Archive for October, 2005

On Writing

Oct 26, 2005 in General

Hi, this is Viewtru, guest blogging here again.

I guess that most of you know by now that I am taking part in this year’s NanoWrimo novel writing challenge. There are a few days left and my plot is almost ready. Still some details of the plot to figure out, though.

My entry will be a kickass wuxia novel to be called, “The 3-in-1 Kungfu Girl”. The story revolves around Pei Pei, a foul-mouthed kid from a fishing village who has a great survival instinct. She becomes a kungfu exponent because of a series of accidental happenings. Remember my recent story on ”The Twin Dragons of Li Daifu”? Well, Jade Flower and Li Chiang will have some tiny cameo roles in this story. Wu Chuan will have a much bigger role.

It seems to me that it is much easier to write the middle portion of the story than to write the beginning or the end. It’s like squeezing a tube of toothpaste. The middle is always the easiest part to squeeze.

When I was in school trying to write an essay, I would take about 20 minutes to figure out the first two lines. After that, I only need take only fifteen minutes to write the long middle portion. And then there would be no time to think of a proper ending because my favourite TV programme will be on.

I never did like doing essay homework. You know why? Because you can’t copy essay homework.

You know what homework I love doing in school? Mathematics. You can always have a great day watching TV at home and then go to school the next day and copy mathematics answers from the brighter kids in class. The teacher wouldn’t know who copied whom. We were da experts in the fine art of copying.

But not with essays. You really shouldn’t try to copy an essay.

There was only one case that I remember that a kid copied another kid’s essay WORD FOR WORD and submitted it as his own original effort. Of course the teacher spotted it. She wasn’t retarded. Well, not totally. The whole class was aghast. One should always copy in such a way that it could not be so easily detected. I mean, come on, there are certain professional standards among school kids, not simply simply copy anyhow you like. Hello? Stupid dumbass. The whole class was ready to flunk him.

Hey, gotta go now. My 3-in-1 coffee is calling me.

This is Viewtru signing off. Have a good day ahead!

Big, big hugs to everyone

Oct 25, 2005 in Diary-writer

I'm feeling great. I've had a great weekend, on Saturday, Mum bought me a smashing new pair of jeans , we had an extremely filling pre-birthday dinner over at Greenview Restaurant (lip-smacking Sang Har Meen, completing with a mud-cake and candles), and then the bf's mum cooked a hearty meal for the entire family on Sunday.

Plus the angpaus, and the well-wishes.

And the free trip to the office courtesy of the bf this morning (plus the dinner tonight).

And the e-mails, and the comments over here (it's great to get so many wishes well ahead of time).

But more importantly, for those who need big hugs and loving birthday wishes too:

Finicky Feline, The Snark and Rambotan.

For the uninitiated, FF and Rambotan are well-known bloggers from across the causeway. The Snark is the local biker dude who's a familiar face to most bloggers. And the ultra cool thing is we're all born on the 25th of October. FF and I share the same birth hour in the same year. Like, how cool is that?

OH GO WISH THEM ALREADY! Have a great Tuesday!

Related posts
No Big Deal: Parts I & II
Birthday Food
The 25th of October Club

Fake Accents

Oct 24, 2005 in General

I do know for a fact that Malaysians absolutely HATE people who speak English with a 'fake' accent. Especially if the perpetrator is an AhLian who had never stepped foot out of the country before. Chances are these guys are just trying to sound pompous, because apparently they feel that the American and British way of speaking English is sooo much classier.

But you know, I've come to realise that accents are way overrated. Sure, the AhLians from above are irritating. But if you think about it, people tend to speak as they were taught. I have met a lot of Chinese people (as in people from China) and it's really interesting to hear them speak English. You can instantly tell where they learnt their English from. Their accents vary from American to British to downrite Chinese.

So if you think about it, we are exposed to loads of American TV programmes. So, for an AhLian who doesn't speak English to her friends, she probably learnt most of her English by watching TV and hence the 'weird' accent.

Some people also tend to talk differently when speaking with people of different nationalities so that they can be easily understood. It's purely being considerate you know. Speak slower and more clearly. I may speak perfect English (*ahem*) but there are times when my British friends have problems understanding me. I would then slow down and inadvertedly change the way I speak……….which would then make me guilty of a 'fake' accent.

Not my fault, ok?

And the reason I am telling you all this?

I am coming home in 2 days time and so I need to start making excuses for my so called 'fake' accent. Don't slaughter me…….

New header

Oct 23, 2005 in General

I got sick of the overhead lights and decided that I had enough being 'rejuvenated'. And then I'm currently suffering from an overdose of caffeine and hence I can't think of anything nicer than 'being minishorts' so that's the best I could come up with.

And then, also, I suck at designs and I'm far too lazy to relearn coding, so I decided to change just the banner.

The occasion?

I'm getting older. Yay.

My Alien Abduction Experience

Oct 22, 2005 in General

Vincent says: Guestblogging today is Dabido, a slightly mental Aussie dude. He writes about his day, about silly things, or about philosophical things. This dude is famous in this blog for leaving insanely long comments on anything, anywhere and anytime. Today's post is about some aliens and contains some dry witty humour that only the smartest of you lot would get.

Today was a very slow day, so I'll talk instead about the alien abduction that happened to me last night. Actually, I am making it up. There was no alien abduction, or at least that's what the aliens altered my mind to believe.

Like most stories, it starts on a cold windy dark night. The background music was annoyingly minimalistic and probably performed by some arts graduate who couldn't get a job at MacDonald's. So they bought themselves a cheap synthesizer and went into film scores instead.

Like most alien abduction stories, the protagonist was asleep. In this case, I was the protagonist, so I am the one who was asleep. A strange light filled the room. At least it might have, and I might have noticed it, but alas, I was asleep. We'll assume it did just for the atmospherics of the story.

The door opened, and in walked an alien. Or maybe the alien hovered in. After all, being a superior race from another world, they probably no longer need the exercise. It hovered over to my bed, where I was sound asleep under my warm quilt and black sheets. It lent over my sleeping body and dribbled in my ear.

You see, most aliens do that as they only have slits for mouths that they can't close properly. One reason for this, is they no longer need their mouths to talk. They do it all via telepathy and have little need for muscles which move the mouth around to make the correct sounds. Another reason, and a much more practical reason, is the props department created the alien using cheap latex and couldn't be bothered doing a good job. After all, it's hard to make a latex mask that moves realistically when an actor speaks.

So, there I was fast asleep. Dreaming away, with alien drool in my ear. You might wonder why I hadn't woken up at this stage. Well, maybe the aliens had hit me with one of their special sleep rays. You know, the ones they can set to stun, kill or Kentucky fried. Fortunately for me, it was only set to REM mode. This mode, both keeps the subject asleep and plays 'losing my religion'.

A second alien entered the room. This one was wearing a top hat for religious reasons.

The alien religion consisting of some members who are of course priests. On special days of religious significance the priests stand at the front of the assembled parishioners, and perform deeply religious ceremonies. It starts by the high priest removing his top hat. This is placed upon a small alter, which is usually covered by a red cloth with gold trim. The priest then reaches into the hat, and extracts a rather confused rabbit. Sometimes, it might be a white dove, which then ceremoniously flies towards the ceiling.

After this miracle, the high priest will then ask a devout member of the congregation to pick a card from a pack of fifty two playing cards. (The fifty two of course being a number of deep religious significance). Upon choosing a card, the high priest will ask the parishioner to show it to the rest of the congregation. The parishioner does this, ceremoniously holding it aloft so everyone can see except for the high priest. The high priest must not notice what is written on the card, less a curse befall all in the room. The card is then place reverently back into the pack of cards. The high priest then hands the deck to the parishioner who shuffles the pack.

The high priest then takes the deck from the parishioner and waves a black ceremonious scepter with white tips over the deck. He then holds the deck in one hand and waves his other hand over the top of the deck. Miraculously, a card begins to draw itself up, out of the deck. As it draws itself further and further out of the deck, it is obvious it is the same card that the partitioner chose earlier. The congregation is totally amazed and burst into instant applause.

After this, a lesser priest comes out. He recites from memory many deeply learned observations on the condition of life. Most of these he has learned from religious texts. A highly popular one being, 'The Bumper Book of Elephant Jokes'. Another one might be something like, 'Adult Humour for the Sexist Alien' or 'Men are from Mars, Let's send them back there'.

The congregation laugh at the priests parables and witty observations. They do this, even if the priest is obviously not as observant as he might believe. It is polite to laugh and applaud till the priest leaves the stage, normally uttering a blessing as he leaves.

One popular one being, 'Goodnight Ladies and Germs. And remember, as you drive home tonight, stay off the footpath! That's where I drive!”

No sooner had these aliens invaded my bedroom and abducted me for a while, than they left. I might have been taken for an hour or so. It's difficult to tell, as I was asleep during the whole thing. At a later date, I might tell the story of the probing and tests the aliens performed on me. It was all scientific and stuff, so probably not that exciting for me to mention.

Of course, now you know the next time you wake up and don't remember being abducted by aliens, that's when you know it actually happened! Don't let them wiping your memory fool you! The fact you don't remember is proof they took you! :-)

Can't you sleep easier at night now that I've told you that? :-)

Bad Behavior has blocked 3033 access attempts in the last 7 days.