Kevin's 21st

I first started writing this blog entry about 3 months ago but never gotten around to finishing it till now. I promised I'd post a blog about Kevin's birthday, here it finally is.  Sorry for being 3 months late, birthday boy. Happy (very) belated birthday. ILY.

I'm a strong believer of big dates like anniversaries and birthdays. Even more so if it's the year one officially turns into an adult.

You know what I'm talking about.

The big Two. One.

3 weeks of planning/organizing for Kevin's 21st birthday (plus keeping it a secret from him).

Pictures galore!

First, turn up the music.

Next, feed the guests.

When nobody's noticing, sneak away and let them feed themselves instead.

So if they burn the food, it's none of my problem, right?

Happy and satisfied guests:

The birthday boy is happy as well!

OMG what is he doing??

The partay suite.

They forced me to.

OMG.

Ugh.

What's wrong with this picture?

Why, it's the birthday boy wearing my shirt!

Epic.

It's his birthday, not mine. I don't know why I was dragged into this.

Leslie, you're da man.

Poker face.

Abrupt end.

Wanted to hear all about my US endeavors but disappointed that you got this instead?

Sorry guys, had a tiring (but fun and might I add, educational) day at Washington DC today, and first day of work tomorrow. Tired max.

Will update again soon.

Rachel out. 

FML.

''Today, I woke up and looked in the mirror and noticed that my face was covered in glitter. I asked my wife about it and she said she put it on me while I was sleeping so that I would sparkle like Edward from Twilight when I'm in the sunlight. FML''

-FML website-

So it's my third day in the US now. So much to tell, so little enthusiasm.

Where shall I start?

I know this blog entry should probably warrant hordes of photos, but I still haven't gotten around to transferring the photos from my camera yet.

You know I'm always lazy when it comes to things like that.

So the day before I flew off, on the 20th of May, Little Grass celebrated my birthday with me at Timbre!!

Photos galore!!!

Not.

Okay, okay I'll upload them once I get around to transferring them onto the computer.

(Oops, it's already May, my birthday has come and gone, and I still haven't gotten around to uploading/blogging about Kevin's birthday party. I shall do both events in one blog post. Some time in the future. I'll do it, promise.)

So this entry isn't really about my birthday (as mentioned, I shall do a separate one for that later); it's about my horrifying Journey To The West.

So.

I flew from Singapore Changi Airport to Malaysia's LCCT at 1 p.m.. Transferred to KLIA, and took a flight back t o Changi Airport at 9 p.m.. Slept at the airport, and then took a flight from Changi Airport to Narita Airport (Tokyo, Japan) at 6 a.m..Took another damn long flight from Narita Airport to Detroit Metro Airport. Then, finally, internal flight from Detroit to Richmond, Virginia.

If you have noticed, please don't ask me why I had to fly from Singapore to Malaysia and back to Singapore again. In short, it was cheaper that way.

Entire trip took me 40 hours, a sore throat, chapped lips, and awfully dry and peeling skin.

Not to mention, constipation and feeling fat from sitting around all day eating plane food.

Can you believe that throughout the entire journey, I didn't even watch one single plane movie. Not even one.

They had such a wide range of selection of really, really good movies that I always wanted to watch but didn't have the chance to! I don't know how I missed it. I kept telling myself "I'll watch it later, I have a looong flight," and before I knew it, we were landing already.

I lost my glasses in the process. I was sleeping in the plane and when I woke, my glasses were no where to be found.

FML.

I tried to go to the optometrist at Walmart, but the lady said I needed a prescription from an eye doctor, who charges ridiculously, considering it's just a simple eye check-up and prescription. Not that I blame the doc, I've heard that medical charges are expensive like that in the US. Further more, after getting the prescription, I still need to pay a separate amount for a pair of glasses.

So for the rest of this entire US trip, I shall be depending solely on my contact lenses alone. FML. 

And then, if that isn't bad enough, when we arrived at Detroit, I retrieved my luggage bag only to find that the zipper lock was no where to be found and the zipper was slightly open.

I did a quick check on my things inside, but I didn't realize anything was missing until I checked into my dormitory, where I realized my pouch that contains RM 500 was missing. FML MAX.

Seriously, man. Could this trip get ANY worse.

I was in a horribly foul mood for the rest of the day in the US.

Come 2nd day, I felt much better. Visited Walmart. Had our first decent meal in a Chinese restaurant. So much for flying all the way to the west, just to eat something that could easily be found back home. Irony much?

Bought groceries, and ingredients for a homemade sandwich.

Apparently, there isn't any food establishments open around this area at night (except for Burger King which is open during the day but is horribly expensive and is about a 10 minute walk away - you know how much I hate walking) so we either starve or make our own food.

Most people cook here, but you know my thoughts on the ratio of time spent preparing the food to the time spent eating it. It's value is never larger than 0.5.

So today was spent procrastinating around, and before I knew it, it's already midnight.

I guess that's all for today... Except for the part where this stupid Ang Moh lady pissed me off.

But I'm not in the mood to rant right now, so I shall leave it for another day.

Boy, do I have lots to blog about. I think I'll have to make a list:

1. Blog about Kevin's birthday and my birthday celebration.
2. The incident where the Ang Moh lady pissed me off.
3. Another separate blog entry dedicated to photos taken so far on this trip.
4. Not about blogging, but it's related: Upload photos onto Facebook!!

I know this blog entry isn't much (probably bored you off halfway through) but I am not in the mood right now. Wit zero. Creativity zero. Inspiration zero.

Hence this shitty and crappy stuff. 

21.

"Finally 21, and legally able to do everything I've been doing since 15."

~ Anonymous

Iiiiiit'sss...

My.

Birthday!

Not just any ordinary birthday, but the day I officially turn 21.

You got that right, adults who think you can show me no respect but on the other hand expect me to respect you just because y'all older than me.

I am officially an adult, just like all of you, and regardless of age, I expect to be given the same respect as everyone else.

If you haven't noticed, society doesn't put much emphasis on age, as much as they do on capabilities and self-worth.

Whatever. At least now I get the chance to show no respect to lil' kids.


*Okay, okay. Kidding.*

Aaaaanddd...

My exam is finally OVER OVER OVER. I cannot reiterate enough on how awful the past few days were. Worst. Exam. Experience. Ever.

Probably (mostly) due to the fact that I didn't study at all, and did last minute cramming (which honestly, seldom works, unless you're a super genius) which was horrid coz then I got panic attacks (yes, literally) which made me unable to study. An experience so horrifying that I can find no suitable words to describe the trauma I've been through (okay, maybe being a lil too dramatic here but you get my point).

AAAAANNNDD...

Off I fly to the United States of Amewikka in about another 30 hours!

See you soon!

XOXO

Domus

Okaaayy so late last year, a few friends and I teamed up for a coffee shop design competition. Incentive? Best design wins an iPad.

Too bad we didn't win in the end.

So here's our design. Did we deserve not to win? You tell me . =/

‘I mean, it’s true that many developing countries end up losing their talent, but really, some of these countries bloody well deserve to lose them.’

-Shaun Tan, The Migrant's Eye-

You know, with the current issue of Malaysia's brain drain and all, I thought I'd blog a little about it too. (Also because I'm so damn fed up of studying for my exam this Tuesday... ZzZzZ)

Where shall I start?

I guess I'll start with myself. So. Do I see myself as brain draining from Malaysia? Yes.

Why so?

Let's be honest. I know I'm definitely not the best out there, but I am at least, one of the better ones, the more educated and knowledgeable ones that Malaysia would need to keep it's economy going. (orsomethingalongthatline).

And I'm happy that I'm not allowing my bright and useful brain go to waste in a country like Malaysia.

You know, I'm kinda glad that I came to Singapore. Of course, there'd be lots of other more patriotic smartasses like me who decides to stay in Malaysia, and it wouldn't make much of a difference whether I stayed or not, but I'd like to think of it this way: "Malaysia, you don't deserve my smart brain and I've left the country for good. I know one less knowledgeable person in your country probably won't make much of a difference to you, but I'm glad that I'm gone coz regardless, nothing can change the fact that you lost me."

So why did I leave Malaysia in the first place? Well, the main reason would have to be because I wanted to give myself a quality education, and I didn't think I'd find one like that in Malaysia. I wouldn't know how true it is because I myself have never studied in a Malaysian university before, but what I've heard from people is that they don't have to study that hard and play all day and at the end of the day still graduate with flying colors. Now, I wouldn't want to graduate or receive my degree from a university like that, would you?

Furthermore, what with the ridiculous race quota and local universities giving admission to less academically talented Malays at the expense of more academically talented Chinese and Indians - that's just bullshit.

You know the article from New York Times featuring Yours Truly, published several months back? Well, yeah, it had some truth to it, but the reporter who interviewed me didn't publish the complete truth about it.

Sure, I wanted to leave Malaysia because *insert reasons stated in NYT article*, but in addition, I also wanted to leave because Malaysia. Is. A. Racist. Country.

I wonder why the reporter didn't include that in her article. I remember explicitly spelling that out to her. I guess she just didn't wanna raise any sensitive issues that might get NYT into trouble with Malaysia?

Sure, some of you ignorant ones would call me ungrateful, but that's your loss. I got my chance at improving my quality of life, and I took it. Besides, I don't see anything that I can be grateful for. Malaysia has never treated me like a real Malaysian citizen before.

As a friend told me, "Most countries have policies that protect its minority. Malaysia is the only country I have heard who protects its majority and neglects its minority."

I wonder when Malaysia will realize of it's ignorance and start treating Chinese and Indians as equals.

Enough of that. Sure, I could rant all day long about how much I hate my country and much rather be a foreigner in Singapore, but I still have my examinations on Tuesday.

I'll conclude with ten things I'd hate to say goodbye to in Malaysia:

1. JJ and Ean from Hitz.fm. No matter where I go, Hitz.fm will always be my favorite radio station, JJ and EAn will always be my favorite radio DJ's, and I'd always find a way to listen to them no matter where I am.
2. My comfy home in Penang.
3. Corruption (I know it's morally and politically bad, but it benefits me coz I get to pay my way out of trouble). Honest cops annoy the hell out of me. Just accept my 50 Ringgit and pretend I didn't speed. Now, is that so hard?
4. Delicious Penang food.
5. Mamak stalls.
6. Pirated DVD's, pirated computer games, pirated video games!
7. err... (Relatively) cheaper real estate property?
8. A (relatively) more conservative society/community?
9. Old skool friends!
10. Hilarious politicians.

I guess as much as I hate the country itself, I still like some of the stuff in it.

Will I say goodbye forever? That depends. My parents are there and they don't seem to be keen on moving elsewhere anytime soon, so well...

delicious cash

"You just never give up and never get enough... too much."

-JacQ, Facebook-

For some reason, I find that I like this picture a lot.

I don't know why.

I had something else I wanted to blog about earlier, but it slipped my mind as soon as I clicked on the "New post" tab. =(

Exam is coming in 6 days, and I am so unprepared. Not the kind of unprepared-ness that geniuses moan about because they have finished eating up all their lecture notes but not their textbooks, but the kind where you have not attended lectures for over a month and still have no idea what the 2nd half of the course is about. This kind of unprepared-ness make all my previous exam woes seem like *nithing*.

For some reason, I have given up entirely on my passion for studying, and all I want is just to graduate as soon as possible and start making myself some delicious cash.

And to think just about a year ago, I thought to myself "4 years of uni life is too short! I wanna be a uni student forever!"

I wonder what changed me.