Randoms

A lightyear is the distance light can travel in a year. 'A lot', is an understatement.

If Planet X is 24 billion lightyears away, it means it takes light 24 billion years to travel from Planet X to Planet Earth.

So, what if the entire universe is only really 12 billion years old? Light from Planet X wouldn't have time to reach here then.

Simply put, we wouldn't be able to see Planet X, 'cause the light from there is only halfway on the journey here.

So it means that the longer we live, the older the universe is, the more time light has to travel, the more of the universe would be visble to us then?

And a photograph of another planet, which is, say, 2 million lightyears away, would really be showing how the planet looked like two million years ago, when cavemen rulezzz. If you wanted to see how it looked like right now, you'd have to wait another 2 million years.

Fascinating.

* * * * *

It's a bit late now, but here it is : Taylor Hicks won.

I've nothing to say. I mean, I'm still recuperating from the shock of Elliot's leave. Elliot really should have won.

It was two weeks ago, right? I was studying, then I had an hour long break to watch American Idol. And Elliot was voted out. And I was pretty distressed about it, to the extent that I couldn't study no more.

Yes I've never gotten so attached to a favourite Idol before. But there you go. It just shows how good Elliot is.

Soul Patrol? Bah. It's just a grey-haired man with annoying dance moves. I've nothing agaisnt his grey hair though.

But it's amazing, the reception they got when they returned to their home towns. They were treated like war heros or something. It's so much different from Malaysia, innit? In Malaysia, people'd ask, "Malaysian Idol finalist got who wor?"

My neightbour could be a finalist, and all I'd do is go and say 'congratulations'. No huge placards, no printed T-shirts of support, definitely no girlie screaming when I see him. But Taylor Hicks and Katherine McPhee and Elliot Yamin (Elliot!) got all of that. And so much more!

But then again, there is a vast difference between the standard of Malaysian Idol finalists, and American Idol finalists. And you wouldn't need me to tell you which is better.

* * * * *

I got a letter from the Star Publication today. I got selected for a BRATS camp afterall!

I didn't get the one that was carried out months ago, but I submitted my essay within the last hours of the deadline, so I wasn't surprised. I thought I wasn't selected at all.

This one is short. And it's during the end of July. "Exams leh?" I hear my mom ask.

Bah the exams.

* * * * *

I did very, very badly in my Biology paper. I'm not very very sad, or very very upset, just... a little surprised it could turn out this bad.

I mean, I could have absolutely not study AT ALL, and I couldn't do any worse than I've done now.

Yes it's that bad, what's worse is that I actually lost sleep, and two days' worth of idle-ness (I do enjoy being idle) studying for that paper. I studied every chapter, I made myself memorize the small details, and I put a lot more effort on Chapter 4's Pembiakan.

And at the end of it?
I couldn't even remember what the barisan pertahanan kedua was. There wasn't ANY pembiakan questions, either.

And I wrote a whole bunch of stuff about the ginjal for the glukosa essay question. Then Zhii Yee tells me it's got nothing to do with the ginjal, and everything to do with the hati.

I dunno, I don't dare check.

Oh it's times like these you want to start smacking yourself.

* * * * *

YES! 'Cry Wolf' is finally being shown in Malaysia!

I've been waiting for this movie since last year (well no wonder, it was out in the US last year)!

It's a bit sad, seeing the publicity it got, which is almost none at all, other than the small ad in the papers.

Cry Wolf official site

More about the movie, from IMBD!

Yes, I must watch it. Did you know, Jon Bon Jovi is in it? Uh-huh.

Another reason why I was waiting for it was because it has good soundtrack. Go download "Cry Wolf" by Adema. I actually first found out about the movie when I was downloading a bunch of Adema songs, and came accross this, which is by the way, the type of song you either love, or hate, but when you love it, you really really love it. And I love it, it's one of my favourites.

I stayed up till 4 a.m reading the Da Vinci Code last year, and I was excied when it was about to show, but now I plan on watching Cry Wolf first. So it had better be good.

Seeing that it isn't being much publicized at all, no one wants to take the risk of watching it. But I'll watch, and I'll tell you if it's good.

Or maybe, my head was just too buried into the books that I missed the action going around. Maybe the trailer was being shown all the while.

Now I'll just have to wait for 'Rise' to show on Malaysia's big screens.

* * * * *

It's been such a long time since I've typed anything on the keyboard, my fingers were a little dis-coordinated today.

All I've been doing at home is drawing lines accross pages with my superfluorescent orange highlighter. (It's so superfluorescent, people say it's very lala. But hey, it's orange.)

Ahh, the internet! It feels so "mo sheng" now. =(

* * * * *

Jubilation!

Two weeks of holidays!

14 days of idleness!

Hours and hours of lying on my bed! (I love my bed so much, you have no idea. When I say I like being idle, I really mean I like lying on my bed, doing nothing.)

Another bunch of hours of listening to music, without having to worry if you'd have time left for anything else (i.e studying)!

In a nutshell, 336 hours of uninterrupted 'self' time!

Happy holidays!

Funkadelic, totally rad!

Study progress : (almost) Halfway there.

Once I stop, it's hard to get the momentum (jisim x halaju) going again.

Anyway, we went and watched Grease The Musical last night. "Grease is still the word." Uh-huh.

Was it good? 'Twas okay. Was it worth the money? Maybe. (Not 'definitely', not 'absolutely', just 'maybe'.)

There were a few thngs that saved it from being boring, though.

One, the scene where they did Summer Nights ("Tell me more, tell me more, but ya don't gotta brag!"). Yeah, that was nice. I liked the scene from the movie, naturally I like it from the musical. But I guess I just like the effect where two people (not together), sing the same song, together. Synchronized singing or something.

Two, the radio staion WAXX's deejay, "the power of the hour, the main brain... Vince Fontaine!" Huh. Flashy suit.

But what I really enjoy, is the whole '50s atmosphere. How can you not love the pre-modern (self-invented word) era? And I'm not talking about just Grease, either.

The curled hair. The bell-bottoms, with huge chain belts. The tie-dyed skirts. The flower-power headband. The tinted granny glasses. The pink-ness (would have been better if it were 'the orange-ness', y'know). The one-piece dresses. Aaaaand... the obligatory Peace Sign. Yeah, PEACE, baby.

And of course, the totally radical slang. Now, going "Sweat!" and putting three fingers near your forehead, is lame, and gives the impression of total lala-ness. But going "Faaar owt!" and sticking two fingers out (peace sign!) is totally groovy, and gives the impression of... the swingin' sixties coolness. Wanna be cool? Be a hippie. Or, watch The '70s House.

It's like a totally different culture altogether. The 'pre-modern' culture. Like competitions of cramming people in telephone booths. Like sleeping in huge rollers for that curled-hair look. Like saying "moolah" instead of "money". Like being there when Elvis was still alive.

Like playng those huge records on those huge record players. We still have one of those, and we still have a whole shelf full of those old records, and my dad still puts 'em on every once in a while. When we were young, we being my sister, brother and I, we used to listen to this children songs record, that was where I learned songs like "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt".

Yeah, pre-modern-ism is great. Retro-ism is wonderful. Did I mention, I wanted to do our class page up in a retro theme? Yeah. 'Cause retro-ness is groovy baby!

But of course, I wouldn't wanna live in that era. No internet, no Desperate Housewives, and no (insert modern band's name). And, I'd hate to sleep in those curlers.

But then again, maybe school wouldn't be so hard. Maybe Physics and Chemistry would be a lot easier, considering the fact that it would take decades to discover what they have discovered now. Maybe we wouldn't have to learn about all those stupid electrons, and Siri Elektrokimia and all that.

Speaking of which, I have to continue with Chemistry now. I've still got asid and bes and garam to go. My last, and awfully dreaded, and least favourite chemistry chapter.

Catch you on the flip side, daddy-o!

My momma has her own day!

Answer to the Big Question: Yes Peeled Garlic is still alive and well!

Well, I finally came online today, and did a bit of browsing, and realized that my counter had zero visits logged for the last two days. Absolutely zilch.

I totally panicked, 'cause (wait for it!).... I thought everyone was too busy studying to come online. My, am I kiasu.

But thank goodness that it was only because my blog wasn't working. (No Lu, it's not just you, haha.) But it's nothing a new test post couldn't fix.

* * * * *

But that is not the point of this post.

I am here to lament that, my family is totally inconsiderate, but not quite in the bad sense. See, it is the exam period now, and my mom made me stop going online, just so I spend more time studying.

So fine, I take a thorough bath, which is All-Important when it comes to the transition from Procrastinating-not-quite-studying, to Totally-focused-knowledge-absorber.

Then I studied.

And the next thing you know, "Yeeeen! Wanna go out eat dim sum or not?"

And you know, when a family goes out to eat, there's no such thing as a quick meal. After our meal, my mom has to decide to go - mother of all time consumers, grocery shopping. Time consuming, because no grocery shopping session lasts less than two hours.

So we come back, and I continued studying.

"Yeeeeen! I wanna go OUG visit popo, then later take her to dinner, come along ah!"

But I haven't finished this chapter yet, really must go meh! Why you always wait until I got a lot of stuff to do only start making plans? Why you always like thaaaaat? (Inner protest. Hell hath no fury like a mother scorned.)

But then it turned out, my grandma was at my 'mm kau fu's house. So fine, no dinner with popo then.

But don't think my mom has stopped making plans.

"Popo not having dinner with us, then we go by ourselves la!"

So we went to Uptown, 'cause we've not been there since forever, where I had the wierdest fish n' chips ever. It was basically breaded kerapu drenched in - get this, white mushroom and black pepper sauce.

Everybody knows I'm a very, very slow eater, so by the time I was almost done, the breaded fish had gone all soggy from the sauces. But the white mushroom sauce is pretty nice, if you have it with your fries.

After dinner, we went to Secret Recipe and got my mom a Mother's Day Cake. (If you happened to have hung out with me today, chances are I'd have told you that I wanted to make a cake for my mom, but she went ahead and ruined her own surprise - and she doesn't even know it.)

Chocolate banana. Mmmmmmm.

What happened over at Secret Recipe's:

Mom : I think, better not buy whole cake, too much for us to finish.
Staff : We're giving out a free Mother's Day gift with every purchase of a whole cake.
Mom : Okay, then buy whole cake!
Dad : (Eyes indicated price) Who's paying?
Everyone else : (Intentionally ignores dad.)
Staff : What would you like written on top?
Mom : Uh, no need lah.
Staff : No? Not even "Happy Mother's Day"?
Mom : Oh, okay laaah.... Put "Happy Mother's Day"! (Shrill laughs, pretends to be paiseh.)

So we got our cake, and we went home. Then we had a simple celebration, and we took photos.



That is my mommy. And that is a candle from a pack of candles we found while rumaging throuh the one of the drawers.

Our cake ended up looking like the face of a pork-marked guy, which is pretty gross, 'cause initially I had more candles on it, but my mom insisted one candle would suffice, so I took the candles off, and there were holes on the cake, so we kind of smeared the cream in an attempt to cover the hole.

We sang a Mother's Day song, which was really the birthday song, modified.

Mother's Day celebrations are always kept simple, 'cause my mom has her birthday at the end of May. Which is, pretty soon.

I was talking to a close friend today, and she said that she finally greeted her mom a happy Mom's Day today. She said she did it late, 'cause she didn't quite have the courage to say it yesterday. Then I realize, I get pretty shy over things like these, too. (Well I didn't just realize, I pretty much knew it all along.)

It's not like me to go up to my om and say, "I love you", then proceed to give her a bear hug and a kiss.

But that doesn't mean I love her any less.

Digressed!

So anyway, we got home, celebrated Mother's Day, and we cleaned up. The next thing I knew, my mom and sis wanted to watch a movie. And it just had to be the movie I borrowed off a classmate. So I obviously had to watch with it them.

So how much have I studied over the 3 day weekend?

Not much, I have to say. Which pretty much explains the panic of not getting any visitors (how can I not study when everyone else is?)

My family, providing distractions after distractions, and my mom still happily goes, "You don't seem much interested in your studies anymore."

Well. Happy Mother's Day. I really gotta go study now.

Is muh blog still workinggggggg?

This is a test post.

The Big Question: Is my blog still working?

*crosses fingers*

*post*

Quickie

Weeeeell.

So today didn't quite go as planned. Actually, it didn't go as planned at all.

One, sorry ZiHui, guess it was a pretty weird birthday, and I'm gonna say something pretty corny like, "Hey at least you had all your real friends by you through it all!"

Two, it's never too late to say once more, Happy Birthday!

Three, I said "real friends" in statement One, and CL knows why. Lalalalalala to the mumbler, and lahdeelahdeedah to the cari-excuse-er!
(See I am getting more cautious by the minute, I'm not even gonna hint at the Who's and the WhatHappened's.)

Four, Li-Ann said Miss Lina went over to 5S1, and made the 7 of them stand up, and started questioning them about the cake-bringing incident.
I must say, I honestly do respect them, 'specially Ivy. She wasn't the one who bought the cake, but she took the blame anyway.
And Chooiyen, Perpetrator? Busy trying to look busy during AddMaths because Pn.Hun was making rounds around the class and I didn't feel like working on the questions just yet.

Five, backing up what Li-Ann blogged. Yes ZiHui, we SO love you!

* * * * *

Here is why you should never believe in rumours too readily, and why they are mostly distorted versions of the truth.

The Rumour : Ah Girl ("who is that type of girl, I tell you!") smears mayonaisse over her face, and asks Ah Boy to lick it.

OMGWTFBBQ!!!!!!1111 was the reaction.

The Truth : Ah Boy has a pimple. Ah Girl suggests that Ah Boy put mayonaisse on it, because it really works (beauty tip!).

And so, we should also never spread rumours, just 'cause we've run out of things to say and cannot think of topics to chat about. Really, forever bear that in mind.

* * * * *

I obviously have nothing much to write about.

There's a good-looking fellow in North.

So Lu and I were walking around OneUtama one afternoon.

Then we saw this place where a stage was set up, and there were tables and chairs and four guys.



I wouldn't have given two hoots about these guys, if it weren't for the accidental glances of this really good-looking tuff of blonde hair that, upon closer inspection, belonged to a really good-looking gwailoh.

"Who are these people?" I asked Lu.

"I dunno. Probably models." Lu answered, somewhat nonchalantly.

But that blonde guy was too good-looking to just walk off so soon. Besides, why were all these people going upstage and having these guys sign stuff?

Chooiyen took a couple of steps closer to the stage, and wanted to pick a random stranger and ask who these guys were. But nahh, she didn't have to. She realized that two of the four guys were asians, and she also spotted a nearby stall that was selling CDs.

She put two and two together, and concluded that it was North, on their Malaysian promo tour thing.

Yeah, North the Australian band who did that English version of 'wo ai ni, ai zhe ni, jiu xiang lau shu ai da mi'.

Woah, celebrity band, people queuing (spelling help!) to buy CDs and getting autographs, and here I was, about to ask people who they were.

Still, they were celebrities, so I whipped out my trusty cellphone, and took photos!



Sleeveless-top guy blocking my view of the blonde guy. It was a bit weird, 'cause I walked all the way to the front, lifted the cellphone and aimed its camera at them, like I was some kind of Teenybopper Boyband Fan, like all the other girls clad in Kadet Remaja uniforms there.
("Thou shalt not label others!")



Perfect shot of the blonde guy. Notice they're celebrities, but I can only manage to call the blonde guy, "The Blonde Guy"?

There weren't the usual mob of fans you would usually expect at an autograph session, either. Well, quite obvious la, or else I wouldn't have been able to move all the way to the front for my very closed-up shot.

I don't care much about North. I just wanted to be able to tell people I was this close to a celebrity (there were other times, but this would add to the collection). Lu and I even wanted to go up and have them autograph Lu's bag, and I saw this girl who took a photo with the blonde guy, and I wanted to take a photo with him also, but we figured we had to get a CD to be allowed onstage.

Bah, whatever!

Still. Lu and I went to Secret Recipe's after that, and we ate. And ate. And talked. And talked. And talked.

We spent the whole time at OneUtama just talking. We did have to move around to look for other seats, 'cause the Secret Recipe staff didn't seem happy that we've finished our food, and they've cleared our table, and we were still sitting there, talking.

I have to say, it was one of the most meaningful conversations I had in a long time. There were things that weren't exactly secret, but you wouldn't go ahead and tell everyone, and they're things that weren't exactly new, but are things that happened that you don't quite mention to people. It's sad we had to go all the way to Secret Recipe to be able to talk like this.

All in all, a day well spent.

I did say I got to go real close with a celebrity, didn't I?

(Hmm. Make that celebrities.)

Dusun Eco, gimme mo'!

Good news, y'all - Chooiyen has finally half-conquered her fear of moths!

Yes, after 3 days of living in a moth/bigbee/weirdinsect infected place, I no longer feel the need to run far awy when a moth flies my way.

You know it's a huge thing, 'cause I'm the girl who squeals/screams in the middle of class when a moth flutters around her. That resulted in Manwir going, "It's JUST a butterfly!"
But just a butterfly it was not.

Yeah, the trip was awesome. Admittedly, on the first day, I wanted to slap myself for coming, because the place was disgusting. I've never been to toilets this eeew. I remember watching Ms.T. eating her slice of watermelon in the school toilet near the labs, and I thought that took guts. But that's nothing compared to having to bathe in Dusun Eco bathrooms.

The bathrooms look as though someone had very liberally sprinkled dead moths and insects all over the floor. You know, just like how you sprinkle sugar on buttered toast. Then there are the live moths and insects, on the walls, on the floors, flying all over. /shudder/

Yes, I really missed my (clean) bed, I missed my (clean) room, I missed my (clean) bathroom. Bottomline, I really missed cleanliness.

But then things got better, and better, and when it was time to leave, I so badly wanted to stay.

I obstacle-coarse-ed under the rain, jungle trekked three whole hours, had my hand bleed from tying the ropes for our raft, rowed across the lake in a raft that was half sinking, treasure-hunted in the dark with a torchlight, wall-climbed, flyiing-foxed, and mentally wrote an essay while crossing the high bridge ('cause singing didn't work).

I didn't see the point in whipping out my camera for group photos when already a handful of people have had their cameras out, so I'm hoping that these people would upload the photos. Not a very subtle hint, eh? (Am especially looking forward to the photos during the water rafting!)

I enjoyed the trip a whole lot, mostly because we had all these activities to take our minds off things, all these wonderful people to keep us company, and because all we had to worry about throughout the 3 days were to choose the cleanest bathroom cubicles, and to have as little bodily contact with disdusting insects as possible.

I mean, it didn't even feel like "just a weekend sandwiched between two schooling weeks".

Returning back to school on tuesday, was like picking up all the worries you had put down and forgotten about during the trip. Slam! and bamm!, you're no longer worry-free and having tons of fun.

Well. Pn. Tan Lin reprimanded Mr.William for not being with the debators that weekend. But Mr.William was busy taking extra good care of us! It's a good thing the debators got through to the octofinals though, it'd be so much worse for Mr.William if they didn't. Honestly, Mr.William has got to be one of the best teachers in CHS ever.

Weeeeell. I do have photos, I might put them up later, when I think of a way of putting them up without posting a whole load of them with only one-liners underneath. Photos do speak a thousand words, but it's not good when they make us seem cam-whore-ish.

'Till the next post, ciao!