Parent-teacher meet on Friday?

Can you believe it? We already have three dates for tests.

I'm in so much trouble.

And I've got a cold. My nose is running faster than that guy called Gay.

We got a warning today from Cikgu Haiseh. Apparently, we can  bring musical instruments like we were told, but we can't play them during class or in the canteen. I understand the "during class" bit, but why not in the canteen? 

She gave the reason, "Mengganggu pelajar Pra-U."

Excuse me, but I believe they're the ones who play musical instruments in the canteen, not us. 

Maybe I'm missing out on something. I don't know.

Malay oral has been discontinued for the time being until Topical Test 2 is over. Meh. At least I'm done.

Maz is quarantined. Smallpox. It's boring without her at school. Nobody to share ET jokes with.

You know, the easiest way to avoid a question is to say, "What?" or "Who?"

Unless the questions in question are exam questions, then it would be of no use whatsoever to question the question because questioning the questions in question will only bring about more questions as to how to answer the question and no answers at all.

"How were your holidays?" asked our Science teacher.

"Boriing..!"

But Syahirah said it was better to be bored at home and sleep in rather than be bored at school and have to do work. 

Hm.

Insomniac.

I really hope I heard right when our IRK teacher said the project was due a week after the start of school.

Of not, I'm dead. We're dead. 

That would be an awful way to start the second term of '08.

Oh. eight. O eight. I like it. '08.

It feels weird not having to go to school. I wish I had the chance to watch all those movies I had wanted to watch. I guess Spiderwick, Horton, Water Horse and the rest have to wait for another day. 

Which may or may not come.

I prefer Seri Q-lap to The Mall. It's overrated. 

Also 'cause I was trapped on one of Seri Q-lap's balconies, and there's ice cream. Good ice cream. I like it there.

So... I spent the last day of holiday playing dumb online games and messing around with my equalizer. I remember what was going on in my head then.

"Loud, soft, loud, soft, no bass, loud bass, real bad distortion, muffled, loud muffled, soft muffled..."

Yeah, I like twiddling with the controls and making music sound all funny. 

Now on to the future. When I'm older, if I don't get some awesome job like a Mafia Don, or computer game tester, I'd like to be really- no, make that extremely- well off. Only certain positions of employment can assure me of that, unless I happen to win the lottery or anything like that.

But of course, nothing illegal. *cough cough*

Also, I don't want to be employed. I don't think I'd like to be bossed around by some guy (or girl). Unless the circumstances are different.

What else..?

Oh yeah, those travel show people. They get paid to enjoy life. Now that's cool. 

I remember when I was at least half my age, it was an exceedingly common thing to be asked, "What do you want to be when you're older?"

Some answers would be "Richer", "Older", "A scientist", "Taller", "Smarter than you at least", or "So rich, I could buy you off right on the spot. Hah!".

Ah. I wish I had said the last answer to those English Oral teachers back in Primary school.

Speaking of oral... BM oral resumes tomorrow. But mine's OVER! Yay.

Even though my answers were total crap.

SF - Scuderia Ferrari.

I'm happy.

Firstly, I'm qualified to be a babysitter. Not officially, it's just that Isaac kinda fell asleep when I was carrying him, so.. yeah. Natalie, if you're reading this, he is so adorable!!

This is him last week.

I was too lazy to upload.

Secondly, I have acquired yet another new cap. Except that this cap, is a Ferrari cap. It rocks, it rocks, it rocks.

Thirdly, Project Runway 4 is on. I discovered that yesterday, but forgot to mention.

Fourthly, urm...fourthly... I don't think I have a fourthly. Nevermind.

Okay, fourthly, look to the right of the screen! Hah. Hah. Ha. 

Smileys rule.

Cheating isn't that bad.

Today...

...I waved goodbye to my dad's two bucks, all thanks to those demented music-playing animals on wheels at The Mall. Maybe it was worth it; kept my brother quiet for at least five minutes.

Repeatedly waking up while you sleep isn't good for the health. I do it all the time. Isn't that great? =D 

A lot of people are talking about this computer project they have to do for PMB. Since I'm a "commerce" person, I don't have to do it. Yes.

Why did I take Commerce in the first place? I.. have no idea.

You see, I remember I was at my cousin's house, and we were trying to decide which optional subject to choose. Because it was such a hard decision, we "eeny-meeny-miny-mo-ed" it through.

Actually, I lied. We succumbed to parental pressure. Our mothers. Then, I had no idea I was signing up for such...boring-ness and that teacher.

At least, I know for sure, that the all the other people spared from Commercial Studies won't know which insurance to buy in the future. 

Heheh.

When I was simming, I went back to that house. The house where I left for a week or so because Rilien died during his granddaughter's birthday party. I miss him. I made him do all the housework, ranging from cleaning the bathtubs to weeding the garden. Sigh..

So he died in the bathroom, leaving behind a widow, two children, a son-in-law, a daughter-in-law, two granddaughters, four dogs, and a very sad painting.

During that week, I played the household his son, Lex moved into. Due to my terrible playing, his wife died during her three sim-day pregnancy. I quit the game without saving. 

And because I cheated, I have a new sim to play with, baby Adelie. 

Yay.

Speaking of babies, my new cousin's called Isaac. I don't think they've decided on a Chinese name yet though. He's cute.

Oh, and before I forget, I went to Giant today. =)

Lousy post.

I never knew Boulevard of Broken Dreams sounded so good acoustic.

Without vocals.

This colleague of my dad's seems to be on some illegal downloading spree and passing free copies of guitar solos to everyone who would care. This particular disc my dad brought home from work today contains the aforementioned song, Speed of Sound by Coldplay, With Or Without You by U2, and Vertigo (so my dad says, I've only heard three songs so far).

Some of the pieces I don't recognise though. Hmm.

Acoustic versions of songs almost always sound good, except, in my opinion, when they're performed by Chris Daughtry. 

I often find myself asking myself, "What has the world come to?"

My dad's started watching Korean drama on RTB, my mum's watching Wu Zhun's new series, and my grandmother's watching American Idol. 

Note to self: Refrain from watching television in vicinity of family members.

A week into the holidays, and so far, I haven't accomplished much, apart from finish reading the whole Series of Unfortunate Events, The Beatrice Letters, and Lemony Snicket's Unauthorized Autobiography, and attempt to finish my homework, reading on WW1, and that jar of cookies on the dining table. 

The last task has been particularly difficult, for reasons I cannot disclose in this here blog post.

One thing that breaks my heart as I search The Sims 2 exchange for good stories to read, and that is whenever I see the works of a particular writer who writes Confessions of An Obsessed Fan and How To Marry A Superstar, because in the middle of the latter story, she decided to stop. And in doing that, she gave a very brief ending to years of work. 

I had hoped for a better conclusion, but it wasn't bad at all.

But life must go on. 

The world is quiet here.

Sharp dressed man.

Yet again...I'm sitting here and have nothing to say.

Who reads this thing anyway?

People?

Yeah duhh. 

What was I thinking?

I did my homework today. X)

Yay.

Now I remember the factors for the rates of IDD calls.

International Direct Dialing.

Just being random.

What else?

I do not know.

Call me when you think of something.

Gavrilo Princip actually wanted a sandwich...

My mum asked me if I wanted to pay a visit to Giant this evening. 

"Want to go to Giant?"

"What? No thanks."

"Why not?"

"I'm scared."

"Of what?"

"Lots and lots of people?"

"If we see a traffic jam, we could just turn back..."

"NO!"

And that was how I ended the really short conversation that could've ended in my demise. 

Maybe not that bad.

It's scary. Just because this place sells really, really, really cheap goods, everyone flocks to it like ants to a sugar cube. 

This afternoon, I just had to force myself to read a bit of History. I sum up the start of the First World War like this:

- Germany is united by Count Otto Von Bismarck (whose dad shares a birthdate with me) after the Franco-Prussian war.

- Germany and Italy get jealous of Britain and all the other countries who have colonies in the East.

- Germany manages to find herself some colonies in the East and starts working on her army and navy.

- Everyone gets jealous of Germany, particularly Britain.

- Arms race begins, because both Britain and Germany want to show each other who's boss or "Mistress of the Sea".

- The British reveal the ultimate battleship of the time. The HMS Deadnought- I meant, Dreadnought was launched on the 10th of February 1906. Interestingly, "dread" means fear something that is going to happen and "nought" means nothing. Therefore, HMS Dreadnought means His/Her Majesty's Ship that fears nothing. From my understanding, that is. I may be wrong.

- Eight years later, Britain builds 32 of these ships and Germany builds 20, because I think they copied off Britain, so it was a bit slow.

- The European countries decided to gang up against each other and call themselves really lame names such as the "Triple Alliance" and the "Triple Entente". Germany, Italy (both the jealous countries) and Austria-Hungary decided to become "friends", while Britain, France and Russia decided to adopt this gay-ish "if anything happens to another, we'll seek revenge for you" policy. Which is exactly what they did.

- So what happened? To make things simple...

...Russia thought she was the "protector" of the Slavs (a type of people. Like, Chinese and Malays. We're types of people. These Slavs happened to live in the Balkan states, e.g. Serbia.), but that had nothing to do with it, until...

...Austria-Hungary took Bosnia and Herzegovina under her. The poor Serbs felt unhappy (I guess everyone was a bit pissed then. No internet, television, come on, I'd be a tad vexed then, too) about that and the unhappiest ones formed the "Black Hand". The Black Hand decided that their time had come when Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Countess Sophie thought they'd go for a drive through Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina. 

So they were driving through the city, but they didn't know the Black Hand were prepared. 

"At 10:15 A.M., when the six car procession passed the central police station, nineteen-year-old student Nedeljko Čabrinović hurled a hand grenade at the archduke's car. The driver accelerated when he saw the object flying towards him and the bomb exploded under the wheel of the next car. Two of the occupants, Eric von Merizzi and Count Boos-Waldeck were seriously wounded. About a dozen spectators were also hit by bomb splinters.

After Čabrinović's bomb missed the Archduke's car, five other conspirators, including Princip, lost an opportunity to attack because of the heavy crowds and the high speed of the Archduke's car. To avoid capture, Čabrinović swallowed a cyanide pill and jumped into the River Miljacka, but was hauled out and detained by police.
Franz Ferdinand later decided to go to the hospital and visit the victims of Čabrinović's failed bombing attempt. In order to avoid the city centre, General Oskar Potiorek decided that the royal car should travel straight along the Appel Quay to the Sarajevo Hospital. However, Potiorek forgot to inform the driver, Franz Urban, about this decision. On the way to the hospital, Urban took a right turn into Gebet Street.
Princip had gone into Moritz Schiller's cafe for a sandwich, having apparently given up, when he spotted Franz Ferdinand's car as it drove past, having taken the wrong turn. After realizing the mistake, the driver put his foot on the brake, and began to back up. In doing so the engine of the car stalled and the gears locked, giving Princip his shot. Princip stepped forward, drew his pistol, and at a distance of about five feet, fired twice into the car. Franz Ferdinand was hit in the neck and Sophie in the abdomen, and they both died before 11am."

                                                                           -Source from Wikipedia. 

So with their heir to the throne dead, Austria threw a terrible tantrum and declared war on Serbia. As I had mentioned earlier, Russia saw herself as protector and went to help Serbia. 

Then Germany declared war on Russia because Austria was her urm..."friend". 

Then Germany declared war on France, I think 'cause she felt like it.

When Germany followed her "Schlieffen Plan", she invaded Belgium and Britain declared war on Germany because France was part of the Allies too, like Britain was.

To sum it all up, Germany loved names (Schlieffen Plan), France loved numbers, (Plan Seventeen), and Britain loved the alphabet (Plan W). Aw.

How do you even pronounce that? Schlieffen.

Giant?

I found myself wishing I could go to school just now. All of a sudden. I think I am out of my mind.

One thing I hate about the holidays is the homework they give you. And that you can't contact people who you want to contact by talking to them at school. 

Regular school days really aren't as boring, if you live your holidays like I do. 

Wake up, find breakfast, read, have lunch, read, go online, watch television, eat, read, have dinner, go online again, read, sleep.

Read = Read all my A Series Of Unfortunate Events books and remind myself why I consider Daniel Handler a literary genius.

Due to my terrible time management skills, I find myself really bored and laden with things to do at the same time. 

When I feel like doing my homework, I realise my notes are with someone else. Which sucks, because I need them to find the answers for certain Commerce questions I don't know the answer to (which is all of them, by the way). 

Knowing my notes are so close but so far, it pains me. Just a bit of drama, people, won't hurt. By "so close", I mean that they're in the house next door which I can see if I merely pull the curtains in front of me back slightly.

By "so far", I mean the person who has my notes isn't replying my messages and seems to take a long long time to "photocopy" them. By "photocopying", she means "taking them out page by page, scanning them page by page, and printing them page by page on my old computer."

Which will take ages. 

I really don't want to waste my time explaining all this, but it's getting on my nerves. Even three weeks is enough to scan and print a pile of notes page by page. In addition, it's the holidays. I'm sure you can find the time to do it.

Argh.

Tomorrow. I'll harass till I get them back, I swear.

Yeah, I seem a bit obsessed on finishing my homework early. That's the way, isn't it? So I can relax earlier. I really dislike that feeling of undone work. 

On lighter issues, I've sifted through half of the songs so far. And Giant will rock Brunei's economy. 

Like an earthquake under a house of cards. 

Heheh. Hua Ho is doomed. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing though.

Hmm. 

Did I say it was a light issue? Sorry, the Giant issue is a big one. BIG. Gigantic, even. (Pun intended.)

I won't go through the whole lecture on "Why Giant Will Result In Bankruptcy" that I had to go through during dinner though. 

You can't have everything.

My dad's colleague has given him a stack of CDs with songs from a few decades past. 

Sorting out songs on iTunes is fun, but when you're like me, a person who wants to have everything perfect and in order with the correct album art and all, it's pretty hard work. I'm so lazy. XD

I'm putting it off till tomorrow. But I need to study. Which I haven't done yet. And ask Syahirah about that IRK project I have absolutely no clue about. 

I asked Sheng yesterday, and he was clueless too.

Until then, I just want to inform you, Kimi Raikkonen won today's race at Sepang. Isn't that great? Yes!

But Massa had to go and spin off the track. "Why, Felipe? Why?" I hear his wife asking. I didn't even know he was married. He was single last year...

Ferrari needed those points. 

Nakajima is a good driver. 

So is Nelson Piquet.

So's Alonso.

Aw.

Poor him in his Renault.

At least Kazuki "Kamikaze" Nakajima drives a Williams.

Stella calls him "Kamikaze" 'cause he ran into one of his pit crew during his grand prix debut last year in Brazil, where Kimi won the title.

He looks adorable in his drivers' uniform.

Hamilton can't overtake. 

Lucky Lewis wasn't so lucky after all. Hah. Hah. Hah!

Heikki Kovalainen. Good boy, for being a Finn and beating Lewis.

Too bad you gave McLaren Contructor's points.

Sigh.

But you can't have everything.

Like Robert Kubica. My dad says he's ugly. He's a good driver though, second place today.

But hey, you can't have everything.

Just for the sake of being random, I like Jason Castro. He's funny.

These words go together well.

I crouch in a corner in the dark, hoping my heavily beating heart would stop. Well, to stop beating so heavily. 

I pull my blanket higher above my head pray silently for the evil fiend pursuing me to just wither up and die. 

As unfortunate as I was last night, a passing group of extra-terrestrials decided to zap some life into my plant. I had watched in horror as the beanstalk wriggled slightly.

It stretches its roots in a deadly manner, searching for a source of intelligence to feed upon. My alien plant senses my presence and approaches me, roots -maybe we can call them tentacles- waving. I hold my breath as if that was going to help. It didn't. 

Alien-plant wriggles closer...and closer...and closer...then...it stops in its tracks. You must have thought it had reached me by now, but plants move at an agonisingly slow rate, just so you know.

But what stopped it? My television. Alien-plant turns (I think, it doesn't have a face) towards it and attempts to find an opening with its tentacle/roots. I breathe out in relief when I see it find an opening. 

"Take the television," I urge it with my mind. "Take the television. It doesn't matter. I just want to live a bit longer. You know, so I can watch more F1 or something."

The alien-plant reaches in tentatively. 

ZAP!

The smell of fried vegetables reaches my nose. Alien-plant has been electrocuted.

There are two things we can learn from this experience of mine. One, never, ever, sleep in the same room with rapidly-growing bean seedlings. Two, televisions are a source of intelligence. 

Cars, speed, racing. Ah. Yesterday I accompanied my dad to the "unveiling" of the STi version of the new Subaru Impreza hatchback. I have pics, but they have awful quality, so I'm not going to torture you with that. I watched some footage of Petter Solberg drive it and say, "Tis car, 'tis very good. Very uh...sporty." He drives Subaru for the World Rally Championship.

More cars, speed and racing. Raikkonen, as we all know, drives Ferrari for the Formula One championship. And he just landed himself second position on the grid. Behind no other than last year's pole position-er, Felipe Massa of Ferrari. Awesome. 

Tomorrow's race will be even more awesome if it would rain and Hamilton would make a big big mistake. Heheh. And Ferrari win. Thank you. But I shouldn't speak to soon, so I take that back.

I've got a badminton match waiting for me downstairs, because my mother thinks I should stop sucking so much with this kind of sport.

Forza Ferrari.

Itchy and scratchy.

I still effin' itch. And itch. And itch.

And itch some more.

All because my dad and I like to watch virtually unknown Chinese war movies, we left home to watch "An Empress and The Warriors". 

You'd think after "The Warlords", we'd actually have wised up a bit. I liked The Warlords.

This one? Dude, it was boring. First we thought "Oh okay, a bit of fighting, guy dying, civil war coming up, sure that's fine."

But then, the movie pace went all slow due to certain unnecessary circumstances *cough romance cough* which would have left the movie with half its length if cut out.

Some of the fighting scenes were...kinda cool, but a tad..urm...what's that word I'm looking for? Ah, grotesque. That's it. 

One good thing that came out of watching that movie? I got ice cream. Well, since we were already in the Q-lap mall, why not? Even when it began raining the moment we stepped outside...

Yesterday, I set some sort of personal record for getting sunburnt and soaked in rain on the same day. Now I itch and my nose is peeling at the same time. Amusing, but not the least comfortable. 

 Sorry, but I'm not bothered to rotate this pic of my fast growing bean. Maybe by tomorrow, I'd be able to acquire that golden egg-laying goose. Heheh.

I didn't look at it for two days, 'cause it was just a little stump then. Now I'm going to have to refer to my textbook to draw...

This thing scares me. I've always had this strange fear of fast-growing things. They give me this impression that they'd grow real big overnight and suck my brains out. 

Hmm.

If I'm not here by tomorrow, you'll know what happened.

Sunburnt.

This is it. The holidays are here. Ten days aren't enough, but it's way better than nothing.

I'm officially sunburnt. My nose is red and sore and I feel a bit like Rudolph. Next thing you know it's an extremely early Christmas and I suddenly develop antlers and the ability to fly.

Hey cool. Minus the antler bit. I doubt I'd look good in them...nor are they useful around the house. I could start head-butting people though...

Ahem. Enough of the reindeer talk. 

One thing that really annoys me is holiday homework. We're on our holidays, for goodness' sake! 

To me, holidays = break from school = no work.

But nooo, the teachers just had to give us work. Worse still, TT2 comes a week after the hols. Do the Math (homework too), and that leaves me with two weeks and four days to study for it. 

Such brilliance, MS planning. 

I'm having trouble deciding which is worse, looking at 'cher Sofy and having her not acknowledge you at all, or having her give you a nod and smile. *shudders* 

Oh crap, my arm itches real bad right now. Gotta go.

Isn't it kind of sad that I blog on a daily basis? Maybe I should stop doing it and post only weekly or something. Hmm.... 

"Baby you're all that I want.." - Bryan Adams.

There's a new form of "gayism" in town. What, I hear you ask? 

My answer: Personality tests.

The notice said "personality test", but I find it more as a job assessment for the future. True, I haven't decided what profession to take up, but I believe we don't need to be told what we want to work as when we're old and qualified enough to get jobs. 

We don't need to be told who we are by other people who don't half a clue who you are. It's just that the government is stalking us, or just being really really nosy. (J/k)

I'm not bad-mouthing or anything similar, but it's a waste of paper, ink, and time. 

Now that I'm done with my ranting, I'd like to thank them too. We got to miss Geo. Yes!

Book sale at school today. I think whoever/whatever company it is that's selling, they want to get rid of books which don't sell well. I didn't bring my wallet anyway, so I didn't feel bad at all when I glanced at the selection displayed before me. 

This leads to another rant (or expression of opinion, if you prefer to look at it that way).

Ms Anne said we should all strive to becoming the "next J.K. Rowling of Malay". I wanted to argue with her, but decided to save my saliva for a better use, such as asking Syaz, "Who's Akmal?" I think it's- I mean, he's some guy she likes, but I dunno. She won't say, but instead got Steph to write, "L*heart*VE AKMAL" on her knuckles. Fatin's boyfriend's called Akmal too, and he's gay. Or bi. Seriously. Too much info there, I think.

Isn't life weird?

Back to the topic, we cannot be the next J.K. Rowling or Malay for the following reasons:-

1. Malay isn't a strong language. I assume that the number of English-speakers are at least 1000 times more than BM speakers.

2. That means it would be better to write a good story in English than Malay, 'cause that's how books became famous in the first place. They were read by the English-speaking community, which, as we know, is way bigger than the Malay-speaking one.
3. Hardly anyone would have a grasp of Malay good enough to read such a complicated book, if it were ever written, because the language grows weaker by generation.
4. Ms Anne said they could translate it to English. But translated books just aren't good enough.
5. Better yet, write good book in Chinese. It's the most widely spoken language in the world. 

I'm not saying Malay isn't important, because it is. Very. It's part of our culture. Without Malay, we can't even get scholarships or get into good schools. 

The thing is, business-wise, it won't do. 

Since today was kind of the last "school day" of the first school term of '08, I'll take it the holidays have sorta started. I'm back in Hulubalang, but I haven't signed up for anything. I', not good at running anyway, so I'll just sit and watch the Sports Selection. =)

Good luck.

A dead rat and baby lizard.

My BM oral is overrrr!!!!

Hah. It sucked so much, I think my BM teacher is going to go home and cry. I stalled. Many many many times. My whole oral session sounded like I had never spoken before in my life with a whole bunch of "uuuurrhmmm....."s and "uuuhhhhhhhhh....."s.

*shudders* What an awful memory to look back on when I'm older.

Raikkonen got a point, 'cause Barrichello got disqualified. I'm sorry for him and Honda, but... Just but. 

A lot of people bring their phones to school nowadays. I don't know whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, but the teachers don't seem to care and nobody's (as far as I know) been caught yet. It's good for the "phone-bringers", but it doesn't seem fair for those rule-abiding suckers like me who leave their phones at home. On second thoughts, nobody calls me anyway, so what's the point? I could always borrow someone's phone if I needed to make a call. Or use that public phone Maz was so addicted to. 

I don't see her using it anymore. I wonder what happened. 

For PE today, we had free time, so I taught Izzah one-step sparring (so lucky, they only need to know three) and...sorta played ping-pong. What I meant by "sorta" was that I spent half my time picking up ping-pong balls and dodging the ones Wani so expertly send flying into the air. 

I finished reading "Night Without End" by Alistair Maclean retold by someone from Oxford in English class. It wasn't an awful story. Not bad at all, in fact. 

Though I like reading stories in full and not retold in any way, I found this one quite okay. The thing was, since it was cut so short, the characters didn't have a chance to develop and I didn't know who was who and who was doing what. The fact that I read it over a course of at least four weeks contributed to that as well.

On our way to the Science lab, we saw a rat trap. With a rat in it. You could tell the rat was alive, 'cause it was still breathing raggedly under the hot sun. I felt so bad as entered the air-conditioned lab to learn about sexual reproduction in humans. About time. You know what our Science teacher told us what her mother said to her when she was little?

Babies come out through a person's bellybutton.

Ain't that funny? Haha.

Then another encounter of these so-called "household pests" was during extra Commerce. The girls on the other side of the classroom started screaming and just when I was about to ask "Who died?", I realised it was a baby lizard that had caused the commotion. Feeling brave (and not wanting another animal to suffer in my midst), I picked it up and looked at it. Kawaii~! So cute. But since nobody else agreed with me, I took it outside and left it there. Aww...

Surreal.

Jean Todt, I want you back as Team Principal no matter what Stephano Domenicali thinks. 

Okay, so maybe not.

Ferrari rarely starts off well,  but Kimi won last year at Melbourne and this year he and Massa didn't even get to the chequered flag. Lucky-boy Hamilton won the race, and "gay-ish-ly" hugged Nico Rosberg just before they got onto the podium. Is that a sign?

Only eight drivers finished, with everything happening to everyone but Hamilton. Such a boring driver. Drivers crash behind him, drivers in front of him get penalties, and he just drives on and on and on. So damn kalok.

Whatever happened to Ferrari's liability, I wonder? But never mind, there's always the next race, and the next and the next....

Until then, I'll be waiting for Lewis' tyres to blow or for him to crash out and for Kimi to clinch first place. I'm so desperate, I won't even mind Alonso winning, as long as Lewis doesn't. Am I evil, or what?

I'm tired. I don't like the prospect of PMB looming over me like that. I don't like homework. I don't like the fact that Danny Noriega got voted off American Idol. I don't like my dad telling me I suck. I don't like getting lectured for things I have nothing to do with. I don't want to fail my Malay Oral. I don't like people borrowing my notes for two weeks and still haven't photocopied them yet. 

I don't like a lot of things, but life goes on, right?

Right.

I'm just down 'cause Ferrari scored zero points this afternoon.

Be back tomorrow. (Hopefully.)

Support Ferrari! (that was an order)

I'm going to get really fat if I don't start doing anything soon. (Exercising, I mean.)

Training stops for now until April the fourth. Until then, I'll be sitting on the sofa or this (whatever you call it) chair-with-wheels-which-people-sit-on-in-offices-to-look-important-and-have-fun-with-when-nobody's-looking and watch television or do what I'm doing now. Typing whatever comes to my mind and posting it on the internet much to my amusement and the mortification of the public. 

But I digress. 

I munched away continuously on junk food while watching the repeat of the F1 '08 Aussie qualifying this evening, and to my horror, Kimi Raikkonen's car, the Ferrari of the current world champion, slowed down to a pace where even my grandmother's Honda could've overtaken it. With my grandmother behind the wheel. 

I guess sixteenth place wouldn't have been that bad, with Alonso in twelfth and Massa in fourth. But for Lewis Hamilton to be in pole position just makes me feel as if someone had come up to and informed me that pizza was banned forever. 

.....Well, maybe not that bad.

This morning's announcement was a tad different. A "Can all students and teachers please proceed to the Auditorium now," from the loathed PA (public address) system triggered an impulse for a fraction of us lining up to use a nail-cutter Sil Suan so thoughtfully brings every day. Isn't it strange how everyone doesn't cut their nails until spot-check time?

I didn't get to use it though, but it didn't matter anyway. The bottles of water, people reading verses from the Quran and non-Muslims being ushered to the back of the Audi all pointed to one thing: Theft in the school.

I have a dim memory of the same thing happening some two years ago, if I'm not mistaken. Those who drink the water are supposed to feel "insaf-ed" later. Neko started telling everyone that I was starting to feel insaf over things I myself am not clear of. 

"I'm insaf of what?" I ask.

"Ia insaf, kan bang? Pasal apa ah?" She turns to Fazrul.

"Yea," he replies. "Insaf ia tu. Pasal atu bah, kan?"

"Awu. Sama si atu..."

What?

I itch all over right now. 

By the way, CONGRATULATIONS TO THE MS CHOIR FOR WINNING. Again.

And to Caroline (whose photo is in the newspaper. It's happened to me before, and before, and personally, I really don't like it), for being the pianist. Mr Meer too, I guess. XD

I lag so much. Should've known by Thursday.  

May the best driver win. 

Whom I hope is Kimi.

Forza Scuderia Ferrari.

Rainy season.

Remember me saying yesterday was boring? Well, I take it back.

Around seven last night, my uncle called and told my dad that his wife was having contractions and was heading to JPMC. 

My dad picks up ringing phone. "Hello, John? ..... Yeah. .... Yeah. .... Uh-huh. ..... Really? Wow, that's so exciting!"

I mean, couldn't he have saved us the suspense? 

We left for the hospital around nine-ish. JPMC is spooky. Honestly, it is. 

So long story short we stayed 'till half-past three in the morning after taking a look at our latest addition to the family. They haven't decided on a name yet, so we call him "the baby". Nathan gets a baby brother and family dinners will never be the same again. We couldn't even cope with two last year. 

Training was boring today. Not only boring, the afternoon seemed to drag on and on and on. We were totally neglected, just 'cause we're not going for the grading. How about the black-belt one, huh? 

Someone told me it was in April, but I dunno... 

Ping to the Pong.

Today went very boring-ly so I'm posting pics of my trip to my uncle's house yesterday. 

He had recently adopted two puppies, a German Shepherd called Simba and a Golden Retriever whom they just had to name Yahoo. Complete with the exclamation mark? I do not know.

Adieu.

Where did I go wrong..?

I like the date today. 12-3-08.

One two three. Khairul's birthday. As a present (I think), Baoxin taught him how to say, "Ni yao ken wo yi chi sui ma?"

Roughly translated, it means "Do you want to sleep with me?"

He knows the meaning though, 'cause when Steph asked him to ask Fazrul, he said, "Hey! I'm not gay..!" 

Yeah, we're wack.

Neko threw her pencil case at me during break. All because I said, "Your boyfriend's gay. Amin's gay! Al-Amin's gay..! No wait. He's bi."

Fortunately, I was on the other side of the window. It hit the glass with a loud "whack!" and all the occupants of our class were silenced momentarily by the noise. I didn't budge though, and continued with my accusing of her boyfriend's sexuality. 

We all know he's not gay (or do we?), but she just gets so worked up about it. Hah. 

'Cher Sofy called us over to her desk this morning. Wait for it...wait for it...flashback!!

11-3-08. Registration time.

"Girls, come here please." 

We saunter over, wondering what on earth she would want with us at this hour of the day. 

"I asked the other teachers, they said you could change back to your old sports houses."

We look at each other. Say what?

"So do you want to go back to your old houses, or stay where you are now? I think it would be better for you to stay in your new houses then go back next year, 'cause for cross-country you already ran for that house, then...*blah blah* So do you all agree?"

We nod. Dismissed.

12-3-08. Registration time.

"Yawin (she can't say my name right), Syazwana, come here."

Oh great, we think. What now?

"I spoke to the teachers again, and they said, no, you must go back to your old houses. So what were your old houses?"

Riiiight. I haven't paid for Laksa. Neither did I sign up for anything. So I'm heading back to Hulu. Such a jumble. They should ban typos (I'm dreaming too much here).

I got home from extra Science class and saw this particular headline. Let's play 'spot-the-English-mistake-we-learnt-to-correct-in-Primary-Two'. 

While I was at it, taking pictures, meet my red bean. 

With much difficulty, I wrestled with my poor hand-eye coordination to line the inside of my "half-bottle" with filter paper. To my dismay, I discovered we had to stuff newspaper in it later. It's not easy, you know. Need the right amount and all, not so squeeze too much, and not drown your seed. I was one of the last to actually get it right.

I didn't name it though.

Fazrul named his "Fazrul junior". Hahah.

Khalaaq wrote "Khalaaq and the beanstalk" on his bottle.

I doubt that titchy little seedling will do much to carry him up above the clouds though. 

Where was I? Oh. Plan Seventeen.

Our Commerce presentation is already in the recycling bins. 

It was like, crap, yo. So much for developing a sense of humour overnight. Guess we shouldn't have such high expectations. At least...she said, "Good try."

We rushed to the bus during lunch. Nobody wants to get left behind and wait an extra half-hour or so for transport to get home. I forgot to mention that yesterday, a certain someone didn't listen to me when I told her our bus was leaving and continued talking with Melvin about her boyfriend. I yelled across the front of the Audi, "You asshole!!"

Today we learnt not to argue with our neighbours. Food for thought.

We had a power cut last night. Just our simpang. I was at the point of grabbing my toothbrush, when the room went dark. "Okay, what the...?"

I received a message from Neko. "Bro, you guys blackout?"

Yes. No electric current meant no water supply, so I gave up on the whole brush-your-teeth-before-you-go-to-bed thing.

We were saying in the bus on the way home how we didn't sleep last night. Nazirul and I agreed the power supply came back on again at around one in the morning. I woke up to the sound of our air conditioners starting their soothing humming again.

Due to my slight OCD, I then got out of bed and brushed my teeth.

Ash and Emily's blog's got the song "Umbrella" by Vanilla Sky. I was wondering if they'd ever seen the video before. It's gay. 

"How gay," Ash asked me last night.

"Very gay," I replied. "It's got men in tutus and skimpy dresses and splashing buckets of water over themselves while dancing."

Another Day In Paradise - Phil Collins

She calls out to the man on the street

"Sir, can you help me?

It's cold and I've nowhere to sleep,

Is there somewhere you can tell me?"

He walks on, doesn't look back

He pretends he can't hear her

Starts to whistle as he crosses the street

Seems embarrassed to be there

Oh think twice, it's another day for

You and me in paradise

Oh think twice, it's just another day for you,

You and me in paradise

She calls out to the man on the street

He can see she's been crying

She's got blisters on the soles of her feet

Can't walk but she's trying

Oh think twice...

Oh lord, is there nothing more anybody can do

Oh lord, there must be something you can say

You can tell from the lines on her face

You can see that she's been there

Probably been moved on from every place

'Cos she didn't fit in there

Oh think twice...

It took me while to realise where the lyrics of the song were going. What we live in now is paradise compared to what less fortunate people have. 

Why is it so hard not to sound preachy?

I'm a sad person.

We're done with our Commerce presentation. Now all we need to do is...present it.

All the other groups are staying back to do it, but as for us, we pretty much don't care.

....................*moment of silence*..................

Okay. I lied. We do care, but it seems like we show it by gathering a very crude story based on Pirates of The Caribbean and making it lamer by stitching it up with bits of marine insurance. 

The objective (or doom) I'm leading my groupmates to in this case is to try a different approach to the subject; instead of boring people with sentences like "Marine insurance comes in four types blah blah cover loss blah blah" where your average human being would have fallen asleep the fifth time you mention "marine insurance", we came up with this crappy storyline concerning pirates and a wimpy insurance-buying Davey Jones. Ain't that just awesome? *grins widely*

'Cher Sofy though, she asked us to give two examples for the four types of marine insurance respectively. Whether she'd like our presentation or not, let's all start hoping she develops a sense of humour overnight by chance of some miracle. 

During PE, we played some game called "Iceball". The ten players per team rule left me with no choice but to stand by the sidelines and watch the most unorganised game I've witnessed in ages. I think I gave up after the first ten seconds, having no idea what on earth the 3T girls were screaming about, where the balls were going, why everyone had no sense of aim, who was doing what, and how our teacher could make sense of that at all. 

Hey look, I just covered the four 'W's and a 'H'. I remember a guy coming to SAS to give a motivational talk for PSR a few years ago and mentioned "the Husband and four Wives". Like, polygamy. Weird.

My new book, "Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps," says that one upon a time in ancient Greece, homosexuality was deeply respected. I can't decide whether that's really cool or really strange, but uh, it is.

Since I'm a sad person who obviously has nothing better to do, I'm introducing you guys to Erica. Keith and Lilian's daughter. 

Ah, she's cute. But all toddlers are, so what can I say?

Plan W? But that's easy.

Mum's back from New Orleans.

I have that book I was laughed at for wanting. 

"Why Men Don't Listen And Women Can't Read Maps."

I love it. 

'Twas no mistake.

I still haven't started on that Commerce presentation. Might do it later... But my eyes hurt and I want to read and I'm sleepy. 

But of course, I have to get my priorities right. Which means read first. 

Then my group members will kill me; I promised them I'd get it done by tomorrow so we can discuss the various aspects of delivering our presentation. Other than that, I doubt we have much to do.

Now I've got less than half an hour to write it. 

Just gonna write stupid stuff. 

Like my aunt said, "Presentation? Easy. Just bullsh*t."

She's a teacher.

An Economics teacher, I think.

Should I trust her?

Hell yeah!!

Johnny Depp, Johnny Depp. You shall buy insurance if it's the last thing I do tonight. Muahahahah. Fear me. Fear me!! (This paragraph is purely fictional, FYI.)

I make an evil insurance agent, don't I? Steph's mum is one, but she sells life insurance. I bet marine insurance is so much rarer here. 

On second thoughts, look at all the fishermen in Brunei. After all, this is the location for the famous Kampong Ayer, "South-east Asia's largest water village" complete with rubbish and other purely disgusting pollutants of the locals. 

I'm now 'Wiki-ing' marine insurance. Apparently, my crude pirate story does match up with the dates after all. It was started in 1601 by some law guy in England.

Also apparently, a lot of rich folks buy marine insurance for their fancy yachts....

Hmm. Google searches often don't give me exactly what I'm looking for. These search machines really get on my nerves sometimes. 

It's all about typing the right things. Five minutes ago, I ended up almost buying marine insurance for the waters of Aussie. 

Thank God for my literacy.

And also for the existence of pirates in the 18th century.

The Schlieffen Plan.

Just to let you guys know... This is number one-oh-oh. The big hundred. Such a measly number. It's only deadly when you have this number of spotted black-and-white dogs in your house and live in a neighbourhood with a certain evil old woman.

Takin' ya back to yesterdayy..

Each of us brown-twos took a brown-one to teach. I was fortunate enough to get Hadi. What surprises me is that I'm not being sarcastic. So the boy has a few attitude problems, a short attention span, but he's got the will to improve. 

Maybe it was 'cause he was scared of me, but I dunno. I just looked at him and said, "Pattern seven, right?"

*nods*

"Okay," I put on my 'business tone'. "Charyeot. Kyeongre," I said quickly. I think it made me sound irritated.

I felt sorta proud of him, for not having kwang jang nim award me fifty push-ups for "not doing my job well". 

He already knew the pattern anyway, all he needed were a few tweaks. 

Then, after being brutally abused during our one-step sparring (I'm highly, highly exaggerating here), I got home, was made to use warm water to shower, and ran downstairs just in time for American Idol to start. Two things got in my way: my brother wanting to watch "Geng Bas Sekolah" and when he left, the rain. As much as I love you, please, don't do this to me again. 

When I caught up with the repeat later that night, I was struck with severe disappointment.

Danny Noriega was voted off. Aw man! Why? WHY? He's so gay. I liked him. With his "whatever"s, "mm hmmm"s, and "gay-ism". Cute.

This is TMTH for us Danny fans. *nods slowly*

Commerce presentation. I'm leaving it for tonight. Or maybe tomorrow? Syaz, Qil, Steph and I came up with this stupid idea. I'm starting to doubt it'd work. Man, this sucks. Stupid Marine Insurance. 

Oh by the way, all those peeps going for the grading have to train on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday until the twenty-first from 5 to 6.30 pm with the exception of Friday, where it's 3 to 5 until the 21st of March. I pity them, 'cause I only need to go on Fridays. Like our coach said, "Kalau mau pass, datang. Kalau mau fail, di rumah tidur saja."

It seems like the brown-twos all going to be sleeping on Monday evening.

Rubik's Cube solved.

I know it's not a big deal, but....

I SOLVED MY CUBE!!!

Yes! Finally!!!

Booing is gay

Sheng solved my cube in less than a minute this morning. The last layer is taking a toll on me. All those algorithms... 

It's all about understanding, but my mind is too lazy for that.

Today's cross-country wasn't that bad. Laksa didn't get last place, for once. Instead, my "ex-house" Hulu did. Isn't that great? Not. I wish Panglima and Pahlawan would stop being so great. Or is it just that we suck? I'd go with the former, but it means I'm actually admitting it. I'd go with the latter, but it means I'm admitting that too.

So...they just got lucky. For now.

Along the way, Wani and I almost got hit by a car, got free bottles of water, said "hi" to Hadi (who was standing along the road fanning people for some reason), had fun, and ended up seventy-second and seventy-third respectively.

The weather? Thank God it was cloudy. Even if it didn't rain.

Congrats to all those medal-winners. Come to think about it... 

To all those who managed to finish the cross-country without fainting too. Urm. Let me exclude those who walked all the way and didn't even bother to run. Okay.

Then this friend of my dad's had his first lesson yesterday. My dad told me he learnt "how to hug the guitar". 

I feel heartbroken. I mean, some random guy having intimate moments with my guitar? It's very disturbing.

This is an awfully random video, but I find it awfully funny.

I can't write much today. I'm tired. All that running does take a toll on you, ya know? 

Ciao.

Rubik's Cube.

I still cannot solve that Rubik's Cube. Just give me a few more minutes...

Meh. Maybe not tonight. Tomorrow then. The last layer is driving me nuts.

Somehow, I think, sa bum nim knew about our cross country and made us jog for fifteen minutes in a monotonous circle. We didn't even sweat buckets as usual. The weather? I love it. Let's hope it's all cool and cloudy tomorrow so we won't scorch to death under the hot sun during our cross country.

Short short post. I don't think I'd be able to sleep well tonight if I haven't solved that cube. ARGH.

"So, class, as a result of this..."

Brace yourself. This may shock or surprise you. Either way, it's the same thing. Here we go:

I like our History teacher.

There. I said it. But it's not 'like' like like like, but 'like' like 'she makes me laugh with the way she can't pronounce certain words and doesn't dish out lots of homework, not 'like' like "man, she rocks!" That would be like, a definite no-no. (Did the word 'like' seem funny to you there?)

Yesterday was Mr Perry's birthday. We wanted to leave him a note on his desk.

Sir, happy birthday. 

Love, 3R.

Ps. Please come back.

Unfortunately, we didn't. Should have though. So if you're reading this (which I highly highly doubt will happen), sir, happy belated birthday and no, we didn't forget.

Also, the third of March was apparently a good day for MS. We got into the Hadrah finals, both guys and girls, and won the Ping-pong competition. Am I right? Correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks.

We arrived earlier at school then ever this morning. My watch read an astonishingly early (for me, that is) 06:40 on the way to class. Crazily enough, there were actually people at school already. I wonder what motivates them to be that early? As for me, it's 'cause I've got a crazy bus driver. 

Geo first thing in the morning. Urgh. I thought I'd have time to wake up after arriving so early, but no, it had to put me back to sleep again. I was so bored, I wrote this in my book: IRK>Commerce>History>Maths>Geo

Face the facts. Our teacher makes it the most uneventful, mind-numbing, dull subject ever to walk the face of planet Earth. Now that is how much I dislike Geography. Sorry.

Now I have some presentation to do with four other people in my class and I've already forgotten who on 'Marine Insurance'. It seems to me that I have to write a fifteen minute presentation from a less-than-fifty word paragraph in the textbook. Excellent. Blabbering on and on about absolute nonsense completely irrelevant to the subject has always been my sort of thing. Now all I need is a teacher with a sense of humour and I'm all set. Which has a 0.001 chance of happening, so I have a choice: Buy life insurance for myself so I can claim after she kills me, or research Marine Insurance on the Internet. Hm. Such a hard decision.

Insurance is an amusing subject; it's not tedious. You just have to learn all those fancy terms, what people can do to get themselves insured, how to claim insurance and how to fake an injury or your own death. As easy as pie. 

 I don't know whether to restring my Alhambra first or wait till my dad gets back first. 'Cause the string broke a few days ago and he bought me a whole set, so I'm wondering if I should just replace the D string or everything..?

And then my dad's friend suddenly wants to take up the classical guitar so I'm lending him my beloved while I use the Alhambra (who came back from S'pore a month ago as you can see in my uncle's blog).

I have to admit, the 'hambra's got a better tone than my beloved guitar. So I guess it wouldn't do any harm to play it for the time being. 

*crackling of microphone* Testing, testing. Is this thing on? *tap tap* Okay, it is. 

Now, on your left, you will see a piece of uneaten sushi as a result of (must resist mimicking History teacher) my trip to Escapade on Sunday. Speaking of which, my hands still hurt because of that stupid drumming game. We were pretending the "drums" were Fazrul's head, and whamming them as hard as possible. Muahahaha. My bad though. Don't blame me, it was Neko's idea.

Oh and this? Just some random picture of a BB article and a doughnut. 

You want the story?

Yes? No? I'll tell you anyway.

My uncle turned up last Friday with a box of twelve doughnuts from Fun Donut. 

He queued for half an hour.

I'm not a perfectionist.

It's official. 

I like OneRepublic.

But not just because Timbaland remixed their song, it's just 'cause all the songs in their album are good.

Since I need to import songs (and get album artwork etc) from the pirated CDs I bought this afternoon, I'll keep this as short and summarized as possible. Sucks being a perfectionist. I seriously dislike it.

- Went to the temple. Saw tons of people whom I recognised but couldn't quite pin it down.

- The arrangement got changed. So it was get angpau first, then eat. I left early with Sil Suan.

- Ate at Excapade. Met old SAS classmate. Hui Yaw kicked me out of the restaurant 'cause she told me once not to ever go there 'cause she worked there. 

- Watched 'Jumper'. Good movie. I like Griffin.

- The Arcade is addictive. Remind me not to go there again. 

I'm bankrupt.

Take it easy~

I seriously was waiting for the bus at six in the morning. 

It came twenty minutes later. I feel like punching the guy in the face. Or maybe letting the air out of all his tyres would suffice. For now.

We got to school way earlier than usual. Like the driver was trying to break the sound barrier or something. I was so thoughtfully reminded that it was my duty day. So holding that green broom, I tried to device a way that could let me carry on with our (Baoxin, Sil Suan, Stephanie, Neko and I) plans to eat at Excapade and watch a random movie at The Mall. Yeah, I'm going to use italics for the 'the'. The Mall.

Long story short, I have to go to the Temple tomorrow to get mon-oops I meant, an angpau.

I came up with the guys kidnapping me... But I doubt it'd work. So I'm settling for leaving the place as early as possible, which means straight after I get that mo-I mean, angpau, I'm outta there like me escaping evil Geo teacher.

Our History teacher was telling us what to read for our TT2 (yes, already). 

"Read the First World War for the Topical Test 2 class, in April."

Syaz's reaction was like, "Ah?" with this 'what-the-hell??' face.

Haha. Please excuse me here. I still find it funny.

You know our newspaper kan? The Borneo Bulletin kan? Kan??

Anywayyy, I found it awfully amusing today. There was a bunch of stuff that made me want to laugh out loud, such as one on the opinion page titled "Amazed and amused with the contradictions" by Bemused. 

It was about the BB's contradictory articles. Such as, front page: Youth should focus on things other than love life. Inside articles: How to not be single.

Then this opinion letter was followed by an article of Ignatius Stephen's. "Women's Ever Changing Taste In Men" on page fourteen.

Isn't that just great? 

And another one, "Are flyovers being considered?"

Hell yeah, of course they are. I mean, how else could more people be encouraged to attempt suicide? *cheesy smile* XD

The best for last. There was a report on the Asean Youth Extemporaneous Speaking Competition. Its theme? Do drugs control your life? Your community, no place for drugs.

Like, chyeah, please. 

Haven't these people learnt about population in Geo? Why did the birth rate increase and death rate decrease? Because of medicine. Now I ask you, what did you learn in Science? Medicines are drugs too. Now without these drugs, half of us here would probably be dead by now.

So next time be more specific with your topics. Thank you.

Wait wait. I'm editing this. I forgot to mention, it's March the first! Oh em gee. So fast. So fast! Sofaz. XD