The Oblong Corner

Norway Trip ~Sightseeing~

2011-04-11T18:42:00.007+08:00

I had a headache after being told I was stuck in Amsterdam for 14 hours, so apart from Amsterdam pictures, I will upload everything else. That said, I don't like Amsterdam. Now then, during my trip, I went to Sweden for half a day and a daytrip to Denmark. Kristiansand was strategically close to these two countries. But while in Oslo the first time, I went to a place called Vigelands Park, which is a park full of statues of a fat naked man. Rows and rows, monuments after monuments of the statues of naked people. I heard this place was actually a private property of said naked man, which is why all the naked men statues look alike. It's probably the face and built of the owner. Apart from the obvious 'eye candy' it is actually a very nice park. Perhaps in the summer. The Viking Museum! You can't go to Scandinavia without visiting at least one! It was not very big, but it had 3 almost complete viking ships on display.Here's me, eating ice cream out here in the snow. I'm hard core yeah. Came back to Oslo the next week with Farah A to sightsee. We were joined by Karoline and Kari. Went to Munch Museum where the famous painting 'The Scream' is. Apparently, Edvard Munch made several versions of the Scream and only one of them is ever on display at one time. Unfortunately, the one on display when I was there was the one made with crayon on cardboard. I was so offended I didn't even bother taking a picture of it. Hmph. After that we went to the nearby Zoologisk Museum and Biologisk Museum. A werewolf? I was in Sweden for half a day.Blow proudly ye Swedish flags. It was nice and sunny in Oslo yet the moment we entered the Swedish border, it turned foggy. It was fun doing spontaneous sightseeing as 'historical sights (Hysterical Sight)' are marked on the road so you can just stop by and snap photos, just like this stone ship, just laid out in the backyard of a farmer's house. From afar it looked like the stonehenge. Ice patches everywhere. It was such a long and icy trek, but for the sake of being in Sweden I pushed on!!And we stopped by the goodies outlet in Sweden. Like a factory outlet of candy and chocolate. I bought some Swedish chocolate. Yum yum. Next, Hirtshals, Denmark.Costs 20 Danish kroner to climb up the lighthouse. We just had lunch, so I was content with just appreciating the view from down there. Apparently, Denmark does not get snow, but their wind is a killer. Cold and strong, even the trees grew bendy because of the wind. Here I am, freezing at the beach of Denmark, but determined to walk on! I was in Kristiansand most of the time and when I am out, I spend most of my time shopping. But when I am not shopping, I did some sightseeing too. Like, going to the fjord!

FJORD, WE FINALLY MEET!!

And going for nature walks around a frozen lake.

I was so excited when I saw a creek in Sweden, and when I returned to Norway there were creeks EVERYWHERE! Yeah I was so sakai.

I also went to the Dyre Parken (zoo). The Kristiansand zoo is the best! I was petted by a sheep.

And met some old friends.

Orangutang hahaha!!

Of course, can't finish this entry with my favorite place to shop, MONKi!!! I MISS YOU MONKII!

Ta'ra!

Norway Trip ~Initial~

2011-04-11T15:49:00.007+08:00

I've been back for approximately one week now, but I've been too occupied with recovering from jet lag and the tons of laundry. I've only started doing my KL-used clothes laundry today! I am not going to seggregate my blog entry into part 1, part 2, part 3 etc, like how most people like to do because I will surely never get past part 1! So I'm going to start with the highlights of my trip, followed by whatever that came to mind. Also, I do not work for Tourism Norway though I wish I do, but I hope my entry would help more tourists go to Norway *ahem*.

First off,

Welcome to Norway in the SPRING!

Yes, I was expecting pretty flower buds too but I was greeted with piles and piles of snow. Temperature was around -7. Yay!

First let me tell you the premise of my trip. I was in Norway for exactly 3 weeks. I arrived from Amsterdam in Oslo, and stayed one night in Hamar at my friend Farah A's study home. Hamar is in the mountains two hours away from Oslo and of course, colder than Oslo. However, the bulk of the trip is spent in Kristiansand, way down south of Norway, which can also be said the most southern tip of Norway, thus the least cold. Of course, least cold being around -5 to -1 for the first week alone. Refer to map below.

I really just went there to escape reality (was in the thick of doing my survey and I fled). I never in my life have thought of ever going so far north for holiday, but I thought why not? I've heard so many nice things about it and I was not disappointed! I worked my ass off at Kinokuniya accumulating funds for a holiday trip to Japan and I ended up on the opposite side of the world instead. The tsunami hit Japan the day I left for Norway. Is it a sign?

Anyway, I was quite tired of the over-rated touristy locations ie China, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Venice, London, Amsterdam etc and I longed to go someplace nobody had even thought of going, thus, Norselands! I had a really great host and I am therefore eternally grateful to them! I was a pineapple in Polar bear lands and they went out of their way to make my stay as comfortable and pleasant as possible! Thank you very much my venerable hostess!

In the next post I will talk about the places I went to. The bulk of the pictures are on facebook, as I'll only be talking about the interesting bits here hehehe. Ta'ra!

One of the Locals

2011-03-26T21:23:00.003+08:00

The thing about Norwegians is that, they are not used to tourists, especially at this time of the year and especially at this part of the country, which is down south. So whenever I go to shops and make payments as usually the thing to do before leaving shops, they will always, without fail, speak to me in Norwegians.

At first this baffled me a little, but after a while I found that it is not bad to be perceived as a local. So these days whenever they went on in a stream of Norwegians, I would simply say:

"I beg your pardon?"

After which I would be replied with a puzzled gaze, a couple of blinks, followed by a welcomed phrase in English.

Provided the cashier I was dealing with could speak English or was not bashful to speak it. It was quite a curious thing for Norwegians to be shy to speak English. Considering that there are only almost 5 million native Norwegian speakers seeing as Norway has a population of 5 million people, I suppose this is the case. And they are surrounded by Scandinavian countries that had their own unique language and given the proximity of England and Ireland, I'd expect English to come a bit more naturally to them than we South East Asians.

But it was not so. My venerable hostess told me that Norwegians can be bashful to speak English sometimes. Of course, I must not expect to be spoiled with English when I'm here and I realize I should at least learn some basic Norwegian.

Takk, meaning Thanks. Laks, for salmon, Hår for hair and bukser, pants.

I also learned a few phrases. The one Iæm most familiar with is: Jeg har en an i bukser "I have a duck in my pants". And several phrases that says 'I am lost', and 'I am bleeding'.

When I tried saying 'I am lost' which is jeg har gått meg bort, I was replied with, 'you want to buy a boat?'. Aghast, I tried again. With a more confused expression, she asked me the same thing, only more incredulously,: 'you want to buy a boat?' I gave up and finally said what I meant. Apparently, I had mispronounced bort, which sounded like båt (å is pronounced as o).

So can you imagine if I was ever in an emergency and I wanted to say 'I'm bleeding and I am lost' but instead said 'Jeg blør! Og jeg har gått meg båt!', what kind of look would the locals have I wonder?

Adjø. Hvor er toallettet? Takk.

Ah...I am still a long way to mastering Norwegian.

The Time Has Come!

2011-03-10T03:01:00.006+08:00

I have chronic laziness to blog lately. But anyway, it is finally time! Time for what?

Time for my Norway holiday WHEEEEE!

My flight is today at 2359 hours. I have another 20 hours 39 minutes! I have to get my pants trimmed first though and get a new memory card for my camera today. I wonder how I'm going to KL Sentral. Or rather, when? The flight to Amsterdam takes 13 hours or so, and another 1 hour 50 minutes to Oslo. I am not good with long flights so I come prepared! Here's my list of preparation

Comic x1

Book x1

Pistacios x3

Cheezel biscuit x1

ipod x1

vaseline x1

eyedrop x1

tootbrush x1

Pirate bunny x1

I think that should be enough? Wheee~ overpacking!

Ta'ra!

CNY Holiday 2

2011-02-21T03:52:00.003+08:00

Hello. It's been a while.

Chinese New Year was a busy, socially. I was so busy coping with all the outing invites in addition to those I made myself, that I had to push some plans away and made other people reschedule. I went to Sunway Lagoon as the main event. We went early, almost as soon as it opened and timed the rides so that we could go through all the dry rides first and do the wet rides last hehehe. Was soaked to my underwear by the time we lft Sunway Lagoon. If you haven't been there recently you'll notice that the location of the entrance has changed. I remember how further back the carriage ferris wheel was. It was so far back that the last time I was there, it was closed because there weren't enough people in the park. But now the ferris wheel is right behind the entrance.

There were so many changes there, which was very good. The large space that used to be an arcade has been turned into a haunted house. Good for them, though I don't like haunted houses as a rule. We had the pass for all the parks, but we only went to the theme park and scream park. We went a little crazy with the games there a bit and ended up with 3 Totoro plush toys. Someone practically belly flopped on and over the counter to see what plush toys were available under the counter -_-. Due to her shamelessness we got what we wanted hehehe.

Right after Chinese New Year is my Japanese class's final test and final class at least for me. I don't plan on continuing to the next class for the time being. Believe it or not I got kind of tired of having to go to class every Tuesday and Friday night. It just shows my waning interest, really. So we had a farewell party after the class and the next time I see sensei would be the marathon, hehehe!

The next night, right after a farewell, I had a reunion with my Kino friends. Yes, friends. Some people are colleagues, some people are friends. These are friends. Most of them were ex-Kino staffs. Fun, fun. A few days later I went out with school friends, so I basically went out with all my different groups of friends throughout Chinese New Year and beyond. So exhausting. I'm glad CNY is only once a year.

Right now I'm full speed ahead with my thesis. Stalker mode up 110%! Wish me luck! Ta'ra!

Psychotic Homie

2011-02-01T22:15:00.004+08:00

I have recently gained a psychotic new housemate. A great motivation to finish my stupid thesis quickly. I don't care how great this place I'm currently living is. I don't have my own room or my own bed. When the family comes over I have no privacy and gained a mountainload of stress.

In addition my psychotic housemate thinks anything in the house is shared. And if they are personal things she does not share. She asks for them and takes possession of them. I think I may have to start making a personal stash of food and things like I did back when I was living at the hostel. Someone needs to learn that certain things are not for share.

My privacy and peace of mind, for example.

Ta'ra.

Stufff with 3 Fs!

2011-01-26T23:06:00.003+08:00

Salmi: It was pride and pure stubborness that got me to resist those damned marshmallows. People (locals and foreigners alike) expect you to understand their needs without having to communicate it and then get offended when you did something they found offensive. Yet when it comes to other people's customs, they think its their right to be critical and ignorance as if theirs is the only one that matters. I thought I should take a page from their book and gave them a taste of their own medicine for a change, really. And turned out they didn't really like it hehehe.

My tickets arrived! Now I have all my tickets from KL-Amsterdam-Oslo-Amsterdam-KL woohoo! Apart from tickets I have been doing all sorts of preparations. Like end-of-winter clothes and souvenirs! Neko Ramen 2 still haven't arrived though O.o. Oh well it's still January!

My sister recently enrolled at MAHSA Uni College and I hated playing driver, and no she's not getting the car yet. I asked her if she's taking this huge (about 30kg) bag of clothes with her to college and she said no. It was her spare.

I'll say, the amount of clothes she took to school should have been the spare. But never mind.

I am finally done with my industry report. FINALLY! But I have nothing new to share about the book industry for my presentation this Friday. Good thing I still have the January duty roster so I'll know who I can disturb for lunch hehehe! Funny how I haven't gone there since I came to pick up my paycheck. I'm on a credit crunch to save for my trip...I'm still new at this saving business but we will see!

Aaargh I need to finish my stupid thesis!

Ta'ra!

Spring Cleaning Report

2011-01-13T15:56:00.002+08:00

So last Sunday my friend came over to clean my house while I helped her.

Yep, that's how it turned out. She was awesome, battling those dust monsters with nothing but a broom and sheer determination. I stood on the sides and cheered her on - mask on and everything, of course hehehehe. I didn't expect her to be so overzealous that she cleaned out the entire room and even changed the location of the furnishings. Because of that we didn't get to finish the whole house, so phase 2 will start this Sunday.

I bought a PS3 just before the new year. It's white with 500gb memory. Only in Malaysia can you get a white 500gb PS3. Pimped up PS3 is the way to go around here hehehe.

Kujong is healed. So he got a second chance. Hmph.

Ta'ra!

Spring Cleaning

2011-01-08T23:18:00.002+08:00

Lynn: Darurat indeed. Only a whole Snack Plate could satisfy a darurat as opposed to one piece of chicken, right? If I was going to eat something due to darurat, I'd make it worth it. Like moose meat or something exotic like that.

Tomorrow I will have my friend over to help me spring clean the house. I've been inspired lately by the Hoarders program on Astro. They managed to get their house cleared out and cleaned up so beautifully because there is actuallya team of maids who does the cleaning as the junk people haul out the trash. I do agree though that those houses are way too chronic compared to my humble apartment, but I was inspired no less!

My past history confirmed that my spring cleaning always turned out well whenever I have a help over. They are okay too when I do it alone, but with an impartial help, I move along quicker and without delay. My usual help stays in another state so I have to turn to another help who lives well, not in the same state but closer. Tomorrow's victim shall be Kak Farida hehehehe.

To prepare for tomorrow, I decided I'll do some decluttering. So far I have thrown out two huge plastic bags of used shoes, 5 trash bags and a lot more I couldn't remember, and there are still more on the way! I just almost filled up the entire refuse chamber so I thought I'd give it a rest tonight and continue again at 2 pm tomorrow after they have cleared out the 'refuse chamber' and return the empty trash bin hehehehe.

The keyword is wipe down. I want the house to be so clean it smells like chemicals.

Ta'ra!

And I spent 1 hour 45 minutes exercising today.

Ignorance is no longer Funny

2011-01-05T23:18:00.003+08:00

During my last class, a classmate offered me green tea flavored marshmallow. Growing used to the picnic mode of my classmates in general, I am far from embarrassed when asking for food. Usually I just poke the person next to me, hold out my hand and grin. They would promptly pass me the food, usually without even looking.

But this marshmallow I had to be wary of. One of the main ingredients in marshmallows is gelatine. And as you may know, the cheapest source of gelatine is always pork fat. Some gelatines are made from a combination of cattle and pork fat or just cattle fat. But that cattle needed to be properly slaughtered before I can consume any part of its body. It had to be halal.

Since this marshmallow was of Japanese origin, I looked through the ingredients list quickly before my classmate handed it to me. Indeed, it contained gelatine. So I apologized and had to refuse. But she couldn't just let the matter rest. She read through the ingredients list again and argued that the other ingredients were plants-based. And that the gelatine might be vegetable gelatine as well. She engaged the opinions (support) of another similarly ignorant person and disucssed it to no avail, after which she offered them to me again. Seriously, did she want me to publicly decline her again loudly?

The marshmallows did its rounds around the classroom while I helped myself to someone else's potato chips (Our 5-minute break time is really like a picnic time and even during the fasting month I hardly bring food to class). I apologized again for refusing (since I am not insensitive even though I was the one offended) and she had them offered those scandalous marshmallows to another Muslim in the class. A Malay guy. I repeated to them twice those marshmallows are not halal, apologized (again) and the guy took to reading the ingredients list first. But damn him! He popped one into his damn mouth!

Now this gave me two problems. The marshmallows were obviously not halal, yet this guy, who was older than me (but obviously none the wiser) ate them, and I didn't. They started questioning me why I wouldn't eat it while he did. I seriously wanted to ask him the same question too, but I was not that insensitive. It would open another can of worms and a discussion regarding how halal meat was prepared already started without my participation. At least sensei was already informed of the process but people kept mistaking Malays for Muslims. One is a race, another a religion, and in case you didn't know, there is a Malay Christian Church in Malaysia. It seems like in the topic of halalness other people were more knowledgable than me, the only Muslim in the class who didn't eat the damned marshmallows!

But damn it! Because of that damned guy eating those damned marshmallows half the class asked me on and on why I can't just eat the marshmallow because the gelatine might be vegetarian or of cow origin.

At the same time, why don't you just offer me roast pork then there? Or offer beef steak to a Hindu? Or a fish to a vegetarian? Or vegetables to a fruitarian!?

This classmate is normally a nice person, but why must you put me on the spot with your ignorance just because I refused your offensive marshmallows? I went through a religious school system from kindergarten till highschool, yet I fully realized that there are people out there with different needs and beliefs than me. Before I came to KL I didn't know about Hindus and cow meat, but once I knew I kept it in mind because Sarawak has a negligible number of Hindus. Yet you, who grew up in this freaking Peninsular with a higher rate of religious diversity and high concentration of Muslim conservatives could not understand why I would refuse something that you thought I suspect might contain pork fat?!

Pissed me off. And this damn guy is going to get it. He will definitely get it for making me look bad in front of the class and sensei. He. Will. Get. IT!

Hmph.

So Long 2010~

2011-01-05T02:43:00.003+08:00

And so long to you old friend!

Yes I have finally resigned from my part-time job at Kinokuniya. I've been there for approximately one year, 2 months and a half. I am done. I used to think I would never leave, and could not understand why people would resign from such an awesome place, but now I know. When it's time, it's time. As expected, my leaving was a big blow to my previous unit since I left with another long-term part-timer and the remaining part-timers were very, very new. Will I return? We shall see!!

My last day there was very exciting. I felt gay all day. A little sad, but very much liberated. I was very much surprised that my manager came on her day off specifically to give me a farewell gift. So touched. It was a pack of chocolate biscuits from Marks and Spencer. And my Unit Chiefs, one gave me a Rose Quartz birthstone and the other gift voucher. I did not expect a card, and didn't get one, though if I did, I would be slightly miffed. Since we've been filling in so many cards lately; one congratulatory card to Andrew who was promoted to Unit Chief and two birthday cards to colleagues. And half of the people of my unit have bad taste in gifts so I was quite glad they didn't get me any gift, instead I received individual gifts from people who mattered. My bag was quite heavy when I left for home that day. THANK YOU EVERYONE!

I realized that my leaving had left some repercussions of the thought to a few people and made me wonder since it's the new year if it was the time for people to be leaving and getting new jobs. And it's no wonder that they knew me for most of their employment time there. Whatever it is, I have a feeling that should I decide to return there after my holiday, I will be looking at a whole new crew. Or at least half of it.

Despite my intention to stay home and exercise and drink tea all day, my new year was spent movie marathoning with a couple of Kino friends. Was quite tired, and by the end of the day the only thing I want to do is stare at my Kuja and read porn. But thanks for asking me out!

Last Monday I went to return my uniform. HR made a fuss of the stain on the sleeve which was a work hazzard if I must say so myself! I was forced to duck under an upside down chair lain on a desk and turn sideways to read the labels off the box behind the chair, under another heavy box. That's what you call dedication! Well, at least they didn't see the stitches I did on the apron ehehe. I chatted with a few old friends not from my unit because only the boring 'kongsi gelap' gang were on duty that day. The e-dictionary guy assured me that my casio ex-word e-dic is still on course to arrive on schedule and he will email, sms and give me a call once the test model has arrived! He said if all goes well, they should arrive after CNY. I hope it will arrive before March when my Japanese class friends are going to Korea for holiday where I have already asked in advance that they get me said dictionary.

And of course, it was quite fun being a customer and stand around and chat all day while the others worked hehehe.

As I was saying! Or as I was about to say, new year means new year's resolutions. This year mine is quite simple; To run two 10km marathons and one half-marathon. Done. Sweet and simple. I've already been running in the gym and has increased my stamina explosively. Now I need to take it outside. I was planning to run in the KLCC park once a week just to get a feel of the outdoors. Weekday definitely, and after 4:30 pm. Hopefully I can return by 6pm when rush hour starts. What? You didn't think I would walk there did you!?

I remember going to a sports shop and overhearing or maybe eavesdropping (seriously, I was just right next to them) of these two girls buying 'running' shoes for going out running at the KLCC park. One of them were tomboyish and kept going for the sleek black Nikes which were more for sprinting than heavy duty running/marathoning. And the other kept going for the same type, except pink or white in color. I've thought of using those shoes for running and trying to think up reasons why my current running shoes would not suffice. I mean, those sleeker shoes are obviously made for speed and aerodynamics and such, but they don't give your feet much room for swelling after all the running. And Nikes...man, the bigger the sizes, the longer they get, the narrower they become. For running shoes, I reccomend Adidas. Trust me, I have two pairs. They never let me down. (proud)

I think they bought those shoes, since they were on sale. But I wonder if they are still running with them? Heheheeheh.

I actually planned to go to school today but I just had Detox tea which would increase my bowel movements five-folds so I really can't leave the house today. And my salary comes out today too sighs. Good thing I stocked up on water and toilet paper.

Ta'ra!

I Hate Kids

2010-12-18T16:39:00.002+08:00

It's not an unknown fact by now that I hate kids. Or more specifically, I hate other people's kids. They are noisy, abnoxious, annoying, attention whelps and are a pest in general. Like today for instance, they overran the gym. Because of that, I couldn't go there and exercise, because they literally overran the gym, those little monkeys. I hope they get hurt and never come back.

Obviously this family only stays over for the holidays. Another reason to hate school. They shouldn't keep those kids away from school for too long.

I've decided to back off for now and come back in an hour, when I am less traumatized and less cordially-inclined :P. I am not going to give up my precious day of working out due to some kids. The lot of them should just jump into the pool, seriously (and possibly drown).

I hate kids. It had nothing to do with my mom suddenly deciding to have another child 8 years ago. I already disliked them even then. But since I have an 8 year old sister anyway, I am not sorry for the fact that I bully her a lot simply because she is a kid. And being the youngest she will have to put up with it until I deem her no longer an annoying kid. Don't feel too sorry for her :P. She gets anything she wants. Except my attention.

I hate other people's kids and their parents. If you couldn't control or look after your little pests then why bother having them in the first place? There's a thing called a birth control pill in case you haven't heard of it.

To summarize: I. Hate. Kids.

Iroiro na Mono 2

2010-12-17T01:07:00.004+08:00

Hello. I'm quite sick of this background for my blog. My new year's resolution will be to change it.

I didn't realize that my last post was the one I made the night before JLPT. I was so traumatized post-JLPT that all I wanted was a cup of tea and some high-calorie cookies. I took N4 in the morning and N3 in the afternoon. The wait was so...hot. And I was wearing jeans. Uuugh. N4 was easy enough. But N3 slapped me left, right, upwards, downwards and diagonal.

After N4 my friend and I decided we will just take N3 for the experience. It wasn't that hard. I was just lazy to memorize all the kanji. As well as ill-prepared for the ridiculous time allocation. But N3 was a nightmare for more than just the content of the paper itself. Firstly it was set during the hot afternoon sun. Secondly, it was freaking postponed by 30 minutes because we had to wait for candidates who haven't arrived due to traffic! And despite that, our classroom had at least one empty desk at every row. Thirdly, we had to fill in an annoying questionnaire egged on by a predictably boring 'omiyage from Japan'. Fourthly, because of the annoying questionnaire, we left quite late. I walked out of my desk at exactly 7pm. The school didn't deem it necessary to turn on the lights, and although there was still a little bit of sun, all shaded areas of the school (stairs) might as well be nighttime.

So I walked down the 9 storeys stairs because it was too dark to be waiting for the lift on my own.

But things went up from there. Petaling Street was disgusting. There was pork and people spitting everywhere, yet I had to check out their game store. 5 ringgit PS2 games are still sold there after all. When I was done, I went to the head of the Street and contemplated my transportation home. Ideally wanted to drive, but being unfamiliar with the area, I decided to take a cab that morning. There were only two ways; bus and cab. Cabs are smelly but busses are infrequent. Walking would take close to an hour, and I was in need of a bathroom.

So I went to the Kotaraya side and stood by the roadside, contemplating. Then suddenly, a couple of haggard-looking tourists came up to me. There were two girls. One short, one Tall.

Short Girl: Excuse me, do you speak English?

Me: Oui. (Just kidding) Yes, I do?

SG: Do you know where is the monorail station around here?

Me: Ah, unfortunately there is no monorail station in the area. There are only the LRT stations...somewhere nearby. I've never actually been there.

SG: I see. *looks around desperately*

Me: May I know where you're going?

SG: We're going to Bukit Bintang. The Pavilion, you know.

Me: Oh. Well, from here there are only two ways to get to Bukit Bintang. Taxi or bus. Or walking. But that would be very tiring.

SG: *said something about how hard it is to get taxis* well, anyway, thanks for your help. *remains standing around*

Me: It's no problem. *contemplates, contemplates* You know I'm also going to Bukit Bintang. You wanna share a cab?

SG to Tall Girl: Hey you wanna share a cab to Bukit Bintang?

TG: Really? You would? Sure, sure!

Me: No problem. It's easier for me to get a cab since I'm local hehehe. Now stand back.

So we ended up sharing a cab. The two girls were Australians who are not quite tourists. They were on some internship program arranged by their college. Their actual internship was only for 1 week, but their college put them up for 3 weeks at the Renaissance Hotel. Prior to meeting me that night they got lost while walking on the highway. Thus, their haggard appearance. We chatted a lot in the cab and in addition to covering the fare (only 4.60 hehehe I'm good) They gave me a banana!

Funny how I didn't even ask for their names. But they were totally fun. I like such encounters. No attachments, just pure fun. Like one-night stands hehehehe. We parted ways at Pavilion which turned out to be a boon for our taxi too because he came to a long queue of tourists when he dropped us off. The moment we said goodbye I dashed off to the toilet.

I like American and Australian tourists in general. They are very friendly, and readily admit their own ignorance or shortcomings in a foreign country. And are willing to accept help. Unlike those European tourists.

Well then. I'll stop here before this post gets too long. Ta'ra!
p/s Klops: Yyes it's kinda nice getting back to exercising. I'm not going to lose to funny looking guy who thinks he's such an expert now even though he ran only ONE half marathon! and thanks for the suggestion!

Long Holiday That Should Not Be

2010-12-04T00:34:00.003+08:00

I am still reeling back from having tea squirt out of my nose when I choked while watching 'Sonny with a Chance'. It's incredible, really, since I already watched that episode. The one where Chad Dylan Cooper was making a movie about himself but did not want to cast Sonny as herself in his movie. Instead he invited Selena Gomez to play Sonny. The ending where Chad said "So you think I have sparkly eyes?" was what got me. Man. My nose tastes sweet. Also, the Camp Hip Hop parody and the 'Jonas Brothers' at the end was hilarious.

Anyway, I noticed that I need to type in shorter sentences. Thus, shorter paragraphs. It makes my point clearer. And gives more impact. And I need to stop starting sentences with 'and'.

I asked for the week off from work due to JLPT this Sunday. I kept forgetting that I was taking two levels which meant I had to be there at both the morning and afternoon sessions. Sighs. I am not even sure of the exact location. At least everyone knows where UPM is. Far thought it may be. I supposed it's better for it to be in KL itself. Closer to home. And no, I have totally not been studying. I just had a test last Tuesday. Studying is the last thing on my mind. Though I supposed I should endure some anime tonight to redeem myself. It's good practice for the listening test.

Physically, I have been exercising for a full two months. I started early October, seemingly out of the blue, but really, there were several contributing factors. As I'm sure you people are interested to know.

REASONS WHY I STARTED EXERCISING AGAIN:

I picked up reading SHAPE magazine again. And that is always a motivator to start working out. No arguing there.
A colleague I label 'funny-looking guy' (F-LG) went on the Penang Bridge Marathon and I'm jealous. Therefore I decided I should join a marathon next year. F-LG made a comment where it's just so easy to just change into your running clothes and run at the KLCC park after work. Well excuse you for your ignorance. You don't have to wear a sport's bra. And of course, I told him that to his face. Hmph.
Since I made the decision to join a marathon next year, okay, more like a 10km run, since all marathons usually have a 10km event. I asked sensei to join me. He said yes and asked when. I said every month next year so he should start preparing. Since you know, there's always an event every month. And he lives in the neighbourhood so it's easy to meet up. So now that I have a marathon buddy, I have to train for a marathon, which includes losing weight. You can't train for a marathon and not lose weight, really.
Because people have been mistaking me for colleagues who wore at least two uniform sizes bigger than me! And they laughed as they said it, as if it was funny. Well of course they found it funny. Funny how I don't. I'll say more about this later.
Because it's cool. The scale hadn't budget much, since I got a new electronic scale that weights to the grams, I wouldn't call it a change until I could keep off 1 kg for two weeks straight. I am not expecting anything until the end of this month.
Because I just want to lose weight! And not complain that my uniform is getting too tight. It's not.

Going back to point 4, yes, it was insulting when people mistook me for someone who was fatter than me because I know I'm not the skinny type. Even when I lost 10kg, I was still curvy because I was made that way. What differentiated me from those people is that I'm taller than them. So even though I'm not as broad as they were, when I sat down I looked broader. I want to say that I'm not complaining, and I do like the way I'm built, but if I was happy with my weight I wouldn't be trying to lose them would I? Also, it must be said that it's very offensive and insulting and it hurts my feelings when people, even in good spirit, commented how "cuter" you look after they haven't seen you in a while. DO YOU REALLY HAVE TO MAKE COMMENTS ON HOW FAT PEOPLE LOOK EVERY YEAR YOU SEE THEM!?!?

If you have been at the receiving end of this comment before, you know how it feels. You try to just brush it aside and focus on how happy you are to see your friends/relatives and not concentrate on how fat they think you are. Now that you know, from now on, stop making such comments to other people. I don't. I used to do that just to annoy that person, but it's such a habit to these people now that they just do it without thinking. Now start thinking. Don't do it. Find something else to comment about! Their hair, their clothes, anything!

On the subject of fitness, everyone has an opinion. Even people who have only been jogging for half a day fancy themselves fitness expert. For example, some time ago, there was a jogging phase at work. I saw a few cashier staff changed into their jogging gear and went jogging at the KLCC park. After a few days I asked what's up and they explained just that. So I asked them where do they put their bags when they jog. One girl said they put them in a colleague's car before they set off. So I nodded my head and said 'I see'. After all, when going jogging you want to be as light as possible, right? and then this bimbo just had to say something so stupid as:

'or we just bring them along sometimes'.

I was flabbergasted. "But they're heavy!"

"Itu bagus lagi lah!" (that's even better you know!)

I stared at her, bug eyed, as I received a lecture on the benefits of carrying a one-shoulder bag on your run. Of course, I didn't even get to bring up the point where you will only strain your shoulder and ruin your lower back due to the uneven weight, because they left soon after, bags and all. Like I said, experts. The jogging fever lasted for only two weeks. :P

And they were still fat.

I'm not calling myself an expert, but I have enough experience and enough knowledge to know what is safe to do, at least for my body type, weight, and sex. And if you know as much (or as little) as I do, you'll know that you have to be a certified expert to be imparting fitness knowledge on other people. So if you have enough sense in your head, you wouldn't be imparting fitness knowledge on other people. You can advise them on what is generally safe, but for anything further, you must refer them to the experts.

Now, if you really want to know the basics, as a female, here are a few things I vouch for:

Never run alone at a secluded or non-populated area. It's dangerous.
If you do have to run alone, do not use ipods or anything similar. When alone you need to keep your ears peeled for possible perverts or attackers.
Wear light clothing. Bags, unless they are small hip pouches to keep your essentials ie car keys, cellphones, etc, are not necessary. You may think you are losing extra weight by carrying those weight, but you're doing it at the expense of ruining your muscles and doing permanent damage to your back. Some people run with leg weights or arm weights. Do not do so if you're an amatuer. Women have more tender muscles than men. The weight could tear your muscles easily.
Wear suitable shoes. If you've been running for a month, and enjoys it, then go buy yourself a good pair of running shoes. The shoes must be labeled 'running' shoes. Cross-training shoes are ok too, but never substitude them for those plasticky-soled shoes meant for mall hopping rather than sports.
Wear socks. No argument.
SPORTS' BRA! Unless you're an A cup, then forget it.
Let someone know where you're going for your run and what time to expect you back. So important when running outdoors.
Stay hydrated. Drink before, during and after your run/jog. And it must be water. Not sports drink, carbonated drinks or lemonade. Drinking water does not cause that tightness at the side. Nobody knows what causes it, so drink up.
STAY SAFE. And enjoy.

I've met my share of perverts outside that's why I prefer doing my exercises indoors.

My Kujong has finally kicked the bucket and swallowed my FF12 DVD. He will be retired. Although I'm planning to get a ps3, I am still getting another PS2. A small silver PS2. I've always wanted one hehehe. Right, now time to endure some anime. Uuugh. I don't know just what sort of anime interests me anymore these days.

Wish me luck! Ta'ra!

They are out, out, OUT!!

2010-11-30T15:46:00.003+08:00

Who? Jess and Lani of course! It was childish, but I actually pumped my fist undignifiedly when Allan Wu announced their elimination. Of course, I'm talking about the Amazing Race Asia 4. I've been a sucker for the Amazing Race Asia Season 4. It was because one of the Malaysian teams are Sarawakians, and we support our home team hehehe.

There are 10 teams participating in the race, and ALL of them, EXCEPT the Malaysian teams, had a member who are some sort of local celebrities in their home countries. I'm serious. You can check the wikipedia page. But despite the lack of celebrity presence in the Malaysian team, which suits me fine, they had performed remarkably well. If there had been a 'Miss Congeniality' award, either of the Malaysian teams would win it.

Now, let's break down to my favorite moments. These are the two Malaysian teams:

Ivan and Hilda, married. The Sarawakian team.And Ethan and Khairie, friends.

I started out rooting for Ivan and Hilda just because, but they were eliminated at the end of leg 6, which broke my heart a little, but then the other Malaysian team are still in it. I loved that episode in New Zealand when Ethan became the sheep whisperer. I laughed so hard. xD These two can be so funny together. They were eventually eliminated in leg 8, ending at 5th position. But because Ethan and Khairie are good friends with the Singaporean team, I started supporting them too. Michelle and Claire are now in the top 3, so you know who I'm rooting for!

Despite their elimination, I must say that I'm quite proud of their performance, both to each other and with the other teams. You don't see them backstabbing or using dirty tactics to finish a task. They were only focused on themselves. And they are nice to the other teams when they crossed paths, even though they knew they were being last and the team passing them by is going to beat them to the finish line, they still managed to wish them luck. Sincerely. Which is a hard thing to do in their situation.

Needless to say, the Malaysian teams went down fighting, with their honour intact. I'm proud of you guys!! (The temple challenge in Korea clearly showed that both the Malaysian teams were put down as teams with 'most likely to team up with' and 'enviable relationship' by the other teams).

The Philipine teams are being represented by fake Filipinos. They have been proven to be good racers, and the Richards turned out not to be spoiled brats after all (as opposed to the Indian teams, surprisingly). But despite representing the Philipines, all four of the participants don't even live in the Philipines. The Richards are of Filipinos ethinicity to a certain degree, but were both raised in the United States, while Jess and Lani are Australians with Lani having some Filipino ethinicity. Team Philipines spoke with either an American accent or an Aussie accent. I bet the Filipinos are proud of them. I think the first thing I disliked about Jess & Lani is Lani's accent. I didn't know she was Aussie. But if she was, then what is she doing in the Amazing Race Asia?? They were proud, and they had mentioned very early on they were willing to do anything to win the race; lie, seduce, flirt, take advantage, ANYTHING. And they did. And they claimed to not know why the other teams didn't like them eventhough they have explicitly mentioned that they are friendly to everyone, but never went out to make friends. Still, I had no problem with that. But it was probably their little snide comments about the other teams throughout the race that annoyed me the most. They were already ahead, winning 1st for three legs. Do they really had to put down the other teams behind their backs so much? When they finished fourth in the race for top 3, I was aesthetic. They totally did not deserve to be in the final.

The Indian Teams! Where do I start? There are two Indian teams, the Indian Boys and the Indian Girls teams. All four of them have appeared on the local television there, which explains their good looks and spoiled personalities. You would have thought people from third world (developing) countries to be a little humble and hardworking, but obviously not these people! Sahil & Manas are hands down spoiled city boys. I agree with the father-daughter Indonesian team there. the girls are more hardworking though, but their cocky attitude made them hard to get along with by the non-Malaysian teams (because they dont have drama). Their rivalry with the Singapore team made me dislike them even more because I like the Singaporean team. overall, I think the Indian team were very un-Indian-like. They were so eager to prove they are not the typical Indian from the poverty-stricken country that they were practically acting like, uugh, God save us, Americans. Indians acting like Americans. Enough said.

The Indonesian teams. Such a contrast. The first father-daughter team. And a beauty queen and TV presenter. The former, a real underdog from the beginning, came out first to be in the top 3 in th leg before the finale. And the latter, was the first team to be eliminated. The father-daughter team is quite cute. They made it first in Korea because the father negotiated with taxi drivers to show them the road around. As opposed to Jess & Lani who refused to pay the expensive taxi cabs and got amazingly lost. It turned out to be a great factor to their win, and elimination hehehe.

I look forward to the finale. I'm supporting team Singapore now. How about you? xD

Ta'ra!

p/s I GOT AN A!!! AFTER 4 LEVELS I FINALLY GOT AN A!!!!! Ok that's it.

Feet Tea

2010-10-24T04:02:00.002+08:00

It's not that I have smelly feet. It always depends on the type of footwear. And socks. It's a given that your feet would stink after a long day of work. The locker room would stink so bad you could literally taste it on your tongue. A certain bitterness. I am not against changing footwear after work, but some of these people leave their stinky socks in their lockers together with their smelly shoes, leaving a very pleasant frangrance!

My lockermates did that before; leaving their shoes and socks in the locker without so much as putting it in a shoebox. It made my apron smelled of their shoes eew! Don't they have common sense!? So, rather than complaining to them, I took the matters into my own hand; I prepared a shoe box in the locker for their use! At least, when they left, the shoe box would remain there for future idiots to take notice of!

And no, I wear my shoes straight from home, so the only thing I left in my locker is my apron and nametag. And a bottle of lotion I hardly use.

But when I get home, my feet are tired, battered and smelled of mouldy socks. I remember seeing my homie back in uni soaking her feet in saltwater. I thought, 'oh how nice'. The first time I tried it, I just wanted to soak my feet in something herby and nice. I remembered this episode on Oprah where the girl was told to soak her feet in tea to cure her smelly feet problem. Normally when they bother me, I just go and take a shower and scrub my feet. The smell can be persistent even after thorough washing and they won't completely disappear until the next morning.

Determined to relax my battered feet, I foraged around the kitchen and found some old tea bags. I doubt their taste is suitable for consumption now which made them great for foot soaking. I popped two teabags in a bucket and poured hot water. I let them seep for a while and then added tap water to the right temparature. Then I settled into my chair and soaked my feet. Ah~ bliss.

My feet emerged like prunes, but man did they not smell - of anything! Not even of earl grey! I do this about once a week or when I feel like it. It's a lot of work, you know. Carrying the bucket around. But then I found this article about the benefits of soaking feet in tea. Apparently if you soak your feet in tea for 30 minutes everyday for a week, you can keep smelly feet at bay for weeks to come. And from then on just do it once or twice a week to keep the symptoms at bay. The tannin in tea shrinks the sweat glands in your feet, causing your feet to sweat less, giving bacterias less surfaces to breed and cause smelly feet.

Like I said, I don't naturally have smelly feet. But I might just try it because it's so nice and relaxing hehehe!

Try it! You'll love it! Ta'ra!

Random Crap V

2010-10-20T01:23:00.005+08:00

Since this is Random Crap V, yes it means there have been Random Crap I-IV proceeding it.

So, staying true to the title, let's start with work. After the initial outburst of work-related posts almost exactly one year ago, it became obvious to me quite quickly that I did not like to blog about work. Simply because work should stay where it is; at work. As you know, my work involves carrying a lot of books around. I do my best to transfer the weight to my thighs and butt, trying to spare my back as much as possible, but you get tired and you get lazy.

If you are worried about my back, thank you. But I assure you, they do not get as much abuse as my butt. I squat and lift from it a lot. From the rate I'm going, I'm surprised that it hasn't grown muscles down there yet!!

What irritate me so much is how, 7 times out of 10, each time I have a huge and heavy (huge does not necessary mean heavy, of course. Books with lots of pictures are heavier than text-only books) load in my arms, I will get customer inquiries looking for the most impossible book! SERIOUSLY! CAN'T YOU SEE THE HEAVY LOAD I'M CARRYING GLARING AT YOU!?

I went to bed at night and I couldn't sleep thinking at how irritated it made me. RAAWR!!

...

They speak so fast. Those Japanese. And I returned Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei because of the annoying faces. Go watch it yourself. It Irritated me just thinking about it. I thought the files were tampered with, because obviously 70% of the animes sold there are downloaded materials and so not original. So I returned it, and although having convinced by the guy that the anime was not tampered with, I insisted on changing it. I bought Black Butler instead. I always thought I'd end up watching it one day. Might as well be now. And I downloaded K-ON Season 2. After I did some porn transferring of course hehehehe.

Speaking of Japanese people, we finally met up with Ooshiro Sensei and her baby!

I have better pictures in my camera but so mafan to upload. Wakana-chan was also very excited to meet us hehehehe.

Earlier the same week we celecbrated Andou Sensei's xxth birthday.
He's always ready to humor us (also because I already confirmed with him that he's free after class that day so there's no getting out of it!).

And also, Kinokuniya's Annual Dinner! My Assistant Unit Chief is in the picture.

I'm sure you can pick him out hehehe.

A lot of things happened after I came back from Sabah it seems. Now if only I could get some homework done. Sighs.

Ta'ra!

I Went To Sabah. And Stuff.

2010-10-14T20:48:00.004+08:00

I went to Sabah last weekend for my dad's old friend's daughter's wedding. This is my second visit to Sabah. I enjoyed my first time there immensely and I enjoyed this trip too.

My last dinner at home before I left for KK. That day was awesome. I stayed at home, cooked a total of three times and sat at home watching TV and eating. All day. Awesome. It was at the spur of the moment too. I suddenly decided that I wanted to eat meatballs. So I went down to Carrefour and bought some minced meat and spaghetti. Then I used all the leftover ingredients from my open house and made some awesome meatballs and put them in the spaghetti sauce. And TA-DA! Spaghetti meatballs!

The verdict? It's as good as it looks.

Anyway. I have been watching (listening) to anime these days (forefully). My interest in it has dissipated long ago and nowadays if not becasue of the prospect of failing JLPT, I wouldn't be putting myself through such torture. I selected anime of the right cast of characters, setting and timeline. To ensure I don't suddenly stun my sensei with vocabularies that would have made his grandfather proud. Since I don't like dramas, so I've chosen these two animes;

K-ON.

I could only take two episodes per day. I turned off the subtitles and let the words run wild. With subs I'll just end up reading. I've finally finished all 12 episodes. Only 2 OVAS left! Yay me! This is not an anime review blog so I shall not review it. I'll just say their Sawa-chan-sensei is my favorite character hehehe.

And Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.

The guy at the store said that it's kinda old now, comparatively. But Ive been eyeing the manga at work you see, but I'm too lazy to read them (or have enough resources to start collecting. It's up to vol 7 now). And besides, I previewed the first ep on youtube. And aside from the slow start, I like the voice actor for the sensei hehehe. The art is fresh too hehe. The store only had a compilation of seasons 1-3 plus OVAS. So I have no choice but to swallow all 38 episodes eventually. I hope the story is interesting enough to keep me going.

When choosing these two animes, I chose those that I think are interesting enough to follow yet I don't really care enough for the storyline to want to know every single thing that was happening since I'll be watching them with subs off. With K-ON I only turned on the subs a few times on only 3 episodes. Just to the part that I was curious about. But so far I'm amazed at how easily I understand them and how much I understood if I just listened carefully. Thus, headphones are imperative.

Okay time to shower! Ta'ra!

Am I Invisible?

2010-09-22T02:19:00.002+08:00

For two nights in a row, I was almost cut in the queue by bloody rude foreigners! Here's how!

Last night, after coming back from work, I stopped by McD Bukit Bintang for the triple cheese burger. As usual, it was crowded with tourists. After living here for four years, you become weary of their "rudeness". No, it's no longer a cultural thing. They were being rude. Don't let them make you think otherwise. If it's a dirty look you're given, it is a dirty look. End of story.

Anyway.

I was queuing. Like anyone should. Normally the queues at McDs go quite fast because the person who takes your orders and the one who fulfills it are two different people. So basically there are two queues at each counter; order making and order taking. You go to order making first, and then order taking. So there I was, queueing. Suddenly, this big guy found himself in the order taking queue and was surprised that he didn't get served. After a while he realized he was in the wrong queue and started standing next to the guy in front of me! So I glared.

And glared and glared. He didn't take the hint.

Since I was fourth in line, I was quite curious to see if
1) he will seriously jump queue in front of me
2) knowing that, will the staff serve him first, and
3) If I was patient enough to wait until I humiliate him.

I was third in line.

Pissed, mainly because I'm hungry, tired and am generally pissed at being treated like crap by foreigners at work, I approached him. Remember, he was standing too closely to the guy in front of me.
Me: Excuse me, are you with them? *points to an Arab looking couple in front of the guy in front of me*
Guy: No.
Me: Then you're cutting queue.
Guy: *looked down at me and talking as if yes, I acknowledge you, but I see no problem in standing here anyway* You are after him, right? *indicating the guy in front of me*
Me: Yes, and the back of the line to you.

My words were sharp and clear and he obliged, BY STANDING BEHIND ME! Seriously, which country is this guy from!? THERE ARE PEOPLE BEHIND ME! HE SHOULD BE BEHIND THE PEOPLE BEHIND ME! RAWR! He must have thought he's behind me so he should be after me, but he joined the queue wrongly so he should rightly be at the END OF THE LINE! But despite him being inappropriately close to me after that, I got my rightful place. It's up to the people behind me whether they wanted to put up with him.

I thought that was the end of it. Tonight I went to KFC. KFC has a terrible waiting time because they use the same staff to take and fulfill orders. But I was quite full and I just wanted a snack so I didnt mind the wait. KFC has one of the stupidest system despite this being one of the busiest outlets. But I am used to the stupidity and I was not hungry. And I had a drink to keep me occupied.

KFC had four counters and only two counters, the two at the ends that are open. The two in the middle are perpetually closed. Like I said, stupidity. So there I was, in the queue.I started off being fifth in line. The people at the head of both queues happened to be same group, so while they occupied both counters, once the one in my queue had finished taking his orders, his friend on the other queue canceled, which prompted a cursing frenzy from the tired staffs. I totally understand. And yes, they were foreigners of caucasian looking people who do not speak good english.

Suddenly, a group of men, all with broad built and short cropped hair entered. at first a few of them stood at the closed counter looking up at the menu. After a while of asking for service, they were told (rather unpolitely) by the staff that the counter is closed. Dismayed, they started standing BESIDE THE PERSON IN FRONT OF ME, AGAIN! RAWR! I was second in line damn you!

Again, since this guy was the same height as me, I glared at him. If my eyes could shoot lasers he would have had two holes in place of eyes that time. The people in front of me were locals; father and son. the foreigner was bretahing down their necks and they were getting uncomfortable. It's obvious they wanted to cut queue and it was me, AGAIN! SERIOUSLY, AM I INVISIBLE!?

You don't think I'm going to stay quiet did you? Of course not!

Me: Excuse me sir, there is a queue.
Guy: Well there was this thing with the counter.
Me: RIGHT! (I DONT CARE). *GLARE*

He slunk away to the back.

You think a small (comparatively) local girl like me would be intimidated by your foreigner superiority complex?? YOU WISH! If you think that Malaysians are just like some third-world country people bent on extorting money from rich foreigners, then you are wrong. Those are just the taxi drivers. There are plenty of well-educated proud Sarawakians along the streets of KL and we are not to be bullied and intimidated. You, sirs, have picked on the wrong Malaysian.

If I hadn't stood up for myself and let these bastards cut me in queue I would cause a scene somewhere along the lines of:

This guy jumped the line! I was here first! What? YOU HAVEN'T EATEN IN TEN YEARS IS IT!?

I would like to see how they would have reacted to that.

I do admit that Malaysians in general has a too laid back attitude when it comes to foreigners being rude to them. They don't want trouble, they say. Well bullshit! I've had enough of being bullied by the likes of you people who look down on us! If our country is not good enough for you, then WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU HERE ANYWAY!? GO BACK TO WHICHEVER HELLHOLE YOU CAME FROM! RAWR!

Being corteous is too hard? Indeed it is.

Ta'ra

Kanji Will Be The End of Me!

2010-08-31T06:12:00.003+08:00

It's done. I registered. I paid. I'll be taking N3 and N4 both this end of the year. After I found out on the website that N3 and N4 are going to be in separate times, I pounced! I mean, I just have to register anyway, as long as I didn't pay it's not official. But I paid. I knew it was RM80 each, but in case I saw it wrongly and it's RM120 instead, I only asked for RM120. But I ended up paying RM160. Uugh.

Not surprisingly I am not the only one who registered for the N3 class but is taking N4 as a safety net. On last count my JLPT preparatory class had 8 people. I missed the last two classes on purpose (sleeping) mostly because I felt that the sensei wasn't really teaching us anything new. Outside students might find it useful, but for someone like me who is currently attending a course there, I'm better off asking my own class sensei.

But 7+7+14 pages of revision per week!?!? SERIOUSLY!? I'm already falling behind, needless to say. The grammar and vocabulary exercise are 1 page a day each, but the kanji is 2 pages a day and can be finished in 6 weeks. Because I have three months, I am taking my time on purpose. When I first got the kanji exercise book, I found that there are only about 300+ kanji inside it. N3 has 600 basic kanji, so where did the other 300 went? Well apparently the other 300 are all N4 kanji. Therefore studying for N3 assumes that you are acquianted with the N4 kanjis as well.

600 kanjis...I'm having problems with just 10 kanjis a week T_T. Kanji will be the end of me.

Ta'ra!

Redang Trip

2010-08-23T05:37:00.008+08:00

I know I said I would post up pictures two days ago, but I got lazy. Anyway, here we go. From KL we took the overnight bus to Kuala Terrengganu; a journey that would normally take 7 hours including rest stop, but was only 6 hours and 20 minutes (the driver drove like a madman). But despite arriving early, our ride was already waiting there for us. I arranged this trip through a travel agent and we were picked up by a sightseeing van (van persiaran that's typical of travel agencies). Throughout our trip, our land rides have always been punctual. So this is a very good travel agent and I reccomend it to everyone on their first trip to Redang! This is their website: http://www.pinganchorage.com.my/.

Between arriving at KT and getting to the jetty, we did nothing much but have breakfast and took a nap at the agency's backpackers' inn. Anyway, when we finally got to the jetty, we were greeted by this:
Yup, that's our boat. Not very big but everyone and everything fit in there, surprisingly. The left walkway actally leaned sideways and creaked like it was going to collapse anytime. When I first arrived, it freaked me out because I was walking freaking sideways! But surprisingly, when we returned from the island, it didnt bother me at all. I must have gotten my sea legs by then hehe.

When we arrived to our jetty, the operator said we have another 45 minutes before the boat leaves so we could go and have a look round first before we leave. Each resort operates their own boat in Redang so there's no issue of being left behind. So, while we waited, what else to do but...shop? xD

The jetty was littered with stalls selling souvenirs like these, in addition to t-shirts and island themed shirts. I bought a pair of colorful pants and a shirt to wear for our snorkelling trips and some souvenirs for people at work.

When it was time to board, the journey to Redang took about 45 minutes. It wasn't unpleasant, and I wasn't seasick, but it was incredibly boring. But we finally arrived!

It was almost noon by then so it was pretty hot. The boat was at the direction of the sun so I couldnt take a good picture of it. We got off the boat at a jetty by the beach, but we had to trek up the beach to where our resort is, and that's where they dumped our bags on the beach, which was quite thoughtful of them. Since we won't have to haul them all they way in the hot sun.

The legends are true. The beaches ARE BLUUUUUE!

After lunch we went snorkelling. My friend rented mask and life jacket while I only rented life jacket because I have my own mask. Snorkelling gear and snorkelling trips are all organized by the resort's Snokeling Center. xD

The first island we went to was THE BEST! It was my first time snorkelling and conditions couldn't have been better. The water wasn't too deep and the sun was shining brightly, giving great visibility. We were hauled to the snorkelling sites on an old fishing boat and it was...weird. But at least it has no barrier which means you can jump off the boat from whichever spot you like! Hahahaha.

The resort staff were very helpful. They told those who can't swim to leave last after they have prepared the floaters. My friend couldn't swim, so I had to wait as well. :P But unlike other resorts who just tossed the floaters out there for non-swimmers to cling to, they stayed and guided the floaters in addition to teaching them to swim. One of them is a man we now call Pakcik (Uncle). He's really not that that old, but with that overly tanned skin he might as well be.

Anyway, since my friend couldn't swim, I hung out around the floater alot, as he gave the hanger ons a tour of the coral reef. After some time, he dove down into the water and produced a large, black, and pointy S-shaped sea cucumber! I was freaked out! Not only did he raise it out of the water, he put it to his ear and said "hello? Hello?"

Me: "WTF IS THAT?!"
Pakcik: "It's a telephone. Hello? Hello? There's a call for you." puts the sea cucumber on the floater.
My friend and I screamed. You should have SEEN that thing! BIG BLACK POINTY! RAAWR.

It was the only time my friend who clung to the floater like her life depended on it, let go of it. I asked him again and again what it was, and he insisted that it was a telephone. It was hilarious, but at the same time freaky. After he was done freaking out everyone around him, he dove down and put back the sea cucumber on the sea floor.

On our last day he finally admitted that it was not a telephone, but a sea cucumber. In fact, the one that he held was a male and has a very fragile nature despite its hard exterior. It can die from just a simple cut.

This pic is from our last snorkelling trip. There was a sudden influx of people, so the fishing boat was not enough.We had to use this baot too. This boat couldn't go to the jetty, so everyone had to board from the beach. xD I asked Pakcik what the delay was about, he said the trip is canceled and we're going hiking instead. "With life jacket and snorkel?" He said yes. My friend stayed in the boat coz she was not only unable to swim, but is also afraid of the water. Sighs.

So we spend our days snorkelling and eating, what do we do at night? Why, we go sightseeing of course! Along our stretch of beach there are seven resorts. Our resort is at the end of the beach and we could easily walk to the four resort during high tide. But during low tide at night, we could go all the way to the end of the beach!

We met this sister in one of the neighbouring resorts. She works in the gift shop and was making a bracelet for her friend. We stood around admiring her work for a while and took pictures. She was seriously very good at it. She should sell her own bracelet instead of those manufactured ones in the shop!

On the second night Pakcik escorted us all the way to the end of the beach where we took pictures, had tea and snacks and talked about kueh lapis! IT WAS TOTALLY FUN! It wouldn't have happened if he hadn't tagged along with us because the bend that connects the two parts of the beach is dark and too dangerous for two girls to traverse alone. PAKCIK YOU'RE AWESOME!
Not only that, he has turtles for pets! YEAH!

Our resort may be the cheapest and the most minimum, but its strategically located at the end of the beach, above the rocks, which give you this kind of view 360 degrees. I left Redang with a heavy heart. I looked forward to going back to KL, but I did not enjoy the thought of going back to KT. It was a miserable place for me. I wanted to just go straight from KL to Redang.

One of the reasons was because we made a lot of new connections there. There was a group of students from PTPTL College during our trip and we met a Sarawakian and immediately hit it off. And then there was Pakcik who was one of those rare genuinely nice people out there. My friend sms'd him on the first day of fasting and he called back. It was funny because he was in the middle of shopping and I just blathered on about crap. He said the most words when he was going to hang up because he had to pay for his stuff hahahaha.

I am definitely planning to go back there next year! I don't know yet if I'll be staying at the same resort. Depending on my company, I may go to Laguna Redang instead of Redang Holiday, simply because the resort was cooler and has ice cream shops and coffee shops. But the beach is not for swimming as it is an active boating area. But I doubt we'll get the same sort of 'old friend' feeling with the staff. Whatever it may be, one thing is for certain; I am not going to take the bus there ever again! RAWR 7 hours is enough to drive anyone crazy, especially with a selfish and inconsiderate bitch sitting in front of you! I'm flying there next time around.

I'll post up more pictures in facebook. Ta'ra!

p/s While doing this post, I did the dishes, cleaned the table, cleaned the stove, and had dinner. Just goes to show how low my interest in blogging has become.

p/s/s My feet was so tired last night that I decided that I was going to soak it in some relaxing concoction. At first I thought of buying some salt from the Body Shop, but then I didn't want to spend any money on it so I thought of maybe tea? I found some old earl greys in the pantry and used two tea bags. It took a while to get the temperature right, but it was so worth it! I soaked my feet while watching CSI, so it was about 45-50 minutes, which I think is really more than enough. But it was SOO relaxing! Not only that, when I took out my feet, they did not smell of earl grey! Hahaha. In fact, they didn't smell of anything at all! Usually even after I shower there will always be a faint lingering of damp socky smell. If I am bothered I would put foot cream, but after the tea, the smell was completely gone! Tea is deodorizing. I knew that, but to see it worked is amazing! xD So if you have smelly feet or you just want to relax your feet cheaply, just use the cheapest tea you can find and soak your feet in them. You'll get fresh feet for sure! XD

Redang Prologue

2010-08-17T18:09:00.003+08:00

Yes, I've been too lazy to update my blog these days. No reason. I am simply lazy. No wonder my mental state has not been very good lately too. Anyway, I ralized my two-year dream of going to Redang the weekend before Ramadhan. I'm just wasting time before going to class, so here's a picture of me holding up a baby turtle. O_O <<--my eyes. My eyes aside, the baby turtle is just too cool. It kept on swimming even as I held it up out of the water. It was like *swim swim swim* *looks* *swim swim swim*. Too cool. I'm still vigorously attending my Japanese classes. I must have spent a fortune on it I think. But this year just when I thought I was ready to finally take on JLPT, a new syllabus presented itself and I just HAD to register for the brand spanking new level N3 instead of N4 which is a guaranteed pass at my level. But noooo, I just had to burden myself unnecessarily. So in order to help me pass, I signed up for the prepatory class and was smashed down to earth by the realization that it was probably out of my league. Probably. I was practically shot dead and became a zombie throughout the class. We did three tests. At least I know as long as it doesn't involve reading (kanji) I actually did well in listening.

But that's little to celebrate about. I have to memorize 600 kanji characters, which is double the amount of the previous JLPT 3 now JLPT N4. The sensei already warned us that its not going to be easy, and the classes only help little, and we have to put in the effort EVERYDAY. With NO BREAK. She told us to go buy the kanji workbook ourselves seeing as we don't have enough class time to cover kanji. Only Kino sells those kanji workbook and I have staff purchase to cushion the price.

In addition to the kanji workbook I also bought a new Japanese-english dictionary. I wanted only Japanese words you see. Now that I think about it, maybe I should buy a kanji dictionary too, pending I could learn how to use it. Raaawr. I'm SO glad I decided to forfeit my cousin's wedding for this. She is so not worth it.

Okay time for class. I'll post up Redang pics later tonight. Ta'ra!

p/s I need a new theme for this blog. The sushis have gone way past expiration.

New Year's Resolutions Revisited

2010-07-14T02:44:00.003+08:00

I wrote down my new year's resolutions in my B5 ring binder on new year's eve before it went on my blog. I just happened to read them the other day and measured my success against it, and man am I proud! Here goes!

My 2010 New Year's Resolutions, mid-year review:

(in no order of importance except for the first one)

1. To graduate! Needs no explanation! Well it's not the end of the year`yet, but my reports are going along fine, so I hope it'll be realized soon!

2. To go on that Scandinavian tour xD. Okay this had to be postpone. So now it's NORWAY 2011 BABY! MY TICKETS ARE BOUGHT! I AM COMIIING!!!!!11111

3. To complete my Japanese lesson Advance 1 and 2 and JLPT level 3. I am most proud of this one. I completed Advance 1 and 2 and am now in Advance 3 yay me! JLPT changed from 4 to 5 levels so now I am aiming to take JLPT N4 and N3. I know that N4 is a sure pass, but since N3 is only slightly harder, I decided to take my chances with it anyway. They said N3 is now equal to Advance 4, which is starting around August so I am on track! Whee! Wish me luck! xD

4. To eat my supplements everyday (coz they are expiring soon heheh). Have completely gotten off the supplements wagon! I do prefer fresh veggies but I just forgot D:. I'll try to do better. I promise D:.

5. To come up with several plans (for my future) for the coming year. Holiday plans and carreer plans are up!

6. To have RM1087.92 in saving by the end of the year (that's my yearly loan repayment from nov 2010-oct 2011 btw). I have that amount now, but I have other plans for that.

7. To achieve my targeted amount of Snackelery sales. I haven't made any sales since the start of the year! Someone please buy! D:

8. To clean the house every two weeks. Is once a month good enough? xD

9. To check my monthly planner at least once a week. I don't really check it weekly, but I do update it often enough that I remember what's when and such. Thus my cute planner is sufficiently utilized.

10. To exercise 3 times a week and lose 5 kg! (This is a must every year!). Exercised. Scale is broken? xD Enough said.

Looking back it's amazing how frivolous my new year's resolutions seemed. And I'm not even sure if frivolous is being used in context. I mean yeah, graduating and Japanese lessons' targets are important, but supplements?

If I could make modifications I really should have added my goal of finishing my ISP reports by August 11th when the fasting month begins. At least I only have to worry about my thesis and pending paper. Pending I passed the one I sat before. I'm scared.

Anyway, I AM FINALLY GOING TO REDANG THIS YEAR YAAAY!!! I finally coerced one more person to accompany me and we are off just before the fasting month! I AM SUPER EXCITED! I have been wanting to go there for 2 years now! Now all I have to do is buy the bus tickets to K. Terengganu. I've never purchased a bus ticket before, so I'm a little intimidated. After that I'm heading to Masjid India to buy fabrics for my work uniform. HR Basically told me to put up with my short uniform because I am not important enough for a longer cutting uniform which are all BRAND NEW FIRST-HAND UNIFORMS RESERVED FOR MORE IMPORTANT PEOPLE THAN ME! So fucking pissed. What? Just because I'm a part-timer means I'm not entitled to good fitting uniforms!? I do more physical work than any of the full-timers in my unit okay!? Stupid HR! FINE! I'll make my own! AND IT WAS YOUR MANAGER WHO TOLD ME TO GET AN EXCHANGE!

Grr tomorrow (or today since its 3 am already) I have to go shopping full circle. My plans are like this:

Putra Bus Station --- Masjid India ---Mid Valley

Bus station for tickets, Masjid India for fabrics and finding a uniform tailor, Mid Valley to go pick up my L'Occitane card and to do some vain shopping. I totally deserved it. *Glares at my VISA*

Taxi to Putra, maybe taxi to Masjid India too. I know, there is a train that goes directly there from Putra, but it's such a long journey. I'll take the bus to midvalley, maybe? xD but definitely taxi on the way back home. will be a long day. Must wear comfortable shoes. Anyway, so excited! xD

Ta'ra! And my report is 99% finished! Just have to put up the references.

Nothing Speaks Louder than Insincerity

2010-06-03T05:19:00.003+08:00

I heard you the first time. The second time is me being kind. The third time is me being uncaring. The fourth time is me annoyed. The fifth time...let's hope there isn't one.

Do you seriously think coming off as a friendly everyone's friend is going to score you points with everyone? Sure, everyone can be civil enough for you to expect the 'well, she didn't do anything to me so I'm fine with her' attitude, but do you seriously think that nobody would ever notice your real self? I've seen it and as I expected, I didn't like it.

And of course, the people you call your 'bossom buddies' also seemed to think the same way. If not, why do you think you've never been invited to our outings? Cause you're too busy? Are you sure? It's really because we just didn't want you there. You name never even gets mentioned. I'm sorry, no matter how hard you whore yourself out, nothing speaks louder than insincerity. And while we're on the subject. You're too clingy for taste.

That was just me venting out some supressed stress while waiting for the dawn prayer time. And yes, I was talking about EF. You may remember her from the previous post. Yesterday Kino had a massive stock-take, the only day of the year when the shop closes. EF must be shaking with exictement or something, with everyone working at the same time. It didn't matter that MY FRIENDS (who didn't give a damn about you by the way) reserved the tables first. You just came down and labeled the seats with people of your unit! WHAT IS THIS, KINDERGARTEN?! You're lucky I only disliked you and UHAW in that unit and I like everyone else, if not there would have been blood. Yours, of course.

Childish behavior notwithstanding, the tables soon filled up with a lot of unlikeable people so we, the original people moved away to a far away table. It's very ironic, but it was better that way. But seriously...

If I had been in a bitchier mood I would just sit down on any of those seats just to prove a point. What is she going to do? Send me away? Who is she to even talk to me when I don't even acknowledge her? 24 years old yet still acting like she's 4. And no, it's not cute.

Anyway, enough about EF. It's a known fact that I don't get along with friendly people in general. This is because I like exclusive friends. One or two close friends whom I get along with, hang out with and can talk about anything. It's small, it's simple, and easy to handle. And it goes both ways. 'Friendly' people are friends with everyone. They may be 'friendly' but they are friends with everyone but are close to none. They just want to appear friendly and approachable to make themselves popular. Popular for for being an attention whore of the wrong kind (I do admit to being an attention whore myself, but only of the good sort). Insincere people are such a waste of time. I sometimes wonder where they get the energy to put up all that act?

Again, this is just my opinion. If you disagree, you may prove me wrong. But not with more useless words. Word is cheap. Action speaks louder than words, but nothing speaks louder than insincerity. So please be careful with your words and actions. I am sensitive to these things, and can detect even the smallest hint of insincerity. Most of the time I brush it off because they are insignificant and one must not dwell on insignificant things, but if I pay attention to it, it means there are larger things afoot that I will look out for. Of course, my friendship may mean nothing to a 'friendly' person who is friends with everyone, but my actions will speak louder than words, and sooner or later people will notice. In the end, you're the only one who thinks you're friends with everyone while we all secretly look down on you for being such a pitifully lonely and annoying creature.

And yes, I am that mean. See if I care.

Ta'ra.

Little Big Happy Family

2010-05-20T17:01:00.003+08:00

I found this little group finally formalizing at work. Well, good for them. I have always noticed them slowly getting closer and it's great that they found their comrades. In a place like that, you need that support group.

While I think it's a good idea, I personally am not comfortable in such a big group. I like my own small pockets of group with just one or two close friends. I had it before. But all these people have left. And even the current people are either leaving or I barely meet due to my short working week. And that group speaks Western Malay and I know what people think when I speak it, which is why I speak English, and I know what they think of that too. So how is it my fault if I'm not comfortable fitting in where I am never going to be comfortable anyway?

I sometimes don't know what is it with me but I can't seem to get along with nice people. The people in that group are all nice people. So nice they wouldn't say a bad word against someone until they are sure that person deserves it. Nice people are nice, and that's...it. I'm sure they bitch about things amongst themselves but at the same time makes excuses for that person's behavior. I suppose that's how we differ. After I decided that a person's core is bad, I don't make excuses for their behaviors. I simply accept it as it is. And I bitch about it openly, so people know where I stand. If people ask my opinion about said person I don't say "maybe...", I say "yes. She is like that. No other reason than that's how she is." I don't make excuses for other people's behaviors. They are adults. They should know how to behave themselves. Unless that person is a nice person whom I like then I will defend them. Within reason. Most of the time I left it to people to judge for themselves. I gave them my honest 2 cents, and let them evaluate themselves. They are freaking adults. They can think for themselves.

After all, as adults we should accept the fact that some personalities just won't match, and that while we can work together well, not everyone can get along all the time. Which is also why I am so loathed by the 'everyone's friend' personality. Here's a recent example:

EF= Everyone's friend, J Girl= a colleague who is also an ex student of my current language school so between me and EF, I am closer to J Girl.

EF: Oh, I'm so blur today.
J Girl: Oh, really?
Me: *passes by to go punch in*
EF: Hey Farah.
Me: Hey
EF: Where are you going? *grabs my hand*
Me: I need to go punch in.
EF: What? Hey didn't you say you wanted to get married?
Me: What!? I never said anything like that. I need to go - *I pulled my hand away so she grabbed my sleeve that bitch!*
EF: Didn't you say you wanted to get married? Come on! *continues pulling my sleeve*
Me: *not looking at her, yanked my hand away and strode away* No! Go away!

I was livid. And she was one year older than me. Not only is she obsessed with the idea of getting married, (I can't blame her since her fiance passed away late last year) but she HAD to say UHAW is not a bad person! Seriously, I can't say enough how obsessed she is with getting married. Each time I bump into her outside during working hours (on the way to the surau, the toilet, lunch, locker room) she would always mention it in one way or another (hey do you wanna get married? I wanna get married! Help me find someone to marry! bla bla bla). But I never held it against her. Because she was a nice person. Annoying, but still a nice person.

Pulling my shirt, seriously? How old are you? Although I was annoyed beyond remorse she acted like nothing wrong, so I played along (and that's what nice people do, right) at lunch while she was flirting with a colleague one year younger (codenamed Black Hole (BH))whom she had expressed no interest in at least TWO times, made me feel like a third wheel. And I hate, hate, HATE being made into a third wheel. I was asked how did I know she was flirting. Well it was obvious. They were both eating. Actually, only he was really eating. SHE kept her eyes on him at all times. Yes, while she was looking at him, I was looking at her. Her eyes were almost unblinking, and she was commenting at every little thing he did and said. EVERY LITTLE THING! If I was him I would have been annoyed already.

I mentioned it later once three had become four. And she went all...

EF: What? Did I look like I was flirting?
Me: Yes. You totally were.
EF to BH: Do you think I was fliritng?
BH: Huh? Flirting? who?
Me: Well, of course, you being a guy wouldn't notice that.
BH: Notice what?
Me: Exactly.

Sighs. She asked me about it later about why I thought she was flirting. I only told her what I saw. Or at least what I thought I saw but to me that was what it looked like: she was flirting with him plain and simple. It may be true, it may not, she may deny it, she may agree to it; it's up to her. To me it was that. And I was just stating my honest observation.

Yes I know, I am not a nice person. Yes I do admit to being mean, but I'll be meaner if I wasn't honest and put up with annoying people. Which is probably why I do not get along with 'nice' people. Or are they? I seriously do not know how other people define niceness. Although I will still label people as nice or not nice or bitch, and my definition may be askewed, but so far it has worked well for me because it has been useful in helping me adjust accordingly to them.

Aloofness is a virtue.

Little Big Happy Family indeed.

Ta'ra!

Milk

2010-05-19T14:53:00.002+08:00

Say what you will about milk, but one thing remains the same: It is the BEST source of protein for the human body. You can argue that there are soy and egg and fish, but what is the first thing they feed you when you were born? That's right, milk. Enough said. Unless you're alergic to milk, please source your protein elsewhere.

Anyway, when I was in kindergarten up till primary 2 or so, my dad would ensure that we drink milk after every swimming lesson; which was everyday. Even if we were eating out after swimming, he would stare us down until we order something containing milk. Yes, my dad was that strict. I'm sure there were other parents even stricter than ours, but please don't tell me about it. (Which is why I find ADHD crap. Drugs to treat insolent behavior in children? Pfft! You stupid ang moh! There is already a very affective cure for insolent children here; a cane.)

When I was 9 I broke my wrist and stopped swimming so my milk streak ended too. After that I still like milk, but I don't drink it regularly. This is because anything milky in the morning upsets my stomach, and we only had the cold ready-to-drink milk available because my mom no longer buys the milk powder for us adults. Cold drink early in the morning? No thank you! :x

I read somewhere (everywhere) that when you're in you're 20s your body is still gathering bone mass thus needed to store up on calcium. At 30 your body stops gathering bone mass and starts using it. So it is essential to get as much calcium as possible to ensure you have a strong body as you grow older. I started exercising after I finished high school and drank milk everyday; the low fat kind. To make sure I had two glasses worth a day I had it with cereal. So cereal became my breakfast. After that one year dedicated to fitness it became a habit to drink milk everyday. Besides, it is quite filling which makes for a good and quick breakfast.

Before, I would go out and buy the milk on my way to work/class so if I don't have work/class I don't drink milk. I don't keep them around at home due to the short shelf life. I only keep a small bottle of full cream milk to drink with tea and even that often gets thrown out halfway. So now I made it a mission to drink at least 2 glasses of milk a day. A regular glass I take it. How many mililiters I have no idea. So the other day I went to the supermarket and saw powder milk! Thus my dilemma began.

So this Dutch Lady milk powder has 3 flavours: full cream, honey and plain. Full cream is out because it has too much unnecessary fat, and my stomach could no longer handle it. Honey is good not just because it tastes good. Drinking hot milk with honey before bed helps in flattening your abs if you're into that. And it did work, mind you. So I was left between honey and plain. For every 230ml, which was one serving, plain has 147 calories while honey has 149. It was only 2 calories, but I took the plain one, in case I get bored of the honey taste. I can always add honey if I want to.

Now, when I bought the milk powder, I have one and a half carton of low fat milk in the fridge. I went to check the calorie content; for every 250ml, it has only 120 calorie. Calorie-wise, the plain milk powder has 27 more calories than the low fat milk. It looks like an obvious choice to just stick with low fat milk than to change to milk powder and took on the extra 27 calories. But I didn't change. I simply varied them.

Eventhough the milk powder has 147 calories, it contains pure milk. The lowfat milk on the other hand, contains flavoring to make up for the loss of taste due to its fat being trimmed away. Now, I am not against flavoring, but I do agree that less flavoring is better, being artificial and such. I used to put the milk into the microwave to heat them when I want it hot, but it's so complicated. So with milk powder I just add hot water and sugar and have myself hot milk just like the old days! xD

So. Milk, or milk powder? I say both. Why limit yourself? After all, my fitness goal is to be fit and stronger and healthier. I will eat healthier but it doesn't mean I will eat only healthy things xD. Life and food needs to enjoyed. In moderation. As you become fitter, the weight would go away on its own.

Now, I need to shower and study at least one chapter for the test this Saturday. Tonight I will go to Kino with sensei and Totchi to check out the new JLPT books. I am determined! xD and besides, sensei has those vouchers he got for teacher's day. He needs to go shopping now!

Ta'ra!

Now You've Done It!

2010-05-13T18:40:00.003+08:00

Another ranting post. And she totally deserved it.

My cousin was so mean! Here I was, trying to drop by for her wedding, trying my best to work around my crazy schedule, and this is what I got! Observe:

I called [cousin A] yesterday just to ask what's up, and she said she's at [Aunt B]'s house with her mom. [Aunt B]'s daughter is getting married end of the year so I thought I'd confirm the date again, and assured them that my ticket has been booked months ago. So [cousin A] handed the phone to [cousin B] instead.

Me: Hey, when is your wedding again?
[cousin B]: It's at the end of the year, around early December. Are you coming?
Me: Yeah, my ticket is booked, but I need the precise date. (my planner was in front of me)
[cousin B]: It's really early December. 4th? 5th?
Me: 4th is Saturday, 5th is Sunday. It's the first week of December.
[cousin B]: Yeah, yeah, 4th and 5th, you're coming, right? I'll see you then!
Me: Wait! I think I have an exam on the 5th and I really can't go -
[cousin B]: Then ask for an exemption.
Me: I can't! This exam is held only once a year and if I miss it I have to wait until next year!
[cousin B]: Oh, why can't you just ask for an exemption then?
Me: (I already SAID!!!) It's held only once a year, and it's international, not -
[cousin B]: Just say you have something up, I'm sure they will let you. bla bla bla.
Me: sighs. It's decided. I can't go on the 5th. What's going on on the 4th then?
[cousin B]: The akad nikah (ceremony) will be on the 4th, and the reception on the 5th at a hotel.
Me: Oohh? What hotel?
[cousin B]: It's a hotel in Miri! Like you would know!
Me: (Isn't it obvious that I'm offended by the previous remark? I'm not from Miri, but was that necessary!?) ...okay, what time? At night?
[cousin B]: In the morning of course!
Me: And on the 4th?
[cousin B]: In the afternoon.
Me: Okay I can't go. So do you want me to come later or earlier?
[cousin B]: (after much back and forth) come earlier. The families would have gathered by then, even [Aunty C] comes on the 28th! (she and [Aunty C]'s family are close)
Me: Okay I'll come earlier then. So is [cousin C] going to be your flower girl?
[cousin B]: What? Flower girl!? You're too big to be a flower girl! The dais would collapse if you were my flower girl!
Me:(Offended beyond remorse)...I meant [cousin C], not me.
[cousin B]: Oh her, no, she's not a flower girl. It's not what we'd call it.
Me: Then a bridesmaid?
[cousin B]: Yeah a bridesmaid. Not a flower girl.
Me: Oh she's always wanted to be a flower girl. Everyone she's waited to be a flower girl of hasnt gotten married yet. So is she going to have a special outfit?
[cousin B]: Well that's something she will talk to her mother about. I'm sure they'll come up with something. (isnt the bride normally provides the bridesmaid clothes?)
Me: I bet they'll come up with something.
[cousin B]: So, don't forget my wedding present! You're earning now, right? I want a present.
Me: (surprised?) What do you want?
[cousin B]: Huh? What do I want?
Me: As your wedding gift. Anything I can get you? And it's not going to be my money. It's daddy's money.
[cousin B]: You're working aren't you?
Me: Yeah, and so is daddy and he makes more money than me. So what do you want?
[cousin B]: Well I don't know yet. I'll see what I need. See ya later. Bye bye. *clicks off*

Oh yes, I know exactly what to get for your wedding; a crate of cheese spray so your ass would balloon after the wedding and BREAK YOUR WEDDING BED! THAT'S IT! I'M NOT GOING TO YOUR WEDDING! YOU'RE A WASTE OF MY TIME!

p/s BITCH

Resolution in Motion

2010-05-12T14:09:00.002+08:00

Hello. Man, I really need to insert some life into this blog. I've started exercising again since the past 2 weeks or so. It all re-started after an impulse buy of the latest SHAPE magazine. The one with Kristy Curtis on the front cover. All nice and orangey xD. What I like about SHAPE is that the magazine is all about health and fitness without being hardcore. It treats every publication as if it's everyone's first step into fitness, thus provides small and easy stuff to follow and not in-your-face.

So I bought the magazine and thought, "hey, this is easy. I could do this." So I decided that I will exercise again without being hardcore and for no other reason than I want to be fit, and stronger (and look better? xD). After all, my job is physically demanding (big sister notwithstanding. I fear for her future husband. She is insatiable :P).

I decided to take it slowly. I ran on the treadmill and see how much I could handle, and after that I went back and lifted weights. I will not push myself because I HAVE to exercise. I WANT to exercise, and if I don't feel like it, I'll tell myself to just stay home, warm up for 5 minutes, and lift weights. But of course I always ended up doing more than I planned. Which is really the goal hehe.

In addition to exercise I also changed my diet. Lately I've been eating to survive more than anything. But I've had unpleasant experiences with eating 'healthy', because most of the time they don't taste good. This time around I will choose healthier options, but if they don't taste good I'll not eat it. Whole grain bread sandwich is good, and so is cereal with milk. Milk provides protein and calcium, and apparently it's important for women in their 20s since the body is still building bone mass, and needs a lot of calcium. I'm still exploring what other tasty things I could eat hehehehe.

Well I'm off to school to harrass my supervisor. Ta'ra!

It's Not So Bad

2010-05-02T12:00:00.002+08:00

My recent posts must have made it sound like my life is depressing. But on the contrary, I left the junk in my head on this blog and walk away a happier person. Just now I called up Borders to ask about the latest Yaoi that they most probably will have. They picked up on the third try. Well, considering it's Sunday, I was lucky to be picked up at all. If it was Kinokuniya....I would gladly ignore the call in favor of the walk-in customers crowding the counter. This time I knew better than to give them the title. I just gave her the ISBN number. I had several bouts of frustration during those long days of calling in about Junjo Romantica 10. They always misspelled.

Anyway, they don't have the manga yet, and if I'm not mistaken, it hasn't even been ordered yet. But the girl said call-in reservation was accepted, so I'm happy either way hehehe.The manga is out; that's all that matters. Too bad kino doesn't order yaoi anymore.

But anyway, the first Japanese essay I did was very elementary school level. It was a jikoshoukai. Very simple. But I think I went overboard in telling about my hopes and dreams, and being told my English was too good by my superior as my primary motivation to improve my Japanese now. But I wrapped it up by 'subtly' inviting the sensei over to Kinokuniya. The sensei underlined the last sentence and put a big smiley right next to it! Hahaha

I was admittedly bitter and sad and very determined when I wrote that essay, and I supposed the feelings came through. Since then, sensei has been giving me specific instructions whenever we're doing 'trivial' class activities. If it was just a simple dialogue session, he'd tell me to write it down, and went out of his way (by using English, which is really not allowed hehehe) to explain stuff to me. No offense to my previous sensei, but she intimidated me a bit. This latest sensei reminded me a lot of Ooshiro Sensei who is no longer Ooshiro since she got married. But let's just call her Ooshiro.

Even BAUC and people I'm friendly with at work patted my back (figuratively) and told me to go for it after I told them about my plan. I was surprised, really, because they knew it would be hard, since everything is done differently; from ordering to display to customer demographics. And somehow they thought I could do it. I am daunted by the prospects, but nevertheless excited by it; all those stuff I could learn!

It's silly how happy I get from their subtle encouagement. Thank you. xD

I will do my best!

Time for work! Whee

Ta'ra!

p/s How are you by the way, Klops?

Lynn: Indeed she is shallow, and I have decided to not take her words to heart. Dumbing myself down for the sake of dumb people? How dumb can you get!?

Rahim: That sounds so mafan.

My Maybank Story

2010-04-28T20:12:00.003+08:00

Aaaargh!! Approximately one week before my birthday, I lost my wallet at Times Square. It contained money, my mykad, ATM cards and perhaps my sister's touch n go card (she doesn't know it yet). Money can be replaced, but those cards are troublesome. Sighs.

So the first thing I had to do was made a police report. They had issues with me speaking English, so I had to re-explain myself in Malay, which is slower, and gave them the upperhand to talk more than they should. I made the initial report at KL Central Pondok Police (police hut?) , but they told me Times Square is under Dang Wangi's jurisdiction, and their little pondok had no computer to record my report. All they had was a report pad that came from the 80s. So I had to go to the right police station with a freaking computer. I enlisted the help of my friend who took his bro along, because the people over at the pondok police told me to bring along a male escort. Well, after I arrived, the 'male escorts' didn't seem quite necessary seeing as how 4/5 of the officers on duty that night were female, and the station worked much like a bank, with numbers and such.

Next I made my replacement IC. Seriously, did the makcik (aunty) behind the counter had to make such a fuss over us Sarawakians all being BLACK PEPPER FIELD MILLIONAIRES!?!?!? Seriously! It's only RM110! AND I WASN'T EVEN AWARE OF SOME FREAKING STUDENT DISCOUNTS SO JUST SHUT UP GIVE ME MY TEMPORARY CARD AND GO BACK TO YOUR MUNDANE LIFE ALREADY AAAARGGHHH!!!!

huff huff huff

Right. So next started my Maybank story. Sighs...remember this for all you Sarawakians who found themselves in the same predicament as me. As of today I made 4 trips to Maybank all over one measly old card! Well I didn't know I could make counter withdrawals, so if they denied me a card again today I would have only 15 ringgit to last for the next 24 hours!

The first time I went to Maybank KLCC I haven't made my temporary mykad yet. So all they could do was cancel my previous ATM. But I asked the guy what I would need to make a new card since I am not local and have no mykad. He said to just bring:

My temporary IC
Supporting document (INTERNATIONAL Passport only. Don't believe them if they state otherwise. Although your birth cert could work too, but INTERNATIONAL passport is best)
My account book
My police report

The reason being my home branch is in Sarawak, and such cases is usually handled by the home branch only, since that's where you signed stuff. But apart from these documents, he neglected to mention to me the working hours such cases are handled. Yes, my dear Sarawakians, there is apparently a time limit to such cases. This is the procedure of getting your ATM card without mykad, and WITH your temporary IC.

Monday-Thursday 9am-5pm, Friday 9am-4pm.

I got this info during my second visit, and was told to go home to Sarawak to do it instead because I came on a Friday at 4:01pm!!*seethes*

But that is not ALL!!

On the third time, I arrived at 4:05 on a Tuesday, which should be fine since I have about 55 minutes before the time is up. And they added another condition; because they have to get my information/documents from the Sarawak branch, such things must be handled BEFORE 4:30 PM!! So let me amend the above...

Monday-Thursday 9am-4:30pm, Friday 9am-3:30 pm.

There! The woman didn't mention anything other than there would be charges for the new card. No mention of the need for the above documents or whatnot. She simply said it needed to be done before 4:30pm, and since it was 4:10, she gave me a number anyway. I think she did that just to pacify me. Hmmph.

But as I sat down, there were 3 people ahead of me, and the one currently being served has his butt firmly glued to the chair. I was number 38, and 35 was currently being served. By 4:30, 36 had just been called!! AAAARRRGGHHHHH

Having only 35 ringgit (12 ringgit is saved for the new card charges, so I have about 22 ringgit to spend, really) to last for the next 24 hours, I resigned from the yellow ottoman and walked away to get myself fed with something less than 10 ringgit. I had spaghetti meatballs from the Signatures food court. It just frustrated me how I kept getting more and more new information the more times I went. The next time I resolved to keep my butt glued to the chair until I get my damn ATM card. I WANT MY MONEY DAMNIT!

So, the fourth time, frustrated to barfing point at the KLCC Maybank branch, I decided to go to the Bukit Bintang branch. I didn't know they had coutner services before because their counters are tucked deep inside the throng of self-service terminals. I went, and arrived at 2:50, told them the same story. The lady ensured that I brought along all the above documents, making certain it was an international passport before she gave me my number. So I sat, and waited.

When I was finally called, she talked to me for five minutes before saying I should come back tomorrow with the same stuff because they had to contact the Sarawak branch and ask them to send over documents that I had signed. The signature apparently is a big deal. I sat open-mouthed for like 5 seconds. She repeated the same thing to me, and I was like, "okay, so how would you know tomorrow if my documents are here or not when I come back?" She thought about it for a while, then told me to fill in a form (so the form is an afterthought!?). I filled it in as she took my stuff again and told me to wait and fill in the form. I sat there, filled in the form and when she came back five minutes later, there was a bright cherry red maybank card with her tucked in between my passport and account book, sat down, said "okay, we're done.", took the form that I had dilligently filled in, crumpled it and threw it away.

....I stood open-mouthed again for the second time.

"Pardon?"

"We're done." indicating the card on the table and typing stuff into the computer.

"What just happened!?"

"Well, just now I said we needed to verify your signature, and here it is, on your account book. My boss said it's fine, so it's done." she indicated the 'blank' signature box on my account book. I said there was nothing there, then she put it under the UV light and revealed my signature and two Maybank logo on the two pages. "But you have to sign exactly like on this book. Can you?"

It took me several tries, as my signature is different each time. Finally, satisfied, I signed the back of my new card. Then I had to sign a lot of stuff. Just placing down signatures 3 times on the same sheet of paper on different areas. After that she told to go have a seat and my name will be called from counter 19.

I was in a daze but relieved at the same time. I was called, signed some more stuff, then was released with a new ATM card. I FINALLY WAS ABLE TO GET MY MONEY!!! RAAAWRR!!

So, to fellow Sarawakians, the moral of the story; losing your IC outside of Sarawak can really make you feel like a foreigner. These service people tend to dismiss you quickly and tell you about how or why you can't do this or that (simply because you're Sarawakian), but they often neglect to mention how you can. So if you feel funny and unsatisfied, glue your butt to the damn chair until your doubts disappear and you know clearly what your hurdles were, and what your next steps are. Imagine if I hadn't been specific with the lady at the BB Maybank just now. I would just walked out of there frustrated again, expecting to have this shit resolved tomorrow pending they even remembered to ask for my doucments from the Sarawak branch! Sighs, you peninsular weirdos. I don't likes you!

I'm off to burn some calories. Ta'ra!

Birthday, and something else...

2010-04-26T01:29:00.003+08:00

I turned 23 last Thursday. Had a fun little gathering. I get to reconnect with my cousin and an old family friend, and got to know her friend. All Sarawakians, which was what I needed at the time. Sarah had 3 birthday cakes. I had only 2. It's not fair. I will get one more! Then I will write a post about my birthday xD.

Now, I feel like a hypocrite. The day after my birthday, I received news that mentioned old family friend's elder sister got into a horrible car accident. I didn't know the details very well then, but all I remembered was that her brain had poured out of her skull, she couldn't be operated on (because that means instant death) but somehow is still alive. Barely. I was shocked, mostly because of the accident. We were just talking about her the day before and such. My mom told me not to say anything to her, and I agreed it was not my place. Not long after my cousin told me about the accident, and that the sister already took a flight back home earlier in the day.

I was saddened, and shocked, and in a lot of worry. And at the same time I felt like a hypocrite. Their family and mine used to be very close when I was about 11. So close we took vacations to the beach together often. I was closer to the elder sister, admittedly and we had a lot of fun times. But as we grew up, we grew apart because of issues between our families, but when we met again after a few years, we talked as if nothing has changed. So if we are not so close now, then why should I feel so bad? I'm not sure. Perhaps it's because she's young, only 24. And the accident was so horrible, and even though she somehow lived on, God Willing, parts of her brain would have to be removed, and she will never make a 100% recovery.

Perhaps I'm just being nostalgic, as people always do when someone they know personally is suddenly struck by such a tragedy. I don't know. But even though we don't think of each other very often, it doesn't change the fact that we used to be close, and are still amiable friends, and that our families are close (again). I would never wish such a thing on my worst enemies, and her, far from it. Right now, in her condition, I could only leave her in God's hands, because He knows best. And I can only do what I can for her.

Pray for her. God, she is so young.

And birthday post later. Ta'ra.

Holding Back

2010-04-18T02:59:00.003+08:00

I realized recently that ever since I started work I've been holding back a lot. For instance;

I don't let it known that I'm Sarawakian unless asked.
I don't tell people I live in Bukit Bintang unless asked.
I eat the cheaper stuff on the menu because that's what everyone is having, even though half the time they make me sick.
I don't express my dislike towards a person who annoys me until they insulted something I like.
I don't let it known we have 8 cars, unless asked (when people are talking about cars).
I don't tell people what car I drive, unless asked or when I offer them a ride.
I don't talk about my plans for the near future because yes, Scandinavia is not a cheap region and Japanese lessons are not cheap.
I also don't tell people my biological make-up or the fact that I am taking a BA in Business Management and my plans to become a billionaire.

I dont, simply because it will invite prejudice. But I suppose it's not just the culture here in the peninsular that you are always judged race-first, everything else second. It's partly human nature as well. But then, despite me holding back and trying to remain anonymous - another face in the crowd - it's impossible. Certain traits of mine just won't stay concealed and made themselves a permanent accessory that I have to keep adjusting in whichever situation I'm in. I know the traits of being a leader is practically ingrained in me. I think I was born with it, and after some time I conciously sharpened it.

I am well-aware of the fact that I like to take charge and be in charge, and that I know when I'm wrong or right. When I took up this job I wanted to apply the same skills and traits into being a follower. I wanted to learn from other types of leadership skills and styles. I wanted to test myself; whether I was capable of being a good follower.

That said, I don't think my English being TOO GOOD is a handicap. Last Monday Big Sister pulled me aside after I had a bit of an outburst about adjusting the work attittude around our unit a little. She took it seriously, and started talking to every member of the unit and pulled me aside after that. We had a LOOONG talk. Personally I thought 80% of what she said was irrelevant. Because in the end I asked her what is it that she wanted me to do differently, because obviously I did nothing wrong. She said;

"Because your English is too good, the new people found you hard to approach, so please speak more tenderly and tone down your English a bit."

I nearly lost it when she said that. Seriously, the sentence above is self-explanatory isn't it?

I told her these two things in return; one, I will not dumb myself down and compromise my English for anybody's sake, regardless of who they are; and two, I will try to be nicer. It will be difficult because I don't know what that entails, but for the sake of your precious unit, I will try.

Up until that moment, I really was just playing with the idea of joining JBD, if my Japanese got good enough, but at that exact moment, when you're told your English is TOO GOOD to work in the ENGLISH book department, the thought of joining a foreign language book department was no longer an option. It's the alternative. The moment I told her I'm Sarawakian, and English being my second language, and Malay third, Japanese fourth, was the moment when I stopped caring about her prejudices (which was included in the 80% I mentioned earlier). I believe the fact that I'm Sarawakian is also very irrelevant to the conversation. And once I've resorted to pulling my 'I'm Sarawakian' card, meant I have surrendered to the stupidity of irrelevance and stopped caring completely.

JBD is my goal now. The staff are all Chinese, excluding the Japanese managers. I assume they speak Japanese well, but speaks Chinese to each other. When I join, my Japanese would be as bad as my Malay, and since English is not popular, there would be no issue of my English being TOO GOOD being a problem. Sighs.

I guess I should stop holding back too much. It's really quite suffocating.

Ta'ra.

Not Unreasonable

2010-04-04T23:10:00.003+08:00

*WARNING: Flaming ahead*
I am not unreasonable. I never thought of asking unreasonable things. When I ask for something unreasonable, I know it's unreasonable. When I ask things that seemed unreasonable, it is only unreasonable on the surface. Below the surface there's always some thing: I did something in the past that went unsaid and unrewarded, which, although was sincere on my part, when done by someone else, they received a reward. I would never revoke them when I ask for said 'unreasonable' thing, and I will willingly do them again in the future, but that doesn't change the fact that it's not an unreasaonable thing to ask for, so is a little consideration too much to ask for?!

I also think it's not unreasonable to set some reasonable expectations of someone you think you know quite well. For instance, you know someone well enough that they would not lie, cheat or steal for money, so it is perfectly reasonable to not expect them to do so. You can argue that people are willing to do extreme things when pushed to desperation, but we are of course not talking about any extreme things.

So when people do shatter your expectations by stooping lower than your perceived moral values of theirs, you have the right to be disappointed. Even more so when you put a low expectation of them and yet they still break even that. In your mind you still want to think positively about such persons but it's hard when they keep smearing their own reputation to you. So it's not your fault when you decide to keep your distance because you feel like you don't know this person anymore thus protecting yourself from getting hurt further.

I believe it is a very reasonable thing to do.

I sometimes wonder if it's just me or is it really them. Was I too nice? Too naive? Then again, what's wrong with that? What's wrong in believing only the good in people? Sure, everyone thinks your friend is a slut, but though you agree your friend is not the most pious person around, she's not a slut like everyone thinks. And then your friend went and do things behind your back that while seemingly harmless, enforces the perception by other people that she's a slut. Yet you kept firm to your own belief, while other people sigh and roll their eyes at you saying "oh you poor deceived friend". So does that make you ignorant? Just plain naive? You have been deceived by your 'friend', and the only one who doesn't know it is you. Is it wrong to believe in someone towards the end that they will eventually come through? Is it too much to ask that they won't shatter your expectations anymore? Has your friendship only meant everything when you are there, but nothing when you are not there? If so, then is it a friendship worth having?

Is it?

I think I'm about done looking for faults with myself. I have never mentioned this before to anyone through anywhere, but whenever I find myself angry or upset and someone or something, the first thing I look at is myself first and foremost; is it my fault? what have I done wrong? Why did I do that? Was it reasonable for me to be upset/angry?

Only after I answer these questions would I start directing my anger towards that someone/something. When such things happened in an important relationship of mine, I looked even deeper, digging in so deep that when I find that though I may be a bit selfish, I have the right to be that much selfish, and, looking at our relationship, I deserve a bit more consideration than I was given. Sometimes looking too deep blinded me to the fact that it really wasn't my fault, that was why I couldn't find any. Someone had trampled upon my rights and I just let them. Perhaps just letting that happened was a fault of mine too.

And so now what? I'm upset and angry, and nobody is taking responsibility. Nobody cared. Is it because it was unreasonable? No. It's never been about whether I was being unreasonable or not. It never was. There's only been one thing: nobody cares. Sad, but true. Nobody cares. And why should they, really? Why should they? Why should they care if you can't control your own emotion and got angry? It's your own fucking problem. And so since it is my fucking problem, I shall deal with it my way. I choose to deal with it by staying away from you in the future, and talking coldly to you, and no longer caring what your fucking problem is. I, a self-proclaimed people hater, spent precious minutes bothering about your well-being while you don't fucking even care to send me one measly text other than to saying "it's been a while. I've been so busy with my boy toys and useless friends who kept asking me for favours (of course I help them coz I'm so nice) that I forgot to say hi to you, my only friend who never gives me any trouble and is also so nice to me that I decided to take you for granted and only talk to when you drive AAALL the way here to meet me. Oof course I would see you more often too if only I have a car. Until then I have my toyboys to keep me company. So, are you okay?" To this I reply sarcastically, to which she would say that I am so easily pissed off. Of course, when you send me such a stupid sms OF COURSE I'LL BE FUCKING PISSED! I FUCKING HATE stupid questions and assumptions that I am so easily pissed when THEY WERE THE ONES WHO PROVOKED ME FIRST!

...And that is why I say people are useless. Basing your emotions and happiness over someone else's fickle mind will always, without fail, makes you unhappy. And I am at my last straw. Up until today I had put my faith on people, but no more.

From now on I shall have no expectation of other people anymore. It's going to be a lonely path, but how much different is it from now anyway?

I believe it is quite reasonable to do so.

Ta'ra.

Work and School Cannot Compete

2010-03-28T02:19:00.005+08:00

Lynn: Yes, sucks to be them. And looking at the way they were going, it would have taken them half the night just trying to get back on track, hah! When confronting people like that I learned to be a snob too. An educated snob.

I've told Big Sister that I can only work 3 days starting April til July because I have to concentrate on my thesis. I'm already going at a one chapter per week mode. Considering I worked 4 days I say I'm quite awesome!

Self-gloating aside, I am praying/hoping that I can finish 80% of the thesis before the fasting month. So at least by August I can go back to working 5 days. My financials are getting weak T_T. But whatever it is I am determined to go on the snorkelling trip to Redang this year! I've been saying next year, next year, and I never got there. Can't wait for people. If you want something, you've got to make it happen yourself I say. Just like how I wanna make myself a millionaire. xD

So today was Earth Hour. Since KLCC is participating, so is Kinokuniya. I looked forward to it until I heard that while we turn off the unnecessary spotlights in the store, some of the lights inside the pantry and logistics area are going to be off too. AND I WAS SENT INSIDE FOR WRAPPING! I didn't wanna spend wrapping in the dark! So I wrapped like mad, having given the task of completing two trolleys of comics to finish by tonight. Under normal circumstances, I am lucky to be able to cut and shrink one whole trolley and maybe just cut the other trolley. But because some of the logistics staff were staying back for OT, they helped me cut while I just focused on shrinking. The result: 2 complete trolleys a minute before Earth hour! 'I' have done the impossible!

Actually, I've managed to pull off these 'miracles' mostly because I had to bribe or ask for favor or had help from other part-timers/logistic staff/anyone I can get my hands on i.e. cleaners. But of course, Big Sister and other superiors do not need to know this xD. It's not possible for other people to achieve this because they do not have the resources (persuasion techniques) I have xD. Of course, the bad news is, when they next assign me a similar task and I couldn't achieve due to lack of resources i.e people to extort, my stock went down and I was labeled slow again.

But never mind! I am awesome. Awesome people can always find ways to thrive!

Okay, I'm sleepy. Night!

Ta'ra!

Wasn't Me, Honest!

2010-03-23T15:14:00.003+08:00

Last night, when I was on the bus on my way home from work, a couple of girls (probably Finnish, if not then just Scandinavian) asked me about how to get to Jalan Tong Shin as the bus was on its way to Bukit Bintang. I told her I was more or less going the same way so I'll just show them. Actually, only one of the girl approached me. Her friend just stuck up her nose and pretended she didn't see me. Pfft. Snob.

So we got off the bus at the station not far from Istana Hotel. I told her to go down that road *points to Jalan Nagasari right beside the hotel* and - before I even finished explaining, she interrupted me to point out where we were on the map. Her friend was already some ways away, staying away as if I had a contagious disease. The map was upside down and it took me a while to point out where we were, but then again I neglected to inform her EXACTLY where we were, because WE WERE GOING THE SAME WAY SO JUST FOLLOW ME DAMNIT I WON'T MUG YOU AND I WON'T ASK FOR MONEY RAWR!

But of course, I politely said that I was going the same way but she insisted that I pointed her out in the map. Our exact location was actually off the map, and again I showed her the route to Jalan Tong Shin. After that she said Thank you! AND WENT OFF A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT DIRECTION!

I wanted to call out to her, but her friend was already on the pavement directly across from Istana Hotel and I stood there for a while, watching as they made their way to Pavilion. I sighed inwardly, worried and insulted and just shook my head. Well, snobs lose their way. I hope they get horribly lost!

Seriously, what was with that fiend's attitude!? Do I look so impoverished that I need to stick with them and asked for money? SERIOUSLY!? MY BAG IS WORTH 500 RINGGIT (before discount) OKAY?!

This isn't the first time I got asked for directions, living in the tourist district and all. Just this weekend, a couple of middle-aged American women asked me for directions too. They came to the bookstore looking for maps and although they did buy a map, I drew them a map to Jalan Alor because they wanted to eat some hawker foods. And I drew the map all the way from KLCC to Jalan Alor. Ppfft! I even taught them how to get a cab from KLCC. Mind you, even locals don't know that!

I'm so proud of myself. xD

Anyway, we still have five sushi charm bracelet for sale over at our Snackellery Blog, plus a liquid clay review! PLEASE (I beg you) check it out!

Ta'ra!

Thesis

2010-03-20T00:37:00.003+08:00

Because of this disgusting, vile creature known as thesisticus annoyingititus, I have to go to bed reading Daniel Goleman instead of some lovely porns like Otomen or err *insert innocent shoujo manga title here*!

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWR!

I HATE YOU THESISTICUS ANNOYINGTITUS!!!

Ta'ra.

p/s I want a new theme for this blog.

Fearless

2010-03-16T18:59:00.004+08:00

Hairband? Ribbons? Hats? Caps?

Who needs those anyway?

Wigs are for losers. Real men wear SPIDAH.

UHAW, take note.

Ta'ra.

Sorry But, I really DO Understand

2010-03-16T18:12:00.003+08:00

I am suddenly hit with a big realization today.

You may not really know a person you think you really know.

Yes, I know people are allowed to have their own secrets. And they are not too proud of it/ don't want to disappoint you/ just don't want you to know. I would like to believe they are things that I don't want people to know too.

I don't know when it started that I aim to live my life like an open secret. I made it a habit to tell only the truth, and be as honest as I can. I had a 'if I can't be honest, then I won't say anything' policy. It made me realize that I don't have to hide my desires from people, and people can like it or dislike it - it's their choice, not mine - , and ultimately once I said it aloud, I also made sure that I wasn't doing stupid that I'll regret. Life is too short to live with regret.

But I suppose people have desires...that they think are not so...accepted.

It hurts to think that maybe it's not really them, but you, who have cut off that part of your communication with them. It's not blind-siding. It's simply...never came up.

But I can't help it if I'm too boring/traditional/conservative/not daring enough/risk-taking/ not open-minded/ othersocialcrappeoplethinkiscool. I just believed that I have chosen to live by these values, this lifestyle and all that comes with it, as long as I still believe in it and it is good to me and doesn't harm other people. This. Is. Me. Therefore, I am.

I took a stand, and I'm standing by it.

I know not everyone can live like this, to believe in something so religiously that it's suffocating. It's not. I don't believe in wasting your youth on something that 'other youths were doing' like smoking, taking drugs, having sex with strangers, just because you can get away with it when you're young. I believe there are other things worth doing while you are young and beautiful and healthy.

Submitting to the 'norm' like that...and surrendering your own identity. No, it's not called being what you always wanted to be. It is giving up control. Nothing more, nothing less. Call it whatever the crap you want. I've lost respect for you.

Ta'ra.

p/s the person I am implying did not do anything as extreme as I mentioned above. But she might as well, bcause I've lost my respect for her for the time being.

Happy Things

2010-03-13T02:42:00.005+08:00

I thought it'd be bad leaving such a sad (literally) post as my latest entry for too long. So here's something different. Thank you for the two guys who left the comments. Check them out if you're so inclined, my dear readers (I know a low of you guys don't admit that you read my blog, but that's okay hehehe).

And to proof that not all men I met are weird, just the other day, as I left work early I went to Choc Boutique at the concourse floor of KLCC to get myself a Bourneville almond choco bar FINALLY, I have had to stay away from this guilty pleasure for too long due to my post-chicken pox pantang. Ever since then I've had at least one whole chocolate bar a day. Anyway, back to my visit to the Choc Boutique.

So as I was paying, the manager was at the counter, counting the day's sale. He looked down at me (it was a raised counter), and asked if I live at *name of apartment*. I said yes, and made an exagerrated surprised reaction, as I just realized I was giving this information to a stranger. So I asked him how he knew. He said he lived in the same building and reminded me that he met "you and abang" (I clarified that that was my father and his name is also Abang (meaning brother in Malay), although I wasnt sure if he introduced himself that night, and when he does, he always introduces himself as Abang or sometimes Rahman) in the lift and he lived on the 13th floor below us. It took me a minute to remember who he was, and if I wasn't mistaken he was Bangladeshi/Myanmar/Pakistan or something to that effect and has been living in the country for 8 years, working for Famous Amos's chocolate division. Turned out he manages the Choc Boutique chain belonging to Famous Amos. And I thought he just supplies Famous Amos with chocolates!

I told him I work at Kinokuniya and then he gave me a free box of Almond Tuiles! Whee! I didn't take a picture of it, but here's one I found online.

Source A Vietnamese site...

I was so happy because I was so hungry and the day was boring and crap, only to have a free snack at the end of the day! Life is fair again! xD

And here I thought I only attract weird men.

So anyway, what would YOU do if something like THIS crawled up your leg?

And not just one, but two of them? Would you...
a) Relocate it to somewhere safe like outside
b) Relocate it from your leg to the floor then squish it
c) Relocate it from your leg to the floor then jazz it with a cow prod

Someone actually got one on his leg, slapped it to the floor and accidently squished it (eew). The second one got away, photographed and went about safely outside. But seriously, IT'S ONE HUMONGOUS SPIDER! D: If it were me, I'd screamed, kick my legs and head straight for the broom.

It's called a huntsman spider, and is apparently quite common in Australia. *shudders*

On to something more commercial. Snackellery finally has its own blog! YAY! I have post up five bracelets up for sale in Malaysian Ringgit only. There are only five of these sushi charm bracelets for now, so if you want, better grab them quick! I don't know when I'll have time to make anymore soon. Here's a sample.

They basically look like this, all 92.5 Malaysian silver; the best grade of silver around, quality assured. And look, even Balthier approves!!
He is Snackellery's exclusive model, and he even has some things to say about it! So, be sure to check out the Snackellery blog and err, buy stuff!

Ta'ra!

It's Sad

2010-03-08T02:31:00.003+08:00

It's sad but there are pretty girls and there are those who attracts only weird men.

I am the latter. Sadly. T_T I cannot act girly or even dress any girlier than I could stand. I like dressing up all girly once in a while, but normally only during special occasions. When I do dress up like that, I attract the attention of weird men; security guards, bus drivers, bell boys, strangers on the streets, shady foreigners.

That's why I dress down, and looked a little immature if I have to. Security purposes you see. And that is why I will not be like one of those pretty girly girls. It doesn't matter if they have only half a brain, or takes advantage of men - and those bastards know it - they are happy just to be SEEN walking with these girls.

That's why I'll die alone with my ten cats someday.

Ta'ra.

Not Complaining

2010-03-05T13:11:00.004+08:00

I'm not complaining! I am NOT! I am really just ranting on the only outlet I have - my blog! And this needs repeating; I am not complaining!

Is it a social norm or something that juniors need to respect and obey seniors at all times regardless of how much such seniors do not deserve respect and obidience?? Fortunately there are no such people in my unit so that's fine.

But what about your slightly superior junior? Are they supposed to respect you too, even though you're hierarchically lower than they are? Shit I know part-timers are at the bottom of the rung, and I am fine with it. But some people kept forgetting that we are here to help and lighten your load, not to be ordered around as you please! If you're still stupid and don't understand, it means that while we do our job, you still have to do yours!! And not just give excuses about it! Rawr!

Why do I say this? Because I know my place. And my place is not to order people around. BUT! If you tell me you'll handle it and let me handle other things and when I come back and not a single thing has been done, am I not allowed to be pissed!?

And when I am pissed I tend to order you around! And I hate doing it! It's your fucking problem that I need to take care of while all you do is spout more fucking excuses! And just because you're slightly superior you think you can order me around like those seniors? Even those seniors don't order me around! Rawr!

And last night I defied this stupid person and he dared tried to reprimand me!? Who the fuck do you think you are? I do not take orders from you. I repeat. I DO NOT TAKE ORDERS FROM ANYONE WHO THINKS THEY HAVE AUTHORITY JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE FULL-TIMERS!

If you want my respect then earn it. Dumbass.

Ta'ra.

Gone Sushi

2010-03-05T12:55:00.003+08:00

...Balthier has! And that's Yazoo hanging from him by the way!Here's a closer look at what Balthier is eating.

Yes, he loves sushi. And on that note, look forward to Snackellery soon! :D Whee ta'ra!

My Darling in a Box!

2010-03-03T03:45:00.004+08:00

*SQUEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAALLLLLL* If it's not obvious already, I am a Balthier fangirl. He's so hot and he has an accent! Last Monday I finally made him mine - officially!! Final Fantasy XII Balthier figuriiine!!! I never noticed this figurine before. It was when a customer asked to view the figurines in the glass case of figurines that I finally looked up to the top shelf and noticed My Darling for the first time. I was shocked that he's been there all these times and I never noticed him! GASP!

Since then I entered a dilemma. After confirming there's staff purchase available for figurines, I immediately put him under reservation. And now HE'S MINE, MINE, MIIINE!!! YAAAAY!!

I washed my hands before opening the box, and changed his hands so he could hold his gun the Ras Algethi. Even the gun has a hot name hehehe. And of course, camwhored him.

Back view. A snap of his hot ass. I forgot the flash.

And of course, my new phone background picture hehehe. Oh he's so hot. Watashiwa-san, he should meet up with your Vince and they could go on a date together. xD

*SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEAAALL*

Ta'ra!

TBFoSAO, UHAW, BAUC, MHG and Big Sister.

2010-02-21T01:17:00.005+08:00

At last! It's been such a long time since I invented any new acronyms!

TBFoSAO = Totchi's Best Friend of South Asian Origins (is actually a race with 10% minority in M'sia, not really Totchi's best friend)

UHAW = Ugly Hairband Attention Whore

Put them together and you get a TBFoSAO UHAW! (try saying it)

You can't miss her because she's a senior of the unit responsible at the information counter near the business section. The ugly hairband will pop out and scream offensive things at you the moment you caught sight of it! Incredulous but true!

So of course, I'm sure you guys are dying to hear what this poor, poor creature had done to me. Well let me tell you! Be ready. It's going to be fun!

I've always hated her ugly hairbands the moment I first laid eyes on it the first day I worked there. I'm like OHMYGOD! Does she really think she looks pretty?!?

But although everyone noticed it, she was too oblivious to the ridiculousness of her hairbands that even five year olds are too ashamed to wear. But anyway, this isn't about her ugly hairbands. I just thought it's about time I say it: UHAW, your hairbands are fucking ugly.

Needless to say, she isn't very well-liked on a personal level. On a professional level, people have no choice but to work with her. I've heard of this before, and I had noticed that she went all out trying to 'be friends' with me. But at that time she was busy pursuing someone else. And whenever she greeted me, it was always a condesncending joke, as if reminding me that she was a senior (meaning OLD) and that I am a junior. I took them in stride, reminded each time how much I don't want to be associated with her. In addition to her lame jokes, she also has an annoying way of greeting me. As in, a slap in the back, the butt, a pinch on the side and pulling the ribbon of my apron!

NOBODY messes with my apron. NOBODY. Especially not UHAW who is a TSBFoSAO.

So because of these things, I tried to ignore her, but she kept getting in my face, and I was still quite new, so I tried to be civil. Until last Thursday when she finally went all out to show her stupidity.

I was wrapping when she came into the logistics "I'm looking for a stupid book" she claimed, nudging me against the machine as a way of showing "friendly attention". So since she wanted a response, I said "Maybe it's not the book, but the person looking for it". What I meant was the customer who told her to look for it, but she misunderstood, and if she had taken offense, she didn't look like she was. And of course I meant it as a joke! GOSH! I feel so stupid just having to explain it!

So after break, just as the morning shift were leaving, my Benevolent Assistant Unit Chief (BAUC) took me around his Travel section to show me a few things our Unit Chief (from now on Big Sister) pointed out to him. While he was piling my arms with books, UHAW suddenly appeared! She told BAUC that I called her stupid! I was like a deer in headlights, but when someone accused you of something so preposterous in front of your superior, it's your God-given right to defend yourself, so I did. (It was easy to do since I was taller than both of them hehehe)

She called me a rude junior several times and emphasized that BAUC 'teach me a lesson' and was basically standing around to watch BAUC scolds me, which he didn't, because she was so stupid, she explained the whole story and revealed that her argument didn't hold water. So although BAUC and I just stood there, appearing to be listening to her, we were actually just waiting for her to move out of the way :P. When she realized she was not getting the attention she wanted, she went away. BAUC shook his head at her and immediately went back to work without a second thought.

But the event shocked me. Like, seriously, what is this? KINDERGARTEN!??!

I decided right then and there that I hated her.

I was off on Friday and when I came back today she was suddenly all bitchy and trying to act cool. Lame jokes and all. About 45 minutes to closing time, I cleared the basket under our counter where we kept books of other units or other departments. I went over to their counter to deliver them. I piled them on the counter as I was taking them out of the basket (there were a lot of books). UHAW was there and suddenly told me to put the books on the trolleys behind me. I flatly said "Don't want", which, if I had to explain, was of course, a fucking joke.

UHAW took offense.

She indicated to the pile of books and basically blamed me for messing up their counter (which was already messy to begin with, which is normal). She told me again to put the books on the trolley, again I refused. This time for real because I didn't like her commanding tone. Then, she, out of the blue, said, "You're so rude, you know." She kept on saying that I was a rude junior, and I should respect her as a senior, and she was going to report me to my unit chief for being rude to her. I shot back saying I am unrepentant, she is not my senior (since she is not in my unit, I have no obligation to listen to her) and I told her she's a whiner and she said "Yes, I am a whiner." and admitted to complaining a lot. She said so. Not me.

All this happened while I was unloading the books from the basket (I did say there were a lot of books). When I was done, Mushroom Hair Guy (MHG) who is nice and friendly whom I liked, and among the few people who I get along in Kino, appeared, said thank you, and gave me our stray books in return. I thanked him back and went away.

Angry and still fuming, I went back to pack shelf at our huge unit. Suddenly UHAW walked past behind me and pulled my apron's ribbon. Pissed, I turned around, hissing "SHIT! Who do you think you are!?" mostly without thinking. When I saw her giving me a smug smile as she scooted away.

WHAT

THE

FUCK!

SERIOUSLY, HOW OLD IS SHE!? FIVE?!

I had to defend myself. She reported me once. She'll likely do it again. So I approached BAUF first, explaining to him that if UHAW ever complained to him anything about me, DON'T BELIEVE HER. I told him the situation and he nodded. BAUC listens, that's why I like him. After a while he told me to just ignore her, but I told him, it's because I ignored her. Ignored her non-existent authority more like. He didn't comment, but he sympathized and just understood me. I was so glad he was on duty tonight.

RAWR! I hate TBFoSAO!

Now, let me tell you why we, of a different unit, don't normally put books back on other units' trolleys, even though the books are theirs;
1) The trolleys may have already been sorted into categories. Putting random books will mess up their sorting.
2) Unit 2 has a thing for neatly arranging their books according to height. Unit 3 only recently.
3) It's not protocol. Other unit members are not even obliged to deliver books to their respective counters. If our managers could have their way, they would call a reprensetative from each unit to collect their own books. Which means, delivery is actually doing them a favor.
and 4) your counter's cleanliness is the unit members' responsibility. Other staff and customers may have their way with your counter but ultimately its your responsibility to tidy it up.

There. Such a long post already. And thank you for reading this far.

Ta'ra!

P/S Rei : (from Suddenly A Friend?) It's not workplace politics. I'm just putting a reminder out that I'm making a guestlist for my birthday lunch hehehehe.

Watashiwa-san: Can't help it if you're popular xD.

Stupid Never Finish

2010-02-16T00:25:00.003+08:00

...Or bodo sik abis-abis!

This afternoon, as I was getting ready for work, I was devastated to find that there were no clothes hanging from the clothing line even though I washed a whole load of laundry last night! It's devastating because I washed my uniforms last night!

So, still damp, I spent the entire time ironing them dry. It took all the time I allocated for lunch. By the time I was done, they were 99% dry. And the pants were cool at all the wrong places. sighs. What's funny is that before I went to bed last night, I was very certain that I had already hung them up. After my pants and shirt were ironed dry, I only had 10 minutes left to cook, eat, and get dressed.

I did all that, and even managed to leave on time! I'm so awesome.

...Until I realize once I reached the service lift at KLCC that I actually left my phone, the chocolate bar I wanted to give someone, the Julia Quinn book someone wanted to borrow from me, and my Nihongo exercise book.

Sighs.

At least I didn't leave my wallet and locker key behind.

Ta'ra!

Suddenly A Friend?

2010-02-10T21:32:00.003+08:00

Making friends to me is a conscious decision. Rare do I find myself being friends with people I don't consciously make friends with. If a new person enter my direct environment; i.e. my circle of friends where I am forced to be introduced, I decide almost instantly if I want to be friends with this person or not. If I am intrested, I will act accordingly; pull out the nice and friendly card. If I decide then that this interest me only a little, but I can't yet decide whether I want to be friends, I let them develop first. If I decide that I have zero interest in that person then I won't even pretend to try to be friends. In this situation you'll find me not making any effort to be friendly or even downright ignoring that person. I'll be nice, of course. Because if everything else doesn't work out, then you shall at least be remembered as someone who was 'not bad' or neutral.

Of course, I do acknowledge that I may be wrong about a person. That's why when I am not certain I give the person space, because some people take a long time to get used to new people and new environments. The least you could do is be nice. Being nice is easy. To be friendly is an effort for me. A relationship is an investment, after all, and I only spend my friendly resources on good investments. I don't want to be friendly immediately to new bloods because after getting to know them more you might don't like them, but it's too late to back out now without looking like a villain seeing as how attached the person has become to you.

When making friends I found it important to give the other person lots of space. I consciously decide to make friends with this person, so I will respond positively towards any actions that enhances our relationship; movie outings, eating lunch together, etc. But it's also important to me that the other person consciously chooses to be friends with me. If they are only with me as a second choice or because they have no choice or it was forced upon them, then I shall go back and gauge my interest level. If my interest level is high enough at the start, and remained high even now, I will make that effort. Like I said, once I decide to make a connection with someone, I go all out. Yes, I literally woo people to be my friend. Like all relationships, friendships can not work out and break up, or simply withers. But if all else fails and my efforts have all been met with a brick wall, I give up and pursue other things. I often walk away knowing I tried and it didn't work out. No harm done. Move on to the next.

Now the funny part begins. The moment I give up, walk away and cease all attention, the other party starts reacting! After turning me down and ignoring me when I was wooing them, the moment I turn the other way they grabbed my shoulder and urged me to turn back. I'm not an idiot for not recognizing such behavior. I know very well. Because I used to do the same thing. So I naturally, recognize this as a good thing, and took advantage of the situation. It was their fault for making me look like a fool first.

Suddenly I find myself at an advantageous position and was smothered with attention. My investments had paid off. Now, I didn't set out to be in this kind of friendship with those people I 'pursue'. It just confirmed my belief: people like to be given attention to, to be treated like they are special, to be appreciated for who they are, and to act all cool and aloof about it, even though inside they are swelling with pride. It's just how people are. They don't have to tell you. You just have to know.

But I also hate to be a trophy friend. I found it appaling when people I haven't talked to in years are suddenly name-dropping my name to get themselves favors or to present themselves in a better light when associated with me. Rest assured that these are not people I chose to be friends with. I have another term for them; classmates, people I know.

So. Suddenly a friend? To me that's a hard thing to come by.

Ta'ra.

My Goals

2010-02-10T18:24:00.002+08:00

Watashiwa san: The metallic cupcake base is silver.

I've talked it over with my dad about my plans after getting my degree and of course of my endless dilemmas. My dad, being a guy, was quick to offer advice, which I didn't quite appreciate, and only made me go "why are men so predictable??". So I stressed to him about why I'm in this dilemma; I am lacking a precise goal.

Ever since high school, my life has always been about pursuing goals.

When I was in form 3, I obsessed over which stream to follow for form 4 because I wanted to maximize my chances of going into my intended course in university. My initial choice was accounting because that was the only non-science course we had, and I knew enough at that point that I didn't want to do any science-related things for uni. But I settled for Science IT because it was the easiest, and the abundance free time during the IT classes gave me a lot of time to reflect upon my future a bit more. It turned out to be the right choice for more than just the subject matter. Looking back it was as if everything was fated. It was scary to think how much I resisted it during my early form 4 months, and in the end...well, just goes to show, you can plan and struggle and fight tooth and nail for all you're worth, but nothing can stand in the way of the grand plan set in front of you by the Almighty.

At the end of form 4 I had a clear vision of my future. Yes, at the time when people were trying not to worry about SPM the next year, I was already making plans for after my degree is done! I get A LOT of crap for this. People think I was just tyring to escape reality (SPM) trying to over look the horrors (that was SPM) and onto the illusion of greener postures. ALL my teachers thought this way when I told them of my future plans. AAALLL of them. Except for the school principal, funnily enough. Maybe because she was a realist and knows my family background well. Still. She doesn't teach my classes.

Only my very closest of friends could understand, which was the only consolation I had. I must have baffled a lot of people because of my new mentality and if the teachers couldn't comprehend, what can you say about students, right? But I didn't blame them. I couldn't blame them. I knew from the start this kind of ideal will meet a lot of oppositions, and I quite welcome it.

What I was actually doing at that time, wasn't overlooking SPM or underestimating its importance. Far from it. I was just strategizing on how to use SPM to further solidy my paths to my goals. Unlike other people who studies everything and pray for the best, I was choosing my next destination right after SPM and see what their requirements were, and study accordingly. It would be insane for me to get 14 straight As, since the minimum requirement for a Foundation in Business in Swinburne was 5 credits including modern maths and English, and a pass in BM to get your high school certificate.

Which means, subjects I hate like Add maths, physics, chemistry, and Arabic can go to the dump for all I care and I'm off to tertiary education well above the minimum rate (since I got 5As)! See? graduating high school is easy if you play your cards well.

I chose Swinburne for a variety of reasons, but I did not plan to stay for degree. No, for that I was planning to take Business Management at a university in KL. I didn't just want a degree, I wanted experience living as a student. I specifically worked hard at Swinburne to qualify myself a half scholarship at my current university college. Which I got, and promptly moved into a hostel for a year, and the rest here, in our vacation home in BB.

So far, so good.

But then I didn't get to graduate according to plan. But no matter, because my next goal was to be realized; part-timing at Kinokuniya. I thought I would be graduated by then, but I havent, and that's fine, because I wanted to see if I would like working here full-time while I get familiarize as a part-timer.

Turned out I don't want to. I'll continue working part-time here until I graduate and decide on a full-time position somewhere. My dilemma was to come right after.

I underestimated how much I would learn from this part-time position. Firstly, I learn that I hate working for big companies. And secondly, I learn that I cannot live like the urban commuters in KL. And thirdly, I'm nowhere near to having my own nest, thus a bed.

After achieving all those goals succesively, I am left at a fork in the road. Realizing that my next decision is going to stay with me a for a long time until I get my business together, I knew that this was to be my most important decision to make yet. So after much fussing and panicking over, I decided that I need to make straight my priorities. Of which I have several:

My own bed, my own nest, my own business, a full-time work that I enjoy that I can work only 4 days a week, more time to do my business, and at the same time gives me steady income for pocket money and to pay my loan and also, to either achieve all this and stay in KL or settle back home. I reviewed several options. The first option can be done in either KL or Kuching. A full-time work (5 days a week) means I won't have enough time and energy left to do my business and hobbies as I want, but I will be earning enough for my nest, my bed, pocket money and loan. But I realized that's just living like a robot. I can't be happy no matter how much I earn if I can't endulge in my hobbies and build my business. That's the whole point of going back home because my earning potential is less than in KL. I'll be 24 then and I'm not getting any younger. My LIFE has just begun and I won't spend it earning like a robot!!

A second option (which I must admit I was partial to) was to move back home with enough money for two years' loan, ask for the new bed and nest as presents, and spend the two years indulging in my hobbies and growing my business. If, after two years, I can't earn enough just to pay for my loan every year, then I will go get a job. The main motivator for all this is sadly, not my business or my hobbies, but my loan. I told my dad this and he agreed. I should take advantage of the situation and grow my business and not worry about the menial payment of my loan. He said he'll help me pay for it if it comes down to it, but I adamantly told him I don't want him to pay it for me. This loan is giving me an ego boost.

So in the end I decided to go with the second option. Hopefully by the start of next year I could have all my time to myself. So until then I'm gonna be working hard. My goal after I finish this damn degree is to finally work for myself. It can't get any better than that really.

This goal is different from all my previous goals is because they have all been about preparing and grooming myself to fit someone else or something else's requirements. Eventually they are all about me acquiring the skills I need to build my own business, and my life along with it. But now it all comes down to me. Am I ready to finally take the reign of my own life back? Have I really learned enough to do this by myself, finally? Doubts will always follow the solo flyer. But I can say for sure that right now what I'm ready for is to take that plunge and find out. I must say I'm quite excited.

Wish me luck. Ta'ra!

On Hold

2010-02-04T00:55:00.002+08:00

For now, until I finish my classes, Snackellery is ON HOLD. I can't even be bothered to make a paid sample because I won't be able to cope with the consequent orders! And you know it takes a lot for me refuse money when it's offered like that, considering how greedy I am. But this is life. And this is how my current reality is. I am so sorry to disappoint my fans, but until then, here's a snippet on what I had done last. xD

Just so you know that I havent been not doing anything!

Ta'ra!

My Dusty Uniform

2010-01-23T19:28:00.002+08:00

I've been under quarantine for a week now and seriously I'm getting bored of it. I finally got a draft for my ISP2 paper, so it's not all a waste of time trying to get over my itchy back, which, by the way, is no longer itching. In fact, I have started scabbing. Just not on my hands. Hrmmm. And I'm still contagious.

Anyway, I think I ate something bad last night which had caused me poop three times today. For the moment no more mamak food. I called up my own original mamak and asked her the recipe for this white mushroom gravy we always eat with meatloaf and potato pie. Then I went out and bought the ingredients. I came back, prepared the ingredients, and was planning to cook after maghrib, but I ended up cooking it anyway. It was finished before maghrib! Now I'm just waiting for the potato to boil hehehehe.

I'll take pictures later heheheh.

Oooh the potato is done!

Ta'ra!

The Inevitable Has Come

2010-01-18T01:22:00.002+08:00

When I bought those two Marks and Spencer PJ pants, and three half-price long sleeves I had a totally different idea about wearing them. Not the least was I expecting them to be my uniform when I have chicken pox!

Yes, you read right. At the grand old age of 22 (soon to be 23) I have finally got infected with chickenpox!

Despite getting vaccination 5 years ago too. Though I have heard that was just first-generation vaccine, and that you actually need to get shot with it every few months for it to be effective. Nevertheless, although it decreases the chances of you contracting one, and in the chance that you do get infected, yours would be a less severe case.

I am counting on that. But really, my itchiness only lasted two days, yesterday being the third day being the worst. Today I barely feel it. In the mean time I have one week off. The last time I was legitimately sick to get a week off was when I broke my hand at 9 years old. I say legitimate because I'm always sick. Flu, and the occasional fever, but being adults, we tough it out anyway. Sighs. The pleasure of infectious diseases.

Ta'ra!

My Treasure

2010-01-13T23:12:00.006+08:00

It's a little late, but this is my birthday present that arrived late last year courtesy of Watashiwa-san. :D Thus, the christmas theme. It's all nicely wrapped and such. I LOVE!The envelope deserved a close up xD. I love these two snowflakes. Veri kreatip. I totally love all the little detail on my gift. People hardly put in so effort in gift wrapping anymore these days. T_T
And of course, the unwrapping! DISSIDIA THE COLLECTOR'S EDITION WHOOOOOOO!!"What will you fight for?"The contents! A character picture book, a couple of postcards and a mini CD containing 6 tracks from the game. It's so awesome T_T.

Unfortunately the game is still neatly shrink-wrapped because I havent got the time to play with.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH WATASHIWA-SAN! YOU'RE THE AWESOMEST! D:

Tee-hee. Ta'ra!

Ho-Hum

2010-01-11T14:32:00.002+08:00

I don't like to gloat but...(who am I kidding? of course I do!)

Customer service is such an intangible thing that it takes to measure it's quality is simply the words you say. As a part-timer, it is not my job to look after the counter. I can just stare at an empty counter and ignore all the waiting customers and won't get blamed! But because our section is so big, our titles so varied, and even though our unit has the most number of staff (currently we have 7 part-timers. 2 have been around for more than a year) while other units were lucky to have even 2, even part-timers were even called in to do what full-timers do; manning the counter. The rule really is that part-timers can man the counter only after one month of service. Well, I've been around for almost three months so...

Anyway. Customers come in all sorts of...variety. Their categories are so wide and varied that I shall just sum them up into two main categories: locals and foreigners. During my short time I noticed that most locals already know what titles they are looking for, and sometimes even come with ISBN ready. While at least 40% of foreigners would come saying things like "Do you have any books regarding ___?" Fill in the blank with the correct name of a person, place, country, ingredients.

Of course, we cannot please everyone, and for people who were not pleased, extra attention needs to be given. For example, if you want cooking books on casseroles, any titles, any authors, as long as it's about cooking casseroles, then sure we have several titles and only 1 or 2 copies of each, but at least the variety is there. But if you want pictorial books on Syria or Belarus, then I suppose our best offer is the travel guides.

Unfortunately, at least 40% of the searches I do the titles are either not in stock or we simply do not carry. But some people just can't understand that regardless of the size of our bookstore. And furthermore, since our counter is a part of the English Books Department, we can't do searches for Japanese and Chinese books. Normally we direct them to the respective counters and magazines as well. But people are insistent. And just rude sometimes. While I can help search for Malay books in the system, I won't be able to help you search for them on the shelf should you get into trouble. And when they do (which they always do anyway) I have to go all the way to the magazine counter (which handles Malay books as well) to ask for help!!

That's why in situations like that I always use these phrases:

"I'm not sure about this title since...but let me double check for you anyway, okay?" to be used when a title used to be a bestseller/new arrival and had been selling so fast the bulk quantity is no longer in sight.

"You know what? let me search for you in the system first, okay?" This is my favorite when out on the sales floor when customers treat you like walking computer databases and are oblivious to the stack of books in your hands! While it sometimes irritated me, it's important not to let it show. Of course, anyone who knows me would notice that I was being subtly sarcastic but to the customer it appeared as if I was giving them my full attention and even doing them a favor.

Just yesterday someone inquired at the counter for the first printing of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. SERIOUSLY! Those books are worth thousands these days!! Do you think we can just easily find them on our fast moving shelves!?!? And what's more, he even insisted that my colleague searched for it according to the publishing date in the book in our computer!

WTF

While we do entertain weird requests, sometimes, and even humor the customers, some things are just impossible.

*mutters incomprehensibly*

On another note, Farah's family, excluding Farah herself, plus a couple of kilos of brown cheese and some four packs of potato pancake things are currently in Malaysia. Oh. Four packs of potato pancake things excluded. I'm sure they are still in the country somewhere, just not in their original form hehehehe. Thanks again for the cheese xD.

Ta'ra!

2009 - What a Great Year!

2010-01-04T21:25:00.005+08:00

For all the things I couldn't achieve in 2009 (like graduating), 2009 was still an awesome year for me!

Things I achieved in 2009:
1. I finally started my own businesses (yes, plural).
2. I got employed working at my favorite bookstore in my long sought-after apron.

...I'm sure there are other intrinsic things that needed mention, but for now these are all I could bother to think about. Besides, these two things more than make up for what I didn't achieve. For that alone, I am happy.

Now 2010 is going to be an even better year because I actually wrote down my new year resolutions. And don't think I don't know that some of you out there are actually anticipating this! Haha!

Ahem. Now, my list. For 2010 I solemnly vow to do my best to fulfill these resolutions, come hell or high water or die trying:

(in no order of importance, except for the first one)

1. To graduate! Needs no explanation!

2. To go on that Scandinavian tour xD.

3. To complete my Japanese lesson Advance 1 and 2 and JLPT level 3.

4. To eat my supplements everyday (coz they are expiring soon heheh).

5. To come up with several plans (for my future) for the coming year.

6. To have RM1087.92 in saving by the end of the year (that's my yearly loan repayment from nov 2010-oct 2011 btw).

7. To achieve my targeted amount of Snackelery sales.

8. To clean the house every two weeks.

9. To check my monthly planner at least once a week.

10. To exercise 3 times a week and lose 5 kg! (This is a must every year!)

There. I tried to be as precise as possible and tried to avoid words like 'at least' because I know I'll just be doing the minimum amount. Except for the planner thing because I'll be going to it several times a week anyway to add or remove stuff.

I've been sooooooo tired with work that I have no energy by the time I get home. I even requested only 4 days of work a week starting January to accomodate my two pending classes. I finally went to school today and inquired about them. No time for anger and being a wronged wife. Progress. The tools have been handed to me. Now it's time for me to get to work!

And I will graduate by the end of this year!

I spent new year's night doing the taboo of Chinese New Year's eve: cleaning! Out with the old dust, in with the new :D heheh. So how did you spend new year's eve? xD

Happy New Year 2010! Ta'ra!

I know you can't have everything you want...

2009-12-07T01:43:00.002+08:00

But is having my own bed so much to ask!??? D:

I want my own bed!! *cries like a baby*

Ta'ra!

I Am Not Pathetic, Really

2009-12-04T00:12:00.002+08:00

I just saw my duty roster for the month of December...and it will be HEEELLLLLL!!!!

Well, it won't be if you're used to working five days straight a week. I'm still on a college student schedule you see...

Basically I work five days straight then I get 2 days off. But this isn't some damn office job. I'll be mentally unstable by the time I get to the fifth day, just you wait and see!

Anyway. I wanna talk about last night. Again, I worked a double shift. It originally was a 'special request', but it really was an executive order in disguise. I could have refused, saying I had plans, but I didn't. Mainly because I'm greedy. But really, I'm not complaining, because there are other people who got more crap than me, but I have never seen other part-timers in other units (or even ours) pulling that kind of extended shift like me! Yet knowing I have the extra time to do wrapping, I rushed through like a madwoman on steroids and still I got told I didn't do good enough!

RAWR!!

My spirits that were soaring high up in the sky plummeted down to the ground then crashed and burned into a million pieces - all in a matter of a fracture of a second! After being told that, the smile froze on my face and I cried inside. Have you ever cried inside before? Let me tell you it's not easy! Certainly wasn't pleasant either! You felt useless, pathetic and hollow inside yet you still have to pretend like you've done an amazing feat and still trying to brush it off as nothing big.

It was so hard.

So hard when your worth is measured in trolleys.

So hard that I had to take my time to reflect afterwards. Instead of taking the taxi, I waited for the bus simply because I needed that waiting time to reflect on what just happened and come to terms with it. To convince myself that despite it all, yes, despite it all, it only serves to confirm what an awesome person I am.

I have stamped my foot down before, and I will do it again. I want to be here. I'm here on a mission, and nothing on this Earth can stop me from completing my unholy mission! Ever.

Jiggly puff can try and jiggle her fat all over me for all I care, but you're the one without a life outside of Kino, while I will have a much better life once I leave Kino.

And besides, it's stupid to let idiots like her to stop you from achieving your dream. Can you imagine one day when your grandchildren ask you why didn't you do what you want to do and your answer is "because an idiot colleague stood in my way and I got tired of it"?

How pathetic is that?

I hate feeling pathetic. I hate feeling it, even just for a moment. Thus I shall not resign the rest of my life to feeling pathetic. Shall I fail in that endeavor and still feel pathetic, I'll make other people feel pathetic with me.

Let's hope it never gets to that.

Ta'ra!

A Quick One

2009-12-02T12:33:00.003+08:00

In the middle of an instant noodle lunch!

I've had two outings with people from work so far. Such outings are always fun and the people you go with are quite random because all of us have only two days off a week. While part-timers can request beforehand which days they can and can't work, full-timers are left to the mercy of their unit chief. Both were movie outings.

It's fun because you get to talk about things you can't at work. All those power plays and social clans are best avoided and just hang out with neutral people. Either way is fun for me, because I like taking advantage of any situation I'm in. OOooh that's so bad XD. But it's better than being drawn into other people's battles. I'd rather be in my own and content to stay there until my opponent is eradicated! Hahaha!

Anyway. Three movies yesterday. Ninja Assassin at Times Square and then came home and watched Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar 2. Luckily for me I have the afternoon shift today. Those two have the morning shift today hehehe.

Overall, I have a clearer picture of the situation on why this and that are the way they are. It's not called being nosey. It's called getting your bearings. I'm relieved that other people share the same opinion as me on certain people an situation, which means that I was not being paranoid all along! I was simply being too nice.

Me? Nice!?

I need to get to work. Ta'ra!

p/s Redz, I work at Kinokuniya.

xD

2009-11-21T12:29:00.002+08:00

I'm in the middle of ironing my uniform. Again, I seriously cannot see myself doing this full-time in these hand-me-downs. But I needed the experience.

Anyway, yesterday I finally banked in my cheque. It was so ridiculously simple I wondered why the girl at the counter didn't laugh at me. It will only be cleared after next Wednesday after 4 pm. That's fine since I'm not in need of the money right now.

Though I do have some important purchases to make soon! The X'mas promotion has started! Wheee!

Time for work! Ta'ra!

Flying Off My Feet

2009-11-13T22:46:00.002+08:00

I've been flying off my feet the past week. I do enjoy this increase in my personal efficiency, but I suppose I can't help resent the fact that while I was speeding up, some people were slowing down. One even thought himself too senior and important to be doing what I was doing! Seriously! Years of service doesn't change the fact that our positions are the same.

And I hate the way you walk. Real men do not walk like that!

Ahem. Anyway. I love my job, really. I can't help it when there are seniors who are not happy that I was getting too familiar. Well too bad! I have dreams. I'm here because I have dreams. And by the time I finish this job I'll leave with a lot more than you ever will! So I'm stamping my foot down and you can just eat fart because I'm not going anywhere! Yet.

Also, panicking students make good customers. I'm earning almost two weeks of salary in the last 24 hours.

Ta'ra!

Payday!

2009-11-06T00:00:00.002+08:00

Yay! I finally get my FIRST EVER PAYCHECK! It's not much, by all means. But it was from my own hard work, so I'm happy!

Then I blew it off on a pair of blouses!

Nah, just kidding! These were taken in the fitting room at IOI Mall. We took a few blouses and tired them on for fun hehehehe. Bought nothing. My check is still in tact hehehe.

Oohhh I'm gonna be rich. Amin.

Ta'ra!

Funny Encounters

2009-11-03T00:36:00.002+08:00

I'm entering my fourth week as an employee of a certain Japanese bookstore and already the funny events are piling up. So far I've had one person reccomending me a book, which was totally fun because she dragged me across the store and pulled out the book from the shelf and told me to read it. As I was scrutinizing the book, deeply amused, she disappeared into the deep end of the business section looking for a Japanese audiobook. I quickly put back the book and led her to the language section and pointed out the Japanese audiobooks. She said she was interested in learning the language and sighed at the high price tag of the audiobook. I told her a phrase book was cheaper, but she wanted to hear pronounciations.

So I suggested a teacher instead.

We started talking about language schools and I told her about the one in KL Plaza. Apparently she's heard about it, but she was leaning more towards the audiobook (if you ask me, she just wanted to buy something which was totally understandable XD). Afterwards I left her to occupy herself with the audiobooks and those four books already in her hands. She had approached the counter in the first place asking for a calculator to calculate how much her purchase would be, and of course, sighed at the high totals too. xD xD I told her they were totally worth the purchase (she did ask me about it!) or she could buy half today and half tomorrow hehehehe. Needlesstosay, I was quite unhelpful in that respect. xD Even going as far as saying she'll be having sleepless night if she doesnt buy them.

Just the other night another woman was looking at two books by the same author. One was from the 90s while the other is recent. She acted like I was doing her a favor (which was nice!) by unsealing the books for her (which was really part of my job) and was justifying each books to me in detail. She gave me a lecture on soy. Yes, soy! As in soya bean. I told her it's fine if she decides not to get either one of them. It wasn't as if I was pitching the books to her in the first place. She was so repentant when she had to return the books to the counter it was so funny!

Just today, this caucasian old man was looking through the Tin Tin comic books and was asking if I could unwrap one of them. I told him of course, but it has to be viewed at the counter. Apparently he's a regular of the Tin Tin series and understood the protocol well. He browsed through and immediately put it down. He wanted it in color. The book was still black and white. After that he started explaining why he wanted to see inside, because he heard about the publishers planning to reprint the book in color. Then he started telling me how he's a regular of the Tin Tin comics in the store and about several banned series in the country. He even talked about this Indian woman who married a caucasian who apparently wrote something of note and he invited her to have a talk at UM. He's a lecturer there. Man. I wish I had a lecturer like that!

Also, another interesting pattern: 3 caucasian women so far have asked me where to find so-and-so books whose shelves are right behind them. I had to grin while they howled at their own silliness. Ah yes, this is exactly why I love my job. xD

Ta'ra!

Sorting Strays and Other Things

2009-10-30T23:48:00.002+08:00

Strays: Trolleys filled with books that were previously on the shelf, but were unwrapped due to customers' requests.

Don't pretend you don't know what they are >_>. They are those pile of books you ask to peek inside only to end up purchasing just one or none at all. Those books fill up at least one trolley per day. It's normal to end up with at least one and a half trolleys of them in a day. Those books can't go back on the shelf naked. They need to be shrink-wrapped again before displaying. And who's the poor bastard who has to slave away wrapping them??? ME of course!

Next time you want to ask for books to be unwrapped, think about poor lil ol me...

Hijacking: to take over an unmanned wrapping machine whose current user is away usually temporarily.

I'm not always not guilty of this, but most of the time I find myself on the receiving end. I'll be away to the toilet or the surau (which would take longer) and when I come back someone else would be have already pushed my trolley aside and park theirs in its place, slaving away on my machine. It's not like they have the decency ti go away after that. Placing my apron with my nametag on the trolley was not enough. Once I even purposely left a pile of books on the machine to keep away invaders - and they still came! Unsurprisingly it's those folks over at CBD (Chinese Books Dept) who often hijack me. Pfftt.

CBD: Hijackers.

EBD: Hard workers.

xD

EBD Unit 3: People whose lives are expected to shorten by 50%

We got a new part-timer last week which means I'm no longer the newest person around, which is awesome xD. Dramatically I see our workload decrease. Full-timers now concentrate on manning the counter while displaying are mostly left to part-timers. Yes, we are being classified like that. Full-timers handle all the administrative stuff while part-timers become their hands and legs.

Being someone else's hands and legs is tiring work...but I would rather this physical pain than mental ones heh.

When I started work I was prepared to work with people of varying ages. I was surprised though that most of the floor staffs turned out pretty young. Must be that age limit thing as a condition of employment.

I made friends xD.

Ta'ra!

It finally Happened

2009-10-19T01:35:00.003+08:00

Believe it.

I just finished my first week and it was TAXING! The retail industry is full of repeatitive work that needs to be done all day every day. No wonder part timers are in high demand. Who ever said getting a job here is hard??

I drove all the way to Shah Alam to get someone to teach me how to do a resume. Emailed it. Got a call the next day and was called up for an interview the next week. I called on Wednesday and they said they were still considering where to place me. Called me back the next day and by Friday I was trying out uniforms for size. I was already clocking in by Monday morning. I wasn't alone though. There was another newbie at the customer service counter.

So far I learned about book returns, shelf packing, wrapping and displaying. I am placed in the English Books Department; the biggest department (just look at our water bottles shelf space). EBD is divided into four more units. I'm in unit 3; again, the biggest. Size is determined by the amount of floor space and genres that fall under our unit.

Now, I enjoy being out in the store displaying books and such, but if I am in a section that I havent been briefed about, I get nervous when customers ask me about where to find this book or that book. I am even more nervous when I wandered into areas that fall under other units. I have no clue at all! On the contrary, I've been spending two days in the logistics section, wrapping trolleys-load of books. While it's not as dynamic as being outside, and you have to stand all day, inhaling burnt plastic fumes, at least you can talk to anyone else doing logistics about random topics.

Like today.

There were two other part-timers doing logistics. And apparently we're all gamers! What coincidence! This is actually a very rare occasion. Working in a bookstore, not everyone likes reading books. But since most full-timers have resigned themselves to the fate, they are usually not as playful as part-timers who are rarely specialised in a certain field of the job. So we talked. From books to movies, to histories, to games. A lot of people get bored of these subjects quickly so when you found two other people who have the same interests as you, you can't help but run with it.

I wore a mask today so the fumes didnt get to me as badly as yesterday. So, inside doing logistics or outside on the sales floor, they are both not bad.

I don't know what it is about seniors and superiors. They obviously need you to do the grunt work, but they won't admit that your job is just as important as theirs. Imagine if there were no part timers picking up the slack. Those logistics staff are not sufficient to handle all those wrapping. I'm not asking to be appreciated. Our unit chief and assistants were already too grateful that I did this and that as if I was doing them a favor (I'm paid by the hour after all). But it does get tiring and once in a while you do need a five minutes break. It doesn't mean that you're slacking off. It just means that you're being human. ....Especially at the break-neck pace they were demanding of you.

Still. I would rather this physical exhaustion than the mental and emotional exhaustion of management.

That said, I got my standard issue penknife last Tuesday. Anybody up for an unwrapping? ^_^

Ta'ra!

I should Blog. Or Something.

2009-10-04T17:25:00.002+08:00

It has been a pretty fruitful raya harvest. the harvest started even before raya where I got comissioned to add my beads to someone's bracelet. XD I've never done it before so I charged for half a bracelet. She found it ok too hehehehe.

I thought we had a lot of cotton prepared for our raya debut, but we udnerestimated the crowd a little. Before the seven days were even over, almost half of them were either sold or reserved. And yes, the depletion was pretty obvious towards the end. >_> We need to get some more, but there wouldn't be any more new stock until the end of the year. Until then though...hehehehehe.

Quite unexpectedly, I got more bracelet orders than earrings. Of course, due to my own lack of promotion. Anyway, I got a decent amount of orders during the raya holidays. Which in turn allowed me to buy more chains. I even got a new type of chain with big rings. Perfect for charm bracelets. But perhaps again, due to my own lack of promotion, the original chain is still more popular. However, I get 4 free bells attached to the chains when I bought them, so that means I dont have to charge more for bells anymore, which used to cost me 4 ringgit a piece. Uurgh.

I think I have enough chain to last me till I can next go back to Kuching. If not then I'm gonna have to send for some.

A shoutout to all my highschool friends: PLEASE RETRIEVE YOUR CAMBRIDGE CERTIFICATE FROM SCHOOL. Thank you.

I'll have more to say later, with pics. Ta'ra!

Final Fantasy XII: I finished it

2009-09-06T16:48:00.002+08:00

Hello. I finished FFXII last night after 6 hours of consecutive playthrough. 4 hours in Pharos, 1 hour for cutscenes, and 1 hour for the cutscenes+final bos battles.

Here I shall discuss my verdict.

The Pharos: the final dungeon.
I hate (x5) HATE this place! Rawr! All the levels and all the puzzles! I'll let you know I'm not big on Final Fantasy puzzles. You really have to explore everything to figure out the puzzles. Me? I referred to online guides to pass this. And who cares if it 'takes the fun out' of the game! I'm already overkilling the bosses at this final dungeon.

I think like FFX-2 the storyline comprises of only 45% of the game. I clocked in over 130 hours because I completed the hunts after each storyline events. Before I went to Pharos I completed all hunts except for Behemoth King and Wild Marlboro. The reasons being 1) BK is an endurance fight even with my overlevel stats, 2) I hate marlboros. One spray of Putrid Breath gives you a cocktail of bad status effects. In addition, it is found in the Feywood, which I also hate. So, up until Pharos I have completed all hunts except these two.

After that is the Sky Fortress Bahamut. The bosses themselves are not hard, but if you screw up and loses any of the fights along the way, the last save point is the one before you even left for Bahamut! Which means a long ass cutscenes along the way! Thankfully, thanks to all the hunts I did I had a more-than-decent equipments and levels for the boss fight (and keeping in mind I was overkilling the bosses thus far). ...and what's with the final boss anyway? Seriously. I stored away one of the overlevel character and put in a normal level character, getting ready to swap them in case things turned ugly...which they didnt.

But, all went well and I finished FFXII. Not completed, of course, since there are a multitude of optional bosses I chose to overlook, like two more espers and Yiazmat *shudders*. I read online that beating the boss in 2 hours was fast! More hunts are available after Pharos, of course, and undoubtedly they all take place inside the tower which I happily ignored seeing as I HATE that place.

The ending...well, how platonic can you be? Still, FFXII was not a sappy love story like FFX and FFVIII so not an ounce of romance can be found, which is a good thing after the emotional rollercoaster known as FFX. But it's nice to see FFXII spurned into a sequel FFXII: Revenant Wings on the DS and a Balthier cameo in FFT: War of the Lions. Good enough for me xD. Though I only have PSP for FFT and I spoiled myself the story for DS.

FFXII had been fun, and gave a lot of insight into the old Ivalice oftmentioned in FF Tactics. All the difference races and class of characters and the glorious past overtaken by the grim future is such a common feature in Final Fantasy worlds that it makes you wonder if the creators have a complex by it?

Anyway, fun game. Maybe I'll return to it to fight the two espers or something. But for now. Hehehhehe. Ta'ra!

Merdeka Day

2009-08-31T01:06:00.002+08:00

Happy 52nd Merdeka Day to all Malaysians!

31st August! Also the last day of Malaysia Mega Sale! I'm going shopping! woo-hoo!

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes! What a week! I had my last Japanese test, I finally stepped foot in Terengganu and ate roast lamb at two hotel buffets.

Let's start on Monday. Monday night was the last Japanese class I had. Was a disaster xD but what is life without disasters? xD On Tuesday daddyo and my bro came from Kuching and I tagged along to Terengganu. I thought I could study during the trip, but man was I wrong. But, pretty beaches though. Crystal clear water and pure white sandy beaches are not a myth there. And the public beaches are surprisingly very clean. It probably had a lot to do with the 'no swimming' signs. Seriously. The waves are not dangerous, the sands are not sharp, so it must be a social thing.

Anyway, the beach at our hotel was open for swimming but I didn't go. Fasting month. Who would wanna do anything else than sleep anyway? Terengganu. Right. The moment we arrived in Kemaman, my dad rendezvous at his current project site. He kept dropping words like "project manager" on me. Showed me the site. The details of the construction and why things are...as they are. I think it's a great project...but I can't imagine myself driving up there every two weeks troubleshoot the project. And besides. I don't think I like Terengganu food very much.

Terregganu food is typical northern fishermen food. Abuse of fish is rampant. The food is either sweet or spicy. The keropok lekor is awesome though. The best thing that came out of the state: food-wise :P. Sorry, I'm Sarawakian. I think it's fairly established that East Malaysians don't have the same pallete. Even if it was the EAST coast. Nice beaches, still.

We break fasts at my dad's friend's house for both days. His house is quite nice. He bought a big piece of land with its own natural lake with natural water corrugation and bred fishes in there. His rooms are all over the place. Thus the whole property is basically one big house. I appreciate the hospitality, though I really didn't like having to eat outdoor. The bugs...they stick to the food, drowned in your drinks and sucked the blood out of you! Not an ideal condition to be when you're hungry.

...I don't like kampong life. It's not for me. Stop pushing it to my face.

Anyway! I had roast lamb for two consecutive days after we got back. I sat for a disasterous Japanese test and went straight to it. Rooooaaaaast laaaaaaambbbb. *drooldrooldrool*

Ta'ra!

FFXII Ramblings

2009-08-25T06:45:00.004+08:00

It's really been a while since I use the word 'rambling' in a post topic. But oh well. I'm gonna talk about FFXII that I've been indulging in lately. So if you have no interest in the game whatsoever, you can just skip this post and go to Tazkirah Time xD. Okay just kidding. But it's the fasting month and I should encourage people to do stuff like that heheh. Either way, there will be NO SPOILER in this post if you are playing the game because I am too far removed from the storyline to appreciate it at the moment.

I just wanna talk about my experience so far, which has been fun, fun, fun! If you recall, I have been playing with two stupid 5-ringgit discs which I alternate because they were stuck at different places. It's unfair that nobody I know had the same problem. The guy at the shop even said that it may be because of my PS2. Poking faults at my Kujong was unforgivable, so I decided not to patron his shop anymore and scoured for an original disk. Watashiwa-san finally solved that problem for me when she gave me FFXII as a...gift, I think. Thank you again ^_^.

Right. When I stopped last I was on my way to Archades, the capital of the Archadian empire, the empire colonizing the hero's country. I only got to the first part of the underground palace (Sochen Cave Palace) where you fight the Mandragoras and won - and STUCK! rawr! The last save point was TWO SCREENS away! Two screens are a lot of space seeing as those two screens are vast plains with lots of encounters and I had a few level ups on the way - all gone! I actually fought the mandragoras twice and got stuck at the same place. I used the other disk and that one was EVEN WORSE.

So...I stopped. I could not deal with the frustration so I just stopped playing to cool my head lest I commit suicide. When I got the original disk, it didn't recognize my previous saves so I had to restart from scratch, which was not exactly a bad thing, since I had the chance to obtain the Zodiac Spear - the strongest weapon in the game. Not even half as painful to obtain compared to the Tournesol. The spear required that you refrain from opening several treasure chests in four unique areas. AND have you run through a necrohol of vicious monsters if you want to acquire it early. I actually acquired it slightly later than the first available opportunity thus had better armor and stats, and even then, I barely survived *shivers*. I am NOT going back anytime soon. Not before I level up to 99 which is possible it seems O.o.

ANYWAY! What's up with those elementals anyway? Really? they are just flashing blobs of magic that attack you on a whim and you can't even counterattack with weapons! You'd like to cast magic back to it but it casts reflect on itself, and if you reflect back what it casted upon you, they absorb the damage! rawr! I know that it's possible to win against one but it will be very tough, and is just not worth it seeing as it is considered a normal encounter. One thing I like to do is...have the party leader wait at the border line between screens, send someone with Thief's Cuffs out to steal from the elemental, and wait. It's funny to see the assigned thief run towards the elemental, steal, and when the elemental starts chasing you - run for you life! Hahahahahaha! I like borderlines. It's convenient how enemies just stay in their own areas and won't chase you into the next.

And those mandragoras! Five vegetables - running around in such a vast space! I bet the people at Square Enix are having a laugh at gamers as we go around chasing them one by one! I haven't gotten the Zodiac spear when I beat them, but they had pretty high evade and weapon attacks will miss at a 40-50% rate which is annoying, except for guns, which ignore evade, but is pretty slow. The last one I killed out of the five was Onion King. When he was critical he ran off to the other side of the room, either to cure itself or just to be a pain, so I hit him with Fira - and BAM! Death! Satisfaction. This was done with original disk, so I was near tears when I was finally given access to the rest of Sochen Cave Palace. sniff. I was just eager to get to Archades and get upgrades on equipments and magicks so I can start doing some level V marks hunting.

Unlike previous FF games I played (VII, VIII, IX) you cannot abuse GFs (guardian forces in FFVIII) or creature summons in VII and IX. I admit, I abuse GFs for every boss battles in FFVIII simply because...why not? But not in FFXII I think they realized that these creature summons are making the game way too easy, thus with its new fighting method, FFXII required more strategizing. What's great is that, whatever status spells you have in your inventory, it can work on both you and the enemy. Bad status effects like blind, silence, poison, sap, immobilize, disable etc can be used against enemies and even bosses! There's this great accessory that reverses the affects of healing items, so if you use Remedy againsts an enemy it is similar to giving them a cocktail of bad ailments! It made battles so much easier when enemies are blinded and silenced. I'm usually the type to just "charge right up with the strongest weapon and heal as I go" but this strategy is getting old. These statuses do not go away unless healed - and enemies RARELY heal - unlike positive buffs like protect and shell. At the same time you can know what status effects an enemy is immune against. Give them the whole load - and see what sticks XD. And as intimidating the bosses are, they are normally vulnerable to at least one ailment, be it just blind or silence. Only one boss so far is immune to everything in remedy...but he's the master of bad ailments and an opitonal boss at that.

One of my favorite status ailments to use against an enemy is 'disease'. With the reverse acessory you throw a vaccine at an enemy. Items are great compared to magic when it comes to inflicting ailments because the success rate is 90-100%. With disease, HP will always appear as full even as you inflict damage on them. While it doesn't look like the enemy is losing HP, they actually is - disease conceals their own HP status. Why this is awesome is because, when enemies are at a critical, or when their HP drops to about 30% or so, they start having all these annoying attack/defence. Either they have high defence, become immune to magic/weapon, or attack you really, REALLY hard. It's automatically triggered by low HP. Disease cancels this COMPLETELY so the enemy will get on as if it has full HP and sticks to their normal attacks - which is usually far more tolerable - and BAM! Sudden death! <

I use remedy before every boss fight now.

I think it should go without saying that I referred to online FAQs during this playthrough. Not the walkthrough. I like to be surprised. But the specific ones like Marks Hunting and Weapons guide. Like all FF games, FFXII have much to entertain apart from its own storyline; secret dungeons, secret areas in the dungeons, rare game monsters, optional espers etc etc. Why, just the quest to gather the materials for Tournesol (strongest one-handed sword, 10 points less than Zodiac spear)alone should keep you occupied for a good part of the game, really, and take you to all these different places. Though I think I won't even bother with Tournesol in this playthrough. I already have Zodiac Spear and Fomalhaut (strongest gun) both acquired through chests - next I may concern myself with the Masamune or some ninja swords for their swiftness and elements. After all, you really only need to outfit 3 characters and having different weapons help. Those annoying flying creatures can only be brought down by ranged weapons unfortunately.

I want to attempt the jelly auto-levelling next and bring everyone to level 99. It should be doable now. I want to see how far their HPs will go.

And oh, the ever so sexy Balthier! My favorite character. Not only is he sexy (in demeanor and appearance) he also speaks with an accent! Hahahaha.

I guess slippers are in for Sky Pirate fashions eh? xD

Ta'ra!

First Day of Puasa

2009-08-22T01:26:00.001+08:00

I had an accident involving a very, very bad egg in the kitchen just now. I wanted to make omellete, but after that...McD delivery sounded pretty good. Happy Fasting to everyone.

Ta'ra.

Of Branded Stuff and Ugly Flats.

2009-08-14T12:41:00.005+08:00

During the week off uitm had due to a H1N1 flu scare, Bukit Bintang had a general increase in Malay students out shopping. This scares me a bit as people start thinking I'm one of them too. This in turn made me more determined to drasticaly change my clothing style. Seriously. I did small modifications here and there, but there's still that scarf issue that needs to be tackled.

I do try to differentiate myself from these people. I wear shoes. Expensive shoes. D: Just to make a little point! I mean, you see those girls going around in their little group with at least one shoe shopping bag in hand. It's no secret that these kids spend a lot of money on shoes and hanbags, but you would think that after buying so many pair of shoes they wouldn't keep wearing those ugly flats out to shop would they!?? I find flats more comfortable than heels, but I would never be caught dead in those cheap ugly flats that's so popular with IPTA students!

I like branded stuff. I wear Skechers shoes and Esprit socks. They are more expensive, thus I can buy only a few pairs at once. But they last longer, and do not take up much space. You'd think people don't notice, but they do. They look at you a certain way, than say something like how unnecessary expensive branded stuff are when you can get a nice pair for cheap. Even though secretly they wish they could own branded stuff too :P. Oooh yes, they will say this to you today, but tomorrow you'll see them drooling at a RM300 Guess bag - thinking that it's affordable! (It's worth the price, but not unless it's a one-time thing).

In fact, I made it a point not to wear unbranded stuff. It makes me feel insecure, as if I've blown my money on something that's not worth it, no matter how cheap because I don't feel proud wearing them. Vain, I know. But that's just me :P. I don't like having too much clothes at once. I like to have a few nice clothes at once, and phase them out, and then get new ones. That's why it's important that I get the nice branded ones for these few clothes. I've learned to shop like a guy. Guys they hoard their money just to buy that one expensive item that they truly love and felt contented after just that one purchase. For example, my cousin's only purchase in Singapore was a $150 Bape cap, and my brother spent 2k on a pair of Versace shoes. It may seem like a waste to most girls, but I like spending a huge amount of money on just one thing you truly love than the same amount of money on a lot of things you like. I do both of course. If there's nothing I truly love, and I need to upgrade my wardrobe, then I buy a lot. Anyway.

I watched an episode of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservation in Saudi Arabia. His host was a female film producer. She is the only woman in Saudi Arabia granted permission to have a production company without a single man present. In Jeddah the women all wear those black robes called an Abaya. They wear whatever underneath. I suddenly thought how nice it would be to go there. I could wear a long sleeve shirt and pajama pants inside those abayas and nobody would know! I have worn abayas before during my last umrah trip. The locals don't care if you're not local. Baju kurung and other robes are fine, but those abayas are just so convenient!

I need to get myself more pajama pants! Wheee!

Ta'ra!

Tazkirah Time xD

2009-08-13T23:31:00.004+08:00

Last week I had a 'Kisah Nabi-Nabi' phase and went to search for the chronicles of the 25 main prophets. Yes, very pious of me. But I was bored, and I wanted the true version for once. I was tired of reading Christian depictions of our prophets, (especially the last one). I really do try to see them from their point of view, but oftentimes I was left wanting at how obscure and incomplete their descriptions were. So, tired of being the understanding open-minded Muslim I am, I went and search for the Qur'anic version, which is what I should have done in the first place, really.

The first prophet that piqued my interest was a certain King Solomon, which turned out to be a descendent of King David of Israel. I made the mistake of reading the Christian version which spelled out King David (of David and Goliath's fame) as very devoted to his God, had three sons, one of whom was Solomon, but was denied the privilege of building a temple for his God, a privilege reserved for his heir Solomon. His two sons fued for the throne, knowing Solomon would be heir. A lot of stuff happened, King David died in sadness, Solomon succeeded him and his two other sons were either sentenced to death or died in the fighting.

Of course, King Solomon is none other than the Prophet Sulaiman who went on to rule the greatest kingdom on Earth, commanded d'jinns, understood birds and had his armies rode wind instead of horses. And yes, he also 'conquered' the Queen of Saba' (Sheba) with his palace of mirror. Either way, his gift was that he was a very wise man and ruled a kingdom that was unprecedented, and no other would exist after his. The Christian version is the same so far, except for the part of his latter years. They said he died a corrupted man who had over 700 wives and 300 concubines from his diplomatic marriages. Because he loved his wives, he gave in and let them build their temples of worship for their deities and even partake in their worship, thus turning his back on his own God. Therefore he died a pagan.

I was unhappy with this, so I searched for the Qur'anic version. Prophet Sulaiman AS had been blessed with a 'miraculous life, thus a miraculous death'. On the day of his death, he was praying in a small mosque on top of a hill, overseeing a construction work done by the djinns and humans. He leaned forward on his cane and died in the middle of prayer, but the djinns and humans didn't know he died, and thought he was still watching, so they continued working. It was only 40 days later when termites had eaten through his cane that he fell forward and they found out that he had died for some time. If you ask me, it is a fitting death for someone so revered.

And while I was at it, I checked up on his dad King David too. And 'lo and behold - it's the Prophet Daud AS! I was shocked for not realizing the Arabic equivalent. Needless to say I was appaled at myself! Furthermore, the story of 'David and Goliath' was in fact, true. Different name, but true nonetheless. David was 9 years old at the time, and 'Goliath' was a big war general. He was not born royalty. At that time he was serving the army of the King of Israel. After his deed in battle against 'Goliath' the King married him to his daughter, thus making him future king. Interesting eh? They should have included such interesting stories during our various Friday tazkirahs at school. But nooo scolding people who don't wear scarves outside of school seemed more important! :P

Another interesting history bit that intrigued me was that of Mary Magdalene. After The Da Vinci Code, I did a lot of research on her, but in vain. It was only last week that I bothered to re-check Prophet Isa AS's full background, or as full as it can go. The Qur'an only says as much about the lives of the prophets because it stresses its role a religious text, not a historical one - fair enough. Anyway. Other than his mother, there are no prominent females mentioned around him. But it was itneresting how they mentioned that Mary Magdalene could have been a former prostitute. There is an incident with him and a prostitute.

The priests of Moses' teachings in Prophet Isa's time tried to make him admit that he was turning his back from Moses' teachings. The sentence for prostitution was stoning, and they had a prostitute to sentence. They asked him if he would sentence her himself if he was truly a believer in Moses' teachings. They were expecting him to refuse, thus admitting his heresy, but Isa already knew their intentions. So, instead he said, "If this woman is sinful, than only those among us who have not sinned shall sentence her". The priests were unhappy (admitting they had not sinned would be heresy), and Isa walked away. The prostitute, grateful to him, threw herself at his feet, and washed his feet with her tears. At this, Isa turned to his followers and said, in a way "and you said you loved me." Previously they were saying how much they loved and adored him, you see. But then this woman came and washed his feet with her tears.

Could that woman be the so-called Mary Magdalene? The Qur'an or hadith didn't mention her name, and if she became a disciple later on. I think it's safe to assume she became a believer and nothing more. The Christian version on the other hand, said nothing of her washing his feet. Whatever it is, Prophet Isa was unmarried and chaste up till his ascension. The disciple who volunteered to take his place for the execution was promised to be his companion in the afterlife, and nothing more was said either in the Qur'an or hadith, about what happened after the Roman soldiers took him away to be crucified. It is a tad unnecessary to go into details, but still, I like details. The point is that you get the message across. Frustrating, but that's life.

Another interesting bit I found out was the Prophet Muhammad SAW's treatment of the Nasrani and Yahudi (Jews and Christians) when they came to Makkah during his time. He gladly shared half the mosque with them to let them perform their prayer their own way and even warned his followers (if you're a Muslim, that's you by the way) "if you intentionally harm the (Jews and Christians), then, during Judgement Day, I will not count you as among my followers". So everyone, play nice!

I know Muslims in general hold grudges against Jews and thus, Israel in general. But unless you're out there in the battlefield, there is nothing you can do but pray for your Muslim bretheren. Going all suicide bombing at public places will earn you a direct flight to Hell. And thus, condoning such behaviors, if the targets are civilians not involved in the war, makes you an accomplice. I am not an expert in such things, but remember your Prophet's words!

And in case you've forgotten, out of the 25 main prophets, only about 4 of them are Arabs. The others were all Jews. ...Well, looking at the Jews today, it made sense why so many Prophets had been sent their way.

Digging is fun. I go dig more! Ta'ra!

So Anyway

2009-08-13T16:30:00.003+08:00

I went back to shady workshop last week (and as expected, I still dont like the shopkeepers who are only friendly on the phone. Weird though that may be) and got myself a whole bunch of clay. Four white ones, just to be safe, plus ten others, including a couple of black. I even bought a weird color called nightglow, which was supposed to be glow in the dark, but doesnt seem to be glowing. But it is still a very nice slightly creamy white color anyway.

Last night I managed to finish the charm bracelet my aunt ordered from me xD. So happy! The pink thing is actually a broken plate bead with chopsticks, a dollop of wasabi and a splotch of soy sauce. It broke as I was forcing a craft wire through it...>_>. But I made just a chopsticks bead at the end, though I think maybe just one more bead would make the whole thing more complete. We'll see. xD

Ta'ra!

p/s hi5 just sent me a birthday reminder of my classmate who passed away two years ago. Creepy.

Amusing Day

2009-08-01T03:10:00.002+08:00

Today started out pretty nicely, with me waking up early to pray, and then proceeded to the gym. I saw an ang moh, though it wasn't goat. Sighs. But I had a good workout, which was long overdue.

Then I had breakfast, washed up, did laundry, dressed up and ready for a long day. That is until I sat in the car and turned on the ignition.

Kurohime wouldn't start on me. Sighs. So what to do but call daddyo. I informed him of my plight and he said he'll drop by next Wednesday. I hope he's quick because I am in desperate need of white clay. So, all dressed up with my initial destinations impossible, I went online and bought those silver headpins and jump rings, then proceeded to Times Square to get them, and to have lunch.

The Arab food stall at the food court really do have good food, but more likely so when the boss is around. The staff treated me like I was one of them because I'm a young Malay girl and we treat each other like we're old friends, not as paying customers. I had grilled prawn fried rice. I should have been warned by the cheap price:RM5. All I got was a plate full of fried rice (which was actually quite nice) and four pieces of probably grilled, not so regular-sized prawns. I was too hungry to bother giving them dirty looks for it.

Next I spent an aimless half an hour sitting down and roaming the mall, trying to think of what to take away for dinner, since I was sleepy and is planning to head home to resume my sleep. I walked slowly in front of the shops, so I could scrutinize the clothes on sale without having to go in and check them out. Suddenly, I heard a guy going "shopping alone?", and something along the same cheesy line quite persistently. My head was glued to my side and when I turned back slightly I saw that a short old man was grinning at me! Okay he's not old, maybe 30 something. But that is still OLD!

I gave him an annoyed look with a raised eyebrow and resumed walking. But he must have thought that I have acknowledged his existence or something, because as I approached the escalator, I heard him again and when I was about to get on, I found out that he has been following me! WTF! This time I gave him a look that says "Are you mentally retarded or something?!" and went down the escalator. I made sure my gaze stayed so he got the message. But him, being man, and perverted, probably thought he "scored" or something. Seriously. Get a brain!

Gosh! There were so many young Malay chicks around today! UITM is on a week holiday, so there are a lot of them girls hanging around the malls, alone and in groups! RAWR! I need to change my appearance to look more expensive so these losers know I am not in their league. Shit. I hope he went and fuck himself.

As annoyed as I was after that, it actually lifted me up a little. I was feeling extremely depressed just moments before, because of a lot of things. His action boosted my ego, and really, what else do you need other than that?

I went back after getting takeaway from subway, prayed and shot two smses to my friends in two different universities asking about their convocation festivals. Just as I was falling asleep, one of them called me and brought me good news. It was such good news I almost couldn't go back to sleep afterwards! I immediately sent an sms to the person in charge. I would call, but I dont think it's good manners to just call up strangers when it's nothing urgent. I received a call back when I woke up xD. I'm as good as in!

Now I need to sleep. After I hang my socks, that is. Tomorrow, err today, I need to clean the house! Ta'ra!

Next Project!

2009-07-31T00:37:00.004+08:00

I'm out of silver chains to work with. Next I'm going to do some lower priced sushi beads bracelet. Now there is no choice but to get me those damn clay! RAWR!

Ta'ra!

p/s I should exercise.

Bracelet Day!

2009-07-30T02:05:00.003+08:00

First I would like to show off my beadbox! xD

Of course, I have more beads than these, except I haven't used them. And thanks to Totchi's OCDness the greens and transparent whites are all sorted. I'm quite proud of my crystals though. I still have some peridots for a few bracelets, but now I wonder why I have so much violets?

Anyway, I completed three bracelets today. I think. I know I have five ready to sale sushi bead bracelets though. *hinthinthinthint*!!! There are three variants:

In the picture are two of them: pink/green and blue/purple. Another one is all green. Unsurprisingly, the green is quite popular. Though I would have to agree that pink and green go surprisingly well together. O.o hmmm.

The one I made for myself is blue/purple since these two colors are so underused, I thought I would use them myself. XD

Now I just need to find a way to insert our brand name Snackellery on them. Suggestions are welcomed! XDTa'ra!

Snackellery

2009-07-28T02:43:00.004+08:00

WE ARE OFFICIALLY IN BUSINESS! (kind of) The first ever commercial Snackellery handmade sushi bracelet to roll off my sushi making dish! OHMYGODI'MSOHAPPY!

Everything except for the sushi themselves are 925 silver! Chain lenght is 8 inches, but is adjustable according to request. OHMYGODI'MSOHAPPY! Limited quantity! ORDER ONE FOR YOURSELF NOW!!!! Only Ringgit Malaysia Forty-five! XD

...Well yes, we are supposed to have out own website, but I pre-empted it with my own impatience. Snackellery is our brand name. In the future please look forward to more snack-inspired Snackellery products!

What? I can't promote my own product on my blog? xD

Ta'ra!

Ah~ I like the feel of clay~ xD

2009-07-26T18:13:00.007+08:00

I thought I should share what exactly I have been doing with all these beads, clay and sushi talk. xD You can tell which ones are taken with my phone and which from my camera. So!

This is the sushis as they got out of the oven. Tamago makis and salmon roes. A bit retarded, those roes. But they came out nicely. XD

After some time with the hairdryer, and to cool, they are off into my beadbox, which is now filled with maki-type sushis.

You add these sushis with some peridot swarovskis...

And you get these lovelies. xD

I had an excess of these green and red makis, so I decided to make bracelets out of them. They are still RM15, buy one free one! Because I'm not too happy how the beads turned out, but still, those swarovskis are genuine.

The maki bracelets come in green, blue, and amethyst. So far Sarah asked for purple and I had a few pink by request. The green ones are the most popular though. I need to get more peridots!

I also make silver bracelets. The chains are genuine 925 Malaysian silver. In addition, all the clasp, headpins and rings used on these bracelets are also 925 silver. Which means, it is perfectly safe for those of you allergic to base metal. I know. Because 80% of my family members (including extended ones) are allergic to base metal.

I haven't made one that's actually ready for sale yet, but I've had a couple of orders already, since I wear the prototypes to show for it. I'm still in the middle of increasing the variety of sushie beads I have. It's easier once you have the beads ready.

There are two types of chains.

The thinner one goes for RM45, while the bigger one RM60. The end product looks something like this:

Except with 7 different types of sushi instead of just one. Unfortunately I have only 1 of the big one left, since the shop I go to get my silver chains ran out of the big one! So I have only the small one to contend with. I already made one, with pink swarovskis and gave it to sensei for her birthday.

I plan to make more and with a bigger variety of sushis. The designs are simple, really. Since the sushis and the chain speak for themselves. They will be ready for sale soon, once I make enough beads XD. I'm almost out of white.

But, if you want one for yourself, don't feel shy to tell me! The prices are as stated. Ta'ra!

Confession of a Recluse

2009-07-26T16:17:00.002+08:00

Needless to say I have been helplessly busy and penniless this past week - and happy to be so! Totchi stayed with me for a week and we went on a shopping spree. I really shouldnt, but I did anyway. My wardrobe was in dire need of an update. My Kuching wardrobe even more so. I had a decluttering not too long ago which left them quite empty. If I dont bring some clothes back home with me, I noticed I have only two or three good shirts to go out in. Seriously. I was surprised when I had more than two outings a week that I had nothing to wear!

My life is blissful ignorant. My college doesn't take the initiative to inform us about any progress or anything that we should prepare. And I am not a proactive person in such things. But tomorrow I shall drive up there and demand they tell me things.

The last two days I decided to stay home and be a total recluse. It's the best thing to do when you're in the middle of your period. And even better thing to do would be to play games while you're stayingat home with your period. But I didn't. I literally just stayed at home doing nothing progressive. But I had to go check out some English Cotton the aunty brought back from Dubai yesterday. She especially called me to say when she'll be at the shop and when the new stuff will be there, so I had to go.

I went there a little late in the day because I insisted on eating the beef I have at home (mmm beeef). When I arrived, I checked out some new stuff, sidelined a couple, and then when the aunty came, I shamelessly plunged right in! XD I was her only Sarawakian dealer, so she really endulged me hehehehehehe.

There was quite drama too, since suddenly, a stream of customers entered the shop and I insisted on staying until I tell the shopkeeper which pieces I was taking, how many, and which pieces I was exchanging them for. Such clarity is a must in my dealings you see. But due to the stream of customers, I was detained, and was immediately assumed a sale assistant as well. I made two sales XD. I met the good customers, and some annoying ones. I met a very proud Johorian mother who insisted that all the edges of her baju kurung be meticulously hand sewn, because she said it's a Johorian thing that they like to show off. But seriously, who bothers to check the inner stitching of your clothes anyway?

As annoying as I found her and her daughter, they were customers and aunty was also from Johore so they got along. I mean, I understood that sort of pride, but I was not about to gush it on a stranger (I'm Sarawakian, and you know how it is). Especially since she thought I was a sale assistant too, until aunty told her I was one of her biggest dealers (Not exactly a lie, since I made one of the biggest sale she ever made at once and I am the only one from Sarawak xD). She saw me diferently then, but still. But of course, she had good taste, and when she asked that her baju kurung be all hand sewn at the edges, she was prepared to pay extra for it. Good for her.

The most annoying customer of the day was too annoying to recall. She was infatuated with this baju kurung top that had no sarong which costed only RM25, asked it to be lowered, was given for 20, and then asked for it to be lowered again because she would have to go through all the trouble of finding a sarong for it, all the while complaining how it is fake Thai silk and would stink when she sweats (which I really do hope will stink really badly). I was being nice and told her such bright colors would not just suit anyone (which was a compliment) and she cornered me by saying why didn't I get it then. Of course I was not about to tell her that it was too cheap and not up to my taste. She ended up getting it for 20 anyway and once she was out of earshot, the shopkeeper told me that the clothes on that rack were not the shop's, but belonged to someone whom the aunty knew and needed money. This person put up her old clothes to be sold at the shop, which meant the 20 ringgit baju kurung was old, second hand, and used to stink on someone else before. Thus, serves her right!

I ended up helping the shopkeeper close shop and as I was driving down the federal highway going back to KL, I was suddenly struck with the realization that at least half of my extended family is in KL yet I hardly see them. It was still only 8:30, so I quickly went through my list of immediately visitable relatives and ended up with my friend in Shah Alam. After all, the federal highway goes all the way to Shah Alam. What better time to explore, right?

I called her up, and, after getting lost a little, thanks to unnamed roundabout turnings, I finally found section 17. I shamelessly had her treat me dinner and we talked about crap. Then we went back to her place where I borrowed her toilet and we continued talking crap. It was close to 2 am when I finally got home last night hehehehe. It's funny how I always find myself exploring roads at night, rather than day. But I like it, because there are no traffic at night. And with limited visions, as most things are obscured by darkness, you only see the things and signs that you need to. At day, you get too distracted by too many road signs and advertisement boards. And like I said, no traffic! So if you get lost, you don't have to worry about getting stuck in traffic at the next wrong turning.

I just made a whole roll of tamago maki bead. Now I have my own maki sushi bead box! hehehehe. I really should start selling them. I have two orders so far. So happy xD!

Ta'ra!

Me Update!

2009-07-11T23:40:00.002+08:00

Hello! I have been busy making bracelets and clay beads. And I have also got around to using the oven to bake the beads. Direct heat is a no no, so I preheat the oven first, and cure the beads using the leftover heat, which works even better! And somehow my silver necklace has turned into a charm bracelet. How did that happen!?

I have completed two silver bracelets. The first one is the first prototype where I add on all the sushis I have or will have. The second one is a whole maki-type bracelet which, while unique, lacks color, and the enxt one shall contain all the sushis that I have made so far. the salmons just got out of the oven. Next I wanna do squid and ebi. Heheheheehehe!

I'm so excited! Tomorrow, Bing!

Ta'ra!

A Little Note...

2009-07-08T02:45:00.004+08:00

I'm going back today, and staying for longer than four days! Yay!

I bought a cutting mat ohmygodI'msohappy! I also bought a few more things that I needed, like clasps, beads and extension chains XD.I'm gonna be rich I'm telling you!

Last, last night I had the biggest purchase I ever had in a long time! I bought TWO Tough bags! Wheeee! Tough is like my kind of Prada you see, with lots of attitude. I still like the previous collection better, but I suppose these ones are not bad either. I would show you, but I don't want people to steal my bags! Gasp!

I really should be going to sleep, but I'm stuck watching the Michael Jackson Memorial on E!. Also I have so many things planned out for my holiday. xD My puzzle remained unopened, make clay beads, Sleep, play games. Now if only I can get a new bed.

Ta'ra!

p/s Man, Totchi, it's hard talking to people not of the same wavelenght isnt it? I would rather be misunderstood than pretend to talk in a way that I am not used to. And I do not make it a habit to apologize when I am misunderstood.

New Project! Again

2009-07-05T00:10:00.003+08:00

Behold my proud purchases!

I had quite an adventure looking for these stuff. I drove all the way to Balakong to a shady warehouse shop and bought myself some sinsiter-looking tools and it was well-worth the trip! Not only are the stuff cheaper, the selection was much, much better! Most art and craft shops would have only one brand of clay, but here I found two brands, and two varieties of each brand.

I was impatient and just need to start. I made two beads that night, but two days later I have two sushi bracelets done! WHEE! I love it when a project allows me to learn something new each time. It makes me eager to start doing the next one again and again!

Ah, but alas, life throws obstacles at your feet all the time. It may come in the form of a stolen phone or melted beads in the oven, but behind every obstacles is an opportunity and behind opportunity is...incredible things.

Note that incredible things don't always constitute a positive thing. But I am ever the opportunist. I mean optimist. Optimist, for certain, xD.

Now I think I need a cutting board, clay cutter (ooh yeah baby, I love blades xD) and more white clay! This time I'll get Fimo Soft instead of Fimo Classic. I swear, my fingers are growing muscle just from conditioning those damn clay!

Ta'ra!

p/s Watashiwa-san, yes, I do glow don't I? XD

A breather At Last

2009-06-30T01:17:00.003+08:00

Tonight I got through my Intermediate 3 class with Grade A! I'm so relieved! And I took pride in it too because although a lot of people got higher marks than me, I achieved mine mostly through my own hard work! We all 'discussed' during the exams, yes, and I did participated a bit, but I tried to rely on myself mostly and I was happy with the results!

I can't remember the last time I got 90 marks! And after everything ended, our class photo!
I always made it a point to wear white scarf or something light colored because I know it makes me stick out hehehehehehehe.

After that, we went to Starbucks to celebrate!

Wheee!

After that, even though Kurohime was parked inside KL Plaza, I didn't want to bring it home because Sam-san (the big guy in the back) agreed to drive me home!! Turned out four of us carpooled with him tonight, with sensei, Evion, and Jun-san in tow . His is a small peugeot but surprisingly all of us fit, though a little cramped. But it was fun! xD I havent been in a small car and had so much fun before hahahaha! Arigato Sam-san xD!

...Well of course, since my house was in the area, I was sent off first. I so wanted to see sensei's house before she moves again soon. Oh well. xD

I have to finish a report by tonight since I'm forced to hand it in one day earlier if I want to use the car. Stupid Indons.But what a lovely night this was! Jibun no Nihon-jin ga hoshi des!

Ta'ra!

The Weekend That Be

2009-06-24T02:04:00.003+08:00

I think barfing is just like anal sex. It is unpleasant at first, but it gets better once you're used to it. Though I've never done the latter, the former is not a stranger to me.

Last Friday I flew home to Kuching to clean my room over the weekend. I even enlisted the help of my friend before I even confirmed my flight home. Yes, I was that determined to clean my room. I even got her a ten ringgit t-shirt while I was at it. Mind you, it was a nice ten ringgit t-shirt. Yes, I was that determined to clean my room.

I arrived just before noon and I slept the rest of the day till 7 pm when I was awoken by the prospect of a seafood dinner. My uncle also arrived in Kuching and promptly landed at our house. That night he had diarrhea and vomiting. He couldn't sleep till late. I thought "too bad" that is, until I actually got diarrhea myself the next day!

I didn't get it straight away. I was determined to clean my room you see, so I picked up my friend and we started clearing things. I started going to the toilet little by little and only had the biggest crap after lunch. I thought I would feel relieved afterwards but it only got worse! I was clearing the CD rack, sitting down, yet my whole body aches while my stomach broils with watery substance. Finally my friend suggested that I lie down on the bed. I did, and fell asleep.

During my nap, my friend took time off as well, browsing through my late works of arts and other short stories I, or one of my friends, had written (my bookshelf is a goldmine for such stories). I slept for approximately two hours. And when I woke up, expecting relief, I was greeted with a pounding headache. Dismayed I could only stare at the wall stupidly.

Now I have fever on top of diarrhea! GAAAAH!

There was no way I could even get out of the bed and help my friend help me clean my room! I told her I couldn't do anything, but we couldn't leave my room as it was either. So I laid there like a vegetable while she busted her ass cleaning my room. She is a very good girl, so I only did what I could - I praised her as she went along. Okay I did overexaggerate a little, but it doesn't mean I don't mean them. Though she did reply sarcastically that she believed me. Hmmmm.

When I was mumbling she told me to shut up. When I shut up she worried that I got too sick. So what am I supposed to do anyway!? When she was almost done with my room, and she's awesome since her nose is not impervious to dust like mine, I finally found the energy to remove myself from the bed and find some medicine.

I have never seen someone so dusty! - And my room so clean! xD

That night I was supposed to go out drinking with Totchi but I had to cancel since I was too sick to leave the house. Totchi is awesome too. It was really out of a whim that I asked her to take away Bing's smoothie for me and come pick up her hairband when she comes over. I wasn't expecting her to agree, really, but I really wanted the smoothie despite my condition and she seemed bored enough to do anything out of the ordinary. Totchi came later that night, bearing smoothie and prezzie.

Thanks again for the smoothie xD. Did I tell you you were awesome?

Despite it being an eventful day, I had trouble sleeping that night. One was because my body was torn between two condition, and two because I forgot to close my window and the alarm has already been set. My diarrhea likes the heat, but my fever craves the cold. At first I slept without the aircond on since my window is open. But I kept waking up in the middle of the night, hot and restless and with a pounding head. So I just decided "to hell with that!" and turned on the aircond anyway. Yes, the window was open. I know.

I woke up several times that morning, but only managed the motivation to move a little after noon. After which I gobbled down some satays just to fill my stomach before I take medicine again. My stomach does not feel diarrhea anymore, but it still aches, either from lack of food or something else, I don't know. But I was strong enough afterwards to tutor my cousin English. Usually it's my sister but she asked me to guest tutor the day before, but I was being a vegetable (she does tutoring Saturday and Sunday). So I tutored her about topic sentences. Her essays have a lot of ideas, but lacked grammar. She can work on her grammar with my sister, so I decided to focus on her strenghts; organising her ideas. The second part of tutoring was spent talking in English. It was something that she had never done before. I don't believe her teacher had bothered much about it at school, so I hope by talking about things she likes, in English, it would build up her confidence. I was glad to see towards the end of the lesson that she was talking more enthusiastically and was trying hard to find the right words to express her opinions xD.

I'm a great tutor.

I should do this more often. Hehe.

Ta'ra!

p/s Watashiwa-san, I am verily looking forward to cheese.

Philosophy!

2009-06-15T04:01:00.002+08:00

To commomerate my 100th post in blogger, I have came up with a new philosophy in life:

"Great people do not need to be understood. They just need to be admired!"

And so I do not need your understanding! Just admiration. Now admire me!

Ta'ra!

Thanks but no thanks!

2009-06-14T19:32:00.004+08:00

To all the other groups doing this same report: Thank you for letting me read your copy paste report. They are more helpful than if you had done it from scratch. And I hope you fail miserably in your assignment.

That's all.

People Cannot Write

2009-06-13T20:59:00.004+08:00

I just went through several of the industry reports the other groups did and came to one conclusion: These people cannot write. I mean, some of them even replaced the introduction by the executive summary!! And some people just don't know how to ask for favors at all. If you want other people to give you their report, YOU must offer up yours FIRST!!

That kind of stupidity is what made me avert from replying to their suggestions of this and that. Because they were just lip service because they themselves have no idea what to write in the next industry summary. I hope I taught them something when I myself fired an email asking them to answer only ONE question, to which I answered myself (even included a word count) so they know how to go about answering it, however long or short. I hope to receive at least some satisfactory reply. If not I'm going ahead with my own report.

I'm going home next weekend to clean my room. I can't stay long because I have class Monday night and my Japanese class only gets more and more complicated. I cannot miss anymore classes!

Ta'ra!

p/s Totchi: I needed to include your name somewhere in the post so I could use the 'totchi' tag just for the heck of it. You should be honored.

Watashiwa-san: Fabric business is going slowly, but it's only expected, since I'm not there to peddle it! But just another bump on the road as I ride my bandwagon. And yes, aren't I awesome? Hehehehe

I'm Awesome

2009-06-07T01:11:00.003+08:00

I am awesome! I just did the part of four people on our report! Unfair, of course, but I'd rather that than have them handle it. They've been trying to sabotage this report since the beginning and even wanted to submit it the same morning it's due for submission! Idiots! They have no idea how determined I am! This is great, since whatever little work they've spent either worrying or actually working on it would be in vain. And I like nothing better than other people's work go useless because of their own stupidity. I have been cleaning after people's mess so many times it feels awesome when people mess themselves up!

Since I am on this path to greatness, I will not complain. Great people see things differently. Everything is a challenge and behind every challenge is an opportunity and behind every opportunity lies greatness. Yes, I just made it up, but it's still true nonetheless. My dad was surprised that I know that Tiger Woods had changed his swing three times. Of course I knew that. Tiger Woods is one of those great people who achieved world class status. His is a life worth paying attention to. Other people I pay attention to is Bill Gates, Michael Dell and Sam Walton. I don't care what people say about Trump. Michael Dell's net worth would enable him to buy 6 or 7 Trumps! Which easily makes Trump just one of many. And what's the point in being one of many?

Greatness. World Class. I think it's a goal worth pursuing don't you think?

Ta'ra!

PS. Hello Totchi.

I'm Freaking Unhappy

2009-06-01T23:31:00.002+08:00

My exams had just ended and I still have to hand in a report and presentation. I just heard back from Caroline that the tambis are asking about the report. Funny they would ask since they explicitly told me that they are dropping out. Hm. Just goes to show, you can't believe what tambis tell you.

Why won't they come to me directly huh?

Whatever the outcome is, I'm keeping a tight grip on this project. *glares*

It's really a pity, but I did a post on my aim to achieve greatness and it got error'd. And I was sharing the secret to greatness too. Basically, there's no substitute to hard work and to become world class ala Tiger Woods, there's a Ten Year Rule that applies. For further information, google 'How to be Great'.

Since I don't have classes to attend other than my Nihongo and the occasional classes that Ii wish to attend, I have only my thesis and project paper to concentrate on. Now that I think about it, that seemed like more work than my previous semester. Bbut no matter. I hate the constraints of regular classes.

But it's the holiday at the moment and I really should enjoy more. Maybe it's time for that island holiday.

Ta'ra!

Self-Entertaining

2009-05-27T12:24:00.002+08:00

I have always been a self-entertaining person. Like, I know how to entertain myself alone, with nothing but my imagination therefore I am not easily bored. But occasionally I get jealous of other people who have fun with other people. Damnit I wanna be entertained too!

Anyway. Today, suprisingly, I woke up before noon. Which was a great accomplishment since I made it a point not to wake up unless I have to. I went to bed early last night, and woke up at first, at 4 am, when I usually go to bed. So weird.

Today I am going to bum around and enjoy my day off before I start stressing about the stupid report I have to do in order to graduate. *snarls at tambis*

The monthly car boot sale at Zoo Negara in June is canceled. They told me to check back next month. I'll do that. But I am pretty certain on those convocation dates. When are you people going to get back at me?!?!?!

Ta'ra!

A Real Good Reason

2009-05-26T20:43:00.003+08:00

I do notice the lack of updates and although Totchi said it's becoming a norm for me these days, this time I do have a really good reason.

The truth is, last Tuesday, my finals started and it had just ended today. My final final exam xD!! Nah, I still have two resits to be carried forward to next semester. Still.

So last Tuesday, right after my first paper, I went to Pavilion and watched Angels and Demons on Gold Class to cheer myself up. I walked out of the movie with a massive headache. Big screen + glasses + close distance = very, very bad. The movie was awesome, though. You would have thought I would spend the next day studying for the next paper, which was on Thursday. But no, I loitered in front of the computer the whole day and only went to my notes well after midnight. So after that was done, the next paper was going to be a killer. Fortunately it was to be on a Monday the next week, so I have three days. Good thing I already asked (begged) Caroline to tutor me on the subject. She ended up staying over for two nights and we studied and talked, and ate cakes. The TV was never on, so the biggest distraction was each other. Maybe because there was nobody to talk to her about it, we talked alot about her time in MRSM Kuching. After all, in addition to being neighbors, our schools had a lot in common.

We also gossiped a lot, which was fun hehehehehe. Seriously, I thought I was the only one who thought of such things, but who would have thought! Hahaha! Caroline originally wanted to stay for only one night because she wanted to go to church on Sunday morning. When it was dinner time Saturday I told her her church is so very close to my apartment I'll just drive her there tomorrow morning, she decided it was better to just stay another night. But of course, since we went to bed late that night (morning) she canceled her church visit. I felt kinda bad, but it was because church visit would be very early (7 am) and we went to bed at 3. So...yeah.

Amazingly, we covered more or less half of the topics together. Which was sufficient, really, because when I sat for the paper yesterday, the questions were so short, people were leaving the exam hall fifteen minutes into the second hour!

However, the last paper today really devastated me. I seriously felt like castrating that bangla lecturer for giving such misleading tips. And I fell for it! But anyway, I was so sleepy during the test I don't know why. I slept for 5 hours, which was more than what most people get the eve of an exam, yet I was still tired. Somehow I managed the drive home, using the middle lane this time. But when I reached KL it was still so early, and Night at the Museum 2 had started showing last week. So what to do?

I had to go to Pavilion! All plans for a nap abandoned, I instead, bought a ticket to the movie, regular class this time, which sat me in the middle of mooshy couples left right and center. The couple to the left is actually just a couple of guys. Still, they came in twos.

That was a seriously good movie. I mean, the night guard turned businessman. A person after my own heart xD. I can't complain. Not all sequels are made equal, and this one was an awesome sequel. Though I was kinda hoping to see more of Akmunrah. He's hot. xD

No dinner tonight though. I'm tucking in as soon as I finish this tea, (and preferably flush it out of my system).

Ta'ra!

p/s I'm not in a Super Junior phase. I caught the song Sorry Sorry on MTV and find it awfully catchy. Moreover, I saw how fun it looked like when they were dancing in the PV. I'm envious because it looked so fun. And no, you may not look forward to me looking up their profiles and getting to know each of them by nickname. I just seriously want to have fun.

Candy-Colored Secret

2009-05-18T00:37:00.002+08:00

Is where I have moved all my English cotton-related activities. Please come visit. Hehehehehehehe.

Candy-Colored Secret indeed!

Ta'ra!

Aaah~ Real Life

2009-05-14T19:37:00.005+08:00

I'm still selling those cotton by the way, but since this is not a business blog, I won't be mentioning as aggressively as I should. I really am not a hard seller. :D Seriously.

Normally you learn all sorts of business theories in school, but this is those theories put to the test. And man, don't they make it sound so much easier on paper. Do this right and this will surely happen. They just forgot to include everything else in between 'do' and 'happen'. A few things I've learned during my short time as a seller:

Cash paid now is better than cash paid later. No arguing this.
You do not question your customers' taste. You are not selling them things.You are selling an image of what the customer sees of themselves.
A sale made is a sale made. It doesn't matter who the sale is made to. And,
Patience is a virtue. Buckets, and buckets loads of it. And also,
Thou shalt not be greedy.

It's just too bad that I am impatient, and may be a little greedy as well. But this is just the beginning, and as the cash slowly trickle in, my spirits are lifted. I hope it's the end of the month soon. Hehehehehehehe.

Ta'ra!

p/s I'm not even attending public unis yet I have their convocation dates for 2009 and the numbers to their student affairs departments. I wonder why? xD

The Merchandise

2009-05-07T17:31:00.003+08:00

English Cotton, RM150/-- 4 meters each. Each piece is a Master Piece, meaning there is only one. So hurry up! If you want more than one for a certain piece, you can ask for a special request. :D Just contact me. I'll be in Kuching soon. Happy shopping!

4 Meters, RM200/-- each. English cotton too, just a fancier make. xD

Ta'ra!

Nek Hah

2009-05-06T04:23:00.005+08:00

Time flies by so fast. Soon it'll be her one-year anniversary, and once again, I am going to miss it due to exams. But that's okay, regardless of where I am, my prayers will always reach her.

They say the only way of knowing if the deceased really entered your dream is by how they do not talk to you. I only dreamt of her once in such a manner, which was two nights after the day she was buried. I don't care what people thinks. I really believed it was her, because she let me kissed her hand and hugged her, which was exactly what I wanted to do as my final respect for her. I immediately woke up crying.

Even now, I still cried each time I think of her. She was so fiercely independent and strong that I never thought of how much time she still had with us until six months before her passing. Luckily I was quick enough to think of getting a video recording of her, somehow knowing deep inside me that it might be the last recording of her alive.

My grandma had been through a lot in her life. Born in the 1920s, she was a first generation Chinese born on Sarawakian soil, after her father migrated here from southern China. Her father was a travelling businessman and was tight friends with my grandma's foster father. She was given to a prominent Malay family presumably to 'tighten their family bonds' and became the first of many children to be adopted into the family later.

Her teenage years were during the Japanese occupation, during which time, given the Japanese soldiers' tendency to claim unwed maidens, my grandma had once been rolled into a mattress to avoid capture. To avoid further complications, she was married at sixteen. She bore nine children, two died at infancy. My dad is the fifth of the remaining seven.

My grandma's real mother apparently passed away when she was very young, and her father got married and had two more children. My grandma's stepsister passed away just one week before she did, and her brother currently resides in Canada. We have no contact with them, except with one of her nephews who attended her funeral. It was a big surprise, but there was no denying the family resemblance.

My grandfather traveled a lot for work during his life, so my grandma was very well-traveled, and loving it. Just let her loose at Jalan TAR and you wouldn't even catch a shadow of her until 7 at night. By which time she would complain of leg aches, only to disappear again, once it was bright enough out. She knows the roads of Singapore and KL better then than I do now.

I really do not like to feel sad each time I think of her, because really, there is nothing sad about the memory of her life. Instead, I try to think of what she would do. I once followed the U69 bus all the way till the end because I was curious. I found out that my grandma did the same thing with the trains in KL. So as you can see, some behaviors are hereditary. Furthermore, when she was driving around in KL, she always kept the gas tank full so she could go around and get lost without worrying. I do that too, but I don't get lost on purpose.

There is really so much I want to do with her, to tell her, and decisions which I really want her opinion on. I was looking forward to introducing my prospective husband to her, and if she disapproves, I was willing to dump him on the spot. I want to ask her what's the best thing to do after I graduate. Should I stay and work in KL or in Kuching? I can imagine what her answer would be, but I really do want to work in Kuching even though the wages are lower. My reason is simple; Sarawakians should stay in Sarawak. After all, your voting rights are there. Why live in a city where you can't vote? Also, I want to be all proud and paranoid like only Sarawakians can be! I don't want to miss anymore family events. I don't want to be branded as 'orang KL' by the family friends. And I think that it's cliche to stay and work in KL after you finish your studies. Seriously.

My grandma once said that if she had the chance, she would go back and get a degree if she could. Each time I see her she would always tell me the same thing: Study hard. Once you have a degree, the sky's the limit. She doesn't want us to become idle housewives, no matter how rich our husbands will be. You have a degree, you can work. You are able to support yourself. Don't be dependent on your husband or anyone else. She had demonstrated independence her whole life. She wanted to instill it in her children and grandchildren. And of course, message well received.

When I was younger, I had a darker complexion. But as I grow older my skin lightened and had on a few occasions, been mistaken for a Chinese (I don't know how that could happen). I credit my Chinese-like features to her. When I realized that I was proud for about a second. Because you know, in Kuching at least half of my friends had Chinese grandmothers (the Chinese liked giving away daughters during that generation apparently), so there was nothing special about me. I mean, look at my aunts and uncles. Out of my dad's six siblings, only two do not have a Chinese-adopted-into-Malay family mother-in-law. Meaning more than half of my cousins are half-Chinese, even though it meant both their parents are halves.

I seriously thought this was a common thing in Malaysia.

That is, until I talked to my lecturer about it.

He thought I was half-Chinese, but I had to explain to him I am only 1/4. My maternal grandfather was an Arab, but a dark-skinned one. Then I went on to say it's nothing special since everyone has a Chinese grandmother. He said why is that? I told him about the old Chinese custom of giving away daughters in favor of sons, and he was shocked. He said it was 'terrible'. How could it be terrible? Well of course, it's not a good thing to just give away your daughter like that, but you know. It's not exactly terrible. If they hadn't, I wouldn't be born. I finally came to the conclusion that such a thing as having Chinese grandmothers was only a common thing in Sarawak. After that, I decided to shut my mouth about the subject. I don't want them to think the Chinese in Sarawak still give daughters away in favor of sons.

But just so we are clear on the subject, there is a high demand for Chinese babies for adoption. Just so you know, all you naughty teenagers out there.

When my grandma found out she was adopted, (it wasn't ourightly apparent, since there were a few other Chinese girls adopted into the family) she was very cool about it. She didn't even bother with her real family because her current family was bigger, and more fun. I really think she was way too cool about it. I am curious to know about our Chinese relatives. I don't want to accidentally marry my own cousin.

My grandma was an independent and forward-thinking person. You rarely find an old person who's mindset was so up with the times as her. When I grow old, I want to be exactly like her.

Ta'ra.

Not a Recluse, Really

2009-05-04T23:59:00.002+08:00

Hello.

I really should post up pictures of my birthday celebration at the swanky Tarbush Restaurant at Starhill Gallery. But I'm so lazy!! Thanks to everyone who came! Nothing like good food and great company. Hehehehehe. Man, I had such a drive-a-thon afterwards.

My Japanese class started again for Intermediate 3 last Thursday. Somehow, this feels too routine. The great thing is that I no longer have any assignments. The bad thing is that we were told to re-do our ISP report and presentation because the first one turned out crap. Honestly speaking, I was ashamed to put my name down in that report anyway. But since we are going to do a new industry, I decided to do the Recycling industry for our group. I already put it down. The coordinator sniggered when I wrote it down. Like seriously, what's so funny?? She's so stupid that coordinator. I never liked her anyway.

The tambis which make up 3/5 of our group don't know about it yet. Unless of course they have checked with the coordinator. But they may change it if I don't put my foot down. We can't change groups so too bad for them! I tried, you see. They messed up the report and the presentation. If they insist (given their tambiness) to change industry, then I would insist that no report and presentation gets submitted without passing through my hands first. Not saying that this won't be the rules from now on. Our esteemed dean said we should try to communicate with our group members. Well, this is me communicating. If they say otherwise, then kiss my ass.

So much free time, so many things to do. Sighs. I hate it. I really should exercise more. And get the lights fixed. I learned that in life, unless you make things happen, they won't happen for you. If you wait for people, be prepared to wait forever. So I will get that step ladder and fix the damn lights myself if I have to! It's so dark here I'm getting annoyed!

Oooh yesterday (Sunday) I continued my journey to become a millionaire (legitimately and without any stupid MLM involved). Hehehehehehehehehehe. Just wait for it! It'll be soon!

Now, someone has an interesting picture to show me. I so want to check it out.

Ta'ra!

p/s:I know, Watashiwa-san, it's hard finding something as awesome as me. In fact, it's darned near impossible! But don't give up!

Happy Birthday To MEEE!

2009-04-24T00:45:00.007+08:00

22! It finally happened! Thank you to all of you who wished me happy birthday! I never thought I'd get so much SMSes. I seriously don't, being the social recluse I am. So thank you. :'>

The day of the birthday itself, (April 22nd, 2009, Wednesday) I had an assignment due and class, so I wasn't looking forward to anything fun. But I decided I don't wanna spend the rest of the day wandering the malls, so I bought cake and looked for company. Mary cooked dinner for me when I came over with cake.

It's a Royal Choice chocolate cake. Vety unlike me, isn't it? I won't be having cheesecake this year, since Khaye and Mary can't eat cheese (Aren't I thoughtful??). I'll just buy the cheesecake later hehehe.
Someone couldn't stop snapping, that's how weird pictures like this came about.

xD Fun, fun. Thanks Khaye and Mary for hosting. Thanks Caroline for the pressie! :D

When I got home, I went back down again to check my mailbox, and see what was scrunched up in there!!

It actually arrived!

Hahahahaha! Oh Sammy you surprise me!

And look, it even came with a handwritten letter! And in pencil! Hhahahaha! There's no competition who has the better handwriting here XD.

The fridge it went!

So what was the treasure inside?

LOVEHOLIC 2!!!

I've been waiting for it for two months, but it didn't seem to be due on Malaysian shores, so I asked dear Sammy to get it for me. I read it on the same night of course. Aaah, what a perfect ending to a great day! xD

Looking forward to my get together this Saturday. Don't be late!!

Ta'ra!

p/s shi-gatsu ni ju ni nichi ni, ni ju ni sai ni narimashtak!

Decluttering of Mind and House.

2009-04-19T20:02:00.006+08:00

Hello. Before I forgot, a couple of pictures from Penang. This was just in front of the guest house area we stayed in. This building is not it. It's a bistro of the guest house, but I have never actually seen any food there. We're happy here because it was time to go home! whee!

Well, I did say we were going to a wedding.

I went to Putrajaya for a sightseeing tour yesterday, since this is West's first time in KL. He treated all my meals, so it was good hehehehe. I brought Khaye and Mary along for the ride.

It was a hot day, too.

We had some drinks afterwards before going back to Puchong. West and I had dinner at Burger King KLCC, later tea at Dome Lot 10 (Yes, Totchi, the same one). While we were at KLCC I just had to buy a Junjou Romantica anime illustration book. I had to you see. The incredible thing was, the book on itself cost 69.60, but it had a 20% off tag for a purchase of anything else. I had forgotten about it when I grabbed a magazine from the rack, and a small letter set. The final total? 69.70!!! Only 10 cent more than what the book originally cost, plus a magazine and a letter set! I love savings! Don't you?? XD

In the process I found what I want to do for my thesis. It finally clicked inside me. I'm happy ^_^.

Today I originally planned to do my assignment, homework, and clean the house. But last night, as I was going to bed, I found got a nagging to go to Amcorp Mall to get some English cotton for raya. But I also found out that Junjou Romantica 9 were released (supposedly) April 1st and I forgot all about it! And it's already the 19th! So I had to go and check it out first. Dissapointingly, it was not there yet, as usual. I'll check back in a few days. But I didn't go to Amcorp Mall. The nagging feeling had gone. I'll go on Tuesday or something. Even if I am not cleaning today, I shall do some de-cluttering. Indeed, less is more.

Ta'ra!

Farewell Party

2009-04-19T17:20:00.007+08:00

Last Friday we had a class farewell party. It was held at a friend's apartment at good ol Sutramas. This is the cake I brought. Which turned out to be one of three cakes of the night. But of course, since I was the one who said I will bring the official cake, it was the prettiest and tatsiest xD. Seriously, my cake was gone by the end of the night. I didn't know dark chocolate cake was that good. I thought if it was that good, I might order one for my birthday. The official cake, that is, since some of my guests can't eat cheese. Sighs. The party was a potluck event, so people brought food as they come. But some people put their money together and got tomato rice (which was nice, btw) and some chicken. Chicken was the only meat we all agreed on. Of couse, there were lots of picture taking in the middle of the eating. Seriously. I couldn't very much enjoyed my food like that you know.

We played games too. This one where I had to act out a scene where I caught my husband cheating on me with another girl. Caroline played my husband, btw XD. The guy, Ahmad (who, after two girls had to leave early, were sitting in as one of the girls) plays the 'other girl' of course.
And yeah...who would want to argue with a girl like that anyway? I mean look at his - her hair! Good fun all around. After that, when he got a turn, he had to 'dance like a snake'. He said to pardon him since he has never seen a snake before, since he's from Maldives. But he was funny as heck! Was a fun night. We ended the party with a gift exchange ceremony. We all had to bring a gift to exchange with people, depending on the name we got.
My camera ran out of battery before it got to my turn.

This guy is quite kesian. He got a musical jewellry box hahahaha. But he could always use it for his own colection of jewelry hehehehehe. I got a picture frame (very expected) but I gave a bath towel and well, it was nice and practical and long lasting and most importantly, easy to pack! Since everyone moves away soon.

I made my way home at five past midnight. No traffic along the way, that is until I got to Bukit Bintang. Friday night, after all. But, fun party. Liked the fun, don't miss the people. XD
Ta'ra!
Ps I'm watching Mulan in Spanish. Hilarity.

Of Mileage and Homeworks

2009-04-09T13:28:00.005+08:00

I woke up feeling pretty good today. I finished (most) of my accumulated Shukudai for my Japanese class tonight last night so until my friends' assignment parts arrive later tonight, I pretty much have nothing to do but relax.

...Not!

I woke up feeling good because now I have time to do chores. My dad and bro are coming back from Thailand tomorrow and I have to somehow clean up a little. I don't like cleaning up on a weekday because I'm busy, but at least I could iron his shirt and fold some laundry, which has been accumulating too. At the same time I have to refill Kurohime today because her mileage is less than 9km and the orange light at the E side of the tank meter had light up. I wanted to fill her up as I was going through Bangsar yesterday but I missed the very well hidden Shell station along the way. And now guess what I'm doing. That's right! Look up petrol station locations online!

They are sorted by postcodes, and of course, there isn't one directly in the area. I looked at nearby postcodes and the closest ones are in Brickfields. But if I go through Pudu there is a Petronas long before I reach KL Sentral (postcode unknown). I will definitely go there some time today, after I fold some laundry. At this rate, Kurohime would die out before I even get outside of KL. I am partial towards Shell because I can swipe my credit card and fill er up full. And somehow Shell gives more mileage. I don't know. I'm Sarawakian. I can't not be partial towards Shell.

Our Monday class has reached it's final class because our lecturer wants to go to Canada to watch the Avril Lavigne concert. He's...not young, is fat and nerdy. Judge by yourself.

I always felt kinda guilty for not submitting my shukudais class after class. Sensei doesn't say it, but I know she keeps tabs on submitted homework. She used to ask me about my unsubmitted shukudais but not anymore, because I will always eventually submit them altogether. I kinda like keeping those shukudais as exam practice questions, because I tend to forget what we learned earlier in the course :D.

Anyway, I need to put up a listof things to be done in the week. I should write it in Japanese, cause it's annoying having people know what you're up to the rest of the week.

I bought a new cup at the newly-opened Daiso in IOI Mall. It's nice xD. All round and flat.

And it holds 1/2 cup more tea than my usual pink cup.

Ta'ra!

Tambi, Tambi

2009-04-07T14:30:00.002+08:00

Tambies will be the death of me, I'm sure. I had the most disasterous presentation yesterday- even more traumatizing than the marketing group assignment I had in Swinburne. I hate it when these things happen because I have no control over the group and the assignment's content. I am a perfectionist when it comes to my assignments. If I the group leader, have no total comprehension of the whole assignment, I would not like me to be leader too. I have been leader to all my groups ever since I started university life, and it has become second nature to me. Yet I wonder if it made me a control freak. So far those people who have complained about me being 'autocratic' are those idiots who are clueless about their own material, who settled for the mediocre just to get the job done.

I do not like mediocrity. I want greatness.

When I lead, my principle is that people are not stupid. Those who do not perform are just plain lazy. They will give you a whole barrel of excuses, but the bottom line is the same: lazyness and a lack of commitment. I smite them down and put them in their place. Needless to say, I don't tolerate nonsense in my group.

That is not to say that I will not concede to another's lead. Like I did with this group of tambies, which is set for disaster from the get-go. Tambies, if you hadn't had the chance to meet this peculiar set of creatures, have certain prevailing characteristics and traits that you will encounter in each and every one of them.

Firstly, they like to hear themselves talk. That means it doesn't matter if you are right or wrong. They are always right, and only they have the right to speak at any and all time. Speaking all over you is a normal thing for them to do, because whatever you say if of less importance compared to everything that comes out of the mouth. Mind you, their words are often accompanied by a very unpleasant smell.

Secondly, they have an inferiority complex that they will not admit to, therefore will never tell you. They know dark skin is not pretty, so they want to be lighter. I could safely say they are the biggest consumer of every whitening/lightening products available in the market!

And so on and so forth. What better way to illustrate stupidity than by a story right?

So last Friday I was suddenly informed that I need to 'slide' my part of the report for a presentation next Monday, and that I need to either give it to her today or tomorrow night. I told her tomorrow night because I was not going to let some Tambie order me around as she pleases. So I did my slides. They were a little wordy, so I shortened them, and put pictures in every slide. Relevant pictures of course, because pictures are nice. I always appreciate it when my group members decorate their slides too. So I passed it up Friday night at her urging. Caroline told me earlier how she was hurried by constant SMS by the Tambi wanting it right that minute, which was Thursday night. Funny how they were lenient with me, I thought. But since Tambies are stupid...

So yesterday I skipped the morning class because I wanted to sleep in. At 12 pm Caroline went to look for the Tambies and found them still doing their slides in the library! WHATTHEFUCK! They rushed us to do our slides early yet they haven't even done their part!? See how hypocritical Tambies are!? And yet they told Caroline they were worried about me not being eloquent enough!? Not to boast, but I am more proficient than all of you Tambies put together! And even then you wouldn't even be halfway there!

Grrr I was even madder when I found out that they redid the slides, my slides, took out my pictures and left only bare text over a dull grey background. And the stupid fat Tambi had no other explanation than "we took it out" and it wasn't 'it' it was 'them' because I had at least five pictures in there!! After I saw the whole presentation I realize the reason they took out my pictures was probably because they didn't have pictures. Therefore to disguise their inferiority, they bastardized my work!!

But of course at the end of the whole presentation the stupid Datuk Tambi praised her part for the pictures and diagrams!! Yes, I wanted that praise! I never present something I was not proud of, and I was certainly not proud of what I presented - because they were not what I originally made!

And before you yell at me about how slides should be uniformed, it was! Even with my pictures they were still uniformed! Why can't my part be a little more interesting than theirs!? Why must mine be as boring and plain as theirs?! RAWR! I will crush them in the next presentation, I swear!!

After that I was so depressed I went and hung out with Khaye instead, where I stayed until midnight. I was feeling so much better after that, and for the fact that I wont have to deal with them in the next module because it's individual. Fuck you Tambies.

Ta'ra!

I hate Tambies

2009-04-03T23:51:00.004+08:00

Tambies should just admit they are stupid when they are. I am being forced to 'join' their group even though the proper term is combine with their group and now they are gloating all over with their palgiarized copy paste part of the stupid report that I had to pay two fucking ringgit fourteen cent for (printing and binding charges, divided by 5)!!

RAWR! I HATE TAMBIES AND STUPID PEOPLE! I HATE IT EVEN MORE WHEN THEY ARE BOTH, COMBINED!!!

When I am right, I am right! There's no contest about it. I used common sense, something tambies apparently lack in their genes. And I'm not even boasting. Good GOD I HATE TAMBIES!

RAWR!

Yeah, So?

2009-04-02T00:21:00.002+08:00

I like it when other people are miserable. Especially people I mentally thought to be superior than me. Superior in a variety of ways. I have an inferiority complex, okay?

It's a bit late to be excited about, but I finally made my first online payment! Yay me! Celcom operators have been nagging me to pay my outstanding postpaid bills on my second account. The problem is, the billing address is my Kuching home, so I am oblivious to it. And besides, I kinda assumed it would be swept along with the other bills but apparently it didn't. Sighs...Miss Tan is a very prudent secretary indeed.

But since my credit card bill is among the one that gets swept along automatically, I charge it to my credit card instead. We do this often. Charge bills to credit cards so they get paid together in one bill. Not reccomended for everyone.

Anyway! I was in Penang over the weekend to attend a wedding. Daddyo was feeling nostalgic that's how we ended up at the USM guest house. I have nothing positive to say about the guest house except that it has nice tiles in the bathroom. Everything in the room screams 1970s from the bed, to the TV (which was less than 15"), the smell and the rattan furnishings. Only the bathroom was new, except for the door which was some fake wood material. From now on, I don't care what people say about lodging should be as cheap as possible, and that comfort is a luxury. Bullshit! I want my room cheap and comfortable! Damn the rest!

Rawr!

I was so wary of that room I couldnt sleep when I was alone. It was a good thing my sisters came along. Bad memories, that room.

I will post up pictures later. The wedding was kind of nice. When Earth Hour hits, we were at Gurney Drive, and it was raining. So can you imagine we were sitting in the dark, in the rain, eating. I suppose I should applaude those hawkers for the support to Earth Hour, but really...

But of course, I did my part too, since all the switches in our room had to be manually clicked off. :D

Just as I was about to make some positive on the mountain goat, I swear he was protected by some mountain deity, because the very same day, I was suddenly hit with a fever. Not really sure what the cause was, but it was pretty bad. I didn't have food in the house so I couldnt take medicine, and when I called for delivery, they couldn't deliver because the Bukit Bintang area was rained in. See? It must be the work of some mountain deity.

Sighs. And now I have flu. I will shower, then pray, take my meds and indulge in porn while the meds kick in.

Ta'ra!