あ！

Do you know who he is?

2011-11-21T06:04:00.003+08:00

Studying for exams with friends in uni common room.

Guy walks past the room.

Me: Guys, guys, check out that guy walking past!
Them: Uh huh?
Me: Do you know who he looks like?!?!
Them: No.
Me: Yeah, neither do I.

Glen Innes International Carnival

2011-10-24T18:19:00.002+08:00

Glen Innes is a town here, let's call it GI for short.

There was an International Carnival type thing over there on Oct 15th. I joined the Cosplay Club there. The cosplayers were part of the parade. The carnival wasn't all too interesting but hanging out with the club members is always fun.

After the parade, we went for lunch at McD's and pretty much waited there till 2pm. Then we went outside and just sat around till 3pm because some members were gonna do a performance for the carnival. I fell asleep for a wee bit while sitting on the grass. whaaat?

Anyway, after the performance, we hopped on the train back to Auckland and went into a mall.

Here's the thing - our president had two model swords for fun (one is Lightning's sword from FF13 and another is just some chinese sword). Another guy (Dante from DMC) had a sword as well for his cosplay (Rebellion).

So we sat at the mall for a bit and the security guard came up and started talking to us about how we're not supposed to bring weapons in the building.

I thought he was being a dick lol. (they're technically not weapons!)

But turns out, if you think about it, if you're a drunk guy, anything is a weapon. And guess what? It was the night for Wales vs France in the Rugby World Cup. People are probably in the progress of being drunk!

So the president, Dante and I went out to wait for the rest to finish relaxing.

Then the police came...

Possibly to be continued. So much laziness in me I'm only doing this to avoid studying for exams lol.

International Suit Up Day

2011-10-16T17:26:00.002+08:00

I went to the Glen Innes International Carnival yesterday. But that's not what I'm gonna talk about in this blog post. This paragraph is just to remind myself that I should post about the carnival next. If you want, I'm tagged on some photos on FB so you can go find it from my profile.

Anyway, I hope some of you know about Oct 13 being International Suit Up day. Basically, it's a day where you wear suits. http://internationalsuitupday.com/

My friends and I talked about it a week beforehand. So that would be at least three of us suited up that day.

I reminded one of them to wear something formal the night before, and he said okay.

I ended up being the only guy wearing a suit. Until second friend came with a suit! YES!!

And it seems we're not the only people who wore suits. A bunch of others wore em too and it felt great to not be the only guy doing it. I'M NOT AWKWARD ANYMORE GUYS! (not really)

But yeah, suit up day. The friend who didn't wear a suit over wants to wear a suit next year now. I hope this event will grow bigger next year!

I had sushi for lunch that day. But yeah, this post is a reminder for me to do another post.

Cosplay clubbbb!!!

2011-08-29T07:03:00.002+08:00

There was a Uni Course and Careers day a couple of days ago. (I guess it's more commonly identified as an Open Day to everywhere else)

The Cosplay Club was gonna be there to do a few performances so I thought I'd go check it out.

Turns out, they had a stall there to promote the club too! So I stood there looking awkward.

Note : I had no costumes.

A bunch of people came and left and some people looked interested but COSPLAYERS, WHY U NO TALK TO THEM?!

Club leader was best at promoting the club. He's pretty darn social and outgoing! But he's busy promoting the club elsewhere in the uni.

So even though I didn't have a costume on, I told them about the club and stuff.

Eventually, I was the guy who stood behind the counter telling everyone who is curious about the club.

And then I had to look after the stall during the performances. =(((((((

So yeah I didn't get to do what I wanted to do but it was still fun that day! Thankfully the videos were uploaded to youtube and facebook!

Cheesecake

2011-08-03T15:16:00.004+08:00

You should all know full well that I used to sleep a lot in class back in CHMS.

That habit carried over to PTEM.

But didn't carry over to uni... until now.

Should I blame 8am classes? Probably. But I take naps during breaks between classes and still end up dozing off. This is bad because it's hard to catch up to uni stuff!

And it's getting worse.

I slept in a Math class yesterday. Who knows how long, maybe 15-20 minutes? While I was sleeping, I had the urge to wake up and shout CHEESECAKE.

Why?

I wasn't craving for cheesecake. I just wanted to yell it out...

because it made sense.

Cheesecake.

It just did.

During that one moment, cheesecake was the answer to everything.

It all made sense.

But I didn't yell it out. It felt like the universe was disappointed at me. It felt like I could have advanced humanity a step further just by yelling it. But I didn't. I'm disappointed at myself.

Cheesecake...

Overload 2011

2011-07-29T18:01:00.002+08:00

Ahhh!! I haven't been to an anime convention in a while!

So I went to one last week. i.e. First weekend of Semester 2. Poor timing? Perhaps.

What's worse? Armageddon, another anime (and comics) convention is around exam time ~end of Oct. =(

Anyway, I had great fun, kind of. I was being pretty anti social though, which made it hard for me to ask for photos of people. Bought a bunch of posters and buttons. Also, there were about 2 yaoi booths. Aasfasfh;awue but I guess that's a thing here. Cosplays yay cosplays! This post isn't very well structured but oh man anime conventions I miss those.

Photos:
http://jankn.imgur.com/overload_2011
http://jankn.imgur.com/overload_2011_figures

Couple of previews:

Aaaahhhh!! Can't wait for Armageddon!!

Burglary

2011-07-21T19:05:00.002+08:00

Came home today around 4:40 and saw a car in front of the garage. It was running and the doors were open. Thought someone came visit brother in law or something so didn't really panic.

Two guys saw me, ran in the car and high tailed out of there. Realised it was a robbery so, thankfully, I remembered to look at the license plate.

First thing I did was check brother in law's room - his was separate from us and turned out to be the one they accessed. Door was wide open. So was car door. Closed both and went back up to make calls.

Brother in law wasn't answering; sent a text instead. Called sister, she's at work, told me to call police and file a report. So I did that.

After explaining the details to them, I made some toast. Brother in law got back and went to check his room etcetc.

All in all, I guess things were settled - they had insurance which they plan to claim, the police has details on the robbery (and license plates), and they didn't access our main building unit so my laptop's safe. (just installed an antitheft program for added measure lol)

Then my sister came home...

Did I mention she was the reason I didn't want to come to NZ? She is bipolar and gets really nasty when she's stressed - the way she copes with it is just unhealthy.

After a while of looking around, talking to her husband, stuff people do when their shit's been stolen, she brought a DIY kit and told me to make a bookshelf. At 6:30pm. A fucking bookshelf at 6:30pm. I did it in my room and it was small and hard to maneuver. The rest of the house wasn't exactly ideal for DIY work either. If possible, I'd prefer to do this in the daytime outside so I get more space. So I went out to ask her "Why am I doing this?". I didn't phrase it out all too nicely due to discomfort at the situation. Again, let me remind you that she was stressed so she lashed out at me. "Why do you always have to ask things when I tell you to do something?!" (Firstly, I only asked twice. Secondly, I need to know the goal so I can place a priority to it. I should tell her this one day but not today.)

Anyway, finished up the bookshelf and went to play some Team Fortress 2. Bipolar sister called Doting sister on the phone and after some talking, Bipolar sister handed the phone to me and Doting sister started interrogating me on what I remember. Gave me a reality check - I wasn't all too phased from what happened but she fixed that a bit. Reminded me to be more alert as this wasn't Brunei anymore.

I guess that's about pretty much what happened.

In retrospect, thank goodness the robbers decided to run instead of rape me or something. I don't wanna get raped. Damn. Rape's not good, guys. Or attack me. Yeah, that's bad too.

Details on exams

2011-06-27T13:22:00.002+08:00

Exams have been over for a while now.

First exam - June 20th
Scheduled time - 9:15

I woke up at 6:15 and figured it was still early. Alarm was set for 7am so I had about 45 mins left. Went back to sleep.

The next time I opened my eyes it was 8:50.

Swears flew all over the place. Skipped breakfast. Skipped toilet. Put on clothes, brought my stuff and dashed to the bus stop. 5 minutes later, I was on the bus and in the hands of fate.

I figured I couldn't do much to change what happened, so I just took the time to relax and prepare my mind for the exam rather than panic.

Got to exam location at 9:29. Used the toilet first because I KNOW I can't do it properly when I feel like peeing. So I got in at 9:30. Luckily, the exam only started then.

See, I found out students go in at 9:15. Have 5 mins to put bags down and etc. 10 minutes to read through the questions THEN only are you allowed to write the paper. So I was safe and had 10 minutes of free time at the end.

The trauma came later.

------------------------------------------------------

Two days after,
June 22nd - My last 3 papers. (All in one day. I'm a sadistic bastard.)

Woke up at 5am. Went back to sleep.
Woke up at 5:30 am. Went back to sleep.
Woke up at 6am. Went back to sleep.
Woke up at 6:30am. Went back to sleep.
Woke up at 7am. Got up and got ready.

Obviously my body didn't wanna be late this time.

Took all remaining three exams and did what I could. For better or worse. They were okay, not difficult and I sure as heck won't say they were easy (I'm not that crazy).

And so the holidays began!

What more can I say?

2011-06-20T12:08:00.002+08:00

I had an exam today scheduled for 9:15am.

I woke up at 8:50am.

That is all. Have a nice day.

Catching up

2011-05-09T18:44:00.003+08:00

Today, as I was walking from uni to the bus stop, I walked up to behind my coursemate talking to his lady friend.

When I noticed, I was like "Woah, that's a coincidence."

Then I started wondering what I should do.

Guess what I did?

Yup, exactly. I did nothing. I just kept walking behind them avoiding talking to them. I also slowed my pace down to avoid walking past them. Because, you know, if I do walk past them and he notices, I can't do something like go "Oh hey, what a coincidence, hello!"

No, no, no, no. I'll totally start talking about how I've been walking behind them for the past five minutes because I thought it would be awkward to strike a conversation just like snap so instead, I've decided to act like a creepy ass stalker.

And if I just walk past them and act like I'm in a hurry and pretend not to notice, I'd probably look rude.

May 9th 2011 : Ian still thinks too much. Continues to be socially awkward.

I did stuff and stuff

2011-05-08T16:49:00.003+08:00

I watched Sucker Punch.

Yes, I watched it for the ladies in uniform. Movie was only okay. Was kinda meh at first but I warmed up to it, I guess, so personally, I liked it. Soundtrack is pretty good. Also, Zack Snyder, the director of this movie, should totally make a Samurai Jack film. If he gets a decent cast, I think it'll turn out pretty good!

-------------------

I cooked more stuff.

Still alive.

-------------------

I had a dilemma.

Kinda felt like going back home to resume studies because I was afraid my sisters wouldn't be able to support me for all three years. (Shut up, I don't eat that much - it's not the food problem, kay?) I quite like this uni but I don't want to owe banks money that will take 10 years to pay off just to study here! Talked to some of my family members and ultimately decided to remain here. Though I still have 6 months to consider.

Also, I hear Brunei's universities are getting packed! Hope they expand them (or build more!) =D Also heard there's a new 6th Form Centre in Sengkurong. -raises glass- Nice to see Brunei's moving forward, I guess.

-------------------

I suffered a little over one week of dialup internet.

Because in the first two days of last month, my brother in law used up 13GB out of 40GB of our allotted bandwidth. TWO DAYS. I can do that too but holy shit be responsible about using the internet, man.

-------------------

Internet's back now, though.

He already used up about 6GB on the first day. Thank god he's gone for 3 weeks with my sister (who I'm also kinda thankful is gone because she's near her peak stress level already and she's nasty when she's stressed.)

-------------------

Greeted Happy Mother's Day to my mom today.

First time I've ever done that. I'm horrible, I know. Could never bring myself to say it in front of her even though I love her very much. So instead I called home and told her over the phone.

-------------------

What I cooked:

Mee goreng. Indomie type. I mixed the seasoning before cooking the noodles. While cooking the noodles, the oil in the seasoning hardened up. Was kinda creepy - in a "wow I'm gonna get a heart attack from this" way. (Funny how McD's and other fast food joints don't make me think that, huh?)

Cannelloni. Sauce was good. Meat filling was not. Gotta work on the filling. Trying to recreate the sauce from Frattini's chicken cannelloni, it was good stuff!

More pasta. Just bought some pre-made raviolis and sauce. Boil pasta > heat sauce > food! Guess it's not really cooking.

-------------------

6 months before I return to Brunei.

When I go back, I'm gonna spend once every few days in the kitchen to learn more recipes. And stock up on more anime and movies before I come back here!

Maybe I should try working as a sub teacher in CHMS on Jan. Heh!

Shady

2011-04-14T17:35:00.002+08:00

Several weeks ago, I saw a flier in uni advertising a Computer Game Club.

The only thing on that flier was the club name and a phone number.

I was kinda curious and decided to play around - what kind of club only advertises a phone number? No meeting dates? No events?

I texted : "Wat?"

Didn't expect a reply but turns out I got one and he asked if I was texting about the club. Had a couple more texts and turns out there were LAN parties and stuff. Guess I could drop by for a look during event dates. So I guess I'll give it a shot.

---------------------

Just now, I got a text from him about a LAN party. It sounded like he was only addressing me. I figured there would be a mass text so he'd address us like "Hey, would you guys..." But, okay, I'll let this slide, he had poor typing anyway.

Note : He only told me about a LAN party, no location or time.

"Come on man, would be fun! we need mre ppl, what games u into?"

"Runescape."

"Lol. Any fps? Or rts. Games like half life or portal or etc?"

"[Reply involving what games I play]"

"K. Well il be at uni 2mo. if u wanna meet up and play sme lan games i dont mind. Im down 4 what eva reali."

Still no time or actual location. Sounded like it was just me and him. Really suspicious.

"Okay."

"So il meet u at uni 2morrw? What time is gud 4 u?"

Okay, good for me? That doesn't sound very organized. Also, again he's just asking ME, no others.

"Wait, is it only just two people?"

"Nah, there should b mre ppl coming, though im nt entirely sure on da numbers. Also do u play warcraft much?"

"Kinda. Also, you didn't mention time and exact location."

"Itl be at noon in the owen g glen building. Um, cn u bring a router nd al the other necessities 4 a lan?"

Now that I'm blogging about this, I just realised he suddenly came up with a time even though he asked me what time would be good just now. Anyway, it gets better.

"What. I don't have any of those. I just wanted to drop by and have a look too, don't wanna lug my laptop over it's heavy." [I was too suspicious of him to agree to bringing my laptop over.]

"Wel if ure nt interested il c u later."

"Okay."

"Waste my time"

Quite a club leader, eh?

Cooked some stuff

2011-04-11T15:54:00.002+08:00

Now that it's mid semester break, I'm at home for lunch and dinner.

And we're temporarily out of milk since no one's going shopping, so I can't use Corn Flakes as a substitute for the mean time.

This meant that I needed to start doing some cooking.

Yesterday:

Lunch - Honey garlic chicken. Marinated some chicken drumstick in honey, soy sauce and garlic. Cooked it in the oven. Cooked through nicely. Less soy sauce, more honey next time.

Dinner - More chicken. This time, I dug around the cupboard and found salt, pepper, and five spice powder. Rubbed those on a piece of chicken drumstick and tried pan frying. Was taking forever and it still wasn't cooked through. So I microwaved it the rest of the way. Blood was still leaking out but I didn't care. Just ate it, couldn't find anymore blood anyway. A little too salty.

Today:

Lunch - Domino's Classic Pepperoni Pizza. It was kinda boring. I'll avoid ordering this next time. Finished it within an hour.

Dinner - Steak. STEAK!! Dug in the cupboard for salt and pepper. Found steak seasoning. Used that. Also used garlic and butter. Referred to a video beforehand. Not salty enough. Could do with less cooking time.

This is where someone tells me to start cooking vegetables. lol

At least I'm eating apples.

Home alone. Also, more lecture videos!

2011-03-31T15:50:00.006+08:00

This week, my sister and her husband will be going to Melbourne for a holiday, probably. That leaves me and my other sister left in the house. Except my other sister is mostly working so it's pretty much me alone.

This means food won't automatically appear in front of me for dinner for one week!

HOWEVER!

Day 1 : Leftover pasta in the fridge.

Day 2 : Other sister had day off. She cooked.

Day 3 (Today) : Yet another sister was bringing her kids out so brought me along with her.

Miraculously, food still appears automatically in front of me for dinner!

I have about 4 days left of fending for myself (not really).

Plans for...

Day 4 : Leftover curry in the freezer.

Day 5 : Dominoes pizza

By this point, I'll probably have to cook for myself. Wish me luck. lol

Also, here's two more videos of my physics lecturer.

Short update, Superman, and photos

2011-03-20T15:33:00.007+08:00

Uni's going great. Assignments weren't so bad. Did I mention I am taking Chinese classes? It's a class for Chinese people who can't write Chinese well but can speak it. It's taught in English by an Aussie teacher and even though he's Aussie, he speaks pretty good Chinese. And like all Chinese teachers, I don't like him too much because of the strictness. (All my science lecturers are cool.) But I think I can do well in this class because it's taught in English and I have a pretty good foundation in pinyin. (Aww yeee!)

I should mention, my uni magazine is hilarious. I'll scan a page or two one day. Apparently, the editor is a stand up comedian and he's good. He has an upcoming show on April and May which I am still deciding whether to go or not.

Linky : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdHU_aznHjs

On to a dream post:

Yeah I can't be bothered keeping up with dream post numbers.

I took a nap today and has this one memorable dream.

Anyone play Final Fantasy Dissidia before? It's this game for the PSP where you play as Final Fantasy characters. Except in my dream, I was playing as Superman.

Yup.

Guess who I was fighting against?

Magneto.

See, this is just wrong. I just crossed over characters from DC and Marvel in my subconscience.

But that wasn't all, the fight lasted for 2 minutes - this felt like forever. My combo meter (EX force, for those who know what I am talking abo- nevermind, no one does.) finally charged up and I unleashed it!

So I get this interface:

Hit the buttons of the months divisible by two!

If you've ever touched a play station controller before, you'll know this makes no sense.

I had a triangle, a square, a circle, an X and for some reason, a fifth button in the middle which made absolutely no sense. Then I woke up.

Anyway here's some more photos!

Slightly invisible Oddish beside the Bellsprout. This is in the Physics lab.

This is from the Physics lab too, a week before the above photo.

Went to an anime store and bought an artbook from the author of possibly my alltime favourite anime/manga ARIA. I love her art and the anime embodies one of my dreams - colonizing a new planet. One of the reasons I'm taking physics, actually. Here's the entrance of the store lol the eye.

And the book I bought:

A photo I took of one of the pages. Turned out pretty well!

Weird guy in math class

2011-03-14T11:13:00.002+08:00

I shall write this post in the perspective of the guy who was sitting directly behind me in Maths 150.

------------
So yeah, the lecturer's talking about functions and inverses and whatnot. Kinda meh.

Oh look, the guy two rows in front of me is raising his hand. But the lecturer doesn't notice! Higher, boy!

Haha, he only raised it by a bit wow. Will he raise it highe- oh wow, he lowered his arm.

Wait wait, he raised his arm a bit again. That's still not high enough!

Woah, what the- LOL this guy in front of me. OMG he's waving his arms like a wild gorilla why is he doing that. Oh, he caught the lecturer's attention! And now he's pointing to the original guy.

Damn, what a hero, he's so manly waving his hands like that to direct the lecturer's attention to the guy two rows in front of me!

---------------

Yup, just another day for me.

We're good at throwing stuff

2011-03-11T11:27:00.002+08:00

Here's one of my physics lecturers explaining the one thing we're better than animals at - throwing stuff.

So. fucking. cold.

2011-03-07T11:22:00.002+08:00

Week 3 in New Zealand : I wake up to 10 degrees Centigrade.

The first thing I noticed when I removed my bedsheet was that IT WAS REALLY REALLY COLD.

I had to turn on my laptop so my body will instinctively move towards it rather than stay in bed.

And that took some effort to do.

Anyway, this is just a quick post. Today, on the 7th of March, is probably the beginning of many cold mornings to come.

Note : Coldness doesn't stop the sun from being a blazing ball of cancerous light rays.

I thought we had something special

2011-03-01T17:37:00.002+08:00

Physics 120:
Professor wanted to show us something related to how scientists used classical mechanics to solve the motion of a spinning coin. Then he showed us a model of a spinning coin, an Euler's Disk.

Listen to the coin as it spins faster and faster...

Thought process:
"Wow, if I shout now, I wonder how many people would jump."
"Probably not many, since I'm sitting in the second row to the front."
"Meh, wanna try it though?"
"I might get labelled as a dick."
"Come on, it's almost finished spinning."
"Uhh..."
"Uhh..."

I shout "BAAAH!"

Girl directly in front of me jumped. Person I least wanted to make enemies of too. x_x

"Damn, I'm gonna get labeled a dick."

------------------------------

Met a guy who was in the same class as me in Physics 120 and Maths 150. He tells me to call him Bob because his name is exotic (Indian).

So I was gonna show him how to access Maths 150 recordings but before that I went to get breakfast. So he followed me.

Two girls come up to us.

"Hey, do you wanna apply for a student discount card?"

A few sentences later, Bob asks one of the girls, "You sound kinda American."

"I'm Canadian, actually."

Me : "Wow, is it a bad thing when we confused Canadians for Americans."

Answer was a yes.

A presumably Canadian guy came up and was acting offended in a joking manner too.

Me : "Oh, yeah... Don't worry, you're not the only ones I confuse. I confuse Aussies and Aucklanders too."

Guy (again, joking manner) : "Wow... I thought we had something special." (points to Bob) "You I'm okay with, but this guy" (points at me) "we should stay away from."

First day of the semester

2011-02-28T17:10:00.001+08:00

... was suffocating.

Lectures were interesting but I was overloaded with information. Didn't help that I ate too much for lunch. Felt really nauseated.

Physics 120 - Interesting lecturer, fun class
Physics 130 - Fun lecturer, interesting class
Maths 150 - Quick lecturer, interesting class
Maths 190 - Not as interesting lecturer, pretty quiet class

Aside from information overload, I was worried about
i. Maths 150 because I couldn't exactly understand it - was talking about notations and proofs
ii. Maths 190 because it wasn't as interesting as I hoped it would be - thought about changing classes during the lecture

How did I solve that?
i. Talk to course co-ordinator. She was pretty optimistic about me being okay for the class so I figured I'd stay. Re-watched the lecture (recorded online) and understood more.
ii. Talk to sister about changing this for a language course. She suggested Chinese. Doesn't sound like a bad idea. Mailed Asian Studies office and awaiting response.

Hope this works out.

Pics and random text in between! - 01

2011-02-23T15:31:00.006+08:00

Pics and text may not be related.

A girl sat beside me in one of the workshops today and asked for paper. Gave her my remaining 4 pieces of single lined single sided paper. She asked if I wanted the rest back. Said No Worries on impulse. Guess I didn't need it anymore anyway. I had a notebook to note things on too.

Saw a girl while waiting at the traffic light who was wearing short (not mini) skirt and knee high socks that extended a little above her knee cap. She was pretty tall. I kinda like stockings above knee cap that show some thigh. Why am I saying it here? Wow.

There's a lot of Koreans here in Auckland. Of course, there are more Chinese, some from mainland, some canto speakers who I assume are from HK. Some TW too. Not as much Japanese but they're there.

The Haka is kinda cool.

Got a mail from a lecturer saying that some students may not satisfy pre-requisites for a certain math course and may have a hard time. Replied her asking if an A Level was okay. It was.

Street performers here and there. Homeless people too. Wanted to offer one guy a chocolate but ultimately decided not to. Paranoia or introversion? You decide.

While I was on the bus - There was a taxi on the bus lane that got beeped off by the driver. Then the taxi driver caught up beside the bus and gave the driver the finger. I only noticed because the guys sitting behind me narrated it. (Oh shit it's that faggot taxi driver again. Look Look he's pissed. Hahahaha!) Was funny.

Interesting activities in the Recreation Center (Gym). There's Capoiera lessons for around $70. Might take it. I dunno. Lots of other stuff too. Will look into those.

Earthquake? Didn't know about it until I got home where Heng Huat MSNed me about it. Auckland isn't affected.

Done my own laundry now that I'm living alone. Yay!

Janice dragged me to a bible study club at her friends' place. There were a few really pretty girls there. The club itself wasn't my thing. Bleh.

Mornings are really cold here. Ughh...

I wasn't affected by jet lag since day 1 of getting here. The problem is, once I get used to life here, I might start sleeping late again. Trying not to make this happen.

Now that I know that we can take any courses we want, I plan to take a language course or a programming/elec eng course in addition to my current courses. Either continue with Japanese or pick new stuff like Russian or German. Actually, I think I'll go for new things.

Didn't know about the earthquake in Christchurch until Huat asked me about it on MSN. Actually had a hint about it when I was at Dominoes buying pizza and they had a sign saying the EFTPOS cannot be used due to the earthquake. ("Earthquake? Wasn't it last year?")

Found Old Spice deodorant stick. Couldn't find the body wash. =(

Have I mentioned I've been liking Lady Gaga a lot recently? Started when Sing Yee told me how bizarre Alejandro video was. Checked it out. Crazy shit. But not in a bad way. Then checked out other videos. Favourite is Bad Romance. She looked like Marilyn Monroe (was it?), Cher, maybe some Gwen Stefani, Madonna and etc all in one video. Really liked her getup in the scene where she gets showered with diamonds and the one with rings around her.

Also really liked the lyrics.

Related to above pic : This was a seafood stall in the Lantern Festival. These guys cook when you place your order. There's 4 cooks and this guy just looked plain badass. Watching them cook was interesting too. A lot of others were watching too.

Hmm... Since I can learn Programming for free over the internet, I guess I'll cross that out. Languages are the same. Then again, these things are hard to learn by myself. Argh! Programming, elements of the engineering courses (like circuitry in Elec), Languages or completely unrelated stuff like Theology or Sociology?? aaaa!!

Skin might be getting darker. Maybe that will make my pimples less visible! Also, thanks to walks in Tasek Lama with Sing Yee, I can survive walking around the campus and Auckland city without my legs breaking. 2 years ago in SG I got blisters on day 2. No blisters yet. And week is almost over!

Update : Took a 2km bike challenge on Friday. Involved riding a stationary bike with a meter attached on it and you have to ride for 2km. I started off kinda quick... and when my energy was kinda depleted, the attendants were like "You done warming up?" F#$%! Rode on it for another 4 minutes to achieve 2km. Legs were wobbly. Head was dizzy. Felt like barfing. So I went home. Turns out I got a fever. It was gone the next day though.

Orientation day 3

2011-02-23T15:12:00.003+08:00

Three posts in two days! Orientation days 1 and 2 below this post.

23/3 - Wednesday

Today, I went to a bunch more workshops. They tell us a lot and are very interesting. I hope my lectures will be like this.

Workshops were:

Time saving tips - Taught us how to be organized and stuff. Planning and such. Really interesting. Will apply this to my learning.

Managing Your Course Readings - How to handle the heavy load of readings we have to do. Same speaker so also interesting.

StudyLink and Student Financials - Okay I thought this was about general financial issues. Apparently it was about student loans on a company called StudyLink. For locals only. I stayed anyway since the next workshop was in the same room :

General Education - info on courses we should take that have no relation to our current course so that we can broaden our options.

-Lunch- Went to the courtyard where there were clubs and faculties recruiting members. Checked out some clubs (really interesting too, some clubs memberships can get you discounts at restaurants or whereever) and had a free sausage roll from some students from the Faculty of Science. (Science rocks!) Went to look for Physics course advisor to see how my course decisions were and which ones were droppable. (Might wanna learn other stuff like Programming, Elec Engineering, etc)

Had time to kill before the two remaining workshops so I went to have my DELNA which is an English language assesment. Took less than 20 minutes, was pretty easy.

-More workshops-
Learn to use the Library - Info on how to borrow books, how to use Student ID card for stuff, chocolates for people who asked questions, etc. We can borrow up to 25 books at a time here! Amazing!

IT Access, E-learning and the Information Commons - Info on using the school internet facilities (e-books, online lecture recordings, etc) and the Information Commons building there are four floors of study rooms. Two for study groups and two for silent study.

20 minutes to get to the bus stop this time.

Was a great day. The more workshops I attended, the more I like this uni. Hope this keeps up.

Orientation day 2

2011-02-23T15:00:00.002+08:00

22 Feb

This day, I spent less time looking for the bus stop - Only 1 hour!

Went to uni for the first day of all first year student orientation.

It started off with a formal Powhiri ritual thing. And being one of the front row seaters (because no one else was volunteering to sit in the front), I shook hands with the staff members up front and performed the Haori. It involved touching our noses together. >_>

After that was settled, free food then off to the Science faculty briefing. Was really insightful and made me want to stay here. Then grouped up with some people and followed a UniGuide who gave us a tour all over the uni. One particular place we went was the medical area where we were handed a Welcome Pack. Free condoms inside!

After that was free time, pretty much. Went to line up for MAXX stickers (need this stickers to get bus discounts up to 40%) and then a bus card. Lines were long.

It was almost 2pm after that. I went to the auditorium for a workshop on Managing your Course Readings but it was filled up so I went to the Achieving Your Academic Potential workshop instead. Learnt a bunch of stuff and the facilities we could use in uni.

I think I was done after that. Went to look for a bus. Took only 1 hour this time.

Orientation day 1

2011-02-22T14:20:00.003+08:00

I've just had my first couple of days of orientation.

Day 1 : Orientation for International Students

08:00 - Alarm went off. Forgot I put it below my bed (genius). Fell off bed to turn it off.

08:40 - Couldn't get tertiary bus fare (discounted fare for uni students). Went on bus and handed over $10. Not accepted. Reason - It was an Aussie dollar. FFFFFFFUUUU- Handed $20 and off we go to the Uni.

0920-ish - Missed the Uni stop because I didn't know which stop it was.

1000 - Found the Auditorium thanks to help from a few Uni helpers. Right on time for opening speech.

Before 1200 - Briefing on how the uni can help foreigners. Also had a country rollcall. I was the only guy from Brunei (seriously? I bet they're all at Otago). Lots of Malaysians, though.

1200 to 1300 - Sat down then queued for International Students Info Center. Lady behind counter was shitpissed, probably because of so many people going in that day. Requested for Student ID. She asked me to fill in a form. Said my visa was still under processing so I couldn't fill it in. She said something like I will be unenrolled from the Uni if I don't hand in the form. Fucking scary. Eventually asked another lady, a nicer lady, and she said I have until 28th to fill in the form.

1330 - City wide treasure hunt. Teamed up with a Korean girl, Swedish guy, Vietnamese guy, Chinese guy, Nepalese guy. It was unorganized.

1530 - Time was almost up, we asked the previous stop earlier if we should go back. They don't know. Korean girl had to go buy a cellphone number (we need one for our student ID cards) and Swede had a curfew or something. Split up with them and the rest went back to uni.

Vietnamese guy left too. We didn't know where to hand in the answers for the treasure hunt. Fuck that, we went our separate ways.

1600 - Stumbled upon the iSpace where we were supposed to hand in our answers. Sat down and had ice cream. Winners announced, my team didn't win but hey ice cream and drinks.

1615 - Everyone is about to leave, a team shows up after prize giving. Uhh.... Yeah this is disorganized. Needs more work for next year. Left and went to look for a bus.

1740 - Found the bus stop I was looking for. Note the time difference. Yup, I spent nearly 1.5 hours looking for the bus stop.

1830 - Home.

Tidbits over the past few days

2011-02-19T19:14:00.003+08:00

Not in chronological order.

Niece : Uncle Yang, you can talk!
Me : Yes. Yes I can, why wouldn't I be able to?
Niece : Mom says you don't talk much. But you can talk!
Me : Uhh... Yes, I don't talk much.
Niece : But you're talking!

------------

Jamie (sister) : Oh, Ryan made a welcome card for you!
Me : Wow, was that necessary?
Jamie : He wanted to make one, so he did. Ryan, you gonna give Uncle Yang your welcome card later?
Ryan : ...
Jamie : Where is it?
Ryan : I lost it.

-------------

Theng (sister) : Hey, did Ryan give you a welcome card?
Me : He said he lost it.
Theng : Oh wow, that's sad.

------------

Chen (sister) : Hey, did you get a welcome card from Ryan?
Me : He said he lost it.
Chen : /facepalm

------------

Janice (sister) : Hey, did Ryan give you a welcome card the other day?
Me : He said he lost it.
Janice : Oh gosh!

---------------

Janice dragged me to a 'Life Group' club thing.

Turns out it was a bible study club. WHAAAAAT?????

She was like "You could make some friends there!"

Bible club leader : Okay, I want to remind everyone that this is not a social club. We're here to study the bible. We're not here for friends.

Yeah, I'm not going there anymore. lol

There were a few really pretty girls there, though. But yeah, I'm not going back there.

--------------

Went to a Lantern Festival with Jamie and her family. Had dinner beforehand. It involved lots of walking around and her taking photos of stuff.

That was it. She didn't want to queue for the food stalls because there were heaps of people.

Back home with Chen and Janice (who I'm staying with, Jamie's not with us) : What?! You didn't eat?? That's what the lantern festival is all about!

Guh, Gonna go back there someday.

-----------------

One redeeming factor at the Lantern Festival.

I saw a girl dressed in gothic lolita outfit. Might be a Suigintou cosplay.

SOOOOO wanted to take a photo of her. Should have asked. T__T

----------------

End.

Business Class Blues

2011-02-14T12:56:00.002+08:00

I'm in NZ now. Eventful day so far.

Check-in : Dad helped me ask for a front seat so I could get out early. Got bumped up to business class.

Plane : Watched two movies.

Let Me In - Vampire movie, romance between a vampire girl and a young boy. Pretty good stuff. No sparkling involved. Happy ending. Love it a lot.

Morning Glory - Missed the last twenty minutes. Really funny. Probably going to download it sooner or later for the last minutes.

Off plane : Got detained for questioning. Because I do not have a Student Visa yet and I filled in the arrival form that I was going in for Education and staying for 9 months (visitors are given 3 months).

Home :

Sister 6 asked me, "Hey, how does your laptop look like?"
Me "Let me just get my backpack an- Where's my backpack?"

Sister 5 didn't see me wearing it when I came out of the customs.

Went back to the airport. Got it back, thankfully, from a customs official. Got back here and took a nap.

Waking up : Sisters start talking about how they MIGHT be infected with measles because they've hung around with some infected people, and now I might have it. But probably not, who knows? We might have to stay home the next few days.

Open Haus

2011-02-12T20:39:00.002+08:00

Just got back from an open house with my parents at their friend's house.

There's this uncle there who insisted that I drank some wine.

"Hey, get a glass and I'll pour you some. You're gonna go to New Zealand and it'll be a waste if you can't drink. Come on now. Once you're done, I'll pour you another!"

Reluctantly took a glass. Had a little less than half a glass of red wine poured into it. Sat on a table away from them slowly downing it.

A trio of people, presumably relatives to the owner of the house sat at the same table I did. One of them was offered a glass as well. This is where my GENIUS came in.

I eventually finished my glass and the uncle came over to inspect. I took the other guy's glass full of wine and showed it to the uncle. "I already asked for a refill."

Guy at the same table followed suit and supported my claim. Whew!

So when uncle left, I switched our glasses back and continued having some cakes.

No more than 3 minutes later, it was time to leave and uncle came over to inspect again.

His sense of judgement must be impaired as he believed that I downed the whole thing in one shot!

I am feeling pretty awesome right now.

======================

CNY was unexpectedly fun this year. Didn't think it would be very eventful but suddenly a bunch of old friends who were studying abroad popped back over here!

Houses visited : Wayne, Ngok Lin, Heng Huat, Collie, Ten Fang, Ee Lynn, Chloe, Daniel, Tung Lik, Eng Kee, Sing Yee, Yung Ping. Probably missed a few but that's most of it.

At Heng Huat's house, a handful of them were gambling and after Huat stopped being the dealer, I took over dealing at SaKiKong/Baccarats.

Earnt myself $47.

Played Poker at Ee Lynn's and Chloe's. Lost in the first round at Ee Lynn's. (I had 3 Kings, good enough reason to keep show hand but Alan won with an unexpected full house.) Won a bunch at Chloe's but eventually lost them back because I wanted to go already and didn't want to be rude by winning and leaving.

Ultimately, I earnt $37 from gambling. Poker is really fun.

Melodies of Life

2011-01-19T00:23:00.004+08:00

Been listening to Melodies of Life (FF9 OST) over the last two days. And feeling down, yet warm from it. One of my most favourite songs ever.

And I realise it doesn't reflect Zidane and Dagger/Garnet's story. It kinda reflects the love of Freya and Sir Fratley more.

Then I realise again! Eyes On Me doesn't reflect the love between Squall and Rinoa but more on Laguna and Piano Woman. But that's more obvious. In any case, the theme songs do not seem to tell the story of the main characters.

I wanted to dig deeper into this but I have no interest in that other Final Fantasy (7) and never played the ones before (as far as PS1 is concerned). So my Final Fantasy music obsession ends there.

Note: This was just a shallow interpretation. Well, Eyes on Me is pretty much about Laguna and the Piano Woman, that's a given. So yeah, shallow interpretation of Melodies of Life.

----------------------------------------

I've also been listening to some Queen. Sure I was obsessing over Melodies of Life yesterday but Princes of the Universe was stuck in my head all day. It's pretty cool.

Also checked out that Alejandro video. Shit was crazy, but really interesting. Couldn't help but laugh at her gunbarrel bra.

----------------------------------------

As for my life, I've been spending it watching movies and going to Tasek for walks with Sing Yee with occasional guests like Pan, Chai Eng, Collie...

Finally, it's set in stone that I'll be going to NZ. I hope this works out well in the end. I'll be studying Physics in University of Auckland.

This also means I'm getting a new computer. (Finally, yes?)

I don't have to watch XviD encodes of anime anymore.

I can play Robot Unicorn Attack without lagging anymore.

It's a pretty decent laptop, I don't think I need anything too flashy since I'll most likely be busy with university. (And heck, we all know any computer I buy in this day and age will be infinitely better than my current one.)

This is me choosing specs for my computer:

The hard drive is 12 times bigger than my current one!

The RAM is 5 times more than my current one!

Two processors!

So yeah. I'm hoping the new laptop will serve this abusive user as well my desktop has.

The desktop will probably be used to Skype with my family.

Also, not as huge of a news as a new computer but equally emotional...

I'll be parting with my Pikachu pencil case. It has served me longer than my computer has and it's still pretty sturdy. However, I feel that I should stop using it. I'm glad to know that Pokemon is still pretty in and I'll be keeping it in my little box of memories... after washing it.

Dream - Dragons

2010-11-29T08:26:00.004+08:00

Two posts in a row. I figured I should put this in a different post even though it was the same sleep. It's just a dream post so there are bound to be flaws and stupidities.

This took place a dream or so earlier than the Rigged Door dream. (it's on the post below this)

------------------

I was looking at the photos I took on my phone. There were a few photos of this one island on a lake spanning different seasons.

It was really beautiful. Spanned from normal (Spring/Summer) to Autumn with red leaves and Winter with snow covered trees.

I kept repeating the photos and saw a dragon perched on top of a mountain on the island. Sleeping.

I was then looking at the island straight from my balcony - not on my phone anymore.

Blue dragon wakes up. Flies towards me on the balcony and then flies away before it reaches. It left a blue bubble floating slowly towards me. It popped.

I looked back at the island and there was now a yellow dragon. I conclude it's lightning element - I'd be fucked if it came near. It started flying towards me. I ran inside the house and didn't fully close the door so I can look outside. Dragon reached the balcony then flies away upwards. Yellow bubble floats. Nothing violent happened when it popped. I didn't conclude what the bubble was made of. (but it was yellow so... piss?)

----------------

Unrelated : This was a wrestling dream which should have taken place a few dreams before the dragon one.

Rey Mysterio made his way into the WWA ring. Part of the audience near ringside started booing at him and stuff. Rey jumped in and fought the guys. Whole place goes wild. Wrestlers vs audience.

This one I know the meaning of : I am lamenting at the current state of wrestling entertainment because it's no longer dynamic and unpredictable. Dreamt up something wild like this.

Dream - Rigged door

2010-11-29T08:12:00.004+08:00

From where I started remembering : I was a character in a romance plot of sorts.

Character is apparently insecure of his looks. He plays in a virtual reality world where his character is a girl. From what I remember, he will be meeting a real life female friend there and he approaches the login area (which is apparently a long hallway).

He accidentally drops a letter.

He wonders if she wouldn't mind just seeing him in his own looks. He doesn't care anyway and logs in as the girl character. Character was named Mitsuyo Miku or something (play on the name Hatsune Miku)

----------------

Some other character, presumably another female friend (the playful teasing elder sister type) walked up to the letter and picked it up. Turns out it wasn't his letter.

----------------

Perspective shifted to first person. Hallway was now a school ground of sorts. I picked up a Japanese flier/leaflet highlighting the dangers of burning down buildings. I took little note of it and tossed it aside.

Walked past a person trying to hook up a stereo system.

As I was about to open a door, the stereo system that was playing dipped down in volume.

Logical conclusion that I can make in the dream : A fucking bomb

Classmates and teacher approached, wanting to go in and begin their lessons. I told them there was a bomb inside and told them to run away.

Logical thing to do In the dream : Explode the fucking building so no one opens it by accident

I picked up an umbrella, hooked it to the door and ran the hell away.

Whole building unit (wasn't that big) was blown off and no one was hurt.

Guy hooking up the stereo system was gone.

Near the end, someone said "Now we'll never know who he is." Because apparently, he's a professional con-artist that always changes his appearance.

------------------

Flaw I noticed in this dream : The door opened inwards at first. It conveniently opened outwards when I wanted to run away from the explosion.

Schedules and my computer addiction

2010-11-26T00:10:00.004+08:00

When I was a kid, one of my sisters made a neat little "How-long-I-should-be-on-the-computer Schedule".

It goes like...

Monday - 30 mins

Tuesday - 30 mins

Wednesday - 30 mins

Thursday - 1 hour

Friday - 30 mins

Saturday - 1 hour

*Sunday* - 1 hour 30 minutes (Yes, this particular page was more prettied up than the rest - complete with flowers!)

Now that I think about it, it's pretty silly - the idea that I could use the computer for less than 2 hours a day. OHOHOHOHOHO

Of course, my computer addiction is like magnetic force - as long as (only when) I'm within range of my computer, I'll be pulled to it.

But when I'm not near my computer say, Alaska, I won't think too much about it. (No, I have never been to Alaska.)

However, no one thinks that. I don't mind not using a computer as long as I'm not near one but people still go "Awww, poor Yang must feel really bored here in Taiwan without a computer!"

And that is why I'd rather stay away from laptops.

Dream - Laughing

2010-11-20T14:06:00.003+08:00

I was in a class in CHMS. It was our F5Sc class except we were facing the other way.

For some reason, I was sitting in the front (IN THE FRONT), near the door.

Main characters in this dream : Crystal and Tiong Loong

----------

Tiong Loong was sitting three tables diagonally behind me asking a question to Crystal who was two tables beside me.

Crystal answered his question while showing an open book at him. As she finished answering, she closed her book. Tiong Loong stared blankly and said "I forgot what you said; you closed the book."

Eventually, one by one, everyone in class started laughing.

----------

This doesn't really seem funny or anything but I woke up laughing.

That was the first time I ever woke up laughing to a dream and it felt really good.

I then went back to sleep.

Deathly Hallows

2010-11-20T13:25:00.002+08:00

~~Watched Twilight~~ shit I actually typed Twilight. lol

Watched HP7 yesterday with Sing Yee, her brother, Yoke Khee and her friend.

Both Yoke Khee and Sing Yee re-read the book (Sing Yee re-read the whole series, I think) a few days ago. Pretty hardcore, I must say.

I didn't, plus I forgot pretty much everything that went on in the book. (So don't ask me to confirm your speculations of some scenes not happening in the book! Especially not in the cinema!)

My cousin taught me not to compare books to movies, which was when I became less critical of these things. But I think it's nice that the HP7 filmmakers decided to turn it into two parts. Some may think it's milking money off the franchise, but really, I think that it would be too short if it was only done in one part. I used to complain about these things being too short. lol

I also enjoyed the part where Ron argued with Hermione over the story of the Deathly Hallows. Yup, that part where Ron preferred 'midnight' over 'twilight'. It was a nice light hearted jab at Cedric Diggory's other movie. Also read that there was another mention of Twilight, quoting from a commenter here

There is another Twilight reference in the movie… if you listen close to the list of missing witches & wizards, they mention Bella, Jake & Charlie in a row. I nearly fell out of my chair because I was laughing!

I didn't notice it, but if you haven't watched it and you're interested in such references, do look out for it! I think it happens when Ron was listening to the radio.

Anyway, the movie was a blast. Didn't get to watch it in 3D but it was fine; I don't quite get the hype. There were a couple of scenes which would be pretty awesome in 3D but that's it. (One of them being Nagini's - that's not giving away too much, is it?)

Also, after the movie, I went to BestEastern just to look around and I saw a new Artemis Fowl book on the shelf. Went over to the shopkeeper to ask when it came out. Apparently, it came out this week. HOW COULD I NOT KNOW OF THIS???? Cost $30 over there so I went home and sent a message to my eldest sister in Singapore asking her to help buy if it cost under $30. Turns out, she already bought it as a Christmas gift. Thank goodness I didn't buy it at BestEastern on impulse. lol

Airport Bingo

2010-11-16T14:30:00.002+08:00

Around this time last year, Heng Huat and I were at KL, about to go to Singapore for some anime convention - AFA 09.

So we're in the airport waiting for our plane and the intercom voices out.

"Calling [bunch of Chinese names]. Please report to [some gate] for immediate check in."

And this idea dawned upon me. (Did I post this before?)

AIRPORT INTERCOM BINGO!

1. Get a piece of paper each. Draw 5 columns and 5 rows on it.

2. Write parts of names on each box. e.g. Teo, Yeet, Yang, etc. (It was a Chinese tour group on the intercom so I think just Chinese names would do.)

3. For each part of name called out over the intercom, cross it out.

4. If you get 5 names in a row, horizontally, diagonally or vertically, you win!

5. Winner is presented with overpriced Duty Free mineral water! Or whatever.

On an unrelated note, AFAX this year took place last weekend. Neither of us attended.

Mind vs no mind

2010-11-04T17:59:00.002+08:00

Thing I don't mind:

Waving at someone who didn't see me - and no one see's me doing it.

Thing I mind:

Waving at someone who didn't see me - and someone else sees me doing it.

On a related note, what do you do when people start waving at the person behind you?

Or rather, when you're the one waving, do you wait to pass by the person in front of the person you're waving at?

Gosh, those awkward moments involving waving.

When people wave at the person behind me, I widen my eyes a bit and stare at them to confirm. (Maybe I should start waving at the person behind them, take that!)

When people wave at me, being an introvert and not too good at remembering faces, I... also widen my eyes a bit and stare at them to confirm.

Still undecided

2010-10-21T18:38:00.002+08:00

Eldest sister came over and while she was here, she asked me about my Auckland U. application.

I mailed them the required documents a quite a while ago but still no news of it. Also talked to her about the idea of me staying in Brunei. She prefers that I go study in NZ.

"Did you forget how good it was there?"

Yes, yes I did. Nevertheless, she urged me not to give up on the NZ prospect and asked me for the documents so she could mail it over again.

Oh how my mind changes so easily.

And so I wait again.

The longer I stay here...

2010-10-12T00:30:00.002+08:00

The longer I stay here in Brunei, the more I feel like staying here to study is a good idea. (BETTER NOT THINK THAT, OH SHIT)

Really wanted to study in UWA but I might scrap that plan. I'm now applying for Auckland University in New Zealand because it's cheaper there and less of a financial strain on my family. (Australia dollar went up from $1.20 BND per AUD to nearly $1.30 in little over a month!!)

OR I could stay here in Brunei and study in UBD and it would be even less of a strain on my family. Sure it's a good idea but... What have I been doing the past year? It would have been a waste. I just missed the last intake of the year too. Meaning I'd have to wait till March.

The longer I stay here, the more I think Brunei is a good idea. It's cheap, I get to continue studying Japanese and Korean. Cosplay shops are starting to open (yes, this is important). And I'll be where my friends return from their studies overseas.

Also, if I study in UBD, it might be easier to get a Bruneian PR so I can sponsor my parents to live here. Doesn't sound all too bad, right? Considering my original plan for Australia has been scrapped anyway. Not to mention my mom has this habit of moving stuff around the house so she might need ~~some muscle~~ a guy who is slightly stronger than her around here.

Also if I decide to stay here I can finally get a new bloody computer.

I'll continue to wait and see what comes up.

Japanese Speech Competition

2010-09-25T21:59:00.003+08:00

Participated in a Japanese speech contest. It was held yesterday afternoon.

Surprisingly, I didn't think much of the audience and spoke pretty smoothly.

I didn't win, though.

Probably because I left out an entire paragraph of my speech. (Result of not thinking much during the speech)

> I totally didn't notice that I forgot the paragraph until I left the stage.

But I also think the judges prefer more general topics rather than personal stories.

====================================

Anyway, before the results were announced, we had a fun gameshow type quiz.

"So you think you know Japan?"

The host even had that cliche 'gameshow host' voice. Also, the Ambassador of Japan in Brunei was participating as well.

Format : Multiple Choice

Answering style : Participants had to raise their right hand for A, left for B, and if there's a C, put both hands down.

I forgot most of the questions. I lasted up to third or fourth question.

i.e. Which is the longest river in Japan? a. Shikano b. Shinano c. Magikano

I voted A.

Before that, around the second question, (How many prefectures are there in Japan?), some people realised, "Hey, let's follow the Ambassador all the way!"

A few questions after I lost, the Ambassador wanted to sit down. So he decided to answer wrongly on purpose.

What does "Nihon" 日本 literally mean?

A. Source of the Sun

B. Land of the Rising Sun

Ambassador answered A. There was some confusion at first, but majority decided to follow.

Surprisingly, he got it right!

B was just a popular name for it but A was what it really meant.

He even sat down right after the answer was announced. Only to realise he had to stand for another round.

So the lucky bastards who followed him up to that point survived for at least another round.

That was the highlight of it, in my opinion. In the end, there were four winners for the quiz.

MOSQUITOES

2010-09-16T17:52:00.003+08:00

I've been taking walks up the road outside my house. There's a school there and you can practically get on the airstrip of the airport if you want to.

It's usually a nice sunset when I do that but today, I went up a little early so... THE SUN.

Also, while taking this photo, I looked on my right arm and there was a mosquito. Looked on my left arm and there were two. Looked down and saw another one on my leg. These buggers are fucking quick.

Bon Voyage Nisa!

2010-09-12T19:56:00.005+08:00

Just got back from sending Nisa off to UK. She'll be studying at Nottingham University, I think.

Just before I left home, my brother asked me to help send his regards.

See, I hate taking messages, but "Okay."

Anyway, off to the airport and I found a nice parking spot under a tree shading the car (from the moonlight). I decided to drive forward in then changed my mind halfway and went backwards in. Meh.

Got up to departure hall. There were LOADS of people there. Gosh!

But Sing Yee and the gang were standing in front of the stairs, so I didn't have to look awkward (scratching my head) while looking for them.

Heck, I still look awkward when I'm not talking.

Then we met up with Nisa and her family.

(Should I pass her the message now?)

(Mmmmaybe later.)

A few photos later, it was almost time for Nisa to leave.

Let me rephrase that. It was time for Nisa to leave.

She realised that, of course. Tears were beginning to form.

She started hugging everyone.

And we brofisted AWW YEEEAAHHH.

And so we marched over to the place. That place before they start chopping passports. I don't know what you call that place, departure area?

I guessed there wasn't much time left so they rushed over and we waved and they went in.

As we were waving....

(Shit...)

This is why I hate taking messages.

==================

As we were about to leave the airport, Nisa's name was called on the announcement.

I thought it was some special goodbye message at first. Hah hah.

But no

Apparently, that was the last call for boarding.

==================

Driving out of the airport :

I paid for the ticket.

Got on my car.

Drove to the ticket machine to get out.

Extended my hand...

(Oh not again.)

I can't seem to gauge car distances properly. Good thing this was the second time it happened, meaning I have EXPERIENCE. So I hurriedly unbuckled the seatbelts, opened the door, placed the ticket in and left.

The first time this happened, I experienced violent recoil due to not taking off my seatbelts.

Nisa, if you're reading this, my brother wishes you the best! So do I!

Dream - Beetles

2010-09-12T11:06:00.002+08:00

I had a dream involving two beetles in a Milo.

At first I thought they were flies, so I was like, ew.

But then I saw that they were beetles (maybe my subconscience turned them into beetles?)...

But it was still ew.

This dream lasted surprisingly long. I kept on fiddling with the beetles.

Then I decided to dump all the Milo along with the beetles.

Dream ends there.

Note : There wasn't a lot of Milo left, anyway.

Bump

2010-08-18T15:42:00.002+08:00

I went to cut my hair about two weeks ago and my brother tagged along. He wanted to buy a card reader at Gadong, so we went there after.

I parked outside McD and went in The Mall.

Not long after, we're done buying his thing and went back. It was kinda jammed and this driver who was driving beside us stared at us while moving...

Then BUMP.

The driver who was staring at us drove into the car in front of him. I ignored them and went in our car but gosh it made me worry.

My brother got out of the car and directed me as I drove out my parking space. He was instructing me on parking earlier too. And he doesn't even have a license yet!

The rest of the trip involved careful driving and all's well that ends well.

NEVER GONNA PARK IN THAT CRAMPED AREA AGAIN. (I was driving a 4WD too)

But now I know that Gadong is freakin cramped. And now I understand why my mom avoided driving into the McD road. So I'll be avoiding that too.

Epilogue : We saw the very same car a few days later in front of us.

Epiepilogue : No, I did not bump into it.

A day in the life of Form 3C 2005

2010-08-06T09:54:00.002+08:00

You can hear the usual chitter chatter of the students. It is now Chinese class, taught by Tao 老师.

Oh look, Alex is playing with a piece of rubber band. -stretch-

And here comes Yeet Yang. He's about to enter the class.

-SMACK-
"DOHHH"

The end.
-------------------------

Yeah, one day back in Form3C, Alex landed a hit on my nose with a rubber band.

Some Australian Food Fair thing

2010-08-02T23:41:00.002+08:00

One day in the afternoon, my sister called my brother and asked if we wanted to go to some Aussie Food Fair Opening which has a cooking demo by a couple of Aussie chefs.

It was kinda last minute and I wasn't given much detail, so I didn't prepare much.

I was wearing a T-shirt and quarterlong pants. So were my brother and my other sister, Joanne. The sister who invited us, Tracy, didn't tell us it was formal. She expected us to know from the word "Opening" that it was. I think she wanted to humiliate us on a whim and we all sat at the cornermost part which was impossible to see/hear the demonstration from.

Unsatisfied with the seats, I went to the middle and sat on the table next to some big-named folks, probably the directors of Supa Save. None of my siblings wanted to follow, but hey, front seat view for me.

Anyway:
1. Nobody cared what I wore!
2. Avocado dip is AWESOMELY DELICIOUS WITH BREADSTICKS
3. Free Aussie products on all the tables e.g. chips and chocolates.
4. Can tapau home.
5. We got served food from the demo, I was reluctant to eat the veggies but yeah, save face, so I ate some capsicum.
6. Flour + Self Raising Flour + Rolled Oats + Butter make for awesome crumbles for ice cream. I'm gonna start making those to eat with ice cream.
7. Weird smell coming from my drink cup, but I keep forgetting to ask for a replacement. Probably the salty smell of potato chips.

Miri Trip July 2010

2010-07-23T20:57:00.003+08:00

Went to Miri yesterday with brother + sister + her husband. Had Bak kut teh for breakfast then my brother and I got dropped off at Bintang Plaza for the day.

We spent quite a lot of time at the computer + electronics alley at the 3rd or 4th floor. Then we played some archery, it was good fun, but my left (bow wielding) hand got tired pretty quickly. Brother suggested bowling, I didn't want to because I thought it would be quite boring with two people. (Optimum at 3~4, in my opinion)

Found out that the arcade was closed. Sad, but they didn't have Bishibashi or DJMax so I didn't care much.

Then we walked around and discovered a new part of the building because of renovation in the past few years. Had pearl milk tea then later at 2pm met up with sister + her husband to have lunch and stuff.

Man, this blog post is pretty plain. Anyway we went home after a stop at sister's friend's place.

Sky was wide and clear in the open road so I took some photos with my phone. (OH GOD PHONE QUALITY PICTURES COMING UP)

Dream - Wake up

2010-07-20T08:27:00.002+08:00

I just woke up from a dream.

It goes like this...

------

I was in a conversation with some people.

Then someone says, "Do you realise that the alarm has been sounding off for like 10 minutes already?"

------

So I woke up right away to turn off the alarm to find out that it only JUST started sounding off, I thought it was a snooze or something but no, the clock on it is exactly 8:00 and it was playing the beginning of the alarm tone.

So yeah, I tricked myself to wake up in the dream.

Dream - Jessica Sendai

2010-07-16T12:07:00.005+08:00

I had a dream last night which I woke up from just to write it down.

I started off as a True Assassin from a game I play a lot.

Basically, I was kinda in the game I play, except, you know how dreams go.

So there I see @Walfas which appears to be a pudding shaped shrub hopping around. I decided to scare Walfas but I clicked on the wrong skill and ended up killing the pudding shaped shrub person.

I panicked and apologized to a dead Walfas. Then a bunch of my F5A classmates started chasing me, saying I killed Jessica Sendai. I was confused as to who Jessica Sendai was and assumed it was a model. I didn't have much time so I ran.

While running away, I met Seng Wei who told me to jump down a flight of stairs.

As I did, he ran up the stairs in slow motion and ripped his school uniform off, revealing underneath was a Superman costume.

While that happened, I turned into a frog and proceeded to make his appearance more grand by jumping and pointing at him. <<< Not what it sounds like, I can't describe it properly so this will have to do.

The End.

Note : Sendai is a prefecture in Japan which also happens to be my teacher's hometown.

Reach for the sky

2010-07-01T21:05:00.003+08:00

Around noon today, I received a text from Huat asking if I wanna go out to watch a movie with him and Dex.

Guess what movie?

It was, of course, Toy Story!

Instant 'Yes!' from me, because I wanted to watch it quite badly.

Unfortunately, Mall cineplex was showing it at 5:30. A quick internetting told me that Qlap Cineplex had a show at 3:45.

It was 1:20pm when we met up, so after a couple of games of L4D2, we went off to Kiulap.

Then we played pool at that place we went to a few days ago with Collie and KYew.

Then we went to the cinema.

We head up to the counter and the dude behind it asked: "Eclipse?"

> ...and the dude behind it asked: "Eclipse?"

> "Eclipse?"

"Wow.... really? What do you think?"

Aside from all that hokum, Toy Story 3 was quite enjoyable! ^ ^

But the ending sequence had some other stuff. You know, like the aftermath of the story.

The bastards cut it off... >=(

Gonna download the movie some day and watch through the ending.

Woof

2010-06-30T13:44:00.002+08:00

My brother and I used to have bikes.

Lots of the houses in our neighborhood had dogs.

We were kinda scared of them back in the day.

One day, we decided to ride our bikes down the hill. Y'know, freestyle.

-screeeeeeeeeeeeeechh-

We were at the bottom of the hill beside one house which, of course, had dogs.

Woofwoofwoofwoof

"Hoooolllyyy craaaap", was what we were thinking. Not that we knew about that phrase yet, but that kinda sums up how scared we were.

"QUICK, DROP YOUR BIKE AND RUN BACK HOME!"

Yeah, we did that and ran back up to our house.

We went back down about 5 minutes later... sneakily. And brought our bikes back to the safety of our home!

Smoking

2010-06-29T14:38:00.002+08:00

Anyone smoked before?

I smoked before when I was a kid.

...Not really.

When I was a kid, I wondered why people smoked.

Did it taste good?

Did it smell good?

So to find out the answer to these questions, I ripped out a piece of paper from my buku latihan and rolled it up then lit it on fire then I blew it out.

I then proceeded to stick the unburnt end into my mouth and inhale.

I choked.

It did not taste good.

It did not smell good.

I quit smoking after that.

More free time

2010-06-13T01:32:00.002+08:00

NUS rejected my offer so I'll be going to Aussie next year.

That means I have 6 months of free time - aside from language classes.

What shall I do?

Ideas:
Swimming < Swimming pool at stadium closed. =(
Piano lessons < WHAT?
Learn household chores < sounds logical. I'll probably do this
Get a new computer < I was planning to get one when I go to university, but I don't know how much longer my current one can hold on for.

Just a short update. That's all. Bye.

High Island Room (Gao Dao Wu)

2010-06-05T15:04:00.002+08:00

Remember when I went to Taiwan with my family?

I forgot to mention the time we went to Takashimaya.

We had no plans for the morning so we decided to go to Takashimaya one day.

We went too early so it wasn't opened yet. We waited outside for a bit.

We took a photo of the entrance and the worker guarding it. He seemed uncomfortable.

Which brings up another point : Strangers don't like having their photos taken.

So not long later, the doors opened and we went in.

This is the first time I've ever seen it:

The store workers were all in uniform with HATS. (Google search Takashimaya uniform)

And as we walked past them, they started BOWING.

IT WAS HELLA AWKWARD.

So I ended up walking to parts with the least store workers.

I even averted my head from them pretending to be looking at stuff so they wouldn't bow.

Man, the bowing was awkward.

Now that I think about it, though, it would've been interesting to see how they reacted if I bowed back.

But still, VERY AWKWARD.

PREFABRICATED WHAT? SURELY YOU JEST!

2010-05-21T02:05:00.003+08:00

To celebrate my long period of inactivity, I bring to you the most mind numbing post in the history of my blog. If you get a headache, skip to the end for a sidestory.

So here's the main topic of discussion:

The universe started with everyone in th-

Ah, I'm too lazy.

---------------------------------

Side story : Just another day wasted.

8:30am : Wake up then had breakfast, shower, etc.

9am : I turned on my PC and did the usual news checking and such

10am : Proceeded to play the game Elona which I started playing 3 days ago.

...
....
.....

10PM : "HOLY SHIT! DID I JUST SPEND THE LAST 12 HOURS PLAYING ELONA?

-end-

Kickboxing

2010-05-03T12:50:00.003+08:00

I've actually known about this guy for quite a while now but most people probably don't.

The name : Yuichiro "Jien'otsu" Nagashima
The job : Kickboxing
The hobby : Cosplaying

You'd think people in sports would hide their hobbies, especially nerdy ones from the public but this guy doesn't. In fact, he cosplays as he enters the ring.

The good : Bridging a gap between anime culture and kickboxing
The bad : Bridging a gap between anime culture and kickboxing

The good probably outweighs the bad, considering how (or so I hear) fighting sports aren't as popular as before. Plus he brings publicity to the sport (albeit not necessarily good, but hey, publicity!).

Watch this:

You will notice:
1. His cosplaying
2. His fans
3. Him getting beat in the first round by a Dutch K-1 fighter (Albert Kraus).

"When a man wears a dress, there's something wrong with him or he's gay." -Albert Kraus

"I cannot come back home and tell that I lost to a guy with a dress." - Kraus

Gee, good thing he didn't!

But that doesn't mean Jien'otsu is weak either. He's the top K-1 fighter in his weight class in Japan but the world stage is definitely a whole new level.

Oops

2010-04-16T12:21:00.003+08:00

Got my offer from UWA. But wait!! What's this??

Noooo!!! It's a course for NEXT year!

Well... I suppose I could wait one more ye- WAIT!!

Noooo!!!

Explanation:

A while ago, I received an e-mail from UWA that there is no Physics course for July, apparently. That means I will either have to choose another course from UWA or go for 2011's intake.

So when I read this, it's not really a surprise to me. HOWEVER, the note came as a surprise to me. So now sure hope NUS sends me an e-mail soon. And if that doesn't work out, good thing I still have Curtin, Perth. =)

PIZZA

2010-04-02T18:48:00.002+08:00

PIZZA!

I MADE SOME!

K BYE!

It's GONE!

2010-04-01T18:06:00.002+08:00

My mole! It's gone!

Cling what?

2010-03-31T13:29:00.002+08:00

Mom walked in the room with a ridiculously short tie and a strap.

She asked me to try tying it up with the strap so you can hang it on your neck... as a tie.

Apparently, that tie is part of a school uniform in my brother's school. Either you use that tie or you use a normal tie.

Me "Why didn't he just get a normal tie?!"
Mom "Out of stock."
Me "Well, I can't tie a tie this short."

After tons of discussion among my mom and sister, my sister gave up trying to tell our mom that it's impossible to tie up and went "Okay okay, I'll see if I can fix it."

Brother walks in.

Sis starts inquiring about the tie.

Sis "What kind of tie do you call this?"
Bro "I dunno... Cling-on?"

My sis and I both laughed. I'm not sure if my brother got the joke.

I'm not sure if you guys get the joke either.

Google the term "Klingon".

Yeah, we're all geeks, aren't we?

UBD Japanese Culture Week

2010-03-16T00:40:00.005+08:00

There was a UBD Japanese Culture Week thing held last week at the Chancellor Hall of UBD.

Hui Zhen and Chai Eng planned to go (sun bian, cos we'd be going to Chia Yuin's place later that day as well) but they couldn't make it.

So in the end, I went with Huat and my brother. I met some PTEM clubmates and my brother met some of his friends there too!

The event speaks for itself, it's all about Japanese Culture stuff, and the first booth we go to would be...

Note : Be prepared for LOTS OF IMAGES!

You can't say you didn't see this coming.

I shall now proceed to post pictures in a random order.

These would be too small for my face.

I love this anime. It's very slow paced! So I don't recommend it. >_>

Martial arts booth

Dose of nostalgia right here. My brother and I used to play this but we don't know where it is anymore.

... It's a flower. Move along now.

Woooahhhhh, ORIGINAL CDS IN BRUNEI!!

I don't really like this anime but I know loads of people who do. Blargh.

Isn't this the SHINIEST CD you ever saw?

Another dose of nostalgia here. I think we still have a Totoro LD somewhere around the house.

Sticks

Flash makes things look new and shiny.

A figure from my favourite anime!

A One Piece poster!

This line of figures are called Figmas. You can pose them!

Oh I should mention she's from the anime Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.

Matryoshka... Ninjas? And some sandals

A photo of a photo. Are you confused yet?

It's a dog.

She wasn't in the anime booth. That kimono might be the reason.

Closeup!

Here we have a doll.

Here we have fake food.

Here we have real food.

Touhou Cans!

+150 HP

Papercraft! There's a program you can use to print papercraft which is a paper with lines and stuff to tell you how to fold them to make... papercraft!

Kimono!

Wait... What's that?

...What?

This is figma Drossel.

FATE/STAY NIGHT!!!

A god!

Hatsune Miku figma!

Dining cloth? Poster?

Lucky Star figmas.

Woah, moar Original CDs!!! And look, they have Tainaka Sachi!! But... Where's Makino Yui?

Yes, you can dress up with these. No girls with us, though. They have guy stuff but... Go figure.

See those three books up there? They're from my favourite anime ARIA. I saw them in the Japan Culture Week last year. And saw them again in Kinokuniya Singapore. I bought one of them. Then I saw them again in Taiwan. I bought the remaining two. I have all three now. (Could have used that money to buy myself a new computer... part. Heh)

HULK TAKE THE DOMINATING POSITION BECAUSE HULK CANNOT BE POSED!! HULK SMASHHH!!

These guys are countries. The one holding a pizza is most likely Italy.

Night of Nights

2010-02-20T01:40:00.006+08:00

On Feb 19th 2010, we went to Chia Yuin's house to bai nian.

I found out about it from Heng Huat about one hour before the appointed time. (Appointed time was at 7:30)

Because someone forgot to tell me about it. o_o;

"You going tonight?" - Huat
"What?" - Me

The whole night was pretty normal. Some gambling, some games, some chatting.

11-ish was when everything started - when the sane people went home.

It all started with the card game In-between.

Each player puts a dollar in the pile and is then drawn 2 cards.
When it's your turn, you choose to opt out, or play.
When you play, you state a sum of money, then draw a card.
Drawn card must be a value in between the two cards.
If drawn card is past the value, you add the stated sum of money in the pile.
If drawn card is the same value as one of your cards, you add twice the stated sum.

It started slow, some won a dollar, some won five, most lost one per round.

Then the stakes rose - no one won anything big so the pile went up.

I can't remember the order it happened, but Wayne and his compatriots, Foo and Tung Lik, lost it big time - twice.

Dexter probably lost some as well but the most memorable was Wayne's double splashes.

The whole table celebrated their loss with great joy and noise - that's how badly they lost.

"Seeing Wayne lose money is the best feeling I get!" - Alex

The highest amount the stakes went up to was about 80 to 90 dollars.

"Ask Dexter, he should remember it very clearly." - Huat

Then everyone decided to go home.

Doesn't end here, oh no.

It's 1 am.

I get in Alex's car and we wait for the other guys to drive away.

And we hear a BUMP sound.

Let's just say Collie and Eng Kee's parents might not be so happy about it.

The car Collie drove in had some scratches.

The car Eng Kee drove in had a dent.

"LET'S CHECK OUT THE NUMBER PLATES!" - Alex

After much discussion about the mishap...

"Who broke this flower pot?!?!?" - Chia Yuin

No one knew who the mystery flowerpot breaker was....

After that, everyone returned to their respective vehicles and continued on their journey home.

-xd

Three signs your housekeeper has been working with you for too long

2010-02-18T19:11:00.002+08:00

We have a housekeeper.

Her name is Allie.

She's been working here for a long time, since my brother and I were kids.

She does her job and she does it well.

But maybe she's been working here too long?

Why, you may ask?

1. She skips the soup

While eating, I turned to the back to check and see if we had soup.
Mom "Looking for the soup?"
Me "None for today?"
Mom "Yeah, Allie decided not to cook up any today."

2. She instructs herself

Mom "Hmm... No carrots in the soup?"
Allie "Oh, I tell myself no need."

3. She knows the house better than I do

This one needs no examples.

----------------

That, and some other signs have become a running joke at the dining table.

Dad "This soup tastes a little off, where's the carrots?"
Mom "Allie decided not to add it."
Me [imitating Allie] "I tell myself no need."

-xd

This is their fun side?

2010-02-08T00:04:00.004+08:00

Happy birthday, Sing Yee!

Yes, we went over to Sing Yee's to celebrate her birthday. Those who went were a bunch of girls from our F5A class plus Chia Yuin, Jasmine, Alex, Pui King, Mak, Kok Kiong and Ten Fang.

Guess what the topic was that night?

A Level results.

Yup, the girls were all talking about results, universities and careers like the way they do all the time back in Form 5.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem that way to Alex as he said to me (while the girls were talking ever so loudly)

"Ughh... They all talking about serious stuff eh."

"Yeah..." I'm used to this anyway.

Girls get louder and start to laugh

I continued : "Yeah, to them this is casual."

Alex : "Arghghhhhh ZZZZZ Wanna sleep liao!"

--------

In any case, it was a fun night for me, catching up with a bunch of friends. As for my results? I'm quite satisfied... considering. >_>

Interweb friend Kriegus:

"wtf your results! you and your 'minimum effort maximum output' >_>"

blarg

Cosplaying

2010-02-02T22:41:00.003+08:00

After AFA and EOY (the anime conventions I've been to), I've been really into cosplayers. They all look amazing and work really hard on their costumes and such.

So I was thinking, if I work out and get fit (HAHAHA I KNOW RIGHT?), would I be able to pull off a character from an animation?

Then I started considering who I could cosplay as.

Then I saw a thread in a forum and saw this character. Anyone remember him?

Heck, I don't think I can, though. Buff Dexter has huge arms and he's bald. O_O

Well, in any case, I ended up rewatching the movie again. Ah the nostalgia~ haha

You can find the movie in youtube, by the way.

Part 1 here.

AIYA!

2010-01-29T00:20:00.002+08:00

Okay so my sister downloaded a whole bunch of series and my brother watches some. This time, he's watching Big Bang theory. Totally nerdy show. Yes, perfect for me. So far I understood almost all the Physics references and even noticed some mistakes.

Why am I showing off how nerdy I am?

So yeah, just watched this episode where the guy is trying to learn MANDARIN.

IT WAS HILARIOUS! Here's a video.

Back to blogging

2010-01-15T13:53:00.007+08:00

You don't actually expect me to remember what happened in Singapore, do you?

Didn't think so.

So I'll be posting about Taiwan.

Oh, before that, I should mention that we went to Kota Kinabalu for a huge Teo family reunion. Okay, that's that done with. On to Taiwan!

I was disappointed : No snow in Taiwan but hey, the cold was great! I like cool weather! (It was around 16 degrees Celsius there highest)

So we arrive at night time around 9:30pm Taiwan time. That's about 10pm Brunei time. Oh hey, same time zone!

Family stops outside duty free to buy liquor so I went to pee.

On the way to... that place that stamps your passports, we come across an advertisement.

Here's a fun game to play on your way to the hotel : count the number of 7-11s there are.

I saw two 7-11 stores right across the road from each other. Talk about convenience!

Arriving at the hotel, the lobby was small and we saw couples going in.

Hmm...

We go to our rooms. I shared rooms with my brother and started flipping channels on TV.

He surveys the room and goes "I think this is one of those love hotels."

I flip to channel 16 and all doubt was erased.

I go "Yeah it is."

Wait... What was on channel 16? Here's a MSN chat log between me and Heng Huat when I got back.

Me : Hey guess what kind of hotel I stayed in???
Huat : The one with porn on channel 5?
Me : No, the one with porn on channel 16!

So yeah, that concludes our first night.

Since we took lots of photos, I'll just post them and erase the need to type anymore.

The moon during the night of the reunion. (Dec 31)

Sunset at the airport (Jan 1)

Wowee an Aston Martin! (Jan 2)

Pair of balls outside SOGO.

Spongebob and Patrick

XIAO LONG BAOOOOOOOO @ SOGO

EOY and Yui Makino!~

2009-12-27T21:22:00.006+08:00

Took lots of cosplay photos at EOY but I'm still uploading them.

Also attended Yui Makino's concert which was AWESOME!! It was my first concert ever!

I also got her autograph!

Sadly, can't take photos or videos of her during the main concert. Her manager was strict about that.

-------------

Photo of her by the Banzai Effect. More photos by them here.

There was a mini concert about 2-3 hours before the actual concert where she sang Amrita, You are my Love and Fuwa Fuwa (Fuwa Fuwa is her new single coming next year on March 3rd)

Before her mini concert, the MCs were introducing her and I realise many people didn't know who Yui Makino was until...

MC "She also voiced Sakura from Tsubasa Chronicles..."

which was when some people went "OMG that was her?!?"

The mini concert was a blast and the actual one even moreso.

---------------
In the main concert,

She started by singing Euphoria, a song from the anime Aria then she started talking to the audience without anyone to translate.

So she used simple Japanese. It was just like listening to Satoko sensei in my Japanese classes. XD

"My next song is a song I'm not sure if many of you are familiar with."
-pause-
-everyone nods-
"It's Amrita from Tsubasa Chronicles."
-pause-
-everyone nods-
"I'll be singing that now."
-everyone cheers-

It was so cute when she did that. =3

---------------

Before she got to the last piece which was her little present for all who were attending, she got a pleasant surprise.

Yoshimi (who was the translator by the way) and some people came out with a huge birthday cake!

Turns out her birthday was going to be on January 19th and the organizers decided to celebrate her birthday early.

She got even more surprised when everyone in the audience stood up and sang her a birthday song. =D

She proceeded to return the favor with her last piece which was a piano solo she played for the film Love Letter.

---------------

After her last piece, everyone called for an encore which was fulfilled by her singing Harukaze Machi, a coupling song from her upcoming single if I'm not mistaken.

After the concert, me and Huat went for the autograph session. (Huat went for the second time, there was an autograph session earlier after the mini concert which I didn't attend)

Voila~

First MRT ride (since a looong time)

2009-12-27T21:16:00.002+08:00

MRT riding is exciting!
It's so fun!
It's so fast!
I like it when the train stops and everyone jolts forward a bit!

Our first ride was interesting.

We went the wrong way.

Why?

Huat "There's another line somewhere around this terminal that goes the other way, wanna find it?"

Me "TOO LATE! MRT'S HERE GOGOGO!"

So we reach Marina Bay terminal.

Speaker "This service terminates here."

Huat "See... now what? Let's find the train that goes the other way."

So we go out the MRT.

Me "WAIT! Follow me!"

And I rush back in through the other door and ask a group of people.

Me "Does this train go back the other way?"

Them "Yup, just sit down and wait."

Me "See! =D"

And we went back through all our stops and arrive at I forgot where.

But if we used the train that goes the other way, we only had one stop to go. xd

Yui Makino!~!~!~

2009-12-27T17:23:00.001+08:00

EoY was awesome!! Yui Makino was awesome!!

There was a mini concert too! (We weren't allowed to record the main concert though)

Here's a video someone uploaded. (I hope I don't get killed by the studio for linking this)

Cosplay photos

2009-12-21T00:54:00.003+08:00

Gonna be gone for the rest of the week.

Did I remember to link cosplay photos here?

Ah heck, here they are.

More cosplay from AFA can be found at SGCafe

I like this cosplay from Yatterman :

On the phone with an operator

2009-12-19T16:26:00.003+08:00

-operator greets me-
Me : Good afternoon. Can I have the phone number for _____?
Operator : Okay, ___ was it? That would be #######
Me : Okay, thank you.
Operator : You're welcome.

At this point, I was hoping she'd put down the phone. (Wonder how many people wait for the other side to put down the phone.)

She didn't. So It was 5 seconds of awkward silence.

...

Me : Uhh... Have a nice day.
Operator : Thank you, you too.

In the elevator

2009-12-15T22:49:00.002+08:00

I don't remember if I mentioned this but I met cosplayers in the hotel lift back in Singapore.

Three instances.

First day I saw two cosplayers dressed as elves. I think they went for the Cosplay Grand Prix. Didn't see them around.

Day 2 when going back from AFA, me and huat met three cosplayers. I asked them where they're from and they told me they were from Thailand. Cool!

Found a photo of them in the SGCafe forums:

After that, we went back down the lift and saw yet another cosplayer who was off to the lobby or was it the dining area.

Feels awesome; like being in the same lift as a celebrity. @.@

Sleeping arrangements

2009-12-15T12:22:00.002+08:00

Just now at lunch, we were discussing about sleeping arrangements in the hotel when we go to Taipei.

Chen : "So Theng has a room all to herself?"
Mom : "I think I'll be in the same room as her."

Dad : "Makes sense, you're both quiet. Chen, let's share a room and see who snores the loudest. We'll be like a stereo."

Chen : "Haha"

Dad : "And if Siaw Ying joins us, we can be a surround sound system."
-------------

This made me wonder.... I think only 3 people in the family snore very little which would be Theng, my mom, and me. The other 7 are snorers.

I remember sleeping in the same room in Empire once with 3 of the snorers, stayed up watching cartoon network till 3am.

At AFA - The Karaoke Booth!

2009-12-12T18:59:00.002+08:00

As mentioned in the previous post, there was a karaoke booth and they had big speakers so everyone could hear you sing.

The sad thing about the karaoke booth was that the lyrics were in Japanese. So you'd have to be really familiar with the song or else... you know... you'd fail.

Shugo Chara cosplayers. The girl cosplaying Amu was singing God Knows from Haruhi Suzumiya. Her voice was great and there were lots of people crowding around her.

One of the o_o|| singers. He was singing Cirno's Perfect Math Class and he wasn't doing so well. I helped him with the "BAKA!! BAKA!!" part by shouting it out loud.

And everyone around started doing the same thing.
It felt awesome.

I forgot what he was singing. I just had to take a photo. Because he's Death The KIDD!!

After hearing the Hinamori Amu cosplayer sing God Knows, I really wanted to give it a shot. So I went and took a look at the songlist. Surprisingly, they had songs from Shaman King and DIGIMON (oh my god!!). So I asked them if I could sing Butterfly from Digimon.

THEY DIDN'T HAVE THE SONG T_T

Actually, they didn't have a LOT of songs that were on the list so I ended up not singing. *sad*

To AFA - AFA!!

2009-12-10T00:39:00.007+08:00

When we got there, there was this LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG queue outside the hall and I was like "oh shit, do we have to queue up that LOONG??!!"

So I moved around and it turns out the queue was for buying tickets. MADNESS!
But other than that, no queue for entry. So I went in after calling Huat and his brother.

After I went in, I wanted to start going everywhere but I realised Huat and his brother weren't around.

So I look out and didn't see them. But who cares, I went on ahead. XD

Here's a map!

So I'll just make the text short since I realise the pointlessness of blogging this without photos. DEEPLY REGRETTING NOT BRING A CAMERA. T_T
Note : Entrance at the bottom of the map.

Two red boxes on the right side are Cospa and KKNM. These two shops are PACKED. See the red line? That's the queue. I'm not sure of the Cospa queue, but the KKNM queue stretched all the way to the back, it was crazy. Needless to say, I didn't bother queuing.

I'll just focus on 4 shops which I bought stuff from. Will put photos in another post.

Saw Aria figures at LaTendo (1) but wasn't so sure if I wanted since they didn't have Akari. Decided to buy Alice on Day 2 but she was sold out. T_T
Ended up getting Rider Maid, though. =)

Didn't pay much attention to KuroCha (2) on day 1 but on day 2, Huat told me about Unity May so I went to check it out and bought it after lots of thought.

Collateral Damage Studios (3) sold posters, badges, postcards, lots of fanmade merchandise. Bought badges, poster and postcard on day 2.

Shanghai (4) was a shop from... Shanghai. They sold wooden (SGD40) and plastic (SGD50) swords. The swords were selling like hotcake, it was Woahhh. They also had Cloud's sword from FF7:AC which cost SGD100 but it comes with 7 swords inside. O_O Bought a sword from Fate/Stay Night - Dark Saber's Excalibur.

Let's see... Atsuki GL (green box) had some awesome ball jointed dolls which Winnie would probably go crazy over, not too sure about that, but they looked elegant with the clothes. My camera does no justice to their looks. -stabs self-

Here's some photos I took with my phone. I resized them lol

Animax area had a small dubbing studio where you can voice over characters from anime. I only remember them having K-On and Bleach up for dubbing, forgot the other two (if there was another two). Highlight of this booth was a guy voicing over a girl character... o.o;

Over at Extravaganza, they had two tablets (?) where anyone could use to draw stuff. Pretty cool idea. Nearby, there's a bunch of white paper on the wall where people could come by and draw stuff too.

More phone camera photos (-_-;;) in the next post.

To AFA - Srs Day 1 post is srs

2009-12-05T12:46:00.005+08:00

Okay what we actually did in day one (the wonton part was true, by the way), was nothing much. It was 20th November which means we needed to get our pre-registered tickets for AFA.

It was also the last day of exams for those back in Brunei, whee!~

Some info on our pre-registered tickets :
-We booked them through the internet.
-We needed to get them from Suntec Exhibition Hall the day before AFA.
-We (probably) needed to bring along our booking e-mail as well.

Here's the catch : I left my e-mail at home in Brunei. (You can imagine how Huat went "=_=" when I told him about that in the airport.

Huat, however, had his e-mail, and his brother's e-mail, and even Shin Kai's e-mail (who was taking Physics I back in Brunei so we had to help him buy the tickets).

I DID NOT HAVE AN E-MAIL!!

So I was worrying about this the whole morning until we went to the ticketing booth.

Huat : So what are you gonna do?
Me : I dunno. Just go la.

Huat goes to a counter and I go to another one.

Counterperson : So you're here for pre-registered tickets?
Me : Yes
Counterperson : Do you have the e-mail?
Me : Nope, forgot about it and left it at home.
Counterperson : I see. Do you have the $25, though?
Me : Yup.
Counterperson : Okay then.

I got a ticket.

Huat could not believe it.

Neither could I.

But woohoo I got a ticket!
---------------------
For the rest of the day, I can't remember what we did. We probably went back to Raffles City and had high tea at Shokudo - it's an awesome Japanese food court with tons of different food stalls that sell different stuff - even stuff I've never heard before like thin pizza or... stuff. They also had those plastic food displays that look real.

UNFORTUNATELY, the wrath of the wonton noodles was unforgiving. I did not have the appetite so I went for a plate of 4 balls of takoyaki. =(

UNFORTUNATELY, I did not take any photos throughout the trip. Sorry folks. I'll make sure to bring a camera next time. >_<

Oh god, my memories' totally messed up. I don't remember having dinner that day. Did we have dinner? ARG! Really should've taken some photos.
------------------

Edit: Okay, so we had dinner. It was at Mushroom Pot where we had mushroom steamboat.

And before that, we went to Kinokuniya where we spent QUITE a while in. I bought two artbooks : one about Aria and one about headphones.

Menu for day 1:

Before dawn : McD
Arrive at SG : Spicy Wonton Noodles
Raffles City : Takoyaki
Dinner : Mushroom Steamboat

To AFA - Day 1 in Singapore

2009-12-04T14:08:00.002+08:00

So we get to Singapore, ride a taxi to our hotel and wait for Huat's mom who will be here in 3 hours give or take a few.

We head for breakfast...

I decided to order some wonton noodles.

BAD IDEA!!!

It was spicy as heck and it ruined my appetite for the rest of the trip. =(

After that, we hanged around in Raffles City waiting for Huat's mom to arrive in SG.

Uh oh... I'm beginning to forget what happened. Memories all mixed up...

So yeah, that was the second day in AFA and then we head to KL. The end.

Wikipedia teaches us so many things

2009-12-02T22:58:00.002+08:00

For one, I never knew Hannah Montana was Jewish.

Taking a break from AFA posts with this. xd

To AFA - Do you know how to spell?

2009-11-28T21:11:00.002+08:00

We arrive at the airport and things go smoothly (for real) and we go in to wait for our flight.

We took our seats in front of the gate entrance and just talk. Halfway through, we look up to the next row of seats and see Chai Eng staring right at us.

Yes, it was Chai Eng.

Chai Eng : "'Shock' this word you know how to spell ah?"

Huat : "'S-h-i-o-k', right?"

So yeah, helluva coincidence. We boarded the same flight, too. (which got delayed by roughly an hour bleh)

-------------------

Vroom vroom, we're at KL and after the passport chopping and stuff, we go get our luggage.

We waited for QUITE a while and the same bags keep turning up. None of ours.

Yes, we triple checked and it was indeed the belt we were supposed to be in.

So we just wait there and

SUDDENLY

The bags started clumping up together and they got stuck. The guy nearest to the clumped up bags stared at them.

Bags start clumping more and more.

Huat worries.

Guy crosses his arms and stands back.

And more clump up.

Huat is annoyed.

Guy looks to the back, expecting people to come over.

Bags fall off.

Huat explodes and goes over to fix the problem.

More people come over and problem solved.

Guy hangs out with his buddies at the back watching everything happen.

Someone talks to the authorities and they realise the luggage people were putting the bags in the wrong belt so they clear the belt and our luggage finally start to appear.

We part ways with Chai Eng and hang out with Huat's brother for the rest of the night at McDonalds till our flight to Singapore at 6am.

To AFA - Before departure pt. 2

2009-11-26T00:50:00.002+08:00

Cont'd from here (the post below)

After dinner, we head off to the airport. My mom starts the car. My brother tags along in the front seat. Me and Huat sit at the back of the car.

Huat "So you didn't forget anything this time?"
Me "Of course not."

Huat was not convinced.

Huat "Boarding pass?"
Me "Here."

Huat "Okay."
Me "Heh."
------------

Not more than 1 minute later...

Me "Oh yeah, you have my passport, right?"
Huat "What? No."

Mom "Arrrghh" (starts turning back to the house)

Me "I'M SURE IT'S IN THE CAR!! WEE! (my bro) LOOK AROUND THE FRONT SEAT!!"
Bro "Nope, not here."

Whole car panics.

Me "Bah, reverse home I go check!"

As my mom starts reversing...

Bro "This one?"

Me "See! It was in the car!"

Everyone : (=_=;)

Side note : My dad was outside the car just looking at us panicking minus the voices.

To AFA - Before departure

2009-11-25T21:42:00.002+08:00

In case some of you don't know, Huat and I went to Singapore for Anime Fest Asia 2009. I'll probably post more about it over the next few days... or weeks.

Some stuff happened before we even got on the plane.

We decided to check in our luggage at the airport then go for dinner over at my place since I live close to the airport. I was to meet Huat at the airport for check in.

------------------------
On the way to check in : in the car.

Mom : "Okay, so you have the passport and itinerary?"
Me : "Yup."
Mom : "Kay ,that's everything."

2 minutes after leaving home...

Me : "Oh right, I __________ (Guess)
Mom : "Argghhh" (turns back home)

2 more minutes, reached home.

(opens door)

Brother : "Forgot your luggage?"
Me : "Yeah..."
----------------------

So yeah, that happened. And something else but I lazy. arg

F-f-f-f-f-f-f-funky muzik!

2009-11-14T01:33:00.003+08:00

1. I can find many sites to amuse me on the internet : this assures I don't need to go to bed until I feel guilty about it (3am)

2. My brother listens to songs on his iPod before he goes to sleep.

3. My dad bought one of those iPod speakers for my brother.

4. My brother sleeps while leaving the speakers on.

5. Add these up and you get one blarg post!

------------------------------------

So I go up to our room at 3:30am and hear korean music playing.

"Ah well,he'll prolly turn it off when I go in."

Turns out he was sleeping, so I just laid on my bed guessing who was singing, thinking I might go to sleep as well.

This went on for 20 minutes.

"Wow, 3:50 already and I still can't sleep. Hope a slow one comes up soon."

So yeah, a slow one comes up and I start to doze off...

...

Speakers start playing Gee.

I start lipsyncing the lyrics to Gee

and dancing while lying down on my bed.

So I'm wide awake for the next 10 minutes. It's 4:00 then.

I decide to go out the room and sleep outside. It was okay until mosquitoes start waking up so I went back in.

4:20 was the time.

My brain decides to start working and goes "Just turn off the iPod durrr"

Oh.

4:23 - I took 3 minutes to figure out how to turn it off.

4:30 - I can finally rest in serenity.

4:31

My brother goes "ZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"

"Oh crap, he's gonna start snoring now?!"

Thankfully, he didn't and I was spared from another half hour of staying awake.

Chewie

2009-11-11T12:48:00.004+08:00

copying from MSN

=============================================

Huat says (11:59 @#!#!@$):
how was the test?

.FishBall. says (12:05 P#@$#%):
test was bleh
i just started writing nonsense when 5 mins left
M, M+2 and M+4 i resorted to drawing a graph
lol

Huat says (12:08 P#@$#%):
you couldn't finish?

.FishBall. says (12:08 P#@$#%):
i prolly could finish if i knew what i was doing
it's not a matter of time, though
it's more a matter of "lol let's d2* instead of study"
*d2 = diablo 2, a game

if can get C good liao lol
what would a breakdown of BACCB give me? lol
damn, hope my P5 get A
then it spells out BACCA
Teo BACCA
lol

if you pronounce it in japanese way, it's Cheo BACCA
which would sound like CHEWBACCA from star wars
andrew would appreciate that humor

...
probably not

Huat says (12:10 P#@$#%):
you really ought to blog this

=============================================

What I notice from my chats :
1. Lots of "lol"s
2. Huat typed 3 lines... I typed almost 20.

Boo!

2009-11-09T01:21:00.002+08:00

Seeing Sing Yee's mask on the chms blog reminded me of a time when I was a kid.

I was like 6 years old at the time (everything happens to me when I was 6 years old) and I was at New Zealand with my family.

...Or was I 12? Yeah I was probably 12.

So this happened one night in our house in NZ. It was night time and the lights outside the bathroom were off. I was brushing my teeth and halfway through, two of my sisters walked in and asked me to follow them.

WOULDN'T HURT TO FOLLOW THEM, RIGHT?
Plus, they already grabbed my hands anyway so let's just go along with this.

Let me remind you, it was dark outside the bathroom with only the bathroom light illuminating the outside.

And in that faint light, another of my sisters popped up from a handrail with a freakishly scary Halloween mask (faint light gives the mask +scary points).

IT WASN'T EVEN HALLOWEEN!

I go-stun (reverse) faster than my body could normally handle and thank goodness the two sisters who held my hand held tight enough that I didn't fall over and bang my head on the toilet.

After that, I refused to go upstairs anymore (I end up getting forced up anyway) and deep within me grew a 'hatred like no other'* towards the sister with the mask on. I also avoided her room like the plague.

* - for dramatic effect

She used it on me one more time, maybe two, the few days after that and my mom ended up destroying the mask and throwing it away.

......Damned Halloween mask scaring me shitless.

Working hard? Me? Unpossible!

2009-10-22T15:54:00.002+08:00

Many people who know me know that I am lazy.

How lazy? I don't do homework at home nor do I study.

Has A Levels changed that?

No.

Okay, maybe I do study for like 30 mins to 1 hour a day recently but that's still not a lot.
(Not to mention I take off days in my study leave too... like today.)

BUT!

What happens when you get a message one night asking you to prepare a farewell speech for your Japanese teacher who is going to leave in a month's time... due the next day?!?!
------------------------------
I was playing games as usual last night when I got the message.

"May I ask you to prepare a farewell speech for Miss Satoko tomorrow?"

Needless to say, my gaming mood almost crashed and it stressed me out.

So I 'consulted' Chia Yuin.

She just laughed through MSN. Very helpful.

So far today, I've been working on the speech for roughly 2 hours which equates to two minutes of speech. Already much more than I can handle if this were homework.

Chia Yuin and Hui Zhen will be expecting that speech.

It's due in 3 hours.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Being normal for once

2009-10-18T01:43:00.003+08:00

This happened in Japanese class. Basically, our teacher usually asks us to write up short conversations/dialogues involving phrases/vocabulary that we've just learnt.

I like to make up funny ones just because I can.
A typical example would be something like :
[Translated to English for your convenience]

(We have to use the word "attached/stuck" - as in stuck on your hair, face, or attached to the bag)

A: "Excuse me, there's some ink stuck on your face."
B: "Eh? Oh, this isn't ink!"
A: "Oops, my bad, sorry."

You'd wonder, "What's so funny about that?"

Let me remind you my face possesses a very prominent feature.

See it? That "ink" spot on my face? Yeah. That's how I spice up my little dialogues and everyone usually gets a laugh or a wtf out of that.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

But what happens when I don't have anything funny to make up?

(Scenario : You're planning a picnic trip and you check the weather forecast with a friend.)

Weather forecast person-guy:
Good morning, this is the weather forecast for today.
It was rainy yesterday, wasn't it?
Today, it will be sunny with some cloudiness later.

A: "Hey, that's great! We can go picnicking today!"
B: "But we're gonna be toast under the sun."
A: "No problems, we'll just bring an umbrella."
B: "Oh. Okay."

The room goes dead silent and everyone's waiting for me to continue and say something funny.

"Yeah, I'm done."

The guy across the room stared at me blankly and I caught his glance.
And he was like "Dude, that's so normal!"

Hao Lian

2009-09-30T23:41:00.004+08:00

Alex, Yu Heng and I were waiting for classes to begin.

Me : "Ah... exams starting on the 21st, for us, huh?"
"Oh wait... yours start earlier, right, Yu Heng?"

And it turns into a conversation about our AS level grades.

Yu Heng : "Yeah... HAIHHHH Why did I have to get a C for Maths!?!?!"

Alex : "HAIHHHH Why did I get an A for Maths??"

Me (not wanting to act pro) : "Right... I won't say anything."

Alex : "Haha! Your Maths breakdown lose to me!!"

....

Me : "HAIHHHH Why I get 3 A??"

Alex and Yu Heng : "WTH DAMN YOU"

Goosebumps

2009-09-22T21:15:00.004+08:00

MSN:

(9:14 PM) Huat:
don't tell me your blog's going to be dead for the whole holidays

SPOKE TOO SOON, HAH! I WAS PLANNING TO.
actually, one thing you guys should know, my blog is pretty much dead during holidays.
---------------

So yeah, on with the post.

It all happened earlier this evening.

It was 6:30
I was on the PC, doing what I do... That is using the PC.

My mom walks past my room. "We're going out for dinner at 6:50"

Ahh!! Tell me those things earlier! I was playing a visual novel and it was reaching the end and I was getting emotional about it.

So yeah, I had to put off the emotional ending for later (after I'm done posting this).

So I went and prepared. Did some business in the washroom. I left the water running for a bit while changing... And suddenly!

[VRURURURURURUP]
(This sound was not produced by any part of my body)

I jumped.

My hairs were standing.

Goosebumps all over my skin.

I thought the water I left running was exploding or something.

I calmed down.

Hurried downstairs

and walked out the house.

Turns out, my dad was playing with spiralling fireworks. O_O

So yeah, Selamat Hari Raya Eid el Fitr to my Muslim friends!

●

2009-09-12T23:11:00.002+08:00

Usual morning routine at school : Sleep

The bell signalling the first class went off and so I wake up.

Most of my registration class-mates are about gone then.

I look at the table in front of me. There's a phone.

"Hey, Yu Heng, there's a phone in the desk. You're having classes with the guy later, right?"

"Oh, that guy. I'll go catch up to him."
----

I take my time waking up and go on my way to class and I meet Yu Heng on the way.

"Got him the phone. Tried to explain who you were."

"Uh huh... o.O"

"I told him your name but he didn't know who was that. So I told him who you were and still not much of a response."

"Tried telling him I sleep all the time?"

"Yeah, then he knew who it was."

"I see."

"Yeah, he recognized you as the tahi lalat guy."

Beep

2009-09-09T12:42:00.002+08:00

Those temperature checks at school are still going on.

I usually rub my forehead like mad before getting checked.

On this particular day, it didn't work.

*beep*

"It's cold."

"Oh."

-a bit later-

"How about now?"

*beep*
*beep*
*beep* (he checked THREE TIMES, the beeping was annoying)

"Still cold."

This goes on for about 3-4 more times and IT WAS STILL COLD. O_O

So I went to the washroom.

Activated the hand drier.

Yes, you guessed it.

I placed my forehead under the hand drier for a few seconds and walked back to the beepi- checking area.

*beep*

"Okay."

Then we had to get our temperature cards signed by a teacher.

"Finally got through, huh?"

"Yeah, I had to use a hand drier."

"Eh?"

Awkward

2009-09-06T12:41:00.004+08:00

Went to watch Final Destination with Huat, Wayne, Foo, Lik, Mak, Crystal, Yoke Khee, Nisa and Sing Yee last night.
------------------------------------------
Before the movie:

We were outside the cinema just hanging around.
Foo and Lik got here so we greeted and stuff.
Foo greeted me with a handshake.
"haha a handshake" I thought to myself.
"Long time no see man!" One of us said, I don't remember who.
I don't think it was that long though.

So yeah, we went into the cinema after that.
------------------------------------------
After the movie:

Everyone's talking about the movie. Talking about how it wasn't as good as the previous movies (well duh).

Not that I watched any of the previous movies so this was okay I guess.

So yeah, I was just listening to what they were saying and stuff like I normally do.

Then I glanced over at Foo.

He started acting nervous.

"WhY yOu MaKiNg ThIs So AwKwArD, mAn?!?" He said, nervously, to me.

"What I do?" O_O

Blackout II

2009-08-24T20:13:00.002+08:00

So I was watching an anime.

"Kagura gave Yomi a Pocky stick and she herself started biting down on the other side of the stick.
She then stared into Yomi's eyes... and tears started flowing."

BZZT-

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
----------------------
This was the start of 2 hours of boredom. Yes, the electricity went out...

"and the technician guys are probably having their sungkai." My father hypothesized.

So we ate dinner early while my mom was out.
----------------------
After dinner, I went out for a walk and my mom got back.

"...Why are you out here??"

"Can't I just take a walk for no reason whatsoever?"

"<_<"

"No electricity"

"OHHHH No wonder la!"
----------------------
I was asked to light a candle in the living room so I did that.
I stared into the flames.
"You know what would be interesting? Put a piece of tissue over me!" beckoned the flame.
So I did that.

At first, it browned a bit. Slowly.

Then FWOOSH a big fire started on the tissue.

I blew on it. It grew bigger.

With no other ideas, I wrapped it in my hands - a manly act - and it worked.

Such courage came with a loss. I think some of my finger hairs got burnt. The tiny ones. I guess I'll have to wait another decade for them to grow.
----------------------
I then went upstairs to play some Tekken DR on the PSP. I got butchered. I suck at Tekken.
----------------------
Back down, I began to feel sleepy. My brother complained about mosquitoes so I thought of a great idea.

I went in the car.

30 minutes later, it started to get stuffy so I went out and decided to just sleep on the couch. To hell with mosquitoes I want some breeze.

Not long later, the electricity came back on! I am happy now. ^^

In Physics... and etc

2009-08-21T21:11:00.004+08:00

Exams ended here in PTEM. Exams started over at MD. HAH! HAH!

But it seems the results over the entire school are... crap. According to my teacher regarding his subject, his classes are the worst ones he's picked up since 1975, which is kinda sad. Our school might be looking at the worst results of Brunei in its opening year.
---------------------
Physics
Quote of the last week during Physics exam was

"In Physics, we can make time go faster."

Guess what the teacher meant.

Anyone?

He adjusted the clock time and turned it to 8am - the exam's starting time.

"You may begin."

By then, everyone would probably scream "WHAT?!" but time was of the essence so we all started writing.
--------------------
GP
Nothing interesting here, just thought I'd put it in since I put the other 3 subjects here. It's pathetic, really. I got 64% (C).

"You can do better next time." my teacher said.

"There won't be a next time."

Aye, I didn't take GP for November so I'm REALLY hoping my June results for GP come out as B or something. Otherwise, it's IELTS for me. =P
--------------------
Chemistry
Totally blanked out when doing the Chemisty paper 4 (which I got like 47/100)
Sad thing about that was that most of the others got lower than me. Highest was a 58/100 for paper 4.

Question :
H2O2 will eventually decompose (into H2O), suggest a method to slow this process.

My answer, after thinking for 5 seconds :
Store in a cool dry place.

Sadly, that was not the right answer.
--------------------
Mathematics
It's hard for me to remember peoples' names. I've been asked to distribute papers for quite a few times by Mr. D to the students and I always get stuck while looking at specifically the names of the girls over at the right side of the class. All 3 rows of them.

Except for one, who usually puts DNA on her paper, short for... like I said, I'm terrible with names.

So exams finished and I was asked to give back the papers. First paper was named "D soemthing something something"

So I took a guess and handed it to the girl in row 2.

"No... it's DNA's."

And I walk over to her.

"You could've put DNA like you always do!!!"

Luckily for me, no one else had put their names since it's just the exam question papers so I was safe... for the time being.

Wait... what was that?

2009-08-18T21:50:00.002+08:00

At Japanese class, discussing about what we were gonna do on December during the holidays.

Hui Zhen would be going to Kuching.
I would probably be going to Japan.

And Chia Yuin makes a surprising revelation!
"I might be going to Japan too."

"Then can we stay in your hotel for free? =D"

"No."

"Aww."

"If you want, you have to pay!"

Then she starts calculating.

"5000 yen a night!"

O_O

"Can you repeat that "5000 yen a night" thing?"

"Huh?"

At that point she realised what she said and we had a good laugh about it. =D

Complexities

2009-08-06T21:27:00.002+08:00

We were revising complex numbers today.

"(z-1+i)"

Mr Donald wrote that up on the board.

"Does anyone know what the other factor is?

"(z-1-i)"

So he puts that up on the board.

(z-1+i)(z-1-i)

"Okay. How do you get the equation?"

No one responds. [The answer is by expanding the thing, by the way]

-bang-
He slams at the first z.

-bang-
He slams at the second z.

-bang-
He slams at -1.

At this point, I was thinking that the bangs were coming in a rhythmic beat.

-bang-
{sounds like and African ritual dance}

-bang-
{should I do it?}

-bang-
{and embarass yourself?}

-bang-
{who do you think I am?}

-more bang-
{your life, your choice}

-last bang-
I jumped up and waved my hands while yelling in gibberish.

The teacher stared blankly at me for a few seconds.
The class burst into laughter.
He got so kek dao he left the class trying to hold in his laughs.

17X

2009-08-02T19:24:00.002+08:00

So it seems me and my YOUNGER brother's difference in height is beginning to show.

My parents went to fetch this Chinese doctor from China (duh) at the airport. As usual, I was in front of the computer playing my games. (Despite having a test tomorrow)

So she tours the house and stumbles upon my room.

[Conversation is in Chinese]
"Hello, nice to see you."

"Hiya."

"So, where's your older brother? I didn't see him around."

At this point, I was wondering whether I should play along or not.

"Err.. He's probably outside."

"Ah, okay."

"By the way, I'm the older brother."

"I see...
Then the one on the photo up there is your younger brother?"

...
....
.....

"Still me."

Iterative Methods

2009-07-22T14:56:00.002+08:00

My jolly maths teacher Mr. Donald was teaching us about Iterative Methods today.

"Sometimes, you can't get the roots for something like x^3 + x - 1 no matter what method you try. That's where iterative methods come in.

Here's an example of how it works:"

He then comes over to my desk.

"Ian. I am thinking of a number between 1 to 100. Guess."

"2"

"Too low."

"3.14159"

"It's a whole number"

"7"

"Do you know how to play this game?"

"70"

"Too high"

"50"

"Too low"

"51"

"...."

"65"

"Too high"

"60"

"Too low"

"61"

He finally relaxes. "It's hard to get good help these days."

"So you're 61 years old?"

And he tenses back up.

"What do you think?"

He stares right at me as if my life depended on what I said next.

"You're not?" a guy from the table across me asks.

He started to wave his meter rule around.

"I still have hair! What do you think?"

H1N1 check!

2009-07-06T16:30:00.002+08:00

So I heard we have temperature checks starting from the day school reopens so I pondered on what they're gonna be using.

What I expected : An ear thermometer.

What I saw : A wiimote-like device with a button and a round infra-red thingy on the side.

What I thought : Oh cool, eye thermometers.

What I did : Close one eye and enlarged the other

What the teacher checking my temperature said : Uhh... We screen this on your forehead.

Reply : ..... Oh....

Who's this guy?

2009-06-09T22:02:00.002+08:00

This happened last year.

My Chemistry teacher was handing out papers we did.
Normally, I write my name as Ian for ang mo teachers and Teo Yeet Yang for the others. In this case, I forgot that my teacher was malay.

Also note that my I looks like a l. (You can see where this is going now.)

"Wong Yu Heng..."

"Hani..."

and after calling out a bunch of names...

"Who's Lan?"

Guess how my Chinese friend reacted?

Imaginary numbers

2009-06-08T14:57:00.002+08:00

Jolly Mr. Donald taught us about imaginary numbers today.

The lesson was going as normal until he wrote this on the board:
w = 2 - 3i

How was it weird?

"Wubble you equals two minus three eye" was what he said out.

"Wubble you?" some students inquire.

"Yes, wubble you. If I said double you, it could've came out as 'uu'. Hence wubble you." He replies.

----------------

Then he continues, "Now that we're on this topic, I'll teach you 'surreal alphabets' which is like the imaginary numbers of English."

"Wha?"

"For example, B for Mutton"

"??"

"Beef or mutton?"

And the class proceeds with puns and laughter.

Thankfully, the internet was kind enough to provide me with a list.

A for 'Orses .................. ('ay for 'orses)
B for Mutton .................. (Beef or Mutton)
C for Miles ................... (See for Miles)
D for Ential .................. (Differential)
E for Brick ................... ('eave a Brick)
F for Vescence ................ (Effervescence)
G for Get It .................. (Gee, forget it!)
H for Bless You ............... (Aitsshfa! A Sneeze)
I for The Engine .............. (Ivor the Engine)
J for Oranges ................. (Jaffa Oranges)
K for Restaurant .............. (Cafe or Restaurant)
L for Leather ................. ('ell for Leather)
M for Sis' .................... (Emphasis)
N for Lope .................... (Envelope)
O for The Wings Of A Dove ..... (O! for the Wings of a Dove!)
P for Relief .................. (?!?!)
Q for A Bus ................... (Queue for a Bus)
R for Mo' ..................... ('alf a Mo')
S for Rantzen ................. (Esther Rantzen)
T for Two ..................... (Tea for Two)
U for Me ...................... (You for Me)
V for La France ............... (Vive la France)
W for The Winnings ............ (Double you for the Winnings)
X for Breakfast ............... (Eggs for Breakfast)
Y for Husband ................. (Wife or Husband)
Z for Wind .................... (Zephyr Wind)

http://www.phespirit.info/cockney/alphabet.htm

Practicals

2009-06-04T14:48:00.002+08:00

Didn't have enough time to finish my chemistry practicals.

Totally the opposite for Physics. I had a total of 1 hour free time to do nothing in the exam room.

So I picked up the stopwatch on the table.

It takes 32.17 seconds for me to think of something stupid to do.

It takes 60.15 seconds to the second hand of the clock to turn 360 degrees.

Other stupid things I did/observed:
-Turning up the voltage of a DC thingy connected to a resistance wire makes smoke come out.

-I tried to make a wooden block smooth... with the help of another wooden block. No noticable increase in smoothness.

-Setting the stopwatch clock to match the school time.

-Checking and rechecking my paper. This stirred up some paranoia in me that some pages were missing. I concluded that I did the paper too fast.

-Devising a plan to transfer my 41 minutes of extra time to my Chemistry practical which I did last week. This failed miserably.

-An extra 40 minutes of nothing to do.