CONCERNS

The new year usherings are officially over.
the Bday celebrations are indefinitely done.
Any previously procrastinated plans kept on-hold to kick start any sort of movement in my life should begin its refreshment course now.

i do not deny that past experiences of dabbling with the hallows of life and work have perpetually dampen my spirits and seriously jaded my perspectives on life. As a result i do consider myself somewhat of a cynic now.

Yeah. 25 years alive has turned me into 1 of those ciggy-smokin-singlet uncles who are functionally unable to slur out words that make you want to sail the 7 seas on impulse or look for gold at the end of the rainbow on a sunny saturday evening (after rain of course. im not stupid. i know tat rainbows appear after rain.)

.. not unless you live in a pelangi.
here, rainbows appear out of the corner.

I hate sun. So I'd tell you to stay home instead and lock ur doors, sleep or whip out a book - IF you can stay awake after 2 pages.

My work ethics and personal boundaries on people-to-people relationships are beginning to compromise my better self. Once again letting my guard down at the working environment is beginning to cost me. I feel sad and effected whenever i disagree heavily on the opinion of others. I feel like crap after i deliver straight forward work critics and watch their facial expressions dissolve from friend to foe in an instant.

Believe me. It eats me up inside.
But obviously my arrogantly anal need to strive for better recognition (if friggin possible) tells me not to give face. not to back down. not to NOT fight back when i know something needs to be fought. Or rather. Its my inability to draw that fine line between professionalism and personal relations that compells me to feel like shit.

Aih.

ANYWAY.

Danzeus, the other housemate, got me a small cake all tucked away in the micro-fridge and was planning on presenting it to me ala song style on his white horse guitar but takjadi cuz the housebunneigh potonged his stim after we came back from our earlier makan session @ WIP.

Thanks Danz.

i had it for breakfast the next day and really liked it.
my solo in-room celebration for myself on my bday morning.

Sssweet.

I wanna go on a holiday.
Someone sponsor me please.

I AM A QUARTER CENTURIAN

Happy Birthday.

to me.

With the work mates @ Nandos 1U.

With the family gang @ WIP bangsar.

a quarter of a century old.
great. juuust great.

Thank you to everyone for your wishes and greetings and messages and spare time.
i is getting old and eyebag-saggy (thank god nothing else sagging) but i is a happy sagger.

oh. plus i have a pink ukulele now.
-___-

merci merci.

HOUSEBUNNEIGH SURPRISE. kinda.

OK. so. we threw the housebunneigh a sorta surprise birthday thing at home.
Only to screw everything up when the pivotal moment came for us to "perform" our bestowed duties.

Aih.

We had planned and rehearsed everything from "what to do if she were home" to "wat to do if she wasnt" and "how to react if she saw this" to "how to cover if she heard that" so i'd say we were pretty prepared. in our heads tat is.

Obviously, not prepared enough.

VIP came home.
We were caught offguard.
Ran. Slammed. Fumbled. Forgot. and ultimately friggin rushed our asses into position.

We did our thing.
VIP laughed. hicked. hissed. lol-ed.
And then started lecturing us on wat we did wrong that, upon rational thinking and inspection, made her suspect something was up.

Epic fail.
But as long as bday girl is happy, the world still smaylles smiles la.

Therefore from this valuable experience i am now compelled and obligated to compile a list of donts when throwing someone a surprise bash. May this help you (as well as remind yours truly) of the dangers that could potongstim even the most elaborately planned, most nicely decorated, most silently gathered bash. (actually it was only 4 people. but who cares right?! a party's a party and numbers dont matter!)

What NOT-TO-DO when attempting midnight helium behlun bday surprise for housemate.

1) Leave foreign visitor's shoe in plain sight.
Safe to say tat en extra pair of female kickers in a household dominated by 2 males is indeed a dead giveaway for some eyebrow-raising ponderings hor?

models posed for presentation and dramatic purposes

2) Engage in casual conversations when time bomb is ticking
There are times for chats and there are times to shut tat pie hole for some xin li zun bei moments. If you are in shock, don expect to shock others. Keep quiet. Sit tight and wait for unsuspecting VIP to slide open the door in darkness before pouncing into action. Urgh. We lost focus. Dun follow us.

scramble zone covered from kitchen sink (left) to rooms (right).
as u can see. there's alot to trip over.

3) Kill time when awaiting VIP's arrival
Rehears. Plan. Train. Meditate. Pray. Anything.
Spend your time preparing for the mental and physical challenges tat could kick in any minute also better than treating time like it were nothing la! come on! use ur spare time to think of PLAN D & E & F and run over your steps again and again so u dun get it screwed when its your time to suit up and face the fire. godamit. time is precious and if its not your room, dun treat it like it is.

us treating sy's room like it were ours.

absentee Peppermiin was there in non-corporeal form.

4) Forget to practice graceful door closing techniques upon panic
Loud slams and projected noises, no matter how unintentional they are, ultimately contribute to unsuspecting assailants spider senses to tingle and take away elements of heart attack inducing screams. Hide in swiftness, run in stillness and close friggin doors in silence. Remember remember.

dun bang so hard.

5) Leave camera out in the cold and away from commotion
Yeah just leap into the room and off the lights THEN realise u left your Kodak-moment capturer outside. obviously the realization of your fatal error comes too late as VIP's presence is already felt indoors. slap urself silly for wasting the opportunity to capture what could be a very memorable facebook photo.

6) Light pre-refrigerated candle in last minute pitch blackness
Always blow dry/fan/pre-heat your candle after extraction from cold icy wet places in fear of last minute inability to flame-on when crucially needed. Nothing speaks "happybitchday" more than a fireless candle. Ours wasnt exactly fireless but there was a worriful moment that it wouldnt catch on as VIP strutted in. Phew.

7) 'Phew 'at pre-refrigerated candle in last minute pitch blackness
DO NOT. i repeat. DO NOT allow over-excitement enthusiasmness overwhelm yourself when your candle FINALLY lights and your racing heart makes u exhale that 1 ounce of breathful relief that your plan might actually work. Never count your flames before they hatch and never blow out other people's candles for them. I dripped cold sweat when flames got extinguished by my minty-fresh breath in the darkness. Thankfully owhy had good hands with the lighter.

8) Cramp in bathroom with cake in hand
Never eat and shit in the same place.
erm. sorry sy. heh. nowhere else to hide.

May these helpful tips be your guide to bdaysurprise nirvana.

Happy Bunneighday LimShyngShorrehShorrehShorrehYing.

STICKS AND STONES

I feel like shit.

emo facedown in the dumps shit.
its 10.18pm and i was expecting it to be 12. time is moving too damn slow.
valid reason available but full disclosure will result in u falling asleep. facedown. on the keyboard. from excruciatingly cliche grandfather story.

will spare you the agony.

Been watching some movies.
Some were kickass. Some were just ass.
Here they are:

THE BOX

Cameron Diaz in southern accent.
Halfburntface man.
Psychological thrill ride.
whats not to like right?

unfortunately i didnt really get alot of scenes in the movie.

i THINK i understood the overall story (after a thorough recap and analytical explanation from the movie critic brother with my head slanted sideways nodding robotically every 5 sentences. ) but i have to say it's a lil too far fetched for me.

then again i never understood DonnieDarko (since its the same director) as well.
so...
2.5/5

TRUE LEGEND

the Goodstuff:
Kick ass choreography.
Cool villain. Over the top cheesy but hey its cny and JayChou has white hair here so.

the Badstuff:
dun get the whole 2nd part of the film where they decide to focus on the drunk fighting @ the arena. I know the movie is supposedly about the drunken fighting and all but........ i dunno. it was weird. they should have ended the movie after bad dude gets beaten up.

3/5 - for the awesome fights

WOLFMAN

good production.
awesome special fx.
bad storytelling.

3/5


PHOBIA (4 Prang)

gave me enough chills to give this a thumbs up.
4 stories. Unfortch, i didnt like the 2nd story - poor special fx ruined it for me.

4/5


PHOBIA 2 (5 Prang)

5 stories. i hated the last story.
But enough freakyness for me to cover face when watching.
PHOBIA 1 was better.

3/5


THE LOVELY BONES

Too much abstract shindigs going on in limboland for this one la.
one moment i was anticipating the killer to be caught. and then he doesnt. and everyone seems to be ok with it. and deadgirl seems to be smiling about it. and then somehow she possesses ppl and makes out with the boy who seems to be happy about it...

i scratch head.
was Peter Jackson trying to establish this as an art film or something?

other than that haunting scene of deadgirl turning back to look at sixthsense girl in slowmo as she runs, mr murderer Stanley Tucci is the saving grace of this movie.
really like the way the camera angles capture his character's sinister side.
i like wat happens to his character at the end.
i think that was probably the best scene in the whole movie.
oh and movie's special fx were cool too.

3/5


NEW YORK, I LOVE YOU

i didnt get this one. haha. sorry.
simple brain too ignorant to art films.
this WAS an art film. right? i mean. With all the emo music in the bg, scenery shots, edit styles and a poster like THAT. (not tat its a bad thing la. i kinda like like poster actually)

i just found myself going "har?" after each story "ended".

Open inverted comma-ed "ended" because i wasnt sure if it was the end of the story or if there was gonna be some climatic end that tied everyone together or something that somehow justified all the meaningless conversations...

scratch head.

2/5

~

more CNY photos from the family.

seremban home

PJ relative 1

PJ relative 2

PJ relative 3



i am dead happy that this fri is a holiday.

the weather is so hot i wake up in sweat now.

TIGER SHOW DANCERS

Taking advantage of props and lighting and camera for a cny shoot some time ago.

fart choi fart choi fart fart choi.

TIGER SHOW

Happy tigering everyone.

CNY eve tuan yuan fan day

more to come.