Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Boo!

I thought that it would be nice if i could write a nice, scary story that'll give the bravest person the creeps... instead I chose to select a few stories I've heard throughout these years. Are they true, or made up from the remnants of over active imagination? No one knows... (insert scary music here)

Fact is I wanted to do a halloween decor for my blog. Alas, my knowledge on HTML is not good enough to do some tweaking to the template... Enjoy!


1. Aminah
Location: Selangor, Malaysia
Aminah is the name we fondly gave to our resident workplace ghost. No one has ever gone near enough to know if it's a woman or man. We suspect she's a female due to her long and black flowy hair. She haunts the utility room and comes out after 7pm and scares the people who go up to the 2nd floor.

2. The toilet ghost
Location: A toilet in a girl's secondary school
The middle mirror of this toilet is broken. Legends tell us that girls who have looked into the mirror end up seeing a face which is not their own (that is before one smart person broke the mirror) Another tale tells of girl going into the toilet stall, but takes forever in there, and when you look underneath, there'll be no legs.

3. The page turner
Location: A girls dorm room in a university in KL
Two girls share a room, and one studies during the day, and another studies at night. So, one night when girl A was studying, and girl B was sleeping, girl B heard the sound of pages being feverishly turned. She opened her eyes and saw a ghost wildly turning the pages of her book on her desk, and another ghost looking at her by the side of her bed

4. The screaming figure
Location: A boys toilet in a school in Ipoh, Perak
Apparently, there's a figure drawn on the floor of the toilet in this school. And if your pour lime juice over the drawn part of the body, it gives a scream. I really hope that this is a joke...

5. The kiasu ghost
Location: Girls dormitory block, 2nd floor, at a varsity in Johore
There was once a student who performed well at school, but when he (the block was formerly a boy's block) started studying in varsity, he didn't get a perfect score of 4.0 for his CGPA and therefore killed himself in the room. He apparently haunts the room, and does not allow the new students who inhabit the room to move his ex-furniture around (the furniture actually belongs to the university)

6. Household noises
Location: A house in Taiping, Perak (my mom's maiden house)
The house is quite large and set in a slightly isolated area. When mom and the grandparents slept at night, they used to hear sounds of people washing clothes, children playing, etc.

7. Help me!
Location: Unknown
This is a story of a boy in another big 3 story house. They usually have the top floor rooms empty because the family is quite small, and no one wants to rent those rooms. However, one night, they had a function in the house, and all the relatives slept over (this was in the 60's) and this poor boy was sent to sleep upstairs. While he was sleeping, he was woken up by a little boy tied in chains who was begging him to help him get free.

Monday, October 30, 2006

9 WEIRD THINGS AND ME: A MEME

I got tagged by Silversabre where I'm supposed to list down 9 weird things about myself...

1. My (real) middle name:
The parents were not just happy giving me a first name, but they had to have a middle name for me too. This name was the butt of numerous jokes and caused some confusion when it came to ethnicity (there are tonnes of different ethnicities here in Malaysia, therefore everyone's curious about a person's particular ethnicity)The weird part is now, when I'm all grown up and people have stopped making fun of my name, I'm starting to quite like it :)

2. Where do I go from here?
My sense of direction sucks big time, even in my own hometown. It gets worse when there are roundabouts....

3. Reading:
When I was about 9, my parents got me a second hand encyclopaedia (20 volumes) and I sat down and read almost all the entries (except the long winded ones about wars) for the next few years.. In the end, I ended up walking around with all these trivia in my head. Some close friends thought that was weird.

4. Rapunzel's braid
My hair used to be rather straight when I was in secondary school. Then I chopped it off and opted for a short do for a few years. Now that I'm growing it out again, it's not straight anymore

5. On fruit
I don't eat fruits, except for watermelons. I can't stand the smell of certain fruits, and the taste of many others. Sometimes, I run away from the place where everyone else is having fruit. A lot of family members think this as weird as they all eat fruits all the time.

6. Language barrier
I grew up speaking English as a first language at home, then started on the Malaysian language in preschool. Somehow, I rarely heard people speaking in my mother tongue, and never caught up with it. In school, I enrolled for class, and managed to remember all the flowly lines that form the writing, but I still couldn't speak the language properly. I still can't and when I actually do speak the language to one or two people... I end up speaking really slowly with an English accent, but I can read the words and don't know what they mean. Bummer!

7. Memory charms
My memory works in a weird way. I remember most people's birthdays, I remember bits and pieces of conversations, what they wore the last time I saw them,and other rather unnerving things. I also used to remember telephone numbers until I got my cellphone. On the other hand, I am capable of totally forgetting to do certain important things like passing on a phone message. I hereby remind myself to post a scary story tommorow to commemorate Halloween!

8. Water works
I can't drink water from a red bottle, the bottle has to be either white, blue or green. I had a red bottle once, and I used to bring it to work and back again completely filled with water.

9. Work Station mess
I prefer working on a messy work table. Contrary to popular belief, I get more work done at a shorter time that way, and I'm always more enthusiastic. Unfortunately, this habit does not conform with the 5S system we are currently using at work :(

Errr.... I shall tag everyone who reads this (insert evil grin here)

Friday, October 27, 2006

ARE YOU WATCHING CLOSELY ?

It was several years ago when my then roomate casually mentioned to me that I make conclusions far too easily. Actually, I can't remember what she really said, but it was something along those lines. You see, despite us being born in the same month AND us both being pisceans, we were as different as cabbage and peas... Her feet were always firmly rooted to the ground whereas my head could often be found floating in mid air, hovering between pink clouds and orange skies, and the feet weren't so often found on the ground. At times, I'd find myself being roughly pulled down to the ground where I'd fall in a painful heap, but the clouds and the skies are worth it!
What is the connection, you may ask and rightly so... I suppose my intention is to highlight the fact that I do make rough conclusions about the things around me (mostly concerning myself) in a huff... it's interesting while things are on a roll, but it's a big time bummer when the premature conclusions start proving themselves wrong :(
The conclusion this time is: Don't research the movie you're gonna watch, you're sure bound to enjoy it!
It kind of happened twice in a row. Call it good taste, or mere desperation to catch up with movies. Any movies, for that matter.
The other day, we went to catch The Prestige. It was one of those movies where I was clueless about the cast, the story, and whatever else that are important in movies. Hugh Jackman was a really good surprise, and the storyline was unexpectedly awesome, with twists at every turn, a revelation of characters every other scene, as well as you're constantly puzzled as to who's the good guy and who's the bad one... (Naturally I'd assume that Hugh Jackman's character is the good guy - too bad he got his hands dirty!)
Oh well, the movie's really good, but I'm pretty sure that any summarisation will do it justice. And by the way, the 18+ rating for the movie is utter rubbish. Seriously. Another thing that I just remembered is that I'm the same person who once wrote that most of the good movies are in May/June and November/December. Go figure!
Hahahahahaha

Sunday, October 22, 2006

TAGGED!!!

Due to the never exhaustive supply of tags flying around in the blogosphere, I find myself once again succumbing to the pulls of the TAG. I expect that I'm a million light years behind everyone else for this tag, but what the hell...

Silversabre tagged me

1. 5 things I would do if I were a millionaire.

1. Build a gargantuan library (fiction only!) with all the cool titles in the world :D
2. Get a self sufficient house - using minimal resources, environmentally friendly, with a large garden that can sustain birds, and insects and frogs (as long as they don't get inside the house and scare the living daylights out of me)
3. Take a long break from daily routine and go globetrotting around the world... and drop by my favourite artists concerts along the way
4. Fool around with the stock market and do some serious investing at the same time
5. The parents: they would need it


2. 5 bad habits
1. I get annoyed way too easily, resulting in me sometimes saying things I don't mean to
2. I'm awfully quiet at times (typical piscean dreamy mode), and lose track of what others are saying, laughing and talking to myself...
3. I'm a bit obsessive about certain things... it used to be Baba O'reilley, and lately it was Pippi Longstockings
4. Addiction to coffee and blogs
5. Not reading the newspapers everyday

3. 5 things I hate doing.

1. Waking up early in the morning
2. Being the mediator between friends who've had a falling out (Not nice at all!)
3. Going for a group lunch which has AW as part of the group
4. Leaving a great book unfinished just because there are other 'ahem' more important things to do
5. Being dragged into horibbly boring conversations

4. 5 things I would never do.

1. Get involved with drugs
2. Go on a slow sailboat (I did it once and I was dizzy the whole day!)
3. Swim (be it in a swimming pool, or the open sea unless by some miraculous way I suddenly am able to float and swim without any problems)
4. Lose contact with friends on purpose
5. Be in a relationship just because I don't want to be alone

5. 5 Things you regret
1. Not being able to learn any musical instrument(s)
2. Not being confident enough in things I do (insecurity issues)
3. Not finding time to travel much
4. Not doing certain things I should have done
5. Saving this space for the future

6. 5 favorite toys or things.

1. My books
2. My MP3s
3. My car. It's tiny, causes problems at times, but I still love it
4. The little toys in the cabinet - presents from friends through all the years
5. My favourite skirt

7. 5 people I choose to do this.
Anyone else that reads this and hasn't already done it :D

Thursday, October 19, 2006

THE BRAIN THAT QUIT WORKING, ROADS AND FESTIVE PLANS




It's kinda strange how when I was driving to work just now, my mind was filled with (what I assumed was cool) ideas to blog about, but now as I'm seated here waiting for working hours to start, I'm a bit, 'ahem' stumped.

Of course the ideas are still there, but they refuse to fall in place nicely... so unlike a silk curtain.
I remember though that I wanted to write about roads, because I saw one of the ladies (whom I fondly refer to as the daredevil road crossers due to their extremely mind boggling choice of location at the stretch of the road they cross - boy wasn't that a mouthful!) buying nasi lemak off the road side nasi lemak lady.

So there are these 3 ladies whom I see crossing the very dangerous stretch of road just outside my neighbourhood. Trust me, I know that there is a less dangerous spot for them to cross. I was a pedestrian too!

The ladies are fond of huddling at the side of the road that converges from an unofficial 2 lane road to a single lane road. The road is unbeliavably busy, as certain areas are public transport unfriendly. The fact that 2 developing highways at the opposite ends of the road doesn't help much either. Personally, I think that they should give the bus stop area a chance when crossing the road. It's much safer. Really.



The 2nd issue

It's only a few days more before we celebrate 2 major festivals back to back... and I'm excited more so because the customers of the industry I'm in chooses this time to shut down the plants, give them a new coat of sparkling colours, while the overworked folks who are the suppliers (i.e: us) get a shared break too! 1 week! Woo hoo!

I got to thinking about the activities that I might pursue during the said break. A good vacation may not be a good idea this late. Most places are definitely fully booked. Bummer. Maybe I'll contemplate on the topic of the most ambitious project I might or might not undertake.

Most probably I'd be headed to Kl and go window shopping, drop by the bookstores and get a few I've been looking for...enjoy the slow ride via train. Last year the newspapers headlined that KL looked more like a foreign place with loads of people from our very large and kinda scary next door neighbours.I suppose I'll be doing my part as a local by injecting some local flavour into the capital city when it needs it the most :D

Full of maybe's and probabilities, huh?

I guess that's it...

Anyway, I would like to wish Happy Diwali/Deepavali to all who celebrate. Have a rockin good time. Ahem.

And selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, or Eid as it's known to some... Have a rockin good time too!

Friday, October 13, 2006

MEME ATTACK:

I pilfered this off Aunty's blog, entirely voluntarily.

1. You can press a button that will make any one person explode. Who would you blow up?
One only huh? Let's see... O factor

2.You can flip a switch that will wipe any band or musical artist out of existence. Which one will it be?
Pussycat dolls... can't stand them, besides, I'm still sore that they were invited to play here instead of Coldplay

3.Who would you really like to just punch in the face?
This answer is quite mean, as I was once this person's lab partner, and she is a 'member of the gang'... but of late, I've found her to be an excruciatingpain in the ass. So, I figured that if I do let out that punch, the animosity towards her will fly away...

4.What is your favorite cheese?
Due to the lack of variety of cheese available here, I'm forced to choose Cheddar

5.You can only have one kind of sandwich. Every sandwich ingredient known to humankind is at your immediate disposal. What kind will you make?
Turkey sandwich. Every single time

6.You have the opportunity to sleep with the movie celebrity of your choice. We are talking no-strings-attached sex and it can only happen once. Who is the lucky celebrity of your choice? Johnny Depp? But then again i might be intimidated by the whole idea :D

7.You have the opportunity to sleep with the music-celebrity of your choice. Who do you pick?Dan Hawkins from The Darkness.

8. Now that you've slept with two different people in a row, you seem to be having an excellent day because you just came across a hundred-dollar bill on the sidewalk. Holy shit, a hundred bucks! How are you gonna spend it?
US? Australian? Buy more clothes, perhaps

9.You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go?
Italy

10.Upon arrival to the aforementioned location, you get off the plane and discover another hundred-dollar bill. Shit! Now that you are in the new location, what are you gonna do?
Eat all the scrumptious Italian food, visit all the historical places... typical touristy things, what did you expect?

11.An angel appears out of Heaven and offers you a lifetime supply of the alcoholic beverage of your choice. It is...?
Need to get some expert advice on this...

12.Rufus appears out of nowhere with a time-traveling phone booth. You can go anytime in the PAST. What time are you traveling to and what are you going to do when you get there?
Go to my mom right before she gave birth to me, and persuade her to have me several hours later... I was already 4 days late, a few more hours wouldn't have made any difference to her. The reasons are too complicated to be explained here

13.You discover a beautiful island upon which you may build your own society. You make the rules. What is the first rule you put into place?
It's obvious isn't it? Everyone takes orders from me!

14.You have been given the opportunity to create the half-hour TV show of your own design. What is it called and what's the premise?
Save the animals. The contestants are made up of industrial leaders who contribute to pollution, restaurant owners who sell meat of endangered species and so on... and these people will be given assignments (really tough ones) and if they are unable to come up with solutions, their earnings for the day goes to WWF, Greenpeace etc

15.What is your favorite curse word?
ASShole

16.One night you wake up because you heard a noise. You turn on the light to find that you are surrounded by MUMMIES. The mummies aren't really doing anything, they're just standing around your bed. What do you do?
Nothing... go back to sleep, maybe.

17.Your house is on fire, holy shit! You have just enough time to run in there and grab ONE inanimate object. Don't worry, your loved ones and pets have already made it out safely.So what's the item?
ONE cupboard containing all my books. How am I supoosed to run out with that?

18.The Angel of Death has descended upon you. Fortunately, the Angel of Death is pretty cool and in a good mood, and it offers you a half-hour to do whatever you want before you bite it. Whatcha gonna do in that half-hour?
Dye my hair a lurid colour

19.You accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what's even cooler is that they endow you with the super-power of your choice! What's it gonna be?
Speed. Now I'm here, the next minute I'm in Greece :)

20.You can re-live any point of time in your life. The time-span can only be a half-hour, though. What half-hour of your past would you like to experience again?
Half an hour more of the trip to Bali...

21.You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be?
I guess the period of 1st to 7th March 1999. I lost my wallet, with my ID, someone stole my scientific calculator (and I had no $$$ to buy a new one), my glasses gave way (very bad eyesight), there was a horrible C Programming subject that was impossible to do, the theatre final performance clashing with everything else.

22.You got kicked out of the country for being a time-traveling heathen who sleeps with celebrities and has super-powers. But check out this cool shit... you can move to anywhere else in the world! Bitchin'! What country are you going to live in now?
New Zealand?

23.This question still counts, even for those of you who are under age. Check it out. You have been eternally banned from every single bar in the world except for ONE.
Which one is it gonna be?
Once again I shall refer to the alcoholic beverage expert

24.Hopefully you didn't mention this in the super-powers question.... If you did, then we'll just expand on that. Check it out... Suddenly, you have gained the ability to FLOAT!!! Whose house are you going to float to first, and be like "Dude, check it out... I can FLOAT!"?
To make it really impressive, I guess I'd float to my friend who lives the furthest away... yeah,
that's it!

25.The constant absorption of magical moonbeams mixed with the radioactive vegetables you consumed earlier has given you the ability to resurrect the dead famous-person of your choice. So which celebrity will you bring back to life?
Freddie Mercury - we need more of Queen's songs in this world

26.The Celestial Gates of Beyond have opened, much to your surprise because you didn't think such a thing existed. Death appears. As it turns out, Death is actually a pretty cool entity, and happens to be in a fantastic mood. Death offers to return the friend/family-member/person, etc. of your choice to the living world. Who will you bring back?
My grandpa

27.What's your theme song?
I choose not to have one, but WalkAway by Franz Ferdinand has been playing in my head since this morning

Tagging is entirely self service!

Thursday, October 12, 2006

AMAZING THINGS: YET ANOTHER MEME

Thanks to silversabre's obsession with the word amazing (Check out his archives, and you'll know what I mean) I have been tagged with this rather interesting meme about all things amazing... in pictures.

Here's my list in no particular order:

1. Coffee! A great way to start your day!
2. Johnny Depp - Amazing actor, talented, gorgeous and mysterious!

3. Coral reefs - To think that they're actually animals... Amazing, innit? Besides, since I'm teriffied of the ocean depths, it's even more amazing :)

4. Sunsets - Red and orange streaking across the sky - absolutely amazing (and romantic)

5. Ancient architecture - and close friends/family

6. The Aurora Borealis - Because I can't see it in the equator, where I live :(

7. Music: Need I explain more?


PS: My alignment's in a mess... but feel free to tag yourself :D

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

THE ELUSIVE SONG

Dear radio station that refused to play the elusive song....

I have no idea as to what are your ulterior motives for refusing to play the song that I have been curious to find out about.

However, despite your insistence on being mean to me, I managed to rediscover the song once again... no thanks to you, though!

If I recall correctly, you played the song maybe TWICE (while I was tuned in) I checked your website, your playlist, and everything else that I could think of with futile results.

On the other hand, admittedly, it is rather embarassing on my part that the word
everyone /everybody does not exist in the said song. (I'm still at lost as to how the confusion occured in the first place)

Anyway, I thought that you, being the radio station I tune into most of the time, should know about this.

regards,
Terra

John Mayer - Waiting on the World to change

me and all my friends
we're all misunderstood
they say we stand for nothing
and there's no way we ever could
now we see everything that's going wrong with the world
and those who lead it
we just feel like we don't have the means
to rise above and beat it

so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

it's hard to beat the system
when we're standing at a distance
so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change

now if we had the power
to bring our neighbors home from war
they would have never missed a Christmas
no more ribbons on their door
and when you trust your television
what you get is what you got
cause when they own the information,
oh they can bend it all they want

that's why we're waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

it's not that we don't care,
we just know that the fight ain't fair
so we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change
and we're still waiting

waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

one day our generation
is gonna rule the population
so we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting

waiting on the world to change

Saturday, October 07, 2006

OF WORK AND DEATH WISHES: A MEME

Yo peeps! Got tagged for this meme by the wielder of the argentum sword

1) What is the best thing about my workplace?
Errr... I suppose it's the fact that we get a lot of free food for every great accomplishment (just had one fantastic free dinner last night!), plus the friendliness of all the staff is rather heartwarming :)

2) What do I hate about my workplace?
Hate is a pretty strong word... but I could say that it is abominable that we are 'forced' to work late and taking your own designated annual leave is frowned upon. Apparently it's (insert country's name)'s working culture that they have imposed on us just because they are shareholders!

I also can't stand the departmentalised mentality the different departments have. We work in the same company for crying out loud!

3) What small irritants at my workplace really annoys me?
a.Lots.... the extreme cold in the office vs the extreme heat at the factory floor where I spend most of the working day (which strangely makes the bathrooms the only comfortable place to be in )
b. The 'exercise music' in the mornings. Why can't they get a better tune?
c. The smell of solvents wafting around the factory. Got used to it by now, though...

4) Describe the actions/quirks of the weirdest person I work with (can be a co-worker, employer, or a vendor if you are self employed):
There's this chemist at work who is extremely fond of theorising and making deductions on observations... it's not the act but the way he does it. Refer to this post for the full story.

5) What is one thing that I would change at my workplace to make life a helluva lot better?
More trees please!

6) Pick five songs that I'd like played at my funeral......

Que? 5 songs only?
1. The Who - Baba O'reilley
2. Travis - Driftwood
3. Eagle Eye Cherry - Are you still having fun
4. U2 - Stuck in a Moment
5. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
PS: I wouldn't mind if my whole playlist was played at my funeral ;)

Now I tag: Lizza, Ian, Pugly, Prometheus, and Kartik

Friday, October 06, 2006

THE HAZE:

This is my attempt to write something informative... I hope.

Anyway, in my previous post, I wrote a poem about the haze which was unable to capture the haze in it's true form. So I have this post, written as an afterthought...

The haze is an annual occurence in this part of the world, as in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Since I don't follow the newspapers daily, I'm not sure if Thailand is affected or not.

The haze is actually a blanket of dense smog which hovers in the atmosphere. The severity measured in API (air Pollutant index). Last year we reached levels of up to 600 in certain parts around the capital city, which was considered to be extremely hazardous.

The forests in certain parts start burning in the right conditions: dryness and intense heat. I'm assuming that no one in their right mind would go into the depths of the forest and start a fire now, would they? Winds play a contributing factor too... the original place where the fires started in the first place suffers less compared to other places.

In the hazy conditions, the sky looks grey, the sun's rays weak... (we usually have intense sunlight during the day, walking around from 11 am right up to around 6:30 pm is pretty uncomfortable in this heat)Even the sun looks an ominous red. Breathing becomes difficult, people develop sorethroats, suffer from influenza, eyes turn red, and hurt, skin problems arise, etc...

In extreme conditions like last year's haze, people started wearing surgical masks at work or on the road. There was even a talk of declaring an emergency situation.

I've attached a picture here... it's not mine, but from uglymen.net

Thursday, October 05, 2006

LAZY HAZY DAYS

The haze is back,
Just our luck,
Grey skies abound,
All you can see is the ground,
And nothing above a 12 foot rack!

The forest is on fire,
Definitely not burning with desire,
I'm not sure about the peat
But if you think about the heat
It burns the quagmire

A sorethroat has come knocking,
I wear a striped red stocking
Oh! There goes the wind
The sun saying hi from behind
Adieu! I'm going spelunking

A poem to'commemorate' the arrival of haze on our doorsteps.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

PIPPI LONGSTOCKINGS

I can't help it. Pippi Longstockings has been stuck in my mind for at least the past 2 days since I saw Lorelai and Rory watch the movie. Now, I'm compelled to mention it.
I can bet on my safety shoes that if I were ever to walk into a neighbourhood video rental (does such premises exist anymore?) or even the VCD/DVD rental (never seen any thus far) and asked for Pippi Longstockings, the look on the sales clerk will be worth a million dollars (unless they themselves sat down and watched the Gilmore Girls)
Pippi Longstockings!
PS: Ran a search on Pippi Longstockings on Yahoo! and found out that it's actually a book! But DVD's can be rented... hmmm

IT's THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN

Time for the Annual Appraisal again.  It's a cloudy Sunday afternoon, and I had just finished giving scores to my subordinates on their ...