Life as we know it... or do we...

Just another one of those days...

2008-02-13T09:24:00.000+08:00

Sigh... its another one of THOSE days... thats right.. u know what im talking bout... one of THOSE days...

those days when u feel ur alone in the world: when ud probably appreciate a foe's mis-directed attention just as much as a friend's well-directed intentions... possibly even more... when u know everyone's so preoccupied with their own world to care about ur own... not their fault.. everyone's got a life to live and improve... but yet u keep wondering how everyone else manages to stay so happy... even though it may be just on the surface...

and all of a sudden u come to the realization that u dont know what ur doing in life: why you're doing what you're currently doing.. why you arent doing something else in life... its not that youre not suited to it... its just that you keep wondering isnt it about damn time you moved on to better things?? things that u see ex-colleagues and former classmates have achieved about what seems like decades ago.. but u just cant seem to be in sight of... and then you wonder... what am i lacking??

and then you wonder why you are here: why this place, of all places... was it a mistake coming here? to a place where you've never seen anyone so materialistic in your entire life... where ppl judge you on your expensive tastes, as opposed to what you think, what you say, and what you do... where on the most intimate level people are just as unaccepting of you as you could never imagine... for reasons unbeknownst to you...

and you come to the conclusion that maybe.. just maybe.. you dont belong here.. you dont fit in: and you consider options that help you leave... no, youre not running away like a coward... you just want to move on to greener pastures.. but what if the fields there are just as barren as they are now? what if its worse?

and then you look inwards again: maybe its just better to be a bastard like everyone else you meet.. and not give 2 hoots about anyone else around you... sure, you'll make enemies along the way... but atleast you'll be in peace with yourself... saying atleast u had some fun... but then another glance inwards says the exact opposite.. you're not that kind of person... you're better than those you observe... maybe not in every way.. but definitely in some way... and that same inward glance tells you to keep going... that maybe the path you're on isnt as bad as it looks.. sure, it may not seem like the Yellow Brick Road... but still... atleast its not the plank.. so you tell yourself it'll get better... you tell yourself to keep going...

and not to give up...

and to keep the good in... and keep the wrong out... no matter how 'attractive' the 'wrong' options may seem...

so what if youre alone?? if you are, people obviously subconsciously believe you can do better than them... wouldnt wanna prove em wrong on that, now wud we?

and sometimes... just writing it out helps...

and also, that sometimes.. just Sometimes...

It's OK to be a bastard to others...every once-in-a-while... it purges the devil within...

but dont let it kill the person inside...

Welcome back to School!!!

2008-02-04T03:55:00.000+08:00

Well, so thats the story of how I got to Switzerland... the next issue: what now???

Some basic info about my MBA programme:
- its 1 year long
- it comes pre-loaded with a high proportion of Finance.. (Oh Joy!!!)
- it requires an internship period from June to August at any company in Switzerland or abroad
- there are just 34 students!!!!

Here's what I confirmed within a few days of my arrival here: Switzerland is BLOODY EXPENSIVE!!!! The only folks in my programme not freaked out by the money value of things are the Americans and the Europeans.. n that covers about 90% of my class demographics.. not counting the 10 indians and myself...

The courses arent bad at all, though.. Having never being formally educated in business, I'm actually learning quite alot... here's a breakdown of what I think of some of my courses so far.. if any of my MBA classmates read this, they might agree... if they dont, well, who gives a shit, its MY blog!! My stage!!! My thoughts!!! (Okkayyy, gettin a bit carried away here...):

- Finance 1 (Accounting & Controlling): Seemed like all this course required was SHIT LOADS of reading!! and alotta falling asleep in class... until we got the project.. now THAT was a bit better.. i guess i've always been the kind of person who learns more by doing rather than sitting and listening.. so this project involved analyzing financial reports, doing some really basic calculations.. and finally, analyzing why so-and-so move boosted up the stock price of the company by x percent... Yup.. Interesting, eh??

- International Management: I actually found this subject really easy to understand... equipped with TONNES of examples of companies expanding overseas n the kind of problems they faced... was kinda good overall.. except for the fact that the professor couldnt control discussions when students started asking questions.. and that really helped considering we have some classmates who just DONT KNOW WHEN TO STOP!!!

- Finance 2: Stocks!!! Futures!!! Options!!! Lotsa Math!!! what else can I possibly add about this subject, except for it provided the platform for my first argument with a classmate here.. officially uncovered the Bitch of the Millenium among our classmates.. yes, yes, she got to me in an even worse way than 'She-who-irritates-me-greatly'...

- Strategic Management: This is a module that involved almost NO teaching!!! Instead, we had to work on case studies for EVERY class, and present discuss them ourselves... was good in some ways.. intolerable in others...

- Business Law: currently going thru this module right now... infact, i should be researching stuff for our group project, but instead here I am writing entertaining material for you!! :) the classes are absolutely boring!!! the lecturer speaks in a way that reminds me of Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura, and there's barely any teaching.. he just comes in and starts discussing examples.. n he's SHIT scary.. approaches students like he's approaching a witness on a stand.. well, he IS a lawyer, after all..

Aside from the subjects, there's been loads of other stuff going on, which I think i'll write about later (i should get on the research for now):

- Change of apartment..
- the finding of 'Bastard of the year'... I think he should TOTALLY get together with 'Bitch of the Year' and outdo the Hitlers!!!
- Booooooorrrriiinnnnggggg Christmas vacations
- How fragile egos can be in an MBA programme
- searching for internships/jobs..
- and Loads More...

so stay tuned, Folks!!!

July to August

2008-01-10T18:39:00.000+08:00

First up.. what happened in July and where'd I disappear to in August?

Well, some of you remember that aside from finally keep myself seriously preoccupied with work, I was applying to business schools around the globe. To be completely honest, I was pretty much out of options for attending business school in 2007 as most application deadlines had run out.

I'd sat for the GMAT test (thats what I visited Shanghai in June for), but since then had changed my mind and decided to join the business full-time.

Then, on the 10th of July, came the email....

the University of St. Gallen invited me to send an application for their 1-year MBA program. Deadline: 15th July.

My first reaction: Burst out laughing at the thought of going to Switzerland to study... no way did I wanna put that burden on my parents.. Just the tuition itself was about Rm. 150,000, so you can understand my concern.

A couple of evenings later I casually mentioned it over dinner to dad, just as a joke. Apparently he didnt take it as humorously as I did, since he sincerely told me to get my butt online and apply ASAP.

So what did i do?? Thats right.. I was up till 3 or 4am filling out the application just a couple of hours before the deadline..

Anyways, so in a couple of days I get an email saying they'd like to set-up an appointment for a telephone interview.. and a few more fine days later, on the way home from the gym 1 evening, I get a call from the admissions dude askin me if I'm free to talk now... great!! this is an interview for an MBA programme, I haven't prepared anything at all, I'm not even in the proper environment.. so naturally what do i say???: Sure!!

45 minutes later, the call's over, and I felt it went pretty well... but the thought looming in my head was 'Why the heck should I make my family afford this???'.. so my crooked brain decides: hey, if these guys with supposedly 'high' requirements are accepting me, then y not look at some university better than it, but cheaper and ranking among the Top 100... so I find EADA in Barcelona, Spain, and decide to apply for their MBA programme instead...

Long story short, they refused me admission to the MBA programme, but decided to offer me admission to their International Business masters programme instead.. So i go: COOL!!! I'm headin to Barcelona!!! Spanish Chicks all around!!!

Or thats what I thought, neways...

Dad came home a night later, and I updated him on the situation.. so he spoke to a personal friend of his, who has alot more expertise in this stuff than the 2 of us combined... n then sits me down, and asks me why did i not wanna attend the Swiss uni.. simple reason: the Money!! plus i didnt really wanna trust an upcoming program, so i wasnt sure about it... after some research, we find out the uni's really well ranked, but its just their MBA programme thats new and unknown... Dad pretty much figures out the reason I'm more interested in Spain:

Dad: You just want to go to Barcelona to watch Ronaldinho play!!
Me: No Dad!!! Honest... (I really didnt... up to that point until dad mentioned it..)
Dad: Then why not choose the Swiss uni??
Me: Because it just sounds fishy the way they're aggressively recruiting me... I'm not THAT good!!
Dad: Look, lets consider the Swiss uni.. after all, the guy said you have chances to get a loan!!
Me: Ok.. let's see (I hope I dont get the loan.. I hope I dont get the loan!!!

1 day later: I get a call from the admissions officer at the Swiss uni: We're offering u 50% loan...

Me: Oh Crap!!!
Dad: All Right!!! Look, its definitely a viable option now!!

another 2 days later: I get an email from the Swiss uni: We're offering u 100% loan...

Dad: Thats settled then!!! You're going to Switzerland!! Trust me, its a good uni, and the MBA programme will be too!!!
Me: I'll Never Get to see Ronaldinho Playyy!!!! :(

So neways, within another day or 2 we're talking visa requirements with the uni, and it turns out I have to return to Paki-land to arrange for my Swiss visa...

A week later, I'm back in Paki-land.. on the 14th of Aug (Independence Day), amid bombing threats... within a few days I've applied for my visa.. unfortunately, around this time my grandmother (May she Rest in Peace) took to being ill, and I was among the ones taking turns keeping watch at the hospital...

Mom shows up on the 27th... unfortunately, it was due to Grandma's condition... on the 29th, amid growing fears regarding Grandma's condition, I cut my Birthday Pizza (instead of cake), and a few hours later boarded the flight to Karachi, where I would catch the Emirates flight to Zurich via Dubai.. (First time in my life I got to celebrate my birthday in 3 different countries simulteneously!!!)

And so, after nearly bashing a kid's head in during my 10 hr layover at Karachi airport, I was on my way to Zurich!!!

Up Next: It Begins...

I'm Back!!!

2008-01-10T18:12:00.000+08:00

So!!! What have i been up to for the past.... 5 months or so???

And why have i decided to update my blog NOW, of all times?? when ive had countless opportunities to do so previously and loads of stories to share with all my readers (a.k.a. the select few)...

Well, I shall answer the 2nd question first... I know ive had holidays when ive had nothin to do but laze around.. late nights when im just re-watching old movies.. but the best time is obviously during a Hideously boring class... I'm sure you would all agree :)

Annyyywayyy... here's what's coming up in the next few posts (no more delays this time!! this is a Hideously boring and LOOOONG class!!! so i'll finish it all off today..):

i) What happened in July?
ii) Where'd I disappear to in August?
iii) September onwards: What the HECK am I doing in this part of the world??
iv) Job/Internship searches.. they never end, do they?? Sigh...
So... lemme crack my fingers, bitch-slap myself awake, and finish off the remnants of my iced tea... and lets get Cracking!!!

Now That's some spooky shit,...

2007-11-28T08:04:00.000+08:00

Ok, I realize I haven't written in a while... n heck, most of the ppl who read this blog I keep in touch with anyways...

anyways, its the end of the 1st semester (of my MBA programme, for those of you i Haven't kept updated).. n during my week off, we're attending a short series of job-hunting seminars to help us search for an internship and, subsequently, a job :)

anyway, since tonight was an early night, a bunch of us decided to get together and use the massive projector n screen in the main auditorium as our personal cinema... just watched 'Disturbia' and before goin home, we thought of freakin out a buddy by watchin some bits of '1408'...

gettin to the scary parts in a bit.. SHIT Scare movie, folks!!!

I'm out for now... Will update soon on what I've been up to since July (or whenever the last time I blogged was).

Cheers, peeps!!!

Where are they now???

2007-11-13T00:29:00.001+08:00

yea yea...

I know i havent blogged in a while..

keep yer pants on!!! i'll get back to u guys in a bit...

Cheers!

I’M TAGGED, THEREFORE…

2007-07-26T15:12:00.000+08:00

Rules:
Repeat subject header “I’M TAGGED, THEREFORE…”
Copy + paste these rules in your entry.
Complete these 15 totally useless statements & questions.
Mention who you were tagged by, followed by 8 people who you’ll be tagging.

WARNING!
Fail to do so and you’ll be cursed eternally with a 3-holed nose and a low-cost flat.

Here’s another tag game. Blame it on Kotak!

If I was an opposite gender, what would my party clothes be like? Slutty!!! (thou women who give off an intellectual look turn me on like there's NO tomorrow!!! but thats another story for another time..)

At 10am this morning, I was… err.. checking up on a courier shipment to Korea, i think.. either that, or checkin my email...

At 10pm tonight, I will be… deciding between stuffin myself silly, actually gettin some work done, or headin to the bar for some companionship

Who should be the next Malaysian Prime Minister? anyone but Badawi... there, i said it...

If my spouse told me to do without sex for a year, I would… bathe in a tub of ice??? drug her??? i dunno.. i seem equally capable of either :P

If I was a piece of a car, I would be the… Insignia on the hood...

If I was told one day that I would have to give up either 1) anything chocolate OR 2) ever seeing the beach again, for the rest of my life, which one will I give up?
hmm.. i guess it'd be chocolate... thou i grew up next to a beach but never took enough advantage of it..

Singapore is good for… its Education, maybe?? never been there yet...

If I could only say 3 words before I die, what would those last words be? I did it!!!

Who would I like to be left on a deserted island with? The Jessica trifecta maybe (Biel, Alba, Simpson)... oh wait... maybe not simpson... (it aint about the Sex, ppl!!! Honest!!)

Die by drowning or by fire? Fire.. I'm gonna burn in Hell neways.. so mite as well start getting used to it now... (not to mention i already live in a friggin Microwave of a country...)

What one single thing would you buy with your last RM9.95? hmmm.. cheap toy gun and a bus ticket to the nearest bank, i think... simple, but effective...

If I opened a night club, what would I call it? err.. off the top of my head... Casa Diablo???

Don’t cheat: what’s “bulbous”? ehh?? another word for big?pulpy? i think ur lookin for Webster on that one...

I think my ass is… Totally Grab-able :P

And now I will tag:

Salameander
El Diablo
Munaks
Micyuki
Jasmine
Bodicea
Andrew
(this last spot open... lemme know if u wanna be tagged :D )

Gold-(dis)membered...

2007-07-12T10:35:00.000+08:00

You say im Sittin on a friggin Gold Mine, free to dig into it as deep as I possibly can and extract as much gold as I can manage...

I merely point out the staggering number of deaths among mine workers...

Down again..

2007-06-26T22:53:00.000+08:00

Sigh..

Mann, i dunno.. im just feelin depressed again... everythin just sucks right now...

i barely know anyone here, and any possibility of a social life depends on my mastery of the local dialect, since the locals arent ever gonna be even remotely keen on learning English.. atleast not in this decade..

i dunno where im going with my career.. ive resumed workin with dad for now, and there's hopefully hopefully some plans in the works, but i really dont feel like talking bout em since i) i dun wanna jinx em, and ii) it'll make me feel just THAT much worse if i talk about em n they dont happen... i guess i'll write bout em here once its confirmed...

Nothin's particularly happened to get me down all of a sudden.. i guess its just a sudden realization of a few facts... the realization that it all just seems to be tumbling downhill for me, right now... and wuts worse is i dun know who to talk to bout it.. cuz it doesnt seem like support's comin from anywhere.. i guess at these times men come to realize the one true fact: you really are alone in this world, after all...

oh well... if u find urself going thru this post, i sincerely hope you dont let it get u down... i guess this happens to me every once in a while...

i tend to get depressed... REALLY depressed... moody, and easily irritated... not to mention, sometimes repetitive..

i also tend to get REALLY depressed... oh wait i already mentioned that...

ah well... gotta go on somehow.. on my own...

Coke...Cooke...Coore...Coors.... How'd THAT happen???

2007-06-21T14:37:00.000+08:00

My powers of observation have been fooled.. yet again... On my way to buy some onions to prep lunch, I stopped at a supermarket, and, in a rush, picked up a can of Coke Light...

I came home, cooked up a decent lunch, grabbed a glass n some ice, n plopped down infront of the TV... i open the can, n thats where things start to go weird... fine, my observation isnt as keen 24/7, but my super-human heightened sense of smell picked up the scent of alcohol in the air... so innocently, i begin to pour the contents of the can into the glass.. n out comes a pale-yellow fluid, totally not what I expected from a can of Coke... turns out, in my rush id picked up not Coke Light, but:

When i picked it up I thought its probably Coke Light in some sort of local packaging... I wonder how much of a boost Coors has seen in their sales since adopting the Coke Font type...

Lesson learnt: Ppl will use almost any underhanded tactic to get a sale these days... n always be more observant...

N to the curious: No I didnt drink the beer... I absolutely hate the taste of beer, regardless of whatever wonder it appears to be to others...

All in a Hard Day's Work...

2007-06-21T14:27:00.000+08:00

I always knew the Chinese were hardworkers, especially their women.. but this is just a bit too much for the mind to process:

P.S. Dont make me out to be an advocate of Child Labour.. That lil kid just happened to accompany her dad on a delivery run... Honest!!!

Shanghai in Pictures...

2007-06-11T16:27:00.000+08:00

Well, enuff talkin bout Shanghai between the previous 2 posts combined.. here u'll find some of the pix i took... more (and better) pix r on my uncle's camera, which I will upload once i receive them:

1) the motel room we got... REALLY REALLY cheap for Shanghai.. n as u can see, not too shabby at all!! (another 10 points up for grabs if u can guess which bed was mine :P )

2) the first place we visited in Shanghai... Nanjing Lu!! we first visited this place at night-time, n it was beautiful.. for some reason I cant recall right now I didnt whip out my phone-cam right then n there to capture it... hence these pix were taken the next evening during our 2nd visit there:

3) Up next, is the famous Bund, also known as the Waterfront or Waterfront Road to some.. This place, I presume, is most famous for the dazzling view of Pudong u get from across the lake... hopefully these pix will support that statement:

4) We also spent a considerable amount of time at Cheng Huang Miao, famous for its old-looking buildings and, more importantly, its cheap markets selling stuff at HIGHLY-negotiable prices... a woman's paradise, in short :P..

5) We tried visiting the Shanghai National Museum (or sumthing by that name).. im not really a museum kinda person, but my uncle insisted we go.. so bein the good nephew (really!!), i tagged along... alas, we arrived there just a few mins after ticket sales had closed for the day.. nevertheless, the faithful camera still delivered:

6) and Finally, a couple of random pix:

Shanghai Continued...

2007-06-11T01:05:00.000+08:00

The first day (and night) in Shanghai went great: Caught the train on time, no problems upon arrival in Shanghai, checkin in to the motel or finding my test center, The GMAT went well (with minimal prep, thank God), we got a really cheap motel, and i found a BK after the test!!

so here's how day 2 went:

i) woke up at 8.30am, got dressed, showered, n made sure i had all the necessary docs for my passport renewal before i left..
ii) arrived at bout 9.30 at the consulate in shanghai... had to make copies of docs, fill out forms, pay some fees, blah blah...
iii) contemplated going to the Zoo.. instead we decided to first hit KFC for some finger lickin Fun, and hit up Cheng Huang Miao to visit what someone told us was a bunch of old buildings..
iv) upon hitting Chen Huan Miao, was pleasantly surprised to find a HUGE bazaar, including a handicraft market, where i bought stuff..
v) bout 2-3 hrs later, decided to check out the Shanghai Museum.. got there just after 4pm, only to find out entrance tickets were no longer being sold..
vi) made friends with 3 girls at the park (who i believe were conmen.. or rather, conwomen) who convinced us to check out a tea-sampling festival... didnt do it, cuz i refused to pay the fees they were askin for.. walked right out...
vii)ended up at Nanjin Lu again (supposedly called Walking street as well), this time in the daytime.. again got approached by bout 50 pimps n DVD- hawkers... passed by an adult toy shop... phone ran outta power by this point, hence no pix... weird incident occurred inside the toy shop, mainly caused by language barrier issues..
viii) by evening, i had to rush off to meet a couple of ppl i discovered thru the net engage in capoeira training twice a week.. training was good, followed by a roda.. by this time my uncle was waitin downstairs ready to go, so i went thru just 2 games (with both their instructors) and rushed off after saying goodbye... a group composed of very friendly and welcoming indivduals, their training certainly provided me the workout my trip was missing..
ix) 10am: PIZZA HUT!!
x) to the masseuse!!! ahhh that felt good..
xi) tired from the walk all day, the capoeira session, and relaxed from the massage, i hit the sack at bout 1am..

Day 3, which pretty much concluded the trip, went like this:

i) got up lazily, and we packed our stuff up.. uncle's flight was at bout 4pm, so id take him to the airport around 1pm to get checked in... no time for breakfast, as it would require searching for a decent joint...
ii) took a cab to the railway station.. n caught a bus to the airport from there...
iii) hung around at the airport for a bit.. then ditched uncle once he was checked in :P
iv) took the bus back to the railway station, which took AGES cuz of the afternoon jam.. one sucky thing bout shanghai, there's alot of traffic, which can pretty much be expected of any metropolitan city, i guess...
v) bought a ticket for the last bus back to Yiwu, giving me time to scout shanghai on my own for abit..
vi) after varying between Nanjing Lu and Chen Huan Miao (see previous post), i decided on the former, since it was nearer to the bus station and wouldnt get me too caught up in the jam during peak hours.
vii) had some food (my ONLY meal for the day), and walked around Nanjing Lu with my bag..
viii) interestingly a business proposition with a hooker came up.. more on that some other time.. or not...
ix) took a cab to the bus station, where i oh-so-patiently waited for my bus to depart... n finally began the 4-hr journey home..

needless to say, day 3 was not as eventful (aside from the hooker incident) as the previous 2 days... just ended with urs truly comin home to find dad gone out for dinner...

PIX to be up Next!!! with a few captions here n there :)

SHANGHAI!!! You had me at 'Welcome...'!!!!

2007-06-06T22:46:00.000+08:00

Tired, Tired, Tired...

Not gonna write much for now..just gonna say the day's been going good, and am FRIKKING TIRED now!!! here's how it went:

i) Slept at 2am after finishin off with packin (I pack like a woman.. seriously)
ii) woke up at 5.30am to get showered n dressed
iii) caught the train at 7.40am
iv) arrived at shanghai at 10.40am
v) Checked into hotel, then headed off to the testing center ASAP for my GMAT Test (which went well.. got the results already :D )
vi) bought a BK meal n went back to my motel room to enjoy it (my first meal since the previous night)
vii) went touring.. first Nanjing Road, then the Bund (will post up pix later... spectacular view!!)
viii) checked out Xin Tian Di, premier Bar-hopping joint here in Shanghai..
ix) am now sittin here tryin to figure out this PC so i can tell u guys bout it...
x) gonna go get some dinner (PIZZA!!!.. well, maybe) and probably hit the sack to allow my legs to recover from the entire day of walking, and my mind to recover from GMAT stress and staying awake during the test :P )

tomorrow morning: heading to the embassy to get my passport renewed.. and another day of touring...

annnndddd....

I've arranged to attend a group of capoeristas' training session in the evening!!! RODA, RODA, RODA!!! WOOOHOOOO!!! hopefully there will be pix and/or vids...

Will update in detail later... Ciaos!!!

oh, n Shanghai Women... Ahhhhhhh!!!!!! (Nuff said for now... ask me in private)

I dont mean to sound Condescending but...

2007-06-05T01:06:00.000+08:00

Hmm.. you know what???

After reading the previous 2 posts (both parts of 'Ever the Lone Gymmer'), I've sorta arrived at a conclusion:

This guy (The Manipulator) has something against me.. I dont know what it is, I dont know why, or for whatever reason, but I'm pretty sure he genuinely has something against me (he's already caused me to waste more posts on him than on She-Who-Greatly-Irritates-Me):

i) He keeps reminding me how built and muscular he used to be back in his home country
ii) He specifically came by a number of times to consider registering at the gym I work out at... finally succeeding, hence the pissed off Posts...
iii) He tries picking on me by tellin me I overeat and Im fat...
iv) He asks me to choose his clothes (WTF???)..
v) he asks me to choose his PC (WTF 2 ???)
vi) he wants me to advise him on his workouts (like there's ANY way in hell im gonna do that for him after all this shit... or maybe i cud screw it up for him.. hehehehe...)
vii) Heck, he bloody hell has nothin better to do than stare at me while im workin out in the same vicinity
viii) He keeps reminding me how un-social I am and how socially adept he is...
ix)He's bloody, friggin Rude!
x) All he can do is show off bout how much money he's made in life here and back in Pakistan...

Hmm... u know, im not brash, arrogant or cocky enuff to say it, but it seems like he's got some sorta inferiority complex he needs to deal with... n somehow it has somethin to do with me, or using me as a target to make himself feel superior.. but then y try to emulate me by asking for my taste?? maybe cuz he's SURE his taste in stuff SUCKS???!!! :P

Oh n did I mention that he rebuffed the same instructor who helped us out with the supplements previously?? She comes up to him to advise him.. sure, she had an alterior motive as she was trying to get him as a personal training client, hence more money for her (Cha-CHING!!!)... but instead he has to act the cheapskate n get her to write out an entire routine for him for free, and then tells her there's no way he's paying for lessons... he told me this himself, and I later found out, upon her confiding in me, that she was in trouble for not having sold enough lessons that month... so obviously u cant blame her for makin some money so she cud keep her job... if, on the off-chance, she happens to read this: Emma, youre HOT, and a GREAT instructor, and you'll have LOADS more clients in the future... but I still wont stop nagging u until u help me fix my stretching issues!! :P (guy's gotta improve his compassos, right?)

Sigh.. U know what.. after considering all of the above.. Ive decided I'm just gonna let him have it the next time I'm the least bit annoyed by his behaviour... hence, this quote from 'The Punisher':

- 'Sic vis pacem parabellum - If you want peace, prepare for war.'

(Hey, maybe it wasnt such a great movie, but this one quote stood out, dun ya think???)

Ever the Lone Gymmer (Part 2)

2007-06-04T23:47:00.000+08:00

So here's what happened after he registered at the gym.. he drags me n the common friend out to help him buy workout clothes... Sheeeesh... talk about a complex... the only reason I consented to go along was cuz I'm on very good terms with the common friend, and the common friend agreed to miss Mandarin class along with me, so i wouldnt feel so bad bout it :P... neways, so 2-3 hrs later, he ends up with 2 pairs of training pants.. THATS IT!!! WHY??? cuz he cant F***ing make up his mind on what he wants... First, he asks us to choose a trainer for him to try on, and then he asks us to ask the salesgirl for a larger size, and finally he wants to buy XXL or sumthin, when he's barely like 5ft tall!!! sheeesh... despite numerous attempts at reasoning with him by sayin 'look, YOURE going to be wearing the clothes.. YOU decide what you want. we'll tell u if it looks good (thats the way it usually works, right ladies???)', he still wants US to choose his clothes for him... (this happened once before when he asked us to accompany him to buy a PC.. 'U choose a PC, guys, and tell me what u like, and I'll buy it'...)

N did I mention he now wants me to 'Help' him buy a workout bag... F*** Off, Mate!!! I've got better things to be bothered with... n he doesnt even have the nerve to ask me himself.. he asks the common friend to ask me to buy him a bag... sigh, the common friend's actually a very naive and innocent kid (compared to us), so either he doesnt realize when he's being used, or he's too nice a guy bout it.. i think its the latter, since he's a really nice dude n really smart too...

so neways, on to wut i mentioned at the end of the previous post:

So!! you wanna see wut my workout's like??? Suuure... Come Right This Way!!

So the Manipulator decided to drop in at around 5.30 or 6 the next day seein as thats when I told him I'd be in... n it just so happened that that was the scheduled day for my weekly Kicks/Pushups session... Here's how the routine goes: 16-20 sets of 10-20 reps of any kick, with each set followed by 10-15 reps of a variation of a pushup.. if all goes as well, i end up completing somewhere in the vicinity of 200 kicks and 200 pushups... peanuts for the average capoeirista or army recruit, im sure...

so neways, he walks into the room, and catches a glimpse of me throwing Compassos, and just stands there staring... so once im done with my set, i say hi, n tell him alright, get changed n blah blah n i'll see u among the weights later... so he goes off to presumably get changed... n then after 20 mins or so he comes in, and finds me grinding out pushups of the Queda da Rins variety with my legs straightened out (for non-capoeiristas, its a twisted sorta pushup where ur legs swing about throu the motion), and once again I find him staring... n then finally he speaks up: I dont want to do this, I wanna go lift weights... I felt an inward smile growing :)

but that wasnt all... I had to prove to myself AND to him how much more intense my workouts are than he imagines...

so I finish off my capo workout (during which I noticed at several instances him loitering around the gym rather than training... laziness, or waiting for urs truly to guide him?? i dont know...), by which time i'm absolutely drenched in sweat.. I realize ive got time to hit some weights.. so i went out, and loaded up some barbells for some heavy Clean n Press sets... i invite him along to train, which he accepts, using the cowardly excuse 'Im not afraid of ur workout.. if i cant do it, ill just back off' (I mean CMON!!! wud Instructor Rafael have tolerated that shit in Capo class??? Hi Rafa, Im not afraid of doing handstands, but im just gonna back off if I dont feel like it...Seriously, I wont divulge into the details of wut wud happen if I ever did that)..

So neways, barbells r loaded up with light weights since I havent lifted weights in quite some time.. n the instant I start with the drill, he runs off saying 'Man this is going to make me tired, I dont want to do this'...

Needless to say, Me = Confused...

Isnt getting tired part of the satisfaction and a good indicator of a fulfilling workout?? I mean, do u wanna lift measly 2-lbs weights n expect to be bulging like Arnold in a couple of weeks?? Ohh yea, I do forget, he wants supplements, doesnt he... not to mention, all the instructors are supposed to combine all their efforts and prowess into sculpting his miniature 5ft frame into the next Franco Columbo.. Urgently needed: A lesson in Humility and Work Ethics!!! Once again, I invite my Bantus friends to ponder Instructor Rafael's reaction to this statement.. :)

so neways, workout completed, I met him at Mandarin class later... n while we're waiting outside for the previous class to conclude, he tells me 'listen what ur doing is not good for u at all, u should do stuff to lose weight, this is only for fitness, dont do this...'

At this point, my mind started going 'Ummm, weren'y u sposed to be the Dipshit who pretends to know nothing bout working out??' so I didnt exactly lose it there, but i decided not to hold back: 'Listen, I know what I'm doing, and what my goals are.. You wouldnt understand the way I train, but I do... Dont bother with changing my routine, Ive got my stuff under control'..I dont even think I wanna bother givin him an intro to capo, since he'd probably say weird stuff bout it which would only serve to get me ticked off and a lil bit vindictive...

n to top it off, I dont think he has the slightest HINT of how to behave in a gym.. i mean, im not saying u shud know which is ur shrimp fork and how to use a napkin, but u have to be aware of others' around u... YOU DONT GO UP TO SOMEONE IN THE MIDDLE OF A F***ING BENCH PRESS AND ASK THEM FOR THE TIME!!! AND YOU DONT START SULKING IF HE DOESNT GIVE YOU AN IMMEDIATE REPLY!!! AND YOU CAN LOOK AT THE DAMNED CLOCK FOR YOURSELF!!! oh n lemme add, for no reason at all, he starts gettin cocky n tellin me 'Just gimme 1 month in the gym, and I'll be great friends with everyone here and be much more social than u r n will know so many ppl'.. uummm ok.. like I even care, dude... :s.. i mean, i enjoy makin friends n all, especially with hot chicks with a common interest in workin out (ahem, ahem..), but my main reason for joinin the gym is to get in there, go thru my workouts, and get the heck outta there n attend to other stuff...

That was the end of that... but wuts pissing off is being picked on for having weight issues and being bulky... Hey, I can pick on ppl for being scrawny too, but I know everyone's different, just cuz ppl arent like u doesnt mean its bad... n most importantly, i'm not the kind of person who prefers socializing by picking on others' weaknesses... Apparently he thinks he's back in high school where ppl respect the bully... I guess im just waiting for the instant when things get out of hand and I can finally put to good use the few lessons in boxing I got from my aussie friend... but ive gotta be mature bout it, since I've got a reputation at the gym, and I dont wanna start fights there.... Heck mann, the gym's where I do most of my socializing.. not to mention, meet all the women.. but i digress...

I guess all im going to do the next time he starts acting idiotic is deliver a warning: Either learn to speak politely in public with the proper etiquettes, or dont bother comin up to me... I know most of the folks I know out there wud have knocked this guy's teeth out by now, but I actually prefer non-violence to the alternative.. n also that i like the current image i have at the gym... Plus I believe in the following quote I read off somewhere in Wikipedia:

- 'Violence is the last resort of a fool'

GRrrrr!!! This is SO Pissing OFF!!! Maybe I should just stop thinking and let him have it the next time he frustrates me...

Ever the Lone Gymmer (Part 1)

2007-05-30T01:41:00.000+08:00

This is a continuation of 'Damned Manipulators'... Its an anecdote that enhances the advantages of working out alone, and what a f***ing pest a workout partner can be at times.. NOTE: i do NOT in ANY WAY mean this within the context of a capoeira class (where partners are more or less evenly matched, and VERY RARELY, if ever, slow down the other person), but rather within the confines of a gymnasium, where not taking ur workouts can cause serious injury in the course of lifting some heavy iron...

So, when we last left off, said manipulator was intent on purchasing previously mentioned workout supplements. After weeks of repeatedly calling me up and letting me know 'i'll drop by ur gym today/tomorrow, make some time for me', he finally decided to drop by the gym with a common friend to check out supplement prices.. by this time, he'd already enrolled at another gym, let his membership expire after going thru just 1 workout, renewed his membership, and let that expire without a single workout... lots of money to waste, i presume...

Firstly, he doesnt try to speak chinese at all... he's been thru the same sessions the other classmates have, but he refuses to use his chinese in public, and instead forces n instructs those around him to communicate with a local on his behalf.. not that we mind helping out, but he cud be a lil more appreciative and a lil more gracious when askin for help, instead of literally ordering ppl who he calls his friends to 'do his bidding for him'... such ppl really PISS me OFF!!!

Second, being a long-time member of my gym, I share a friendly rapport with all the staff members there, especially the instructors... So this one female instructor who speaks quite a surprising bit of english offered to explain to me n my friends all the instructions... So once again, the dude literally orders me n the other friend to speak to the instructor n then translate wut its all about... this ive already gotten used to, so no point complaining bout the same thing over n over again.. wut REALLY got to me was in the middle of our whole talk with the instructor, he interrupts and barks 'you know what, these supplements arent a good idea at all.. im telling u, dont go for them, just train and eat naturally...' OHh Man!! like i said, such ppl REALLY PISS ME OFF!!!

Next, he starts teasing me bout my current health condition... fine i'll admit ive got some problems, but hey, Im improving my fitness every day with each strenuous workout i go thru, and my strength levels have improved to levels ive personally never experienced before.. no im not saying i cud outwrestle the Hulk, im just sayin its a new personal high... so neways, said Manipulator starts saying 'man im in ur gym now, lets see wut ur workouts are, ill show u wut ur doing wrong with ur workouts, u need to train harder', while at the same time asking me for help saying he doesnt know shit about working out and he doesnt know how to use any equipment, so he needs my help to show him what to do and to help arrange for an instructor to assist him with every workout... how convenient, this muscle-building thing, aint it? buy a few supplements, have some instructors tell u EXACTLY what to do, and then glorify ur results in the mirror... niceee...

So neways.. I decided its bout time I shut him up... by actually showing him one of my workouts! :D

To Be Continued...

The rest of this story will be up soon.. its not that I'm into creating mystery or suspense by having u guess how he ended up... im just too sleepy right now, cuz its past 2am.. have a heart n let a blogger get some sleep, ppl!!

Comin up soon: GMAT!

2007-05-24T02:32:00.001+08:00

I FINALLY managed to successfully register myself for the GMAT test earlier today.. have been trying to do so for days, but there were weird credit card issues to overcome first..

neways, the point of this post is not to lament over credit card woes, but rather to unleash pent up worries over the test, which is basically used as an entrance exam for business schools worldwide... I dont really have much time to do the test and submit the results, hence I had to register to take it early and make sure I get the test results to some unis on time... neways... ive been thru similar tests before.. last year I took the GRE, on which I performed alright... Math was good, English was OK..

basically the GMAT's a test of high school math n english, but its a really TWISTED, SICK, n SADISTIC test.. it twists questions n tries to trick u.. hence most of ur time is spent on figurin out any tricks on the test, rather than solving the problem itself... i guess its meant to simulate analytical issues u can face in the business world or doing a business program, so it sorta makes sense... Math's always been my forte, so I've gotta look to perform really well on the math section.. English shud be OK, hopefully.. just alotta analysis and not so much focus on the vocabulary, so its something I hope I can handle..

Sigh.. I just keep givin myself more reasons n ways to end up insane, dont i??

A Lesson in Gym Etiquette

2007-05-24T01:40:00.000+08:00

With the recent turmoil (thats been goin on for quite some time now) going on in my life, the only suitable outlet for my anger n frustration is the gym.. For me, aside from the usual gymmy (is there such a word???) stuff such as running or lifting weights, the gym has become the place I work on my capoeira and do the lil bit of socializing I have managed to accomplish since my arrival in this country bout 8 to 9 months ago... Hence, its safe to assume the time I spend in the gym is probably the only thing keeping me sane so far...

However, I've noticed a few people have no idea how to go bout behaving themselves in such an environment, let alone in public places... it surprises me to observe the VAST number of ppl completely unaware of appropriate public etiquette.. behold, a few Do's n Dont's in this matter:

i) Stop Wasting Time (Part 1): y do people INSIST on acting all eager to get on the treadmill, practically racing to beat other gym members to use the treadmill, setting the timer for 40 minutes and going at a SPEED OF 4-5 KM/HR?????? i mean seriously, im not sure what ur purpose for using the treadmill is.. either ur warming up for a workout, or ur looking to go long distance to burn fat quick... but trust me, the only thing u lose this way is a race with a turtle... wuts even worse is that ppl set the timer for 40 mins, and then get off after 2-3 mins, having already eliminated other gym members' hope of using the treadmill in this lifetime, thanks to the intended 40 min run!!

ii) Stop Wasting Time (Part 2): this one goes primarily for the ladies who engage in the following: the other day, i wanted to use the leg-press machine... turns out there's already someone using it, so i generously wait, hoping to hop on the machine after she's done with her sets... however, she's sitting there with a magazine, the weight she's lifting on her legs is barely 20lbs, and she's going on n on n on n.. well u get the idea... once again, WHY do people believe that if they keep doing one exercise repetitively Over n Over again, that part of their body is gonna grow immediately?? it was CLEARLY OBVIOUS this lady was hibernating at the press-machine intending to tone-up her ass to Jessica Alba standards, n in her mind the obvious way to go about this was to keep pumpin on the machine until the ass showed up... FRUSTRATING, I tell You!!!

iii) Do NOT Obstruct: This is fairly straightforward, easy to do.. YET SO MANY PEOPLE DONT!! when u see someone working out in a particular area, stop obstructing their workout space.. DO NOT go n purposely stand in their workout space n limit their movement.. it makes people VERY VERY ANGRY!! and when they're lifting weights, DO NOT get in their way.. not only does it stop them working out, its DANGEROUS!!

iv) Do NOT bring your kids to the gym: I'm talking bout lil toddlers who's just grasped the fine art of walking/crawling... Actually, wait, its ok if u bring your kids to the gym, provided you keep an eye on them at ALL times to make sure they dont cause any harm to themselves or others... the LAST thing you should do is get interested in your ass-workouts (see above), become totally oblivious of ur kid(s)' existence, and let them go wandering bout.. clearly, u shud be aware they get adventurous and try to pick up weights on their own, come in the way of others lifting weights, or trip n bump their head on something made out of solid steel.. the other day i had to interrupt my workout to make sure a kid didnt smack herself in the head with 2lb dumbells, all cuz the mother couldnt be bothered to look after the kid n decided to let her loose in the gym... n keep in mind the instructors arent always walking around free to make sure ur kids dont come to any harm... they have work to do, and baby-sitting isnt included in the job description..

v) Stop Ogling at the women: OK, I admit I do this myself.. but NOT in the following way: there r several dance classes every evening, some of which are belly-dancing sessions.. now i'll admit, generally we guys like to observe women in motion at the gym, especially considering their fancy get-ups.. n heck, i'll admit it, here ladies LOVE dressing up (not saying if they do it well or not), n the gym is no exception.. however, during dance classes (mostly all-girls dance-classes), the ladies r there for a reason other than attracting male attention (im guessing)... so oodles of guys drooling at the adjoining window doesnt really make em feel like goin at their workouts to the max, im sure... although, i dont really mind, to be honest.. it just leaves more equipment free for me to use while the dance class is goin on :D

vi) Keep the air around you clean and fresh: You know the gym is one of few places where several individuals may crowd into a limited vicinity... hence, always ALWAYS REFRAIN from passing gas when surrounded by other members!!!! I cannot STRESS THIS ENOUGH!!! i was workin my way thru a spinning session the other day.. my bike was one of those at the back.. i prefer it as its closer to the door, and a fresh cool draught comes in everytime someone enters/exits.. however, it also has the disadvantage of you staring an ass (literally) head on during the entire class... lets just say all of a sudden the air went extremely foul.. Definitely not the kind of fresh cool draught I had in mind...

vii) and Finally (for now), Stop misusing equipment in the shower room!!: U can take that for any meaning ud like, and ud probably be right... here's wut happened the other day: I come outta the shower, all dried off from my trusty towel, and went up to use the hair-dryer... and i see a guy at the mirror, butt-naked, using the hair-dryer.. now, ppl like to walk around butt-naked in the shower room all the time, so i didnt take any offense at that.. however, wut ive observed here is ppl dont bring their own towels.. hence they take showers, and then use the hair dryer to dry em off... so here's wut this guy does... he's drying himself using the dryer... and then PUTS THE DRYER BETWEEN HIS LEGS!!!! Me = SHOCKED (needless to say..)... at this point, id pretty much been 99% convinced not to EVER touch that dryer again, and started to walk away.. u know what he did to shove that remaining 1% in my face?? thats right, he took it between his legs again.. only this time, from the other way round.... im never using hair-dryers again.. nuff said..

Share your traumatizing gym experiences (if you dare) in the Comments Section...

(Dis)Satisfaction Guaranteed!

2007-05-22T13:16:00.000+08:00

Spiderman 3 was released, what, 2-3 weeks ago?? This goes to show that some people are just NEVER satisfied:

i give up...

2007-05-09T20:16:00.000+08:00

Sigh...

We all hear about those people who give up on life, and just float thru their daily activities with no foreseeable goals, no will or drive to succeed...

Usually its not that these people are born with no purpose.. its just that they face rejection over n over n over again, until all theyre left with is a heap of rejections and a totally useless and disgusting impression of their self-worth, leaving them to be nothing more than dried out shells of their former selves, incapable of EVER generating a positively lasting impression among others..

Unfortunately, I have turned, albeit unwillingly, into one of these people...

Sigh..

2007-05-07T00:49:00.000+08:00

Its just one of those times...

Feliz Terceiro Aniversario, Bantus Capoeira Malaysia!!!

2007-04-24T15:00:00.000+08:00

Celebrations!!! The capoeira group I belong to, Grupo Bantus Capoeira, is celebrating the 3rd anniversary of its branch located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia!!!

(pause for applause....)

Wow!! 3 years pass by really fast!! I havent been a member of the group since its inception in KL, but being present at the previous year's anniversary celebrations, I remember it like it was yesterday... or maybe thats just me..

Neways, if ur in KL, and happen to read this in time, DO drop by the academia (URL listed in my links, u'll find the address there) for the festivities commencing at 8pm (KL Time), and take some food along.. the more the merrier!!! and do let them know ur there to compensate for my absence.. they'll appreciate u even more for that :-P ... well, either that or u get Compasso'ed out the window (dunno wut that is?? then DEFINITELY visit!!!)..

Unfortunately, being where I am, I am unable to attend.. n if i chose to, it'd be a BITCH of a commute gettin there n back.. seriously...

i'd honour my group by going all out in a training session at the gym tonite, but since im burdened by work n the possibility of improving my chances at a better future, i cant make it... however, I dedicate a thoroughly enjoyable session of berimbau-playing (SERIOUSLY not speaking metaphorically right now... ) tonite, with Bantus/Capoeira songs belted out by the high-strung voice of yours truly, and the rest of the week will be spent engaging in capoeira workouts meant to destroy the practitioner... with sufficient recuperation time added in later, ofcourse...

Cheers!!!

Mais Uma Vez...Nao Macaco... :(

2007-04-24T00:14:00.000+08:00

DAMMIT!!!

Chickened outta attemptin the Macaco (for the non-capoeiristas out there, its a really cool capo move!!) yet again during my workout last weekend... DAAAMNN!!!

Still gotta work on my fear of eatin floor... wud help immensely if the floor wasn't as hard, though... no suitable mats around to use either...

Will try again.. tomorrow...

Must get it.. i know i can do it.. i just KNOW I CAN!!! n i WILL!!!

Ahh, the smell of burning rubber on wet pavement...

2007-04-23T19:48:00.000+08:00

'Twas a dark, stormy night (I read somewhere that stories that begin with this statement usually have a higher 'enjoyment' rate... but this time it REALLY WAS a dark, stormy night)...

So like I was sayin, it was a dark n stormy night... mainly cuz nights r normally dark (or else somethin's SERIOUSLY not right), n well, the storm had lasted all day long... One thing I gotta say bout this country, transitions between seasons are definitely anything but smooth... Most other places I've been in, the weather smoothly slides from summer to autumn to winter to spring, and then comes back full-cycle to summer again.. Then there r those countries where the weather almost NEVER changes, Malaysia being a prime example of this... I'm not saying I dont find it pleasant to live in constant summer (im more of a warm-weather person, the reason for which u'll find out in a sec), but it can be a tad bit unpredictable when planning outdoor events, not to mention causing highly irregular traffic problems... so neways, the weather here's starting to change for the warmer, gettin hot enuff a couple of nights back to tempt me to revert to my commando ways (in the sack, ofcourse, nowhere else...), but i managed to hang on to that slight bit of decency i had regained during winter (and my trip to KL...) n made it thru the nights throwin off nothin more than the blanket I'd gone to bed with...

neways, lets pretend I didnt just reveal something Highly inappropriate...

Gettin back to the story at hand, there I was, loungin around at home, thinkin bout wut to have for dinner, since there was nothin much to munch on at home... actually, to be perfectly honest, there's always loads to be munched on at home, by the grace of God... however, I tend to be a victim, more so than the average fatass, of the occasional junk food craving, so i decided to cavort over to the local joint for a bite of some fresh, extremely juicy, tasty, and mouth-wateringly tempting meat.. now, now, before u get any ideas, im just talkin bout hittin the local McDs for a Big Mac n some Spicy Chicken, nothin else... (mmmm Big Mac... Mmmmm Spicy Chicken...)

so i donned my Adidas jumper, mp3 player, picked up my wallet n keys (always ALWAYS gotta remember to keep my keys on me at ALL times, since the doors here automatically lock from outside) n headed downstairs to take a walk thru the cool, wet night to the Big M...

strangely, the instant I hit the streets, I picked up a strong scent of burnin rubber... instinctively reacting by checkin myself for burning parts, I realized the only rubber I was carryin was in my shoes, n there was NO friggin way i was goin fast enuff to burn that up... so i figure the roads r all wet, n the SERIOUSLY RECKLESS driving here cud pair up with that to exude a strong enuff smell of burnin rubber without folks gettin too suspicious, so i keep on my way...

by now i realize im walkin upwind, and against quite a strong wind, i shud add... this fact first became obvious by my earphones flying off (recovered safely, for the curious), n the smell of burnin rubber becomes more evident... then i cross the junction, n find the reason for the smell:

A taxi cab stood by the curb, literally half-burnt to a crisp amidst a relatively massive cloud of smoke... u ever see those cartoons where a character gets burnt to a total n complete crisp, only to fall to the ground in a heap of ashes.. this was pretty much the state of half the car... n there was a group of 5-6 firefighters workin furiously to extinguish all possibilities of a blow up, even thou all flames had been successfully put out... havin personally witnessed a previous incident of a car engine explosion, i understood the reasoning for this...

The weird thing was, every friggin passerby had to stop by and gawk at the wreck... IDIOTS!!! the problem with half of us asians is we're ALL suckers for free entertainment... cant the dumbasses realize these guys r workin fast to minimize the risk of explosion n potential injury to anyone nearby, n these guys r enhancing that risk every inch they edge closer towards the car??

havin said all that, i made to get outta that crowd Asap, partly cuz i didnt wanna contribute to the danger myself, but mostly cuz i had something else on my mind, which was hopefully burnt to a crisp to a slightly lesser extent than the automobile id just passed (Mmmm... Big Mac... Mmmm... Fries... Mmmm.. Spicy Chicken... Mmmm.. Juicy... Mmmmm.... Spicy.... Mmmm... Crispy...)..

so basically, long story short (mainly cuz lunch is comin up n im starvin, so im gettin lazy n wanna finish off this post quick), i got to the McDs just as it started rainin once again n the wind picked up pace... I felt someone up there really wanted me to stay home n enjoy a home-cooked (by myself) meal... on the way back, i noticed the wreck again, this time completely extinguished and thus abandoned by the firemen, but nevertheless still surrounded by a group of gawking and gaping shop-owners n the usual loiterers..

Annyyyways... so i got home, n quicker than u can say "Bob's Your Uncle", took my food, the laptop n a movie or 2 up to my room (if ur interested, the movie of choice for this night was 'Four Brothers'), and shut the door to enjoy this weekend night... Basically the whole point of this post was to rant about the stupidity of the locals here (partly owed to their village mentality and lack of education) in the face of potential danger, and complain bout the general driving capabilities here...

Also, last nite, as I brought home my meal n took it up to my bedroom to unwrap before diving right into it, I realized how pathetic life is startin to become for me, as other guys wud most likely be 'unwrapping' a different kind of meal on a weekend night, n here I am lookin fwd to a measly big mac n chicken... I'm not sayin i wanna turn to a life of player'ism n bed a diff lady every night (contrary to popular belief), but it seems im definitely taking to the life of a soon-to-be Fat-Ass... Stuff's gotta change... and soon...

Mainly, the changes to be made around here are in myself... Realized I still have a long way to go in terms of gettin my life straightened out n findin a direction to start upon, but at the same time, even a journey of a thousnad miles must begin with a single step...Help me Lord!!!

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious... WTF???

2007-04-23T11:06:00.000+08:00

Americans have WAYYYYY too much free time/money on their hands:

FYI, 13yo skool grl is nu US txt mssg chmpN

Am I the only one noticin how these ppl keep comin up with new ways to promote stupidity?? First the Razzies, then William Hung, now this???

Seriously... GET A FRIGGIN LIFE!!!

Capoeira Para Vida!!

2007-04-22T01:24:00.000+08:00

Here's somethin for my capoeirista friends to absorb...

I was browsing thru Capoeira: The Roots of the Dance-Fight-Game (by Nestor Capoeira) earlier today, n came upon the following:

Menino quem te fez?
Boy, who formed you?
Quem te deu tanta quarida,
Who gave you so much shelter,
Quem te moustrou a beleza,
Who taught you the beauty,
De dancar dentro da briga?
Of dancing within the fight?

- 'Au' by Ronaldo Santos

Kinda subtly captures the essence of capoeira doesnt it?? I found it in a chapter pertaining to the concept of Malicia, so I guess it sorta gives off hints of the sly aspects of capoeira, n what games can turn to within the roda...

Its a good flick, Lads.. Savvy???

2007-04-22T01:07:00.000+08:00

Alright, alright, this isnt the first time I've had to eat my words, but its definitely one of the few times I actually enjoyed it...

I FINALLY managed to watch Pirates of the Caribbean... both parts, yes...

Contrary to a friends assurance months ago, I did NOT want to watch POTC... I had relegated Johnny Depp to be forever limited to flicks like Charlie n the Choc Factory, Sleepy Hollow, e.t.c.. Not really bad flicks, just not stuff that QUALITY movies r made of..

neways, gettin back to the point.. id pretty much resolved never to watch Mr. Depp roaming the high seas dressed in rags, huntin for riches.. until I got SERIOUSLY bored a few weeks back.. n pretty much the only movie which looked remotely interesting (n which i hadnt watched) at the movie stands, was Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl... I got it, n it lay unwatched on the sofa for weeks... then came the next SERIOUSLY boring night... n i popped it into the dvd player...

turns out i was hooked... the concept of the movie was interesting enuff, but to be honest, it was his acting that did it.. i pretty much always enjoy watching characters that get sarcastic in the face of danger, n this was no exception...

Watchin the first movie got me searchin for the 2nd... finally managed to download it via torrents last night... watched it this afternoon... it wasnt as good as the first, but its def well worth the watch.. with a nice lead up to the 3rd installment, comin up soon...

So, dear friend, who just a few months ago I could not get to stop filling my head with POTC related nonsense (u know who u are :D ), u've won this round...

Good thing the next part's comin up soon... I'm not really good with the whole patiently waiting gig... dont even get me STARTED on waitin for Spiderman 3...

P.S. Dammit, after watchin Jack Sparrow spew sarcasm all over the big screen, I'm gonna be mimicking him, talkin with a british accent for weeks!!!

Cheerio, Love!!!

So much to do...

2007-04-18T13:54:00.000+08:00

U know that saying: So much to do, and so little time??

Well, this is similar... only im not sure how much time I have... which is sorta worse, cuz if u have a deadline to work with, then u strive to work faster n beat that deadline... or atleast, thats how my mind works.. i usually need sumthin to keep me on the edge.. like someone puttin a gun to my head n threatenin to pull the trigger if i dun finish off that last piece of broccoli... or sumthin to that effect...

I've gotta:

- Write application essays for 3 diff programs... altogether thats bout 11 essays... done 4 of em so far... was just made aware of the rest...

- Get started on the intranet system I'm sposed to do..

- Gotta build up a contacts database... its easy, but hideously menial..

- Put together supporting docs for all those applications im sendin out

the worst part is none of the applications im sendin out have stated deadlines... all it says on the website is 'we are now acceptin applications'.. i guess i gotta keep workin on em until the day it suddenly says 'we are no longer accepting applications'..

N just found out another program isnt accepting applications from international students cuz its a part-time program, n visas for part-time program r pretty much impossible to arrange... good thing i found out bout that before i started working on the essay n application form...

Just takin a lil breather for lunch... n i gotta make sure I hit the gym today... havent worked out in a few days.. all the hard work prior to that went down the drain.. oh well...

Sigh... so much to do, n no idea how much time I have...

Short of Inspiration?? Read On...

2007-04-17T13:10:00.000+08:00

Being a former basketball addict, I can pretty much recall most of the major events during Michael Jordan's dominance over the NBA.. The man provided sheer inspiration to many a basketball player... What most people were unaware of is the mentality, the drive behind all the championships n awards... I guess u have to read a couple of biographies, watch a few documentaries to understand that side of MJ a lil better...

Having said all that, if u have even the slightest hint of an idea of the achievements the dude accomplished, and , more importantly, are looking for some serious inspiration from watching a short video clip (or a collage of highlight reels, if u will), then I strongly recommend that you click on the following URL:

Michael Jordan - Fear

P.S. Im not exactly sure why the clip editor named it 'Fear'... but the soundtrack is just SWEEEEEETT!!! (I think its from 'Requiem for a Dream'.. there are several remixes of it out there, I'm not sure exactly which one is used in the video)

P.P.S. While I'm on an inspirational high right now, I highly recommend watching 'Invincible', which came out Late 2006. Based on a true story, the movie just kicked ASS for sheer inspiration... I particularly enjoyed the scene where Vince Papale's best bud gets tricked into helpin him jumpstart his car to find out he's just been selected to play for the team...

At a loss for words... for ONCE!!!

2007-04-17T00:43:00.000+08:00

Take a look at the following:

1) Explain the reasons why you have chosen to apply to this particular Programme (100 words max)

2) Describe how you can contribute to the programme and your fellow participants in class (200 words max)

3) Describe a situation or experience that demonstrates your leadership ability or potential. The situation or experience does not necessarily have to be related to your current job. (300 words max)

4) Describe a failure you encountered and how you handled it professionally and personally. (300 words max)

These r 4 questions I recently had the pleasure of musing over.. Why would I submit myself to such torture, u ask?? Cuz they're part of the application process for admission into a respected uni...

My only problem is this:

WHAT DO YOU SAY TO QUESTIONS LIKE THAT?????!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!

- Wouldnt I want to keep my reasons for doing something like that private? Or do u just wanna make sure I'm doing this for 'the right reasons'?

- What self- pitying, insufferable moron would enjoy recounting past professional/personal failures to regale over pints of alcohol to potential future lecturers/professors/e.t.c.?

- If i was able to demonstrate sufficient leadership abilities n potential, would I be applying to your program in the first place???

- Contribute to the programme?? Errmm.. isnt it the programme that's sposed to be contributing to me???

Neways, frustrations aside, I managed to compose my final responses earlier this evening, and posted them via the online application system.

I guess I may post up my answers here sometime in the near future, when I am sufficiently assured that they will not be potential cause for future embarassment (read: when Pigs can Fly!!!)

Let's see you shake that ass... NOT!!!

2007-04-13T22:13:00.000+08:00

So there I was, minding my own business, diligently workin on buildin my capo skillz in a particular section of a particular room at my gym.. n the bellydancing instructor walks in... she's a babe!! actually im just being very complimentary right now... she's pretty good looking, thou kinda short for my liking... but MANN can she shake it on the dance floor...

Neways, i better get back to the topic at hand before I lose focus... so she walks in, changes the music to her own: tunes that girls normally like shakin it to, i guess... so far this is totally normal, cuz she often comes in while im workin out, n works that ass to some tunes of hers, diverting my attention sufficiently long enuff for me to cool down in one way, and heat up in others...

so today was no different... she's practising her stuff, n im practisin mine... n in walks this dude... normal lookin dude, with specs n a crewcut, dressed to sweat it out at the gym... at this point im takin a breather, hence allowed my attention to focus on the goings on in the room (no, no, I wasnt staring at the instructor again... u gotta believe me!!! find it IN YOU to Believe me, Dammit!!!)... so this guy walks in, faces the mirror............

and he starts BELLYDANCING!!!! WTF???

I'm serious.. this dude was shakin it like there's no tomorrow... n to the tune of the music!!! (Shakira's 'Whenever, Wherever' was playin at that point)... so there I was, relaxin in a corner.. TOTALLY shocked at what I was witnessing... so I did what any normal human being with the slightest tinge of a sense of humour would do...

I took pics :)...

unfortunately I wasnt equipped with a high-res camera, but instead had only my pathetic phone-cam... n the timing was bad, so bear with the following:

There u have it ppl!!! maybe plenty of uve seen sumthin the likes of this, but it was most DEF a first for me... a Bellydancin Dude!!! (10 points if u can find me in the pic :P )

Oh, n later on he borrowed the instructor's belly-dancing skirt, put it on, n continued shakin away... no pics of that, cuz I still like my phone too much to have it violated that way....

2007-04-12T16:17:00.000+08:00

*Yaaaaawwwn!!*

Slept at 2.30am last nite... woke up at 8am (just beat the alarm, infact!) this morning...
Trained like a dog yesterday... workout included capo, cardio, and weights...
Had some beef for lunch earlier today...
No Wonder I'm feeling sleepy right now!!!

*Yaaaaawwwwwwwnnn again!!!

One more Round!!!

2007-04-11T16:09:00.000+08:00

Check this out:

Yup!! Thats my bruised knuckles... Nope, I didnt finally unleash my fury upon 'She-Who-Greatly-Irritates-Me'...

Recently, a friend of mine n I have taken to finishin off our workouts with a couple of rounds on the pads... Simply put, we hold up the pads for each other for 3-minute rounds, n go as many rounds as possible until we're tired out... My friend's got awesome strength n stamina (he's a much more experienced boxer than myself), so holdin the pads up gets to be quite a workout for my shoulders..

I on the other hand, have a stamina level comparable to that of Homer Simpson!! luckily I can pack in a lil bit of power every now n then... so that explains the bruises...

But it actually feels good lettin loose on those pads n givin it ALL I've got!! n it doesnt hurt imagining the face of 'She-Who-Greatly-Irritates-Me' as my target... allows me to come home at night with a smile on my face :-D

P.S. I enjoy the session even better when its time to work my kicks on the pads ;-)

Faked Out!!!

2007-04-11T15:39:00.000+08:00

Ever see those movies where you've got these Big Bad Baddies who hatch some ridiculously evil scheme to circulate counterfeit currency around the city/country??

I became a victim of such a conspiracy last week...

I was rushing to my evening mandarin classes after a gymmin session, n hopped into the first cab available... the driver seemed pretty friendly, had a good chat (in mandarin, too... that means my mandarin conversational skills r improving Big-Time!! WooHoo!!)n when i arrived, turns out I didnt have change, so I paid him with a 100... no problems, as cabs usually carry alotta change here (found it kinda surprising when I first got here)..

so my change included a 50... i was still a novice in the art of differentiating between original n counterfeit currency.. little did i know that I was about to receive a crash course that very night...

later that night, i went out with a couple of friends for dinner, n threw in my 50 as we split the tab later.. turns out, my 50 was rejected as counterfeit... when i took a closer look at the note, turns out it was almost PLASTIC!!! n the hologram looked TOTALLY forged now that I took a closer look!!! Man, did i learn my lesson that nite... but its pretty common, so its not like they called the cops on me or anything...

neways, so i had that 50... n tried gettin rid of it a couple of times: at the bakery, cab rides, other restaurants... it got rejected EVERYWHERE!!! n then last nite, i went to the night-market to fill up my weekly quota of pirated (but excellent quality) movies... n just casually handed the shop owner my 50 n continued browsing the shelves... he was inspecting it (Damn, i thought... he's gonna reject it too...).. turns out, he hands me back my change!!!! Finally!! I'd gotten rid of the fake 50.... considerin id pretty much relegated that 50 to 'Lost-Money' earlier, i decided to splurge the balance...

So later that nite, a couple of burgers n fries later, a content n well-fed Diego hit the sack, having learnt a valuable lesson in the detection of counterfeit currency, and glad to have finally placed that 50 back into circulation within the economy...

Crash!!! Bang!!! SPLAT!!!

2007-04-11T15:20:00.000+08:00

My back's feelin just a teeny bit stiff... i find it always loosens up when i stretch for a workout thou, so its nothin to giv 2 hoots about... but on a related note, I had my 2nd big capoeira-related crash:

I was attemptin to do a walkover... for those of u unfamiliar with that, you go into the bridge position, and attempt to flip your legs over n come up standin straight... or sumthin to that effect...

neways, so the other day i saw these stepping platforms that they use for aerobics piled up in the corner of the gym.. so i came up with a brilliant strategy for workin on my walkover:

Start off with 5 or 6 platforms placed one on top of the other, n attempt to do the walkover pushin off them... as i keep gettin better, i remove a platform, so i get to push off closer to ground level.. n finally, one day, id be able to do the move pushin myself off from ground-level...

Come on!! Lets hear it!!! You know u wanna say it!! Its right on the tip of your tongue!! Here we go:

"YOU'RE A GENIUS!!!"

neways, so i decided to go for it... lined up 5 of em.. got into the bridge position.. n pushed off... turns out i didnt have the mechanics right, n didnt push off in the right direction.. so what happens???? i almost get myself up into a handstand position, n then my left arm gave way (due to the preceding arm-workout which left me pretty much exhausted). So yea, on my way down, my leg hit the platforms: so i land sideways on the hardwood floor, n ALL (YES!! ALLLL!!) the platforms collapsed in a heap right on top of Yours Truly!!!

Surprisingly, I didnt get hurt a bit!!! I just preferred to lay there under all the platforms, since I felt oddly comfortable... go figure!! so the instructors nearby who'd witnessed the mishap rushed over to help me out, thinkin I wasnt movin cuz I was seriously injured...

Neways, a couple of sorries, n a few mins spent dusting myself off later I was back workin on the move... not from the platforms thou!!! Nooo way!!! aint goin for THAT idea again!!! Brilliant Strategy can Kiss My Ass!!!

Not lookin so good....

2007-04-11T12:39:00.000+08:00

Hey... u there!!!.. yeah u...

Ever tried makin soup??? looks easy dun it?? n it is!!! :D

but have u ever tried adding some Tom-Yam paste in order to make it a lil more spicy?? i did....

i looked at that bowl of soup n thought, its a Big bowl.. surely i can add some MORE tomyam paste!!!

Hehehehehe... hehehehehehehe... n hehehehehehehehe some more....

All I need now is a BIG pitcher of oatmeal, n I can look forward to spending this evening in a VERY pleasurable manner...

I'm gonna go pass out my intestines now....

TMNT: Raising (S)Hell Indeed!!!

2007-04-07T11:55:00.000+08:00

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back on the Big Screen!!! Bigger, Badder, Meaner, n Greener than ever before!!

Generally speaking, I like how the Turtles are portrayed as all grown up and evolved into their own.. What's particularly interesting to watch is the way conflicts and contradictions are portrayed into the movie, thus making our shell-backed heroes much easier to relate to with a much-needed human element (something which was evident to a much lesser extent in the previous 3 TMNT movies)..

Raphael n Leonardo have always been my personal favs among the awesome foursome.. Raph with his unusually short temper and vicious appetite for the battle, and Leo with his calm demeanor and unending desire to be the best leader/student as is humanly (or turtle-ly ???) possible.. The previous 3 movies always involved, as a subplot, the 2 dudes clashing against each other, Leo trying to establish harmony between the turtles along with a sense of brotherhood, and Raph always eager to shoulder the entire burden himself but preferring to operate independently...

All these qualities are displayed to some extent in this 4th installment, but what particularly appealed to me was that for once.. FOR ONCE... Raph triumphs over Leo in their personal battles... They've always shown Leo to be the psychologically superior one in the previous movies, but atleast they gave Raph the credit of being physically superior to Leo... atleast for the time being neways... N i Love the way they portray Raph's Anger...

Ofcourse, we cant forget the duo that completes the collection: Michaelangelo n Donatello... Unfortunately, I felt Mikey n Dony were pretty much overshadowed by Leo n Raph n their ongoing feud... Dony's technical side is displayed well, thou (thankfully) not to a nerdy extent... They dont show him comin up with new gadgets n stuff as in the cartoons n previous movies, but rather as the one who sorta establishes some sorta control over Mikey... Mikey, on the other hand, should have been alot funnier... The trailer definitely hinted at Mikey being his usual comic self, which he was, but once again, he was slightly overshadowed by Leo n Raph... Mikey does have his moments thou, so the rare joke from him would def get u cackling (or giggling, or laughin, grinning.. wutever tickles ur fancy..).. Overall, I wish there wud have been more from Mikey n Don.. but given that Raph n Leo n the ones I've favoured ever since I first caught them streaking their naked turtle rears all over NYC, I'm not too angry bout that...

Who can forget April O'Neil n Casey Jones?... turns out they've hooked up, n Casey has to face the typical guy problem of deciding if he wants to pop the question, or consider other options... n this may sound weird, seein as this is an animated movie, but April actually looks alot hotter than her appearances in the previous 3 turtle-flicks!! Nuff' Said.. n speakin of Hot, I'm kinda glad they got rid of the Shredder in this flick, cuz the babe replacin him cant be described in words!!! Karai Hot, an awesome fighter, speaks with a really deep n husky voice... Just the kinda babe whose hands I wouldnt mind dying by... ofcourse this is all animated, so let's forget I said all that...

Last but not least, the ever-lasting Splinter!! When Splinter came on screen (not literally!!), he first resembled those 2 possums in Ice-Age 2... but then he started speaking, n the vision turned back to that of a choking rat... Oh well... he's still old-lookin, n wise, and seeks to bring his sons, the turtles, back to working as a team... Big Dreams, this guy!! He still keeps counseling his sons during individual sessions bout how they've gotta keep trainin, bonding, blah blah blah... how does this guy keep living??? my guess: he charges the turtles for hourly sessions...

Neways, soooo.. seein as how I've gone on n on bout wut I liked most bout the movie, I'm gettin kinda tired now.. so i'm just gonna giv u a quick outline on the story, but I wont spoil it for u too much, so u can still enjoy it when u catch it!!

Basically, the movie starts off with an introduction to the supposed-baddie, who F***ed up 3000 years ago by turnin his entire brotherhood into stone in exchange for immortality (with the old 'I-wanna-conquer-the-world' dream), with the teeny-tiny side effect of unleashing 13 monsters into the world... who are also immortal, btw... so now he seeks to rectify his mistake...

Leo, meanwhile, is completin his trainin in a jungle somewhere in Central America, but is reluctant to return home, feeling he wud be more needed protecting innocent villagers...

Mike goes into showbiz, entertaining kids at bday bashes n parties by dressing up as.... You Guessed it!!!: A Ninja Turtle!!! Go figure...

Dony's Workin from home as a one-man call-center IT Helpdesk Technician... Sigh, we know bout that, dun we ppl..

N Raph.. well, Raph cant stand losin the old glory days, n after watchin 1 too many Batman/Spiderman movies, takes to the streets as a nightly vigilante...

Splinter's meditating.. still...

April n Casey have hooked up.. its not made clear wut they do...

So basically, Leo, thru no reasoning, decides to return to the Big Apple, and the 4 shell-backed dudes get curious when their arch-enemies, the Foot Clan, r helpin round up huge monsters, when its evident to them that the Shredder has, in fact, gone on to a better place, hence leaving them without a guiding force...

I'm gonna leave the plot at that... Tellin u anymore wud be ruining things for u.. So get out there n watch it!!! cuz its not just for the kids, its great for the child within all adults too!!!

On a final note: I noticed they didnt display the turtles' obsession with pizza at all in this movie.. maybe its cuz they'd already hammered that fact with all previous installments of the TMNT series.. personally, I think it has sumthin to do with NYC bein the first city in the US to ban trans-fats, so maybe there's this whole health-conscious drive going on...

Waiting...

2007-04-05T11:44:00.000+08:00

I'm waiting for something...
Waitin ever so patiently...
Yet I dont know exactly what it is I'm waiting for...
I don't even know if what I'm waiting for will come to me...
I dont know if leaving what I have right now wud be throwing away the opportunity of a lifetime...
I dont know if I CAN leave what I have right now...

What I DO know, is that I'm sick of waiting for things...
I'm sick of waiting for things to happen to me...
Sick of waiting for things to come to me...
Sick of worryin sick bout possibly throwing away the opportunity of a lifetime...
Sick of worrying about the future...

I'm sick of being told to adapt to the circumstances n modify my strategy...

I say 'To Hell with circumstances!!! It's time to start creating opportunities n start taking some chances!!!'

That felt better... slightly....

Damned Manipulators!!!

2007-04-05T10:12:00.000+08:00

Have you ever come face to face with a manipulator?? u know.. those damned ppl who r too frikkin lazy to do anythin themselves, but instead love askin friends to do their damned work for them.. n not to mention, the friends realize wuts up with the manipulator, but dont mind helpin out once in awhile n not make a big fuss bout it...

its really idiotic... the manipulators think they're gettin away with stuff here n bein all high n mighty with ppl doin their work for them, n the friends just dont care, as long as its once in a while, n not all the damn time...

I recently had the misfortune of comin across such a person n gettin friendly with em... a (highly irregular) classmate in Mandarin class, he's been here for the last 4-5 months or so now, so u cud say he still doesnt know the place nearly as well as i do..

neways, basically the dude's been an obnoxious SOB since Day One... pretty much loves overshadowing others, n obviously enjoys givin the impression that he's got it made in life, with not a worry to his mind on how to make it big in business.. heck, so far all ive seen him do is talk bout his plans... have seen him preoccupied only with stuff other than business... oh well, to be honest, i dont really care bout his business n how he makes his money... may he have God's blessing in all his endeavours.. i just wish he'd realize wut a pompous ass he appears to be everytime.. atleast he does to me, neways..

it starts with us all going on a trip to some remote mountain regions.. the dude asks pretty much every member of the group to snap about a dozen pix (EACH!!!) of himself in various modelling poses, so he can send them back to his family... i dont know bout anyone else out there, but if i sent my mom pics of myself modelling, stranded on some remote mountain region in the middle of nowhere, the first question outta her wud be: Are you even gettin any work done??? def not the impression id wanna giv her :P

Most recently, the dude asks me to show him around to a couple of gyms in the city, cuz he cant friggin decide which one he wants to join... first of all, im not damned tour guide... u wanna get shown around??? get a local!!! they LOVE doin this stuff!!! neways, so i took him to a couple of gyms that i knew bout... all he can do is start mocking them for their lack of equipment or being too expensive for the facilities provided...

Wuts hilariously suspicious is, he just kept looking for ONE particular machine in every gym: The reverse Hamstring Extension machine... i have NO IDEA y he wanted to work on his hamstrings using that machine so badly.. maybe he suddenly found out that a good lookin ass on a guy can attract attention :P .. or maybe that's his thing.. some ppl are abs freaks, some r chest freaks.. apparently, this guy might be a hamstring freak...

neways, back to the topic.. so he sits down to negotiate membership fees with the management in my gym... id informed the guy beforehand that i got a good deal outta them cuz i was a continuing member, so they gave me a good renewal discount... now this guy's tryin to get the same deal outta them... so in the middle he asks me to remind him again how much im payin... at this point, i blew a gasket... i didnt get up n tell him to get out or anything (i dont own the damn place, u know :P ).. i told him i'd tell him later... once we're outta the place (n he didnt sign up, even thou the guy went as low as he cud for a new member), i tell him that i dont want u asking for that same amount cuz im a renewing member, n he def wont offer u the same deal, even thou im bringin u in as a friend...

I dunno if wut i did was right or wrong.. i was pretty much sick of him tryin to wrestle in on every good deal n spoil things for everyone else... i mean, if he'd asked for the same fees as i did, n he probably still wudnt have signed, since they wouldnt have come that low, that pretty much wud have screwed things up between myself n management, wudnt it??? n im already a member of that gym, so i wud have had to face the music, when he'd probably happily be workin on his hamstrings in some other, cheaper gym... so, i feel i did the right thing...

Neways, he keeps tellin me all along that there's another gym right next to his home thats really amazing, has more facilities than mine, n its really cheap... n he had some flimsy ass excuse for not joining that one... bullshit... ive had too experience with bullshitters to not recognize one when i see him... its like they'll deliberately portray themselves as high n mighty, n then do sumthin just for the fun of 'trying something new' or doin u a favour.. WTF??? n there r PLENTY of bullshitters in this place... keep showing everyone wut kinda stuff they've pulled off, wut kinda stuff they do.. Love playing Mind Games... i especially detest ppl who feel they must make every frikkin incident in their lives a bloody mind game... wut they dont realize is anyone can play mind games, its just that there r those who choose to do so, n there r those who choose not to...

To finish off the topic, last nite after mandarin class i happened to meet the guy.. i asked him wut gym he's joined, n it turns out he hasnt decided yet... this isnt a University or Job ur deciding on, its just a gym!!! n then he tells me, he wants my help in purchasing body-building supplements (they were on display at my gym).. i recognized this as another wild goose chase right away (not to mention, realized right away he had no plans to work out, just take alotta supplements n hope to God he'd resemble Sylvester), so i replied that my gym always overprices drinks n supplements, so ud be better off lookin for them outside... thankfully, that shut him up, atleast for the time being...

So to end this post, y the heck do ppl feel like they have to manipulate others, take advantage of them, and then feel all smug bout the fact that they were successful in gettin others to help them out?? i say they're seriously deluded... little do they realize that were their friends to simply tell em to 'F**K OFF n do their own bloody work', they'd come crashing back to earth pretty damned fast!!!

n to be honest... ive observed this quality primarily in my own-countrymen... i really hate to say this, but its true... its no wonder we're so behind in the world...

Testing, Testing...

2007-04-03T19:13:00.000+08:00

Just made some changes to the Blog template... Finally upgraded to Layouts on Blogger, and everything has become impressively easier to manage... takes a few minutes to get used to the new tools n stuff, though..

Neways, I thought i'd spruce the blog up a bit, so that it wouldnt appear to be so dull all the time... I've added the shoutbox, and a clock for the region of the world where im at these days, so check it out n lemme know wut u think...

Next on my list of stuff to change on the blog: The Name!!

Now if only I could do sumthin bout my writin skillz... hmm...

Tonite, we dine in... Arrggh!!! MY EYES!! MY EYES!!!

2007-04-03T12:46:00.000+08:00

I saw 300 last night... needless to say, it was Kick-Ass!!! You can easily see why men and women flocked the the cinemas to watch this blockbuster: The women went to drool over the mens' bodies.. The men were attracted by the lure of a bloodfest, and I expect some (unfortunately) to drool over the mens' bodies too...

I read bout their workouts online, and no doubt about it, the grueling routines definitely showed some impressive results... The cast of Troy (yes, yes, ladies.. except for Brad) would have been put to shame...

Anyway, as much as I enjoyed this bloodfest which mainly involved millions of big naked men bein virtually raped by 300 MUCH bigger naked men, all armed with sharp, pointy weapons (no pun intended), I couldnt help but burst out laughing at the following thought:

There's a scene in the movie, right after the Oracle disapproves of the King's plan to defend Sparta against the Persians, where the king vacates to his chambers and decides to get all touchy-feely with his wife.. That scene commences with the following image:

I wouldnt care if I had the proud honour of bein a soldier enlisted in the "Strongest Army in the World!!".. The LAST thing I'd EVER want is to be walking down the streets, take a look up at the gorgeous moonlit sky only to find my Mighty Bearded King peering down upon me from his balcony, flashing his 'Royal Subjects' to the entire street...

Can u imagine if, in Malaysia, you had Badawi mooning half of KL from the balcony of his luxurious home?? or Bush flashing Washington from his balcony on the White House?? (No pictures provided here, thankfully)

I dont know how my mind got hard-wired to pick up this stuff... Sigh...

Oh n while we're on the subject of 300.. I couldnt help but notice somethin suspicious... :

The great mystery has been Solved, PPL!!! Osama isnt hiding in a cave in Afghanistan dependin on some dialysis machines!! He's posing as Gerard Butler n hiding out in Hollywood!! No wonder them stupid Americans cant find him... they've been lookin in all the wrong places...

The Way of the Dragon

2007-04-03T00:45:00.000+08:00

This is a SERIOUSLY INSPIRING anecdote I got from 'Bruce Lee: The Art of Expressing the Human Body'.. I read this quite a while ago and wanted to post it up earlier, but was too lazy to locate the exact text.. Alas, here it is:

Stirling Silliphant (a student of Lee's) relates an interesting story that perfectly embodies Lee's attitude toward progressive resistance in cardiovascular training, as well as his refusal to let a person - in this case, Silliphant - underestimate his own physical potential:

Bruce had me up to 3 miles a day, really at a good pace. We'd run the 3 miles in 21 or 22 minutes. Just under 8 minutes a mile [Note: When running on his own in 1968, Lee would get his time down to 6.5 minutes per mile]. So this morning he said to me "We're going to go 5." I said "Bruce, I cant go 5. I'm a helluva lot older than you are, and I cant do 5." He said, "When we get to 3, we'll shift gears and its only 2 more and you'll do it." I said "Okay, hell, I'll go for it."

So we get to 3, we go into the 4th mile, and Im okay for 3 or 4 minutes, and then I really begin to give out. I'm tired, my heart's pounding, I cant go anymore and so I say to him, "Bruce if I run any more" - and we're still running - "if I run any more I'm liable to have a heart attack and die." He said, "Then die."

It made me so mad that I went the full 5 miles. Afterward I went into the shower and then I wanted to talk to him about it. I said, you know, "Why did you say that?" He said, "Because you might as well be dead. Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it'll spread over into the rest of your life. It'll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level."

Thought-provoking, aint it?

You're makin me angry... n ive got nowhere to vent...

2007-04-02T23:04:00.000+08:00

I cant help it... I've got to find another outlet to vent... the Idiot (check earlier post 'Bitterness Personified' for more info) is up to her usual antics again... Obviously I'm not going to do anything about it... because I cant... my hands r virtually tied up...

I'm not going to list out again exactly what frustrates me so much.. I'd just be repeating myself.. its pretty much what ive mentioned before, but this time she's taken it to an even higher level.. primarily cuz she realizes my hands r pretty much tied up...

God!! she's one of the main reasons I cant wait to get out of here... everytime I see an INKLING of a hint that she's been in the vicinity, I start fuming... its not that I'm normally a short-tempered person.. she's just pushed me a lil too far than im comfortable with.. n continues to do so, thou in a more subtle (but still In-Your-Face) manner... I've got to be completely honest... I dont think I've ever met anyone more obnoxious, more self-centered, more devious, more irritating, more complaining, more idiotic person in my life...

The best I can do right now is go on ignoring her as long as humanly possible, and to work on gettin the F**K outta this place ASAP.. I dont even wanna bother my family and discuss this with them anymore, since I'd just be lowerin myself to her level by complaining, and they wouldnt be willing/able to help out in the first place... nevermind... I shall save my frustrations for better use, at a more suitable time...

I believe John Dryden said it best: "Beware the fury of a patient man." Ofcourse, I dont mean to display my fury anytime in the near future.. I simply pursue the idea of one day inflicting the same suffering upon her... Call me a sadist, but there r some things i just cant let go...

On a relative note:

"Patience, n. A minor form of dispair, disguised as a virtue." - Ambrose Bierce

Quotes of the Day

2007-03-29T15:49:00.000+08:00

MORE QUOTES!!! Get em while they're fresh:

This one's primarily for the martial artists out there, but definitely serves an inspirational purpose for the rest of us as well:

'Let an opponent graze your skin and you smash into his flesh; let an opponent smash into your flesh and you fracture his bone; let an opponent fracture your bone and you take his life! Do not be concerned with your escaping safely; lay your life before him!' - Bruce Lee

I came across this next one while searching forums for info on settin up MySQL over webservers:

'Keep your friends close, and your databases closer' - Unknown

The geeks among us would find this hilarious... for the rest of us, a weak smile at best...

Out of Ideas

2007-03-29T14:39:00.000+08:00

I want to change my Blog name to something a bit more unique. The current name (Life as we know it... or do we...) is overused, and terribly cliched...

Unfortunately, I'm all outta ideas for something unique and creative.. I guess this is why I'm stuck in IT: I lack a serious sense of creativity, except in scenarios where it is least desired...

Ideas, anyone???

Unblocked: Blogger!!!

2007-03-29T13:45:00.000+08:00

The Damage has been undone:

Blogger has been unblocked by the ISPs in this friggin region.. Im guessin the authorities conducted an intensive lock-down, inspecting each blog for content incriminable as plausible libel :P (I sincerely hope they flagged my blog for that... Over-Paranoid Bastards!!!)..

Neways, thanks to anonymous surfing I was still able to access Blogspot... N now ive regained the right to Comment!!!

Quote(s) of the Day

2007-03-26T00:33:00.000+08:00

Chanced upon these quotes over at Wikipedia. In the state of mind I'm currently in (see the post below this one), they happened to lighten my mood just a wee bit, so I thought I'd share them with you all. Who knows, it might just help uplift someone's spirits:

1) "If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name in a Swiss bank" - Woody Allen

2) ""Sometimes I lie awake at night and I ask, Why me?" And the voice says, "Nothing personal your name just happened to come up."" - Charles M. Schulz

Update (2 mins later):

I just happened to find another juicy one 2 mins after I posted.. so here it is:

"I think crime pays. The hours are good, you meet a lot of interesting people, you travel a lot." - Woody Allen

Sigh.. of All the Dumbest mistakes...

2007-03-25T23:55:00.000+08:00

I've been kinda depressed lately.. Ok, thats puttin it mildly, I've been REALLY depressed lately... n this time I have a reason.. its not just one of my mood swings, which can sometimes change as frequently as stock quotes.. Anyways, gettin back to the matter at hand..

I recently had an over-the-phone interview with a prospective employer... The job was great, n to be honest, I havent seen one like that anyplace else... I wud have been recruited as a trainee, learnt all there is to learn bout ecommerce, be paid as much as any other employee.. n best of all, I wud have returned to KL!!!

So anyways, the 1st interview went great, n I got an immediate scheduling for the 2nd phone interview.. That caused alot of confusion due to the timezone differences between interviewer and interviewee (for a while there I was under the impression that I was bein blown off in an entirely unprofessional manner).. the 2nd interview finally took place.. it went fine... turns out I wasnt equipped with enough practical experience for 1 of the 2 posts I applied for, but I turned out to be just fine for the 2nd post (the trainee post)... I was confident I'd get it, n in my mind I'd already packed up n left for KL...

n then 2 mins later I get the interviewer's message, apologizin for not askin me earlier, and inquirin as to my expected salary... Now the salary range specified in the online job ad was quite high.. dreamy, to be honest... but obviously i didnt go for the max possible... I specified a range that pretty much justified my coming down to KL all the way from china, and was bout midrange of wut they'd offered.. ofcourse, I mentioned the salary wasnt important at all to me, wuts more important is the work n the learning experience, n I would definitely go lower...

alas, I feel that fine point was my undoing. I received the apologetic email the next night when I got back from Mandarin class... Family didnt seem so surprised, statin I may have asked for too much money, n that racial factors may have come into play as well... I can understand the part about the racial factors.. but askin for too much money??? sheeshh..

you know how u feel when something REALLY bad happens, and some smart-alec comes up with some advice that they cud have just simply mentioned in passing to u so that you cud have conveniently side-stepped the situation?? u get that immediate, immense 'Gee-thanks-for-not-givin-me-that-lil-peice-0f-advice- earlier-and-now-shoving-it-into-my-face' feeling, dontcha?? thats how I felt.. nothin against my family, ofcourse.. theyre among the wisest n smartest ppl i've ever known, especially when it comes to these matters
.. but i just couldnt help but feel slightly resentful at not having received that "Go for Rock-Bottom pay when ur a foreigner n have a long shot" tip BEFORE I stumbled thru the interview... i mean, its not like im a fresh grad lookin for his first break...

Sigh.. so basically thats it.. Now it just keeps hittin me that I may never get to go back to KL, nor even get out of this Godforsaken country... I'm gonna be stuck here workin as a damned 'errand boy' for the family business for the rest of my life, arent I??

Mom spent the better part of an hour that night over the phone explainin to me I'd pinned down too many hopes on that 1 job, n that I shud have gone all out n sent resumes as far as Kingdom Come!! Well, thankfully, that chance hasn't gone by yet, so I'm sending out resumes as far n wide as possible... To my friends in KL/Singapore, if you know of any MNCs out there currently hiring foreigners, do leave a message letting me know!!

I know I shud be more positive, have a better attitude bout this, but I just cant help but feel that interview was my best shot at gettin somewhere, n I blew it up with my own big mouth... n im gonna be stuck here for good, n not make it anywhere in life... n i get this naggin feeling that even the resumes Ive sent out so far wont make a single impact or get me a single interview appointment..

Is this the way everyone feels at some point in their career? just completely despondent n void of hope?? or is it just my negativity kickin in Big-time... maybe I'm just feelin this way cuz pretty much everything's been screwin up for me Career/Education wise since the last year or so...

for now, I guess until i can do something about my job situation, I'm just gonna help out here at work n giv it all i've got, even more so than I've been doin so far, startin Monday morning...

of all the F***ED up mistakes a guy cud make, this HAS DEFINITELY GOT TO BE AMONG THE TOP 10!!!

Update:

Sigh.. this incident just hurts so damned much, I cant even finish proofreading it, cuz it just stings that much more goin over it everytime... wut happened to the good ol' days when all that hurt was screwin up things with ur girl in high school/college??

Blocked: Blogspot!!!

2007-03-22T10:02:00.000+08:00

NOO!!! This is.. stupid.. no its not just stupid, its INFURIATING!!

ISPs in China (or atleast the ones in my region) have once again decided to use their proxies ever so efficiently in blocking Blogspot blogs... Add this to the already blocked Wordpress.com and multiply.com blogs, and u get the idea where these ppl are going... Not to mention Google was at one point prevented access to (users still aren't allowed access to ALL of google's facilities either.. e.g. Google Video)... i wonder wuts next.. YouTube, i bet..

What is it with this country's government? Are we not allowed to express freely our opinions? I understand if the ban is imposed upon their own citizens, but to restrict foreigners from doing the same... arrrghhh, i cant even begin to comprehend the situation... I'm willing to bet money that the only reason Google has been allowed access to is cuz they realized how beneficial it can be in promoting China's business activities... Screw it ALL, I say!!! I wouldnt be here if I had the choice, n I wouldnt think twice about leaving...

P.S. Check this out... ur denied access to blogspot.com sites, but strangely enough, I have no issues logging in to Bloggger.com and accessing my Dashboard... so basically, that means I can freely express my opinions and thoughts, but I cant go back later and review them????? :S

all i can say is... Thank God for Anonymous Surfing!!! ;)

Post-midnite ramblings...

2007-03-18T04:43:00.000+08:00

Its approaching 5am on a Sunday morning as I write this... What's keeping me up, u ask? The Cricket World Cup 2007... Its not being televised here within the mainland, hence I keep myself updated through Cricinfo.

No spectacular matches goin on... I'm just bout done watching Pakistan and Indian being raped (literally!!!) by their opponents, Ireland and Bangladesh respectively... lets say no more on that...

also keeping me up is the notion of preparing for my upcoming (rescheduled) technical interview... I know I can kick ass at the technical crap, but its been awhile since I last actively practised the technical crap, hence am a bit rusty... But I gotta giv it all I got... the job in question may not appear to be much to the average onlooker, but there's alot ridin on it... maybe too much (at the risk of puttin all my eggs in 1 basket again... i think i do that too often..) so I'm hopin for a lil luck here...

On another note, I noticed I havent been blogging much lately... so I shall come up with another one of my 'old skool' anecdotes to relate to y'all... very soon... keep checkin for updates... i know, its probably interesting to none but myself, but heck, ure here for a reason, arent u? ;)

Ok, its past 5am... n I had a really tiring workout earlier today... so i'm gonna hit the sack now n take full advantage of the Sunday ahead...

the Dark(er) Side...

2007-03-13T15:10:00.000+08:00

My dear friend Kalamari has shoved upon myself the honour of revealing my own 6 idiosyncrasies for all to read about here, so that I may freak out the few friends I choose to keep (in the dark) and therefore totally eliminate any and all possibilities for a shot at a regular social life.

I seriously dont know why, at this point, I'm choosing to ignore my Spider-Sense when it goes BLING!! BLING!!( or is it BUZZ!! BUZZ!! ?? never too sure about that). But hey, ive ignored it before, made shitty mistakes before, never learnt a lesson from em either, and this can be another one of those mistakes to go into the archives...

ofcourse, I dont share this without compensation... upon sharing my abnormalities, I receive the honour of deciding the same fate for 6 other individuals... or Chosen Ones, if u will...

So here we go... First, the rules:

Each person who gets tagged needs to write a blog post of their own 6 idiosyncrasies (abnormal behaviour, habits etc.) as well as clearly stating this rule. After you state your 6 weirdness you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their multiply id / blog names / nicknames at the bottom of your blog. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says "You’re tagged" in their comments and tell them to read your blog for information as to what it means.

Ladies and Gents!!! The 6 nominees are:

1) I cant stand silence. I cant help it. It doesnt matter if I'm working, driving, u name it. I need something running in the background: music/TV. It doesnt even matter If I'm watchin or listenin attentively or not, just the background noise keeps me at peace. The only time I prefer silence is when I'm trying to sleep. Heck, even then, a lil music or leaving the TV on doesnt seem so bad to me... Wastage, i know...

2) I overthink stuff. Its just in my nature. For some reason I spend too much time thinking bout an opportunity, that I just let the opportunity pass away thinkin bout it. Scarlet Johansson cud be standing naked at my doorway holdin a box (not just a pack, an entire frikkin box!!) of condoms, n I'd be thinkin bout the repercussions (Ok, i exaggerate.. its not THAT bad... i think). But frankly Ive noticed I've let 1-2 many good opportunities slip away doing too much thinking... even thou it might not always be a bad thing.

3) I have a fear of animals. There... I said it, admitted it.... I'm a zoophobiac (I hope I got that right).. Though I'm not actually a full-fledged animal hater... I love going to the zoo, I enjoy watching animal documentaries, I've even had pet tortoises.. but for some reason I dont enjoy the idea of laying my hands on animals every chance I get.. THAT I avoid religiously.. sure, ive had minor incidents of close contact with animals n i never freaked out, but i guess i havent had much experience (or fond incidents) of growing up with animals, so thats probably y i'm this way.. being chased by dogs and goats (a LOOONG time ago) didnt really help the situation... n i HATE CATS!!! which is kinda paradoxical considerin the Arabic meaning of my name... neways, ive said it a million times: I only love animals if it gets cold enough... ponder that, if u will...

4) I collect scrap. No, not to the point where I own a junk yard and go up to ppl's places n ask for their daily junk. I just have the habit of thinking twice before throwing anything away. A certain receipt may not be thrown away in case I need it for refunds. A business card may be kept safely for future reference. An old raggedy shirt might not be thrown away so I can use it as my 'handyman' shirt. Alot of the stuff I keep may also be for sentimental reasons... yeah yeah, ok, u got me.. i can be pretty sentimental at times, but Damn if im gonna write that as 1 of my abnormalities... I'm a MAN!! and we men hide our damn sentiments... ur gonna have to get me drunk or friggin pissed off to see any of that side... anyways, the show must always go on...

5) I need my daily dose of alone-time. Though I dont really know if this qualifies as an abnormality. Pretty much everyone I know needs some time everyday to 'reflect' on their recent ongoings. I dont exactly install sound barriers in my room, place yoga mats n get down into some weird Kamasutra pose n meditate (hmm.. shud giv that a try sometime...).. I just need to be alone for a few minutes, be it while driving on my own someplace, lyin in bed, while takin a long walk... never in the washroom thou.. aint no thinkin goin on in there :P .. abnormality #1 still applies here thou.. I'm perfectly capable of doin some deep-thinkin with Metallica, Seether or Nickelback blasting away in the background..

and for the Grand Finale...

6) I (sometimes) go commando at nite...

I'm gonna give u a lil time to let that sink in....

Ok... That's bout all the time u get to ponder that one before I add my own reasonable explanation.. Its a habit I picked up during the HOT, HUMID summers I spent in Dubai... even with the air-conditioners on at nite, one was often left pondering over the possibilities for makin the nites a little more bearable.. Its not something I indulged in during my months in the UK.. I doubt my roommates would have lasted long knowing the only protection from permanent loss of sight was the darkness... It was not the case in KL thou... y'all know wut the weather in KL is like, and that definitely merits yours truly's choice of.. ermm, nightwear... Mind you, never did it when we had guests over... n its not like id go streaking thru the house at nite like some REALLY freaky version of Shrek, either... i was safely contained with the boundaries of my room (and its many windows).. and thats all I have to say on that.. end of discussion..

So... Thats 6 of may various quirks.. I expect my friend count on Friendster to be goin down any minute now... doesnt matter anyways... my true friends stand right by me.. right here... ermm.. where'd they go?? Dammit!!!

N before I forget: Joining us next time on Share-it-All-N-Die will be:

1) El Diablo Corneo
2) Bodicea
3) Malcolm
4) Andrew
5) Munaks
6) Kotak (as u mentioned, u had a few more to share ;) MuahahahaAHA..)

Winners will be notified via MSN Messenger.

No comments??? No wonder!!!

2007-03-13T14:36:00.000+08:00

Hey ppl...

I just realized why I havent seen any comments on my blog for quite some time now...

It turns out I had the 'comment moderation' option enabled, but I never caught sight of it on my Dashboard up until just now... Therefore I apologize to all those who read and have commented on my posts, but never received any replies...

But then again, this is life, u never get properly rewarded for ur actions, n it aint easy getting recognized... n since I just taught u all such a tough lesson in life for the cost of a few comments, you should be eternally grateful..

I shall expect your Thank You comments to be dropping in any day now...

unleash the Wolverine within!!!

2007-01-22T13:03:00.000+08:00

Damn... I dunno wut got into me last night... no, no i dun mean in bed (well, thats an entirely different story), i meant at the gym...

I was actually kinda tired going through my capo workout.. but for some reason got really pumped up when it was time to hit the weights... so i headed over to the squat rack to start workin on my legs... ive got this routine where ur supposed to increase the weight u lift every workout, thereby adapting ur body to lifting more and challenging urself more everytime, lest the previous weight becomes the slightest bit easier for u... for more details, check out the Push/Pull routine series at Gregg Avedon's site... Try it out if u feel like revving up your workout a little...

anyway, so i load it up with 90kgs to start off with... for some reason the squat rack seemed really unstable while i was lifting... i get to my 3rd set, load it up with 110kgs... i start lifting, n one of the supporting beams falls apart.. sheeesh... was kinda embarassing, like being the kid who thinks he's Lou Ferrigno or sumthin n lifts way more than he cud handle... the trainer knew i cud handle it thou, so no worries... neways, we fixed up the rack quick, n i got on with my workout.. maybe ive sorta exceeded the limit on the squat rack.. but it cant be.. its just 110kgs, after all.. maybe it just needs repairing... im proud of myself to be able to handle that kinda weight thou... it means im progressing as predicted in the program..

I really got revved up workin my arms, thou... i progressed to doing 50lb dumbell curls!!! thats a high for me... heck, im not even sure if they have dumbells heavier than that in the entire gym.. it wasnt easy thou... pretty much shat myself doin it.. :P

there's sumthin bout liftin that kinda weight that gets u goin, if ur like me... sorta like having 300lbs over u on a bench press (havent progressed that far yet.. all in due time thou): when u have all that weight pushin/pullin u down, u can do one of 2 things: u either get really, REALLY pissed n motivated to lift it, or u ask for help from ur spotter... i did the former, partly cuz i knew i had it in me, but mostly cuz I train alone (so no spotter :P)... and mann, i got Wolverine PISSED!!! nothin was more fulfilling than completing the set and throwing down the dumbells... i know, i know, 50lb dumbell curls are probably peanuts to alot of people out there, but for me, it shows gradual progression in my strength training...

its stuff like that that keeps me headin back to the gym for more... stuff like that that keeps me working on my capoeira moves, knowing it'll all pay off eventually...

Cant wait to hit the gym again tonite... its Chest day today :) i wont hit the 300lb mark anytime soon, but atleast im challenging myself...

Muslim Pickup Lines... Hilarious Stuff!!!

2007-01-22T11:23:00.000+08:00

HEhe... this is some funny stuff.. for my non-muslim readers, ive added a glossary of Islamic terms (ive tried explaining to the best of my limited knowledge.. i hope im not wrong, but u'll get the gist of it) that may be unfamiliar:

1. "OH MY GOSH! I just saw part of your hair, now you're obliged to marry me."
2. "I'd like to be more than just your brother in Islam."
3. "To watch you pray is a sin of its own."
4."Will my platinum VISA cover your dowry?"
5."You can't play basketball with a jilbab on, marry me, and we will go one-on-one our entire life."
6."Muslims are supposed to have many children, and I am willing to do my part..."
7."Assalamualaikum, so what time does a Hoor Al-3ayn like you have to be back in Jannah?"
8. So, read any good Surahs lately?
9. Do you believe in the hereafter? Oh you do? Then you know what I'm hereafter.
10. Lets get married so I don’t have to lower my gaze every time you walk in the room
11. I've had to fast every day since the day that I first saw you.
12. Do you work for the FBI ? Because you've just abducted my heart.
13. Your father must be a terrorist, because you're da BOMB!
14. Would you like to help me wake up for Fajr?
15.. Are you a Shiite? Because when I saw you, I said to myself, "She aiight".
16. Do you wanna date? I bought a box full when I went to Madinah.
17. Girl, you fine. I see praying five times a day has paid off.
18. That's a nice burqa. Can I talk you out of it?
19. I need to break my fast. Can I have a date?
20. I didn’t trip over my robe, I fell for you.
21. I know Halal meat does a body good, but damn, how much you been eatin'
22. Wanna pray in jamaat, shoulder to shoulder, feet to feet?
23. "*guy looks under girls hijab* "sorry, i was looking for the made in jannah tag"
24. "After seeing you, the first thing I said was Mashallah. The next was Inshallah!"
25. "Are those legs halal?"

Glossary of terms:

Halal: Term usually used to certify meat from animals slaughtered according to Islamic Law.
Burqa: Dress worn by Ladies (usually in arab countries)
Jannah: Heaven
Hijab: Headdress and/or Veil
Mashallah: A word used to praise the work of God
Inshallah: Literally means 'By the Will of God, it will happen'
Hoor-al-Ayn: Angel
Surahs: Quranic Verses
Shiite: Member of the Islamic tribe 'Shia'
Fajr: Prayers performed at the break of dawn
Madinah: One of the 2 holy cities located in Saudi Arabia. The other city is Makkah (or Mecca, depending on how u pronounce it)
Jamaat: Prayer in congregation

And a pathetic little attempt at political humour:
FBI: Free Bush's Intelligence

Bitterness personified...

2007-01-19T22:38:00.000+08:00

I really need to vent right now... I admit, Im not really good at controlling my anger... I'm pretty good at not displaying it in public, hence most people close to me wouldnt know me to lose my temper when things go wrong. i'm more often known to be jovial, or intensely quiet when problems surface...

In private, however, its a different matter... my ideal venting routine would start off with smashing furniture (a la Hulk) and preferably end with cornering the people responsible for the outrage and spending the next couple of hours pounding them until i hear the sweet, sweet sound that signifies the cracking of ribs (a la Rocky Balboa)..

Like I said, thats my ideal routine... Haven't ever tried it out though, since I have yet to achieve the required level of 'pissedoffness' to go thru the routine.. Instead, I prefer to bottle my rage, which sometimes leads to mild headaches, bouts of depression, and damaged personal effects, until I'm either distracted by something more important, or I fall asleep... I expect an aneurysm sometime in the near future... Its a disease, and I admit I need help... ur more than welcome to dish out advice at this point...

I dont even know where to begin, so I'll go on rambling in a way that would probably make sense to noone but myself, this being one of those situations where u 'had to be there'...

I guess reading this post up to this point has put u in a similar state of frustration, so I'll get to the venting. While I wont be naming anyone, I will, however, be writing in the first person narrative and maintaining every last bit of hope that the person I'm referring to comes across this post somewhere over the Net, and realizes the true extent of hatred I reserve for them, instead of the meagre amount of minced words I have unwillingly unleashed in their presence:

You are the biggest suck up I have ever met... Due to some reason you appear to have upset your own family, and are now intent on creating havoc within others...

You have been provided a home for yourself in a separate location in the workplace, yet you insist on spending as much time as possible within my own home, cooking, leisuring.. Why do you not understand that people prefer to have a little privacy within their lives and do not wish your presence upon themselves during every waking moment??

You came home late at night drunk, actually DEAD DRUNK, on a number of occasions, whereupon i found u lying unconscious outside the door... had i wished to treat u the way u deserved, i would have left u lying on the street till you came to ur senses.. instead i dragged u to ur room and waited there till 2am so ur incoherent wailing, highly reminiscent of 2yr olds, subsided... i decided not to mention this to the family, as it was irrelevant to work, and therefore was of no consequence...

u are consistent in advising my family on what to do with MY future... firstly, what on earth gives you the right to discuss my future with my family in my absence... n secondly, i do not understand y my family does not see through ur well-disguised ruse as a means to merely dispose of me and send me away where i wont be in ur way or in ur face again..

u act like youre god's gift to the world, but ur afraid of taking a 2hr trip to the nearest city on ur own, for fear that the driver might be dazzled by ur 'astonishing beauty' and force himself upon you.. you should understand that no man would probably even touch an immature b**ch like yourself with a 10-ft pole if you were the last 2 living beings on the planet and the continuation of the entire human race depended on your getting together...

you are the most irresponsible person i have ever met... you manage to misplace your office/apartment keys 3 times within 3 months, not to mention lose a handphone and drown a second one within the same timeframe... how my family believed you capable of shouldering such a huge responsibility as they have placed upon you, is beyond my understanding...

You are a lying, fu***ng telltale of the highest degree... no matter what you may do, you portray urself as the most innocent of angels... once someone corrects you of ur mistakes, however subtly it may be, you immediately go wailing (once again, highly reminiscent of a 2-yr old) to the nearest authoritative figure present, and complain about the 'scolding, telling off, and shouting' you have just been handed down...

you act like you have all the sense in the world.. you supposedly advise my family on business matters, but lack the common sense necessary in choosing an appropriate driving school and making sure you dont get duped when buying a car... u lack the courage or the common sense in facing a person after you bang their BMW thanks to your comprehensive driving skills.. very mature...

you force yourself upon this house, calling it your own home... yet you lack the decency to obey the same rules the ppl of this house follow... you leave dishes/pans/cups uncleaned after your cooking... you throw about ur belongings and never bother to clean up.. you cudnt be bothered to pick up ur personal effects after you have been to the washroom, and leave them lying about scattered over the sink... you take over dishes and cutlery into your room, but once again lack the decency to bring them back washed and cleaned so that others may use them.. you expect others to bang upon your door and ask that you graciously allow them to take back what you 'borrowed'..

when all is said and done, you do not even possess even the minimal decency to face the person and talk things through to work out the problem... you prefer to sit and sulk in your apt (the one time you probably return to your own apartment) and call up the nearest person who will listen to you and complain about ur horrible situation... and then u SMS the person you have a problem with and ask them y they dislike you, and y theyre creating problems for u, and that ur not scared of them but only tolerating them... u fail to understand that you are the one being tolerated, since the family has placed responsibility upon you, and the sole reason you are being tolerated in the first place is because it would do more harm than good... if not, well, you would not possess the fingers required for sms'ing long ago if something could be done about you...

all in all, you may pretend to be an angel of the highest degree, and you may take upon urself so much responsibility that my family may even adopt you as a daughter (thats not happening, thank God.. its just a worst-case scenario im presenting)... i, however, will never even then take u as a sister, regardless of whether that decision causes me to sever my own ties with my family.. the only thing keeping u going right now is the fact that youre earning a living for urself, while i have to unwillingly resign to a state of unemployment while helping out with the family business... and i admit, if i can figure out how to handle the business world, there's more than a sufficient income in it...

i would more than willingly sacrifice a major income for a better, happier life... I'd be perfectly happy with a 9-5 job, regardless of the low pay... but I keep myself here for now, as my family as aspirations, and I can help out in fulfilling them...

I would love nothing else than to be locked up in a room with u, and have the key thrown away, and carry out my ideal routine as outline above, while at the same time venting out every bit of my frustration upon you as i have just done so upon my readers (for this, readers, i apologize)...

I will, however, (and I amaze myself at my ability to) keep my anger reigned in, since as i mentioned earlier, it would probably do more harm than good... there must always be an outlet though, and I can happily say that's where my gym workouts come in: capoeira and weight-training have provided me with a decent outlet so far, and I use my anger to push myself harder.. to improve every kick, to lift more weight... (i once again send out a heartfelt thanks to my capoeirista friends/instructors, as they remind me of better times... and those times will return, if i have anything to say about it)

I have also, this one time, decided to blog out my frustrations, at the risk of exposing myself as a raving lunatic for the world to see.. but oh well, cant win em all...

therefore, for now, i am choosing to be the better person... I will not lower myself to tell-taling.. I will not lower myself to immature scheming... and i will just devote myself to helping my father, and concentrating on my workouts, and eventually getting the F**K out of this country ASAP...

For now...

I think i'll call up mom for a bit, see how she's keeping up... then back to work...

Later...

What is your deepest fear?

2006-12-30T21:26:00.000+08:00

I heard these quotes recently in a couple of movies. Somehow they kinda stuck out in my mind, bein at this particular point in my life:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

- Marianne Williamson

Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're better than that!

- Rocky Balboa

Name Decoder

2006-11-03T19:00:00.000+08:00

I know i know, i havent blogged in ages... in fact, this is the longest hiatus ive been on since... the last time i took a hiatus, i guess... neways, found this name decoder thingamajig on the web, thought id share it here.. Click on it to decode your own name:

Gee, I knew I gave good massages, but I havent really tried on anyone else...

Umm... did i just share too much??

WHERE'S MA RODA????

2006-08-28T15:55:00.000+08:00

Daaammmit!!

I miss capoeira so much.. I miss the training, I miss the music, but most of all, I miss the Rodas!!!

What I wouldnt give to play in a roda right now... Sigh!!!

Now i find myself wishing I'd trained harder during those months spent training with Bantus... Sigh, I'm never gonna take Capoeira training for granted again...

On a happy note: I finally started training capoeira in my gym.. had my first workout 2 nights back.. wasnt much, just 30 minutes or so, but its a start...

I think im gonna go play with my berimbau for awhile... No, I'm not speaking metaphorically...

Oh, I'll Da Vince your Codes, alright...

2006-08-26T15:03:00.000+08:00

Was watchin Da Vinci Code last night.. barely got thru half of it... no, the movie wasn't THAT sucky, though I gotta admit, it was a major letdown... Half the time I went: Waiiit a second, that didnt happen like that in the book!!! You're screwin up the whole damn thing!!!

The blame must, however, go primarily to the copy that I got... I picked it up from one of the Chinese pasar malams (night-markets).. sheesh.. wut else shud i expect.. i was sparsely treated to 5-10 mins of Chinese dialogue... didnt really matter when they characters spoke French, but even the subtitles were screwed up... Infact, im not even sure the subtitles were from the same movie... I wont go into details..

Anyways, during the first 10 mins, an amusing thought popped up:

What if, instead of writing this on the floor:

O Draconian Devil,
O Lame Saint,
P.S. Find Robert Langdon

Museum Curator Jacques Sauniere had actually written this:

Jacques Sauniere was HERE!!!
P.S. Find Robert Langdon and Kick his ASSS!!!! HaHaHaHa!!!!

If you dont find urself smiling (or at the very least, grinning) upon reading that, seriously, go get urself checked up.. mentally atleast...

Later..

Gimme that damn tyre!!!

2006-08-21T16:08:00.000+08:00

This incident deserves its own post, primarily due to its significance as yet another capoeira achievement: I finally learnt how to extract wire from car-tyres and attach it to the berimbau.

No, it isn’t some complicated chemical process… all u gotta do is rip into the tyre n pull the damn wire out… but I didn’t know crap bout which way to rip, since I didn’t know where exactly the wire was..

Neways, firstly, to get tyre wire u need…. BINGO!! Tyres!!.. so I dropped by one of em roadside mechanics n asked em if they had any old tyres worth throwin away.. n Presto!!! within minutes, I was drivin back home with a muddy, dirty, dingy old tyre in the boot.

So, next up… rippin the tyre open… yeah I got lazy when it came to that, so I waited a day..

Now, its Friday nite… im supposed to go to Lahore early morning the next day.. n I haven’t packed anything… wut im worried bout is getting the wire out, hookin it up to the berimbau n playin a few simple tunes… n so I did..

Grabbin a knife from the kitchen, I ripped into the damn thing… tearin along the seams… after 1 hour of excruciating forearm effort, I ripped out a circle from one side of the tyre.. I knew where the wire was, I just hadn’t gone the right way bout getting it out… CRAP!!! Oh well, there’s still the other side.. this time, instead of rippin out an entire new miniature tyre, I actually got the wire… WOOHOO!!!

Neways, another hour gone by, I actually hooked up the wire to the berimbau.. n get this: due to lack of string, I used thread.. Yes, THREAD!!! It freaked me out tyin it up, lest it snap n fling right into my eye… but oh well… I’d already pricked myself in the thumb a couple of times cutting up the wire… n I had glasses to protect me… uh huh.. I was safe… not to mention I had to kiddie cousins paying more attention to me handling the wire than they prolly ever did in class…. Combined!!

So finally, amid consistent reminders to the kids to back off n keep a safe distance, I managed to string up the berimbau… With no kashishi (the rattling thingy), and a seashell for a stone… And for a stick, I used a plastic arrow from a kiddie Archery Set…. Sad, yes… but it worked… not beautifully though…

Oh well, u win some, u lose some… :D

N at 3am, I put the instrument away, washed up, packed a few clothes for Lahore, n hit the sack…

Can I go to China? Please?? Please?? Please?? Ohh, thank you Mr. Immigration Officer, Sir!!!

2006-08-19T13:37:00.000+08:00

Ok, so its now bout 3 weeks since my arrival here in Paki-land… Nothing really eventful has happened so far… just messin bout, learnt about a dozen new card games from the kids here.. a few moments to ponder on this:

There’s nothing more embarrassing than a grown man (that wud be me, I think) surrounded by a bunchs of kids, learning their games, and then LOSING (Hey Kid!!! Get back here with my frikkin dignity!!!)… However, there is no moment more worthy of rejoicing than when you beat those very kids at their favourite game… (In Your Face, Kid!!! You think u can beat ME?? Who’s the BIGGER MAN now???) Yes, I know I’m way beyond help…

Neways, so I’ve spent my time learnin card games, stuffin myself with my aunt’s delicious cooking, ate a lot more chili chips (They’re addictive, I tell u), introducing myself to my newest kiddie cousin (she’s bout 8 months old at the time of this post… pictures to follow).. I cant help it, I just get along extremely well with kids (Don’t believe me?? Take a look at the previous paragraph again… would a kid-hating dude sit thru all those card games), and I had a couple of good solo workouts, just workin on my kicks n a going thru a ton of pushups… n ofcourse watching my collection of capoeira vids… I restricted myself to headphones when listenin to capo music for fear of freaking out not only my family, but the entire neighbourhood as well…

I met up with an aunt who used to live with us in Dubai… haven’t seen her in ages.. apparently her kids dun recognize me.. that’s alright, they aint seen me before neways :P…was great catchin up with her… she visited us for bout a week or so, every night of which was spent playing card games till 4am, which usually ended with me bein kicked outta the room (hey, I was bored… wuts a guy gotta do??) n headin to bed…

Moving on: I wasn’t able to apply for my visa to China straight away, as I was waitin for some invitation papers from dad.. those hadn’t arrived yet, so I was pretty much killin time.. even met up with another one of my uncles (dad’s side, this time) n his family…

So the papers finally arrive, and dad asks me to go meet some dude n pass him the papers, who would pretty much guarantee visa issuance upon acceptance of a generous sum of money… neways, I had to travel out of town for that (applause to my aunt for drivin me so far), n turns out the bloody assclown doesn’t do this service for people anymore… I dunno y he didn’t tell me this over the fone… n he cant do anything to help me, cuz it seems ive got pretty much every document I need to apply for a business visit visa (at this point, I did a double take: business visa?? Wutthe… I dun even know the intricate details of dad’s business here, n im gonna have to explain it to a bunch of immigration officers????), so I wud do better to head to the embassy n apply myself.. anyways, long story short, it was an unsuccessful trip all the way outta town…

At this point, it didn’t seem like I’d get to China, being banished as I had to the land of Pakis… Shit!!!

Neways, so I decided to head to the embassy myself… unsuccessful at the first attempt, I shud add, since I underestimate the crowd outside the embassy and could get inside before it closed down… Hence, I tried again the next day… Got up REALLY early (6am), made it to the embassy REALLY early (8am), decided to apply for a social visit visa using business visit papers (don’t ask.. but I made it work… apparently them Chinese immigration officers assume we pakis r angels… go figure :P ), and got everything done by 11am… dude said I could collect the papers in 3 days.. that wud be August 4th…

The visa problem being effectively solved, I next booked my flight to Shanghai (10th August, via Doha, Qatar) n then decided on a long overdue trip to Lahore, to visit the rest of my aunts, uncles, n cousins… Booked that for the 5th… n proceeded to shop my ass off in Islamabad until then…

N shop I did indeed… Bought bout a dozen reference books on computing, a stack of DVDs, n 2 suits… that’s pretty much the gist of it… along with some crap that preferred not to work when tested.. oh well, u win some, u lose some…

Well, that’s all I’ve been doin in Paki-Land…

Next Up: Gimme that damn tyre!!!

Paki returns to motherland after 6yrs, causes massive thunderstorm..

2006-08-19T13:14:00.000+08:00

Okay… so here goes… after mom unexpectedly decided to NOT allow me to leave KL on the 8th of July, I finally got to leave on the 11th.. Don’t get the impression that I did it gladly, as I must admit I was unwilling to leave.. I mean hey, I avoided it for 6 months, didn’t I? ;) Anyways, I was to fly to Karachi, remain onboard for a few mins, and the flight would continue to Islamabad, my final destination in Pakistan.

N so I left KL, the land where I pretty much came into my own… I attended uni there, made friends for life, none of which I will ever forget (well, maybe some of them I will, but I highly doubt they read my blogs anyway :) ), and well, did a lot more than I can mention right now. In short, I left my life back in KL.

While waitin to board my flight, I made some calls to folks I’d spent a lot of time with recently.. to all those I didn’t call, I sincerely apologise, as I tried making as many calls as I could until they literally dragged me aboard the plane and specifically directed me to turn off my hand-phone… HONEST!!! u can even ask the staff.. just ask em bout the dude with the extremely long, well wrapped, curved shaft (I’m talking bout my berimbau… nothing else.. Honest!! N speaking of the berimbau, muito muito obrigado to Rafael, who’s now chillin his way thru 2 months in Brasil, for patching up one of the old berimbaus and allowing me to take it away with me… it plays sweetly, and I learnt how to rip out tyre-wires myself… a good workout, I must admit).

Anyways, the flight was pretty much uneventful, save for me splashing my coke everywhere due to some supposedly ‘minor’ turbulence.. Oh well, that’s Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) for you (I am not a good Pakistani, am i… just another reason for me to change my nationality :D ).. I dared not violate the ‘Handphones Off’ rules, hence I was unable to take any pictures.. I did get a couple of mean stares from a bunch of pathans, one of whom strikingly resembled Eric Bana (who played Hector in Troy, Bruce Banner in Hulk).. Pathans are sometimes known to be gay, but thankfully I didn’t get any of those looks… Phew!!!

So I landed at Karachi airport, and was surprisingly told to deplane… Confused, I made it to the waiting lounge with a number of other similarly-confused passengers.. Turns out there’s been a massive storm in Islamabad, which caused a delay.. I couldn’t help but wonder if that had anything to do with my returning after 6 yrs… neways, long story short, after 4 hours, 3 packets of chili crisps n 2 Pepsis, I finally boarded the flight to Islamabad.

Thanks to the storm, instead of staying up till 2-3am, my uncle ended up going sleepless on a weeknight, as yours truly arrived at 6.30am… I must congratulate him on hiding his displeasure (on losing sleep, that is.. not on my arrival), as it is well-known how beloved his sleep is to him…

Anyways, so I headed home, gave a long overdue shout out to my grandmother, had breakfast with uncles n aunts (during which I endured several taunts about what the sudden thunderstorm upon my arrival meant), said good morning to several bleary-eyed kiddie cousins (4 of them, at that instant, I think.. kinda hard to keep count), and after several minutes of refusing a bed for an immediate nap, I carried my luggage to a room, and gazing longingly at the bed, decided to sleep in for a few minutes… which turned into a few hours…

So that was my arrival in Paki-land… or pretty much the gist of it…

Next up: Can I go to China? Please?? Please?? Please?? Ohh, thank you Mr. Immigration Officer, Sir!!!

I is Back!!!

2006-08-19T13:10:00.000+08:00

Hey peeps!! Dunno if y'all recognize me anymore, since I haven't blogged in bout 5 billion years... Well, maybe not 5 billion years, but its still been a while :P

Anyway, the reason behind my non-blogging status is primarily the fact that Blogspot's permanently inaccessible in Pakistan, where I've been for the past month or so.. N check this out: Theyve blocked it in such a way that you cant access any blogs, but you can still log into your Blogspot account and post... Go figure... I dun mean to appear condescending, but the solutions my country comes up with... No wonder we're at wherever we're at...

Ok, gettin down to business.. the business of blogging, that is... I've got alot to write bout, n unfortunately, despite my numerous attempts, it appears I dont have the magical gift of turning back time and being able to blog everything as soon as it happened, therefore I shall attempt to narrate all narratable events as chronologically correctly as possible... but bear with me... especially since its 2am in the morning right now, n i'm probably not making any sense right now anyways.. n i hate proofreading.. :)

So keep an eye out for: Paki returns to motherland after 6yrs, causes massive thunderstorm..

Everything must Go!!! Well, almost everything...

2006-07-03T11:45:00.000+08:00

Yo peeps... I'm clearin out my stuff, so I've got some stuff I dont feel too good bout throwin away, so I dun mind utilising them to fulfill a profitable/charitable cause ;)

Remember, EVERYTHING MUST GO!!!

The items are:

1) 1 Preparation book for GRE (the test you take when applying for admission to masters in the US or canada). Price: Free

2) 30+ Mens' Health (Malaysia and International) issues (dating all the way back to November 2003). Great read for the men for fitness, weightloss, lifestyle, sex, blah blah blah.. Great read for the ladies to get a deeper insight into the male psyche.. Ask me for the issue to see if I havent given it away already. Price: RM 3 per issue

3) 1 bra. Pretty well-laced. Color: Red, Size 32A.. How I came to own it: Dont ask.. Picture available on request. Mannequin not included. Price: Free

4) 1 hockey stick. Good condition. Not to be used for league or professional games. Strictly meant for training purposes only. Price: RM 20

5) Guy stuff. Fairly good condition. Unused for over 3 years. Contact me for further details on this.. Price: Free

6) 1 Samurai Sword. Blunted. Slightly tarnished, but easily fixable with some polishing. Price: To be determined.

That's all I can think of right now... I guess the rest I'm taking with me or handing down to the bros :) I'll post up any other items available later.

Photograph

2006-06-30T15:49:00.000+08:00

A good number of my readers out there are aware I'm leavin the country soon... I've got plans, but I'll talk about those later...

For the past few weeks I've been having mixed thoughts, ideas, recollections of awesome times.. The past few years I spent in KL have been memorable for me in more ways than I can imagine, and even though its impossible, I'd like to extend my gratitude to everyone who contributed to makin my experience here a memorable one..

I tell myself to look ahead towards the future that beckons, n hopefully opportunities will present themselves all around.. And then there's this other side of me that regrets leaving KL and everyone I've grown accustomed to over the past 5 yrs, regrets that I'll have to start all over again in a completely new environment...

To be honest I really dont know what to think of everything that's been happening around me lately..

To sum it all up, there's a song whose lyrics really summarize wut I'm generally feeling these days:

Photograph by Nickelback

Look at this photograph
Every time I do it makes me laugh
How did our eyes get so red?
And what the hell is on Joey’s head?

This is where I grew up
I think the present owner fixed it up
I never knew we ever went without
The second floor is hard for sneakin’ out

This is where I went to school
Most of the time had better things to do
Criminal record says I broke in twice
I must’ve done it half a dozen times

I wonder if it’s too late
Should I go back and try to graduate
Life’s better now than it was back then
If I was them, I wouldn’t let me in

Every memory of looking out the back door
I had the photo album spread out on my bedroom floor
It’s hard to say
It’s time to say it
Goodbye, Goodbye
Every memory of walking out the front door
I found the photo of the friend that I was looking for

It's hard to say
It’s time to say it
Goodbye, Goodbye

Remember the old arcade
Blew every dollar that we ever made
The cops hated us hangin’ out
They say somebody went and burned it down

We used to listen to the radio
And sing along with every song we’d know
We said someday we’d find out how it feels
To sing to more than just the steering wheel

Kim’s the first girl I kissed
I was so nervous that I nearly missed
She’s had a couple of kids since then
I haven’t seen her since God knows when

I miss that town
I miss their faces
You can’t erase
You can’t replace it
I miss it now
I can’t believe it
So hard to stay
Too hard to leave it
If I could relive those days
I know the one thing that would never change

Look at this photograph
Every time I do it makes me laugh
Every time I do it makes me

Coming Soon...

2006-06-26T01:57:00.000+08:00

Yeah, i know i havent been blogging much lately.. infact, I havent been blogging at all in a while...

Neways, I've been doing alotta thinkin lately... expect a massive post in a couple of days...

Thanks for visitin ;)

Later...

Losin it...

2006-06-13T02:00:00.000+08:00

i dunno wut it is... but ive pretty much lost interest in everything these past few days...

Food has lost all taste (except for junk food, that is)... Sleep doesnt come easily (if at all)... I dont feel like workin out... dont feel like chillin out...

Basically im not doin much of anything, and yet I feel my time is being wasted, and I should do sumthin bout it...

Most people would categorize this behaviour as being love-struck.. but to be completely honest, I dont think any girl has held that much value in my mind for a number of years now... my close friends, male and female alike, are still considered priceless to me thou...

At times I think it cud just be a case of insomnia leadin to me feeling poorly during the rest of the day... n at other times I think im losing interest in life itself.. like it aint worth it anymore...

Any advice is more than welcome...

Revelation of the day

2006-05-31T01:29:00.000+08:00

I got back to the gym last week... Tried this new compound exercise workout... Frikkin awesome.. I'm hoping it'll help strengthen my body for capoeira..

Neways, this is all I could lift on each of the exercises:

Clean and Press: 40kgs
Squat: 50kgs
Barbell Pullover: 20kgs
Bench Press: 40kgs
Good Morning: 20kgs
Barbell Bicep Curl: 20kgs

So wuts the revelation?? I'm frikkin weak...

But that'll change soon enough

All those McValue Meals corrodin ur head or sumthing???

2006-05-18T14:04:00.000+08:00

Stupid Stupid McDonald's Survey Ppl!!!

Dumbass, I just bought n paid for a Beef Foldover Meal..
You saw/heard me order the Beef Foldover Meal..
You saw the dude at the counter pass me my Beef Foldover Meal..
I walked right by you carrying my Beef Foldover Meal on a tray...
You saw me walk right by you carrying my Beef Foldover Meal..

Your survey requires you to interview people who just bought n paid for the Beef Foldover Meal, hence you approached me n asked if you could ask me some questions, to which I agreed...
Now, I'm sitting right opposite you...
You can see there's a Beef Foldover Meal in my tray...
n ive unwrapped it..
n im eating it..

So WHY THE HELL DID YOU ASK ME THE FOLLOWING QUESTION FROM YOUR SURVEY, AND EXPECT ME TO ANSWER IT:

Question: Did you purchase the Beef Foldover Meal today???

Ive said it before, n im sayin it again: Kill Me!! Kill Me Now!!

See, its on days like this that I wish certain people were hung from their testicles, and shot through the lungs... Just certain ppl, not everyone...

2006-05-18T11:45:00.000+08:00

I was gonna blog.. but lunch time's comin up in 10 mins..

So this is all u get for now..

Boo Hoo for you...

I'm Back!!!

2006-05-17T16:16:00.000+08:00

I havent blogged in a while now... Have had a ton to write bout, but never had the time to write it... its not that I've been totally busy, just that I need the free time to get to know my bed a lil better...

For a brief outline, this is pretty much the gist of wut's been happening (not in chronological order) since I last blogged, which has been quite a while:

1) Got the right side of mom's car smashed (seriously.. n it wasnt my fault...)

2) Had a bout of flu

3) Got my GRE scores...

4) Got frustrated at ETS for not sending me n my unis my GRE scores (i had to call them up to find out... i'll explain later, just wait for the post, dammit)...

5) Decided to say 'Screw you' to the Canadian n US unis I applied to, and decided upon UNSW located in the Land Down Under (Australia, ppl... not wut ur thinkin)

6) Found out my trip to OZ-land might have to be put off for a few months, but it will definitely be compensated for...

7) Had a series of clubbin sessions, which is extremely rare for me...

8) Tried dancing during those clubbing sessions... this is sumthing I will definitely NOT be blogging about...

9) Had a brief but very haunting fling with the smokes... REALLY callin it quits this time...

Umm.. thats all I can recall for now.. not much for a span of slightly over a month, isit???

Oh n I'll be addin 10) soon: Givin notice for quittin my job... WooHoo!!!

With a cigarette in my hand...

2006-04-24T01:41:00.000+08:00

its been a week since i last blogged.. seems addictive, doesnt it...

Speaking of addictions, I remembered watching this video for an anti-smoking campaign I saw on Zee TV (Indian Cable TV channel) sometime during the 90s, n happened to come across the lyrics today... they didnt mean shit to me at the time, but I always tried recalling it.. neways, I happened to come across the lyrics for the soundtrack for that video, n just wanted to share it will all the smokers out there... :

Title: A lesson learnt late

It was, I remember, many years ago,
When I had failed to distinguish between a friend and a foe,
When they had invited me ,holding open the pack,
When I lost to curiosity, instead of being taken aback,
When on that fateful day , for the first time,
I held a cigarette in my hand.

It was, I felt a part of being in the teens,
And what had started with a puff or two became a routine.
The smoke's illusion blinded me for as it arose,
Arose my spirits too, and I muttered to myself, "I can" because,
With a cigarette in my hand ,
I felt like a man.

Soon it came out in the open, for it had become a habit I could not hide,
I was helpless, for I could not help but continue,
Even when I knew, it was eating me up from inside,
I was sick...my body and my soul and I realized,
With the cigarette in my hand,
I was a dying man.

Soon I was just a lifeless form, a hollow,
People shunned me everywhere, I wished,
If only had I done something which others could follow,
But it was too late, I had taken the wrong path, and I was ignored,
because
With a cigarette in my hand,
I was a hated man.

All the time, tears filled my eyes,
For people had bid me their good byes,
I wept because my cells , my body was choking ,
If only on that first day,my friends had been joking,
And then one day, the cigarette dropped from my hand,
I was a dead man.

I've got alot to learn...

2006-04-16T23:27:00.000+08:00

I wanted to post this last night, but was too tired to write after swimming, playing futsal and following that up with a roda at Bangsar. The fact that it rained practically all day long was seriously depressing, but only slightly delayed the start of the roda.

Anyway, the roda itself was awesome. We were visited by Professor Versatil from Grupo Batuque. This group is based in Los Angeles, USA, n is lead by renowned Capoeira Mestre Amen Santo. To the non-capoeiristas, Mestre Amen Santo played Mark Dacascos' capoeira teacher in Only the Strong. Yes People!!! A protégé of Mestre Amen Santo joined us at a roda..

Anyways, the dude was awesome... Its not like he flipped around n stuff... but he made the roda tons of fun mann... thou i kinda regret not takin the opportunity to play against him myself, just watchin him was awesome mann... like i said, he didnt do stuff which is totally flashy, but maybe he just went easy on us novices... He did have an awesome game against Instructor Rafael thou, but still nothing REALLY flashy.. which serves to provide me with another awesome example that I dont really need to be entirely flashy to be a good capoeirista in a roda..

I realized a couple of things thou... Firstly, his game seemed extremely relaxed as compared to the fast-paced game I'm learning and used to watching... He made it fun to watch n play capoeira.. He messed around in every game, laughed, played, n generally had fun, instead of taking everything so seriously..

The second thing I realized when he played against Instructor Rafael. Our instructor could definitely keep up with this guy's game. The only thing that may have overpowered Rafael would be Versatil's tremendous size... the dude was atleast 6'2", easily... n Rafael's about 5'9".. but back to the topic: what i realized during their game was that our instructor, through some reason known to him, tries to show us the vicious side of capoeira. I'm not sayin he's bein brutal with us or sumthin... but my guess is he's prolly a lil tired of us tryin to be flashy n showy, and tryin to make us more aware of what happens when rodas get violent.. Basically, as i mentioned in an earlier post, he wants us to be more aware of the trickery that sometimes occurs in rodas... And try to take care of ourselves when facing a dangerous opponent.

The third realization: I wanna try learning Capoeira Angola. Its different from capoeira regional (the fast-paced game the world usually recognizes as capoeira) in that its much slower. It looks easy to the casual observer, but Ive heard it requires more technique, and more precision in each movement. I definitely wanna try it out now, especially after watching the roda last night... Maybe i'll ask Rafael one of these days to teach me some Angola.

N oh yea, the guy's gonna be visiting our training sessions sometime this week. I hope I can get a few pointers from him... I did talk to him after the roda about his academy (thats when he told me that he studied under Mestre Amen Santo), got his name-card. If i'm lucky enuff to get to the US by this summer, Id def wanna find a good academy to continue with capoeira. So i asked him about training in NY. He mentioned a couple of his mestres had academies there, so i might check those out, if, God-willing, I'm lucky enuff to get accepted into the uni there...

Sigh, I've got a loooooooooooooooong way to go mann...

Adios ppl..

2006-04-13T11:26:00.000+08:00

am at the office right now... freakishly bored and redundant, with nothing to do... n i dont even feel like workin on my uni applications right now... even thou i know i shud.. n im wasting time..

To be honest, I dont feel too good right now... I stayed up late last night enjoying junk food (just a bit, not much) and WWE RAW... Slept at about 2.30.. n woke up at 8...n i had a moderately rigorous training session yesterday evening... to sum it up, i easily violated 2 outta 3 basic laws for attaining physical fitness (eat right, sleep right, train hard)

I dont even know if I can attend training today... Just feeling sick from not having caught up on my sleep for the last few days... even thou Tuesday (2 days ago) was a public holiday...

I've realized I can still be up for an intense training session if I havent eaten properly... but not sleeping enough, well thats an entirely different ball-game..

Maybe i'll go home n sleep for an hour or two before training.. or maybe i'll sleep alot longer, n feel better for the next session..

I gotta change this lifestyle, mann... not sleepin enuff, not training enuff, not eating right.. no wonder i suck at capoeira right now...

n did i mention I havent had time for breakfast yet today?? I'm really lookin forward to lunch, which seems like its a gazillion light-years away right now (read 10-15 minutes)..

Today, the House... Tomorrow, the WORLD!!!

2006-04-10T16:46:00.000+08:00

This is gonna freak you out... I'm serious...

I found sumthin on my handphone, which cud change the world for years to come... I found out that my lil brother aspires to probably take over the world someday.. well, NO, he didnt sms me those exact words...

lemme tell u how it goes:

I was just sittin in my lonely lil corner in this office of mine, and just remembered I had a bunch of tasks to complete soon... In order to remember them this time, I decided to save myself a memo on my handphone...

Whilst browsing the menu for the 'Organizer' (little did i know what hideous, evil, insiduous activities were being planned, by this sinister character who claimed to be my youngest sibling, having just a couple of years ago reached an age comprising of double-digits), I came upon my 'To-Do List', and unknowingly unveiled a rather surprising series of plans for world domination (like sheep being led to the slaughter)...

How may I have the audacity to place the above-mentioned accusations upon so (apparently) innocent a being, you ask?? Well, the handphone I now possess was handed down by my very father to me (No it wasnt handed down generations!!! its not THAT old, u Freak!!).. Thus it happened that, one night, while my brother was fooling around with the handphone, he downloaded some of his more sinister (oh wait, I already used that word once... try menacing) plans for world-domination... Of course at that moment, he couldnt have had the slightest tinge of the notion that his very darkest thoughts might one day be unveiled by an unsuspecting character, whose blood reeks of innocence, and.. well... debauchery... namely... Me....

I now reveal to your very eyes what I shall hence-forth refer to as 'The To-Do List':

1) Buy 5 Ferraris for family and me (does he even KNOW that he cant even look over the friggin steering wheel, let alone drive a ferrari????)

2) Buy 9 Rolls Royce for family and me (umm... i know they're expensive n all, but I'd rather have the ferraris... plus, we're a family of 5, who keeps the extra Rolls'??)

3) Buy six 7 million villas with all facilities for family and me with 21 floors ( I wonder what 'all facilities' consists of)

4) Buy 10 latest windows computers for family and me (Laptop, LAPTOP!!! dont forget THAT!!)

5) Buy private jet plane for family and me (umm... cant argue with this one... as long as they have enromously huge Recliner seats)

6) Buy duplex size cinema for family and me (im guessing this is where he REALLY shows us his plans for world domination... on the Big Screen )

7) Buy 8 king size beds (somehow I'm kinda glad he didnt say 'for family and me' here)

This is where it REALLY gets nasty (Caution: Not meant for the faint-hearted):

8) Deposit 21 million in bank (21 million what?? if its rupees, then thats just peanuts.. if its dollars, well thats an entirely different story, init??)

9) Meet President Bush, President Pervez Musharraf, and Prime Minister Abdul Badawi (strange combination of personnel... they must all be in on it together... n Bush is just in there to get b**ch-slapped around...)

10) Buy 53 containers of soft drinks (he's gonna drown us all in soda...)

11) Buy 53 pizzas (or fatten us for the kill.. this seems better...)

12) Send ships around the world (Convoys?? Battleships??)

13) Visit America, India, Pakistan, France, Brazil, New York and Canada (Plans to take over the world, sure, but doesnt realize where New York is actually located..)

14) Buy 18 latest Nokia handphones for family and me (hmm.. well... he's doin sumthin nice for a change... before the unspeakable acts...)

15) Visit all of the wonders of the world (after u take over the world, u gotta check up on ur inheritance, right...)

16) Complete Carleton application, UPenn application, Brown application ASAP (Oh wait... this one's mine...)

17) Clean whole house... (Now this is the confounding part.... Pray tell, what DOES it all mean???)

Live in fear people, for you may never know when this plastic-sword toting, pellet-gun brandishing uncouth may show up at the shores of your land and wreak havok upon your unsuspecting countrymen...

The only available images of this infiltrator-to-be are childhood pictures on the garden-swing (he obviously realized the speed of the swing would disallow his distinctively smooth features to be accurately photographed and documented... Despicable, I tell you).

Please be on constant lookout for this deviant, and any information of his whereabouts should be passed on to the DAD agency. However, this agency has been known to have a negligible effect in nullifying this barely-teenage menace... Unsurprisingly, the MOM agency has been known to produce more satisfying results..

P.S. All plans revealed in the 'To-Do-List' are unedited, and have been copied directly from the list found on the phone. Disbelieve at your own peril.

Run Forrest, RUN!!!

2006-04-09T00:47:00.000+08:00

I ran today...

After quite a long layoff from my daily run... not that i had much of a run to begin with neways.. but back to the topic at hand..

so, i ran today.. for the first time in weeks... or months, actually...

I'd had a basketball workout with a bunch of guys ive started playing with recently... had an average game, considerin i hadnt played basketball in over a year (more on that later)...

After basketball, I felt like running... for no reason at all.. now those of u who know me will have guessed sumthin mite have been seriously wrong.. cuz i HATE running, even thou i used to do it quite frequently... I mean, put me in a futsal or basketball game, then sure i'll run my a** off... cuz at the point im focusing on the game, not on the running.. but put me on a jogging track or a treadmill, n im like Homer Simpson after a long hard day of work (wonder if u'll catch the irony in that...)

so all of a sudden i felt like running... so after a brief rest, i got on that treadmill down at the condo gym... n mann, i ran...

no seriously, i RAN... not as fast as.. umm, whoever's dominating the sprinting scene these days (i'd mention Marion Jones, but with all due respect, a woman's name might not do too good to me right now).. nor did i run as long as Forrest Gump..

I went on for 5 miles.. sure, no big deal for all u marathon runners out there... u guys can leave now... for the meagre audience left behind, i continue:

I ran 5 miles, mann... I ran hard.. I ran so frikkin hard I started sweating through my sneakers... The treadmill handlebars were covered in my sweat... Relax, I took a towel along, cleaned it all off when i was done...

So after im done running, I spent a few minutes stretching... n came back up... took a long (n i DO mean LONG) hot frikkin shower, hoping to rest that injured shoulder of mine...

came back up..

n drank the remainder of a bottle of Vanilla Coke...

Thats all...

Dont expect me to talk about any enlightening revelations talking bout my running n all..

I just wanted to record this moment in my personal record books as the day I get back to my daily running routine... ofcourse it doesnt have to go as far as 5 miles everyday, does it... i mean, with all due respect, am i kenyan man with a number on my back?????

P.S. For all illiterate ppl who might misinterpret that last statement, I seriously respect the people of Kenya... one of my closest friends is kenyan, n he can vouch for that... after he beats the living sh*t outta me, that is...

I wish it hadnt happened...

2006-04-05T09:38:00.000+08:00

sumthin happened a couple of weeks ago.. it wasnt good...

By this point I'm guessin uve figured out I'm not really gonna go into the specifics of wut happened... since there's the ever-so-miniscule-but-still-existent chance the person who this concerns might just stumble upon my blog n read it... no, im not afraid of him/her.. I just prefer to leave everyone hangin...

neways, i really dunno wut happened, or wut made me do it... all i know is that my better instincts were against it... but it still happened... i made the initiative to do it, n the person responded...

all i can say is so far i havent had to face any of the consequences of what i did... i dunno how long that might last thou... so far it seems alright... i felt it'll be cool for everything to be back to the way it was... but turns out im kinda glad it didnt... so far... I also know for me it cant ever be the way it was before... no way mann, i aint gonna sink that low...

n if somehow things start to get outta hand again, i guess i wont really be reluctant to return to the way things were until a few weeks ago...

P.S. dun ask me what im actually talkin bout... i just dun wanna go into the specifics...
P.P.S. some of u readin this prolly think its to do with sex... i know who u r... :) n ur wrong...

It aint easy...

2006-04-05T00:11:00.000+08:00

i was a big fan of the Ninja Turtles (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to be precise) when I was a kid...

who am i kidding?? I'm STILL a fan... well, not to the same extent, but I still think they were awesome characters, especially with those cool weapons n all...

neways, pardon the digression...

I owned a copy of their first movie.. aww mann, dun get me started on it, it was heaven for a kid like me who was so into martial arts n a big fan of ninja turtles, since it was the first realization of the shelled heroes on the big screen... Well, there was this one scene I recall, its where Splinter (errr, Master Splinter, that is) has this lil talk over a couple of drinks with the turtles during Happy Hour (ok, ok, it was really some sorta sensei-student-ninja-counselling thing) and goes sumthing along these lines:

Splinter: You are young, have loads of energy, testosterone, a very high sperm coun... errr, i mean, you are young...
TMNT: Ahuh, that we r, yessir Master Splinter sir...
Splinter: But one day, I will get my hairy rat's ass out of this sewer... (kidding... actually, his words were: but one day, I will be gone)
TMNT: No shit dude, look at u, ur like, OLD n stuff (kiddin again.. their reaction was more along the lines of 'OK, this sounds like serious shit, i better put this pizza away n sit down n listen')

So basically, to sum it all up, Splinter's tryin to tell em that right now ur havin fun n all that jazz, but one day i wont be around to take care of u, n ur gonna have to look after urselves, look after each other, clean up ur rooms by urself, wipe ur own ass, and, needless to mention, use ur ninja teachings wisely... u know the likes...

Now we get to the point of this blog:

After our capo training today, we all got a similar lecture from our instructor... n it reminded me of the above movie... n made me think. His words were sumthin like this:

Instructor: You guys are the advanced class. But I get better results from the beginner's class, since they train much more seriously n harder... u guys think its all ok right now, since capoeira's just a part-time thing for most of u, n everybody's a friend here... so when u train with them u dun wanna train hard for fear of injurin urself or the other person... but one day if some guy from another group comes to join our roda, ur gonna be in big trouble... ofcourse, first im gonna go head to head with him to make sure he doesnt cause trouble... but wut if im not there one day, and some guy comes along and messes around with u and u cant get back at him... its ur own problem...

Hearin all this got me thinkin mann... i mean, wut if one day he really isnt with us in a roda n some dude comes along n hands our asses back to us... damn... thought scares me... heck, not just that, wut if ur faced with a member of your OWN group who wants to take u down so bad he/she can taste it.. then what?? ur stuck with that forever...

n that got me thinkin.. I gotta stop slackin off... its not so much about training more, but rather bout training harder n smarter... cuz one day it might just happen... n rather than go home with a shattered knee or cut lip, id rather have the pride of successfully standin up n defendin myself (yeah, yeah, reminiscent of Custer's Last Stand, I know)..

Sigh... gotta work harder ppl... train harder, giv it all ive got... nothin comes easy...

Back To School!!

2006-03-24T10:50:00.000+08:00

Hey... you... YES, YOU... check this out...

I'm gonna do something... that i have yet to do in any post in this entire blog..

curious??? well, you should be.. this incredible feat will be:

I'm gonna TRY not to complain.. (note the exquisite usage of the word 'Try', ladies n gentlemen)

ahuh... yeah... u lucked out on this one, buddy...

now, i COULD go on about how my injuries havent healed yet... but i wont
i COULD start about how strenuous my workout was yesterday (even though I enjoyed almost every second of it).... but i wont...
i COULD talk bout how seriously low on cash i am these days... but will i?? Nope...
i COULD drag on n on about how sleep-deprived I am during the week, especially this one.. but will i?? No Sir...

This time there will be NO complaints...

neways, since i cant think of anything to compl..err, i mean write about, im gonna share a memory with u guys... u know how, come September or January, there's all this 'Back to School' hype for the kids... a frenzy of shopping for schoolbags and supplies.. anyways, so whenever I hear this term, it brings back a particular memory I had in high school...

lets start from the beginning:

Millions and millions of years ago, dinosaurs roamed the earth.....

Umm.. wait... wrong story...

Ahh yes, here we go:

This happened in 2001 in the UK, during my final year of high school... School was in the city of Bath, n I'd headed down to London for the long weekend.. A classmate went along to London too, to visit his relatives. This buddy we'll call Tim.

So anyways, we head down to London, me visitin my cousins, him visitin his... so on Sunday we decide to chill out n all... met up, had a meal, hung out at Nike Town for a bit, checkin out suits for graduation, that sorta stuff... neways, we're chillin out...

before i go on, i gotta giv u some foreground on the story... we got to London by train, basically.. tickets paid for by school (they'd already extricated the money from us... literally.. cheap bastards).. so here's the deal, a school staff member went along to london as well.. and to ensure that we'd all return to school on time, he kept all our return tickets.. basically we'd have to meet him for the 6.45pm train Sunday evening... a couple of the younger kids groaned, moaned, complained (take ur pick of words), but basically u couldnt do shit about it... me n my friend, we're like, yeah we got no probs... so its cool.. so we head off... its all good mann...

neways, back to the story: so the 2 of us r chillin... n somehow one of us manages to glance at a clock... its frikkin 5pm... we're like ohh SHIT!!.. needless to say, we grabbed the train n rushed back... now, we decided that since my station was further away from Paddington station (where we'd catch the train back to Bath), id grab my stuff, meet him at his station, n we'd head there together... aight, sounds cool... so we do that...

I sprinted back home, packed my stuff (distinctly remember a FHM magazine with Katie Price a.k.a. Jordan in the UK), had second thoughts bout buyin a Halal pepperoni pizza, n got on the train.. I arrived at his station... n waited... i had no mobile phone at the time... he did.. lucky bastard... so im waitin for him... 20 mins... 25 mins.. 30 mins.. alright, I decided to call him up from a payphone... call him up n this happens:

Me: Yo Tim, where u at mann, ive been waitin for like.. ages
Tim: Yo dude.. i'm already on the way to Paddington
Me:.............................
Tim: (my name)... u there?
Me: WUTTHE****??
Tim: I was gettin late, so my uncle's like u better go
Me: Sigh.. alright, im gettin there asap..

So i literally slamdunk the phone receiver back into the holder... n im waitin for the train... only i realize, there's been no train goin to paddington since ive been here...

asked some dude, n he's like, oh that train doesnt come here anymore, so u have to go here n there, n then switch over to that train from there..

so i go... actually i didnt have time to do much of anything, cuz the next train came in just then.. so i did wut the guy told me, went here n there, n switched over to that train from there...

YES!! i made it... n its exactly 6.45pm.. awesome... the train barely opened its doors, n im outta there like Ben Johnson on steroids, carryin bout 2 tons worth of bags behind me... my shoulders r bleeding... and guess what:

I run into Paddington station JUST IN TIME to see my train pull out.. not to mention, the guy with my ticket was onboard.... i'll call him Devious Bastard from now on...doesnt matter though, cuz he doesnt appear in the story anymore.... so im watchin the train with my jaw hangin loose like i just got uppercut... n i see one of my friends just arrive as well.. n im thinkin.. atleast i made it here before him.. :P

neways, now i had a problem.. i had 20 bucks on me... ticket costs 30... sooo.... wut the heck do i do? so i see this friend of mine.. n i ask him how's he goin back, blah blah... turns out he's prolly the only dude who acted paranoid n kept his ticket to himself... we'll call him Lucky Bastard from now on... neways, so Lucky Bastard shows up... i ask him if he's got some extra cash.. the guy bullshits (REALLY easy to tell when he's bullshittin) n says he dun got anything... only the ticket back
so im like 'F**K!! now wut do i do???'

Im sittin there.. wonderin how im gonna sell my ass enuff to make some cash to get home.. just kiddin... was just wonderin bout how to get back... then i see a familiar figure approaching from the distance... WUTTHE!!! ITS TIM!!

so immediately im like 'DUDE!! u left on time to catch the train... wut the heck happened'... u wont believe wut his answer was.........

Tim: I fell asleep on the train, n went all the way to the last station...
Me: (Too shocked to say anything)...................... OOOKAYYY!! (looks up n whistles)

neways... so Tim had just 10 bucks n no ticket either... so we're totally dead.. (the thought that both our money put together cud get ONE ticket did cross my mind.. but i wasnt a bastard... Yet...)

so finally, we figure out.. the best possible way to get back ASAP.. is to get bus tickets.. which were like 11 bucks each.. so we headed down there.. turns out the next available bus is at 11PM.. no choice... bought the ticks.. ended up goofing off for the next 3 hrs... eatin some home-made chicken Tim's aunt packed.. even gave some to this homeless dude... invited him to join us for some chicken.. felt kinda nice to do sumthin for a homeless dude..

neways, so finally got on the bus... long drive back home.. did some thinking... Tim fell asleep n NEARLY missed our stop, so i had to kick him awake...

turns out we had just the right amount of cash to get us from the bus station to school... felt kinda weird roaming around the school halls at that hour (2.30AM, mind u...)

Sigh, the things we do in the pursuit of education...

Oh yeah, n the next day, the amount of heckling n shit we got from our classmates for missin the train was.. well.. pretty degrading.. so im not gonna write bout that...

Forgot to mention: Lucky Bastard took the next train back to school outta london.. did wanna ask him later how come he got from the train station back to school if he didnt have any extra cash... but i decided to let it go... wutever mann... we still ridiculed him for other shit thou...

Omens...

2006-03-22T11:32:00.000+08:00

so here i am fallin asleep at work again...

I think its gonna be bad day for me today... The signs are as follows:

1) Slept at friggin 1.30AM... its in the AM, so it still counts as today... yeah i know it entirely my fault for not sleeping on time, but im in a derogatory mood, so help me.. plus i had this really cool capoeira/jackie chan DVD to watch...

2) I overslept in the morning (this might have had somethin to do with sleeping late... will confirm that)... n had to get showered n dressed in record time (Clark Kent wud be put to shame)

3) I then arrived ridiculously early for work at 7.30...

4) Got caught makin one too many peanut butter sandwiches for myself

5) Tea wasnt hot

6) Was offered somethin to eat... was some sort of malay delicacy.. it tasted... different... so different I swore never to eat it again...

7) I am literally, repeatedly, going into hibernation in the office, right in front of the PC

8) Am currently broke

Yep, I can imagine the day gettin better.. but maybe thats just cuz it (hopefully) cant get any worse...

Weekend aint far away mann... I can see it in the horizon..

its c-c-c-c-ccc-ooollddd.. in KL!!!

2006-03-21T16:19:00.000+08:00

Hmm.. been a while since I last wrote sumthin here... Its not like i havent had somethin to complain/whine about... just that I havent been bothered lately... plus, the feedback I get from some folks about how negative n spiteful my posts r... well, read the title ppl, thats wut its all about in this blog... so either read it, or beat it...

neways... nothin new happenin lately... got back to training... had my first session yesterday since the injury.. turned out to be a bit more taxing than I expected.. not that it was unbelievably exhausting, but I think it has more to do with the fact that I barely slept an hour the night before..

They say there r 3 essential pillars of physical fitness or success in any physical endeavour... miss out on any one of them, and any amounts of the other 2 wont be able to make up for it: Training, Diet, Rest...

Cud it be the diet?? very very possible.. i mean hey, there r only so many veggies a guy's system can digest before he starts reminiscing about the aroma emanating from his one true love: Beef...

Yes I enjoy chicken too... thoroughly.. though Id like to proudly admit the current bird-flu scare has deterred me from consuming my daily portions of our H5N1 infested friend, it'd just be a lie... n i prefer tellin the truth n stickin it out (unless there's personal physical pain involved, ofcourse)... ive been eating chicken like there's no tomorrow... come to think of it, wut if there ARE no chickens left tomorrow??? I guess my diet might be responsible for half of that, but thats beside the point mann... theyre dyin... EAT EM BEFORE THEY GO OUT!! err.... wait, i meant SAVE EM BEFORE THEY GO OUT!!!

Guess I gotta cut down on the fast food n junk...

Training... well, those of you who know me personally know thats one department I'm certainly not lacking in... I try to train 5 days a week (notice the word 'try').. But there is sumthin called overtraining, but ive heard that happens more commonly with weight-training... still, if ur not gettin enuff sleep, whilst at the same time managing to screw ur health on a SERIOUSLY greased/lubricated/oiled/deep-fried diet... well, welcome to Obe-City (obesity, get it?? no?? get lost..) n ofcourse, Fatigue-ville... come to think of it, I'm a definite supporter for the notion that we should all sleep more often.. sometimes in groups of 2 or above (with certain applicable rules, ofcourse)... however, there's seems to be a general frowning upon that sort of thinking within the office environment.. I mean, hey, i'm only nappin so I can be more productive for the remainder of my working hours... yeah, they should DEFINITELY be payin me for that... sleep on our OWN time?? naahhh no way, thats for party-time...

Basically, I've started realizing what a difference the proper amount of sleep can make in your workouts.. sure i knew it before.. i just chose to ignore it... but for some reason I seem to be more worn out these days... r the effects of symptoms of old age finally catching up with me?? I'm a few months above 23, so I guess I can safely rule that one out...

Anyways, I'm thinkin of goin back to the gym today... spoke to my instructor last nite, got a basic outline of the gym routine he follows so as to strengthen myself appropriately for capoeira... have a lil wager goin on in the back of my head: 10 bucks says i'll wimp out before the first squat n blame it on the shoulder injury... still am frikkin sleepy though... definitely need to dive right into bed as soon as i get home from training...

I'm kinda afraid of that gym though... not cuz of all the national body-builders who workout there n stuff.. aint no way theyre gonna be able to embarass my lil build by showin off their Hulk-like bulks... ive been way too embarassed in life already to take somethin like that seriously... nahh... wut scares me is I have a tendency of gettin into fights... n the odds r usually against me (we're talkin ohh...maybe 5 guys to 1...) since i always workout alone... n plus, there r steroid pushers in the gym... they go crazy mann...

sigh... lets see how it goes.. still frikkin sleepy thou... n the arctic conditions in my office arent helping either...i think if i look around, i might find an eskimo somewhere in the conference room... bitch better be sellin some parkas...

later ppl... it aint easy sittin here dozing off n tryin to think of my next line at the same time..

Love of the game mann... Love of the game...

2006-03-16T23:07:00.000+08:00

I've read books on a certain basketball player... im sure u've heard of him... dude goes by the moniker of Air Jordan, won 6 rings in 8 yrs, balled with the Chicago Bulls, sportin #23 all over the frikkin globe... yeah, 'heard of him' is an understatement, i know... shut up...

neways, both the books I read on the dude... documented the one period of his career where he faced being temporarily sidelined due to a severe foot injury... n the guy missed out about 62 games over the course of an 82-game season.. anyways...

I remember readin bout how the dude couldnt bear to watch his team play without him, n how he'd be fightin against management so they'd let him play limited minutes at the very least, if not the entire game.. I remember thinkin, dude, we know you love the game, but ur injury's serious, it cud get worse with another minor hit... but that never entered the dude's head... eventually the injury healed completely n the dude got back to dominating the game like we all know him to do, immediately droppin 63 on Larry Bird n what not..

neways, i aint writin to talk bout Jordan's highlights... much respect to the dude, this blog alone wouldnt be enuff to document all of those...

pertaining to the topic in mind, I recently understood his mindframe during his period of injury.. I got injured last week tryin out some flashy Capoeira move... its not crippling, Thank God, just a muscle pull (or worse, a tear, but i think id be screaming in pain if that happened).. its takin a while to heal... to be honest I cud play through the pain, since my love for the art is that strong... but i know in my mind its better to let it heal, or it could worsen, leaving me out of action for longer...

truth is, ive missed almost a week of classes... N it hurts mann... no matter the pain in my arm when i wake up each morning for almost the past week... no matter the fact that I had to consciously ignore the pain everytime I tried liftin my arm vertically... its nothin compared to the pain I feel everyday realizin I gotta miss another day of training cuz its better to let this heal... in all actuality, I could have limped my way through training if thats wut it took, but it was other reasons preventing me from attending training this week... but everytime I realized id be missin another training session, the image of MJ screaming at his coach from the sideline to let him into the game comes rushin back.. n i understand wut it must have been like...

n now i TRULY understand, wut causes a person to go on as if its the last thing he'll ever do.. to ignore all logical reason n go all out.. to ignore the pain that deters him from doin wut he loves to do n appear to be superhuman to onlookers... to feel compelled to defy all odds... to look on in wanton, then finally sayin to himself 'Screw It' n steppin out to do what he loves best... its called..

The Love of the Game...

P.S. I'm headin back to training tomorrow no matter how severe the pain... can barely hold up a berimbau, but just bein there puts me at ease... dunno bout the Bangsar Roda thou...

ZZzzzZZzzz..

2006-03-16T15:39:00.000+08:00

Its about... 3.40 PM as I write this post... I'm...ZzZzZzZzzz...

Sorry... where was i?? oh yes... as u may have guessed, im sleepy... in fact, its wrong to just say im sleepy.. im terribly, insanely, incurably, immensely, dreadfully, horribly in need of some serious slumber... I was up all night.. ALL frikkin NIGHT!!! now i know wut ur thinking:

What ur thinkin: Dude, arent u like... done with uni n studyin n stuff?
What im sezin: yeah.. totally.. except there's hopefully a masters education comin up soon, bro
What ur thinkin: So then, wtf were u doin up all night long?
What im sezin:

because a certain (unnamed) university, to whose Masters in Computer Science program I'm applying to, require me to upload some application documents by 8AM this morning... so at 2AM, as I proceed to methodically proceed to key in the URL and 'hit' the Enter key, i get:

Cannot Find Server

is that CRAZY or wut?? i try it again.. www.uni-name-.com... same damn result..
N check this out, this isnt just the application website... the ENTIRE university's site is down...so i thought, must be sum maintenance work n all.. i waited up, watch TV for a bit.. n got back to it.. SAME DAMN THING!! Called up my friend to double check the URL, he got the same message too... Finally after waitin another hour or so, I dial up the university (which is all the way in the US, btw) n spoke to the receptionist.. Turns out, the receptionist is COMPLETELY unaware that the website is down... even worse, she's able to access it (after all, she's on the intranet).. neways, she was helpful in noting my contact information and notifying the relevant authorities of the problem.. So it was that I dozed off at 6AM with a finger on the 'F5' key... woke up with a jump-start at 7... automatically pressed the button.. WHADDAYA KNOW!!! its workin... ITS BOUT DAMN TIME, BITCH!!!

so i upload my stuff, finally submit the application at bout 7.30... n dropped on the bed... for a few peaceful hours of rest.. only to be rudely awoken at 8AM by my own alarm, reminding me I had to literally drag my ass to work once more...

I swear Im not even aware of what im typing.. my fingers r doing the talkin... my eyes r.... dreamin...

ZzZzzZZZzzzzz........

i hate...

2006-03-13T09:34:00.000+08:00

i hate my line of work....

I hate coming in to save the day when people's stupidity puts them in precarious positions..

i hate people who look at you like idiots when u speak to them/ask them a question in english...

i hate people who look at you like idiots when u speak to them/ask them a question... period...

i hate not bein paid...

i hate this work... where i have to design webpage after webpage after webpage... n that im not learning anything on the job...

i hate not bein able to have a REAL - and paying - job in this country...

i hate not enjoying the environment i work in...

i hate the fact that after almost 2 months of workin here, i still go out for lunch by myself... cuz i prefer my own company and thoughts over those of others...

i hate people who suck up to the boss...

i hate people who speak in a different dialect whenever theyre around u, in order to drill into ur head that ur an outsider, especially in the workplace...

i hate the fact that i have not been provided with the same amenities as the other employees, as i am a temp here...

i hate the person who i work for (not talkin bout the boss here), who's the most obvious imitation of Bob Barker ive ever seen (imagine a puppet), n obviously has no clue that there's life outside a PC, n who never smiles when necessary, but plasters a bitch-ass grin on his face when some lame joke is heard... i also hate the fact that i have to restrain from bitch-slapping that grin off his face...

i hate people who assign you work, and then proceed to work on the same thing without notifying u, in order to show u they can do a better job than u can... i mean y waste my time with the job then, fuckface??

i hate hypocrites.... n i also hate the fact that i can be one at times...

i hate not enjoying the community i live in...

i hate the notion that people will pretend to be ur friends thru thick n thin when u treat them right... but when u decide to stand up for urself, they decide ur not worthy of their friendship anymore...

i hate politics... all kinds of it...

i hate the fact that people show no consideration for others on the road, n the idea that they must dominate the road...

i hate people who use others...

i hate people who believe they are intellectually superior to others if they can lie to them, trick them, fool them, betray them or prank them... they are sadly mistaken...

i also hate the fact that all this negativity dwells within me...

most of all, i hate the fact that i cant change any of that right here, right now... but i dont know if i really can...or want to...

n i dont give 2 fucks if you hate me for all the stuff i just said...

Kill me... Kill me NOW...

2006-03-13T08:26:00.000+08:00

no seriously... do it... DO IT!!!

the world is coming to an end... no the main cause will not be war or disease, but Insanity... n it'll pop-up where u least expect it...

alright, i'll admit, as an IT guy, I can expect situations every now n then where CERTAIN non-technical ppl may display their superfluous stupidity in everyday workplace events...

here's wut happened: I'm sitting comfortably in my cubicle (haha, i WISH i cud call it MY cubicle).. n one of the frikkin engineers comes in... n asks me to set up the conference room for a presentation... the CPU's already hooked up... so im kinda confused already.. like.. wuts to hook up??? neways, i go in... n its like the entire conference is ready n waitin to happen... but they need an IT guy to set up the presentation... seriously... n the engineer's standin behind me, breathing down my neck, it almost reminds me of the dependency Darth Vader places upon his life-support system...

n so i reach down...

extend my arm...

towards the CPU..

n press...

the POWER button..................

n lo n behold, instantaneous relief fills the engineer's whatever-fills-up-with-instantaneous-relief as the expectant Windows 98 screen pops up... kinda amazing how it soothes the mind when the Windows start up screen shows up n everyone calms down... takes a relaxing breath... exhales with ease... knowin that everything's ok...

WHATTHEFUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE????? i just pressed the frikkin ON button... YOU CANT EVEN DO THAT???? WHAT DID YOU DO AT COLLEGE???

this reminds me of another event that occurred almost a year ago... my mom's boss was in town, n had a critical presentation to prepare for some proposal crap.. neways, so she's on the phone with mom n goes: there's some highly critical modifications to be made to the presentation... u mentioned ur son was an IT guy, bring him over immediately... thats all she says... no offer for payment, or take ur time comin down but we need this today.. so mom thereby agrees to forgive all my sins if I can pull this one off for her... i mean, who needs an annual pilgrimage when circumstances like this can rid u of all sins... plus, im actually allowed to drive mom's seriously underpowered car at top-speed for the better part of an hour... oh joy!!!.. neways, we get there in like frikkin 45 mins... the boss cant even do so much as welcome us... she goes to the corner with mom n says like 'ur 45 mins late' to which I later reacted by goin 'wutthe.... were we supposed to teleport there or what??' neways... this is wut happened... i swear to God, after u read this, IT ppl (or anyone, actually.. this is THAT stupid) you will proceed to kick yourself:

she takes me into the business centre, which requires like 20 mins... n its like one fucking Dell PC with a scanner n printer attached... opens up the presentation.. Powerpoint, mind u... scrolls to the last slide (At this point i was a TAD bit nervous... cuz after all, this was my mom's boss, n she needed immediate help for a deal which might land her a truckload of dough).. points to the LAST frikkin line on the slide... n says (with an air intended only for life and death situations).... can u delete that line???

I know...

Let's ALL say it together: Kill me, Kill me NOW...

n i shud mention, she had an engineer accompanying her... n the dude was from India... INDIA!!! the land where the dude who invented Hotmail hails from... how do ppl, in this day n age, manage to get thru college without basic IT skills?

ohhh mannn... this stupid fat-ass, filthy-rich, scum-of-the-earth, so-called lady sat there while i proceeded to 'modify' the presentation... n then i asked... no really, i asked: 'is there anything else??' cuz im thinkin, please dont tell me i dragged my ass all the way to subang for just this...

Sigh.. i then proceeded to help then copy the presentation onto CD n print out the slides... genius work, i tell u... n allowed them to treat me to lemonade in the front-lobby, while i listened in on useless conversation between the boss n the engineers...

mom, can we leave.... PLEASE??? i need to whine about the hours i just wasted sittin here...

oh yeah, in order to pass my time, I hit on the lady in charge of the socalled 'business centre'... no she was no jessica alba... she was just practice...

It goes on...

2006-03-13T08:07:00.000+08:00

scratch wut i said earlier... i had a near-dislocated shoulder, a test to study for, n a Masters application to submit... it APPEARED that things cud no longer take a turn for the worse...

Fate however, seems to have had other plans in mind... after 2 blissful hours of sleep (from 4am to 6am, mind you), wakin my sorry ass (yes i no longer bother with censoring my statements) up, droppin my bro to school n gettin over to work... drumroll please............ I now recognize the initial stages of a bout of flu comin on..

Sumthing's not right here... those of you who have known me for quite a while now will know I rarely get sick... im talkin once or twice a year, MAX... but lately ive been reachin new physical lows within the past few months... i shud get a check-up mann... but they cost so damn much in this country..

N my family's goin on vacation at the end of this month... I havent gotten outta this country in... (counts fingers..) 5 years... yes, 5 frikkin years... i came to KL in 2001... n have been unable to get out ever since...

Yuck... this tea tastes like turpentine...

No i have not actually tasted turpentine...

Yes i made the tea myself.. n im quite adept at that, mind u...

No its not the tea, its the damn mug im drinkin it from... seems like the soap wasnt cleaned out properly...

i gotta get outta here... outta this physical condition.. outta this office... outta this... umm.. world???

Sigh... i need to retire.... even though its at the tender (?????) age of 23...

Observation of the moment

2006-03-13T03:03:00.000+08:00

Gee... I just realized... I have pot-belly abs... n spaghetti forearms...

DAMMIT!!!

cant sleep

2006-03-13T02:22:00.000+08:00

i havent been able to sleep for the last 2 days, on account of the painfully twisted shoulder (see below)... ive been advised to get a Chinese massage.... any Chinese women out there willing to offer their services?? Applicants MUST be over 18... but not by too much, k...(hint: you dont REALLY HAVE to be good at the massage part)... but it IS gettin better, just gonna take some time off from capo training on account of the arm, n the bastardly test (again, see below)

neways... i recently had one of THE weirdest dreams EVER... even weirder than the one bout the fone-call(previously blogged)... i cant even remember the sequence of events... it was THAT messed up...

it somehow started off with me landin in NYC... n then a Chinese dude decided to show me around town... no offense to the Chinese, I respect you guys, but i wouldnt wanna be livin with a chinese dude after spendin over 5 years in Malaysia... i need some globalization mannn... where r those french babes i hear so much bout??? annyyywaayyss....

so a chinese dude shows me around...n i think he turns out to be part of some band.... n i somehow hook up with the hottest female member in the band.. n the chinese dude is a seriously addicted druggie... seriously guys, im not makin this up.. this is wut my brain decided to play in that little theatre in my head that nite... neways, somewhere during this dream, im walkin around exploring NYC by myself... n i bump into some dude on a bike... he profusely apologizes... n im like, this dude's aight... n he goes where u from dude... so i tell him... n he starts makin fun of it n rides away... n starts speakin in afghani... wutthe.... did NOT get that mann...

neways... to be honest, the racism part does scare me just a lil bit.. wut if i actually go abroad some day n that actually happens?? mind u, i get ticked off very easily... ive actually mouthed off to a management employee in my condo cuz i had the impression that she was bein racist... ahh well, thats a story for another time...

for now thou, i just cant sleep.. ok lemme be honest, i can sleep, i WANT to sleep.. but ive got stuff to do.. n im not doin it.. not just yet neways... sigh...

Sigh...

2006-03-13T01:30:00.000+08:00

Frustration settin in.... must..... do... sumthin...

sigh... lame i know...

mann, im SO screwed... not literally... but seriously... SO screwed... I gotta study for a test, which occurs a day earlier than i thought it would (not like it makes a difference, im still unprepared)... the infamous GRE, if ur curious... the Math sections's alright, thank God.. but the english is a frikkin pain in the arse... i mean who USES words like Neologism or Extemporaneous in this era?? or in any other era, for that matter??? sheeeshh...

n to top it off, ive gotta fill in an application to a university ASAP... ive gotta write a personal statement for that application, n God knows wut not... if admissions counselors from any US unis out there r readin this, wuts with ALL the admissions essays ppl?? oh well, man's gotta do wut a man's gotta do...

no not that... i was referring to the essays... the time will come for the other stuff a man's gotta do...

aww mann im sleepy... its frikkin 2AM in the morning as i write this... Yes i do have to go to work in the morning... no i cannot apply for a sick leave, even though i have just reason:

After the Roda at last friday's capoeira class, i proceeded to (almost methodically) nearly dislocate my shoulder... was tryin out a cool move where u kick in the air n balance urself using one hand, i slipped on my sweaty palm (relax, all u ladies out there goin 'ewwwww' in disgust rite now... i had a good workout... n u women cant complain until u stop ur arm-pits sweatin neways.. i mean wuts with that??? ewwwww!!!). neways, i slipped on my sweaty palm, heard 3 cracking sounds (or wut i thought were cracking sounds), but luckily moved my arm out from under me before i fell...

Yes it seems like my senses become extraordinarily acute when im in danger... yes i also can think exceptionally fast when im falling... no i do not develop super powers as well...

neways, i lay there on the ground with my right arm outstretched unable to move for a good couple of minutes... until the pain subsided, n obviously with a little aid from a training partner well-versed with injuries (you know who u r, n thanks alot for ur help bro)..

neways, no dislocation or broken bones... just a twist of the shoulder n triceps muscles.. no doctors necessary, just rest... n i hate goin to hospitals, with the stench of all that Dettol around... as a result, i couldnt make it for a performance at a uni's cultural nite.. damn, imagine all the international hotties there... not to mention im not goin for trainin until im done with my test

the good news is i can pretty much go all out in my training after this week, since there wont be too much to distract me.. n i might start playin basketball again, thanks to a neighbour... cant wait to make those jumpshots again... hopefully the competition will be as lousy as i am.. or lousier, im not complaining here :-) ...

Up there.. its a bird.. its a plane.. its... just some superhero showin off..

2006-03-13T01:02:00.000+08:00

I was watchin 'Batman Begins' again today... I just love that movie... a movie that finally shows a superhero from a realistic point-of-view... but there's just one phenomenon that still goes unexplained... I realized this after Batman's first victory (which occurs when he defeats Carmine Falconi): after his first victory, the movie then goes on to show the superhero standing on the peak of some tall building, usually gazing down upon the city... I saw this in Batman Begins, n it even occurs in Spiderman (after Spiderman's first victory, when he kills his uncle's killer)

basically wuts the idea behind it? does the director try to show the superhero's now assumed responsibility for the entire city from WAYYYY up there?? alotta good that's gonna do if he cant even see/hear a crime from that far up ahead... just imagine someone gettin mugged down below, lookin up at batman on that tower n screamin 'Get ur butt down here, dumba**!!!

or maybe, deep down inside, that's where the hero always runs off to in order to avoid the cops.. i mean hey, its the highest peak up, no stupid cop's gonna come up there, rite??..

LOL, while we're on the subject of Batman Begins, check this out... in the scene where Batman grabs Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes) n drives off half-way across Gotham on a wild goose chase, this conversation takes place:

Batman: Stay calm...

Rachel: (Wakes up from her slumber, but has a peaceful look bout her, besides the fact that a giant bat is right next to her.. i mean, she must have read the comics :P... but neways, she's calm, cuz.. well.. Batman told her to be calm...)

Batman: You've been poisoned.

Rachel: HOLY CRAP!!!! WUTTHEF**K YOU TALKIN BOUT??? (actually she just gives off a huge gasp... but my point is... y bother tellin her to stay calm n then tellin her she's been poisoned?? its not like she's thinkin ohh wait i'm with Batman, its alright if i get poisoned..)

Conclusion: Batman's gotta put some serious work into his people skills...

another thing bout superheroes.... im sure most of the people readin this wud have seen atleast ONE episode of Smallville... now i gotta say sumthin here... its a very inspiring series yes, I often find my optimism rejuvenated after an awesome episode every now n then... BUT:

ever notice that even through all those frikkin episodes where some guy/gal or the other always mutates as a result of all the kryptonite residue lyin around... doesnt anyone EVER think of evacuating the city in order to clean it up? i mean, do they KNOW or EXPECT that somehow sumthin or someone will save them from wutever happens... like they know superman exists...

n this observation about Smallville from a brother of mine, who requested anonymity (well, he didnt really request it, but im damn well givin it to him...) : What about when Clark Kent actually becomes Superman? he's already walkin around with no glasses.. so when he finally becomes Superman, how's he gonna hide his identity??? a mask, perhaps??????

ending on a happy thought: Katie Holmes looks SERIOUSLY appealing in a silk top without a bra... go figure... then again, so does Jennifer Aniston... n Angelina Jolie... n Holly Valance.. and... this cud go on a while... u get the idea...

LAME!!!

2006-03-07T09:41:00.000+08:00

Saw this Indian TV-drama last nite... for the first time in ages.. n it was like totally predictable... not like Indian Bollywood-movie-predictable.. those r finally starting to provide some entertainment..

for those of u familiar with Indian dramas, this one was titled 'Heena'.. its pretty old, so no doubt ppl wud have heard of it... still lame thou... n Astro's decided to broadcast reruns of this, most-pathetic drama ever... n on a personal note, its totally insulting to Muslims as it attempts to portray them as the most backward religion ever... im not here to judge, but i just disagree with that view.. strongly... how strongly?? i'll flick u off if u argue... neways, here's wut i know of the story from one episode:

Girl, named Heena (hence, the title.. hint, hint..), daughter in a muslim family, is married off to a fu**up named Sameer, son in another Muslim family..

Heena n Sameer dont know shit bout each other... Girl obeys parents, n decides that she will like/love him no matter what, once she's married to him ofcourse (hmm, never thought i'd fall in love on command... son, go love that girl.. yes dad i'll make love to her.. no son i said love her not make love.. love, make love, same thing dad, dun be so cheap :P )... oh n btw, he's being forced to marry the same girl 3 times in a row... innovative, aint it? ;)

Sameer's in love with some other chick called Ruby, n is forced to marry Heena.. I dun blame him, Ruby's way finer than Heena, n dresses hotter too (she's muslim too, btw.. Take THAT, u backward-drubbing whores)..

Now, Ruby doesnt give 2 fu**s bout the fact that she's gonna break up a marriage.. plz note that i do not say happy marriage here... n Sameer... well, he's the most boring dude i've ever seen... its like he was put on prozaic as a baby by his mom, n then she made him giv it up for his star performance as Dopey in 'Snow White n the Seven Dwarves'.. either that, or he prolly learnt the meaning of sodomy the 'hard' (literally) way too early in life... I'm not suggesting that guys learn about it thou, no thank you...

Sameer's dad is hands-down the WUSSIEST person i've ever met... everytime some shit goes down, its like his hand is programmed to automatically clutch his heart (or left tit, seein as he was quite a 'well-rounded' person)..

The lady who plays Sameer's mom must have the easiest acting job ever... Yes, even easier than the heart-clutcher, who atleast SOMETIMES must feign some emotion.. neways, HER job comprises of either 1) complaining to Sameer's dad (see above), 2) making phone calls to the family doctor that Sameer's dad keeps clutching his heart, or 3) Play Dad's Sidekick... at some point during the drama you realize she barely ever speaks more than a few words to him.. all she does is act as an accessory to the dad when he scolds the shit outta his son...

Heena's Dad.. well I dun think he appears in the episode i saw.. either that or he's dead... her Mom, however, is a feisty lil bit**.. no i didnt mean it that way, u crazy-a** MILF-Hunters... she can talk mannn.. and she can argue...she Obviously resents the fact that after marrying-and-subsequently-divorcing her daughter twice, Sameer is gonna marry her once more... at some point she realizes things have gone on too far... way to catch on quick, mom...

the family doctor is a funny-a** SOB himself... after discovering that Sameer has divorced Heena for the 2nd time in a row talks things over with his own son, n miraculously comes to the conclusion that now that theyre 'fully' divorced (how do u become FULLY divorced?? can i get half a divorce n hook up with some other chick at the same time??), they can be married again.. at this point, you go WHATTHEF**K??? so then, without consulting the girl, the guy, the guy's parents, he goes off to the girl's mom (see above) who, bein the feisty lil bit** that she is, finally refuses... he then proceeds to go the guy n talk to him bout the shock, horror that crossed his mind when he heard bout the divorce.. HELLOOO!!! its not ALWAYS about YOU, Doc.. or didnt they teach u that at medical school?? n to top it off, you can frikkin NOTICE him bursting into fits of laughter while discussing the 'shock and horror' that crossed his mind.. n plz note, the dude reacts to every medical treatment like he's administering it for the first time.. YOU'VE BEEN THE FAMILY DOCTOR FOR 20+ YEARS!!!! wuttheheck have u been doing???

The doctor's son has taken it upon himself to drive Heena around everytime she needs to visit her mom or go somwhere.. u can tell at some date he's gonna admit he's in love with her..

N Heena has no dress-sense... she still thinks its day number 1 of her marriage, hence proceeds to dress like an over-dressed bride every frikkin day... n she's skinny as hell.. i mean PUT SOME MEAT ON THOSE BONES, WOMAN!!! she's obedient like crazy.. i mean like a trained dog wud look at her n go 'you're obedient as hell, bit**'... actually the dog wud go 'Woof, woof, woof', but im sure the translation wud go sumthin along those lines... neways, back to the dog, i mean, the bit**.. Heena has never heard of the word retaliation... her limited vocabulary comprises of words like 'obedient', 'mom', 'parents'... she has recently learnt words like 'yes', 'husband', 'dear', 'marriage', 'divorce', 'go to Hell, bit**', 'ooohh baby gimme some of that...' wait that last phrase was someone else... my bad... neways... hopefully she will pick up words like 'no', 'screw you', and 'you can take that ring of yours n shove it where the sun dont shine'..

anyways, she's too obedient... she never disagrees or has an opinion on anything... if i had a wife like that i'd be like 'Is she alive???' do you HAVE an opinion, woman??? then i'd prolly be callin that crazy funny doctor (see-above) to check her pulse n pressure, n give her some anti-depressants, to which he'd react by first finding out what all that stuff i just said meant... come to think of it, mite be good to have a wife like that around.. honey im goin out on a date.. ok dear, have fun... n clear the house n leave by 10pm, i'll be bringin her back home.. yes dear..

Sigh, I have too much time on my hands...

later, ppl...

GET OUTTA MY WAY, JACKA**!!!

2006-03-07T08:57:00.000+08:00

Ever wonder what its like to be a car in a traffic jam?? No, im not referrin to having someone inside of you (literally) screaming 'Faster, Faster!!' n honking ur horn (again, literally) every now n then... shame on u horny bast**ds n bit**es for thinkin that way...

neways, gettin back to the topic.. well, try takin a swim sometime... at the swimming pool at my condominium... hehe, sounds like im showing off eh?? is that what u think??? that'll change in a couple of minutes...

My building is primarily infested (niiiiice choice of words.. u'll see y) by students of a nearby uni... I shall not name the uni or the condo, unless the condo management offers to pay me whatever I request...

every evening I head down to the pool for a swim, rip off my t-shirt (translated: find my way out of the huge t-shirt), walk to the shower proudly displayin my.. umm.. nevermind...

no, thats not wut i was gonna talk bout... was sumthin else...

let it go...

seriously...

neways, i had the mandatory shower (which there's no law against, btw, for all u swimmers out there who just jump into the pool like its ur own personal bath-tub with obviously NO concern for hygiene.. i mean who knows where u guys have been n wut u've brought into the tub, err, pool..) walked over to the pool, did the customary highly-unmanly-place-foot-in-the-pool-n-feel-temperature ritual, before satisfactorily jumping in... looked around... saw a few bobbing heads around, which kinda resembled those floaters they place to distinguish between lanes in a swim meet...

neways, warmed up.. n took off for the first lap... here's wut im thinkin as i started: alright, this is gonna be a good workout after a few laps... here's wut really happened: 'Oww!!.. sorry mann... its ok, its ok...' so i went back to the start, cuz i hate stoppin a lap in the middle.. on the way, I feel like a kid tryin to cross a busy street, swimmers just drifting by... dun get me wrong, i can swim.. i cud have just as easily swum right below em without their knowing, but some ppl get freaked out imagining u just wanted to get a look at their privates... yes im talking about women here... yes i do close my eyes (i CAN keep my eyes open in the water thou ;-) so beware )... no i dont touch n poke... yes its still safe for u to swim over me... no guys arent invited to swim over me... so neways, i swear its just like steppin off the curb onto the street: ok its safe to cross now.. look BOTH ways before crossing, son!!.. ur GONNA GET KILLED!!

neways, make it safely back to the start... n take off again... now it feels like im on the highway... why?? cuz im cruisin along at my own leisurely speed.. n then some jerk who's swimming next to me decides he wants to race.. so u notice him pick up speed.. sure, it might just be a coincidence that he's right there n workin out too... but then u stop at the other end... n he stops... u take a breather.. so does he... n then u get ready to start again.. n WUTTHE... SO DOES HE!!! so im like... AHA!!! FIGURED U OUT, B**CH!!!.. so wut do i do?? fake out... yes, at this point i failed to realize how lame i am... but i was in the moment, so wutever...i act like im gonna take off... n i do.. n then stop short n let him pass... n as I watch him wading off into the distance, madly racing with... noone... i stand tall... well, not that tall..just my own height... neways, i stood tall.. n gave him.. the look (for an understanding of the look, check out 'Zoolander'.. or 'The New Guy'.. either one is fine)... n i say, to noone in particular: 'Astalavista, Baby..' (cue theme song from 'Terminator 2: Judgement Day')..

not to mention, after my swim, when i took the mandatory shower again, there was a queue.. similar to queueing up at a toll, wouldnt u agree?? wuts pissing off thou, is the fact that NONE of these ppl showered before goin in, n now that theyre done, they shower.. so basically, its like sayin 'i bring all my filth into the pool... n then i wash up.. so im clean, i dun really care bout you fu**ers..'

so there's my comparison between a crowded swimming pool, n traffic jams... comments??

one more similarity: when u look at a crowded pool or a traffic jam from the window of a 20th floor apartment, it looks like ants r congregating (hence the earlier choice of the word 'infested')... thou in a jam, they look like theyre all lining up to go into the ant-hill.. in the pool, they loook like theyre all fussin about a dead ant... go figure...

Hi.. just callin to find out y i was on the fone with u...

2006-03-07T08:31:00.000+08:00

Last nite, I had a dream... no, not the Martin Luther King variety... this was more along the lines of wakin up in the middle of the night n gettin the heck outta bed thinkin u just soiled urself, but in all actuality its just ur sweat (for a clear picture, picture Kane/Undertaker wakin up from the dead after they've just been slammed to the ground... only bout a million times faster)

What was the content of my dream, u ask? well, to put it simply, I dreamt I was on the phone with someone I was recently acquainted with, n lets just say we didnt see eye-to-eye on some issues.. hence we're not-so-acquainted anymore... n get this... I dreamt i was on the phone with her, chattin her up like nothin had happened, n for some reason i was actually bein nice to her... WHATTHEF**K???!!?!??? is that a remake of 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' or what?? thou admittedly she WAS a tad bit more appealing than Jim Carrey... just a tad, mind u...

some guys out there will realize the 'nitemarish' issue within this dream... most guys wont, thou... i mean.. y the hell wud i call her up after that fallin-out we had?? i wasnt in the wrong there, ppl... y the hell wud i suck up to her n chat her up?? i mean with all due respect, this is ME we're talkin bout (cue theme from the original 'Superman' movie).. SHE shud be the one doin the chattin up (I know... I respect myself... alot more than i need to.. but still...) n y the heck was I bein NICE??? nice guys finish last, remember?? even worse, I think I dialed her handphone (thats cellular for the Americans readin this, if any...).. sheesh, in this day n age... dialing handphone numbers is expensive.. i'm broke enuff havin to pay for my own food n capo training, n i still dun have enuff money to join a decent gym.. n i'm callin this ho on her handphone?? HeLL NO!!

neways, whether I woke up from realizing these issues during my dream i do not remember... i do remember wakin up thou... n then this morning, while I monotonously dragged my sorry a** to work, I remembered n thought: The Twilight Zone???

U call THAT a jam?? well, check THIS out...

2006-03-06T23:28:00.000+08:00

alright.. as promised... the traffic jam... ive always wanted to complain bout jams... funnily enough, when i finally have an outlet for that, i get the mother of all jams, n not to mention, the father of all thunderstorms to cause it... place was so packed up, i had to cancel goin for my capo session.. those of u who know me personally will realise the brevity of the situation..

neways, u always watch movies/hear stories/dream bout gettin caught up in a jam with a frikkin fine chick in the car next to u (or for u gals, some lame-a** stud)... lemme clarify at this point, ppl, that only happens in movies/stories/dreams... usually wut happens is ur stuck with the most awful, hairy, illiterate, cigarette-smokin, tooth-pick chewin, nose-pickin, gender-confused guy/gal starin the heck outta u... btw, if u DO dream at the wheel bout the person next to u, wake ur a** up!!! thats how accidents happen...

neways, so there i am in my lil car (i wont name it, cuz its the suckiest of the suckiest cars, respect-wise, n it gets dissed enuff by the general public... n plus its been faithful so far..depending on ur definition of faithful).. stuck on Jln Tun Razak.. n im tryin to get into my lane... so this dude in a white VIOS or sumtin got behind me... i see sumthin in my rear-view mirror.. turns out he's flickin me off for comin into his lane... wutthe.... def occurred to me to turn back n do the same... neways, waited for the dude to pull-up next to me... took so frikkin long for him to get ahead of me i just got tired of waitin...

basically, y the heck r ppl on the road so frikkin inconsiderate of others? i mean just cuz u own a nice car ( n its a frikkin VIOS, not a Merc or a damn 6-series), does that frikkin giv u the right to dominate the road?? u look well-educated, well-off, n all that crap, but when it comes to jams you start fighting for ur way... sigh.. oh well.. now that i've said all that... i guess it justifies my doing the same in the future.. n if u get in my face bout it... i'll refer u to this post... n then i'll flick u off.. :)

Later ppl...

Btw, the numero uno on my list of all-time-unanswerable questions: How do traffic jams get started neways, DAMMIT?????? do ppl wake up one fine morning n say to themselves 'OK, lets refuel n go start a jam somewhere.. call up the gang.'... A***holes!!!

Mine, Mine all Mine!!

2006-03-06T17:29:00.000+08:00

The title of this blog reminds me of a Daffy Duck episode where Daffy discovers a cave-full of jewellery n then proceeds to bury Bugs alive into the ground...

More aptly suited to this situation though, it indicates that after years (okay, okay, months) of commenting on others' blogs and 'sharing' blogs, I finally have one that I can call my own... The reason?? I could think of a few, but it does justice to admit that I was just too damn lazy..

Anyway, visit this blog in the future (btw, I commend you for having read this far) and you MAY find incoherent ramblings, vented frustrations of everyday life, and well, hopefully alot more... for now I cant think of what else to include, since I'm freezing my a** off in this mind-numbingly cold environment I prefer to call my 'office' (notice the similarity with 'orifice'), which leads me to wonder why I havent gone home yet... which I will now do.. n will no doubt encounter a traffic jam enroute... and will write about later tonite... maybe...

I'm gonna stop now...

Seriously...

Go away...

(P.S. I only watched Daffy Duck as a kid... I dont do that anymore... now I watch Dexter... shaddup!!)