Everyone's trying to make me cry...

a.k.a. Day 15 of the 15-day photo challenge: In tears.

Firstly, those people who dreamt up this topic. They sure want to see people cry...

Then the one who told me that I had to use my own tears. Another one who wanted to see me cry...

They even gave me reasons to cry. Like...my senior's last day is next Monday. *boo hoo hoo...* Like...pain (am I supposed to hit myself? :s ) *boo hoo hoo...* Like...laughing till I cry. (this is a little more positive...so it'll be *ha ha ha* instead) Like...getting dust in my eyes. *A-choo!* (when dust gets in your eyes, it usually gets in your nose as well, you see...) And...I don't know, was there anything else?

So I got home and contemplated all this...and I felt so sad that everyone wanted me to cry...so I cried. Good thing my teddy bear was there to comfort me...

boo hoo hoo...

PS: If you're not laughing after reading this, there is a problem...so tell me, are you laughing? :P

La revanche!

Remember the pen drive war? (okay, maybe not a war, but just a fight)

Well, here's an update... Pat got revenge for her pen drive! I guess she thought that the violent one needed a few lessons on how to soften up...

(the title means "the revenge"...somehow it just sounds better in French :P )

Aww...a snail!

Okay, I don't say that very often...because snails are very seldom cute and more often yucky. :s

But this one is cute...because it isn't a real snail!

Ooi was sending me a couple of photos through Skype:


See the snail?

He was showing me this restaurant he went to, called Pik Nik. It seems that we can draw on the tables and leave our work of art to be appreciated by future customers. I'm not sure how long they leave the drawings, though...wouldn't it end up a huge mess after a few customers? And if they clean it sometime, the next customer would have no artwork to greet them, would they?

Anyway, here's what my friend's table ended up looking like:


Nice? Would you hire him to design your house? lol

Inside

Inside my clothes cupboard, with the door shut. (thank you timer!)


No, you don't get to see my clothes. :P

No story this time...I'm out of ideas!

15dPC Day 14: Wood

I almost didn't get this photo...luckily I went to Queensbay Mall to meet a friend after work and while walking around after dinner (another coincidence, because we were walking around rather aimlessly), we came across this car exhibition (Ford) and one of the cars was displayed with its front wheels on a pile of rocks and wood.

So, I went *light bulb!* (haha I seem to be liking this expression a lot lately) and snapped a photo.

15dPC Day 13: Lifeless

Eew...goodness knows how long this little bug has been on my desk (at work). It was under a board that I haven't used in ages...and so I didn't see it until my senior put the board away.

But you see, I never thought I would be able to find a lifeless creature to take a photo of...so I had already taken "precautions"...a backup photo. And since there is a story attached to taking that photo, I shall post it as well.

I reached the office before anyone else had arrived. (in my area at least) At that time I was still thinking of what photo to take for this theme. Then, suddenly...*light bulb!* I was just about to snap a photo when...I suddenly heard footsteps coming in. I quickly moved back towards my desk, with my body blocking my camera from the view of anyone coming in. (thou shalt not act weird and scare thy colleagues)

Colleague C comes in. *relieved* I can still take my photo! (he knows about the photo challenge, you see...) I had just moved back to position when he asked "So early want to take photo already?"

I replied, "For "lifeless" what to take leh..." (okay maybe not in those exact words...and in a different language)

And he said "photo of my workplace". (now this was in English :P )

:O Did he come up with that on his own or was it because he saw what I was going to take? lol

But I wasn't really thinking of "my workplace" when I decided to take the photo...I was thinking of "no life here so early in the morning"!

So here you go, lifelessness in the morning...a little before 8:30am.


I think I'm missing the SFX we see in Japanese manga...you know, the ones that show "deafening silence"?

(everything pre-taken, pre-written and pre-posted a day earlier)

15dPC Day 12: Water

Water, water, pattering down on the ground
There's no sun but it makes a lovely sound! (NOT true -_-)

15dPC Day 11: Breakfast

My breakfast this morning wasn't that great to take a photo of. So I took a photo of someone else's!

old-style breakfast, so says the person who was having it

The Penang clan jetties

About two months ago when WW moved in, we went to see the jetties with my father. I had never gone there before...though it's quite famous (like I've never gone up Penang Hill *hides eyes*). Families of a same surname (of the same clan) will stay on the same jetty.

(and I have been meaning to write about this for ages but kept getting sidetracked :/ )

Let's do this with photos:

Chew jetty, the most famous and the first one we went to. Actually there were two jetties before it that we missed...Ong and...Lim, I think. (a guy on another jetty told us that) And we didn't want to go all the way back to see them...

Did you notice how scared we were of falling into the water? :P (hint: compare our position to the previous photo...)

somewhere in the middle of the jetty

The jetty's so long they even need signboards. :P

A temple with a tree inside...and coming out through the roof.

Next is Tan Jetty

with Thai food at the end

and a long path out (does this make anyone think of pirates? Walk the plank!)

there's even a birdhouse...

and a nice garden

Then Lee Jetty...my mother's :P (the signboard is too faded so I won't bother posting it here)

with a shorter plank

This is the mixed surname one...for all those who don't have their own. lol

it's shorter...

And last but not least, Yeoh Jetty! My jetty! lol
(all the jetties have a signboard like this one...but Yeoh Jetty doesn't have the other kind of signboard...not fair! lol)

And it happens to be the dirtiest jetty -_- (even though we don't see it in this photo) My father was saying he had to come and clean it up a bit to "save face". Haha...

Some drinking philosophy

Instant English! (click on the photo to enlarge)

And those who were trying to "learn American English"...



Okay I wasn't going to post photos of people, but I wanted to post this...the fastest "pose-for-photo" guy I've ever met (though he might be challenged by some of those people I met in France...it's hard to tell :P ). The following photo is actually the first one I took that night...I took out my camera without telling anyone, and started snapping. I didn't even see him posing till I looked at the photo I had taken. :O


And so that the others won't be jealous that they aren't featured...you have the other two pics. :P

15dPC Day 10: My idol

Okay, first off, I don't know who's my idol. So...yesterday I saw this magician on TV and decided that he would have to do. (so tak bagi muka to this guy...lol)

I present you...Liu Qian!


He's a Taiwanese magician... Lately there have been some magic shows on TV featuring some magicians from China/Taiwan/someplace like that :P. (I mean "lately", counting in years :P ) It makes a nice change from all the western magic acts where they stick knives into people, set people on fire, escape from closed boxes, etc.

I like funny magic acts...where they make us laugh at the same time. Which is why I also like another magician called Mao Mao...he's very funny! But I can't seem to find him online... :(

As for Liu Qian, you can easily find videos of him online...so I'll leave you to do the searching yourself :P

And if you haven't got enough of him, here's a close-up:

A patriotic wake-up call

I was awoken at 7:49am this morning by the strains of "♪ Tanggal tiga puluh satu... ♫" Followed by "Saya anak Malaysia" and some announcement on loudspeaker...then other songs (but pop songs this time).

At first I thought, did I go back in time? (nah, not really...though I did wonder what day it was :P )

Or maybe they heard that I was having difficulty waking up to go to the market...so they decided to give me a hand! (my alarm is set for 8am)

Anyway...more seriously, I think they were having aerobics in the park. Later I heard "One two three, one two three..." (or did they go up to four? I can't remember...)

15dPC Day 9: Game

Game! for X.

Or game over for O. :P

About a boy

It started raining when I was driving home from badminton at noon today. From tiny raindrops when I was walking to my car, it turned into very heavy rain (with huge raindrops) in seconds. Kinda lucky it didn't rain before I got to my car...because I didn't have an umbrella with me! (but there was one in the car)

I went to Super Tanker (a food court, not a real tanker :P ) to buy home some lunch. By that time I had my umbrella with me...and just as I finished paying for my food and was opening up my umbrella to leave (a slightly complicated maneuver because I was holding the umbrella, my wallet, my car keys and the plastic bag containing my food all in one hand at the beginning) I saw a boy (about upper primary school age) standing at the edge of the food court, looking like he was waiting for the right moment to dash out.

I wanted to ask him where he was going. I mean, if he was going across the road to the car park, I was going the same way and I could have sheltered him at least till I reached my car. But I hesitated...and decided to first open up my umbrella before doing anything. Just a little while before I had my umbrella open and was holding everything correctly and was ready to walk out, he dashed out to a car waiting right outside. I'm not sure whether the car was there before, or whether it had just arrived...probably the latter)

And I walked out with my umbrella right after him.

I can't help feeling rather mean and selfish. I mean...you have an umbrella and you let a little kid go out in the rain? It wouldn't have been too hard to shelter him to the car...

On the other hand, the car was close enough to run to. Really.

At least I won't be labeled a paedophile...

Just a mean old witch. >:D

Oh, and by the time I got home, the sun had started shining again (though it returned to cloudy later...that's just the sky having mood swings again)

My personal censorship board

This post is dedicated to my senior, who is leaving soon.. *boo hoo hoo...*

My senior is very protective of me. He filters conversations before they reach my ears. It is in this manner that the words spoken by the people around us reach my ears as an unintelligible sound (to me at least; I believe it is known as Cantonese). Sometimes he will relent and translate to me what they mean. But sometimes...he is unshakeable and I will never find out what they are talking about.

He tells me that it is for my own good. He says that there are many bad people in the world...and that I should be protected from this kind of people. But, I ask him, how do I know who are the bad guys if I don't know what bad words to look out for? (and this is where someone else chips in and says that I need to bring a bodyguard wherever I go...for this filtering purpose. But bodyguards are not easily found, and they are not available 24/7, either...)

Here's the thing. We need to know bad things. Just because we don't know something, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And isn't it better to find out the worst from someone who cares, so that we are then prepared for all eventuality, rather than to discover something when it is too late?

Isn't "PG" aka "parental guidance" in movie ratings all about that?

Note: It was actually my senior who suggested that I write about this "filtering"...without censoring me. And...take it with a pinch of salt, my dears ;)

The saga of a happy cat

Remember the happy cat?

Yesterday morning this was his tweet:
Whee Terrific Thursday today :D My last day of the week.

Last day of the week? No wonder he was so happy the whole week! :P

All is revealed...

Edit (29 Sept):
Okay, it isn't just that week...he's doing it again, every day! For example, today: "Wonderful Thursday ahead!! Good morning people of Planet Earth!!"

30dPC day 8: An eye

Like for the smile, I wanted to get someone to model for me. I tried to get a "fresh" face for my blog but failed. :/

But luckily the chairman of steady.com (sorry, private joke) was there for me to count on! (that's the steady.com official song as chosen by the chairman ;P )

Glowing

My computer mouse glowing in the dark office

And now for the "short story".

The mouse lies still, in the dark. It can hear the shuffling sound of feet. Somewhere...but from which direction? Ears pricked, it listens...

It hears the noise again. Might it be a cat?

It is unmistakable now. It can smell the cat...

Padding feet, coming closer...

And closer yet...

The cat will pounce soon, it knows.

~~~~~

The cat yowls and jumps off the table.

The mouse was glowing!

- Imagined scenario, if the computer mouse (above) were a real mouse...

15dPC day 7: E-mail

Again, I didn't want to take a photo of my computer screen. So I looked for an e-mail address somewhere on my desk...and hit pay-dirt on the element14 catalogue.

Shields

Humour is my favourite shield.

When I have my shield on, you might not notice that I am human.
But believe me, I am.

And I can bleed just like any of you,
maybe more, maybe worse,
because no one realises it.

And no one comes to my aid.

(not written on the spot)

15dPC Day 6: On screen

Yesterday's theme was "on screen". I don't want to take photos of my computer screen any more...so I switched on the TV when I got home last night. To TV2, the only channel that I can receive clearly in my apartment :/ (the other channels are watchable but blurred)

Fiona was on screen!

Shrek too, actually

Actually I took the photo of Shrek first...but with the flash it didn't look so good so I decided to discard it and take another one. But it didn't seem right to post Fiona without Shrek...so here you have both of them! ;P

Limits

Math joke from Anna, the civil engineering student and bartender at Brackins Blues Club: an infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar. The first one tells the bartender he wants a beer. The second one says he wants half a beer. The third one says he wants a fourth of a beer. The bartender puts two beers on the bar and says "You guys need to learn your limits."

From here.

My kind of joke... haha. If you don't understand it you're obviously not an engineering student... >:D

We should all learn from this cat

Unlike some of us who can't stop yawning in the morning, there is a sunny cat on Twitter... (what's a cat tweeting for? Don't ask me...)

I haven't looked at my Twitter for some time...and this morning I opened it. I saw this tweet first:

good meowning all.. today gonna be a Wonderful Wednesday! ^^
21 Sep

A little lower down...

gooood morning world!! its gonna be a great day!! :)
20 Sep

And even lower down, on Monday:

Good meowning all! its a beautiful day today. the birds are chirping, the waves are hitting the rocks softly, the sea breeze..ahh...
19 Sep

Wow...no Monday blues here, huh...lol

Will check my Twitter for more tomorrow! Haha...

15dPC Day 5: Music

These days we listen a lot to recorded music...but I still like listening to the radio sometimes. It is totally unpredictable, and you can get a few good surprises sometimes! Like an old song you had almost forgotten coming on air...not to mention keeping up with newly released songs.

2+2=?

I read this article about a family who spent five years in Russia as expatriates and sent their children to a Russian school. The article in itself is interesting, but even more interesting is this quote from the school's director, Vasiliy Bogin:

“Does 2 + 2 = 4? No! Because two cats plus two sausages is what? Two cats. Two drops of water plus two drops of water? One drop of water.”

Well...I guess it depends on whether we are taking two plus two or whether we are taking two "something" plus two "something"...

The quote can be found on page 4 of the article:

When I asked Bogin to explain Shchedrovitsky, he asked a question. “Does 2 + 2 = 4? No! Because two cats plus two sausages is what? Two cats. Two drops of water plus two drops of water? One drop of water.”

15dPC Day 4: My desk

I decided to take a photo of my home desk instead of my work desk. Because my work desk is really messy (messier than this, yeah), and though it would be kinda nice to share that messiness with you, taking a photo of it means that I have to be a distance away from my desk, snapping a photo in full view of everyone around...doesn't that scene just seem so weird, even in your head? (my desk is kinda long, you see...so I can't take a photo of it sitting at my normal place)

So, home desk it is.


It came out a little blurred, but I kinda welcome the blurriness because that means I don't have to censor the words on the notes I have in front of my laptop :P (I have lots of little notes and reminders) And yeah, my new laptop is black. Together with the dark brown (very dark brown) table, it makes a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes :s (Oh wait, I mean playground, for their hide-and-seek. Since they breed in water. Haha...)

(Oh, and it's a little harder to take photos at work now. As much as I don't mind some people behind me seeing me snapping photos and acting all weird, there is now a new guy at work and I'm not so comfortable with him seeing me doing strange things...)

Broken promises

Didn't I say that broken promises lead to broken hearts?


Thankfully I already know, lip service is much easier to pay than actual service. And so, that is the only thing you can count on. (and sometimes not even that)

So treat everyone's words like they are true, and then wait to see which way it goes.

A healthy weekend

Well, kinda.

It started off with not having anything to cook for WW (which means no meat/fried stuff (meat in soup doesn't count)). So I told him we'd eat "healthy" food. lol (I didn't force him, between eating what I eat and going out to buy food for himself, he chose the former)

mee suah soup for Friday's lunch

Friday night: fried egg with long beans, potatoes and leftover soup (which I should have transferred to a bowl; I wanted to save washing a bowl but it was hard to eat with that! So next time I'll use a bowl. Haha...)

Saturday night: steamed fish with long beans, crabstick omelette and leftover egg with long beans from Friday

Sunday's lunch: I haven't got a name for it, so see for yourself...WW calls it "burger"

Sunday night: ku lou yok before pouring the sauce on (trust me, it looks better before than after :P (though the transparent plate and the placemats make the whole thing look weird...like an abstract painting? lol) ) Plus leftover "burger"...just a little bit though.
Anyway the ku lou yok is an approximation so that's why the meat doesn't look like it should. And the sauce was a bit "off" as well...I'll have to try and remedy that next time. :|

Did you miss Saturday's lunch? Well, we tapao-ed because I played badminton in the morning...didn't have time to cook after that! :P

And every day the rain and the sun came and went...I had to move my clothes in and out, trying to predict the rain, wondering whether it would be better to take a gamble and leave them outside, or move them in. And tomorrow I won't be at home to do that. :s Dear sky, make up your mind!!! -_-

15dPC Day 3: News

Seems that you're going to get another look at my computer screen :P


I don't buy newspapers, so this is where I get my news!

The journey: Year 4

Okay, you know why I haven't posted this sooner. :P So let's just get on with it.

That year the Angoulême professors organised a gathering for us seniors to return and talk to our juniors about what we're doing now. After the gathering (which also included a raya one), I went to two different towns, where my batchmates were now studying...

October 2006: Rennes

the town hall in Rennes

November 2006: Le Mans

Le Mans is where they hold the 24h du Mans (some racing thing...haha that's all I know about it)

January 2007: Toulouse


Then during another school break, I went to visit some friends (batchmates as well) in Toulouse, and we went to Carcassonne, a nearby medieval fortress.

January 2007: Carcassonne


February 2007: London, Edinburgh and Glasgow (UK)

This marked my first trip out of France alone. I planned to go to Edinburgh to visit a friend (secondary schoolmate) who was studying there, and decided to visit London on the way (I had to stop in London anyway, with EasyJet...)

Tower Bridge in London

Edinburgh Castle

The Transport Museum in Glasgow (which also houses the oldest letterbox in...un, I can't remember whether it was Glasgow or Scotland :P )

April 2007: Budapest (Hungary)

My second trip out of France alone. This time it was for a Minesweeper tournament! Check the archives for April 2007 if you want to know more...or more like my travel log for Budapest, 'cos I'm not sure how long I delayed before writing about it. :P

the Fisherman's Bastion

Recap:
Oct 2006: Rennes
Nov 2006: Le Mans
Jan 2007: Toulouse
Jan 2007: Carcassonne
Feb 2007: London
Feb 2007: Edinburgh
Feb 2007: Glasgow
Apr 2007: Budapest

I think I'll try to make these posts monthly...be patient, okay? lol