So this is my life now

New Year's Eve was fun. Amanda and Joanna came over. Geraldine showed up with her friends and we all played taboo.

Chinese New Year was good. I got a lot of money since it was also my birthday. Ian got me a slice of cake. Jan bought me McDonald's. I gave him RM20 for his birthday. Hannah got me No Country for Old Men.

I read Hannah's present at SEGi, which is where I'm doing my Bachelor's in Civil Engineering. It's a four-year course, so I'll be there for a while. Most of my classmates are from the middle East, which is interesting. One of the subjects I'm doing is Engineering Mathematics, which should go smoothly because I already did that at HELP.

Aron visited. Hannah forgot to return Ruben's hat to him.

We got a package full of licorice from Corinna. When I thanked her on Facebook, she replied that it had been sent on Christmas, which meant that it took more than a month to get to us. Anyway, the licorice was pretty great.

I've been playing Minecraft a lot. It's a very good game. Recently I made a giant mob trap in the sky and a big pit in the ground and a very large staircase into that pit. Also, Ian found some 3D glasses that came with his graphics card, so I can play the game in 3D anaglyph mode and that is pretty great.

My dad's letting me get a car and he's given me a budget. I plan on getting something small and cheap. Jan's learning to drive now, so I guess he'll be sharing it with me.

That's about it, I guess.

Oh, I also went with Amanda to drop Walker off at a shelter. After all her puppies died she started barking all the time and the neighbours started complaining. It was quite sad to let her go.

Also, Hannah got a kitten from her friend, Rebecca. His name is Ringo and he is extremely cute. The other cats don't get along with him so well, but most of the time they keep their distance. The only downside to the kitten is that sometimes he really stinks. Hopefully that'll stop when we castrate him.

Almost 2011

So it's almost a new year. Christmas was nice. I visited Amanda and Carmeni. Amanda had a nicer tree and tastier food but Carmeni's family served a really tasty drink.

Amanda's dog, Walker, had eight puppies. Six of them died, I buried one.

I've been sleeping a lot. It's been nice.

I finished watching all the Community episodes yesterday. It's a good show.

Hannah had me drive her around a lot to visit kittens and such.

For Christmas, I got The Road from Hannah (dang good book; I read it in a day) and a bunch of Coca-Cola contour glasses from Amanda (so cool!) and I got some jeans, a belt, and a polo shirt from my mum. I also got a flashlight from my dad, I think. I drew Hannah in the Secret Santa, so I got her a "How To Take Care of Your Kitten" book and a Buzz Lightyear watch and some other stuff.

Tonight there is going to be a New Year's Eve party at my house but not many people are coming. Amanda and Joanna will be there, which is good. We'll probably order pizza. I got the keys to the roof so we'll have an awesome view of the fireworks, which will be nice. I also got, like, a buttload of snacks so that should be good, too.

Aside from that not much has happened.

A Lazy Sunday on the Job

I watched the 1950s version of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers at work today (Sunday). It was great. I think the Pod People had a good thing going, though. I wouldn't really have minded becoming one of them. The movie reminded me of On The Third Day in some ways, too, so that made it all the more awesome. I still wouldn't want to catch the Sadness, though.

I got a call from someone who claimed he couldn't understand my accent. It was the first time I got that complaint. Usually they just say I'm going too fast. He asked me where I was located and when I told him that I was in Malaysia he got upset and started swearing. I was excited because if he said three swear words I could hang up on him and being allowed to hang up on a customer is such a great feeling. After his fourth swear I started to tell him that I was allowed to hang up on him for being too profane, but he hung up on me first. Oh well.

After that we didn't really get any more calls, so the rest of the team talked about our more "fun" callers and what they were like. Google and Facebook helped us learn what some of our callers looked like. I think it's against our contract to add them to our friends, though.

One of the T2 guys, Ismael, took me up to see the Microsoft floor, which was abandoned when the department was moved overseas. It was pretty awesome. There were two Xbox rooms with Halo wallpaper. I took some office supplies that were left behind. Now I have a new ruler.

While waiting for the Perth phone lines to close, I took a nap under my desk. I was supposed to wake up after an hour, but I only woke up when my dad called to say he had arrived fifteen minutes ago and had been waiting outside for me to arrive.

When I got home I went straight to bed while listening to music from my phone. It was a good sleep. My dad woke me up at one point to ask if I wanted dinner, but I told him no. To make sure I wasn't sleep-talking, he asked me what the square root of nine was. I answered correctly and went back to sleep.

Ian, Joel, and Jan woke me up around six hours later with the sounds of gambling and football. I went out to the living room and Hannah was reading my Tumblr. She didn't follow me, though. She said I was annoying her and started playing videos of me talking to make her leave.

It shouldn't be 3:30am now. I would be waking up to get ready for work at around this time. This is ridiculous. I wish Ian and Jan and Joel could have just gambled outside or watched football somewhere else or something. Gah. I'm going to be so tired at work later.

I downloaded a lot of Elvis songs and Mr Bean episodes recently. They're great.

Airport, Pictures, Hannah and Her Friends, Movies, and Other Things

So I said I would continue blogging, and I was not lying.

Yesterday (Saturday) we went to a mall and I read a good book by a cool guy named Rhys Thomas. I know he is cool because I later read that he sent a free copy of the book I was reading to a girl who had posted a cool review of his other book on her blog. That is a thing only cool people do. Anyway, the book was called On The Third Day and it was about an epidemic that removed all the hopes from people and then killed them exactly three days later. They didn't mind because without hopes their lives were meaningless. Even though I only made it through a third of the book before I was interrupted, I very much enjoyed it. Hannah, Ebony, and Yii-Huei (H.E.Y. from now on for the sake of convenience and fun acronyms, but without the periods, because groups of girls are always better when periods aren't involved) had gone to watch Charlie St Cloud. Afterwards they told me it was okay. I told them the book was awesome. I hope this will make them start reading. It probably will not, though.

Hannah was upset with me for something that was actually her fault, but I bought her ice cream to cheer her up because I read somewhere that girls like ice cream. It didn't really work, so I tried initiating some gossip, because I read that girls like that, too. She felt a little better after that.

Well, it wasn't actually gossip. It was the platypus game. I've explained the name before, but I shall explain it again. The name has nothing to do with the game, Hannah just likes the way it sounds because she's a 13-year-old girl and they are allowed to be whimsical and silly like that. Basically the game is truth or dare without the truth. It was... enlightening. We also played it in the car that we took to the mall and in the sauna that we will encounter later on in this story.

Hannah promised we would go to the sauna. The sauna is something I enjoy but something I don't like to do alone. Yii-Huei and Ebony enjoy the sauna. Hannah enjoys doing things with her friends. Everyone wins.

The sauna was hot and there was a lot of steam, which is exactly what you would expect from a sauna but just because something is expected it does not mean it cannot be fun. We left six minutes earlier than we had planned because it got too hot. Next time we will last longer. There may not be a next time, though.

Hannah cried when Stefanie left. Hannah is currently quite upset with me. This paragraph could fit anywhere in this blog post, and there are probably better places for it, but this is the place that it was when I wrote it and I don't feel like moving it.

Today was Sunday. Church was church, but the sermon was more interesting than usual due to a guest speaker. I did not have gum to stay awake, so I looked through pictures on my phone and showed them to Jan and HEY. Jan thought this one was particularly hilarious:

Ebony was reading the fourth Harry Potter book next to me. I've never read any of the Harry Potter books or watched any of the movies, and this usually surprises people. Based what I saw on the pages I read over Ebony's shoulder (She is a slow reader, I had plenty of time to read her pages and look at pictures and also listen to the sermon a bit), I'm going to say that JK Rowling is a pretty good writer. I guess I wouldn't mind a Harry Potter box set for Christmas, but I'd still much rather have a Stephen King collection or The Zombie Survival Guide or anything by Max Barry or even The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

After church, Yii-Huei went home with her family and I dropped Ebony off at her house and then I dropped Hannah off at Grace Assembly for a Royal Rangers 22nd anniversary. She likes a guy there, I think. I hope it isn't David Soh. I think it's another guy she says she hates. I followed her inside. The uniforms don't look that bad, especially when you compare them to the junior uniforms that BB has. Ugh, who thought those shorts were a good idea?

Anyway, as I left I met David's dad. I should have greeted him with "Old man, old man", but I did not. I did not say goodbye in that fashion either. Oh well, we all have regrets that we must live with.

I took a nap when I got home.

I watched Outsourced with Jan and Joel. They were both texting and talking and so everything was less funny than when I watched. People should give more things their undivided attention. That way there would be less collisions on the road, and also people would enjoy things more. It's not like the texts are going anywhere, anyway.

True Love is an objectively good song. Even if you were to ignore who was collaborating on it, it is a nice sounding song that most people would enjoy. Prove me wrong, Hannah.

After watching outsourced I may have taken a nap. I am not sure.

Stuff happened. I can't remember. It probably was not interesting. You know what is interesting, though? This.

Ian, Jan, and Joel were gambling. I strung some of Jan's bets and won around RM10 from Ian. Everyone was happy after the gambling was over, with the exception of Ian, whose gambling debts had recently reached three digits for the umpteenth time. I wouldn't go so far as to say that he probably has a gambling problem, but I will say that gambling probably gives him problems.

Hannah, my mother, and I went downstairs for dinner. Joel was waiting for us there. Do not fear, Joel is not omnipresent; time had passed and he had gone downstairs first. Dinner was tasty and somewhat expensive but that was fine because I paid with my winnings.

When I get my pay cheque I will tithe a tenth, save half (or thereabouts), and spent most of what's leftover on food. Everything else will either go to gambling, Hannah, or movies. This is an arrangement that I am happy with, but some people think it is a bad idea. I think some people are wrong sometimes. Actually, I think most people are wrong most times. That does not mean that I am not most people, but it does not mean that I am, either.

We talked about stuff over dinner. Politics, my grandfathers (They are awesome; did you know that? One sabotaged Nazi operations during the German invasion of the Netherlands a little over half a century ago, and the other killed communist terrorists for a while before moving on to spying on them and figuring out ways to destroy them from the inside), science and religion, my future, Hannah's future, relationships, and other stuff. It was fun. Hannah was on her iPod for half of it. Typical teenager. Typical Hannah, actually.

I need a best friend. I don't have one; I never have had one. Well, maybe I don't need one, but I want one. If she's a girl it's a plus. I would settle for an awkward loser, at least then we would have something in common. I would settle for a dog. I would settle for a cat. I already have a cat. I guess that'll do, then.

I still have to write about clubbing. I will get to that. Look, I'll make a deadline for myself. Something will happen to the clubbing post by Wednesday. Early Thursday morning latest. I'll find something to sincerely compliment my brothers about if I don't update the post. There, it's said. It'll happen now.

I also said I'd write about movies and something else. Jan and I went to see Resident Evil: Afterlife with El-Hanan a few days ago. It is the third movie I've seen more than once in cinemas. Inception was five times, the Dark Knight was two and a half times. Afterlife is undoubtedly the shittiest movie of the three, but it was worth watching for the 3D. Proper 3D is worth the eighteen ringgit. Do not bother with that post-production bullshit, or else I will think less of you as a person. I will do the same if you pay to watch shit like Epic Movie and Vampires Suck and all that other Friedberg and Seltzer bullshit.

That one 3D owl movie looked nice. I might watch it if I have someone to watch it with.

Oh yeah, I also had to write about going with friends to surprise Nicholas at the airport. Basically, after work I spent a whole lot of money going to KLIA to say goodbye to one of my friends' boyfriends. I went because I don't get out much and I would do pretty much anything as long as I knew my friends were there, too, and it didn't involve too much lawbreaking. I was told Amanda wasn't going to be there. "Oh well," I thought, "Joanna is pretty fun and there is much wisdom within the mind of Davinia that I can attempt to obtain. Also, I should probably say a proper goodbye to Nicholas since I was kinda drunk the last time I saw him. Also also, Carmeni is going to be sad afterwards and maybe there is something I can do."

In retrospect, there was nothing I could do except be there, really.

On the way there I stopped at this place along the highway and I got my Touch 'n Go credit moved from my inactive MyKad to a new Touch 'n Go card. I used RM40 of the credit that night alone. The road to KLIA is an expensive one. Parking's pretty bloody pricey, too. I've still got RM50 left or something, so that should last a while. Or so I hope.

I ate Burger King and was just about to take a nap in a booth when the girls found me. We hung out for a bit. Joanna and Carmeni stayed at one spot for a while while Davinia and I went to look at aeroplanes. You guys, aeroplanes are really big. It's awesome. Did you know they fly? They are huge and metal and they fly all over the place. Awesome.

We got back and took pictures. Then we got a call and Nicholas was in the airport. We surprised him. We went to McDonald's. Carmeni sat with her boyfriend and his family. Joanna, Davinia, and I sat at another table nearby. At the airport McDonald's is a bloody rip-off, too. Burger King offers the same menu and the same prices, but McDonald's doesn't care. McDonald's is like the country it represents; it's so large and ubiquitous that it thinks it can do whatever it wants and that it can get away with it. Right now it's right, but the times, they are a-changing.

Sometimes, even I'm aware of how crazy I sound.

After McDonald's, Davinia's phone rang. It was the kind of phone call that you can't discuss in front of a guy, so she went off with Joanna for some girl time and girl talk, whatever that is. Meanwhile, Nicholas' family was taking some final goodbye pictures. I ended up in the group photos but, because they were away, Joanna and Davinia did not. That's not really fair; they know Nicholas better than I do.

A few more pictures were taken, and then Nicholas left and Carmeni started crying. I am terrible at reading emotions because I thought she looked like she was handling the whole thing quite well up until then.

We hung out some more and then the girls went to the toilet and I went home.

Here are the pictures of the night that I took with my phone and one that I did not:



So yeah, that is the story of the time my friends and I showed up at KLIA to make sure that Nicholas Rodriguez could have a little more time with Carmeni before they had to say goodbye for a while.

I'm not sure what to put in this paragraph. I'm not sure what to put in most paragraphs. Usually I just type my thoughts and that turns out quite well. This is a transition paragraph that I feel should be a bit more solemn than usual.

This is also a transition paragraph. This one is about how I just recently learned that "swig" and "swing" are different words. Never again will I say "another swing of wine". Not that I ever said it before, but at least if I ever need the phrase in future I will be saying it right.

This is not a transition paragraph. This is me, blogging. I texted people almost out of nowhere recently. I asked my friends to recommend a best friend for me. Davinia gave me sound advice. Joanna also gave me good advice, but over Windows Live Messenger so that she wouldn't have to use credit or something. Amanda did not reply and I hope that it is because she was busy or out of credit but I guess it might also be because she did not want to. Saundra replied, but I'm not really sure why I sent it to Saundra.

I want a girlfriend. I won't settle for a cat on this one.

There, now I'm done blogging, and it's only twelve. All I have to do is upload all my recent pictures, tweak the HTML, add a few more thoughts, upload, and I'm done.

Oh, I joined Twitter. I wonder why I didn't mention that earlier. I've wanted to join ever since I found out that astronauts have Twitter accounts and they send tweets from space. Until then I had never realized how badly I have wanted to receive electronic communications from space.

Electronic communications... FROM SPACE.

You guys that is so awesome.

Anyway, I'm going to upload the rest of my photographs now. Well, I won't really be uploading them. They're already online, on Facebook. I'll just be attaching them to this post. If Zachary Bower is right and Facebook is just a fad, then when my children read this post there will be nothing here but a bunch of white squares with "x"s in them, assuming my children are reading this with an ancient (by future standards, of course) version of Internet Explorer, which is a silly thing to assume, since Google will probably own the internet by then. What's the Chrome icon for a dead image?

But yeah, pictures. Enjoy:




Okay I think that some explanation is required for some of those pictures. From the top down: Some owls Hannah drew in church last week, a few pictures I took for Hannah in church when she was trying to see what her braid looked like (it did not look nice, as you could see), Hipster Hannah in Cotton On, cats and kittens at Bukit Kiara, Hannah and Yii-Huei and their attempts to hide from the camera, and finally Mercy and her son being cats.

I enjoyed writing this post more than I usually enjoy writing blog posts. I think that may be because it is still so early in the night (it is not even 1am yet).

By the way, did you notice any errors in this post? Yes? Then you should tell me; I can't fix them unless I know where they are.

Oh yeah, Daylight Savings Time is in effect now, which means that work starts an hour earlier and ends an hour earlier, too. I don't mind waking up early, especially for what they're paying me.

So Redang Was Nice

I had a good holiday. It was really good timing; took my mind of the summonses and now I don't care that I had such a terrible day that day.

I'll try not to include too many descriptions and opinions in this post because firstly I don't want to spend all day on this and secondly because I want there to be stuff left to tell when people who read this blog (Ebony? Hannah?) ask me how the holiday was. Here goes:

We were supposed to leave at 2am on Tuesday, but we ended up driving off at 2:30am because we were tired and sluggish or something. We were taking two cars to get to Terrenganu: my dad's and my mum's. My dad's car had Hannah, my dad, and me; everyone else was in the other car. My dad drove most of the way. I started off by taking a nap while the Inception soundtrack played on my phone, then I woke up for a while and engaged my dad in conversation to keep him awake, then I took over for him for a while while he took a break, then we took a wrong turn which added an hour an a half to our journey because the signs were confusing, then I pulled over because Hannah's contact lens fell out of her eye because she was sleeping with it in, then I helped her get it safe, I drove while my dad napped (even though I still didn't have my license), then we swapped places again and I read some Greek mythology from a book we had brought along, then I napped again, then I woke up and we were at the docks at 8:45 and the boat was apparently leaving at nine.

I was going to rush to get ready for the boat trip, but my dad told me that he was mistaken and the boat was actually leaving at nine thirty, so I was able to take my time. While I was putting in my contact lenses, a kitten approached me and started bugging me. Just my luck that the only time I don't want to approach a new cat, it approaches me. I told Ian to restrain it, but he failed, and it knocked the lens out of my hand and onto its head. I retrieved the lens, rinsed it off, and carried on. After that I changed out of my shoes and long pants into shorts and sandals. I tried to approach the cat again, but when it noticed that I was interested, it decided to avoid me. Typical cat. I did my daily Bible reading instead. When I was done, I managed to get the kitten to stay put, and I gave it the attention it wanted when I was putting in my contacts. It reminded me of Cali.


Anyway, the boat arrived, so we gave the people our stuff and got on board. It was a fun ride over. I sat next to Hannah and shared the music from my phone with her. I also took some pictures.



When we arrived on Redang, we took our stuff to our rooms, then we went snorkelling around a very very large rock (or a rather small peninsula). We saw some tiny sharks and a turtle.

After that we had lunch. They had fresh, non-boiled vegetables, which I thought was great. The always-full bucket of delicious biscuits was still there, and so I helped myself to those. I also had some fried crab thingies that were tastier than I thought they would be. It was a nice lunch. Also there were these three kittens that hung around the canteen. They were all white and they had a white dad who was raising them. It was pretty cute.


When lunch was over, we had some time to kill before our first dive, so I turned on my music and took a nap in the shade. My parents told me that napping in the shade would still get me a tan. I was doubtful, but I went with it. They were telling the truth. Unfortunately, I hadn't put lotion on my legs, so they got a bit burned. Also I slept on my side for a while, so I ended up with a bit of an uneven tan.

Ian and I went on our first dive after that. It was a shore dive next to the rock where we had gone snorkelling around after we arrived. The preparation was a bit embarrassing, because even though we were certified divers, we hadn't dived in three years so we didn't know what went where or how to put anything on, so Stephen, the guy who was guiding us on the dive, had to help us out while making only the shallowest efforts to mask his annoyance.

The dive was nice. Ian and Stephen saw a very large trigger fish, which is quite a dangerous fish, apparently. I looked where they were pointing, but I didn't see it. We probably saw other interesting things, but I've forgotten. My dive log for that dive was "Had to re-learn how to wear equipment, had a good, trouble free dive. Saw lots of parrotfish, slugs, and anenomes [sic]. Everyone else saw a trigger fish but I didn't. Good, relaxed dive."

After that we swam around and played with the inflatable rafts or something. I can't really remember. I think I hung out with Hannah. We stopped when we got bored of the sea and said we were going to shower and have dinner.

I took a proper shower with soap and stuff (as opposed to just showers with freshwater so I'm not all salty and itchy after being in the sea), but while I was halfway through my dad said that there were some really big waves out that everyone was going to play in. I told him that I had already showered so they could go ahead without me, so they did. When my shower was done I went to watch them from a deck chair, then I fell asleep. When I woke up, they were all gone, so I went looking for them for a bit.

I found them and we had dinner. Every two days, the resort does a barbecue. The lamb was really, really good. The sweet potato was a little less so. I didn't eat enough lamb as I should have. Everyone else said the chicken was good, but I was too busy with the lamb to try any.

After dinner we went back to our rooms. Ian and I took turns using the computer to access the internet. I had the first turn, which I used to take my Conquer Club turns, then I let Ian have the computer while I napped, then I used the computer again to finish watching Sphere. It is a pretty awful film, which is a shame because the book is great. Anyway, after the movie I went to sleep. I slept well, even though the room was quite cold (the air conditioning was very effective and the sheets were tucked in very tight, so I didn't have slack which meant there was always space for the air to get under the covers).

The next day (Wednesday), I woke up, did my daily Bible reading, ate breakfast (Sausages and French toast; so delicious!), and then we went for a dive. This time it wasn't just Stephen, Ian, and I, though. There was also a European guy who had lived in Australia for a while and been on around one hundred fifty dives. That's a lot of dives. This time we took the boat out. The water was very choppy, so it was a fun ride. When we dived down, the first thing we saw was an eel. After that there were turtles. Then I realized I had fifty bars of air, so Stephen had me use his other regulator while we finished the dive and did the safety stop. I felt very incompetent. My entry for that dive was "Saw at least 3 turtles, an eel, some large fish and large slugs. Ran out of air early, had to use Stephen's air. Need to control breathing next time. Also saw a school of small barracudas".

After that we took the boat back, had a break of a little more than an hour, and then we were back on the boat for another dive. I ended it with 75 bars left in my tank, which is twenty-five over the minimum and more than Ian had left. The entry for that dive was "Managed to control breathing. Saw lots of anenomes [sic], two types of clownfish (orange & grey), felt strong current, had a generally calm and peaceful time."

When we got back we had lunch. I don't think there was much great food for lunch, so I just ate a lot of vegetables and biscuits. We filled in our logs and filled in our logs, and then it was time for another dive.

We had been to this particular dive site three years ago, and according to my log I had seen some barracudas before I had to surface early. This time around was a lot more interesting. I thought I saw a weird donut-shaped coral, but it turned out to be a tire. I tried to carry it out, but something pricked my finger. I wanted to see if it was something venomous or just a cut, so I squeezed my finger and green stuff came out. I showed it to Ian, but he didn't care. I later found out that blood is green underwater. That's pretty cool. Anyway, after that we saw a bunch of rays. Here's the log: "Saw 3 rays. 1 tail, one in some sand but very visible, one orange & purple & small. Saw large school of medium sized fish. Very, very, big waves. Also saw someone hold a starfish." The waves were indeed very big. I was checking my gauges during the safety stop, and every time a wave would pass overhead, it would go from registering 5 metres of depth to 6 metres of depth. Stephen joked that we may have to cancel dives the next day.

After getting back and storing my equipment, I went to the pier with Hannah, Ian, Jan, and my mum. The pier was new. It floated on the surface instead of being built on stilts or something, so it was unstable and very fun to walk on. We tried jumping into waves as they passed, with limited success. We also tried testing our balance on the edges. It was a good time.

When that was over, we went to play in the waves. The rest of the family was already there, actually, but Jan and I had stayed for longer on the pier, so we were the last to arrive. Along the way to the part of the beach with the biggest waves, I passed an attractive tourist who looked like she was around my age. She was building a sand castle. I wanted to talk to her, but everyone was waiting for me at the waves, so I joined them for that. When I got bored with the waves, I tried swimming over to where she was. Just as I was leaving the water to go strike up a conversation, she ran off into the sea to play in the waves with her parents, so I went back to join my own family. The waves were big and fun, but they broke my watch strap. Oh well, I fixed it (kinda) a few hours ago.

After the waves, I took a proper shower. It was nice. After the shower I went to check what was for dinner, but there was nothing outstanding, so we went to a restaurant nearby to eat instead. I had a grilled lamb chop, which in hindsight was not such a great choice since there was going to be limitless lamb the next night. Half of the lamb I got was overdone and not that tasty, too. The fries were great, though. I should have had the fish and chips, probably.

When dinner was over we got some ice cream, and then Ian went to the room to use the internet while Jan and I dug some holes under Hannah's supervision. Hannah eventually left, but we kept digging. Jan's hole ended up going halfway up his thighs. Mine was a lot wider, but it only went up to my knees. We built a wall around Jan's hole so it would look deeper, and then I added a ramp, and then I noticed that it kind of looked like the front end of a sperm, so we added a wriggly tail and soon it was done and it looked really great. My dad came by with a torchlight which meant that we could take some pictures. We were quite sweaty from all the digging, so we needed another shower afterwards. It was worth it, though, the sand-sperm looked great. Jan lost his spade, though.


After showering, I used the computer to read a bunch of Cracked articles and take my Conquer Club turns, and then I went to bed.

When I woke up it was Thursday and we had another diving trip to go on. Jan and Hannah had done enough of their course that they were ready to go on a boat dive, and my mum and dad were done with their shore dives and wanted to do a boat dive, so we all went together after breakfast and stuff.

We didn't see anything really interesting on the dive. We had rented an underwater camera, though, so Ian and my dad took some pictures. Ian kept swimming off without me, which was not cool since he was my buddy and buddies are supposed to stick together. Also, he was supposed to stick with Jan and Hannah's diving instructor, Chris, since she was the one who would know what to do if something went wrong. Anyway, our dive finished when Jan and Hannah dipped under the 50 bar limit. My entry for the dive was "First dive with family. My buddy kept straying. Didn't see anything interesting aside from angel fish and big rocks."

After that we had a break, and then another dive. This second dive was much better. Hannah was my buddy this time, so I didn't have to worry when Ian went swimming off on his own. I saw loads of gross worm-like things on corals and pointed them out at Jan so he could share my disgust. At one point I swam above Hannah and watched as she looked around for me for a few panicky moments before I finally descended with my face right in front of hers. That was funny. We also saw a huge stingray. I was behind it, so I got real close to its tail so some nice pictures could be taken. Apparently it was the same type of sting ray that killed Steve Irwin. Huh. Anyway, here's what my log said: "Saw lots of nice coral, lots of worm-type things on a volcano shaped coral, saw and got close to big-ish stingray, saw small blue-spotted ray, (orange & purple), Had wee bit of buoyancy trouble throughout dive. Second dive with family."


After that I took a shower, then I had lunch, then I went into the sun to get a tan. My plan was to listen to the soundtrack of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog while I tanned my back, and then when that was over I'd flip over and listen to random songs while I tanned my front. When I was ten minutes from completion, my dad told me that I would burn and that I should join him on the pier to feed some fish. I told him that I had put plenty of lotion on so I'd be fine, and even if I did join him on the dock it's just as sunny there so I'd get just as burned. He finally left me, but then I realized that he was the one paying for the vacation so I might as well do what he says, so I went to join him on the pier. I aired my grievances and he let me finish my tan, so I did. When the last song on the soundtrack was forty-five seconds from finishing, Ian came by and tried to tell me something, but I told him to just wait for another half-minute or so. When I was done I looked around, but he was gone.

I found Ian and asked him what he wanted to tell me and he said that everyone was going snorkelling around the big rock/small peninsula. I told him that I'd just climb along the side and watch them, since I was getting bored of the sea. Right around then my dad came by and said that we were going to build a bonfire that night so we had to go with him to get some sticks. He said it would only take twenty minutes.

Ian, Jan, and I went with my dad to go get some firewood. We saw a pretty big monitor lizard along the way. I took a few pictures of it. It looked quite prehistoric; it was pretty awesome. Anyway, we brought back the sticks and our twenty minutes were up, so we wanted to go to the rock, but my dad said we had to dig a pit and break up the sticks and stuff. Once that was done someone from the resort came by and told us that we weren't allowed to burn stuff on the beach, so we had just wasted three quarters of an hour.


We finally got to go around the rock. I climbed around the side while the rest of the family (except my dad) snorkelled. Eventually I reached a point where I couldn't keep going, so I just jumped in the water and swam. A little while after I got in the sea, I saw a huge school of fish jumping through the water towards me. They stopped jumping before I could get close, though.

I met up with the others and helped push Susanna back to shore on her inflatable mattress. While I was doing that I saw a stunt plane doing stunts. It was pretty dang awesome. I kept imagining it crashing even though I didn't want it to. Fortunately, it didn't.

When we got to shore, Hannah told me about all the small reef sharks she had seen earlier (six at once!) so I told her that I'd go get my snorkel and join her to just look at the sharks. I did and we did until the sun set. In addition to seeing loads of little sharks (The most I saw at once was three), we also saw a tiny eel, and a bigger shark that was just a bit smaller than Susanna.

While the sun was setting, I took another shower. I had dinner in the resort's canteen since it was barbecue night. I had a lot of lamb. It was all delicious. I also tried some chicken. It was also delicious. After dinner we went to the restaurant for some fries to snack on. They were also delicious.

When we got back to our rooms I did a bit of packing, read a bit of Cracked, took some Conquer Club turns, and then I went to sleep. I had a nice sleep. While the rest of us were sleeping, my dad went out and lit the bonfire. Fortunately he didn't end up burning the resort down, so everything was fine.

I woke up at around seven on Friday. My dad had gone with Hannah to snorkel with the sharks. I had breakfast and did my daily Bible reading, finished up with my packing, and then went to try and finish tanning my front. Unfortunately, the sun was behind a cloud for the whole half hour that I was trying to get tanned. It was practically the only cloud in the sky, too. Oh well.

We went back with a different boat than the one we had arrived in. It was a lot more comfortable, but it wasn't as open as the other one so I couldn't take as cool pictures. Anyway, I listened to my music and before I knew it we were back on the mainland.


The contact lens kitten, Sammy Jenkins (Hannah and I first named him Lenny because of the contact lens that fell on his head, then we called him Lenny Jenkins because Jenkins is a good last name for someone named Lenny, then we called him Sammy Jenkins because Sammy is a better first name for someone name Jenkins), was still there. I gave him some more attention, and then we had to leave.

On the drive back, I took some naps and finished the book of Greek myths. We made a few stops and bought some snacks. Hannah's contact lens fell out again, but this time she just let it dry out because she didn't care. We pulled up at the McDonald's near Genting for lunch. We placed our order just a few minutes before the lunch discount expired. I almost finished the Adrian Mole book I was reading, but I had to stop with just a few pages left. When we were almost home, we dropped by Lucky Gardens to pick up my new license. It's a full license and it'll last for the next five years. Nice.

I didn't have time to unpack when I got home because my dad had a meeting to go to and I had to drive him there. I gathered up that day's newspaper, the Adrian Mole book that I was almost done with, and all the Star Two newspapers from Tuesday to Friday so I could read them while waiting for my dad.

I finished reading the Adrian Mole book. He's less of a twat in 1992 than when he began. I also learned from the newspaper that Malaysia had done something to rile up some Indonesians and now they were throwing faeces at the embassy in Jakarta. That was amusing. My dad's meeting finished and he took the papers as I drove him back.

When I got back home, I unpacked and then went on the computer. I spent a long time on it since there was a lot to catch up on.

My dad wanted to go for dinner because he was suffering from pork withdrawal. Jan, he, and I went to Sin Kee's for dinner. It was a bit of a hassle to find parking because of how busy the road was, but we managed. The chicken chop was yummy, as expected.

Back home I went on the computer for a long while, then I watched the TV and did my exercises for a while, then I took a nap, then I took a shower, then I went to bed at around 2:30am. I couldn't sleep because of how hot it was because the fan was still broken, so eventually I went outside and slept on the couch under the ceiling fan. I woke up at seven and went back into my room to sleep since the air-conditioning had cooled it down a bit.

Aunty Rosie came in and turned everything off and so I woke up an hour later because it was too hot. Then I tried to see if Hannah loves Audrey more than Stefanie and Saundra, but she proved that she cares for them an equal amount, and that amount is more than the amount she cares for abused children in Thailand and stuff.

Anyway, I spent the rest of today catching up on my friends' blog posts and writing this blog post. It only took me three hours to write this. I am pleased. Hannah, tell me my typos and stuff once you're done reading this.

Oh yeah, it was my mum's birthday yesterday, so to celebrate we're having breakfast for dinner today. All that bacon ought to satisfy my dad's pork cravings.

Driving, Reading, Driving, Reading, Driving, Watching Movies

Yesterday was mostly spent driving my dad around because he had bought a whole bunch of stuff for me on Sunday and I felt guilty for being responsible for the loss of so much cash, so I wanted to help him work. Also I didn't want to get bored at home, even though I had plenty of books to read.

I drove him to his first meeting, and he said that I could go get some hot dogs from Ikea while I was waiting for it to finish. I had actually been to Ikea last week with Hannah and Ebony after taking them to 1 Utama, so I was craving another hot dog, which is why I had mentioned Ikea hot dogs as a possible option for lunch on Sunday, which is why my dad was telling me to buy them for lunch on Tuesday. Anyway, at Ikea I called our house and asked what everyone wanted on their hot dogs. Hannah said she would have two curry puffs instead. I ended up ordering nine hot dogs, two curry puffs, and a drink. It was only when I was about to pay that I realized I had left the money in the car, so I apologized to the guy at the counter and ran off for a while to get the cash. When I got back, the hot dogs were ready, so I added way too much onions to my two (Structurally, not gastronomically. The hot dog could have been tastier, but the bun could not support the amount of onions I had loaded it with and so it was literally falling apart.) and ate them. After that I put ketchup on Jan's, everything on my dad's, and everything but chili sauce on Ian's. There was one hot dog left over, so I left that one plain.

I called my dad and asked him whether I should go pick him up or go home with the food. He told me to go home, so I did. The hot dogs were distributed. They looked quite sloppy, so I explained that hot dog garnishing is a subtle art, and I am neither an artist nor very subtle. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food anyway.

My dad called and said that he was going to Plaza Damas to continue the meeting, so I should be there by two o'clock. Hannah let me use her laptop to check where it was using Google Maps. She kept switching tabs to Tumblr, so it took a while, but she did help me out and for that I am grateful. Anyway after that I set my alarm and I plopped into a chair to read some more of Sphere by Michael Crichton. I had found it on our shelves recently and remembered reading the Wikipedia synopsis. Since I had enjoyed all of the other Michael Crichton books I had read, I thought I would be a good thing to bring along to keep myself occupied while waiting for meetings to finish. I was correct. It was really interesting and exciting, even though I vaguely knew what would happen next, I still couldn't remember how it would end, so there was still some suspense left.

After a few chapters, my alarm rang. I went to the car and drove to Plaza Damas. Along the way I passed the Backyard Pub where Carmeni's birthday was celebrated. The grassy bit outside seemed a lot larger when I was passed out on it. Anyway, I got to the mall at Plaza Damas and gave my dad a call. I could see him, but the way into the mall was blocked by taxis. I waited behind one for a while, but it wasn't moving. Finally I gave my dad a call and asked him if he'd just run over. He told me to go forward a bit and come to him. Apparently there was another lane into the mall in front of the taxi that I couldn't see. My dad got a little annoyed with me for not seeing that.

Anyway, I drove him to his next meeting, then I found a spot to park and read a few more chapters of Sphere. His meeting ended very early, though, because the guy he was meeting with had another emergency meeting come up so he had to leave. I picked my dad up and we went to fill up the car.

Once the car was filled up, my dad didn't have any more meetings to go to, so he decided to see about renewing my driver's license at the JPN, which was very nearby. There wasn't any line or much waiting to be had. I was told that I couldn't renew my license since it was a P, even though it was only four days from expiring. I would have to come back later with my full license to get it integrated into my MyKad. After that I went to have my picture taken for my new MyKad because I was getting it updated or something. The lady said that it would be ready in two weeks and I should call to confirm and then drop by to pick it up.

On the way to the car my dad said I could get my full driver's license from the driving centre, which seemed like a good idea. I'll hand my P in a few days from now, and then when my new MyKad is ready I'll integrate my full license into that, for convenience.

Our next stop was HELP, because I had found out recently that I couldn't access my results on MyPride because my resource fee still wasn't settled. I had thought that was sorted out, but apparently it wasn't, so I was going with my dad to see if things could be resolved. The lady at the counter was very helpful and she said she would get it done, and my dad was pleased. I was, too. In the end my dad didn't even have to do anything. At his request, though, I filled in a form to request for a pair of transcripts so I could start applying at other universities. It should be ready by next Monday.

After that we were headed to Bangsar Village so my dad could go pick up a new microwave to replace the old one that had died mysteriously a few nights ago after heating up my carbonara. Along the way I noticed my dad reading Sphere. I said to him that it was a really good book, and he agreed. I told him I was going to finish it that day. He said I wasn't, and I told him that I had read larger books before in one day. He clarified that I wasn't going to finish reading Sphere that day because he was going to finish reading Sphere that day. My father, ladies and gentlemen.

Anyway, I had the chance to read the book while waiting for him to get the microwave, so I did. After a while my dad left the mall with a component for our breadmaker, but no microwave. I wasn't even aware our breadmaker was broken. Oh well.

When that was all done we went home. My dad read Sphere, and I probably watched a movie or something. In the evening my dad told me that he suddenly had a meeting at KL Sentral and I was driving him there. I didn't mind because it meant I could continue reading Sphere while I waited.

We went to the station, my dad went to his meeting, and I read the book. I was about halfway through when my dad said it was over. I picked him up and he handed me some Burger King as a reward for driving him around all day.

When we got home my Burger King meal became a lot less of a great reward because I saw that Aunty Rosie had made chicken and chips for dinner. My fries were redundant, but at least the chicken tenders were still tasty. I gave one to Hannah, and I let Ian have my coke because somebody drank his. I shouldn't've given my BK coke away because the bottle I had in the fridge was flat. Oh well. Dinner was nice anyway.

After that I watched The Illusionist. I wanted to watch The Prestige, but I figured I might as well watch the lousier of the period magician movies from 2006 first. Save the best for last, y'know? Anyway it was an okay movie and I probably would have enjoyed it more if I wasn't so tired, but the truth is there's so many more good movies on my hard drive that I could have watched, so it felt a bit like a waste of time. But yeah, I went to bed late after a shower and exercise and stuff.

The next day I let my 8:45 alarm ring and ring and ring. After ringing for a minute, the phone will snooze for the next nine. I ended up only waking up at nine fifty-five. Perhaps "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" isn't annoying enough to be an effective alarm, but I just can't resist the Inception reference. It does unfortunately mean that every time I wake up I have to mutter either "Asshole! How could you screw up the carpet?" or "No, it's too soon", but I enjoy it so what the hell, eh?

I was supposed to go see Inception with Elo after she finished shopping with her friend, but her friend never decided whether they were going to Mid Valley or Times Square, so I ended up arranging to meet Elo before she leaves at KL Sentral on Thursday night with a bunch of the others. I didn't have anything to do after that, but my dad was finished with Sphere so I picked up where I left off.

While I was reading, my dad told me that he had another meeting at KL Sentral, so I drove him there again. A guard chased me away from the drop-off point, but I found a better spot anyway. I finished the book (It was really good. I want to lend it to my Psychology lecturer.) and then I took a nap. I woke up to a call from my dad at six. During the drive back I realized how easy the drive to and from Sentral had become ever since they finished building the flyover and changed the flow of traffic in Brickfields (or is it near Brickfields? Whatever).

Back at home I watched the Dark Knight. Cillian Murphy was in it. I'm seeing Inception everywhere. Extradition between France and the United States was in Catch Me if You Can, as was DiCaprio, obviously. Ellen Page, also rather obviously, was in Juno. Jennifer Garner was in both, but she wasn't in Inception. Cillian Murphy and Ellen Page are in Peacock, which Hannah should be giving to me soon. I forgot what the point of this paragraph was. Whatever.

Anyway that's the story of what's happened in my life recently. Later on in my life I'll be going to Redang with my family so Jan and Hannah can learn how to scuba dive. Even later on than that I'll be going to continue my studies, but I have to pass my Bahasa Kebangsaan first. I used to think I was going to do Civil Engineering, but my dad doesn't want that for me. He said something about always working underneath other people. He'd rather I become a programmer, but that really doesn't sound appealing to me. He's cool with me being a structural engineer, though, so I'm going to meet one of his structural engineer friends sometime.

Unrelated to that, I was reading my old blog posts a few nights ago. You know how you usually read stuff that you wrote in the past and you can't believe that you would say something like that and you notice how much you've changed and stuff? Yeah, it was the exact opposite of that. I thought the posts were great and they helped me vividly recall the days I was writing about. They were also funny and well-written except for being too long.

I guess this means I'm not a modest person, but who needs modesty when you're this awesome?

The Second Day that I've Put Off Studying for My Ujian Lisan, the Second Day I Haven't Cared

I took a shower early, but I still feel alive and not very tired, so I will blog. Thursday was a short day, anyway.

I woke up at 11am to what sounded like an alarm, but it was just my phone ringing. I picked it up right after the person on the other end hung up. It was my mum. I tried calling her back, but I couldn't reach her. After a minute of trying I went back to bed.

I later found out that she had been trying to reach Aunty Rosie, but Aunty Rosie was out of the house because Ian's motorcycle had broken down and he needed a ride back. My mum called Hannah instead, but Hannah fell asleep before she could relay my mum's message back to Aunty Rosie.

I woke up again at one o'clock because Ian and Jared barged in the room and began behaving very inconsiderately. I don't wake Ian or Jan up unless my parents ask me to or I want them to do something for me. Ian woke us up because he felt like it. We had only been sleeping since 4:45.

I tried falling back to sleep, but I couldn't dream because Ian and Jared kept talking, so I went downstairs to get ready for the day. As I left the room I told Ian that he was obnoxious and I told Jared that he was Jared.

I didn't fall asleep during my daily Bible reading. Hannah and Stefanie had just finished getting ready, so they were all dressed and ready to go somewhere. I went back in the room to take a shower, but I had to wait for Ruben and Jan to finish first. When I went in the bathroom there was an electric razor there. Ruben is thirteen. He does not need to travel with an electric razor. This is ridiculous.

Anyway, after my shower I read the newspaper and then I drove Jan, Hannah, Ruben and Stefanie to Mahbub for breakfast. Hannah wanted to go eat at Devi's because they have chapati and Stefanie wanted chapati, but I said that you can get chapati in the Netherlands and Devi's is crap anyway, plus I was driving so we would be eating at Mahbub.

Mahbub was okay. I had my first roti bom in ages. It was pretty dang tasty. Breakfast was only four ringgit per person, so that was awesome, too. I was worried that we might have worried the waiter because Stefanie and Hannah were being quite condescending, but none of our food or drink seemed spat in so I guess we were okay.

I was going to drive home, but the rest of them wanted to go to Mid Valley to watch a movie, so I took us to Mid Valley to watch a movie. The plan was supposed to be that they would go up and get tickets for Inception while I found a parking spot, but while I was searching for a place I got a call saying that the only Inception showing was a long way away so they were going to watch Salt instead. It's a good thing that the lady at the parking payment counter let me leave for free, otherwise I would have gotten quite pissed off at pointlessly circling the lot for fifteen minutes.

When I got back home there was nobody around. Hannah's room was still cool, so I brought Faith in and took a nap on the guest bed on the spare spare pillow (Stefanie was using the spare pillow. The difference between the spare and the spare spare was that the former has a cover) while the soundtrack for Inception played from Hannah's laptop in the background. I woke up right when Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien started playing, and the first thing I said was "No, it's too soon." It was my best nap in a long while. Faith was still sleeping on Hannah's pillow, so I let him be.

After the nap I went on my computer for a while, but then the internet got really slow and I got a call from Jan asking to pick them up, so I left. There was no jam when we drove home. It was weird, since it was seven, which was the same time as when we left for the airport the day before and got stuck in a jam for an hour. I still took the short cut, even though it probably had become the scenic route due to the lack in traffic on the normal road.

When we got home I went upstairs to drop off some keys and grab a book. After checking that nothing tasty was being made for dinner, I went back downstairs for some carbonara. The waiter told me that they were out of beef bacon, so I had to settle for chicken in my spaghetti. It was still delicious, but not as savoury. Also they were out of normal coke so I had to have a diet coke instead. The meal only cost eleven ringgit, though, so that was nice. Pity that it's closing. There was a sushi restaurant that used to take up the same spot, but it didn't last very long either. None of them can compete with Restaurant Emas, especially not when they're sharing seating. Oh well.

When I got back upstairs, the girls wanted to swim. It was night, but whatever. They told us to come later since they'd be taking pictures first, so Ruben, Jan, and I watched the European Championship in Barcelona for a while. There was this weird 3000 metre event with hurdles that we spent most of our time watching. Everyone in it was so thin. Ruben said that the winners would be either Russian or Polish, Jan said they would either be Spanish or German, and I said they would either French or Ukrainian, but Ukraine didn't have any runners so I went with Slovakia instead. Or Slovenia. Whatever, the race was won by a pair of Frenchman and a Spaniard, in that order. This clearly shows that I am better than my brother, and also that the French are good runners or whatever.

We went down to swim. Susanna joined us in her underwear. Aunty Rosie told us that the girls were in the playground, so I went to play on the swings. When I got there Hannah told me that she was changing. She was trying to put on her one-piece under her dress. I asked her why she was changing in public and not in the toilets, which were right underneath us, but she never answered me. I bet it was Stefanie's idea. First she didn't ask me to look away yesterday, and now this. I'm starting to think that she may be an exhibitionist.

Anyway, I didn't do much swimming. I wanted to wrestle Jan by the poolside so that I could chuck him in a few times and humiliate him in front of his friends. He said he was scared of getting scratched, so I told him we'd try to get each other to fall in without using our arms. He agreed to that. I think the score was 7-5 in his favour before we got tired. Whatever, I could do better if I wanted to.

Susanna was making a spectacle of herself by wearing her underwear really high. We just did our best to keep her in the water until Aunty Rosie came and saved us from Susanna's cameltoe. Whose idea was it to let her swim in her underwear in the first place?

I spent a lot of time trying to get Hannah annoyed so I could show Stefanie the magic of Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Hannah didn't make it easy for me, she started being all forgiving and patient. I finally managed to make her slip up, though, and while she was mad at me I said his name, which caused Hannah to immediately shut up and start grinning like an idiot. Stefanie was highly amused.

Stefanie tried doing laps, but it was boring. I swam one length of the pool underwater. Ruben asked if I could do two. I said I used to be able to do two, but I'm out of practice so my maximum is maybe one and a half. Stefanie gave up on laps, so we kind of just floated around by the edge of the pool and talked. Stef was wearing a bikini, so I asked how she got such an awesome stomach, since despite my many months of fake sit-ups I have yet to develop a six-pack. She told me that she did PE everyday in school, and when they don't have PE, she runs, which is also why she is the only person I know whose thighs don't look at all fat. That sounded like way too much work. I think I'm lucky to have a solid stomach after what little daily exercise I get. A six-pack is probably asking too much.

Jan and Ruben went upstairs, but not before commenting on how gross my legs looked. I am a walking example of why you should not shave while bored. You get carried away and soon hair is missing from places it should not be missing and then it will re-grow all funny and no matter how many years pass you will never look normal again. This is why I never leave the house in trousers that go any higher than my ankles.

After Jan and Ruben were gone, Hannah, Stefanie, and I played The Platypus Game. I used to think Stefanie was smart, and I guess she still is, but her knowledge on important things was just as limited as Saundra's was. I soon fixed that by telling her the same thing I had told the girls on Hannah's birthday. Hannah helped me out a bit with the lecture this time around, I think. Anyway, the amount of boys that Stef had kissed was a surprise to me. I would say more but Hannah would kill me.

We went upstairs at nine. Along the way, we saw Ian, Hanan, Ruben, and Jan. They were going to a cybercafe because our internet wasn't working. It is now, though, and they still aren't back, so I guess I saved some money by not going with them.

Hannah and Stefanie watched Kick-Ass when we got home and I did my exercise while I watched a program about the world's deepest mine in South Africa. It was pretty awesome. I went to take a shower and I missed a part where the host got to load a couple million dollars worth of gold bars into a vault. Oh well.

After that I went online and I wrote this post. Earlier on today I had envisioned myself elaborating on Wednesday's blog post, but I can't remember anything particularly noteworthy and I'm not in the mood to review that day all over again, so I guess that's that. Oh! Elo mentioned not to mention the secret messages in her latest secret message, so don't make any mention my mention of secret messages in the previous blog post. Just pretend that that message is now secret.

Holy Crap, a Short Blog Post for Once (Not Really)

Later Edit: Just remembered some stuff from college! Since reading a whole post is a hard thing to do, I will put it in front for you cool dudes to read and then you can leave and get on with your assignments or whatever. Right, so, while I was talking in the hall, Elo was working on her blog. She was telling Milan about her blog and how she wrote secret messages for him in it. He had read every post and he was like "Huh? What secret messages?" and I was like, oh yeah, I know those. You just have to highlight the empty spaces to see the words in white font. Elo was like "Oh my gosh, you know?!" like it was a big deal. Arun asked what I knew, and so we told him about the secret messages, but he said he doesn't read Elo's blog so he wouldn't know about them. Joanna came by later and was shocked that Milan hadn't known about the messages, but she thought it was hilarious that the only person who was supposed to read them didn't even bother to try to find them. Poor Elo, she's practically living in a Nicholas Sparks book, what with all these unreceived notes and letters to her lover. Next thing you know someone's going to get cancer and then we'll get adapted into a movie and the movie tie-in book of her life will hit the best seller list again and Carmeni will buy it and insist we read it because it is SO good okay and it isn't gay and just because the same formula is used over and over again doesn't mean it isn't a good story.

It's quite late; I'm rambling. Anyway here is the original post:

I am tired out from today (Wednesday) because it has been so filled with interesting things. I definitely want to blog about all of them, but I can't because then I would be awake until three in the morning and there are things I want to do tomorrow (Like watch Inception for the sixth time) so I will make this short and fill it in later (Or at least that is what I will tell myself. I'll probably do the same thing I do every time I write a short post or a list post: consider my duty done and never come back to expand it. Unfortunate, but true).

So today I woke up, had trouble staying awake, did the stairs (lights went off when I was climbing them, quite scary), took a shower, got on my motorcycle, went to college. At college I met Elo and Arun, listened to them talk for a little while, tried to give Elo a bunch of movies because the CD with Wall-E and Indiana Jones wasn't working, went to breakfast at McDonald's with Elo, ate a lot, talked a lot, went to the post office, came back to college, talked to people and watched an itskingsleybitch video (so gay, so funny), watched some videos from World Stage 2010, read some Adrian Mole, said goodbye to Elo as she went to class, went to the DSA to continue reading, read for an hour or so (there's an entry for basically every day, and I've read three years or so of entries, so that's a thousand entries in maybe two and a half hours of total reading time. Wow), went back to the hall to keep reading, heard Arun talk about his presentation, read more, and then went home after Elo and Arun went home because there was no sign of Carmeni.

Also I met Jia Yin right when I was walking into college in the morning. I was catching up with her when this strange thing happened; I tried thinking about her as if she was a stranger, and my whole mental perception of her shifted for a moment. She seemed a lot less shy than I had used to think she was. Then things went back to normal and now I'm wondering if I can replicate that shift in perception with other people, but I forgot how it was even done and I don't know if it's even possible.

When I got back home I wanted to swim since it was a beautiful sunny day and I was feeling energetic and bored, so I managed to convince Hannah to come along by promising her I'd pick up Ruben and Stefanie from the airport later. I called up Amanda to see if she could come swimming, too, but she was working on her assignment so she couldn't. I wished her the best of luck and then went downstairs. I tackled Hannah into the pool and hurt her foot, but she couldn't stay mad at me for long because I said Joseph Gordon-Levitt's name and the only emotion she can feel when she thinks of him is pure bliss. After a while she started obsessing over the pool ladders, saying she wanted to get there first and that I wouldn't share it with her if I got there first. Strange girl. Also, for Ebony and maybe Audrey and possibly Saundra: Hannah was being high and she and I went from being cows to clouds and then rain clouds.

After swimming we talked and then I took a nap, and when I woke up we had to go to the airport. It was seven. We got back at around eleven. We could have driven to Penang in that time. Here's a breakdown of the trip: Traffic for half an hour on a five hundred meter stretch, traffic for another half an hour on a longer stretch of road, but at least you could actually notice the movement, stopoff at a petrol station for fuel (Pepsi and Chipsmore for me, 10.81 litres of Unleaded 95 for the car), long drive to the airport with great music (Save Tonight and Creep came on, along with a lot of Katy Perry. We kept hoping for Teenage Dream but since we were parking and walking instead of driving straight to the pick-up point, the pattern would have been broken anyway. Also I didn't hear Push after Creep so that was weird), expensive lunch at the McDonald's at the airport (There were attractive girls - both physically and personality-wise - behind us, but I didn't say anything to them because I lack confidence. Also it would be creepy. Also they were already gone when I had finished eating), drive back filled with more good music (Save Tonight again, also We Will Rock You. I also got to demonstrate to Ruben that Tik Tok and California Gurls have the exact same chorus structure) and a lot of crude jokes (and also quite a bit of missed exits, but I found my way into Puchong and from there it was smooth sailing), and then we got home.

At home I let them out before I parked the car, and they got in the lift and left without me. Hannah told them to wait because she is a good sister, but Stefanie needed to take a crap so she rushed them (She kept bringing up her urgent need to shit since we met them in the airport. Very unladylike, but very Stefanie-like).

At home I went in Hannah room to see what sweets they had brought from Holland. Hannah and Stefanie were showing off their wardrobes. Stef took off her shirt while I was talking to her without even telling me to look away. I looked away anyway because ew, but I told her that if she didn't warn me next time then I would just keep my eyes fixed to wherever they were. Anyway, Hannah and Stefanie had a lot of clothes. After clothes, Hannah and I showed Stef the lesbian scenes in The Runaways because Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning making out was bound to mess up future viewings of Twilight for her, and I will take any chance I can get to screw with Twilight fans. Stefanie was disgusted to discover that lesbians had sex by licking. For years she's struggled with the concept of cunnilingus. Hannah thinks it's gross, too, and so do all of Amanda's friends who've had it performed on them. It's weird; I keep reading that it's the best thing that can be done to a girl sexually and that all the strongest orgasms come from it (well, that and vibrators), so I was surprised to find out that real life girls find it disgusting. You learn something new everyday.

I then started this blog post and I wanted it to be short, but that measurement is only accurate if you consider this post relative to the rest of the blog. In any other context it's still pretty huge.

I'm going to go edit some small things in the World Stage post after seeing videos.

MTV World Stage 2010 & Amanda's Birthday

Nothing much happened on Friday. I went to my Bahasa Kebangsaan class, I found out that only one other member of my group had finished their bit of the assignment, I took a quiz and I think that I did quite well on the second half, and I finally managed to get another kitten to trust me.

Saturday is where the real fun was at. I woke up at around noontime, did my daily Bible reading, took a shower, put on some jeans and the MTV World Stage 2010 t-shirt that I had won, and packed some extra clothes into my bag. A little later I was ready to go. I woke Hannah up from a nap to tell her to get ready to go, and also to tell her to bring her iPod so we'd have something to do while waiting, but she said she didn't want to carry it around with her, so I told her that she could just borrow Jan's speakers and just use the iPod in the car, but she told me that the speakers were broken or something so I said fine, whatever, let's go. I made sure to remember to bring Amanda's presents to the car, but I almost forgot our concert tickets. The tickets said the doors would open for MTV World Stage at 4pm, but Hannah and I left at 1:30 so we could eat at McDonald's before the lunch discount was over.

We took Aunty Rosie's Kancil to Sunway Pyramid. Along the way Hannah got annoyed at my singing so she slapped me in the face. I got upset with her because she hit me in my sunglasses and she might have damaged them. I don't mind pain, but I spent a long time looking for mirrored sunglasses, and I would hate to pay RM20 to replace them. Also it's stupid to hit someone in the face just for singing. I tried to hit her back in her sunglasses, but I only ended up smacking her forehead, but she told me later that they were Ebony's sunglasses so maybe it was a good thing that I missed.

Anyway, when we arrived, the usual parking area was closed, so we had to park in some alternative lot. It looked completely full, but fortunately we were in a small car so we found a spot to squeeze into. Hannah got out to guide the car into an inch-perfect place. We left the sunglasses, presents, and bag in the car.

Along the way into the mall we saw the line, and it was very long. People were sitting down in groups all along the road. I figured that we'd just look for someone we know and slip in with them later.

Hannah and I made a lot of small, useless decisions along the way to McDonald's that didn't change anything. I had originally wanted to enter from a higher level, but Hannah insisted on a lower level, but after that we went up an escalator, but then we found out that McDonald's was on a lower floor and Hannah had been right all along, but whatever, we only wasted a minute or so. We also argued over whether to walk on the left or right side of the shops, but it didn't matter because either way we'd go to the same place. At least we had something to talk about, though.

The line at McDonald's was quite long, but I still managed to place my order around ten minutes before the lunch discount was over. I had a large McNuggets meal and I got Hannah a small coke. Our plan was to exploit McDonald's unlimited refills to ensure we did not get thirsty during the concert. I had originally wanted to drink around three cups of coke, but I only managed to refill once before I started to feel sick. Hannah only refilled once, too, and she suffered for it later.

Before we left the mall, we stopped off at a toilet. We both felt that that stop probably wasn't enough and that we were going to have to pee again once we got into the concert grounds.

When we got outside, the line had devolved into a massive crowd right outside the gates. Hannah and I managed to squeeze in quite close to the front. After a while I got bored of our spot, so I made a fake call to a fake friend who was further in front, and we politely squeezed through to get to him. We hit a point where we could no longer progress, so we hung up.

Somewhere around this time, I sent Amanda's sister, Geraldine, a text. I asked her where in the line she was, and she told me that she hadn't even left the house yet. I told her to hurry over soon since the doors were supposed to open at four.

After a while, the crowd got bored and started chanting "Buka pintu". Surprisingly, this worked, and only a few moments later the gates were opened. There was a lot of pushing, and a girl near us freaked out and started crying. Hannah held my hand, so I thought she might have been scared or something. I told her to stay close, to move forward whenever the rest of the crowd moved forward, and to protect her neck and chest if she fell and started getting trampled on. There was no trampling, though, and we were ushered down into a proper waiting area with fences and stuff to keep people in line.

We found a nice spot in a corner. There was a lot of space in the corner, so we could lean against the fence or sit if we wanted to. I met a Russian couple who were visiting Malaysia, and I had a nice chat with them. They were staying for three days, and tomorrow was their last day. They had planned to visit the Twin Towers, but I told them that the view from the Skybridge was pretty lame and that they would have a much better time at the Menara KL. They said that they'd consider it.

Hannah and I also saw a really hairy guy and a guy with freaky contact lenses. At one point I saw a girl in a Spongebob cap who looked like Geraldine, so I sent her a text asking if she was wearing a Spongebob cap. She replied that she had just arrived, and she wanted to know where the line was. I sent a few texts trying to guide her over, but after a while I decided to find her in person, so I told Hannah to stay put while I slipped out through a hole in the fence to go find Geraldine and her friends. This was already around 4:15, so the doors could have opened at any time, but the risk made it more exciting.

It didn't take me very long. I walked into the mall, stood around for a bit, received a text from Hannah asking if I had found Geraldine yet, started typing my reply, saw someone who looked like Amanda except smaller, said "Geraldine?", and just like that I had found her. I changed my reply to Hannah's text from "Nope" to "Yeah", then I showed Geraldine to the hole in the fence. I slipped through, Geraldine slipped through, but Geraldine's friend stood around for a while, so someone inside the line opened up the fence, which caught a guard's attention, so nobody else was allowed to slip into the fence. Geraldine's friends went around to the back of the line, I think.

Amanda's uncle had managed to get a pair of VIP tickets, but Geraldine had swapped them for X-Zone Passes, since they were closer to the front. The friends that she had arrived with had normal passes, though, so I offered to swap our normal passes with her so that she could be with her friends, but she was already meeting some friends in the X-Zone. Still, it was worth a shot.

Somehow another hole had opened up in the fence in front of me because a bar had come loose. I told a guard about it, but he told me not to worry. His boss came by to try and fix it, but he left without doing much. When they finally started letting people in, Hannah wanted to slip through to cut line. I let her and Geraldine go through first, then I followed them. Because of this, we were the first few in.

Hannah and I were let in before Geraldine, but since we were in different sections anyway so it didn't matter if we split up. Our tickets were processed, we got our arms stamped, we were given ponchos in case it rained and fans in case it didn't, and we were told that there was no re-entry, so once we were in we couldn't leave until it was over. Hannah was in a big rush to get to the line, but I knew that we were way ahead, so I wanted to take my time. I stopped to look at the tigers that they have at Sunway Lagoon. They were huge and awesome. I called Hannah over to look at them, but she only stopped for five seconds or something. I don't know why she was so bored by the tigers. They were so huge and awesome.

Anyway, we went down some escalators into the wet park. There were loads of security and event coordinator people telling us not to run, but Hannah ran anyway. I let her get ahead of me. Along our way to the surf beach I heard Self-Inflicted playing from some speakers that were set up presumably to promote the concert. I had hoped to hear that and Mannequin at the concert, so I was relieved that even I could say I heard at least one of them even if they didn't end up on the set list. I also got handed a stick of free gum by some promoters of the new Five gum. It was really good. Oh yeah, there was also a water fountain along the way, so I had a drink from there as well.

Hannah was standing in line to get into the surf beach. I told her that I'd hold the spot while she went to the toilet, and then when she got back I could hold the spot when she went to the toilet. She told me that she didn't need to pee, so I told her that I'd head off first and meet her inside. She yelled "I hate you" to me as I was walking away. Such a nice girl.

I passed Geraldine going the opposite way. I asked her if she had seen the tigers and she said she had. That was all I saw of her until the end of the concert. Nothing really notable happened at the toilet. Well, all the urinals were empty, so that was nice. Also there was barely any water from the taps, so I just lathered up my hands with the soap and walked over a water fountain to rinse off.

When I got to the surf beach I noticed that the stage was on the opposite side of where it was last year. Hannah had sent me a text saying she managed to get to the very front of the normal zone, and indeed she had. I met up with her and she was right up against the railing. We established a meeting by the port-a-potties, and then I felt a stomach ache and realized that I might have to use the toilet again, and this time not to pee. I told Hannah to keep a spot for me, and that I was going to look for a toilet. Hannah told me to use the port-a-potties, but I was sure I could find a normal loo with a sink and toilet paper and stuff if I looked hard enough.

I did managed to find some real toilets, but they were only for those with VIP passes. Fortunately, right nearby was a deluxe port-a-potty, which had a sink and soap and even toilet rolls. Unfortunately, the toilet paper was depleted. I found a snack counter and they let me have some tissues, but when I returned, the toilet was occupied. I had to use a lesser one next door. It had everything the other one had, but it was a bit more cramped and there was no soap dispenser by the sink. It did have plenty of toilet paper, though, so that was nice.

I was hoping for a false alarm, but alas, that was not the case. I was in there for what felt like an hour. I texted Hannah and said that I wouldn't be joining her for a while and that she should go make some friends or something. I was never really sure when I was done, I just waited to see if anything else was going to happen. After fifteen minutes of inactivity and a much more settled stomach, I assumed I was safe and cleaned up. Port-a-potties flush in different ways. It was interesting to watch.

When I finally exited, I was absolutely drenched in sweat. I was so soaked that my stamp was just an ink smear along my arm. The temperature in the toilet wasn't my concern any more, though. I had washed my hands, but there was only water there and I felt that it would have been terribly inconsiderate to enter a crowd after an experience like that without the assurance of soap-and-water levels of hygiene. I asked around to see if any of the staff knew where I could find a sink with soap, but they told me that there were none of those at the surf beach. One of the security guys said I could leave the surf beach to wash my hands because they would let me back in as long as I produced my tickets.

I left the surf beach, washed my hands twice in the toilet at the wet park, lathered up for a third time, realized there wasn't enough water, walked over to a water fountain to finish up, got offered two more sticks of free gum, accepted two more sticks of free gum, rinsed off in the fountain, and drank a little more. After that I ate the gum, and it was good. The fruity flavour is probably the best gum flavour that I have ever tasted. I wish I hadn't chewed it and the mint one at the same time. Oh well.

I got back to the concert grounds and met up with Hannah. I hadn't missed anything. Ads and music videos were playing on the two big screens that had been set up on either side of the stage. We watched those for a long while. The concert only started at seven or seven thirty, and it was only a little after five.

We stood around doing not much. For a while it was hot, so Hannah took the plastic cover off her fan to keep cool. I wanted mine pristine, so I left cover on. It wasn't really affecting its ability to cool me down, anyway. After a while, it started to rain. Hannah put on her poncho pretty early, but I decided to tough it out like I did last year. The only difference was that I was in the middle of the crowd last year, so the rain mostly fell on my head and I was kept warm by all the people around me. This year I was up against the railing, so my whole front was open and cold. Also the person behind me was being selfish and not snuggling close, so my back got wet and cold, too.

Before long I was wishing that I had worn the poncho, but by then the rain had picked up and was absolutely pouring down, so it was too late to turn back. The pool actually started filling up, but the water didn't reach much higher than most people's shoes. There was a metal step in front of the railing which we were standing on, so we were out of the water. That didn't stop my socks and shoes from becoming soaked through, though.

Eventually the rain died down to a drizzle, and guys in the X-Zone started taking off their shirts. I took off mine to give it a wring, which helped a lot more than I thought it was going to. There was a lot of water in that shirt. Anyway, the drizzle kept up for the next few hours. It stopped a little before the final set, I think.

The VJs came out to entertain people with freebies and stuff. They were dressed quite snazzily. VJ Utt (The guy who gave me my tickets after I danced at the road show) had a top hat. VJ Sean from Korea (the guy who interviewed me last year) was wearing a bowler hat. There were two other VJs, but they weren't as charismatic Shaun and Utt.

Finally, after a long while of waiting, the show began. There was a thirty second countdown, and by the time it hit twenty, everyone was counting down alongside it. The crowd was a second fast, though. That kind of impatience would become something of a theme for the night.

When the counting was over, Bunkface performed their set. It was energetic, it was loud, it was awesome. I did a lot of jumping and fist banging. There was one brilliant part where the video of animated rock fists on the LED screens behind the stage was moving in perfect sync with the rock fists of everyone in the crowd, mine included. During their set I noticed that Prom Queen borrows quite heavily from Fallout Boy's Dance Dance, especially the bass and drums. I sang along really loudly to Through My Window, and after the song Hannah asked me who it was originally by. She thought it was a cover because I knew all the lyrics. The truth is a bit more embarrassing; it's actually from a TM advertisement. I liked the commercial so much that I downloaded the song because of it. In my defence, it's a pretty awesome song.

After the set there was a long wait, there were more ads and music videos, more freebies from the VJs, then the next set was announced. It was Wonder Girls. I was a bit upset. I thought I had been waiting for Katy Perry all that while. Anyway, after I heard what the next set was, I managed to find room to sit. It was nice to sit. Earlier on we had laid some discarded ponchos on the ground so that we could stand on them which was a lot less painful for our feet than standing on the hard metal, and now we were sitting on them and it was even softer and nicer. I stood up when the screens started playing Waking Up in Vegas, but the video cut off halfway through.

I thought the next set was going to start right then, but instead we got a bunch more ads before the curtains finally opened on the Wonder Girls. They were all in cages, and they held poses for a while. When the lights fell on them, they danced for a bit, then stopped. After a while they all broke out of their cages and started dancing. Their dancing was pretty good, and they were pretty hot. There wasn't much in terms of audience participation, though. There wasn't anybody jumping about or throwing their arms in the air or anything. They didn't have a band or anything, either, and I think they might have been lip-syncing. When the time came to dance to Nobody (or the song before it), they picked up some prop guitars to dance with. At one point they shot fireworks out of the guitars. That was pretty cool. The went off stage halfway through the song, then returned in different costumes to finish.

There was a lot of waiting after that. Apparently some new VJ was chosen as part of the end of some reality TV show or web search or something, but I don't think anyone was really paying attention to that. People started getting bored. Some people started booing, but those people were idiots. Eventually it was announced that there were some technical difficulties, but Tokio Hotel would be on stage in fifteen minutes even if the difficulties weren't resolved. That was cool.

Tokio Hotel were pretty great. The lead singer was ridiculously gay, though. I'm not sure whether he actually dates dudes, but he sure looked like he did. He looked like a woman. He looked like an old lesbian. His hair was madness. His outfit was worse, but amazing in its own way. It was a spectacle, that's for sure. The songs were pretty great. I had a lot more fun during Automatic than I thought I would. I was jumping and singing along and stuff. There was one song where a huge motorcycle emerged from under the stage with him on it. Hannah said it looked like he was humping it. I don't blame him, it was an awesome-looking chopper. In between songs he talked to the crowd. His sounded as gay as he looked. It was hilarious. He had a lisp and a German accent and he talked about all the "special moments" that they had had "on zis stage, with zis crowd, on zis tour". Hannah and I mocked him for the rest of the set, but he's still an awesome performer. He's cool in his own crazy way, like Lady Gaga. Anyway, we spent a long time waiting for them to play World Behind My Walls, since we felt that would be the last song. They played something like five songs before getting to it. It was only when I saw the video on the LED screens behind the stage that I realized the song was about the Berlin Wall, and I felt a bit stupid. I sang along and had a good time, and then I got ready for them to leave and Katy Perry to come on. We had no such luck, though, because there were a few more songs left. There was one with a piano that had emerged from under the stage and replaced the chopper, and then, after another speech about special moments, one final song which ended in a shower of fireworks from the front of the stage that lasted way longer than I thought it would. It was awesome. Oh yeah, there were also loads of pyrotechnics during Dark Side of the Sun, and I thought I could feel the heat from where we were. That was cool, too.

After that there was more waiting. Everyone had gotten bored of the ads and music videos. I thought I had, too, but then I realized what Bunkface's Prom Queen video was about (Time goes in reverse for everyone that the girl touches), and that was nice. The VJs came out to say something, but their microphones stopped working halfway through so we never found out what it was that they were going to say. Oh yeah, some time during one of the previous freebie giveaways, a couple of lanyards made it to our part of the crowd. One was caught by the people directly behind us. Another landed just in front of the railing, where one of the staff picked it up and handed it into the crowd. It was caught by me and this other guy. I thought we could settle it with a game of rock-paper-scissors, but he didn't agree, so I just let him have it. While we're on the subject of semi-interesting things that happened in between sets, Hannah sent a tweet that ended up onscreen. It was a shout out to Katy Perry's cat, Kitty Purry. Hannah was pretty thrilled, so we high-fived. Also, earlier, I had tried to start a chant of "Ka-ty, Ka-ty, Ka-ty", but after three Katys, no-one else had joined in, so I stopped and hung my head in shame. I think it could've caught on if Hannah had backed me up.

While we were waiting for Katy Perry, some guy to the left of Hannah had elbowed his way to the railing. He was pushing everyone to the right to try and make more space for himself. Hannah kept complaining to me about him, so I finally agreed to swap places with her. Everyone on the right was annoyed with him, but he wouldn't move. I pushed back, and they helped me. Eventually the girl to his left stepped back from the railing, and there was more space for everyone. He probably ended up being the most hated dude at the concert, though.

Katy Perry's set finally arrived, and it was awesome. Her band was dressed in white tuxedos, and her back-up singers were wearing red and white striped dresses. Katy Perry herself was dressed in a glittery ballerina-type outfit, complete with a tutu/skirt type thing. She opened with California Gurls, during which she threw a huge prop cherry into the crowd. Hannah and I were really jealous of the X-Zone people at that point. After California Gurls she talked for a bit and dedicated the next song to "All the girls in the crowd who don't want to be one of the boys". Hannah and I were surprised to find that we seemed to be the only people who knew the lyrics to One of the Boys, but that just made us sing even louder. After that, I can't really remember the order of the rest of the songs. I'm going to assume Waking Up in Vegas came first. She dedicated it to her favourite place in the USA to party. When that was over, she sang her new single, Teenage Dream. Hannah seemed to be the only person in the audience who knew they lyrics, which made her feel quite happy. After performing Teenage Dream, Katy Perry talked about how three years ago she could never have imagined performing in front of 15,000 people, and then she said she was going to sing a song from her past. That song was Thinking of You, and it was awesome. It also gave us a chance to rest since that is not exactly a song to be jumping and fist-pumping to. The next song was, though. She left the stage for a while and when the music started again she was talking about rumours that had been going around about her kissing someone. "I kissed a WHAT?" she asked (I later learned this was a reference to the censored version of the song that we've all probably heard on Malaysian radio: "I kissed a ****". Probably the dumbest thing they've censored since "beer" and "glock") as she and a pair of oversized gingerbread lady props rose from the stage. We answered, and she told us to sing along. I Kissed a Girl was a really, really energetic song. I loved it. When it was over, she asked us if we were ready for a new song, and everyone said yes. She said it was about a bird, and a second later I realized which song she was going to sing so I yelled out "Peacock!", and I was proven right a few moments later. That made me feel pretty superior for a while. It was a fun song about dongs. Dong songs are great (The Meaning of Life has plenty of proof to support this point), so I was enjoyed it.

After Peacock was over, Katy Perry said that "they" had told her she had to leave, and that she had to take all the colour with her. She walked up to the screens behind the stage and put her hand on it, and all the colour of this beach scene that was up there got sucked into her hand, which was awesome. Then she started singing Hot N Cold, which was even more awesome. She started the first verse on a different key than normal, so the crowd couldn't sing along at first, so we got to pay even more attention. She tried to through a prop cupcake into the crowd, but she only ended up breaking off the tip. Her second attempt, with both hands, ended up a lot better. Hannah and I were once again jealous of all the people in the X-Zone. She also threw her skirt into the crowd, but it almost didn't make it to the railing. She climbed off the stage and leaned off the railing into the crowd, which was so awesome. Later on I found out that Geraldine got to touch her when she did that. Lucky girl. After that, Katy Perry climbed the scaffolding on the side of the stage like Tyson Ritter and Martin Johnson had done last year, which was also awesome. The whole song was non-stop awesomeness. Halfway through, these huge black-and-white balls that had been hanging from the side of the surf beach were cut free, and they were bouncing all over the crowd. It looked like so much fun. Unfortunately, they never made it to our section. The X-Zone got to handle six of the eight balls, though, so once again Hannah and I were super jealous of everyone there. When the song ended, a whole lot of fireworks were launched above the crowd as Katy Perry left the stage. Usually people would have left at that point, but the balls were still bouncing and people wanted a chance to touch the balls, so they stayed.

Someone came out and announced that the Wonder Girls would be performing a final song, so there was still something worth staying for. I thought that was pretty great, because then all those people who left after the Wonder Girls were done would be missing out. Did I mention that there were people who left once Wonder Girls and Tokio Hotel were done? Well there were, and all those people were fools.

The X-Zone was opened up to everyone so that it would look full for the cameras. I went with Hannah so we could touch the giant balls. Along the way we tried to find some fans in good condition, since mine had fallen behind the railing. Luck was on our side that day, and we found two fans identical to ours, still in their plastic. I tried to give Geraldine a call or send her a text to find out where she was, but the rain had messed up my phone and the screen was all white. It still is. By tilting it at an angle I managed to get enough colour to render it usable. I sent Amanda a text wishing her a happy birthday, and then I got a text from Geraldine saying that she had left already, so I told Hannah that we were going, and we left.

The was a huge crowd at the escalators. They were letting people go up in groups to keep things organized. Hannah and I slowly made our way forward. Along the way I noticed a huge snake in the reptile cages. That was cool. Also cool was the fact that they had gotten the down escalator to go up.

After the escalators, I went to go see the tigers again, but they weren't in their enclosure. They probably were sleeping in a separate indoor area. They also might have escaped. That would have been pretty cool, too.

Anyway, we left Sunway Lagoon and went into the mall to find Geraldine. Hannah was really thirsty and wanted a drink, but there was no place with cheap drinks. I found Geraldine the same way as I did last time: I went up to the most Amanda-like girl that I could see and said "Geraldine?" and it worked. Her friend was coming home with us, too.

As we walked to the car, we talked about last year's World Stage and how Geraldine had been there, too. She was in the back while I was in the Mosh Pit, so there had been a reversal of roles between 2009 and 2010. We also talked about other concerts that she had been to, and what her favourite set of the night was.

We got in the car and I told the girls in the back to buckle up, but they thought it was a silly idea. I don't understand why Amanda's family (and most of my friends) are so reluctant to buckle up. It's such a small thing and can save lives, plus it'll keep you from falling about during tight corners and from getting fined when the police are about. Anyway, when we left Sunway I pondered aloud whether I should take the u-turn and go back to KL via the way with a bunch of tolls, or go through the roundabout and back via the Federal Highway, which has no tolls. Geraldine told me to take a completely different route up the flyover that she said her mother always takes, so I did. We ended up taking a fifteen minute detour that ended up leading us right to where the u-turn would have. It could have been worse, though. We could have ended up in Shah Alam.

During the drive Geraldine talked to her friend, and Hannah talked to me. We talked about Katy Perry, and how her boobs weren't as big as they seemed her music videos. Her butt was awesome, though, and impossible not to notice every time she turned around in that outfit.

There was a police checkpoint on the way back that lead to a lot of congestion. I started giving the girls grief about getting me fined for the one time my passengers aren't wearing their seatbelts, so they reluctantly buckled up. They police waved us through, and the rest of the drive was smooth and clear.

At some point Hannah called me a creep, so I started singing the song. Geraldine recognized it and asked me who it was by, so I said Radiohead. Hannah dared me not to sing Push after, but I did not have the willpower. I only sang the chorus, though.

I dropped Geraldine and her friend at Amanda's house. There were still people there for the party. I drove back home to drop Hannah off and to take a shower. After my shower I went back to the car and drove over to the party.

Geraldine's friend had already left in the twenty minutes between when I dropped them off and when I came back. Geraldine was still awake, though. I said happy birthday to Amanda and gave her presents to her. She asked me if I had accidentally bought two books, and said no, I had bought two books on purpose. She turned to ask Marc to help her open the book. It was only then that I noticed that Marc was there, so I said hi. I also noticed that Amanda was pretty drunk.

Someone brought some whiskey and some of the guys took shots from World Cup glasses. I asked if they had a Netherlands glass, but they only had four. Oh well, I was driving back anyway.

While Marc was reading the book to Amanda, I went inside to go have some leftovers. Amanda's mum gave me a list of the options, but in the end I settled on cake. I went back outside and Amanda thought it was so great that I had chocolate on my face. I asked if she got my text, and she said she couldn't remember. I told her that I wanted to send one at exactly 12am, but I was a bit busy at the concert. She said it was so sweet that I was going to send a text at 12, and that it was so sweet that I came to her party. I reminded her that I told her I would have missed Katy Perry to go to her party if I had to, and I think I got an "Awww" for that.

A little later I went to sit next to Geraldine to finish my cake. She was texting someone. I asked her whether it was a guy or girl, and she asked me if I could tell her why she would be texting a girl at four in the morning. I told her it sounded like the kind of thing Hannah would do. After that I asked her if it was a guy friend or a boyfriend, and she said it was just someone who had been to World Stage, too, so they were talking about that. While I was sitting with Geraldine (this may have been later on in the night, I only remember where I was, not when I was), Amanda went outside to throw up. As she was walking inside I noticed that her shirt was wet, and I told Geraldine. "She puked on MY shirt?" she asked. "Well, I guess it's her shirt now," was my response. I should have said something witty about a birthday present, but I was pretty tired. At least I now know I'm not the only one among my friends who has thrown up on their birthday.

Afterwards we played Taboo. At first it was just me, Geraldine, and one of Amanda's relatives named Jose (I think it was Jose who was playing with us, it might have been someone else). Amanda also has a relative named Pedro. Neither Jose nor Pedro is a Mexican, as far as I know. Cool names, though.

After a while we decided that taking turns and keeping score was too complicated, so I was just handed a stack of cards while everyone else tried to guess. As the night went on a few more people arrived, and more people started playing Taboo either because they ran out of things to say to each other or because Taboo is fun.

Eventually the second most drunk person (Amanda was the first) at the party insisted we play something else instead, so we did. He just asked questions to which he didn't know the answer to, and whoever gave the most correct-sounding answer won. After a few questions, I went indoors to go see what Amanda was doing.

When Amanda saw me she told me how she couldn't believe that I had written that she had called Elo stupid in her blog. I said I hadn't, I had said that she said Elo might have been stupid, and that was different. She said that it was fine because she was used to being honest about people and having them not talk to her for the rest of the day or something. Girls, eh? She told us about this one time Joanna had ignored her for a whole week. Now Joanna knows her better, though, so whenever she says something that Joanna doesn't like Joanna will just tell her to shut the fuck up instead of giving her the silent treatment. Friendship is like that. Anyway, I told Amanda that I had posted what I had on my blog because I'm always upfront on it, like how I had posted about Ian's appreciation of her boobs when he was drunk on his birthday. She had not read that post yet, and she told me that that information was "disturbing". Maybe I should be a little less upfront.

Later on a guitar was taken outside, and Marc played Wonderwall and Hotel California. I had When You Say Nothing at All stuck in my head, but nobody could play it. Still, guitars are cool. Sometime during the party, Amanda had wanted to ride my motorcycle. I told her that that was probably not a good idea, and anyway I had driven over in a car. Also people kept talking about the cake and how good it was. Amanda's mum had baked it, but Amanda and Geraldine know the recipe.

After a while a lot of people started going home, and soon it was just Marc, Amanda, and me outside. Amanda wanted to go for a walk, but Geraldine came up to tell her that her omelette was ready, so Marc said she should eat first and walk later. He handed me the guitar to take downstairs, so I did.

When I got downstairs, Jose was eating the omelette, Geraldine was Facebooking and another of Amanda's relatives whose name I forget was playing the guitar. He didn't know how to play When You Say Nothing at All either. Jose was going to eat half of the omelette and save the other half for Amanda, but when I went back upstairs Marc and she weren't there, so he finished it. After that he played the guitar for a while.I asked about who had been at the party earlier, and apparently there had been loads of people. Joanna, Davinia, and Kaminie had been there. Marc had been there since it started at seven.

Marc and Amanda came back after a while, but they weren't interested in omelettes. Amanda went straight to bed. The other relative with the guitar went home, so Jose, Marc, and I were the only guests left. We talked for a bit while Geraldine was napping on the table. I found out that Mark Ker Kang from our building went to the same school as Geraldine, and that they have a very different opinion of his mum than we do. Apparently she doesn't scare them.

Marc went down to say goodnight to Amanda, and I followed. We went into Amanda's room to see if she was there. Marc thought he saw her on her bed, so he went over to give her a hug and say goodbye. It was only after his "Goodnight Amanda" was met with a "Amanda's not here" when he realised that we were looking at her mum.

Amanda was in another room. After Marc gave her his hug and goodbye, I gave her mine. I also wished her a happy birthday again. We went upstairs and left with Jose while Geraldine locked up. After telling each other to drive safe and have a good night, we all drove back to our respective homes.

I was really tired when I got back, so after taking out my contact lenses, brushing my teeth, and changing into my pyjamas, I went right to bed. I figured that I didn't need to do my exercises because of all the jumping about and fist-pumping in the concert. I also didn't feel as if I had gotten dirty enough at Amanda's party to warrant another shower.

The next day I had trouble waking up because I was right in the middle of the deepest stage of sleep or something. Eventually I got up, and then later on I had a chicken chop, which was delicious, and then later on I stayed awake through the whole church service, and then later on I took a six-hour nap, and then later on I spent way too long writing this blog post. Hannah only spent 20 minutes on hers. Lucky girl.

I have a meeting in college on Monday. Also I used up the last of my money on potato chips and a drink that I owed Hannah. I hope August's allowance is in my bank when I need it for lunch tomorrow. I also hope that my phone gets better.