To be continued

If 2012 is a movie, this will be the time for credit roll. Actually there is a movie 2012, which I just watched  for the 100th time last night on RTM2. It's a decent movie IMO, elaborate CGI coupled with interesting storyline plus the deep themes such as sacrifice do make up for the silly idea of 2012 apocalypse itself. The movie ends with a pleasant closure, that's what I like the most.

Anyways, back to 2012, the year. It's been an unproductive year. Certainly not my favourite year. Many things were thought but very few were done. I achieved almost nothing, though a few good stuff did happen. Travel-wise, I've covered Singapore, Kota Kinabalu (to be revisited in 2013), and the backwater of Negeri Sembilan.

Around this time last year I made a promise to myself that I would change myself before I turned 20. I left the teen years 2 months back but I'm still my usual underachieving self. Heck I even failed to update this blog to match last year's record - 36 posts in 7 months. This year, 34 posts in 12 months.

Therefore I reluctantly wrapped that resolution for good, not that I've given up. I will start 2013 with a proper plan to achieve greatness (lol) by 21. That may include some trips I guess just to help me open up my mind. Perhaps a trip to the land down under? We'll see.

Thanks for the memories 2012, I'm not hesitant to leave you behind.

So 2013, here we go. I'll think of the year as the point of make or break for me. Here's to a year full of promises ahead.

Welcome 2013!

Tribute to Op Ed

I mentioned long ago about some good blogs that merit following. These are actually informative blogs that are in good hands of responsible and credible bloggers.

One of them was OpEd, addressed at remgold.blogspot.com.

The blog was run by a Mr. Reme who went by pseudonym remgold. A journalist himself, he frequently wrote about an array of issues ranging from his hobby notaphily to his op Ed on political issues.

Remgold also wrote just as good on technology, which was one of the reasons for me to take proper note on his blog.

A part from that, I also liked his writings about his hometown Singapore and his second home Malaysia too.

His style of writing, which was simple and unpretentious actually attracted me to closely follow his writing. Though a silent reader, once in a while I'd drop a few comments.

Unfortunately remgold seems to have called it quits. I don't know the reason, but Op Ed was left without updates until it finally became private some time ago. That was it. It is over.

The blog was closed once in 2010 I guess but was reopened. I'm not sure if bro remgold would do the same now, but I hope he does. I really like the blog. If you are reading this 'pork chic' rem, I hope you can resume ngobrol-ing soon. But if that's not possible, thank you for having shared your knowledge these past few years.

Of floods and friends

I watched in no shock the news on floods hitting the east coast states. So far Terengganu tolled the highest number of victims with 6000 people stranded in 92 evacuation centres across the state. Followed by Kelantan with 3000 victims and Pahang with a certain number. Do you count Pahang into east coast anyway?

I don't know about the other towns, but Kuala Terengganu wasn't showered today. The weather was damp and gloomy of course, but there were hardly rain drops. I think the clouds take a day off today unwrapping their gifts.

So we planned it good to have an outing today. Me and my mates from school went for a round of bowling. I wish I had a photo to show but I was faring well today, to think that I last played almost 3 years ago. The first few frames were mine to lead (my score was 23, but still) before a pal hit the first spare of the game, followed by a strike. Mine came a bit later, after another contender's.

Their spares and strikes kind of gave me a mental pressure you know partly because I can't predict to have mine coming, and because I don't even know how to throw for one, in fact I don't even know how to throw properly. That's weird thinking, but you should have seen me throw the ball in the first place!

Still, it was a nice outing. We went afterwards for some aliment of Terengganu's kitchen. I had a bowl of laksam followed by a plate of nasi minyak and a glass of tea. I convinced my friend, who hails from Selangor and attends a uni here to try laksam but I think all I did was mess with his taste buds. Well, he didn't mention his detestation of sambal belacan, nor did I think that the gravy was salty as he said it was. In the end I took his gravy and mixed it with mine while he ordered nasi minyak.  I guess we Terengganu folks have distinctive tongues that not only speak but also taste differently from the folks from the rest of the country.

It's 1:33 am and drizzling right now.

Another thing

I forgot to write about this.

The iPod touch replacement unit I got was working perfectly..until roughly a month after collection, it failed too.

Problem was it stopped recharging at 20 % battery level and as a result, it had to be put on life support all the time. On top of that, it had to be reset every now and then so that it could run iOS 6 without crashing horribly.

So for the second time, I brought my iPod touch to the Machines Service Centre with a new kind of problem to report.  Fortunately the replacement unit had 3 months warranty and it had 2 months away before due.

A week after that, I went to collect the new iPod touch and that's how I bought 1 iPod but they gave me 3.

Kudos to Machines and Apple for being pinpoint in services tho I hope I won't be visiting them again in near future, what more since their coffee maker was always unserviceable upon my visits.

The Mentalist

Since I'm still awaiting a replacement of my lappy, I had to kill my time returning to my old hobby watching TV. Once in a while, the good programs come along that can actually hold me on the couch without boredom. But that isn't often.

Anyways a housemate places his computer in the living room complete with a set of speakers, which make a good substitute to the TV. So what he watches, I watch too. Recently we started watching this TV series known as The Mentalist, which I shamely admit had not heard of before. It is a good series by my standards.

In this series, the main character Patrick Jane is a pro fraud who made a living being a psychic. After his family were murdered by a serial killer Red John who he dissed on a TV show, Jane denounced his old self and started helping the police with the ultimate goal of catching his family's slayer.

By the way Red John is an undisclosed character, his name is an alias, and he never shows his face on screen.

So to those familiar with the show, let me offer a theory, which is based on the pic below.

Patrick Jane is Red John. Because in the pic, he is shown with a bright and dark side. Note how he slightly leaned his face into the dark side, with Red John's signature bloody smiley in the same side at the background.

Makes sense? No, I don't believe it myself. But still, a nice interpretation of the picture no?

How I started the holiday on the wrong foot

I took advantage from AirAsia's promo deals last month to buy a ticket to Kuala Terengganu for the year-end break. So the early morning of 22/12, a friend and I took the 5.00 am shuttle bus from KL Sentral to LCCT, we arrived at LCCT at 6.00 am.

Suddenly my tummy grumbled which meant I had to get a tube of chi kit teck aun from a nearby kiosk. That, plus loitering around the terminal brought us to 6.30 am, which was 10 mins to departure and is usually more than enough to get us thru screening to the gate.

Unfortunately we undermined an earlier email from airasia about the crowd at the airport during holiday seasons, apparently because they didn't mention about it being huge and I was being my usual laid back self. Thus we were stuck in a mile long of queues.

Things got worse with a pack of ignorant travelers ahead in my queue who were in infinite loop with the scanner. Their bags were being scanned and re-scanned for countless times giving us at the back eternity of waiting. What irked me is the aviation security personnel didn't care to inform those people about what can and cannot go thru the screening. 5 minutes past boarding time, I was holding my anger while my friend in the other line was running from the security post to the gate. I could swear I was gripping my punch so hard I trembled. 3 minutes later, I finally made it thru the post and had to run to the closed gate, which of course was stupid. With me were 2 ladies who did all the talking and persuading with the gate personnel to allow us to board, which of course were to no avail. The personnel were unprofessional, taking in low voice and seemed clueless about what to do with such situation. After it was certain I've certainly missed the flight, I simply walked away thru the security post again, tried to find those who screwed me up earlier, and discreetly flipped a finger.

In the end, I hitched a ride with my friend who was already on the way to Terengganu.
And that's how I started the holiday on the wrong foot.