Of white t-shirts

Was pulling out a t-shirt to wear when I recalled something funny that happened a while back. You see, I didn't have time to go back to Kuantan after getting my job here in Penang. So I sent my father a list of things to bring here for me. And amongst those things were "any two white t-shirts".

One day on the phone he said that he was getting those at that moment...and he went something like: "Okay, here's one, it's a Winnie the Pooh one. And another one, also Winnie the Pooh. And a third one...eh, also Winnie the Pooh." Hahaha...

Come to think of it, all my white t-shirts are Winnie the Pooh ones. :P (I think there are only three though) Somehow it's hard to find nice t-shirts which are white :s

End of a journey

Did I mention that I was on a Pokemon journey? :P

I started playing Pokemon Emerald in Kuantan about two months back (I played Blue and Yellow and maybe Crystal - if I remember correctly - when I was in secondary school), since I had nothing much to do. My game was put on hold each time I came to Penang. Until this final trip here when I brought my laptop with me, and I could play...though not as much as in Kuantan...because, shall we say, living in someone else's place demands that you pay more attention somewhere other than your computer screen. :P

Anyway, now that I've got my own room (I "technically" don't have to "pay attention elsewhere" if I don't want to), I can play more...except that I'm working. :P So it leaves weekends to continue my game. And this weekend it's done! I am the Pokemon League champion of the Hoenn region! (lol...albeit with a lot of "save-and-load"s, so it's a little cheating :P Darn, my pokemon just aren't strong enough)

So enough with the background info, here's my team!


Though Pikachu and Marill were there only to get me through the cave (Victory Road). Pikachu for its Flash (lighting up the cave, consider it my torchlight battery) and Marill to smash rocks blocking the way (it might look small and cute, but it's really strong! lol). But I'm sure glad Pikachu was there! :D

The other four make up my "real" fighting team...I was determined not to train too many Pokemon this time round because I didn't want to waste too much time walking around battling wild pokemon for extra training (which is also why I had to use the "save-load" tactic :| )

For those interested but not in the know (if you're not interested you probably have your eyes glazed over by now, reading the few previous paragraphs; you can stop now, I don't mind :P ), my team consists of Torchic (my starter pokemon), Wingull, Mightyena and Breloom (top row and the bottom-middle one, in reading order). Level 52 for all of them except Wingull who's at level 55 (after the Elite Four match). I didn't set out to especially train Wingull, but it's easily the most versatile of my Pokemon, it is flying and water type but it can learn Shock Wave and Ice Beam as well! And when I'm surfing on water it is so easy to just shock any wild pokemon that comes disturbing me ;)

Those "in the know" might have noticed that I didn't let Torchic and Wingull evolve...that's because I like my Pokemon cute :P So much so that I also battled to the end with a Pikachu in both the Blue and Yellow versions...even though that's hardly the best choice :P WW said "Don't you understand that Pokemon isn't about cuteness?" I beg to differ...haha.

Oh, and there's a second part to the Pokemon game...I haven't started that yet, I might leave that for a while.

I'm also wondering, now that I've written this...have any of my readers played Pokemon before? :P

Please don't make unsilent letters silent

Some Malaysians just don't care about pronunciation. Or maybe I should say "a lot of Malaysians". This is an observation made throughout a period spanning eight years...in France and in Malaysia.

First there is the word "island". I usually tell my friends that my hometown was Penang, and that I came from the island. (usually I would say something like "Saya dari island", since we were speaking Malay) Each time I said that, they would laugh and go "Ooooo...dari island..." in a mocking manner. I had no idea what they were going on about...until when one day we were walking past an Irish pub, and suddenly one of them said to me, "Hey, that's where you're from!"

[Please tell me, do you get what they mean at this point?]

It took a few seconds for it to click, then I realised that when I said island, they were thinking Ireland. But those two words are NOT homonyms! The S in "island" is silent, but the R in "Ireland" is NOT SILENT!

Then another time I got subscribed to this mobile phone service called Breizh Mobile. (a company from Bretagne; I subscribed to get a phone at 1 or 9 euros, I've forgotten exactly how much) When a friend asked what company I was using, I told her. And then she started saying, "If Malaysians were to hear what company you're using, they would say 'How awful this girl is!'" I racked my brains to understand, and after she had said it a few times I got it that she meant "breast mobile". You're the one that's awful. -_-

One word has an "st" sound at the end, and the other has a "z" sound. Not the same!!

And then, in Malaysia, someone said "people don't like to do spot". (I've forgotten who the "people" referred to were) I said "huh?" And after a few more "huh?"s, he said "sukan". Oh..."sport"! The R is NOT SILENT, for goodness' sake!

Well, that's all for the examples I have at the moment...has anyone else come across situations like this, or is it just me?

Fan art

Alas, not mine.

I've written about Wong Fu Productions before. But this time I'm not sharing one of their videos, instead I want to share a piece of fan art they got.


Can you see what caught my eye? :P It's in the bottom-right corner! Pika-pika!

You can watch the full video here, if you're interested.

Chap Goh Meh

Chap Goh Meh?
Oh, I threw a mandarin orange out of the window.
Who picked it up?
I don't know...some tramp I suppose.
What?!
Oh, no.

One side of a conversation. Happy (belated) Chap Goh Meh. :P

(Note: This "conversation" is totally fictional and is not connected to any person living or dead.)

All a jumble

Well well well, it's been some time! From December to January I came to Penang (note: came) three times for some interviews. Back and forth it was...and this third time I got a job and decided to stay on till Chinese New Year.

As of now, I am renting a room with a retired couple. They're so nice, keep telling me to help myself to whatever they have. *shy*

I got a car (a second-hand Viva) to get to work...it's a 2007 car but it looks practically new (yeah yeah people say that I should get a new one and not a used one, and I agree that it's safer, no history, bla bla bla...but hey, sometimes used cars do fine as well, let's close the topic). I'm not telling you its number plate here, but it's silver, and watch out for a white teddy bear in the back (which has probably fallen over, it does so rather often since there is nothing to keep it in place :( ).

Nothing much else to update you about for the moment, but since I'm living "alone" now I might have more to write about (not having people to talk to means that I have to pour out everything here lol). But then, who knows?

The reason for my lack of updates for the past month was mainly lack of time and Internet connection...squatting in someone else's place means that I shouldn't "block" their Internet, so I used it mainly for e-mails. (and Facebook, for updates concerning myself, didn't have much time to check out what other people were sharing)

I still have a load of unread articles on my Google Reader, still keeping them there for now.

Oh, and on Wednesday night I had my first "free" night to go online since coming to Penang, and guess what I did? I downloaded f.lux, a program which is supposed to adjust your screen lighting to match the environment so that it doesn't strain your eyes. But the program ate up all my memory and my computer couldn't do a single thing! After restarting it was the same...I think because f.lux opens at startup -_-

So I called up See Hua for some emergency computer aid, and he told me to go to safe mode (it's the F8 key!) I had used the safe mode before by searching the Internet, and it said we have to press the F8 key during startup ("just hammer away at it until you get a response", I believe it said). But I had forgotten which key -_- (now it's on my blog! I know where to find it!)

I also had a problem with my phone...the screen is broken. So I got a new one (I was thinking of getting one anyway, I just hadn't seen one I really liked) So now I've got a Nokia 7230. But I can't see my screen, which means that I've lost the contacts stored in my phone (luckily I have a paper backup but unluckily it's in Kuantan :| ) And I've lost all the cute messages people sent me! :(

Okay, I'll stop here...I guess you now know why I crossed out that earlier paragraph! :P