Amarlicious - All Amar, all the time.....

2008-01-11T02:55:00.001Z

Hey hey heyyyyyy!

Its that time again - when the stars and planets ( and the junk on my floor ) align and for some reason i decide to sit down and blog instead of facebooking, youtube-hopping or engaging in my usual procrastinatory ( is that even a word?) activities.

Well the above and Prof Chetwynds MEMS assignment. Bleargh. Last term was a good term assignments-wise though. Despite my almost suicidal disregard for deadlines and declining work ethic i managed to do rather well in my presentations & assignments. Go me!

Anyway..

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! & happy harirayahajiawalmuharramdeepavalimerryXmas and anything else that i have missed. My 2007 would have been nothing without its stellar cast :). Hope you're all gonna be in the sequel tooo. Cameo pon cukup la . Here's a quick catchup in pictures since the last time i blogged.
A super muhibbah flat Xmas dinner before the end of term. I made my roast lamb with mango & mint thingy and a salad with miso dressing + mandarins & pecans, Lauren made those yummy cheesy tex mex thingies, Georgia made tabbouleh, & Phil & John made Yorkshire Puds!
Sangeetha getting grabby with the post dinner 'Kremes.

Hopped down to windy windy Notts to catch up with some chummies ( and cook them incredibly sinful food) AND to catch David Guetta playing at Gatecrasher.

Happy, happy people with tired feet. Boys & girls, next time you go to a non-NUS event, please bring your Passports mkaaays?

Managed a quick stop in London to catch-upsies. Go Victoria League!

Managed another flat Xmas dinner. Since it was just tecks+company, woon and myself, we were all guinea pigs for the first time im making stuffed turkey.
Result? yumsies. Here's more food from that night:

Dessert in progress..
BAM!! Dark Choc truffle torte with strawberry/lemon coulis

With almost everyone away for Xmas eve, a coupla of us just had drinks at Embargo in town, followed by a quick hop to Ignite. Not exactly a warm and fuzzy Xmas, but hey - at least i wasnt scratching my balls at home.

Was stuck at home for Boxing Day. The evil forces of the greater West Midlands Transport Authority ( or whatever the monkey fuck its called) and Midland Trains have conspired to deprive me of the obscene gratification that is the Boxing Day Sales.

NYE was schweet. We went to Birmingham to catch the Godskitchen NYE party at Air. The headlining DJ wasn't that impressive, but the other room that played deep house was pretty darned good.

And once flat 32 repopulated again ( well mostly) i made laksaaa!

We just spend way too much time in the kitchen . & eating.

The rest of the time was mostly filled with not working, unreal tournament-ing (until everyone got home and the lag was unbearable) and a new draconian fitness regime ( alternating 20laps in the pool with 6 clicks of rowing + weights daily).

But 2007 really was a year to remember. In so many ways. AND a few more. My resolutions? pretty much the same every year - improve myself in every conceivable way.

Now that everyone's up to speed, a normal entry:

Feeling: a chilli + post spin-class endorphine rush
Listening to: Waktu Yang Dinanti - Ungu

Actually caught myself actually, audibly , contentedly sighing in bed the other day after a skosh of insomnia led me to totally clean out my room at 4 in the morning. Everything useless/to be shipped back is nicely stashed away in the trunk room,i have regained half my floorspace, and chucked out a whole full binliner of junk. Everythings completely resorted. THe only thing i have to worry about now is my bookshelf collapsing.

Speaking of bookshelves, out of the books i managed to read over the Xmas hols i'd have to say the best one was Twenty-Something by Iain Hollingshead - a fictional diary of ...wait for it.... a 20-something London banker who goes through a life-changing year. Hilarious, well written, and im sure a lot of you guys will identify with the protagonist. Grab a copy if you can!

Maybe its just that i've been spending more time in the weights room lately, but it seems that it gets packed harder every year with bloody vexing hooligans who swagger around smelling like ass and hogging the equipment. Better yet, some of them from a *certain* country come in big packs, pratically take over the weights room and yell *encouragement* at each other - basically its just a bloody pissing contest where overcompensating hulks boost their self esteem over seeing their "pussy" friends struggle with a 60kg bench. Personal prejudices & judgements asides, they are still bloody inconsiderate fucks. Whatever man - all the muscles and gymming in the world won't fix ugly, no?

Another thing that's been grinding my gears - how most Malaysians, no matter from what social strata they're from, tend to reserve this bizzare reverence for Westerners and (more so with the working classes) politicians.

'kay fine they might at the very least appear to have a better socioeconomic lot, no small part due to their history of crafty imperialism/puppetry and amazingly unfair foreign policies, but look a little closer and you'll see that they're just as fucked up - just sometimes differently. There's still violent crime, unemployment, illiteracy, and their politicians screw up just as royally. Yep. There are ignorant dumbfucks everywhere in the world.

Of course, you tend to feel a little more ire when said dumbfucks get your country's names in the papers. Our health minister's sex tape even made the bloody Metro. Fair enough it was horribly bad luck - he must have been set up. Step into the Parliament or even a Cabinet meeting and throw a stone - it will definitely bounce off some schmuck having an affair. Im sure there are quite a few people who'd be hypocrites for holding that personally against him.

SOME others deserve nothing less than a donkey kick to the groin. Not being racist or anything, but WHAT THE FUCK is up with all these senior Malay politicians letting all and sundry know what colossal gaping ignorant undignified twats they are. Malaysian media might be state-controlled but foreign stations, papers and Youtube are not. Don't tell me you havent seen videos of Parliamentary proceedings online and felt like giving Nazri the shit-kicking of his life. Or seen the interviews about the FRU's response to the Bersih demos. OR seen the UMNO youth rallies. Budi bahasa bangsa my ass.

Okay fine Khairy might actually know what he's doing with those keris-waving dogs on a string ( im sure a degree in PPE from Oxford is handy) but whats up with the others? Its like you're having all the wrong people going into politics for all the wrong reasons.

Sorry, but i'm just have this general burning disdain for politicians. Even those that dive in with the best of intentions are forced to conform along the way. Many that i've personally met have such a slimy, greasy untrustworthy vibe. I can count those that seem genuine with like.....2 fingers( and no, not with a roman V).

You want to make money? Start a channel or show that broadcasts Dewan Rakyat/Dewan Negara sessions, and take public sms votes on who they'd like to be seen to be told to shut the fuck up, or better yet, tasered. The latter might be an interesting option, especially with MPs being the amazing specimens of physical fitness that they are.

Our Parliament is already a joke, so why not capitalize on it?

Links:
cracked.com is bloody hilarious. Just read these two articles and you'll be hooked. Procrastination material for AGES.
The 5 pimping-est historical figures.
9 most badass bible verses

And here, the BEST. MOVIE. STUNT. EVER.
I bet you havent seen a ventriloquist do a sketch like THIS before.

I'm gonna finish this post with a confession:
.
.
.
.
.
.No i'm not gay. Screw you.
.
.
.
.
I actually think some LOLcats are funny. Or at least cute.

"Words are nothing. Nothing but post hoc justifications and poorly remembered trivialities. Semantics and pedantics. Bottled up feelings, half-declarations, cowardly withdrawals at the last minute. The japes and scrapes of my reality and my imagination."
-Jack Lancaster, Twenty-Something

PS. PLEASE cease and desist with the facebook apps invitations. I dont want to know whether people think I'm Hot or Not( i already know) , and neither do i want to feed your pet turtle.

PPS. Read the above again. If you still send me an invite, i will send someone over to sodomize you with a splinter-y 2'x4' . I'm willing to bet that not many people will enjoy helping remove splinters from your strangely rectangular rectum.

2007-11-08T04:09:00.000Z

GAARRRghh *bites thumbdrive.

Such is the wrath of Amar.

Balls man.....nicely got my last set of microscopy results for my individual project ( no more labwork, w00t!!!) my thumbdrive is permanently gone. Well it WAS my old thumbdrive and i hardly used it anymore....but still it worked bloody fine this afternoon and now BLEK its just corrupted.

Let that be a lesson to you, boys and girls. Always keep a backup thumbdrive. And do not bring about your (good)thumbdrive with your keys because then you're twice as likely to lose them. At the Union. And have it turned in on monday, with the thumbdrive conveniently missing.

Cunts.

Hahahah....during last minute procrastination , Phil decided to go through with our plan - i had no idea until i got a wallpost from Sangeetha, walked into his room and saw him laughing. He actually set up and account for her with a similar email, and we got all the flatmates to play along . I even logged in as well and added all her friends. The jig was up within a day tho when everyone else kept on going "FINALLY you're on Facebook" to the boss lady herself on campus.

Well i'm now gonna find some other work i can do. Or just go to the kitchen and find nibbles nyom nyom nyom. Tata!

2007-11-03T18:57:00.001Z

Listening to : Nothing Lasts Forever - Maroon 5
Feeling : Amped for skool daze!!

One of my major pet peeves since last year ( yeah i know a lot of things irritate me now. I must be getting old) are the increasing number of people, mostly brits who wear keffiyehs as a fashion accessory without knowing its cultural significance. A couple of years back Londoners, mostly of middle eastern origins or muslims from around the world wore them in a certain way as a sign of Palestinian solidarity. It gets even more complicated in Arabic countries, where the colours, embroideries and the style of wear indicate tribal & political loyalties.

One of the more famous keffiyeh wearers. Shame on you if you dont know his name.

But somehow along the way, when Western militaria started wearing them out of practicality in middle eastern theaters, they sorta became part of military gear, and Japanese(eventually europeans and americans too) civvies who dress in fatigues and camo added them to their ensemble. Then the boho circles. Then the hipsters. Then every other schmuck who goes to urban outfitters/topman etc etc. I actually asked a guy who was wearing one on the bus the other day if he knew what wearing a keffiyeh represented. Nope. Big surprise.

A keffiyeh worn as a shemagh, for practical desert use

A keffiyeh on a catwalk, as lost as a pig at a barmitzvah

That being said, i DO have a red/white one that i used to wear as a shawl for Friday prayers while i was at school- picked it up in Mecca so it was quite a nice one. Best comment i ever had on it was from Mrs Lim - my form 5 English teacher-

"Amar why are you wearing a tablecloth?"

HAHAHAHAHAHA. Silly woman.

Would it make me a horrible hypocrite to dig up mine and wear it?

Finally got around to watching Die Hard 4 the other day. Always found movies about hackers hilarious - how there always HAS to be ONE really hot chick hacker while everyone else are stereotypical scrawny geeky weird looking types.

And how they always seem to have the prettiest UIs.

And how they can always call up perfectly user-friendly frontends for anything - traffic control, power management from any standard computer.

Its all a load of rubbish lar.

But John McLane is just fuckin hardcore. I dont recall Chuck Norris ever flinging a car into a helicopter.
I dont recall Kiefer Sutherland ever jumping on an F35 mid-hover.

Oh btw that scene was bloody fake. Fine a Raptor can hover. But to engage in urban close combat with a ground vehicle? Not even a triple ace Israeli air force pilot on meth can do that. 80% of all fatalities/ejects on VTOL jets are due to the pilots losing control during hovers.

Bruce Willis is the man la. 5th Element, Whole 9/10 yards,Sin City, 6th sense, Armageddon, 12 Monkeys- all damn good movies. No idea what the hell he was doing in Planet Terror though.

True, Planet Terror was a typical Tarantino homage to that particular genre, but it was so over the top in every which way and it was ridiculously cliched. All that was intentional i'll bet. But you can't argue that it was a bloody fun movie to watch. Every other scene will have you laughing your balls off, from the Machete trailer to the BEST.SCENE.EVER.

No really, have you ever seen anything more hilarious?

I'm gonna go grab something to eat! Lemme leave you with another lovely song - Akhir Rasa Ini by Samsons.

Tatabata!

2007-11-02T00:22:00.000Z

Boogabooga!

*tired zombie face*

Man the last two days have been a bitch. Group meetings.Lab.Group meeting. Lab. Repeat ad-infinitum. At least the doctor gave me some sweet-ass meds. I gotta say its the best damn anti-inflammatory i've ever taken - Diclofenac. Just a word of warning tho - if you take it before you sleep, good luck waking up.

You know theres a funny story in there somewhere when you see a cute but slightly irritated girl buying two 12 packs of Durex Performas at the pharmacy.

Nyuumm got a whole bunch of new Indonesian music - some jazz, pop, but mostly songs by Glenn Fredly. Daft name, but not bad r&b/jazz-ish songs.

There's no videos yet for most of the Talib Kweli songs(catchy AND meaningful lyrics) i like off Eardrum ,but here's a cool video nonetheless. Check it out!

"I wear the night like a cloak, cuz i move with the stars - navigate through the truly bizzare"

2007-10-30T22:16:00.001Z

You know its not your day when you show up for that long needed medical appointment with the uni health center and the receptionist tells you that your doctor has been taken ill as well and that they'll hook you up with another checkup tomorrow.

Before anything else, here's a shoutout to Tecks for turning 22 yesterdaaay! The crazy sod actually managed almost 30 shots of absinthe, vodka and tequila - double what he did last year w00t! Just celebrated with cake, liqour and cranium with the flat.

From the wholesome shots...

To the slightly less wholesome..

Almost there...
He's a pointer isnt he?

The last photo has been deemed a bit too teruk to post. Kesian Tecks a bit la. I'll put up this photo of a cute kitten instead.
Aaaaaawwww fuzzyywuzzy kewten's wickin his widdle pawsie woosieeee....

*EHEM*
But yeah the party was a successsss!

Anyone hungry?

Managed to make kuih akok last week. Just followed the basic recipe online and improvised the rest. Jadi jugak weii..

Tried something new yesterday. Warm prawn salad with miso & coriander vinaigrette dressing. The dressing?

3 tbsp ex.virgin olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
few drops sesame oil
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp miso paste
1 pinch chilli flakes
3 cloves garlic
1 inch ginger knob
1/2 cup coriander leaves

Just bung everything in a blender or chop finely and mix with a spoon. Goes well with quite a few salads.

Made my generic chicken pasta thingy today. The proportions vary, but a good base recipe would be:

2 chicken breasts/3 drumsticks filleted and diced
half an onion
4 cloves of garlic
1 can of tomatoes
balsamic vinegar
to season - oregano, thyme, chilli flakes, salt, pepper, fresh coriander

and as much pasta as you bloody well like. Also, this is not to be taken with cheese.

This is just a random scatterpost while i'm sick of doing like, 3 courseworks simultaneously.

Here's a little something from XKCD. Its a bit of a geeky comic but quite funny sometimes.

Mmmkays back to faceb...i mean wooork!!

2007-10-29T02:30:00.001Z

Dammit the photo upload function works again. Was hoping its still down so i have an excuse to procrastinate on blogging - which means right about now i'm quite fucked, as blogging is already procrastination. Amar pussyfooting on blogging is like *insert your own lurid, shocking and possibly blasphemous analogy*.

Listening to: More or Less - Talib Kweli
Feeling: bummed out from being a skosh sick-ish

First of all, a public service message.

To all you lovely people on Facebook, especially the new ones:

EASY ON THE (#&*%^)&^%#$ APPS!!!

The first few apps were fine. Cheeky, fun and not too bandwidth-consuming. Then things started to get a little crazy. Vampires. Zombies. Werewolves. Jedi. Sith. I already had an ominous feeling when you can post songs and videos on your page - "ohhhhh shit this is going to be JUST like Friend-effing-ster"

In some ways, its even more annoying than Friendster now. Bar the customizeable interface and automatically streaming videos/music some FB pages are just chock full of oftentimes useless little apps that fill up your cache and tire your scrolling finger. NO, im not Interested In you and NO, i do not want to pet whatever roundish fluffy creature that is and dont even get me started on Entourage/Top Friends.

NO. Non.Niet.Nee.Nein.

Come to think of it, if you construe poking as a sexual innuendo ( from its humble beginnings as a "nudge" function to a one-click message that says "I don't know you but you're hot so i want to add you as a friend with the remote chance that i might eventually get to have sex with you" on those random FB stalking runs) most of these new apps also bring it on in heaps, from the not so subtle Are You Interested or Naughty Gifts or more hidden gems that somehow get to you subliminally ( or if you have a convoluted mind) which brings me back to petting random small furry things.

So please, for the sake of uber-procrastinators and mousewheels everywhere, cease and desist with the apps!!!

To get in the Raya mood a coupla weeks ago, i resorted to Youtubing for some Raya ads. While most were nondescript or just plain lousy, there were a few good ones.

Well where adverts are concerned, a "good" one means just particularly memorable either by the virtue of being hilarious, lame-to the point of being hilarious, and touching.

Petronas brought out the big guns again this year i see.

Yes Petronas makes excellent ads. But do they ALL have to tug so hard at the heartstrings? On one hand, its kinda hard to make funny ads on religious or cultural occasions but some of these Petronas ads are just overkill. One thing i can definitely NOT recommend is loading up all their Raya, Chinese New Year and maybe their Merdeka ads, and watching them in one go. You'll either be really depressed, be overwhelmed with guilt about how you could have been better/kinder/more respecful towards your family/elders OR just be out of tissue paper. Maybe all three. Their Deepavali ads, on the other hand, are usually hilarious or equally poignant, but not as heartwrenching. Of worthy note is one Deeparaya ad with a happy ending, where one guy actually says "What? Think all Petronas ads someone must die ar?"

Also, is it just me, or are more and more of the CNY/Raya/Deepavali ads sticking to the "ungrateful child+ageing parents" theme?

TV3 also had Yasmin Ahmad make a hilarious one:

I just LOVE the part where she buys the cempedak goreng.

Also on Yasmin Ahmad - just realised that her movies ( well Sepet, Gubra and Mukhsin anyway) are scored very well. From keroncong to Italian arias to French jazz, the meaning and mood of the songs always fits the characters and scenes to a tee.

If you havent seen Mukhsin, find a copy. IMHO, its better than Gubra (too much diverging to the side story) but not as good as Sepet, especially in terms of its critique on certain aspects of Malaysian, especially Malay culture. She is no pencemar budaya. She's just an honest storyteller.

Last weekend was crazy. Soul Nation was okay, but would have preferred to have an alternative DJ in the cooler. Pictures!

After , like, 3 hours of sweaty sweaty dancing it was kinda hard to wake up in the morning and go early to London. Managed to leave in the afternoon and travel non stop straight to Kak Rash's open house. Came a leeeeetle late so meet most of the Pet & London folks but we sure closed down the party. Dapat tapau w00t!!

I guess we weren't in a hurry to leave because for most of us who stayed on it was our final raya together in London. So sakan lah carik benda nak buat from hosting an improptu kursus kahwin ( yes Alina its your fault. Saper suruh you kawin this year?) to watching x-factor to helping the caterers clear out.

Was hoping for a quiet , productive weekend in but nooooo.

1. Heat on Friday. Sorry Woon, Foong, and other *orientals* . Heat was as Indian as ever. Well i got my Reggaeton so i was happpy.
2. Woke up at 9am the next day to catch the pursuit cycle class. Worth it!
3. Fell bloody sick AGAIN before i could catch up on sleep. At least its just light sniffles sans migraine this time around. *TOUCH WOOD*

Stopped by at Hurst 21 before Heat for fresh baked muffins courtesy of Mars. Traded in what was left of my akok ( yay jadii!!) for yummy triple berry muffins. Of course you cant expect Amar to sit idly and watch as freshly baked goods lay across the table with a can of spray cream and strawberries....

Hmn never knew i could make strawberry roses. Must have seen it on TV *Heroes reference*

Hmmn i thought i quit doing that pout. I blame it on the sugar.( No Mars they're not too sweet. You just let me eat too much of em)

Anyhoo's its Teck's birthday today. Happy 21st mannn!!! Dont eat too much of your (lovingly handmade by Sangeetha and yours truly) Lemon Lime cheesecake! Later how to get you drunk at topB?

You might also notice that this is a particularly late ( or early ) post. My sleep schedule is permanently disjointed. I'll probably need another weekend to set it straight. Or a whole day of ponteng-ing. We'll i'd probably get another hour of work done before i zzzzs.

"I want him dead! Yesterday! Before breakfast! Before eggs-ah!"
-Laszlo Gogolak, The Whole Ten Yards

2007-10-18T23:40:00.000+01:00

Feeling : like there's a civil unrest in my stomach and a fireworks show in my head
Listening to : my Amy Winehouse playlist

I think the combination of all the Raya food and lack of sleep wasnt too good for me. Wicked sore throat since Sunday that blew into an all out fever, as always. For some reason i've been getting violent-ass migraines as well. Nothing double doses of Neurofen can't sort out though.

But it was an alright London Raya la.

Saturday -

Joined parents on the train to London, and crashed with them at the Mara apartments. Went to the Mara open houses up and down the building. Rendang lemang lontong ketupat kuih raya and the lot. Then tagged along with them shopping around Picadilly and Oxford circus - managed to make a quick stop at Hamley's to pick up Cranium!

Wanted to bring them for dinner at Addies, but the whole place was booked up. D'oh. Went for dinner at Mai Sushi nearby instead but still tak puas so i tarpaued the radna from Addies.

Sempat jugak pegi all the way to Mudchute to catch Shivani at her housewarming.

Bahan yous still lookin good, but your directions were CRAP.

Since i was gonna miss the last train anyway, made a stop at Notting Hill for more nibbles at Fazuras'
...and was reminded of how utterly FUN it was to wait for London night buses.

Sunday

buuuut then the best part was, i finally managed to drag the parents to Nobuuu for sunday lunch. Lucky i made reservations earlier.

Salmon tartare with caviar and spring onions in soy sauce and wasabi. Okay technically its just pulped salmon sashimi served in kicap but yummmmmmm.

Soft shell crab rolls

Seared tuna and sea bream salad with their ponzu dressing

The signature Nobu black cod. Nice but not THAT amazing

Beef Teriyaki

Beef Teppanyaki

..and the sushi platter

We were a bit the malas to go to the MSD raya. Dahlah most of the people i would want to see wont be there, and with the circle/district line down gettin there would have been a real pain in the ass. Managed to meet the girls later at Carluccios on St. Christophers though.

Not in a particularly ranty mood tonight. Just tired and migraine-ny. Just particularly irritated with the fact that half my floorspace is taken up by other people's crap. People who arent bothered to arrange to pick it up or confirm shipping. Eh aku bukan luggage forwarding agency okay? And Tocil rooms arent particularly roomy - despite what Hurst people might claim.

Oh yeah and the post around here has gone to shit. British work ethic + strong unions = fuckedupness. Its like the only people who havent been on strike are the Police. Its a bloody knock on effect. With Royal Mail striking whenever they bloody want to, all post have to go by couriers. Not only can they not handle the load, now they can also charge a premium for their services. Try buying anything online now and see how long the bloody postage takes.

Haha confirm la kalau ada claim form i bawak sindri terus pegi MSD kat London.

Raya at Tocil

Fazura and myself macam open house sikit sikit la at Tocil this Wednesday. She made laksa sarawak ( i had like 4 freaking bowls) and i made otak otak, thai glass noodle and prawn salad, and pandan jelly. Everyone tengah suffer suffer pedas pon bantai gak.

My stomach is still seriously reeling from that dinner. *violent stomach noises*

Tomorrow! Soul Nation !w00t!!
I've got my ticket, have you got yours?

2007-10-12T02:33:00.000+01:00

Listening to: My musicals playlist. Perky is good. Need perky
Feeling: A little hoarse in the throat - boo. Technically its already Raya today - yeayy!

I think its a scientifically proven fact. I blog only and ONLY when i'm procrastinating.

My Raya is going to be quite sad weh. My parents are already in London, and will be coming in Cov Friday afternoon, and i will be running between the workshop sorting out my project heat treatments and the group meeting for the MEng group project ( designing and making a gantry to support PIV apparatus to analyze the flow pattern out of a jet engine)

ANd i think i'm falling sick. Thats is man after this weekend i'm catching up on some nice and proper sleep . Shoulda asked the folks to bring the Dreamcatcher from my room. Been having a bloody lot of WEIRD dreams lately.

Whoever left the StackEm/Jenga set in Flat 32s kitchen is either an evil genius or the devil himself. We started by playing it after dinner to see who would do the cleaning up, and then the forfeits for losing kinda scaled up.

High stakes Jenga + Hon Win's loaned bicycle carrier bag = naughtyness

Henceforth, it was decided that the loser would be bundled up in his bag, left outside the door of an absent flatmate, and his or her door was knocked. Guess who was first up!

Pfeh they left me outside Joanna's room, she came out but didn't open the bag. Lauren happened to pass by - i didnt hear what they said but she kicked the bag so i just popped out. Not a great success.

SO i had to do it again. This time it was outside John's room. He didnt seem to be in.

*crickets*

So whatever la. Next round it was Sangeethaaa!

The Setup

The Jab

Peekabooo!

Heh it was fun shits.

The Raya shoot last Sunday was also t3h b0mb.

Finalists FTW!

Best.Raya.Pic.Ever. All we need now is the non-video-still version

Sigh wish i had that Doraemon door. Wouldnt mind a quick trip to Borneo Rainforest for some delish shisha and pasta.

Can't wait to see you London folks in your Raya finery ;P

2007-10-08T00:00:00.001+01:00

It's been a while hasnt it?

Yups boys and girls its that time of the year again - when deadlines are looming ( i know man, Tuesday week 2?!?!?!) and i'm pulling out all the procrastinating stops. Nicely tucked away in a corner of my desktop is a folder of photos and little notes and quotes that i've been meaning to blog for aaaayges.

But i'm 50% lazy and 50% percent actually trying to keep some time left over for work so letsh just start with bringing ya up to speed with my summer in phok-ohs yeh?

**Summer 2007**

Hung around in July for the lucky sods on three year courses' graduations, and also managed to get some work done on my 3rd/4th year coursework. Had a quick trip to The Hague, and a quick pit stop at Amsterdam on the way back.

Den Haag. boring boring boring boring.

Urrh yeah i just happened to pass by the Shell HQ. Pretty.

Met some interesting ( albeit early sleeping) folks on my night in Amst - stayed for a night in an 8-bed hostel room. Found some pretty brill shops further out in the student quarter - one noteworthy mention was this gorgeous chocolate shop - "Puccini" - that had great handmade chocolates in all sorta funky flavours. Kinda pricey though.

Faaast forward to the end of early August - Flew back on the 29th of July, and had like, 5 days in town before I had to go off to the Petronas Re-orientation. First 5 days was at Agrotek all the way in Ulu Langat - a forest reserve/chalets/function rooms kinda place with a proper warung.

Basically it was 5 days of seminars talks case studies group work skits roleplaying mandi sungai water polo 6meals a day 40 man dorms zero phone reception aaaand of course zzzBlisszzz After that, it was 4 days at a homestay program in Negri Sembilan. The homestay program? mandi jeram akad nikah kenduri gotong royong inspirational talks to schoolkids matmotoness fantastic stories by mr. suhud food with santan santan santan hyper chatty little kids and cowshit slaloms.

Yeah this spot aint so quiet when its water polo time.

Where kids go to chill when there's no malls or shisha places.

Ze host family and the other two blokes who got put in the same house.

After all that, Dad had some ASEAN energy thing in Singapore, so i joined him on the flight down and took the bus back .Helped the old man sort out the papers he was presenting (and kept a few interesting ones. Colin Oram sure interested one) and managed to catch Darren and Jac for makans. And a city F1 track in Singapore? a NIGHT city F1 track in Singapore? This should be interesting. Expect a random cockrant on that sometime soon. I have a feeling i'm gonna be seeing this view a bit more in the next coupla years.

But yeah after that it was a really fun, chilled out summer. Was practically at Rhasta almost every other night shishaing and talkin cock ( and picking up quite a bit about banking hahaha). It was brilliant - managed to catch up with so many old friends, and some new ones too.

Man serious everyone's face be gettin round yo..

Sri Cempakaaaa , megah berdiriii-iii....

Thank god that some of you guys are still around in London. Still so many places unseen and un-makaned and so many shows on the West End i'm still dying to catch. And of course they're the uber-babi japanese buffets too. And there's always Addies' & Masala Zoooneee!

Sigh too bad schooo many of you guys wont be here anymore in London. Next Petronas annual briefing just wont be the same...

Less than a week to raya! woooot! The folks are comin down this weekend for raya and a quick hop around Italy too while i'm stuck here. Pfeh. Can't wait to eat again in daylight thouugh.

Oh yeah quite sad also - this year's Raya photo shoot in Warwick will probably be the last one for a while, seeing that Raya will fall like, on the first day of term next year. At least we got some extra silliness in the photos aye?

I'll just finish off with a quick music plug - been listening to a lot of Rilo Kiley. Also, the new Korn unplugged CD(who woulda thought that was a good idea hmmn?) , Talib Kweli ( LOTS of good tracks and collabs) and Katie Tunstall. On a more local side - also some good listenin from Tangga, Samsons, Ahli Fiqir & Anuar Zain.

And if you havent heard of Project Pop, go youtube them or something. They're freaking hilarious - some of their classics are "Dangdut is the Music of my Country", "Jangan Ganggu Banci", and you have GOT to see this one - "Dugem vs Metal" FYI, "Dugem" is a portmanteau from dunia gemerlap - Indo slang for like, clubbing, karaoke and other glitzy nightlife pursuits. Seriously the lyrics and the video - tergelak sampai nangis i tell you.

This is also a damn catchy song ( well okay most people think it sucks) but even tho the video buruk sikit the tune is damn catchy, and the song is hilarious if you get the lyrics. Basically this woman is taking the bloody piss out of this rapper she used to date.

Oh and i think i've finally pimped out my desktop to the max. Now i gotta join at least one CompSoc Lan party to show it off at least once. Oh and to find out if anyone's hosting a DC++ server on campus as well. hur hur.

Yes overkill i know. But isnt it just purty? I've got an Intel DC E6750 sharing a water cooling loop(240 mm radiator) with an OC-ed 7900GT and its only 18C on idle! *geeky snort*

MMkays time to get back to woooork. Just gotta run down to the kitchen for a nibble first. Tataaa! I'd post some of the raya pics but since most of you guys are on Facebook anyway, yeah fuckit ( DAMMIT thats 6.50 quid now iniit?)

2007-02-06T16:02:00.000Z

Still alive. Just weally weally busy.

Would still be posting fuckloads of pictures, if nothing else if Blogger had a Java photo uploader like facebook.

But yeah - if you havent - come join facebook onlyy

Updates in brief:
1. Gym is still full of irritating people who hog machines and take up space. At least most of the new-years' resolutions people be gooone.
2. Mnite 2007 was aiiight. Apparently, i was the bomb without even being on stage- heh.
3. 3rd year sucks ass. Workshop technicians are all laazyyy liarrrssssss.

Uh oh just checked my to-do list. Plenty plenty plenty. boobyeee!

2006-12-05T01:39:00.000Z

Steeeyouuupid CUNT!!!

Today fucking sucked ass.

After an almost entirely sleepless night, and a 9 am French test, things only got fuckin better.

I’m sure y’all (warwickians anyway) know how it is at Café Library, right? Its always like the fuckin line that takes fuckin ages are mostly idiots who eat English breakfasts at 3 in the afternoon or load up on baked potatoes – so its like biasa kan to just skip the line to the oh-so-empty part of cafeLib for the ‘proper’ hot food.

I was just about to grab a pack of their dog-fucking-food chilli con carne before heading back for much needed catching up on sleep (plus finishing off Robotics and pointlessly trolling on Vibrations) when some fucking twat fucking cari pasal:

“I don’t know if you noticed, but there is a line”

“But yeah, bro that’s for the all day breakfast innit?”

“There’s only one line”

“Yeah but look, man – okay fine whatever”

Not like there was anyone else in the queue giving me dirty looks or anything, but I was already farking irate enough. It was either a clean split or cuss that motherfucker off. Granted there’s quite a big chance that I was wrong so fuckit la I joined the line of spud scoffers and bacon eaters.

Then when I left I heard that cock-eyed bastard mutter “Malaga” . Fuckin Greek poseur. Like so confident no Asians know their swear words like that. CUnTT. Hope the next time he shags his skanky greek whore he gets crabs up to his hairy back and head.

Just when I cooled down and was happily passing by the humanities dept some garishly dressed hongkey cunt with headphones shouldered me and made me drop my packed salad. KNCCB fucker never even looked back. Not saying sorry one thing….but didn’t even look back! RARRRRRGHhhhhhhhh

Oh while we’re on the subject of the dog food that they serve on campus ( maybe except for Eat and Xanana) I’m gonna be a bitch and take you a wooooorld away to NOBU nyahahaha. Managed to join the IC grads for a quick lunch there while I was down for raya weekend. Finally after 5 fucking years here I get to eat at no-fucking-bu.

And the food was orgasmic. Only regret? I ordered the always-changing chef’s set menu instead of the old favourites menu ( I want my nobu black coooood) .

Sooo…where to next? Veeraswamy? The Ivy? The Fat Duck? I’ve got some time…..only pokaiiiiiii. Oh and anyone who gets me seats, repeat just SEATS at El Bulli….me love you looooong tiiiime!

Well at least blogging during lectures didn’t catch on as a habit.heh.

Also in the odd moment that I’ve managed to procrastinate the good ‘ol way – facebooking and looking through old photos – just remembered how mishhh soooo many peopleeeee……..*siiiiiiigh* my London Tai Chehs…..the IC peeps, the Cempakans livin it up back home..aku nak balllllllllllik.

Furbleagh. Here's to me getting through week 10. Salut!

quote of the day: "Better be safe than have to do laundry"

2006-10-16T13:58:00.000+01:00

Bleh

I hope blogging during lectures is not gonna be a long term habit or anything. At least bloggin in lectures is better than not going for them at all no? Or falling asleep in them for the matter.

Oh yeah

Almost started laughing like a motherfucker in my Mechanical Design lecture. God bless Harian Metro and their headlines. Their sakit puan/tuan ( gynae/urologist) columns are freaking hilarious too.

Le Petit Blanc in Birm is overrated. Nothing particularly French OR remarkable about the food. I can probably make some of the dishes with 10 pounds worth of shite from Tesco and cooking while scratching my ass and digging my nose.

Expect more of such random entries when Bull-SODDING-dog finally sets up the bloody broadband in 157 Broomfield. Its kinda hard to just dole out this crap between my semi-nomadic goings-about. Au Revoir bitchaz!

"You good niiiice.."

-Someone who's been having a lot of poignant moments of articulateness of late

"You know your wang is big enough to have a gravitational field of its own when three different bottles of bath products fall off three different shelves right on your morningwood when you're having a nice morning shower. Ouch."

2006-10-11T10:45:00.000+01:00

Tuesday, 10/10/2006 16:30hrs

Good god this is the most boring lecture on earth. A two hour stretch of vibrational dynamics. Nasib baik I brought my lappie along I tell you. At least now I can catch up on some MAJORly overdue blogging.

Anyhoo…

Yeah I’m back bishes! I’ve been keeping a little jotter with scraps of what to blog about – rants, fun stuff, and just totally random utter cock. Don’t think I’m gonna smack it out all in one shot though – unless you want to read an entry as long as War & Peace.

Why haven’t I been blogging? Well over the last two weeks standard 1^st term madness la – the asswipes at Bulldog have been faffing around with our broadband even tho Tecks applied for it like a freaking month ago, and between skittering off and on campus sorting out all those little things that need sorting out.

What about the freaking entirety of summer you say? For some reason, I didn’t end up hunched over my computer in the middle of the night with the urge to write all too often. This was a super-bumming, super-partyin , super-lepaking summer.

Best. Summer. Ever.

My justification for totally blowing out this summer without a job, internship or anything else that resembles productivity? Last summer would have been my last completely free summer – I already budgeted my 3^rd year summer for internship whoring. Well there WAS my super-deep reading list, but the books I shipped back only came like with barely a month to spare.

All in all, yeah. It was a helluva summer.

Sotong goreng udang goreng limau ais kosong deepfried wontons lala goreng hartamas square makbul rhasta loft cynna zouk frangi laundry jogoya pink tigers + shaking cars irritating friday prayer sermons antsy parents weddings weddings weddings PGL:The Musical Mariza live at the MPO security guard ninjary more ninjary jazz fest klang seafood kiara hill walks *PHEW*

Oh and deserving of another one-breath-rollout of its own is the Singapore trip.YESH I finally made good on my promise to hop on a coach and roll down under to meet up with you lovely people.

Clubbing j.walker+vodkabeenas shitfaced sentosa beach volleyball Frisbee bugis junction paragon takashimaya heeren geylang changivillage hor fun makansutra esplanade more eating in geylang lau pa sat.

And almost all that in 24 hours, mind you.

..of lecka lecka and open toilets

zomfg waris your bro is finally married. how?

Is Klang seafood really worth gettin lost for almost 2 hours? hmmn

..and the winner for randomest sign ever..

Tabbouleh, harira, tagine and moroccan rice. Nyahaha

Best hor fun ever. In Geylang. ( Pun fully intended)

I sucked major ass at beach volleyball

Just a *dash* of camwhorage

MMm pretty souless clinical architecture. How very Singaporean.

The folks holdin down a 9to5. Can you spot the students/unemployed?

Espla-nahd, Espla-neyd. Wotevaaaa

Don’t worry I’m still listening in to the lecture.

Don’t think I should go on much further lest I risk knocking you all down with amar shock – especially if I didn’t manage to see you in summer eh? It’ll be like 3 months of silence then hellLLLoooOO *talk talk talk spit spit spit* So I’m gonna top this of with a buncha select quotes that I managed to jot down this summer.

“Hahahaha tits and fighting. What else would a guy want? Unless its fighting tits. “

- W.A, on DOA the movie

“That’s cos everyone wanna fuck and they know they gonna fuck .”

- W.A, on why gay clubs have a better party vibe than straight clubs. Yes neither of us are gay. Well yours truly anyway – heh.

“Mmm, sexually aggressive choreography”

- me, a Homer moment after seeing the Buttons video for the first time

“Mmm, sexually aggressive choreography”

- Probably what that mark-ass fool Rais Yatim thought too when he finally learnt who the fuck PCD were.

“What happened to my name?”

“Oh I made it into a loaf of bread.”

“Mmm karipap breath…..no…wait crap its pussy breath”

- unattributable, WTF?

“What do you get when you but 50 lesbians and 50 politians in a room together? 100 ppl who dont do dick.”

- Anonymous

"Imagine all the worst parts of the Bible that you have ever heard, multiply these by ten, and then pretend it's real.”

- Overheard, on the wrath of women,

2006-06-28T18:59:00.000+01:00

Call me a masochist, but….

yeeEE-HAW for Malaysian heat!

Whether its 3, 6, or 9 months away I’ve always come back thinking “OMFG I’ve been taken the sun for granted” . Having to shower thrice a day, sweating like a stuck pig in a rotisserie and even having to suffer droves of malodorous plebeians will never change that.

That, however, will probably mean I’ll be dead soon enough from heatstroke while trying to regain some colour tanning at poolside between laps ( having warned my mother in advance to spare the little debacle in Penang last year - *anak orang putih gila mana tuh jemur tengah matahari tuh YA ALLAH anak akuuu!* ) unless I lapse into a diabetic coma first from the customary back-for-summer eating binge.

Finally back in my own comfy cozy room again. Ahhh…

Anyway –

Gallic Sales(wo)manship

Was doing some last minute shopping at good ‘ol Selfridges in London and decided to get a different brand of scented candles for the boss lady of the house. Somehow I ended up at the Diptyque shop and started sampling their irritatingly labeled ( scattered letters, which also happen to be in French) candles, when the salesgirl *foomph* appeared outta nowhere.

Miss E:Good afternoon, are you looking for anything in particular? * in a yummy YUMMY typical French accent*

Amar: Not really, just a gift for my mother.

Otak Amar: ZOMFG hot cute French salesgirl! Zut alors!

Aww how nice. Do you know what kind of smells she likes?

Yeah- light, green floral smells. Maybe something slightly sweet.
And the accent! The accent! *phooh phooh* kontrol kontrol

* 5 mins or so of aural and olfactory delight while she shows me the range *

Wow you really know your smells, no?

Hahaha that probably just means I do this way too often. I’ll take this one.
That’s blatantly a sale scoring fake compliment and I don’t even care.

Ah yes good choice, I really like that one too.

Haih tipu tipu pon enjoy jelah. OOoo nice ass too.

*rings it up at the till after taking a prettily wrapped one, and wrapping it in more scented wrap and chucking a few samples*

There you go, have a nice day.

Merci. (summoning all my wannabe kefrench-an)
Sigh that’s probably the last French accent ill hear for a while.

Merci beaucoup! Au revoir!

Man that’s such a refreshing change from the swarm of effeminate salesmen on the ground floor. Almost made up for the time a coupla years back when a cashier slipped me HIS number with the receipt after some small talk. So that WAS a wink earlier on. BrrrRRRrrrrr. Flattered but still extremely weirded out. BRrrr.

Anyway yeah man…you can sell anything, provided that there’s a hot French salesgirl pushin it. I’m sure Alizee could sell me a freakin brick for at least a hundred pounds. Ditto with Laetitia Casta and a bottlecap.

Back in GMT + 0800 –

Tengkiuuu Sangeetha for being underweight ( on luggage ). Muahaha didn’t have to pay a cent for overweight and also slickly evaded my guni beras hand carry being weighed all the way into the plane.

During three days , counting down from touchdown itself, I managed to have – Bubur pedas, keledek goreng, keropok lekor + murtabak from terengganu, cendol, pasembor, rojak, sotong kangkong, wantan noodles, pisang goreng, wajik durian, Sarawak laksa, assam laksa, and some things I don’t even remember. Some of it homemade, to boot!

Luckily my desktop survived being brought home in pieces. Even more amazingly, it worked after I rewired it from scratch in a new ultralight Thermaltake casing. Tak meletup! W00t! Definitely putting the new 7900GT through its paces with Oblivion.

Not the prettiest wiring job, but I can always tidy it up later. Psycho kan – later have to bring this bitch back sommore.

My old man’s impulse tech shopping continues with more gadgets that either will fade into disuse, or being grossly underutilized eg a Blackberry used ONLY for emails and a Nikon D50 probably doomed to a lifetime of poorly taken candids and corporate group poses. I will do all I can to liberate it from that fate – cmon the man doesn’t even know how to upload the photos to his comp. In the end send the whole camera to photoshop and pay even more to get the photos on CD.

So while bummin around i messed with the camera a little around the house....

So that’s another summer project – send dear old dad back to his film F65 and abscond with the D50 for camwhoring, incriminating candids and maybe the odd spot of artsyness or macro shots.

Alrighty now….who’s up for some 1 Utama-ing? CC-ing?

Eating-Amar’s-Food-ing?

Nyahahaha. R.S.V.P. dulu , dahlings!

2006-06-19T14:46:00.000+01:00

YEEE-HAW second year's done with.

Done.Dusted. Sterilised. Nuked.

Barring that one totally screwed 5 CATs paper, should be passable la. Worrying more about keeping that blasted 2-1. Gonna keep this short - gotta finish up packin and mosey down to London to get some last minute shoppayng done until my flight on the 21st.

No more of this....

A little bit of this...

And even this-

See y'all back home over summer!!!

2006-06-12T01:55:00.000+01:00

la la, la la!

we're gonna make you pop-u-lar!

ZOMG Wicked, The Musical soundtrack is farking nice okay! Super catchy tunes, super chunted cast. Actually BOUGHT the CD *KOFF deadTorrentKOFF*. Worth it. Set la this September must come back early to catch it in London dah. Chill chill Puteri don't book tickets yet tengok camana.

Basically, its a musical from a book in '95, a contemporary-ish take on Oz, going back in before The Wizard of Oz to tell more of the story of the Wicked Witch of the West. Why she is green, how she became misconstrued as wicked, whats really up with those ruby red slippers, everything! Marlass nak elaborate. Haih google or YouTube it only. Here's the trailer.

Speaking of Wicked Witches....

I'm MELTINNGGGGG!!!!!

The temperature has pretty much been 26Deg or hotter these last coupla days - with today topping 30. Its all fine and good when you're in the sun and breeze and shit. But not when you're in your room trying to study and you're sweating like a blind lesbian at the fishmongers. PANAS giler babi okay - not like my halogen table light or my freakin desktop is helping with the heat.

Anyone who finishes the ice in the fridge and doesnt refill will feel my tamparan tuhan hindu seribu tangan okayyyy!

But yeah back on exams and my iTunes playlist being a prophetic snarky slutbag ho.

Came back from Tech Sci 2 part 1 which i konfem totally mental block bombed ( dammit vibrationary mechanics and fluids) -

The Sound of Failure - The Flaming Lips

and Tech Sci 2 part 2 - which i think went rather well -Energy & Enviroment and Electromechanical dev. (except for the most faktap mistake - Taking bore diameters as radii when calculating area. DAMN waste).-

I Can Do That - A Chorus Line Soundtrack

Only Com. Sys ( which i'm takin a little break this very moment from ) and Tech Sci 2 part 3 to go. Balls to the wall time!!

But of course study hard must also play a liiitle bit in between also. Managed to play a little bit of the new Tomb Raider - the last one i bloody played was tomb raider 2 so yeah. Then i remembered why i dont anymore.

Its the same goddamned thing again and again with "better graphics" and "added gameplay mechanics". YEah - read "curvier curves" and " jigglier jugs". WHOPEE artifact hunt with some stupid story based on extrapolated myths, with a dash of her past inbetween.

After a few minutes of jumping chasms and shimmying across ledges and pole vaulting...

FUCK its just like Prince of Persia. Even the maps are quite similar. Just switch a gravity defying fakely British lass with a damned, brooding generic 1001 nights prince. Just switch the guns for swords. Even the combat manouveres sebijik i tell you.

They should meet. Lara and the Prince. Really.
Lara ( in Tea&Crumpets Brit accent): I see, those are some nice swords*jiggle*. Would you mind if i borrowed them and do some analysis on them at the Cavendish Institute?*jiggle* That will be right on brilliant!
The Prince: *looks around for Dahaka* Hands off BITCH.
Lara: Oh so is that how its going to be eh?

*runs circles around each other doing vaguely similar moves until lara plants a cap in the Prince's forehead*

*Prince rewinds time and decapitates Lara, whose corpse goes on jiggling for some reason*

UNHhh , workin, workin up a black sweat!

Okay wrong prince, but whatever.

Ain't touchin YouTube with a stick either. Those of you who have no more exams, youtube this - "silent library" - HILARIOUS Japanese gameshows. Seriously , these people come up with the weirdest/most hilarious/most disturbing things at the same time.

There's SOOO much fucking irritating unfunny rubbish on youtube. Self indulgent videoblogs. OMG those irritating videoblogs. At least with bad blogs , if you DO have to read them to fulfil some masochistic need at least you can read it fast. With a vidblog tho you'd have to endure their mugs and attempts and failed enunciation and overdramatizations.

Granted some of them ARE occasionally funny tho. Its just too fuckin easy for any moron with a webcam and a youtube account to impose their unfunniness/loserness/poseurishness on the unsuspecting youtube skimmer.

So boys and girls, the smartest thing to do is, AVOID youtube! Or at least, only search for things you know, or a link your friend sends and tells you its really really REALLY funny. If its not then slap their fucking teeth out.

Back to C++ and memory registers. Yumma dum dum. only 3 more dayssss!!!

*Amar sashays off to Rihanna's "S.O.S" *
*okay not sashay, but doing some usher/rain/JTish moves*

"Khianatiii, sebisa dirimu mengkhianatiii....": Cinta Putih - Kerispatih
"Super hailat tergolek jamban habis toilet paper": W.A. , nothing to do with TP emergencies

2006-06-06T15:22:00.000+01:00

I could SWEAR that my iTunes random setting has a bloody mind of its own.

As sweetly, meltingly soothing as they might be - Corrine Bailey Rae, Norah Jones and Jane Monheit are NOT productivity inspiring. They fucking send you off to a lovely place where everything is in blurred, contrast-enhanced Trip-O-vision ( think Monet) , fucking comfy couches everywhere draped in plush , silken cushions and everything smells like lilies. Bah

All this last minute cramming is makin me as antsy as hell. Would LOVE to get on a piste and go all ParangZorroButcherMusketeer on some hapless n00B.

Cooomela....epee, sabre foil also can.

Anyone?

"I give you balloon?"

Anyway, when i was rea....huh? Wha?

I think my barong mask is trying to say something to me. One sec.

"EH bisa kamu kerja tanpa beromong kosong atau meronong - mereneng, sih?"

Uh oh...

2006-06-05T22:58:00.000+01:00

This moment of procrastination is brought to you by:

Leftover Pandan & Half-Price King Prawns GmbH

in association with

Housemate Sakit Otak With a Hardon for Nasi Lemak Inc..

No better cure for cravings of cuisine from home or exam stress then good food, no?

Shake, tremble, cower and fear
For the time of the Melon- it draws near!

Greenish spheres of evil innate,
All in their path - destroyed, unmade

When the blood has dried, the ruins ashen,
Theyll break into song - in chorus, in unison

Their voices, not unlike a baby's cry,
This, no one left alive to deny

As the dark melodies unfurl
Nary a soul left privy to this, the end of the world.

Don't ask me what the hell i was channeling.

Back to sussin' out Running a Business questions. Oh Joy.Oh indescribable joy.

Sambaliciously signing out!

2006-06-02T03:26:00.000+01:00

YEsH i know i should be working, but i HAVE! My brain will turn to peanut butter ( "Sun-Pat"? more like cow-fuckin-pat) if i dont take a break from my Design for Durability blitz.

Just had to post a plug for my 3rd/4th year project proposal - Dr. M was quite keen on it as well so i just forwarded the brief after discussing it with him to the feller in charge of the project board. Seriously if its approved i'm gonna have soooo much fun with this -

The Riddle of Steel: A metallurgical & esoteric study of the historical art of bladesmithing.

Since the Bronze Age to modern times the art of bladesmithing has been shrouded in equal parts of lore and actual metallurgy. Through the course of this investigation, we shall delve into a historical – and if possible, specimen based – study of different historical swordsmithing methods involving Damascus steel, Wootz steel, Tamahagane steel and other crucible-fired steels.

Based on these qualitative and compositional studies, attempts to recreate these steels and their forging processes will be undertaken. These samples will undergo mechanical tests ( hardness, ductility, tensile strength) , macro/microstructure optical analysis and also a cutting test ( for which a jig would need to be devised). These tests will possibly culminate in the selection or the consolidation of a final composition and series of techniques with which a functional , full-sized blade will be produced.

In summary, this investigation will consist of:

A literature survey of classical swordsmithing methods covering technical and cultural/ornamental aspects.
The casting of test samples of selected compositions corresponding to the literature survey.
Mechanical tests on the samples for hardness, ductility and tensile strength, using several off-the shelf alloys as control samples
Microstructural characterization in relation to the compositional variation with the mechanical properties, again using several off-the shelf alloys as control samples.
To devise an experimental jig to evaluate the cutting ability of the samples.

can't make it sound too exciting - wouldn't want every tosser who goes "oooh swords - so much better than valves and vortexes and cement" and also appy for it. I want the WMG crucibles and forges all to myself.

During the meeting the other day he called in a colleague to join the discussion about the scope of this coursework. She was also quite interested - she was all like "whoaa this is just like the script in the Highlander movie ..you know the one where he tries to remake his sword but couldnt until he found the right metal?"

Ohhkay...

Then Dr.M pointed out that in sanskrit "Amar" meant immortal. Ironyyyyyyy.

But quite scared also - usually student proposed projects get more scrutiny and are usually picked for final year presentations to an audience usually comprised of freshers , members of staff and other ppl who can be bothered. Easy onlyyyy.....

*super drama music from something like Gladiator or highlander plays while shots of the forgework and testing roll*

*lights turn on, i do some katas with the blade, and chop something*

"Any questions?"

fuyooooooooooo set la.

On a random yet vaguely related note, looked up other meanings or "Amar". I already knew that it was the root for "love" in italian(amore) , spanish and portoguese. Apparently in Arabic it meant "great" and not "leader" as i had read somewhere before. Tapi potong stim giler when i found the Romanian meaning.

"Bitter"

Not even the seething, resentment bitter. The taste.

Well can't win 'em all!

"with your lvl 25 cookery skills, she is like a lvl1 neutral creep wei" - Alex, proving that there's been too much Dota action goin down.

2006-05-30T20:06:00.000+01:00

Listening to : Busta Rhymes - Touch it, Yin Yang Twins - Shake, and a whole lotta reggaeton. Feeling : equal parts stressed and unproductive.

Both of these songs layan giler man, just listen to them if you're not gonna check out the vids.

Just when i thought i build up some serious last-minute cramming momentum, potong stim again. Haih.

Just when i'm still wiping the spittle from the corner of my mouth from that ( verily subdued ) flame-war rant, here comes another shitstorm - The eBay laptop scammer who got 0Wn3D. Read about it here.

Cutting a long story short, this guy bought a laptop on eBay, with the seller claiming that it was in good condition except for a missing charger. When he eventually got it after a delay, however, it was defunct. The seller refused to refund or compensate him in any way , still defending that it was perfectly working when he sent it off. Naturally, the scammed buyer was a bit miffed.

Karma, however, had other things in store.

When the buyer either got it working or just salvaged the disk or something, he found that (presumably) the seller/scammer had not bothered to wipe the hard disk ( all the more reason to suspect that it was fucked before he shipped it no?) and it was full of finger licking goodness:

- His bank details, passport scans, and CV
- Porn.
- Gay porn.
- Foot fetish porn.

And the creme de la creme - sneaky mobile phone piccies of women's legs, mostly on the Tube.

What - you'd think he was just gonna sit down and accept losing 375 quid to an eBay scammer? He could have gotten his own back in quite a few ways - in the end , after still not getting his money back from the scammer he chose to start that blog naming and shaming the guy by putting up photos of him and his private predilections. Well, seemed like the most legal(well borderline legal anyway, since he owned the disk and all that came with it) , and satisfyingly vindictive, no?

He probably had no idea how big this was gonna get.

3 weeks and 700,000 hits ( as of today) later this has become an mob lynching of epic proportions. This story has just been published in newspapers from England to Australia, with the seller still at the same time hopelessly claiming innocence, and also threatening to sue for libel. Which is kinda hard when the evidence is just impossibly weighed against him. The hits are going up by the thousands every minute, and the comments page is just........welll

The comments started out amusingly enough with the odd comment of support and some very amusing attempts by the perp/perv and his crew to discredit himself and at the same time cast doubt on the buyers character. Then it started to become a heated discussion about the legalities of the situation with armchair and "IMHO" lawyers throwing out their piece.

After that all hell started to break loose, with threats, racist slur and the like - and thats with the tagboard already moderated to an extent. Xenophobes, homophobes and yokels just started popping outta nowhere. Its like everybody wanted a piece of the scammer - and a few were also clawing at the buyer ,"laptopguy" himself.

Seriously, the amount of bigots, 'tards, tossers and other trash on the comment board. WTF man. Even those who are supporting laptopguy are hurting his cause by letting the whole thing degenerate to that extent. Being shamed on such a freaking epic scale is already punishment enough for the scammer. Heh - it seems he's bearing the brunt of the wrath of a horde of scammed eBayers.

Its still impossible to tell whether this is gonna be a super intense flash in the pan thing, or will go on for some time. Whatever it is, this whole mess will provide a hella interesting case study for you lawyers, psychologists and sociologists, no?

The twists and legalities over the data and the use.
The power of a lynch mob, augmented by the anonymity and audience of the internet.

Its a freaking opera, i say.

Okay so it wasnt that short after all. You shoulda just went over to the site. Well at least i've kinda summarized the bajillion comments too.

My opinion?

PAAAAAAAADAN muka la. Padan muka padan muka x 100. Dahlah kantoi tipu orang - ada hati nak carik gaduh lagi. Shoulda just settled when he could man. He's just digging himself a deeper hole now man. Should be fun to watch tho.

Back to trudging through materials bullcrap. Meeting up with Dr.M tomorrow to drop my 3rd year coursework idea on him. See if i can dredge out anything on the materials paper hur hurhur.

2006-05-28T09:57:00.000+01:00

OMFGWTFBBQ yarabbi lasergun *pchew pchew pchew*

What is up with them brits , and caucasians in general and their unhealthy obsession with tanning? Just the other day i was grocery-ing at Sains' and it was Attack of the Leather -Skinned People. All shades and colours - from lobster red to "cheap spray tan" orange to "i gave myself skin cancer in Algarve but it was worth it" brown. Give it up - you can't cheat your natural skin colour man. Leave the gourgous sun-kissed olive tans to the mediterraneans.

No, seriously put your top back on.Really. PLEASE.

AieEEEE*pokes out eyes*

While we're bemoaning things European, nothing screams Eurotrash louder than the Eurovision contest. Seriously

Over the last 5 years i've been in this godforsaken country i've never given a rats ass about the Eurovision song contest. Factor in other people in your msn who do, youtube and exam procrastiation , however and yeah there ya go. This year's winners are a motley Finnish lot who look like a bunch of uruk hai who loved Kiss so much they started their own death metal band after Saruman hailat.

Alrighty it IS quite catchy, but im sure you're asking how did they win eh?

Because they're up against jacksies like this.

Thats the british entry. True, Eurovision is more a political and amusing spectacle rather than a talent contest but even by Eurovision standards thats goddamn appaling. A middle aged chav white boy rapper wannabe who's also probably a pedo. Baaaguslah. Im still sayin that the French told 'em that "oh zees year we have noo Eurovision, oui!" and then plucked some faktap council estate chav and told him to represent his queen and country at the esteemed musical stage that is Eurovision. And offered him a Burberry cap and some random bling.

Quick shoutout while we're on European culture - anyone *ehukehukLongridgeppl* who'll still be in london around 20th June and wanna catch something at the R.O.H? Damn gatal to see overweight people in helmets and leather corsets screaming in German and Italian. Esp if it happens to be in Aida, M.Butterfly, Turandot or anything Wagner.

I'm no Jeremy Clarkson, but since when has any man needed an excuse to perv over a car. Behold the new Ferarri Fiorano:

Looks like the best bits of the archetypal american muscle car(minus the oversized obnoxious chrome ramscoop up front) on a thoroughbred Italian. 6 litre V12 at 620 bhp and everythings bloody computerised - for ease of "everyday driving". Your kotekla everyday driving - you have that car also takkan you drive it to mamak or pasar malam kan? Even if you don't get carjacked ( yes assuming there's gonna be no more than 10 of those in M'sia - wont be very difficult to track down) someone is bound to just key it out of spite.

But seriously check out that ass.

Me likey .

For all you people who took my advice on Questionable Content, here's another comic for me to whore - Alien Loves Predator. Its a touch ( when i say touch i mean a huge grope) more surreal but still freaking hilarious. Typical American sass with just a touch of sacriliege.
Haven't been meeting my camwhoring quota here at all - so here's the next best thing - more droolicious pictures from my kitchaan!

Super nyummy open top breakfast sarnies - wholegrain bread, turkey ham, cucumber, tomatoes and eggs sunny side up with a choice of savoury spread - marmite, japanese mayo, tzatziki, guacamole, taramasalata , whatever go wild. If you got balls go combine all those la. Vomit sure like makan crayon liddat.
Panfried salmon with garlic, chilli and coriander infused butter - made it up on the spot. MMmmm. After making nasi goreng belacan the other day, only after the smell sank into the kitchen a few hours later - combined with the smell of cut grass on a warm rainy day - made me randomly think of home. One more month onlyyy!

Hey its exam season but it doesnt mean you cant eat well - hell its even MORE reason to makan puas puas kan?

Despite gettin my ass planted on my seat to cram for exams, there's still fuckload of web-based procrastination to be had.

Facebook ( Friendster is soooo proletariat)

MSN

And last but definitely not least , blogs.

Asides from your friends' blogs( whose tagboards you dont spam anymore - here's their Facebook walls for that) you gotcher:

Regulation bimbo blogs - not a derogatory term - they're fun brainless skimming with lotsa eye candy - and occasionally goood writing. If you can stomach the all-too-common chronic overuse of pink.

Satire, parody and purely ranty blogs - amusing reading, barring the occasional cheap shot or toilet gag.

Political, religious or cultural commentary blogs. Mostly one-sided, opinionated pretentious rants. The flame wars and name calling in the comments make good reading though.

Emo blogs/what i did today blogs. *right click, close tab*

That said, i can remember the good old days when THIS was an emo, ranty blog(with bad poetry to boot). Well it still is to some extent, but now its got shiny shiny pictures! Some of my quite recent posts can be quite bimbolic as well, innit? Over the years( hey i CAN say that. almost three is still more than 1) i mighta just tweaked it a little to be more entertaining and reader friendly for all you wayward random blogskimmers. Let it not be said that Amar's a bad host. Mint tea, anyone?

I kinda miss not having to censor and veto certain subjects & entries though. You never know who's reading - great is the power of Google indeed.

Sometimes while just skimming you get lost and when you look around, you're in the middle of a flame war. Its amazing how some people can feel so passionately about the most inane of things, or how tactless and hypocritical some people are. Fine, you're just asking for it if you randomly touch a sensitive subject with all the care of a cold-handed female gynae( or so i've heard) but sadder are the folks who dont realise that its a complete waste of time putting in your own 2 cents on blogs like that. You'd be better off opening tanning salons and taking stupid angmors' money. Its funny how some parties- especially the media - pinch something off some random wankers blog and say that its canon, that its the voice of the people.

Enough comedies with "heart" , more outrageously rude stand-up please, Mr. Williams

As if we don't have enough slander, drama and misinformation from state run media. Seriously bimbo blogs are the way la. I'm like up to here with political news from back home and what people think about it. 99% of politicians across the bloody world are ignorant, corrupt powermongers, especially Third World politicians who have this tribal "Big Man" mentality. You're welcome to grab that PHD in political science -i'll be seein ya as a panelist on some mornin talk show someday in between your thankless lecturing gig. No matter how much you know about the system and its flaws , you wont be able to fix it. So there.

Thats MY 2 cents as a disillusioned cynic, resigned to the life of a corporate whore.

And now for zee quotes !

"OMG bendalir faraj terabor summersault!"- dont ask

"macam spoon in a milo can jer." - yes this was said with a sexual connotation

"check out my one hand technique" - cutting steak with one hand, or explaining the long toilet sessions?

*JENG JENG*

HARD

*JENG JENG*

ROCK

HALLELUUUJAAAH!

2006-05-18T07:19:00.000+01:00

There goes my nicely adjusted body clock again. Hancur berkecai terabur bersepai. Pandai sangat la download 2 new games on Monday - Heroes of Might and Magic 5 and Rise of Legends. Yesh i know i should be studying , but the damage is kept to a minimum - i'm stuck, and tired of, HOMM 5 on Monday itself, and i finished ROL in less than a day. Psycho kan?

Well my clock has already been slightly skewed by workin out on the Solidworks redesign for manufacture bit of the mini-hydro generator. Its actually quite fun, but yeah it DOES feel like a little bit too much of my own time spent on a 3-CAT aspect of a 8-person group project.

Thats alllll me baybeh. But seriously. Setengah kumpulan aku semua orang PRC. Dahlah sekor dua slalu ponteng meeting - orang tengah bincang design, materials and manufacture diaorang *prekprekprek john galliano prekprekprek vivienne westwood* Kurang ajar babi sial. Kerja pun macam sial - buat sikit sikit pun takleh harap. Ingat nak pegi lab cam nak pegi catwalk Milan.

Obviously my time management skills always has, and always will be, RUBBAYSh.

*Earth tilts a few arc seconds more from the collective impulse arising from all the people who know me rolling their eyes sooo hard*

I guess there is just one more monkey to get off my back before i get back to full steam studying. Drolling out an entry here before i just go *blaargh fuckit* and get rid of the entry ideas and quotes that i've been jotting down. I have already lost the vitriol for quite a coupla rants.

Listening to : Rain, Tangga, Flaming Lips and Wagner ( Jiwang, Indie & Opera - how much wierder can it get?)
Feeling: like i have bees behind my eyelids. bees that are still pissed that Nintendo dropped "Revolution" in favour of "Wii"

First off imma whore some music. I've been listening to Tangga quite a bit - well their 4-5 decent songs anyway - but my favourite has been "Hebat" until i listened to "Terbaik Untukmu" a coupla times. Man that songs a helluva grower - make sure you check out the video clip. One of 'em's quite hawt.

Also foresee myself digging up more Korean music - mostly poppish R&B like Rain and SUPER hot Hyori Li. Well the songs arent THAT good - but Hyori's fuckin hot and Rain's vids got some slick choreo. Those two kimchee quaffing kids can moooove. I really like Rain's "I do" though. If it came on my ipod while i'm strollin on a sunny day i'd walk with a bit of a bounce too.

I might not be that big on classical music but i just LOVE German operatic composers. No one can fight Richard Wagner when it comes to rich, dramatic leitmotif strewn pieces. Its almost like every other classical movie score composer was influenced by him in one way or another. You've probably heard pieces from "Ride of the Valkyries" or "Tannhauser" or "Lohengrin" in some random ads or somethin.

Ooh OOOOh SUN! * points like jakun *

The other week we had another day of beautiful , sunny 25C+ weather. Thank god we made full use of it by milling around campus and chillin for a bit at the field in front of Maths & Stats building cos since then the weather has been typically rubbish again. After randomness and smoothies only Sangee, Din and myself ended up lounging about in the sun talkin about anythin BUT exams.

A lost little dandelion. Obviously not on my legs unless i've suddenly tanned a few pantone wheels and developed a penchant for anklets.

Another lost dandelion. And yup those be my feetRandom shot by sangee that came out really luvverly

"Exams? What exams?"

Haven't been spending nearly as much time in the kitchen. Which is good. Not only does that mean i have more time to procrastinate before doing work, i'd also be eating slightly less. Seriously feel so *blaargh* ( Not girly "*blaargh* dont look at me im fat" but " man i'm so restless and antsy *blaargh*") since not having gymmed for a week. Been doing some nice things with the fresh curry leaves Sangeetha brought me from home anyway. Yummaaaayy.

Karripulai r0xx0rxsz!

Oh and a quick little tribute to idiots now. If you also happen to be procrastinating, have a lot of free time, or are done with your exams (in which case DIE. Die now) read the links first.

Idiots who don't know when to shut the hell up. Seriously this is why the Information Minister pretty much laughed out the idea of having live telecasts of the Dewan Rakyat. True you also have plenty of audacity in the British Parliament but that's at least the "question authority" kinda audacity. This is just vulgar, kampong audacity. Seriously the YDP should have a button that automatically feedbacks the whole PA system to shut up errant MPs. Or we COULD go with the live telecast thing and have an AF thing with SMS votes and all. Except the MP with the most votes gets tasered where he sits. Then maybe they'd serve the people a bit better. Synchopantic self-serving empty suits. Also read about the scandal with the MP and illegal logging fiasco. Actually blatantly asking the customs officer to close one eye? KNNBCCB.

Narrow-minded bigoted idiots. What a total asswipe. (Its in Malay tho)

And best of all, idiots who obsess about other idiots. Okay fine you're gay. But please don't act like 10 year old girls with neoprints and all. *Brrrr*

They don't make 'em like they used to...

Anyone remember those super random cult classic fiction/fantasy movies from the 80s? C'mon there's some freaking classics there man. Over the top acting. Bad effects. Stories that are like OMGWTF. Flash Gordon, Dune ( the crap version with Sting). He Man, Sonja Red, Conan, Krull, etc etc etc.

James Earl Jones : " Luke, i'm your fath....CRAP wrong script!!"
Ahnuld: "You've just been erased....auAuAuAhGh" * decapitates the gaffer*

They're just damn fun to watch sometimes when you got nothing else to do on a boring rainy day or over a quick meal. You really gotta appreciate the effort they used to put in into the "smoke & mirror" special effects, the costumes, and the sets in the good ol' days without CG.

weEEll better get back to work tho. Here's a nice big heap of steamin' fresh quotes from the weeks past:

"banana is a good source of potassium, msn is a good source of procrastination" - Sheryl

"real men wear makeup" - Charlotte "Faghag" Yeow

"what do you call a gay ape? berukback mountain!!"- Alex, who deserves divine retribution from the god of bad puns.

"oh my god DIE YOU INCRIMINATING PHOTO TAKER" - Naziah "Cheery" Abas

*on a blackboard in PvP*
"Nietzche: God is dead"
*erase erase rewrite*
"God: Nietzche is dead"

2006-04-25T04:57:00.000+01:00

Ice creams ice creams, two fo' the pair

Ice creams ice creams this is warfare
Pharell Williams, The Ice Cream Man

It's only proper that the earth spirit( Gaia, Mother Nature, whatever weirdass name Scientologists would call her by) be referred to as a female entity - because she is the bringer and sustainer of life..

And also one helluva temperamental flamin bitch.

Quick someone get that crazy woman some Chunky Monkey!

Hurricanes, typhoons, earthquakes, floods, draughts, famines, plagues....

Oh yeah and goddamn British weather.

Anyhoo, just the other day i thought i'd celebrate getting my body clock back in order by having a morning swim/gym before my afternoon lectures. What with the morning being warm and sunny i packed mosturizer la - nice nice mandi lepas workout, taroh my hair stuff and everything and was just heading out to lects...when it was raining outside like FUCK liddat. By British standards, that was a right and proper shower - some parts of town were even mildly flooded apparently.

*Shake-dries himself like a wet dog*

Fast forward to today - the Tech Sci 2 lab report deadline is just days away and i'm still pussyfooting like fuck on it. Its now 5 am in the morning, and i'm bouncily lipsyncing to my Musicals playlist ( nope still not gay ) as i pen this entry. No matter how many things you think you've gotten out of the way of your work, something will always pop up like a freakin' whackamole for you to bash with the proverbial club that is your precious, lucid, productive time. You know you've got it bad when you've planned to procrastinate by blogging, and you don't even get to do THAT because you suddenly decide to wiki something totally random.

Today's rambling rant is brought to you by Elevated Crotch Temperatures Sdn.Bhd:

Them 'nads, them balls..

I'm sure we were all taught in basic biology that in most mammals the testes are kept outside of the body to maintain a lower , optimal temperature for the sperm. Which is fine, if you're a magnificent gazelle or cheetah or other quadruped running happily around the savannah, playing your part in the great circle of life while the wind cools your gonads.

Cheetah: "MMmm windy"

The males of our species dont have it so sweet tho, what with the whole concept of clothes ( 'specially underwear) and the fact that we sit around in the aforementioned clothes for a great deal of the day. And sitting with layers of fabric around your googlies with nothing but thighs for company lead to uncomfortable amounts of heat buildup. Even while you're moving around, the evil nature of cloth by which it shifts and flows, along with the heat necessitates some *adjustments* now and then. Failure to carry out the rearrangements discreetly and speedily can bring varied results from shocked stares to traffic accidents.

Its already canon that prolonged *hot packet* conditions can severely deteriorate sperm count and quality. Maybe thats why sarong clad fishermen sire so many more kids than Calvin-ed, suited execs hmn ( ignoring family planning the horrendous costs of raising and educating middle class-and above-children)?

You gotta wonder if everything had evolved differently. I'm sure a few little tweaks a few billion years ago woulda made sperm that happily swam around a body temperature, and we wouldn't hafta put up with our dangly bits (Well not THAT dangly bit). The female physique is so much better designed - its irritating how ova happily tolerate body temperatures while sperm don't.

But i guess when it comes to practicality, the sexes are kinda even. Women have bigger balls( a little higher, higher yep thats 'em) to constantly adjust and worry about( no i don't have all the time in the world to launch into a briefs/boxers vs panties/bra/lingerie/1000x more undergarments ramble) And a hysterectomy/tubectomy is just a darrrrn bit messier than a vasectomy no?

But getting back to clothes, i'm sure when our cro-mag forefathers fashioned nice furry clothes to drape over their bodies, it was more to not die from the freakin cold rather than to cover up their bits. Or maybe they realised they DO need to cover up their bits upon realising after a few hunting trips or *grunt grunt* fights over females or food that yes ,getting any kind of trauma there hurts. Screw sabretooth claws -

"When branch and twig flick Ug's happy stick Ug PAinNn "*points to crotch, mimes tears*

Obviously our 'nads have more than their fair share of receptors, so that you'd take better care of them to be able to procreate, and to enjoy the act of procreating . Biological directive and all. But you can be sure that physiological needs rather than shame or decorum were the first reasons for the covering of the crotch region in garments. Anthropologically i'd guess the evolution of more elaborate costuming came with the desire to display your prowess at resource acquiring and status in society. But thats another whole ramble.

But yeah, whatever. Even when i wear my kain pelikat at home i dont go commando, okay!

Back to less dangly things...

A few days back we were randomly lookin up some new watches , and actually learned what a minute repeater is - its a mechanism that is MUCH more complicated than a tourbillon that can be used to emit distinct chimes for hours and minutes, enabling the wearer of the watch to tell the time by sound alone. Here's a video of how one works - be sure to turn the sound up. Match the sound to the time on the watch and i'm sure you'll get how it works.

You can give all the gold, platinum and diamonds to the rappers and the tasteless nouveau riche. I'm sure being an engineer has a little bit to do with me being obsessed with the most intricate and beautiful mechanical movements.

Its so fuckin cool.

As with every other accessory or item of clothing i see, when i see something i like on first sight, its bound to be juuuust tad out of budget.

Gourgeous isnt it? In this case out of budget would be putting it mildly. More like stupidly crushingly off the hook goddamned tak ingat dunia expensive. You gotta pay through your bloody nose for the workmanship and rarity of these things. These bitches cost 800k Swiss francs each ( about 2.5mil RM), and they're only making 3 a year - there's already a waiting list of 17 . Vacheron & Constantin repeaters start at 300k USD. The simple non-calendar ones.

Even IWC repeaters start at 40k USD. Sigh, selling a kidney would probably get me the box and the warranty tag. I considered selling my soul, but i think i might already have done so for some frivolous thing when i was smaller and i cant find the receipt. Feh- doubt it'll fetch much more either. Its gonna be a while before i can hear the sweet , tinny mechanical gongs on my hand.

On a literary/timewasting note, i've just trolled upon a frickin sweet online comic - Questionable Content.Been spending the last few days reading the strips all the way from #1. The art is nice, but the real killer is the central storyline of the comic. Drama giler sehhh the love triangle. Also, its a very witty, snarky comic - some of the lines are just classic! They poke fun at everything from music, movies, pop culture,art, books, religion, computer games, EVERYTHING! I loveitloveitloveitloveit. Seriously, its worth going through the 600+ strips. GooooooOO!!

And now, with blogging done, there is nothing else to procrastinate on! I can finally get back to WORK!!

*schniff schniff* omgomg the muffins !!

"i feel unsafe without my titanium panda" - Lu

To err is human. To be able to strike down those who err against you with
lightning and brimstone is divine.

2006-04-16T04:29:00.000+01:00

If you heard an unholy, indescribable noise a few days back ( kinda like a Balrog's roar + Fran Drescher's laugh + Gilbert Gottfried's voice) it was just me screaming in anguish after weighing in at the gym for the first time since Suraya's surprise posh posh b'day high tea on Monday.

A very *high* tea indeed....

Moseyed on down to Oxford last monday for a day trip. Kudos to Naz who did all the stressing-to-the-max organizing AND made a cake herself. Must have been a pleasant surprise ( albeit a little unsettling at first ) to have someone suddenly drop by, give you a dress to wear , and order you to follow them to an undisclosed location in town.

Even the weather cooperated that day...

*Insert own comment either about sheer number of candles or something else pertaining to the crazed look or the knife*

Maddeningly British ( and carb-laden ) high tea. This plate of shortbreads, scones, sandwiches is for two......and we also got a slice of super rich cake( not counting Naz's cake ) and a pot of tea each. btw its Lapsang Souchong, not Tapsome BongBong

Urm yeah. Phooo-toooo. Eh i wasnt the only guy there okay!

Naz trying to pull an Audrey Hepburn. Malangnya jadi macam the visually impaired woman in front of Globe Silk Store playing keyboard liddat.

The rest of the week? Normal generic-brand nondescriptness:

i. Try and do work. Get sidelined by facebook/googlevids/youtube/msn. Repeat
ii. Swim/gym. Come back too tired for (i)
iii. Semi constructive procrastinating in the kitchen. Refer to Fig.1

Fig. 1 - Apple tarts. Fresh outta the oven. Mmmmmm

Of apples and lies...

Tried an allnighter af F211 instead of the grid - and it was a helluva lot more constructive. Almost got in the whole "fuckfuckexamexammustwork" groove. Read: ALMOST.

Oh wait, i meant to say conducive. *blink blink*

Did a fair bit more progress on ze Lab Report and some reading alongside babysitting torrents on a few of the computers. New shows, work done! Win win situation!

There might not be smartboards and plasma screens at F211, but there's still much amusement to be had! With netmessage for example - a 'run' command line that lets you send messages as windows system popups to other computers on the network - or the whole network. Beyond the obvious use of irritating friends working there, there's also the potential for some deviousness. Like on the first night, there was a girl working a few computers in front who's had an apple on her computer for the whole night. Conveniently just as we were packing up to leave she went out with her boyfriend for "water" so we netmessaged her the following from a computer a bit further away from us and all left the lab trying not to burst in fits of cheeky giggles.

" No apples please. We have a strict 'no apple' policy in F211"

We hung around at the corridors around the corner a safe distance away where we could barely see her reaction to the message. She seemed startled enough. AHhahahhaha

The next day one of the computers i usually worked/torented at had the monitor turned off and a handwritten note that said " Do not touch - running calculations ". I remembered having to clear some torrents on that workstation's temporary disk ( weird chinese videos ) to make room for my downloads so hMMMnnnn........

Sho nuff', there was nothing running on that comp except Bitspirit. Which was downloading nothing. Not only did that feller have the nerve to not babysit his torrents and clear the disk afterwards, he couldn't even be bothered to check whether his files were still there.

whoops.

PENIPU PALAT HARAM "calculations" konon.

Soooo this called for a double sided assault. I netmessaged that workstation "Please do not torrent in this lab, or your logon will be revoked.Sysadmin". KOFF KOFF hypocrite KOFF KOFF. Taib tambah sikit and left a Word file open that said something to the effect of " Calculations? yeah right"

Much ado about nothings that keep me from hitting the books

Still listening to too much Indonesian jiwangness -simmple tunes that stick in your head and simple lyrics that don't take too much reading into. I somehow forgot to mention Mocca along with Tangga and La Luna - they actually made me forget about PeterPan , Dewa and So7 for a while. But of course, there's balance in everything - Also listening to the new albums from Prince, Pharell and Jay-Z - some good shit right there. Preserve the sexxay!

Seriously man, some of these Mocca songs are so sweet and sappy yet so...soo.....like sedap liddat. Ignore the cacated video and just listen to the song.

While we're still on balance, y'all just HAVE to see the new Benny Benassi vid. Its a tribute to 70s porn movies - see if you can pick out any of the titles. In this case its all about the video - altho the song is pretty freakin catchy too....

Just imagine, this is the CENSOREd version. MMmmmmm. Makes "Satisfaction" look like an actual power tool ad no?

Also managed to read "Maus". Its a graphic novel where the author tells the story of his father, an Auschwitz survivor. I didn't care much for what was supposed to be one of the main drawing points of this graphic novel - the visual methapor where the jews are mice ( hence the german Maus) , Germans are cats, Americans are dogs and the Polish are pigs. Not only does it detract from the human element of the story - the core element of any Holocaust story - i personally thought that the metaphors messed up the story towards the end. It was a horribly sad story, as most Holocaust stories go but i wasn't anywhere near as moved as i was with Persepolis. I don't know whether its the scruffy illustration, the metaphorical anthromorphozation or just the fact that it wasn't very easy to identify with either him or his father.

I just can't see why every other half decent graphic novel's compared to it.

The best account of a Holocaust survivor i've seen is the screen adaptation of a survivor's diaries-cum-novel:"Out Of The Ashes" . The actual book is nigh on impossible to find nowadays. Its about a Jewish doctor- a Gisela Perl- who suffers the loss of her entire family and only made it through Auschwitz because of her medical skills where she was made a camp doctor. Not only did she have to stuggle to survive herself, she was also single handedly responsible for saving the lives of hundreds of women in the camps through her position combined with her sheer strength of will. After all this, she still had to endure harsh questioning in the US for her citizenship due to her having worked under Dr. Mengele.

Those of you who think "The Pianist" was a good representation of the Holocaust, you haven't seen anything yet. Fine the cinematography was good but the storytelling was so garbled , and the character development was rubbish. Also you had to put up with Adrien Brody's stonking huge schnozz on half the screen most of the time. Damn irritating. Dunno why Zegna used him in their ads also. The only thing a Brody Zegna ad will make me feel like buying are a pair of solid brogues i can use to bash his huge-ass nose in.

Started on my fairly ambitious booklist by ploughing through the first few chapters of Humanity: a moral history of the twentieth century. Its about understanding, if not justifying the atrocities of the last century through philosophy, politics and history : Hiroshima, Naziism, the Gulag, Rwanda and so on and so forth. The first few chapters covers quite a bit on Nietzche's writings - now i really can't wait to move on to study Nietzche proper. I have a feeling i'll like his work quite a bit. Anyone who forgot my birthday - "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" and "The Genealogy of Morals" are on my Amazon wishlist *hinthinthint*

Well if engineering doesn't pan out ( hopefully not as drastically as computer science) there's always politics and philosophy. Heh. Or catering. Or dancing.

Oh and a final distraction - those 2 small lego kits that i bought in Hamburg at the end of our Germany odyssey 3 years ago? I take'em apart and put together something random and new everytime my fingers get finicky.

Yesh again if you forgot my birthday, small lego kits are welcome too! NO its not kiddish - its engineering man. Lots of engineers tinker with Lego for designs - you can make functional clocks, even computers and logic machines from Lego dammit.

By the way, i just rifled through those videos of us playing with these back from Germany. A roomful of Imperial College students in their PJs playing with Legos. Complete with sound effects. (i still maintain its NOT kiddish).

DUUUDe you know you've got it bad when you're even procrastinating to blog, which is in turn an act of procrastination relative to studying.

"That girls are raped, that two boys knife a third,
Were axioms to him, who'd never heard
Of any world where promises are kept,
Or one would weep because another wept."

W.H.Auden

2006-04-07T02:37:00.000+01:00

Feeling : Introspective, actual physical pain (never again will I play tennis, jog, swim and gym in the space of 4 hours)
Listening to : Tangga, La Luna , the Chorus Line original soundtrack

Barely got back from finally watching V for Vendetta at Odeon and figured I might as well get down to some blogging while my synapses are still warm from trying to pick out all the subtleties in the dialogue/plotline and trying to understand the psychology of the insane genius behind the mask. I know its been out for a while, so I will pass on inflicting yet another blogger’s 2 cents about it on you folks. ( mostly because in a bit, surprise, surprise, I’m gonna pop a book review in yo’ ass!)

In a nutshell, I loved it. Although the part at the end is daaamn fake.

Been going through quite a few books lately – although none are course related. Goddamn Amazon’s recommendations – its evil and spot on I tell you. Even catching up on some serial 3-4 parter comics ( some Aliens, Star Wars and Predator stuff – tres geek, I know) that I started but could never finish because I could never find the goddamn books.

I can’t remember how I stumbled across this particular recommendation, but I’ve found a fuckin gem in Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis”. Its an autobiography, in graphic novel form of the life of an Iranian girl, born to Marxist parents, who grew up during the Iran-Iraq war and Iran’s Islamic revolution. The first book focuses on the revolution and the people caught in it , both family and friends, through the eyes of a child-preteen. A well read, enlightened quick witted child – thanks to her parents’ emphasis on raising a smart, liberal and outspoken daughter – but still a child nonetheless.

Not only is it actually a somewhat educational read when it comes to the history of Persia/Iran , it is also thought-provoking, moving and even amusing at times. The author is apparently an illustrator by profession, and her simple black and white drawings belies the symbolism and the imagery that can convey more than the words themselves.

I just finished Persepolis 2 today, fresh out of the Amazon box it came in. The second book has a completely different feel to the first, but it is just as good. It picks up with our protégé continuing her studies at 14 in Vienna at the behest of her parents who thought it best to send her away instead of seeing her continually chafe under the cultural and intellectual oppression back home. We see her go through the typical throes of adolescence – and a little bit more – what with being torn between her liberal curiosity and being true to herself and her traditional upbringing and values AND also the desire to fit in in a foreign culture. Also, we see her return to her homeland where she gets even more lost and confused.

I'm sure many of you would identify with at least a few aspects of the protege's experiences, and if nothing else be thankful for the liberties and freedoms ( well, comparatively ) that we have back home that we've been taking for granted.

Nothing sums up both books better than this quote from Zadie Smith (author of White Teeth) :

“…reasserts the moral bankruptcy of all political dogma and religious conformity; how it bullies, how it murders, and how it may always be ridiculed by individual rebellions of the spirit and the intellect.”

Grab or bum a copy now! If you’re in Warwick, I’ll probably chase you down and whore you my copy myself. Muaahahha

After reading both books and watching Vendetta, something just clicked and I remembered something I wanted to write about some time ago.

Disclaimer : I'm gonna breach the subject of religion. If you do choose to read on, please keep an open mind. Or just skip this bit.

How religion and politics are as inseparable as dance and song. It’s just a matter of who’s leading to the music at the moment.

This is vividly illustrated in the entire slutarded geopolitical climate of the middle east, and more subtly ingrained in the last 2000 years ( and a little bit more ) of our recorded history. The Romans own take on ‘original’ Christianity that still remains in much of the ritual and symbolism of Catholicsm. The civil wars after the passing of Muhammad. The Crusades. The Spanish Inquisition. The many ways the Vatican crowned and deposed kings and queens during the rest of the medieval ages and the renaissance. The Holocaust. I’m sure you can’t help but wonder what the last 2000 years would have been like without the hand of the three major Monotheisic religions, hmmn?

Like what I said – the more you read into the history, the more flawed the concept of organized religion is especially when it comes to statecraft and the mandate of the rule.

From the ruling caste’s point of view, the people need a symbol to rally around and unite. In societies of old and even some today where a significant portion of the population remain illiterate or comparatively uneducated, monarchies or theocracies maintain control over the masses by claiming the divine mandate to rule, and relying on the subjects fear of divine retribution or eternal damnation for acts in contrivance to the set moral/religious codes.

…..To be continued. I need to do a bit more reading to get my facts straight. Especially about current governments. Its already gonna be fuckin peningfying , and that’s without involving crazy ass conspiracy theories and other parties like the Freemasons and other quasi-religious orders. Or I could just stop there and reiterate my point that organized religion was just a phase in the evolution of the science of government. Whether you think it is a success or failure is your own bag.

And that’s enough of me trying to be an all opinionated, pretentious literati wannabe. Bring on the superficialness!!

Back to our regular programming...

Been listening a lot to the whole West Side Story and Chorus Line soundtracks – I’ve seen neither on stage, but from listening to the songs and reading the stories, I bet I’d just LOVE Chorus line more than any other musical I’d ever seen if I actually would get to watch it. God knows when its coming to the UK again, but apparently they’re gonna start another run of it on Broadway.

Believe it or not, I’ve not been to a proper , old school – like Giselle or Swan Lake- ballet either. When better to further my cultural enrichment than the Bolshoi’s first UK tour in 16 years? But as luck would have it, its in bloody summer during the holidays. Haih. Looks like I gotta do with whatever they’ve got at the Royal Opera House next time I got some spare cash. I’m sure they’ll have something I’ve been dying to watch – but just cannot find kaki to go watch with.

Karma is , and always was, a bitch. I think I’ve told that story of the weather turning from sunny to a torrential hail in May a coupla years back over a game of tennis too many times. The other day managed to scrounge a threesome for tennis as the weather was KiNdA nice, and no sooner than when we got warmed up it started bloody snowing. Fuckin snowing. Kept playing through tho like the crazy people we are. Thank god when I played the next morning the weather was a skosh nicer. I coulda sworn I felt a faint tingle of sunburn on my face as well.

Its irritating when you’re stuck with going to the gym during the peak hours during holidays – its surprisingly just as busy as term time, if not busier. What is MORE irritating, however, are the fuckin twats who hog the weights machines like ni gym bapak diaorang. Yes, you’re entitled to catch your breath and rest up for a little bit if you’re doing multiple sets of reps or supersets but don’t fucking sit there for fucking 5 minutes scratching your balls and talking cock with your other inconsiderate iron monkey friends. Bloody asswipes hanging around holding on to the machines like bloody gorillas marking their territory. Bloody gorillas with protein shake tumblers.

Here’s more finger lickin prettiness from my kitchen that I just had to share. The first pic is some canapés I made outta smoked salmon ( that my housie greedily bought but couldn’t finish ), hummous, tomatoes , cucumber and chives.

And this is a colourful, tasty snack I fixed yesterday - grilled halloumi cheese, some nachos, guacamole, tomatoes and turkey ham. Was absolutely ravenous after an insanely physical morning( like I said earlier – tennis, quick jog, half hour of laps at the pool and an hour at the gym doing circuit ) which left me with killer cramps in my thighs.

Oh and a few pics from my recent London sojourn – at CC club- ( I wonder who’s that bumping into the camera on the bottom right ) that I just picked up courtesy of Elle’s Facebook page.

Oh yeah did I mention that? I’m on my way towards being a Facebook addict as well! For those of you not in the know, its basically a simpler Friendster, except that you gotta be part of a uni or college. Its all nice and uniform, meaning no keling karam unreadable colour schemes and those annoying music videos. That, and the fact that tagging walls are so much more fun than lameass testimonials.

Finishing of this longass bitch of a post with a link that you will find either really stupid or really funny. Or not get it at all. Curse you, Bakry for getting me hooked on ‘em.

“Chuck Norris doesn’t wear a watch, HE decides what time it is.”

2006-03-31T00:44:00.000+01:00

*beep beep* Hollaaa!!!

Before anything else, imma have to roll out a whole buncha thankyous -

To warga-warga Longridge Road for housing me ( and putting up with my nonsense ) for my THREE sojourns to London this easter alone - and for nursing me with your ( worryingly large ) treasure trove of pharmaceuticals when i was taken ill on the second visit, AND the slicingly gorgeous present!

To all my kakaks (yeah and you Longridgers too) for the dinner at Galipoli, and Puts for the purty little corner of yo' room to crash at.

Oh yeah Sam and Nadia for the (slice of) cake. No, really!

And now, back to our regularly ( hah my ASS) scheduled blogging -

Naturally, you'd think logic would dictate that people would blog more during holidays, what with the spare time , and the *interesting* things most of us would get up to during the holidays. Weirdly, its been nothin like that - one one hand, you're actually busy travelling, actually gettin work done AND just simply partying , all the while making little notes on outings or thoughts to blog on.

Then, when you're actually sitting down on the computer setting out to blog, BLAM - your head's more blank than a piece of blank A4 paper dipped in Tipp-Ex - no ideas, no mood, nuttin. Even those collages and crap you photoshopped just to put up are like....bleeargh. Well either that or you burn away your lucid computer time on the odd game online with yo' homies or blogskimming/friendster-stalking/online-shopping.

Doesn't help that the stuff that it'll be really fun and engaging to write about will be , putting it mildly, unbloggable for many reasons.

Moving on,

More London-ing

After a stupidly dissapointing end of term party ( english students + charity bid playlist requests = fucktardedness ), and also the lameass "Mad March Party" the day before that ( N.Trance wasnt too bad, but white trash garage? Amnesia House can all go die la ) rolled out to London to catch UCL Dance Soc's 20th anniversary performance, aptly enough titled "20" , with 20 performances. Without going into a gushing, long review, it was fucking incredible - you wouldn't believe it was completely student run from the stagecraft to the choreography. Heh - makes all the Warwick dance socs' performances look like a show by *special* people.

Fell sick the day after that and did fuckall over the next coupla days till i got back to Coventry. Karma, or just not enough water and too much oily food?Whatever. At least saved some money there.

After just about another week of tedium in Coventry( including a failed attempt at a productive allnighter at the Grid ) , i was back in merry olde London again. Its always like :

Getting off the train/coach : " Ahh London again .*smirks*"
15 mins or so later, on the tube at rush hour : " I fucking hate London"

This was the one trip down i couldnt miss - the annual Petronas Scholar's briefing. The hotel they picked - The Guoman at Cumberland or somethin like that was new and daaaamn nice. The talks and slides at the briefing was actually more technical and relevant this year. One speaker was actually entertaining (surprise!). But that doesn't mean that they can drag it on for 3 hours. There was subtly a little more emphasis on the main prerequisite of the scholarship - "serve your bond, because if you jump ship we'll rape you through your pants. Or at least your guarantors" - well not in those words exactly, but yeah.

I kena arrow as the official photographer, but not like i needed an excuse for gratuitous shutter-happiness. Cheers to Lionel for loaning me his D70, less i look like total schmuck being a photographer with my banged up 3 year-old Ixus.

Most of us managed to actually look proper and all corporate for most of the day.

Much love to my ex-Oundelian medic sistas

And of course, followed by Camwhore-o-rama 2006. What can i say, i learnt from the best...

I have spared you, my lovely readers from going "oMG this Amar kan..." a few more times by just putting ONE collage up. Well that and i don't want to exceed my blogspot limit in my next few posts.

Since most of 'em had their final year interviews the next day, we put my birthday dinner on hold till Sunday and any other celebrations for after that.

Sooooo later that night / early the next day, technically ushered in my 22nd year on this ball of mud with a few quiet caiprinhas ( actually found cachacha at selfridges! yay!) and chillin with Charl, Lionel and Lu back at Longridge Road - hahaha so comel okay- they came in later with candles on a krispy kreme and my prezzie. Cue more caiprinhas!

Met up with Nadia & Sam and later joined the other 2 VWs and some other folks at Leicester Sq. for coffee. Well cake actually. The highlight of the night though was the dinner at at Galipoli - a damn nice Turkish place near Angel - with The Longridgers, Puteri, Naz, Elle, Alina and Liyana. The food was sedapp...except that i should have ordered the Iskander instead of the Incik ( yes cue a fuckload of puns about the *tender incik* and whatnot)..

Yeap Naz i *believe* you made that cake, and found a M&S cake box with a picture of a cake JUUSt like it lying around and used it to sneak it to the restaurant ahead of me.

I'm sure SOMEBODY knew about this before so eagerly booking our table there:

*after bringing out the cake all lit up, to a banging bellydance "happy birthday" remix*
Waiter: "...and now, since it is your birthday, you will have to do a bellydance on the table."

Fuckness. Well at least the waiters and other clientele had no idea what was coming. Heh.

*lots of dropped jaws later*
Waiter:" ...wow. Okay that was good. And now, since its your birthday, you get to pick one of these ladies to dance on the tables.."

Must've been a new rule. Paaaaadan muka kau Puteri. HAHAHHAHA.

Cooked some Thai for the Windemereans that Tuesday - Stirfried chicken with thai sweet basil, mango & papaya salad(a bastardised Som Tam) and Tom Kha Gai (chicken soup with coconut milk). How was it? See this picture enough already...

Eh i didn't say anything pervy okay..

Had a fab-beau night out later with the ladies at CC club after that. Even if i had the pictures from it of off Elle, i think my balls will kena potong with chinese soup spoon if i posted them.

All in all it was a great time in London mann.....i need to detox from the EATING alone, and i have enough Selfridges bags to make a colostomy bag for a fuckin whale. Came back knackered, happy and 22!!

Tried to recreate tuesdays menu, minus the soup while cleaning out the fridge. Had enough to make this, and a matching platter for my hungry hungry housie. In 45 mins. Shazayymn!!!
Well while i'm putting up food pics.... here's a chicken tandoori i made from scratch together with the raita i made last week.

I'm not one for putting up recipes or directions, cos ...yeah...i DO use the proper recepies, but i tailor the measures and the ingredients to MY taste, and also modify it as i go along. I hardly even make the same thing twice the same way. So seriously, if you wanna learn to cook something, just like, google the recipe and follow the directions.

Yeah, i obviously take a lotta pride in my cooking. Because its that good. Muahahhaha. And i also obviously love my square white plates.

I know i promised a buncha rants on my last post, but sorryla kena tunda sikit also....

Actually i'll get that weather one out of the way now. I'll just post up the pictures and you can fill in the words yourself - bear in mind this is a few weeks back when you'd get hail outta fuckin nowhere and all the *proper* meterologists were probably too busy playing Sudoku.

Next coupla of weeks are going to be mostly studying and working, so that ALSO probably means fuckloads of procrastinating, WHICH would probably lead into pretty consistent blogging. So yeah.

Back to doing actual work while munching on indian sweets. MmmMm ladooooo.

Oh yeah and here's something hilarious to watch.

2006-03-07T02:55:00.000Z

To Friends, Food & Fffffreakalickykikodingdong

Couldn't find a third 'F' word thats gonna fit in the theme. So sue me. Oh and this is mostly gonna start with a little 'this was my week' ditty - Dont worry i've already got some rants lined up for the next post!

Its been a tiring, tummy filling, wallet busting syiok-ifying weekend in London. In summary:

- Caught Imperial's mnite. Not too shabby. Some good singing ( but a guitar solo at the end of Berhenti Berharap? no, non, nein, niet, nahiee - rosak mood) and their take on Thriller was dope. Their leads were good too. Compared to Warwick's mNite this year? Must watch both DVDs first then can comment....

Post IC Mnite poseur-ing (camwhoring sounds so keras) . Sick of my smarmy mug yet?

- Made up for lost time in eating out - Thai at Addie's, Indian at Masala Zone, Italian at Zizzi's and Lebanese at Al-Dar. And as if that werent enough foodie-ism, randomly watched 'the f-word' reruns on late night TV ( that Gordon Ramsay show).

- Managed a spot of shopping on Sunday. Retail therapy felt sooo good after a whole term of shoplessness. Picked up some Molton Brown goodies, scarves, and some super syiok chocolates , among other things.

Single source, single bean darks. Good ol' Valrhonas, Prestat thins and something new. *beats off chocoholics with a stick*

You'd expect me to say "oh GOSH i just can't wait to go back again to London next week again!" but looking at my bank balance, and forecasting the partyin thats gonna come up in the last week of term.....yeahh.....we'll see how that goes. Definitely plannin to hit some Japanese food, the V&A and just for old times' sakes, Nahar. I want my Nahar Special and goreng pisang dammit!!

Anything interesting during the week? Not really - just another dangerously slack week. The fuckin rapid prototyper's still out so we still can't do jack shit on our Hydro coursework, and we only found out what lab we were writing up on today.

Oh yeah Nadia's 21st came up just as i was struck by a sudden urge to bake something sweet. Sorted then - made the birthday girl a Walnut and Carrot cake with cream cheese and maple icing. Had Shivani helpin in the kitchen too - made some samosas while we were making the cake - retarded trapezium shaped samosas since i only had tiny popia pastry, but still yummy ones with chick peas, goat's cheese and other things. Boni Dose Samosas!

Icing works wonders covering up niggly bits from "burn removal surgery" No photos of the 'samosas' due to my camera's CCD exploding from the reflections caused by the lethal amounts of oil glistening off the pastry - okay not really but they were a lot more yummy than pretty believe you me.

And now we're back on eeeeeearly Tuesday morning.

Still listening to my super emo/soulful/melancholic mix of Damien Rice, Rufus Wainwright, James Blunt, Dewa, Cokelat and Sheila on 7 with the occasional bright touch of Corrine Bailey Rae. Her name's all over the music columns for a reason - she is THAT good. Trust me *buy* (ehukehuktorrentlimewireemulehukhuk) the album.

Did a runner to sains and topped up the fridge with some things - had an itch for seafood after watching Gordon Ramsay do something with seabass so picked up some things for a recipe that just came to my mind.

Amar's super random food cravings + a *little* free time turns this:

into this:

Panfried seabass with lime leaves on couscous with tomato & coriander in a fish & squash veloute with caramelized eggplants. Quite a mouthful innit? Orgasmolicious! Wonder if Gordon does intern...apprenticeships at La Gavroche...or has any spots open on the f-word kitchen......

Expect my next buncha rants to center around British weather - okay okay before the groans, more specifically the BBC weather reports, and the glorious British underclass that is the Chavs, Yobs, Pikeys etc etc. Boohbye!

"I'll hit you with this pan until you blacken out"

"Better quit while you're ahead - but then again you'll never know how far you'll get ahead. Or how much head you'll get by far.."

2006-02-27T02:01:00.000Z

Lazy, lazy weekend.

Didn't get much proper work done - but pretty much turned my room upside down sorting out all my drawers, files and shelves. Passed up on clubbin in Birm (sorrayyy!) and even gym Sunday cos i was a pinch under the weather. Like drinkin and a whole night of secondhand smoke was gonna go anything for a scoured throat anyways.

Anyway, like i was saying , the other day...

Wahlaueh its been ages since we had a lan party man....come la...must CS, WC, UT, BRB, ET and whatnot. Oh and have you seen the new WidowPC machines? Syiokk!!!

Uh oh that was a quick burst of UberGeek Amar. Hang on while i sort this out.

Eh what is this...don't cover cover la...i know you actually like all this right? Screw your gymming and dancing la and lepak a bitt...

I don't think so. umm NO. Crap now i forgot what i was talking about. Ah yes...

Oh so you gonna be like that hmn? Wait later i post your old pictures then you know...pictures like...
Huh? What the *NooOOOOOooooooo*!!!!!!

Fine. Whatever. This post is all yours. *fakes confident eye roll and proceeds to hide all pre-2001 photos*

Sweet. Now for some reaaally cool shit.

Review*: Star Wars: Empire at War
*more like my own two cents

Mmkay then - keeping it short, its pretty much the most playable, most gorgeous Star Wars RTS made. That said, previous attemps were utter crap. Remember the one that used the Age of Empires engine? Yes, that was absolute rubbish.

The visuals are gorgeous- shaders, bits of ships breaking off-, the score is pure John Williams and the sound is nothing less than what you'd expect of a Lucasarts game. The voice acting isnt too bad either.

The good news - no resources to worry about on the battlefields, save for credits on the main screens.

The bad news - doesn't actually involve much strategy. The 'board game' aspect of managing all your troops and assets was pretty well done, but ground and space engagements are pretty much free-for all brawls. The whole unit-counterunit balances are quite simple and underdeveloped. Despite the campaigns giving you some free rein of your expansion between 'missions' they are still too short.

At the end of the day, the only thing that makes the game worth playing are moments like these..
and of course...
If it tickles your fancy, you might wanna take a lot at the numbers that would be actually involed in a planetkiller weapon here. Warning: actual rudimentary physics involved.

Nyahahahah! *labored electronic breathing*

*Grunt Grunt*ness

Oh and Pagani has a new version of their Zonda out - the Zonda F. Check it outt....

As if there wasnt enough character in the design itself, the specs are crazy as well - a 7.3 litre Mercedes AMG V12 in a carbon fiber chassis that only weighs 1.2 tons that churns out more than 600BHP. In comparison, Porche's new Cayman weighs the same, but only at half the BHP.

Its may not match up to the Bugatti Veyron's 1000BHP, but it DOES weigh less, and it IS somewhat more practical to keep and drive ( as top tier italian supercars go) . It does cost around the same though - about half a million pounds so yeah...better start eBaying off your redolent crap now.

These photos arent quite enough, you really DO have to check out the mad interiors and panelling too. God really is in the details - now i understand why my Swiss friend said he was grinning like a twat when he sat in a Zonda at the last Geneva Motorshow.

Trouble Brewing?

In skimming my normal assortment of techie sites happened upon this announcement from Metal Storm - a company that specialises in rapid-firing projectile weapons systems.

Singapore

, 20 February 2006 – Metal Storm Limited and Singapore Technologies Kinetics (ST Kinetics) are pleased to announce the successful firing of a range of jointly-developed, stacked configuration low velocity 40 mm electrically ignited munitions (EIM). The firings included high explosive (HE) munitions; enhanced blast explosive (EBX) munitions and air burst munitions (ABM). Less than lethal (LTL) munitions development will be undertaken in the future.

The firings follow from a teaming agreement that was signed by both parties in September 2005 to co-develop, produce and market 40 mm munitions for Metal Storm weapon systems. The agreement also provides for a broader relationship in which ST Kinetics would market Metal Storm 40 mm weapons systems in selected markets.

The firings, which were completed last week at ST Kinetics’ Bukit Timah range in Singapore, validate the compatibility between Metal Storm’s stacked round technology and selected ST Kinetics’ commercially available warheads.

“ST Kinetics is keen to become a total solutions provider for 40 mm munitions, encompassing both lethal and less than lethal products. We are delighted with the results of our joint developments and their compatibility with Metal Storm’s weapon systems. We look forward to capitalising on these initial achievements to further the commercial opportunities between our companies under our teaming agreement.” SEW Chee Jhuen, Deputy President (Operations) and President Defence Business, ST Kinetics.
Top right is the new Redback system mentioned in the press release, and the other pictures are their induction fired armaments mounted on treads. How cool is that!

On one hand, better invest in the company early before every other mobile armor in the region is equipped with their 'targeting solutions'. On the other hand, (singaporean) guys, is this something that we're gonna have to worry about anytime soon, really?

And does STK hire foreign talent *grins*?

You know what - you know what would be even cooler?

Fuyooooo.....not only will you never need to worry about carjackers again, you won't have to worry about anymore right of way situations either! You'd probably have to worry about the valet pressing the wrong button and putting an HE slug in your back as you bring out your arm candy for dinner somewhere posh.

Mmm dealing death from calf leather bucket seats.... suddenly reminds me of Carmageddon Damn do i miss that game.

Till my next post, here's Amar signing out with a geeky *snort*

"A place for everything, and everything in its place."

2006-02-24T23:04:00.000Z

Hard, Cold Plastic / Theobromine + Flavenoids + Dopamines = *ChOCoLiCiouS*

GOD its cold. Nipple hardeningly cold. Testicle numbingly cold. Its not so much the highs of 4C and lows of -3C - its the goddamn wind and the fuckin magical combo of rain/sleet/hail that always seems to come whenever you're waiting for the bus or moving between lectures. You'd think i'd be used to it after all these years but its still goddamn irritating.

Just got an object reminder of what a *sweet deal* it was to live in Westwood today(sarcasm, incase you didnt pick it up), courtesy of dear old dad mixing up my current address with last years address, and a Warwick post employee who spoke like he had a mouthful of cotton. Got a call in the morning sayin that i had a DHL package from Malaysia, and "yeah we'll hold *unintelligible* room * unintelligible* until 4 today otherwise *unintelligible* card, alright?". Its a pretty important document ( of the supplementary chip & pin plastic kind ) so yeah..better get it quick hmmn?

In my friday blurness i assumed it would be held in the main post room near rootes since i wasnt technically staying on campus anymore. Nope. Nice long cross-campus walk in the wind to the Westwood mail room. I didn't need to be psychic to hear the chief porter going "Oh crap i thought we werent gonna see this plonker again" in his head the second i stepped in.

Happily broke and cut my old plastic after stripping the new one, when i realised that i wasnt given a pin for it. Balls. Still cannot use la like that! Anyhoo, anyone up for joining me in christening it sometime soon? Selfridges in Birm maybe - or London? Havent shopped for anything other than food for freaking donkey years.

Got agenda to go shopping sommore - need some new shoes, and maybe some random impulse buys. Need to indulge in my born-again chocoholicness too - Green & Blacks just aint cuttin it no' mo'. I need my single bean Valrhona darks and pralines. I need my Kshocolat dark choc wrapped candied oranges. I need my Charbonnel & Walker thins.

Taken waay too long ago

Tempus Fugit / Yumma-dum-dum

Time felt really weird the last week - it didn't exactly fly by, but then you're like DAAyymn its already the end of week 8. Its kinda dangerous having no pressing deadlines or labs or assignments. Annoying, isn't it - how they're holding out on our chosen lab writeup just so we'd have to do it over the hols - along with the materials assignment and other catchup studying. I feel like soo many of my fuckin brain cells took vacation and then dissapeared because of this lull period.

Wasnt a total waste of time tho. Managed to catch up on some gymming, sorted out all the boring little things, get back to some gaming ( if thats what you call raping a corvette with six star destroyers in "Empire At War"....*pchiew pchiew*) and also been muckin about more in the kitchen. Behold the fruits of my labours!

Mushroom and spinach fritatta(just for meee), otak otak(brought some for the post mnite thingy) & Moroccan lamb lemon and apricot tagine & couscous with peppers and pine nuts( for da house). Also made bouillabaisse(italian seafood stew) but was a bit malas to take nice nice pic. Recipes and instructions?

1. Google 'em or find some random recipe sites, you lazy bastards.
2. Cannot read 1 ar?
3. Fine. Give me a good enough *incentive* and we might work somethin out.

And i wonder why i'm not losing weight despite murderous 1000 calorie gym sessions. Haih.

From Glowsticks to Kerabu Taugeh

On non-food related fun - there was Metamorphosis last friday. No big deal lor - just like a normal union dance/house night with foggers, lasers, and glowsticks at 3 quid a bloody pair. A ripoff, true, but who needs stimulants or alcohol when you got glowsticks? WhEEeeeee. Gotta grab more next time tho because ppl keep nicking them - or chain them to my hands - fuyyo then can do even cooler shit. And end up somehow injuring myself-gerenti. Pic courtesy of Tanya.

Drunkenness galore with one of our own working at the bar. Cheap/free drinks galore! *Certain* people ( nope not me) got soo hancur until cannot remember what happened yesterday. Cannot say anymore. Except reiterating that its not me. hAhahah

There was also the Post Mnite Social that following weds. Ironic, no - curing PMS with PMS. Who could resist free Kak Shida food and a sneak preview of the DVD ( which incidentally is looking soo much better this year due to the more & better cameras covering the show) .Sempat debut my otak otak also ( yup its the first time i tried makin it. serious). Super deja vu when everyone started signing each other's programme books - thats like...soooo high school kan? haha nostalgic gileerrrr. Hell if i was gonna sign people's books might as well get in the game, aight? Naturally, massive camwhoring followed.

Hats off to Delene who managed to wear all three colours ( the nights theme was "Red, Blue and Yellow) plus white as well. With the twin quasi-pigtails sommore - like japanese schoolgirl superhero liddat. Kawaiii!

Might as well cram in a photo or two ( literally) from the much overdue - and thus overwritten - post about the SingSoc CNY dinner.

Just had to squeeze in a quick peep about the blackjack sesh they ran - alongside the mahjong and the karaoke. It wasnt stricly proper gambling, but there was a buy in and you got a set amount of chips in the beginning. My second hand said all that needed to be said about the rest of the night.

Nuff said. This from two decks. Insaffff.

For those expecting something more mendalam, sorrila...i'm kinda tapped out. I think that little bit about the Alba/Johansson sapphic romance was as insightful , artistic or literary as i'm gonna be for a while. Any prose i write would give away too much of what's in my head right now, and the topics that i would wanna write on are not exactly blogsafe - like my thoughts on organized religion - so just bear with a few more superficial photoposts and rants, mmkay? Luvya!

"Don't hate - appreciate.."

2006-02-15T15:23:00.000Z

Listening to : mostly Cullum, Coltrane & Cokelat ( and my jiwang playlist on shuffle)

Feelin : chillllled....

Ahhhh felt so nice to get back to the gym after that 2 week total hiatus - normally would have been ridiculously twitchy and irritable after not fencing or gymming for 2 weeks but i guess Mnite rehearsals kinda made up for it in terms of entertainment and exertion. Left the gym this time trippin on two kinds of happy though - the kinda warm happy when your endorphines are kickin in to cover up all that muscle fatigue, and the narcissitic kinda happy upon finding out that the Mnite diet ( constant snacking at night , 2-3 hours of dancing everyday) lost me 4 kgs. Unfortunately most of that was probably muscle so yeah. Crap. I think my eternal spare tyre of doom just laughed at me.

Actually physically cringed when Dola Re Dola came up on my iPod the other day. Couldn't really put it down to a reflex to get in position and start counting, or just being like, really really jelak tak ingat dunia of the song. I actually remembered that i wasted precious brain cycles the other thinking how can i physically express my searing hate for an mp3 or any other digital media:

1. Burn/copy offending file onto CDR/cheap thumbdrive ( Hard disks would be more fun to break, but they don't fucking grow on trees)
2. Pulverise it. Be creative - like...think of something like dropping it in a lecture hall exit stampede....label it "Blonde jokes" and drop it by some local feminist types....or come up with something suitably sad and engineerish like flex and stress tests. Whatever. Kasi hantam jer...
3. Incinerate. Flambe, microwave, or hold up the remains to a resident 'mulut laser'.
4. Scatter ashes over the mankiest bunch of urinals you can find on uni and take the first shot at it.
5. Cackle in smug satisfaction, ignoring the precious seconds of your youth you just wasted on the whole endeavour. Personally, i would have just pushed the delete button dramatically. Dumbass.

I might not be suffering from Post Malaysia-nite Syndrome( mmm sleeeep) but i am kinda missing the dancing. Trying so scrounge up some headcount for Heat at the on thurs. It'll be sooo nice to freeform bhangra again after all that choreo - and some dancehall reggae, salsa, and arabic music. Yeah, Metamorphosis on friday will be cool and all....but house DOEs get boring after a while no matter how many lasers, fog machines and podium dancers( okay maybe you never really can have too much of the last one ) you've got.

BrokeBack-to the drawing board

I haven't seen Brokeback Mountain yet, and its not exactly high on my list either. Everyone's going like, oooh its such a good love story oooh its such a well made movie ooooh they were so sweet blah blah blah. I already don't like sappy sad romances, what more between two men. DOn't get me wrong i'm not a homophobe or anything (theres a thought - a homophobic amar) but yeah.....i'll pass.

But after hearing Puteri gush on and on about the movie and Jake Gylenhall a super chunted idea hit me - if you can make a gay cowboy romance movie to such critical acclaim, how about a movie about a forbidden lesbian romance? Sayy...between Jessica Alba and Scarlett Johansson. Make them two lonely nuns in a convent....or convicts in a womens prison or something. I tell you .....you can have a 5 year old write the script and it'll still get so many awards they'd have to make up new categories for the oscars and everything. Cue some bad photoshopping...

Come on, how is that not a good idea! I'm sure most of you - women included - are already drooling on your keyboards. MMmmm. I'm a fuckin genius.

Their incredible off-the-hook hotness combined aside, those of ya who follow scrubs would have noticed that Mandy Moore cameoed in the last two episodes as JD's new super klutzy but cute beau ( they're actually engaged in real life - lucky ass bastard) . Serious perky comel and sweet tak tahannnnn....

You can get lost for a whole day in those deep green eyes and super pouty lips. And that sweet husky voice. *drooool*

Aand i'm spent. Catcha later you ghor-geous folks!

" Love is not having to pay for sex, but instead having to pay three times more for dinner, a movie, and flowers when really, it'd just be easier to pay for sex."

2006-02-14T01:59:00.000Z

First and foremost..

Warwick MSA Mnite 2006 was the bomb!

Not a cherry bomb, not a vest-mounted semtex nailbomb, but a fuckin 50 megaton H-bomb, okayy!

Everyone was clearly blown away by every single aspect of the performance - the humourous script, the superb acting , the twists people never saw coming - and of course the incredible singing and dancing as well! Even third years(warwickians and outta towners) who've seen their fair share of Mnites - Imperial's, UCLs, Notts etc over the years had a glowing review of the night. Drama, tears and laughter. The whole nine yards.

Seriously, everyone involved should give themselves a hearty pat on their backs.

The actors, for their powerful/engaging/hysterical portrayals - Syazwani deserves a special mention for being the scariest, super drama mama , umm, momma. Its like they plucked her right outta a typical 50s malay movie with the uber-bitch stepmother and the like. Phoarr!

The dancers and singers. OMFG all the singers were incredible. I don't think we've ever had soo many dances AND dancers to fill 'em out with. Especially the freshers who just can't get enough. If the next bunch of freshies are anything like this lot we're gonna hafta put up a right and proper musical! Nynna and her amazing choreo for Onjak Sekaki. The soft, demure grace of Ulek Mayang. Our amazingly queasingly cutesy, cheery and perky schoolgirl dancers. And my Hindi dancers and my amazing co-choreographer. Oh yeah not forgetting Menuju Puncak!! Another resounding " PhoARRR!!"

And of course, everybody else - dikir-ers, and the crew sidestage, offstage, and jauh gedabak from the stage. Especially those of you who had to deal with the Arts Center twats who were trying to shove us off early probably just so they can get bladdered at the union.

Oh yeah.Cheers to all y'all folks who came from north, south, east and west to catch the show.

It will be a stupidly tough act to follow.

Enough! Now for the photos!

*Warning! Rampant camera whoring to follow!*

Go Dola! GiGi, Sam, Shivani and Nadia rarin' to go

More sari-wrapped hotnessess - Ping, Steph and Tanya

The Heroine, Hero and the Mother - Syazana, Atfy and Syazwani

Some light posing with Din juuust before bhangra. Respect on learning the dance in a little more than a day, duude~!

Praying or ALSO posing, hmmn, Melvin?

Ee Ping showing off her 'dragon' and Puteri!!

Broomfield 157. go house!

Delene, dancer and kitchen assistant extrodinaire, and Nynna - mahaguruuuuuu!

Wahh all the way from Notts !

James who basically pimped up the whole play, and Marissa , the uber-talented force of nature - two of whom without which there'd be no mnite. Or at least one thats nowhere near as spectacular. * sembah *

Dikir caught from backstage. Patendu Patende!

More group shots:

And from our very own 'after party':
Its schweet being the bartender/drinks marshall/the twat pouring the magic juice

Okay that's just wrong. wrong.
The terrible trio - pouty Sam, naughty Nadia & Shivani " whaddya mean we have enough spinning" Kabra
The same three ladies after some mild substance abuse. Heh.

GoooOOOo Warwick!!

Actually i've been making a list of the things that i've been meaning to blog about. I'll just keep 'em short and slap 'em on just to get everything off my back.

Yup its that time again! rant rant rant rant

Thank god we have only one directly-attached neighbour. Tu pun we got a blooody bitchy one. They're a married couple without child - granted, we deserved the coupla of lashings we got last term because of the mass gaming sessions we got here, but lately they've been damn bitchy lorr...technically i dont even think its 'them' cos its always the flat faced bitch who comes over to complain. OOoo she can hear use typing at night oooh she can hear us talking from room to room. Mahai sommore can say something like " yeah like you're students yeah, and you can lie in bed all day while we've got jobs to go for in the morning" Pukimak la like we dont have 9 am labs and sems. Like we dont go lectures also liddat. Basically damn kurang ajar in a polite yet condescending way.

I would wish that next year they'd get a super rowdy bunch of students like the house 10 houses higher up the road and their super loud Desi parties as neighbours so she can appreciate how silent our house has been in comparison. Buuuut since we're taking this house again next year ...hohohoho its just a matter of finding the most creative way to tell her. MUahahaha.

Fox eared flat faced bitch. Just when i was planning to bake their house a little something.

Oh and a little bit about sensitive blog readers. If you somehow googled or otherwise ambled here and found something that ticks you off, tough. Again, this is MY blog, MY space, and i'll fill it with whatever opinions and rambling i like. Especially if you're malaysian - i'm sure you can identify with the occasional bit of non-political correctedness and mildly racist banter that you doubtlessly engage in back home. I'm impartial - eeeverybody will have something comin to them. Old people. Politicians. Poseurs. Imbeciles.People who embrace stereotypes. The list goes on. Why? Because its fun to lambast them, and i bet my bottom dollar you'd get a snigger or two from reading it as well. Go ahead, flame my tagboard or whatever. Here i am god. And i know where every comment and tag is from. So becareful your life, okay!

I'm also now goddamn sick of currypuffs. Wouldn't mind making onde onde again tho. Popiahs? When somebody finds me some of those stonking huge water chestnuts here.

Oh yeah while i was thinking of what to cook this morning, out of the fucking blue the menu and recipes for a six course meal hit me. Not just any six course meal - a valentine's treat for all 5 senses. I'd hate for the idea to go to waste so if anyone wants to try anything from it just ask me what you'd need to get go trolling over at Sains/Tesco and bring it over here(dont worry it wont be bank-breaking) . Plus points if you're also a single (female) who's also griping about the smug couples who are hopefully getting cheated blind by florists, confectioners, card makers and all things valentine-ny.

Scallops with ginger, mirin & miso dressing
Pumpkin and fig soup with creme fraiche & caviar
Fetuccine Amatricana with Pecorino Romano cheese
Lamb Fillet with Rosemary and Tarragon roux
Mango and Peach Pastry baskets with apricot honey glaze

and to drink , my own cocktail of fresh raspberry puree, mint, a splash of gin and topped up with champagne.

The 6th course? heh heh i'd rather keep that a surprise. No, its not something pervy.

While we're on food, the Singsoc's CNY dinner was worth every penny. YUmmy, yummy food and the right kinda ambiance with the mahjongg, blackjack and karaoke. I'd post some photos, but

a. i cant be fucked right about now
b. i pity those not on broadband who have to load my blog in its entirety enough as it is.

Had many super hilarious quotes too - but most of them either flew over my head, or are pretty much unprintable, even by my standards. But here's one i will be using a LOT :

"The girlfriend is hot and all, tapi muka laki dier macam hampas kelapa sawit!"

And here's a blonde joke to END all blonde jokes. See how long you take to get it.

2006-01-30T03:59:00.000Z

Eh , i lazy to blog i like la.....

I actually had a list of amusing stories, quotes, and rants to write that's been piling up over the last month. Coveniently, i had to reformat my comp - apparently, running Limewire on a PC without a firewall or antivirus IS like double-dipping* a whole port town's worth of whores bareback. You'll end up with some ridiculously nasty unmentionables on your machine. Never am i running my desktop without my hardware firewall and Norton again.

A neat little excuse for not having to compose a painfully long segue of an entry, innit?

Picking up where i left off -

again - Happy New Year!
Selamat Hari Raya Haji!
Happy Chinese New Year!

In retrospect, i've probably been partying juust a touch too much between One World Week, Soul Asia, and those various random union events. Normally it would be an alcohol laden liver doing this kinda talking, but in this case its actually a laundry hamper reeking of secondhand smoke.

There's also mnite rehearsals every weeknight. Not like i'm doing dikir or anything else, but there's always the Hindi ( read HINDI, not BHANGRA) choreography i'm doing. Probably in a little bit over my head with Dola re Dola - some Bharatanatyam training wouLD have helped. Dancing and yelling counts for an hour or two every night IS kinda tiring enough already. Much respect to the ladies doing like...3-4 dances and ALSo being in the play. Serious. Respeeeeect!

Moi? Once a stage whore, always a stage whore. Eh and please ohkay - i'm not an " indian lady trapped in a man's body". I'm "flexible". Might have something to do with the menora dancer blood passed down from my mother's side. Whatever. *contemplates trying Thai classical dance.

A little phowk-ow break, no? Piccies from the CNY booze-out/bakeout at Taib's , where i was naturally the drinks marshall for a bit...

Disclaimer - no, i wasn't drunk. Seriously.

CNY 2006, 135 Hearsall Avenue

Elbow pointing can only mean one thing - FUdGe!! and Hon - look!! Bacardi!!!

Year 3 housies-gonna-be

Almost a four-way tie for the "Most Wasted" throphy.

'Sultry' face minus pout = sleepy face

Another group snap, combining various levels of inebriation

Ultimate babiness - our platters at the One World Week buffet last week. Good thing we got in early - the servers were sooo eager to get rid of their food in the beginning. Its like " Urm that looks good i'll see if i've got space on my pla *SPLAP* oh okay ". Won't be wondering how pierogi tastes like dipped in mee goreng with coconut chicken gravy again.

GOt more than a few rants coming - its soo annoying tho when the best rants are about ppl too close to home, or about things that you KNOW some people will get touchy about - i.e. all the kerfuffle back home about the withdrawn memorandum about bumi rights and jabs at Syariah law pertaining to non-muslims. FOr now, here's one most of you can click with - Jac, Gigi - don't read. COver your eyes. Close the browser. (yep im sure most of you know what's comin dontcha?)

Goddamn hongkeys!!

Eh serious la tak sedar diri giler. One World Week is all about promoting culture right? Too bad some people just end up proving their lack or misconception of it. OWW fashion show - amidst all the colourful traditional costumes brimming with damask, embroidery , danglies and whatnot, there you have the HKsoc with their men in business suits, handphones and briefcases and the women in cocktail dresses and champagne flutes. Whoaa....alpha male go-getters and socialite doyennes la kononnn. Fuck you UnDerstand!!!!!!!! Don't make me readjust your spine with that Tanner Krolle attache case or screw that nosejob with your Dior baby clutch!!!

And to top it off, for their cultural performance, they did a modern r&b thingy to 'Dirrty' and a Missy Elliot song. Apakaaaaah!! Dahlah like, soo tak padan, dancing also like shit liddat. Not just any normal shit, mind you. The kinda "greasy, sloppy evil manifest in corporeal form" shit that you will painfully exude after a whole day's bender on stupidly pyrophoric indian and thai food.

Well, China Soc might have done a modern r&b dance also, but at least they danced better and actually had this guy who can bloody well move. Like a chinese Usher. AND they at least had a girl do a Chinese opera solo at the OWW concert.

Ahhhhh puas sikit. Now i can get back to finishing my bloody hindi choreo and German sem work.

"Eh, something here smells goood man...oh..wait its just me."

2005-12-31T01:53:00.000Z

Feelin: ridiculously bored
Listening to : Waktu Yang Tepat Untuk Berpisah - So7

Its always like this, isnt it? You'd think you'd actually blog more during the holidays - what with the free time to think of random bullshit to drawl out and all those stories of holiday hedonism.
*sigh*

As of this exact moment, i'm munching on the roast duck green salad with a soy miso vinegarette ( yes everything's made from scratch. i was THAT bored) and i've just finished watching Coyote Ugly - an old movie, i know, but yeah it was a good eye washing. mmmm. Especially after the drivel that was the last half of Gundam Seed Destiny.

That shoulda given you an idea of how my first Xmas period in the UK was. Utter. Mind.Numbing.Bollocks. Came back in from France on the 24th - fair enough - wasnt expecting to do much for Xmas eve. But Boxing day? Its like the whole fuckin country shuts down from Xmas day till new year's. FUcked up trains, fucked up buses. Boxing day sales my ass. I fully intend to make it into London on the 31st to ring in the new year even if i have to fuckin hitchike.

And there IS a bigger waste of your youth than DOTA or hero siege. Try playing a LAN game of Civilization 4.

Oh yeah - a quick(maybe) little run through of the ski trip -

Prologue

The two days leading up to the trip was crazy - practically had no sleep. even the day before the trip started with a little visit to MSD and lunch at m'sia hall, followed by some random rambling around Whiteleys ( no, i actually WAS asleep for a bit at Starbucks. seriously). Barely had time for dinner then went out again clubbayng - at cafe de paris. Then adventure for fucks sommore cos 2 of us were wearing sneakers and we had to go back and change. Looong story short we all did get in at the end. Yay. Would have been a brilliant night out if it werent for the shoe thing - but i was still fun!

Not bad man...clocked less than 2 hours getting back via a night bus to earls court, gettin a shower, packin up and getting a cab down to Victoria for the first Gatwick Express at 5am.

Eh you know what?

LAZYYYY

Fine - it isn't gonna be short. Esp the bit about Monarch Airlines and French Immigration. I'd better get some sleep if i'm to roll down to london later today, where i fully intend to get smashed. So there. Itenerary and photos next time. Or maybe just photos. Fine here's one.

A super post-cardy shot , from the top of the nursery slopes

Till then, happy new year, everybody! Don't drink too much*, don't do anything stupid** but whatever it is you do you'd better bloody have fun! soooOO wish i could be back in m'sia for new year's with you guys...just whip out the silver maracas of doom for me!

Thought of the day - " Gymmin' don't cure ugly. "

* too much - any amount involving being paralytic or requiring stomach pumping
**anything stupid - anything that will land you in jail, doing naked ear squats

2005-12-10T05:49:00.000Z

Listening to : Unstoppable - The Calling

Feeling : Depr...i mean....euphorically challenged

Its that time again - looming deadlines ( yes in the freaking middle of the holidays - screw you carbon footprint assignment ) and one helluva messed up biological clock. What else to do when all other options for procrastinating are gone ? Blog onlyyy.....

Its been a while, so here are the bullet point updates :

Capped off the end of term last week with chinese buffet at Wing Wah. Ate lots. All the women coincidentally wore black. Hilarious karaoke session. After that no one had anymore chutzpah to hit the end of term party. Except yours truly who wasnt going alone. Still amped and dying to party, so obviously damn tak puas.

Fine i know its boring to read - sorryla damn tulan already...lemme jazz it up a little.

Jeesus abdul CHRIST it's been a boring fucking week since the end of term . Easily the most boring end of term i have ever bloody had since...EVER! Freakin-a man.... hardly anyone's left around in town, and i can't leave cos i'm still waitin for my accoms claims cash and cos of that Monday deadline. The last week's pretty much been nothing but gym, sleeping, workin ( not quite enough ) and Civ 4. Thats just fuckin sad.

Imma cut myself off right there before this gets anywhere close to one of those whiny, moaning self pitying blogs i hate oh-so-much. But yeah all in summary - between all the holiday assignments, waiting for mah monnayyy, mind numbing inactivity, severe lack of sunlight hours, tryin to get summer internship applications together everything's just a fucking lovely floral arrangement of fresh banksias from africa and italian mimosas in the window of the florists' at Libertys. eeERRgh.

A quick pick-me-up before anything else - two half -decent jokes that i recently read that i actually havent heard before -

#1

A gorgeous young redhead goes into the doctor's office and says that her body hurts wherever she touches it.

"Impossible!" says the doctor. "Show me."

The redhead takes her finger, pushes on her left breast and screams, then she pushes her elbow and screams in even more agony. She pushes her knee and screams; likewise she pushes her ankle and screams. Everywhere she touches makes her scream.

The doctor says, "You're not really a redhead, are you?

"Well, no" she says, "I'm actually a blonde."

"I thought so," the doctor says. "Your finger is broken."

#2

Two Mexican detectives were investigating the murder of Juan Gonzalez. "How was he killed?" asked one detective. "With a golf gun," the other detective replied. "A golf gun? !What is a golf gun?" "I don't know. But it sure made a hole in Juan."

Cooool leh? Expect more touches like this in the coming month. Prolly even do my own layout in Dreamweaver when i figure out how to use my own templates in blogger.

Disclaimer: well more like a waiver. I'm too zonked to write this from an ambigous standpoint,being somewhat of a consumer whore myself , so if at any point during this rant i start sounding hypocritical to you, take both your thumbs, put 'em in your noses and start doing jumping jacks.

Anyhoo

Haih...what else can i say about the infamous ' ear squat video' thats not been said. From the obviously exaggerated BBC / CNN reports, personal thoughts of other bloggers north and south of the johor straits ( some of them quite hilarious, if not misguided) to the oh-so Malaysian reports in the goddamn Malaysian papers, complete with the blatantly posed pictures with our MPs viewing the video on their colleagues' laptops with their dramatic finger pointing and aghast expressions. Eeeverything about the whole mess is sooo fucked up - the fucktard who took the video, the profiling of chinese tourists, the blowhards in parliament and the lambasting of the government as a whole by foreign media. I wouldn't touch on this anymore as much as i'd like to touch a decomposing leper with a stick.

Now i'm gonna bitch on just one of the many aspects i hate about the tasteless rich ( especially those goddamn rappers , trashy celebrities and 'new money') - the Brashness of Bling - vulgar, obscene, needless displays of wealth.

No single demographic has been responsible for glorifying bling as much as hip-hoppers/rappers to the point that i believe they're entitled a little paragraph of their own. Instead of going blablaba Cristal blablabla rims blablabla i'm just gonna smack on Wikipedia's take on it which is sooo to the point:

"Mainstream hip hop music's fixation on bling bling and other material and luxury goods has led to much criticism from media pundits and musical critics. They charge that the phenomenon promotes consumerism and materialism, and strengthens false racist arguments that young African American men are incapable of higher or more virtuous or spiritual goals than material gain, reinforing the "nigger rich" stereotype.

Like, seriously. What the fuck is up with 24 inch spinners on wheels? Velvet covered chairs with gold trimmings that are a pain to sit in? Enough bracelets to turn a walk into a bicep curl session? Ludicruously outsized hernia inducing necklaces that cost the GDP of a small African nation?

No single demographic has been responsible for glorifying bling as much as hip-hoppers/rappers.

Whatever happened to being subtle ? There ARE bloody loaded people who somehow manage to enjoy their wealth in low key without turning heads or bloody blinding people. Say, for example spending just as much on an architect and interior designer on actually building that dream crib instead of throwing a gob of money at a second rate contractor to build a monstrosity of a domicle that makes you feel like you're in an antique furniture showroom. Or wearing immaculately tailored clothes that make you look and feel good, not like a Blacksploitation-era pimp or a whore who puts on her makeup in the dark with her foot. Just goes to show that no matter how rich you are, sometimes you just can't buy class.

Chavs with their Burberry. Ah lians with their Gucci, Prada and Fendi. Fake or real, it doesn't matter. Trashhhyyyyy!! Take this for an example:

A Jacob & Co( a firm favourite of rappers) number splattered with ice vs a Lange. Bling vs Blank. Which one wouldja rather have hmmn? Would you believe me if i told you the one on the right cost more? Yep it does. Well maybe not for this diamond bucket but for a typical Jacob.

At the end of the day a watch is for tellin time, isn't it? I'd rather have an simple, legible dial with a rock solid movement instead of something that will probabably blind you when you look at it in the sun and breaks down after a coupla jigs.

THATs quality craftsmanship. Imagine the skill and artistry that goes into the tourbillon and escapement. Beats covering a watch with diamonds anyday. Plus, you're a lot less likely to get mugged , yesno?

Don't ask - i have nooo idea why i decided to do an example with watches. Puttin up photos of houses is just stupid, and it wouldnt be quite *right* if i started discussing handbags and accessories on this site , no? * grunt grunt *

Well, as hard as is to believe, i will be gettin back to work now. oh and i'd just DIE if someone were to get me a Lange for xMas. Anyone? I'm sorray, but i'd need that money to buy a freakin HOUSE first. oooh ooh how about a hot 40 something minted professional of a sugar momma who'd get me one?

Like, wok-eva yeah?

" You can't say chastity without 'ass' or 'titty' , can you? "

2005-11-29T03:19:00.000Z

Feelin : *yawwwn*
Listening to : i'm glad there is you - Jamie Cullum

Phoaar damn syiok - just added a whole whack of yummy albums to my playlist - Daniel Powter ( think half Will Young, half James Blunt) , The Darkness, more Coltrane, Keith Urban, Faith Hill, Marcell ( the indon one) , Robbie Williams and Westlife. If you could somehow take cocaine through your ears, it still wouldnt match the aural bliss im wallowing in. (I'm just guessin here, okay!)

..before i forget, a quote by the housie downstairs on morning breath problems:
" Solve it with...chewing GiM!!" * enthusiastic kitschy pose*
** no its not a typo

...no, but yeah, like, somefink...

Just recovered from a tiring but stupidly fun weekend at Notts - Naz's birthday soiree. I'm sure she never saw the skit - and especially the birthday song - coming. Props to Su for coming up with the script thats so hilariously sakit otak and Puteri & Elle for the birthday dance. You could almost smell the redneckness & the moonshine-stained dungarees. I can't take the credit for the dinner either - i did have a bevy of gourgeous executive kitchen assistants kan? And of course the birthday girl herself for hosting the whole shebang. BUt seriously, bruschetta, pasta and chocolate fondue is so salah for breakfast, okay?

A bunch of hilarious quotes hidden in a bowl of fruity goodness.

Oh yeah, krispy kreme for whoever describes that sound i made sleeping in the most hilarious way. Serious i tak percaya. Now excuse me while i take another shower to try and wash off all that oestrogen.

Singsoc Xmas dinner

The Singsoc Christmas dinner was excellent. I'd say the 12 pounds covered the food , goodies and the entertainment, but seeing our own Wavey in the blindfolded dancing game alone was bloody well worth it. Along with all the squeaky laughter afterwards - inhaling that much helium can't be good forya.

Haven't had such a traditionally English xmas dinner since Oundle. Down to the xmas crackers and those doofy paper hats. The only thing was that they substituted brussels sprouts with long beans.

Wavey enjoying his food, perhaps a little too much.

No, i dont think Taib's gonna give up his spinny whistly thing.

Okay kids thats it for show and tell time.

Actually i think i had quite a bit to rant about - lotsa personal views on some really fucked up things about Malaysian politics, religion and the justice system. Luckily, i got it all off my chest by "discussing" on MSN ( you know who you are , word!) , sparing me another whole bunch of typing and bringing up sensitive issues that might just rub some of you guys the wrong way - well that and the ever present possibility of (yes i know i used this before) having some bored ass government servant/jakim lackey that didn't even pass PMR tell on me after coming across my little online spitting room on their 5th tea break of the day and having "plain clothes" police ( think checkered cheap shirts tucked into cheap faded jeans , with a cheap baseball cap and cheap handlebar moustache) drag me off straight from KLIA to a disused tin mine for a 'chat'.

Hence, here's a safe, family friendly ( okay maybe not the swearing) rant.

Archeology + Hollywood = Adventure + Bullshit

Just watched the myth a coupla weeks ago. Yeah the effects are good and all for a Jacky Chan movie, but like other English Jacky Chan movies (probably save for Rush Hour) the story stank worse than a dead vegas hooker whose been rotting in a dumpster for a summer week. Its like they hired a trained ( dubious) monkey to hammer out the script. C'mon - anti gravity ore, a korean concubine, and a mongolian general who for some reason ends up buried in an indian temple in a floating sarchophagus suspended by aforementioned ore. I can't be the only one who thought the movie took a bit of a piss at indians too.

In the end they find the mythical tomb of the first emperor of China. They kept to the myth of having a roof inset with jewels to mirror the stars, and a minature of the whole of china with rivers that flowed mercury. Only they decided to have everything suspended in zero grav. Seriously. WTF.

I'd hate to have be the sad git who'd have to dust the damn place.

Also, in the end, just like every other movie where the protagonist goes through a life-threatening series of misadventures , close calls and femme fatales to find some long lost tomb, cache of treasure or artifact of god-like powers some numbnut manages to find the compulsory self destruct trigger , everything goes fuckall and the hero escapes alone or with a random ditzy chick and the villian dies chasing the treasure. Dahling thats sooo Indiana Jones - or The Mummy....or King Solomon's Mines...hell even The goddamned Goonies.

Don't touch anything. Yeah right.

Makes absolutely no sense doesnt it? Imagine Shih Huang Ti sayin this:

Emperor: I want an amazing tomb, filled with all my treasures, possessions, and battalions of terracotta guards.

Underlings: Yes my liege.

Emperor: I want it to also be a monument to my greatness and dominion in my reign - i know! Mirror the skies with precious stones and the rivers that feed the land with quicksilver! Of course the artisans will have to be killed so they can never replicate that glory.

Underlings: I....guess... we can do that..

Emperor: Oooh ooh i know and then we can hide it where nobody will ever bloody find it!

Underlings: [silence]

Emperor: And in the unlikely event that someone finds it, we'll have deviously engineered death traps!

Underlings: *whispers* i think he's losing it.

Emperor: If some hero manages to set foot in my tomb or touches anything, everything will just get all fucked up! Boom! Blam! Aieee!! *throws hands in the air*

Underlings: ............

But of course, thats all just in the movies. Real archeology is super boring bullshit that takes painfully long hours dusting buildings with paintbrushes , months of detective work in pallid, obscure libraries and massive bureucracy and politicking over discovery rights - look at the Elgin Marbles. You never know tho...some unwitting archeology grad might just step on the wrong floor tile at the Terracotta warrior complex and have the whole place crumble into a big heap of char siew. Or maybe that fat falafel scarfing liar Zahi Hawass(egyptian director of antiquities) will open the wrong tunnel in the Great Pyramid and unleash a plague that will scour the earth. A proper "boils and pustules" plague, not just a throng of fashion victim hongkeys with unbelievably annoying accents.

Whichever pharoah( still under debate) who build the pyramids has got the right idea tho. Imagine having a sweet tomb like that. Too bad the stripped down the original white limestone cover stones to build freakin Cairo and melted down the massive gold apex to make fuck knows what. But of course there are those crazies who still say that the pyramids were build by aliens or some older civilization ( maybe i'll bore you with all my pre-flood civilization stories another day) as some kind of transmitter or beacon or geometrical message.

But fuck that. I have greater worries now. Like my Carbon footprint coursework...and getting the irritatingly happy and catchy Westlife song ( Change Your Mind) outta my head. I'm gonna top this one off with the chorus from that Jamie Cullum song - seriously babes that song is soo good. And in case you were psychoanalyzing or thinking that i'm scandaliciously head over heels or anything of the sort, i'm not, mkays. I just like that song SOOO much.

in this world of ordinary people...
extraordinary people,
i'm glad there is you

in this world of overrated pleasures
and underrated treasures,
i'm glad there is you.

2005-11-18T01:44:00.000Z

Listening to: Fiesta Mojo - Dizzy Gillespie ( makes you feel like you're having a cheery stroll thru a colourful carribean beachside market)
Feelin: overloaded yet strangely unworried

Booyaah!

I vaguely remember havin something to rant about, but i'm not really in a ranty mood today. Massive "To-Do" list and i'm still comin down from that cold-should be totally gone in a day or two.

Oh yeah - just googled my blog for fucks again the other day, and found a coupla of interesting things. Firstly, my blog was quoted for somethin on some feminist's blog - don't know for what tho - scary. Also, my rant a coupla months ago on Microsoft screwing over gamers who kept using Windows just for games by making so many good new games XBox exclusives got reprinted on some random gaming site. Fuyooo.... maybe if i kept my rants in full English god knows where they'll end up..

On that note, i've been randomly skimming my older entries and i realized that the standard of my writing has kinda dropped - chiefly through the usage of my extremely rusty slang malay and the overuse of random hokkien/cantonese swear words. I've also been relying too much on my super-random analogies and hyperbole instead of proper, witty writing. Apologies to you folks from down south who don't understand malay ( and some of you from the land of no-we-still-dont-have-to-recycle-our-piss yet, hmmn?)

This time its gonna be another typical update, but with more pictures! Yay!(cheer and clap a little bitches - it wont killya)

X-Raya-Vali

The new commitee did rather a good job on this years xrayavali - altho they were missing the skit, the extra bits of caroling , nasyid and charity did kinda make up for it. They didn't do too badly on the charity either, considering that there was nobody to dropoff 200 pounds just like that like last year - although i'm sure that stupid 4 positions game thing was rigged. Hmmph.

The slave auction was quite hot. Our house shared ( still havent settled on who's payin how much) on a winning bid (66 pounds) for a pair of fresher girls. Haih get them to wash plates once enough already lah. Kan its for charityyyyy (cringes as amar projects what he could have bought with his share). Hope i didn't rosakkan my reputation by being the one bidding - later for fucks all freshers think i'm a rich perv.

....i'm not rich.Heh.

Looked around for some pics from that to pose, but they all sucked (i.e. i wasnt in, or i looked fat/more camp than usual) Here's one anyway:

Oh yeah here's a tip for you guys. When you're tired and just crashing watching TV at Charl's place, do not play with any stuffed toys given to you. You'll fall asleep holding it , someone will take a picture, and she'll post it on her blog. Grr. Girllll you gotta start watchin what you pun on there!
Can't see? Can't see? FINE

Haha take THAT charl!

Of course in response to this malu-fying emasculation i have to post something that somewhat redeems my defiant male ego.

The Bugatti Veyron....sweet eh? This insane car's actually going into production with the 16.4 model. The engine's a double V8 that churns out 1001 bloody BHP. The speed actually has to be limited around 405kmph because thats as much as the transmission and body can take - makes even an Enzo look like one of those stupid electric 1/10th scales your baby cousin drives hmmn? Definitely for you if you got a spare 500k pounds and know an oil sheik...or Bruneian royalty cos you gonna burn a full tank getting stuck in KL traffic for an hour. I love the design so much i actually based my car design prototype and sculpture last year on the profile.

Also took apart my desktop piece by piece except for the thermal compounded bits and dusted everything cos the fans were already making dust clicks. With the 8 fans inside its a bloody dust trap i tellya. Had to actually vacuum and sinks and all the fans. Took the chance to rearrange some of the wiring and shift the hds around for better airflow. Naturally after that played again with the possibility of water cooling everything and pimpin up the case as well buuut wasting money onlyyy....

Oh yeah and i cut myself shaving the other day yes i know that happens like once a year...

Aand...i cut and burnt myself...working in the kitchen making a thyme and rosemary roast

So yeah....*grunt grunt grunt*

Lets finish with two quotes i remember from XRV yesterday:
"Pukimak halal!!" - not me
"You know , actually you're quite hot. Just dont open your mouth." - again, not me

And random thought of the day:
Men - be it your mother, sister, friend or lover - at any given time a woman's either judging you, or testing you.
Women - somewhere out there at this very moment a bunch of guys is referring to you by a physical trait(s) or a perceived character quirk , and its not because they forgot your name.

2005-11-13T16:49:00.000Z

Feeling: just a touch under the weather * snrrkkkkttTCHOO!*
Listening to : too much jiwangness. gerenti sakit

Purely Procrastination

It's been a boring ass weekend. Going to notts would've been just as boring,(not like you were at any of the events, were you naz? thatswhyyyy) except i woulda had to throw away more money and get on a freakin bus - oh yeah and there is Nottingham weather which is a bit more faktap than here.

Went to gym saturday to try and work off this goddamn flu, and when i took the bus back kena stress for fucks sommore. Six people sitting in one bunch, on the aisle seats with their bags on the window seat. On a full bus, no less. These people should be sterilized with a rusty butter knife i tell you.

Oooh here's a random little joke that got me laughing balls at 3 in the morn:

The owner of a drug store walks in to find a guy leaning heavily against a wall. The owner asks the clerk, "What's with that guy over there by the wall?"

The clerk says, "Well, he came in here this morning to get something for his cough. I couldn't find the cough syrup, so I gave him an entire bottle of laxative."

The owner says, "You idiot! You can't treat a cough with laxatives!"

The clerk says, "Oh yeah? Look at him, he's afraid to cough!"

And you just HAVE to look at these ads from here and here. Don't say i didn't warn you.

Oh wait...i really didnt...

Anatamo watashimo POCKY!!!

2005-11-12T01:46:00.000Z

Feelin: muscle aches galore (back to hardcore gymming baybehh), mild bitchiness

Listening to: Can I Have It Like That - Pharell ft. Gwen Stefani

Man that song is catchy, but whatever they paid Gwen, it was too much - cmon she just said 5 freakin words and appeared a bit in the video. Also in heavy rotation on my playlist : Madonna's Hung Up,(daaamn power dancing) B.E.P's My Humps , Alicia Keys unplugged, the new Jamie Cullum album & Anuar Zain yesiknowjiwangshutthefuckup.....

*clears throat*

Haih lets settle the boring shit before i get on to the rants... and oh yeah and the bit on raya + photos is at the veeeeeery end - kalau memang malas baca skip onlyy....

Sangheeta led a whole whack of us for a deepavali night dinner at an indian palace in town. Forgot the name of the place, but remember one thing - they may have had a fuckload of original, tasty dishes, but they didnt.have.fuckin.lassi. How can an indian place not have lassi? rrrgh. The goddamned drizzle didnt stop us from setting off fireworks later at hearsall common. Magnificent sight i tell you - a posse of somewhat damp 20+ year old uni students, running away like bitches from roman candles that couldnt kill a fly.

The supposed brainstorming for Mnite? More like a " lets shoot down the kwai lou Cultural Officer's idea like the crows outside Jasima/Rhasta " session. True, i was against the idea from the onset because an Edgar Allan Poe play ( even the Bergkoff version) , no matter how much you try and dress it down is still just wrong - but once the pres started to comment about the fact that it *might* not be the most suitable idea, it was open season. Some of the criticism was juuust a little bit too personal. I'd be pretty smashed too if everyone was soo enthusiastic ( albeit clueless) in the beginning and completely did a 180 later on. Hope he does go on doing the workshops and directing the play ( recently confirmed as a super typical formulaic Mnite love story - hey if it aint broke, don't fix it!).

So much for bullet point updates. Now for the ReAL rants.

En Garde, pret, Alle!

From Oundle to Imperial, most of the people who fenced were quite serious about it - well i'm sure you have to to have endured all that strict salle style training ( the rotund, mutton chop-sideburned coach in Oundle actually freakin taped the foil pommel to my wrist and made me play stricly defensively for 2 weeks because i played too much offense ) and hardcore footwork drills. Sommore out of the fencers in IC quite a lot of the non-novices have been doing it for ages....got 1 feller who used to be on the UK under 16 team, some hongkeys who also did serious training in Brit boarding schools, and even a Singaporean from Raffles Junior *koff* who had massive Raffles logo on the back of his jacket.Haih. Generally most of the kuai lous who fence are also a bit the posh ppl who come from boarding schools as well( yes Puteri baru you tauu...)

Warwick's a different story though. For some reason, a lot of people randomly join fencing for fucks, and a lot of them quite condemn lor... Seriously - i'm not just being mean( like i usually give a damn when i am) but its like most of the people who join fencing here are:

1. Physically uncoordinated & incapable of other sports, and were lured by the tagline where fencing's described as " chess with brawns". Normally they don't stay on very long when they discover its in fact, like playing squash - Wearing thick, heavy jackets - and you hit each other-Hard. You need to move fast, and your legs need to do weird things. Oh yeah and being a fatass makes you soo much easier to hit too.

Yup we do shit like this all the time. Don't mess.

2. Sad loser type people who try to make up for their social inadequacies and general ineffectiveness by joining things where they think they can live out their empowering warrior fantasies ( battle renactment society, kendo, fencing, etc ) , not realizing that if they DID live in "the good old days" they wouldn't have had the balls and drive to rise above being peasants or stable bitches. Whatever they join, they just do it poorly and then bitch and moan about how they would have been "someone" in those "good old days".

3. People who find obscure sports to join, for the sole purpose of mucking about and running uncontested for the exec. comm of the sport. I swear - outside of the Mens' and Womens' captains, all the comm members hardly fence at all. And when they do, they realized quickly why they dont.

With all these idiots filling up the spots in the soc, the hall can be a bit too crowded sometimes to have proper bouts on the electric pistes, and the coach is usually too busy with novices to polish up the vets. With that in mind, the vets are getting a bit of a raw deal, arent they? We pay 20quid a term for coaching and kit, while we get very little coaching, and we mostly have our own kit. Balls i say.

The other day ran into a prefect example of #2. Kept following whoever he fought around the hall going on and on about himself and all the other "warriorlike" shit that he does. Yup i kena also. He keeps doing this damn cheap thing where he just slides the weapon tip along the floor like a broom and goes for your toes ( yup, epeeist). It wouldn't work on a proper insulated piste - if you hit the floor its an off-target , and well, its just that NOBODY DOES THAT. Mahai like youla Wave, play tekken all the way block and low kick only hahahaha. And that sohai still wonders why all the vets he fenced goes out juuust that extra mile to actually injure him. Haha he couldn't even take the hint when i played extra ganas so i just capped him right in the knee. Padan muka. Just like the hongkey who kept fouling and hitting my leg ( pain weii) so i charged him, purposely missed and knocked the mo'fucker down with the guard to his face- and the best part was i didn't even get fouled/carded for that. Muahaha.

I love fencing. What other sport gives you a good workout and stress relief in one shot. Cmon - give me another sport where you hit people with metal sticks for points.

More snippy, less talky...

Got a haircut at Toni & Guy the other day. After goin to several different T&Gs over the last coupla years, i've realised that they have a pretty much preset guideline of questions to ask to initiate typical hairdresser banter, which makes it even more annoying. I don't go to T&Gs to talk fluff with peroxide blondes with too much makeup or have a shampoo with all the theraputic finesse of an electric parut kelapa ( even the paria chinese barber i used to go to with me old man last time gave yummy head.....waiit for it...... massages with the shampooing) - i go to get a half decent haircut. Next time i'm just gonna bring out a printout of my Friendster page, shove it to my stylist and tell her to only open her mouth if its about my hair. Of course, if i REALly did that she'd probably botch up my cut on purpose and i could end up looking like a hongkey...the horrOR!! *yes Jac blah blah singaporean blah blah*

i could have sworn i have one more rant left....its just as well i dont remember it now. Another day, perhaps.

Raya was t3h R0x0rZ

Yup - raya this year was ser-weet. First of all, thanks to The House of Charl for puttin me up for the weekend again! Next time i cook for you all, mmkays? - well after another round at Addies and Masala Zone, that is.

On saturday, pretty much spent the whole afternoon at Tuan Syed's open house. SUPER yummy home cooked food - and biscuits and cakes as well! Semakin popular wei..haha every year got more non-scholars datang - must be the cornflake biscuits hmmn? Oh yeah and sorrraay Su and Puts for being schoooo late - at least i can blame 20 mins of it on that goddamned picaddily line delay.

On Sunday a bunch of us crashed the Brunei high comm and ate our fill ( the food was serious sedap porno giler - THREE types of rice....THREE!!..and the lamb!!!) before faffing off to the MSD do in some random hall near Whiteleys. Nasib baik we already kenyang - we arrived just about 3 hours into the thing, and the rice was gone - just really bad ayam masak merah and dhall. Sommore we heard earlier on because of the health and safety regs of the place, they had bouncers to stop people from coming in and also ask people to leave. Rosak giler man the raya mood. Brunei high comm meriah giler - almost everyone was in raya finery, and there was raya music, and it was a very warm cosy place. Total opposite at the malaysia hall do. At least jumpa orang laa....

Eh i'm damn cock tired la....i'll just whack up the photos and call it a day, okay? Peace out , much love ( esp if you've read EVERYTHING).

eeeeee malunyeer...wAIT who's hand was that?

If it isn't my darling neph..niece and fellow Oundelian!!

Aaaaawwww...

Oh shit Malaysians! Hide the food bah!Cempakan's fo' life The lads ngan Tuan Syed Le Femmes, + kerol saja nak kacau.A-Levels/BTU 2001 - Full time scholars, part time poseurs.

2005-11-03T11:00:00.000Z

Selamat Hari Raya!!!!!

Just a brief seasons' greetings and shoutout - Maaf zahir & batin to all you gheourr-geus folks!

Anyway, seriously, i humbly beseech your forgiveness for aaany slips of the tongue and anytime i've accidentally dissed or pissed any of you - i'm sure you know how sharp my tongue is and how my mouth is like...overclocked relative to my brain.

To all my dear beloved chummies and family -
* Amar in his shiny new grey tan baju melayu and black songket, bowing and salam cam budak baik*
Where the flaming fuck am i going to find palm fronds here? and bamboo?

Actually i got a coupla more things to blog about, but my schedule is kinda the faktap at the moment, but when i'm rushing to finish some work before i dart off to London for some serious rayaing i'm bound to suddenly click on the "Blogger Home" tab on my Mozilla and start vomiting nouns, verbs, adverbs, superlatives and the like ( and the regular dash of cursing that'll make an old salt of a captain proud). Stay tuned for updates & rants on our DeepaRaya dinner, fireworks , observations on fencers and the warwick MSA mNite brainstorming sesh!

* goes back to enjoying his first breakfast in a month, over looping raya songs*

2005-10-31T03:48:00.000Z

Its that time of the year again...

..where blogging becomes my poison of choice for procrastination on those dreary deadline-laden late nights/early mornings. Not only that, i'm falling back into friendster as well - i'm *this* close to sending out a whole whack of raya greetings and new testimonials ( and freaking out over the interesting assortment of characters that viewed my profile - to think those are the ones that you can see - saying nothing of the phantom stalkers)

Right now? I'm still working on getting that stupid song Tipah Tertipu outta my head, while pludging through that damned Hydro coursework and also my German assignment for tomorr...make that 5 1/2 hours. Yep - already on form. All this while running up and down the stairs like hamster high on caffeine to grab the periodic snack despite having a fuckin cornucopia of junk food in my room. HAhaha MSN isnt helping much either. Ballcocks.

Oh yeah stumbled into this as well. I've always been one to piss on horoscopes and astrology, but this was rather interesting. If you're feeling equally procrastinatious (grammar police, sod off) go ahead and see how much you agree....

Can't wait for raya!...well technically cant wait for raya weekend! And any deepavali celebrations too! Ladoo and dodol! Aloo ghobi and rendang! oh yeah and some schmoul about forgiveness and thanksgiving.

"the 'reserved' seat with my name on it in hell just moved up to a nicer table.. " myself , random MSN line around 3 in the morning. Dont ask. Seriously.

*ps. Tipah tertipu tertipu tipu tertipah!

*pps. Tipah tertipu lagi!

2005-10-30T05:49:00.000Z

Karma, parte un

This obviously hasn't really been my week.

Just got outta the kitchen - thought i'd make the sambal udang for the nasi lemak tomorrow while i was cooking sahur so tomorrow can relax a bit. Earlier today already damn semangat go East West to get pandan and the raw prawns. I don't know whether it was because i broke the petua melayu not to cook while you're angry, or the Big Guy was subtly telling me "no, you're not the best goddamn chef in this 'hood, bitch." - but i kena fuck upside down in the kitchen.

Started makin the sambal tumis from scratch as usual la...chucked everything in the blender. Firstly, the goddamn jar of tamarind won't open - bang bang cannot open, held the lid under hot water cannot open also. In the end had to literally cook the screw top on the hob and pry it open using gloves. A fuckin jar of tamarind cost me 10 minutes in the kitchen. Popped open and spilt a fair bit on the floor.

Then, still stressed from that, i put the pot on the fire and put in the oil, taking for granted that it had already been put to dry. It wasnt. MAAAhai hot oil spurting everywhere and the cover was right next to the pan. Had to wait for all the goddamn water to finish popping away.

Halfway through cooking it, tasted damn different. Made it exactly like how i did last summer in london but it tasted fucking diffrent for some reason. So i popped open one of the ready made sambal tumis packs and added it. Nope , still fucked up. Then when i tried to add some salt the whole goddamn tube hancur and a fucking bigass heap of salt fell into the pot. Serious fucking heart pain. After manually gettin all the salt i could out, and diluting the whole pot 3 times over, its still fucked up. Just left it on the stove, and see if i'll just make something else to go with the nasi lemak tomorow. Utter cock.

Still can't shake the background stress from the impending courseworks. Hydro coursework no one's really sure about the constraints of the design, and the Business coursework has us searching high and low for our group leader and me waiting for someone to read their mail. I swear if i didn't let loose at Pure on friday i sure giler already one.

Don't you just hate the tossers who fuckin take up an extra seat on the bus? Some of them sit like they've got a pair of tennis balls in their crotch, some of them blisfully sit on the outer seat, and some nicely park their satchels/bags/shopping on the seat next to them. Extra points for having headphones on, giving you an excuse to blatantly ignore the people staring cock at you while swaying like a monkey on the bars sifting for a seat. I'd hafta say that at least 70% of the time its fuckin asians. Fuck 'em.

Better be gettin some sleep before a helluva packed Sunday. Boohbyee

2005-10-28T01:10:00.000+01:00

..of Belief & Buses

My luck/karma/aura or something must be quite the pelik today. In the morning, on the bus to campus this elderly large black woman waddled all the way from the back of the bus to pass me, just me a small, typical Christian tract. Okayla, nothing amazing and just shoved it into my bag without reading any further. Later that night as i was coming back from the gym, another black woman sat next to me la...looks like student..never say anything la. After i got off my stop and walked almost all the way to Broomfield already she ran after me..i ingat apa...then she said-

" Hey i'm the girl who sat next to you on the bus. For some reason i just felt this odd compulsion to tell you that god loves you - remember that. Have a good night!"

My first instinct? Checked my wallet. hahahahaha.

A bit the weird right? Not like i was wearing anything with any anti-religion witty slogans ( shit la shoulda bought the "I've found Jesus - he's behind my couch!" one )or looked suicidal or doing anything else asides from looking like the skema asian student. Maybe its just some evangelists' convention in town. Or maybe its a sign...

*thoughtfully glances upwards and to the side*

Naaahh. No offence to anyone, esp the dude upstairs, but the odds of me converting is a helluva(ironic) lot less than the odds of me denouncing the concept of organized religion at Saint Peter's square ( and to be fair,also in the middle of Masjidil Haram) . I think getting hit by that thing the Pope holds will hurt. Ditto on being stoned by a coupla thousand people.

Anyway gimme a mo' to try and remember where i left off yesterday...

Malaysian rants? Hmmn dont really have that much ( that i can safely blog without the fear of random moustached men escorting me straight from KLIA to the depths of a random disused tin mine ) more on that topic. Except that all the blatant manouvering, politicking and showmanship at MSA's agm, and also the comments on this now rather famous m'sian's blog are disturbingly a rather accurate microcosm of Malaysian politics. Right down to the name calling - actual quotes from the Parliament recently:

"Apek, che tiam tiam"
"You're stupid, you stupid old fool"

I'm not feeling particularly superflous now, especially after a proper battering at the gym today. Therefore, i'm going to present condensed, point versions of the self indulgent, quasi introspective monologues that i planned to pen so long ago. Nope no long-winded, blithering self-loathing here.

-Beauty is something that you're either born with or pay for. Being brainy doesn't mean you're smart. Talent and character is what really defines you - too bad nobody cares.

-Ego is good - well a healthy amount anyway. It helps you bounce from your failures. It keeps you on top of your game.

-A fuckin smile now and then won't kill ya - you actually get better responses from people and better service. Just dont grin like a perv.

-Again, women - stop complaning that chivalry is dead. We're not complaining about not seeing anymore ladies coqquetishly drop lacy handkerchiefs and throwing a cum-hither look behind. Ditto about how we desperately need more of those typical finishing school mistresses who make girls learn to walk with books on their head, not like they're hauling a dead moose back to the cave.

Ah yes our lovely neighbours. Decent looking enough childless couple. They're damn bitchy though. The wife already came over twice to complain about the noise we're making. What noise? She can hear our keyboards, our footsteps when we go downstairs at night. WTF? Okayla fair enough after she complained about that gaming session, we havent had any here since. Man....if we want to have housewarming how ar? Sure they terus complain to student accoms. Puukimak la that woman damn bitchy. Maybe she bitchy cos the husband never screw her enough because they were afraid they'd offend the neighbours. Hell if they can hear me typing, i'm sure we'd hear at least some creaking springs. Haih better bake something for them before we have anymore gatherings in the house. And bring her over to the house up the road with all the india mari indian students. When they have parties you can fucking hear them from hearsall common with their skema club bhangra and 'yaars' and 'teri maas'. Then they'd probably be thankful their student neighbours are nice studious orientals.

Oh yeah played a bit of Black & White 2 recently. Bottom line, you're a god, you can cast spells and do shit over villages you own, and you have a pet creature you can groom into an evil bloodthirsty warrior or a good builder and farmer and all things in between. You're supposed to grow your influence and populace either by waging war to gain territory, or building a chunted enough town to attract people, gaining evil and good points respectively. It's all good fun when you're throwing rocks, meteors and fireballs at soldiers and helpless villagers ( all the way giggling like a sadistic fuck) but then you also have to do stupid shit like throw around barrels across islands to help some fucktard brewers and teach your bloody creature not to poop on people. Mahai that game damn waste life. Hardly any improvements game-wise from the first, moronic AI , crap-ass story. But it sure looked cool tho - and throwing hugeass rocks into villages never gets old.

Well back to work then. Found a perfect site to get info about my hydro coursework buut i have to do a lot of translating from bloody czech. The other bitches on my group had better be doing something as well. My group for our business coursework damn condemn . Any 2 of us bumping into each other on campus can kira group meeting already, and the group leader is super fuckin slack liddat. Seriously feel like mounting a coup if he didnt book a consultancy slot with the lecturer for our group next week for the business idea.

"Nobody will win the battle of the sexes - there is too much fratenizing with the enemy." - Henry Kissinger

2005-10-27T04:52:00.000+01:00

I punch the double doors wide open with my two open palms, not letting the weight cut into my arrogant, heel digging haughty stride into the room. Threw off my tan/chestnut leather aviator jacket - left or right? Didnt matter. I just threw it hard. The casters on the aged leather highback chair creaked like many a door before in those b-grade slasher flicks just before some hapless half-naked sorority girl got turned into a colander by a generic masked psycho. I can literally feel the bile coarsing through my fingers. Ironic, how fiery spite and vitriol conveys physically into such an icy tingle.

Fuyoooooo drama or not? Haha Salman Rushdie - go back play play with your trophy wife only laaa....no need to write anymore.

Well thats just how i roughly feel at the moment , getting back into my blog after almost a month of nothing and having soooo much to rant about - with a skosh of film noir and other typically poignant cliches.

First rant? Hmmn its going to be tough without going into specifics. Its the story of the setan betina haram mulut laser - i'm sure those of you who know the story shared a good laugh with me about it. NaaAAbei some people got fantastic imagination mann.....come up with incredible story that flew on the swift wings of gossip all the way to london. Make me stress for fucks only. Nasib baik all the people who mattered knew better. Please lah - we've been doing london for the better part of 4 years....and not like you got much credibility left anyway. Save it on gossiping about people with reputations you can actually scuff la. Membising jerr...

Moving on, Mnite, Msoc.

Decided to re-run for Cultural Officer at the veryyyy last minute at the agm like....2+weeks ago. Made a pig's breakfast of my hastily improvised speech so gerenti hanchur already la. Dahlah tu teruk - hardly any second years showed up, 1st year votes were torn left right center, and the seniors didn't like me very much, duuuh. Wasn't particularly bitter, cos it was a huge weight off my back, and i could easily do more than i did for last year's mnite without even having the post. The new COs -( lets call 'im CO #1 for references' sake) a 2nd year English dude who's a theatre major or something whose qualifiers were a solid theater background ( OBviously) and a gap year spent teaching kids in sar-rare-wark english (eHuk eHuk) & #2, a malay girl who seems like she knows her stuff but made quite an impressive speech. (More on Msoc commitee's past and present later)

So anyway a bit pelik kan , a foreigner as cultural sec. Not being racist or anything, but it juuuust doesn't feel all that right kan? -especially if you're gonna be putting together cultural performances from a multi cultural origin etc etc etc. But he seems to really know his shit so kasi can la...in the spirit of cultural open-mindedness etc.

eEEETt wrong! He announced his idea for the play today at the screening of last year's mnite. He intends to do The Fall of the House of Usher. Those of you who know the story, or at least know the general vein of Edgar Allan Poe's works should be hearing alarm bells. Dark, morbid, depressing stories. Especially this one. I can just see whichever Malaysian VIP storming off in a huff in disagreement with the plays central theme of incest and a bizzare sibling relationship. Just like that LSE msoc/singsoc thing a coupla years back where the play poked at some sensitive malaysia-singapore issues.

Weirdly enough, most of the room seemed quite entranced when he went on about how there was going to be background dancers to portray the haunting of the house, and the use of face painting and elaborate costumes to further portray the twisting madness of the siblings. Later on he said something else about bringing in more warwick theatre people in - well the play only has 3 central roles. HMmmn.....

Don't get me wrong - i'd love to see a classic Poe fleshed out with contemporary theatrics and i do believe this guy can pull this off, BUT i'd love to catch it at a Dram Soc thingy...or the Arts center - not a Malaysian Night. An Mnite should engage the audience and allow them to identify at some level with the characters or story. An Mnite should be about Malaysian culture - society, song or dance. After the generally blase review of last year's play - a piece on stereotypes with an interesting premise but with one too many twists at the end - its obvious that most of an Mnite audience come to be entertained with something they can relate to. Not Shakespeare, not Poe, not Chekov (unless done in an original-besmirching manglish infused zany malaysian style).

So how, CO # 2? still think i should choreograph Bole Chudiyan? Can probably fit in when Madeline 'dies' ...or before the house physically splits in half. Take your pick.

Back to MSA's agm - there was this big hooha about allowing non-malaysians to run for commitee positions, more cos a bruneian was running for pres rather than that guy running for CO. After some big hooha about not being able to find a hard OR soft copy of the constitution, and several clumsily worded majority motions, they finally settled on all the positions being open to non-malaysian members save for the president. Blah blah blah figurehead blah blah blah. Not like our last president was a freakin bastion of leadership and charm. Naaaabeh. Typical skema spineless politician. Actually i dont really have a bone to pick with last year's comm. Except for that little niggle with the prez being a spineless, charmless gorm, and two bitches who chose to personally butt heads with me. Lets go back in time to last year, around mnite

*cheesy chimes sound effect and blur swirl effect*

Bitch A - kejap nak buat this performance, kejap nak buat that dance. cannot decide. Very irritating when i had to confirm numbers and formations. And then sommore nak sibuk sibuk kejap suggest some lameass dikir moves, and then suggest that new move. She can oh do eeEEverything except choose a dance, and do her job properly as props manager. In the end i had to go with some of the dancers to carik constumes and everything. She very smart dah i settle all that at the expense of 2 solid days of sleep she tried and get smart with me. I let her have it there and then sampai lari keluar nangis. Padan muka. Cue a minor ripple of applause from her underlings and other random ppl who thought she was an annoying bitch as well.

Bitch B - also one itchy monkey who cannot stay on her own job as treasurer. Loves to order other comm members around to do random shit. Sibuk sibuk here, sibuk sibuk there. One sterling moment was when i drew silouhettes of the stereotypes in the play to be used for the promo posters and websites - handed them to one of the comm members to setel with the other ppl in charge of the posters. Someeehow the skanky bitch intercepted it, made her own lamer versions and outta the fucking blue the next day i saw the posters with her versions on 'em. And she claimed the whole silouhette thing was her idea. Im sure other comm members have a similar bone to pick with her. To this day when i see her skinny ass in the gym i pray that she falls flat on her face on the treadmill until her already flat face flat sommore. Muka dahlah cam siall.

Think or KNOW you're one of the fuckers i'm blogging about? Well taking a line from the oh so hilarious God-King of Bengs, "Rockson Takumi Tan" -

FUCK YOU UNDERSTAAAND!!

Ahh it feels nice to be back in the " I don't give a damn what you twatheads think anymore" mood. Theres just no point killing yourself being nice to certain people.

Eh i continue next time la - dahlah kesian you all read so long. Sommore i pun dah ngantuk giler nih. Next entry - more malaysian rants, and more thoughts of Amar. Oh yeah and it'll be sooon!

This is MY blog. MY thoughts. MY release. MY therapy. Dont like? Go paint yourself grey and lie down on the fuckin NKVE - or Gibbett Hill Road...mana mana jelar.

2005-09-29T11:21:00.000+01:00

Busy, busy, busy...

Balls. Still no internet in the house. On campus now. Serious first week kecoh - so much shit to settle. Can't wait to just cruise down to London and enjoy some shopping. Blergh.

Anyhoo, 157 Broomfield Road is up and running. Dapur dah hangat, bilik dah terabor. Just gotta settle the utility payments, wait for ntl broadband and get a freakin washing machine. Our power bill sure giler bangat, what with 5 computers in a house of 3, and all the shit in the kitchen. First week pun dah super koyak - buying stuff for the house, bas pass, sports fed & gym reg, etc. Pokaiii!!!

Oh yeah - we rented a car Monday to pick up our stuff from campus storage. I can't drive manual for shit anymore - well, it HAs been 5 years...but still....i think i might just enrol for driving school here to brush up...and get a brit license while i'm at it. But sure tak sempat one. Balls.

This very moment? its 11.25 , i'm in the computer lab, and wondering whether to stay here and write a piece or go home and do some housework before my next lect at 2pm. Body in absolute pain - pegi gym yest, where i almost threw up halfway after trying to resume my 1000 calorie workout, and fencing that night - mati mati lawan dengan the new veterans and had drinks with the team afterwards.

Verdict? Lapar. Nak balik. Don't worry you'll still get that piece. Probably gonna be a ramble piece on ego and hypocrisy. Still looking for something to rant about though. Toodles!

2005-09-20T19:33:00.000+01:00

Packin's a bitch, ain't it?

Its early Weds morn, and i managed to get a seat on the 2345 flight back down. Well on one hand, i'll arrive in the morning, and can go straight to the uni, get my keys for our crib for the next 9 months and move in straight away. On the other hand, thats gonna be some bitching travelling after a 13 hour flight - not made any easier lugging my bloody desktop around. The next week or so is going to be utter chaos, so dont think there'll be any updates for a while, unless a gorgeous sunrise, a muse or just a combination of insomnia + dead ipod + bad inflight movies inspires me enough to whip out my laptop and write a profound, reflective piece about the last summer. Right now? naaah - still takin my sweeet sweet time to friggin pack.

Also suddenly strangely obsessed with the iPod Nano. Strange, cos when the Mini came out i hardly felt a quibble. Fiddling with a working model at a local apple retailer didn't help tone down my zeal to obtain one either. Do you believe its more expensive here than in UK?

Anyhoo, managed to catch Lionel and charl last Thurs nite for supper at Murni. Area-wide blackout halfway tho - didn't have much confidence in mamak food made in the dark, so we just had drinks before parkin in front of charlotte's house for like...15 mins figuring out what to do. In the end never do anything also.Cheeeebye!

On Friday managed to get out Tai Uei, Aaron, Sze, poco and the kuah out on another alcoholic oddyssey - this time it was at Soda Club at Hartamas. Picked that spot only cos there was no cover charge, and we(okay they) werent really down for clubbing.

Verdict? Price biasa only larr....but all the waitresses are rather hot super ah lians. Goes downhill from there though - the entertainment alternated from a smarmy band that did lotsa pop and even jiwang chinese songs, and a DJ who can't mix to save his life. We all got seats on the balcony/upper flor/whatever, and the view was damn condemn lor....there WERE hot girls, but they just sat quietly with their creepy 'uncle'ish escorts while all the fuckin bengs were on the floor , doing what's best described as the dance scenes in Honey....meets William Hung....meets an epilectic fit. Brr....

Sze and choong got juust a little smashed afterwards, which was even better entertainment. Man if you werent there you wouldn't believe some of the things those two fuggers said....havent reviewed the videos myself hohoho. Aaron 'formerly known as fatty' Choong even poured beer and teh tarik into my wantan mee. Balls , balls indeed.

Topped off Saturday with the official-really-no-kidding final dota sesh of this summer. A bit sad also right? 10 guys on saturday night chalking up a 20$ bill at a cybercafe. As usual i got raped. Probably almost gave bobby and sing 'hamchat' tat a stroke everytime i died. Sorryla horrr i only play this 3 months a year hahahaa.

Funny thing happened over tennis with dead ol' dad on Sunday. Not only did i fuckin thwack myself in the face when my grip slipped on the racket, but i managed to kill a bird with my serve. Hahaha those sparrow swarms are probably kinda used to the grass courts being quite quiet. Until i managed to practice some serves on my farler. Whacked one spot on, but it just crashed, hobbled off and flew off again. Kinda glanced another one, but this poor bastard got bounced off straight into the tennis pavillion wall. PHOKkkk!

Pretty much got nothing else now but a rant on Dell, but dont think you wanna hear that wouldja? Long story short, i told them i was flying Monday and emailed 'em like mad. That got me the laptop Tuesday evening. eeeeeficient no? Like to meet the industry 'expert' who supported Dell's 99% customer satisfaction claim and spit on him until i die of dehydration. Ptuih!

Here's a blog some of you might just find hilarious - Talk Rock - a pretty popular singaporean blog done in the literary style of Beng. I'd bet my last nickel on him being able to actually speak better english than most of us...

Toodles dahlings!

GHOR-geouss. Amazing engineering too. One apparently worked fine after being ran over with a car.