Dimples

You know what? I never knew I had a small dimple in my right cheek till...last year, I think. My mom has two, one on each side, and says she 'gave' one each to my sister and me; my sister's dimple is on her left cheek. Cute.

I like dimples. They just suddenly appear when you smile (or, in some cases, sing *cough*) and they're just adorable. I'd like to say more now, but I don't think I should. Not here, anyway, hee.

Off to the book sale in a bit, couldn't park yesterday. I should go get ready. See ya.

I Am the Wal-- I MEAN BOOKWORM

We're going to the Big, Bad Wolf book sale tomorrow at Amcorp Mall, and my mom insisted we go through our vast collection of books (it's like a mini-library, really) and set aside the ones we don't want before buying some more. My sister and I sat there for over an hour of disgusted snorts and debates before coming up with a sizable pile of unwanted books. I just counted -- there are thirty-eight of them. And, as my sister pointed out, that's only a fraction of the total amount of books we have...on that shelf alone. We both have more in our respective rooms.

Good grief. I mean, yeah, I spent most of my childhood with my nose stuck in a book, but I never realised we had that many. Going through our books is a yearly thing too, so it's not like we're hauling out all our kiddy books -- those were gone a long time ago.

BUT ANYWAY, more books tomorrow, yay. Our father spoils us, hee.

P.S. In relation to the title of this post, I'm listening to The Beatles right now and actually liking it. Guess it just took me a while to take to them, eh? I don't actually like I Am the Walrus, though; way too trippy for my liking.

The Pugsy incident

On Saturday, we went to the dog event thing at Central Park, Bandar Utama with the Pug in tow. It was pleasant enough, though I think we've been kind of spoilt by the Dogathon, which is a much bigger event with more stalls. We spent all of an hour there before coming back home.

Later in the afternoon, Pugsy was kind of going nuts. She ran everywhere, rubbing her muzzle all over stuff, scratching it like mad. She suddenly stopped and looked up to stare at me when I approached her. There was something...weird about her face. It looked a bit lopsided, I thought. Then I realised her muzzle was swollen, a little bit more on one side than the other.

I've suddenly lost the urge to blog. Ah, I'll carry on anyway.

We rushed her to the vet which was closing in fifteen minutes. He took one look at her and went, "Oh! This is an allergic reaction!" He gave Pugsy a shot on her hind leg (she jumped when the needle went in, but by the time she'd turned round to investigate, he'd already deftly pulled the needle out) and that was it. In minutes, there was a visible difference in the swelling.

According to the vet, she might not have lasted the night. Plus, he'd be shut the next day. Pugs are short muzzled dogs, so she would've had trouble breathing. Gosh.

Thank God we got her there in time. And thank God for Dr. Steven Yuen.

We Will Rock You

I'm watching it again, yes, shh. I swear, the curtain calls get me every time. I love the Bohemians so much, with their dancing and pretty costumes. They look so playful, almost carefree; they spin around and leap and twirl, taking their bows and prancing off to make way for the next row.

Tony Vincent being so aw-shucks after holding the longest note ever makes my heart want to burst. That last note of We Are the Champions was just insanely long, and it took me a bit to realise he never paused at all.

But really, it's mostly the Bohemians that makes me so happy. They look so...magical? I can't find a word to describe it. I love them.

Eee, this musical makes me happy like no other.

P.S. I have a new story up. It's based on Owl City's Fireflies and, um, Peter Pan. Interested? :D

Prefects Camp 2009 (Part II)

So the Night Walk. We were given paper and pencil to 'write down our feelings'. Um, okay, that would've been dandy if: a) it hadn't started drizzling and, b) it weren't pitch freaking black. Seriously, we were just walking and walking and walking down the road while the rest were being spaced apart, and it would've made no difference if Id been walking with my eyes shut if it weren't for everyone's white T-shirts.

A faci (short for 'facilitator') pulled me out of the line, sitting me down at the side of the road. I could see people across the road, as well as up and down the stretch of road. I could also hear some of them -- laughing, talking -- which annoyed me; we'd been told to keep quiet, sit, and think. I recognised some of them (at least, I thought I did), but no names, sorry.

After sitting on the damp road for ten to fifteen minutes, thinking about my life and self/feeling the wetness seep into the seat of my trackbottoms/realising how much the people I could see resembled lost, wandering spirits (one's imagination tends to kick into overdrive in the dark at night), we were told that we could get up and start walking. Suddenly, there were shouts to stop. 'Bro' went up and down the line twice, doing a head count. An airhorn sounded somewhere behind us, and that was when we realised something was amiss.

'Bro' screamed for 'Bobby' (our Head Prefect has a new name, yo) and it was announced that we were a person short. Khairul went down the line twice, asking each white T-shirt for their name as 'Bro' berated us for not listening to instructions and talking while we were supposed to be thinking: "Don't blame me, you were the people who didn't listen. Now you see what has happened?" While I agreed that those who were talking and laughing deserved a screwing, all I could think was, This is not our fault. Khairul ordered us to split into groups and do a head count to see who was missing as Bro berated him for "not knowing all your prefects". Um, hi, there were ninety-three of us, a fraction of which are from the afternoon session. Could you really blame Khairul?

No, I was not feeling very kindly towards 'Bro' right then. Not at all.

It was discovered that a F2 boy named Cjan Wai was missing. He's a skinny, bespectacled boy who looks like he'd get an asthma attack from just stepping into the jungle, so imagining him lost and alone in said jungle was, well, quite awful.

However, doubt niggled at my brain. Something didn't feel right. Why were 'Bro' and the facis so calm? Why wasn't anything being done? Was it a hoax to teach us some sort of lesson?

From the head of the line, Khairul yelled for the DOs, AOs, and the afternoon session Head Prefect. As I ran, I was pretty torn -- my head told me that it wasn't real, but Khairul never yells. I wanted to not believe it, but the thing stopping me was the horrible thought of it actually being real and my not wanting to lift a finger to help because I didn't buy it.

We were told to go back along the road and look for him. We'd managed to get torchlights from random prefects, but 'Bro' forbade us to use them. No torchlights, no calling his name. Hell, we might as well have been taking a one a.m. stroll, in that case. Since there were eight of us (morning and afternoon session Head Prefects, three DOs, and three AOs), I suggested that we split into two rows and walk along the edges of the road, since that was where we were placed.

So we walked. In the pitch black darkness. Very tense. We walked all the way back to the school (what ulu school is built at the edge of the jungle?), and nothing. Khairul said we were forbade to enter the jungle, so we stood at the border, called his name a few times, and left. On the way back, we looked extra hard, just in case. That was around when I started feeling dizzy. JJ told Hwa Hong to catch me if I fell, ha.

We got back to see everyone sitting down on the road, still in the same line, near the resort. 'Bro' was asking (if you ask me) stupid, irrelevant questions that seemed to only serve to terrify us. "What did he call his mom? No, I said how did he address his mother?" Blah blah blah, and I sat down, getting more pissed by the second. Apparently the stupid kid had brought his handphone along to the Night Walk, gotten bored, and called Mummy.

After some time, a faci approached us from the direction of the resort. He had by the elbow a red jacketed boy. From the groans and shouts and general outcry, I gathered this was the supposedly lost F2 boy.

"Do you know how many people hate you now, boy?" asked 'Bro'.

"Yes," he said, unfazed. He sounded almost cheerful.

"Do you know why you were chosen? Do you know why, out of all these ninety-three people, you were chosen?"

And that's when I knew what had happened.

The boy had gotten caught playing games and making calls on his handphone. He had been pulled out and brought back to the resort. They'd faked the whole thing to teach us a lesson for talking.

I was so mad I could've killed a puppy.

'Bro' heard me ranting to Edmund, and went, "Whoooaaa!"

Without hesitating, I turned to him and cried, "Why did you do this to us?!"

HAH, he was shocked. He didn't know what to say, and just looked away.

I was pretty upset the rest of the night. Called Herman before going to shower to just...let everything out. Thankyou for dealing with me, homo. I couldn't think of anyone else to call. (:

You wanna know something funny? As I was walking back to our apartment alone, Herman and Husi were heading up the stairs to their apartment, but hung around when they saw me coming, doing that awkward 'Yeah, I'm just standing here doing nothing, s'all cool, man' thing. If I hadn't been so mad, I would've laughed for sure. They both looked slightly wary, okay.

I growled, "I am really fucking pissed right now." Ha, like it hadn't been obvious enough from my black face. I don't remember if Herman said anything, but Husaini went:

"Just, ah, drink more water. *mimes drinking water*"

LMAO, AWKWAAARD. I hear I am very scary when I am mad, so that might've been a contributing factor, ahaha.

Anyway, I got over myself. And 'Bro' tried to rectify his mistake at the end of camp. He said that people all hated Cjan Wai, but it was really his fault, and he knew he made some people hate him that night. (Cue smirk.) I think he said he was sorry. So okay la. During that last part of camp, the people I had problems with apologised (whether they meant it or not), so I got over myself and decided to forget about it.

After blogging, that is. Which I have now done.

It's sad that that was our last prefects camp. In my opinion, there were more cons than pros, but oh, well. It was what it was, I suppose.

Now that I've finally finished blogging about the Night Walk, I am going to go to bed. The computer clock says it's 12:34 AM and I keep making typos. TIME FOR SLEEP.

Goodnight, world.

Prefects camp 2009 (Part I)

Imo, there isn't really much to say. The things I do have to say aren't good things, which makes me think maybe I should keep them to myself. Last year's camp was wayyy better -- maybe it was the R&R periods we got. This year was better from the aspect that most of my friends were there, which made it better. (I get byyy withalittlehelp from my friends!) Since I'm too lazy to type out everything in order and all, I'll make a list and elaborate on each number. Here goes.

YAY:

1. Friends came along
This year there was Sze Li, Sarah, Ee Won, and Husi in addition to JJ, Choo Hong, and Edmund, so that was nice. (: Not to say that I don't have friends on the rest of the board, it's just these are the people I talk to the most. On the last night (before the last night, rather; before the jungle trekking), I was insisting that nobody sleep, because it was the LAST NIGHT of our LAST PREFECTS CAMP EVERRR. Choo Hong and I went down to Sze Li, JJ, and Ee Won's rom for a sleepover sort of thing that didn't actually involve us sleeping over. We had Hot Cup and Chipsmore and talked. We ended up getting a whopping two hours of sleep. (I'm thinking twooo is beeetter than NOOONE. :D)

2. Jungle trekking was a shorter trail
I think we took Hemmant Trail last year, whereas it was Bishop Trail this time. Plus, I doused me socks, shoes, ankles, and legs with mosquito repellent (I smelled good) and DID NOT GET BITTEN BY LEECHES, AHAHA. Jungle trekking is an excellent way to bond, I must admit. It's a beautiful thing to see people literally lending a hand to help others during the tough parts of the trail. I hear Hwa Hong saved Herman's life. How sweet.

3. Missing morning exercise -- both days
Because there wasn't enough time, the AJK and BOD meetings had to be held during morning exercise. I relished this fact, particularly the morning after jungle trekking.

4. Losing some of the weight I put on during the examination period
Our room was four floors up with no lift. Our luggage bags became doubly heavy after just walking up the slope to our block -- imagine tackling all those flights of stairs. (See also: number 2 in BOO.)

5. Realising that most guys here really are gentlemen
a) Husaini was super-patient with Ee Won who clung to his back like a scared cat all throughout jungle trekking.
b) Edmund helped me with the steep parts of the trail, also during jungle trekking.
c) Thayaalan offered to help me with my bag, insisting that his own were 'super-light'.
Who says chivalry is dead? (:

6. Treasure Hunt
Even though we never got the answers, I like it because it required us to use our brains, something I usually enjoy doing. We even talked to some of the (amused) locals. Go Red Hot!

7. Two groups
We were split into two different groups for different parts of the camp, so it was a chance to get to know more people. (:

BOO:
1. Night Walk
You know that thing where they make you sit alone in the dark in some unfamiliar place and think about yourself and your life? Yeah, they did that. Actually, wait, you know what? I'll dedicate an entire section to this part. It's too long to be a number. Moving on...

2. Sucky location of room
Our room was four floors up with no lift. Our luggage bags became doubly heavy after just walking up the slope to our block -- imagine tackling all those flights of stairs. (See also: number 4 in YAY.)

3. Amount of sleep we got
Over those three days, I'd only gotten seven hours of sleep, if you count the nap on the bus ride home. I kept bouncing from HYPER to manI'msotired.

4. (Edit: Removed. But there is a number 4.)

5. The air
It was kind of hard to breathe at times. I was thinking it was because the air was cold and my lungs don't handle cold air very well (hooray for asthma), but Husi said it was because the air was thin. Sze Li said the same thing. Hmm.

6. The weather
Have you ever tried going jungle trekking when it's raining? The canopy of trees mostly shields you from the rain, but the trail gets horribly muddy (I'm talking shoes-stuck-in-the-mud muddy, okay) and slippery.
It's lovely, you should try it sometime.

7. The money system
I didn't get it at all. Teams got fake money for every 'good' thing they did but fined for every 'bad' thing. I would've been in favour of the system had bodek-ing bro not been considered a 'good' thing. They were basically teaching us to suck up, no?

8. The juniors
I'm trying not to be ageist or anything, but almost all of them really, really need to grow up. Some of them need to stop ordering everyone around (ordering seniors around, no less), thinking that they are grown up. Pretty much every encounter I had with a junior was not a good one, and I had quite a few. Even Pn. Maha told them to their collective faces,"Grow. Up." I do think most of them are nice people, they're just pretty immature. The good thing was, Alexandrea apologised on behalf of all the F1s and F2s at the end of the camp, so, okay la.

I'll post the Night Walk part tomorrow. My fingers are tired, and damn, that thing's long. I write too much for my own good.

Tomorrow, I promise. Or the day after.

Overall, prefects camp was all right. To me, it was a chance for me to get to know my fellow prefects better, which I did, so mission accomplished, I suppose. (:

I hope poor Khairul's nickname doesn't stick.

Novel

The reason I haven't blogged about prefects camp yet is because I have too much to say. It's taken up six pages in my journal already, and I'm still not freaking done. Also, I've been working on the layout of the ~new blog, and I like how it's turning out. Waiting for a good date to unveil it, hee.

I'll try to finish it tonight. Heck, I'll start typing out some of the six pages now. You don't get to see it till later, though.

My fingers are going to hate me.

Off I go

Prefects camp in a few hours' time and I haven't even packed. So disciplined, I am.

See you in three days, blog. I'll finally have ample blogging fodder by then, hopefully. (:

Low

I'm starting to think
that I really don't mean shit to anyone.

):

Exams

Hello, readers. The examination period is one of self-destruction for me. Impossibly few hours of sleep, too much food, too little water, agh.

I've been waking up in the wee hours of the morning to study 'cause I'm just way too tired the night before.

However, God's been very good to me so far. For one thing, I haven't fallen sick yet. For another, well, I'll explain it another time.

I keep spelling 'conversation' as 'conservation' and 'talent' as 'latent'. Physics 2 was today, you see.

THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY. I'm going to bed now. Goodnight.

Kaulah laguku, kau irama terindah

Kau Pergi by Aizat, from the Yasmin Ahmad movie Talentime. GO LISTEN TO IT.

Sepi tanpa kata
Terdiam dan kaku tak daya kau kulupa
Apa pun kata mereka
Biarkan kenangan berbunga di ranting usia
Hujan lebat mencurah kini
Bagaikan tiada henti
Kaulah laguku, kau irama terindah
Tak lagi kudengari

I'm tabbing the guitar parts after the finals and prefects camp. It's a reallyreally pretty song. First heard it when my dad showed us this clip as a tribute to Yasmin Ahmad; the song was really fitting. Why did I not listen to it again sooner?

In other news! Joey, Jacie and Hidayah all cut their hair. Short, I mean. I did the same thing right after my PMR, ahaha. However, the sudden influx of girls with short hair makes me not want to cut mine before prefects camp as I originally intended to. I'm still going ahead with it, though. Long hair takes an insanely long amount of time to dry in Fraser's Hill. Choo Hong's cutting her hair short too, so I won't be alone with my new short hair. :D

I'm gonna miss my current hair length a lot, it's nice when I let it down. It'll be nice to have short hair again, though.

Enough. Back to Physics/Sejarah. I can't take Chemistry anymore.

Come Home

I'm kind of in love with Come Home by Onerepublic and Sara Bareilles. It's a really pretty song, I think, even if Ryan Tedder and Sara Bareilles' voices don't harmonise very well.

Right now there's a war between the vanities
But all I see is you and me
And the fight for you is all I've ever known
So come home

What would be even better is an acoustic, stripped-down version of the song. I mean, it's pretty stripped-down as it is, but imagining the two of them sitting together on a stage with just Ryan on guitar is just love.

I don't know what it is with me and mellow songs lately. Maybe I need more calm in my life.

Darn fireworks

Studying right now is pret-ty annoying.

Bicarbonate ions -- BOOM -- combine with hydrogen -- BOOM -- ions to form -- BOOM -- carbonic -- bark bark bark! -- acid in the -- BOOM -- red -- barkbarkbark! -- blood cells.

Pugsy really doesn't like them Deepavali fireworks.

Goodbye, everybody, I've got to go

I'll be on hiatus from tomorrow till after the finals. Normally, I'm not this nerdy, but it hit me a while ago how much there is to cover. The whole cramming thing I have sworn by since, well, primary school, probably, is not gonna work this time. Besides, the lack of sleep made me fall sick all the time, and I certainly don't want to fall sick more than I already do.

Also, I am trying to prove to myself that I do in fact have some self-control. I need to do well in these finals.

ON TO NON-EXAM-RELATED THINGS.

A friend of mine started laughing at and teasing me a while back 'cause I've been talking to Hwa Hong a lot. I just looked at him and asked what was wrong with it. What I didn't say is that Hwa Hong is probably a million times more mature than he is. I will talk to anyone I like, thankyouverymuch. Assuming they want to talk to me too, anyway.

Sometimes my friends are just...ugh, I don't know. They just don't get things.

Went for Khairul's open house today. Omigosh, the rendang was goooooooood. Really.

That's all I have to say, really. Hopefully, I'll start blogging better when I get back.

See you, everyone.

Eh

I wish you would stop saying you're sorry and tell me what it is you think you did wrong. I'm not exactly sure if you're being sorry about the right thing, although you probably are.