History of Hair

Rock Chef of the Rock Chef's Warren blogged about his hair a couple of hours ago and I decided to blog about mine too. Not the one now, but the one I coloured a long while ago.

Look at the character on the left... This is Iori Yagami of the King of Fighter, an arcade game franchise very popular in the late 90s. He happened to be my muse when I was in secondary school, 16 year old me, who was already seeped in irony, fights and evil. Much like his hero. <--

So during the midyear holidays that year, 1997 I coloured my hair with Clairol's 'Burgundy' hair colour. I did it myself and was rather lacking on the 'never let the dye touch the scalp' direction. I paid for ignoring that direction... but that comes later.

My hair was flaming red in the sun! Back then, in a society of 100% black hair, I stood out like a lighthouse! People pointed and children stared. It was not a natural colour for anyone.

My dad, who was always the silent one, one day remarked that he was now FAMOUS, having a son with bright red hair. Everybody in our small town knew about me he said. My mom, believing it was only teen-angst, left me be.

I returned back to boarding school in anticipation... My school mates were shocked, but never dared to comment (I was brutal back than to criticism). I was only worried about the reaction of the teachers.... as I thought the sun and moon of them, i.e. very highly. If they reacted badly, I would be so downcasted.

The first school assembly with red haired me, I admitted that I was so afraid they would call me up to the front and have a row. But NOTHING towards that happened. The teachers were aware of me (the gossiping escalated a notch at their seats), as I stood right in the front of my class row. The Principal and Vice Principal noticed too.  I had my heart drumming like crazy, but NOTHING happened...


On the third day of school, at last I dared to ask my History teacher (who was quite chummy with us) about the why. He said, yes, the teachers saw me and right after that assembly they went searching inside the school's rule book about hair dyes... and they found there was NO RULE against it. No rule, so I was legally safe. (Synthetic hair dyes were quite new to Malaysia back then). So there will be one in the NEXT YEAR'S rule book.


Sometimes I didn't believe those days happened, but they did. The only boy in school with red hair. Unfortunately I didn't have pictures, (no camera rule) :P But I did look good back then.

Now to the part when I ignored the direction... As I coloured my hair myself, it was a messy and sticky job and I might have used too much colouring too. And my scalp was totally seeped with it... My red hair lasted for almost TWO YEARS because of that one time of colouring. Fortunately I didn't get bald or I'll kill myself for my own stupidity. The reddish tint disappeared by the second year gradually.

Talking about long lasting hair colour...


So that's all folks. Now we can see people with colourful hair walking the streets with no one batting an eyelid. The world has changed.


What colour is your hair today? :)

F**k with a CAPITAL 'F'

I am so sorry for being so obscene... usually I am a mellow kind of guy, not really excited about many things. But, but... aiyah, so bloody irritated just now.

My Playstation 3, yes, the ray of light in my dreary life had a problem. It wouldn't read discs anymore. I was calm and didn't panic at first and tried over and over again inserting some game discs into the machine. Time passed and I was getting angry, not at the console, but with myself, thinking of some unseen purpose of this problem.

And like all good computers, the PS3 have that terminal option, 'Restore to default' setting. As I clicked on the buttons, I knew I'm sending all my previous victories in battles to oblivion. The hundred hours of gameplay evaporated. The many many game trophies deleted. The promises of meeting old friends (game characters) is now nil. My gaming life is now a clean slate. Yes, this is a MAJOR f**k up in my life, even eclipsing my divorce two days ago.

At least my PS3 was always there for me and made me happy. *sniff*

And you know what? It did the trick. Now my play console can accept the dvds, although much slower on the auto-play. I will consult my game dealer (the girl who sold me the most PS3 games ever) about the problem, and my beloved might be set on the operating table. *sniff*

Oh well, I'll be off to buy the 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince' tickets tomorrow for the Saturday evening show. I've read the book and I think the series are awesome.

Of Education and Beer...

I am in the library right now, watching some 30 odd students 'reading' books in front of me. 'Reading' is a strong word, to be precise, most of them are just browsing through the books, with the pages meaningless in their own faces, mainly talking and joking among themselves.

If these children are the future of the country... our future is really bleak indeed. Who are we going to blame next? (If you dare to say blame the teachers, I'd break your neck if you are near me).

Students (brilliant and stupid alike) are really good actors. When at home, they are every parent's dream-child, obeying every whim and holding on every word. 

"Nothing is wrong with my child, he's a real angel." Words so commonly heard by teachers, especially from parents of troubled students in school.

It's human nature. We do change our behavior out of the monitoring eyes of beloved parents. So teachers witnessed the true colours of all children under them; because we are actually considered as 'outsiders'. And when back at home, they don back their angelic masks and pretend everything is right as rain.

Oh I can rant on and on about this... but most of you might say, what the hell? They are only children. Then wait for your own children to materialize, and then join the blind and mute. Don't believe what your children's teachers said. They just love saying bad things about your angelic son and daughter because they got nothing better to do.

Anyway, I met a younger friend of mine in town and we went for supper last night. He expressed that he was in trouble because he got no job and to make matter worse, his bad qualifications hindered his opportunity. I told him;

"Now you regretted your fun-filled schooling days right? I bet you feel bad about skipping class. I know you wish to turn back time.... ya da ya da yada. But really, it is too late for all that."

Most people will never learn until bad things happen.

And he bought a can of beer at a convenience store (I had soy milk, ok!). I was really surprised but never made myself heard (because I believe in freedom of choice). So young, chain-smoking and now a drunk. I did many bad things in life, but I never take alcohol - because I am a classy kind of bad person.

I like to watch people shrivel and die in front of me. Especially if they do it onto themselves. Advice can be dispensed upon asking. It's a free country after all.

    

Wish You Were Here

I was really depressed (see earlier entry), but someone who is close to me seems to have a bigger problem. This is Herry Morris, who is now 18 years old and a former student of mine back in Sarawak. He was also my only confidante and closest person I would call family then. We have a history WAY back for years since 2003, when I first walk upon the island of Borneo.

I don't make friends easily, as many who knew me realized. And if I ever bonded with someone, it would last for life. Unfortunately, during my teaching years in Kapit, Sarawak; I was not able to acquire many friends among fellow teachers. The students, weirdly, were more fascinated with me, no matter how brutally cruel I could be in class. So, I was closer to the students than most teachers could. And they told me things, everything that could catch my attention. From these discussions, I could sieve out the really different characters out of the common muck. One of these characters was Herry. He's a nice person, quiet and shy. Also quite intelligent and those genes were also passed down to his younger brother and sister (also my students). 

Oh and he was also one of the most polite (I hate rude people). I usually have a few students with me at anytime of the day after school because I was a chick-magnet (ha ha ha). People began to complain (because it was such a small place, the boarding school where people can only escape using boats) for no apparent reason about this Malay teacher who got a horde of Iban students doing his biddings. JEALOUSY. Mud beneath my feet. This unsatisfied grumbling quickly ended when I escelated to the post of school warden (by single-handedly erasing the troubles in school in 6 months). Oh, and I publicly threated to rip the throats off anyone who had the gall to talk behind me. 

But this entry is not about me. Like I said, my history in Sarawak was colourful and sometimes painful. Herry and a few stood by me, their favourite Science teacher, against a world of prejudice and backstabbers. I was different, thus alienated even by my own colleagues. And I would never forget such loyalty, one that even a king should be envious of. In a place of such boredom, bad-vibes and loneliness; I have a few friends who made me happy.

So I called Herry today, and he told me he is lonely and confused because his dorm-mates do not wish to be his friends. It saddens me, as I could not be there to console him, one of the person who made my life tolerable in hell. I told him what I told myself when I was his age; they think you are different, and much better than they were, so they hated you. You are a nice person, intelligent and polite; you don't have to keep such people as friends. Keep the ones who likes you the way you are. Study hard and one day you will fly further than the rest.

Oh, I got so sentimental like. Yes, evil people do have hearts too.