The year two thousand and nine anno domini.

Hello, blogosphere, and guess what?

It's New Year's Eve.

Yeah, as if nobody's said a word about it all day.

Actually, to be honest with you guys, I feel kinda hyped about the new year. We survived an entire decade after Y2K, man. Now that's cool.

I think my brain just registered the fact that it was 2009 a few weeks ago, so I'm a tad reluctant to let that go. Heck, I feel more mentally prepared for 2010 than I did for 2009.

The new year is just another day, just another repeat of the sunrise-sunset that's been going on for thousands and thousands of years. Things still go on. People are still dying of thirst and starvation and simple, curable diseases they couldn't afford to buy a cure for and many of us are still selfish assholes. We're still at war all the time and argue with each other for highly ridiculous reasons, and global warming is still there.

People use it as an excuse for a "new start", and make "resolutions" of which half aren't kept well (if we really wanted to improve ourselves, we wouldn't wait for a new year, unless of course you happen to come up with something on the day itself without knowing it was New Year's).

So what's so great about it?

I'll tell you what's so great about it.

I find it quite amazing that we've managed to survive yet another three hundred and sixty-five days on Earth without somehow blowing it up or putting an end to the human race (and hence prove the Mayans wrong with their "2012" theory).

We look forward the New Year because for the optimistic among us, it brings hope that with the next three hundred and sixty-five days cycle, we will strive t0 bring us forward, towards advancement, towards improving ourselves for the better, towards becoming less selfish and asshole-ish each and every day.

Like that's going to happen, but the hope is still there, no matter what tries to convince me otherwise.

So despite knowing it could be a crappy year, we like to greet each other as the year ends and a new one starts, just to keep the hope alive.

My New Year's message is like so:

Have an extremely awesome 2010 ahead of you,

and make sure others do to.

Oh, and if people ask,

it's because I said so.

=D

P.S. The second line was a joke, by the way.

Let's have all the fun we can

before 2012 comes.

...Just kidding.

Ah, it feels good to be able to live to see the future.

See you next year, good people.

Racist chickens.

Hello, blogosphere. Long time no see. How are you, man?

Yeah, okay, I'll admit, five days has been too long.

And no, I haven't died or gone to a cave to hide from the onset of the end of the world when 2010 comes (just in case the Mayans miscalculated or something. Not that I don't have confidence in the Mayans though).

Been spending my nights watching House and not being on the internet, save to sound the horn.

I'm totally cool with 2010 coming, actually. I think this year was pretty well spent, so I'm kinda looking forward to see what 2010 will bring and how awesome it'll be compared to this year.

We probably won't realise it, but in (what will seem to us as) a short while I'll be typing out a post talking about 2011 and how we should all start hoping the Mayans screwed up their calculations, because if not, 2011 will be our penultimate year on earth.

Chances are I'll be using tomorrow's post for a typical recap of 2009. Who knows.

Watched 'Alvin and the Chipmunks 2' yesterday. Theodore is adorable.

I prefer blogging when school reopens, 'cause there are more things to talk about then. Speaking of which, I've got three days to Singapore and five till school starts.

Oh my chicken.

But I'm cool, I'm cool.

Adieu for now.

P.S. I put 'racist chickens' as my post title 'cause it's been one of those phrases lingering at the back of my mind for a few days now. Then I went to catch up with RWJ on Youtube and saw "Racist Chicken!! o.0". Interesting. Racist chickens seem to be all the rage nowadays.

So Christmas-y.

Since I love Christmas carols, here's a quick video of an exceedingly simple version of 'Silent Night' recorded with equipment not up to par because I don't really have anything interesting to write about today and I'm using it as a filler.

Merry Christmas, everybuddeh.

P.S. Oh, and I managed to get that trap I wanted. Thank you, Santa and SB.

Pink taxis.

Yeahp, photos today.

First up is this weird ram/prostrating person with funky ears thing made of towels in the hotel bathroom.

Then there are the elephants. You can like, buy bananas for some thirty baht to feed 'em. Was telling my dad that we could smuggle in our own bananas in some bag like Mary Poppin's (God knows where you can buy those) 'cause it's cheaper that way.

Listen up, kids. Big elephant:

Baby elephant:

You see the difference? So adorable. Just makes you want to keep one for yourself, then you realise how much dung they produce, and how many kilos of bananas you're going to have to buy till your bankruptcy (which is two hundred kilos a day according to the guy leading the elephant we rode on, not including the amount of grass and other things elephants consume in astoundingly large amounts).

Oh, and the pink taxis. Now I can totally prove to you that I wasn't joking around when I mentioned pink taxis.

Overexposed photo though. Doesn't matter, it's a cellphone pic.

Hey, with this, I've written as many posts as I did last year. Somebody congratulate me.

Adieu.

Peanuts.

Going to post pictures perhaps tomorrow, because I have photos of extremely adorable baby elephants and pink taxis.

Can't do it today because I wasn't bothered with charging my phone while I was there so it kinda died. Nobody calls me anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

So, Bangkok.

Pretty satisfied with the trip, 'cause I got fake band t-shirts (MCR, Green Day and Linkin Park). There were like, loads more but I didn't have the time to browse through 'em all.

Since it was Thailand, we just had to go on tour, so we rode elephants and stuff and went on boat rides to the floating market. Bought this really cool wooden crocodile thing. I absolutely love it.

I don't get how elephants can be so big and so cute at the same time. Previously I didn't think it was possible.

It's fun to bargain in Bangkok. "How much?" "Two hunled seventy Baht." "Can lower?" "I give you one hunled fifty Baht. Good price, good price, I give you." Freaking awesome, man.

Was going to buy 'This Is It' but I didn't, 'cause of this conversation: "Can test?" "No, no testing, but this good quality. Veli good quality, really." "Um that's okay. Never mind. Thanks."

And the people. The people are so polite. They go "sawadee ka" all the time, and thank you constantly. I like it there.

One thing that kinda sucked was that you had to pay extra for internet access, and that meant no MouseHunt. Bad timing. Now I don't think I can get that trap 'cause I wasn't around to collect the gifts. Sucky. Big time.

Christmas is in an hour. I don't celebrate Christmas, though I love Christmas carols. (They played 'em a lot in Bangkok, to satisfy the tourists. Why else would a Buddhist country make such a huge hoo-ha over a Christian event?)

Okay, going to go now.

Night.

P.S. Happy now, MJ?

P.P.S. Why do the complimentary peanuts served during aeroplane flights taste so good?

Delayed flight.

Rightly dated 20-12-2009.

Hello, blogosphere.

And yes, I am currently in Bangkok, in a hotel room, sitting on a chair at my laptop on a table typing this out.

I figured that since I've nothing better to do than to admire the scenery and the awesome interior design of my hotel room (both of which I have already done, though the scenery isn't quite as nice as the room itself), I will now proceed (or have proceeded) to type out this blog post (though you might read it several days late).

I can't access the internet right now to publish this 'cause you have to pay and I'm not that desperate. Yet. (I'm thinking I might give in in a day or two, 'cause I'm an internet addict). Therefore I will post this when I finally obtain internet access (if you can read this, it obviously means I have).

My brother is sleeping away 'cause travel tires out little children and it's probably way past his bedtime.

My mum is expressing her distaste at me doing Michael Jackson's impersonations (albeit rather failed) on the super smooth flooring of our hotel room. But hey, I've had MJ songs stuck in my head since before noon today.

My dad is flipping through TV channels because he too has nothing better to do.

Was reading LotR and watching Glee with my mum in the plane on my laptop. Not at the same time, of course. (I'm up to the part where Boromir acts like a total ass by looking down on Aragorn in front of Elrond and all the other important people, in case you wanted to know.)

I have no idea what we're going to do tomorrow. But I'm completely okay with that.

As long as we get to have fun, right? ...Right?

Anyway, gotta go off now. I feel kind of ridiculous typing all this out if people aren't going to read this anytime sooner.

Arrivederci.


P.S. Oh my gee, I just realised that if I don't get internet access, my MouseHunting will die and that would suck. Badly.

All that is gold does not glitter.

Watching 'Glee' now.

I like it.

Going to Bangkok tomorrow. (Obviously for vacation. Anything you see on Facebook about me getting a sex change is a joke. I'm totally cool with not being a guy or something along those lines.)

Went out to watch 'Avatar' this afternoon. It was pretty awesome. And hella epic. 'Cept for the fact that it was pretty long, and you couldn't pause it to go to the toilet 'cause it was at the theatre and all.

Now I feel like I want one of those dinosaur/dragon things they ride. And a tail. Goodness, the things you could do with a tail.

How come we don't have tails? That's no fun, man. I mean, monkeys have tails and they sure have a lot of fun hanging around on those.

Should I or should I not bring my laptop to Thailand with me? I don't want to, but I want to MouseHunt, but then I could just use my iPod, but then I'd need to charge it, which means I need to bring my laptop, which means if I don't I won't be able to MouseHunt for long, depending on whether or not the place I'm going to has wifi or not.

Bleh, so indecisive.

Okay, short post for tonight, 'cause I gotta wake up early tomorrow to visit my uncle (who had the heart bypass).

Adieu, fair people.

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring,

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.

Aragorn FTW.

P.S. Can you believe I typed that out identical to the one in the book without having to refer? I can't.

Cross-dressing.

Five more posts to go.

I've currently got like, five Safari windows open on F1 news.

All right, first things first.

Do you really think Richard Branson will cross-dress as an AirAsia stewardess if Lotus beats Manor (renamed Virgin Racing) next year? I hope so. Or Tony Fernandes as a Virgin airlines stewardess if vice versa. Interesting.

Trulli and Kovalainen have signed with Lotus for next year, and Glock and di Grassi for Virgin. I hope things go well for Kovalainen. I like that guy.

Now for the real business.

Will Michael Schumacher make a comeback? I don't know, and I don't want to think too much about it either. Schumi coming back is like, wow and all, but I worry that he won't be up to par after all these years. (I would love to have full confidence in him though.)

I wonder who Mercedes will sign if they don't get Schumi. Perhaps Heidfeld.

Kobayashi is driving for Sauber, which is a relief, 'cause we thought BMW was quitting, and 'cause Kobayashi is pretty talented as a driver.

Force India is keeping Sutil and Liuzzi, although Vijay Mallya is looking for Indian drivers for the seasons to come.

I might as well just post the entire 2010 lineup when it comes out officially (eventually), so I'll stop here.

Speaking of 2010, our new classes came out last night, so it was a frantic mess. "Which class are you in?" was probably the most asked question then.

We're all going to find out who's where in two weeks, so we should just chill.

Although I think we need at least two weeks to get over the fact that we got shuffled and need to face different people next year.

Hmm.

Going off now.

Night.

WiFi.

Since I haven't posted any pictures of cake on this for a long time, here we go.

Pic is a bit yellowish, but never mind. Was all I could do before the cake got invaded by excited little boys going "cake, cake!".

Mmm, cake.

Anyway, if you're wondering where the cake came from, it's my uncle's birthday today, and we were at his house earlier celebrating.

Isaac is so cuteee. He's like, the epitome of adorable.

Unlike my ass of a brother. (Tried to declare war on me because I refused give him any chocolate. The little monster then proceeded to throw cushions at me while I tried to read LotR. Probably explains why I read so slowly.)

Learnt how to play the riff in Cream's 'Sunshine Of Your Love" yesterday. Good fun, that.

My electric kicks ass, man.

Dreamt I was playing Muse's 'Uprising' live last night somewhere to some people for some event. That was pretty cool.

Also, I think I've been neglecting my Alhambra lately, 'cause prior to 'Uprising' I dreamt I was playing some classical piece from some score, and got all the notes jumbled up and my fingering all messed up. Now that was appalling.

Need to cut my nails (or wait till they grow longer) 'cause my nails are at that stage where my notes sound all clack-y 'cause they're not long enough to be played solely by the nails and they're not short enough to be played by fingertips alone.

Sigh. Decision-making. I prefer shorter nails though. It gives a rounder, sweeter, and mellower sound than long nails. Long nails are more sharp and precise. Not to mention louder. But Christmas is coming 'round and Christmas carols sound way nicer with short nails.

Better go off now.

Night.

P.S. I've got a lot to say about the current status of F1, but I'll save it for another day.

P.P.S. Oh, and Stel, to make you happy, I started talking about nails 'cause I went to your blog and gave you page hits.

Little Asian boy.

Eight more posts to reach my goal of "publish more posts than last year".

I think this is going to get harder each year, 'cause I'll have to add one every time.

But I also think I'll be satisfied as long as I don't write less than I did last year.

Sent my dad off to Bangkok this morning (which here means I merely sat in the car while my mum drove him to the airport and dropped him off).

Came back, picked up my battered and yellowing copy of LotR and read like, two pages before my mum came back with kebabs for lunch. I need super peace and quiet to read, 'cause I want to savour every word and sentence and paragraph and scene and dialogue and "my preciousss".

And that's also why I'm still going at a terribly slow pace. Slower than a tired sloth on a lazy Monday morning having a "who can be slower" competition against a sleepy snail who has impaired movement and a huge desire to win said competition against said sloth.

You know what I mean.

Visited my uncle at JPMC after lunch. He's been transferred from the ICU to the general ward, and it's great to know that he's making progress.

Went to my aunt's after that 'cause we needed to send her home (said uncle's wife) and lazed around for a bit.

Napped when we got home. (I think all this late-night reading is taking a toll on me. But man, it's a good book.)

Reading my blog archives now, just to see how badly I wrote in '08. Well, not exactly badly, but it was pretty different back then. It's kinda interesting to see how my writing changes over time (the lameness is pretty consistent though).

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a date with LotR.

I bid thee, farewell and good night.

P.S. I love the word "chicken". And I don't know why.

Not racist.

Finally got to hang out with the MYBs today.

'Cept it was only Maz, Naimah, Fazrul, Neko and I, so there was kind of incompleteness lingering around. (Don't feel bad about not being able to be there, Myra. There's always a next time.)

Went to The Mall, Gadong (since there's hardly anywhere else to catch a movie and lepakz in Brunei).

Lunched at KFC with Neko, Maz and Naimah, 'cause Fazrul was being fashionably late and all (am I not right, monkey boy?).

Neko had her ear pierced after that. Cartilage piercings own, man.

Watched 'The Princess and the Frog' after Maz left. Good movie, that.

They probably broke into songs every five minutes, but I guess with the good story line, it was highly tolerable.

All the New Orleans jazz was good, too. I like jazz.

Oh, and Disney's first black princess. I like her.

I think the Disney Princesses with the least lack of common sense are Tiana and Mulan. (Or that may be because I'm racist and like non-white princesses. Up to you to decide.)

And the animation, oh God, the animation.

I've missed good ol' Disney 2D animation. They just don't make it like they used to anymore. Being my age (which is like, pretty old), I grew up with traditional 2D movies. That's how it's supposed to be, man. Simplistic, entertaining characters, great plot. Mm.

Paid a visit to CA Mohammed for murtabak after the movie. Yum.

I've missed being with the MYBs, with our lame jokes and puns and talking about random things.

Okay, going to go continue with LotR now.

Want to get to the bit where the Strider shows up. (Because Aragorn is the love, man.)

Good night, good people.

P.S. Frog to Tiana: J'adore "I adore you." J'taime "I love you." *awkward silence* "What? I was just translating."

Epic speeches.

What's up, blogosphere?

This guy made my day:

The credit for the amazing arrangement goes to Kurt Schneider, and the credit for the amazing voice goes to Sam Tsui. Oh, and the credit for awesome beatboxing goes to the guy on the left.

Managed to work my way a few pages into LotR.

Planned to spend my entire afternoon reading in sweet, Middle Earth bliss, but my brother simply refused to have an afternoon nap, so I ended up watching some random DVDs with him to babysit.

I'm a brilliant babysitter. Leave it all to Astro, YouTube, and our dear DVD player. Now that's what I call top-class babysitting. (Actually, no, I was kidding. There's a lot more to that, man.)

One thing I love about my brother is that he has a great taste in music. It's probably one of the few things that can keep him quiet and behaving appropriately (which here means not acting like he's got ants in his pants or something somewhere along those lines).

All right, I've got nothing else to say ('cept maybe talk about how entertaining CollegeHumor videos are and how Aragorn kicks ass), so I'mma go off now.

Arrivederci.

P.S. Do you know Aragorn's speech at the gates of Mordor before the war? You can use it for a lot of other purposes as well. Here are a few versions:

Before dining:

"The day will come when the gluttony of men fails and the production of food dwindles, but today is not this day! An hour will come, of famine and hunger, but it is not today! Today we eat!"

Before exams:

"The day will come when the hardworkingness of students ends and our ability to comprehend exam questions disappears, but today is not this day! An hour will come, of question marks and head-scratching, but it is not today! Today we pass!"

And so on, and so on.

P.P.S. That was probably the longest postscript I've ever written. Cool.

Mortality.

I've realised that the later I sleep, the earlier I tend to get up.

Slept away my entire afternoon though.

Had some really good dream about the hostel rooms having air-conditioning. We can dream on, man. I bet that's what my subconscious was trying to tell me.

Visited my uncle after lunch (the one who underwent a heart bypass a few days ago) with a few members of the family.

Children under twelve weren't allowed in, so we dropped my brother and cousin off at our other uncle's house (my mum has a lot of brothers).

Broke my heart to see my uncle just lying there, unable to do anything.

I mean, it sucks to see people so helpless and knowing you can't do much to help.

Bleh.

Thank God the operation succeeded though.

We're so fragile, it's depressing.

Take a look at those horror movies, freak accidents and natural disasters, and you're like, heck, those people sure died really easily. And then you realise, heck, that could've been me.

It's a scary thought.

Anyway, had to wait outside in the hospital lobby for a while, with my mum, cousin, and her dad. Drew faces on our masks to pass the time. Then played around with her DS.

Finished 'The Hobbit' last night. Started on LotR during breakfast, but I couldn't get past the prologue before my mum came and said we were going out.

Going off now. Need to dream about air-conditioned hostel rooms again (hopefully).

Night.

P.S. Just realised earlier on that Michael Jackson and Michael Bublé are both Michaels. Man, I lag.

The Hobbit.

I think I might have a slight obsession with Susan Boyle.

My mum's considering getting her new album, 'I Dreamed A Dream'. She believes Susan Boyle is an amazing singer. I have to agree.

Listening to her version of "I Dreamed A Dream" on YouTube now.

Heck, and to think talent like that was hidden for decades.

Makes you wonder how many other extremely talented people are out there undiscovered and how many of them will never be discovered at all. Sad.

Anyway, it seems like all I do nowadays is laze away at home. Heck.

Note to self: Stop being lazy or I keel you.

Started reading The Hobbit on Monday, 'cause I had to follow my mum to her office and she was afraid I'd be bored out of my mind, so I grabbed it off my shelves.

I think the last time I read that book was around four years ago, after PSR, before my second attempt at LotR, 'cause there is no way I'll ever let myself read it before The Hobbit.

My obsession with the Lord of the Rings probably started many, many years ago (yes, I am that old) when my dad handed me a copy of The Hobbit and told me it was a good book. He wasn't lying. It was epic. Probably more than my seven/eight-year old brain could handle.

I was a die-hard Harry Potter fan back then. I remember those days. I guess JK Rowling just disappointed me with her last few books. It was all money-making and no more genius storytelling.

That's probably why one of the main things that make reading enjoyable for me is consistency in writing, given that the writer doesn't improve over time.

But I digress.

Actually, when I read 'The Hobbit' back then, I didn't have any idea at all that it was connected to LotR. I just thought the story ended then and there and there was nothing more to it.

Ignorance sucks, man.

My dad only let me in on LotR (the book version) after we watched one of the movies (here my memory fails me, 'cause it was such a long, long time ago). What I do remember is that he dug out his super thick and yellowing copy of the entire trilogy from God-knows-where and handed it to me. I like to recall the scene with some dramatic background music like when Aragorn was being crowned King of Gondor by Elrond. Such a defining moment in life.

It's raining really heavily now, and I have to go and switch off the modem 'cause my mum doesn't like me leaving it on overnight 'cause it tends to overheat (have I ever mentioned the exploding modem incident?).

Adieu.

P.S. The Simpsons is back on Star World and I'm lovin' it. I've been so deprived.

Sincerity.

Ah, MCR.

It's been four weeks since I got my ear pierced, and I'm still coming to terms with the fact that I've got a thing stuck in a hole in my ear cartilage. It's pretty cool.

Facebook is pretty alive at this hour of the day. Pity I'm expected to be in bed right now. The night is still young, man.

Cheryl apparently never knew Piglet was a guy. I mean, how is that not obvious? They always referred to Piglet as a "he" and he had a voice that definitely didn't sound like a female.

Just because Piglet was pink, loves flowers, afraid of most things and prone to jumping into Winnie the Pooh's arms doesn't mean he's a female.

Though that kinda hints some kinda homosexuality there. I guess the creators of children's shows like to present sexually confused characters. Just take a look at Barney. Oh well.

This is why kids nowadays are all sexually confused and such.

All right, I'll drop the sensitive topic.

PMB results are out.

And I think it finally hit me when I realised they were out: It's been an entire year since I stopped being an MS student.

An entire year since PMB.

An entire year.

Heck. It would be so much cooler if you could hear the words "an entire year" echoed, but it's not exactly possible with the amount of technology I have at hand, so just use your imagination.

An entire year.

Now that was fast.

And now that an entire year has passed since the release of the 2008 PMB results, I feel like I'm ready to face the world with mine.

Last year this time, I was depressed. So depressed, I wasn't even able to write a proper post. My results sucked. They sucked and I hated that they were branded to me for the rest of my life. Forever a failure. Forever officially a failure. Certified failure (yeah, they gave us result slips).

I was a total ass. I knew I was, I admitted it, but I didn't stop.

So a year later, I sincerely congratulate you guys on your awesome results. And I'm sorry for feeling extremely envious of your 8As.

Now that's done with, I gotta turn in now, 'cause I've got an appointment tomorrow with Neko.

Going to have something in store for tomorrow. We'll see.

Night.

Butt numbness.

Been occupied all day today.

Got woken up by an inaccurate rendition of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" early this morning. Turned out to be my dad being all semangat and playing around with the electric and his bass pretending to be a rockstar.

So I went back to sleep.

Then my mum came and knocked on my bedroom door an hour or so later asking me to wake up 'cause she doesn't like me sleeping late and then sleeping in.

So I went back to sleep.

Drifted off to dream fragmented bits of dreams when I heard the noise of car doors slamming shut and then the enthusiastic shouts of little boys.

And that's when I finally hauled my ass out of bed.

When you have three boys the age of four and below under one roof, there's bound to be some screaming. And screaming there was. It's like, non-stop running and shouting and complaining and wailing and being completely adorable and endearing.

I wonder where they get all their energy from. Probably get it from us, like little energy-sucking vampires.

Hey, now that explains why we get so tired looking after them.

Interesting.

Anyway, met up with Pacahh plus a few at The Mall, Brunei's number one place to lepakz.

Ate at Swensen's, told pretty lame jokes and karaoke-d at the arcade.

Kinda miss Singapore life.

You kinda get sick of being stuck at home all day. I mean, I love my house and being at home, but sometimes we need a change of environment. Stir crazy, man.

Feel pretty bad for having to have my parents drive me around though.

Do you want to know what's sad?

It's how we can't wait for the holidays to start, but then when the holidays really are here, we can't help but feel bored out of our minds without anything to do.

Holidays are really bored days. They aren't really holidays. We've been scammed, man.

Gotta go now. Parents are complaining.

I'm exhausted anyway.

Night.

P.S. I honestly need something to read.

Festive Comet.

I... have a dream.

And that dream, is not for racial equality in the world (not that I don't want racial equality, but I might get sued for plagiarism if it were in this here blog post), but to achieve something rather spectacular and grand though paled in comparison to racial equality.

And that, my dear readers, is to write and publish more blog posts than I did last year.

Or at least equal the number if I run out of things to talk about.

But definitely not less. Hell no.

All right, I should stop starting my sentences with conjunctions (but honestly, nobody cares).

Anyway, been spending the past few days being extremely unproductive and lazy.

Oh God, I can't even remember what I did two days ago. This is ridiculous.

I remember not being at home yesterday though. (If I sound like somebody who just woke up all hangover-ed in somebody else's house and is trying to recall drunk facts, do not judge me. I repeat: Do not judge me.)

Ignore me, I'm just trying to use lame jokes to fill in for my lack of content.

Talking to our new junior on Facebook now. Makes me think of last year. I definitely remember this time a year or so ago, when I was seriously reluctant to have to leave Brunei. I was an idiot.

Three hundred and sixty-five days later, it's all cool. And I'm cool with all that "it's-all-cool"-ness.

Singapore be fun.

(I still hate schoolwork, homework and tests though. Nothing can ever change that, unless I undergo some miraculous personality transformation. But we wouldn't want that, would we? ...Would we?)

Better go now. Will come back when I have more to talk (or type) about.

Adieu.

P.S. I've stopped listening again. I need to listen. I hate not listening.

P.P.S. I need to practice. Why have I not been practicing? I need "me" time.

P.P.P.S. Need to get my bike fixed. If not, a new bike will do just fine.

P.P.P.P.S. I can finally sleep on my right, after all those weeks. Nice.

Talking dogs.

Nothing to be read tonight, 'cause I finished 'The Book Thief' earlier this evening.

And hell, it is good. And by "good", I mean absolutely brilliant. And I mean it. (I'm thinkin' I used too many "and"s there.)

I've never read a book that could be so funny, wittily told, sorrowful and true at the same time. It was all so matter-of-fact, you know, the way all the people died. Now that's sad.

Kudos to Markus Zusak for the brilliant story (although I may be four years late in doing that, late is better than never, right?).

Wasted away an entire afternoon reading and being on the internet, which now, looking back (this makes me sound old), kinda triggers some kind of regret.

I should've done something better, like practice, jam, or practice. But I didn't. Why didn't I? Because I was too busy being absorbed in an amazing book called 'The Book Thief', that's why.

Watched 'Up' earlier on with the family (my mum bought the DVD more than a week ago, but we never got round to watching it till just now).

It was so cute. Loved the dog. Seriously. I would like a dog that'd go up to you and say, "I hid under your porch because I love you."

Need to finish this post quick 'cause my laptop battery's running out, and I have a review on the "Top 10 reasons why Twilight sucks" to read and other things like that that would make Twilight lovers wish to murder me over the internet (but seriously though, I'm too young to die).

It was World AIDS Day yesterday. Was having fun on Twitter by typing #red and looking at our text turn red, but that wasn't really the point, was it?

HIV is like a guest that overstays its welcome (in this case, was never welcomed).

It needs to learn some manners and leave.

Okay, not much battery power left.

Adieu.

P.S. "I have just met you, and I love you." Awesome dog.

Visualisers.

Listening to 'Rain' on YouTube. I'll definitely buy Mika's new album if I see it out in stores. I love Mika's voice.

Sometimes, people like to judge you because you listen to Mika. I don't really care. So what if he's a bit gay? So what if he's a bit off on sexual orientation? The guy is talented, and I'll give him that. I love Mika. (Gay men have so much more personality in writing music. I swear it.)

Need to listen to Michael Bublé's new album as well. And OneRepublic's.

Speaking of albums, there's one in particular I'm especially looking forward to: MCR's. Should be coming out sometime early next year, and I'll definitely be needing it once it's been released.

Been plagued by two things all day today.

One of them is hiccups, and the other is my brother.

Ah, hiccups. You get rid of them and they somehow manage to show up again like an unwanted visitor for no reason whatsoever. Bleh.

Ah, my brother. You can't get rid of him (unless when he goes to school, but that's another story) and he somehow manages to be able to annoy you in every way possible for no reason whatsoever (I personally think he enjoys being a total pain in the ass. I don't know for sure).

Before dinner, he asked me if I would help him with his little jigsaw puzzle. Sure, I told him. Of course I'd help.

So there I was, fitting pieces into this terribly easy puzzle, where he watches me for a while and goes "Jie, I know how to do this. Let me do it myself."

I'm like, "Are you sure?" and he goes, "Yes, now let me do it," and I let him do it and return to watching television. I turn around just in time to see him wrecking the entire thing. He looks at me and goes, "Whoops. Jie, can you help me with this?"

"No way in hell," I find myself thinking. But since my body likes to contradict what my brain says, I finished it for him anyway.

And to wrap it up poklenz-style, baH, I tiDuRz duLu Ahxz. AhAkxx.

P.S. Don't get me wrong. I love my brother.

Dreaming.

Oh my gee, I just realised I haven't played Tetris in ages (by "ages" I mean a week, but "ages" sounds better than "a week").

And the thing is, I haven't actually noticed.

Can't really believe I've been back home for more than a week. Seems like that passed in a blink of an eye (or maybe two. Some people blink faster).

A lot of people are going overseas for the holidays, but all I want to do is stay here and rot my brains away with an overdose of television and good food (I know it's not very healthy, but you know, I only get to do this for a sum of around three months all year).

Going to Thailand sometime near Christmas though. That should be fun even though it reduces my "Brunei time".

I had a nightmare a few nights ago.

Dreamt exams weren't over yet and I didn't know how to do anything and ended up screwing everything up because I wasn't prepared at all.

Talk about paranoia.

Actually, I wouldn't really call it a nightmare, 'cause (touch wood) I don't seem to have those anymore. In a bad dream, I'm all "heck, I feel severely weirded out. I bet this is a dream. Should be waking up soon. Mm hmm. Yeah. Any time now," and that's the end of that.

Dreaming is like when your brain gets seriously bored when you're sleeping, and it tries to entertain itself. Either that, or I have an extremely weird subconscious.

All right, better go off now. Everybody's sleeping 'cept me, and I don't want to accidentally wake anyone up.

Night.

P.S. Sweet dreams. Dreaming is fun.

P.P.S. Hate it when they get all morbid though, 'cause they follow you through the day.

Smile.

Who says I wasn't cute when I was younger?

This is like, a photograph of a photograph of me ages ago when I used to live elsewhere. Back when I was definitely less of a loser and less prone to making lame jokes.

...Man, now I feel old.

I just Tweeted this: "Oh God, I feel so bad. I voted Red Bull as the team with the better line-up because I don't believe the Massa-Alonso thing will work out."

Heck.

F1 is currently a really confusing mess that'll hopefully clear up before the 2010 season.

I honestly believe that Button moving to McLaren was a bad idea. What was he thinking? Maybe he really did have no choice but to move.

Mercedes GP (formerly Brawn which got taken over by Mercedes and hence renamed) has already signed Nico 'Britney' Rosberg, and we're thinkin' they want an all German driver team, which here means signing Nick Heidfeld as well.

Apparently BMW will now be involved next year (they were supposed to have withdrawn, like what Toyota have done, sadly), although Kubica's signed with Renault and Heidfeld linked to Mercedes' second seat.

Interestingly, Michael Schumacher is rumoured to make a comeback with God-knows-which team (his manager made an announcement recently that he's recovered from his neck injury and will be able to drive again. If he wasn't planning on coming back, why on earth would he announce that?). Who knows.

Then there's the teams who've got confirmed drivers, namely McLaren (Hamilton and *sigh* Button), Ferrari (our dear Massa and Alonso), Red Bull (Vettel and Webber), and Williams (Barichello and Hulkenburg).

The rest of the teams have either got no drivers yet, or have signed one and looking for a second driver.

Bleh.

Spent all yesterday jamming and playing The Sims 3 with Neko. We epicly managed to nail Daughtry's 'No Surprise' on the second try after listening to it once in a different key. We just rock, man.

Didn't do much of interest today though.

Oh, and I would love to own a new bike.

Going off now. Need to read 'The Book Thief'. (I got it last year as a birthday present, but never got 'round to reading it 'cause my dad borrowed it from me and then it became rather inconvenient, living in another country and all.)

Night.

P.S. Happy birthday to our dear Ashley in Aussie. Have a sweet sixteenth, man. Brunei people be missing you loads.

MSPSBS.

Better type out this post before my mum comes to pick me up to pick up my brother and go for lunch.

Need to remind myself to stop waking up late.

Was going to talk about last Wednesday, but never actually got round to doing that, what with all the Pirates of the Caribbean-watching and jamming and doing other things that reduced my blogging time.

I love POTC. My dad thinks I'm mad 'cause I was speaking like a pirate to him last night (oh wait, he already thinks I'm mad. Never mind). Arrr, mateys.

Anyway, I visited MS on Wednesday, which was pretty awesome in every way.

Teachers kept giving me weird looks when I was waiting for people to come out of the Audi (or rather, escape from the CCA prize-giving ceremony) and talk to me. Maybe it's 'cause I wasn't wearing school uniform. Or maybe it's 'cause they were all thinking, "OMG it's her. Didn't we manage to get rid of her last year?"

Felt pretty guilty for making Myra tear up (I didn't tell most of them I was going to be there). Sorry, My. But it was a good surprise, wasn't it?

Do you know how much I miss MS? A lot.

I didn't realise, you know. Until you step into that school and breathe in MS air, and look at everybody having fun and wearing MS clothes, and climb all those stairs again, that you realise how much you miss MS.

Heck, I miss MS. I haven't said it for ages, and I'll say it now. I miss MS.

Okay, MS-missing moment over.

Met the NUSH people on exchange to Brunei there. They were telling me how awesome Brunei was, and what on earth made me leave such a beautiful country. God knows. All I know is that it's good to know that they'll go back and not tell everybody that Brunei sucks. That's because it doesn't suck. I love Brunei. Great holiday destination.

All right, my mum's here.

Adieu.

P.S. Pics of our Excapade/Swensen's dinner are on Facebook, if ye be curious enough to be wantin' a peek.

Nyaman juicies.

In my bedroom now, one ear on RTB and the other on 'She Will Be Loved'.

Was karaoke-ing it with Shar, Manda, and Stel at The Mall earlier on, and it's been stuck in my head ever since.

Woke up seriously late today. Skipped breakfast and straight to lunch.

I can't really remember how I wasted the rest of my afternoon away. I think I was watching Spongebob on television. Oh God. I hadn't watched television for so long, I'd forgotten how to sit there and channel-surf and basically look like a wasted, lazy fat-ass (I used to do it all the time, man).

Played around a bit with my electric after that. Finally learnt how to play the riff in MJ's Black or White.

Met up with Shar, Stel and Manda at Excapade for dinner. Sounded like we were at a zoo when we ordered, what with Shar and Manda going "jellyfish" and "octopus" and Stella going "I want my unagi".

We always order the same thing ('cept for the drinks). It's funny that way.

On the way to Swensen's for our usual ice cream-after-sushi, I saw a familiar face.

Took a few seconds for my brain to register and go "Ohhh, I know you."

It feels weird to meet the right people in the wrong places. NUSH people at The Mall? That's new. And some coincidence.

But Brunei is so small, and the only place where you can actually jalan is The Mall, so when you come to think of it, it's actually no surprise.

Anyway, I sure hope Brunei left a good impression on them. I love my country, no matter how many poklenz it has, or how few places of attraction there are to visit.

And we've got monkeys. I love monkeys. That's a good thing, right?

Right. Better go to bed now.

Oh wait. I'm already in bed. Let me rephrase:

Right. Better go to sleep now.

Night.

P.S. Anybody have any idea what's wrong with my MSN? My nick and PM keep disappearing every time I sign out. I'm sick of having to re-type everything out again.

Singing waiters.

Pretty jobless right now. 

Finished 'Oath Breaker' before dinner, so now I'm pretty much biding my time. Was planning to watch 'Pirates of the Caribbean' with my mum, but I don't think she'll be finishing up her work anytime sooner, so that's a no-go for tonight.

All I can say about 'Oath Breaker' is that it's as good as the previous four books in 'The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness (which is absolutely brilliant). Consistency in flavour is probably one of the best things a writer can have. 

Went out pretty early in the morning for breakfast at CA Muhammad (mm yeahh). 

Then dropped my dad off at the airport so he could catch his flight to Jakarta. 

And then, since we had nothing better to do, my mum brought me and my brother for a haircut. 

Had plenty of time to read 'Oath Breaker' there. 

After that, we dropped by my mum's eldest brother's house and had lunch (was supposed to go out to eat, but I dunno what happened to that). Ridiculously large mouth ulcer made eating kinda hellish.  Go away and leave me in peace, ulcer. I want to enjoy my food. It sucks to have to eat with only one side of your mouth. 

Ah, Brunei food.

I bet I sound really greedy. What to do? I'm a deprived person.

Went to Alyssa's first birthday party last night. Cute as interracial babies are, I'm thinking she tops my chart (I actually don't have a chart for cute babies. It's just a figure of speech).

Got plenty of pics of cake. 

Will upload pics when I blog on my Macbook. 

Currently making plans for the holidays. Poklen fishing, here I come.

I think I'mma turn in relatively early tonight. Been feeling sleepy all day.

Night.

P.S. I need to get myself a surround sound system. Seriously.

Tidur.

It's such a beautiful day.

Listening to Strawberry Swing, and there's a line that goes "And it's such a perfect day". I couldn't agree more.

If I were a Sim, my PlumbBob would be glowing platinum (though platinum PlumbBobs are a TS2 thing).

Kinda drowsy now. Had like, the most satisfying lunch in ages. Home-cooked food owns, man.

Was sitting in the kitchen earlier while lunching and just appreciating home.

The sky is the loveliest blue, and the clouds are coolly hanging around randomly.

The breeze is perfectly nyaman, and how it coaxes the leaves of all the plants to rustle together and the palm trees to sway makes you feel all content and happy.

I love my house. I really do.

Traveling is stressful. It's just not cool anymore.

I hope everyone's enjoying their holidays now, to make up for all that crap we went through yesterday.

After all, we deserve a break from everything once in a while.

Everyone else left over in the hostel (*cough Woan Chyi cough*) is probably really envious of the people who've already gone back. I don't blame them, actually. 'Cause it really sucks to be alone while we're here enjoying tanah air.

Sat next to this elderly couple from Hong Kong (they were like, part of an entire pack of Cantonese tourists) in the plane. Had an epic communication breakdown with the lady. I no speak Cantonese. And my Mandarin fails. She tried to convince me in a mixture of Cantonese and Mandarin and English that Hokkien and Teochew were seventy per cent alike, and all I could do was make gestures I hoped symbolised agreement (which here meant nod and go "ah yeah mm okay").

Ah, tourists.

All right, going to watch Peter Chao on YouTube now.

Adieu.

Last night, baby.

Oh my gee, everything's a mess.

My room's a mess.

The cluster's a mess.

My mind's a mess.

My belongings are in a mess.

Never knew going back could be this stressful.

Only when you need to worry about clearing out your room of everything you own. Which is a lot of things.

God knows why I keep so much junk.

Came up with a few easy, efficient and simple ways to avoid packing 'cause Syaf and I were both completely sick of it.

- Dress like Ghandi. All the time. Slippers and a homespun cloth wrapped around you sure solve wardrobe and laundry problems.

- Choose your favourite garments and put them on. Seriously. Wear all of them at the same time and simply stroll (if you're able to, what with six pairs of pants, two sets of undergarments, five shirts, two jackets and a fedora) into airport.

- Dump everything into the bin and leave. End of story.

I'm like, 95%-ish done with packing now. Got bits and pieces all over the place, but I'll tie up those loose ends tomorrow when I'm less sleepy and tired and stressed and disoriented.

What probably keeps us all sustained through this is the fact that we get to go back. So looking forward to my bed, but this is our last night here this year, and we've got to savour that, man.

Spent my entire morning in the library playing with the iMacs during CCA time while waiting for our pizzas to come (took an entire two hours, but was worth it anyway). Watched the video of last year's convocation as well, 'cause Mr Syed wanted the people on duty to know how to angle the cameras. Quoted from him: "Don't be shy, go right up to the front. Capture candid moments like that. Make them feel awkward."

All right, better sleep early tonight.

Need to be semangat for tomorrow (last day of this sem, man).

I'll probably be too busy to post tomorrow, so don't have expectations.

Night.

P.S. Remind me to bring my passport tomorrow. If not, I'm screwed.

P.P.S. Going back tomorrow. Wheee. A small part of my mind is seriously happy and excited despite all the stress everywhere.

Ketupat.

Listening to Keane's 'Somewhere Only We Know' right now. It's been ages since I've felt like I've truly fallen in love with a song.

It's a beautiful song. There are many nice songs out there, but this one is beautifully written, and I love it.

Feeling extremely sleepy, but there are clothes strewn all over my bed waiting to be folded before I hit the hay.

Woke up slightly earlier this morning. Had to be in the audi by seven.

Basically had to clear up all the ketupat-making material and get them ready for distribution to classes, play around with the chapteh things, and wait for our turn to go on stage.

Forgot lyrics here and there, but overall I think our 'Selamat Hari Raya' performance wasn't that bad. I mean, it could've been more embarrassing and less fun.

Yos and Abdur finally showed up (getting Faiz to finally stop talking about Yos, since he was there in person), though Insan overslept (at least that's what I think happened).

I think we would've died if there was any lack of manpower.

I've still got a whole stack of coupons left, 'cause apparently the chapteh was too hard for some, hopscotch too tedious and batu seremban a bit confusing (not too clear about the rules).

Hardly anybody wanted to go to the concourse anyway, 'cause it was all the way at the other end and wasn't air-conditioned. People go to the hall just for the air-conditioning, I know it.

Ended up being really lenient and randomly giving out coupons. Should've claimed for more ourselves though.

A huge thanks to all the people who were there and helped out. (Feel kinda bad 'cause I've been calling, spamming and doing things like that for the past few days.)

Need to continue packing and probably sleep now. I wish I could pack in my sleep. That would be awesome. I'm completely brain-dead. Can't...process...thoughts...into...proper...paragraphs.

Adieu.

P.S. No, I do not worship chickens.

Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa

Finally uploading videos of our chalet onto Facebook, 'cause the internet connection isn't as gay right now, and that I finally discovered how to transfer iPod videos to my Macbook.

Probably going to do it bit by bit, though I'll probably prioritise Shi Ni's "My name is Tan Shi Ni and I have fake boobs" video. Who knows.

Need to turn in early tonight, 'cause we've gotta be at school by seven in the morning for the Deeparaya thing. Also, I feel super tired right now.

Went to the Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society this morning for our post-exam activities.

Some parts of the trip were pretty cool, like the Indian percussion bit.

Indian music reminds me of my dad. He tends to listen to traditional Indian music CDs in his car. No idea why.

Oh, and we were joined by the new China-ese (the term "Chinese" is pretty confusing here) and Vietnamese students. Wanted to hook MJ up with one of them, 'cause you know, China.

We need to stop making racist comments. (But seriously, racist jokes are funny. We mean well, honest.)

Wasted time "smart-ly" with Cheryl. And by "smart-ly", I mean we waited till three (the rehearsals were supposed to start by then) in the Audi with air-conditioning and all that.

Alternated between being bored, having fun, attempting to play chapteh, and craptalking with Aisyah, Faiz and Ahmad throughout the entire thing. Faiz still won't stop talking about Yos. They've got like, some weird, gay relationship going on or something. I don't know, it's just plain weird.

Got immersed in ketupat-making after that. Managed to make one with the help of Ash.

They were joking that nobody would marry women who didn't know how to make ketupats. I doubt it's true though. Complicated little things, ketupats. I salute the genius who invented ketupats and ketupat-making.

Okay, better go now.

Night.

P.S. I still haven't finished packing yet.

Black-tack.

Ah, my ear's been itchy all day.

Finally stopped sometime during my meeting up with Shar earlier this evening.

The girls kept taunting me. "Hey Ya Wen," they'd say. "Look. I can scratch my ear. Ahh, feels so good, right?"

Oh, whatever. My ear still looks so much cooler than yours.

Anyway, had games day today. Got dragged into referee-ing Captain's Ball. And failed terribly. I can't referee, honest.

And while I was referee-ing (failed-ly), the guys played "butt soccer" 'cause the lightning warning was on and they had to move indoors. Man, I wanted to watch butt soccer. Really badly.

Went out to lunch at Subway with Jia Hong, MJ, Cheryl, Zhen Jie and Wai Yin after that. Completely stuffed after that.

Since we had plenty of time to waste afterward, we hung out at Cold Storage (again). Probably 'cause we all had this subconscious urge to listen to Christmas jingles and look at Christmas food. Mmm, Christmas.

Took plenty of videos of us randomly talking with my iPod. One day I'mma get Debb to show me how to transfer them to my laptop so I can upload them onto Facebook.

We are seriously jobless people.

Spent around ten minutes trying to get Jia Hong's dollar coin out of the trolley slot thing. It doesn't work properly, so the coin doesn't come out when you insert the metal thing. Ended up digging and poking it out with Jia Hong's hair clip and lifting the trolley to get gravity to help us.

Now that was eventful.

Okay, my ear's starting to itch again. Healing wounds itch, right? So this should be a good thing. I hope. Fingers crossed. I'd rather it itch than ache as badly as it did last Saturday.

Received a call while we were still at West Coast Plaza, and realised I had to go back to school to help with the Deeparaya decorations.

A huge thanks to Aisyah for being there as well.

Then practiced for the concert thing (failed singing, but you know, at least we try). And then completely failed trying to discuss the games thing 'cause we kept going off-topic.

Met Shar at Orchard after that. Jalan-ed at City Hall. We talked and walked, she shopped, I hung around. Good times, good times.

All right, post getting too draggy and ear itching too badly.

Night.

P.S. Since when was Blu-tack black?

The art of packing.

Busy, busy, busy.

Still talking about packing but not really doing anything.

Talked about it yesterday with Fatinn, today during lunch and dinner with Woan Chyi. The topic comes up at random moments. It's like, we're walking from the canteen to the hostel, and one of us goes, "I need to pack".

But seriously, I need to pack.

Five days to go, man, and all I've done that counts as packing is half-cleared my side of the table, assembled a box, dumped a few books inside and sat down to listen to Sam Sparro's "Black and Gold" repeatedly on YouTube.

I know it came out ages ago, but I never downloaded it, and yeah, it's a good song.

Who cares if Sam Sparro is gay? Gays write good music. (I dunno. They've just got this thing about the way they sing.)

Oh, and apparently the Taiwan trip has been cancelled for me. Heard from Neko who heard from my mum. She hasn't said a word to me about anything as of late, so... bleh.

Still wondering about how to pack all my stuff. Thank God I own fewer things than the average female boarder. (Actually I'm not so sure. Either that, or Bruneians sure have hell loads of belongings.)

Theoretically, packing is a simple thing. You take your things, put them in boxes/luggage, and zip up. End of story.

Reality-ly ("in reality", just trying to make it sound nicer), you need to look for the things you want to pack, organise them, try to figure out what goes where and how, attempt to squish everything in one box/bag, fail terribly, take everything out again, get overwhelmed by the amount of dust that comes from cleaning out drawers and such (my eye was all itchy and swollen this afternoon), wonder how on earth you could let so much unwanted paraphernalia pile up, and so on.

I just feel like dumping everything I own into boxes and pretending I don't need to care about paying for excess luggage.

I don't want to wait for last-minute panic packing. That's not good.

This should be easy. Right?

Of course not.

Better go off now. Syaf just finished packing one box. Hell. I haven't even one-eighth filled my box yet.

Adieu.

Holy chicken.

For some reason, I feel really sleepy right now.

The ear aching has subsided since this morning. I doubt it's an infection. Maybe my piercing is just PMS-ing (or something like that). Either way, I'm seriously hoping this thing will heal fast.

Went out with Fatinn this afternoon.

Kept talking about needing to pack.

Haven't started yet. It's kinda hard to believe that we get to go back in six days.

And since people keep asking, I shall now disclose my travel information. (Stalkers please turn a blind eye, thank you very much.)

Going back to Brunei on Friday night, but apparently heading off to Taiwan soon after that to meet up with relatives I've never met in person before. Of this I have absolutely no idea how long the trip will be, or anything like that, so please refrain from asking.

But seriously, I've got an entire December in Brunei. Which is awesome.

I think I've forgotten how to blog. Usually, it's like I sit here and things just appear in my mind and I type them out, and nowadays I have to actually think pretty hard to come up with something. Maybe it's 'cause I haven't really been doing anything interesting lately. I dunno.

Oh, we went out for pizza last night (Wardah, Syaf, Fatinn, Emily, Nick, Katrina, Woan Chyi and I). Was starving by the time we got there, so the food tasted awfully good (then again, pizza has always tasted good).

And then Fatinn and War bought a tub of dark chocolate ice cream, which was shared when we got back. Mmm.

I love ice cream.

Okay, it's pretty late now, and I need to get back to 'Skulduggery Pleasant' (yes, I did finally finish reading 'The Lost Symbol'). Trying to see if I can finish it off by tomorrow morning.

Night.

Friday the tiga belas.

Haven't blogged for ages.

All right, skipping a day's post doesn't count as ages, but still.

Had our first day of script-checking yesterday. Cheryl was asking me, "How could you not be nervous?" and I told her I was, but was probably doing a pretty good job at hiding it.

Besides, according to MJ's philosophy, "If you're nervous, you fail. If you're not nervous, you still fail. So why nervous?"

So, yeah. Nothing we could've done or can do at this point, right?

Basically, we got our papers back, swore a bit, complained about the lousy marking scheme and ambiguousness of the questions, swore some more when we discovered other people managed to do much better, got whacked on the head if you did better than others, and gave up trying to look for more marks to claim.

And speaking of claiming marks, I claimed an entire seventeen marks for my Malay paper 2. Now that was epic.

Anyway, went out to West Coast Plaza to have curry chicken yesterday with Deborah, Cheryl, MJ and Wai Yin. The security guard wouldn't let me in even though it was a script-checking day, so I had nowhere else to go. Was worth it though. Curry chicken tasted goood.

Walked around after that. All those Christmas jingles and food in Cold Storage just makes me look forward to Christmas. I don't celebrate it, but knowing Christmas is coming just feels good. Don't know why.

It's a Friday the thirteenth today. That's seriously cool.

I remember a few years back when I was scrolling through my phone calendar wondering when the next Friday the thirteenth would occur in November. 2009 seemed a really long way from where I was then.

It's like, "Hey, that's ages away, man," but now it's like, "Oh hell, it's today.".

Time is scary. It's like, totally inevitable, and it scares the hell outta me.

Okay, better stop, or I won't be able to sleep tonight.

Going back in exactly one week.

Whee.

I love life.

Even though it's completely unfair and full of selfish bastards.

Arrivederci.

Ear piercing.

Right after I got back, Syaf told me we were going out for a cluster outing. In ten minutes' time.

Oh God. Was freakishly tired, but went anyway.

Watched 'My Girlfriend is an Agent' at Cineleisure.

Thought I was going to fall asleep, 'cause I was so sleep deprived. But I didn't, 'cause the movie was awfully funny. Laughed the exhaustion away, I guess.

Walked around Cineleisure after that. Was talking to Wardah and Woan Chyi about getting my ear pierced when we saw a sign that said "Ear piercing available here".

Was kinda hesitant (I'm really sorry I didn't pierce with you, MJ), but then I figured if I didn't do it then, I'd probably chicken out the next time. I'm guessing I was half drunk and had impaired judgement or something like that.

Anyway, Wardah came and told me if I stepped into the store, there was no looking back. So, with some weird kind of sudden courage, I stepped in.

Five unnerving minutes later (super fast) and there you have it.

Pierced ear. Seriously cool.

Was telling my dad that I'd replace the stud with a ring once it healed, so I could look like those pirates in pirate movies. Arrr, matey (yes, I'm still using Facebook in 'English(pirate)' ).

Oh, and people have been asking, "Do your parents know?"

Of course my parents know. They're absolutely okay with it. People should stop assuming I pierced my cartilage just because I could hide it from my parents. No way, man. I told my dad about it when he came the other day, and he went something like, "Oh, that would look cool." I texted my mum a few nights ago and she replied saying "Yes no problem."

And yes, they do know I'm piercing "up there" (the cartilage).

So, yeah.

Going off now.

Arrr.

203 chalet.

For some reason I'm up early today (any time before nine on a non-school day is early, and I was up an hour or so ago), so I'll blog.

Wanted to write this post last night, but was so tired my brain kind of like, KO-ed.

Anyway, I think one of the reasons why I can't go back to sleep is 'cause it's super uncomfortable to be able to sleep on only one side of your body.

But seriously, the ear piercing is totally worth it.

And the class chalet was seriously awesome.

Hitched a ride with MJ there and back. (Thanks to MJ's parents.)

In three days and a two nights, we managed to:

- Somehow meet up and dump our things at the chalet.

- Go to Escape theme park. Got wet, dried off, and got wet again. I think a few of us screamed our voices hoarse. Also, I think we're addicted to the Pirate Ship ride (Shi Ni, MJ and I sat at the very end 'cause it's awesome that way). And note-to-self: Never go into a haunted house again. Never. Ever. Ever. Hate stuff like that.

- Get very weird looks from the ladies who sold chicken rice when we told them we wanted seventeen packets.

- Breakage.

- Go bowling and play pool.

- Argue amongst ourselves a few times.

- Barbecueee.

- Watch 'This Is It' at midnight. (Only the girls went, and like almost all of us fell asleep. What to do, it was a tiring day. Loved it though. I feel super bad for not appreciating Michael Jackson before he died. It was like, we just took him for granted till he died. Just wish the concert could've gone on. Even just one show. That way, all his efforts wouldn't be wasted away just like that. It's sad.)

- Midnight cycling fail.

- Watch three and a half movies.

- Not sleep at night. (Or maybe that was only me. I dunno. Couldn't sleep at all the first night. Even if I did sleep, I dreamt of lying awake trying to sleep.)

- Eat at Seoul Garden after checking out. (Bet Deborah and Cheryl had loads of fun with their egg-frying and plates of chicken.)

To sum it all up: siukkk.

Okay, better end this post now before it gets too long. Ear piercing story will come next post.

Adieu.

Cliche.

Need to pack for class chalet tomorrow.

Spent my entire afternoon playing Tetris and reading 'The Lost Symbol'.

Story line so far is awfully predictable. It's kinda disappointing, actually. I mean, the plot is great and all, and it still makes an unputdownable read, but can't Dan Brown come up with something that doesn't go along the lines off "Robert Langdon receives early morning phone call/need to escape from or defeat some madman-slash-hired assassin of a dude obsessed with some ancient secret hidden by some mysterious organisation/then people get kidnapped/and if they don't solve the big important mystery by the deadline the kidnapped people will die/a betrayal by someone somewhere".

It almost sounds as if he's writing it just so they can make a movie out of it. I'll admit, it'll make one hell of an awesome movie, but please, he shouldn't have written it assuming everyone's watched Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code.

Anyway, didn't post yesterday 'cause we got back super late and tired.

Went out to Bugis to watch 'Jennifer's Body'.

That is seriously one screwed up movie. All I can say is that at least it wasn't boring.

Then we jalan-ed at Orchard.

Okay, mass convo-ing right now about our chalet tomorrow. We keep getting sidetracked. And spamming. It's just so tempting to spam.

All right, seriously gotta go and pack now.

Adieu.

What the neraka?

Oh my gosh, I practically had to tear myself away from 'The Lost Symbol' to type out this 'ere post.

Just started reading. Like, fifteen minutes ago. Couldn't help it. The internet connection here lags so badly, the only thing I could do while wait for Twitter, MouseHunt, Facebook, Blogger and Gmail to load was to stare at 'The Lost Symbol'. And then eventually pick it up and read it.

When I went out with Fatinn to Clementi this morning after the History paper I craptalked and scribbled my way through (YES, exams are over), I secretly vowed to myself that if I didn't get that book by the end of the day, I wouldn't go back to the hostel.

But apparently the bookshop there sold out (or something like that), so it was a no go. (Which was super lucky, 'cause when we got to City Hall, it was on some kind of special offer and I saved an entire twelve bucks on it. Heck, I was totally prepared to spend fifty bucks on that book. That was so fated, man. Mmm yeah.)

We had prata for lunch. Yum. Received a call from MJ, and she said, "Hey, we're eating you now. With curry. You taste good." (Which basically meant they (some of the '03 girls) were eating curry chicken. Also, they wouldn't admit they missed me. Why on earth would they call me twice otherwise?)

Met up with Wardah, Syaf, Emily, Zikri and Spencer at KFC after that. Ran through the rain to get there. If I'd known I was going to get that wet, I'd have at least brought some shampoo along with me.

Anyway, we went bowling, which was pretty siuk. I hadn't bowled in years, man. But heck, that was fun.

Played three games, and then left for City Hall, where we jalan-ed for a while before meeting up with Wardah's neighbour.

Then rushed back before study time (which we still have to do despite it being the end of exams).

Lepak-ed in Music Room B for a while with Emily, Fatinn and Wardah (wanted to play pool but the Games room was occupied). Oh God, how I've missed that.

Till yesterday, I hadn't touched my baby for a week and three days. I'd forgotten how smooth its neck felt to my palm, and how soft its strings were to press, and the sweet, familiar tension of its strings against my fingers, and how beautifully it could sound. I'm so sorry for neglecting you, my dear Alhambra.

Ah, don't you just love post-exam life?

Going to resume reading 'The Lost Symbol' now.

Night.

P.S. I took the last History exam of my life today (I thought the same last year after PMB, actually). But since I'm not taking History for next year, I can safely say History for me is now history. Oh yeah.

P.P.S. I think I've started using weird phrases to swear in. Like "what the neraka?", "holy kerbau", and the most epic of all, "holy chicken".

P.P.P.S. There seriously is something wrong with me, isn't there?

Eighteen hours to go.

No, exams aren't over for us yet (except for those who don't take History or third language), but it feels weird not blogging, so I'm here on Blogger practicing how to write crap for my History paper.

Actually no, I hope I won't have to write crap tomorrow. But I think my mind will most definitely wander off to "OMG exams are over" and not be able to concentrate on "To what extent do you agree with blah blah?"

I'm thinkin' I'mma go out tomorrow. Need to buy 'The Lost Symbol'. Been waiting for ages, and it's still terribly expensive and in hardcover, but whatever. I have this feeling they purposely print it in hardcover to make it cost so much, 'cause they just know there are a lot of desperate people who need that book (like me).

The thing's been out for months now, and I can't stand seeing it out on shelves in bookstores 'cause somehow I've been refraining from buying it before the exams end.

There's probably a whole tonne of things we've been planning to sometime after Thursday.

Definitely looking forward to going back to Brunei. Mmm. Was talking about going back during dinner yesterday. Everyone admitted that yes, you do put on weight when you go back home. It's like, all you do is eat there. Jalan, makan, jalan, makan, makan during jalan, makan bila balik, sit in front of the television and makan lagi. Heck.

Thank God for exercise, man.

Oh, and if you're wondering about how my exams have been so far, I don't want to talk about them.

Sucky, sucky, sucky.

Anyway, going back to History now.

See ya when exams have ended.

P.S. The weather has been super weird lately. It's like it wants to rain but it doesn't want to rain at the same time. Hmm.

November Rain.

Hey there.

I'm taking yet another break from Physics.

I know I've read everything there is to read (actually no, I lied, it's just a figure of speech), so why do I have this feeling lurking around in some secluded corner in the back of my mind being all anti-social and emo telling me I'll screw up?

God knows.

Ongoing is the last race of the F1 '09 season. I can't believe I'm missing this prestigious race. First twilight race, first race in Abu Dhabi. Heard from Fazrul that Yas Marina looks pretty awesome on television. Man, I feel deprived.

Despite Kimi rejoining from pits in fifteenth place as I type this, Stel and I are quite satisfied with how the race is going right now. Hamilton had a brake failure and was forced to retire. Now he won't have more excuses to be the arrogant ass he is.

Can we win back third place in the Championship? God knows. I sure hope so, though chances are super low. Neither of them are in the points positions right now. I whole-heartedly support Heikki Kovalainen as a driver though.

I'm cool with either Vettel or Barichello winning second for the Driver's Championship. Both of them deserve it. Maybe Barichello a bit more, 'cause he's been racing for years.

I'm thinking Kobayashi (Toyota's Glock replacement) is a better driver than Nakajima. I remember Nakajima's first race at Interlagos a few years back. Knocked over one of the pit crew guys during his pit stop. Kobayashi, though, he's good.

Fingers crossed for next season. Forza Ferrari, forever and more (or Ferrari FTW, whichever).

Since I like to point out the obvious, today's the first day of November. I absolutely love the month of November. You wanna know why? 'Cause:

- Exams always end in November. During November, you are exam-free.

- It's so much closer than the other months to the December holidays (apart from January, but that's another story).

- School ends in November.

- And since school ends in November, there's hardly anything to do at school. No homework, no tests, no classes. You can't deny that's awesome (or oh-some. Happy now, MJ?).

- November = Rainy season. I love rain. Also, it's considerably cooler in November. I like that.

- We get to go back to Brunei in November. Balik tanah air, man.

Oh yeah.

Eyebags.

Oh my gee. I am so sick of Chem right now.

Our Chem paper is on Tuesday, so why on earth have I been reading about redox and metals and all that crap all Saturday? I think I might be paranoid.

I really don't want to screw up my Science papers.

Neither do I want to screw up Math.

Or English. That wouldn't be good.

And probably History, too.

In short, I don't want to screw anything up at all.

But seriously, I spent an entire day with my Chem notes, Twitter, Tetris and MouseHunt.

I think there might be a high possibility that I'mma lose my mind sometime sooner or later. Preferably later.

There was this epic-ly awesome thunderstorm during dinner just now. Loved it.

I'm feeling pretty bummed right now. Disappointing qualifying results for Ferrari. Kimi's last race for Ferrari, and he qualifies eleventh while Hamilton's on pole.

Like Stel said, we can wave goodbye to our third place in the Constructor's Championship.

Tomorrow night'll be the last race of the '09 season. Can't say I'm looking forward to it, 'cause I know I won't be able to watch the '10 season on television anyway. It's not quite the same, following the results on live race centres and Twitter.

I wish I could see the new Yas Marina track live, and hear Steve Slater's voice commentating.

Now I feel like I've missed the entire season.

And now I feel severely deprived.

I need to chill, man.

Maybe I should switch to Physics now.

After all, I've got all Monday afternoon to do Chem, right?

Lubang jubur, yo.

Was de-stressing in the Music Room just now with Fatinn and Woan Chyi.

Played random songs from my iPod, and it seems like I say "I love this song" to almost every one that comes up. I really need to review my brain.

We came up with the most epic break-up scenario during dinner. Will definitely record it on video after the exams. It's pure awesome, man.

I suddenly feel very guilty about not studying.

Okay, I'll burn off the guilt later by staring at my notes late into the night.

Listening to Kings of Leon right now (latest album courtesy of Cyrus). Mmm.

So, first day of exams?

Don't want to talk about it. Don't want to think about it. All I'm hoping for now is a significant improvement on Monday and the days to come, though I highly doubt it. But that's what I'm striving for, and if that doesn't happen, you have the right to sue me (no, just kidding. We can settle things out of court).

Anyway, continuing with our retardedly funny direct translation of English phrases to Malay, I'll describe to you what happened this morning during our Malay paper 1.

I stared at the question paper, and thought to myself, "Tahi suci!" (Holy crap!). No idea how to do that. So I turned to the next page, and went, "Apa itu neraka?" (What the hell?), 'cause the questions weren't exactly ideal. In the end, I got through by writing total tahi kerbau (bullsh*t).

Yeah, that's a highly accurate rendition of my exam experience, to be honest with you.

Still don't want to talk about it.

Gotta go do some revision now.

Arrivederci.

P.S. Asshole directly translated is "lubang jubur". Are we not awesome?

Tidak faham.

Hey people, what's up?

I've been Twitter-ing in Malay all day, been using Malay on Facebook, so I figured, why stop there?

Saya sedang rehat sekejap setelah menghafalkan peribahasa untuk kertas-kertas Bahasa Melayu esok. Otak saya sangat letih. Saya rasa belajar seluruh hari memang tidak baik untuk diri sendiri (walaupun saya banyak bermain Tetris dan MouseHunt).

Peperiksaan akhir tahun kami bermula esok, tetapi saya tidak rasa cemas pun. Saya boleh rasa tekanan untuk lulus dengan baik, tetapi hatiku tenang sahaja. Patutkah saya berasa takut akan peperiksaan ini?

Besar mungkin saya tidak begitu cemas kerana saya hanya menduduki peperiksaan untuk enam mata pelajaran kali ini. Ya, kamu membaca dengan betul. Enam sahaja. Sebelum kamu cemburu, orang Brunei, peperiksaan kami lebih payah sedikit daripada peperiksaan kamu.

Payahlah untuk bertulis dalam Bahasa Melayu ini. Sangat menyusahkan untuk bertukar apa yang saya fikirkan dalam Bahasa Inggeris kepada Bahasa Melayu.

Saya harap upaya saya ini berbaloi. Kalau tidak, saya akan menangis esok selepas kertas Melayu kami. (Sebenarnya saya tidak serius. Saya bukannya jenis yang menangis disebabkan peperiksaan yang teruk.)

Whoops, saya baru sedar bahawa kami ada peperiksaan kertas 1 Bahasa Inggeris esok juga. Baiklah menukar ke Bahasa Inggeris sebelum saya melupakan cara untuk menulis karangan dalam Bahasa Inggeris. Kasihanlah pembaca blog saya yang tidak faham Bahasa Melayu. Baiklah, saya akan berhenti menggunakan Bahasa Melayu dalam post ini sekarang juga.

Heck, that took a whole lot of effort. Half on hour, man. I am so doomed for tomorrow.

I'm hoping the English paper will be a total breath of fresh air right after the Malay papers. I have a feeling wracking my brains for the right Malay words (and ending up compromising with crappier, less impressive ones) will kill my poor brain cells completely.

I might go and do some Math later, after I flip through my Malay textbook to get the Malay juices flowing (not that they're not already flowing, what with harassing all my followers on Twitter with grammatically wrong Malay all day).

Okay, I should end this post now, before it gets too long with me ranting on and on about exams. It seems like the only things etched onto my mind are the words "exams", "study" and everything else exam-related.

This time next week is what I'm striving for. It'll be Music Room heaven, hopefully.

Adieu.

P.S. Sorry, but I'm too lazy to translate all the Malay back to English again. Besides, it makes all my Bruneian readers (and those who understand Malay) feel special and realise that learning Malay is a good thing, after all.

P.P.S. Online translators are completely unreliable, trust me.