School Is Back / Beware of Friends

School will open next Monday and I am somewhat happy because I got what I wanted; The Prefect teacher, a new class full of more intelligent students (they used to give me the lesser classes because I am a man, ergo, I can control the rowdier sort of children. Sexist!) and a promising batch of older students for Physics (last year's was a total disappointment).

And last year performance as a fear-causing entity in every essembly made the job 'Assembly Coordinator' officially mine this new year. Meaning, I can yell and reprimand students / teachers legally now (insert evil laugh here). Yes, I am the Sue Sylvester of my school.

Anyway, I am telling you guys to be careful with your friends, no matter how chummy you guys are. My younger brother had a new handphone last week, after he saw mine, and was showing it off to the entire house. The phone was really nice, way more expensive than mine and the latest in communication technology. And it was stolen from him three days after he purchased it.

One friend stole the gadget while he was meeting a bunch of his buddies at a petrol station nearby. He realized the theft later, but cannot do anything much because OF COURSE nobody admitted stealing the phone. He was in a very black mood these few days before departing to the university.

Too bad then. That was a VERY NICE handphone. :P

Anyway, here's wishing you guys a Happy New Year!

p.s. - I am sorry if my presence isn't felt in your blogs lately, but it is not entirely my fault. The broadband service I am using is rather performing poorly these few weeks. I want to change to a new service this January. Remember me, will you? :angel

Ghost In The Shell

Hello people..... sorry for the VERY long absence. I have a heavy paperload to finish, as the school will be opened in a couple of weeks time. I use the computer everyday, yet I have no idea what to write and my broadband service was playing merry hell with the connection.


Anyway, I want to tell you guys that I just bought a new phone, a Nokia-C3, yes, the Blackberry for poor people :P I didn't want to waste my money on a new phone.... really. But my LG KP-500 Cookie (LG keeps naming their handphones as foodstuff; Cookie, Ice-Cream, Chocolate....) failed on me last week. The touchscreen wouldn't work properly, it was so frustrating. I kept turning it on and off, taking out the battery and memory card, and even threw it to the wall a couple of times in anger.


But the eerie thing happened when I began to use my new handphone, the Nokia. Cookie was suddenly good for use, behaved as any obedient electronic gadget. It galled me greatly, as now I have two mobile phones AND I wasted money to buy the extra one I thought I needed.


That Cookie must've done this when I was thinking of getting myself an IPhone.... Dastardly done.


And my Pilips home theatre system was acting funny too. If I ever play a REALLY high-definition DVD, it would act up and stuttered right at 1:09:00 (one hour and nine minutes) of the movie. This would never happen to a regular DVD.....


That Pilips must've done this on purpose after hearing me boasting to some friends about my high-definition DVD  collection. Evil cd-player you!


.... I do believe that some inanimate things have a bit of a soul (thus 'Ghost In The Shell') If you said / think bad things to a machine, it might retaliate in some ways that severely damage your wallet. I was hating my car last year and it almost blew-up.


Oh.... and I lost THREE watches last month when I neglected to wear them. The watchman @ clocksmith said that he was unable to save them.... See what I mean.


So be good to the stuff you have. They want your care and attention too.


And below is a picture of a herd of goats I hate the most.....

These animals belong to my younger brother (the guy in red) and in this scene, these smelly creatures had escaped from their pen, and poured out into the street. My brother and mom keep these goats behind our late grandmother's house, some 10 km away from our home. So they have to shuttle twice a day back and forth to feed them.

As this is not my project, I have no interest to care for them. These goats are huge and smelly. For me, a good goat is already dead and stays on the plate :)

Gosh! It's the 10th of December already?!!

It has been a week already - seven days of utter laziness and unproductivity. I woke up very late in the morning, spend the few hours awake playing computer games, visited my mother until 3.00 pm and returning back to my friend's rent house to wait for his return from his part time job at a waterworld resort.


Yes, I am staying with a friend until the 20th December for now. His house and my mom's are not that far, scant 4 km apart. I stayed with him because his housemates can only return after the 20th, and he doesn't like to stay alone, especially at night.


Anywho, we got to cook our own meals - mainly because I am against eating out frequently, and got to talk to each other untill bored stiff and surprisingly, sleep early every night.


We watched Narnia; The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (3D) earlier this week and although I found it was decent, I was simply a bit annoyed because the film makers had strayed much from the original plot.


I've read all the Narnian books; from 'The Magician's Nephew' telling how Narnia was born till 'The Last Battle' where EVERYBODY died and go somewhere 'pleasant'.


So when somebody said "Eh, what happen? Is that the end of the story?" at the end of the film, there goes another ignorant who never bother to seek / read the books.


I look down on ye people from my high pedestal of fantasy; those thrill seekers who never bothered to read the entire Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Narnia etc series - and yet dared to comment that the films were mediocre at best. If you don't read the books, don't you ever dare telling people how much you understand the flawed story you watched on the silverscreen.


Sorry. I was simply vexed by the prejudiced reviews regarding a few of the best fantasy books I ever read by some ignorant movie-goers who never set foot in a bookstore (I blame FaceBook for spreading this).


On a happier tone; happy Friday! :D

Happy 32nd Birthay To Me - Yay!

It's my birthday today and I spent the whole day sleeping and playing Age of Mythology - The Titans.

I've got nothing special planned, unlike the party I held last year.

No birthday cakes, no presents. Most birthday wishes I got were from Facebook, and all were replied promptly.

I got older, and I cannot say I am thrilled.

But I am thankful for my health and the few people who really care whatever I do in life.

I might want to go out this evening to get that potpourri for my car - as my own birthday present.

Oh ok, some of you might not buy all this lonely-oh-poor-me thing... because you ARE correct! The birthday party IS actually on the 16th December! I was born on the 3rd and my new significant other the 31st December. So we decided to celebrate at the middle of the month. :D

A Good Cook Is Not An Evil Person (have you heard of this?)

My friend was in the kitchen, and yours truly was busy defeating Indian and Chinese oppressors in Age of Empires III - the computer game (Japanese Samurai Rules!) in the hall, adjacent to the kitchen.


I was back-seat cooking (is there is such term?) as usual - giving orders from afar.


"Make sure you blend the fresh turmeric too."
"But I think the powdered turmeric would be just enough," he said.
"Do as I say, it will taste better - powdered and fresh."
.......
"Put some tamarind inside the pot. Not so much though."
"But I never use tamarind in this dish. I am not using bird's eye chillies, just regular chillies, ok?"
"Just put that sour stuff in the pot, it will taste better, believe me. And good call with the chillies."
"I am putting the coconut milk inside the pot now..."
"Finish the entire carton, we will buy more soon. Don't forget a bit of salt."
.......
"How long do you say we need to boil these crabs?"
"Eight to ten minutes. They are rather small after all." (three sea crabs, almost a kilogram)
"Oh ok. Hey look, they are turning red!"
"I thought you cooked crabs before?"
"Long time ago, and I was assisting my sister."
.......
"Ok it's all ready. Come and let's eat. I have rice ready."
"Ok, wait up." (me reluctantly leaving the massacre of the traitorous East India Company. Paused the game.)
"So what do you think?"
"Hey, you forgot to cut the crabs in halves before putting them in the pot!"
"You never told me that."
"Oh ok, ok. No biggie." I took a bite from the crab innards after some difficulties taking off the top carapace.
.........
"It tastes good, yes?"
"You are pulling my legs. I think I fail to cook it properly."
"Yes it does, try it yourself. You are not a bad cook."
"Thank you." :D
"With your cooking skills and my dominating presence, we can open up a restaurant after I retire."
..........
Yes, that's what we did this long school holiday. Experimental cooking. 

It Happened In The Toilet...

I went to Tesco this evening to get my regular supply of red meat and other interesting stuff I might fancy. But before I took the escelator to the market floor, I went to the washroom next to the food court to wash my face, freshen up or whatever. Who knows? I might still have the lipstick I used to accommodate the gown I wore for last night's drag party. Kidding :D

As I swung the door and entered, I saw a cleaning boy (boy, not man, as he was too young to stamp 'maturity' on) moping the washroom floor. The boy suddenly stiffened, rigid, with his mop clutched closely to his chest, his eyes nailed to the wall, looking at nothing.

Oh-kay..... I told myself. Must be the evil persona oozing from me that made innocents gripped with fear. I ignored the boy and entered a stall to continue my business. I heard the boy continuing his cleaning as I was in the toilet.

I emerged from the toilet a few minutes later, and as I wash my hands and face at the sink, I noticed the same cleaning boy hiding behind an empty stall door. He knew I saw him, but made it a point to hide his face. The washroom was still empty except the both of us.

Do I know this guy? Did I ever do anything to harm him? Killed his cat or goldfish perhaps?

As I shopped for my stuff, I kept wondering why he acted thus. And suddenly it dawned on me as I walked past the food court on my way back to the car.

He was ashamed of his job. Very much ashamed I think, that he didn't want people to look. I watched some foreigners; Bangladeshis and Vietnamese cleaning up the plates and utensils from the tables and of course, no locals doing the same job. Young local boys and girls think that such mundane jobs as 'low class' and they would die in embarrassment if caught working there by friends.

Waiters, cleaners, labourers, factory operators.... the least popular jobs among the young locals. And to fill in the jobs, foreign workers were called in and now these people are EVERYWHERE. From your local grocery stores to the frontdesks of six-stars hotels (yes, Malaysia DO have a couple of them). They are cheap and are willing to work for longer hours.

....I don't feel pity about the boy in the toilet at all. The future is not written in stone. Some wise men said that education is a way to prevent poverty and I believe in that. And if you are not that bright, be a good and willing worker, one day you will be paid in kind. Hardworking and politeness are hard currency (in my case). 

Why work in such places in the first place anyway, boy?    

How can you get ****ed THRICE in an afternoon?

The boys were very different, though both wore spectacles and of the same age, 15. The smarter dressed boy had curly short hair, thin and wore braces. His friend, with wild hair, had took off his uniform and wore t-shirts instead, a few minutes before they arrived at the city. They took a bus from a boarding school near the capital.

The capital city was big, crowded and hot. The curly haired boy asked his friend to take him to a arcade game centre.
"But I thought you don't like arcade games," his friend said as he bought a couple of comics from a newstand.
"I just wanna see the place, never been there all my life. Please?"
"Oh ok, normally I don't play around this place, but I will take you to one. The games here are lame and old."

So the boy took his friend to a 4 storeys commercial building near crowded the bus stop. He was a very brave person, known to walk almost everywhere in the city alone, sometimes late at night. His other friend felt safe around him, and they were close.

The arcade centre was at the top story of the old, yet still busy building. The place was rather dark, and the machines were indeed not very new, as the wild haired boy had said. It was rather deserted, because most youngters prefer to play the new machines at the new mall further. The boy with the braces said he wanted to try some games.
"Play on. I will stand next to you."

After a couple of unmemorable video games, both decided to leave and visit a bookstores across the building. As they walked to the elevator, side by side, two huge boys came between them from behind. It was very sudden, and of course frightening for the children.

The boy with the braces eyes widen with fear, and he bolted away like a rabbit! His friend was not that fortunate, as the bullies took hold of his arms and led him away, to a much darker part of the floor - the abandoned food court, next to the arcade.

There, he faced a group of a dozen boys, all larger and much older than him. Some seemed to have never been to a school in fact. The leader of a gang, a dark boy with pimply face, was sitting in the middle, eating a plate of noodles with a fork. He looked up as his minions pushed their victim to the front.
"We got this one Boss, the other kid escaped."

The 15 year old eyed his captors; he was not afraid, only greatly annoyed and vexed. His face reddened and his eyes became slits behind the lens. One might say he might attack the entire group, from that murderous look in his face.

But that was lost to the leader of the bullies and most of his gang, as the place was too dim to make up anything. As he forked food into his mouth, he asked;
"Do you have 20 cents?"
"Yes," the boy answered.
"Do you have 2 ringgits?"
"Yes," he answered again. 
"Do you have 20 ringgits?"
"Yes."
"Now give it to me," the bully smiled behind the filthy table he was sitting.

"No."

The head bully had his smile wiped from his face, his minions making unwelcomed noises and threats. Surely that was a first for them.

The boy turned and walked past the two sentries behind him. One bully tried to pull his arms, but failed and ripped the plastic bag the boy was carrying. As the boy bent down to collect his fallen comics, he hissed;
"Touch me again and I will kill you."
And then he walked to the emergency stairs... he was half expecting a chase but it never happened.

As he descended, angry at himself for being caught, he met three disheveled men sitting on the stairs on the third floor. One stood up to bar his way and put out his hand;
"Give me your money!"

The boy, who was already angry, lashed out loudly instead;
"Get the F*** out of my way!" and stormed past the surprised men.

The boy finally reached the ground floor and he way was barred ONCE again by another man, this time a creepy drug addict, who made his abode under the stairs. As he rose unsteadily to his feet before the door, asking for money....
The boy kicked his feet under him, with the expensive black leather shoes all boarding school boys should have. To add injury to more injury, the hellish boy stamped on the junkie's chest twice before screaming and leaving the scene of crime via the door.  

The afternoon was still bright, and the boy's fury was abated somewhat after his assault. He hadn't the mood to continue shopping, so decided to go back early. As he continue the short walk, he saw his cowardly friend waiting anxiously at the bus stop.

"Why YOU........."

p.s. - this happens to be a true story, about me. Rock Chef's entry reminded me of this incident, eventhough his is a happier and more delicious one :P After the three (failed) muggings, I had a boot knife and wore high cut basketball shoes during outings.... I don't carry knives anymore, but the shoes turns to boots for easy kicking :v

The building. Believe it or not, I went back to the place a few weeks after that.

I couldn't find the bullies, well good for them.