I Feel...

…lethargic because the coffee I had in Coffee Beans made me into an insomniac till 6am.

…lazy for the reason that there are so many assignments that requires some fine-tuning.

…like laughing because I still can’t get over the fact I got stung by a jellyfish, 3 times!

…sleepy as I didn’t sleep well last night, no thanks to Coffee Beans.

…sweaty and disgusting due to the blistering weather.

…terribly broke since I need around RM1000 to sort out my Graduation.

…like having a cigarette but I forgot to buy a pack last night.

…that I should be doing my assignments instead of this.

The future's bright. The Future's In Full Technicolour (http://thesurrealist.co.uk/slogan)

Peace.

Coast Days

Such a cool picture. This is me taking the picture on the Just Keep Walking entry [Picture credit: Ian]

After Everything Else

On July 2002, on a sunny hot day just off the southeast coast on the busy late morning street of Farquhar, lies a heritage building named Equator Academy of Art resting just behind the famous St. Xaviers Institution. Here I stand, right in front of this building; heavily enclosed with construction materials where the office walls has yet to stand, facilities that are oblivious, misplaced statues, constant hammering and shouting. I told myself, “Three years, huh?” and so it begins as I embarked on this new life.

Three years on, here now as I sit in front of my computer screen sipping my icy cold milk while basking on this realization that the journey has finally ended. I asked myself on the drive back, “Has it been three years? That fast?”

It came rather subtly while me, Audrey and my “ex-wife” Li Ni was walking out of the glass door of the college after a long day when suddenly, as I was holding the door for the ladies, Li Ni whispered to our tired ears, “Wah! Last class already…” Then it hit us, *bang!* just like that. We’ve finished our last class. So, what’s next? Well, we still have a week-long assessment week to finish off and then the grueling exhibition on April. But the first leg of this completion has been accomplished.

With a wink of an eye, three years has flown by. I look back at my tracks and I thought to myself, “Have I done enough?” From the way some things have turned out throughout my three years here, I’m ready to believe I am.

Note: About Li Ni being my "ex-wife", it's a long story :)

Car Wash

Alas, finally...some good news. Week #7 will on its final day tomorrow but a small consolation has been won. The multimedia assignment’s due date has been pushed 3 weeks back. Some would complain that their extending the timeframe for the wrong subject, but this works just fine for me. After all, it’s better than nothing.

An update on the camera my dad found on the beach (A Life Less Orderly). The repair figure has rocketed all the way up to RM700+. Goodness gracious, it’s just RM100 short of buying a brand new COOLPIX3200. Dammit, I thought I could finally own a digital camera. I guess the chance has gone begging again.

Skipped class today for a number of reasons, one of which I couldn’t get up ‘cos I slept at 6am after watching the Man Utd game on TV. Well, even though it was a defeat, wasn’t disappointed at all as both teams played really well. Anyone could have guessed the only way for either team to win would be down to individual error. In this case, it was the goalkeeper of Man Utd. Ughhh!!

Washed my car today in mid-afternoon just to clear my head off things and a potentially busy schedule ahead…seriously, I find it soothing to wash cars, it gives one time to think while it is also quite a workout. Heheh…

Chinese New Year is finally over...sigh

Say "Cheese", Please? Part II

For some reason, we just can't get enough of taking pictures of ourselves. This one with our Graphic lecturer, Chris. Besides, we don't dress up often.


Hmmm, I got nothing to say on this, really. But I look like that guy from The Strokes.


Let's be retro and err constipated? Heh!


This is a really cool picture. Cool effect. Taken by Mr. Chairman, Chong Weei.


Audrey in a world of her own. I can't remember why I gave that face...


The devils behind Mr. KFC. What's his name again?

Say "Cheese", Please? Part I

The deed has been done. After a grueling month of organizing, endless meeting, voting, bookings and much more…the final photography section has been done. So here you go, a tiny fraction of the photographs took today. But before we go there, lets go thru the initial planning for the photo shoot and what happened to that planned today.

The Original Plan:

After collecting all the chairs, short stools, stools and chairs. It was down to today for me to organize a small group of people to help me with the workload. I was scheduled to be there by 8.15am and start the seating arrangements. All the students were told to be present by 8.30am so that the photo can be taken before the sun comes up to the point where there’ll be a hideous shadow cast on the ground. Hopefully the photo shoot would end by 10.30am. And Ryan was ‘hired’ by me to become the official person to press the button on the camera. My alarm was set at 7.30am

This was how it went:

I missed my alarm, so I ended up waking up at 8am. Jump right out of bed and rushed around the house to complete my morning rituals as fast as I could, went out to the car park and floored my car’s pedal at 8.15 on the driveway. Then I got stuck in a jam for awhile as there was a 3 car pile-up on the Lush/Glo road. I had to take the longer route because of road construction nearby the campus. By the time I arrived at college, it was already 8.30am. And to my surprise and disappointment, less than 30% of the students showed up. So in a way, it was some sort of blessing. Jump right into the seating arrangements and ‘hired’ the graduation committee chairman to help me out. And I didn’t bother to wake Ryan up ‘cos it wouldn’t be nice to rush him, besides his class is in the afternoon, so I had to hire 2 other students to press the button. The photo shoot ended at 11.30am.

Here are the results…

The Graduates of April 2005. I'm on the top centre of the pic, just under the 'E' on SENI

The organizing committee. Finally had a seat. Me seated on the far left, Audrey is next to the yellow tie while Acap is above the yellow tie and Mr. Art Director, Phillip is on the far right

From a far, it does look like black ants, heh!

The photo shoot's "after-party". We derserve some private camera time :)

Hmm, no comment on that one. Just a change of angle.

More "after-party" photos on tomorrow's entry.

Thats How It Went...

A quick entry to give some of my earlier entries a closure since I left most of it hanging. Starting off with the MPPP dilemma Hands Off!, turns out it was just a computer error. But I did take my sweet time to pay, since the officer told me I have a 3 month period. So what the heck?

And of course, who could forget Uncle Flasher. So what did happened to Uncle Flasher? Well, he sadly passed away, probably a few days after he went missing (Look Ma! No Pants!). I bet he didn’t do his flashing act on purpose. It could be some old-age disease like Alzheimer or something else. Afterall, he was apparently a really good history teacher at some high school.

Quickie

I hate shopping. Maybe without a budget, I might actually enjoy it, actually I do. Today I went for yet another last minute, quick splash-and-dash shopping session for black attire for tomorrow’s photo shoot. Can you imagine how hard it is to shop for black long sleeves shirt and black pants? If you have RM130+ to splash on a single shirt, then visit the SubZero store and you’ve found the heaven for black and white attires. If not, then you’re in for an adventure. As for me, I only had RM70 with me; you can paint the rest of the picture yourself. It didn’t help that FOS was closed at 3pm for some annual dinner. Thankfully, I stumble upon Dasha and Ryan on my out in despair after failing to find anything. Eventually, I found one…RM69 and only in size ‘M’…Ughhh!!! Now I’m officially broke for the remaining of this month and I get to wear a black long sleeves shirt that super tight, sigh. But hey, there's Ms Liz :)

Not to leave out this little bit of info. Just before the last minute shopping adventure, I single-handedly carried 21 plastic chairs, 20 metal stools and 9 low metal stools. Why? Its all for the photo shoot tomorrow, 83 people altogether including the lecturers. No thanks to the Graduation committee. What a big help they have been.

Being Tall

Pros:

You don’t need a ladder, you are the ladder.

Most things are never out of reach.

Get the best view on concerts/gigs no matter where you stand.

Easy to spot especially when you’re in a crowd.

Able to run fast and further with fewer strides.

You can stretch quite far on a snooker table.

Cons:

Most public transportations do not cater tall people, including cinemas.

Bang your head a lot on hanging objects.

Your feet will stick out at the end of the bed.

There’s always a 50% chance that some pants might be too short.

Even if you don’t like basketball, people would assume you do.

The back seat of a car isn’t the most comfortable.

Nothing Last Forever

Out the window

Another day pass, another friend leaves. It has become apparent that 2005 would be vague and poles apart from earlier times. Which is quite a coincidence that I just bought Liz White (iPod) with its tagline “Enjoy Uncertainty”, don’t think ‘enjoy’ would be the correct statement. But it occurred to me the only way I could get myself thru this would be to embrace the change, acknowledge reality and move on with life. Ever heard the expression “Nothing last forever”? Well, nothing ever is. I guess things would just work out at the end of the day, if you allow it, despite all the changes. After all, I’ve lived a tentative life for 21 years, this should be routine.

It’s just so weird that back in the days, all our lives evolves around one thing and one thing only, which is football. It’s hard to imagine that only a decade later, that same bunch of football junkies has turned into graphic/multimedia designers, health consultant, pharmacist, accountant, interior decorator, jockey, businessman, culinary artist, real estate agent and salesman. Not to leave out the soon-to-be Australian PR holders.

Whatever happened to simplicity? Back then, it was only school-eat-football. Waking up at 6.30am for school was a breeze and after school, what else is there to do but football. Now everyone’s life is plagued by rules and responsibility, and there’ll always be a consequence for every cause. I guess now it’s the time that whatever that you have contributed back in the past would start to show some results, the people you help and care for would form a closer bond while the others would start to drift off and maybe one day, they would eventually slip thru your fingers.

"It’s like that game they play on some shopping mall sometimes where one person would be fitted inside a small man-sized transparent acrylic box with money and a fan blowing at the bottom. You can’t grab every ringgit on sight, so you only grab the big ones."

I hope I’ve chose to grab the right ones.

Random, Uncertain & Accidental

Enjoy uncertainty. Meet Liz White, my brand spanking new 512MB iPod Shuffle! Purchased during dinnertime, it hasn’t been a full day yet but we seem to be getting along nicely. About the whole “no LCD” thing, it does get a little bit annoying at times, but when it’s on shuffle mode…who cares! Sound quality is amazing, extremely easy to use and user friendly. Need I say more? I’m so broke now! Arghhhhh!! At least I’ll have Liz White to keep me entertained.

A Life Less Orderly

Five months, this was how long it lasted before it got messy enough to put up with. Finally, I got me a new haircut. Ok, that’s a lie; it’s more of a trim. In fact, no one actually noticed it yet. Heck, I can hardly see the difference apart from the thinner over-all look, and it feels lighter too.

Unknown to me, I’ve turned into a blog-addict. It’s almost impossible to get thru a day without having a new entry.

Roughly about a month ago, dad found a NIKON COOLPIX3200 digital camera on Monkey Beach. The casing is still intact, surprisingly. But the buttons are all missing. Good thing was it still works, apart from the lens that is jammed. Did I mention it has a 256MB Flash Memory in it? It was such a good find. At last, dad managed to find time to visit a camera shop to see if it can be repaired at a low price. Since the market value should still be around RM888 for that camera, no point spending any more than RM300 on repairs.

I took a trip to Gurney Plaza on the way back from college today to take a look at the iPod Shuffle first-hand. Goodness gracious me, its sooooo nice! And small too! The sound quality is magnificent too, amazing clarity for such a simple device. In the midst of all this awe and delight, the fact that it has no LCD screen faded away. After all, it’s only 512MB which could store up to around 120 songs; I think I can remember my play list without the help of an LCD screen. After all, my beat-up, old and disfigured Discman doesn’t have one and I’m already used to not having LCD screen (the Discman used to have one, before it died on me). Hey, it’s the iPod shuffle. For a life less orderly.

Just Keep Walking

It was just too much to hold in, ultimately the clouds finally burst and in come the phenomenon we all know as rain! Finally, after god-knows-how-long it has been since we had rain, a proper one. Not some sissy wannabe-rain-for-less-than-3minutes sort. Downside was we weren’t exactly at the right place when it rained, so a fair bit of running was involved.

Lately, my mind has been distraught after having being struck by reality. Maybe I’m just freaking out but I have my good reasons. The whole “finishing studies and moving on to work” is kinda creeping up on me. Weather I’m ready for it is another story. Wherever I should decide to go, I’ll always see myself alone. Maybe it’s about time to settle down, find that other half and call it a day. I might be 22, but I’m still reluctant to let go this life. But wherever it is, come to think of it, it doesn’t really make a big difference. There’s not much left in Penang for me let alone, Tanjung Bungah.

Taking a stroll down memory lane reminds me that this is not so much different when I got into first year of college, the whole “change” thing. I still see the same people, maybe not as frequent as before, but what lacks in quantity is made up with quality. All I hope is that I won’t mess up my first year of “real-working-life” like I did with my first attempt at college. Perhaps all I need is closure.

Simple Things in Life

At the end of the day, come what may, it’s always the simple pleasures in life that’s the sweetest, memorable and well…nice!

My Top-15 list of the simple things in life I enjoy…in no particular order.

1. Sipping that first cup of coffee in the morning and savouring the moment.
2. Waking up on an empty house. (I just like to be alone when I wake up)
3. Picking up the newspaper from the front door and peaking at the Sports section.
4. Playing the acoustic guitar as loud as possible.
5. Scoring goals with my left foot.
6. Sis buying me something…anything.
7. Going to bed on a cool, breezy night.
8. Close friends coming back to Penang.
9. Driving on an empty stretch of road.
10. When mom decides to cook a buffet-like dinner.
11. The smell of my favourite pillow. Hehe.
12. Dad buying lunch home when I’m on holiday and broke.
13. Weekends.
14. Taking photographs, digital or SL-R works for me.
15. The sight of all my completed assignments.

Hands Off!

I’m pissed. Today, I received yet another letter from my good ol friends at the MPPP about my littering offence I committed back in November (Polaris). For some f**ked up reason, they decided that I should pay them again, since it’s just off the CNY holidays, they must have assumed that I must be loaded by now. F**k off, bloody wankers. You ain’t touching my money. That dept has been settled long ago (Look Ma! No Pants!). There’s no spin-off, period. I ain’t giving you sh*t!

In Between

Studies are almost over (I hope) and with working life looms behind the corner, ahh…yet another sign of growing up. *Sigh*

Looking back at all that has happened; it’s still hard to acknowledge the fact that 22 years has flown by, just like that. Bang! By heart, I’m still 16. No doubt about that…I like to think that I’ve stopped growing since then. But here I am 22…and complaining about the reality that most people refuse to ponder on, that is growing up.

Now, I’m almost at the “in between” phase…in between as in a fresh grad with no job. Heh!! Things are still kinda blur and uncertain seeing that I still have no idea or no destination of choice to look forward to. Maybe that’s the main contributing aspect that has made me a party animal for the past month or so. Come to think of it, when all this is over, CNY would be the only holiday I’ll look forward to, where everyone will be around, once again.

The Old, New and The Unconventional

It has been awhile since my last entry. But hey, it’s the New Year. That’s a good excuse. So far, this year’s CNY has been pretty weird, the weirdest thus far, I think. A mixture of both the old and new…and also a little bit of the unconventional.

The old, would be the visiting bit. Prior to this New Year, it has been years already since my last visiting outing. And it was good, a blast from the past I would call it. It’s nice to be taken back to your origins and the people you’ve almost forgotten and of course the fireworks. Ahhh, the fireworks, missed that so much. Ohh, not to leave out the gambling bit. Heh!

The new, would be not having a steam boat dinner for the first time. Somehow, we’ve avoided the whole steam boat bandwagon. I’m not sure weather steam boat is a good luck practice or what, but having 7-8 dishes of food is just as fulfilling as steam boat itself. Did I mention this has been the hottest CNY, ever? Well, to me, it has been.

The unconventional, would be on the night of the eve or the day earlier, where an impromptu pit-stop by Uncle Bala’s turned out to be a full-on party. Did I mention 80% were all Indians? It was a weird sight for me. But it did occur to me that this is as Malaysian as it can get. Indians celebrating CNY (that includes the décor and CNY songs) along with a couple of Malays and only handful of Chinese, how cool is that?

There’s still a good 3 days left on this week-long CNY holidays, and the relentless party has yet to end. With 6^th week looming behind, you can’t help it but to let go as much steam as possible before time finally catches up on you. Next thing you know, it back to classes to slug it out and accomplish the final hurdle.

Chinese New Year 101

House Cleaning

The entire house should be cleaned before New Year's Day. On New Year's Eve, all brooms, brushes, dusters, dust pans and other cleaning equipment are put away. Sweeping or dusting should not be done on New Year's Day for fear that good fortune will be swept away. After New Year's Day, the floors may be swept. Beginning at the door, the dust and rubbish are swept to the middle of the parlor, then placed in the corners and not taken or thrown out until the fifth day. At no time should the rubbish in the corners be trampled upon. In sweeping, there is a superstition that if you sweep the dirt out over the threshold, you will sweep one of the family away. Also, to sweep the dust and dirt out of your house by the front entrance is to sweep away the good fortune of the family; it must always be swept inwards and then carried out, then no harm will follow. All dirt and rubbish must be taken out the back door.

"Bringing In the New Year and Expelling the Old"

Shooting off firecrackers on New Year's Eve is the Chinese way of sending out the old year and welcoming in the New Year. On the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, every door in the house, and even windows, have to be open to allow the old year to go out.

New Year Activities Set Precendent:
All debts had to be paid by this time. Nothing should be lent on this day, as anyone who does so will be lending all the year. Back when tinder and flint were used, no one would lend them on this day or give a light to others.

Everyone should refrain from using foul language and bad or unlucky words. Negative terms and the word "four" (Si), which sounds like the word for death, are not to be uttered. Death and dying are never mentioned and ghost stories are totally taboo. References to the past year are also avoided as everything should be turned toward the New Year and a new beginning.

If you cry on New Year's Day, you will cry all through the year. Therefore, children are tolerated and are not spanked, even though they are mischievous.

Personal Appearance and Cleanliness
On New Year's Day, we are not supposed to wash our hair because it would mean we would have washed away good luck for the New Year. Red clothing is preferred during this festive occasion. Red is considered a bright, happy color, sure to bring the wearer a sunny and bright future. It is believed that appearance and attitude during New Year's sets the tone for the rest of the year. Children and unmarried friends, as well as close relatives are given lai see, little red envelopes with crisp one dollar bills inserted, for good fortune.

More New Year Superstitions

For those most superstitious, before leaving the house to call on others, the Almanac should be consulted to find the best time to leave the home and the direction which is most auspicious to head out.

The first person one meets and the first words heard are significant as to what the fortunes would be for the entire year. It is a lucky sign to see or hear songbirds or red-colored birds or swallows.

It is considered unlucky to greet anyone in their bedroom so that is why everyone, even the sick, should get dressed and sit in the living room.

Do not use knives or scissors on New Year's Day as this may cut off fortune.

While many Chinese people today may not believe in these do's and don'ts, these traditions and customs are still practiced. These traditions and customs are kept because most families realize that it is these very traditions, whether believed or not, that provide continuity with the past and provide the family with an identity.

Happy Chinese New Year, Gong Xi Fa Chai, Sin Nian Kuai Le!

Point of View

The last hurdle is always the hardest, so as the first.

iPods are over priced.

Camera phones are the autograph of the 21^st century.

People who work in the Malaysian Censorship Board are deprived from sex; the slightest sight of a kiss in a movie is censored, entirely.

Penang is currently messed up, come back in 3 years time.

Drivers in Penang prefer not to use their signal lights.

Insects are bigger on Penang Hill.

“Milo Ais” is the official Malaysian National drink.

Malaysians are rather short, really.

Worst in Me

I’ll come clean, I just need to vent out my frustration and disappointment. It’s only the 3^rd day of February and already I can’t wait for 2005 to end. Since the start of the New Year, things haven’t actually worked out for me anymore. After such a good run from August towards the end of last year, looks like I’ve finally run out of steam.

Academically, I’m struggling to the point where it feels like my foundation year all over again. It’s already the end of week 5 and I’ve got virtually nothing done. With a trial assessment on the 6^th week, it isn’t much fun being left trailing. Not to mention being sucked into meetings with a bunch of self-indulgent people who can’t even settle on what to wear for the photo shoot. Imagine having a 1hour long meeting just to decide what colour to wear. Am I kidding? I wish I was.

Health-wise, I think I’m at my worst state since 2002 before I enrolled at Equator. It has been a long time since I get to wake up normally without too much trouble. Nowadays, it has come to the point where even lifting my head up is like trying to force a chicken to fly for more than 1km. Not to mention stomach problems I’ve endured for a few days already. I’ve not mention that out, yet.

Let’s avoid the social life section, don’t want to talk about it.

And now, suddenly I can feel the medication kicking in. Eyes are starting to feel heavy, head feeling woozy.

Mobile Party

What do you get when you throw in a bunch of guys who’s in a party mood, some money, over half a dozen bottles of booze, some greens and no venue? You get a “Mobile Party”. Mobile parties have been around since awhile already, come to think of it. But only recently we’re starting to appreciate the beauty of it all. Seriously, we have several venues to crash but with a slightly tight budget, thirsty attendees and the knowledge that booze is fairly cheaper at Happy Mart, hence a mobile party was initiated.

What is a mobile party? It doesn’t necessary stand for a party that’s constantly moving like drink-and-drive sort of thing, but it’s more to a constant switch of venues. Take yesterday’s mobile party for instance, we started off with Sea Wind just next to Naza Hotel. Booze are expensive there but it’s worth the visit because of the seaside setting and chairs that are ridiculously and ergonomically comfortable with relentless sea breeze. After the 2^nd bucket, we had to leave and off to Happy Mart for some happiness.

After picking up Ryan, the beachfront of Crown Jewel Hotel was our next destination of choice. As the night progresses, Kev have insisted we go back to basics by dropping by at a local Cyber Café for some Half-Life, but we all knew if we could distract him under the influence, he would eventually forget about it. So Ian came out with this idea to make him start talking about his relationship, so that we could get an insight on his sex-life love-life and also avoid computer games.

One thing lead to another, we ended up showing Sina the ‘real’ Penang. Can’t really remember whose idea it was initially, but the next thing I know, we were all cramped inside a car, driving with the windows down and jeering at the local transvestites at all the hotspots we knew back when we were young. (Note: we don’t visit these places for…you know...the wrong reasons, we just like to make fun of them. It’s a Malaysian tradition).

The mobile party ended at around 3am just in time to catch the Arsenal v. Man Utd game. And Man Utd won by 4-2 with 10 men! What a night it was…simply memorable from start to finish.

The Borrowed Life

Don’t anyone feel this at one point of their life, at least. Maybe not the fortunate, but those otherwise should have felt it before, at least once. Feel what you might ask. It’s the ‘Borrowed Life’ I’m talking about. A living that seem so tempting and sweet, yet it’s more than what you could meet the expense of. You desperately try to fit in, work out some ways to make some ends meet. But yet, it just doesn’t generate any turnover. With the help of some peeps, it somehow grows to be into a life that is not meant for you, but borrowed.