Late entries

Shoot! Haven't updated for quite a while. In truth I was writing up an update on Friday but the computer hanged when I was almost done (I'm sure people have experienced this before!) and I was so pissed I didn't replace my entry. Ah shoot...

Anyway, let's run a recap of significant events shall we?

Thursday night: Met up with two of my closest ex-colleagues from KPMG, Madelyn Tan and Ho Yun See. Had an amazing dinner at a mamak (ha ha where else?) and talked about life after KPMG. Hmmm... no pics of them on hand to scan into this blog. Maybe some other day...

Also, Johan came back from his games convention (GENCON) in US bringing tons of cool reading materials. Also, the story of WHY he didn't make it to Day Two of his VS tournament (hint: it's something i do a fair bit of at the Shop!)

Friday: Nothing significant, except that Johan left his Playstation in our apartment and needless to say, it was thoroughly abused Ha! Of course, the fact that my fingers were painful after just a few rounds meant that I was just hitting buttons any which way possible!

Saturday Night: Received a phone call from my dearest. Ha ha three actually due to faulty transmissions.Was frustrating at first, fortunately her third attempt came through loud and clear. Had a lovely time, it never ceases to amaze me how such events can lift you up. Now I know what Flying without Wings means....

Sunday: Held a WWE Raw Deal Cheap Ass Tournament at the Shop. Funny thing happened though: One of the instigators of this tournament, Arjun ended up not appearing in the tournament! Of course, his nemesis Ben was around and yup, he had his trash talking opportunity. Unfortunately, he lost in the finals to Edge piloted by Loco. Well done dude! This format was actually quite enjoyable because the banning of all rares meant that cards that usually don't see play ended up in several decks. May consider doing more in the near future...

Note to self: Too frequent use of '...' Must try to reduce no. of uses... Whoops there I go again!

Experimenting+memories

Was flipping through my photo collections for the purposes of putting some up on the net and ended up strolling down memory lane instead. Feels like it's been ages. Here's a shot of my family back in 1996:
Me, my folks, and my bro

That's from when we were at the airport before I went to OZ for university. That's me on the left. Feel so old now.... work does that to you I guess. And everyone thinks I'm 4 years older than I actually am.Here's one from our backpacking trip in New Zealand in 1999.



That's Azlan, Shahrul then me, all Uni mates. It was my last day with them in Christchurch before they flew back to Melbourne, while I backpacked up to Wellington and was alone for four days before I joined up with the rest of my Melbourne Uni Debating Gang. Hmm... one of the greatest things about cycling in OZ (and NZ) is that it's much harder to sweat due to the dry weather. You could cycle in a business suit around there and heck I've seen people do so!

I'll put in some more recent photos (less flattering of course!) some other time once I get the hang of it.

Bleary eyed

Feeling extremely sleepy, no thanks to last night's visit to Shaz's Grandparents place. My housemate's family are really cool, met his younger sis, her grandma and his four cousins. All of them were extremely friendly people who didn't seem to have any problems striking up conversation with a complete stranger (i.e. yours truly).

Ended up playing Poker, Blackjack and Gin Rummie! Didn't realise how horrible I was in poker. In poker, think I won in the third round, then ended up owing Hafyzan, Shaz and his sis (Ifa, I think her name was) by the end. Urrrk, remind me not to do this again, folks! Much better at Gin!

Was supposed to try posting pics here but too tired now. However, did manage to get some links up, i.e. to some of my Amcorp Mall pal's blogs, as well as some of my interests. Interestingly enough, I got involved in three out of those four links you see on your left while i was in Australia. (except the WWE Raw Deal). Feel free to check them out.

Hmmm... need to find food....

Mmmm...donuts....

later...

One Quiet Sunday

Yesterday (Sunday) started productively, then went downhill from there in a way that would make professional procrastinators proud. Let's see (:

1. Washed my car (which was the target of bird bombing practice on Friday)
2. Watched Olympics
3. Went back to Kelana Jaya and found two more practising procrastinators
4. Watched a repeat Gilmore Girls episode
5. Went to the Shop and promptly fell asleep for the next 2 hours or so...
6. Woke up had lunch? Dinner? Not sure but it was around 5 methinks
7. Start reading About a Boy - the one they made into a movie
8. Did some card selling for Wolf
9. Watched two groups of gamers D&D ing
10. Continued reading
11. Watched some more
12. Talked shop
13. Finished the book (!)
14. Drove home
15. Fell asleep (not at the wheel, dumbasses, I did make it home!)


Hmm, now that I see it onscreen, it doesn't look THAT bad.

CHARGE ON INTO ANOTHER WEEK!!!

One fun day ~ but something still missing...

Yesterday was fun!!! I took the day off, went with Shaz to KL to meet up with Imesh, our mutual Indonesian friend, her mom and her aunt and went shopping!!! This is where Shaz's experience as a tour guide shines through all that muck he makes himself out to be. From Chocolate Specialty shoppes to batch pen orders, he sure does know his tourism stuff!

We went to Shaz's office to purchase tickets to Malacca for our three Charlie's Angels, then it was off to Mid Valley Megamall. I realised I had not been there for ages ~ maybe since my department's bowling fun in March (?) but I guess there's not much in terms of change. ]

We kidnapped Imesh from her elders who were purchasing shoes at Vincci, went off buying her friend's makeup, from Lancome to Maybelline, browsed awhile through MPH (where I made some screwed up conversation slip ups with Imesh), when her mum called her for lunch and where were her mum and aunt? Still at Vincci!!! Oh wow, and I thought the Australian folks I brought to Sungai Wang Plaza 5 years ago were taking their time!

Lunch was a treat by Imesh's mum, then shop a bit more in the Mall before heading of to IKEA in 1 Utama. I had never been there before and it was larger than I thought. Apparently it's the biggest IKEA in Asia. We kept losing track of each other, not too mention some accidental revision of parts of the ground floor thanks to some sneaky shortcuts. And boy were the mattresses amazing!!! I was feeling a bit tired by then (thanks to lack of exercise) and decided that most of the mattresses were overdue for some quality testing. Ha ha needless to say they all passed with flying colours....

From there it was a drop off to their hotel, trip back home for a short break, then back with just Shaz and Imesh for a fun karaoke session guest starring sleazy Andy from Amcorp Mall!! The place we went looked so sleazy that if it wasn't for the fact that Imesh was there, I wouldn't be surprised if the waiters popped in asking if we wanted any girls to sit in with us!

Unfortunately the day ended and we finally retired. Had a short conversation with Imesh at her hotel lounge, then it was a fast drive back home, where we collapsed into our respective beds.

One fun day ~ but something still missing...

Imesh's lesbian partner isn't here with her...

aRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrgGGGGGgggggghHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhh... let me go to Jakarta!!

The F in friends

I just went on a semi-Testimonial spree on Friendster just now. Good luck to those who got affected. With any luck, maybe ONE of those testimonials will get approved. If you guys aren't happy with any of them, it ain't my fault!!! Blame Arjun... he started it....

Today has been a bit of a trip down memory lane, though. My adopted sister and ex-colleague, Fang Sing, smsed me asking why I haven't kept in touch. It's a question I can't really answer though. It's a definite weakness of mine, keeping in touch with friends i don't meet regularly anymore. Anyway, I smsed her back and got her messenger username so that I could at least chat with her on the net when she's not busy.

So much so I ended up smsing my best friend in KPMG, Yun See, and we're meeting up this Thursday. I feel sincerely guilty for not staying in touch with her and hope she'll forgive me for it. When I was in KPMG, she was the best friend I could ever ask for, she was always there for me when it mattered. Everytime I had my lows (believe me there were many), she would be the one to drag me out of it. We'd go out a lot, have a lot of fun, and just enjoy each other's company immensely.

Amcorp Mall news: Joe is off to GenCon Indiana tomorrow. I am not happy for him AT ALL. He is just lucky to be there... I 'm sure he just won the PCQ by accident... I should be the ONE, I, AZMIN!!!! After all, I sleep during tournaments more than he does ... why shouldn't I achieve something too! He's the Apprentice, I'm the Master!!!

Okay, rant over, all the best Joe , and take lots of pics!! You KNOW what I mean....

Trash talking resumes

Sleepy Jedi confessions:

I realise I love going to weddings. On Saturday night, I attended a Magic the Gathering friend's wedding with Hafiz in Bangunan Risda somewhere in Ampang. (No don't ask me for directions) Hafiz got lost all by himself and without any help whatsoever from Yours truly. Of course I wasn't paying attention to the roads. Turns out the bridal couple would arrive late anyway, as is typical with weddings here in Malaysia.

Of course we ended up sitting with Magic players, and inevitably we talked about Magic. This included Jafar, everyone's favourite Malaysian Bangladeshi, and Syukri, also known as the Malaysian Idol crew who told me that I didn't make it to the next level. A good portion of our time was spent screwing Jafar over for being a lucksack throughout his entire Magic career. (Yes, this means that he consistently had higher finishes than me or Hafiz, despite starting late !)

Talk also turned to sms-voting reality shows, due to the fact that Malaysia's premier show, Akademi Fantasia was on that night as well. Found out later that a few of the attendees had brought Walkmans to listen through the broadcast!

Night ended with me trying to steal Ai Lin's boyfriend Julian away from her. Unsuccessful of course, as has been the established norms for me. (!) And we got fans for presents too! (a 1st for me)



RAW DEAL WWE POSTING

Well, Steel Cage is over, and let the Trash Talking resume. Andy's gonna get an earful from Ben Goldberg on Sunday I can guarantee you that. Despite actually losing to Andy in the preliminaries, Ben managed to avoid meeting Andy's B2P again who fell to the Undertaker played by Loco in the semis. So Goldberg remains supreme, and what does he do with his store credit? He buys the last starter in the store, Big Show, arguably a good foil against his own Goldberg deck!

Forward viewing, hopefully the Vengeance stock comes in timely so that the Pre-Release will go well (Vengeance has some of the most sought after rares from DO in its starters, eg. Lariat Takedown and Twisted Smiles). Hit the Motherlode!

Organising mentality

Had an e-mail today asking for reunion of 2004 resignees from KPMG. Not sure if I wanna go... since there are people I don't wanna meet.

However, got another e-mail regarding Lynne and Ahmad's family day which has been changed from camping in Bukit Unggul to to staying at the French Town near Genting! Wow, talk about a change in plans! Pretty drastic, eh? Still looking forward to it, but in a different way. Too bad they're not offering to pay for paintball :)



RAW DEAL WWE CARD GAME POSTING:

Well, after having played in 6 tournaments since starting play in February, I volunteered to help Wolf to organise WWE tournaments at his shop from now on. Hopefully it will help to reduce his burden so as to concentrate on running his shop.

His stock has become incredibly diverse, ranging from the CCG games that have been the mainstay sales of the shop to the award-winning and/or obscure (in Malaysia anyway) board games which have been catching the attention of the patrons for the past two months. In any case, volume of sales activity has definitely increased, if not sales dollar (which I don't really know about anyway).

Anyway, first up will be the Steel Cage tourney this weekend (wish me luck!) followed by the Vengeance pre-release in two weeks. Hopefully all goes well..

Like Someone in Love ~ Bjork

Just wanted to describe how I've been feeling lately and I think this song says it best:
Enjoy!


Lately I find myself out gazing at stars
Hearing guitars like someone in love
Sometimes the things I do astound me
Mostly whenever you're around me

Lately I seem to walk as though I have wings
And to sing like someone in love
Each time I look at you I'm light as a cloud
And feeling like someone in love

Sometimes the things I do astound me
Mostly whenever you're around me

Lately I seem to walk as though I have wings
Run into things like someone in love
Each time I look at you I'm light as a cloud
And feeling like someone in love
Like someone in love
Like someone in love

Ccafe session

Just had an extremely intense LAN Call of Duty session, have not LANned for ages. Johan and Loco are with me, so of course I got shot more times than I care to remember. But it was amazingly fun but Vasily Zaitsev I am not.

What else happened? Watched Bruce Almighty this afternoon. It was an okay movie, but of course, one would think that if he was given the same powers, he should be able to balance everything out properly. Mogwai (Shaz's cat) added some more battle scars on my skin.

I just re-read my previous post, and have to admit I was on an unnatural high. It's amazing how what some people say can affect me deeply. I am still high. High on life!! I expect to fall at some point, but no worries.

Quote from Sandman:

It is sometimes a mistake to climb to the top
It is always a mistake never to make the attempt.

I will keep on climbing!

Read too much fiction, watched too many movies

Doctor's prescription:

Too much of the above leads to an eventual biting of the ass by reality. Reality bites, indeed.

One of my favourite associated taglines was and still is Living On Imagination. I believe imagination is what keeps me going, keeps me alive, keeps me sane in the real world. Sometimes we are too burdened with expectations. Could have, would have, all possibilities, anything could happen why do I worry so much.

Dreams? 'Dream to have a journey... Have me to hug you... Have you to be free.. Do what we want to do...'
Sorry, I have to steal that from you dearest, but this is arguably one of the best phrases anyone's ever given to me.

I am incredibly happy!!! I am walking on air!!!!
I am going crazy!!! And somehow I don't care!!!
I am flying above!!! Stop me if you dare!!!
I am in love!!! More than I can bear!!!


If the future be a myth, let the present be full of life.

Lastly, a Bjork song extract:

violently happy 'cause i love you
violently happy but you're not here
violently happy come calm me down
before i get into trouble

If this be a dream, don't wake me up...

Ever had... ?

Hey, ever had one of those moments where you're just stunned into silence, trying to absorb what just happened or what someone just said to you? I just did....

Wow....

I think I'm getting a headache...

Need to relax...

Relax....