Nobody Ever Thinks About Me

The title is hyperbole. Still, I'm hardly feeling extremely happy right now.

So today I had my "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" alarm set for 7:42am, and then I had "I Feel Fantastic" set for 7:50am. This way I could be roused out of a deeper sleep by my first alarm, then (because it is a relatively gentle song), I could sleep through it until my second alarm went off so I could get ready for the day.

Just my luck, then, that my dad woke us all up at 7:40am by turning off the air conditioning and fan and opening the curtains. Ian got out of bed first, which meant that instead of plenty of time to get ready by virtue of being the first one up, I would have to wait for Ian and Jan to get ready first and then rush to get ready before 8:30am. If only my dad would have waited ten more bloody minutes, then my morning would have been perfect.

Anyway, I got up and read my Bible while waiting for everyone to get done. Jan took his own sweet time, but I still managed to be ready to go right before 8:30am because I didn't have any contact lenses to put in.

Ian and my dad went in one car to breakfast while the rest of us (and Ebony) went in my mum's. Someone else had ordered the food while I went to buy a copy of the NST and some gum to stay awake in church, so I didn't get any extra hash browns and the order hadn't really been optimized. Oh well, at least my McMuffin was free of cheese and also very fresh and delicious.

After McDonald's, everyone except Susanna, Jan, and my mum went back with my dad because my mum was taking a longer route so she could pick up Aunty Catherine. Along the way I talked about why I was so upset about yesterday, but then my dad interjected and talked for fifteen minutes about mass communication or something, and then I finally got tired of listening and asked if I could have my say so I could finish what I was saying, then Ian got upset and swore at me in front of Ebony and Hannah and my dad. I was being quite an obnoxious shit, though, so you can't blame him entirely for it. I think a 85/15 split (majority Ian) is reasonable.

Anyway, church was quite empty due to the holidays or something. I got to be in charge of the projections. I did the word jumble during my down time. I would have continued with the jumble, but my mum was giving the sermon so I went outside to show I was listening. I found that our church has new Bibles, the second version of the NLT. After the sermon I asked my mum to get me one for Christmas since it's got an infobox before each book and also because it's quite a bit easier to read. Oh yeah, I also need to tithe double next week because the ushers were going out for collection instead of having us come to them, but they didn't come to me in the projectionist room so I couldn't give my RM5. I tried signalling them but they are children so they didn't notice.

While at church I had decided I was going to sleep really early, so I scheduled in my phone to blog at six and exercise and shower at seven so I could be in bed by eight so I could still have plenty of rest before I woke up at five to get ready for work. I'd also hopefully have time for another McDonald's breakfast.

After church we went to visit my grandparents who were over at my aunt's place. Ian and I went with my dad first and the rest of the family was to show up later. There wasn't anyone there at first except for Cinta, so I played with her for a bit until Uncle Simon showed up. He told me to be careful with Cinta because she had hurt her paw, so I stopped playing so rough with her. A little later Dexter showed up and Ian and I told him about our jobs. Then my aunt Mina came out and then she left with her husband to go somewhere for a while and Dexter went to say bye.

Soon my grandpa came out and my dad told us to ask him about his war stories, so we did. My granddad has a lot of good stories, but he doesn't really tell them often. When the History Channel did a documentary on the Malayan Emergency, they interviewed a bunch of my granddad's friends for the documentary, but he declined to be interviewed because he didn't want to travel all the way to KL, and I guess he's modest or something. All that aside, he's also still bound by the official secrets act, but if the government wants to go after him for such a trivial offence after all he's done for this country then Malaysia is a much shittier place than I thought.

Anyway, an example of one such story that he never tells is when he was in a squad of four people and this British guy was supposed to cover his back. However, the Brit failed to notice a communist sniper in a tree, and so the sniper took a shot at my grandfather. Fortunately for the two most recent generations of my family, the gun misfired. It wasn't very fortunate for the sniper, though, since my grandfather turned around and shot him after that. The British guy would have gotten in deep shit with his superiors if it had gotten out that my he failed to watch my grandfather's back, so he bribed my grandpa not to tell anyone, and he didn't. He didn't even tell us, we had to hear it from my dad.

Anyway we talked to my grandfather and we talked among each other as well. I heard about how my grandfather had interrogated Dexter's girlfriend last night and how my other cousin lives in fear of my granddad meeting his girlfriends. Daryl came out and talked for a while before he went to his open house. Wicket (or Wicked. I'm not really sure which and he responds to both, so it doesn't matter) came out, too, so I played with him for a bit.

Here are doggie pictures:







I got a miscall from a withheld number, which worried me because it might have been about work. I called Sean but he hadn't heard anything. My dad called the house and he found that they were leaving soon. I called the house to ask Hannah to bring my swimming trunks and my sandals. Things winded down after that and they were supposed to arrive in twenty minutes or so, so I took a nap on a chair outside while waiting. My dad woke me up to tell me to go inside to nap, so I did.

When I woke up again, it was five o'clock and Ian and my dad had already gone home. My mum was rushing me to get in the car and I didn't even get to say goodbye to the dogs. I was upset because nobody woke me up to even check if I wanted to swim. It seemed so stupid that they would just assume that when my swimming trunks finally arrived I would just want to continue napping. I got very upset. Hannah apparently had wanted to wake me up to tell me they were there, but she didn't; instead she got changed and jumped in the pool and asked for someone to wake me up but nobody heard her and she didn't follow up. Also apparently Wicket jumped in the pool and swam with them for a while, so I missed that too.

So the drive home was hardly pleasant. I got on the computer and started blogging at around 6:30 (you'll know exactly when, just check the timestamp on this. That's the time at the start of composition, not the time of posting.) so I was already behind schedule, and then there was a hassle about whether Ian or I would go out to buy dinner and where we'd buy it from and what we'd buy and stuff that ended with me very upset and my parents talked to me for a while and then I took a break for twenty minutes to calm down and then I talked to my dad and now we're done and it's almost 8:10 and I'm barely done with this blog post, so I'm an hour behind. I think I'll probably end up in bed at around ten or something. Bleh.

Oh well, at least I get nuggets for dinner. I hope they remembered the barbecue sauce.

Oh yeah, Milan (and the rest of you guys, but Milan is who ctrl+Fs), I told all last night's secrets to Hannah; I hope that's okay. I don't think there's an overlap between people my sister knows and people that you know. Her friend Ebony was also in the room but Ebony is very quiet and there is even less overlap, so you should be fine. Also I got no Facebook messages or wall-to-wall stuff from you so I'm assuming that last night's post checked out in terms of not revealing any secrets.

Mehhhhhhhh

I feel very... apathetic. Maybe that isn't the right word. If I knew the proper definition of ennui then I'd call it ennui, but I don't so I won't.

Today was okay, I guess. We had McDonald's for breakfast, so that was a good start. I didn't fall asleep in church, but then I haven't ever since I figured out that I could chew gum to stay awake and that was ages ago, so I guess it's nothing notable.

There was no Alpha or anything after church, so Ian and I went to have lunch with Clement, Jonathan, and Esther (Jonathan's Esther, not Clement's). We talked about Genting and gambling and card counting and how to win at roulette (realistically you can't due to table limits and even without them you'd only win a fraction of a fraction of your capital each time) and then we moved on to talking about insurance and real estate and how renting is better than buying. It was a lot more interesting than it sounds. Well, maybe not; Esther and Jonathan looked pretty bored. Anyway we left after the adults arrived because by then we'd finished eating and also because it was kind of awkward talking with them around.

Ian and I realized that our parents had left without us. My dad thought we were going back with my mum, and when my mum saw that my dad had left she assumed we went with him. Fortunately Clement could give us a lift back, so we went with him and discussed Shutter Island and stuff.

When we got back home I went on the computer for a while, and then I had to go drop my mum off to a meeting and pick Hannah up from Royal Rangers, which she's apparently going to join later on. Susanna and I found some swings to play on while waiting for Susanna. I used my phone to play some music. Fun fact: the proper music can improve almost anything by at least 50%. Anyway, Hannah we went to buy doughnuts and drinks, and then we went home and I took a long nap.

When I woke up I didn't feel like blogging yet, so I watched the last few episodes of The Office instead. It ends on a pretty depressing note, really. I hope the Christmas Special is better, because that's all I have left.

I guess those last few episodes might've had an impact on me. Now I feel all lonely and kinda sad. I need to start hanging out with my friends again. I also want a dog.

I Was Supposed to Be Asleep Two Hours Ago

So I was supposed to sleep at 11 o'clock because my parents want me to get enough rest and apparently midnight is still too late, but then my dad changed his mind and said it was okay so long as I got enough rest. I plan to sleep at one-ish and I've set my alarm for ten.

Sunday was okay. My dad tried to wake me up early, but he failed, so I only woke up forty minute later. I had five minutes to get ready, but I managed. Had to go without my morning shower and shave, but I did get my lenses in, deodorant on, and lenses in, so that was okay.

We had dim sum for breakfast. I ate a lot of prawns. They were yummy.

The praise and worship slides were full of typos. Hannah and I had a good (or bad, depending on whether you were us or everyone else) laugh about that. Our mum later told us that the guy who made the slides was literally retarded, in the learning disability sort of way. I used to think it was okay to talk mean about him behind his back because he was just a normal dude who did stupid things, but now that I know he's actual got a reason for acting like he acts, it's a lot more depressing and I can't do that any more. Oh well, at least I've still got Jan.

I didn't have any gum, so I kept awake through the sermon by going through all the funny/interesting pictures that I have saved on my phone. I showed some to Ian, we had some laughs. Hannah, meanwhile, was blogging on her iPod. I bet I heard more of the sermon than she did. It was about apostasy. Throughout the sermon the children of the guy giving it kept staring at Hannah and I. There were nine of them. I pity their mum's hips. When we first arrived at church I pointed them out to Jan and he laughed because they were Indians and Jan is racist.

After service I sat at the top of the stairs and listened to music on my phone. I wish I would have bought it from Joanna earlier. It makes church so much more bearable. If I didn't have it I'd have to go socialize with people from the congregation and everyone at my church is pretty boring, except for maybe Clement and Evangeline, but Clement is usually talking about DotA or football and Eva is in Canada or something.

Anyway, after the tea break we went down for our Alpha Course. We got some new books which were quite okay except they tried too hard to appease the teen market. I would have preferred the normal version of the books; the youth versions are a little condescending. Anyway we watched another video lecture, and it was interesting and funny and good. Ian and I enjoyed it but Hannah hated it for some reason. She's a weird kid. Anyway, after that we had a discussion and then we went for lunch, and then we went home.

At home I used the internet and watched episodes of The Office that I had downloaded and hung out in Hannah's room. My dad made dinner. I heard he was making steaks, so I got all excited, but they turned out to be pork steaks. He wanted to know why Hannah and I looked so disappointed since he thought we didn't appreciate his meal, so we told him that the food was very good, it was just that we had been expecting beef steak, which is usually even better. It's like expecting gold and getting silver. You're still more glad than before, but not as glad as you could've been.

Anyway after that (or before it, I dunno) I showed Ian, Jan, and El-Hanan this infomercial to give them context for this parody, which made all of us laugh pretty hard. I got Hannah to watch them, too, but she didn't think they were funny. She's a weird kid.

Ian, Jan, and Hanan went to the gym at the KL Golf and Country Club and my parents went out somewhere for a while, so Hannah and I were left with the task of taking care of Susanna. Fortunately I had just pasted Aladdin and Hercules along with The Office and Mike Basset on the laptop that Jan was using (His computer was broken. He breaks a lot of things. The fan still isn't fixed, but Hannah had one in her room so we stole that to use instead.), so we let her watch the former while Hannah kept an eye on her and I took a nap in front of the TV. When I woke up, River Cottage was on. I would've called my dad, but I thought he was out.

Cracked updates at nine, so I got up and tried to use the internet. It wasn't working, so I got Ian to disable his, then I disabled mine, then I went to get Hannah to disable her but she kicked me and started yelling at me because even though her internet connection wasn't working she didn't want to turn it off so ours would work because... I can't actually remember. It was some shitty selfish reason that made no sense. She told me to turn of Jan's laptop instead.

I went to do that and found that it was already off, so I went to tell her. I knocked on her door but she had it locked, so I told her that Jan's laptop was already off. I assumed she had her headphones on so I had to raise my voice to make sure she heard. That's when my dad came by and started yelling at me for shouting, and forty minutes later Hannah had become embroiled in his lecture, which had branched out into all sorts of varied topics with me in centre before he finally ended by getting Hannah to disable her internet connection.

After she did that I went and checked and my internet connection was working, so I told my dad and Hannah that my plan had worked and we could all use our internet connection again. Hannah could have chosen to listen to me straight away and endure half a minute of a disabled internet connection that she wasn't even using anyway because it was broken, but instead she chose to yell at me and kick me and get lectured for forty minutes before finally doing what I told her to. She's a weird kid.

I started the torrents for Titanic (Amanda's recommendation) and Teenage Dream (Hannah's recommendation), and then I used Google to figure out where 1 Tech Park was so I could go for a walk-in interview on Monday.

I went on MSN to confirm with Elo that a picture I found was indeed the place with the call centre, and she replied in the affirmative. Then I noticed that an interesting guy was online, so I chatted with him for a while, then something lead to me looking up his sister online (I think he said something that I took as a challenge). She's pretty cool; cooler than him, probably.She writes a whole buttload of slash fic, though, and if you don't know what that is then you probably don't want to be browsing around that link too much.

After that I wrote this and after this I hope to do my exercises, take a shower, and be in bed before 2am.

Long Sunday, Part One

My story about Sunday is going to be split up into two (or three) parts because I'm too tired to write about the whole day, plus my dad said I have to wake up at nine tomorrow morning to show discipline, so I want to go to bed soon. Besides, I started writing this at three and it's now almost midnight, so I'll probably need another day to get a better pace. Also this is the boring part, so don't feel too bad about skipping it (or anything else on my blog).

Okay, so on Sunday morning there were a lot of us in our house. There were Stefanie, Ruben, Jan, Hannah, Ian, and me. My dad was out driving with Susanna. I got a call from my dad saying he'd be downstairs in five minutes, so I tried telling everyone to get ready because we'd be going downstairs soon, but they all ignored me so Ruben and I went down first.

Jan joined us, and then my dad pulled up outside the lobby with Susanna. We got in, and the others came down soon after, and then we left. My dad needed to know if we had to pick up Aunty Catherine on the way to church, but my mum wasn't picking up her phone so she couldn't ask her. A few weeks ago I had called Aunty Catherine, though, so I could just call her on my phone and find out. Unfortunately my phone chose that exact moment to stop working, so I had to use a key to pry the back open and jiggle the battery to restart it. Once the phone was ready again I found Aunty Catherine's number right at the bottom of my most recent calls list. If I had made just two more calls it would have been gone and we would have had no way of contacting her. Anyway, I called and asked if we needed to pick her up for church, but she said she wasn't even going to church that day, so that was a nice waste of time.

We had dim sum for breakfast. I ate a lot of fried prawns. My dad told Stefanie how to eat the porridge she had ordered. There were a lot of instructions and it sounded way too complicated for porridge. That is why I'm glad I just eat the prawns when I'm there.

After breakfast we went to church. Hannah, Ruben, Stefanie and Jan sat in the row of seats that was right at the back end of the church, which is usually reserved for families with children. There was no place for me, so I just stood behind them until somebody took a chair from a row in front and gave it to me. I found the ink-and-tip part of a pen on the floor. It was from a red pen. I wanted to draw on myself without ripping off Hannah's skin-watch, so I drew a fake scar on my wrist. I have to admit, it was pretty lame. I found other things to do with the pen-bit, though. I managed to draw an S and a H on Stefanie and Hannah.

The reverend's wife came to us and asked us to move up front because the back was reserved. There weren't any rows that were completely empty, so Hannah and Jan were hesitant to move forward because it would mean splitting up. I went up front with Ruben and they followed. I sat next to Ruben and in front of Jan, while Hannah and Stef sat next to each other and Susanna and my dad.

After praise and worship was over, Jan, Hannah, Stefanie, Ian, Ruben, and Susanna all left the sanctuary to go upstairs, so it was the second time I was the only one left listening to the sermon, but this time my dad was here so he could see that I wasn't lying and also that I didn't fall asleep. Also I borrowed two ringgit from my dad since nobody else had any small change they could lend me to add to my three ringgit for my usual RM5 offering. It was kinda weird, borrowing money just to give away. Oh well.

During the announcements, Uncle Kwon Hong wanted to greet the newcomers to the church, so he asked me where my friends went. I told him that they had all gone upstairs. He asked if they were coming down later for the youth meeting, and I shrugged my shoulders. After that I sent a text to Jan that said "Uncle Kwon Hong just mentioned your absence in front of the whole congregation. Nice going." Jan missed the point entirely and replied with "Yea... What an ass." I sent another text to him that said "Oh yes because I was totally talking about how HIS behaviour was inappropriate and not anyone else's. What an ass indeed." Jan obviously wanted to get back to his nap or whatever so he replied with "I don't care. I'm not replying to your next sms." The next text he received from me said "Dude! A gypsy just cursed my phone! She said that only the most handsome and intelligent son of a family had the power to reply to my next text, which is this one. Bummer."

Anyway, I didn't have any gum to chew so I kept myself from falling asleep by drawing on myself. I wrote a letter on the back of each of my fingers on my left hand so that it spelled out FATE, like Charlie did on Lost. After a while I wrote LATE above that, since that's what he changed it to later on in the show. I was still bored, so I rolled up my sleeve and gave myself his tattoo, too. I was pleased with how well "Living is easy with eyes wide shut" ended up looking on my shoulder, but later I realized that I probably got the tattoo on the wrong spot and I also probably got the lyric wrong. I had, but not in the way I had thought. The actual lyric is "Living is easy with eyes closed", I had thought it was actually "Living is simple with eyes wide shut". It's from Strawberry Fields Forever, by the Beatles.

Anyway, I also drew a DS on my right ring finger so I'd also have Charlie's Drive Shaft/Dexter Stratton ring. I drew references to stuff under folds on my pants (4 8 15 16 23 42, "You're waiting for a train", "I like Chinese") and I added some random nonsense at the worn-out bottoms of my trouser legs (A red splotch with an arrow pointing to it and a note that said "Totally not hobo blood" on one leg, "IF YOU CAN READ THIS YOU ARE TOO FAT" in mirrored handwriting for Jan to read on the other).

The sermon was pretty good. It was about Solomon and Paul's opinions on wives (mostly Paul's), and there was also a bit where I heard a nice analogy (or metaphor, or simile, or something) on forgiveness involving credit (Forgiveness BC), cash (Forgiveness for the robber on the cross), and gift vouchers (Forgiveness AD). Also the gift vouchers had an expiry date (Death). So that was nice.

Throughout the whole service I was thinking about letters that I might write in future. I told myself that I would make a note about it on Facebook later, but I didn't. I might do it today if there is still time left after writing this post.

After the service was over I was handed an envelope to give to my mum. I asked my dad if I could have the car keys so I could put the envelope there. He gave them to me, so I stored the envelope, and then I went upstairs. As I was going up the stairs Clement asked me where I had gone. I told him I had just gone to the car to store something. He asked me where I had gone during the service. I told him I hadn't gone anywhere, and that I was the only one among my siblings who had stayed behind. He asked me if I had fallen asleep, and I said I hadn't. He was all "I see, I see" like he didn't believe me. I don't know why he thought I went upstairs during the sermon. Ian's the one who usually does that. I also don't know why the only time he called me out on sleeping in church was the Sunday when I was wide awake. Whatever.

When I got upstairs, Stefanie and Hannah were playing with crayons, while Jan and Ruben were just talking. I showed off my boredom tattoos and the stuff I had written on my trousers, then I got some crayons of my own and wrote a crude poem. I handed it to Stefanie. She read it aloud:
"Roses are red
Violets are blue
You are so pretty
Can I please touch your-"
And then someone else snatched it off of her, and then Hannah snatched it off that person, and Hannah started reading it while Stefanie was begging for it back so she could finish. When she got to the punchline she sighed in exasperation and I thought that was hilarious. Stefanie grabbed it back and was all "Can I touch your books? Does it say books? What does- Oh." I showed it to Jan, but he didn't think it was funny. Ruben didn't think it was funny until I pointed out to him that I had dotted the Os in the last word, then he laughed. I still can't get over how perfect the first snatcher's timing was, I mean it was right before she read the last word and everything. I'm so juvenile.

Anyway, after Hannah saw my shoulder tattoo she asked me who did it, and I said that I did. She wanted to know how, and I said it wasn't hard. She tried to do her own, but she ended up reversing the J so it looked more like "Toseph Gordon-Levitt". I told her it would have been smarter to just write JGL inside the heart. Hannah and I helped Stefanie get "HL" for Heath Ledger in a heart on her shoulder. It came out quite nice. I shaded the heart to make it pop. I also tried writing Stef's initials on her back in 3D lettering, but I kept running out of ink and S is a hard letter to write on skin, so it didn't turn out as good as it could have. I also wrote "And these..." on the back of one hand and "...Are not The Hammer" on the other, and when I looked up, everyone was gone and I was left to clean up the mess.

I met Jan and Ruben outside church, and we went to the park to meet the others. They swung on the swings, but the whole swingset was not anchored properly and it kept popping out of the ground, so that was fun. I did some chin-ups on it. I was surprised how easy they were to do; I thought I was a weakling.

I got a call from my dad asking where we were, and I told him we were in the park. He said that he had told us to be downstairs for the Alpha Course, so I told him that I was only in the park to get the rest of them back to church. As we walked back Stefanie suddenly declared me her new Hannah and we walked back arm-in-arm. Hannah was jealous.

It only took a while for me to realize that I had already seen all the Alpha Course videos. Uncle Anthony kept repeating the same video over and over. I told Ruben that this was because he thought we were idiots. Anyway, I texted my dad and told him that I had already seen all the videos, and to prove it I told him what was coming up next, so he let me leave.

I went back to the park. I played on the swings a bit, and then I took a jog around the lake. I didn't stop to look at the turtles, though, because I realized that I still had the car keys and I wanted to be nearby in case we needed to leave soon. Instead, I took off my shoes and walked across the reflexology path. It wasn't as painful as I remember it being.

I was getting bored and sweaty, so I went to the car, cranked up the air-conditioning, and listened to the radio. Susanna wandered out of church, so I called her into the car and we listened to some reggae. After the reggae we heard We Didn't Start the Fire, which Susanna loved because of the chorus. We also heard Nobody by the Wonder Girls, which had another chorus that Susanna enjoyed. She tried to clap along, but she was always late. She loved it anyway.

The Alpha Course finished and I drove everyone back home.

Break's Over but I'm Still Doing Nothing

Anyway, aside from the party, here is what else happened recently:

Ian, Jan and I got confirmed, so now we can join the rest of the church during Holy Communion. Also, no more baptism lessons, so yay. Also also, after we were confirmed we got to eat a celebration dinner with our family at Chili's. I managed to finish my fish and chips this time, too.

I went to watch Diary of a Wimpy Kid with Hannah the other day. It was pretty good. On thing that had Hannah and I confused was Chloë Grace Moretz. Her character isn't in the book, and in the movie she doesn't do anything important or say anything funny. It's almost as if they had her in the movie for her star power or whatever, but the movie has been in production for two years, so she can't have been known for her roles in Kick-Ass or (500) Days of Summer. It's just weird. Anyway, after the movie Hannah and I went to MPH and read a book about the making of the movie. After that I moved on to the second book in the series. Hannah and I had read the first one when Ian bought it as a present for Sarah. I only managed to get halfway through the second book before the store closed. Hannah wasn't even done with the one about the movie. I bugged her about being a faster reader for the rest of the night.

Also a while ago I drove my dad to pick up his Chinese visa. I also took him to Mid Valley after that to get him to a meeting. I drove around for forty-five minutes looking for a parking space. I was surprised by the amount of people who went to their cars just to drop off their bags. I did not know people did this. It seems cruel. Also, there was this lady who walked to her car, got in, drove forward a bit, then backwards a bit, then got out and left. That lady is a terrible person and one day she will suffer for her cruelty. Anyway, my dad's meeting finished before I could get a parking space, so that sucked. Just before we left he found out that he had another meeting in the same place right after that, though, so I got to drive off to Subway and have lunch anyway. After that I pulled over outside the mall and took a nap with the radio on. All the driving and waiting around was tiring, but it was worth it for that sandwich. Man, I love Subway. I love food in general, I think.

Hannah downloaded a semi-decent quality bootleg of Kick-Ass to watch. I'm still not really sure why she was so enthusiastic about that movie. After she was done she told me it was just okay. Huh.

I went to HELP to see about getting my certificate of completion, but they told me that since I was home schooled I had to do Bahasa Kebangsaan before I would be done with my Foundation in Science. Alessandra had the same problem, but she said we could appeal, so I'll be trying that. If appealing doesn't work, I'll either have to do it while I'm taking my degree and then have HELP give me an exemption, or I'll have to take the subject in HELP with a few extra courses so I'm not just wasting time. The next intake for the subject starts around next month, though, with registrations open at the end of this month, so I won't really be seeing my friends for long anyway if I choose that.

I finished the Evil Campaign in Battle for Middle Earth 2. Now I'm just trying to win an eight-player free-for-all skirmish. It is tough.

I think that's about it.

No Significant Events

So I had breakfast at McDonald's, which was nice, and then I went to church and fell asleep during the sermon, which was not so nice because I had bought gum specifically to prevent that, and then I came home and drove my dad to Mid Valley and then later I went with Hannah to pick him up, and then we stopped by a gas station so Hannah could buy some Oreos, and while we were waiting I played with a lighter for a bit until I realized what a terrible place that was to play with a lighter in, and then we came home and I took a nap and when I woke up I watched The Hurt Locker which was pretty good.

Hannah's beanbag seems to have gotten worse because now there are little white beanbag bits scattered across part of the floor. Also Hannah managed to cut herself in the shower and she did not even dry off completely before going to the kitchen to get a plaster. I thought that we kept plasters in the bathroom anyway.

I want to eat more McDonald's breakfasts. I'm also thinking that perhaps I should only make posts when something happens instead of everyday. Oh well.

Today Was a Better than Usual but not Amazing Day

Today our church was carolling at Tang's in Pavilion. Ian, Jan, and Mama were involved, but Papa, Hannah, Susanna, and I were not, so after the church service was over they stayed behind to practice while we went home for a little while.

After we were done lying around the house we went over to watch the carolling, but we stopped off for a bit of lunch in Subway first. My sandwich was delicious.

I wasn't that interested in the carolling, so while I was waiting around for it to start I got hit with the urge to wander around a bit. I was gonna get Hannah to tag along with me, but she had to stay behind and take pictures for the church. I saw a dude with a shotgun going to take a smoke break, so I followed him outside to get a better look at the gun and figure out what he was guarding. Outside, there was a Bentley dealership, and few banks, a van belonging to one of those security contractors, and a whole bunch of really expensive cars in the valet parking. I also managed to find an entrance leading to the concierge, and from there I walked to the main part of the mall. It was huge. There was a performance going on in the center that was attracting a much larger audience than our church's carolling was.

I went back to Hannah and said that I had to show her something and it would only take five minutes, so she agreed to come along. We went to see the expensive cars and the center of the mall and the performance, and Hannah took some pictures. Soon, though, she had to get back for the carolling, so I was left alone to wander. I found my way to the highest floor and looked around, and then I decided to go see the carolling again before heading outside to the front of the mall to see what it looked like from there.

As I was heading down the escalator, I got a call from my dad telling me that the carolling was finished and it was time for us (Susanna, him, and I) to go back. As we were driving back I called Hannah and asked if she wanted to go see The Princess and The Frog at Sunway later on around nighttime, but she wasn't interested.

Once we got home I put on a movie for Susanna to watch and then spent the rest of the time on my computer while my dad went out to play some golf.

In the evening I was ready for a swim, but then I got nice and relaxed and fell asleep. My dad woke me up and told me not to nap so late because I'd wake up in the middle of the night and end up going to bed in the wee hours of the morning. After I woke up I went to the pool and did laps for half an hour or so. I also found how quickly I could swim one lap, how long I could thread water, and whether I could still swim a lap underwater. My findings were 20 seconds for both, and yes.

When I got home I talked with my mum about the sensationalism in today's newspaper. Hannah was also included in the conversation but she was upset that I was applying things from college and left. The conversation ended when something from the article was clarified and I realized that I was arguing needlessly, so I went to take a shower instead. My hair is in a really bad condition because of all the chlorine in the pool, and the shampoo I use isn't helping.

After my shower I went on my computer, but as soon as I got online my dad said I had to shut it off at twelve, and I said "No", and he gave me a really long lecture about that because he thought I was disrespecting him, when in fact I was just saying "no". He also thinks "maybe" is a disrespectful word, so I've got to be careful about using that answer with him in the future.

Hm. I want to wander around the city with someone I can talk to. It would be fun.

Appreciation in Absence

So today in church I passed the time by leafing through the King James Version of the Bible. I managed to find verses with references to witches (Exodus 22:18), unicorns (Isaiah 34:7), dragons (Psalm 74:13), and infanticide (Psalm 137:9). That was a fun way to pass the time.

When the sermon was over I went to the nearby park to look at turtles. They are fun to observe. I wish I had more time to spend looking at those guys. They're adorable.

My dad took Hannah, Susanna, and I home early because I had planned to for the CTS quiz with Amanda at one o'clock. When we got home I had some time left before one, so I got on the computer. I soon realized that half of the sites on the internet weren't loading, Google and Wikipedia included. The internet was all weird on Hannah's computer, too. Fortunately, Bible Gateway and the Skeptic's Annotated Quran were working, so I looked up some more bizarre verses and checked up on how long the Quran was (it is really, really long). I might read the latter someday out of intellectual curiosity, but I'd want a modern English translation to work with.

Anyway, Amanda called and said that she was still at a clinic because of her flu and her family was also celebrating her father's birthday later, so she wouldn't be able to study today. We rescheduled to tomorrow morning and I wished her a quick recovery, and then I went back to my computer.

My plan for the day was to avoid naps so I could sleep early and therefore be nice and rested for the test tomorrow. That plan did not work because I fell asleep on the couch and it is now 11pm. Oh well.

I had three pancakes for dinner. They were delicious.

My dad bought some live crabs. We're going to eat them tomorrow. The last time we had crabs they were pretty damn delicious, so I'm looking forward to the next dinner. My dad snipped the string and stuff that was binding up one of the crabs and put it in an aquarium. In the process he accidentally snipped off the end of one of its legs, but the crab didn't seem to care much. Susanna was terrified by the crabs. The crabs seemed unfazed by Susanna.

When Ian and Jan came back from the cybercafe, the whole internet started working again. That was odd, but nice. That is why I am able to write this post now.

This Weekend and Monday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Excercising the Ol' Grey Matter

Lately I've been trying out new ways to stay awake in church. Coffee and Red Bull haven't helped, and standing up at the back gets tiring for a while, plus when I do that I have to fight the urge to start pacing. I used to read the Bible during sermons, but when I finished Esther and Nehemiah for the second time without coming across any better books I decided to give that up for a while, too.

Last week my sister was told by my dad to memorise the Beatitudes. I decided to see if I could memorize them before her. I could, but that was because my sister didn't even bother to begin memorizing them. Anyway, it kept me awake, so I decided to try and do the same thing with a different bit of the Bible this week. I picked 1 Corinthians 13 (the chapter that talks all about what love (or charity, for those of you with the King James Version) is) because I thought it might come in handy at a wedding, plus it was a very poetic piece of Paul's prose and thus easy to remember. Once again I managed to memorize it and once again it was a nice way to keep from falling asleep.

Next up I'll either do the Ten Commandments, Philemon (So I can say that I have memorized an entire book of the Bible), or that badass made-up verse that Samuel L. Jackson quoted before he killed dudes in Pulp Fiction. Should be fun.