It's I don't know

I am so feeble that I can get depressed by reading just two words, maybe even one.

I am so unstable that I can be hyped up one second and nearly cry the other.

I am so desire-oriented that I can just go about thrashing whatever reasoning to just support what my desire says, irrespective of whether I'm truthfully reasoning or not. And I think maybe things don't usually will work well from then on. 'Cause lying usually gets you into trouble.

I am so imaginative that I can cry by just thinking about something totally imaginary.

I am so ignorant that I sometimes overlook other people's situations and get into trouble because of that.

I am so lazy that in months, tonight is the first night that I have completed my Maths homework in accordance with the lessons in school i.e. no delays. I have even planned to have a night out with a few friends just because of this.

A day in Delhi

First things first, I don't know and I'm not sure, and I can't confirm, but maybe I might have pissed or half-pissed or quarter-pissed or eighth-pissed or sixteenth-pissed someone off today so as I said earlier on, first things first, from deep inside, from the bottom of the wall of my heart (left ventricle? Nearly two years of not touching biology has made me like this) I apologise for pissing anyone off today. First thing done.

So what happened was, I came down to school a little earlier than usual. There was only one line of students queueing up for the temperature check at the waiting bay and I joined in. It was long. It wouldn't be that long if you came at around 7.05 a.m.. A tutor then called for a second line to be made and I joined that one. Greeted him good morning as well as the other tutors in charge of SMSA HSE (as if there is a term like that). Why I tell you all this? 'Cause I think this "Morning, Sir!, Morning, Sir!" thing triggered my good mood that lasted a lifetime. Just kidding. It lasted the whole day.

Went through a good day 'cause I talked and smiled and laughed and asked whereabouts and serious stuff and joke stuff and all that stuff with a lot of people. Exceptionally a lot of people. I feel happy. Why? Because typing the above is a good way to summarise the fact that you've been talking to Pkah, Norlela, Abd. Aziz, Zimo, JJ, Yee Fang, Hanafi, Jason, Abd. Khaliq, many more, and My Physics Tutor (note the capital letters). Only I and only I can understand what I am talking about. Great. Now I know how to make life easy. And short. And simple. On the outside only, by the way. 'Cause inside I've got a picture. A picture paints a thousand words... Okay get me? I have a thousand words (or more) inside me.

I had a haircut. Laugh at me, I don't know about hair and I love to go to the Indian barber. With the energy and good mood and all I greeted the barber, who was new, and we broke the ice. Great. Just as he started cutting, I asked his name and I told my name and we set off right away, after a few sentences...

Him: "Sudah kawin ka kawan?"

Me: "Belum eh... Saya umur 17 bah. Kamu?"

Him: "Belum juga... 22"

Him: "Gaalfren?" i.e. "Girlfriend?"

Right on, now we can talk some real stuff here!

Me: "Tidak ada lah..."

We talked and talked and I got to know that he's still a freshie... only around 9 months into the job I think. Asked him how long he'd intend to work in Brunei, since there's a plethora of Indians around who've been here for more than 20 years. He said he'd go for 15. I said he'd be 37 by the time that time came. He agreed...

I used some Urdu to get the ice really melted. No, I don't speak Urdu. Just some words and broken sentences...

I learnt a great deal from him. As usual, barbers over in Delhi don't earn as much as they do in Brunei. Also, competition for jobs is real damn hard over there. So he came here. Good to see you here Bhai-sab!

I asked him. How the hell do you barbers learn to cut hair? He told me that barbers-to-be in Delhi go for a 4-month course in the profession of barbery (I made that word up), maybe in a hairstyling academy or something, I don't know. They cut the hair of people that want their hair to be cut by barber-trainees. And if the hair gets messed up, it's okay. It's okay. They don't mind. They don't mind. That's what I was told by him. The great thing about him was, he graduated from the hairstyling academy or whatever that did Shah Rukh Khan's and Salman Khan's hairs. I asked him if he had ever met Salman Khan. He enthusiastically said yes! Wow, this is great, I thought.

Him: "Salman Khan, muscle banyak!"

Me: "Ia wah?" Melayan lah.

Him: "Ya... Dia banyak gaalfren, tau..." And he kept on saying the names of most probably hot Indian women celebrities and I went nod, nod, nod, nod, nod...

Me: "Dia sudah kawin belum, itu Salman Khan?" Honestly I don't know about him.

Him: "Belum, belum, dia banyak gaalfren..."

Me: "Oh... Dia banyak gaalfren boleh main-main lah, kalau sudah kawin tida boleh main-main lagi bah"

Him: "Itu lah..."

We somehow got back to him working in Brunei for fifteen years and we talked about him getting married and how would his marriage be, his wife, his kids, if he'd be here in Brunei and the rest over in Delhi. He didn't say much but...

"Saya ada gaalfren bah. Dua orang..."

Wow! I laughed. So I said,

"Itu gaalfren tida marah kah, kamu datang sini Brunei?"

I don't think I got an answer to that...

He gave a nice moustache shave, some facial whatever that felt great on my face and a nice massage.

Paid $4 and bade him Salaam.

This reminds me of my childhood days when I would go out with Ayyub and my dad to the same barber shop (different barber) to get our hairs done and my dad would be shooting off some lively conversation with the barber(s).

Maybe the time has come wherein I would be the one conversing with them.

It's a maze

This is a question that I cannot answer:

Why do we still need to stack up empty shampoo bottles with the ones still with contents side by side?

I understand the 'empty shampoo bottle' phenomenon especially if the shampoo was an expensive/ specialty shampoo or if it was from some Hilton hotel in Los Angeles or wherever.

I have come across some instances (and so have you, I believe) where you can see stacks of shampoo bottles with the gel douche and moisturising lotion whatnot either on the sink or around the washroom. Beautiful. They must be there. It shows people how much of a traveller you are. In some rare cases can you might even come across eau de toillettes. Complimentary, from the most luxurious hotel you can name. Teriffic!

Despite all this, I still cannot understand why empty shampoo bottles (No, not empty bottles from Hilton hotel in Makkah, it's those Head and Shoulders stuff) must be stacked together with the bottles that are still in use...

Let's go somewhere else.

For a second, I thought, why would the clock show 11 o'clock while it was still daylight (I assumed it was 11 p.m.)? I somehow figured out that the clock wasn't working. So I turned my head the other way. The digital clock didn't lie; It was 4.44 p.m.. Great! Now I understand the reason for displaying 3 clocks in one room. I never got the logic of putting more than one in a single room/common area.

One day, I removed one of the clocks and put it in my room (My room hadn't had a working clock in it for years, till then). It was sickening to see three clocks in one place. The day after, another new clock was there! Fabulous! Someone had put a new clock there! That place really needed 3 clocks after all.

Call it personal

Well hello dear fellows

I am having a good time these days... However I admit that I am not settled down yet. I'm still floating in mid air... Now can you tell me where the solid ground is again?

I have loads to do... It's mostly school stuff and with full truth and honesty there is a little bit of university stuff to be done to.

I feel demotivated, under pressure and that sort of stuff but thank God my laziness is evaporating away from me by the minute! That's the important thing to bear in mind. Once the laziness goes away, dude, you can fly further than the space shuttle (was the name Voyager I) that took the picture of the Pale Blue Dot. And never come back.

Well, that's the end. See you soon!

We have...

3 things going on right now:

Some Harry Potter premiere at Leicester Square

Some Michael Jackson funeral at the Staples Centre (I don't care if its official name is Center, we speak English)

Some lazy and tired Pre-U student trying to get things going...

Owner, Admin, user...

Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player.

Note the first word.. it's Hello.

Youtube is 'user-friendly'. Unlike you. Haha.

I promised

You don't ever finish taunting them from morning till evening... No, night in fact. This and that this and that pointing out at even the most minor mistake you see them doing.

Then at 12 am you go to their room to switch off their air-conditioning and you realise how small and cute they are. Cuddled up in their beds. You even want to kiss them cheeks. And they are the same people you've been taunting all day long.

So I'm a problematic person.

Wish I could have cool affection like you all do. Macam kamu, kamu sapa adik-adik kamu, you know, jaga dengan kasih sayang. Siuk wah meliat kamu atu.

Our of anger, I tell you, out of anger I type this up... What the hell is wrong with some stuff? It leaves me being paranoid. Paranoia. With full truth and honesty and from deep inside I admit that I think this is the first time I am using these words for practical purposes. Paranoia, paranoid, paranormal, parawhatever, para machine gun, parachuters, para-why-is-the-word-'parachuters'-being-underlined-in-red-here,-don't-tell-me-there's-no-parachuters-in-the-dictionary-'cause-I've-heard-the-word-'parachuters'-being-used-before-or-have-I-been-dreaming, para penulis, para pelakon, para-you-name-it-we-have-it, Paramore. At least I like Paramore. Heck.

You know, you want to chat with somebody and suddenly the personal computer restarts by itself for no apparent reason 'cause its a regular phenomenon here and you don't call it an epic event anymore in the world of computers these days 'cause the computers love to give you problems even though the software they're having is the $300-worth original genuine with the Genuine sticker on the CD packaging saying that it's not and it will never be, never ever be pirated software but heck still errors happen no matter how lovingly you take care of the PC e.g. a husband leaving his wife alone in the bed in the middle of the night just to take care of the PC.

And etc etc etc.

You know when you're so polite that you don't want to disturb people on WLM that much 'cause you know you've been bugging people a hell lot recently. But, out of necessity you send a message once. Or twice. Only.

Then here's the lovely part...

For 3 hours you stare blankly at the PC waiting for the reply and at the same time being afraid of sending more messages 'cause you're afraid you're gonna be labelled a bugger.

And it stays just like that. Woohoo.

That's the time when you suspect your PC or the internet has done something bad to you... Or that you've been boycotted. Always hope for silver linings, so choose the first option.

To top things up... I blame myself and no one else.

Goodmorning.

Typed up a bunch but erased it out/

It doesn't feel rigth doing this stuff.

Forced to

Sometimes some things happen and sometimes they don't but when they do you've just got to go through them the right way and I haven't been doing so because my bad habits have been disrupting me so now I sit here typing some stuff because I want to.

My experience being in a transition period, partially physically, mostly emotionally... It's challenging and you don't know where to focus your attention on 'cause you're sort of a little lost and don't know where to start from. And new things come by the day. You learn new stuff and try to adapt to them because you're in a transition period and you haven't settled down yet. I don't know for sure when I'm going to settle down because I've broken my cycle and I'm in the process of getting into a new one. It's like jumbling up your daily routine; swapping things here and there and trying to make a new one from scratch. It is hard, though easy to say. You're leaving something you've been living with and adapted to for such a lengthy period of time and you're starting off fresh. Study time, play time, free time, running time, this time, that time, any time. I tell you, it isn't that fun for me even though it sounds interesting. Yes, new things are nice but I can't get these things tucked in my trousers that easily for some unexplainable reason 'cause I'm out of words.

I used to love playing the Rubik's Cube, the 3X3X3 one, solving it not the right way, getting stuck here and there because I didn't go through the tutorials right. Now I've got a 4X4X4 and in full truth and honesty I admit that I don't know how to solve it from scratch. Maybe I'm doing things the Shu'aib's-way-of-solving-Rubik's-cubes way. No wonder. But I hope for the best and I hope I can get to finish things off dengan sempurna.

This wasn't an interesting type-up.

Oh heck

How outdated I am with today's (No, it's yesterday's) music...

Just recently knew about

Life in Technicolor ii by Coldplay

and

The Show by Lenka

Sweet dreams. Goodnight!

One by one you go

Tonight didn't work out well but I think I had a fantastic day doing nothing much, being alone, jogging and playing basketball.

Got caught

It's... been a metamorphosing couple of weeks. Wahalla here, wahalla there. But you try to get things going. Should be living life. Having fun here, having fun there. Not sure what you're really up to. Being spontaneous. I think I like spontaneity. I've been right-clicking the mouse and looking for word suggestions twice already. Couldn't get the metamorpho-what and spontaneousity words. Whatever.

It's great to be at home. Running in the afternoon. Staying up late at night. Forgetting that there's loads of Mathematics and Physics homework and a test to sit for right after the holidays and a lot of catching up with the syllabuses to do. You know, you feel like you want it to go on and on and on till whenever. But that can't happen. A-levels are around the corner... Blink-open, blink-close, blink-open, blink-close (Direct translation of Pejam celik, pejam celik) and you're somewhere in October or November in the examinations hall doing some A-level paper hoping you'd get straight A's and get yourself in an excellent university 10 months later.

You feel good when you've finally landed your feet into an excellent pair of Vans that will now substitute a pair of Converse shoes that doesn't fit in to your wide feet that you've been wearing for more than 2 years. Oh yes, Converse makes quality products; you shouldn't be waiting for them to rot to get a new pair... Lesson learned. Well it was my mistake in the first place... Buying a non-fitting pair of shoes initially.

I'm having a break... Having a look at my friend's nice blog posts. Well he used to be my English teacher in Upper secondary but now since he's gone there and I've gone here, no more student-teacher thingy, so he decided to tell me to regard him as a friend. And I do. I've been bullying him on a handful of occasions.

My brother is here... Talking about Shell. Now he's gone. I didn't pay much attention to him but I got what he meant. At least. Maybe he was irritated by my inattentiveness.

Now give me a couple of minutes.

Done with the break.

Heck, I've got to admit that I'm sort of in line with my friend-whom-I've-been-bullying-a-handful-of-times' posts... That stuff like, when you're feeling 'this' way he comes up with a post that talks about something like 'this'. It's been happening twice already. He inspires me. You gotta give him credit. Don't forget him. He might cry. I've been warned. Joking.

I respect this fellah (fellow) because he's been inspiring me in somewhat an indirect way. He's been teaching the meaning of life. I might be exaggerating but those are the only words that I can think of right now. Not the real real real meaning of life. It's life as in materially, emotionally, that stuff.

I recall this one instance when I was still a student of his. I'm trying to recall properly. It went out like this:

It was the examinations period. I was outside at the school foyer when he came. He had marked my paper and asked me if I had forgotten to write my name on my answer script. I wasn't that sure, but if he was asking, it might be that I had forgotten to.

Okay, I forgot to write my name. I apologised and he said it was okay. He told me to just not do it in the real O-level examinations 'cause I'd turn into a you'll-get-an-X-in-your-English-and-you-would-have-to-write-English-again-in-the-following-June-exams fellow if I did.

Nahhh, the above thingies aren't relevant to today's post. The following is:

Then somehow we talked about failing in examinations. I said I failed once (or was it twice?). It was Mathematics. A topic test. Geometry, that stuff. x-planes, y-planes, (we haven't done z-planes yet), gradient, y-intercepts (no x-intercepts yet), equations of lines (no curves yet, nor planes). Heck, I mixed up the x and y values in getting the gradients. I even wrote something like (0, 1) for a question that asked "State the y-intercept of the line bla bla bla..." I can clearly remember all this 'cause it's right there in my heart, my memory. My first failure. Heck. I was in Form 2 at that time. I was always a top student in class so this failure made me traumatic. I got nervous. I might have cried. Might even peed in my trousers. When the results came out, heck for sure, I did fail.

Wait. Were there two tests that I had failed? One was a failure for sure and one was 'supported'? I can't recall but never mind. I do remember messing up the Geometry or Coordinates, whatever you call it.

I'll branch out a bit then come back on track.

I had failed a Mathematics test (not sure if it was the one I described above or another) but I got 4 marks free of charge (I didn't need to pay bribe) just to get the passing mark of 30 I think. Phew. My teacher explained that I got them because I had represented the school in eXploMaths. We lost in that eXploMaths tourney anyway. She pitied me, I guess. 'Supports' never got more than 1 mark. 2 was the most; you'd have to be really well-behaved in class to deserve a 2-mark 'support' if you failed. 1-mark 'supports' were normal... If you've had experience being a borderliner in tests and that stuff it'd be a party till 11pm for you that night (Yes, you still slept early in Form 2, don't lie) if you did get a free mark to get that 50% locked in on your test results.

Now getting back to me failing a Maths test and its relationship with my friend whom I've bullied several times already.

So, he said something like this,

"Your failure, it proves that you're not a human robot... You're not just being nerdy and studying all the time (What human robots do) ..."

He also said something like,

"It's better to fail now... Have a feel of it... It's better than failing in the real O-levels."

He was right.

There was another instance when I got second place (instead of first) in an inter-school competition held at our school.

My hands were shaky when I was on stage... Everyone saw it.

So he came to me after announcing the results. He was the emcee for the event... English teachers always become emcees (GP teachers if you're in Sixth Form). So what did he say? He said something like this:

"But you did your best right? It was the best that you did. It's not like you didn't do your best."

I felt better. Way better. It was like, he was telling me I did the maximum that I could do and it was great, totally great that I did the maximum that I could do. Even though we didn't get first place.

Had to scroll up to see what I should type up next.

Done with the scrolling. Hoping that readers would be okay with my post. Edit here, edit there. Picture perfect.

I feel that I should continue some more.

I've been watching a lot of movies lately. On TV. Like in my previous post. It happens now and then.

I'll save my words for the next post. I love typing.

Oh uhhh

Just before I go to bed, I usually scroll through the TV channels. Just a routine before going to bed. If I'm on the wrong channel at the wrong time, I go to sleep peacefully after scrolling for 5 minutes. And if I'm on the right channel at the right time, I might end up watching TV for hours. Scrolled a bit and watched half a movie of Vin Diesel acting in a what should I say, maybe comedy kids/teens movie. I don't know what the title was. Scrolled a bit more and I stayed on for 2 more hours watching

Tornado - Der Zorn des Himmels (2006)

It was translated from German to English, with Malay subtitles. On TV2. Make the best out of what's free. Great movies don't necessarily come with Astro.

Goodnight!

So bright

It's been months now and finally someone has fixed the lighting in this room. Phew

A short low note this pluck is

"There was the university professor going to the congress in Paris; the oil engineer travelling to Germany on business; the couple heading off on their honeymoon after getting married on Saturday, when they celebrated with families and friends until 3am.

The mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, was mourning the almost certain loss of Marcelo Parente Gomes de Oliveira, not only a top aide, but a man who had been his friend from childhood."

It never does sound good.

The end summed it all up:

"With so few facts established, the cause is still unclear, and the grieving continues."

(Link)

I give you the song Little Wonders by Rob Thomas. Saw my brother watching the video on YouTube.



I don't think the lyrics reveal how I feel right now.

Enjoy.

Censorship

Censorship was the topic of discussion in General Paper class this morning. I was daydreaming. Ask Eno if you don't believe me.

Our tutor shot questions at us. The question that came to me was:

"What's the other noun in censorship? Aside from censor etc etc."

(He wanted some root words or words connected to censorship or something...)

The word "Censor" and another one was already given. I had to think quick, plus recover from my daydream.

Spontaneous answer:

I said, "Ship."

I can't stop laughing!

The man who surveys drains

Remember that bloke from my previous post? The worst came:

I have a strong feeling that the person I bumped into this afternoon was him.

AAAAARGHHHHH Imagine if he remembers me!

Let me tell you a true story about myself

One afternoon, I, as many other people would do, went out. There were these few people doing something at the open drains beside the road. They were doing that something near a road intersection so I slowed down as I approached them because I'd rather not be hit by some other driver. The road wasn't busy so I had the opportunity to stop.

I saw some normal happy faces. "They were doing their job," said I. Normal job, I should say. I lowered down my window and greeted them.

What on earth would you think they were doing? At first sight, I, just like many others, would think that they were fishing. You would think the same way, I believe. Look at a few people peering down an open drain beside the road with some sort of long rod in their hands. You will think the same way as I do.

Now then, here comes the fantastic part.

I asked, "Banyak ikan kah?"

("Are there many fish?")

One of them, extraordinarily enough, wasn't wearing the normal fishing attire. He was well groomed.

He said, "Banyak eh."

("Yeah, a lot.")

Confused, but still with the idea that they were fishing, I asked:

"Bedurih tah?"

("Have you caught any?")

I can't remember what he said here. But it made me think. He then said:

"Kami bukan mancing ni..."

("We're not fishing...")

Oh heck, at this point in time I glanced at the apparatus that they were using. And their attires, again. Obviously they weren't fishing. They had vertically stood up a pole in the drain. On my far left I saw some surveying equipment. I now understood that they were measuring the depth of the drain. They were surveyors, for God's sake. Not fishermen.

Embarrassment.

So, as anyone else would do, I switched to plan B: Buang kes.

"Oh," I said, "Dalam kah air atu?"

("Is the water deep?")

"Dalam jua lah."

("Yeah.")

So then I bade them goodbye. With a thick face.

Thank God that whole thing happened in less than half a minute. It made me wonder, though: what impression would that bloke have on me?

"Oi you, young fellow, don't judge a book by its cover!"

And, by the way, why would he say yes and everything about the fishes when he wasn't fishing? I got caught there.

Heck. Tell me, what should I do when I stumble upon him again in the future? I wish he won't remember me.

So, moral of the story, as I have said just now, would partially be to not judge a book by its cover.

Rancangan masak-masak bersama Chef Shu'aib

Salty popcorn.

Why not sweet?

Because I mess caramel up easily.

Youtube

We call it You-tube. You-tee-you-b.

I've heard about this vast continent that's over to the west of the British Isles. They say it's named after Mr Vespucci who beat Christopher Columbus in discovering it.

Yeah, that continent.

Many people there call it You-toob.

That's not the point I'm trying to make.

I'm saying that, I don't download songs that much anymore. Rather I'd listen to them via Youtube.

The irritating part is the loading time.

Bye!

Rich Dad Poor Dad?

[Looking for money] In every nook and cranny

I find it amusing and interesting. Question: If an economic crisis directly hits us and affects the way we live, would people like us be willing enough, brave enough to do things like these or would we be staying at home doing nothing?

Tiny

Tiny

Very beautiful slide show. I wish I can contribute photos to the BBC's slide shows.

Assisting in provoking?

A patent medicine salesman at the fair was shouting his claims for his Rejuvenation Elixir.

"If you don't believe the label, just look at me," he shouted. "I take it and I am 300 years old."

"Is he really that old?" asked a farmer of the salesman's young assistant.

"I really don't know," said the assistant. "You see, I have only been with him for 180
years."

NB: You don't need to know who the assistant is!

Bored

"Hungry, lethargic, and excruciatingly bored" ...

I suppose it would be funny enough if these were the words describing the feelings of a group of people stranded out in the Arctic cold with a food shortage (note the last two words!)

Interestingly enough, the stranded group of researchers actually did use those words to describe themselves.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8033969.stm