A Pretty Good Day

Shortly after Obama was re-elected, I met my Calculus and EMA lecturer, Joel Charles, in college during lunchtime. He's got two children now that he didn't have when I was in my first semester. They are adorable. He's also no longer doing the whole lecturer thing; he's a pastor instead but he swings by HELP every once in a while for one-on-one math tutoring.

Anyway after that I managed to complete and submit an assignment with just three hours left. I've only got one piece of work left to submit this week, then I'm off to Genting with Hannah and her friends. The whole of next week is a big holiday for Diwali, so it should be way less hectic.

I also got paid today and I celebrated by eating a big sandwich at Subway. It was delicious. I'm going back to work next week to earn more money for more sandwiches and stuff.

I'm happy.

Last Class (Hopefully)

Today I ate at KFC twice. Once for lunch after class, and again later on at night because my siblings were eating there too and I wanted a chance to get fresh popcorn chicken (the one I got at lunch was stale). The popcorn chicken was indeed fresh, so that was nice. On the downside, I spent pretty much my entire week's allowance, so that's a bummer. I'd been waiting for the better half of last week to use that money, and now it's gone.

After my last post I found a weird comment in Chinese at the bottom of my blog. I don't know how it got there, but it was all links to spam sites, so I just deleted it.

Also, yesterday I picked up Hannah, Yii Huei, and Rebekah from Sunway Lagoon. It was my last favour for Hannah before she finally let me read the tenth Princess Diaries book, so I was happy to help out. On the way back I tried to take a corner, but I was going too fast so I had to slow down really suddenly. A motorcyclist was going behind me and he mustn't've seen me indicated or whatever, and he ended up falling off his motorcycle when he had to hit the brakes really hard. I stopped for a while to see if he was okay, and he was. I stayed stop to see if he wanted to discuss the matter with me, but he didn't, so we both drove off. That was a bit scary, but fortunately nobody was hurt and nothing was really damaged, so it worked out in the end. I'm definitely going to be going slowly around corners next time.

My progress on Arrested Development has come to a halt. Season 3 is not completely downloaded. Episodes 13, 4, and 5 are all only partially downloaded at 99.8%, 99.7%, and 99.5% respectively. I managed to watch episode 4 because it's an AVI file and those can be played even when they aren't complete, but episode 5 is an MP4, which requires the full file to play. So I have to stop. I'm three hours away from finishing the series. Bah.

Luckily I have Lost, Flashforward, How I Met Your Mother, and The Big Bang Theory to tide me over in the meanwhile. Lost is awesome. I have been following it for six years (One third of my life!) and now there are only six episodes left. I will be sad when it's over.

Oh yeah, today was my last day of classes. I need at least 37% or more on my final to get a High Distinction for Finite Mathematics. I'll need to work even harder just to get a Distinction for Psychology, since I screwed up on our group report and ended up getting us just a little more than half marks for that. It'll be a struggle to even pass Physics, so I don't even wanna think about that. I hope I don't have to retake that subject.

Today wasn't really filled with class parties and photos and goodbyes and stuff. I think I'll save the goodbyes for after my finals. There was one picture, for Finite Maths, which kinda surprised me because I didn't think Mr Chen would be up to that.

Jan wants to come along with me to KK so we can climb Kinabalu together. I've got to check with Carmeni and see if that's okay.

The final Princess Diaries book was really good. I thought Hannah had spoiled the ending by telling me who the protagonist ends up with, and I was kinda upset because I was hoping she'd get with someone else (and also that my sister would spoil the book for me), but it turned out she was lying, so the ending caught me off guard and I was very pleasantly surprised. Thanks, Hannah!

I still haven't done any extra work for my baptism class, and I haven't studied, either. I guess that's what I'll do in the next three days. Yay.

Also, Rebecca from Holland has managed to place in the final ten out of a hundred and so for an essay writing contest by the BBC. I would've included a link to vote for her, but that happened a while back and apparently internet voting has now been closed. The results will be released on the tenth. She's up against some pretty impressive competition, but she did a really good job with her essay. I should know, I helped her with it a bit when it was being written.

I think that's about it for now.

I hope I don't fail Physics.

It's Like the Rain Was Especially for Me

Today I got my results back for my Psychology mid-term. I got 13.67%, which is one of my worst test scores ever, I think. Carmeni got one point less than me, and Joanna got .67% less than me, which means we're tied for overall scores.

I was supposed to study with Amanda during my long break, but she was sleeping somewhere so I decided to nap, too. I only managed to sleep in the DSA for one and a half of the three hours, so I spent the other one and a half writing up my Finite Mathematics assignments.

Speaking of assignments, I've got two for Psychology. I've got to write the introduction or conclusion for our group assignment once we've combined all our parts into one great big report, which is Carmeni's job. I've also got to proofread the end result. Plus, tonight I have to add APA referencing to my contribution. On top of all that, my next reflective writing essay is due next week. It's about motivation or something.

Anyway, I went home as soon as my last class ended because I was very hungry. I was hungry because I didn't spend anything on food. I'm not spending any money until Thursday because of my overspending at the Outback Steakhouse yesterday. But yeah, when I left college it was just starting to rain. I thought I would ride home quickly before the rain got worse, but the moment I was on the road the rain got really bad. I was thoroughly soaked when I got home, but I was all right after a hot shower and some toast. A few minutes later, the rain stopped, so that was nice.

Oh yeah, also, on my morning walk on the stairs I encountered a surprising sight on the eighteenth floor. My cat, Faith, was lying on one of the stairs. He didn't make a noise when I picked him up and and only started mewing once he was home. Silly cat. He'd gotten a bit thinner. Someone must've left the door open. I'm lucky I found him.

Ian downloaded BioShock 2 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat. He's playing the latter, and it looks pretty dang awesome. I'm jealous; I wish my rig could handle it. Oh well, at least I have RuneScape.

Hm. I'd better work on those citations.

Back to Blogging

The internet's been down for the past few days. It got fixed on Saturday, though, so that was nice.

Recently I've been sleeping on the couch a lot more because I'm too lazy to get my exercises done at night. As a result I have to do my exercises and take my showers in the morning. It's not so bad.

Not much has happened. I've played more RuneScape, I guess. That game really sucks a person in. I also e-mailed out my part of the Psychology assignment.

I went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner to celebrate the first half of March 14th (International Steak and BJ day) and it ended up costing quite a lot. It was pretty dang tasty, though, so that was worthwhile.

Monday is the last day I'll be able to work on my Finite Mathematics assignment before I have to hand it in. I've got all the answers, now I just need the workings. I'm going to do them during my break with Amanda.

Also I had this dream where I was making out with this girl in an elevator and after it was over I spent the rest of the night trying to dream it again. It did not happen. That was disappointing.

10th of March, 2010

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

I finished The Lexus and The Olive Tree.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Poor and Procrastinating

Ian owes me 82 ringgit since yesterday I lent him my Maybankard to fill his car. Maybe I can get my dad to subtract it from his allowance and add it to mine.

Anyway, today I had three classes. Finite mathematics was okay. We finished matrices today and now I'll have to pay attention because everything else is new material. I'm almost done with The Lexus and the Olive Tree, so once that's done I'll stop reading in class. Also, we got our assignments today. We have to hand them in in a week. I've figured out how to solve most of the problems, so I just have to remember to show the working and I'll be fine.

We had a tutorial session in the lab for Physics. It was mostly the same formula with different variables. There were some tricky questions, but Mr Naj helped us figure them out.

Before Psychology, I had another jelly ice cream cup from KFC. It was real nice. During Psychology, Carmeni challenged me not to fall asleep during the class. I failed. I managed to stay awake during the first forty-five minutes and the last half-hour, but I nodded off for a while for the bit in between. We discussed puberty and stuff, so that was interesting.

Back at home I went on the computer for an irresponsible amount of time. I set my alarm for seven o'clock so that I could start some homework, but all I really did was create a word document and name it. Oh well.

I'm still playing RuneScape, although I'm not really sure why.

Today I Had a Lot of Food

Today between classes I went to KFC to buy an ice cream jelly cup, but they didn't have any jelly left. I bought some popcorn chicken instead, and it was nice and fresh and juicy. After that I bought a couple of doughnuts from Donut Empire, and then I got some fries from McDonald's. While I was paying for my fries I realized I had forgotten my doughnut change, so I went back and got that. Also, I bought an ice blended mango drink. It was okay.

When I got home Ian said he'd buy me popcorn chicken if I went with him while he did some tax stuff or something, so I said yes. After I enjoyed my chicken I got myself an ice cream jelly cup, and it was good.

Back home I went on the computer for a long while. I've started playing RuneScape again because I'm bored.

Oh yeah, apparently everyone in Melacca had a great time. They got to eat onion rings and garlic bread and sausages.

I'll have to start on my Psychology assignment soon.

Early Classes and Unexpected Buffets

My Tuesdays start at eight, so I had to be up pretty early in order to make it to class on time. Before leaving I had a big bowl of chocolate cereal, which was nice.

I was a wee bit late, but that didn't really matter because the lecture started a wee bit late. I fell asleep a few times in class, but that didn't really matter, either.

During the break I went straight to the DSA to nap. I woke up an hour before my next class, and then went back to sleep for the next half hour. After that I went over to help Amanda with her statistics homework. Elo and Arun were playing the penis game from (500) Days of Summer a couple benches over. That was ballsy of them.

When I arrived at the lab, it was empty. I was about to call one of my classmates to check if there was actually a class being held, but then Mr Naj arrived. Anyway class was okay; we did some experiments with springs. It was kinda fun.

Once we had all the data and sorted out our graph, I left class and went back to the main block. I mentioned to my friends how hungry I was and how unfortunate it was that I couldn't go to McDonald's because of how little time there was left before class, and then someone pointed out that the marketing students were selling food, so I went over to them. They were indeed selling food. Because they were closing shop soon, they had a special offer of RM5 for an unlimited amount of food. I paid and ate a lot of nuggets and sausages. I also got a free cup of Pepsi. When I was done with the mini-buffet I bought some corn-in-a-cup from the table over and went to class.

Psychology was nice. We learned about perception and optical illusions and such. The class ended half an hour early, so that was nice, too.

Back at home I took a long nap. Later on I realized I did not have any more pages of Psychology to read, so that was nice. I did a hundred sit-ups and a hundred push-ups. Apparently sit-ups are bad for the spine, so I'm going to switch to bicycle crunches once I figure out how those are done.

I had pineapples and chocolate ice cream for dessert, but not together. A long time ago when my age was still a single digit, I ate a lot of pineapple. When I was done I couldn't taste anything for a long while because all the sourness had killed my sense of taste. Ever since then my mouth gets all warm whenever I see or think of pineapples. It's odd.

I'm going to drive Hannah around a lot tomorrow because she and her friends are doing stuff.

In a completely separate topic, it seems that every time I come home and get comfortable by taking out my contact lenses and changing into shorts, someone wants me to drive them somewhere. This seems to happen especially often if I hesitate before taking out my contacts because I'm not sure whether I will be going out later or not. Anyway after I find out that I've got to go drive about I have to put in my lenses and change again or else go out looking like an idiot. A comfortable idiot, but still.

Bleh. I hope dinner is tasty tomorrow.

Oh Wow, This One's Done Before Midnight

Today was a Wednesday, so I only had one class: Finite Mathematics. I woke up in the late morning feeling fairly rested. I made myself a pancake for breakfast.

I arrived in class almost exactly at 2:00pm. The lecturer was ten minutes late. The lecture once again covered stuff I already knew, so I stayed awake by chewing gum, playing with a component of a file holder that I found a while ago, and thinking about video-goggles and what time it would be when I looked at my watch. We got a five minute break, and I used it to dash across the hall to exchange greetings with Davinia before heading back to drink some water and return to class. The remaining few minutes passed slowly, but they passed.

When I got home I went on the computer for a bit until Hannah summoned me and we went to Bangsar Village together to read and stuff. We stayed for three and a half hours. Hannah finished three books, and I finished The Lost Symbol. It's certainly an entertaining read.

As we were parking back home, we spotted my dad's car. We met up with him and he took us out for dinner at Sin Kee. The chicken chop and pork chop recipe had been changed. Now there's cheese on top of the meats. I usually don't eat cheese, but after the first few bites it was pretty okay. I think I still prefer it cheeseless, though.

Anyway now I've got a cheque from my dad to pay for my school fees. I have to remember to hand it in tomorrow. I've still got to read my Psychology textbook and do my first bit of homework and a hundred sit-ups, but there is still a lot of night left to go.

Cake, Coffee, and a Cockroach

Today I got a free donut and free cakes which came with free coffee. It was good.

First, though, I'll talk about two perhaps interesting things from yesterday. The first thing is when I was eating lunch with Amanda and Davinia and they were telling me about Ms Tay and how she was the only lecturer this semester that they weren't too fond of. Apparently she marked them down on their research papers for submitting just a few minutes late, and she had a pretty bad attitude to teaching. I told them about how she told me not to care for the other, slower students and just watch for myself. I guess Ms Tay doesn't have much tolerance for uncooperative students. Ah well, she's from what I've heard she's still better than Ms Chris.

The second thing from yesterday was when I had a roach on my arm again. It was on some weights than I had retrieved from my parents' bathroom for my sister. This time I didn't freak out when I felt it crawling. I followed it until it was in a good position for whacking, and I whacked it. Once it was disabled, I grabbed it by the antennae and dangled it in the faces of my younger siblings before flushing it down the toilet because drowning is the worst death and I really hate cockroaches even though their only crime is being ugly and invading my personal space. I think that I'm over my fear of roaches now, though.

So, anyway, today. This morning, I met this dude in the elevator. He was stopping on the first floor instead of the ground floor, so I asked him why. He told me that it was a faster way to the underground carpark, and proceeded to show me the shortcut. Now I can shave precious seconds off my route to my motorcycle which will allow me to leave later to college and thus wake up later. Yay.

When I arrived in Moral Studies just as Ms Geetha was going through the scores. I got 36 out of 60, which was more than most people I know, although Carmeni came close with 35.5 and Annora beat me by a whopping five marks with 41. That was because I got 9/20 for the group project, which was the worst score of all the hundredsomething students in the HMC department for that area. It won't matter, though, because Ms Geetha told us that no employers look at LAN scores when they're hiring. All I need to do is score 14/40 or more on the finals and I'll pass. The class ended after only fifteen minutes or so, but I stayed behind to compare my scores with everyone else's.

After I had satisfied my curiosity, I went with Joanna to pick up donuts for her class parties. The lady at Donut Empire told us about the different types of donuts, which was as delicious and more interesting than it sounded. After Joanna had selected her two dozen donuts for her two parties, she got a donut for herself and a donut for me. I really enjoyed my donut, and it has cancelled out any lingering upsetness I may have harbored against Joanna for not inviting me to her birthday party. My forgiveness is very easily bought with sugary treats. I think the world would be a better place if everyone was like me, because that way we could end all wars with a just couple hundred bakeries.

When we were done with our donuts I said goodbye to Joanna and went home to faff about on the computer and do a bit of EMA homework. I topped off my break with a nap and drove back to college just as it started to drizzle.

As I was approaching my classroom for Physics, I spotted the end of Joanna's Legal Studies class party, so I popped into class, greeted the lecturer, and popped out again to ask Jo about leftover donuts. There were none. The remaining two boxes were headed for the Human Communications class party at the other side of college. I made a mental note to check it out as soon as Physics was over.

We got out scores for Physics, and I was one point away from the top scorer with 54/60. I have a shot at a High Distinction, but it's going to be tough. I need to score 31/40 for my final exam, which is going to be a challenge. We'll see how it goes. Anyway, Samuel and I decided to get Tze Yeng some cake because he had written all the reports for our lab group and was responsible for something like 10 of our marks or something. Mr Najmuddin decided to join us, so the four of us made our way through the rain to Secret Recipe. Mr Naj said that he would pay and we could order what we liked, so we each got a slice of a different cake. The waitress informed us that each slice came with free coffee or tea. I had a moist chocolate cake and black coffee. The cake was okay, but chocolate indulgence (The cake from Joanna's birthday) is definitely better. The coffee wasn't strong or bitter enough, but it cooled quite fast so that was nice. Mr Naj told us about spending nights in cybercafes playing Starcraft and Half-Life 1 multiplayer when he was a student. We also talked about tall, cool places to visit in Malaysia and gastronomic restaurants.

When the cake and coffee had finished we thanked Mr Naj for the meal and the lessons and we went our separate ways. I found my way to the Human Communications class party and had the role of class photographer thrust upon me since everyone else was actually part of the class and wanted to be part of the group photograph. Half the shots I took were shaky, but the other half turned out quite okay, I think. After the pictures were done I had some jelly and 100-Plus and I was given half a bottle of Pepsi to take home. That was nice.

When the party was over we went to the hall to play with ice. It was okay, but I bruised my shoulder a wee bit.

After we ran out of ice I went to the lab. Joanna was hanging around with Alan, who was arguing with this tall Nigerian dude about whether Nigeria was a better country than Zambia. It was a fun argument to watch and participate in. Later on the conversation turned to the murder capital of the world, which the Nigerian dude insisted was not Johannesburg, although all the Africans in the lab agreed that that place was pretty dangerous. That was an informative conversation. Later on the conversation turned to Alan's hair and the stuff Joanna could put in it and soon it was time to leave.

When I got home everyone in the family wrote their name and Christmas wishlist on a piece of paper. We then mixed up the papers and picked one out. The gift for the person I got should be pretty easy to get, if I remember about it.

So anyway, in less than 12 hours I've got an EMA and I have not finished the homework for it yet. I guess that's my job for tonight. Oh and apparently people (one person, at least) do read my blog. That is good to know.

Fixed a Leak with a Lie

The secret I am keeping is of much greater magnitude than I previously believed. A lot of people who I thought would know actually don't, which means that keeping this quiet is even more important. Once I found this out, I told Carmeni that it turns out I had heard a false rumor and that there actually was no secret. She bought it, so now I don't have to worry about any more questions from her. She was suspecting it to be something else about someone else anyway, so I think that the secret's safe for now. I hope I forget about it soon. I won't be able to tell anyone I'm keeping a secret if I forget I have a secret.

Five classes today, all of them were okay.

I got more homework in EMA. I don't know when I'll do them, but it will have to be sometime before Thursday, because that's when our last quiz is.

We learned about Science and Pseudoscience in CTS. That was interesting.

I had McDonald's for lunch. It wasn't worth what I paid. The twister fries are a very clever marketing ploy that I fall for every time.

The ATM said there was a problem with my card, but I couldn't get through to the bank when I called them.

We did an experiment involving the refraction of light in Physics. It was cool.

I watched some presentations for Advanced English.

I went to Moral Studies class before everyone else arrived, went to sleep, and woke up a little after class started. There weren't many people there today.

I went to the bank after college to see about my card. It worked fine when I got there. That was odd.

A Second Chance

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cute Bike

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Okay now I think that is it for now.

Last Assignment

I handed in my last assignment of the semester this afternoon. Turns out the deadline was actually the next class, so I had a chance to make it better, but I couldn't be bothered. It's just Moral Studies anyway; the only reasons for putting extra effort into your work for LAN subjects is if you're just a few points shy of a High Distinction or if you're really close to failing. I'm hoping for an 8% or 9% out of 20%, so we'll see what happens there. It's only 1500 words long out of the 2000 word requirement, and it hasn't been proofread or spellchecked and it was written in two hours so the content is pretty horrendous, and there's no referencing, so perhaps even eight and nine is optimistic.

Also I got the results of the quiz I took last week for EMA. I got 28 out of 40, which is actually the highest I've scored on any test so far for that subject. That's nice to know. Mr. Joel said he was very lenient with the marking on this one, but it's still a victory. As usual, Sue Ann got full marks. She's the smartest person I know. If it hadn't been for a misunderstanding on principal roots she would very likely be finishing this subject with perfect marks, and it would be an insane understatement to call that an outstanding achievement.

Alessandra and Marcus were comparing their marks from psychology in English class. They both got eighteen-point-something out of twenty, which is only point-something less than the highest scorer in the subject. That is pretty awesome.

Also in English we got our results back from this practice quiz we did. I scored the highest in class with 51/68, but nobody was surprised. I do act like a bit of a smartass in English, so I can't blame 'em.

I realized that the dude who did the really incredibly gay opera singing and pole-dance-on-a-chair thing from the ball was in my Moral Studies group. His group was doing a presentation today. It was pretty hard to watch. I don't think I'd be wrong to say that that guy is the gayest dude in college. Annora agreed with me. She was staring at her table the whole of his performance at the ball. She had a much better time than me because she thought the dinner was really good. I did not go to the ball to eat. I went to the ball to go to a ball: fancy clothes, music, dancing, socializing, all that good stuff. There was not enough dancing.

After Critical Thinking Skills I looked through these pictures of the capital city of Kazakhstan. It's a cool looking place with nice looking weather. The pictures were from one of the dudes in my class who was trying to fix people's perceptions of his country. Apparently most people think that Kazakhstan’s like Iraq or whatever because of Borat and stuff, and that is upsetting to Kazaks. I guess those pictures are a good way to educate people.

I read through most of the manual for my motorcycle. I learned things I did not know, like how to operate the steering lock and at what speeds I should change the gears. It's good to know.

I rode home in the rain again. I'm not sure if I'll ever recover from this cough and runny nose.

I was going to celebrate my lack of assignments by playing Stronghold or partaking in some karaoke, but instead I took a nap and watched Bruno. The funniness of that movie does not balance out its gayness. Borat was better, I think.

Yeah I think that's it for today.

Not So Alone After All

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Also clothes were talked about, I guess.

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

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

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

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

Right, time to get back to work.

Delays

So the Ares rocket was launched yesterday at 11:30. I had been using our in-case-of-shitty-Streamyx Maxis wireless USB modem on my dad's computer since around eight thirty to work on my research paper, and every few minutes I would refresh Google news to check the updated launch times after each new delay. The last proposed launch time I remember seeing was 10:45, then I kind of gave up on it and went on to finish the definitions part of my paper, which is one third of the introduction or around 5% of the total paper. That puts my progress at 10%, with one week left and a survey that still needs more responses before I can compile and analyse the results. Let us not forget the icing on this cake of stress: because for some reason my computer cannot use the USB modem, I have to do all my work on other people's computers until the internet connection is fixed. Life sure is awesome.

Anyway, back to the rocket. When my paper was done I decided to log into Facebook for a while. After five minutes of pondering the implications of receiving only four notifications between then and when the internet died, I came to the conclusion that Facebook excels at two things: propagating retarded applications and showing the people who don't use those applications that they are sad, friendless losers anyway. It was at this point that I closed the tab and went to refresh Google news one last time before heading to bed.

After I refreshed the page, I only managed to glance through the words "launched", "onlookers", "parachutes", and "recovery" before I realized what I was looking at. I checked the time: 4 minutes ago. Because of Astro's satellite delay, 4 minutes is the exact amount of lag time between when news happens and when news reaches our TV screens. I realized that I could still probably watch the launch in somewhat real-time.

When I turned on CNN, however, they were just talking about sports. The BBC was reporting on the bombing in Pakistan and the attack on the guest house in Afghanistan. A few minutes later, CNN was reporting on the same thing. Neither channels were giving me any information on the rocket. I assumed that they had both broadcast it live and were now ignoring it until the start of the next hour.

The start of the next hour came and there was no mention of the rocket in the headlines. It was only before the first commercial break that CNN brought up the launch, and after the commercials were over they went live to a dude who had been waiting through more than a day of delays to cover that story. I didn't hear anything he said because they were playing the launch on loop in the background and I was discussing with my brother about how awesome it was ("very awesome", in case you were wondering).

After that I went to bed late then woke up early then fell asleep a few times during my daily Bible reading then got ready then went to college then attended class then arrived late for the second of my two back-to-back classes then stood in front of class to give an excuse as to why I was late (my excuse was totally valid, you guys) then corrected mistakes in the hard copy of my research paper for correction at a later time then made a PowerPoint presentation for Monday's class then found myself confronted with a dilemma. I could mention what it was, but that would rob me of an opportunity to practice being vague and mysterious about things that I do not to be vague and mysterious about.

I had two options: I could wait or I could go. Waiting would avoid the issue and change nothing. Going would mean taking the risk that things might still be very bad. It would also mean that if things were no longer very bad, then I would have the chance to make them better, or at least less worse. After stalling for quite a while, I decided to go. Just as I was going, I noticed that what I would have been waiting for was happening. This would have only been a good thing if I had been waiting, but since I was going it put me in a bit of an awkward spot. I did not foresee what was occurring. Since it was too far to turn back, I decided to see what would happen. Nothing bad happened. Things seemed to be better than I thought they were. Almost before I had the time to realize that, it was over. It was only later I realized that what happened could have also meant another thing: that things were not slightly good as they had seemed, but instead they were still as bad as they were or worse, and they just seemed good as part of their worse-ness.

That was a depressing realization, so I bought a doughnut from one of the marketing students to distract myself. It helped a little, but I needed more. I was hungry and one of my friends said she wanted to get the clear Coca-Cola contour glass from McDonald's, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and went up to get some money for some lunch and some lunch for a free cup.

I was in line to withdraw money for a quite while because a machine was acting suspicious so the whole queue was for just one ATM. I was in line for McDonald's even longer because everyone wanted a clear cup.

I still managed to get the cup to my friend before class started, though, but I had to eat in the classroom during the lecture. But even that turned out quite nice, except for the realization that they had short-changed in the french fry area of my meal.

So anyway that was a post about nothing in particular and now I want to nap.

Frustrated

I have a 2000 word research paper to write and only about a week to write it. Normally that would not be much of a problem, but this is not normal for two reasons: I just started my survey today and I've only got six or seven responses out of the twenty that I need, and the internet connection at my house is dead so I can't go online to do the research for the paper.

Because of the nature of my paper's thesis (Childhood phobias tend to be lost before adulthood), I can only distribute my survey among adults. The two biggest problems about this are approaching them and getting data I can use from their ages. The women and older dudes especially are reluctant to write down their exact age, so I've just resorted to asking them to round down to the nearest decade.

I've also got a moral paper due in two or three weeks, but I figure that can wait until my research paper is done. I also need a survey for that one, but I can distribute that one to students so it should be considerably easier.

So yeah, lack of internet at home and nearby deadlines have me in quite a lousy mood. It doesn't help that I haven't been sleeping much lately, either.

Also there's this rocket, which is the tallest in the world and called the the Ares-something-or-other, that NASA was going to launch yesterday, but it was delayed numerous times due to wind and clouds and a cargo ship, until finally they had to cancel the launch and reschedule it today. The new launch time is in about two hours. I'll try to catch that. I hope it's worth the wait.

Oh yeah, one last thing. I figured out that someone in my moral class did not have the name I thought she had. I'm going to have to go back and fix some blog posts next time I'm free.

Secrets, Smoking, and Stuff

So today was very interesting. Most of the paragraphs here are not, though, so feel free to skim to the good bits. Also, the second word in the title is purely for alliteration. There are only like three sentences on it in this entire story.

It's been a week since my second motorcycle accident. On the way to school I kept the bike revved at the lights and kept my eyes on the road ahead the whole time. It worked, and I got to school without any problems.

I usually have two classes every Monday: an English class at eight and a Physics class at eleven. Today I also had a replacement Engineering Mathematics Applications class at 10:10 and a replacement Critical Thinking Skills class at two o'clock.

I arrived about half an hour early and decided to check if anyone I knew was at school yet. I didn't find anyone to talk to while I was walking down the corridor, so I wet my hair, found a mirror, and wasted some time by playing with my fringe to see if I was capable of pulling off an emo look. I was not. I kept the hair anyway, since it wouldn't take long to dry.

I met Carmeni in the hall and we talked for a while. The conversation was about the best place to sit and what I had come early to college to do. Carmeni said that my plan was ridiculous. I said it was the best way to move on. Ten minutes before class I decided to roam the hall again to see who I would run in to.

Juria was in the upper foyer with some friends waiting for her statistics class to start. I tried to figure out the statistics homework for a while, but I am just not that great with math when all the equations are upside down and the formulas are things I have never heard of. At one point someone said that statistics was cancelled that morning, and the information was confirmed a little later by three texts saying the same thing. At eight o'clock everyone started leaving for their classes, but I stayed around to hear Juria tell her story of how her birthday went and for another reason that will be mentioned a few paragraphs down.

Juria's birthday was awesome, apparently. Meeting Boys Like Girls and getting the lead singer's wristband as a present on the eve of her birthday on Friday night was just the beginning of the story. The second half happened the next day but was so mind-blowing that Juria told me to promise twice not to tell anyone what she told me, with the exception of my sister and people who she had already told, which turned out to be quite a large list. But more on that later.

By the time I was done processing what I had just heard and the magnitude of the secrets I had to keep, I was more than half an hour late for class. Once fifteen minutes had passed my attendance mark was as good as gone, so I decided to stay on a little longer and finally do what I should have done sometime during my first semester.

So I told Juria that I liked her. She told me that she already knew, and had known for about a month or so thanks to my blog and Facebook notes. I been anticipating a reaction be more along the lines of rejection and avoidance, so it was a nice surprise to see how cool she was about the whole thing. Of course she wasn't interested, but I had never imagined the outcome of that conversation as anything along those lines anyhow, so that went much better than expected, even though things are pretty much the same.

I remember surprisingly little of that conversation. It happened a little more than half a day ago and I can somehow only remember the gist of things. It's odd, since I'm pretty sure that her eighteenth birthday story was the best birthday story I had ever heard and that the talk after that was the first time I've ever told a girl face-to-face that I liked her. I guess memories don't form that great when you're only getting four hours of sleep every night.

I left the foyer when there was still half an hour left in my class. I figured showing my face was better than not appearing at all, since I could schedule a replacement class and such. The lecturer asked why I was so late and I told him I didn't have any good excuses. The class ended fifteen minutes early and he told me that I could sit for a class tomorrow to replace the one hour that I missed, and I'd still get full attendance. That was pretty awesome. What wasn't so awesome was when I checked my schedule and saw that that one hour was my only break the whole day, and so now I had back-to-back classes from eight am to five pm. Wonderful.

I went back to the foyer to see if Juria had told anyone else, since generally the more people that know a secret the less exciting it is, and the less exciting it is the easier it is to keep. A lot more people knew, but the secrets were not any less exciting or any more easy to keep. Oh well, at least I had more people that I could talk to about it if I ever got overwhelmed by the urge to blab.

Everyone's classes started again at nine thirty, so I left the upper foyer to see if any of my friends were in the hall so I could let them know that I was keeping the biggest and awesomest secret I had ever kept in my life, because what's the point of keeping an awesome secret unless everyone knows that you're keeping an awesome secret so they can be jealous of your position as a person who is privy to such information. When they (when I say they I mean mostly Carmeni and Elo) started asking what the secret was about I started to regret telling them about it, but I decided I wouldn't be breaking my promise if (1) I didn't tell them anything that wasn't already public knowledge, (2) I only told them which guesses were false so they didn't think that it was something terrible or less awesome than it was, and (3), I kept silent or refused to answer if they asked me something where the answer would be a "yes", since that would be giving away part of the secret and count as breaking the promise. They left for class before they could learn anything beyond some Taylor Swift trivia.

I called my sister right after that to tell her as much as I could before I had to get to my 10:10 EMA replacement class. Rushing the conversation on the phone was a bit pointless, though, since the class started at around 10:30. All four of us were waiting outside early, and we talked about cockroaches and the college's past as a parking garage.

Engineering Math wasn't terribly interesting. I guess the only thing worth mentioning would be that no homework was assigned to us, which meant that my half-day assignment-free streak might make it to last a few actual days. That was nice.

Before Physics started I met Denise and a few other friends. Denise wasn't happy about me telling her that I had a secret that I wasn't going to reveal to her. She said she wouldn't talk to me until I told her what it was. She did not manage to stick to that.

Physics was informative and somewhat interesting, but again there was nothing much to write about except for the lack of homework, which was nice again. Also, the class ended pretty early.

After Physics I went to go eat lunch with Joanna. I got to share her meal and get that cool coke contour glass in exchange for telling her the story up until the point where I had promised not to tell anyone anything anymore. When I was done, she didn't believe what had happened. I still got a pretty kickass sundae out of that, though, so whatever.

When lunch was finished we hung out at the computer lab before I went a-roaming in the hall again while waiting for my CTS replacement class to start. When I was bored of the hall I went to wait in the class, where I talked with a dude about the biggest secrets we had kept. He couldn't really remember anything, but he did tell me about this one friend of his who slept with a transvestite. That was good for a laugh.

The class was cool. We got to watch clips from Thank You For Not Smoking, which I have to remember to download again sometime soon. Again, there was no homework. That was a nice note to end the day's education on.

After that I hung out a bit more and managed to avoid breaking my promise not to tell anyone despite around a dozen people knowing I had a secret. That was a bit tricky, to say the least.

Word had gotten around about me telling Juria that I liked her. It was pretty cool being the subject of gossip. Carmeni's boyfriend, Nicholas, was in college, and he had heard. He told me that I did it wrong, and that the surest way to fix things was by kissing Juria the next time I see her. Nick's a cool dude, but I think I'll pass on that particular nugget of wisdom. Somehow I get the feeling that borderline sexual assault is not the best way to get a girl interested in you.

I also found out that Elo used to smoke. She told me how she started and how she managed to quit, so that information might be useful in the future. It seems like a lot more of my friends smoke or used to smoke than I originally thought. Still not tempted to try, though.

Later on a bunch of us went to one of the many Ali Maju restaurants for drinks and snacks. I had spent most of the rest of the week's allowance on a ticket to a student-organized standup comedy night on Thursday, so I didn't order anything. Joanna's mum called and told her that she was arriving soon, so Jo left before she got her order. It arrived moments after she left. Since we are not the type of people to waste perfectly good food, I got to have something to eat after all, and Zach said he would pay. So for me at least, there was such thing as a free lunch. Later we saw Jo waiting outside, so I miscalled her and she sat inside until her mum actually arrived.

After that I went home. I spent quite a while talking about my morning conversation to my sister while my brother tried to guess what the secret was.

So anyway it is now around twelve thirty and all the events described technically happened yesterday since it is the sixth today. The fifth was a long day. Today is going to be even longer. I am not really looking forward to waking up six hours from now to get ready for nine straight hours of college. Oh well.

I guess the short version of this post is I can't keep secret the fact that I have a secret, and also I told Juria I liked her and it was pleasantly liberating. So yeah, there's that.

Making Memories

Yesterday morning I woke up much earlier than I had expected to. I had originally seen myself sleeping in until the afternoon, brushing my teeth before forgoing shaving and putting in my contact lenses, and spending the rest of the day at home doing my homework and assignments for college. My mum, however, had different plans. She wanted the whole family to take a long drive so the whole day would be spent together in the new car. My dad managed to convince her to change the long drive into two two-hour drives punctuated by a stop at my grandparents' place in Ipoh. After this slightly-more-reasonable-but-still-pretty-lame new plan for spending the holiday was agreed upon, my dad went to wake the rest of us up. He did not have much success. From my bed, I told him that I wasn't going to wake up and go all the way there because I wanted to sleep in and I had homework to do. He kept coming back in the room to try and get me to wake up, but I only did when he threatened my allowance.

By the time I was up everyone else was almost ready to go. I got changed, brushed my teeth, and, since I was going to be outside the house after all, shaved. I quickly went over my daily Bible reading (Two chapters Old Testament, one chapter New) and my morning exercise (Up twenty flights of stairs), had a drink of water, grumbled a bit about still having to go, then put in my contacts, grabbed my wallet and phone, and headed down to the car.

There were seven of us in the car (Parents, two brothers [Ian, oldest brother, and Jan, youngest brother], two sisters [Hannah, younger sister, and Susanna, youngest sister], and me), and not all of us were pleased at the situation. I loudly voiced my opinions about going out during the holiday instead of staying home to do the work I needed to do and such. Ian said he didn't want to spend four hours cooped up in the car. Hannah and Jan talked about breakfast, I think.

Breakfast was the first stop. While eating, I asked my dad if Ian and me could drive to Ipoh so that my parents would be sitting in the back to see how they liked it. He agreed. When we were finished with our food, Ian took the first shift and I rode shotgun.

A few minutes after we left the corner shop where we had breakfast, my dad asked if we would rather take a half-hour drive around the city instead. We said yes. Ian adjusted the route and my dad called ahead to let the grandparents know that we wouldn't be coming over after all. I was considerably cheered up by this change in plans, because it meant that we would have time left after the drive for me to do some homework.

We talked about all sorts of things on the drive. My parents told the story of the day they met, and we learned that my dad never told my mum that he loved her until seven years after they met, which was when they got married. Ian then discussed his theory as to why countries with seasons seemed to be more developed better off than Malaysia and other such equatorial third-world countries. We also talked about the various empires that ruled most of the world, and how many of our friends were in serious long-term relationships. When we got to the last topic, I mentioned our cousin, Dexter, but Ian said that he didn't count because the relationship had to have been going on for more than year to count as long-term. I told him that when we met Dexter's girlfriend at last year's Christmas party they had been together for a while already, so it was probably more than a year. Ian said they had only been together since October or something. I suspected he was just making shit up, but I dropped the subject.

After we went around the city, we decided to go visit a mall. This was good, because we could buy some stuff and also watch a movie. We went to One Utama, and chose to go watch Up. Ian, Hannah, and I had already seen it, but it's the best movie of the year, so we didn't mind watching it again. Also, it would be the first time the entire family would watch a movie together, so it was definitely something we wanted to do.

Jan, Susanna, my mum, and I went to Golden Screen Cinemas to pick up tickets. When we reached the counter, we found out that they had stopped showing Up the day before. All the other shows playing were crap, so we went to check a newspaper to see if any other cinemas were still showing Up. Unfortunately, there were no newspapers that day because it was a holiday.

I think it's pretty retarded that GSC stopped showing Up after a month but was still showing Transformers 2 three months after its release. I guess that just goes to show how lousy this country's taste in movies is.

We went down to meet the rest of the family in Marks and Spencer. When I got there I texted a bit and found out that one of my friends had seen Up recently. I had an agreement with her that if she saw Up I would watch Twilight, so while I was glad that I could convince her to watch such an awesome movie I was a bit bummed out about having to watch such trite when she hands me the DVD. Oh well.

I wandered back to where the rest of the family was and they helped me pick out a jacket for the annual ball. It also fit my younger brother and my dad, so we got three jackets' worth in one. That was cool.

When we were done with Marks and Spencer, Hannah and I wanted to go see if Tanjung Golden Village was still showing Up. When he heard this, Ian said that they weren't. I asked him how he knew, and he said that he saw it in the newspaper. I told him that no newspaper had been printed today, and he said he saw it in yesterday's newspaper. Hannah and I called bullshit and went to check for tickets.

Sure enough, when we got to the ticket counter there were still showings of Up. I couldn't find seven seats in a row, so I got one row of three seats for the three youngest members of the family and one row of four for everyone else. Once we had the tickets, we went to find the rest of the family at MPH.

When we got to MPH we found our parents and Susanna in the magazines section. I checked to see if the paperback version of The Lost Symbol was out yet, but it isn't going to be in Malaysia for another six months. I tried to check if they had The Zombie Survival Guide or anything by Max Barry, but they were out of stock on all of them except for the Zombie Survival Guide, which had exactly one copy left in Penang. I decided to go to the information counter and order the books for delivery at the MPH branch nearest to our house. They should be there in three weeks.

When we were done in the bookshop, we went to meet up with Ian and Jan in front of the cinema. They were at a game store and told us about The Beatles Rock Band. We discussed whether we should get that or Guitar Hero World Tour for a while, but we didn't really reach a conclusion.

While waiting for the movie to start, we ate some snacks at McDonald's. We asked Ian why he lied about Up, and he said he didn't want to watch it in TGV, which seemed like an incredibly selfish reason to deprive our family of what was essentially our only chance to all go see a movie together.

The time came for the movie and we all went to the cinema. Up was exactly as good the second time as it was the first time. I still got a bit misty-eyed during the sad bits, and the funny parts were still hilarious. When we left the theatre, we all agreed that it was a very good movie.

I drove us home. I didn't get off to a good start, but I managed to (somewhat slowly) get home without hitting anything, which qualifies as a success in my book. When we got home, I went upstairs to do my physics homework while the rest of them went for ice cream.

Physics wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, so I went to my computer to pass the rest of the time. I made a draft on this blog of what happened today, and then at six we left to go say goodbye to Dexter, who is leaving to go study overseas in around a week.

When we got to Dexter's house, we were greeted by his dad and dogs. Susanna was a bit scared of the dogs, but they're quite harmless so she wasn't in any danger. Hannah and I played with the dogs for a bit before I sat down to try some mooncakes and talk with my aunt and cousin. Dexter told us about where he was going to study and what his schedule was going to be like and such, and I would occasionally ask him questions about his time at HELP and the various events he went to and people he knew. I also took the opportunity to ask him how long he had been with his girlfriend, and he said that it had been more than a year. Ian said that that was what he had thought, but Jan and I corrected him. I love being right.

Susanna tried to go for a swim in their pool, but one of the dogs got quite distressed. He was trained to rescue people if there was any trouble in the pool, and Susanna was reluctant to go into the deep water, so he was getting agitated. Eventually he had to be put out of the house for a while while Susanna tried swimming. She didn't stay in the pool for long, though. When Susanna was dried off, we said goodbye to Dexter and wished him well with his studies.

After that we were all quite hungry, so we decided to go try this sushi place that Ian recommended. I told him that I'd try a salmon roll and that I'd say I loved it. When we got there I tried a salmon roll and gagged. When my mum asked how it was, I said I loved it. When Ian checked again later, I said I didn't like it at all and only answered that I liked it because I had said I would. He was quite upset by this. I did, however, finish everything on the plate that I had ordered, but Ian said that didn't count because fried chicken isn't sushi. Whatever. Also, during the meal we talked about how the government's monitoring of blogs meant that I had another regular visitor to this page aside from my sister. It's a bit sad that I only have two readers, and one of them is getting paid to do so.

When we got home I tried to help Jan enable the task manager and registry editor, but the virus that disabled them was real bloody sneaky and I couldn't find any way to get them working again. I berated him for clicking links in suspicious e-mails, but he told me that his task manager and registry editor had been disabled a long time ago by another virus. I told him that without them I couldn't remove the one he got by clicking the link in his e-mail, so he should've been more careful anyway.

Since I couldn't prove that I was superior to Jan technically by fixing his computer, I decided to prove that I was superior to him strategically by beating a level he was stuck on in Stronghold. It took a while, but I managed it, and he congratulated me when I did. When I was done he replayed the mission and managed to score higher than me, so that's nice for him.

After that I was up until four chatting to various people and using Facebook. When I finally went to bed I stayed in it until three o'clock this afternoon.

I spent about two hours writing this and I haven't get any homework done today. I did, however, manage to sleep in, not shave, and not wear my contact lenses today, so that's three out of four goals completed today that I wanted to complete yesterday. Not bad, if I do say so myself.