I haven't been blogging nowadays partly because I'm not in the mood to blog. I have no idea why... It just comes and goes. Another reason is because of the upcoming O Levels. Below is my exam schedule which I am willing to share since the exam is universal (it is an international exam and candidates are going to sit for it on the same day) and I thought it would be nice to let you guys keep track of my progress.

The aim of posting this online is to happily cross them everything off once each exam is done. Well, it's a form of stress-reliever! ;)

19 September - English 4
27 September - Malay 3

16 October - Biology 3
25 October - Physics 3, Computer Studies 1
30 October - Chemistry 3
31 October - D Maths 1

1 November - Malay 1, Malay 2
5 November - D Maths 2
7 November - English 1, English 2
8 November - Geography 2
13 November - Biology 1, Biology 2
14 November - Physics 1, Physics 2, Geography 1
15 November - Chemistry 1, Chemistry 2

15 November, 5 p.m. - Party(-ing)!


Addendum November 13, 12.01 p.m.:

I'm so glad the memory-intensive subjects are over! What do I mean by "memory-intensive"? It basically means learning up many different concepts which are interrelated to one another. It also means having to stay up until 2 a.m. learning everything when the probability of each coming out is 33.3333333%! The three which fits this criteria are Computer Studies, Geography and Biology. Now that they're over and done with, I can give my poor brain a rest, at least from memorising and remembering.

Never again! =O

I wish... I'm still taking two of those subjects next year. What's wrong with me? Booo! At least these exams are over and done with. Now I need to focus on Physics and Chemistry. Less memory work, but more of application. And I suck at it! =O But first, a rest! =)


Addendum November 14, 3.57 p.m.:

I have roughly 25 hours till freedom. Can't wait! =D Oh, I had chicken rice for lunch before Geography 1. It was good spending some time alone. After that, I took away iced mocha from a coffeehouse. I drank it in school while "studying" Geography. I loved it. =) *slurp*

[+] There's more!

The car zoomed by at high speed. Leaves were blown away and rustled into the night air. The silence of the night was broken by gales of laughter from the passengers in the car who had had some drinks. They were heading home after a great night of drinking just over the border.

They prattled and joked among themselves in a rather rowdy way. The group of young teenagers enjoyed a heighten feeling of temporary ecstasy. However, the driver did not join in the conversation, instead he tried to focus on his driving. His senses is starting to numb, and without realising it, he stepped on the pedal too hard. The needle in the speedometer shot to the red zone. He was not able to see it as he tried in vain to focus on the curve in the road that was fast approaching. His vision blurred and he didn't know where he was heading.

The more sober guy widened his eyes as he pointed at the oncoming crash barrier. They were approaching towards it dangerously fast! An air of ominousness shrouded the car. The driver quickly came to his senses and acted on his reflexes. He braked as hard as he could, but it was all too late. The car crashed on impact, rolling over many times. Unearthly screams came from the boys as they wrestled with death.

And then, silence...

About 2 a.m., the lovely cousin was excitedly observing a game of poker. She laughed when her boyfriend whined about his bad hand. The players chuckled upon hearing him, knowing maybe this time, they could stand a chance. The mobile phone whirred suddenly, and he casually picked up the phone. He opened the message, and could not believe what he had just read. He darted his eyes at every word in disbelief, hoping that it was some sort of a sick, twisted joke. His mouth was wide open in horror.

His girlfriend flashed a look of concern. "Baby, what's wrong?"

He hesitated for a moment. "Your cousin... he died in a car accident just now," he croaked.

There was shock, disbelief and horror. Seconds passed painfully as the message seared the heart of the cousin. Her boyfriend immediately excused himself and escorted his girlfriend back home. Tears streaked down her face and she sobbed miserably. Her dear cousin, gone. But how, why? Questions remained unanswered and there was nothing she could do. She was 2000 miles away from home...

As much as I wished it was an essay for a school assignment, it isn't. Sadly, it's a real-life incident. It all happened in the wee hours of this morning. Two of the passengers perished in the car accident while the other three is under intensive care. The cousin and her boyfriend mentioned was actually my elder brother and his girlfriend. He was her favourite cousin of hers, and according to my brother via SMS, she was extremely devastated to hear the news.

She isn't alone. Her entire family is grieving for his sudden departure. The most affected one is his mother who I've heard is very fond of his son. At first, when my mother told me the news, chills went down my spine. I responded with a rude "Huh?", prompting her to repeat what she had said, unwilling to believe it the first time. She received a message early this morning about his death, and by that time, the funeral was taking place. It is already over now, his corpse is already buried in the cemetery.

It's too fast, it's all too fast! I cannot believe it! =( He is... he is so young. He shouldn't just die just like that. It's so unfair! I still remember vividly his visit to our house together with my brother's girlfriend's (whom I shall refer to as my sister from now) family. I can still remember his cheery voice. He was a fine and handsome young lad! What I admire most about him was his strong dedication to lose weight. The last time I saw him, he was pretty fat. The next time I saw him, I simply couldn't believe the tall and built guy was him!

I was further saddened by the fact that he is of the same age as me. For Pete's sake, he will be sitting for his O Levels this November with me and soon be a high school graduate! What the hell? Just one accident, and that spells the end! He didn't get the chance to complete his secondary education. Heck, he didn't have the chance the live and enjoy his life until a ripe old age! =(

Oh my God...

Although I am not that close to him, I've gotten to know him over the years as a really great and charming guy who knows how to have fun. I heard that he's bright too. I didn't know that the last conversation I had with him is our last. What a sad way to leave Earth. I'm terribly sorry... =( My condolences to my sister's family.

Thank you for touching the lives of people around you for the past 17 years. You will be dearly missed and always remembered by your loved ones.


He was one of the passengers in the car. Police are still investigating the causes. The story above is not accurate as it is a product of my imagination, but the basic facts are there. According to my sister's father, it was inferred to be caused by drunk driving. It was suspected that they hopped over the border and had a drink session before coming back home (my country bans alcoholic beverages from being sold in public). The driver could have been drunk while driving. It was a self-accident.

I cannot imagine this had actually taken place. Drunk driving robs away the lives of the innocent. I plead to you people! Please, do not ever drink and drive! Get someone to drive you home or call a taxi. Don't risk your lives, or others, by driving when you are drunk.

It's not worth drinking and driving!

And it goes to say that you should not drive when you're tired too. I recall vividly an advertisement that was always aired on the British Capital 95.8 that goes something like this:

(in a drowsy tone) The monotony of driving is sending you to sleep. Monotony of driving is sending you to sleep. Driving is sending to sleep. Sleep...

Crash!! ...

Please drive carefully.

*sigh* Rest in peace, my friend.

[+] There's more!

I suddenly have this desire flickering inside me to be free. To get my own car and run away from home into places I consider a haven, e.g. parks, beaches. I don't like to tell my driver or my parents where to fetch me too as it is entirely a personal matter. I hate to be so dependent on them.

Today is a really lazy day for me. Never in my life have I felt so lethargic or lackadaisical. There are many things that I want to do today, yet I've spent the entire time in front of my PC. Just now, I was craving to swim in a cool pool! =O I have not swum for several weeks already and I'm afraid my stamina in water can no longer hold past 50 metres. I wanted to swim in the local stadium but I heard that the place doesn't have a clean washroom. Some more, it's not within walking distance (but a stone's throw away if I were to drive there). I don't want to trouble anyone to pick me there. Boy, it was terribly difficult to suppress that urge.

When I thought I have successfully eradicated the want to swim, suddenly I have this urge of wanting to head down to a park. It's too bad they are quite some distance away from my house and I don't have a car! =(

I would love to go to these places alone without any companion. I want solitude in doing these activities. I truly appreciate the absence of someone who can monitor each and every movement mine, and his presence greatly restricts what I long to do. I want to enjoy beautiful sceneries on my eye and enjoy the setting sun by the pristine river with the glimmering palace somewhere in the background. I want to swim a few laps and float on the water and just enjoy the sensation of the cool water lapping my body.

What about going snorkeling in the sea and watch the beautiful tropical marine life unfurling before my very eyes? To dare myself and touch the fish and to soak up that sensation. I'm not too sure whether it's available in my country, but I do know that just crossing the border, there are many places to snorkel.

Oh, this reminds me that I really should treat myself one day and check in into that luxurious five-star hotel and exploit its facilities, from beautifully landscaped grounds with swimming pools and the beach to its gym, notably the spa! Ahhh... *cannot help but smile at this thought* To spend a day in its suite and its ultra-comfortable bed.

To enjoy such luxuries myself is still a far fetched dream. I do hope I can do that once my important exams are all over. I love to have this treatment! *heart pounds*

It's too bad I have to let someone know of these desires before I can do this. Really, I wish I can just kapoof and end up at these places just like that.

Am I asking for too much? Lol! Hey, it doesn't hurt to dream, does it? ;) I do wish these desires will be picked up by someone telepathically. No, that will be creepy. Hahaha! I guess I can only long for these...

[+] There's more!

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[+] There's more!

Hey everyone! Yep, I'm back from Melbourne and am now in my brother's place. The vacation was rather alright, although my family and I could have spent time going to more attractive places. Actually, my mother's friend who resided there brought us around the outskirts of Melbourne since she wasn't familiar with the city (which I couldn't believe at first). She showed us the 'not-so-exciting' places, but still fun. I think.

That was a few days ago. I wasn't in the mood to blog because I blame the weather. *chuckle* It's really hot and dry here in Australia and I feel very drowsy to stay in the "hot oven", despite me coming from an equatorial country. It's the feeling you get when you feel like doing something but you totally do not have the mood to do it. I hope you guys get what I mean! But this does not make me hate summer =).

After a long delay, I now (Finally! Whoops!) present to you the continuation of the Weirdness Meme. Only four more to go!

3. I am organised and neat. I strive for things to be in order, organised, neat and clean before I can do anything about it. Let's take my study folder for an instance. All of my written school notes are arranged by subject, then by chapter, following the syllabus in order. I make sure the notes I write are short, concise and condensed form of the textbook (even though they're still pretty long). I can't read from textbooks. They tend to like jumbling together redundant sentences and important facts, and I cannot regurgitate the more important ones as well as from my own notes.

Also, it makes it easy to search for them too. Without organising and arranging first, I cannot do anything at all. Period. I'll be moaning and complaining about how unorganised things are and how messy it is etc. And I can't work. And that's the greatest downside.

4. And from there comes the rigidity. I DISLIKE strategy games like chess and real-time strategy games. Why? Because I can spend hours and hours of thinking up the perfect plan without anticipating what the opponent can do, and suddenly he can do something surprising. And my plan would be ruined! And I'm doomed. I can't change my strategy and unfortunately, I refuse to do so because I can't bear to see my original plan going down to waste. And that is why unlike most guys, I don't play World of Warcraft. =) And that's a good thing, I think...

Oh yeah, and in Melbourne, I was a pseudo-guide for my family, jotting down the itinerary for the week to places that I would like to go. And suddenly, the whole itinerary was turned upside-down, with my mother's friend criticising most of the tourist attractions I had listed down and therefore, we didn't go to some of them as a result. A big let down. Not surprisingly, I sulked about it for a few days. =( At least half of the trip was going according to plan.

5. I have a phobia of playing the piano in front of other people except my family and teacher. The irony is that I'm a Grade 7 pianist! Argh! It's so bad I actually refuse to let my friends to come to my house, or reject people's invitation to their house which I know has a piano in it. Why? Because I will most probably be playing out a song to them. It's frustrating. I played at recitals before, but I was scared and really nervous. There was once I turned Nostalgia (a Richard Clayderman song) into a screwed up song. An unforgettable one which people would rather forget. And they actually clapped! I thought I would have broke down in front of them.

And also there are many other sour memories that fuelled to my phobia. Like not practising a song and my mom's friend "purposely" humiliating me by "forcing me to play in front of her friends" at her house. Shit! And they were chattering while I was struggling to read the notes and trying to play them. And the other time my mother forced me to play in front of my brother's friend, and all I managed to play out were scales. Not forgetting to mention that I failed my Grade 5 practical.

In other words, I'm a weak Grade 7 pianist, and I'm ashamed of myself to hear my friends who are a few grades below me belting some wonderful song which I couldn't play last time. And I suck at sight reading.

=(

But guess what? I still like playing my piano alone in solitude and am not giving up until I finish Grade 8. Hmm... now that is weird! ;) Unfortunately, this phobia has set me back a lot...

6. I don't conform to my gender stereotype at all. Everyone knows that I'm pretty feminine (or what the guys call me 'gay') for a guy. I remember last time I saw this quiz in a forum which asked how you conform to your gender stereotype. I think I have more defies than conforms. Here's the list for it, there are more though which I could not think up now.

Conform:
Have a small wardrobe
Can be quite dirty at times
I sound rude without meaning to
Pretty egoistical at times =P
Looks like an ordinary guy
Likes girls, not in a lovey-dovey sense ;)
Lazy to clean up
Loves my own smell - Weirdness #1
Hates sissy things and girly-girly stuffs
Gets pretty nasty when I'm mad
Serious about everything
Independent
Gives one-word replies when I'm bored/don't like you enough
Shops like a guy

Defy:
Hates strategy games - Weirdness #4
More artistic than scientific
Biology > Chemistry & Physics
Not very mathematical
Emphatic
Emotion runs my life and I am very expressive and also experience mood swings easily
Dislike being too bulky and hunky etc.
Loves languages
Have an overactive imagination
More at home with girls than guys
Can be quite vain
Prefers having intimate relationships with few people
Acts rather feminine for guys - gets insulted as "gay"
Hates fantasy genre
Over-analytic
Don't swear much
Dislike people who don't show emotion or are too cool
Act before I think
Blur most of the time
Graceful
Enjoys chick flicks once in a while
I love my life
Loathes deep logical thinking
Timid and easily intimidated
Loves to add some words which girls only use - like "Whatever, It's like, you know" etc.
I don't stare at pretty girls that walk by most of the time!
Keeps a secret blog where I spill out my inner secrets - which you are reading now ^.^
Neat and loves keeping things organised - Weirdness #3
Dislikes hanging out with people who are too pedantic or too engrossed with their games (mostly the guys)
Overuses emoticons
Goodie-goodie two shoes

Phew! That's long.

Congratulations! You reached the end of my weirdness meme! Now to tag my dear victims readers.

Sigh, I can't find six! Everyone has pretty much done it, except for katelyn, so TAG! You're it! csmc as well as jbwritergirl too if you guys want to. =)

I'll blog more soon when I get back home. I'll try my best to wake up early and go online to check up on you guys before I go shopping or something else. Thank goodness I have finished my Christmas shopping! Horray! Although I don't really celebrate it, I love to get into the spirit of Christmas! =D Alrightees, till next time!

[+] There's more!

I'm tagged by annelisa! Yay! My first meme too! Without further ado, may I present to you my weirdness! :-O

Note: I might not finish this meme and upload it incomplete. I'm sorry, but I'm actually not in my home country now. I'm over at my elder brother's place in Australia, and my flight to Melbourne will be leaving soon. I'll be leaving for 10 days, so there wouldn't be any updates till then. I won't blog over the month of December, but I'll try when opportunity arises =).

1. I smell myself! Seriously, it's my most disgusting, most filthy and weirdest habit of mine. I won't do it in public, of course (no, I don't seek attention THAT way!) Anytime when I'm at home, no matter what I'm doing, be it blogging, chatting with friends on Instant Messengers (IMs), reading books, watching TV... I am very prone to just scratch on whatever areas in my body and just smell my fingers! I'm sorry if I really gross up you guys. It's just too weird! And it's ironic that I'm a neat freak too! Don't tell the whole world about this okay? Please... I don't think the whole world is ready for this!

I also need to watch out. There are already several times I have caught myself doing such a disgusting habit in public. Haven't been caught so far. Whoops! I'm desperate to break this habit, but so far my efforts are in vain, and I didn't try to stop myself from doing so either! Heck, as long as no one sees it!

2. I have a very compulsive behaviour to use emoticons in my blog posts, comments etc. I don't know why I do it though, they do make my blog posts seem a bit informal but it adds a personal touch to them as well. I believe that sometimes words themselves don't do justice to how I am currently feeling now, especially when they're online. And there are also many instances when they could be misinterpreted to be sarcastic or insulting or a bit crude as well. Hence, the emoticons. Especially =) and =P. My use of emoticons is also partly due to the fact that I gesture and make lots of expressions and change my tone whenever I talk. It's al very expressive, not neutral like some of my guy friends. You can't tell whether they are being funny, sarcastic, sad etc.


I guess I still owe you guys 4 more weird points. I got to have dinner now, and then fly off at midnight. So I guess I shall keep this short for the time being. Be back in 10 days! See you guys later, and in the meantime, take care!

[+] There's more!

So here's my rundown of Blogger BETA. The labels/tags feature introduced by Blogger BETA was the main reason which drove me to switch to it.

One thing good about this new version of Blogger is that your post is published straight away without having to wait for the timer to finish. And there are finally labels which are really long overdue! Unfortunately, I can't make use of it yet as I do have some problems with the template.

For users who are pretty uncomfortable with hordes and hordes of senseless HTML bombarded at him/her, Blogger BETA now allows them to more around their blog content easily by dragging the appropriate page elements using your mouse and place them wherever you want. It's so easy to customise the default Blogger templates by simply dragging and clicking. And you can also add like your Javascript clock, links, archives etc. (those sidebars widgets) into your sidebar very easily.

Unfortunately for amateur HTML tweakers like me, editing the HTML codings are terribly difficult. I have been faithfully using HTML the whole while and suddenly, I have to switch the programming language of my blog to XHTML and XML! I was clueless as to how to tweak my current layout to adapt BETA's new compabilities, because first of all, I have zilch knowledge of those two web programming languages. And that means having to learn everything from scratch once again. And I dread doing that, seriously. It's very time-consuming!

Thank goodness there isn't much to learn for XHTML as it is pretty similar to HTML with a few obvious differences that I can easily adapt to in a relatively short time. Like for instance, the tag elements must be all in lowercase (I have always written them in uppercase). This in my opinion makes tweaking the codings more difficult for me as I cannot really differentiate quickly the tags and the normal text contents.

Hmm, I wonder why Blogger calls it 'Edit HTML'?



And Blogger BETA's default templates is really straining my eyes when I try to refer to them as examples. Everything, or rather most part of the codes are all clustered up together and I have to try and find the end of a particular piece of code and create line breaks just to separate them from the others (it's easier to edit that way).



And Blogger Help wasn't of much help too, especially this piece of article which teaches me how to properly code the widgets code. It's so frustrating trying to make heads or tails of it, and I was really confused after reading that. And the default templates seem to have complicated things.

Why must there be so many new Blogger-specific tags? I don't get it, the old one was so much better and less complicated to do. But this new one makes use of XML, and not only that, it's pretty confusing too.

And that is why I have reverted back to using the classic template instead of the new one. I simply am really clueless to do anything at all. I even spent the whole day yesterday trying to figure out where to put such codings, with no luck. Blogger BETA kept telling me "My XML file is invalid", therefore my template cannot be even previewed at all! Sigh, why bother... I think I am stuck with this for the time being. And probably read up more later.

Overall, I have a pretty sour experience with this new interface of BETA, which spoils the whole image of everything. So should you change to Blogger BETA?

Yes, if you are uncomfortable with HTML and you prefer working with GUIs, then Blogger BETA is for you! It cuts down on your frustrations and confusions by hundreds of percents. If, on the other hand, you are familiar with XHTML and XML, then I'm sure you can quickly implement and harness the new lucrative features offered by Blogger BETA into your blog.

No, if you are like me who dislikes the rigidity of Page Elements and you prefer working with your layout directly. Unfortunately, the whole editing layout thing would further frustrate you if you are foreign to the terms XHTML and XML and you have absolutely no clue on how to tweak your template. I also heard that BETA blogs suffer glitches too, especially the comments, but they should hopefully be quickly resolved.


Other than these, there aren't many noticeable changes in this new version of Blogger.

P.S. This review is written by a HTML purist, who has recently discovered the wonders of XHTML, and he is slowly adapting to it. This review is also focusing on the new template aspects of Blogger BETA. This might be inapplicable to you if you do not bother much about layouts, and if you are so, I suggest you switch to Blogger BETA just to take advantage of the new labels feature.

[+] There's more!

So, I have a weird neighbour who lives in front of our house. She's an old lady who is in her eighties I guess, and surprisingly she isn't frail! I think she suffers from some mental disorder, I'm not too sure. But from what I've remembered vaguely, she has been shouting out really loud at odd hours (be it morning, afternoon or night) almost everyday since 1997 or so!

And funnily, some of my mom's friends has hypothesized that the more she shouted, the longer she will live! I don't know how true it was, but it does seem to make sense.

Her shouts can come in many forms. I really don't know how to put these sounds into words, but it's something like "Eee-yahhh" and "Arrrrrrrghhhhhhhh" and "Ooouuwwwwwwwwww" and she even can sing some old Chinese songs very loudly. Oh, did I mention she talks loudly too at times?

Surprisingly, she doesn't know that she shouted. Sometimes, when I observe her shouting, she can just resume back to whatever she's doing. To her, it's like nothing have happened at all! It's strange, really. And doesn't she feel thirsty at all after all shouting? She's old, and well, she's all right. I guess it comes with "practice" from all the shoutings she had done all these years.

There was once when my other neighbour couldn't take it anymore, he decided to call the police. So the police went to investigate the matter, and they interrogated with this old lady. They left the place with confused expressions but decided to drop the matter. According to what I've heard, she managed to talk her way through to make it sound like she is innocent (she doesn't know that she did such things) and she pulled it off very well with her very fluent Malay.

And the other day a year or two ago, my neighbour decided to take things into his own hands by throwing a stone which broke one of her house's windows. The old lady had a grudge against my neighbours from then onwards. Sometimes when he drives to work, she will shout at him or rather the car, and give him a scowling expression. It happens to my parents too, although it's not as serious as them.

I guess maybe that's what compelled her to do this today. My maid ushered me to the window to see what she had done to our gate. Luckily, she did not vandalize it or did something horrible to the gate, but instead she threw and scattered tree branches and rubbish in front of our gate this morning. I don't know what is her intention, but all I know is that she had brought things too far. And she looked guilty too. She seemed to look in our direction of our house once in a while, probably to make sure no one cleans that up or something I don't know. All I know is that, the rubbish is blocking the very narrow street of mine and my other neighbour. And they can even poke tires and burst them.

I decided to call my mom and told her about it. I suggested calling the police, but she warned me not to, as it might only make matters worse and it's also going to be a long and endearing process for us, e.g. filling in a statement, getting interrogated, giving evidences etc. So she instructed the maid to just clean up the rubbish away.

I really don't know what is up with her today. Why is she doing this to us? I mean, what harm have we done to her; we even put up with her shoutings day and night, yet took no action. And this is what she has done? I don't know, something tells me something is not right with her. But thank goodness she is like a decent old nice lady at other times who looks harmless. She reminds me of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde LOL!

Creepily, she did this during Halloween. Heck, her shoutings had sent chills down our guests' and visitors' spine, as they have never heard such odd noise before.

To us, that's just like background noise which doesn't register in our conscious minds! How weird are we! But I guess we, or rather I, have got used to it. Oh well, Happy Halloween *shrugs*.

[+] There's more!