Best of 2006

As we leap into a new year with new resolutions that virtually can’t be acomplished, I’d like to take some time off by appreciating the year behind me that has given some great and bad impressions to how I see life today. This is the AOAS Best Of 2006, goods and bads.

In January, I had the chance to be one of the first to ride back from Kuching on the new Airbus A320. I also got robbed for the very first time in my life then.

In February, I took my first and so far only bike accident nearby my house, would have been great if it didn’t happen again later in April. The debate team was on the way to great success in the Wira cup .

In March, the debate team became zone champions after defeating SMKS18 (Fazri, Amirah and Amirah) and Alam Megah (Joshy, Alloy and Nizam). During sports day, the PKBM(L) won the best uniform for marching over the Police, last time this happened was few years back.

In April, my cousins lost 3 friends to an accident. I survived Redang, and this blog turned 1 year old.

In May, I turned seventeen.

In June, I made the 100th post about Sete crashing.

In July, Italy won the world cup, I got my driver’s license, also known as the ticket to freedom. I also learnt that I was chosen for National Service, and I had the best Bon Odori ever.

In August, I received a brand new Motorola L7 from my parents, and the famous SUK junction at last claims it’s first victim. I had a terrible Merdeka, arguing with my parents about the future.

In September, MotoGP, of course. I got to taste awesome fondue, and got my first DSLR, the EOS350D. My class literally ended.

In October, I had a very insightful Raya.

In November, the last day of school for us. SPM began, so did my blogging hiatus.

December, SPM ends. I had an awesome time in Phuket on holiday, forgetting the books.

Tears. Oh so much tears. Yeah right! Summed up, I hope you all have a great new year and as per the Perodua ad, let next year be less about us, and more about others. Off for the year, sincerely, yours truly.

Rule of thumb

You guys know how after every maths exam when the teacher discusses the answers, you’ll learn how to solve an equation you never seen before in a better way? Well in photography, it’s almost the same. I got my first solo event job yesterday, and have learned that the cardinal rule is indeed as expected

When you point the camera to the people, and they try to dodge or avoid it, then it’s time for you to stop.

Hard to live poems.

Due to the extra large request for the poems that I have been talking about written by a person named Unbelieveable and posted on Lowyat.NET, here I present to you… REMPIT POEMS Vol. 1!

Pantun #1: Rempit
Author: Unbelievable

Rempit naik bukit,
Rempit turun bukit,
Bang pinjam 30,
Mau lepakz nasi lemakz.

Pantun #3: Bapa Rempit
Author: Unbelievable

Relakla,
Tidur dulu tak yah kerja,
Bapaku pencuri,
Bagiku bazir rempit rempitz.

Pantun #4: Japan dan Keris
Author: Unbelievable

Honda, Yamaha Yo,
Japan only pls,
Modenas ku tak mau,
Mana letak kerisku?

Now my question is, where is pantun #2? hahahahaha! Well, here’s my poem for him as well.

His name is Unbelieveable,
his poems are very horrible,
they smell like rotten vegetables,
are rempits really this gullible?

Until Vol. 2, so long and goodnight and I hope you had a good laugh from this.

My ” Merry” Christmas-eve

Today, I was almost assasinated by a KGB sniper.

Ok, so maybe my luck is not THAT bad. But today it’s like I hit the bad luck jackpot or something. First I was forced to get up at 8am (on a Sunday?!) in the morning to go pack food for the Indonesian workers replacing the roof tiles on my house.

Then when I reach home I’m greeted with a smashed up windscreen on my car because one of them dropped a ladder on it (I knew I shouldn’t have used the bike)

Then when I go out to take a photo of it, I discovered that there’s a buttload of dust bits on my camera’s sensor but the worst part is this huge dust bunnie that’s clearly visible.

Now when I want to blog it, Screamyx keeps on disconnecting for no reason, and it’s still disconnecting as we speak! Shit, there it goes again..

and if that wasn’t bad enough, the mamak who packed the food put the dishes into seperate plastic bags and not together with the rice, and who else has to take the job of seperating them into individual servings?

Now for my personal favourite, a depressed me is at the kitchen unpacking the packs of rice just after unpacking the small bags of chicken, veggie, and fried egg and placing them on the kitchen counter. I had just completed one serving when suddenly I felt a draft.. something was tapping me on my
ankle..

I spilled the gravy from the chicken.

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"Jingle bells, my luck smells, like a rotten egg.."

Why there, Andy?

During the short period between the end of high school and the beginning of pre-university, I have opted to get a job to past time and cover my expenses (running around when there’s no school is indeed expensive) plus with the absence of my dad who has gone off for work in Pakistan, I think it’s best I don’t stay at home all the time anyway.

So, I was looking around for vacancies with Midzi yesterday in Subang and after lots and lots of looking we broiled down our choices to either the restaurant Secret Recipe or Starbucks the coffee joint. I know I told people that I’m already beginning at SB Bukit Raja, but somebody took the spot already eventhough I’ve already got the second call from the manager.

Me and Midzi being slightly "taking care of our faces", we don’t dare to go and ask for vacancies when there are no signs that says that there are vacancies available. Truth be told we’re kind of picky about the workplace. So at every place we stopped, we’d buy some small thing and when paying we’ll ask a hint question to the cashier i.e are you guys still hiring?

But not at Starbucks la, everything’s so damned expensive there. Lucky he’s a latte addict and could go on buying them all day long, but not me, since one java chip was enough, when we stopped at the Taipan USJ Starbucks, I (actually my wallet) couldn’t take it anymore and I just stepped up to the counter and blurted out a bunch of shit that sounded like..

"I hope you don’t mind me not buying anything, because my and my friend here have been to about 8 Starbucks’ and bought a drink at each one just to ask the question I’m about to ask you, so I really hope this is fine with you.."

Turns out I didn’t have to buy a drink also, the cashier still didn’t get what I was talking about, but she just grabbed a form and asked me to go fill it in. As if the embarrassment wasn’t bad enough, the dearest friend next to me was laughing at me already.. So I filled up the form, submitted it and now am waiting for the call.

However, it has come to my attention that some people are not happy with the fact that (god knows why) and still do not understand why I prefer to work at a place like Starbucks besides the obvious reasons that they pay RM5.00 an hour, don’t abuse their staff, and the staff doesn’t abuse the staff (*cough*Mc*cough*Donald*cough*) I’ll let my experience at Starbucks SS15 explain itself to you.

————————————————————-

It was before we were at Taipan, we stopped by the Starbucks near Taylor’s and INTI to ask for a job. The girl behind the counter is Sha May, and she has got to be the most awesome barista I have ever met. She’s so polite, talking to her made me want to talk to her even more, and she’s fluent in her facts too. I don’t have to say that she’s attractive do I?

Midzi’s an idiot that already has a girlfriend, but he said that he had to walk off from the cashier and the talking to avoid saying something stupid because she has the type of hazel eyes that has shades of tears in it but in actual fact they’re just glare from the lights. Then there was another barista on duty, but she wasn’t wearing a name tag.

A customer came in, a foreigner in her mid 40s. She looked like she had a knife jabbed up her back, and talked like she was having PMS. The barista, after taking her order, offered to talk to her, while making her coffee and she was just as good with talking as Sha May too. She offered to give her a serving of the cake that’s provided for the staff, but of course the foreigner declines. In the end she walked off like they’ve been friends for 10 years, posessing a smile so long nobody could ever think that she had a bad day today.

I just stand there infront of the cake fridge like a fool without anything better to do and Midzi tugged my shirt signalling for us to go. I had to leave in awe without anything to say, in a good way. So after Taipan, I had this serious urge to go get a drink from the SS15 Starbucks again. Erm, fine, 20% of the urge was to talk to Sha May and her friend. 30%.

The first good sign was that she remembers me, and that I’m not "David from 6 months ago". So I told her I wanted to just get a drink but she didn’t hear it I think, and kept on talking until a customer came and asked if I could let her take the customer’s order first – ARGHHHH!! embarrassment again!! I was there to just get a drink and get out of there but she thought I just came back to talk to her?!! That’s it, I was determined to make the order and run out as fast as I could to avoid any other bloopers..

She keyed in the wrong drink for me, and ended up I had to pay less than what I’m supposed to, but she says that it’s alright so I’ll just close two eyes. Then just as I pick up the drink, she tells me that she thinks it’s better if people like me work at SS15, because of the customers that we get which are students and it will be easier to understand them. Taipan’s customers are mostly adults as it’s surrounded by offices. That’s too true, and I really wanted to work there just listening to her speak. But I still couldn’t.

I had to wait for my college schedule, because to work there requires a minimum of 8 months.

So you see, working at Starbucks isn’t all about making drinks and cutting cakes. As a barista, if you can make a customer of your social circle leave with a smile, it’s a really good feeling. As a customer, if you can interact well with workers that are of same age, it’s just like what I’m about to tell you that I told to the baristas at SB SS15. If you can interact well with customers like me, you have the ultimate power to make this Starbucks a little bit cooler than others.

(p/s : SORRY for the extra long blog post!)

Hampered

The reason why I used this word as this post’s title is because I am very very much dissapointed that my trip to Thailand resulted in only 3 properly shot photos. I’ve been trying my best to keep up with the rest of the world you know, using Manual mode (which didn’t even work out), not cropping my photos, so I just thought I could come up with more since I was already in a scenic location. That aside, here are some taken from Phuket, and the three I was talking about. Enjoy!

Like a shining star

as you can see, Thailand is very huru-hara

so is Phuket..

anyone still wondering why?

remnants of yesterday

Carelessness or luck?

Well, Azad just got robbed of his stuff (well, it’s actually more focused on just his Zen) recently, you can read about it here and help be on the lookout for the cheebyes who did it. Sad la to think how many crimes had happened to my friends just in the past 2 years.

Seh Ming’s phone got stolen from his bag in Form 3
Yeu Song’s camera too, in Form 4
Me and Adrian got mugged just under a year ago
Sathesh got robbed at a playground on the way back from tuition
Joseph’s bike was stolen in broad daylight

How many crimes can happen to a person out of the whole nation’s population when 5 out of 10 of my friends have all gotten robbed before? It’s true what Azad says, aside from the ‘man can never outrun a Kawasaki’ statement, the government really doesn’t know how to set their priorities right.

Instead of using RM98,000,000 to build pondoks, police bits (that are actually manned), increase the quality of security in the community, they go and use it to send two guys up into space to make teh tarik and play batu seremban with some mat sallehs. Idiots.

Anyways, I don’t want to be a NATO member and just keep on talking without walking, so be on the lookout for these rascals that took Azad’s bag. As I have a feeling I’ve seen it before in Section 7 at the flat’s basketball courts (how convenient), it’s as per se. A green Kawasaki KIPS with a plate reading BEU or BBU 266. Two indian boys of young age, roughly 14-16. Since most muggers have ‘pirated’ number plates, I’d suggest looking for the bike and rider first.

Table for six.

I recall once last time when I almost wrote a blog based on the topic of human psuedomental-retaliation, also known to the youngsters as being "emo". I almost wrote it, because I had no idea what proof I had to back up my finding and incase you haven’t noticed it, I hate writing shit that can’t be backed up by facts. I tried sourcing the community around me for various elements in emotional circumstances but couldn’t find anything solid to write about.

Of course I’m not talking about emo punk rock la, that’s not hot topic, as in Hot Topic Is Not Punk Rock. But after studying the fortunately distressed people in my circle of friends I have finally discovered the core to this behaviour. It’s not mum having a go at you for not picking the clothes in, and it’s not the worries about grades (nobody is ever pure when it comes to this, they just say it to piss you off since they know you’re more concerned about being, how do I say this, dumber than them). Oh, and it’s also, haha, definetly not about not being on their Top 999 friends list either.

It’s actually 2 or more individuals going after just 1. I pray to god it’s the opposite sex of course. Take this scenario for example. There’s one friend of mine, that has FIVE girls going after him simultaneously. FIVE. You’ve got to believe me when I say these people are amazing. He doesn’t even have to say a word, they just come lining down the block to try him out.

Now, while this is good for the male gender (chewah), and it’s cool to be seen with a man so fly, but in the circle of these five girls they’re encouraging everyone else to join the emo carnival with them. From some aspects it does sound like a game, considering what they do just to gain empathy from a dude.

One of them decides to show emotion everytime she’s infront of the guy, another one takes extensive measures to impress the guy and goes emo if he doesn’t acknowledge it with something more than a thank you note, that other one goes emo everytime she hears him tolerating the others’ emo-ness, and the one by the corner just goes emo to get the guy to ask. All this just to get a guy. DAMN! now I’M emo because I don’t know how he does it?!

For the first time ever in my life I’m going to endorse learning a lesson from Fergie. Don’t be so promiscuous la, you’re not going to get married soon are you? Lay off the Dashboard Confessionals and put on some confident boosting music lar you know? What’s the use of putting your dignity on the line like this. No one sympathizes with you, and the dude you’re after hates you even more! (depending on continent)

It ends tonight

I had just finished blacking the answer for the last question, in my final paper, in my final exam for the whole secondary school level. The clock still hinting that I’m 30 minutes shy of leaving the white uniform permanently. Suddenly it really dawned on me, inside, that this was finally it. The moment where all the weight is thrown off my shoulders, and all the pressure depletes itself into no where.

It was fun while it lasted, but I think it’s safe to say I was the only one not jumping for joy at the end of the day. Just thinking about stepping into the realm of assignments, facing instant noodles in the eye, and listening to Wheatus to pacify thoughts everyday is just plain scary.

Oh well, if life is going to suck after I leave for higher education, then I might as well make use of time now to enjoy. I’ll try to cook TV dinners, drive like a cheebye, party like a part time animal, work at Starbucks (getting 4.50 an hour for writing stuff on a cup and talking to people like I scored aces on my TOEFL is fun) and travel long distance independently. The child inside never dies, but the real growing up begins here!

Look out, world! Here I come! (let’s pretend that this is a threat)