So this is my life now

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That's about it, I guess.

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

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

Almost 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aside from that not much has happened.

End of the First Decade of the Twenty-First Century

The last day of the first decade of this century was great.

After waking up at around eleven and spending some time on the computer, I drove to drop Hannah, Jan, and Yii Huei off at Mid Valley so they could watch a movie or something. When I came home I picked up Ian and we went to TMC to pick up party supplies. My dad had agreed to subsidize us RM100 for the party, which meant that we only had to pay RM20 each of the RM140 purchase. We got everything: Chickens, mincemeat, sausages, buns, too much chips, M&Ms, and BBQ sauce (We were actually supposed to buy black pepper sauce but they both start with B so I got confused). Jan was supposed to get the drinks, and he did.

We got back, unloaded the stuff, and Aunty Rosie marinaded everything while Ian got the burgers ready. I think Aron was hanging around at our place for a while after dropping Stef and Ruben off. Anyway, I faffed about on the computer until it was time to pick Timothy up. I asked Hannah if she wanted to come along, and she said yes. She thought I was going to pick Stefanie up, so we ended up going to Mid Valley three times before we managed to pick up Stef and Yii Huei. Hannah actually mistook these two Indian ladies for her friends because they were wearing the same colours. Silly girl. Once we had the girls, I used my memory of the route I'd seen on Google Earth when I'd entered Tim's address, and we found his street with relative ease. I couldn't find his house, but I called him to come outside and Stefanie pointed him out, so that went well.

When we got back it was past seven and time to start the party. I poured out bowls of chips and M&Ms. The corn chips were really popular, as were the M&Ms. The Chipster chips weren't. They also got kinda soft after a while in the air. Next party there will be more candy and more corn chips.

Jared Locke came over, as did Joel and Hanan. We karaoked for a bit, and at nine I unplugged the karaoke and handed it to mum and pa to take to their party. After karaoke it was time for Twister. Amanda arrived while we were playing Twister, I think. I gave her a tour of the house and then she sat down to chat with my dad while the Twister games went on. Stef and Jan were the big winners, I think. While Amanda was on the couch, Faith wandered out of wherever he was sleeping. She said he was the biggest cat she's ever seen, and she was pretty scared of him. I thought that was funny.

Ian went out with Jared to get stuff for a drinking game, and Amanda and I went to look at the view while waiting for Davinia. Amanda said she couldn't believe I didn't have a girlfriend, because my building was a great place for "berdating". I told her that I'd help her boyfriend and her get access to the roof any time they wanted, but they'd have to clean the dead pigeons off first. Avian carcasses are not very conducive to romance.

When Davinia arrived I showed her the view and we took some pictures, and then we went down to the playground. We met Hannah, Yii Huei, and Stefanie downstairs since they had just finished their swim or something. Amanda, Davinia, and I took turns on the swings, but a guard chased us and the other people there out because it was 11pm, so I showed them the sauna instead. Amanda and I also went and climbed a tree I hadn't climbed in years. We then took a walk around half of the compound. Amanda literally screamed when she saw one of my neighbours' cats, because it is something like twice the size of Faith.

We went back upstairs after the walk and waited for the countdown. I tried to cook some stuff in the meantime, but I can't barbecue anything except steak, so I kinda ruined the burgers. The first round of the drinking game was over, so the guys came out. Amanda helped Jared recall the camp where they had met before. She had recognized him earlier but he couldn't remember her because she had managed to get in much better shape since then. It was a cool coincidence that they knew each other from before.

Our countdown to midnight was a little early, but we stopped caring once the fireworks started. The Dataran Merdeka show was the most impressive, but there were other displays going on all over the city. We could see at least two dozen, I think, but the biggest were at KLCC, Menara KL, Dataran Merdeka, and Mid Valley. By the end of it we couldn't even see the Twin Towers because they were obscured by smoke. After everyone else was done, Mid Valley finished their show. At 12:30 they did a few more, and since they were the only ones still shooting off, all eyes were on them. Clever.

After midnight we were thirsty, so Amanda, Davinia, and I took my brother's car to get some drinks. When we got in the car we spontaneously decided to go to HELP so that we could be the first students there in 2010. I parked in the CEO spot and we took pictures. It was fun. After HELP, we tried to get to a 7-Eleven, but the police had blocked off Telawi so we had to take a long route around to find a place to park and walked to the 7-Eleven instead. During the drive, Amanda had the window rolled down and was yelling new year's greetings to anyone nearby. Unfortunately, when we got to the 7-Eleven the slurpee machine was off, so Davinia and Amanda didn't get anything to drink. Instead, I bought root beer, a Pepsi, and some ice cream. The Pepsi was my first drink of 2010, I think.

When we got back home we found out that Jan and Joel had lost the drinking game and were both very drunk. Also, Sarah had arrived, so I said hi to her. I went with Amanda to see if the roof was open, and it was, so I got the rest of the guys and we climbed to the top. It was awesome.

When I climbed down I watched Jan's hilarious drunken antics for a bit, and then I walked Amanda and Davinia to their cars. I had a great time with them; I'm gonna try and hang out with those two more next semester.

Back at home I helped Hannah clean up the house while Ruben took care of a very drunk Jan. Jan had done the following: thrown up, accidentally dropped and broke our only purple McDonald's glass, stumbled around, requested water, received water by saying "I like water!" and then sipping a mouthful or so while spilling the rest all over his face and the floor, told me I was annoying, told Ian he was fat, questioned who Sarah was, spent an entire shower insisting he was not drunk, questioning later why he had gotten drunk, insisted immediately afterwards that he wasn't drunk, and begged Ruben to stay with him while he fell asleep. All-in-all, very entertaining.

After the night wound down we still had a few people sleeping over. Also, Mama and Papa came home, and Hannah and I told them all about the night and what Jan had done. They weren't upset at all. I think it's because we did a real good job cleaning up. We asked them how their night went, and they said it was good. Probably not as good as ours though, and they had left the karaoke behind. Oh well.

Anyway now morning is only a few hours away. I'm waking up at eleven so I can do my morning routine in time to watch the ball drop in New York on CNN. Should be fun.

Oh yeah, also, sometime after midnight Amanda, Davinia, and I decided to give the New Year's Greetings to our friends. In our first attempt to Carmeni, I sent "Happy" from my phone, Amanda sent "2010" from her phone, I sent "2010" from Davinia's phone before I heard Amanda had already sent that, so then Davinia sent "Carmeni". We didn't get a reply, so we tried again by sending "Happy" "2010" "Joanna!" to Joanna, but Jo only received the first two messages. She got Davinia's "Joanna" around an hour later. Also, I sent Athirah a few New Year's texts, too. I text her a lot.

Anyway, 2010 is here! So far it's been awesome! Hopefully it will stay this way.

A Vacation is When You Get To Do Nothing and Don't Feel Guilty

So I didn't actually do twenty laps at the pool. Turns out that a lap is one length of the pool and back, so I actually did ten laps. All my swimming has been at night, lately. I'll try and change over and do afternoon swims so I can get a tan. Also the water will be warmer so that will be nice.

I'm almost done with the Up series. I'm halfway through 49 Up, which is the latest one, so after another hour I'll be completely done and I can download 7 Up 2000 and 14 Up 2000, and maybe Married in America. I also watched Surrogates and Iron Man recently. They're both fun to watch, but although Surrogates seems like it would be a smarter movie it is actually the dumber of the two. Iron Man was still super-awesome the second time around. Can't wait for the next one next year.

My dad gave the OK for a party on New Year's Eve, so I've made a Facebook event and sent out invites. I'm hoping for at least two maybes from my friends, and five confirms from Ian's. I want the party to have a glass bowl full of M&Ms or jelly beans, and also bowls full of various flavours of potato chips and nachos, and of course lots and lots of steaks. If all that is there, it will be awesome.

Ian, Jan, and I are going to an NCO retreat for BB from the 18th to the 20th. Since the company secretary won't be there, I'm in charge of taking minutes. This is the second year I've had to replace her. I really hope the company starts to improve so I can quit again. Responsibility sucks.

I Felt Daft and Relieved

I woke up at 10:30am today because my Physics exam is scheduled to start at 12:30. I read the Bible and didn't fall asleep, got dressed, had some breakfast, mucked about on the computer for a bit, and left at 11:45. When I arrived on the fourth floor, I didn't see any of my classmates. I checked my notebook to make sure I had got the right floor, and I saw that my test was indeed at 12:30 on the fourth floor, but it was on Thursday, not Tuesday.

When I got home I watched The Ugly Truth with my younger siblings. It was better than the Metacritic and RottenTomatoes score had led me to believe. My mum decided to join in halfway, which was awkward, but not as bad as the time she watched Juno with us.

After we finished the show I moved from one screen to the other and watched two more installments of the Up series on Ian's computer. It was really interesting and I enjoyed it a lot. The Up series is now my favorite documentary series. I do not know if I had a favorite documentary series before this, though, so that is a thing. Um, anyway, the Up series basically follows the lives of 14 children who interviewed when they were seven years old about what they wanted to do with their lives and stuff. That was in the mid-sixties, and every seven years they would be interviewed again to and they'd talk about what had changed and what had stayed the same and stuff, so you'd get to a glimpse into these people's lives and what impact their decisions years ago had on them as they grew and stuff, and it's really fascinating. I stopped watching at the start of the installment from 1991 where they're all 35 years old. I'm going to continue watching tomorrow or something.

Tomorrow is Engineering Mathematics Applications day. I will not turn on my computer until I have done all my leftover homework and revised all the material. I've got at least three hours worth of work, I think. At the very least I'll revise and highlight and do the excercises in the frames that I haven't completed, and then if I still have time I'll do the test exercises and such.

Back to today, though. After I stopped watching 35 Up, I moved to my computer and the third screen of the day. I was interrupted when I heard 2012 playing nearby, so I went to join Ian in watching it. It was either a pretty low quality DVD rip or a pretty high quality bootleg, but the end result was good enough. The only problem was that all the location names were in Russian and there were no subtitles for the non-English bits, but I got the gist. The movie itself was not as dumb as I thought it would be, although it was still pretty dang stupid. It was really enjoyable, though. There was a sufficient amount of explosions and stuff got destroyed real good, so I appreciated that. Also the characters who knew they were going to die generally made sure to tell their loved ones that they loved them, which was good. I always find myself wishing that people who are going to die or going to risk their lives would tell the people close to them that they love them. I feel that once that's done then it is a lot less worse if they do die, because then at least the people who will be mourning them knew that they were loved. This is the reason why I regularly tell my parents I love them whenever I'm about to go anywhere on my motorcycle. So yeah, fun movie, kinda dumb, but that's forgivable because it was all about the action anyway.

After 2012 was over I talked to Hannah for a while about our cats and stuff. One of the things I talked about was how mattresses on the floor are better than beds. I'm not really sure why I feel this way, but I much prefer sleeping on a mattress on the floor than a bed. I guess it's cozier.

Oh yeah, during the movie I got a call from Madam Esther. She asked why I quit BB, so I told her. Somehow she managed to convince me to join again, so now I am back in BB. I told her I'd just stay for the first few months of next year to help her with her plans for the company, and then I'd probably leave again. She was okay with that. So I guess I'm in BB again. I guess it was nice to have two weeks off, even though I was going to miss those weeks anyway because of replacement classes and finals. Oh well.

Also, my mum said that our church won't be having an overnight prayer meeting on New Year's Eve this year. This is excellent. I've always disliked New Year's Eve because of those meetings, since I only get along with a couple of people from church and I find the rest of them either annoying or uninteresting. Now instead of spending the start of the New Year in my room on my computer I can invite friends over and have a party or something. I think I'll mass-text everyone with an invitation after my Engineering Mathematics exam is done, since that's the final final and the end of my second semester. I think everyone else has plans for the night already, but it can't hurt to try. Even if none of my friends come, Ian's friends will probably come over for a party. I will do my best to make sure that that party involves a large amount of junk food and candy, because I like junk food and candy and I think other people do, too.

I wonder if I really will end up swimming everyday or taking a walk to the KL Tower during the semester break.