Germany Shoots At Thin Air OR A (S)Pain in the Ass

Damnit. I expected a tie, at least. Or if not a tie, then Germany getting that single goal, not Es-freakin'-paña. Sorry if that offended anyone. I'm just feeling a trifle vindictive towards Spain at the moment. It'll pass - I hope.

So anyway, I was already kinda ticked off about the live broadcast time even before the match started. I wonder who is the smartypants who scheduled the program as 1.45 a.m. when it was clearly starting at 2.30 a.m. Thanks very much for depriving me of a short nap and making me go through all those stupid playbacks of previous matches and the commentators' incessant babbling... NOT!

Did I mention I was in a vindictive mode just now? I did? Well, I don't like the Spanish team that much, but then, I don't think the German team did that well either in today's final. In the first 30 minutes they were totally going at it and doing their best. But then Torres did his thing and kicked a ball into the net, and you could practically see the Germans deflating. Except maybe for Ballack. Now that guy's one helluva a footballer.

Still, I don't think Coach Löw should have taken Philip Lahm and Miroslav Klose out of the field. I mean, if they were actually in the game in the 2nd half, Germany might still have a chance at scoring a goal. Heck, I'd understand if they pulled out Ballack (that bleeding eye looked pretty bad) but why those two?!

Oh well. Looks like I'll just have to wait for the next World Cup!

P/S: Don't worry, Klose. You're still my favourite. *grins*

Vampire Knight: The Zero In Yuuki's Head

So this is how Yuuki imagines a runaway Zero... and strangely enough, I can totally imagine it! *rofl* Although I'd probably replace the "plonk" part to something like "tap tap" on cobblestones. XD

Don't get me wrong. I'm totally a KanameYuuki fan! This lil' 4-panel was just too cute though, I couldn't resist posting it.


Vampire Knight manga by Matsuri Hino
Credits go to the awesome people who did the scanlation! ^^

What Happened On Friday

So, on Friday (20th June) my parents dropped me off at Pavilion KL, where I met up with Mei Yeng, Kai Shen and Hui Min at GSC. After waiting for 10 mins or so, Carina and Yee Ching arrived and we spent almost 20 mins deciding which show to watch. In the end, we bought tickets in pairs: Yee Ching and me - Made of Honour, Carina and Hui Min - Kung Fu Panda, Mei Yeng and Kai Shen - Get Smart. After buying the tickets, we went to Food Republic as the others hadn't eaten yet. I didn't get anything to eat since I'd already had a bite at home.
Put Carina and Hui Min together, and you'll get one amusing live show. Hui Min came back to the table first with a huge bowl of curry laksa and a glum expression. Then came Carina with a bowl of beef noodles from the Vietnamese food section. After taking a sip of her curry laksa, Hui Min's expression, if possible, became even glummer. The reason was apparent when she remarked, "This curry laksa is tasteless. -_- And it's RM8 per bowl! I can get it cheaper and tastier outside from hawker stalls." Cue Carina, who promptly told her "You should try my beef noodle! Oh wait... You don't eat beef."

A while later, Carina again "Ehh... What's this thing called? This white thing that's furry furry de?" [Holds up the "thing" in question.]
"I think it's called tripe. You know, the cow's stomach or something." (Yee Ching)
"Ohh... Yeah, that's it. I forgot what it was called." (Carina)
"O_o 猪肚..." (Hui Min)
"什么猪肚? 牛肚来的啦!" (Carina)
"Ohh... Sorry, I said wrongly. Wrong animal." (Hui Min)
The rest of us: "Is there such a phrase as 牛肚...?" *sweat*
After finishing their food, we all went back up to the cinema to catch our shows. Yee Ching belanja-ed me popcorn and a drink (Thanks, Yee Chingy! ^^). When we walked into the cinema hall, we were both like "Whoa! No people! This is so awesome!" and "Muahahaha! It's like we booked the entire hall!" [Kids, this is called sendiri syiok. Don't try it at home! (Unless you wanna get beat up by your siblings, then be my guest.)]

"Made of Honour" was actually not bad. I mean, as chick flicks go, it's pretty much okay. Perfect to watch with girlfriends for some girly fun. XD Although I can't get Patrick Dempsey in his role in Enchanted out of my head. O_o

After coming out from the cinema, all 6 of us met up again inside Pavilion and decided to walk to KLCC, with Yee Ching leading the way. It was a surprisingly short walk, not as far as we expected. Along the way, from Pavilion to KLCC, all of us were joking about how our outfits were matching. 3 of us were wearing black tops (me, Carina, Mei Yeng) while the other 3 were wearing white tops (Yee Ching, Hui Min, Kai Shen). Coincidentally, our pairings to watch the movies were all black-and-white! Haha~ It was kinda fun and we were all trying different walking "formations" all the way to KLCC. XDWe went straight to Kinokuniya, where we all went to different sections to check out some books. I went to collect my Kingdom Hearts II Postcard Book and hung around the Japanese and manga section for quite a while with Yee Ching. Both of us had paid for our purchases (I also grabbed a copy of the KHII volume 1 manga) when Carina called to say that Hui Min, Mei Yeng and Kai Shen had left to go home. We walked around some more and Yee Ching spotted another eagerly anticipated manga, which she snapped up in a jiffy and paid for.

I was feeling kinda hungry by then, so I suggested we walk around for a makan place. I had this strange craving for spaghetti carbonara but everywhere we looked, the food was so expensive. In the end, we went up to the little cafe in Kinokuniya. I ordered a spaghetti carbonara and ice-blended chocolate, while Yee Ching had a coffee and a slice of cheese cake. We sat and chatted until around 5 p.m. before going home.On the way out of the bookstore, I happened to notice this Limited Edition Halo 3 Xbox 360 in the glass display outside. It's so cool; I just had to take a picture! XD

A Short Rant

I just got back from my personal 2 hours of Hell - driving lessons.

Most of you out there probably know that L (learner) drivers here have to learn driving using manual cars - in this case, manual Perodua Kancils. And let me tell you this: I am hating the very sight of a Kancil now! I cannot describe the horror I feel every time I slide into the driver's seat and place my feet on the clutch and accelerator. Clutch control is the most evil thing in this world (next to Hitler the Insane and Barney the Purple Pedosaur) and the instructor totally ISN'T helping!!

I'll admit, I'm not the sharpest nail in the shed when it comes to hand-foot-eye coordination, but seriously, I do not appreciate being made to feel stupid every freaking time I do some little thing wrong!! Hello?! A little encouragement would be nice!! Grrrr....

P/S: Oh great. Now Blogger's having some maintenance issues. ****!

Random Personal Photo Gallery 1

Mickey Mouse and friends celebrating Chinese New Year @ Chinatown, Singapore (2008)

Be@rbrick display in a shop at the newly renovated Sunway Pyramid (2007)

A rare sunny Saturday on the day of my 5-hour driving lecture (2008)

The wishing tree at a Siamese temple in Kelantan (2007)

Chinese New Year decorations at 1Utama's Centre Court (2008)

Chinese New Year decorations at The Curve (2008)

The hanging decorations at The Curve during Chinese New Year (2007)

The Singapore Flyer taken from afar (2008)

Dumpling Disaster

You know how appealing fried dumplings can look, especially when it's breakfast time and you're feeling hungry? Here, let me show you...

(Picture shown above is for illustration purposes only. Details may vary.)

So today, I actually managed to burn my hand instead of my tongue when eating dumplings. Amazing, no?

The thing is, never ever underestimate the splash damage that dumplings can inflict, be they from fancy air-conditioned "authentic" Chinese cuisine restaurants [i.e. Dragon-i] or just the local food court [i.e. kopitiam hawker stall]. I truly did not expect that there would be soup (the juices from the meat filling) inside the dumpling, so I just chomped down on it... and promptly spat it out again into my hand! OMG, that dumpling was hot! Result was, instead of my tongue being burnt by the soup, my palm received most of the damage.

Warning:
Be careful when eating dumplings.

By the way, the dumplings were delicious. We even bought some back home. The lady selling it was from China, so it's as authentic as the ones we eat at Dragon-i anyway. ^^

Music Is My Freedom

"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent."
~Victor Hugo

The Host Is A Pain In The A**

Oh god. I never imagined the day would come when I would actually hate a character - the main character, mind you - in a book so much, what more from Stephenie Meyer, one of my favourite authors.


But I can't help it. Every time I open the book to read, various 4-letter words of the not-so-nice variety will undoubtedly pop into my head, and I will be inwardly cursing Melanie a.k.a. Wanderer. To me, Melanie (the host) is just an irritating, annoying, selfish, stupid, pigheaded, unreasonable, miserable excuse for a human being. Wanderer (the soul who invades Melanie's body), on the other hand, is a total pushover who is unable to control her host's thoughts and emotions, even going so far as to give in and join in Melanie's desire to search for her apparently not-yet-brainwashed boyfriend Jared.

Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself there. The gist of the story is that Melanie Stryder, one of the last remaing humans, is captured and a "soul" is placed inside her body. The "soul", named Wanderer because of her vast experience in other hosts on other planets, is supposed to probe Melanie's thoughts to find out the locations of the remaining human resisters. However, instead of giving her directions, Melanie fills Wanderer's mind with vivid memories of Jared, a human living in hiding from the "invaders". Predictably, Wanderer begins to share Melanie's desire to reunite with him, and so the two of them (or should I say "she", since they're stuck in one body anyway) go on a road trip to search for him.

This time around, I'm actually on the side of the so-called "bad guys" a.k.a. the invading souls. What's so bad about having peace on Earth for a change, anyway? Where people live in harmony with each other and nobody has to pay for groceries. How great is that? Sure, some people might argue that humans have the right to choose for themselves, celebrate the human spirit and all that tosh, but personally, I am of the opinion that Melanie should just give up and give in already, instead of just whining and kicking up a royal fuss in Wanderer's head like a spoilt brat.

Sorry, Stephenie Meyer, but the RM61.90 (or $16.00) The Host cost me would have been better spent elsewhere. You should just stick to writing vampire fiction.

Evil Clutches

No, I am not referring to Mary Jane being "caught in the evil clutches of yet another of Spidey's enemies". I am also not referring to the outrageously-overpriced (for me, that is) Jimmy Choo metallic foldover clutch clutched *excuse the pun* in Hilary Duff's hands. I am literally referring to the clutch of manual cars, where it is an apparently integral part of actually getting the car to move and/or stop and/or "die" halfway. Let me tell you this: the clutch on manual cars are plain evil! Either that, or my left foot-clutch coordination is zero - with a capital Z and a big fat 0. Nada. Nil. Which is highly probable, considering that the instructor was practically glaring at me every time I fumbled with the gear/clutch/brake/accelerator/etc. Tuesdays and any other driving days are now my personal Hell on Earth.

I used to think Malaysian drivers were heartless. Now I've changed my mind. They're actually pretty nice and considerate people. Why? Because I know that my driving skills totally suck and they didn't even honk at me when I was [wobbling around in the stupid manual Kancil] on the road. So, to all the drivers who gave way, didn't honk, was patient and managed to bear being behind an L driver on the road, this shoutout goes out to all you awesome people:

Thank you! Terima kasih! 谢谢! Arigatou! Kamsahamnida! Merci! Gracias!

Random Icons Are Taking Over !!

Err... Yeah. From here on forwards, my blog will occasionally be attacked by random icons of the 100x100 variety. Nothing to worry about. It's just that I feel better having pictures together with alphabets, no matter how random they may seem. Btw, the cute little guy on the left is Honey-senpai from Ouran High Schoool Host Club (OHSHC) with his toy bunny. Cute, no?

I don't know what came over me last week. Must've been the Kingdom Hearts maniac taking over my brain or something. So I went ahead and ordered this Kingdom Hearts II Postcard Book from Kinokuniya KLCC. They e-mailed me back saying it was gonna cost RM45.60 and would arrive in about 2 weeks. You know what? It actually arrived 1 week ahead of schedule, on Saturday. Now I have to think of how the heck I'm gonna go to KLCC to collect it. *facepalms*


Oh, and I mustn't forget to ask them at the bookstore if they have any copies of [Japanese] LaLa magazine in stock. Not that I can read Hiragana or Katakana, I just like the freebies. Of course, I could probably learn some Japanese from it too. ^^ Ahh, and maybe pre-order Vampire Knight Vol. 5! *goes into LaLaland mode* Okay okay, I'm straying off the topic at hand here. (Was there actually one to begin with? *shrugs*) The point is, I have been influenced by the Otaku bug and am now trying to find a way to go to Kinokuniya KLCC. ~_~

Till next time, see ya, folks! =)

Friday the 13th

I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to blog on a Friday the 13th.



I do not recall since when I have been aware of the so-called "unluckiness" of Friday 13ths. I probably read it in some book when I was a kid. Although I do not believe that any Friday that falls on the 13th is more unlucky than any other day in the calendar, I do not deny that many... unfortunate events have happened in the past to make it seem that way.

L from Death Note doing the Caramelldansen dance. Don't ask me why.

With just a little skepticism and a whole lot of morbid curiosity about this superstition, I went through the wikipedia pages and here's what I found...

• The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia, a word derived from the concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví [Παρασκευή] (meaning Friday), and dekatreís [δεκατρείς] (meaning thirteen), attached to phobía [φοβία] (meaning fear). The term is a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, a simple fear of the number thirteen appearing in any case.

• In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve recognized signs of the zodiac, the twelve Apostles of Jesus, whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness. There is also a superstition, derived from the Last Supper, that having thirteen people seated at a table will result in the death of one of the diners. (I remember Professor Trelawney in Harry Potter having this same superstition during their Christmas dinner.)

• Friday, as the day on which Jesus Christ was crucified, has been viewed both positively and negatively among Christians. (TGIF, anyone? O_o)

• Any month that begins on a Sunday will contain a Friday the 13th. Every year has at least one and at most three Fridays the 13th. The longest period that can occur without a Friday the 13th is fourteen months.

Several events that are linked to Friday the 13th:

1. The arrest of the Knights Templar on Friday October 13, 1307.
2. The Uruguayan Rugby team infamously crashed in the Andes mountain range on Friday, 13 October 1972.
3. The "Friday the 13th Storm" struck Buffalo, New York on October 13, 2006.
4. UNIX time will reach 1,234,567,890 decimal seconds on February 13, 2009 at 23:31:30 GMT. (This isn't scary at all. I mean, how cool is that!)
5. The asteroid 99942 Apophis will make its close encounter on Friday, April 13, 2029. (Uhhh... okay. O_o)

Now for the finishing touches to this post. If these posters don't make you LoL, scream in terror or have some kind of reaction, I may just have to kill you. For more hilarious horror, check out Worth1000's "Mate A Movie" gallery for more of where this came from.


An instant classic, if it were ever made. XD


Wouldn't we all like to know... +_+

Have fun avoiding ladders and black kitties today! Happy Friday the 13th!! ^^

The Awesomeness of the Kung Fu Panda

Well, I just got back from watching Kung Fu Panda today, and there really is only one word to describe it - AWESOME(ness)!



I mean, seriously. This animated flick by Dreamworks totally bounced above all the other movies this half-year with a resounding "Boink!". As the poster says, be prepared for total awesomeness and craziness as Po, a big fat panda and kung fu fanatic suddenly finds himself chosen as the prophesied Dragon Warrior after crash landing into a tournament. What's more, the dangerous evil Warrior named Tai Lung has escaped from prison and it's up to Po, the Dragon Warrior, to save the day. Master Shifu, in charge of training the "Chosen One", despairs of ever molding the lazy panda into anything fit... That is, until he discovers the only thing that can motivate Po - food.

As all kung fu flicks go, the predictable always happens: Po is deprived of food until he learns enough kung fu to get it from Shifu. After several days of hard training in the mountains, the day comes when Po is finally able to get a dumpling from his master and tosses it away. He has "passed" the test and they go back to the Jade Palace in high spirits, only to find the other disciples (Tigress, Monkey, Crane, Viper and Mantis) beaten up by Tai Lung.

The city is evacuated and Shifu stays behind to fight with Tai Lung (they have a history that goes way back when Tai Lung was a really cute little cub). Po finally understands the meaning of the blank Dragon Scroll and hurries up to the Jade Palace, only to come face-to-face with Tai Lung, who is bent on getting the famous Dragon Scroll and becoming the Dragon Warrior.

A fight of awesome proportion ensues as both of them tumble down the loooooong stairs and into the empty town below. Boinking, crashing, flying and other -ings make up the fight between the lean and the pudgy. Tai Lung's powerful blows just bounced off Po's tubby stomach and after swinging the angry snow leopard around by his tail, Po finally finishes him off with the dreaded "WuXi Finger Hold" (LoL, don't ask). Po the Panda is finally recognised as the brave and mighty warrior he always imagined and everybody lives happily ever after.



The starting was quite a pleasant surprise, as the Dreamworks logo wasn't the usual one we see. In 2D cartoon style, it shows the silhouette of a monkey running across water, and then a crescent moon glides up from under it so that the monkey is then shown as sitting on the edge holding a pole for fishing. Other notable scenes were the part where Po was trying to watch the tournament, his chopstick fight with Shifu, Tai Lung's escape from prison and the Furious Five's tussle with Tai Lung on the rope bridge. Of course, let's not forget the awesomeness of Po's WuXi Finger Hold on Tai Lung, which sent shockwaves through the town in a 5-mile radius! XD

This animation deserves 5 out of 5 for total awesomeness! If Dreamworks keeps this up, Disney could very well be shaking on its pedestal of cartoon movie tycoon. *waggles eyebrows*

What ending could be more fitting than China's national treasure - the giant panda - saving it from evil baddies? ^^