The Case of The New Bookcase and Missing Books

This bookcase is actually a combination of four cheap plywood cabinets I glued together with some strong adhesive. That was 3-4 years ago. 

I've read all of these books and put my action figures / robots / Transformers above them for display. Too cheap to buy a glass case :P 

 Recently I bought this ultra light 5x3 from the supermarket and built it up myself. The materials are only plastic fasteners, steel rods and canvas. It took me more than an hour to finish, although I could ask for help from my two friends who were only watching with much amusement.

I moved the books from the old bookcase to the new one the next morning. I put my favourite books by the late author Sir Terry Pratchett on the highest shelves; and the rest of the fantasy stuff according to their respective authors; Salvatore, Tolkien, Terry Brooks, Eddings etc.

And I realized I LOST FOUR BOOKS!

They are the first three of the Chronicles of Narnia; 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe', 'Prince Caspian' and 'The Voyage of the Dawn Treader' by C. S. Lewis. The fourth book is the third volume of The Dragonlance Tales 'Love and War.'

This come as a surprise for me because those books were buried deep BEHIND the rest and who would took them? My friends and immediate family do not read English fantasy books for fun.

p.s. - I did some thinking.... who would inherit my books one day? None of my relatives enjoy what I do and I am not someone who easily donate my stuff elsewhere. I might ask to have all my worldly stuff burned in my will someday.... 

The Bored Teacher Posted Some Pictures...

Did I tell you the monsoon season is here again? This is taken right at my doorstep. The monsoon rain is usually heavy and long lasting. Heck, sometimes it rained the entire day. This may cause floods somewhere, but my housing estate is right on top of a hill.

I love the cold. I love the rain!

(Oh, there was a landslide at the highway to the east, nobody died though)

This is my living room. Initially it was almost bare, only filled with the sofa and dining table set. But as the years gone by, I bought many stuff that I don't usually need, and the house is rather crowded with items. I have an entire room converted to be a store.

Notice the teddy bear. It was given to me.

(This was taken in the afternoon, a week ago)

 Another shot of my living room. See how messy the table is now, complete with a flypaper. (I just hate flies!) The opening to the left lead to the kitchen, and the right to two rooms, including my master bedroom. The door you see is the storeroom I mentioned. My cats are in there too.

(This was taken this very evening).

 One of the restaurants near my house I go to if I am in no mood to cook. Usually if the place is too crowded, I would leave, but I make an exception during the rain. I would order from the least crowded stall, something very easy to prepare, and then enjoy my meal while watching the other patrons waiting (sometimes) for an hour for their food.

Oh, and I never gi out alone dining at restaurants. Usually I am with friends or housemates.

 This is taken earlier this week, during an examination. The boy, which is unfortunately, a student of mine slept after 10 minutes into the exam. My students RARELY show this lack of moral in front of me, knowing how I enjoy to retaliate this. But this boy is something special. The kind who takes warning as suggestion, and a scolding as noises in the wind.

I woke him up and made him to sweep the entire class during the entire examination.

The class was spotless after two hours of solo cleaning :)

 And this was taken scant hours ago. I accompanied a friend who wanted to have his hair cut. This barber shop opens early and closes at 1030 pm. This is a boon for people who are busy working during the day (or too lazy to wake up early in the weekends), like me.

p.s. - I take all photos using my HTC Desire 816. If you find the pictures to be dark and gloomy, now you know my favourite theme :) Bright and sunshine are great to see with and enjoy from the dark side. I like to stay in the shadows (literally. Heck, I even teach in dark, poorly lit classrooms).

Needful Things and Wanting Stuff

I have just started a new hobby four months ago.... which is collecting MONEY. (You may also call it saving, you boring people you).

Usually by almost the end of every month, I would have some cash to spare and always ended up spending it all up before payday. I know its a very very bad habit, and I did waste thousands upon thousands on the little things that amused me.... but still, I think they were well spent. I am going to be 40 soon and it would be stabbing on my own proverbial back if I don't save some for the rainy days....

(I actually LOVE rain and the cold weather, mind you).

So since four months ago I set aside quite a significant amount of money (in fact, I transferred it to another bank for NOT ease of use). The amount I set aside monthly is always the same, for me to remember. And still at the end of every month, I still have some surplus.... (what the hell have I spent on before this?!)

And now I wondered.... if I started saving YEARS ago, I might be as rich as Scrooge McDuck or Toupee Trump!

Yesterday my mom gave me a lot of cash money, my small share from the sale of one of our houses. I immediately put the money into my collection bank! A few friends who know my new hobby said I should put it in some trust fund for maximum profit. I think I will do it later next year.

For now.... other than new PS4 games (fortunately the titles I really like are very few in between) I don't want anything else. But I NEED to repair the gates, and my house sink. That will not cost an arm or a leg :)

If I work much harder, I can accumulate more money... That's why I don't hate rich people because I know most of them work hard for it. I am just lazy, and only make so and so.

p.s. - I was thinking what to post earlier as I was browsing through your blogs.... :)

The End Is Near (for Teachers here...)

Gosh! Only six days before the school STARTS?!! I wish to have another month of holiday. Christmas had just passed and I know you guys are having a lot of fun with your presents and stuff. I have a lot of FUN with my PlayStation 3 and iPad 2 too.

And I just found out how to download free ebooks a couple of days ago.... Yay for the internet!

I started to keep my aquarium alive again...

This is a fighting fish. Once upon a time they were abundant in the rice fields here, but as Malaysia has grown into a modernized country, the rice fields are fewer and the fishs are almost extinct. Nowadays, most fighting fish come from Thailand, the country up north. Only male fish got sails / plumage like this. The females are more dull and smaller. They come in a myriad of colours, my fav are blue and red. Most in metallic hues :)

Two male fishs cannot live in the same container... they will fight, thus the name.

And have a look at this box full of roses....

These came from my three rose bushes at the front of my house. The rain brings a lot of blooms and it would be a great waste to let the flowers wilt or rot. So we carefully cut every rose and then naturally dry them in a copper pan to make pot pourri. I have a huge bowl of them now :)

Ok, time to have late dinner. I might have some sausages fried.

Hooray for the 200th Entry @ New Fishy Passion

My 200th entry at last! Hip hip hooray! And to celebrate this auspicious number, I went out and bought another betta @ fighting fish for my collection (already have two) and another glass aquarium (already have three glass aquariums and several plastics).

I love these fish. When in fighting mode, the male fish's fins opened up like sails! Colourful and beautiful in motion.

This red betta swims with a blue betta in the same plastic aquarium (with a divider between them). I amuse myself by putting a mirror next to him, and he'll puff up regally.

The new betta. Five times more expensive then the red above. Personally I do not know why he cost a lot more, but he is beautiful. So he got to live in the new glass aquarium alone.

My other goldies. Dwarf goldfishes together with hybrids. I love these small goldfishes! I stole the corals from my sister (who had stolen my Pikachu).

p.s. - eat your heart out Tuck Wai. :P

Of Meatballs and Choppers.

I went out with a friend to town today. I had to pay my Maxis mobile bill and car loan, and to have somebody near was great enough to rant and scream the exorbitant price of high living until his ear dropped off. Originally, there would be three of us, but that particular friend had something else to do this afternoon. Well, no biggie. He was too heavy anyway for my car :P

So after paying the bills, we went to the nearby cinema, MBO and I bought the 1.30 pm show for the animated feature 'Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs'. As we waited in the VIP lounge, some people with a horde of brats entered and they (children) made a lot of noise in the small room. I wanted to give the parents a piece of my mind for allowing their children to be extremely loud in an enclosed place, but I decided against it when I saw the poor father was a so tired on his couch. He was nodding himself to sleep - taking care of demon spawns must be tough.

So we watched the movie.... Even though the plot was so simple, it was still a good movie. And as it wasn't a Pixar's or Walt Disney's, it wasn't as polished in the animated sense. A few good chuckles and a LOT of 'delicious' scenes (concerning food, ok?).

After the movie, we visited the toy section in Parkson's and lo and behold! A Voyager Decepticon Transformers Blackout was on the lowest shelf! (To all you non-nerds; Blackout was the evil military helicopter who devastated the entire army base in Qatar in the 2007 movie trailer.) I immediately bought this toy because I remembered the bad decision of 'thinking it over' and that lost me a few good collectibles. I wonder where I can display the Transformers though...

In a fairly happy mood this evening.... :)

p.s. - I lost RM 50.00 for no apparent reason today.... I always lost something when I went out with this particular friend. No, I am not accusing him of stealing my money, but something was always missing when he is near me (a pricey keychain, a red crystal ring). Which is so weird.... I told him that he might have 'something' (supernatural) nasty around him at all times. He just laughed...

Appaloosa And Sex

I don't watch tv much nowadays because I am simply disgusted with the many soap operas and silly programmes which are aired. Seriously, I can feel my IQ slipping whenever I 'accidentally' watched some local drama on the telly. These are the garbage programmes which have no intellectual values and useful information whatsoever. [Most are about struggling love, pretentious power hungry people or just the endless drama of one particular family. SAME OLD SAME OLD]. No wonder many people are so zombie-like; they are programmed to be stupid by the broadcast.

And then you might point your accusing finger at me; What about the movies you watch at the cinema? Well, that is not a useless investment for me. I greatly learn English (good, bad, and even the naughty) from the movies. I get to see different places, real or fabricated. Movies now are so advanced, we can see some technologies that we can only imagine in our wildest dream work (my fav; red crystal light sabers).

And sometimes I refer to a specific movie or two for Scientific examples. Eg; the nuclear submarine scene in Pierce Brosnan's The World Is Not Enough - harnessing nuclear power in Physics. The huge radioactive monster in Godzilla - mutation in cells by radiation. Why you cannot kick a wall down, but Superman can - force and motion. I think I am the only teacher in school who use such examples in class...

Anyway, after watching Watchmen on dvd last night (nice thoughtful action movie, fabulous casts), I watched the cowboy flick by Ed Harris, Appaloosa. It was different, it was strange and it was full of sex. Not graphic, just the heavy tint of sex, and its consequences. (Renee Zellweger as Miss French; the trollop @ unsatiated bitch @ respected hooker. Ed Harris as Virgil Cole, the peacemaker who fell in love with the aforementioned trollop). I think Viggo Mortensen potrayal as Everett Hitch was very cool. We should have more cowboy films like this, but hold the sex please. If I want sex, I'd better watch porn. (Anyway, if I had an unfaithful lover like Miss French, I'd blew her brains out the first chance I get, which never happen in the movie).

Oh and I watched G.I. Joe two days ago. It was fun, but very chaotic. The plot did not matter much when you only wanna see the action. Oh and as you might have guessed, I rooted for C.O.B.R.A. when I was very young too.

Transformers 2 - To Buy Or Not To Buy, That Is The Damn Question...

Although the second Transformers movie pissed me off royally because the Decepticons lost (yet again) I was seriously thinking of buying one or two toys just to commemorate the event. 

Went to the malls and damn it! most of the good ones are already gone. I will never soil my hands by touching the Autobots merchandise, because deep down inside YOU know I never have any truck with good guys. Only two Decepticons on sale; Devastator (the huge construction robot murdered by Prime in the beginning of the film) and Demolisher, another construction-bot. But I didn't buy them yet, have to consult a few guys...

So I talked to Megatron (Big Boss, movie version), Megatron 2 (pistol), Starscream (lieutenant), Brawl (stupid tank), Bonecrusher (farming vehicles, ha ha) and Blackout (helicopter) about this dilemma. After cursing the Autobots for the millionth time, we decided to get only one new Decepticon. Mainly because my robots are complaining about the very limited shelf space, and the arrogance of the Gundams not wanting to share their more spacious place on the dresser. [The Gundams robots are much bigger, and greater bullies].

Oh for the sake of evil....

What My Pets Told Me

Boss is KING!! - Kaos

Artemis II Kikuraides @ 'Kiki' the female domestic long hair calico cat.

Life is boring and you are not interesting enough for me to come whenever you call. Even though sometimes I come and paw you, it does not mean I totally dig you - I am just plain bored. You only function to feed me and change my litter. You are beneath me and nothing you can do amuses me. Because I am CAT and you shalt obey.

Kaos the sable male ferret (neutered).

Boss is great and me worship Boss! Boss is always interesting and me like to lick Boss! Boss give yummy food and me love walkies! Boss tickle me and me bite Boss! Me cage is bigger than Kiki! Boss clean me poop and pee! Me and Boss hate Kiki! Boss is GREAT!

Rosy the Chilean Rose female tarantula.

.... when are you going to feed me you sadistic mammal?

And the many many tropical fish in the aquarium.

Swim. Swim. Bump (against the glass). Swim. Bump. Bump. Swim. Eat. Eat. Poop.

Viewtiful Virtual Vacation and Mashing Monsters

I stayed at home for four days doing nothing much because I am simply a homebody who waited for interesting things to make me go outside (movies, an urge to eat junk food, loitering around etc). 

I am playing this new video game; Sacred 2 - about a fantasy realm called Ancaria ya da ya da ya da.... no need to bore you guys about the plot. All I wanted to say was the game was so BLOODY beautiful, very much like taking a stroll in a fantasy world filled with fantastic creatures. And of course you can bash those creatures if they come interrupting your walk around the huge land.

I met people, who had limited answers like "Hi!""Good to see you.""You are pretty." etc and the architecture of the towns were believable and so 'olde-worlde'. The forests were alive with animals and the small little details like bursting dandelions and the sound of a merry brook makes me go gaga over the realism.

Yes, I wish to spend my holidays inside a 32-inch flat screen tv. 

Thank goodness for PS3. :)

p.s. - for the record, my character is a Seraphim (good female angel) which is SO NOT me. I prefer to use male characters and do the EVIL campaign first. But seraphims can ride saber tooth tigers. The cool factor there was undisputed.

Erm.... this entry reminds me of the upcoming movie 'Surrogate' starring Bruce Willis. It's about people in virtual reality gadgets, and controlling robots as their own surrogates. Cool. 

Of e-Books and Real Books

Many blogs that I am following now mentioned about books and of course about what to do with them - read. Books come in many types, size and volumes. I love books and most of the books I had during my secondary school were stolen from friends and the library. Ok, I am someone who admits his wrong-doings because it is the manly thing to do. What's wrong to acquire the books nobody read? (or in my friends case, they finished reading and then just put them under their desk).

I read and hear about e-books and free digital books online with envy. I love good books, but I love FREE books better. I have three bookcases full of books (stolen and honestly acquired) at home and there is no more space for new books.

But seriously, a good book is like your best friend. It keeps you company and amuses you.

Erm... I was looking for this particular book; Ferrets For Dummies - which is said to be the best and most popular ferret book in the market. I REALLY want this book.  

But OF COURSE this book cannot be found anywhere in ol Malacca town, heck, even Borders and the great Kinokuniya of KL! I was angry, I was lost, I almost gave up.

And then I remembered my favourite past time a long time ago before I terminated my internet-line service. Downloading video torrents... yes, stealing from the net and then sharing them with the world - ONLINE PIRACY. Well, last night I try searching for this ferret book torrent and voila! There are many of them online, free for the taking - the full version.

It took me less than 5 minutes to download, and I was happily reading the 400 odd pages (using Acrobat) moments later. Why oh why I didn't do this earlier? Silly me.

But I still prefer real books than e-books. You can touch the pages, riffle through it, thumb the pages, smell the paper and even throw it away if it contains crap. It's too much a hassle to scroll the digital pages and change the size view for a comfortable read.

Ok, I pledge never to use the power of internet piracy to download books I don't really want. (You believe me?)

Which do you prefer? Digital or paper?