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.

Resident Evil: Afterlife and Nick's Farewell Party

Oh man I am so tired. This post is probably going to be riddled with errors, both factual and grammatical, which sucks because it's probably going to be one of the more popular ones that I've written recently. I'll try to keep it short. Here goes.

I woke up at 10:30 on Saturday, which I shall refer to as today throughout the rest of this post, if I do refer to the day at all. I started my day with the typical stuff: daily Bible reading, shower, etc, etc. I was on the computer until two, and then my dad lectured me and my brothers about spark plugs for some reason. I think he said it was because we are driving our own cars now so we need to know how they work so we know how to fix them. I suspect he was just preparing us so we could change his spark plugs tomorrow or something.

After that Hannah had Audrey and Ebony over for some reason. Ian wanted to go watch a movie. I thought that was a good idea. The girls wanted to go to 1 Utama instead of Mid Valley because they wanted to shop there or something. Jan wanted to come along, too.

We checked the screening times online, and both Step Up 3D and Resident Evil: Afterlife were showing within a reasonable amount of time. I wanted to watch one of them since they used proper stereoscopic 3D instead of that post-production bullshit that Alice in Wonderland and Clash of the Titans tried to pull. I'd explain it, but I'm pretty sure I've explained it before and I'm also pretty sure I'd screw it up if I tried to explain it while I was this tired.

Ian said he was going to watch Afterlife with Jared that evening, so he'd prefer if we watched Step Up. I didn't feel like sitting through a crappy romance plot for awesome 3D dancing, so I convinced Jan to join me to sit through a crappy post-apocalyptic plot for awesome 3D zombie-and-faceless-goon killing action.

The plan was that Ian and I would take separate cars to 1 Utama, then after the movie he would drive the girls and Jan back home while I would go to Nick's farewell party. When we were walking down to the cars, I thought Jan was going to travel with Ian and the girls were going to come with me, since I would be driving the larger car, but Jan said he called shotgun for my car or some bullshit and Hannah didn't want to travel with Jan and also the girls didn't want to travel without Hannah so the girls ended up going with Ian and Jan ended up going with me.

I thought our first stop was going to be McDonald's because it was nearing the end of 2 o'clock and the lunch discount would soon be over so we'd better eat at the Bangsar McD's before we went to 1 Utama because we could eat cheap and also because I could stop by the optometrist's store to check if they were open so I could order my contact lenses. The opometrist was not open. Stupid Hari Raya holidays. Anyway, Jan and I went to McDonald's and I ordered myself a McNuggets meal with two additional packets of large fries because I had told the girls I would buy some fries for them to share and also because I was super hungry. Jan had a triple cheeseburger that I had to goad him into buying. The girls didn't show up because they went straight to 1 Utama because they don't know how to inform people about changes in plans and because they don't think logically and because bleh.

I called Ian to see what the deal was, and he told me they were eating in Burger King and the girls suddenly didn't want to watch a movie and neither did he so Jan and I shouldn't show up. I told him I'd call Jared and tell Jared to watch Step Up 3D with Ian in the evening so he could watch Afterlife with Jan and me while the girls shopped. Jared wasn't answering his phone, so I think I tried to call Hannah and Ian to update them on the situation but neither of them was picking up, so I called Audrey, but for as much as I enjoy her presence she is thick as fuck and did not relay a single word of what I said to Ian. I told her that Jan and I would be coming over to watch the movie and so they would have to stay so Jan could have transport back after the movie, but like I said Audrey is really vapid so Ian did not get any of what I said. It's my fault, really. Should have texted him; never trust a woman to do a few words' work.

After we finally finished our food and hearing a pretty awesome cover of Tik Tok on McD FM, Jan and I left for 1 Utama. This was around 3:30pm. We arrived at the parking place near the park (do you know where it is? Yes? No? I don't care.) and Jan spotted Ian's car. I wanted to leave a message on it, but I had no pens or paper, so we just plucked a bunch of flowers and dumped them on his windscreen. It was pretty funny at the time, and the time was then 4:00pm.

In the mall I went to TGV thinking it was GSC and that wasted five minutes, then we went over the escalator to GSC and we decided that I would look for an ATM while Jan stood in line for the tickets. I found an ATM quite quickly (I love 1U's touchscreen map thingy), and since there was a gift shop nearby I decided to pop in to find something for Nick. I took the risk-free route and got him a notebook.

I went up to GSC and saw Jan in the line. I wanted to call him up and then sneak up behind him while he was on the phone with me, but every time I dialled his number he tried to call me, so I couldn't get through to him. Eventually he spotted me, so I joined him in line. When we got to the counter there were, like, four tickets left for the 4:15pm showing of Afterlife since it was already 4:15, and all of them were shitty and separated. Jan and I both got tickets aisles apart in the same column (the furthest one to the right).

We ran to the cinema and arrived in the middle of maybe the first trailer. It was the really orange and blue one with Sigourney Weaver and Kristen Bell (She's the Kristen that isn't Bella, yeah?). We also saw the trailer to Devil, which Jan somehow thought looked like a decent film. Foolish boy. Anyway, I got the guy next to me to switch places with Jan, even though it turned out that he was previously sitting behind a group of friends. I bet those friends gave him hell afterwards for that, since I was a rather obnoxious moviegoer and I must've ruined their experience. I'd hate to sit next to me. Oh well, at least Jan and I were together.

During the trailers Jan got a call from Ian. Apparently he had already driven home with the girls because Audrey had told him nothing (stupid girl. Nice girl, fun to talk to, good friend to my sister, somewhat intelligent but very stubborn when wrong [and when right], charismatic, but still sometimes very, very stupid.) so Jan had to find his own way back. I told him that I'd drive him, because I guess it wouldn't be too bad if I was late to Nick's party, even though I had told him that I might be arriving early.

Resident Evil: Afterlife was fun. I won't call it a good movie, but I enjoyed it and I enjoyed the 3D (even if they did do some things wrong like mess with the clarity and set it in the dark) and I enjoyed the zombies and the action sequences, though highly derivative, were good mindless fun so I enjoyed them, too. It was RM17 well spent. Don't bother with the movie if you're not watching it in 3D, though. Also there's something after the credits, so stay around for that.

After the movie, we went back to the car so I could I drive Jan home. When we got to the car we found flowers all over our windscreen. Ian had gotten his revenge, somehow, but it wasn't over yet. Anyway, I removed the flowers and brought Jan back. Along the way I stopped at 7-Eleven to buy some Eclipse mints because my backpack is out of super effective mints. All I have are my emergency/celebratory orange tic-tacs, but I don't think I'm ever going to open those. Anyway I bought the Eclipse and that brought my total spending for the day up to RM60, somehow. They're still in the car. I need to get them before Hannah eats them all. She'll do it because when it comes to mints she is greedy and wasteful and to make it worse she does not even have bad breath except for morning breath so she doesn't even need them 90% of the time.

I had used Google Earth to find Nick's address, and the directions I had worked so well, but they all relied on me finding the right turn-in. I spent half an hour looking for that turn-in. I called Carmeni and she tried to direct me there, but in the end she got me in to Taman Ehsan, but the wrong part of it. I found a large field and called for directions again, and this time she passed me to Nick who guided me to his house which was closer than I thought.

Okay now for the bit that everyone has come here to read about. I'll mention all your names here so that you can find this easily with ctrl+F: Milan, Carmeni, Nicholas (Nic, Nick, Nicholas Rodriguez, etc), Amanda, Davinia. Was there anyone else? I hope not, because if there was then my memory is seriously terrible.

So I arrived at Nicholas' house. I parked nearby and walked over and said hi to Carmeni and Nick who were sitting outside. One of Nick's friends had arrived at the same time as me, and she was meeting Carmeni for the first time. I later told her that Carmeni's family still didn't know that she was dating Nick, so she should consider herself lucky to get an introduction, even if it was five years overdue. Anyway, Nick showed us around the house and introduced us to relatives and his mum and her brownies. The brownies were delicious. His mum was friendly. I don't remember his relatives and they won't remember me. I think I may have met his dad, but that might just have been one of his older relatives.

I talked with Nicholas and his friend who arrived at the same time as me for a while. Nick's mum brought out the food but nobody ate anything because the relatives were watching Man U thrash some other club and I did not want to be the first person to start eating. There was a lot of alcohol, too, but I was driving so I restrained myself from sampling the free booze. I could have slept in the car since my church was right nearby, but I had the large-capacity car so if I was sleeping in it the rest of my family would have no way of getting there the next morning. I drank orange cordial instead. There may have been Sprite in it, too, I couldn't really tell.

Amanda and Davinia and Milan arrived. I assumed they all took the same car. I think that Milan and Amanda were actually in one car while Davinia was in another. Anyway they all arrived at exactly the same time so they could've fooled me. I was not greeted with the enthusiasm I had imagined, but then again I wasn't too enthusiastic in my greeting, either.

Amanda was starving so she went straight for the food, which meant that everyone else could start eating, too. I put rice and vegetables on my plate and I got chided for not trying the curry. I said I would try the curry later. I don't like curry. It doesn't agree with my palate and it doesn't agree with my stomach. I like Carmeni and her boyfriend and his mother and her brownies, so I figured I'd avoid offending them (except the brownies; they can't be offended, obviously, since they're only delicious inanimate objects) by procrastinating with the curry and figuring out a diplomatic solution later. Oh yeah, some fried chicken showed up on the table and that was really really really good and I had loads of that since it was probably the tastiest thing I ate all day. Nick's mum really knows how to cook.

The atmosphere was like this: there were neighbours playing with fireworks and every time they'd go off, Davinia would flinch. I had my phone in my pocket and I had taken it out to show Nick's friend the World Happiness Index since she said that Netherlands was the happiest place on earth or something, but she wasn't around when I found the image so I showed it to Carmeni, and then after a while I showed Amanda and the rest that California Gurls and Tik Tok were the same song, and then after that I left it on random for pretty much the rest of the night. Also, Milan, Amanda, Davinia, Carmeni, and I stayed seated in mostly the same place with Nick stopping by occasionally to converse with us.

The conversation only really got interesting at around eleven, but that leaves a three hour gap since I arrived at eight (well, seven-forty but let's say eight) so I'm not really sure what we talked about before that. I know we started by talking about what happened last night and how everyone went out to go clubbing and they forgot to invite me. That last link feels like the appropriate soundtrack to that particular conversation, aside from that it had nothing to do with anything so feel free to ignore it (you've probably ignored the others, if you're even still reading. Don't worry, I don't mind). Anyway we also talked about the Bible for a bit. I gave a brief summary of Christianity to Davinia and Milan, but they didn't know enough about their own religions to explain theirs to me. I then went on to talk about sex in the Bible and my personal favourite 18+ Bible story. I got some details wrong but whatever. While I was explaining it, Amanda had an epiphany about some Catholic thing, so good for her. Was there anything else before I get to the good stuff? I can't remember.

Anyway after that, starting at around eleven, we talked about other people. Mostly we talked about other people at college. It was gossip, and it was all news to me. Apparently nobody ever gossiped with me for the whole year I was in college because they assumed I would either tell other people or put in on my blog. This was very likely a correct assumption. Still, it meant that the whole time everything I knew about everyone was only good stuff because nobody wanted so say anything bad about anyone else in front of me because they knew that the people they were talking about would find out through me and then drama would begin. So I never knew anything and I ended my Foundation in Science thinking that I was lucky enough to have friends who never talked behind the backs of others and all got along super well and stuff. Ignorance really was bliss. After eleven o'clock is when I got to hear all this stuff that had previously been kept secret from me. Unfortunately for those of you hoping I will continue to uphold my reputation as a person unable to keep anything private, I was told I couldn't tell anything from the conversations that night aside from the Bible story stuff to anyone. I forgot who made me promise. It was probably Davinia but I'm going to say Milan because then he'll arrive at this paragraph when he ctrl+Fs himself. Actually I'm not sure if I even did promise. I'm going to assume I didn't because I hate promises. But anyway there was a lot of stuff that came out, all sorts of drama and bad talk about people not present (and some who were, I guess) and Milan didn't know about most of it either. In the end we agreed that I was more naive than him, though.

It's no secret that people talk behind each others' backs, right? I'm under the impression right now that that was only a secret from me, and that was only because I never asked. I wouldn't've been told anyway. But yeah, I'm glad I heard what I heard but I'm frustrated that I can't talk about it here. I was going to write it and then encode it with a substitution cipher so that I (and people who I gave the keyword to and also people smart and bored enough to bruteforce it) could read it later, but I couldn't find a decent app for free at this hour. Maybe next post.

Carmeni, Da, Milan, 'Manda, Nick, hit me up on Facebook if I've said too much. I don't think I have but it's 4am so maybe I missed something.

"Hit me up"? Who even says that? Is that even a phrase? I need to sleep very very soon or who knows what nonsense I'll say next. Okay, let's finish the party.

Amanda went home with Milan a little before twelve and Davinia went back at around the same time. Carmeni had gone home a bit sooner with her uncle. Did I mention her sister was at the party? Her sister was at the party. I didn't say a word to her because I was unsure if Carmeni was joking when she said she was her sister and I spent the next few hours trying to figure out whether she was or not until I finally got my answer when she got in the car with Carmeni to leave.

I tried some wild boar with curry. It was delicious but so so so spicy. This was before the conversation, though. Oh yeah I also gave Nick his present. I'm not sure what he thought of it; I never saw him take it out of the bag. Back to people leaving:

I said goodbye to Nick's mum and complimented her fried chicken one last time (it really was really good), and then I said goodbye to Nick, and then I got in the car and drove back. On the second last traffic light before my house I saw an advertisement for an "Adult Sex Toy" hanging on a poll, so I went out and tried to remove it while waiting for the light. I managed to tear it in half, but it was the half that said "Adult". The light turned green and I gave it one final yank that removed the "Sex Toy" bit which I ran back to the car with before driving off. When I got home I put it on Ian's car's windscreen. When he finds it later on today (for it is already almost 4:15am on Sunday morning), he shall agree that I have won this one.

That's about it, really. After this post I'll do my exercises and take a shower and turn on the torrents and then I'll go to bed and then I'll have to wake up near the end of seven o'clock and get ready for church and then chew a lot of gum so I don't fall asleep during the sermon and then take a long nap.

What else can I write here to finish with? Audrey is a good person but when she does stupid things it really annoys me, so I like Ebony more. I learned a lot more about all my friends today, except for Amanda and Davinia. I only learned a little more about them, specifically that Amanda is still very fun when drunk and Davinia... wait never mind, I said I wouldn't say. It's a small thing anyway. I found out that my either friends either gossip or are not quite the same people that they seem to be around me. I much prefer the gossip thing. Oh yeah! I also found out why Jacob Black shaves and Edward Cullen does not. That... that's about as good a thing to end with as I'll get, I guess. Have a nice day, everyone.

P.S. I just remembered that Amanda told me (in the nicest, sincerest, best-meaning way possible), that sometimes I freak her out. This was after I suggested we go to that spooky abandoned place between HELP and the street to kill time before her curfew. Wait, was it freak her out? Maybe it was creep her out. Or scare. Or spook. Or a synonym to one of those words. Anyway if I'm going to learn something from today, it is going to be something from there. And on this note I will end unless I have something else to add.

Surprise! (Not Really)

Yesterday was Davinia's surprise birthday party. I only found out about it the day before when Amanda sent me a text saying that I needed to confirm whether or not I could make it because Joanna and she needed to book seats and order the food. What she didn't mention was what it was all about. I sent Joanna text and she told me to call her back later. I did, and she told me that it was Davinia's surprise birthday party. Her actual birthday was a while back, but Amanda was in Australia and most of us were busy, so we were going to celebrate it again properly. I told her that I would definitely be there.

Amanda told me that I had to drop by her house to pick up some stuff before I went to pick up Joanna and her boyfriend, Solo. I was at Amanda's house by 5:45, but I was waiting around for a while before Amanda came out with the cake she had baked, a present, and a sash that said "Birthday Girl" for Davinia. She told me not to look at the cake because it was the ugliest cake in the world.

Once everything was loaded up I drove over to the apartment that Jo and Solo were staying at. On my way in I pissed off the guard by not paying attention and almost running over a cone. I held up the Kancil's broken antennae while I waited for Joanna and Solo to come downstairs so that I could listen to the radio.

When they got in the car I told Jo that I didn't know how to get to the restaurant, so she called up her dad and had him guide us there. We arrived at LaLa Chong without incident. We were the first people there, so we went into the room, ordered our drinks, and ate peanuts while waiting. We also took some pictures.

After a while, Carmeni and Nick arrived. Unfortunately, Davinia and Amanda arrived at the exact same time. Joanna called Nick and Carmeni and told them to rush in quickly while Amanda took Davinia to the bathroom for a while. Nicholas and Carmeni managed to get inside in time, and a little later Davinia stepped in and we all said "Surprise!"

Davinia did not look very surprised, but she was happy anyway. After Nick put the Birthday Girl sash on her, Davinia told us that she had suspected something like this was going to happen. She had seen a list of invitees in Joanna's house, and she had also seen Joanna hugging Solo through the window when she arrived.

We had a good dinner anyway. It was a seafood place, so there was soup with little clam-like things, some really excellent fish, crabs, and a bunch of other stuff. Dinner conversation was all over the place. We talked about Carmeni's birthday party and what I had done and what Amanda had done. Apparently I had danced, even though I didn't remember it. Also, Amanda was so obsessed with her ex that she had ripped a button off his shirt that night. I shared what Amanda had told me with everyone, and I also let Davinia (or Jo) read a text that I had typed up that night that I did not remember. It was about how drunk I was and how Amanda should get back with her ex. We also talked about clubs (Bangsar is crap, expensive places are better, clubs with mainly Chinese patrons generally tend to be better than clubs with mainly Indian patrons) and boys' nights out and stuff. It was good times. Milan arrived a bit later when we were all about to leave.

We decided not to cut the cake at the restaurant. When Amanda mentioned that, though, Davinia chimed in that she hadn't known there was a cake. So we actually still did have a surprise, but we didn't really spring it as good as we could've. Oh well. Davinia's present from Amanda was really cool. It was huge picture collage of all her friends. I was in it, but I had pretty lousy hair in the picture that she used. Oh well.

The room we were in also had a karaoke machine. It was a bit of a struggle to get it to work, but we managed to find a few good songs. When we were done eating we did a bit of singing. The last song we sang was YMCA, because that is a very fun song with a dance everyone knows.

After dinner our plan was to go over to Laundry at The Curve to continue the party. Nicholas had to drop Carmeni off at home, so I followed him out of where we were since I knew how to get to The Curve from Kepong. Solo and Joanna were with me. Unfortunately, we were on the wrong lane and missed the flyover to Kepong. I decided to drive on the road under the flyover since I assumed when it ended we would be in Kepong, but this was not the case. After a while we ended up at Batu Caves. We had our eyes peeled for signs, but none of them were to anywhere we wanted to be. Fortunately, Joanna spotted a sign for Petaling Jaya and Damansara. Unfortunately, I missed the exit and we ended up on the Duke highway. We were now very lost. We passed by Zoo Negara and missed another turn to Petaling Jaya and Damansara. I decided to head for KLCC since I could find my way anywhere from there. Once we hit KLCC I went on to Dataran Merdeka, then Bangsar, then finally the Curve. We literally did one big loop of the city before arriving where we wanted to be. I told Joanna I'd buy her a margarita for getting her so lost.

When we arrived one of the clubs was playing "Solo", which I thought was pretty funny considering my present company. We met up with the guys at Laundry and Davinia introduced us to her friend. I think his name was Raj, but it probably wasn't. Anyway, I was told not to order anything since we were going to head upstairs soon, and we did.

We went to this place called Sanctuary. It was pretty cool. It had an ice bar, which was like this big freezer kept at -15 degrees Celsius with a bar in it. One drink would get you ten minutes inside. We didn't go inside, but it was pretty cool to look at it.

Nick got a bottle of whisky for the table and I got a margarita for Jo. She said I should try a sip, so I did. It was bitter and sour and not my thing at all. It was also the only bit of alcohol I drank that night. After that I just drank the free-flow coke that came with the whisky. I drank a lot of that coke.

Joanna, Solo, and I had arrived at 12 o'clock and the club closed at 3. Until then we drank and danced. I didn't do much dancing at first. I did do some dancing in my chair to start with, but after a while some songs that I liked were played and I had to dance to them. Later on I started dancing to any song that I recognized. I got tired as the night went on, but fortunately there were these big cushioned chairs right near us so I sunk into those during the less interesting songs. The music was so loud that I could actually feel it. It shook the cushions until it was almost like being in a massage chair. That was cool.

At around 2 o'clock, Amanda and I went to get something from 7-Eleven to cut the cake with. Amanda took off her boots and walked there barefoot because her feet were killing her. When we got to the 7-Eleven we couldn't find any knives. Amanda considered buying a ruler and cutting the cake with that, but luckily we found some plastic forks so we got those instead.

Back in the club I was a bit worried that I had missed "Your Love in My Drug" since I really like that song and it would've sucked if it had played while I was gone, but it turned out that they never played that. So we sang happy birthday and Davinia cut the cake and fed it to everyone and we danced some more. Near the end of the night some real good songs came on, like "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "It's My Life". We also heard "Uptown Girl" and "Girlfriend". Those were fun to dance to. Near closing time they played "I Gotta Feeling" for a really long while. It's a very good song for a club, though, so I can see why they did that. The last song they played was "Sweet Child o' Mine". By the time it was all over I had lost my voice and I was pooped out from all that dancing.

Milan carried Amanda down the stairs and drove her home. We all said our goodbyes and good nights to Davinia. Nick said he'd see me again at Red Box for karaoke. I drove Solo and Joanna home and we took a slightly longer route because we missed an exit, but we weren't really lost. We discussed murder houses and how Joanna was spooked of them.

When I got home I took a shower and went to bed. I think all that dancing was exercise enough, so I didn't do my sit-ups or anything.

All in all it was a pretty good time.

Another Week on Break

On Monday I went to college to see about appealing my Bahasa Kebangsaan. I was told that I have to go to the LAN headquarters in Wisma PKNS in PJ to do that. While I was receiving this information, Arun, Joanna, Zach and Li Ying found me. Joanna was there because of something with her Malaysian studies. I asked Arun about Friday and offered to buy him lunch for taking care of me when I was drunk, but he said there was no need. He told me that I scared Elo by saying I puked on her purse. Fortunately, I didn't. She had given me the purse to hold for a moment while she did something, and it was still with me when I passed out. It's a miracle that it survived the night clean. Arun also told me about Amanda and how she was clinging onto her ex and how she almost fell out of Davinia's car when they were leaving. It was relieving to know that I was not the only super-drunk person that night.

I bought some sausage rolls that the students were selling and sat down with Nick and Carmeni for further discussion. Carmeni and I did some planning for karaoke in the future. Later, Denise joined us with some insights about where to go. Mr Naj passed by at one point and I asked him how much I passed by, and he said that I had only barely achieved the passing mark. Zach also dropped by to ask me whether the sausage rolls were any good. I recommended the chicken to him. Also, at some point Nick explained to me that Carmeni and he were saying "I like you" to each other because they had gotten bored of "I love you". I thought that was pretty funny.

Eventually everyone left for lunch or classes, so I left, too. When I got home I made a Facebook event for the karaoke. After that I drove my and Yii Huei's dads to the airport so they could go to China. Yii Huei's dad is there for the expo in Shanghai, and I forgot why my dad's there. Anyway, it was a long-ish drive and I got a wee bit lost on they way back. I ended up passing SEGi college along my way. Eventually I got home, though, so it was all okay.

My dad's plane landed at 12:30am, so a few days after I dropped him off I was back outside the airport with Jan waiting for my dad to call. We played chess in the meanwhile. It was a tie both times.

When my dad finally did call we drove up front and parked for a bit so we could go inside for a while to get some dinner, but both McDonald's and Mary Brown were closed for pest control or something. We ended up eating at the McDonald's in Bangsar.

After we got home I watched the second last episode of Lost that Ian had just downloaded. I've been watching Lost for one third of my life, and it's finally going to end next week. I'm excited.

Hannah woke me up early the next morning because my dad was sponsoring our breakfast at McDonald's. My McMuffin was a little stale, but the meat and the hash browns were still excellent and the meal was free so it was all cool.

A few days ago, Hannah and I had gone to the MPH at Bangsar Village so we could read the rest of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. Hannah made it to the second or third book and I was almost done with the last one when a guard came up to us and told us that they were closing. We'll be going to back to finish this weekend because Hannah wants me to take her to pick up some tickets so she's willing to go and read with me as a favour.

Actually I already did her a favour. A few nights ago she decided to make herself some coffee ice cream. She got all hyper afterwards and asked me if I wanted to go swimming. I managed to bargain her down to a walk around the building. We stopped at the playground and then went upstairs, so we only really went halfway. It was a pretty boring walk.

We've been eating at Baskin-Robbins a lot recently. This is because their ice cream is delicious and because they give an extra scoop every Wednesday to people wearing pink and half priced ice-creams every 31st of the month.

Today Jan, my mum, and I went to our new dentist for the second time. Our first appointment with him was the day of Carmeni's party. My dad was tired with the prices and quality of our old dentist, so my mum found a new guy. We were a little upset at the change at first, but when we heard that he was also an acupuncturist who combined acupuncture with dentistry in lieu of anaesthetics, we almost panicked. When we got to his surgery, though, we were a little more relaxed. There were couches and drinks and a wide-screen TV and we were also told that we could get anaesthetics if we really wanted, so that was good. We had very quick check-ups while my mum got some acupuncture for her shoulder and arm. It was a pretty good experience, actually. I spent most of my time waiting for my turn watching a show about pandas. It was very cute.

Anyway, today we were there to have our cavities filled. He found three holes in my teeth last time at the check-up, so he was going to clean them out and fill them in. Jan went first and left behind his iPod. I played some checkers while waiting. When my turn came, the dentist found another cavity, but he said he would fill that one for free. The cleaning and filling was very quick. It was a little bit painful, but the pain was only for a split second each time, so it was manageable. Now I have new fillings and my teeth don't ache any more. Yay!

And That, Children, Is Why We Should Moderate Our Drinking

So yesterday night was a blast. It was Carmeni's birthday party and the first time a whole bunch of us from college would be seeing each other since finals. The location was this pub called Backyard. It was a pretty cool place.

I arrived at 7:45, which would be 15 minutes late except that this is Malaysia and it was a party so I was actually early. The only other people there were Carmeni, Nicholas, and Kaminie. They had already ordered their food, but I arrived in time for drinks. I had a bottle of Heineken to get started while I tried to work out whether I would have enough money to get through the night. I determined that I did not, so I excused myself for a few moments and went across the block to borrow some money from my dad, who was having dinner with my mum and a friend just nearby. It was very fortunate.

When I got back there was conversation and pictures and then the food arrived. I had some of their fries while I waited for my fish and chips. The food took a long while to get from ordering to the table, so I was glad that I ordered almost as soon as I arrived. When my food finally arrived I shared my fries and ate a lemon. The rind made for good pictures.

Meanwhile, most of the other people who were coming were still either lost or on their way. Arun was driving Elo and Chris over, but he must've had no idea where we were because he was lost for almost two hours. Finally Nick get sick of all the text messages he was getting from Chris which seemed to be begging Nick to get him out of there, so Nick left to go pick them up.

A little after Nick left, Amanda and Davinia arrived. They finished the last two fries on my plate, and then ordered their dinner. I decided to try the mushroom soup, so I asked them to order one of those for me, too. Once that was done we sat around and caught up. Everyone said that it seemed like ages since we'd last been together, but I thought that my break went by ridiculously fast and that the last time we were together had been just like yesterday. Amanda and I talked about the weddings that we had been to in the last month. Hers had fireworks, but mine had an earthquake. She also got chased by a goat, but that was unrelated to the wedding. Anyway, pictures were taken, fun was had, Creep was played from the sound system. I spent the rest of the night anticipating Push, but it never came. Oh well.

Nick got back with Elo, Arun and Chris. More catching up was had, more pictures were taken, it was good times. The food arrived, too, so that was also good. I shared my garlic bread with Amanda and my soup with everyone, because it was exceedingly delicious.

Now that almost everyone was here (We were still waiting for Zach and his friends), we could order the whiskey. Almost all of us pitched in and we got, like, a litre of what I suppose was top-notch whiskey. We also got some soda, water, and free-flowing coke. My first two drinks were mixed with the coke, but after that I got bored and just drank it raw. That was some really smooth whiskey.

The band arrived and took ages to set up. Amanda recognized one of the members as her cousin's ex-boyfriend. I asked if the break-up had been amicable, and she told us how her cousin had gone through his messages and found out he was cheating on her. Apparently she had taken a knife from the kitchen and was ready to stab him when she didn't, for whatever reason. A little after that Nick brought him over and he tried to figure out where he knew Amanda from. He guessed who her dad was and commented on how much she'd grown, so I suppose it could have gone a lot worse.

The whole time there was a lot of good music being played, though not by the band because their set-up time rivalled that of some of the concerts I'd been to. Aside from Creep, the DJ played I Saw Her Standing There, Mustang Sally, Born in the USA, and a bunch of other songs I thought I would remember but I did not. Anyway it made me happy to hear the Beatles. Amanda was dancing in her seat, and I joined in. Dancing while sitting is very simple, you just move your shoulders and make repetitive gestures with your arms. It also doesn't feel as embarrassing as real dancing.

A cake arrived at the table, and it looked delicious. The band finally set up, Nicholas went on stage to sing Happy Birthday to Carmeni, and then we had cake, and it was good. The band started playing a bunch of classics. Some people in front of the bar tried dancing along. One was this heavyset dude who I could sympathize with, since he obviously did not know how to dance and he looked a bit self-conscious, but he was clearly enjoying himself. There were also a couple of women: a bespectacled Chinese lady who thought she was younger than she was, and a British lady who had probably come to watch the election or something with a bunch of other Brits. She got progressively more attractive as the night wore on.

Eventually Zach arrived with his friends. Amanda pulled brought a guy to the table and introduced him to everyone. I thought that he was with Zach, but he just happened to be at the pub at the same time as the rest of us. She told me that he was her ex boyfriend and that she was still totally in love with him or something. That is the point where I realized she probably was drunk. I had started suspecting it when she leaned over and asked if I knew how to dance. I had learned my lesson a long time ago, though, so I just said I had no idea and left her on her own as she got off the chair and danced.

Soon the bottle of whiskey was almost empty. On my last pour I checked to make sure there was still some left, because I thought it would suck to be the guy to finish it. I decided to stop drinking at that point, so I tried to move over to the other side of the table because it had chairs against the wall and allowed an easier viewing of the stage. I stood up, but everything was super wobbly so I sat back down. The last thing I remember with any amount of clarity was leaning over to Elo and telling her that Amanda was very attractive and she deserved her ex before Elo leaned over and told me that Amanda was probably more drunk than any of us.

Anyway, the next thing I remember I sitting in a toilet stall with my pants around my ankles while I puked all over them. At some point I made a call to my brother, Ian, requesting he bring pants and in exchange I would give him a whole bunch of money. I think my exact words were "Minimum fifty, maximum three hundred". Then I woke up again, surveyed the damage, and attempted to transcend spacetime. When that didn't work I just settled for passing out again.

I only woke up again when people started banging on the door. I think Nick might have been one of them. I put on my pants, opened the door, and woke up outside the pub in the grass. Davinia was saying she wasn't going to drive me home any more. I think I mumbled that I totally understood and if I was in her position I would not want to take me home either. I think Arun said he would drive me back, so I mumbled about getting plastic bags. I think I didn't talk about anything else for the rest of my time on the grass. It was just "Do you have any plastic bags" "Can't you get some plastic bags" "I think there's like a 7-Eleven somewhere, they probably have plastic bags there". Actually, I stopped for a moment when one of the guys decided to exploit my current state and ask me who I liked. Thankfully my answer was not anyone at the party. Also, I'm pretty sure I promised Arun "Minimum fifty, maximum one hundred" because he volunteered to drive me home.

I think I was being walked to Arun's car when Ian arrived. He said something to the guys about how dumb I was for trying to be a hero and drinking more than I can handle, and then he got me in the car and drove us home. Our friend, Sarah, was also in the car because Ian was driving her home. Once she was dropped off, Ian told me that Arun told him I didn't have to pay, which was nice. Ian still wanted his three hundred, though. He showed me the pants that he had brought. I asked him why they were shorts and he told me that it would be very difficult to get me into long pants. After he made his point, I said that was very wise. I then told him that since he hadn't actually changed my pants that I would not be giving him the full three hundred. He said that was not fair. I told him to pull over because I was about to throw up.

Ian couldn't pull over because he was on the highway, a fact which he shared with me. He passed me a plastic bag, but I was in no condition to operate it and so I just puked on it instead of in it. After a while he found a place he could pull over. I got out and collapsed on the grass. I think I may have thrown up a bit more, but I can't remember. I do remember feeling better about myself because I recognized where we were (nearby Victoria Station and Jake's Charbroiled Steaks). When we got back in the car I attempted to calculate if I had enough money to cover all the money I had promised to everyone. Ian told me that I should not be doing math. I told him that no, it was cool, I had a limit of seven hundred and I was pretty sure I was under the limit.

I thought that I was well enough to sit up, so I tried. Ian said that was a bad idea, and indeed it was, so I collapsed back onto the back seat. The rest of the ride home was spent trying to find a good song to play. I asked Ian if there was any Ke$ha on the radio, but he said there wasn't, so I asked for Adam Young since I remembered he had an Owl City CD in his car. He told me he didn't have any Owl City any more, which confused me. He switched to his CD player anyway. I said "That's Mercedes" and Ian told me that no, we were not in a Mercedes, we were in his car. I told him I meant Mercedes from Glee, and he said that oh yeah, it was. Apparently he had swapped his Owl City CD for the Glee Soundtrack. We arrived home during Kurt's rendition of "Defying Gravity".

I told Ian to take me upstairs and leave me in the shower, and I would try and take care of the rest. He did, but not before typing "i owe Ian RM300" on my phone. It was a nice try.

I woke up sometime later and managed to clean myself up. The hardest part was getting up off the floor. The shower head looked really, really far away from where I was lying. I pulled it off anyway, but once I was done I didn't have enough strength to drive off, so I just put on a bathrobe and threw a towel on my head and collapsed on the couch.

At six o'clock in the morning I changed into my pyjamas and got into my bed with my cat. My cat was very cautious of me and approached me with apprehension. He sniffed me for a bit and decided to sleep somewhere else. I guess he does not trust drunks.

Anyway I slept for another six hours and woke up at noon. I sent my apologies to Carmeni and my thanks to Arun via Elo, then I cleaned out my wallet and threw it in the wash. Now I am here typing this out. I'm going to say that the first three hours of the night were definitely great, and everything after that was worth it to learn a lesson and get a story to tell.

I'm sticking to beer from now on.

From Thursday to Today

Nicholas' birthday was pretty good. I was an hour late, but I didn't miss much. I ate a lot of lamb and drank five beers, and I gave Nick his zappy-laser thing as a present. A lot of people from college were there, along with a lot more of Nick's family and other friends. It was quite a fun atmosphere. Nicholas proposed to Carmeni in one of the songs he sung, and her response was "Yeah, whatever", because apparently he proposes to her a lot when he's driving her around. I guess she'll know it's for real when she sees a ring. At the end of the party everyone from college danced, and then we all went home. I caught one of the last few trains, since I arrived in Bangsar station just a few minutes before 11:30, when the LRT closes.

The next day my whole family left to Ipoh for Chinese New Year. This year was even more boring than last year, but it was still quite fun. I only set off one firecracker, but there was still plenty of gambling and karaoke, and for the first time I could drink beer, so that was okay, too. Also we went to the cybercafe a few times and I played Left 4 Dead 2, so that also prevented me from getting bored. The Ang Paos were very nice, of course. I got something like RM400 altogether, but I lost RM100 of that gambling. Ah well, that's Chinese New Year for you.

I drove my dad's car back to KL. Driving the highway is tedious and not much fun. I much prefer sleeping in the back seat. When we got home I took a nap and then Hannah and I went to this open house. We arrived just as Dr Mahatir was leaving, so we didn't actually get to see him. Oh well. I had some satay and Hennessy VSOP and a lot of peanuts. The inside of the house was really cool; they had very comfortable rugs and sofas. The host of the open house also grew shaped melons, which I thought was pretty cool.

Anyway I didn't do my exercise all throughout my stay in Ipoh, and I didn't do them today because I only remembered about them right after my shower, and by then it was too late since I'd get all sweaty again and then I'd need another shower. I'll start again tomorrow.

Also Hannah is being selfish with her books. She recently got the box set of all The Princess Diaries, and I read a few of them in Ipoh because I was bored and they are pretty good books, but now she won't lend me the fourth one. It was worse in Ipoh because I had nothing else to read (I had just finished Guns, Germs, and Steel) but now that we're back in KL I guess I can find another book. Still, I want to find out what happens next. I don't like leaving things unfinished.

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.

Walking and Christmas Eve

So I did walk to the KL tower from my house. I left at a few minutes before one in the afternoon, and I arrived at around two forty-five. Not much happened along the way, and it didn't take as long as I thought it would. I did meet a couple of guys trying to get a stalled car working again, and I tried to help out, but there wasn't much that could be done.

Anyway, at the tower I watched a free short documentary about its construction, and then I bought a souvenir. The souvenir was a key chain with three landmarks in the order I passed them: Dataran Merdeka, Menara Kuala Lumpur, and the Petronas Twin Towers. I managed to get a ninety-cent discount on it, which was something like 20% of its original cost, so that was nice. I didn't go up to the top because that would cost something like thirty ringgits, and all I had left was my RM10 emergency money. I called my mum up and asked if she'd cover the cost of the train ride back if I used that money, and she said she would, so that was also nice.

The twin towers are just down the road from the KL tower. When I got there I walked around to the front, admired the view, and wondered how the French spiderman guy managed to make it to the top a few months back. Cool dude, that guy. Anyway, I went inside Suria KLCC to check out the decorations. They were pretty lame compared to the Pavilion.

I took the LRT back to the Bangsar station and walked home. I wanted to go swimming after I got back, but since it was raining and we had to leave to go for the Christmas party in our Aunt's house soon, my dad said I shouldn't, so I didn't. Instead I took a shower and went on the computer.

The party was fun. We got to meet some people from last year's party, and the food was good, especially the trifle dessert. Conversations at the Christmas parties are always entertaining, too. One of the guests was a girl who I met a year or so ago when I was doing my driving test when I overheard her talking about how my cousin, Dexter, failed the test, so it was cool meeting her again. After the food was done we went to the living room for further conversation and Rock Band. I fell asleep waiting for them to play Creep, and when I woke up it was Christmas.

So yeah, long walk, fun party, good day. Later on I might be going to a friend's Christmas party or I might get stuck at church. We'll see.

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.

Sleep and Cake and Studying

Today I woke up and fell back asleep because it was raining and I was comfortable. When I woke up again it was 8:15am. Engineering Mathematics Applications starts at 8:00am on Thursdays. I was still in my pajamas. It looked like I was going to be late for my first class because I slept in for the first time in two semesters. I went to my phone to call Mr Joel so I could tell him that I was going to be late, but when I reached my desk I saw that I had a text, and it was from Mr. Joel, and it said that class was cancelled today because it was raining and he couldn't make it to college for his first class. I put down the phone and went back to sleep.

When I woke up it was 9:15am. Advanced English starts at 9:30am on Thursdays. I was still in my pajamas. I managed to get ready in fifteen minutes, and I was on my motorcycle by 9:30.

I got to class around ten minutes after it was supposed to start, but there was no sign of Mr Dharminder. Jeh Ying and Alessandra told me it was Yu Yhee's birthday, and we decided that we were going to announce it to the class because it would be embarrassing for her and fun for us. More time passed without Mr Dharminder's presence, so I told my classmates about that one time when my dad got bored of waiting for his lecturer so he went over and locked the doors to the lecture hall. I decided to do the same thing so that I, too, would have a story to tell my children. My plan was foiled when a student latecomer had to be let in and I discovered I was too lazy to relock the door.

When Mr Dharminder finally did arrive, we told him about Yu Yhee's birthday and we all sang "Happy Birthday" for her. Then Jeh Ying and I volunteered to go grab some stuff for the class/birthday party that we were apparently having. We collected a couple of ringgit from each person and went off to get chips, napkins, cups, drinks, cakes, candles, and cutlery, in that order, while the rest of the class got their marks and did some revision. When we returned to class we once again sang "Happy Birthday" to Yu Yhee, and then we ate, and it was good. The cake was delicious. Near the end, we pulled a student out of the hall to take some class pictures for us. Before the party ended, Marcus told me that I had scored 43/50, which put him and Ka Jeng two points behind me. Later on I checked my e-mail and discovered that my score was in fact the highest score for the semester, so yeah, I'm awesome. Getting the High Distinction isn't going to be easy, though.

After the party ended I was allowed to keep the leftover Pepsi and potato chips since I had paid for the drinks and cake myself. I couldn't finish the Pepsi, so I left it with Zach. The two of us talked about the semester break and what we might do and what we were going to do. We also talked about Calculus. Apparently Mr Joel said he'd make the Calculus quizzes easier for the current semester. I don't wish he would have made our semester's quizzes easier, but I do wish he would have made them longer. I kept running out of time on those dang things.

At some point Amanda and Davinia passed by on the way to get something to eat, so I decided to follow them. They were going to Secret Recipe, which was excellent because that place has cakes and I like cakes a whole lot. When we got there they ordered a slice of cake each. Amanda also ordered a glass of Frosty Orange Juice, which she let me try. It was really good. We talked for a while and the girls spotted Roshaan and Vicky walking past and Nigel joined us near the end. Amanda and Davinia couldn't finish their cakes, so I helped. The cakes were delicious. I also got to finish Amanda's orange juice for her. I very much enjoy going out to eat with people who are almost full.

Amanda, Davinia, and Nigel all had classes at 12:30, so I went to the DSA to nap. Well, my original plan was to read through my Moral Studies notes and get very bored and tired to maximize the nap's potency, but before I could leave the table of contents I was interrupted by Aaron. He was selling these really cool anime-type pictures that his sister had drawn. They were pretty dang awesome, but I'm not a fan of the style she used. Aaron thanked me for my time and left, and then I fell asleep. It was very nice.

When I awoke it was time for Critical Thinking Skills. Today we watched our classmates do some presentations, and then we got our scores back. Ka Jeng had brought in her lunch from McDonald's and she was sharing it with everyone during the presentations. She let me finish her French fries when there was still, like, half a pack left. I don't think I could ever be that generous. French fries are delicious. Anyway, when the presentations were over we got our scores back for our second quiz. I got 4.875 out of 5 because I only got three questions wrong. Ka Jeng didn't do as well as I thought she would. Argument diagramming really tripped her up. She still has me beat on presentation and mid-term scores, though.

When my CTS was finished I sat down somewhere to talk to someone or something. Amanda passed by and asked why I didn't reply to her text. I checked my phone and saw that while I was napping she had asked me if I would study with her later. When she passed by again I said I would, so we did. We only managed to cover one out of six of the chapters that will be coming out for the finals. Well, we also did the beginning of another chapter, but it was a big chapter so the start hardly counts. We made plans to continue studying at her house, but when I got to my motorcycle she called and said that I couldn't come over if her mum wasn't there because of their house rules on boys, so I said that we could just go over to my house instead. Right when we were about to leave the car park she remembered that she had church today, so we rescheduled our study session to tomorrow and I went home.

I forgot what I did when I got home, but I know that during the night-time I reminded Hannah that she had to do her daily exercise and she did a couple of sets before saying that she was giving up on the month-long routine after a week because she wasn't seeing any results. She said she would do a half-hour of Wii boxing and some sit-ups every day instead. Later on she changed her mind and now the routine is a half-hour of playing the Wii every day and maybe some sit-ups if I remind her and she isn't feeling lazy. That girl has commitment issues.

Oh yeah I also found out that I was the highest scorer in Advanced English this semester, so I gloated about that to Joanna for a while. That was nice.

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.