Written by lainie at 01:29 AM on January 2, 2007 in Friends, Holidays / Road Trip, Stupid, but fun..

I just noticed I accidentally cut off the second half of my previous blog entry, and disabled commenting too. Fixed now, with photos, videos, and more words that I realised I'd typed.

I'm blur sometimes.

-----

I spent the new year with two friends on a purposeful getaway from city life, and throughout most of the holiday we left our cellphones switched off.

The three of us had decided on a holiday by the beach - another place people gather to avoid people, really. We avoided the more commercial side of the island, so it was quieter where we were. It was nice. We took a walk around the beach when we arrived, till it quickly got dark so we beered and played cards.

The next day we found a very quiet stretch on the beach, laid down towels, and alternated between getting tanned, or floating around in a very calm sea. I'd woken up much earlier than the two (I may be out of the city, but my screwed up body clock remains), so I found some huge rocks where I sat and watched some crabs feed, and lounged around till they woke up for lunch.

For the countdown, we lounged on lazy chairs by the pool near the sea (there was a small crowd at the beach), with some beers. We were the only ones there, and waited till the fireworks started.

All the other hotels had fireworks going on as well, so I walked with a friend towards the sea, where the reflection on the water made it look like one extra giant fireworks show was going on at our feet. It went on for a long time. Bloody colourful, very nice.

Walked back to the pool. We forgot to wish each other happy new year till later. There were some people there by then, guffawing away. The combination of stupid people and a swimming pool can come to only one conclusion - we changed locations before the natural equation was fulfilled.

I bought a canned drink, and wished the salesperson a happy new year as I collected my change. She gave me the type of glare people working on public holidays give brats like me.

I'm home now. Lit an annual candle for the 2004 tsunami (a lil late, sure, didn't have candles before that). I don't know why I only do it for the tsunami, and not every natural disaster. But, hey.

It was a long journey home, I'm glad tomorrow's a public holiday. I need a rest to recover from the relaxation my body is accustomed to now.

=====

Two contemplations from the holiday.

If I was like a hero in those old Chinese kungfu films, and I'd gone to the sea to train up my qi or whatever....I'd have turned into a beach bum, floating in water all day, using my kungfu to catch seafood.

HAIYAK!!! Steamed crabs for dinner..

And, if you thought your life sucked, take heart. You could be a chicken. You could be the weakest chicken amongst all the others, in a chicken farm.

The other chickens have been told for so long that their species tastes yummy, that they're contemplating cannibalism. You're the weakest link......and all the other chickens are quietly watching youuuuu....

Suggestion: Don't sleep.

=====

I got so used to being phoneless over the weekend, I left my cellphone with my friends. Damn.

I only switched my phone on for a while to message the usual - Daph, Nessa, Rach, Rish and Josie (even then, my phone rang frequently in the little while it took).

Lainie: Happy new year nerd.
Rish: Happy new year spaz.

Lainie: Happy new year babes.
Daph: Happy happy happy happy happy!

Hah. Much love.

[ I love the rest of y'all too, but don't take it personal, low on credit and you're far less likely to kill me than some of the people on that list. ]

Happy new year.

Written by lainie at 09:48 PM on January 2, 2007 in Daily Life.

I will remain cellphoneless until I say otherwise, yah?

I also can't log onto MSN, so if you have anything to say to me, every so often I check my email (or blog comments), if you must.

If you have any appointments, reminders, urgent messages...Yeah you might wanna consider emailing me, in all likelihood I have no idea a deadline is impending.

Lainie being Lainie,
Lainie.

Written by lainie at 02:17 AM on January 3, 2007 in Links / Email.

You know what I miss?

Blogs.

and

Bloggers.

How Petalingstreet.org has changed in a year.

---

So, Saddam's been executed...........................................

I'm wondering what to bother saying about fair trial and justice and all that, but I don't think I'll bother after all.

What I'd like to know is.....So. When they hangin Bush? Today?

Written by lainie at 07:14 PM on January 3, 2007 in Stupid, but fun..

THE LEANING TOWER OF!!!!!!!.......Teluk Intan.

Written by lainie at 02:44 AM on January 4, 2007 in Daily Life.

I can't say I've been trying very hard to get my phone back at all - it was passed on to Tei yesterday, under the assumption that I see her all the time. The trains had stopped running for the night by the time Tei answered her phone today. Not that I mind at all.

No phone = Minimal distractions = I have actually done the work I wanted to get done. I love it when once I start working and build up a momentum, how everything gets done so fast. Zip zip zippppp!

I was told to buck up in class today, and I deserved it too...sigh. Falling behind, mostly because my time management majorly sucks balls once a month. I have my period.

Nothing works when I have it. I end up feeling like someone took all the flesh out of my body and I'm left with this human facade that just wants to flop onto a bed and lie there all day.

Was trying to think up some concepts for the Komas thing in case I don't see my cellphone all week (and I'm starting to like being uncontactable) - I'd come up with some concepts before this, but they're stored in the cellphone. It's okay, I don't really mind, because this isn't sketches, just ideas.

The problem is....My brain is just.......sluggish. Has been past few days. Something about being tired leaves me incapable of generating ideas and I'm left staring at a blank paper, waiting for time to pass.

So it was a pleasant surprise to get to work, and get one section of typography, and a website, done on time.

And now, sleep. Without my cellphone, I have no alarm clock and rely on my screwy body clock to wake me up.

It's iffy, me going to sleep so early (before 3am), because I'm not sure how my body handles waking up from long hours of sleep? Ah well. ONLY ONE WAY TO FIND OUT!

TONIGHT I SLEEP, BABY!

Written by lainie at 06:17 PM on January 4, 2007 in College.

While the few of us were in class....

Faras: I call this karma.

And I agree. Right now, everything I do in class is not happening at all. We've been so used to bullying Imaya for so long, now she's sent her friend Foo to be our new typography lecturer, and he is seriously doing us in.

We were supposed to do a public service announcement using typography.

All the images you will see are roughs.


I call this the hippy "You may as well smoke marijuana and have orgies all day" traffic light. Got scolded for cheating on a typography assignment by .....Uh. Not using typography (technically, everything in there was typed out - there's a heart in quite a few font families).

So.....One of the few times I don't bother to cheat, and it turns out I was doing it all along. I had to revise the assignment and use words. Here are some of the studies I did:


I liked the second last one. Stop war, Go love. But Foo said people wouldn't get the message (would you?).

I couldn't think of anything to connect WAR-LOVE in the orange circle (and am frankly quite tempted to vector out a burger there, because that's how well my brain is working right now).

Finally decided to go with the last one, which was made to look like a stop sign. It looks fine here...


But doesn't apply as nicely. So I figured, screw telling people what to do, and just tell them what not to do:


I call this the "I Give Up, Hailat No More Ideas" stop sign. If I'm going to make it look like a stop sign, I may as well put it on a stop sign.

The most ironic thing for me is, this is actually how I used to vandalise the road signs near my home when I was a kid, balancing on my bicycle...Uh. The key words here being used to...I don't do it anymore, swear. Ever since my boobs grew, I can no longer balance on bikes anyway. Wahah.


Tentative solution.

Massive headache does not begin to describe what I feel right now. I'm actually nauseous.

-----

Anyone, suggestions? For traffic lights? I am kinda tired of this assignment. It started out fun though. Foo actually gave me some suggestions on what to do, but I couldn't figure out what he was saying. After he said a very long sentence:

Lainie: .......I don't get it.

Feel so stupid .

-----

Today was a replacement class (very last minute sicced upon me, might I add). Turns out there was class during the public holiday, which means at least two people misinformed me. Sigh.

Give up, give up, give up.

*Groan*. Period. Need. Sleep.

Written by lainie at 10:06 PM on January 5, 2007 in College.

Meifei's took over Ton's communications design class for a week as a favour, since he was overseas. She spent most of the time staring at us in horror. Meifei trained us in first year (and we all admit as much we learned heaps from her), and thought she might be impressed by how we've grown upon returning to us a lil while.

Anyhow, her week was spent watching us do pretty dismally for second year students. She laughed out loud at some of our presentations (her ridicule is marginally better than when she can't even find the humour).

Lainie: Oh, it's not a good sign when you laugh.....

She finished her final lesson, before handing us back to Ton next week, by telling us we'd need to MAJORLY buck up if we didn't want nasty surprises in our grades (I'm already expecting something nasty for Typography, which wouldn't be surprising at all).


This is my storefront proposal for the magic shop - This pic is the version with outlines of shelves in the background (based on my photo of their shop, assignment doesn't require a redesign of interiors). By the way, I didn't design the logo.

Magic Ring kinda makes me think of superb quality cock rings, or something.

A seamless black door that opens in the middle, like magic everytime it's pushed open. Rotating wands make a pair of wings. Magic Ring, Magic Wing, oh hah hah hah, geddit, geddit, Imsobrilliant shootmenow kthxbai. The wings are on a glass front so people can still look in (didn't want the shop to feel like a tiny shoebox).

Simple stuff. I'm just going to touch it up a lil bit more -kern their logo, first of all. Maybe change the wings a lil.

Pretty miserable day today. Bad stomach ache meant I kept from eating the whole day - it was either that or skip classes, so it wasn't much of a choie. Was taken by surprise because Fridays usually end at 1pm for me, but today....I got home at almost 7pm. I'd not slept the night before either, so that wasn't pretty at all.

Haggard and hungry by the end of the day, and Meifei was giving us a verbal tutorial on printing which completely flew over my head because I was pretty weakened by then. Hah. I don't function well at all without food.

By the time I walked home, heavy bag in tow, my legs were shaking (I'm all shook up, mmm mmm mmm) and I couldn't get the gate to open. I had this bad vision of me stuck outside the house because I wasn't strong enough to get in, which seemed to scream "LOSER" too much, so let's just say I eventually got in, touched up some work, and went to sleep for two hours.

And now I've Maggi mee, stomachache pills, and more college work than I want to think about.

I've decided to self-medicate with coffee and kahlua (alcohol is oooohness). I may actually be happier than anyone realises.

Written by lainie at 03:06 PM on January 6, 2007 in Friends, Links / Email.

Just woke up. Damn I need coffee.

June sent me a link to heaps of MP3 downloads off Pitchfork's top 100 of the year. I'm listening to Killer Mike's That's Life now (#12). Pretty cool.

=====

Does anyone know of local blogs that have art-sy stuff, at least every so often? Or Singaporean? Cause I love sites like Drawn!, but sometimes I just want to know what people around here are up to.

Doesn't necessarily have to be an arts-blog, mind. The occasional post is cool, too.

I'm thinking one example is SmashpOp and his popular "SmashpOp jump" photos, which always remind me of Philippe Halsman's jumpology photos.



I also like Puisy Poesy, but I'm thinking of something more....visual. Piccies I can look at.

Submit your own URL if you have one, submit someone else's if you know of it, and no worries, self promotion is currently being encouraged. Much thanks.

=====

I collected my cellphone back from Tei. We had been sitting one table away, waiting for each other for 15 minutes before she noticed me.

Tei: You know that show, "What Women Want"?
Lainie: No. And do tell me, what is this show you're...watching.
Tei: It's where this group of women get together, and every week they vote a man off.
Lainie: HAHA!.......Riiiiiiiight.
Tei: No really.

Jesus, which lesbian thought of that show?

It was past midnight by then (I had classes, then she had futsal). She offered to drive me to the taxi station after that.

Lainie: It's okayla, I'll walk.
Tei: Why?
Lainie: Really. I'll walk.
Tei: You just don't want to be seen in my car!

[ Beat up car it is, too ]

Lainie: Tei. The last thing I need is for anyone to see me in your car at this hour. What will people think of ME?

[ They can think whatever they damn well like about her ]

Lainie: This cafe is okay. You see this one foot of space between us? That is all that lies between our reputation.
Tei: Ahhhhh.

[ Pause ]

Then Tei starts shuffling her chair away from me.

Written by lainie at 11:57 AM on January 7, 2007 in Stupid, but fun..

I'm guessing this goes further back than anyone can remember, but at one point Nessa and I were pranking bookstores by taking religious books (mostly bibles) and putting them in the Fiction section. Did I ever blog about this, even? Or Nessa?

If you worked in a major bookstore around KL or Ipoh some time back, we may have given you cause to bitch as you lug books back and forth between shelves. Or, if you wanted to buy a bible.

........Oh, well.

That was heaps ages ago, long enough for me to have completely forgotten we ever pulled this prank. That is, until I read about The Ministry of Reshelving.

Go to the bookstore and locate its copies of George Orwell's 1984. Unless the Ministry of Reshelving has already visited this bookstore, it is probably currently incorrectly classified as "Fiction" or "Literature."

Discreetly move all copies of 1984 to a more suitable section, such as "Current Events", "Politics", "History", "True Crime", or "New Non-Fiction."

Ministry of Reshelving (Flickr).

Hah. I like these people.

Written by lainie at 03:38 AM on January 8, 2007 in work?, Daily Life, Friends.

It was a bad morning. A few hours after I had been awake.....My aunt handed me some coffee, just as I was deciding to do something to make myself feel better.

Normally that would suffice, but today I had kahlua by my side. Kismet. After a while, I had an empty cup and a partially full bottle of alcohol sitting side by side. I did what only seemed natural. Got quite happy, and stupid. Decided to go have a nap.

But first, responsibly called editor to make sure she had received the pics I sent her earlier - since internet connection has been iffy and she needed them. Instead, I was told that yet again, my article is devoid of interviews, and to get some quotes to fix that. T____T. This had been intentional because

1) My god, I hate interviewing people.
2) I was a lil tipsy while writing a fair bit of that, and it's best not to sic myself on others (not enough alcohol to have much effect, but still).

I know I was whining to someone about this but I can't remember who. Ended up asking about four people questions I can't remember either. Let's just say I'm one of those people who sound incredibly lame because I can't hold my alcohol. You all quite layan, all things considering.

Decided to sleep. Had bad dreams. Woke up after an hour. Checked my sms sent folder later on (which also turned out to be multiple horrors, including the unfortunate side-effect it had of sobering me up).

Swore off alcohol. Forever.

Fine, a month, at least.

-----

Dear friends who have my new address, after I corrected myself for sending you guys the wrong address the first time. Please delete the second version, that's incorrect too. I'm such a dumbass, I'm sorry.

I visited my new place today (got my keys!). I'll be moving in over the weekend. My uncle's girlfriend drove me there. It was night, and we couldn't see the house numbers. Then her car slowly drove by a house with a giant rainbow flag hanging as a curtain. I stared at it.

Lainie: ...Right. I think we've found the place.
VY: You sure?

[ Looks again at curtain - yeap, definitely 6 striped rainbow flag ]

Lainie: Yeah, this is probably it.

[ God, rainbow flags are so gay. ]

[ Well, actually, that's the point, but still. ]

The boys were mopping the floors when I'd arrived. I checked out Jemufo's room. Her bed is against the wall, close to where mine will be, which means morse code on the nights I feel annoying and cannot sleep.

=====

Checked out her bookshelf, shook my head. First row alone had two Judith Butler and Erica Jong books, each. The rest, row after row, looked like a collection of poetry, gender and religion. I stood in front, eyeballing the titles (gender, female, queer, queer, queer, god, poetry collection, gender, gender, AHHHH WHAT IS UP WITH THIS BOOKSHELF??).

So much for borrowing books when I'm bored, then. Jemufo then tells me she has never read science fiction, and doesn't read comics either. We shall have to fix that.

While I was going through her shelf, and trying not to say anything (which usually never happens with me, don't know why I bother), she told me to go ahead and laugh, I think she knew I was filling up with snarky thoughts. I had a headache from the afternoon, so really, I didn't have room for that many. Well. No mistake about it then. Definitely, new housemate is a feminist.

My aunt wants me to take the tv set, cupboard-thingie, shoe rack (we already have one), and treadmill for the new place. My other housemate has brought over dumbbells and wants to import a bench press. I'll call her tomorrow to say we already have fitness equipment.

Brief discussion about hillsongs. From my experience as roomies with Gwen - you can play hillsongs, just don't bloody wake me up with them, they make me grit my teeth. Turns out my room gets the morning sun. Fuck. I need curtains.

I can be quite a princess about the environment I wake up in, yes.

=====

Jemufo then asks me if I want a wire rack thingie to keep soaps and shampoo in the bathroom we share. I was baffled as to why the hell I would give a damn about something as insignificant as that, till Jerng warned me this was a...debate....she was having with her girlfriend. Right, then.

All girlfriend-girlfriend discussions - leave me out.

Three lesbians opining together sounds like disaster. January, wire racks. Who knows what it'll be by the time December comes around. Plus, I make crap decisions.

[ And, if you're smart, just do what your girlfriend wants. It's about.......getting along ]

Jerng and Jemufo were talking about turning this loose, fire-engine red door we have lying around at home into a table, with bricks as legs. And leave in the doorknob, cause that's kinda cool. I'm not really a handy person with carpentry. Jemufo's younger brother is moving in with us too.

I'll be joining them soon Who knows when Zedeck will be moving in. So, four new housemates for 2007.

Came home soon after, I have assignments to deal with

----

Back to sitting in front of the laptop, with two bottles of alcohol beside it. Decided swearing off alcohol for a month was a bit harsh on myself, and that I should reduce the time. No more alcohol for a week!

Felt so proud of my willpower, I immediately poured myself a drink. So much for that. It's not about how long I go without, anyway, but how my brain switches off so easily . So it's okay to drink as long as I'm still thinking! Somewhat! Lainie is Doraemon of alcohol excuses!

An hour later, Lola came online. She remarked there's a lesbian hounding her. I have no idea what she's talking about - in other news, applications for unsnarky stalkees, open now.

Lainie: If my spelling starts becoming shit, I'll stop messaging cause there'll be no saving the amount of crap I can generate then.

Which meant I left my drink alone, and made an effort to sober up. Cause I do come up with a lot of crap and, drunkly people talking crap are.............kinda lame. If there's a club for that I probably have a membership. Ended up talking about religion, which was kinda strange. She went to sleep later.

I finished off my drink, and poured myself another, because I never learn.

Written by lainie at 03:22 PM on January 8, 2007.

I should call Jerng "The Opener". In sci-fi or fantasy, that'd mean you have totally awesome powers. In reality, it means you have housemates like me.

I couldn't open the balcony door, he came over, fiddled with the lock and key. POP! Opened in a jiffy. Couldn't close my room door, he got it to slam close, got it to open again....Either that, or the house only likes men.

Even the house has a statement to make. Damn house.

=====

My uncle's marrying his girlfriend soon. It's actually kinda cute, they were talking about wedding rings before dinner, which restaurant to hold the banquet in....Over dinner, we discussed chinese marriage customs.

My uncle's orphaned, so there was talk about who should precede over the ceremonies. He's the youngest child (and only boy) in the family, his siblings are my mother (the eldest! Hah!) and 4 more sisters.

Aunt: Traditionally, it has to be the eldest in the family. So that will be Kit or David (uncle's male cousins, considered brothers in Chinese custom).
Uncle: Why isn't it one of my sisters?
Aunt: Well. Can, I suppose. Just that the Chinese customs are like that. The man is more important
Uncle: *dismissive look* That's a practice I'm willing to do away with.

Yes, he gets along with uncle Kit and David just fine. I've always known he's made to be a family man, and because he's somewhat old-fashioned, had assumed he'd be a stickler for tradition as well. What do I know, ei?

Wonder who he'll pick from his sisters then. My mother's the eldest, but my 3rd aunt is the one who's lived with and taken care of him for so long.

It was mentioned that I didn't like ginger. Uncle's girlfriend wanted to know how I would handle "Confinement", where a pregnant woman has her diet monitored for her and involves eating heaps of ginger.

Lainie: I'm really not worried about that.
Aunt: You never know, you may walk down the street one day and see a man, and dingdingdingding!
Lainie: I don't think I dingding quite that way.
Aunt: Never mind, there are a lot of single mothers around now! You can adopt!
Lainie: Also quite unlikely.....
Aunt: Though I suppose if you adopt, it doesn't matter whether you eat ginger or not.

I mean, say I got a partner, and for some reason she managed to convince me to do some baby-adoption or get one of us impregnated......................Okay I was trying to picture it and I can't. I used to try and scare Fip away from the idea by insisting I get to name all our children, they will have my surname, and they will all be Momo, Bobo and Yoyo Yeoh.

Hamsters? How about hamsters instead?

Written by lainie at 05:32 PM on January 9, 2007 in Friends, Arty stuff.

I think I could draw a decent inverse graph with how much I've had to sleep, against how much crap I had to put up with the past two days, printing my work.

Anyhow. Even with all the work, I'm well excited because this is the last week of college. As Friday comes along, I'll end my semester by immediately getting to what I like to do with my time: THEATRE!

I'll be going with friends whose company I enjoy, for plays by people whose company I enjoy. It's a good way to end the semester, I think.

[ I may, or may not finish: I was almost barred from classes today as a result of unpaid fees. ]

====

Both productions shall be in KLPac, which is inconvenient, but hey. Friday night, I shall be going for the play Bernice Chauly is in. It's a Harold Pinter play, called Betrayal. I'd wanted to catch the opening, but college has been hectic.



Fri 5 - Sun 14 Jan 2007 (Fri - Sat: 8.30pm; Sun: 3pm; No show on Mon)
RM30/ RM20 (students, disabled & sr. citizens)

Kakiseni listing
KLPac listing.

I'm much surprised, I was under the impression Bernice had pretty much sworn off theatre. Anyhow, for the new readers: Bernice used to lecture me in Creative Writing (along with some other classes I majorly copped out on, but hey), and she's the one who first asked Pang to let me try writing for Kakiseni (and she actually managed to get me to write stuff and do public readings, which is..........weird).

So Zedeck, your misery has its roots there.

Zedeck: Can you write something this week?
Lainie: Final week of college. Unless you want something crappier than the usual, then sure.
Zedeck: ....Ah. I see. Never mind then.
Lainie: Thought so.

Oh and yeah there are all these other people involved in the play too. But frankly, I'm going because Bernice is in it (some others are going because it's James Lee's return to theatre).

=====

And next!




Okiku - A Tragedy Retold (in English)

Fri 19 - Sun 28 Jan 2007 (Tue - Sat: 8.30pm; Sun: 3pm; NO show on Mon)
Evening performances: RM42/ RM32 (Students & Senior Citizens)
Matinee performances (21 & 28 Jan): RM35/ RM25 (Students & Senior Citizens)

Kakiseni listing
KLPac listing

One of the funniest duos I know, Kin Seng (producer) and Fang Chyi (co director), are working together on this Japanese horror play. Kin Seng has a fascination with all things gory and creepy, so there must be something seriously fucked up scary about this play -_-".

You know Sadako, from Ringu? The girl who crawls out of the well? She's based on the folklore, Okiku. Yeah.

I've not heard of Japanese horror plays being done here before (am I right / wrong?), so this could be interesting. Something new always is interesting.

Speaking of new: My new housemates can put up with my nonsense if I cannot sleep at night.

=====

My god. The ticket prices T____T. Good thing I have very few friends involved in theatre.....

And. I have heaps of work. So. Tata. See you in KLPac, if I do.

Written by lainie at 11:12 PM on January 9, 2007 in College.

I don't know why I'm so goddamn emo today. I'm achey and sad, and I can't pinpoint the reason*.

My assignment is to do a series of packagings for Nokia. The targetted age group is college-uni age, kinda. I'm not in the mood to really layan anything, which is bad on the last week of college. This is not turning out the way I imagined, which is potentially worse.



These are kinda like..mood studies. I used only one cellphone model (it's supposed to be low, mid, and high-end models). Feel free to tell me which row you like, or if you hate em all.

If you have a high-end Nokia cellphone box to spare that you can give me by tomorrow or Thursday, I do need one for my assignment and would appreciate it very much*.

I tried to ask my uncle if he had a box, or if he could get one...But while I was talking I messed up somehow, and there were all these weird noises coming out of my mouth I couldn't identify, so I may have repeated a few words because after a while it sounded familiar.

He was staring at me like "Oh my god, my niece is a blimmin idiot". I don't even know what I said to him. It got more and more garbled and I gave up after a while. Just can't focus today.

-_____-" My uncle's going to think I'm on drugs if I keep this up.

Well. I'm off to get coffee.

=====

Things you don't want to see when you have a LOT of assignments due:



Especially when some of those assignments, like the cellphone one above, are in Illustrator files. I shall have patience........

=====

*Josie called earlier and as we chatted, I told her Nessa left the country today (I didn't get a chance to say goodbye because she had a lot of last minute stuff to do). I tend to forget things I dislike remembering, and I guess I really don't want to know that Nessa's not gonna be around for half a year.

Nerd, if you're reading this...Be good And, have fun. And yes, it is possible for both to be done simultaneously.

Love you, you'll be back before we know it. Or rather, before I know it, since my sense of time is shite.

Written by lainie at 09:38 PM on January 10, 2007 in College, Music, Friends.

CJ sent me a non-final version of the cover for Ben's Bitches new album, "Mamak Conspiracy".



I think I scared him, the first thing I did was demand type kerning and alignment be fixed :/.

CJ's suggested that I be the new designer for Ben's Bitches, since he's off to Curtin to study soon. Don't know if they'll want to work with me, my stuff's different from CJ. Ah, punks.

Ben's Bitches (myspace) has some new tracks uploaded, I like Tensyen, which I'd only heard live before this. I'm sure I have a video of them singing it on my Youtube.........somewhere. There're more tracks on their Ben's Bitches I-bands website.

A (hidden) track, "Pantat di Indonesia" is available as an MP3 download, and the lyrics go:

Pantat di Indonesia
tak sama di Malaysia ka?
Tak Bisa Ngentot Iye?

Eh Lonte, Isep Kontol gua
Oh Cewek, Toket kau besar

Lagu Indonesia, semua lagu Jiwang,
Inilah lagu yang Goblok untukmu
Lagu Indonesia, semua lagu Jiwang,
Inilah lagu yang Goblok untukmu.

Goblok!

Translation

Pantat - Asshole (indon)
Ngentot - Fuck
Lonte - Whore
Isep - Suck
Kontol - Cock
Cewek - Awek , girl
Toket - Breast
Goblok - Bodoh

=====

My classmates have been talking about possibly going for Massive Territory design conference and exhibition. I shall see. And, as usual, I've given everyone the wrong address. I really don't know why people rely on me for logistics information - Tei did once, and she still complains about it now.

We had a replacement lecturer today, Joseph Foo. He said there was no point us going to the conference if we didn't interact with the people there, then offered to bring some of the speakers over to college instead, like woah.

He usually lectures in One Academy, far as I know. I'd been told he's really nice but fussy about design. It isn't easy for the class, having a new lecturer take over the class for the final week - every lecturer likes different things, you see.

We're a lil bit weirded out by how...nice..he is. We've never actually had a lecturer so willing to supply us with solutions before, the others sit back and let you scour your brains for an idea...Whereas he gave us suggestions on how to improve our own assignments pretty straightforwardly.

Pelik, but hey! Last week of class, no complaints about my workload being lessened. His suggestions were all cool, too.

On top of that, he pushed back deadlines because he wants us to develop our work well. Needless to say, we like him. Hah.

======

We were talking about the ICON show today, which is the end-year student exhibition in Cenfad. It'll be my class' responsibility to come up with the concept / theme / style for this year, since we're the final year kids.

I suggested that since Cenfad uses nine circles in their logo, and we have the same number of students in our class, that we take a circle each and express our own identities inside (with a certain colour scheme and type family), which we will then use above our individual booths so people will know whose it is.

Then we can combine the nine circles together to form the poster at the entrance.

So if they make any adjustments outside their circle for the booth display (like, explosions, or text leaking out, or bomb fuse, or whatever), they have to design an alternative for the poster (where the nine circles form a square logo, so we need everything contained inside the circle).

*Shrug*. I can design the template for everyone if I'm still in college next semester, I can already picture it so it won't take me long.

Then we can make a template for students in other departments (from 1st year graphics, fashion, interior design, new media) to use as labels for their artwork - which is why I said specify type families. They can decide how they want to divide the use of the circles.

And if we actually make it in time, we can get tshirts done, to wear for ICON. Our own circle in front, the 9 of them at the back. Will be a nice graduation gift for ourselves too, I think. Badges? Since my class loves making badge designs.

I think the most important suggestion I made is, divide the spaces of the exhibition room first, THEN we have cabutan bertuah (lucky draw), so the spaces are allocated at random and no one gets to complain about which circle / space they have. Our exhibition is also in a sense a competition, we'll be trying to get our arses hired based on this. I don't want to be anywhere near that sort of fight during ICON show, I'll probably be damn stressed .

Plus, basic shapes leave us a lot of personal flexibility for the design, while maintaining a cohesive visual theme.

This is all assuming my suggestion gets used, anyway.

======

Anyhow two days before the last class of the semester, I used money I earned from writing to purchase a sorely needed printer, with 5 types of paper. I still want to get some gloss paper, but the requirement for that was low, so I left it.

Walked home, carrying the lot, along with my laptop bag and advertising books I rented from the library. Bee was staring at me like...."How the hell are you going to lug all this home?". He's great though, brought me to a shop and showed me a decent printer I could get within my low budget, helped me carry it around while we were still in the mall.

It's been hours and my arms still feel tired. Bleh. I'd traded cab money for 50 sheets of A4 sized paper......... I'm such an idiot, really. The only money I have now....is coins. I can count the amount of coins I have on one hand.

Eggs and instant noodles for dinner



I'll be walking to college the next few days. It'll take about half an hour each way. And I'll probably be carrying my laptop each journey -_-".

But hey, I finally have a printer.

Oh, and Photoshop and Illustrator conked out on my laptop yesterday, however I'll arrive at final products that need to be printed.

But hey, I finally have a printer. And it scans, too. Bright sides, bright sides to everything.

Ow, my arms.

HP Deskjet F380. Photocopies, scans and prints. Very low-end.

I can't imagine using the photocopying function, though it can be useful sometimes....For example, you have a drawing with many delicate lines, and you don't need all that line quality. Photocopying gives you a result where the delicate lines are slightly thicker, and the little difference can be useful for photomanipulatio.

Oh, the stupid, almost-useless things you learn from messing around with photocopy machine in college, and getting stressed out that it's fucking up the text you're supposed to trace out by hand, but photocopying has thickened the hairline serifs....

Not that it mattered cause your tracing got sloppy after a while....

Anyhoo. This will do till I can afford a proper printer.

=====

When Illustrator died last night, I moved on to Photoshop. That, too, died on me.

Halfway through running "Chkdsk" on my computer, I was overly fatigued and fell asleep sitting up in my chair (once I build up a momentum I have to stick to it, otherwise I risk nodding off, which is what happened).

When I woke up, I decided it was too damned much, and went to sleep instead.

And that, is how I finally got to sleep more than 3 hours continuously, this week. Hence the extra whines on blog.

Written by lainie at 01:41 AM on January 11, 2007 in Daily Life.

You know what I hate? Printing. Installing drivers for printers. Buggy programs.

Everything should just work.

Hell, I should be able to teleport, or have walls from my house spew out materials I want, whenever. A book? Ding! A 3D hologram movie? Ding! The coolest new game? Ding! The entire Vertigo comics collection, 2000 - 2007? DING! Burger? Ding!

And the walls should be like some canvas. They'd change according to how my mood feels like having them painted (much like my pc desktop). Or putty like, so I can extrude parts of it like sculptures. If I need a mirror, I can temporarily turn a whole wall into a mirror. Or screen. Or portal.

I am willing to trade in the possibility of privacy being pretty much non-existent for something like that. And I'd have a normal brick and woods house (made from materials, by robots, both popped out of my super house), surrounded by a force field of sorts. Or maybe just a separate, yet similar, dimension. Statis. What fricking ever.

Today, while I was in class, I imagined a sort of rollout bag behind my waist. I'd carry it everywhere, and when I get that feeling of wishing for earth to literally swallow me up, I'd roll out the bottom flap and sit on it, roll out the top flap into a hood, and zip myself up inside this black bag.

After a while, I can decide if I want to stay a very long time in this bag, or unzip, breathe, and go join the rest of the world again. I even thought about the texture of the inside of the bag - I wanted the outside to be matte black, and was wondering about ventilation.

Imagine, though. If I literally went around carrying a bag I occasionally zip myself up in, in the corner of parties, clubs, college...........

Written by lainie at 04:24 PM on January 11, 2007.

Nizam, my lecturer, asked why I didn't study website design. I think it's because I've shown a lot of interest in the coding, html, css, javascript, ajax..the usual. I replied that it was simply because I prefer graphic design a lot more.

I'm the only one who didn't do an animation-heavy website for my personal portfolio. It was supposed to be a reflection of our personality, and I'm not the kind.

I love those web-art sites, but I can never stay long on them (bar a few, and I don't visit again after that for a while after). I also dislike waiting for sites to load when I need information. I'd rather have the work impress, than a website's background music interfering with my MP3s . I have yet to build any impressive work, but hey. One must plan.

[ I sound so organised in that manner...Then, people come to my blog for an unhealthy "wtfness". ]

Besides, it was more interesting for me to fiddle with code, than to create endless tweening and rollover effects in Flash.

......I had someone loudly ask a few times if I did any of the website work myself (basically implying to everyone else within earshot I effortlessly plagiarised off other websites, which.......... has its ironies in some levels).

Dude. I used some frameworks (fully cited, copyrights included, in my work to let Nizam know what I'd been learning by myself, from what I had found) after reading up on and comparing a range of them. It is not unethical by any means. It still takes my own work to dismantle, understand and rewrite code in a way that suits my needs - and I worked entirely from Notepad.

That probably took way more effort and experiments than right-clicking in Flash Pro 8 until you found the correct actionscript.

I was using different tools, for the very different ends I was aiming for, that's all. Pretty much, I use other programs the way you use Flash. Possibly, everytime you use actionscript, you're using a bit of code someone else wrote.

Perhaps we have different perspectives and levels of understanding on the same issue (which is not to say mine is necessarily better or more in-depth, it still remains a quickly-formed opinion).

Ah, well. Can't win em all.

====

Last night, I broke in my new printer by producing a tiny mock up of my annual report - I shrunk each page 25%, down to A6 size (quarter of an A4 paper), and all the text was still legible, very clear. Which was kinda cool, cause that means....my eyesight's not that bad.

Wheeee!:


Before I did some spraymounting, bookbinding.

I'd not expected to be able to read it, because I had set the original typeface at a nice, business-size feel type. I think I've figured out a nice size-leading ratio for the typeface I used, to make it easy to read.

I'm not proud of this annual report, but at least it's a fnished assignment. Some people like it, more than I do, but I'd been feeling very uninspired during its production :/.

Binding it was a bitch, my shoulders hurt from carrying all that stuff yesterday, and I couldn't hold down the metal ruler and blade properly.

The capacity for the introductory HP ink cartridges is pretty pathetic - I printed the equivalent of less than 4 colour A4 pages, and "low ink" warnings are already appearing. And yknow what's the biggest cheek of 'em all? We're not allowed to check the ink levels for introductory cartridges (basically, the ones that came with the printer). That, HP, is a pissy little move.

Losing my old laptop means I have to redo some simple website for Advanced Digital Design 2. Despite the name of the class, all I have to do is make some mouse rollover graphics. Hah. It's the kind of thing any ol' blogger could figure out with a lil bit of googling.

=====

Functioning on paltry hours of sleep. I'd wondered why my tolerance for cold weather had been so bad the past year (even when everyone's been complaining it's humid). Kat told me it happens when people don't sleep. Now I'm feeling cold and I'm wondering if it's related.....?

I was suspended from college today. I had to negotiate with administration to stay in class - I'm one day away from finishing the semester, and it would be extreme suckage if I failed the entire thing because I was barred from on the final day, when we have our evaluation.

I'm considering a nap.

=====

Nessa's turning into a right Wally.

She's been sending the kind of retarded emails one usually expects from me (where I'm left in front of my computer, clawing at the air in front of the screen, trying to physically retrieve whatever digital dumbassery I have unwittingly emailed to someone).

Excerpts from multiple emails:


not chicago, i was told the wrong information, i just land in chicago, i'm actually staying in indiana.

greetings from connecticut!!

nessa from the US of A yeahhh!!!!!!!!!

i just realised that we're actually in Maryland, not connecticut.

Oh well. At the very least I can be sure she's in America. I suppose. She could be visiting Sans Serriffe for all I know.

Written by lainie at 07:42 PM on January 11, 2007 in Stupid, but fun..

Now I'm not one for politics, and this isn't about that. Really.

Anwar claimed the words meant he was a homosexual, he engaged in activities contrary to Islam, he was a pervert, unfit to hold office, had criminal tendencies and was dangerous to Malaysian society.

Yah yah, Mahathir is homophobic and hates Anwar, oh the tragedy. Anyhow, you know what Mahathir's reply to Anwar's statement is? Mahathir claims that "he had qualified privilege to make them"

And that, is where I start laughing.

Darlings, if you ask me, there's only one way to claim absolute certainty that someone is at least somewhat gay, and that is to boink 'em.

...Mahathir, Mahathir....Haih. I don't think he quite realises how his words could be interpreted (maybe it's just me). Anyhooooo. Quite blur isn't he? Haha.

I didn't bother reading the rest of the article, but you can, if you'd like (Malaysia's ex-PM Mahathir Mohamad reiterates that gays cannot lead the mostly Muslim nation).
Right-o. Back to assignments.

Written by lainie at 05:28 PM on January 12, 2007 in College, Friends, Arty stuff.

Some simple wing designs I constructed out of wands, as alternative sticker options for my storefront. This probably took a lot less time than it looks to people who aren't familiar with Photoshop.



The figures in front are not part of the designs, merely there to show how the design interacts with average shoulder height of a person standing in front of it.

If you see repeats it's because I mixed up jpegs and am definitely too lazy to go back and fix it. Never mind lah, yeah? .

My two week "holiday" between semesters starts today. We're carrying forward college work into the break, again. Still better off than Farid though - he has a grand total of two days off between semesters. *Whew*, luckily I didn't take the New Media course.

After class I was hanging out with him in the cafeteria. Laughing over how he goes for girls who turn out to be mostly gay, how I do the opposite, and the success rate that results in. I realise Zedeck and him have the same gaydar...some of the super dykes these two go for....Honestly.

=====

I wanted to know why his script, which he was supposed to hand over to me for editing, was taking so damn long. Turns out he got his lecturer to do it, which is awesome.

We ended up talking about Bernice, and that considering we're both students of her advanced creative writing class (she doesn't lecture in cenfad anymore), and have written numerous "reviews" of films for class (which we liberally copped out on)...............Farid and I describe everything as "trippy".

We made up 2 of 3 students in advanced creative writing, so imagine her efforts trying to get class discussions after reading something.

Bernice: Did you like this? What did you think about it? Thoughts?
Lainie: Yeah, trippy.
Farid: Yeah, very trippy.
Bernice: Whaaaat? Cmon guys, what else?

Lainie: Like, totally, trippiness. Totally.
Farid: Mmhmm.
Bernice: Guys, I'll need more from you.

Then Serene will launch into some long opinion about duality and psychology and exploration of self. Then it'd be our turn again and

Lainie: Yeah. Like Serene said, it was trippy.
Farid: Very trippy.

Bit of a wonder she got any assignments out of us, actually.

=====

Farid wants to go for Bernice's play, Betrayal, already getting all these good reviews in the comments section, but college work is piling on so he can't yet (I'll be going tonight)*.

Came home from college tired as hell, but I couldn't sleep. I'd blame the noisy construction works going on around the house (three neighbours simultaneously renovating), but I think the simple matter is - I've screwed up my body clock.

*It's amazing how my three friends can all come up with an excuse not to go, two hours before the play. So. Maybe tomorrow.

Written by lainie at 07:22 PM on January 12, 2007 in work?, Friends.

Good news, good news! Danlim and Meesh are going for the play with me, and on top of that:



Photoshop CS3 activation, from Erna (who dangled the serial key in front of me and asked if I wanted it - yes! yes! YAYYYY!).

I'm delighted.

.....and now I owe her an article - a review of the product. Hah. I don't care, I'm SO happy right now.

[ Possibility of WAY too much positive bias for product already shining through, trying to tone it down ]

Written by lainie at 11:07 PM on January 13, 2007 in Daily Life, Arty stuff.

I went for Betrayal last night with Danlim and Meesh, and I'm well happy to say that it's a nice play. You should go catch it too, Sunday's the last night day (3pm) in KLPac. The reverse chronology was handled well by Pinter.

And, Bernice is good in the play . YEAY!

=====

KLPac is the fucking hardest theatre to get to in KL. None of the cabbies know where it is, and more than once I've had them ask for extra money just to drive in from the entrance to the theatre (it's a looong walk).

Yeah, all that grass is pretty and all that, but some practical convenience would be great, thank you. My least favourite building in KL. I had a moron cabbie who insisted I pay him extra, then gave me a lecture on how much better tourists are. Asshole. I hope his feet and tongue rot off.

=====

I was hyper after the play, too little sleep in my system, too giddy that the semester is over, and on top of that I have shiny program on my computer and just watched Betrayal.

Meesh: Why are you so hyper?
Lainie: Cause I got my -
Meesh: -did you get laid?
Lainie: - Photoshop CS3 registered.......Wow. that sounds.. .

Then we went for some beer in Bukit Bintang. Meesh was telling Winnie about Okiku, saying it was another play we have to go for.

Meesh: It's about an armless samurai...

Then I started laughing wondering how an armless dude could be a samurai. Hold blade with feet? How do they boink in top position? I am awfully curious. Not everyone's fully limbed up, so some people out there are having sex without arms and I wanna know how they prop themselves up....Honestly, curiosity's not my most convenient trait most times.

You know how some people worry so much about their (yet to be conceived) children?

Meesh: OH MY GAWD! I HOPY MY BABIES HAVE OPPOSABLE THUMBS!
Lainie: Just because you shouldn't pressure your children too much...doesn't mean you have to aim so low....

Meesh's children just need to be born with opposable thumbs, and they're set for life......I took that quote and kept it as my chat status, a present for her eyes when she came online .

Then we talked about sex, psycho people, and how us girls get a lil bit crazy when we pms, perky painful boobs or not (Danlim wisely kept quiet throughout much of it).

=====

Remember this post? Photoshop CS3 Beta - Panoramic Edit is ridiculously easy.

Well. I realised that clicking "File - Automate - Photomerge" gives you the same option, if you're more inclined to allow Photoshop to do everything.


(click for full-sized version)

So Photoshop stitch together some panoramic photos of one of Malaysia's national monuments, the Tugu Negara. Then I saturated the heck outta them, just cause I felt like it. Blue looked so pretty, I like looking at it. I only spent a lil while there, then it started raining, and I had to come home.

Danlim asked how CS3 handles nature shots. Less straight lines than, say, architecture.


source photos.


click for full-sized.

Just fine, actually.

Written by lainie at 01:33 AM on January 15, 2007 in Daily Life.

I'm typing this out in my new room, sitting on the floor with my laptop. I like that I can keep the windows open when it rains, like now.

I've not fully moved in yet, there's no mattress, even. Just lots of books, magazines, and clothes. Guess what defines a space as home to me, huh? This is why I zoom straight to bookshelves when I go to a friend's house, I don't mean to be rude, it's just an area I gravitate towards.

Unless you have a table full of sketches, then I'd hover there instead.

I'll still be sleeping at home in KL tonight. I was cleaning up this rom just now, and slowly giving away signs to my housemates, if they would be bothered to look, that this is the first house I've moved into that actually requires me to clean it.

I now know how a vacuum cleaner works. I've learned that dust has a tendency to fly....and it doesn't disappear when swept off some surface, it lands somewhere else. Fortunately, the learning curve for Basic Housekeeping 101 is not going too badly. Wait till we have the kitchen set up....that's my disaster forte.

I'm not getting proper furniture (bed frame, study desk) till a while later. I'll have to use temporary stuff, meanwhile.

My room opens out into a balcony, which looks out into the neighbour's garden. Their dog better learn to get used to my face, it still barks when it spots me cleaning the room. I'm considering a hammock. I'm dreading the idea of the morning sun, which Jemufo says we'll both get in our rooms.

I'm alone - the others left for dinner with Jemufo's mother, and I decided to remain behind to unpack. I only switched the laptop on because the music from Jemufo's room has stopped, and I like background music. So the first song I've played in this room, ever, is The Killers, with "All these things that I have done".

I like how the fan feels. I can sleep under a fan like this. I can't really hear my music over the rain, it's muted just right. So far, so good. I'm really comfortable, and like I said, the bed's not even in yet.

Peace.

====

Got home, blogging this - yes! Internet access, finally!

Written by lainie at 01:54 PM on January 15, 2007 in Daily Life.

I'm packing now.

Moving things from my old place, to the new. I can't help but think, difficulties or not, that right now I'm one of the very fortunate. My limbo means I have two places of residence another home in Ipoh, if I want to stretch the distance a lil, whereas some have none, including many people evacuating due to the floods.

Sigh. Doesn't mean my back's gonna stop hurting any time soon though. Packpackpack. How'd I gather so much stuff???

Written by lainie at 10:50 PM on January 16, 2007 in Daily Life.

Dear everybody - Am staying in new place, no internet connection yet - I suggest you sms / call instead. Right now I'm in Starbucks, and the internet connection is suckage (trying to send some attachments to a certain editor).

=====

Gazel and I were talking last night. We were talking about how it's easier for her to get clothes in Malaysia, and me in Australia, yet look where we live (our mother finds this ironic). This led to a talk about bras.

Gazel: Yor. How much is breast reduction surgery ANYWAY?
Lainie: WHAT?
Gazel: How much does it cost?
Lainie: Who the hell said anything about breast reduction surgery??
Gazel: Oh.
Lainie: I'm okay with my boobs! I like them where they are!
Gazel: Don't you like, get back pains from it or anything?
Lainie: What back pains?? They're fine!
Gazel: Okaylah then....

I felt my boobs shrink at the word "surgery", so maybe if she keeps saying that they'll be so scared they'll retract and hopefully leave at least two nipples behind (may the third one go away soon........).

======

Last night, Zedeck scoffed at me because I said I kinda like Il Divo (this fluctuates with my hormonal cycle), even though he's the one ushering them today, which makes him a fine hypocrite. I asked very nicely if I could usher too, and he flatly rejected the idea. Today, half an hour before the event, I get a phone call from Tei, who's bumming with Zedeck, asking me if I have an all-black outfit so I can go usher.

Fucker, I ask yesterday you say no. Now I don't have the time to head back to KL to get clothes, you ask. ZEDECK! HOW COULD YOU?

Zedeck. You shall play the character in my movie that falls in love with a midget lesbian and ends up in utter misery as she lands another lesbian, possibly a midget too.

Might as well, I may or may not have had plans to grab an Il Divo butt or two.

=====

Zedeck: None of you guys lock your room doors huh?
Lainie: No. Why would I? I have books. And clothes. What could you possibly take?
Zedeck: Yeah, but...
Lainie: Unless you're going to be sniffing my underwear or something. But really, if innerwear holds such a fascination for you.......................
Zedeck: Hahah..You never know.
Lainie: If I find a strand of nose hair on my undies, you're all lining up so I can compare and see who it came from.
Zedeck: You never know....

Honestly, unlikely scenarios about housemates I do not need to be occupied about.

=====

We had a "housemate meeting" last night. Mostly it was Zedeck making demands on what we could do with the living room space (it was turning into a storage of sorts). I don't really give a damn, the only thing I have there is a multi-coloured feather duster (pink, yellow, blue, green) that doesn't just dust or sweep, but sashays....it matches our hot pink mop, purple broom, and that rainbow-gay-curtain hanging in Jemufo's room.

Also, I'm not sure why there was a discussion when it could have been "Ack, clean this shit up!" and "Yeah, okay". Jerng said one more cousin might be moving in - which makes the Hwa kids majority of the household (actually, 3 out of 5, they already are).

Then we all trooped out for dinner. It's only my second night and we've already done it once. And imagine, porn was the only thing that brought us together with my old housemates in Cyberjaya. Tch. I discover I'm probably the only one watches midget porn.

Zedeck asked me if midgets turn me on. I said no, but for the sake of never say never, who knows? I might just meet someone perfect in every way and three feet tall.

=====

We were sitting outside, in the garden. We have a cat visitor. It's white and snobby as hell. I like it. Apparently it's visited before, and has been exploring our house (without leaving any "presents", fortunately).

We talked about girls, and periods syncing. I think any dude who's lived with a house of women knows that once a month, it's best to stay in the room, or don't come home......I warned them I'd tone down the PMS, but if I'm eating chocolate it's probably a very bad sign.

Also, once a month, when the army's womens' boot camp is all synced up, it'd either be a really good time to send them all to war, or a really bad idea if they start shooting each other.

=====

Zhing, my youngest housemate, is a sporty bloke and was trying to figure out how to turn the wall into something for sit-ups. Actually, the first night, I walked out of my bedroom and there he was, legs in the air, doing handstand push-ups. Quite impressive, actually. I leaned against Jemufo's door and watched him push up, push down, push up, push down...

Jemufo: You're checking out my lil brother....
Lainie: He is upside down, outside our rooms, doing push ups. Of course I'm looking. Do I look like I see people upside down all the time??

Jemufo threw me a bottle of water. I caught it, but don't do that too frequently, okay? I'm all reflexes, but most of them are of the inaccurate sort.

=====

Jerng suggested we put a sheep in the garden. I'm thinking a goat would be cool too. Jerng said with a smile, "Sheep eat grass. We eat sheep". Which I think not only makes sense, but trims the grass too. Zhing's vegetarian, but I think a quarter of a sheep for the rest of us might be doable.

I don't actually know if his name is Zhing. Xing, Zhing, Jerng....How the heck am I supposed to differentiate all these names -_-".

=====

I walked from my house to Midvalley today, and actually found the place, a minor miracle considering I couldn't find my house this afternoon. Been lugging laptop around all day. Had ice cream for dinner, bought a wastepaper basket, and got dropped off in Starbucks.

Tired. Very, very, very, very tired.

Written by lainie at 12:15 PM on January 17, 2007 in Friends.

Risha.

Much love.

Happy birthday, you.

Happy forever and ever. But today, happy birthday.

If I'm 24, you're 23. If I'm 23, you're 22. If my math was better, I'd count it out.

I'm sorry about this year, and I'm sorry that "sorry" comes after "Happy Birthday".

But here's to many, many, many more. Birthdays, that is, not apologies.

You're still my favouritest dumbass in the whole wide world, yknow..

You're still my favouritest many things, actually.

if I were a proper lesbian, I'd totally go for you.

Which you wouldn't like, but hey.

I never listen to you, anyway.

Pity, about that.

See ya soon.

Heh.

:D

====

A birthday wish to you on my blog remains meaningless without a photo so you can whine about it later.

Written by lainie at 03:03 AM on January 18, 2007 in Daily Life, Friends.

=====

I think I have great friends.

=====

Went to visit Rish and the few friends she had over at the hotel room, while they prepared for her birthday party in Zouk later.

It was nice to meet Sophie and Rubin again (I missed the rave Rubin organised because I picked the quiet weekend at Pangkor instead ). The last time we met, Sophie was a student eager to graduate. Now she's working, and we both talked about that life for a bit .

Her sister is getting married, which is somewhat mind-boggling. Sophie said yup, people were mellowing, that I looked it too - though I contend I've always been that way.

Some of Risha's friends from uni were there, and I have a sneaky suspicion they know me as "Lainie, the lesbian best friend".

I hugged Rish a really long time before she left for her night out. She warned me to make more time for the next time she's back . I don't think she would have been much pissed if I couldn't make it today, she knows I'm busy and she's the seldom-pissed, always-forgiving sort........but I don't think I'd like myself very much if I didn't see her on her birthday, one night before she leaves.

Josie, Risha, Rach and I took some photos - them in their clubbing dresses, me in my "moving furniture" clothes. Hah. Everyone looked really pretty tonight. It's at times like these that we really miss Daph, she's the missing piece of us five.

=====

After, I headed off to my KL house to transport more things back to my new place, and to my surprise discovered a package from Australia waiting for me. With my address written out in Daphne's handwriting. Such good timing, that girl.

Daph's letters are always so jubilant....cheerful.....I can feel her happy simple (I LOVE THE BEEYOOTIFUL WORLD) honesty, hear her voice. The whole letter.....It's so Daphne. Even if someone else wrote it out for her, and she didn't sign it, I'd recognise the tone easily. I could never be as honest or easily loving with my feelings as Daph, I think.

I remember watching her write letters in Cyberjaya (and whining cause that meant I had to go with her to get stamps). She writes them with huge concentration and a big smile, occasionally a frown when she can't spell something. But she gets really excited about writing letters.

It took me forever to read this letter to me because on top of her awful handwriting, there's her dyslexia that makes the spelling all weird. She said something about feminism, and it came out "feminiminimiumm" - she wrote "hehe" after, she knows she can't spell .

I couldn't stop smiling as I read her letter.

She'd remembered an old email I'd sent saying I wish I could see her new work, so she included in the package a lovely painting she did. I think it hit a part I hadn't realised was there, that misses my friends a lot.

Then I peeked inside the envelope, and a few photos of hers dropped out onto my lap, a familiar grinning face looking back at me from each. I almost teared up on the spot, okay. I'm not usually the emo sort, I think Daph has trained me well......

Made me miss her even more - so, so much....that dumbass reaches out so easily to other people, I don't think she has any idea....

I miss Rish and Daph. Already.

=====

Transported my stuff home. Uncle actually drove me over, so him and aunt could check out my room. The one day I really mess it up (was reading about 6 magazines at a go), they visit.

My aunt asked if the boys upstairs would be topless or decently dressed. I wanted to say no, that they would be clothed, but I couldn't because they do regularly wander around in shorts.

Then I walked up the staircase and both Jerng and Zheng had shirts on. Ah, how suspiciously coincidental. Aunt and uncle poked their heads into my bedroom a lil while, and soon left,. I took to cleaning the things I brought over.

I whipped out the wok that's followed me since my Cyberjaya days, to wash. Halfway through vigorously trying to get rid of some stubborn stains, I decided to rub against them with my finger. Turns out it wasn't gunk, merely a discolouration.....

Lainie: Oh my god, these stupid stains are part of the wok!
Jemufo: Yes..that's what happens when woks are used --
Lainie: Really?
Jemufo: -- obviously, not by you......

I think used woks look very gross

=====

I'm sitting in my new room now, typing away on my new connection, surrounded by the contents of Daph's envelope spread out around me. Risha should be having fun now, with more of my friends.

....

Yknow, I've always been acutely aware that I have made many good friends since I was 15. And the list just keeps getting longer, even when friends leave the country (and eventually, hopefully, come back).

I don't know what it's like to be lonely or friendless. A lil bit quiet, self-induced loneliness, sometimes. But I've never been alone....good company's always been at most a phonecall, an sms, a twenty minute drive away.

I've always had support for what I do, regardless of whether or not they think what I do is right, if I wanna do it - as long as I come out okay (I get whacked if I try anything overtly self-destructive). And I've had that since I was a teenager, which wasn't that long a time ago.

I'm not sure if I could actually stand on my own two feet. I've always had friends around me....... I don't know how I ended up with so many....I should figure out how come this aspect of my life is going so damned right.

I'm actually pretty lucky, huh?.

Written by lainie at 11:30 AM on January 18, 2007 in Daily Life, Links / Email.

Hallo hallo, what's this now? Malaysian bloggers being sued here?

Bloggers sued in Malaysia
Bloggers sued in Malaysia... ( 2 )

.....I have my guesses, but anyone wants to let me know what's up first? Don't ask me to read those two blogs to find out, I'll develop a headache. I'm not big on political blogs, and I'm not the kind to read Rocky Bru or Jeffooi......but I dislike the idea of this lawsuit thing.

Click the link: Hilarious post over at Malay Male. Our government is filled with morons and assholes?

I'll say something about not buying NSTP newspaper again, but I never thought it worth my time anyway (bar the occasional columnists here and there, but I can get their stuff elsewhere).

"Wife" and "married". First news I've seen in over a month, I think. I don't know what my life would have been missing without those marks. Hrrmm.

=====

Was talking with Jerng the other day about the wonderful way Google treats employees, pampers them even.



Jerng: Don't you wish you work there?
Lainie: Well, actually, I wish I own Google....

====

Ah Friendster birthday reminders. Stupid me, I forgot Sophie's birthday is a day after Risha's. Should have wished both of 'em at a go.

====

This is awesome: "The Real Story of the Superheroes", has migrant workers (naturalised citizens?) dressed up as superheroes.

Catwoman, babysitter. Robin the male prostitute, in the hands of the slashfic fans.....Whoo.

Just happened to catch my eye because I'm doing something with the tugu negara now. When taken out of context, what do things stand for, anyway? Does this apply to anything at all? I complain most of the time, when taken out of context, even if put in beneficial light. But I'm whiny as hell.

Speaking (blogging) of people dressed up as superheroes.....we have a Malaysian version. I was at Petooties....OH MY GAWD, WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING?? BWAHHAHAHAHA!

Damn on. And since you tagged me:

Each player of this game starts off with 10 weird things/habits/little known facts about yourself. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 10 weird habits/things/little known facts as well as state this rule clearly. At the end you need to choose 10 people to be tagged and list their names. No tagbacks.

1. If I'm distracted, I can come back later to a huge mess with no memory of having created one.

2. I'm always trying to spot the camera in reflective surfaces when watching movies.

3. I twiddle my toes without realising.

4. I am such a stationery whore, I'll even buy toothpaste because it comes with free colour pencils for kids (I just used one such set yesterday).

5. I'm scared of the dark, but if anything freaky happens to me, based on past experience, I'm more likely to get extremely pissed / alert, and freak out majorly much later.

6. Even when I think before I speak, I end up saying the wrong stuff. I usually don't get why either. Then again, saying I'm socially inept shouldn't be new to most readers on this blog.

7. My willpower exists, it's just hibernating and only exerts itself when avoiding work.

8. In most of my circles, I'm the quietest, most sedate. It only doesn't look that way because I have a blog.

9. Sometimes I stare off into space. I don't know what I'm thinking about either, it's like dreaming. I snap out of it and instantly forget...

10. I'm actually really private....HAHA! GOTCHA ALL! Nah, but I am. Just about different things than most, I suppose.

=====

I haven't talked to Tei in ages - and when I finally do, I'm sending her texts about midgets. We both haven't seen each other's new place (though her home is probably comfier than mine).

I'm going fridge shopping tomorrow. Then, I have to find time to head home and pack up so I can put everything in a lorry and cart it over here. I need a proper mattress.

I'm having a nightcap (well, I started since the afternoon, but it's night now).

It's surprising some car hasn't flattened me by now, I just realised I can't even walk from the house door, to the gate, without daydreaming.

I've severely distracted.

Written by lainie at 03:15 PM on January 19, 2007 in Daily Life.

Had lunch courtesy of McDevilry. I didn't enjoy it, but who gets McDs for the taste, anyway? I miss wantan mee.

My internet connection is fucky, I need to get some work done, and this is annoying me. Connection in KL was easily superior in comparison. That's very sad.

I have scheduling issues to work out. I don't know when I morphed into someone who needed to partition her schedule, make "allocations". Especially when one of my weakest points is being organised. I'm not even entirely sure what day today is.......

Made a poster comp (a few, but let's call it one), trying to figure out some sketches I need to do - a concept rehaul for the poster was suggested and I'm confused by it. Did some prelim sketches for packaging design for college. I'm still enjoying what I'm doing, which is good. This is not something I want to tire of.

Jemufo and I had a drink the other night, and she tried to educate me on the benefits of civil unions over marriage. Oh, but the feminist is already trying to convert me...........

I'm going for Okiku's opening tonight in KLPac....I think. Tei may or may not have tickets, one of which may or may not be mine, and she may or may not be going, especially since our transport, Kat just cancelled on us (tickets for tonight sold out). Like I said, KLPac is hard to get to, and without a ride, I'm not sure about Tei.

I can't call out, I doubt that she can, and between the two of us...............

Whoo.

Written by lainie at 03:49 PM on January 19, 2007 in Rants.

This is hereby known as Bollocks of The Day, or Nonsense of the Hour (take your pick):

"We will leave it to the court to decide. The purpose of the suits is to help to promote responsible blogs,"

Yeah. You're suing bloggers for the benefit of the country. For the blogosphere. You lovely people. To promote responsible journalism(?), god knows - you stand for that. Actually, I'm atheist. From my point of view, what god knows doesn't really apply to me.

Yes, I would like responsible blogs. But that will still make me an idiot if I believe everything I read off the internet. Nowhere in the list of the things "I like" is there an entry that says I want NSTP to patrol and sue the blogs they dislike for me (are you KIDDING?).

The easiest question to ask about this lawsuit is "Who benefits, and how?". Simply put, to "Promote responsible blogs" is a disingenuous answer.

Don't reckon the source could have said anything else though. What a PR disaster this is going to be amongst the people who comprise the local online community.

Bad bad, bad bad.

=====

In other news, I was looking up the lyrics for Ben's Bitches song, Pantat di Indonesia.

Google search for Ben's bitches Pantat di Indonesia brought me this suggestion:

Did you mean: ben's bitches wanita di indonesia  

No, really, I meant "pantat". And, I should tell Nessa and Daph what that word means.....

Written by lainie at 03:23 AM on January 20, 2007.

I suggested Zheng and Zedeck date each other. They'll match in so many ways. Both Zs, both pretty, both boy childs of a pastor(?) and church elder(?)......Both so emo. That's better than cowboys on a mountain.....

Did I mention, both so pretty?

Us other housemates were talking about putting them on the balcony as a show. Make money while we can.

=====

Jemufo was telling me something very interesting about using Q-Tips to deal with horny female cats....Cause when they're horny they're constantly yowling for it - if you have a cat like that at home, you'd *want* it to get laid about as much as it wants to be binked.

And her girlfriend's cat has been really..........oh dear god there is no way to say this that won't be abused by my friends

Basically, if you need to deal with an unlucky-in-love (and binking) cat .....you can take a Q-tip and stick it in and twist it around till the cat....

.....................orgasms....................................

Jemufo said she didn't like the look on my face after she told me, I think I may have looked a bit too...enthusiastic. How would you know a cat orgasms, anyway? I mean, I know what a dog looks like, for all the saddest reasons...but a cat? Maybe it purrs? More?

I'm very curious. I want borrow Jemufo's girlfriend's cat, give it to Jerng (along with Q-tip), and video tape what happens.........

Cmon. Admit it. You're curious too. Next housecat I meet, we're going to get to know each other just a lil bit better. Or rather, I'll get someone else to do it. For the sake of..uh...science.

Q-tips and cats. Who woudda thought.

(AWESOME!!!! :D :D :D)

=====

I just had a mental image of me going after Zedeck with a Q-tip if he whines too much.

Written by lainie at 11:40 PM on January 20, 2007.

Happy birthday to the