SPM spoof, bro's car and gone is the flu!

Location: Go to any police station and see if they got a pic of a speeding blue Proton
Mood-of-the-day: Getting out on the Highway!

Okay, actually I'm just on the LDP and there's already full of cars. It's noon right now. I've just spent a morning of the usual boring chores as you would if you're the only offspring capable of handling all the options of a dishrag within screaming range of two old people. But getting the topic back on the LDP, I was driving in and out of roads between every kind of traffic known to man because I'm felling WELL!

That's right, flu's gone! Woke up Thursday morning and all the banging stopped (Yeah, Panadol!). I still got a sore throat and won't be gone till a bit while longer but it'll definitely go. I can eat spicy foods, drink cold water and breathe without whistling through my nose. I can jump out of a plane flying hundreds of feet in the air equipped only with a red polka-dot umbrella while wearing Malaysian flag theme pyjamas and aiming to land in my bunny slippers on the bridge between the Twin Towers.

Okay, maybe not that one. If such a thing were capable, it'll probably be worthy of an SPM subject. Lil' bro's having his trials now, got his schedule paper set. It looked exactly like my SPM schedule 3 years ago. And some of the subjects are still as bizarre, Pengeluaran Ternakan, Kerja Bata and Menservis TV (do you get extra points or lose points if you've hacked into Astro's channels?).

My Form 5 class used to joke all about it, adding all kinds of even more bizarre SPM subjects like Circus Maintenance, Toilet Hygienic, Gossip Knowledge, Crocodile Wrestling, Movie Puppetry and *ahem* Sex Expertise. FYI, the last one was suggested by a guy, not me :P.

Soon after dropping off the lil' bro home, the older bro wanted me to send him to Pencala so that he can get back his car. A few weeks ago, some idiot on a 4x4 rammed his legally parked, perfectly shaped, deep blue Proton and ran off, my bro's. He got a police report done (thanks to his friend armed with a camera phone) but it still won't get the bumper instantly back to it's original size.

When we got there, it turned out that the manual engine bluey wasn't ready until 6.00pm, but bro's gotta be at work by then. So it's my second time on the LDP today, a little farther up a bit, just after Sunway Piramid. The traffic's terrible, but at late afternoon on the Klang Valley, yeah equals predictable. The last time I was alone at Subang Jaya, took me a good-sized run-around (I don't read map and have bad sense of direction).

Got home just ten minutes before the return of the gallivanting parents, who's been gallivanting around Carrefour (Damn! They could have just dropped big bro off along the way). My dad had just finished the Da Vinci Code book and was commenting about almost every chapter. This was unusual because my dad never bothered to try any kind of fiction novel, which he lovingly labelled them as 'cerita mengarut'. Now at least I have one 'cerita mengarut' we can karut together.

Signed: *Ophie, who now knows perfectly how to get to Sunway Piramid by da road!

¤§üvøñ Ré@lîty¤ September Updates!

Location: Somewhere in a Maxis cell phone book under the letter 'N'.
Mood-of-the-day: Having contagious yawning in front of a mirror.

Yay, you check my blog now! I've given y'all 24 hours to admire it. So, cantik kan? :D I've spent most of my hours yesterday making new updates for September. This was mainly because that I was pleasantly surprised to find a sudden increase of digits at the Footprints section. Mystery was solved when it turned out that I was in Xfresh's Featured Blog. Cool! I totally had forgotten about ye old request of long ago.

So where do I start? How about the brand new Poll I've made about, oh say, only 2 hours ago? Yes, there's a NEW POLL! The last poll had 14 votes overall (3 doesn't really count since I did them myself! :D). There's a lot of people who's dreamy or a bit of bookworms and with a bit of love for football and scenery. Check out September's poll! I'm sure you ask such question sometimes but what DO you think? :P

A new Scene pic and Imood! If you've been reading my blog since the early days, you'll probably notice that I've originally chosen River&Moon as a static title pic. Now here's the full-length picture, but it's really, really huge. Since I always started my entries with a Mood-of-the-day, I figured that the blog needs one of those Imoods. Especially when I can have fun with the smiley faces. A good variety and all so colourful too. Relatively speaking, if I were to be truthful about my daily moods, it'll be Upside-Down Loopy all the time ;)

Also updated is the Worldly Favourites (previously Worldly Possessions). It'll be damn boring to look at the same blog pics so I got me some new ones :P. The Da Vinci Code is a real thriller, a story about an elaborate treasure hunt. I would read it again if my dad weren't currently immersed in it (he hardly EVER reads!). As for Current Fav Game, well, let's just say I'm in the same month were everything reminds me that I'm on my last 'teen' ;)

The longest time for me to look for is Lil' Dee Strak Shyen. I had wanted something animated, like a gif, to put at the most bottom part of the right-hand corner, you know, a Blog Pet! And she was too cute! I found her at a random Google. I dunno from which game she belongs to but she was an avatar at, um, well I kinna forgot where I got her. She's gonna be my forum avatar too, just like to see da pretty colours :P.

Other than a twinkling at the Inner Soul, I've also re-done the Crystal Gaze. It's a bit empty because I dunno what else to put in it! But I'm sure I'll find out as time goes. Since the BLOGathon had ended, they've replaced it with a note saying that winners are known by the next gathering. If I know when, I'll write it up in this 'ere section. But I ain't forgetting my own birth date~!! :D

Signed: *Ophie, making a mirror blog on a more international scale!

Evasive maneuvers

Location: Completely buried under piles and piles of pillows, comforters and blankets with only one peephole.
Mood-of-the-day: A chicken baked in a pie = Chicken pie.

The weird thing about having a fever is that you always felt very cold, yet you're sweating at the same time. I'm pulling out every available pillow; even spare ones from the unused bedroom. Soft pillows make good skin contact cover while tougher ones acts like a shield. Occasionally I'll make the peephole a little bigger to let more air in or smaller to keep the cold out.

Okay, the fever isn't the reason I'm making a fortress with pillows then draping the comforter and blankets all over myself. I was just being childish (Oooh-yeeeah!). My kidhood had a fine line between fact and fiction, which sometimes disappear entirely. I believed that if I didn't get undercover before midnight, a monster from the bathroom drain hole would creep out from under the door and, well, do whatever horrific nightmares worthy of a Calvin and Hobbes tragic poetry.

Wednesday morning I woke up groggily at 6.10am in a state of subconscious denial (I was having a dream about making a successful move on a certain crush. Now I'll never know how I did it). This semester I took an early morning class because it's the only one available. How early? Look at it this way. I haven't been up this early since getting to secondary school before the first bell rings. Hey, you teens might not think it's a big deal but oooh, just wait for your tertiary education.

The workstations so overflowing with people today. No surprise actually, since it's still e-registering week. These fresh blood had discovered the wonders of a PC lab and but they're treating it like the cyber cafes they gather their Warcraft armies in. Luckily for the strict firewall, there were no armies to gather, only limited course seats. The Registration's busted again and many had to get to the academic affairs to do it manually. Me? I'm not a new student. Go figure.

Before we continue, look at this link! That's right, you guessed it. Xfresh are trying to set a world record on how many bloggers they can kill by extreme suspense. And I'm about to be its first victim. Arrrggghhh!!! I could have shouted at the top of my lungs if my throat wasn't stinging pretty badly even in soft talk. Oh, and surrounded by 200+ people all scratching their heads about their own problems is daunting too.

Lastly, it's countdown! I am so ticking off the days going right up to the anniversary of my existence. No, it's not the moment of my conception (though the idea is intriguing. I'll slip it into the Chaos Circles story). At approximately 5.39pm on Saturday, 17th September 1984, a Normal baby girl weighing 3.27kg, about 48.6cm long and a head circumference of 35.2cm was born into the Abd. Samad family. Yup, that's me and all me. Umm, the last detail is sort of... debatable :P

Signed: *Ophie, approximately 19 years, 11 months, 14 days, 22 hours, 25 minutes and 43 seconds old on the dot.

Xfresh Archive: Merdeka Flu and Verbatim vs. Cats

Location: Under layers and layers of a giant onion
Mood-of-the-day: Like a new born Tamagochi

Acckk!! I'm down with the flu all over again. This can't be happening to me. This is Merdeka day! I should be out celebrating! I had planned on going back to Giant's Factory Outlet now that I got my allowance. Nik had just called and said she and her lil' sis are already waiting at school (closed for the day obviously). When I answered, she thought my bro was on my cell phone. Stupid deep sore throat voice!! Well, I'm not the only one with the flu today (though the other people in particular possessed a different kind of flu).

Still flushed with Terrengganu batik shopping, my mom and sis went to KL so that the later can prove of cheaper, better and more suitable styled headscarves. Terrengganu's patterns are different because their batik is colour-schemed elaborate and so compensated with simple headscarves. KL women are executives and wear coats, shirts and simple pants/skirts. So shops in KL sold beaded and flowery headscarves, which what my mom was looking for.

Well, that explains why it had been so difficult to call my mom's cell phone. She was happing a damn good time!! Okay, so jealousy isn't going to get this sandpaper out of my voice box (unless you guys could prove the remedy's a clean cure). The married ladies came home with green and purple beaded cloths and silk-like material and headscarves. Now all we need is a trip to Kampung Baru to our tailor of 20 or so years.

So what do I do other than watch TV about flowered floats floating by in their boats? Well, for starters, this blog entry wouldn't be written if I were doing something else. And soin between sentence structuring, I hatched a Merdeka baby. Let me introduce you to Verbatim, who's a species of alien race that lives only up to a month, if I feed and play with him well.

A Tonmarutchi called Verbatim, after the registered name on my diskette.

Yup, I know whatcha thinking. This gal is sooo damn old-school games. I had the PC version of Tamagotchi since 1997 and had hatched over 14 aliens. Back then it was the 'it' thing, now it's lame out, but made it's having a comeback in a year or so, something about teaching your pet to look after a pet (obsessed people needed only apply). It'll be a snap. I mean like, hello? Look at my real pets!



Patchy, Dusty and the Bonsai Kitty Protest.

These guys, they're like the double screenings of Teenage Drama Queen. During the day, one sleeps indoors on a soft cushioned couch while the other took over the foldable Panasonic hammock chair outside. And at night, they fight over who gets to sleep in my room. As quoted in a list posted by none other than ddsaad, they're not bed hogs, they're mattress appreciators. Though that still doesn't answer who made the 'mistake' at the corner of my bed.

Signed: *Ophie, wishing a get-well cure is as easy as two instant injections as demonstrated by Verbatim

The Chaos Circles #8

The journey from Jaymes' farm to the heart of Enatuh took a good length of three hours and they were in a hurry. Jaque and his father moved only as fast as the Samuel's horse-buggy could take the two women, the later led the way with a lighted lamp on a staff.

Lya gazed at the landscape as the skylight faded from a gold-red sunset to a purple velvet speckled with tiny spots. They passed other farmsteads and a lone cottage or two from a distance. Many of them were dark or glowed faint with small lights.

There were others headed for the same direction but they seldom spoke. Not too soon when a more stable hard packed road replaced the muddy brown path. By the time they could see the silhouette of the largest and only tiled roofed building in the village, the bread and cheese were eaten clean from Dydine's basket and there was enough light from the bright Fire Tower to see with little use of Terrence's lamp. He blew the light out and returned a greeting from a passing Jeramson.

The Fire Tower was the only structure taller than the village hall. It was used to light the village during festival nights or for important visitors from far away to see the village from a distance after dark.

For most of the year, the Fire Tower held a great bell, where Mr. Patrickson the elderly watchman sat in on guard every night. Tonight, a good-sized blaze shone on the very top, lighting high above the earthen streets, thatched dwellings and shop houses everywhere.

It appeared that the King's Mages had just arrived. Two horse drawn coaches drove pass by the Hall. They were deep red of colour, almost black under the firelight.

Lya could barely make out the emblem on their doors, a green peacock with a sweeping tail entwining itself around a lighted staff. The words written in a circle around the peacock-staff were in old Isaqn language, Isnut inotu Avaasi ina Uqona.

She felt out of ease by the sight of the emblem. As they got closer to the Hall, Terrence Jaymes rode a bit back to Faerilla and broke the long silence between them.
"We shall part for now. If you don't mind Mrs. Samuels, your husband approved of me borrowing some room in your stables for my son's mule and my horse. We are already close to the hall and my brother's home is on the other side of the village."

Faerilla seemed to have woken from a trance when Mr. Jaymes spoke. But she nodded to him before turning her attention to Lya.
"Lya sweetheart, would you take the buggy and drive back by yourself back home? Just make sure Rosa scrubbed them down nicely. I'll see you at the back entrance of the Hall later. I must be with your father. He would need a hostess," said Faerilla.

Lya was about to follow obediently before she suddenly saw Jaque turned his head to her. He spoke the soundless language with wide, searching eyes. Nothing's changed, I need to disappear.
"Mother, why don't Jaque take the horses instead? It isn't safe for young ladies to be alone after dark, even with the Fire Tower lit. Rosa can..."

Her voice faltered when she saw Mr. Jaymes shook his head.
"I'm sorry daughter, but my son needs to be punctual in this meeting. Most of the men around his age are already in the Hall. It was requested by the Mages," said Terrence.

He got down from his steed and motioned to Jaque to do the same before handling him the reins. Jaque tied his father's horse and his mule to the back of the buggy. All the while, he looked to Lya and his eyes spoke again, in a way she could not really tell if it was softer or harder. You're the one with the Ability. I'll look after myself.

Lya sighed steadily as she took the reins from her mother and led the buggy away with the two other esquires. The Samuel's residence was little more a house yet much less than one of those fairytale mansions she had read about in her father's library. It was the oldest and one of the few double story buildings in Enatuh, itself enclosed in a large private garden surrounded on all sides with a seven feet high fence wall.

Outside the abode yet adjoined to the wall was the stone stable. Lya got off the buggy and knocked gently on the wooden sliding gate. Predictably, Rosa answered the summons almost immediately, her dark eyes gleaming.

Rosa Samueldottir was her father's first cousin. She lived with them just after the terrible butchery thirteen years past that made her a widow and childless. The woman's face always lit up at the sight of Lya, whom she considered as her closest female companion.

"You are a too early to return here, butterfly," said Rosa. She had never once called Lya by name and often spoke in riddles and metaphors.
"Not tonight, auntie. There are Mages in the village and they don't seem willing to wait for tomorrow to round up the head of clans," said Lya.

But then she thought for a moment.
"Are they staying for the night, Rosa?"
"Not to my knowledge. The only thing on my mind since this morning was if your flower had shared its secret earlier than flowers were supposed to."

Lya ignored the growing heat on her face, either caused by her continuing uncertainty or Rosa's statement. She untied the reins of the Jaymes' steeds as Rosa led the buggy inside.
"Ahh, yes. Mages Dangerous. Dangerous Mages. See how they rhyme! Be quick, butterfly, before you are missed. All flowers shall be bloomed but sweetness is best when tasted twice. So hurry now," said Rosa, smiling as she remove the straps.
Lya's face stiffened but she returned the smile with a wave. Now she wondered how many others who thought she had already a Bonding Night with Jaque.

She was running before she stopped at the front gate of her house. If the Mages were staying at Enatuh for the night, they would definitely stay the head villager's house since there were no inns, her father's house.

Lya felt a sense of presentiment with that thought. Knowing how long it would take for Rosa to take care of 3 animals, Lya opened the gate and walked quickly up the garden pathway to the stone porch to the front door.

There were only five rooms at the ground floor but three of them were very large. A modest hall that had been turned into a classroom, Rosa's bedroom next to the only kitchen anywhere that could cook a boar indoors and a good-sized library.

Quietly entering, she went straight for her father's study. Four generations of Samuels had completely ignored the historical treasure just under the very stone floor they walked upon and ten generations after that, including her father, did not even knew it existed.

Out of habit, Lya knocked gently on the thick door. There was no answer. She had expected it but she was being careful and always armed with an excuse in ready. She had been caught twice before but never while she was in the actual act of taking the set of keys out from a small hidden cache under the grand mahogany desk. After removing them, she gave a sigh of relief. Now she must hurry to get to the Hall.

She left the room as quietly as she came, pressing the set of keys close to her so they won't make a sound. If the Mages were curious as Lya was as a child, all they could only find that was curious enough would be an empty box in the study. Unknowingly, a pair of eyes had watched her every move from the window in the cover of outside's darkness.

To be continued...

Xfresh Archive: Had a bad day again...

Location: Sickbay of land stationed private residential quarters
Mood-of-the-day: Not too well actually, even rest and recovery system don't seemed to work

I'm feeling not so good on Monday morning yesterday. If my dad was an Xfresh member (which he wistfully wished in what I see as an attempt to embarrass me), though thankfully he never was, he'll reply to this entry with a comment that I was sick because of starving myself to severe malnutrition yesterday which could have resulted in death by a stomach ulcer... as quoted. My dad's so cheerful with me, don't you think?

Unfortunately, the tiredness, dizziness and missing-my-head-ness did not pass as time goes by in my school's workstation. S'matter of fact, it pretty much got worse at around 11am when new students for the August semester invaded, armed with formatted diskettes, blur faces and lil' paper temporary matric cards.

We the busy veterans could have shooed them away and let them take the feeder bus/expensive taxi/parent's car to register for courses elsewhere. Unluckily, these rat groups of softies were led but none other than one of the top deans. They were taking over the workstation for a How-To lesson (as in how-to-not-screw-up-your-own-student-account).

Damn the goose feather pillow treatment. Back at my first day, we were handled by hardened third-years/final-years who made us stand on the dangerous edge of the balcony in blindfolds, drop water paint balloons on passer-bys and all sorts of illegal so-called orientation acts.

As I got kicked out with everybody whose age was 19 and above, my friend Nik and her lil' sis decided to crash out at the Giant. I would have sold my kidney for a good shop-around. But more so, I would have sold my soul to get this bang-bang-banging out of my head. I declined, said sorry and they said they'd look out if that suave chic sleeved shirt were still around at the Factory Outlet.

I took nap in the lecturers' surau on the 4th floor, which was pretty isolated since that it was only early noon. After school, I'm still not in optimum swing. This was bad because I had planned on an Ikano trip, but at my present condition, I should be better planned for a toilet bowl trip.

Mom checked my forehead and, being the best mom in the world, got out the Panadol. Looks like I'm down with a knock-brain fever. Must have been on since that return home car ride. I'm 4 years too old to throw a teen anguish protest but I'm not playing the couch-ridden teen either. Faking a quick, instant recovery and skipped dinner (because if I do eat, it might come back up).

Mom wasn't buying any of it though (she fixed a couple of burgers as we watched Crocodile Hunter Diaries last night). So pretty much this was my Merdeka Eve. At the very least, wished this my pc monitor stopped spinning so much.

Signed: *Ophie, who managed to stay up late enough to watch the Ikano skyrocket fireworks from her front lawn. I'm so regretting not to PARTIEE!!

Xfresh Archive: Monday Afternoon Musings

Location: School's Library, pc with no specific number and mouse with no ball.
Mood-of-the-day: Basic Annoyed Person 101

At this moment, I'm sticking my finger into this mouse's asshole to make it work since it has no ball. Sorry for being a bit grumpy, but having to direct this pointer with my index finger to the inability to use the workstation with properly working balls equals not a satisfied student. Well, I'm not going to get much foreplay in this entry anyway so might as well get to the climax.

1. Training day for new students so the workstation's off-limits.
2. I took a pic of both my cats, but forgot to bring the camera today.
3. There's a lot of sleeping students in the library.
4. Aaccckk!! I still haven't registered for classes!!
5. I had tandoori chicken last night.
6. I didn't eat lunch again today :P
7. Where's the Holy Grail in Da Vinci's Last Supper?
8. I'm reading my sis's new book even though I haven't even touched my new book.
9. I have RM12 in my purse right now.
10. Actually, I only have RM12... :P

11. There's a hole in this room's ceiling.
12. The new kid with the Nokia next to me is just too loud.
13. Is somebody smoking in here?
14. I still can't stop thinking of chocolates and pies (it's liann55's fault~!! :P)
15. The Library PCs seemed to work unusually well today.
16. Kimi Raikkonen won his second No. 1 win at Belgium!!!
17. The photocopy machine here NEVER works.
18. Damn! I think I left my blue pen back at P. Redang.
19. Time to change the Scene of the Month and Worldly Possessions again.
20. In Haiti, it's against the law to raise people back from the dead.

21. My first class today starts at 4.00pm
22. There're only 6 PCs in this library.
23. What? The new students at the workstation aren't done yet?!
24. Okay, now I'm getting hunger pangs (groan! :P)
25. I'm going to the Ikano Street Party!
26. Oooh, how didja know that already? ;)
27. Why is 1.618 is the most beautiful number in the world?
28. Sorry folk! Chaos Circle #8 still isn't ready yet.
29. Everybody's registering for his or her classes.
30. This school seemed to have a renovation every month or so.

31. Coffee, Coca-Cola, Fresh orange, Teh limau ais, Slurpee...
32. My birthday is next month!!
33. It's going to rain in Kelana Jaya...
34. Has anybody seen my Dreams Interpretation book?
35. Where the ball rolls, the pointer follows.

Signed: *Ophie, tired of all the sex talk from the girls behind her.

Xfresh Archive: Sleepless Sunday

Location: Somewhere I belong
Mood-of-the-day: Looking for my head. Can you check under your chair for a minute, please? Just in case...

We arrived home early Sunday morning. Neither of us had any dinner since food courts at the Kuantan Highway aren't around yet. I tried my best to sleep soundly but when I woke up, I got such a dizzy feeling in my head that it stings like crazy and was making me sick. Damn, didn't take enough rest after the swimming time. There's a bang in my head every time someone says a word. Thankfully, they turned off the radio and passed me some Panadol.

Even though it was 1.00 am, I didn't sleep! My sis got this brand new book that's a No. 1 bestseller called The Da Vinci Code. It's a mystery thriller about an ancient society with a secret so powerful, it could re-write the whole 2000 years of history if it ever got released. When a prominent curator of a famous museum suddenly... well, let me give you a review after I'm done okay? It's my first non-fantasy book since Sweet Valley High.

The lack of sleep is still affecting me today (thus, I still looking for my head) but work still had to be done. Salty clothes worthy of 5 people to wash (mom wears enough for two), and everything else to do. I could properly define the 'everything else to do' but I didn't stick around long enough other than to dump fish-stink laundry into the washing machine before I escaped to the workstation.

Spend the whole day at the virtually empty workstation (well, duh! What am I doing at school at a SUNDAY?). I can't let you guys not share my island bliss so I posted 3 entries and 12 pics (the most number of pics I've ever posted in a day!). Also, I noticed the BLOGathon countdown is still ticking to a -2. It's gone today though, replaced by a pretty pink Lovey-Dovey link. And my name still isn't on the Top Ten List! Why?!

I got so busy that I didn't eat lunch! Usually this would get me happy (especially since the Barbecue Buffet) but I feel so weak and tired. You know that phase after you don't munch something, you get light-headed and your hands shook on its own? Yeah, got there. No, I swear I'm not anorexic (though dad kept telling me I am). But still, I welcomed the Big Mac. And thanks to sis for the Fasta Pasta Pizzas (see why, with this family, I'm diet conscious?).

Anyway, today is Monday, 30th of August! I'm going to the Ikano Street Party tonight, just for a browsing-looking-seeing. I doubt I'll join in very much but if I'm looking for the usual 'discounts everywhere' theme. Despite already romantically involved with The Da Vinci Code, I'm still pining for Hobb's Farseer's Trilogy and I hoped both relationships would work out nicely ;)

Signed: *Ophie, who found her head floating about under her book cupboard.

Redang Day Three: Back on the Mainland

Location: Sitting on a pile of funny smelling bags, waiting for the boat to the mainland
Mood-of-the-day: Shopoholic

Today's the end of the trip. I still feel so exhausted and wasn't looking forward to the long car ride back to Kt. D'sara. I just want to lie down in my sand-ridden bed and let gravity push me down and keep me in place. But mom pulled out the blankets and I fell down to the floor real heavy (woke up every body else in all 10 rooms. They thought there was a bomb).

I'm so sluggish this morning because I ate so much food last night. There was an All-You-Can-Stuff-Yourself-Before-You-Blow-Up Barbecue by the beach and I took a generous helping of everything on the table. I knew I should have stopped at the 4th leg of chicken but, oh come on, look at the scene! The sun has gone down, the sea breeze in your hair, the sand in your toes (I had not worn any shoes since Thursday afternoon), the only light is the fluorescent lamp... It's enough to make any carbs conscious person to turn Atkin's (and aim for the 5th chicken :P).

"Chicken, fish or hot dog, miss?"

So after much persuasion and threats (it took the promise of mainland shopping to get me out of subconscious), I joined the family into the getting-all-packed-up-and-ready-to-go mode. But the thing was, it's raining, HEAVILY, and the sea's getting rough. The boat dudes won't get to the Redang jetty in this weather. So to pass the time, my sis taught lil' bro and me how to play congkak. I admit I've never played it before, even with 50+ cousins ready to teach me how.


"This is the boat between Redang jetty and here. We take a ferry to the mainland."

We missed the first ferry because of the rain but there's a second one at around noon so that leave us a satisfied amount of time to do mainland shopping. The boat got back with a healthy number of new and pink-faced passengers (including a couple of Mat Sallehs) all ready to take over our rooms (hope they didn't mind the toilet we broke :P). The sea was still rough though, so we had to be careful as we get on board.

Yay, shopping! Because it's the school holidays and soon there'll be a Merdeka free day, everything seemed to be doubled-the-halved-priced. That means everything is still so expensive! I found this lovely dark green with fair floral designs on light material. Price = $260. Ouch. Yeah, like it's really already been discounted.

As we move on, mom looked for a pair of batik pants for bro (who's stuck at home). She found this lavender + indigo piece that would have got a dude some gays in San Francisco and shot at in Texas. It's funkie and he liked it like sweet (he wanted one since mom got me a pair from her Indonesia trip).


"Original Terrengganu batik! I'm still deciding if I prefered it to be a kurung, kebarung or kebaya... :P"

These shop owners were always on the ready, more than KL's owners. My sis took a quick touch-and-see on this metal belt and the guy suddenly appeared with his price and plastic. Wow, talk about quick service. My dad didn't marry a shopoholic without absorbing some ideas for himself. He got himself a gold-threaded songket while finally found a batik I really, really liked.

We ate lunch at this food court where tables were wooden and stapled with flamboyant floral plastic covers. Mom got herself a headscarf while lil' bro didn't shop for anything (he's probably still in sea sickness). Time was limited since we wanted to get home by midnight. As we took the mainland road to pass through election filled Kuala Berang. I took one last look at the South China Sea horizon and wondered when I'll see it again.


That's me! And see my raggedy Jeans now become really, really raggedy!

Signed: *Ophie, all tanned brown and still swaying with the ocean wave as she walked in the workstation.

Redang Day Two: Finding Nemos

Location: Exactly at sea-level with many, many, many coral fishies
Mood of the day: Lazy Man's Float

Cheers! I woke up the next morning and all my clothes smell like fish. It's all the fault of the cool salty wind coming through open door and windows that never seemed to stop. My hair's got all stiffed, dried up and smelling like beached seaweed.

With 3 ladies to a bathroom, thank industrial hair product chemistry for Follow Me conditioner but the bottle's empty by the end of this post :P. Luckily, my sis didn't (or haven't) charged us for it.

Took us some time to find a picnic spot and still more people are coming.

We set off for the marine park at 10.Something AM by boat since it's on the other side. Tourism Ministry now charged peopleto get into these waters (lousy money eating, opportunity cheating, oh did I wrote that out aloud?).

There were already a lot of people and the beach was packed with locals and the most Mat Sallehs I've ever seen in one spot. Most of them were under the park's jetty out of the sun and once in the water, everybody's in red life jackets so you really can't tell who's who during snorkelling.


Most of the corals are only skeletons but still very sharp

The first thing I noticed was the lack of the black, sand covered, arm-length, motionless sea cucumbers (ew, ew, ew, ew, ew!!). Probably all shipped to the Perhentian :P. The water's very, very clear. There are the common bony staghorn corals and a flat surface variety here and there.

Mom packed this tough dry bread because they're cheapest. But they break apart in the water so I kept it in my fist as the fish nibbled between the fingers. They do like bread, I mean, where else can they get factory-baked ones in the sea?


The water's very, very clear. Too bad the Konica isn't waterproof...

By far the most common was black and white striped angelfish that were bigger than your palm. There's the tiny blue-black remora that cleans other fish and is about the side of your index finger. I saw a silverpike and a small species group of blue swordfishes. One kept following me as I go look for the famous clownfishes. I called him Long John Silver.

Underneath the jetty were thousands and thousands of slim silvery ikan bilis, swimming in groups and not in your sambal all dried up :P. Rainbow fish and parrotfish needed no extra description other than each of them was huge and could big off the whole of your thumb (I checked each of my fingers after every feeding). My sis became the Pipe Piper of Redang when all the fish followed her as she left a trail of breadcrumbs.


Two different species of baby turtles. They're sooo cute!

After the swim, we took a visit to this sea turtle centre to see the newly hatched before they get released. Lil' bro went back to study Malay Literature while the four of us took to Redang Bay for a late lunch. As I bite into my Ramli burger, sis gasped that she thought she left her purse and dad's money back at the boat. Now we can't pay for our meal. Dad was frantic and waded out to sea at the anchored boat, shouting at the seamen, my sis herself in pursuit (guilty run!).

Mom took another look into the big black bag of snorkels and masks and found the money/purse. She ran off to them herself, waving the missing items like flag signals. I couldn't desert the table of half-eaten food with the Ah Lian watching so I just keep eating as the other got waist deep back in saltwater. This was such a fun day *big wink* ;)

Signed: *Ophie, "I found 4 clownfish Nemos in this tiny patch of purple anemone. Long John Silver dived down and shook them up a bit, they're highly territorial." ;)

Redang Day One: He-eee-llo-ooo-!!

Location: Room 7, Redang Campsite and Resort, Pulau Redang, Terengganu
Mood of the day: Tough and beefy, like Arnold Schuarzenagger Swuasenagjer Susah-nak-eja :P

Here's the first post of the Redang Report! We set off at 2.30am and hopefully get there by noon. It's an all nighter drive between my mom, dad and sis. On the new Kuantan highway, mom was falling asleep so dad took over. Dad drove so riskily in the dark and misty road that NOBODY slept.

We arrived at Cukai at the crack of dawn and a brief Venus gaze for breakfast at one of these roadside half-city-half-kampung café where we ate chicken as the street-wise live ones boldly joined us under the table (don't worry, they ate rice, not their masak-merah brethren).

The view from our veranda...

Arrived at the jetty early so dad herded everybody to a pasar raya (were corridors and shops are small but their wares can knockout any KL prices). He just wanted an original Terrengganu nasi dagang but mom, sis and me could only see hundreds vibrant coloured batiks in delicate hand-painted Thai silks. But if we stick around to our girl's heart's content, we'll miss the boat. Dad had to drag sis kicking and screaming (but he promised full shopping experience on the last day).


A hermit crab visiting his girlfriend with a gift. Can you see the faint heart-shaped trail marks?

There were other families on the package we took but we're the only ones without primary school kids (school holidays-le). My lil' bro's packed half his school with him because of the SPM trials by Monday (poor dude). The trip to PR was eventless save for this lil' baby gal who's terrified of the rocking boat. PR Resort was only a balcony jump away from the beach (not that we actually jumped off the balcony into the sea) so after checking in, we SWIM!!!


Architect freak. Lil' bro's rebuilding the Great Wall of China grain by grain

There were no fish in our area cos there were no coral reefs for fish to live in. Redang got all sorts of weird names for their area. There's Pulau Tengkorak, P. Yu Kecil and Tg. Cina Terjun (supposedly, where a lot of Chinese can jump and shout "Goodbye, cruel world!"). The catered food's bland and so for flavour, the family brought out the Mister Potato, Mr. Chips and (gender not defined) Double Decker Chicken munchies. There's actually Astro here! They got the electricity turned on in the evenings. Laa~, no holiday seemed to be safe from Astro ;).


A cloudy sunset at an island is better than smog-filled one back home...

The swim was an exercise for tomorrow's marine park extravaganza. The other family also joined into the water. The waves were unusually huge at this time of the year (must be the Taiwan Typhoon). The waves could have been bigger since each comes on twos or threes, broken up by the shore.

I saw one lil' gal went running to her dad with a mask-snorkel set before being knocked off her feet by a mini tsunami. She tried to get back up before the second after-wave went 'Peekaboo' right into her face. She must have gave up and just sat at the shallows to recover before a third water-brother sent her sprawling back on the beach. Reminds me of my first island paradise trip ;).

Signed: *Ophie, falling asleep to the sounds of she thought at first, were the waves on the rocks but in fact, her dad was snoring loudly from the other room.

Xfresh Archive: See you later, Xfreshers!

Location: Who cares?! We're off to see the Redang. The wonderful Pulau Redang!
Mood-of-the-day: See the pic...

Arrgh~! It's just so déjà vu. I'm feeling totally excited and anxious again, just like the first day of semester holidays. At exactly 24 hours from the time this entry is posted, it'll be all just super sun, sand, sleep, swim and salty sea for the further 96 hours. My last visit to an island paradise was long forgotten but I think it was Pulau Perhentian back then. I got so many things to do, including telling it to the world!

Yeah, that's the other thing, my blog. I wanted to get into the BLOGathon very much, confident that I could have a chance at something but that something's gotta give and I ain't missing this trip! I'm trying to post as much meaningful entries while I'm still above sea level. It's very rare that my family managed to find the right free time that's convenient for everybody for this trip. This was a tight slip since that I started school while my lil' bro had started the holidays (he's skipping his tuition classes).

What I'm most concerned are the 2 cats, Patchy and Dusty. How are they going to survive four days without the required total care and protection? My bro isn't coming with us since he still got to go to work and so he'll be able to feed them at least. But Patchy's senior kitty and gets easily stressed out if something's amiss. He needs his scheduled nightly-scratch-behind-the-neck and only I can do it properly. I mean, well, look at him!


Kitty Mugshot: Patchy, kitten of Catty, second generation feline in da family

Still, arrgh~! What am I going to pack? I lost my yellow-green snorkel ages ago. I searched for it in ever corner. As a last resort, I braved through the dark clutter of the Doom Room (see previous Ophami-lympics entry) and come out only with bruises, a throat full of dust and empty hands. I think I stepped on something dead (eeeeew, gross!). Luckily, the nearest fully equipped bathroom was only a hop, skip and jump away, (literary, all on one foot!).

Still, no snorkel anywhere. I'll have to borrow my dad's or rent one from the hotel. I'm not going to miss feeding coral fishies for the world. Mom mentioned in passing that she's going to pack some mouldy bread for that. What I'm going to bring along is my raggedy old Jeans! Need some fixing up though. I love my hideous blue but I hate to sew. Pricked my finger a few times actually.


My favourite and oldest pair. It's supposed to look ugly.

Yahoo, snorkel was actually found! My dad founded at the last minute in his own jumbled collection of scuba gear. I know it's weird to say that I've lost it at the 4th paragraph and say that it's been found by the 6th, but all the while I was writing this in my room, I stopped at almost every sentence to pack a shirt or to sew up another hole in the raggedy Jeans or check the pencil case for pre-blog equipment or etc...

Signed: *Ophie, free Pulau Redang souvenir to the one who guessed correctly how many times Ophie stopped to do something else half-way through this entry.

Xfresh Archive: The Friend you don't want to Hang Around with

Location: Executive Suite with glass ceiling skylight and indoor Jacuzzi
Mood-of-the-day: I becoming deaf in one ear but that's not such a bad idea

I'm sure I'm not the inkblot on a white paper when it comes to suddenly coming face to face with the one guy/gal you've abandoned or pretended to have never met or try to hide from. The person whose favorite habit is the one thing that makes them the least desirable person to be around your 5 feet to 5 kilometers of personal space.

It's okay for me to write it here cos the person in particular doesn't know about my blog. Heck, I was careful not to mention it around her. This girl is the Janice reject from the Friend series because the producers can stand her either. I've been avoiding her as much as I can but she doesn't seem to take a hint.

She a dark malay with a beret (hey it rhymes!) and I've hardly see her wearing anything else on her head (I hardly see her at all, thank goodness!). She has a deep voice for a gal and could never seem to control her volume. Example: She once talked about how's her menstrual cycle and asking all about mine in the middle of the crowded workstation during peak lunch hour, LONG and LOUDLY. I wanted so very much to die on the spot at that moment.

That's the thing; the subjects she always talks about seem only to make more sense to her while I try to crank my head or least pretend I understand something. She talks about the organizational infrastructure of the Education Ministry and who's commanding over whom and how she knows them personally. She talks about some hidden conspiracy about the Pengajian Malaysia lecturer over a final exam some 2 years back.

She talks about all these deep, serious discussion that would make any nation-wide debate judges proud to sponsor her to go international (I'll sponsor her too, and double so she stays there!). She doesn't want to talk about anything light-hearted, not books, not clothes (I know where to get her a better beret), not movies *sigh*. Most recently was yesterday, about how she's been trying to graduate quickly and most efficiently.

Why didn't I just tell her I want out? Well, it's because what she is! She's so deep and thoughtful that, if she had expressed it rightly, would have been a great at something among people her genre, like a debating team or school politics, but she isn't interested (I know, I tried to get her attention elsewhere). And she's smart. She helped me get through some of the projects through my foundation days and still do.

So what do you do with a girl like her? Do you put your foot down and tell her that's she's okay but we're not sharing much in common? Do you just let her be and might as well enjoy her company to fake it, fake it until you really do feel it? Or do you just try to ignore her as much as possible, like if she's walking to you but haven't seen you yet, turn around and duck into a bathroom? I don't see her often so I've been using the 'ignore' tactic.

Signed: *Ophie, not desperate, just needed a fly swatter that doesn't kill anybody

Xfresh Archive: Ophami-lympics!

Location: Bouncing in giant hamster balls all around Ophie's Cerebral Cortex
Mood-of-the-day: Celebrating Insanity

Laaa~dies and gentlemen! Let's forget about the usual mumblings of this 'ere gal's daily timeline events and one-side opinions so we can all join hands in the spirit of competition! What? No! We're not talking about the overly budgeted, superbly bombastic and still in maintenance Greece's Olympics! No fellow bloggers, we at the Suvon Reality crew are talking about Ophami-lympics!

Yes! Don't YOU, have experienced something at home that require so much physical workload and mental Zen that is the envy of health trainers everywhere? Well duh, what am I saying? Of course you do, yes, yes, yes! And at Ophie's House are special events that are held EVERY DAY with everybody having a chance to hold great titles, break records and win!

*-*-*-*-*

Event: Ass-Cake Bake

Current record-holder and participant: My lil' bro! (432751 seconds and counting...)
Previous record-holder: My dad (Bathroom break time limit exceeded)

This event is to test the endurance of keeping your BUTT at ONE PLACE at the LONGEST TIME. You are allowed to do anything within arm's reach, remote control, eat a snack or two and all the Astro you can have but you're not allowed to lift your posterior at all. This event started since the TV was brought upstairs.

Event: Water Box

Current record-holder: My dad (In his Break-the-Box-with-a-Sledgehammer-Freestyle)
Previous record-holder: My dad (In his Building-the-Box-with-Love-Freestyle)

And onto the water sports! This original piece combines all the attributes of weight lifting, shot precision and gymnastics grace to create a one-of-a-kind event! Music added to the effect and shall be counted. As you can see, the previous winner won with a complementary Frank Sinatra's "I did it My Wa~aaay."

Event: Jungle Jim

Current record-holder: Patchy the House Cat (bringing home a twitching half-dead bird)
Previous record-holder: Dusty the Mixed Persian (failed in frog capture)

The 'Jim' in the Jungle Jim sport can be anything and anyone in particular. The trick is that it's a capture and not-sure-if-can-release-it into the home with style and grace and as minimal damage as possible. Points are awarded to the species type of 'Jim'. The closer to a mammal, the higher the score.

Event: Doom Room

Current record-holder: Me (getting lost and surviving 4 days and 4 nights before succumbing to diseases)
Previous record-holder: None (Only 5 had ever dared to compete and all were declared missing)

Lastly is the most terrifying one of all, Doom Room. This perpetually dark interior has been a haunted, hazardous place and was declared unsafe for any category, until recently. This is where no light can ever shine through and once anyone with a soul get to the first left bend, an evil so great can be felt and drives them away. It had been deemed a gateway downstairs to Helldom, which makes it such a cool thing to do it!

*-*-*-*-*

And so come on over to this prestigious, once in an imaginary life span opportunity to cheer for your favorite normal, boring, everyday-you-see-them couch potatoes! Tickets are sold at every major Mouses' Mousehole, open 2 minutes a day at prices ranging from a cheesecake to a CIA bank account.

Signed: *Ophie, this entry is brought to you by the Egos of E. Diot, Balance, Reason, Negligence and Stupidity (whee~eee~eee!)

Xfresh Archive: True Tragic Tale

Location: You can see where I am. Look at the right-hand corner of the blog.
Mood-of-the-day: Whopper burger with cheese, Spicy KFC, Big Mac set with apple pie, A&W waffle...

Considering that this is the ghost month on the Chinese calendar let me tell you a true tragic story, one that I've experienced first hand. It's still hard for me to recount it, but for this blog and hoping that you'll be careful, I'm going to tell it. If you think that this story is based on anyone you know, please understand that I have no intention of disturbing old memories.

When I was in secondary school, year 2000 or so, I was a member of the Red Crescent Society. Once we took an inter-school camping trip to Bukit Cahaya to compete against other schools during the first year or so of the new badge reward system. We were there for the jungle experience and to keep our school's winning track record and that sort of stuff. Everybody was very excited and for many it's their first time camping away from families.

The first day was tough and yet most fun. On the third day, there was a round of practise foot drill so intense that the phrase 'break a leg' before the actual test tomorrow seems like not a bad idea. Members who did not participate in the foot drill competition, or had already won previously, were left behind to maintaining the camps.

One school had accidentally broken the PVC pipe buried in the earth with a shovel, which, unfortunately, had been supplying water to our campsite. It was my job to fetch water so even after the jelly-legs pain, a fetching-I-will-go-and-obey-my-SC. I took a route to a different tap that was very near to a Sunway school campsite. There was a line there already.

Suddenly, there was this huge crash and yellow smoke covered the Sunway camp. If I can remember correctly, it sounded like a wave colliding into a rock wall at the seaside. The others who were waiting at the tap water pipe with their pails ran off, but I had been looking the other way. When I turned to follow the smoke, I saw flying leaves and a long trunk across the Sunway camp. People were crowding around, running away and the running back, so I couldn't really tell.

Suddenly there were whistles everywhere, the kind that police used. A leader caught me and asked which school I was from and that I go back immediately. I was more blur than scared cos I didn't know what actually happened. I complied anyway, but not before taking the advantage of quickly getting water. Once I got back, the SCs were already doing a head count.

Then an order was issued that everybody was to get to the main area right away. And everybody did. Nobody got in line and no leader bothered to correct us, which I found was very odd. A girl behind me I remembered was from the Sunway camp and she was commenting about some broken glasses and that she couldn't find her friend.

There was supposed to be a performance night but everybody's attention kept going at the two ambulances just on the edge of the main area. Despite the cheering claps and singing, I kept looking at the people going back and forth between the camps and the roads. Then, somebody screamed. I looked and saw a stretcher covered in white cloth, the kind that you see on 911 when somebody had died. One of the leaders had his shirt unnaturally red.

Nobody returned to the camps that night. We all were ushered to these empty wooden houses that God knows who owns them but we're grateful. The girl who was complaining about her glasses had stayed in the same wooden hut as mine. She still couldn't find her friend and was getting anxious. We were sent home the very next day, our bags packed and the competition cancelled. Nobody could tell us anything.

It wasn't until in a tiny section of Star newspaper is an article about the death of 2 Sunway students at Bukit Cahaya. A tree had fallen right on their heads and they were killed instantly. I can't remember if there was a third student involved. But it did happened. A few days later in the Utusan, a parent had written angrily about how inefficient the commanders were. It was heart-breaking, even after so long...

Signed: *Ophie, never wanted to return to Bukit Cahaya since then

Short Story: Abused and Abusive

Rena remembered how Danny left. He stared at her with accusing eyes, accusing her of betrayal as the police slapped the handcuffs on his wrists. Those eyes grew even more menacing in the flashing blue siren lights but his face looked old, tired, years beyond his twenty-eighth. Rena stood at the doorway with what strength she had left, bruised, battered and bloodied, holding tightly to a red phone receiver.

That was three years ago. Rena had long recovered from the terrible beatings but body shall always be riddled with scars, her mind with the memories. Living was hard without her breadwinner husband but she had to survive, she had to endure now that her only child, six-year-old Darren, will soon begin a life outside his home. She needed more than just the comfort of her neighbours. She needed security.

And was why Danny stood right in front of her house. He looked different now, thinner, and more forlorn, yet he wore a soft smile and his eyes looked at her differently. There he was, the same man she fell in love with. Although Darren was too young to have remembered how she protected him from his father's terrible fists, he pulled hard on Rena's skirt, clearly wanting to get away from this stranger.

Danny touched a long, jagged scar on her right cheek, but Rena did not flinch. He had changed, she knew he could and believed he had. Especially when he suddenly broke down and fell on his knees, clutching her and sobbing on her breast, crying, begging her to let him come back. He said everything she had always wanted him to tell her, how much he loved her. Rena could not help but cry as well.

Indeed, Danny had changed for the better. No longer did he stalk his neighbours for money. He found a respectable job as a bank clerk. No longer did Rena waited late up into the night, fearing he would return with a beer bottle. Danny came home early and sober. Sometimes he brought a rose for her or a toy for Darren. Darren still looked at his father unsmilingly, but no longer does hide behind his mother from him. Rena hoped that one day, Darren would come to love and trust Danny.

However, not all changes were good. Rena's friends, who had helped her willingly before, now stopped speaking to her. When she passed them at the market or at a shop, some pretended that she did not exist. This baffled Rena until Nor, a neighbour who took care of Darren while Rena sold desserts, explained that some were jealous of her new life. Many were still abused by their own husbands and could not truly be happy for her.

Darren too was affected. One day, he came home from kindergarten with uniform dirty, his bag torn and one of his shoes was missing. He did not shed a tear and his face was like stone. He told Rena how no children would be his friends because their parents had told them how his father was an ex-convict. Outnumbered and defenceless, he was bullied and humiliated almost every day. Even the teachers isolated him in class and would only scold him for being a filthy boy.

Rena was very depressed but she did not mention her troubles to Danny. Danny was working harder than ever after his promotion as head clerk. He would bring his paper work home and continue late into the night. He no longer brought home roses or toys for his family. He eats his meals in silence now and sometimes would return home very late. But his eyes and touch were still soft and he continued to smile and never raised a hand in anger.

Then, a well-dressed fat man came to Rena and, with a grin, explained that Danny had owed some money to his bosses. He was there to receive collection. Rena had seen this man many times before, at the gates of her neighbours' houses, but had never spoken to him. Danny had never asked for money from this man, only from the neighbours. The fat man told her how Danny had been very successful at his job and had returned to his old gambling habits.

Rena was shocked. She could not and did not believe the fat man. She asked Danny about the incident. He denied and said that he had been in meetings with his four colleagues. But the fat man continued to appear at her gate, smiling and demanding money. Rena gave him some of her own, hoping to lure that stranger away. But he was persistent and came everyday with descriptions of Danny's so called exploits until she no longer greeted him.

One day, the fat man returned but did not call out. Instead, he threw a package on to the floor and left quickly. Inside, to Rena's horror, were explicit sexual photos of her husband in a bed with many different women. That night, she confronted Danny with the photos. Danny looked grave and denied any wrongdoing. When Rena told him about the fat man, he countered that the stranger was a liar and that the photos were fake and it was not he.

Rena was so angry that she struck her husband on the face. He was stunned, but Rena was even more so. Danny did not strike her back. He touched the long, jagged scar on her right cheek and told her that he would never hurt her again. But he continued to bury himself in his work, even more so since and always stayed up late at his office. And the fat man started to call her on the phone almost every day.

Without a friend, her husband now hardly speaking to her and trouble still plagued Rena and her son, she became more and more agitated. She jumped or shouted at small things, ignored the phone almost every time it rang and was always angry with people, even Darren. One morning, the bank called Rena for Danny's whereabouts, as he was due for an important meeting. Rena did not know but she feared the worst.

Danny did not come home that night, nor by the next morning. Rena waited long at the doorway for him, neglecting a hungry Darren as he cried for attention. It was late that night when Danny finally came back.

He was in a complete disorder, his eyes were teary and bloodshot and there were stains on his shirt. When he saw Rena at the door, he cried and bowed his head low, begging for forgiveness. Rena saw that the stains on his shirt were red lipstick and he smelled like a strong mixture of alcohol and perfume.

Rena was furious. All rational thought left her mind as she struck him with her fists in rage. Danny did not fight back, but cowered before her, still begging and pleading. Rena was not satisfied. Instead, Danny's weakness only made her even angrier. She took her broomstick and began to beat him hard until the wooden handle broke. She continued to beat him with the sharp edge of the broken broom while scratching his eyes with her other hand.

She cried and screamed at him, and still he only lay as low on the floor. She shouted her frustration, asking him why he had done what he did. But Danny still did not answer but allowed her to beat him red raw. Rena struck, slapped and scratched until she had spent all her fury. A great wave of sadness washed over her and she felt a heavy weight on her shoulders. Her hands were blistered and slick with red blood.

Rena called out to her husband, but he did not move. She shook his bruised back gently and spoke soft pleads, but Danny still did not budge. From the outside came loud and familiar sirens that rang like thunder in the cold dark air.

She looked up and the flashing blue lights blinded her sight. She turned face into the house and in the darkness, she saw her son, Darren. He stood quite still like a statue with a thin face that was expressionless. In his hand was the red phone receiver.

Xfresh Archive: BLOGathon and the upcoming Ikano Street Party

Location: Sorry, GPS out of order. Please reboot and try again.
Mood-of-the-day: ...blog blog blog blog blog blog blog blog blog blog blog blog ...

Of all the things I could have missed during my 2 weeks' of total separation from the Internet (e-mails, message board RPG chats, Net game high scores, waaay behind of a tag story, announcement of a gathering even), but 6 days lost of a chance to competing in something I do almost everyday? Even if it isn't for a blog! It's outrageous! I can't let you guys have so much fun without me! I wanna get into the BLOGathon too :P

And boy was I ever ready. I hope Xblog judges would forgive me for the many entries I've posted up yesterday. It's the biggest amount I've ever written and posted in one day and I do hope each counts, you know, for a good entry lead. The downside is that I'll be leaving for Pulau Redang this coming Thursday and won't be back until Monday. Aah... so many ideas to put into entries, so little time to write it all...

Oh, well! When hungry, the food's not gonna cook by itself, ya know. Well the whole world seem to be starting its usual weird normalcy today. I drove this morning on the road next to Ikano Power Centre and caught the licence plate of a black Volvo titled 'CIA'. Well, I brushed it off amusingly at first, until the ocean-blue Gen. 2 that tailed the Volvo closely behind had the licence plate as 'KGB'. Great, spies... they're everywhere.

Armed with my green 1.44Mb, I was the first old student without lil' paper-type temporary metric card to sign-up for a workstation bum sitting. Actually, I was the first old student of anything at 8.45am considering that new students had yet to register for the semester (but, that's another story :P). And I spend good, long daylight hours with a such a straight back that would have made my dad and any drill sergeant proud (especially when I discovered what all you people had been up to without me!).

Everybody's seem to be getting a good journaling habit during my absence. Wa~aaah, scared-le, banyak competition! :D Looks like nobody had really reported about any bugs but I still found some minor old ones, like when you tried to edit your entries, there's some foreign code text about errors (hey Alby, hope you're reading this! :P). Didn't effect the actual editing of the entries though, I'm just curious about it.

Lastly, didja hear about the Ikano Merdeka Celebration coming soon this 30th August? I first heard about it on the radio before the Star gave out more details about the street party. There gonna be a celebrity concert with Hitz.fm deejays, the usual crowd-mingling entertainment, even hot air balloon ride all the way right up to the midnight fireworks. Anybody here coming? I live just nearby and any reason to go to shopping malls is good reason!

Signed: *Ophie, who also took a visit to the Xfresh Forums only to be greeted by echoes of her own postings... :P (Where is everybody?)

Xfresh Archive: JK Rowling's Secret Door... ;)

Location: Unitar workstation, pc 196, 165, 200, 24, etc...
Mood-of-the-day: Still looking for good Feng Shui

Any Harry Potter fans out there? Wa~aaah, so good. Erm, no. You at the back left, not you, you're the movie fan. Wait, not you either. Okay, let me try this again. Any Harry Potter fan of the BOOKS out there? In case, you're wondering, I'm not going for the reading-is-power phase, just wondering if there's guys who share similar interests of reading Harry Potter.

So you read the boy-wizard story? Great! If you're reading this then you must have the Internet (well, duh! :P). Do you often visit the author's website, JKRowling's? Oh co~oool, me too! Every time I surf online, I didn't need to remind myself for a JKR peek. It's cute, very visually creative. I got it through sheer accident back in March.

Looks like they got the Secret Door opened again. I've never been able to get through the brick wall previously, after she announced the 'Half-Blood Prince' title for the 6th book of the series. My school's firewall was so strict that they won't allow even the background pics of MuggleNet to appear (so I've been looking blankly at big empty squares with lil' X boxes).

However, the answer to JKR's latest Open Sesame mystery was easier to get this time. If you're an anti-spoiler person, look away right now! Still, if you're curious enough to abandon the fun of figuring it out yourself, here how to get JKR's small not-so-secret-by-now excerpt. Make sure that the 'Do Not Disturb' sign over the door is gone or else, well, you can't disturb!

I've 'borrowed' MuggleNet's pic to exemplify a How-To ;). Just use the window-still-name-tile-above guide to find a lil' light switch in the dark.

Secret Opened!

Good at darts? Me, Ophie, bad, bad dart player. Depth perception so bad, I might as well been born with one eye. But it's okay, cos this is more like code breaking part. You have to take the 3 darts at the bottom right and get the no. 7-1-3 (remember the first book? :P). If you did it right, you'll get a bank vault (sorry, no spoiler picture here :P!).

You have to click in the numbers: 302723. I dunno why but they pointed out that JKR's daughter was born on the 27th of June and her son, on March 23. Maybe JKR's husband, Neil, was born on the 30th of some other month? Anyway, to tell if you've succeeded, well, it'll be pretty obvious, wouldn't it? Enjoy the prize! :P

Signed: *Ophie, can be found in the Fantasy Section of any bookstore in Malaysia. Really...

Xfresh Archive: Questions of Existence

The purpose of life is a life full of purposes.

This quote was not one of those unexpected inspirational lines that I've accidentally heard or read or seen and made everything I have, been through or felt before, some profound sense. I went looking for it. To be more precise, I went looking for an answer. But answers were either just too hard to find, or I was looking too hard, I missed it. But I have found this as an inspiration until I yearn to search again.

Why was it that there were always more questions than answers? Why was it that we could only find answers only to some limited extend? What am I for? Why am I here? Who am I? Each of us asked such questions from the moment we start to understand a bit of ourselves. Answers we searched for, a purpose for life, a reason for living, an identity of our own and a value for ourselves.

I cannot deny that I do not often ask myself these questions. Too trivial, I said to myself. I was too young, I told myself, to be confused by such rhetorical things. But nor have I ever quietened my inner mutterings. Indeed, sometimes, they were my driving force. Eventually, life and experience, or at least snatches of what I had gone through, gave me some sense of conclusion.

What could I do?

All the other questions I asked before were meant for my benefit, my own definition of the world and my individualism. I stayed with them, hoping that their answers were pieces for that great, confusing picture. But with this question, I realized that there was no picture to begin with. I could not complete me because I have yet to envision me. I was ready to paint myself, outside the shadows of others, and there were many colours to choose from.

What would I do?

I was, and still am, of this given life. While my soul could wait an eternity for life to continue, life waited not a moment. The opportunities were many, some I cannot neglect, some I cannot achieve, some I cannot hope for, and some I cannot hide from. Opportunities lost made the foundations of wisdom stronger, for many others yet to come. There would always be opportunities. But I have only one life to seek my destiny.

What must I do?

There were some things that we cannot, even might never, continue without. These were important to us, placed before us, loved by us. Life can never be without risks, to us and to the part of us that were more than just ourselves. Paths soon fail and there could only be one road, even be it the most treacherous. It was at the moment of truth that by our choices, our decisions, we would shape our meaning, both in the innocents' eyes and in our own souls.

What have I done?

As you take refuge in a firm place on those topless mountains, it was the most clearly to look at the winding trail behind you, marked by your footsteps. The paths you have chosen, the distance and heights you had conquered, the difficulties of the terrain and those who you had brought with you, lost from you, rejoined or new ones found along the way. The pattern you had made in your life, for yourself defines your choice of being.

To do something, many things or nothing. To do something, anything and not do nothing. To do the one thing you placed your hope on without fail. To do look behind you and see all that you had accomplished. Where am I in these steps? How should I begin, and how should it all end? And the cycle that drives us to live continues.

Life, existence, was, and had always been, more about asking questions than finding answers. For in questions there can be held answers, and the trick was to ask the right ones. Then, someday, in a life full of purposes, you would realize what was the true purpose of your life and discover who you are in Time.

The Chaos Circles #7

Romantic? Jaque? Lya had watched him grew to become a man better than his own family ever did. But romantic? Probably the closest thing to it was how he stopped a green grass snake that had threatened to strike at Gemianna Leighamdottir. And ten years later, how that same girl became his first maiden, would dance only with Jaque and no other men at Enatuh's harvest day or on the Peak Days festivals, and would not let him dance or speak to other girls, including Lya.

Lya scolded herself for letting her mind wander again. Gemianna was already happily married to someone else and would soon be expecting her first child, a Jeramson perhaps, if Channeler Harrietta were right in her guessing. She buttoned the soft woollen brown dress she had chosen while Faerilla dried and brushed her hair. If everything goes just as planned...

A firm knock made by a heavy hand made Lya's heart skipped a beat. The intruder seemed to be in a hurry, for he (if it was a man) knocked a few more, each made louder, before Faerilla even got to the door.
"We are not ready," said Faerilla, through the wooden door.
"Please Mrs. Samuel. The matter I need to speak to you is urgent," answered the deep voice of Terrence Jaymes.

Faerilla looked to Lya with a familiar mix of gaze and nod that said get-dressed-quickly-and-I-will-be-back. Lya brushed her hair a few times before abandoning the brush and walking quickly but soundlessly to eavesdrop from the keyhole. Had Jaque left earlier? Did Mr. Jaymes catch him in the act? The voices of her mother and Mr. Jaymes were low but she could make out snatches of their conversation.

"... will have to be postponed. Even tonight," said Terrence.
"I don't understand," said Faerilla.
"A messenger from Hillway Path had just arrived. His horse had almost fainted with exhaustion and he is no better. Your husband had called for every available clansmen to the Hall."
"Hillway Path? Oh Terrence, you don't think?"
"Hadn't Handred mention it before? There's no time for the Bonding Night. And bring Lya too."

On instinct, Lya tore herself away from the door and tried her best to look as if she had been busy and successful with her hair. A few moments later, the door opened to reveal a grave faced Faerilla. Lya tried her best to look innocent despite the uncomfortable boiling hot pit in her stomach.
"Let me do that darling, before you make yourself go bald," said her mother in a gentle voice.
She took the hairbrush from Lya's hand. Trying to keep her own hands busy, Lya adjusted the buttons and smoothed the creases on her dress.

Faerilla seemed to be worried. The sudden silence between them only made Lya more anxious, especially since her mother hardly ever kept herself quiet about anything worth telling.
"Erm... Mother?" She tried to start something, hoping to receive something important.
As she had been reading her mind, Faerilla's response was in a soft tone but it still held a sharp edge to her tongue.
"We're going to the Hall soon. I'll see if Dydine would let us pack some bread and cheese to supp in case you'd get hungry."

It was still unsatisfactory to Lya, but she kept the thought to herself. A lady should not be disturbing her elder's troubled mind with her own curiosity. She finished quickly, tying a neat braid and both women left the bedroom in wide strides. Faerilla held a strong grip to her daughter's hand as they walked across the empty and quiet corridors. In all the time she visited Jaque during her childhood days, Lya had never felt the house so disturbingly quiet.

The Jaymes's home at the farm was not very large as compared to the fields they owned and all rooms were built on the ground floor. But it still was a grand old home made of good old oak, hickory and other hardwoods added throughout the years. Lya had always liked it better than her father's cold stone manor where she lived. It was once the main Jaymes family home until Finnigan Jaymes, Jaque's eldest uncle, build a stone house of his own closer to the village centre.

Dydine was already at the entrance room with a covered basket at one hand. Behind her was tiny Kennick, holding his fists to his mother's skirts and his face solemn. He stared at Lya with wide eyes behind his golden fringe. Faerilla took the basket from Dydine and muttered a brief thanks.
"Aren't you coming with us, Mother Jaymes?" asked Lya.
Dydine patted her large belly and shook her head.
"I would stay here and take care of my other sons. All of them are too young to attend."

Faerilla passed the basket to Lya's hand as they left the house. A rising cinnamon smell of freshly baked bread with soft cream cheeses rose from the cloth covered. If Lya had not been feeling so nervous, she would have peeked to see if Dydine had included some spiced chicken.

Outside were Terrence and her father Handred, both were saddled on their horses and wore smart dark coats with blank faces. Jaque had just strapped on the ropes on bulky old Ned the mule. Beside them was the horse buggy Lya and her mother had arrived in, its one stallion looked annoyed to be harnessed in so soon. The two grown men were in a deep conversation but ended abruptly when they saw Lya and her mother.

"Jaque, go and help the ladies into the buggy," said Terrence.
Jaque complied obediently. Handred looked away for a moment and then he said to them, "I have to go right now. They'll be expecting me to be the first to greet them."

Terrance only nodded. The old Samuelson kicked his heels to his horse's flanks and he was gone like lightning. If possible Lya felt even more scared. She looked straight at Jaque, trying to catch his eye as he held out his hand to aid her into the buggy.

Jaque could see her questioning look and countered with his own grimmer gaze.
"What it is?" Lya asked before he did. She was careful to keep her voice from her Faerilla, even though her attention was on the sight of her disappearing husband.
"You told me before that the King's Mages are coming? Well, they are almost here," said Jaque.
"So soon? But it is a good long way from Aqanau!" gasped Lya.
Jaque shook his head and returned her the food basket.
"I don't know how, Lya. I just don't know."

Before he turned to his Mother Samuel, Lya leaned over and touched lightly on his shoulder. She stared at him with her own serious, solemn stare.
"This changes everything."
"This changes nothing," said Jaque.

To be continued...

Holiday Archive: T'was the night of de Last Day...

Location: 1st paragraph = bedroom, 2nd paragraph = kitchen, 3rd paragraph = Proton, 4th...
Mood-of-the-day: Must... find... good... Feng... Shui...

Well, I thought today would be the Photoblog Day, you know, as a compensation for the lack of 3 extra entries that I had failed to do during my school holiday monotone. However, a nice old lady, who shared half my DNA, had abducted the Konika for her Old Ladies's Get-Together Part 2. But hey, I seriously doubt you really wanted me to detail my Day-of-the-Month that much, do you?

Erm... wow, look at the number of digital hands raised here. Man, some are you are sure nosy about my life, aren'tcha? Well as long as any gossip stays online, the whole Family is going on a Pulau Redang vacation next Thursday. As a rule, everybody could only carry waterproof luggage so dad's laptop was outta the question. Although an electronic, my lil' bro's Konika's a mandatory item so expect lots of pictures, but only above sea level, too bad.

Since I'm sitting on my bum in the Proton as I write my 3rd paragraph, my dad gave the ultimatum of scrubbing the dirt and grime off its once-shinny blue surface to make it shiny again before school tomorrow. But heck, I won't be driving the old motor-gal for Monday cos mom sending her to see the service doctor about a brake light. My dad tried to 'fix' it, but like something out of an American sitcom, well; let's just say real Eon experts are welcome. Willing to pay double. Please hurry.

Wow, I got so many things to get done and this is even before school! I'm taking 4 classes for the long semester, 16 credit hours (I think) in 3 full days (that one I'm sure). I almost forgot their titles, just listed down their codes. Erm, Business Values or Something, Discrete Maths, and the, er... um... E-commerce and one other IT related class. Yay, I award myself A+ for almost properly remembering the titles :P.

I'm doing three entries at once at this very moment and so I'm draining the inspiration juices big time. However, the juice is a bit sour cos the inspiration isn't quite ripe yet and so I'm getting lots of words pouring out but not amount of sugary descriptions can present real flavourful entries. Ala... now you see what happened! You made me thirsty. I'm taking a short break for a quick grape-flavoured purple water.

*please pause for 5 minutes...*

Now that I've used 1/12 of this hour to replenish body fluids, I realized something as I was reading the nutrition chart (yes, I do read nutrition charts before I consume. One of my habitual things to do actually). Other than there are no good movies on HBO tonight, I've decided that I'm feeling confident enough to send two entries of mine as articles for Xfresh. I've never sent articles before before, let's see what the CT thinks f them.

Signed: *Ophie, whose creative juices tasted good at this point only because she was getting thirsty :P

Holiday Archive: Saturday Night Musings

Location: Between MS Word writing and Pokemon Blue playing
Mood-of-the-day: Reason vs. Negligence. Whoever wins, my PC loses ;P

By the end of this sentence, it'll be Saturday 21st, 2004 at 10.17pm and 30 seconds. Okay, actually, I'm not sure about the seconds but I know it's Saturday the 21st cos if I didn't know, I'll miss my first class this coming Monday.

1. Must... resist... Pokemon Blue impulse...
2. Not... resisting... well...
3. The Mat Salleh label on white foreigners started in the old Melaka kingdoms.
4. British sailors got drunk to ease long work-travel-home sickness.
5. 'Mad Sailors' = Mat Salleh, Mat Salleh = 'Mad Sailors'...
6. I think I'll send one of my entry posts as an article to Xfresh.
7. But I'll have to finish it first, though.
8. Once in the 80s, my dad attended a weeklong seminar course.
9. It was so boring in the dark, presentation room that he fell asleep in half of the classes.
10. It was a seminar about motivation.

11. I so want to fall asleep so badly right now.
12. Cik Jah is now staying with my other aunt's family.
13. Now I know where my Indo-patterned shirt had disappeared.
14. I have collected 3 empty bottles in strategic locations around my bedroom.
15. Patchy the Cat is invading my keyboard.
16. He just wants me to stop writing so he can go to sleep in my chair.
17. My room has only bare walls.
18. I will admit, truthfully, that I have an air-con installed in my room.
19. The had been no light in the ceiling light for almost a month now.
20. Too lazy to change the bulb, used delicate lamplight now.

21. Ya-aay, there's Sex in the City tonight!
22. My dad had taped a nice Malaysian flag out to the garden grill wall.
23. I'm thinking of going to Popular Bookstore sometime soon.
24. Wish I had more money right now...
25. I drove through a red light today because two other cars did the same.
26. If that white Proton was an undercover officer with radar gun doing his rounds, he made at least RM150 tonight.
27. I still hadn't open the plastic cover on my new Wheel of Time Book.
28. My parents finally got that indoor TV antenna they always wanted.
29. 8TV's perfect only if there's someone standing in a monkey kung fu position on the northeast side of the TV with the right foot on the TV antenna, the left hand holding a half-filled Sarsi can and right hand scratching the right elbow.
30. Must be a Feng Shui thing.

31. I'm making shadow puppets with my lamplight!
32. Now I'm scared of the dark.
33. I've collected RM7 worth of one-cent coins.
34. My room temperature is 20 degrees Celsius.
35. Yeah, I like it as cool as Cameron Highlands.

Signed: *Ophie, neither Reason nor Negligence won. I'm chunking them both into the Subconscious again.

Xfresh Archive: From my Fantasy Book Cupboard...

Book Review: The Lightstone - The Ninth Kingdom

David Zindell was known for his sci-fi trilogy A Requiem for Homo Sapiens. The Lightstone is the first book of an epic called the Ea Cycle and his first attempt at fantasy. I got acquitted with the Lightstone as a last minute 'take a book, any book' run around in an MPH book fair. I didn't pay much attention other than the summary and book cover that had attracted me. Still, it was a good deal after all.

Since my first ever fantasy book was Lord of the Rings in 2001, I sought to find an epic that could match up to it. Only the Lightstone had managed to return me into that level of suspense, intrigue and beauty. This book is written in first-person and had a grand and impressive use of words, narration and detail that, to my long search, felt like a good cup of fresh, clear drink after a hot day.

This epic was played on an island continent called Ea. The main character is young Valashu Elahad. He was the seventh prince in the royal family of Mesh and of the race and culture of men called the Valari. He set off on a journey with six others in a search for a living crystal called the Lightstone. His companions were Maram (a free thinker and heavy drinker), Master Juwain (an elderly healer and teacher), Kane (mysterious man with a dark past), Atara (a warrior woman with an oath), Liljana (secretive yet gentle cook) and Alphanderry (an ambitious merry musician).

There was a prophecy that those united with seven stones under the seventh son will be the ones who would find the Lightstone from Morjin the Red Dragon. This guy is the antagonist, a master illusionist who twists the truth as he twists Valashu's dreams into nightmares. This fallen angel sought the Lightstone for his own purposes and rule not just Ea, but break open the prisons of darker worlds for an age of domination.

Valashu himself has a gift of inner empathy to feel the emotions of others and was uncertain of his own fate and role in Ea and the Universe. His desire to stop wars and end suffering, for a Valari knight, took him on a hazardous journey of self-discovery across miles of beautifully detailed descriptions in a magical landscape under angels' stars.

Excerpts:
... But certainly himself was a child of the One, and therefore a spark of the infinite glowed inside him. Who was I to put it out? Who was I to look into his tormented eyes and steal the light? ...

... "Perhaps there is no cure," I told him. Then I said, "The Red Dragon is so evil - how could anyone be this evil?"
"Only out of blindness," Master Juwain said, "so that he can't see the difference between evil or good. Or only out of the delusion that he is doing good when actually bringing about the opposite.'
The Red Dragon, he said, was certainly not evil by his own lights. No one was. But I wasn't as sure of this. Something in Morjin's voice seemed to delight in darkness, and this still haunted me ...

I found the Lightstone to be something very magical fantasy to read. As this was a beginning book, much of the story is dedicated to description, culture and history of Ea, so the plot was not as deep so you won't get lost. The suspense and the thrills were to wake up nights for. David Zindell's best play is his ability to put into perfection the display of powerful emotions and thought-provoking passions into written words.

David Zindell's part one of the Lightstone - Ninth Kingdom can be available in paperback at any MPH and Kinokuniya stores, both at around RM35. Zindell had just completed in 2004 the Book Two of the Ea Cycle, Lord of Lies.

Holiday Archive: One Utama Mall trip

Location: With a laptop, jumping out of a plane flying hundreds of feet in the air equipped only with a red polka-dot umbrella, wearing Malaysian flag theme pyjamas and aiming to land in her bunny slippers on the bridge between the Twin Towers.
Mood-of-the-day: Time for Hospital Bahagia medical check-up

This Saturday morning, I woke up with a full-fledged idea that I would tryout for a once-a-month Photoblog entry. I planned to take pictures of the main thing happening at that very moment starting at 8am today and do the same every two hours until 10pm tonight so that this entry would have 7 pictures, each with its own short excerpt to properly describe my day.

But I goofed! I only took one picture of Patchy, who was following me around the house for his good-purr-behind-the-neck-massage-scratching hour. I was reluctant to give him one since scratching his neck would take too long and too tedious (he's spoiled, bear with me :P). I had to drive him of with a good shaking of my water bottle, which he hates the sound of it (reminded him of his flea spray).

By the next two hours I completely forgot about the Photoblog since my dad was going to treat my sis, lil' bro and me to an MPH and Kenny Rogers' Day at 1 Utama. I bet anybody reading this RM50 that he wouldn't have given such an offer if my mom weren't out at the Old Ladies kenduri/wedding/gathering/whatever-that-old-ladies-get-together-for. Still, he wanted to get shoes, a travel book and didn't want to do it all by himself.

There was an Adidas streetball competition at the new block of 1 Utama so some of the roads were kinna blocked off. We passed a lot of sweaty guys in sleeves uniform and shorts lunging bags of mineral water in the shop corridors. The finals were at this sun-lit area space within the building itself. Me family didn't stick around to see the thing other than a 4-3 win at the sun-lit indoor arena.

Speaking of Adidas reminds me of shoes. My dad brought himself a good jogging type pair of Powers, not Adidas :P. He tried to make my lil' bro get himself a new pair, at least for the Pulau Redang trip next week. My lil' bro had always been prone to severe boredom syndrome and so we passed him my cell phone and let him out into the shopping mall wilds. But like all captive-born guys who couldn't shop well, he stayed right outside Bata's until we're done.

I couldn't detail much of the MPH store experience since everybody went his or her separate ways in the bookstore (at least, I did, at Fantasy). I couldn't find Hobb's First of the Farseer's Trilogy and so I got me no. 10 of Jordan's Wheel of Time. I'm still full of Zindell's Lord of Lies beautiful tragedy, but everybody's gotta move on, plenty more books in the store. I was tempted by this dual authors' work called Daughter of the Empire though. Does anybody know if the story's any good?

Lastly, there was a 2-1 vote with one neutral party for Kenny Rogers' instead of Dave Deli's. We all stuffed ourselves with 1/4 roast chicken each, all the while, I was thinking of the headless, hairless whole bird being defrosted in the kitchen sink at home that Mak was planning to cook for lunch. We called her to tell her how much we were enjoying ourselves and she countered how she had nasi biryani with all the trimmings surrounded with friends full of lastest gossips.

As for the uncooked chicken? It'll probably 'Die Standing' tomorrow. Man, this entry would have been more excellent if only I hadn't forgotten my camera :P.

Signed: *Ophie, with her PC in a metal cage full of venomous cobras as it bounces on a rotten bungee cord going up and down over a boiling lava pit in an Indonesian island while jugging three freshly laid ostrich eggs and typing out this entry with her toes at the same time.

Holiday Archive: Pokemon Distraction

Location: In a nutshell
Mood-of-the-day: Like a nut

Aaargh!!!

It's day 13th of my semester holidays and I've only written only 6 & 1/2 entries of my blog (including this one!). I was aiming to get an over 10 as to fill up the Ten Previous Postings as seen in the Xblog main page. I've done none of the Sudden Appearance chapter for Chaos Circles, still to do a Saturday Night Musings, trapped in one article writing and missed a special Photoblog entry.

Okay, I was just being dumb ass lazy :P. It's amazing that the very holidays designed to deteriorate your mind could also deteriorate everything else you got working with your mind (then again, that was the very idea, wasn't it?). Instead of being the blog active gal, ready to commit a round of reader-fun-friendly, I've been sitting my bum on this chair in front of my Windows 98 doing:

Pokemon Blue: Lavender Town

I would have played you a lil' musical tune to go along with the pic but I haven't got a clue what's the music in since my PC lacked a Sound Blaster. In case you have no idea (or you were just born yesterday), this is de ye old Pokemon Blue for the PC by Game Freak. I got it from my cousin after they got tired of this pasar malam pirated copy full of knick-knack games that only few of them actually worked.

I thought it'd be a fun game to go along, you know, just to make the long days just zoom by. And so I played starting with a Bulbasaur, and played, and played... well, I'm addicted! I turn on the PC at 7am and got up to level 51, all before breakfast while pretending to be asleep. It was left it running after my mom did the evil witch act and threatened to throw hot oil than just cold water to get me to wake up and do morning chores.

At every available moment, I played Pokemon, even as I'm doing this blog, though not without difficult restraint. My Stupidity self is making my right leg vibrating up and down so much that I might as well make and enjoy some milkshake, constantly shaken of course. My Reason self, since there's no classes, quizzes or exams papers to bury her 6 feet under, turned the blog entry commitment as the No. 1 in all her To-do, Should-do, Must-do, Do-now and To-Voodoo-Yourself's lists.

Okay, so it's Saturday afternoon and I'm going to have myself a busy last school holiday weekend before I can finally post everything up and ready. Tomorrow is Chaos Circles Fiction Day. As for tonight, I'll be doing the Satuday Night Musing and look back into the previous week so I can pretend that I really did wrote an entry a day (of course, you wouldn't know which is which! :P).

Signed: *Ophie, still playing Pokemon though...