See You in 2006!

Before I go off
And maybe kill myself
With either excessive drinks
Or flying high with Bob

The roads are a bit crazier at times likes these. And it's a weekend New Year. So that means everyone gets 2 hangover days before work resume. So be safe, be cafeful and party hard!

I'll see ya'll in 2006!
Happy New Year! (in advance)

Over and out.

Partyphobia

I’ve got much on my plate that it isn’t funny at all. While I sit here having my ass froze up with the ridiculous office air-con, I bet Drey (who is on-leave till next year) is getting a sun tan on the beautiful beach of Cenang in Langkawi sipping good quality duty-free liquors and David (who is also on-leave till next year) is probably half-way to KL already by now. I’ve got a shitload of work to do, mostly my own and a bit of theirs, just incase they can’t meet the deadline.

On top of that, I’ve yet to come up with any visuals that I would be proud of for this gig tomorrow. While there’s Futsal tomorrow, I’ve got to rendezvous after the game to somewhere for some err…personal stuff. Then comes New Year’s Eve. The party which I think has been finalized. After that, I’ll be on my way to Langkawi on first week of January for yet another party. While I know I should be looking forward to all of it. I find myself trembling in fright. That’s only up to mid-January. There’s surely more to come after that. Man, can die wan man! I’m not kidding. OK, maybe just a little. I guess I don’t have to drink so much, right? I guess I could scratch off Koh Samui for now. It can wait.

The only thing…the ONLY thing that’s making this a wee bit more cheerful and a tad less worrisome is that I made ‘Senior Designer’ this month! I got me a promotion, sort of.

HOO DA MAN? HOO DA MAN?!

Reflections

Year end is approaching. As I sit at my desk in the office, still dreading over the KL trip that has come to pass over a cup of coffee, I realized maybe I was a bit too harsh on them. But hey, it’s done and dusted. Let’s not go back down that road again.

2005 has been well. Really well. I graduated (yes me, of all people. I’m a graduate!) from EAA, finally. Found a fantastic job a month after the exhibition, loving it still and have never been to so many holiday trips in one year. I guess 22 is the new 18. Its fun being 22, no kidding. I went to KL, Damai Laut, Melaka and KL again. Man, I’m so feeble. 3 locations and I consider that a lot. But I did fritter away a ridiculous sum of money this year buying tech gadgets like RAM, a digital camera and so on. Not to mention the amount of liquor as well.

Well, I’m gonna be in a penny-pinching mode in 2006. I promise. At least that’ll get my mom off my back. Been bugging me to save. Yes, I realized the importance of it, really. However, there are just some things that require immediate action. So I indulge myself first. Thus I’ll know what I am saving for.

3 more days to go before 2006
Party for New Year’s Eve is still in the preliminary stages of preparation. So I don’t know what’s gonna happen, yet.

Grinching

Ah, it’s midnight. Already I’m dreading to work tomorrow. Wait a second; I love my work…if only…if only I can go in at lunchtime like the Art Director at KLue did while I was there.

I’m beginning to think I’m no good with Christmas parties. Really, I re-collect and I find myself wondering why do I even bother trying anymore? Maybe next year I’ll sit it out. I remember one Christmas I spent in the car, stuck in the bloody jam for 2 fucking hours on a stretch that’s only less than 1km long, oh the agony, the tension. When we finally do arrive, even the burning Christmas spirit that was burning ever so sturdily faded. So we took a U-turn and hit the beach with a couple of beers. In hope that it would desaturate whatever that’s left of the spirit.

Man, I can’t even think of any other. I guess most of them aren’t worth remembering at all. Zach’s party last year was alright. Then the Tsunami that hit our shores the next day. My dad’s a Tsunami survivor. He was at Monkey beach when it hit. I could still recall his frantic screaming on the phone while I was on the other side having a massive hangover. It was awful, I almost lost my dad.

I guess Christmas isn’t really my thing. The whole package, the eve, the day itself and Boxing Day. Maybe I’ve been really bad, heh. Santa really despises me.

I’ll try to be good :)
Maybe I’ll just sit it out.

Bouncing Back

I don’t even know where to begin. It was as if it was rigged from the start. I’ll just start off with this thing I would rather call a 44 seater horse ride that broke down twice in Taiping. Because really, it doesn’t feel like a bus as looks can be deceiving.

Yeah, you can scratch off Plusliner from the list. Yeah, it is that lousy now. I’ve not even mentioned the smell. One thing though, I was surprised Sim manage to sleep at all. But I guess it was fatigue more than the comfort (or lack of) of the 44 seater horse.

It just wouldn’t stop bouncing. And the air cond…why do I even bother. It just wasn’t even there to begin with.

This only mean that New Year’s Eve have to rock! It must be. Oh god please, I need a decent party to see off the year. A wonderful year that is being bug-ridden by failed over-hyped parties. OK, not all was a failure, but for the most part of it, it was.

(P/S: I don’t appreciate traveling for four hours in the wee hours of the morning only to find out a day later that we were co-hosting the party in front of the hotel receptionist’s desk)

Parties Galore!

Man, I’ve gotten myself into a ridiculous schedule again. Not only I’ll be heading off to KL on a midnight bus (eh?), I’ve got Futsal planned from 8-10pm tomorrow before the departure. Can we (me and Sim) make it in time? We’ll see.

Then of course, I do foresee a somewhat hardcore Christmas party (with me matcha, Ian) coming up while I’m in the city. And possibly a Zouk visit on the eve. Then of course, the 9.30pm bus ride back on Monday…in which we will arrive back in the island at right about 2am. Who the heck is gonna pick us up from the bus station?

Then this gig on the 30th where I should have started working on some art visuals to have it projected onto some big screen somewhere in the vicinity, then of course, the last day of 2005…the eve…where am I gonna go? I don’t know…just follow the flow lah, even so…it’s gonna be demanding. Getting drunk, lack of sleep…fuh! Man!

Then January, Langkawi beckons. But, but…it has not gone exactly as planned so far. I guess there isn’t an easier way to break it. I’ll just have to face up to them.

That’s about it….for the first half of it at least. When Sim departs back down south to Aussie-land, Kev will be headed back here. So here we go again, more parties, CNY and maybe…just maybe…Koh Samui.

See you guys later! Got some serious parties to attend.

Best Worst Day

Already late yesterday after waking up at 9am. Yeah, over-slept lah. What to do? It’s one of those oh-so-chilly-and-breezy mornings that you would just kill someone to enjoy it.

Anyhow, back to being late, so…I made the extra effort to be early, just to make up for lost time (whatever), so I cabut from me crib at right about 8.45am. 15 minutes for me to battle the morning rush hour jam…hmm…can lah.

So drive and drive I did. We had to diss the Kancil in the morning when dad woke me up. The car might have heard us; hence it put up a spiteful snobbish behaviour and decided to play dead with me. Yeah, as I was pressing the gas with my right feet, suddenly the engine revved up.

I thought “Oh great, must have slipped into Neutral.”

But hey, hang on, it’s in 4th. What the heck is going on?

Crap.

It died. So I had to crawl all the way to the other side of the road and aim for the Tanjung Bungah Hotel entrance to avoid any sort of embarrassment (whatever) or cause any traffic jam. But well, I guess the car must have been pretty pissed at me. It didn’t have enough momentum to reach the entrance…or did it? Somehow, I managed to handle the car to just before the entrance; good thing was at least I manage to park it on the road side so no traffic jams caused.

Anyway, with that, I was 1 ½ hours late. Yeah, the foreman took his sweet time to get to me. And what the heck is a platinum? My platinum is fucked? What is it doing in my car? Apparently, it some spark thingy to get the car going…

But if the car had gone, how could it cause the fuck up?

It gets better, upon me arrival, not only did the car resolute to fucking up. The computer at work did the same. It would just go blank and restart itself on a whim. That ain’t any good sign. When shit like that happens, that means the hardware is screwed, proper. (Or could it be the magnet Drey used to stick stuff on the CPU). Even so, after the fuck up, the technician took forever to hook up the substitute PC, be that as it may, it wasn’t powerful enough. We run on a multi-user system where 3 people share the same CPU but with our own monitors. The sub PC didn’t have a Pentium4 HT processor but only a standard P4, so multi-tasking was a bitch, not to mention the processor power had to split 3-ways without Hyper-Threading. Not even the 2.5GB of RAM helped us one bit. And then, it hanged, and decided to not reboot…ever again.

So apart from reading magazines, talk about sex, drink coffee, having a good lunch and going out for smokes…I really did nothing today. Well, at least I get to gross Drey out with the nauseating booby operation video we took last month. Yeah, told ya it looked like grapes…the fats…inside the boob, that is. Yuck.

Bored and Feeling A Little Vain

The Weekend Month

Ahhh, December. Don’t you just love December? It’s like a whole month of full of weekends. Think of it that way :)

January sucks because the whole damn month feels like Monday (being the beginning of the year vs. first day of the week); safe to say it feels that way all the way until March. Then comes April, which feels like Tuesday, yeah, I consider it as Monday since Tuesday comes after that. In May, it kind feels like its Ladies Night for the whole month. I don’t know lah, maybe because it’s the middle of the year and Wednesdays being midweek, so you’re in the dilemma of going out and party hard…yet, you have to bear in mind that there’s work tomorrow morning. June till August is fun ‘cos it feels like Thursday since you can almost feel the pre-weekend that is coming up. That’s Friday by the way (which can stand for by September till November).

And well, Sundays…

They’re emmm…Sundays.
Sundays are weird.

I guess you’d have to be 40…married, with kids to appreciate Sundays.

Man, I love December.

Late First Day

Hmmm…
I rushed all the way, in an attempt to make it early.
David, the Art Director arrived at 9 to greet her.

30 minutes pass 9, still no sign of her.
I text her, but to no avail

Alas, I called
Man, she overslept

On her first day of work.

Snap Shots #1

Hey, Isn't A Little Cold in Here?

It was 6.30pm
The usual time for my parents to have dinner, and so they summon me. “Come, let’s go already.” Right, so off we go, all the way to town, somewhere just off Penang Road. I can never remember what the name of the restaurant is. But they sure serve the best Curry Stingray in the island.

So after all the finding a space to park, walking to the restaurant, eat, leave, walk back, drive back…it was 8.30pm

I needed to take a leak. So I rushed to the toilet when we got home. Then I realize…my fly was undone.

Damn man, fuck.
But lady luck smiled, a really, really huge smile. Lucky me, I wore that good old Penang Jersey, which was long enough to cover. Spared me the embarrassment, phew.

No wonder I felt a little cold down south.

Mulling Over

Hey, I went missing for awhile!

Yeah, I have no idea what happened. Possibly the part of “moving to KL” kinda freaked me out a wee bit... Yeah, bad idea to start counting down the days, I guess I’m not quite ready…but yet again, will I ever be?

Just taking a little "me time" from everything to really, really mull over my life.

Then I remember, KLue. A week prior to it, the same thing happened. Freaking out, that is. What am I gonna do? Where am I gonna eat? Who am I gonna hang with? How are my weekends gonna be? Why no broadband? Who, how, when, where, why, which?!

I guess that’s the best part of moving out. Venturing into new habits, new people, new surroundings, new everything lah basically. It’s like growing up, again.

Sounds terrifyingly fun.

Going Out

It’s quite fucked up when you’re expected to move to KL in February and you’ve got no money in your bank. Maybe not nothing at all, but the current paycheck’s left over is considered nothing since you have to pay the down-payment on the car you intend to buy and pay the deposit for the room you’re renting. On top of that, you still need to have that surplus to get all the other things you’ll need to furnish the room.

Fuck man, this is ridiculous. I want to go, yet I don’t want to go. Or am I just freaking out. Someone please tell me I’m only freaking out and this is all normal. Being broke and moving out, that is.

I hate growing up.

(Meanwhile, I’ll try my luck at the local 4D)

Because I'm a Graphic Designer

I get to design and make anything into whatever I want.

Two SMS, One Dent

I woke up with 2 messages this morning.
Yeah, I slept early, that’s the consequence of sleeping early.

One says, “Meister, problem settled, case closed.”
What does that mean? It was a cliffhanger conversation; where conclusions could have swung either way. So Ms……., kindly sms me a more precise message.

The other reads, “Hai dear, dah tido ke blm. I love you so much.”
Fuck! That’s creepy man. I hope it’s not her. It was a one time thing, back in KL (or just outside). I hope my past action isn’t coming back to haunt me.

Oh god, please.
Dropping my camera last night when I was drunk during the Jazz Fest which left a massive dent on the camera is bad enough. Don’t lah. I need a good day. But that’s another story, for another entry :)

Bloody Hell

Today, the last piece of the series of black and white ads we’ve done is published. Despite all the censoring and lousy excuse they gave us, the response was good. Way beyond expectations to be exact. Look it up, (Starbiz Page 9) that would be the last b&w ad. But tomorrow (or the day after), the only ad with colour in the series will roll out. I hope that works just as well too.

Man, I wish I could avoid editing the bloody surgery video I have to do. It’s really ghastly and fucked up. And the videographer had to film it up close, capturing all gory details and the bloody epidemic. Boob sliced into half = not nice! Not nice I tell ya!

Aaargh…

What Up, Doc?

Uh huh, I get to be a doctor today. Man, I’m sure I made my parents swollen with pride with my sudden career change (which lasted for 3 hours). So, I would like to be referred as Dr. Meng, hookay?

Well, all that nonsense aside, we zoomed to Kepala Batas just after rush hour for yet another video shoot outing. Well, in case if anyone’s wondering…we chose that place because our PM was born in that area…hence, they have the most state-of-the-art hospital on the northern region (arguably, if not Penang).

As we have to follow strict hospital policy, we have to don the doctor’s pajamas-like attire. Yeah, the full set. The shirt, the pants, the slippers, the gloves, the facial mask and the err…shower cap? Anyway, being me, I’m easily fascinated. Thus, I went on a photo snapping rampage. I shot everyone, heh. No survivors. *Ahem*

It was fun, having the experience of feeling almost like a legitimate doctor. Minus the fat paycheque and 10 year long education.

We even had the privilege of going into an actual surgery room with an actual patient being operated by real surgeons. Phew, we were having problems simulating a surgery, luckily, we had the real thing.

I stood there, watching from the other side of the door, staring thru the small little window while I summon the nerve to enter. “What’s up?” I asked the other doctor standing next to me. Muffled by his facial mask he mumbled, “Ghdenfuwef”.

I’m like “Huh?”
“Gdneineifjer!!!” he repeated.
“What? I’m not getting ye flow, doc”
Frustrated, he removed his mask and went “Payu dara lah!”
“Ohhh…”

Embarrassed, I hurried my way into the surgery room to avoid that awkward moment. “OK, ciao!” I thought of asking, cancer or enlargement. But what the heck, I can tell you one thing, watching a boob being sliced into half isn’t amusing or fascinating. Urks!

Alas, after shooting the actual surgery, we moved on to the vacant surgery room next to it and stage our own ‘surgery’.

It was fun being a doctor for one day.


From left: The videographer, The boss, The tall, The talent/client & his lovely assistant. And the patient, Joe.

"CHANGE" You Lah! Grrr...

I hate advertising! OK, I don’t. But I hate Malaysian advertising. I can live with all the ridiculous rules, restrictions and their so-called censorship. But it’s the inconsistency with the censorship that’s bothering me.

Hey, why Marie-France Bodyline and all the other slimming agencies can post up beautiful women with skimpy swim suits on their full page ads but not mine? On top of that, my pic is off-center which means you can hardly see anything but the legs. Even so, it got censored. Now I gotta use a pic with some chick wearing jeans and a pair of hideous-looking boots.

Furthermore, the first part of our 4 series ads was published today on page 28 The Star, Nation section. The original header reads “Fuck the Status Quo”, but of course, it will be censored lah, so mah change lor, into “F@#K the Status Quo”. Even so, it wasn’t allowed. OK, fair enough, still very vulgar. From there, it became “STUFF The Status Quo”…which is kinda dumb already…and of course, being them, they decided to censor us anyway. Grrr…now, you would think it couldn’t get any worse…but I could and it did. Now, it’s “CHANGE the Status Quo”. Moreover, the body copy had to be changed as well…

From…

“Our apologies if you are offended. Please don’t be. We just wanted to get your attention to focus on what’s been happening.

The classical form of property advertisements (yes, that’s what this is all about). A splash of pictures. Pricing. Facilities. Features. Location Map. Interiors. The obligatory promise of a better lifestyle. Blah, blah, blah. And by the time you’ve read through the ad, if you are indeed a property buyer, chances are you’ve still not have made up your mind based on what a piece of paper had illustrated. Considering most properties being in the hundred thousand Ringgit category, we thought it’d be a tad too dangerous to let a RM15k press ad do the talking for us.

So, we’d actually like to get you to call the number below and let the Sales professionals actually earn their keep. We’re sure they’ll do a better job. Plus you get to hear a voice. And speak to an actual person.

They will tell you about the accolades. Like the company’s Golden Award at the Malaysian International Landscape & Garden Festival 2004. Or the numerous Quality ISO certificates. We’re sure they’ll also mention that this upcoming project is the first of its kind. A mixed development to cater to all the needs of the home buying public. With some interesting & innovative features too. All from a developer with an extensive track record with developments covering nearly every nook and cranny of the Malaysian peninsular. With over RM 1 billion in assets (to ensure a secured investment). And operations stretching as far away as Australia.

End of the day, a different kind of development deserves a different kind of approach. Make the call and experience the difference. More information available when you call...(XX-XXXXXXX)”

Into…
Hmm, well, it’s too sickening to have it posted. So just go read it on the papers lah. Page 28 :)

There’s 2 more coming up plus one full colour finale ad which is heavily censored as well. I will post it up when it’s released. Sickening.

I can hear Lim Kit Siang’s 1995 DAP rally on Tanjung Bungah echoing in my head…
“Today, we burn The Star, burn The Star!”

Kick the Ball

I’m so sick of organizing the weekly Futsal outing (sorry Sim, it’s just too much for me). As of now, I’ve had it. No more! I ain’t organizing any shit for no one. Except parties :)

Time to hang up the boots I guess.

"I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day." - Frank Sinatra.

I found that quote on some blog I stumble upon. Cool. It justifies it.

They Just Don't Care

They don’t signal when they turn or switch lane. They don’t use breaks if the car in front slows down, but they swerve to the next lane (without signaling, of course). They park wherever and whenever they please. They jump queue, cause frantic confusion and make drivers slam their brakes. They think high-lights should be used all the time. They drive onto your lane and honk you to move away, even though they’re on the wrong side. They float between lanes. They drive waaaay below the speed limit on the fast lane.

And if anything should happen, they blame you for being a lousy driver.

No, I’m not referring to Eugene Gan or the local Ah Bengs. I’m not pointing my fingers at the Mat Rempits or Mat Motor (whatever the difference is). I’m not blaming the ministers and they’re police escorts.

But I’m condemning the drivers of Penang.
If you can drive on the roads in Penang, you can drive anywhere in the world. They should use Penang as an international driving school course. Send in aspiring F1 racers, would-be rally drivers or regular road drivers to drive here. If they pass with flying colours, I bet they will be the best racing drivers, rally drivers and be accident-free for the rest of their lives. Provided if they don’t become one of them. The Penang drivers of course. :)

Meow Meow

Awww, aren't they too cute?

In came mommy cat. Awww...

Island in the Sun

It’s hot when it’s cold
It’s cold when it’s hot

Being confined to cot
I reflect, consider and contemplate

Maybe it isn’t such a good idea at all
Perhaps I could put it on-hold
Or not go at all
Like I’ve been told

After the panadol worked its miracle, hunger kicks in with an attitude. So I took a drive around town, just to clear my mind off things, and maybe drive off this bug while scouting for lunch. Haven’t seen Penang in awhile. There are just some things I need to do, just to have that ‘at home’ feel again. I head off and stopped by Pulau Tikus’ Hup Kee Kopitiam to have…my favourite, Wan Tan Mee, of course. Believe it or not, I’ve been eating this lady’s Wan Tan Mee since I was 6. It brings back some nostalgia of better, simpler times. That Kopitiam has not changed one bit since then, still the same old wooden benches at the side with back rest that are almost 90°, the extremely old electric powered wall clock, even the stall arrangement hasn’t changed much. I could almost see the early '90s Tans. Timeless.

After a satisfying lunch, off to town side, just to pass by places that will bring back good memories. Saints, EAA (strange), Chulia Street, Love Lane and the ever hectic and restless Penang Road. Would have loved to go back into Saints to catch some good old dirt-cheap school canteen Char Koey Teow, but damn, it's the school holidays. Anyway, since I’m all the way there, I’ve gotta head to Campbell Street’s famous chicken rice. The one near to that Rolex shop lah, damn good one. 100x better than Fatty Loh, confirm. Yeah, the one with the loud-speaker cum server dude. Finding a space to park is a real bitch though, but it’s worth the effort. Besides, its central town, where a parking space is worth more than gold. Cendol at that lorong is a must if you’re all the way in town and already have a space to park. Just walk lah, its worth it also. Of course, you gotta battle thru at least 20 other customer to get your bowl. (Still worth it)

I miss those times. I used to do it a lot back in foundation year at EAA. At the end of that little adventure of self re-discovery, I thought maybe, just maybe…I’ve got all I need right here.

Money’s no good there
So it is worthwhile?

Despite the extremely lousy driver mind-set in Penang
Maybe I’ll just stay cooped up in the island
Just a while longer.

Millionaire Me

Well, at least when they ask, I can say
“Yeah, I’ve held a million bucks before.”
...with my bare hands,

Milo Ais is on me! :)

Short Changed

It has been a chaotic week thus far.
Strange how a leisurely day in the office can turn around so badly. The boss hurried his way into the office having just zoomed back from Butterworth, “Meng, grab the video camera, we’ve got a video shoot to do. And they need it by tomorrow.”

Knowing we are not well equipped with videography equipment and talent, I hesitated and gave him an agitated look, “What video?! Not enough time lah” but I still gave it a shot.

Only to find out later, we were gonna shoot a corporate presentation video in which it should be instrumental in winning them a USD$200Mil contract. Yeah, you heard me, 200 Mil US Dollars. Imagine the pressure and burden on my shoulders. Overwhelming it was. Then we are only getting RM3K out of it. Wait a second, are not being short changed here?

All that aside, we went on with the shoot. With literally no experience in filming this video, we needed all the help we could get from the staff. But help was the only thing that was short apart from our weak and hapless camera’s battery life. We have to reshoot that damn bloody video 3 fucking times. I don’t mind that, it’s just that every time we re-shoot the video, we have to pass the ridiculously heavy security protocol which involves emptying our pockets, removing all metal objects and go thru a metal detector. Let’s not get into the smog and bunny shoes we have to wear to enter the production line. (Note: Bunny shoes are not those with a rabbit’s head on em. It’s just called that way, I don’t know why).

At the end of it, it was already 10pm, and we’ve still got virtually nothing settled. With internal office politics raging on, we knew we had to go, we’re just here to shoot a damn bloody video, god dammit. So we hastily say our goodbyes and like a super-unfriendly-stray-cat, we scrammed as fast as the wind.

At least one good thing to look forward to this week. Yeah, it’s Futsal. Haven’t played since June.

The Unconventional Death Cheater

Early Bird Got No Worm

And I thought, locking myself out from the car is embarrassing enough but it has come to my attention that it can be brought up to a whole new level.

So, I arrived extremely early for a birthday dinner/pre-party at La Bananas (which surprised everyone including myself, since I’m never on-time). Ms Mini (Annie) called while I was frantically signaling a turn to avoid hitting all those bikers with a death wish zooming pass me, “Meng ah, where are you ah?”

“I’m here already, where you?” says I while praying for a good parking spot.
“Err, (long pause) on the way liao…see you there in a bit.” *clicks*

And so the wait begins...

Pretty shot, huh? :P

5 minutes…
10 minutes…
30 minutes…
45 minutes…

Where the hell is everyone?! I know I’m early, but it wasn’t THAT early lah.
So I sent an SMS to the mini girl…only to find out that both of them are locked…inside…Sherlyn’s apartment along with Sherlyn herself.

…right.

Even the arrival of the birthday girl (and Ms. Mini), a fair bit of waiting was still required. Malaysians will be Malaysians.


HAPPY (she refuse to reveal her true age) BIRTHDAY SHERLYN AKA ANG HIAH!

Sub-Reality

Last night, sleep eluded me, as I toss and turn trying in vain to slither into the state of unconsciousness, there she was. She greeted me with the most beautiful smile, the most gorgeous look on her eyes.

“What are you doing here?” She asked as she took a few steps closer. “You should be asleep; you’ve got a lot of work tomorrow.”

I whispered to her…like a kid, anxiously keeping my cool “I know I do, but sleep has gone on the train without me.”

“You missed your ride?” she grins “Or were you waiting for someone?” then she winks.

“Maybe I was.”

The world was oblivious at that moment
The lack of sleep, the excessive work
Nothing else matters anymore
She’s just within grasp
I embraced her

It was pure ecstasy
It was truly sublime
Euphoria flooded within
Finally, we have come to be

I asked myself
How could anyone improve on perfection?
When all is flawless and immaculate
Ideal.

If only I’ve known, I would have shut it off.
Then there would be perpetual bliss
I could hear a faint sound in the background
Gradually gaining more and more decibels

Before I knew it, I was awakened by my phone.
I didn’t even realize I’ve fallen asleep
It took awhile before reality was grasped
That it was only a dream.

Good Food

Sometime last week, I dropped by McD Green Lane to pickup breakfast via drive-thru.
“Good morning sir, what would you like to order?” – she asked.
“I want err, set number 4 with coffee…” – as I glanced thru I saw that red thing…
“Does it come with that?”

Sunday morning hung overs, ahhh, I call it normality. If you don’t have a decent hangover on Sunday morning, that means you’ve had an awful Saturday night. But hangovers can be cruel; especially when you have one of those hangovers that make you feel so damn hungry you could eat an entire cow then you walked into the kitchen and only to find out that mom has overslept and missed her routine Sunday morning market trips but still manage to conjure something up, that requires you to wait for an hour. And the smell didn’t help me one bit while waiting.

Man, the Tandori Chicken smells too damn good and it’s taking too damn long! Aaarrgh…

Second Take on Life

I’ve always believe, that in life; nothing is ever certain.
I know that nothing should ever be taken for granted.
Though I make a point to give closure all the time.

Just like everyone or everything,
We’re just seconds away from disaster

We could spend everything, our efforts, our lifetime
To achieve greater heights, wealthier success, tighter bonds.

However, it’ll always only seconds away from falter
If it should, for whatever cruel and harsh reason.

Yesterday,
A friend of mine had an accident.
In the most ghastly manner no one could see in your mind's eye
A 4x4 crashed his bike and the back wheel ran over his head

We could spend our existence improving perfection
Humanizing friendships, building memories

But, a few seconds is all it takes
Before you end up clinging on memories
Of what that has come to pass
When it’s all that’s left of better times

Lucky for us
Lucky for him

For once
It was a good thing both were driving and riding fast
Or because his helmet detached, absorbing the impact
Or that the car ram his bike first before his head

The laws of physics was on his side

He cheated death…
…again.

With only flesh wound to remind him and us
That we're always only seconds away from disaster.

Sigh

First…
The anticipation was great

And…
Hope was through the ceiling

But…
All will go to waste

Being me…
I know where I stand

It don’t matter
I’m just there to make up the numbers

Despite…
Trying to impress

With…
Perseverance.

I’m nothing but just an extra.
A blurred character in the back.
Insignificant and pitiful.

Red Monday

Hah! I’ve told you to support with us. I told you to start watching it. And if you had, I bet you had a wonderful and fantastic Monday. Yes, god damn unassailable Chelsea has finally been gun down and by none other than…of course…the one and only…

MANCHESTER UNITED!!

Though I doubt Chelsea will falter as bad as Arsenal did when they got their ass whooped back then (even though I really hope so), but finally…we finally get to beat the new and true rival. Truth is, if no one had realized, Arsenal ain’t much of a contender anymore especially when Arsenal FC Thierry Henry is injured. Come on! Henry is Arsenal, without him, Arsenal becomes mediocre.

Unlike Arsenal, whose 49-game run bit the dust on the same ground last year, Chelsea accepted their defeat with grace. Beaten, not by a team of greater quality, but by one who would not - dare not - lose.

Back with the reds, hoooo yeah! We won! Heh! I bet those blue boys are having an extremely blue Monday.

Though it was obviously a fluke goal, who cares? We won! Hey, Gudjohnson scored a somewhat fluke-like goal as well when they beat us last season. What goes around comes around baby.

End of the Week

A week-long break
Tones of drinks
One hangover

That’s the highlight of this week’s Deepavali+Raya combo holiday. Just to have the idea of a drink in my hand will unsettled stomach. I don’t want to drink anymore! Hell no! No more!

I could go on actually, have been postponing my hangover anyways, but it’s freaking Sunday. Where did the whole week went? Man, it’s too fast. I wish we could have like a massive clash of holidays like this more often. Imagine having CNY, Christmas, Raya, Deepavali, Korban, Good Friday, Thaipusam, Merdeka etc all cramped inside a month or two. Walan, crazy. Sure havoc man. Holiday trips, parties, hangouts…anyone could let themselves go easily at times like this.

But yet again, after that, 10 to 11 months of relentless work, I’d rather stick to the usual.

Oh Melacca! Entry #1

Well, Melacca is umm, well…strangely fun…and the people, strangely weird. Where are my Portuguese Egg Tarts, dammit.

The Cast


The Road: It’s barely lunchtime (yes, we took 2.30 – 3 hours to get to KL) and the rain is getting more ridiculous. Being the village kid that I am, reaching KL in less than 4 hours is well, surreal. Till I saw the reason why. We were ‘cruising’ at 170km/h consistently. Mahai!
The Death Driver doing her thing way above the speed-limit with her forever clueless but ever trusty back seat ‘sri-lankan-dude’ cheering her on. “Yeah man!” We could’ve have break some records by reaching Melacca in less than 4 hours. It felt really possible, but then the rain…it just wouldn’t stop. It just won’t. Hence we have to make un-called for stops for smokes. Oh well, break the record next time lah. And just like every holiday trip, the rain stops upon our arrival. Sunshine! Oh babeh…

The Wait

It's 3AM and the wind is getting ridiculous. The rain. 3 more hours to spare before the ride starts. Ahhh, need to get some sleep-time.

See ya'll laters,
Jom MELACCA!

Sis Saying Cheese

I was abruptly awoken this morning by a somewhat familiar The Simpsons’ ringtone. Slightly hung-over from over indulging myself last night, it took me awhile to gather myself to answer that…(I use The Simpsons’ ringtone for me family, heh).

I wondered…
“Why is dad/mom calling me when I’m in my room?”

I looked onto the screen, the name ‘Sis’ was blinking hysterically prompting me to quickly answer the call.

“mhmhmpf*yawn*mhmmhgf…yeah?” – Still half asleep.
“Meng ah! I want to buy digital camera! What brand you recommend ah?”
“Canon or Nikon…and maybe Sony…” – I answered.

She is window-shopping…window-shopping for a DIGITAL CAMERA! Walau, I thought she hates digital cameras because of their massive fluctuations in price. Well sis, anything that has to do with technology is like that! You buy today when it’s new, it’ll be old the next day. Technology is relentless, it’s a train without brakes, and it’ll just keep going and going and going and going…

So I say…just get on the bandwagon and enjoy the ride. Embrace technology.

Its fun to talk and discuss about technology with family members every once in awhile but it does get frustrating that no one in my family is tech savvy and well, most of my friends aren’t either. I miss having tech savvy friends around. Oi Ian! Come back lah mahai! Kev, fuck the south man, you belong here. I need my tech savvy friends! :)

I still remember it took me ages to teach my dad how to use Astro when we first got it. I had to print out the channel’s list and paste it on the wall with a mini illustration of the remote control stating which button to press and what not. Then came the mobile phone, man, I’m still teaching him as we speak. How to check missed calls lah, read sms lah, this lah, that lah…haihhh…even my mom knows how to key in names and save ‘em already. Let’s not get into computers. If my dad can even find the start button, that would make me a really happy son.

While sis is still somewhere in KL battling with the camera salesman, I still think that the Canon iXus 30, iXus 40 or iXus 50 will suit her. Compact, beautiful shots, user-friendly and plus, it’s Canon, you get what you pay for and they’ve been in the business for quite a while now. Unlike the rest, they haven’t exactly mastered the art of digital photography in my opinion. And Sony…well, apart from their slick exterior design, they’re expensive and extremely ordinary. On top of that, they use memory sticks which cost like a bomb rather than SD cards.

I’ve been talking a lot about Canon and not a word mentioned about Nikon, well…truth to be told is that I’m not familiar with their consumer level digi cams. I’m familiar with their SLR and d-SLR range though, which is absolutely god-sent. But Nikon being a camera company, they will always get the benefit of the doubt.

Perfection

It’s almost time to chill, counting down the days, the hours, the minutes and the seconds. But…

There’s this little sentiment inside, screaming ever so…softly. Making me feel a little unsatisfied, something is missing. The mood? The excitement? The anticipation? Hmmm, I can’t quite put my finger on it just yet even though the Cameron trip has been cancelled (to my relief, but in Annie’s expense. Sorry! I don’t mind going there, I’m just letting you know my true feelings about Cameron).

I could hear the hustle and bustle of the big city, but that’s not where we’re headed to. Maybe we could stop by for a day or maybe a night. But the uncertainty is clouding my decision-making bit of my mind. I’m not sure, I’m just not sure.

It’s just that, now that I’m working, a week-long holiday like this is tremendously hard to come by. Without knowing, my perfectionism self has taken over. I want it all to be perfect. The trip, the people, the mood. Because, I’ve got only one shot. Just one. And I want it to be it.

Screw it. Let’s just partaaaaaay!

The Hobby

Design isn’t exactly my interest, it’s a hobby. One hobby that I really, really like. Deep down inside, some part of me still thinks that one day, I might just become a footballer and maybe make it big. It’s ridiculous of course, but I would be lying if I’ve said otherwise. That’s the one thing in my life that I’ve always love, football. And when football is deprived, I’ll pick up a pencil and grab a sheet of paper and start sketching, I guess that’s how I ended up in an advertising agency doing design.

I remember the days when I would finish my mom’s stack of 250 A4s in less than a week. I would draw anything, really. From human figures, random sceneries to stuff I see in my head, imaginative art, I call it.

One day, I wish to re-discover all those drawings I’ve sketched out when I was young.

The Long Second Part

Hmmpf, despite some massive, heavy discouragement, looks like we’re set to embark on a sub-holiday trip when the Melaka ride is over. Yeah, we’re headed to Cameron Highlands, and no, I still don’t know why. Most people would agree with me that the place is the capital for absolute boring-ness. What else is there to do but stare at pretty plants and endure the ridiculous wind at night?

Do they even have TVs there? Got Astro ah? If not ah, die lor. Well, maybe I could go and take some pretty pictures with the S4. But Cameron? AAaaahh, I’d rather go Penang Hill. Heh!

Conversations in Long Beach

I had dinner with me parents the other night at Long Beach in Batu Ferringhi. Suddenly...

Dad: Meng ah, look around you…
Me: *looks around*
Dad: What do you see?
Me: Errr, a lot of really hot white chicks?
Mom: MENG! *slaps my arm* So hiao.
Me: Aaah, what was that for?
Dad: Err, yeah. Anyway, I mean, there’s a lot of white people, huh?
Me: Well, yeah. It’s Long Beach.
Dad: Doesn’t it occur to you that some Middle Eastern fella might walk in with a trench coat and blow everything up?

Me: Ack! *starts chucking in my food and swallow it whole*
Me: Let’s get the hell out of here!!

Dad: Huh?!

Use Me!

Hoh babeh, you can use my iBook anytime, man. Anytime! :)

Road Trip!

Looks like Liew didn’t forget about the Melaka trip. But it’s nonetheless, a little rushed, since it’s only a week away. I try to re-call a holiday trip where everything went silky smooth, where nothing is rushed. Come to think of it, I’m lousy when it comes to planning a holiday trip, yet somehow, people will always ask me to handle it. WHY LAH?! You all like to see me all stressed and fuming is it?

Anyway, seems like it is almost a sealed deal. I can almost smell the hot Portuguese babes sunny beach. Aaaa…chill out sessions. Hmmmm.

It’ll be fun to go back to me ‘origins’. No, I’m not born in Melaka, I’m as Penangite as they get, but my dad was born in Melaka, so I’m of Melaka heritage (some sort at least), so it’ll be cool to go ‘back’ and check it out. Could visit some long lost relative which I doubt that they could remember me and maybe visit my real grand dad’s grave, just to see how he looks like. I’ve been hearing a lot of stories about him; apparently, he’s quite the musician back then when he partnered my real grand mom on stage, and also quite the playboy, which led to the divorce (I think). Hmm, musician, playboy…sounds like a cool grand dad (in some way), heh. I guess there’s where all my genes came from, since I feel misplaced around my parents and sis all the time. Minus the playboy-ness of course. Damn it. I guess it ain’t a good gene to pass on.

I’m wondering if the couple might join us. And no, we’ve decided that they won’t get a room to themselves. ‘Cos they would be doing it and we will be cursing coz we have no one to do it with. Only when we hook up, heh. Then all can do it together-gether ya? Hahaha…eww…

Next Monday,
Melaka awaits. Damn, it’s further than KL. Oh dang, it’s gonna be a hell of a drive. And Ryan still has no license, guess it’s gonna be either me or Annie on the wheel. Time to chalk up on my award-winning sleeping act. Heh. :)

Over The Top

Mahai, damn beautiful man. For such a boring day (so far), it's a little ridiculous that the sun decided to set in such a spectacular manner for such a uneventful day. Maybe it's a sign for things to come later on? Or maybe I've mastered the toy. Heh!

Somethings wrong with my shortcut keys! Aaaaahhh!

Life, Oh Life

The most unfair things about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A death. What's that, a bonus?! I think the life cycle should be backwards.

You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you go live in an old-folk's home. You get kicked out for being too healthy, go collect your pension, then, when you start work, you get a gold watch on your first day. You work forty years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You drink alcohol, you party, and you get ready for High School. You go to Primary School, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back, you spend your last 9 months floating with luxuries with central heating, spa, room service with tap, then you finish off as an orgasm!

Ain't that the life?

Say Cheeeeeese!

Last week, on a Friday, the day before Swen’s pot-luck, I went on to spoil myself with a new toy to play with. I couldn’t help it. I searched and searched for it, the F88 at first, as it was the only one that fits all criteria. Then a quick stop by KY Studio at Gurney, I met an old college-mate who works there. He was like,

“F88? Are you sure ah? It’s damn old already”
I went, “I don’t care! It’s cool and it rotates!”

“Haiyah, you want rotating one is it? I show you this…”

I’m like, “WAH! Mahai, what the fuck is this?! This is amazing!!”

He went on, “Hoh. Wait till you see the specs…”

6 mega-pixel, 10x optical zoom and of course, my personal favourite, the 180° rotating lens…and it comes with a 512MB memory card and a bag! Plus the LCD protection thingy. If it’s one thing that’s worth starving for this month, it’s surely this.

Introducing…a new addition to my collection of toys, the Nikon Coopix S4.

Yes, it’s rather huge. But I don’t care. It's nice!

Breaking Out

Time and time again, I wonder why I put up with this. The job, the tension, everything. Good days can just turn around in just a flash. One mistake (or so) and that’s it. I’m in the line of fire. It pisses me off that I get blamed for things that I don’t even know of. It’s not like I don’t make the fucking effort to remember. Take a look at my desk for fuck’s sake, and you’ll see a little notepad where I write down EVERYTHING and I mean fucking EVERYTHING…so I don’t forget about it. If it ain’t there, then it wasn’t said.

Printers calling me up saying I gave them the wrong fucking size. Sure ok, maybe I did (I doubt so). But if it was wrong, how come I got the height right but the width wrong. They were mumbling amongst themselves so I told them…

“Tell you what, you guys decide the canvas size and then tell me. I don’t need to know how much space the lamination would take up, just tell me my canvas size and I’m out of here, deal?”

“Deal.”

55mm x 100mm was the size given. But hey, it was 93mm in the end, not 100mm. DON’T FUCKING BLAME ME. You’d said it, I wrote it down, and I did what I was supposed to. They made that goddamn error. Not me.

The boss called, yelling thru the phone. Saying how come the artwork’s material is tarpaulin not photo based paper. Well, no one fucking told me fucking anything! Fucking hell. Since day one, the decision has been made that the artwork was gonna be sent to this other printer, which was quite surprising so I kept reminding them about it, making sure. What did they do? Apart from nodding their heads, no one said anything about fucking photo based prints. No one! So stop it!

Stop making me a fucking scapegoat. I do my bit; I slug it out at work everyday, I give my best everyday up to the point that I have basically killed off my social life and gym, even so, it’s never enough for them. For crying out loud, I go for my lunch at 3 or 4 everyday alone by myself because there’s always work to rush out, and when I do, I only go for 20 minutes. My life has already been reduced to such a pathetic level. WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT ME TO GIVE UP?! So stop using my salary as an excuse, if you can’t fuckin’ appreciate it, so be it. I’ll let myself out. I don't need this.

Fuckin' drama queen, there goes the fucking long weekend. Fuckin' hell.

Almost Crazy

Few nights back…as I passed the ‘torch’ to Pedram (whom I haven’t seen in a long time), I noticed something on the big TV.

“Hey, is it just me or that there’s some StarTV logo embedded on the top right corner?” I inquired.

He promptly replied…
“Hey! I see it too…but it’s rather faint. I think she watches a lot of Star World until the logo has left a mark on the TV.”

And since we were playing PS2, I proceeded to the balcony and ask Leena, since it was her house TV

“Do you like…watch a lot of Star Movies? Or Star World or maybe Star Sports?”

Leena: Yeah, Star World actually…whhhhhy?
Me: Oh, that’s all I need to know.
Leena: You saw the number on the decoder didn’t you?
Me: Oh!...No. Look at your TV. Can you see the logo?

To our disbelief (Me, Ryan & Pedram), the logo suddenly went missing.

“Aaaahhh!! I swear we didn’t just make that up!” – Pedram
“Yeah, yeah, I saw it too! Aaaahhh, where did it go?!” – Ryan

Leena: Errr, right…a logo huh…mhmm

We could tell from her expression that we might have smoked a little too much.

But when there was a white background on the TV, the logo suddenly reappears. And like a bunch of kids, we were jumping off our seats, pointing hysterically onto the TV.

“THERE!! THERE!! THERE IT IS!! HAH! WE’RE NOT CRAZY! WE’RE ALRIGHT! HEH!”

World Bad Day

I hate it when the wisdom tooth decides to grow. Mahai, damn painful man. Depriving me of my oh-so precious sleep. Now, I’m moody, temperamental and grumpy. I think everyone is having a bad day. I’m having a really lousy day with that toothache; the Art Director is on MC because of stomachache, the boss is frazzled because we are already under-staffed and now one man short with a ridiculous load of work.

I went out for a late lunch, and well, I’m pretty damn sure everyone is having a bad day. I arrived at the traffic light junction, waiting for my turn to pass, and just right there, there was a horrific accident. God knows what happened, but it’s the classic car-meets-bike scenario, you can guess who got off worse.

After lunch, on my way back, there was a commotion on the main road just in front of McD, I saw a girl sitting down by the drain, crying in pain and shock…

I’m like…
“What the hell is going on around here?”

As I took a peek around, I saw a bike stuck head-first into the drain. Wow, and I thought I was having a bad day. But hey, the toothache is damn painful you know! How did the bike ended up in the drain anyway?

The weirdest part was, after spending like 20 minutes having lunch and a smoke; I could hear an ambulance coming thru. Kanneh, it took the ambulance that long to come to the scene of the first accident by the traffic lights. Fuck, I can slowly makan, drink, smoke, pay the parking ticket and took a long round back onto the main road.

I guess the ambulance dude is also having a bad day.

The Pot-Luck

What do you get when you mix a pot-luck party with tones of people that don't socialize among each other but only in their own respective groups and being in a group who sits next to the 'bar' with a digital camera...





There's more. I would post it up, but I think you guys had enough :P

Ad Me!

People! I need your help! I've got an ad on Saturday's The Star paper. It was supposedly to be published on National paper but somehow, it ended up being on the Northern Region. But anyway, I'm kinda hoping I could get away with The Star's October Ad of the Month. So I need you guys to vote for it, I know, I know, the voting process is a bit of a drag at first, I don't know why registration is required, but if you guys could be generous enough to help out, I would appreciate it :)

Here's how to do it:
To register, type STAR <> NRIC <> Name <> Location and send to 36600
E.g. STAR 751225012345 Christine Selangor

And then vote away...I've took the liberty to get all the codes.
Type AC 0810 MN06 PJD and send to 36600 :)

Each SMS will cost you ONLY RM0.30, unlike Vig's UVJ which costs RM0.50, heh. Mine's cheaper! So come on lah, tolong!

For further info, checkout the website at The Star Ad of the Month

The ad was published on Saturday 8 October 2005 on the Metro North section, Page 6.


THANKS YA'LL!! WISH ME LUCK :)

Tag, I'm Hit!

Aaaaah, since when I kena tagged? Someone pandai pandai put it in the Comments section. Grrrr, I’ll drown you with Absolut during Swen’s Pot-Luck…

SEVEN THINGS I WANNA DO BEFORE I DIE

1. Win some award. Any award. OK preferably some design award. Oscar also can!
2. To have my house and cars paid off.
3. To finally reveal the real me to my parents/sis. I still keep that angelic Meng around for obvious reasons.
4. Try to find a way to not die. Extend a bit lah. I have yet to see flying cars.
5. Hopefully I’ll meet her again, so I can ask her out.
6. Get rid of the Kancil.
7. Go to Old Trafford and watch a real proper Man Utd game.


SEVEN THINGS I COULD DO TO MAKE ME HAPPY RIGHT THIS SECOND
(INSTANT HIGH)

1. Smoke a spliff.
2. Join the topless Scandinavian chicks on the poolside.
3. Down 2 cans of beer in less than 1 minute and run around.
4. Put up award-winning act simulating that I’m sick and take the day off.
5. Take an extended lunch break to catch ‘Into the Blue’. Heh.
6. Visit my cousin and take the MINI for a test drive back to the office.
7. All the above.


SEVEN CELEBRITY CRUSHES?

1. Elizabeth Hurley.
2. Jessica Alba.
3. Kate Hudson.
4. Eliza Dusku.
5. Jennifer Aniston.
6. That Bollywood chick which I can’t recall her name.
7. Zhang Zi Yi

SEVEN OFTEN REPEATED WORDS?

1. Mahai!
2. Word up?!
3. Fuck lah
4. Mak puki chau ci bai
5. Wa zaaaaaaaaa..!!!!!
6. Le mah leh
7. Kanneh!!


SEVEN PHYSICAL TRAITS I LOOK FOR IN THE OPPOSITE SEX?

1. Symmetrical features ler.
2. Big …
3. Rosy cheeks
4. Those that can pull off that teacher look. Waaalaau-eh!
5. Killer eyes that pierce thru your soul.
6. A ridiculously sweeeeeet smile.
7. A soothing voice…

CONGRATULATIONS YOU'VE BEEN TAGGED!
1. Kaki Bangku aka Simran!
2. Annie!
3. Hotbabe! Tzelin
4. The trusty neighbour, Yvonne.
5. Since I read his blog a lot, James from Loopy Meals.
6. Future rockstar, Kev!
7. Errr, can I tagged me matcha? I don’t care, I’m tagging him. Ian, get to it!


Have fun :P

Second First Time

Eeee…

Exactly this time a year ago, I finally summoned up enough oomph to finally setup a blog (My First Time). Sadly, I wish I had started earlier though, at least a few months before I started my internship in KL.

It has been a crazy roller coaster ride, being a KLue intern, having gone thru the frantic final year with EAA while working part time in Apple, to the pre-graduation exhibition blues to the actual exhibition itself which started off rather disastrously, but thanks to Zach, Annie, Tuck, Ryan and Denys, eventually things worked out just fine. I owe it to you guys :)

Then came the post-exhibition blues, being jobless. Though now I wish I had partied harder but that has come to pass, so, no point complaining about it. After a month, it started to freak me out a little, the fact that I couldn’t find a job yet. After having an amazing final year I was on cloud 9, I thought maybe the fairytale has finally ended, back to reality, sigh. Then I met Vig online one day, I started whining about being jobless and all, I guess that’s how Elaine found out about my joblessness, along with James. That’s how I met Mr. Kee @ Megan Advertising. I went for the interview, he loved my work and he hired me on the spot, well not literally, but I started work the next day.

6 months later, although drained as hell, I’m still going strong. Though Elaine is no longer with us here, I’m still enjoying the ride here, despite the crazy deadlines and brainless clients; I still see potential in going somewhere with this company. We’ll see what I’ll have to say in next year’s blog anniversary, heh.

Oh, lastly…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BLOG! L.I.F.T. is now a year old!

Splash!

Well, most people surf the web when they are bored with a computer. We graphic designers do this. OK, I got bored. So sue me. Is it me or that my side bar on this blog has gone missing?

So Long, Farewell

The incompetent Mr. Fuck Things Up was finally shown the door today. The minute my boss told me the news, I could feel a light smile somehow sneak its way onto my upper right lip. Heck, I can’t even pretend to feel bad for him. Unlike my boss, I’m not that soft anymore, besides, he had it coming, though I might have instigated it, it was evident that he was holding us back. We need someone better, someone who actually wants to go somewhere, someone that will take his/her work seriously. And I’m sick of seeing him getting away from his mistakes free of blame while we have to cover for him, what’s in it for us? Nothing! So, there’s the door, good bye, have a nice day.

I’m not cold-blooded, I’m only human. I’ll feel sorry for him, but that’s just about it.

Any graphic designers interested? We’re hiring :)

My Bird Bird

Alright people, for the first time ever, I’m revealing a little secret I’ve kept for quite for almost 3 years already. OK, it’s not much of a secret, but I’ve been telling people about it…but it finally occurred to me, I’ve never shown it to anyone. I guess it’s not of any great importance until I get it done. So, here it goes…I’m flashing my birdie to you all!

It’s my over due tattoo design :)

Maybe, Just Maybe...

Almost everyday when I drive thru that piece of road, I’ll glance onto the clock, right above the dashboard, hoping that this might be the perfect point in time, longing that our paths would cross once more…hoping to catch a glimpse of her.

Though chances are microscopic, I still lie to myself every so often…that I might just have one more chance. Just one more, that will do. Just one. It won’t go to waste. It won’t. But, just like every other day, I see my desire trampled on.

Day after day, the dream fritters away. Yet somehow, I see a glimmer of light down that long and cold tunnel. Maybe one day, just maybe…it might just come about.

Freezing Inside A Thin Jacket

Ever since I started working for this company, the only thing I couldn’t have was free time. Not to say they restrict me or anything, it’s just an overload of work. Well, there’s still quite a load of work here actually, but on my part, I’ve cleared my plate. Well, almost spick and span, at least.

My head echoes the word “Chillout”. Hmmm, what happened to the Malacca trip? What happened to the trip to the War Museum? Hoi, Ah Liew! What happened? Let’s go lah! Anyone else wanna join in? You are very much welcome :)

I hate the ridiculously cold office and I need a thicker jacket.

I still hate the dude next to me. Apart from making his own desktop wallpapers, he’s completely incompetent. And he still listens to the same playlist of terrible canto-pop techno crap for over 4 months already.

I dream with the aim of one day, I’ll go back into publishing. Magazine, press, anything!

One day, in this life, I will own that darn MINI CooperS Cabrio, in orange.

You Got Ad

Having ideas is the closest a man will ever come to giving birth. When you’ve had an idea and it’s a really good idea and you know it, it has a life. You can see what’s right for it, you can see what’s wrong for it, you can see what it should be, what school it should go, what kind of street it should live in, what clothes it should wear.

It is easier to tell if you have done a good ad. If you have to wonder about it too much, it’s probably not good. If you still like it two or three days later, once the tiredness has gone away and you’re feeling more detached. A lot of times, when you first come up with an idea, you’re just so happy to be out of that state of worry and over immersion.

Morning Sickness

Now this is a rare treat. Mornings like this are meant to be enjoyed while awake, even though the weather says otherwise. Anyway, I got in the office today and the entire system just failed to operate. It runs halfway thru the BIOS checkup before it hangs up, yet another new achievement for Windows, hanging a perfectly good system even before start up. Times like these, I can’t help myself but give a free rein to my Apple when the comp technicians are here. Just to gloat on how reliable and stable Mac OS X is.

The iBook is now one year + 2 months old by now. I have not hanged the system or crashed it. It still runs on the same OS I got when I first purchased it in mid-2004. Windows sucks, period.

Time to have our office revamped into an all-Mac environment. The boss have been talking about it for awhile by now, and with me around providing the necessary influence, I guess it’ll be sometime in the near future.

Meanwhile, the morning refuses to get going. I guess a coffee break and some breakfast would be nice.

Maze Walk Thru

Five months ago
she walked me in thru the maze that is Sunny Ville condo.
The first steps inside the office were somewhat intriguing.
She promptly introduced me as if I was already employed.

A good look around the office
I knew I’ve found a job that I would love.

Five months later
I walked her out from the maze.
The last few steps were quite reflective.
I said my goodbye and best wishes to her.

It has been quite a ride.
The late nights, the crazy deadlines.
The ups and downs.
The tension and excitement.

All the best, Alien Elaine! Have fun in Cambodia! See you in KL, soon. No more Viking for you! :)

Why This?

The current logo looks like this...unfortunately.


She begged to have a new logo, I was summoned to make one. So I proposed this.


They love it. But, they chose this instead.


. . . ?

What's wrong with the blue one?

The Drama

It has been too long since I last saw my friends and hung out with them. Despite the ridiculous rain, I made the extra effort. I was overwhelmed with exhaustion, but I couldn’t care less, I want to go.

Upon my arrival at the new “Stoners” now known as Peppercorn, the sight of a table without beers kinda shock me, but it was short-lived. A bottle of JD was standing tall and I saw it.

“What’s the occasion?” I inquired.

“Oh, nothing…just felt making a gesture for commitments, work, girlfriend, etc…” Tuck replied.

Errr…
I could swear my head was going: “WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?”

As the night progressed, I later found out that Derek is leaving the next morning to Sarawak for his year-long housemanship. Oh man! He just got back, now leaving again already? Am I the only one here that doesn’t move out from the state, at all? Hmmpf…

Anyway, It did hit me that I should have made more effort to hangout prior to his departure. But work is work…I guess now I have a better reason to drop by Sarawak, since I’ve been planning to go there since like forever.

Then, the biggest scoop surfaced. Ah Soon is also parting to Sarawak, but he’ll be off to KL first. Then he had one drink too many and begin to get emo and later reveal that his brother was getting into shit loads of trouble. Apparently he owes a lot of money to people via gambling. Like RM20K…this is a ridiculous amount. To make matters worst, he owes it to the loan sharks, which they came banging on the door to collect the debt.

My oh my…all of us have warned him over and over and over again. We kinda lost our faith after his 5th attempt to quit gambling. We’ve tried almost everything but he is still rooted to his gambling roots. We're out of ideas...

Bee Gone!

I was chillin' by the balcony
Having a smoke, unwind a little
Then this strange incident happen

I swear
I saw a bee
A really huge-ass bee

Zipping into my path of sight
Came to a slight halt
And took a fucking piss!

Clear liquid suddenly oozed out
It was from its abdomen
There was at least 2 drops

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON, MAN?

I just wanna have a smoke, dammit.

Too Long, Too Sudden

I was at Ingolf the other day. Hanging out and getting under the influence, then, Ryan gave me a weird looking face, a telltale that he had something juicy to expose or reveal. He creeps up to me and whisper to my ears…

“………………..” (censored)

I’m sworn to secrecy, so my mouth is shut tight. But anyway, in the midst of all this ‘excitement’ that someone else knows as well…

Aja interrupted me with a really awkward question.
“Meng, want to me my boyfriend ah?”

I gave her a ridiculous look…
“Err…sure.”

“Just testing you.” she rationalizes.

…right :)

Anyway, today…while I was browsing thru, I stopped by TzeLin’s to have a read…see what’s going on…

And apparently, in her dreams, I asked her to be my girlfriend…

I MUST BE ON FIRE, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON, MAN?

Maybe it’s time I look for someone…after all, it has been 5 years since my last relationship. Hey, the flings don’t count, ok? :P