Being straightforward

You know how it is with guys generally lah. Can't really be obscure in your meanings one. Sometimes *nudge nudge* or *wink wink* or lines like, "You know about 'that thing' hor?" cannot penetrate the thick desensitised husk that is Ah Beng's brain. Must be like the brave girl taking her medicine or lancing a boil - deep breathe, close eyes, DOWN! Wanna get the message across, must take the leap.

So we're rather grateful when we got this yesterday. No mistaking the intent.

Grateful for getting a flower and thankful for the straightforward intent so no need to wonder so much what the flower means!

Personal stock take

Looking back and wondering what have we achieved or where are we going:

Our life is aimless.

We have no long-term goals.

Nothing to claim to my name in achievements.

Whoa our life is pretty much worth shitzilch.

Storywriter's Helper

Just starting a new story game with some friends and I thought about this: what to do when you get writer's block? So! Introducing the Storywriter's Helper! Just get a dice and throw and refer to the table below as a matter of some guidance.

Step 1 - Regarding Main Story
1: Introduce a new character
2: Natural disaster
3: New topic/Plot twist!
4: Anonymous encounter
5: Waste time on nonrelated topic
6: Kill someone

This should be simple enough to get you onwards. But if the block is bad, so bad you might want more from the Helper. So from dice roll number one, refer onwards!

Introduce a New Character
1: Sidekick to main character/party
2: Wiseman/Oracle/Elder etc
3: Intelligent animal
4: New villian
5: Family member/Friend of main character/party
6: Return of supposedly-vanquished villian

Natural Disaster
This one actually depends on your story setting. But you could use this as examples or replace them with relevant disasters e.g. Alien Invasion, Bull Stampede. Heck it doesn't have to be a natural disaster.
1: Earthquake
2: Hailstorm
3: Tornado
4: Volcano eruption
5: Flashflood
6: Flashfire

New topic/Plot twist!
I guess if you could somehow incorporate 'New topic - Alien war' into 'Main story - Stone age' then you shouldn't need the Helper in the first place.
1: "Meanwhile, in another part of [insert variable location here], [character] is [verb]..."
2: Reveal a betrayer!
3: "Meanwhile, a secret weapon is being constructed/made at..."
4: Villian kills some unrelated person
5: Someone in the party/close to main character is kidnapped!
6: Totally new unrelated topic that will weave into main story

Anonymous Encounter
Speaks for itself.
1: Ambushed by [insert creature type/class type here]! A fight ensues!
2: Angel/Spirit/Friendly ghost gives advice
3: Damsel in distress
4: Possession by spirit/demon
5: Old friend/family member/member from same homeland appears
6: Neutral [creature type] bars the way

Waste Time on Nonrelated Topic
If you read Douglas Adams or watched Monty Phyton then you probably have some idea of how they can waste time on totally nonrelated topics. For this, look outside your window, or watch some telly, or play some games, and use some of that to help you. Think of it like some sudden cut-scene talking about some other part of the story but has no direct relevance to it.

Kill Someone
Take your pick.

A good long rest

Chinese New Year 2006 is a lovely one: falling on the weekend, public holidays are then pushed forward till Thursday due to Federal Day on Wednesday, and most people (some compulsory tho) taking Friday off...that's a very long week for holidays man! Count it! 9 days!

During this whole CNY hols, there was a 'feeling' about it that I just couldn't place. Not until last night at Vincent's open house and I was chatting with Randall. The 'feeling' was akin to the same feeling one gets when it's the school holidays! Of course!

Sigh. Not counting the university years la (since uni life was ultra-flexible with variable timetables) it's been 6 years already since a whole bunch of us could enjoy a good long break of 2-4 weeks at the same time. School holidays meant day after day of games and hanging out and doing nonconstructive things with everyone. School holidays meant going for trips with everyone. School holidays meant you had no worries totally.

Flash forward to after the education phase. When you're working, there's no chance of taking more than a week's worth of leave without consequences. Plus, you're taking that leave alone, or with few colleagues/friends. You gotta plan for fun stuff like travelling and such already. No chance of an impromptu get-away-from-it-all.

A: Eh, let's go Singapore tomorrow! Stay for one week! The rest of the gang confirmed woh!
B: You want me to die-ar? Now is our company's peak period! No chance I getting away!

Heh. This kinda 'feeling' (pronounced in that very Chinese way, "fee-LING!") is very rare nowadays. Even when I had my stint as man of leisure (read: jobless) I didn't had this feeling because everyone else was still working. Holidays are meant to be shared together.

Anyways, here's going out to everyone: I hope you'd a good long rest!

Kung Hei Fatt Choy!

Small Goals 1

Browsing today at 1U I found the following:

What is it? Monty Phyton's Spamalot - the soundtrack of their musical. A Monty Phyton Musical! Actually what really caught my attention was the grail picture - I love Monty Phyton and the Holy Grail - and so natural reaction for me was to pick it up and look it through. It's gonna be most likely that I'll enjoy this. Measures of self-control were overridden when it comes to stuff that you know are rare, or know prices won't change anytime soon no matter how long you wait, or worry that once it's gone, it's gone. Unlike the OST for Perhaps Love, which I can always wait until the price drops to something more appealing.

Listened to the musical on the way to (and back from) Klang I just fell in love with it. The same appreciative feeling that I got from The Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables I had with this, although instead of just being immersed totally to the music I had a better time listening to the lyrics. I mean:

LADY
I'll sing it in your face
While we both embrace

BOTH
And then we change the key!

DENNIS
Now we're into E
That's awfully high for me

LADY
But everyone can see
We should have stayed in D

BOTH
For this is our song that goes like this

...that goes on until...

LADY
I can't believe there's more

DENNIS
It's far too long I'm sure

LADY
That's the trouble with this song
It goes on and on and on

BOTH
For this is our song that is too long

Or another song example!

LADY
Whatever happen to my part?
It was exciting at the start
Now we're half-way through Act Two
And I've had nothing yet to do
I've been off stage for far too long
It's been ages since I had a song

I mean, she's singing about not having a part in the musical! This CD had songs not only from Monty Phyton and the Holy Grail but also from Monty Phyton's Life Of Brian, while some of the other songs while I don't recognize they do sound familiar as if it was a parody of some other popular musical.

Gotta love Monty Phyton. If you ever thought that Terry Pratchett was hard to follow, or thought that Douglas Adams was wacky, try Monty Phyton. Lords.

Which brings us to todays title. Having short memory means I've gotta jot down 'small goals' before I forget them or deprioritize them. Small goals are stuff that I can slowly do bit by bit over any amount of time, not really needing a lot of saving up or heavy investment. So some things to jot down and more to add on when I think about them:

DVD Collections
Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings, both Fellowship and Two Towers extended 4-DVD set. I already have The Return of the King and I want the originals for this.
Queer as Folk. Probably not very important, and definitely something I'll only get when I stay out on my own (very controversial after all). Would be nice if I could get the UK version. This one no need originals.
Sailormoon, Sailormoon R, Sailormoon Super S and Sailormoon Sailorstars. I have Sailormoon S already (best season to my opinion) as well as the movie collection, and I have all the episodes for Sailormoon and Sailorstars in Realplayer format so no rush here also.

Plays and Musicals to watch
Monty Phyton's Spamalot!
All Discworld plays! Especially Wyrd Sisters (love Granny Weatherwax!) and Maskerade!

Book Collections
All things Terry Pratchett. This include the entire Discworld series and their other spinoffs like The Science of Discworld etc. Oh must keep an eye on the Discworld maps collection.
Frank Herbert's Dune Messiah. I think that's the only missing book in my collection.
Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple series. The only thing that keeps me from actually making this a priority buy the fact that the books are small, but the price is big.
JK Rowling's Harry Potter: Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets. Started my collection backwards.
Magic: The Gathering: Ravnica series - Ravnica, Guildpact and Dissension.
Once I get my own place and have my own athenaeum I'm definitely looking to expand my range.

Gadgets and Gizmos
I guess next on my list is a digicam so I can be better camwhore. This one can consider a bit of a 'medium goal' actually.
Tetris DS for NDS.
New Super Mario Bros for NDS.
WACOM tablet and stylus? I guess this one is definitely out of reach plus the fact that it's more for professionals than for dabbling in doodling.

WTF I just made a wishlist! It's not a wishlist! Bah who am I fooling. >:P

Random rants

Amazing. It's one of those points when our brain's fizzing like fireworks with many many questions, probably like that of an Izzet mage's mind. And at night. And after we've reached a state of high that's induced alcoholically and/or nicotinically. And worse of all all these thoughts during a shower where it's not possible to jot down the points, where it's forgotten (or lost in further extrapolation) once out of the shower and ready to pen down.

So this time we're gonna blog like how we sometimes hold 'serious' conversations (I think some people will share this view): random jumps to different topic points rather than focusing on a main subject. And how we jump from topic to topic.

How did it start anyway? I guess:

Probably how men's thinking differ from women's. And how we have biased opinions about how the other thinks. Men being more focused and to-the-point, more towards confrontation, thoughts being on self rather than group. Women being more sensitive and caring towards the collective/others and thinking more about the whole than the singular objective. Had thoughts back towards Frank Herbert's Dune series, especially from God Emperor onwards, as to why the Tyrants army of Fish Speakers consisted of women only, and also how only the Bene Gesserit (guild of...for lack of a better word, witches) was the only guild to last throughout the thousands of years without suffering much change. Need to reread the books again to get the key points about that.

Damn I'm getting more sober as the clock ticks away. Can't remember the argument and if it was even valid or not.

Amazing how Frank Herbert can write rather engagingly. His emotionally-detached Bene Gesserit, his logic-dictated Mentats, prescient leaders...how conversation have double meanings etc. Sometimes it does make you open your ears and eyes a bit to what goes on around you. And sometimes it does. Interestingly, two conversations (more like, two replies) of a certain subject told me a different story: their words meant one thing, but the reason why they replied such and how it was phrased told me another. Personally I wasn't offended in the first place but the response made me think, "What was that about?" While I know it's human nature to talk about people (especially discuss about people in their absence) it never really was an issue to me before except this sparked that curious question. Knowing myself, I'll soon forget about it so I won't really put any effort into it.

Speaking of effort. Having no direction in life really leaves us with no point in putting in effort anywhere. A downward spiral of degeneration. Work? Friends? Relationship? Future? Am definitely in a rut. What am I looking forward to? Even I cannot answer that. I may suggest something to myself and my own answer is along the lines of, "Too much effort." Bad. Very bad. Nowadays too many things get the "Too much effort"line from me. Personal self-destruction. A way out? "Too much effort."

Drat. Forgotten some line I thought about regarding infatuation. Can't remember what it was about also. Yeesh. 'How poor the man who discovers all it ever was was infatuation?' I really really cannot remember the exact line but probably around there. And I wasn't thinking of it due to personal applications. It was just a line. Reason I'm feeling chagrined is that I've forgotten the line so soon.

Sleepy. Probably randomly rant more next time and hopefully without the inner editor staring in horror at what I'm typing (he'd already deleted quite a few paragraphs of dead-end nonsense). Not like this one's getting anywhere.

'Live' with Bambi!

Whoa. From minishorts we followed this link. Very interesting but unsure how informative. btw the Catergory 2 bit minishorts blogged about was informative.

http://homepage.mac.com/gillian_tan/iMovieTheater49.html

Food Fiesta!

I find that I should really learn to be a camwhore if I want to do this kind of blogs right. Unfortunately our (pseudo)phonecam cannot do nightshots well as it doesn't have flash. But still.

Last night we tried a new place: Roadhouse Grill at Jalan Ampang. When I get photos I'll post 'em up. Orders varied from T-bone to Ribeye steaks to Filet Mignon to Mixed Seafood Platter to Lamb Chop...whooo. Food was good. There was a bucket of peanuts to while the time away while waiting for food also. Good place, good food. Just a wee bit hard to reach at Jalan Ampang.

Today met up with 'Ward and Pai Lian to lunch at Sakae Sushi. I guess ordering a sushi set wasn't really a good move as most of the sushi were the regular fare...not much in the lines of crabsticks or fish eggs or salmon...but at least the set was more filling compared to grabbing dishes from the tray. To bad we didn't try ordering 'online', mebbe next time. We did torture our tastebuds and palate as we kinda overdid the wasabi. As we left we filled in the Comments Form: can't recall about the gradings, we guess Pai Lian gave good/average ratings in terms of decor etc, but in the 'Others' we filled in 'Not Enough Cute Guys'. And left them Pai Lian's email. Should check with her one day regarding feedback on that.


After sushi we backtracked to this Chocolate Fountain store we saw...very tempting. A stick of choco-covered strawberries: RM3.50. A stick of choco-covered marshmallows: RM2.50. The chocolate orgasm that follows: priceless.


Our suggestion to spend the rest of the time at Borders had it's good and bad points. Undeniably Borders is a good place to hang out. Unfortunately very hard to control the urge to expand our library, especially when 'Ward also buys books. We encourages him to buy he encourages us to buy. And Pai Lian has to go look at books on food. With pictures. Tempting, sinful pictures of ice-cream. We just had to look for a sorta desserts place after that - ended up in Juiceworks for some yummy smoothies. We had a tropical breeze while both 'Ward and Pai Lian decided to *eat sheet*.


After watching Memoirs of a Geisha we decided to stop by Charms for nibbles (and dinner for njapf). Their Carrot Cake is good, the Fried Wantons were wonderful and the Pineapple Fried Rice came in a pineapple! (No photos to tempt tho' T_T)


After nibbles the family dinner was up! Jake's Charbroil Steak restaurant! Oysters and escargots seem to be our family regular's appetizer where available. Yum. Had me second Garlic Steak and tortured my tastebuds and palate again, this time with mustard.

And so ends our culinary capers.

Learn something new

Yesterday we learned:

• There's only a 1 day returns policy on Padini shirts bought at Jusco Dept stores
• Where to report our lost parking tickets at 1 Utama
• Lost parking tickets cost RM20 now at 1U
• TGIF's make people stand on chairs and give speeches before they sing songs for you
• Making speeches still give me the jitters
• Karaoke sessions need some 3 hours or more to cover most of the songs the majority likes
• We can't sing the default pitch given without doing some falsetto
• Things can only get better

Lazyman's Wrapping 101

We picked up a new trick for wrapping while shopping at MidValley. This be good for wrapping articles of clothing.

Requires:
Tissue-type wrapping paper
String

Place present diagonally on wrapping tissue, front side facing downwards in the middle. Size of present should be roughly 1/3 that of wrapper.

Fold each corner towards the centre. Tissue wrappers have an advantage in that crease lines don't show so you can adjust till you get it right. If the corners fold over to the front, fold backwards and inwards at the edge.

Voila. Then tie up with string. Simple, no?

The Zen of ensuring minimal stress

To ensure stress does not ruin the day even before it begins, one must prepare one's path to work.
For less stress, one prefers to drive to work than commute as it takes less time and one is in control.
For this, the choice for one: 1) should one spend 20 minutes looking for parking space at Kelana Jaya LRT Station before proceeding to take a 45-minute trip to KLCC; or 2) should one drive 20 minutes to KL Sentral and park there before taking a under-10-minute trip to KLCC.
To choose, one thinks: "One is able to claim expenses for working in such a faraway branch, as was dictated by one's contract."
And such is that one has already minimised stress in THREE ways: one does not have to leave earlier to work; one does not have to waste time commuting; and one does not have to worry about expensive parking fees nor mileage nor tolls.

At work, one found out that one did not fully prepare oneself for the lunch meditation: one has forgotten to bring one's Book-Of-The-Moment.
To minimise stress one must have a book for the empty moments of lunch.
One decides the only way is for one to visit Kinokuniya - the retail therapy of shopping also reduces stress and increases happiness.
One decided on a major stress-reducing capable book: Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones' Diary.
See, stress again minimised TREBLY: one has new book; one's lunch is complete; and one did good positive shopping.

During work, one is happy to be able to 'wash one's eyes' as it leads to inner happiness and serenity: the 'quality' of customers in KLCC seen in one day equaled that which one had seen in ALL other branches in ONE YEAR.
One must realise what is meant by 'quality' may differ for different individuals, quite misunderstanding, but so long that the 'quality' looked for reduces stress in one, one is happy.
One also saw 2 happy couples, which somehow elicit the undiplomatic reaction of wanting to laugh within one.
By this, one had no control of how stress was minimised saved by the fortunes of the day.

After work, one must dare the after-work commuters' sardine squash.
One prepares to minimise this part of stress - newly-purchased book in hand, iPod plugged in and bags positioned to cushion one from crowd.
However, new challenge appears to stress one!
"Sila ambil perhatian tuan-tuan dan puan-puan: terdapat masalah di stesen Masjid Jamek, oleh itu kita akan bergerak dengan lebih perlahan-lahan dan berhenti untuk lebih lama di setiap stesen."
One is faced with new choices while one is pushed around by the LRT crowd: does one focus on book or does one watch a podcast, perhaps one like Happy Tree Friends?
Both options provided stress minimization in such an evil situation and so both one did as one desired.

As one prepared for the drive home one now faces the final challenge: the traffic jams at Jalan Damansara and past Plaza Tol Damansara.
One has preparations to minimise the stress of this challenge: Bodyjam 35 music.
One's stress is further minimised by scaring the cars about one by doing the dance moves in one's car to the music.
And stress again is reduced in many ways: time passed much faster with engaging music; dancing makes one happy; risk of accidents reduced with cars worrying for the sake of one.

And one is home.
The penultimate stress-reducing activity is Bodycombat by Calvin.
The ultimate stress-reducing activity is harmonious good dinner.
And the day is done, with minimal stress leading to maximal happiness.

Hopes and Fears

Hopes and fears are something that keep us alive.

I hope for the best but I fear the worse.

Hope allows us to continue living this sometimes dreadful, sometimes wonderful existence. If we hadn't hope, some of us would have jumped off a cliff or similar a long time ago. Imagine going through the drudgery of day-to-day without hope, like walking through a dark tunnel with no light at the end, if there is an end to the tunnel. It's hope that drives one forward:

I should get that bonus/promotion/confirmation by the end of this year!
Someone will come rescue us.
He/She is still single...
Maybe today will be different.
He/She will get better soon...

I hope that things will always remain the same even though I fear that can never be true.

I must say that I tend to live my life partly on a day-to-day basis, I haven't any plans or ambitions for the future. Maybe because part of my life has been handed to me on a plate and I did not question it. But now, life isn't that simple anymore. You could say that 'life sucks once you enter the workforce' but really, life just sucks when you're forced into a change of lifestyle that takes you out of your comfort zone with no aim.

I hope to live simple but I fear its complicated.

I used to be happy with the fact that I was able to stay up all night and take things slowly and leisurely. Now, that's a luxury. Waking up early is mandatory, you've to rush through things everyday, days off are rare and coveted.

And I've to start thinking of the future.

Financing for a car? A house? For retirement? For emergencies? To take holidays? I even have trouble financing my monthly expenditure! And that scares me, because sooner or later there won't be anyone around who can help me. I never really give much thought to anything beyond a month, unless it was a special occasion!

I hope to save enough money to travel by next year but I fear my spending habits make it difficult.

Fear, however, is what keeps us alive instead of blindly rushing into things without care of safety or consequence. It stops us from 'acting now, think later'. Fear for the sake of loved ones, fear of our lives and health, fear of the future...Fear is necessary. But should we let our fears get the better of us? How much fear is good? How do we know our fear isn't actually holding us back from achieving our hopes?

What if this new job I'm applying is worse than my last?
My parents won't approve of him/her/about this.
If I move overseas, I'll be alone...
What if he/she rejects me?
Would this business venture work?
I don't want to get out of bed!

I hope to be happy as a bachelor-for-life but I fear it'll be a rocky road.

I'm a rather shy, timid and tacit person. I don't generally make the first move, and I only show more of myself in the presence of friends. For example, when I go for Bodycombat/Bodyjam alone when the others aren't free I just go through the class as usual but I wouldn't interact with anyone before/after that. Mebbe smile/nod acknowledgement to other regulars, but will only reply if asked, "Where're your other friends?" And then remain in my private cocoon like I do with my lunch breaks during work.

Yeah, it's also my fault because I don't put in any effort to be more sociable. Otherwise I would have probably be much more friendlier with the choir group I was in in Strathclyde. See me, come to practise with my ears plugged in and face stuck in book, join in the singing, and leave after as I came. With the Fencing Club it was my batchmate who did the chatting and I hid in her shadow, joining in conversations occasionally but only with her.

My fault because I fear the effort needed to be sociable. Because I fear my approach isn't correct for building friendships but only acquaintences.

I hope I'm still able to remain aloof but I fear I'm not able to cope without friends anymore.

Now that I'm no longer studying the number of familiar faces has dropped. Thankfully doing my housemanship there was a group of us. And working in a retail pharmacy I met my junior there, along with other pharmacists who were easy to mix with. One thing I suspect difficult when I first tried a sales job was that there wasn't anyone that I could relate to - no one my age mainly or was a pharmacist. Man, I was suppose to be quite independant.

With most friends I don't share much because I fear their reactions (knowing some people). But the quality time spent with my friends now is much better, because with them I am able to be more open. And a part of me actually is afraid about this, because it makes it hard to live without them when they're gone (God forbid anything bad happens). When you've learnt to open up, it's hard to close up and be a recluse again.

I hope to be able to admit some things but I fear rejection.

How would I expect to meet new people, or at times when I contemplate about it, establish a relationship if I dare not make a move? One thing to fear rejection but I dread that it'll lead to a total cut-off. I really let fear control my life on this point. And I cannot move on until it's too late and there is no hope. Then life would move on, with new hopes and fears.

I hope some things were otherwise but I fear that's just wishful thinking.

So. I've been told that I have no backbone, which is true because I let my fears cripple me. How about you?

This is a podcast 3!

My Magic Bean Stalk is getting creepy.

This is a podcast 2!

Whoa. From the hearts-and-arrow symbol to the quote. Worra Magic Bean. Grow big! Reach for the sky!

Scabbed memories 1...

Been rummaging through my piano stool for something other than the Claydermans and classicals and Canon in Ds. And what did I find?

All my old songsheets and exam sheets! The ones from my old church choir days. Just last Christmas the P&W team had sung part of the Celebrate His Glory medley and I was wondering how long ago it's been since I'd heard that song. The medley had most of the advent carols in quite an upbeat tempo.

Another favourite was the God With Us production, originally done by Don Moen (I guess), with our WMCK's Bernard Shim organizing and leading everything. God With Us was big, I mean, BIG. We'd gotten the accompaniment tracks (just background music), we'd plenty o' singers for the SATB, the Praise Team SATB and the Solo singers. *Sigh* Bernard was very much dedicated in serving the Lord, and he did well in music.

Looking back at the songsheets it all just comes flooding back in again. Amazing how you can hear the music by just looking at the notes, all the naunces, the inflections, everybody's parts (having just past puberty I could juggle between tenor and bass then).

I'm gonna hunt down the CDs someday. I think I enjoy Christian songs best as battle hymns (think Cliff Richards' Millennium Prayer).

Then horror struck! Amazing how the brain can edit memories to allow us to continue living life sanely. An excerpt:

Test 8A

(i) To sing or play from memory the lowest part of a short three-part phrase played twice by the examiner. The key-chord and starting note will first be sounded and named, and the pulse indicated...

(ii) To identify the cadence at the end of a further (following) phrase, played twice by the examiner, as perfect, imperfect, interrupted or plagal...

(iii) To identify up to four chords in the above cadential progression, played twice by the examiner, as tonic (root position, first or second inversions), supertonic (root position or first inversion), subdominant (root position), dominant (root position, first or second inversions), dominant seventh (root position), or submediant (root position). Candidates may alternatively use the equivalent roman notation...

OMG ask me now I sure flunk straightaway man. Can't begin to wonder how in the world I managed to pass my Grade 8 (the second time). After all I didn't appreciate all this in my younger years. Thankfully I was allowed to drop my Music Theory at Grade 6. Even looking at the Sight-Reading sheets give me the shudders.

Still, nowadays I think my practical music level has dropped waaay below Grade 6. My best is still my hymnals (to some extent) and playing simple stuff by ear in G (not C, funnily enough, and not D, which is in vocal range).

Blahblahblah

Murmurs of discontent and puzzlement could be heard rippling throughout the Circles of Hell like raindrops on a lake. From the lowest imp to the Dukes of Hell, all wondered why the Prince himself allowed such to go on.

And so Beezlebub asked of Satan:

"What be thine reasoning that the peoples of the Earth be allowed to walk untainted? Surely our mission, nay our very being, against divine right, be to darken the hearts of men and bend their minds to acts of sin? All Hell is puzzled by thine order to quit the temptation and corruption of men and returneth to Pandemonium at speed."

And Satan replied:

"You could start speaking a bit more modern, you know."

"Thine chastenment doth answer not mine question, Lord."

"I want humans to start doing good."

"!" Beezlebub cursed, causing the air around him to turn into something unpleasant. His face squirmed at the thought.

"In the long run you will find that humans, in all their good works, will build their bridge to us. All we need do is wait. There is no need for Armageddon even!"

"I confess that thine logic be difficult to comprehend."

"Wait, and see."

***

And surely enough, in a small matter of time, a road to Hell was paved without the help of evil. Imps fluttered about Pandemonium, demons harassed lost souls already in Hell, the Dukes thought of other classical Grecian tortures, all denizens of Hell were bored and yet...souls were pouring in. Most came rolling down the road, while others still fell from Earth above (none fell from Above anymore however).

And Beezlebub spoke with awe to Satan:

"Lord, how be this?"

And the Prince of Hell told him.

And Beezlebub went to look at the road to Hell.

And he said, "Truely, the Road to Hell is paved with good intentions..."

***

All right. That was stupid. Prolly I'm bored.

ay-cee's recipes for the colds

This is mine personal concoction for when I'm sick. Not necessary to work with others but feel free to improvise.

The medication:
Tripolidine/Pseudoephidrine (Actifed) i/i tds-qid
Paracetamol (Panadol) ii/ii qid
Ambroxol (Mucosolvan) ii/ii bd
Guaphenesin (Woods Peppermint) 10ml prn
Effervescent ascorbic acid (Redoxon) 1000mg od

The self-pampering:
Manuka Honey with lemon slice as much as you like
Tea (no milk) of various flavours
Milo (no milk)
Horlicks (no milk)
Chocolates of various varieties
McDonald's soft serve vanilla ice cream cone
Kumquats as one likes

Of course, this is just a generalization! 'Farmists' and 'Lokters' should know better. Others ask your 'farmist' friends or 'lokter' friends. Even for items under self-pampering.

NB. In no way am I endorsing any of the brands I bracketed above, I'm just giving an example.

This is a podcast!

My Magic Bean Stalk loves me.

I would like...

For the upcoming celebrations, I was thinking if I would like a duck.



Nah. Mebbe not. Quite misunderstanding.

Free endorsement - njapf cookies!

We are here today to proudly say that we are part of njapf's guinea pigs official cookie tasters and can say that YUM! Why oh why did we not visit C1-6-6 (noooo not very familiar then) James Blyth Court Block J9 to learn more cookery secrets? Reason very clear lah I shy of C1-6-6. Only went to JBC Blk J7 to have Adeline and Pai Lian teach me frozen cheese cake (which I had to share with everyone whom I borrowed materials etc).

Sigh must wait till I move out on my own before I ever experiment with terrors of the kitchen. Until then shall terrorrize njapf for more cookies!

Escape plan

My sis gave me this as part of my Christmas prez.

Ooo! An escape from it all! Should life ever get me down all I'll have to do is to climb away! And I didn't even had to take our cow to the market to sell. Must plant it now then.

Removed scupper and opened tin as directed. Whooo don't even need own pot and earth.

Next to slowly and evenly water into the tin till surplus water flow out of the scupper. Also told to 'water once every 2-3 days, keeping the material moisture'. The box says that the components are 'seeds, culture medium, long-effect slow release fertilizer'. Looks like rabbit litter to me.

Now to sit out by the window to get sufficient sunglight and fresh air. Errr. Toilet window though, not too sure about the fresh air bit, but window is open and there are good breezes!

Now we waits for our magical beanstalk to grow and take us away to faraway lands amongst the clouds! Goodbye cruel world!

Detachment...

Had hoped to be able to work in a 'detached from life' attitude today and tried not to let depressing orphan song affect work - until a customer's phone rang, with A Kiss To Build A Dream On (first song to begin our downhill depressing slide) as the ringtone!

Immediately slumped as if I had no backbone. Right. Needed to perk self up again:

This time it's Coffee Bean for our cave time. Earl Gray (minus the regular honey stick), Banana Cake slice, Book-of-the-Moment and iPod.

Result? Back to detachment.

Or overdetachment. Had surge of inane thinking that normally makes sense after many many bottles of thirst-quenching drinks or a few puffs of some illegal herbage.

All people have music in their lives!

All carry different genres. Some have more, some have less. Some people let out this music by song - they are composers and musicians and singers. Some let the music out in art - they are artists. Some let it out in words - they are authors and writers. Some let it out in stone - they are sculpters. Some people have music like that of a scratched CD - they are the chaotic misfits.

The music tells your character. So people with the same music resonates better? Those that don't cancel each other out? So that makes us all walking iPods?

Nah. *Smacks self at silly thinking*

Many faces of ay-cee

ay-cee's mood is: Despairing

And the song that won depressing song for the night: 'Nobody's Child':

I'm nobody's child
I'm nobody's child
Just like the flowers
I am growing wild
I've got no mammy's kisses
I've got no, no daddy's smile
Nobody wants me
I'm nobody's child

Christmas 2005

It's a tad scary when something like this happens:

"Eh, so what did you do last Christmas?"
"Err..."
*blank look as brain digs through clustered history*
"Dinner with family, I guess."

So I guess better blog about it rather than let it fade...

Sis came back on the 23rd, marking the start of our Movie Marathon. Unfortunately I've been having regular movie meetups that there were few shows that I haven't (nor wanted) to watch. Sis, however, haven't watched anything since HP4 and had that 'die-die must watch something!' attitude that I had to keep telling meself, "Surely the (other) shows can't be that bad..."

Movie line-up: King Kong, Narnia and whatever else they were showing. Ended up we only did 2 shows: A Chinese Tall Story and King Kong. Surprisingly the shows were watchable!

Christmas day had lunch at Coliseum! Andrew and Lieh Men introduced moi to the Sizzling Chateaubriand (their Christmas set had this item called Mushroom Cappucino Soup but no one tried it). From Wikipedia:

Chateaubriand steak - a large tenderloin steak usually grilled or broiled and
served with a sauce (as béarnaise), named after French author and diplomat
François-René de Chateaubriand.

Coliseum Cafe (est 1921) looks very much like a Wild West Bar and Dine. Moreover, they seem to do with only a bare minimum in decor. That didn't seem to deter the clientele as the place was full. I guess since the place has survived this long due to it's name and food, because the waiters we had were weird. Asides from the slightly deaf and old (est 1921?) Captain Ho, we had an Indian blunt one that enlightened us on working courtesies and a Chinese one that shrugged his shoulders at us when we flagged for the bill.

Imagine lah something like this:
Everyone you know died suddenly and left you to fend on your own in the wild world.
You're lost and unsure of what to do or how to go on.
You ask a passerby, "What am I to do?"
The passerby, sympathetic but unable to help, gives you a pitying look and shrugs.
That was the kind of look and shrug that the waiter gave us!!!

Bye bye Coliseum Cafe.

After lunch we made our way to Sogo to see the waterfall and wonder at the current conditions of their arcades. Amazingly I never realised that Sogo was actually rather small. Probably a better word may be narrow. Probably it's because the last time I ever went there was...was...over 10 years ago? I dunno lah, at least they made up for it by being 8 floors high. First thing we did was stop by the waterfall and throw coins at fishes.


Then we went to bang machines. Bang drum machine. Bang Bishi Bashi machine. But one machine beat me no matter how I banged...

Don't play Dance Dance with leather shoes.

To make the day even better we'd then detoured to the Lake Gardens! Waaaaa....the only Chinese we saw were the joggers. We even found dinosaurs at the Lake Gardens Dinosaur Park.

This herbivore was embarrassingly made from artificial leaves.


The ducks at the Lake Gardens put me in mind of those at The Isle of Wight's Bird Park, but those were train to corner and harrass tourists with small identifiable bags of bird food. If only I had some leftover Chateaubriand sandwich!


The excursion ended with a short trip to A&W's for rootbeer floats, watching horizontal rain and waterfalls from drains.

Christmas night itself was a trip to Uncle Jo's place for dinner! The last time he made dinner he had all the ladies asking him his cooking methods (unorthodox but delicious!). Uncle Jo and been getting a turkey every year from me mum and so me and Sis were expecting something good.

Steamboat. We had steamboat. And I thought 1 Utama's Hallmark selling Chinese New Year cards was already considered a tad fast.

And thus ended the Christmas fun. Must keep track of the days of our lives.

Lifeblog mimicry 2...

Wouldn't it be nice if:

• Malaysia had four seasons.
• Cars were like those in Dragon Ball, where they can be 'capsuled' and kept away when not in use.
• There were no such thing as traffic or tolls.
• You'd get grateful comments from customers everyday, or feel job satisfaction everytime.
• Nokia could make just the perfect phone.
• The days/nights were longer but not the work hours.
• One could get a job posing in Ikea's showrooms? Just to laze around, getting comfy and all doing what one could do at home but with different furniture settings every now and then? And be paid for it?
• You had your own getaway spot whenever you need some timeout or to escape?
• You knew how your life'll all turn out in the future?
• People like us can change?
• We could enjoy life before we're old.
• I could stop missing having a pet to spoil.
• Klang wasn't so far.
• England wasn't on the other end of the world.
• Your life turns out like some love story/rom-com/happily-ever-after fairytale?
• Those important to you knows and can give what you want/need at that particular time?
• I knew what I want out of life?

Wouldn't it be nice if I wasn't a depressive.

Have yourself a very Blessed Christmas...

Lifeblog mimicry 1...

I've been bringing my Nok7650 back to life these past few days, as it's camera is rather much more simpler and quicker for light moments. Good for those antisocialistic times that need recording.


Who doesn't love Ikea? You don't feel like you're in Malaysia, but in your future home...

Meals at Ikea are a sort of escape. Their setting reminds me of Belgium roadside restaurants with people eating mussels, very continental and laid-back. Does not feel like an Asian food court at all. Plus unlimited refills of drinks!


My most regular dish: kung pow chicken, 'refreshing tea ice', and hong kong kailan with either garlic or oyster sauce.

My dinners are mostly at Restaurant OK ever since I've started working at Guardian. It's nearby, meals are good, and am experimenting with different dishes every time I eat there (which would be some twice a week or more). An easier option than eating late at home.


My Book-Of-The-Moment, my Hazelnut Latte (if there's no seasonal drink) and my music (plugged into AC already).

Nothing beats destressing with a cuppa Hazelnut Latte in a comfy couch away from it all. Aided by a light book (a Pratchett) but made a mistake of listening to depressing songs the whole day. Am now gravely depressed in addition to being angry. ladthelad, how in the world can you listen to so many depressing songs!?

Christmas e-card rant

It's already nearly the end of the year. Whoa. Time to send out the e-cards again. Logging on to my regular e-card website (Care2) and I find that I'm sending the same card as last year again (carolling reindeers, singing a lurvely rendition of Canon in D that suddenly takes on a more sinister Green Day note). However, could not think of a decent write-up greeting to include and so decided on cliche greeting.

This is then followed up by the addition of recipients. Must have overloaded it or something: as my address book in particular e-card account is not updated, I manually typed in the email adds of all recipients. Completing the list in half an hour, I send it out only to be told there was an error in sending the e-card.

Oh My Folly Golly What The Fluke Bar Be Que!

Normally my Christmas e-cards end up BELATED! This is the first time I'm sending it early! Aargh am just gonna leave it for another day then. Prolly till after Christmas once more.

Pictionary Pic of the Day!

Pictionary with njapf, her friend and ladthelad at The Curve last night yielded this Pic of the Day!

Your clues: it's ALL PLAY.

By the way, the answer to the last Pic of the Day was Hercules!

Memoirs of a bren-ded boi

Once upon a time, in the faraway land of Arasnamad, there was a palace of wonders called the First Prime. This palace, unlike many others, were totally opened to the public to enter and leave as they like for half a day. Thus, First Prime was always full of merchants and traders, tourists and locals, princes and paupers, entertainers and philosophers, even thieves and pickpockets, all mingling together, all engaged in their private business and errands.

However, hidden in a high minaret in a corner of the palace a dark, dirty business took place. Disguised as a beauty consultant no one realised the evil truth about the shop's actual motive. Only one poor victim managed to escape, scarred but alive. This is his tale.

All the nooks and crannies of First Prime have I explored, most of the regular patrons and merchants are familiar to me. There is no corridor, no balcony, no walkway or garden unknown to me. Until one day I happen to chance upon this corner of the palace. The crowd here is smaller, and oddly enough the atmosphere here felt...quieter. I could see no palace staff as well, no guards, no courtiers, no servants.

People here were suspicious-looking. While all were finely garbed, with elegant cuts in the latest fashion, there was a sense of secrecy amonst them and a furtive look in their eyes. All of them looked young. My curiousity was piqued. I ventured into the minaret where these people were either heading to or from.

What matter of business is being run here that makes people so secretive? Even Mr Argaiv's customer's aren't all that embarassed when doing business with him:

I headed up the minaret.

It was a beauty parlour.

Sassafras' Beauty Consultation. Funny, nothing to be necessary secretive about it. And since I am already here it would be a waste not to have a consultation. Ms Sassafras' scrutinizing made me slightly uncomfortable, as a child would scrutinize an insect before deciding if he would hammer it. I was then told that my hair was unnaturally healthy!

"Your hair, it is not right! Hair must be vibrant! Your hair, it shows your character, your beauty, your vim! Yours does not! It's naturalness must be restored!"

Her forcefulness, I admit, cowed me. I meekly gave in to her suggestions for colouring, a trim and hair treatment.

I was surprised. Her equipment was far unnatural to restore naturalness.The heavy air of unguents and perfume made me heavy. Was lulled into a semi-dazed state before I realised the reason for my feeling slow.


My bren was bein cookd!

Don't Forget To Feed Your Car

Must remember this number: 386. Forgetting this number will result in a black star haunting your day. This is the magic number for our 1st-gen Kembara. After this number, if it's not fed, it'll sulk on you and not move. No amount of coaxing will budge it if you don't feed it before this magic number is reached. Sigh. Here's how we found out about it.

Left for work with time to spare, and the warning lights for 'low petrol' had yet to start blinking. Last thought we had was, "Last time manage to go all the way to 400km before we'd to refuel, should be able to pump up on our way home from work la." Our psychic car must have intercepted that thought because it immediately started *coughing* and dying.

We went, "Gah! No! Please! Just a little bit more!" Despite our coaxing, our Kembara was feeling too thirsty to continue dragging itself to the nearby Shell station. It stranded us nicely first in line at the Leong Yew Koh crossroad traffic lights with the magic number 386.

Oh dear. Found out that we left our phone at home. Anyways, no matter. We know the problem. Thirsty Kembara will not move until fed and watered. Grr. Packed our bags, left the hazard lights a-running, and made the journey to look for Kembara food.

Was lucky enough to get some fella driving a TM truck to drop us off at Lim Tayar. Walked to Shell next door to beg for a bottle so we could feed our Kembara. Once feeding bottle and car food procured, had to walk all the way back to crossroads where car was sulking.

As was going to feed the car, it resolutely kept its mouth shut and didn't want to suckle. Gah. Hunted nearby trees for a long stick and found one! Jammed Kembara's mouth open and force-fed it yummy car juice. After much dribbling Kembara was fed enough to get it moving all the way to Shell, hooray!

Like that was not enough. Went to work about near four-ish, and me calculated that we shouldn't need to take a quick break to move our car to avoid paying an extra 2 bucks for parking. Mana tahu when we went to pay for parking near the end of the day, I still ended up paying RM3! Parking ticket clock-in: 15:43, clock-out: 21:45. Na-beh. Then back in the pharmacy our lab coat snagged the door catch and popped a button. Basket.

So remember: Feed your car or be visited by a black star!

GameCon1 and Boardgames galore!

Hmm. We were here Fri nite for AeonFlux, and went to dine at the 'Blue Drink' fastfood joint aka McD's. Both 'Drew and I had the chicken, his being Spicy and mine original. Take a look:

Spicy is top, original is bottom. Picture quality doesn't shine here but with both varieties side-by-side the original looks like it's sick and have seen better days. Still tastes good tho'.

Look!

Saturday noon and here we are at Midvalley Convention Centre for the GameCon1! Our purpose there: to playtest board games aplenty! 2 Klangite friends were going to buy some board games later on and we were going to continue the board games session at night in Klang. Now, why the hype over board games? Because we aren't talking Monopoly or Pictionary here. We're talking:

World of Warcraft: The Board Game. Weighs some 5kg. Miniatures galore.

Lawks. To be young again. Imagine if you had those 2 weeks' post-exam holidays to actually spend days playing these kinda games and do nothing else. Asides from the front half of Convention Room 1 filled with tablefulls of board games on display, we had (to be expected) Magic: The Gathering and Warhammer 40k.

"Take three." "Bounce." "Sac." "Done." And lots more as Magic players buzz in a world of their own.

Orks RoXoRS!!! W3 l33t 0RkS go1n 2 p@wns you N00Bs! I guess they don't talk like that but hey.

Of the games we'd tried my personal favourite was Carcassonne.

Left the place about 7pm with a splitting headache! Better yet, the day wasn't done. Got home, had dinner and a quick shower and we were down to Klang for more! From 10pm onwards we'd played Puerto Rico and Betrayal at House on the Hill before stopping for mamak at Modern, then went back for Ticket to Ride: Europe. By the time we'd finished that it was 6am and I just had to leave to get back home (and privately regretting not taking Sunday off) while the others continued on for one more game of Puerto Rico (and probably went for bah kut teh before sleeping). Gah! Next time the Klangites are gonna have a board game nite, have to find out if anyone is gonna bunk over at the host's house. If so then I'm definitely gonna make sure I'm not working the day after as well.

Bliss...

Hmm. Ever since we've (re)started working at 1Utama again we're relatively happy about working (well, we guess we mean comparing to the other branches). Why? Because it's 1U? Yes, we suppose. Our second home. This means we don't feel demoralized about working, and kept ourselves working nonstop for an entire week before our batteries flatted out on Thursday the 1st.

Was sniffling like a leaky red-coloured tap, and no amount of antihistamines did jack. Thankfully Fitness First had their annual dinner on said day so we didn't had to drag ourselves to Bodyjam. So, we decide to settle for one of our favourite vices for some quality cave time:

Joy to the world.

Mum mentioned that she wasn't cooking dinner, there wasn't any social obligations planned and so there was no rush to leave our haven. And there we were, snuggled nicely in the comfortable couch's embrace and alternating between massaging our face to relief ourselves of our allergies to playing the Nintendo DS (we've gotten Mario & Luigi 2!) to savouring our Rocky Road (melted to perfection as shown in pic above).

Next thing we knew, once we'd finished our Rocky Road, we were dead to the world. We haven't even touched our Hazelnut Latte yet.

By the time we woke up, one of our foremost thoughts were:

Shyte!!! Past 6 hours or not!

Thankfully in time. But we wouldn't have minded paying extra this time as that time spent in Starbucks powering down was plain worth it.

Note to self: there was a notice at the counter about the opening of 2 more branches: one at Centrepoint (next to visit) and one more at Borders The Curve. Borders? The Curve?