Thursday, December 28, 2006

On the same ride?

Well dun want to say too much, but workwise, there has been a realignment of vision etc etc blah blah b4 the official holidays. Then the final punchline is something like 'you r on the same ride or get a different ride'.

I dun know about you,

but I get this feeling that this type of line, you are implying some 'threat'. And wat type of response do u want from us? I mean some of us are new, so are bonded, those are older, have settled into and depend on the income for their families, and those looking forward to pension n retirement. Wat can one say?

"Yar lemme get on a different ride cos urs not that great or inspiring, esp with that line."

Well I'll am riding nowhere, can only think about my ride after my bond. Hope to ride the wave into somewhere else nearer n with more prospects. ______________________________________________________

On to happier things, yep after the long meeting, finally shifted my stuff to a new place. There goes my original cosy n peaceful corner. BUT thankfully I got a nice spacious n also cosy place. So after 5pm, I left n headed to a nearby shopping centre. I went there to buy 2 packs of paper n a year-plan book.

On my walk, I hopped into Comic Connection and bought the following....



"Bubububububububububub!!' (My name is Monoko, from Magic Rayearth n Tsubasa!)

Haha a damn cute anime character that I am very into for a few years liao. Liked it ever since Magic Rayearth came out years back.

Even in maple, my favourite line is "bubu"

It can be a noun "You are a bubu."

A verb "What are u bubuing about?"

A adjective "You are a bubu person."

Start a sentence "Bubu, how are you?"

End a sentence "Stupid death teddy, bubu."

Nice word, let us all rejoice and cry "bubu!" at the top of our lungs.

Anyway the other item is Trinity Blood Artbook for $14 bucks. A steal.
Its a hot anime that is very gothic, ie vampires vs priest. And the good guy also have a vampire. Nice gothic art. For 84 pages of pure art illustrations, its a steal. There are some very nice pictures.


Male lead _ Abel (priest) Abel (Vampire hunter mode)


Ester (female sidekick) Err forgot her name (vampire)

Well these 2 purchases made me Very happy. Haha hopefully more happier things come my way.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

The Flood

Ever since last tuesday, there has been news about flooding in parts of Msia.

Ironically IF I had continued with my stuggle with BM, I would still be in Segamat then and would have encountered the flood. The house my brother stayed at was not affected at all, but the 1-storey house that my mom's friend stayed at was fully-submerged. That part of the town was half-submerged, meaning those shops on the ground floor were partially submerged from last tuesday to about thursday. Kinda sad to hear about that but thankful that me n my mom had come out earlier. Cos even the railway station was underwater, hence if we had hung around, we would be stranded there until the flood subsided.

My mom's friend n her father are now staying in the house she rented to my brother. The flood waters have subsided and there is the unsavourly task of salvaging the water-logged home. My bro complained to me via maple that he had to scrub n clean alot of stuff and carry lots of heavy stuff.

Incidentally my brother claims Maple saved his life....? Well he said that day the flood strucked, he had wanted to drive into town to jalan jalan, but in the end, he deferred due to Maple. Oh well dunno about that.

Then my dad's hometown, Muar is also in the news for the flood. Its about 30km from Segamat and there is a common river running through. Luckily the area we stayed at was not flooded, ie the town area was not flooded, only in certain ulu areas. My dad wanted to go back and we tried to talk him out of it but he would not listen, suddenly becoming a know-it-all. Later after much persuasion, he decided to call home to check the situation. It seems water supply was cut and so he finally decided to postpone his trip until water supply resumes.

Funny thing is both towns never made it into the news for any other reasons. Not particularly famous or anything. I always encounter uncomprehending looks whenever I mention their names. Most pple really dun know about them. Suddenly both are in the news, making headlines, registering in pples' heads. Ironic.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

"Its your attitude"

Ever since sunday, after the bloody long lecture and the prospect of studying that mcq, I have been in a rather foul mood. Its more of being irritated n frustration. Doesnt help that my mum who is along with the trip doesnt understand why I was in a foul mood. Try studying or making sense of something that is Greek, see whether u are in foul mood or not. Hence whenever she tries to say something abt the test, it ends up in some sort of an argument, a short one cos I just clamp up after a few sentences, no point arguing, but it just leaves me in an even-more foul mood.

It has been repeating yesterday Day 1 and today Day 2. My angsty disposition has receeded somewhat but somewhat flares up whenever she approaches the bloody topic with no solution. Just want to talk about it but I dun want to talk about it. Just broaching the subject makes me sick.

Again, this morning a repeat of broaching the subject.

"Dunno why are u so moody abt it?"

"Cos the whole bloody world thinks that I can finish learning the dmn thing within 4 days when I dun know a word at all"

"Well dun compare yourself to other pple. You have a year to finish right, what is the rush? Its your attitude that is more impt..."

"............" (signz)

I so am not going to open my mouth, just went back to the computer and continue to translate word-by-word.

Try most people in a similar situation, I bet most would have given up or thrown the book in the rubbish n fish the test, or burn the book or just cant be freaking bothered. I am human and those thoughts did pass through my head. The futility of this stupid course of action is really getting to me. So far I have finished another 3 qns, but some have so many missing words that I cant make any sense of both the qn & answers. Its all gibberish. Ask you, how to learn and study?

Only 1 thing left to say.......................

"FUCK everything lah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Later I be going to maple to destress.

Lament of the BM

As a continuation of the previous post, today was into Day 1 of the 'just-mugging' of the 500 mcq questions. I skipped those with pictures n diagrams and was left with a hefty 330 in pure sentences. SHIT!

The day before I was so pissed and frustrated cos I looked thru n it was really like looking at Greek. Tat I mapled and watched Dvd late into the night before I feel normal again. F*(&#$ tat test in bm, u think all malaysians know bm meh. So last night I was running thru my mind the options left to me. There are only a few- 1) translate every single word in those 330qns then mug for the test, but dunno will take me how long, using a Malay-Eng dicitionary (2) Pay money for someone to press the test for me and pass (3) fucking just give up the test and forfeit it and wait for an English version to come out in god-knows how many years later, then take the damn thing. Personally I prefer no 3.

Anyway given the pressure from mom and her friend cos this trip for me was to so-call learn driving, this afternoon, I started on plan 1. I kapoed 2 malay-eng dictionary to try to translate some qns.

Guess what?

In one bloody qn alone, half the words cant be found and its taking a god-damn long time to look thru manually the dictionaries for words.

You know wat's the best part?

After translating half the question, I found out it was an easy qn, so fucking easy no-brainer! I go thru so much crap just to translate such a no-brainer, after 2 qns, it left me fuming. Gave up. NOT efficient.

After a bathe to cool down, I went to the internet to look for a Malay-English translator online. Managed to find one and started again, keying in every word tat I do not know (which is actually 97%). Again many words turned up blank, but at least it was faster. Finished a total of 15qns before 6pm, when I decided to just maple instead.

Great..... just another 315 qns more to go. Yar I have a year to finish the theory n practical. Guess if I really go abt this crazy plan, I would take about that long.

Wondering why am I suffering so much grief when it is supposedly my bloody precious holiday! A time to enjoy myself n recharge b4 the next hectic year in morning session.

So again after those 15 qns, feel kinda pissed off, though not as much as yesterday that I mapled and then am watching dvd right now. That explains this late post.

For now, see how things go... Without any useful and efficient help, I am going nowhere except continue on translating with that website and maybe ask my youngest sister for some words cos she took malay I & II at university. I tried and couldnt get the Malay course. Cant blame me for not trying then. Every year cross-fac cant get it. My sis got it cos by then it changed to balloting system. Screw that older system too. Could have suffered less grief if I had some knowledge. For now my only bm options are translating n slowly picking up some words as I proceed along at a snail's pace. Great.......... just great.........

Sunday, December 10, 2006

F*ck that test lah!!!

K I just came back from a gruelling 8hr lecture at the driving centre. Went there around 8am and all the way until 4.35pm, all in BM some more, u say leh. Just kinda pissed off at the moment.

Why?

Firstly the lecturers, both chinese middle-aged men, loved their own voice in BM. Talk non-stop, talk abt crap examples etc and drag and drag. Imagine one ppt slide took 20mins. Get the point. No flexibility to reduce the content when we were already running severely late due to computer glitches which caused a 2hr delay. Where lunch was supposedly 1hr, turned to 2hrs plus of which we were doing nothing at all. Talk about Msia Boleh. With this type of 'efficiency', Boleh my ass.

Next entire thing in BM, of which I know enough words to count with fingers of both hands... Then saw the booklet for the 500mcq qns. Guess what, 170 of it had pictures, 330 of it are in pure BM sentences. U tell me how to 'memorise' when firstly I dont understand what they are asking and secondly I dont know what the answers mean. At least with the pictures and road signs, I can guess the meaning by looking at some key words... So u tell me how to pass the test? Kinda pissed off. There lies the dilemna, either piah it (which I dun know how at the moment) or throw in kopi-money and cheat or just give up and wait for the english version of the test (which dunno would take how many goddamn years) F*ck them lah. The fact is I have been reading the spore version of the test and know most of the stuff, its the language barrier tat my mom's friend thinks is 'so' easy to overcome. Duh if I could learn BM in 4 days, I would have done that earlier. ##&$^*&%^ *HUGE SIGN*

Now I am just too pissed and tired from the damn bloody long day and sian from that 330qns. I looked through it during the lecture and seriously its frustrating when you dun know what they are asking when u do have some knowledge. And I am not in the MOOD right now to take out the Malay-English dictionary to try to translate 330qns by next thursday.

"Just memorise a 100qns a day" my mom's friend says. A few days earlier. Fish that too.

I am just going to maple around 6pm later until 10pm. Not going to even think about it. Fish the system. Boleh my ass, is all I've got to say.

Saturday, December 09, 2006

The Drivng Challenge? Will I survive to get a L-plate?

Hi to all from msia. As mentioned in the earlier post, I am currently in Msia, ie my mom's hometown to learn driving. Currently staying with my brother hence have internet connection.

There have been some major changes to the msia driving test in recent years due to the 'kopi-money' type of license, where bribery can get u a driving license. So this is wat I found out yesterday.... bubu

To get through the THEORY stage:

One has to sit thru an 8-hr lecture all in BM (bahasa malay)

then study 500 mcq qns all in BM, of which a computerised test of 50qns all in BM (apparently no Eng program)

and if one survived and passed,

sit through anther 3hr of theory in BM

all before one is allowed to start learning to drive.

There is only one tiny little, itisy bitsy problem here. I dun freaking hell speak one word of BM!!! Mugging 500 qns in english is not tat difficult. BUT 500 qns all in BM and their answers in BM too is just pushing it a bit too far. Apparently this was implemented recently, hence english versions of the test are not available. Allah help me.... duh....

Try memorizing something in jap while not knowing a word of the language..... =Q=

Nvm the plan is for me to attend the bloody 8hr lecture in BM this sunday. So I'll bring Grey along and do the 'lin hun chu qiao' (body there, mind fly off, zen thingy) =Q= *vomit blood* Only after that will I receive a set of the mcq to mug.... then anytime ready, sit for the comp test...

"Oh it wont be too hard, just mug a 100 qns a day" says my mum's friend.
"..... (try doing that for an equivalent jap test when u dun bloody know the language)"
some pple best keep their thoughts to themselves... Will be busy after sunday i supposed.

In the meantime, I am enjoying my last free time until then. Err more updates later on.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Going back to Msia for Driving... bubu

In another 5.5hrs, I have to drag my sorry ass up from bed and hop down to the Tanjong Pagar Rail Station to take an express train heading to Segamat.

The reason?

To take some driving there. Given I have about 3 weeks more, it will be intensive. The plan is to first pass the theory, which one segment of explaination is in malay, the rest in english, and then get some hands-on driving. At most if cant finish, will break it into 2 trips over a year. Hopefully will be able to drive, I wonder whose car?

Anyway IF I got a licence, I still have to convert through some complicated procedure. Wat the heck, will consider that when I have PASSED the darn thing first.

Yar IF you have noticed, there is some changes to this blog, to usher in another year...
(NOOOOOOOO holidays dun end.........)

and

that is the PRIMARY reason why I am still up at this hour. Fixing up the coding, trying to paste here and there and preview. Given I do not know html, I cant seem to put tat slideshow at my sidebar (the command is and , how to put it more to the right??? Help?) Need some encoding help to fix it at the sidebar so the blog dun look so funny. Also need some help for Free Music to host on blog, so that I can put nice mp3 or midi into the blog. (Help needed for yahoo search, my searches didnt turn up any)

As for the unfinished portion, I'll work on that when I reach my bro's place. Hmm I've got about 1k of ringgit to spend, dunno if I'll be able to. How did I get so much? Well its like leftover from previous trips accumulated plus I xchange 500rm recently in view of driving lessons. Well the main reason I cant spend it is cos I cant smuggle anime out, so no point buying and hence saving alot of ringgit. Hmm if its 1k of Sing, dun mind leh, but its not. Maybe go 'qia' my bro and mom's friends, say is give treat for job lor. Find excuse to spend. Bubu.