RACONTEUR-ESQUE SCRIBBLINGS

While replying to an e-mail thread to the last few *surviving old friends I have this evening, I came up with the conclusion that December doesn't really exist in the working world. In fact, it's the month which we use to prepare for the next year - drafting KPIs and whatnots and in some cases, to complete stuff that ends the year - accounts, for instance. Towards the end of last month, I before the "December does not exist" epiphany hit me, I was forced to admit that I might need a list to get some stuff done before the year ends. I do it at work, so I didn't see why I couldn't use a list to get personal things done as well. That particular night, I wanted to call it my **year end resolutions and post it up on Facebook, for two very clear reasons - it's the end of the year as we know it, and if  I don't do the items I listed, I can kick myself as we usher in the new year, but then I procrastinated (nothing new there), and the next thing I know, I hav...

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

Dear 2009, Hey there, I believe we haven't met just yet, though we most probably will in a few hours. To be honest, this is the very first time I'm writing a letter to a year. I suppose you should know that I along with a few others have not made any resolutions to celebrate your arrival, but that's beside the point. The thing is, I was kind of hoping to catch you before you descended upon us. It's just hours away where people will be ushering you in with fireworks, countdowns and laughter induced by champagne bubbles... So before anything happens, I'd like to request just one thing. Be nice. Just that. I'm not hoping for anything spectacular, but it would be nice if 2009 (that is you, if you've forgotten) could leave out unnecessary pain from your list of things to do. So many people have a lot of hopes on you, you know. I'm sure that at the end, you don't want to be rated the same as 2008 - unpredictable and only getting a five out of ten.....

When undiagnosed insomnia hits, I turn to the good old ipod on very low volume for entertainment in the hopes that the soft sounds are comfortable enough and can fool my mind into believing it is tired and will eventually go to sleep. It does, sooner or later. Anyway, it was one of those nights a few days ago, and as I was forcing myself to sleep, Friday Night by The Darkness, whereby the very first line is "Hey you, do you remember me... I used to sit next to you in school" started playing (and all thoughts of having to sleep flew out of the window) and an idea hit me. So here I am, a few days later, recalling an incident that is slightly more than a year old. It was early April of 2007, and one of my friends from school had invited us to her wedding dinner. Another friend of mine (whom I've kept in touch with since I left school ten years ago) was going so I went as well, hoping to catch up with some of the girls whom I haven't met since we all parted ways after s...

I have unfortunately and regrettably reached the age where people around me (parents, aunts, uncles, friends??) seem to have ganged up together against me in promoting an instution that until about a year ago has always somewhat taken a back seat in conversations, and barely approached save for the occasional "so when?" The thing is, these people are all under the impression that you will be happy only if you have someone by your side without giving a thought about what actually will make you happy. It is with a certain degree of horror that I suddenly find relatives(?) I've never even spoken to (or even knew of, for that matter) asking my parents about my existence (which is so weird... how did they even know I existed, and where were they when I was doing my family tree project for school?) because they happen to know 'ahem' some nice people around my age. Two days ago, I went for lunch with a work friend, and as we were going back to the workplace she sudde...

If I had a hat (which I don't because it is now lying in the bottom of the ocean) I would say "hat's off" to the organising team that did quite a great job. Despite the posters that had been put up about a month earlier, and the excited conversations ranging from 'what are you gonna wear?" to "what on earth do you wear to a masquerade themed dinner?" I would say that our highly anticipated annual event came and left in rather a hurry. Even on the eve of the day, people stayed back late to complete assignments that never seem to end. A few people whom I had casual conversations with during lunch break commented that they were not in the mood to celebrate, either, especially with the work continuously piling up till it encroached into our precious little weekends. So, anyway, last Saturday saw these workaholics dressed in their best (well, sort of anyway if you compare them to our uniforms), and headed to a hotel, resort and spa in Sunway where ...

Yeah, right! I've heard people say that you never forget to ride a bicycle once you know how. I beg to differ. I could ride a bike pretty well when I was younger (until 12 or so) when I lived in a place which was conducive for bicycles. Of course I've had my fair share of scrapes and bruises and falling into drains and such. However, I could still cycle where I wanted to go (usually somewhere in the neighbourhood) and used to do so in the evenings (because there were no playstations available) Fast forward to 2001, and after 9 years of not touching a bicycle, my friends (they left their riding around the same time as well) and I decided to try cycling at this place near the beach after our semester finals. We went over, rented a few bikes, and started riding. Well, they did, whilist I struggled to ride, and almost rode off from the track to the grass. I couldn't seem to focus on the pedalling and the path at the same time! At one point, I managed to fall into a lily p...

As much as I like listening to the radio during my journey to and from work (especially to, and less of from), I have this feeling that it's all unrequited. Radio stations hate me. There's no other explanation. I think it was about over a month ago when I mentioned about a new favourite radio station, and how the deejays with their monty python-esque antics make my mornings better, and how I actually won tickets to the Indiana Jones movie, etc. Life was pretty good then. Barely two weeks later, the station decides to reformat it's content (and promote travel and adventure locally as to help the tourism industry due to rising costs of travel)... so the wake up show (which is called something else these days but I can't seem to remember what it is) is hosted by two other deejays (one of them used to host a show at night called "nocturnal with (insert deejay's name)") and they're not even funny. The saddest part of all, is that they don't even try...

Who knew that trying to shut a car door in a small space could send you flying into a patch of sand (which is sometimes referred to as a garden - what kind though... I wonder at times.) That was what happened last night when I got home from work. Despite knowing that I would have to squeeze out into the small space between the 'garden' and the car, and the fact that my feet are not really that small either, I chose to let it remain that way. I got out fine, but as soon as I closed the door, I found myself landing on the sand with a thud, after performing a fantastic pirroute in the limited space that could have made even the best ballerina turn an ugly shade of green. At the same time, I felt my ankle throb (what is a garden if it is not lined with bricks?) and my ego dented although there was no one out there to see the whole incident. I crawled out of the 'garden' and limped towards the gate to shut it and go in. The swell subsided this morning (hopefully because...

This morning I was on the radio for about 42 seconds and I don't know how I sounded!! About a few months ago, I finally found the perfect radio station to listen to on my way to work. Previously I was stuck with a bunch of morons who thought they were being cute, but who were actually ridiculously annoying. And they kept playing the same songs, day after day. I got bored and left. So, this perfect radio station has the coolest deejays who do the morning show. I think they call it the wake up show or something. Too bad no real life Malaysian would have had their breakfast at 7 am. These were the same dudes who gave tips on how to escape from the clutches of a python. And this morning, my fingers took over my brain and sent an SMS to the radio station for a contest while waiting for work to start. It was that easy! (I usually sit in the car and listen to the radio or read or do both till 7:59 because we have to attend an assembly) Moments later, the deejay announces that they h...

It was the most frustrating thing ever last night. You take something all the way to be repaired, it works for a couple of minutes there, and when you bring it back home to be tested, it just stays put. Not a light in sight, blinking or permanent. And then there's the fact that even after 1 year and a few months later many other 3rd party softwares are still not compatible with Windows Vista! They've got to be joking, right? Technologically unsavvy, or technologically unlucky? Or could it be Murphy's law as Aunty Helpful Dictator mentioned in an earlier comment on an earlier post? After a two week delay, I finally managed to get the poor old laptop to the shops today despite much trepidation over what might happen to the laptop after all's been said and done. After all, it was most probably going to get torn apart (via philipheads, no doubt... but still) and that above all unnerves me. And the possibility of the replaced part not working, of course. Which was what ha...

Somewhere at the back of my mind, lies a distant memory of seeing a movie that goes by a spectacularly whimsical name listed as someone's favourite movie. However, selective memory on the other hand had discreetly deleted how and when the memory came in place. I just knew I had to catch it when I had the chance, which is what I did last weekend in the wee hours of the morning (Stupid tv station!) Anyway, besides having a somewhat unconventional story with an interesting cast, what intrigued me most was the idea of erasing something from your memory forever. As I lay awake after the movie (oh! the regrettable repercussions of mental stimulation!), I was wondering if given the chance to erase anything from my memory, what would it be? And as I thought and thought (and lost hours of potential sleep in the process) I couldn't think of even one possible item or person I'd like to erase from my memory. If given a chance, would you want to erase any of your memories just s...

If it weren't for the lack (or non-existence) of a certain aspect in my life, I think my story would make a pretty good soap, where in the real world rich 'tai-tais'with nothing better to do will watch while their offspring were having peaceful siestas and lament to each other about how terrible that poor girl on tv's life is. Now for the latest scoop in the dramatic existence of yours truly... just as it reaches one year and a month since the purchase of the laptop, the ethernet port decides to give way. Now that isn't such a big mystery, seeing that I predicted that sooner or later the port was going to meet an early end because it had some fitting issues which I shall not elaborate on here. The only mystery is why does it happen right after my one year warranty period is over? (Of course the port is not covered by the warranty because I don't think it is made by HP, but still...) On a different note, my usual pair of glasses that I use for work has myster...

The title marks the wise words of a second year undergraduate for the benefit of some enthusiastic first years in the yearly year book for our faculty. As I'm too (lazy) pressed for time to do any research, the origin of the said phrase is still unknown. Yeah, that's what I'm trying to do right now.... so, life, err.... go take a holiday, or bungee jump or something!!

I've been away for longer than I like to be away. Of course if I had my way, I'd be around like every single day, but I'm beginning to feel that my own personal time is not mine any longer. Besides the few hours which I use for 'have to do' stuff like eating, sleeping and taking a shower, I find the rest of my time brutally taken away from me by this place I go to daily so that I can earn some $$$. This unfortunately includes Saturdays as well as some Sundays, so I'm left with little time for fun activities like this. And then of course there's also the fact that I'm so mentally and physically exhausted that blogging takes a backseat while I mull over parameters for machines or try to investigate why something has gelled even though it is not supposed to!! So now, it in the early a.m of a warm Saturday morning. Naturally, I should be catching some sleep as I predict that tomorrow (which is actually today, but more of when I wake up) is going to be a ...

Despite the fact that you may be quite self sufficient in making life interesting, it's always a good idea to have a backup plan of making it all a bit more interesting, because you never know when you might need it... So here goes Tip no 1: Try to say something outlandish from time to time. It makes good conversation, and even if it doesn't, the baffled expression on your victim(s) is well worth it. Take this case for instance, my friends and I were at a friend's wedding (Indian style) last year, and for some reason (which I shall not reveal here) we found ourselves very near the dais (usually we tend to gather at the back and use it as an excuse to catch up with each other) and I observed that: a) The groom and best man go up the stage, and do whatever the priest asks them to, and then disappear backstage (to change into the proper wedding attire?) b) This is then followed by the bride and her bridesmaid doing whatever the priest asks them to, and then its off to the...

Time ceased moving as it should. Instead of a steady pace, it dashed through our lives (mine and a few others) as though it was preparing for a 100-metre dash. Under normal circumstances it wouldn't be such a big issue seeing that the 100-metre record is 9.74 seconds. But this time around it seemed like time was intent on keeping it (the 100 metre dash) in a never-ending loop, thus a weeks worth of time had disappeared into oblivion! Besides that, it was a strange week at best. Signs of illness bore down lightly, but never stayed put (Once again I lament about the wonderful antibodies which keep me healthy. What the?) I just wish those virus/bacterium would make up their minds to either completely infect Terra or just bloody well leave her alone! What's with the half baked effort, huh? (Aside: When I was a kid about 6 or 7, I used to think that the word 'bloody' was spelled as 'blady'. Now I realise that this was mainly caused by the fact that words like ...

I've been walking... A lot. Involuntarily. Especially in the past two weeks. And been missing out on proper exercise, but I figured that the walking would cover that. It did, in a way... But.... It's with deep embarassment that I admit that my right hips hurts at this age (late twenties) Typically, I should be in a perfectly fit condition, but certain activities the past two weeks (and they're not in the least very strenuous, either) have left me with a strange pain in the hip. So, now I can't sit comfortably, and walking seems to be a chore, but life goes on, and the walking continues... and so does the pain in the hip. Bleh.

This week alone, I had contemplated to "pull a Nehru" at least 3 times. The only thing that stopped me from doing so was the lack of time to draft out something that was necessary to do such a thing, therefore, the plan was chucked into the KIV file, most probably never to be seen or heard of again until something worse comes up (Which, when you look at it, seems awfully funny because, the plan actually arose from the lack of time to do anything!!) I've always wondered why things happen the way they do. What is the grand plan of things? Why do the easiest and most non-problematic things cause problems and become the hardest things ever when I'm around? Why do I seem to be swimming into a pool of incomprehensible darkness that never seem to end nor brighten up? Ok.... so I've done my bit of complaining... (and I know its pretty cryptic, and all, but that's how it needs to be for the moment) Onto happier things that were!

This will be the 3rd draft of whatever I was supposed to write. It's been 3 days since I needed a proper blogging fix, and sadly, I got sidetrackked each time (unavoidable circumstances such as working late, unreliable internet connections and such), hence the 3rd draft. I hope this gets posted up today, although it's becoming less and less relevant as the hours pass by, just like how the air molecules escape from an aging balloon. I have reached the point where I can't seem to come up with a fitting title for this post, and I suppose its partly due to the fact that there's just so many things I want to write about that they're all reaching out, hoping to see their pretty faces on this template. I wanted to put up about my thoughts on 2/3rds of the Grammys (because that's what I watched, the other 1/3rd was spent with House - Hugh Laurie has a fantastic smile, by the way), and I was thinking of posting up something on the funny noises that seem to be coming ...