I dream of rainbows and ponies

Ignore the title. I just felt like typing something random.

I know what you're thinking. I bet you're already picturing this:
























=.=

I was thinking more along the lines of manly He-ponies wielding killer gamma-ray emitting rainbows. If you're wondering how that works, then that makes the two of us.

See, I've officially gone detrimentally wacko.

The point is, I did have a rather weird dream yesterday.
























Jonmah in snoozy-woozy lala land.

No, it didn't have anything to do with me climbing a Jacob's ladder to the land of eternal buffets, unfortunately.

Neither did it have anything to do me having lunch with Carrie Underwood. That's daydreaming, and unlike dreaming, you do have some measure of control over that, until the inevitable adolescent hormones kick in.
























It started as all dreams start, where you find yourself somewhere quite familiar.

I found myself at home, because I didn't want to attend a particular family dinner. By now, I realized it was a dream because it was a FREE dinner (paid for by grandpa, so it's free for us lah). And customarily, because my Grandpa had expensive taste-buds and an exquisite sense of refinement when it comes to matters pertaining to food, we would normally go to, well, to say the least, restaurants that served good food.

Honestly, how could I NOT go?

But well, as dreams often go, things don't happen very logically.

So there I was, at home, alone. HUNGRY. Blardi Hial, I still don't understand why I didn't go! Anyway, being hungry AND alone, I decided to call up someone to go for dinner.

And since I can't drive . . . she did.

I'm feeling so =.= just writing this post. The thing is, if you knew her, she doesn't drive yet. Whether it's age, or time constraints or plain I-don't want-to-drive, I'll let you speculate.

So right, SHE drove me there. And since girls are generally bad with directions, I chose the restaurant lah. Actually, I was quite torn between two priorities of equal consequence. Girl or food? You see, at this point I was probably raving mad with hunger, dribbling at the mandibles, uh...I mean foaming at the mouth, so I figured a candlelight dinner with a romantic ambiance would probably take too long for the food to arrive.


















If I get the girl, and still end up dying, all my life's work would have gone to waste. As you can see, self-sustenance comes first, so that ruled the candlelight dinner out.

I consoled myself then, saying 'Chinese restaurant also got candle light mah.'

True enough, there are little candles at the tables of Chinese restaurants. Of course, it's more to keeping the flies away than anything else. And the flame of the candle probably pales in comparison to the glaring glow of the fluorescent light tubes. Meh, the Chinese really have no subtlety or tact.

Ok-lor, so then we drove up to this place. I had been there numerous times on numerous occasions and over and over again, they have proven themselves worthy of the visits. And the fact that the food was served quickly was an added bonus.

Then we stepped inside.



Hold on, I really have to catch my breath here.



Seriously, whatever happens next, DON'T LAUGH. It's not funny (for me, anyway).



Basically, the WHOLE restaurant was jam-packed with my relatives. I nearly died.

My grandpa probably booked the whole restaurant and called for a family reunion. Then they all turned around to see who had entered (or maybe they heard the sound of my jaw dropping).

Oh crap.

You do realise that bringing a girl to dinner with your family is tantamount to saying "this is my, you know, 'friend' ". And the WHOLE family was there.

I must have been shocked out of my sleep then, because I don't remember what happens after.

And that, my friends, is why I feel so =.= today.

Someone cheer me up.

Google fun

I recently stumbled across a book that tells you how to find out dastardly secrets about everyone, though maybe not so dastardly if you're used to glitzy paparazzi gossips.

Look, you can't NOT know Google. People would probably give you a blank look if you even thought of asking 'Whats the google website?'.

And yes, if you're thinking of anything Google-like they will know. You see, when you think, you emit these little particles into the atmosphere called Hameons that can be detected only by a very expensive device called the Pork-Chopinator. Why ham? Because it just is. You don't hear yourself asking 'Why is nose-picking scientifically known as Rhinotillexomania?'. Because it just is.

And they're not called the 'We know everything there is to know search engine' for nothing.

Even your thoughts.
























DON'T let this happen to you.

If you act fast, you'll be able to minimize (or maximize, as you'll soon read) public divulging of your most intimate, dastardly secrets!

As always, I've got the scoop. Here's how :

1. Visit www.google.com
2. Enter your name into the search bar followed by 'is', with quotation marks, like this : "jonathan is"
3. Search and prepare to cringe as your darkest secrets are revealed!
   

I did a quick search on mine and got this : Jonathan is no longer in solitary confinement but prison life remains harsh.

HOW DID THEY EVER FIND OUT???

Seriously! Go give it a try with your own names, and feel free to share as you see fit. Remember, the first step into rehabilitation is admission of guilt! This is, of course, assuming you're coming clean about your past wrongs.

See, by admitting you're telling everyone 'Oh fine, I'm no longer in solitary confinement, but, so what? I like it here being ostracized by the public. In fact, I don't have to share my food anymore!'

If it backfires, like a certain Mr Chua Soi Lek, then it's really not my problem. It's yours. So now that everyone knows, they won't be prodding you behind your back any longer. Sure, they'll be prodding you in front of your back, but you'll probably feel better about it now.

So, go! Have a shot at it and tell us how it went.

Final words : Be strong.

Back to business

It's back to school, for those who care. The first two days of school were a jumble of franticness and being overly lax. A strange paradox, I know. All the teachers were basically laying out the 'year plan' for us, and all the datelines for ALL our work, throughout the year.

'Blardi Hial!' (in a Mr Soong-esque fashion)

But it's to be expected, life isn't a bed of roses. It's time to slap myself and pull up my socks! Not like they're not high enough already.

And so I digress.

I went shopping! (Yay!)

And bought books! (Aww...)
































Obviously 'A Walk to Remember' isn't for me, but I just might get around to reading it, oh you know, if I really really have nothing to do.

And even more recently, Friday night to be exact, I went for a movie. Not a good time, considering the amount of residual work I have stacked up. It was a really spontaneous decision. It went something like this:

(Setting - Dinner table. Props -food)

Dad : So when do you want to go watch National Treasure 2?
Me-lah : How about now?
Dad : Alright!

And that was it. We rushed off, grabbed jackets and everything. It was 9.00pm. The movie schedule said 9.20pm or some other ungodly hour. Oh die!

And that wasn't just it, I had to buy my SWITCHFOOT tickets as well! You know, just in case a throng of mad switchfoot revelers suddenly snapped up ALL the tickets and I would fall into depression, have a nervous breakdown and stay that way for the rest of my short life! Anyway, when we got there, got everything done, it was 9.30!

Blardi Hial! I'm really using a lot of exclamation marks!!!

So, National Treasure!















Okay, anyway. The point was we didn't get the 9.20 tickets. We bought the 9.50 ones instead. Sad thing was, there were no more consecutive seats so the three (dad, sis, me) of us had to sit all over the cinema. Bah, and there was this guy next to me muching his popcorn noisily AND all the while giving 'supplementary info and LIVE feed commentary' to some other person.

You know, it seriously gets annoying after awhile. I mean, idiot! You don't say things like 'OMG@&%! DID YOU SEE THAT?!?!?' Obviously she freaking saw it! You're sitting a foot away from her in the same BeepBeepBeep cinema!!! Okay-lah. He didn't actually say that, but if anyone did I would get seriously annoyed about it.

Right, anyway the movie wasn't too bad. I preferred the first one though, where the bad guys were badder and the treasure looked more treasurey. (I know, I know, adjectives, don't be all harsh on me) The first one was very well paced, and didn't feel too long or draggy at all. This one was too, except I couldn't stand Nicholas Cage's mumbling.

Thank goodness for Diane Kruger!




























And once again, I digress.

I lost $$$$$$$$. . .

It's almost amazing how much it costs you for entrance to a stupid concert. Wait, I didn't just say stupid! It's a great concert, stupid fee. Blame it on Axcess, the ticketing company who's in charge of ticket fees.
















I can almost smell...SWITCHFOOT!

Seriously, I'm going crazy with anticipation.

Movies in the upcoming year

I take it back when I said 'Whats all this fuss about the new year, bla bla bla'.

I just watched two trailers of upcoming movies and now I'm practically drooling with anticipation. Much like Transformers, the marketing teams really know how to build up the anticipation as the months tick off till the movie premiers.

But, don't take my word for it, watch it for yourself.



Batman - The Dark Knight
Scheduled for release in the Summer, which is about July or August.



Ironman
Scheduled for release 2nd May 2008

My New Year Spaghetti

Happy New Year everyone, though I really can't see what the fuss is all about. I spent my remnants of 2007 in bed (sleeping, of course). You can never quite have too much sleep.

Today feels like any other I've had during these hols, which are abruptly coming to an unfortunate end. Wake in time for lunch, then bum around all day doing what I fancy.

I imagine most of you waould have made new year resolutions already. I'm planning on putting 'Not Procrastinating' on the top of my list, but I'll do that later.

So, my way of celebrating the new year was to cook something up. I've been dying to try this recipe I found for weeks now and I thought this would be a pretty good excuse for me to whip up lunch.

Here it is, Spaghetti ala Carbonara.
























Some of the ingredients, ready to be prepared and cooked.

















Frying the bacon. It's gives off a lovely fragrance when lightly fried in olive oil.


















Bacon! Unfortunately for some, non-halal.

















The finished product. Spaghetti ala Carbonara.


















Fresh out of the frying pan and onto the dishes it goes.

It didn't taste too bad, but it was a little dry since it was the fried kind. I guess we're more used to Carbonara having it's mouth-wateringly creamy sauce to top off the noodles.

Don't be fooled by how it looks, it actually is really filling because of the ingredients used, double cream, cheese and 6 eggs among them. We had a hard time finishing off everything.

Next stop, I'll try my hand at Bolognaise and see if anyone gets indigestion. :)

Switchfoot Concert Details

Heheh, this isn't really an update but for those hounding me for details of the concert, here goes.

To Aunty Lily-buds, sorry lah. You'll have to put up with more Switchfoot in the coming weeks.

More info to be found at www.onearmed.net. You also stand a chance to win tickets at www.mtvasia.com. All you have to do is sign up as a member of the site and answer the question (Duh, California).






So, GO, sign up and if you do win, we'll split 50-50 ;)




































Details are as follows.

Switchfoot Live In Malaysia

Date : Saturday, February 2, 2008
Venue : Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre - Hall 4
Doors open : 6.30pm
Opening act : Love Me Butch
Ticket prices: RM120 (pre-sale), RM 140 (at door)
* All ticket prices exclude RM3 processing fee

In case you're wondering where it is, or how to get there, I've compiled some information from various sites.

#1. Getting there by LRT (Monorail)

Pros : No car means no having to drive around madly for parking spaces. No likely traffic jam caused by possible Switchfoot fan mobs.
Cons : Packed trains pre/post concert. And after the exhilaration and jumping and moshing and screaming, you'll be sitting there and breathing the same air that circulates through their sweaty goodness-knows-wheres.

Getting there by LRT - Putra LRT Route Map

Just get yourself to any one of the stations and purchase a ticket to KLCC (ask for a 2 way ticket if you plan on getting both there and back the same way you came).

At the station, turn left after exiting the turnstiles and walk through the Suria KLCC shopping centre Concourse Level to the Centre Court. Turn left and make your way past Cold Storage to the Guardian Pharmacy where there is a walkway through to the Convention Centre. Take the elevator to the Ground Floor where you will be directed to the Registration area. (sourced from KL Convention Centre website)

#2. Driving there

Pros : Drive there in the comfort of your own car, no noisy public throng to sit with.
Cons : Parking spaces might be limited. Getting there and back might take a while due to traffic congestion.

Map to KL
Map to KLCC
Map to KLCC (2)
Map to KL Convention Centre

(Have a look at all of them to get a better picture of things)

If you are driving, here are your parking options:

1. Take the first left after the Mandarin Oriental Hotel from Jalan Pinang up the ramp to the access to the car parking below the Centre.
2. Park in KLCC Suria Car Park and exit to the Concourse level Centre Court. Make your way past Cold Storage to the Guardian Pharmacy where there is a walkway through to the Convention Centre. Take the elevator to the Ground Floor where you will be directed to the Registration area.

#3. Alternatives

• Take a cab there. No parking contrainsts to worry about. If you are in a taxi or a chauffeured car, approach the Centre along Jalan Pinang and turn left into the main entrance (second turn after the Mandarin Oriental Hotel) for dropping off.
• Shop all day at KLCC. Wait till the concert and catch a movie after. Everyone would have disappeared by then.

That's all for now folks! Start whipping out those albums you want autographed and a plethora of pens if you want the bassist to sign in one colour and the drummer another. I'm off to memorize them lyrics!

Switchfoot in Malaysia!

I CAN'T FREAKING BELIEVE IT!

SWITCHFOOT IS COMING TO MALAYSIA NEXT YEAR!

(Falls into hysterical fits, faints, and falls flat on the floor)

For the record, I've never used Switchfoot and Malaysia in the same sentence before. But now I have! I really can die in peace now.

If you don't quite believe me, and think that it's probably another case of me having too much to drink (yes, Chinese tea does that oftentimes) you can check it out on the official Switchfoot website.

Switchfoot.com

Or if you trust me to be a legit source of legit information, the table below says it all.









2nd February 08, people! Any takers? I die die also want to go.

I mean, this is Switchfoot we're talking about! Only my favouritest bestest band in the hole-wide-wurld!

As someone phrased it to near perfection,

'please oh Dear God, let me go to this concert! Amen.'

I'm still in shock, so my spelling and grammar wentr down the drain.

EDIT : I'm assuming this is the first concert Switchfoot is having in Malaysia, since I've not heard of any other prior to this one. It's probably (now, I say probably because I don't know) their maiden tour into South East Asia as well, so be sure to support them! They'll be passing through Indonesia (Jakarta) and Singapore before they hit the muddy shores of Kuala Lumpur (for those who don't know, Lumpur is Malay for mud)!

What the Pun?

If you've noticed, the title for my blog here is no longer 'I eat, therefore I ham'.







If you've never understood it in the first place, let me do it justice by explaining how it came about.

Rene Descartes, a famous philosopher once said 'Cogito ergo sum' which from Latin means 'I think, therefore I am'. He famously used the phrase in one of his works to, uh. . .to keep it short and very simple, he used it to convince himself that he existed. Or something to that effect.

On my side of the coin, I aptly replaced 'think' with 'eat' since I'd prefer to eat than to think anyway. It sort of reflects the Malaysian in me as well (If it wasn't obvious enough for you to notice, Malaysians love their food).

And the ham part was plain silly. My name is Jonathan Mah and most people refuse to utter anything more that two syllables when calling me, so it was cut (very) short to JonMah (no space summore!). So that's how the whole 'Hamnoj' thing came about, it's actually my name spelled backwards.

And back where we left off. I think therefore I am. As you can probably guess, AM became HAM and as they (WHO ARE THEY, ANYWAY?) say, the rest is history.

But more recently I've renamed it 'Veni, Vidi, Vedere', as you can see up there. It's another pun, a play on Julius Caesar's famous quotation 'Veni, Vidi, Vici' which means 'I came, I saw, I conquered'.

'Edere' is eat. Haha, yes, you guessed it! All the words being in first person perfect present tense, I assumed 'Vedere' would mean 'I eat'. Not the most grammatically sound pun around, but it should work. Typical Malaysian ingenuity, eh?

And so, welcome everyone, to the new hamnoj.blogspot.com.

I came, I saw, I ate.

Scones

I bet it won't come to you as a surprise that I'll be writing on scones. Yes, scones, those scrumptious round things the English eat for tea with their jam and tea.

Well, since it's the holidays, I thought it would be a good opportunity to pick up some handy skills, like cooking to keep yourself alive. With the advent of the internet, you can get recipes pretty easily.

I found 'Cameron Highlands: Scones Recipe' with a link to download some scone recipes.














The iconic tea plantations of Cameron Highlands. Picture by TS Bok here.

This is the site : Click me.

And this is the link for the recipe file : Click me too.
(it's a pdf file so you'll need Adobe Reader)

I walked out to the shops to get some flour after looking through the recipe, since we didn't seem to have any at home. The ingredients weren't too tough to get, and it seemed deceivingly simple to bake your own scones.

So I got the ingredients ready, measured the flour and everything meticulously, beat my eggs, heated up the oven, the usual stuff. The recipe called for two tablespoons of sugar and half a teaspoon of salt for taste. I didn't take any pictures here since my hands were sticky with dough.

Apparently, the key to getting good scones is not to overmix the dough mixture. It has to clump together jump nicely without being too saturated or you'll get tough scones. Right, everything looked set for baking. I stuffed the tray in the oven for about 15minutes. It didn't take too long for the aromatic molecules of smell to diffuse through the air. It actually smelled pretty good (and actually edible!).

The oven bell went 'ding' and with anticipation I opened the oven door and pulled the warm tray out, with my lovely little scones sitting proudly and puffed up. There were a luscious golden hue, screaming EAT ME! in nice little rows.

Temptation indeed.

As soon as it was cool enough to eat, I popped one in my mouth with great relish. I had done everything right, so rightfully, it should taste pretty darn good. I sat tensed, eagerly awaiting the burst of flavour that would soon erupt and take me to pastry heaven.

Well, let's just say it wasn't what I expected.

Simply put, it was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay


SALTY.

My expression must have looked like this :
















It turns out I mistook sugar for salt, and salt for sugar. There must have been like 10 times more salt than was needed so I had to gulp down cups of water. Darn it. I did everything else right but messed up the salt and sugar.

Stupid laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

The only thing I could do then was to throw them away. But not before I took some pictures. Since I wouldn't be eating them anyway.

=.=















Real scones are supposed to be a little taller and rounder. I don't know what mine are supposed to resemble.















They look so good, but taste just so bad. Bah, the irony!

Treewhoring

Whee! I'm on a roll. 3 consecutive posts in a day.

Just to make up for the extreme wordiness of the previous two posts, I'll dedicate this one to pictures of my Christmas tree. Trust me, I can't stand reading too many words either.

Now that I've got meself an dSLR, I just walk around the house every now and then snapping pictures of anything and everything. So when the Christmas tree popped up, I really couldn't help myself.

Mind you, I'm still a budding photographer so my shots aren't exactly great. Here goes.















A screenshot of my picture folder. Most of the pictures you see here are the 'final' versions of the shot. Prior to this I shot an average of 10 shots just to get the one I wanted. Pretty tough work, for newbies like myself.
















One of the ornaments hanging on my tree. It's a mirror with the silhouette of an angel on it. Pretty.
















Camwhoring with the tree? Treewhoring. It deserves its own place in the Olympics.


















In Black&White. I thought I'd try something different.
















It's a glass ball. Catches the light quite nicely, dontcha think?
















A hidden gem in the dark?
















A personal favourite, the Gingerfairyman. It was made by an orphan and we bought it some years ago. Since then, it has been a regular feature on our tree.

The Light Side

If chain mails are the dark side of the whole 'Forwarded Emails' scene, then theres obviously a light side to the force, uh . . . I mean, mails. (Obviously someone has had too much Star Wars indoctrination)

On the lighter side, there are messages with genuine information that crop up from time to time, which are out to shock, amaze and sometimes, disgust readers. Some are actually a pleasure to read (mebbe not the disgusting ones).

Some we don't have to read at all! Mails with lots of pictures are welcome anyday. They're not so wordy and confoundingly counfounding, like what my blog is becoming. (Oh the Hamanity!)

For example, a mail forwarded (Sourced from this site) :

Subject: FW: they're gonna need a bigger wall in china!

































































Commentary :

Although the rabbit depicted in these photographs may seem almost unbelievably large, it is (or was) in fact a real animal and the images are authentic. According to a February 2007 Washington Post article, the colossal bunny in the pictures is a German gray giant named "Robert" who weighed in at at whopping 23 pounds (10.4 kilograms). The man holding Robert is Karl Szmolinsky, a long-time rabbit breeder who lives in Eberswalde, a town in eastern Germany.

Szmolinsky and his giant rabbits gained the attention of the media after he agreed to sell some of his animals to the North Koreans to be used in a breeding program designed to help alleviate chronic food shortages in that country. Because of the large size of the breed, North Korean diplomats felt that Szmolinsky's rabbits would be a good choice as breeding stock. Indeed, Szmolinsky notes that each of his giant rabbits can yield up to 15 pounds (6.8 kilograms) of tender meat.

In December 2006, a collection of carefully selected rabbits, including Robert, was transported to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Szmolinsky was later informed that the rabbits arrived safely in North Korea.

Sadly, what happened to Robert and the other bunnies after their arrival is somewhat unclear. The secretive North Koreans remain tight-lipped about the success or failure of the breeding program. In fact, Mr Szmolinsky later received word that the rabbits he supplied may have been eaten at a birthday banquet for North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, rather than used as breeders as he intended. Thus, poor Robert may no longer be with us.

The email subject-line of this version of the message, "they're gonna need a bigger wall in china!", may seem somewhat cryptic to recipients who do not live in Australia. The line references a very popular television advertisement shown in Australia in which a father, struggling to think of a factual answer, finally tells his young son that the Great Wall of China was built to "keep the rabbits out". According to the ad, if only the dad had Bigpond broadband connected at home, he would have been able to give his youngster the correct answer. This clever ad and its follow-ups are very well known in Australia and the "dad" has become a minor celebrity. The following video of the ad should make the China wall reference clearer:



In case you can't quite catch what they're saying in that accent of theirs, I've typed it out for you.

Kid : Dad, why did they build the great wall of China?
Dad : That...that was during a time of Emperor Nasi Goreng and uh, it was to keep the rabbits out. Too many rabbits, in China.

Emperor Nasi Goreng, haha. Just classic.

Spam (REAL spam)

Recently I received one of those forwarded mails that seem to be floating endlessly around the internet. You delete them over and over again, only to find someone else sending you the same message.

It gets pretty annoying.

Probably the thing I hate most about these chain mails is the immense length of that list of email addresses you have to scroll through. I'm sure you know what I mean.

So what happened was I received a mail claiming that Microsoft would give me lots of money if I forwarded it to my many Uncles, Aunties and friends.

Here something that you might want to read it was on the news .
Subject: FW: PLEEEEEASE READ!!!! It was on the news!

Dear friends,

Something to share with all of u. Would u believe if this is true? Read on..... For those who need money badly and this is one opportunity to try it! I'm an attorney, and I know the law. This thing is for real. Rest assured AOL and Intel will follow through with their promises for fear of facing a multimillion-dollar class action suit similar to the one filed by PepsiCo against General Electric not too long ago.

Dear Friends,

Please do not take this for a junk letter. Bill Gates is sharing his fortune. If you ignore this you will repent later. Microsoft and AOL are now the largest Internet companies and in an effort to make sure that Internet Explorer remains the most widely used program, Microsoft and AOL are running an e-mail beta test. When you forward this e-mail to friends, Microsoft can and will track it (if you are a Microsoft Windows user) for a two week time period. For every person that you forward this e-mail to, Microsoft will pay you $245.00, for every person that you sent it to that forwards it on, Microsoft will pay you $243.00 and for every third person that receives it, you will be paid $241.00. Within two weeks, Microsoft will contact you for your address and then send you a cheque.

Regards.

Charles S. Bailey
General Manager Field Operations
[CONTACT DETAILS REMOVED]

I thought this was a scam myself, but two weeks after receiving this e-mail and forwarding it on, Microsoft contacted me for my address and within days, I received a cheque for US$24,800.00. You need to respond before the beta testing is over. If anyone can afford this Bill Gates is the man. It's all marketing expense to him. Please forward this to as many people as possible. You are bound to get at least US$10,000.00.

We're not going to help them out with their e-mail beta test without getting a little something for our time. My brother's girlfriend got in on this a few months ago. When I went to visit him for the Baylor/UT game. She showed me her check. It was for the sum of $4,324.44 and was stamped "Paid In Full".

Like I said before, I know the law, and this is for real Intel and AOL are now discussing a merger which would make them the largest Internet company and in an effort make sure that AOL remains the most widely used program, Intel and AOL are running an e-mail beta test.

Pffft! What rubbish. Honestly,with no offense whatsoever to whoever sent me the mail, how can you be naive enough to believe that you could get "at least US$10,000" just by sending out a stupid mail. And if I WERE Bill Gates, I wouldn't just go around giving my money like that. I'd rather throw it away in a densely populated area, where I'd create a commotion of some kind. Stop traffic, even.

PLEASE, people. Use that mound of matter between your ears before forwarding mails of any sort. A simple search would verify your mail. Take for instance, those mails claiming to be from Hotmail claiming that you need to pay for your email unless you forward it to everyone on your mailing list.

Hello everyone I'm the chief executive of Hotmail and we're telling you to forward this to everyone you know so we won't delete your account, even that would go against the Consumer Law and numerous other laws you don't know about and would give you the right to sue us tenfold for breach of contract. Even though you have no credible evidence that I am telling the truth, you should just believe me because I say so and you are a gullible fool. So send this to everyone you know! Have a good day.

Mr. Bob
Chief Exec of Something

If a huge service provider like Hotmail were to seriously consider an action like that, it would probably have it's own page in the news. And they would probably send out and official mail to your inboxes. And why pay anyway? Server hosting is getting ridiculously cheap

I'm getting worked up just typing this out.

If you must know, I never forward 'Forwarded' mails that come my way. So what if I don't get the love of my life in the next 24 hours? So what if the bloody phone doesn't ring within the next 5 minutes? So what if I'm eternally condemned to being unlucky?

If the emails were somehow, mysteriously all-powerful and capable of giving me cooties Where-It-Itches-Most, I couldn't really care less. Considering the number of chain mails I've deleted, I should have accumulated enough bad luck for me to be tripping at every step I take and breaking every bone in my body, including my ossicles (little bones in your ear) for at least three lifespans. I should be waking up to being haunted by a ghost of a little girl under my bed every other day.

HONESTLY!

I wouldn't mind spam so much if there were pretty pictures to look at, though.

Picture Day

About a week back, the family took a (very) long drive down to our kiasuer-than-thou neighbours, the little island called Singapore. Probably the only thing I remember doing there, besides having scrumptious meals paid for by rich relatives, is forking out lots of (my dad's) money.

Now, if you remember me drooling over a particular contraption that takes photographs here, I am quite proud to say that I am currently the owner of a brand new, spankingly brilliant Canon 400D.


















(Rapturous applause)
(yes lah I syok sendiri, don't go around bursting my bubble)

***We got ripped-off though. The owner of the shop charged us a whopping $ 115 Sing-Dollah for an extra battery and some other things too. Back then, I was way too elated to notice the price. A good rule of thumb is to avoid establishments that don't advertise their prices. Depending on whether or not the keepers like you, they adjust their prices accordingly at their own leisure and discretion. To their credit though, the shopkeeper was a fantastic salesman who actually talked my dad (MY DAD) into buying the camera. If we weren't ripped-off ever so subtly, we might not have gotten the thing in the first place. Sigh, you win some, you lose some.

If you ever get a dSLR, the one thing you have to know is that it involves quite a steep learning curve, unless you've got a natural flair for the darn thing. I know I don't.

Most people who are looking at taking the jump from your average compact point and shoot cameras end up buying a big, bulky SLR only to be intimidated by the numerous buttons and dials all over. In the end, those Rm4000+ babies aren't used to their fullest advantage, with the owners resignedly turning the settings to Auto and letting the camera do the thinking for them.

My dad and I took a trip down to the Curve today, in hopeful search of photo opportunities. You really have to practice to be a good photographer. Anyway, I initially thought myself to be acceptably good at photography, since I pick things up pretty quickly (generally anyway, dancing is a whole other matter) .

I took a whole bunch of pics, but they're so ugly I cringe at the sight of them. I'll be nicer to you lot though; I picked the pictures that don't look so bad.
















































I've always loved this effect, the water just looks so . . . wet. Forgive my lack of adequate adjectives, my brain is hibernating at the moment.

Wishful thinking

Christmas is just round the corner, and more people are buying into the over-commercialized facade it has (unfortunately) become.

But don't let that stop you from buying me something. (Grins cheerfully)

I have a picture and a few words. Not that I'm hinting at anything. Nothing at all, really.















It's a booke, in case ye might'st be wonderin'.

And just COINCIDENTLY, it's up for sale on amazon.com for a petty $0.36 cents. Even after the conversion rate, it's unthinkably cheap. Have a look at it here.

Factor in the shipping costs, and you'll leave three people with that warm, fuzzy feeling in their stomachs this Christmas, (namely, me, you, and Mr. Seller) without breaking the bank.

What's in a brand name?

I'm back, everyone. I've been out of the scene for a while because of the school's Performance & Awards Nite but more on that later. The last time I posted it was the start Hari Raya, and now it's Deepavali. Woah, that's been quite a while. Seeing that, the next time I post it might be Christmas.

Happy Deepavali, everyone. For Malaysians, any occasion for a holiday is reason enough to rejoice, so everyone is happy :)
















The festival of lights, Diwali (or Deepavali in Malaysia).
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"What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet."

-William Shakespeare

So, what's in a brand name then? Even as we go about our daily lives, we can't ever escape the reality of the brand-conscious, material world we live in. In the news, ads, mainstream media, just everywhere we are bombarded with the subtleties that have become synonymous with the big world of Marketing.

Whether we like it or not, most of us have an ever growing compilation of the Hot or Not brands in our heads. We just can't run far enough.

Then you look at those who have made a name for themselves. Those who live on forever immortalized as a brand. Even if the person fades into history, a brand seems to live on endlessly. Famous examples, of course, abound plentifully. Just glance down the aisle in a mall and names pop up everywhere to greet you.






Chanel, named after founder Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel. My grandma calls it 'Cher-niao'.

So, what is in a brand name?

I have no idea.

Alright, prelude over. You didn't seriously think for a moment I was about to discuss materialism in the context of modern fashion, did you? Anyway, here's the story.

There's this person that I know, and she happens to be a classmate of mine. Meet Agnes Sia Hui Bing, Petronas scholar and Physics extraordinaire.

















She's on the right, mind you. That person on the left IS a guy, in case you're mistaken. A great one, at that.

















Pictured here in the Sri KDU Library. What are we doing camwhoring in the library? Note the SMKDJ tie. Old loyalties die hard.

Just imagine how weird it was when I found this in the bathroom. (apparently, it came free in a goodie bag sometime ago)
























OMG, it's Agnesia! What would Agnes Sia say?

















That's just . . . wrong.