Addendum to "A Week in the World of..."

Hello! :)

I actually omitted this from my entry, possibly in a state of sleep-deprived delirium. Around this time of year, the calendar salespeople are out, palming off as many knockoffs of what is essentially the same document filled with 366 blanks representing the coming year (or 428 is they have one month leeway at both ends). But the pictures change. In other words, they try to make theirs look prettier than their competitors so they get better sales. Everyone does it, so it's okay. But the point is to make that more attractive right?

So what's the deal with this?
Scary, no?

I would not, under any circumstances, buy this calendar, unless I wanted to psychologically scar the recipient for life :P .

Well, that's all I forgot I hope. In addition to many other things I'm sure.


Till next write --

A Week in the World of...

Hello! :)

Initially, I meant to update 9 days ago. But then, with each day, I felt less and less like doing it. Actually, I'm still intermittently procrastinating as I'm typing right now. As a side-note, I've recently found Minesweeper to be mind-numbing, but in a good way. I'm playing it so often now I think I'm developing RSI on my right index finger. Also browsing through the 200 or so gigabytes of anime I currently have on my hard drive to see which I might make a start on this holiday. Anyways, onto the actual entry. Nine days. I know that's slightly longer than one week, but I kept procrastinating,



Okay, a little more procrastination later, and it's now been 16 days since I meant to update, LOL. The title should now more appropriately be "Two Weeks in the World of...", but oh well. Presenting all events as they occurred in chronological order seems a little bit pointless now, firstly because there's some days with heaps of stuff happening, some with nothing, and secondly, because I don't really remember anymore the exact time when everything happened. But I'll try to record everything as accurately as I experienced them, minus the time and date.

The VERY first thing is that on the day that I originally meant to update, my sister Wendy went for her 8th grade piano exam. For those who don't know, 8th grade is a big deal, because it's the pinnacle of piano tuition without heading into the insane depths of A-Mus, L-Mus, etc. which do literally drive one insane. Also, once you have your 8th grade cert, you can teach, if you can stand it. For the record, she passed. I didn't have doubts for a second :) .

After the exam, we went to Sunnybank to celebrate, and got solids from KFC, liquids from Gloria Jean's and Easy Way for me and Wendy, respectively. Two funny things, explainable only through photography.

This is the tiling that's underneath the counters at the KFC at Sunnybank Plaza. I'm not sure how clear it is, but I've captured the KFC logo to the left to verify it IS KFC. Anyways, notice that while the fries are correctly coloured yellow, the hamburger has been strangely shaded purple, and the drumstick is extremely hairy. The drink, while not really in KFC colours, had nothing inherently wrong with them. But I would suggest firing whoever designed those tiles for them. No one in their right minds would purchase a purple burger (I would hope).

Next thing...

This is the Easy Way drink that my sister ordered that day. There was nothing wrong with the drink itself, but I noticed something interesting on the side of the container. I think that the shape of the cup made it difficult for my camera to focus on the text, but take my word for it when I say that the green text spells out: "Drink slowly. Beware of choking on toppings." Personally, I would make a warning just a little bit bigger, and possibly in red too, if it really is a warning. Essentially, they've made it the same size as the Easy Way website. LOL.

Other things that happened on Friday the 7th of December. Successfully passed through three yellow lights while driving, that made my day. Parking at Garden City? What parking? I couldn't find a parking spot, so I dropped off Wendy and Nat, drove back home, parked in the garage, and took the bus outside my house instead. The bus was stopped at two yellow lights, but not me driving, so I didn't mind.

Pass this date, things start getting fuzzy. Like Saturday the 8th, one day after. For some reason, I don't remember what I did that day. Anyways, on Sunday, went to Yum Cha with family friends, including Yvonne, Heidi and Sally. Went shutter-crazy, and have plenty of photos as a result. Enjoy.

First to set the mood.

Okay, now the photos

This was the beginning of a whole chain of conversations regarding mobile phones. Incidentally, this was also the day that Heidi's phone died. Died is probably a polite way of saying it. A more appropriate term would be quit. That phone was a quitter. Good riddance. Can't wait to see her new one :) .

This is my lovely sister. Three things about this photo.
1. Yes, this is a pose apparently.
2. No, I didn't ask for it.
3. Yes, she does look normal sometimes.

This is my other sister Esther. Luckily, this photo caught her at one of her cuter moments. Tantrum mode is slightly less attractive. Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of that yet.


The "other" Yau's, Heidi (left) and Yvonne (right). For some reason, they look extremely alike in this photo, at least to me.

For some strange reason, people have this tendency and desire to self-shoot a photo, despite the presence of other able-bodied quasi-photographers who would be more than happy to take a picture without risking cutting half of someone's face out of the frame or getting a weird angle. In case you were wondering, yes, they took this photo themselves, and I pointed out the previous fact to them straight afterwards.


People also have a tendency to "pose" for a photo. It's decorative, but then, there's really no need to "decorate" a photo, after all, isn't your face pretty enough?

Un-posed (above) vs. Posed (below)

Really, what's the difference? By the way, pictured above is Sally, family friend of 14-ish years who apparently used to call me "big brother". I have no recollection of this, but it sounds kinda cool. As long as you smile, a pose adds no merit or attractiveness to a photo in my opinion. Opt for the "natural" look :) .

Oh yeah, parents were also at Yum Cha, but we teens had a table all to ourselves (although me and Vonnie aren't technically teens anymore). I had a photo of them, but they're boring in comparison to us. ;)


On a Monday, possibly the 10th, had a few on-the-road encounters that made me think. First of all, I was driving mum, Esther and myself to Sunnybank Plaza at around noon-ish for shopping, heading along Mt Gravatt-Capalaba Road. Going through the Logan Road intersection on the middle lane, the situation was reversed from normal; for once, the right lane was stationary and the middle lane was moving. I had just entered the intersection on the middle lane, when suddenly a car from the right lane veered into my lane in front of me.

Even with quick reflexes, I stopped within two feet of that car, with the ABS screeching protest at the abruptness of my braking. My life didn't quite flash before my eyes (I don't really know what that experience is like) but my heart was certainly racing after that near-crash. Not the first time something like that has happened, but the first time it's happened with passengers (especially a toddler) in the car with me.

Lesson 1: Bad drivers consider other cars and their drivers expendable. Good drivers realize that no one is expendable, and that driving is not a simulation.

Heading to Bible Study that night, I noticed two things. The first of which was a three-car accident on Logan Road, just before the Gateway onramp. Crashes are bad enough, but this one involved three cars, and at least three drivers. From what I could see, no one was badly hurt, but still, three heads are not better than one here.

Lesson 2: Prevent crashes wherever possible. If not, try not to involve other people (i.e. a one-car accident). At most, inconvenience only one other person (i.e. a two-car accident).

Later, on Mains Road, there's a section where no one travels the left lane until they have to make a turn, just in case the bus decides to stop and either delays you or forces you to merge right anyways. But new drivers can't be expected to anticipate this, I'm sure, and so, some people do the right thing and give way to them when they need the space. I did, to a driver with either an L or P plate, I don't remember which, who was stuck behind a stationary bus. Usually, the giving-way car slows, and the merging car merges without the giving-way car having to stop completely. But I think this one was a little hesitant, merged a little, than stopped mid-road, before flooring it. But this was enough to make me come to a halt too, and though I wasn't annoyed, other drivers behind me were, enough to high-five their steering wheel.

Lesson 3: Give L-plate/ P-plate drivers a little slack. You'd give it to open drivers, why not them? Some drivers intentionally withhold given way from these green drivers. I say we boo their behaviour and do our best not to imitate them. We all started as newbies.


On the topic of driving, I am, as of the 20th of December, on my open licence, which means more demerit points, a new licence (as I only got a 3 year P licence) and lower insurance premiums. Score! But... instead of updating the licence with a new look photo, I found myself with the same face, same hairstyle, same expression and... the same shirt! I don't know how it happened, but I wore the same shirt on both occasions where I had my photo taken for my licence. What are the odds? So essentially, they might as well have stuck with the old photo, LOL.


During the past two weeks, a little event called Holiday Sunday School also happened. I think the day Vivian sent the email out, I happily volunteered to supervise cooking and boat-building for the oldest group, grade 6 and 7's. Then, days before the event, she asked me again, forgetting that I had already previously already agreed to do some activities, to help out. So I happily volunteered to supervise cooking... again (boat-building was already being tackled by the intrepid Emily).

Next, I heard the budget for each activity, and my face was really this shape -> o_O
Knowing that it would be next to impossible, I told her I'd just donate the ingredients. Among other things, she was already worried about the financing, and the aim to keep everything in the black and not drop to red was at the forefront of her mind. Fiscally sound, but I wanted the kids to have a lot of fun cooking, or else they might be haunted by the memories of the inane boredom cooking at Holiday Sunday School and decide never to cook again.

The settled menu dé jour? Pizza and choc-centred muffins. Wendy also made Christmas cookies at my request in case we had time to spare to decorate with icing and stuff (i.e. act like grade 1's). I think they had fun cooking, expectedly, at their age, boys and girls are natural enemies, or at least never in alliance with one another, so two groups formed by gender, which was convenient; things were done twice as fast (I think). I didn't get photos, disappointing, but I think I made the right choice. Bringing a camera phone to the beach was risking damage. Bringing a camera phone to a kids cooking area was risking turning a handy electronic appliance into a paperweight.

Also, I thought I had forgotten it. Turns out it had just fallen out of my pocket when I was driving. I omitted the price of my three bags of groceries, but other people read the receipt, even after I scrunched it up and threw it in the bin, and Viv managed to suspiciously estimate a figure pretty close to the actual. So much for mystery. -_-"

The day ran smoothly, and the ledgers were actually black at the end of the day, and not red, which was good news for anyone planning to go to camp next year.


Also, I have now officially equaled both of the Bible Study records, firstly with leading a single chapter for four weeks (it'll be my fourth week once we resume anyways) and secondly with only going through a single verse in one week. This coincided with the return of the AYC goers, including Girl Power (whoever they are) and Rev Lui, which accounts for the hour-long discussion on something. It's not that I don't remember what we discussed, but if I told you, you'd lose the incentive to come along to Bible Study ;) . Come along when we resume if you want to "know".

Well, either I've forgotten the rest of the interesting stuff, or that's all folks!

I bet you're feeling a little like this

Hardly spellbinding material here, but it is 2:22 in the morning. And 16 days is harder to keep a track of than I'd thought. Due to the current length of this entry, I will save stories of Michael's Christmas Party and the MYF Christmas Party for another entry. Thanks for reading!

Till next write --

A Series of Random Events

Hello! : )

Again, this entry has taken three days to write. Also, it encompasses the past three days of events, of which randomness seemed to be the only non-random component. So expect nothing consistent in this blog. Strap yourselves in for twists and turns.

Post-surgery

I'm alive and well. Good news and bad news. Life is boring at best and painful when it sucks. But I'm sure people are happy I'm alive and well, especially since I just underwent my first hospital surgery - wisdom teeth extraction for 4 teeth. I think the anaesthetist was a little liberal with the juice; I'm still numb around the bottom teeth and lower lip now, 10 at night. Sure hope they didn't sever a nerve. But for all I know, I'm not even sure Dr ____ took out all 4, can only see and feel the stitches of the bottom 2. Will know soon once the numbness fades.

Also? The anaesthetist is a UQ alumnus, and remembers the "Rec Room", which I assume is the equivalent to the "Red Room" at present. And he was Asian. Seeing his fees, my parents suddenly came to the conclusion that the anaesthetist specialty has a GREAT money-to-difficulty ratio. Plus my mum was surprised that anaesthetists were REAL doctors.

The cannula used to inject the anaesthetic was icky. I mean, it's a hollow needle stuck in a vein. Discomfort++. On the way home, my baby sister Esther thought my ice pack looked funny, possibly because I looked like a bunny.

Seven things:
- Cannulae are icky, hospital robes idiotic, paper underwear appreciated for public decency
- Don't panic in a hospital; nurses can read your pulse. Mine were surprised at my steady 87 despite it being my first time as a patient in a hospital
- The sedative "BLANK" is really really cool
- Don't feel it a need to dribble and speak like a moron when you're on painkillers; I didn't (apparently I'm the king of recovery, speaking with perfect fluency upon waking and not feeling drowsy at all)
- Hospital food sucks, possibly because I was garnishing it was my own blood that was still in my mouth, or because my tongue was still numb. Why flavour the jelly at all?
- Felt a bit weird at being wheeled from place to place like an invalid, but I'm sure wheelchair companies make a good profit
- Boys get blue ice packs and girls get pink ice packs; I wanted a pink one too (~disappointment~)

Home cooking

Some people are aware that I can cook, though I think they just have an instinctive scepticism towards that fact, and have to ask, "O_o, o rly?"........ (~pain~) Wednesday night was my night to cook at home. Went grocery shopping in the morning, during which time I found this.



~Shakes head~



I hope Breaka bankrupts themselves for this unnatural creation.




Anyways, dishes on the menu that night? Stir-fried vegetables with beef, and steamed mince eggs (I'm not sure of the English equivalent, sounds about right). Here are some snapshots.

What do you think? Looks can be deceiving, it actually tasted really good. Do you know how vegetables take different amounts of time to achieve a good flavour? I actually timed the carrots, cauliflower and zucchini so that they were all tasty. And the eggs are missing a chunk because my baby sister Esther had dinner before we did. And she liked it too : ).

But then, Wendy decides to trump me by making the best potato bake + honey barbecue chicken combo the next night (~cry~).

Still, I was rather proud of my creations - proud enough to take photos of them.

The Big City

I was at the city on Wednesday, made some time to get a Starbucks coffee, sit and read for a bit. Coffee was a disappointment. I don't know what America sees in that coffee chain. It was worse than instant (is that even possible?). But the size was good (590ml), ALMOST as big as my cup at home LOL.

While I was sitting, an Aboriginal lady came up and asked me to buy her McDonald's. Why McDonald's? I wouldn't know. Didn't have anymore money on me, but I gave her my box of Shapes, which I'd just opened. She ran off with it, and I was a little speechless, but seeing how dirty her hands were, I wasn't sure I would want them back anyways.

Another elderly Caucasian gentleman started talking to me after this, he had been trying to decipher that lady's almost incoherent speech too. Why did he start talking to me? I don't remember. Really, I don't even remembered what we talked about, but apparently he was a carpenter, and became a backpacker, traveled to Asia, Europe, America, and Australia. Got a good repertoire going there, but I don't like to travel, so I couldn't really relate. Also? He liked McDonald's biscuits dunked in McDonald's coffee, which is ridiculous, because their coffee sucks worse than Starbucks', which is bad enough.

Six things:
- Starbucks coffee sucks
- Homeless people DO exist in Brisbane
- Smokers should stop smoking
- Wearing sunglasses does NOT make you cool enough to death stare me
- Being Goth is not a good enough reason to death stare me either
- City people are more antisocial than suburban people

Miscellanea

- Hanaichi curry is now 30 cents more expensive (~disappointment~)
- Picked up Wendy from Sunnybank and saw a car with a wayyyy hippy exterior, told her to look right, she looked left first (~funnyment)
- Zaraffa's coffee is tasty, but their baristas are a little over-zealous. My favourite coffee is a good cappucino (currently), most are not too foamy, absolutely fine, it's difficult to make good foam. But Zaraffa's cappucino? Filled to brimming as usual, but then the barista decides to glob on another dollop of foam on top. Nice work (~sarcasm~). How am I supposed to add sugar? How am I supposed to put a lid on? Anyways, Zaraffa's coffee is tastier, Gloria Jean's coffee is cheaper
- Vivian was working at Body Shop; I didn't see her, despite being at Zaraffa's for an hour. I'm either going blind or developing glaucoma (~worryment~)


That's all for now :)


Till next write --

A Creepy Story

Hello! :)

I have no idea why, but last night and this morning, I just felt like scaring myself with scary stories and supernatural tales. Obviously, they're not even remotely believable, but they can still creep you out.

My favourite kind of creepy story is where everything seems fine until the twist at the end. :)

Can anyone else relate?


Anyways, here's one of the ones that made the cut with me. More than half of them were actually more lame than scary, but writing is a dying art after all.

P.S. You'll have to highlight the text to read it, I don't want to unintentionally give someone nightmares or a fear of keyholes and hotels.


A man, at about the age of 30 went to a hotel and walked up to the front desk to check-in. The woman at the desk gave him his key and all, and told him that on the way to his room, there was a door with no number that was locked and no one was allowed in there. So he went to his room, and went to bed. The next night he was curious as to what was in the room, so he walked down the hall to where it was and of course tried the handle. Sure enough it was locked. So he bent down and looked through the keyhole. What he saw was a hotel bedroom and in the corner was a woman whose skin was completely white. She was leaning up against a wall and her head was facing the wall. He stared in confusion for a while then went back to his room. The next day, he went back to the room and looked through the keyhole. This time, all he saw was redness. He couldn’t make anything out, all he saw was red.


At this point he was confused and a little freaked out. He went to the front desk and asked the lady about the room. She sighed and said, "Did you look through the keyhole?" The man told her that he had and the lady said, "Well, I might as well tell you the story. A long time ago, a man murdered his wife in that room, and her ghost haunts it. But these people were not ordinary. They were white all over, except for their eyes, which are red."


Hope you guys enjoyed that. :)

Till next write --

What the freckle is a blog?

Hello! :)

Never thought I'd try a blog again. Never as in "it never snows in Brisbane". But I guess I showed me, hehehe...

Actually, I think it's just that we can never really predict what will happen in life. Or a more interesting take on it is that we like being contradictions to ourselves. Surprising? It shouldn't be, with so many examples of it occurring.

I like the number 6. It's my favourite number. I know a lot of people have 7 as there lucky number, and I suppose with religiosity in mind, 7 would be more appropriate, but I've always thought of myself as 1 below the average. Get it? Also, with 6 being the number of man, and me being just a person, it fits.

It actually reminds me of a lecture I had last semester in applied psychology where we were talking about typical superstitions, one of which is the aforementioned "lucky number 7". The lecturer asked people who considered 7 their lucky number to raise their hands. Then he said, "Why do you have lucky numbers?" Burn!

In psychology, we don't believe in luck in the conventional sense, though we do accept an alternative form of luck, which most of you fortunately don't have to know about. Yeah, psychology sucks the fun out of a lot more things, but I'll live with it.

Anyways, I decided to find 6 examples of these contradictions that people act upon or believe in, and I thought were either funny or interesting:

1. Winning the lottery
People obviously enter lotteries, or the business would have died out long ago. But I always like to hear people recount their stories of wins somewhere in the media, and apparently, the common first response is always something along the lines of "I won? No way! That's impossible!"

Do people know that they actually have a chance of winning? It's slim, but not zero, and that is something after all. Assuming people DO know this, then they're just acting stupid when they say that. Assuming people DON'T know this, then they really are stupid, entering a draw they think they have no chance of winning. Either way, this seems to be a common contradiction not limited just to lotteries.

2. Playing chicken with emergency vehicles
I liked the game "playing chicken" until I found out what the premise was. That is, I liked the name, I thought it was something like Harvest Moon, but it turns out it has nothing to do with growing corn and raising chickens. I suppose it's maybe just stupid and dangerous when you do it with regular cars.

But when you decide to take it to the next level by doing it with a fire engine blaring sirens heading on a crash-course path with your vehicle, that's also stupid, dangerous and contradictory. What's different is that you don't really care what the second car usually does in your off-season away from playing chicken, but the fire engine? If you wake up from your afternoon nap to realize your house is on fire, you'd hate to find out that the fire engine that works your district was the one you totaled in yesterday's chicken match. This is a contradiction I was shaking my head at just tonight. Apparently people driving cars are attracted to green traffic lights and lose the ability to find the brake pedal, and "give way to emergency vehicles" sounds like gibberish to them.

3. Low-carb beer
Beer is the devil's spawn. If one of my high school friends was writing this, he'd say "beer causes cancer", I'm sure. To him, chocolate causes cancer. You should've heard what our art teacher said to him, "XXXX, you're the strangest boy... in the nicest possible way."

Anyways, normal beer is bad enough. Alcohol makes you an idiot, turns your liver to stone, gives you this weird illness called a "hangover" and gives people a reason to arrest you or fire you. Then someone decides, "Hmm... increased beer consumption is correlated with decreased fitness. It must be drinking beer that causes them to get fat and lazy." (By now, good statisticians are ROFL) This is, after all, the rationale for low-carb beer.

But, it's not just drinking beer, but the fact that people spend five or six hours a night at a bar drinking, moving only once or twice away from their seat to go to the bathroom. Or the fact that they disengage from practically all physical activity. I'm sure beer with less carbs will do wonders for the increasingly overweight population.

Actually, with a more sarcastic view, low-carb beer actually makes a lot of sense. Seeing as how low-fat, low-sugar and low-salt foods all taste worst than their unhealthy predecessors, it's reasonable to assume that low-carb beer would taste worse than full-carb beer, which would cause people to go "Yuck!" and stop drinking beer, and start doing something else. It could work, for everyone but the beer companies. I would shout for joy if this scenario came true. BTW, I didn't realize this list of contradictions would last this long, sorry in advance.

5. Beautiful stars and dodgy starsigns
People love to check out their starsigns in the paper, in magazines and on the net. They might even follow these to the letter, doing things they wouldn't usually. But in reality, they would never actually look up into the sky to find out which bright dots compose their astrological sign. Being completely unimpressed with stars in the night sky while being mesmerised by vague generic descriptions sounds like worshiping the priests more than worshiping the deity.

Personally? I like looking at stars. I've almost forgotten what starsign I am. The opposite sounds like a major contradiction to me. (I wonder if people really think a star has a pointy shape in real life?)

6. Pennies for thoughts
People (in general) believe themselves to be creative, insightful and ingenious, sometimes. A reason why they wish to preserve some legacy of themselves after death. A nice sentiment, but that contradicts the fact that people refuse to keep a daily record of their thoughts. I heard it recently, that "diaries are a complete waste of time". There are heaps of things I've thought of, forgot to write them down, and lost them. I think I can accuse myself of this contradictory behaviour, and still manage to do it once in a while.

No diary? Can't afford one? Not a problem. Get one of those mini notepads and mini pen/pencil. I used to carry this setup around in high school, and did get laughed at a fair bit, so you've been warned.

Don't want to get laughed at? No pockets? Okay, you're a challenge, but guess what! We have a thing called blogs now! In fact, you're reading one.

Yeah, the contradiction thing was leading just to this. For once, mankind has managed to suppress a contradiction with a clever new invention, that has since been dumbed down a bit, but luckily still retains its original purpose. Everyone knows exactly what to do on a blog, write, post photos, draw squiggles, post up real/imaginary lists of friends/enemies, broadcast copyrighted music...

But not everyone knows what a blog actually is. If you do, imagine for a moment you don't. For two minutes.

Maybe "BLOG" is an acronym?

B-ig
L-ist
O-f
G-roceries

Maybe... not...

B-ombing
L-ocations
O-ver
G-ermany

Well, the World Wars ended a while ago...

Maybe it's a whole word?

BLog... B-Log... like B's Log? Actually, if you've read B's Log, you'll know it's not a B-Log, it's more of an A-Log. Very intellectual.

LOL - if you get it. Puns are among my favourite forms of comedy.

LOL - if you don't get it. I was laughing, that's all I need.

Um... yeah... I couldn't think of anything else.

Anyways, feel free to Wiki it now if you want to know what a "blog" actually stands for.

Technically, this entry took 3 days to write, if anyone's interested. Credits go to the people who helped me think of the topics, the Blogspot address and the motivation to start it.

P.S. I left out point 4 of the 6 contradictions, because this entry is waaaaay too long, hope you noticed it. Also, 4 is an unlucky number for Asians (psyche! there's no such thing as unlucky numbers!)
P.P.S. I can't believe my mom just temporarily came out of her bedroom just to tell me to go to bed. And it's only 1-ish (~bewilderment~)


Till next write --