The Culture Comes Home

The Culture Comes Home
me and my mum skipped yoga. haha. but we won't do it again, i promise! (not in the next month or so larh, at least)

i don't know why today i feel like i'm in a fucked-up mood. my left eye is swollen, and i didn't get a peaceful night's rest yesterday. don't know why. things happen.

anyway, i saw some pretty amazing things this week on the web. i surfed to thestar.com (malaysia's leading english newspaper) and bumped into this story of this rookie the New York Knicks' NBA team winning the slam dunk contest by jumping over his friend. get a load'a this man. nate robinson is only 5' 9"! that's not even a 6'. but he's not the shortest guy to win the slam dunk contest. the shortest was spud webb, 5' 7". (remember that name)

you know how nate robinson (5' 9", current winner) won? he got that 5' 7" guy, spud webb to stand in the 'zone' while he started his run from the half-court mark. he then passed the ball to webb, who lobbed it upwards to robinson, who would now be running at full steam straight to webb. robinson catches the ball, and jumps over his friend, and dunks it!!! sick stuff man!!! check it out at http://www.nba.com/allstar2006/gallery/DunkContest_1.html there's a little grey box with the photo captions and the photo number on the left of the picture. click next to view the pictures in sequence.

inspiration for short people? haha, nah. it was just amazing to watch.

starting work!

One Small Step for the Office...

One Small Step for the Office...

okay, okay, i promisei won't rant and rave about work of KL commuters anymore, 'coz everyday i face the same bleeding thing, but here's the last one.

imagine you on a train... it's really packed. reaallly REALLY packed... you start to wonder when you city people traded your humanity for sardine-ity... and then your train approaches a station in which many people would board or disembark, for example Orchard, while you're headed for Newton, or KLCC, while you're headed for Masjid Jamek. you're standing in front of a row of seats (all occupied, of course) and then someone starts packing their belongings, and then makes a classic body language gesture (usually looking upwards and reaching for a support pole) that says, 'i'm getting down here'... and she does, so there's an empty seat. AND NOONE TAKES IT!

WHY? WHY? YOU LOUSY ARSES!!! you're gonna make life so much easier for all of us if you just bloody plonk your ass on that seat and make way for all of us standing people, but nooooo. you just stand there oblivious to that empty seat. what are you? trying to be cool? or trying to show that you're macho, not needing a pathetic seat on that train? or you don't want to sit on another person's 'warm seat'? oh for crying out loud. have some civil awareness, you big bloody piece of shit...

there. feels better already.

ran 5km yesterday. feel myself getting more and more unfit (or unfitter....) and... i forgot to clip my nails. stupid me. i was playing that game of mine, forza motorsport. damn addicitive, if you like cars.

darling's sick. get well soon.

in the news (free paper, the sun):
836 chickens, ducks, and geese have been culled in Gombak, following the outbreak of the H5N1 strain.
916 residents from 161 houses in Jalan Genting Klang were screened for avian flu-like symptoms.
seven people, five of them children have been warded for blood testing

scary? you bet. my aunt live right in ground zero.

one small step for the office, one giant leap for me: i learnt how to use the fax machine.

sayonara.

Nails

Nails

i just need a reminder to myself to clip my fingernails. that's all for today. i just brisk-walked to work, like i do everyday, but for some unforseen reason, i'm feeling damn warm larh today. hmm... i started the morning feeling a little sleepy. my head goes, "i think today's not gonna be a good day, you doofus."

anyway, i feel like running today. see how larh, i go back and try. since i've got a gym and a swimming pool, i'll try my darnest to use them. but then i've got a bed, a couch, astro, xbox...haha, how if i apply the same logic? minghui, stop confusing yourself. okay. sign off now and get to work. guys, i gotta go.

til tomorrow morning!

A New Day

A New Day

I wrote this in my head while i was on the train between the kampung baru and the dang wangi underground stations. by the way, i'm, early again. haha. the reason i purposely got here and immediately blogged is there's that feeling again.

i saw this girl in the lrt carrying a clear plastic file, you know the ones with clips on the sides and then you just swing the front/back open? sort of like a cheapo version of a leather briefcase. haha, but nevermind, you can't display pictures through a leather briefcase. hers was her class photo. i recognised it larh. you know, the guys with their white shirts and olive green trousers, the girls with their white tops and sky blue skirts. and i thought about my schooling times.

and i'm not ashamed to admit that i really miss those times. i mean, remember school? you would drag yourself out of bed against your better judgement to haul your ass to school. but for me the day would get a little better, no matter how shitty you feel. 'coz there'll be people you meet in school who would just stop by to talk crap, lectures to skip, computer labs to crash...

in SJI there were people like ngeezheng, teikzhen and teckleong as classmates. i tell you, you put us together means non-stop laughing and then the teachers would seriously consider taking that early retirement package that they haven't given a moment's thought a few weeks ago. there would be our malay class, and all in one, there would be a great bug ruckus. the indons yammering away, the malaysians just making noise.

in CJC there were always people to kacau, like engtze, jeremy, eric, shaun teh, wanxin, denise etc... and the best thing is the hostel life is like meeting up with your buddies from noon til the wee hours of the morning.

in VJ there would be the trouble gang. qadir, shiyuan, engtze, nuraini, fairuz, faisal and salman. skip lecture means skip together, (of coz aini is missing half the time larh) makan then got sit together, crack jokes and all. there were the choir people, the hostel people. the whole lot of them.

there would be a wonderful girl i could message at all times to just say 'hi' or to just disturb. to share.

but coming in to work is another different thing. although there are people like dimple (yes that's her real name), jonathan, dinesh, terence, and others in telemarketting, and my aunt, my seniors koh and khoo... it's just not the same. you can come to work with a cloud pouring sleet and cracking thunder over your head and leave exactly the same way. if you're lucky.

work is serious. you make your living on what you do. you can't afford to be nice-nice and smile all the time. if you want to you actually could, but you would be crazy to be nice to your computer.

can't wait for uni.

The New Week

The New Week

so this is the start of a new week from a turbulent weekend (for reasons undisclosed). anyway, i've decided to blog when i get to the office while i cool off.

usually i get here at about 8 am, and since work doesn't 'begin' till about 8.30, this gives me some time to say some things i want to. for a while that is.

last week on friday evening on my way back from work i was helping this mak cik from the lrt to another lrt line. she was blind and was walking with a cane. i was hesitant. would i be looking down on them by automatically assuming that they need help from us? or would i just be kind (my original intent)? so i didn't bother about my little dilemma. i just helped her. and then she was mumbling in reply to my questions on where she wanted to go so softly, i felt like i really was doing more harm than good. then at one point she just shrugged me off quite elaborately, arm swinging and all. (don't laugh, you guys.) so anyway, i just left her alone then.

and of course, to you, my dear: i'm sorry.

whoa, i'm sweating like a pig. i tell you, KL in the morning is humid like anything. and it's bloody irritating the way some minahs and ah lians take their own sweet time walking up and down the stairs, strolling along the streets and getting on and off the lrt trains. have some urgency, my goodness. well, so i walk faster. the faster i walk the more i sweat, the more i sweat the sweatier i become, the sweatier i become the longer i take to cool off, the longer i take to cool off, the longer i stay slacking, the longer i stay slacking, the less time i have to do work...which isn't really a bad thing.

haha. okay okay.

post something tomorrow then.

"Hello, do you want to advertise in JobStreet?"

"Hello, do you want to advertise in JobStreet?"

what a week this has been? valentines has come and gone! and i had a wonderful night last night! let me recap! i called victoria station on saturday and asked for a reservation for their restaurant along jalan ampang. they said yes. it was pretty easy. just a matter of going online and googling it and checking the box 'web pages in malaysia only'.

when we got there 45minutes early of our reservation, (8 o'clock reservation) coz i was afraid there would be a jam along jalan ampang. anyway, i drove lipjeen down there, and i parked at some patch of tarred road. haha. my girlfriend and i exchanged presents, and she got me this marvelous keychain from quiksilver. i didn't know keychains could be that cool. haha. thanks dear!

so we went it, and they didn't even bother that i had a reservation! most of the time you check a name of a list, and all, but this time i just hustled my way to the front of the queue and said i had a reservation. they just whisked me away before i could even mutter, "under mr wan..."

it turned out we were lucky. around 20 minutes after the queue was so long and the place so hectic people with reservations had to wait like everyone else. poor thing. nah, smart me.

Job Things:
i got a job as telemarketer at jobstreet.com, an online job posting company. i joined the white collar workforce! whoohoo! it's quite interesting. my job is to call companies and ask if they are willing to advertise in jobstreet.com. yesssss....!!! coz i'm new, they just set up a computer for me, and i got the most chun-looking one. i even finished my training today! so i can start calling people tomorrow! wish me luck! and since i'm a telemarketer, meaning if i so wanted, i never have to step out of the office, i get to wear jeans to work! (grins)

whoohoo! work beckons...but tomorrow.

Hotel Seri Maya

Hotel Seri Maya

welcome one and all! a busy week last week is followed by another one this week. wow. i tell you. it's quite hectic just slacking around you know??

MON
woke up in the morning, and planned to scour the malls for a V-Day present for my girlfriend. but i called my girlfriend and found the she was in midvalley and said that she's not doing anything. so i volunteered to go and accompany her. haha. had a pretty big hunch what she was doing, but i don't want to say it here. after paiseh...but anyway, i think she gave up already, 'coz she didn't get anything. well after the outing with her, i rushed to KLCC to buy the pair of sandals she loved from adidas. quite nice larh. haha. but horrors of horrors! "sorry, no more size four." AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

TUES
cheehau's in town to collect the keys to his apartment in bukit jalil. so he'll stay over at my place. meanwhile, we walk the entire midvalley for another pair of sandals for, of course, my girlfriend. stressed, stressed....we found a likely contender from Elle. but first i called my friend/fashion guru/shopping kaki yvonne to ask if that lil adidas sandals were in 1utama. i thought she was there too. but anyways, i put off any purchase till i'm absolutely sure that there are no more 'lil froggy adidas sandals, so 1utama on thrusday it is. CHEEHAU IS DAMN FUNNY WHEN HE SWIMS!!! haha....he was trying to do some 'dolphin' thingy! haha...

WED
cheehau left, and so did i, but for a job interview! i got it!!! it's a telemarketer at jobstreet. sounds really interesting, and i hope it turns out well, 'coz if it does, i'll be stinking rich! haha, just kidding. i'll start on monday, 8.30am-5.30pm. travelling by LRT will be a nightmare during the rush hour periods (jackie chan and chris tucker, you gotta help me here). andrew sophian putra messaged me from indonesia and asked how to go to Singapore from KL, so i put him up from his 10pm flight.

THURS
i send andrew off, and i rush to midvalley coz yvonne's picking me up there. i meet her brother for the first time in a couple 'o years, and boy, he's grown. he should shave. he looks like a ham sap lo with that ratty thin moustache. shopping at 1U. meet yvonne's ex. quite surprised...he doesn't seem like her type, but nevermind. relationships go beyond skin deep. meet up with another of my OBS friends, aipeng. both of them i knew from my OBS back then in 2003. my group mates. =) together, they convince me to empty my wallet for something i 'need'. gosh, i hope so. i like it though...came back home for yoga at night with mum-sy. haha. caused the whole class to laugh coz i was hopping up and down during the balance poses. most people can do it or just discreetly put their other foot down. haha. don't care lar! funny then laugh larh. you all are too serious anyway. dead tired. sleep early (2am)

FRI
haha, today's a secret. can't tell you all.

Man on a Mission

Man on a Mission
there are times every year that every single person in a relationship dreads. not the break-ups or the quarrels. no. something much more frustrating than that.

those days are known as Valentines Day, Spouse's/Girlfriend's Birthday, Anniversaries, Christmas, and New Year.

PANICKING!

i'm totally alone in this! aaah! well, not really alone. i've got a friend or two, and of course cheehau's coming over to stay at my place tomorrow, so maybe he can help me out...

That's Another Story...

That's Another Story...

amazing man, i just went for a stand up comedy of one of malaysia's best stand up comedians and local celebrity, harith iskander. reli nice show. he's great.

for those who don't know him, erm,.... too bad. haha. we had the show at Bangsar Shopping Centre, which i've been dying to go to for a while already. there's this music shop, called victoria music (vj people get affliation discounts there. haha, just kidding) and they sell CDs there cheaper. so i went, with franz ferdinands album in mind. out of stock. gah, well, you win some lose some.

anyway, there's the actor's studio there, where they regularly have plays and all, so we went for this one. me and my brother got 50% off the ticket price, so our ticket was under rm30 for 3rd row seats. nice.

boy was that guy sweaty. haha.

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year
arf, the year of the dog is here. and that begs the question. so what? haha, i dunno. it's been a hectic week for me. i don't know if you all notice, but chinese new year always brings about the hottest weather. for the first and second day of CNY it didn't rain at all and it felt like the sun was out to scorch every uncovered surface available, and even that would be putting it lightly.

so, the new year's eve dinner. i had a very...erm, interesting combination of curry, chinese food, duck and yong tao foo. which by normal chinese standards, isn't really normal at all.

and the new year, i went to my grandpa's place again and went back home. i collected quite a tidy sum of angpows...but already some if it has been spent already. haha.

and thus it went on like this for a few days... all the time i visitted places to collect my lil red packets and then makan, and then the yee sang, which i used to find really disgusting, but not anymore.

so that's that.

whoa, what a hot, hot, hot HOT week!!!