The house has eyes~ 0 lalalas

I tried to sleep early tonight but failed. Maybe I've been indulging in late night life for too long.

Anyway when I woke up to browse the internet and download some stuff, I found my father reading my blog. I don't know how he found out my blog, but I was told by my mom some time ago that he knew its existence. A rumour confirmed.

Too many prying eyes. Like Kenny Sia's blog, for the audiences' sake, I have to tone down a bit. Nevertheless I've always restrained myself from blogging all that I desired. Maybe I should start another anonymous blog which will be read by those who aren't that close to me at all. Then they would read it non-judgementally.

Some things are better to be left out in the dark. Am I right?

Coming soon: post on trip to Hermit Lagoon!

Get your lazy, fat bum movin' 0 lalalas

If you're feeling like emo or shit like that, find some meaningful thing to do - get a job, read some books (not some brain dead yan qing xiao shuo), go out for hiking, play some sports, learn something; try to create some variation in your life, set some goals - long term or short - and try to achieve them.

No point in living a damn repetitive life, listening to the same old god damn song every day or sitting in front of the computer playing Diablo, Maple Story, and chatting - recycling gossips and talking trash all the time. Come on, spending infinite hours on those junks will only hinder your mental and intellectual growth. Even religion won't help you if all you do is rotting and nothing meaningful.

My point: Get a life and get some fresh air.

Life at home 0 lalalas

So, now I'm back at home, shaking leg and doing nothing. Being one year in Vancouver hasn't changed things much, most apparent one would be the increased disdain for the irresponsible and reckless drivers on the road. Home is still home. The decay is still there. Sometimes depressing, but what can I do. Sometimes you have to admit that some things are hopeless, and only God can help it, not that I'm having that much faith right now.

The root of laziness and inactivity is firmly planted in me. Gaming and idling is all I'm doing now. Struggling is futile as it was I who has allowed that infirmity to grow on me. Soon they will envelop me and in a flash of an eye the summer would be gone and I'd have done nothing and I'd regret it like at the end of any other holidays. Let's hope that would not happen.

This morning I woke up at about 10 a.m., having watched Lord of the Rings 1 until late at night. Terry sms-ed me about playing badminton in the morning. But the day was so hot and I was just trying to clean the house a bit (always trying to justify myself). So I thought to myself, screw that. And another opportunity slipped past me. Do I dare to stir the universe? Do I dare to break free of my fears and excessive anxieties?

Well I will put that aside for a while. Spoil not the anticipation for the Genting trip, however it might turn out to be. Let's plan after that.

Anyway, food is good at home. The best food is home-cooked food, cooked with love and your health in mind, and cheaper than eating out. I wish I could cook like mom. That'd be impressive. But (sigh) can I do it? Is this just one of the plans, that, after lengthy deliberation, would fade into nothing because of detrimental addiction and inertia? Well I'll be damned if I let it happen again. Or will it? Who knows? Anything can happen.

Hmmm, another gloomy post eh? How I wish I have pictures - like other people hanging out with their friends, eating expensive food, wandering aimlessly, doing camwhoring of the baddest taste, but fun? - to post. But I'm sorry, I have nothing of that sort to offer. And now you'll have to excuse me, I have .. mundane things to attend to.

p/s: Anyway, I have a cellphone number now. Ask hx or Terry or Xuan for it. It's too risky to post it here.

Home 0 lalalas

I've reached Malaysia yesterday (May 13th, noon).

Couldn't open my Malaysian cellphone. Someone messed with the SIM card and now it's blocked and I don't know what's the PUK code. Nice, because I think everyone's number is on that SIM card.

The air is hot and stuffy. I'm melting like a chocolate now. Damn I miss the cool breeze and mild sun in Vancouver.

I have to be careful on the road now because Malaysians drive differently from Canadians. In Canada, pedestrian's the boss; in Malaysia, driver's the boss.

I'm gonna miss the public transportation in Vancouver. I know it's unfair to compare transportation in a developed country to a developing country. But it's going to take a bit of getting used to from being able to get anywhere by myself to having to wait for people to fetch me by car (Did I tell you I can't drive? There are so many factors contributing to this that I won't even bother to elaborate)

Oh yeah, guys in Kuantan. Contact me if there's anything fun going on. Contact me through my house number or through Live Messenger alright? Haven't seen you guys for a really long time. Been wondering how's everyone doing.

Anyway, my flight from Vancouver back to KL was pretty enjoyable. Including the interval between connecting flights, it took about 27 hours. First I flew from Vancouver to LA, waited for about 4 hours, then flew from LA to Taipei, waited for about 1.5 hours, then from Taipei to KL. I'm loving MAS more and more now. The service's pretty good, the stewards and stewardess on the plane were courteous and they offer drinks frequently. I like the food too, I'm not that picky about food though. I was so busy watching movies on the plane that to a certain degree I wished that I could stay on the plane longer. Yes, even after the 27 hours. And the sight of early morning above the clouds is nothing short of breathtaking. Too bad I was too lazy to take pictures of it. It's the second most fascinating sight I've seen next to myself in the mirror.

Nothing much else to tell now. The heat is eating up my desire to blog. So that's all for now.

(Goes back to melting)

Small update 2 lalalas

Hey yo wassup? I'm nearly done here already. All the assignments and quizzes are done. Only the finals are left. The momentum of final preparations haven't really built up yet. Now I'm in a state of constant lethargy, sometimes from studying, sometimes from playing computer!

The sun is out again! Yeah, spring is come. But the problem is, sometimes it's hot and sometimes it's cold (like winter). I hope I don't fall sick under this global-warming-induced-extreme-weather.

Nothing much is going on (Boring~~). Oh yeah, I just bought a 1G memory card for my laptop, gonna pick it up in the afternoon. And, I'm coming back to Malaysia at May 11! Bought tickets already! I would spend slightly less than 3 months there. I hope I can achieve something meaningful during my stay, like learning how to cook, etc. Hopefully I can meet up with some of my friends - it's been a damn long while.

I've been trying to exercise a bit - my mom always tells me to do so whenever she calls. But I'm not sure if my energy output is greater than my input (food). Sometimes you eat so much and you don't feel like eating much because the guay lows eat much more than you do. Gotta check...

This post is kinda messed up, very inorganized. Heck, at least you know what I'm up to now. By the way, tomorrow is the last day of classes, but my first final paper starts 5 days after (next Tuesday) and last paper is at April 30. Really hoping that I can stay away from my laptop for that period of time, no matter how sexy it is.

Signing off...

So sien 0 lalalas

Lately I've been studying a lot. In the future, when I turn back and reminisce about this year, especially this term, I'll pull at my hair and beat my chest and probably tear my clothes. It'll just a big blank space - myself studying in my room or library (when my laptop drives me
nuts), nothing else. All the dreams I had before coming to Canada remain to be dreams, all the great plans (yeah, like ruling the world) remain as plans. Everything is work in progress (WIP), nothing is a release (Relz). The lack of will power to complete what I've planned to do is really worrying me. Besides studying, 
I don't get much done. Even studying is a problem now. I wonder if it's the professor or myself, but I can hardly 
catch up with my studies. I'm gettting less and less efficient now. Take yesterday for example, I spent 1 hour and a half thinking in vain about the solution for a Physics solution and I only got it when I was about to go to sleep. I'm losing my touch and I'm worried. I hope I was (were?) a robot, so when I get less efficient I could update/optimize some my code to increase my efficiency. I wish it was that simple.

Besides this whole chunk of whining (which my friend reminded that I've no right to do because I do well in my studies), I've nothing much to tell. Nothing is really happening now. And lots of stuff to do - I haven't bought my air tickets yet, I haven't filed my tax return yet (a pain in the sorry ass), I haven't... the damn list just goes on. I'm tired. When will this have to end?

Current status: Trying to
get my Physics 170 assignment done, having a class at 8 a.m. which sucks. Wishing for a normal life.

Sorry mum, what you said is true. I'm living an abnormal life now...

p/s: Did I tell you Blogger sucks? Usually free things rocks, like Gmail. But Blogger sucks. Weird thing is, Gmail and Blogger are owned by Google.

An update, finally! 0 lalalas

Preparing for 捞鱼生

The excellent food and uncle's two sons (大煞风景, no la just kidding); see the wine?

The dessert. The ice cream is durian-flavoured. 赞！赞！赞！

财神！Did I mention that there's a 鬼佬财神？不伦不类

Kung fu performance. Pretty unpowderful and unimpressive, to tell the truth

The woman in red was extremely excited during the course of parade, even little girls couldn't match her excitement. I suspect she was on serious crack, but she was REALLY fun.

one of the best 舞狮 in the parade, too bad there weren't poles

Two hideous monsters

Found this when we are loitering in Chinatown... Yum yum!


A few day afterwards, I went to Vancouver Island with a Malaysian friend. We explored a bit the city of Victoria, capital of British Columbia (Vancouver's not the capital!). They have amazing architectures there - some of the highlights are the Parliament building, a hotel, and some other old buildings. I don't know the name of the building style but they look good. However, we couldn't go whale watching because it's not the season. We also went to a castle built by a coal magnate years ago. We also visited a very nice bookstore. And then that bugger of a friend insisted on going to a far away place which involved 30 minutes of bus trip and 40 god damn minutes of walking! Damnit stupid idiot! After we reached that cursed place, we only spent like 5 minutes there because we couldn't afford to go back to Vancouver too late (because there won't be bus to go back to UBC). A damn 20 minutes walk again. And about 5-6 hours trip back to UBC, with a deep seated grudge against that freaking idiot. But besides of his criticising my photographing skills 25/7 and that retarded decision to go to that Ford Hill Rock (the crazy useless walk), he's a pretty nice guy - and he's Malaysian.

Night view of the Parliament building

The day-view of the Parliament building

Craigdarroch Castle, built by someone who's too rich

The 5-star Munro's Books

The Parliament debate chamber

The magnificent Empress Hotel

Is that all I've done in this month? Pretty much, yes. I'm bored, but I have to study. To make things worse, I've got addicted to Youtube. I've been watching TheHill88 and boh3m3's videos lately. TheHill88 is an oh-my-god-she's-so-hot-and-mouthwateringly-cute-and-perky girl. She mainly does weird videos of herself doing/saying weird things, dancing, and she's got that cute Australian accent. See it for yourself . Boh3m3 looks like a guy from my church, and he's hilarious. He mainly does videos that criticizes or in a more mild term, commenting on EVERYTHING and some miscellaneous stuff. And.... back to work!

p/s: The retardedness of Blogger's photo uploading is unparalleled.

p/s2: I spent 1 hr and 15 minutes uploading the pictures, and 6 hours checking for cool words on Dictionary.com to use so that people will say," Ow, wow! Your English is so good that I can't understand the words"

Signing off~

Time to study... harder 0 lalalas

It's been a tough time indeed. I find this term much harder to cope with compared to the previous one. I'm taking 2 physics, 2 math, a computer science, and a philosophy course.

The physics are driving me mad. Despite my valiant attempts to understand the notes, enlightenment continues to elude me, and it takes me longer time than my counterparts to finish my assignments. So, I've decided: no more fun time - tasting good food or walking around - until I catch up with my studies. But how long is it going to take? I have no idea.

Now picking philosophy as my elective was one of the greatest mistakes I've ever done in my life. Now the professor's very boring, using the word "this guy" "that guy" for an average of 100 times each hour and a half lecture (yes, he was so boring that we traced the number of times he used this phrase). It might not be his fault, maybe he's born with it, but he gives me the impression of a grumpy old man trying to teach some kindergarten children. After attending a few lectures, I felt that it was such a waste of time that I skipped 4/5 lectures in a row (woohoo, a new record!), thinking that I'd make it up by studying the lecture notes at home. I couldn't be further away from the truth. His notes were so incoherent and disjointed that I nearly tore out my hair trying to comprehend it, and the best part is, I'm taking a quiz soon based on these "notes". I've decided to attend the lectures instead, since trying to stay awake in his lecture will be much more easier than understanding his notes. I've read some of the materials and they aren't that bad. It's amazing how some people can turn good stuff into garbage, and some garbage into gold. Once again, this emphasizes the philosophy that guns don't kill, men do (Postal!!!! Was it?)

My current state: tired, fat, and limping. Tired of studying all the time (mainly Physics, other subjects still manageable); haven't worked out for a month (since U.S. trip started), only exercise is walking from class to class and writing/typing/brushing my teeth; 1st ski trip without proper tutor and without knowledge of how to brake had left me with a twisted knee. My doctor told me to straighten my knee gradually and apply ice but I'm too busy to do that (and I'm busy playing Titan Quest when I'm not busy studying, how ironic). Now I'm walking as if my left leg is shorter than my right, because I can't straighten my knee....yet. How fun!

As of now, I'm having a Physics midterm tomorrow. I've studied quite a lot, yet I'm still pretty unconfident whether I'm going to do well or not. Unlike other people, I won't say that I'll fail for sure because I know I won't. But man, Physics is sure tough this term. I just couldn't figure things out. Maybe I'm afflicted with some kind of lost-of-focus disease, maybe I need to get a girlfriend, maybe I need to get some drugs, maybe.... back to work!

p/s: Uggghhhhh.... (zombie's noise)

The untimely departure of Teoh Wei Ping 0 lalalas

Today, at about 3:50 a.m., my brother boarded a Yellow Cab Taxi to Vancouver Airport for a flight to Chicago, then back to Wisconsin. Originally I booked a MacLure's cab but it was 15 minutes late already, the operator didn't call back as she had claimed earlier and I couldn't contact her. Thinking that they might not even have a cab available, I called Vancouver Taxi and the operator told me one is coming in 2 minutes. After I end the call, a cab stopped by - a Yellow Cab. Don't know how it got there, but my brother took it anyway. 3.50 a.m. as opposed to the originally planned 3.30 a.m. So after hugging my brother farewell, I cancelled the Vancouver Taxi and went back. At 4.02 a.m., guess what? A Maclure's came, 30 minutes later than requested and without advanced notice, and my brother's catching a flight! What if he missed the flight? What a mofo! I'm really disappointed at their service, but I still said sorry - without meaning so - to the driver.

My brother's departure signifies an important event: the end of my winter break. Although it officially ended on 8th of January, but with my brother around, I'm still more or less in the holiday mood. We couldn't do much because I was studying. But we grabbed some really good food and walked a bit in Stanley Park. He also explored UBC and Gas Town - even I haven't been to Gas Town. Too bad the snowstorm during the winter screwed up our Capilano trip. I felt sorry that I hadn't had the time or initiative to bring him to more places. But at least he got to taste some really really good Chinese and Malaysian food.

It was nice to have him around. Although sometimes it's frustrating when his hearing fails, it feels so natural and ... I don't know how to describe it. And because of his visit, I got to travel to places I've never been before, and we even went to a Chinese supermarket.

Here's some pictures by the way:

Wun tun noodle, ngau nam min, loh hon zai, wok tip from Hon's Won Ton House. Cheap and nice!

Found some familiar products in the Chinese supermarket, T&T...

And some frozen durians....ewww... poor Canadians...

Some nice dim sums at Sun Sui Wah. The service and food quality is excellent, but the price is unfortunately directly proportional to those. Most expensive meal I've eaten.

We also tried out some Malaysian food at Orchid Delight and Banana Leaf. While the price is slightly higher in Banana Leaf, I think the food is better. The rendang lembu and coconut rice were excellent. The satay wasn't that authentic, but it tasted good in its own unique way. My brother's nasi lemak also looked very mouthwatering. Since my brother's visit, I've come to learn about one of Vancouver's strengths - good food. There're several good spots in UBC too, like Vera's Burgers and the village. The dining hall's seem like cut throat in comparison. Poor white people....

Now that my brother's gone, I'm alone again. There'd be no people blocking my wardrobe door (my brother insisted on sleeping on the floor); my room would be colder; there'd no people washing my dirty dishes and doing my laundry for me; no people to help me carry shopping goods; no people to speak Malaysian Chinese with; no people to make silly jokes which only my closest friends would understand; no person ... I've lost a brother, a soul mate, a tutor, a partner..... a servant and a slave. Funny? I'm actually crying now.

Stupid old cliche: You'll never know how precious something is until you have lost it. I miss the company of people who talk to me in IM, who would want to hang out with me, who approach me even when I don't approach them, who truly want to listen to what I want to talk about, who doesn't pretend not to know me, whose conversation with me doesn't end with "Hi" or "How's it going?".

Perhaps I'm just imagining or exaggerating these things, just to find a reason to cry. To cry over the loneliness of typing a blog at 5.00 a.m. thinking of his old friends and his family, to cry over his social impotence, to cry over his reluctant indifference over things, to cry over the helplessness and the frustration and the powerlessness over the complicated problems that never ends...

Perhaps this is just one of the nights he gets emo or gay or whatever. Better wash his face and his eyes, it'd be embarassing if other people find out.

p/s: I'm just joking about the 4 last paragraphs. Nice eh?

Status: Chaotic 0 lalalas

Life's totally getting out of hand. I sleep late at nights, sometimes because I'm studying, sometimes because I'm playing Oblivion, most of the time a mixture of both. Like the tragic hero who knows his actions will only lead him to his doom yet sadly and deliberately walking down the path to destruction. Hopefully I'll never have to face that.

So finals are going ok. Had my APSC quiz, it was so-so. English, for which I've studied very hard, didn't turn out as well as I'd hope to. One essay got out of hand, loss focus and consumed too much time, leaving too little time to brood on another short essay. Crappy, slightly, but I'm consoled by the feeling that I did better than my first in-class essay, which earned a B-. Physics was sweet, a lot of questions were actually from past year papers and assignment. I don't want a brag (note the paradox - am I even using the correct term?), but I finished the paper in an hour and a half and spent the remaining hour checking my answers and deriving a formula that I forgot. Slightly un-challenging, but at least I felt better than having done a crappy job after preparing so hard, e.g. English.

Tomorrow's Math. I've prepared sufficiently I guess, although there are still rooms for uncertainty. Hopefully no mental block this time. I've to sleep early (note the paradox), and it's 2.00 a.m. and exam's on 12.

Enjoying Oblivion frequently now, which is something that I wasn't supposed to do, at least for now. My character's getting stronger, but the NPCs' got stronger too and kicked my ass really hard it cracked for a few times (Reader: But isn't the ass cracked already in the firsy place? Me: shut up, will ya?). Just found out how to get the maximum out of leveling up, can't wait to try it out, but Math comes first.

Oh yeah, did I tell you guys I watched Borat. Crazy movie. Loved that part where he fights the fat director naked and running around naked. And when he exclaimed to the rodeo audience that "We support your war on terror", then spoils it all by singing Kazakhstan anthem in U.S. anthem's music (or was it the other way round?). And when he finds out from his driving tutor that you need woman's consent to marry her in U.S. Funny movie and very vulgar. Nevertheless my favourite movie is still V. It has a sort of elegant beauty and tragically heroic atmosphere unmatched by other movies I've watched, not to mention the depth and the frequent references to Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo, one of my favourite books.

Haven't watched anything since then.

It stopped snowing and started raining again. Vancouver is known for largely snowless but rainy winter. But it's still snowing in my room because my hair is too long (Reader: ewww~ you're so gross. Me: Thank you.) My glasses are also slightly damaged because of paintball helmet and haven't fix it yet. So much is yet to be done, yet so little is the will to do it. Gotta curb my computer addiction, but as always, easier said than done.

Gotta get back to studies now. Sleeping really soon. This is all for now. You guys in Malaysia, I miss you a lot!

Why do I live in the shadow of the past?

[Exeunt]

I'm not dead yet 0 lalalas

For all of you who think I'm dead because of various undesirable and unforeseen circumstances, this post serves the function of informing you of the opposite.

Everything's well with me. Today caffeine has elevated me to a higher level of consciousness, so I'm feeling pretty good right now.

Last Saturday, I went to an open house at Malaysian tourism's boss's house. I ate a LOT of food, picked up 10kg of weight and packed bunch of food back to my house. I still haven't finished it and I think it's going to last me for this week, which is going to save me some money.

Talking about money, the notebook which I spent about CAD2000 (inc. taxes and shipping) on, Asus A8JS is going to arrive next week. I've already bought a multi-function printer and plan to buy a headphone and perhaps some games in preparation for its arrival. I can't believe after almost 17 months of waiting, I'm finally getting a laptop, and a darn good one.

Next week's going to be really busy - a quiz on Tuesday, English exam on Wednesday, Physics midterm on Thursday, and Math midterm on Friday. Crazy! But if I can just pull this off.... Bad thing I can't enjoy my laptop fully when it arrives since I have to study...

Weather's getting pretty cold (compared to the air-con rooms in Malaysia). However I observed that it's coldest after the rain stops. Oh yeah, it rains all the time now, the rain is not heavy, but it is continuous - raining, stop raining for 2 hours, then raining again, etc. Sometimes it's so cold that you can even see subtitles during people's conversation.

I have to halt this unorganized, poorly structured babbling because I have a class in 10 minutes.

Adieu! Adieu! Remember me~

My hopes for the near future 0 lalalas

1. To borrow the camera from my family - well, there's been a lot of injustice and dissatisfying things happening around me, which more or less caused a certain degree of mental imbalance in me, so it would be exhilirating and liberating - and somehow satisfy my sadistic nature - to expose some shocking, less-known facts that I know, and of course some amusing stuff I come across which will give you guys a better exposure of what I'm going through, or generally my Subang Jaya life.

2. Buy some hardware parts for my computer in Kuantan - due to lack of memory (256 MB), I have not been able to enjoy gaming to its fullest (computer's too lag). I need to get an extra 512 MB (or 256MB, i'm not sure), a new hard-disk (I think 60GB is ok), maybe a cd-burner. Plus I need to reassemble my secondary (currently not-functioning) computer so that it can be sold. Looking forward to a better gaming experience, yeah! Oh, need to get a better AGP from my friend also...

3. Be a better Christian. I can sense myself growing, yet there's still some bottlenecks, especially in reaching out toward others, commitment, and passion. Sometimes it becomes boring and routine to me, which is bad. Hope to change all that, and be a more outspoken person. Still have some reserves about sharing my experience of Christianity with others, mainly because there's no prior experience, and the other being I don't have impressive whoa! testimonies, like abandoning way of darkness (e.g. gangsterism) into the way of light. Currently praying for breakthrough.

4. Hmmm. Fulfilling academic requirements. Applying for universities together with fellow scholars, in which we share the cost by sending our documents to unis in groups of 4. Hoping that those who are procrastinating (which hinders our sending of documents) including my happy-go-lucky room mate can move their spiky asses. And hope that assignments can go well and finish without much suffering (hoping there's no burning the candle by both ends again, as happened to many of my group assignments)

5. Hmmm....I don't know. World peace? No way. I'm not THAT hypocritic...

Time management 0 lalalas

Hmmm...Life's been surprisingly topsy-turvy since I came to study in Subang Jaya. Although my classes finish at 11.45a.m. every day. I seem to have less time to fool around compared to the other guys..

Let's examine...
11.45 a.m. Finish classes
12.00-2.30 p.m. Work at library + have lunch + do some homework
2.30-2.45 p.m. Taylor's chartered - (derog.)antique and historical - bus back to Ridzuan (also quite a rotten place to live)
2.45 p.m. - 5.30 p.m. Wash up, quiet time (30 mins to 1 hr), do some hw (sure can't finish one), read newspaper??, etc.
5.30-6.sth p.m. Jogging
6++ - 7.sth p.m. Dinner, maybe newspaper, rarely TV
8-12 midnight Homework, assignments, etc. college stuff + chatting with housemates (10% of the time i spend on hw)
12- ??? a.m. Extra hws/assignments stuff or addicted to a book or Age of Empires 3 or watching movies (relaxing...) + quiet time + sleep
5 a.m. Writing blog (heh heh), no I'm kidding, it rarely happens...

My conclusion:
I spend too much time on hw, too fussy (it's very diff. to change this habit because of my conscience)..
Read papers for too long (if I'm reading) - 1 hr or ++
Sometimes too relaxed - Online for 2 hrs++
Addiction to computer games (believe me, this is weakening)...

The moral of the story is:
I don't care la... Schedules schucks!

Hypocrites 0 lalalas

Everybody is a hypocrite, whether he admits it or not. We can smile at others or say whatever sugar-coated words to them, yet curse them under our breath. That's the way life works nowadays. The countless "sorry" 's and "thank you" 's are merely empty expressions - most of the time, we don't mean what we say, but we are merely practising what the society expects us to do, or to say. We smile even when we are angry with somebody (because he is influential, like he's your lecturer [hehe]), we pretend to have sympathy when we are happy (when something bad that happens to somebody is advantageous to you - like people got low marks for their exam and you've got a higher mark). I don't know. I just get tired with hypocrisy, yet I can't live without it. It's a part of me now - you have to fake to achieve things that you want~ I'm sure you guys feel that too. Come on, admit it. If you don't, it proves that you are a hypocrite the more...