Over The Phone.

When it comes to me, I'm most probably not the kind of child who makes his parents proud and happy all the time. I do have my rebellious moments, trust me. Obviously, not the kind of child who dutifully calls his parents daily at work just to have a chat or make their day but certainly the kind of child who dreads any impromptu conversations with his parents. Probably because mom has always been (and will always be) hard on us - always picking up on conversations like school, discipline, hardwork and etc. where I'm only able to nod my head in disagreement given that I do not wish to argue any further. Somehow, today was different. I made a phone call to mom's office with a "proposals" right after I came home from school.

Surprisingly, when I took up the receiver to dial the numbers to mom's office, the whole telephone felt almost alien to me. Got me realizing how long was it since the last time I actually called anybody through landline telephone. Almost shocked to even see that the telephone still exists at home. Calling mom at the office this time also brought back old memories of me when I used to bug either mom or dad at the office way back then when I was about 4 years old. Used to be babysat by amah when mom and dad went for work where I'll always call either one of them to ask for absurd favors - like asking them to come back and hug me or make milk for me, simply because amah made it too hot that one time! The telephone bills were usually printed with both mom and dad's numbers.

I wonder if they miss me. I miss me.

Anyway, I called mom today at her office because I just needed to get something off my chest. My first attempt at her office number (had these memorized since 4 years old!) didn't receive any response so I tried her mobile. She picked up and replied "Hello" with a light chuckle when I called, "Mom". She told me to call her office again and I did as I was told. She picked up, asking in a strict manner, "So what paper will you be having tomorrow?" Now, what kind of question is that? Cheerfully, I blurted out Accountancy paper 1 and History paper 1 (objective questions) and told her that tomorrow will be the final day of the 8 days examinations! She sighed (as if in disappointment!) and asked me what did I need to be calling her at such an odd hour at work.

I quickly turned to my wail-ish voice and explained to her that I didn't want to attend the People Are Gifts (PAG) 3 days and 2 nights church camp this coming 17th of November. There was going to be this church camp opened for students between 13-16 years old. It's the annual church camp but this year, they made it sound more interesting with throwing in a theme of some sort. I wasn't at all intrigued by the idea but kai ma, being my official godmother, had sponsored me to go for this camp. Meaning, she paid the camp fee of RM30. I kind of joked about her being my godmother and all and that it was her duty to put me into such camps but apparently she didn't take it as a joke.

It was too late to actually say no when she called me to the registration counter at church to get me signatures of confirmation. Initially, I didn't think it mattered much to be stuck with another bunch of naive looking little 13 and 15 year olds. I mean, after all, Carina was going to be there. I didn't realize the urgency of the situation until I found out in school that a couple of friends (who obviously goes to the same church) that none of them were going also! That just pushed me over the line. That's it, I'm not going to put myself into some camp with little strangers and no one I know in sight. The worse thing is, it's going to be held in the compounds of church! I've attended church camps for the past 6 years of my life and I refuse, I repeat, I refuse to be treated like another idiot in another church camp. Don't need it anyway!

"I practically don't need it anyway!" I told mum over the phone, as she struggled to cut me off with every word I said. The gimmick girl who went up the podium to speak read out her well memorized and nicely written speech about her experience after the camp obviously didn't work for me! "I was quiet and shy but now I'm no more that person I was..." I quoted her in a little girly voice to mom adding that, "I'm neither a quiet nor shy person mom! Furthermore, I've already had my Confirmation last year and I'm practically as old as a 17 year old!" She argued, saying that me being confirmed is no reason for me to be proud and that I needed more friends and it won't hurt me to gain extra knowledge from this camp. Another round of Praise And Worship and kiddy telematches is knowledge? Not convinced.

"Mii, I'm satisfied with my social network currently and am not looking for more friends to add to my already depleting list of friends or social connection, " I complained to her again, hoping that I've convinced her enough. "Then what about the RM30 that you've already paid? It's not easy to earn money you know. I think you're better off with the camp, ok?" mom replied persistently. "What if I told you I could get a refund? Will you let me then?" I sort of challenged her, keeping the fact that it might have something to do with lies to myself. "Well, I'll need time to think about it," she said, brushing the entire conversation short. I told her she should think fast and I'm hoping for a positive answer. I pulled the conversation on a little longer, complaining and wailing desperately trying to convince her about how much I don't need the camp before she sighed in exhaustion and stressed on the final words, "...I WILL NEED TIME TO THINK OVER IT!" and hung up without much hesitation. Probably shaking her head all the time.

I turned to dad and tried convincing him also. Not that I didn't as soon as I hoped on the car at school but he wasn't really paying attention trying to avoid running down school children. As he was sitting on the couch watching his daily afternoon Hokkien drama on cable TV, I told him what I have said earlier to mom. He got annoyed not before long and brushed me off with waving his hands and telling me, "You go and tell you sponsor lah! I can't possibly do anything even if you kept this conversation on for the next half an hour!" Well, that's mom and dad for me. Things have certainly changed since I was 4, that's for sure!

Reformat.

Pissed off by the frequent crashes on my computer and the speed, which happens to be extremely slow, I'm deciding to re-format the whole thing!

Wait, let me correct that.

I've decided to re-format the computer and it's going to happen tonight.

Look at the time now. I'm still keen on doing inserting the Windows XP CD into the CD-ROM. I'm currently backing up my important files (there's still 45minutes left for it to complete) into my freaking external hard drive of 20G through a FREAKING 1.5 USB port! Urgh. My computer's probably 4 years old by now and I guess it's understandable for a thing that age with shitty components like that.

I've been so put-off by the speed of the entire thing for a couple of months now and I can't take it no more. After using Adrian's computer yesterday, I felt that I needed to do something! I definitely can't afford extra RAM or new drives. So I'm resorting to the conventional way of re-formatting.

Right now, I have Adrian to help me out. Let's just say, he's a FREQUENT reformat-ter. Not that I don't know how to reformat - it's just that I needed confirmation on what to do cause it has been exactly a year since the last time I reformated the computer myself. Hell, I was the one who taught Adrian how to reformat. Well, not exactly. I just shoved him out of my door with a copy of a Windows XP CD and told him to go figure it out! =P

I hope I get things done by tonight. I really hate procrastinating when it comes to my computer. No idea why. I just hope everything turns out ok. *fingers crossed*

*UPDATE*

06/11/2006

At last, I'm done and over with the whole reformatting of my computer. I've installed everything that I need and have tried my best to customize it to the way it was before the reformat. Pretty pleased with what I've done with it. Can't think of any more programs that I use to have but I'll do when I do. Turns out to be, the master needed help (and someone to keep me from biting my nails off in desperation with every click and press of a button) after all. Probably due to lack of usage of skills over the years, it has undoubtedly become rusty. Thanks to Adrian (he was here for a sleepover anyway!), he helped me through most of the processes and calmed me most of the time when things took a certain time to finish installing. Phew. I was so afraid it wasn't going to make it but it did. Still haven't obtained the optimum speed yet though. Limited space as well. Oh well, as long as it runs at a normal speed, I'm fine with it.

All Souls Day Weekend. #2

Not A Normal Teen After All.

Exams have started since yesterday, kicking off with English essay and History essay papers! History was a total disaster for me! Given 2 and a half hours to complete multiple subjective questions and to come up with 6 essays, I'd say I've done a pretty good horrible job! Only managed to think of 5 essays - 4 of which were made up by my own intepretation of and messed up Historical facts - and left pretty much the rest of the subjective questions blank. Amazed by the fact that I was still able to think after all those digging of historial dates and names, I told myself during the last 15 minutes of History paper when I had almost given up in exhaustion to actually pen another untrue fact about Islam and its forefathers, this so wouldn't happen if I had studied and memorized all those uninteresting bits of the Islamic leaders.

Well, it's not that I totally don't want to study. I just find it extremely hard to pull myself away from whatever I was doing to pick up the book and study. Do any of you out there feel the same way? Picking up the book and opening it is one story but studying and memorising it is another. The worst thing about having difficulty in studying is the lousy feeling I get in the middle of and after exams, where everyone huddles around the smartest kid to discuss the answers. A little dose of guilt, regret and anger seems to build up in me when I'm sitting for a particular paper which I find very frustrating when I'm unable to come up with the answers. One thing's for sure, I'm not the kind who doesn't study and doesn't give a shit about the exams and turns up in school salivating all over the paper. Definitely not! I get more worried than I usually do when I don't study - almost close to pissing in my pants a few minutes before the paper starts when I'd be flipping the books at the speed of light, desperately hoping that everything would absorbed in my mind in those few seconds of study. Talk about being last minute!

I've given it a thought and realised that I'm not the normal average teen who attends tuition for the entire year and does well for his exams and celebrates his days after that. I'm just worser than that. I'm the kind of teenager who doesn't attend a tiny bit of tuition, scores badly in exams, listens to Christmas songs in the mid of October and fills up time with photographing, reading, blogging, and catching up on TV series (America's Next Top Model Cycle 6 have already started since last week on Channel [V]). Seriously. I have no idea where all those traits come from - neither mom nor dad practices such incredulous acts - but I'm still hard on all those new releases of Christmas albums (even Rihanna recorded a Christmas song of her own!)! It's been a month and I thought the crazy Christmas spirit would just fade away by now, but it's been keeping strong as ever, ever so often having the urge to get the Christmas tree down and put it up in the living room!

Back to reality exams. The only reason I felt like writing today is that I (think) I did an ok job on my Science and Malay paper today. Hey, my first time in actually completing the whole Malay paper without the answers of the person sitting beside me or behind me (I'm in the front row). As I said, I'm not the perfect student and copying in exams is just one of the things that makes me more of a disappointing student. Not that I'm saying I did very well for the paper, but I did put in my own effort into it, which includes, writing nonsense on the test pad as answers to majority of the questions that involved traditional poems and Malay idioms! After seeing all those nicely scribbled nonsense on the (7 written pages!) 4 pieces of paper which I neatly tied with the ominous white string provided by the invigilator before handing it up to the front desk, I have taken a certain strange liking towards my Malay paper. Purely for the fact that it was able to make me write that amount of nonsense neatly! =P

Anyway, despite the fact I still have Maths and Economics paper to study for for tomorrow, I'm taking my own sweet time. I have absolutely no urgency in picking up my copy of Maths or Economics to start mumbling to myself all those things that needed memorisation. I'm editing pictures in Photoshop as I'm writing this. The entire Deepa Raya holidays has been seeing me like this. No surprise there. Though, I must say, things WOULD be different if my (new) neighbours downstairs were not carrying out their renovations that whole week of holidays. It's always GRRR and BRRR or DRRR or BANG! BANG! BANG! from 11 a.m. right till 6p.m.. Sometimes, when I'm trying my best to concentrate, it only makes me feel like someone was drilling right through my head. I wouldn't have anything against it if it didn't make that much of a noise or vibration or even caused that thick amount of dust residing on the surface of my table when work's being carried out.

See, one of the windows in my room is connected to the air well of the 5 storey building. Eventhough the window of my room is shut tight with the curtain pulled across, the particles of busted debris and cement still manage to escape through those tiny air holes from the window. Outside at my kitchen, we have this huge cage, divided by only a sliding door from the kitchen, that works as a store room for us that juts out to the air wells also. The dust collected there was similar to having a whole coating of snow on our brooms, kitchen utensils and etc.. That's not all, it also leaves the entire house smoked during their working hours, especially the floor, with a powdery feel under our feet. Let's put it this way, footsteps can be created! And I thought that constant drilling and smashing of debris was harsh! Hell, it made listening to music in my room animpossible thing if I didn't want to go insane with extra sound effects! Wonder if my neighbours felt the same way when it was our turn?

On another note, I think I'm falling sick (again!). After all those days of hoping to fall seriously ill before the exams so that I might be excused has finally come true. I mean, not being able to make it for exams sounds like a better reason than failing right? Didn't expect it at all but I started coughing in class during my Malay paper but just ignored it thinking it was just temporary. Still felt pretty well until just now when I realised the cough wasn't just temporary seeing that I have been coughing non-stop for the whole afternoon. Just started sneezing a couple of minutes ago. What more to expect? The throat feels tight and itchy already! Not sure if mom would allow me to skip exams if I actually come down with something by tonight. Not that I like being sick (akak's not here to remind me to take my medicine) but anything goes to skip examinations. Though, at the back of my mind, I blame the new tenants with their renovations - the throat feels like there's also dust stuck in between the trachea. Once again, I'm not the normal average teen.

It's getting more often now that I think about my failed future because of failing these exams, turning out to be jobless and feeding off my parents or Grace the rest of my life, looking dirty, smelly and wasted! Eeeek! Horrifying, horrifying, image. Let's just hope it doesn't come true. I still have to clean my room off the dust on all the surfaces and laundry to do. Now that akak's gone away, I'm in charge of my own room and mainly, the laundry. Imagine me waking up at 5.30 a.m. at the sound of the mobile phone alarm to do the laundry before getting ready for school. Absurd but true. It's the only way I can get my school uniform washed in time. It'd be too late by the time I get back from school. But I think I'm getting used to it. It's only been two days, too early to draw any conclusion, but I'm keeping my mouth shut instead of complaining. Dad's in charge of the cleanliness of the entire house, including the rubbish bin and floor, while mom's in charge of the kitchen and ironing. Pretty good system, eh? Oh, the sad life without the nanny.

That it for now, I think. Nothing more else to chatter about. There' still another part of the All Souls Day Weekend where we had another trip to the river with more cousins on that day itself. October is coming to an end (or has it ended?) and November's here, which only means another 2 months till Christmas! Is it safe to listen to Christmas songs now? Nothing much to look forward to in November except the Year End Holidays (and the end of the finals!)! How I can't wait! Oh, and akak's return! The end of the month - 31 days to go! Now I'm just hoping that fall terribly ill and skip the rest of the exams I don't fall sick.

All Souls Day Weekend.

Birthday Videos.

Here are the videos (life's been better now that I can post videos!) when we sang the Birthday song to Hui Xing and when (half) the choir sang the Birthday song to mom a week after her actual Birthday date. Well, kai ma and several other choir members had planned something for her on that Sunday before her Birthday (Monday). Due to certain circumstances, they had to re-schedule. Kai ma thought of cancelling it but someone had ordered mini Chicken Pies and Cream Puffs for the following Sunday. So the party had to go on with kai ma preparing spaghetti. Just a little celebration, you know.

9th Birthday.

While mom was peeling taugeh (bean sprouts), preparing for lunch, she received an unexpected call from poh poh. I picked up the phone cause I was just sitting by it, arguing discussing with mom how awful tasteless her breakfast of "Emperor Noodles" was. At least that's what mom named her noodles that were cooked in clay pot. Mom's really putting in an effort to cook, seeing that akak's on a "vacation," but... that breakfast was the first time she was cooking since 5 years ago! I think she might need some sharpening in her skills. She accepted the criticism, though.

Anyway, poh poh told mom to go to her house and have lunch because it was Hui Xing's (Amelia's elder sister) birthday and she has prepared some food enough for all of us. No one had any idea that it was Hui Xing's birthday until poh poh broke the news. Mom was peeling taugeh to cook her famous Hokkien Char (seriously, it's one of the best things she can come up with and I was so looking forward to lunch) for lunch but the call made her pack up her taugehs hurriedly and stuffed them into the fridge once again, yelling from the kitchen for us to get ready and proceed to poh poh's house. I could sense a little lightness in her tone, seeing that she packed her taugehs a little too fast. Probably happy that she didn't need to cook and then clear up the oil-stained kitchen all over again.

We dropped by a random bakery (somewhere near USM) and picked up a birthday cake for her. There was a minor battle between Edmund and me, on which cake we should buy. Ended up getting the one that had chocolate and cheese in a cake (because chocolate is the only flavor that Edmund knows how to eat) and naturally, I wanted the cheese. When we got back at poh poh's, Hui Xing wasn't there because she was celebrating her birthday with her paternal relatives (we're maternal side of her family) at her house. I had my lunch - poh poh's fried chicken and Hakka noodles - before she turned up to cut her second cake!






After all that cake-cutting and cake-munching, they (Hui Xing and Edmund) went outside poh poh's house to play badminton. It took me a good 5 minutes before I started whining that I wanted to go home. It's rather insulting to the old people when one complains to go back home only after an hour of stepping foot into the house - but I was so bored there! Adrian and Carina were still in KL and I wasn't keen on playing badminton with the little ones. Though, I did offer them another chance to hop on a broom and try flying, which they only refused with a simple, "Dowan!". Besides, the TV was hogged up by Uncle Yip (Hui Xing's dad), watching those annoying Chinese game shows!

Dad was already falling asleep in the couch (what else to do on a chilly afternoon and a full stomach?) and mom was pretending to be interested in the Chinese game show, ignoring my whines. Since mom refuses to drive me home, I thought of grabbing poh poh's old-fashioned bicycle and my camera and cycling into the inner parts of Balik Pulau (used to do this all the time with Carina and Adrian) to hunt for photographic opportunities but mom didn't let me for no apparent reasons. I insisted on going. My rants and complaints got dad irritated and he himself, offered to take the car an drive me to wherever I want to go - home, not included.

Mom tagged along in the car, and so did Edmund, Hui Xing and Hui Yi (they're all sisters!). We were hunting down for streams and rivers for me to take photographs and at the same time, for the little ones to have a dip. Dad drove us all through the thick plantation till we came to a dead end, made a U-turn and stopped by at a random part of the river that looked safe enough to get into. By the time we got off the car, it already started drizzling and I didn't even have my camera out yet. I didn't want to miss the opportunity though. I set up the tripod and worked under a tree. After mom rushed the little ones into the car, she came to my aid, holding the umbrella above me and the camera as I twisted the dials and clicked my shutter.

Took me long enough to notice that my whole back and camera bag was soaking and that I've got the shots I wanted, before I kept the camera and moved back into the car, with mom still holding the umbrella for me. To be thinking of it, it was kind of cool (to me), standing under the rain with mom, taking photographs. Yeah, I have very supporting family members. Anyways, I took the shot below when dad stopped his car for me to get down to check and see if there was a safe spot for us to take a dip. The door was opened because mom wanted to get down. It gave me the impression of a commercial poster - so I added the words. LOL. Just for fun (had to surf the internet for that Toyota tagline!). Oh yea, and the results of the stream we stopped at can be found here.

Akak's Departure.

While mom and her was busy settling the flight details and lugagges, I played around with my camera. Keep myself busy from reminding myself that akak's leaving and a possibilities of her not coming back anymore. These are a few shots that I got. Surprisingly, there was quite a number of interesting subjects at the airport, if you look really hard. I needed an ISO of 400 and above to get the most of the shots. Anyway, akak's probably home by now, celebrating Raya with her family members while I'm stuck here (I still have laundry to do) blogging about her absence. Urgh! Any invites to any open houses? Last time, it was us who did the open houses!

Various Varieties.

Just because today is Hari Raya, I'm posting some archive shots of a pasar ramadan we visited a couple of weeks back, when akak was still around. It's not like I have any invitations to any Raya open houses! Hmmm... nevermind. It's also an excuse to experiment on Photoshop, actually. =P

Fergalicious!

It's here! It's finally here! LOL. This video is just so fun to watch. Not one of the best videos out there to be worth posting on my blog, I admit (I can see your eyes rolling at the mention of Fergie). Still, this is one the songs that got me imagining about the video. Here it is. I like it. It's so DELICIOUS!