Guess Who #1

This is part of the Grassroots Blogger Book Marketing Campaign. Thanks for reading & leaving your comments/guesses! And please don't forget to visit the other Lost Bloggers out there (see sidebar)!

Esperanto Schmesperanto The exam results arrived in the mail today. It’s right there in front of me as I type. I hesitate tearing open the envelope. Will I head home in disgrace? Or will I actually be able to enter a university here in England, and study Law as instructed by my brother the Regent? Memories of the last year or so are whizzing thru my mind: My voyage to England via that cargo ship, most of the time on which I was beset by fevers no thanks to the malaria I’d contracted. My first year, living in a typical English village: getting to know the life here but not making much progress studies-wise Moving to Cambridge upon getting reassigned to another Tutor who finally managed to help me, getting me to study really hard. Sitting for the Littlego late last summer. Ah yes, what weird names these British people come up with. The Littlego - the examination that determines whether you gain entry into university here. The results of which are in that envelope, right in front of me. I still dare not open the envelope. Not when this conversation, which took place immediately after the English Essay paper, is still all too fresh in my head: Tutor: So, how did it go? Me: (grinning, confident) I think it went pretty well. Tutor: What topic did you choose? Cobbett’s Rural Rides *was* a choice, wasn’t it? That’s the safe choice I’d coached you on, after all… Me: Yes, yes, Rural Rides was one of the choices… but… Tutor: (sinking feeling) But what? Me: Well, this other topic caught my eye… and besides, I know Rural Rides almost by heart by now, it would have been boring for me to write about it. Tutor: (eyes wide and panicked) What other topic? What did you choose? Me: “An International Language” Tutor: (starting to hyperventilate) Pray tell, what do you know about Esperanto? Me: Esperanto? What’s that? I wrote about English lah! Tutor: Yes, Esperanto! That is the “international language” to which the examiners referred! Me: (feeling a bit sheepish) Well, I didn’t know anything about that, I’ve never head of it. To me, English is the international language. All you Mat Salleh’s speak it, don’t you? Tutor: You are *so* going to fail this paper! Me: (gulp!) And here I am, a few months later. Okay.... I'm reaching for the envelope. I tear open the envelope. I pull out the slip of paper. I open my eyes slowly . . . . Can I believe my eyes??? I PASSED! Whooohoooooo!!!! Wow, that was close! Looks like I’d obtained very high marks for all the OTHER papers, so I was allowed a Pass for the whole examination. Phew!!! Now to get a place in a good university…. (UPDATE: Have been accepted as an undergraduate in St Catherine’s College: one of the seventeen colleges that form the University of Cambridge! Wahooooooo!) (*lynne*'s note: This was written in 1922)

Wanna know what this is all about? Visit: The Lost Blogs *official* website; or where it all began.. Visit the other Lost Bloggers too!

(NOTE: posting this at 10pm on Monday 10th April 2006, which translates to Monday 9am US CST. Yes, that's a 13hr time difference. Just for the record :D)

Kicking self ...

... it suddenly occurred to me:

I could have gotten the set-of-4 photos made, measuring 50mm x 55mm.

Then cut 2 of them down to 50mm x 50mm, and the other two to 40mm x 55mm.

Oh yeah, and I coulda had a V-8 too! :p

Looking back, I suppose if I'd been thinking on my feet, or if I'd thought it out a *little* bit more before heading into the jerk photo shop, I might have gotten the pix just the way I wanted without letting on to the jerk that he would be losing out on another set of pix if he helped me out.

Oh well, you live, you learn...

was pun intended?

Here's the full article: The Sunday Star Nine-year-old weighs 117kg

It's really sad & scary to see the picture of this kid.

It's also very worrying to read:

• ... Asyraaf is not perturbed about his size or being hospitalised.


• He is happy as long as he gets to enjoy his chocolates and other sweet delights.



• He was all smiles when ... presented ... with a food hamper



• ... even after a year of physiotherapy and about two months of the diet routine at the hospital, he only lost 2.7kg...

Yikes! This is very worrying ... what is this kid going to be able to do when he grows up?!

But,,,

........... am I bad???
....................... i HOWLED when I saw this:

His mother Salmah Yusof, 42, said

Asyraaf’s gigantic size

made him

the butt of jokes in school.
Pun intended, ya think?

I wanna feel the wind in my face!

It really sux tht buildings here arent designed to "enjoy" the local weather!

it's storming like crazy outside, but ALL windows except da dinky bathroom ones have to be closed othrwise too much water/spray gets in.

so i am stuck in da stuffy apartment while it is just gloriously storming out there!

would be nice to get *some* of that wind & fresh air!

(btw typed ths on phone & accessed blogger via GPRS - jst to see jst how much of a hassle it is AND to avoid being online w physical phone line during ths magnificent storm!)

i like storms, can u tell?

me sour face today

So, last night, I was still online for a while after my previous post. Then it turned midnight, and the dial-up connection went cinderella on me. I was supposedly connected, but nothing was loading. Hung up and dialled again. and again. and again. and again. FINE! went zzzzzzzzzzz. *sigh*

This morning, tried to get online - still not able to. FINE! Damn TM Net! *sigh!*

Then, me being as hung up as I was about the phone, forgoed (forwent?) my morning exercise because I wanted to just get my phone looked at. Of course, I didn't know when the shop opened on Saturdays, hoped it would be at 9am,and went to went to AmCorp around 815am. Parked at their open air car park - deserted. Walked thru barely alive mall to the Sony Ericsson service center: the sign said they opened at TEN on saturdays. bummer. over 1.5hrs to wait. *sigh*

So I figured I might as well go get some breakfast. Walked to a mamak shop waaaaaay on the other side of the street,,, only to pass plenty of public parking, that would cost so little compared to the RM2 for 1st hour, RM1 for every additional hour fees I was going to have to pay at AmCorp. Try to remember that next time, okay Lynne?? *sigh*

Slip-slided alllll over the place - the floor was SO GREASY, damn these places should know to use SOAP/DETERGENT/WHATEVER when cleaning the floor, just wiping with water isn't going to get the grease off, y'know! *sigh*

Kakuro'd while eating "roti bakar": which was lightly toasted bread with a disgusting amount of margerine, and just a slight touch of kaya. Will I ever remember to order it with "kurang majerin, lebih kaya"? *sigh*

Back to AmCorp. The slight good news was they tested both my phone and charger, and declared it a charger problem. Replacement: RM30. Well, better than it being a phone problem requiring me to be phoneless for the day/weekend PLUS risk losing all my data. So, fine lah... fork out RM30.... Add the parking charge of RM3 (managed to get outta there before 10:15!! whoohooo!), plus breakfast of RM2, that's RM35 that I wasn't planning on spending at all if you'd asked me last night. *sigh*

And since I knew I wouldn't be able to get to the 'net from the apartment, figured might as well get online from Beanie. I *had* brought the laptop with me, after all. Attempted to go to the PJ Hilton one. Went round and round and round, no parking. FINE. Tried Section 14 instead. Went round and round and round and wahoooo found one! Fed meter till 1pm.

Figured might as well get some photos done for the hoops i need to jump thru.

• One government department requires 2 50cm x 50cm pictures.
  
• Another government department requires 2 40cm x 55cm pictures.
  
• I know these photo places sell them by 4's, and quite expensively too!
  
• I also know they usually print them all out in one sheet, then cut them to the required size.
  
• I figured I could get them to print out the 4 pix, and cut them to two different sizes.

I figured wrong:

Me: (after having had the picture taken) Here's the sizes I need. 2 50x50, 2 40x55.

Jerk: We only sell by 4's.

Me: Don't you guys print the pix on one sheet and cut accordingly? Surely you can just cut it to two different sizes.

Jerk: No, cannot. If you want, you need to get 2 sets of four.

Me: That's ridiculous. I've observed most shops print and cut to size, surely what I'm asking isn't difficult.

Jerk: You observe only, you don't know. Ah, you come and do lah (gesturing to me to sit at the puter and play with whatever program was open right there)

Me: (totally put-off by that attitude) Okay, never mind.

I walked out.

Only when out of the building I realised I should have had them delete my photo they took (and empty recycle bin!).. if the jerk is even MORE of a jerk than he showed, he could very well do something with it - photoshop it to some nude body or something. Well, if i *do* stumble across anything like that, I know where to go to sue someone's pants off! :p

Found another photo shop, and, since I do learn from mistakes, asked upfront whether they could do what I wanted. She said no, but also immediately supplied a reason: the proportions would be wrong or something. Didn't quite get it, but at least I got a reason lah. The funny thing: she recommended I go to the jerk's shop instead. Har har har.

I'm not ready to fork out RM48 (RM24 x 2) for photos I don't need. The passport-sized photos business is such a friggin ripoff! :( Maybe the place in KLCC can offer more flexibility? I wish things like the SIZE of passport-sized photos could actually be CONSISTENT everywhere!!! *sigh*

By that time, my mood was quite sour already, and was really not in the mood for anything, but heck I'd paid for parking till 1pm, might as well fully utilise it. So even tho I don't even have the taste for it, got myself my ice vanilla latte regular skim milk, and am the Beanie looking at Jaya @ Sect 14.

When paying, the guy behind the counter looked at my name on the credit card, and asked "Malay?". You know, usually, I just give a wry smile and say "mixed" and silently forgive the small-mindedness, but this time, I just glared at him and said "MalaySIAN". He wouldn't let it rest! I was collecting my drink, and he said "Little bit Malay?" I just ignored him. WHat the fuck is so important whether I'm "Malay" or not???!!! So *not* in the mood to put up with people who just can't see beyond racial classifications. I'm a Malaysian. That's all that *should* be important. Break free, dude, open your mind! *sigh*

Bleh.

Oh, and parents coming back today. (They've been in Bali since Tuesday)

Double bleh.

oh bloody hell

I am so pissed off.

Okay, so recently my phone flipped me off.

I whined about it, saying RM50 would be too much to replace it.

Then I was quoted RM46. It was like a challenge for me to put my money where my mouth was. So I got the flip replaced.

So, everything was all fine and dandy again, right?

*WAS* being the key word.

I am so pissed off.

Because now. Just right now. For no apparent reason. It's. Not. Charging.

It's not an issue of the electricity/power point.

Dunno if it's the charger itself.

Or the phone.

Or the battery? that is doubtful.

Oh bloody hell.

Just getting the problem identified is going to cost $$$.

I am so pissed off.

The phone seems to be falling apart.. I suppose 2.5 years is the limit of its durability or something?

I know phones nowadays aren't made to last since they are more like fashion accessories than functional devices.

I am so pissed off.

I'd have thought the less fashionable / more geeky phones would last longer. Or is 2.5 years already "good"?

Or is it just because it knows I'm not going to be holding on to it much longer that it makes trouble for me?

How much more $$ is going to be sunk into this friggin device that I want to get rid of in a few months??

I am so pissed off.

Can you tell?

100s of stuff :-)

Have been adding some more blogs to my sidebar (and I mean in the "usual / permanent" section, not just the temporary Lost Bloggers list).

Got pointed to Mostly Crap, where I found some cool stuff:

1. 100 things to do before you die. I'm sure there are other lists around, but i thought this already gives an interesting selection (dunno if i'd want to do #19, for example... teeeheee!) ... so far I've kinda got 15 of the 100... hmmm... I should make a list of my own. yeah right :p

2. bummer, there were some cool looking quizzes i wanted to take and share, but can't seem to load the pages. here and here. see if you have better luck. :-(

Elsewhere (sorry, i forgot to take note!) i was pointed to this very interesting interview with William Blum. I'm only 1/3 of the way through, but I think it's certainly worth reading. Do check it out.

okay ... time to shower, then look for something light to snack on ... that briyani bukhara I had for brunch at 11am is finally wearing off (yes, 9 hrs 10 hours later... it's THAT filling! wasn't as nice as i remembered it tho, good also lah, i won't be tempted to throw RM9 away on that anymore, teehee!)

cheers!