Antidote for Irony

2010-12-18T18:05:00.003+08:00

Seize the day. Because tomorrow you might be dead.

-Buffy Summers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer [1x04 Welcome to the Hellmouth]

2010-12-18T02:24:00.001+08:00

All endings are also beginnings. We just don't know it at the time.
-Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet In Heaven

Hit The Lights

2010-03-27T20:52:00.002+08:00

Earth Hour is nothing but a gimmick. I mean, what's the point in switching your lights off for one lousy hour once a year when you should be trying to save electricity all year round??

I'm not saying I'm one of those "GO GREEN!!!" freaks who walk everywhere instead of driving, and taking public transport wherever I go, because I really cannot live without electricity. But I try to do my part, you know? I don't take plastic bags when I don't need it. I use Tiffin containers as much as possible when I buy food to go. I turn off my air conditioner before I sleep most of the time (unless it's really hot).

So why should I conform to switching off my lights for 60 minutes just because someone said I should? I'd rather do my part every day then jump onto the bandwagon for one hour.

Big Girls Don't Cry

2010-03-25T20:06:00.001+08:00

Hahahaha!! Tyra doesn't like Lost either.

A Balloon On A Broken String

2010-03-18T20:10:00.003+08:00

I got a lil red balloon doggie today. I named it Piano. People stared wherever I went.

Meet Piano. He was bigger at 2pm.

This Is How We Do

2010-03-17T20:30:00.002+08:00

Yes! I should really update this space. My poor poor blog has been abandoned. But not really, I've just pretty much jumped ship from Blogger to another blog host where I write all my private feelings and stuff, but the blog's not private. I know right! So weird.

A lot of things has been happening over the past two weeks. My emotions have been going on a rollercoaster ride and it has been wreaking havoc in some parts of my life, as a couple of my close friends know. But y'know, now that my PMS is over, everything is bright and shiny again!

I went for a Thai massage a couple of days earlier. Thann Sanctuary at Gardens Mall is moving out to some place near OneWorld, the hotel at One Utama and they were having this massive sale. I've always wanted all those scented candles and all that girly stuff for my room, but my dad was afraid that I would burn the house down, so he wouldn't let me get any. But now that I'm halfway towards being all grown up, I think I can handle a couple of candles, right? Besides, they'll make my stuffy room smell soooo much better!

So anyway, KayKay, Ameera and I went into the shop for a look-see, and ended up buying quite a fair amount of things! I got a candle holder. :D

Now all I need are candles and those nice smelling oils. Yum.

Since KayKay has been complaining about aches in her body, I thought why not just surprise her with a massage, especially since she's so fascinated with Harnn & Thann and they were having some moving out promotion. Rm280 for a two pax 90 minutes massage! I might not be the kind of person who goes for lots and lots of massage, but even I could tell that it was a good deal.

So I got it. Heeeee.

I've never gone for a full body massage before because one, I wasn't brought up that way and two, I thought having people touch me in those places would be weird. And it was!

But oh wow, the masseuse I had was damn ganas, she pressed and kneaded me like I was her personal stress ball that she had some sort of vendetta against. I wanted to protest but she was really trying to get the tension knots out of my shoulders and it worked! So I guess it's a good thing that I toughed it out. Plus, I didn't want to look like a pussy, giving up at the slightest hint of pain.

KayKay had a massage in the same room as I did, and the stupid thing was, before we went in, I asked her if we could actually talk during the massage because, hey, I like talking. Then when we went in, halfway through the massage, our conversation lulled and never picked back up. The reason? I thought she was sleeping and she thought I was sleeping! Haha! Then just like that, we continued on our massage in silence.

Towards the end of the massage, I really had to pee. And my masseuse was already massaging around my front, around my tummy and on my pelvis. And like I said, she wasn't the gentle-est of masseuses. And every time she massaged down to my bladder area, I'd be screaming in my head "OMG stopppp I really need to peeeeeee."

Haha!

But aside from that incident, I kinda liked it. Of course, initially it's kind of awkward cuz a person you've just met 5 minutes ago is now touching your ass, but once you get over that part, it's really quite a pleasant experience. I wouldn't mind going for a massage again, just not any time soon because I actually don't do much physical work so my body's not aching for massages all the time.

If only they have massages for the mind...

I've Got All This Ringing In My Ears And None On My Fingers

2010-02-04T01:43:00.000+08:00

Sunsets and Car Crashes

2010-01-29T17:06:00.003+08:00

Damn, not even 20 days after I officially got my license and I've already been in an accident. Dunno why my luck so suay one. Before anyone starts complaining about how bribing the JPJ officers to pass your practical exam leads to youths unable to drive properly which leads to accidents which leads to me deserving this, I'm just gonna say one, I did not bribe anyone to pass my exams because I can drive and two, someone kissed my car's ass, which makes it their fault.

But yeah. Damn.

Long story short, there was this dumbass driving a huge Pajaro trying to get out of his parking spot. Smart guy, he parked facing traffic. So naturally, for him to get out, he has to cut through my lane to get to the other side. Only, he just jutted out the front part of this car, taking up half of my lane and blocking the road. I was gonna cut out so that I can move, but there was a Beemer beside me, so I couldn't do anything.

So I stopped and waiting. Then before I knew it, there was a loud bang and a crunch, my car jerked forward and my mom was swearing. I really had no idea what happened, because nothing like this has ever happened to me before. My parents were really careful driver and I've never been in an accident, ever. I even thought that there was something wrong with my car!

Then my mom was like "Shit, the car got hit!" and I was like "Wha....?"

I looked into the rearview mirror, and the lady behind me was staring back in shock and horror. Like, join the club, sister. I freaked out a little, and I didn't know what to do. I knew I couldn't just sit there, cuz I'd be holding up traffic. But then again, I had no idea how extensive the damage to the car was so I didn't dare to move. I think if I was alone, I would have just frozen. Be as it may, I was pretty much terrified into stone already. Lucky enough, my mom wasn't freaking out along with me. My brother was though.

The part that really pissed me off though, was the look on Pajaro Guy's face. Smugness. Like, what the hell! Because of you, my car kena bang and you just sit there looking as though you just got a bowl of crème brûlée. Ass.

After driving off to some place a little less traffic heavy, we got down from the car to survey the damage. Gah.

My poor poor car. (I know I keep calling it mine, but it's not lah.)

But haha, got funny part also! When she came over to look at my car, my mom told her "Tengok la. Kereta I pun kena banyak. (Look, my car got hit badly too)" and the lady was like "Haiyoh, accident accident." And my mom was like "Of course accident la!! You langgar kereta I (you hit my car), of course accident la!" Hahaha. Kinda funny la. They weren't snapping at each other, more like the lady was freaking out and my mom just couldn't help jabbing her. Hahaha.

The lady who hit my car said that when she noticed that my car wasn't moving, the panicked and tried to jam brake. The thing was, she stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake in her haste. That was why she slammed into us so violently. But if you think my car looks bad, hers is even worse. The entire front part of her Viva folded in towards the middle. It was crumpled.

Le sigh!

New Things

2010-01-26T23:08:00.002+08:00

Alright alright, I've been losing touch with this blog as of late because I really don't seem to have anything interesting to say. Well actually that's not true. I do have a lot of interesting things to say, it's just that I have to say it immediately, or else I forget then um yeah, you know la. Barren blog. Otherwise, I will retain it in my memory until I tell it out loud to someone, usually KayKay, then I forget about it.

I need Internet connection on my phone la dammit! Then I can blog all the time from everywhere. Unfortunately, my line is tied up with my mom's, and I don't think she would appreciate my having the Internet with me wherever I go. The world at my fingertips mah! But she's ol' skool, she won't get it one.

Anyways. Um.

HEY LOOK!!!

My glass has lights at the bottom. :D

And also, I don't think I would be blogging much about food here anymore, because it makes me hungry. Haha! No lah, it's cuz KayKay wants to start a new blog about food and drinks and urgh, cigars so we'll be importing all these yummy pictures to Drooling Cat.

Cigars are fucking smelly, just to let you know. Don't believe? There's this shop selling cigars in Gardens, and we went in one day cuz she itchy backside, said she's craving for cigars. I know right?! I successfully made her quit smoking for a year then she wants a cigar. Bah!!

What was I talking about?? Oh yeah, so we went into the shop to look for this particular cigar called Davidoff Millennium Blend or something like that. And as soon as I walked in, this musky smell just assaulted my nose and it just stays in there cuz the air in the shop is very humid so as to maintain the quality of the cigars. I hated it so much, I held my nose and panted through my mouth.

Like a dog.

Haha. But yeah, smoking is horrible. Don't do it.

Somethin' Special

2010-01-23T23:36:00.003+08:00

I was talking about something or another to KayKay today while she drove me home when I realized something quite astronomical. And quite depressing, now that I think about it. KayKay and I were gossiping about my friends as usual (we don't have anything else to talk about, ha-ha), and I said something random like "Haiyah, so sad, why are all my friends so good looking one."

I thought about it a little more, and realized something. The majority of my friends are really good looking. Don't ask me why I'm so masochistic, surrounding myself with people who look so freaking good ~~most of~~ all the freaking time. And then I sit there, feeling like the ugly duckling amongst all the swans. KayKay said I'm talking crap, and that the reason 97% of my friends are good looking is because I myself am good looking. Bull-to-the-mutha-shit. We all know she's obligated to say that. Haha!

You know how sometimes when you play inane games like 20 Questions and you get asked all these random questions that have no head or tail to them? Well, once, I got asked this question: "How do you feel when you stand next to someone really ugly?" And I smirked, and said "Really pretty." Yes, I'm mean.

But yah! What if that's the reason why I have all these gorgeous friends leh? Not that I'm really ugly lah, I know I'm not. For really ugly, please refer to my older brother. Hahahahaha!

Ahem. Like I was saying, what if the only reason my friends are my friends because they use my as a measuring stick to feel good? That would really suck lor! I go jump off the Penang bridge. Haha.

Then I got to thinking a little more (yes, I know how dangerous this can be) about the things my friends have that I do not. Talent, money, brains....

Honestly, I have no idea where my talents lie, aside from the ability to yak about something, everything and nothing. But then there are people around me who can shred the guitar like Hendrix, take pictures like Leibovitz, sing like Lady GaGa, and all I can do is talk? I mean, the only thing I can do that all but a handful of my friends can do is play the drums, but even then I suck at it without regular practice. Bah!, I say.

Money? I'm comfortable, with a roof above my head and food in my tummy, but not rich enough to be able to have a luxury bag for every day of the week. And I'm okay with that. But sometimes, looking at people just splash money around like it's water... I can't help but feel that if that were my money, I would put it to so much better use!

And the thing that I'm really lacking of, is brains. No, really! Most people assume that just because I skipped a grade when I was nine makes me smart. But remember, that was almost ten years ago! And honestly, I was only smart back then because my mom was a pusher, she pushed me to study really hard to get really good grades. Granted, the exam we took back when we were eight measures IQ, but come on! Like we really knew that. Well, at least I didn't. Or I didn't care. I just took it for fun because, well, it was fun!

But here's the weird thing: I really know that I'm not dumb. I'm just super lazy. And also, if I do not have an interest in a certain subject, then that's it. No matter how much I try to study, how hard I pay attention in class, I would only get mediocre grades. KayKay thinks that it has something to do with my higher-than-average IQ, because I'm "not challenged enough to work on it". She came up with this theory based on her friend whose IQ supposedly borders on "genius".

I don't wanna brag (I so totally do!), but..... My IQ level is actually high enough for me to be accepted into Mensa. I wanted to apply for the test, just for bragging rights, ya know, but my dad said it was a waste of time and money because honestly, you don't get anything but well, bragging rights.

Anyyyyyways. Like I was saying, putting me up with my various friends to compare these things, beauty, talent, fortune and brains, I would hardly register on the top 10 scale. Maybe even the top 30.

But I do know one thing I have over all of them, and that is my wit. I can unabashedly say that no matter which group of friends that I hang out with, I would definitely be one of the funniest people. And I think that's good, because lets be honest, nothing lasts forever. People grow old, their beauty fades. Lavish spending ways can make money disappear. Talent and smarts will only be in awe as long as you're at the top, but there will always be someone better, stronger, smarter just waiting to overtake you in that race.

But humor sticks with you. At least, until you get Alzheimer's and you forget how to make jokes. But what are the odds of that happening anyway, right?

Yeah, I think I would rather be funny. :)

My Valentine's Day

2010-01-16T10:22:00.002+08:00

I think Valentine's Day is the one day that is always very full of drama. The girls either go completely gaga, or (in the case of pathetic rom-coms) very weepy. Rarely are there any girls in reel life that are absolutely impartial to this day. Personally, I think Valentine's Day is a whole load of bull created by money loving conglomerates to generate a steady stream of revenue from suckered consumers. I mean, what, one special day just to celebrate the love you have between you and your partner? That's dumb. Aren't you supposed to celebrate love every day, instead of splashing out a couple hundred dollars on a bouquet of roses, a box of expensive chocolates and a nice meal at a fine dine restaurant because that's what the general public would expect you to do? That's silly.

But seeing as how everyone buys into this tradition, I guess it wouldn't matter if I did too. Don't you know how hard it is to start a revolution against a pop phenomenon? Hehehe.

In comes a movie about Valentine's Day.

Aptly called...... Valentine's Day.

But hey, since I'm already giving into the evils of this holiday, I would like a date with Queen Latifah, please! :D

Okay lah, so what if neither of us is a dude, it doesn't have to be a romantic date! Yeah, I would pick the Queen over Jessica Alba or Patrick Dempsey because, like, d'oh, it's Queen Latifah! She's effing hilarious, and I like funny people.

Keeping in mind that this is all a fantasy, I would love to spend Valentine's Day with Queen in New York City. It is a city of culture! Although not a traditional city of love à la Paris, I think NYC has it's own romantic side. Why else would Carrie and the girls persist to look for love in the City? Sex and the City reference! :D

I think I would skip the boring stuff like visiting the Met for another day, and instead go for cheesy, clichéd tourist stuff. Oh, and not to forget, bringing along a camera to document every single moment of our first date. Oh look, another cliché: Asians with cameras in the big city. Haha.

The Empire State Building, which, y'know, King Kong tore down some time back. Central Park, where the six friends from FRIENDS often met up at a nearby coffee house called Central Perk. And and Fifth Avenue, where I plan to drag Queen Latifah to shop up a storm with me. And Times Square, which I bet would be a million times more interesting than our Berjaya Times Square.

And after walking all over the city, I bet we would be all famished. Dinner time for me. And no dinner at the Four Seasons, nuh-uh. I would make Queen Latifah bring me to one of those road side vendors and get tacos and hot dogs, authentic New York style! Yum yum yum. Why can't we have hot dogs like that here in KL?

And after such a healthy dinner, what else constitutes as first date etiquette? A movie, of course! But when in New York, do as the New Yorkers do. I say skip the movie, bring on the Broadway! Would certainly make for an interesting experience. No way I'm gonna fly a bajillion miles to New York and not visit Broadway.

Oh wow, what an exciting date. Hey, does anyone know if Queen Latifah is single? Hehehe.

We Got The Beat

2010-01-05T20:23:00.002+08:00

My semester break is almost ending. I'm not ready for classes to commence yet! I feel as though I haven't gotten the most out of this holiday. But, hehe, if things go as I wish them to be, then I might be extending my holiday till Chinese New Year! That's mid February, in case you don't know. But since nothing is confirmed yet, I'd rather not talk about it and risk jinxing it. I'm a little superstitious that way.

Jeez, I remember when I was 10, I thought the word "superstitious" and "supernatural" were all that because they were so bloody long! But now, I know that hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia is the longest word. BTW, hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia is the fear of long words. And who says scholars do not have a sense of humor huh?

Oh wow. How in the world did I go from semester break to longest word? Sometimes, I'm amazed by the way my mind works. Haha.

But anyway. 2010! What a year '09 has been. Unlike '08, where majority of the people agreed that it was a sucky year and how glad they were that it's over and done with, 2009 was a pretty good year. I don't know about other people, but last year was certainly one of the best years in recent memory. But considering that my memory fails me all the time, perhaps that isn't one of the best examples.

Oh well.

2009 was great because.... Well, I think I grew up a lot last year. Emotionally and mentally. I mean, I thought I grew up a lot over the course of 2008 too, but I dunno, '09 just seemed different. Good different. I really found out who were my close friends, and who I could trust.

Some people who I never thought I would be close to, are now one of my best-est friends. You guys know who you are! But aiyah, I wanna list names. Haha. KayKay, Nat, KarMun and Ameera would top this list, I think.

I've also changed the way I study! I'm very impressed with myself on this because, ever since I was in foundation, or heck, even back in high school, I have vowed to study consistently and not leave assignments and such till the last minute to complete them. Of course, this pesky thing called Turn It In has also motivated me to start on my assignments a bit earlier in order to avoid the last minute jam that seems so popular on the plagiarism website. But besides that, I now actually start on the assignment as soon as it's given! Does that spell out G-E-E-K or what? I'm majorly proud of myself.

And the studying, gosh. I don't think I've ever studied consistently in my life before! Besides fucking Sociology, I did that for all my other subjects and I found that I hardly had to cram when finals came around! It was liberating! :D

Of course, having a study buddy does not hurt either. Having a study buddy who doesn't talk and just sleeps there while you struggle to understand Freud's twisted reasonings and Pavlov's drooling dogs might be beneficial, but also boring. Therefore, you should get a study buddy who's not sleepy all the time, but loves to talk occasionally. Then you sit on opposite sides of the room so that you won't be tempted to talk all the time. Ameera, you know this is true! Haha!

So back to the semester break thing, since I only have like, six more days till school begins, I think I have enough time to start and finish a new project right? I'm making a scrapbook! The idea has always fascinated me. I love arts and crafts. It's gonna be a present for KayKay. :) Just a friendly reminder for her of me. Hahaha.

You'll never know what could happen. *ominous tone*

But looking back on 2009, I don't think I grew much as a person. Still as selfish and bitchy as ever. Haha.

PS: I passed my driving exam! Congratulate me! :D

Meteor Shower

2010-01-04T23:17:00.005+08:00

I think I've only been to the Apartments one, and that was a disaster. I went with YiMing and Kimmy, and we asked one of the servers there about the portions of their food and he told us that it's pretty big. Like, big enough for three girls to share. So happily we ordered just a salad and a pasta dish. Haiyah. What a let down. The portions were pretty small, and the food actually takes a while to be served.

Ever since then, I've never bothered to venture into the Apartments for food again. Except that one time where we went for dessert, where half of what we ordered was again, a let down. Not a very good impression. So even after hearing how much people like the place and passing by it every time I'm at the Curve, I never went in again.

Until the other day.

Went for lunch there with KayKay. I was thinking that it would be a pretty safe bet, considering her pretty awesome skills at ordering stuff that she knows I would like. It's amazing! But anyway.

Duck and mango salad. I actually like this, even though I'm not very fond of duck. It's too chewy! But I really liked the duck in this salad. I dunno, it's still a little chewy, but more or less like chicken. Doesn't hurt that I love mango too! Very Thai style. I like. :)

KayKay's weird green pasta. Andrew something, I think. I dunno lah! I went there before I left to Hong Kong, and that was ages ago! I am old, teehee.

My chicken and mushroom pasta with EVOO. I think. Some sort of virgin oil one la. But I like saying EVOO. Haha. Shit, all these food is making me hungry!

Masochist masochist masochist!!!

Fuck, I'm hungry.

Feliz cumpleaños a mi bebé

que sabes que te quiero

The Air Near My Fingers

2009-12-25T21:40:00.003+08:00

I'm Buddhist, so I don't celebrate Christmas, but I love it nontheless. Well actually, I love the presents. And the decor. They're so pretty!

But anyway, this year I totally did not celebrate Christmas, so I have a pretty pathetic haul of presents. Wait, did I say presents? I mean present. Yes, singular. But it's purdy, and I love it mucho mucho, so I'm not complaining. Behold!

My new wallet from Fossil! I know it does not look like much, but it's the inside of the wallet that I love.

Pretty hor pretty hor!

I did not want to blog about my pretty new wallet actually, because.... I dunno lah, I'm not used to having someone who's not my direct family spending so much on me. A bit paiseh! But my Secret Santa was very excited about it, so layan saje la. Who am I to deny Santa's wishes?

Even It Up

2009-12-24T18:35:00.000+08:00

Okay because I like torturing myself when I'm hungry, I'm going to talk about food again. I don't know why people like to complain to me that I never bring them to nice places to eat, because it is very obvious that I go all over town to look for yummy food. And to them I like to say "If you got time, you got money, you got transport, then you can come! No money, don't expect me to pay for you." Sounds bitchy, but it's true. It's a whole slippery slope thing you know. You pay for one person, then another person protests that it's not fair, then before you know it, you've treated everyone but yourself and you end dying hungry and alone in some dark alley somewhere! Haha. How's that for exaggerating?

So anyway, I think it was last weekend or something, the newspaper (the Star) featured Fish & Co in their weekly food column. I've known that Fish & Co. have been around for some time, because I mean, if you go to 1Utama frequently enough, you would have passed it by a couple thousand times already. I've tried the food there before with my mom, and it's not too bad. I kept telling KayKay that I would bring her there one day, but I kept forgetting, but since last week's papers reminded me of Fish & Co. again and how yummy their food are......

In case you don't know, Fish & Co. is located in the New Wing of 1Utama, LG floor, opposite Auntie Anne's.

Alcoholic KayKay ordered beer.

Non-alcoholic me ordered soup. Haha!

Oh shit, I really cannot remember the name of the soup. It's some sort of chowder, I think. Got fish one, but it's not clam chowder, that much I do know.

See, this is why I cannot have a food blog because half the time I start to eat before I remember to take a picture, and by the time I remember, I'm already so into the zone, I'm too lazy to stop and take half-eaten food pictures. Then if I do remember to take the pictures, I forget what the dish is called and how much it costs. It's pretty sad.

But I remember this one! It's the New York Fish & Chips and it's awe-to-the-freaking-some!! Yeah, the stupid picture makes me drool. Look at the melting butter on the fish fillet and swear that you're not wishing it's in front of you right now so that you can sink your grubby paws into it!

Gosh, I'm making myself hungry.

Black-Eyed

2009-12-20T21:30:00.001+08:00

Smile

2009-12-17T16:06:00.001+08:00

I found a phone in Starbucks the other day. Not one of those capalang, throw-at-dog-dog-dies kind of phone you know. It's some Nokia slide phone with 3.2mp camera. I have no idea what model it is because I'm totally not pro-Nokia at all, but I think it's some Xpress music phone.

I wanted to take it. I really did. I went so far as to grabbing it from the seat and hiding it in my hands. I wanted to badly to take it. Not because I want the phone, oh no. Please lah, my own phone is already so canggih, I don't need that phone. But like, I'm so poor now! (It's all that Starbucks, I'm sure.) I can easily sell that phone for Rm500, at least. You know what I can do with Rm500 or not! I can bring me and my favourite person in the world to some 5-star Italian place and order steak and whatnot and drink good wine!

Seriously!

Anyway. So after I took the phone, I slid it open, then close again, then open again. I swear, there was this epic internal war raging on inside of me. Freud would be proud knowing that some part of his stupid psychosexual theory can actually be validated. My id was screaming "TAKE IT TAKE IT it's a free phone take it you fucking idiot!!" but my superego was calmly saying "Don't take it ah. It belongs to someone else. How would you feel if you lost your Rm2k phone and someone took it and you never got it back?" Then my id retorted "FU. I'm not so dumb to leave my phone lying around." but my superego countered "It doesn't matter. The phone is not yours, do NOT take it."

Pity my ego lah.

I actually really wanted to take it. I was freaking out. I was like "Take, don't take, take? Don't take??"

Haiyor. In the end, when I was about to leave, I handed the phone over to the barista because I'm pretty sure if I took it along with me when I leave, I wouldn't return it. It's human nature to covert something.

But I think it's a good thing I did not take the phone because I'm a Buddhist and I believe in Buddha's beliefs of karma (WHUT?!). What goes around will definitely come around. Like, I heard from KhaiSim that one of her friends found an iPhone, and instead of returning it, he sold it. A couple of days later, he lost his own phone. It's karma, I tell you! Karma!!

So yeah, I'm an honest kid. :(
Hence the sad face.

Walk

2009-12-16T22:10:00.002+08:00

I finally got to go to KLCC to walk walk and not as a side-dish to the PC Fair!! Yes, I'm very happy about that and very jakun. KayKay and I went there to have a picnic at the KLCC park. Obviously, this was not well thought through because we went for the picnic at 2pm. Two in the frickin' afternoon. Yah, we're smart people. Okay lah, KayKay really is smart, just that we did not plan out our time properly.

So we got a whole lotta stuff for our picnic: a sandwich and mushroom quiche from O'Briens, potato salad and fruit salad from Cold Storage (prior to this, I had no idea Cold Storage has food and got very excited when I found out) and lemonade from Auntie Anne's. Sounds like a typical picnic for kids. :)

But we had beer too. Haha!

Yummy yum yum. I don't know what the big deal is about O'Briens. I meah, yeah, it's yummy, but it's not like soooo fanfuckingtastic that I gots to have it, you know? But they have smoked salmon, which is trés delicious. Oh, see the funnily shaped bread? It's cuz it's originally sort of like a three leaf clover piece of bread, but they've already cut it into half so that they can pack it. Cute right!! It's tasty, and healthy, so we made up for that with a lot of beer. Hahaha.

I actually like Subway more lor. Got so many more choices, in terms of condiments and the vegetables and stuff, and the bread also! But I think O'Briens would be healthier.

The health equation goes something like this:

O'Briens > Subway > Starbucks Chicken Fingers > Chilis' Club Sandwich > McDonalds!!!!!!! > My homemade sandwich with extra full-fat mayo and no vegetables (haha, loser.)

It was getting super effing hot, so we decided to go back into the mall. I was sweating like a pig, ha-ha, how attractive. KLCC was so packed that day. I was thinking since it's KLCC, in the middle of Kuala Lumpur, most people would give it a pass, seeing as how it was a Tuesday. A weekday! Don't need to work one meh! Some more I was thinking, if we were to go to such a faraway mall, sure got no one there one! Haiyah, major fail. :(

Apparently it's a "treat" to go to KLCC wor. BAH!!!

To get over my disappointment, we went to this Irish pub called Malones or something like that. But definitely not Baloney. Ya lah, I only have clichéd humor.

Something with 7-Up and and and I forgot what liqueur the bartender used, but it's totally yummy. I know it's definitely not vodka cuz I think I would remember that thank you very much. The bartender asked if I'm local. =\

I get that a lot. A lot!!! Why ah?

KayKay's Old Man's drink. Pernott and 7-Up. It tastes weird. I think KayKay is a bad influence, cuz she likes to let minors drink alcohol. Last time when we met up with (cousins) Michelle and PingPong, she offered her drink to the curious tykes! And also, we've been having a lot of midday drinks lately. I'm not complaining, they're delicious. But I heard drinking alcohol when you're growing up is not good cuz it either kills your brain cells or inhibits the growth of the synapses or neurons or something lah! See, I think it's working already cuz I don't remember something I studied 11 months ago. Bah! I blame you, you psycho bird.

Sadly, we couldn't sit there and enjoy our drinks cuz it was getting late and we didn't want to end up like sardines on the LRT, which we did eventually. Good reason to grope someone's ass mah. Haha! So buh-bye KLCC, I will return one day when it's not holiday season, because I like to pretend that the whole mall belongs to me and no one else is allowed to be there. I'm secretly a brat, but I pretend to be all mature or else I won't have friends no more. :(

All The Rage

2009-12-15T20:02:00.003+08:00

This is my Christmas gift to my sakai of a friend, Khai Sim.

link to the smashpOp dude: http://smashpop.net/

She wants the Nike Hayward backpack cuz as you can see, her old backpack is filled with papers declaring that she wants the Nike Hayward from smashpOp.net for Christmas.

I support you Khai Sim (you poor sakai!) :p

Belanja me dinner tomorrow night ah.

Fell In Love With A Boy

2009-12-14T20:29:00.001+08:00

yiming. another social casualty. says:
now wouldn't be a good time to tell you our... relationsihp arrangement now is it.
lol

jia,rockstar says:
omg!
tell!!!!
but wait
i wanna say something

yiming. another social casualty. says:
oh ok?
haha

jia,rockstar says:
OOH SCANDALOUS!!!!!
okay now you can continue
hahahahaha

Haha yes, I am funny.

Rum Is For Drinking, Not For Burning

2009-12-11T12:14:00.000+08:00

The day after my second last paper, KayKay and I decided to have a mid-finals celebration. Yeah, we're weird. Actually that was just an excuse for us to order drinks and not feel guilty that we're drinking in the middle of the afternoon in the middle of the week. I tell you ah, I can almost find some sort of reason (read: excuse) for us to celebrate (read: eat good food and gulp alcoholic drinks).

Did well for mid-terms? Celebrate.

Did well for presentation? Celebrate.

Day off from work? Celebrate.

Class cancelled? Celebrate.

Managed to not have anything from Starbucks for a week? Celebrate. By having a drink from Starbucks.

So, we went to Bubba Gump's to celebrate me only having one more paper to study for. Okay, that's a lie. We just wanted to eat. Haha.

I'm very fascinated with the decor Bubba Gump uses. They have so much ding ding dang dang (rubbish, in Jia-verse) that it's all most too much for a potentially adult-ADHD person like me to handle. It's like, "Golly-gee, look at the amount of things to look at! Look at that and that and that and thaaaat and OOH that!!!"

Besides TGI Fridays, I haven't been in a restaurant where the decorations are scattered all over the place, and by all over the place, I really mean all over the Goddamn place.

So anyway, because it was only supposed to be a midday snack, we did not go crazy ordering all the seafood that BG's famous for. I've actually never had their food, is it good? The first time I went there, we did the whole BYOW (bring your own wine) thing for my birthday, so no food. And it's always been slightly out of our price range and not really ranking high on our "must try!!" list, so we've never been. And also cuz I don't eat much seafood. I don't touch shellfish (mussels, clams, oysters and the lot) and squid. Weird, I know. And KayKay's really anal about the freshness of her seafood. If it tastes off or doesn't have that fresh texture, that's it.

We're picky eaters. :)

But also really good at sussing out food that will taste good, thanks to KayKay's F&B background.

A whole lotta chocolate! It's like, chocolate in the drink, and chocolate in the jar. I like how they're light on the whipped cream on the drink. I don't like whipped cream, even though it does make a drink taste better.

I forgot what the drink's called, but it has Kahlua in it. Damn, but I love the word Kahlua. I love how it feels like a breath of secret tumbling out of your mouth, rolling off your tongue. Is anyone pronouncing Kahlua out loud now to see if it does feel like that? Haha!

But eh, it's such a pretty word! It reminds me of hammocks and sunsets and long sandy beaches and Screaming Orgasms in a coconut shell. It feels like Hawaii in my mouth when I say Kahlua. It's really starting to shape up to be my favorite liqueur. Fuck Chivas, Kahlua is awesome. It's heavy and sweet and ohgodsoyummy.

I actually like Kahlua (the drink) and Kahlua (the word) so much that I told KayKay I'm gonna name my kid after it and she's all horrified looks and "She'd get teased for the rest of her life!!". Bah! Drama queen, that woman. But drama queen does have a point. So I said "I'll modify it. It'll be Kaluah, K-A-L-U-A-H." But yer, seeing it written like that, doesn't seem as exotic as Kahlua. Looks so Indon, haha! It even sounds like kat luar (outside) wtf! I think I'll stick to Kahlua lah. It's any time better than Pilot Inspektor.

That Chocolate Thing! No really, that's what it's called. It's like warm chocolate brownies stuffed into the jar with hot fudge and *shudders* lots and lots of whipped cream slathered generously on top. And also, raspberry jam sprinkled with chocolate powder to balance off the extreme sweetness emanating from the jar of obesity-in-the-waiting. Yeah, that just ruined my oh-so-professional food critique way of writing. I can't help it! I have to be sarcastic, or I will shrivel up and die.

Is that sarcasm? Perhaps.

But no, really. The first bite of That Chocolate Thing is a delight, because the mixture of flavors dancing on your palate is a surprise. Then you have another bite, and another, and another, why how yummy, how addictive! and another and another, wow this is filling! and another and another, welcome to jelak-ville. It's a little disappointing, because it really is nice, but it's kind of hard to stomach because it's just so rich.

Oh and another thing, the servers at Bubba Gump are supremely good at what they do. Fantastic PR.

Definitely no asses at Bubba Gump's (unlike the managers at Chilis, friggin' rude!). Our server, Jacq, actually started dancing to the store's song selection while KayKay and I umm-ed and ahh-ed over the menu. And they're very attentive. Ask for pen, suddenly got two pens waving in your face. :) And unlike most of the places I've dined at, Bubba Gump actually has a good playlist to set the playful, friendly atmosphere that everyone there seems to soak up and fart it out ten times more potent (okay, ew).

I dunno leh, the servers actually look happy to be working! Must be something in the water....

Screw fine dining lah, I wanna eat at Bubba Gump's next time.

So Happy I Could Die

2009-12-10T21:27:00.002+08:00

Actually, I'm up to my neck studying, but I thought I should put this up anyway, just to make you guys drown in your own drool.

Like, the buttery-est mashed potatoes I've ever had! But Chili's one is better. As usual, I have my lunch at Sid's. I'm promoting them for free, ha-ha. Go there and eat!!

détour avec mon amour ♥

Love

2009-12-09T20:57:00.001+08:00

Have you found it yet?

You Make Me Smile

2009-12-07T20:24:00.002+08:00

God, so cute can die. Yes, I adopted a pink hippo. :)

The story behind these munchkins is weird. KayKay and I headed off to Ikea to get some stuff for these Burmese refugee kids in a whole Secret Santa thing. We originally wanted to buy ten of Ikea's cute lil colorful animals, but when I saw the pink hippo, I was instantly smitten! It's pink, it's cute and it's a hippo! What's there not to like, you tell me.

So I made her buy the hippo for me. Haha! Then I made her pick a toy too or else my hippo would be very lonely, no one to pat toh with. So amidst all the blue elephants, the green crocodiles, the yellow lions and the pink hippos, KayKay picked the yellow lion! "I want this because it looks indecisive, like me. *satisfied smile*"

Aww, terlalu kiut.

No Air

2009-12-04T22:47:00.002+08:00

I love going to KLCC. I really do. I know some people don't like it cuz it's so expensive and we can't afford to buy anything there without completely killing off whatever savings we have left, but for some odd reason, I just like WALKING there. I guess it's cuz I'm not jaded by it yet, unlike 1Utama and the Curve and MidValley. I still like Gardens, it's so bright and clean. :)

I hardly get to go to KLCC, cuz no one wants to go with me. Too far, they all scoff. Well, you all can go back to your precious 1Utama, because now I've got someone who doesn't mind going alllll the way to KL just to see me dance around KLCC like a deranged bunny. Yeah, I twirled on the floor just to show KayKay how slippery it was, and ended up crashing into her when I got dizzy and lost my balance.

Yeah, I get a lot of people telling me I'm no longer allowed to have candy. :(

But I heard being too hungry also makes a person go a little siao siao, so KayKay brought me to eat. Chinoz at the Park or The Apartments? Bad experience at The Apartments once (YiMing and Kimmy will back me up on this) so Chinoz at the Park it is!

I was veryyyy hungry by the time we sat down to eat.

KayKay ordered hummus and we had some pumpkin gnocchi thing with portobello mushrooms and spinach.

I was so hungry, I forgot to take picture of the hummus. But it was so yummy! It tastes like very dry dahl. You know, the curry you get from the mamak stalls. Hummus is made from chick peas anyway. But Chinoz is damn weird. The whole restaurant is the smoking area and the non-smoking area is a small little side room that sits eight tucked away behind the entrance.

Then after lunch, KayKay had this bright idea of bringing me to O'Briens for more food and already I'm half dying cuz the pasta dish we had (the pumpkin-gnocchi thing) is really filling, even though I shared it with her. On one hand, I really wanted to try the quiche from O'Briens, but on the other hand, lunch cost us upwards of Rm70 and that's kind of a lot of spending for just lunch.

But some other time when I go back there, Imma try the Mediterranean restaurant upstairs. I've heard good things about that place!

Onze mois.

Et ils dirent, l'amour comme le nôtre ne durerait pas?

Permet de prouver qu'ils avaient tort, bébé

Shrooms

2009-12-02T21:08:00.004+08:00

I had lunch at Sid's again.

The best fries evah!!!! Add in a ton of pepper, dunk in garlic-mayo and feel your tongue orgasm. I'm not kidding on this, it's AWE-to-the-SOME! And it's only like Rm10++ for a very big basket.

But also very filling, so like, you can just have fries for lunch and can tahan till 2am one. I would know, I've done it before.

Lotsa bleu cheese and button mushrooms and toasted whole-meal bread for you to scoop up all that yummy-licious cheese! It's not as yummy as Italiannies' Spinach & Artichoke Formaggio, which is sinfully yummy and loaded with cheese, but okay lah. Too much spice made it bitter, and there's something suspicious about their mushrooms. I told KayKay it tasted weird and she was like, "No la, that's cuz it's fresh button mushrooms." So I eat only la.

Then, I became incredibly lame. And giggly. Kind of like a high. And I get up to KayKay with my big big eyes and said "Maybe they were shrooms!!"

I can't even begin to imagine how insane I would be if I ever become full-fledged drunk.

Lunch on KayKay. :)

I Am A Sherlock Holmes In The Making

2009-11-30T21:32:00.002+08:00

I really am! Because I managed to track down a certain picture from two particular blogs among the millions upon millions of blogs out there.

SEE!!

I know Nuffnang said that only one was enough, but I had so much fun, I went hunting for the other.

Not bad lah, can be Sherlock Holmes already. Oooh did you know that in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's book, Sherlock never said "Elementary, my dear Waston." So where did THAT come from?!

Drive

2009-11-23T21:26:00.002+08:00

An everyday conversation between my dad and I would go something like this:

Does Ah Gong (my grandpa) have a road named after him?
No. Why?
Oh. Because, you know how sometimes when a person simply drive and other people will be like "Oi! You think this is your grandfather's road ah?!"
Ya...
Ya! So then if Ah Gong has a road named after him, after I get my lisence, I can go there and simply drive then when people shout at me "Oi! Your grandfather's road ah?!" I can shout back at them "HELL YEAH!!!"
*stares* Crazy la you.

Whut! It could work okay.....

The Nature of The Ghost

2009-11-21T21:03:00.006+08:00

Yesterday, after being pretty antisocial for almost two weeks (blame it on mid terms, assignments and PMS), I finally went out with other people other than KayKay! I'm pretty impressed with myself.

So I dragged KayKay with me off to Cineleisure to watch Disney's A Christmas Carol with Ca-Ren, who we just met on that day itself, and KhaiSim, who I haven't seen in ages. KayKay shy, didn't talk much. Haha! I have almost never seen that side of her before.

KayKay picked KhaiSim and I up after class, and off we went to the Curve. Along the way, I guess the heat plus the rocking motion of the car plus her utter lack of sleep, KhaiSim fell asleep and looked like the Japanese ghost in Ringu. You know... With the hair covering the face and the head nodding up and down like a psycho ranger. Haha! Damn funny. I wanted to take a picture of her, but then she woke up.

Damn.

But I was thinking, imagine if it was at night and she tumpang-ed our car and we forgot that she was there, then if we suddenly turn behind to look at the passenger seat and saw her sitting there looking like she's a ghost or something, it would scare the frickin' crap out of us!! Probably get into another accident.

Mahahahaha okay not funny. The accident bit. But the rest is funny, so laugh!

Anyway, we got to the Curve in plenty of time, so we decided to walk-walk first before Ca-Ren came. Actually, KayKay and I went walking about, KhaiSim just followed us around. Poor thing. She looked pretty much bored out of her mind. Until we got to Ikea, that is! I swear, that girl lives to eat.

So then we had a lot of food blablabla, finally got to the movie like, two minutes before it started.

As you can see, the graphics are very detailed.

We watched it in 3D, which was a very good call, even though it was slightly more expensive. Rm17, but so much more worth it than the crap GSC MidValley tried to pass off as 3D. The next time I wanna watch something in 3D, I'm heading off to Cineliesure.

A pretty dark and twisted tale for Disney to dish out, but since they were staying close to Dicken's original story, I guess that's how it would pan out. I don't think it would be wise to let kids watch this movie without parental supervision though, because it's actually very very morbid. It's a morbid cartoon! Haha. It disguises itself up with animations and big googly eyes (hello, Tiny Tim) but it is, at it's core, a very adult movie which deals with cruelty, repentance and death.

All the darkness, however, is made up for with the warm, fuzzy feelings at the end of the movie. I'm pretty sure everyone already knows how this story plays out, what with it being made into soooo many versions, the dumbest being Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. God!

Anyway. There's this last part of the movie that's pretty funny, but no one laughed! I hate that. Bah! Scrooge said something (I'm not gonna say what lah, go watch it yourself) and I guess by that time everyone's heads were already spinning from all the 3D induced headaches that they weren't really paying attention to the movie anymore and they totally missed the punch-line! So there I was, laughing on my own. The rest of the people only joined in three seconds later.

Maybe they were laughing at me lah.

Keep Holding On

2009-11-16T19:43:00.001+08:00

Now what?

Pachelbel Meets U2

2009-11-11T23:54:00.002+08:00

I am swamped with assignments! Intro to Psych was just done, and now I'm facing Sociology and my other psychology elective!

The worst part is, I have no idea how to get started on my Sociology! It's about anti-positivism, so if any of you know anything about it (or is a nice person and wouldn't mind doing it for me!) please help! You know I'm really desperate when I start talking about assignments on my blog. My lecturer is soooo particular about everything. He wants us to do our assignment very detailed, and yet he says we cannot use his lecture notes. Which means, everything has to be taken off the Internet, or from books from the library. It's super hard omgkillme.

And for my psych elective, I thought the assignment was gonna be a breeze cuz my lecturer is really nice, she's a little of the grandma-sort. But then today during presentation, she became this total hard-ass and started asking a million and one questions about every single damn thing!! At one point (and I have no idea how because I was busy playing a game on my phone), we got to talking about oral sex. But whatever. And then, today, she told us that the class did really badly for mid terms, where about 30% of the class failed, and only one person got an A. I think I'm one of the 30% lor! What are the odds that I'm the one person who got the A leh, you tell me. I'm so not an exam-oriented person. Exams kill me. Plus, there's this girl in my class who's really book smart, so I'm guessing she's the one with the frickin' A.

And on top of all that, my wisdom tooth is growing. And to fuck it up a little more, it's growing while I'm nursing an ulcer just above it. And I'm still very sleep deprived from Sunday when I stayed up till 4.30am to finish up my Intro to Psych assignment and had to wake up four hours later to go to class.

Life is horrible. Life as a student is horrible. It really is. I'm growing old before my time because of this. I'm getting dark circles and horrible skin because of this.

Wow. Can't wait for my Ph.D. course.

When The World Comes Down

2009-11-09T21:54:00.002+08:00

The 31st of October was Halloween. The 31st of October was also the second time The All-American Rejects performed in KL this year.

Initially, I was very "Meh" about it cuz KayKay couldn't go and I was thinking to myself, y'know, since I've already seen them live once before (back at MTV World Stage) I guess I'll just pass. And taking into consideration my ever growing mountain of assignments and exams looming close, plus being super dehydrated and exhausted from the concert.. It kind of doesn't make sense!

But then my cousin Michelle said that if I wasn't gonna go, her mom's not gonna let her go either. To make things worse, she invited two of her friends. Two! Which means if I'm not going, I would be letting down three fourteen year old girls. And what kind of selfish bitch does that?

So go only lah.

When we got there at 4.30pm, the line was horrendously long. Luckily for us, we bumped into NatNat and Ken and Dila, and then just casually, cut in. Haha

And so after waiting for about an hour and a half, the girls were starting to get a little bit tired, and annoyed. Imagine Nat waiting since 3pm! Dedication, I tell you. Or maybe just kiasu-ness? Whatever it was, it paid off well because we got really good places once we managed to get into the concert arena.

Y'know, one thing I really hate about going to concerts are the people attending. Not all of them are obnoxious, but it's almost inevitable that you would not bump into those gila babi rempit assholes (henceforth known as GBRA, or G-Bra) who would definitely ruin the concert experience for you. Even before we got into the concert arena, there were already some of those idiots trying to push their way in and therefore squashing those in front of them.

It's so fucked up la. I agree with what Louis said on his post about MTV World Stage, we should totally have a separate area for these idiots.

Anyway, we waited for super duper long. The stated time for the concert to begin was 6pm, which was why there we people bothering to line up since probably 2pm. But because it's Malaysia, they only kicked things off at 7pm. Typical.

Disagree came up first. They were okay, I guess. I mean, I don't know their songs except for Suicide Note and Crumbs, so it's not like I can critique them. I love Crumbs though. Such a beautiful song.

They brought on KLDC as well. Which was pretty awesome la, I love rhythm. But I suck at it. Shh!

Another thing I really hate about concerts are the insanely long intermission time. Like, hurry up lah! Everyone was so impatient and tired of standing by that point, there were people fainting around us. Plus, it was starting to drizzle. But that was good, actually. It was soooo hot in being in the middle of the crowd that having cool droplets of water landing on your skin was almost akin to nirvana.

Pop Shuvit came on next.

Moots! put on a great performance, as usual. Him and his hyperactive antics and his blinged-out Yes We Can! tee. Pop Shuvit's set was pretty awesome. Perfect headbanging list of songs. However, Michelle and her friends (they're American) were going WTF?! the entire time. This is the result of not knowing how to speak Malay. I asked one of them, Emma, if she understood Malay and she was like "Sorta." I think that kind of sucks, seeing as how Malaysia actively tries to get everyone to understand Malay so much that pretty much EVERYTHING is in BM. That's so not fair to foreigners like Emma and Reese!

After that was One Buck Short, but no pictures from that set, cuz I was busy being pissed off at the GBRAs. Like what the fuck right, people enjoying the concert, then suddenly this whole bunch of under-educated losers come pushing their way through the crowd. I'm trying to be as objective as I can about this, but it's hard when they bully everyone around them. Hello, the reason we lined up under the hot sun is to be able to get as close to ~~Tyson Glitter~~ ~~Tyson Ritter~~ The All-American Rejects as possible, right?

Not only that, with the way they're behaving, dancing like crazy and jumping up and down, it's not hard to believe that these guys were on some sort of high. With most of them being taller than we were, it would be pretty stupid for us girls to pick a fight with them. But some of the guys there were more than willing to beat on them, actually. They were getting quite pissed off at the GBRAs cuz they were practically pushing anyone who got in their way and one of them got pretty close to their girlfriends.

SEE!! That's why we girls need protective boyfriends. *I want one too*

Anyways. Bottomline is, those assholes completely ruined the concert for me. Kind of made me feel like I never want to go to a free concert ever again.

But as usual, the All-American Rejects kept us waiting for a loooong time, then proceeded to tear up the stage and blow our minds! So what if Tyson's a little too flamboyant for most Malaysian, the man sure can put on a show. And that sexy accent coupled with suggestive words, ooh-la-la.

In the spirit of Halloween, Tyson turned up as a Native American! Sho kuit can die. Appalling though, cuz there were some (I'm pretty sure they are) fourteen-fifteen year old girls screaming "I wanna I wanna I wanna fuck Tysonnnnn!!!!"

Kids these days, they grow up so fast. Do they even know the implications of sex?!?! But that's another rant for another day lah.

You can see the other pictures on Facebook, because I'm just too damn lazy to upload them.

Also, I got to meet the man himself, Tyson! Suck that, you people who caught drumsticks (although I'm secretly pretty jealous).

Maybe This Time

2009-11-04T19:23:00.002+08:00

I had a quiz today. Because I was lazy (and also because there's this addictive little thing called Prison Break), I only studied half of what I was supposed to. Which means, I studied the easy chapter, and decided to forgo the more difficult chapter.

Anyone who's done psychology would have come across Freud's Psychosexual Development Theory, and Erik Erikson's Psychosocial Development Theory, as well as the theories from Adler, Jung and Horney (apparently it's pronounced horn-eye. I'm still gonna pronounce it the way it's spelled. Haha!). And anyone who's came across them would know how much there is to study.

Pfft, psychologists. Cheong hei tou sei.

Anyway! So I sat for my quiz, having revised only half of what I was supposed to know. And because the class is really small, my lecturer would have us exchange our papers and mark for each other. It's like being back in high school. Haha. So the whole time we were discussing the questions, I was sooo tense cuz I had this feeling I fucked up majorly. There were probably only four or five questions I was a hundred percent sure I got them right. And that's kind of sucky, you know?

So when I got my results back, it turns out I didn't do so bad.

The quiz comprised of two parts. The first five questions were based on the first module, then the next five on the second module. So for the one I studied, the first module, I got two out of five wrong. I know right, I'm damn stupid. And the second one, where I just sorta-kinda know how to answer the questions, I got a perfect score.

ARGH damn whatthefuck right?! I'm never gonna study anymore.

I've got a mid term exam tomorrow. And to test my theory of "not studying equals good results", I ain't gonna study. Stay tuned.

Unexpected Places

2009-11-01T02:45:00.003+08:00

Oh man! October's over. And I wanted to post this up for Halloween:

Haha!

The Rapture

2009-10-29T18:13:00.002+08:00

Why, oh why, did I take up sociology as an elective?

Electives are supposed to either help you boost your CGPA, or you take it anyway because you are interested in the subject. But why in the world did I take Sociology? It's fucking boring. It's a thoroughly reading subject and I hate it. What I'm learning now is basically the theoretical part of statistics, and it's all words. WORDS!!!!

Normally, I have nothing against words. I love words. I do. But gah, my lecture notes are effing confusing! Plus, I started class a week late so I'm trailing behind. I really have no motivation to study. I'm even feeling a little tempted to get someone to do my assignment for me (but not really, cuz if I get caught, I'll be facing expulsion).

Bah!

I hate Sociology!! Why didn't anyone tell me what a horrible subject this is?

Tested & True

2009-10-27T19:50:00.003+08:00

This semester, in an inspired movement to give us sleepless nights, my lecturers incorporated pop quizzes into their courses. Of course, everyone knows that pop quizzes are supposed to well, POP! out whenever the students are least expecting it. Pop quizzes are, supposed to keep students on their toes all the time, fearfully expecting the fat balding lecturer (not that we have any!) (kiss ass kiss ass) to happily announce "Did you guys study? No? YOU'RE SCREWED! There's a pop quiz today!!"

I swear, when our lecturer for Intro to Psych first told us that we will be having three pop quizzes throughout his course, everyone groaned. I mean, it's not exactly the best news ever. Then from that particular lecture onwards, we went to class wondering if there was going to be a pop quiz. I don't know about the rest of the class, but I would actually take time out from my precious weekend down time to go to the library to study. I mean yeah, I had ulterior motives *snigger* but for the most part, I was studying.

So every Monday and Wednesday, we would enter class feeling all anxious, and we'd remain that way till our lecturer announces that there would be NO quiz that day (this is when everyone starts cheering). I've been studying consistently, and our first pop quiz happened after I started being a nerd (haha). It was okay for me, but everyone freaked out. But being such a nice person (self-praise is all the praise you'll ever need. Remember that.), I let my friends copy my answers. But seeing as it's me, a person who sucks horrifically at exams, I'm not sure if I was actually of any help.

But after that point, where everyone complained to the lecturer, and started off every lecture by pestering him with questions like "Sir, today got pop quiz ah?", my lecturer got so sick of the questions that he would actually tell us when he was planning to give us a quiz. And I'm like "D: but whyyyyyy?! Where's the fun in that?!"

I know, I'm such a pain in the ass.

And my other lecturer (she's a nice lady, I like her!) will go all coy and said "Study over the weekend ah. I might give you the pop quiz next week!" And I'm like, Then how is that popping?!

Seriously, isn't the point of having pop quizzes to motivate you to study consistently? I mean, if you even give a damn about your grades, naturally you would study right? But since most of us are bums in that sense, we opt to relax for the entire semester, and cram like crazy a week before finals.

Don't give me that look, I know you do it too!

But since I really do care about my grades (now more than ever), I really attempt to study every weekend. Unless I'm feeling lazy or sick, then I give myself the day off. That's not too bad, I think. Ahem.

But like, it's called a pop quiz for a reason! When the lecturers say "I'll might be giving you a pop quiz next week!", most probably they will. Unless the lecturers say that just to fuck with our minds......

Can't Stop, Gotta Date With Hate

2009-10-26T19:34:00.006+08:00

Over dinner, I was telling my parents about this place that I know that has pretty awesome pan mee. You know what the weird thing is? This time last year (heck, even six months ago) I have NEVER had pan mee. I know right?! What an atrocity. I blame it on my parents. They don't like it, so they've never brought me out to try it.

Anyway. Even though I've only newly been exposed to pan mee, I really really like it. I think at one point I was pretty much obsessed with it; I kept making KaySze bring me to this place in KL that has one of the yummiest pan mee in town (according to her lah). And according to YiMing, we're crazy for going allll the way to KL just to have lunch. Hello, woman, I study in KL. It ain't that far!

The pan mee there is soooo good. But it's not like, the flat kind of mee. It's more like, noodles. And it comes with minced pork and anchovies like regular pan mee la. Actually, I don't even know what regular pan mee is supposed to have, seeing as I've only had pan mee from three places: one from Kepong (remember, Nat??), one from the food court below UOA building and my favourite one from KL. It's off Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman.

But the first time we went, KaySze went a bit siao siao with the dried chili. Because she knows that I love eating spicy stuff, she was thinking that I would be able to handle lots of the dried chili. She heaped on two spoonfuls of the stuff, mixed it around a little, then said "I don't think this is spicy enough for you la. You need more." Poured another spoonful of dried chili in, mixed it around a litte more, said "I still think you need more." Dumped like, another spoonful of chili, mixed it properly, then passed it to me with a silly happy smile on her face.

I ate it. It was daaaaaamn spicy.

I got home. I had food poisoning.

Haha. TRUE STORY!!!

Anyway. The point of all that rubbish was to say that there's this place in KL (near Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman) that has awesome pan mee. So I told my parents about the place, and my mom snorted and said "我死也不想去!" which directly translates to "I die also don't want to go!" (Haha) So naturally, I asked why. And oh-my-shizzle, my mom's answer was so... discriminating! "There got a lot of Ah Kuas." ("There are a lot of transvestites there.")

And I thought, yeah, since they're so old skool and traditional, I can sort of get where they're coming from because that place is notorious for hookers and trannies. So I suggested that we could go during the day, when there would be lesser sexually "bizzare" people roaming about. And my dad said "Don't want la. You would still be sharing the chopsticks and cups and stuff with them right?"

And that, my dear friends, is why sometimes I absolutely hate being affiliated with my family.

PS: In case you were wondering, the pan mee place is called Restoran Kin Kin and it's at 40 Ground Floor, Jalan Dewan Sultan Sulaiman 1, Chow Kit, KL. Like I said, it's off Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. Go GoogleMaps it.

Pop Goes The Camera

2009-10-25T16:26:00.003+08:00

KayKay and I are looking into getting me a d-SLR. Did you know that that is actually the proper way to abbreviate digital single-lens reflex cameras? But bah! Everyone just goes DSLR anyway.

Because I don't have money to burn (I use it all to wipe backside ha-ha) and also because I don't want to splash out on a five-figure camera only to realize I'm just not that into it after all, entry level camera it is. Besides, the big ass ones like Canon EOS 5D Mark III would probably weigh even more than my schoolbag and KayKay would end up carrying it everywhere and that's just not fair.

Initially, I thought of just getting one of those semi-pro ones. Like ummm PowerShot. I do have a PowerShot, but it's pretty old cuz my dad got it when it first came out. I like how you can control almost EVERY single thing in the camera, but its range just isn't as broad as even the entry level DSLRs. Plus, you know, you can switch about the lenses for a DSLR.

So then we talked about getting the most basic of the basics, a Canon EOS 1000D (I think). Rm2,199. Then we decided that that's just too basic, and I would want a better camera not long after that. So we looked into the Canon EOS 450D which is slightly better, and also more expensive (naturally). Rm 2,799.

But then KayKay discovered the EOS 500D, which is more of less like the 500D, but with video recording capabilities. Price: Rm 3,113.

I see a pattern here. The price just keeps going up up up. Next thing I know, she'll be saying we should just skip ahead and get the Mark III (it goes for Rm 28, 999).

Shattered by Broken Dreams

2009-10-19T18:49:00.003+08:00

You know when you're a kid, you're supposed to dream big? "Reach for the stars," they would tell you. And being a trusting child, you would put in colors where the whites used to be, sprinkle glitter where ordinary lay, grew skyscrapers where picket fences stood their ground. Everything was glorious, everything was resplendent, everything could be beautiful; your dreams were as grandiose as your imagination could be.

And then you grew up. They tell you to stop dreaming, because it's not real. "This is reality," they said. It's not how you envisaged it. Things that were once exquisite, now rub against you rough. The places that were once a sanctuary, are overruled with bedlam. The things that once brought you exultation, now only brings forth melancholy. What happened to those dreams, the dreams that you tucked deep inside the pocket of your cheek, like the fortune in a Chinese cookie?

So what do you do then? Do you fight for what you want, even though there's that very real chance that you might fail? Do you pick up the pieces that they have managed to chip off from you, and just walk away with the burden of failure riding heavy on those weary shoulders? Or do you just pick the coward's way out, by picking the road often taken, picking the safe rather than the potentially rewarding?

I am standing in the middle of this crossroad, and the one road that I most want to take, the road that would take me Back, is not an option. What does that leave me with?

I can't believe that this is happening all over again. I shouldn't have let myself dream. Nothing hurts more than believing in your dream, and then having the whole thing burn down around you like a cabin in the Indian summer. I believed in my dream so much that I could almost taste it... It nearly became tangible, something corporeal. Something that I could say "I can live with this for the rest of my life, and be happy knowing that it was the best times I've ever had."

But see, the thing is: Dreams are not real. Dreams can be as lavish as you make them out to be, as wonderful, as sensational, as phenomenal as you want them to be, but in the end, that's all they are. Dreams. They will never become reality, not if you have someone pulling your strings. Controlling you like they are the puppet master, and you, the poorly-crafted marionette. So what can you do?

Dance, puppet, dance. Just dance.

I Wanna Sex You Up

2009-10-12T20:42:00.003+08:00

Taken at Bangsar Village II.

Apathy Is Deathwish

2009-10-06T21:03:00.001+08:00

As Psychology students, we're always bombarded with questions of the mind and the body. One abstract, one physical. No matter how much you would like to deny it, these two are more intricately linked that we would like them to be. They always say it's "mind over matter", and that if you will it to be, it'll be. But what about the body making the mind think otherwise? It's not a two-way street, it's a two lane highway.

Which leads to this question: Which would you rather have go first, your mind or your body?

Just the thought of that would terrify anyone. Lose your mind and trapped in a limbo, or feel your body slowly betray you and shut down? Most people I've asked have said that they would rather have their bodies go first, and I wonder why.

If I had the choice, I would definitely want to lose my mind first. It's a purely selfish act. If I were to lose my mind to something as pitiful as Alzheimer's, or something as consuming as schizophrenia, I would just be living my days one at a time, no sense of direction, no sense of safety for myself. It would be just like being riveted back to being a child. It would be the people surrounding me who would have to bear the burden of taking care of me while I carelessly take one day at a time.

If your body breaks down and your mind is still intact, you'd be able to understand the horrors of your body dying. And that itself, I think, is pretty scary. Why spend the last few years of your life suffering in pain?

The Secret's In The Telling

2009-10-02T16:57:00.002+08:00

I've got a secret project in the works! It's a collaborative effort between my (mind) twin, YiMing and I, so it's definitely gonna be cool. Trust me.

It should be done by Monday, then everyone can go and KPC there!

Calling You

2009-10-01T00:47:00.000+08:00

Let me tell you a story about my mom. My mom was born on the 31st of April, and was given the name of Jiahuey's Mom. TRUE STORY!

But that's not what I wanted to say. See, my mom recently started using my brother's Motorola phone (long story short, he brought it to school and it got confiscated so my mom got it back and started using it to spite him. At my suggestion, of course!) and I think she's still getting used to the fact that the phone can play music.

I know right. It's called convergence, mom.

So being an ~~old person~~ adult, she's not gonna put Eminem or Boys Like Girls as her ringtone. Unfortunately for her, she doesn't know load more music into her phone, resulting in her having to put up with the songs that my brother had already chucked into the memory stick. Fortunately for her, it's not all "lap sap" songs like the ones I have in my phone.

My brother has pretty mainstream taste in music, so he had some pretty catchy Ne-Yo songs in there. My mom likes Ne-Yo. Ergo, she picked that as her ringtone. The funny thing is, whenever someone calls her on the phone and that Ne-Yo song starts playing (I can't remember what it's called) my mom continues to sit there, not making a move to pick up her phone.

Then after about three seconds, she realizes that it's her phone ringing and she jumps up and rushes to get it. HAHA. So funny. I love watching her expression when she realizes it's her phone ringing, it totally reminds me of the technology-impared grannies.

And the other day when I was at Kimmy's house, her phone rang and rang and rang, and I swear, it was almost 10 seconds before she realized that the song was emitting from her bag. It's SO funny!

Okay, maybe I'm the only one who finds it funny, but haha, I really do think it's hilarious. There is no point in this post, only to mock my mom. HAH!

Never Change

2009-09-26T00:00:00.000+08:00

So says the autopay machine at Gardens Mall. Whoever programmed this really has a sense of humor. I start cackling every time I see it, and all the aunties queuing up behind me look at me as though I've gone off the deep end.

Whut. It's funny.

I Just Love You

2009-09-25T02:21:00.003+08:00

Don't You Evah

2009-09-23T22:12:00.002+08:00

My super embarrassing picture somewhere in 1U. Find it if you can!

Bear in mind I was only eleven then. My drawing has improved a lot since then. Case in point:

And you thought I was joking. KayKay! I did this for you, feel honored alright? Adrian only got a fire-breathing dinosaur.

Coppertone

2009-09-22T11:58:00.002+08:00

The other day in Intro to Psych class, we were learning about how society thinks. We're doing social psychology now, so it's like we deal with why people tend to behave in certain ways and think as a collective group.

So anyway, the other day we were talking about people stereotyping overweight people. The scenario that our lecturer gave us was about two overweight people. The first one, Billy, eats excessively and does not exercise. The second one, Cindy, has a genetic disease that makes it super hard for her to lose weight. The question was: Who would you like more?

But the answer doesn't matter either way, because that's not what I'm trying to say. There's this girl in my class who's a little on the big side, and a little while after we were discussing about prejudice against obese people, the seat that she was sitting in broke.

Okay, before anyone starts being cruel, I feel like I need to clarify something. The seats at HELP's auditorium are pretty retarded. They somehow don't feel as sturdy as the ones in the cinemas. In fact, that wasn't the only seat I've seen that's broken. Once in class, this dude sat down on another seat and it broke too, and the guy wasn't even that big.

So anyway. Because of the noise the seat made when it gave, quite a number of students actually turned around to look for the source of the commotion. By the time I noticed the students who were sitting in front of me who were turning about to stare, the girl had already managed to get herself off of the floor and into the seat next to it. But her face was flaming red and by the looks of it, she was trying very hard to look unbothered.

As if that wasn't bad enough, a whole bunch of chicks started looking at her and pointing and snickering, as well as commenting louder. And they study social psychology. Which makes me wonder, how can someone who's at the ripe old age of nineteen still act like a five year old?

Some people just need to learn how to grow up.

Ode to Summer

2009-09-18T00:00:00.001+08:00

Today, I went all the way to KLCC at 10.30am to catch (500) Days of Summer with KhaiSim. BTW, thanks loads KhaiSim for inviting me along to catch this movie. I love it soooo much. The cinema was practically empty.

The weird part of this movie is that the events in the movie are not shown chronically. Instead, it jumps around the 500 days when Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) was in love with Summer (Zooey Deschanel). Sure, it would require slightly more attention to keep track with what's happening, but it's not that bad because it goes from present time when Tom is broken up over Summer, and back to a flashback where we see how Tom falls for Summer and that continues on till it catches up to the current timeline. Gosh. That DOES sound confusing. But it's not, really. I think the point of this time traveling is to paint a sharper contrast of the before and after.

"This is a story of boy meets girl. But you should know upfront, this is not a love story."

So the movie opens with a mildly destructive Tom smashing plates one by one in a rather catatonic state in his kitchen. Naturally, his guy friends freak out and call his little sister, Rachel (Chloe Moretz) who seems to know a lot about women and their emotional highs and lows for such a young kid. He tells his friends and Rachel that he does not want to get over Summer, but he wants her back.

He begins to recount how he met her. It started out with Summer being Tom's boss' assistant. Although Tom was attracted to her, he decided that she would not be worth his time based on the gossip fed to him by McKenzie, his friend and also co-worker. However, after learning that Summer is also into The Smiths, he becomes convinced that she is "the one". McKenzie took pity on Tom's pathetic attempts to try to get close to Summer and organizes a karaoke night which the whole office, including Summer, is attending.

A tipsy McKenzie asked Summer about her views on love, to which Summer said that love isn't real. Ever the optimist, Tom argued that it is. Finally, they agreed to disagree. McKenzie drank even more and becomes so drunk that Summer and Tom had to help him get into a cab. McKenzie then spilled the beans to Summer, telling her that Tom likes her. Tom denied it at first, then eventually admitted that he does, but only "as friends". Summer's response? "Very interesting."

Eventually though, they start spending a lot of time together and Summer's walls slowly came down as she opened up to Tom. We learn about Summer's past, and also why Tom, who studied to be an architect instead becomes a greeting card writer at Card Company. One scene I find really funny is how they emulated a married couple while using the furniture on display at Ikea (IKEA!!) as props. It was at this point in the story when Summer made it clear to Tom that all she wanted is a casual relationship. However, Tom tried to convince himself that that's all he wants too when it's so clear that he thinks that they could be more. Summer then seduced the poor guy by lying down on his bed sans clothes and offering herself to him. This is what I call "mind fucking". Girls are excellent at it.

The next day, Tom wakes up on top of the world. And in a weird but delightful twist, the movie draws from Disney movie Enchanted with some synchronized dancing in a park. A little out of place, but very enjoyable.

However, bit by bit, Summer began distancing herself from Tom. Things are starting to go downhill and eventually got to the point where Tom got into a small fight with a random guy in a bar over Summer. Summer got pissed off at Tom and told him that he does not need get into fights over her because, after all, they are "just friends". This made Tom very very mad because he thinks that everything that they have done (hanging out all the time, swapping stories, shower sex etc) proved that they are, indeed, in a relationship. Tom left Summer in a huff but finds her on his doorstep later, where they kissed and made up. After a couple of weeks of strained happiness, Summer goes on to break up with Tom over pancakes.

A couple of months later, he bumped into Summer again on the way to a coworker's wedding.

They had a nice weekend together, and Summer invites him to a party she's hosting. Tom builds up his hopes, only to have them dashed when he finds out that the party he's at was Summer's engagement party. Heartbroken, he became a social recluse for five days, hanging out only with alcohol and Twinkies. How very pathetic.

He finally pulled himself together and got to work, just in time for the office's weekly presentation. After sitting quietly for a while, Tom came to the conclusion that everything he believed about love, fate and relationships was wrong, and that all the Card Company does is create lies for their customers to put into their mouths. He then proceeded to quit his job.

Tom fell into depression again, but slowly snapped out of it when, under the coaching of Rachel, he recalled the bad moments he's had with Summer. Tom found a new perspective and started to actively pursue his architecture dream. However, after getting shot down by like a million of them, an even more depressed Tom went off to his favourite hang out spot and bumped into Summer there. They have some sort of closure, and Tom realized that he has to let go of Summer and get on with his life.

Aaaaaand then at a job interview, he met a girl named Autumn. Oh all names.

I really like this movie, I do. I think it's one of the best rom-com movies to hit our shores this year. I mean, based purely on entertainment purposes, The Proposal was much funnier, but in a slapstick way. (500) dished out their humor in a more quiet, satirical way. There are some laugh out loud moments (where, again, I was the only one laughing WTF), but those are far and few between. Most of their humor makes the audience work to get it. Maybe that's why no one laughed. HAH!

Aside from that, one thing I loved about this movie is that it portrays love in such a realistic light. I mean, come on! How many of us would end up falling in love with someone who we initially hated? It's like, the minority. Like what Justin Long said in He's Just Not That Into You, we would like to believe that these things do happen, no matter how rare, but you are not the exception.

But this movie... It shows the reality of love. How it's not easy, how it's so hard to get over someone, how women play men, how women can be evil conniving bitches, how thin the line between love and hate can be. That's how love is! It's not all giggles and roses. I guess maybe I like this movie so much is partly because it does not try to mince what it's trying to say, and that losing someone you love sucks but eventually you'll get better.

And that, no matter what, having a 20-20 hindsight helps a lot. Seeing a person's flaws amidst the good qualities that they have makes them more real, and instead of putting them on a pedestal and idolizing them, seeing them as human somehow makes it all better. I don't know, that's what I think. And I love how they don't slap on a tonne of makeup to try to make their actors look perfect. It's such a real movie. Like, this could be happening to you, or maybe your next door neighbor. I dunno..

I guess the point of the story is that while it's fine to believe in fate and love, we shouldn't have our heads in the clouds all the time. Reality interferes, the other person might not love you as much as you love them. I also think what Summer said about coincidence and the way people think about love being a more pivotal role in our lives. I've always had that school of thought, instead of the whole destiny thing. It's always decisions and coincidence that sets us on a certain path in life. But who's to say that fate doesn't exist? Maybe the people who believe in God would say yeah, fate and destiny exists. But for me, I think that we all make decisions through a series of thoughts, and when those decisions cross paths with someone else', it's just a coincidence. What we do after that, again, relies on the individual's personality and perspectives, which falls under the school of thought.

Do I make sense? Oh, and the soundtrack is fucking awesome. How often do we get indie music in a mainstream movie? Wait, is this an indie movie? Because if it is, it would explain a lot.

All in all, I would give this movie a 4.5/5, because although Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Tom) tries to be all adorable like Paul Rudd, he fails. Paul Rudd is the king of dorky cute guys. Yeah, that was just a stupid excuse not to give it a 5/5 because, I dunno, no one's perfect. Even though this one came pretty damn close.

I May Be Rude But I'm The Truth

2009-09-16T11:28:00.001+08:00

Watched The Ugly Truth before my mid terms today. Hehehe. WHUT? I studied the entire weekend before this.

It was a pretty good movie. I liked it.

The weird part was bumping into KM, NakedMoleNat and KimHan in the movie theater during the credit rolls.

The movie was very predictable, but it's silly fun so that's alright. I liked this one more than Gamer, another Gerard Butler flick that came out on the same day. I'd give this one a 3.5/5, purely for it's entertainment factor.

Daddy Cool

2009-09-14T19:32:00.004+08:00

If you think you have the lamest parents ever, take a look at what my parents did on Sunday morning. Instead of doing the usual knocking-on-the-door parental alarm clock, my mom decided to be funny and sent me an MMS.

I, and I quote YiMing, LOLIRL. Ahh, my parents: The source of my mirth.

Games You Play

2009-09-13T10:00:00.001+08:00

Caught Gamer after work on Friday.

As most of everyone knows, Gamer is about a world in the future (2034, to be exact) where technology has far surpassed what we have today. In that world, mind-control games are the new Facebook.

The movie starts of with a rather happy view of a bunch of people all gathered in a park of some sort, all doing all sorts of things. The awesome (or maybe, not really) part is that they're all dressed in really bright, eye catching funky costumes and wigs. It looks like a really bad versions of the Sims. I don't know why, but I kept sniggering when they show scenes during Society game play with weird people doing funny things. Unfortunately, I was the only one laughing when a priest happily ran across the screen, holding on to a bunch of colorful balloons. What's up with everyone, lost their sense of humor or something?

But yeah, the movie also shows how people exploit this to make their avatars to whatever they want. In short, they live their lives through them, doing things that they usually wouldn't do. Sometimes it's sadistic, sometimes it's just plain sick and creepy.

Well, along to Society, the company who introduced all these mind games also have another more brutal, very much more violent counterpart called Slayers. With a name like that, you pretty much know what to expect. Gamers who are rich enough can control a death-row inmate from prison in some sort of modern day death match. It's like back in Rome, the last man standing gets to go free. But in this case, it's only after an inmate manages to survive all 30 rounds, they would win their freedom.

We get introduced to Kable (Gerard Butler) who we learn has survived 27 rounds so far, so he only needs to not die for three more sessions and he walks a free man. Of course, on the way to winning his freedom back, Kable partakes in a lot of very graphic violence, with bodies being blown up and limbs flying every which way and blood splattering everywhere.

The mastermind behind all these? Billionaire Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall).

While doing an interview on the Gina Parker Smith (Kyra Sedgewick) show on the controversies of his Slayer and Society games, a virus hacks into the broadcasting system and plays a warning message from an elusive rebel group, Humanz. The leader of the Humanz groups is simply known as Humanz Brother (Ludacris).

Humanz Brother also contacts Simon (Logan Lerman), the 17 year old rich kid who controls Kable and informs him of the conspiracy behind Castle and helps him modify the controls he has over Kable. Once unable to communicate with Kable, Simon could talk to him now when he is in the battlefield. Which actually pissed Kable off a little. Plus, it was against the rules.

After the battle, as Kable rests in his solitary cell, he gets a visit from a mysterious woman who warns him that Castle is out to get him. A soldier with his own free will still intact is being sanctioned to hunt Kable down and terminate him. The reason for all this bloodshed? Kable knows something Castle is trying to hide. So to get rid of the threat, Castle is literally going to get rid of Kable. Yeah yeah, so predictable. So she tells him that he needs to escape, in which Kable replies that he wants her to help him get drunk.

In the supposed final round of the game, an intoxicated Kable realizes that he's no longer under the control of Simon. The Humanz got Simon to relinquish his control over Kable so that he can act on his own, and not be handicapped by the "ping", a delay in the transmission of signals from the player to the prisoner in the game. It would be the only way he can survive the round, what with the crazed killer trying to take him out.

So Kable finds his way to a restricted area and finds a shiny truck. Making do with the lack of fuel, Kable uses his own alcohol-laced puke and pee as fuel for the truck. Gross, but apparently effective. After a lot of blazing guns and flying limbs, Kable manages to break out of the game zone.

He runs into Trace (Alison Lohman), who brings him to Humanz headquarters, where the techie boy, Humanz Dude (Aaron Yoo) explains the whole hoo-hah on how they managed to override Castle's programming chip that was installed in Kable's head. Humanz Brother also gives Kable instructions on where to find his wife, Angie.

Kable finds Angie (Amber Valetta) in her controlled state. It's very gross, because the person who controls her is this big fat obese (yes I know they're the same) sweaty pervert who lives his life vivaciously through Angie. He makes her do disgusting stuff like hit on Rick Rape (Milo Ventimiglia in a very body hugging latex outfit). This is a classic example of a LOSER.

So anyway, Kable finds her about to do the nasty-nasty (doggy style some more) with Rick and proceeds to pound on him before killing a whole bunch of other people and escaping with Amber. He brings her back to the Humanz headquarters where Humanz Dude works his magic to bring her back to the land of thinking.

The Humanz then explores Kable's mind, and we find out why he was sentenced for first degree murder. Kable was once a soldier who was working on a future cellular control project. Along with his friend, Kable was one of the first ones to receive the cell transplant. However, in an experiment on free will, Castle made Kable kill his friend. Ta-da! That's how he ended up in prison.

So after all that, Kable and Angie decide that they want to get their daughter back. Unfortunately, their daughter is now with a "very reliable foster family", who turns out to be none other than Castle. So Kable infiltrates Castle's home in a bid to get his daughter back and complete his family once and for all.

At the mansion, Kable is greeted by a singing and dancing Castle, who gets several prisoners do partake in a jazzy song and dance number. Now we're talking about big burly men, hardened criminals doing the jazz fingers. Highly unlikely if it's voluntary. I guess Castle was demonstrating how much control he has over the minds of the prisoners. It also sets up for the next revelation.

Of course, after the inevitable villain pep talk, Castle orders his men to kill Kable. But being the champ of the super violent Slayer, Kable takes them all out in no time at all. Castle, being the cocky asshole he is, reveals to Kable that he too has the transplant, only that unlike Kable's, his transmits signals instead of receives them. Just to proof that he is the Alpha dog, Castle dares Kable to hurt him. However, Kable kind of just freezes there, inches away from Castle. Castle then proceeds to beat the hell out of Kable. It's pretty pathetic how he has to reduce Kable into an android before being able to beat on him.

Then, he brings Kable's daughter and Angie out and orders him to kill the girl. Unbeknown to Castle, the Humanz have infiltrated their firewall and the entire confrontation was being broadcast all over the world. Just as Kable was losing the battle of wills, Simon got back online and managed to regain some control over Kable's actions again. With Simon helping him, Kable managed to trick Castle into imagining being stabbed in the stomach. Of course, once Castle thought of it, the cells automatically transmitted the signal to Kable's mind, letting him plunge the knife into Castle.

Then, Kable gets Castle's techie guys to release them all from the cell's control. They relent, and the movie ends. BAM!

A very abrupt ending, plus the movie was only an hour and a half. A little on the short side, but just as well, because although the movie pumps in a lot of juice, what with the sci-fi and the action, it ends up as merely trying too hard. So much so that, the attempt comes off as pathetic. The whole "prisoners being forced to kill each other in a game" angle had already been played out in the Jason Statham movie Death Race, so it's nothing new there. And the humans controlling other humans part, I'm also pretty sure has been worked out in so many other movies as well. Therefore, a not very original movie.

Gamer gets a 1.5/5. Not worth watching in the cinemas, I think. The DVD would suffice.

Ring A Ling

2009-09-12T10:46:00.000+08:00

Almost one full month after my birthday, on the 27th of August, I got a call from NakedMoleNat asking if I wanted to go out for dinner. But because on that very day, I had spent five hours in a bus without anyone to talk to (I might add!) and also went through a very emo time the night before, I was feeling emotionally and physically tired. And also, I didn't think my mom would appreciate it if I didn't have dinner with them as a family that night, what with me being away from home for almost five days. Although, it did feel weird having dinner at home with my family, mainly because I haven't been doing that for such a long time. That's what working part time and going on vacation sans parents would do to you!

But I missed it, you know? My family might annoy the shit out of me at times, but most of the time they're really not bad. I don't know why, but all my friends seem to think that my mom is funny (albeit scary) and my dad is just downright hilarious. Humor runs in the family yo.

Anyway, yeah so Nat spent the better half of an hour to try to convince me to go out for dinner with them around Taman Tun, but I dug in my heels and in the end she gave up. Haha! I win, Nat!

Then I get a text from Nat saying that KM and her would be dropping by to pass me something and the only thing running through my mind is "Shit. Means I have to change. =( But pajamas comfy!!" Yesh, I am a lazy pig who lounges around all day in pajamas. And that usually just means I'm not wearing all my undergarments, if you know what I mean.

Hah! TMI?

So just when I'm done changing, my dad comes and tell me that my friends were waiting outside the house for me. I trooped downstairs and out of the house and see that Nat, acting as though her grandfather owns the whole damn road, left her car in the middle of the lane. Of course in situations like this, a car will always come by and she would have to get back into the car, drive on a little, U-turn, then park in a more decent place.

Anyway, Nat and KM (and Jenny also lah, kind of) came by all the way to my house just to drop my very belated eighteenth birthday present off. Aren't they such sweethearts?

They got me a cowbell! Yeah yeah yeah uh huh uh huh uh huhhhh. Adrian you cow, you were supposed to get me this!

Haha, my dumb nickname that KayKay gave me. It caught on to everyone. Now I just need groupies.

I haven't named it yet, but Nat says she will call it Tong Tong because that's the sound it makes when you hit it! Yup yup it looks like a cowbell, sounds like a cowbell, it is a cowbell! Apparently Nat and KM were so perplexed when they found out that a cowbell (the instrument) is literally a cowbell (a bell for a cow) without the thing-thing on the inside that jingles.

Save the best for the last. I like purple, hence it's the best. I'm very biased.

Yay yay a cowbell! I play it when I'm not practicing my songs, but when I'm just into the rhythm of whatever I'm playing. It sounds damn cute. Tong tong tonggg!!

Now all I want is an 8" splash cymbal. Waheeheehee.

Butterflies and Hurricanes

2009-09-11T11:59:00.000+08:00

About a week ago, while on the phone with KayKay, we made this weird spontaneous decision to be tourist-sy and visit the Butterfly Farm. At first I was like "Uh, the Butterfly Farm?" but then KayKay was all excited and kept going "We're going to the butterfly farm, the butterfly farm, the butterfly faaaarm!!" and you know it's always pretty hard to resist enthusiasm like that. Unless you're the Grinch, then yeah it's understandable.

So the next day, KayKay picked me up and off to the Butterfly Farm we went. I know technically, it's called the Butterfly Park, but I want to call it the Butterfly Farm because it sounds better that way. We had a map, and since it was still pretty early, there were hardly any cars on the road so we thought we would be at the Butterfly Farm in no time at all.

Buuuuttttt we got lost.

The map that we had (being touristsy mah) said that it was at Lake Gardens, which would be near the National Mosque. But when we got there, we were like "Where do we turn in??" and then we went round and round to look for a way to get into Lake Gardens. I kid you not, we probably spent 30 minutes going round in circles. At least 30 minutes! Such a waste of time. And the sun at 1pm isn't friendly.

So after cooking in Angie for the longest time ever, we finally got to the right place after many turns and "Are we there yetttt?" I was mostly the one whining, KayKay was just getting more and more pissed off with every round we took.

Did you know that the Butterfly Farm charges Rm16 per entry per adult (OMFG!!) but only Rm8 if you're a Malaysian? Now that's just unfair. Why can't it be equal rates for everyone? But I'm not complaining, cuz they only charged us Rm8 per person. And also, if you want to bring in a camera, you have to pay an additional Rm5 or something like that. Then for a compact camera, they charge you Rm1. I think. They should rent out cameras! Like, seriously. Make the people leave some sort of deposit, like their ICs or passports and then when the tourists leave, they can burn all the images into a DVD-R or something. I mean, take the opportunity to earn some extra cash!

My Renoir's got 8MP. I'm sneaky like that.

So we finally went in and there's like butterflies galore!

They put bananas and pineapples for the butterflies to suckle in case they can't find enough nectar from the flowers all around. Or maybe the butterflies are just lazy. I mean, why fly everywhere to get nectar when it's just laid out there for you?

This one landed on our backpack! =D

There was one little misguided butterfly that landed on my shoulder. I didn't know what it was, but I felt the little vibrations coming from it fluttering its wings, and I freaked out. Hahahaha. Pussyyyyy

See those butterflies? They're coming out of the cocoon. Their wings are still all crumpled and wet, and they sort of flap them feebly to dry them off a little. Kind of cute, actually. And there are some cocoons with silvery stuff on them. See the green one on the right hand side? KayKay called them the "bling-bling cocoons".

But you know, even though some of the butterflies in that box are like, baby butterflies, they aren't exactly cute.

Bad ass butterfly!! If KM was a butterfly, she would be totally in lust with this one. Haha.

Then we went around the entire park, looking for butterflies to chase.

Big butterflies!

We saw these butterflies near the water feature. They were just scrambling about on the floor, flapping their wings rapidly. I think they were trying to dry their wings off because the floor was wet. Or do butterflies actually drink water? Because sometimes they would hover in the air for a second or two before landing back down on the floor and scramble around some more.

Pfft. Butterflies. Can't figure em out.

This one is really pretty. Definitely one of my favourites. But its wings are torn. KayKay said that sometimes the butterflies fight so to win the right to mate with the female butterflies. I wonder if the female butterfly has a say in their mating choice. Like you know, if the male butterfly isn't pretty enough (even though they're so so so pretty!!) and refuses to mate with the female butterfly, the male butterfly would force himself on her and rape her? Ohh maybe that's why the wings are torn. It's a female butterfly who is also a rape victim!

Yeah, sometimes I don't understand myself either.

This one reminds me of some Japanese lady. Like a kimono clad geisha. Pretty hor pretty hor. Wow the longer I look at the picture, the more I love the patterns on the wings. So beautiful.

Sometimes I secretly think I was dropped on the head one too many times when I was a wee one. That would certainly explain why I am prone to talking about nonsensical things like this.

The less pretty butterflies don't deserve a 640x480 pixels picture. Hahaha

You can't really see it, but this one is actually gold in color. But look ugly the face is! Hahahahaha suckerrrrr

Yes, even butterflies cannot escape my wrath.

I shall call this one Marilyn Monroe.

This one was funny! We found it lying in a puddle of water, so I was like "Oh, we should save it!" cuz they can't fly when their wings are wet. So KayKay picked it up and it had so much fun crawling about and around her fingers that we had some problem trying to get it off her fingers and onto a dry surface. And when we finally did, the dumb thing did a suicide jump off the leaf and back into the pool of water. So we stared at it for a while, then shrugged and left it. I guess it just likes the water. It was super hot in the park; I myself was tempted to hop into the water feature to cool myself off.

And then I was going round and round the place looking for places that we haven't already been, and found this little tunnel where they keep some exotic animals.

Look, it hates you!

Hahaha. Notice how the turtle's shell is caved in a little? I have a theory that once, while stretching up to the surface of the water to get some oxygen, it kind of fell backwards and couldn't get up (because it's a turtle!! HAH). And since this turtle is of the soft-shelled variety, it fell and squished itself on some rocks and the shell dented in and it was waving its stumpy little legs in the air trying to get some leverage but it failed! So when the staff finally found the capsized turtle, the shell was already set and ta-da! The funny shaped shell.

Of course, that's all a figment of my imagination.

And we also saw this pretty little butterfly being attacked to death by a swarm of bigass red ants. The poor thing was trying so hard to get away from their deathly grips, but more and more ants just kept crawling over to it and climbing on it and biting it and the butterfly just kept shuddering. KayKay says it's because of all the poison from the ants. Have you ever been bitten by an ant? It hurts! And we're like 2348740237 times the mass of the pathetic ant. Imagine you're the size of the butterfly, and getting bitten over and over and over again! What a slow, painful death!

I just stood there and whined at KayKay, asking her if we could save the butterfly. I sounded so much like a four year old, haha. I used to call butterflies "flutterbies". Damn cute right. Hahaha. Yeah, I used to verrryyyy precious when I was a kid. I have no idea what happened over the last couple of years, but whatever it was, it stripped me of my adorableness.

Anyway. Yeah. I wanted to save the butterfly, but then KayKay said that even if we do manage to drive all the ants away, the butterfly is already going into shock and will die eventually so all we would be doing is prolong it's death and make it suffer all the while before dying. I was so so incredibly sad. I wanted to stomp on the ants (taking out my anger, haha) but I was wearing flip flops and wasn't too fond of the idea of the ants crawling up my leg and biting me so I just left.

Fucking ants. I hate ants. I used to drop an eraser on them to stun them a little before scooping them up on my blade and lighting the lighter underneath it. Then after a while, the ant goes POP! Hahaha. Sooo fun.

I used to be such a cruel child. But ants are evil, so it's justified.

ANYWAY! It was starting to get really really hot, so we decided to high tail outta there and try to get to Midvalley Megamall before rush hour. And just as we're about to exit, I saw the butterfly that I had been trying to snap a picture of when we first went in, which was like two hours before.

I guess it got tired, ha-ha.

After we exit the butterfly farm, we come into this (Oh thank God) air conditioned room where they have displays of lots of live bugs and also those petrified ones. What do you call em? The dead ones with pins sticking into them, placed on display for everyone to see.

Look, beetles doing it doggy-style! Hahaha. No, they're feeding. I guess they like nectar too? Because there's a slice of pineapple in the box. But I have no idea why one of them is on top of the other.

This thing is called the Smiling Man bug, or something like that. Look at its back, it has a face on it! Really looks like a smiling man. =]

Look how blue they are! So gorgeous. What do you call these type of displays? I really want to know.

So after exiting from the Butterfly Farm, we trooped off to the Orchid Farm.

Okay, so these are morning glories, not orchids. But a flower is still a flower, and a flower by any other name would still smell the same.

PHWOAR check out my rhyming prowess.

I love the pretty white ones. They look so pure and undiluted from the world's evils.

This reminds me of the poem, A Road Less Taken or something like that which we were all forced to endure back in high school. But you know, not really because it's all paved and beautiful.

Hands down, the biggest Bunga Raya I've ever seen in my life. What's Bunga Raya called in English?

When I grow up, this is how my garden will look like.

Anywayyyyy by the time we were done with our tourist things, it was already pretty late and we had to leave so that we could beat the rush hour traffic to go watch Up! I seriously love that movie la, it's definitely one of the best movies I've seen this year.

So, what I learned on that day was, even though I might hate the great outdoors (yeah, sometimes I do), when you get to see someone you love smile so wide that it lights up their entire face, it makes you feel that all that you do is worth it. It doesn't matter how much I may dislike doing something, as long as it would make someone happy, I would do it.

It's not very healthy, I know. But that's just who I am.

Take A Drink

2009-09-05T01:02:00.004+08:00

Yesterday, KayKay and I were cracking our heads over where to go on Friday, which was yesterday. I mean, it's the rainy season now so it's not like we can go to the zoo or anything (OH THANK GOD!). So we were left scratching our heads about where we could go to do more tourist stuff.

I actually went on Google and keyed in "Things to do in KL". Haha! And then they popped up all sorts of stupid things like the National Mosque and all that. Are we non-Muslims even allowed in? And then it listed the Petrosains as one of the "tourists attractions" and I was like "Oooooooh."

The last time I went to Petrosains, I was about 10 or something and everything just seemed so fascinating to me. But then when we went there yesterday, everything looked so run down and not well maintained so it was like, would you really want to pay Rm12 per person to go see such an old, out of date exhibition? And I wasn't really in the mood for pretending that I'm having fun, so we gave Petrosains a pass and contented ourselves with sitting on a bench.

I know right, go all the way to KLCC to sit on a bench. So WTF. But I was in a really lousy mood during the morning, and couldn't muster up any excitement for any activities other than sitting around and moping.

OH!! On a very random note, I popped into Kinokuniya to see if they had The Time Traveler's Wife.

I've been searching for this book at all major book stores all over KL. At Midvalley and Gardens, at Bangsar Shopping Center, at Bangsar Village, at the Curve and Ikano and at 1Utama. It's sold out every-freaking-where! It's even got to the point where I can't be bothered to look for the book on the shelf and just ask any staff working at the store, and they don't even need to look it up and they can very confidently tell me that it's out of stock.

Kinokuniya was my last hope. I went up to the counter and the nice lady working there very happily told me that yes, they do have the stock! I was so happy, I started bouncing. Seriously. But I have been looking for this book for quite some time, and traveled all over to look for it too, I might add. Waste of petrol and time.

Also, they have a 20% discount on the book if you buy another item. So I bought a pen. Haha! Should have bought an eraser or something. Save a bit more money.

But anyway, after all that excitement (yeah, my life is so boring that buying a book is exciting to me), I got hungry. Hahaha. Gosh I sound like such a pig. And everyone who knows me knows that my current favourite place to eat at is Chilis. I'm so addicted to their mashed potatoes. It's all thanks to KM for introducing that to me on one deary afternoon when we ate at the Chilis at BSC.

Once, I made an offhand comment about trying out their margaritas and KayKay actually remembered! So we ordered their Presidente Margarita because one, the server recommended it, and two, you get to shake and mix the drink yourself too! The second reason only applies to me though. KayKay probably picked it because of the liqueur in the drink.

We're both addicted to grape soda. We have it whenever we can. No knocking on grape soda! It has been known to have mysterious healing powers. When we were in Penang, KayKay got a little sick so after resting for a while, we got some grape soda. Usually, the gas in the soda would make one feel even more sick, but in KayKay's case, it made her feel much better. So yeah, the grape soda works in mysterious ways.

Lunch for two includes nachos, mashed potatoes, grape soda and margarita. Yummyyyy

Look Adrian! Food!! Hahahaha

After lunch, we went off to the Patronas Gallery. I know they said we weren't allowed to bring cameras in, but I don't think a camera phone counts, right? Haha. I saw this one picture that was so so so striking, I can't help but snap a picture of it.

I love it so much! Wish I could be so talented. I've only got the gift of the gab. Gah!

Beth

2009-08-31T11:02:00.001+08:00

Watched I Love You, Beth Cooper with Alison and Pong the other day when I was in Penang. I know right, go all the way to Penang to watch a movie. But Alison wanted to hang out, and it has been ages since I've seen my cousins, so yeah, sacrifice one day of sightseeing to so watch a movie.

When I was in KL and catching movies whenever I had the free time, I saw the trailer for this movie a couple of times and was pretty intrigued. The trailer was funny, albeit a little predictable. But I did want to watch it, it just wasn't at the top of my list. I picked Up! over this movie. Haha.

Because I've already watched most of the recent movies (the result of being on holiday), I Love You Beth Cooper seemed to be the most obvious choice of movie for all of us. Except for one thing: The people at GSC Gurney really mean it when they say that a movie is not for those under 18. Apparently they would refuse entry to those who are underage if they're trying to get into a movie with an 18PL rating. And apparently, Alison has tried sneaking in before, and failing.

The people here at GSC really couldn't care less even if a seven year old were to watch an 18PL movie. Actually, they don't even look at our tickets. All they do is reach their hands out for our tickets, tear off half of the ticket, return the stubs to us and with an "Enjoy your movie!" they wave us off.

Yeah, KL is definitely better than Penang, in terms of entertainment.

So when we decided to watch this movie, Alison was all worried that they won't let her in to watch it. But then one of us hatched this brilliant plan of hiding Alison among us (because she's tiny!) and just walk in all together. That's how desperate we were to watch a movie. It's so boring at Gurney Plaza. Seriously.

And we managed to get in! They didn't even bother to look at our tickets la. I think they only check properly if all the people going in look seriously underage. Like Alison. Poor thing! The cinema was so empty. I know why. Cuz the movie wasn't that excellent after all.

It starts off with Denis Cooverman announcing his love to head cheerleader Beth Cooper in his valedictorian speech. Along the way, he inadvertently ran his mouth on his classmates. The jock being such a bully because he was loved a little too much (geddit?) when he was a kid, or the stuck up rich girl, or his best friend, Rich, who should really come out of the closet, or older army men who should grow up and get a proper grown up girlfriend instead of hanging out at their old high school, and dating the head cheerleader.

Naturally, it causes chaos. But Beth thought it was cute, although Kevin (aforementioned creepy army dude) is livid and wants to squash Denis. However, Denis makes up a story of having a raging graduation party at his house later in the evening and invites Beth.

Then Denis' parents leave him alone at home so that he can enjoy his graduation party. But before leaving, Cooverman Sr gives this embarrassing speech about how the boys should get laid and that he has condoms on his side table. Makes me glad my parent are no where near being that liberal.

But as time ticks by and no one shows out, we confirm what we already know. Denis and Rich are social pariahs. But thennnn a little blue car comes crazily up Denis' street, and Beth flanked by Cammy and Treece arrive at Denis' dead party.

The boys try to impress the girls by bringing out the champagne that Mr Cooverman left for them and Rich goes even further by claiming that the champagne that they have is Kristal champagne.

Just as things start to become less lame and Rich brings out the condoms, Beth's insane psycho army boyfriend Kevin shows up in a Hummer (Hummer!) and wrecks his entire house in his quest to squash Denis. I liked how all three of the army men moved in complete synchronicity, like they're some sort of android or something. Funny!

Then Beth and her friends aka The Trinity help Denis and Rich escape from the army robots, they decided to go to the woods and drink a little. However, being high school graduates, they're underage and therefore, not allowed to buy alcohol. I, on the other hand, am legal and can buy drinks! I know it's not related, but I'm legal I'm legal I'm legal! Yeah, I haven't gotten off that horse yet.

So then Beth offers to give the dude working at the counter a lil something-something in exchange for selling them the beer. And Denis' perception of Beth is completely shattered because to him, Beth is like some sort of perfect cheerleader but now he gets to see the ugly side of her and he's clearly trying to sort out what he feels.

They head to Old Tabacco Road where Denis and Beth talk about why he fell for her. Reason: she's pretty and he got fantasized so much about her that he made her up to be some sort of perfect girl in his head.

And Cammy, Treece and Rich went off to tip cows. I don't understand this cow tipping thing. I mean, I don't see the draw. See, it's supposedly very easy to tip cows over because they sleep upright and are stupid. But! Lots of really smart people have looked into this myth, and busted it. It's only possible to tip over a cow if the cow just stands there and allows you to tip it over. I mean, think about it: If someone comes up to you and started pushing against you, would you just stand there and take it? Hell no! You would try to regain your footing, push back or even just outright attack them. So you think the cows would just stand there? Most probably they'll headbutt you. And they have big heads. That's gotta hurt.

Or if you're unlucky like Rich, Cammy and Treese, you step in cow pies. So after being forced to leave his new Gene Kelly-esque shoes behind (I mean, who would want to ferry around a guy who smells literally like shit??) the five of them leave to go to the stuck-up rich girl, Valli Wooly's party. They meet Kevin there again and he proceeds to beat Denis up in the most humiliating way ever: In accordance to the music's beats.

Then Beth comes to the rescue, crashing Kevin's Hummer into the side of Valli's house.

After that, they break into the school. The Trinity perform a cheer routine for Denis, and Rich joins in. It's not really wise to cheer when you're trying to convince everyone that you're straight. Someone should really tell that to Rich. They then head to the shower, where Denis again encounters Kevin. However, this time Rich comes to the rescue and they have this weird wet towel fight. The flashback scene is funny, Rich gets bullied by a bunch of kids whacking him with wet towels, so from then on, he practices fighting with wet towels. Aim, accuracy, force executed, pain levels and all that, I guess.

They then go to Beth's father's cabin where Treece and Cammy try to prove that Rich is gay, and Rich refuses to admit that he's gay, which results in a threesome. Beth and Denis, however, just sit outside and watch the sun rise. This is where the movie rapidly goes downhill because Malaysia's censorship board cut out a lot of things, and I'm pretty sure there's an alternative ending, and we got the lame end of the movie.

It's very disappointing. When I first saw the trailer, I actually thought that this could be a fun movie. Turns out, the movie was too ambitious and tried to put on too many things, which just leads to a whole mess of a movie.

I guess I'll give it a 2/5. Don't bother watching it in the cinemas. Save your money for something like Gamer, which I'm pretty sure will not have a lot of story, but a lot of action. Yay!

So Long Sweet Summer

2009-08-30T09:31:00.002+08:00

I find it quite ironic, actually, that our Independence Day which falls on the 31st of August, marks the last day of my summer holidays.

But I had a lot of fun during the holidays. I got to go to Penang! And the butterfly farm, as well as watch loads of movies and celebrate my birthday. Even working was fun, because most of the little kids are super adorable and I just want to kidnap them and bring them home but I can't say that out loud while I'm working cuz I'm pretty sure I'd be given the boot and possibly be arrested as a potential child kidnapper.

And I got my results back a couple of days ago. I got an A-!!! And a C but who cares about that right? I realize one thing about me: My results are always either brilliant, or just plain sucky, resulting in a really average CGPA. As it is now, my CGPA does not even hit a 3. I'm very depressed about that. I need it to hit at least a 3 so that I can get into good schools. Yup, I want to leave this place once and for all!

But anyway I went to celebrate my A- at Sushi King because I'm so flippin' proud of myself. I know I said I would be going on a Japanese food sabbatical, but that's not working out. I love sushi too much. It's my first A since SPM. That's how sucky I am at my academia. Well, I got a Distinction during my Foundation course, but that doesn't count because it's not an A, it's (literally) a D. I think I'm a little hyper right now.

This is a real time post, cuz I'm just talking about whatever crosses my mind. Hah.

I want to go to the book fair at KLCC! See, there's this book I want.

The Time Traveler's Wife

Basically, it's talking about how this little girl, Clare meets a man, Henry in the middle of the meadow and they become friends. But then Henry tells her that he has to go, and if she goes back there in a couple of years on a certain date, he will be waiting for her there. So when, as a grown woman finally meeting him back there, they get close and eventually get married. The thing is, he time travels involuntarily, so he doesn't know when he will appear and when he will disappear. So it's hard on Clare, and this book basically talks about how she copes with all that.

Sounds interesting, but it's sold out everywhere. MPH at the Curve and 1Utama, Popular and Borders at the Curve have sold off ALL their books. How insane is that! I want it I want it I want it I want it! I also can't wait for the movie to hit our screens. October first.

I have this sneaky feeling that it'll be my midterms then.

Real World

2009-08-27T00:17:00.006+08:00

I'm heading back to KL in a couple more hours' time, and I couldn't be any sadder. It's not that Penang itself is so awesome, it really isn't (except for the really cheap food) but it's just the past four days that I've spent here are some of the best days I've had this year.

It's not the sight-seeing that I've enjoyed, but being able to spend so much time with someone I love, that's the best part. Getting burned under the hot sun, sweating bucket loads while waiting for the bus, walking from one point to the other, going to landmarks and taking goofy pictures, eating Panda biscuits and hearing our laughter bounce off everything... Those are the memories I wish I could pull out of my mind and revisit them again.

The best part was making a split decision to visit the beach. Walking along the invisible line where the ocean melts into the sand, our feet being tickled by the warm foamy water and sand giving way under the pressure, yelping as the waves crashed around our legs and getting the bottom of our shorts wet and finally just sitting on the log conveniently placed half-buried in the sand and watching the sun set and paint the sky pink, purple, orange and red, that was when I realized that that would be what I miss most when I leave. The serenity, the assurance of something familiar, the feeling of contentment, the good fortune of loving and being loved, the fleeting chance to escape velocity, to leave the real world behind.

Aquí es donde me enamoré de nuevo con ustedes.

Here is where I've found the most happiness in a while. I got rid of reality for a while, where I could be whoever I want under the cloak of anonymity. Here, I realized how liberating it is to just forget about reality for a while, and live in the moment. Here, I got in touch with my feelings again, remembering how potent they can be, instead of stealing scattered moments.

Isn't that what life is about? I've been so busy chasing the future, planning what to do in the next minute, the next hour, the next day that I've forgot that what counts most is being in the present and feeling. Just feeling.

And now, I don't want to go back to the real world.

And I'd give up forever to touch you
'Cause I know that you feel me somehow.
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be
And I don't want to go home right now.

Thrills In The Night

2009-08-23T00:09:00.004+08:00

August 15th, 2009 at Sunway Lagoon Surf Beach.

I got a ticket for my birthday! Courtesy of EeMay, of course. Before she got it, we were thinking of all sorts of ways to try to get the tickets, even entering MTV's contest although it clearly states that we have to be 21 and above.

We were kiasu, so we got there super early on Saturday so that we could get in immediately when the gates open. We were so early, that this was how the Surf Beach looked like.

Mosh Pit

And Red Zone.

They're so completely empty! You know why? Because all the suckers that queued up super long and some even plainly jumped queue, got distracted at the X-Pax booth while EeMay, Karmun, Benny (Km's lil bro) and I just blew them off. Bah! Who needs an iPod anyway!

MTV China VJ Andy and MTV Asia VJ Taya.

All five MCs for the night: Andy, Denise, Utt, Taya and Sean (from Korea).

I found this really funny because while everyone is busy having fun, this poor dudes have to work. I mean, yeah they've seen so many bands perform that they're probably already jaded, but it still sucks having to work while everyone's having fun. And also, it's so manual! The poor guy has to push the cameraman back and forth for the whole night. He'd better be paid good. Why can't they just make it mechanical? It'll be so much easier for everyone.

First band, Estranged.

They sang The Slave in Us, Ketika Ini, Yang Pernah and In No Time.

Homeboys did Malaysia proud! Oh, and apparently the guy in the Yakuza mask is not part of the regular line up and got everyone wondering who he is. Why so shy, young un? Haha!

Second band up, Boys Like Girls.

Martin Johnson. Go gaga, girls. And boys too, if you swing that way.

Boys Like Girls performing Love Drunk.

Hero/Heroine

It starts to rain again, but Martin goes "Looks like the raindrops are falling. Looks like we're gonna have a little Thunder." And the crowd goes wild, singing along to Thunder while the raindrops fall lightly onto their faces. Funny thing, the rain stopped after the song ended.

They take a mini-break, taking the opportunity to throw picks, drumsticks and whatnot into the ~~crowd~~ mosh pit before launching into their last song.

The Great Escape.

Boys Like Girls ended with a promise to be back in October. I can bet that Dila's gonna be there!

Next band up was Raygun.

Did you know the lead singer's name is Ray Gun? That's pretty cool as names go.

Just Because.

Waiting In Line.

Anyone realize that British boys can't dance? Look at Coldplay's Chris Martin. He prances around on stage when he performs, and so does Ray Gun. They all do this weird, retarded chicken dance. Like they've been shot in the leg and are trying to avoid getting shot again. It's so weird!

But they do know how to put on a light show, that's for sure. One of the prettiest light effects from the entire concert.

Pixie Lott came up next.

She's wearing one of the most fluffiest, ruffle-iest dress I've ever seen. It's pretty impressive how she's only eighteen and already she's doing all that. I mean, we're eighteen. What are we doing? Sitting home all day watching The OC? Oh well. It's not like our parents will really support us even if we had the determination and the talent to make it big. Or at least, mine won't.

She sang Boys and Girls, The Fall and Mama Do. She's so sweet, she kept going on and on about how much she loves Malaysia and you can really tell that she's putting a lot of effort into putting on a good show; the poor girl was sweating bucket loads! So much that when the camera goes into close-up mode, her face looks as though it's covered in glitter.

Aaaaaand then it's Hoobastank!

Loudest cheers of the night, after Boys Like Girls. I have no idea why they dropped off the radar after The Reason a couple of years ago. I'm not saying I'm a huge fan of theirs, but their music is good!

Doug Robb standing amidst the lights like a rockstar.

Hoobastank put on a good first song, My Turn from their newest album. Then the mics died. Haha. Malaysia mah. Always with the first world mentality and the third world maintenance. Although recently it seems like everything is regressing back to the third world status.

The crowd was insane! Hoobastank got into Crawling In The Dark and the decibel levels from the speakers are so so high, I bet the crowd in the mosh pit are going deaf. Even I was going a little deaf, all the way back in the Red Zone. But then again, I've got a psychotic screaming fan next to me (not you, Km, you know who I'm talking about. *snigger*).

And then, Doug paused and told us to guess the next song, with one loooong haunting note. At first I was like "What? Ghostbusters? Haha. Cannot be riiiight." But yup, Hoobastank covered the theme song of Ghostbusters, rock style! And ended it by smirking and saying that we're all "ridiculous". I'm sure he meant that in the best ways possible!

He's soooo good looking. Oh and because MTV was doing some Tweeting thing, some dude sent in a tweet asking if "the lead singer is chinese?" Hello, he's Japanese-American, and why does it matter?

The crowd starts chanting "The Reason The Reason The Reason" and some chick behind us screamed "The reason I'm here is because of The Reason!" Is that funny? No, not really. Shame on you if you think it is.

Excellent performance. The Reason could be the best song performed that night, up to that point, at least. I'm biased, I still think AAR were the best performers that night.

Y'know, I think MTV and Sunway Lagoon were being unnecessarily cruel to us. It was so hot and we were all dehydrated. And they go and put in like, 20 minute intermissions. It could have been 20 minutes, 40 minutes, they all felt the same!

And finally, The All American Rejects came on stage to the loudest cheers of the night. I'm pretty sure 67% of the crowd came mostly for AAR. I know I did! BLG and Hoobastank were just bonuses.

Tyson Ritter pranced lithely around the stage, wearing an oversized neon yellow shirt, covered in body glitter and badass guyliner.

Tyson Glitter! Yup yup, that's what we shall call him from now on.

The All-American Rejects were such awesome performers. You can tell that they're really enjoying themselves on stage, instead of just performing because they have to. They start off with Dirty Little Secrets, which the crowd lapped up. Next came I Wanna and I think all the girls meant it when they sang "I wanna I wanna I wanna touch you!" to Tyson Glitter. I meant it too,but for someone else. Haha. Swing Swing comes up and the crowd swings along. Then AAR played The Wind Blows, which is actually an incredibly sad song. It's quite amazing how they can switch from something so cheery to something so emotionally driven and the crowd just laps it up and begs for more. All in all, they performed a seven-song set, which was the most for the night. They threw in Real World, which was a surprise for me actually, then It Ends Tonight (I actually don't really like this song because Tyson Glitter's vocals are a little whiny on it) and Gives You Hell.

Ohh dude, listening to a 20,000 strong crowd chanting along to Gives You Hell's bridge is insanely mindblowing! The crowd was so loud that they almost managed to drown out Tyson Glitter. Maybe they did, I don't know because I was already partially deaf by then, thanks to the aforementioned psychotic fangirl next to me.

Tyson Glitter scaling the support poles at the very end of their set. Look how agile he is. The lights are incredibly bright, but I still like this picture. Makes him look saintly. Haha. The man is a six footer. I'm gonna look so short standing next to him, if I ever do stand next to him, that is.

I don't know why they put Kasabian as the headlining act, it's so obvious it's AAR who are the real draw for the night. Kasabian sang Club Foot, Fire and some other stuff that I don't know cuz I just couldn't be bothered anymore. I was that tired. Plus, my phone died and I think my energy levels are actually in proportion to my phone's battery life, so I died as well. Had to drag my feet to get to my parents at the end of the night.

Oh, I think it's awesome how my parents were willing to drive all the way to Sunway to pick my bro and I up at midnight. I know I complain a lot about them, but they're not too bad, really. And also, whole lotta love for KayKay for sending me to Sunway in the morning! I don't deserve such good people in my life, I really don't. I'm gonna try to be a better person now. No more hogging the TV to watch Powerpuff Girls when Mummy wants to watch her boring AEC shows. No more asking Daddy to go away when he tries to wake me up at 9am, 9.30am, 9.45am, 10am and 10.30am. No more poking KayKay in places that tickle.

Nope, nope, gonna be good now. For about a week lah.

The Distance

2009-08-22T22:12:00.003+08:00

I'm heading off to Penang tomorrow! Till Thursday. Who wants what? NakedMoleNat wants sand. I can do that! Sand for everyone! Yes, I'm really excited about going to Penang. Cuz I'm not going with my parents! And for the first time in recent memory, I'm gonna go do the tourist thing, walking around with a huge bag filled with water and a camera slung around my neck for taking 349 pictures a day, visiting temples, eating awesome food and getting a really good tan in the meantime.

I realize I tan really easily. The other day, KayKay and I went to the butterfly farm and I tanned after staying about two hours under the sun. Well, actually my arms got tanned, my face got burned. Haha

But yeah, PENANG!! Too bad Karmun's back in KL now, or she could be my tour guide. But so far, I've got Batu Ferringhi, Fort Cornwallis, Kek Lok Si, the Snake Temple, Penang Hill, the Penang War Museum (should I? I'm not a fan of war) and the Toy Museum. I think that should be enough right? Cuz I'm only gonna be there for three and a half days (coming back on Thursday morning, boo-hoo) and half of Wednesday's booked off for Alison's siexteenth birthday, so seven places isn't bad right?

Oh and the Coach sneaker that I want? It costs Rm475! Whatthefuck. The dude told me the price and I was like "...Oh. Er, okay. =( !"

I want it so bad! It's so pretty.

I'm currently going on a Bon Jovi binge. Just got the entire discography, so it'll be Bon Jovi for the rest of the month! Maybe I'll get back to FOB after this....

Pitter Patter Goes My Heart

2009-08-20T22:34:00.002+08:00

This is my latest fixation.

I want it sooo bad. Saw it in Coach, Gardens when I went in to check out some bags for my mom and BAM! There it was, sitting prettily on the shelf, looking up at me with big big pleading eyes that begged for me to bring them home and love them till they fall into tatters. Okay, not really. But I really want them so much!

They're only USD88. Does anyone know how much they cost here? I didn't dare to ask the salesperson in Coach in case I go all psycho after learning that they would set me back more than Rm500. But it seems okay if I get them from America. Direct conversion, it's Rm310.42, which isn't all that far off from a good pair of Nikes. Anyone going to the States? Get one pair for me!

Seriously.

Returning The Smile You Have Had From The Start

2009-08-16T12:09:00.002+08:00

Yesterday was MTV World Stage Live in Malaysia.

The American bands kicked ass. The British bands sucked ass. I'm saying this as a completely biased third party observer, because I don't even know Raygun's and Kasabian's music. Pixie Lott, on the other hand, was pretty good.

But lets face it, the loudest cheers was reserved for the very deserving All American Rejects, Boys Like Girls and Hoobastank.

Honestly, I went just for those three. And I'll blog properly about it soon.

Decent Days and Nights

2009-08-13T11:59:00.004+08:00

I actually don't remember when was the last time I went out with a really good friend and just had plain silly fun. Most of the time I'd be going out with a bunch of them and the fun feels diluted somehow.

So anyway, it started off with me getting two movie premiere tickets to District 9. Since my first choice was working that night, and my second choice is in Singapore to catch Lady GaGa (bitch, I hate you YiMing) and I was too damn lazy to think of any more people to invite along, I did the lazy thing and posted a very public invitation on Facebook. So that's how I ended up going out with Siok on a Wednesday night.

The movie only starts at 9.30pm, but we heard that The All American Rejects would be paying Laundry Bar a visit, part of DiGi's promotional tactics for their new music thingy-thing. See, I already forgot what it's called. But it has something to do with unlimited song downloads for only Rm5 per month. A bit unbelievable riiiight. I wonder what the catch is. But they also offer chances to catch bands like Black Eyed Peas in concert. And all you have to do sign up for it (I think).

So we all went to Laundry in hopes of seeing AAR live. Well, Siok and I weren't exactly invited, but we really wanted to see AAR, so we put on our poker faces and registered anyhow. And we also got a DiGi goodie pack for that! See, if you got muka tebal, you get things. If you've got no balls, you don't get things. So we followed KhaiSim and ShaunLiew (I know him from working at that godforsaken place, Italiannies) into Laundry. They actually got invited. Bleh.

Siok and I decided that we should plant our asses inside of Laundry, so that the chances of us getting found out that we snuck in would be lower. I mean, I couldn't really be bothered, but Siok was like "I don't want to be caught, okay!" Paranoid android.

Anyway, we met up with LouisYap and Dila inside and we actually got a pretty good seat. Sure, we couldn't really see the stage when all the tall people with their DSLRs and flash guns stand right in front to snap pictures of the DiGi dude introducing their new service, but it's alright! Because we were only there for AAR.

I mean, truth to be told, I don't think any one of us were really listening to him. See, they had free food for us. And it's not cheapo food like the fried bee hoon or whatever that we usually get at events. Oh no, it's DiGi y'know. They've got enough money to have enough food from Italiannies to feed almost 75 people. And they've also got my favourite: Stuffed Mushrooms!

I fucking love stuffed mushrooms. They're like, my favourite food from Italiannies. I love it so much that once, my bro and I went to Italiannies for dinner, and all we had was one picollo carbonara (or in other words, carbonara for one) and one abonanzza stuffed mushrooms (or in other words, stuffed mushrooms for four to six people). Hah! And that was enough to fill our tummies. Mmm I love stuffed mushrooms.

Apparently Siok had never had them, and when she ate them she was like "Hey, this isn't bad! It's actually pretty good!" And we loved it so much that we made ShaunLiew get more food for us. And while we were munching on our dinner, Caprice (he's a local artist) put on a show. It's like his version of Akon's song. That Na Na Na song. I forgot what it's called. Haha. But he was really good. For those of you who didn't know, this is how he looks like:

Not too bad, I think. Although he does have a pretty weird habit of sticking out his tongue.. But he did put on a good show. YOU GO GLENN COCO! It's an inside joke. If your name is not TeoYiMing then you won't understand.

So then we impatiently waited for the AAR to arrive, but when it got close to 8pm, KhaiSim and I left to get our District 9 tickets and left Siok with ShaunLiew. Their job is to call us when AAR arrives.

BUT SADLY!!! They didn't come.

I am very disappointed. So was Siok. So with heavy hearts, we went to Cineleisure. I know they've changed the name to something stupid like e@Curve or something like that, but I'm gonna stick to Cineleisure. Why change it anyway? It was perfectly fine. Pfft.

And at Cineleisure, we bumped into Victoria and her mom! So cute la Vic, bringing her mom to watch a movie. I don't know, the idea is just feels so strangely alien to me. I'm just not that close to my mom. I don't even remember the last time I watched a movie with my mom! Probably never. I do know when was the last time I watched a movie with my dad though. I think it was Alien vs Predator, whenever that came out.

So after getting our free tickets, KhaiSim and Vic had this idea of playing pool. ShaunLiew, Siok and I made our way to the pool place, only to realize that KhaiSim and Vic were missing. Turns out, we left them way back at the cinema, where they "got distracted" by the dodgeball game on the ground floor. What a bunch of ADD kiddos they are.

Does anyone realize that Cineleisure is really hot? I hate it.

Oh, and I got a really interesting call from the aforementioned godforsaken place. Apparently, they're so short of staff that they want the people who formerly worked there to go back to work for them. And I told them no way in hell I would go back to work at that incredibly tasking job and running hot plates of food back and forth for only Rm5 an hour. And then she was like "Oh, noooo we're not paying you five dollars an hour. It's seven lah! Or if you're really good, we might even pay you eight dollars." And at this point I went "Ohh really?" I'm ashamed to say I was quite tempted. Because it does pay more than my current job. Plus, they said if I really wanted to, I could just work weekends, from 6pm till 11pm.

But then my common sense kicked in. Do I really want to work at such a stressful job for a Rm2 increase in pay? And plus, if I do work there, I'll probably be annoyed till death by him. I really cannot stand the guy. Is a Rm2 increase really worth my sanity? So not! And my mom also doesn't think that I should go back to them because I think I really complained a lot back when I worked there, so she could get the gist of the job. She knows it's tough and she probably thinks that they underpay and overwork us. Which I kind of have to agree. Plus, I really liked working there last time because of the people there, and now that they're all gone, I kind of don't really care much for Italiannies anymore. And plus their food is getting worse and worse, so what's the point, really?

I kind of think my mom really hates me working there. She was all "Don't need lah. It's only two dollars right? Tell them if they want you to work they have to pay you eight dollars an hour. At least." So I said something along the lines of how I would only work there if they wanted me for Independence Day, with double of that Rm8 pay and my mom's eyes literally gleamed and she was all "YA you tell them that! Think they can work you all so hard and just give you five dollars meh. They think you guys are what, their slaves ah?!" Well technically, Ma, slaves don't get paid.

My mom has something against that place. Haha. So funny.

Wow, I really got distracted there.

Um yeah, so Siok and I left early to get popcorn and drinks for the movie, only to realize that the movie starts at 9.30pm, instead of 9pm. I totally misread the time. So Siok and I grabbed our popcorn and watched the dodgeball players on the ground floor. And then I think one of us dropped a popcorn and it went over the railing and drifted down down down like snow! I think we were both kind of on a little endorphin trip and found everything funny. And we started tossing small bits of popcorn over. Even Vic found it hysterical. Especially when it landed on the judges' table and they didn't even notice.

I'm laughing again just thinking about it.

And then off we went to watch District 9. Vic's mom gave us face masks in case of H1N1. I can't stop stressing how cute it is that Vic brought her mom to watch a movie with her! And Aunty gave us masks too. Vic's mom is cool. She sat through District 9.

Now, what can I say about District 9....

I really, really, really can't believe I watched this movie. Seriously. It's so effing gory. They blow up humans and aliens like it's nothing, really. Then bits and pieces splat onto the screen and you get to see drippy blood. Fucking gross.

Siok and I were cringing pretty much throughout the entire movie. It's such a sadistic movie. But sometimes it can be funny, especially the "doggy style with the demon" comment.

Oh and they call the aliens "prawns". It's a derogatory term, like "nigga" or "chink". But honestly, the aliens look more like cockroaches.

So, bottom line is this: I HATE THIS MOVIE AND AM NEVER GONNA WATCH IT AGAIN. I really wouldn't recommend anyone to watch it, unless you like seeing blood and gory and pain and death.

Also, one thing I don't understand is why all the aliens are like brownish, but Christopher and eventually Wikus (oops, spoiled it there!) are green. What's up with that?

Verdict: 1.5/5
Props for humor, and the thinly veiled political undercurrent of the movie. And also, for the realism of fiction. Oh, and also, much thanks to Nuffnang who gave me tickets. Awesome.

But I really had fun hanging out with Siok. The girl is insane, but in a good way.

PS: Fucking a lot of spelling error in this post. What is happening to my English?!

Turning Japanese

2009-08-12T00:18:00.003+08:00

I went to watch GI JOE again today. That's how much I love that frickin' movie! I only just watched it last Thursday, and then five days later, I'm watching it again. Weird thing is, there are more people today than on the first day's screening. What's up with that?!

Before the movie, we went for Japanese again. I swear, KayKay and I have been having so much Japanese that I think I'm gonna go on a Japanese sabbatical soon. But to my defense, I've been trying out places that I've never been to before. First we went to Yo! Sushi at Midvalley Megamall, then to Sushi Zanmai and then today to Sakae Sushi. Yes, I've never been to Sushi Zanmai or Sakae Sushi prior to this week. Sue me! I still prefer Sushi King to Sushi Zanmai or Sakae Sushi. I just feel like they have a really limited menu, and it just ain't that good! But Yo! Sushi was pretty good. I wouldn't mind going back there again, only the prices are a little exorbitant. Will only go there if I'm craving for really good unagi.

Anyway, after the movie, we hung around the mall without really a plan for anything. I was supposed to go in for work, but I wasn't sure cuz they didn't say that I was supposed to, so I just blew them off. I feel so bad! I'm so not up for the employee of the year award anymore.

So then while having my second lunch (HEY I only had like, four pieces of sushi for lunch okay!), KayKay got this brilliant idea of watching another movie. At first I was like "Whaaaaat??" cuz I've never done that before and plus, we've pretty much watched every blockbuster there is out there. But KayKay wanted to watch The Proposal, and since I had nothing to do anyway, I went along with her plans. Didn't really feel like going home.

I think everyone pretty much knows how this movie goes. Bitch of a boss from Canada about to be deported, gets her assistant to marry her in a desperate attempt to get a green card. Obviously, the smart people at Immigration know about this loophole, so they have to do this test thingy. Which gets the whole we-have-to-pretend-that-we're-really-in-love ball rolling.

The movie is super predictable, but to be honest, I actually enjoyed it a lot. I do like chick flicks, but I don't really see the point of catching them in the cinemas. I can't say that I think that this movie is worth the Rm9 ticket, but it's not too bad.

It's a Sandra Bullock movie! There will be funny parts, a turning point where the characters heads finally catch up to their hearts, a tear-jerker, then the happily ever after. It's a tried and tested formula. But it seems to work, cuz a lot of people seem to like it. And it made KayKay cry! Hahaha. Oh wow, I'm a mean person.

I will give it a 3.25/5. Not too bad a movie, but I wouldn't really recommend anyone to watch it in the cinemas. Now GI JOE is another story....

Joey

2009-08-08T17:47:00.007+08:00

I hate it when the plans I meticulously made are disrupted. I really do. I mean, it's not so bad if it's something like "I wanted to eat McDonalds, but the line is too long and I'm too hungry to queue up so I had KFC instead." but something like "Oh, I need you to cancel all your plans for the rest of the day because I need you here right now."

Usually, and if I was as tired as I was on Friday, I would have just told the person to fuck off and leave me alone. But since the said person is my new boss, I had no choice but to cancel my plans for the rest of the day (which revolved around lazing in bed watching Charlie's Angels and sleeping) to go in and work on my rest day.

But because I'm a little selfish, I told her I could only come in at 3pm because I've already made plans for the day. And off I went to catch GI JOE. Did you know that GI JOE is an abbreviation of Government Issue Joint Operating Entity? Bet you didn't! Cuz I didn't.

I've heard about this movie about four months ago. Back then, when KayKay said that she wanted to catch it in the cinemas, I was like "Meh." I just didn't get the whole GI JOE thing. I thought it was like a male version of Barbie.

Well, forgive me if I didn't grow up in the 80s! I know nothing about this franchise.

But anyway, after watching the trailer online, and seeing the Eiffel Tower crumble to the ground after being eaten by the nanomites, I was like "HELL YEAH I gotta watch this!"

So being the kiasu bitches that we are, KayKay and I both decided to catch the movie on the first day itself before we both have to head off to work. It's quite a sad predicament, seeing as how we have to squeeze in a movie before rushing off to our respective work places. But then again, I bet that's how working life is. I mean, the most part of a weekday would be occupied by work, then when you get off from work, you'll be so tired that all you want to do is stay home and rest. Wow. Being grown up really sucks. Why are all the kids in such a hurry to grow up? If I could, I would want to stay 21 forever. I think I've said that before..

Anyway.

So like I did when I went to watch Star Wars, I had no expectations for this movie because I had no idea what it was all about. However, I did have one pretty high expectation, which was Channing Tatum. I am ashamed to say that I wanted to watch this movie (initially) because Channing Tatum was in it.

I missed out the first part of the movie because we just only got into the 11am showing. But it had something to do with a disfiguration and a mask.

Then came the nice part (read: Channing Tatum came on). It all started out with the inventor of the nanomites, McCullen giving a presentation on how destructive his weaponary can be, and convincing the hotshots to buy it from him.

And from there, Duke (Channing Tatum) and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) are put in charge of a team that is given the task of delivering the nanomites. I expected lots of action in this movie, but one thing I did not really expect was the humor in it. Sure, it's not the dark, sarcastic humor that I appreciate, but the kind of ribbing only guys can do with their best friends. In other words, cheap humor.

So halfway during their journey, they get attacked by this group of people with super advanced weapons. Lots of stuff being blown apart, lots of shouting. You get the picture.

Duke realizes that the girl leading the attack is none other than his old flame, Ana (Sienna Miller, but I couldn't even recognize her). Only that she's not sweet anymore, but lethal instead. So after having their asses saved by some team of super secret agents, Duke and Ripcord are brought back to the JOE's headquarters somewhere in the dessert, where they are given this intense training session to prove that they can join the JOE's.

And ooh there's this scene where Duke and Ripcord are working out and they take off their shirts and you get to see how built exactly they are. But anyway.

They figure out where the baddies are planning to release the nanomites (in Paris, DUH) and race over there to try to stop them from destroying Paris. Of course, as we all know from the trailer, they failed. But along the way to failure, they sure had a lot of fun trying to save Paris.

Honestly, I think this Paris scene is enough to make it up for the Rm26 that we paid for our tickets. I spotted a Porsche in the Paris scene. Try seeing if you can!

The unrecognizable (for me, at least) Sienna Miller as the Baroness, aka Ana.

Ohh, (SPOILER) and in some very unimaginative turn of events, we find out that McCullen is actually a greedy lil boy who sells his weapons to both sides. You know, like a double agent?

And (STILL SPOILING IT FOR YOU!) Ana works for him, as well as being his lover. It's very messed up. I certainly didn't see this twist in the plot, so I'm not gonna spoil it for you. But it involves nanomites, again.

But anyway, what happens is, there are a lot of things being blown up, a lot of people getting sliced apart, a lot of guns being shots, a lot of shouting and screaming and a whole chaotic fight scene towards the end.

Of course, being a movie that already has a pretty big fanbase (the old people from the 80s, ha-ha), it had to explain to the new fans the background of their characters. From what I know so far, they changed the story of both Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. There are a whole bunch of other characters as well, just not interesting enough for me to remember them.

However, being a good guys versus bad guys movie, it has to end with the good guys kicking the bad guys' butts and the boy getting the girl in the end.

See, good guys kicking the bad guys' butts. Ohh there's a twist here too, but because it's kind of unexpected (well, I didn't see it.) I won't say it, but it explains the rise of the Cobra, hence the title of the movie.

Also, there is a role by Victoria Secret model Karolina Kurkova in the movie. She plays one of the technicians who work under the JOE's. I didn't realize it was her until the credits started rolling and by then it was already too late and honestly, I couldn't remember seeing her in the movie. But I think she was the one who died. Oops, spoiler. Pfft.

Heavy Duty, Breaker, Duke, General Hawk, Ripcord, Scarlet and Snake Eyes.

Awesome movie, this GI JOE. I don't really know why, but I really really love this movie. Maybe as much as Transformers 2.

Rating: 4.25/5
Points taken off the scarce plot and the sometimes cheesy dialogue, as well as the predictableness of the movie. I feel like the sake of this movie is just to blow up lots of stuff, crush Paris for a change (instead of poor NY), show off cool weapons, throw about some good looking actors, and use some above average CGI. So if you don't think much and just watch it as it is, then this movie is gold.

Dirty Ice Cream

2009-08-06T19:59:00.001+08:00

lWent to Yo! Sushi for lunch today. KayKay had green tea ice cream for dessert.

The ice cream has an asshole.