My Past Logs

In a recent cleanup of my room, I found my log book (aka my diary) after 5 years I started it. I thought I lost it when I tried to hide it. Found it in one of the Fizik SPM books. When I was young, I never really believed in the phrase "One day, you will look back this day and laugh". But it really happened when I read the logs on the book. I henceforth decided to blog it down. It's going to be long so do read them when you're free. Anyway, here it is :)

22 Jan 2002
This is the first log ever recorded. The day went on smoothly as it always has. I came back from school and had Char Siew Rice for lunch. I had a dream of my dream girl getting married to a close friend. The flashes from the dream have continued. I wonder when it will end. Went tuition from 4 - 6. Since my mom came early, I couldn't get the chance to communicate with others.

23 Jan 2002
Today school was boring but we managed to use the IT Lab. The computer which I am using is giving me a lot of problems which disappoints me. The dream is still having effects on me. Went tuition from 4 - 5.30. Came back and watched TV. After that, I did 3 Add Maths questions. School - Tuition - Homework. Is that all in life?

24 Jan 2002
Today, school seemed longer than it used to be. The homework given is almost impossible to complete. I now have 2 hours to complete it after penning this down. It seems that Lemuel has asked me to pass a message to Liz saying that he liked her. Tuition today was a little boring as I have already learned what he was teaching. Gosh, he's so slow. But its good as it reinforces what I've already learnt.

26 Jan 2002
Yesterday, school was quite good. During a Kimia Test, I scored 9/10. It felt good. However I Was disappointed when there is no IT. It was replaced with Kimia. Bleh! CF was quite tiring. Carrying all those speakers up and then down. After that, I went to Jason's house and played Liero. We also had a little talk about our own philosophy. Oh by the way, I managed to pass the message to Liz and chatted with her online.

Today however was good till evening. I Went wih Lem to the doctor for him to get a jab. After his jab, we ate lunch together. I went to his house later to do my homework. After that we played Liero. We reached church at 4.45. Lem went off early as he had to have dinner with his uncle who came from overseas. After CG, I asked Ming Ern to fetch me home after the church service. It was a surprise to see Liz in the same car being fetched back as well.

27 Jan 2002
Today seems to go normal. I watched a couple of movies on Astro. At 6.30 we went to Sam's place for house blessing. Many people from my dad's Zone turned up. Liz, Lem, Jeremy, Lydia and Lyvia were all there. I Managed to tell Lem that I still like her. He was kinda jealous when I sat with her on the same table. He later said he will back off. I Played Monopoly for a while till there were only 2 players left. I went down and left shortly after that. Saw Liz online and I chatted with her till 12.30 about life.

28 Jan 2002
Woke up and finished the Star Trek Armada 2 game. The ending was crappy. Had lunch with Lem in Taman Megah. While his mom went and bought bakery stuff, I managed to talk to him about Liz. He passed me another paper which says he wants to start a relationship with her. I went home and started to download a MTV of which Tim wanted. Liz came online and I told/pass her the message from Lem. Later I got a call about Christine Ong's birthday party at her house. It was in that place where I first played this game called Mafia...

29 Jan 2002
Today was ok and made better when our Kimia teacher did not enter class. We did a summary for BM and passed it up on the spot. Nothing really happened today :)

30 Jan 2002
Today was ok but when it was recess time, I suddenly felt extremely sleepy. During IT today, I finally managed to finish my Library program. However there is still the bug of borrowing the same book unlimitted times. I must be having stress as I went Mr Goey's tuition only to find out its wednesday. It is English tuition and not Add Math tuition.

3 Feb 2002
After 3 days away from home, I am finally able to write this log. I was in Penang for my grandfather's funeral. I missed my add math tuition, school and CF on Friday. I just came back from dinner with Lem. It seems that he is advancing further into trying to get Liz. I on the other side is trying to stop him from advancing any further. I think he is really into it...

4 Feb 2002
Today, school was tiring. This is because during PJK, we had to run 8 laps consecutively. That's about 800m. Later when I got home, I told Lem over the phone that Liz received 6 flowers from various different guys. I told Lem that the competition is going to be tough. However he said next year when he transfers to my school, he'll advance into full gear in an attempt to chase her. I wrote an email to Liz warning her of the incoming advances. As long as I'm still her friend, I'll try to guide her as much as possible so that she'll not be influenced to the dark side.

5 Feb 2002
We had 2 free periods today but Kimia is a little fast paced today. It seems that I have adapted to Form 5 life although it’s a little tough at times. I called Lem to as a few things about Liz. He said something about not starting a relationship with her. Did I get the wrong message? Or is he too busy playing some computer game?

I was given a set of songs to play for CF by Sue Min. I have practiced a few songs and I hope I'll do well in CF.

6 Feb 2002
School was boring with all the Sastera stuff. In IT, we were supposed to do some Excel exercise but I was busy rushing to finish my VB Library program. I hope I'll finish on time to pass up on Friday

7 Feb 2002
Today during lunchtime; I managed to ask Lem to clarify some stuff. It seems that what he told me or passed to me was a joke. He was totally joking about him starting a relationship with Liz. He said he was doing some survey. The strange thing is that he said he really likes Liz but also added that now is not the right time.

18 Feb 2002
Spent a week in Penang and since my brother is back, I didn’t write any logs. The Lemuel case has been solved. One problem came out from all that though. It stirred up my feelings for her which I tried so much to suppress. I thought I've got over her already. It seems that I like her more now. But the commitment and studies is the only thing stopping me from taking another step. However on the 16th, I saw Liz dancing up on stage for the first time. Gosh, she looked really beautiful up there.

20 Feb 2002
I finally managed to pass up my IT project after the project dateline got extended. It seems there were some other people whose project is better than mine.

24 Feb 2002
I was lazy to report the logs for the past few days. Today, Lem sent me a file which is a list of girls he likes. After looking at it, I suddenly felt lonely. Who are my friends? I feel that I'm losing Lem as a friend. My parents think that I have no friends because I'm selfish. I think differently though.

3 Mar 2002
Well its been a few days since the last log as I was busy with work. Nothing much to log down. All I know is that my relationship with Lem is breaking up. He seems to be with Sam all the time. Plus they keep talking about Rockman, Marvel Vs Capcom and some other PlayStation games.

23 Mar 2002
Its been almost a month since the last log as I was busy preparing for exams. Now its over and so far, no failures. Here is what I got

BM: 63
BI: 64
Mat: 60/90
Sej: 42
Moral: 87
Ki: 49
Fiz: 39/90
AddMat: 76
IT: 74

24 Mar 2002
Today, we swapped class with 5 Batai as one of the students in their class broke her leg. So now we have to climb 3 flights of steps to go to my class. Anyway, my feeling for Liz is getting stronger. Lem thinks that by knowing her favourite song (O Town - All or Nothing), he knows more than me.

29 Mar 2002
CF was held in the hall today. Paul brought some boxes of new wires which was good as its long enough for the stage. We had a play in CF and she was acting in it. Gosh she looked really beautiful in that white blouse and black skirt. I feel that Lem is not really backing off. I'll henceforth be on yellow alert to keep an eye out on him

8 Apr 2002
School was good. We got our class back. Finally back on ground floor. I've just got my approval to go for the CF camp. I started to write a story but it got stalled as there were some plot complications.

"If you change yourself to suite others, you stop being yourself"

13 Apr 2002
Sports day. Right after perbarisan, an Unggul cheerleader fainted. She regained consciousness and did quite a good job. No mistakes. Well at least this year there wasn't any crazy stuff like last year. I will never forget what was done to her last year. Anyway, Unggul won this year with 24 golds.

"One problem could destroy a strong friendship which was built long ago"

27 Apr 2002
Today time went by pretty quick. Vincent and Yi Khai came over and instead of studying; we played PC Games and watched Joe Satriani video clips. In church, she was dancing. I just have this strange feeling for her when I see here up on stage. Why is it that every time I look at her I have this strange feeling? I keep telling myself, if she can treat me as a friend, why can't i do the same?

"Past memories aren't easy to forget but easy to remember"
"A friend is someone who walks in when the whole world walks out on you"
"Why does most of my friendships started off good but ending badly?"


17 May 2002
More than 2 weeks has passed since the last log. Anyway, today I had Kimia exam and it’s actually easier than I thought. It seems that she's getting prettier by the day. In addition to that, there are about 10 people having a crush on her.

From Elizabeth to Liza to Liz to Lizzie. So many derivations of that name.

"To score in exams, all you need is a boost in confidence"

6 July 2002
It's been a long time since the last log. Exams, Gerak Gempur and the fact that my brother was around stopped me from writing my logs. I've decided that I will not pursue her anymore. I'll have to live with the feelings and hope that time heals all pains. The email for her is almost complete. Need to recheck and reread it a few more times to make sure its easy to understand.

14 July 2002
I've completed the message and sent it to her. Its almost a week now but still have no reply. I wonder if she has read it or not. I hope she did. Anyway, my entire study system is not working and I have now devised a new one. Maximum knowledge and minimum time. My second story is complete and I've named it "Battle for Freedom"


16 July 2002
I came to realise that whatever I do, Lem follows me and tries to get ahead of me. I like Liz and he likes her. I did VB Programming and he too did. I play the guitar, he too does. And now I write stories and he too started his own. In everything he follows, he'll show that he's better than me. Well, we'll see if he manage to get her.

Some collected philosophies:

1. If you abandon your principles, you stop becoming yourself
   
2. Superstition is the religion of fools
   
3. Bad company corrupts good character
   
4. People who don't do well in studies are not failures
   
5. Always have many friends. Each friend is another way out of troubles.

24 July 2002
She finally has read the mail. She thanked me for the advice. I hope that she did not read it the wrong way and get insulted. I hope that everything is fine with her and that she'll be happy every time. If she's happy, I'm happy.

26 Jan 2003
It’s been a year since this log book has started. Its still holidays after SPM as college starts on 10 Feb 2003. I thought Lem has stopped his advances but after mixing around with Mark Ong, he seems to have found the skills to approach her. He said "As long as I get close to her I am happy". He has a folder with her name on his desktop. I wonder what's inside. Oh well, it’s now up to her to choose. It’s time to forget all these things and see what up ahead in life. Perhaps there will be someone better for me?

---

Thats it for the log book. Didn't really finish the pages on the book it was in. I really can look back through all these experiences and laugh at it. Now after 5 years, I can safely say that I have mended that relationship with Lem and no, he is not chasing Liz and neither am I. I'm glad that things turn up good for me since then. With new friends, and colleagues, I don't find myself that lonely anymore. I'm still looking for "the one" and hope to find one soon :)

Anyway, my intention of posting this log is so that I will still have a backup of it if the log book is lost or destroyed. In addition to that, I hope it helps my readers to know a little bit more about me and my past. I’m sorry for taking up so much of your time to read through the logs.

Accenture BUM 2007

Note: This post is long.

Over the weekend, I attended my company's annual trip to Somerset in Rompin at Pahang. We got up super early on Friday so that we could be at the Taman Jaya LRT Station at 6.30AM. However, knowing Malaysian timing, we didn't leave till it was 7.30-7.45AM. During the journey, they showed a DVD movie; 200 Pound Beauty. Gosh that was funny. However halfway through the journey, I could not enjoy the movie as we took a turn to the trunk roads and it was really winding; twisting back and forth. Since I was sitting in the front of the bus, I was really uncomfortable and at one point wanted to throw up. Thankfully, the roads started to straighten out and I managed to continue watching the movie.

Day 1

Shortly after that, we arrived at Somerset Resort and we checked in. I hence realized that I've been there before during one of the treasure hunts I participated. Strangely though, I only remembered the floor tiles in the toilet and nothing else. Lol! Shortly after that, we adjourned for lunch in the lobby and I met many people I wanted to meet. People from the TM project, UOBM project as well as people who will be joining the Maxis Project soon.

After lunch, we adjourned to the Octopus Hall for the opening ceremony of BUM 2007. The committee put up a presentation for us with Beng Choon appearing as Jack Sparrow to officially launch BUM 2007. After a quick speech, we all split up to our individual departments and have a short community meeting. I left the meeting early after Janet gave us the green light to go for our new-joiners performance rehearsal.

The Dining area at the beach

My group met up in the beach with our props and we ran through our lines and I tried to get everything thought up. Problems that could occur like is it too windy? Will the sound play? What if the music suddenly stops? Will the slides come in on time? Eventually our time came and we hence had to perform. Our group was asked to perform under the category of "others" and given a theme of "JAWS"

Our performance is supposedly a fashion show with a small twist. It's basically a fashion show with a mini skit in it. Let me try to run through the performance with you all. It starts out with a fisherman going out onto the stage and says "Haih, Saturday also have to work". The screen shows "Oh no, it's Just Another Working Saturday". (Do note the Acronym of JAWS). Then the fisherman continues "Eh where are all the fish?" At that moment, our narrator will then say "Unknown to him, some sharks decided to have a fashion show where he is fishing. Presenting the various species of sharks". At that moment, the next slide comes in with the music of "Tiesto - He's A Pirate (Remix)" playing in the background.

The narrator continues by saying "Great White Shark". At that moment, our great white shark will come out acting super aggressively in front of the crowd. After some parading, he will stand beside the fisherman. Next is the Hammerhead shark. We got one of the girls to do this role with her hair tied up like pig tails on the side. She comes out and looks really cute with her prop attached on her head. Next is the Tiger Shark. This time, a guy comes out with a golf stick and takes a swing on stage. (I hope you guys get the joke :P).

After that, the narrator says "Now presenting, the latest species of sharks... Loan Sharks!" The 2 loan sharks goes out with the song of "Lil Jon and the Eastside Boyz - Get Low" playing on the background. One of the loan sharks was me and we both try to act like some hip hop rapper or something like that. Once we reach the front of the stage, the music stop and one of the loan sharks goes, "Yo yo yo! Whats up? Are you guys in debt?" This is followed with the other loan shark saying "Do you need money? Don't worry, because all you need is us! Cause we Janji Ada Wang Selalu" (Do note the Acronym again) This is then followed by the other loan shark saying "Yes That's right. There is no need for Form J, Guarantors or 6 month of account statements". Then the other loan shark will say "But! If you don't pay! We Janji Anda Worry Selalu!.... Like you! where is the money you borrowed for the 37" LCD TV?" Then the other loansharks says "You! Where is the money you borrowed for the BUM alcohol fund?". We both then turn to the fisherman and say "YOU!!! You can't run now! We got you!" We both run to him and chop him with out makeshift parang. The sharks around starts sniffing and then smelling blood shouts "BLOOD!" and chase all of us down the stage.

That ends our performance. I find it really good but unfortunately, we didn't win any prize due to the fact that I actually forgot a line and froze in front on stage and also our presentation was a little short. Oh well. Never mind. It was good fun anyway :)

Avoid the pool

After the performance and dinner, the dunking session opened as well as the drinking session opens. I went to my project's table and immediately was forced to down a glass full of Chivaz in one gulp. I don't know why but I did it thinking that it would be less stressful if I were to down it all at one shot. I quickly left the table after that. Since I didn't want to be dunked or get drunk, I started walking around making sure that I'm about 20meters away from the pool.

Someone lit up a Campfire

Walking around, I composed the following on my phone.

---

Here I am alone, walking around composing this message while the song Valentine's Day by Linkin Park plays. Far away I hear cries and screams of various people getting dunked into the pool. I cannot go near there as they will either dunk me or force me to drink up the various alcohols available on the table. I dislike the idea of getting dunked and getting drunk. Is this considered fun? If the people are enjoying it, why can't I enjoy it? Is this the change I'm talking about? Am I supposed to follow the trend/flow of change? But if I don't like it should I follow them?

---

After composing that, I walked around the beach to see what is going on. I was welcomed by really loud music and the various people dancing to the music. It really looked like the scene from the Basshunter MTV video clip. I couldn't stand the loudness of the speakers and I went to my room. I fell asleep shortly hoping the next day, I wouldn't feel like this; longing to be with someone, someone to talk to who share my same ideas/opinions.

Day 2

I woke up and headed for breakfast. I met up with some UOBM project members and had lunch with them. After that, we adjourned to the beach to find our game team members. There were 24 game teams in total and even with 4 teams at a game each time, it was all coordinated very well and for once I'm not complaining in the games session of a camp. Thumbs up for the committee. After a tiring and fun time, we headed for lunch.

From Left: Lai Ling, Vincent, Eileen, Lai Yee

After lunch, its an optional choice of activities to be done. You can choose whether to play the court sports like badminton, tennis, ping pong, water polo, and some others or go jungle trekking or canoeing or kayaking or cycling. I met up with Eileen and she wanted to play volleyball. I have no idea how to play it but decided to join in for a while and try to learn the game. Sadly to say, I have a problem playing that game as

1) My hand eye coordination is bad. I tend to miss the ball when I try to hit it
2) When the ball is near me, I tend to run away from it

My project members playing volleyball

So I just observed the game and took some pictures of the people playing it. I walked around and took more pictures. While going around, I found Wai Kit and we went to his room to rest a little while. At 3pm, we decided to head out to the beach as there will be some various games where one could win some prizes. One of the games was to blow 3 balloons and let it burst. The game already started when I was there. It was quite funny to see some of them struggle to blow the balloon and some of them struggle to get it to burst even when the balloon is awfully big.

The balloon blowing/bursting game

While watching, I met up with Eileen and she asked me to join her and Lai Ling to go on a bicycle ride. This is the first time I rode a bicycle after many many years. I think the last time I rode a bicycle was when I was primary 6. Anyway, like driving, once you learn it, you won't forget it. I got the grasp of it and started riding with them around the resort. We explored around and found a NS camp there. We didn't enter as we don't want those NS recruits to randomly shoot a bullet into our heads :P

We cycled past the canoeing/kayaking place

We headed back and as I was getting off, I lost my balance and fell off the bike. Gosh it was quite embarrassing. Thankfully, there weren't any injuries. Lai Ling invited me to play carrom with her and it was a really frustrating game as we tried really hard to pot the seeds into the pockets. Eventually it was almost time for dinner and we went back for a shower and then had dinner at the beach.

This time I decided to hang out with the UOBM guys as most of them don't seem to be the one who drinks nor dunk people into the pool except some few cheeky ones :) Just need to avoid getting close to the pool with them behind me and never let go of the camera.

I eventually joined Kok Sheng and 5 others in playing this card game called "Bang!". It was fun as we try to kill the sheriff while the sheriff tries to stay alive and kill all the outlaws. After learning the game, I played 2 rounds and then left at 12am. Shortly after a walk around the beach, I went back to my room and fell asleep while watching a movie. A good day and a good night.

Day 3

Woke up at 7.00AM and headed to the dining hall for breakfast. I can't believe that there was no one in the dining hall. I hence went back to my room and watched a little bit of TV till 8.30 and then headed out. This time there were a lot of people and after eating with Zi Qian and Wai Kit, I left to get my bag and headed to the hotel porch to get on the bus to get back to Taman Jaya LRT station.

The bus journey took 6 hours as we were stuck in a jam in every highway we got on. Got back home at about 4pm and only had lunch then.

In Summary

BUM was fun but tiring. It might be more fun if you drink and if you welcome yourself to be dunked. (Although I still don't think it is).

Anyway, that's it! I hope I didn't bore you all to sleep. :)

Events Leading to Transformers and Beyond

The news of my colleague leaving back to Singapore prompted me to meet her for a dinner before she leaves. I checked my calendar and found that I was free for Thursday and Saturday. Hence I asked her on the day that she's free. At first she said Thursday but later as I asked another friend I realized that their entire project is going for a movie on Thursday. They're going to watch Transformers on the day it premiers and surprisingly, someone has already bought the tickets. She later confirmed and moved the plan to Friday.

On Wednesday, another colleague of mine in that same project who will be going to watch Transformers on Thursday MSN'ed me asking me if I would like to join for the movie as one of their member was unable to attend. I barely hesitated and accepted the offer. It’s rare to get to watch an epic movie on the day it premiers as well as joining other people's project team in their event.

Hence the day arrives. I told my supervisor that I'll leave office early to catch the movie at 7.45pm in KLCC. I used Google Earth to plot my way to KLCC from TPM. I found the route I wanted to take and started work. The day went by slowly as I count the hours to 6pm. I left the moment it hit 6 and rushed to KLCC thinking that it will be jammed on the highway.

I hit the KL-Seremban highway and found out that I could actually use the SMART Tunnel as it exits on Jalan Tun Razak which is where I wanted to go. I went slow, trying to not miss the turn to the tunnel. I found it, paid the RM2 for it and went on it. Sadly to say, I was very disappointed. Apart from the fact that it was bumpy, there were little to no road signs. And when the sign came up to notify the drivers on which exit to take, its like 100m from the exit.

Thankfully, I was on the right lane and exited correctly without much fuss. However, upon the exit, I was greeted with a minor jam on Jalan Tun Razak. It was quite short as I shortly turned to head to the underground parking of KLCC. Upon parking, I went up to the central court and met up with the project team. We ate at KFC and then wound up at the theatre at 7.30pm. Bought popcorn and headed in for the cinema.

Upon 5 minutes into the show, suddenly the lights came on and the screen went black. The people in the cinema showed their anger but shortly a voice came over the speaker "Ladies and Gentleman, we regret.....*static* *static* *clicks* *crackle*..." and then silence. Shortly, the door opened and someone said sorry and apologised. We waited for about another 5 minutes before the movie came back on and it was smooth all the way. It was really an awesome movie. Although the fight scenes are a little too fast and confusing at parts, but the movie is still awesome nonetheless. Thumbs up for it.

After the movie, I had the chance to fetch two lovely girls back to their homes. Although a little apprehensive, I did it anyway as I have to eventually get over this fear in me. The drive was quite scary and weird. For starters, I was not very sure of the road out of KLCC. I just know that I need to head for the Jalan Tun Razak exit. I eventually reached there and drove them back. However while driving, I just couldn't feel comfortable. Its like I have my parents sitting beside me and pressuring me to not drive fast, to avoid the potholes etc. I suppose it’s my responsibility to ensure that my passengers feel comfortable in the ride.

I dropped one off at 1 Utama and another at a condo facing the LRT terminal. (Sorry, I can't remember the name of the place as of now). All in all it felt great fetching them back as I'm one step closer to overcoming my fears. I sighed in relief as I left her place.