Fourth Day of Training

It's 3:30am, Wednesday morning. I took a nap for too long on the floor. I'll get to now later, right now let's go back to Tuesday.

On Tuesday I woke up a few minutes before six after my alarm went off for the third or fourth time. I had let it snooze a bit because I didn't have to climb the stairs on Tuesday so I figured it would be fine.

I woke up and read my Bible and only fell asleep a little a bit. I was done at 6:15am, so I set my alarm for six forty and took a nap. When the alarm went off I tried to hit snooze and after that I can't remember what happened, but the next time I woke up it was seven thirty. If my mum hadn't woken me up I would have been late as hell.

I quickly took a shower and brushed my teeth and all that, and then I left for work. It was raining like mad, but I still managed to arrive in the training room around ten minutes late, and training hadn't started yet, either.

We were buddying up again, but since there were only two cables, we could only have two trainees buddying up at a time. I decided not to be in the first group and so I went to take a nap while waiting for my turn.

When my turn did come, I got to be buddied with this lady named Koshla (her floor name was Kay) who I would much prefer to Raj if I ever had to call customer service. My time with her started with her answering maybe eight wrong numbers (people calling about laptops or printers or workstations when this was actually the desktop number) before the actual people needing assistance came in. She handled the calls really well.

After the buddying was over, we registered fake customers and fake assets onto the fake customer service database for training. That took a while. We only broke for lunch at one fifteen, which is either forty-five or an hour and fifteen minutes later than usual, so I was really hungry.

I drove to McDonald's for lunch since earlier I had been browsing through the McDonald's websites of various different countries to see what they had that we didn't and vice versa. I am now jealous of the USA's breakfast options and aware that everyone but us has chicken selects. Also I have to enjoy McDonald's breakfasts as much as possible while I'm here, since they don't have 'em in the Netherlands.

After lunch I went back to 1 Tech Park and talked to the guys about religion and pepper spray (Eddie once used a bottle of the stuff to defend himself from four guys on the train who crowded around him and were trying to rob him. They only caught one of them, I think), and then I went up to see if the roof was open. It was. The roof is pretty cool.







After I was done with the roof I went down to to a different room where we were taught about some other stuff, and then we had to take an exam. There were two questions we had to get right to pass, and all but one of us got them wrong. Anyway, the passing mark was 80% and I got 83.33%. Jonathan got 91.67%. Everyone else didn't make the grade.

Hariz told us to be there by eight the next day because we might be talking to Edward, the business manager for HP.

I drove home and I'm not really sure what I did after that. I think I set up for a nap on the floor because I recently downloaded a whole big bunch of podcasts and I found the best way of listening to them was by lying on the floor next to my computer. I brought a couple of pillows and a blanket so it would be more comfortable, then I got called for dinner, which was fried chicken and rice. I just ate the chicken.

I turned on the podcast and lay down to listen to it, but I think I was asleep before the first segment even started. That couldn't've been later than eight, I think. Anyway, the next time I opened my eyes it was midnight. I nodded off a bit more after that and it was three in the morning.

So now it's almost four twenty so I'll have an hour's sleep left, probably less I've still got to do my exercise and take a shower. Man, my sleep schedule must be really messed up now.

Last Class and Doggies (Last Friday)

So Friday was an interesting day.

After my usual morning routine, I went to the bank to deposit my allowance, which my dad had given to me in cash for some reason. While I was there, I also got my Maybank2u account reactivated. Apparently if you don't log in every three months or so, they'll shut you down automatically.

When I was walking back to my motorcycle from the bank, I saw my cousin Daryl leaving McDonald's. I asked him what he was doing in Bangsar and he told me that he had been working here for the past year. Apparently he works in the building just across from Devi's. He saw my mum and my brother eating there a few months ago but they said nothing to me. Nobody tells me anything. But yeah, it was cool meeting him.

I went to the KPD for my last Bahasa Kebangsaan class. I was half an hour early so I reviewed all my material from the past three months. When Ms Belinda arrived we got our marks back for our Tugasan and reviewed what the most important things for the exam were going to be. At the end of the class we got our overall marks. The highest was 42.5 out of 50, the average was around 35 out of fifty, I got 33 out of 50, which meant that I needed to score 17/50 on my final to pass.

After that class was over, and it was only 4:30, so we had finished two hours early. That was nice. Some of my classmates were waiting for the bus, I asked them what their scores were. Roy and Lee Kening both scored 25, and two other people I asked were only 2.5 and 1.5 points under me.

When I was walking to my motorcycle to go home, I heard a commotion behind me. I saw these two German Shepherds bounding around the place scaring everyone with their friendliness. It was quite funny, so I followed them around. They had collars, so I checked them for tags, but they didn't have any. A guard came up to me and told me to get control of my dogs since they were causing trouble. I told him they weren't my dogs, but I took them away anyway.

I spent the next few hours trying to help them find their owner. I wrote about it already but I'll repost the whole thing here in case the link ever stops working and I still want to read about it.

"As I was leaving class today, a couple of Alsatians bounded out of the foliage and started being very friendly with people. Most people did not take kindly to this. I thought it was quite amusing to see people freak out over the dogs, so I followed them into a bus queue. After accidentally inspiring fear into the crowd of pedestrians, they moved on down the sidewalk. I took some pictures of them while waiting for their owner to show up.

Doggies!

Male doggie!

Top of female doggie! Also shoes!

It soon became apparent that the owner of the dogs wasn't going to show up, and they were lost. They had collars, though, so I decided to check them for tags. First, though, I offered them my hand to smell. They were very affectionate and didn't act at all aggressive, so I moved on to a side rub, and then I examined their collars. Neither of them had tags, which either meant that they were unregistered or they were registered but without tags because they had identification chips implanted in their shoulders. They were happy, healthy dogs, so I assumed the latter, but without a scanner the chips were useless.

A guard came over to me and told me to get my dogs out of the area because I was creating a situation. I told him they weren't my dogs, but I'd try to use them. I managed to herd them away from the crowd and back where they came. It wasn't hard, all I had to do was grab the lady-dog's collar and walk her over and her guy-friend would follow. It was obvious that they were in this together.

Once the dogs were away from the bus queue and the main road, I had to figure out what to do with them. I couldn't leave them and go home, since they would go right back to the bus queue and annoy all the Muslims, who can't touch them, and the women, who are generally just scared of large animals. I couldn't call the police since their policy for stray dogs was to destroy them (they have these poles with nooses on the end so they can kill the animals without having to touch them), I couldn't call my parents because they wouldn't want dogs in our car or our apartment and besides our cat would probably murder them, and I couldn't call the shelters because I didn't have any of their numbers.

I tried asking passers-by if they knew the dogs, but nobody had ever seen them around before. I asked them if they had the numbers of any shelters I could call, but they didn't. I could only hang on to one dog at a time, so occasionally one would run up to someone and start sniffing them. The more frightened people were, the more excited the dog got. Soon I was telling people not to run because that he'd just chase them. He just wanted to play, but the way people reacted you'd've thought he was Cujo or something. It was quite funny to watch, though.

I realized I needed some kind of leash, so I wandered around with the lady dog until I came across an abandoned chair with police tape around it. I unwrapped the tape and strung it through a loop in the lady dog's collar. Her friend ran ahead and she trotted after him and I got dragged along for a bit until the tape broke. I restrung the collar with twice as much tape, and after that it was unsnappable.

LARGE DOG DO NOT CROSS

Now that I had a leash I could tie her down and call my brother to ask for the SPCA's number. He looked it up and gave it to me and I tried calling it, but nobody was answering. An American lady walked by and asked me if the dogs were mine and I said they weren't. She asked me if I knew where an ATM was and I told her there was one just around the corner. I asked her if she knew the numbers of any shelters or anyone who could help, and she told me that she hadn't been in the country long and the only number she knew was for the American embassy. I told her they were German Shepherds so the embassy might not be very helpful. We talked for a while and then she left to get money and wished me good luck with the dogs' owner.

After she left I still had no idea of what to do. Meanwhile, the male dog went and took a big shit in the middle of the street.

He is happy because he has just made himself king of the road.

I settled tying some of the police tape leash to a sign and waiting for someone to show up who either knew the number of a shelter or who had a phone that could go online and find such a number. I had plenty of time to wait since my class had ended two hours early due to it being the last class of the semester so the final was tomorrow morning.

I met a few people while I was waiting. There was a lady who went into her office and got the number of a shelter from the internet, but nobody picked up. There was a guy who stopped and told me that the dogs had been around since his classes started in the morning. He tried to help me figure out what to do while his friend stood a safe distance away because of the largeness of the dogs and the smelliness of the poo. He told me that it was very much a bad idea to call the police. Knowing Malaysia, they'd either not so up at all, show up and ask for a bribe before helping, or show up and kill the dogs anyway since it's simpler to just strangle them than it is to scan them and be stuck with the job of returning them to their owners over the weekend. Anyway, after telling me what I shouldn't do, he left with his friend. After him came a Chinese guy, Max, who noted who "taming" the dogs were. He called a friend who used to volunteer with animals and asked if he knew someone who could help. Meanwhile, I called various vets to find out if they knew the numbers of any shelters, but they either weren't picking up or they were out of the office and unable to help. I then met these two ladies who worked at the college. They got along well with the dogs, and the dogs got along well with them.

Max came by and said his friend knew a guy, Ka Lim, who ran a pet shop and that guy was coming over to pick up the dogs until the shelters opened again. Ka Lim said that he would be here at around seven o'clock because traffic was insanely heavy. It was around then when I realized the reason nobody was answering their phones was because it was Friday, and everything closes early on Fridays because the Malays have to go to the mosque or something. Anyway, Max gave me Ka Lim's number and then left to do whatever he was doing before he stopped to help a stranger with some dogs.

The ladies from the college left to go buy some food for the dogs. I hung around for a bit until some people emerged from a nearby office building and wanted to know what was going on with the dogs. Among them were two ladies who were friends with each other and also lived nearby. One of them, Maha, said she might have seen those dogs before since there was a guy who would walk his pair of German Shepherds past her house every so often. The other lady had two dogs and was experienced with rescues, so we were in good hands. She sent one of the guys from the office to go get some proper leashes from her house. In the meanwhile, I explained the story so far to them and they said that they could take care of the dogs until Ka Lim arrived. I gave Maha his number. She called him and she was told that the traffic was too heavy and he wasn't coming. So now we had to figure out where the dogs were going to stay while their owner was being located.

The ladies from college got back with two cans of dog food. One of them cut her finger when she was popping open the can. Someone from the office took her in to take care of the wound. Meanwhile the leash guy showed up, and the dogs were happy with their newer, more high-end restraints. After a few cautionary whiffs, the dogs ate their meals and were satisfied. After a while the lady from college who hadn't cut her finger went off to look for the lady from college who had, and the lady from the office who wasn't Maha called a friend with five dogs and a big house to see if her house was big enough for seven dogs.

The lady with the cut finger emerged and told us that she had fainted, but fortunately there was a guy from the office with her. The lady who wasn't Maha told us that her friend had plenty of space and was coming over now to pick up the dogs, but wouldn't be here for a while due to traffic. She then asked someone (probably the leash guy) to go up to the office and get a camera so they could make some posters to put up around the area. After that the lady without the cut finger came back and was reunited with her slightly woozy friend.

The one on the right cut her finger and passed out and the one on the left got lost looking for her. They haven't even been teaching for two years but they're already well on their way to becoming quirky professors.

The camera was brought down and some nice pictures were taken. Maha went to the office to print out some posters.

Time passed. Small talk was made. The male dog took another large dump, this time right in front of a parked car.

Maha emerged with a stack of posters. The college ladies agreed to put some of them up around the area when they came in for work the next day. They then went off to find a clinic that wasn't closed for a tetanus jab in case the can was rusty or something.

The lady with five dogs arrived with a large SUV capable of carrying dogs. We got the dogs in the back, and then I went to the front to take one last picture of the dogs with my phone. I remembered taking it, but it wasn't on my phone when I was uploading the images to the internet, which is both spooky and unfortunate because now I do not have a picture to end this story with.

So tomorrow there will be posters up all over the place and eventually the owner (or one of his friends) is bound to see it. He'll call the number for one of the office ladies who will direct him to the lady with a big house and five dogs, and there will be a happy reunion.

It's almost an hour past midnight now so there are a lot of things I've omitted and I might have messed up the sequence of events, so if anything seems odd or inaccurate just mention it and I'll try to clarify tomorrow after I pass my final exam. Also there was a strange guy who wanted to take one of the dogs for his own despite the fact that they got very distressed when they were separated and he only had a motorcycle for transport. Remind me to tell you guys about that, too."

Anyway after the doggies were safe, I went to McDonald's to have dinner. The guy at the counter charged me non-discount prices for my meal even though it was discount time, but I wasn't too upset because they accidentally gave me a McChicken that I hadn't ordered. I gave it to Jan when I got home.

After that I spent a long time writing about the dogs online, and then I went to sleep late and I woke up only three hours later.

I had thought I was going to write the dog story all over again in a different way for my blog since my blog is for a different audience, but it looks like I'm too lazy for that. Also I spotted some errors there but I'm not going to fix them until someone complains, which I don't think is going to happen.

Oh yeah also I might be attending one of Carmeni's lectures on Wednesday, just for kicks.

Anyway I'd better end this now so I can get some sleep. I've got an aptitude test tomorrow.

I Passed Physics

So yeah, I got a pass for Physics II. I am very glad. I also got a Credit in Psychology, and a Distinction in Finite Mathematics. I could've done better in both, but it was mostly my fault for screwing up Psychology, whereas I would've done better in Finite Mathematics if I had a more helpful lecturer.

But yeah, I'm done with my Foundation in Science. Now I've got to research jobs and universities and stuff to see what I should do in the future. Eh, should be fun.

Anyway, I did a lot of stuff recently. Hannah and I went to a wedding with our mum. I was helping out with traffic, so I got to wear a cool reflective vest. I also had to tell people where to park, but most of the time the others guys took care of that, so I got to sit around. It was pretty nice. I was the first person the bride greeted at the wedding because I was standing nearby when her car pulled in, so that was cool, too. During the wedding, right after the vows were exchanged, there was a tremor of some sort. It probably had something to do with the construction site next door, but it was still pretty cool. After the wedding there were loads of cupcakes instead of one big wedding cake. I ate a whole bunch of them, they were really good. After church on Sunday I was given an ang pao for helping out, which was pretty sweet.

Also, I went with my dad to Ipoh. I had to drive him there, and then I had to drive him back. I thought I would only be driving one way, but that was not the case. We had some John Denver CDs, though, so the ride wasn't that bad. I didn't do much in Ipoh. There's a wireless connection in my grandparents' house, so I just spent most of my time online with my dad's laptop. I also went out for dinner with my dad and my grandparents and my aunt and uncle who were also staying over. There was also some money, so that was nice.

I went with Jan and Hannah to watch Toy Story 1 and 2 in 3D. It was pretty great. The movie started at 10:45 and only ended at, like, 2am or something, so that was also an experience. A few nights later I took Hannah to Mid Valley to go shopping for Audrey's birthday. I found out Ian and Jan were watching Iron Man 2, so I got tickets for me and Hannah and we watched it with them. It was pretty awesome. I have to remember to give Hannah the first Iron Man, and also Back to the Future 3 because she hasn't watched that, either.

We've been eating at Chili's lately. It's made me realize that I don't dislike cheese as an ingredient in sauces, but I still find it pretty gross on its own. For example, the beef queso is quite cheesy, but it goes so excellently with tostada chips that I don't mind the cheese at all. It is delicious. I think I like the chips and queso more than the main dishes. I also tried the fish and chips, and it is my new favourite dish.

I'm midway through the evil campaign in Battle for Middle Earth 2. I've already won the good campaign and I've also won a game of War of the Ring. It upsets me slightly that there can only be two teams in War of the Ring. I much prefer free-for-alls. Oh well. I'm also playing RuneScape a fair bit. It's surprising how many of my old friends are still playing after all these years.

That's about it. I'm enjoying this break so far. Eventually it's going to end, though. I'm going to miss not shaving, although I can't say that I'll miss the "beard" and "moustache" that have resulted from that.

So Now That's Over

I finished my final batch of finals on Wednesday. Finite Mathematics was simple and I think I might have scored full marks on that paper. It did start out a bit rough when I forgot how to multiply matrices, but I moved on and did the other sections first before coming back when I remembered.

Psychology was a bit tougher, but I'll pass. Physics was very tough. I'm not sure if I scored enough to get my 50% or not. Also, when I was studying for it the night before, one of the presentations about atomic physics had a virus on it and that killed my computer by throwing it into a login/logout loop, so that sucked. Later on that day I went with Hannah to visit Amanda and her new dog, and I found out that I needed to score 16/40 on the final to pass the subject. I hope that I made it.

I took my computer to get repaired and I also got an eclair later on with Hannah and my dad. When I got back I watched the new Lost and the new Glee and a bunch of episodes of South Park and Whose Line is it Anyway that Ian had downloaded.

I found out RuneScape had been updated with a new skill which was also for free players, which made it the first new F2P skill since Runecrafting in 2004. I got Jan to try it out but I had to promise not to complain about Avenged Sevenfold for a week, which sucks. At least he has headphones now, so I won't have to hear his music. Ian also tried it this morning, so that was cool, too.

Today I went to watch Kick-Ass with Ian and Jan. It was pretty dang awesome. The censorship was mind-bogglingly idiotic, as usual, but it didn't detract too much since they only censored the black people, Hit-Girl, and anyone who swore at Hit-Girl. Also they apparently did not recognize cunts as a swear word, but whatever. After the movie I picked up my computer from the repair place, and that is why I have it now to type this post with. I've spent the better part of this evening getting my bookmarks together and reassembling my iTunes playlist.

I'm hoping to lounge around for five more days before I start looking for Universities or a job.

Man, I hope I didn't fail Physics II.

Last Class (Hopefully)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I think that's about it for now.

I hope I don't fail Physics.

It's Like the Rain Was Especially for Me

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hm. I'd better work on those citations.

More Stuff that I Did

On Wednesday I went to a cell group meeting for Christian Fellowship. It was okay. After that I had a Finite Maths class.

Later on that day I had to drive Hannah to One Utama because she was going rock climbing with some friends. She thought she had to be there at 5:45, but she got there at 6:30 or something, when actually the thing started at 5:00. Oh well. I borrowed her iPod for a bit and then took a nap. We were only there for fifteen minutes.

Anyway, on Thursday I got my mid-term results back for Finite Mathematics and Physics. I got 17.5% out of 20% for Finite Maths because I didn't show my working and also because of a few careless mistakes. For Physics I got 11.5% out of 20%, so I'm really going to have to buck up if I want to make it through.

It was also Li Ying's birthday, so everyone chipped in five ringgit and got her a cake. It was chocolate indulgence and it was delicious.

Hannah, Ian, Jan, and I went to Mid Valley at night to go watch Alice in Wonderland, but all the tickets were sold out so we watched Up in the Air again. The censorship in that movie was idiotic, as usual. Good thing I had already watched it before so I still knew what was going on.

The bus for camp leaves at 2:15 on Friday. I still haven't packed. Hm.

Back to the Beat

I didn't post for the past few days because our internet connection's been spotty and I haven't been able to get online much recently.

I forgot to do my exercises during the weekend, so I'm going to have to do three times as much as usual before my shower later.

College started again today. I realized that our leadership camp is this weekend. Oh dear. It should be fun, though.

Also, I got my reflective writing results back for Psychology. I got 3.5/5, while Joanna got 4/5. I'll do better than her on midterms, though.

I watched ten episodes of Glee when I got home from college. It is an excellent show and I'm sad that I only have three episodes left to watch. Ah well.

First Day of My Last Semester

So it was back to routine again. I woke up at six-thirty, read the Bible, had some cereal, put in my contact lenses and freshened up for the day, grabbed my bag and left for college.

My motorcycle was on the verge of dying right up to the first traffic light. I had to hold down the choke right up 'til then. I managed to get to college safe and sound, though. Now that my helmet box is attached again, I don't have to hook my helmet under the seat any more. That's nice.

Since I arrived at HELP at around seven thirty, Carmeni was the only other friend I saw. We talked for a bit and she told me that Finite Mathematics classes weren't starting until the tenth, so I decided to accompany her to her statistics class. The first stats class had a quiz to assess their knowledge so it could be compared to the end of the semester. The bits on probability were pretty simple, but I just guessed the rest of the answers. Once we were done with the quiz we were allowed to leave.

As we were leaving the classroom, Carmeni and I started arguing about whether salvation was based on works or faith. She had said something about people going to hell based on what they did, which I think is bull, so then she asked me why then was there purgatory, and I told her that there wasn't. She didn't believe me and bet me two ringgit that there was Biblical evidence of purgatory. I took the bet.

After that I went to the admin desk to see what the status on the Finite Maths sign-ups were, and I was told that they had already started, which meant that Carmeni was either misinformed or a liar. I'm assuming the former. Anyway, I went to the lab to sign up for my Finite Maths group. While I was there I also went on line to check if the Bible mentions purgatory, and it does not. That was nice.

Once I had signed up for my Finite Maths group I realized that the first class was from eight to nine-thirty, which meant that it was just ending. I ran over to the class just in time to meet the lecturer and add my name and details to the class roster. The lecturer looks like a nice enough guy. He's old and Chinese. Should be fun.

My next class was at twelve, so I mostly just hung around talking to people. I found out that Alessandra had managed to get three High Distinctions last semester, bringing her total up to five. I found out later that she was one of only three people to get HDs for Psychology. I'm glad she was in my group for Malaysian Studies and Advanced English. Anyway, I spent most of my first break with Amanda. We went to McDonald's and I bought fries and we talked and ate and then got root beer. Apparently Amanda only had RM300 to spend for the whole of last semester, which is probably three or four times less than I got and averaged to around three ringgit a day, which is ridiculous. I'm suddenly a whole bunch more appreciative of my allowance. Also I found out that Carmeni thought that my family was rich, which is silly. We aren't even upper middle class. We are just middle class and my parents may be giving us a bit too much disposable income, but do not tell my dad that I said that.

At twelve I rode to the science lab for my first Physics lecture. I was told that six people had survived from last semester, so now our class was around half the size. We didn't really learn anything in class aside from the course outline and where our marks would be coming from. Our final chapter is going to be modern physics, which I am very excited for. The list of subjects we'll be covering looks a lot more difficult than last semester, so I don't have high hopes for a distinction or anything, but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to pass this. If I work hard enough I'm confident that I'll pass, actually, so it's all a matter of how much effort I put into this subject.

Class ended early, so I rode back to the main block and took a nap. At two o'clock it was time for Psychology. I'm in Psychology with Carmeni, Joanna, Arun, and this girl from my Moral Studies class who was dressed exactly like Hannah. She had a purple shirt, a brown scarf, jeans, converse shoes, heck, she even had brown hair. She's one of the better looking people in class. Right behind me was this Chinese girl who dyed her hair yellow and wore Hello Kitty crocs. Yikes.

Psychology was a fun class. Ms Selena is an excellent lecturer to have, and I could tell that I was going to have fun. Whether I would be able to out-perform Alessandra in this subject was a different question, though, but I think that I should be able to get a at least a Distinction if I put the effort into this.

I've only got one class on Wednesday. It's a Finite Maths class from two o'clock to three-thirty. I think I've already learnt most of the stuff in Finite Mathematics during Engineering Mathematics Applications and Calculus, so I think I'll do okay. I think it'll be my HD subject of the semester. I hope it'll be my HD subject of the semester. Also, Elo will be coming back on Wednesday and I will try to meet all the people from last semester who I did not meet earlier. I am looking forward to it.

Also it has been nice not to have to swim today. I don't think I gained anything from all those laps, except for the knowledge that I am able to stick to a routine like that. Next time I'll be doing more laps, and I'll be doing them in the day. It will be nice to finish with some muscles and a tan. Anyway I'll try to remember to add push-ups to my new routine which is currently just sit-ups. I will do twenty-five push-ups, and I will do them on Saturday. I hope.

Oh yeah, after college I filled up my motorcycle and it cost RM11, which is three ringgit more than usual, so either they raised the price or my motorcycle was dangerously low on fuel. It rides a lot better now with its full tank, so that's nice. Also Hannah woke me up in the middle of a nap to give me a back massage, which was also nice, because right after I could go back to sleep feeling a lot more relaxed. I love naps and massages and I hope to combine them more often.

I want to watch Avatar in 3D with a friend.

Results and Poor Decisions

I woke up and remembered that it was the day that my results were going to be uploaded. I logged on and checked, and they were there. I had scored high distinctions for Advanced English and Critical Thinking Skills, and Credits for Engineering Mathematics Principles and Physics I. The results for my Moral Studies haven't been released yet.

After I checked my results I enrolled for Finite Mathematics, Psychology for Personal Development, and, by accident, Statistics. I found out later about my mistake and dropped Stats for Physics II.

My dad had promised to reward me based on the amount of HDs I got, so I found the e-mail with the list of rewards (RM200 for two HDs) and forwarded it to him.

I was pretty happy with myself, so I decided to celebrate with a bit of gambling. That was a mistake. I lost RM68 to my brother after a few particularly disastrous blackjack rounds. It was not pleasant.

When my dad got back, I watched him and Hannah book tickets for Hannah and Jan's flight to Indonesia sometime next year, and then I watched him transfer my reward to my account. After that he took Jan and me for dinner at Sin Kee's. As usual, the chicken chop was really nice. On the way home we stopped by Bangsar Village so I could withdraw my money and buy the Christmas present Hannah owed me. I got four packets of licorice: green apple, mango, strawberry, and original. I don't think they'll last more than a week, but it will be a very sweet week.

So yeah, that was my day. I still owe Ian RM18 for the blackjack, but Hannah owes me RM40 for the Christmas present, so that will work out. I'm going to watch Avatar in 3D soon, I think.

It is Finished

My final final exam of the semester, and thus my last day of the semester, was today. I studied in the library for half an hour or so while waiting for the test to begin. I also talked to my classmates.

I scored either 44/60 or 46/60 for my continuous assessment, so I for a pass I needed to get either 6/40 or 4/40 on the final, 21/40 or 19/40 for a credit, and distinction would require a 31/40 or 29/40, which seems quite unachievable considering the subject, so I decided to make my goal a credit. I managed to answer a little more than half of the questions within the time limit, but when I handed in my paper Mr Joel said I could have done better. Oh well.

Outside the exam hall, I asked Sue Ann how she did, and she said she was worried that she wouldn't get a High Distinction because she didn't know how to answer one of the questions. She was being ridiculous, though, because she scored 59/60 on her continuous assessment and she only needed 24/40 on the final to get her HD. I'm sure she'll manage.

When I got home I sent a mass-text to everyone on my contacts list asking what they were doing on New Year's Eve to see if any would be free to come over and have a barbecue and watch the fireworks. I got something like five replies, but no confirmations. Oh well.

My dad was having a company dinner at Sunway since he was the new CEO of Devices World, so Hannah, my mum and I got to tag along and enjoy the free food. The food was really, really good. It is one of the best buffets I've been to. The desert selections were especially nice.

After Hannah and I were done, we went to Sunway Pyramid to fix Hannah's iPod and my mum's iPhone, and also to get the Christmas present for the person whose name I drew when we were organizing who would buy presents for whom for Christmas. Anyway, I got the gift for RM50, and the people at the Apple store said that Hannah's problem could be fixed by sending her iPod in with its warranty because that would result in her getting a brand new iPod, and my mum's problem could be fixed by turning off silent mode on her iPhone.

My dad had ordered a bottle of wine during the dinner (it was on the company's account, after all), so I got to drive home. Everyone left before I parked the car, so I almost ended up scratching it against the side because I suck at parking and I usually need someone to supervise. Hannah usually sticks around to help, but she was feeling impatient tonight. Mama ended up coming back and parking, instead. I should spend a while really learning how to park.

Anyway, tomorrow I am going to start swimming. I plan to swim every day for the whole of my semester break. How long I'll be doing it for or how many laps I'll be doing I do not know, but I will be getting some exercise and some sun, so that's gotta be healthy. Also I want to walk to the KL tower. I guess I'll do that on Tuesday or something.

After Tomorrow I Will Be Done (For Now)

Last night I was talking to Hannah from 12:15am to 5:00am. I think that is the longest I have stayed up talking to someone. She's a cool sister, though, so I don't mind at all. My only regret is that I taught her that when she says "Thank you" in her little girl voice she can convince people to do pretty much anything, so I can expect to be manipulated a lot in the coming days.

Three hours after I fell asleep I got a text from one of my Physics classmates asking which floor the test was on. I told him it was the fourth floor, and he asked where I was. I told him I was still at home, sleeping. He was confused, because he thought the test started at 9. I told him it started at 12:30. Oh well, at least he managed to remember which day it was on. Plus he had extra time to study.

Since I was already awake I borrowed Hannah's MP3 player and listened to some music while I tried to fall asleep again. I didn't manage to fall asleep, but it was very relaxing. Fireflies is one of the best songs to listen to when you are sleepy and in a bed.

After I woke up I read my usual three chapters from the Bible, and then I decided to read through the first few chapters of Genesis to follow Biblical history from creation up until the exodus from Egypt. I gotta say, the start of the Bible is kinda sexist. Luckily that doesn't affect me because I'm a dude, but apparently us guys are the masters of women or something, so that is something.

When I was done with the Bible I got ready and went on the computer for a bit. I had set my alarm for 11:10 so I could arrive at the Wisma with enough time to study and review for the test, but I kept hitting snooze while reading stuff, so I only arrived at around 12:00. Before the test started I managed to study about twenty minutes' worth of material, which was everything except the end of the last chapter on optics.

When I opened the test I was shocked. I did not understand how to answer any of the questions. I flipped through the book and found only one question in the subjective section that I knew I could answer. However, I started doing the work and the answers started making themselves apparent to me. There was a lot of things I didn't understand, and I was never sure of any of my answers, but I think I did well enough to get a credit. It was a really tough test, though. As I was finishing up the last question, I realized that the answer I had written down was complete bullshit and there was no way it was the right answer, so I wrote "The above answer is almost definitely wrong, so here is an elephant to make things better" and then I drew an elephant.

I talked to the highest and third highest scoring guys in class after the test was over, and we agreed that it was a lot more difficult than we had expected. We were all grateful for the question with the bear, though, because we had done that one for a tutorial earlier and it was about torque so it was easy to do.

I called Hannah up and asked if she wanted to go for lunch, and she did, so I told her to be downstairs in a few minutes with the keys to one of our cars. When I got home I parked my motorcycle and got in the car and we went to have McDonald's. I tried a Prosperity Burger. It was not worth what I paid, but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be. It wasn't good, either, though, just okay. The bun was insanely soggy. Anyway, I have done my part to continue my tradition of ordering a single Prosperity Burger every time they are available, hoping that it would be different from all the other Prosperity Burgers I've eaten, and then being disappointed by what I get. I guess I'll do it again next year, too. There are some things that I'll never learn from.

I know I said I'd do my EMA homework today, but I don't think I can be arsed. I guess I'll do some of it in the hours before the test tomorrow.

And Then There Were Two

I had set my alarm for 5:30am so that I could be at Wisma HELP by 7:30am to meet with Amanda to study as much as we could before the Critical Thinking Skills final exam. The alarm went off, and I woke up, but I fell asleep before the third paragraph of my daily Bible reading and when I woke up again it was 7:30. I sent Amanda a text saying that I had overslept and I was going to be there at around eight or so, and she replied saying she was already there.

I couldn't find Amanda when I arrived on the floor at the Wisma where the test was going to be held. I asked Carmeni and Elo and I was told that she had gone to the bathroom. Twenty minutes later there was still no sign of her, so I had started studying the book on my own when my phone rang. It was Amanda, and she was on a different floor, so that was where she was. When she got to the fourth floor we managed to get around half an hour of studying in. We mostly memorized lists.

When the test started we went into one of the smaller rooms opposite from the really really long lecture hall where I usually sit for the exams. The test itself wasn't hard. My only problem was that I had forgotten the first item on one of the lists I had memorized a few minutes earlier, so I ended up putting "Identify the dilemma" instead of "Describe the facts", which will cost me 2 marks on the test or 1% of my total score.

I finished the test ten minutes early, but quite a few people had left already. I hung around asking people what they had got for the Venn diagram section (Valid, Invalid, Invalid, Valid). Everyone I asked except Carmeni and Denise got it right, I think. I kept hanging around because I was hoping to find someone who was hungry and would want to go for lunch with me, but I could not find anyone. Alessandra gave me a granola bar, though, so that was nice.

I realized that this was the last exam for the core subjects for the semester and so it would be the last time I would be seeing most of the people there until next year. My goodbye bubble was burst when someone pointed out that my Physics test tomorrow was at the same time as the statistics test, so that would actually be the last time I saw them in '09. Oh well.

While I was waiting for people to get hungry, Joanna was on one of the computers looking for someone's Critical Thinking Skills continuous assessment score. I took the opportunity to count how many people had scored higher than me. The answer was three. Three people had scored 54/60, and I had only scored 53/60. I could only miss out on 16 out of the 80 marks from the final. Anything more than that and I'd only have a Distinction. I should be in the clear if I got more than 4 out of 5 questions right, though. I hope that was the case.

I also saw Michelle from church when I was waiting around. She had just finished her Thesis Defense, which was one of the last classes she was doing before graduating. This week is the last week of her three-year Psychology degree program, I think, and she's only got three exams left. That was an unexpected encounter, but it was nice.

After a while I got bored of waiting and left to eat McDonald's on my own. It was okay.

Two tests left.

Two Down, Three to Go

I woke up at ten in the morning today. That was pretty great. I got ready for the day and had some cereal for breakfast. I haven't had cereal for breakfast in a long while. It was nice.

At 11:45 I arrived at Wisma HELP and started studying for my Moral Studies exam. When I arrived there weren't many people, so I just sat next to the closest people I recognized and started reading. I had sat next to Ashley, and so I asked her if it was her birthday today since that is what Facebook had said it was. She said Facebook was correct so I wished her happy birthday, and then I spent the next 45 minutes reading through the Moral Studies notes and asking people how much they needed to score to pass.

The test started at 12:30. It wasn't that hard. I'm pretty sure I got the 14 marks I needed to pass, and I'm certain I didn't get the 39 marks I needed for a credit.

I finished the test about half an hour early and read through the remaining chapters in my Critical Thinking Skills textbook. At one point I popped down to the library, but only Davinia and Samuel were there so I went back up to the exam floor to read instead. I finished the book at 3:30 and set the alarm on my phone for ten minutes before the Advanced English exam was going to begin, and then I took a nap. When I woke up I saw Jacob and Oliver arrive from the elevator, so I asked them how much they needed to score to pass and stuff. When I tried to find other people to talk to, the exam halls opened and everyone started moving inside.

I found a seat and filled in the stuff that had to be filled in. I noticed that my hands were shaking, which was odd because I wasn't worried about the test at all. I had already passed the subject; the only thing that would be decided by this final was whether I got a Distinction or a High Distinction. Anyway, I got up and went to my bag to get some gum to chew. I think that stopped the shaking.

The test was easy. I only had two trouble spots, but they were only worth one point each so I didn't get too worked up over them. My summary and essay were okay. They definitely aren't going to get me top marks, but I should get more than half marks for them, and I think that should be enough. I guess in the end it all comes down to which lecturer is marking my paper. It kinda sucks that my final grade will be decided by something so arbitrary, but that's life. Anyway, I started packing up my stationary the moment I had finished the last sentence of my essay. I didn't bother to revise my answers. I handed in my exam an hour early and went home. I think I was the first to finish.

When I got home I had a great big bowl of spaghetti carbonara while I watched TV. I think I'll take a nap soon, too. Only three more finals left. Yay.

End of Classes

Classes for this semester are done. My last class was technically yesterday, but 1am on Saturday night is basically still Friday so I'll just say today to keep things simple.

So today started again with me waking up late because it was raining again. I called Sue Ann to check if Mr Joel was in class yet, and he wasn't. I managed to get ready and get to college only five or ten minutes after Mr Joel, so that was okay. I only got a bit wet in the rain because it had become quite light by the time I left.

In class we finished up the last programme and reviewed what we'd be studying, and then we got to see our marks. Sue Ann scored 49/50, which is awesome. I got 36/50 (I think), which I was not expecting. I have a shot at a Credit if I do really well in the finals. Cool.

When EMA was over I can't really remember what I did because it was uninteresting, but after doing whatever I forgot doing I went to study some Critical Thinking Skills with Amanda. We managed to just barely cover the second of six chapters that need to be reviewed for the finals. Once we'd memorized the final list of things I went over to CTS class. Ms Tay was reviewing some stuff that was going to come out for the final exam. When that was over we had to write what we thought about the course, and then we were free to leave early.

My priority after leaving class was finding a spot to nap. I found a place on a bunch with some bags and friends, but I couldn't nod off in the fifteen minutes I had, so I just talked to people instead. I don't think I realized that I had just finished the last class of my semester.

At 12:15 I left to go to Christian Fellowship to help out with the Staff Appreciation Day. I chose to go with the group that was distributing the appreciation gifts (3-in-1 coffee and a note) in the main block. It was pretty cool; I got to go into the staff rooms to place the stuff and while I was doing that I got to see how spacious and cool the lecturers' rooms are. We distributed the gifts to lecturers and administrative staff and guards and janitors. It was nice.

After we'd been down the whole hall and we were almost done with the thanking, I said goodbye to the others and went to study CTS with Amanda. She was sick, so we didn't get very far before we had to stop.

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.

Okay-Type Stuff Happened Today

Yesterday I had to buy in to a poker game at our house for RM10 as part of my agreement from Sunday to get Joel to play Left 4 Dead 2. I lost pretty quickly, but it was worth it. Left 4 Dead 2 is awesome.

After I lost I hung around for a bit to watch the game, but after a while I got bored and wandered to the room to karaoke. Jan came in to tell me that they could hear me outside and they were commenting on how much I sucked, and I said I knew. I kept singing. When I was done I asked which song I least sucked at, and the answer was "Can You Feel the Love Tonight". I will practice that more, then.

Anyway, today was cool. It started with me falling asleep a whole bunch of times as I was doing my daily Bible reading, and when I finally woke up I noticed I was going to be late. I managed to get to class fifteen minutes after it started, so that was alright.

EMA was the first class. We did some more work and got some more homework. After that was CTS, which was just a bunch more presentations. Ka Jeng's was excellent. I think she's gonna beat my score at CTS, too. Ah well, I guess being the top scorer in one subject once is good enough.

During the break I hung about with various peoples. Carmeni told Joanna that I was mad because I didn't get invited to her birthday on Sunday, but I said that all I had said was that Joanna was the person who did not invite me to her birthday; I didn't say anything about getting mad. Joanna said she didn't invite me because she wasn't allowed to invite too many people. She invited Li Ying and Elo and Arun and Carmeni and the rest of them, though, so I guess I'm just not important enough of a friend to her or whatever. I am only mildly upset by this, though, since she mentioned me in her blog post on her birthday.

Anyway, I asked Carmeni where Amanda and Davinia were because they are more interesting people than my current company was. She said they were in class or something, but I guess their class had ended pretty soon afterwards because they walked past a few minutes later. I went with Amanda to go get some fries and she told me about her boyfriend's best friend asking her to lie to him about something and how she got in trouble with both of them and it was somewhat dramatic and interesting but I was only half-listening.

Since I didn't have Physics today I decided to celebrate by taking a nap since I wasn't allowed to sit in for Human Communications like Amanda suggested. I flipped through the CTS book before dozing until twelve-ish. After I woke up I located Davinia and waited around for Amanda and then we went to Amanda's mum's cafe for lunch. When Amanda saw me on my motorcycle she made history by being the first person not to call it "cute". Instead she asked me why it was so small and if it was a minibike or something. I think I prefer "cute". There are only two words that get cooler when you put "mini" in front of them, and those are "gun" and "Uzi". I kinda want a larger motorcycle now.

Amanda's mum's cafe is near the Mist Club. They serve really good orange juice, eggs, and cupcakes there. I had a very enjoyable meal with very enjoyable company and conversation. It was so enjoyable that I stayed until 2 o'clock, which was when my Advanced English class was supposed to start. I paid, finished Amanda's leftover drinks, and rode back just in time to be fifteen minutes late for class. Nobody noticed me come in, though, so that was nice.

Advanced English was fun. We split into groups to do skits about one of our life experiences and what could be learned from them. My group elected to do a skit about my motorcycle accidents. Our moral was that you shouldn't let other people tell you what you should do when you're driving, and you should always keep your eyes on the road. The group after us did a skit about making sure you go on dates in places where your date's parents' friends won't see and inform on you, and the group after them did a skit about the proper way to get mugged. When the last skit was over, Mr. Dharminder told us about crime and the police's lack of response to it. That was a valuable lesson. I don't see what it had to do with English, though.

In Moral Studies we did some revision and we were told about the format for the final exam. I fell asleep. When I woke up it was almost done, and the moment it was over I went out to the hall and fell asleep.

I woke up when I heard Elo and Li Ying talking about playing hide-and-seek. We didn't get to play that, though. When everyone was getting in the room to hide, a cleaning wandered in behind them, which ended the game pretty early.

I went home, took a nap, went to the pharmacy with my dad for vitamins and contact lens stuff, listened to my dad talk about his experience with girls and how his younger years were similar to mine, and helped motivate my sister to exercise.

That is the end of this post and who even reads this stuff aside from me as I'm typing it? Eh, it doesn't matter. I think I'm going to expand on my point-form posts over the semester break. I also want to walk to the KL tower and go swimming every day. I wonder if any of those will happen. We'll see.

Buying Cakes is Harder than I Thought

Yesterday, my brothers and our friend, Joel, went to play Left 4 Dead 2 after church. It was awesome. I am getting that game during the semester break.

Today it was Joanna's birthday, so when I saw her this morning at college I said that I would get her some cake after my classes were done. I had already wished her a happy birthday on Facebook and via text, but I wanted an excuse to have cake because cake is delicious.

Anyway, my first class was Advanced English. We got our scores back for our presentations. I did about as well as I had expected with a 4.4 out of 5, which was better than I should've for the effort I put into the slides. The highest score in class was from Ka Jeng, who got 4.9 out of 5, which is pretty awesome. I knew when she was presenting that she was gonna score higher than me, and probably get the top score. It was either her or Marcus. Marcus got 4.85, so my guess was totally justified. Alessandra didn't do too badly, either. After we got our presentation scores back we also got our scores for our research papers. I scored 13.83 out of 15. Marcus got 14.17 because he had pictures and graphs. If I had included a graph in my paper I would have tied with him. It wasn't really fair, though. His research paper was miles better than mine. I threw mine together in a couple of nights, and all my citations are clumped in the introduction with the body and content being 100% bullshit. His paper is well-researched and cited and overall pretty awesome. I'm not complaining, though. I like high scores. But yeah, the continuous assessment for Advanced English will be on the board by Thursday, so we can all check then and see who the best is. I can say with great certainty that it isn't going to be me. I didn't put much effort into my assignments. I might have had a shot if I did, but Marcus and Ka Jeng are pretty strong competition. I think Marcus might be the top scorer this year. I'll be surprised if he doesn't get a HD.

When class was over I stopped to chat with people in the hall on my way to McDonald's. Apparently Almas, my classmate from CTS, has been trading since he was 17. He's the sole breadwinner for his family until they open a restaurant. He showed me the program he uses to track currencies in real-time and told me about the time he lost RM8000 in one day and the other time he gained RM3500 by working from 5am 'til the end of the day. That is some impressive stuff.

I had a pretty big breakfast meal at McDonald's. Unfortunately the ice machine was broken, so I had to have my Milo hot. I tried drinking it, but I burned my tongue instead. After that I just used it to dip my McMuffin in before finally getting impatient and dumping an ice-cream in it to cool it down. I was still hungry afterwards.

At 11 I had my optional Physics class. I could have chosen not to go and I wouldn't have lost any attendance marks since it was the last week, but I went anyway. We did some revision on concave and convex mirrors, and then I fell asleep when we revised rotational motion. I woke up a few minutes later at the end of class.

I met up with Carmeni and Elo and Li Ying and the rest of them and asked if anyone wanted to go with me to get some cake for Joanna, but they were all too lazy or something, so I went myself. I came back with two identical slices of chocolate cake, but no candles, utensils, or napkins. I told the girls that that's why I wanted someone to come with me. They did not anticipate that I would have so much difficulty buying cake. Anyway I went to get the necessary goods, and when I came back they told me that when buying multiple slices of cake you should have each slice be of a different type of cake. These cake-rules are confusing. This is why I wanted a cake-buying partner. They should have listened to me when I asked.

Anyway, they called up Joanna and told her that she had to get down here urgently, so she came down and we sang happy birthday and took pictures with the cake and candles. I ate a lot of cake. I probably ate more cake than Joanna did, but I think it's okay because I only ate from one slice and I let everyone else have at least one forkful, plus I paid for the cakes anyway. It was really good cake. I want similar cake for my birthday.

Mmm, cake.

Last Assignment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yeah I think that's it for today.

My Helmet Got Stolen

Somebody stole my helmet. That was quite inconsiderate of them. I had to drive home with my head completely unprotected. It started raining, too. When you're on a motorcycle and rain falls on your face it is like a thousand little bees all stinging at once. Also, I got new contact lenses and they almost got scratched up by dust flying into my eyes. I hope whoever stole my helmet has his motorcycle stolen. That would be some serious karmic justice.

Streamyx cut our internet line last night. My dad stopped paying the bill three months ago because of how shitty their service was, but because of how inefficient they are, they only got around to doing something about that recently. So we got three months of internet connectivity for free. Now we're running on a Maxis line, and it is so much faster. It's beautiful.

The ball is tomorrow. Holy shit.

I've got a quiz tomorrow for EMA. I said I would study for it, but I haven't. I'm going to after I post this. I will be up late tonight.

I want to get into a fight with someone and win. Beating someone up would be awesome. Unfortunately (Or fortunately), I haven't met anyone who I could both beat in a fight and justify fighting. Oh well.

College was okay today, except for my helmet getting stolen at the end of it. I got my English midterm results back. I had 16.13 out of 20, but I managed to talk the lecturer into giving me another .27 marks for one of the answers in the cloze passage. I could have gotten a bit more, but he doesn't believe that "habitats" was the right word to use to describe the "seas around Johore". Man, I was only using a plural noun to refer to a plural noun. That shit should be totally legit. Ah well, 16.4 is pretty good. Still .6 away from a HD average, but good. Especially since it's higher than Joanna's score. Scoring higher than other people is one of the great joys in my life.

I read a chapter of my Critical Thinking Skills textbook today about Science. It's the most interesting textbook I've ever read. It's called THiNK and it's by Judith Boss. Judith sounds like the kind of person I would have liked to be friends with back in primary school. Too bad she was in primary school four decades and an ocean away from when I was. Ah well, at least I got an awesome book.

I want to talk to someone for a really really long time. Like, just sit down and have a conversation that goes on for hours. Maybe there would be snacks involved, or musical instruments. Or swings. Or just really really comfortable furniture. I do not know. I just want to talk.

I'm kinda lonely, you see.