i seem to be going back a lot, huh?

A quick post because I have a test tomorrow.

I am heading back to Taiping tomorrow afternoon and will be staying until Sunday morning. Plans include infecting brothers with addictively silly games, getting self jabbed for multiple reasons, swimming and air-conditioning.

***

Attention Austinians.

Go class blog.

And help plan.

largest | t-shirts | adfp night

Eh Zhen Hwang where did you put your largest?

Bahahahahahahahahahahaha!!! Hahaha! HAHA!!

And it took me quite a while to think of a way to say it without making it sound wrong.

The Beluga wasn't helping either.

Go on Sui Ying, let's see how wide your vocabulary is Hahaha *explains current situation to Louisa* haHAHAhaha

He was laughing like a girl! And he covered his mouth with both hands! *feels deep dissatisfaction at own inability to come up with a clever comeback within ten seconds of being laughed at* Damn you, Chan! I'll set Charis on you! She'll leer at you and call you ChanzyWanzy and FurryBurryKukuburi! *muttermuttermutter*

We were supposed to write a program that will display the largest and smallest integer from a series of positive and negative integers and I had just spent the last 30 minutes inventing new evolutions for Togepi with Louisa. To the interested, they are Togepos and Togeneg. Togepos lives at the North Pole and Togeneg at the South Pole and when flocks of them gather, they cause auroras. Yes, blink blankly, dear reader. All I can say is, humour works in many ways. Anyway, that's why I had to ask him about.. uh.. where he put his largest.

... Still tak puas hati. It's okay. Don't mind me.

***

I want this T-shirt.

It is pure awesome. Attitude. Sense of impending possibility. Prompt to utilize imagination. Heck, it can even help me do some character analysis. Very helpful when meeting strangers. May help me find a kindred spirit.

Check out the other shirts while you're at it. If I had my way, I'd just wear jeans and quirky tees and lounge on random sofas all day with a good book. Too bad the printed tees I find in KL are either too obvious or too suggestive. Gaaa.. *obsesses over cookie*

***

Speaking of jeans, I have decided not to go to ADFP Night because I don't have formal wear that is

a) not a baju kurung

b) not retarded

c) me

I am a T-shirt and jeans kind of girl. Whenever I try to go beyond, I look like I lost myself and would dearly like to go back to my home planet. I am very comfortable in my own skin, thankyouverymuch so please don't make me shed prematurely. You might take a spleen out.

Besides, I suck at parties with strangers. Yes, strange as it may seem, many people in ADFP are strangers to me, and very probably, I am one of the stranger strangers to most of them as well. At parties with strangers, I am usually found at one of the darker corners confiding in the wallpaper and drinking myself silly. Or, in better situations, I can be found at one of the roomier dark corners confiding with a few similarly-afflicted friends about the fire exit near the restrooms.

So yeah. You guys go enjoy yourselves, and I'll go enjoy myself.

To any non-goers: Who's up for a night-picnic? :D

***

As you can see from the timestamp, my DSPS is back in full force. I tried sleeping at 2am yesterday and after tossing and turning for 2 hours, I got up, showered, drank Milo and read about dolphins. And fell asleep at 6am. Woke up at 9am for class. Yay.

back

in the well-insulated world of Shah Alam.

If anyone wants to do anything tomorrow, I'm game.

antara malaikat dan jin

Is how they translated 'Angels & Demons'. Serious. Watched this morning with Ng and Yan and about 6 more people. Yes, Taiping has a cinema. With popcorn. And seats. But it stank of socks. Not even a year and I could pick up that sneaky scent of sweaty sneakers. I do not like the smell of socks. I do not. Why do you think I never go to the Akasia study room? My aversion to socksmell is greater than my aversion to heat. Wish I bought popcorn. Then I could have inhaled caramel with a hint of sock.

Anyway, enough digression. This review is for Jamie, who I think has a predisposition towards liking the movie (Ayelet Zurer and whatnot). Go watch it, Jamie, and tell me how it underperformed ;)

Background: Angels & Demons is based on a book by Dan Brown which I read ages ago and forgot. So I will not bitch about how it followed/did not follow the plot because I forgot the darn plot. Be warned. I have short memory and rather inappropriate imagination. My accounts are never to be taken seriously.

Started with some dull rambling about the Pope dying and shots of men melting gold. Reminded me about chemistry and the properties of Au. Next up was CERN, and I was much amused by the accents of the scientists. French, I think. Damn thick. Then there was this really really cool part where they travelled along the LHC, following the path of the atoms until they collide to produce the antimatter. I was in heaven. Always wanted to see the LHC. Breathtaking. Fuh. Real or not, it was great. Unfortunately, things started going downhill from there.

For one, they had to show Tom Hanks in Speedos. I do want to see certain men in Speedos, but not Tom Hanks. Oh please dear god not Tom Hanks. The moment I saw the underwater shots and splashing, I was like ohgodnottomhanksnakednonoshit!it'stomhanksinspeedos!shit!arghmyeyes..*chokesplutterdie* Alright, maybe not exactly that, but you get my drift. Of all guys to get a Speedo scene, it's Tom Hanks. Why not Spock? Oh wait, no, not him, but, oh, never mind. In the first place, I have a problem with Hanksy being Langdon because he's too old and he looks funny when he tries to rush. And Langdon seems to be the debonair intellectual. Hanksy looks intellectual, yes, that's why he gets to act in so many movies, but he just doesn't have that debonair flair. Oh, and the hair bugs me. And is it just me, or is there absolutely no chemistry between him and the leading (and as Jamie pointed out, only) lady?

Rant over. Moving on. I liked the accents. Zer way zay say theengs is vairi interesteeng. Gotta love Latin. Nice flow. Lots of tongue rolling. Sounds epic. Sounds lovely with deep voices. Gotta love deep voices. Turns me on. Forget I said that. Anyway, there's this one time when a guy said 'for-me-da-blay'. Made me laugh. It's the way he was wracking his head for the word. Reminds me of how I do BM. Formedablay scene comes after Speedo scene, so listen up.

One thing about A&D. They don't show enough of the clues. No close shot, they just go over the statues once and that's it. I mean, come on! Rome! If you don't show the sculptures, what you want to show? I think they featured the Vatican police punya car more than Bernini. I wanted to be able to see the statues like I was in Rome. I wanted another LHC moment. I wanted to be awed. Meh. Didn't even have time to snigger at Ecstasy of Saint Theresa. I want more statues, goddammit!! Note the double exclamation marks! They did have a brief close-up on a statue that had a fig leaf in place of the penis. It was very brief, but I think the Pope didn't take out the balls. But that was unnecessary. The close-up, not the unchopped balls.

Camerlengo. Good choice. So holy, he scared me a little. And the way he talks fascinates me.  Assasin. Okay choice. I might get attracted if he wears them glasses again. Execution of preferiti. First one wasn't great (not clear that he was stuffed with soil) but the rest were gruesome enough. I liked the gradual way the third one ceased to scream. Could have done with closer close-ups of the ambigrams though. Oh, and the Necropolis was a letdown. Too brief, not dark enough, distinct feeling that they were filming it on set. Ayelet Zurer as Vittoria Vetra was forgettable (unless you like sharp-featured brunettes). Lots of old men in dresses, if it turns you on.

What else.. Oh yes. Soundtrack. Damn epic. Must get. Note that I did not say download. Seriously, there are quite a few times when the music is the one thing holding the scene together. It was so intense, I stopped breathing. It deepens the effect of all that ancient marble grandeur, making me feel like that angel thing might just start moving to smite my sinning thoughts right out of my head. Oh! And the supposed-to-be-annihilating explosion is worth looking out for. It's like watching a nebula forming. Plus, that's where the sound effects work their greatest magic. Can feel the shockwaves hitting your brainwaves.

All in all, choppy storytelling, underuse of fantastic location, underuse of lovely leading lady, underuse of great theme of science vs. religion. Sure, they overused Hanksy imo, but it's Robert Langdon's story, so I won't bitch about that. Parts of it were awesome (OST, LHC, solid story, magnificent twist) but I couldn't feel like I was living it. Wrong focus, perhaps. Unfortunately, not an immersive experience. It's almost like flying to the sun on wax wings. Nak sampai, nak sampai, tapi tak sampai.

now showing

Yan has a blog.

*confetti*

It's a barren wasteland of one post and boring comments. I ask you to forgive the noob. She hasn't had much practice. But I do assure you that it will be worth your time to check her out because she is rather pretty and amusing. And she has pretty friends. And I am not referring to myself. But she has an annoying tendency to laugh like a demented witch when she is typing (I am referring to the use of 'wakakaka' and excessive use of '!!!!') and I do hope you will forgive her for that. Her real laugh is a lot more tolerable and can be, at times, infectious. She also one of the few people who can appreciate sarcasm and swearwords. Which is why she is one of my bestest buddies.

***

To be fair,

Ng also has a blog.

*confetti*

It has interesting posts about China which I personally do not like because of the frequent mention of dead ducks. But it's still interesting. I have always thought that Ng is the type of pretty that grows on you, the type where she gets prettier the more you look at her. So go read her blog. I think my sarcasm and profanities have been sliding off her over the years like water off a duck's back. Yes, Ng. I've been wondering how come the both of us are such good friends too.

***

In case anyone's wondering: No, an Ng does not have a last name. It responds warmly to calls of 'Ng!' but becomes disoriented when called a 'Shea Yuin'.

To guys who are interested in my lovely friends: Good Luck.

update again

Am heading back to Taiping in about 3 hours. Dad's driving down. Yes, I think he needs to get himself a hobby. I'm not complaining. I mean, if he's not coming I would have to carry my luggage and wait in the hot sun for a bus. It's just that it's more expensive to drive here and back. I want to use that money to watch Transformers in IMAX. Saw the trailer in the cinema yesterday. Better graphics than the first one, but the mouth motion still looks fake.

Anyway, once I get back, I plan to settle my passporty stuff, take a new official photo and see what I can do about my visa things. Then, I plan to take lovely long swims in the CRC pool. And I'll borrow all the National Geographics and Economists rotting in the library and I will drown in air-conditioned heaven. Special jab at Ng and Yan: My plans do not include hanging out with friends because they don't blog about where they are. Yan, where is your 'Coming Soon' blog? Where? It's been coming soon for months already.

The thing about going back to Taiping is that conversation invariably steers towards topics that I have zero interest in. Like this time, I will be hearing about scholarships: who got it, who should get it but didn't, surprise getters, the SPM scores of those who got it, yadayadayada. Meh. Like I give a damn. And my brother will start talking about really really lala things like who's dating who, who likes who but is afraid because this other who looks like she/he likes another who, who's smsing who when one of the who is in a relationship with some other who. My brother's turning lala (insert dramatic sound effect). Who knows how to cure lalaness, please contact me.

And no, I will not visit my high school because I don't like it anymore. Most of the great teachers are gone. The school is growing more and more pretentious and self-advertizing. They ripped off the wooden platform I etched my initials on. And most unforgivably, they painted the beautiful building diarrhea-brown and rectal-bleeding-red. I shall never forgive that blasphemy. Ng, Yan and I plan to come back in ten years' time with enough money to paint it back to its austere combination of white-and-blue. Want to join, Jane?

My god. An update turned into a rant. Blah. Whatever. I'll go pack now.

Swing out.

Shah Alam Memorial Park

So I was in the car on the way back to my lovely warm hostel when I saw this nice billboard showing green trees under a sunny sky saying

Shah Alam Memorial Park

So I said something along the lines of Hey Mum, why don't we go walk in the park and see flowers and stuff since it's Mother's Day?

And my Mum, being herself, shushed me and said: Mana oo lang khua hua tua cemetary eh?! (Manglish translation: Where got people go cemetery see flowers wan?!)

...

I didn't know they call graveyards 'Memorial Parks' now. What the hell.

I mean, you use graveyard when you want it to sound a bit creepy because it makes you think of a yard full of graves, and yards are usually choked with weed and perimeter-ed by a rusty chain-link fence, so you add that with some graves and you get this feeling that dead bodies lie there forgotten and bored so they might just reach up through the ground and grab your ankles.

And you use cemetery because it sounds very respectful for a place where you bury a loved one. Cemetery sounds very austere, like all the people buried there are solemn upright people who have done good in their lives and who have no regrets moving on. So you imagine a cemetery as the guardhouse to the afterlife where you can't enter unless you died. So you look at that photo of the great-grandma you never knew and imagine you're standing outside the gates of her heavenly mansion and she's looking at you through celestial CCTV and she won't talk to you because you're having inappropriate thoughts in your head. That's cemetery.

But Memorial Park? Park? With the capital M and P? I'm still getting used to it. I mean, right now, I have this image of the standard happy happy park. You know, the sunny one with the family picnics with red-and-white checked cloth under the trees and kids running around and slides and swings and kites and lakes and rowboats and benches. With a few tombstones scattered around the place. Beside the slide, behind the bench, oh a kid tripped over one, a place to tie free rowboats.

So I googled Shah Alam Memorial Park. It looks like somewhere Amy would like to jog. Haha. No lah. A bit like a well-pruned Taiping Lake Gardens. Decorative trees, stone sculptures, stuff like that. I was wondering why anyone would want to make graveyards pleasant and jog-able when I realized who would.

The undertakers. They would want more people to buy space, right? And when people are alive, naturally they would elect to be buried in a nice spot, right? I mean, choice between a view of lallang and a view of poodle-bushes. Hmmm. Even the people who are doing the burying would want to buy a place there. To make the experience of visiting more pleasant, like you're going there to walk with your dead loved one. I don't know whether its a good idea or not. I mean, should we take away the pain of losing someone, just by burying them in the Hilton of graveyards? There's a great deal of escapism and compensating-for-what-you-didn't-do-while-he/she-was-alive and not-swallowing-reality there that I don't think I have the capacity to explore. Then again, maybe people just do it because they think the deceased might like it.

The hell. It even has Facebook. 27 fans.

I applaud their skill in transforming their image 720° sampai I can terfikir of going there on Mother's Day. Dunno lah. Seems to me a bit counter-intuitive to call a cemetery a 'Memorial Park'. Maybe I'll go visit someday to see how much different it is from my grandma's :)

going back grumblings

Manglish post.

Wah lau. Suddenly feel scared to go home. Why? Itu bising-bising in Perak lah. I read a bit only, so I don't know much. But enough to be worried lah. Why they must bising on the 7th ha?

I'm going back on the 7th. &@#^$_(&^$#)*&^$.

You don't block my bus, I tell you! I want to faster go back wan hor! You assemble di Assembly ke, you throw rocks ke, you block the road ke, YOU DON'T GET IN MY WAY. What, you think I want to sit in bus and eat popcorn while you berdrama outside? Boh eng ah... Very sien ohkayy. My nasib lah my bus back to Taiping must stop at Ipoh and Kuala Kangsar. 3.5 hour journey stretch to 4.5 already, you people berdemonstrasi some more. You want me to die of hunger meh. Demonstrate today mah. Get things done early. Don't tunda tunda. Be early, not punctual. Late also can, actually. Just don't demonstrate when I am in Ipoh.

But talk a lot also no use wan lah. Better to prepare sendiri. I better go buy food supply so that I don't starve while stranded in the bus. And better wear black T-shirt. When jumpa the protesters, can blend in. When jumpa normal people, wear my blue jacket. Oh, and standby a novel and earphones too. And torchlight. Can keep myself occupied while the drama unfolds around me.

Nabeh. When I want to go back lah you start blocking the road.

another rational update

Heading back to Taiping this Thursday afternoon. Staying until Sunday morning.

Why? Because I want air-cond.

So anybody want to ajak me out or anything, make sure it's somewhere cool.

taking wei jie seriously

Wow. Didn't expect such a big emo reaction from Wei Jie. Wei Jie, reason I used so many vulgarities is because you didn't seem to mind them. Do remember that during group discussion I called you 'Asshole' many many times. You laughed and continued doing whatever you were doing. So I thought you were okay with expletives. Basically, I just wished you had asked me first.

And another thing: the 'Jackson Four Minute Rule' is more of a ribbing than a complaining. It was a parody of the 'Harvard Four Minute Rule' and since you're the one who showed the most class spirit among ex-Austinians, you kena lah. What, you think there's a 'Memphis Four Minute Rule'?

Looks like you're under the impression that you're supposed to choose between Austin and Jackson. As far as I'm concerned, you're not. The few reasons why you get some dissing about Jackson from me is because

1) You actually try to defend them. It's funner to tease someone who gets all hot and bothered.

2) I was trying to get you to shut up about them already. You DO go on about them, you know? If you still don't believe me, I am willing to record you for posterity. Not that I don't like them or anything, but I don't know Jackson people and therefore find the topic extremely boring.

Wei Jie, you can go forth and express the spiky-haired side of you. But if it is any consolation, Charis once commented on your involvement in BTN LDK and she said: Wei Jie was sitting there making Wei Jie-like remarks. Correct me if I got it wrong, Charis. So I suppose there is a certain set of characteristics we attribute to you. 

We all start out as stem cells, Wei Jie. You can differentiate into any cell you want.

BTN reflections

Well, I'm back from BTN. Learned some. Thought some.

I could feel a few half-hearted attempts at brainwashing. but as a whole, the camp pretty much succeeded in preserving my mental state. My mind is still as clear and unpolluted as it was before.

Met up with an old friend, learned about B's weakness, learned about sleep-messaging, learned about the pronunciation of deo-dorant, learned about Ee Jane's (the Kelantan one) new flame, learned about new items of garglement, tried to find hotter guys to ogle at, divorced Amy, learned that I can actually go 2 km without something worthwhile to run for at the finish line, learned that Captain Carrot knows how to give blowjobs, learned that rappeling ain't all that fun, learned that communal bathing alone is damn fun, etc. etc.

Almost lost my temper at Wei Jie for making me act as The Wife in the patriotic song presentation. When no one volunteered for that role, bloody sonofabitch just wrote my name on the board without even asking my opinion. I hate being taken for granted. When I protested, he just waved it aside and started telling me what to do. Jerk of the century. Just because I helped him once in his stupid video, he thinks I'm at his beck and call. Asshole. It's not that I wouldn't help, but I'd like it if he just asked. But I learned something, that is I don't lose my temper ganasly enough. Zhen Hwang was actually trying to decide whether I'm really angry or not. I shall make it more pronounced next time. Yes, Wei Jie, you with the squid rammed up your butt. I am pissed at you.

Funnily enough, the most vivid memory snapshot I have of this camp is the one of Beatrice suspended in mid-fall - hands stretched out, face still smiling at Zhen Hwang's imaginary pursuit of revenge, legs in a position that will make a upright landing impossible. That moment right before the ground said hello.

The spotlight-lit circle was what made the camp really worth the while :)