RACONTEUR-ESQUE SCRIBBLINGS

Ghosts of Birthdays Past

2012-03-08T00:00:00.000+08:00

It was late afternoon on the 8th of March 1980 and a woman in labour was wheeled into an empty waiting room for no apparent reason. A few minutes later, a little baby girl was born in that empty waiting room while her family was anxiously waiting for them elsewhere. That baby was me. While all this drama was in progress, somewhere out there on a radio playing in someone's house, or in a car, or even a restaurant, one of the many radio stations would have been playing the song "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"

Many years later...

So, I finally hit thirty two. I kinda think this needs some getting used to.

Thirty was something I looked forward to, thirty one was fine as well, because it meant I had already firmly set foot into my thirties, but thirty two seems pretty mundane. It's like turning twenty two after the anticipation of turning twenty one is over (And yes, in case you're wondering, being twenty two was one of the dullest things I ever had to endure)

As a birthday post this year, I thought it would be interesting (for me) to take a trip and revisit old birthdays.

2011 - I turned thirty one very quietly, while I at work. Came back home to pack stuff for a vacation that I was due to leave for on the 11th. Did a fair bit of reflection, though with intentions on 'taking the leap', which I didn't. Had a small celebration with my vacation buddies a week later, though.

2010 - Turned thirty, which was a big thing, and something I looked forward to because I kind of felt depressed a lot throughout my twenties.

2009 - I spent the day cooking with my sister for an accidental birthday party. We were supposed to have a family gathering/birthday party for a cousin that turned 21 in February, but for some reason, the cousin was reluctant to join the party we tried planning for her and it ended up being an accidental birthday bash for me and an aunt who is also a March baby. Food was good, and it was one of the best birthdays ever.

2008 - Voted in the general elections which fell on the same day. I spent my birthday night clicking refresh on a particular news site to find out the election results.

2007 - Had a bad attack of the migraine, ended up in a very long meeting and finally came home at 11pm. I got this laptop I'm typing this post on that very day, a sort of birthday present to myself.

2001 - Turned 21 in university, where madness prevails at midnight. In the midst of studying feverishly for an exam, a friend barged into my room and told me the moon looked beautiful that night. I tried looking out the window but couldn't see a thing. She said I had to go outside to actually see it. I followed her out like a robot, only to have a pail of cold water thrown over me amidst shouts of "Happy Birthday". This was the year I had three different birthday celebrations with friends. My parents on the other hand, completely ignored the fact that I'm not a fan of jewellery made of gold went ahead and bought me a gold pendant in the shape of a key. I know this sounds ungrateful and all, but seriously, just because it's a common gift other parents gave their 21 year old offspring, it doesn't mean I'm going to like it or even wear it for that matter.

1999 - The first birthday I had away from the comforts of my own home. This was also the year I realised that a lot of people really made a big deal of birthdays, unlike my family where birthdays was just another reason to get our cake fix without too much guilt. Three March babies shared a cake, and then the non-birthday babies decided that they'd give us glossy hair and (ahem) shiny skin by smothering cream from the cake all over us. We looked like we had escaped from a Hallo'ween party.

1990's - There would always be a cake every year.

1984 - The very first birthday and birthday party I can remember. When my mom told me it was my birthday that day, I was under the impression that you only have birthdays once in a lifetime (I was barely four - still had a few more hours, so I think I can be forgiven for having such a strange thought) I got lots of toys that year, the one I remember most being the train set, which my grandfather and uncle taught me how to assemble. The train actually had 'smoke' come out of it's chimney as it chugged merrily on the tracks. Fun times.

1981 - I turn one. I don't remember anything from this, but there are lots of photos of me and a bear that was twice my size. The whole atmosphere of the party had a somewhat seventies feel to it. I kind of bet being one years old and all, I probably would have hardly enjoyed the cake.

iKreativ - an Award and Random Things

2012-03-03T19:28:00.002+08:00

Jaya J of Pickles n' Tickles has recently awarded this old blog with a Kreativ Blogger award. A great big thanks to her :)

It's been awhile since I've seen awards flying around the blogosphere like they are now, so this is really good news, I reckon. Maybe blogging is NOT dying a slow death as I thought it was just slightly over a year ago.

However, being given an award comes with some really serious responsibilities, one of them being volunteering random information about yourself - 10 to be precise. Secondly, like all good things, they need to be passed around to 6 others.

The 10 Random Facts

1. Memory Charms:

My memory works in the weirdest way ever. I remember most people's birthdays, I remember bits and pieces of conversations, what they wore the last time I saw them, and some other rather unnerving things which no one else pays attention to which makes me look like a big time stalker. 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.

2. Prone to Accidents

Well, sometimes, maybe. I have absentmindedly walked out of a bus that was moving (albeit ever so slightly), fallen into drains as I was reading something while walking, got pulled down by a 15 kg bag and fractured a bone in the process.

3. 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, among them my mortal enemy, the durian. In fact, I'd actually run away from people as they are enjoying this fruit, as it happens to be the favourite fruit among many Malaysians and South East Asians alike.

4. The Big Language Barrier

I grew up speaking English as a first language at home, then started on the Malaysian language in preschool. Somehow, I rarely had people speaking in my mother tongue with me, and never caught up with it. In school, I enrolled for class, and managed to remember all the curvy lines that form the script, 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 it really slowly with an English accent, but I can read the words and don't know what they mean. Bummer!

5. Four-eyes

I started using glasses since the age of 7. Since then I've broken a few, lost one in a bus and even temporarily misplaced another for two weeks (I had a spare, so I wasn't completely blind) Besides being short-sighted, I apparently have really bad astigmatism, which makes finding a good pair of contact lenses a bit troublesome (not good for night driving, I've been told)

6. The Environment and Writing

My love for the environment began in 1992 when I sat by the window of a school and wrote an essay titled Why I Love Trees. I won first prize, and the prize was this awesome environmental book "Tomorrow's Earth" by David Bellamy. Winning this contest made me think that I can write, and here we are. ;)

7. The Coffee Addict

I can't help it.

8. Haikus and other poetry

I used to write haikus and other poetry (if they can be called poetry) quite a bit in the recent past. Haven't done them in awhile. Perhaps I should begin again.

9. H20 related idiosyncracies

I noticed this a few years ago, and came to the conclusion that the colour of the drinking water bottle seriously effects how willing I am to drink out of it. Blue or green bottles work well with me while I had a hard enough time trying to convince myself to drink out of a red bottle.

10. Tall kids don't really end up being tall adults

As a kid, I was rather tall for my age, but I slowly ended up being of average height by my mid/late teens. People who saw me last back in primary school (circa 1992) express surprise when they see me now. "I thought you'd be bigger" they tell me

And now for the victims:

I don't always obey rules on memes or awards, but I think I might for this case. However, as I actually read plenty of blogs and they're all awesome in their own ways (see sidebar, and that doesn't include bookmarked blogs and those who are in my reader or those I simply stalk), picking 6 will be tough. Therefore, I decided I'll narrow down the list to the following criteria:

a. Currently active

b. Have not received the same award from the same blogger who tagged me

1. Nursemyra

2. King of Scurf

3 Secret Agent Woman

4.Quirks of a Delusional Mind

5. The Rambling Person

6. Scotland Here and Now

Special mention, just because I have to break a few rules here and there ;)

I am Such a Derp (he actually likes awards and stuff - but who doesn't)

Redsaid

Mayor Gia

If all the frogs leaped together - 4 years later

2012-02-29T00:00:00.000+08:00

Exactly 4 years ago today, I wrote this post which I have copied below:

"I was just thinking that you don't get that many 29 Februarys in a lifetime. Well, at least not as many as say, 29 March or 29 April, which makes this post a once in a 4 year thing. Not knowing what the future holds (in the sense if I will still be blogging in 4 years time - though I don't see it any other way currently) I thought it would be appropriate to say something today.

See, now I have a post dated 29 February 2008. Happy leap day... (if there is such a thing!)"

I suppose I was right in predicting that I'd most likely still be blogging today and hence have yet another post dated 29 February. As I was looking at the calendar, and recalling having written a post to commemorate Feb 29 of 2008, it got me thinking about this lovely comment my friend wrote in response to that blog post:

Aunty Helpful Dictator Feb 29, 2008 04:14 AM

Also there's the whole thing that traditionally this is the day that women can propose marriage to men... and I remember something about them saying no requires them to buy you a gold dress. So for kicks and giggles (and possibly a new wardrobe) you can propose to lots of blokes today!

Source: Wikipedia

I was rather curious about this tradition seeing that it's not practiced here, and besides, I saw my friend's comment only on 1st March - 1 day too late! Wikipedia tells me that it's actually from the British Isles. Interesting stuff, really - how you learn of cultures and customs from your international friends via blogs. Despite the fact that I'm all for kicks and giggles, proposing marriage to any of the blokes I know today is probably out of the question.

Happy leap day 2012 :)

JUST MY LUCK

2012-02-21T20:46:00.000+08:00

In an otherwise almost normal and mundane existence, there is a certain person who calls herself TS who has the occasional need to throw her hands in the air in frustration, and utter the words - "Just My Luck"

Allow her to explain:

1. She has been skeptical about buying things online (except for the occasional plane ticket) for a very long time, until one day, her sister forwarded a Groupon offer to her that was the perfect complement to a certain brand new 'toy' she just got herself. She had finally crossed an unseen threshold and purchased something online, something she's never done before. The item which she purchased at the end of last year was supposed to arrive at her doorstep in mid January. Now, it's nearing the end of February and apparently, the item is still waiting for clearance from China. At least Groupon has been contacting her (and others who took up the offer) and giving updates on the delay, but still...

2. The dentist told her that the suture will drop off on it's own in a week, and if it doesn't (a few rare cases, according to the dentist), then she should just go and see the dentist again to get it removed. Guess what? TS is one of the few rare cases with the stubborn suture that just wouldn't come off. Nope, she's a bit traumatised about seeing a dentist so soon after her wisdom tooth removal, so she hasn't actually gone to get it removed yet.

3. She sends out an e-mail with good intentions - just to share some information. Turns out, that good intentioned e-mail was the Archduke Ferdinand of a tempest in the company teapot, and resulted in two people receiving unnecessary scolding. Is she going to go around and share info anymore? Yes, unfortunately that is a must. Is she going to c.c anyone not directly involved anymore? Never. Let other people become the Archduke Ferdinand the next time around. ;)

Standing Inside a Broken Cupboard with a Math Book in my Hands

2012-02-18T07:58:00.000+08:00

Way back in 1998.

In the true spirit of upholding the morality (ahem!) of female students, my residential college decided to hold a talk for all female students who lived there. Attendance was compulsory, they said. On top of that, to make matters even worse, there were rumours that the rooms would be checked during the talk to catch truants.

There were a few problems with this, seeing that we had a math test the next day. Being the kind of people who saved everything for the last minute, this talk just threw all the studying plans in a disarray. Secondly, the idea of some stranger trying to instill morality in us was just not my cup of tea. My mom did an extremely good job on that many years before. She still doesn't like it when I use unlady-like words even under extreme provocation, but at least I'm honest enough to use the words in front of her ;)

Being first year students then, we duly attended the talk and were bored to death, while attempting math questions in the hall. As we were sitting pretty near one of the exits, we hatched a plan where at certain intervals, one by one of us would get out and go back to the room to study.

Half an hour later saw us sitting at our respective desks in the room and doing math questions as if life depended on it. Though we were fully absorbed working out the questions my roomies and I heard the door across the corridor slam and a jingle of keys which at that moment sounded pretty ominous – WERE they checking the rooms for runaways?

Horrified, I turned to my roomies and we knew we had to get out from there immediately. Turning off the lights, we hopped out of the open window and I stood on the ledge of the building. I found myself holding my breath (why?) as the horrible jingling sound came nearer and nearer, and doors being open and shut. There was a felo (lecturers who stay in campus to keep an eye on the students) downstairs who saw us on the ledge and he almost did a double take – most probably wondering about weird studying habits of young undergraduates.

After what felt like forever, the sounds ceased to exist and we went back in and continued our work (tried to - actually) but the nervousness lingered. For some reason, we wanted to get downstairs to another friend's room. and we all quietly trooped downstairs to their room, still with that horrible book in tow.

The room downstairs was a picture of serenity. While we all had our hearts beating wildly as we stood on the ledge, they had been studying without much trouble. We then proceeded to inform them about the happenings upstairs and managed to get them on the frightened students bandwagon in the process, as we soon began to hear the now familiar jingle of keys and opening and closing of doors. Now there were 6 very frightened people in this room and they had no ledge to hide in, it being the ground floor and the windows had grilles on them.

Someone came up with the genius idea of hiding in the cupboards. Two of us got into one cupboard – in the dark, and with the math book, and another two got into another cupboard and two others – under the tables, behind some boxes. The cupboard began to creak – not meant for human weight I suppose ;-)

Credits and notes:
1. Title modified from “Standing outside a broken phone booth with money in my hands” by Primitive Radio Gods
2. Well, if you really must know what happened in the end, we were all safe. Turns out, no one bothered to look for runaways or truants, they were just other classmates returning from the talk at various times throughout the rest of the night! Any yes, we all did pretty OK in the test despite the circumstances.

Bosan Tahap Gaban

2012-02-15T23:47:00.000+08:00

"Life will be boring to you if you are boring to life" I solemnly told a friend one Saturday evening when she was whining to my roomate and I that she was bored.

She looked at me as though I was mad, and my roomate burst out laughing, wrote down what I said and pinned it on her notice board. The way I see boredom is, you can only be as bored as you allow yourself to be. While I'm immensely proud of my ability to keep myself free from boredom, there are times when I succumb to it, like this morning when I was stuck in a meeting where the lights were dim, and people were discussing things that my mind simply refused to absorb It reached a point where it got too much that I whipped out my phone and discreetly typed "Bosan tahap Gaban" on my own Facebook wall.

What I found out today though, is that apparently the phrase (when loosely translated would mean something along the lines of extremely bored, except that there's no way to explain what Gaban exactly means, though I've added some background story in the section called Aside) is apparently very uncharacteristic of me. My sister thinks it's lame, and thought that someone had hacked my account, while another friend said that no sane person would have ever expected such a thing from me! Well, it's good to throw in a surprise on your friends and family every once in awhile.

Aside - a little snippet from the past

Back in 1992, the worst insult you could hurl at your enemy (if you were around twelve years old, that is) was to call their mother "Gaban". The exact insult sounds something like this "Mak kau Gaban" (loosely translated as: "Your mom is Gaban" said in an derisive tone)

It used to be so bad that boys would punch each other and wrestle each other to the ground when this happened - usually while waiting for the school bus. I don't know how this became an insult in the first place, but back then, Japanese shows were all the rage here, and this particular show called Space Cop Gaban was one of the popular ones.

These days, insults involving Gaban are a thing of the past, most of us having outgrown the need for insults. Nevertheless Gaban still lives on, sort of.

Untitled

2012-02-15T00:26:00.001+08:00

It's sad when people think you're being serious when you're not.

And then there were 31

2012-02-12T12:14:00.002+08:00

Rogue and Molar

Warning - may contain some descriptive goriness - so if you're averse to icky things, please turn away. Sorry.

You know for a fact that evolution is the name of the game when you have things like your wisdom tooth turning into a rogue and attacking an innocent neighbour. We don't need them anymore, and yet they remain, hidden until they pop out someday, with less than desirable results for quite a number of us.

If we were created as the creationists believe, we'd all be sporting perfectly beautiful sets of teeth (28 only) and there wouldn't be dentists around.

Over a year ago, I was shown a picture of the condition of my lower right jaw and it looks a bit like the drawing attached to this post. After having to deal with a series of failed appointments that I decided that it was a sign to not go ahead, I completely forgot about it until a recent visit to a dentist. She too commented on the damage Rogue is likely to cause and advised that I remove it. An opportunity came, I took it, and a few hours later, I sit here typing this with a gaping hole where Rogue once sat and taunted Molar.

I have been told that the removal process was one of the simplest ever, and I was under the impression that they'd just cut your gums and the tooth would just fall out like that. Well, maybe not just fall out, but at least just one yank would do the trick. Turns out, it isn't so. My extra strong teeth was hacked and sawed into several small pieces and the root was apparently still stuck in the bone. The dentist cut, loosened and pulled and yanked, and after a grueling 1 hour and 15 minutes of her wrestling with my tooth, and me holding onto the seat holder as if my life depended on it, the final piece finally came out in all it's bloody glory.

And now, I don't have all my teeth anymore. It feels a bit weird.

Related posts:
http://raconteuresquescribblings.blogspot.com/2010/11/where-wisdom-tooth-rears-its-ugly-head.html

http://raconteuresquescribblings.blogspot.com/2010/12/presumably-miserly-tooth-fairy.html

Contradict and Confuse

2012-02-11T21:00:00.001+08:00

Contradict and Confuse

A long time ago in a country which hadn't even been properly formed at the time, a rather devious (but clever) method was employed to ensure that people wouldn't rebel against the powers that be - the ruling class. It was known as 'Divide and Conquer', or "Pecah dan Perintah" in Malay, the language used in our history books.

This "Divide and Conquer" policy worked to a certain extent, until the ruling class got bored/ran out of money/had other interests, and the people begin to see some light. Nevertheless, even after the country was formed, the current ruling class (voted in by us, unfortunately) loved the idea of "Divide and Conquer"so much that they continuously practised it, although they modified it to suit modern times. People have learned though, and some are beginning to reject the "Divide and Conquer"approach.

Now, based on the 'breaking news' topics as seen in the picture in this post, we can see that besides "Divide and Conquer", we have reached an all new low in the form of "Contradict and Confuse".

Could "Contradict and Confuse" be the new black?

Edit: Pecah dan Perintah should read Divide and Rule (Not conquer, though conquer sounds much better than rule)

The Hotel

2012-02-06T16:13:00.000+08:00

Talking about hotels has never been a fun idea of a post, but I seriously thought that this one hotel and our experience with it deserves a special mention as it is the epitome of how everything that can go wrong will go wrong if the circumstances are just right.

I suppose the biggest problem of all was that it was raining heavily. The second biggest problem was that the rain was unexpected. In fact, by the time we had arrived, it had been raining continuously for almost two whole days. This website shows how bad it was. The data provided here was from Feb 1 to 7, 2011. Based on yearly reports from other websites, February is the month that has the lowest rainfall in the year. Our holiday there was from Feb 2 to 6, 2011. Murphy's Law, or a holiday curse?

(Please note that the post below talks about the rain and more rain and all rain related disasters and this doesn't even include the burnt socks incident yet)

Back to the hotel. Interestingly, the hotel is far from your ordinary building that looks like an ugly grey block with rows of windows indicating each room and each floor. Instead, the moment you enter the gates, you are first greeted by the front desk, where they give the keys to your room and take you to your rooms situated a few hundred metres away covered by nothing but the sky above. The path you take is lined by slabs of flat stone, just indicating the path. An 'alfresco'-ish setting, if you will. So you can imagine that after almost two days of rain, the path was half buried in water in certain places, with water flowing in rivulets, wetting the cuffs of your jeans in the process. The staff helped us carry our bags to the rooms, and the poor skinny boys were drenched in the rain within seconds. We as hotel guests were fortunate enough to get umbrellas that we could use, but seriously, the rain was relentless and hit us from the sides instead.

Hotel layout

To the hotel's credit, it's actually a rather remarkable idea. After all, you're supposedly on a relaxing holiday, and staying in a box-like room sounds like the furthest thing from relaxation. Besides, the rooms are like tiny semi-D houses and looked gorgeous. The air was fresh, thanks to all the greenery. They also had a most interesting bathroom concept, which was something this hotel is apparently quite known for.

Throughout our stay there which lasted from the afternoon of 2nd February to the morning of 3rd February the following happened:

1. Got our jeans and feet/socks/shoes wet on the way back to the front desk where we were supposed to meet our guide to take us to Sigiriya Rock.

2. Got wet again on the way back to the room after Sigiriya Rock, on the way to dinner at the hotel's restaurant and back to the room after dinner

3. Mom lost her slipper in the mud on the way back to the room after dinner and it was never to be found again. She borrowed my flip flops after that.

4. Final dose of getting wet in the rain the next morning before finally checking out.

In between all the getting wet and drying ourselves after getting wet, I have to add something about the interesting bathroom concept mentioned above. See, the bathroom had an open air concept, so you could look up to the skies and have natural sunlight shine in on you while showering, or even watch the stars at night if you wanted to. To prevent insects, dead leaves and other creepy creatures from joining you as you had a relaxing shower, there was a net placed above you. It sounds lovely, unless if it rains. Imagine you're there trying to have a hot shower because it was so cold, and there's rain (which is cold) dripping on you all around from the netting. The shower head was fixed, so there was nowhere I could move to. I thought that it was the most ridiculous situation ever. There was nothing to do but laugh, which I did after I got out of the bathroom.

Despite their best efforts to make the hotel as lovely as they could, I do think they should also be a bit more practical. In fact, when we were asked by the tour agency to rate the accommodation and services, we actually suggested that the hotel consider to build a covered pathway to the rooms and on top of that slightly elevate it at the same time.

Sigiriya Lion's Rock - Sri Lanka

2012-02-05T15:50:00.002+08:00

The previous post on Sri Lanka ended abruptly with the famous words - "To be continued". There is a valid reason for this. See, back then, I had trouble deciding if I should describe the hotel or Sigiriya Lion's Rock first, without destroying the story telling in any way. Till today, I couldn't come up with a decision, and therefore just randomly picked the Lion's Rock first.

Sigiriya Lion's Rock


The Sigiriya Lion's Rock beckons people (and umbrellas alike)						on a rainy afternoon

Around 2:30 pm or something, the rain had decided to take a short break and ceased pouring water like there was no tomorrow, so we took the opportunity to go to the rock. It was quite a short drive and we finally reached the gates. It was slightly drizzling at this point, but nothing Malaysians who had to deal with unexpected rain almost every day couldn't handle.

The rock apparently was once part of an ancient palace ruin which was recently excavated, and had fountains bubbling half-heartedly, excavated ponds and gardens. For some unknown reason, ancient kings seem to have a thing for gardens, pools and fountains. We had a different guide take us in (it's apparently part of the tour package we took) and we had to unfortunately follow his schedule while he described what we saw in front of us rather hurriedly as we marched (yes, marched is the word) on to another point of interest. As we made our way, we ended up meeting several 'tourist spot street vendors' who tried selling boxes with hidden compartments. The boxes were really well made and rather heavy - my dad bought one.

After passing through the recently excavated ruins, we had to climb up flights and flights of stairs that have been built to reach the top of the rock, where the best views apparently are. Halfway up, we saw the Mirror Wall, which according to what we've been told is a highly polished surface in which the ancient king could see his reflection. Inside, on the other hand is a bunch of frescoes of maidens that adorns the wall. There used to be quite a lot of these paintings, but years of exposure to the environment had caused some damage and the few that survive today are supposedly preserved by not allowing people to use flash while taking the pictures. Nevertheless, while we were in there, I actually spotted two people surreptitiously (well, maybe not so surreptitiously as I was actually startled by the a few sudden bursts of light in the dark) using flash to take the pictures. I was disgusted.

A side view of the endless flights of stairs

The Mirror Wall

Waaay before Hugh Hefner and his (ahem) famous magazine - taken without the aid of flash being the responsible tourist that I am

After the frescoes, we climbed further up and reached the location where a pair of huge claws lay. There used to be a lion's head here, but it is gone now. Now, this holiday was extremely last minute and we really didn't expect flights and flights of stairs. We are all of a reasonable level of fitness, but my mom has arthritic knees, no one had proper footwear (I was the only one who used sneakers despite the rain as I had lent my mom my flip flops and my sister was wearing her flip flops due to the rain) for climbing slippery stairs. It also started raining again at this point and we decided to give going to the top a miss.

According to the guide, however, on sunny days, you'd get a lot of wasps hanging around stinging people as they made their way to the top. And just the other day, a local travel show (lucky for them, it was sunny that day and I bet their pictures looked way better than mine) showed the traveller screaming 'bees' as he climbed up the very same stairs in the picture below.

This whole area once belonged to a king. It seemed to be quite a challenge going up, what with the stairs and the wasps and the strong winds (if it rains) and we curiously asked the guide how the king managed, seeing that most kings were probably not exactly the fittest people around. Turns out he apparently had people carry him and the queen up there. We made our way down back using the same way except towards the end, as the exit was in a different section. We met our proper guide back there and drove back to the hotel in the rain.


The Claws (sans lion's head)

Turns out Sigiriya Rock gets it's very own post. Ha ha.

For some very strange reason, the song "Revolution Rock" by The Clash rings in my head each time I think of Sigiriya Rock.

Gotcha, Google!

2012-02-02T17:40:00.002+08:00

We live in a world where making money seems to be everything (more on this later, hopefully!) We are now targets of targeted ads. I noticed this about a year ago when Google searches on places to visit in New Zealand dominated my existence on the internet and I'd suddenly have ads on tour packages to go sightseeing in Waitamo, or blackwater rafting while I was surfing.

A few days ago, G-mail sent us users an e-mail giving an in depth explanation on how now Google will incorporate all of our activity with their various accounts to allow them to advertise us with more relevant ads based on our interests.

While browsing earlier today, I came across this article (linked below) from another blog and figured I'd just check it out:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/01/25/google_ad_preferences_manager_does_it_accurately_guess_your_age_and_gender_.html

According to the article, all you've got to do is click this site and it will attempt to guess your age and gender based on your cookies unless you unleashed a cookie monster on them first. I thought this would be fun (I am a sucker for things like this, by the way. A long time ago, I took another test in which they were supposed to determine my gender by my writing - they told me I was of indeterminate gender, much to my amusement)

This was what they had to say of me and my searches:

Your categories

Below you can review a summary of the interests and inferred demographics that Google has associated with your cookie. You can remove or edit your categories at any time.

Arts & Entertainment - Music & Audio - Rock Music

Business & Industrial - Small Business - MLM & Business Opportunities (seriously????)

Finance

Food & Drink - Restaurants

Games

People & Society

Your demographics

No demographic categories are associated with your ads preferences so far. You can add or edit demographics at any time.

Sorry Google, but this is what you get when more than one user uses the same laptop.

Two Cents

2012-02-01T21:47:00.001+08:00

There are so many things one could blog about, but the moment this post editor opens, it's cursor blinking innocently at you, you realise that there are just too many issues fighting for your attention.

Therefore, you just end up typing something of no significance at all and hope that tomorrow will be a better blog day.

On Being Anonymous

2012-01-26T23:25:00.002+08:00

I have this weird obsession of being anonymous on the blog.

No doubt that I have made some friends here who went on to being friends with me on a certain social networking site, but I was never opposed to making new friends. See, from the very beginning stages of the blog, I had a deep seated fear of having someone I know stumble upon the blog, and say to herself/himself - "Hey, I think I know this person" and share it with all their other friends because that's what I'd do if I were in their place. I suppose my stance on this is if you know me personally, I'd prefer knowing that you know of my blogs existence than you accidentally finding it. But then again, freely giving away the link to everyone I once knew is not an option either - *say if I wanted to write about an experience and mentioned friend C in the post, friend K might start whining - "why don't you ever blog about me?"

Being anonymous is not easy, though. Back in 2009, a new friend whom I'd met while on a really short holiday in Sarawak (we knew one person in common back then) found my blog (I told her about it, I think and was planning to send her the link after I had blogged about our holiday but she beat me to it) I secretly dubbed her the search engine queen, which will not be a secret anymore if she reads this post ;)

Most recently, blogger decided to invite me (and a whole lot of other bloggers - anonymous or otherwise) to shed their anonymity by connecting to Google+, seeing that I do have to log on to Google if I want to post a blog post or comment, I don't think it's such a bad idea. My only problem is, my Google+ account actually carries my full name, and apparently I cannot use my superhero personality as my blog handle anymore if I ever choose to do so. The horrors! So, as long as they allow me to use both identities - superhero for the blog, and my real name for the e-mail part of it all I'm fine. In the meantime I need to read up on how to transfer the blog to a different Google account.

Even more recently, I spotted an email (in this particular Google account even when I specifically attempted to direct mail to another email service provider) in the spam box indicating a comment that never got through the recepient's inbox (I now am privy to the knowledge of a certain blog friend's real name (first and last name, methinks), but the secret is safe with me. Anyway, I'm just curious, what are your views on blogging anonymously, and how would you react if your anonymity was taken away?

*Ok, admittedly something like this happened when I was 12 when I shared my writing with my classmates. Big mistake, yes - likelihood for 30-somethings to whine as such, probably not, but still, I prefer to keep things like these to myself these days.

The Vacation that Was - Sri Lanka

2012-01-24T15:27:00.001+08:00

About slightly more than a year ago, my sister and I decided to take our parents on a *holiday outside the country. After some deliberation, we finally picked Sri Lanka because none of us have been there before, and it seemed like an interesting place to visit, and (ahem) didn't have any visa requirements. We also got a local tour agent to help us with the booking of the accommodation and recommended places of interest because we didn't have the time to plan one on our own.

Almost a year later, I finally sit down and attempt to transcribe the experience of the vacation that was - the 4 days in an island known to the world as Sri Lanka.

(insert sound of a tape rewinding in an old cassette player)

Feb 02, 2011 - Leaving and Arriving

Cheap flights come with a price - your sanity and sleep deprivation. Having the flight out of the country so early in the morning meant that none of us slept well the night before. We reached the airport without a problem though. The flight itself was fine, except that we ended up being seated right at the back of the plane, and it was bustling with activity (more so than any other flights I've ever taken) Four hours later, we touch down at Colombo airport greeted by a slight drizzle. No baggage related disasters this time.

First leg of the journey - Colombo to Sigiriya (via Kurunegala)

Within minutes, we met up with our guide for the next leg of the journey (from Colombo to Sigiriya via a place called Kurunegala) It was a long drive, and the sleepy tourists slept most of the way. Our guide wasn't gifted with much conversational skills either and just left us to sleep without describing much of the what we passed through except for one part where he got very, very excited over a pineapple plantation and a statue. The rain was slightly heavier around this time.


The statue - although I personally find the clock tower much more interesting

We drove on further into the island as we headed on towards Sigiriya, and the rain just decided to get heavier with each turn of the wheel. Water flowed along the roads pretending they were really shallow rivers, mothers carried tiny schoolchildren piggy back to/from school as the rain poured on them, and you could barely see anything more than a few metres in front of you. After passing by an elephant tethered to a tree, we went in to another muddy (formerly dirt) road which led to a restaurant for lunch. The wind that blew about us was cold - something none of us expected in a tropical country.

Lunch was remarkably good, though, despite being buffet style (I'm not a fan of buffets as they usually rather focus on quantity instead of quality) The curries were delicious and full of flavour. Due to the rain, we had to switch up our plans a bit. We were initially supposed to go to this place called Sigiriya Rock first before going to the hotel, but due to the rain we ended up at the hotel first.

*growing up, family vacations were practically non-existent, even in the country as my dad worked shifts and ended up having to work while everyone else was on leave. This continued until he retired a few years ago.

to be continued

Where There Be Dragons

2012-01-23T00:37:00.001+08:00

If you could pick one mythical creature which deep down you knew must have existed, what would it be?

Mine, with unwavering certainty would be the dragon, the majestic creature known for it's ability to fly across the sky, breathing fire on anything in it's way, holding princesses hostage in caves until a mad prince decides to behead it. Of course if it were real, holding princesses hostage may have just been a tall tale kings and queens would tell their princes and princesses so that they wouldn't sneak out of the castle and get kidnapped or something, because lets face it, being kidnapped by a dragon only to be saved by a prince is way more romantic than say, being kidnapped by a kidnapper who called your parents for some ransom, and the person who finally rescued you was the negotiator for the police, or a very clever detective.

I have always been fascinated by dragons for as long as I can remember, which was why I was extremely excited about a certain show I saw on TV a few years ago. Me being me, I had missed the first ten minutes of the show and almost believed that dragons did really exist. The show was that realistic. I finally caught up with the 10 minutes I missed a few days later, and sadly realised that it was all imagined.

Nevertheless, there's still always the possibility of finding the necessary evidence that dragons did really exist someday. We only have to wait and see.

Note:

1. Post inspired by Chinese New Year (it's the year of the dragon this year), and a local newspaper's feature article on (you guessed it) dragons.

Oh, Let us Just Feign Ignorance and All the Problems Will Go Away

2012-01-21T01:34:00.001+08:00

For some people, maybe.

I've had people tell me before that it's not worth it giving your all to your job. "Just work hard from September" they'd say if they saw you working late in January, as we get appraised only in mid December, and three months of 'good' work is apparently sufficient to fool your bosses into thinking that you've been good the whole year. I suppose they get away with such behaviour because their superiors are probably fools anyway.

Now, while I don't think what you do should dictate your life (although sometimes you can't help it when it's in the manufacturing field), I believe that people should be responsible enough to perform tasks they are supposed to do. Feigning ignorance is just unacceptable. Allowing others to pick up their slack when they say that they do not know how to do their own bloody job is just an excuse for laziness. And their superior not giving them an earful for such irresponsible behaviour is even worse.

I suppose all of us view our jobs differently. For some people, it's probably just the thing they do so that they have enough money to justify them marrying their *second wife, inconveniencing everyone else around them in the process.

The thing is, no matter what our objectives are for working, we are paid to do it. Copying the supplier's data from their certificate of assurance can be done by anyone who knows how to read and write (yes, even an eight year old can do it after you've thought them how and on top of that you can also con an eight year old and pay them with cheap ice cream - I kid, I kid)

I wonder if the quality people in charge of checking the quality of the incoming raw material felt any sort of embarrassment after the process people highlighted that a certain raw material was of extremely poor quality - which would have been detected before the process people used it had these quality people done their job. I also wonder how they could have relinquished the responsibility of checking the other lots that haven't been used yet to the process people by pointedly refusing to do it.

* I don't know how this person ever convinced the 2nd wife to get married to him. Or even the first one for that matter. Yes, I know it's a personal attack and it's not very nice.

Edit: Yup, ranty post. I'm annoyed, I guess. Anyway, got a pretty long weekend ahead, and here's wishing a Happy Chinese New Year to anyone who celebrates. Cheers to the dragon!

It's Taking Too Long to Think of a Title For This Post

2012-01-17T21:34:00.000+08:00

This morning, despite suffering from a horrible pain due to a relentless migraine attack, I whipped out my phone, logged on to Facebook and convinced my thumbs to type out the following:

"Insomnia or migraine, which would you pick?"

Looking back, it sounds as though I consider both the migraine and the insomnia to be simply irresistible treats that everyone wants a piece of. Sigh.

That's what you end up doing when you post something while suffering from migraine which may have been a result of the recent insomnia. It seems like they've decided to take turns and visit me like relatives and friends visiting you when you're sick! Plus, I'm actually really lazy to type out stuff on my phone, and made the status update as short as I possibly could. Seriously though, if you are familiar with both, which would you rather have? (The (ahem) lesser evil, so to speak)

In my case, right now I think I'd rather go with insomnia.

Two Sides of the Coin

2012-01-15T16:53:00.001+08:00

A first year student stood up and asked the following question: "I have a pen pal from Russia. Am I allowed to correspond with him from here?"

I can't remember what was the answer to that fairly odd question, because it happened way back in 1998, when I was a first year student as well. This question was asked during our long and tiresome orientation week where we learned the university song (laughed at it too, of course), and where people droned on about the rules and regulations and explained the many different ways you could get yourself expelled. That was also the time when we all found out about AUKU (University and University Colleges Act)

Being 18 and politically ignorant then, my friends and I never did find the act get in the way of our daily lives. Many things have happened since then, and thirteen years later university students are actually rising against the act. For some reason, they believe that political freedom and participation is a must in order for them to grow up and be forward thinking people. After all, if you are fully responsible for your well being at 18 (you are legally allowed to be fully employed, get your driver's license and even get married and have your own kids at 18), why can't you be involved in politics?

This opposition towards the act got much more interesting in the recent days because of a particular student activist who was suspended for 18 months for lowering a banner for 5 minutes. The banner apparently depicted the image of the Prime Minister. They say the suspension is to uphold the name of the university as their job is to train future educators, and who would want a teacher who is against authority?

Last week, the radio station I listen to ran a set of interviews, the first with a professor from the university which suspended the student activist, and on the second day, an interview with the student activist himself! I found it most refreshing as the radio station had decided to present us with both sides of the story, instead of only the story of the side which was more powerful. An institution of higher education versus a single student sure sounds like David versus Goliath. It was interesting to note that the student had some degree of maturity in the way he spoke and he knew what he was doing. He thinks that if students don't fight against oppressive laws against students, who will? Who wants teachers who can't think for themselves?

A very interesting other side of the coin indeed. Kudos to the radio station.

Bad Hair Month - April 2011

2012-01-14T11:08:00.000+08:00

January is crazy, and it's not even half way through. I haven't had time to blog and all my blog ideas (which always make their special appearance when I'm driving, unfortunately) have evaporated into a place where it's never to be seen again, the graveyard of dead blog ideas. Anyway, just to fill up the space, I thought I'd post something I wrote back in April 2011 but never published.

I suppose it's easier when you have good lighting and a professional camera person, but try taking a photograph of your hairstyle by yourself, and all you'll get is a big black blob (if the hair is black, that is) So after several failed attempts with and without the help of a mirror, I have officially given up on capturing a photo of the most amazingly awesome haircut I have ever had. What's even weirder is that even my mom was less than pleased with her 'chopped up' hairstyle as well (we got it cut on the same day), and a few days later another cousin gets a haircut and claims that she's been given the coconut shell hairdo!

Therefore, where photography failed, a pencil, paper and an eraser won the day. The pictures speak for themselves.

Side view

Front view

What is the worst part of this bad haircut? The hairdresser actually valued it as a masterpiece, and she was adamantly proud of it. In fact, she actually told me to 'fluff' up the sides near my ears (thank you very much, but I refuse to have a hairdo that would make me look like a soap star from the 80's!!) as that's how the cut should be.

Now all I've got to do is wait for the hair to grow out... and,
a) Fervently hope that hairstyles from the 80's do not make a comeback. Ever!
b) Restart my "do not go to the same hairdresser/hairdressing salon two times in a row"
c) Remind myself that no matter how hot it is... long is always safe.
d) Always say 'trim' and not 'cut'
e) Remind them to maintain the length of the 'shortest strands of hair' below the earlobe.

Note: Hair's all grown out and proper now, but I need to cut it again. The fear of another disastrous haircut is the reason why I've been putting it off.

Lessons on Expired Foodstuff

2012-01-08T19:41:00.000+08:00

I learned a strange lesson last Friday.

I'm not a frequent user of chilli sauce, except when I eat something that actually requires the use of chilli sauce like a certain local chip-like junkfood, and that was when I thought that the sauce tasted strangely bitter as opposed to being hot (It was an 'extra hot' variety, by the way) Only after consuming a considerable quantity for chilli sauce standards, and wondering about the bitter taste, I realised that the bottle should have been tossed into the bin over two months ago! Thankfully there were no disastrous consequences.

On the other hand, over a few months back, I was feeling a bit extra peckish one night and thought I'd cook some instant noodles. I noticed with a slight dismay that they had expired about a week or so before that but the peckishness got the better of me and I figured that I'd just eat it anyway. After all, how much harm could one week do to food?

Turns out, one week did cause quite a bit of damage to the food. The noodles, once cooked, smelled strangely of burned plastic, and had the consistency of (very) pliable plastic. I did not use any plastic utensils, so the possible contributor was definitely the product itself. A few bites later, I had to throw it away. I don't take instant noodles on a regular basis these days either (after somewhat being my staple supper back in my undergraduate days) but I've eaten this particular batch of noodles before when they were still edible and it tasted like noodles and not plastic. Kind of makes you wonder what exactly these noodles are made of...

RUNNING 1000 MILES - AWAY!

2012-01-07T11:46:00.000+08:00

Back in September 2007, I came to a rather abrupt conclusion on how sampling killed the *classics (just like how video killed the radio star) after listening to a song that sampled Africa by Toto. A few years later, I still have the exact same sentiments.

The other day (edit: which is not at least somewhere about two weeks ago!), I was just browsing through some websites and came upon one which had a list of the top songs in 2011 that were remakes or samples. I thought it was interesting for various reasons, the first one being the length of the list, as there were about 30 songs on it, and these **30 were considered the creme de la creme of the remake/sampling world which means there were definitely much more remakes and sampling that didn't quite make the cut. First question: Have they seriously run out of original ideas?

My ***curiosity got the better of me, and I checked out some of the songs in the list. I have to admit I really did want to know how Wonderwall by Oasis was sampled, or even The Proclaimer's (I'm gonna be) 500 Miles because I happen to like both these songs quite a lot. At the risk of sounding like a snob, I have no choice but to admit that I cringed a bit at most of the songs I listened to from the list. (3 out of 4) Surprisingly, the one that didn't make me cringe too much was a remake and not a mere sampling. Perhaps I'm a bit more open to remakes than I am to sampling.

In all the cringe-worthiness of that late evening in front of the computer, the sampling of The Proclaimer's (I'm Gonna Be) 500 Miles was by far the most shocking and my initial reaction upon hearing it was to actually want run 1000 miles, in the opposite direction!

Here it is, attached in it's full glory - I included the video which (not so) kindly included the lyrics. Second question: Ok, so they've run out of original ideas for riffs and such, but good lyrics can't be that difficult, right?

*I used the word classics then, but I think I should rephrase that with something more appropriate like 'songs we once liked'

** It was the website owner's personal opinion

*** I stopped listening to contemporary music, and I'm therefore extremely backdated in my knowledge of what's hot and what's not right now.

THE TORCH OF TIME

2012-01-01T10:32:00.000+08:00

source: freeprintablecoloringpagesdotnet

Note: This is a story I wrote on 1st January 2011, inspired by the speed 2010 passed us by and also a comment on a friend's FB status update. Although it's been a year since then, the way 2011 sped by was no different, so I figured it's only fitting that I use it as the first post for the year. This story was first published in Selangor Times on 25 Feb 2011.

2011 sat nervously at the edge ofher seat and fidgeted with her new sparkling white robe as the InternationalDate Line shimmered in the silence of the arena. The only sound that wasaudible was the careful footsteps of 2010 as he made his way towards the end ofhis reign. He was noticed soon enough, though. As he took the bend, he was seenwalking with a confident swagger, one arm raised high above carrying the Torchof Time, which most of the folk not involved directly with Time believed staylit forever, and would only diminish at the sudden death of Time himself.

She caught his eye, smiled andgave a wave.

"Hey..." she said.

He nodded in reply and quickenedhis pace to a jog. In between concentrating on his jog and carrying the Torchof Time, he somehow managed to blow a kiss towards his old friend 2009 whoblushed into such a delicious colour. In a different world, tomatoes turnedenvious.

He finally threw himself on theseat strategically placed at 2350 hours, and positioned the Torch of Time intoits holder. The light flickered for a second, before it was quietly taken awayto be cleaned and refuelled by two of Time's most important personalassistants.

Every year, as they cleaned thetorch out while the fire sat sullenly in an old unused torch, they would jokeabout the silliness of mortals believing that Time himself would die one day.No doubt, the sun would swell up, turn into the red giant and incinerate a fewplanets while at it, including all those silly people who could never see thebigger picture no matter how much you shoved it at their faces. Nevertheless,Time would go on and on, and an entire new circle would begin. Every year asthey discuss this, they keep their hopes up that the next circle will have farfurther intelligent beings who could at least understand that they were onlyone minuscule corner of one of the pieces along the second row of a thousandpiece puzzle.

The silence was shattered by2011.

"How was it?" sheasked, breathlessly

"I sprinted!" 2010 laughedas he replied.

"Are you allowed to dothat?" 2011 asked, shocked and intrigued simultaneously

2010's eyes lit up mischievously.He shrugged.

"Well, I think they hatedme" he added as an afterthought.

In fact, some of them did, andpart of it was because they felt that 2010 moved at such a speed that there wasnever enough time for them to accomplish what they set out to accomplish. Heeven received a few hate mails for all his effort as he kept up with currenttechnology, reading people's blogs, twitter and that ever increasingly famousFacebook.

"Yeah, they did. Every nowand then, I'd take a pause, and look over the shoulders of people who couldn'tfinish their work, or whose babies just refused to sleep at night, and morningwould come too soon for them leaving them staggering like zombies going tobattle. How very amusing," he added.

"Can I sprint too?"2011 inquired, her eyes wide with wonderment.

"It’s your call, babe. Iknow 2008 and 2009 sprinted as well... so I decided to do some training, and broketheir records" 2010 added.

"Isn’t a year comprised of365 days, or 366 thanks to human manipulation?" she asked.

"It's all about how theyperceive time. The more they say they need more time, the less they get. Themosquito doesn't feel a thing... she lays her eggs, they turn to larvae, thenpupas. If she's Aedes aegypti, then Iconvey my sympathies, because humans always seem to remember to empty thevessels of water these days. But if it's a human person, with their perceptionof time, eight hours of work is never enough. Neither is six hours of sleep!They just get older and grumpier and even more disgruntled the faster theyperceive time," he said

"We're waging a war againsthumans, then? I quite like them really, they and their quirks, ambitions, alwaystrying to succeed" 2011 said

"Don't forget their greed,their need to be on top of everything, trampling over the lives of those theyfeel are beneath them, blatantly cutting down trees thousands of years old,hunting for sport. It's disgusting. But no... none of us were waging a waragainst the humans. Like I said, it's how they perceive time, and we're justusing that to mess with them, because they are willing to be messed with"2010 flashed 2011 a smile.

The Torch of Time was carried outagain, clean and bright, the fire flickering brightly. In the background, thetick of the final minute of 2010 sounded louder than usual. The clock, a humaninvention, ironically signified the passage of time even in Time's arena due tohow convenient it was. 2010 stood with the Torch of Time in his left hand on hisside of the line as it glowed brighter than ever. 2011 stood on the other sideof the line and held up her right hand, completely ready to accept herresponsibility for a brand new year, filled with hopes and dreams and crazypeople's resolutions.

The clock gave another tick inthe silence of the arena, marking the arrival of 2011. The Torch of Time passedhands.

"Good Luck!" whispered2010 as 2011 moved forward.

Far away, in another place,fireworks exploded in the air as champagne bubbles tickled the noses of people,street parties became much more exciting and people generally started wishingeach other a Happy New Year.

The Year in Retrospect - 2011

2011-12-30T15:59:00.000+08:00

Long ago, I once told an old friend of mine that tradition is an inconvenience. At that time we were talking about the chronology of a Tamil wedding, which I believe inconveniences the bride big time. Right now, I'm beginning to feel that this tradition of recapping the end of the year before the year ends is a big inconvenience, because part of me is just too lazy too do it, and yet another part of me insists that I should do it, just for the sake of making sure that 2012 is all fresh and new. Weird? Yeah.

2011 must have been one of the shortest years ever - if that's even possible. On the very first day of the year, I sat down and wrote a story called "The Torch of Time" which describes how the years sprint and how they do that on purpose to make us feel as though our lives just fly past us without a pause. I wrote and edited the 800 words under 4 hours and duly submitted it. One and a half months later, the editor of the paper e-mailed me and told me that the story had been published. First cool thing of the year, I got a story published in a local paper.

Other personal things that happened in 2011 worth mentioning:

1. The first ever family trip out of the country to Sri Lanka (will be blogged about - soon, I hope)

2. I fractured a bone (the very first bone in the history of my existence)

3. Had a two week long vacation (without much objection from the bosses, oh wow) to New Zealand and Australia (also needs to be blogged about - at least I took notes here)

4. Had the worst haircut ever

5. This blog (with the old url) got discovered by people that shouldn't have any business discovering it, leading to panic and I almost deleted it.

6. One grey hair - safely removed now, so all is good.

7. Didn't have any disastrous incidents of falling sick (thanks to hand sanitizers, no doubt)

8. The laptop is probably dying, but instead of getting a new laptop, I got myself a tablet. The laptop can wait. Meanwhile, I'm transferring my stuff to an external hard drive.

9. Made friends with my sisters friends (3 of them who are all 5 years younger than me)

10. Did one 'bucket list' must dos

11. Got my second story published in the same paper. Either they like what I write or there aren't enough contributors (Personally, I'd like to say the former, but I believe by the time the second story got published, it was due to the latter)

12. Still book crazy.

13. Some deaths of people I know

(Not too bad if judged by the list, but I guess, just like every year, we have the highs and lows. I know for a fact that I have been overworked since September, with a brief return of the dreaded insomnia, and I know I disliked July, but all these were work related)

The World

On the whole, while my list above does seem to indicate that 2011 has been a rather nice year to me, it wasn't so for the world in general. The world, as we see it has been shocked by earthquakes, tsunamis and storms, and floods, and somehow, it seems even worse this year, although most people still remember the horrors of the boxing day tsunami of 2006.

This was also a shocking year for the economy and politics. We had countries declared bankrupt, and even in the local front, the country's debt is significant enough to make us worried of a similar fate. America, the country *we all secretly admired for their solidness in any given situation seems to be not as solid as we thought they were. The Arab spring happened, old, famous leaders were ousted and went into hiding and got killed. Osama Laden (the reason behind a war I personally find pointless) died.

On the local front

In July, some Malaysians took to the streets to demand fair and free elections and were met with water cannons and tear gas canisters instead. One man died in this. A solitary elderly lady (known as Annie) marched on her own, in her water cannoned wet t-shirt, and was looked upon as an exemplary citizen who knew when it was time to stand for their rights. Corruption type scandals were all over the news, contributing to a few creative headlines.

The country also probably faced one of the most 'race and religious intolerant' years ever, what with the newspapers giving face to a certain man named **IbraahimmAlliTheFrog who spews the biggest amount of racist rubbish a man ever can. It's entertaining, nevertheless. Then there was the issue with the Malay Language Bible, the raid during a dinner because there were rumours of proselytisation, etc.

We also saw a massive heatwave in July, followed by crazy rains, flash floods and non-flash floods involving people to be put in flood relief centres.

So, that's it, a short review of the year that was -2011. In terms of personal stuff, it seems like a pretty good year, and for personal reasons, I'd give the year a 7/10.

* Just a personal opinion.

**Name purposely disguised to prevent people who stupidly search for him ending up on this blog

Spreading the Word

2011-12-26T14:32:00.000+08:00

I was browsing through John Ling's blog just now and found out that his publishing company is helping out a girl suffering from neurofibromatosis, a disease currently without a cure.

What they are doing is selling her e-book (I'm Not Sick, Just A Bit Unwell) on Amazon, and the proceeds (all of them) go to her surgery, and this being their first release and all. The book is free for download until boxing day (yes, this post is out a bit late) I actually figured I'd purchase it but just my luck that Kindle and Malaysia do not have a good relationship with each other.

Her website is here: http://www.yvonnefoong.com/

Oh, Festivals!

2011-12-24T20:48:00.002+08:00

It's been a long, long week at work. Insane is the only way I can describe December (and the number of posts in December, and how delayed I am in commenting and answering comments on the blog can attest to that). What made it all worse is people mentioning long breaks, and about how December is a pretty easy going month and all while it was the complete opposite for those of us who work in my place.

But then, it's Saturday now, and all the effort we put in during the last two weeks means that at least Sunday and Monday should be relatively easy going and peaceful. Fingers crossed.

With that, I figured I should join in the bandwagon and wish everyone a happy (insert name of appropriate festival here)

List of festivals:
i. *Festivus (Dec 23)
ii. Hanukkah (Dec 20 - 28)
iii. Christmas (Dec 25)
iv. New Year (Jan 1)
v. Anything I missed out

*Remembered this from a gchat conversation with a friend last year

The Optimist (Not)

2011-12-18T18:01:00.000+08:00

Note: A possibly pointless post ahead.

There was a time when I used to be an optimist. These days, whatever optimism I have seems to be laced with a certain degree of cynicism. I do not know how (or even when) this happened.

About two months ago, I met up with someone I knew from university. I haven't spoken to him since 2000 (I think), so we had a lot to catch up on, mostly working our way from the last time we spoke to what we're doing now, and in the few hours we hung out that day, there was one very obvious thing about him that stood above all others. His optimism/positivity.

This made me realise that I was a bit too cynical for my own good, and it was even worse when I started paying attention to his status updates on Facebook. The optimism just oozed out and made a grab for you with invisible fingers.

So, about two weeks ago, I decided to inject a bit of optimism (have positive thoughts) to my life instead. I didn't know how to make such a big change at first, so I figured that I'd just stop complaining about things that I usually complain about. Was I on my way to being a better, less cynical person?

My 'optimism' lasted for a week and a half before I succumbed to whatever it is I had succumbed to that Thursday. I was so angry that I wanted to write "Arghhh" as a status update on FB, instead, in an attempt to make it a bit more positive, I wrote:

"The world is just awesome. Arghhh."

The Bud is Back Meme

2011-12-12T17:52:00.000+08:00

Courtesy of Sunday Stealing

The Bud is Back Meme

Every now and then, the narcissist in the blogger decides to surface and tell all and sundry about themselves. While yours truly is not really willing to divulge everything about herself (real name for one), she happens to like talking about her blog. A lot. She saw this meme, liked it and decided to honour it by stealing it. After all, that is what Sunday Stealing is all about!

1. Why did you sign up for writing your blog?
It happened on a whim - I had stories to tell, and the blog kind of took them in without telling me that I'm crazy.

2. Why did you choose your blog's name? What does it mean?
You know how sometimes when you convince yourself enough about something, it may just come true? The same goes for the name of this blog. According to the free dictionary, raconteur means : One who tells stories and anecdotes with skill and wit. Someday, I hope that the blog will live up to it's name :)

3. Do you ever had another blog?
(Have you ever had another blog? Did you ever have another blog?)
Yes. Quite a few actually.
a) The old one that got deleted by the host :(
b) A rather sluggish fitness blog
c) Another old deleted blog a few of us wrote in (this was cool because the authors were from three different continents - Africa, Europe and Asia)
d) A hidden blog in which part of a novel I was working on sits quietly.

4. What do you do online when you're not on your blog?
Click links on wikipedia, stalk friends on Facebook, send e-mails, chat with some friends, read news, play some random point and click games...

5. How about when you're not on the computer?

Then it means I'm reading something

6. What do you wish people who read your blog knew about you?
I think the posts speak for themselves. I can't even write a proper 'about me' section, so I guess there's really nothing much tell anyway. I wouldn't mind anyone asking me any question that they'd want to know about, though :D

7. What is your favorite community in the blogosphere?

Err... are there communities?

8. What is your philosophy on your blog layout?
Clean and simple, although I have been through phases where complex layouts with lots of details and (ahem) wild colours ruled the day. Dark font, preferably MS Trebuchet on a light background is a must. Other than that, anything goes.

9. Tell me about your picture you use to represent you on your blog.
My superhero-esque persona, Terra Shield - taken from the picture used by Blogthings when you answer the quiz:

10. Pick 3 random blogs from your blogroll and tell us about them.
   i. It's cruel to pick just three when you have so many on the blogroll AND you like all of them
       ii. I break meme rules all the time, so I'll tell the different reasons I read the blogs on the blogroll instead
           a) They're fun to read because they depict mostly ordinary lives in an interesting way
           b) They tell interesting stories about people you'd never know about
           c) You get to know about how they live in their respective countries, what they do everyday and things that interest them
           d) They deal with heavier issues I have interest in but am too lazy to blog about

11. What features do you think your blog should have that it doesn't currently?
   Probably "Pages" but I just don't have the time to revamp the whole blog or as I mentioned above, to write a decent 'about me' post

12. What do you consider the 10 most "telling" interests that we would infer from your blog persona?
i. I love to procrastinate (I even have a label for it)
   ii. I travelled quite a bit the last year
    iii. I love bad jokes
    iv. I love to draw not so good pictures and pass them off as artwork on this blog
   v. I also write what I would call "Bad Poetry" - This is my favourite
    vi. I complain a lot
   vii. I write the occasional review on books, movies and music, but it's not the best thing I do
   viii. Things which require you to have a twisted funny bone
    ix. OMG! My blog persona has no personality
     x. Errrr...

13. Do you have any unique interests that you have never shared before? What are they?
Most of my interests have been mentioned throughout the years spent blogging (and I've been around for quite awhile now), so probably not. If it's something I don't mind talking about, then it will be here.

14. The best thing about blogging is all of the friends that you make, Beside from those folks, do you think your blog has fans?
I don't know... there might have been one or two or even three throughout the lifespan of the blog. The thing is, blogging is probably dying a slow death no thanks to the new media out there which people use to express themselves, so having anyone read and comment is already awesome enough.

15. What's your current obsession? What about it captures your imagination?
Nothing at the moment. My imagination is doomed.

16. What are you glad you did but haven't really had a chance to post about?
Earlier this year, I had one of my 'bucket list' wishes achieved. I've written about it, but haven't completed it yet.

17. How many people that first became a blog friend, have you met face to face?
Well, this person used to read my blog but didn't have a blog on their own. If this counts, then one, if not, then none

18. What don't you talk about here, either because it's too personal or because you don't have the energy?
I stopped talking about work-related woes earlier this year. I hardly mention the truly personal aspects of my life.

19. What's a question that you'd love to answer?
I don't know...

20. Have you ever lost a blogging friendship and regretted it?
People who became friends through blogging mostly ended up being friends on Facebook instead once they quit/slowed down in blogging, so the answer is no.

21. Have you ever lost a blogging friendship and thought, “Was that overdue!”
Gosh, no!

Feel free to 'steal' this and post it on your own blogs if you're into stuff like this :)

Eclipsed by Clouds

2011-12-10T21:38:00.000+08:00

The thing about catching snippets of news on the radio is that you usually only catch the end of the news, mostly after you've heard a word or two that catches your interest. Yesterday evening, those few words were eclipse, Malaysia and seven-ish pm. Of course there were other words such as *climate change to which I raised my eyebrows to an invisible audience as I was driving alone at that time.

As eclipses excite me as much as prom night excites a high-schooler, I thought to myself that I will be catching the eclipse - after all it was a Saturday evening, and I had no plans, and I felt a pang of regret when I remembered that I had not bought a DSLR camera as I had planned to earlier (My carefully honed procrastination skills knows no boundaries, ha ha)

How part of the eclipse might have looked from some part of the world - 'artist's' (snort) impression

Sometimes plans have plans of their own. With an overcast sky (from 3 pm right up to the time when I started this post - **9:15 pm), the moon was nowhere to be seen, and obviously that meant that the eclipse was nowhere in sight as well. Undeterred, I figured I might as well just draw my own eclipse. (see picture above)

Notes:

* "Climate change" - I'm sure she meant to say something alongside clear skies

**According to wikipedia, this eclipse can only be seen in Malaysian skies right after sunset, so the final view at 9:15 pm was actually only wishful thinking.

Claims to Spiffy Titles

2011-12-06T21:54:00.001+08:00

Otherwise known as why you shouldn't delay posting blog posts when you think you've got a good title for it.

It all started with a conversation with my aunt - concerning the brain drain issue plaguing our country. I will not go into the details of the conversation because it's irrelevant to the topic at hand, but we somehow started talking about maids (domestic help) - don't ask me how the conversation took this path, because I can't remember. All I can remember is that when I got back home, I opened Blogger, and typed out at the title box: Maid in Malaysia (Yes, it is unoriginal - no thanks to Maid in Manhattan :p)

I never ~~finished~~ started the post.

A few weeks later, which is today, as I drive home from work listening to the one and only radio station I ever listen to, what do the radio deejays talk about? Maids (and the issue with Indonesia banning their women from working here due to several incidents) And what do they decide to name this particular 'episode'? You guessed it - Maid in Malaysia. With this, that post of mine is forever doomed to live in the realm of the unpublished unless I can come up with another title (and some err... content as well)

The only thing I discovered out of this issue? At least I can pass off as being as creative in coming up with titles as the producer of a radio talk show. ;)

How To Save the World

2011-12-03T20:01:00.000+08:00

Ahem. It's how to save your blog actually, from whatever it is that may attack it someday.

Some time ago, an old blog of mine got deleted by whoever was hosting it - and, they didn't even bother informing me. I whined about it in a post, and a comment left by Secret Agent Woman got me thinking. It was time to back up this blog too, although Blogger is currently hosted by Google - a huge company if there ever was one. But like everything else in this time and age, you just never know what is going to happen, and no one has guaranteed that your blog is going to be there forever, and what will become of the posts you slaved over the years - spelling mistakes and all?

After listening to the podcast in the link below last week, the urge to backup is now stronger than ever.

http://bfm.my/assets/files/TED%20Talks/2011-11-27_TEDTalks_SixWaysToSaveTheInternet.mp3

These are a few methods I use:

Save the Blog!

1. Blogger's backup system. (found via blogger buzz)

Blogger has it's very own system in which you can download and backup whatever you've written. This is the same function you can use if you intend to export your blog elsewhere. The only problem I see with this is the fact that it's an XML file, and my lack of knowledge on it makes me worry if it will be retrievable if blogs or blog hosts completely vanish from the face of the earth. However, this step is simple enough to be done as it only involves a click of "Settings" followed by "Other" and "Export Blog" They kindly inform you that this action does not delete the blog, and after you click the "Download Blog" button, all you have to do is wait for a few minutes and hey presto, the XML file is all safe and sound in your own hard drive.

Pros: Easy one click steps, enables moving between bloghosts, full tutorial is available on Blogger Buzz

Cons: You need to export blog from time to time to update it from when you last downloaded it, it's in XML format so you can't really see it

2. E-mail (Found via google search)

Also another built in blogger feature.

Similar to export, this step also involves a few easy clicks. Go to "Settings", then "Mobile and e-mail" and in the box which says email posts to? type in the e-mail address you want your posts sent to.

Pros: The moment you hit publish, the blog post gets sent to the e-mail address specified, with pictures, captions and formatting intact, you do not need a blog to read this.

Cons: If you post a lot, then your e-mail add will be flooded with the posts - but you can always create a folder for this, or create a specific e-mail just for your blog posts

3. Old manual backup.

I used to do this for a short while, where my posts were actually typed in notepad before I transported them to blogger. But then, after posting, I actually deleted most of the posts due to space constraints. I want to strangle myself.

Pros: Notepad format - so you don't even need to be online for this, small file size - until their quantity reaches a crazy number

Cons: Only words - no pictures saved

Secret Agent Woman's backup plan:

Use "Blog to Book" to enable your posts to be compiled into lovely books for posterity. There are a few websites which have this service.

Pros: You get a book in your hands- what can be better than that?

Cons: Can't think of any

Boat Ride in Kuala Sepetang (aka Part 5)

2011-11-29T00:00:00.000+08:00

continued from here

How on earth do you make a three day trip stretch to 5 posts and you're still only on your second day? Easy.

Firstly, make sure that you had your trip more than a year ago.

Secondly, because you have forgotten most of what you did (unless you took notes, which you didn't because your initial plan was to actually complete the write-up as soon as possible), you try recalling what you did by looking back at your photos.

Thirdly, because pictures scream a thousand words than actual thousand words do, you end up posting pictures (after cutting yourself out of it, or putting a black box on your face first - if you're in it) and caption them with not so funny captions that they are sufficient to tell everyone about what you did or how your trip went.

Fourthly, because the posts are loaded with pictures instead of words, when you preview them , they tend to look extra lengthy, and you don't want that because your aim is to actually share your experience with your friends who read them (and everyone knows that some lengthy posts (especially when accompanied by photos) may lead to skipped parts), and therefore you start splitting the posts.

But I digress (a lot)

Kuala Sepetang - A Boat Ride, Lifestyle and Other Things

View of one of the fishing boats at the village

The boat ride

After the mangrove park, we decided that we'd take the boat ride around the Kuala Sepetang area. There are a few different boat rides available, but we decided to take the one hour boat ride that goes down around the riverside past the fishing villages and the mangrove forests.

For those who are interested, Kuala Sepetang is also another place that is steeped in history. This is where the very first railway line was built (to Taiping) in Peninsular Malaysia, back in 1885. These days, Kuala Sepetang is known as a fishing village where boats are more abundant than cars. As we took the boat ride, the guy giving us the tour told us that there was absolutely nothing to do on the fishing village other than house the fishermen and their families. Anything you wanted to do elsewhere, you had had to wait for one of the boat taxis to take you out to the mainland. Just as our boat guy was telling us this, we saw a family, dressed up for the Saturday evening, excitedly waiting for one of the boat taxis to take them so that they could have a day out like anyone else. I'm sure they are pretty happy with their lives (well, they looked happy as the breeze blew at them while waiting), but it makes you realise how terrible people can be the more they have. Take those of us who live in towns, where we complain even about the slightest discomfort that disrupts our busy schedules. Sigh.

Another item of interest mentioned by the boat guy is that due to the isolated nature of the fishing village, practically every single house carries a satellite dish which has over 500 channels from all over the world, which somehow compensates them having nothing much to do (at least that was the impression I got from the boat guy), and the best part - the satellite dish is apparently illegal elsewhere in the country! Other than the fishing village we got to see an eagle and a few monkeys by the mangrove.

After the boat ride, we drove back all the way back to Taiping town in order to grab some dinner. This time we had some Chinese food, which as expected was delicious. The night ended here as we were all very exhausted and ended up sleeping quite early.

JUST ANOTHER RANDOM POST

2011-11-28T00:19:00.001+08:00

1. Why is it that some people always manage to say things that rub you the wrong way in almost every conversation you have with them, although deep down inside you kind of know that they don't mean to be mean to you?

2. I recently noticed that some friends at work have started to refer to me as an English walking dictionary/grammar book. It's strange yet fascinating as my 'knowledge' on grammar is basically based on what I usually refer to as 'it sounds right, so I'll use that'

3. Football (or soccer if you're American) is the only thing that unites the Malaysian people. Politics just do the total opposite.

4. I've been using glasses since I was 7, and while deep down inside I was a nerd to the core, I hid it as best as I could by getting non-nerdy glasses, and using contact lenses whenever I went out with friends, although they all knew I was a nerd. I checked my eyes again recently (the yearly one) and now I've decided to embrace my nerdiness with frames that emphasise nerdiness.

And Then There Was One

2011-11-26T22:52:00.000+08:00

They never sent a warning beforehand although they had our e-mail addresses.

One day everything was there, intact, and the next day everything had suddenly disappeared. All those words, all the friends, and all those memories.

Long before Facebook was shoved in my face by a close friend back in September 2007 in which I rather reluctantly embraced it, I belonged to a similar social networking group called Friendster, where I was reunited with a few old friends, some who go back way into the crazy days of pig-tailed childhood (one of them, at least - my hair was always kept short as a child) Such good times. A little later into the social networking bandwagon, they came out with a feature known as Friendster Blogs. As I only had a miserable and erratic dial up connection back then (2005), knowledge about what the internet had to offer was rather limited, so I had no idea that Blogger (then known as Blogspot? - apparently not) even existed.

I had lots of stories to tell back then, and Friendster Blogs provided the perfect avenue for it. I typed out and posted my very first post at exactly 10:22 pm on April 11, 2005, which told one of the many silly stories I had shelved up in my mind. That blog led a rather active albeit private life until April of 2008, when I decided to revert my 2 and a half readers from there to this blog, which by then already had a life of it's own. It led a rather quiet life after that, especially since Facebook gained popularity and Friendster took a backseat, although I did visit it occasionally.

A few months ago, they revamped the whole of Friendster from a social networking site to a site that caters to games. I don't have anything against games, but did they have to delete everything? I don't care too much about the profile itself, but the blog was something I truly cared about. It had a story of my late grandfather, some old stories from the mad days of university life to some stories when I first started working and a whole lot of idiotic observations on life (Due to the 2.5 readers there, I was prone to even more silliness there than I am here, plus I was also younger back then. Duh!)

It saddens me that all those stories I wrote back then are now in an online graveyard somewhere, and how I was not able to rescue them on time. While I have not exactly forgotten the incidents or the stories, recreating them is just not possible.

Tell Me Why I Don't Like Boys

2011-11-24T19:51:00.001+08:00

First of all, they are confusing, because they are probably a confused lot themselves. And due to their tendency to be confusing, they end up causing a whole lot of confusion!

Juvenile as it seems, and unlikely as it is to have a thirty-something lamenting about something like this, here I am.

P.S: Nope, this is not one of those girls vs boys posts, I just had the need to let this out due to some personal reasons and I had nowhere else to put it.

PPS: Title of the post modified from the lyrics to the song "I don't like Mondays" by Boomtown Rats.

Matang Mangrove Forest Reserve

2011-11-19T17:00:00.000+08:00

continued from here:
http://raconteuresquescribblings.blogspot.com/2011/11/getaway-to-wettest-town-in-malaysia.html

Kuala Sepetang Mangrove Park

aka Matang Mangrove Forest Reserve

After the jaunt in the museum, where we took a few *illegal photos (see part 3), we drove on towards the mangrove forest, missing the entrance several times before we finally found it - yes, even with the GPS because we had the wrong name - don't ask. Entry was free, and so was parking. Again!

The forest reserve is an educational park of sorts, peppered with signboards indicating the different flora (and fauna - but fauna are a bit harder to spot) you could find around you, a platform you could walk on so that the mud didn't damage your footwear, but unless you have enough foresight to think of mosquitoes, without bug repellent, you'd be contributing to a free blood festival for said mosquitoes. You can also choose to stay there overnight if that is your thing - there are chalets there which you can rent, and I think they are pretty cheap.

Besides being a place where you'd gain knowledge on mangrove forests and their usefulness in protecting our inland from erosion, you'd also see people jogging there - in fact, there was one particularly loud jogger running around - you could hear his footsteps on the boardwalk before you saw him, so you could get ready to make way for him to pass you. In the time it took us to cover the whole area, he had jogged past us at least three times.

One of the many signboards

This tree predates the country's independence. So do my parents, actually. But still....

The platform/boardwalk

*we tried to blend in with the exhibits, and then realised that the museum had cameras all around watching our every move. It's a wonder that no one kicked us out.

To be continued....

Operasi Payung

2011-11-16T21:48:00.001+08:00

Umbrellas doing a waltz of their own

There is a place where government officials carrying colourful umbrellas would waltz around to offer to walk petrified looking students stuck in the rain (one official per student) to their examination centres. No, I have not watched any musicals in awhile, but come on, what else are you supposed to imagine when you hear the words 'Operasi Payung' (Operation Umbrella?) on an otherwise mundane Monday?

For some strange reason, the rainy season (yes, although it does rain most of the time, there ARE periods with even more rain than usual, especially around the east coast where it floods like crazy) always seems to coincide with the SPM (equivalent to O-levels) examination so much so that at one point while I was still in school the government decided to tackle the problem by shifting the school year from January to December so that the exam season was just slightly ahead of the rainy season. That didn't work either as the rainy season seemed to have a mind of it's own and shifted to once again coincide with the exams. Finally, after a few years, the government threw in their towels in disgust and changed the school year back to January.

On Monday morning, while I was listening to the news on the radio, the newsreader announced that the exams had started, Monday being the first day and all, and how the Education Department had decided to use "Operasi Payung" (literally translated to Operation: Umbrella(!!!)) in order to help kids stranded in floods to sit for their respective papers. Now, although the newsreader said that this meant that the students would be directed to different centres to sit for their exams in case their original exam centre was flooded or their path to said centre was blocked, my imagination (as can be seen in the first paragraph of this post) had a whole different idea.

A Getaway To The Wettest Town in Malaysia (Part 3: Matang Museum)

2011-11-14T20:00:00.000+08:00

Continued from The Wettest Town Part 2

(Note: This trip happened waaaaay back in July 2010 - no kidding, but I had forgotten to continue with the write-up for so long for so may different reasons. A friend's recent trip to Taiping reminded me of the place and here is the continuation - scheduled post)

By the time we got back down to sea level after another stomach churning ride down the hill by land rover (and going down is scarier by far, I think), it was almost time for lunch. We headed out to Taiping town to our hotel to chuck our stuff, and freshen up just to head out again for lunch. This time, we picked a Thai restaurant recommended by the GPS. The food was OK, but extremely hot - good for the taste buds (mine), not too good for the digestive system (my sister's)

We drove out of Taiping after that heading towards a town called Kuala Sepetang because it was recommended by the caretaker of the bungalow up at Maxwell Hill. Kuala Sepetang was once also known as Port Weld. On the way, we stopped at the Kota Ngah Ibrahim Matang Museum

The Kota Ngah Ibrahim Matang Museum

The Matang Museum

A cannon right outside the museum

Perak is a state with lots of history. If anyone was dilligent enough to browse through the history books I read back in school, a lot of the stories originated in Perak, from the finding of tin ore there, some local skirmishes between Chinese groups to the Pangkor Treaty which eventually led to the colonisation of the state. There also has been some interesting pre-historic findings in Perak, such as the Perak Man (although that was in a different district from where we were)

Entry into the museum is free, and there is ample parking outside as well. Also free! (I'm not used to free parking, so I found this fascinating) There weren't many people there at that time, but a few of the museum's personnel were doing some work outside. The museum basically consists of the history during the tin mining era of Perak, as well as the many things the building was used for. Outside, on the other hand, they were working on a (then) recent archeological find.

The building was once Ngah Ibrahim's home, until he was exiled to Seychelles, and buried in Singapore when he died. A few years ago, his remains were brought back to Perak and he was reburied near his home.

How tin was discovered! Apparently, a pet elephant named Larut got stuck in some mud, and when he got unstuck, they found some tin ore stuck on his leg amongst the muddy mess.

Inside the museum. You've got to take your shoes off here before proceeding upstairs


A scene from the trial of the murder of J.W.W Birch, held in this very building which served as a court in it's day after being Ngah Ibrahim's house and before it was turned into a teacher's training college

Among other things the house was used for before being turned into a museum:

Matang College (A teacher's training college)
A primary school
Headquarters of the Japanese Army
Primary school (until taken over by the museum)

To be continued in Kuala Sepetang....

Cruelty to Ugly Soft Toys

2011-11-13T12:18:00.001+08:00

Why so cruel?

Up, Up and Away

2011-11-12T20:03:00.001+08:00

Someone got stuck in the passenger *lift the other day. Despite the 'unfortunateness' of the incident, he was rather fortunate because he had a walkie-talkie with him and could therefore call for help. Yes, the glass is always half-full, probably because it wasn't me in there, stuck in between floors in a dark and stuffy cube - alone.

I've always been worried about using that particular passenger lift due to it's uncanny ability to trap unsuspecting users time and again - sometimes right after it's been serviced. Give me the stairs anytime - plus there's always the promise of nice looking legs with the stairs. The passenger lift gives the vibes of something lonely and desperate which will decide to force it's company on you whether ypu like it or not, until one of the maintenance guys set you free. I had a dream about it last night. (Edit: Last night was actually Tuesday - I wrote this on notepad during lunch and managed to post it up only today - Saturday)

For some strange reason, a few friends and I were on a backpacking adventure trip/competition, and the second last leg of the competition involved getting into the lift and surviving the ride without throwing up once the doors finally opened and chucked you out into the final leg. Although I've never experienced a lift lurching as you see your life pass you by, my dream self had an almost real feel of it. The lights dimmed, the sound magnified, and the whole team screamed although we knew it was just simulated and we were not really falling to our deaths. After what felt like forever it did throw us out. What a thing to dream about.

*British English. Besides, passenger lift sounds better than passenger elevator ;)

LOST BUT NOT FOUND

2011-11-05T22:14:00.000+08:00

My mom is a semi-firm believer in the art of fengshui, and she also happens to care way too much about her already grown up kids. When we ask her about it, she says she'll always be our mom no matter how old we get, so that was that. Due to her caring way too much attitude, a few years ago, she got me a monkey on a horse bronze statue, a small one similar to size of a tightly balled up fist of a 5'3" female - something which fengshui believers believe will help improve our career prospects.

The Monkey on a Horse

Now, while I'm not much of a believer in anything at all - except maybe for science, I took the statue and duly placed it on my work desk. However, as time went by and I changed office, I ended up putting it and locking it inside my desk drawer.

Prior to this, I've had a few things missing from my work desk, from packets of emergency food supply such as the 3-in 1 sachets of cereal or coffee. I brushed it off as co-workers being a hungry lot who thought that since I left it on top of my desk it was theirs for the taking and didn't bother to ask because I wasn't there (I noticed things would go missing over the weekend - I once put an expired sachet of cereal on my desk, just to see what happens. That too went missing and so did a bottle of hand sanitiser)

The other day, I was looking for my penknife, which I was certain I had put into the drawer and locked it, but I couldn't seem to find it at all, which was when I decided that I'd empty out the whole drawer and search for it. And that was when I noticed that it wasn't only my penknife which had decided to go walkabout, but so did the monkey on a horse statue, a silver-ish ring like item, and a gift from Japan a colleague had given me (the bag was still there, but the gift in it was missing)

I used to think that me losing items was always because I was careless and had misplaced them - like the time I lost this certain gadget which I had to use to detect the flow of something work related, or even if it was only my penknife that had gone missing, but after finding out that quite a number of things had actually gone missing, I'm inclined to believe that we might have a thief in our midst (the office doesn't have a lock, unfortunately) who can somehow open a locked drawer (the lock is not in perfect condition, either), or a toyol of some sort.

I'm in a dilemma of sorts now. I've discussed this with the section supervisor, who says he can't recall any of his personal items being flicked, but he once had a rather expensive piece of equipment vanish right under his nose. The box was still there, and in perfect condition, but the equipment itself was missing. I don't know if I should report this to my boss, or just suck it up and empty my drawers of anything personal (maybe I could put in a poisonous scorpion in there as well)

Edit: I didn't care about the food going missing at all... But I do draw the line at personal stuff (and expensive ones at that) as well as work equipment going missing.

NICE TO MEET YOU?

2011-11-03T01:17:00.002+08:00

So, you meet someone in person for the very first time, and instead of going for the tried and tested (but incorrigible) "Nice to meet you", you can now compliment their socks while you shake hands with them. On condition that you can actually see their socks.

An excellent ice-breaker if I may say so myself. ;)

Repost: Sugarcanes and Watermelons

2011-10-31T22:21:00.001+08:00

Although we do not celebrate Halloween here with Jack O lanterns, trick or treating or even crisp autumn evenings, last Saturday when I was out with a friend, we saw a whole bunch of people dressed up in costumes for a Halloween party at the mall. As a person who is a fan of all chilling tales, and seeing that I have been a bit busy to dig up the rusty old brains for something new, I decided that I'll just repost one of the stories I put back in 2008:

What I'm about to share is creepy enough that I'm only brave to type this out in the broad daylight. This story was told by a friend of my sister's, and apparently happened in a location not too far away from where I live (and the sister was under the impression that I used that route to work and told this story so I'd be careful - but how, I don't know)

The place in question was once an oil-palm estate. Today, oil palm trees still sway in the wind in a patch of land which goes almost as far as your eyes can see, but most of the area is now littered with medium sized industries, a road leading to/from the highway, the local Road Transport Department building and some small stalls, a mechanic's repair area and trees. It looks like the most normal area there ever was.

At night, the family members of my sister's friend set up a stall in that area, and one day (in the early am) which was as normal as any other day, one of the family members saw something from a distance carrying a sugarcane and walking towards the highway while they themselves were getting ready to pack up for the night. She stared at it, wondering why was anyone walking around that area at that time - unless they needed help of some sort. Apparently it noticed her as well, and turned to look at her, and immediately she felt as though she was pinned to the ground, while experiencing the creepiest feeling ever. She knew it was not human. It changed it's direction and started walking towards their crowd in what she described as an intimidating manner.

She somehow managed to point out what she saw and the whole family panicked as they hurriedly packed their stuff into their van. The thing was getting nearer to them as they worked. Finally they got into the van, and drove off. Nevertheless, the creature was still trailing them from afar, and the person who was driving the van (the mother, if I'm not mistaken) almost rammed the van into something on the road, which she couldn't see, but the others in the van saw. If it weren't for one of the kids who pulled the wheel aside, they would have all been injured. Speeding off, they finally managed to leave the thing behind.

Some time later, they got to know that the particular area has this resident "haunting" which we locally refer to as a 'penunggu". Apparently this one walks araound with either a sugarcane or a watermelon which signifies what it wants from the victims. Either death or injury. Although I do not use the road on a daily basis, it is close enough to give me the creeps.

For Esme - With Love & Squalor

2011-10-27T01:56:00.000+08:00

We pick up books for various reasons. A few weeks ago, my sister and I went crazy in a bookshop named Bookalicious, which had titles you don't often see in the bigger bookstores. After Catcher in the Rye, I had wanted to read Franny and Zooey but just never got the chance because I never found the book. That day we found it, and neatly tucked next to it, was this book, by the same author. Needless to say, we picked both up among various other books.

Now, for some strange reason, at the beginning of October, I had decided that I'd only read horror related books for the whole month - this was after that dream about scary children I had. I only managed three -

Let The Right One In
The Shining

Abarat (I picked this assuming it was horror because the author was Clive Barker - but it was actually fantasy. Oh well.)

I gave up on horror after that, partly because I suddenly didn't feel like reading horror anymore, and also I had ran out of books on horror and therefore on Tuesday morning, I finally started reading For Esme - With Love and Squalor. Without having ever read any reviews on it, or even checked it out online, I had no clue that it was actually a compilation of short stories.

The book was a page turner, with most of the stories set around the war, especially the story which carries the same title as the book. Men and women smoked in almost all the stories, parents were the kind who seemed to either be non-existent, or perhaps those who were not too fond of their children (or even if they were, it was displayed in a very odd manner), children were downright strange and employed vocabulary that was far ahead of their actual age, people (strangers) had long conversations with each other and so forth. I found the book very interesting as the stories mostly required you to come up with your own interpretation of what the author was trying to convey.

My only complaint about this edition of the book is the font size. It was painfully tiny.

Leave a light on

2011-10-25T12:57:00.000+08:00

Festivals.... You can't really run away from them even if you wanted to, and in Malaysia, there are just so many of them that it keeps us happy - happy enough to occasionally forget that we are actually angry at the government. There! I have just gone and sullied a festival by referring to politics.

Anyway, come tomorrow, will be a festival I celebrate, and while all the excitement I had for festivals when I was a child has been squeezed dry by cynicism and genuine disinterest, I somehow hope that writing about it will at least spark some interest, although I'm pretty much convinced that I'm going to spend tomorrow afternoon sleeping - just like the years past.

The festival is known as Deepavali or Diwali and is commonly also known as the festival of lights, as it was all about good winning over evil. This explains the picture above, an interesting twist to symbolise 'light' which was made by my sister a few days ago... We could just turn off all the electric lights and stare into this for hours tonight :)

Oh Google, Look At What You've Done

2011-10-23T14:01:00.002+08:00

Some time ago, I made use of a children's folk story to poke fun at a certain Malaysian whom I thought was in the news for all the wrong reasons. Turns out, my reference to the folk story has earned the top spot on google Malaysia when people took the trouble to search the following:

click to enlarge

Now, while I'm cool about being listed on google and all that (I don't earn money from the blog, so ratings are not and have never been of any particular importance), I can't deny that I'm a tad bit embarrassed about the content of the post (funnily, the thought that the post would be embarrassing never occurred to me when I clicked 'publish') despite the fact that I think the person (for once) may have found what they're looking for.

In the initial stages of blogging here on blogspot, and because everyone else was doing it too, I paid a good deal of attention on the blog statistics, and with all the tools out there which are available, it's such an easy task. I myself use Statcounter which I feel has a few of the better features around - especially the option for putting up your counter invisibly! Recently, after discovering the above case, I thought I'd start paying attention again at what has led random people over to the blog, and the findings are as follows: (1st August until 23rd October 2011)

Most of the searches are looking for Love Films's 100 movies in a poster and stuff on the ring of fire, and I'm glad that they will actually find that it is indeed somewhere around here. However, other than that, the search terms used are far from being mind boggling like they used to be so very long ago.

Back in 2008, folks came around looking for 'malaysian chicks' and 'red tubes' (I didn't know it then, but sometime later found out that red tube was a site for porn - hence the popularity. Oh, how those who searched for that and ended up at this blog would have cursed) And there were a few other strange searches as well. I had a good laugh. This new finding of rather dull keywords makes me wonder if people have actually ceased looking for strange stuff on the net, or has google managed to filter the content so that strange search items do not find their way to your blog unless you post equally strange content...

I Don't Really Feel Like Doing It

2011-10-22T02:04:00.001+08:00

This morning was the first time in over a week where I had a good look at my face while brushing my hair. My eyes seem to have sunken in, my bangs are covering my face right up to the tip of my nose, my skin looks pretty dead and I cannot even begin to explain what my eyebrows have become. I only thought I felt like crap, but it now looks like I also look like crap. And as I am writing this, I'm beginning to feel as though I have written all this before, a long, long time ago.

To make it all worse, I have a wedding dinner to attend tomorrow, and I don't really feel like it. In a typical womanly way I'd say that I have NOTHING to wear - which is rather true in a way.

*Insomnia Explained

2011-10-15T22:11:00.001+08:00

You lie there, awake, your eyes closed but just barely so, your mind refusing to shut down. You shift positions, hoping against all hope that it will help. Instead you repeat the whole process again and again only to be able to fall asleep about 15 minutes before you have to get up and begin a brand new day. This used to be how my life was some time ago that I had actually dedicated a 'label' on this blog to the word 'Insomnia'

Without me realising it, the inability to sleep slowly disappeared over time. Of course it would occasionally creep up on me every now and then, but it was nothing that made me worry endlessly about ending up like The Machinist. Over the last two weeks however, the inability to sleep or insomnia, as I'd rather call it (lets face it, insomnia is just one word that describes the situation instead of the three words used in 'inability to sleep', making it much more convenient!) made a comeback. Being sleep deprived after a long, long time was awful, but this time, instead of puzzling over it, the reason for this insomnia was suddenly apparent.

See, when I was was suffering from the initial bout of insomnia, I used to work rather late on a regular basis. The 'working late' trend came to a halt circa 2009 when the economic crisis happened (although we were not affected very badly) I followed this new trend although the economy picked up later on, and never realised that this could've been the contributor to my ability to sleep well. Since mid September, I've had to work late rather often, and all of a sudden, the insomnia came back just like that - with my mind actively working while it should actually be trying to get some rest.

Now that I've discovered the rootcause of the problem, the only thing left is to find a solution!

* Self-diagnosed

Where Hollow Eyed Triplets Scare The Hell Out of Terra Shield

2011-10-12T20:00:00.001+08:00

There is a very talented lady out there who is of the opinion that "Childrin r Skary". I was first introduced to her wonderful animated works through my sister, in which our talented lady, Katy Towell tells interesting horror stories involving children.

I personally find little girls or little boys that make an apperance in my dreams to live up to the opinion that childrin R skary. Take last night's dream for instance.

Now, the floor where the office I sit in is located is already full of horror stories that could fill up a short collection of short stories if anyone was interested to take up the challenge in the first place - come to think of it, I could, but knowing me, I'd just scare myself even more, something I'd not want to do seeing that I've been working late the past few weeks. Anyway, back to the dream.

I was alone in the office, looking out of the window which is behind my seat due to some noise I heard. The place looks empty enough until I get a glimpse of three little girls in pigtails with their arms linked, hopping and skipping along the long floor which is right in front of the office. I back up a bit and try to hide, because something tells me that I should be afraid of these girls, whoever they are. (They were all dressed in red collared t-shirts tucked in into light brown pants)

So there I am, standing partially hidden as I hope that the girls will not see me no matter what. However, as they pass by where I'm standing, they come to a halt outside the window and all three of them simultaneously turn their heads slowly and look at me. Their eyes are hollow and black, and as they open their mouths (to scream???), you can see that it's hollow as well, and I was gripped with fear. All I wanted to do was scream, but unlike those horrible Hollywodd slasher movies, I just stood rooted to the ground, unable to scream nor move. It was then my alarm decided that it was time for me to wake up.

Other dreams related to scary children

Attention seeker

Little Blue Child

Just Keeping Up With the Momentum

2011-10-11T21:43:00.001+08:00

We all know what happens when we begin to lose momentum.

Last month was my blogging month of 2011 after an extremely slow start in the beginning of the year. In fact, I almost wrote a status update on how I thought I got back my momentum, with all intentions of being cryptic about it, so that only people who knew that I blogged would get what it meant. The status update never got the chance to go up at all, and a good thing too.

A few things ran a couple of short distance sprints across my mind, and as much as I am all for quality over quantity, for the time being, quantity is of a higher priority, just because it helps keep up the momentum. I don't know if I'm making any sense here or not as I'm practically nodding off as I type this.

Anyway, here's a post to just keep up with the momentum.

Pyromaniacs, Sort of...

2011-10-03T20:05:00.000+08:00

Burnt socks!

The skies were supposed to be clear. Yeah right.

Instead, the skies opened up and literally poured water all over us, in varying degrees of showers, drizzle and plain old rain of the cats and dogs variety. Without water proof raincoats, we were just wet and miserable. And cold. I can assure you that wet shoes and socks are not fun at all. The only other not so fun thing I can think of, which is worse than wet socks and shoes is a wet jacket which is supposed to protect you from the cold. Wet jacket, cold wind - totally beats the purpose.

As they say, necessity is the mother of invention, and through previously successful rain soaked garb (my sister and I always end up in mysteriously rainy destinations) drying endeavours in other hotel rooms, we decided to follow the tried and tested formula of drying the wet socks on the lamp. It works like a charm and leaves your socks all warm and toasty.

Not this time, though. The socks were left to dry on one of the lamps while my sister showered and I sat in front of the TV trying to get reception of some sort - seriously, lousy TV service in the hotels here. How on earth are tourists supposed to learn anything about your country if you can't watch the local channels? In my TV related enthusiasm, I didn't notice the smell of something burning until my sister came out and asked me what the smell was. It was then we realised that instead of getting all warm and toasty as intended, the socks was burning around the edges, glowing an ominous red. A frantic and nervous laughter induced moment indeed as we scrambled to save the whole building from going up in flames by beating the burning bits of the socks into submission. The whole room smelled awful and we opened the windows to let in some fresh air, although I must admit that the smell was never the same again.

Thankfully the smoke detectors didn't do their job, and the whole building didn't burn down either, because then I would probably in prison in a foreign country awaiting trial for arson, or attempted arson and wouldn't be able to share this story being imprisoned and all. We threw the burnt socks away, hoping that no one would find out the truth, ever. I can just can't help wonder what the housekeeping staff would say to each other as they cleaned our room the next day. Ha ha ha.

Born in the year of the monkey

2011-10-01T20:12:00.001+08:00

An *unintentional act of mischief was committed yesterday, somewhere in the afternoon, while a whole bunch of us were seated in a room presenting some reports.

I had completed my presentation, and had ceased being worried about it and sat listening to the final presenter - lets call him Arofsky. He was talking about a few activities which he labelled as **3R, and my mind immediately drifted off towards the 3Rs related to the environment - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Someone of importance then chose that moment to ask Arofsky what his 3Rs were, and although he's one of those really smooth talking guys oozing with confidence most of the time, he sort of fumbled with the final R, and without much thinking, I prompted him with the word "Recycle" - a bit too loudly, I guess - and he took it as an actual prompt and said 'recycle' to which everyone burst out laughing.

He rectified it with the correct word almost immediately afterwards, but I was too busy being embarrassed to take any notice, especially after Ace who was sitting opposite me laughingly told me that I had turned *** 'naughty'

* It seriously was unintentional
**Well, maybe this is a lesson to not use already famous acronyms and (whatever it is you call things like 3R), because people's minds will always seek the most popular use!
*** I don't know where this comes from... I've not exactly been angelic all this while either :p

THEY WILL BE MISSED

2011-09-27T22:04:00.000+08:00

Sometime last week, I found out that R.E.M had decided to disband after 31 long years of making music. Though I knew they've been around for a long, long time, the knowledge that it was 31 years actually took me by surprise.

I got to know R.E.M back in 2001 when the song Imitation of Life was repeatedly played. The video, a pool side party in a reversed sequence was equally fascinating. I suppose that song made them popular in these parts, and two years later while Bad Day was receiving lots of airplay due to In Time, I actually won this CD of theirs in a promotional contest organised by a music TV station, which I listened to a lot back then due to my *limited CD collection (Channel V - which for some strange reason has ceased airing it's programmes here since last year) In a freak accident while cleaning up, the CD fell off the shelf and broke into two.

Eventually, over the noughties, I ended up being exposed to a lot of their stuff to the point that at one time, my MP3 player was actually dominated by R.E.M songs. Even iTunes, recently, in an attempt to allow it some independence in picking music for me, decided that I should listen to R.E.M among some other stuff it picked out for me.

Now, I can't really say I'm a great big fan of R.E.M - if i was, I'd have probably known that they've been making music for 31 years. I just like them, and find their music among those I like to listen to, not just the songs from In Time, but other songs as well. But somehow, the knowledge that they have decided to call it quits seems to be like an end of something, and it made me think something like - 'there goes another band that I actually like to listen to'. They will be missed. Indeed.

* CDs are insanely expensive here, hence the limited collection.

The Big North Sumatera Adventure Part VI - Volcanoes and The End

2011-09-24T22:24:00.000+08:00

continued from The Big North Sumatera Adventure Part V

Although I had not mentioned anything about geothermal activity throughout any of the past posts from the Big North Sumatera Adventure series, Lake Toba and the areas surrounding it was actually once a very active area, so active indeed that whatever it was that formed Lake Toba was a supervolcano that erupted over 73000 years ago.

Mount Sibayak and Mount Sinabung are both located near Berastagi. While Sibayak spews out sulphuric vapour every single day, having last erupted in 1881, Mount Sinabung had erupted just slightly less than 2 months before our visit. There also happens to be place where they had pools of hot water from the geothermal activity in that area. It looked like it was an extremely popular thing to do (so many people!), but we didn't take a dip there.

We went back to the now cleaned up hotel, and stayed in for the rest of the night after dinner. We found a creepy looking 'mini house' with glasses in them behind the block where our room was, suspecting that it is used as a place where they keep a 'guardian' of some sort. We can't verify that, though, but it still creep-ed the hell out of the sister and I.


Mt Sinabung

Mt Sibayak

The next day, we headed back to the Medan for our flight back. Before that, though we stopped at the market to look at stuff- like I said, we weren't there to buy fruits and lug them back all on a plane! We reached Medan by lunch time, had some lunch and had plenty of time to spend before having to get back to the airport. Now, while some cities may be interesting, I cannot say the same for Medan, especially not after seeing what the countryside had to offer. It was one shopping mall after the next. One thing though, they seem to place utmost care on their environment. There was this one mall which was built around a huge tree instead of them chopping it down, which I thought was wonderful. We did buy some stuff at the mall, though - just to finish up our converted currency, and sat and ate some lovely waffles with blue mint ice cream and lots of chocolate sauce.

We had some dinner, and then it was time to go. Surprisingly, at the airport, we were reunited with our little lost luggage, the pink duffel bag.

Both my sister and I agree that this is one of the best trips we've ever had in terms of relaxation. I also have to add here that we had the most awesome guide ever. He asked us to call him Do (and channeled a bit of Fraulein Maria by doing the Do Re Mi Fa So to emphasise the point, ha ha). He actually told us that he's not really keen on his job as a tour guide, but despite that he took real good care of us, had the same definition for punctuality as the both of us which made everyone happy.

The End.

THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND AT IT'S BEST

2011-09-24T02:07:00.001+08:00

Over the past twelve to thirteen years, I've mostly been a light sleeper, unless I'm not feeling well, where I could sleep *like a dead log for hours and hours. I also happen to wake up with the sun - even in a darkened room, alas, although this makes waking up in the mornings extremely easy, much to the envy of those who often oversleep.

On Friday morning, however, I found it incredibly **difficult to wake up. The gentle tune of AC Newman's Prophets woke me up with a start at 6:15 am. I groaned as I hit the snooze button. (I do this every morning, but on most days, I'm usually really awake by 6:15 am. I hit the snooze button to fool myself that I'm getting an extra 10 minutes of sleep. Somehow, this actually works wonders)

Reluctantly, I got up, but found my toothbrush missing from it's holder. I looked under the holder, behind the place where the toothpaste was kept and even inside the bathroom sink to no avail (I had once lost a toothbrush, and it was found much later inside the bathroom sink although there was no way it could ever go there by itself) Resigned that I had lost my toothbrush, I went looking for a new one, and realised something was really wrong when I was inside a shop which had rows and rows of toothbrushes in many different designs on the shelves. And then AC Newman sang again.

Turns out, my ten minute snooze had my subconscious mind trying to convince me that if I couldn't get up and get to work on time, I could always give the excuse that my toothbrush went missing and I had to get a new one from the shop!

* My parents often used to say this about people who could sleep so well that they are oblivious to the happenings around them

** Due to the flu medicine I had taken the night before. I only took it after 10 pm, and the effects had not fully worn off by the time I had to wake up.

Random Thoughts

2011-09-22T22:19:00.001+08:00

1. It just hit me that I haven't done any random posts in awhile. And no, I can't explain why either...

2. I actually thought I had escaped unscathed from the flu that came visiting recently. I managed to get some rest and actually got better. This morning, however, I found myself sneezing violently again.

3. Which is worse? Having a colleague ask you if you are greying (at the age of 31), or finding out that the 'grey' is actually white paint that splashed onto your hair while you were investigating a problem with the particular paint?

AND WHERE IS THAT AGAIN?

2011-09-18T00:53:00.000+08:00

Around two years ago, a rather spiffy gadget walked into my life and ever since then, things seem so much clearer. My life suddenly had direction. And the gadget? (Drumrolls please! The GPS unit. Ha ha)

Now, I've had a friend of a friend say that GPS usage makes you stop thinking as you try to make your way to a certain destination, and although I am the kind of person who is all for thinking, I just cannot toss the GPS unit away. You see, in the old days (before google maps and all), if I had to go somewhere new, I'd pick up the street directory and study it like I was going to sit for an exam using it's contents, copy important directions down neatly and store the copy as well as the original map in the car. One day before having to make the journey, I'd take the car, and the map and the copy, as well as the whole family and we'd all ply the route together to get it right before I attempted it on my own the next day or so. This method worked fine most of the time, but there was once, even with the one day before trial route, when I took the wrong ramp, realised it a bit too late and ended up in a long road to nowhere and didn't know how to turn back. I stopped at a petrol station to ask for the way back to not much help as the man at the petrol station himself wasn't sure which way I had to take. Thank goodness I had a colleague who knew the area well and he guided me out of the road to nowhere (it was actually leading to this place called Jinjang) via phone.

I just cannot bring myself to relive days like that.

Earlier, I was looking up the directions to a book warehouse sale, thinking that I should at least just go and check it out, but as much as I searched, I couldn't seem to find the given address on the GPS unit. In fact, the name of the street given leads me all the way to Singapore! A search on google maps indicated the same problem - not that it led me to Singapore or anything, but the name of the street just didn't exist on the map. After some more searching, it turns out that when you search for the place with the address given in the newspaper ad - Jalan Bersatu, Section 13/4, Petaling Jaya, google maps just gets all confused. Referring to an older map on the official site of the sale organiser to the following - Jalan 13/4 Section 13 Petaling Jaya, and suddenly, google maps and the GPS unit nod their imaginary heads and say - 'easy peasy' ;)

Anyway, some time back, a friend put up a google map *glitch which I thought was hilarious. This is what you do:
1. Go to google maps
2. Click on get directions
3. On A type China
4. On B type Taiwan
5. Get Directions
6. Check that it's on G70
7. Scroll down to direction no 56
8. Laugh.

*for the lack of a better word

The Big North Sumatera Adventure Part V

2011-09-17T09:54:00.000+08:00

continued from here: The Big North Sumatera Adventure Part IV

The Journey to Berastagi

The lake ends here

We left Samosir Island right after breakfast the next day by hopping onto the ferry and sailing out of there, bidding farewell to the lake. However, we still had a long journey ahead of us, once again through the winding inland roads, and through some really magnificent scenery after a rather early lunch.

One thing about Lake Toba is that it's elongated (check out the map above), and even as you drive away from it, you keep getting glimpses of the lake from the long, winding road, until you reach a certain point, that is, where the lake ends. The moment you drive out of that road, there's no looking back, and no more lake. I don't know about my sister, but I did feel a wee bit sad when we had to leave that final bit of the lake.

Near the end point of the lake, however, is the Sipiso-Piso waterfall, named as such due to the narrow stream of water that makes the waterfall (Sipiso-piso means knife) Over here, you can actually walk down to the bottom using a set of built in stairs which makes going down safe, but coming up seem like a massive workout in the gym! Nevertheless, the view is simply breathtaking that the 'workout' is worth it. We didn't go right to the bottom, however.

Sipiso-piso waterfall. Cuts like a knife ;)

After the waterfall, we headed away towards Berastagi, stopping for a bit at this farmstead where my sister got her Farmville fix. Cough.

Adventure in Berastagi

Berastagi is another town in the highlands, famed for flowers and fruits, not that we were interested in fruits or flowers for that matter. It's just that you could check out a couple of volcanoes, and it's basically part of the normal trip anyone would take when they are in North Sumatera. The plan was basically to check in the hotel, and then go out back again.

Just our luck! We arrived at the hotel amidst police patrol cars and debris on the street. People were grouped around the streets looking weary, and from what we could see, something particularly serious had happened there earlier. Turns out, a political figure had been there earlier (campaign, speech, we're not really sure), and there was a 'small' riot which explains the police and the debris. The hotel wasn't spared either as the glass walls and doors which encased the lobby were cracked in places. I initially thought someone had thrown a small bomb at the place. (Note: I'm not complaining about this, though... I've never seen anything like it, and found it interesting. This whole vacation had been filled with firsts - first time holidaying together with the sister, first time losing the luggage, first time seeing destruction from a riot first hand)

Seeing the situation, we had to make an impromptu change of plans by visiting the volcanoes and the surrounding area first while the hotel staff did the cleaning and ensured that the place was safe.

Note: I took the map off the internet (google images and forgot which site it was). Photos in the North Sumatera series are all from my camera, though

Indecision

2011-09-13T22:35:00.000+08:00

Like a girl who can't decide what to wear and keeps changing her outfit, I keep changing the way my blog looks even when I'm down with the flu. Don't know when this madness will end. If it ever ends!

2011-09-11T16:31:00.000+08:00

I have been struggling with reading "The Descent of Man: The Concise Edition" for the past few months - since somewhere in February this year. In between, due to my frustration at being unable to digest the words as my eyes move over them from left to right and top to bottom, I had gone on a holiday and took it along with me for 'reading up in the air', left it in my bag with hopes that I'll pick it up again, read plenty of other books, and finally decided to neglect it in favour of reading lighter material. What's really horrifying about this is:

a) It's the bloody concise version! Imagine if I had the actual lengthy version that goes on and on in my hands...

b) The topic is actually one of particular interest, and having the words pass you by is really, really bad. IMHO.

I picked it up again about two weeks ago, seeing that I had a long break and could probably read it in a few sittings, but it wasn't meant to be as I suddenly had plenty of other things to do as well. I managed to reread the parts I thought I had covered earlier and I progressed further than I had over the period of the few months during the first attempt, but I still have a quarter of the book to go through.

This time, however, I noticed something disturbing while reading the book. When I said that the words just dance in front of my eyes without registering any meaning whatsoever, that is what they actually did, and this they did without fail when I tried reading the book after coming home from work. I don't know how or when this started happening, but my brains seem to go on auto hibernation mode the moment I get back.

I can't read, I can't focus enough to churn out a proper blog post or write anything else for that matter, I don't even want to make the effort to switch on the modem to go online and stalk people on Facebook or listen to stuff on youtube, or even follow links on wikipedia and read interesting stuff. All I can do, is have some food, watch a disturbing episode of Law and Order (SVU), and then sleep. I think I'm in trouble.

Where's My Mind

2011-09-10T19:18:00.001+08:00

I keep asking myself the same question

The Big North Sumatera Adventure Part IV - The Lady of the Lake

2011-09-09T22:53:00.000+08:00

Continued from here: North Sumatera Adventure Part III

While the name of the hotel escapes me, the memories of it will remain forever. There it was, right in front of the lake, the cold, chilly wind blowing against your face. Everywhere you look, you see the dark blue and green hues of the lake. But before anything else, we'll begin with something we observed behind the door of the room.

Tired? Or just a lazy ass? Ha Ha!

As I mentioned in one of the earlier posts, Lake Toba is one of the most relaxing places on the face of the planet, and there is nothing you really want to do other than relax, although I did read a bit at night, I was knocked out cold by 9:30 pm. That night I had a dream.

I was sleeping or at least was under the assumption that I was, firmly wrapped up underneath the blanket because it was cold. The wind was blowing, and the curtain billowed a little. It takes me awhile to realise there's a lady in the room. Slightly old and small sized, and dressed in a somewhat traditional looking costume, she makes her way towards the right hand side of my bed. She speaks to me in the local language (which is similar to the Malaysian language) asking me where the bathroom is. I point her towards the bathroom, saying something along the lines of there it is in Malay (which I presumed she understood). She thanks me, moves away and looks over my sister sleeping on the bed next to mine. My sister is in deep sleep and doesn't move, so the lady moves away towards the bathroom and disappears into it.

What I find interesting though, is how vivid and real the dream was. You see, most of my dreams are always a mesh of things and places and people, for instance university friends doing some strange project in my primary school, or people whom I've only met online recently joining in a conversation with me and my grandfather who died 15 years ago. This dream on the other hand clearly occurred in the room I was in at that time and involved only my sister. The only odd thing about the dream is that it involved the old lady who came from nowhere and disappeared into our bathroom. What if she was really the lady of the lake and more than just a dream?

Edit: The sister says it was called Toledo Inn.

The Big North Sumatera Adventure Part III

2011-09-04T17:31:00.001+08:00

Continued from here

Simanindo is another part of Samosir Island. Here, we sat down under a small house-like structure to watch a local traditional dance. The dance itself had 7 steps and while at that time we actually had a paper explaining each step to us, the paper is nowhere to be seen now. Yes, I had not taken notes during this travel because I didn't want to get all touristy, and just wanted to sit back and relax, so I'm afraid there's not much information here. ONE thing I can tell, though is that at the end of the dance, the dancers will beckon you to join them in their dance. My two left feet trembled in fear. Would it be polite to decline? Could we just run away? Thankfully, it started drizzling there and then, and me and my two left feet, (as well as the sister and her two left feet) were saved from having to dance, and the dancers were saved from having to witness the worst dancers ever. So, it was a win-win situation.

The dance. It was still shining at this point before the rain saved us all.

We travelled a bit for lunch as most places were closed. It was Sunday, after all. The guide finally found us a place to eat at what looked like a restaurant run by a family. The proprietors were lovely people, and the food was excellent. Here's where we got to try the goldfish from the lake. It was simply delicious, although cooked in a very simple manner.

It may be called a goldfish, but it's definitely not a pet swimming happily in a bowl. I hope.

After lunch, we moved on again to yet another spot on the island, Ambarita. Now, if you're familiar with stories from the area, you might have heard of the Batak people, who at some point were labelled cannibals. And like all stories, the act of cannibalism here was grossly exaggerated, unfortunately. Here in Ambarita, we were told how it was, sans exaggeration. For instance, the acts of cannibalism are not random acts performed on unsuspecting strangers who accidentally stumble upon the path of these people, instead, it is a form of punishment to the vilest of criminals - usually unforgivable crimes involving dark magic, and it only happened in the really old days.

Basically, when you enter Ambarita, you are met with the tribal village square, where the elders tried the criminal. Behind the square are a few houses, a model of how it was back in the old days


Ambarita: The houses at the background, and the tribal square in the foreground. The tiny chair covered by the box is where the accused criminal sits while the elders mull over his or her crimes.

After the trial, the criminal is brought over to the place where punishment commences. Our guide did a really good demonstration on how it was done, and I should have taken a video, but I had to conserve my phone battery as we had lost our luggage which had all of the chargers. And because I stupidly didn't take notes, I'd forgotten most of what was said.

The tools used during the execution of the criminal and where it is done

Just a few years ago, Lake Toba and the surrounding areas were very popular destinations. These days however, the number of visitors has dwindled and this has apparently affected the livelihood of the locals, especially those whose bread and butter relies on the tourism factor. This was really quite a sad thing, as you can see the ladies in the stalls practically begging you to buy something off them. Though the prices of the things they are selling are relatively cheap, there's only so much souvenirs you can buy before you run out of people to buy them for.

We headed back to the hotel for the rest of the evening

I Fought Gravity and Gravity Won

2011-09-03T09:27:00.007+08:00

So, after the mishap with the ankle back in March, I've been ultra careful with my movements. I started walking up and downstairs (instead of running up or down, and skipping a step as I usually do), put on an ankle guard each time I go out, etc. But my accident free days were not meant to be.

Last night, I became a human bowling ball while stepping into the bathroom, got reacquainted with the bathroom floor, and somehow managed to hurt my left knee, my right elbow and wrist, the right hand side glutes and the back of my head. All hurt parts are fine now, due to quick action and the fact that I've had practice thanks to my accident proneness!

I don't know how it happened, but I must have slipped, and although I realised I was slipping and would eventually be outdone by gravity, there was no stopping it - I did try, though, which is how I explain the scratch marks on the wrist. I think I was more in shock than I was in pain.

Good Intentions Gone Bad

2011-09-01T21:50:00.004+08:00

SPOILER ALERT!!! I'm rather convinced that what I'm about to write in the following paragraphs will include bits and pieces of spoilers from the movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes, so unless you want to know what happened or just couldn't care less, kindly click the X on the tab that accommodates this page and check back in a week for something else - if you want to, that is. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy my less than thrilling take on the movie.

For some reason, fictional scientists are occasionally depicted as deranged and the kind that are out there to destroy the world as we know it, although that is not the case here. In fact, we have an extremely good looking scientist (James Franco! Yum!) who invents the cure to Alzheimer's - a good intention, no doubt, with the exception to how it's carried out in the lab he works in - animal testing, which may seem as an indirect subject approached by the movie - or so I see it.

However, as experiments are apt to get, something goes terribly wrong, and that's only the beginning, but also the premise of the movie. I recall being riveted to my seat in the beginning scenes when one of the apes literally went ape because the scene was way too realistic. Turns out she had a bundle of surprise for our scientist, in the form of a baby chimp who had the Alzheimer's cure passed on to it, resulting in remarkable intelligence. You also find out why a cure for Alzheimer's is important for the scientist.

Naturally, as all movies go, things take a bad turn all over again, and quite terribly!

And here, you learn that it's not the scientist who's the bad guy, but more so the corporation he works for, in the name of greed, where ethics are tossed into a bin. In fact, looking back on this movie, you realise how terrible human beings are, from the way we treat fellow human beings, to the way we treat other animals for instance, so who can blame the apes for deciding that they have had enough of humans and want to be just left alone? And they did this without intentionally injuring anyone more than they had to, except for this man called Jacobs (Here's a small (and lame) joke - at one time, during the second wave of testing, they brought in an ape called Koba - creepy looking fella, though, who seemed to have a fondness for cookies. After he had been exposed to the Alzheimer's cure, he actually wrote out the word "Jacobs" on the touchscreen, and I actually thought he was referring to this -> Jacobs - the brand of the cookies!)

It makes you question things about animal testing, drugs and cures for diseases, how wild animals in captivity are kept, the relationship between us and those animals, and actually how strong and scary wild animals can be and many other such things

I found the movie enjoyable and was incredibly glad that I watched it, what with the awesome effects and all. It's also good that they had decided to not use human actors to play the roles of the apes, because it's much more realistic this way. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I can't wait to see what happens next as they ended this movie with two future possibilities.

54 Years

2011-08-30T16:00:00.002+08:00

On 31st August 1957, a small peninsula in South East Asia declared independence from the British. Today, the country is known as Malaysia, and besides the old peninsula, encompasses some parts of the island of Borneo as well. Over the past week, the radio station I listen to interviewed several people who lived through more tumultuous times such as the time during the communist insurgency, and the race riots of 1969. Hearing these people speak, you can actually hear their sense of pride being a Malaysian shine through your car radio speakers as you navigate the busy roads to reach your workplace on time. And this, sadly is something you'll never hear from the current generation who run off to greener pastures the moment they are given the opportunity.

Earlier on Monday, they were airing a series of documentaries regarding Malaysia on the history channel. One which I found particularly interesting is the one on Hidden Cities - because like it's name, the places were indeed sort of hidden. I suppose, all this exposure to history has made me feel all these undefinable feelings I'm having towards the country right now, and despite how much I despise the way it's being run today, deep down inside, there's this whole lot of hope, and pride and love for the country.

Happy Independence Day!

(Scheduled post)

The Economy, Festivals and Holidays!

2011-08-29T13:54:00.003+08:00

Around a month ago, when the month of *Ramadan first started, the shopping mall where the gym I go to is located put up an abomination disguised as a festive decoration commemorating the festival - a giant rabbit dressed in a green traditional Malay costume. Decoration, ok. Traditional Malay costume, ok. But a rabbit? Seriously?

Same question here, but since I'm a local resident, I know for a fact that said rabbit was happily recycled from the Chinese New Year decoration earlier this year. On one hand it can be seen as an act of prudence in the current economic climate, but on the other hand, the ugliness of it is just too hard to bear, especially since we have children pestering their parents to take photographs of them posing with the rabbit, and also tourists standing to gawp at it (and take photos) - either mesmerised or horrified, we'll never know. (I've been meaning to take a photo of the offending rabbit for ever so long, but I keep forgetting. Besides, I don't want people mistaking me for a fascinated tourist or something!)

I'm currently enjoying a Monday afternoon at home, purging my brain of anything work related as the company I work in has decided to have an annual shutdown for the festivities, which start tomorrow, and Independence day which falls on Wednesday. It'll be a good opportunity to shutdown my brains as well.

So, here's wishing Eid Mubarak to those who celebrate and Happy Independence Day to all Malaysians.

*The holy Muslim month in which Muslims fast before celebrating Eid.

WHEN I GROW UP...

2011-08-28T18:37:00.001+08:00

I want to be a chemical engineer.

Actually, it was never like that. At all. Growing up, I had a long list of things I wanted to do. Believe it or not, being a drummer for a band in a pub was among one of them, although I never told anyone about it at that time. At the same time I also wanted to be a policewoman. However, for some reason, a career in the medical field took over the list and I thought that that was what I wanted to do, until 1996, when my sister met with an accident when we were on our way home from school one day and we spent a good time in the hospital emergency room, seeing people being wheeled around in wheelchairs in various degrees of injuries, the doctors who couldn't care less, missing several wounds and glass shrapnel which were scattered all over my sister's wounds. The whole atmosphere was so depressing that I knew there and then, that it was the end of an almost lifelong ambition.

What's really interesting (and somewhat disappointing as well) is that doctors are held very highly in the ethnic community I belong in. So highly held, that it is said that every family must have a doctor. So when the time came, and I took the fork in the road, leading to a path as far as possible from the medical field, my grandmother was a bit sad and there was a bit of drama between a certain aunt and uncle of mine who were angry with my parents for 'allowing' me to make such a terrible mistake in life!. A little later, another cousin was on her way there, but she decided that she preferred being a pharmacist.

Finally, after so many years, one cousin seemed to be on the right track. She was interested in medicine, and above all, did incredibly well in her A-levels. She let out a bombshell the other day though. Suddenly, for reasons of her own, she decided that maybe she didn't want to do medicine after all. Instead she's been thinking about going into chemical engineering - the field I'm currently in. Wow. The weirdest thing about this? It was her parents that had a falling out with mine about 13 years ago when I decided to take up the offer to do chemical engineering. Her father actually tried discouraging me from doing so by telling me that I'd have to climb tanks in my daily job. Certainly better than seeing blood and pus on a daily basis for sure. The closest thing I ever did to that was to climb up a steep ladder and take pictures of the rust in the tank, that was all. My aunt said it's up to her. Ha! I wonder what her dad says though...

THE NEW AGE PAK PANDIR

2011-08-20T21:34:00.003+08:00

The year was 1988, and in that year, a rather 'out of the box' teacher and our class crossed paths. Every week, during one of our lessons - I can't remember which, she'd introduce us to something interesting, from a discussion on old wives tales (which we had to dig up from our parents to be presented in class) to old folk stories - one of them being the story of the misadventures of Pak Pandir during his attempts to help his wife give their baby a bath while she was away. Back then, we all laughed at how silly Pak Pandir could be, putting his baby into a tub of boiling hot water (and killing it in the process) Looking back, I can't imagine how on earth childhood innocence could make something so morbid seem funny.

Earlier this week, while reading a local online paper, I saw the following headline:

"Perkasa burns copies of Star, rubber snakes in protest" Full article here

Ok. (The) Star, I understand - something the newspaper wrote pissed them off big time, but rubber snakes? Seriously. I knew I had to read it, and I burst out laughing, because as disturbing as it was (due to the underlying racism), I thought it was funny as hell. Mainly because by burning the rubber snakes, the leader of Perkasa inadvertently acknowledged himself as a frog, which coincidentally is what most moderate Malaysians liken him to. Honestly though, I prefer frogs any given time.

This isn't the first article about this man and his group and the mischief they are up to. He has been loud and rude and somewhat gangster-ish, and if his arguments weren't so outrageous that they are borderline comical, and if the country actually had more physically outspoken people, I'd say someone would have already thrown an old slipper or two at him. However, for the moment, his head is still pretty safe due to various reasons.

On the other hand, I think that stories about him and his group should be compiled and put together as reading material for the future generation, where future 'out of the box' type of teachers could use the stories to entertain their students, like how ours did with her Pak Pandir stories - once you get past the part that infuriates you, that is. The Frog is Malaysia's new age Pak Pandir.

BURN BABY, BURN

2011-08-14T22:43:00.000+08:00

Not Burnt

What is the probability of anyone of us consuming food that has been slightly burned that it's almost inedible?

This insanity happened to me twice last week. On Tuesday evening, I finally remembered to go down to the Ramadan food sales in the canteen. The company has kindly subsidised a certain amount for food for all staff regardless if they were Muslims or not, or if they were fasting or not, and I thought I might as well check it out and get some Nyonya cakes (aka kuih) By the time I arrived, though, most of the Nyonya cakes had been sold out and I was left with a meagre selection. Since I was already there, I thought - what the hell and randomly picked up two pieces of seri muka.

Much later in the day, after dinner, as I bit into a piece of the seri muka, I was greeted with the pungent smell of something that had burned in the pot. The top layer had apparently been scooped up and saved from a batch that had probably been burned to boredom at the bottom .

The second incident happened on Saturday for breakfast, over a dish of Nasi Lemak. I couldn't ascertain what exactly was burned, but I suspected it was the rice. I ate as much as I possibly could (due to feeling bad wasting food seeing that some people elsewhere might be starving), but had to quit halfway when I couldn't take it anymore.

What bothers me the most is the fact that these two food items were sold to consumers with the sellers most probably aware of their burned or almost burned status, although they most probably weren't tasted due to the food being cooked whilst they were fasting. Did they know the food was slightly inedible, or were they counting on the fact that the food would only be consumed later when they have closed their shops and were counting on people being too not bothered to complaint? Is it even remotely ethical for these business people to proceed and sell burned food to unsuspecting customers?

I guess I'll be staying away from food from both places for awhile now :(

On a lighter, happier note... I saw this website when looking for images for burnt food and thought I'd share it. Some of the comments on the display are just too hilarious.

CABLE TV MYSTERIES

2011-08-13T22:21:00.003+08:00

Despite the fact that watching TV seems so 2002, the TV set and *Malaysia's Most Reliable Weather Forecast Thingy still exists and is still going strong at my parents house, that is until a few days ago.

Over the week, some of the channels have taken to disappearing overnight, for instance, among the few channels in the Education package (Discovery, NGW, NGC, Animal Planet, History, Discovery Sc), the only channel that is currently working happens to be NGC, whereas the rest happily display "Service is currently Unavailable", a message most commonly associated with the rain! Out of all the 40 available channels, 33 of them are now unavailable.

A call to the service provider involved some 'troubleshooting tips' via the phone, and it turns out that none of the usual remedies suggested work. The messages on the unavailable channels remain the same, and the operator actually had the nerve to ask my mom if it was **raining. Not once, but twice! (In case you're curious, it wasn't) In the end, she said she'd send a technician over as she suspected that it might be a 'hardware' problem. She also added that this may result in my parents having to fork out an extra RM20 each month if we have to replace the hardware as the new units avaialble are all HD enabled.

While the 'hardware' problem theory seems a to be pretty legit, there happen to be one or two curious quirks about the problem. Take the 'Asian Food Channel' channel for instance (one of my favourite channels!), which works early in the morning (till about 10 am or so), but then ceases working for the rest of the day. This quirk was also observed in a few other channels. So, if it is indeed a 'hardware' problem, shouldn't the channels NOT be working at all, regardless of the time? Definitely something to think about.

*Now, if you're Malaysian, you surely already know how the weather dictates our ability to watch cable TV with our (ahem) favourite service provider, and if you're not Malaysian, well, each time it rains, a yellow dot appears on the blank screen and tells you about the service being unavailable. It is so sensitive to rain (and possibly heavy cloud cover), that it has become a somewhat national joke which is not funny anymore.

** Turns out, the service provider tech staff are also trained to ask about the weather when trying to help you troubleshoot reception problems. <Insert bitter laugh here>

Edit: The problem was with the receptor on the satellite dish, apparently.

RISK and Possible Risk.

2011-08-06T17:14:00.000+08:00

Apparently, last-minuteness works quite well with me.

In a sudden deviation from my usual (but mood-dependent and selective) anti-social behaviour, I found myself agreeing to spend last Saturday night playing RISK with a few friends, although on second thought, I could not possibly ever be anti-social with the bunch of people mentioned in here. I pulled up at JV's house around 7:40 pm, and instead of delving straight into attempts at conquering the world, the three of us had decided to go and pick up the board from JV's friend's house, have some dinner and then begin the game.

Several minutes later with the board in hand, JV drove around as we wondered where we'd have dinner. In the end, after a rather lengthy discussion we decided to head over to Bangsar for dinner, quite a distance from where we were, actually. By the time dinner was over all thoughts of RISK had been thrown out of the window, albeit a bit forcefully - PJ still thought we could pull off a very short game!. Instead we drove around some more for some ice cream.

By the time ice cream was over, we thought we'd just head back quietly. After all, it's been awhile since I met both PJ and JV and catching up over dinner and ice cream was really good, seeing that you'd actually have to concentrate while playing RISK and small talk might have been more of an inconvenience. However, as things turned out, the journey back was far from quiet, as the car started making a terribly loud noise. After finding a suitable place to stop, we found the culprit of the loud noise amidst the smell of burnt rubber - the right hand back tyre was flatter than flat.

We waited for a bit for rescue, in the form of the AAM personnel (and it must be noted here that JV was admirably cool throughout the whole incident - I think I'd have panicked a bit) who helped us change the tyre and you could see a big gash around the whole tyre near the rim. It was probably the scariest looking tyre I'd ever seen - other that the bits and pieces of tyre you occasionally find along the road.

We went back later, leaving the warm 'breeze' of the exhaust fume filled highway. It could have rained, but it didn't. We could have met someone scary, but we didn't. So all was good in the end. I just hope JV's rim wasn't too badly damaged.

SO LONG, AND THANK YOU FOR ALL THE FISH, HARRY POTTER

2011-08-02T21:19:00.000+08:00

It's been ten long years since the very first Harry Potter book (HP and the Philosopher's Stone) was thrown on my lap. I picked it up, a bit reluctantly at first, and the rest, as they say, is history. The movies on the other hand have been a different story altogether. The first movie was just 'alright', whereas the rest just got from bad to worse as they ignored important plotlines, leaving readers and fans of the books seething and disappointed, and the non-readers wondering what the hell happened.

It all changed with the 7th movie, though. I didn't read the book right before the movie, and watched it with an open mind knowing well enough that it was the beginning of the end, and enjoyed it thoroughly. The review is here:

http://raconteuresquescribblings.blogspot.com/2010/12/harry-potter-and-how-it-begins-to-end.html

For that reason, we (the sister and I) went to see the final installment of the Harry Potter (HP and the Deathly Hallows Pt 2) on a Monday night in the previous week, and since we both thought that Part 1 was pretty good, it only seemed natural that we looked forward to Part 2.

PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD. Maybe.

Harry, Ron and Hermione continue their quest in searching for and destroying the horcruxes, fragments of Voldermort's soul, which was the method he employed in gaining complete immortality. As the book suggests, this leads them into very dangerous situations which they somehow manage to handle despite their age and the capabilities as young wizards. While they seem to be succeeding in their quest, the ultimate task of defeating Voldemort still lay ahead of them. The final showdown was in the school grounds. Here, the movie was a definite winner as the showdown scenes were just awesome.

IMHO the best dialogue goes to one between Voldemort and Lucius Malfoy.

Voldemort: How can you live with yourself, Lucius?
Lucius: I don't know...
(Seriously, do you even actually answer such a question??)

Personally, I'd say that splitting the movie into 2 parts was a good idea, as they could reveal certain background information which is crucial to understanding why things happened the way they did, especially the part about Snape's memory. In the end, good triumphs over evil, but not in the way any *fans of the book thought it would end. And then we approached the "19 years later" scene. I knew the ending based on the book, but didn't expect them to use the same actors (heavily padded and made up to show what parenthood can do to your physical state, ha ha)

ASIDE:
During the course of the movie, the rest of the crowd simultaneously uttered "shhh" at a very noisy child, who decided that he/she wanted to make noise while other people were engrossed in the movie. Seriously, people. Leave your tiny unappreciative kids at home when you come to watch movies.

Overall, the movie was indeed enjoyable. It's been a few good years of Potter-mania, and now it's all over. No doubt we can always read the book if we feel like reliving the adventures, or watch the movies again (if we were fans in the first place), but the idea of not having any anticipation for something new is a sad one indeed!

*Before the final book was released back in 2007, a few of us discussed on possible endings for the book. Given the author's penchant for misery, we thought that while she would allow the good people to win, a big sacrifice would have to be made, such as Harry dying, or something. She allowed Harry to live, but killed a whole bunch of others, though.

98 MINUTES

2011-07-31T11:55:00.004+08:00

On Thursday night, men clad in red and blue dotted the green field of Bukit Jalil, their sole purpose to be in possession of an elusive ball, just so that they can :

i. Score a goal and defeat the other team
ii. Keep it in possession so that the other team doesn't score.

I don't really watch much sports, because I think it's much better if you go out and play the sports yourself, so my sitting in front of the TV hugging a cushion on Thursday night waiting in anticipation for the Malaysia vs *Singapore FIFA World Cup Qualifying Round was surprising even to me. I suppose I got influenced by my colleagues who actually left the workplace that evening clad in the Malaysian team colours headed straight to the stadium. Throughout the day, I kept hearing snippets of conversation about the match later that day, and rightly so, as compared to just three years ago, the Malaysian team had improved tremendously. So much so that at the end of last year when we won a rather important match (the Suzuki Cup, I think), the PM actually declared a public holiday!! Seriously.

The match began rather slowly at first, without any goals scored during the first half, although the Singaporean team did a good deal of attacking, attempting to score goals as I stared open mouthed as the Malaysian goal keeper saved goal after goal. Our defence was in shambles. No, actually, our defence was practically non-existent. So naturally for me (and most other Malaysians), the hero of the day was the goal keeper. He was awesome.

The second half saw Malaysia scoring the first goal for the match. I got excited at that point and actually screamed 'goal'! Alas! The second half also saw Singapore score a goal (no thanks to the defence once again) which sort of dashed our hopes on moving onwards to the third round, as we had lost to them 3-5 in the first match held in Singapore on the 23rd, which was also a pretty good match (I only watched the 2nd half of that match, though)

Whilst the Malaysian defence sucked, the Singaporean players took turns in dramatically falling down and extreme displays of exaggerated injuries you'd think they were made of glass instead of flesh and blood. There was a time when the Singaporean goal keeper thought he was a zombie and kept clutching his head as though it was about to fall off. So much drama and game time wasted. In the end, the referees decided to give only 8 minutes of extra (injury) time, 3 minutes after the first half and 5 minutes after the second half.

* They might be known as the Singaporean team, but some of the players are only Singaporeans because of football. There are two former Chinese nationals, and three more from Europe.

The game highlights: Check out the saves by the goalkeeper.

Carte Blanche

2011-07-26T23:32:00.003+08:00

If I were a psychology student, a study on people's inclination towards curiosity might be something I would pick for a research study, because lets face it - everyone is curious up to a certain degree. I occasionally preface questions with a 'just curious' remark before I dive in. However, since I've long left the days of sitting at a desk with a coffee mug, a thick book and an assortment of pens and pencils, and have doubts about having any use for psychology (I am not exactly what you'd call a people person), I figured I'll just blog about it.

On Sunday night, an *old friend (let's call him Pineapple) whom I haven't seen or had a proper conversation with for years and years (probably since 2000) decided to say hi when he saw me online. While this in itself was not all that weird to begin with since most people say hi to each other when they meet them online especially after a long time, what I found strange and a tad bit unnerving is that the question, "so, are you married?" was blurted out so suddenly within the first few minutes of our conversation that it actually caught me off-guard. Thank goodness it was only an online conversation, and this friend was probably spared the look of mock horror on my face.

I answered him and I thought to myself "Ha! Now that you've asked a rather **personal question, I am free to ask anything as well!" and I happily allowed my fingers to type out the very same question he asked me. Turns out, this is a friend with a story - he was about to get married, but he and his (ex) partner called it off to go their own separate ways just a few months ago. I certainly wasn't expecting that.

There's no moral of the story to this post, or even a story for that matter - except, maybe we could all learn to not always turn the table on people in terms of questions they ask us unless we already know the answer to the question. Ha ha. However, it is certainly proof that people are curious. As to why they are curious about your availability/marital status, I can't say, although I have a strong feeling it's due to how the society views life in general.

*As usual, when talking to him, I tried to recall the details of our past interaction - how we ended up being friends and such, and the story is basically like this - his younger brother who is nearer my age was friends with some of my friends and me, and for that reason, we ended up hanging out quite a bit back then. After some time, however, another friend joined our group and somehow was attracted to this guy, which she unfortunately believed had similar sentiments towards her, but it was not to be. Ah, unrequited love. One afternoon, she stormed into my dorm room, crying and narrated the heartbreaking story of how this guy had ***led her on, etc and how he had the gall to walk off, buy some tissue paper and then offer her the offending packet of tissues when she started crying. And then just because she started hating him, he turned from being a drop dead handsome guy into someone whose head is shaped like a pineapple! - in her eyes. ;)
Even worse, I even wondered if the person he almost married thought he looked like a pineapple or not.

**I might as well admit that I usually stay away from personal questions of any sort because I almost always end up being some sort of aunt agony once I do. Also, due to my good reputation as a secret keeper, friends like to tell me their stories, and sadly I really have no idea how to respond to some of them at times

*** No one knows his version of the story, and no one's ever asked, so I'll refrain from making any judgement on if he actually led her on or not. Knowing the girl, though, and although she was a friend as well, I sort of have to believe that it was all in her head. :(

Yeah, They were all Yellow - The Aftermath and Other Things

2011-07-24T15:08:00.002+08:00

Was there a winner on the 9th of July rally for electoral reforms? The answer probably depends on who you ask.

While people may argue that the objective of the rally - to march peacefully and handover the electoral reforms request to the King, by hand, that is, was not really met that day for certain reasons, it can't be denied that the news surrounding the happenings on the day of the rally and the days after that has increased the people's awareness in general.

I've always thought that a "government" was something 'by the people and for the people', but when you read/watch the news, something is just not quite right. While the government seems to be 'by the people', it hardly is for the 'people' in a general sense. It's more like *"by the people, for 'some people', and if you're not in the category of 'some people', then it's the government against the people"

As (ahem) leaders, self appointed or otherwise, when the people start asking for reforms, it is time to go down to the field, get your hands dirty and find out why. And even after you've hurled threats of all sorts and people still defy you, then it is really time to start getting worried, and then to go out there and ask (nicely, thank you very much) them why. Anyone can see this. You surely don't need a reluctant political observer to tell you this.

Instead, hiding behind pretty flowers at the Floria thingy in Putrajaya and telling the media the next day that the silent majority was against the reforms is something no one would have expected from any leader! As the days went by, and the more articles you read (including stuff about connections with the communists- 6 people are currently still under arrest at this point, the Jews (so sorry!), the group of NGOs being sponsored by foreign countries with dubious interest among others), it clearly shows that the situation was handled in the worst way possible.

So the war of words continues, and people watch on as though an interesting sporting event is happening. The important thing is people are watching, I guess. On a much lighter note, there have been a few **funny things regarding this event which I thought I'd share here:

i. The official colour of the group of NGOs which was declared illegal is yellow (hence the title of the post), and it also happens to be the official royal colour. During a period of xanthophobia, the king stepped in and said something. Perhaps he didn't want to go through the hassle of renewing his whole official wardrobe.

ii. When the leader of the country went to visit Queen E, she met him dressed in a bright yellow dress.

* They asked for it. Who tells the police to take all necessary action against weaponless peaceful people marching??

** For lack of a better word.

Dog Days of July

2011-07-14T22:56:00.004+08:00

The heat rolls in waves, marking would be lazy days - for those of us who can be lazy, that is. In a small part of the world, specifically where I exist, hazy days may be something quite usual, but not lazy days. Not at this period in time, anyways.

While I love a good challenging mystery every now and then, the fact that quite a few mysteries decided to drop by together like unexpected relatives passing through your area en route to some other place is a mystery in itself. Questions like 'how?' and 'why the hell?' never seem like good enough questions to get to the rootcause of the problem.

And then, suddenly and unexpectedly the answer reveals itself. It's July. The lousiest month of the year!

Aside: Apparently, July was once known as Quintilis in Latin (source: wikipedia) Imagine using 'Qui' instead of Jul to indicate July in cramped writing spaces. And talking about cramped spaces, my mind is one right now. Hence the deviation from the previous topic.

Another aside:? Well, turns out, a certain toad that's been missing for 87 years has been rediscovered in Sarawak. Well, the species, actually... not a particular toad. Otherwise, it'll also be the oldest toad ever. I think.

Yeah, they Were All Yellow - A Background Story

2011-07-10T21:17:00.003+08:00

There is a certain country where peaceful rallies require a permit, which will usually be denied in order to maintain peace, or so they say.

Over the past few weeks, the whole country was abuzz with news of a planned peaceful rally, by a group of NGOs who are fighting for clean and fair elections, with 8 reasonable requests. Any sensible Malaysian could see that there was no harm in this. After all, clean and fair elections would benefit everyone in the long run, among them laying to rest the notion that dead people and phantom voters are at large and voting in favour of a certain party, and overall equality for all those who are taking part in the elections.

A slightly less than sensible Malaysian though would say that the rally would disrupt peace and harmony among the many races that call themselves Malaysian (sniggers), and selfish business people would complain of loss of income due to the people not being brave enough to venture out of their houses to shop during the rally in case things got messy. Based on past experience of another illegal rally back in 2009 against the ISA, the messiness only began when the police decided that releasing tear gas and water cannons at people was a fun game.

Totally unreasonable Malaysians, on the other hand, would call the rally an illegal one, pointedly refuse to give the permit although they have been informed much earlier, accuse the organisers of being in possession of illegal weapons openly amongst their paraphernalia, organise counter rallies to oppose this rally (yes, go ahead and laugh), hold roadblocks just to annoy the people, and basically get all emotional and talk of revoking the citizenship of person behind the rally, and give backing to a certain uncontrollable martial arts group whose chief said that he could not control his members if they got out of hand, and ban the colour yellow.

The whole thing began to look very ugly at a certain point, until the king intervened, that is, and The Leader of the Country grudgingly said they could go on with the rally in a stadium. Somehow, over the days that led to the rally, the stadium committee started being an ass, so in the end, that is yesterday, 9 July 2011 the group of NGOs had to resort to the street, supported by a group of 50,000 strong (according to them) or 6000 (according to the police) who walked from nearby train stations as all the roads to the city were blocked by the cops. A total of 1401 people were arrested in KL, 1 man died, and countless others were tear gassed, and sprayed with water cannons.

To be continued

The Big Bad Movie Challenge

2011-07-09T16:53:00.006+08:00

I think I surprised a fellow blog buddy just now over a revelation that I'm not really into movies by admitting that I had not watched Die Hard, which according to him is the basis for all action movies. And then it just got worse from there, because it turns out that I had not watched a whole lot of movies that are the basis of modern society!

So, in an attempt to challenge myself (after a whole lot of prodding from him despite it being a conversation that was carried online) I have decided to undertake the *daunting task of watching (gulp!) the movies that this particular blog buddy thinks are 'must-watch' movies. The list is as follows:

Terminator 2

Die Hard

~~Aliens~~ (After reading the IMDB page, I realised that I have already watched this)

Pulp Fiction

Goodfellas

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Schindlers List

The Godfather (I've always wanted to watch this, but could never find a copy of the DVD anywhere)

Shawshank Redemption

Memento

The Usual Suspects

Leon: The Professional

American History X

Taxi Driver

Saving Private Ryan

Reservoir Dogs

LA Confidental
Full Metal Jacket

The Green Mile

2001: Space Odyessey

Gladiator

Downfall
Unforgiven

Fargo

Heat

300

Sin City

Other suggestions:
(by King of Scurf)
Jean de Florette / Manon des Sources
Il Postino
Delicatessen
The Lives of Others
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (hello nursemyra)
Films directed by Pedro Almodovar

English films that are a little off the beaten track...

A Man for All Seasons
Being John Malkovich
Another Year
Dean Spanley
Brazil
The Virgin Suicides

(by Jai)
Somewhere in time
The Painted Veil
Revolutionary Road
All the Star Wars,
Jeux d'enfants

(by Saby)

Snatch
Lock stock and 2 smoking barrels
Big Fish
The Red Violin

Superbad
Easy A
Scott Pilgrim vs the World
Kick Ass
Trainspottig
Jackie Brown

(The list doesn't include movies which I've already watched) Anyway, if you're reading this and would like to add to the list, feel free to do so. I might as well hit all the birds with one stone.

*You can ask me to read any book, any time of the day, but the idea of spending two hours watching a movie is pretty daunting for me!

Note: I had a totally different form of blog post in mind for today, something on a much more serious note, but I think I'll keep that for another day.

Porridge is Bubbling, Bubbling Hot

2011-07-04T22:41:00.002+08:00

Porridge is bubbling
Porridge is bubbling, bubbling hot,
Stir it round
And round in the pot.
The bubbles plip!
The bubbles plop!
It's ready to eat
All bubbling hot

Traditional

We were eight years old, and a classmate of mine actually cried as he struggled when he was made to recite the poem above during English class when our English teacher was auditioning for those who were talented in reciting poetry to represent our class in one of the many competitions held during the English Language Week. But then, this post is not about porridge, nor is it about the unfortunate classmate of mine. Instead, it's sort of connected with the insane heat we've been having of late. And how is porridge precisely connected with the heat wave? They're both Hot. Well, mostly.

In fact, it's been so hot that at some point I imagined that the witch from Hansel and Gretel had put in the whole earth into her oven to slowly cook us and eventually eat us up.

Breaking The Code....

2011-06-30T21:29:00.003+08:00

Click to enlarge

Back in 1997, a code found it's way into my hands. Even as the most irregular diarist (ahem!) the world has ever seen back then, the secret contents of the diary was always in danger of being read by curious eyes. Little did I know that many years later, looking at the few (note the emphasis on the word irregular above) coded entries, my enthusiasm in keeping them a secret would be in danger of being a secret forever and ever. To add to the drama, I also recently managed to misplace the entries, find them again, and finally break them, albeit through a wee bit of fingertip magic.

A friend had asked me on FB if I was okay with her trying to break the code, and so here it is... (mostly because blogspot is a more secret place than FB - in my case, anyway)

Jai, the code is all yours. :)

And also whoever else who might want to break it.

The Big North Sumateran Adventure Part 2

2011-06-26T23:06:00.002+08:00

Continued from here

Samosir Island


The view from the island right after the rain

Samosir Island has got to be one of the most relaxing places on earth, other than being one filled with interesting ancient history.

We left the mainland, Parapat, via ferry the next morning, after a typical Indonesian breakfast, which could also be mistaken for a Malaysian breakfast due to our close proximity. As we had nothing better to do, we sat in the ferry and observed people. The locals (or so we presumed) packed their breakfast into tupperwares and bags and enjoyed it on the ferry trip, like a picnic, while the wind whipped their hair and jackets about (if they sat near the open windows that is.) Some of them puffed on their cigarettes mulling over life. People wore jackets, and some kids were dressed in such a way that made you think you were going to a really cold place. We also took some time to look out of the window, the cold wind blowing at our faces and the reluctant sun occasionally showing itself, shining on our faces and giving us the slight bit of warmth normally associated with Asian countries.

Without any incident, not much later we arrive on dry land, and head towards an area called Tomok, where King Sidabutar and his family were buried. An interesting thing we learned from the guide here is that during the older times when animism was still practiced, the kings were not buried underground as they believed that underground represented hell. Only after Christianity was embraced only did they get buried underground.

To enter the burial site, you are given a cloth known as the ulos, which you drape on your right shoulder as a sign of respect. I also found it interesting that there was no entrance fee to see the graves. You can just walk in and out, however, there is a little box in which you are encouraged to drop in some cash to help maintain the area. So unlike typical tourist sites which almost always require an entrance ticket. Just behind this area was a row of stalls selling trinkets from key-chains to t-shirts. We had some time to shop, which we did with some enthusiasm.

To be continued

Oh, What a Week!

2011-06-26T20:45:00.001+08:00

It was a time when the future looked bleak,
And a bird quit catching worms with its beak,
Yellow turned to green,
And everywhere people turned mean,
Oh, What a week!

Bathroom Stories

2011-06-19T10:29:00.003+08:00

What was once a place where men went to for a tinkle was recently converted into a place where women would go for similar reasons. It's situated right next to the original women's bathroom. An observation on the local bathroom habits show that women always prefer going into the original women's bathroom and will only choose the converted one if the original one is occupied. Even more absurd is whilst being in the converted bathroom, you tend to feel that you're living in a reflection (everything is on the opposite side of the original bathroom), and wildly imaginative minds imagine that when you open the door, you will be met with an angry glare from some guy who had to wait for the bathroom!

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

I slept off while reading yesterday afternoon, and it was a pretty good sleep, until the very end that is, no thanks to an afternoonmare (instead of the more popular nightmare).

My sister and I had apparently gone to the local mall nearby and for some *strange reason had to go to the bathroom there. Now, the bathrooms there (and we have used them before without any problem) are relatively clean (except the ones nearest the cineplex exits for obvious reasons), and all the water pipes are hidden rather well.

However, for some reason, this bathroom had huge red pipes exposed, red suction hoses hanging around aimlessly and a big hole on the wall at the far right. The lights were dim as well. Under normal circumstances, we would have walked out and practiced bladder control. Just because it was a dream, and we had no control of the outcome, my sister used the nearest cubicle while I reluctantly stood outside keeping watch as the door couldn't be locked. In what seemed like forever, shadowy people walked in and out of the bathroom, and one even had the gall to walk in on the sister despite my protests!

Suddenly the red suction hoses start swinging, slowly at first and they begin to pick up speed, hitting me in the process. What happens after that is a blur (after all, it was a dream) but all I know is that I was somehow being trapped and attacked by the pipes and some invisible, fear inducing force that I can't escape from. I let out silent screams to no avail, and I subconsciously knew it was a dream, and was trying to force myself to wake up which I couldn't until I told my dream-self to bite my fingers, which as stupid as it sounds, woke me up.

* No one really goes to the mall to go to the bathroom - although the beginning of the dream indicates as such. Mostly you end up going because you've had too much liquid, or were exposed to cold temperatures for too long!

This Ain't a Love Story

2011-06-16T23:18:00.003+08:00

Fellow sufferers of a mild form of Facebook addiction may agree that the famous social network occasionally throws people you might know at your face when you least expect it. Most times, while you might have a friend or two in common, it's quite likely that you may not know who they are. At other times, let's just say that there's a reason (one that you're not exactly willing to divulge) why you're not already friends with that particular person they so excitedly think you may know.

Earlier this year, FB decided that it was time to throw *Jimmy L across my path, and since he belongs to neither of the categories above, I approached it with my brand of curiosity and a trip down memory lane - though most of it is a bit hazy, and dusty and (for the lack of a better word), downright strange. This is because Jimmy L happens to be the very first boy I was teased with, at the crazy age of ten - a very, very long time ago.

It was towards the end of the 1990 school year, the day right after the school prize giving ceremony. Jimmy L was seated or standing under a huge rain-tree that was right in the middle of the school (The school had some of the most lovely trees, and sadly one of them actually got struck by lightning on 1st April 1992 (no joke!) - a year and a few months after this story, and fell right across the roof of the Standard 6 building one stormy night) for reasons I can't remember. At the same time, a classmate and I were walking together from one part of the school to another, passing the tree Jimmy L was so carefully taking care of. (Note: I suspect the reason for us not being in our respective classes was due to it being recess, but I could be mistaken)

He suddenly called out to me and asked me if I was (insert real name here), to which I said yes, with raised eyebrows. He then proceeded to congratulate me on my big win the day before in the school prize giving ceremony, asking if I was willing to give him any of the books I won (The school at that time gave us story books for every academic prize won) I have no idea what I told him in response, but seeing that I was a smart ass at that time it would have been a pretty smart ass reply as far as smart ass replies for a ten year old go.

And for some equally strange reason, after what could have possibly been the strangest exchange in my entire life till then, my classmate decided that the most appropriate thing to do was to tease me with Jimmy. It went on for about a year, and spread to quite a number of our other classmates like wildfire - ten and eleven year old kids seriously have nothing better to do with their lives (Jimmy was a year older and left the school after that year, possibly contributing to the end of the teasing) Even worse was the way the teasing was done.What they'd do is they just stop calling you with your own name, and call you with his name instead. And after some time, you get so desensitized by it, that you actually turn to look when they call you by a name that was never yours. And that, is the story of the how I got teased with the very first person I got teased with!

*No need for fake Russian names to protect his identity here

The World is a Stage, and We are all Just a Confused Lot

2011-06-15T22:34:00.002+08:00

He turned into a she for awhile (Peer pressure? Quarter life crisis?) And now, he's back to being a he. In fact he's getting engaged in a month or so, to a she.

(Yes, me being back to blogging also means the re-emergence of pointless posts)

Cos Everybody Needs Some Background Story At Times

2011-06-09T22:17:00.003+08:00

As far as movie franchises go, X-Men happens to be one of the few that I've actually made an effort to catch (background story: I'm not an avid moviegoer), and that is how I'd like to think I ended up in a cineplex after work yesterday amidst loud popcorn crunchers and children in pyjamas.

Funny thing about children, though.. there are was this huge family with lots of little kids in front of us, and one of them started whining (this was before the movie started), and I accidentally said "shhhh" out aloud and inadvertently set a good example to the (presumably) older sibling who said "shhhh" when the younger one started whining again.

But I digress...

(Plot spoilers may lie ahead like landmines - so skip this if you haven't watched X-Men First Class and want to be surprised when you do)

Long before most of us were born, a boy sees his mother being shot when he couldn't repeat some magic with metal which he was seen performing earlier under duress. In another place around the same time, another boy meets someone similar to him, finally proving his theory that he was not alone. This is the story of X-Men, long before they were known as such, long before Professor X and Magneto decided that they didn't want to necessarily be on the same team, and long before the mutants knew what the were capable of.

The story progresses with both boys getting older - one seeking revenge for the monstrosities set upon him and his power to have his way with metal, the other, reaching professor-hood despite his boyish good looks with his thesis on mutants. On the other hand, an evil plot (after all, what is a movie without an evil plot being hatched somewhere?) is being plotted, and the CIA gets involved and all these events lead to the inevitable joining of forces between Mr.Boyish-Good-Looks aka Charles X Xavier aka Professor X and the Boy Who Seeks Revenge aka Erik aka Magneto as they attempt to avert the evil plot with the help of a CIA agent, and a few trained mutants. Nevertheless, where there are humans, there is always trouble. Seeing how powerful the mutants are, after they had successfully averted the evil plot (a war), the two parties which almost went into war with each other targeted the mutants instead, which ultimately led to them to split into the two factions as we know them.

Some other things worth mentioning in no particular order:

1. A bunch of young untrained mutants were having fun and decided that Magneto and Professor X were suitable names for Erik and Charles respectively. While it was initially brushed aside by them, in the end, they did stick to those names!

2. Charles X Xavier, as a young man had a thing for his mop of hair on his head. If only he could see the future!

3. He also had one of the cutest pick up lines ever.

4. The cameo appearance by a certain someone explains why women over 30 can be caught giggling like infatuated teenagers.

5. One word to describe this movie: Awesome.

The Big North Sumateran Adventure

2011-06-05T21:43:00.001+08:00

The Plan

The end of October and early November of last year witnessed my sister and I in one of our many happier moments - not only as sisters (we both probably had evil thoughts of wrestling with each other, that didn't pan out), but as people in general.

It's been ages since then, and details are a little vague, but it certainly involved a few bookmarked pages, blogs by other people who have done similar things and some concern regarding missing information about transportation from the middle of nowhere to the city, and in all that insanity, the two planners extraordinaire had completely overlooked the fact that our destination had recently been subject to a volcanic eruption from a volcano that had gone through centuries of inactivity!

The Plan - sort of

Our plan, however, was to make our way from KL to Medan (by flight, naturally), and then get away from Medan to Parapat, spend a night there, go on to the Island of Samosir the next day, visit some selected places based on the websites we read, spend the night and then leave for Parapat again, and then head on to Berastagi where we will spend another night, and spend the next day travelling back to Medan for our flight back. We had some difficulty in getting info for transportation from Berastagi back to Medan, and therefore decided to get some help in the form of a guide - plus we're two girls with very little street cred in a foreign land.

Some Airport Drama

Read this post.

From Medan to Parapat

Medan greeted us with a slight drizzle, and despite losing the pink duffel bag, thoughts of adventure clouded most of the worries that were related to losing the bag. Toiletries could be bought, we could conserve energy on our phones by taking turns keeping it on, and we could do without face towels and tissue papers. All you need was to relax. Medan itself was pretty much like any other city, vehicles moving back and forth, buildings, some trees, etc. Naturally excitement built up from the knowledge that a few hours later, we'd be away from he city, smelling fresh air and seeing a lake that has been covered in our geography books while we were in school.

However, due to the lack of sleep from the night before, I found myself in deep sleep throughout most of the journey! Sad but true, I suppose I missed seeing the transition of scenery as we moved out of the outskirts of the city into deep single lane roads of the countryside. I was awake after lunch, though, and as we went deeper into the island, the land elevated, and the temperature became much cooler. We could see trees, clouds and the lake even from a distance. The sights can literally take your breath away.

Parapat

Parapat: Overlooking the lake

Horas!

We reached Parapat late in the afternoon, and were introduced to the words Horas! - which is a greeting, much like "hello"

Parapat is a little town that's adjacent to Lake Toba. Most holidaymakers go here, as can be seen by the rather large number of lakeside resorts and hotels.

What makes it interesting though is that the locals use the lake for their daily use and went by their own business that Saturday afternoon, unlike in some other tourist destinations. A family of three sisters and a brother washed their clothes by the lake, taking turns to scrub, rinse and squeeze the clothes. A bunch of skinny young boys happily swam in the lake, one of them trying out some stunts by hanging onto a moving ferry and diving into the lake when it was deep enough to the cheering of his mates. One of them saw us when they came back up ashore and asked us if we wanted to take their picture which we politely declined ;)

to be continued...

(map from traveling Indonesia)

Phone Calls from the 4th Dimension

2011-06-04T22:11:00.002+08:00

A few days ago:

Blue Oyster Cult's Don't Fear the Reaper rings out clearly as my phone lights up. I reach out and pick it up, not recognizing the number and hoping that I don't have to be rude to someone trying to convince me to buy insurance I don't need.

Rovanski: Terra! You were looking for me? I saw a missed call from you.

Me: Oh. No, no.. I wasn't looking for you

Rovanski: Oh, you probably wrongly called me then. Bye.

Me: Bye.

Strange. Rovanski's number was not in my phone, and yet he received a call (which he missed) from my number even though I was conscious and my phone was with me all the time. Besides, I don't really call people on their mobile phones unless it is an emergency and only after I've exhausted attempts at all other forms of communication. I thought it was just a one time thing, but I was clearly mistaken.

A few days later:

The phone rings again, and it's Rovanski again although I still didn't recognise the number as I haven't added it into my phonebook. Yet.

Rovanski: Hey, you called me three times earlier today? Anything?

Me: No, I didn't call you. Are you sure it's my number?

Rovanski: I'm calling you back using the number that I missed the call from. Check back your outgoing calls.

Me: Your number's not there. It's really weird. I should talk to (insert stupid service provider's name here)

I haven't actually spoken to the service provider because I don't really know how to explain what is going on without sounding like a moron as it would imply that there's a duplicate of my number running around making calls to unsuspecting people who are not even in my phone book.

Photo flicked off interwebin.

Blog: Resurrected

2011-06-02T00:07:00.003+08:00

It was in the late 80's. The family would sit together with cups of tea in our hands while watching some old reruns, among them this one show called The Fugitive. As I attempted drafting this post in my head, all directions of what I was about to write here made me sound like I was a fugitive myself - running for or from what, or who am I hiding from, I can't say.

The thing is, some time ago, I encountered something that made me very, very uncomfortable on this blog (the old url, anyway) that led me to make the drastic action of deactivating it. I sat up from 7 am on a certain Saturday morning and unpublished my posts one by one, and with almost 600 posts written all the way from 2006 till now, I completed the task only four hours later. I then proceeded to hide my blog by making it readable by only myself, and I took off the search engine options.

Despite the sluggish posting and the confession that sharing too much of myself here was detrimental to my well-being, tearing down the blog was the hardest thing to do. I almost immediately wanted to start on something new, as I mentioned here, but I was also torn. Will I still be able to write as I used to? (Not that my past posts were that awesome - rereading some of them while unpublishing the blog made me cringe in disbelief at some of the things I wrote)

Therefore, after some time to cool off, and some time to think, and the sudden urge to wield my pencil again (personally, stuff written in an old diary from 2003 in pencil seem much better than typing them straight out on the post editor), this blog was born. We have a brand new url and name (although I'm a wee bit concerned about the presumptuous nature of the name of the blog as I discussed with a friend right before this post) and hopefully a renewed enthusiasm to put to print what crosses my mind.

I hereby present you: Raconteur-esque Scribblings

The Cracking of the Talus

2011-05-29T19:18:00.005+08:00

It's been two months and two weeks since a 15 kg bag and badly shaped stairs on a bus became the reason for a reasonably good walker to end up hobbling wherever she went. While she was initially assured that it was just a sprain and all that she needed was rest, the physical signs indicated otherwise. While seeking a third opinion, a closer scrutiny of the x-ray showed a line that shouldn't be there. The doctor put on his serious face and said, "Your bone is cracked" That was three weeks into the injury, after she had hobbled around the streets of a foreign country, flew over 6000 km, and then hobbled around the factory of her work place for almost two weeks. Once again, she was prescribed rest, some anti-swelling tablets, and was taught how to do a mean figure-8 bandage.

Turns out the first doctor was *almost right, the second doctor needs a new pair of glasses, and the third doctor, well... I don't really know. The foot is almost back to normal now, although it gets a bit swelled up after long hours of standing/walking in the lab or even 40 minutes on the treadmill. Sadly, because of this, I have to give the paintball tournament a miss as the last thing I need right now is to injure myself again. Sigh.

The whole moral of the story of this? None really. Or should I say, travel light(er), don't take buses, and follow Anlene's advice if you're a woman and above 30 (yukks)?

* she suspected a TRO fracture because she didn't have an x-ray at her disposal

Fake Eggs, What Next?

2011-04-09T23:05:00.013+08:00

Someone has gone and copied one of the most versatile food ingredient - the humble, but absolutely awesome chicken egg.

You give them a peek at your design, and *3 days later you see a copycat in the market, mass produced and sold at *98% cheaper than you ever meant it to be. They add melamine and nitrates into milk to kill children. They rocked the Olympics opening ceremony when they had the chance, though. And now, eggs...

A few days ago, a housewife brought some eggs to the consumer association after finding something quite amiss with them while cooking, and they were found to be fakes. Now the **whole country is quite worried if they had accidentally consumed the fake eggs (allegedly made of chemicals) without noticing it. I know for a fact that I might probably dismiss the fact that the egg didn't smell like an egg, or had the wrong consistency as just a 'batch problem' if I wasn't aware of the fake eggs story. Who would even think of such a thing as a fake egg?

The thing that bothers me the most is how on earth can people actually have the heart to mess with our food. It's something we take in for nourishment, for goodness sake. I mean, I can understand if you want to use inferior materials and pass it off for a laptop, or make geometry sets that can't be used for more than three months - both true stories, but to mess with food, that's just sick.

* Estimated numbers (please note that I do have the tendency to exaggerate)

** Well, people have been giving tips on how to identify fakes on facebook status updates

News Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/4/7/nation/8433857&sec=nation

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/4/8/nation/8437638&sec=nation

Edit: There's also another story about the whole thing being a hoax. Hmmm...

OF LAGs and CRUSHED BACKPACKER'S DREAMS

2011-04-06T17:52:00.002+08:00

Conversations hardly revolve around airport security, but if they did, and if someone actually wanted to know my thoughts on it a few months ago, I would have vehemently declared that the Liquids, Aerosols and Gels (or LAGs) ban killed the Backpacker's dream. See, airport security hangs on to such a delicate thread that no one in their right mind wants to disrupt that balance and be forever banned from setting their foot in new lands seeking adventure. And because I do not really travel that much (I'll be contradicting this statement pretty soon), I have only a very vague idea on the actual rules and regulations regarding LAGs. They are my travel based nightmares.

For that reason wherever I go, ALL toiletries end up in my check in luggage. Occassionally I'd carry an empty water bottle to refill (some airports have water dispensers at the boarding gate area which is awesome) But even then, a few years ago, while I was on my way back from Japan with an empty bottle in my carry on - I had no intention of refilling it then. I carried it around because it was an actual water bottle and not one of those mineral water bottles, they insisted that I take the bottle out so that they could verify that there was no liquid in it!

A few months back (late October to be exact), my sister and I embarked on our very first journey together (before this it was me and my friends, or her and her friends) While eager to travel light (just with backpacks), we were left with no choice but to get ourselves one checked in baggage for our toiletries (looking back: or so we thought). Seeing that we had 15 kgs of check in, we figured that's we'd evenly distribute the weight from our backpacks. That is how even simple things like a face towel, tissue paper, some basic medication and my cell phone charger ended up in the carry on (on more airport security ambiguousness, a friend recently told me that there was a time when cables were banned from carry ons as well since you could easily use it to strangle someone).

An hour later, as we were looking for a small dull pink duffel bag in the tiny airport's one and only moving luggage carousel, it was nowhere to be seen. We had clearly lost our tiny check in luggage. Just our luck! We lost valuable holiday time as we ran after the airline personnel to lodge a report about our lost 'luggage' as she left us with promises of calling us the moment they found the bag. Naturally we had to get some local toiletries (I totally love their shampoo!) The airline personnel's promise remained only a promise, though. 3 days later, we end up in the airport again after our holiday. When we enquired about our bag (although deep inside, we didn't have much hope of it resurfacing), surprisingly the airline personnel this time said that yes, they had found our bag. 15 minutes later, the sisters were united with the dull pink duffel bag which was then checked in again on it's way to KL. (Kudos goes to airline personnel on our way back as he was very, very helpful)

Franken-Laptop

2011-04-03T09:15:00.016+08:00

Around 4 years and 1 month ago, I was handed a heartache on a platter in the form of a laptop. To make matters worse, I actually paid for it. It was the very first laptop/computer I ever bought on my own, and I grudgingly have to admit now that I might have been taken on a small ride (they changed the OS from XP to Vista with only 503 MB of memory) without knowing it until at least a year later

A few weeks ago, the laptop suddenly died while I was using it. After fretting for awhile and finally allowing it to 'cool down' it revived and started working again as though nothing had happened. Good news? Maybe. Or maybe not.

Then last night, it went berserk again. My sister was using it for something and she complained that the screen showed her that 'a fatal error has occurred'. She also said that before her laptop died late last year, it had behaved in such a way. Inevitably, the heartache on a platter may have reached the end of it's road.

Undeniably, the idea of getting a new laptop seems tempting enough, especially since it would be tax deductible. At the same time, more modern portable devices (tablets, for instance) have also made inroads, and to be honest, the thought of getting a tablet (an iPad especially) is extremely exciting after I spent about two weeks on holiday with a friend who had one. My only issue with a tablet is that the storage space is quite small for my liking, as for some strange reason, I happen to actually use up a lot of space.

Opinions, anyone?

Of Bad-Ass Limps and Losing Faith in Doctors

2011-03-29T13:19:00.001+08:00

I stupidly went and sprained my ankle all over again, and it's all because I was trying to maneouver a 15 kg bag down some steps of a bus. Actually it happened too quickly for me to realise what had actually happened. All I knew was one minute I was walking down the steps, and the next had me doubled up in pain on the curb, head bent down while I held my ankle and took in a long deep breath.

Now, I'll leave the details of my injury to your imagination or perhaps to a later post. All I'll say is that my left foot has swollen to scary proportions, shows no sign of improvement and looks like it doesn't belong to me, but to the Michelin Man instead.

A reluctant visit to the doctor last night left me extremely frustrated - as all she did was give me a referral letter to get my foot X-rayed after she did the 'push against my hand' test (which I passed with flying colours, or so I think based on the fact that I could bend my foot to push her palm - and on my own, I've been allowing the ankle all the usual range of motions a non-sprained ankle would do without any trouble). Not that I mind an X-ray although if there is a fracture as diagnosed by the doctor, I think I'll cry, but come on - the last time I had a sprained ankle back in 2008, at least the doctor gave me an injection and some medication for the swelling and I was better within a few days. I did ask her if she had anything for the swelling, but she said no... what the hell?

As for the suspected fracture - shouldn't a fracture leave you motionless and in pain at all times? I've been off painkillers for some time and can walk around (though with a bad-ass limp) with a handleable pain (period pain is much worse than this, I think)

TURNING 31

2011-03-08T22:25:00.004+08:00

Somewhere in the late afternoon today, I crossed over an invisible threshold and firmly set my feet amongst a group known as 'the thirty-somethings', a group where several members who have been there for a few years say is waaay better than the depressing twenties.

Last night, I found myself watching the final scene of a certain episode of How I Met Your Mother in a continuous loop. For some reason, the idea of 'taking the leap', in that episode had a strange hold on me the very first time I saw it. Perhaps taking the leap is what we should all do with our lives every now and then. Screw the plan (if there is any in the first place), and just have faith and listen to what the world is trying to tell you. The song used in the scene is pretty awesome too. I also realised that the principal character in the show celebrated his 31st birthday that day, and figured that it'll be a rather fitting video to share. Maybe it is time to take the leap.

A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR

2011-02-26T12:44:00.002+08:00

The aroma of the spices waft around and give one of those rapper hand gestures to your nose which reels in shock while you're opening the packaging. It says cake on it, and you picture the cakes you're usually used to. Not this time though.

An attempt to sample the 'local' sweets of a faraway land, led us to purchase some 'cakes' and sweets while we were in the city of Colombo the day before our flight back to Malaysia. And of course a couple of weeks after sitting in the fridge (the whole family was down with some strange sort of stomach and digestive tract related illness after the holiday, sadly), we open the boxes of the cakes, and assault our taste buds with cakes that are extremely sweet and spicy (Cinnamon, Cardamom, Nutmeg, Cloves,among others for those who are curious) all at the same time.

While the rest of the family members seem to enjoy the cakes, I can't bring myself to enjoy them as I usually would enjoy cakes (and trust me, I am a fan of cakes). Firstly, they are too sweet (even for me), and according to a recipe I found online, 1/2 a bottle of rose essence is used in the recipe. And secondly, I've always associated spices with savoury food, and when the flavours were combined this way, I felt like I was being forced to take medicine.

What do you think? Should spices be left well alone for curries and other savoury type dishes, or are you cool with vast quantities of spices in sweets and cakes?

GETTING BACK INTO THE GROOVE

2011-02-20T14:39:00.003+08:00

is much harder than I thought it would be.

I can't say why I actually put a hold to my blogging activities since the beginning of the year. I could say it was because I was busy (but being busy never prevented me from posting regularly back in 2006, or even 2008 and 2010), or perhaps being busy led to the fact that I could not focus my thoughts to form coherent sentences (this part is true... of late, each time I get an inspiration to blog about something, my thought process is always interrupted by well, interruptions in many different forms, and probably bad feng shui. Don't ask. Besides, during the short blogging break, I realised that talking about myself had actually made me more depressed then I'd actually be if I didn't write about it, because you see, things happened as they normally would the past month and a half, (some good, some so bad and shocking that you'd think it's fiction), but because I hardly dwelt on them, they didn't have the opportunity to depress me, odd as it may sound.

So, I was thinking all this while... how do I continue writing, and prevent making it as personal as I possibly can? I tried to figure out a new format, a new name, a new URL even... but I figured it would be pointless without content. Perhaps, I should try to get back into the groove, blog about less personal stuff (for instance my trips to North Sumatera last year and a recent visit to Sri Lanka) first, get the writing mojo rolling, and give the fingers some exercise and then figure out what I'm going to do.

Meanwhile, I'll try catching up with what has been happening around your blogs....

BE RIGHT BACK

2011-01-16T14:56:00.003+08:00

I hope

*IT'S THE END OF THE YEAR AS WE KNOW IT

2010-12-27T23:36:00.009+08:00

And I feel fine...

Yeah, 2010 - good bye.

I'm doing my annual review of the year a tad bit earlier this year, what with this platform being more of a pressurising chore instead of a hobby that was once well loved. Maybe a few days break of not having that nagging feeling to post a post might help me in this front. We'll see in the next year.

If I were to describe 2010 in one word, I'd use the word INCONSEQUENTIAL, because, really - it didn't seem to have any significance at all. It was there, always in the background challenging you to keep up with it. Sometimes you ran to catch up, and sometimes you just threw your hands in the air and went and slept. It was that kind of year.

Stuff That Made 2010 (Things that happened, stuff I learned, stuff I did, etc)

1. This was the year of vacations, with friends and family, overseas and local. While the vacation itself was good, coming back and facing the realities of life was tough.

2. Made a total of four (4!) new friends this year, and 3 of them were students who did their internship in my workplace, and one is a colleague. Says alot, doesn't it?

3. Did a lot of reading this year... I tried compiling a list, but I seem to have misplaced it.

5. The migraines which reduced in frequency the past few years have come back to haunt me once again

6. Found out that the Dettol Antiseptic Hand Wash actually prevents you from falling sick. I've not had the flu since I started keeping one in my office

7. I have a doppelganger. She seems to like most of the things I like - books, observing people, finding a quiet place to eat and read during lunch, thinks that a lot of people around us are idiots, have strange encounters, etc. She even looks like me from the back. Creepy!

8. I actually watched more movies than I usually do. I also realised that I hate romantic comedies, love animated stuff, and have surprisingly enjoyed anime more than I thought I would. Could I say it was a good year for movies? No, I can't.

9. Family members like my potato salad <3

10. Some things are really, really difficult to move out from your system. I could give examples, but I choose not to.

11. Climbed two hills in preparation for hiking the tallest mountain in Malaysia, but it unfortunately stopped there. Frequency in going to the gym also reduced due to the increased frequency in headaches/migraine.

12. I have been a lousy friend to some people.

Yeah, so that was 2010 in a nutshell. I didn't like the year that much - and I'd only give it a 4 out of 10 for awesomeness. I'm actually looking forward to a fresh new start come 2011, and I think that it's probably time to look for other fresh starts as well, especially concerning item #4.

* A spin on the song by R.E.M - It's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)