Dreams of the Day

Of tiny little things

2012-03-07T21:02:00.001-08:00

He was a cold man, known for an icy heart.

Last night, he was killed.

Tire tracks ran over his body.

This murder didn’t appear on the 8 o’clock news. It didn’teven get a tiny headline in the papers.

No one cares if a snowman died, right?

It was just a bunch of snow rolled up with some rocks orsticks, probably made by a kid.

Probably, that kid had nothing to do.

Or maybe, this kid had waited all year for the first sign ofsnow.

Maybe he smiled from ear to ear when he saw the firstsnowflake fall.

Maybe he was trembling with glee waiting for his class toend.

Maybe he was the first one to run out of his classroom intohis mom’s arms eager to go home.

A little kid, taking only a minute to rush in and out of hishouse clad with his winter attire.

Spending the entire day collecting, rolling and sculptingsnow until it was perfect.

He jumped with joy when he looked at his completed design.

At dinner, he couldn’t take his eyes of the window and spentall evening calling his friends and grandparents to tell them about hissnowman.

They all came the next morning to see it.

When the kid woke up at the first call of dawn, he leapedoff his bed, wore his winter attire and ran towards the door to see…

Maybe he sat there and cried.

Yes, a snowman was murdered last night.

Tire tracks ran over his body.

This murder didn’t appear on the 8 o’clock news. It didn’teven get a tiny headline in the papers.

No one cares if a snowman died, right?

While we are often told to take time to appreciate thelittle things in life that matters to us, we often

ignore the little thingsthat matters to others.

So, cheers to all the little things in life, while weinevitably face bigger things like global warming, solar flares and the StopKONY movement.

Of back to normal

2012-02-29T23:58:00.000-08:00

Possibly in various stages of our lives, we often lookback at the past regardless of the past in general or our past. In most of ourschooling days, this practise is known as learning History.

So, what do we actually learn by ‘learning History’?

You see, we often highlight achievements of selflesspeople as the people who changed our world for the better like Jonas Salk,Isaac Newton, Louis Pasteur, Mahatma Gandhi and to some people, Steve Jobs.Besides this, another group of people often highlighted in the media are thosefor the opposite reasons. There are the ones who changed the world for theworse. Adolf Hitler for starters.

Now, all that we’ve heard of countless of times. Howabout a third group of people who are very special in their own way?

Today, in my blog, I’ll be putting the spotlight on thesefew selfless people who changed our world for the worst.

First up would be Dr Richard Gatling. Some of you mayalready see where this is going, but just bear with me. Back then, during theCivil War, Dr Richard noticed that a majority of soldiers died from diseasesrather than the war itself. So, being the selfless man that he is, thought thatif fewer men were required to go for war, fewer men would succumb to diseasesand death. Thus, he created a device where one man can do the killing of manymen.

The Gatling gun.

Saving lives like never before

Next, is a guy with even greater things in his mind,Robert Oppenheimer. Rather than save lives, he wanted to eradicate war. So, hethought that if he could create something so huge and powerful no one would darechallenge nor use, he would be able to prevent all future wars. That’s why heis known as the ‘father of atomic bombs’.

Got no idea for a caption

Up next is a rather animal loving guy, John Wesley Hyatt.You see, for many years, billiard balls were made of ivory or elephant tusks. So,after seeing that elephants are cruelly being killed and each tusk can barely makeup to 8 balls, this guy made some sort of material to replace ivories forbilliard balls.

This said material is now the major component of theworld’s biggest landfill in the Pacific ocean. Behold, Plastic.

Mountain of plastic

Now for the last person. Rather than inventing somethingfor the better, he stumbled upon this invention. Andy Hildebrand is anengineer, working on methods to detect incoming earthquakes by identifyingsounds coming from the ground.

He does this by sending waves down into the ground andcollecting reflected sounds. There were much unwanted noise and so, hedeveloped a method to autocorrect the reflected sound by ways I’m not too sureof.

But what I’m sure of, this method has managed to correctvarious unwanted voices of this modern world. He created the AutoTune.

Giving teens the fame they desire

Toodles!

It has been so long since I ended my post with 'Toodles'.

Crap, now my post won't end with 'Toodles' anymore.

Of things that aren't there anymore

2012-02-15T22:01:00.000-08:00

It is just another usual day at work, albeit an unusual Thursday lab meeting and the beginning of another aspect of my project. Everything else was as per normal. As I sat on my heavily cluttered desk, I switched on my oiled up laptop for a tad bit of internet surfing.

Like an action already pre-programmed into my body reflex system, my hand automatically went to the sites that checks my email and Facebook. My email was usual. Other than several unrelated spam emails and Facebook notifications, there was nothing of great importance. Facebook, however, told a different story.

I turned on Facebook, as it is my source of entertainment for these short periods of rest that I have and to my shocker, I saw it. The one thing that was able to feel a tug at my heart. It was the one thing that I didn’t think I’d see, nor did I hope for it.

It was you.

You, who when we first met, I didn’t have much of an opinion of, but as time goes by, I slowly grew fond of.

You, whom several few thought were saying too much, but that was what I liked about you.

You, who told me about happenings around friends that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise.

You, who kept me company when I was supposed to be sitting by my lonesome.

You were never mine, but now I wish you would come back.

Where are you?

Come back soon, Facebook Ticker.

Yes, I logged on Facebook today and lo and behold, the ticker is gone. How am I suppose to stalk, I mean connect with my friends' happenings now?

Just one for today

2012-02-14T22:33:00.000-08:00

The winged infant flexed his arm. Despite the posse that he was known for, he had sinister eyes. The wind was stronger today, but that didn’t faze him, not even a bit. Today was supposed to be his day, but he hated that fact. He hated schedules, he hated organisations.

Just the night before, he was abreast a table, with bloodshot in his eyes. It was the time of the year again. Working sporadically all year, this was the one day his job was exceptionally apparent. He hated that. He clutched his weaponry of sorts tightly. He wasn’t bad at what he did, in fact, he was good.

His one shot could solve problems for some or end another. His one shot could lead to a whole lot of suffering at his whim. What he did could dictate the future of people. People’s fates are subjected to his whims.

Many have requested his services, but he declined most of them. No one knows how or when he receives a job. No one knows how he selects his target. But there it was, the list of his target in his hands. He stared at it for a while and heaved a heavy sigh. That night, he decided to be a rebel. He is going rouge. He threw away his list and his eyes glisten once again.

So today, his long list of targets is shortened to one. Why one? Just because he likes it that way. One is a sad number for his target today. He wasn’t always this way, but today, he is sinister.

Poised to go, he lifted his weapon and readied it for commencement. The wind was pushing his gold locks back. He is further from his target than he usually is but that wouldn’t matter. Not one bit. His weapon was now parallel to his eyes. He pulled his arm back. The curvature of the weapon tense up.

“Just one for today,” his lips curved an evil smile and he released his hand. He shot me.

Darn you Cupid.

p/s - To all my readers, HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!

When voices other than yours make sense

2012-02-13T19:13:00.000-08:00

Bryan woke up early today with pump and furore. The sky was clear even through his dust-tinted glass window by his bed. He was determined today.

“There’s an answer, if you reach into your soul~”

The voices are singing once again. He wondered what song they were singing, while refusing to pay much attention to them.

“And the sorrow that you knew~”

“Will melt away~”

Bryan found those lyrics familiar, but it just wasn’t apparent as of yet. He wanted to ignore the voices, but this niggling annoyance of not remembering the title of the song was getting to his head.

“And then a hero comes along~”

Hero, by Mariah Carey. Now Bryan remembers. He can’t believe it took him so long to get it.

“He’s got it alright”

“Didn’t think he would have gotten it so fast”

“The last verse was obvious, even for a fool”

Bryan was slightly annoyed. Was he subjected to another bet? These voices are very annoying at times but he has gotten use to them so much that he is capable of ignoring whatever they said.

More than that, their song has ignited something in his mind. He wanted to be a hero. Or more so, somebody recognised. Somebody who is famous. Somebody who has achieved something of worldwide recognition. Someone whose name will live forever by their achievements.

“Another mindless dream”

“Give it up”

There goes the voices again, he thought. But what do they know? Bryan assumed that they were ignorant about the real life, since all they did was live in his head.

“Let us try it”

Try what, he thought but quickly, he went off with his daily routine. As he was walking to work, the voices started to pose a series of questions.

“Who are the five wealthiest men today? Or last year? Or the last decade?”

“Who were the last ten people who have won a Noble Prize?”

“Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actors and actresses”

Bryan was confused. What were all these questions for? He knew he could easily search the answers anytime he wants to, but the need to was not now.

“Now, name three friends who have helped you in difficult times”

“Or five people who have taught you something worthwhile”

“Think of five teachers who helped you in your journey in school”

Bryan stopped short on his walk. Strangely, these questions were much easier. Fact is, no one remembers the headliners of the past. They may be the best at one point, but applause never runs forever. Awards tarnish, achievements are forgotten. Prizes and certificates are buried along with the owners.

The people who make a difference in our lives are those people will remember, not those with most credentials, certificates or money.

But wouldn’t we need the recognition of our ability before we are able to make a difference in people’s lives, Bryan thought.

“Amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic”

Now Bryan realises. Rather than becoming a famous or professional, he would rather be a better person. Sometimes the voices say things for his own good.

“I told you he’d give up on his dumb idea”

“Alright, you won”

If two heads are better than one, how about twenty?

2012-02-08T02:48:00.000-08:00

“He’s bored for now”

“Yeah, he is going to crack soon”

“Nah, boredom won’t be enough”

Bryan looked around the office. He’s sure he heard voices talking but the last he has checked, no one was around. At least no one was supposed to. He stared at the clock, it was almost 5. Probably everyone has already left work, leaving him solitary there. The rain prevented him from going home.

He dismissed those voices to be some echo from people down the other hall and proceeded to stare blankly at his computer screen.

“He is confused now”

“Boy, what problems he is facing right now”

“But he seems to have no cares at all”

“How’d you know, I bet it is turmoil in that skull of his”

Bryan left his seat to take a short stroll. He couldn’t go very far because the area where he worked was like a small shaded island surrounded by places where he would get wet if the dare thread amidst this rainy weather.

Pit pat pit pat, falls the rain. He stared at the falling drops of water, captivated by anything that moves in any sequence. There was nothing he wanted to do right now but stare blankly.

“I wonder what is in his mind”

“Nothing I bet, just emptiness”

“He must be thinking of something, pondering or musing probably”

“I doubt it, he is going to crack I tell you”

Suddenly, the rain stopped. This is his chance, it is now or never. Bryan proceeded to his office to pack up; he didn’t want to stay in that confinement of an area anymore. Dreary steps commenced as he headed home.

He left his stuff at home and went out to meet a couple of friends to hang around.

“Oh look, he has friends”

“Looks like a fun life he is having right now. All jokes and smiles. I don’t get why you think he is going to crack”

“Like you said, looks like fun. Looks can be deceiving. Watch closely, something is amiss”

Bryan looks at his friends conversing happily talking about their day. He tries to join in, but he didn’t really have much to add on to.

Amidst that, he wonders, it seems like his friends don’t even hear a whisper. The voices only appear to him. He smiled back at his friends.

It has been almost a month living like this. He always had a nonchalant disposition. His friends can’t help but admire his ability to face every problem without complaints. Some reckon his life was perfect having no troubles with school or work at all. He just kept on smiling.

“Look, he doesn’t look like he will snap anytime. Lucky we didn’t bet on it, or else you would have lost”

“Not yet is what I’ll say. I’m up for a bet if you want”

“You mean, despite this you think that he’ll…”

“Of course I do”

His days passed like the usual routine. Nothing much has changed. He still went out for errands or to just enjoy time with friends. No one would suspect his true feelings because he would always wear a happy face, without a hint of troubles inside.

“Why doesn’t he smile when he is alone?”

“Who smiles to themselves unless they are mad?”

“He will be in due time”

Everything was fine. Till one evening.

That evening, Bryan stayed in his lab past working hours. This time, it wasn’t rain that stopped him from going home. Neither was the lack of activities. His friends wanted to hang out, but no one could reach him.

All he did was stared blankly at his screen. No strolls to clear his mind this time. All he did was stare. From time to time, he heaved a sigh of exasperation, but nothing changed. He was there for quite a while. His problem finally got to him.

“He is going to blow”

“I never thought he would snap but now it looks inevitable”

“Like an eruption....”

Just then, Bryan stood up with bloodshot eyes, and walked towards the front of his desk facing three individuals, “Who in the world are you? Why are you following me?!?,” he shouted rather harshly.

“You mean you can see us?”

“Why are you surprised? Of course he can, he is in our wavelength now. He has snapped. He can see us, and his other persona.”

Just then, the three men he saw initially were suddenly surrounded by ten. Wait, now there are twenty, maybe even more.

They came in all different ages, ethnicity and sizes; old, young, short, fat, thin, tall, angry, happy, grumpy, sad, black, white, brown.. but what intrigued him the most, he noticed, was that every single one of them looked the same.

They all seem to have the same face. They all looked like Bryan.

He panicked, “What are you guys? Have my problems finally driven me insane?” he screamed.

“Yes, you have snapped’

“But with regards to your problem, that’s why we are here”

Then it struck him. This is it, he thought. He quickly penned this and updated his blog.

Problem solved.

Of the days of my life and dogs

2012-01-17T23:24:00.000-08:00

Today, I officially have nothing to blogabout. I tried conjuring up something to write but I realise it isn’t possiblewithout rehashing any of my previous blog ideas. You could even see the lack ofenthusiasm in my previous posts with the non-existent labels and picturecaption as well as the dwindling numbers of pictures I bother to even find.Right now, I have no idea what to do whilst writing this post like a doghandling a camera.

I have no clue what i'm doing

I find it a waste especially after giving myblog a pretty satisfying make over. Don’t you like it?

So, I’ve begun a conquest (yet again) toimprove my writing. I’ve read that a good command in English helps in writingespecially if one is writing in English. I’ve also read that staying awake willhelp reduce errors and typos. But more than that, I’ve read about metaphors.

A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea

It is said that metaphors are like the coloursof the rainbow. Sometimes we see a rainbow with 3 colours, sometimes more. Butnothing beats a rainbow with all seven colours. Likewise, infusing metaphors inwriting may complete the set to make it a colourful experience.

Rainbows of the literature world

Thus, being a person willing to try new thingsout, I’m going to go for an eight coloured rainbow. He is a metaphor-filledessay based on pretty bad metaphors I’ve read before.

Itwas just another day, one that is not quite yesterday but just before tomorrow.The sun was shining like a brightly lit light bulb, only brighter. I wassipping a cup of coffee in a coffee shop that was empty like a coffee shop thatwasn’t open and all of a sudden, it started to rain.

Therain fell on the pavement hard like leaping maggots in a hot frying pan.Thunder rumbled like the sound of thin metal sheets being shaken at thebackstage of a play. Lightning flashed like a thousand fans taking pictures ofa Kpop star.

Rightthen, she entered the shop as fast as a fat kid in a buffet. She walked towardsme like a centipede with 98 legs missing, dripping wet like a post-bathedgolden retriever.

Shewas tall but not quite, like a 5 foot 5 tree. Her face was a perfect oval likea circle that is flattened at the sides. I’m sure we’ve never met before liketwo hummingbirds who have also never met before. Her hair glistened with rainlike nose hairs after a sneeze.

Thenshe spoke, with a voice like bells from a huge truck reversing. She was growingon my like a colony of E. coli on a piece of meat at room temperature. Everyminute with her was like 60 seconds. She asked if I had an umbrella whilethoughts tumbled in my head like clothes in a revolving dryer.

Ifumbled with my words like playing dodge ball with a wet bar of soap while myumbrella remained by my table like an inanimate object.

Icomposed myself like a musician composing a song but not quite. I told her,yes, she may take my umbrella but since she was already drenched, it would bepointless like a white crayon. She decided to wait for the rain to stop whilewe had a chat. We clicked like a computer mouse in a Starcraft II game.

Shespoke with the wisdom that could only come from experience like a person whowent blind from looking at the solar eclipse without one of those boxes with apinhole in it and now travels the country speaking at high schools about thedangers of looking at the solar eclipse without one of those boxes with apinhole in it.

Just another day

Thenthe rain stopped, like a shower faucet after turning off the tap. She thenwaved goodbye and she left like leaves before a leaf blower.

I’velost her like a grape that rolled under the fridge and I don’t know if I’llever see her again but I know even if I do, she will be like that grape thathas turned into a raisin and be as wrinkly as such.

Thusends the story of just an ordinary day like any other days of my life.

THE END

That said, with the recent SOPA and PIPA stuffgoing on, it may escalate to the extent that I may get into trouble forpiracy-ing these overused metaphors. But here’s to hoping that doesn’t happen.

By the way, SOPA and PIPA stand for some wordsthat include piracy issues. Look them up yourselves for I have no idea whatthey are on about and Wikipedia is down from midnight to midnight EST (05:00 UTC Wed to 05:00 UTC Thu).

Toodles.

Off Focus

2012-01-13T06:05:00.000-08:00

Recently, a friend of mine said that myblog was a fair bit depressing. So, guess what, I changed my blog layout. Nowit looks brighter and cheerier huh? Hopefully it will be able to compensate thelack of sunshine hiding deep within my posts.

First of all, credits to my friend, Ezrafor helping me out with the header of my blog. Visit his blog here.

After spending a significant amount oftime on my new blog look, I felt that all that effort deserves a new post in myblog’s new look. To be honest, about 80% of the time spent on my blog waschoosing the design, 10% was asking Ezra to help edit the header and 9% wasdrinking diet Coke while doing all that. The remaining 1% was copy-pasting thehtml code in Blogger.

Yes, I drank diet Vanilla Coke. Someonetold me that it tasted better than the less diet version and that the vanillataste was stronger and creamier and smoother and whatnot. He lied.

It is as the can says, deliciously lightand sugar free. Well, minus the word ‘delicious’ and we have a properdescription of the content. To my dismay, I realise that I paid an extra 30cents for the free sugar considering the original version was 30 cents cheaper.Thanks Coca Cola.

The only reason the drink wasn’t halfbad is because the weather now is horrid. It is so hot I think I can fry an eggin mid-air. Yes, mid-air.

Anyway, I should stop ranting lest myblog starts exuding the depressing vibe once again. To avoid that, I guess myblogging topics usually head in random directions. A friend suggested that myposts should have a little more focus and control. Tough.

So, I looked around for things thataffects focus and guess what I found. Nothing relevant to my situation at all.But I still found it interesting.

I read about a study done on 4-year oldkids to measure the effect watching TV has on one’s focus and self-control.Quite a few kids were divided into 3 groups.

Group 1 was subjected to 9 minutes ofdoodling and colouring with crayons.

Group 2 watched 9 minutes worth of apopular cartoon about a sponge living in the sea thought to beSpongebobSquarepants, though it wasn’t reported.

Group 3 watched 9 minutes of a realisticcartoon of a typical US preschool boy. Also not reported but thought to beCaillou.

For clarification, the 3 parameters werechosen to assess the TYPE of TV shows and how they affect kids’ focus andself-control. To those slightly bit confused ones; Spongebob is a fast pacedfanatical cartoon whereas Caillou is a pretty mild and ~~boring~~calmcartoon.

Needless to say, thekids watching Spongebob Squarepants scored the least be it in focus orself-control tests. There was barely any difference in results for the othertwo groups indicating that it wasn’t the act of watching TV that affected thekids capabilities but the type of shows they were watching.

Conclusive proof right there. Whatintrigued me was, since when was watching TV another form of teaching kids? Ialways considered TV as a rest after completing activities that were meant toteach me focus and self control: CHORES.

Now, parents start viewing the values ofthe kind of activities their kids take part in be it improving kids mentalabilities or otherwise. What happened to the value of laughing uncontrollablywhile clutching their sides till it hurts? How about being chased around by anolder sibling till they can’t run anymore? Probably, after those activities,the kids wouldn’t be able to complete any task that requires focus orself-control.

But these are the things we reminiscewhen we grow up. These are the things that make us kids. These are the thingsthat make me love the moments when I was a kid.

These are moments we should never forgetas we grow up. I for one would rather stay a kid if given a chance. Growing upis for old people.

Toodles.

Of a new year and an old post

2012-01-09T18:36:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

Very belated wishes to you all. Loads of apologies forthe lack of updates this festive season. To those concerned about me, I amcurrently in Brisbane, Australia for my holidays and having a great timesight-seeing.

Nah, I kid. I’ve been in Brisbane for the past year andthe furthest place I went during the past few months were actually for work. Theclosest thing to ‘sight-seeing’ was Christmas lights on houses and the riverview from the balcony of my friend’s house. That said, it has been loads offun.

My lack of updates though, were not because of thesetrips to various places considering that I still had plenty of time to update.It was, however, credited to the lack of inspiration and energy. You see, themost common birthplace of my posts happen to be in the place where great mindswork, my lab office. Or more specifically, my office table.

Despite popular opinion, I still came to work during theholidays just like any usual day. But this time, there is a difference. While Iwas pretty hardworking during the holidays, the refectory beside my labdisagreed. They decided to celebrate the holidays like the rest of my labmates. Being alone in my office without and source of food, the creativeportion of my mind decided to rest too.

Life has been pretty interesting so far. I ushered in thenew year with a trip to the mountains. Yes, I climbed it. It wasn’t as labourintensive that I thought it would be, but definitely taxing to my mind. Yes,the mind where creative juices once use to flow despite disagreements fromseveral peers. I slept for a full 3 hours after getting home from climbing thatmountain.

We climbed Mount Ngungun. It wasn’t a difficult of aclimb but there are pretty scary moments especially if one is acrophobic. Iassume that word means a fear of heights, I’m way too lazy to Google themeaning right now.

Some of us rushed to the top with gusto, some took theirtime (probably due to fatigue) and some were just looking forward to aninteresting cave-like structure halfway to the peak and had no interest in therest of the climb. But at the peak, the view made all the effort worth it. Iliked the cave better though.

Our ‘climb’ down was pretty rushed as many of us werehungry and in need to answer nature’s call. I noticed that we missedappreciating several smaller wonders of Mount Ngungun. The flowers.

Every single step in our lives will always have adestination, be it the peak of Mount Ngungun, the cave somewhere in between oreven the restroom at the base of it. While it is good to have the drive toreach our aims as fast as possible, it is sometimes nice to take solace in thelittle steps that we take to our destination. Take time to look around andsmell the flowers during a stroll to school, or look around the countrysideduring a long drive, we might see beauty in this world that we may have missedotherwise.

That said, I slept in the car the whole journey back.

Toodles.

Of being an 'activist'

2011-12-07T17:32:00.001-08:00

*This post was initiated on the 2^nd ofDecember and continued again on a later date.

I just attended a lab meeting. It was interesting, scaryand tiring. It was tiring mainly because I didn’t have enough sleep last night.I had an energy drink earlier before the meeting, but somehow its effect ranout halfway during the meeting. Sleep is always the best energy drink. Exceptfor Red Bull, they taste so good.

Well, it is not like I stayed up till late for no goodreasons like games and movies or whatnot. That is only partially true. I camehome relatively late as I was out celebrating Brian’s very belated birthday aswell as Esther’s farewell. Yes, the same one, again. Some of you may bestarting to wonder about how many farewells have I been for her and how manytimes was she supposed to leave already. It’s like we can’t wait for her to go.

But that cannot be further from the truth. Esther is avery dear friend of mine, whom I knew of her existence one and a half yearsago, but actually only really talk to her earlier this year. Being so chattyand bubbly, I wonder why I didn’t notice her earlier. Well, I won’t say muchabout her because several of my previous posts have already featured her andher many ‘farewells’.

I’ll feature another person instead. My actual Angelthat, as previously stated, had me really wondering who he/she really is.Despite giving up and being frustrated for quite a while, I can proudly say, Icame to the right conclusion after all. I have, indeed, the best Angel ever.Sherlock prevails once again.

Now, to reveal the identity! Tadahhhh!

Sabrina!!

During the course of this game during the month ofNovember, I have, as stated, received many gifts, but isn’t all. I receivedmuch more, from Sabrina. That was probably one of the reasons she was out of mysuspicions. I thought that if she happens to be my angel, she would have giventhose gifts under the name of my Angel. Even before the Angel and Mortal gamebegan, she gave me an encouraging note with an orange. Her gifts were all customizedto help me survive my afternoons where I rarely had lunch. Sabrina, I feel soextremely blessed to have you as my Angel, and more so as my friend.

As of the evening of the 5^th of December, mybody is officially worn out. Well, I’m still feeling fine, but there aretell-tale signs that my movement will be thoroughly impaired tomorrow. Rightnow, my body doesn’t really ache that much, but I my arms aren’t reallyobedient. It is going all ‘hippie’ on me, feeling restless but refuse to workwhen I want it to.

So, you might be thinking, what in the world could thislab-infused science rat be doing to feel such fatigue? Farming.

This post has taken me an immensely long time to post dueto unexplained reasons. In fact, I have written much more than just this butdue to the gloomy setting I’ve entrenched myself upon, I’ll just post this bitjust to keep my blog ‘active’. ‘Active’ here is an overstatement, exaggerationeven.

Of Poodles are real cool, but I prefer Toodles

2011-11-30T22:25:00.001-08:00

It was an extremely tiring day Tuesday. Had pretty much afull day of work and attended a farewell gathering for Veon and Esther. Yesyes, I know, ‘that’ Esther again. Anyway, it was an exciting night andhopefully the 2 stars of the night enjoyed it.

As anyone would have noticed by now, this post won’t be acontinuation to the previous three, which I have to admit were an attempt toadapt to a different writing style. Obviously, I’m having a real hard timeescaping from this casual-blog-writing style. Writing with this style iscounter-productive in improving my writing skills that have been deterioratingfor a while now. It is so hard to change, it’s getting frustrating. That, andbeing a mystery novelist-wannabe is getting pretty boring. You can actuallyliterally see my boredom manifesting evidently with the lack of proper ending inthe previous post. There is a lack of proof-reading too. *Yawns*

Furthermore, despite wrenching and twisting my brain torecall every single detail of said events, I haven’t come even an inch closerto knowing who my angel is. Thankgoodness I’m not an investigator. If I was Sherlock Holmes, I would have thoughtWatson was the culprit. Elementary, my dear Watson.

Thanks, Sherlock

Anyway, to my angel, if you are reading this, though chancesare low, I would like to thank you sincerely for your gifts. I think I have thebest angel ever. The answer will be revealed soon. Yay!

Exam results are out! Most of my friends have attainedgood results. This is my first and probably ONLY semester in Brisbane that I actuallydidn’t worry about my results. Nonetheless, I think I did pretty well. Ireceived an email for my results and it shows Intelligent Person. You doubt?Check this out.

YeaaaaHAAAAA!!

With exam results, I guess it marks the end of thesemester. I’m halfway through my Honours and 11 out of 12 through for 2011.Just one more semester left for me, how time flies. I’ve been here for almostone and a half years, well, minus 3 months of summer holidays last year. Sofar, it has been a roller coaster ride and I don’t see this ride ending smooth.I still see a huge dip+corkscrew+upside-down+underwater portion of this ride.And I am excited. To add on, I have the sudden interest to go Bungee Jumping.

Yes, Bungee Jumping.

Yes, i just watched Running Man

Or better, laser tag. Yes, I want to go laser tag.Nothing beats shooting harmless lasers at each other. I’ll PewPew till you QQ.

On the topic of what I want, I want a dog. Yes, I haveone back in Malaysia, but since I’m not going back this summer, I am having petdog-withdrawal syndrome.

This type of dog doesn’t count.

But it fills the gap pretty well

And on the topic of what dogs I don’t really want,

Poodles.

Toodles.

Of Angels and Mysteries 3

2011-11-30T06:31:00.001-08:00

Thethird one

My humble balcony

I sat bythe balcony of my abode. Staring at the stars which is of beauty, my mind wasbefuddled with whirling thoughts. The previous incidents were still heavy in mythoughts and my inability to unravel the threads of this mystery struck down myconfidence. A ball of yarn, in which I have found the ends but still, I amunable to untangle. Every single time I tug them in attempt to gain the key answer,it only gets tighter.

So, I tryto unravel it, one thread at a time. For the next few days, my subconscious wasbusy rerunning the incidents with every single clue. I was determined not tolet anything slip. I was back to my calm self, poised to solve this mysteryonce and for all but what happened next shook me to my very core.

Onceagain, I received another plastic bag, this time, as I was quick to notice, isa white plastic bag that is hardly transparent. Similarly, the messenger was W.I made a mental note to interrogate her, but being anything but a novice inthis, she was able to elude me. What came as a shock was that the messenger wasthe only thing similar in this event.

Thistime, the urgency of the matter overwhelmed me. I threw caution to the wind.This was no longer a place or time to fear the eyes of people around me. Moreclues, I thought. Clues could only bring me closer to the answer. Boy, was I wrong.

I openedthe bag, it was filled with foodstuff. As I emptied it, the specific item I waslooking out for wasn’t present. The pear. Furthermore, the items found thistime were Apollo Pandan Cake, Glico Pocky and Hello Panda Chocolate flavoredsnacks. It struck me instantly that these items couldn’t be bought fromWoolworths, the place I originally relate my Angel with. The place where theseitems could be bought was known as Yuen’s Supermarket noted by the brand markon the plastic bag holding these items. This place is located in Sunnybank. Ofall the people I know that live and frequent Sunnybank, none were Malaysians.

Literally frogs flushed down the toilet
Note: Those are frogs, not excrements

All myprevious deductions were like frogs flushed down the toilet. My Angel was notonly good at covering tracks, but creating tracks leading to a differentdirection. Both tracks are very specific, my next step would be to uncover theright track. Uncovering the right track was hardly possible now.

I closedmy eyes and calmed myself down. As my palpitations faded, I wiped the sweat offmy brows. Eureka, I finally got it. Rather than decide which track to follow, Ishall follow both. Probably, this is known as the illusion of two paths.

Once, a farmer couldn’t locate his farm afterrunning an errand in another town. A flash flood has wiped off the path to hisfarm. Strangely, instead of that path, therein lies a divergence of the pathinto two. He sat there for a very long time, mulling over which path would leadto his farm. He sat and he sighed, for one whole day.

Then, a boy came to sit beside him. He heardhis dilemma and said, “Dear Sir, do you or do you not recall the direction ofyou humble abode? For if you do, to heck with the paths. Disregard the paths,for there is only one road. Follow the road.”

The both walked, disregarding the divergence ofthe path, only to find that both paths actually led to one road.

I forone, learned a valuable lesson from this story. I will combine the paths to getto the answer. You see, my Angel has to be one who has the mobility to obtainitems from different places in order to cover up his or her tracks. I alsonoted that everything I received was bought and safely I assumed that my Angelwas one who is too busy to cook, perhaps a student. The next gift would also bepurchased and this time, it will lead me to the answer. I anticipated the nextgift, for I am sure, it will no longer uncover the paths, but this time, theroad.

Thefourth one.

Onceagain, my deduction went awry. I received spaghetti Bolognese personally madeby my Angel, sent by a different messenger. This isn’t what I expected. I couldonly come to two conclusionz.

I giveup. And I Have The Best Angel Ever.

Thankyou!

Of Angels and Mysteries 2

2011-11-28T17:31:00.001-08:00

The second one

It has been awhile since the pear incident. I had notreached a conclusion yet but this matter has been persisting in my mind. Yetanother ‘whodunnit’ case. While I was constantly in a mind-turmoil trying topiece everything together, it happened again.

It was on a Sunday evening, with clear skies as Irecalled. There were many people around, each in their own clusters. I wasextracted from mine by someone. It was the same messenger again, whom I willinitial as W.

Just one sentence from her, “See my chair over there, thepackage is for you to bear.”

I was stunned for a moment. I didn’t even notice herdisappearing into the shadows of various people around. I glanced at the seatwhich held my gift. It was bare. No, that was my seat. I searched for the seatthat was once owned by W. Lo and behold, there it was. A suspicious set ofobjects wrapped in a thin layer of transparent material known as a plastic bag.

I stealthily inch towards that seat, smiling at peoplewho I brisk past in order not to gain unwanted attention as I near my gift.Questions flooded my mind. What could it be? Whom could it be from? Will therebe anything inside that will lead me to my Angel?

I stepped to the front of the seat trying to uncover thecontents of the bag with just my eyes. I hesitated to grab that bag being waryof eyes watching around me. I participated briefly in a conversation with agroup nearby and casually grabbed that bag and proceeded to place it beneath mychair. Despite my bursting curiosity, analysing its contents will have to wait.

Avoiding any suspicions, I quickly hid the contents intoanother bag and left the scene. At dinner I quickly analysed the contents ofthat plastic bag. At first glance, it was a book, a bowl of instantmicrowavable soup, a snack bar and there it is again, a pear. There is apattern, I'm sure of it. Once I unravel this pattern, everything will be clear.

Throughout dinner, I mulled over this. I scanned the souponce more and I discovered yet another clue. I almost missed it by coveringthat piece of evidence with my thumb. It was a green stamp-like design with thewords ‘staff purchased’ from Woolworths. The pear! It must have been fromWoolworths. My previous deduction was spot-on. With a certain revelation thatclues are hiding beneath every single corner I took out the book and scannedit. The book, based on its title and stature, I could guess that it waspurchased not from Australia, but from my home country, Malaysia. Growing up inMalaysia has allowed the ability to distinguish items originating from there tomanifest within me. That, and the price tag that was still adhered to the backof the book.

It was simple enough. All I had to do was snoop around tofind a person who is from Malaysia, works in Woolworths and has a certaintendency to eat pears. Finally, a proper lead.

Problem is, there is not a single person who fits thisdescription. However, that doesn’t matter, it wouldn’t be fun otherwise. Amouse who stole cheese would never leave cheese holes lying around. I look formysteries, not interpretive answers. The answer is rarely the answer. Nobodyever finds the answer, they only think they have. When that happens, they stopthinking. If we seek for mysteries, we will always be seeking. Seek mysteries,evoke mysteries, plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom.

Of Angels and Mysteries

2011-11-27T18:56:00.001-08:00

The first one.

I received it. The very first one. It was the first ofmany that would come. It came in an unexpected fashion. As I was frolickingaround, basking in conversations, hopping between clusters of people, it wasthrust into my hands. A gift, with a note.

Yes, I Googled its scientific name

A little sniff at it along with observation of its colourand bell-like shape revealed the identity of this object. Plantae Rosales Rosaceae Pyrus communis or in laymen’s terms, a Packhampear. I looked to the one who passed this fruit to me, a girl who was just amessenger. Or so she claimed. She denied being the giver of the gift but was itreally true? With a series of questions bombarded at this messenger with theaim of exposing any anomaly in her answers that may lead to the solution tothis mystery, I came to no conclusion.

I had an uphill task of deducing this mystery. All I hadto work on was this piece of pip fruit. A Packham pear, sufficiently ripen andready for consumption. Pears are climacteric fruits which means that they areable to ripen even after being picked or harvested. Pears, specifically arepicked about a fortnight before ripening because during that stage, it isrelatively harder and has lesser tendency to bruise during shipping. A gentlesqueeze on my pear confirms that it is indeed ripe. This eliminates thepossibility of it coming from a farm nearby. Thus, it could only be from asupermarket. Coles, Woolworths, Fruity Capers or any convenience stores couldbe the origin of this gift. There are just too many possibilities, it isimpossible to deduce anything at this point. The giver is indeed a smart one atcovering their tracks.

I was stumped, but then it struck me. The note! Anotherimportant clue to solve this mystery. The handwriting was nothing I have seenbefore and the message probably didn’t give any indication to the writer. Butit was signed off with a diagram. This was intriguing.

Clue No.1

This was the identity the giver chose to represent them.This was vast progress in my mystery conquest. This information, coupled withthe words of the messenger, I can safely assume that this pear and note wasgiven by my Angel. It fits in with the fact that there was an ongoing eventknown as the Angel and Mortal Game.

Thus, it begins.

Disclaimer: This post may or may not be adequately accurate. Any characters appearing in this work may or may not be fictitious. Any resemblance be it people or occurence to anything in real life is intentional but it may be modified due to dramatizing reasons.

And yet another tag! Blue'sClues as a tribute to my favourite childhood mystery shows.

Of my dream girl and my nightmarish name

2011-11-13T22:08:00.001-08:00

Just a disclaimer, disregard the date of my last blogpost, I did post it on the 11.11.11. The date was decided by the Bloggerwebsite who/whom had no idea whatsoever where my location is at the moment. Itwas 11.11.11 in Australia, Malaysia and Singapore, the 3 countries that I havestudied in. Thus, I DID post on the 11.11.11.

Since then, it has been 3 days. So far, no one hasnoticed nor commented on the anomaly on that post. I find that marginallyamazing. You see, after the paragraph which I mentioned the Kpop Music Festival(for those less-informed individuals, this is an event that showcases KoreanStars’ talents), I placed a few pictures to make my blog more colourful. Out ofthese 3 pictures, one of them is the odd one out. If you didn’t notice, checkout my last post again. Isn’t it obvious?

Definitely Kara’s Seungyeon. She is the only on withshort hair and a white top. She is also my favourite Kpop star. Duh~

Seungyeon <3

Awwww


Can you feel my heartbeat?

Why so serious?

I kid I kid. Seems like Esther fit in well with two ofthe greatest Kpop artists considering that no one has expressed their confusionor exasperation on my choice of pictures. The reason is either most of myreaders don’t follow Korean music news much or Esther is actually as pretty as….nevermind.I think most people here don’t know much about Kpop.

I’m being a little down under the weather these daysseeing that I let a chance to attend the Kpop Music Festival slip out of myfingers. Just a little bit more push and I would have flown there last week. Byebye KARA~

In all honesty, I don’t consider myself a Kpop maniac. Infact, I rarely follow Kpop nowadays. The only Korean show I watch now isRunning Man. Watch it, it is hilarious. But besides that, I don’t really watchshows solely featuring for Kpop stars anymore. I’m just an ordinary single guywho is looking for interesting shows. That said, I can remember and differentiateall members of Girl’s Generation, KARA, T-ARA, 4MINUTE, f(x) and Secret.

Speaking of names, I have been pondering about my namefor a while. As I was growing up, my name (for those extremely less-informedpeople, it is Bryan) is a fairly common name. In fact, the spelling seems to befairly common. But now, I find that most people are named ‘Brian’ instead of ‘Bryan’.It is to the extent of people assuming my name is ‘Brian’.

Things aren’t so bad, I don’t blame them. But if theymisspell my

name in an email or in Facebook, it is just weird. You see, to sendan email to me, or do anything to my Facebook, they would have to come acrossmy real name. Yes, BRYAN. However, after clicking through various links withthe word ‘BRYAN’, they still managed to refer to me as ‘Brian’. I mean, do youguys think I typo’d my account?

This is conspiracy, this is controversy, THIS IS ~~SPARTAAAA~~STEREOTYPING. I think the heat is getting to my head.

I like my name, it is a great name.

It's funny cause it's true

Strangely, my siblings have unique names that are rarelyfound around the world. None of them has ever met another friend who sharestheir name. I, on the other hand, have known 5 in primary school and secondaryschool, 3 during my polytechnic years and 3 in university. That is just those Ican remember at the top of my head. Sadly, my dad almost named me Tyson, afterthe boxer who bit someone else’s ear off. He is the cleverer version of VanGogh.

I am pretty happy I wasn’t named Tyson. I would have beenteased so much when that boxer bit off some other guy’s ear.

A toast to all the ordinary names in the world!

Cheers.

Of a special day and a special superstar

2011-11-10T22:16:00.001-08:00

11.11.11

A very unique date. It has been a huge phenomenon in theinternet world. Many people are boasting their birthday or setting theirwedding on this day. But how special is this day actually?

Today, is also remembrance day. It is a day to rememberthe soldier that went for war a long long time ago. More than that, it is tocommemorate the day hostilities formally ended. World War I formally ended.

A long long time ago, this happened

It is also a day where Ned Kelly was hanged. He is anAustralian bushranger. Bushrangers are like rebels or runaway convicts. Somewould consider Ned Kelly as one of the most notorious cop-killer. This day, 1880,he was hanged. Just earlier this year, anthropologist claims that they havefound his skeleton, but his skull is still at large.

Ooo, scary

Another significant point about today is that today marksthe end of a countdown to a festival. The Kpop Music Festival. In Sydney!KARA!! Hyunah!! KARA!!!!!!!!!!

Kara's Seungyeon

4minute's Hyunah

Brisbane's Esther

Anyway, I won’t be going. *frowny face*

Also, after today, there are 50 days left till the end ofthe year. But more importantly, after today, a friend of mine, Esther (middle picture) will bein Brisbane for only another 28 days. 7 days from now, it will be her farewellparty.

Well, some of those things aren’t relevant to the dateright?

Right, but they still make this a memorable day for me.

Fact is, every day is unique. We can list out a list ofinteresting thing every day, but in the end, what really matters is what we doon that day. Have we accomplished what we want to do? Are we happy with howthat day went?

It doesn’t really matter if some explorer found Hawaii 50years ago, what matters is right now.

Today is a special day. How special it is compared to thedays to come? I have no idea, but it is special to me nonetheless.

And last but not least, today is the day I end myhiatus!! As well as my 100th post in this blog. By the time the next 11.11.11 comes, this blog will be legendary

Toodles.

Of Poodles

2011-11-03T20:14:00.000-07:00

You know how we should never do things halfway? Like whenwe are telling a story to our friends, they would hate it if we just stoppedhalfway without finishing the story. That applies to our work or duties too.Nobody likes a quitter. Once we start something, we have to go through it tillthe end.

Yes, I understood what that means yesterday. Like I mentionedbefore, I am sick. So, I prescribed myself some medication, Panadol. Everysingle time I attempted to consume them, they got stuck at the back of mythroat. That, is how stopping halfway feels like. Suffocation, choking andbitterness.

The horror!

Now, I’m not a kid, I can actually swallow pillssuccessfully. But these failures to do so prompted me to think of the cause.With my awfully unique deduction skills and the slightly hurting sensation inmy throat, I postulated that my throat has swelled up and impeded theconsumption of my medicine.

I recalled the symptoms of my ailment. Fever, chills(that hiding under the blanket didn’t help), headaches, voice changes,difficulties swallowing (panadol much?) and ear pain. Well, my ears didn’texactly hurt, but I did have impaired hearing. Again, with my deduction skillsas well as the aid of my trusty sidekick, GOOGLE, I used these clues and cameto a conclusion.

*gasps* Tonsillitis *gasps*

Elementary, dear Watson. Nah, I was just scaring myself.When I’m sick, I blame everything and anything. Today could be my tonsils, andon another day, I would blame sushi. Especially those full-of-red-balls ones.

The fish roe sushi. The pieces of destruction.

I will annoy you!

I use to work in a sushi restaurant, where the king ofsushi lives. Yes, Sushi King.

Behold!

You see, I had to clean the tables once in a while and mostof the times, people who ate those pieces of destruction seems to havedestroyed their mouths and those fish eggs never fails to scatter on the table.Messiness is one thing, but fish roes are on a whole new level. Those thingsstick to the table like hair on a bar of soap. Remembering it is so frustratingis give me a headache.

Fish roes make me sick.

On another note, I think my blog will be on a hiatus for awhile until I am well again. Since I will get my writing fix another way.

RAWR means bye

Yes, I do like writing, which is why I’m blogging rightnow. My optimal preference in writing would be more novel-like since I likewriting stories when I was young. But blogging requires a different style. Afree-er style but not to my liking.

Anyhow, I’ll be back soon, hopefully.

I have the sudden urge to end things randomly.

Poodles.

Of being sick and sick of things

2011-11-02T02:47:00.000-07:00

I’m getting pretty peeved right now. All of a sudden, I’msick again. After yesterday’s late-night lab session, I felt strangely cold.Not as in emotionally cold, but physically cold. I felt the onset of fever. As Ithreaded home with a slight tremble, I was perplexed with my current condition.I should have already adapted to the changing of weather.

Perhaps those late nights in my lab finally managed topress me down. Or perhaps mental strain has dispersed into my physical body.Who knows?

Despite this, I can’t help myself from feeling relievedthat I have no exams now, or this ailment will be extremely troublesome. Don’tget me wrong, I hate being sick. I hate it so much, even more than drinkingorange juice after using mouthwash.

You know what else I’m starting to hate? Facebook. Well,not really but I have somehow gotten a glimpse on how Facebook is not actuallya social networking site. It is actually an anti-social networking site. Itgives people the impression that they are connected.

Facebook causes many things

In other words, communicating via Facebook is a shallowcommunication. Every day, we look at our screen and we like or comment on ourfriends’ statuses. Those statuses rarely contain much depth, are trivialalthough some can be considered witty. However, these interactions are rarelymemorable or life-changing. This is because Facebook is convenient. Well, convenience is good, but it comes with a cost.This convenience causes us to interact with our friends out of convenience, notbecause we want to. When we do something without the ‘want’, we often losetract on what we do. That applies here too. These convenient interactions willfail in every way to be memorable.

Because of this, Facebook becomes addictive. Why arenon-memorable interactions addictive, you ask? It is because Facebook gives usa false sense of socializing. Being active in Facebook gives us the sense of usfilling up our social bucket. But alas, it is just but a false fill. Like drinkingsalt water or digging a hole just to fill another hole. It gives a sense ofsatisfaction, but it leaves us ‘hungry’ afterwards. As we become more active,our social bucket becomes bigger and as it becomes bigger, we rely on Facebookto fill it up. Here, a vicious cycle is formed.

Addictive stuff

It is clear that Facebook activity could never replaceface to face interactions. When we have face to face interactions, we areaddressing an individual. Strange as it may seem, Facebook interactions aredifferent. You see, with Facebook, the ‘friends’ that we interact with losestheir individuality and becomes a collective.

When we post an update or a photo, who do we post it for?Which friend are we updating? Strangely, I felt that I wasn’t sharing it withanyone in particular, just with the collective community known as Facebook.When people ‘like’ our status, we have the false sense of achieving somethingbut in reality, it doesn’t really mean anything. Just think, what were the last5 things you ‘liked’ in Facebook? Can’t recall? The same thing happens to thosefriends who ‘likes’ your status. Similarly, an LOL isn’t really laughing outloud, a =) isn’t really a smile and a ***hugzzz*** isn’t really a hug.

Why would we need help connecting with people in our life?

We, or more specifically I, have become over-reliant onFacebook. It is my main method in contacting friends be it for important stuffor just to ask how are they. While there maybe genuine concern by me, my friends may not feel the same and I can’t blamethem considering how shallow Facebook has made our interactions.

All this ranting was caused by one factor. In my previouspost, I noted that I had forgotten a birthday of a good friend of mine. I realisedthat I actually had forgotten a few birthdays of theirs albeit being in a wholedifferent country. It dawned upon me how reliant I was on Facebook and how I knowthat even if I did remember their birthday, wishing them in Facebook didn’tmake much of a difference. What I really wanted to do was ask them how theyspent their birthdays and how they were getting on. A simple ‘HBD’ and a ‘like’in return wasn’t going to cut it.

So, as I continue dwelling in my sudden epiphany on mysocial life while bemused by how I’m suddenly sick, Toodles!

Of being a manly guy that trembles and cries

2011-11-01T04:03:00.000-07:00

MELBOURNE CUP!!!!!!!!

Yes, Melbourne Cup was on today. It is one of or thebiggest horse race in the world. Big as in real big, not as in the Kranji horseracing in Singapore. Great excitement was surrounding my lab especially afterthe photo finish. I was routing for Unusual Suspect just cause the name iscool. But meh.

Unusual Suspect!!

Where was I during this whole race? In the lab.

Now, with excitement and thumping of hearts all around,most of the people in my lab have gone to celebrate.

Where am I during the celebration? In the office.

Great life I have huh? Now I’m lab alone. Get it? A punfor ‘left alone’ with the ingenuity to allude to the popular movie hit ‘HomeAlone’.

Darn, people should get puns more.

So, as you can see, my life has been full of excitementrecently. Besides the fact that my previous post was a waste and I have beenrepeating my experiments for the past week, everything is going very smoothly.

That said, I’m getting pretty tired of doing so much workand not making any progress. So, as I took a stroll down UQ Lake, I took solacein the beauty of what I saw. Jacarandas. They are beautiful on the trees andthey even made the ground prettier as the petals cloak the green grass. I lovepurple by the way.

Purple beauty

Path of beauty

Emotional don’t actually mean ‘emo’ which is a popularword for teens these days. ‘Emo’ only consists of one part of being emotionalmainly specifying negative emotions. You see, emotional is defined as readilyaffected with or stirred by emotions. So, in my opinion, this trait is prettyclose to that of expressive. It means we are readily affected by our emotions.

I remember a good friend telling me that crying is not asign of weakness. Here is a video that my friend showed me.

And that, I do agree. It is a sign of being emotional. Aperson who is emotional can also be one who is easily sad, or easily laugh. Butthese aren’t limited to expression, it can also mean one may dwell on a problemor snigger at a joke much longer than those who are less emotional.

Now, anger is also an emotion.

Someone once said, when a person calls your full name,you can bet that that person is angry. Or more specifically, angry at you. Especiallyif it’s a girl. Here is an instance of that happening.

Noone knows what was coming

I shuddered. I trembled. Hard. What did I possibly do towarrant this? Fearful as I am, I pluck the lingering bits of courage I haveleft and replied. To my surprise, this was the answer.

What a relief~

Phewwwwwwwwww. As I breathe a sigh of relieve and wipedmy cold sweat from my forehead, I took solace that I know at least one personknows how to spell my full name.

I guess the full name thing wasn’t always true after all.Stereotyping is bad.

Toodles

p/s, I can't believe this, but I seem to have forgotten my good friend's birthday. I'm so very sorry.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAN ZHIQI!!!!!!!!!!

Of trying to help, but FAT chance

2011-10-30T23:58:00.000-07:00

It is Monday again! Happy Monday everyone. Somehow,things look a little gloomy on this happy Monday morning. The sky is cloudywith a chance of water and everyone is scurrying around taking their final lapof cramming this semester. Yup, no rainbows, sunshine or marshmallows today.

Like I have stressed a few times in my previous posts, I havenothing big on my plate at the moment. I do have some worrying and work piledup but they aren’t that big of a deal. Yet. So, it may not be rainbows,sunshine and lollipops, but it is pretty close. I have to be the most relaxedguy in Brisbane right now. Yes, that is an exaggeration.

For the most part of my life in Brisbane, I have beenplagued by assignments. Occasionally it would be exams, but mostly assignments.Having done my research proposal and research seminar recently, I was no longerriddled with any assignments anymore. Now, note the word ‘was’ on my previoussentence. I had been free, till yesterday.

Last night, things took a turn. A good friend of mine wasconcerned about me. She thought it would be hard for me to adapt to this suddenfreedom that I have acquired. So, she did what any friend would do. She gave mean assignment.

Well, this has failed to stress me out. Not even a singlebit. That is because this assignment won’t be graded. Well, not graded for meat least.

Now, her assignment, which I have to think of, is aboutchildhood obesity. I can’t, for the love of me, seem to remember what I was supposedto think about regarding this topic. Short term memory loss at its best here.But if I were to guess, it would be thinking of ways to overcome this problem.Knowing that she is in food science, the solution she wants should have somethingto do with food I guess. So, asking kids to exercise as their daily routine orincorporating ‘senaman’ every morning in school will be out of the list.

Regarding food and obesity in serving food for kids, hereare a few ground rules I can think of:-

1. Limit consumption of sodasand juices with added sugar.

2. Reduce serving foods thatcontain added sugars and fats

3. Encourage children to eatmore fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean proteins.

4. Limit portions served tochildren.

5. Encourage children to drinkmore water.

6. Serve low-fat or non-fatdairy products.

7. Replace ice cream andchocolates with fruit shakes.

In summary, hire JamieOliver.

The complete package

The above is fine and dandy and all, but I have anotherapproach. Fighting poison with poison, fire with fire, into the frying pan, outof the fire type of approach.

Eat more fats.

Yes, you heard it right the first time.

I propose children’s diet to contain like 10% of carbs, 10%of protein and the rest on FAT.

Now now, don’t close this blog yet, hear me out first. I’mnot just spouting random crap and even if I did, you shouldn’t leave this blog.Life gives us crap sometimes, but that doesn’t mean we can just close the window,no?

Pardon me, I digressed. You see, the fuel for our body isglucose or fat. If our body gets used to using glucose and when we run out ofglucose, it will take protein either from food or our muscles and convert theminto glucose. What we want to do, is conditioning our body to be used to usingfat as energy source instead.

With a high fat diet, our body will recognise fat as themain source of energy. Thus, for energy, it will choose to use dietary fats orour body fats.

Furthermore, when we consume carbs or protein, anythingexcess will be converted into fat as storage. This is because the usage ofproteins and carbs as energy source leads to the increase in insulin which isresponsible for the storage of fat. Fat, on the other hand, gives your bodyenergy and it doesn’t cause the increase in insulin. Fat also makes you feelfuller compared to carbs or protein, thus it will less likely lead toovereating.

Perfect, no? Eat more fat to be less fat.

Sometimes, fat even comes for free!

If all else fail, throw all your food to your friendbeside you. Let your friend get fat instead of you.

That's what friends are for

Seems to work for Timon, huh?

Toodles~

Disclaimer: I hold no responsibility in the advice that Ihave given especially on the fatty food part.

P/s, Esther, I doubt this will help you much since I forgotwhat you asked me to do, so, maybe you could reiterate it to me. Laughed out loud.

Of being deep in thoughts and joining the emo trend

2011-10-24T22:32:00.000-07:00

Kitty in deep thoughts

Again, I had written an extremely long post that actuallyhas deep thoughts for once but my laptop overheated again. I wish Optimus Primewould go disturb other laptops. How about those Macs that everyone seems to betalking about? That post I have written was about to be one of my longest postin this blog. Seriously. Now, I am too lazy to regurgitate those thoughts I hadat that time. Inspiration only knocks once in a while. And when you lost it, itis gone, until you see it again, it is different. It is like dropping a grapeand it rolled under your refrigerator. 20 years later, when you move yourrefrigerator, you find a raisin and think, “Why is there a raisin here? I DON’Teat raisins, wait….”

I wish my ideas were this abundant

Yes, the grape is like my blog idea, but since I havelost it, even if I can still remember it, it is all dried up and I doubt anyonewould eat the raisin, huh? If you would eat it, I think you need to seesomeone.

It is exam season for everyone else and they all seemstressed. I have no exams coming and I sincerely thought stress wouldn’t bewith me this time. Boy, was I wrong! My project isn’t going as smoothly as I thoughtand things a failing. Bad. Well, it is not like this will decide if I fail orpass my Honours, so I shouldn’t be that bothered about it. Unlike those takingtheir make-or-break or GPA7-or-Super-High-Distinction-GPA9000 deciding exams, Ilook to be in a better position huh? So, I resolve not to show too much unhappinessabout my project.

Even my blog lacks the cheery feeling compared to the onebefore. Yes, to those who are slightly less observant, I changed my bloglayout. I don’t blame you for not noticing, it was, after all just a few subtlechanges. You see, I felt that the previous blog title has the word ‘childish’and despite disagreements by others, I don’t think that word fits me anymore.

That is mainly because recently, I have quite a number ofdeep thoughts. It is not like I rarely ‘think’, it is that my recent thoughtsare more grown up that my previous ones. Previously, my thoughts consists ofquestions like ‘are oranges named after the colour or is the colour orangenamed after the fruit’ or discovering that eggs are the chicken’s version ofmenses.

You'll never see this in the same way ever again

But now, I started thinking more about my future, many thanksto recent discussions that I had to sit in. It made me question various eventsin my past, of things that I should or shouldn’t have let go. With a flush of emotions,I realised that I may have yet to put down these burden of memories of my past,I just got too used to carrying them. Somehow, I felt that the only way thiscan be resolved only when I’m back in my home country about half a year fromnow.

So, in meantime, I should use my time in thinking aboutstuff that are actually useful to the rest of the world, like politics perhaps?

Calvin learnt things the hard way

Or preparing myself for the future?

Be prepared, really prepared

Gotta get some of those, soon.

So, for now, I’m changing my thoughts. Here is somethingto think about.

Below are the fossilized formsof some Old English words:-
Swim, Swam, Swum
Sing, Sang, Sung

Now imagine and figure out...
What the Present Continuous and alternative Past formof the word SHUT would be?

Toodles.

Of not typing this the way i want to

2011-10-16T16:41:00.000-07:00

I haven’t been posting in my blog recently. Some may haveguessed or assumed that I was on a hiatus due to the current season ofexamination. Wrong. I do not have any exam, HAH! But my lack of activity herewas due to another season, SUMMER.

Evidently, I did write up a post last week but because I hada couple of other engagements, I delayed in posting it up. So, how does itrelate to summer? You see, my laptop tends to overheat at times and to savevarious organs of it from melting, it shuts down. AUTOMATICALLY. It’s likeOptimus Prime saying, “Shut down, AUTOmatically.” This doesn’t happen toooften, but due to the crazy summer weather recently, my laptop gets hot easierthan per normal. *Insert frowny face here*

So there, my ~~excuse~~ reason for not being active here.

My original post was supposed to be an emotional one. Itis to continue the trend of emo postsfrom various blogs of other friends. But because of that mishap I mentionedabove, I feel appalled trying to regurgitate all those emo-filled memories.

Nonetheless, this post will be special too. Maybe notspecial to you, but to me.

Just a short update, I’m generally recovered of therecent plagued that has haunted me for a couple of weeks, I’ve done my researchproposal seminar albeit not as smoothly as I hoped and realised that despitethinking that bad things are happening to me recently, they aren’t as bad as I thoughtonce I actually sat down and think about them.

I think I better end this extremely short post as I havea feeling Optimus Prime is trying to contact my laptop again.

So, what is so special about this post, you say? I’m inmy lab now, lacking the memory to bring my keyboard to school. No, not themusic keyboard. My laptop has a defective keyboard, thus it requires temporarytransplantation of a new one. Since its prosthetic organ is absent today, I’musing another alternative.

Best thing ever~

An on-screen keyboard. Think, how hard was it to type outthis post, and be happy and amazed that I managed to actually write it. If you’renot amazed, try it. It is tough.

Toodles.

Of Decisions, Dilemmas and DOLPHINS

2011-09-25T21:06:00.000-07:00

Decisions decisions. Things I have to make too many timesin my life. I’m bad at making decisions. Very bad.

Thus, it explains why I am extremely troubled right now.I am in a dilemma. Deep dilemma.

A dilemma occurs when I have to make a decision betweenseveral choices, all of which isn’t exactly desirable. That, or I happen to bein a difficult and perplexing situation.

Now, it is the mid-term holidays. At least for most of myfriends. Which ultimately excludes me. You see, several of my friends were planningon a day trip on the Wednesday of the ‘holiday’ week. I heard the plan was togo to a strawberry farm. That is fine and dandy and all, until they decided toscrap that plan. Heck, they’ll go for the jugular and go feed dolphins instead.

This is where the problem arises. I easily stated myintentions of not attending the day trip when the plan was for the strawberryfarm. I had no particular interest in strawberries. I had my reasons for notgoing too, which I will state later. Anyway, strawberries, meh, Dolphins aredifferent.

Cuteness overload!!!

I like dolphins. They are like full of FUN. And cute too.Don’t you like dolphins? I think everyone should like dolphins. Cute andshark-defeating. They are like the dogs or the underwater world.

Anyway, now I really want to attend this day trip. Butsomehow, the day of the trip happens to be the day the report I have beenworking on for 10 weeks is due. Actually, I have been working on it for only 4weeks, but I was supposed to work onit for 10 weeks. But doing that wouldn’t be FUN huh?

You know what FUN is?

The current status of my report has its own problems too.See, my supervisor is currently holding my draft, impending me from completingit any faster that I want to. Well, my report is submission-ready as of now,but not good-marks-ready.

I highly doubt my supervisor can revise my draft beforethe dateline and I am contemplating if I should just get ready to submit mycurrent inferior report or continue to wait for my supervisor’s response. Icould however, go against my direct supervisor’s direction and send it to the ‘bigsupervisor’ for feedback and brace myself for an impending storm.

Anyway, enough updates on my life and back to the topicof dilemma.

I seriously can’t decide if I should get a Paul’s Just Natural: Iced Coffee or a Paul’s Just Natural: Chocolate Malt andHoney.

I hate dilemmas, don’t you?

Toodles.

Of language and the barriers it causes

2011-09-23T08:17:00.000-07:00

It is apparent that my whim of supporting my good friend,Esther by entertaining her through blog posts was pretty short-lived. There isa proverb in Malay that goes, “Hangat-hangat tahi ayam.” I am reluctant toexplain the meaning but I will anyway, since I want people to learn new thingsthrough my blog. The proverb directly translate to, “As hot as a chicken’sexcrement/discharge goes.”

Well, as some may or may not know, a chicken’s excrementtend to be very hot the moment it comes out of the chicken. But the heat won’tlast very long. So there, try to connect the meaning yourself. I refuse toliken my situation to chicken poop anymore.

It baffles me how people can think up of such proverbs. Granted,that example was a Malay proverb, but English isn’t so fine and dandy as youthink.

Disagree? Let’s see.

I’m sure most of you heard of Humpty Dumpty before. Whatis the first thing that comes to mind when you picture Mr. Dumpty?

Egg?

Egg??

C’mon, admit it, you always thought he was an egg. Now, let us see the rhyme again.

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men,

Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

See? There is nothing that says Mr. Dumpty was an egg.ENGLISH.

Irrelevant you say? This is nothing. This is just the tipof the iceberg.

I think is it over-interesting

I have much more where that came from. *Takes a deeeeeeepbreath*

See what i mean?

There is no egg in eggplant.

A pineapple ain't a pine nor is it an apple.

Quicksand actually works pretty slowly.

Boxing rings are not rings at all, they aresquare!

Even the animal namings are messed up. Bad.

Seen a Guinea Pig? It's not a pig nor does it comefrom Guinea. Its a rodent.

By right, the young of a kangaroo should be calleda rooster but they had to call it a Joey. The young of a rooster is called achick even though it is a male.

One goose, two geese. One moose? Two meese?

And chickens go,"Pork, pork."

Sometimes, English plays around with word thatconfuses people. For what reason, nobody knows? Just to torture us, maybe?

You see, in what language dopeople recite at a play and play at a recital?

Or ship by a truck and send cargo by a ship?

How about having noses that run and feet thatsmell?

Parking at driveways and driving at parkways?

Good Lord, the contradictions are stupendous.

A wise man and a wise guy have opposite meanings.

But a fat chance and a slim one have the exactsame meaning.

How can the weather be hot as hell one day andcold as hell on another?

The human race isn't really a race at all.

So, Esther, your Facebookfasting is about to be over. I hope this post can fulfil my aim of entertainingyou but if you read it after your fast is over, too bad.

Now, for one last Englishmess-up,

“When I wind up my watch, Istart it. But when I wind up this post, it ends.”

Which I will wind up right now.

Toodles.