Awesome Weekend: Clubbing, Movie, Karaoke

So I haven't blogged in a while because I kept falling asleep before I could do so. It's unfortunate, because I have so much to blog about. Let's start with Friday.

On Friday, I woke up when my dad walked in the room and asked what the music was about. I told him it was my alarm, and then I listened carefully and noticed that it was Should I Stay or Should I Go, which meant that it was already 7:15am, which meant, holy shit, I was super late.

My dad said he'd go down and get the car ready while I got prepared for the day as quickly as possible. I didn't have time to put in my contacts and I was only in the shower long enough to get myself wet and I don't think I used any soap, but that was fine since I had taken a proper shower only a few hours earlier before I went to bed. Also I had that mouthwash I bought at Guardian with Amanda, so that meant minty fresh breath and that was nice.

It was raining like mad while we were driving to work, but I still managed to arrive before eight. I got sat down at the same computer and I was set up and ready to go a lot sooner than on Thursday. I got a call from a lady who was willing to pay for support, but just before I was able to charge her, her problem fixed itself. I hope she gets the customer satisfaction survey, because she was very happy with the service. I was a bit miffed about missing out my RM10 commission, but right now I'm new to the job so happy customers are still worth more to me than commissions and a low AHT. That'll change eventually, I think.

I answered calls until two-ish, then I went for what I had hoped was going to be a quick lunch and a nice nap, but I got approached by someone representing Prudential, so I did a short survey, and then after I bought my pies and lunch a colleague engaged me in conversation so I was in the cafe for a while. The pies and conversation were good, though. The guy I was talking to was an overflow technician or something similar-sounding, which basically meant that although he was with the new Fujitsu department, he'd handle calls from the HP queue if all the other T2 guys were busy. He had actually got one of my customers and helped her fix her problem, which was cool.

Anyway it was a good thing I was talking to him because after lunch I forgot my bag and he reminded me about it. When I got back down I was still on my lunch break, so I went to talk to Kuberan and we talked about our jobs. After that I think I had a talk with my supervisor, then I went on break for fifteen minutes. During that time I traded some movies with Dinesh, who is a very experienced T1 guy who sits nearby and answers my less complicated questions when he's not on call.

After the break I handled some more calls. I had to process my first two DOAs on Friday, which drove up my AHT quite a bit, but now that I know how a DOA case works it should be a lot quicker next time. I also ended up inadvertently frustrating a customer by taking too long to register him and then forgetting to tell him about the support charges until quite some time had passed, so he demanded to speak to my supervisor. Fortunately I was told it might be a hardware issue, which was still under warranty, so I logged the rest of the problem details and he said he would call back later when he was more composed and ready to troubleshoot. I told him that since it was a hardware issue and since he still had a hardware warranty he could get to T2 free of charge. Anyway that is the closest a customer has come to crying and I hope I never screw up that bad again.

I did have a few victories that day, though. An old lady called and she ordered some recovery CDs, which were 66 AUD, so after Dinesh helped walk me through the process of charging a credit card for a purchase, I had earned HP the equivalent of two days of my salary. My AHT was quite high at the end of the day, but since I'm still quite new it's still fine. I should be hitting the six minute target within two weeks, apparently. But yeah, old people are my favourite customers. They don't care about having to pay for support and they're always so friendly and easy to deal with. It's the people with technical knowledge that are harder to deal with, since they usually want to get through T1 as quick as possible and over to T2, so they treat T1 people quite poorly. Oh well, I get paid either way so I can't care too much.

I texted Aunty Rosie to pick me up at five, since that was the exact time I was going to stop taking calls. A few seconds after 4:59, I got a call. It went on for about fifteen minutes. The lady at the other end was pleasant enough, though, so I didn't mind the extra time so much. Aunty Rosie might've, though.

When I got home I set my alarm for nine in the evening and then I took a nap. When I woke up I had a huge bowl of carbonara that I could almost finish (I've still got a few forkfuls of leftovers in the fridge from that dinner), and then I got Hannah to help me figure out what to wear. She picked out a nice shirt that was a bit large and I called it "garish". I wasn't quite sure what "garish" meant, but it sounded right. I looked it up later and that shirt was not at all garish.

Ian dropped me off at Amanda's house at 10:15. Amanda was still getting ready, so her mum let me in. She complimented my Puma shoes, which I thought was pretty funny because I had recently come home to find that my aunt wears the exact same shoes as me but two sizes smaller. We watched the Asian Food Channel while waiting for Davinia to arrive and for Amanda to get ready.

Davinia arrived and she looked nice. She had apparently been getting ready since six. I told her I had only been getting ready since nine. I like being a guy.

Davinia told me to tell Nick that she was going to wait with him while Amanda and I were going to pick up Milan and get some money from an ATM (I only had nine ringgit). I texted Nick the plan and he told me to withdraw loads of cash. Thousands, he specified. Maybe steal a credit card if I didn't have that much in my bank. Nick's a funny guy.

Amanda got done and she looked very nice as well. I told her that I thought her shawl was an especially nice touch, but then she told me that she was only going to wear that in the car and I was all like "oh".

Geraldine was going to leave somewhere with Amanda's mum's friends and then they were going to The Ship in town. I said hi to everyone involved with that previous sentence. There... there isn't much to say about that, but I remembered it so I figured I might as well put that in.

Davinia realized that I had not brought a car and that meant that she had to drive us to pick up Milan and head to the ATM, so Nick would have to wait on his own. So Davinia drove us to the Maybank in Bangsar and Amanda went to 7-Eleven while I withdrew some cash. I met up with Amanda in 7-Eleven while we waited for Davinia to circle around. Amanda had bought credit for Davinia's phone and also some mints for me. In the car I had told her she could get any flavour except purple, which was unfortunate because she had wanted to try purple. Anyway I didn't really have a good reason for not wanting purple, so I let her get it anyway. Turns we both had never tried the purple flavour before, which was why I didn't want it and why she did. So a packet of mints taught us that Amanda likes to try new things and I like familiarity. That was nice, I guess.

After that we picked up Milan from his house nearby and then we went to the Esso where Nick was waiting. Actually, we may have picked Milan up first and then gone on to get the mints and cash and stuff. Whatever. Anyway, we were at the Esso and I noticed that Nick was driving alone and so it was just going to be the five of us. Davi and Milan swapped places so Davi could eat while Milan followed Nicholas to Changkat.

Along the way, Davi lost her spoon so she had to use her hands to eat some food she had brought. When we stopped at a light near Dataran Merdeka, she opened the car door, leaned out, and washed her hands with some mineral water that was lying around. When we stopped at the next traffic light I told everyone about my worst nightmare ever, which I had had just a few hours prior while I was taking my nap. In it, I was at work, but then I screwed up on a call, and then my supervisor came and talked to me. It was terrifying.

When we got to Changkat we drove around for quite a bit looking for parking. The best word to describe the place would be seedy. Seedy with a lot of interesting-looking food places. Well, interesting to the rest of them, it was all oriental nonsense to me. There were a lot of guest houses which made me wonder if it was a really convenient place to stay for tourists or if (and I considered this less likely in my mind because real life is usually more boring than this) they were all fronts for brothels or something.

Anyway we found a place to park and then we walked down to find a club and then loads of interesting fun stuff happened.
Around five hours later Davinia dropped me off at home and I went to bed after doing my exercises (or not, I can't remember) and taking a nice warm shower.

When I woke up I did my exercises (or not, I can't remember) before my shower. I had woken up in the afternoon, too, so that was nice. It was Saturday and I didn't have anything to do, so when my aunt asked if I wanted to watch a movie I said yes. I asked Hannah if she wanted to come, but she was too lazy.

We decided to watch Devil because she screening time was convenient and there wasn't really anything else worth watching. When we got to Mid Valley we picked up the tickets, and then we stopped at one of those stalls that sell all sorts of trinkets so my aunt could get something engraved. While she was doing that, I met Mark Tan. He told me that Ian and Jan were still in a meeting in Cheras but he had left early to get his eyes checked and he was currently looking for something for his girlfriend. I would later be informed by one of my brothers that he was going to marry that girlfriend soon. I am always the last to find out these things. Anyway, after that we went to Popeyes for lunch. It was extremely tasty and I now love it more than KFC due to the delicious chicken fillets (I think they may be called tenders) and the lack of grease. The biscuits are great, too, but my aunt wasn't too fond of them. Oh well, it just meant more for me.

My aunt picked up the engraved thing while I got the popcorn, and then we went to watch the movie. We saw the trailers for Red and The Green Hornet, both of which looked awesome. After that was the movie itself, which was surprisingly good. I guess that may be because even though the story was from M Night Shymalan, he didn't actually write the screenplay or direct the movie. Anyway when it was over we agreed it was quite good. In my opinion it's better than Signs because it makes more sense, even if Signs might have been the more enjoyable movie experience.

We split up for a while after the movie was done. I went to MPH to read the first bit of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at my aunt's recommendation while she went to look for a handbag strap or something. The book was good, but she never found her strap.

When we got back home the house was pretty empty. Aunty Rosie said everyone had just left for dinner, so when I called and found out they were in Sin Kee, I told them to order me a chicken chop and I'd be there soon.

I drove over and we talked and ate dinner and then we went back. Jan wrote his name in the new sidewalk that had just been filled with wet cement, but then Hannah went and tried to write hers next to his and she got spotted by one of the workers who probably smoothed everything out when we left. Nice going, Hannah.

When we got home I went on the computer for a bit, and then I decided to take a nap on the couch for a while before I blogged and did my exercise and took a shower and went to bed. Unfortunately, I did not wake up from this nap until sunrise on Sunday.

Breakfast was okay. The newspaper was a bit more interesting than usual (there were articles about rape and affairs in the NST). Church was slightly better than average.

I watched Mission Impossible until 3:30, then I went to pick Hannah up from Royal Rangers. When I got there, she texted me and told me that I could wait until 4:20 before picking her up. I napped in the meantime.

When Hannah was done we drove home and I finished Mission Impossible and then I forgot what I did. I probably procrastinated writing this blog post, actually.

Oh wait now I remember, I went on the karaoke for about an hour and a half. Susanna and my aunt joined me. Apparently the machine cost RM1.2k. That... that is a lot. We'll have to use it more. It's fun. I only actually went on it because nobody else was at home so I could sing without offending the hearing of others. I love singing but I suck at it, it is my curse.

This post isn't a finished product. After work on Monday I'll come back and fill in all the details about Friday night. I've got a bit of paper with a list of stuff on it that I had written down before I went to bed that night. Here is exactly what's written on it:
"Main points for 1st time clubbing:
-Changkat, envie, nevermind, (it is lousy)
-Car to Palace with Nic, talk about prostitutes & politics
-Palace, too young, lenient bouncer, yay
-No cover charge, yay
-First round on Nic
-Felt socially obliged to purchase second round
-No Heineken, no Tiger
-Is Corola [sic] RM17? Yes. Later, nope, it's RM26. Had to collect RM10 from guys.
-Amanda wants to dance. Nevermind.
-Money seizure stuck in head. Said it, no real result
-Saw some video boobs, weren't that great
-Half songs good, half lame
-Sweet child o' potong steam
-Dance & talk
-Why no jump? Chest spill issue. - Amanda
-Go back before 3:30
-Milan wants to watch fight, is strong
-Drunken goodbyes
-Cheese Naan
-Drive back
-Amanda says I can talk about spillage on blog but nothing else
-Pretty 5.5 for a white guy
-To Devi's
-Explain over & over why Kierran [It's actually Kiran, I think] can't make it.
-Amanda fed by Da
-Amanda sleep
-Nevermind McD's
-Drop off Milan
-Went home
-What else?
-Will figure out later
-T-shirt (Hannah) did good.
-Amanda slurr
-Premarital sex advice from drunks
-Skin colour attraction
-Maybe/Definitely for Da/us"

So yeah, that's like a sneak preview of what's to come. Hopefully I'll have this updated on Monday.

Movies (Also Some of Last Week)

I watched The Expendables today with Ian, Jan, and El-Hanan. It was awesome. Jan and Hanan thought the dialogue was really shitty, but I thought it was good enough for the type of movie that it was. The action and explosions and gore and one-liners were so great. I haven't had that much fun in a movie in a while.

I also had a lot of fun when I went to see Salt with Joanna on Wednesday. It was a lot smarter and a little more fun than I thought it was going to be. I was pleased that it surprised me. This is the benefit of having low expectations. The only bad bit was that a couple walked into the movie an hour and a half in, right during the twist at the climax in the war room. Who comes in to a movie fifteen minutes before it ends? Fools. Also the movie was very blue and orange, and now that I've started noticing that trend I cannot un-notice it. Oh yeah, we also saw the trailer for Scott Pilgrim vs The World and now I want to watch it even though it'll be coming out many months after the American release and they're probably going to censor out the ex-girlfriend character.

Before I watched Salt with Joanna I bought her phone for RM250. My dad paid for RM150 of it. It is an awesome phone. It can store an unlimited amount of texts, which is the main reason I got it (My old one only held 100 texts for some arbitrary reason), but it also has a music player and a working camera and 2 gigabytes of space which I have almost filled with music and funny pictures.

After I watched Salt, I met up with Elo and Arun in McDonald's to give Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and an episode of Batman: The Bold and the Brave to Elo. She didn't have her laptop, so she borrowed the pen drive and gave it back to me the next day. Also I discovered that Elo has the same phone as me, which is pretty cool since Arun has one like my old one. Anyway, when I went to pick the pen drive up the next day, I saw a motorcycle that was the same model as mine. It looked cooler, though. I took pictures with my new phone.

While on the subject of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, apparently Ian brought the pen drive to some singing practice for BB and they watched the first two acts there. Something interrupted them and then they had to go home and now they will never finish it. Poor BB people.

Also during this week I got Marks and Spencer's underwear and socks. My dad took us to The Gardens to get clothes. I spent most of our time there coming up with CSI Miami-esque puns. Also before that we ate at McDonald's breakfast and that was delicious. Anyway the socks are super comfortable and the underwear will last a long time, so that's nice.

I downloaded a whole bunch of movies, maybe fifteen gigs' worth. Most of them are Disney. Aladdin is my new favourite. Jafaar is a great villain, but still like Scar more. Also The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh are funny and nostalgic and awesome. Also piglet is in 12 Angry Men. But yeah, I got a lot of movies.

I found out that I can't access my college results on MyPride until my resource fee is dealt with. I'm going to fix it with my dad tomorrow, hopefully.

Hm. Oh yeah, I showed Hannah some Twilight Zone episodes and now she is a fan. Also she is even more in love with Joseph Gordon-Levitt after discovering hitRECord. Good for her.

I have more to say, but I can't remember what, so I'll end now. Going to bed soon, yay.

Edit: Oh yeah did I also mention that I talked to Juria a few days ago and when I brought up my broken promise she said that it was all in the past and she forgave me? Well that happened, and I feel so much better now. There is at least 80% less guilt in my life now. Also she's started writing short stories again, so go check out her blog in the sidebar because she's got talent.

Also I had my Ujian Lisan on Saturday and I think I did pretty okay. I went second, gave my speech which I had written up the night before (Probably the latest I've ever completed an assignment) stumbled a bit but covered all the points, and my only slip into English was when I started a few paragraphs with "So...". Also I got to talking to my classmate and I gave her a back massage and told her about my family and stuff, and after class I wanted to see if she wanted to go for McDonald's or something (I didn't have much money but I wouldn't mind being poorer if it meant I could go on a sorta-date). I asked her if she had a boyfriend, and she said yes, and I said I wasn't surprised. I wasn't surprised because she was pretty and smart and of course someone would want to make her his girlfriend, but I was also not surprised because she was pretty and smart and of course she would have a boyfriend because life kinda sucks sometimes and any girl like that is bound to be unavailable. Meh.

Sorry (Not Really)

I was going to write a post today about the past week since today's finally been a day when I've had no work to do or anything, but nah. I don't want to. It's late and I'd rather do other stuff like watch one of the many, many movies I've downloaded recently or perhaps load more songs into my new phone or something like that. I'll probably write a post tomorrow, since I can't do one on Tuesday since I'll be spending the whole day with my dad driving him to and from meetings.

I don't have any more projects or assignments or any other homework-type things, so I'll be pretty free. Yay.

Movies, Motorcycles, and a Fair Bit of Climbing

So I didn't do my assignment today. I'll do it tomorrow. I had other, more awesome things to do today.

I was just starting to dream of Inception when my alarm started ringing. I woke up, and it was nine o'clock. I got up and got ready for the day. Before I climbed the stairs I figured I should give this whole two-showers-a-day thing everyone's been bugging me about a go, so I decided to take a quick cold shower after my exercise. Well, it was nice. I felt all fresh and energetic. I might do it more often.

Anyway, I got dressed and decided that since I was already so nice and fresh from the shower I might as well gargle some mouthwash and have my breath be nice and fresh, too. While I was in my dad's bathroom to borrow the mouthwash, I noticed an edition of Scientific American on the counter. The cover informed me about 12 events that would change the world, but not in the way I thought. A blurb from a different article asked me "IS TIME REAL?". I decided to bring it along to read in college partially because it would make me look smarter, but mostly because I wanted to know if TIME WAS REAL. There was also stuff about nuclear wars and human cloning and self-aware machines, so that was nice, too.

After grabbing my sunglasses and the copy of The Runaways that Hannah burned for Carmeni, I went downstairs to my motorcycle and squeezed it out of the clutter of motorcycles surrounding it. I only realized that that process had bent one of the mirrors to an unusable angle, but I fixed it on the road and made it to college without dying.

At college I sat down next to Nirai, opened up my Scientific American, and tried to look intelligent. Carmeni's class was finished early because it was a quiz day, so I handed her the disc and we talked for a bit while she waited for Nicholas and I tried to figure out if TIME WAS REAL.

Eventually Carmeni got bored of sitting around in the corridor, so I walked with her down to the lower foyer to sit around there. Amanda and Kaminie were chatting down there, and right after saying hi, Amanda asked if I wanted to see a movie. That was the precise moment when I decided my Bahasa Kebangsaan assignment could wait until tomorrow.

Amanda said that she'd drop some people off first and meet me in Mid Valley, and I said that was cool. While we were walking to our vehicles, she pointed out that my sunglasses looked like a policewoman's aviators because "policemen have squarer ones". If we were being honest I'd say that my feelings were a wee bit hurt, but this here is my post on my blog, so instead I'll say that I replied with a devastating comeback and everyone laughed, even those who were out of earshot.

On my way out of the college, I pulled up alongside Amanda's Kancil. She told me that riding a motorcycle looked so cool and she wanted to try it. That was probably the first time someone has looked at my motorcycle and not called it "cute". After I left the college I remembered that I didn't know where to park motorcycles in Mid Valley, and also that I am scared of being on big roads on my small bike, so I drove home and got Ian to drop me off. He was reluctant, but he did it, so that was nice.

Amanda, Kaminie, and I all arrived outside GSC at the same time. I told Amanda that the next Inception showing was at two o'clock, and she said she was fine with that, which I was not expecting since it was only a little past noon. Still, I was elated that we weren't watching Eclipse even though it had the earlier screening.

After we got in line, Amanda asked me if I could go to her birthday on the 31st, and I told her that was the same day as MTV World Stage, and she told me that I could just come after that was over, so that was great. I asked her if what she said earlier about not needing to bring presents was true or some sort of girl-code for "There's no need to bring presents as long as you want to be HATED AND SHUNNED FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE OF COURSE YOU MUST BRING PRESENTS IT IS A BIRTHDAY YOU HEARTLESS MORON" (Thanks to Hannah and Audrey for that girl secret), and she told me that nope, it really meant there was no need to bring presents, but if I'm going to bring a present then it should be a book.

When we were in line, something completely pointless happened. Kaminie was meeting up with someone, so at first she wasn't going to watch the movie with us. At some point she decided that she would come watch the movie with us, so when we got to the counter we asked for four tickets instead of two. However, when Kaminie saw that the only available seats were just one row from the screen, she decided that she didn't want to watch, so we were right back to where we began. On the plus side, the tickets were only RM14, so that was nice. I love Wednesdays!

I ordered some McDonald's while the girls went to the toilet. While I was waiting I stacked up my nuggets and poured the fries out around them. It was quite a tasteful arrangement. The girls arrived, we shared some food, and Kaminie got a call from her friend and went to meet him in the other McDonald's all the way down on the other side of the mall. She also made him promise not to hug her. I'm not sure if I even want to try to figure out what that was all about.

Amanda and I ate and talked about dancing and learning skills and our dream proposals and our dream weddings. Amanda's dream proposal was either something super public or super personal, so if her boyfriend likes it and wants to put a ring on it, then he's either going to have to get down on one knee in the middle of a crowded hotel lobby or something, or else he's going to have to decorate the room with ridiculous amounts of flowers and enough scented candles to burn down a city before she says yes. Good luck to that guy. I said I'd propose to my girlfriend by taking her for a walk on the beach as the sun sets before pointing out a bottle on the shore, which she would then open, which would reveal my proposal speech, and when she turns around I'd be down on one knee with a ring out asking if she'd marry me. This earned me an "Awww" from Amanda.

After discussing her and my perfect weddings (fashion show reception and skydiving VIPs, respectively), we went to MPH to spend our remaining fifteen minutes before the show started. I read a bit more of Murphy's Law, but I had to stop mid-chapter because the trailers were starting soon and we had to get upstairs. Before the movie we needed to pee (It is two and a half hours long, after all), but our screen wasn't open yet so instead of using the clean movie theatre toilets we had to use the less clean shopping mall toilets. Along the way back from the toilets Amanda mentioned how thirsty she was and produced a bottle of cough syrup from her bag which led to a discussion about how great cough syrup tastes (really great) and what the best cure for a sore throat is (two Strepsils Honey & Lemon lozenges. It has to be Honey & Lemon. I don't know why).

When we got back, the screen was open, which meant that if I had stayed a little longer in MPH and finished my chapter, then we would have arrived just in time to use the nice movie toilets right after the screen opened. Oh well, at least now I know what to change if I ever go time-travelling (After killing Hitler and acquiring the AIDS vaccine from the future, of course).

Anyway, Inception was awesome for the third time. I understood even more than the last two times (though I still have questions), and there weren't any laughing idiots beside me. The girl to my right kept getting calls, though, and Amanda was texting through some of the important parts, but she claims that wasn't a problem ("I could still HEAR").

After Inception Amanda bought an ice cream from McDonald's, and she ate it as I drove her car down the parking garage, which seemed to be a lot higher up than it was. It was the first time I was in that parking garage in a long time. Nowadays I usually park under the mall instead of alongside it.

Anyway, when we were driving back I asked Amanda if she still wanted to drive my motorcycle, and she said yes, so we went to Sri Wangsaria, parked in a spot that someone claims is theirs but never uses, and went down to my bike. Amanda's first concern was that the helmet would mess up her hair, but she got over that quickly enough. She managed to kick-start the motorcycle quite impressively, but she was unable to replicate her success later on. I told her to put the bike in fourth gear so there'd be very little acceleration and thus very little chance of a repeat of the time Jan fell over on the bike and then drove it under a parked car.

We spent the first few minutes practising how to stop the bike properly. Once Amanda realized that she should never, ever take her right foot off the bike when she was moving and never, ever move until both feet were off the ground, things got a lot easier. After that I could teach her how to balance the bike when it was stationary (left foot on the ground as far from the bike as you can manage) and when it was moving (either speed up or stop completely, but whatever you do don't wiggle the handlebars). When she had mastered that she drove from one end of the parking garage to the other with only stabilizing help from behind, so I could show her how to turn off the motorcycle. She picked up on how to do that after just one time. When we were done with the motorcycle, Amanda told me that she never realized how hard it was to ride a motorcycle and promised that she would never insult a rempit again.

I parked my bike back in its place and showed Amanda the difference between my semi-automatic and my dad's automatic, and then I invited her upstairs for some water and perhaps a chance to see the roof again. When we arrived on the 20th floor, I introduced her to my aunt, grandaunt, and grandmother, who were staying at my house for some reason. While Amanda was having some water in the kitchen, my grandmother asked if Amanda was my girlfriend. I replied that she was just a friend from college. My aunt pointed out that my face was still flushed from holding up the motorcycle earlier, except I don't think she assumed that that was what we were doing. I forget if I told her that we were tired and sweaty when we arrived because motorcycles are heavy and require a real effort to move slowly in fourth gear and that is why we looked the way we looked, but I sure hope I did.

I went in the kitchen to get some water and eat some lychees with Amanda. I found a pair of lychees that had been fused together, and I thought they looked pretty funny. Amanda said they reminded her of dog balls. Not a very subtle way of putting it, but that was what I saw, too, so whatever. After that I went to my room to see if we could use the TV to karaoke or play the Wii or something, but Jan had just started a Grand Prix in Mario Kart so I decided to head up to the roof instead.

Unfortunately, the door we had used to get up on the roof for New Year's Eve was locked, and the one that lead to the area above our balcony was locked, too. I was now also too big too squeeze between the stairs and out on the roof like I used to ages ago. Plus the stairs were covered with pigeon shit, so ew.

Instead, I climbed a ladder up to an unlocked hatch that led to a place that I'd never been to before. Amanda followed behind me. It turned out to be a huge water storage unit inside one of Sri Wangsaria's "horns". There was also a ladder that led up another few storeys, so I decided to check that out.

When I was almost at the top, I turned back to see how Amanda was doing, and I froze in place for a while. It was high up there. Really, really high. I finally now knew what was meant when people said "Don't look down". In the end I decided to keep climbing since I was only a few rungs from the end anyway, and I wanted to know what was up there.

It turns out that nothing was up there. Nothing but a ledge and a sheer drop. It was a ladder to nowhere. I threw an apple I had been munching off the edge and watched as it steadily accelerated downwards for a dozen seconds or so before exploding in a truly spectacular fashion. The view from the back side of the building was pretty awesome, too.

I climbed down to Amanda and told her that I could see her house from up there, but if she wanted to climb the ladder then for safety's sake there was something she had to do. I told her that once she made it around a third up the ladder, around the point where the frontwards view could be seen above the water storage unit, that she had to turn and look down and see if she wanted to climb any higher. That way if she could handle it she could keep going, and if she couldn't, then she was much closer to the floor for the climb back down. Amanda agreed, and when she got to the point where she turned around she decided not to go any further. The frontwards view was more than enough anyway.

After that we tried exploring around the water storage unit, but there was nothing to see, so we just climbed back down the hatch. I did have a little trouble closing the hatch, but eventually I settled for slowly lowering it on my head then ducking down a few rungs so it shut quietly. Hatches are heavy, and I think I may have just discovered the cause of the headache I developed while writing this.

Anyway, we got back inside the apartment, Amanda had to leave to go pick up her sister, Jan and Hannah said I was all grimy and that they could smell me from the couch, I took another shower, and I got on my computer and proceeded to not do the thing I had told myself I was going to do today since Friday: My Bahasa Kebangsaan assignment. Deep down inside I had probably anticipated that I would end up procrastinating, which is why I told myself I would do it on Wednesday so that I would still have all Thursday to do it.

Once again, the post about Ian's birthday will have to wait. Maybe I'll do it next Wednesday.

=D

A Second Chance

Today I learned of another secret that I can't let the lecturers know. This time I'm going to make sure I keep my mouth shut. It's nice that I was one of the first to know, though.

Anyway, we had Engineering Mathematics Applications class in Donut Empire today. I had five donuts, but Mr. Joel managed to pay for them somehow. Fortunately, mine weren't the only donuts he paid for. Adrian and Sue Ann also didn't have a chance to pay for their pastries, and neither did Sue Ann's boyfriend or his buddy. Mr. Joel told us to use the money we had saved to bless other people, since it is better to give than to receive. I'm not sure what I'll do with my RM6. If anyone's reading this and wants some fries or something, I guess this is your chance to get some for free.

In Physics today I learned about light and how you can bend and slow it. It's pretty awesome. With a high enough refractive index or a large enough distance (or a combination of both), you could set up a mirror in such a way that when you look into it, you will see the past. It would require seventy-five thousand kilometers of material with a refractive index of ten for a five-second delay, but still. Pretty awesome thought. Of course, you could achieve much the same result but just hooking up a camera to a monitor and setting a delay, but that's cheating somewhat, and it's probably already been done.

We had presentations in English. I was timekeeper. Alysha was absent because she was sick or something. I hope she still has a chance to present. I told her to text Mr. Dharminder and tell him he was sick, so hopefully he'll show some mercy.

Between classes I taunted Carmeni with my secret and helped her out with her group's presentation on HIV/AIDS for Moral Studies.

When I was done for the day I went to lunch with Denise. Well, that was the plan, anyway, but I got sidetracked for a while talking to Amanda and Davinia, and when I went back to find Denise she had already left to McDonald's. I managed to intercept her right at the table, but then I realized I wasn't in the mood for McD's so I asked where Jia Yin was having lunch and went off to find her.

When I got to Ali Maju's I sat next to Jia Yin and a bunch of people she had just befriended that day. I was also sitting next to two girls from another college, but I didn't know that yet. I asked them if they were taking Foundation in Science or Arts and they told me that they weren't in HELP. I asked them if they were with Jia Yin and her friends and they said they weren't, they were just sharing the table. After that we got to talking and I had a nice conversation with them about our parents and our colleges and our schedules and studies and the food in Pusat Bandar Damansara and stuff. When they left I was only able to remember one of their names, Joanne. If I see the other one I will be in quite an awkward spot. Also I'm pretty sure that's not how Joanne's name is spelt. Anyway, talking to strangers is fun and I highly recommend it.

After lunch I sat in for Elo and Carmeni's Moral Studies class to help them with their AIDS presentation. They ended up stopping only six minutes into what should have been a fifteen-minute presentation, but aside from that and some factual and explanatory errors on their part, it was pretty good. I think they'll get more than 7/10. I find it hard to believe that Elo didn't know what latex was, though. Has she never been in a 7/11 before or something? Also, Carmeni didn't know what sheep gut condoms were made from (Hint: It is exactly what it sounds like).

It was raining again when I rode home. Third Monday in a row.

When I got home I called Effie to see if she was free on Friday. She said that she was broke and she would have to check with her mom to make sure they wouldn't be out-of-town on vacation that day or something. I said okay, and then I took a nap. When I woke up it was late. I went on the computer to blog and stuff, and now it is later.

I have two presentations on Thursday I haven't prepared anything. I'm planning to do that tonight. I've also got to do the review exercises for three EMA programmes. I am going to either be up late tonight, or shit is going to get procrastinated.

Not So Alone After All

I was talking to people in college today and apparently I'm not the only one who thought the ball kinda sucked. The organizers really should have found a way to include more than ten minutes of dancing for the people attending. Seriously what is the point of a ball if there's not going to be any dancing for 95% of the whole thing?

Anyway I finished reading my Critical Thinking Skills textbook today. I still think it's a really interesting textbook. I'm gonna keep it and lend it to Hannah after this semester is over. I'm definitely not selling it.

I've been sick for a week now. It was raining again this afternoon, just like last week. This time the rain stopped before I rode home, so I guess I won't be getting any sicker than I already am.

Li Ying, Elo, and Arun have gone to this camp in PD or perhaps Pangkor or somewhere with a P, at least. I wonder if/when they're going to replace their classes. It was Arun's birthday today, but I'm not sure if anyone from college got to wish him a happy birthday. I'd rather spend my birthday in college than at a camp, I guess I hope he doesn't feel the same way or today would be kinda sucky for him.

I had lunch with Denise and Jia Yin. Well, technically that's not true. They had lunch while I waited for my order of French fries to arrive before finding out almost an hour later that the guys at the counter had forgotten my order again. This is the second time I have waited for fries that did not come. I maintain my opinion that Spinky's is one of the suckiest places to go for lunch in Pusat Bandar Damansara.

During lunch we talked about Denise and her ex-boyfriend and whether they should get together during his semester break even though they'll have to be apart again when his next semester starts. I said I thought they should, since knowing that something is going to end shouldn't prevent you from enjoying that thing, and Jia Yin agreed. Denise said she didn't think going through all the end-of-relationship emotions and stuff was too high of a price to pay for two months of niceness, so she's not going to do anything. I would totally pay that price if I was in the same situation.

We also talked about the rain and why it was nice. Jia Yin said it was nice because it was depressing, but I said I thought that was the wrong word. Denise said it was nice because it was gloomy and I said it was nice because it was moody, but I don't think any of those words are the right ones. I would look up the correct adjective right now, but I'm lazy.

I also remember talking about apologies. I mentioned that I had learned that it was possible to apologize too early, but I was unsure if there was such a thing as an apology that was too late. The girls said that there it was never too late to apologize. I said that past a certain point it would just be digging up old dirt and that the easiest thing to do was to keep avoiding the person you offended, especially when you'd have nothing to lose because you two weren't really friends in the first place and you haven't spoken since the offense was committed so there didn't seem to be much hope there anyway. Denise said maybe that person might be waiting for you to apologize, but I think it would be slightly more obvious if that was the case. In the end I decided that it would be easier to just avoid people you've offended and not apologized to for a long while, especially if you soon won't see them again. The only downside is you won't know whether they stopped caring about the offense or were still mad at you, but whatever.

Also clothes were talked about, I guess.

After lunch I went to buy some fries from McDonald's, but as I was walking along the college corridor I saw these dudes playing Borderlands. I was passing by just as they were fighting the final boss. They defeated him and there was the infamous shitty end cutscene (so terribly unsatisfying) and then the considerably less shitty credits. I talked with them about Borderlands and Left 4 Dead 2 and Modern Warfare 2 before they had to go for class, so we said "nice meeting you" to each other and I was off to get my French fries.

The fries were nice. I'm not sure whether seven-fifty for two large packets is worth it, but I had the money and I was hungry so whatever.

I went home, took a three-hour nap, faffed about on the computer for three hours, began working on my 2000-word moral assignment that I had known about for 11 weeks but only started yesterday, and got distracted by blogging. I still have 1500 words to go or something and the thing is due tomorrow. I'm going to be up quite late tonight, I think.

Oh yeah, I also got a text from Denise telling me to have some rest and get well soon. That was nice of her.

Right, time to get back to work.