WittySquirrel's Insane Ramblings...

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2008-05-03T21:45:00.003+08:00

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Everything That Begins Needs an End

2008-03-04T01:54:00.005+08:00

I came to the blogging scene way back in 2004 when I was just 16 years old, and my first blog posts were all about nagging how school life is and a couple of miscellaneous posts. Then Project Petaling Street came along and pretty much transformed the way I blog and how I connected with other Malaysian bloggers. In all of these past few years, knowing you all has been an eye-opening experience for me.

To bloggers that I've met before in real life like Lilian "5xmom" Chan and Lucia "Mental Jog" Lai, you all have dared to write it all and stand firm for what you have believed. You guys certainly have more guts than me, and I salute you all for being Malaysia's frontline bloggers. Back then we had war journalists reporting despite bullets and missiles were zipping above their heads, now we have citizen journalists reporting despite having gas canisters shot at them.

It's not just these few bloggers, but just basically everyone who's reporting from everywhere. Half a year ago, nobody would've expected how our country has turned the way it is now. From what I've seen, Malaysians now have more awareness of the country's politics than before. Instead of beating around the bush and mulling over less concrete issues, I can safely say that bloggers nowadays are on the same level as their foreign counterparts when it comes to political discussions.

Keep Reinventing

Yes, I grimaced a little when using this Gerakan tagline, but overall it's pretty much true. One has to keep reinventing oneself in order to survive in this world, and that's what I'm exactly doing. As you can see the posts from the past year, I'm not exactly a talented blogger here. Despite experiments here and there, I've found out I can come up with some interesting posts once in a while but other than that, even my own damn blog posts bore me to sleep.

The Malaysian blogosphere is nice and everything but it doesn't change the fact that I can't write a consistent nor interesting blog. Then I also realised that I didn't want to have a public face on the internet. The risk of being compromised later in life is quite high and I don't wanna take the risk. I have seen my fair share of weirdos on the internet and I'm very well aware that how much information others receive depend on how much information I provide. So that's why I'm taking the decision to announce that I most likely will not blog from this address again. Yes I will still be blogging, but no, I'm not going to reveal my new blog address. I'll still be reading blogs and occasionally commenting anonymously though.

I know that I'll be losing all of these links to other blogs as well as my PageRank, but staying static isn't something that I'll accept either. I'll be having a new online identity with very little links to the old identity, and basically it would be the start of a new lease of life. It's just like enrolling into a Witness Protection Program.

Something new,
Something better,
Something to hope for,
In the near and bright future.

:)

Still Blogging?

2007-11-02T02:39:00.000+08:00

Ed: "Do you still blog?"
Me: "Yes, right here." *Points to head*

To me sometimes thinking about blogging ends up more satisfying than actually blogging. My mind ends up being more expressive in the showers than sitting right here in front of the computer. Perhaps it's due to the overuse of instant messaging, or it might be the overall degradation of my mental sanity due to bad habits. Let me make this clear, I'm perfectly fine personally but I've a problem with expressing thoughts into words due to various circumstances.

Enough to say, I'm thankful for what I already have and own at the moment. Still there are things that if left unsaid, you'd probably see me exploding at any one point or another. Well, in the short space of 15 minutes I think it's time to wrap up this post. Sleepiness is affecting my judgment, and that is one reason why it's hard for me to blog. If only things can go my way, if only I had the ability to change difficult situations at the drop of a hat. That's enough I suppose, the more I keep saying the word "I", the more selfish I feel about myself. Give me back my mind, I need it.

One last thing: I just wish that my mom would just trust me and let me handle the exams on my own instead of nagging me all the time.

A Wish

2007-10-26T00:58:00.000+08:00

When you're reading a book or a long article, don't you wish that you could just type "/" and enter in the words that you're looking for? Firefox's spoiled me quite a bit.

Rehearsal Blues

2007-10-23T23:21:00.000+08:00

So today we were rehearsing for our graduation ceremony this Friday, and it was really quite the bore. Almost three hours of sitting down and singing the graduation song over and over again. All of these while we had to watch imaginary VIP guests giving imaginary speeches giving away imaginary prizes to students.

Most weirdest thing I ever realised: noticing that the orchestral intro to my school's anthem sounds like it came from a Superman movie. I wasn't kidding about that.

An Update

2007-09-01T18:37:00.000+08:00

First things first, I don't seem to be in the best of moods at the moment. Hence although this post is gonna sound as dry and dusty as the Mojave desert, but at least it's going to be one of the most truthful blog posts that I've written.

Mental health
One of the biggest issues bugging me now is about my mental health. It could be that my mind is really lax when it comes to grabbing note of events that are happening around me. I feel like I'm a ship in a violent storm without an anchor to the seabed. My grasp of memory seems blurred now and days just seem to pass by endlessly. When I was young I lamented and grumbled at how come time was passing so slow sometimes, and now I'm regretting the fact that time passes by too fast for me to catch up. Hence I regretted that I wasted days by not doing anything that was productive for me. Take for example yesterday, I slept from 6am till 6pm and spent the most of that day at night. It's not good for me, I know.

Exams
Don't pressure yourself too much, really, don't do it. The more pressure I inflict myself for this upcoming exams, the less psychologically unstable I am. All that I need to do to face this series of trial exams is to plan well and stay calm.

Friends
I don't really mind if somebody stumbles onto my blog. Lest it be friends online or offline or even any teachers out there. After all with such a long history of blogging and "forumming", it isn't hard if you want to play detective. To be honest, I like my friends, I like who they are but I hate their situations. I am totally sick and tired of having to listen to how sad they are. The main reason why I get online is to have some fun and to relax, not to get bagged with a ton of burden on my shoulders listening to how much shit happens on a particular person. It's even worse when I can't possibly say that to them one-to-one, I'm not that mean to do so. Then there are some people who I can't seem to know well. It seems that we seem to be stuck at acquaintances just because the other person is reluctant to get to know you better. Could it be because they have been scarred just like I was? Nah, I only know one guy who was also scarred, hence he appears invisible in his messenger. I'm currently following his footsteps. Sometimes too much contact with a person or many people might not end up good.

Responsibilities
Two of the most important responsibilities I have at the moment are my exams and my obligation to maintain an internet community. Seems like I'm not really dealing well with either one. I tried studying a while ago, but somehow I just couldn't focus on it. My moods and my mental as well as psychological states need to be balanced most of the time for me work efficiently. And I make sure that my fan doesn't vibrate too noisily at night. Although I'm really relaxed most of the time, I am very particularly fussy on some stuff.

Needs
- enough time for me to prepare for my exams
- enough time for me to gather my thoughts

Wants
- to learn German and Japanese
- to travel to Europe for sightseeing and also living in Japan for a few months

Fears
- getting arrested for a crime that I might or might not commit (I drive a car, you can figure out the rest) *touch wood*
- the balcony of my apartment (I'm living six floors, you can guess the rest of that too) *touch wood again*

Plans
STPM is really really around the corner, I should try being active around 8am in the morning daily. The more the day wears on, the less mood I have for studying. Hope to try out waking up early just to study. Sometimes I can't study when I'm too sleepy, and sometimes I can't study when I'm too sober. Typical conditions at school should be just right. Told you I was picky, didn't I?

I'm going to host an online conference tonight, it's a weekly thing. I dread and dread having the conference not working out well, as well as listening to the same old complaints again. I really do not like to give trouble to a person that I know. It's a preference of mine that was gained through cultivation over time, namely trial and error. I know how it is like to be burdened, and I don't want anybody else to feel the same thing. It's just a pity that other people don't think the same way.

Signing off
~Ryou

P.S. (to Glassy) - I know it's been a long time since we last chatted on MSN, probably two months I suppose. Last time was being the Penang Bridge Marathon. Hope we can get in contact with each other soon. :)
P.S. (to Jin) - I have no idea where is your current blog located now, but I'd sure like to get back in touch with you. Hmm... I hope your address is still the same as the postcard that you sent me two or three years ago. I'd like to try corresponding with postcards. Sounds nice. :)
P.S. (to T-zone) - Hey man, sorry about not being active in your Spanish Inquisition forum. Likewise your blog's pretty much idle now. Hope to chat with you soon.
P.S. (to Ed) - Yo Ed, think on the good side of life okay? There's no problem which can't be solved. Even Rubik Cubes. @.@

[mp3 player preview] - Creative Zen Stone Plus

2007-08-09T00:41:00.000+08:00

Design and features:
Just like the Zen V series of players, the Zen Stone Plus manages to make itself look even more like a toy. While the original Zen Stone (released in May this year) sported enough looks to flatten the iPod Shuffle, the Plus version here has an additional circular screen, which is actually a square 64x64px blue OLED display.

I'm still uncertain that the circular screen would look good on the Stone Plus. I would've preferred a square screen at first choice, but I think they might've done the right thing in the design department. If you ask me, stay away from the red, green and pink colours unless you're feeling flashy, and avoid the white because of the similarities to the Shuffle. Keep to the blue and black versions for pure stylishness. :)

Professional reviews:
• Anything But iPod review
• CNET review

Price:
Current estimated price in Malaysia:
• RM260 (2GB Zen Stone Plus)
• RM160 (1GB Zen Stone)

As usual, I'm hoping that the price would drop until RM200 next year. When I bought my 2GB Zen V Plus in February 2007, it was retailing at RM550 (bought it at a RM500 bargain price) and currently it's selling at around RM400.

Creative thoughts:
Amidst its slumping streak when it comes to company profits, Creative keeps trying to chip away Apple first by introducing the Zen Stone Plus to challenge the iPod Shuffle, and second by releasing a whopping 16GB version of the Zen V Plus. Microsoft won't be pulling themselves out of their sinkhole anytime soon (Zune? Hah!), Creative is the only company who can pose a challenge to Apple's dominance in the market. It's just a pity that they keep registering losses quarter after quarter after quarter.

[Edit]: And oh, if you manage to get your Stone, remember to take a good sniff at it. You might be surprised. ;)

Technorati tags: Creative, Zen Stone Plus

3 Kittens Up For Adoption!

2007-06-15T23:43:00.000+08:00

Three kittens, all less/around one week old were found at Heng Ee High School yesterday morning and they are in need of a good home and especially a good owner. Two of them are black and third one is a blackish-brown tabby kitten. They're usually very quiet when sleeping together, so it's not advisable to split them up yet. Sorry but there's no photographs available.

If you would like to adopt these kittens, or if you know somebody who would like to adopt them, please drop me an e-mail at andylkl(at)gmail(dot)com. Wooden box, kitten milk powder and syringe for feeding will be provided. I'm currently living near Georgetown, Penang, and delivery can be arranged if you're living on the east coast of Penang island or Butterworth.

These kittens need a home, please pass this message on!

When Boredom Strikes...

2007-04-27T04:22:00.000+08:00

What do you get when you're sitting in a mathematics class, being bored and then there's a very nutty classmate sitting next to you?

You get this:

It's just two small circles and one big cirgle. The "teeth" happens to be a periodic function graph. ;)

Thanks a lot, Ed!

This Blog Post Is NOT Sponsored

2007-04-27T02:45:00.000+08:00

It's well over two in the morning, and I have butterflies in my stomach. Wonder why I might be feeling that way? It's because I've thought this endlessly for days and days whether or not to just close this blog and consider it as a good and eventful chapter in my past.

Staying and leaving are both the hardest things to do. Ever since I went dormant and left this blog untouched, the world has definitely passed me by. New blogs have sprung up here and there in the Malaysian blogosphere, and it's going to be hard keeping an audience sticked to this very blog. Heck, just look at Project Petaling Street, there are now more blogs than you can ever imagine! I don't recognise the names of most new blogs, and I certainly don't read them because it's the equivalent of gorging yourself on a buffet. There's just too much of it going on until you can't even follow!

And now, there's the new phenomenon of blogging for cash, even until the point of letting advertisement blog posts taint the very essence of the blog. Although I think ads at the sidebar or underneath blog posts are acceptable, but whatever happened to your dignity? Have you succumbed to the point that you are willing to give up your integrity and dignity of your blog so that you can earn a good buck or two?

Ideally speaking, a blog without ads is fine, a blog with some ads is fine as well, a blog with quite a lot of ads is on the borderline, but the line is crossed when you get paid to blog! It's... it's similar to bribery, it's unethical, and most of all, it goes against the very purpose that blogs are supposed to be - a non-mainstream informational distribution medium that brings people together - and not some bloody money-spinning tool.

Now I know that this is going to ruffle some feathers. I'm not pointing fingers at those who accept those blog-for-money offers, after all which sane person wouldn't pick money off the floor if all that it takes for them is to just bend down and pick it, right?

To be honest, I've thought about venturing into such articles-for-money territory, but I decided it was not worth it. Anything that happens to be coerced into words (especially when that motivation involves money) will lack usually lack the essence and spirit. Jeremy Clarkson used to say that some objects have souls right? Well I happen to think that blogs and the articles within have souls. So, please don't let that soul be corrupted.

//

Well then, today's copy of The Star highlighted the possible decline of the blogosphere. It's in the In-Tech section and here's the link to one such article that was published, please read it if you have the time. I hope it'll be a reality check for some out there.

A Bit of Maths...

2006-11-17T17:54:00.000+08:00

There are 30 objective questions in an Economics examination paper.

Let X be the number of questions that I scored correct in the paper.
Therefore X~N(30, 0.25)

0.25 is the probability that I will get a question correct.
0.75 is the probability that I will get a question wrong.

If I magically manage to get every single question correct, the probability for that event occuring will be...
P(X=30) = ³⁰C₃₀ (0.25)³⁰ (0.75)⁰ = 0.00000000000000000086736

Let's say that I know only half of the paper. So, I estimate that I'll get 15 questions correct...
P(X=15) = ³⁰C₁₅ (0.25)¹⁵ (0.75)¹⁵ = 0.000000000012445

Then let's say that the gods frown on me, and I shockingly end up with not even a single question correct...
P(X=0) = ³⁰C₀ (0.25)⁰ (0.75)³⁰ = 0.00017858

Hence, the probability of me having no questions correct is definitely higher than me mysteriously scoring all questions correct by random choosing.

I'm so doomed in my Economics.

Mentioned in The Star!

2006-11-01T01:20:00.000+08:00

Oh boy, this came as a sudden shock for me. I was browsing and checking my e-mail when I came upon the daily digest from my local Malaysian BookCrossers group. It appears that our band of 200+ BookCrossers have finally gotten recognition in the local press! The local chapter of BookCrossing was one of the many parts in article about Malaysian book habits that was published in The Star two days ago.

Long timers Emily, Taty, Ariel and Betty were interviewed in the article, and Zarina was caught on camera! Even I was mentioned in one paragraph for founding the group!

Meanwhile scrolling a bit downwards on that article, fellow blogger Sharon Bakar was also interviewed! It's really a fantastic article, and special thanks ought go to the journalist who penned this article. Thank you so much!

Windows Media Player 11 released... but the agony!

2006-11-01T00:49:00.000+08:00

Just a while ago, a little Gmail web clip led me to this Wired article, which led me to the site where you can download it from, which is Microsoft.

I'm one of those who use Windows Media Player as his main media player, and I love using it. So imagine the disappointment when I downloaded the installer and upon unpacking, I see this notice:

I closed the window and dumped the installer into the Recycle Bin.

I have no choice but to continue using WMP10. I can't install WMP11 because it needs the damn validation, which is impossible because my copy of Windows is not original here!

Arngh, I hate it when things like this occur.

[Update on Nov. 1 afternoon]: Thanks to Earl-ku for providing the .exe file, but still I'm unable to install WMP11 because I don't have Service Pack 2 on my computer! I give up on it. I'm gonna switch to a Mac if I have a chance to do so.

[Sidetrack]: I noticed that Blogger's image uploading feature has gone pear shaped. I can't upload any images onto Blogger without either getting a timed-out notice or a blank white window.

Why can't you just stick to two simple buttons without resorting to Javascript, Blogger? First button to select, the other to confirm upload!

Technorati tags: Microsoft, WMP, Windows Media Player

Brian Eno - Another Day on Earth

2006-10-27T20:56:00.000+08:00

There's a good chance that you haven't Brian Eno before, since he deals with non-mainstream music. Though, he's best known for his ambient and minimalist works. This brings me to another point. So far the only Eno albums I've heard are Another Green World (1975), Music for Airports (1978) and Another Day on Earth (2005). His last album is a bit quirky, and I admit that I've just barely scratched the surface of his album (not literally mind you).

Another Day on Earth starts off with 'This', a very cheery and uplifting song complete with Eno's vocals. A friend of mine once commented that it sounds like Depeche Mode lite. 'And Then So Clear' as well as 'Passing Over' evokes a strange futuristic image. Through vocoders, Eno's vocal's were now morphed into the android-like vocals. I'm guessing that the former song was an attempt at an andriod with a soul, trying to prove that humanity exists in his metallic casing, while the latter one has a much harsher sound, a sound of regret and judgement. In between those two songs was 'Long Way Down' and 'Going Unconcious', both are dreamy songs that tend to lurk on the edge of nightmares. Throughout this album, Eno proves his best at various times and places in this album. 'Caught Between' is no exception. Love the gentle guitar riff.

If you felt that songs 3 to 6 have a dreary, dreamy and dark atmosphere, then songs 7 to 10 have the opposite effect. With the backing of a simple guitar strumming, Eno's voice in 'How Many Worlds' is clean and not very altered, and 'Just Another Day' reprises the theme from the first track. From what I think, Eno has gone a long way since Another Green World in terms of lyric-writing. Lines which sound quite silly when sung aloud like "I'll come running to tie your shoes" are a thing of the past now. I suppose through trial and error, Eno's past experience with ambient music and his vocal works resulted in this piece of finely crafted album. Do keep note on the guitar and piano lines that appear quite a lot, and even if you strip off the lyrics I think it could still stand as a very good intrumental ambient album. Even Eno's vocals is something to ought to hear for yourself. I'm one of those who really appreciate vocalists who can really really sing their heart out.

And then there's the very last song of the album, simply titled 'Bone Bomb'. A lone woman recites a poem word by word without any emotion, most likely the emotion has already been drained away from her. You can read the lyrics here. The technique of stretching the first letter is rarely heard, but I like the effect. "B-b-b-b-bone bomb". Then at the very end, it builds up to a buzzing climax... and ends abruptly.

I was left quite puzzled at this song until I came across this article about it. According to an interview with the St. Petersburg Times, Brian Eno was reading the newspapers one day when he came across 2 seperate stories, one about a female Palestinian suicide bomber, and the other about how the bones of suicide bombers can turn into shrapnel when they blow themselves up. This was the inspiration for 'Bone Bomb'.

From now onwards, each time I hear the ending it gives me serious goosebumps. This song is a serious contrast from the rest of the album, when the rest of the songs are titled and themed around 'just another day on earth', touching words and optimistic hopes. In this depressing last song however, it clearly is the woman's last day and last moment on earth! And the fact that Eno chose to create this song from the woman's viewpoint, and for the ending not to be a *BANG* nor a *BOOM* nor a *POOF* but rather the eerie silence that one faces when death occurs, that is just disturbing, especially to someone who has thoughts about his own mortality frequently.

Review score: 4 out of 5 stars.

Technorati tags: Brian Eno, Another Day on Earth

MUET Massacre

2006-10-19T01:04:00.000+08:00

Absolute and total massacre is the only thing I could describe my MUET (Malaysia University English Test) oral exams earlier this morning. I was Candidate B during Task A and not only did I stammer quite a lot during the oral exam, but when I hit a brick wall I just stopped talking right at the spot. Nothing came out of my mouth, and I even found myself laughing to calm myself down because I was such a bundle of nerves.

During Task B, it was just slightly better. I had more points written down in my paper, though my attention wasn't really focused on my teammates. I was struggling to come up with more points, and I believe that I had stated the conclusion too soon. I say this because since we found ourselves talking in rotation from A till D, and Candidate C opposed my conclusion just because she hasn't finished mentioning her points. I wonder how much damage hitpoints we received just because of that.

My confidence for this Speaking paper has been seriously shaken, though there's still 3 more papers remaining for MUET. And if I don't score at least a Band 5, I'll try again with next year's examination.

Technorati tags: MUET

The Haze Strikes Back

2006-10-04T14:57:00.000+08:00

After a week of continous cold and heavy rain here in Penang, the scenery here has abruptly turned back into a sky full of blurry smog. And yet although the winds are still blowing strong, it's bring in more and more haze to the island.

Dammit, we need more rain here!

Tanggal Tiga Puluh Satu...

2006-08-31T23:24:00.000+08:00

Happy 49th Birthday Malaysia!

:D

If You're A Woman Living in JB...

2006-08-23T16:31:00.000+08:00

This strange but yet true "joke" that's circulating in Johor is...

"If you're a woman and you live in Johor Bahru,
... then you surely had your purse or bag snatched at least once in your life."

I heard this being mentioned on ntv7's Chinese edition of My Siasat, and it certainly rings a bell to my ears.

The reason?

8 years ago when my family were still living in Johor, my mom fell prey to snatch thieves who rode on a motorbike, and smacked a hand right on her chest and grabbed her gold necklace. Mom was literally shocked and dazed after that. We were just thankful only the necklace got stolen, it could've been a lot worse.

So when this article appeared on yesterday's newspaper, you can't blame me when I said I was happy that another scumbag got nabbed by the public. Score one for the ramming down of the snatch thief, and score another for his capture! I'd be happy too if vigilante justice took hold, and the crowd kicked the shit out of the red-handed thief before handing him over to the police.

Even 8 years ago, snatch thieves were out on their motorcycles, lurking and observing women from a distance before committing the crime. 8 years later, instead of less crime, the security in JB is getting worse day by day. The more and more news articles that I read about victims dying from head injuries or end up paralysed from the neck or waist down, I have less and less sympathy towards the fate of these scumbags.

Alongside that incident in JB, did you know that my mom once encountered a smartly-dressed snatch thief on a motorbike right in Penang? She noticed that the guy was reaching his hand out for her, and so she took her umbrella to shield herself. The guy gave up and pointed an index finger and looked at her sternly as he fled on his bike. This second incident shocked my mom so much till even a motorcycle passing by alongside her is enough to give her a bad jolt.

So, don't ever be afraid to take a few swings of your umbrella at a snatch thief if you ever see a crime in progress, and don't be afraid to ram down a thief's motorbike. Since they brought this upon themselves, these thieves are a legitimate target with a giant bullseye painted on their back and chest.

[Edit]: On a more moderate note here, I'm not advocating that snatch thief victims ought to hang on to their posessions stubbornly. These victims often end up injured or dead in the process of struggling. So it's best to just let go your belongings if you're threatened. No amount of gold, money or jewellery is enough to replace a life.

R.AGE's Spirit of Penang!

2006-08-18T18:07:00.000+08:00

Guess who's going to R.AGE's Spirit of Penang competition tomorrow?

It's none other than these four guys!

Left to right: Kah Leong, Kok Leong (me), Bi Cheng, and Edmund!

Yeap! The place's at the old Esplanade (not Gurney Esplanade), tomorrow morning starting from 7:30am. We're Team 4 Factorial! Wish us luck there! :D

2006 Heng Ee High School Concert

2006-07-29T15:34:00.000+08:00

Even logging into blogger seems unfamiliar now. Gawd it's been over a month since I last blogged anything about my life here. Fair enough, plenty and I say PLENTY of stuff and events happened during this time period.

June 30, Friday night:
Annual school concert in Dewan Sri Pinang. A week later the event was covered in the North section of The Star. Despite what you read in the news article, the performance was NOT spectacular, and the entire concert was NOT magnificent. In fact the hall sound system was badly tuned and damaged the audience's hearing during the first 30 minutes of the concert, and most of the performances were mediocre. Let's say that for every 2 performances that each group played, only one out of those two were decent performances.

Bad performances: The brass band, harmonica band and Chinese orchestra were out of tune and out of rhythm at times, it ought to be called a practice session rather than a real performance.

Good peformances: The dance troupe and the drama club. The performances of both these two were simply great I can say! The dance troupe had both male and female dancers swinging and jumping wildly to a tribal snake-spirit appleasing ritual (or somesort) while the drama club's performance was simply surreal. The drama's about a group of 20 boys and girls questioning the very definition of the word "art". The entire performance was elaborately planned (about 30 minutes or more in length) with large scale cloth-twirling and even a "glow-in-the-dark" scene involving fluerescent-painted elephants and objects. I'd give them a standing ovation. :)

As for the rest of the performances like poetry recital and choir, I think they're not bad and pretty nice actually, but nothing stunning of course. :P Anyways, me and my mom were the ones who were watching this concert, since last year's concert was so interesting. Who would've thought that this years concert was exceptionally bad compared to last year?

I really pity the journalit from The Star who had to grimace and force himself to write about an "amazing" concert. Y'know, I can easily guess that some of these students who performed less than expectations could be given a dressing down by the seniors.

And by the way, the blurry photos were taken with by old handphone and its external camera. I don't think I can take proper pics with it anymore, since most of the pics nowadays turn out to be too blurry.

[Edit]: One more thing here, I couldn't believe how uncooperative the audience were. The announcers had already requested that the audience to NOT take pictures at the drama club performance because the flashes might affect the performance. Yet, the cameras flashed as much as fireworks in a dark stadium. Good gawd.

An Irony...

2006-06-19T21:52:00.000+08:00

"Baldrick, do you know what irony is?"
"Yeah, it's like tinny or brassy, only it's made of iron."

Okay, now let's put that silly Blackadder quote aside.

Y'know, there was one... no, make that THREE ironies while I was at the driving centre last Saturday:
1. The driving instructor giving me a ride to the place had his handphone stuck on his ear for half of the trip there.
2. The lecturer talking about being physiologically exhausted while I was sitting there feeling exhausted, and...
3. The driver taking us back at the end of the course WASN'T wearing his seatbelts!

And oh by the way, I scored 42 out of 50 for the computerised driver's test! Passed barely, but still I passed it! :D

Almost Got Punched!

2006-06-16T16:22:00.000+08:00

WTF???

Seriously, have we that many paranoid punks wandering around Penang nowadays? Just barely half an hour ago I was walking back from school and was at the the T-junction near my house when I saw someone sprinting like he was in a hurry or something. I saw the guy and he saw and ran up to me saying something which I didn't manage to hear. Then he pulled back his arm and fist and was looking like he was gonna take a punch AT ME! WTF? At that exact point I stepped backwards quickly and already raising my right arm in case his fist flew at me, I wasn't holding my other schoolbag close to my chest or else I would've use it to block. The guy later then walked away speaking in Hokkien that he'll "let Ah Pui know about this".

Weird weird weird. o__O;;;

I don't know what would happen if the fist landed on my face or stomach. There could be plenty of outcomes, but I'm not gonna think about it any longer. In short, I'm not gonna take that shortcut anymore and stick to the footpath beside the main street. This was tooooo weird.

On The Road To A Driver's Licence...

2006-06-14T21:44:00.000+08:00

Has it been that long since I blogged here? Well, sorry guys for the lack of updates. School's just reopened this week and it's made me pretty tired these past few days. And the fact that 3 football World Cup games on the telly nightly isn't helping my case at all. I could only catch the first two games. :P

Anyways, that's not really the point here. The point is that after all of these while, I'm finally moving towards getting a driver's licence! My mom got a driving instructor's phone number last Friday night and the next morning I was scheduled to attend the course about the laws of the road, road safely and such stuff.

So, one bright and glaringly early morning at the very uncomfortable time of 8am, the guy who was the driving instructor appeared downstairs my apartment in a tiny and new Perodua Kancil and fetched me to at the main driving school in Sungai Ara. o.O Reached the spot 45 minutes later and had to wait a little before going into the lecture room. Passed a hundred bucks and IC to the same guy and he handed it to the folks at the counter, by then I had barely enough time to have a slice of bread for breakfast. Too rushing.

So, I got myself into the lecture room which was just beside the small exam room five minutes later. Everyone ranging from 16 year olds who were attending this course on their birthdays to middle-aged folks were there. There was even an Indonesian woman and a Pakistani man at the course too. :P I could say the people in charge inside the room there were pretty rushing too, since the changeover to the computer-chipped MyKad wasn't really proving to be convenient either. The scanner had problems reading the cards most of the times, further adding to the wait. And some of the chips were practically useless, so they had to resort to another kind of chipped card for the applicants. As for me blame it on my parents who haven't picked up the new ICs yet. I'm still stuck with my old one.

I saw too many
roadsigns. @.@ First lecturer was somewhat old Malay middle-aged guy, but he was darn hilarious with the talk. Shooting out Malay words like a machine gun and peppering his speech with antics and witty comments, the 4 hours seemed to pass by pretty fast enough. First break was a 15-minute break at 11 am and second break was a 30-minute break at 1pm. Then it was the turn for the second lecturer, he was an Indian guy but he wasn't as funny as the first one. But still, the little textbook needed to be roughly explained throughout the two lectures nontheless, and we were paying roughly 50 bucks for each lecturer. Checkout again was hampered by the same problems. Am just thankful that it passed soon enough.

So, overall the first lecture started at 9am and the second one ended officially at 3:30pm. A whole 6 and a half hours in that boring place with folks I don't even know at all. And to top it all off, I had to squeeze with 9 other people inside a Toyota Unser on my way back. So damn tired when I got back home.

By the looks of things, I'm gonna make an appointment and head back to the same place this Saturday to take the exams. If things go fast and well, the lecturer mentioned that the lessons and everything could be settled as fast as within a month! Am not gonna keep dragging this on anymore, my relatives are sorta bugging me to get my licence as soon as possible, and besides I keep seeing my classmates taking days off for their driving lessons. It really ought to be my turn now. :P

The Train Station...

2006-06-05T15:01:00.000+08:00

So there I was, just stepped into the train station and saw three huge counters. The time was around 12:40pm. The one in front were for tickets, while the one on my left dealt with baggage ticketing and the right was the carpark payment counter. It must've been the holiday season or something, since the lines were long at all three counters.

It was only four minutes before the train arrived, and guess what? Dad had a stomachache right there at that moment.

"Dad, if you go to the toilet right then now we're gonna miss the train!"

He ignored me and walked straight ahead. The place rumbled a bit as a weird-looking service train passed through the station. Our train's not here yet, but I sure as heck know that it's gonna arrive right on the dot.

"Did you even know the car isn't parked properly yet?!?!"

The car was probably parked just outside of the station. And I have no idea where it's gonna end up once we board that train.

Also, we almost couldn't put the baggage in the train yet because everyone snapped up all of the numbers available. The person in charge told me to hold on as they were finding a way to settle this mess. Gawd knows what was wrong with me, I should've squeezed and grabbed a number but instead I stood like a fool as the crowd passed by me.

So many unsettled things, my dad's not helping me a bit, and lastly the train arrives in FOUR minutes. I have no idea how much longer the train will wait before it sets off again.

And then...

...

...my handphone rang, and...

...

...I woke up.

o.O

Turns out I was having a dream since last night. Was in bed thinking about trains, and I ended up dreaming about trains. Weird.

Free Domain Name From Microsoft With a Catch...

2006-06-05T02:19:00.000+08:00

If you're in the US and have a credit card and are searching for a domain name for yourself, then read on this blog post. If you're not, then good luck and keep on searching. :P

Apparently Microsoft's now offering one free domain name bundled together with its new Microsoft Office Live Beta. And apart from the restrictions I mentioned a while ago, you also can't change the domain's host to a non-Microsoft one. Or is it so?

“Microsoft is offering to give you a free domain if you signup for Microsoft Office Live Basics Beta (http://officelive.microsoft.com/default.aspx)

...

“The only catch is, there is no technical support once you get a domain. However, I did not know this prior to signing up (and they do not tell you this ANYWHERE in the signup process).

“So, I signed up a domain name for a company I started. however, when I accessed my account, I was horrified to find that I could not change the host from being Microsoft to my own personal hosting provider.

“This seriously troubled me. So, I went through the entire site and NO WHERE does it say how to do this. I instead decided to do some contacting on my own.”

Read the rest of it at Darren's blog. :)

Technorati tags: Microsoft, Office Live Beta, Domain names

Amazon.com Ads

2006-06-05T02:10:00.000+08:00

I signed up for Amazon's Associates Program quite a few weeks ago, though process was fast and simple (compared to Google), I've only put up the Amazon.com ads a while ago.

That should be enough ads for now methinks, except for the referral buttons at the bottom of the blog. I should definitely adjust those a bit more. Anyways, any comments? :)

Deep Forest Music Videos

2006-06-02T04:01:00.000+08:00

You know, for all of these while I never really like Deep Forest's music. I used to think that the tribal chants were rather weird and that sort of turned me off. It was an entire different cup of tea. During that time I was used to Enigma's songs, and as you may know Enigma and Deep Forest have had their fair share of comparison to each other's works.

And now today, I came accross a music video of "Martha's Song", one of Deep Forest's songs which have made them immensely popular (but still not as popular as Enigma nontheless). The song which I thought to be weird actually fit into the music video. As you can see, some of the videos are pretty surreal and never clear, it takes several times of viewing to sort out the things that you see.

A word about the music though. I think most of you guys would be equally weirded out too, listening to foreign chating that sounds like Indian or gawd knows what language it is, and not even knowing what it means. Well, it can take two, three or even more listens to get the hook of it. It happened to me too. Never ever force yourself to sit through an entire song or album. The main point of music is to just enjoy it and let it entertain you.

And well, if you are able to take down the path of non-mainstream music, only then your ears and your mind will be open. There's already a ton of similar music out there on the market, on the television and also on the radio that keeps on playing the same old songs time after time, and entire music industry that's dedicated to churning out music. Everyone needs a breath of fresh air sometimes, you know?

Anyways, here are other music videos also by Deep Forest worth a watch (and listen!), I've linked them to avoid clogging up the blog post with too many videos.
- Deep Forest
- Sweet Lullabye
- Madazulu

Technorati tags: Deep Forest, Sweet Lullabye, Madazulu, YouTube

Google's Been Generous...

2006-06-01T16:35:00.000+08:00

I've found myself fiddling around with several Google tools and services lately, most of them pretty nifty if you ask me. :P Here some of 'em that I joined recently.

Google Hosted
Was checking my e-mail address yesterday when I found out that they my application for Google Hosted was approved, and I had received clearance! Three and a half months, I applied for that darn thing on February 24th and only got to use it yesterday! Though I'm very interested in this service, my local webhosting provider only provided me a faux access to the domain name, and unless I get full access to the domain name, I'm afraid it's currently being wasted. :/

The thing attractive about Google Hosted is that if you own a domain name, it's possible to create e-mail accounts under that domain name, but yet it utilises Gmail as its interface and storage site. E-mail accounts are capped at 2GB though, more than enough I think.

Google Analytics
And today, I just received my Google Analytics invite in my mailbox. Though it seems like it's geared towards AdWords subscribers and looks very profession and polished. AdWords optimisation is the game, but no AdWords for me yet though, so I'm still finding a purpose and looking through the website.

Google Sitemaps
This one doesn't need an invite, but it's still as useful as the two others. Now Google Sitemaps is a information gathering service for your website, not unlike SiteMeter methinks, but I don't think I'll be ditching SiteMeter for Google Sitemaps anytime soon. It's still worth a shot though.

Google AdSense
Now this is something most of us would be really interested in, right? Google's money-making tool for webmasters. Who are we kidding here? A little cash in the pocket would definitely ease the wallet. :P

Wonder if anyone remembers two AdSense-related post I wrote two years ago? Had AdSense on this blog once back in 2004, but a month later turns out I was suspended due to my age. Well, on day that I turned 18 I sent another application to the Google guys and asked them to re-review the website, and finally I'm now accepted. So now that I've ads in this blog, do let me know if the ad placements or layouts could be edited or changed somewhat. :)

Technorati tags: Google, Google Hosted, Google Analytics, Google Sitemap, Google AdSense

Thoughts...

2006-05-30T03:10:00.000+08:00

Just now when I was standing on the balcony and looking towards the horizon, I had a strange urge to just drive across the Penang Bridge and perhaps wander around Butterworth even though it's midnight. But then, I haven't even gotten my car license yet. *drops head*

This is making me feel like playing "Neon Lights" (a Kraftwerk song) on Windows Media Player. Feels strange.

Dropping a Subject

2006-05-27T15:06:00.000+08:00

I know I can be long-winded here, but please bear with me a bit, will ya? :P

I've been taking three optional subjects and during the past two weeks, I've attened classes for five Form 6 subjects, not including MUET. And I've come down to the conclusion to just drop Malay Language. The subject is pretty neat itself, and the lessons can be useful when the teacher rambles off and turns it into a "brainwashing session", but I don't think I'm that capable of taking five subjects at once. Better to just drop one for now and lessen the burden, four is just fine enough.

And to be honest, I'm sort of thinking twice and thrice about this decision. Though I'll have 2 free periods 4 days a week, it's sort of a pity not to listen to the teacher's ramblings. It can be boring when she teaches, but she's easily prone to teaching 15 minutes and then spending the rest of the hour talking off-topic into stuff regarding general life or university life or even teenage relationships. In short, once she rambles it's gonna be an interesting and witty one, so most of the students in the small class keep their ears peeled. :P

Another guy dropped the subject already, and it looks like it's gonna be me and Edmund's turn. Tak boleh tahan (cannot stand) anymore...

Though over the rest of the year I think the number will still be thinning from its current 16, but the number will probably rise when students find Accountings to be too hard and then switch subjects to Malay Language. From the frying pan and into the fire, if you ask me.

Technorati tags: Form 6

Toxic-Smelling Laundry!

2006-05-23T18:19:00.000+08:00

YUCK! YUCK! YUCK!!!

Never in my entire life have I smelt anything such disgusting, noxious, foul-smelling, and even stomach-churning stench before! I was helping doing the laundry for my dad's work clothes, and as I dumped the bucket of soaked clothes out, I was blasted with a smell that will haunt me for eternity. I cringed, and I almost gagged, this is the worst smell that I have ever encounted. Ever.

Sweaty shirt, sweaty pants, sweaty underwear and especially sweaty socks, soaked inside a tub of water for an entire day, it's the perfect ingredient to make a stinkbomb that'll dissipate even the worst unruly crowds. I think it needs an entire bottle of softener to get rid of that rubbish dump and rotted cuttlefish smell.

Now that I just mentioned this to mom too, she's apparently laughing her head off.

I think I just caught a whift of the stench, now please excuse me as I get back to my room and shove a piece of air-freshener up my nose.

Mike Oldfield on BBC Radio 2

2006-05-22T16:56:00.000+08:00

I just read a bit of news from the Tubular.net forums that Mike Oldfield is going to appear on BBC's Radio 2 on next Sunday, May 28, 2006 at around between 7 to 9am British time. If you're a rabid fan like me, you know you're gonna try to stick around that time to listen to the live broadcast. :P

The show is Good Morning Sunday, hosted by Aled Jones. I'm gonna guess that in the interview, they're gonna talk a bit about Mike's past so that they won't confuse new listeners. As usual, the mere mention of Light and Shade will be excluded, and they'll be talking about the Platinum Collection, which has been released a few months ago. Hopefully we'll get to know more about his new autobiography and the studio album that he's currently working on. :)

From left to right: Tubular Bells (1973), Hergest Ridge (1974), Ommadawn (1975), Incantations (1978), and Amarok (1990).
Mike's previous interviews were also held in February and March, both also on BBC Radio 2. During the interviews, Mike talked about his previous albums and career, a bit about the book, and some juicy info about the album-in-progress. Last we heard from him in the interview is that he is making a 3-track album as opposed to 2-track album like Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn, a single-track album like the masterpiece Amarok, and a 4-track album like the minimalist and instrumental Incantations. Mike's prolly going back to his roots, and a 3-track album will be another splended feather in his cap I hope!

Technorati tags: Music, albums, Mike Oldfield, BBC Radio 2

Slowly Making Me Go Bankrupt...

2006-05-22T16:23:00.000+08:00

Yes I'm aware that I can be a cheapskate sometimes, I just can't help but notice how expensive the books are for Form 6. When you're in Form 6, there's no government-assisted textbook lending scheme. That means all books have to be bought, and from what I know it's gonna get even expensive for university books.

I've already paid RM60 for General Studies and Mathematics and gotten both books more or less at the spot. And tomorrow I need another RM70 for Business Studies and MUET (Malaysian University English Test) books. When you add up to the RM150 I've already paid for school fees and MUET fees last week, and even though mom's helping me out a bit with the fees, I'm still gonna be left with little cash to spare. :(

From top to bottom: Mathematics 1, General Studies, Microeconomics, and Macroeconomics.
Every one of them thick, heavy and intimidating, with enough to make your head explode from reading it.

There's still more books to come tomorrow and the day after. The good part is that they're usable for the next year and a half, the bad part is that they're easily worn out and some books smell like they've been dipped in a chlorine solution. x.X

About the books, I'm pretty glad that they're using English for Mathematics, and that the Science stream students are also taking Science and Mathematics lessons fully in English, though some students would find it hard to cope with. And also, if I'm seriously gonna take Malay Language I need to get an additional four more books.

Even though Form 6's much more affordable than college, education still doesn't come cheap indeed.

Technorati tags: Form 6, books

Last.fm

2006-05-21T20:20:00.000+08:00

Now this is pretty nifty! Last.fm is a website that lets you track your music and your musical tastes through a plugin in WMP, Winamp or any other music players. Been seeing it around some forums for quite a while, and it was only till recently did I sign up for it.

Apart from forum signatures, I originally wanted this to be placed in my blog's sidebar, but apparently all of the designs are too wide. Not sure placing anywhere else would look nice either, so I'll just paste it in my blog here. :)

Nothing fancy, but this one looks neat. And as you can see, it's no surprise whose music I listen to frequently. :P

Technorati tag: Last.fm

First Week of Form 6

2006-05-21T18:38:00.000+08:00

As expected, the first schooling day of Form 6 started with a bang rather than a whimper. :P First day and I was already late when I reached there, and to make things worse I couldn't find the place where the students were supposed to gather. Luckily a bit later a prefect told me to head to the music room (yesh the supposedly same creepy music room). Headcount at the end of the day was roughly 90 students for the science stream students and 70 for the humanities stream students.

I won't ramble that much about the week, but just wanted to say a bit about it. :P Well, the first day everyone was at the music room, it was only on the second day did we shift to the second lecture hall. The science students had the first lecture hall to themselves there. The bad side for the science students is that they're right next to the teacher's room. If they make a too much of a din every teacher will know, but as for us being at the second floor behind the hall's balcony is a good thing I suppose. We make noise all we want and it gets little attention! xD

So, back to normal school life, back to normal canteen food and living a slightly better life than other students in my school I suppose. The only thing out is that we all students are being watched carefully, by Big Brother. The school just installed CCTVs at just around every corridor, stairwell and corner of the school! Tempted to wave at them as we walk by though. o.O

As for the lecture hall, it was originally a small chapel I think. Behind the mini-stage and white board were statues of the Virgin Mary and Jesus on the cross, all behind a glass partition. The place's air conditioned whenever there's lessons, that's a pretty good incentive to be there every time there's class. :P

Unlucky me for me to be seated at the first seat of the first row. The screen for the projector is just three feet away from my table, and it glares badly towards the eyes when turned on. And it makes things worse when you're sleepy and trying to stay awake. But then lucky me to have Edmund seated next to me though! Thanks man! xD

So for the venue, it's just temporary the headmaster and his assistant said. The rest of the school are busy with their exams, and we using the lecture hall, it's just for the moment. We'll most likely be shifted to another classroom at the start of June. Teachers seem to be pretty good at the moment, though I've heard horrible things about the science stream teachers. Not much work to do for the time being apart from reading a bit, lucky for us too.

So, the first week has ended, and the second week is just beginning. Then the two-week holiday arrives! Hope homework won't be too much of a burden there...

Technorati tag: Form 6

Happy Mother's Day!

2006-05-14T03:56:00.000+08:00

Well, today is Mother's Day!

My mom, she's been around with the family and taking care of for a very long while, and most of the time she there to be the sensible voice for the family. It's no surprise that she's been appreciated. My sister who's in Butterworth, through my dad she sent mom a small bouquet of flowers and a very large chocolate cake from Secret Recipe, a local chain of cake shops. I still remember last year's cake, it was chocolate and coffee. :P

It's been quite a long while since we've tasted a cake like this. *drools*

Luckily I found out a bit earlier that I could finally use my handphone to snap some pics now. So, why not taking a pic of the creamy chocolate cake before eating it? On a related note, check out my LifeLogger profile, I'm gonna be more active there!

So, mom had the honour for the first slice, then dad had a slice, and I had one too...

Fancy a slice? =9

Turns out the whole cake is made out of dark chocolate and covered with dark chocolate. The chocolate taste was overpowering and the cake was certainly very sweet. I haven't even finished this slice of cake yet actually. Though the cake's very nice, Secret Recipe's cakes have always been always been a delight to try, though it wouldn't hurt them to try out a little variety on an all-chocolate cake.

Earlier in the day, sis phoned and told my mom that she was sending the cake and two currypuffs. She also couldn't make it as she was living in Butterworth and busy with plenty of stuff there. So later on when dad handed me the cake and currypuffs did I notice that the currypuffs were in two boxes. Judging by the looks of the box I mentioned to my mom tbat she probably heard wrong as I assumed she meant two boxes rather than two pieces.

So I open the box and this is what I was greeted with...

This is most possibly the world's largest chicken currypuff. 'Tis sort of scary if you ask me.

Dad had tried it already but I haven't yet, and what I could see inside was chicken stuffing, carrots and some other veggies inside. I haven't tried it yet though and am keeping it for tomorrow. My mom won't try it as she's switched to a semi-vegetarian diet in order to improve her health. The cake she's eating though. And by the looks of even if all of us three eat the cake everyday, it'll only be finished after around two weeks of eating. @.@

wittysquirrel at eBay?

2006-05-12T01:32:00.000+08:00

If you ever happen to be browsng at eBay and see the username "wittysquirrel" selling or buying something there, please be aware that the person using that account isn't me at all. I have no idea why did this person just switch his name like that, and his previous nickname "witty3501" yielded no Google results. Was this person's intent on using the same nickname as mine merely an innocent one, or was he jumping on my bandwagon uninvited?

Here's the link to his profile and here's to his account history. If it was really me at eBay, you'd be seeing the username "andylkl" rather than "wittysquirrel" and here's my real profile to back it up. Though I browse eBay most of the time, I'm also mostly inactive when it comes to buying/selling stuff, hence the 0 comments there. If I had a credit card and had full access to a PayPal account, I might not be that idle there. :P

Though it might really be nothing much of an issue here, but I thought it would be best if I could at least blog a bit about this, in case someone could really mistaken this guy for me.

Trigger-Happy TM Net!

2006-05-11T19:00:00.000+08:00

The people working at TM Net are really seemingly trigger-happy and efficient when it comes to suspending people's accounts, but when it comes to reactivating the accounts, they just take their own sweet time to do so. The last time it happened, I had to make three to four calls to their hotline, and this time round I had to call them TWICE and waited more than two hours here!

Today the first time it was a guy who took my call. Oh come on, although it's the third month already, this month's bill wasn't even overdue yet, and I received no red-coloured notices in my postbox. I told that to the guy but was replied to check my e-mail inbox, as they'd be sending notices to the e-mail accounts now rather than snail mail. When everything was done I was told it'd take up to two hours for me to get back online, but two hours passed and the situation remained unchanged. It only took a second phone call to TM Net before it was finally back to normal.

I remembered the guy mentioning about the e-mail notices and took a look in my inbox, and I found this piece of mail. Look at the underlined part.

(Name and e-mail address has been censored to protect the innocent. Well... Okay okay, it's for privacy actually. :P)

So, in addition to TM Net technicians who suspend accounts that gleefully, the connection has also been really bad in the past few nights. And now, we have to pay an extra RM10 for unreliable reactivation? You must be kidding me!

Technorati tags: TM Net, Streamyx

Heng Ee High School and Spooky Rumours

2006-05-11T03:25:00.000+08:00

I was doing some Google searches about my high school when I found two threads from the Ragnarok Online forums. And though it does unnerve me a little, like any other places Heng Ee High School does emit its own creepyness sometimes. Going back to the school for a sixth and soon seventh year really is making me revisit the "rumours" of spooks and any other supernatural occurance in my school. What can I say? It's a favourite topic of mine! :P

If you're sorta squirmish or sensitive regarding this topic, it's advisable to stop reading at once and turn away from this post!

Snippet from this thread:

"haihz.. at penang "heng ee" skoll... case happen when the maingate(three of them) the last gate count from left to right,open sure got accident 1.. and once it happen on my friends boyfren.. i was sad enough coz i noe the guy.. my friend cry till faint when my friend go seehes bf face.. she said she saw hes bf smiling at him.. then gone ady... hes bf body was separated into 2 parts..

once the heng ee open STUPID GATE!~ got 1 boy let skol buss roll over hes head.. and the brains pop out falls on the drink seller uncle stall.. many ppl say the boy self fall down when hes the 1st person run out using dat gate.. hes juz form 1.. the boy was rakan sebaya member..in science garden many ppl say they saw the kid there playing water!! the headmaster wif all teacher pray him ask him don disturb the students.. until muz call hes mother come say sorry coz on dat day hes mother saw hes son ran out b4 got crush hes mom scold him bad word..he run around the skkol corridor everymorning and play piano in hall.. haiz.. all hes mother fault la.. the kid beh siok revenge!!"

Just for the fact fiders searching for any grains of truth in this rumour. Well, this incident happened in 2000, a year before my batch, and the kid was indeed Form 1 when that unfortunate incident occured. He was run over by a school bus right outside the school gate (third gate or not I don't know).

A bit of info about the third gate here. If you're standing from the outside and facing towards the school, the third gate is on the most right-hand side. Personally I've never seen the gate being open before, but now students park their bikes at the gate now. Really interesting to know that there's a rumour like this revolving around the gate. o.O

And whether or not his spirit really roams throughout the school I also don't know about that. But what I can verify is that teachers and the headmaster have set aside a day where they'll light up joss sticks and burn some "gold paper" in the school garden which is right outside the teacher's office. I've seen it with my own eyes here. Whether or not you choose to associate this with the boy's spirit, it's for you to decide.

Snippet from this thread:

"But got 1 more 4got tell.. Theirmusical room also very geli.. If morning skoll ppl,Some bad luk will saw red colour thing moving around de.. The red thing dissapear when ppl go in the room de.."

There's two music rooms in the school, one on the second floor and one on the third floor, both on the newer block. The one of the second floor keeps all of the musical instruments for the brass band and also the school's Chinese orchestra. When anyone plays in the room it creates a loud din, but when there's no one the rooms are eeriely silent. And not to mention the stairway leading directly to the two rooms is dark and gloomy too. For me I haven't seen anything there at all.

There's also this post and the post underneath it. However I knew neither of the things that this guy wrote there. However the post underneath it indeed mentions a running rumour within the school, a rumour that someone from the school will die every year. That's just plain poppycock in reality though. Though there still were cases of people from the school (including a teacher) passing away in 2003 and 2004, there were none in 2005 as far as I know of, and I definitely hope everyone's safe this year round.

And on a personal note here, my Form 2 Chinese teacher (Mrs. Low) once mentioned in class that she once had a new student who was transferred from another school. Apparently this guy had a "third eye" and could see spirits, and he mentioned to my teacher that he saw "things" everywhere in the school, in the hallways and in the toilets those sorts of places. A month later he was transferred from my school into another one.

In conclusion, keep an open mind and take everything that you've read (including this blog post here) with a grain of salt. I'm a skeptic of most paranormal-related stuff, and even though I enjoy reading about it, it doesn't make me a believer. It's best not to tempt fate, and even I'm gonna touch wood several times for writing this blog post, just to be on the safe side. :P

Monday Form 6 Briefing

2006-05-11T02:35:00.000+08:00

Last Monday, on the 8th, I didn't expect to see so many former Form 5 students sitting in my school's lecture hall to listen to the briefing. Heck, even those who didn't plan to head onwards to Form 6 just attended for fun and listen to the briefing.

During the whole two hours there starting from 8:30am (I was only late a few minutes), the whole lecture hall was filled to the brim until extra chairs had to be brought in and folks had not choice but sit on the steps. Even then people were still coming in. Man, who would've thought it would attract such a big crowd here?

So, during the whole course of the briefing, there were two teachers, the assistant headmaster and headmaster himself giving talks in the hall. Stuff like subjects offered by the school, exam papers, MUET, and frequently asked questions about Form 6 were all well covered.

It's confirmed that the Form 6 boys need not have crew cuts, the headmaster received cheers and a round of applause for announcing that. But this got a bad response from the girls, and the boys later retorted that it's the girls who should have crew cuts! Hehe!

So, the subjects offered for the science stream students were:
1. General Studies
2. Mathematics S+T
3. Chemistry
4. Biology or Physics

For the last option there, they couldn't choose both as Biology and Physics students were seperated in two classes.

For humanities students like me, the school only offers:
1. General Studies
2. Economics
3. Mathematics S or Chinese Language
4. Business Studies
5. Accountings or Malay Language

General Studies and Economics were mandatory subjects, but the last five subjects were all optional. The only reason it was grouped like that was because the timetable for choices #3 and #5 would overlap, so they couldn't take two subjects if the schedule conflicts. Overall, my school's not that flexible if you ask me.

Well, there was no History and no Literature in English, so the subjects that I went with were General Studies, Economics, Mathematics S, Business Studies and Malay language as the optional fifth subject. o.o I'm not on good relations with the Malay Language teacher ever since she teached me in Form 3, but I'm willing to see what happens next. No harm done if I drop out of that subject later on. :P

So, the briefing eventually took an extra half-hour and only ended at 10:30am. Met some old buddies, and couldn't even recognise some. Some looked totally fit from their National Service stint, some looked even cooler than before, but a friend of mine really stood out there. If Noodle from the band Gorillaz ever had an elder brother, I'd imagine him to be very similar to my friend here. o.o

An interesting note about that Monday was that it was only six minutes before the briefing start and yet I had to scoop a pair of kittens from the road and place them safely on the sidewalk. Darn lady didn't dare to pick up the kitten underneath her parked car so I had to do the dirty work. Didn't see the kittens on my way back though.

And also, I was wrong about the headmaster transferred to another school. Very wrong. My sincere apologies in case anyone leapt in joy from my original announcement there.

Technorati tags: Form 6

Mystery of the Blinking Lights Solved!

2006-05-09T18:29:00.000+08:00

Nope, it has nothing to do with too much power being used, it has nothing to do with my computer, it's not the generators supplying not enough power, it's not our neighbours stealing our electricity, and it's definitely not anything spooky that led to the electricity problems in my house.

You know what was the culprit? Two faulty parts, one part was inside the electric meter and the other part was inside the fuse box. The part in the meter which was directly connected to the in-cable was already burnt black when the house owner and his cousin (an electrician) checked it on Saturday. The other part I'm not sure how do describe it, as I don't know much about electrical components anyways. Both the parts were changed, it took the two of them two hours to fix it, and thankfully the problem's all solved now.

About the burnt part, no wonder the electric meter went fast and made my computer restart here. Really hope my CPU wasn't damaged too bad from that 2-3 weeks of random restarts. =\ I should really get a small power supply unit for the computer some time soon.

Form 6 Preparations

2006-05-07T03:31:00.000+08:00

So, it's official.

Form 6 classes starts on May 15th, and on there's a briefing for all of the heading-to-Form 6 students in my school on next Monday. Bring along your SPM results slip, IC and birth certificate (the letter said so, but maybe it's only for students applying for my school but heck, I'll bring 'em anyways).

My half-year holidays are coming to an end, and classes are starting in two weeks. I just only got to knew from the headmaster that mixing and matching subjects is indeed possible in my school, contrary to what I heard from my friends. I'm currently in the Kemanusiaan (Humanities) stream and not the science stream. If I had taken the science stream earlier on, it would be as clear as daylight which subjects I'm gonna choose. So I'm in the other stream, and definitely still undecided yet for the subjects that I'm gonna choose here.

1. Pengajian Am (General Studies)
2. Ekonomi (Economics)
3. Pengajian Perniagaan (Business Studies)
?. Literature in English...?
?. Sejarah (History)...?
?. Mathematics S...?

The subject I'm currently avoiding like the plague is Perakaunan (Accountings). If the school gives me a breather and allows me to skip it, I'll gladly do so. If they force me to take it with Economics then I have no choice sadly. The subject itself is just okay, but I'd like to move on with other subjects now thank you very much.

Text books, reference books, a few long white pants and school shirts, and lastly a new pair of school shoes, these are some of the stuff that I need to get first. No choice but to join in the rush on Wesak Day this Friday. Btw, Mom also reminded me, bottles of milk, Bodhi tree (points for you if know what I mean :)).

So now, any thoughts about the subjects I'm considering here? Which ones should I take? Which ones I shouldn't take?

On a semi-related note, does anybody who read The Star remember reading this piece of article about new school headmasters? Well, although it wasn't mentioned in the article, but Heng Ee High School also has a new headmaster! Hip-hip hurray! :D

Technorati tags: Form 6

Malaysia's Thomas Cup (Mis)adventure

2006-05-06T16:55:00.000+08:00

Malaysia's match against Denmark last night, broadcasted live on TV2. It was...

So exciting and thrilling!

So fast-paced and heart pounding!

So proud and happy to see the Malaysian supporters in Japan!

So glad to hear them cheer out loud for the team!

And yet...

So heartbroken when the team lost the tie 2-3.

So disappointed that we could've actually won and gotten into the finals.

So annoyed that the Badminton Association of Malaysia could've fielded a stronger team.

Malaysia's bad streak of its national team in tournaments continues, when and where it'll end no one knows. First the Malaysian men's hockey team failed to qualify for the Hockey World Cup even though they were the bronze medalists of the Melbourne Commonwealth Games. That was a tremendous disappointment seriously.

Then it was the recently concluded (for Malaysia) badminton Thomas Cup championships. Despite boasting one of the largest contingents which included an entire sparring team, physical trainers, a nutritionist, sports analysts, a psychologist and masseurs, which raised the eyebrows of the other teams, we still came back empty handed for the seventh time in a row!

Really am doubtful towards BAM's preparations towards the tournament, were they so confident of their singles lineup that they chose Kuan Beng Hong as the fourth singles shuttler? Including Kuan there was a gamble itself, and sadly it didn't pay off well. No offence intended though. And well, in the second singles Hafiz Hashim could've killed off Kenneth Jonassen after taking a one-set lead, and Malaysia would've likely ended up with a 3-1 scoreline and a ticket to the finals instead of a 2-3 loss. Too bad I missed watching the first singles and doubles matches though. Turned on the TV and it was the Hafiz-Jonassen match already there.

That's enough bashing about the players who lost. To be honest I think Lady Luck just wasn't with the team. Captain Wong Choong Hann's injury to his Achilles tendon was just plain bad luck, and even if the team managed to scrape through last night's match with all of their effort, I'm sort of doubtful if they have enough energy to face China's team.

Well overall, it was still a good effort from the team there. The doubles pairs did well against the odds to beat their Danish opponents, and the singles did their job throughout the tournament. The shuttlecocks were blazing fast and furious, definitely a very quick match in terms of playing.

Next time then Malaysia, and prepare well for 2008 edition! 8th time's the charm!

Technorati tags: Malaysia, badminton, Thomas Cup

18. Finally.

2006-05-04T18:36:00.000+08:00

Just a very short blog post here.

On this very day, I turned 18! :D

Hectic Day

2006-04-29T02:43:00.000+08:00

Phew! Pretty much a hectic day today. After days and days of postponing (with no help from me and my mom, on alternate days), finally got to settle roughly 90% of the things that needed to be settled.

All in all, managed to pay off the electricity and phone bills at the bank, renew both me and my mom's magazines for the year, and get the housing application forms for the apartment that's currently in construction, all within the space of 3 hours and a kereta sapu with a driver patient enough to wait through it.

Coincidentally at the post office, I saw the old man who works as a fortune teller and living in a flat near the Jelutong municiple wet market. I recognised him but I don't believe he really remembered who I was, or did he? He was picking up a parcel from the post office and walked quite a long while to get to the place.

Anyways, am heading off to bed now. Goodnight everyone. :)

Flickering Lights / Headphones

2006-04-08T04:12:00.000+08:00

I have absolutely no idea why the lights in my apartment blink at times. First it was just quick blinks for several hours, everyone including my parents could just shrug it off and ignore it. Then the flickering got worse until the fluorescent lights itself stop working for a few seconds and interrupt the power of my CPU, making it restart by itself.

It came up a few days ago while I was using my computer for several hours, but stuff like these never happened before. I'm guessing that my leaving my computer on to download through BitComet might be a reason for it though, and it uses too much power from a power point. Eh, it's just a guess of mine. Though when I spoke to dad about the lights, his voice lowered and spoke with a whisper and said "it's a ghost". Boy did I enjoy what he managed to tell and spook me when I was a kid, but seriously this can be scientifically explained. I'm a skeptic now, though I see stuff at the edge of my eyes occasionally. I just shrug it off too.

Anyways, have to either cut down the use of the TV and computer though. The worst was these past two nights, but then now the situation seems somewhat okay already.

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

Got myself another pair of Philips headphones last month. It's a pair of closed ear headphones. 40 bucks, it kinda burned a hole in my pockets though. Imagine the pain that I went through when nephew tried to stretch the headphones. Grrrr... Anyways, another week or two after that, I dropped it and the sound quality of the left side declinded big time. It became somewhat muffled but it can be solved crudely by adjusting the balance of the sound.

Strangely, a second accidental drop a week ago fixed that problem but it introduced another problem. Wires seem to be a bit lose, and the sound partly or completely disappears when that happens. Stuffing the base of the wires deep inside helped a bit though. If it was others I think I might've chucked this pair of headphones away, but I definitely wouldn't. I'm gonna get a better pair in the future, and I absolutely will not let it fall into the hands of a kid again!

Chess MSSPP Musings

2006-04-07T21:56:00.000+08:00

Y'know, I didn't even knew that the chess MSSPP championship was in progress until a friend of mine told me about it through MSN. Thanks Randy! As usual, the competition was held from 28-30 March and 4-7 April, which is always on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. First one is individual events and second one is team events. My fault for not completely blogging about last year's event though. Kinda lost the mood and motivation to resume blogging about it.

So anyways, I only attended the team events, which is on Tuesday and Wednesday, Thursday is just too early for me to catch it. Besides, it takes a good 20 minutes for me to walk slowly to Penang Free School (the venue again this year), I need the exercise too, considering I don't usually get outside much nowadays. Also tried out having lunch at the McDonalds there! :9

So, I was there and watched the Under-15 boys team of Heng Ee crushing Methodist Boys' School 4-0, the Under-18 team was busy dealing with a Malay secondary school whose name I can't really remember right now. On the second day of the team events both Under-15 and Under-18 teams were up against St. Xavier's Institution, and both teams lost by a score of 1.5-2.5.

I was there to sorta cheer for my high school team, absolutely had no pressure for me cause I wasn't participating this year. :P Can't say the same for next year though, if I head to Form 6. Disappointing sometimes, when I saw some of the players playing against their opponents, the only thing in my mind is "j00 R royally screwed". No kidding there. Just make a mistake there, and you're screwed for real.

About our school's results, my friend got sixth place out of 135 participants in the Under-18 boys category, this is the best ever result that I have ever seen! Didn't manage to blog about it last year, but I got 18th placing with 5.5 points and that was the best result as of then. This year my friend topped up that acheivement with 6.5 points! :D Anyways, looks like we Heng Ee folks are gonna keep up with having the highest unrated players! :P As for team events, Under-18 team finished sixth while Under-15 boys were placed fourth for the second year in a row. Not a bad result I'd say. :) Most of the results can be obtained through the Penang Chess Association's website here.

On a somewhat related note here, I wanted to squeeze in a mention in this blog post about something that happened during last year's competition. I had a very bad encounter with a person. If you happen to come upon this post and know what I'm talking about, I want to let you know that I will not apologise for what I did because you are so 'effing rude! Even until now!

That's all for now. Thank you for reading.

Technorati tags: Chess, MSSPP

Cleanup and Status Update

2006-03-28T04:36:00.000+08:00

Just a blog post about well, this blog really. Cleanup and status update. :)

I recently just removed some links to other blogs seeing that it's dead, domain's expired or it's just not worth linking anymore. Did browse most of the blogs in my list and I'll decide whether or not I'll keep them after reading it later on. After all, I think I did miss quite a lot when I was leaving this blog unattended. My principle in exchanging links is that if you link me I'll surely link back to you. Of course, that means I'm also open to link exchanges anytime. :P

And the situation of this very blog, it did cross my mind many times while I wasn't blogging. I thought about closing it straightaway for at least three times here, but I'm hesitant to do so. Thought about moving towards another blogging system, thought about moving to another website, those are really some nice suggestions, but after all home is still home, think that down inside here I'm actually glad that I didn't close it down. I've still not outgrown Blogger yet, trusty old pal. :)

Leggy Woes

2006-03-28T03:05:00.000+08:00

Two weeks ago, and just a few days before I was due to collect my SPM results, I felt something wrong with my legs. First it was the left leg, then when my left leg was better it changed to my right leg and vice versa. Pretty strange really, to see my leg taking turns to ache.

So, I think the most likely that's causing my leg to hurt is my err... 8 or 9 year old swivelling computer chair. Noticed that the seat's too low and my legs bending like that for most of the day made it strained out. Could be the nerves under my knees that was affected due to my sitting position.

Anyways, during the four days of pain, I couldn't straighten or bend my knees without wincing. At the end of the fourth day, just plain simple walking was like trotting through HELL. No kidding. I tried to stay in bed or at least on the couch for most of the day, but seeing that I actually had to get up to get some drinks or food, or even heck, going to the toilet for a pee was excruciating.

And when night came and dad was back from work, dad and mom took me to a clinic that my sixth aunt recommended. Now as I mentioned earlier, plain walking was already painful, but yet I had to get dressed, get out of the house, walk down the stairs, getting myself into the carseat as soon as possible (traffic at the back of the car), finding the way to the clinic (turns out that sixth aunt gave us the wrong name of the road), get out of the car quickly (traffic again), made my way to the clinic and sit down yet again to wait for my number. I tell you, it was basically one whole year of pain compacted into four little days. Being greeted in the doctor's office with his cushiony high stool was the only relief of the day, to be honest.

Later it turns out the doctor says I shouldn't go hiking with my condition, I should take more breaks while I'm at the computer, and that I was already running a fever and I didn't realise it. And when I got the perscription, you know how clinics are operated in Malaysia, the nurse at the counter says "take X pills/tablets every Y hours" for each packet, and we don't get to know exactly what the names of those medicine are. Worries me a bit, actually. So, I guess one of those tablets was painkillers, because you just can't imagine the relief I had a few hours after taking a few of those pills. So yeah, it was very much better the day after, and I could manage to walk to school and collect my results slip!

Fastforward to few days ago, the same problem seems to have strucked me again. Though this time, I was sitting a higher chair now, a wooden stool to be precise. My back complains quite a lot since then due to its lack of a backrest actually, but heck as long as my leg doesn't bother me, I'm absolutely fine with it! Back on topic, it was the same problem, but I'm not really sure what is the problem that's making all of these trouble for my legs. Could be due to my chair again, could be my intake of caffeine, and mom suggested to keep my legs dry. And just yesterday, I think I've hurted my right kneecap due to trying some situps at the knee. Took the same tablets and it's much better now, but the pain's not completely gone though. It's still there, hope the problem goes away by itself soon.

Apologies for the long post though. :P

SPM Results

2006-03-22T21:35:00.000+08:00

Just before I wrap up my blogging stint here in Blogger, I think I'd better update this blog first. :)

Well, I got my SPM results on the afternoon of March 13, together with Chyi Shen, my friend. Anyways, here's my results:

A1
English (GCE-O A2)
Science
Mathematics

A2
Malay Language
History

B3
Moral Studies
Economics Basics

B4
Additional Maths
Principles of Accounting

C5
Chinese Language

Overall I'm pretty much satisfied with my results, though I should've gotten an A for Economics there. Besides, I never went for tuition anyways. :P After this, am really considering to head onwards to Form 6 back in my high school, later onwards to university. Don't think I can afford the thousands and thousands of ringgit to study at the colleges here.

Well, this is just a short update for the time being! :D

Le Tour de Langkawi is Here!

2006-02-07T03:44:00.000+08:00

Another year, another edition of Le Tour de Langkawi! It's definitely a fascinating race to watch, it's just a pity that it's not available live on free-to-air TV, and we have to settle for a summarised show at 7:30pm on TV3. Blargh.

Was hoping that the race would make its way back to Langkawi this time round and hopefully pass through Penang, but I guess closing off the Penang Bridge nearing the Chinese New Year season would be a very very very bad decision. I just hope I can get to participate as a spectator at the finish line though in the future. :P

As for the cyclists, am rooting for the Malaysian national team of course! First noticed Sharulneeza Razali since his silver-medal winning performance in the 1998 KL Commonwealth Games in the road race. Surprised that he's still participating even until now. Jojo Struys of Kopitiam fame is also the presenter for this edition of the race, along with two Westerners behind the screens which I can't remember their names at the moment. For the moment the races seem to be pretty interesting, Genting's gonna pull in the money, crowd and publicity of being the finishing line at one of those stages.

Anyways, I don't know why but I just can't describe the allure of watching bicycle races like this, but heck since Kraftwerk's such a rabid fan of Tour de France, I'm also getting in the groove. That reminds me, I'm also giving Tour de France Soundtracks another spin... err, I meant listen. Review's either coming up soon or it's gonna come up during this year's edition of Tour de France. ;)

By the way, wouldn't a Le Tour de Langkawi Soundtracks album sound good? I'd get it if it exists! :D

External links:
- Official site of Le Tour de Langkawi
- Le Tour de Langkawi at Wikipedia (I need to expand and add more content to the article though)
- Tour de France Soundtracks at Wikipedia

Technorati tag: Le Tour de Langkawi

CNY Update

2006-02-06T01:44:00.000+08:00

Originally written on January 28, 2006, 9:02pm:
------------------------
If your past week was sorta boring, and you think you had nothing to do, you should know that you're once heck of a lucky person to not be out there doing all of those cleaning and housework. Man, I'm gonna be so relieved that I'm not going to do all of those chores until next year. Cleaning this little apartment is hard enough already.

Anyways, will be scuttering around Penang island and also mainland Butterworth in the next few days to visit family and relatives. Red packet money! Red packet money! Red packet... ahh, sorry about that, was slowly turning myself into money-minded. :P

Bro, his wife and his two kids have arrived at our place here so that we'd have a nice reunion dinner.
------------------------

Typed the above post during that time but didn't publish it though. Well, now that I look at my blog post, things have turned out sorta differently. First, up till even now we haven't even had a chance to go visiting yet, due to mom's weak health. She found a Chinese physician but is sorta reluctant to take the medications and herbs that the physician prescribed. She's sorta worried that diagnosis went a bit off course and that taking the medication it might get even worse.

And anyways, big sis' came on the first day of CNY, niece and nephew have grown up much I noticed, he's a bit more mature now but there's still some traces of ADD inside him, and she's starting to wear her mom's old clothes, she still has some traces of BDSM behaviour inside of her, I believe it!

Didn't get to see second sis' kid, cause he was ill before CNY and was at home recovering I think, but anyways am quite disturbed to see that sis and her hubby both wore black clothes when they visited on the third day; and oh this bro-in-law wiped out my cookies and cache while using my comp, but not a peep out of my mouth.

Third sis and her family of her, her hubby, her 16 and 15 year old and also triplets which were all daughters, arrived on the second day. Meh, we weren't that close and I went and hid in myself in my room, reading January's copy of National Geographic. That reminds me, I have to renew my magazine subscription very soon.

Bro, her wife and two kids arrived on New Year's eve, so that sis-in-law could cook up our reunion dinner. Though the food was err... pretty much above average I'd say. Fried prawns, fish meat fried with batter and served with sweet and sour sauce, broccoli, cauliflower and baby sweetcorn stir fried, vegetable soup which had fish flavour, and lastly the roasted chicken and pork that dad ordered earlier. Awww crap, I'm even feeling hungry right now. But anyways, the only thing I'm horrified is how sis-in-law managed to scratch up mom's cookware so badly? She reminds me of big sis' Indonesian maid, they're both cookware killers!

I still have to speak out a bit about my bro's oldest kid, which is 9 years old now. Apparently his hands are very itchy fingers. He just likes to get his little hands onto everything! He can't keep himself from wandering off and he can't hold himself from climbing the railing of my balcony. Worse yet is his mom scolds him just at the wrong frickin' time. Ugh. But I'd be willing to hope that kids like 'em grow out of it by the time they're finished with primary school.

Moving away from talk about my sis and bro's families, mom's health has been weakened in these past few weeks. She tends to be easily out of breath during the afternoon, especially when after she does a bit of housework. Could be the Chinese concept of "wind" that's making her weak like that. But anyways she said she had a flu earlier, that might've already weakened her body.

Dad? All I can say is that he seems to be getting skinner, and that's honestly a bit of a worry for me. He's still very childlike for his age, though I don't quite understand why would be leave his beard and moustache and purposely dress himself more older? Sometimes he doesn't manage to help mom's situation, but worsens it. But anyways, he's my dad after all and he does manage to do his duties in taking care of mom together with me.

As for me I was down with sore throat a few days ago. Must be a viral infection or something but I got it under control with some cough syrup. Even though it has alcohol but heck I'm not taking that nasty thing even if it was for fun. Chilling out with Mike Oldfield and his Tres Lunas II album at the moment, though I saw the first album at Gurney's Popular Book Store outlet. That place there has impressive CD stock I tell you!!

So anyways, it's 2:17am and the whole family has already finished praying the Jade Emperor's birthday at our own home, though for the past 5 years or so we've been doing that at our bro's house. Two hours ago the whole skyline of Penang was flooded with dazzling fireworks, this showing of pyrotechnics was definitely much much much bigger than the one on Chinese New Year that day. Strange thing is, CNY isn't what it used to be anymore. I can feel it.

Anyways, despite the cheerful fireworks everywhere, it really is a solemn night, at least for me. Had some bad news involving the people that I know the most closest, and I'm hoping that things will go nowhere else but up. Dad's supposed to start work on this Tuesday, and I definitely hope that his boss will secure that contract. Or else it's going to be an "extended vacation".

Well, that's all that I've gotta say now. One week's worth of thought blogged out. Man do I feel relieved or what?

External links:
- Jade Emperor's birthday from AllMalaysia.info
- KTemoc explains

Technorati tag: Chinese New Year

Hooked on Stargate Atlantis

2006-01-17T04:46:00.000+08:00

Seriously, that sci-fi TV series rocks! :D I've just spent roughly four days downloading the whole of season 1 and watched six episodes just today. Though it's currently airing on TV2 every Thursday night, I happened to miss watching most of the first four episodes, and after watching those I figured "what the heck?" and watched another two shows ahead of its airing on TV2!

The only thing keeping me from continuing on from watching it is that it's currently 4:50am now. Just some info, the copy that I'm watching now is ripped from the US' Sci-Fi channel and it seems that it runs for roughly 42 minutes each episode, and plus commercials are snipped off too! :D

Close Down Blog?

2006-01-13T01:39:00.000+08:00

Finally, I'm going to admit this: I don't think I would like to continue blogging here anymore. I can't exactly tell you why, but the feeling has sorta left me all of a sudden. So, it's best I don't leave anybody still reading this blog in a limbo and wonder why aren't I posting weeks on end.

Truth is, I'm ready to move on, though maybe not using the moniker "WittySquirrel" anymore, but I'll still be blogging at another site. :) Though before I decide to close down this blog or not, I still have one outstanding serious blog post that I need to post here on the internet. Nontheless, if I close this blog down, I'll let you all know what the new address is, so don't worry. :P

Blogger to me seems a bit restrictive now, and since I already have a domain name and website (not gonna tell you guys yet), I'm gonna try it out with Wordpress or some other kind of blogging system.

I still have quite a lot of stuff that I want to spill out, so I'm not gonna fully seal my mouth yet. :P

I Need A Road Map

2006-01-09T02:18:00.000+08:00

Glancing through Google Maps, and still waiting for clearer satellite pics to turn up, and squinting my eyes at what looks like to be the Penang Turf Club or a gigantic but dry swimming pool, I just realised that I still don't know where my home is if you just give me a general map of Penang island.

After 5 years, still clueless in my home island, sort of.

I need a road map.

MyKad Rush

2005-12-31T02:58:00.000+08:00

It's always us Malaysians that have the "Last Minute Syndrome", don't we? If you give us plenty of time, there's no urgency and eventually it'll slip out of your mind until the 11th hour.

Actually me and the rest of my family are sorta guilty of it too, since we were among the droves of people that flocked to the National Registration Department to get our old ICs changed for free before the deadline. I was there on Tuesday and was surprised to get number 1725 (dad and mom two number ahead) even at 9am, and eventually our applications got processed at 5pm. It took an amazing 8 hours of waiting! We didn't even bother to wait the whole 8 hours, so we went elsewhere to enquire about a new apartment block and later had lunch, only to be back at 2pm. Needless to say, the 3 hours spent waiting there was as long as eternity.

But heck, if I were to compare Tuesday's visit to the Department and the news that I've seen from Wednesday onwards, I think we may have actually got the better end of the stick. Lines snaking from early in the morning from the clerk's desk until the elevators and right out on the street, just to get their numbers! And now there's people even willing to pay RM50 just to get a good number. Are they seriously whacked out insane?

Though I very much think that there should at least be some explanation on the price charged for the applicants after the Dec. 31 deadline. When I was there my mom kept hearing rumours that it's gonna be a RM100 or RM200 fine, and hence I suppose the urgency now. And it's not even gonna be a fine, just an application fee.

You know what? I'm willing to bet that after the deadline's passed, you're going to see another batch of people who don't even want to bother changing their ICs, the so-called "tidak apa" ones.

And gah, have to make another trip to the Department again. Blame it on dad, who didn't notice that the person processing his application left out a section of the address. But then I think we'd have to wait until January, lest we get trampled by the crowds.

External links:
- The MyKad that we're gonna get, if nothing goes wrong.
- News from The Star on Dec. 29. (More links and pics at the end of that article)

Warming Up!

2005-12-30T22:49:00.000+08:00

Yeah, I do seriously need to do a little warming up in order to blog, since my mind's sorta messed up at the moment. There's some topics that I'm itching to blog about, and now I sorta am in the mood to progress on my almost forgotten 2004 NaNo novel. Some interesting thoughts and ideas popped into my mind recently. It's just that I'm easily distracted and generally my willpower is rather weak. :)

Something just hit me just now, I'm very much adjusted to my headphones but I still want an mp3 player so badly before Chinese New Year. Plus, I think I've already built up a collection of songs and albums, so it'll squash the boredom that I'll have to endure in my aunt's house for hours on end. Ergh.

Drunk and Racist Idiots

2005-12-13T00:09:00.000+08:00

For those in the dark, some drunk and idiotic Australians have been inciting trouble right in their own back yard, but apparently it's been taken over into cyberspace. Don't get me wrong about Aussies, I love you guys but I'm 100% for the extermination of pure-bred idiots and racists, whatever nationality they may be.

Okay, so what does that piece of breaking news got to do with this blog and by extention to me? Well, a very nice and very polite moron by the name of Frank Sykes left this comment on one of my blog posts. Instead of being pissed and shocked, I'm going to take it one step further and dedicate an entire blog post about your brainless comment as a perfect example of a racist idiot. I can be very nice, but it's been long since I had a good reason to flame.

Look away if you can't tolerate bad words. This website will not be held responsible for whatever comment this moron made. If you're angry, go and find him.

You Malaysian are SO fucking ugly,it's unbelievable!! I visited your Third World country last Christmas,and I was truly gobsmacked (if you don't know what that means,look it up in the dictionary) to discover just how smelly and ugly you motherfuckers are. You people are so short,dark,and dumb. With your flat noses and brown skin,you wankers look far more than monkeys than proper human beings. We all have one life to live,and I'm SO glad that I was born an Australian instead of a fucking chimpanzee lookalike!! Nevertheless,I want to fuck a Malay moslem bitch,because I have been told that Malay bitches give EXCELLENT blow-jobs. Any offers?
Frank Sykes, at 11:35 PM

Here's a Google search on Mr. Frank Sykes who has the balls to drop a random insult into a blog but has no balls to provide a website or at least a puny e-mail. It might not be entirely accurate, so don't go and drop off another random flame e-mail into the wrong inbox.

Here's an analysis of the above comment:

Without stooping to the level of "Yo Momma is so ugly" jokes, I can say that Mr. Frank Sykes is obviously as blind as a bat and ought to find a random cow for an eyeball transplant. What, you've heard of Lina Teoh before? You've never heard of Michelle Yeoh before? Oh wait, I'm sorry, you're too trapped into your own egoist world to ever venture out of own cocoon. Oh wait again, I'm so sorry, you were in Malaysia before? You were in Malaysia before so you can have a "holier than thou" attitude? Burned by the local taxi conmen? Boo hoo. You'd better not be back in Malaysia for a second time or else I'll be hoping somebody strips you to your underpants and tosses you into the middle of the Straits of Malacca. But I'll be merciful and pray that you get tossed into the sea with a life preserver and eventually float into Indonesia's pirate infested waters. They love you so much. Oh wait, they don't actually love you, they love your touri$t dollar$.

Now, you want to tell us how we smell? Either you have the sense of smell as keen as Superman, or you have a one nasty fetish of getting close to people in order smell them. Don't even talk about Malaysians, I'd be willing to bet that if you'd be keeping this up, the Australian police would be knocking on your door so they can arrest you for being one heck of a creep. Darn, that's too kind. I should be saying being shoved onto the gravel with your arms twisted and a knee jabbed into your back. That's more comfy, isn't it?

And here we have a classic case of resorting to using expletives such as the four lettered f-word, targeting people who wipe their willies too much and lastly wrapping up with a desire to copulate with somebody. Yawn. Seriously, if you said all of these in front of your mother, she'd smack your face until it was ugly and shove a giant bar of soap into your mouth to clean that filth. Four lettered insults are for immature kiddies who have a limited vocabulary. And dude, HAVE YOU EVEN HEARD ABOUT SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES BEFORE?

GROW UP YOU HORNY BASTARD.

Besides, by his definition, he'd also rather mate with a chimpanzee, monkeys and very ugly people. If you happen to like bananas and live at the zoo, you'd better be very careful. Mr. Sykes is coming for yooooooou...

You think being racist is fun? You think being like the Nazis is fun? You think oppressing other races is fun? You think damaging cars and other people's property is fun? If that's the case let the one who is without sin, cast the first stone onto his/her own car. Yeah, that's right. Since you're so pissed, why don't you make an awesome statement by wrecking your own car! Yeah, that's the way to go! Because destroying your own property is as sensible as destroying other peoples' property which they paid with their own money. Bloody idiots.

You can't get it through your thick skulls, can you? It's idiot racists like you who bring shame to their country. Acting like hooligans and arseholes with no shame. We'd all breathe a little easier if people like you were packed into a spaceship and sent off into the sun. This isn't aimed at people of Australia, but as a matter of fact idiocity spreads far and wide beyond boundaries. Whereever there's people, there's idiocity, and there's also stupidity.

As the insect repellent commercial goes, I can tolerate a lot of things, but the only thing I can't tolerate is friggin idiots. Ah well, it's been nice flaming your arse off. Have a nice day.

And oh, by the way, this first insult in this blog will be perpetually be immortalised in this blog for being a classic insult with zero substance. Any more insults I receive will be promptly deleted.

Somebody Took My Name...

2005-12-06T22:22:00.000+08:00

YOU HAVE TO GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!

Somebody from Panama registered the domain "wittysquirrel dot com" JUST ONLY YESTERDAY!!!

There's only just a placeholder website there at the moment, but I think I've unfortunately gotten myself into a perfect cybersquatting case. Just don't expect me to pay US$50,000 to get it back.

[Edit @ Dec. 12, 2005]: Strange, the domain name is now available again, and the Whois registry for the domain name is wiped clean, and even the placeholder website isn't there anymore. What the heck happened?

Food Poisoning is Nasty...

2005-12-04T01:04:00.000+08:00

Nasty, nasty, nasty, nasty. I can't describe how the bad the day was for me.

Most likely due to food poisoning (think it was the bad orange juice), I made at least 12 trips to the toilet, 7 or 8 during 4am to 6am the night before and 4 times during the afternoon. Scheduling a trip to the clinic would be out of the question because I couldn't even manage to hold my bowels for 10 minutes before erupting. Okay, enough before I manage to gross out anyone who's reading this post. I'm very much better now.

As far as I know, this case of food poisoning was my second since mid-2001. During that time, it was the mid-year school holidays, I had a bowl of cendol the day before, a cup of yogurt the night before, a chess competition the following day, and eventually 3 days leave from school. Boy, that was nasty too.

And people wonder why I'm so freaked out about cleanliness sometimes.

Edit: My day also sucks for the fact that I have only been able to eat dry crackers and porridge with soya sauce lest anything else will make this volcano explode. For what it's worth, no milk for me either. Looks like it'll take at least another day before I can resume to a normal diet.

SPM Jottings...

2005-11-18T17:04:00.000+08:00

I'm half-way done with the SPM exams! The first half of the exams started on November 10 and lasted straight until November 16, with breaks on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of course. I'm just somewhat tense about the subjects that I've taken previously, I didn't really stumble with the questions, but I'm a bit worried if the examiner might disagree with my answers and there goes down the grades.

Anyways, the Form 5 students in my school were taking their exams, some in the hall and some in normal classes. Luckily I was in the hall, and luckily my seat was the closest to the windows when the power switch in the hall tripped. Luckily it was just for 10 minutes or so, and I wasn't disrupted in any way. :P Anyways, the school has recently installed 4 floodlights and numerous other fans that sprinkle vapoury water.

About the subjects, I'm really crossing my fingers for Chinese and Malay, but English seemed to be very easy. w00t! Other easier subjects were modern maths and history. I was sorta panicking before the history paper started, since the topics covered in the textbook is so freaking huge, but thankfully the main topics for the second paper (structured section) was about the economic situation in British Malaya, the hijrah of the Muslims during Prophet Muhammad and Western imperialism in South-East Asia. The only surprise was the questions about the Roman empire's laws. o__O In the essay parts, the paper quizzed about the examination system in China (I think), something about culture in South-East Asia, the response of Sabah, Sarawak, Singapore and Brunei towards Malaysia's formation and Indonesia's opposition, Western imperialism again, and the communist and capitalist blocks after World War II. I answered the last three questions but my memory (or should I say knowledge) of the previous two questions aren't that good. :/

Modern maths were as simple as π! It's just that I had no time to check my answers. :/ English was simple again, though I'm not telling what I wrote for my essay... Only Edmund and a few others know about it! :P

The next paper starts on Tuesday, the first two general science papers and then moral studies in the afternoon. Both additional maths papers on Wednesday. >_< Two more subjects in the week after that, but I'll talk about it later.

By the way, for those thinking about entering Form 6 next year, here's a glimpse of what you'll be facing in the school and STMP examinations. Read it closely, it might be useful. Thanks to Rajan for the link.

"Hello and Welcome" Video Released!

2005-11-08T20:23:00.000+08:00

The music video for the latest Enigma single, "Hello and Welcome" has been released first on Yahoo! Music's German division.

Click here to watch it!

News first came through the EnigmaMusic.com staff. Thanks guys. :)

My two cents:

The opening starts with Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, first appeared on the opening of "The Rivers of Belief" and the ending of "Modern Crusaders", and launches immediately into thumping beats and electric guitars. I'm guessing the guitar is played by Jens Gad, it's as good as Mike Oldfield but unfortunately no arse-kicking guitar solo in the middle of the song.

It's supposed to be the entering music for Felix Sturm, who is a German boxer, and as cool as it seems, the crowd chants keeps reminding me of a football match rather than a boxing ring. The beat is somewhat hip-hop-ish, and Andru Donalds' voice is pretty darn good too, I'd have to say. Nothing to gripe about.

Mixed reviews as usual on the Enigma Message Board, some folks are unable to accept Enigma's evolution and changing with every new album. I posted this post at the message board, in response of some posts I've seen in the thread. My point is you can't really expect Enigma to keep producing the same albums for the next 30 years can you? The musical group, Gregorian has harped on from the success of the first Enigma album and they just keep producing songs with Gregorian chants on and on and on and on. If you have a keen ear, you can literally hear the change from one album to the next. Yes it's changed a whole lot, but in essence the spirit, the core, it's still there and always will be there. Anyways, I'd always preferred some variety, and variety is what Michael Cretu does best. :D

Anyways, I was lucky to have been able to snag up a Windows Media audio copy of the song due to a linking mistake between the Spanish and English versions of the websites. Lucky me. :D

Apartment Hunting, Post-SPM Thoughts and NaNo-ers

2005-11-01T23:35:00.000+08:00

Just came back from visiting my third aunt and looking around her brand new apartment unit, which was also completed just recently. Renovations and other construction stuff was going on, many units were still empty, and apparently there was a furniture sale going on at the ground floor. o__O

"Dusty" is one word I can describe the apartment block, or blocks rather, since it's made out of two seperate blocks complete with its own entrances, guards and multi-story car park. My aunt was lucky to have a unit at the first floor, with the entrance facing empty space instead of rows of units from that floor upwards. Windy, definitely cool and shaded. Man, she's lucky indeed.

She led me and dad up the a small brigde/corridor along the third floor that connects the apartment block to the nearby car park. What we found was that the top floor of the car park was as wide and as empty as err... well it was basically just blank, with concrete floors and just two fire escapes on the sides. Great place for tai-chi practitioners or as my dad suggested, a swimming pool!!! :D

So, my parents are considering getting a unit at the same place since it has its own advantages. The high house rent that we pay every month actually goes to the house owner's mortgage, and we've been living here for almost two years already. It'd be a waste of money if we stay anymore further, though frankly the place where I stay is pleasant enough. So, either this or another apartment project currently in construction near the Sunshine Jelutong supermarket. The showroom definitely shows the possibility of the house can be renovated and decorated to perfection. Keyword: Possbility. Another gripe is that the new unit is way too small. If you place a sofa and a television cabinet in the living room and you don't have enough space to walk through it. Other gripes are that both units don't have balconies and that uhhh... it's new! Change is inevitable, but I'm not sure about whether sooner or later would be better.

* * * * *

After the SPM exams, I'm planning on taking up a job, part time first I guess. It'd be great if I could get some extra income for the family, and the more money the merrier again! :D I know nuts about jobs out there, but it'd be great if I could get a job in book or music stores, since I occasionally see those job advertisements over at the Popular book store at Prangin Mall. Anyone care to help me out on that part? :P

Another post-SPM planning is to learn driving! :D I'm not allowed to grip the handlebars of a motorbike while speeding down the highway at 90km/h while doing a one-handed wheelie without a helmet. Anyways, bro-in-law was nice enough to lend his Proton Saga to the family and though it really isn't in the best of shape, it's usable and seems to be alright enough. Hoping to get my driving lessons through dad, bypassing some expenses not really needed. Driving exams on as usual. :)

* * * * *

Looks like NaNoWriMo has begun! So far the bloggers that I know who are participating in it are, Glassy, 5xmom, thescarfer, viewtru and Chet! I'll be standing aside here cheering you guys in your NaNo novels! :D

My last year's novel was err... still unfinished, still undirected and still unedited. Man, someday I've gotta rewrite that from scratch. Don't know why but the month of November seems to give me so much inspiration in those writing and arting stuff. Tough luck that it clashes with the SPM exams, and I can't even be sure if I can participate in any more future editions if it always clashes with the month of writing. :
Anyways, good luck and "add oil" (加油) to everyone slogging their guts out in the name of literature, writing and one giant dose of self-gratification when it's all finally over!

* * * * *

Anyways, have a Happy Deepavali tonight, Hari Raya in two days time, and Happy Holidays for those with no more school worries!

Regression

2005-10-31T01:38:00.000+08:00

Just when I thought I've got the blogging business all figured it out, turns out I was somewhat wrong... err... again.

Regression has hit me this time round, not possible you say? Usually I hesitate to take a stroll back memory lane and browse through all of my past posts. And you know what? Each and every single blog post back then is 10 or 20 times better than the ones that I'm typing now.

Thinking about it, back then what I had was passion and just one heck of an urge to express it out. I could've definitely produced more blog posts when I had the urge but apathy and laziness struck again. And this time I've lapsed back worse into what I am now before all of this blogging started. "Emotionally void" is indeed true.

Now my mind is just one messy pile of thoughts with no way of straighting it out, and straightening just usually leads to "political correctness", and that's just plain stiff to begin with. I've always thought I was looking forward to progression and self-improvement, but in reality what I didn't manage to handle or cover properly lead me to regression instead.

Eh, I've always thought sometimes short blog posts would be good, you know, short so that you wouldn't have to waste your time looking through all of it. But what I've found out is that it basically means yeilding yourself to commercialism, making yourself to be even more materialistic in the attempt to get more readers to stop by and boosting traffic in the end. This just feels plain wrong. Quality and quantity (interlinked) shouldn't ever be sacrificed for any good reason. What I've previously thought to be correct turns out to be utterly wrong, irony at it's finest. I'm scrapping all preconceptions and misconceptions from now on.

Commercialism? It isn't really supposed to be a good thing. It just hit me that the idea that some websites, blogs and various other stuff that reek of commercialism in essence really do turn me off, and what I'd done subconciously or not, was unacceptable.

This part of this blog post is dedicated to Jin, who I am now keeping my promise to deliver you this piece of information to complete the puzzle. =)

I've been keeping part of my internet life under wraps, and part of that internet life would be hanging around Wikipedia. It's an obsession that I know, but it wasn't until an encounter with another Wikipedian that made me thinking about ejecting myself from the encyclopedia.

You see, even though with its semi-fool-proof policies, as in having a neutral point-of-view, treating other members of Wikipedia with respect and accepting their edits as in good faith, sadly during an immersed discussion these policies would buckle at times under provocation, disagreements and arguements. Yeah, you have those policy so that you can keep a reign on the members, but you certainly can't expect to control their attitude or point-of-view, can't you?

First of all, there is the ego factor. During disagreements basically it means that one party would not admit his or her mistake due to the person's inflated ego. "You're always wrong, I'm always right and I can back up that statement!!!" If it's black and white cases the admins could certainly know whose the offender and deal the appropriate measures or punishment to the offender. Though if the person is a slippery eel or perhaps an admin him/herself, it's getting away scot-free, baby.

Next is the personal attitude of other Wikipedians. Now I've met other nice and welcoming members of the encyclopedia and they've certainly opened up their arms and forgiveness, but sadly people can change over time, and so my perception of them has also changed. I've had disputes before during those course of disputes, I was involved due being blinded by pettyness, and not seeing the tree instead of the forest. If you know me, any problems that I encounter usually can be fixed (because of its simpleness), but the problems that I can't fix are the problems that even the technical experts would have a tough time solving. An example being my computer (rewind back to November and December 2004 archives please).

Anyways, pettyness led me to two seperate disputes on the renouned encyclopedia. Both involving a single word, can you even believe it??? Neither do I actually, in most cases I would most likely close an eyelid and let most edits pass under my watch. But somehow I can't be sure what came over me, the most likely explanation is that I've been inciting those discussion before I had my nap – the time when I'd most likely be twitchy. I do remember myself almost dragging myself into deep shit one time because of my twitchyness, thankfully I accidentally clicked the close button and erased my whole page of accusations and evidence. Man, and I used to thought I was self-controlling but apparently I'm not, again.

Okay, latest incident was involving the dispute with a local Wikipedian. So this person made some edits which I disagreed with, and I promptly sent a message in this person's talk page. I had a nagging feeling with this one actually, and an earlier observation about another person leads me to believe that sometimes I can't get along well with some kinds of people. Probably the ones that seem to rub your fur the wrong way and vice-versa. My problem here is that my comment had an opening which the person could certainly exploit and take advantage of if he had the capability to, and he did.

Now, the course of the discussion itself was alright, but I seemed to notice that we were getting nowhere actually. This person had excuses for every single thing he edited, and evidence to back up with! It's the equilavent of killing a person in cold blood and having a good excuse to to back it up! What I think is that a humbler person would say "I might be wrong, but..." but a person with tons of excuses would say "I might be right". And to talk about going nowhere, the important issues that needed to be ironed out was not settled at all. Seems that this person was more intent on having a debate about the person rather than the person's edits.

That didn't go down well with me, and on seeing the turmulous episodes and adventures that some have went through on the encyclopedia that might even bent or drive a person stark raving mad, I'm now making my decision to leave Wikipedia for the time being. I'm by definition on a "Wikiholiday" as mentioned in my user page, but I might or might not be returning to the encyclopedia to help out anymore. I'm far more statisfied starting and editing articles with me as the main editor as opposed to seeing the pain and suffering that one has to go through during harsh edit conflicts and debates that surround the article.

I've felt humiliated, though I didn't mention this to anyone at all. There isn't really a need to do so. I mean, there were some good times that I had while going through Wikipedia, but I never reached the levels that those considered to be excellent, and in short the bad times didn't really eclipsed the good times, but it sure left a bad feeling inside my mouth for a long time.

You know, I even think that quitting the encyclopedia would do me good. I guess I could've been constricted by the policy of Wikipedia in using the neutral point-of-view policy that led to the "voidness" you've seen around recently in this blog. There's no smoke without fire. Yes, it's all related in one way or another. I'm not confirming myself to their policy anymore (except while editing on their site), and though I keep seeing Wikipedia's growth and expantion of publicity of the encyclopedia on news articles, I hope that every person new to the idea of the encyclopedia to not to be turned off by this blog post. Through some policy updating, streamlining and some attitude adjustment of some members, the concept of an open-encyclopedia is definitely a feasible idea but apparently I've lost the fizzle to keep myself going on it anymore.

Gah, it's now 2:55 in the morning and my fingers are starting to ache now from all of that typing. Will be going to bed now, somewhat satisfied from this immensely long blog post that's been keeping up inside me for a long time, sigh... Goodnight.

[Edit]: I noticed there's many typos in this post, I can't get the spell checker to work correctly, and I don't think I'd like to be an ultra-perfectionist, so I'm closing an eye and letting this one slide through again.

^__^

2005-10-28T01:06:00.000+08:00

I'm feeling glad... though not really happy... because of something...

But I'm not planning on revealing it...

Normal updates will resume as normal tomorrow. :)

The Passing of Malaysia's First Lady

2005-10-20T23:04:00.000+08:00

Deepest condolences to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and the closest relatives of his wife, Datin Seri Endon Mahmood. May she rest in peace.

Links:
Jeff Ooi
The Star

2005 Yearbook and Graduation Rehearsal

2005-10-20T01:26:00.000+08:00

:P

I've my name or pic in at least 4 sections of the 2005 yearbook, class photo, class of 2005 summary, graduation section and lastly the advetorial section (it costed RM60 for a quarter-page ad) which contained my regards to erm... everybody?

Am still mulling about my sleepy-eyed look in the photos. I know that I'm sleepy most of the time, but why the heck do I look sleepy even though I'm awake??? Anyways, I still think I look weird with glasses, but I look even weider without glasses. At least, at least I got myself in the class photo, thank heavens for that.

Is anyone interested if I scan and put a few pages from the yearbook up on this blog?

Rehearsal for this year's graduation ceremony went underway this morning. I can't tell you how sleepy and exhausted I was from getting less than 4 hours sleep the night before. (Irony alert: I'm typing this at over 1 in the morning) Gotta sleep now, I'll continue tomorrow morning. =___=

Glasses!

2005-10-20T01:00:00.000+08:00

I was supposed to collect my glasses from the optometrist last Saturday but I went there on Monday instead. The lack of transportation really bungles everything up sometimes. Anyways, I've now a pair of new frameless and lightweight glasses! :D This new pair made my old ones look like gigantic boulders, as normal metal it rusted a little over time.

As expected, vision in my left eye was even more blurry than ever (think it was because of the weird angle that I used to sit at while on my computer) and so the lens were much thicker than the right lens. Though everything seems much much clearer, I need to get adjusted to the change, it's... different now. The only thing that makes me concern right now is that the whole thing seems to fragile and so darn easy to break apart if you try to take it off too quickly.

Lastly, the guy at the optometrists bugs me a little. Sometimes I get a little disturbed at some of the people that I see around me. He reminds me a bit of the unresponsive lady at the stall during the time I was going vegetarian a month ago. When I told her what I wanted to order, I wasn't really sure if she heard me at all. Just... no response, and that seriously irks me. In the end, I got what I ordered for, but apparently she didn't fully listen and I got one packet wrongly. I'd expected it anyways.

Back to the optometrist, I suppose he could be considered as alright, considering my last optometrist literally was sweating heavily (nervous, him?) during the last consultation 3 years ago. My mom accompanied with me back then, it's normal for people to get nervous at the sight of her anyways. :P

RM270, man they're making big bucks from this I think. The more people start to fumble up their vision, the more money these guys earn. Anyways, I sure as heck hope it's worth every single penny. First it was lightweight headphones, now it's lightweight spectacles, seems to me that perception enchancement is really getting to me now.

Am not rambling any further more. I'll just keep this entry short and sweet. :)

Music/School/Glasses/Wikipedia

2005-10-16T03:22:00.000+08:00

They usually say that chillout music is perfect to listen after a whole night of thumping and loud music.

But what do you turn to if you get too much chillout?

The answer is switching back to radio to good 'ol vocals.

Amidst the most of the ear-jamming songs and sounds that I've heard recently, I think I'm embracing the Bee Gees again.

I had a four-album marathon with Kraftwerk from 11pm till 4am last night, now I'm rediscovering Their Greatest Hits: The Record. Old can sometimes be gold. :)

*****

SPM exams is in less than a month, quick dammit, I have to PANIC!!! Or else I won't be able to get everything else done that way. :
Friday seems to be a public holiday, that means there's only four schooling days left for me. Graduation day is on Saturday.

*****

I went to the optometrist on Wednesday, took an eye test and apparently my left eye seems to have worsen a bit since my last exam.

Picked a new pair of frameless glasses with rectangle lenses, supposed to take them today but I haven't went to the shop yet.

Y'know, even with the eye tests and everything, I still have a bit of concern about whether I fumbled the eye test and am gonna screw up the end result of my prescription glasses. :|

*****

You know you've been in Wikipedia too much when you attempt to make text appear with italics by typing like ''this''.

Cover and Release Date of Enigma's New Single, "Hello and Welcome"!

2005-10-13T20:35:00.000+08:00

I think everyone whose been an Enigma fan (a.k.a. Enigmatics, or Enigmaniacs :P) has been waiting for this news with bated breath. The latest news from EnigmaMusic.com is that the single's cover has now been made public!

Ladies and gentleman, this is the single cover of "Hello and Welcome", by Enigma!

I'm slightly thankful that the cover uses the E4-style font, and am presuming that it'll share less resemblance to the E5 album. About the boxing glove on the cover, the song is also supposed to be the walk-in music for the boxer, Felix Sturm. Mr. Cretu seems to be changing his taste in sports from football to boxing. :)

Anyways, the single's release date in Germany is on November 25th, and everyone is now waiting eagerly for a sample of the song. Here's to hoping that the E6 album, which is scheduled to be released in late 2006, would be a massive success for Enigma!

Meanwhile, the Enigma collector's box set which has 8 CDs is priced at €128.99 from Amazon Germany, which when converted to Malaysian ringgit, would be equilavent to RM581.25! Egad, that's more than enough to pay a month's house rent. I'll just be contented with admiring this box set in the music store. :|

[Edit]: The Enigma article on Wikipedia is slowly building up over the past year and that's a good thing, though much much much effort is still needed to be able to edit it to perfection.

Review: Philips HL140 Headphones

2005-10-13T19:45:00.000+08:00

My three-year old speakers have been acting weird recently, and sometimes I wondered if some of the songs I've been listening would've made the eyebrows of my parents rise a little. o_O

So, I bought this pair of Philips headphones last Saturday at Popular Book Store. Now I know it isn't as fancy or famous as Sennheiser or Sony but eh, the sound quality is alright for me and it gets the job done. So, not much complaints from me.

The only thing I regret now is not choosing one with a longer cable, this pair only has 1 metre of cable and apparently the front headphone jack on my computer isn't working, so I shoved the whole computer out a bit to get to the jack on the back.

As you can see, it supposed to be lightweight and the headband is made out of metal. Just hoping my brain wouldn't become an antenna or something. ;) The whole headphone is light and comfortable enough once you wear it the right way.

Apparently also I noticed that some albums seems to be made to be listened through headphones, while some shouldn't even come near each other! Songs in Enigma's Voyageur album seem to be somewhat "disjointed" through headphones. Anyways, Kraftwerk and Mike Oldfield never sounded better compared to a crummy pair of speakers. :)

Overall at just RM21.99, it should be better than those tinny little earphones, just remember to note the little "L" and "R" on both sides of the headphones. :P

[Edit]: Check this site for more detailed info.

Desktop Screenshot...

2005-10-10T22:49:00.000+08:00

Just showing off my Tubular Bells III wallpaper and desktop. :)

Two Weeks...

2005-10-10T02:17:00.000+08:00

To think about it, in two weeks time, I would've considered to have been graduated from secondary (or high) school! Graduation ceremony is scheduled to be on October 22nd, and...

Two weeks after that, I'm taking my SPM examinations!

I've managed to not flunk any single subject for last month's trials, but I can't say that the numbers in the report book are good enough to shout out to. It's a small consolation, sadly. So, during this one month before the exam begins, I will resolve to dedicate as much of my effort as possible into ensuring I don't manage to screw it up horribly (very possible).

So, that also means I'll be less obsessive online nowadays. Though I probably might continue blogging here, no real reason why blogging shouldn't be a hurdle right? Most probably I'll be cutting down on the reading/commenting on others' blogs (that also means things will go on as usual) until after the end of the big one.

But then, what comes next after the SPMs? STPM or collage? Looking at myself here, I don't think I'm in a position to decide my own fate yet. Most likely I'll decide later after the results.

RM2,211.68 Telekom Bill???

2005-10-04T20:53:00.000+08:00

RM117.00 for rental (seems that I subscribed for the same telephone line and number AGAIN)
RM14.36 for calls (eh, that's alright)
RM101.60 for taxes???

... and the whopper is...
RM1,900.80 for the Streamyx broadband bill!

O_O

What the...

The itemised statement said that the Streamyx bill was left unpaid from DECEMBER 2003 until this month! Leave a bill unpaid for 3 months and connection will promptly be snipped off... Almost unpaid for 2 years? Yeah, right...

A month ago I received a phone call from Telekom, saying that there was a mistake in the bill, and told me to ignore it... Now I also received another bill for RM660 because the earlier mistake WASN'T CORRECTED and it continued to be added every month...

I sense a tiny little tinge of incompetentcy here...

Do the Kraftwerk Robot Dance!

2005-09-17T02:39:00.000+08:00

The thought of this keeps flashing in my mind everytime I listen to Kraftwerk and noticed I hadn't blogged it out yet. Is this guy awesome or what? Btw, the song is a bit unclear but it is indeed "Expo 2000".

On another (but Kraftwerk-related) note, I managed to get myself a virtual copy of their Minimum-Maximum live album. Call me batshit insane and whack me silly, but I keep noticing that certain songs and tunes on TV could also be found from Kraftwerk's songs. Thing is, most of their albums were created in the 1970s. In 1971, ABBA, Evlis Presley and Elton John were all the rage but Kraftwerk stuck out like a sore thumb in the scene and started creating music way ahead of their time. They even have been credited for single-handedly creating the entire eletronic music genre, and one of the few bands to have weilded as much influence in the music scene as The Beatles. Could you imagine that thirty-odd years old songs could sound that futuristic even today? They truly are teh bomb.

I haven't been able to get my hands on any of their albums (but one did manage to pass through a local music store), but until I own an actual copy of the album, then I only truly consider to have own it. Oh what the heck, there's no pride in downloading from a torrent. Therefore I'm not really a pirate (according to Edmund). :P

Related links:
Everything you need to know about Kraftwerk.
Listen to the first disc of Minimum-Maximum at mp3.com through streaming here.
Kraftwerk at their record label's website (additional streaming audio and video available).

Exams...

2005-09-15T15:06:00.000+08:00

Just another short update here, I'm currently having my SPM trials.

The last day of exams would be on the 22nd.

National Geographic predicted Hurricane Katrina

2005-09-05T15:55:00.000+08:00

From Ocotober 2004's edition of National Geographic's magazine:

"It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Big Easy, the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured outside moved as if they were swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside paid silent homage to the man who invented air-conditioning as they watched TV "storm teams" warn of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing surprising there: Hurricanes in August are as much a part of life in this town as hangovers on Ash Wednesday.

"But the next day the storm gathered steam and drew a bead on the city. As the whirling maelstrom approached the coast, more than a million people evacuated to higher ground. Some 200,000 remained, however—the car-less, the homeless, the aged and infirm, and those die-hard New Orleanians who look for any excuse to throw a party.

"The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept to the top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled over. Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level—more than eight feet below in places—so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it.

"Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

"When did this calamity happen? It hasn't—yet. But the doomsday scenario is not far-fetched. The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists a hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire threats to the nation, up there with a large earthquake in California or a terrorist attack on New York City. Even the Red Cross no longer opens hurricane shelters in the city, claiming the risk to its workers is too great."

Read the rest of the article here.

I don't think I have that edition of the magazine in my hands, but still it's a chilling thought that a prediction came out so true in reality.

Late Night Musings...

2005-09-04T04:44:00.000+08:00

Somehow, I usually end up staying real late up on weekend nights and waking up at 1 or even 2 on the afternoon. I can rattle off a list of reasons why late nights can really be that good some times... Just smell the cool midnight air, listen to the silence of the surroundings (this can be especially good when I'm listening to songs, the sound seems clear and crisp where there's no other distractions around the house), and basically the night seems to be so darn good.

For all of these while, I believe I'm very much by nature a night-owl. I can easily stay up till 5 or 6am but it's a heck of a challenge for me to stay awake at 8:10am without either doses of adrenaline or caffeine. I was without caffeine for two days at school and I felt like shit in class. Before that I took Nescafe 3-in-1 and while I felt good at school, I felt like shit when I reached back home. So, neither options really sounds good enough, so I'm sticking to those coffee bags and just adding in some condensed milk.

This week, it rained continously for a series of days, then it turned scorching hot for these past few days, and I'm thanking the Big Guy up there for sending everyone on this island some rain while we sleep. On Monday, it rained 5 minutes after I reached school and it rained again 5 minutes before school ended. Me and my classmate had a meal in the school canteen to wait for the rain to stop and when we were walking back home, the Big Man unleashed a torrent of rain on us. Damn, my bag, textbooks and papers were freaking wet from it.

Lately, the weather here is just plain unpredictable, except for my mom who seems to be able to predict rainy weather. I once suggested to her that the government take down all of its shitty satellites who can't predict weather even accurately and just install my mom as the national weather forecaster (it rained EVERYDAY at that time and it wasn't as depicted as a warm and sunny spot on the news, dammit!) By the way, it's starting to rain here already, w00t!

Of Gurney Plaza, Bookstores and CD-Hunting...

2005-09-04T04:41:00.000+08:00

During the previous meetup with the Penang Bloggers recently, I also had the oppourtunity to do a bit of shopping around Gurney Plaza. The last time I was there, chunks of the shopping complex was closed for renovations. Now I know what they eventually did to the place. The people who made some of these changes are freaking geniouses I tell you!

Big Bookstore was relocated to another part of the same floor but sadly, MPH Bookstores are no longer with us on Gurney Plaza anymore. It is now replaced by Popular Bookstore on the other end of the floor. What used to be Big and MPH bookstores are now just a big blank of space waiting to be rented out. When I first visited Popular on August 21, the outlet was just newly opened for 5 days only and yet still some racks were covered up and the workers still painting the ceiling and setting things up. I was back there 2 days later and everyone's still cleaning up (wiping, mopping and polishing just everything) in anticipation of a Penang big-shot VIP to open the store formally with a press conference, speech, journalist and all of those things.

One thing I noticed is that the new CD shops (Popular's CD RAMA section and Artists Gallery) have better CD stock if compared to Tower Records and the small (but two) Speedy Entertainment shops. I managed to pick up the first Gorillaz album and Enigma's Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! album, and Maksim's The Piano Player album. Currently listening to all three on rotational basis and I'll pretty much come up with a review or two after this. :)

Here's some useless info unless you frequently hunt for albums: Let's say if you want to buy an album but they the shop doesn't have any stock, for Popular you have to pay a RM20 deposit and pay off the remainder when the stock arrives and they'll give you a phone call. Deposit is refundable after a month but I'm not sure how they'll deduct the 10% discount by then though. For Artists Gallery a deposit is not necessary, just leave a phone number with the artist's name and/or album title and they'll just give you a call, simple as that.

Edit: So it seems that MPH really will remain at Gurney! Thanks to 5xmom for the news. :)

Slacker?

2005-09-04T04:20:00.000+08:00

Here's to a bit of blogging with substance. I didn't really put in most of my effort on blogging nowadays. For what reason, I'm not entirely sure. Perhaps it's a sign that I'm getting lazier and lazier by the day (note to self: NO, I MUST NOT SLACK OFF).

Without going through my old archives, I can believe that my writing style when I was starting off blogging was better than what I usually write now. For all of these while I've been struggling on what topic to focus on maybe (I haven't thought about it during 1 and a half years of blogging, strangely), so it's time to set my mind of blogging in topics which are of are interest to me (and hopefully a couple others). I don't think I would explain it right now, as I usually regarding speaking about something and ending up not doing it later to be an eventual jinx, so I'm letting myself be as flexible as I can without losing sight of my initial target.

If you don't really understand what I was talking about, don't worry. Neither do I. :)

Penang Bloggers Meetup

2005-09-04T03:58:00.000+08:00

Whoo, has it really been that song since I blogged? Gah, time flies really too fast for me to catch up, I could've sworn I already had stopped somewhere in 2003. Please do let me know if you find that my English language skills have dropped down several notches. :)

Anyways, here's to recap some recent stuff:

I attended a recent Penang bloggers meetup two weeks ago in Gurney Plaza. 'Twas my third meeting with Penang blog-folks. There were some... no, make that lots of camera potshots being taken. I felt like I was repeatedly hit with crossfire from shooters from one end of the table to the other end. :P

And about pics, I do noticed that I looked HORRIBLE is some of the pics they've taken but some seemed to turn out alright. And lastly, thank you very much for the big glass of hot chocolate, 5xmom!

Click on these links to read about what they've blogged about the meetup.

Cmos
5xmom
Mr Kiasi
Byran
n305er
kljs
Ong
Peter
Lucia
Mistyeiz
Kstang
Really Bites

Tell me if I'm missing any links here... :)

Independence Day!

2005-08-31T23:30:00.000+08:00

Just a short blog post here (while I try to find a good time to blog more).

Happy 48th Independence Day, Malaysia!

At Last!

2005-08-14T20:05:00.000+08:00

At last, no more haze in Penang! Call me insane, but I can feel it! :P

Yesterday was a day filled with smog and as you can guess it, the day was eventually dull. But today, the day seemed to be a little clearer and the air cooler. I heard that it rained over there in the central part, driving and nailing the last nail in the haze's coffin, hope it rains more here though...

I'm stuck at home ever since Friday due to the haze... and I've been left to ponder why I wait so eagerly for the weekends to come when it would be wrecked. I have a bad itch to head to Prangin Mall or Gurney Plaza to take a stroll there...

It's DARE!

2005-08-07T18:30:00.000+08:00

And on to brighter stuff...

It's coming up
It's coming up
It's coming up
It's coming up
It's DARE! (ooh!)

Following their first single, "Feel Good Inc.", the second Gorillaz single from their second album, Demon Days has been announced for quite some time already, it will be released on this August 29. Now if anyone could be kind enough to point me to any music stores that sell singles, all I see here is just albums album albums... @_@

Anyways, the song from the album is called "DARE", which features Shaun Ryder (the giant singing decapitated head) as a guest vocalist (actually I've never heard of him before this song). Same with "Feel Good Inc.", it's a very catchy song and eh, at least it just shaves 5 minutes off any free time that you have... :P

Click here to watch both videos in streaming version, while the audio version can be heard on the official fansite.

Next up: A review of Demon Days! (I needed something to blog about... xD)

Rest In Peace...

2005-08-07T17:28:00.000+08:00

This isn't probably really isn't an interesting for anyone glancing through this blog post, but eh, I needed to unload it here...

After over two and a half years in my care, my flowerhorn fish fell seriously sick from several ailments for two weeks, and on a Sunday morning, two weeks ago, two minutes before noon, he laid down on his side, and slept forever.

From the last day of 2002 right until that single day, I thank you for being a loyal companion, for staying with me all of these while and for bringing in plenty of smiles and sunshine to everyone here. The only thing I regret is that I think I could've done better for you.

To my pet who was not named throughout this time (December 31, 2002 - July 24, 2005; 11:58am), though your soul may have departed from this world, you'll be missed.

Rest in peace.

Education Fair and Measles Shot

2005-08-03T19:57:00.000+08:00

Another update here, and yes I do know that I probably need to update more, but I'm beginning to think that those blog drafts would never see the light of day.

There was a education fair at my school's hall yesterday morning, roughly 20 to 25 local collages and universities (i.e. LimKokWing University, The One Academy, Nilai International Collage, INTI Penang, KDU Collage and Disted, just to name a few) had set up booths in the hall to pull in as many of the 800+ soon-to-be graduates into their institutions.

I got hold of many flyers and booklets but heading onwards to Form 6 seems like a better option for the moment. By the way, everyone was sort of a bit surprised to see our school's former headmaster manning the Disted booth and explaining their courses to the students. It was a weird sight, to say the least. o.O

Finally, after waiting two and a half freakin weeks to get our measles shots, it's over and done with now. No more wondering when it's the class' turn to get the shot, how it's going to feel like, how many people in the room will cry and how many people will faint. Egad, this is a class of Form 5 students, but it's still possible.

Anyways, the education fair was held before recess while the measles shot session was held after recess thankfully, they earlier had advised everyone to get their breakfasts first before getting the shot.

My last vaccine shot was in Standard 6, and I didn't take the anti-tetanus shot during Form 3, so I think it should be natural that I'd be getting cold feet standing outside the room. Getting accidentally hit in the groin moments before getting in didn't help the situation either.

Before the shot, the nurse asked some mandatory questions (do you have asthma, have you had epileptic seizures before, have you taken any medications in the past 24 hours, etc) and then opened a little booklet with pictures of one of those coloured dots and numbers that's supposed to test if you're colour-blind or not. Call me dense but I don't really understand what's that got to do with taking the measles shot.

I was instructed to take a seat at a nearby chair, behind the chair was a table and a metallic tray with 6 to 7 medium-sized syringes. Another nurse dabbed the spot with a piece of alcohol-soaked cotton and then I just simply turned my head to the other side and closed my eyes. Then there was something like an ant bite as the needle pierced through the skin, there was a slight pain, and then it was over.

I do blame my parents of making me freak out at the mention of injections when I was little. It really wasn't that bad in reality. Everyone who took the injection was then told to sit down on the floor and wait, the head nurse mention that this was to avoid students suffer a concussion if they fall down and hit their head when they black out.

Some of us joked around as the teacher in charge told us that someone just vomited in the room the day before and they poured red sand on the floor to clean it up. The classmate (who happened to be the annoying one) asked where was the spot and the teacher said it was the same place he was currently sitting on. Grossed-out expressions came next. xD

To summarise what happened next, a girl classmate and the same annoying student were immediately sick after the shot, but the annoying student started to hyperventilate and man. Basically, he became stiff, hands trembling and had problems breathing, so it was code red for the nurses. Both were better within an hour though.

I don't think this was a good blog post, but if you've read until this paragraph, thank you anyway for reading this piece of blogorrhea. Blogging when you're not really in a mood for it kinda leads to this piece of blog post. Gah.

To Blog or Not to Blog?

2005-07-31T17:08:00.000+08:00

... That is the question...

I'm feeling a bit aimless without blogging. :|

Train of thought (crosspost)

2005-07-17T03:30:00.000+08:00

I really want to write a coherent LJ post about some personal stuff that happened lately at the moment, but I really can't. My train of thought keeps slipping and ends up branching into multiple and different issues. It's like before I should write this, perhaps I should explain further how it came about, and before writing about how it came about, I should write about before that, and so on...

Is it maybe I keep seeing the big picture that's so hard for me to explain? But then I've been a lousy narrator in most of what I write. So far, the only related thought I could say is that my attention and memory span is so short that I usually forgot the last sentence that I wrote after I've deleted it. It really is out of sight, out of mind, no?

So far the only interesting thing I can mention now is that during a bit of people-watching on the side of the main road (while I was waiting for my mom), I saw some foreign tourists walking around, and then there was a (bit) little old lady who was wearing a pink shirt and carried a pink umbrella. She got up where she was sitting (presumely waiting for the bus), walked up to a lamp post and started to argue with it, as indicated by the gestures of her arms and mouth yapping wide open. That was somewhat weird.

Ah well, I also picked up Gorillaz's second album, Demon Days at Popular Book Store. "Feel Good Inc." and a few other tracks were quite good, but overall the whole album can't really get break through the "just okay" level. I need a few more listens before I can judge with a certain degree of confirmation on this album.

Though at the first listen, I was sort of regretting not getting Maroon 5's album, Songs about Jane instead. Perhaps I might be wrong too.

Here is my list of albums to get, in no order of urgency... :P

Kraftwerk - Minimum-Maximum (don't think it's available in Malaysia yet)
Gorillaz - Gorillaz (saw a version with a bonus AVCD disc, looks good)
Gorillaz - ~~Demon Days~~ (got that, I can safely strike this off now)
Maksim - The Piano Player (saw only Variations Part I&II, I'm getting this one first)
Maroon 5 - Songs about Jane (listened to it through their official site and man, the songs are indeed good)
Enigma - The Cross of Changes (for the first time, I think Enigma has to take the back seat for the moment)
Enigma - Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! (ditto here, I'm interested in unheard/unfamiliar stuff for me ears)

And guess what was lurking on the top right hand corner of a CD rack on the wall, and being sold for RM16?

It was the Axel F Crazy Frog single. There were even commercials about it on TV.

Yes, the whole world is doomed now.

(Yes, this post was originally written in LJ, but I'm too lazy to change that sentence. :P)

Sidenote: Blogger's dashboard interface seems to be screwed up for quite some time already. Does someone care???

[Edit: When posting at 2 or 3 in the morning, remember to re-read and use teh spellcheck.]

Obnoxious Classmate

2005-07-16T03:01:00.000+08:00

In Form 4 and 5 (or Secondary 4 and 5), I think the most of the folks in my class are really quite close with each other, the only ones who I don't usually mix around and get to know are the girls in this year's class. But then, being neutral and not very familiar is at least way better than getting infamous for being the one person in class who everyone loves to hate.

From the top of my mind, out of the many people that I've met in school, there is only one person who I would gladly kick his ass down a flight of stairs.

Now, this person in class is obviously obnoxious, has the ego the size of a hot air ballon, and is sorely lacking in the friendliness section. In class, he's very nice to the girls, hangs around them quite a lot, but I noticed that he gave me the cold shoulder very often. He acts gay-ish (not that there's any problems with that) and his very high-pitched laughs really makes my skin crawl and have goosebumps. It's that serious.

He inflates his ego by acting as a smart-ass, asks questions that would imply that he's capable in finishing homeworks way faster than the rest of the class, and egad, that laugh, that freaking "scratching nails on a blackboard" laugh that's enough to shatter glass and cause brain haemorrhage. I cringe everytime I hear it.

I don't think it's me who has the problems, since I keep hearing my classmates utter "I hate him" out of annoyance in class. They've mentioned before how annoying he can get in class. I guess that some people really have an aura that makes people like them, and some have an aura that makes people HATE them. Anyways, it's not my business to tell him what to do, start an arguement and blah blah blah. I've got better things to do than to waste my breath talking to him.

I thought I've seen people worse than this, but this really brings the definition for the word "obnoxious" to a brand new level.

When...

2005-07-12T01:15:00.000+08:00

When I'm online, my mind is blank.
When I'm offline, the thoughts start to spew in.

Note to self: Keep in mind subjects to blog on, and have some self-motivation.

Past two school days...

2005-07-11T23:40:00.000+08:00

Another brief summary of recent events, I hope you haven't passed out from holding your breath waiting for me to get this posted. :P

Last Friday:
- In the first lesson, made a passing remark to my classmate that I hope I wouldn't get called in to get my teeth drilled, seeing the dentist and nurses from the Ministry of Health came to my school.
- Two lessons later, I get called in to get one of my tooth drilled and filled.
- The Malay nurse was quite friendly, she game me a little mirror to hold on and see how it was being drilled and later filled. I gripped the armrest of the chair until it turned white.
- Ended within around 20 minutes, it wasn't so bad after all.
- Proceeded to accidentally bump into at least 3 people that same day. >_<
[- ETA: And my class beat the neighbouring class (5M2) 3-2 at football, even though we had fewer people than them... :P]

Monday:
- Everyone in my class, and the top three pure science classes skipped the last four lessons because we attended a talk being given on the SPM 1119 English paper. The speaker was actually funny, and he talked about how to NOT fail the paper to getting an A for the paper. It was then I realised that the SPM English paper had a quite low passing mark.
- Talk lasted later than scheduled, everyone rushed back to our classes since the afternoon classes were starting at that moment. During the midst of frantic packing, I realised that my accountings textbook is now missing. >_<
- Another talk is being given tomorrow morning before recess, will be skipping three lessons. :D

The Joys of Attending to a Blackboard

2005-06-27T15:34:00.000+08:00

Every Monday, it's my turn to clean the blackboard. I've been cleaning blackboards ever since the primary school days all the way up to Form 5 now, all because of my height.

The frigging chalk dust lands on my head, glasses, arms, shoulders and face each and everyime the teacher says "please clean the board!!!" I hate it when it gets into my eyes and stings it. I hate the rough feeling of it in my fingers. I hate having dusting my hands off my trousers and leaving behind these white streaks. There's also this lingering suspicion that my life span might be shorter from inhaling all of these chalk dust.

But anyways, there are good sides to having this duty too I guess. It's the only duty that decreases my chance of getting yelled at by the teachers, since it's usually clean at the end of every period. If the blackboard was a pet, I was scraping up its poop every Monday morning.

Hello??? The year is currently 2005, whiteboards should be in widespread use by now. Though if it were cleaning whiteboards, I might be complaining of the toxic fumes from those markers. Ahhh, nothing's ever perfect.

So, I'm down again with a cold (or flu, I dunno either), and I'm supposed to clean the blackboard again today. I blame it again on my classmate who's usually sick but he seems healthy today. My nose is leaking and dripping frequently and I've watery eyes.

And stumbling upon this article doesn't help the situation at all.

School Concert...

2005-06-25T17:45:00.000+08:00

All I can say about last night's school concert was that it was it was very very very interesting, though it could've been better.

Though the tickets said it starts at 7pm, we arrived at 7:20pm (darn taxi) and got into it about 10 minutes later. Good part was that me and my mom got the RM20 seat with RM10 tickets since we were almost late and that Dewan Sri Pinang was crowded and packed like sardines. Talk about a full house. o.O

Right at the beginning, I heard two of Maksim's songs, "Flight of the Bumblebee" and "Exodus", and Gregorian's "So Sad" came in after that. I've the latter song and I'd definitely am gonna get Maksim's CD. "Exodus" is really sweet.

The brass band and Chinese orchestra played quite well, the former playing pieces of "La Bamba", "How High the Moon", "The Stars and Stripes Forever" and "Pirates of the Carribean" while the Chinese orchestra had a fantastic "erhu" and "yang qin" duet, and a full orchestral performance near the end of the concert. The dance troupe did well but they could've practised more with their coordination. Good job nontheless. :)

The drama club's performance impressed most of the audience with their acting and eye-catching props and stage backgroud. They surely live up to their recent acheivements of winning 10 awards in an inter-school competition for the whole Nothern Malaysia. The smoothly and wittily done "Xiang Sheng" act from the duo on stage almost left everyone in stiches. :)

They even had a magician (who was also a fellow student) who preformed tricks in between, while the groups were setting up equipment, chairs and bla bla bla behind the curtains. The whole thing ended before 11pm and me and my mom felt that it was a concert worth watching.

Snapped around 12 or so pics with the camera, but the lighting and suitation wasn't suitable for moblogging. :\ Anyway, I think that a VCD copy of the event should be available after a month.

Haze in Penang?

2005-06-25T15:17:00.000+08:00

Is it just me, or has a shroud of haze descended on Penang island?

It was there the morning (or rather close to afternoon) when I woke up. Visibility is only like what, 1 or 2 km only? And it's rather stuffy at the moment.

If the haze is really that serious, I hope school's cancelled for the upcoming week... :P

[Edit]: Here's how it looks like at the moment:

School Concert...

2005-06-24T18:40:00.000+08:00

My tickets for tonight's school concert at Dewan Sri Pinang! :P

Stay tuned to this space as I'll be blogging about it soon...

Which Malaysian Blogger Are You?

2005-06-23T17:14:00.000+08:00

Congratulations WittySquirrel, you are...

Kenny Sia of kennysia.com

You have it all, or so you think. Big balls, big bird, big everything. Also a big heart and ever-ready big hug to give out to everybody who needs one. But you didn't know this. You're the one who need a hug the most. So hugs to you!

Which Malaysian Blogger Are You?

My comments:
I credit this blog post to teh supreme blogger, Kenny himself... :P

Me? National Service?

2005-06-21T17:06:00.000+08:00

Almost everyone in class wanted to know if they were chosen for the third season (gee, that sounds like being in a reality show) of National Service.

Here's how it goes: Your freedom as a teenager gets suspended by the government for three months, and you get random goodies and RM300 (after you serve NS) and the chance to live life the tough way. There's also a proposal for the particpants to receive training for handling M-16 rifles. It's a cool idea for teens who had their dose of first-person shooter (FPS) games, but not a good idea unless Malaysia's actually preparing for war sometime in the future. *Touch wood*

And guess what? Yours truly was... NOT CHOSEN!!! WOO HOO! :D

Excuse the celebration, but I know the pros and cons of NS, I just don't think it's worth it.

Although the list is only expected to be finalised tomorrow, me and most of my classmates found out that they weren't chosen for NS. That's good of course, since accepting the huge number of teenagers born in 1988 might make the government bankrupt. :P

Now to think of it, making a reality TV show about NS trainees does sound like a better idea than having them handle M-16 rifles. It's definitely dangerous if they decide to own one for themselves after having some experiences with it. And as the basic laws of economics says that if there's demand, there's always supply.

Plus, have you seen that friggin thing??? You could poke an eye out with that barrel! xD Just kidding there.

Hmmm... What I wrote in the first sentence of this blog post made me thinking. I really don't mind the TV reality show idea:

- Cameras tag the progress of 10 or 20 trainees in one three-month season, each season located in a different state.
- Elimination from the show, not from NS, can be based on their performance in the show
- Special judges from the Royal Malaysian Army (RMA), Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) or Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN).
- And the winner winning a car or a cash prize around RM10,000 or something like that.

It'll surely help boost the image of NS in lieu of the Malaysian Idol fever, remove the veils covering what's going on in the daily life of an NS trainee, bring more awareness of the activities of NS to the TV-and-reality-show-hungry public, and heck, it could even decrease the cases of problems within trainers, trainees or between trainers and trainees, because of the presence of the cameras there. Win-win idea, am I right?

On the other hand, it's also probably an insane idea, but it's not impossible that it'll really come true one day. :P

LA Times Wiki Shut Down

2005-06-21T15:54:00.000+08:00

Oh great.

While I was glancing around Wikinews, an article about the recently launched wiki section of the LA Times was there, I glanced it through but apparently I forgot to check out the wiki. I went there again just now and it turns out that it was shut down for the time being because of some disruptive contrbutors. I friggin never got to see how it looked like, dammit.

Whatever it is, I'm glad that although there were such inappropriate contributions to Wikipedia, at least it usually gets reverted or content removed within the shortest possible time (especially if it's in my watchlist). Free information for the masses, from the masses, and patrolled by the masses.

Ramblings related to the above:
Is it just human behaviour to automagically switch to disruptive mode as a default whenever it's possible? Or are they just lacking in maturity and common sense? Everywhere I see, there are numerous examples of childish, disruptive and destructive behaviour occuring. A few months ago on the National Geographic magazine, an ancient piece of cave art was defaced and vandalised by stupid idiots. All for what? All for what???

It's sure as heck to say that to destroy is a thousand times more easier than creation. Anything and everything good, useful or informative takes effort and blood and sweat in some instances (barring lucky flukes). But then, why is the urge to disrupt and destroy so powerful in these people?

Lust, greed, apathy, sloth, gluttony, vanity, envy, wrath, and these kind of traits are understandable for me (because I was afflicted with it at one time, but that's another story) but I just do not understand the virtues of being destructive when in short, you're just another tiny grain in the universe. A Malay proverb goes something like this "Harimau mati meninggalkan belang, manusia mati meninggalkan nama", it means that when a tiger dies, it leaves behind its stripes in the form of its fur, but when a person dies, he/she only leaves behind his/her name in the form of the person's reputation and acheivements in life. One could spend a lifetime building that reputation and acheivement, but all it takes is a moment to shatter all of it and flush it down the toilet bowl.

Malaysian Bloggers in The Star!

2005-06-21T00:37:00.000+08:00

And the Malaysian blogosphere continues to expand its presence after another article on Malaysian bloggers made its way to the front page of The Star's Section Two section.

It's great to see PPS and Peter, Suanie, Kenny and Minishorts having gigantic pics of themselves and their blogs in the article. xD Best article I've seen in a long time! Kudos!

Read all about it at The Star Online. :)

Lethargic...

2005-06-20T23:54:00.000+08:00

I can't help but feel lethargic in a weekend where there's school for five straight consecutive days. I'm looking and feeling like a zombie currently, and guess what, I bet I'll even be in a worse shape if I was working six days a week. Perhaps that's one of the reasons I keep finding myself skipping school every once in a while.

From now on, that's no reason not to blog. Thoughts tied up in knots? That's not a reason either (and I can untie real knots relative well). Whatever the reason, I'm not who am I am if I don't blog. I don't have a direction in life if I don't blog. I simply don't function well if I don't even blog.

Now that I think about it, it just takes around 30 minutes to an hour to type a decent blog post. But most of the stuff that I usually do depends on the mood that I have at that moment. And that also means I'm very prone to procrastination, unfinished work and in the end, damage control. It's sorta like do it quick, do it now or it'll never get done unless you're deperate. I don't think I'm a very reliable person, though I'll try my best if I've promised my word to someone. I just simply can't keep honours to myself.

I need to restrategise myself and rearrange my priorities, probably cutting off and sacrificing some things in order to improve myself and my reputation. That's one of the down points of having most of the same classmates as the previous year - almost everyone know how you are already, and it's definitely harder to change other people's impression than it is to change your impression on others. If things really get that bad sometimes, I'd really really really wish to start all over again on a brand new page, but usually it makes no difference in the long run because of what I've done. Besides, how many chances do one gets in a lifetime? Use it all up at once and you're doomed when you're old?

I'm not sure if I just dug my own grave by saying that. Heck, if you don't understand what I'm saying, don't fret, it's understandable. I'm not known to be clear when I don't even have a clear mind. I'll try anyway. :)