Tuesday 11 September 2012

Thank God for fresh starts

Hello reader, hope your start of the semester didn't involve a lost student ID and classes you couldn't sign up for. A breeze? lucky you.

Its the second day of the new semester, and I gave it the skip for a dental appointment ... check me out.

And I was thinking, aren't we lucky that there is always a new beginning of uni or school and that it isn't one continuous stretch throughout the years.

Somehow having a first day to look forward to gives us a little surge of excitement and determination to plan out the year. Buying that new notebook, and swearing to yourself you'll bring it to every lecture and learn shorthand, study them notes and get an A plus!.

notebook first page.


organizing your desk the before first day!


Two days later

Things might not always turn out the way we planned them, but its important to have those plans in the first place. I only have such visions the day before a new term so yes, new beginnings are vital to me!

So far I have learnt to keep those plans realistic. No I cannot study 10 chapters of every subject each day, as grand as it sounds. I cannot lose 15 kg in 3 weeks. Making ridonkulous plans is setting yourself up for disappointment, so...


Having said that, have great term ahead, don't screw up big time. That's one thing that's safe to tell yourself.



Friday 6 July 2012

The Savio Inspired Epiphany

Hello, thanks for stopping by. 

Here's something I recently thought about. 

I strongly believe that if a person has the exposure to all age groups at all times as he/ she goes through life, then he/ she will be infinitely more socially competent then those who only mix with their own age groups. 


no no no. Trust me, I come from the latter category, who has spent twenty years of my life, steadfastly avoiding getting caught in conversation with the "dull grownups", and always keeping a safe distance from "boring creepy little kids", such a safe distance in fact, that, whenever I face a random kid along the way, I never know what to say! I end up being the creepy one!



As for the older folk, while many of my peers J. Lo, Pat, Emily, Elizabeth effortlessly seemed to tackle small talk with aunties and uncles, I never mastered the art of going beyond "hello aunty". Somewhere along the line, I get a nervous breakdown and start looking for ways to end the conversation. When I was just a little girl....my mother taught me to answer politely when uncles ask me, "how is school?" or "How are the holidays" but I STILL do only that! Worrying much?
And on a scarier note, I believe grownups find ME boring. 




Babies? Phobia. Might break them.  

But toss me in that comfort zone of people my own age, and I'll lazily feed of that careless young energy, not much effort needed. Talk about anything, or say nothing, it doesn't matter really. Since the awkward silence doesn't exist, no thinking is required. 


And so in the wisest self criticising Yoda tone I can muster, "Change I must" "or more scarily dysfunctional life will get"...ooohhh
 
So who did succeed in bringing a much needed smile on my face recently. No it probably isn't you, reader, coz this guy can't even say the whole alphabet yet!




that's Matthias Savio Lopez, more fondly known as Savio. And I know Jes and Justina (his mom) will roll their eyes and say what I saw and fell in love with was only a preview of this little rascal; who can really wear you down and out with his perpetually charged impishness (so well hidden by that adorable heart melting grin!)

I think I spent about half an hour, playing ring around the roses, scribbling and hoop assembling with this kid, and I realized that his impenetrable bubble of happiness and screaming giggles were infectious. There is something to be said about being around carefree children; you actually feel lighter and lose all that "dead weight" in your head. Glorious! 

So, enough babbling but capitalizing on this Savio inspired epiphany, I think I'm going to make a conscious effort to change and mingle at least with the senior generation and those monkeys disguised as little kids before I become the gray-wallpaper aunty everyone's always avoiding...erghh.  

Friday 29 June 2012

that awkward moment when you're playing charades next to a table of deaf people.

Today was good. Hello everybody, for those of you who don't know, I've recently taken on a job with my ex tuition teacher Mr. Alfred and am basically a clerk/receptionist of sorts. Shrug. It pays.

So the five of us, Marc, Laura, Pat, Jes and I went to eat at the mamak in Bayu Perdana...Bayu Mamak I'm sure it's called. and well we were sitting next to a table of a couple of deaf men. Well actually I think only one of them was handicapped, he was the most expressive, but the rest had to sign to communicate with him.

By a totally unrelated, no-malice-intended, chance happening, I had with me some charade clue papers and we decided to have a game. it was fun for about twenty minutes, till Marc realised it pretty much looked like this

THEM










US





so after getting dirty looks from them and other patrons in the restaurant, we sort of just stopped playing, paid for our food and left, quietly. 

AWKWARDDD.









Thursday 28 June 2012

An American Crime

What makes a good actor? I've always nursed the theory that if you watch a movie, and you feel yourself getting worked up, annoyed or downright angry at a character, then that actor is probably really really good.  Recently, my theater and drama lecturer-advisor shared the same view, so I wasn't alone.

Anyway I just watched "An American Crime" and was blown away by the acting. It is based on a true story about a woman who locks a girl down in the basement for a summer, and allows her to be tortured by the neighborhood kids and her own children. She herself participates by inflicting painful cigarette burns and branding her with a hot pin.


Ellen Page (chick from Juno) acts as Sylvia who is tortured and does such an amazing job, she is fast becoming one of my favourite actresses, (loved her work in Hard Candy and Juno too). When she's in pain, you feel it, when she is being kicked you wince in pain, when she is forced to push a bottle up herself, you tear with the discomfort. To convey that much through the movie straight to the audience, takes true talent.

And that WOMAN who tortures her! you will be dripping with hatred throughout the movie. I actually got so frustrated at why none of the characters killed her, or beat her up! Yes ladies and gentlemen, she was that gooooood.... Catherine Keener. Hats off.

Definitely recommend this movie to anyone who's looking for something good to watch.
Thanks to my cousin Pat for peaking my interest enough for me to go watch this excellent movie.


Friday 8 June 2012

Feel Good Friends

Hello reader, it's been quite some time eh? The title is of an article that I  read in Reader's Digest recently.

So to summarize, everyone has a group of people they dare to call friends right? Come on la. Okay now what you have to do is, to sit and think about it; which of these friends make you feel good. The best way to do this, is to analyse how you feel AFTER hanging out with them.

Do you feel tired? drained? even though all you did was talk...

1. You know those people who really treat you like a toilet bowl ( for lack of a better word)... they come to you when they need to let EVERYTHING go and then leave you with the bad smelling poo of negativity.



2. those friends whom you honestly wish would shut up sometimes.



3. Those people who only seem to talk about themselves. Very tiring to entertain this species!


BUT WITH CERTAIN FRIENDS
Do you feel lighter, and relieved and walk with a bounce-of-happiness... you get what I mean don't you? friends whom you find refreshing to talk to. leave you feeling like you haven't wasted 3 hours of your life speaking to.

So I thought about it and did come up with a list of people who did and did not "make me feel good' BUT
there were some things odd about the list

THEY WERE ALL MY FRIENDS

1. YET I had some GOOD friends in the "BAD list". Was that supposed to happen?

2. Certain friends who did not make me feel good alone, but together with two or three others, made me feel happy.

I'm sure you'll find yourself in the same situation.

NOT TO WORRY!
different friends have different roles to play in our lives. Some friends look to us as confidantes, some as fun time buddies, some as sympathizers, and some as everything rolled into one!


So sometimes when you find yourself feeling exhausted after talking or listening to someone, don't strike them off as "fake friends" or anything. You might have done wonders for them by taking some load off their shoulders.

But if YOU are feeling stressed, by all means look for those who'll give you back that spring in your step and smile on your face!

Friday 25 May 2012

Why me? Why now? Why Chicken Pox?

The way I imagined chicken pox

What i think I look like now. 


What I really look like 



Day 1

FYI
I have chicken pox fluid filled blisters all over my body, in my nostrils, in my ears all over my scalp and inside my throat.

Of course this isn't really day one. I would probably have gotten it a week ago. But this is full fledged day 1
I feel like shrek.
My face has developed huge red bumps all around the eyebrows, on my nose and cheeks, and around my mouth, yep I think that covers the whole face.
It started with what I thought was extremely itchy back acne. Not even suspecting chicken pox, I scratched and scratched and it felt so good!. It was my back so I couldn't see what was going on back there. HAHA.

And i had sudden fevers and felt really fatigued. but the fever and tiredness would go away after I took paracetamol.

It was on thursday that I started feeling an itch all over my body, not just the back but certain spots on my tummy as well. then I became conscious that I was scratching my arms, so I joked to Azie saying "hey you think I've got chicken pox/" (I don't know why it seemed so unbelievable).

Azie took it seriously and said yeah maybe...

I said CHOY! *touch wood*

later that evening (full day of classes) I was itchy in more spots. The fever had caught on again and I felt so weak and cold.

When I got home, and ripped my clothes off to get a closer look (I thought a thousand mosquitoes bit me!!) There were liquid filled bumps all over my tummy and chest, and back.

Emily drove me to the clinic and the doctors confirmed it.

On the way back I cried.
 I cried because more than anything else in the world I wanted to act in front of a 500 people full theater
I cried because I worked so hard the whole semester living my dream of acting in an awesome production.
I cried because now, some of my friends who bought tickets only to support me, wouldn't see the point of going.
I was so so sorry for myself
I cried because I was being self centered.

My friend back home just lost her grandmother. She needs a shoulder to cry on. Maybe that's why god sent me home
Maybe we were taking things too lightly at the theater, and this was God's way of throwing us off our feet.
Maybe God knows this is the only way I'll study, so he sent me home.
Maybe God set up a blind date for me and my future husband...THATS why he sent me home.
lolzz
Maybe God had some other plan that he hasn't revealed to me yet, that's why he sent me home.

Friday 30 March 2012

Things I did not expect at Uni

Hello reader, it has been a while, but I have been busy.

Now that I am in an actual university, certain prior notions I had about uni life have been dispelled. And if you're headed this way, you should know that


1. In between classes




We wait for buses. 

2. Lectures 







5 minutes late. locked out of class 

3. Eye candy

Expectation



Reality




















But it's not all bad though. There exist inspiring lecturers who don't treat us like ten year olds. Classes are spaced out leaving plenty of spare time. Indian restaurants with masala tosai are not totally unheard of! The pasar malam comes to you! And thus we begin another two year adventure! 

Sunday 26 February 2012

The Jefferson Key by Steve Berry (Review)

This book was recommended to me. Highly recommended. So I made it a point to finish it. Overall, I think it was slightly overrated. For those of you who like political type action drama in novels then you might get a rush out of it. But to me it was like watching a testosterone packed action movie...starring that Craig fellow from the Bond Movie...



Google a blurb yourself because I'm just going to tell you what I thought of it. I feel there was one very weak core plot...(to retrieve something top secret for the government) which then turned into a mission for about 5 people..thats the gist of it...I thought it rather draggy because one unimportant character seemed to be controlling the movements of most of the different agents involved...and it was a tangled web of confusion and a bit of backstabbing....very CIA-NIA- FBI- charged stuff...with loads of boring technical terms that come along with it. so again if you are into that sort of thing...then you might find it exciting.

Steve Berry...quite handsome. =P


Many times there were scenes that really seemed like they were from an action film...like the hero swinging in at the last second to save the love of his life as she was tossed into the ocean...and defusing an automatic machine gun just as it was about to go off. That type of thing is okay with special effects on the big screen ...but to read it...in a novel...it seemed a bit cliche and shallow...to me.

Apparently the hero, Cotton Malone is a regular feature in many of his books...however in this one, he actually seemed to lack any type of feeling except the need to do the right thing at all times...I would have really liked to get to know him better. His romance with another agent in the tale also lacked any particular chemistry..Honestly their dialogues were witty, civil at most, bordering on indifferent. Very dull.

The Jefferson puzzle. 


There was one good point though... and that was the punishment scenes by the "villain" or antagonist. I think there was an element of historical referencing and he was very descriptive in painting the picture of how men who went against the rules were dealt with severely to set an example to the rest.

In my earlier review of The Hunger Games I mentioned that I enjoyed reading books that made me think about things after. Sadly, The Jefferson Key did not.

This all might sound a bit harsh...but I stress this is what I thought. Please read the book and judge it for yourself because A LOT OF PEOPLE seem to love it. Cheers!

Friday 17 February 2012

HOw I spent my holidays ...in not so many words

Puppy!
Lexy!
Aww sister moment
His 23rd cake!

That's a small bit of my family

Cousins Jegaraj and Anand

Did someone say Braceface?
J. Lo waiting for me to get my hair done

Mummy dearest and Me 



















papa and Marc at breakfast after church


when Laura discovered my webcam

\
When I discovered my webcam....look like my dad in his day





If only you knew how Uncandid this was

Take 1
Take 2

Take 3

Take 4

Then there was Chinese New Year with friends, I-City with friends, Mamak sessions and loads of movies...but I can't have a photo for everything can I?