Hey hey heyyyyyy!

Its that time again - when the stars and planets ( and the junk on my floor ) align and for some reason i decide to sit down and blog instead of facebooking, youtube-hopping or engaging in my usual procrastinatory ( is that even a word?) activities.

Well the above and Prof Chetwynds MEMS assignment. Bleargh. Last term was a good term assignments-wise though. Despite my almost suicidal disregard for deadlines and declining work ethic i managed to do rather well in my presentations & assignments. Go me!

Anyway..

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! & happy harirayahajiawalmuharramdeepavalimerryXmas and anything else that i have missed. My 2007 would have been nothing without its stellar cast :). Hope you're all gonna be in the sequel tooo. Cameo pon cukup la . Here's a quick catchup in pictures since the last time i blogged.
A super muhibbah flat Xmas dinner before the end of term. I made my roast lamb with mango & mint thingy and a salad with miso dressing + mandarins & pecans, Lauren made those yummy cheesy tex mex thingies, Georgia made tabbouleh, & Phil & John made Yorkshire Puds!
Sangeetha getting grabby with the post dinner 'Kremes.

Hopped down to windy windy Notts to catch up with some chummies ( and cook them incredibly sinful food) AND to catch David Guetta playing at Gatecrasher.


Happy, happy people with tired feet. Boys & girls, next time you go to a non-NUS event, please bring your Passports mkaaays?

Managed a quick stop in London to catch-upsies. Go Victoria League!

Managed another flat Xmas dinner. Since it was just tecks+company, woon and myself, we were all guinea pigs for the first time im making stuffed turkey.
Result? yumsies. Here's more food from that night:


Dessert in progress..
BAM!! Dark Choc truffle torte with strawberry/lemon coulis


With almost everyone away for Xmas eve, a coupla of us just had drinks at Embargo in town, followed by a quick hop to Ignite. Not exactly a warm and fuzzy Xmas, but hey - at least i wasnt scratching my balls at home.

Was stuck at home for Boxing Day. The evil forces of the greater West Midlands Transport Authority ( or whatever the monkey fuck its called) and Midland Trains have conspired to deprive me of the obscene gratification that is the Boxing Day Sales.

NYE was schweet. We went to Birmingham to catch the Godskitchen NYE party at Air. The headlining DJ wasn't that impressive, but the other room that played deep house was pretty darned good.


And once flat 32 repopulated again ( well mostly) i made laksaaa!

We just spend way too much time in the kitchen . & eating.

The rest of the time was mostly filled with not working, unreal tournament-ing (until everyone got home and the lag was unbearable) and a new draconian fitness regime ( alternating 20laps in the pool with 6 clicks of rowing + weights daily).

But 2007 really was a year to remember. In so many ways. AND a few more. My resolutions? pretty much the same every year - improve myself in every conceivable way.

Now that everyone's up to speed, a normal entry:

Feeling: a chilli + post spin-class endorphine rush
Listening to: Waktu Yang Dinanti - Ungu

Actually caught myself actually, audibly , contentedly sighing in bed the other day after a skosh of insomnia led me to totally clean out my room at 4 in the morning. Everything useless/to be shipped back is nicely stashed away in the trunk room,i have regained half my floorspace, and chucked out a whole full binliner of junk. Everythings completely resorted. THe only thing i have to worry about now is my bookshelf collapsing.

Speaking of bookshelves, out of the books i managed to read over the Xmas hols i'd have to say the best one was Twenty-Something by Iain Hollingshead - a fictional diary of ...wait for it.... a 20-something London banker who goes through a life-changing year. Hilarious, well written, and im sure a lot of you guys will identify with the protagonist. Grab a copy if you can!

Maybe its just that i've been spending more time in the weights room lately, but it seems that it gets packed harder every year with bloody vexing hooligans who swagger around smelling like ass and hogging the equipment. Better yet, some of them from a *certain* country come in big packs, pratically take over the weights room and yell *encouragement* at each other - basically its just a bloody pissing contest where overcompensating hulks boost their self esteem over seeing their "pussy" friends struggle with a 60kg bench. Personal prejudices & judgements asides, they are still bloody inconsiderate fucks. Whatever man - all the muscles and gymming in the world won't fix ugly, no?

Another thing that's been grinding my gears - how most Malaysians, no matter from what social strata they're from, tend to reserve this bizzare reverence for Westerners and (more so with the working classes) politicians.

'kay fine they might at the very least appear to have a better socioeconomic lot, no small part due to their history of crafty imperialism/puppetry and amazingly unfair foreign policies, but look a little closer and you'll see that they're just as fucked up - just sometimes differently. There's still violent crime, unemployment, illiteracy, and their politicians screw up just as royally. Yep. There are ignorant dumbfucks everywhere in the world.

Of course, you tend to feel a little more ire when said dumbfucks get your country's names in the papers. Our health minister's sex tape even made the bloody Metro. Fair enough it was horribly bad luck - he must have been set up. Step into the Parliament or even a Cabinet meeting and throw a stone - it will definitely bounce off some schmuck having an affair. Im sure there are quite a few people who'd be hypocrites for holding that personally against him.

SOME others deserve nothing less than a donkey kick to the groin. Not being racist or anything, but WHAT THE FUCK is up with all these senior Malay politicians letting all and sundry know what colossal gaping ignorant undignified twats they are. Malaysian media might be state-controlled but foreign stations, papers and Youtube are not. Don't tell me you havent seen videos of Parliamentary proceedings online and felt like giving Nazri the shit-kicking of his life. Or seen the interviews about the FRU's response to the Bersih demos. OR seen the UMNO youth rallies. Budi bahasa bangsa my ass.

Okay fine Khairy might actually know what he's doing with those keris-waving dogs on a string ( im sure a degree in PPE from Oxford is handy) but whats up with the others? Its like you're having all the wrong people going into politics for all the wrong reasons.

Sorry, but i'm just have this general burning disdain for politicians. Even those that dive in with the best of intentions are forced to conform along the way. Many that i've personally met have such a slimy, greasy untrustworthy vibe. I can count those that seem genuine with like.....2 fingers( and no, not with a roman V).

You want to make money? Start a channel or show that broadcasts Dewan Rakyat/Dewan Negara sessions, and take public sms votes on who they'd like to be seen to be told to shut the fuck up, or better yet, tasered. The latter might be an interesting option, especially with MPs being the amazing specimens of physical fitness that they are.

Our Parliament is already a joke, so why not capitalize on it?

Links:
cracked.com is bloody hilarious. Just read these two articles and you'll be hooked. Procrastination material for AGES.
The 5 pimping-est historical figures.
9 most badass bible verses

And here, the BEST. MOVIE. STUNT. EVER.
I bet you havent seen a ventriloquist do a sketch like THIS before.

I'm gonna finish this post with a confession:
.
.
.
.
.
.No i'm not gay. Screw you.
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.
.
.
I actually think some LOLcats are funny. Or at least cute.

"Words are nothing. Nothing but post hoc justifications and poorly remembered trivialities. Semantics and pedantics. Bottled up feelings, half-declarations, cowardly withdrawals at the last minute. The japes and scrapes of my reality and my imagination."
-Jack Lancaster, Twenty-Something

PS. PLEASE cease and desist with the facebook apps invitations. I dont want to know whether people think I'm Hot or Not( i already know) , and neither do i want to feed your pet turtle.

PPS. Read the above again. If you still send me an invite, i will send someone over to sodomize you with a splinter-y 2'x4' . I'm willing to bet that not many people will enjoy helping remove splinters from your strangely rectangular rectum.

GAARRRghh *bites thumbdrive.

Such is the wrath of Amar.

Balls man.....nicely got my last set of microscopy results for my individual project ( no more labwork, w00t!!!) my thumbdrive is permanently gone. Well it WAS my old thumbdrive and i hardly used it anymore....but still it worked bloody fine this afternoon and now BLEK its just corrupted.

Let that be a lesson to you, boys and girls. Always keep a backup thumbdrive. And do not bring about your (good)thumbdrive with your keys because then you're twice as likely to lose them. At the Union. And have it turned in on monday, with the thumbdrive conveniently missing.

Cunts.

Hahahah....during last minute procrastination , Phil decided to go through with our plan - i had no idea until i got a wallpost from Sangeetha, walked into his room and saw him laughing. He actually set up and account for her with a similar email, and we got all the flatmates to play along . I even logged in as well and added all her friends. The jig was up within a day tho when everyone else kept on going "FINALLY you're on Facebook" to the boss lady herself on campus.

Well i'm now gonna find some other work i can do. Or just go to the kitchen and find nibbles nyom nyom nyom. Tata!

Listening to : Nothing Lasts Forever - Maroon 5
Feeling : Amped for skool daze!!

One of my major pet peeves since last year ( yeah i know a lot of things irritate me now. I must be getting old) are the increasing number of people, mostly brits who wear keffiyehs as a fashion accessory without knowing its cultural significance. A couple of years back Londoners, mostly of middle eastern origins or muslims from around the world wore them in a certain way as a sign of Palestinian solidarity. It gets even more complicated in Arabic countries, where the colours, embroideries and the style of wear indicate tribal & political loyalties.

One of the more famous keffiyeh wearers. Shame on you if you dont know his name.

But somehow along the way, when Western militaria started wearing them out of practicality in middle eastern theaters, they sorta became part of military gear, and Japanese(eventually europeans and americans too) civvies who dress in fatigues and camo added them to their ensemble. Then the boho circles. Then the hipsters. Then every other schmuck who goes to urban outfitters/topman etc etc. I actually asked a guy who was wearing one on the bus the other day if he knew what wearing a keffiyeh represented. Nope. Big surprise.

A keffiyeh worn as a shemagh, for practical desert use

A keffiyeh on a catwalk, as lost as a pig at a barmitzvah

That being said, i DO have a red/white one that i used to wear as a shawl for Friday prayers while i was at school- picked it up in Mecca so it was quite a nice one. Best comment i ever had on it was from Mrs Lim - my form 5 English teacher-

"Amar why are you wearing a tablecloth?"

HAHAHAHAHAHA. Silly woman.

Would it make me a horrible hypocrite to dig up mine and wear it?

Finally got around to watching Die Hard 4 the other day. Always found movies about hackers hilarious - how there always HAS to be ONE really hot chick hacker while everyone else are stereotypical scrawny geeky weird looking types.

And how they always seem to have the prettiest UIs.

And how they can always call up perfectly user-friendly frontends for anything - traffic control, power management from any standard computer.

Its all a load of rubbish lar.

But John McLane is just fuckin hardcore. I dont recall Chuck Norris ever flinging a car into a helicopter.
I dont recall Kiefer Sutherland ever jumping on an F35 mid-hover.

Oh btw that scene was bloody fake. Fine a Raptor can hover. But to engage in urban close combat with a ground vehicle? Not even a triple ace Israeli air force pilot on meth can do that. 80% of all fatalities/ejects on VTOL jets are due to the pilots losing control during hovers.

Bruce Willis is the man la. 5th Element, Whole 9/10 yards,Sin City, 6th sense, Armageddon, 12 Monkeys- all damn good movies. No idea what the hell he was doing in Planet Terror though.

True, Planet Terror was a typical Tarantino homage to that particular genre, but it was so over the top in every which way and it was ridiculously cliched. All that was intentional i'll bet. But you can't argue that it was a bloody fun movie to watch. Every other scene will have you laughing your balls off, from the Machete trailer to the BEST.SCENE.EVER.

No really, have you ever seen anything more hilarious?

I'm gonna go grab something to eat! Lemme leave you with another lovely song - Akhir Rasa Ini by Samsons.



Tatabata!

Boogabooga!

*tired zombie face*

Man the last two days have been a bitch. Group meetings.Lab.Group meeting. Lab. Repeat ad-infinitum. At least the doctor gave me some sweet-ass meds. I gotta say its the best damn anti-inflammatory i've ever taken - Diclofenac. Just a word of warning tho - if you take it before you sleep, good luck waking up.

You know theres a funny story in there somewhere when you see a cute but slightly irritated girl buying two 12 packs of Durex Performas at the pharmacy.

Nyuumm got a whole bunch of new Indonesian music - some jazz, pop, but mostly songs by Glenn Fredly. Daft name, but not bad r&b/jazz-ish songs.

There's no videos yet for most of the Talib Kweli songs(catchy AND meaningful lyrics) i like off Eardrum ,but here's a cool video nonetheless. Check it out!



"I wear the night like a cloak, cuz i move with the stars - navigate through the truly bizzare"

You know its not your day when you show up for that long needed medical appointment with the uni health center and the receptionist tells you that your doctor has been taken ill as well and that they'll hook you up with another checkup tomorrow.

Before anything else, here's a shoutout to Tecks for turning 22 yesterdaaay! The crazy sod actually managed almost 30 shots of absinthe, vodka and tequila - double what he did last year w00t! Just celebrated with cake, liqour and cranium with the flat.

From the wholesome shots...


To the slightly less wholesome..


Almost there...
He's a pointer isnt he?

The last photo has been deemed a bit too teruk to post. Kesian Tecks a bit la. I'll put up this photo of a cute kitten instead.
Aaaaaawwww fuzzyywuzzy kewten's wickin his widdle pawsie woosieeee....

*EHEM*
But yeah the party was a successsss!

Anyone hungry?


Managed to make kuih akok last week. Just followed the basic recipe online and improvised the rest. Jadi jugak weii..

Tried something new yesterday. Warm prawn salad with miso & coriander vinaigrette dressing. The dressing?


3 tbsp ex.virgin olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
few drops sesame oil
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp miso paste
1 pinch chilli flakes
3 cloves garlic
1 inch ginger knob
1/2 cup coriander leaves

Just bung everything in a blender or chop finely and mix with a spoon. Goes well with quite a few salads.

Made my generic chicken pasta thingy today. The proportions vary, but a good base recipe would be:


2 chicken breasts/3 drumsticks filleted and diced
half an onion
4 cloves of garlic
1 can of tomatoes
balsamic vinegar
to season - oregano, thyme, chilli flakes, salt, pepper, fresh coriander

and as much pasta as you bloody well like. Also, this is not to be taken with cheese.

This is just a random scatterpost while i'm sick of doing like, 3 courseworks simultaneously.

Here's a little something from XKCD. Its a bit of a geeky comic but quite funny sometimes.


Mmmkays back to faceb...i mean wooork!!

Dammit the photo upload function works again. Was hoping its still down so i have an excuse to procrastinate on blogging - which means right about now i'm quite fucked, as blogging is already procrastination. Amar pussyfooting on blogging is like *insert your own lurid, shocking and possibly blasphemous analogy*.

Listening to: More or Less - Talib Kweli
Feeling: bummed out from being a skosh sick-ish

First of all, a public service message.

To all you lovely people on Facebook, especially the new ones:

EASY ON THE (#&*%^)&^%#$ APPS!!!

The first few apps were fine. Cheeky, fun and not too bandwidth-consuming. Then things started to get a little crazy. Vampires. Zombies. Werewolves. Jedi. Sith. I already had an ominous feeling when you can post songs and videos on your page - "ohhhhh shit this is going to be JUST like Friend-effing-ster"

In some ways, its even more annoying than Friendster now. Bar the customizeable interface and automatically streaming videos/music some FB pages are just chock full of oftentimes useless little apps that fill up your cache and tire your scrolling finger. NO, im not Interested In you and NO, i do not want to pet whatever roundish fluffy creature that is and dont even get me started on Entourage/Top Friends.

NO. Non.Niet.Nee.Nein.

Come to think of it, if you construe poking as a sexual innuendo ( from its humble beginnings as a "nudge" function to a one-click message that says "I don't know you but you're hot so i want to add you as a friend with the remote chance that i might eventually get to have sex with you" on those random FB stalking runs) most of these new apps also bring it on in heaps, from the not so subtle Are You Interested or Naughty Gifts or more hidden gems that somehow get to you subliminally ( or if you have a convoluted mind) which brings me back to petting random small furry things.

So please, for the sake of uber-procrastinators and mousewheels everywhere, cease and desist with the apps!!!

To get in the Raya mood a coupla weeks ago, i resorted to Youtubing for some Raya ads. While most were nondescript or just plain lousy, there were a few good ones.

Well where adverts are concerned, a "good" one means just particularly memorable either by the virtue of being hilarious, lame-to the point of being hilarious, and touching.

Petronas brought out the big guns again this year i see.

Yes Petronas makes excellent ads. But do they ALL have to tug so hard at the heartstrings? On one hand, its kinda hard to make funny ads on religious or cultural occasions but some of these Petronas ads are just overkill. One thing i can definitely NOT recommend is loading up all their Raya, Chinese New Year and maybe their Merdeka ads, and watching them in one go. You'll either be really depressed, be overwhelmed with guilt about how you could have been better/kinder/more respecful towards your family/elders OR just be out of tissue paper. Maybe all three. Their Deepavali ads, on the other hand, are usually hilarious or equally poignant, but not as heartwrenching. Of worthy note is one Deeparaya ad with a happy ending, where one guy actually says "What? Think all Petronas ads someone must die ar?"

Also, is it just me, or are more and more of the CNY/Raya/Deepavali ads sticking to the "ungrateful child+ageing parents" theme?

TV3 also had Yasmin Ahmad make a hilarious one:


I just LOVE the part where she buys the cempedak goreng.

Also on Yasmin Ahmad - just realised that her movies ( well Sepet, Gubra and Mukhsin anyway) are scored very well. From keroncong to Italian arias to French jazz, the meaning and mood of the songs always fits the characters and scenes to a tee.


If you havent seen Mukhsin, find a copy. IMHO, its better than Gubra (too much diverging to the side story) but not as good as Sepet, especially in terms of its critique on certain aspects of Malaysian, especially Malay culture. She is no pencemar budaya. She's just an honest storyteller.

Last weekend was crazy. Soul Nation was okay, but would have preferred to have an alternative DJ in the cooler. Pictures!

After , like, 3 hours of sweaty sweaty dancing it was kinda hard to wake up in the morning and go early to London. Managed to leave in the afternoon and travel non stop straight to Kak Rash's open house. Came a leeeeetle late so meet most of the Pet & London folks but we sure closed down the party. Dapat tapau w00t!!

I guess we weren't in a hurry to leave because for most of us who stayed on it was our final raya together in London. So sakan lah carik benda nak buat from hosting an improptu kursus kahwin ( yes Alina its your fault. Saper suruh you kawin this year?) to watching x-factor to helping the caterers clear out.


Was hoping for a quiet , productive weekend in but nooooo.

1. Heat on Friday. Sorry Woon, Foong, and other *orientals* . Heat was as Indian as ever. Well i got my Reggaeton so i was happpy.
2. Woke up at 9am the next day to catch the pursuit cycle class. Worth it!
3. Fell bloody sick AGAIN before i could catch up on sleep. At least its just light sniffles sans migraine this time around. *TOUCH WOOD*


Stopped by at Hurst 21 before Heat for fresh baked muffins courtesy of Mars. Traded in what was left of my akok ( yay jadii!!) for yummy triple berry muffins. Of course you cant expect Amar to sit idly and watch as freshly baked goods lay across the table with a can of spray cream and strawberries....

Hmn never knew i could make strawberry roses. Must have seen it on TV *Heroes reference*

Hmmn i thought i quit doing that pout. I blame it on the sugar.( No Mars they're not too sweet. You just let me eat too much of em)

Anyhoo's its Teck's birthday today. Happy 21st mannn!!! Dont eat too much of your (lovingly handmade by Sangeetha and yours truly) Lemon Lime cheesecake! Later how to get you drunk at topB?

You might also notice that this is a particularly late ( or early ) post. My sleep schedule is permanently disjointed. I'll probably need another weekend to set it straight. Or a whole day of ponteng-ing. We'll i'd probably get another hour of work done before i zzzzs.

"I want him dead! Yesterday! Before breakfast! Before eggs-ah!"
-Laszlo Gogolak, The Whole Ten Yards

Feeling : like there's a civil unrest in my stomach and a fireworks show in my head
Listening to : my Amy Winehouse playlist

I think the combination of all the Raya food and lack of sleep wasnt too good for me. Wicked sore throat since Sunday that blew into an all out fever, as always. For some reason i've been getting violent-ass migraines as well. Nothing double doses of Neurofen can't sort out though.

But it was an alright London Raya la.

Saturday -

Joined parents on the train to London, and crashed with them at the Mara apartments. Went to the Mara open houses up and down the building. Rendang lemang lontong ketupat kuih raya and the lot. Then tagged along with them shopping around Picadilly and Oxford circus - managed to make a quick stop at Hamley's to pick up Cranium!

Wanted to bring them for dinner at Addies, but the whole place was booked up. D'oh. Went for dinner at Mai Sushi nearby instead but still tak puas so i tarpaued the radna from Addies.

Sempat jugak pegi all the way to Mudchute to catch Shivani at her housewarming.

Bahan yous still lookin good, but your directions were CRAP.

Since i was gonna miss the last train anyway, made a stop at Notting Hill for more nibbles at Fazuras'
...and was reminded of how utterly FUN it was to wait for London night buses.

Sunday

buuuut then the best part was, i finally managed to drag the parents to Nobuuu for sunday lunch. Lucky i made reservations earlier.

Salmon tartare with caviar and spring onions in soy sauce and wasabi. Okay technically its just pulped salmon sashimi served in kicap but yummmmmmm.

Soft shell crab rolls

Seared tuna and sea bream salad with their ponzu dressing

The signature Nobu black cod. Nice but not THAT amazing

Beef Teriyaki

Beef Teppanyaki

..and the sushi platter

We were a bit the malas to go to the MSD raya. Dahlah most of the people i would want to see wont be there, and with the circle/district line down gettin there would have been a real pain in the ass. Managed to meet the girls later at Carluccios on St. Christophers though.

Not in a particularly ranty mood tonight. Just tired and migraine-ny. Just particularly irritated with the fact that half my floorspace is taken up by other people's crap. People who arent bothered to arrange to pick it up or confirm shipping. Eh aku bukan luggage forwarding agency okay? And Tocil rooms arent particularly roomy - despite what Hurst people might claim.

Oh yeah and the post around here has gone to shit. British work ethic + strong unions = fuckedupness. Its like the only people who havent been on strike are the Police. Its a bloody knock on effect. With Royal Mail striking whenever they bloody want to, all post have to go by couriers. Not only can they not handle the load, now they can also charge a premium for their services. Try buying anything online now and see how long the bloody postage takes.

Haha confirm la kalau ada claim form i bawak sindri terus pegi MSD kat London.

Raya at Tocil

Fazura and myself macam open house sikit sikit la at Tocil this Wednesday. She made laksa sarawak ( i had like 4 freaking bowls) and i made otak otak, thai glass noodle and prawn salad, and pandan jelly. Everyone tengah suffer suffer pedas pon bantai gak.


My stomach is still seriously reeling from that dinner. *violent stomach noises*

Tomorrow! Soul Nation !w00t!!
I've got my ticket, have you got yours?

Listening to: My musicals playlist. Perky is good. Need perky
Feeling: A little hoarse in the throat - boo. Technically its already Raya today - yeayy!

I think its a scientifically proven fact. I blog only and ONLY when i'm procrastinating.

My Raya is going to be quite sad weh. My parents are already in London, and will be coming in Cov Friday afternoon, and i will be running between the workshop sorting out my project heat treatments and the group meeting for the MEng group project ( designing and making a gantry to support PIV apparatus to analyze the flow pattern out of a jet engine)

ANd i think i'm falling sick. Thats is man after this weekend i'm catching up on some nice and proper sleep . Shoulda asked the folks to bring the Dreamcatcher from my room. Been having a bloody lot of WEIRD dreams lately.

Whoever left the StackEm/Jenga set in Flat 32s kitchen is either an evil genius or the devil himself. We started by playing it after dinner to see who would do the cleaning up, and then the forfeits for losing kinda scaled up.

High stakes Jenga + Hon Win's loaned bicycle carrier bag = naughtyness

Henceforth, it was decided that the loser would be bundled up in his bag, left outside the door of an absent flatmate, and his or her door was knocked. Guess who was first up!

Pfeh they left me outside Joanna's room, she came out but didn't open the bag. Lauren happened to pass by - i didnt hear what they said but she kicked the bag so i just popped out. Not a great success.

SO i had to do it again. This time it was outside John's room. He didnt seem to be in.

*crickets*

So whatever la. Next round it was Sangeethaaa!

The Setup

The Jab

Peekabooo!

Heh it was fun shits.

The Raya shoot last Sunday was also t3h b0mb.

Finalists FTW!

Best.Raya.Pic.Ever. All we need now is the non-video-still version

Sigh wish i had that Doraemon door. Wouldnt mind a quick trip to Borneo Rainforest for some delish shisha and pasta.

Can't wait to see you London folks in your Raya finery ;P