Between the Lines

About a Book

2009-12-06T10:29:00.003+08:00

‘When the sun is just above the last tree left on Little Nation, you must throw a spear at the big wrecked canoe,’ he said aloud. It didn’t make any sense, and nor did the ghost girl. But she had given him the spark-maker, although she’d been very frightened. He’d been frightened too. What were you supposed to do about girls? You had to keep away from them while you were a boy, but he’d heard that when you were a man, you got other instructions.

Sometime in the evening or late afternoon of November 29th, 2009 (a Sunday), I was in MPH, One Utama. As usual, I was in the Science Fiction section, eyes skimming the lines of books on the shelves, looking for one book in particular but not finding it (because I was looking in the wrong section; the book I wanted was under Horror, I just didn’t see it the first time).

Then one author’s name caught my eye like a frog’s tongue catches a fly out of the air (they do that right? They do in cartoons…) : Terry Pratchett; top shelf, to the far left.

There were a few of his non-Discworld novels lined up there, but the only one I can really remember (possibly because it is in fact, the book that I am about to talk about now, and I feel as though I can think of no other book at the moment) is a book I’d never heard of before, simply named: Nation.

Hmmm, I thought. Looks interesting. So I picked it up and read the back cover. Sounds interesting too. Of course, this was nothing to be surprised about because, come on, it’s Terry Pratchett, man.

And so, after picking out two more books (yes, including the book I’d been looking for earlier) I bought the book called Nation.

And what a tragedy it would have been if I hadn’t!

First off, I must point out that all the Terry Pratchett books I’ve read have been wonderful and amazing, and hilarious. His works are mostly fantasy, but they’re also very real. They take a spin on things and situations we experience in the real world, in a way that makes you go “Huh.” and smile, because it’s so damn true! And you’d never noticed it before… well, maybe you have, but not really, you know? Huh.

You can pick up any of his books and trust – and just know – with every particle in your body that you will enjoy it. You will read the last word, close the book, and look up with a grin on your face. Huh. And here’s the thing – Pratchett writes in a very humorous way, but they also make you think. About life, about love, about politics, about war, about peace, about… pretty much anything! They’re philosophical, but not boring. They’re deep.

Pratchett has this magical ability to continuously write really good novels. The awesomeness is maintained in every book, if not doubled or tripled. He has produced more than 30 tomes of awesomeness, with more to come! How in the world does he not run out of awesome?

So when I started reading Nation, I already knew it would be, yes, awesome.

But oh, was I wrong.

Awesome does NOT cut it. It’s too small a word to describe this book, this story, and its characters.

It blew my mind away. It really did. My brain is now floating around somewhere, somewhat numbed, and it’s a wonder I can even write this right now. But then, the words have been bouncing around in my (currently otherwise vacant) head since I finished the book at 4am this morning.

I’ve read Pratchett books (though not nearly enough of them!) and loved them, but this… masterpiece was so much more than I expected. It has all the things I like in a good story: a setting that draws you in as if you yourself are part of the story, a plot that keeps you turning the page even though you are muttering to yourself “Just one more, just one more…”, characters that grow on you like fungus and refuse to leave your heart long after you’ve finished reading (not that you want to forget them), humor that at times make you grin and other times make you flat-out guffaw, and emotions that are so real even you can feel them.

It is a sad story… No, it’s not a sad story. It… well, I can’t pinpoint it to just one field. It’s hard to think of the one right word to describe something this… um, brilliant, for want of a more effective word. As one of the reviews said, it is ‘a wonderful story, by turns harrowing and triumphant’. Sometimes it is so sad, so terribly sad, but the story does not dwell on the grief for long. Unlike some other books I’ve read (and loved), Nation is not the kind of sad that… lords over most of the book. It did not make me sob or cry buckets of tears, but it pulled at my heart strings and when the characters hurt, I felt their pain and wanted to cry with them. But then they stopped crying and moved on to something else. The story said, “Yes, it’s sad, but life moves on and the pig fence needs fixing.”

It is NOT a love story. No… not as such. It is a story with love in it, yes. Doesn’t every story, after all, have some sort of love in it? In Nation too, it is there, peeking out from among the other themes of loyalty, loss, grief and courage every now and then. Not so much as to allow the term ‘love story’ totally viable, but just enough to make you smile a tender smile and give you that warm, fuzzy feeling in your heart.

It’s not even a fantasy story. Not really anyway. Granted, it was in the Science Fiction section, but it’s really more real stuff than fantastical stuff, though it does have elements of fantasy in it. So even if you don’t happen to be into the fantasy genre (though I don’t really understand why anyone wouldn’t) Nation would still appeal to you.

It is… an adventure story. Yes. I think that covers many things: sadness, love, suspense, action, courage… It is definitely an adventure. Reading it has been an adventure. Even now, just thinking back to the story makes my heart literally beat faster… no exaggeration whatsoever!

The characters… oh, the characters! They are my favorite part of the book! They’re so unique and real that you feel as though you might just know them. The main characters, Mau and Ermin – I mean, Daphne, are just lovely. I am in love with them. …Well, specifically, I’m in love with Mau. Head over heels, fingers over toes, ears over ankles… in love! Read it, and I dare you to tell me I’m being unreasonable.

The ending… well, I don’t want to spoil it for you, but as Pratchett himself said, it is an appropriate ending. It is a real ending. It is a believable ending. But it broke my heart to finish reading it. I could hardly concentrate on the last few pages because I knew it was going to end. I put down the book and wanted more. It was four in the morning and I couldn’t fall asleep for at least half an hour!

Nation has skyrocketed past all the books I have ever read, and claimed the position of my favorite book EVER. I’d like to think there will be greater reads to come, that there will be another story that I will feel this strongly about, but at the same time… I don’t. Nation feels untouchable to me. If something else came along that is more… incredible, I might just go insane.

If you’ve never read any of Pratchett’s books… well, Nation is as good a start as any. Indeed, it is the best recommendation I can give you. I think that anyone who likes to read and who loves a good story will enjoy this book. In fact, at the risk of being wrong (and I don’t often fancy taking that risk; ask anyone who knows me well!), I say anyone who reads it will. Love. It.

So the next time you go to a bookstore… look for Nation. When you find it, GET IT. When you get it, READ IT. And when you’ve read it… tell others. So that it can turn their world upside down too.

Arina
12:35am
December 6, 2009

The Many Uses of Photobooth

2009-11-11T17:23:00.002+08:00

Hafiz was surprised.

Lab 3A was usually occupied whenever he came to do his assignments. But this time, it was empty. When he'd stepped into the elevator and pressed 1, he hadn't expected the computer lab to be vacant, but had decided to check it out anyway, seeing as he had nothing better to do. But once he'd looked in through the small glass window on the door, there was no one around. Smiling at his luck, Hafiz took note of the day and time.

Khamis, pukul tiga setengah, lab kosong!

The door creaked as he opened it, and instantly, Hafiz realized that he'd been wrong about the lab being completely empty. At the computer right at the back, where his friend Redzuan usually sat, there was a girl.

His heart sank. If it turned out the lab was being used after all, he would have to do his work on one of the cyber cafe's computers, which were all infamous for being infested with viruses. Just earlier that day Redzuan had let forth a stream of colourful swear words because a virus had wiped out all the files on his thumb drive. He didn't want that to happen to him.

Bilalah aku nak siapkan kerja Pn Sofia ni...

“Ada kelas ke?” he asked the girl.

After a beat, the girl shook her head, and Hafiz let out a sigh of relief. Now that he was feeling optimistic again, his male instinct prompted him to check the girl out.

She was one of those girls who, despite knowing that the university authorities didn't approve of dyed hair, had a headful of rainbow colours. Purple, red and green were the hues of this girl's choice.

What an assembly of colours, thought Hafiz. And none of them were his favourite. His favourite was black. Black was a good, solid colour. Nothing wrong with black hair.

Her head was all he could see of the girl. She was leaning forward over the keyboard, and the computer monitor was hiding her face from view.

Hafiz decided that she wasn't his type anyway, and sat down at the frontmost computer to get on with his assignments.

It always took him a while to get used to the iMacs in university. He was used to using PCs, and was always rather frustrated that the mouse couldn't right-click.

Most students, when presented with a computer and internet connection, would consequently log in to one of the following: Facebook, Friendster or MySpace. Hafiz was no exception. Redzuan was online, and they talked using Facebook Chat.

Yo, bro! Ko kat mana?
Kat uni le... Lab kosong wei!
Ko kat lab buat apa? Buat project? hehehe
Byk la ko project. Buat keje le
...ko ni rajin sgt la bro

Before he knew it, it was already past 6pm. Redzuan had stopped replying in the chat box, so he was probably playing Yakuza Lords again. The guy was obsessed with Facebook games. Hafiz logged out, saved what work he'd managed to get done, and shut down the computer.

Getting up and slinging his bag over his shoulder, Hafiz looked at the girl again. For some reason, he felt another obligation to talk to her. It was probably his unrelenting hormones again.

“Tak balik ke?” he asked in what he hoped was a breezy tone.

After a second, the girl shook her head again. Hafiz began to think that that was the only reaction she could muster.

After a moment's hesitation, Hafiz decided not to pursue, and turned to leave.

“Balik dulu,” he said, to no reply. Hafiz could almost hear Redzuan in his head, sniffing in disdain.

Huh! Sombong!

* * * * *

The next day was Puan Amelia's class. She was one of those kinds of lecturers that all the students loved, even those she did not teach. She allowed them to call her Mimi, wear jeans, bring snacks to class, turn on music; as long as her assignments were up-to-date.

When Hafiz entered Lab 3A, where the class was always held, Redzuan was in his usual place right at the back of class. He had kicked off his scuffed Nikes and had his socked feet propped up on an empty chair.

“Yo, Hafiz my maaaaaan!!!”

Hafiz shook his head, holding back a laugh. Redzuan was such a clown. He was the first person to come up and talk to Hafiz, a kampung boy, during their orientation, four semesters ago.

Wei, tengok, Faci tu... muka macam beruk..!

They'd been best friends ever since.

“Busuk la kaki ko, Red,” he remarked, shoving Redzuan's feet off the chair and sitting down.

“Mana ada! Kaki aku lagi wangi dari perfume D&G, ok.”

“Ye lah, pergi lah jual kat Hugo Boss,” retorted Hafiz.

“Kaki aku mahal sangat lah, diorang tak mampu punya,” snickered Redzuan, turning to the computer screen and launching Photobooth to check his hair for the hundredth time that day. You never knew how much the careful arrangement of your recently-straightened bangs could change within the course of a few minutes.

“Wei, tengok!” exclaimed Redzuan. “Ada orang rekod video!”

He double-clicked on an undeleted video in the Photobooth panel. Recognition struck Hafiz as a head of purple, red and green appeared on the screen.

“Wei, tulah pompuan yang dok dalam lab semalam,” he said.

Redzuan's head swiveled to look at him, and Hafiz instantly knew he shouldn't have told him that.

“Ko dok dalam lab berdua-duaan ngan pompuan???” he said, hooting with laughter.

“Diam ah ko...” snapped Hafiz, and they both leaned in to watch the video.

Like Redzuan, the girl was also the kind of person who used the iMac's Photobooth application for grooming purposes. She arranged and rearranged her uneven bangs, striking poses every once in a while.

Suddenly the girl looked up from the computer, and someone else appeared in the video. Though only the lower part of the body was visible, it was obvious he was male. The two talked for a bit and the girl's expression gradually became angrier and angrier.

“Ni mesti ex-balak dia,” observed Redzuan, always the expert when it came to judging people.

Suddenly, there was a flash of movement, and Hafiz's eyes recognized the glint of a blade in the hand of the boy. The two friends watched in horrified disbelief as the hand swung up and down, up and down, and the blade repeatedly punctured holes into the girl.

Hafiz had never been good at lip-reading, but he could see the words forming helplessly from the girls mouth as clearly as if he himself was saying them.

Tolong.

Then she was still. The boy – the murderer – stood there for a while. He must not have realized that he was being recorded, because he ignored the computer completely.

All of a sudden, the boy jumped, then dived quickly down and out of the video's view. All was still for a few minutes, and the two boys stared transefixedly at the girl's lifeless face. Then...

A bloody hand snaked up, seeming to come from below the girl's table. It grasped the girl's pale chin, and moved her head from side-to-side.

Ada kelas ke?
The girl shook her head.

The blood drained from Hafiz's face. Unlike Redzuan whose vocabulary was of the rougher and more vulgar range, Hafiz had never been one to swear, and especially not in English, but right now, he couldn't think of anything else to say.

Shit.

10 Things I'd Rather Be Doing Now

2009-11-10T00:37:00.003+08:00

1o) making a video

9) singing with Dan

8) reading manga / watching anime

7) YouTube-ing random songs/videos

6) writing a story

5) sleeping

4) shopping at Kinokuniya

3) making up more stuff about my characters

2) talking about Angelfire with Dan

1) drawing Angelfire

There is always something we'd rather be, something we'd rather do. It's hard to be completely content.

Go-Dai

2009-11-01T23:23:00.002+08:00

Just a little something

2009-10-30T15:56:00.001+08:00

for yesterday's birthday girl. :)

Nobody Nobody but You

2009-10-29T08:02:00.003+08:00

♥ HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUDA!!!♥

I wish it was a picture of me and you, but we haven't seen each other in person in centuries.

Wishing you all the happiness, health, contentment and most of all, GAYNESS, that life can grant you. You'll always be my baber!

saranghae,
Kach.

old wounds

2009-10-26T01:32:00.004+08:00

Rahimah stepped out of the bathroom, wringing her hands out of habit even though they were dry. It was maghrib now, and the school was empty except for the old Indian security guard listening to his radio in the guardhouse by the main gate.

The school had not always been the elite kluster institute that it was now. It was the dumping ground for all the trouble-making students. It was a breeding pool of bullies, gangsters, thieves and liars. Sampah masyarakat, you could call them. More often than not, they came in bad, and left worse. Or, for the really unfortunate ones, didn't leave at all.

But slowly, starting with a principal with a vision of a better future, the school had shed its old skin and was now one of the top secondary schools in the state.

Rahimah turned left, towards the direction of the newly-constructed library. In the distance, she could hear a catchy Hindustan song playing on the guard's old radio.

Rahimah stopped walking. She'd suddenly heard another sound break through the general silence of the deserted school.

She cocked her head to one side, straining her ears.

There it was again: a low moan.

Eh, thought Rahimah. Siapa pulak tu? Dah senja dah ni. Takkan ada orang lagi kot.

Rahimah walked in the direction the sound was coming from. Eventually she came to a classroom not far from the surau and the old bilik sakit.

There, sitting at a desk in the middle of the class, was a boy. He was still in his school uniform and by his fair skin and straight black hair, she could tell he was Chinese.

"Dik," ventured Rahimah, stepping into the classroom. "Kenapa belum balik lagi?"

The boy was resting his forehead on the desk top. His hair fell over his face, hiding it from Rahimah's view. His arms were clamped around his stomach, as if he had a stomach ache.

The boy didn't seem to hear Rahimah's question. He was still moaning, and sniffling quietly.

"Dik," repeated Rahimah, stepping closer. "Kenapa ni? Sakit perut ke?"

The boy turned his head slowly to look at Rahimah. His nose was running and she could see the lines of dried tears on his cheeks. His eyes were red with crying.

"Sakit," he whispered hoarsely in a voice that sounded like it was more used to speaking Cantonese.

"Sakit? Mau Panadol?"

The boy shook his head.

"Mau balik rumah," he said tearily. "Saya sakit. Saya mau balik."

A lock of hair flopped onto the boy's forehead and he lifted a hand to remove it, and Rahimah saw that the front of his shirt was soaked in blood. The floor beneath his chair was shiny with a crimson puddle that smelled of iron.

The arm returned to the bleeding stomach, and the boy looked Rahimah in the eye.

"Sakit sangat," he whispered.

For the first time, Rahimah noticed that the boy's bloodshot eyes did not reflect any life. Rahimah knew that look. She'd seen it so many times already. She saw it whenever she looked into the mirror in any of the school toilets.

She nodded, and allowed a brief, understanding smile grace her tired face. She lifted her own arm and revealed a dark red patch staining the side of her green baju kurung.

"Makcik pun sakit," she said.

The Show

2009-10-24T13:07:00.010+08:00

Photos from last Friday, October 16.

^Birthday present from Dan. Yup, it's hand-made. :)

^Farah came over for a bit. :)

^Haha, whattaloser. xD

^After a bit of studying on DLE's part, and some drawing on mine, I got sleepy, and so I went to lie down under the table. Pretty soon, everyone else was lying down there too, haha.

^Sez Nana: "Hold my leg! HOLD IT!!!"

^I'm doing the Junsu pose. Except I'm not cute, haha.

^The douchebag is driving!

^First there was one, then there were two, then there were three!

^We went to this bathroom shop thingie because Nana was choosing sinks and jambans and stuff for her new room.

^Removing just one SHOE would suffice, thank you.

^There are so many things to capture your reflection in!

^That jacket, btw, is a b'day present from Farah. I LOVE IT!!! :D

^ Hello? Operator? The line is dead.

^That shower head really looks like a phone.

^The pros and cons of sinks.

^NOW! RM8500 per set. Humans sold separately.

^Opah and Saira. :)

^Well, at least the cake is in focus here...

^Mmmm, strawberry cheesecake. It was SO good.

^The little girls sang Lenka's The Show. I'm beginning to tire of that song, but I sang along anyway. Imran sang the "I want my money back" part. :D

^The older girls were pulled (and pushed, on my part) out to sing too. For me. So they sang some lame Happy Birthday song. Boooooo! xD

Later, I was pulled up too, unfortunately. And all the cucus (minus Acap that bastard, and those who weren't present or too young) sang and danced to Dancing Queen. No pictures of that, thank goodness!!!

More pictures coming up, but I'm not sure when those'll be posted up.

19 Today

2009-10-15T08:04:00.001+08:00

Happy Birthday, me! :D

Pat a Cake Pat a Cake

2009-10-10T22:42:00.002+08:00

Got an early birthday present today. ;)

Sony Alpha A230, baby.
His name is Patrick and you can just imagine how in love I am with him, hee.

THANKS ABAH I LOVE YOU TO BITS!!!! <3

Satu hari di Hari Raya

2009-09-22T23:03:00.024+08:00

Pictures from Raya. :)

^An impromptu photo of just SOME of the Mohamed ladies, on the blue sofa bed.

^Look at those 3 goofballs at the back, haha.

^Haha, I think all of us got a little distracted by Saira, who was not at all happy to be included in the picture. xD

^We had a birthday jelly cake for Acap. :) "Happy Birthday 16 Asyraf!"

^There was also a cake for Uncle Kamal, whose birthday is also nearby.

^The same cake was used for Auntie Sheraz, also a September baby.

^And Hannah too. xD

^We also sang for Uncle Anuar, for some reason... Later, Auntie Anum said that his birthday was way back in July. xD

^Last, but definitely not least (though he is of the least number of years), we had an early Happy Birthday song for Imran, whose 6th birthday is next week. :)

^DAL. Lisa came later. Nana is holding Arlina's beautiful DSLR. TT__TT

Now for pictures from Tampin! :D

^The Tampin cucus, minus 5.

^Abah did a close-up on Nanan, because at first the camera's face recognition didn't work on him. xD His hair is longer now than it was the last time I saw him. :O

^From top left: Arif Kecik, Amir, Arif (besar), Adzim, Nanan, Kak Aida, Adlina, Almas, Julia and moi.

^This... fine guy is Reza Arif aka Arif Kecik, who teaches Sarah the drums at Hartamas. :D

^Abah took this picture camwhore style, holding the camera at arm's length in front of him, which is VERY lame. But I like this picture.

^The Tampin siblings, minus Pak Anjang, and plus Pak Cik. From left: Mak Ngah, Mak Cik, Abah, Pak Cik and Pak Tih.

^The Tampin boys! Minus 2.

^And the Tampin girls. Minus 3.

^Bunga api time! :D

^I didn't really participate because I was too busy taking pictures and laughing at everyone, haha.

^The louder, more dangerous bunga api (mercun?) were executed on the street outside the house. :P

^I love the Tampin house. :) It's so cool. But hot during the day. :P ...But that's not the cool that I meant.

^Lookit all the smoke!

^A mercun-lighting conference.

^Who should light it? I think it was Amir, and it went off immediately, and he was like "Babi!" while hurrying away. xD

^Kak Aida (who is afraid of pop-pops) peeked out of the house to tell us to stop playing with the loud mercuns. xD

The next 11 photos were taken by Abah, while I was still sound asleep. :P

^That's my grandma. :)

^The aftermath of yesterday's bunga api fiasco. Oops, we didn't clean it up. Bad cucus. :P

^Haha, a bunch of clothes hanging on this pole thing in front of the gate...

^My dad took my grandma to the pasar.

^I love these pics. :) Morning hustle and bustle in Tampin.

^And this picture, I love! The shops are so beautiful to photograph. :)

^These charming gentlemen were the last 3 risers. (second last 3 risers were my brothers and I... -__-)

^We went to Tanjung Bidara again. :D

^The trees were beautiful. In their senget, wind-weathered, sea-smoothed kind of way. But I couldn't really get a good shot of them.

^This time, the two Arifs did not tag along, and were instead replaced by Adlina and Almas. And Mama.

^When Dan saw this pic, she thought that big rock was a whale, haha. Well, I guess it kinda does look like a whale.

^There are lots of big rocks at Tanjung Bidara, so it's fun to explore. But I've been there quite a few times, so there's nothing new there really, but it's fun all the same.

^I made the leaf more red using Photoshop. :P

^It looks as if they've reached the end of the world or something.

^Rock pools! I'd just stepped on some sharp shards of broken... shells, and was soothing my feet in one of them. There were little shrimps in it, and they were nibbling at my feet. :P

^A community of sea snails. I love rock pools. :)

^There were a lot of these circular holes in the rocks, with cracks radiating from them. They're cool.

^This tree was almost white, and it's sea-smoothed bark was beautiful. Not to mention fillind with them sea snails!

^Mother nature makes the most intricately beautiful things, no? :)

^Abah climbed that big rock! He was pointing at the adjacent beach. That we didn't go to. Because it looked boring. Later, I climbed the big rock too.

^And then he told me to take a picture of him, haha.

^That's Amir out there.

^There was this patch of sand with lots of crab holes, and you know how when they dig their holes, a lot of the sand gets displaced in the form of tiny little sand balls? Well, when you step on a whole carpet of them, your footprints turn out very distinct and clear. Looks like a crime scene.

^You can't really see the colours here, but the rock were slightly purple and green. Anyone remember Chemistry enough to explain why?

^I like this rock. It looks like a giant coin got stuck in between all the rocks.

^The other side of the big rock was a sheer drop. Scary!

^You can see the trampled crab community there. I was trying to show how high up I was... but I don't think it really worked.

^The big rock! It's higher than it looks. Especially when you're up there.

^That little hear-shaped patch of sand is another crab community, but fortunately for this neighborhood, they have a circle of rocks to protect them from inconsiderate human beings.

^You know Sandy Cheeks. Now I give you sandy toes!

Yeah, it is an odd way to end a series of pictures, isn't it?
More pictures some other time!

To all Muslims

2009-09-20T09:34:00.002+08:00

SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI
Maaf Zahir & Batin

Sorry for anything yours truly may have said and/or done to you to hurt your feelings/body (haha). I probably did not mean to. :P
To those who nak balik kampung tu, please please please be safe on the road.
Enjoy your holidays, makan banyak ketupat and lemang and rendang, dapat banyak duit raya, makan kuih raya... Have fun!!!

xoxo
Arina

My Girls

2009-09-18T21:56:00.004+08:00

FINALLY.
I've been trying to upload this baby since I made it a few months ago... Here you go, Na. This is the best I can do because FB video uploader thing is a right bish.
It was hella fun making this, so enjoy!

PS: At the end, it says "That' right. You're my girls. You put the we in awesome and the us in hilarious!" Sorry it's so fast. And yes, it says "that'" instead of "that's". Too lazy to fix it, ok.

Kicap Putih.

2009-09-18T21:08:00.004+08:00

♥Happy Sweet 16 Wan Acap Husswan♥

Be good, boy! Hope you enjoyed your day with your boys. :) Looking forward to your celebratory cake on Sunday!

***

Today is Friday, but we didn't gather at Opah's like usual, because it's too close to Raya and Opah is busy. Mama and Anji went to the tailor's in the morn to get our baju kurungs, so I spent the day at Dan's. Now, I don't even remember what we did...

Oh yeah, we watched:

...and it was awesome. It's such a heart-breaking story. I don't remember whether I cried reading the book (though I do remember telling Dan I saw it being sold for RM15 when she bought it for RM30+), but obviously I cried watching it. Of course, Dan, how could I not?

A: *points to damp spot on bolster where my tears fell*
D: Ewww, you drooled a lot!

It's terrible how some humans are like that, and how others are misled to believe horrible things...

The actors for Bruno and Schmuel are so cute! Seriously. And the mother and Maria are very pretty. And the colours, clothes, and buildings in the movie are so beautiful. I kept saying "Eeeeee, so cantik!" throughout the whole thing, hahah. It's a really good movie, and a really good book. :)

Around 3 in the evening, we went to visit Tok's kubur. It was really hot, but when we got there, the wind started blowing. Dan led the little ones to read Al-Fatihah, and Imran and Omar were adorable. Omar kept talking and asking Anji questions that it was hard not to listen to them while trying to concentrate on the yasin.

Oh yeah! Dan just got her own car. :D I don't know for sure what model it is, but I know it's a Hyundai... I think it's a Hyundai i10, which looks like this:

It's pretty cute. :) It's called Champ, because it's champagne-coloured, hoho. She hasn't driven it yet... but maybe she can drive us to McD on Raya day. xD

Other than that, we mostly just talked and stuff. The usual.

Trashin' the Camp by Phil Collins and N*SYNC is 2 minutes and 24 seconds of complete awesome love! <3

Pink Bear, Brown Cat and Rose

2009-09-12T15:21:00.005+08:00

Auntie Rozie gave me job to design angpau packets for her! Woot! More designing jobs! She wanted to see some sketches yesterday, and being me, I only got started the night before. Hoho! Also, I didn't do sketches, it was straight to the real deal. My sketches are in my head.

Anyways, feast your eyes, fools.

^This is attempt #1. It's okay. I dunno. I don't quite like it all that much.

^This style came out entirely by accident. I was making some rough sketches on Photoshop (okay, so I did have SOME sketches) for the first design up there, when I accidentally painbucket-ed the background, and the result looked nice, so I did thisssss. The shadow placing for the cat is like, so WRONG. *fail*

^And then I coloured it! Appreciate that rose, please. And those water droplets! :3 Another thing though, BrownCat looks like he's hovering off the ground. *moarfailugh*

^Lame background ftw! It looks nice with a dark background. IT'S GLOWING, YO. So magicalll~ :D

^Auntie Rozie went with this one...

^...And this one too. We'll just see which one she chooses in the end. :) Personally, I like... both! I guess the first one (the uncoloured one) is more unique. But dang I had fun colouring that rose!

^WE ALL LIKE RAINBOWS, YES? Not so much watermarks, but... >__>

It's (not) raining

2009-09-12T14:11:00.002+08:00

Okay, this happens to me all the time. Especially when I'm relaxing.

So, I'd be in my room, reading and just about to fall asleep, or reclining in a chair, flipping through channels, etc and suddenly there comes a pat-pat-pattering that takes a while to register in my head. When, a few seconds later, I realize that it's raining, I rush down the stairs (because when this happens, I am ALWAYS upstairs), grab the backdoor key from the hook on the wall, unlock the door and hurriedly bring in all the washing. Then, if the laundry is still damp (which more of ten than not, they are), I hang them up around the house.

And THEN, when I've finally stopped moving, I realize... Gee, it's awfully quiet. WTF the rain's already stopped!

Wth ok. Wt-effing-h.

Oh, and also, I hate my brother sometimes. He is an ass and an insult to all the decent humans in the world. Srsly.

Melancholy Feeling

2009-08-07T11:55:00.002+08:00

There's a kitten in my neighbor's backyard drain which has been calling for its mother all day and night yesterday. I woke up several times in the early morning to its relentless meowing. I felt like crying.
I wish I could do something for it, but I can't reach it.

Also, my second last hamster is dead. I thought she was asleep, but she was actually dead. Mama and I just buried her. I found a worm while digging the grave by the pokok pandan. I hope I didn't kill it. The worm I mean.

RIP Mikey.

Just Dance

2009-08-03T00:03:00.003+08:00

Dan: I must look like a maniac.
me: Well... you ARE a maniac.
Dan: Hey. Don't insult me.
me: But that makes up 50% of our conversations!
Dan: No, 70%!

Today, some of the Mohamed ladies watched The Proposal together. It was very cliche. The usual kind of American romance lah. But it was funny, and I enjoyed myself. :)

Humankind has a way of showing its fangs for no good reason. People do things to other people, just because they can. And what's really scary and terrible is that they know it's wrong. Sometimes it makes me want to cry.
Why are some people so horrifying?

Helium

2009-07-18T22:42:00.002+08:00

Within these past two weeks, I have attended two parties where helium balloons were undoubtedly present. And you know what that means. Time to make yourself sound like a chipmunk! And that is just what we did. By 'we' I mean my cousins and friends, not me. I myself can only remember sucking helium once in my lifetime, years ago.

Did you know that though helium definitely changes the sound of your voice, it doesn't actually change its pitch? It changes the timbre of your voice. Timbre is what enables you to differentiate the same note played at the same volume on two different instruments. It's also what make our voices different from others, and allows us to distinguish different elements of speech. Basically, it's what makes sounds from different things/people unique to one another.

As we all know, helium is lighter than air, which means that sound travels faster in it. The fast moving higher frequencies in your voice (because your voice isn't made up of just ONE frequency, it's a whole symphony of sound waves with different frequencies that collaborate to produce that sound that comes out of your throat like magic) have more power in this situation, so they kind of overpower the lower frequencies, and that's why your voice is all squeaky.

If you're interested to a geeky and want-to-know-it-all amount like I am, or you're just bored and don't have anything better (or worse) to do, you can check this out. :)

Oh, and since helium, a gas lighter than air, makes your voice squeaky, wouldn't a gas that is denser than air make your voice deeper? The answer is YES! Gases like Argon or Xenon would amplify the lower frequencies of your voice and give you a deep voice. But these gases are much harder to come by, so the chances of being able to try it out is pretty low.

Now, while helium-sucking is definitely cause for a good, hearty, stomach-cramping, tear-inducing laugh, it does have its dangers. When you're sucking pure helium, you get all light-headed, right? That's because (duh) your brain isn't getting the oxygen it needs. Sucking a balloon-full shouldn't be a problem though, as long as you get breaths of air in between. So don't let me be a spoilsport. But if there is ever a pressurized tank of helium in your vicinity, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, YOUR FAMILY AND YOURSELF, PLEASE DO NOT SUCK FROM IT. You could cause damage to your lungs or wind up having bubbles in you arteries which would lead to some sort of embolism or another, which would lead to stroke-like symptoms, and yes, death.

Oh and another thing. Some people say that helium kills brain cells, right? Well, apparently this isn't exactly true. While there might have been a few cases where this happened (I'm not sure), helium is an inert (harmless/un-reactive) gas and you'd have to inhale a helluva lot of it to do any significant damage to your brain.

So the sites say.

So I guess what I'm saying is it's okay to reap all those helium balloons for their much-desired fillings. Just don't inhale too much helium or you'll end up in a hospital ward whether you like it or not.

Ring Ring

2009-06-25T11:31:00.002+08:00

When the phone rings, it could mean a number of things. For instance, it could be a "Congratulations! You've won a thousand dollars and a lawn mower!" kind of call, or a "Turn on Channel 9. I'm on TV!" kind of call, or it could be a "Hello? Pizza Hut? Oh. Sorry. Wrong number." kind of call. It could also be a rather less welcome kind of call involving, say, the police, or worse, your angry boy/girlfriend. But we won't get into that, lest we tempt fate.

Yes, there are many possible outcomes when the telephone interrupts your daily life by ringing itself silly.

In fact you could say - as people so foolishly, yet so insistently do - anything's possible. Except, of course, for the unavoidable fact that some things, due to the very reasonable laws of science and, more importantly, plain logic, are just not possible.*

So when young Evelyn Phillips picked up the telephone one sunny Sunday morning, she expected something that was, by said laws, entirely possible. She thought it was most probably her mother, out to the market with her father, calling to tell her (again) not to let the washing get rained on and to water the daisies. This is a very possible kind of call.

What she got, though, was quite completely the opposite.

"Hello?" she said into the mouthpiece, waiting for her mother's voice to answer. But it did not. In fact, there was no voice answering at all.

Now, this in itself is not impossible at all, because sometimes, for reasons unfathomable, people call people and say nothing at all. Maybe they mean to pull a rather weak prank, or accidentally dialed the wrong number. Even so, you'd think they'd have the decency and ever so little amount of intelligence required to say so instead of irritating the person on the other end with ten seconds of silence before hanging up.

Evelyn was just about to put down the phone, frowning, when - and now we get to the impossible bit - it started to smoke. And not just any smoke either. It was purple, tinged with the slightest shade of pink, and smelled of blueberries.

The long tendrils of purple-pink smoke curled into the air, filling the room with its sweet scent. Strangely, the smoke didn't spread throughout the whole room, but seemed to be collecting itself into one thick cloud. Then the cloud started changing sHapE. It began to look like a snowman, or rather a smokeman. It even started to change colour in places and began to look more solid...

Evelyn dropped the receiver (which didn't affect the smoke at all) and stared, and stared, and stared.

The smoke had turned itself into a boy!

The smoke-child looked down at Evelyn, smiled hesitantly and said, "Would you like three wishes?"

* Unless you just happen to be a certain purple dinosaur or creatures of similar naivety with overly cheerful optimism (and rather creepy eyes, come to think of it) then maybe - just maybe - anything could be possible. Even purple dinosaurs.

Insomnia

2009-06-11T09:05:00.002+08:00

Some stuff before I go spend the day at Sunway Lagoon.

I am currently addicted to Wheesung's cover of Insomnia. It is love.

Original Craig David version:
The word stuck in my head today is 'discretion'.
I cry with each episode of Grey's Anatomy.
The melting point of glass is 1400 degree Celsius. I learned this from Mythbusters. :)

The Climb

2009-06-09T18:41:00.026+08:00

On Saturday I went to OU with Dan, Cams, Lisa and some of Lisa's friends and their sisters to watch:

Dan: I can't believe we're watching Hannah Montana.
me: We watched High School Musical.

So what is there to be surprised about?

Surprisingly, the movie wasn't all that bad. I mean, it was all the cliche that is the status quo of Disney movies, but it was definitely better than High School Musical 3. It exceeded my expectations. Well. That's mostly because I didn't have much expectations in the first place. But in my opinion, having no expectations is wise, since that way, you can't really be disappointed, and you can always be surprised. :)

PLUS the character Travis Brody (played by Lucas Till) is totally cute, haha. Dan, Lisa and I were all MELT-MELT-MELT for him. See him for yourself:

So yummy. :D

I slept over at Dan's that night.

Papa H told us some ghost stories (that may or may not be true; you can never tell with Uncle Wan) at dinner, Armand kicked me in the side of the head because I was lying on the floor instead of playing with him, and Dan and I watched 4 episodes of D.Gray-Man before going to sleep.

The next day, we woke up early and headed to Uncle Zak's to go hiking. The party consisted of Uncle Zak, Auntie Tia, Anji, Ain, Amir, Acap, Nana, Syida, Syaz, Lisa, Dan and I. The little kids stayed at Uncle Zak's apartment while we set out for Bukit Gasing.

First we had to walk to Bukit Gasing. That itself made us quite tired, but we made it. Uncle Zak pointed out Bukit Gasing to us...

Dan: OMG we're gonna go into the big green mush??? I've always wondered what it looks like inside!
U.Zak: Big green mush???

Haha.

Pictures courtesy of Hercules. :)

"We're the Mohameds! And extension." -Dan

FIRST LEG. Destination: Observation Tower

First pit stop: The Gazebo.

Anji is passing around MnMs. Uncle Zak told us to bring chocolate for energy, but I don't really think MnMs help much.

Uncle Zak. Our tour guide and slave driver. Haha.

We've reached destination Observation Tower!

This is the view from the top of the tower. PJ lies behind that rise at the back, but we didn't go that far.
Something else we saw from up there was an old man wearing a pink thong.

The adults didn't come up.

Nana came up with the movie catchphrase: "One wrong turn, and it ain't funny no more" so we took this picture showing us taking the Wrong Turn. :)

Okay, so we failed to look scared, but we had fun.

Mmm, I love this pic. :)

Another Wrong Turn pic. x3 Dan, too, fails to look convincingly scared.

Second pit stop: the Broken Signboard.

We were too tired to group together for a proper picture.

Yet Nana keeps posing...

LOL Nana, you ni memang tak boleh blah lah.

Uncle Zak, unfazed and looking amused by our fatigue. He hikes, cycles, jogs, dives.....

Back at the starting point, we block off the exit path.

us: *points to wrong path* Exit path that way...
random passer-by: No it's not. That's the wrong way, isn't it?
me: Sssssh!

The mommas decided to seperate with the group while the rest of us went on.

SECOND LEG. Destination: Suspension Bridge
Not suspended bridge.

I think this is another part of Wrong Turn, where we find something "amazing" in the forest. Jungle. In the trees.

And this is what we were pointing at. Nothing.

They don't look that tough to climb, but when you've been walking uphill and downhill for more than an hour, things can get pretty difficult.

And then we were out! Back into the open sunshine.

It. Was. Great.

We hiked for approximately two hours, and we were glad to be back at Uncle Zak's apartment, welcomed by nasi lemak, nasi goreng, mee hun, cucur bawang, sandwiches and, most importantly, ice-cold refreshments.

And AFTER that, we played tennis! Well, Dan and I didn't, but the other teens did.

Somehow, Syida missed the ball and still managed to knock the racket out of her hand. Somehow.

Lisa, the ball is in your hand. What are you looking back for?

Nana, being so the drama.

It's like he's doing some sort of hip-hop dance...

Acap and Amir against Syaz.

And AFTER tennis, we swam. It felt great to be in the pool after sweating our asses off hiking. Uncle Zak and the little kids were the first ones in, followed by Dan and I, then Amir and Acap, then Lisa and Nana, and finally Syaz, who we kindly pulled in. :)

And AFTER that, we just chilled, eating pizza and watching The Goonies. Needless to say, some of us fell asleep.

As is the case most of the time I'm with my family, I had an absolute blast, and I'd love to do it again someday.

me: I better get muscles...
Dan: I'm gonna get muscle pains.

I think it's pretty safe to say we all woke up with muscle pains the next day. Making my way around uni yesterday was torture. My ass hurt, my legs hurt, and my right shoulder feels like it's bruised, probably because I'd been carrying Sarah on my shoulders in the pool, and she's not one to stay still.

But it's all in the name of fun (and much-needed exercise) so what the heck! What matters is the climb. :)

Berkhemah di Janda Baik

2009-06-09T15:56:00.013+08:00

Despite the fact that none of these pictures were taken by me, and I was absent during the capturing of 99.9% of them, I am posting them here anyway, because I like them, and you can get a better idea of what the trip was like from them than from whatever I'm going to say.

The date was 31st May 2009, Sunday. My parents, Julia and I went to visit Anji, Dan, Cams and Armand, who were camping at Janda Baik with some of Cami's school friends and their families. Somehow or other, we came as four people and left as three, as I'd decided to count myself in for their last night of camping. As usual, the 'takda baju' factor was not a problem, because Dan (being Dan) had brought extra clothes.

The whole camping experience was great. Except that I woke up with muscle pains in my back from sleeping on the bumpy inflatable mattress. It was nice falling asleep and waking up to the sound of the river. And the food was delicious, and not at all normal camping food. We had nasi goreng and rendang daging AND ayam (plus some fish dish) for dinner that night, okay.

Janelle is so photogenic.

Armand is so handsome, lah. <3

Posers gila!

This is the only picture with me in it! Haha. This is after I'd reluctantly gotten out of the river, because it was getting dark. :(

Camping is great and all, but we were all glad to get back to "Coke and civillization". Haha.

Desu Noto

2009-05-30T12:41:00.003+08:00

5-minute sketch thingy!

Ok, so I've started reading Death Note, which I previously thought I never would, and I've gotta say... it really did get me hooked.
Raito is so DIABOLICAL and I'm convinced he's insane. Sure, he's a genius, and he has a more or less good reason for doing what he does, but he is still crazy.
He is a crazy person. With the hottest hair I have ever seen in a manga since...since never. Seriously, his hair is perfect.
But I like L. He's so... hilariously weird. Just thinking of his face makes me laugh.

Anyways, as much as I hate to say it...
Th - *grits teeth* ...THANKS, Athirah, for making me read it.
*collapses*
That was hard.

Results

2009-05-25T23:13:00.002+08:00

OMG I got my results for last sem today!!!

In short, I got 4 flat for my GPA and my CGPA is 3.81. Holy shit.
When I found out, I just couldn't stop grinning. :D

That's all for now, but I promise I'll have a longer update soon.
Eventually.

art dump

2009-04-25T00:15:00.004+08:00

I haven't had a proper update in ages, have I? Well, I've been busy. That, and lazy. The usual.

Nevertheless, here are some pictures for you to stare at.

Yeah, I draw on MSN, because it's fun.

Yargghhh, (bad attempt at) perspective.

Daani surrounded by some species of flowers that probably don't exist, but do I care?
Obviously not.

Makes you want to roll around in some big open space

with some hot blue-eyed blond

doesn't it?

I grew to love these two random people.

K is for Kiba. Which is his name.

I would like to wear that outfit. Though it'll probably be hot. And kinda itchy.

I love Aredhel. I wish he was real so he could be my boyfriend. *sigh*

Daani (left) and Dai (right) are twin brothers (yes, the one with long hair is also a guy). I love them.

Daani again. He's just a lot of fun to draw. And no I didn't draw that 'D'. I edited it with Photoshop. I cheated.

Dareios. He is emo. Fear his demon eye, please.

Random person rendered with cross-hatching. Twas done in Photography class, don't tell my lecturer.

Abah

2009-04-25T00:07:00.001+08:00

♥HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ABAH!!!♥

In celebration, tomorrow we are going to stay a night in a hotel in PD. Teehee!

Let It Out

2009-04-19T22:34:00.007+08:00

Drawing 2 final project.

black & white acrylic and collage, with additional poster paint detail on 18x22 inch canvas

Based on this picture:

Juanes! I'm not exactly a fan of him, though I was once upon a time addicted to La Camisa Negra (and I still like it). I chose this pic because it was suitable, with its various shades of grey. When converted into black and white, that is.

^My reference pic, in all its kertas-conteng-ey glory. Look, you can see a little doodle Zuko at the bottom there, haha.

Progress pics:
(excuse the lousy pics, I only had my phone with me at the time)

^Figure drawn in using grid lines, because I'm not that good yet, okay.

^Figure painting completed.

^Collage background using newspaper clippings. For the base, I used small random text, then painted over it with white acrylic, allowing the text to show slightly, then pasted larger words or phrases on top of that layer.

^Second layer was painted over as well.

^Splashes of poster paint... I diluted the paint, then poured little amounts of it onto the canvas and blew on them to make the tendril effect. It seriously made my head dizzy and I had to stop for a few minutes after every colour.

^Finished product!!! Some detail was made with charcoal... i.e. the outline of his t-shirt.

I had to write a statement saying why this and why that, but I'm too lazy to explain it here. The title is "Let It Out". See if you can guess for yourself what the message is.

...

2009-03-20T08:15:00.002+08:00

Drawing assignment.

Charcoal on A2 drawing block.

Subject: Jung Yunho from DBSK. :)

Around... 2 and a half hours?

Oh YES.

2009-03-18T23:39:00.001+08:00

Chatting with Dan is fun. :)

WAN NOOR DAN

2009-03-14T09:43:00.002+08:00

♥HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAN!!!♥

Happy 17th, you loser you.

You know I love you to no bounds, even though the way I show it may not seem like so. xP

But even through all the insults and sarcastic comments, I can honestly say I'd be lost without my soulmate. ;)

But you never heard that from me.

"Mama, I love you, Mama, I care"

2009-03-13T10:01:00.002+08:00

♥HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA!!!♥

Even though I don't always say it, you're the awesome-est Mama ever and I love you!!! <3<3

And...

♥HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY NADIA!!!♥

I wanna squish you.

'Nuff said.

POKEMEMEEEEE

2009-03-10T15:44:00.002+08:00

Gotta catch em all!

irrelevant

2009-03-07T23:51:00.003+08:00

Aredheleeeeeel! ;____;

I'm not emo, kay.

Super Junior. <3

Aredhel~ :D

Fire boy.

eich-sama.deviantart.com, beetches :)

FFRant

2009-03-05T13:05:00.004+08:00

I just spent the entire morning, and some of the afternoon, watching videos of Final Fantasy Dissidia. I think most of the few people who visit this blog are not familiar with the Final Fantasy series (though some of them have heard of it from me because I can't resisit telling them about it), but correct me if I'm wrong, because I'd love to have someone to FFRant with. Feel free to ignore this entry.

^Zidane vs Gabranth

^Zidane vs Sephiroth

No offence to Sephy fans whatsoever, ZIDANE PWNS SEPH'S ASS. xD

^Zidane vs Garland

*laughs* Zidane (or should I say, Jitan) is TINY next to Squall! xD

^Zidane vs Kuja (well of course)

I could listen to FF9's boss battle theme all day.

*sigh* Zidane rocks my effing socks. I will love him forever. xD

^Kuja vs Sephiroth

Kuja, ohhhh Kuja. I love you, you gay jockstrap-wearing monkey, you.

Kuja's magic looks super fun. xD

^Kuja vs Zidane

In which, this time, Kuja wins.

^This, cheeldren, is Zidane. :) I adore him like no one's businessssss.

^And this is Kuja. :D Like I said. Jockstrap. Ahaha, I like his hair. xD

^trailer

FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU***********************.

The people behind the FF series are nothing short of geniuses. O__O

Acap, buy Dissidia quiiiiiiiiiickly!!!

*sigh* For Dissidia alone, I wish I had a PSP. TT__TT

Bolero

2009-02-26T11:55:00.001+08:00

These boys, their voices, this song, this video...

gives me goosebumps.

Every single time I listen to it.

Princess

2009-02-20T23:13:00.006+08:00

Thursday, February 19, 2009, 10:37PM

♥Saira Mohamed bt Ahmad Zakirudin♥

The Mohamed family never seems to stop growing, does it? And yesterday, we welcomed yet another addition to this kecoh family of ours.

That makes...17 cucus. :D

Today, a bunch of us (Opah, Ma, Anji, Ain, Cams, Jules, Sarah, Imran and I, with Nana and Dan meeting us there after tuition) went to see her and Auntie Tia in the hospital.

Of course, Nana had to get her hands on the newborn. :)

Saira means 'princess' in Hebrew. :)

Mata sepeeeeeeet!!! <3

Some say she looks like Uncle Jack, some say she looks like Auntie Tia, and others say she looks like Omar.

She's an active one. She kept moving her head around, and looking at us, which apparently is not common for newborns.

She was kept in the ICU, because she was a little sick or something, and had to finish her round of antibiotics, poor thing. :(

We had to sterilize our hands before we could touch her, and she kept sneezing, but Uncle Jack says she's okay, alhamdulillah.

Her tiny little feetsies!!! xD

Her toes are long, so she is gonna be taaaaaaaaaaall! Like her Babah. :)

Look, look, LOOK at that face of hers!!!! My goodness, she's so cuuuuuuute!!!!

Uncle Jack, the Babah, standing behind Ain. When he spoke, Saira looked towards him. She can already recognize her Babah's voice. :)

Auntie Tia, the Momma. :) Auntie Tia, you're so strong and awesome! We love yoouuu!!! <3

No, I didn't carry her. Becaaauuse, I'm too scared to carry newborns. I prefer to wait until they're less fragile. :P

I can't stress how incredibly adorable and beautiful Saira is. I love her. <3

Farewll Card

2009-01-26T10:03:00.004+08:00

A few days ago Auntie Rozie asked me to make a farewell card for her boss.

I had fun. :)

And got paid 20 bucks for it!!! xD

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

2009-01-21T20:17:00.003+08:00

If I were to describe this book in one word, I would say several words and still it wouldn't sum up how incredibly fantastic it is.

I am appalled at myself at how long it took for me to get this book. If you like to read, and have not read this book, then you simply must read it. Now. I myself read it twice, because I missed it the moment I'd finished, which was yesterday.

I want to hug this book in bed like a teddy bear and bring it in my pocket or my bag or in my hands everywehre I go and go buy another copy and another copy and another copy is how much I love this wonderful story.

Alright, this book has officially claimed the spot as my No. 1 favourite book. I haven't had a No.1 favourite book before.

This is how awesome it is, so please go read it now. :)

Put Your Records On

2009-01-17T22:28:00.016+08:00

Some pics taken on the second day of the new year. It was another DALE Friday that day. :)

Location: Bangsar Village and surrounding area (Devi's Corner, Cat's Whiskers, Czip Lee & Baskin Robbins)

Outside Cat's Whiskers, waiting for it to open. x3

And to pass the time... xD

And then, Airyl's birthday lunch at Fish & Co.

Next? To BR for some ice-cream. :D

*points to upper right corner* Nana tak muat. xD

D L

A E

The consonants of DALE.

The vowels of DALE.

Ah, the love between siblings. Don't it make you all warm and fuzzy inside? :D

Acap with his finger...(and a conveniently located halo-like shape over his head...)

Lisa: Make sad face, let Liyana be the only one smiling.

Lisa: Scary face!

This one was supposed to be mad faces, but we cracked up.

WTV, Lisa.

Harga-RM1.00

Nana: ):

Then we retired to Kool Kutz Inc where the rest were.

Flocking around the Kool Kutz counter.

Them kiddos. :) [Sarah, Adam and Imran sporting new hairdo's!]

Lisa, me, kiddos, and Acap's hand.

Clockwise from top: Nana, me, Dan, Acap and Lisa.

Then this picture suddenly happened.

These people are my world. <3

Nanananananananana~

2009-01-04T00:17:00.002+08:00

♥HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NANA!!!♥

Happy 17th, Loser One! ;D

Ei, budak, you know right how much I love you. I truly am a very lucky person to have you, not only as a cousin, but as a best friend too.

Always stay the way you are, kay? You're not perfect, but that's perfectly fine with me. If you were perfect, you wouldn't be the crazy, hyper, weird, lame loser I love hanging out with. :)

But you didn't hear that from me.

Ai shi teru, kuruku! ♥

2009

2009-01-01T08:57:00.004+08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Here's wishing all of you a joyful and prosperous new year...

No doubt it has in store for us more of the kind of crap only life can come up with, but then again, if the world didn't suck, we'd all fall into space.

Selamat Tahun Baru!

We watched the fireworks at Darby Park, KL last night. Anji got a room there for one night and invited us and the Syeds over.

Nana, Lisa and Acap were out and about with some of their friends, and later on Dan and I joined them up on the roof to watch the fireworks up close.

5 seconds till midnight, Nana and group started the count down, then off went the first firework.

Everyone around was screaming and cheering, but I wasn't in the mood for being loud, so I simply stared at the fireworks and appreciated the spectacle in silence.

Unfortunately, I hadn't my phone or a camera with me at the time, so I don't have any pictures. (but if you scoot over to Lisa's blog, she might have some)

After that, Dan and I retired back to the room, where we mostly drew and watched TV.

We went home around 2 o'clock, and it was straight to sleep.

editing

2008-12-31T12:35:00.003+08:00

Photoshop-ing is fun. :)

Kuantan

2008-12-30T20:26:00.027+08:00

4 days, 3 nights at Hyatt Resort, Kuantan.

The group consisted of the Ramlis, the Syeds, the Husswans, the Jaks, the Anuars and 3 Opahs. Altogether, there were about 30 people. :)

The mommas, minus Auntie Tia and plus Nabilla:

The lobby had these big, wide couches that were great for lying down on. x3

The Golden Girls: Opah Su, Opah Cho and Opah. :)

Yeah, I brought my bolster. Auntie Tia laughed at me.

Pool time!

Beach time!

Nana made a heart in the sand:

Shell-hunting:

Nana being very Monica-ish by arranging the shells by group. Meanwhile, I was dumping sand in Anji's crocs with Armand's little toy tractor. :)

I honestly don't know how Nabilla can stand layan-ing all the kids all the time...

The boys like digging holes.

Nana sibuk!

Camwhoring in the toilet - check!

LOL.

View from our room. That was a real Vietnamese boat that really got marooned on that beach, you know. It fit over a hundred people. Or so Abah told me.

Nastily awesome-looking fish at Restoran Pak Su. Nana said it could give her nightmares. :D

Nana, Dan and my room. We were watching Shanghai Noon. See Owen Wilson on the TV screen? It rained the whole day, that second day.

Newspaper origami. :D

The boys lepak-ing in our room. We practiced Taboo. x3

Camwhoring in the room! xD

The next day was sunny, alhamdulillah. :)

Eating honey stars. :)

Ain't the sky tres beautiful?

*coughs* Acap's shades made me feel cool. xD

I was supposed to be serious-faced but Dan made me laugh.

Nice, Nana. ;D

OMG, Dan. xD

Posing with my purple pario.

More beach time! :D

Glad to see Kak Pur and Kak Sita are having a good time too! xD

I think Omar was a little wary about the waves. Imran, on the other hand, loved them.

By the end on that beach session, most of our hair was sandy. And not only our hair.

We were told to not enter the sea, actually, because the waves were pretty big, but Uncle Syed went it, so Nana, Acap and I couldn't help it. xD

Holding our breaths.

Waiting for a wave. Amir joined us for a little while, then later Dan came in too.

Mebbe wave-jumping is not Amir's cup of tea. :P

Being buffeted by a big one...and loving it! xD

Acap, you missed it!

Those 4 figures in the sea? Uncle Syed, Acap, Nana and me. :)

No pictures from the last day. We were all really tired, some of us were sick, and some of us became sick, but I had a lot of fun nonetheless. :)

<3

2008-12-21T18:47:00.001+08:00

Banyaklah...

2008-12-21T12:25:00.000+08:00

...yang kena update.

17/12/08 BAKE DAY
Dan, Fee and Nana (accompanied by Sarah) came by to bake cupcakes and cookies. :)

We were pretty darn hyper in the kitchen. Especially Dan and Nana, though Nana later got really sleepy from jetlag, as she'd just returned from US a few days earlier. She fell asleep on the couch while the other 3 of us continued baking the cookies.

I must say, they were pretty darn yummy. The cupcakes and cookies. :) Oh, and I also finally gave Fee her belated birthday present and her card:

Once Nana and Sarah, followed by Dan, then Fee, had left, I realized that baking is really exhausting. But I may feel this way because I was doing it the whole day, with people it is near impossible to be sane with.

Huda and Lisa who couldn't make it, we missed you!

18/12/08 HAIR DAY

In the morning, Mama sent me to Kool Kutz, Bangsar Village, and I got my hair done.

By 'done', I mean I got it cut and relaxed. Yes, I got a new hairstyle. Uncle Eric cut around 6 inches or so, I think, so now it's shoulder-length, layered and relaxed, and I could't love it more.

It's a belated birthday present from Anji, btw. MUCHOS ARIGATOS, ANJI!!! And Uncle Eric and the rest of the Kool Kutz crew who worked on my hair, of course. <3

Now. I can't camwhore or take pictures of myself for nuts, so I didn't take pictures of my hair when I got home. I'll just let the following non-self-taken pictures explain what my hair looks like now, kay?

19/12/08 DALE DAY
I'll let the pictures do all the talking for this one.

These girls make a day of Doing Nothing one of the best days of my life. :)

20/12/08 MAMMAMIA! DAY

As the title may suggest, yesterday, I went to watch Mamma Mia! the Musical (but don't, on all cost, ever tell Julia). How this came to be was like this. Well, the ticket that Icame to possess was first supposed to be Ain's, but somehow or other, Uncle Syed managed to get hold of 2 free tickets (I haven't heard the story yet), so Ain is going on a later date, with Sarah. Thus...I came to be the proud new owner of this little ticket.

So it was me, Dan, Nana, Lisa, Cams, Maya, YinLi, Anji, Auntie Anne and Auntie Dora. We didn't get to sit all together in one long row, but instead sat two-by-two. But we were very much within speaking range, so all was well.

Needless to say, the show was made of pure awesome. I had a blast, even though Nana claimed that the crowd was boring, because when we sang along, they looked at us like we were crazy. Which we might just be, but it's MammaMia, come on. And we weren't even the ones who grew up listening to ABBA.

The cast was simply amazing. They were so energetic, enthusiastic and, for the lack of a better word, so very semangat-ed. I wanted to stand up and dance along. Too bad I can't dance for nuts.

Probably, my favourite numbers were... Dancing Queen, Voulez Vous, Super Trouper and Take A Chance On Me. I still feel like the The Winner Takes It All sequence was a little too long, but you could really feel the vocal prowess of the actress there. Way cool. :)

When the story ended and the cast came out to sing 3 last numbers (Mamma Mia, Dancing Queen and Waterloo), the crowd finally stood up, with our group being one of the very first. We danced(-ish), clapped and sang along, and cheered the cast on until they finally waved the last goodbye and disappeared backstage.

After that, it was decided that we would all go get a bite to eat, so we bundled into Anji's car, with the four DALE girls at the back. Still pumped with the rush of music, the four of us started singing a plethora of songs, none of which were MammaMia! songs for some reason. The songs ranged from Britney Spears, to High School Musical (and unfortunately, Camp Rock too, which I did not give in to), to My Chemical Romance. It was hella fun. ;D

We went to Chef & Brew, a restaurant in Damansara. Auntie Anne and Auntie Dora and their respective kids too a cab home soon. The rest of us ate there, and were joined by Acap later on. We spent quite a long time there, chatting and stuff.

It was one of those days when I just want to say to the world, "I LOVE MY FAMILY." ;)

***

FINALLY I'm done updating. *dies*

PS: I am addicted to Grey's Anatomy.

Junsuuuuuuuuu!

2008-12-11T21:54:00.002+08:00

From cute...

to...

super...

effing...

SEXY.

*squeals*

He. Is. Too. Yummy. xD

Some unabashed fangirly-ness.

Maow

2008-12-04T20:29:00.004+08:00

Stolen from Kay-senpai's blog, because some of these things are strangely fun to do:

My ex...
is non-existent as of yet, seeing as I've never even had a single boyfriend before. *confetti*

Maybe I should...
stop trying to think of something to type here...

I love...
buying books even though I'm really running out of space for them. And also tea. I frickin' love tea.

People would say that i'm...
different from what they expected me to be. That is, if they get to know me well enough.

I don't understand...
how some humans are capable of hating others to the point of wanting to hurt them.

When I wake up in the morning...
I turn around and go back to sleep. :P

I lost...
my eraser. Again.

Life is full of...
shit we wish we didn't have to deal with and happiness we wish we could have all the time.

My past is...
something to be looked back upon only to learn from mistakes, and not to dwell on regrets... Or at least it should be.

I get annoyed when...
things annoy me.

Parties are...
not really my kind of thing. I prefer small celebrations to big parties.

I wish...
I could fly. And that I had a pet lion cub. D:

Dogs...
are cute. :)

Cats...
are cute too! :)

Tomorrow...
I'm actually going to watch Twilight even though I don't like the book. *crinkles nose*

I have low tolerance...
when my sister is being an insensitive, spoilt brat. But she hasn't been that today. :)

If I had a million dollars...
I'd have to sit down and really really think of what to do with it. And since I don't have a million dollars (yet), why bother going through all that fuss?

I'm totally terrified...
of losing the ones I love. And also individual presentations. Eeeep!

NFI day

2008-12-03T16:35:00.003+08:00

The 1st December marked Farah Idayu's sixteenth birthday. :)

In celebration, Fairy invited some close ones to spend a night with her in The Legend Hotel, KL.

Mama sent me to Dan's in the morning, and from there, Dan and I went to Bangsar Village 2's MPH to get book vouchers for Han. Other than that, I got 3 books:

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Dan payed for The City of Ember and The Graveyard Book as a belated birthday present. :) Muchos gracias, Danu! <3

After that we picked up Han from her house, then headed to Fairy's. There, Dan and I played a short gmae of chess (I won, somehow. It was pretty stupid, actually...) before Fairy's cousins arrived and we all (8 of us altogether, discluding Fairy's parents) proceeded to the hotel.

Our 'act civillized' plan worked for about... 10 seconds. We couldn't stay quiet for much longer than that. Luckily, Fairy's mom had gotten our rooms earlier (2 for us), and we had only to bring our luggage up and settle in.

We had lunch at The Mall. The 8 of us ate at Kenny Roger's, then explored a bit. But The Mall is pretty darn boring for people who are used to the likes of OU, The Curve and Megamall, so we soon left and returned to the our rooms.

After giving our stomachs some time to digest the food we'd eaten, we went swimming. :D It was a normal, rectangular pool, but the deepest end was 10 feet deep, which made it fun. :)

We had a buffet dinner in the hotel restaurant. The food was pretty good, and we all enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Even, I daresay, Fairy's parents, who sat through all our silly banter, laughing along.

We stayed in the restaurant till around 10.30 I think, and then us teens lepak-ed at the piano, playing a little, talking a lot. Then we went back to our rooms, changed into our pajamas and watched America's Top Model together. Hahah. Well, I was only half-watching. The other half of my attention was focused on the PSP in my hands. xD

It was past midnight when we finally retreated to our respective rooms for the night. Despite being exhausted from the swimming, Dan, Fairy, Han and I didn't go straight to sleep. Oh no, we stayed up a bit more, singing. Thank goodness the walls weren't paper-thin, because I doubt anyone would be very happy to hear all the howling and screaming we were doing. Especially when we were singing Numb.

After a while, we grew tired of singing, so we settled under the sheets and turned out the lights. But the noise didn't stop there. We continued chatting in the dark for a while before finally using up all that energy and falling asleep.

The next day, we had a nasi lemak breakfast in our hotel room while watching a movie called Flicka. Then we all bathed, packed up our stuff, checked by 1.30 or so, and went to Cosmo's World, Times Square. :D

Needless to say, we had a lot of fun, though I got nauseous after the DNA Mixer (you'd think I'd have known better by now, since the last time I'd ridden it, I got nauseous as well, but it's too much fun), which led to me skipping a few rides I would otherwise have gone on. I still enjoyed myself though. :)

We left Times Square sometime past six. Fairy's dad sent Han, Dan and I back. I had dinner at the Husswan residence with Dan, Anji and Acap before heading home with Abah.

Back at mi casa, all the activities of the past two days were already catching up to me, and I was exhausted as hell. All the same, it was a Tuesday and I still stayed up to watch Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives. ;) But it was straight to bed after that.

And today, I woke up to groan-worthy muscle pains galore. Whoopee!

LoveLoveLove

2008-11-30T19:38:00.004+08:00

The Husswans in yesterday's STAR:

click to enlarge :O

You can see Dan's red hat hiding behind Anji. :D Acap kinda looks like a celebrity, with his hat and his guitar case. Why tak pakai your shades?

Went to OU yesterday and bought this:

I love hoodies. :)

As well as a birthday present for Fairy, whose birthday is tomorrow. :D

Abah, Mama, Julia and I watched Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa. It was better than I thought it would be. Indeed worth watching. :) King Julien and the Penguins are my favourite. ;)

Okaerinasai

2008-11-29T09:49:00.005+08:00

The Husswans are finally home from Thailand, safe and sound, alhamdulillah. :)

They were supposed to be home by Wednesday, but the airport was closed due to the political problems they are having now. So they were stranded there.

That being the case, we (the Ramlis) were the only ones at Opah's yesterday, since the Syeds are in Florida and Omar is sick so he stayed home for the day.

Opah's house is really quiet without the rest of the kiddies. It was both peaceful and lonely. I spent most of the day reading Inkdeath and sleeping. Alright, mostly sleeping. We had tea and dinner as usual. Auntie Anum came around tea-time as usual, and Uncle Zak, Auntie Tia and Omar appeared for dinner.

me: *switches on Ultraman for Omar*
Kak Pur: Cakap thank you kat Kak Rina.
me: *taps cheek*
Omar: *kisses cheek* Thank you.

I just think he's adorable. Really noisy at times, but adorable.

The Husswans, meanwhile, had set out early in the morning, heading towards a military base where MAS had arranged a flight for all the stranded people. The plane was due to leave around 5PM and reach home around 8PM, but it was delayed.

Nevertheless we waited for them at Opah's house till 10.30 or so. I spent around half and hour of that time trying to convince myself to call Huda (I was bored out of my skull, seriously, it was either I call someone or sleep again), and when I finally did, she didn't pick up. So I gave it a few minutes before calling again. She picked up this time, only to tell me that she was in a cinema.

This is why I don't call people much. I almost always catch them at a bad time.

After that, I went into the bathroom and lay down on the floor (it was dry btw), in the dark, feeling stupid. :P

At 10:30 or so, us Ramlis decided to wait at the Husswan residence instead, so we did, bringing Nadia with us. Poor Nadia. 10 days without her family. :(

We waited and waited until half and hour before minute before they finally arrived. I don't even remember what I did during that time. Walk around, stare at my phone, fail at playing the piano, read a chapter of my book, write a little...

It was great seeing them all again. Acap was wearing a white hat and carrying a guitar case (later on Dan told me he had gotten yet another new guitar), and the first thing he did when he entered the house was look in the mirror. The second thing he did was go up to the attic with Amir and do some jamming. x3

Armand was his usual emo-looking-self, staring blankly into space. That is, until he was put down and he started running around, laughing at Cami.

And Dan... hit me when I told her I got Inkdeath. D: She was all hyper in that way she usually gets when I'm with her. Hahah.

Haiih, I missed these people while they were away, man. Really.

We stayed until around 1AM before heading home.

Anyways, I had my last exam paper on Wednesday. History of Asian Art. It was easy. :D I'm free now! For now. Wednesday also marked the day Huda officially left Unisel. Not something I'd like to discuss, so let's leave it at that.

What should I do today?

Colours of the...paints

2008-11-22T12:47:00.007+08:00

After weeks and weeks of fretting about it, I've finally finished the acrylic painting for my Drawing final project.

I started doing it on Wednesday night, working on it form around nine till twelve, then spent the whole of the next day on it. And I mean literally the entire day, only stopping to eat my meals and a half hour break before dinner. I finally finished the painting around 20 minutes before two.

And here it is!!!

The original picture:

Progress shots:

The grapes and the background were a big pain.

I dominated the dining table, lol.

And of course, being me, I couldn't help but start painting on my self too. :)

Genjyo Sanzo! :D

And this is supposed to be a phoenix... but it looks more like a red peacock. :P

It feels great to have finished that painting. :)

Just The Two Of Us

2008-11-16T00:30:00.000+08:00

D'you remember how we got these nicknames?

I knew you'd get it. And I'm not just saying that. For someone with a fat head and egoistic tendencies, you really need to have more faith in yourself.

Congratulations, you. I haven't said that yet, have I?

Did you know...? When you told me, that time in the cafe, I had already begun to tear up. As you know, it doesn't take too much to trigger my tear ducts. Just another similarity between you and I.

I am truly truly happy for you. I know you needed to get this. But...

I've been lucky enough to have one of my best friends studying in the same university as me, and I'm extremely grateful for that. I can't tell you how...thrilled I was when you called me that day months ago and told me you'd be going to Unisel. I was literally jumping for joy and shouting happily, to the point where my mom sent Julia to check on me.

But that just makes me all the sadder that now, you'll be leaving.

I'm going to miss:

1) SMS-ing you after every single class, asking "Where is you?" and waiting with half-patience for a reply

2)Feeling my phone vibrate in my pocket and seeing "I is in my dorm! Can you come up?" on the screen

3) Ordering either McD or Domino's with you and pigging out (as far as 'pigging out' goes for the likes of me) in the cafe/koperasi

4) Sitting at a table in the cafe/koperasi, drawing or playing games on my phone, and hearing your voice from somewhere behind saying "Hey, baby~"

5) Tolerating your teasing about "Taknaklah, dah kenyang..." or "bluetoot" or "baber" (although I like that word too now)

6) Talking fast-paced crap with you while Yus watches on, laughing at us

7) Watching you stare at every little gay/Sanzo doodle in my book

8) Saying in unision, "That's so gay!" about every little thing

9) Walking up to your dorm and finding you...

...asleep

10) Taking your hands and either cracking your knuckles or tickling your wrist or tightening your watch strap

11) All our gay moments, especially the ones on your bed ;D

12) Sitting on your bed, listening to music on our phones and talking the time away

It won't be quite the same without you to brighten up my day. Sure, it's not like I won't have any friends anymore, but I'm sure pretty much everyone I know would agree with me when I say college friends are just not the same as school friends. These are the people you wore those light blue kurungs or pinafores with, the people you freaked out about and lived through PMR/SPM with, the people you groaned and puzzled about addmaths with, the people you had recess with.

But I guess it's not that bad. I mean, it's not like you're going to the other end of the world or something. Melaka is a lot better than Rompin, right? I will definitely be visiting you whenever I balik kampung. And I'm still going to shower you with e-mails, SMSes, Facebook comments, blog comments, etc etc...

But I'm still going to miss you.

I'm really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really (I could go on and on...) going to miss you.

Ilu, baber.♥