You win some, and you lose some

Christmas weekend just ended and it was quite an eventful 3-day weekend. Kinda went through the details in the previous post but that did not include Christmas day itself, hehe. So how did I start my Christmas?

I went to play... *jeng je jeng*... basketball!! Yup, after almost a 2 year hiatus from the game, I reluctantly agreed to go. Not that I hate the game or anything; in fact it is the exact opposite. I love the game, just that I'm not those lucky few ppl who are born with this thing called 'talent' :P It is disheartening when you play it only once a week and don't see any improvements. I'm the kind who probably needs to play it more regularly to actually benefit from it, but time is something we all have a problem with.

Anyway, basketball was fun. Crowd wasn't too large, weather was good, and god was giving me a much needed boost of spirit by forcing in a huge number of my shots... 3-pointers and half court shots included. But it all came at a price; I kinda got too friendly with the opponents lower arm in one of the dribbling runs. Got whacked right at the nose; bled for quite a while. No pain, just blood. Kinda swollen a little this morning. I'm still observing it to see if a visit to the doctor is needed to get it inspected.

So basketball ended with a total of 5 games won out of 5. Nice way to end the hiatus, I must say, haha. But all that burnt calories went for naught because it was followed by a trip to our local bah kut teh stop :P Yup, we were pretty hungry after the game and someone mentioned it... next thing we know we were all happily seated and welcoming our calories back :P

It gets worse in a good way later. You see, it was Christmas! What's a celebration without more FOOD! Lunch was at a fellow friend's place; a regular stop at this time of the year. Home-cooked food is the best. Enjoyed the food, enjoyed the crowd, and enjoyed the lengthy 2hr+ session of Big-2. Oh, did I mention the food was good? I did? Well, the food was good :P

Fast forward by another few hours and its time for... more food :P Dinner!!
Place: Bukit Tinggi
Type: Steamboat
Occasion: Er... dinner? Isn't that an occasion on it's own!? Sheesh :P

Checked out this steamboat spot that came highly recommended. I ain't a fan of steamboat but I must say it was rather enjoyable. The soup was well-flavored and the specialty pork-wrapped-in-fish-ball thingy was quite delicious. Only downside to dinner was it started to drizzle before we got to the noodles-and-egg part. *Sigh* What a waste. It was packed and shipped away to whomever can cook eggs at home... which totally excludes me *sob sob*

Next stop: supper at Jeth IceCream Cafe'. Have I mentioned this before? I haven't!?!?! Blasphemy!! Haha. Anyway, Jeth serves (IMHO) the best chocolate milkshake this part of the world; and my world ain't as small as what some ppl assume it is. Sure there are holes here and there (*ahem cough* Genting *cough*), but it is enough for a basis of comparison. If any of you happen to be in town at night, call me. Let's go grab some chocolate milkshake. *slurp* Topic of the night at Jeth was all about... yup, you guessed it, FOOD! Haha. I'm soooo not gona be surprised if food ends up killing me. But then again, food probably kills a lot of ppl, so no big deal there :P

Christmas pretty much ended there. Well, there was that session of 'Gears of War' at a friend's place but thats just a passing entertainment to a already overwhelmingly exciting Christmas. It was a weekend well spent... looking forward to more weekends such as this :) Lesser the food, more the activities, yes! Hahaha... *shhhh* I'm on a secret diet *lol*.

P.S: Secret diet is defined, as quoted by my closest fren, as 'a diet that never existed if it didn't work or just another diet if it worked and ppl asked'

Edit: Forgot to mention that I almost got rolled over by cars reversing out of their parking spots... 4 times!!! That's a lot in a day (or night). First a bloody nose, then death threats? :P Haha... I'm sooo not looking forward to what's next.

D&D 3rd Ed: Level Drained!

Ok, it's another of those not-so-apparent-and-downright-useless topic posting again =Þ

It is Christmas today! Yippee... Merry Christmas everyone! It's a free, multi-cultural country here and it is as much fun to wish well fellow Christian friends on this joyous day as it is to be a participant of the moment just for the sake of enjoying it. I mean, culture need not be a boundary for celebration. After all, culture is more of the norm within a specific community. I suppose you could say that the diversity of our existing cultures and practices have led to a birth of a new culture, an evolution that transcended religion and race. Moments like this, it really feels good to be a Malaysian cause our culture is defined by the mere nature of our co-existence. Forget politics... when it comes to happy times, we are one. And I don't intend to miss out on that; not now, not ever... hehehe.

So what's up lately? Let's see... it is a 3-day weekend this time. I've been busy at the temple this morning (yup... I actually went to help out at the temple *shocked*). No, I'm still not someone worthy of laying claim to the definition of a Hindu... I'm too Malaysian and non-conformant to be deemed a Hindu =Þ I just thought of helping out mom coz there's this celebration this time of the year. I didn't have much else to do, so I suppose playing my part as a helpful and dependable son would make up for some good karma this weekend *grin*. For the record, I just helped out with the preps for the better half of the day... I didn't really stick around for the celebration itself. Ended up at Pizza Uno and a near 3-hour billiards session for dinner instead. As a matter of fact, I just got home not long ago... and I'm already online talking about it. Talk about over-dependency on IT =Þ

The phone was pretty busy after midnight. Loads of Christmas wishes transferring about. Surprisingly, I got a message from a friend I was least expecting. Been wanting to drop her a note myself, but she beat me to it. Regardless, it was good to hear from her. True... she is a girl, and it shouldn't come as a surprise to be excited to hear from someone who could just be more interesting than the average person, hehe.

Undoubtedly, most would be inclined to assume a leaning towards the romantic side of things when I start talking like that, haha. But I would seriously beg to disagree, though a huge lot would still consider my claims an absurdity. Who am I to care, right? I just need to be true to myself ;) Ooops, going off track...

Anyway, lemme fast forward through the details. Girl meets boy. Boy girl chit-chat on and off. Boy girl get along. Boy finds girl a good outlet to extend the social group. Er.. I can't seem to continue in such simplified terms :P Anyway, as I probably noted before, I think expanding my social group would be a very welcome endeavour. The bulk of my friends are either in the same line of work I am in (namely programmers or standard IT ppl), artist-cum-designers (yup.. I have more friends of this kind than programmers ) , close hometown buddies, and then the rest I'll just put under miscellaneous (just getting lazy to classify :P).

This girl is probably a friend who would fall into a new category of her own. Adding to my assumption (and hopes) that her social side would be quite a bit different from mine, a much needed diversity is among my expectations. I see her as a breath of fresh air, to put it simply. I truly look forward to someday getting to ask her friends and her out so as to spice up the mundane regularity of predictable conversations and thoughts amongst the now familiar group of friends I already have. Mind you, I do not shun them; au contraire, I wouldn't want them to be any different than they already are. I just have this desire to meet some new faces with fresh characters... and I suppose I found the opportunity.

But opportunities have to be taken, and therein lies the problem. Things don't always work out the way you plan... life has a way of making the simplest of plans go awry. I've made a few attempts to socialize with her, however time seems to be in odds with us. Something always comes up after the plans are laid, causing either party to have to call it off. Thus far, it has happened 3 times, and for a while I was discouraged coz the only person who seems motivated to try anything was me. Can't blame her side for it... I'm the one with expectations out of the scenario, haha. Selfish as they may sound, they are for a good cause... so I wouldn't deny the self-centered nature of my expectations. The only way to move forward, however, is to realise that expectations often lead to disappointments... and learning to keep moving forward in the face of disappointment is not always a simple task. Good thing is, I strongly believe perseverance will pay off... friendship is worth the trouble.

Anyway, to all my friends; It has been (and always will be) my pleasure to know you all. We've all been through a lot, and every page in the book that is our life has been influenced by one or many of you. To those I have yet to meet at the moment of this writing, I'm looking forward to how our pages unfold ;)

Always glad to look ahead positively in the light of the upcoming New Year. Merry Christmas everyone, and have a brilliant and promising New Year!!!

Have passport, should travel...

Yup, sad but true, I'm one of those hopeless souls who has a passport that has never been used. I even got it free due to company covering the cost... mainly cause they almost decided to send me to Japan last year. Good thing we fixed the bug before that was needed. Sure, going to Japan would've been an experience, but going there for on-site bug fixes doesn't quite cut it as the kind of overseas trip I've been looking forward to.

So yeah... I shall pre-plan some possible New Years' Resolutions for 2007. Seeing that I've finally fulfilled my resolution of the past 3 years (yes, I had the same unfulfilled resolution for 3 years :P), its time to get the thinking cap up.

I'm thinking that next year I shall make at *least* 3 trips to somewhere... anywhere. Conditions: Must be out of Klang Valley; Must be at least 3 days; One of it must require my passport. There, that should be a decent enough resolution. Shouldn't be that hard to get it 'close' to fulfilling except for the last one.

And yes, that brings me to my first trip confirmed for 2007... Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Yup, January end is all about Kota Kinabalu. I'm off with a gang of friends for a 6-day trip to Sabah, the highlights being a hike up Mount Kinabalu. Then there's water rafting somewhere in the list. God knows what else. I'm trying to keep my self as least informed as possible to increase the surprise, but I don't think that's gonna be possible. Heard some scary survival tips from a friend who just came back from a similar trip earlier this year. Hope I don't have to experience any of the stuff that was mentioned, haha.

*pray pray pray*

Alright, just felt like blogging something tonight. Time for bed now. Adios!

Unanswered

It is said that a kind gesture goes a long way. However, even the best of intentions are susceptible to a mangled perception from another individual's perpective. The hardest part about being honest is when it is seen as dishonesty. Being scorned for true dishonesty seems a far more sufferable position than the former.

I'm trying to be vague (again) with the details mainly to reduce implications of my thoughts. Nonetheless, I somehow find writing my thoughts down (public or otherwise) does have a certain medicative effect.

Being who I am, it is in my ability and position to not just know people, know being operatively used to signify a shallow level of acquaintance. It is in every way possible for me to understand, nurture and direct some of these amazing individuals towards a more definite goal, be it already known to them or somewhat vague as yet. Coaxing, coaching, what-not... call it what you may, but the rewards, though indirect, are worth every bit of effort spent indulging that possiblity.

The crux of it is when there is a need for them to help us help them, yet they oppose the exact same thing that they need the most. Apply that into my dilemma and it goes as such...

I can support... I must support... I want to support...
But my hands are tied as long as the willingness to accept my gesture is nonexistent.

The worst part is, the maturity to even explain why I am tied down... the core as to why this predicament exists; the answer I am denied. Scorned I was... Helpless I feel... Watching as I see myself failing to do that which is my responsibility... Denied the chance to execute that which is my responsibility, and also my belief.

Is that miniscule amount of honesty so hard to provide? The masquerade is paper-thin, it stings to even realise it. For once, I would rather like to be just another stranger in the crowd.

Fellowship of the Food!

Well this is about 2 weeks late, but again; better late then never, right? *grin* That phrase is seriously over-used, I must admit.

Ipoh reached, Ipoh left. That's *really* making a long story short. Went to Ipoh two weekends past. Went on a Sunday morning, came back in time for dinner on Monday. Yup! Nothing beats using your annual leaves for all the good reasons... which is FOOD by the way :P Ipoh was all about food, and I intend to summarize it in a straight stretch. The following are the food moments:

Lunch, tea, dinner, supper part 1, supper part 2, breakfast, lunch-cum-tea combo

Food we had follows (in chronological order :P):

Ipoh Hor Fun + Sotong Kangkung + Popiah, Chee Cheong Fun, 9-course dinner, some shaved ice in jelly and lime, white coffee, DIM SUM... lots of it, more drinks.

Yup, it can't beat my Penang trip last year in terms of variety, but it comes close in quantity and frequency. After all, this was in a span of 24hrs. I was sooo stuffed, I had food withdrawal urges for the next few days. I stuck to healthy sandwiches and milk, haha.

...

Then there was Serdang. I was introduced to a new shop for lunch. Every alternating weekday, they serve tomyam noodles. Take my word for it: this place serves tomyam that has 'Ooomph!'. I'm sooooo disappointed that I didn't discover this spot sooner. Well, better to have found than not at all, eh :)

Then there was Saisaki. Finally managed to check it out yesterday night. Heard loads about it, and finally getting to visit it in person was a welcome indeed. Always nice to move stuff from the 'must go' list into the 'been there, eaten that' list, haha. My take: it has variety, that's for sure. Can't possibly go wrong in that department. However, I was rather disappointed with the 'famed' cheese baked oysters (or watever it is really called). Touted as their specialty and served calculatingly for 1-piece per person, I had high expectations for it. Unfortunately, it must've been my (bad) luck that yesterday's batch just didn't live up to it. Even the regulars among my friends claimed that it wasn't as nice as before. Also, the crowd was huge; which lead to finding the place unpleasantly warm. Word from the wise... wear something light and comfortable. You *will* sweat a little. Overall, it is still pretty decent food. Since it is my first take at Japanese buffet, I have no means of comparison. It was a good start though. Someday, I shall compare it to Jogoya or something similar, hehe.

That shud be enuf food news to summarize the past 2 weeks. There was the tiny part about another Japanese sushi dinner I went to last Saturday at Osaka (the restaurant, not the city :P), but I'd rather skip the details. Can't go wrong with Osaka and their famed black-dragon (osft-shell crab + unagi sushi platter). Niceness...

Well, one thing is for certain... I have a lot of working out to do to lose the unhealthy calorie build-up recently, hehe. Have to keep fit for January. What's on in January, you ask? I'll talk about it in the next post... I hope :P