4 days of the past

If I had the sands of time, I'd rewind time all the way back to my days as a tertiary student. As it turned out, I didn't actually any magical time-altering sands after all.

A time warp happened! There was a crack in time and I was somehow transported to an alternate plane where my brothers didn't part ways once we finished college, but instead stayed together in a wonderful villa located in a resort in Malacca!

Note: Some parts of the above paragraph may, or may not be totally true.

It was a glorious 4 day trip down the memory lane. Being there with every one, (well, most of us at least) it felt like nothing had changed at all. I mean, it's not like any of us got married or going to have children soon or anything like that, right? Riiiii~iiiight~

The Seng still totally loves to eat

Being a game enthusiast I am, there's no beating having a group of players in front of the screen at the same time, laughing our heart out, and occasionally spewing obscenities (not me, I'm a good kid, I am).

My brothers in arms

Despite some shortcoming (we only had 2 screens and consoles) and we couldn't play all the games we wanted, great time was had. By the way, if we're ever to do this again, I'd totally get Rock Band again =D

1Malaysia? Forget about it. We went above and beyond that. We are Family.

Q4 Shopping List

As the year comes close to a a close, the games are coming in droves! Even with me having much more buying power than I did the same time last year I couldn't possibly afford to buy everything I want within these few months. See, there's a set of games that I want to buy just so I could play with my posse at our year-end gathering (which is only for a few days) and then there's a whole different set that I personally, really, want to play. Here's what's in the list for now, but I might change it later according to my financial standings... (note: the list only consists of games releasing before 31/12/09)

Gathering

1. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
2. Borderlands (will buy regardless)
   
3. Band Hero (maybe)
4. Guitar Hero: Metallica (depends)
   
5. A brand new screen!
   

Personal - these are games that I will definitely get

1. Modern Warfare 2
2. Forza Motorsports 3
3. Dragonage: Origins
4. Assassins's Creed 2
5. Alpha Protocol
6. Brutal Legends
   

Actually, doesn't seem like that many things now that I listed it that way...but I still haven't calculated how much I'd need to spend for all those.

Regardless, I expect it to be a somewhat hefty sum, but not a necessarily ludicrous one either. I was also planning to get my hands on another Playstation 3 soon but it looks like that plan will have to be put on hold till next year.

[Edit] Somewhow forgot about Brutal Legends. That game wasn't very strong in my list anyways, but I am really interested in the fiction. And then there's Tekken 6, which for me is a maybe

Mata Aimashou

Graduation day passed. It was rather fun. The celebration was magnificent for something prepared by the Institute. The speeches (some of them, really) were inspiring, the choir was the best the I'd ever seen in the Institute ever since I set foot there, and the company, well, they were everything that mattered to me for those 2 short days.

I sure was fun, but more than that, it was sad. I met everybody I wanted to meet, though, with so little time and what with everybody having their own agenda, I didn't get to spend time with them as much as I'd hoped. And just thinking that that might be the last time we could all be together like that... it breaks my heart.

I want to watch a movie with them again

I want to have breakfast/lunch/dinner with them again

I want play hours and hours of video games with them again

I want to walk around aimlessly at the shopping mall with them again

I want to have long sessions of non-stop chatter with them again

I want to be able to meet them on a single sms notice again...

But I know that from here on out, nothing will ever be as it were again and the truth just kills me. I pray that we never erase those moment from our hearts, never forget one another, and at any given time, また会いましょう

*Title isnpired my SEAMO's また会いましょう. A song so good and wonderfully sad it makes we want to cry

Yo Peeps, This is for You...

Actually this isn't so much of a blog entry. More like a shout out to all the dudes and dudettes of cohort 2.

So as of this week, I guess all of us should have started teaching in our respective schools. Maybe some in the city, some not too far from the city, and maybe some without electricity. Regardless of where we'll be, I'm sure the past 5 1/2 years have taught us at least something about teaching, and I hope know that we'll all be great teachers that'll bring about great changes to the future generation.

Ganbarimashou (lets work hard), people!


note: side entries like this won't be using a song as a title, or I'd be running out of one pretty quick

To all my Friends

To all my Friends,

I wish I could tell you how much I'm glad to have known the lot of you, but my feelings towards you simply cannot be put into words. I am glad that we have met and I really hope that at some point our paths will cross again. Thank you for all the memories you have blessed me with, for being friends with me these past 5 years, even when there were moments of ups and downs. You, my Friends, won't simply be just memories because you are a part of my soul.

To all my Friends...

Thank You

Freebird

Within a matter of weeks, my 5 over years of tertiary education will be coming to a close. I'll be a free bird (at least before getting posted). Way back when, the very thought of this would've made me happy. Now, however, there's that part of me that wishes for it to not end now. Honestly, I haven't had a lot friends up till I came to IPBA. Well, I probably still don't have as much friends as however-you-are do, but the ones I have now is plenty by my standards.

I understand that once this is all over, everybody, me included, will have our own lives to attend to. Everything that I am in IPBA, all the friends I've gained, the things I've done during the 5 and a half year course will be nothing but distant memories within a couple of years. I had similar feelings when leaving Wellington last year, but knowing that I will be seeing my old friends again in IPBA made it not quite as painful.

The situation is a bit different now. The thought of not being able to see most of the people I care about again, scares me. I've made some good friends here, and I don't want to lose them. Fortunately, there is a little something called the internet and hopefully that could at least keep us from being totally cut apart. We humans always take things for granted - it isn't until we nearly lose the things we have that we realize how much we should cherish them while we still can.

To all my friends I've met these past 5 years - thank you



Freebird, performed by Lynird Skynird

I'm so sick

What is the proof of one's manliness. Is it by having manly, hulking musk? or is it having killer good looks? From what I can tell, you don't need either. Here's a guide on some of the things you can do to make your manliness really shine! Go ahead, read up. Its perfectly FREE*

The Manly Thing To Do #1

As every good man knows, there's nothing that can make you any more manlier than smoking. But wait, there really is! Simply smoking is for the losers. Real manly men smoke and throw the buds and ashes on the carpet, on the road, anywhere really, except for the ashtray. Of course, what better way to flaunt your manliness than to throw them in the kitchen sink and clog the thing up. Ah, the mark of a TRUE man! Remember this well, if you dispose cigarette buds properly, then you're a sissy.

The Manly Thing To Do #2

Real man knows how to turn even the most seemingly useless items into profit. Take a look at this useless looking rubbish bin. By keeping unwanted items inside without throwing them away for some time, a man can start his own maggot farm. Congratulations sir! You now have a property of your own. Before you know it, you'll be able to export those maggots to all corners of the world and fill your pockets with lotsa cash. And I bet the ladies would be all over you then. Genius! So you see, it isn't always about the brauns. A real man need to have the brains, as well as the ability to have the cash rolling in with minimal effort.

The Manly Thing To Do #3

Lets face it, a real manly man should never do the dishes. They leave that to their ladies. But what if you are still single you ask? Why, of course the reasonable thing to do would be to leave the dishes in the kitchen until you get married - at which point you can tell your wife to clean that thing you've left in the kitchen 3 years ago. That, or you could also donate those fungus you've grown for medicinal purposes. Now that's how a REAL man should be!

The Manly Thing To D0 #4

Unfortunately, the free trial ends here. Did you find the guide to be useful? Interested in knowing more? For additional methods on how to further strut your manliness, please consult the author. Your own suggestions would also be highly valued for the upcoming release of the book 'How To Be a Real Man'

*For promotional purposes only. You may not make illegal copies of this guide




ps: starting from now I'll link the song title which I base my titles on.

I'm so sick, performed by flyleaf

NZ Journals #5 - F.R.I.E.N.D.S

Perhaps the best thing about my 2 year stay in NZ is having great friends around, both new and old.

The B.Ed boys

friends then, friends now

Hadi, Nesa and Jarod...I've spent a great deal of time with these boys back in IPBA and they are still spending time with them, albeit not as much as. Everybody's always busy and besides, we're not living in a single building like we used to in IPBA. However, that never stopped them from being an absolutely wonderful group of friends, and ones that I could always depend on. Thanks guys

The Torrens Team

torrens conquers all!!

My other housemates (excluding Hadi), Deli and Kurt. Truth be told, I don't know too many people outside of those from my course. These 2 quickly became on of the earliest non-TESL friends I made. They're good people and it was unfortunate that I only got to know them better in my final year here. Kurt also happened to be an excellent game buddy. One that I can always trust my back to when I'm playing Halo online. Go Torrens Team.

The International

friends and rivals

Despite being in NZ for almost 2 years, I have to say that compared to my other Malaysian friends, I don't have that many friends that aren't from Malaysia. Daichi was one of the few. He's not only a good friend who is totally fun to have around but is also my gaming rival. My only regret was to lose to him 8-10 on our final Dead or Alive match. And then there's Chizuru, who has been a great help in increasing my Japanese language proficiency. I really hope I get to see them both again in the future.

The Guys at EB

Unfortunately, I never got a picture of them. But then again, you don't expect a customer to walk in a shop and take some snappy snappy of the shop attendants do you. Being a regular customer of EB Games Wellington, I have befriended all of the full-time workers there, so much so that we know each others' name. Imagine that, going into a shop and the workers there can call you by name...priceless. Its all the better that they are a great bunch of people. Tommy, Pete, Dave, Fei, Stephen and Lucy, although I haven't got a picture of them, I have a feeling I won't be forgetting about them anytime soon.

The Nihongo Students

taisetsu na tomodachi

And finally this quatro of Japanese Language students, Aishah, Leny, Sue Fin and myself. I learnt a lof of useful things from them and I have to say, these guys...er, girls played a major part in making me much more social these days. It was only after going out and hanging out with them this year that I realized going out with a group of people can actually be fun and that encouraged me to start hanging out with more people. Not suprisingly, I made a lot more friends this year than I did last year. If it weren't these girls, I'd probably be the hermit crab I was last year. You people are awesome friends in my book.

To all my friends here in NZ, thank you for making my life in NZ memorable and so much better than I expected. Allow me to finish this in a very kiwi way by saying, thanks heaps guys!

The successful story at M fest

This is a long overdue report of the Malaysian fest, which took place LAST SUNDAY. The festival is what you might have expected of something called Malaysian festival. Dances, songs, the usual stuffs and stalls. Honestly, it only really mattered because our own cohort 2 (abt 20 of us or so since not everybody cared to join) opened up our own stall, which was cool.

People came to set up the stall at abt 830. I came at 9.30 cos I didnt notice somebody sent me a msg the night before. By the time I was there it was all done so I only had to hang our banner, which is a very...inventive one.

its kinda hard to see from this pic, but that banner was actually tied using a LAN cable!

By 10a.m, people had started coming, marking the beginning of our business. If I remember correctly the food that we had offered were

• nasi kuning + ayam masak merah
• nasi + ayam rendang
• karipap (yg plg bes)
• roti canai
• seri muka
• onde2/kuih melaka
• kuih goyang/loyang (not quite sure the name)
• Sardine roll
• Pengat, pisang & labu

image was purposely darkened at the top half so you would focus on the food and not the people...

So yea, we had quite a lot of stuff there and as you can see, karipap (the one in the big bowl) was the fastest selling item. There are a few good reasons behind this. One thing for sure is that it tastes good, so credits to Nada and whoever else that helped her with that. At a mere 50c, we also sold it for a price much cheaper than our competitions. Some others charged it for $1 each. It could also be the fact that even the people behind the counter were tempted to eat some of them (paid of course)

At around 1, people started to come like a rapid torrent and sales spiked up instantaneously. There were 2 noteworthy customers who came. One of them is a Kiwi boy who bougth a kuih melaka, only to come back later to say "give me all of the balls". Yup, the kid single-handedly bought all of them. The second was a Malaysian Chinese lady who bought a seri muka and came back for 8 more. Whats more, she even promoted other people to buy them. Business was really good. By 3p.m, we were all out of goods to sell, a testament of how good our food is, or at least it looks good, although some also speculated that it had something to do with the cashier/promoter at the time...

...specifically referring to the one in the middle. Mass : "yes sir, can I help you?"

The stall was definitely a huge success and as Zaini would say it in his McBeth scene, "great happiness!". Kudos also goes to those whom I didnt specifically mention but had spent the time and effort into making those yummy food the night before, those who helped at stall and even to those who only contributed to our monetory needs to make this event a success. Everybody did a job well done