Goodbye 2006, Hello 2007!

Well, Christmas 2006 is over, and the new year 2007 is hitting us in exactly 5 days' time... So what have I got to say for myself this year? Have I been naughty or nice? I think I've been more nice than naughty... I mean, weighing it out comparatively, of course. Let me just run through the list of events and things I've put myself through this past year, okay?


Esther's Significant Events of 2006:

(1) Start of 2006 - I entered my 1st year, 2nd semester of TESL studies in UNIMAS. Looking back, it feels like such a long time ago, when I was still that rather naive, idealistic freshman, thinking the whole world of tertiary education was just oh-so-perfect and chummy, y'know? But yeah, I got through that semester, and now I've kinda 'wisened up', if that's what you can call it... I also moved out of college, and started driving to and fro each day. Yes, it sounds kinda hectic, but if you consider it all, the pros definitely outweigh (by a few miles and more) the cons. So who cares if I get home each day and literally pengsan for the rest of the afternoon? At least I still got to laze around the house in relative comfort eh? Not to mention the beautiful invention of mankind called the 'idiot box'.

(2) Mid-year 2006 - In March/April, I officially ended my stint as a university freshman, what with the culmination of it all ending in final exams and all. Then one month passed another, I think it was May, yeah, and I had the opportunity to travel to Singapore with a few of my church band members for a worship conference there. It really was a great experience (refer to my previous blog here for details). In June, the World Cup started in Germany. My team (Portugal!) did really well, and I'm happy they got as far as they did. In late June, I was called up to join some training at UNIMAS for Liaison Officers, to welcome the new intake of freshmen entering UNIMAS in July. It was 1 week of so-called 'training', and then it was Orientation Week, so altogether I was back in uni 2 weeks earlier than I should have been, if I had otherwise refused to be involved. But yeah, I took up the challenge, I survived, and you know what? It was a lot of hard work and sweat, not to mention the rather severe sunburns I got, but yeah I seriously did enjoy myself. Meeting new friends, getting to know some juniors, sharing laughs with other LOs... Welcoming new students at the bus depot and the airport, transporting students in buses (I more or less had full control of a whole bus all to myself), distributing food, conducting games and icebreakers, waking them all up at like 1 o'clock in the morning for a 'fire drill', yeah it was all in great fun, and would I like to do it all again? I dunno. I'll see when the time comes. In July, I officially ditched my role as a freshman to become a sophomore! Yes! Esther, now 2nd year TESL student in UNIMAS. Oh boy, this semester was nothing short of chaotic and stress. Being a sophomore is nothing like being a freshman. Talk about the shedding of all that first-year-oh-so-innocent mentality. And oh yeah, we finally moved into the new campus. I also moved back into college, just for the fun of it, y'know, to be able to say I stayed in both the old and new campuses. Oh yeah. Of course, the courses got harder, not to mention all the red tape procedures we all had to go through just to get the simplest of things done. But still, chalk it all up to experience eh? I also got myself involved (heavily involved!) with the UNIMAS English Debate team. In August, our then-small-and-unknown team competed in the Yayasan Sarawak World Style English Debate Competition, and it was great fun. It was an added bonus that I managed to steal off 300 bucks by being adjudicated as one of the three most proficient speakers... Oh yeah, definitely one of the highs of this year for me.

(3) Coming to the end of 2006 - I was still very much involved in all the debating stuff. More and more people started joining, and as of this moment, we're a pretty big family. As for my studies, well... To say that I slacked off would be one of the greatest understatements of this year. I really need to pull up my socks, buck up, start digging my nose into those books, y'know what I mean? Yeah, my studies dropped, to say the least. I failed 2 midterms, then had to face the possibility of getting Cs... But now looking back, after all that's over... Well, I don't think I did as bad as I thought after all. More about that soon. It's not official yet, but it should be confirmed within the next month or so. Anyway, yeah back to the debate. We ended up joining the Royals, which I have blogged about, just check out the previous entries. We didn't win, but we'll be back. Then on the 14th of December I turned 21. Enough said about this topic (which I've blogged to the death!), and moving on to Christmas. Christmas this year was a little different than the past years, 'cause this year my church decided to celebrate Christmas in the kampungs! Yup, just 2 days ago, I woke up at like 6am, and my Lifegroup members came to pick me up and we all drove the 1 hour plus journey to Pasir Hilir, which is the kampung my Lifegroup were celebrating Christmas in. It was interesting. Ask me if you want to know more.

So yeah. That's it. More or less what's been going on this past year. Doesn't sound like much to some of you, I know, but you know what? This were the highlights of my year, and it'll probably end up stuck in my memory banks for a few years to come. So to sum up this year, here take a look at what I've discovered this year:

In 2006, I discovered...

• Howie Day
• Teitur
• that I'm not as nice, or friendly, or patient, as I previously thought I was
• that people can be nice one moment, and mean the next
• that not all that glitters is gold
• most friends will come and go, but a few (very few) friends will stay forever
• that out of these few friends who stay forever, some are not that nice, but a miniscule few are real treasures to cherish and keep (to this friends, I say "thank you")
• no matter what happens, life goes on
• Patrizio Buanne
• that I can't seem to control my eating habits
• my favourite position in the debate team is when I'm the Whip
• that I still haven't completed reading the entire LOTR trilogy
• Yahoo! Avatars
• blogspot.com
• that even if you don't know anything about a subject, crapping 5 pages or so in the final exams can still get you an A
• that there is a reputation that comes with getting an A by crapping 5 pages in the finals
• contact lenses go dry and crisp under air-conditioning
• too much pasta will make me sick
• too much Coca-Cola will make me sick
• too much sleep will make me sick
• too much of anything will make me sick
• Grey's Anatomy
• there is more to life than what I am currently doing
• I get terrible headaches if I don't get enough sleep
• chewing Panadol without water tastes really bad
• sometimes, to be nice you've gotta be cruel
• I don't know very much about politics or economics
• singing at the top of my lungs while speeding 80 km/h is very stress-relieving
• I cannot sing
• I get lonely sometimes...
• sad songs can make one cry
• I love sad songs
• I love dreamy songs
• cooking in the middle of the night is an exhilarating experience
• U2's "With or Without You"
• Jerry Yan's songs
• my favourite Daniel Bedingfield song is still "Never Gonna Leave Your Side"
• some people change - some people don't
• it is possible to not take a bath/shower for 3 days
• it is not possible to smell nice without a bath/shower in 3 days
• it's nice to sit back and reminisce when a good song's playing in the background
• punctuality is almost everything
• sometimes you find a true friend where you least expect it
• Goo Goo Dolls
• writing is rather hard work
• I'm not getting any younger
• file-sharing programmes
• if I try really hard, I can understand a little Mandarin
• understanding a little Mandarin is not gonna get me through an entire Mandarin drama series with no subtitles
• life can be rather monotonous
• I can drink 4 to 5 cups of tea a day
• genius can only get you a short distance
• "Nobody's perfect... I'm Nobody."

And with that, 2006 comes to a rather brilliant end ("Goodbye 2006!"), and here's hoping 2007 will be equally (or more) fun than this year has been("Hello 2007!")! Have a great New Year you all... Cheers!

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Alright then! Christmas is really round the corner now, and I guess I'll just have to speed up my entries for my Collection of Constipated, Convoluted Carols. So here's one more:

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

You better watch out

You better not cry

Better not pout I'm telling you why

Santa Claus is coming to town

He's making a list,

And checking it twice

Gonna find out who's naughty and nice.

Santa Claus is coming to town

He sees you when you're sleeping

He knows when you're awake

He knows if you've been bad or good

So be good for goodness sake!

You better watch out

You better not cry

Better not pout, I'm telling you why

Santa Claus is coming to town

Santa Claus is coming to town

Now this here song, my friends, is arguably one of the worst songs on the air right now. Why? Because it teaches children to be paranoid. Yes! Paranoid! How? Let me count the ways:

First stanza: "You better watch out... You better not cry... Better not pout I'm telling you why... Santa Claus is coming to town..." My goodness. I mean, what else do you think this means? It's blackmail, people! BLACKMAIL! You better not... You better not... Gasp! Horror of horrors! Now you're bribing a kid into not making a sound or a pip just because some old fellow in a white beard and a red suit is 'coming to town'? This was probably how the folks of olden days got their children to behave so well in the company of house guests... Gasp! What are we trying to turn our children into? Silent, noiseless walking androids about town?

Second stanza: Now this one's really scary. What do you mean by saying Santa's 'making a list' huh? A list of what, exactly? That's what I wanna know... Why does he have to check it twice? Check what twice? And why does he have to make a list of who's been 'naughty and nice'? Who is this guy anyway huh? The CIA? The FBI? Secret Service? Rakan Cop? It's driving me nuts? What list is Santa making this time? Is my name on it? Who put my name on it? Whatever it is - I DIDN'T DO IT! See? You're just gonna make all the cute little kids go nuts with all the secretive stuff... You're harping on their paranoia, people! That can't be right now... Can it?

Third stanza: Man, this is the ultimate in paranoia: "He sees you when you're sleeping... He knows when you're awake..." What? Now Santa Claus is a Peeping Tom? This is worse than all the horror movies they're showing on the telly and the cinema... Imagine this: There you are sleeping in your bed, and suddenly you hear a noise. You look up, and there, hanging on your window sill, is an old man, his white beard, pinkish nose, and stupid grin plastered on your window pane... And he's looking straight at you. And then he goes "Ho ho ho!"... I think I would scream. And run. Real fast. And the last two lines of this stanza: "He knows if you've been bad or good... So be good for goodness sake!" I mean, in the first place, how does Santa know whether I've been bad or good? Is he psychic? Or someone's been tale-telling eh? Who's telling him all these things huh? Who's leaking my every move and word to him? Who's spying on me? Children - being children and all - are gonna get really paranoid and suspicious of everything and everybody... Their parents, their siblings, their classmates, their teachers, the little cute puppy whose head they pet everyday, the fire hydrant sitting just outside their bedroom windows... It's called paranoia, my friends.

Fourth stanza: There's really nothing much to say about this stanza. It's pretty much repetitive... And the last two lines "Santa Claus is coming to town... Santa Claus is coming to town..." You know how phobias are formed in the first place? Tell a kid enough times that a snake is poisonous, and then repeat "Snakes are bad" a few times each day... Eventually the poor kid's gonna be so freaked out about snakes, the next time he sees one, he's not gonna scream, y'know. You know what he's gonna do when he sees a snake? He's gonna go berserk. I dunno. Maybe go hysterical, pee in his pants, faint... Oh no. He's not just gonna scream. That's not a big enough reaction to counter the complex you've drilled into him day in day out that snakes are bad... This is exactly what we're doing with this song, people. Tell a kid that Santa Claus is watching his every move, and he's gonna end up getting what I'd like to term the 'Santa Claus Syndrome' - and no, it's not as nice, or as fun, or as cute, as it sounds. Because the kid really is gonna have a phobia for all things related to Santa Claus and his Peeping Tom cum Secret Agent tendencies...

Do we want this for our future generation? I certainly hope not. And I sure hope you agree with me. The only solution to this?

Ban this song.

Carol Number Two: Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer

This is simply horrifying... Talk about songs that should be banned... This really should be banned! No need for me to go all analyzing and explaining this song... Just read! Brrrrrrrrrr! Simply horrifying.

Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer

Grandma got run over by a reindeer.

Walking home from our house Christmas eve.

You can say there's no such thing as Santa,

But as for me and grandpa we believe.

She'd been drinking too much eggnog,

And we begged her not to go.

But she forgot her medication, and she

Staggered out the door into the snow.

When we found her Christmas morning,

At the scene of the attack,

She had hoof-prints on her forehead,

And incriminating Claus marks on her back.

Grandma got run over by a reindeer.

Walking home from our house Christmas eve.

You can say there's no such thing as Santa,

But as for me and grandpa we believe.

Now we're all so proud of grandpa,

He's been taking this so well.

See him in there watching football,

Drinking root beer and

Playing cards with Cousin Mel.

It's not Christmas without Grandma,

All the family's dressed in black

And we just can't help but wonder:

Should we open up her gifts,

Or send them back?

Send them back!

Grandma got run over by a reindeer.

Walking home from our house Christmas eve.

You can say there's no such thing as Santa,

But as for me and grandpa we believe.

Now the goose is on the table

And the pudding made of fig

And the blue and silver candles

That would just have matched

The hair on grandma's wig.

I've warned all myfriends and neighbors

Better watch out for yourselves,

They should never give a license

To a man who drives a sleigh

And plays with elves.

Grandma got run over by a reindeer.

Walking home from our house Christmas eve.

You can say there's no such thing as Santa,

But as for me and grandpa we believe.

And to think I thought Christmas carols were all happy sweet little things to put smiles on people's faces... Urgh. The world is a cruel, twisted place indeed... And now we really know Santa Claus isn't as nice as we all thought he was, eh?

Another blog... Sigh.

Right, guys. I've set up another blog, but the thing is it's not really a blog as in a place where you write stuff etc. It's more like a place where I'll be putting up all the results of all sorts of quizzes, surveys, fun stuff, etc. that I've done on the Internet... So yeah, it's actually just a place to vent out my new hobby - taking useless quizzes! Muahahahaha! If, by any chance, you're even the least bit interested to take a look at it, go check it out here. I named it MyLifeAsACrazySurveyTaker for obvious reasons. Or you can access it by clicking on the link I've inserted on the left sidebar. Yeah I've even put in the link to my old blog. So that's it.

Tchau.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

You know what they say, right? 'Tis the season to be jolly, falalalala lalalala... Well, to cut a long story short, about 3 weeks ago, I had this brilliant stroke of genius! I was inspired to, er, come up with a collection of twisted songs... Y'know, songs that are usually viewed as perfectly normal and wholesome for the family and all that stuff... Well, one day I chanced upon a song, and upon further dissection (and a little imagination), I realised there was a hidden meaning to this song! So then I came up with this idea of this new project: getting all these songs and analysing them on my blog for everyone's viewing and reading (and hopefully laughing) pleasure... So here it is, my new project - Esther's Selection of Sick, Sarcastic Songs! The songs in this selection are songs which you should never let little kids with their young, easily impressionable minds listen to... And since it's that time of the year where every restaurant, shopping mall, and hawker stall beside the drain starts blaring out Christmas songs, let's start off this selection with Esther's Collection of Constipated, Convoluted Carols, starting off with the dissection of the popular children's song Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which coincidentally, was the song I actually mentioned earlier, the one where I suddenly realised contained a hidden meaning. Enjoy.

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer

You know Dasher and Dancer
And Prancer and Vixen,
Comet and Cupid
And Donner and Blitzen.
But do you recall
The most famous reindeer of all?

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer
Had a very shiny nose
And if you ever saw it
You would even say it glows

All of the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names
They never let poor Rudolph
Play in any reindeer games

Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say
"Rudolph with your nose so bright
Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?"

Then all the reindeer loved him
And they shouted out with glee
"Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer
You'll go down in history!"

Now, the thing is, you're probably wondering what's so wrong (or constipated) about this song... This is where you need my help. Here, have a closer look:

First stanza

You know Dasher and Dancer

And Prancer and Vixen,

Comet and Cupid

And Donner and Blitzen.

But do you recall

The most famous reindeer of all?

As you can see (or maybe you can't), this entire song starts off wrong right from the very start! So what if I know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen and Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen? Our minds are precious things, with limited storage space! We shouldn't be wasting our memory banks on worthless details like the names of 8 reindeers! And even if you really wanted to remember their names, who would even in the first place wanna be friends with reindeer with really bad moral values? The name Vixen alone means "temperamental and sexy woman"! And Dasher means "one who makes an ostentatious parade"! You want your children to hang around with reindeer like these? Do you even want your children to make friends with reindeer? People befriend people - normal people do not befriend reindeer! And the last 2 lines of the stanza is actually promoting a very negative value - competitiveness and popularity. So what if I don't recall the most famous reindeer of them all? Are the IUBR (International United Board of Reindeer, Inc.) gonna come and stage a riot or something if I can't remember their names? Stop it with all this competitiveness already, people!

Second stanza
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer
Had a very shiny nose
And if you ever saw it
You would even say it glows

I find this stanza very disturbing. I cannot emphasize the total gruesomeness of this stanza much more than this: Not every one is lucky enough to be born with a non-shiny nose. We are all different. Some people are more fortunate than others, and are born with lovely, smooth noses that don't shine in the moonlight. Other people, are well... Less lucky. This is the case with Rudolph. My question is this - so what if he has a birth defect? He still deserves every inch of respect and love from the reindeer community, okay? This is a very sensitive issue and I really don't know how best to breach this topic to you all out there reading this here article. So Rudolph the poor miserable reindeer had a humongous, glow-in-the-dark lightbulb at the very tip of his breathing device. So what? It can still perform its original function, right? A nose is meant for breathing with, not meant for you to go all around the world on Santa's sleigh to show it off, okay? And man, the last 2 lines of the 2nd stanza... Arguably the worst lines to be found in this song. So now we wanna teach our future generations to poke fun at reindeer with red, shining noses? Fine, go ahead, but let this be known: by teaching them to ridicule people's noses, you are gonna teach them to be prejudiced and biased against people with less-than-perfect noses. Shame!

Third stanza
All of the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names
They never let poor Rudolph
Play in any reindeer games

I really don't need to say much about this stanza. It's self-explanatory in its entirety. Look, let's just use our imaginations a little and try to put ourselves in Rudolph's miserable shoes: There you are, you have a gargantuan traffic light for a nose, and all you wanna do is crawl up into a little hole and die from the embarrassment of it all (twinkly noselights are not cool), all you wanna do is run away and hide, and all you were really hoping for was for everyone else to just pretend there was no hideous monstrosity on your sniffing device, and maybe in your wildest dreams, everyone would still wanna be your friend... Does this happen? Sadly, no. What does happen is the complete opposite of everything you were wishing and hoping for. In fact, what does happen is something out of your very worst nightmare. Every other reindeer friend you had, and even your own reindeer family, they all come out of their little perfect reindeer homes and they all start pointing their antlers at you and start laughing. Yes. Laughing. At you. And they all avoid you on the streets when you go shopping for new antler stockings. And all the mother reindeer, when they see you walking towards them, they all kinda shrink and shudder away from your gaze, and pull their darling baby reindeer with their perfect little noses closer towards themselves, away from you... As if the little Christmas ornament was contagious or something! And when you try to be nice and friendly, and you give that cute little baby reindeer in the reindeer trolley a sweet smile, what does he do but burst out in hysterical wailings of "Monster! Get him away from me!" And you knw what's the very worst part of this whole catastrophe? In Reindeer High School, your own reindeermates don't even want to talk to you... They don't even let you join in their little gossips and stupid playground games. And all these, just because your nose is sort of more shiny than other reindeer's. Oh, the shame and humiliation of it all. Poor Rudolph.

Fourth stanza
Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say
"Rudolph with your nose so bright
Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?"

Okay. The story so far: Imagine you're Rudolph the deeply misunderstood reindeer. You're on the brink of madness. You just wanna crawl under your bedsheets and sleep for one week straight. Then on Christmas Eve, Santa comes knocking on your door. Okay. He doesn't quite do that. What he actually does is throw little pebbles on your little reindeer bedroom window and yell out "Hey, Lightbulb-Face! Come out! I've got something to say to you!" Of all the people in Reindeer Town, you'd think Santa would understand right? Wrong. Santa, in actual reality, isn't all that nice as everyone says he is. He's just got a really good publicist, who pays off the right media people with enough money to spread the image of a jolly smiling white-bearded Santa. In actual fact, Santa's got two earrings in his left earlobe and his breath reeks of the beer he drank from the last party he attended. So then, what does Santa want with Rudolph the acne-prone reindeer? It all goes back to his really good publicist, see... Rudolph's already renowned the whole world over for his little torchlight-for-a-nose problem, see, and what better way to boost up the image of kind and charitable Santa than taking Rudolph under your wings and kinda like, pretending to befriend him, see? So Santa does just that, and he says to Rudolph: "Yo, Rudy! Think you can handle my turbo power SuperSleigh?" It's the image power-up scheme see, and also, Santa's a little bit on the drunken side, and so are all his turbo power sleigh-driving reindeer, and there's been a leak from the Reindeer Cops that there's gonna be a bust-up tonight, see, and they're gonna have reindeer roadblocks on every turning and they're whipping out the Reindeer Breathalysers tonight... This is where Rudolph comes in. Sober, I-don't-drink-alcohol Rudolph. Poor Rudolph. Getting tricked, being used, and he doesn't even have a clue.

Fifth stanza
Then all the reindeer loved him
And they shouted out with glee
"Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer
You'll go down in history!"

This is the most widely misunderstood stanza in the entire song. Everybody thinks that you know what? After Rudolph leads Santa's sleigh right, suddenly he's popular, and all the reindeer wanna be his friends now, and they've finally accepted Rudolph and his blinking-headlight nose, and now things are just spiffy, and sparkly clean, and oh-so-lovely, and everybody lives happily ever after in Reindeer Town. That's the original story. Or so the entire world thinks. You wanna know what really happens? I got this from a reindeer frined who was actually at the scene of the crime that night. Here's what really happened: So Rudolph, being the sad little reindeer that he is, you know, just looking for a little love and acceptance amongst his fellow reindeer, of course he says "Yes, I'll guide your sleigh, Santa!" and he left that night in a blaze of upturned snow from the over-pumped turbo power SuperSleigh exhaust pipe. What Rudolph forgot, and apparently what every other silly reindeer in little Reindeer Town forgot, was that Rudolph - poor little pathetic reindeer - was underaged! I mean, hello! He didn't even have a Reindeer Class Driving License! What else do you think could have happened? He took a U-turn a little too fast, a little too dangerously, and the entire SuperSleigh kinda came to a crashing somersault, right there just above the blinking lights of the Eiffel Tower. I mean, honestly, how he even got that far from the South Pole to Paris without being caught by the Reindeer Cops, I dunno. So of course, they arrested him, and locked him up in the Bastille (yes, apparently it's still up and operating, but they only admit 'special' cases)... The last I heard of Rudolph, he was sharing a cell with the likes of Robin Hood (crimes of stealing, rioting, shooting illegal game in Sherwood Forest), Woody Woodpecker (illegal logging of precious Amazonian trees), and Cinderella (fraud and false identity, apparently... She couldn't quite leave behind her old life and the Prince used to find her in the middle of the night in the Palace kitchens, rubbing charcoal on her face, the floor, the walls... The final straw was when she rubbed soot into his brand new Cadillac).

So you see, my friends? When they said Rudolph would go down in history, they really did mean just that. He's history now.

Now you see why we should ban this song from the airwaves? And keep them out of little children's innocent little ears? Now you know.

Poor Rudolph.

A totally original EVSH fictional work of art.

Saturday and Sunday

As the title states, this blog entry concerns this past 2 days.

Saturday, 16th Dec. '06: Woke up rather early I think... Had a breakfast/light lunch of instant noodles in the cup thingy where y'know you just add in the hot water and stuff. Drove up to church, where had practise session for Sunday's praise and worship. Drove back home at approximately 2 pm, where I had my lunch of this interesting combination of chicken and pork slices drenched with a thick, starchy curry gravy. Yummy! One of my favourite meals! When I'm actually sitting in the shop eating it, I can consume up to 3 or 4 little saucers of their lovely chilli sauce. I think my best record so far's 5 little saucers. I think their workers must think I'm mad or something. Seriously though, their chilli sauce is really something special. After lunch, watched a little TV, then retired to my room to read Firestarter. At about 4.30 pm, set out to church again, where we had another practise session, this time for the Youth service. Then Youth started at 6 pm, and ended at about 9 pm after a potbless dinner - i.e. everybody brings a dish. Went home, I think I went online for a while... Frankly I can't quite remember. I think I went back up to my room and did some reading. I remember listening to some music on my laptop. Ah yes... And then I had a terrible stomach ache at approximately 1.30 am! Ouch!

Sunday, 17th Dec. '06: Woke up at 7.20 am, went to church. Played bass. Reached home at 11.30 am. Watched a little TV. Went to sleep. My mom woke me up at about 4.30 pm and asked me if I wanted to go buy some clothes. Definitely! So I went with her, and I came back at 6 pm with a new pair of long jeans, a new pair of 3 quarter jeans, and a new pair of bright orange sandals. Muahahahaha! So happy! New clothes - especially an extra pair of jeans - always makes me really happy! Watched a really nice Hindi movie starring Salman Khan and Manisha Koirala. I missed the first half because I went shopping. Then watched the program - which one is that? The yet-another-same-old reality show thingy where they're looking for some new ambassador of sorts for that shampoo thingy. Yeah. And I'm here now, typing all this out for you all to read...

That's my Saturday and Sunday!

Finally 21!

Wow... I almost can't believe it. I'm actually, really, truly, finally 21! Phew! It's such a great relief to be finally here... All day long two days ago (which by the way, if you haven't already known, was actually my birthday), I kept getting all these sms-es telling me stuff like "Welcome to the 21 club!" or "Congrats on reaching 21!" and other similar patterns... So I was, like, thinking, right... What's so great about being 21? I mean, it's only just another number, right? Well, not really, I guess. It's supposed to be this really big thing lar... And I'm really glad! Something's currently very wrong with my Pendrive, so I can't post any pictures here, but once I actually do get it reformatted (or something like that), I'll post up some pictures of the gifts I've received in conjunction with me reaching the adulthood crossroads and driving fast speed right through it.

One of my most treasured birthday presents is a book my dad bought for me. We bought it on my birthday itself. We went to the Times Bookshop at night, and I chose the book myself - Stephen King's Firestarter. I actually read the book many years back, when I was still comparatively younger and all, when my dad brought it home one day. To say that I voraciously devoured the book would be one of the greatest understatements of all time. I simply fell more or less in love with the book. I mean, the plot - it's simply fabulous! There are almost no words to describe the book. So why did I choose it as my present if I've already read it, you're asking? Because, like I've said just a few sentences ago, I really do like the book a lot. I mean, I've been searching almost everywhere these past few years for the book, just hoping, y'know, if I saw it maybe I could buy it and all... But I never did quite see it lying around... And now I have the book! Muahahahaha! It's really mine now! Teeheeheehee! I'm so happy! It's simply beautiful, I tell you! I just started reading (or rather, re-reading) the book today, and I'm ever so careful with the handling of its precious pages... Turning the page oh-so-tenderly, taking precious care not to wreck/tear/fold its oh-so-precious binding and page corners... Muahahahaha! I'm really just so happy! Almost to the point of delirium, eh?

Well, that's it from me for now... Thanks to everyone for the birthday sms-es, messages, greetings, and presents. I really do appreciate it! It's been a fantabulous birthday for me, and I hope when I'm older, my brain cells and memory banks won't fail me, and I'd still be able to look back to this year and say to my grandkids: "Ah... Now that was a great 21st birthday to remember!"

Cheers.

Memory pieces...

Well. I guess this is it. It's approximately 8.15 pm now. Another 3 hours and 45 minutes to the 14th of December, 2006. What's so special about this date? Because it is on this historical date, people, that Esther Voon will finally hit the big 21, forever leaving behind the digits 1 to 20 as she continues bravely onwards (really?) on the road of adulthood, marching onwards to more and more digits as the years continue to fly quickly by... Right?

Wrong!

Esther shall always be Esther, however old she may be! Even when Esther's digits have hit 99, Esther shall still be tearing around the Christmas tree, shrieking with glee and scaring her grandchildren with her clumsy hops and skips, muahahahaha! So like it or not, people, Esther shall always be Esther. *grins*

But honestly though, looking back on all those childish years (they say 21 year olds are officially adults, eh?), I can't help but wonder where it all went. Looking back, I wonder if there was anything I could have changed? The answer is definitely. But then again, those are just memory pieces now. Yup, memory pieces. Why memory pieces? Why have I titled my blog entry this time to be 'Memory Pieces'? LoL! I started listening to some of Jerry Yan's songs, and there's oe song of his that I like very much, and it's called 'Memory Pieces', and I kinda thought, yeah, it'll be a nice title for a blog entry, don't you think? Anyway, it's really very apt, y'know. Memory pieces. They really are memory pieces. Pieces from our past, treasured and stored in our memory chests, onew which from time to time, we take out and flip through. Pieces from our past, great chunks reminiscent of a great childhood past (or in my case, a constant childhood, like it or not, teehee!).

Enough of all this philosophical melancholy. I'm a happy person. I'm a funny person. So far this blog entry has been neither. Moving on...

Last night, three of my great church buddies - Trish, Cassie, and Evelette - came over to my house at approximately 7.45 pm. They'd planned it kinda as a surprise thingy, so when I saw them, yeah. So we had like an impromptu birthday celebration thingy, right there in my house. They even came bearing gifts! For little ole me! Muahahahaha! Thanks you guys! I really do appreciate you three coming over like that, and taking the effort to drive over with food and drinks and all. And thanks to the other two guys who contributed to the gifts. I love the pressies you all! *big grin*

Maybe turning 21 isn't quite so bad after all... I mean, there are a few benefits that come with officially being granted 'adult' status. Right off the top of my head, I can think of a few ideas:

(1) Getting a really big 4-wheel drive and driving amok through town, screaming hysterically at the top of my little lungs, and blaming it all on stress from the workplace, the toot-ing boss, the highly competitive colleagues, the overload of work projects... I mean, only adults suffer from work pressure, right?

(2) Getting arrested for driving a really big 4WD through town and screaming hysterically at the top of my little lungs... I mean like, if I weren't an adult, I won't even be able to be arrested, right? I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but the young escape with everything, so this time, I won't be able to escape, right?

(3) Getting free lodging, food, and company for a few nights, compliments of the city council jail for running amok, screaming at the top of my little lungs through town. I mean, how many youngsters can boast of this, huh?

Boy, being an adult sure is fun. So here's to me hitting the big 21 tomorrow...

"Happy Birthday to ME,

Happy Birthday to ME,

Happy Birthday to Esther...

Happy Birthday to ME!"

P.S. How many people do you know who actually go all out to write themselves their very own birthday tributes eh? And how many people do you know who actually go out and sing to themselves a Happy Birthday? I'm really 'special', eh? End of P.S.

What is fatigue?

Exhaustion.
Tired.
I wanna pengsan.
Sleepy.
Body aching.
Circles under my eyes.
Leg cramps.
Sore throat.
Headache.
Muscles twitching.
Wanna drop dead on the floor.
Sleep.
Really need sleep.
But cannot sleep.
Crick in my neck.
Stomache ache.
Pain.
Dizzy.
Dazed.
Delusional.

What is fatigue?

Ask me.

Fastest ever shopping spree!

Yes, people... I really did it!

Choosing 1 pair of black shoes = 15 minutes
Choosing 1 pair of black sandals = 10 minutes
Paying for shoes and sandals = 3 minutes
Choosing 1 pair of jeans = 20 minutes
Paying for jeans = 1 minute
Total time spent = 49 minutes

Conclusion: Esther pecah rekod! Yes, it's really true! The fastest ever shopping spree relative to the amount of items bought. Gasp! Have I broken the latest record of least time spent shopping? Have I? Have I? "Somebody call the Guinness Book of Records! Esther has done it again!"

Or was I just desperate? Muahahahaha! That's for me to know and for you to find out!

Cheers.

Outdated old me...

Okay, okay. I know my exam was over last Friday, and I know I should have been like, rushing straight to my PC, getting online, and driving myself crazy blogging and all, but what can I say? I got busy... Man, you guys have almost no idea of the great relief I felt that day, when I was sitting in that exam hall, writing what I knew was going to be like, the last few lines of words on my last paper... The feeling was simply... exhilarating. I mean, imagine this people - I've been waiting what feels to be one of the longest weeks in my life, just simply getting by day by day, counting down the hours to the minute I stride out of that exam hall, anticipating burning up all of this semester's notes and stuff... And what am I doing now that it's been 4 whole days since my walk out of prison into the setting sun of freedom?

Watching Meteor Garden.

I know. Some of you are possibly banging your heads against your computer monitors, but seriously, what can I say? The first time it came onto our national airwaves, I was rather dismissive of it. Y'know... The usual bunch of 'cute-cute' actors trying to make more money and gain more hysterical fans... I was like, "Oh no. Not another bad drama." Then one day, I had nothing better to do, so I switched on my television. Boy, was I wrong. To cut a long story short, I became a fan of the series, but unfortunately, I never did quite manage to understand the entire plot. Until tonight, when I finally finished watching all 19 hours of the Season 1, inclusive of the Making-Of section. Sniff sniff! It's such a beautiful story! And the actors are surprisingly good. No, they're GREAT! My favourite is the character Dao Ming Si, which was acted out real well by Jerry Yan. And of course, there's Hua Zhe Lei (Vic Zhao), Vanness' Mei Zhuo, and Ken's Shi Men... But my favourite's still Jerry Yan! I think I actually set a new record for my couch-potato ways. 19 hours in approximately 2 days and a half. Of course, after completing the drama series, my head was sorta spinning, the world looked a little woozy, and my knees kinda felt rather wobbly, but who cares? I finished watching the WHOLE thing! Muahahahaha!

So here's my public announcement now:
(1) If anyone has the Meteor Garden II series, please loan it to me!
(2) If anyone has any posters you don't want, please give me!
(3) If anyone has any live concert shows of F4 or anyone in it, please loan to me!
(4) I think I'm nuts. Do you think I'm nuts too?

All this, coming from a girl who doesn't even speak or understand passable Mandarin. A banana like me, going nuts over a Taiwanese drama of which I have to read the BM subtitles to understand what's going on. All I can say is, man, I'm nuts! *sheepish grin* Cheers.

7 days and counting...

Since last night, the total number of times I've been to the toilet because of diarrhoea has hit the number 4. Or is it 5? I dunno what's up with my stomache! It's going bonkers on me... Or rather, my bowels are. It's like, I could be sitting down reading a nice magazine (refer to previous blog entry, "How To Waste Time"), or lazing around fiddling with my laptop (again, refer previous blog), and all of a sudden I need to go. It's driving me nuts!

Anyway, I really have nothing to write here, right now. I'm just plain bored. I'm supposed to study (exam's next Friday), but I just can't seem to drag myself to pore over my books... Sigh. And I can't seem to access Yahoo! messenger, or MSN messenger, or a certain fun and interactive Yahoo! page... What's going on with my Internet connection? Argh!

Right, now moving on to another topic - Patrizio Buanne! Man, this guy can really sing! Of course, he sings mostly in Italian, and his debut album is called The Italian (he's Italian, by the way), but really, I like his voice and the way he delivers his songs... It kinda brings me back to my childhood days, y'know, watching cartoons and beautiful movies where the soundtrack suddenly shifts to one of those beautiful Italian songs to capture the 'romance' of the moment... Sigh. Patrizio Buanne rocks! And apparently he has a new album out! Gasp! Should I buy it? He's got some really good songs that I like in the new album... Like the Italian version of 'Only You'! I love that song! One of the best love songs ever! AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaahhhh!

"To buy or not to buy, that is the question..."

And here's a picture of my buddy Trish and me, taken last Sunday, the 30th of October, after church service. Isn't this cool, Trish? Now you're famous! Everyone who reads my blog knows who you are! Muahahahaha! It's just you and me... And er, the metal canister for begging outside Starbucks eh? *grins*

Esther's List on How To Waste Time

In the morning, upon waking up from a good night's sleep,

(1) Crawl slowly down the stairs in a state of grogginess (is there such a word?) - 20 minutes
(2) Search for Maggi Mee and 2 eggs - 5 minutes
(3) Slow-cook abovesaid Maggi Mee and 2 eggs - 15 minutes
(4) Eat abovesaid cooked Maggi Mee and 2 eggs - 1 hour
(5) Put bowl aside, read outdated magazines - 2 hours
(6) Crawl slowly down the stairs - 3 minutes
(7) Wash bowl with dried up Maggi Mee strands - 5 minutes
(8) Read even more outdated magazines - 1 hour
(9) Attempt to clean up room - 1 hour
(10) Side-tracked into playing with laptop - 1 hour
(11) Paint fingernails and toenails with expired nail polish - 2 hours
(12) Peel off expired nail polish from fingernails - 20 minutes
(13) Get ready to go out for dinner with buddy - 30 minutes
(14) Dilly-dally around house - 20 minutes
(15) Pick up buddy, dinner, supper, have diarrhoea in buddy's house - 5 hours
(16) Rush home, have diarrhoea at home - 30 minutes
(17) After-supper meal - 1 hour
(18) Dazed in front of computer - 30 minutes and counting

Welcome to my life.

I love McD's!

Okay, y'all. This entry was supposed to come out on Sunday night, but somehow something happened and I couldn't load it. So here it is now, in all its entirety:

Time to wax poetic! Have I told you lately how much I love McDonald's? Yeah. You heard me right. But I'm not referring to some Scottish fellow or anything... I'm talking about - drum roll please! - the beauteous, beautiful, beloved, charming, enchanting, ever-so-happening, fantabulous, fantastic, great, lovely, terrific, wonderful, zitorouphourous Golden Arches! LoL! Some of you are probably laughing right now, some of you might have a look of disgust on your faces, and the rest, you're probably raising your eyebrows wondering what I'm talking about. In short, yes, I really do love McDonald's... Why am I talking about McDonald's anyway, you're asking? 'Cos I was just there yesterday morning, muahahahaha!

This was how yesterday was like:

I woke up. Muahahahah! Well, duh! Of course I woke up! Anyway, yes, I was dropped off at my buddy Trish's house at approximately 11 am after getting a new change of contact lenses (you aren't supposed to keep them for more than one month, y'know... Of course, I break this rule all the time), and then my buddy Trish got behind the wheels of her brilliant car and drove us to the 4th mile McDonald's branch. My buddy Trish, you're a fantastic driver! Not once did you have to say "Ooooohh, that nearly died me" like me... *grins!* And then we, being the brave duo that we are, actually got out of the car, and pushed open the see-through glass doors of beautiful McD! Gasp! On McD tiles at last! And we did it by ourselves, my buddy Trish! We're so brave! And you guys won't believe this, but here it is: (Wait are you guys ready for this? You guys better sit down on a firm chair, just in case, y'know...) You won't believe it, but we WALKED up to the counter and we ORDERED a McValue Meal each! GASP! Can you BELIEVE that? I mean, like... Wow. It just blows me away. I mean, wonder of wonders, I had a double cheeseburger, at long last - FINALLY! You guys have no idea how long I've been craving for a double cheeseburger from McD's! My buddy Trish, she so nice... Gave me the two slices of pickle from her Big Mac! The burgers also came with - gasp! Can you believe this? - their very own medium fries and medium carbonated drink! I was like... WAAAAAAHHH!! So cool!

LoL! I better stop this ranting on and on about the wonders of McD. I sound so... I dunno. For all I know some of you might actually be pro-Burger King. Or pro-KFC. Or pro-Sushi King. Or pro-Sugar Bun. Or pro-Satay King. Or something. I better change subject before you all come after me with parangs. Change subject.

Then my buddy Trish drove us to church, where we had music practice for today's service. Then at 3 pm, ta-daa! My buddy Trish, myself, and 2 other good friends, we all rushed to the toilet to 'freshen up' for a Raya visit to my buddy Trish's friend's house. Wah! My first Raya visitation this Raya... Then we did some lepak-ing, didn't we, buddy Trish? Then after that dinner! Really cool dinner we had, didn't we? Laughing ourselves off the chairs, our source of entertainment being the menu, which was, to put in more polite terms, grammatically-challenged. MUAHAHAHAHA! That was a good one. Feef, and curb, and crud, and topato! Hilarious! You remember that, don't you, buddy Trish?

And that, my dear readers, was yesterday! And today is Sunday. And tomorrow will be Monday.

LoL! You guys probably think I'm going nuts. No. Scrap that. You guys probably think I am nuts, and are probably flipping through your Yellow Pages searching for an 'appropriate' mental institution to put me in. Well, look no further people! I'm not nuts (at least, I hope not)! I'm just having one of those moments, where you just wanna run out to the middle of the road, stop the next car you meet, wait for them to apprehensively roll down the windows, and pull a silly face at them... Muahahahaha! Oh YEAH! It's one of those days alright! And I hope tomorrow will be like today, which is quite like yesterday! Weeeeeeeeeeee...!

P.S. There's no such word as zitorouphourous - I just made it up for the fun of it. How many of you guys honestly thought it really was a real word? =) End of P.S.

Exhausted!

Wow, what a day! Today was really something. The fun started last night at a buddy's house, where I spent the night... Eating popcorn, Twisties, drinking rootbeer... Yes dear girl, you're a great hostess! *grins* We actually slept early for once eh? Early by our standards lar... Muahahahaha! Early night's sleep in preparation for today's early morning rise - at 6.40 am! The earliest I've woken up this what? Past week? LoL! Showered, rushed to a Lifegroup member's house, where we all went for breakfast. I had a rather mild-tasting laksa, and well, they didn't have any Cola 'pump', so I just ordered a teh c peng (that's iced tea with milk for those of you who don't know). Then took a long drive up to Lundu (one hour plus!), where the journey really tested the endurance of my bladder. Phuiyoo! I tell you... I thought every bump and pothole in the road would bring me one dangerous step closer to bursting flat out in the car, with everyone sitting squeezed beside me! LoL! We spent the rest of the afternoon in Hilir village, going from house to house to invite people to our church's Christmas Day celebrations. Lunch was at 1 pm, down in the town of Lundu once more... Quite some lovely chicken rice, I must say... And at long last! Coca-Cola! And with plenty of ice! Muahahahaha! The drive down to Kuching, I'm afraid I can't say m uch of, seeing how I actually ended up snoozing the entire drive down away... LoL! Hung out at my buddy's place for a while... Then I went home. And no, I didn't conk flat out in a faint, my friend. In fact, I actually stayed awake okay? Read Roald Dahl's The Witches, which I'd just borrowed from my buddy. Can I call you that, buddy? LoL! Or would you prefer your name written here on my dear blog? Instant publicity, y'know? *grins*

Well, now I'm just waiting for 10.45 pm to roll around. There's a movie I wanna watch. It's called Sepet, and I've heard so much about it, but never quite got the chance to watch it. Well, tonight's my chance! Heehee! Cheers you all... Till the next time I blog! =)

The secret of the blog pictures!

Yes! I did it! I can post pictures again! Muahahahaha! For a long time now I've been wanting to load pictures here but somehow I just couldn't. I blamed it on the stupid blog or something, but I think I've finally discovered the root of the problem - picture files that are just too big! Muahahahaha! I'm so happy... I'm a genius.

Alright. Before you guys start puking to the left and right, let me just update you all on what's been going on. Yesterday I went out with 3 friends. It was kinda like a girls' day out in town. Started off having lunch at Pizza Hut. I actually considered running off to hide in the toilet. Y'know? To make use of the 15-minute lunch express thingy. But nope. They came on time. I wanted a pizza, but they didn't have the topping that I wanted, so I had to settle for their Creamy Carbonara Fettucine. Yummy. Have I mentioned how much I love pasta? Especially fettucine Alfredo? That's somewhat like carbonara, they have the same creamy sauce and all. Oh man. I'm getting hungry now. Love pasta. Anytime you all have an extra bit of cash and you don't know how to spend it, think of me and my love for pasta. Muahahahaha! Anyway, this picture here with me grinning at you - this is me at the Pizza Hut thingy outing.

And this picture here on the right is obviously the Creamy Carbonara Fettucine that I had in Pizza Hut. Isn't it just too beautiful for words? Sigh.

Okay, I've got to go now. Spending the night at a good friend's place. We're all driving up to Lundu tomorrow... Cheers for now. And now that I've discovered the secret behind putting pictures up on blogs... Watch out for more! Muahahahaha!

Just a little CRASH!

Well, what d'you know? My very first accident involving another car! (For more details regarding other accidents, kindly ask me in person - too embarassing to reveal in public!) So what happened? It was like this: I was driving in the 3rd Mile area, and just coming out from the underground road, made a stop at the traffic light just in time to avoid hitting the car in front, and 1 and a half seconds later a Kancil slammed into the back of the Jeep. I was really calm about it though. Got out of my car, walked behind, squatted in the middle of a bustling road to inspect the bumpers... Not a single dent! I love Jeeps! The Kancil driver was really nice and apologetic about it though... So yeah, that's how it went. So yes. I can handle emergencies. Isn't that a wonder? Muahahahaha!

Going on to other things... Songs. Lovely songs. Recently discovered the music of the Goo Goo Dolls. Great stuff. I like Switchfoot and Lifehouse and that kinda music, so yeah, the Goo Goo Dolls definitely made me smile. And love songs! How I love those... Mushy ones, soppy ones, ones that make you stare off into the distant star-lit night and dream y'know? Yeah... Here's a pretty good one I found recently. It's by a band called Teitur, and it's called "One and Only". The title should give you all pretty obvious clues! I mean seriously! The music just makes you drift away , almost as if you were drifting on a puffy blue cloud y'know?

Nah. Maybe I'm just too sentimental.

Double sigh.

Do you guys ever get one of those moments? Y'know, the ones where all of a sudden, out of nowhere comes this overwhelming wave of fatigue, and all you wanna do is scream out at the top of your lungs? Sigh. Welcome to my life.

It's nothing, really, but I just feel so toot-ing tired, y'know? Tired of assignments, tired of walking, tired of talking... Just plain tired of the simple routineness of it all, y'know? I mean, not that I'm looking for trouble or anything - oh no, nothing of that sort please - but really! It's getting a tad bit worrying... I mean, it's starting to get a little, well... Boring. I'm just dying to go out and just plain hang out or something. I miss having fun. Not that any of you would possibly understand my idea of fun. Okay, alright. Some of you would understand. But seriously, I'm just plain tired. I need a holiday. A long holiday. Away from university. Oh yeah. Boy, do I detest university. It seems like such a loooong time since I just sat down, sipping a glass of icy-cold Coca-Cola, looking at the world pass me by with nary a worry in my mind, y'know? I'm just sick of it all I guess. Like I said, the routineness of it all. I need to do something. I don't know what. Maybe bang away at the piano for 5 hours straight. But then the neighbours would come rushing out of their houses with their parangs, because really, I do literally bang away. Maybe I could hang upside down out of my bedroom window or something, you know, let my hair down... But then again, passersby in their exhaust-emitting cars would probably consider my literal 'hanging-out' as a possible attempt to harm myself, and they might call the rescue services, and then there'll be all this big hoo-hah about the girl hanging out of her window, and there'll be the small headline-grabbing article in the local papers the next day. So that rules that idea out. Besides, the window can't possibly hold my weight. Right. Maybe I could just hang out at the front stairs of the Sarawak Plaza building. But then I'd look like one of those juvenile delinquents with nothing better to do on a beautiful night. And what good would that do for me right? I mean, it's more boring than boring. Totally at odds with my main objective in the first place. Maybe I could play the speakers real loud y'know, and like, belt out Aerosmith or Bon Jovi at the very top of my lungs. But that would only bring the rain down, wouldn't it? And a real good storm at that. I don't quite want to be put on the "Most Likely To Cause Another Tsunami" list, right? Maybe I could just call up one of you guys. You know, people I consider my friends? And like, chat for maybe 2 hours straight. But I don't even have any credit to talk. I mean, I'm on prepaid, aren't I? I'm down to my last option: Maybe I should just march up to my bedroom, flip on the air-con switch, wash my face, grab a book, and read for the remainder of the night. Yeah. That sounds like a pretty nice idea now, doesn't it? Yes, I think I will do that... Just as soon as I watch a little TV. Right.

Sigh. Maybe I just need a long good chat with one of you guys.

Attack Of The Zits

Ahem.

What is a zit? According to the Compact Oxford English Dictionary, which you can use online here, a zit is "a spot on the skin, whereas Wikipedia defines a zit as a "pimple". The Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary - check it out here - defines it as "a temporary small raised spot on the skin". Zits. Also goes by the less familiar but equally irritating term of "acne".

So, why am I rattling on and on and on and on about the definitions of zits? Because I am currently facing a horrible predicament of being suddenly attacked - yes, attacked! - by an entire avalanche of zits! Big, swollen ones, with yellow pus! Argh! How I dislike them. I wish I could just reach out my fingers and just squish them off my face! Or get a really sharp chopping knife and scrape them off! Or get metal toothpicks and poke poke poke poke!

Ahem. I'm sure some of you are puking by now, or at least near-puking. I can't help it, y'know. I get awfully depressed at the sight of them pimples. My heart literally breaks when I look into the mirror these days. I'm really very sad. Especially seeing how one year ago I literally had almost close to no zits. I remember telling a really close friend that I could actually wash my face with just plain soap and everything would still be clear. And now? Urgh. Ever since entering uni... Sigh. It really does break my little heart.

Sometimes I think I could really cry.