A long while ago (but shortly after my last post), I drove my dad down to Kluang for a business meeting. While he was working, I had his car and the freedom to do whatever I wanted in Kluang. That would have been great except that there is nothing to do in Kluang. There was a KFC that I could've eaten in, but I decided instead to try and park the car and listen to the radio. I only managed to get a solid parking spot fifteen minutes before the end of my dad's two-hour meeting. I also found that the parking lot was right on the spot where one of the radio station's broadcast range ended. It was kinda fun nudging the car forward and backwards to hear the songs go to static and back. Anyway, on the drive back I listened to the CD of The Beatles that my dad has in his car. It has now replaced the John Denver disc as the thing we switch to when there's nothing on the radio.
More recently, my dad had me do training for working in Devices World (his company) with iSCADA, which is one of the products they sell. Training was two days. The first day hadn't had much sleep, so I stayed awake by browsing the Most Expensive Journal, which was a blog I found that day about the most expensive stuff in the world. We ate Nando's for lunch and I got to know my fellow trainees better. It was also the best Nando's I have ever eaten. After the break there was a few more hours' worth of stuff to learn, but I had exhausted all the good articles on the blog, so I nodded off a few times. I think I still caught everything I needed to catch, though, because I made it through the second day okay.
The next day was more training. This time it was all hands-on stuff, and most of it was actually exciting, so I didn't need any help staying awake. I got to remotely turn on lights and set off alarms and play with graphs and stuff. It was fun. Nerdy fun, yes, but still fun.
Have I mentioned that there are these incredibly adorable kittens that I see every week when I go to the KPD to do my Bahasa Kebangsaan? Well, there are these incredibly adorable kittens that I see every week when I go to the KPD to do my Bahasa Kebangsaan. Up until recently I haven't been able to touch them, despite my attempts to lure them in with fish and chicken. I have made them a bit fatter with all those treats, though. Anyway, I did manage to stroke one during my last lesson. He was the neglected one of the litter, and I don't think he's going to make it to the end of this year. He's covered in fleas, he's missing patches of fur, and he doesn't have much energy left in him. I approached him when he was napping and treated him like Faith, but gentler because Faith is not terminally ill. Still, it was nice to hear the kitten purr. Later on I had a nightmare that I'm pretty sure was inspired by a species of disgusting aquatic parasite, a dog I know, and the fleas on the kitten, but that's stretching this subject so let's move on.
The next day was a Saturday. Our family was supposed to head up to Ipoh that weekend for my grandmother's eightieth birthday. It was also the day that I had planned to get tickets from the MTV World Stage road show at Sunway Pyramid, so I had set my alarm early so I could beat the crowd. My efforts with the alarm were soon rendered pointless when I fell asleep after my morning Bible reading and only woke up two hours later. By that time, Hannah had gotten back from her horse riding so we could go together to get the tickets.
My mum let me use her car, and she also gave me her credit card so we could fill up the car for the trip to Ipoh. We ate McDonald's for breakfast, and it was delicious. The car was filled without a hitch. On the way to Sunway Pyramid, Hannah noticed that the Fly.fm cruisers were behind us, which meant that the event hadn't started yet and we were perfectly punctual. I dropped Hannah off at the mall and went to find a parking space, which was a lot easier to do in Sunway Pyramid than at Megamall because the second level of the parking lot was empty and because there were lights above each parking space that showed whether they were full or not. All malls should invest in that kind of technology.
The road show was easy enough to find. Hannah and I managed to squeeze our way to the front of the crowd. We found out that it was supposed to last from noon to six, but it was 12:30 and there were no signs of it starting, so I went out to get some mints. I did a loop of the mall and found some of the new Wrigley's gum with the cool packaging at Jusco's. I also picked up some Eclipse mints. The total purchase came up to RM9, which I thought was quite a bit for mints and gum, but whatever. I met up with Hannah and shared some Eclipse with her.
After a bit more standing around, Hannah left to go to the bathroom. A few minutes after she was gone, VJ Utt arrived and kicked off the show by introducing the first act, Bittersweet. Hannah came back during their second song and told me she couldn't get her belt off so she still needed to use the bathroom. The whole time Bittersweet was on stage we tried to figure out what language they were singing in. We never came to a concrete conclusion, but since their song titles were English we just assumed the songs were English, too.
When the band had left the stage, VJ Utt and a dude from Fly.fm got on stage to give out tickets and prizes to the crowd. Their selections were random, but they came mostly from the front row and they tended to be the loudest. One of the people who had managed to get picked was a girl right in front of Hannah and I, so when she went up on stage we managed to get to the front row. The questions that the lucky audience members were asked were easy enough, so nobody left the stage without winning something. Unfortunately for a few, some of the prizes didn't include tickets. I especially felt sorry for a girl who had showed up with a big Tokio Hotel sign and face paint and everything because she ended up leaving with a t-shirt from a sponsoring bank.
The hosts felt that the audience wasn't being enthusiastic enough, and that when the people on stage shouted "MTV rocks!", the audience should shout "MTV rocks!", too. The moment after they said this, I shouted "MTV rocks!". VJ Utt singled me out for my zeal and called me on stage. Six other people were chosen. We were told that there were only five tickets to be given out, so who got tickets and who went back empty-handed was to be determined by a dance-off. This was brilliant. I loved this idea. Hannah's face lit up when she heard that the winners would be chosen by dance. I was glad that I already had the audience on my side and that that meant this was probably going to be the second time that my dancing won me tickets to MTV World Stage.
The first guy to dance was a tall dude in a Star Wars shirt. His dancing was okay, but after the music was stopped, he complained that he had had to dance to Katy Perry instead of Wonder Girls, which won him a bunch of boos from the crowd and meant I was that much more likely to win the tickets. The next person to dance was a transsexual who challenged the audience with a sensual mock-striptease. I was just glad that I only had to watch from behind. Hannah is still trying to forget what she saw that day. Anyway, after that was a girl who tried to emulate the tranny's success with another sensual dance, and I guess she did okay.
When my turn came to dance, the song was changed from "Hot 'N Cold" to "I Kissed a Girl". This was bad for two reasons: one, Hot 'N Cold is a much easier song to dance to, and two, I was caught off-guard by the change in music and I didn't even recognize what song was being played until five of my twenty seconds were up. Nonetheless, I did the best with what I had left, and there was enough applause afterwards that I felt pretty safe.
Next up was a girl in a Green Day t-shirt who lacked enthusiasm and energy. After her was a girl who was slightly better, but still not great. The last performance happened to be the best one. The dude who was dancing was extremely entertaining and actually skilled at dancing, unlike the rest of us. I was impressed. Hannah was impressed, too, but she thought he was gay.
To give the audience one last chance to decide who they liked best, we were all called to dance at the same time. I danced a bit with the best guy and the girl who danced before me, and that was fun. When it came time to choose the two people to send off, the Star Wars guy and the Green Day girl were picked. The rest of us got an MTV World Stage poster, an MTV World Stage t-shirt, and most importantly, two tickets to MTV World Stage on the 31st of July. When I joined Hannah back in the crowd, it was announced that there would be a break for an hour before more tickets were given out, so Hannah went to the toilet and then we went home.
Right when Hannah and I got home we had to leave again, because Ian was napping and Jan had to be picked up from BB. Along the way I forgot where I was heading and ended up in Brickfields. This wasn't much of a problem, though, because I knew a way to Cheras from Brickfields. All it would mean is that we would be a little later. Unfortunately, the route was blocked by construction, so I had to improvise. I ended up lost in a graveyard on a shitty road that lead to a cement factory and a Buddhist temple. After turning around we found ourselves in front of The Alice Smith School, which was not where I expected it to be at all. Near the school was a gigantic pothole that I failed to avoid. A little later I managed to figure out where we were, and soon we were back on track for Cheras. When we picked up a bit of speed, I realized that there was weird noise coming from our car. Hannah said it was probably the mud flap. When we reached Sri Sempurna, I got out to check, and it turned out that the mud flap had been ripped to shit by the pothole and was banging against the body of the car.
Anyway, we picked up Jan and drove home, and then we went to get the car fixed so we wouldn't be annoyed by the noise all the way to Ipoh. The aunty at the repair shop got one of her people to cut off the mud flap as a temporary solution, and so we were good to go.
A little after that Ian, Joel, Hannah, Jan, and I went to Mid Valley to watch Inception. When we got to the ticket counter we found out that all the screens were booked full except for the 11pm showing. I was the only one willing to stay that long. The guy behind the counter told us we could wait five minutes for the reservations to expire so we could claim those seats, so we did. When the five minutes were up, some fat cow of a woman cut in front of us to organize half a dozen tickets for the next showing of Eclipse for her and her family or something. She took ten minutes to figure out that the next showing of Eclipse was absolutely irrevocably totally booked. After her we finally went to claim our Inception tickets, but the dude's manager told him that they couldn't give away the reserved seats. Ian booked four tickets for Despicable Me instead, and then let me book my 11pm ticket. I was just about to do just that, but then I saw that a guy at the counter next to me had claimed a ticket for the Inception showing we were waiting for, so I told our counter guy and he agreed to check for me. I got the last ticket to the show that way.
For dinner I ran down to Burger King. It was at that point that I realized I would have to withdraw more money, which would mean I was going under my float. That realization kinda sucked.
Inception was awesome. On my way to the bathroom after the film I decided that it was the best movie I'd ever seen. I joined the line to the ticket counter to try and get tickets for the next showing. Ian wasn't interested, though, so I decided against it because I didn't want to have to take a cab back. Despicable Me finished short after, and I joined the rest of the guys to go home.
At home I used Ian's computer while Jan and he played poker outside. When Ian lost, he kicked me off, so I went outside to watch the game. After the game I watched TV until Ian fell asleep, then I used his computer to read about Inception until 4am.
The next day I woke up at six AM to the sound of my alarm. I climbed out of bed, turned it off, and went right back to sleep. A few seconds after closing my eyes, Hannah was in the room, the curtains were open, and the sun was streaming in. It was now eight AM, and I had managed to sleep for two hours in what felt like a few seconds. Anyway, I rushed to get packed and ready, and then we went to Ipoh.
The majority of the car ride there was filled with the best music I have ever heard being played from Hitz.fm. They didn't play a single annoying song. I enjoyed it greatly. 150km or so out of KL, we reached the end of Hitz.fm's broadcast range, so I went to sleep.
At my grandparent's place we spent a lot of time napping. Hannah and I watched The Runaways together. The movie itself is an hour and forty-five minutes long, but it took us almost two and a half hours to watch because Hannah kept pausing it every other minute to shoo Susanna out of the room or go check her Tumblr. In the end it was a pretty boring movie, but it was totally worth watching for the scene where Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning have lesbian sex. I cannot wait to hear about Carmeni's reaction after she watches that.
After the movie we went to KFC with Ian and Susanna for a snack and I got served the stalest popcorn chicken I've eaten in ages. When we got back to the house I took a nap and then the whole family left for my grandmother's birthday dinner.
The dinner took a real long time. There was something like seven courses, so I had plenty of time to converse with family while stuffing my face. Good times.
When we got home our aunt showed us funny YouTube videos and we showed her some funny YouTube videos in return. I read some more about Inception before taking a shower, watching an Animal Channel program about the star-nosed mole, and then going to bed.
The next day we packed up, ate breakfast, and drove home. After a bit of packing we left to drive back to KL. I was driving my dad back in his car while my mum drove everyone else in her car. I soon realized that the radio was broken and prepared myself for a very boring trip, but my dad managed to fix it. I guess his engineering degree does come in handy sometimes. Anyway, the drive back was uneventful except for a police checkpoint, but I didn't get pulled over so we got home uninterrupted.
The moment I got back I decided to visit HELP to kill time before I went to Mid Valley with Hannah and Audrey so that they could watch Eclipse. When I got to college, Elo was on Omegle and Carmeni was working on her business assignment. I spent half an hour or so helping Elo find someone else who knew the muffin man before a bunch of the guys showed up and we talked about movies and stuff. I highly recommended Inception. I also told Carmeni that Hannah was going to burn The Runaways onto a DVD so I could give it to her later.
Joanna arrived and I asked her if she'd seen Eclipse, and she said no, so we high-fived, then she said she hated Twilight, so we high-fived again, then we simultaneously asked each other if we had seen Inception, and after that we wouldn't shut up about the movie until everyone else had to go to class. Joanna and I were leaving via the same route, so we walked and talked for a bit. Joanna stopped to buy some chocolate from a statistics student who she sympathized with. She got them to deliver a glittery chocolate that read "The language of friendship is not words, but meanings" to me. Joanna's a good friend. =D
I took my motorcycle home and showed Joanna's chocolate to Hannah. I tried to convince Hannah to do some fake sit-ups so she would have a flat, hard stomach in six months (the difference between real sit-ups and fake ones is that you don't need your arms behind your head or your legs together in fake ones. Also real ones take more effort and therefore will get you in shape much faster) but she was either too later or of the opinion that six months was too long. Whatever, it's her body and her loss.
Audrey arrived and we went to Mid Valley. I spent the drive there trying to convince them to watch Inception instead of or after Eclipse, but they wouldn't hear it. At least Hannah was just watching Eclipse to mock it. I bought two tickets to Eclipse and five tickets to Inception for later that night when Ian, Jan, Hannah, Jared, and I were supposed to watch it. After giving Hannah and Audrey their tickets, I went to MPH to read Murphy's Law, which is now probably my favourite book.
After the movie was over we bought some DVDs so Hannah could burn The Runaways. Hannah and Audrey tried to tell me that Bella was a slut, but I told them she couldn't be a slut because she was still a virgin, and that she was a cocktease instead. Anyway, we went back home to drop off the DVD's and my mum's credit card, and then we left to drop Audrey off at her house.
When we got back home again, Ian told us that Jared had cancelled on us and none of his friends could watch Inception. I sent a text to Jo and asked if she wanted to go, but she was at prayers so I called up Amanda, but she was sleeping in preparation for mid-terms. We ended up inviting our dad to come with us.
Jan, Hannah, and Ian loved Inception. Since they couldn't name any movies that were better, I'm going to go ahead and say on their behalves that Inception was the best movie they've ever seen. My dad thought it was okay.
When we got home we talked about the movie for a bit before turning on the TV and watching So You Think You Can Dance. It was only the second episode I'd ever seen, but I did manage to catch the best dance I've ever seen in my life, so that was nice.
That was yesterday. Today I got Hannah to burn The Runaways onto a DVD, which she accidentally named Inception, but we managed to fix that. After that Hannah gave me all of Katy Perry's songs for me to listen to while I did the 100 taxi fares that I needed for 100% completion in Vice City. It took me two and a half hours, but I finally managed to get 100% completion for a second time. I don't think I ever want to do it again. I've done it now without failing a mission or getting wasted or busted, the only way to go from here is to do it without ever failing a side-mission, which I am not up for at all. After that I started this blog post, and now it is three hours later and I am quite exhausted.
Anyway, tomorrow is the day I finally do some work on my Bahasa Kebangsaan assignment which is due in a couple of weeks. I have to find an editorial in BM, then I have to look up all the words I'm unfamiliar with, then I have to write a draft critiquing it in BM, then I have to find another article about current events in BM and find a way to make a five-minute speech in BM about it. Bleh.
I think I'll write about Ian's birthday some other time. Alcohol was involved.
Showing posts with label kitten. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kitten. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Copping Out with a List Post
So here's what happened:
- Lost is finished. I've been following it for six years and now it's over. I am both sad and happy. I enjoyed the finale.
- I'm in college for one last semester doing only one subject: Bahasa Kebangsaan. I was supposed to do Java Programming, too, but there was a scheduling clash. I was still being billed the resource fee for Java, but I got that sorted out.
- Bahasa Kebangsaan has been pretty easy so far. It's every Friday for three hours, so it's a bit long. On the plus side, I managed to get in the group with the prettiest girls for my assignments.
- I never actually went for karaoke. There were too many postponements and nobody could make it, so it was cancelled.
- I watched Toy Story 3 recently with Hannah. It was really, really good. One of Pixar's best, and that's saying something. I missed the end because I had drank three cokes and I really needed to go, but we managed to sneak into another theatre to watch it there. We also got to compare the 2D of that theatre to the 3D of ours. The difference is very subtle.
- Our whole family and Ebony went to Penang recently. Ian and Jan were there for Pesta, so we were there to support them. It was a fun vacation.
- Hannah, my dad, and I saw a dude doing a snake show by the pool. He kissed a cobra and a king cobra. It was pretty awesome.
- We had lunch at the Hard Rock cafe. It was pretty dang cool. Hannah told me to put my new sunglasses on this statue of Michael Jackson. It worked pretty well until they fell off and now the lenses are a little dinged up.
- I got some new sunglasses and the new Netherlands Jersey from the night market. It's missing some details, but it's still pretty cool. Altogether they cost me RM50.
- I watched the England - USA match with some England fans in the hotel. The fans were more entertaining than the match was.
- I got to take a warm bath.
- I had to drive back from Penang to Ipoh.
- Susanna wet herself in Ipoh and there was nobody home except for Ebony, Hannah, and me, so we had to clean her up.
- A few weeks before this I drove Audrey, Hannah, and my dad to FRIM to see Mama and Susanna, who were on a picnic.
- Along the way, a lorry smashed into the back of the car in a roundabout. He drove off before we could get his number.
- I noticed that the road to FRIM was at the intersection with a huge amount of cigarette butts that Joanna, Solo, and I had passed when we were lost during Davinia's surprise party.
- We saw a couple of really big fish in FRIM.
- The Tans visited for a day or something. Hannah and I picked Elselyn, Ruben, and Stefanie up from the LCCT. Jan might have been there, too. I have driven to the LCCT very many times.
- There are many kittens outside of where I have my Bahasa Kebangsaan classes. They are cute and don't mind getting close to people but they still won't let anyone touch them. I'm working on gaining their trust by feeding them chicken. They won't eat fish.
- I'm playing a lot more RuneScape now. I have a lot more in-game money than before because I met a dude who is really good a predicting the market. Lately we're riding a trend caused by a game change that will give us a 50% return on investment. Considering the usual ROI is around 15%, this is looking very good.
- Hannah let me sleep over in her room because she was scared of the dark or something. It was very cozy and comfortable but she told me a secret (which I already knew, and teased her about) and made me promise that I would do all sorts of stuff for her if I told anyone. So now I've gained nothing, but she can threaten me with all sorts of nonsense if she thinks I'm teasing her too much or whatever.
- I'm following the World Cup. I find that football in and of itself is pretty boring, but when you've got national pride and stuff added to the mix, it can get quite exciting. The Netherlands has done really well so far.
- I lost a whole lotta money gambling. My float's been reduced by RM250 back to what it was a few months ago. It used to be a whole lot more, but that didn't last for long.
- That is about it, I think.
- Lost is finished. I've been following it for six years and now it's over. I am both sad and happy. I enjoyed the finale.
- I'm in college for one last semester doing only one subject: Bahasa Kebangsaan. I was supposed to do Java Programming, too, but there was a scheduling clash. I was still being billed the resource fee for Java, but I got that sorted out.
- Bahasa Kebangsaan has been pretty easy so far. It's every Friday for three hours, so it's a bit long. On the plus side, I managed to get in the group with the prettiest girls for my assignments.
- I never actually went for karaoke. There were too many postponements and nobody could make it, so it was cancelled.
- I watched Toy Story 3 recently with Hannah. It was really, really good. One of Pixar's best, and that's saying something. I missed the end because I had drank three cokes and I really needed to go, but we managed to sneak into another theatre to watch it there. We also got to compare the 2D of that theatre to the 3D of ours. The difference is very subtle.
- Our whole family and Ebony went to Penang recently. Ian and Jan were there for Pesta, so we were there to support them. It was a fun vacation.
- Hannah, my dad, and I saw a dude doing a snake show by the pool. He kissed a cobra and a king cobra. It was pretty awesome.
- We had lunch at the Hard Rock cafe. It was pretty dang cool. Hannah told me to put my new sunglasses on this statue of Michael Jackson. It worked pretty well until they fell off and now the lenses are a little dinged up.
- I got some new sunglasses and the new Netherlands Jersey from the night market. It's missing some details, but it's still pretty cool. Altogether they cost me RM50.
- I watched the England - USA match with some England fans in the hotel. The fans were more entertaining than the match was.
- I got to take a warm bath.
- I had to drive back from Penang to Ipoh.
- Susanna wet herself in Ipoh and there was nobody home except for Ebony, Hannah, and me, so we had to clean her up.
- A few weeks before this I drove Audrey, Hannah, and my dad to FRIM to see Mama and Susanna, who were on a picnic.
- Along the way, a lorry smashed into the back of the car in a roundabout. He drove off before we could get his number.
- I noticed that the road to FRIM was at the intersection with a huge amount of cigarette butts that Joanna, Solo, and I had passed when we were lost during Davinia's surprise party.
- We saw a couple of really big fish in FRIM.
- The Tans visited for a day or something. Hannah and I picked Elselyn, Ruben, and Stefanie up from the LCCT. Jan might have been there, too. I have driven to the LCCT very many times.
- There are many kittens outside of where I have my Bahasa Kebangsaan classes. They are cute and don't mind getting close to people but they still won't let anyone touch them. I'm working on gaining their trust by feeding them chicken. They won't eat fish.
- I'm playing a lot more RuneScape now. I have a lot more in-game money than before because I met a dude who is really good a predicting the market. Lately we're riding a trend caused by a game change that will give us a 50% return on investment. Considering the usual ROI is around 15%, this is looking very good.
- Hannah let me sleep over in her room because she was scared of the dark or something. It was very cozy and comfortable but she told me a secret (which I already knew, and teased her about) and made me promise that I would do all sorts of stuff for her if I told anyone. So now I've gained nothing, but she can threaten me with all sorts of nonsense if she thinks I'm teasing her too much or whatever.
- I'm following the World Cup. I find that football in and of itself is pretty boring, but when you've got national pride and stuff added to the mix, it can get quite exciting. The Netherlands has done really well so far.
- I lost a whole lotta money gambling. My float's been reduced by RM250 back to what it was a few months ago. It used to be a whole lot more, but that didn't last for long.
- That is about it, I think.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Holidays
On Friday I went to bed at 5am and woke up at 5pm. It was glorious. Cali was rescued by the maintenance people, but she escaped and is now wandering the building somewhere downstairs.
Today was pretty cool. I woke up at 10, spent an hour catching up on the international news, went out to eat with Jan and Hannah and my dad, then drove to Sri Beringin to see the view and make my dad's new car go really, really fast. There is a hill that is like a rollercoaster at the appropriate speeds. It is awesome.
When we had lunch I talked about the Japanese occupation of Malaysia and how some traitorous bastard (Literally, he was an illegitimate child with a bunch of different dads) named Patrick SV Heenan was partly responsible for the swiftness in which the Japanese achieved air superiority. I also ate a chili, which was quite a painful experience. Jan had dared me to do it as revenge for the time I dared him to do the same. He kept offering me "advice" which did more harm than good. I hope he enjoyed my suffering, because I sure enjoyed his.
Anyway, after we were done in Sri Beringin we went to look at another view. Jan and Papa decided to stay in the car because they were sleepy, so Hannah and I went off alone to see the view. The mood was perfect. It was windy, there were loads of trees, thunder roared in the distance. It even began to rain a little when we reached the top. After enjoying the view for a few seconds, we noticed that it was starting to rain really, really heavily, so we ran back to the car. We got in just as it began to come down in torrents. I switched the wipers on to full blast and joined Jan and Papa in singing American Pie all the way back home.
It was a nice outing.
Today was pretty cool. I woke up at 10, spent an hour catching up on the international news, went out to eat with Jan and Hannah and my dad, then drove to Sri Beringin to see the view and make my dad's new car go really, really fast. There is a hill that is like a rollercoaster at the appropriate speeds. It is awesome.
When we had lunch I talked about the Japanese occupation of Malaysia and how some traitorous bastard (Literally, he was an illegitimate child with a bunch of different dads) named Patrick SV Heenan was partly responsible for the swiftness in which the Japanese achieved air superiority. I also ate a chili, which was quite a painful experience. Jan had dared me to do it as revenge for the time I dared him to do the same. He kept offering me "advice" which did more harm than good. I hope he enjoyed my suffering, because I sure enjoyed his.
Anyway, after we were done in Sri Beringin we went to look at another view. Jan and Papa decided to stay in the car because they were sleepy, so Hannah and I went off alone to see the view. The mood was perfect. It was windy, there were loads of trees, thunder roared in the distance. It even began to rain a little when we reached the top. After enjoying the view for a few seconds, we noticed that it was starting to rain really, really heavily, so we ran back to the car. We got in just as it began to come down in torrents. I switched the wipers on to full blast and joined Jan and Papa in singing American Pie all the way back home.
It was a nice outing.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
For the Most Part, a Good Day
Today was great right up until our kitten stranded herself in the airwell on a ledge at the eighteenth floor. Now she's got three days to either gather up the guts to shimmy across a pipe to somewhere safe, give up hope and fall off, or die of thirst. I hope she doesn't do the last one. That would be pretty depressing, and also kinda smelly.
Anyway, I got to wear my suit again today. It was awesome. The jacket is still oversized, of course, but I had it slung over my shoulder most of the time anyway. It is a much cooler way to carry a jacket than just wearing it. The shoes are awesome. They make this real stylish noise on tiled floors. I almost got a blister, but it would have been worth it. The trousers and undershirt are amazingly comfortable, and the tie is great, too. I love that suit. I want more excuses to wear it.
My excuse today was two presentations: one for Advanced English about my research paper The Formation and Loss of Childhood Phobias, and another about dealing with my hypothetical uncle abusing my hypothetical cousin for Critical Thinking Skills. They both could have gone better, but considering the effort I put into the slides (not much) I think I did as well as I deserved.
I decided to ride my motorcycle to college as usual. The combination of my awesome suit, oversized jacket, and cute motorcycle turned quite a few heads. It felt good.
My first class was Engineering Mathematics. We had a quiz, and it was the easiest quiz so far, save for Physics quizzes. I might have a shot at a credit in this subject.
Advanced English was okay. I was the second guy in my group to overshoot the time limit. We had a maximum of seven minutes, I ended after almost eight. Proper use of allocated time was worth 10% of the score for the presentation, which was worth 5% of our continuous assessment, so I only lost a quarter of a mark. I don't think it's going to matter.
After that I went to have brunch with Alysha. We ate at Ali Maju's and we did not get exactly what we ordered, but we ate it anyway. When we got back to college a fire drill was going on. I met Annora and we talked a bit. I mourned the loss of my jacket to the imaginary flames. When the alarm stopped ringing, I was one of the first back into the hall. I thought about someone could have gained a lot of quick cash by looting everyone's bags during the drill. Luckily, no-one did, and my jacket and bag were fine.
Once I'd collected my stuff, I followed Aaron San to the DSA and we talked about chords and ping-pong-playing robots and such. I also discovered that they've got Risk, Monopoly, and Chess in the DSA. That's pretty awesome. Next time I have a four-and-a-half hour break, I'll try and get some people together to play a half-game of Monopoly or Risk.
At 12:30, the dudes at the DSA had to go to class, so I went down to the hall, found a comfortable position, and fell asleep using my jacket as a blanket. It was so incredibly comfortable. I was awoken twice: once when the girls in the table nearby started talking about boobs, and again when Carmeni decided to wake me up to tell me I was napping. I wonder why she felt I needed to know.
At 1:45 I went with Amanda to go get something to eat. Along our way to McDonald's, we came across this whole group of Coca-Cola people giving out free Cokes for this "Brrr!" advertising campaign. I accepted a can and we continued on our way to McD's.
Amanda was very very excited when we got to McDonald's because she saw that the Prosperity Burger was back. I told her about how every year I would give the Prosperity Burger a try and every year I would be let down. She said she loved the burger, and the fries. I agreed with her on the awesomeness of twister fries. She bought her meal and I bought my fries and we headed back for class. Along the way Amanda said that the feeling of food in your stomach when you were really really hungry was the best feeling ever, and I said that there was a better feeling. She said that she had never felt that feeling before but she'd get back to me with a comparison if she ever did. That led to a somewhat interesting conversation, but we were interrupted by more free Coke. It was a very refreshing interruption.
I ended up giving two of my free cokes to my classmates from CTS, and Amanda ended up giving a bite of her Prosperity Burger to Arun. I didn't really want the cokes, though. I just didn't want to turn down free stuff. Poor Amada was looking forward to eating the burger all on her own, though. She was still unsatisfied when I met her later. I hope she managed to eat her fill later on.
Anyway, Critical Thinking Skills was okay. Oliver thought his presentation was today and he was very relieved to find out he was wrong. Almas knew his presentation was today, but he didn't come prepared. I told him that he could still try to give the presentation without slides because he could still get 2 or 3 of the possible 10 points, but he said he'd give it a miss. Ah well, at least we got to finish early. My presentation went relatively well, except I was speaking a bit fast. After class, Ms Tay told me that I shouldn't spend so much effort helping some people, because they clearly didn't care and were already lost causes. Not everyone can be like me, she said. That was a compliment I almost felt bad for receiving.
After class I went to grab some more Coke. They recorded me saying "Brrr!" for their ad campaign, but I don't think I'm going to be in any videos. I realized later that the point was to shiver with your body, whereas I was just shaking my head real quick. Oh well, I still got free Coke.
When I got bored of hanging around the Coke people, I made my way to the post office to learn how to send a letter. While I was there, I met this French lady who was mailing some letters to her mother-in-law. She had been in Malaysia for the past year and a half because her husband was an electrical engineer doing telecommunications work with the company that's working with Maxis to do P1 Wimax. We talked about our educations and what we thought of Europe and Malaysia. She said I would appreciate Malaysia's heat a lot more if I ever visited Holland during the winter. Anyway, there is apparently a French School in Kuala Lumpur. It is called the Kuala Lumpur French School, and it's in Segambut. Both her daughters are students there. They're 9 and 13. From the way the lady looked, I was expecting them to be younger. Even though my expectations were one way, I was still hoping they would be older. I am not entirely sure why.
Anyway, it came my turn to go to the counter, and the lady behind the glass gave me an envelope and some stamps. It only cost RM1.80 to send a letter to the Netherlands. That's awesome. I left the post office to go online and find the address I was sending the letter to. When I was done, I saw Joanna in the lab. She asked me to follow her to wait for one of her parents to pick her up. We walked in one big loop to McDonald's to wait for her mum. I met her friend, Alan, in the McDonald's. He came to Malaysia from Zambia two years ago, and he said that that was the worst decision he's made in his life. After Jo's mum picked her up, we spent a while talking about how we ended up in HELP, souls, Moore's law, positioning mirrors and slowing light to see the past, the capacity of a brain, philosophy, and religion. Our conversation ended when I glanced over at the post office and saw it closing, which meant it was five o'clock. Alan had a Thanksgiving dinner to get to. It doesn't really make sense, because Thanksgiving is an entirely American holiday that has absolutely nothing to do with Malaysia and shouldn't logically be celebrated internationally (Unlike, say, Halloween), but his friends were there so it made sense for him to be there too. He's a cool dude, though. A real smart guy. I shoulda met him earlier on in the semester; we would've had a lot to talk about.
Anyway, when I got home I dropped the letter off in a mailbox in the lobby and came home. Hannah showed me that Calico had somehow ended up two stories below us on a ledge in the airwell. I climbed out a bit and took some pictures. Here is one. It is the first picture on my blog. I hope it will not be the last picture of Cali.
So yeah, we have a kitten stuck there. I don't know how we're going to get her back up.
Anyway, I got to wear my suit again today. It was awesome. The jacket is still oversized, of course, but I had it slung over my shoulder most of the time anyway. It is a much cooler way to carry a jacket than just wearing it. The shoes are awesome. They make this real stylish noise on tiled floors. I almost got a blister, but it would have been worth it. The trousers and undershirt are amazingly comfortable, and the tie is great, too. I love that suit. I want more excuses to wear it.
My excuse today was two presentations: one for Advanced English about my research paper The Formation and Loss of Childhood Phobias, and another about dealing with my hypothetical uncle abusing my hypothetical cousin for Critical Thinking Skills. They both could have gone better, but considering the effort I put into the slides (not much) I think I did as well as I deserved.
I decided to ride my motorcycle to college as usual. The combination of my awesome suit, oversized jacket, and cute motorcycle turned quite a few heads. It felt good.
My first class was Engineering Mathematics. We had a quiz, and it was the easiest quiz so far, save for Physics quizzes. I might have a shot at a credit in this subject.
Advanced English was okay. I was the second guy in my group to overshoot the time limit. We had a maximum of seven minutes, I ended after almost eight. Proper use of allocated time was worth 10% of the score for the presentation, which was worth 5% of our continuous assessment, so I only lost a quarter of a mark. I don't think it's going to matter.
After that I went to have brunch with Alysha. We ate at Ali Maju's and we did not get exactly what we ordered, but we ate it anyway. When we got back to college a fire drill was going on. I met Annora and we talked a bit. I mourned the loss of my jacket to the imaginary flames. When the alarm stopped ringing, I was one of the first back into the hall. I thought about someone could have gained a lot of quick cash by looting everyone's bags during the drill. Luckily, no-one did, and my jacket and bag were fine.
Once I'd collected my stuff, I followed Aaron San to the DSA and we talked about chords and ping-pong-playing robots and such. I also discovered that they've got Risk, Monopoly, and Chess in the DSA. That's pretty awesome. Next time I have a four-and-a-half hour break, I'll try and get some people together to play a half-game of Monopoly or Risk.
At 12:30, the dudes at the DSA had to go to class, so I went down to the hall, found a comfortable position, and fell asleep using my jacket as a blanket. It was so incredibly comfortable. I was awoken twice: once when the girls in the table nearby started talking about boobs, and again when Carmeni decided to wake me up to tell me I was napping. I wonder why she felt I needed to know.
At 1:45 I went with Amanda to go get something to eat. Along our way to McDonald's, we came across this whole group of Coca-Cola people giving out free Cokes for this "Brrr!" advertising campaign. I accepted a can and we continued on our way to McD's.
Amanda was very very excited when we got to McDonald's because she saw that the Prosperity Burger was back. I told her about how every year I would give the Prosperity Burger a try and every year I would be let down. She said she loved the burger, and the fries. I agreed with her on the awesomeness of twister fries. She bought her meal and I bought my fries and we headed back for class. Along the way Amanda said that the feeling of food in your stomach when you were really really hungry was the best feeling ever, and I said that there was a better feeling. She said that she had never felt that feeling before but she'd get back to me with a comparison if she ever did. That led to a somewhat interesting conversation, but we were interrupted by more free Coke. It was a very refreshing interruption.
I ended up giving two of my free cokes to my classmates from CTS, and Amanda ended up giving a bite of her Prosperity Burger to Arun. I didn't really want the cokes, though. I just didn't want to turn down free stuff. Poor Amada was looking forward to eating the burger all on her own, though. She was still unsatisfied when I met her later. I hope she managed to eat her fill later on.
Anyway, Critical Thinking Skills was okay. Oliver thought his presentation was today and he was very relieved to find out he was wrong. Almas knew his presentation was today, but he didn't come prepared. I told him that he could still try to give the presentation without slides because he could still get 2 or 3 of the possible 10 points, but he said he'd give it a miss. Ah well, at least we got to finish early. My presentation went relatively well, except I was speaking a bit fast. After class, Ms Tay told me that I shouldn't spend so much effort helping some people, because they clearly didn't care and were already lost causes. Not everyone can be like me, she said. That was a compliment I almost felt bad for receiving.
After class I went to grab some more Coke. They recorded me saying "Brrr!" for their ad campaign, but I don't think I'm going to be in any videos. I realized later that the point was to shiver with your body, whereas I was just shaking my head real quick. Oh well, I still got free Coke.
When I got bored of hanging around the Coke people, I made my way to the post office to learn how to send a letter. While I was there, I met this French lady who was mailing some letters to her mother-in-law. She had been in Malaysia for the past year and a half because her husband was an electrical engineer doing telecommunications work with the company that's working with Maxis to do P1 Wimax. We talked about our educations and what we thought of Europe and Malaysia. She said I would appreciate Malaysia's heat a lot more if I ever visited Holland during the winter. Anyway, there is apparently a French School in Kuala Lumpur. It is called the Kuala Lumpur French School, and it's in Segambut. Both her daughters are students there. They're 9 and 13. From the way the lady looked, I was expecting them to be younger. Even though my expectations were one way, I was still hoping they would be older. I am not entirely sure why.
Anyway, it came my turn to go to the counter, and the lady behind the glass gave me an envelope and some stamps. It only cost RM1.80 to send a letter to the Netherlands. That's awesome. I left the post office to go online and find the address I was sending the letter to. When I was done, I saw Joanna in the lab. She asked me to follow her to wait for one of her parents to pick her up. We walked in one big loop to McDonald's to wait for her mum. I met her friend, Alan, in the McDonald's. He came to Malaysia from Zambia two years ago, and he said that that was the worst decision he's made in his life. After Jo's mum picked her up, we spent a while talking about how we ended up in HELP, souls, Moore's law, positioning mirrors and slowing light to see the past, the capacity of a brain, philosophy, and religion. Our conversation ended when I glanced over at the post office and saw it closing, which meant it was five o'clock. Alan had a Thanksgiving dinner to get to. It doesn't really make sense, because Thanksgiving is an entirely American holiday that has absolutely nothing to do with Malaysia and shouldn't logically be celebrated internationally (Unlike, say, Halloween), but his friends were there so it made sense for him to be there too. He's a cool dude, though. A real smart guy. I shoulda met him earlier on in the semester; we would've had a lot to talk about.
Anyway, when I got home I dropped the letter off in a mailbox in the lobby and came home. Hannah showed me that Calico had somehow ended up two stories below us on a ledge in the airwell. I climbed out a bit and took some pictures. Here is one. It is the first picture on my blog. I hope it will not be the last picture of Cali.
So yeah, we have a kitten stuck there. I don't know how we're going to get her back up.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Hurt Kitten
Calico is one of the common colorations for domestic cats. It's also the name of our newest kitten who happens to be of that coloration. My older brother found her a few weeks ago outside a 7/11. She followed him to his car and he decided that he had to take her home.
Our other cat, Mercy and her son, Faith didn’t take kindly to new arrival. We put the three of them together in the guest room to see if they would get along, and after a lot of hissing, growling, and a few warning swipes on the head, the new kitten had learned who was in charge and gained a wee bit of respect for their personal space.
Cali, as we had taken to calling her, was still a little rascal, though. She was extremely playful and would attack anything that moved, including her own tail. Sometimes she would scuffle with the other cats, but mostly they would just have a long, tense standoff followed by a quick chase between the furniture. Other times they would approach, sniff each others’ noses cautiously, and then carry on their own direction.
A few days ago we noticed that Cali was missing. It was a bit sad, but not really a surprise. Despite the fact that we live on the 20th floor of a condominium, we’ve lost cats before. Faith’s sisters, Grace and Joy, went missing many years ago, and Hope, another kitten that we’d taken in, had also vanished one day a while back.
Then yesterday our neighbors from seventeen floors beneath us came up for a game of poker and told us that they’d found a dirty kitten that looked exactly like Cali on their balcony about a half hour before they came over. They had given us a call, but we were all sleeping and couldn’t pick up the phone, so they called one of the guards who took the kitten away for them. I went down and asked where the guard where he had put the kitten. He showed me to a place near the outside parking, but Cali wasn’t there. I was a bit relieved because it meant that wherever she was, she was still in good enough condition to walk, but also quite disappointed because we had lost her again. I looked around for a bit before getting a drink and going home.
When I got home my sister suggested we go look for her one more time, so I did. My sister found Cali sitting underneath a parked car. She was all dirty and she stank really bad. She also had some shallow wounds on her limbs. We carried her back home, washed her, dried her, and got a box to take her to the vet in. Unfortunately, all the vets were closed on Sunday, but I took down their phone numbers and decided to check again the next day to see if they would be open.
After that I put Cali in the guest bathroom with the box, a towel, and some food and water. She wasn’t interested in the food. When I came back to check on her there was blood around her nose, so I was a bit concerned about internal bleeding, but there was nothing that could be done about that at that time so I just said a prayer and hoped for the best. When I made my last check-up with her before bed, Mercy popper her head around the doorframe. I guess she heard the mewing and her maternal instinct kicked in. Well, either that or her natural feline curiosity. Either way, I thought that her concern for the kitten was quite sweet.
When the next day rolled around we went to check if the vets were opened, but they weren’t. I guess that even though their signs said that they were open on public holidays, Merdeka Day was special.
So now she’s still in her little box in the bathroom. She hasn’t eaten or drank anything, but aside from being very tired and a bit cut up, she seems okay. We’re taking her to the vet tomorrow, hopefully she’ll be fixed up then.
Our other cat, Mercy and her son, Faith didn’t take kindly to new arrival. We put the three of them together in the guest room to see if they would get along, and after a lot of hissing, growling, and a few warning swipes on the head, the new kitten had learned who was in charge and gained a wee bit of respect for their personal space.
Cali, as we had taken to calling her, was still a little rascal, though. She was extremely playful and would attack anything that moved, including her own tail. Sometimes she would scuffle with the other cats, but mostly they would just have a long, tense standoff followed by a quick chase between the furniture. Other times they would approach, sniff each others’ noses cautiously, and then carry on their own direction.
A few days ago we noticed that Cali was missing. It was a bit sad, but not really a surprise. Despite the fact that we live on the 20th floor of a condominium, we’ve lost cats before. Faith’s sisters, Grace and Joy, went missing many years ago, and Hope, another kitten that we’d taken in, had also vanished one day a while back.
Then yesterday our neighbors from seventeen floors beneath us came up for a game of poker and told us that they’d found a dirty kitten that looked exactly like Cali on their balcony about a half hour before they came over. They had given us a call, but we were all sleeping and couldn’t pick up the phone, so they called one of the guards who took the kitten away for them. I went down and asked where the guard where he had put the kitten. He showed me to a place near the outside parking, but Cali wasn’t there. I was a bit relieved because it meant that wherever she was, she was still in good enough condition to walk, but also quite disappointed because we had lost her again. I looked around for a bit before getting a drink and going home.
When I got home my sister suggested we go look for her one more time, so I did. My sister found Cali sitting underneath a parked car. She was all dirty and she stank really bad. She also had some shallow wounds on her limbs. We carried her back home, washed her, dried her, and got a box to take her to the vet in. Unfortunately, all the vets were closed on Sunday, but I took down their phone numbers and decided to check again the next day to see if they would be open.
After that I put Cali in the guest bathroom with the box, a towel, and some food and water. She wasn’t interested in the food. When I came back to check on her there was blood around her nose, so I was a bit concerned about internal bleeding, but there was nothing that could be done about that at that time so I just said a prayer and hoped for the best. When I made my last check-up with her before bed, Mercy popper her head around the doorframe. I guess she heard the mewing and her maternal instinct kicked in. Well, either that or her natural feline curiosity. Either way, I thought that her concern for the kitten was quite sweet.
When the next day rolled around we went to check if the vets were opened, but they weren’t. I guess that even though their signs said that they were open on public holidays, Merdeka Day was special.
So now she’s still in her little box in the bathroom. She hasn’t eaten or drank anything, but aside from being very tired and a bit cut up, she seems okay. We’re taking her to the vet tomorrow, hopefully she’ll be fixed up then.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
