Emancipation

Edit:

I've had people complaining (in a nice way) that my posts are hard to understand because I use big big words. Sorry :(

If you think you might be one of these people, skip to the bottom of this post, where a simplified version awaits you.

Regards,

The Management Team
@hamnoj.blogspot.com

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First things first - IB is OVER.

It was weird that of all sudden - IB was over, just like that. We walked out of the exam room after a horrendously difficult Math 3 paper and that was it; no more IB.

No more having to stay up to finish that darned World Lit Essay/Extended Essay/Internal Assessment ever again! No more friends staying over for 3 weeks just to study and study and nothing else for the upcoming finals. No more having to crack your brain about poem structures, onomatopoeia, or having to memorize what the electroweak gauge bosons are.

Yet, somehow, it didn't sink in that the exams were finally over. We sat there lamenting over the loss of the so-many marks from out Math paper, not fully comprehending what freedom lay ahead. It was like a harrowing ordeal you are suddenly sucked out of. To quote Brian Keenan, 'Freedom comes slowly at first'.

And it was the last day of school, so we went around snapping pictures of ourselves with various teachers/girls. Okay, maybe not with the girls after all.

From right to left - A, Lee, Laoshi, Mah.



















Mr. Masukor, one of the coolest math teachers ever.

Then the great triumvirate (consisting of Riza, Winson and I - The Illustrious Aleemah) trudged to the chemistry lab. You see, the lab is a sanctuary of sorts, a haven for the weary and downtrodden. We breathed in the aromatic compounds (benzene, toulene, etc etc) in the chemical laden air and at last, felt some semblance of peace.

Of course, and not forgetting to kick and abuse the skeleton. That's Mr. Lawrence (second from left) kicking the skeleton's non-existent umm, balls.

It was really calming, just sitting in the lab chatting with Mr. Lawrence as one would to friends. Our freedom was slowly returning. And after awhile, I quipped the age-old question.

'So. . . want to make a smoke bomb?'



















Boom, baby!

Anyway, we sat there for a few hours brewing our noxious ingredients. That beaker holds a LOT of potential little smoke bomblings.

We had to watch it carefully lest it ignited, and risk the entire school being shrouded in a dense cloud of smoke. Not good for your rapport, at all.



















Mr Lawrence likes caramelized Potassium Nitrate very much, me thinks.

You know, the end products look remarkably like sticks of candy. Imagine that - Oh candy! Lick lick lick, KABOOBABOOM and smoke all around. Cue evil grin and evil music. Heheh.

Below is a short video, in which we ignited the piece of candy Mr. Lawrence is holding in the picture above.

We laughed and screamed with ecstasy at the large plume of smoke filling the sky. It was our way of release, our way of escape into freedom once more. Gradually, the smoke dissipated, and in that small way, I felt free.

Later on the three of us wandered aimlessly, not sure of what we might be doing next. It was a blessed reprieve; the very fact that we didn't have to plan ahead was consolation enough. Walk walk walk, never knowing where we're going. Walk into the unknown that lies ahead, never knowing, never sure of where you're going. But ah! that's the life we all share.

Our freedom takes its form in the very fact that you are given that opportunity to take that step.

You walk, and you are free.

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Simplified version:

1. Exams finished. Yay, whopee-do, happy happy joy joy.
2. But Math paper very difficult. Sad, cry cry, boohoo-ness.
3. Took pictures with teachers.
4. Went to chemistry lab to make smokey smokey bomb bombs.
5. We exploded the smokey smokey bomb bombs. (Watch the video)
6. I feel happy again. Yay.

The end.

The Imminent End of The World

edit:

A little Ben told me that there's actually a website you can visit to check if the LHC has destroyed the world yet. Keep yourself updated! Click HERE, HERE and HERE to visit.

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Early this week something happened up in France/Swisscheeserland that was bound to shock, excite, made you scareded, or potentially bore, but mostly excite everyone in the world. Yup, they turned on the LHC on Tuesday. Didn't do anything spectacular or smash things up at really high speeds, just turned it on.

Well, the main reason I'm so happy that they invented the LHC machine-collider-dude-thing is because it's could screw a lot of things up! Yeah, selfish, I know.

Some complicated looking part in the LHC. Well, don't ask me what it is!

Quite basically, the LHC is the Large Hadron Collider. They don't collide 'Large Hadrons' in a Collider, they just collide Hadrons in a 'Large Collider'. Confusing, I know. They make little particles fly around happily at speeds nearly reaching the speed of light (which is superbly fast, mind you), until they collide into each other and they're not so happy anymore. Then they kinda blow up and the little bits and pieces fly all over the place. Then they look at the little bits and say things like 'Ahah! This squiggly line proves that the Higgs boson exists!' and then they'll go publish it in the papers and get lots of money for it. That's the essential theory of it, lah.

Right, anyway, some people are worried that the LHC will make little black holes things that will magically expand in size and gobble the world up. Fear #1 - The world gets totally screwed.

Besides that, the current model of the atom, called the Standard Model, might also get screwed if we find out that the Higgs boson doesn't acutally exist. But if it does exist then that might prove the Standard Model, but not necessarily. But if they can't find it, then they'll have to rethink almost everything about the current atomic model. Or if we find something totally weird in the BANG BANG experiments, the model might be totally disproven altogether. It's all very confusing, but let's forget that now and let ourselves get deluded by the 'appeal to authority' fallacy (that means we believe whatever the scientists say because they claim to be smart-pants-scientists). So Fear #2 - The Standard Model gets screwed.

Either way, if the world or the Standard Model gets messed up big time, I'd still be happy. You see, my IB exams are in 53 days (and counting) and to put it in the simplest term(s):

DIE lah.

So really, if the world meets it's calamatystic fate because some little hadrons beat each other up, I won't have to sit for my exams!

If the Standard Model of the atom is proven (at best) wrong or (at worst) partially incorrect and therefore dude for numerous revisions, hopefully the IB Organization will understand this and take out that part of our syllabus from the exams!

The world loses, but hey! IB students worldwide would rejoice.

Alrighty, back to trying to study.

Forget CO2!

Attention everyone! Our world is in grave danger from a very real threat - DHMO. Forget the whole ruckus about CO2 (carbon dioxide), DHMO (dihydrogen monoxide) is at least a thousand times more abundant in our atmospheres than CO2 ever will be. read the following article for more info. Lastly, don't forget to boycott all products that use DHMO! Together we CAN make a difference!


BAN DIHYDROGEN MONOXIDE!
Dihydrogen monoxide is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and kills uncounted thousands of people every year. Most of these deaths are caused by accidental inhalation of DHMO, but the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide do not end there.
Prolonged exposure to its solid form causes severe tissue damage. Symptoms of DHMO ingestion can include excessive sweating and urination, and possibly a bloated feeling, nausea, vomiting and body electrolyte imbalance. For those who have become dependent, DHMO withdrawal means certain death.
Dihydrogen monoxide:
· is also known as hydroxl acid, and is the major component of acid rain.
· contributes to the "greenhouse effect."
· may cause severe burns.
· contributes to the erosion of our natural landscape.
· accelerates corrosion and rusting of many metals.
· may cause electrical failures and decreased effectiveness of automobile brakes.
· has been found in excised tumors of terminal cancer patients.
Contamination is reaching epidemic proportions!
Quantities of dihydrogen monoxide have been found in almost every stream, lake, and reservoir in America today. But the pollution is global, and the contaminant has even been found in Antarctic ice. DHMO has caused millions of dollars of property damage in the midwest, and recently California.
Despite the danger, dihydrogen monoxide is often used:
· as an industrial solvent and coolant.
· in nuclear power plants.
· in the production of styrofoam.
· as a fire retardant.
· in many forms of cruel animal research.
· in the distribution of pesticides.
· as an additive in certain "junk-foods" and other food products.
Even after washing, produce remains contaminated by this chemical.
Companies dump waste DHMO into rivers and the ocean, and nothing can be done to stop them because this practice is still legal. The impact on wildlife is extreme, and we cannot afford to ignore it any longer!
The American government has refused to ban the production, distribution, or use of this damaging chemical due to its "importance to the economic health of this nation." In fact, the navy and other military organizations are conducting experiments with DHMO, and designing multi-billion dollar devices to control and utilize it during warfare situations. Hundreds of military research facilities receive tons of it through a highly sophisticated underground distribution network. Many store large quantities for later use.
Oh btw, to those who don't quite get it, try writing out the chemical formula for DHMO. This goes to show you shouldn't believe everything you read from emails or blogs nowadays. Well, except for this one, of course.

Cheers, and have a good day :)

GG-ed!

Everyone's stressed out by an insane Math paper, except those who've practically memorized the answer scheme. Never mind, it's picture time!

I seriously ROFL, LOLed, BBQed, DVDed, whatever. I just love Lolcat, don't you?

Of running, fasting

I'm now a volunteer for World Vision's annual 30-hour famine!

Click for more info.

It's this nifty thing where you don't eat or bathe (honestly, I have no idea why) for 30 hours (hence the name). Somehow or other, it's meant for you to experience the hardship and poverty of the impoverished people of the world. It's a great idea, really! But for a ridiculous bunch of people who have just as ridiculous metabolism rates (like me!), die loh. No, really. I don't know how I'm going to last 30 hours. I don't think properly if I don't have my second breakfast. I get moody if I don't get my lunch. How? HOW LAH TELL ME WEI. I thought I could get away by being a volunteer.

'Alrighty now, everyone start fasting! But since I'm a volunteer, obviously I need my energy to volunteer properly, so I won't be joining you *snicker*.'

But that didn't work. Turns out volunteers have to fast too. Bah.

I'll just have to deal with it when I get there. Stay awake all night and sleep through the 30 hours? Maybe. Play COD for 26 hours straight? Maybe. Options, options.

Speaking of which, on the exact same day of the famine countdown, there is this other event I would have reeeeally liked to have gone to. It's the (also) annual SAFRA Singapore Bay Run! The coolest thing about it is the sheer number of participants. If I remember correctly, there were about 10 to 15 thousand runners for one of the previous years. And also, Singapore has a good reputation for organising enjoyable runs.

And Singapore is a lovely place to run. I mean, all island with no place else for the smog and pollutants to go to. Lovely, lovely indeed. All urban landscape with close to zilch greenery. But let's not forget the other spectrum of the view - the girls!

I mean, honestly, probability dictates that at least some of them will be acceptably gorgeous. And they'll be running! Flushed red cheeks, windswept hair! What more could you ask for?

Oh wait.

PB and Jelly it. I can't run because I've volunteered to starve myself and deprive myself of food. GAH! NO! I can't believe the alternative. It's either Run With Pretty Girls or Starve Myself For 30 Hours.

Sigh, persevere, Jonno! It's for a good cause. Think of the little kids in Somalia, starving! Or Zimbabwe, think of the poor kids who have to lug around back-breakingly huge mounds of money just to buy breakfast only to find that the price went up due to their hyper-inflation rate, pegged at about 2.2 million % due to the power crazy splurges of their evil dictator leader who does not want to negotiate in talks with the opposition leader but oh why am I telling you all this, lets just get back to the point!

Zzz....

Dilemmas, dilemmas, but I'll keep you posted. Good night world!

I swear it!

Recently, Winson and I gave some presentation in school about some Energy Audit project we did a month ago. It was quite well met, which made me quite glad actually.

The now (in)famous picture of Riza, imprinted in the minds of them impressionable school kids.

Of course, there were a couple of things we forgot to do. Forgetting to inform Mr. Jonathon (our IB coordinator) was obviously the biggest mistake. Besides the obvious, it turns out I was also a little rude on stage. ‘’Jonathan, you don’t use words like ‘darn’ or ‘crud’ on stage’’, said he, very civilly.

‘’Oh dang it’’, thought I.

Perhaps I was getting a little used to saying not-so-rude or crude words every time something slips, or every time I stub my toe on something. Well, fine. As much as possible, I’ll try not to say ‘darn’ or ‘dang’ or anything of the sort from now on. But ah, I need some sort of milder substitute to slowly wean myself off. Sorta like a nicotine patch for chain smokers.

I know! I’ll start swearing by ‘peanut butter’.

Yes lah, it’s very lame and nonsensical, but it gets the job done. Plus, I probably get points for coolness. Imagine a situation where Dai Ah Long (gangster guy) and I are walking and both of us almost got run over by a car.

‘Beep beep beep boop boobity boo beep beep beep’ (Guy starts swearing in Chinese, obviously censored. Plus, I don’t know enough Chinese to swear)

And then you’d hear ‘Peanut butter!’

Haha, I know, it sounds insane, but I happen to think it’s insanely cool as well.

Then you’d ask me, why bother? Just swear and be done with it. Well, I don’t really know. It might just be me who thinks it sounds a little crude to be swearing all the time.

I asked one of my classmates today why he was constantly swearing all the time.

"Oh, swearing amplifies the emotion I’m trying to convey. Say, if I was happy I’d say I’m ***************** happy so I would sound happier."

Right. I don’t think that’s an adequate enough justification, but all the same, if you enjoy swearing so much, by all means go ahead. I’m not the one making a fool of myself. The thing is, with every other person uttering expletives at every other thing nowadays, it’s become just so commonplace, so ordinary. Why, I might even dare say it’s downright boring and redundant.

Take for example, an exceedingly infuriated person. If he were to swear, he would probably sound like this:

Oh my BEEP you BEEPing BEEP BEEP BEEP, I’m am so going to BEEP BEEP your BEEP BEEP BEEPing BEEP and BEEP your BEEP up so that BEEP BEEP BEEP until you BEEP and BEEP and also BEEP, but not forgetting BEEP!! You BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP and your dog BEEP BEEP argh! You BEEP mushrooms are BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!! Tuna is BEEPing expensive BEEP BEEP BEEP. . .

And so on, so forth, etcetera, etcetera. . .

Practically nothing is left to the imagination. It’s all spelt out in beeping graphic detail for you. Another thing I have against swearing outright is that it’s just so . . . brainless (for lack of a better word). Any idiot could just start shouting random cuss words (in no particular chronological order) and that would constitute swearing. Bah, such humbug. Really, I think it's a particularly bad habit, much like scratching our bums in public or sneezing in the general direction of other people.

So if anyone asks me why I'm generally 'goody-good' and why I choose not to swear, now you know. Of course, there is the whole moral perspective, but besides that viewpoint, now you know.

Cheers :)

Oh and by the way, for some good intellectual swearing (hah, I keep telling myself there is such a thing) in action, honestly, none do it better than the English. Here’s a short clip from the movie ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ for your enjoyment. Watch out for them Frenchies!

The World is Fat?

This happened quite some time ago, but it's so funny I just had to share it!I bought a book a couple of months back, and for those who haven't read it, it's a really good book. It's called 'The World is Flat' by this chap called Thomas L. Friedman. Isn't that a kick-tooshie name? Its sorta like Fried-man, but way cooler cause its just Friedman. Do you pronounce it Fried-man, or just Freeeedman?

Anyway, I was buying the book with my sister at MPH, One Utama, but I was kinda lazy to go get it. The conversation went something like this:

Jon : Wei, go get me a book from that corner, it's called 'The World is Flat'.

Sis : What?? The world is Fat?? Like you la!

Jon : . . .

Not wanting to be outdone, my brain coughed up what seemed to be the most appropriate answer in a situation as such.

Jon : No. The world is FLAT. Like YOU!

Sis : Nooooooooooooooooo!

Muhaha. Maybe the end was a tad exaggerated, but you should have seen her face! And I couldn't stop laughing after that. Absolutely priceless. Of course I didn't mean it, but theres always that compulsive need to insult your siblings, in a uhh, loving sort of way.

Man, when we're all old and saggy I'd really like to be able to visit my blog again and read this. I'll probably have a good time laughing it off.:)

Chem 6A

Hello all!

In our chem class recently, we studied Markovnikov's rule, and unless you’re a die-hard chem fanboy, I doubt you’ll be interested in reading a whole post about it. Srsly.

Srsly -this means Seriously, in LOLspeak, a language I happen to be quickly assimilating, unfortunately, for you. :)

A paragraph of LOLspeak would sound something like this:

Yo! Like srsly, I don’t fink u wanna heer mi speek abowt dis Chem thingy bt u’d radder heer mi talk abowt thingz asploding. Eryone luvs watchyng things asplode. Like OMGWTFBBQ! It asploded! Yeah I like asploding things too bt the teory bhind the thingz iz also impowtant. Like srsly yo. So I has made talk abowt dis Markovnikov thingy coz itz impowtant for organik chem synthesis yo.

I think you get the idea so I’ll stop now :)

I liek bizkits! w00t!

Sorry.

So one day we were sitting down in a Chemistry lesson. It was actually pretty dull. I mean honestly, as much as I love Chem, the Markovnikov theory isn’t the most interesting thing in the world. So when you’re bored you start doodling. And because you are a lifeless IB student, you start doodling and drawing cartoons about CHEM.

But srsly, how do you remember a name like Markovnikov? This is where the brilliant Riza comes to the rescue.

‘It’s pronounced My-konek-cough la!’

Liek OMGWTFBBQ yo.

Okay, so Mr Lawrence could tell we were a bit restless. I think.

‘You know Markovnikov? Have you ever seen his face? You hold on!’ and with that, Mr Lawrence disappears into his mysterious preparation room to get something. I thought he was getting a picture of the M-dude la, duh.

But no! Mr Lawrence came out with a big wad of cotton – and we were all like WHATTHEHAM!?!? Okla, it was just me coz no one else likes ham in my class.

‘You know Mr Markovnikov? He’s really hairy! Like, super bushy’, exclaims our sprightly teacher. And guess what he does?

Hilarity ensues. I tell you, we’ve lost track of how many ‘facelifts’ we’ve given the skeleton. But well, I suppose they do look quite similar.

With all do respect Sir, you’re a great Chemist, but copious amounts of hair in the scientific society always lead to you being made fun of. Think Einstein.

Who ever said scientists had no sense of humour?

And because I recognize just how important the Markovnikov theory is to man(and woman)kind, I’ll give you a brief rundown of it.

Eh, no grumbling yo, or I maek ur head asplode wif my cuteness.

Just to make it bearable, I’ll add little black and white diagrams! Ain’t that something?

Okay, let’s start with a molecule.

This is the Chick molecule, for want of avoiding ‘standard IUPAC nomenclature’ (fancy-schmancy names)

Srsly. Too complicated wei.

Ok lah. So right, the reaction involves two molecules reacting. The other one:

Okay, so the current chick atom attached to Jon is angry, because of his promiscuity and numerous reactions with atoms of other elements. But Jon spots the Chick molecule, with so many chick atoms in it, and is then attracted. Angry chick atom has enough, so they break up, leaving the Jon atom unattached.

And because the Jon atom has really high electronegativity (high degree of hotness or whatever), he gets an invite to join the big big molecule really soon after the breakup! So shallow eh? But they’re atoms, and it’s all about the chemistry! Heeey, don’t look at me like that.

But there are two places he can sit. So the big question is

WHERE WILL JON GO?

That’s all there is to the theorem. It was made to answer that question. Heheh, I feel kinda important all of a sudden. :)

Right, so back to the case of where Jon would sit. Logically, if you were an electron sucking atom (or well, in our human context it’s probably equivalent to a hot-blooded male) you’d want the spot with more electrons right?

That’s a happy molecule, if I’ve ever seen one.

That’s all there is to the My-Konek-Cough theory. Given the option,the Jon molecule sits on the side where there are more chicks la! So easy! Tersangat kekacangan! Hen pian yi! Eh, I mean, rong yi.

Cheh wa, I should become a Chemistry teacher and draw more pretty pictures.

Hope you enjoyed the lesson.

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Putting on what Khairul calls my 'mischevious look'. Don't we all look so happy? Not the guy in the middle though, he's a real heartless dude.



























The Professors.

We're asploding your head! LOL.

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IB Bowling Outing

Today the IB students of Sri KDU went bowling, you know lah-to get rid of some steam so we don't kill ourselves slaving over Internal Assessments. We had plenty of fun, although there were a lot of longkang balls from our side of the game. All in the name of good fun :)

And here we have pictures! Everyone loves pictures. I set my camera on auto, though, so some pics didn't turn out so well. Lazy mah, what to do?

















Jorrel bowling. He was pretty good, actually. Much better than my straight-but-straight-into-longkang throws.
















Yvonne's throw. Quite funny to watch, though her expressions were probably funnier. (Picks up shoe and throws it at you!)

















Heh. I had my share of longkang as well.

















Shafiq Psychoe's exuberance. Quite amusing to watch him bowl as well, and seeing his leg pop out at funny angles when he throws. Heh.
























Eugene here, shuffle-bowling. Another happy bowler. I remember him jumping on Andrew after striking. Why though, I don't recall.
























Aleen (left), one of the co-conspirators in this whole bowling fiasco. Caught her (literally) red-handed!


















Mr. Danny contemplating his next shot. Tension betul.

















We met Ru Ann there, somehow. I thought she was somewhere in Australia when she popped up all of a sudden. Funny eh. And I do wonder what that huge thing is that Daniel's wanting to get his hands on.


















Scorpions in One Utama! What a huge publicity gimmick. Admittedly though, it piqued the interest of curious shoppers, as there was a huge crowd milling around that area. Eg: yours truly.


















I was shooting this particular snake with my Canon (man, I love that pun) when Riza pointed out a snake on top of the cage, just sitting there idly, OUTSIDE the cage. I got a fright out of that, when he so gracefully laughed in my face. It was fake. Blah.

---

There you have it, the IB people do have lives, after all. I personally doubt my team will win that much-coveted food voucher, since we bowled quite badly. Well, at least we had lots of fun. Alrighty now, back to work. EE for me, as Mr. Sai Mun so nicely pointed out.

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Warning: Long rant ahead.

And on the way back, something happened that was pretty infuriating. I caught a cab from the taxi stand right outside the complex. I wasn't really expecting any trouble, having taken the cab plenty of times. It was a quick 5 minute hop to my place from One Utama, and usually cost anything between 4-5 ringgit.

But What-The-Ham, when I got home the meter said 7 ringgit. I so desperately wanted to expose his evil rigged meter scheme, but I thought better against it. He was this Indian guy with piercings. Not that I'm racially discriminating against Indians, but when guys like that have piercings, he might not be your average Muthu.

So right, I was already fuming and everything lah, but I parted with my 7 bucks. But no, Mr. Scary Piercing Dude told me that it costs another additional RM5, because it was a special taxi. WHAT THE HAM? It didn't look at more special than other taxis. After arguing for a bit, I relented lah.

12 ringgit indeed. This just screams daylight robbery. And bad consumerism on my part. Bah. A word of warning. Don't ever get into a cab from a company called 'Bestoden Sdn. Bhd.'. I might just be sore from my little scuffle, but I happen to think they're cheap conmen, so don't get into a taxi from the company.

And the thing is, once I got home, still fuming, I called up 103, the phone directory to get the company's number to go lodge a complaint. The company wasn't listed. I wanted to go like this: -______-"

Never mind, I consoled myself. I turned to the Almost Almighty Google and hey! they did have a listing with a number to call. But WHATTHEHAM again, the number wasn't in service.

Something about this smells terribly fishy, and no, it wasn't my socks. So, girls and boys, remember that 'Bestoden Sdn Bhd' is a bad bad cab company that cheated me of some 8 ringgit, so never never never get into a cab from them!

Muhahahahahaha cough cough cough choke faint die.

Okay, bye.

Horrible Pun #1

Hello everyone. I know I’ve not been updating for awhile, so here’s something to whet your appetites.

So right, we were feeling really lame in Math one day. Yeah, I know. Statistics are hilarious.

Then in the spur of the moment, I came up with a pretty bad pun. No matter, I’m here to inundate your brain with the redundant and the ridiculous anyway, so here it is.

How does THIS:

Equal THIS?

Think about it for awhile. And scroll slowly.

GRAPH

G  R  A  P  H

G      R      A      P      H

G      R   A   P   H

G      R A P H

G-RAPH!








GIRAFFE!







:D

Don’t start pelting rocks at me, I told you it was a horrible pun.

Have a good day!

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Postscript:

I tell you, this post was heck tough to format, in terms of HTML. The upside is, I learnt something new! Like this nifty cool line above this PS section.

Antoine de-Saint Exupery says that we learn through resistance. This, I believe to be true. If you haven't heard of the man, go read up one of his books. He's an excellent writer, and his book 'The Little Prince' is now clamouring for first place in my favourites list.

A new cousin!

Eh, my titles are getting more and more literal.

Anyway, on the 29th of February my aunt gave birth to a baby boy. the 29th! Poor kid, imagine growing up only once every 4 years. Oh well, it does make you unique, and set you apart from most of the other kids, if you like all that.


















And here it is! I say it, because somehow or other the gender of the baby isn't really so evident. Like in class the other day, Kay was mentioning about how Mr Michael brought his daughter/son to school. It was pretty funny, because we were initially staring blankly at her wondering if she couldn't tell the difference between a boy and a girl.

'It's a baby laaaaa.......'

And so, congrats to my cousins, you've got yourself (another) brother.

If you look through the picture below, you'll find that the cousins are ALL very much male, with the slight exception of my two sisters.

















And now we've got another boy. Everyone's happy, but I do think my aunt and uncle were hoping for a daughter. Think about it, with three boys they'll really have their hands full.

Oh well, you know what they say . . . if at first you don't succeed, try and try again ;)

85 years is a long time

Last Saturday my grandpa celebrated his 85th birthday. It's pretty interesting, as he doesn't follow the Gregorian calendar system, but has his birthday on the 13th day of the Chinese New Year. So it's subject to date changing every year, but it's right smack in the middle of all the festivities and food, so we're not complaining.

And to mark the occasion, we had a little bit to drink. 85 Mah (it's a pun, geddit?) , and so we had to go tipsy, if not it wouldn't be much fun at all.



Heh. A little was probably a gross misnomer.

You know, since I haven't been posting for quite awhile, I really need time to get it back in my stride. So this post will be the most mindless post I've had in awhile, just spamming pictures with little captions underneath.

Pictures galore!


The cognac was good stuff. But it was so old the bits of cork were breaking up and fell into the drink :(



So here's the restaurant guy straining the cork bits out, then pouring it back into the bottle. Almost as good as old. Pretty ingenious, eh?


Kin Yip was all like 'Wah, white so gay'.

Then he changed my theme to pink.



Underage drinkers! We're obviously not very good examples, so yeah, don't drink (too much).



And there were the usual festive dishes. Yee Sang pictured here. And as much as I love yee sang, I've probably eaten the very same dish at the very same restaurant at least three times over the course of the past weeks.


More underage drinkers. Bad bad Mah family.



Well, we're not actually all that bad. See here, one glass is alcohol, while the other is relatively harmless Chinese tea. We drank tea too, but you almost can't tell the difference.

Uh oh, that might explain why the little kids were so hyper that night.



A big big, expensive dish. Though not as costly as the fish, which was a whopping RM900 for our three tables. That was one expensive life! As I was eating the fish, I really couldn't help thinking that it had lived a good life, and was now serving its higher purpose in life.

Good stuff, that fish.



Kids be kids. Long gone are the days when your childhood didn't revolve around technology. It's pretty sad actually, when I notice everyone around so obsessed with their handphones and what-not. But then again, it might just be me.



The restaurants famed 'Sang Har Meen'. It doesn’t look too appetizing in the picture, but trust me when I say that it's absolutely glorious. For the benefit of those who don't know, sang har meen (very very) loosely translates into 'big-ass prawn noodles'.



We 'Yam Seng-ed' all night. Must have scared quite a number of patrons at other tables too. And there was this other table who tried to rise up to the challenge. But with some 10 screaming kids and teenagers, it was really no contest.



Huhuhu, patience, my young padawan. . .



The biggest drinker of the night. I kid you not.



The salted egg crabs. Absolutely delightful. The next day I had this for leftovers, and got a nasty cut trying to pry open a shell. It was worth it though :)

At RM80 a kilo, they don't come cheap, but they're just so fat and succulent you really couldn't be bothered about trivial things like price! (especially since a certain grandpa is paying for the dinner)



Posing.



With cousins outside the restaurant. We really had to take a break from the steady stream of food and alcohol. So much good food, so little stomach capacity. Darn our gastronomical limitations!



Umm, uhh . . . there’s something you don't see every day.



More toasting and scaring away other customers. We're a real ridiculous bunch, I tell you.



Umm, that's not what it looks like. *hic*

(Really, it's not)



One jonathan and lots of Sprite later, this is what happens. Man, we're a big happy bunch of alcoholics.



My adorable little cousins. While they're still adorable, and (relatively) little. Kids have this tendency to become pain in the artichokes as they grow up.



Picture speaks for itself.



Another great pride of mine. I CAN READ THE CHINESE WORDS!! Hey all, I'm no bananana!





Happy Birthday, Mr Mah Peng. Something ru dong hai shou bi nan san! (Whatever that means)



Blowing out the candles, after we sang Happy Birthday in English, Chinese, Malay, and Cantonese. We're multi-lingual, yo.



Family pic. Oh gosh, I look so much like my mum it's creepy. I should consider shaving bald sometime soon.



Winding down. Laissez-faire (let it be).



How often do you see two octogenarians (someone over 80) give each other a big High-Five? The other grandpa was waving his hands in the air saying 'I surrender, I surrender' when my grandpa tried to make him drink some more.

Just classic.



The normal family picture.



The not so normal family picture. It's a pity we couldn't get Grandpa to join us.



The Kids.





The boys are (leaning) back.



Garrett. I have no comment. Except maybe a slight mention of how hilarious it was to watch him do that.



Random nonsense after dinner.



OH MY GERBIL we finished the alcohol!







There are some 20 emptied cans of Sprite. In the end, since we kept asking for more and more Sprite, they just brought out the entire carton. Smiling innocuously at them, we asked 'Free ah?'.

What to do? We're Chinese to the core.

As quirky and weird as we all are, we're one big family.



And I love my family.



Post-dinner:

Garrett and I, obviously tipsy, decided to pull off one last stint before we went home. Grabbing our emptied Cognac bottles, we marched out onto the middle of the road.

With all eyes on our sober (again, this is relative) selves, there was a quiet count of '1, 2, 3'.

Then we burst out into this drunken stupor, slapping ourselves, laughing and causing a riot for a good minute.

Unforgettable.

Sidetrack:



HAVE YOU SEEN SO MANY BOWLS BEFORE??