Jack Johnson - Sitting Waiting Wishing
Now Playing: Black
What a long day it has been today. After my classes, which ended at 4:00pm, I caught a train up to the city to buy a DV tape for recording my intended shoot tomorrow for the assignment from one of my subjects. I have to make a short film ranging from within 30 seconds to 3 minutes. I hope it all goes well tomorrow.

Oh yeah while I was in the city, I also bought me a new bed sheet with matching pillow cases. They are black! Yes! It is not very often you get to find bedsheets and matching pillow cases that are just plain black! My room looks even better now. I have a black desk, black computer casing, black monitor, black speaks, black external harddisk casing, black keyboard and now a black bed. The bed sheet is fitted type too! No longer will I wake myself up in the middle of the night to tuck in the bed sheets back under the mattress. That always disrupts my rest and makes me very tired when I have to wake up in the day. Hopefully now I get better rest with this!

Wooo... beer...
Now Playing: Howie Day - She Says
So like I just drank a bottle of Corona Extra. It is a lager beer thingy. They even drink it in The O.C. Speaking of The O.C. ... Yes for some of you who know me, I was totally against this series called The O.C. It stands for The Orange County; a place in California. At first impressions, I thought it was some show about rich messed up teens doing stupid stuff like Beverly Hills 90210. I knew a thing or two about Beverly Hills 90210 because my sister used to hog the television and watched that every week and back in those days, the television was our family's source of entertainment. What can I say, we're not rich people. So yeah I thought it would be a new version of that old series but to my experience it is nothing like that at all. I sometimes catch a few episodes while having dinner. The television is situated where it could be viewed from my dining table. So while eating, I like to watch something. So a few times already I've caught some of their episodes and to my surprise it was not what I assumed it would be. In fact it was interesting. I realized the only really messed up teen in that show is one particular character. Not all of them. Furthermore, the show is not focused entirely on the teenagers. It focus on their parents (the adults) as well. Two things I noticed about the series that their script is quite well done as in the witty dialogues. The other is that all their episodes seem to mold together as though it was thoroughly plan that way. Imagine your fingers are each episode, and you lock both hands together by the fingers. That is the best way I can explain at the moment. Yes you can call me a hypocrite but at least I sat down and watched it and then I changed my point of view rather than deny its deserved credits.

Well Autumn came on April Fools Day. All of a sudden, *boom* it became cold. Also, today was the day daylight savings ended (or has it begun?) I cannot remember but now, Victoria has only two hours difference with Malaysia. So yeah! Summer is gone! The heat is gone! Now I will have difficulties waking up in the morning to go for classes T-T

Some Stuff On My Mind
Mood:  lazy
Now Playing: Jem - Wish I
It's that time again where I make a post after a long period of time of inactive blogging. You guys should know by now that I do not post something unless there are stuff which I think would be worth sharing with people. I mean, come on. Nobody wants to hear about trivial matters like 'Oh university has started again' and all that whinging. I am sure most of you already have enough of those whilst reading your other friends' posts about their miserable dramatic lives. Unapologetic, I find that most people that I once knew whom I have decided to disassociate myself from are like that. They are mainly the people who are attention-deprived and most of the time make things to seem like the world revolves around them. Some unsurprisingly imply to get sympathy from their readers. You know I speak the truth.

Anyhow yes for those of you who were wondering, yes I made last minute plans to return to Malaysia to visit my family and friends during the Chinese New Year period. I arrived in Malaysia at 5:45am in the morning on the 29th of January which was a Sunday. I am writing this in detail so that incase I forget, I can always refer haha. Nothing much happened back home in Malaysia much to my disappointment. All my friends were either busy working or studying and most of them I only got to hang out like once or twice.

You would be surprise how nearly two years can change your friends when you have not been in touch with them in real life. I guess I understand now how some people whom never kept in touch with each other would be able to lose track and eventually just forget about them altogether, as if they were only memories. Normally I would like to think its sad, but trying to look at a different perspective, it might be actually good for if these friends were actually close in the first place, they would make the effort to always keep in touch with each other. I do not care if it was e-mail or even snail mail. It still would count as an effort!

I weighed myself before returning to Malaysia, and found that I was 100kg. Yes it may seem heavy to you typical asian people but then again, I am no typical asian. So bleh. What I was trying to say was, that I have been weighing a 100kg for a few years now and somewhat glad that my weight did not increase. I was busy boasting about it until I came back to Melbourne and weighed myself and found that I had put on 5kg. I think probably due to the food back home in Malaysia which I missed so much and overindulged. Especially since I did not really have much to do back home except sit around the whole day having very minimal movements.

However, I have been weighing myself pretty frequent nowadays and have found my weight slowly decreasing again. You see, the reason for this is because I only eat whenever I feel hungry. Which would be at most, twice a day. Being in front of the computer can do this to you. Your mind is so focused on the activities on the computer that it does not have time to tell you that you are hungry. Most people think that I am torturing myself by starving. The truth is, I do not feel any gastric pains or anything like that. Whereas when I was in Malaysia, I ate 3 times a day... and not move around much. Yes! I ate even when I was not hungry.

Initially I had alot to write on my discoveries or enlightenment as I wish to call it but at the moment I cannot seem to recall most of them except for this somewhat unimportant information. You know how in Malaysia they always advertise face cream/lotions/wash whatever it is that ladies apply on their face to try to enhance their looks. Well in Malaysia there are all of these products to make your skin fairer (seem whiter; for you people with very limited vocabulary). In Malaysia its all about being fairer and the more dead you looked, the better you think you were. I just saw a commercial on television where they were advertising this Johnsons & Johnsons body and face lotion (respectively) where it gradually tans your skin the more often you use it.

To asians, fairer seems more feminine or something, I do not know. To western people, being tan is more attractive. I guess maybe it is because being tan is like evidence that you've been in the sun presumably being active and everything. There is also the old fact where we black haired asians try to color our hair all other shades of color like the caucasian people originally have and they in turn would want to have black hair. The grass is truly greener on the other side.

Most people are surprised that I do not find living in a foreign country enjoyable. They always assume just because its supposedly better in another country , makes all the reason for me to want to live there. I do not deny that Melbourne is a great city to live in. It does not mean anything at all if you have nobody to hang out with, and no family to turn to. Oh and the fact that they can never have authentic Malaysian food in their authentic environment, where rats and cockroaches thrive hahaha. Everything here closes too early for us Malaysians' liking.

Those people that actually do not intend to go home to where they came from, are probably deprived of freedom their whole lives by their parents. I am not one of them. I have had freedom all my life. My parents treated me maturely and like an adult all my life. I guess that is probably why my growing up phase was not really enjoyable but hey instead of getting messed up and hanging with the wrong crowd or getting into trouble, I used that, learnt from that and became a better person than most people I know. Do not mistake this for being arrogant. I am merely proud of what I have come to be despite my less than pleasurable history.

And for you out there who wonder why things do not happen the way you hope it would. It is because they were not meant to happen. I am not saying that our future is predestined or 'fated' as some of you believe.

The word 'fate' is misused by people who do not want to be responsible of their own lives and the consequences they face. They say it is 'fate' and imply in one way or another that there is nothing they could have done about it. I would like to make it clear that nothing in life is 'fated'. Sure some things are not suppose to happen and some do. However there are reasons for these things to happen and its not just simply 'fated' to do so.

One good example. If the world was scientifically 'fated' to exist and all its living things existed for the sole purpose of existing, or rather surviving, why are there so many variety and differnt designs in everything? If a bee was to look after its own existence, or reproduce, why then does it pollenate? How does it know that there are flowers for it to do so? Also, how would the flower know that there is a bee out there?

Do you know why we call things, 'creations'? Because they are created. Think about it.

The Amazing Race
What a busy today.
I just got home and exhausted like hell.

Today's mission was to:
a. get a Confirmation of Enrolment code

but in order to do that, I had to

b. renew my Medibank account; Overseas Students Health Care insurance nonsense which I never used ever.
c. get some written letter from my course administrator, who is so difficult.

First of, I though I could save time by going to Medibank's branch in Camberwell (2 train stops away from mine Hawthorn) and renewing my account. The guy there said that he needed my CoE and a visa in order to be eligible to renew my account. It was so full of crap, he wasted like lots of minutes just to tell me that. One problem was that my visa was an e-visa so there were no paper proof that I had it. Hence, I had to go home, and print the email which indicated that I had an e-visa.

Second stop was to the International Students' Unit. Where I asked in specific what were the procedures needed to take in order to get my blasted CoE code. The lady there said that I would need, check this, a medibank renewal, a letter from my course administrator indicating that I am in fact studying in my university for one more semester. FINE! I told her I went to medibank earlier on, and they asked me for a damn CoE. She just said "oh just show them this form and they will do it for you."

Next of, I went to see the 'beloved' course administrator who conveniently was not around. I had to leave a message at the 'helpful' reception and they said that I could get the letter by Monday. But wait! Monday I would be in Malaysia! So I asked them if they could fax it over to the ISU and they said no problem.

Return to Medibank!
This time I got everything down to be able to renew my account. Suddenly the guy there said "oh you have not renewed your account since middle of last year, and you have to pay for those months as well."
I was thinking to myself "what the ****? You're going to charge me for the months I did not update my card even when I did not use any of your services!?"
*Sigh* load of nonsense. Not to waste time I just paid up what I had to pay in order to get my account renewed. Currently the amount left in my bank is around AUD100. Yep that is right. I am not ashamed to say it. I am poor. Life sucks.

After I got my receipt I rushed back to the ISU and got everything done. Explaining to them that my course adminisrator would be sending the lousy letter to them and that they had to email me the CoE code because I would not be around to receive it in person.

Finally, after all that was done, it rained. I am not saying it was a bad thing. The opposite in fact. It has been a personal experience to me, that whenever it rain at times when you know for a fact that it should not be raining, it means that God has either heard my prayers or showing me that He is handling things for me.

Now I can only hope that the Swinburne staff do not slack and get me my much needed CoE code sometime next week.

By the way, I bought a 2 hour public transport ticket but was travelling around for more than 3 hours. Serve them right for hiking up the price each year.

Australia Day
Now Playing: Crystal Method - The Name of the Game
Yesterday, my new keyboard and mouse arrived in the morning and I was estatic, especially over the keyboard because I was waiting for it since last year. It took long enough for it to be released. It is the Logitech G15 Keyboard. First of its kind that was designed with extra programmable buttons which you could assign various tasks to it. Tasks such as being able to open certain programs, or even program macros on them! Macros are preset actions that you bind together for easy usage in the future. Example, I program one of the buttons to type "Hello! How are you". When I press that button, it would type out just that.

Couple of days ago, I have booked a flight back home to Malaysia. I would be leaving Melbourne on Saturday night and reaching Kuala Lumpur early Sunday morning.

Today is Australia day. My assumption of it would be Australia'a National day? I am still not sure about it. In yesterday's news, a professor named Ian Frazer was awarded an Australian of the Year award for discovering a vaccine to prevent cervical cancers. Rightfully deserved if you ask me. Australian Prime Minster John Howard said that they would do what they can to make the vaccine available to the public as soon as possible.

Just moments ago, my housemate Irwin had a battle with yet another spider in his room. For some strange reason, spiders are always attracted to his room and they are not ordinary spiders, they are huge spiders. I am starting to wonder what he has in his room which always attracts them. This has been so even in his previous accomodations. We are living on the top floor of the building with no sign of trees anywhere and yet the spider manages to enter his room. Interesting wouldn't you say?

Seeing that it is Australia today, I am sure my university would not be open. I hope they would be opened tomorrow because I really need to get my Confirmation of Enrolment code and also a renewal on my Medibank account (health insurance nonsense) if I am to renew my visa. I wish to get it done before I fly home, so that I would have them when I apply for a new visa back home in Malaysia. The reason why I hope to do it back home is that it is easier to travel around back home to the hospitals and stuff to get medical check ups and cheaper too! Compared to doing it here, I would have to travel far into the city maybe several times to do the same things and pay in Australian Dollars.

I shall not be bringing back my computer back home with me this time because I fear for its safety. I seem to have unfortunance whenever I bring my computer around by air. So I guess I will be really really bored back home with no computer. Oh well, maybe exciting stuff would happen for me, I hope.

Is It Hot In Here?
Now Playing: Mercy Me - In The Blink Of An Eye
Summer's typical weather came today all of a sudden.
Yep, its hot. Really uncomfortably hot. The "central air-conditioning" is not really doing it's job either. I just hope it does not blow a hole in the electricity bill.

In other news, a couple of days ago I was on the train back home and was reading some newspapers left in the train. It is normal to find newspapers left on seats in the train. People just read them and then put them back where they found them and leave. New passengers come in, do the same as well and the cycle goes on.

The two main news that caught my attention was firstly, that the numbers in the Australian police force are increasing each year, having more and more fresh young policemen recruited and having like 100 men in each station. I was so impressed by their efficiency; patrolling and answering the call to help citizens. Go go Australia!
Secondly, government has been discussing the issue of introducing national identity cards to the citizens of Australia. Which made me realize that Australians have been going about their business daily without a proper form of identification card. I mean back in Malaysia when we hit 12 or 13 years of age, it was compulsory for us to get one made. Half of people concerned are for the implementation of identity cards with the point being able to help fight against terrorism whilst the other half are against having that system saying that they value their privacy and their personal information are only for need-to-know basis.

Personally I think it might be a little difficult to introduce such a system since the country has been established and advanced for so many years now, focusing towards the elder generation. I mean if they had a rule like "from this year on, all 12 year olds have to register for a card", then it would not be so bad as oppose to what I have in mind, where everybody has to go register. I do not know, it is really none of my concern really, since I am not an Australian to begin with. Well just my two cents.

Least I got...
Still on dial up, but I felt like I had to blog this down.

Yesterday for the first time in my life, I ate 10 pieces of Kentucky Fried Chicken. I never thought I could do it, but I did! The most I ate was 7 pieces and I thought that was too much also it was like a few years ago.

I was so hungry and had not eaten anything the entire day. Suddenly I had the urge to eat KFC. So I took a train to the city; which was the nearest KFC branch I could think of, and bought it. The thing was they came in pieces of 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20. I thought of ordering like 7 or 8 but then it was my turn to order and I just responded with "Ten pieces of chicken." and in my mind I was like "Why did you do that!?"

Trains arrive every 30 minutes or so during the weekends, which really annoys me because it only took me a few minutes to get the grub and I had to wait near half an hour for the train to arrive just go back, which was like only 3 or 4 stations away. Thankfully the food was still warm albeit with a soggy cardbox box it came with.

After that experience, I told God, "thank you for teaching me not to overdo it ever again!" Well hopefully that KFC lasts me a few months before the "addictive chemicals make me crave for it" again.[you have to watch Mike Meyers' "So I Married An Axe Murderer" to understand]

Interesting fact, according to KFC's cookbook, their guide to teaching how to make your own Kentucky Fried Chicken does not show the 11 herbs and spices, rather all they wrote there which takes place of the tasty factor was... MSG. If anybody is interested in having this e-cookbook, I'll mail it to them, its in .pdf format. It supposedly teaches you how to make all the KFC's products on your own.

like... whoa...
My first appearance online after a few days of not being able to get online. I'm currently using a prepaid dial up account. I could have used my own pc to connect but apparently I have somewhat misplaced my dial up modem card hence I had to hijack my housemate's (Irwin) laptop as it has internal dial up modem.

So here I am in my new crib. Moved in last Wednesday (4th January) and that was my last day of having broadband connection. Due to that ISP was a share with Shawn under his name of course and the payment made for that was via credit card. So like I have to create a new account with them with my name on it with a non-credit card payment, which might take forever for them to process. Anyways enough about that for now.

All of my stuff have moved over here with great thanks to Attila! In total we made 3 trips back and forth from Auburn Grove to Domville Avenue with my stuff, some of Shawn's stuff, and my cousin's stuff (which he wanted me to sell but I had no time to do so). According to Attila, the moving of stuff would not have been so hectic had it both places not been situated on the top floor. Heehee... He is truly a blessing to me and I thank God everyday for friends like him. All that he has done for me, I do not think I can ever do enough to repay back...

The day after, the appliance rental people came to bring the washing machine, dryer, television and fridge over. They were 2 old guys and seemed out of shape. They were breathing heavily as if out of breath but they got the job done. I'm glad that there are people that are willing to perform these type of jobs. I also believe that these services are worth paying for. Often I am told things like "its too expensive" but when I put myself in those shoes, I wouldn't do these kind of job for that mere fee that they charged. So yeah not only do I find their prices reasonable but I also am grateful for such services.

During the weekend Irwin tried to use the dryer, and it tripped the fuse box which turned off all power to wall sockets. Thankfully thats all it kept doing when we were testing the dryer. I have to make a phone call as soon as possible to get them to replace the dryer I guess.

Well moving has been really hectice and an experience for me. It has further enchance my skills in handling situations, of course thankfully with the help of God and friends.

There are a few more stuff which needs to be settled before I can actually be "free". Well first would be the broadband connection, second would be the confirmation of enrolment in subjects for my coming semester. After the enrolment is settled, only then can I plan to renew my visa for studying here. After these 3 have been settled, I might actually think of flying home for Chinese New Year. My sister is already back in Malaysia but she will be leaving on the 13th of January. I hope to be able to make it back home before then so we can have a family reunion. It is very doubtful though... but I still hope to fly home for a bit to see my family and most of all, friends.

Dial-up connection is like life support for me. It really is torture. I can never remember how we used to be able to survive back in the day when broadband was still a new technology and expensive. God bless technology!

Post-Birthday
Now Playing: India Arie - Wonderful
Well its been 2 days after the date in remembrance of my first existence into this world.

Yes it was my 21st birthday. It was suppose to go out with a bang and great stuff should have happened because of that special number. Here's the real life situation for you. I spent the night before 5th December playing computer games and only ended up sleeping at 9am and waking up at 6pm on my birthday. Nothing happened. I bet my housemate was oblivious to is as well but I could not care any less. It has been a recent occurence whereby bad things always happen around the date of my birthday.

But earlier today, I decided to not care and called my housemate Shawn and my friend Irwin out to go try the T.G.I.Fs at Chapel Street @ Prahran. We got caught in the rain few times on the way there. The place was huge but quality of food was somewhat lesser compared to back home in Malaysia. The prices was similar to Malaysia's as well. Just that instead of it being in ringgit, it is in fact in australian dollars. Oh well at least I can say I have tried it out.

I want to thank all those whom remembered my birthday and appreciate their kind wishes.

Well Irwin (the guy whom I was gonna share a place with), a few days ago said that maybe him, his girlfriend (Joy) and I should get a place without his girlfriend's friend and her boyfriend. I was happy when I heard that but then later found out that his girlfriend's mom insists that she has to get a place with her friend. *sigh*

The agency (Jellis Craig) whom we had to apply for the place (Watermark) was suppose to get in touch with us today. Apparently they did not. Which now makes me worried because that is the only place we ever applied for, thanks to Joy's friend being very very choosy with places and somewhat impractical too. Do not get me wrong, I am not playing the blame game with her but it is obvious that most of our opinions on choosing places do no matter to her. I heard from Irwin that Joy's friend does not know how to look after her current place and that is not a good sign.
I only pray that in the new area that we would be living together, she would not cause problems for me. Also I hope that I do not have to stay for another semester which leads to my next worrying bit.

Today (7th December) is supposedly the release of our results for this semester. I tried to be smart trying to access my university account to see if the results were out (yes it is 3:43am) but their server was crapped.

God please help me...

Home Is Where You Make It
Mood:  down
Well earlier today, I went to inspect 2 apartments with my friend, his girlfriend and her friend.

We went to see two places today, both were on the same road, one was nearer to a junction(Scotch Hill) while the other was further away(Watermark).

We went to see Watermark first, it was a new establishment and looked rather impressive but the rooms were kind of small. It was nice and all but to me it was a bit far from my university which made me less interested in the place. The rooms were slightly bigger than Watermark's.

After that we went to see Scotch Hill which looked more like a hotel than an apartment area. Obviously it was older than Watermark but it did impress me. The place was bright and classy looking and also nearer to my university. I would've preferred this place but the girls liked Watermark better.

Also signs show that the girls would have their way in deciding which place all of us are going to live in. I was rather iritant about the way they made comparisons and their reasons for choosing one over the other but then I realized that it was me who wanted to move in with them, so I should respect their decisions and also, hopefully, very hopefully I won't be around long enough to bother. I just pray all goes well with my university stuff.

Also another thing which is worrying me is whether the rooms in either places would be big enough for my desk and my bed. My desk is quite big; the desk's width is 3/4 of the length of my single bed, and it's length(front of table to back) is almost the same as the width of my bed. As long as the room can fit my bed and desk comfortably, I guess I do not really care which place it is because I would be spending most of my time in my room anyway like I do now so the common living area would pretty much be theirs to do whatever they wish.

More rantings tomorrow.