So, like I said, I got hired on the 16 of May, which also happened to be International Metalheads Day. It's not official, but its a pretty informal commemoration of Ronnie James Dio's death. Regardless, Symposium filmed a metal video to celebrate. They went around different places showing a placard of metal, and headbanged all over Sunway. The video will explain it all.
Anyway, with metal, alcohol was a must! We had our symposium for that day. Interestingly, this drinking session of ours was different from the usuals we had. The general rule of what we have in symposiums is normally I Have Never, followed by Ping Pang Wah, and finally The King and I. Then after we're all sick (literally) of the dares and such, we'll just chat, drink and share stories. That night, it was different. We needed some new drinking games, and came up with a few. Since it was a commemoration of metal, the theme of the games would revolve around metal. One would be a game where we needed to name a band, or a song and the last letter of the band or song would be the letter of the next band or song someone needed to come up with. If there was no answer, everyone would drink. Second was a game I modified from one of the church's cellgroup games, where we could use a maximum of three words to describe anything. The number of words you used to describe would be the number of shots you take. Despite the games being fresh and new, we still had plenty of fun.
After this we chilled and ate and later just started talking about theoretical questions. Out of Symposium, which 2 would you take on a zombie apocalypse? Which 3 people would you bring to a shelter from the end of the world? Who would you personally want to have sex with? Which two people would you choose to die? Which 2 people would you want to change aspects of? Let's just say the answers were really, really interesting.
Anyway, later on that week I also had a very unique cellgroup meeting also. Instead of Faith preaching to us, each one of the cellgroup members would preach; on a verse in the book of Proverbs. I spoke on Proverbs 11:9 "The hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor, but through knowledge the righteous will be delivered." I spoke about how hypocrisy is the biggest deterrent to unbelievers. When it comes to Christianity, the general people surprisingly don't tend to argue as much on the historical reliability, or whether what it teaches is valid. However, when they see a Christian acting in a way he shouldn't, or has is the victim of a Christian not acting in the way he should, that hurts and reflects on the religion as a whole.
So I spoke about three groups of people that showed how strong hypocrisy is, as a deterrent to Christianity. First were certain Christians who were involved in the Crusades. When the Muslims invaded and took over the Holy Land, the Muslims treated the Christian prisoners a lot better than many Christian feudal lords. To think that your invaders treat you better than your own lords who have the same belief system. Granted, this was in the earlier days of the Crusades, when the Caliphates were a lot more tolerant. And they did put heavier taxes on Christians, while lighter ones on Muslims. Thus nominal Christians converted, and left their faith, because apart from financial convenience, they at least saw what was sorely lacking in their own previous lords. And don't forget the Fourth Crusade, where Western Christians ended up killing Eastern Christians, when they were supposed to be fighting the Muslims invaders. Thousands of followers were lost through simple hypocrisy.
Secondly, was Gandhi. One thing Gandhi said was "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ". Considering Gandhi is like one of the most peaceful and non-violent people ever, his words hold a lot of weight when it comes to this. Gandhi was even rejected entry from a church because he didn't seem civilized enough to attend their church. What if Gandhi had been accepted
into the church and became a Christian? His life and example would be a great way for people to get to know Christ. But because of what he experienced, and what he saw, he turned to Hinduism. And thus millions of Hindus can lay claim that one of the greatest promoters of peace was a Hindu, and also losing potentially, millions of followers who could've become Christians.
Third was about Satanism. I spoke on Laveyan Satanism. While Anton Lavey played the organ for his circus/carnival, he saw the hypocrisies of Christians every single week. He said he saw Christian men going to strip shows, then going to church the next day, repenting, and repeating the entire cycle. This disgusted him, and he realized then that the Christian church strives on hypocrisy, and even came up with a very funny statement, the 9th Satanic Statement "Satan has been the best friend the church has ever had, as he has kept it in business all these years!" Thus as he got interested in occult things, he founded his own religion as an antithesis to Christianity, standing in opposition to nearly everything Christianity stood for. And with the millions of Satanists around the world, again, there is the loss of potential believers.
And so, I highlighted how hypocrisy affects so many people. And the interesting fact that people will observe you, and how your faith affects what you're like. If it's contrary to your beliefs, people may not condemn you, but people will see, and it'll make an impression on them, big or small. For the remaining part of the verse I spoke how through knowledge the righteous will be delivered. People need knowledge. To know why they believe, and not to just blindly follow religions. To not pick and choose what they want to follow, and ignoring other things that seem inconvenient. To read and really learn what their belief is all about, and to follow it to the best you can, not blindly.
Yeah. After that I took a Bible quiz and ended up tied in the top with Jee Kit. 26.5 out of 30. I would've got the highest if I didn't mess up questions involving CHCKL. When it came to the Bible though, I scored perfect. But I'll be representing the cellgroup for a zone-wide Bible quiz. So I hope I do well. And please have less questions of the church, and more on the Bible. Through the quiz, I realized I don't know the official address of the church!
Friday, May 20, 2011
Aye, so today, around 1700 years ago, the first Council of Nicea began. That's pretty interesting, the first ecumenical council that established a lot of foundations of Christianity as we know it. The first synods of Christianity are the most interesting to me, and the most agreed within all of Christianity. Later on, with more and more denominations, well... you know how history went.
Anyhoo, I was reading Cracked the other day and saw an article. Here's a small excerpt:
"Humans tend to see the world through something called the actor/observer bias: The more we know a person, the less we blame their actions on their personality and the more we blame outside circumstances."
I find it really interesting that the more we know someone, we will tend to gloss over their faults. Especially when it comes to defending them from accusations and lies. And more so if they're especially close to you. After all, isn't that what good friends will do? Defend their friends all the way? The worst thing is finding out that you defended them for nothing, and that all accusations were true. There's a short list of facts on more about this, and other human interactions.
This is the link.
So when it comes to faults, personality and stuff, our friends will defend us. Others will say its ourselves. And this holds pretty major importance when it comes to job interviews. You need to make a good impression, show off your capabilities, your attitude, and in a very cliched line "sell yourself". Anything you say and do reflect you. Not your circumstances, which they won't know. It all reflects on you. So the last two months, I went for three job interviews. And I realized I didn't blog about any of them. Lmao. Here's the details.
The first was in Batu Caves. This was back in early April. I frequently join Issey's cellgroup for fellowship on Saturday's because my cellgroup seems to like going for Sunday services. So one time there was a guy Vinson, who was having dinner with Issey's cellgroup too. I was talking with Denise Wong, who's also from TOA, and Vinson, noticed that we were art students. He said he needed a graphics designer, and I said I was studying advertising and graphics design. He asked me to send some works to him and he'd take a look and send it to his boss; if accepted, I would help with some freelance designs. It was accepted, and I did some packaging designs. His boss also asked me to come for an interview.
That interview day, it was a disaster. First, partly my fault, I didn't clarify the address. Vinson and I had corresponded through email many times to confirm certain things. In his email, he had an address listed as his company's address. He did say his boss wanted to see me. And I assumed that he would be in the same office as his boss. So I went on Google Maps, located the place and took it to Kepong KTM Station. I took a cab to the address and found that it wasn't occupied by a design firm, or an office firm. It was some restaurant. I called to confirm the place, and it turns out that the office had moved. Ages ago. The place was in Batu Caves. The cab driver was nice enough to drive me over, saying public transport would be insane. Well, he said "very troublesome". I translated it as "insane".
I finally reached the place after much trouble, and met the boss. His name is Daniel. Nice fellow, probably 50s or 60s. He was very kind in his words, and spoke very gently, but firmly. He'd already seen my artwork already, so I didn't bring my portfolio. My interview ended up being a chat on how my life was like. Ended up talking about how I moved here, how my family was like, and even my divorce. He applauded me for my honesty to talk about such a sensitive subject. Also, we talked about the terms of the company, how I needed to dress formally, not spike my hair and would need to meet clients. In addition to doing designing work, I would also need to take care of some admin things. I agreed to all these things and he was pretty pleased with my flexibility (his own words). The only issue I brought up to him was distance. Batu Caves is BLOODY far from my place, and I'd only been here once in my life, for the rock climbing the previous year. He said that I was more or less hired, but that he was still open to other designers, just in case. So we spoke on which days I would come down to start taking over and learning from his previous designer. I left, and took a bus that lasted a freaking hour, to Puduraya area.
In the end, I didn't get the job, because he gave it to someone else. Heh, I called him up and asked how was the status of the job. He said that because I had mentioned a few times that transport was an issue, he didn't want me to travel so far, and had found someone that lived in Batu Caves to work. I was fine with that, because although the pay was RM1900, the transport was a big issue. However, he did tell me that all the employees there tended to work for a few years, as they were happy with the environment. So I might have missed out on that. Plus he told me that the timings were officially 9am-6pm, and would almost never go past that unless he really needed to.
Secondly was at World Wide Web Domination. After the graduation campaign I received 2 emails from prospective employers asking for an interview. For some reason I ignored the first. The 2nd came from World Wide Web Domination. It was located at Cyberjaya. Another bloody far location. Geez. I checked the address they gave (didn't wanna repeat the first mistake) and realized it was on the same row as Lim Kok Wing. Yeah. The rival art school. Seriously? My mom was free so she drove me there, and I was seriously impressed with the campus. I mean, sure, the education quality is bad, and no graduate from Lim Kok Wing I know has ever mentioned anything good about it, apart from its fashion design course and architecture. But the campus itself looked really nice. The centre atrium was also really nice. It was a campus. A proper one, not the shoplot of TOA. Chock full of students walking all around, and with a lot of foreigners, made up of mostly African and Middle Easterners. It really looked lively.
So I went inside and was interviewed. The interviewer was called Kevin. Nice dude. Possibly 30 or younger? He was pretty nice as well. He told me that WWWD was actually not part of Lim Kok Wing (oh goodie), but that Lim Kok Wing was their biggest and most frequent client, so they housed the WWWD office inside to do things for them, for convenience. However, they had a heavy focus on web design. Only rarely did they need things print or graphics related. Things like logos, brochures and all were not major things in the company. I told them honestly, that I had some experience in the past in web design as I took IT specializing in multimedia back in Singapore. However, I was severely outdated, but I wouldn't mind learning again to catch up. It was not as personal as my previous interview, although the topics here were more on the lifestyle of the workers. Official timing was 9:30am-6pm, but unofficially it was 10am-7pm. He also said that there was a lack of females, and apart from that, the colleagues were mainly fun people. In addition, I would have to dress semi-formal, and I would have to have a black top everyday. I was perfectly fine with that. I wear black everyday anyway. My hairstyle and earrings would be allowed. Bonus!
Pay was RM1800, but with an extra 200 allowance for travel. Thats actually a pretty good deal. It's bloody far also, but I technically got RM2000 as my pay. Batu Caves was bloody far (further than Cyberjaya), and the pay was lesser. Cyberjaya at least was a bit nearer, and WWWD gave a travel allowance. However, I didn't know the public transport routes to Cyberjaya, so most likely a car would be better. The road to Cyberjaya is a very straight and long road thats clear of any jams at all, so that was also a bonus.
In the end, I also didn't get the job. Haha. For this I was a little disappointed, because it was still in the campus environment, and I would have my friends who study in Lim Kok Wing to be in the university to meet up and all. Not to mention the general environment was really nice, and having students all around just made it nicer. Plus it allowed me a lot of freedom with my dressing anyway, which I've been told by a lot of people will be a lot harder to have in certain workplaces. Anyway, their receptionist didn't call me in the time frame given, so when I called and asked Kevin about it, he said they decided that they didn't want to give me the job because I had studied advertising and graphics, and what they wanted was more in line with web design. I may have had prior experience, but it was almost 4 years outdated, and my current skills were more suited to graphics, not web. So yeah. That was true.
At this point in time I was seriously considering the first email I had received after my graduation exhibition; the one I ignored. I was also starting to take a more proactive part in searching for contacts. I had been quite slack in job-hunting after graduation, only taking interviews I'd been selected for, not hunted for. After graduation I wanted to take a break of around 3 months, to rest, and visit Singapore, my dad and stuff. However, my mom said she was tight on finances so I wouldn't be able to visit Singapore. So this break involved me mainly resting at home a lot, blogging more than my last few months, and going out here and there to hang out and stuff. Sure, I finally got proper regular rest, after a lack of it for 3 years. I had total freedom in what to do. But I also started thinking that I needed a job since I wanted to spend more myself, and if my mom was tight, getting a job would help a bit. Not to mention with income, I would actually have enough to regularly go and club, instead of having it only once in a while because of money. Yeah. Shaun from church said that he goes clubbing every week to de-stress from his everyday work, and that since we have similar mindsets, I'd do something along the lines. Hmmm... true. I'm not complaining. Anyway, a lot of the AD people have been really friendly and considerate, and have been posting job opportunities in the Facebook group, and I took a bunch of their contacts. Wai Kwan also told me to call Yellow Thumbprint because their boss Terrance, needed people. So I went back to the student lounge of TOA, thinking of making calls the entire morning to all the companies, preparing to arrange a date for an interview with each. After I called Yellow Thumbprint first, and Terrance set up an interview on the 16th May at 4pm. I proceeded to call Butter and Bread Advertising, who told me to send my portfolio and my resume, before they'd call me up for an interview. The person who picked up my call was a total bitch though, seriously. She spoke with a very arrogant voice and interrupted me a lot of times. Her tone was just pissing off. That got me annoyed, so I decided to start the string of calls later. Then I received a phone call and met up with some of Symposium, and I totally forgot to send my resume/portfolio and call up the remaining contacts I took. Geez.
So I got lazy to call once I reached home, and also got lazy the next day. The day after that though, it was already the interview with Yellow Thumbprint. I woke up at 2pm, and just ate, read a bit and got showered, changed and drove off to the place. Everyone told me it was near the Carrefour building beside Kesas highway, so I knew it was really near. I looked at the map they had and saw it was a pretty easy route. I left my house at 3:45pm and reached Carrefour at 3:50pm. I followed the map's directions, and... got lost. Gee whiz. I actually couldn't find the place. According to the map, it was on my left, but everything on my left was houses, and on the right side were all shoplots, with offices, restaurants and all the places I'd expect an office to be. I drove along the whole road, not finding anything close to it. It was 4pm and it began to rain. Great. I called Yellow Thumbprint up and they gave me the same directions I followed on the map. I U-turned, and realized that the "office" was actually along the row of houses. They had converted the house into an office for the business. Ah... no wonder. I never expected it to be on the houses lane, and I easily drove passed it while focusing on the shoplots on the right.
I went inside, filled out a form, and waited for around 15 minutes. I was already late (great first impression) so it was around 4:30pm when Terrance came to meet me. Terrance reminded me a bit of Daniel. Around his 50s, and nice and friendly. This interview was perhaps the most formal of my interviews, even though it wasn't that formal itself. But it was easily the longest interview I had as well. It ended at around 6:15pm. Yeah. Almost 2 hours. Anyway, it started off pretty informally. We just spoke about casual things for a few minutes, and I proceeded to show him my portfolio. Some of the AD guys were pretty insane and printed very impressive portfolios. They staple-binded them, made it extremely presentable, and organized. I actually wanted to do something similar, but since I had a lack of time in going for the Lim Kok Wing inerview, I merely printed each work on a pieces of paper and put them all in a manila envelope. I printed out two copies of everything under my mom's suggestion, in case I'd need one urgently again. I had confirmed the interview on a Friday, and I hadn't bothered to make an impressive looking portfolio on Saturday. Printing shop's closed on Sunday and Monday was the interview. So I stuck with the second copy of my portfolio. Well, once I took them out of the envelope and showed it to him he immediately said "You haven't designed your portfolio that nicely eh? A lot of your friends made them extremely nice." Great, shot down before I even start. I proceeded to show him all my artwork. He looked through each, and asked me to explain the rationale of every design I had shown. So I did, one by one, and slowly explained how each concept went, how I started the ideas and designs and all. He seemed fine with this, and asked more on some of the artworks.
Then he blasted me again. Lol. On my publication design, where I had a designed a book about my journey to the graveyard, he said he loved my cover, and certain pages inside which reflected the same look, but not the majority of the pages as they were plain and didn't show that kind of design in the minority of the pages and the cover. Lol, geez. Then we spoke on the application of the pictures onto the real world, and said which of my artworks would be allowed in the newspapers as a printed ad. I pointed to a few, and he said I was wrong, because of various reasons. Oh man. Then he said if I had a project, what would be my first few steps in establishing what to do for the design? I answered through my process of work, and he told me that 9 out of 10 people he previously interviewed said the same things. And that also it works, its not a very good process. Great. More mistakes from me. This was getting from bad to worse. He proceeded to use a tissue box on the table to explain certain things on why things were done in this way, and for what purpose, and the steps that he would take. He took some of my artworks and showed me how my rationales related to the design and stuff and how it worked well. Oh goodie. We then spoke on my language skills. Obviously, I said I was superb in English, but only able to converse very basically in Mandarin and Cantonese. Malay was a few simple words here and there. This led to the topic of my journey from Canada, to Singapore, to Kuala Lumpur and yeah. After a bit more on this he suddenly he said "I'm very tempted to hire you on the spot right now" which meant I must've done something right in my interview, despite all the occasions he blasted me.
We spoke a bit more, and then came a funny part. He asked me I were a person trying to sell my attitude, what would be my best trait? I told him that one thing I'm very proud of is my ability to balance. I spoke on how in TOA, there are the zombies, the people who do all the work but have no life, and the slackers, who party all the time but fail to do their work. I said that I maintained a balance, that I did my assignments, but I also managed to do have a very active social life as well. Then I continued on and said I also have a very varied musical taste, in that I listen to music ranging from Mozart to metal. The following is our conversation:
"So if I give you the choice to listen between Mozart and metal right now, which would you pick?"
"Uh, metal."
"I see. You're a Christian right?"
"Yup"
"And you listen to metal?"
"Yeaps. I'm a Christian and I listen to metal. Funny thing is I also listen to Christian songs alongside metal songs in my playlists."
"Christian songs and metal songs together?"
"Yeah. There's even Christian metal songs too"
"Huh? How does that work..."
LMAO. Later on when I mentioned I played keyboards in a band, he's like what kind of band is it? And I said... "Uh, metal". LOL. I didn't specify metalcore as i didn't think it was necessary, but still, it was pretty funny anyway. As we talked a bit more, he decided that he would hire me. Whew! So I was basically hired on the spot! After confirming some questions and terms (my pay is 1700, less than the rest but considering travel expenses, which is basically none, I was fine), he told me that I was actually the very last in a series of people he planned to interview. He mentioned that for all the previous people, he hadn't confirmed them yet, but he was impressed enough with me. Woots!
I shook his hand, thanked him and proceeded to go out after a bit more of small talk. Not too bad. I was pretty pleased with myself. That day was also International Heavy Metal Day, which was ironic considering the topic of metal in the interview. I met up with Symposium and had a symposium with them. Considering the length of this post, I think I'll post the details on the next post.
So yeah. Hell yeah! I am hired. I start 1 June.
Oh, one last thing, this picture just made me LOL.
Chronicled
3:31 PM
e l e g y
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Aye, I've long had opinions about how inconsistent Malaysia is with their religious plurality. Click
here and
here for two different articles on the same blog. One is on the recent case of the so-called plot to Christianize Malaysia, and the second speaks about the "correctness" of the so-called Islam practiced in Malaysia and elsewhere. More ridiculousness.
Also, another thing that's inconsistent... the answer to 6/2(1+2). There's camps of people saying its 1, and another camp of people saying its 9. I say its 1 because of obvious reasons. However, the various answers depend how you solve the equation. People who say its 9 say that finish the left side equations first, and then multiply. However, I don't see it that way. Technically, this equation can also be a fraction. 6 over 2(1+2). 6 is the numerator, 2(1+2) is the denominator. Finish the equation on the bottom and what you have is 6/6 = 1. Simple. And if that wasn't obvious enough, I went online (where people were literally having a war of who was right) and found this equation put into algebraic form, which solves it:
6 ÷ 2(2+1)=
If 2 = y
6÷y(y+1)=
6÷[(yxy) + (yx1)]=
6÷[y²+y]=
Replace y = 2
6÷(2²+2)=
6÷(4+2)=
6÷6=1
If it is 9 then 6/x(1+2)=9 would yield x=2 right? well It doesn't, however 6/x(1+2)=1 yields x=2. Doesn't this prove the answer is 1?Anyhoo, one thing that wasn't ridiculous, nor inconsistent was my birthday. Heh. With the exception of 2001, which was my final year in Orde St, as well as my final year in Canada, I have never organized a birthday celebration for myself. Partly, because I'm too lazy, partly because I don't have the finances for a huge bash, and partly because I don't find my birthday that big of a deal. I know some people who go crazy on their birthday, worrying about every little detail, who to invite, how to dodge those they don't want to invite but not hurt their feelings... geez. It's a birthday! It's meant to be enjoyed, not stressed about. So anyway, my friends have always celebrated with me, or organized something for me, be it a meal, gathering, prank, or in the case a few days ago, a drinking session. Yeah, celebrating my birthday with a symposium. Ironic that my 21st birthday had no alcohol whatsoever, and my 22nd was chock full of it. However, I didn't see it coming at first.
I'd been staying at home for a number of days because I didn't have much to do, and unless I had a reason, I simply didn't see the point of going out. Of course, on my birthday, I was told to come out and meet up with Symposium for a meal for a celebration for my birthday. It was actually pretty fun. Had a meal at McDonald's, followed by going to the cybercafe for a few hours of Left4Dead2, which I have not played in ages. Chilled out, went to Ming Tien to chill and later on headed to Anggerik to shisha. While I wasn't paying attention they brought a cake, sang me the birthday song and gave a small bottle of Moskovi vodka, saying that they were broke, had no money and thus had to budget themselves by doing small things for me that day. Naturally I was perfectly fine with it. The fact that they bothered to go through with this was good enough. However, Miki needed to go back home early, and the rest had some excuses that they couldn't make it for tonight, so they'd organize another symposium for another day. And I believed them. Lol.
Miki dropped me off and Justin said he'd come over my house later, just to chill with me, since no one else was free. When Justin arrived, we talked in my room for a while and he said he needed to get something from his car. So I hung around in my room, wondering why his mom would tell him to get something from the car. But what the hell. Later I received a knock on my door with him saying he needed a hand. I opened the door and saw almost all of Symposium with a real cake, and they sang Happy Birthday. Hahaha... that was awesome, seriously. I seriously did not expect this. Of course I found a few things odd, such as getting the thing from the car, and a loud bang I heard outside my door, but I did not expect anything like this. Whew... what a surprise. And I greatly enjoyed it.
The next day the cellgroup celebrated for me too, after the cellgroup meeting ended.
So I ended up with a lot of presents. From Symposium: a book "Veronika Decides to Die", 2 shirts, and a hell lot of alcohol. From the cellgroup: a Padini bag meant for work use, which looks extremely classy and nice. From my mom: new belts, new shoes, new jeans, and new shirts. Plus a meal at Rakuzen, a Japanese restaurant. Tell me that wasn't awesome? I enjoyed all the presents, all the celebrations and the such tremendously. The fact that people will wish you happy birthday means they at least bother to make the effort to say it to you, even if it is through a Facebook reminder. But at least they bother. That shows some effort, even if it is minimal. If they did not want to wish you, then wouldn't bother clicking to your page and telling you. But when friends go to this extent, you know that you are truly blessed.
So, like I said, I don't organize my own birthdays right? Along with the above reasons, another reason is that it'll be celebrated by some group, somehow. Always. Be it church friends, school friends or what. Like I mentioned in my previous post, the fact that I don't call friends out, or in this case, organize my own birthday can be seen as extremely arrogant because I know that others will. Sure, you can see it that way, but I don't. I know that friends will celebrate with me only because they are some of the greatest people I have ever known, and when you're that good of a friend, you will do something. That's why you're so good. And that's why I'm so blessed.
Thank you, God.
Chronicled
10:49 AM
e l e g y
Monday, May 2, 2011
So, I attended Masayo's first gig with her band Maosun, went to Genting with half of Symposium, Prince William gets married, went for Neal's late birthday party, I've got a job interview in a few hours, and Osama bin Laden was just killed a while ago. What a week.
Yeah. Since I've been lagging on life updates, might as well post up everything here in one shot. So, Masayo's first gig, was last Sunday. On Easter. I attended church for Good Friday and Holy Saturday, and I attended a heavy metal gig for Easter Sunday. LMAO. After getting a bit lost on where to go, we ended up at One Cafe, which seems to be KL's top spot for heavy metal gigs and functions. It's not a very impressive place, but its got food, booze and space for performances, so eh, I guess its alright.
Maosun.
Masayo was awesome. A female growler. Well done.
I was quite impressed by most of the bands. Most did pretty well. Two bands I could not stand were a punk rock band, and a grindcore band. The punk rock band was so dull that I actually fell asleep while they were playing. Like, really, sleep! I was tired, but to make my eyes close is quite an effort. And the grindcore was bloody annoying. They would play for a minute or so, and stop. Then the guy would say some stuff, bitch about the crowd, and then start with another song that lasted a minute. Granted, its how grindcore is like, having short songs, but I felt it really killed the flow. Plus the guy's "speeches" were obnoxious and a nuisance. Not to mention they played over 10 songs, overstaying their time limit by way too much. Zzz.
On Tuesday the same week, I went to Genting with Justin, Redzuan, Masayo, Miki and Henry. It rained, so we didn't go to the theme park, and mostly just chilled out, talking and hanging out, enjoying the cold weather, while the smokers went insane there.
Lol. That lady didn't want to move out of the way.
Also, Justin and I had long wanted to go to Amber Court.
The Bleeding Hotel. Hell yeah.
After hearing stories after stories, we decided to explore the place; once in the morning, and once at night. In the morning, Justin, Redzuan and I checked out the place. Upclose, we realized that the blood-looking stuff was actually red moss that was slowly overtaking the whole place. The carpark had the worst of it, being covered virtually EVERYWHERE. We explored a bit, took pictures, went inside. Nothing happened. We returned at night, minus Redzuan (due to Masayo's concern), and explored again, going to more areas this time. Justin and I took pictures, and tried some cool long exposure shots. Even then, we saw absolutely nothing to show the place was haunted. I checked nearly all my pictures, upclose for any signs... NOTHING. Nada. Zilch. Even the security guard confirmed that nothing haunted the place. Of course, we need to stay there to really put the nail in the coffin, but otherwise, this is more or less proof that nothing scary happened there. In fact, the place is actually very serene. Very awe-inspiring. Nothing scary whatsoever. It is beauty.
This picture was the closest thing that would be odd. it's merely my shadow, in a position that seems impossible. And even then its probably the effect of the lights. Nothing out of the ordinary regardless.
And on Saturday, I had church service with Peter J. Daniels, a godly businessman who's got insane reputations for doing business and making tons of money. There was a guy who paid 1 million just to speak with him for an hour. And afterward, that guy ended up making millions more, because of Peter J. Daniel's solutions. That day though, he spoke mainly about our potentials in God, as well as a few stories. Highly charismatic and entertaining.
I went to Neal's house afterward to celebrate his birthday, a few days late. Met with his friends, some I vague remember from last year. Wai Kwan and Fei Yan were with me as the only TOA students there, lol. The rest were his secondary friends, or connected through them. While there, I met Jehad's girlfriend, named Lizzie. I had a GREAT conversation with her. At first, it was just small talk between a few of us, and it went silent. Then it all began once she said "I like your pentagram". And that started a long and deep conversation into the occult, left-hand path and gays, lesbians, David Reimer and stuff. Apparently she's practices the occult too, following along the lines of The Temple of Set. Pretty cool meeting someone who actually practices this. I read up on it, heard of stories, heard of people, but actually personally knowing a person who practices occult religions is much more interesting, especially when they can hold a good conversation. And she's got a tattoo, and is polyamorous. Basically she's a combination of a lot of factors that I've always been interested in. Awesome person to meet. Anyway, the food and alcohol were was aplenty. We had way too much food, barbecued beautifully, and had a good time talking with Neal as well. Since he's dropped to later semesters, we haven't been chatting and meeting up as much, so it was a good time. Talked a lot on friendships and what they mean to us. Interestingly, he said that Wai Kwan, Fei Yan and I were his closest friends in TOA. And we also spoke about the friends we would die for.
One last thing that's on my mind. Osama's finally been killed, after such a long time. I really think its awesome, that after such a long time, finally he's paid for his crimes. Sure, some people aren't impressed that he's killed 10 damn years after the 9/11 attacks, but then again, he was well protected, and well-hidden. Assassinations aren't that easy. Israel should know, considering how many assassinations they've done. I remember when I first moved to Malaysia, a mere weeks after, the news of the 9/11 attacks were shown one morning when I woke up. One thing that creeped me out was that they used United Airlines flights. It was the same airline I used to travel to Malaysia. Who knows if I had left to Malaysia a few weeks late instead. Also, I was shocked, because I had been there before, and it felt weird that a building I had been in had been destroyed by terrorists. You know that feeling of how when you visit a place again after many years, it still looks the same? I would never have that again, for the World Trade Centre. Then later, as it became apparent that Osama was a major part of it, I read the Canadian news on how Canada was taking a more offensive role in Kandahar. About how many Canadians were killed by roadside bombings, and the many pessimistic articles about how NATO wasn't having much success when it came to finding Osama. Yet their day has come, and justice delayed is not necessarily justice denied. I find it funny that so many countries are congratulating the US for their job well done, and saying its a step against terrorism and stuff, while most don't do as much militarily. A lot of the countries in NATO offer humanitarian, technological and financial aid, but when it comes to the actual deployed forces, only USA, Canada and Britain actually contribute anything really worthy. They're the ones who risk their lives on foreign soil, who actually die. All that "moral support" by the other nations won't help kill terrorists. You really need to give credit to these countries, and others that contribute troops. They risk lives, the most valuable of all.
I read so much on the history of the world, and most tyrants were dead long before I was born. Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot (recent, but I was still young), Mao Zedong. The classics. I read about what they did, their rationales, and know that they died long ago. Yet when it came to Osama, his death happened when I was grown up, mature enough to understand world politics and all. And it just seems like "whoa", knowing that he's finally dead. Like I'm living through history. Yeah, sure, I've lived through hearing about the Georgian war, the Israel-Lebanon wars, the Libyan invasion, Afghan and Iraqi invasions, but they've always been more on "countries". This is about a person, who had great influence to create Al Qaeda, a group which has caused untold suffering on its victims. They're still alive despite the death of their leader, but at least its a major blow to terrorism. I'm actually living at a time that I know a major tyrant is dead.
And despite such a hallmark in world history, I am amazed at the idiots who don't know what the hell is going on. Click
here to see some Facebook posts that put retardedness to a whole new level.
Chronicled
4:19 PM
e l e g y
Sunday, May 1, 2011
One of the weirdest tests I've ever taken in my life. Not direct, not obvious. Just weird. And mostly accurate. Click
here if you wanna try it.
Your power comes from an ability to sense how things might be and to proclaim this possibility with a great force and willingness to act. You have a tendency to be romantic, and can be an idealist. This sense of how the world can be is often expressed with self-deprecatory humor. Because of your need to address the immediacy of the moment, you may not think things through to their logical end, relying instead on a feeling for how a situation SHOULD end. You need to be liked and appreciated by others, although your attention often wanders. Sometimes you neglect old friends in favor of a new or exciting acquaintance. You have a real difficulty being alone. Often you will seem to know how to handle a situation without exactly knowing HOW you know this. Your thoughts are often shallow. While in the excitement of the moment you can obsess about a task at hand. If it should become rote and unexciting, however, it can be dropped just as quickly.
Chronicled
12:36 PM
e l e g y
Oh, one last thing, this picture just made me LOL.
Maosun.
Masayo was awesome. A female growler. Well done.
Lol. That lady didn't want to move out of the way.
The Bleeding Hotel. Hell yeah.
This picture was the closest thing that would be odd. it's merely my shadow, in a position that seems impossible. And even then its probably the effect of the lights. Nothing out of the ordinary regardless.