09:09 09/09/09

Just because.

Kindergarten Photo 1994

So, following the post I made about kindergarten, I managed to get my hands on a copy of my Year 2 kindy photo, courtesy of Brendan Chin.

Hoping to be able to get my hands on the Year 1 photo.

So without further ado, here it is in all our youthful glory, the Year Two Blue Class of St. Jude Kindergarten 1994.


I know the identity or have kept in touch with only a handful of those in the picture. As for the rest of them, their identities I do not know. I've posted the picture on Facebook and hopefully the pic will make its rounds and get some tags and we get to discover our long lost kindy mates.

It's really quite fascinating to see how someone looks like after 15 years and the last time which we saw them was when they were only 6 years old. It's interesting to see how we've all grown up and gone our own, separate paths. Just imagine, you're walking down the street and you see someone you do not know and you just dismiss them as some random stranger when in fact, that person was playing with you in the playground all those years ago.

Makes me feel all funny thinking about it. In a good way.

He Doesn't Know

Artificial darkness envelops him as the birds began their songs and the world awoke to their melodious tune. The hiding sun peeks out and chases away the lingering darkness as the window becomes a frame for a beautiful picture bathed in the soft morning light.

He wishes it was 6:40 AM, 24/7.

The sounds of silence plays as artificial light illuminates the 86 keys his fingers dance upon.

Why the dance? To prove a point? He doesn't know.

Time flies. It scares him. The solution? Photos. Time captured in a single frame, for eternity. A dozen emotions and stories fatefully intertwined and interwoven into a single, split microsecond.

Photos. They lie. They tell the truth. It's a room full of smoke and mirrors. But undoubtedly, they also elicit strong feelings of nostalgia in him.

He reminiscences on the past. He is sentimental and he yearns for days bygone. His sense of longing causes him to relive past happiness in his imagination. He smiles to himself. Imagination is a powerful tool.

He is a wistful fool. Some laugh at him, say he's stuck in the past. He doesn't care. He knows when his body fails him, when the future holds nothing for him but eternal darkness, all he has left is his past. When everything else crumbles to dust, all that's left is the echoing call of his memories. He knows when he goes six feet under, his Maserati doesn't accompany him. His $8.5 million mansion doesn't accompany him. No. The only thing that accompanies him is his memories.

Photos make him feel the same way every time. It's bittersweet and he embraces every moment of it. It's the bitterness that makes the sweetness all the more sweet. Bitter and sweet. Two sides of the same coin. They define each other. Without one, the other would not exist.

Oktoberfest

This is not a post about the wonders and joy of the festival celebrating beer and all things German.

No. Instead, I refer you to this post.

Check out the part about the Oktoberfest girl.

Well, I managed to snap a shot of her blown up cleavage photo.

Please ignore the cool looking guy in the foreground. kthxbai.

R.C.

They say a picture paints a thousand words. A picture also paints a thousand lies. And that's only just a picture. What about a video?

I guess that's why there's this little thing we call 'acting'.

Can we call it acting? Or is it the real you? If you're acting, take a bow. Take a damn big bow. If it's you, an appropriate question for the situation would be what lies beneath? We never know.

Maybe it's a bit of both. As Shakespeare once said;

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women are merely players.

We are all actors and actresses in this one big play called 'Life'.

You're 3,000 miles away but here you are before my eyes. Close enough to touch and touch you I do, but through plastic and film. So near yet so far. And you're not the only thing I'm touching.

You're charming and you charm all of us snake charmers into charming the cobra. Cobra Commander would've been proud.

Charming. Princess Charming.

You weave your magic. So cheerful. So bubbly. So cute. So enthusiastic. So perky(!).

Perfect ingredients for the perfect tragedy.

We fall under your spell. So delightful. So alluring. So adorable. So enchanting. So...charming.

And so the world comes crashing down as the illusion is washed away along with all the make-up, glitz and stardust.

The merry charade gives way to a somber funeral for what might have been. The facade is dropped. It goes up in a blaze until all that's left is the smoke from sweet ol' Mary Jane.

You were given a second chance. You were given water to put out the fire. You traded it for gasoline. Cheese was put it one hand, you chose to grab a mouse in the other. I guess you had your reasons.

From steak and wine to bread and water. How far you have fallen.

How far you have fallen.

kindergarten

Tadika St. Jude. the ages of 5 and 6. that was 15 years ago. 1993. the world wide web had just been introduced into the world then. time flies.

2 years of memories, but all that remains is a handful of distinct memories. where did the rest go? i wish i could revisit those years. i love the smell of nostalgia (in the morning).

i remember the first two days at kindy. was crying all day long. mum was there looking through the window. she asked my classmate to take care of me. i can't remember him. i wonder where he is now.

i remember playing football. all of us rushing for the ball and just kicking it around. no goalposts. it was possible to count the number of times i touched the ball. three. i was so happy.

i remember holding hands and walking in a line, two by two, to the toilet with zinc roofing at the edge of the forest. the smell of the toilet was, at times, barely tolerable.

i remember brushing-our-teeth-by-the-longkang sessions which were held occasionally.

i remember losing my two front teeth after tripping and knocking them on the floor when running back to class after a teeth brushing session. always thought i tripped over a pothole on the floor until recently when Bren Lo told me i tripped over his leg. he said i even accused him of tripping me but i cannot remember.

i remember telling the headmaster through a bloody mouth, my home contact number. ended up writing it on a piece of paper if memory serves.

i remember the dentist yanking my teeth out with a pair of plier-like instrument. twist and yank. ouch! couldn't smile for the wedding pageboy photos with two missing front teeth.

i remember walking pass the little shop that sold odds and bits, on my way to the kindy gates after class had ended. frequently ended up with a packet of Ding-Dang or Tora, those little boxes with chocs and toys in them.


i remember Cikgu Doris and Miss Irene from 1st year of kindy. Cikgu Doris was strict and Miss Irene was kind. i wonder where are they now?

i remember having a soft spot for Miss Irene.

i remember her showing me a pen flicking trick using her fingers. assuming she was 21 when she taught us, she'd be 36 now. i wonder what has happened to her in the past 15 years?

i remember taking the class photo at the museum gardens. i don't know where the photo is anymore.

i remember holding a grudge against a classmate for reasons i cannot remember.

i remember sitting with the girls as punishment for doing something wrong. the tables in our class were combined to form two long rows on each side of the classroom. one for girls and one for boys. i was so embarassed, i think.

i remember kindergarten through sepia tinted glasses. a time where life was so much simpler. carefree and without worries. the innocence of childhood.

Holidays

pics will be up soon.

so the first two week of my mid-sem break (22/11 - 5/12) was spent in KL. i used to visit KL once a year but this year alone it has been like 5 to 6 times. lepak in KL until sien also d. never thought that would happen. Heh.

finally got the Swatch watch that i've been eyeing for so long. and it was a pleasant surprise when a book i've been looking for so long and had given up on ever finding, suddenly made a surprise appearance at Kinokuniya.

the last two weeks of the holidays was back in Kuching.

being away from home really makes me appreciate Kuching more. especially the food. kolo mee, teh c peng, sarsi cincau. aaah. plus the ABC at Song Keng Hai (stall no.2) and at Open Air. and not forgetting the roti at Curry House. used to have it like three times a day every time we stayed back after school.

really makes me proud to be a Kuchingnite.

also made it back to Kuching in time for AGC. was nice going back to St. Jo and kinda reliving the secondary school atmosphere. it's a different atmosphere from uni but both have their own special appeal.

also managed to pay a visit to MV Doulos on its last journey to Kuching. was disappointing though for me as their selection of books were mostly Christian books which isn't my cup of tea.

flew back to Penang on Dec 20. seems like USM is the only uni in Malaysia to reopen their semester before Christmas. curses.

Of Exams and Ferringhi

hi.

referring to my last post where i said i would recount recent going-ons in a future post. this is it. yeah. tho it isn't so recent anymore. it was like two months ago. so yeah. this post took two months in the making. and i haven't even got the pictures up yet. they'll be up in the future, so watch this space. basically my blog and by extension, my life, just screams 'PROCRASTINATION!".

so here's the recap from Nov 1 to Nov 22.

exams started on the 3rd. timetable was pretty messed up. for the first week, had 1 paper a day on Mon, Tues, Thurs and Fri with only Wed being the rest day. the last two papers were on the following Fri. so basically my first week was filled with papers on an almost daily basis followed by a whole second week without papers before finishing my exams with two papers on the same day.

my clock was quite screwed up. i would sit for my papers in the morning, sleep the whole afternoon and then burn the midnight oil all the way to the paper the following morning. procrastination at its finest. wtf ftw. yeah.

you'd think i would learn my lesson but no, the 2nd week which was the week without papers leading up to my last two papers was spent basically on lepaking. even manage to catch Quantum of Solace on Fri of the first week. good movie btw. Olga for the win. she looks better here and in Max Payne compared to her breakout role in Hitman. didn't like her hair for Hitman.

had a week after exams in Penang before going off to KL. plans of going to Langkawi were flying around but in the end had to settle for Ferringhi as it was too last minute.

originally wanted to stay at Sri Sayang. we didn't expect it to be fully booked so we didn't book beforehand but when we got there it was fully booked. after a round of hotel surveying we settled for Bayview. Had to pay RM 50 per person compared to Sri Sayang's RM 17 but it was worth it though.

even managed to throw in a visit to Gurney on the way back after the stay, the new wing just opened. was smaller than i had expected though.

pics will be up soon, so check back on this post.

End of Sem I

cliche, i know. but how time flies. it's the end of my first semester here in USM and yes, procrastination has gotten the better of me. i'll upload the long overdue photos of my time in Penang soon.

i'm gonna keep this post short, so i'll recount what i've been up to recently in a future post.

just finished packing up everything in my room. kinda troublesome, but we need to clear out everything from our room for the month long end-of-semester break. gonna be leaving my car and my stuff at a friend's house. if by any chance you happen to read this, thanks very much, i really appreciate it. you know who you are. =)

pic of my room, post-packing.


sien le, took a while to pack everything up. gonna unpack again in a month. *sigh*

flying off to KL later at noon, meeting mum and sis on Tuesday in KL before flying back home together on Dec 5th.

Dean and Chester are in KL too. along with the rest of the usual suspects that are based in KL, looks like a big gang reunion in KL is on the cards. heh.

happy times.

Happy All Hallows' Eve

we don't celebrate it here but it gives me the chance to put up this awesome piece of art. i posted it before last year but wtf it's still awesome.

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so yea, i'm back. what's new? lots.

spent my one week Hari Raya break lepaking in KL. crashed at Andrew Norman's place and met up with Gerard and Iggy. haven't seen Iggy in a while. i also saw this in Sunway Pyramid. heh.

there was also this cool piece of art outside one of the entrances of KLCC that was made entirely out of soft drink cans.

major cool.

but nothing could beat the piece of art that was this....

a giant plastic stone penis! this was at the outside of a restaurant called 'The Cave' which features interiors that were designed to resemble, yes you've guessed it, a cave. somewhere near SS2 if i'm not mistaken. and it's fibreglass or something that looks like stone.

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in other news, i passed my lifesaving exams. yes, i took a lifesaving/lifeguard course. it felt like such a chore to go training and i wasn't very sure i'd pass (my low stamina didn't help as well) so it was a real relief that i passed it. and very nearly too.

one of the events required us to coil a rope and throw it ten metres away to a victim in the pool, all in one minute. my throwing was quite inconsistent. passed all events except for that one. examiner gave me a chance at the end to repeat the event, else i'd have to retake the exams again on another day. someone must have been watching me from above as i aced it on the 2nd attempt. Whew!

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yet in other news, Liverpool are having a flying start to the season. beating Chelsea at home, woot! all this talk about us being real title challengers are a bit premature i'd say. i'm optimistic but i'm keeping my feet grounded. we'll see how liverpool do once they hit some setbacks. that's the thing that's undone us in recent campaigns. hitting setbacks after a good start and not bouncing back quick enough.

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went on a movie binge, three movies in three days. watched my first ever malay movie in the cinema. Kami.


good movie to break my malay-movie-at-the-cinema-virginity. one thing i like about it is that it shows teenage life in Malaysia and it's something i can relate to. yea, there are countless western movies depicting teenage life but being a Malaysian movie set in Malaysia, it shows off teenage life in a setting closer to home.

here's an example.

western movie/lifestyle - finish exams, major party which involves a obscene amount of alcohol followed by banging of hot chicks.

Malaysian movie/lifestyle - finish exams, road trip to the beach, hanging out with friends at a gig.

guess which of the above happens in my life (and in the life of most Malaysian students).

oh, and i'm surprised that they actually use the word 'palat' in the tagline. it's a foul word in Bahasa Sarawak, which explains why the word was censored in the movie and in the poster.

The House Bunny was the second movie. nothing to say about that one.

watched Max Payne. one of my favourite computer games with a killer story that would lend itself pretty well to a movie adaptation but i didn't had my expectations up too high going into the movie. the verdict? could have been worst, but could have been better.


most of the major plotlines were intact, but there were noticeable differences as well. in my opinion, the movie would have been better off if they had done a faithful reproduction of the game's storyline without any changes. no changes were needed. the story was just fine the way it was. this just serves to show how awesome the game's original story is.

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was in KL again over the weekend on 24th October. one of my friends was commenting on the frequency of my trips to KL and was asking if i had a girlfriend there. haha..nope. i just like lepaking in KL. took the bus this time. 5 hours! damn..was hoping that i wouldn't have the sudden urge to shit while on the bus. heh.

went there to see Gerard performing in this musical sketch and it was pretty darn impressive. it was also a good excuse for me to just lepak for a few days in KL.

here's the map on the back of the ticket for the performance. sorry for the pic not being clear, but take a look at the building located just above Jalan Maharajalela. Haha.


can anyone tell me who the model is? she is teh hawt. the shop is twopercent at The Gardens that sells Japanese inspired fashion. so i'm guessing the model is Japanese. but i don't think the shots were taken exclusively for twopercent as it's not an international brand or anything. more likely they just took the image off somewhere.

EDIT: Thought twopercent was some random shop but actually it's a brand name from Japan. Girl is Lena Fuji (refer to comments for this post..heh) who is the spokesperson for the brand.


speaking of taking images off somewhere, this reminds me. i saw this photo below in the Borneo Post back in 2006 that accompanied this article about the start of Oktoberfest. the girl in the front is cute (cleavage!), so i googled the photo on the net for a saved soft copy.


well, i saw that exact same photo blown up really big in black and white, at the outside of a German restaurant which is next to a Subway restaurant somewhere near Pavillion in KL. looks like i'm not the only one smitten by the girl. ehehe.

oh, and i saw Anne Hathaway at Midvalley.


not really, but she's still Wawaweewa nonetheless.