see. • tickle her even when she says stop. • hold her hand when you`re around your friends. • when she starts swearing at you, tell her you love her. • let her fall asleep in your arms. • get her mad, then kiss her.”

You know, I didn’t receive the SAME message just once, but MANY times from different people!

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USEFULNESS – DEGREE 1: Absolutely stupid, ignorant stuff. I’m sorry if you forwarded them before, but they are!

Example 1: (Purported virus site)

“if you saw the website that stated “www.xxxxxxxx.com/……”….these are virus…so don click on them….” [URL changed]

Now they’ve discovered a virus site, and they’re warning you not to click it, so kind of them! THEN WHY THE HELL send the clickable link, and say “don’t click on it”!?

It’s like saying: “Here, take your piece of the cake, but there are worms inside, so don’t eat it.”

JUST THROW IT AWAY then, WHY GIVE TO ME??

Example 2: (Adding a “virus” to IM list)

“If someone by the name of Ashley Marc James wants to add you to their list dont accept it. Its a virus. Tell everyone on your list because if somebody on your list adds them you will get it too. It is a hard drive killer and a very horrible virus. Please pass this on to everyone on your list. We need to find out who is using this account. Apologies for the inconvenience. Right click on the group name of your friends’ list and click: Send Message to all. Copy and paste then send…”

…

Hohoho …

LOL!

ROFL!

LMAO!

…

Err … right, poor as my academic stuff may be, I’d be so-ultra-horribly mistaken, if you could get your computer infected by simply adding a guy named Ashley Marc James into your IM name list.

What’s more? If your friend adds Mr. Ashley James into their list, you’ll get infected too!

WOW!

Founded by me and my friend, Heng, while financially and physically assisted by a group of good friends; it’s a small food business offering alternative snacks and drinks for students from the ever-typical food variety in campus.

Anyway, our business is never a big one, at least not yet. In fact, it’s not even located in a shop lot! Our business is currently just a kiosk and a rather spacious D-shape enclosed area, in which we prepare and serve our products.

We’re starting off with a few popular drinks, and very soon we’ll increase our variety of snacks and drinks to stuff like waffles, ice-cream, sweet corn, sandwiches, mixed ice, and so on. We hope to transform this corner of the campus to a place for students to chill out between classes!

Thanks to the support of our friends and also those who happened to pass by and bought from us, our business is doing rather good thus far!

Yesterday, some guy from a small university unit that I never knew existed – the Utility Audit and Asset Management Unit (UAAM) – came to our stall and, in a serious tone, told us that we were in ‘big trouble’ because we didn’t inform their unit about the commencement of our business, and that their ‘boss was angry’ so we’d have to send in a letter clarifying the matter (he was literally banging the table while he spoke); After which they would ‘reconsider‘ whether or not our business is allowed to continue…

After the guy had left, we were like, WTF?! We’ve already had contractual approval from the Business Unit (BU) of MMU – which is the authority for all in-campus businesses – backed with recommendations from the Director himself, of Student Affairs and Sports Division (STAD), the Dean of Faculty of Management, and numerous individual lecturers!

We’ve also got a registered company name from SSM and official business license from MP Sepang; We’ve done nothing wrong! But yet we were being threatened of having to close down because we didn’t tell a unit that we didn’t even know existed, about our opening!

Shouldn’t all relevant parties be notified internally before permission is granted for us to commence our business? Sigh, I guess it’s bureaucracy as we all know…

It was a really dark moment. Since we didn’t have much experience dealing with stuff like this, we were, at that time, really scared that our humble little business was going have to close-up on the second day of its opening!

Anyway, we consulted Business Unit about this matter, and even they were surprised by what UAAM was doing! So we drafted a solemn but strong clarification letter this morning, accompanied with official documents and signed remarks from both STAD and BU, and sent it directly to the manager of UAAM.

Later in the afternoon , the manager called us and, probably slightly taken aback by how severe this issue had turned out to be, asked:

“Hi, …, what did my staff say to you ah?”

LOL! Apparently it was the first UAAM guy’s overexaggerated tone and behavior, which inaccurately implied to us the severity of the problem that caused a misunderstanding! In reality, the UAAM was merely inquiring and checking on the legality of our business (it is their job) and not threatening to ‘reconsider’ the permission for our business!

Haha, how frightening misunderstandings could sometimes be!

Anyway, thank God now our business is back and running! I humbly hope that it can work out successfully for as long as it possibly can! We’ve worked really hard for this business to happen, and we’d really like to see it operate successfully while we’re still students!

Along with some of my friends, I’ve moved into Jon’s house, which is one of the town villas in Cyberia. It’s completely unfurnished, so we’ll have to buy everything ourselves!

Here’s the living room:

For some reasons, Jon’s previous housemates have unanimously decided to move out – at the same time – so we conveniently took their places!

Apart being slightly hot, my new home is quite fine to me!

It’s much more spacious, nearer to the main entrance of Cyberia, and less expensive – compared to the ludicrously tiny RM450/month room that I had last year! Seriously, you should have a look at the size of my previous room, it was like a medium-sized store room!

To illustrate how insanely small Cyberia rooms could be, here’s a picture of a supposed ’small single room’.

Damn! Notice how the width is even less than a person holding out both his arms! It’s almost the size of a normal-sized toilet! And no, it’s not a storeroom – it’s a single room in which my friend stays! Crazy or not?!

Currently, there are 4 of us occupying the house; and around the start of next year, me ex-Melaka-housemates Alvin and Samuel are going to come stay with us as well!

When fully occupied, there’ll be 6 people in this house, and I think that’s a really decent amount – not too many, not too few.

Since it’s a two-storey unit, I think it’d be a bit too quiet if I had just 3 – 4 housemates; and having 11 housemates – like when I was in Melaka – would be excessively overcrowded! Therefore, I’d say 6 people staying in a house is just fine!

Just finished unpacking and tidying, this is my new room:

Admittedly, I kinda miss the air-conditioning in my previous room… It’s SOOOO frickin’ hot these few days! Absolutely unbearable!

Jon rears his 2 rabbits and a hamster in the house. They may look cute and everything but they can be kinda smelly at times… One of his rabbits has a habit of kicking all its droppings out of the cage! I guess we’ll have to do something about the hygiene of this house!

It took me so much time shifting my stuff to the new house and I think I’ll need another week to sort them out… Whew! Meanwhile, there’s the club registration week and the starting of my business this week! Hope I’m still alive by then!

I bought a bed, an L-shaped office table, a 3-door plus a 2-door cupboard for my new room. They’re rather nice and cheap but the bad part is that they came as parts and I had to assemble them myself!

It’s no easy job, you know! All together there were like a thousand screws, bolts, nails and many other small parts! All to be assembled by hand! I don’t have any electrical tools… =(

Fortunately, my friend was kind enough to stay and help me assemble them (during the holidays!). The whole process took a frickin’ exhausting 8 hours’ time to complete!

To make things worse, the assembling instructions were unclear and the images were badly represented. We had to figure out most of the steps ourselves and make mistakes on the way!

That means, screwing + unscrewing + screwing back again… ALL DAY! Whew!

After 8 hours, my masterpiece is complete! The L-shaped office table:

… and the big 3+2 cupboards!

Things would be much easier if I had an electric screwdriver or at least a proper hammer! I don’t have either of them in my new house and I had to use a pair of pliers to substitute for a hammer!

The office table came with a small rack as a free gift, and that only adds to the already-exhausting process of screwing!

Funny, there were very few nails involved, mainly just screws and bolts! My hands and wrists are so painful and tired from all the screwing action that it’s even slightly painful to type on the keyboard now!

Anyway, I’m going to Redang Island in 2 days’ time! Yay! Can’t wait for it!

Whenever I have to wake up early the next morning, say 9 or 10am, I will not be able to sleep that night!

This becomes much worse when the thing that I have to do the next morning is very important or needs special attention, for example an exam or a presentation… If that’s the case, I will be doomed… Because I wouldn’t be able to sleep ALL NIGHT!

This is exactly what I’d feel and think when I go to bed in an anxiety-filled night:

“Okay, I’ll have to wake up early tomorrow morning for my XYZ presentation, so I must sleep now or I’ll screw the presentation up.”

So I’ll force myself to sleep, but fail. So I say to myself:

“OMG only 5 hours left until I have to wake up, sleeeeeeeeep plzzzzzzzz!”

This repeats for around 1 hour until I’m finally about to fall asleep, then I’ll think of something stupid like:

“Yay! Finally I’m going to fall asleep! Hope that amount of sleep is enough for the XYZ presentation tomorrow!”

By thinking that, I lose all the drowsiness I just had. And it loops back again and again, until it’s time to wake up! 9am! That’s not a joke!

Because of this problem, I attended a number of exams with a totally blank mind, did presentations like a zombie raised from the dead, and attended meetings like a panda with no bamboo sticks to eat for a month… All because I did not get ANY sleep during the previous nights of those events! Sad!=(

I consulted my doctor about the problem. Apparently, I’ve developed an anxiety problem associated with stress. As a temporary solution, I was given sleeping pills.

I take them only when I have important stuff to do the next morning, stuff that would otherwise render me sleepless for the whole night if I didn’t take the pills.

For the long term, I’ll have to try to modify my thoughts and stop worrying so much instead. I don’t know how to do that, because the extra effort that I put into not worrying is another worry by itself, huhu… =(

Anyway, my mum was really worried about me taking sleeping pills, and I don’t blame her, because nowadays sleeping pills are all associated with suicides, rapes, kidnappings and all the bad stuff. The impression is that taking sleeping pills will kill you or make your liver stop functioning or something…

Alright, back to reality.

I’M HAVING MY FINAL EXAMS STARTING TOMORROW! DIE!!DIE!!!DIE!!!!

I’m not exactly that prepared and the stress is killing me! I’ll stop blogging until my exams end and that’s if I’m still alive at then.

Wish me luck, I’ll need all the luck I can get!

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Hey, why are you still reading? Wish me luck! Come on! Plssssssss!=)

I’m going to move out from my apartment in 1 month’s time and I think I should write something about living on the (I think) highest residential unit in this area before I move out.

I currently stay on the 12th floor of Cyberia Condominiums in Cyberjaya. Staying so far up from the ground has its own pros and cons.

The bad thing being that I have to wait a long time for the lift, have the fear of falling down (aww!), and as my friend’s sister said, will surely die if there was a fire or earthquake or terrorist attack or whatever bad event… =(

The management is kind enough to have installed 2 lifts in my condo, but, why must it be that… Only 1 of them goes to the 12th floor?!

So if one day you woke up late for class, and you discovered that the lift that goes up to the 12th floor has broken down! (it has happened a few times now) What do you do?

You’ll have to walk down to the 11th floor, and if you’re unlucky, wait for the lift to come up from the ground floor, stopping floor-by-floor all the way up (cuz people staying on all floors are using the same lift), get in, and wait for it to go down, again floor-by-floor (cuz it’s 8am rush hour, everyone going out). Which will take like around 7 minutes just to get to the ground floor!

The good thing about staying here, however, is that I get to enjoy nice scenery since I can see the furthest from here!

I can see aeroplanes (still very low!) in the sky dozens of times a day as we all know KLIA is very near to Cyberjaya. I can even identify which flight company each aeroplane is from!

The scene here is so nice, in fact, that birds often stop by outside my window to enjoy and chat!

Funnily enough, sometimes I get scary thoughts of, say, since my room is so high up, and as you can see there are no metal frames on my window, so what happens if I failed all my exams one day and couldn’t think rationally and wanted (just for awhile) to die? There would be nothing to stop me… *swt*

Even though I’m not afraid of heights, it sometimes really scares me to walk on the balcony on the 12th floor. It’s really scary and you will start thinking “What if the floor breaks?” or “What if there’s a banana skin on the floor and I stepped on it?”

This concern intensified when the news (or rumour) of a guy falling off the 16th floor of an apartment near MMU’s Malacca campus spreaded among the MMU community last year.

Some “eyewitness’s” accounts on how that guy’s dead body was smashed and left on the ground with the body bent into an awkward L-shape (if you didn’t see the photos, imagine! ), really made living on the 12th floor a much less comfortable thing!

But let’s not talk about disgusting things… I believe that as long as I don’t look down, but instead look forward, everything is beautiful.

Sigh, although there are some things that I hate about staying here, I think I’ll miss this place when I move out in July. Good or bad, I’ve stayed here for almost 1 year!

I am having severe technical difficulties with this website and now I’m in danger of losing all information on all of my websites.

I won’t be posting on James-Chow.com for an indefinite period to figure out what I can do about the problem, which may include reconstructing the whole website and start off all over again. I pray that it will never have to happen.

I can only resume my postings when the site is entirely stable again.

If you happen to read this post, please understand that I am doing all that I can to save my website. I have not much professional knowledge and experience with websites. I need some time.

I will announce here when everything is back and stable again, thank you for your patience.

D.I.Y.

The unassembled package was around 6 feet in length, and weighs more than 20KG. It took up the whole interior length of a Proton Waja to transport it back to my house. We had to put the front passenger seat flat down and lay the huge package diagonally with both its ends resting on the dashboard and the rear window. I could hardly drive with the box partially obscuring the rear window! Phew!

After we’ve reached home, it was almost midnight but we immediately set to work to construct the cupboard because I hoped to have it finished before the next day since I won’t be in Cyberjaya the following day.

We grabbed the screwdriver and started putting on the screws. At a little past 1A.M., we finished the ’screwing’ part and realized that we got a problem:

This cupboard required NAILING. Meaning that we needed a hammer and NONE OF US had a hammer with us!! Since when did these D.I.Y. cupboards needed nails on them?! I thought they were all done with screws…

Since the unfinished cupboard was taking up a lot of space in my room, I was desperate to finish the cupboard without delaying till the next day. However, it was 1 o’clock in the morning and there’s nowhere that we could get a hammer, we resorted to the use of our own creativity.

In the end, we decided to CREATE our own hammer using:

Item 1: A MANKY OLD POT

Plus,

Item 2: An old cloth.

Produces our item of the day! A fully usable hammer!

Actually we could have done without the second item, but it was used in consideration of the other inhabitants of our apartment since it’s not actually early and people might be sleeping. Not bad eh, a sound-proof hammer some more!

Here’s Sebastian at work helping me with the nailing using our new, sturdy, sound-proof hammer! Really kind of him!

So with the help of our new invention, we finished the construction of the cupboard that night!

Nothing is impossible, if you bothered to think about it!

All of my close friends know that I simply love cats. Whenever I see a stray cat, (yes, I know it’s kinda unhygienic sometimes…) I could never resist to give it my usual gentle kitty-stoke, and see it responding gently to the comfort. After all, I have been rearing kitties for many years since I got my first pet kitten from the canteen of my primary school.

Cats are just so adorable because they are irresistably CUTE, relatively clean animals, not too big in size, do not create loud noises, do not need to be caged, and, erm, do not die that easily. =) Of course, they are also the ‘touchable’ type of animals, unlike fish or tortoise, which is only good if you want them as decorations and not pets.

Finally and most importantly, they are among those kinds of animals, that have what I call ’senses’. What I mean is they can expressively recognise and interact with humans. For example, they can act reeeaaalllyy cute and pitiful when they are trying to get free food from you when you’re eating at your nearby mamak stall. Awww…

I came across a cat that is so professional in human seduction, that it can perform and maintain a really extraordinary 2-legged STANDING posture when it’s hungry and you most certainly CANNOT help but give up half of your meal to it.

Here’s a step-by-step photo sequence of a kitty seductress in operation:

So if you see it one day, look away from it and concentrate on your food, otherwise you’ll probably lose your meal to it.

Since there isn’t much to do here is KL, I’m going back to my hometown, Ipoh, for Christmas! Believe me when I say Christmas is definitely my favourite festival of the year!

Because I don’t own so much as a bicycle in KL, I had to board an express bus with my friend instead. Well, not bad eh, express busses nowadays are tolerably comfortable, not all, but some are! It depends on your luck to get the good ones. Yes, you’ll get some proof later on…

So I was at the LRT station making my way to Pudu Raya with my friend, when I reached the ticket counter and was about to hand the payment for my ticket to the cashier, a curious sign caught my sight:

There was a bland notice in front of me, apparently asking me to say ‘thank you’!

At that very moment, I was actually dumb enough to think that it was probably that finally RapidKL had decided that their staff had endured enough of the public’s rudeness, thus putting up the sign to remind us, the customers, to say thank you.

Bewildered, I paid for my ticket, said ‘thank you’ courteously, perhaps too softly; and as usual, was ignored by the cashier.

After I walked out of the queue, only I realized that the sign was supposed to face the cashier, but was rotated to face the public when the cashier left the counter, overlooking the funny effect it caused. A small mistake, but if there are more dumb people like me buying tickets from them and misunderstanding the purpose of the notice, there’ll be more polite people in Malaysia! That’s good! XD

*****

We reached Pudu Raya and my friend was complaining about me not getting the tickets earlier since it’s Friday and going to be a long weekend, what can I do? Forgot mah…=)

We went counter-by-counter to all the express bus companies that we used to take, and all of them were like, “Eepoh ah? Tak de lagi lah!“. Suffering under the suffocating air of Pudu Raya and the weight of my bag, my friend went on hunting for tickets while I found a spot to wait, away from the crowd of ’salespeople’ screaming stuff like “Johor Johor Johor Johor Jooohhoooorrr sekarang sekarang sekarang! Leng Chai ah, pergi mana?….”.

Finally, my friend came back with the tickets and we hurried to get down to the platform; platform 19, if I remember correctly. 15 minutes pass the supposed ‘departure time’ of the bus, there was still no bus heading to Ipoh at the platform. Later, an old Chinese guy limped down the staircase and gathered us along with a few other people, apparently boarding the same bus as us, and signalled us to follow him up the staircase.

At that point, I knew what was coming.

The guy led us out of Pudu Raya, crossed the street, went up the road, and brought us to our long-awaited express bus:

Great! It is happening again, I paid RM20 to ride a Bas Sekolah!

It happened to me before, during festive seasons when the express bus companies do not have enough busses, but are determined to pocket your hard-earned money, they rent, I assume, Bas Sekolahs without registering with the Pudu Raya authority but charge higher fares from their customers. Great service!

They actually code-named the extra busses “101 bus”s. What a name.

Sighing and surrendering to fate, I boarded the bus and stepped into a realm I never expected to see:

You would think that you stepped into some old-fashioned disco or some sort…

An assortment of coloured lights were glowing on the ceiling, the place was surrounded by an indistinguishable disco music, people were sitting and talking… I readjusted my camera mode, and here you can see more clearly that it is actually the interior of the bus:

This bus had light bulbs of a variety of colours installed. I wonder what the bus would look like, viewing from the outside? Anyway, for those who still want to see the real interior, here’s a picture taken with a flash:

It was really worth paying RM20 just to have the chance to see the amazing surprises that the express bus industry has to offer its customers.