10th of March, 2010

Some of these posts have dates for names because I can't be bothered to think of a title.

I finished The Lexus and The Olive Tree.

I'm waiting for the latest episode of Lost to download.

I had a Christian Fellowship cell group meeting. It was okay.

I did five hundred of the six hundred words for my contribution to our Psychology project. I think it's good enough.

Denise didn't know I have a blog. That was a few days ago, though.

I played yet more RuneScape. It's hardly even fun, I wonder why I still do it.

I got my allowance today, plus the 83 ringgit Ian owed me.

It's quite really late. I've been falling asleep on the couch a lot lately because I have been too lazy to do my sit-ups and I can't take a shower until I've done my sit-ups and I can't go to bed unless I take a shower, so I end up falling asleep on the couch and waking up an hour or so before sunrise and doing my exercise and shower then. It's all right, I guess.

More Stuff that I Did

On Wednesday I went to a cell group meeting for Christian Fellowship. It was okay. After that I had a Finite Maths class.

Later on that day I had to drive Hannah to One Utama because she was going rock climbing with some friends. She thought she had to be there at 5:45, but she got there at 6:30 or something, when actually the thing started at 5:00. Oh well. I borrowed her iPod for a bit and then took a nap. We were only there for fifteen minutes.

Anyway, on Thursday I got my mid-term results back for Finite Mathematics and Physics. I got 17.5% out of 20% for Finite Maths because I didn't show my working and also because of a few careless mistakes. For Physics I got 11.5% out of 20%, so I'm really going to have to buck up if I want to make it through.

It was also Li Ying's birthday, so everyone chipped in five ringgit and got her a cake. It was chocolate indulgence and it was delicious.

Hannah, Ian, Jan, and I went to Mid Valley at night to go watch Alice in Wonderland, but all the tickets were sold out so we watched Up in the Air again. The censorship in that movie was idiotic, as usual. Good thing I had already watched it before so I still knew what was going on.

The bus for camp leaves at 2:15 on Friday. I still haven't packed. Hm.

I Should Remember What Is and Isn't Worth Eating

Today I woke up and took my time getting ready for Christian Fellowship. There was going to be a welcome to CF party later on. I was on the computer until twelve thirty, which was when it was supposed to start. Since I was bound to be late I decided to help Hannah drop off Yii Huei instead.

Yii Huei had to drop off some stuff at home before going to her friend's house so they could go watch a movie together, so I went with Hannah to drive her to those places. When we arrived at her friend's house we said goodbye because it would be the last time we saw her unless she came visited us after coming back from Penang.

Hannah and I went to eat at Popeyes because I had a craving for it. It was pretty tough to find a place to park, so I was grateful when we found an empty lot. It was near a parking machine that I couldn't figure out how to work, so we didn't pay.

We had to find an ATM before we could eat. While we were looking for one, Hannah convinced me to pay for her meal. She was the one who spotted the Maybank ATMs, though, so I guess she earned it.

Popeyes was okay. It was really filling, so even though I only had a biscuit, some mashed potatoes, and two pieces of chicken, I still couldn't finish everything I ordered. Hannah couldn't finish what I had got for her either. We only had a little bit leftover, though, so that was nice, at least. Anyway I don't think I'll be eating at Popeyes again unless I want more biscuits or mashed potatoes. Actually, I'm not sure why I came to that conclusion. The chicken skin is crispier than most places, and the meat's a lot more succulent. It's also priced around the same as KFC. Hm. Maybe I will eat in Popeyes again. I'll make sure I'm really hungry before I do, though, so I don't waste any food.

When we got home, I took a nap. When I woke up I watched a In The Loop on Ian's computer. It was good. After that I claimed the massage that Hannah said she'd give me if I paid for her meal. I then remembered that I hadn't walked the stairs even though it was Friday, so I went and did that. When that was over I was pretty tired, so I took another nap. When I woke up from that one I turned on the TV and did some exercise while watching a drama on the new Astro channel. It was called Half Broken Things and it was pretty good, too.

Anyway tomorrow I've got replacement classes at college. Also I'm apparently supposed to keep a dream journal for Psychology. Should be fun.

My birthday seems to be really really close. I wonder what I should ask for. I wonder where I want to eat dinner. I wonder if I should have a tiny party.

More Responsibilities, Yay

I woke up this morning on the couch. I had originally intended to nap on it for a wee bit before taking a shower and going to bed, but the nap lasted way too long. Anyway I did take a shower and I did go to bed. I woke up again at two in the afternoon.

Anyway, Friday. I had a meeting for HELP's Rush Race that I told Ms Selena I'd attend, so I was in college fifteen minutes before it was supposed to start. That was a bit odd, that the one day I would arrive so early to college would be the day when I didn't actually have a class or anything.

I sat around with Davinia and perhaps a few other people while waiting for eleven o'clock to roll around. We spoke about which cousins Indians were allowed to marry and which they weren't and whether it was weird or not to like your cousin. We also looked through the list of Indian inventions on Wikipedia. Diamonds were on the list, so that was a thing.

At a little past eleven I realized where I had to be and went to the meeting. It was a pretty good meeting. I'm on the committee for a comedic sketch that's supposed to raise RM5000 for the event. It should be fun. The meeting kinda reminded me of NCO council meetings in BB, but the difference is I actually care about helping out with the Rush Race. Also I'm not the person doing the minutes any more, so that's nice, too.

After the meeting was finished I went over to the KPD for the first Christian Fellowship meeting of the year. There weren't any activities planned, so instead we just did praise & worship and prayed for a whole bunch of stuff. It was okay.

When I got back home I was informed by Jan that I had to drive him to get his hair cut before taking him over to Cheras so he could sleep over at Sri Sempurna to get the place ready for Fun Day. Before I did all that we sat down to catch the second half of this show on the National Geographic channel about the Aryan Brotherhood. It was pretty interesting.

I was wondering whether I should've gone with Jan to get my hair cut, too, but I decided to stay in the car and listen to music from Jan's iPod instead. I would've used the radio, but the antennae in the Kancil is busted and we haven't fixed it yet. Jan got back with an okay-looking haircut and I drove him to where he needed to be and then I drove myself back.

When I got back home I think I took a nap. I may have done something before it, but I definitely took a nap at one point. My parents woke me up a few hours later as they were leaving the house. I heated up some spaghetti carbonara and spent a while online before watching Year One on Ian's computer. It was either that or The Hurt Locker, and Year One was shorter. It was a pretty mediocre show, but I had expected as much so I wasn't that disappointed.

After that I read my Psychology textbook and did my sit-ups, and then I fell asleep on the couch.

Anyway since I woke up again this afternoon I haven't done much. I had some carrot cake for breakfast (Or lunch), and I think I brushed my teeth, although I'm not 100% sure on that one. I'm going to spend a bit more time online, and then I'm going to watch a few more movies from Ian's computer, and then I'm going to (as usual) read my Psychology textbook and do some sit-ups. I wonder if I'll be this free next weekend, too. I hope I will, but I guess I'll have homework to do by then.

But yeah, I settled my college fees on Thursday, so I don't really have any pressing items in that department. Once Mr Naj prints out the Physics slides I'll study them and memorize the relevant formulas, and if Mr Chen distributes any Finite Mathematics homework I suppose I'll do that, but right now I'm free, and that is nice. I've also got RM200 left from the RM300 I get each month, which is twice as much as I usually have around this time of the month. That is also nice.

Oh yeah, it's Saturday. Hmm. I guess I'll do twenty-five push-ups this evening alongside my sit-ups and see if I can stick to that. Hopefully daily exercise will make me hungrier so I can eat more and get bigger. This anorexic-type look is getting tiresome.

End of Classes

Classes for this semester are done. My last class was technically yesterday, but 1am on Saturday night is basically still Friday so I'll just say today to keep things simple.

So today started again with me waking up late because it was raining again. I called Sue Ann to check if Mr Joel was in class yet, and he wasn't. I managed to get ready and get to college only five or ten minutes after Mr Joel, so that was okay. I only got a bit wet in the rain because it had become quite light by the time I left.

In class we finished up the last programme and reviewed what we'd be studying, and then we got to see our marks. Sue Ann scored 49/50, which is awesome. I got 36/50 (I think), which I was not expecting. I have a shot at a Credit if I do really well in the finals. Cool.

When EMA was over I can't really remember what I did because it was uninteresting, but after doing whatever I forgot doing I went to study some Critical Thinking Skills with Amanda. We managed to just barely cover the second of six chapters that need to be reviewed for the finals. Once we'd memorized the final list of things I went over to CTS class. Ms Tay was reviewing some stuff that was going to come out for the final exam. When that was over we had to write what we thought about the course, and then we were free to leave early.

My priority after leaving class was finding a spot to nap. I found a place on a bunch with some bags and friends, but I couldn't nod off in the fifteen minutes I had, so I just talked to people instead. I don't think I realized that I had just finished the last class of my semester.

At 12:15 I left to go to Christian Fellowship to help out with the Staff Appreciation Day. I chose to go with the group that was distributing the appreciation gifts (3-in-1 coffee and a note) in the main block. It was pretty cool; I got to go into the staff rooms to place the stuff and while I was doing that I got to see how spacious and cool the lecturers' rooms are. We distributed the gifts to lecturers and administrative staff and guards and janitors. It was nice.

After we'd been down the whole hall and we were almost done with the thanking, I said goodbye to the others and went to study CTS with Amanda. She was sick, so we didn't get very far before we had to stop.

Cute Bike

I was on my motorcycle at a traffic light and another motorcyclist stopped next to me. He turned to me and told me that my license plate was crooked. I said I knew. Then he commented on how small my motorcycle was. I said I knew. Then he said that it was a "cute bike". I thought, "Holy shit; that is literally what everyone says when they see it. My motorcycle is apparently so cute that strangers will strike up conversation with me just to inform me of how cute it is. Wow. I will never impress anyone on this thing." Also I said I knew. After that we talked about where we were going and why were going there, and then we stared at passing cars until the light turned green and we drove off and we never saw each other again.

Earlier on in the day, after EMA, I made a note of all my homework in my notebook. Some of it is due tomorrow, and I have done none of it. Well, except for the second draft of my argumentative essay which was due on Saturday at 11pm but I submitted a couple of hours ago because that is when I thought it was due.

Li Ying, Elo, and Arun are back from camp. I talked to them about the room arrangements and who slept where. There were separate rooms for girls and guys, but apparently the campers couldn't be bothered with that kind of segregation so girls and guys slept wherever. Also, there were three people for each room and each room had two beds. That meant that at least two people had to share a bed, or else someone had to leave the room or sleep on the floor. I don't think I could share a bed with a stranger, but those at the camp seemed to have no problem. Elo said that on the last night she had slept in the same bed as Arun and his roommate. I told her that that meant I could say that she had slept with two dudes in the same night. She said that sounded wrong. I said that was exactly why it was going to be so fun to tell Carmeni. Luckily for Elo, though, I had forgotten all about that conversation when I saw Carmeni later on that day.

Christian Fellowship was fun today. First I fixed a broken door with the multitool I carry around for exactly such situations, and then we had a prayer walk/hunt. Each group would get a clue with a word scramble on top and some prayer suggestions on the bottom. Unscrambling the clue would reveal the place we had to go to next. On the way there we would pray for the items on the list. When we got there we'd do a challenge for our next clue. The challenges were charades, hangman, and figuring out the missing elements in the periodic table, in that order. The prayer items were college-related. It was fun. I guess it was also kind of spiritually beneficial.

After almost 11 years, I'm resigning from the Boys' Brigade. It's the oldest uniformed body in the world for youths, and I was in one of the largest companies in KL. I don't have (m)any friends there. I used to enjoy it somewhat because my friends from primary school was there, but recently they've all left except for one, and I'm not that close to Ashley. I'm not close to anyone. Anyway, I've got a lot of responsibilities in the company that I'm capable of handling, but I don't want to handle them because it's a thankless and also kinda pointless job. There are other reasons, but I don't want post them because then it would seem like I'm just quitting because I'm a whining bitch (even though I totally am).

Anyway, assume you are locked in a room with a perfect clone of your current self. There are no doors, no windows, no cracks. The clone will completely disappear in one hour, and then you will be released from the room by, let's say, robots. No one will see what you do, no one will ever know what happens, no one on the outside world will ever even know that you were locked in a room with your clone for an hour. What would you do?

My friend wanted to thank me for helping her with her Argumentative Essay by buying me some snacks or something, but I said that accepting material rewards wouldn't be right. Instead I asked her if she could thank me by satisfying my curiosity and answering the above question. She said she'd probably fight herself or have sex with herself to see what it was like, but if she could only do one thing it would be the fighting. I said that I would only pick sex if the parameters were changed so that the clone was exactly like me in every way except she was female, and she agreed that if the clone was of a different sex that screwing them was totally okay. With the conditions above, of course, I would love to beat myself up, mostly because I kinda hate myself for doing a lot of stupid things, and this would be a chance for me to vent my anger on an acceptable target. For more reading on this you can read the blog post where I got the question from.

Speaking of friends and homework, I've got to remember that I'll be studying Venn diagrams with Amanda tomorrow. I think that is it for now.

Oh yeah, I also took a nap at around 7 or 8pm on Thursday but somewhere along the line I forgot that it was a nap and the next thing I knew it was 6am and I needed to get ready for college. On the plus side I was already dressed, but I also had missed a shower and I had to brush my teeth with extra vigour because I had slept through my usual dental hygiene time from the past night.

Okay now I think that is it for now.

I Chose Wasting Time Over Getting Stuff Done

My Friday eight o'clock class was cancelled, so I got to wake up late. I had set my alarm for nine, but I woke up at eight thirty and I couldn't get back to sleep. Apparently my body has become so used to my sleep-real-late-and-wake-up-real-early schedule that it thinks five and a half hours is an appropriate amount of nightly rest. That's a bit disturbing.

Anyway, I spent my free time lounging around the house and chatting with my younger siblings. I arrived at college around fifteen minutes early for my CTS class at eleven. I found some friends to sit and talk to for a while before I had to go for class.

Class went by quite quickly because of how interesting our work was. Venn diagrams can be a bit confusing, but they are fun to map out, especially when you're working with a friend.

I was the last person to leave the class because I stayed back to ask my lecturer some questions about the diagrams. As I was walking through the hall to get to the parking lot and my motorcycle, I saw Elo working on her research paper. I sat down to help her with her introduction and references. She was practically done with it already, which made me reflect on my paper and how unfinished it is. I pushed the thought out of my mind and decided I would return to it later when I went to the computer lab to work on the paper.

I reformatted a reference for Elo and helped her rearrange her introduction, and in return she showed me how my formatting for my paper had been wrong (I should have used double line spacing instead of 1.5). It was around this point that we realized how hungry we both were, so we went to McDonald's for some lunch.

I ended up buying an extra sundae and convincing Elo to upsize her meal so that I could get a second clear Coca-Cola contour glass. Somehow I managed to eat everything I ordered, but I felt quite sick afterwards. Oh well, free cups.

During meal I would occasionally glance at my watch to see if I could still make it to Christian Fellowship. It had started at 12:30, which was before I had left my CTS class, but I figured that I could still drop in a bit late and catch a bit of the message, which was about donkeys in the Bible and sounded like fun. I also wanted to get some of my surveys filled by the older students there. Lunch, however, ended at around one forty-five, so going to CF at that point would have been pointless.

After lunch we went to the computer lab, and that is where we stayed for the next three hours. Joanna and Roshaan were also there. Jo spent her time messing about on Facebook and blogs while working on her Human Communications assignment, Roshaan was playing Counter-Strike the whole time, and Elo played CS against Roshaan for a while before using her laptop to find nostalgic songs to assign to each of her friends or something. As for me, the first two hours or so were spent faffing about on the internet with occasional breaks to help Elo win some CS rounds or give Jo a critique on her assignment, and around fifteen minutes working on my research paper. I did not get anything done that I couldn't have done at home without the internet. This is something I will regret soon when I realize that the deadline is really close and I simply do not have time to get it done properly, but that moment has not arrived yet and I'm going to enjoy this relatively stress-free state while it lasts.

Anyway, the lab. I also showed Jo that the mirror at the back of the lab was actually a window, but when we went behind it to mess with Roshaan and Elo, they could still see us. It was disappointing, but we Elo did manage to take a couple of pictures that made us look like ghosts, so that was a plus. Another thing that happened during the three or so hours in the lab was a spontaneous breaking-into of song. Most of them were from the Lion King. The singalong ended when we got to songs that only I knew the lyrics to, which left me singing alone and with no other voice to drown out my terribleness. The others asked me to please stop. I know how bad my singing is, so I did. It was fun while it lasted, though.

After we left the lab we were approached by these three dudes who asked us if we'd like to participate in a survey about cell phone service providers. Jo, Elo, and Roshaan agreed before I could make up my mind, so I was left standing around when they started their survey. Thankfully, Elo invited me over to her table to do the survey. The guy recording our answers had to pull double-duty, so we finished a little while after Roshaan and Jo were done. When we were all done I asked the survey dudes if they would help me out with my research paper by filling in my survey. They did, and so I finally had fifteen completed surveys, which is the amount that is required for the paper. That was nice.

When that was over we walked to a bus stop to wait for a bus that would take Joanna and Elo to the Bangsar LRT station, and from there they would go to the Kelana Jaya station, and from there they would go to work for three hours or so promoting this rather tasty juice thing. Joanna practiced her pitch for the product with me as we were walking, and so now I know quite a lot about the stuff, but I somehow can't remember its name. Oh well.

After a long while the bus arrived and I said goodbye. As I was walking to my motorcycle I saw that the moon was already out, and in my boredom I sent a text to Jo informing her of this. It was probably one of the least necessary text messages I've ever sent.

When I got home I took a long nap while everyone else went out for dinner. When I woke up I ate some pasta and proceeded to karaoke for the next few hours. My siblings were in the room and they did not appreciate my warbling. I told them I'd stop if one of them beat my score for "Circle of Life", so after a while my younger brother came over and he did. Right when I had turned off the TV, though, my dad showed up and said he wanted to karaoke, which started another two-hour session.

So when that was done I got on my younger brother's computer because he's got the in-case-of-dead-Streamyx-connection wireless modem plugged in. I kinda wanted to work on my research paper, but mostly I wanted to blog and faff about on the internet. Naturally I got the last two done and neglected the first and most important one. I'm putting that off until later (again) because I am tired and I want to get to bed soon.

So now it's technically Saturday. At BB I've got new responsibilities which involve collecting attendance reports from squad leaders and compiling them in Excel, which I'm not looking forward to. I'm also going to get a few more responses for my survey for safety's sake. After that's done I may or may not be driving my younger siblings to the All-American Rejects concert, depending on whether my parents are free. I guess I may also be picking them up after it's done.

So yeah, that's about it for this post. Despite my nap earlier, I am tired so I'll end this real soon, but first I wanna talk about the dream I had during the aforementioned nap. I guess I should be more reluctant to go into details since this blog is open for everyone to read, but nobody's going to read this far in anyway so screw it. In my dream I was sitting a pier with two of my friends from earlier on today. We were just talking. It was nice. There wasn't any feeling of assignments that needed to be done or classes to be rushed to or anything. We were living in the moment and the moment was lazy and relaxing. Aside from that there was the usual surreal elements that come with every dream, in this case it was a bunch of middle-aged people on the far side of the pier doing whatever it is middle-aged people do, and also something about some post-Merdeka statues and/or monuments and/or flags. Anyway if I accept that dreams are expressions of subconscious desires, then (ignoring the surreal elements, of course) my dream probably meant that I'm lonely and want people to talk to, and I want to be able to just not care about responsibilities for a while and just exist. Also I guess it also means I've still got feelings for someone who I thought I was over. Oh well.

So yeah, this is the last paragraph. I'll give it two more sentences, excluding this one. Um, I could've spent this time to get a lot of my research paper done. Also, I want to skip taking a shower tonight and just head straight for bed, but I'm not going to because I have other stuff to do before bed such as preparing for BB and oh crap this is my last sentence oh well I'll cheat and make it a run on is there anything else I want to say no not really well then goodnight and goodbye and why am I so reluctant to just hit the period button on the keyboard and then fill in some tags and then hit post and then close this I don't know oh well time to just press that button and leave the computer here goes okay false alarm okay this is really it.

This Weekend and Monday

Blogging is a massive time sink. I've got three days to write about and a lot to say and I have no idea how long it's going to take me to get all this down. I'd be surprised if anyone managed to read this whole post, too. Everything I write is so long and not terribly interesting. Oh well, here goes anyway. Point form to save time. I'll expand upon the good stuff later, maybe. So:

Saturday! Let's break it down:
- Woke up late because there wasn't any BB until the afternoon!
- Got stuff ready for BB while using the computer
- Drove to Cheras alone and got stuck in a jam
- Hung around studying CTS
- Got lunch for some people
- Took the bus to wherever Founder's Day was being held
- Stood in the sun for a real long time for opening parade
- Sat in church for a really long time for praise and worship and a message that I didn't really listen to
- Food. It was the best thing I've ever eaten at a BB event. Meat and garlic bread and mashed potatoes.
- No wait I just remembered Aunty Molly's chicken chop from that one camp. That was the best.
- Closing parade
- Took the bus back
- Drove home with Jan
- Shower
- Nap
- Computer
- Call from Papa
- Went out for dinner without getting ready
- Awesome dinner
- Drove home
- Computer
- Set alarm for 2am, went to couch to sleep until alarm went off so I could take a shower then go right to be completely exhausted.
- I didn't hit the button to save the alarm, so it didn't go off. I woke up on the couch on Sunday morning at seven, but that is later on in the blog post.

Okay, things to expand upon. First, Founder's Day. Founder's Day is a yearly thing done by the Boy's Brigade to celebrate when the organization was founded a century or so ago by Sir William Alexander Smith. It has caused problems in the past, namely, it was boring and I missed my cousin's wedding for it three or four years ago. This year was no exception. My friend from college was holding an open house from twelve to four. Founder's Day was from twelve thirty to four. Of course I always had the option not to attend, but I've been in the company for eight or so years and I'm still only a Lance Corporal. Jan got promoted last week, so now I'm the same rank as my younger brother. My next chance at a promotion is in March, but the lack of commitment I'd show from missing Founder's Day would almost guarantee that my rank would remain the same. So I had to miss the open house.

Except, you know, I didn't. Turns out that it went on until six or so, and then after that my college friends went and hung out and stuff. Ah well. If I had gone there I would have probably missed dinner, and dinner was awesome.

Anyway, the last few semi-interesting things about Founder's Day before I move on. Um, I got really thirsty. After opening parade I found a water cooler and latched on for a couple of minutes. Also, Jan and I ignored the speaker's message and read from the Methodist hymnal instead. We learned that Methodists are different from us, and thus they are funny. Finally, I found out something new about Aolani, my assistant squad leader. Apparently, Jan thinks she (Oh yeah we have girls in our Boy's Brigade company. I think I may have pointed that out before but who can be bothered to remember) might like him. I hope so. That would be fun to watch.

So, moving on to dinner. After waking up from my nap I got a call from my dad asking if Jan and I wanted to go out for something to eat. I said yeah and asked Jan to come, too. I assumed we were going to Burger King or some such place, so I didn't bother to put my contact lenses in or change into some nice pants and shoes. Turns out I had assumed wrong. We were going to have dinner with my dad's friend's sister and her husband and daughter and some of their extended family. I was especially regretting my appearance when I heard that her daughter was around the same age as me. I guess if I'm only going to meet someone once I might as well make a good impression, especially so if that someone happens to be young and female. I guess it's a good thing that I didn't know on the way there that she was also half-Australian and really, really hot.

So we got to the restaurant and it was a Chinese seafood place. I did not have high hopes for the food. We were some of the first people to get there, so I surveyed the menu and tried to figure out what I was going to do. My plan was just to order the lemon chicken, drink the tea, and try not to look like an idiot in front of the girl and her family. My plan was silly.

The night began its climb into awesomeness the moment the first few people arrived. My dad's friend's sister was the first person I greeted, followed by her Australian husband and their daughter, Louise. I was not expecting an Australian husband or Louise. I didn't ask too many questions on the way to the restaurant, so I was just assuming that this family was from out of town, not from a completely different continent. It was a very pleasant surprise.

Louise is really cool and her parents and grandparents are fun and interesting people, so conversation at the table never got boring. The food also turned out to be a lot better than I usually expect from Chinese restaurants. I tried a bit from each dish and I liked everything. By the time the lemon chicken arrived I only had enough appetite for one piece, which was a shame because it was amazing. The last course was crab, which I enjoyed more for the smashing and prying apart than the eating. Before we said goodbye, my dad arranged for Louise's family to come to church with us the next day.

I got to drive back, but it quite torturous. I have forgotten how many times I refilled my glass of tea, but I do remember that it later proved to be too much. A quick stop at McDonald's solved that problem, and we got to get some ice cream.

So yeah, that was Saturday. Took me an hour and a half to write that, so let's move on to...

Sunday!
- Woke up early
- Used "practicing for my CTS presentation" as an excuse to dress up nicer than usual
- Went with my dad to pick up Louise and her parents
- Had breakfast with my brothers and Louise
- Church
- Went to a nearby pond to show Louise the turtles there
- Found by Ian and Jan and informed it was time to go home
- Sat in Ian's new car (Oh yeah Ian got a new car) on the short and rather unnecessary drive back to church. Cool car, though.
- Got to drive home in my dad's car (Power steering and very nice suspension)
- Showed our view, cats, and piano to our guests.
- Attempted to initiate karaoke
- Directed Ian to his college
- Said goodbye to Louise's parents as they went with my dad somewhere to do something or see someone
- Said goodbye to Louise when she went with her aunt and grandma, I think, for a manicure or something.
- Karaoke-ed alone.
- Computer
- Nap
- Woke up to parents watching Iron Chef
- Did overdue Engineering Mathematics Applications homework, and a sketch from the current set of homework. Still have eight questions that are due on Tuesday, though.
- Shower
- Bed

I asked Louise after the service if she wanted to go see the turtles because she sounded interested when I pointed out the lake and mentioned them on the drive to church. It was a good idea. Pictures were taken and awws were exclaimed. Things were nice and then Ian and Jan arrived and told us it was time to go. It wasn't an urgent message, though. Jan stuck around for a little bit to poke an oil-slicked and kinda-sick turtle around with a stick.

Not much was done when we got home. After looking at the view we just kind of sat around. Fortunately we had a kitten to amuse us. I hope the day never comes when Cali gets bored of chasing strings and lasers.

I wanted to play with the piano for a bit, but I only managed Heart and Soul with Louise and The Entertainer before Jan started banging random keys when I was trying to play Hallelujah. He said it was "his turn". I told him that I never bang on the drum set randomly when he's playing and that he doesn't really play the piano anyway, but he's a bit of a stubborn bastard so I let him have his way. When I moved away from the piano the wire got loose and the thing powered off (Oh yeah, it's an electric piano), so Jan couldn't play. I was convinced enough that he couldn't fix it to place a bet on it, but he could, and now he is five ringgits richer and I am five ringgits poorer. I don't think he played anything when he was done, but I'm sure if I tried to get back on he would've kicked me off. That's just the kind of lovely guy he is.

Anyway, after that I wanted to karaoke for a bit, but I couldn't persuade anyone to join me. I was about to sing alone when I got a call from Ian asking me to guide him to his new college via a map on his computer. By the time I was done with that, there was no time for karaoke as Louise's parents were just about to leave with my dad for something and Louise herself was about to be picked up by her aunt and grandmother (I think) to get their nails done or something.

I showed her downstairs to the lobby and waited with her for the car. It didn't take very long to get there, so I said goodbye to Louise and went upstairs to karaoke alone.

Oh yeah I forgot to mention in my point form summary that my dad had some more friends over who wanted to know if the Boy's Brigade was right for their son. I sat around and basically told them yeah, yeah it is.

I ended Sunday late and tired and not really looking forward to college the next day, but nonetheless when I woke up it was...

Monday!
- Got up
- Read three chapters of the Bible about 45 minutes (Approximately 5 minutes reading and 40 minutes falling asleep between verses)
- Shaved, put in my lenses, brushed my teeth and all that
- Walked up twenty flights of stairs
- Took my motorcycle to college
- Hung around until my first class
- Cleaned out my wallet during class and found a six-month-old RM20 gift certificate for Outback Steakhouse
- Went out to eat and get better acquainted with some of my classmates from CTS
- Came back for my second class
- Hung around with various friends until five
- Took a nap
- Used the computer lab while waiting for the last of my friends to leave
- Went home
- Nap
- Wrote this

I spent a lot of time hanging out with people on Monday. I could have actually gone home at twelve, but I decided to stay because friends are cool.

The first group of people I hung out with was Crystal and two of her friends. Crystal was the only other student to get a HD in Intermediate English last semester, and I should have become friends with her earlier. She's fun to talk to and she holds interesting views which I can argue with. We talked about Satanists and college clubs and stuff, and I invited her to Christian Fellowship this Friday. We'll see how that last one goes.

I also met Tanuj, who was in my calculus class last semester, and his friend from the degree program. We talked about smoking and what it was like in the degree program and the certificates of completion for completing Foundation.

Aside from those two I also hung out a bit with Denise's group and Joanna's group and some of the third semester students, but not necessarily in that order. Oh yeah, I also hung out with Effie (or Effe. It is a nickname and thus doesn't really matter. I like it better with an i, though.) and JiaYin. The conversation with those two had something to do with relationships and music and coins and stuff. They were my favorite people to hang out with. Effie is refreshingly honest and blunt about things.

So yeah, that was the highlights of Monday, so I guess I'm done with this post. Took me a little over two hours and two thousand words, but at least I'm finished. I wonder if I would have finished my EMA homework if I had done that instead of this. I guess I'll never know.

Technically Yesterday

Having a lecturer in Vietnam meant that my morning class was cancelled, so I got to sleep in until 9. It was pretty sweet.

After waking up I walked the stairs with my sister and told her how the day before went. Then all my siblings and I went to one of the many Ali Majus near my college for breakfast. I had to leave in the middle of it because I had a Critical Thinking Skills class that was starting soon. Miss Tay, our lecturer, forgot the cable to connect the laptops to the projector, so she had to go leave to get that. While she was away I went up to repark my motorcycle. I saw my siblings, but they didn't notice me.

On the way back to class after reparking the motorcycle I passed by my friends. I told them my siblings were eating breakfast nearby and they asked to meet them. Unfortunately, by the time I got my brother on the phone they had already left, and he had paid for my meal a second time (I had paid when leaving). Perhaps I should have said something to them when I was on the way to repark the motorcycle.

Anyway, the presentations were started when I got to class. They were quite good. During the breaks between them I asked this dude about this BMW he had as his background. Apparently he had the exact same model, so that was cool. I'm not sure whether the story of how he got the car was about fantastic profits from stockbreaking combined with connections to dudes in the import/export business or organized crime and German car thieves, but I don't really want to find out. The intrigue is exciting.

After CTS I helped Joanna brainstorm some ideas for her human communications project. Nothing much to note about that except the joke question of whether it's halal for a Malay chick to kiss Chinese dude who had char siew for breakfast. I invited Jo to Christian Fellowship, but she was busy until next month. Eh.

I arrived in the KPD a bit late, but CF hadn't started yet so things were cool. I passed the time by failing to understand this one girl's chemistry notes before moving on to reading this really good text about WW1 and letters from her english notes.

CF was alright. The speaker's message was about the influences of media. There was a bit about DotA and connections to the occult which I found ridiculous. I got in a bit of a debate with the speaker over that, partially because I wanted to make things more interesting and partially because I enjoyed the irony of playing the Devil's Advocate in Christian Fellowship. I talked to the speaker after CF was finished and found out he had been a missionary for 26 years. That was cool. I also helped some guys fill out some surveys for their assignments before heading home.

When I got home I karaoke'd for a while with my youngest sister. That was fun. I took a long nap after that and woke up several hours later to the news on the BBC that Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize and from my brother that we were going to TGI Friday's for dinner.

TGIF was okay. The lamb seemed a bit overdone, but I finally got to have parfait. I had been wondering what that stuff was since I saw the first Shrek movie. I'm glad I finally know what that stuff is now. While at the restaurant I talked about pyramid schemes, binary marketing, and multi-level marketing, then my dad told us about this Ponzi scheme he was almost conned into. Other subjects were discussed but I will skip them so I can finish this and go to bed.

On the walk back to the car we saw birds. Loads and loads of birds, all sitting on the side of the old wing of One Utama. If you're ever there at night, look closely at the black lines on the sides of the building. It's awesome.

So yeah, I got home, did no work, and now I'm writing this. I really need to study hyperbolic functions sometime. Oh yeah and here is the definition of devil's advocate in case you didn't know. Now that I've got a link in my blog I guess I should start linking to my friends. Eh, I'll do that next time I'm free.

What I Did for Class Today (And Other Things)

So today in Critical Thinking Skills the following was on the board:
"Write down three important aspects of your life plan in a piece of paper"
My paper looked like this:
"Life plan:
Get married
Have kids
Die peacefully

No srsly:
Finish college
Get a job
Start a family (or) fill the emptiness in my soul with material goods and hedonistic pleasure in a futile attempt to attain something resembling lifelong joy.

Third attempt:
Continue living
Avoid breaking the law
Avoid becoming homeless

Trying again:
Leave home after having made parents proud with good academic results and a respectable career
Raise a family
Ensure children leave home having made me proud with good academic results and a respectable career

One more, for fun:
Start a criminal empire
Cause the deaths of all who oppose me
With profits, build (and live on) a moonbase"

I presented the fourth one to the class.

So anyway, school today. I arrived early and started reading. I read a bit from The Lexus and The Olive Tree, then I read some of the Critical Thinking Skills textbook. When Juria arrived at college I handed her Breaking Dawn, which I had bought last night to cheer her up after I heard about how bad yesterday went.

Class started after that. My first Engineering Mathematics Applications class with Mr. Joel, my calculus teacher from last semester, was okay. He said that to the three of us there that the previous students had said it was a pretty easy subject. The class consisted of us learning about the course, doing some basic algebra (I made a few careless mistakes but I understood mostly all of it), and then retaking the first calculus quiz from last semester. I think this time I scored more than 2.175% out of 10%, so that was nice. Still, I'm hoping this is the last I see of calculus for a long while.

When the class was over I went to the computer lab for a while to pass the time between now and the next class. I went out to switch labs, but changed my mind and sat outside talking to Juria and her friends instead.

At eleven my next CTS class started, so I went to attend the lecture. Along the way I met Li Ying and Elo, who were trying to sit in for a CTS lecture they'd already heard because they had friends there or something. They found out that the class was already over or something, but I left before I could figure out what their problem was.

I got to class a few seconds before the lecturer. It was an interesting class. It ended a bit early, but I still had to rush if I wanted to make it to Christian Fellowship in the KPD block.

It had been raining while I was in college, so I got on my wet motorcycle and drove somewhat carefully to CF. I arrived in time to catch the last few worship songs and the offering. There were some icebreakers and skits by the groups to practice creativity and get started on our theme for that semester.

I came straight home after CF and bought some junk food to kill my hunger pangs. That was followed by a nice long nap, and now I'm typing this up.

So anyway, I think this'll be the last time I tag everyone I mention in these notes on Facebook. It's a bit silly to have people be notified about notes they're in and then have them wade through dozens of paragraphs about nonsense that happened to me that day only to find a phrase or two with a vague reference to them in it.