Back to Blogging with a Long One

A long while ago (but shortly after my last post), I drove my dad down to Kluang for a business meeting. While he was working, I had his car and the freedom to do whatever I wanted in Kluang. That would have been great except that there is nothing to do in Kluang. There was a KFC that I could've eaten in, but I decided instead to try and park the car and listen to the radio. I only managed to get a solid parking spot fifteen minutes before the end of my dad's two-hour meeting. I also found that the parking lot was right on the spot where one of the radio station's broadcast range ended. It was kinda fun nudging the car forward and backwards to hear the songs go to static and back. Anyway, on the drive back I listened to the CD of The Beatles that my dad has in his car. It has now replaced the John Denver disc as the thing we switch to when there's nothing on the radio.

More recently, my dad had me do training for working in Devices World (his company) with iSCADA, which is one of the products they sell. Training was two days. The first day hadn't had much sleep, so I stayed awake by browsing the Most Expensive Journal, which was a blog I found that day about the most expensive stuff in the world. We ate Nando's for lunch and I got to know my fellow trainees better. It was also the best Nando's I have ever eaten. After the break there was a few more hours' worth of stuff to learn, but I had exhausted all the good articles on the blog, so I nodded off a few times. I think I still caught everything I needed to catch, though, because I made it through the second day okay.

The next day was more training. This time it was all hands-on stuff, and most of it was actually exciting, so I didn't need any help staying awake. I got to remotely turn on lights and set off alarms and play with graphs and stuff. It was fun. Nerdy fun, yes, but still fun.

Have I mentioned that there are these incredibly adorable kittens that I see every week when I go to the KPD to do my Bahasa Kebangsaan? Well, there are these incredibly adorable kittens that I see every week when I go to the KPD to do my Bahasa Kebangsaan. Up until recently I haven't been able to touch them, despite my attempts to lure them in with fish and chicken. I have made them a bit fatter with all those treats, though. Anyway, I did manage to stroke one during my last lesson. He was the neglected one of the litter, and I don't think he's going to make it to the end of this year. He's covered in fleas, he's missing patches of fur, and he doesn't have much energy left in him. I approached him when he was napping and treated him like Faith, but gentler because Faith is not terminally ill. Still, it was nice to hear the kitten purr. Later on I had a nightmare that I'm pretty sure was inspired by a species of disgusting aquatic parasite, a dog I know, and the fleas on the kitten, but that's stretching this subject so let's move on.

The next day was a Saturday. Our family was supposed to head up to Ipoh that weekend for my grandmother's eightieth birthday. It was also the day that I had planned to get tickets from the MTV World Stage road show at Sunway Pyramid, so I had set my alarm early so I could beat the crowd. My efforts with the alarm were soon rendered pointless when I fell asleep after my morning Bible reading and only woke up two hours later. By that time, Hannah had gotten back from her horse riding so we could go together to get the tickets.

My mum let me use her car, and she also gave me her credit card so we could fill up the car for the trip to Ipoh. We ate McDonald's for breakfast, and it was delicious. The car was filled without a hitch. On the way to Sunway Pyramid, Hannah noticed that the Fly.fm cruisers were behind us, which meant that the event hadn't started yet and we were perfectly punctual. I dropped Hannah off at the mall and went to find a parking space, which was a lot easier to do in Sunway Pyramid than at Megamall because the second level of the parking lot was empty and because there were lights above each parking space that showed whether they were full or not. All malls should invest in that kind of technology.

The road show was easy enough to find. Hannah and I managed to squeeze our way to the front of the crowd. We found out that it was supposed to last from noon to six, but it was 12:30 and there were no signs of it starting, so I went out to get some mints. I did a loop of the mall and found some of the new Wrigley's gum with the cool packaging at Jusco's. I also picked up some Eclipse mints. The total purchase came up to RM9, which I thought was quite a bit for mints and gum, but whatever. I met up with Hannah and shared some Eclipse with her.

After a bit more standing around, Hannah left to go to the bathroom. A few minutes after she was gone, VJ Utt arrived and kicked off the show by introducing the first act, Bittersweet. Hannah came back during their second song and told me she couldn't get her belt off so she still needed to use the bathroom. The whole time Bittersweet was on stage we tried to figure out what language they were singing in. We never came to a concrete conclusion, but since their song titles were English we just assumed the songs were English, too.

When the band had left the stage, VJ Utt and a dude from Fly.fm got on stage to give out tickets and prizes to the crowd. Their selections were random, but they came mostly from the front row and they tended to be the loudest. One of the people who had managed to get picked was a girl right in front of Hannah and I, so when she went up on stage we managed to get to the front row. The questions that the lucky audience members were asked were easy enough, so nobody left the stage without winning something. Unfortunately for a few, some of the prizes didn't include tickets. I especially felt sorry for a girl who had showed up with a big Tokio Hotel sign and face paint and everything because she ended up leaving with a t-shirt from a sponsoring bank.

The hosts felt that the audience wasn't being enthusiastic enough, and that when the people on stage shouted "MTV rocks!", the audience should shout "MTV rocks!", too. The moment after they said this, I shouted "MTV rocks!". VJ Utt singled me out for my zeal and called me on stage. Six other people were chosen. We were told that there were only five tickets to be given out, so who got tickets and who went back empty-handed was to be determined by a dance-off. This was brilliant. I loved this idea. Hannah's face lit up when she heard that the winners would be chosen by dance. I was glad that I already had the audience on my side and that that meant this was probably going to be the second time that my dancing won me tickets to MTV World Stage.

The first guy to dance was a tall dude in a Star Wars shirt. His dancing was okay, but after the music was stopped, he complained that he had had to dance to Katy Perry instead of Wonder Girls, which won him a bunch of boos from the crowd and meant I was that much more likely to win the tickets. The next person to dance was a transsexual who challenged the audience with a sensual mock-striptease. I was just glad that I only had to watch from behind. Hannah is still trying to forget what she saw that day. Anyway, after that was a girl who tried to emulate the tranny's success with another sensual dance, and I guess she did okay.

When my turn came to dance, the song was changed from "Hot 'N Cold" to "I Kissed a Girl". This was bad for two reasons: one, Hot 'N Cold is a much easier song to dance to, and two, I was caught off-guard by the change in music and I didn't even recognize what song was being played until five of my twenty seconds were up. Nonetheless, I did the best with what I had left, and there was enough applause afterwards that I felt pretty safe.

Next up was a girl in a Green Day t-shirt who lacked enthusiasm and energy. After her was a girl who was slightly better, but still not great. The last performance happened to be the best one. The dude who was dancing was extremely entertaining and actually skilled at dancing, unlike the rest of us. I was impressed. Hannah was impressed, too, but she thought he was gay.

To give the audience one last chance to decide who they liked best, we were all called to dance at the same time. I danced a bit with the best guy and the girl who danced before me, and that was fun. When it came time to choose the two people to send off, the Star Wars guy and the Green Day girl were picked. The rest of us got an MTV World Stage poster, an MTV World Stage t-shirt, and most importantly, two tickets to MTV World Stage on the 31st of July. When I joined Hannah back in the crowd, it was announced that there would be a break for an hour before more tickets were given out, so Hannah went to the toilet and then we went home.

Right when Hannah and I got home we had to leave again, because Ian was napping and Jan had to be picked up from BB. Along the way I forgot where I was heading and ended up in Brickfields. This wasn't much of a problem, though, because I knew a way to Cheras from Brickfields. All it would mean is that we would be a little later. Unfortunately, the route was blocked by construction, so I had to improvise. I ended up lost in a graveyard on a shitty road that lead to a cement factory and a Buddhist temple. After turning around we found ourselves in front of The Alice Smith School, which was not where I expected it to be at all. Near the school was a gigantic pothole that I failed to avoid. A little later I managed to figure out where we were, and soon we were back on track for Cheras. When we picked up a bit of speed, I realized that there was weird noise coming from our car. Hannah said it was probably the mud flap. When we reached Sri Sempurna, I got out to check, and it turned out that the mud flap had been ripped to shit by the pothole and was banging against the body of the car.

Anyway, we picked up Jan and drove home, and then we went to get the car fixed so we wouldn't be annoyed by the noise all the way to Ipoh. The aunty at the repair shop got one of her people to cut off the mud flap as a temporary solution, and so we were good to go.

A little after that Ian, Joel, Hannah, Jan, and I went to Mid Valley to watch Inception. When we got to the ticket counter we found out that all the screens were booked full except for the 11pm showing. I was the only one willing to stay that long. The guy behind the counter told us we could wait five minutes for the reservations to expire so we could claim those seats, so we did. When the five minutes were up, some fat cow of a woman cut in front of us to organize half a dozen tickets for the next showing of Eclipse for her and her family or something. She took ten minutes to figure out that the next showing of Eclipse was absolutely irrevocably totally booked. After her we finally went to claim our Inception tickets, but the dude's manager told him that they couldn't give away the reserved seats. Ian booked four tickets for Despicable Me instead, and then let me book my 11pm ticket. I was just about to do just that, but then I saw that a guy at the counter next to me had claimed a ticket for the Inception showing we were waiting for, so I told our counter guy and he agreed to check for me. I got the last ticket to the show that way.

For dinner I ran down to Burger King. It was at that point that I realized I would have to withdraw more money, which would mean I was going under my float. That realization kinda sucked.

Inception was awesome. On my way to the bathroom after the film I decided that it was the best movie I'd ever seen. I joined the line to the ticket counter to try and get tickets for the next showing. Ian wasn't interested, though, so I decided against it because I didn't want to have to take a cab back. Despicable Me finished short after, and I joined the rest of the guys to go home.

At home I used Ian's computer while Jan and he played poker outside. When Ian lost, he kicked me off, so I went outside to watch the game. After the game I watched TV until Ian fell asleep, then I used his computer to read about Inception until 4am.

The next day I woke up at six AM to the sound of my alarm. I climbed out of bed, turned it off, and went right back to sleep. A few seconds after closing my eyes, Hannah was in the room, the curtains were open, and the sun was streaming in. It was now eight AM, and I had managed to sleep for two hours in what felt like a few seconds. Anyway, I rushed to get packed and ready, and then we went to Ipoh.

The majority of the car ride there was filled with the best music I have ever heard being played from Hitz.fm. They didn't play a single annoying song. I enjoyed it greatly. 150km or so out of KL, we reached the end of Hitz.fm's broadcast range, so I went to sleep.

At my grandparent's place we spent a lot of time napping. Hannah and I watched The Runaways together. The movie itself is an hour and forty-five minutes long, but it took us almost two and a half hours to watch because Hannah kept pausing it every other minute to shoo Susanna out of the room or go check her Tumblr. In the end it was a pretty boring movie, but it was totally worth watching for the scene where Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning have lesbian sex. I cannot wait to hear about Carmeni's reaction after she watches that.

After the movie we went to KFC with Ian and Susanna for a snack and I got served the stalest popcorn chicken I've eaten in ages. When we got back to the house I took a nap and then the whole family left for my grandmother's birthday dinner.

The dinner took a real long time. There was something like seven courses, so I had plenty of time to converse with family while stuffing my face. Good times.

When we got home our aunt showed us funny YouTube videos and we showed her some funny YouTube videos in return. I read some more about Inception before taking a shower, watching an Animal Channel program about the star-nosed mole, and then going to bed.

The next day we packed up, ate breakfast, and drove home. After a bit of packing we left to drive back to KL. I was driving my dad back in his car while my mum drove everyone else in her car. I soon realized that the radio was broken and prepared myself for a very boring trip, but my dad managed to fix it. I guess his engineering degree does come in handy sometimes. Anyway, the drive back was uneventful except for a police checkpoint, but I didn't get pulled over so we got home uninterrupted.

The moment I got back I decided to visit HELP to kill time before I went to Mid Valley with Hannah and Audrey so that they could watch Eclipse. When I got to college, Elo was on Omegle and Carmeni was working on her business assignment. I spent half an hour or so helping Elo find someone else who knew the muffin man before a bunch of the guys showed up and we talked about movies and stuff. I highly recommended Inception. I also told Carmeni that Hannah was going to burn The Runaways onto a DVD so I could give it to her later.

Joanna arrived and I asked her if she'd seen Eclipse, and she said no, so we high-fived, then she said she hated Twilight, so we high-fived again, then we simultaneously asked each other if we had seen Inception, and after that we wouldn't shut up about the movie until everyone else had to go to class. Joanna and I were leaving via the same route, so we walked and talked for a bit. Joanna stopped to buy some chocolate from a statistics student who she sympathized with. She got them to deliver a glittery chocolate that read "The language of friendship is not words, but meanings" to me. Joanna's a good friend. =D

I took my motorcycle home and showed Joanna's chocolate to Hannah. I tried to convince Hannah to do some fake sit-ups so she would have a flat, hard stomach in six months (the difference between real sit-ups and fake ones is that you don't need your arms behind your head or your legs together in fake ones. Also real ones take more effort and therefore will get you in shape much faster) but she was either too later or of the opinion that six months was too long. Whatever, it's her body and her loss.

Audrey arrived and we went to Mid Valley. I spent the drive there trying to convince them to watch Inception instead of or after Eclipse, but they wouldn't hear it. At least Hannah was just watching Eclipse to mock it. I bought two tickets to Eclipse and five tickets to Inception for later that night when Ian, Jan, Hannah, Jared, and I were supposed to watch it. After giving Hannah and Audrey their tickets, I went to MPH to read Murphy's Law, which is now probably my favourite book.

After the movie was over we bought some DVDs so Hannah could burn The Runaways. Hannah and Audrey tried to tell me that Bella was a slut, but I told them she couldn't be a slut because she was still a virgin, and that she was a cocktease instead. Anyway, we went back home to drop off the DVD's and my mum's credit card, and then we left to drop Audrey off at her house.

When we got back home again, Ian told us that Jared had cancelled on us and none of his friends could watch Inception. I sent a text to Jo and asked if she wanted to go, but she was at prayers so I called up Amanda, but she was sleeping in preparation for mid-terms. We ended up inviting our dad to come with us.

Jan, Hannah, and Ian loved Inception. Since they couldn't name any movies that were better, I'm going to go ahead and say on their behalves that Inception was the best movie they've ever seen. My dad thought it was okay.

When we got home we talked about the movie for a bit before turning on the TV and watching So You Think You Can Dance. It was only the second episode I'd ever seen, but I did manage to catch the best dance I've ever seen in my life, so that was nice.

That was yesterday. Today I got Hannah to burn The Runaways onto a DVD, which she accidentally named Inception, but we managed to fix that. After that Hannah gave me all of Katy Perry's songs for me to listen to while I did the 100 taxi fares that I needed for 100% completion in Vice City. It took me two and a half hours, but I finally managed to get 100% completion for a second time. I don't think I ever want to do it again. I've done it now without failing a mission or getting wasted or busted, the only way to go from here is to do it without ever failing a side-mission, which I am not up for at all. After that I started this blog post, and now it is three hours later and I am quite exhausted.

Anyway, tomorrow is the day I finally do some work on my Bahasa Kebangsaan assignment which is due in a couple of weeks. I have to find an editorial in BM, then I have to look up all the words I'm unfamiliar with, then I have to write a draft critiquing it in BM, then I have to find another article about current events in BM and find a way to make a five-minute speech in BM about it. Bleh.

I think I'll write about Ian's birthday some other time. Alcohol was involved.