What do you do when things don't go your way...

My previous post was spoken too soon...

When you feel high...

I am in an amazing state of happiness today, one might use the term euphoria! Life has a way of giving out those wonderful moments. When you are high, you feel you can do anything! The following picture illustrates just what you can achieve when you are ultra-high and in the positive frame of mind:



See? If I can do this, so can you!

Of course, in life, there will also be lows. They are inescapable. What's important is what we learn from the experience. Furthermore, the lows also remind you to appreciate the highs when they come. As a friend of mine pointed out most eloquently in another friend's blog:

"shit happens to us because by then we realize how lucky we are when shit does not happen to us."

So, when the highs come, enjoy it! Cherish it! Be amazed at how beautiful your surroundings are!



Ok, maybe not that beautiful, but you get the point. Yes, Raj, call me Mr. Sunshine!

Anyway, have a good Sunday as well as a good start to the week!

SHAUN OF THE DEAD

Ok, Rudy mentioned this movie as part of his downloading movie diatribe. I'm gonna do one better and plug this movie for all its zombie-dripping worth.



Well, as shown in this promotional poster, this is a romantic comedy. With zombies.

No, I am not kidding. I am dead serious. Ha ha.

The opening sequence may very well remind you of romantic British comedies like Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill. It starts by introducing Shaun, the protagonist, who is having typical working class problems at work, in relationships and at home. Throughout the first 20 minutes or so, there are various clues that something is not right in London. But Shaun, neck deep in his own problems as it is, is oblivious to it all, until a seemingly drunk girl turns up on his back garden.


photo opportunities abound

The movie becomes a rollercoaster of laughter as Shaun attempts to save his mum, battle zombies and salvage his love life all at the same time. The dialogue is just brillaintly funny, there are brilliant sight gags, and the action twists are outrageously hilarious.

Similar to the abovementioned movies, one of the highlights of this movie is its amazing supporting characters. Ed, for example, the unemployed, 'give me 2 secs', PS2-playing housemate manages to steal the show in almost every scene he appears in.


Blending into Zombie society, not as easy as it looks

This tribute to George Romero's dead zombie movies is simply fantastic. If you're familiar with British comedy tv series, you'll know that this is not to be missed. For those who aren't, well, brace yourselves for an amazingly funny experience. The director has definitely hit a 6! here (sorry, cricket reference), and in the words of Rudy, absolutely brilliant.

Addendum to previous post

I know I made examples of Rudy and Alisha's blogs as extremely well made and regularly updated works. Unfortunately, these two were recently casualties of Mblog's self-destruction (see: Oct14 entry). Naturally, they have re-created their blogs as quickly as possible.

Therefore, you can find their new homes at http://rudyism.blogspot.com and http://forbiddenmyth.blogspot.com/. Of course, it's still relatively new, but as time passes by, you will realise that my previous statement on the quality of their blogs are true.

Blogging is fun!!

The learning process...

My name is Azmin, I was 26 yrs old when I started this Blog, and now I'm, er, I have aged, er... well ... a few months, older. Although I haven't put as much effort into my blog, as, say, Rudi & Alisha, I'm still quite happy with what I've done with it so far, and more to the point, what I've written so far. And since I started this, I also ended up learning a bit more about myself.

I've always been a pretender in some ways. I tend to pretend to be happy, in continuous high spirits, despite experiencing the direct opposite. I would usually suppress any anger i felt, any sadness or unhappiness, whenever I was around other people. Even more importantly, I wouldn't tell the people who were directly or indirectly responsible for the negative way I was feeling.

Recently I learnt how important it is to let go sometimes, to get if off one's chest, so to speak. Sometimes you just need to tell the other person how you feel, even if it's negative. It might hurt, at the start, and you might hurt the other one's feelings, but, you have to expect the other to be positive about it. Later, you also realise that it makes you a better person. When someone is so honest with you, how can you not be honest with them?


Mock anger courtesy of ~Imesh Productions~

I don't claim to be a highly mature person. Heck, I'm probably not even an average mature person. I've made lots of mistakes in my life, and I mean LOTS. But learning is a continuous process in life, and the past few days have certainly shown me that at 26 years old...

You can still learn a lot.

THANKS!

Raw Deal Tourney Report, Bangsar - Yesterday!

Note: Started the day with some long-distance goodness!

7 of Amcorp Mall: Blur, Ahmad, Johan, Hafyzan, Triona, Andy, and me, dsecended down on Bangsar's Comics Corner to show some wrestling talent (card-playing that is). Unfortunately, only 3 Bangsar fellas showed up, so naturally the Amcorp Mall gang whacked them into submission.

3 rounds of round-robin followed, whereby Johan returned to form, winning all three of his matches, qualifying for the knock-out round at the top. I, however, continued my wretched form, and despite Ian not being around, proceeded to self-destruct, losing all three matches and ended up wondering if Shaz's theory did have some merit to it.


Andy's ring area, proving that his forays into
the Die-rolling of Monopoly has not stopped his
desires for discarding action nonsense.

The dust cleared leaving the following as Top Four:

Andy - Team Angle vs Triona - Lita
Johan - FBI vs Hafyzan - Brothers of Destruction


Top Four in action

At this point in time, Ahmad (my 3rd-round opponent) who ended up 5th due to tie-breaking sillliness, gets bored, and asks me for another game. He proceeds to again whoop my deck silly and manages to send smses at the same time.

Andy and Johan triumph, setting up a battle of epic proportions of the two arguably best players of Amcorp Mall. However, in the end, this (these?) superstars won the day:


Johan's FBI (Female Body Inspectors?)

The whole team retreated back to their home ground of Amcorp Mall for some post-tournament celebrations. Unfortunately, Johan, Hafyzan, me and Andy, unable to attend the food portion of the celebration, retreated into a somewhat morbid (read: players looking half-dead) version of Scrabble. Predictably, the board got messed up when one player managed to score a bingo, thus terminating the game and preventing a legal win!

Tired out, I decided to head on home, where I proceeded to get hit by torrential rain, caught in a jam for more than an hour!!! When breaking fast arrived, I ended up being full from drinking too much water!

All things considered, it was still a GOOD day!

6am on a Sunday

Well, this is only because it's the Puasa period. I doubt I'll ever have an early morning entry if it wasn't (unless I'd been staying up the whole night before!)

This is the 3rd day of Puasa and everything seems to be okay. I just realised I've been doing a lot of reading recently, both light and heavy, and it's increased even more these past few days. Ah, well, anything's better then wading through tons of audit paper, right?

WWE RAW DEAL TEXT:
Anyway, last night I constructed a deck for play in the Bangsar WWE tournament later today. Hmm, I admit that throughout the construction, I felt determined to prove Shaz's theory wrong, that I can still do well in tournaments despite all that I've been experiencing lately :D... Guess we'll see...

This will be my superstar for the day (yes, yes same as last week, but different build!):



Nope, I'm still not changing my mind about sticking to female superstars. Raw Deal is just ridiculously fun for me, it's a competitive game which I can still relax and enjoy, so my fetish shall remain, so there!!!

Hmm, think I'll bring a digicam with me today (maybe I'll do what Fi suggests, have one at all times to capture those memorable moments!)...

Wolf's Game Shop

Once upon a time, there was a shop called Community Links, which was located on the 3rd floor of Amcorp Mall, Petaling Jaya (PJ). You could call it a charity shop, because essentially what it sold was all sorts of no-longer-wanted stuff which was donated from the PJ Community. However, it did sell one other type of item, Magic: The Gathering Trading Card Game supplies.

The shop was taken care of by a guy called Jeremy. He soon decided to quit the shop so as to open a new shop which specialised in Magic and other trading card games. This game shop would be called Connie's Game Corner, which opened on the 2nd floor. It was named after the lady Jeremy and Barry (Jeremy's then business partner) hired to take care of the shop.

However, due to J & Bs desire to concentrate on their other business (i.e. computer services), the shop was then sold to Point and Loco (two members of the hip-hop group Poetic Ammo), and renamed Pendelhaven. As a result, the shop began to draw in more customers, and it also attracted the attention of one Wolf, axeman of punk group Spunky Funggy. Wolf began to run regular RPG sessions which helped to compliment the trading card games of the shop.

The shop was bought over by Wolf in April 2003, and renamed Wolf's Game Shop. It was also relocated to a bigger lot in a mall in line with Wolf's dreams of turning it into a game shop with a much wider focus. By doing so, the shop also attracted more customers from all corners of life.

Today, Wolf's Game Shop is a supplier and host to Trading Card Gaming, Tabletop Wargaming, Boardgaming, Role-Playing, Painting, as well as stocking all sorts of gaming supplies. Its customers range from high school students to professionals. Ironically, the shop has evolved to become that which its predecessor's name suggests: a community.

In it, we've laughed, cried, partied, done good deeds, done not-so-good deeds. We've had our ups and downs, our highs and lows. To most of the regulars, its part of our lives. The community has affected our lives, whether for better or for worse. The experience is priceless, and the time spent there memorable.

I would just like to propose a toast to Wolf's Game Shop, and a salute to Wolf for his efforts in turning it into what it is today.

May the legacy live on...

BlogDeath: The High Cost of Blogging

Recently one of my favourite links, Rudyism 101 went offline due to their host not being able to support their users anymore. Hopefully, the archives that they offer to send out are complete. It would be a shame if all that work put in is affected in any way.

So not even technology is saved from death in some form. I suppose I should start making backups now just in case...

Intermizzo: btw, if you have not yet been exposed to Neil Gaiman's literature, such as Death: The High Cost of Living and the Sandman books, your life is not complete. Get it. Now. No questions asked. Now!!!

Anyway, blogging has been my most successful attempt at keeping some form of written (read:typed) record of my life. It has become a need for me to update regularly, even though I tell people that they should write what they feel like writing, whenever they feel like writing. For me I feel like writing lots of times!

A toast to Blogs, and may its eventual Death come after mine! (okay that's selfish, I know!)

The Return of the Dawn, Y2J and the Underground Punk Rocker!

I was late in realising that the Dawn had finally returned. Apparently she had risen awhile before. I suspected that me not seeing it had something to do with a smothering by some form of Mud. This Mud prevented me from noticing it, and the timing was just nice that I missed the opportunity.

I finally saw her recently. She was, as all sunrises are, radiant as ever as if she had never disappeared. I was unable to enjoy it for long, however, because not surprisingly, the Mud seemed to follow her everywhere..

Anyway, Y2J and the Underground Punk Rocker also returned from the Land of the Rising Table ( or so Michael likes to tell me). Apparently, both of them are not particularly Masters of Photographers either... as can be seen by the imagery they brought back. And furthermore, they came, they saw, but alas they did not conquer, but went home instead.

Ah well, at the end of the day the bottom line is they came!

Hmm, that doesn't sound right...

Fina + Imesh

The most recent additions to the girls in my life, Fina and Imesh

I got to know these two Indonesian girls when they came over here, albeit separately back in May. And Imesh actually came back again as I wrote in my August 20 posting, which you can find here . They are a great, fun-loving, duo and to those in the shop who got the opportunity to meet either one of them, I'm sure you'd agree with me.

A couple of posts back, I mentioned that my time to fly would come. Well, the destination is indeed Indonesia, and it should be sometime after Hari Raya. Ok, it's not as far away as say, Italy (kena lagi, Ahmad) or Japan, but sometimes... just sometimes... it's the reason for going that tops it out. Ha ha...

And I will have these two lovely women for company while I'm there...

The way you look tonight...

Some day, when I'm awfully low,
When the world is cold,
I will feel a glow
just thinking of you...
And the way you look tonight.

Yes you're lovely,
with your smile so warm
And your cheeks so soft,
There is nothing for me but to love you,
And the way you look tonight.

With each word your tenderness grows,
Tearing my fear apart...
And that laugh that wrinkles your nose,
It touches my foolish heart.

Lovely ...
Never, ever change.
Keep that breathless charm.
Won't you please arrange it ?
'Cause I love you ...
Just the way you look tonight.

All lyrics are property and copyright of their owners.

Flying

A number of people in the shop have been flying around lately. Let's see:

Johan - GenCon, Indiana, USA - Vs Tournament
Wolf - Thailand (hang on, not sure if he flew though) - holiday
Ahmad - England and Italy - holiday
Dawn - US, various states - work (yeah, right)

and now:

Andy w/ Wolf - Japan (Monopoly Tournament)

Flying off today at 9:30pm tonight. All the best, Andy and bring back the bank!!!

My turn? Targeting next month, hope all goes well... In any case, I've gotten some practice. I've been hovering above the ground for the past few days. Ha ha!

Magic!!!

I have always had a fascination for magic. Since I was a kid, I read tales of magic, from the Asterix comics with magic potions giving superstrength and invincibility, to Dragonlance power-wielding sorcerors, i.e. Raistlin Majere, and have loved it, loved it all!

Two ways of using magic as an adjective:

1. of relating to, or invoking the supernatural
2. possessing distinctive qualities that produce unaccountable or baffling effects.

So you would say that something is magical (I prefer the more unique spelling, 'magickal')

Where's this all leading to, you wonder?

Well, since May, I have been having a lot (read: lost count) of instances which I could only describe as magickal.

Last night was one such instance.

It was magickal indeed, and I will remember every bit of it forever.

The next trick now is to make it happen...

Turning the page...

Ever read a book, and become totally absorbed by it, you go through chapter after chapter, eager to know what will transpire? You just can't put it down, and are constantly amazed at how this book can constantly, consistently grab your attention for a surprisingly unlimited amount of time. You even take the time to reread previous chapters, and marvel at how rich the story has been written thus far...

But then, suddenly, you hit a point in the story where you are hesitant to know what will happen next, reluctant to turn the page... You pause for what seems to you to be an unbelievably long period of time. You wonder at the possibilities, you hope that the story will go the way you want it to, yet afraid that it might turn out differently once you turn that page...

My hand is currently poised to turn the page...


Note: Don't worry, I'm not bashing my head into the keyboard again : )