RACONTEUR-ESQUE SCRIBBLINGS

Press Play, and then repeat. And repeat. And repeat. That's what I'm currently doing with the *new Coldplay album. If I thought X&Y was awesome, this one is far more awesomer (if there is such a word!) As you can see, I am rather speechless at the moment and will leave it at that. *It's slightly less than a week old in my hands.

Over 5 months have passed since I went for the Performance Driven Team training which involved a trek in the jungle. I recall posting up anguish filled posts that were related to the issue before and after the training because it did mean a big deal to me. Nevertheless, one final post about it remained in the drafts section of my blog for reasons I cannot remember. A cap and a watch, lying on the floor. It's anybody's guess what could have possibly happened Anyway, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, as I was floating in and out of the different stages of sleep, I found myself dreaming that I was in another outdoor adventure of the same sort, this time with team #5 at the beach, in which someone I sort of know but haven't actually met in real life made a special appearance and was part of the team. Nevertheless, our adventure was far from pleasant as we had to deal with waves that turned into tsunamis. As a self professed hydropobic, that was freaky gila babi ! (L...

When I was a kid of impressionable age (less than 4), my father told me that once time is gone, you'll never get it back. Being the age I was, I cannot remember why he said that, and what was it I was doing that made him think I was wasting my time, but one thing I remember clearly was wondering why he said that. If 4:30 pm of today has passed, there's always tomorrow's 4:30 pm! Silly me... Many years down the road, I began to feel the pinch of lost time in the form of deadlines, where losing sleep to squeeze in activities became a norm (which is where I got my coffee addiction) I have been doing a lot of thinking lately, and the fact that my mind has never been clearer seems to have aided the thinking process and I came up with the conclusion that I had put too much effort into one particular thing last year that every other aspect of my life had been neglected. In the sense of doing what was expected of me (there was too much expectation, by the way), I had neglected li...

Movies and me have mostly been a 'two years later' affair, mostly due to an unfortunate series of not being able to get tickets because of kiasu crowds, or just plain forgetfulness and other such lame excuses. The month of January nevertheless has seen both my sister and I bonding over movies during the weekend, and to date we have gone through about 6 movies. Here's a short review: 1. The Devil Wears Prada: I was advised against watching the movie when it first came out, but I couldn't remember the reason why I was advised as such. Therefore, I never bothered about the movie or the book which I see displayed in the local bookstore I frequently visit. Personally, I thought the story was alright, and it sort of hit a chord with me as the main character seems to spend so much time and has way too much dedication to her work (which I don't think is the healthiest thing ever) which is how my life is at the moment. Overall, I thought the movie was pretty enjoyable (on ...

There's a story about the twelve animals that represent the twelve year cycle in the Chinese calender that I think is cute. Apparently the rat conned the cat into believing that they were supposed to meet up at a different time and date to get picked as the top twelve, which is how the rat emerged as the very first animal in the list, and the cat didn't get a place at all, which is believed to explain the Tom and Jerry-like tendencies we see among cats and rats (Although to be honest, I have never seen any real life cat chasing any real life mouse/rat. Come to think of it, do they really?) Anyway, tomorrow - Monday, all the Chinese people all over the world will usher in the New Year, the year of the Ox - the second animal in the list (The newspapers ran a list of famous Ox, and one of them happens to be President Obama) What I thought was interesting though, is that late Friday evening, after a meeting with the RnD Manager and the GM, I heard the Rnd Manager inform the GM...

They swerve, they skid, they come this close to causing a massive heart attack in even the healthiest person around, and yet they look at you nonchalantly (which is fine by me) or give you the look that clearly says "Are you trying to kill me?" That is the typical scenario of a motor bike rider, or to put it even more accurately, the scenario with a typical Malaysian motor bike rider. I can't speak for others. I don't know if it's just me or if anyone else has noticed it, but it seems as though these bikers don't seem to care for their own lives, and instead hope that the other road users will look out for them and take care of them. I mean, they ride dangerously, beat traffic lights at any given opportunity, swerve in and out around other vehicles, stationary or otherwise, and if something bad happens, they shamelessly place the blame on the other vehicle. What the hell? As a person who drives a car, I am sometimes more terrified of bikers than I am of b...

The "now it's there and now it's not there" feminist in me (although admittedly I've never ever even burnt a bra before, and most likely never will) was torn about putting this up. Nevertheless, it contributed to a series of laughter amidst a series of multitasking including the process of aging a lifetime while waiting for version 8.0.2 of iTunes to download. Here's to more laughter in this world... :D Edit: Clicking on the pictures for a better view is highly recommended :)

To whom it may concern, Interesting innit, how things turned out? Are you wondering what went wrong again? Or are you going to say that you lost because of the 58% of people who refused to exercise their rights? Welcome to the 21st century, the age where people refuse to accept propaganda blindly like those in the 20th century did, which made you think that you were God's gift to mankind, and everyone was so thankful for your existence, the so called stability you provided and the fact that without you, everything that was built all this while will crumble into tiny little pieces. After 50 over years, I'm amazed that you think we are still so gullible as to listen to everything you have to say without looking further. We may be facing a mid-life crisis, but we can get out of it if we deal with this properly. Your scare tactics are passe, dated, whatever. You have lost your relevence, because what you offer is not what we need, much less what we want. So, the voices tha...

It is indeed awkward leaving the blog idle for a few days, and although there are a few things which need to be put up, I just couldn't find the time and opportunity to make them 'sound nice' (in print at least) Therefore, I have decided to bring up something which I posted in December 2006 as my very first Thursday 13 post (credit goes to Travis for this idea), and it discusses 13 things about me in the old days (before 2006, that is) 1. She played table tennis in school 2. She dyed her hair purple once, but since her original hair was very dark, it didn't show except under bright lights. 3. When she was 11 she had a fight with another kid over a green colour pencil. 4. At age 6, she created an imaginary sister whom she fondly named Malboro . She then shared the imaginary sister story with her real sister who believed every single word. 5. She had single handedly destroyed a vacuum cleaner 6. Her interest in caring for the environment started with a book by Dav...

So much for using lavender to help with having a peaceful sleep. I used some in the room last night and instead of sleeping like a proverbial baby, I ended up flitting in and out of dreams like a flimsy wooden boat in choppy waters. The first dream I had was somehow in the office and at home in the same time, it was apparently 6:30 am, and I received information that we are all supposed to go to the main office to submit our list of improvement projects at that very moment and my protests of it "only being 6:30 in the morning!" and "I thought it was supposed to be at 6:30 pm" fell on deaf ears as everyone else trooped out of the office leaving me behind. Then I suddenly find myself back on my bed, and reluctantly I get up to go and take my shower so that I could go to work to submit the list. Next thing I know, while I'm actually showering, I'm suddenly bleeding profusely in an abnormal sort of way. I stop showering immediately, and then get dressed, all...

As the world sits back and watches life go by (and the news on tv every evening), some very real people are fearing for their lives, living amidst bombings and gunfires as they fight to keep the land each group thinks is likely theirs. Ever since I became aware of what was happening in the news (around the age of 8), nightmarish tales of the fight that is ongoing in the Gaza strip has always been there, from the time Yasser Arafat and his missions to negotiate peace right until his death, and up till now. And with all the nations surrounding it, some strong, some weak, taking sides with perhaps the group they think ought to live there, or based on ideology and political interests, it is a wonder that the conflict has never ended even after all this while. I can't help wondering why, and yet I can't seem to think of any reason, or how anyone can make things better. This is probably one situation where the phrase 'make peace and not war' will fall on deaf ears. In lig...

Throw in wit - lots of it, a middle age man who flaunts his promiscous ways, a crazy wife and MIL to boot, a school, a prison, a straightfaced prison warden, some crazy criminals and you get Hocus Pocus. I had never set out to get this particular book in the first place, and as I might have mentioned before, some books look for me In this case, I had read one line of about the death of the author on a blog, and was thinking of reading him after seeing a Wikipedia entry on him. About a year and a half later, I see Vonnegut on a book spine alongside book spines labelled with Pratchett, and as they say, the rest is history. The book introduces us to the life and loves of Eugene Debs Hartke, a Vietnam war veteran who married a lady who turned crazy later on. His kids hate him for procreating because it is most likely they will turn crazy someday too. He narrates his life weaving us into his adventures back and forth through the war, his life as a college professor in a school for thos...

There are times when you just don't talk for no apparent reason. It's hard for me to gauge why it's been ages since I last spoke to my sister. Of course we have exchanged words every now and then, but there was something missing unlike the conversations we used to have in the middle of the night not too long ago. Perhaps it's our differing schedules, her insane thesis that leaves her mood something I'd like to move far away from, her full time job and part time job, my full time job that seems to take more of my time than I'd like to imagine, both of our get healthy plans, my battle with insomnia, or our addiction to our respective mp3 players which played a part in this. I don't know really. It was her birthday yesterday, and after that long long time, I actually sat down and spoke to her for a good 30 minutes (using the coffee stained phone, which by the way is still specked with coffee dust that refuses to budge) about things in general from how the Gi...

Sometimes it is hard to say where it all began, but in this case we can safely say it all started with the convenience of three-in-one sachets, a retractable pen and a mobile phone in a pocket. Oh, and moving around. Lots of it. Which reminds me of the horror expressed by a dear friend during one of our 'conversations' at the number of items that occupy my pockets. Yes, I finally see the repercussions of having these many things in the pockets. Anyway, to make a long story short (it wasn't very long to begin with), the retractable pen, unretracted, poked a hole in the sachet and there were bits of coffee powder, creamer and sweetener in my pocket which filled up every crevice of my mobile phone that I believe has suffered more beatings than the quiet kid at the playground ever has due to the fact that besides making calls/sending texts, it likes to fall down! Alot! It's a strange feeling putting your hands into your pocket and feeling the coffee powder. It's a...

The kids are back to school, I guess they don't think it's cool, After a month of playing the fool, Now it's back to the whirlpool. Today was the first day of school and after about a month of being able to leave the house a little later, and still avoid the traffic jam, everything is back to like what it was before. Cars with the parents and their little first day to school kids with their smartly pressed uniforms, clean shoes and new bags walking into the school grounds while their cars are parked along the road. To avoid getting annoyed unneccesarily, I left the house 10 minutes earlier as I had to pass by three primary schools on my way to work. Secondary schools wouldn't have been so bad as the kids are older and will not necessarily have their parents in tow. I escaped the jam in the first two schools, but was slightly delayed in the third school as by then the parents cars had happily illegally parked at the side of the road reducing our two lane road to ...

I've always thought that good company is very important for your well being. Back when I was in UTM doing my degree, I happened to meet the most fantastic bunch of people whom I remain friends with till today except for a couple of people who turned weird and decided to cut off ties. We did have good times, and good conversations, and despite the spirit killing nature of our coursework we remained in high spirits because of some of the things we did. I don't know how or why, but I suddenly recollected some of the stuff we said to each other in those years, and it kept me laughing to myself early this morning. (I awoke at 6 although I had set my alarm for 7) And I figured why not share it and spread some laughter.... Quotes that were used as advice for the juniors in the faculty name book: (Back in the day, the first years were required to come up with performances, the second years will be the organisers of the event, and the third, fourth and fifth years will be there to ...

When you look at something long enough, you tend to miss certain details, especially if you just look at it and stop seeing it. Take the pen I use, which I've been using for over a year. It took me so long to finally notice that the finishing is some sort of metallic gold. Almost as cool as the paints we make. Incidentally I bought it in the first place because I thought it was pretty. And then there's the aedes mosquito. I remember seeing A2 sized posters of mosquitoes hung in the school clinic, where you could clearly see the zebra like stripes across it's body and legs. Last night while waiting for the new year, I found an aedes mosquito. Whole (I killed it, actually, when it was attempting to suck some blood right out of me. It's either it dying or me getting dengue which I realised how serious it could be when a colleague's daughter died early last year) And guess what, for the first time in many years I looked at it closely and it seems to me that the st...